2 FEBRUARY 1929

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This is the last session of the House of Assembly

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in South Africa, and it promises to be lively. With the defection of half its Labour supporters the Government would seem to have little chance of weathering the storm provoked...

Confusion reigns ,in Afghanistan. . A Daily _Telegraph dispatch from Peshawar ,

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speaks of a fourth would-be Amir, Ali Ahmad Jan, who is marching on Kabul from the north-east. This gentleman was formerly a hench- man of Amanullah, and it may be that he is...

The delayed debate in the .French Chamber on Alsace- Lorraine

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has given a welcome air of reality to discussions which, to an outsider at least, have for.some time sounded very empty. M. Poincare intervened on Tuesday with a defence of the...

News of the Week

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r ro E Vicey, at the opening of the Budget SesSiOn of the Indian Legislative Assembly, on Monday made some important statements. The Governor of Kenya, he said, had offered, "...

General . Hertzog, besides, making wild charges against the leader _

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of the South African' party, ,puts forward fantastic scheme for represeutation_ of the natives by white settlers in the Senate by means of. special con- stituencies. - While...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES : 13 York Street, Covent Garden,

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London, W .C. 2.—A Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The...

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The Prince of Wales is doing the right thing in

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exactly the right way in his tour of the distressed coalfields of Northumberland and Durham. The problem of publicity for this tour was at first not very well handled— or...

It is generally believed in Washington that the Cruiser Bill

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will pass through the Senate, as the opponents of the Bill no longer think it practicable to prolong their filibuster. There is much doubt, however, whether the friends of the...

The Liberals, Mr. Baldwin went on to say, had left

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kisses faire fir behind. Against the new Liberal policy the Unionist Government would set Imperial Preference and Safeguarding. He pledged himself, however, that there would be...

Pathos and bathos were surely never more oddly blended than

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in the Hohenzollern rally on Monday at Doom for the celebration of the ex-Kaiser's seventieth birthday. The only notable absentee in the 'glorification ceremonies was Princess...

On Thursday, January 24th, a speech by the Prime Minister

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was broadcast from the City Hall, Newcastle, to various parts of Northumberland and Durham. This was the first organization on a large scale of the broad- casting of political...

Not the least virtue of General Primo de Rivera's Dictatorship

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in Spain has been his honest endeavour to wean the Army from politics—a task which only a distinguished soldier with personality is fitted to perfoiin. The natural consequence...

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The inquest on the victims of the Ashchurch railway disaster

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was held on Friday, January 25th, at Cheltenham. The Coroner said that although all the evidence showed that the signals were in proper working order, he could not hold that the...

The Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Rye

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lifeboat disaster has been issued by the Board of Trade. The Court consider that none of the tests carried out by the Board of Trade and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution...

On Friday, January 25th, the Prime Minister spoke at Dundee.

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It happened that January 25th was the .birthday of Robert Burns, and Mr. Baldwin, with his literary instinct, did not overlook the fact. He said • that Burns stood for " our...

On Tuesday, at the Old Bailey, the trial was ended

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of ex-Sergeant Goddard, Mrs. Meyrick, and 'Luigi Ribuffi on charges of corruption in connexion with night clubs. Goddard was sentenced to eighteen months' hard labour and a fine...

- We regret to record the death, at the age of

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51, of Mr. Ralph Knott, the well-known architect. He was only thirty when he won, - against all corners, the compe- tition for a design for the new London County Hall. It is...

Lady Lugard, who has died after a life of great

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service to the Empire and of the most varied charitable work, was one of the best informed students of Imperial affairs. She was introduced to journalism by Mr. W. .T. Stead,...

In the Chancery Division on Wednesday Mr. Justice Eve granted

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a further injunction against the resolution of the High Council of the Salvation Army to remove General Bramwell Booth. Mr. Jowitt explained that although he had not personally...

Bank Rate, 41 per cent., changed from 5 per cent.,

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on April 21st, 1927. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 102f ; on Wednesday week 1021 ; a year ago 101#. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 91 ; on Wednesday week...

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Rationalization in, the Cotton Industry TT is excellent news that

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the first step towards rational- -1- izing the • cotton industry has been taken. There were many prophets of woe who said that this could never be done, and they certainly had...

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The Goddard Case T HE verdicts in the Goddard case will

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deal, let us hope, such a blow at the night club business, as it has hitherto been conducted, that this disreputable and tawdry manifestation of London life will be unable to...

Now Make the Final Effort for Aberdare !

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N OW at last we can say of our Aberdare Adoption Fund, not metaphorically but with exact literal truth, Bis dat qui cito dat. At last the arrangement has been made by which the...

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Our Aberdare Fund-L8,926 19s. 'id. so far - Tlu following

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list represents subscriptions to the SPECTATOR Aberdare Fund received up to the first post on Tuesday, January 29th, 1929, All remittances (which should be addressed to the...

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The Week in Parliament

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TT is idle to deny that the debates on the committee stage of the English Local Government Bill have been boring in the extreme. The Minister of Health has been required to deal...

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Turkey To-day and To-morrow MAGINE a couple of hundred boys

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and girls from every vilayet in Turkey in place of our Slade School, and the Bosphorus lapping outside the windows instead of the roar of London, and Namak Ismail Bey in place...

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A French Talk About French Books

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T ALKING in Paris the other day with a well-read- and intelligent Frenchwoman, I asked her to give. me the names of some authors whose work pleased readers like...

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Goals and Tries

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IF there is in any book a better account of any game than the description of a football match at Rugby in Tom Brown's time, I have not yet come across it. Reading the...

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Correspondence

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A. LETTER FROM MADRID. T [o the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] • • Sia,—Spain has entered upon the New Year full of hope that her two exhibitions—Seville and...

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The Theatre

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[" JOURNEY'S END." BY R. C. SHERRIFF. AT THE SAVOY THF.ATRE.1 Ms. MAURICE BROWNE has had the courage to bring Mr. R. C. Sherriff's fine play to the West End. I hope he will be...

Poetry

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The Ship THEY have launched the little ship, She is riding by the quay. Like a young doe to the river, She has trembled to the sea. Her sails are shaken loose ; They flutter...

A Hundred Years Ago

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Another system of adulteration in tea, which has been carried on to a great extent, is now under the consideration of the proper authorities. It is well known that in all public...

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The Letters of the _Tsar to ,the Maritsa, '914-1917

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[By arrangement with Messrs. John Lane, who .will publish the complete book , in the spring,-we- are- able -to print a -series of extracts from " The Letters of the Tsar to the...

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The League of Nations

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The International Agriculture Department • THE ECONOMIC CONFERENCE. Hrrnmero questions of commercial policy have been the main preoccupation of the Consultative Committee,...

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" Spectator" Conference for Personal Problems

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Readers' Problems [At the beginning of last October the Editor appointed a Comiretite - e composed of two medical psychologists (one man and one woman), the chief pathologist...

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Country Life An ingenious and pretty experiment in afforestation of

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So - its; quite other than the large and thoughtful suggestion made last week by Mr. Llewellyn, was carried out at - Aberdare many years ago through the first Lord Aberdare, at...

The Oxford enquiry into the mystery of the ups and

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downs among rodents is enjoying a wide circulation. 'Correspondents already exceed a thousand, and an amazing amount of infor- mation from all quarters of the country is being...

BROWN V. GREY SQUIRRELS.

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A curious point is brought out on the relations of the grey foreigner and our native brown squirrel. It seems that the grey squirrel began to multiply, owing to the date of its...

A GRASS AGE.

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buring the last period of agricultural depression in the "eighties, the :late Ili. Martin Sutton published a bodk that has been a classic ever since on Permanent and Temporany...

The problem is now being investigated as it affects different

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countries ; but there has not been time yet to collect much data from far overseas. My previous contention that the periodicity is much more emphatic in Australia than elsewhere...

Occasionally in England a rage for a particular species or

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even variety of grass or clover breaks out. A few years ago, for example, small fortunes were made out of wild white clover. But for such eager fashions one must travel...

The enjoyment of animals of many sorts in the snow

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has been a very refreshing sight, both in town and country ; and several examples have surprised me. Numbers of the caged animals in the Zoo obviously delighted in it, though it...

VANISHING BIIIDF!.

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Some curious examples of the ups and downs, not of rodents, but of birds, reach me from the west coast of Ireland. One of the once common birds that ]has almost disappeared from...

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RUSKIN'S LOVE AFFAIR

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I recently published a biography of Ruskin which you were good enough to review in your Centenary Number. Among a number of pleasant...

Letters to the Editor

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THE PROBLEMS OF EAST AFRICA [To" the Editor ..of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—There are two, angers in considering the Report of the Hilton Young Commission. Firstly, that one should...

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WHY MR. HOOVER WON [To the Editor• of the SPECTATOR.]

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Six,—The ideas expressed in Mr. F. W. O'Donnell's letter, published in your issue of December 15th, are so remote from the facts that I cannot let that communication go...

ENGLISH BOOKS ABROAD [To the Editor of the SpEcr4rOn.] •

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SIR,--Has any British Government or any. British publishing house ever carried out any sustained large-scale literary campaign on behalf of anything whatever outside the British...

" YEOMAN "

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] -Sta,--From the time-of Dr. Johnson's great Dictionary of the English-Language- down •to the new Oxford English Dictionary, recently...

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WHAT IS WRONG WITH BRITISH AGRICULTURE ?

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[To the Editor Of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I hope , and believe that the correspondence on the question " What is wrong with British Agriculture ? " will do good, and Mr. Boving...

THE TERM " EVANGELICAL " [To the Editor of the

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SeEcrkrort.] Sri,—It is noticeable that the terms " Catholic " and " Evan- gelical " are, under the stress of the controversy of to-day, acquiring new connotations. In the...

TWO LITTLE BIRDS AND A BIG NUT . . [To

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the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—The following bears out the love of birds for walnuts, mentioned in your interesting " Country Life "- page of January 13th. One very cold...

" A - Y — OF - FASCISM " [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sia,-Your original review of A Survey of Fascism, while it seemed to me misinformed and erroneous in supposing. that a group of enthusiasts at Lausanne either represented the...

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THE ABERDARE FUND AND THE GOVERNMENT GRANT [To the Editor

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of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I beg that you will not be downcast over the restrictions as to the incidence of the Government grant. It is in any case not quite as depressing as it...

AN APPEAL TO THE NATIONAL CONSCIENCE —HUMANE SLAUGHTER [To the

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Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—As the only woman Councillor on the West Penwith Rural District Council, I have had to stand alone and entirely unsupported in a vain endeavour...

OUR ABERDARE FUND [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Will

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you please thank your readers who have so kindly responded to my appeal on January 19th for books for the Cwmaman Miners' Welfare Halls and Institute. I have received altogether...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —I think it my

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duty as a parent who has benefited froth the distribution of funds collected by the Spectator to write to thank the Editor for the special effort made by his paper to alleviate...

OUR ABERDARE FUND—POINTS FROM LETTERS

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Mr. T. Butting, Director of Education, Education Offices, Aberdare, Glam. It will interest you to know that I have signed cheques this afternoon for forty-two tradesmen in...

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Townshend of Chitral and Kut (Heinemann, 21s.) concerns a man

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who was loved by many friends, but who has been severely criticized, alive and dead, as a humbug and self- seeker. Mr. Erroll Sherson has fulfilled a difficult task with much...

It is not much that we know about New Zealand,

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and Mr. Philip T. Kenway's book, Pioneering In Poverty Bay (Murray, n. 6d.), should be of interest to all who have friends out there or who have themselves wondered whether they...

Some Books of the Week

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DURING the past month the books most in demand at The Times Book Club have been :— NoN-Ficriox.—The Nature of the Physical World, by A. S. Eddington ; Introduction to Dutch...

The noble poetry of the Psalter has set from the

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very beginning the devotional standard of Christianity ; and entered deeply into the liturgic and spiritual life of the Church. But those who still use the Psalms and love...

Epigrams, to be successful, must be very successful—we hope this

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is not to be construed as an epigram, by the way, because, if so, it is a bad one by our own standard—for nothing is less worth putting into print than third-rate efforts at...

Matthew _Arnold's name has hitherto been free from scandal.

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Indeed, he has seemed aloof from human frailty, and we have suspected that his impeccable good conduct kept his poems a little arid and all too refined. Mr. Hugh Kingsmill,...

It may seem strange to many that the German soldier

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should be much the same as the British Tommy, but Private Suhren, by George von der Vring (translated by Fred Hall and published by Methuen at 7s. 6d.), makes one think that he...

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The Competition

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Tan Editor offers a prize of Ave guineas for the best answer in three hundred words to the question, " Why I shall or shall not travel by the Channel Tunnel ? "—if and when it...

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Lord Pauncefote„

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The Life of Lord Pauncefote. By Professor R. B. Mowat. ' (Constable. 16s..) A BIOGRAPHY of Lord Pauncefote has long been needed, and here it is, competently written by Professor...

The Loeb Classical Library

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Oppian Cynegetica and Halieutica ; Colluthus : The Rape of Helen ; Tryphiodorus : The Taking of Ilios. Trans- lated by A. W. Mair. Procopius : Vol. V. History of the Wars, The...

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Self and Society Booklets

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Producer v. Consumer, by Sir Ernest Benn ; The Faith of a Democrat, by Philip Snowden, M.P. ; The Discovery of the Consumer, by Mrs. Sidney Webb ; The Way of Peace, by Leonard...

Pepys the Unfortunate

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Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys. Edited by J. R. Tanner. (Bell. 18s.) WE knew already that Samuel Pepys was a sober and respon- sible official. It was no easy task to...

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Man's Beginnings

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NEVER did educated man take so lively an interest in his origins as he shows at present. The study of prehistory is being energetically pursued by the civilized nations, and...

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By the Bluest Sea

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On Mediterranean Shores. By Emil Ludwig. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.) The Fringe of the Moslem World. By Harry A. Franck. (Methuen. 12s. 6c1.) A Wayfarer in Morocco. By Alys...

Fiction

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Sad Fields and Sick Cities THE English edition of Theodore Dreiser's works now moves back to his earlier successes with Jennie Gerhardt. Coming after Sister Carrie, it is a...

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MARIETTE'S LOVERS. By G. B. Burgin. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d.)—The extreme

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amiability of the author robs this story, as a story, of its sting. His affection for his virtuous characters is so lively that he cannot leave them a moment in peril, so the...

THE WINDOW. (Mills and Boon. 7s. 6d.)—A young wastrel dying

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in the heart of Africa—a " plucky and superb ' young woman protecting an innocent child from the slander of a nasty old woman—mix the ingredients well ; add a rich young man...

MARY OF MARION ISLE. By H. Rider Haggard. (Hutchinson. 7s.

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6d.)—This posthumous novel is a strange medley of realism and fantasy, of sentimentality and shrewd observation. Opening with some graphic chapters of London life, both West...

PORTRAIT IN A MIRROR. By Charles Morgan. (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.)--Portrait

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in a Mirror is a great book and a beautiful one. In it Mr. Morgan has raised an altar to first-love, and his craftsmanship is exquisite. The story is simple, as befits the...

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CHAINS. By Joseph Delmont. (Hutchinson. 7s.

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Translated from the Russian, this story deals with the com- munity in a Southern village during a reign of terror before the War. The aspirations and quarrels of- a Jewish...

More Books of the Week

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(Continued from page 1(:3.) A graceful tribute is fittingly paid to the late Sir John -Murray in the January number of the Quarterly Review, in which, as publisher for many...

In A World Outlook (Methuen, Os.) Mr. W. Watkin Davies

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has embodied a series of introductory lectures, originally delivered to a W.E.A. School, on the study of international relations. Although his avowed object is primarily to...

THE DEATH OF LAURENCE VINING. By Alan Thomas. (Bean. 7s.

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6d.)—The publishers justly claim unusual distinction for this detectivC tale by a new writer. The murder in a tube lift of-Laurence Vining, the brilliant amateur criminologist...

Are we to-day at the end of the era of

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philosophy, as hitherto understood ; or is it only that but few have meta- physical minds ? These thoughts will surely be provoked by Professor Horatio Dresser's A History of...

The Magazines

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IN the Nineteenth- Century Sir Archibald Hurd maintains that it is vital for the safety of this country that a sufficient number of cruisers be built to prevent the fleet ftom...

DON CARELESS. By Rex Beach. (Hutchinson. 7s. (#d.) —There are

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two separate adventures in this volume, deftly and fluently expressed by a popular teller of tales. The first, " Don Careless," proves to be a variation on the familiar theme of...

"A quaint conceit " probably best describes Mr. Hedley Hope-Nicholson's

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curious collection of oddities, which he has called The Mindes Delight (Grant Richards and Philip Saints- bury, 10s. 6d.). They may delight some minds, but to us they seem to...

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Dr. Urquhart's The Vedanta and Modern Thought (Oxford University Press,

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12s. 6d.) is proof, if proof were needed, of the increasing attention which is being given to ancient Eastern philosophies. " India," he writes, has a most MI- portant...

* * *

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An interesting variation froth the majority of gift books fa term which usually signifies that the reviewer has :found nothing of any interest in the book except its' elaborate...

Those who have read in the daily Press and elsewhere

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and enjoyed Sir John Fortescue's various scattered articles will be glad. to .have them under one cover in the shape of Historical and - Military Essays (Macmillan, 10s. 6d.)....

The great anthropologist, Sir Baldwin Spencer, who with the late

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Mr. Gillen made an exhaustive and accurate study of the Australian aborigines, has described his travels in two fascinating voluMes , entitled Wanderings in Wild Atistralia...

If it be true, as we are sometimes told, that

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an era of fundamentalism is upon us, this may perhaps provide a reading public for Mr. Ogilvy van Lennep's elaborate' and painstaking work on The Measured Times of the Bilile...

Among the recent omnibus " books which are becoming so

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popular, we would, recommend Mesirs. -G011anaz's Great . Short Stories of Defection, Mystery and Horror, containing More than 1,200 pagei of shocks and starts and thrills for...

Mr. Henry Baerlein has written a very bright, discursive biography

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in Heine : A Strange Guest (Bles, 12s. 6d.). It is in the new fashion of biography ; part fiction, part fact, and an intolerable deal of private and Mr. Baerlein never quite...

" The greatest happiness of the greatest number " is

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now so much a hackneyed phrase, so completely the basis of all our political thought, that its philosophical origin and basis are almost forgotten. Like its physical...

General Knowledge Questions

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ou, weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Mr. N. Locoek, Eton College, Windsor, for the following :— . Questions on...

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Finance—Public and Private

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Why Industry is Depressed" The persistence of industrial di f ficulties of which chronic large-scale unemployment is the most arresting sign, ought of itself to be sufficient...

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NEW COMPANIES IN 1928.

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The year 1928 was, of course, remarkable for the number of issues of capital which were made and it is interesting to note, from the review by Messrs. Jordan and Sons, the...

Financial Notes

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LESS ACTIVE MARKETS. THIS week began with distinetlY less buoyant conditions in the Stock Markets, reflecting a less bullish State in Wall Street, the decline having been most...

STEAM ACCUMULATION.

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The call for efficiency in industrial production is causing increasing attention to be given to the methods of economizing power supply, among which steam accumulation has been...

SUN LIFE ASSURANCE.

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The Sun Life Assurance Society, which confines its business to the United Kingdom, makes an excellent showing in its latest annual report, the new business figures having...

THE BANK OF ENGLAND. - - •

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The task of filling vacancies on the Court of Directors of the Bank of England always arouses much interest in the City, and the recommendation of the names of Sir Basil...

Answers to . Questions on Modem Historical Quotations 1. The Peninsula.-2.

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Lord Gough.-3. Amiens. 4. Pitt.-5. Bismarck.-6. Voltaire on Byng's execution. 7. Fox on the Fall of the Bastille.-8. The ex-Kaiser after -the murder of the Austrian...

A Library List

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MISCELLANEOUS :-Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori. By Raymond Firth. (Routledge. 25s.)-- Prohibition or Control. By Reginald E. Hose. (Longman, Green. 10s. 6d.)-The....