THE war has been going well on all the fronts where Germany THE Italy are the enemy. Winter, compelling the Germans in Russia to seek winter quarters where they may dig...

On Saturday last the Japanese Air Force in the Philippines, having already bombarded the ships and piers in the harbour of Manila, transferred its attention to the centre of the...

The Netherlands East Indies have set an example to the Allies in preparedness for the new war, and in swiftness of action as soon as it began. For six months and more they have...

The secret of Mr. Eden's visit to Moscow was well kept, for it was planned long before Mr. Churchill went to America and actually before Japan entered the war. He has had...

The resignation of Mr. Gandhi from the leadership of the All-India Congress Party is an event of note. The reason is the Mahatma's disappointment that Congress as a whole is not...

It would be a grave mistake to let the provocative character of the Australian Prime Minister's article in the Melbourne Herald divert our attention from the protest which he...

Behind what looks like an unnecessary turmoil over the occupa- tion of the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the Newfoundland coast, by Free French forces, lies a...

The Japanese attack on,Malaia • anif, tits East Indies is almost as important to the enemy and to us op . , econornie...Va on strictly military grounds. The Anglo-Arn Cricark...

T HE note for 1942 has been set by Mr. Churchill. In the tight particuiariy of his talks in Washington he has visuaiised clearly the future of the war. " Provided," he told the...

on Marshal Petain. At the instigation of the Minister of the Interior at Vichy every commune was invited to purchase for the very modest figure of 25o francs a portrait of the...

this country is plainly revealed by the attitude of the B.B.C. to music. When war broke out defeatism was rampant at Broad- casting House. The B.B.C. cut down all its more...

matter. The steel king was, of course, among Hitler's largest financial supporters in the early days of the Nazi move- ment, but he had to fly from Germany a year or two ago,...

W HETHER the Prime Minister has ever made better speeches than those he has just delivered at Washington and Ottawa is matter for argument. Certainly, with the possible...

quitted Portland Place to become Foreign Minister of China, and they feel disappointment as well as perplexity at his displacement, after eight months of office, in favour of...

" The year 1941 will bring us the greatest victory of our Germany."—Adolf Hitler, Dec. 31st, 194o. " We in Germany await the New Year with proud confidence in the greatest...

SPEED AND SPACE By STRATEGICUS F ROM the beginning of the war it has been evident to every- one that the governing factor is time. Hitler's hope of victory was that he would...

By PETER MASEF1ELD N O British bomber has disturbed the sleep of Germany or its war-production during 54 out of the past 90 nights. Berlin has remained unbombed since November...

By PROFESSOR P. H. WINFIELD* O NE of the disastrous effects of the violent political changes in several European countries during recent years has been the denial of justice...

By J. R. GLORNEY BOLTON A N east wind battered granite walls. The doctors of Aberdeen walked in procession to the end of the hall. The organ- music ceased upon a convenient...

that it gives to the diarist a constant awareness of his own period. I often remind myself, when I write my daily diary, that whereas my great-grandson will not care a hoot what...

impersonal, neither too immediate nor too remote. If the diarist writes for his own children, then assuredly he will be assailed by all manner of taboos, and will hesitate...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I T is said, with what truth I know not, that the most frequent of all New Year resolutions is the resolution to keep a diary. It is also said that out of...

whether his diary is intended to be private or public. The value of any diary is that it provides an accurate record of the experi- ences of an individual within a given...

to discard one's own affectations. In my own diary I invent words and coin phrases which I should not dare to employ in public, and which I am glad to feel will puzzle my great-...

LONDONERS have no fewer than three ballet-companies to choose from for their holiday entertainment. The Sadler's Wells Ballet has returned to the New Theatre, where it is to...

" Jack and the Beanstalk." At the Coliseum. " Rise Above It (Second Edition)." At the Comedy. Jack and the Beanstalk is a real unadulterated Christmas panto- mime, complete...

Review of the Year. 1941 has been outstanding for screen comedy, and it is fitting that this week's releases should wind up the year with so typical a matrimonial mix-up as...

THE WAR IN CALIFORNIA Snt,—Through three happy decades my father and, later, my husband were constant subscribers to The Spectator. For the past year it has been a joy we have...

Sm,—Mr. David Sharp's strictures on your note on " Wages and In- flation" are unjustified. The note did specifically mention the re- lation between wages and hours worked; but...

SIR, —We need war-supplies. Women will be called upon to make them. We recognise that this generation must sacrifice comfort, leisure, happiness and home life. For what? So that...

Sm,—I had wished to be brief, and not unfriendly; but I am obliged to remark, what Mr. Cave might perhaps have guessed for himself, that the substitution of "domestic " for...

small inn " some- where between Cumberland and Cornwall " has yet further implica- tions. It has been pointed out that if the brewers' grain allowance were halved, the remainder...

SIR,—Is there not a danger that in the planning of housing schemes to come into being after the war in town and country the necessity of planning the actual house may be...

SIR,—In my last letter I drew attention to what seemed to me to be the outstanding difference in training and equipment between the Ger- man coops and our own. Major-General...

Sta,—Last week, " Janus " referred to the advisability of reviving the 1914-18 liquor restrictions. An experience or recollection of those restrictions may be interesting....

military terms which Sir William Marris contributed to your issue of December 19th omitted two important words: dragoon and carbineer. Dragoon is from the Greek word for serpent...

Sta,—Mr. Nicolson is surprised that an American audience should query the statement of a British lecturer that Australia was com- pletely independent. The only way that a...

to in Harold Nicolson's article in your issue of December 26th, strictly correct in telling his audience that " Australia had been completely independent since 1855 "? Surely "...

In the village church, on Christmas Day, neither the carols nor the sermon were enabled wholly to divert the attention of the congre- gation from the activities and cheerful...

the terminology of the Royal Air Force. The " ugly hybrid ' aero- plane" has long been officuuly displaced, not indeed by his " air- plane," but by the somewhat tidier "...

Since so much has been written of late and is being written of that highly unpatriotic animal, the rabbit, it is pertinent to quote a particular example of reform. Over an area...

SIR,—Writing in your last issue " Janus " comments on the recent appointment of four new Labour peers and concludes: " It is a pity the expedient of creating life-peers was not...

gift of philosophy, imparted the other day to a visitor some " Evidences of Christianity " that quite escaped the learned Paley and others of his school. He corroborated his...

SIR,—Mr. True's allusion. in your issue of December 26th, to the im- position of unnecessarily fine standards of accuracy reminds me of something said to me not long ago by a...

Some old-fashioned gardeners are opposed to the promiscuous compost heap on the ground that it contains weed seeds, and some amateurs have found this to be true; but it is true...

Sift,—It would seem that the Spirit, rather than the Letter, guided the writer of this article (or the printer) in one instance: " to see freedom perish and the regime of the...

SIR,—The Duke of Bedford has misread my paragraph on fancy pheasants. I implied—or meant to imply—that the Reeves, unlike the Amherst, is a high flier ; and I had in my mind's...

In two neighbouring gardens both thrushes and sparrows have been seen carrying straws, as if intent on building, and we have all noticed how very full and constant have been the...

A Good Soldier EVERY soldier, we are reminded, carries a field-marshal's baton in his knapsack, and here in ringing, simple tones is the story of a soldier who has seen the...

MR. 1 , ISC.HER'S book has great timeliness, for Mr. Fischer has long been one of the leading American journalists speciausing miss= matters—and the relations of the United...

A Choice of Kipling's Verse. Made by T. S. Eliot with an essay on Rudyard Kipling. (Faber and Faber. 8s. 6d.) THE best criticism renews our interest in an author, and this is...

Tins new collection of Mr. de la Mare's originates in an old rediscovered commonplace book in which, as long ago as 1905 and 1906, he had written verses for children. Re-reading...

THIS very workmanlike book of over Soo pages, complete with index, historical notes and biographical sketches, is the result of collaboration between the author and Emery Reyes,...

Sons of the Soil. Studies of the Indian Cultivator. Edited by W. Burns, C.I.E., D.Sc., I.A. S. (Government of India Publications. 4s.) Will War Come to India ? A week-by-week...

THE class of religious literature to which this volume belongs is one that flourishes today more than in any previous age_ The aim of the writers is to present the character and...

WRITING on the eve of a New Year, a fiction reviewer may be pardoned perhaps for a partial lapse from the particular to the general. Book buying is on the increase, but the book...

[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be molted with...

The winner of Crossword No. L45 is is '.r. Yeovil, Somerset. JANUARY 16th 'Liss A. A. GEGG, Pound House, Rnnpton,

Knotted String. By Harry Brearley. (Longmans. tog. 6d.) BENJAMIN FRANKLIN must inevitably be the yardstick for auto- biographies by self-made men : this book by " the man who...

INTO a hotch-potch of half-truths quotations are flung, chopped. up and various, regardless of the general standpoint of those responsible for them: there is Beverley Baxter and...

By CUSTOS MOST investors have reason to think well of 1941. Another year of war's vicissitudes has meant some casualties in the Stock Exchange list—the Far Eastern group has...

SIR AUCKLAND GEDDES'S REVIEW he nineteenth annual ordinary general meeting of the Rhokana oration Limited was held on Wednesday, December 17th, at Old Jewry, London . , E.C....

NET REVENUE MAINTAINED MR. ERIC MACFADY.EN'S ADDRESS ADDRESSING the shareholders of First Garden City, Limited, on December 31st, Mt. Eric 1Viacfadyen, M.A., J.P., the...