" In courteous but perfectly definite terms Herr Hitler made it plain that he had made up his mind that the Sudeten-Germans must have the right of self-determination and of...

the last week has been the revolution in French opinion. Last week experienced observers in Paris were commenting on the complete demoralisation, panic and defeatism that...

in London on Monday that the German Government had been -informed that Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union would come to the assistance of Czechoslovakia, if attacked,...

Ebro, described as his " fifth counter-attack in sixty days," has ended in failure. The Government's confidence in its powers of resistance has fully justified its recent...

in her dealings with Poland by the Soviet Union, in her negotiations with Hungary the Little Entente has come to her support Indeed, the situation created by Hungary's claims to...

of translations of the speech the Prime Minister had just delivered, and of President Roosevelt's appeal, and the British, French and Czechoslovak replies—especially those into...

authority that Britain has twelve months' food stored, and that plans for control of it are ready for immediate operation. It is proposed to keep a: their present level the...

the attention of the Press and the public that relatively little interest has been evoked by the launch on Tuesday at Clydebank of the ' Queen Elizabeth,' sister ship to the '...

throughout the present crisis, the Czechs have seized on the opportunity to avert at least one of the dangers that threaten them by reaching an agreement with Poland. It can...

of the Munich meeting. The general feeling in Westminster appears to be that the unmistakable warning issued by the British Government on Monday, and the lukewarmness of Signor...

earned for him an ovation from the Government benches, although it was a little surprising that he uttered no word of warning against the danger of further concessions. This...

broadcast address the previous evening he had sounded like a man who was exhausted and overwrought. But no signs of this were discernible on Wednesday after- noon. Of necessity...

report on the " Sandys case " issued on Wednesday, appears to have satisfied itself that " misunderstanding " was the main cause of the trouble. Misunderstanding led Captain...

Callaghan family has brought the total number of deaths as a result of the aeroplane disaster at Edmonton on• September 4th up to 13. The Air Ministry have issued their report...

the long drama of Parliamentary history there can never have been a scene comparable to that on Wednesday of this week. The House met in a mood of almost unrelieved pessimism....

A WORLD that was slipping over the edge of the abyss - has been caught back and held temporarily poikd. That is as much as can be said with justification as we write, but at...

T HE battle for popular education is half lost again if the people do not enter into their heritage. The privilege of free books, provided for the ratepayers by local government...

T HE man who once summed up Mr. Chamberlain as " quite a good Lord Mayor of Birmingham—in a lean year " might perhaps be disposed today to reconsider his verdict. The House of...

By DR. R. W. SETON-WATSON I N the present supreme crisis it is essential for us to be I dear as to the real aims of German foreign policy, now that they have fallen under the...

By H. POWYS GREENWOOD A WEEK ago last Sunday I was dining with some old friends in Berlin, one of whom is a leading figure in the German War Graves Commission. He is a friend...

I" If these tortured creatures cannot obtain rights . . ." Herr Hitler at Nuremberg] A SHORT time ago our great Llyw, or leader, complained. that all that was lacking to our...

By PETER NEUMANN Averages set the value of the American farm at close to five thousand dollars and their size at 155 acres. In 193o the value placed on full-owner farm...

By CARL MARZANI EVEN kilometres south of Bratislava we crossed the Czech frontier into Hungary. At the edge of the city the banks of the Danube - bristled with anti-aircraft...

By FRANK SINGLETON S URROUNDED by the litter of evening papers it has still been for " the news " that one has called insatiably this week, " the news," and on Monday evening,...

By R. G. JESSEL T HE ignoble scientist grows daily more intolerable. On the strength of a few elementary adjustments to my fuse box, my friend Gibson has launched into a...

Commonwealth and Foreign By CLELAND SCOTT T HE sympathy of the world goes out to the Jews of Central Europe, and now of Italy as well. Countries, like individuals, tend to be...

STAGE AND SCREEN EVEN that lowest form of sensate life, the film critic, may in these days be credited with human feeling. He may possibly even be pardoned from turning away...

Humanist Painting A FEW years ago it was the fashion to pretend that nothing in a picture counted except its formal qualities. Its " subject," for the partisan of pure aesthetic...

Flowers versus War II faut cultiver notre jardin. On the day when all the talk was of war and its calamity seemed inevitable, I spent an hour with a countryman who had devoted...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a...

Sta,—A generation has grown up for whom history seems to begin in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles, an act of unprovoked aggression by France and Britain on a defenceless...

Sta,—When Mr. Chamberlain pressed the Anglo-French plan in Prague, throughout the country a feeling arose that we had rather shamefully deserted the Czechs. In fact, almost a...

- [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] peace wish us to fight for democracy or balance of power ? The Liberal and Labour Press ask us to stand firm for demo- cracy. Mr. Churchill...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —Your article on " Food and Defence " expresses once more a warning that cannot too often be repeated, and it may well be that the...

Hobhouse in last week's issue of The Spectator sets forth the ideals of young men of a particular type in face of the present crisis ; if his generalisation had been based upon...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have just returned from Switzerland, where one was acutely conscious of the fact noted by you, that the Swiss were watching present...

SIR,—The critical factors in the European situation in your view seem to be the necessity of preventing German expansion, and of fulfilling obligations made to Czechoslovakia....

a profound " Thank you " for your issue of September z3rd : I cannot recall in the whole history of this country a more shameful retreat by Government from a position taken up...

Sia,—Does Czechoslovakia imagine that a European war fought over her would keep her frontiers intact ? Did the last war make the world safe for democracy " ? Have we not yet...

SPECTATOR] Sta,—Dean Inge's fantastic prejudice against the Catholic Church is well known, but, as he has rendered very distinguished service to English scholarship (notably...

of THE SPECTATOR] WHY WE WENT TO WAR IN 1914 [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —The last sentence in Janus' comment on my letter in no way contradicts what I have said. I...

SIR, —I think you are slightly in error in suggesting that the Official Secrets Acts were never meant to deal with such cases as that of the Lobby correspondents referred to at...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—In its leading article of September 22nd The Times declares : " In the age of Nationalism the only strategic frontier worth its name is a...

Snt,—Agricultural land is being starved today from lack of working capital—as regards large estates, capital is being steadily drained from the land by the imposition of death...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, I disagree so completely with Mr. Blunt's idea of criticism that I wish to question certain of his unmentioned assumptions. Mr. Blunt...

of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—We hope you will send us an invitation for the spectacle of Mr. John Carter eating his hat, which should be both amusing and instructive. The sales in...

THE WEEK'S GREATEST TRUTH [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—It must be a source of pride to any of your devoted readers when they find their judgement endorsed by " Janus."...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have only just read your issue of September 2nd and have been interested in Mr. Derrick Sington's article on slum clearance in the...

• [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Before—or lest—Sir Beach Thomas and I are plunged again into things which united us some twenty odd years ago, I should like to tell him...

[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten] " LAMER voran," so lautet der Titel eines Festspieles, das ztun hundertsten Geburtstage der Eisenbahn Berlin-Potsdam in der...

Sudeten-German question is claiming today so much of our attention that people in England are inclined to dose their ears to the demands which the Poles and the Hun- garians are...

BOOKS OF THE DAY By W. T. WELLS . . . To lose faith in false gods," writes Captain Liddell Hart in an appreciation of T. E. Lawrence contained in his new book,* " is a positive...

Dr. Routh. By R. D. Middleton. (Oxford- University Press: 525. 6d.) I SUPPOSE that Dr. Routh's chief claim to general fame was on the score of longevity ; and that hiS name, if...

MR. STANLEY, who gave us The Bedside Book, has now increased our debt with a fine anthology of travel. There are notable omissions, of course, as there must be in any...

Laughing Diplomat. By Daniele Vare. (John Murray. 16s.) IN the summer of 1932, when Signor Vare, then Italian Minister to Denmark and Iceland, was touring in the latter...

An Unconventional Civil Servant. By C. H. Dudley Ward and C. B. Spencer. (Michael Joseph. los. 6d.) SIR HENRY CUNYNGHAME was that rare phenomenon, a Civil Servant who was also a...

Society. By Pryns Hopkins. (Allen and Unwin. ios. 6d.) A PSYCHO-ANALYST ON SOCIETY IN every civilised country men are asking, and asking with something like desperation,...

THERE is no point in writing about Turner if you just want to praise him or tell stories about his double life. His double life was grubby and squalid and not double at...

Fanny Kemble : A Passionate Victorian. By Margaret Armstrong. (Macmillan. 15s.) THERE can be no shadow of doubt about the quality of this absorbing book. It is a superb human...

Europe and the Czechs. By S. Grant Duff. (Penguin Special. 6d.) AUTHOR and publisher are to be congratulated on having produced this book at this moment and at this price. It...

(Crime Club. 7s. 6d.) Death in a White Tie. By Ngaio Marsh. (Geoffrey Bles. 7s. 6d.) Death in Five Boxes. By Carter Dickson. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) Comes a Stranger. By E. R....

By FORREST REID The Day Will Come. By John Randolph Richards. (Longman. 7s. 6d.) Port of Refuge. By Signe Toksvig. (Faber and Faber. 75. 6d.) Dead Ned. By John Masefield....

Caithness in the north-east corner of Scotland is not part of the Highlands and has always led a life of its own. Mr. Donaldson, whose scholarly account of its social and...

Worsley Commander Worsley has already established himself as an author of no mean ability by his two books on Shac k leton expeditions. First Voyage in a Square-Rigged Ship...

mind. Many people imagine that anyone suffering from malnutrition must necessarily go hungry to bed. Of course they would be wrong.' Just es a horse may grow fat on grass, and...

LOUD REPORT By Gibson Cowan There have been a. lot of picaresque autobiographies lately, and Loud Report (Michael Joseph, 8s. 6d.), the newest of them, can claim to phimb lower...

The lady whose letters give substance to this book (Peter Davies, 8s. 6c1r) was Mrs. Dorothy Procter, the wife of an English merchant at Oporto, and the siege was that which the...

artistic frustration in the - nineteenth century: :was a pianist of unique genius, a man of profoundly original and audacious musical intellect, violent, self-torturing...

the land and mark the boundaries of the enormous sheep- farms which cover almost the whOle country. Patagonian Year (Methuen, 7s. 6d.) is a simple and very readable account of...

WAR Loan at 93, New York Exchange at 4.72, and more or less nominal prices in all the more speculative groups of stock markets are a sufficient indication of the City's retreat...

HEAVY BUYING OF WHEAT IT is a generally accepted commonplace that war or even the serious threat of war must substantially raise the prices of those primary commodities which...

BY ZENO IA 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...