3 JANUARY 1931

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INDEX FROM JANUARY 3rd TO JUNE 27th, 1931, INCLUSIVE.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY A DDERLEY, Mr. E. M., on Birds 64 2 on the High Veld .. .. Africa, Child Welfare in 614 Agricultural Situation, the, and the Government Proposals 217-260-339...

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London : Printed by W. Sri...icier min Scars, LTD, 98

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and 99 Fetter Lane, E.C. 4, and Published by Tan SPECTATOR, LTD., at their Offices, No. 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1.-Saturday, July 18, 1931.

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The National Board on Tuesday .proposed that the maximum ninety

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hours in a fortnight should be worked, but that the eight-hour day should be shortened.. The miners, according to this plan, would at least recover their ideal of a regular six...

It had been hoped that the device of the spread-over

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—which was introduced into the Mines - Act by the House of Lords and. turned out to be a godsend—would tide over several awkward- weeks or months. There was a fair hope that...

The crucial dispute is in South Wales, where, when we

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write on Thursday, a stoppage seems to be inevitable. If there should not be a quick settlement the next step in logic would be an extension of the dispute to Scotland and then,...

[Signed articles do not necessarily represei2 the views of the

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SPECTATOR.]

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES : 99 Gower Street, London, W

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.C.1.-21 Subscription to the SPECTATOR CO8i8 Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR IS registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on...

News of the Week

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The Coal Dispute disorders of the - coal mining industry have several 1. times driven the public to exasperation and the public is not far from that state of mind now. The issue...

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India and the Conference News reached London on Christmas Eve

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of- another deplorable outrage in India. Sir Geoffrey de Mont- morency, who succeeded Sir Malcolm Hailey as Governor of the Punjab in 1928, was fired on as he was leaving the...

" Bombay's Christmas Gift to the Round Table Con- ference,"

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as this poll was called, was indeed timely. In spite of the plentiful good will and the particularly impressive appeals of the Begum Shah Nawaz and Mrs. Subbarayan before the...

The Cotton Dispute On Tuesday the Central Committee of the

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Weavers' Amalgamation met in Manchester and decided not to accept the new system of " more looms to a weaver." The decision was taken in collaboration or in sympathy with that...

After all, it is essential that for one very important

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reason the coal industry should be Managed - ultitriately on a national basis. If there is to be an international fixing of prices the British coal industry Must be repre-...

That Lord Irwin's splendidly temperate and sym- pathetic policy is

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at last being properly appreciated is perhaps the one bright spot in a horizon otherwise dark. In his speech at the annual dinner of the European Association on December 22nd,...

A Rising in Burma A curious rebellion is reported from

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Burma. In the Tharawaddy district, some eighty miles from Rangoon, on Christmas Day, one of the tribal leaders known as " The Golden Crow," who is apparently the object of...

The Conference must without further delay tackle the fundamental question

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of responsible self-government, i.e., Dominion status, and leave the minorities problem to settle itself in easier circumstances. It is " up to " the British delegates to make a...

met recently in London to prepare for the forthcoming in.

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ternational Conference on the limitation of dangerous drugs. It is proposed to allocate to each of the manufacturing countries (few in number) a maximum quantity of the...

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Hadrian's Wall Mr. John Maurice Clayton has added to his

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generosity of early last year when he presented to the National Trust the fort of Borcovicus and three quarters of a mile of Hadrian's Wall. He -has now conveyed to trustees,...

The Health of School Children Sir George Newman's Annual Report

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on health in the schools is more satisfactory than could have been expected. In spite of the wide and • deep depression- in the North of England there has been no appreciable...

The Free State High Commissioner The Irish Free State has

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done well to appoint Mr. john W. Dulanty as High Commissioner in London in succession to Professor T. A. Smiddy. He was Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions, and he...

The Honours List The New Year's Honours List is one

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of the best ever published. A comparison of it with some of the lists immediately after the War revives the hope that honours can be saved in the mass from both ridicule and the...

Popular Thrift The National Savings Movement is about to celebrate

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the purchase of the thousand millionth Savings Certificate. Nearly £500,000,000 has been invested in Certificates. The Movement moreover encourages other forms of thrift by...

Sir Frederick Kenyon Retires Sir Frederick Kenyon, who has been

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Director of the British Museum for twenty-one years, and has served it for forty, retired on Wednesday. It is largely owing to his organization of public lectures and...

Sir Ernest Lamb, a distinguished engineer and a former Labour

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M.P., seems to be the only one of the four new Peers who may help the Government in the House of Lords. All the four new Peers are drawn from the scientific and professional...

An American Gift to Oxford Mrs. Harkness, wife of Mr.

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Edward S. Harkness, the founder of the Pilgrim Trust, has given £35,000 to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, for new buildings. The flow of munificence from the Harkness family seems...

Hank Rate, 3 per cent., changed from 3/ per cent.

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on May 1st, 1930. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 103f ; on Wednesday week, 103 ; a year ago, 103 i l l • Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 94i ; on Wednesday...

It is only right to emphasize these good signs when

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we are told that the nation is charging downwards to demoralization. Evidently old and ingrained habits are tenacious in spite of all the excuses—of which we fully admit the...

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The Meaning of Lord Melchett

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I N time to come all the books of all the economists who in our day- have tried to harmonize contra- dictory industrial theories-and so to rescue Great Britain from failure may...

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Machinery and

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Unemployment A S unemployment cannot be dealt with until its various causes are understood, it may be worth while to suggest that the replacement of men by machines has more to...

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The Challenge To Religious Orthodoxy [In this series men and

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women presenting the outlook of the younger generation have been invited to express their criticism of organized religion in order that their views may be answered from the...

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Divorce

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By Tun RT. HON. LORD SALVESEN, P.C., K.C., LL.D. T HE Spectator has already published two articles from different standpoints on the above subject, but none from the point of...

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Mr. Gandhi's Present Outlook

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BY HORACE G. ALEXANDER. [Mr. Alexander is a member of the Society of Friends, and Professor of International Relations at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham.—En. Spectator.] I T...

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The Stamp-Collection

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By KAREL CAPEK (Translated by PAUL SELvEa). RE'S no getting away from it," said old Mr. Itla" ras. " If a man were to rummage in his past, he'd find Material in it for a whole...

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Susan and Johnnie

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BY BERNARD DARWIN. O N the grass plot outside my window I can see an enormous Alsatian puppy—she is almost full-grown now—learning to do tricks for pieces of dog-biscuit. It is...

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The House-Party

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BY E. S. DUFFIN. [This story was chosen by Dr. M. R. James as a close rival to the one to which he awarded the prize in our Ghost Story Competition last week. —ED. Spectator.]...

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Tree-Planting for. Amateurs—I

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BY R. C. K. Exson. DICK to pieces in your mind almost any landscape which is not dominated by sea or mountain ; ask what gives it beauty, charm, distinction, or the reverse ;...

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A Hundred Years Ago

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The machinery for arresting the progrea4 of these pleasant and dangerous vehicles, appears to be still extremely deficient.. On Wednesday evening, while some men were attempting...

LOVE AND SUICIDE.

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A young man, named Thomas, shot himself, in John Street, Hanway Street, on Monday, in consequence of a love disappoint menu. It appeared that the foolish lad worked in a shop in...

Wild Beasts at Olympia

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By F. YEATS-BROWN. N INE lions and a tiger arc shown at Olympia, also twelve sea-lions. The rest of the circus is as good as I have ever seen. More's the pity that it should be...

HUMANE CONSIDERATION.

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On Sunday night, four miserable creatures were discovered, half dead with cold, huddled together under one of the dry arches of London Bridge. They had collected a little straw,...

How TO STILL A CHILD.

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A serving-wench, left in charge. of a little girl in Edinburgh, a few weeks ago, m her anxiety to disengage herself of the task of attend- ing to her, dosed the child with...

Next Week

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A NEW l'oExt by RABINDRANATIL TAGOID: " PERSIAN ART " by SIR C. DENISON Ross How TO ABOLISH SLUMS " : by ALFRED 'Bossom " Tan CONTROL OF TIME DRINK MADE " : by B. Suratoom...

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A small point in the essay, which interests me, concerns

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that attractive alien, the larch, beloved of Tennyson but hated by Wordsworth, who published an angry protest against its un-English greenery. Lord Crawford, who says nothing of...

ALIEN ANimaL.s.

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A very considerable number of animals from abroad are being released in England. I am not thinking of the more notorious aliens : the grey squirrel, the little owl, or even the...

ENGLISH SCENERY.

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Another aspect of England and of Britain is presented by Lord Crawford and Balcarres in as charming an essay as any countryman could desire. He calls it The Personality of...

DOCTORS IN HUSBANDRY.

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Everyone—it is one of the best signs of the times—is taking the question of agriculture seriously : "rural bias" is in vogue. One of the latest pleaders is Mr. Cloudesley...

Country Life

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OXFORD TOADS. This is a true story of the recent colonization of North Oxford with a batrachian population. A lady with a charming Eden, in which the only snake was a plague of...

AND HEDGEHOGS.

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Perhaps I may recall to gardeners in general the success of a resident in North London who imported a hedgehog from Epping. It was chiefly remarkable, as recorded at the time,...

ENGLAND'S " DEATH AGONIES."

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Lord Ernie, who writes a preface, quotes that dreadful pronouncement made not long since by M. Herriot, once Prime Minister of France : " We are witnessing the death agonies of...

On the subject of the more or less newly introduced

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varieties of pheasant, they include Amhersts, Reeve's, Eliot, Golden, Silver, Japanese Versicolor, Melanistic Mutants and many others. There are two qualities in the various...

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BROADCASTING DEMOCRACY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, I observe letters from Mr. Leonard Woolf and Mr. St. John Ervine on the difficult and supremely important question of B.B.C. controversy....

Letters to the Editor

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Snt,—The writer of your article on capital punishment in your issue of December 20th does much less than justice to the...

THE DANGERS OF THE NEW DIPLOMACY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I found most provocative the article by Sir Rennet( Rodd entitled " The Dangers of the New Diplomacy," in your issue of December 20th....

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INTERCOURSE WITH . GOD [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Those

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who believe that Christianity has everything to gain by free and frank discussion of its claims are grateful to the Spectator for the series of articles entitled " The Challenge...

" A LETTER FROM MOSCOW " [To the Editor of

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the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Having read with great interest the letter from your Moscow correspondent in your issue of December 20th, I would like to say that I admire your decision to...

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The repeated

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assertion that groups and unstable governments are produced more rapidly under Proportional' Representation than with single member constituencies would be more convincing if...

A FIVE YEAR HOUSING PLAN [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The New Year of 1931 marks a definite stage in the history of municipal housing in this country. For under the last Housing. Act, Local Authorities had to...

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a great animal

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lover, I deeply deplore the fact that performing animal turns are tolerated in this country, supposed to be humane. They are only a relic of bygone and barbarous times, the...

THE FUR TRADE

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Spectator having taken the lead in calling . attention to the unspeakable cruelty involved in the current methods of trapping animals...

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—From time to time in letters dealing with some aspects of cruelty, reference has been made to the Spectator's stand for reform, but I...

PERFORMING ANIMALS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Joseph Woodward, in his letter to you on the subject of performing animals, describes the charges which the R.S.P.C.A. makes against...

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A DOG STORY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—We have a small rough-haired terrier bitch. My wife goes in for turkeys and as these are hatched out they are fed by hand. The terrier...

BURNS AND THE BIOGRAPHER

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] . SIR,—The correctness of my letter to the Spectator of November 22nd was established at the recent quarterly meeting of the Executive of the...

VOLUNTARY HOSPITALS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—My attention has been called to the article in your issue of October 25th, and the reference therein to the munificent gift of Mr. Insull...

LIEUT-COLONEL N. S. SIMPSON

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, I should like to pay a tribute to the memory of Lieut.- Colonel N. S. Simpson, I.M.S., Inspector-General of Prisons, Bengal, who was...

CHRISTMAS CHEER

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,--An old lady, of pronounced humanitarian views, sug- gested to me this Christmas that all the people who take such delight in Christmas...

VIVISECTION

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,- - What exactly is Mr. Stephen Coleridge's position ? Does he mean (a) that animal experiments have produced no useful knowledge ? or (b)...

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Serenade

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[From the French of Paul Verlaine.] THE shepherd's star burns dim, Sinks in the night. The pilot fumbles for his light. Now is the time for him, Dark skies above, Whose hand...

POISON-GAS IN OCR HOMES.

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Permit me to address you on a matter of some public importance. I would ask, in view of the ever-increasing number of fatal gas-poisonings, whether the dilution of straight...

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FOR HOSPITALS.

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Many supporters of the hospital will have been attracted by Lady Muriel Willoughby's suggestion in your columris regarding the presentation of coupon gifts to the patients...

As Mr. Geoffrey Duveen, the Chairman of the Royal Ear

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Hospital, has already suggested, the coupon-gift system now so much in vogue ought to be made to help the hospitals. Many people who do not trouble to collect their coupons, not...

A SLUR ON SPORT.

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With reference to your comments in Nature Notes entitled " A Slur on Sport," might I, with all deference, make a helpful suggestion as regards future slaughtering ? I suggest...

POINTS FROM LETTERS DOMESTIC SERVICE. AND NLTRSING.

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May I reply to your correspondent of December 27th, and to others who have written to me ? My letter was abbreviated in printing. I had added that were the bar against domestic...

THE FOUNDLING SITE

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] would be so grateful if you would draw attention to the performance of the Chester Nativity Play, in aid of a summer Play Centre for little...

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Some Books of the Week

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Avoca the many. pamphlets received by those interested in varying sides of _life, we hope no. reader will- neglect B.B.C. Talks (issued free on personal application to the...

A writer in the Times Literary Supplement recently remarked that

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the English reader's ideas of - Strindberg are limited to two—that he was mad, and that he was a fanatical hater of women. It is appropriate that the issue last year of the...

Captain Victor Kelly's Thirty-nine Months with the "Tigers," ']915-18 (Senn,

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8s. 6d.), hardly at all autobiographical, is practically a compressed history of the 110th Brigade, which formed part of the 21st Division. It contains the sober, singularly...

The valuable studies of Anglo-Dutch relations under Charles II, by

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Mr. Feiling and Miss Trevelyan, have been followed by a book on the same theme in Queen Anne's day. The Dutch Barrier, 1705-19 (Cambridge University Press, 21s.), contains an...

The amazing fluency and competence of Herr Emil Ludwig's mass-production

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makes any attempt at discerning criticism seem irrelevant. He touches nothing which he does 'not transform into the same graphic, palpitating, and, above all, thoroughly...

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A New Competition

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SUPPOSING your bookshelf. came to life and yyou were able to invite six characters from English fiction to dine with you, which six would make the most pleasant party and with...

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Imaginary Conversations

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Scenes and Portraits. By Frederick Manning. (Peter Davies. 7s. 6d. ) Timm are some unlucky and misguided people who say that they cannot abide the dialogue form, thus shutting...

Why We Wear Clothes The Psychology of Clothes. By J.

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C. Fillip'. (The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho - Analysis. 21s.) So difficult is it to attain objectivity in this matter of clothes that many people, I imagine,...

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Child Hygiene

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and full of significantly tabulated facts. Moreover, the enthusiasm of our Chief Medical Officer adds to the popu- larity, and possibly to the effectiveness, of these reports ;...

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Musings Without Method

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The United States of Europe. By E. Horriot. Translated by R. J. Dingle. (Harrap. 12s. 6d.) IT is difficult not to suspect that this book was first conceived in the brain of its...

Some Essays THERE is always matter for surprise in the

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annual collection of Essays by Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature. The ponderous caption suggests the usual table, glass of water and lecture : one discovers, instead,...

A Traveller in Birds

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Memories (1851-1929). By Abel Chapman. (Gurney and Jackson. 218.) AMONG Mr. Chapman's friends and schoolfellows was F. C. Selous, one of the most ardent naturalists and youngest...

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A Woman of the Tudor Age

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A Woman of the Tudor Age. By Lady Cecilio Goff. (John Murray. 18s.) LADY Ceeilie Goff has collected under the title A Woman of the Tudor Age, an immense amount of interesting...

A Friend of Cardinal Manning

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Memoir of J. E. C. Bodley. By Shane Leslie. (Jonathan • Cape. 15s.) JOHN EDWARD COURTENAY BODLEY is chiefly known to the literary world as the author of Modern France, and as...

THE SPECTATOR.

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Before going abroad or away from home readers are advised to place an order for the SPECTATOR. The journal will be forwarded to any address at the following rates :- One Month...

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THE TRADER'S WIFE. By Jean Kenyon Mackenzie. (Hodder and Stoughton.

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6s.)—This appears to be Miss Mackenzie's first book, but if it is it must be the fruit of much writing and burning of what was written by the author, for the artistic method...

THE ISLE OF DREAMES. By H. F. Birkett. * (Hutchin- son.

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7s. 6d.)—In this book Mr. Birkett continues his chron- icles of the North-country town of Overton. The parochial self-satisfactions of others are seldom endearing, and, though...

Fiction

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Three Visitors A Childhood. By Hans Carossa. (Seeker. 6s.) Da. CAROSSA very properly entitles his book A Childhood (Eine Kindheit), since it has not—as a whole—the universal...

Report of the New Year Resolutions Competition

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WE offered a prize for the best New Year Resolutions for eight of the following members of the public :—The Prime Minister, The Home Secretary, The Chancellor of the Exchequer,...

General Knowledge Questions

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Oen weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Mrs. P. R. Green, .I.P., 17 Beverley Road, Colchester, for the following :-...

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More Books of the Week

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(Continued from page 20.) Captain Fergusson was a brave and gallant gentleman, who was murdered in 1927 by the Nuer, over whom for years he had had the sole-administrative...

Mr. Samuel McKechnie's The Romance of the Civil Service (Sampson

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Low, 6s.) is a sort of guide to the various branches of our bureaucracy and government institutions—to their architecture, • historical development and present-day . duties. The...

In Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals (Harrap, 21s.)

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Dr. Ramsay Smith puts Australian culture yet one more volume further away from permanent extinction. The myths and legends which he has here collected will appeal to the...

Few poets nowadays have the patience to write odes, and

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fewer still get them printed. But Mr. Theodore Edward Jones, who has produced an ode on St. Asaph Tower, is actuated by a very definite and worthy. purpose. He tells the story...

Mr. T. D. Kendrick observes in his preface to A

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History of the Vikings (Methuen, 18s.), that there is in English no sub- stantive history which covers the whole extent of the activities of those daring robbers, merchantmen...

The editor, Mr. Gerald F. Sayers, and the Tanganyika Government

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are to be congratulated on the, publication of The Handbook of Tanganyika (Macmillan, - 10s.). This is a volume of over 600 pages, well illustrated and more than usually well...

It is well known that -in the early Middle Ages

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the. tithes of many, parishes. were . ppropriated, by local magnates and, with Papal sanction, to monastic houses. Bishops made it their business to see that the parish churches...

The publishers observe about Mr. S. Guy Endore's Casanova (Routledge,

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15s.) that it is " the first biography " of that interesting rogue and amorist " for a considerable time." In American it may be ; but in English our feeling is that a life of...

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THE POLITICAL FACTOR.

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Dealing with these points in their reverse order, I think it should be frankly recognized that among the many causes contributing to depression and lack of confidence during the...

It is refreshing in these days of mechanistic theories of

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the mind to come across an author who seeks to rehabilitate the view that intelligence is a special, innate faculty of life. In The Psychology of Intelligence and Will (Regan...

MONETARY INFLUENCES. .

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A little •consideration, however, will show that most of the unfavourable influences enumerated have combined to reduce the demands for accommodation whether fOr the purpose of...

Finance—Public & Private Outlook for the New Year I'm: City

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has buried the past year without lamentations though any feelings of relief which may have been experienced at the thought of its conclusion were restrained by a recognition of...

The Buried Life of Deirdre, by Eva Gore-Booth (Longmans, Green,

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21s.), was written in 1908. The theme of the play is the working out of the sins of a past life, knowledge of which is granted to Deirdre in her most famous incarnation, in...

DOMESTIC POLITICS.

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- With regard to domestic politics, it is easier perhaps to discern the possibilities of the situation. The position is one which certainly suggests continued unsettlement, at...

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Financial Notes

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INVESTMENT STOCKS FIRM. Ai:mot:Gil there was less than the usual end-of-the-year optimism in the stock markets this week, the tone on the whole was a little more cheerful than...

Answers to Questions on Words

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1. Newt, nonce, nickname.-2. Auger, apron, umpire, adder- 3. Restive (originally, inert).-4. Bent, from one Banting, who invented the process, 1864.-5. Amen, ally.-6. Double...

SULPHIDE CORPORATION.

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Thanks to the conservative policy adopted for some years by the Sulphide Corporation, the directors are now able to produce a sound balance-sheet, albeit the net profit for the...

INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES.

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It is along this line of reasoning that we can, perhaps, best get an inkling of the likely course of money rates (hiring the present year. Here I think the principal keys to the...

OUTLOOK FOR SECURITIES.

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At the end of last year the Federal Reserve Bank in New York reduced its Official Discount rate from 21 to 2 per cent., and the Clearing Banks in that city brought down n :...