3 MARCH 1939

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T HE Palestine Conference is now threatened with collapse. The Government's proposals have at length been laid before the two delegations ; they are reported to include...

Poland and the Axis Count Ciano's visit to Warsaw this

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week has coincided with an outburst of popular feeling against Germany through- out Poland. Th.?. Italian Foreign Minister's purpose has been to impress once more on Colonel...

Mediterranean Tension Reports in the German and Italian Press of

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France's military preparations in Tunis read like a preliminary cam- paign which will usher in the crisis Signor Mussolini's demands on France are expected to provoke. The...

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The New Constitution in Malta.

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It is obviously only fair that the Maltese, who are without question the most loyally and sincerely British of the inhabitants of the Colonial Empire, should be granted some...

The U.S.A. and the League Brief reference was made here

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last week to the Note addressed by the State Department at Washington to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations regarding the collaboration of the United States in the...

Nazism in Hungary and Rumania Mistrust of Germany in Central

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Europe has increased since it became clear that to fulfil German demands in foreign policy it is necessary also to introduce totalitarian methods at home. The fate of...

A.R.P. Progress Sir John Anderson's comprehensive speech in the House

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of Commons on Wednesday constituted by general consent a valid and convincing vindication of his own administrative work. The disaster, as Mr. Herbert Morrison urged, is that...

Contacts with Russia The presence of the Prime Minister at

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the Russian Ambassador's reception on Wednesday was an interesting prelude to the forthcoming visit of the Secretary of the De- partment of Overseas Trade to Moscow. Mr. Hudson...

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Tuesday, when the debate on the recognition question was continued,

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was a day in the best Parliamentary tradition, and for the first time for some weeks Members went into the Lobbies after listening to two winding-up speeches that were effective...

Mr. Eden's position is now very interesting, and increas- ingly

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the subject of speculation. It is evident that he and his friends have been taken back into the fold. It remains to be seen whether the joy over one penitent will be given...

Sickness and Wages The decision of the Court of Appeal

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on Monday that an employee on a weekly wage who receives sickness benefit under National Health Insurance is also entitled to be paid wages under his contract of employment,...

Naval Estimates The naval estimates for 1939-1940 are the largest

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this country has ever known ; they emphasise the staggering scale which our rearmament has now assumed. The total of Liso,000,000 is £23,500,000 more than last year ; but the...

The Independence of the Press A valuable and instructive discussion,

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raising directly the question of the independence of the Press, and in par- ticular of the relation between editor and proprietors in the matter of the formulation of policy,...

The Week in Parliament Our 'Parliamentary Correspondent writes: There was

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a full house on Monday to hear Mr. Chamberlain make his statement on the recognition of General Franco. It was to be expected that the Opposition would protest, but the form of...

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SPAIN AND THE WORLD

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T HE best advice to anyone who still doubts whether the British Government should have recognised General Franco's administration in Spain is to read first Mr. Eden's speech on...

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THE GOVERNMENT AS BUSINESS PARTNER

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W HATEVER the outcome of the railways' demand for a square deal, the general public is now fully seized of the fact that the companies operate under imposed conditions which...

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This strange piece of news reaches me from Georgetown, British

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Guiana. I give it without comment, not being quite clear what comment is called for. " The Royal Commission arrived this week-end. The enquiry has already opened. One of the...

The Mein Kampf translation competition in America gets hotter. Two

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firms have .produced translations of the volume in full. One translation is authorised, which means that Herr Hitler will get his royalties on it ; the other is published...

The Government's opponents are entitled to derive some satisfaction, though

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not a great deal, from the results of the last two by-elections. The Holderness contest was com- plicated by four candidatures, but if the unofficial and official Conservatives...

I cannot refrain from reimporting from across the Atlantic a

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jewelled observation which the New Republic, of New York, has extracted from the Sphere, of London: " The Church of the Annunciation . . . is one of the sights of Nazareth, the...

* * * * More people, on both sides of

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the English Channel, read " Pertinax "—M. Andre Geraud—than agree with him. But he is always worth reading, and equally worth hearing, for he is an admirable speaker. At the...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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U NIVERSAL sympathy and good wishes will follow the retiring Spanish Ambassador in London, Don Pablo de Azcarate, into whatever walk of life he may determine to follow. He has...

• * Mr. Frank Pick's originally single-handed campaign against the

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design of the King George V Memorial to be erected at Westminster is developing into a crusade which the Memorial Committee cannot ignore. And since the Chairman of the...

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RUSSIA TODAY : I. INTERNAL

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By WALTER DURANTY [Mr. Duranty will write next week on Russia's foreign policy] Moscow, February 21st. T HE attitude and policies of the U.S.S.R. have been much influenced, if...

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ETHIOPIA IN 1939

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By GEORGE STEER I N Ethiopia today the philo-Fascist writer is welcomed. He travels at speed down the military roads, or con- quers the more intractable miles of the plateau in...

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AMERICA'S PURPOSE

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By ERWIN D. CANHAM Washington. W HAT, really, is American foreign policy after all the recent alarums in Washington and abroad? What does American public opinion think of this...

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THE FUTURE OF FARMING

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By SIR DANIEL HALL I N the two preceding articles in this series a plan has been outlined for an Africultural Commission charged with the acquisition of neglected land, which...

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FRANCE AND CATHOLICISM

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By D. R. GILLIE Paris, February 28th. T HIRTY-FIVE years ago it would have seemed absurd to recall France's old title " The eldest daughter of the Church." President Loubet...

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YOUTH WITHOUT WORK

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By WALTER OAKESHOTT T HOSE who have come into contact with numbers of unemployed men and women are aware most acutely of the unhappiness due to unemployment among the...

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IN AN INDIAN HAREM

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By SUZANNE MARIE A LTHOUGH most Indian Moslems are content with one wife, there are some who, with the sanction of the Koran, possess two, three, or even four, as the case...

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He was engaged by a famous film-magnate to write scenarios.

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He was offered an enormous salary and a hand- some maintenance allowance. He travelled to Hollywood. The weeks passed without Mr. Bromfield being called upon to make any...

I am impelled to these sad thoughts by a pamphlet

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which reached me this week from the United States of America. It is called England, A Dying Oligarchy; and is written, in a mood of serious anger, by Mr. Louis Bromfield. In his...

Having in this manner placed the Barons of Runnymede (or

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their disgraceful epigones) firmly in the saddle, Mr. Bromfield proceeds to accuse them of " the murder of the aged mother." The mother in question is not, as one might suppose,...

PEOPLE AND THINGS

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By HAROLD NICOLSON 0 NE of the interesting things about the Munich settle- ment is that it should have proved so unsettling. Even in our own temperate country friends still eye...

Mr. Bromfield, having abandoned the banks of the Nonette for

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the shores of Lake Erie, having left Senlis for Ohio, has become i to per cent. American. He accuses us of decadence, hypocrisy and cowardice. He claims that in no country of...

I confess that all this saeva indignatio puzzles me. Mr.

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Bromfield is by nature a charming and courteous man of letters. Why should this Munich business so distort human judgement and courtesy that it drives agreeable people to gibe...

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Cwilmmiwealth and Foreign

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BACKGROUND TO FRANCO By WING-COMMANDER A. W. H. JAMES, M.P. BEFORE July, 1936, few people in England took any interest in Spanish affairs. Today all Europe is wondering what...

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THE CINEMA

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" The Dawn Patrol." At Warner's. — " Persons in Hiding." and " Never Say Die." At the Plaza.—" Kentucky. ' At the New Gallery. THERE has been such a chorus of praise for...

STAGE AND SCREEN

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THE THEATRE Johnson Over Jordan." By J. B. Priestley. At the New Theatre.—La Cornedie Francaise. At the Savoy Theatre. JOHNSON was a clerk, who died at the age of fifty, a...

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COPPERNICUS, KANT, ROSENBERG

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[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten1 DIESE Zusammenstellung ist weder ein Witz noch eine boswil- lige Verleumdung. Die Verbindung von zwei weltberfilunten Weisen mit dem...

MUSIC

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" Das Land ohne Musik." IN the happy far-off days before Science had been degraded to the menial office of political propaganda, Whistler was able to say, with an air of...

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The Green Plover

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Why green? To those who see the bird only from a distance, strutting over ploughed land or indulging in displays of aerial acrobatics, its colour can never be anything but pure...

In the Garden The loveliest thing of the week—alas! not

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in my own garden—was undoubtedly a bed of the winter-flowering cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, a mass of dark soldanella leaves covered with hundreds of pink, magenta, and almost...

COUNTRY LIFE

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The Other England Those who are still wondering whether a long period of peace may not mean the same thing as a long period of undeclared war must also wonder whether there is...

Aristocratic Pelargonium

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It is a post-War fashion to scorn the bedding geranium, and with it the fuchsia and the zonal pelargonium. The fashion rests on a mistaken idea : that there is something wrong...

Caged Fox

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Two lady friends, midde-aged, intelligent, themselves passive supporters of fox-hunting, recently had an experience which has made them think again about that sport. Looking for...

Flowers and Mountains

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Apart from this placid and rather homely kind of country- side, extremely beautiful though it is, New England can offer a good deal more. The lakes with dreamy Indian names are...

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] • SIR,—Was it wise

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or necessary to publish the letter from "A German Landowner " in your issue of February 24th? Here we are, thousands of humble, well-disposed British citizens, doing our best to...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sut,—Having little admiration for

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Nazi methods, I welcome your publication of the letter " In Defence of Germany " rn last week's Spectator. The faint praise with which " A German Landowner " implicitly damns...

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SHOULD STATES BE UNSELFISH ?

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I might have felt some compunction in once more occupying your space with remarks of mine on this subject, were it not that in his last...

THE ADVERTISER AND THE PRESS [To the Editor of THE

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SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. F. P. Bishop's article and Mr. K. L. Bathurst's letter on this subject interested me greatly, and it may interest your readers to know that the influence...

LORD GORT IN EGYPT [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIR,—The British Press has maintained so discreet a silence about the purpose and results of Lord Gort's recent visit to the Near East that your readers may be interested in a...

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THE BISHOP OF LONDON

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sig,—There must be many readers of your journal, in the Home country and throughout the Empire, who would wish to be associated with the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIR,—I fear Mr. Tangye is misinformed about the reliability of the B.M.W.-Hornet engines. These engines are used on one of the most successful and perhaps the most reliable of...

AIRCRAFT SIMPLICITY

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—To Mr. Nigel Tangye's excellent article, " British and German Air-Power," of February 17th, might be added one more consideration of...

, 6 NO BILLETING " [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIRS I have recently received an unsolicited packet of litera- ture from the United Ratepayers' Advisory Association, ask- ing my support for their " No Billeting Campaign." I...

HERBERT SPENCER'S HOUSE

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. P. Morley Horder's letter does not suggest that he has ever seen the " dull " house which has just been demolished ; but for...

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIR,—If Mr. C. E. Vulliamy has aroused the hostility and disgust of canophilists by his revolutionary doctrine regard- ing dogs, he is in good company. After reading his...

CYNOMANIA

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—Correspondent Frances Bellerby has obviously sufficient wisdom to see usefulness in animals, but not enough of it for gratitude, but...

SETTLING THE JEWS

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In your issue of January 6th, Mr. Vladimir de Korostovetz states in a letter that, " For the last few years the world-renowned Joint...

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Germany's Second Recovery (M. J. Bonn) ... ... 356 Selected English Sermons (Canon Charles Smyth) ... 357 Foreigners Aren't Knaves (E. W. F. Tomlin) 358 Life Within Reason...

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LIGHT AND LEAVEN

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IT may be asserted without any fear of contradiction that there is no living Englishman better qualified to introduce a volume of this character than Dr. Hensley Henson. A good...

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LETTERS OF APPEASEMENT

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Foreigners Aren't Knaves. By Christopher Hollis. (Long- mans. 5s.) Foreigners Aren't Knaves is the third of Mr. Ho lls's books to deal with contemporary political problems, but...

THE LIBERALISM OF COMMON SENSE Tits is the beginning and

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debut of the Liberal Book Club, for whose members only this volume is stated to be published. Much can be said about Book Clubs, on this side or on that ; but that is a matter...

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AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

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Pursuit of Happiness : The Story of American Democracy. By Herbert Agar. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. r5s.) TAKING his title from the Declaration of Independence and contrasting,...

APPROACHES TO SHAKESPEARE

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THESE two books are complementary, and together they form a useful introduction to Shakespeare. Neither author quite achieves what he sets out to do, but both have written some...

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CONGRESS AND FEDERATION

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The Indian States and Federation. By M. K. Varadarajan. (Oxford University Press. I2s. 6d.) The Industrial Worker in India. By B. Shiva Rao. (Allen and Unwin. los. 6d.) THE...

INDIRECT RULE IN TANGANYIKA

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My Tanganyika Service and Some Nigeria. By Sir Donald Cameron. (Allen and Unwin. los. 6d.) THE publication of Sir Donald Cameron's book at the present time is opportune. Africa...

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THREE IRISHMEN

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DUBLIN is unique among cities in that she seems to possess the quality of inspiring no tedious hooks. She is the subject of Tumbling in the Hay and (with the author) of I Knock...

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FICTION

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By KATE O'BRIEN Goodbye to Berlin. By Christopher Isherwood. (The Hogarth Press. 7s. 6d.) Impromptu In Moribundia. By Patrick Hamilton. (Constable. 7s. 6c1.) THIS week's four...

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THE MARCH MAGAZINES

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The Nineteenth Century opens with a frank and interesting article by Mr. W. L. Burn on " The Future of the Conserva- tive Party." He thinks that " the orthodox of the party...

CURRENT LITERATURE

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THE TAYLORS OF ONGAR By Doris Mary Armitage Ann and Jane Taylor's great-great niece has put together a pleasant little book (Cambridge : Heifer los. 6d.) about those ladies...

THE NAZI SPY CONSPIRACY IN AMERICA By Leon G. Turrou

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and David G. Wittels Mr. Turrou was a G-Man who was set on the trail of the Nazi spies in America and, just before their trial, left the service to tell the story (Harrap, 8s....

ABBOTS BROMLEY By Marcia Alicia Rice

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Miss Rice's book (Shrewsbury : Wilding, 75. 6d.) is a good example of the parish history that combines scholarly re- search with intimate knowledge of the place and its local...

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THE SPECTATOR

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Financial Supplement No. 5 7 7 5 FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 1939

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Preventing a Trade Depression

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By ROY HARROD THE problem of conquering trade depression and unemploy- ment is overshadowed today by the problem of organising and financing national defence. Some comfort may...

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Banks Aim At Liquidity

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It says a good deal for the strength of the British banking system that in face of trade-recession and political events which caused a huge efflux of funds from the London money...

Page 41

An Improving Prospect for Investment

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AFTER a longish period of sitting on the fence one feels sorely tempted to descend from this uninspiring position when at long last the march of events seems to be towards...

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Life Assurance and Taxation

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LIFE assurance is a specially favoured means of savings, thanks to the rebate of income-tax which is allowed on the premiums. How great is this favour is perhaps not fully...

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Building Societies and War-Risks

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IF John Smith bought his house with money advanced by the X Building Society, out of money deposited with the Society by Thomas Robinson and his three million fellow...

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Who Are the Unit Trust Investors ?

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THE Unit Trust movement started from scratch in this country in 1931. In the eight years which have passed since then it has attracted an investment of very nearly Lioo,000,000....

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SOUTHERN RAILWAY PROSPECTS

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Listening to Mr. Holland-Martin's address to Southern Railway stockholders one could not help noticing a difference in atmosphere and outlook which distinguishes this meeting...

ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT YIELDS

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If one can judge from the results just disclosed by the English Electric Company, which, in spite of low selling prices, achieved a record profit last year, the electrical...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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HAVING been wrong in January, when prices plunged and Hitler failed to roar, the Stock Exchange now seems to be anxious to make up for lost time and money. Nobody would claim...

CAUTION AT EUSTON

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Having erred on the side of optimism a year ago, Lord Stamp seemed determined to sit on the fence at this year's meeting of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. He did...

LIVING ON CAPITAL ?

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My forecast that last year's adverse balance of payments would not differ materially from that of 1937 is now con- firmed by the Board of Trade estimates. Nobody pretends that...

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COMPANY MEETING

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LONDON MIDLAND AND SCOTTISH RAILWAY CO. CHARGES FOR MERCHANDISE TRAFFIC CLAIM OF COMPLETE EQUALITY WITH OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORT LORD STAMP ON THE " SQUARE DEAL" THE Sixteenth...

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FINANCIAL NOTES SELFRIDGE PROFITS FALL

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THE feeling of relief which followed the publication of the first financial results from the West End stores has not been strengthened by the Selfridge figures. Net profits of...

GALLAHER'S RECORD PROFTTS

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Whether or not financial crises stimulate the desire to smoky, the tobacco companies have produced very favourable result , . Gallaher, Limited, the Belfast company, earned a...

Venturers' Corner Speculative investors who do not mind going without

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income and exercising patience in the hope of reaping a capital profit might do worse, I think, than re-examine the position of the R.M. Realisation Company after the recent...

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COMPANY MEETING

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SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY INCREASE IN GROSS PASSENGER RECEIPTS MR. ROBERT HOLLAND-MARTIN ON CO-OPERATION THE sixteenth annual general meeting of the Southern Railway Co. was...

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PEARL ASSURANCE PROGRESS

The Spectator

The Pearl Assurance Company combines with life assurance the full range of fire, accident, motor and general business, but the company's accounts and the chairman's remarks on...

HALIFAX BUILDING SOCIETY

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Although the Halifax Building Society is much the largest building society in the world, accounting for about one-sixth of this country's building society investments, the trend...

THE SCOTTISH LIFE ASSURANCE CO., LTD.

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A YEAR OF STEADY PROGRESS His Grace the Duke of Atholl, K.T., presided at the annual meet- ing held on Friday, February 24th, in Edinburgh. In moving the adoption of the report...

SCOTTISH LIFE ASSURANCE

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The Scottish Life Assurance Company is taking steps to raise the premiums on some of its non-profit policies to slightly higher levels. In announcing this decision at the...

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THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 336 BY ZENO

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ACROSS 1. The right drink for the confirmed bachelor who marries? 9. Means of access beloved of childhood. (Two words.) 14. If I say I can make a sovereign remedy with this I...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 335

The Spectator

The winner of Crossword No. 335 is Mr. G. E. Bas , . Standard Bank of South Africa, to. Clement's Lane, E.C. 4.