IF the speech delivered by M. Molotov to the Supreme Council of the U.S.S.R. on Tuesday was credited in advance in this country with an importance which, in the event, its...

Since Mr. Grew's outspoken and well-timed speech at Tokyo the Japanese Government seems to have become increasingly desirous to settle its differences, not only with America but...

Some of the changes which have been made in the per- sonnel of the Italian Cabinet are probably designed to strengthen Signor Mussolini's hold on all departments of the...

T UESDAY speeches seem slow in producing the desired results. Herr von Ribbentrop's oration at Danzig on Tuesday week was to have ended the period of quiescence. " Now,"...

The progress of the Neutrality Bill in the United States is very satisfactory. Rumours that the Senate was to embark on one of its interminable filibusters proved false, and the...

The Viceroy of India's conferences on Wednesday with Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of the Indian National Congress, and Mr. Jinnah, the Moslem leader, following...

It has become imperative that something should be done quickly about the children who remained or have returned to the evacuation areas, and are now without any kind of...

The arrival of representatives of the Dominions and of India to confer with the War Cabinet marks an important stage in the co-operation of the whole Empire in the war. Each of...

The references to Finland in M. Molotov's speech on Tuesday have aroused grave anxiety in Sweden no less than in Finland itself. M. Molotov chose the very moment when the...

Mr. W. S. Morrison announced in the House of Commons last Wednesday that no rationing of food will be applied immediately, but that butter and bacon will be rationed in the...

The problem of rates in London and other towns where many holders of business premises and houses have re- moved their furniture and gone away, is presenting serious...

Some of the Defence of the Realm Regulations issued by the Government on September 5th came in for severe criticism from all quarters of the House of Commons last Tuesday. There...

p REMATURE though it may seem for men to be concerning themselves with the post-War world before the war is well begun, it is in fact all to the good that the principles on...

T HE first instinct of the average civilised human being on reading the records of barbaric cruelty practised in German concentration camps is to dismiss them as incredible. But...

to the Air Ministry—the dust of whose doors he shook off after an unfortunate encounter with Lord Swinton, then Minister for Air, three years ago. Sir Kingsley Wood is to be...

and meaningless priority labels which they were so freely flaunting. But the plague of initials grows more acute. The correspondent of The Times who has drawn attention to...

moves by British Government de- partments to secret destinations, by no means always inaccurately, is rather disturbing. No doubt someone is looking into it. * * * *

re- duced to selling lavender." But where is your lavender? " " As a result of the war I am unable to get any." JANtis.

among us in the corning months than usual, for citizens of the United States are finding it extremely difficult to get permits to visit a belligerent country. Even the wives of...

Sir Arthur Salter in the House of Commons went totally un- reported in the daily Press I will reproduce it here. Sir Arthur recalled the names of the men responsible at the most...

German submarine discovered derelict on the Goodwin Sands last week with sixty dead inside her. How did she get there? How did the men die? The Admiralty no doubt has its...

" In the early stages of the war Germany loudly proclaimed that she was winning. As the progress of events belied such words, she changed her theme. The Allies could not win,...

By STRATEGICUS T HE tendency to depreciate force when it is not in violent application is almost universal, and it is inevitable. The German campaign in Poland made a much...

and other journals supplied to newsagents on the usual sale-or-return basis has now to be seriously restricted. Readers of The Spectator are therefore urged to place a regular...

By THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK [The next article in this series is by Sir Norman Angell] T HE discussion of war-aims, or the conditions upon which we would readily make peace, must...

By SIR STANLEY REED, M.P. N O one can have listened to the debate on Indian affairs in the House of Commons last week, or read the White Paper on India and the War, without...

By A. P. WADSWORTH T HE last week has seen much advance in straightening out the relations between organised labour and the Government's war machine. A national advisory...

By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Parts, October 26th. W AR inevitably brings thought-control in the shape of propaganda and censorship. In broad outline the French approach to this...

By PETER FLEMING S HRILL, staccato, but in London so pervasive that it is on the whole (like cicadas) rather soothing, the chitter- ing of the Stop-the-War Front makes itself...

By PAUL TAYLOR [The writer left Westminster School last term, at the age of eighteen] WAS staying with a Finnish family on an island in the I Archipelago outside Helsinki. We...

begins. The Emperor is entranced. He stands there hour after hour until dawn creeps over Champagne and the sun rises behind him. The first messages begin to come in. The enemy...

the perfect publishers. I have been publishing with them for nineteen years, and I shall go on publishing with them until I, or they, die. Other authors have not estab- lished...

representative of a Berlin newspaper to German head- quarters. He was an observant man, and it fascinated him to watch the relations between the Emperor, Hindenburg and...

the minutest detail. The drama opens in the little station of Avesnes, where we find the station-master and the chief of the police pacing up and down the platform awaiting the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I LIKE people to talk shop, and of all forms of shop I find publisher-shop the most agreeable. Publishers, like minor poets, are apt, as Wilde said, to put...

if you say so) is that there was no reason at all why Mr. William Heinemann should not have had his way. I can think of many people who would be delighted to receive a fee for...

Even while we are wondering at our birds we are some- times disposed to ask whether the blessing is unmixed. The starlings knock down and eat our best apples, the tits more...

" The Lion Has Wings." At the Leicester Square Theatre. A LION with wings would be no odder an exhibit than this documentary picture of the Royal Air Force constructed by Mr....

It is becoming the special habit of those connected with the preservation of birds to increase their funds for their laudable purposes by issuing a Christmas card. The British...

Reviving Crafts That a real revival of the village community in general and of the village craftsman in particular is expected, is apparent, thanks to the war, and if war can...

Swallows were gathered for migration on the East Coast in the third week of October. The ploughed-in mustard, coming into irrepressible flower, and the blades of newly-sown...

Sta,—The action of Russia in annexing and occupying the eastern part of Poland without any serious protest either from the Allies or from neutral countries has made the...

[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...

SIR, —On page 571 of your last week's number you rightly call attention to the gross neglect (by successive Governments) of the rabbit plague, which is responsible for the...

SIR,—I think that many of your readers will have read with astonishment your statement that " in the field of diplomatic warfare," as represented by our news and propaganda...

PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2s. and Li is. are offered for the best general knowledge papers of twelve short ques- tions. The questions should be accompanied by a list of...

SIR,—In an article published in your last issue reference is made to " the evacuation of the University of London and its constituent colleges." The erroneous impression which...

SIR,—Mr. Harold Nicolson, in his criticism of the British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe, has confused the Council membership with the list of the names of those who...

SIR,—In your Notes of the Week on the " Cost of a Soldier " you say " it is impossible to justify the meagre allowance of Is. a day for a fourth child—a sum which was contrasted...

SIR,—May a mere civilian, a man in the street, be allowed to demur to the tone of the closing parts in " Strategicus' " " The War Surveyed " in last week's Spectator? Is it not...

SIR,—Mr. Walter Shepherd's letter requires some reply. A search of the work of Pliny and Dioscorides did not reveal to me any passage which might lead to the inference that...

Law-Makers at Work THOSE who have read Mr. Jennings on Cabinet Government will open this book with high hopes ; they will not be dis- appointed. His touch is as light as his...

AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN entered the House of Commons as Member for East Worcestershire in 1892 at the age of 29. He obtained minor office in 1895, became Postmaster-General with a...

New Hope for Britain. By Olaf Stapledon. (Methuen. 5s.) " IT is a fact as patent as it is disquieting," writes Dr. Wing- field - Stratford, " that of late years the very notion...

BRIGADIER-GENERAL SPEARS deals in this book with the first four months of the year 1917, when the Allies had the chance of harvesting the fruits of the battle of the Somme and,...

Sanda Mala. By Maurice Collis. (Faber. 7s. 6d.) IN my experience of fiction-reviewing I do not think that until now I have found a new novel which I could commend to all...

My Uncle Silas. By H. E. Bates. (Jonathan Cape. ios. 6d.) MR. BATEs's Uncle Silas made his bow some five or six years ago—a crusty, tippling reprobate, devoted to his garden—in...

Among the Rhodesian copper producers, all of which end their financial years on June 3oth, much the most (Continued on page 632) FINANCE AND INVESTMENT (Continued from page...

By CUSTOS SOONER than most of us expected we are hack on a 2 per cent. Bank Rate, and the City is filled with whisperings of the coming loan-flotation. The Bank Rate move was,...

I see there is some support in the market for Ever Ready (Great Britain) 5s. ordinary shares around 25s. following the interim dividend statement. This company's financial year...

BOOKER BROS., McCONNELL CORENTYNE MERGER APPROVED AN extraordinary general meeting of Booker Bros., McConnell and Co., Ltd., was held on Monday, October 3oth, at 14, Trinity...

YOKOHAMA SPECIE BANK LIMITED Incorporated in Japan. Established 1880. Subscribed and Paid-up Capital • Yen 100,000,000 Reserve Fund - - - - „ 139,650,000 Head Office -...

were asked to give short reasons for their dislikes. Most of the entries received were clearly inspired by something approaching passion rather than any mere taste for pedantic...

SOLUTION NEXT WEEK The winner of Crossword No. 34 is Miss St. Mary's, Stevenage. D. Search,

IA prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first Correa solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...