4 APRIL 1931

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[Signed articles cto not necessarily represent the views of the

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SPECTATOR.]

Mr. Henderson then explained that having in mind the vital

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importance of calm preparations for the Disarma- ment Conference, he had joined with M. Briand in begging Germany and Austria not to go further until the Council of the League...

India Lord Irwin's policy has achieved in the past few

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days even more than could have been hoped. On Monday eight the Congress ratified with great enthusiasm the Delhi Pact—the result of the Irwin-Gandhi converse- tions. Last week,...

News of the Week

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Germany and Austria VER. IIENDEFtSON once more spoke for every political . 1 -TxParty when, in the House of Cornmoris on Monday, he described the policy of the Foreign Office in...

Unfortunately the Austro-German scheme was hatched Vith a secrecy which

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has inevitably caused suspicion, and for which Mr. Henderson very properly reproached Germany and Austria. Nor is that all. Suspicion is a diabolical bacillus at all times, but...

Mr. Henderson concluded from these rather ambiguous retorts that though

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both Germany and Austria were reluctant to bring their project before the League, neither of them really stood in the way. Clearly the League ought to decide. There is no other...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES : 99 Gower Street; London, W.C.1.—A

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Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on this...

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The radiant happiness with which Mr. Gandhi watched the enthusiasm

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of the Congress was a strange change from his dejection only a few days before, when he heard of the Hindu-Moslem outbreak at Cawnpore with its horrible story of massacre,...

America and the Law of Copyright The history of Anglo-American

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literary relations. which the President of Magdalen recently reviewed in the Sulgrave Manor Board lectures, presents a curious anomaly. When the writers of the last century...

Lord Irwin on the eve of his departure from India

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has made some memorable comments on the situation. At a farewell dinner given by the Chelmsford Club on Thursday, March 26th, he said that those who saw in the present stirring...

Then, turning to the Lahore executions, Lord Irwin said that

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the decision which rested upon him—that the executions should be carried out—would have been an intolerable responsibility if he had not been guided by definite principles....

Germany and the Nazis Germany has had a bad winter,

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and Dr. Brilning's Cabinet deserves credit for having considerably strengthened its position during the session of the Reichstag which ended last week—the second since the "...

Mr. Hoover's Troubles There are something like 300,000,000 bushels o f

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American wheat in the hands of the Federal Farm Board and on the conscience of the President. The Farm Board has declared that it will not speculate in 1931 crop, but proposes...

Senator Borah's plan of consigning the whole of the Board's

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vast holdings to China as a free gift may appeal to s-unialisks surfeited with the abstractions of economic theory, but is hardly practicable. America's wheat problem seems...

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The Grand National The Grand National was run last week

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in a cloud of dust : a tribute not often paid to the going at Aintree in March. Mr: C. R. Taylor's ' Grakle ' won a memorable race in " record " time from Gregalaeh,' with...

Mr. Healy Mr. Timothy Healy died last week at the

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age of seventy-five. He came to politics through journalism; achieved eminence as a lawyer, and ended a remarkable career as the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State....

* * * On March 27th General Burguete, the President

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of the Supreme Court of Military Justice, sent to the Press a long document of threefold significance. It explained the sentence recently pronounced in the signatories of the...

Lord Stamfordham At the moment of going to Press we

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hear of the death of . Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary. Be had seen more than fifty years of service in the Royal Household. He will be deeply regretted by all...

The SweepUtakes—and After SeverUl letterS to the Timei hive eXpreSed

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coneern--- 'which' we • sh l ire—about the effects of the 'Mike' Irish sweepstakes. In the days of Daniel O'Connell the Repealers in..Ireland used to hold what they called "...

Miss Margaret McMillan A mysticism as intense and fiery as

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Miss Margaret McMillan's is rare ; still rarer is the power she had of harnessing it to the public weal. She died last week, after giving her whole life to the service of...

The Consumers' Council Bill On Monday, the Consumers' Council Bill

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received its second reading in the House of Commons. The failure of the Food Council, it is said, has made the Bill necessary. We have always felt that the Food Council could...

* * * * Bank Rate 3 per. cent., changed

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from 34 per cent. on May 1st, 1980. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 194k ; on WCdnisday week, 104 ; a year ago, 108k. Funding Loan (4 per cent.)' was on Wednesday 911 '...

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The Australians and Default

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T HE decision of the Commonwealth Government to pay the £729,251 which was due in London on Wednesday to the bond-holders of the New South Wales loans had been confidently...

The Unionists Reunited

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I T is not at all surprising that the feud between the Empire Crusaders and the followers of Mr. Baldwin has been ended, for it was obvious to the smallest intelli- gence that...

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The Week in Parliament

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T HE main event of the week in Parliament was a statement by the Prime Minister on Monday, and it did not refer to this week at all. It was a statement that the Chancellor of...

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Arnold Bennett

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BY RICHARD JENNINGS. BE multitude of Arnold Bennett's friends who gathered in the Church of St. Clement Danes on Tuesday suffered a sensation even more poignant than is always...

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The Idea of God —I

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BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. [This article introduces a series on the Idea of God, by writers who have been chosen to express the living faith of the great religions of the...

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The Essentials of an Agricultural Policy —I

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By SIR HORACE PLUNKETT. Tin our issue of .August 01h, 1930, we wrote in support of Sir Horace Pluttkdes policy, as expressed in his letters to the ' Times." He has now kindly...

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Dean Donne

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[ob. MARCH 31ST, 1631.] BY ALAN PORTER. W E have travelled far from the days when a Dean could sin and proclaim his sins : clamour for God's mercy, yet challenge His...

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I P

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Sunday at Lambarene BY DR. ALBERT SCHWETTEER. [Since the publication of his book, On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, in which he wrote of his first years as a doctor in...

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Mr. John Masefield

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By AMICUS [The caricature of the Poet Laureate issued with this number of the Spectator brings to an end the series which we asked Mr. Max. Beerbohm to contribute for the...

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The open arms imply their opposite, the cold shoulder. Suppose

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a landowner whose property is on the edge of a growing town is not possessed of wealth in any way com- mensurate with the antiquity of his tenure. Suppose he sees in the...

WHAT IS PHENOLOGY ?

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Now I have pressed some of the leaders of this science to tell me of any one certain discovery of which their friends may boast on their behalf. They have always quoted the...

BLACKBIRD AND BLACKTHORN.

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Those engaging men of science, if theirs is a science, who call themselves phenologists, are making a special plea (through the B.B.C. and elsewhere) for exact data about...

GALLOPING SPRING.

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Spring has made good its handicap with rare speed. The first migrants were punctual, notably the wheatear. The Lent lilies are rather before their normal date and in glorioui...

It is very interesting to any student of English country

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life to see how the landowners are reacting, and are likely to react, to these light-hearted proposals that their property should be immediately scheduled for perennial...

Country Life

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VILLAGE VISITORS. " Our village " has received this week visits from two official persons, neither of whom was expected or altogether understood. Both were sign and symptom of...

* * * * The second visitor represented a movement

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that is startling, though very few are startled. He repreiented the town- planning branch of the Ministry of Health, which has powers that few countrymen appreciate. So have the...

CONTINUOUS FRUIT There is another group of men of science—whose

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home is near Wimbledon—who are saying very little about their researches : but some of their hopes were reported the other day by the able agricultural correspondent of the...

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Letters to the Editor

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[In view of the length of many of the letters which we receive, we would again remind correspondents that we often cannot give space for long letters and that short ones are...

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THE AUSTRO-GERMAN AGREEMENT

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Austro-German agreement is, I fear, likely to be a cause of European controversy. May I, therefore, invite attention to the...

RUSSIAN LABOUR

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I remind Mr. Wilden-Hart that it was I, and not Mr. Metcalf, who referred to the muscular weariness of certain Orthodox Bishops, and...

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Among the many evil consequences of the widespread press publicity provoked by Capital Punishment is its disas- trous effect upon young...

PRESENT-DAY SLAVERY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —In that small book of condensed agony, The Trader's Wife, a clear picture is presented, in a few words, of the attitude of mind which...

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin, —Professor Sloan's contention

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is delightfully simple, but reminds one of Huxley's contention that " those who refuse to go beyond fact seldom get as far." The Russian workers have reached the Happy Land....

THE ELGIN MARBLES

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Ste,—Will you grant me the courtesy of " one word more " ? Your editorial note seems to me to beg the question. There is no issue here between...

THE PULFORD STREET SITE

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I am anxious to treat criticism of my letter about the Pulford Street site coming from Mr. Rye with the respect due to himself and his...

TARIFFS AND A NATIONAL POLICY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—As a constant reader of the Spectator I noticed with great interest the article which appeared in a recent number entitled " Tariffs and a...

THE POST-WAR GENERATION AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Being a student of international affairs and belonging, moreover, to the post-War generation, I strongly feel the necessity of .protesting...

ELECTORAL REFORM

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—While the alteration of the present voting system is being discussed in Parliament, there are surely cognate matters that need...

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PIT PONIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Philip

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Gee suggests that the case of the lad who brutally killed a pit pony with a pick is an isolated instance. There were fifty instances of ill-treatment by drivers in 1929. In 1918...

THE CALL OF THE CHURCH [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I saw the following little poem in a paper many years ago, and kept it, as I thought it good. It was signed by I. Edgar Park : " A SCOTCH BLESSING. If after...

" SCOTTISH PLACE-NAMES " [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—Perhaps you will be gocd enough to allow me sufficient space to state briefly what I feel to be a grievance. I appreciate your reviewer's opinion of my Scottish Place-...

SCHOOLBOYS' CLOTHING [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sm,—In reply to the letter from "M. F. S.," the best nether garment for a schoolboy is, I think, a pair of shorts of light washable material, secured round the waist with...

PEACE THROUGH JUSTICE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sit,-

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—Your review of my new book Can War Bc Averted ? is so very kind that I hope you will not think me ungrateful if I ask permission to refer to a term in it which seems to Inc to...

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PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.

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The largest and handsomest trees in the North Riding of YorIcshire stand in the garden of the Hinderwell Vicarage. The North Riding County Council intend to cut down most of...

POINTS FROM LETTERS

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ONIONS FOR DIABETES. I have just seen the paragraph in your issue of March 7th, about diabetes and insulin. I have had this complaint for over ten years, and for nearly a year...

UNSIGHTLY TOMBSTONES.

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It is to be hoped that the General Council for the Preserva- tion of Churchyards, organized by the Church Assembly, will do something to prevent the erection of unsightly...

ORAL TELEGRAPH.

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It is proposed, by means of a small tube throughout the length of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, to convey information as quickly as in conversation. The length of the...

A NOISE ABATEMENT SOCIETY.

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New York has a successful Noise Abatement Committee. Paris is taking drastic steps - to reduce noise. Sooner or lathe Britain too will be driven to action. Following the...

Here in the Candlelight

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HERE in the candlelight and the silver's little gleam, While the last leaves fall without, as dead hopes might fall, I think of the slender, shining stream Poured by the...

"THE CANADIA_N BOAT SONG."

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Apropos to the question asked on page 460 of the Spectator for March 21st, for the author of "The Canadian Boat Song." I have an old book of bound songs which belonged to my...

Eves or WAR.

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One of the Paris papers calla upon the French Government to stop the further progress of the Austrians in Italy, on the irresistible ground that " the Austrians have already...

CDELsrjk OLD Cnurtmt.

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Is it possible for you, in your kindness, to allow me to tell readers of the Spectator of a danger that now threatens one of the most famous of the ancient parish churches of...

A Hundred Years Ago

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THE " SPECTATOR," APRIL 2ND, 1831. SUNDAY POLITICAL LECTURES. By the statute of 21 Geo ILL chap. 49, any place opened for public debate, on any subject whatsoever, upon...

MAGAZINES.

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- A new Magazine, named the Englishman's, has made its appear- ance this month. We are afraid the day for Magazines is gone by : it is a fornt of publication which does not...

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Health Services, English and Foreign

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International Studies on the Relation between the Private and Official Practice of Medicine. By Sir Arthur Newsholme. Vol. I. (Allen and Unwin. 168.) Health and Social...

The Critic : Edmund Gosse

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The Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse. By Evan Charteris. (Heinemann. 25s.) THE tale of Edmund Gosse as told by Mr. Evan Charteris is fascinating but all too short—(" Oh ! do...

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Tyrant or Martyr ?

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Strafford. By Lady Burghelere. 2 Vols. (Macmillan. 30s.) THE career of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. is one of the most dramatic in our history and well deserves the...

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The Way of Mary

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Prayer and its Psychology. By the Rev. Alexander Hodge, B.A., B.D., Ph.D. (S.P.C.K. 6s.) The Art of Mental Prayer. By the Rev. Bede Frost. (Philip Allan. 8s. 6c1.) IT is...

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Charles Reade

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Charles Reade. By Malcolm Elwin. (Jonathan Cape. 12s. 6d.) CHARLES READE came of a long line of unimportant country gentlemen, simple people, content with their pleasant way of...

The Circus-Going Public

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Circus Days and Circus Nights. By A. H. Kober. Translated by Claud W. Sykes. (Sampson Low. 12s. 6d.) DR. KOBER is enchanted by the glamour of the ring. The reek of the sawdust...

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The Spirit of the Chase

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From Surtees to Sassoon. By F. J. Harvey Darton. (Kennerley 6s.) IN the Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, as almost nowhere else in our literature, is the prime object of the...

Gramophone Records

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Taw Encyclopedia meets a very real need. It is a complete revision of the first edition, and contains lists of records made by all companies under the following heacruigs : 1....

Comme un Donjon des Demons

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TuE world, outside the Roman communion, does not probably know enough about the magnificent missionary enterprises of the Society of Jesus, and the bravest of these was the...

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Fiction

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Mr. Arlen and Others Charlotte's Row. By H. E. Bates. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) Imagine a Man in a Box. By H. Russell Wakefield. (Philip Allan. 7s. 6d.) The Free Trapper. By Frank B....

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ANTONY VANROY. By J. Chartres Molony. (Methuen. ; • 7s.

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6d.)—A pleasant Irish-Indian tale of love and advezi: tore, which can be read without any undue strain except on the reader's credulity. •

THE NINTH IMMORTAL. By F. Hadland Davis. (Eric Partridge. 7s.

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6d.)—Thirty tales of China and Japan, all exquisitely written, a few are pointed, but the majority are hardly worth the elaborate grace of their telling.

Some Books of the Week Tut: advent of the gramophone

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has given us a chance to compare the voices of singers who flourished in the first decade of this century with the voices since arisen ; but it came, alas, too late to record...

Mr. Charles Pears is an experienced amateur yachtsman who illustrates

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his own books. His narrative of a cruise from the Thames to Penzance, South Coast Cruising (Arnold. 12s. 6d.), has a double purpose. It can be read as a pleasant narrative which...

BURNT WHITE. By Fay Woods. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.)— A rather

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drab story about a dull and virtuous youth, who worked his way from a station kiosk to a Liverpool bank, and thence to Chancery Lane. He has one lapse; but, of course, " wins...

The superbly got-up. The Pegasus Book (Constable, 23s.). which Major

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W. E. Lyon edits, is horse-history for the year that is gone. Horse-history and also brief notes on such of the human race, at home and abroad, as ride or - drive, hunt or show,...

New Novels

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KOSTIA THE COSSACK. By P. N. Krassnoff. (Allen and Unwin. 12s. 6d.)—The Don Cossacks of the seventeenth century provide a fresh and vivid setting for a good adventure story of...

LENIN. By F. A. Ossendowski. (Constable. 7s. Some will think

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this " novelised biography " in question: able taste. Others may relish the antics of a Quilp-like monster labelled Lenin.

* *

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The life of a country postman has often caught the attention of novelist, essayist, and poet. Seen from outside (in pleasant weather), it looks attractive, with its open air,...

• * *

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" Among the few leaves of miscellaneous verse and prose which John Donne the younger added to the edition of his father's poems in 1650," writes Mrs. Simpson in her introduction...

KINLOCH-MOIDART'S DIRK. By Lord Sands. (Black- wood. 7s. 6d.)—A dozen

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Scottish tales based on history and legend. Lord Sands knows the art of using a severely matter-of-fact style to set off unusual occurrences.

General Knowledge Questions

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Oun weekly prize of one guinea for the best set of questions submitted is awarded this week to Miss E. M. Bancroft, 20 Maltese Road, Chelmsford, for the following: Questions on...

OUT OF THE DARK. By " Seamark." (Hodder and Stoughton.

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7s. 6d.)—A job lot of short stories of three continents and as many centuries by the most vigorous • and versatile of our minor Kiplings.

SALUTE TO CYRANO. By Paul Feval. (Longmans Green. 7s. 6d.)—Cyrano

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de Bergerac, the great D'Artagnan, "The Man in the Iron Mask," and Cardinal Mazarin all combine to make a gallant book. The story is full of sword-play, swagger and high...

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* * * *

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The unparalleled success of the Archbishop of York's recent Oxford mission gives a certain appositeness to the publication of Christ in University Life (Hodder and Stoughton,...

Der Staat Seid Ihr (Reckendorf Verlag, Berlin, 80 pf e„ every

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Monday), or, in English, Ye are the State, is the title of a new political weekly on entirely novel lines which appeared in Berlin this month, and of which great thing ' are...

Those who are fairly well acquainted with the Stuart period

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will find The English Revolution, by Mr. I. Deane Jones (Heinemann, 10s. 6d.), both stimulating and suggestive. It is a typical product of the Oxford historical school, in -...

Mr. Bertram Thomas has achieved fame by his daring journeys

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in South-East Arabia, including the first crossing of the great desert known as the " Empty Quarter." He is, too, an excellent writer, and no one who cares for true adventure...

Mr. J. R. -Bellerby, who has shown in earlier books

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an unusually dispassionate temper in dealing with economic questions ; attempts in A Contributive Society (Education " Services, 7s. 6d.) not merely to state the principles...

* • *

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It is not given to many Englishmen to understand the French spirit so intimately and sympathetically as does Mr. E. V. Lucas. To his previous writings on France he has now added...

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Travel

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U p Europe's Greatest Logging River win,: I awoke, the day seemed little brighter than the night o f a few hours earlier. I went on board with unnecessary punctuality. Two...

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Answers to Questions on Heroes, Emperors and Kings

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1. Phaeton, the son of Helios, the sun-god : he attempted tc drive his father's horses across the sky with disastrous results.— 2. To Cadmus, son of the King of Phoenicia and...

The Modern Home

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New Walls for Old " Bilir.Bus built a wall "—perhaps the most famous wall in Iffehiture ; but memory does not serve to tell me what he did with it next. Probably, since Latin...

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COMMONWEALTH RESPONSIBILITY.

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By or before the date of this article appearing in print it will be known whether or not New South Wales* has actually defaulted in its payment of the April interest, or...

Finance—Public & Private

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Repudiation Repudiated Tr is with some reluctance that I am returning to-day to the subject of Australian finance, for I have quite recently dealt at some length with the...

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Finance—Public and Private (Continued from page 561.) HOPEFUL VIEW.

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It is scarcely surprising, "therefore, in view of these undertakings by the Commonwealth Government, that the City should still be assuming that the New South Wales interest...

LESSONS FROM THE CRLSIS.

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There is, however, a lesson to be drawn from- the recent developments in Australia, which is so important and has so direct a bearing upon certain tendencies in this country...

COMING NEARER HOME.

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And all the time playing, as it were, into the hands of the spendthrift is the force known as political expe- diency, so that whether it is Australia or the Home Country it is...

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Imentum, CITEMICALS.

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I referred last week to the fact that, having regard to the general trade depression, the Annual Report of Imperial Chemical Industries was a satisfactory document. " At the...

Financial Notes CONFLICT ING INFLUENCES.

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TILE factors operating on the Stock Markets for the days immediately preceding the Easter holidays have been of a rather mixed character. The disquieting news from India and the...

VICKERS' POSITION.

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The impression to be derived from the able speech of General Sir Herbert Lawrence, the Chairman of Vickers Limited, at the meeting last Monday regarding the situation of the...

LOOKLNG ARE AD.

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With regard to the prospects for 1931, Sir Hairy McGowan was naturally disposed .tq be captious, though he was able to comment on the fact that the fall in the price level had •...

Scorrtstr AMICA.BLE.

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At the recent meeting of the Scottish Amicable Life Assur- ance Society the Chairman was able to show that the report revealed an increase of nearly £75,000 in new business...

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Merely because the centre portion of the design Iva accidentally

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printed upside down, a 4d. pictorial stamp o f New Zealand, worth in the ordinary way a shilling or two, brought £61 last week under the hammer. It is the only known example of...

Stamp Collecting Notes

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TILE month of April will bring three events of varying importance to philatelists, in London, Brighton and Parrs respectively. In celebration of the jubilee of one of the oldest...

CONDITIONS IN CHINA.

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As usual, the speech of the Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation at the recent annual meeting held in Hong Kong was of great interest, covering, as it did,...

Just now stamps associated with the aerial post are all

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the rage. For a letter carried on the first successf u l transatlantic flight by Sir John Alcock in June, 1919 , £70 was paid in a London auction room the other day, which is...

Recognizing the King's abiding interest in the stamps of his

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Empire, of which he owns the most valuable and compre- hensive collection extant, the Government of the Union of South Africa has recently prepared for His Majesty's accept-...

Even in stamps history has a habit of repeating itself.

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Some thirty-six years ago there was issued in Portugal a special set of stamps commemorative of the seventh cen- tenary of the birth, at Lisbon, of the Franciscan Saint Antony...