Early doubts as to whether the American Congress and people would live up to the destiny so surprisingly marked out for them by President Truman have not been stilled by the...

I T looks as though the fate of the Moscow Conference would re- main uncertain to the end, for the Russian attitude is always unpredictable and when Mr. Molotov is unexpectedly...

The death of King George of Greece after all the years of un- certainty and disturbance attending his broken tenure of the throne has produced something of a sense of...

One by one the high priests of industry deposit their readings of the auspices. First came the Government with the Economic Survey, then the T.U.C. and now the Federation of...

There are those who hold that the political difficulties of the United Nations can be faced with comparative equanimity, since the economic side of U.N.O. will soon be carrying...

The most likely date for a full-scale production crisis due to a shortage of coal lies in the period February-April, 1948, but that does not mean that the country is presented...

Those British people who pressed for and obtained permission to send part of their own rations to Germany, must have spared some more of their apparently unbounded sympathy for...

The debate in the House of Lords last week on the Government's part in setting up reconciliation machinery for dealing with divorce cases tended to emphasise the difficulties of...

A RATHER tired and travel-stained House of Commons has reached the short halting-place of the Easter Recess. But before snatching its short period of rest, it made Parliamentary...

One of the most refreshing contrasts between pre-war and post- war Britain—perhaps it is the only refreshing contrast—is the universal willingness to admit the importance of the...

T HE long-expected debate on the National Service Bill in the House of Commons this week was in some ways surprising. It was always clear that, with the Conservative Party...

result— a victory by ten lengths by a crew that was generally expected to be beaten—is so striking that a word of comment is still relevant. The critics seem to be uncertain...

VV " E do some things very badly. The opening of the exhibition of French tapestry at the Victoria and Albert Museum ought to have been a great occasion, for France has sent us...

Countryman will, almost incredibly, be a Countryman undirected by Mr. J. W. Robertson Scott. After founding The Countryman twenty years ago, putting into it not what he thought...

Tuesday evenings, as a temporary change from the Brains Trust — beginning on April 22nd. Very wisely, as I think, the B.B C. are starting with jus. new blood. The old firm...

together a varied and interesting assembly of old residents—M.P.s, Civil Servants, lawyers and many others, a few of the veterans going back to the days of the first warden,...

have for years been predicting disaster to this country from a falling birth-rate have assumed too readily that the birth-rate would go on falling for ever. It appears that, in...

and Abusage " has perhaps made me hypercritical (a reprehensible fault) ; or perhaps it has quickened my perception of strange English. At any rate, I observed on Sunday (in the...

Whether the current issue of The Practitioner (7s. 6d.), devoted as a special number to "Sex and its Disorders," has made that choice of subject with any reference to the...

By THE REV. GEORGE APPLETON T HE eagerly awaited general election due to take place in Burma on April 9th may be regarded as the culmination of a process of half-conscious,...

By MARC T. GREENE T RE labour troubles in Trinidad arise largely from the activities of a negro who bears the rather alarming name of Tubal Unit'. Buz Butler. Some years ago he...

By TREVOR I. WILLIAMS W E know that in proportion to her size Russia is spending more on scientific research than any other country in the world. Foreign scientists who have...

By SIR JOHN THORNE T HE ponouncement of February 20th stated the belief of His Majesty's Government that "British commercial and industrial interests in India can look forward...

By SIR ALEXANDER PATERSON S 0 the Glass House at Aldershot, the bogey of all British soldiers for many generations, is to go ; and there will be few who will regret the passing...

By S. H. WOOD E UROPE is sick ; and it is sick because ideologies are ousting religion from -the minds of men and women. The threat is not so much to creeds as to politics and...

By C. M. YONGE T HE Netherlands exist in parlous equilibrium with the sea against which the Hollanders have long waged defensive war- fare. From time to time they have taken...

By HAROLD NICOLSON W HEN I consider the varied functions which I have performed in life I am astonished that I have been so seldom offered bribes. There was an occasion many...

THERE were two ballet revivals last week, La Fête Etrange at Sadler's Wells and The Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden. For the first, Lennox Berkeley has orchestrated various...

THE THEATRE Othello." By William Shakespeare (Piccadilly). OF all the tragedies this is the most compact. There are no digressions, few irrelevancies and above all no...

The Other Love " (Empire).—" La Fille dPuisatier " (Rialto). • BARBARA STANWYCK is a screen actress of exceptional calibre. She clearly has an intellectual, perhaps even an...

THERE has been a good- deal of psychology about the programmes during the past week. This, I think, is a good thing, because the material of psychology—ideas thoughts, dreams...

of French tapestries which was first shown in Paris in the summer and autumn of last year is now to be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Our most grateful thanks are due...

SHANGHAI MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES SLR, —Sir John Thorne's remarks in ycur issue of March 21st on the prospective fate of British members of the Civil Service in India prompt me to...

last to write. Facit indignatio litteras. My daughter was studying at the Lausanne University when war broke out. She went immediately to an officially recognised nurses'...

Sta,—I have been much interested in the correspondence evoked by my article in your issue of March 14th. On the whole, your correspondents are in agreement with me, but Miss...

Sta,—With all due deference to the Regius Professor of Divinity in the University- of Cambridge, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who in this year of grace, 1947,...

" Criticism and Faith," in your issue of March 28th. "That conspiracy of silence which still closes the pulpits to any discussion of Biblical criticism" is absolutely true. Even...

published on March 21st. In our desire to be brief,. Sir Angus and I were not clear to each other. In the course of making three positive suggestions, I only showed inci-...

• SIR,—There are thousands of youths in this country, between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, who are anxious to go to sea as fishermen in the trawling industry. Apart from...

SIR, —The suggestion made by the Acting High Commissioner for South Africa, in reply to my letter to you of March 8th, that the case against the Rev. Michael Scott was adjourned...

Snt,—Mr. Attlee has announced that the Government intend to give priority to the production of coal-mining machinery. May I suggest that giving priority—whatever that vague...

John Ervine, are no doubt justified front their point of view in their complaints concerning a postal service that irsakes a profit of £36,000,000. With your permission I wish...

County societies in all parts of Britain are considering a number of queries put forward to them by a committee of the Ministry of Health. One of these concerns the "merits of...

Snt,—Apropos of the recent article in The Spectator about the tourist trade in England, I should like to suggest that Mr. Harold Nicolson be appointed Tourist-Controller, a post...

scientists and technicians to Russia, a recent issue of the Gottinger Universitinszeitung enlightens us somewhat on that subject. Many experts have already " accepted " the...

THREE swallows were seen at dose range over Port Meadow by Oxford on March 24, giving a good illustration of the influence of date over weather. The swallow has been taken as...

SIR, —Janus's comment in your issue of March 28th on the surprise of the Soviet delegation on finding a portrait of George Washington (a British traitor!) in the National...

Sta,—Agreed: cancel "luxury," institute "abundance."—Yours faithfully, LESLIE BUCKLE. Caton Lodge, Station Walk, Cottingham, E. Yorks.

One of the only generous allowances of food approved by the Govern- ment has been the grant of sugar for the bees. It has enabled the swarms to get through the winter with...

Easter in country villages is always the season of the most intensive activity. This Easter is likely to surpass all Easters within remembrance. Never in the records was such...

Sta,—It was interesting to read, in this issue of The Spectator, your remarks upon the mistaken use of the terms "Thumbs up" and "Thumbs down," for I had always fallen into the...

THESE last papers of Professor de Selincourt, collected by Miss Helen Darbishire, present, to use the editor's words, the character of their author's mind and the range of his...

Henry the Third King Henry III and The Lord Edward. By Sir Maurice Powicke. (Oxford University Press. Two volumes, 42s.) A HISTORIAN is seldom fortunate enough to get past his...

Usage and Abusage, A Guide to Good English. By Eric Partridge. (Hamish Hamilton. 15s.■ Usage and Abusage, A Guide to Good English. By Eric Partridge. (Hamish Hamilton. 15s.■ MR....

A sounau but even more a professional historian, Captain Cyril Falls "vas a good choice as the third occupant of the Chichele chair of the History of War at Oxford. His...

SINCE documents are a raw material of history, the safe way to review collections of them is to assume that the reader is a historian and proceed accordingly. This is a little...

IF we have an idea that America is a country of many actions and few thoughts we can hardly be blamed, since few periodicals manage to cross the Atlantic • but here at last,...

The Rich Woman. Anne _Meredith. (Faber and Faber. 9s. 6d.) Lift Up Your Gates. By Maura'Laverty. (Longmans. 8s. 6d.) • WHEN a reviewer receives, within a short period, no less...

The Smacksmen. By George Goldsmith Carter. (Constable. 9s. 6d.) The Smacksnien is virtually a " documentary " novel, a long, closely observed record of the tires of three...

is not a novel as the dust-jacket claims, and the note inside : "I have had experience in two progressive schools. The school described in this book is not a picture of either"...

Press. 25s.) THE issue by the Phaidon Press of a volume devoted to Giovanni Bellini is a matter for congratulation. The greatest Italian nature- poet and one of the supreme...

121C1131301111r1 P ° LIMMEIMMIS C rin CI 13 13 n El El 13_0_E4 A n EOM Ein E & o r4 M ri 13 13 MIIER El El ri IEJ3 MOE= E_C11121111 p ni 132E1 El 13 El mezzo Ele113 EA...

guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossw Yrd to be opened .fter twos m Tuesday week,, April 15th. Envelopes must be received not...

The Biography of Franz Kafka is being published by Secker and Warburg on April 24th. And it raises, by the way, a rather nice problem in literary ethics. When Kafka died in 1925...

By CUSTOS As I suspected, the gilt-edged market has succeeded—temporarily at least—in digging itself in on the 21 per cent. borrowing line. Nor is there any evidence that any...