4 NOVEMBER 1932

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News of the Week T HE French Disarmament plan, so far

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as its purport has been disclosed, is analysed by Lord Cecil on a later page, and more broadly discussed in a leading article. A closer examination will only be practicable when...

The State of Agriculture - The deputation that waited on

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the Prime Minister on Tuesday to lay before him the desperate state of British agriculture got no very complete satisfaction, but as much as could be hoped for in the...

OFFICES . : 99 Gower St., London, W.C. 1. Tel. : MUSEUM

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1721. Entered as second-class Mail Matter at the New York, N.Y. Post Office, Dec. 23rd, 1896. Postal subscription 30s. per annum, to any part of the world. Postage on this...

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A Tri-Cameral Parliament The article on another page, in which

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Lord Melehett outlines his ideas on an Economic Third Chamber of Parliament, is well calculated to form the starting- point of a fruitful discussion. On the value of mobilizing...

A Scottish Parliament ? The Scottish Home Rule movement, of

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whose progress details of some interest were given in the last issue of the Spectator, has now called forth an an,swering move- ment, championed by Scotsmen who, to quote their...

The German Elections The German situation is strangely paradoxical. A

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General Election takes place on Sunday, but the campaign, submerged as it has been by the general internal unrest, has made little stir at home and less abroad, and the result...

The Gold Find in Kenya.

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The gold find in Kenya raises other questions besides gold. The Kakarnega area where the discovery has been made appears to be part of the native reserves. Under what conditions...

** * • Trade With Russia The firm line taken

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by the Government on Lonl Mount Temple's motion in the House of Lords on Tuesday regarding trade with Russia is extremely satisfactory. Russia is the one great country of the...

Hunger-March Disorders , The so-called hunger marchers have been the

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indirect rather than the direct cause of considerable disorder in London three tithes in the past week, for the marchers themselves behaved for the most Part in a perfectly...

Page 3

The Cotton Peace Rejected The delegate meeting of the Cotton

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Spinners' Amalga- mation did their industry no good when they refused last Saturday to ratify the peace terms made by their leaders after many days of difficult negotiations....

Men and Machines Sir Harold Bowden, in The Times last

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week, called attention to the influence of the machine in displacing manual labour and thus creating unemployment. Professor Sargant Florence at once pointed out that the...

Tariffs and Trade A nation launching into the uncharted sea

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of Protection, whether it be Protection by tariffs or Protection by quotas, may have something to learn from exPerience painfully garnered elsewhere. From that point of view an...

The Outlook in Ireland The vote of censure to be

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moved by Mr. Cosgrave in the Irish Dail next week will result in plain speaking if it results in nothing else. It might quite well result in something else, namely, the fall of...

The Sunday Cinema The proposal to permit the opening of

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cinemas at 3.30 on Sunday .afternoons instead of at 6 o'clock on Sunday evenings only concerns London at the moment, but what London does any other arcs can do if it chooses....

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Peace or War?

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N EVER since the War has a British Government been faced with more important decisions in the international field than have to be taken in the next few weeks by Mr. MacDonald...

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The American Presidency N O matter how favourable the signs may

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appear to be in an American presidential campaign, it is never wise to predict the election of a Democratic candidate. The Republicans are the majority party. They have merely...

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It is never very easy to balance the gravity of

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a crime against the weight of penalty meted out to it, but I am bound to say the eight years' imprisonment inflicted on a man found in possession of a loaded revolver in...

I salute the new Ainerkan Spectator, whose first number has

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just reached these shores. It is a monthly literary paper and as odd ,a production, so far as format goes, as even America has given us yet. It appears as an eight-page sheet,...

The French proposal for the abolition of professional armies and

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the substitution of short-service conscript forces recalls a story of an episode in the Peace Conference discussions, as told me by a British officer concerned in it. Early in...

A Spectator's Notebook

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T HE talk prevalent in political circles about the Prime Minister's position and future is too persistent to be ignored. Mr. MacDonald is by general consent the pivot of the...

I have heard nothing but condemnation of the way the

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Great Powers fought at the League Assembly last month for the retention of the post of Under-Secretary-General, in order that each of them might be represented in the • higher...

Though the giant Cunarder still lies in the stocks at

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Clydeside, the race in luxury liners is being kept going well enough : Italy with the' Rex' and the 'Conte di Savoia,' and France with the ` Normandie,' which took the water...

Japan, I am rather surprisingly assured, tops the world—the United

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States included—in the production. of cinematograph films. If that is so, and I have no doubt it is, why do we never by any chance see a Japanese film in this country ?...

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The French Plan

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BY VISCOUNT CECIL OF CIIELWOOD. T HE new French disarmament plan has, so far, only been partially and fragmentarily disclosed. Any comments - on it, therefore, must . be...

DIRECT subscribers who are changing their addresses are asked to

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notify the SPECTATOR office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OF EACH WEEK. The previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be quoted.

Page 8

An Economic Third Chamber

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BY LORD MELCHETT T HERE is nothing new, and there is nothing at all revolutionary, in the proposal which I have put forward several times recently for a Supreme Economic...

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Russia As I Saw It

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By F. YEAM-BROWN. VI.—Autostroy O NE of my journalistic confreres was a Socialist of such advanced views that they seemed to me (although not to him) indistinguishable from...

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The Vogue of Bridge

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By HUBERT PHILLIPS T HE promulgation, this week, of new laws for Auction and Contract Bridge has received widespread publicity. The right to publish the official story was...

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Gold Bricklayers

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T HERE are certain trades not susceptible to progress ; static, because there is no need for their practitioners to keep up with the times. Their rules are clear and in-...

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Theatre

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"The Bear Dances." By F. L. Lucas. At the Garrick Theatre. "No dancing bear,” wrote Cowper Of Himself," was so genteel, Or half so &gage." And no writer on Russia, to...

Art

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A Sculptor's Water-colours. MR. FRANK DOBSON, on a holiday and confronted with landscape, seems -to forget entirely the fact that he is a sculptor and to approach trees, hills...

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Poetry

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The Keeper of the Ford THEIR helplessness was outstretched hands of prayer, Beseeching pity !—or gesture of despair ! Toward twilight's menace, fearful of their fate Asses...

A Hundred Years Ago

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THE " SPECTATOR," NOVEMBER 31w, 1832. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.—Economy is one of the chief duties of a State, as well as of an individual. It is not only a groat virtue in itself,...

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It is not known—or so I believe—which sort of woodpecker

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is responsible. That part of England is a favourite resort of the greater-spotted woodpecker ; and a good naturalist of the neighbourhood has made some curious discoveries about...

Perhaps the starling should be included. His hordes (though not

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his days) are to be numbered. Mr. Marples, of the zoological department of the University of Manchester, is attempting this winter to make a census of its chief roosts and...

The sins of the little owl have certainly been exaggerated

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and its good acts unrecognized. Compared with the carrion crow it is angelic. Mr. Gilbert, who is one of the most thorough and enterprising of the world's bird observers, is at...

The multiplication of the starlings—on the whole a very useful

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tribe—is fantastic ; but it is not due chiefly to the breeding of the birds in Britain. The winter visitors, which have multiplied universally within a generation, are, or may...

LOVERS OF BIRDS—AND EGGS.

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An almost savage attack on oologists is printed in the latest number of Bird Notes and News, the organ of the R.S.P.B. (82 Victoria Street). It is worth wide notice on many...

Perverted instincts in respect of food are not uncommon. We

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have examples both in the little owl and the grey squirrel. It has just been discovered that the little owl (which kills young birds in order to use their poor little bodies as...

The only theory that has been put forward is that

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the birds mistake the low hum of the wire for the note of an insect ! Now, some insects rejoice in telegraphic, if not in electric apparatus ; for the insulators on telegraph...

* * OUR WONDERFUL AUTUMN.

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Our autumn still in November keeps in touch with summer. Phlox is flowering freely above the primulas ; the bees are active ; several birds are in song and the hibernating...

Country Life

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THE WOODPECKERS' MISTAKE. A little curiosity of natural history which some naturalists were disposed to disbelieve—and belief was certainly hard —has been probed and tested...

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Letters to the Editor

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[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one. of our h‘ News of the Week" paragraphs.—Ed....

KENYA: IWO VIEWS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—A

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deputation is on its way from East Africa to protest against the introduction of an income tax. In Kenya, as 1 have seen on a recent visit, the method by which this protest is...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —In "News of

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the Week" (your issue of July 2nd) an unfair and misleading statement appears which calls for comment. It is a pity that it should appear in the Spectator: Lord Moyne points...

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PLEDGES TO INDIA

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I thank you for complying with the request contained • in my letter which appeared in your issue of October 29th. But may I point out...

THE PRESENT GENERATION

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Dame Edith Lyttelton in her admirable contribution to the discussion on the merits and demerits of the present generation, suggests that...

HOUSE-BUILDING AND ECONOMY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,The controversy which centres around spending and saving is many-sided. Nor is it perhaps so much a matter of unqualified yes or no as it...

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SIGNOR ORLANDO'S TEARS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Janus' note reminds me that on the morning of Sunday, April 20th, 1919, I saw Signor Orlando standing at one of the windows of President...

THE CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is a commonplace to say that a child who knows how to use books has an incalculable advantage over less well-equipped children. But...

LEGAL PHRASEOLOGY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The letter from Mr. Alfred Fellows in your issue of October 29th is on a subject of vital importance to the British public as it deals...

THE IRISH ARISTOCRACY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent, Mrs. Nelson Ward, resents my saying that the Irish aristocracy took hardly any—indeed, no interest in the people....

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INSTRUCTION IN THE AIMS OF THE LEAGUE -

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- [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR:1 is now nine years since Dame Edith Lyttelton pro. posed on behalf of the British Government and the Assembly of the League of Nations agreed...

"DISARM THE POLITICIAN FIRST"

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[To the Editor of the SericrAroa.1 Sta,—Why not one more international pact: a " Prevention of Politicians " pact ? The signatories of which wonld be pledged to deliver up to...

SIR BERNARD MALLET

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your readers will have read in their daily newspapers full accounts of Sir Bernard Mallet's official life as an admirable civil servant...

MAJOR yEATS-BROWN IN RUSSIA • - • [To the-Editor of

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the SPECTATORal SIR,—I have read with great interest Major Yeats-Browns articles on' Russia, which I had carefully preserved for me during my own absence from England on a...

A CLEAR CASE FOR ECONOMY.

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• [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sui, 7 --May . I support Dr. S. E. White's contention that the proposed hostels, apart from lunaey "adniinistratiori,. would prove to be a...

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* * * * In order that the Prime Minister's

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speech may be relayed from the Lord Mayor's Banquet, next Wednesday, only the first half of the B.B.C. Symphony Concert will be broadcast on the Daventry National wavelength....

A Radio Review

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THE special broadcast programmes for Armistice Day include a relay from the Cenotaph Service ; a broadcast of the Festival of Empire and Remembrance, presented by the British...

I could sometimes wish for the infusion of a little

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more red blood into the singing of the Wireless Singers. The recital they gave last Sunday was an instance of their lack. They have become so well-mannered in their singing that...

The " Spectator " Crossword No. 6

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By XANTH IPPE. 5. Bids. 1. The way in to charm. 13. Neat string compresses. 9. The cricketer's mortar- the carriage-dog--or is it covered. spirits. is electrical. 12. Zeal....

ITEMS TO WATCH FOR.

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Sunday : Robert Maitland-song recital (Daventry National, 5.30). Sir Henry Wood-Orchestral Concert (London and Midland' Regional, 9.5). Monday : John Drinkwater's "Bird in...

Mr. E. A. Harding, who, together with the B.B.C. Produc-

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tions Director, is responsible for "In Memoriam," is one of the most sanely adventurous of the producers and compilers 'of broadcast programmes now working at Broadcasting...

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The Modern Home

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The Perils of Architecture SOME months ago the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors announced a competition for the best 11,000 house—which sum was to include...

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Lawrence in Etruria

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Etruscan Places. By D. H. Lawrence. (Martin Seeker. EnE are dowsers, whose hazel wands will tremble, not only for water, but also for gold and bronze and iron, even for hones,_...

Modern Leisure and the Workman A N Y survey of

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urban leisure would seem to be hampered by lack of data, our knowledge of what people are doing or not doing with their spare time being only of a general and frag- mentary...

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Mustafa Kemal

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Grey Wolf : An Intimate Study of a Dictator. By H. C. Armstrong. (Arthur Barker. 9s.) Tnis is in all respects a remarkable book. The publishers are to be congratulated on...

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The Victorian Sunset

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Mn. WINGFIELD-STRATFORD, in his first volume on the apparently inexhaustible subject of the Victorian age, took us up to the year 1870. In this volume, The Victorian Sunset...

Italy's War Ministry

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Italy and the Great War : from Neutrality to Intervention. By Antonio. Salandra, Translated by Zoe Kendrick Pyne. (Arnold. 188.) THE true story of ItaIy's intervention in the...

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Kings and Near-Kings

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Talleyrand. By Duff Cooper. (Cape. 12s. 6d. ) THE Abbey of Bee in Normandy provides one of the more pleasant of the ironies of history. Its first abbot was Lanfranc, its second...

War Books

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WAR books may be divided into three classes. First there are those which make us live the thing, or live it again, with all its emotions and horrors, its swordlike thoughts, its...

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Sir Humphrey Gilbert

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Tun biographer who sets out to prove a paradox, but has not the art to persuade the reader against his will may be rather irritating. The reader is reminded all the time that...

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The Forty-Five

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Ma. WILKINSON'S portrait of the Young Pretender has the great merit of being a credible human one, and that, curiously enough, instead of pricking the romantic legend, merely...

The Common Reader

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The Common Reader. Second Series. By Virginia Woolf-, (Hogarth Press. 10s. 6d.) WHAT is the secret, We inevitably ask, as we close this Second Series of The common Reader, that...

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Anthony i Wood

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WHEN Anthony a Wood, the Oxford antiquarian, died In 1695 and left his books, manuscripts and pamphlets to the Ashmokan Museum, a colleague wrote : " This benefaction will not...

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Don't Miss

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Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. By Julia Strachey. (Hogarth Press. 5s.) DEATHS, funerals and marriages, the most harrowing events in life, tend to occur in the midst of the...

The Stricken Lute

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"I LOVE profane science for its grace and beauty," wrote Peter Abelard, "and of this slave—a captured stranger—I wish to make an Israelite." Such was the proud declaration...

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Holy Wisdom

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Cowley Calendar : With Some Words Chiefly from the Unpublished Retreat Addresses of Father Benson, S.S.J.E. Compiled by 0. T. Pulley, S.S.J.E. (Mowbray. 2s. ed.) Tins small rich...

- - Huinah Documents"

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Kamongo. By Homer W. Smith. (Cape. Ss.) 3s. a(1.) The Master-Light. By Gilbert Thomas. (Allen and Unwin. 5s.) THE first of these human documents is about lung-fish. Its...

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Fiction

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BY 1 A. G. STRONG. The Provincial Lady Goes Further. By E. M. De/afield. (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.) 7s. 6d.) My Bones Will Keep. By Maurice Richardson. (Collins. 7s. 6d.) Miss...

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GAIN. By Angus Buchanan. (Murray. 7s. 6d.)—The great open spaces

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(Canadian) with gold-digging, trapping, and sentimentalising as their chief industries. Good reading, for those who like it.

Mas. Jim. By Archibald Marshall. (Benn. 9d.)—Mr. Marshall has made

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a signal success of this new, short novel form. Mrs. Jim's troubles with the domineering Lady Calendar are very skilfully planned, and the matrimonial conclusions are such as...

MAGICAL INCENSE. By Francesca Claremont. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.)—A very good

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first novel about the three daughters of a country parson and their difficulties with the elder. and the younger generation. Setting and dialogue are admirably done.

The November Reviews Blackwood's, always readable from cover to cover,

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contai ns three particularly good articles. Mr. Desmond Young, in A Job on the French Coast," describes a difficult salvage of a cargo-vessel ashore amid rocks - near Ushant:...

WINGLESS TRIUMPH. By Daphne Motteram. (Murray. 7s. 6d.)—Vicar's daughters in

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fiction seem always to revolt from a loveless existence and hope for something better. Agatha is no exception, and she goes her scheduled way in a story as amiable and...

Further Fiction

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LirrLE COMFORT. By George Manning - Sanders. (Grayson. 7s. 6d.)—Mr. Manning-Sanders' rustic characters have individual and fantastic shape, not only physically but...

SMITH. By Warwick Deeping. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.)—Mr. Deep. lag has

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long known how to flatter his readers with a hero whose struggles and home life they can identify with their own—a decent, ordinary man facing fearful odds with a stiff upper...

ADOWN THE TIGRIS I WAS BORNE. By Shalimar. (Black- wood.

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7s. 6d.)—A collection of capital yarns. " Shalimar " has seen very active service both as soldier and sailor ;- his description of a retreat down the Tigris is perhaps the...

PAN'S PARISH. By Louise Redfield Peattie. (Methuen. 6s.)—Among Pan's parishioners

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were Father Boniface, a lost English lady, and a miraculous baby. This tale of Provence is slight and a little fantastic, but it is very pleasant to read.

THE BIUDGE TO POWER. By Ivan Morton. (Wishart. 7s. 6d.)

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—A tale of the Soviet, in which the English bridge-builder sees more clearly than any of the Russians how power over civilization is to be achieved. Intrigue, adventure, and...

VENUSBERG. By Anthony Powell. (Duckworth. 7s. 6d.)— A brilliant picture

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of diplomatic and less exalted society in a little Baltic State. Mr. Powell's dialogue and comments are crisp, shrewd, and satirical, and his second novel is a worthy successor...

TUDOR SUNSET. By Mrs. Wilfrid Ward. (Sheed and Ward. 7s.

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6d.)—Mrs. Ward approaches Elizabeth's reign with ample knowledge and interest, but her religious and patriotic pre- occupations are too heavy for her story, though it has many...

THE VALLEY. By Richard Macfarlane. (Hamilton. 7s. 6d.)— A - country

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doctor has revealed to him in dreams the secret of a new treatment which has extraordinary results. The world gets hold of his discovery, the villagers are demoralised, a...

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MOON IN SCORPIO. By Helen Granville-Barker. (Sidgwick and Jackson. 7s.

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6d.) Mrs. Granville-Barker contrasts two friends, one ageing, but still beautiful, and the other young, but plain, who are separated by their love for the same man. Her unerring...

• DEA'TH AND THE LOVER. By Hermann Hesse. (Jarrolds.

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6d.)—Herr Hesse's novel has excellent things in it, notably the descriptions of life in a mediaeval monastery. There, his lack of humour does not matter ; but when he comes to...

Page 38

Financial Notes

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INVESTMENTS IIALLYENG. THE influences operating upon the Stock Markets during the Past week have been of a varied and somewhat conflicting character. Under the influence of...

Finance—Public & Private

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Reducing the Debt Charge ASSUMING—and I believe I am safe in so doing—that before this article appears in print the latest-National Government Loan will have been fully...

IS TEE FALL LN THE SHAP.ES OVERDONE?

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Moreover, the directors state that as regards the current year, sales in Great Britain since June 30th last by the sa - sicliary companies are in excess of those during the...

" LUXURY " INVESTMENTS.

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The actual Profit and Loss account, which it should be noted covers a period from April 20th in last 'year to September 30th of this year, shows an income of only about...

The report recently issued of Electric and Musical Industries Limited

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is of a character which must .be occasioning Con- siderable anxiety to the shareholders, and it lends additional interest and importance to the forthcoming meeting on November...

IMPORTANT "SAVINGS."

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This latest Government Loan marks the consummation of progressive Debt conversion operations which have been going on throughout this year. Altogether about 12,500,000,000 in...

A REAL TRIUMPH.

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This great reduction in Debt charges undoubtedly marks a real triumph in British finance and its effects must be far-reaching. •- It is true that the rentier in some cases...

ABNORMAL CONDITIONS.

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At the same time, it is probable that in the case of this particular concern allowance has to be made not only for the reaction produced upon abnormally high profits by the con-...

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A GOOD PROFIT STATEMENT.

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The profit statement of Murex, Ltd., for the year ending June 30th last is a thoroughly satisfactory one, the - trading profit being £54,526, as compared with only 148,666 in...

B.A. AND PACIFIC MEETING.

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If only in view of the complex and difficult conditions pre- vailing in Argentina at the present time, special interest attaches to the statements made by some - of the Chairmen...

UNITED DAIRIES.

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At the recent annual meeting of United Dairies, the Chair- man and Managing Director, Mr. Joseph H. Maggs, made it clear to the shareholders that the more prosperous conditions...

A GOOD MOTOR REPORT.

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The latest report of the Standard Motor Company is a .good one and, whereas in the previous year a substantial profit was absorbed in reducing a debit balance from 1927 and...