Next week sees the second anniversary of the Nigerian invasion of Biafra. the event which marked the start of the bloodiest war on the face of the earth. It may also prove to be...

Good Lords, deliver us AUBERON WAUGH `What Parliament has done, Parliament can undo,' said Mr Callaghan, introducing his great Gerrymander Bill. So it can, of course. But...

Peace between the Republics MARC ULLMANN Paris—Tor me the war of the Republics is over.' This phrase which the new Prime Minister, M Chaban-Delmas, used in his speech to the...

Will the real Nixon stand up? JOHN GRAHAM Washington—The man who lives in the White House is called Richard Nixon. He is a very clever politician, skilled in the pol- itical...

Difficulties of a statesman MURRAY KEMPTON Newark, ru—The Federal Bureau of Inves- tigation turns out to have recorded every word uttered in the office of Samuel De...

Take it with a pinch of SALT LAURENCE MARTIN This may be a week to remember, for from Brussels come reports that multilateral con- sultations have begun with NATO on the sub-...

Too many teachers? RHODES BOYSON Dr Rhodes Boyson is headmaster of High- bury Grove School, a new London com- prehensive school for boys. This year will probably be...

J. W. M. THOMPSON One thing I admire the Welsh for at the moment is the thoroughness with which they have proved Doctor Johnson wrong about their country. 'Wales is so little...

The yahoo effect A. E. DYSON On a recent Man Alive programme, Mr Quintin Hogg was confronted across the 'generation gap' with some young people, and the gap mysteriously...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Equal pay for equal plug, Is a man then but a mug? It's natural there's a how-d'you-do About the Lucas ladies' loo. Natural that we want our pay Because we...

Fade out? STUART HOOD Two weeks spent, here and in Germany, talking with officials of ARD (the German initials for the Association of Broadcasting Corporations which...

The row at the 'Telegraph' BILL GRUNDY Everybody knows that the Daily Telegraph is read by people who live in the suburbs, wear dark jackets, striped trousers and bowler hats,...

Public interest JOHN ROWAN WILSON The attitude of medical men towards the press had always been somewhat ambiva- lent, and has grown more so recently. As in so many intimate...

Car care LESLIE ADRIAN Though long ago bitten by Disney's love bug, I could never imagine myself owning a car called Herbie. All my cars have been named after Roman emperors,...

An old comedy revived DENIS BROGAN The election and installation of M Georges Pompidou as President of the Fifth Re- public has produced a great deal of non- sensical comment....

CAROLA OMAN Sir William Hamilton was not really much of a fellow. His letters to his precious nephew Charles are sometimes quite as disagreeable in their worldly wisdom as...

BRYAN WILSON Experiment at Berkeley Joseph Tussman (our 42s cloth. 15s paper) The big American university has some of the characteristics of a supermarket. Stu- dents shop...

TIBOR SZAMUELY An Economic History of the USSR Alec Nove (Allen Lane The Penguin Press 55s) Is there such a thing as an 'economic his- tory of the USSR"? If it exists then...

PAT BARR Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History H. E. Maude (oue 100s) This unusual and stimulating collection of essays is happily crammed with the real `stuff' of...

PATRICK ANDERSON The Journals of Claire Clairmont 1814- 1827 edited by Marion Kingston Stocking (Harvard/our 95s) In the summer of 1814 two young girls ran away from their home...

MARGARET DRABBLE Our Kate Catherine Cookson (Macdonald 25s) jean in the Morning Janet Sandison (Mac- millan 30s) Two northern childhoods at the beginning of the century: two...

BARRY COLE The Four-Gated City Doris Lessing (Mac- Gibbon and Kee 45s) Wounds Maureen Duffy (Hutchinson 25s) Doris Lessing's The Four-Gated City is the fifth and last volume of...

From the 'Speeral. 3 July 1869—Anybody want a kingdom all for himself, twice as big as the Isle of Wight, with hills as high as Skiddaw, timber. .esh-water streams, beautiful...

JOHN HIGGINS Elena Suliotis has been a shooting star of the 'sixties. After her first stage appearance at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1964, she soared. That debut was in a fairly...

The Web and the Rock Thomas Wolfe (Heinemann 63s). The third volume of Wolfe's giant disguised autobiography gives, like all his work, an impression of great but baffled energy....

Puppet master HILARY SPURLING The Cry of the People for Meat (Bread and Puppet Theatre at the Royal Court) The Last Chance Saloon (La Mama Troupe at the Arts) It is curious...

Magic man CLEMENT CRISP The Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais is just about the nicest thing that has hap- pened to dancing in Britain this year; it has dispelled that lingering...

Spirit of Mercy ROBERT CUSHMAN Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Hunzppe and Find True Happiness (Odeon, St. Martin's Lane, 'X') A film unit can hardly go into action...

PHILIDOR H. Ahues (1st prize, Die Schwalbe, 1965). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 445 (Pauly): R - B 11, A 1 K-Q 3; 2B-B 3!,K x R; 3...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Second thoughts about the Letter of Intent momentarily halted the Stock Exchange rally in equity shares but as I write the recovery in both government bonds...

All the winners JOHN BULL How well or badly have the unit trusts performed in this bear market? The strict arithmetic shows up a moderately encourag- ing record. By the end of...

Sir: It is refreshing to read an article in the SPECTATOR at last reflecting something of the realities of the present situation in Greece and avoiding the grosser pro- paganda...

From Kenneth Al!sop, Kenneth Young, P. A. Mackridge, S. G. Lawrence, George Chowdharay-Best, Professor H. C. Mc- Laren, Cmdr Robin Bousfield, RN, T. A. M. Jack. lolo Davies, L....

Sir: May I congratulate you on publishing Simon Raven's splendid article 'Eighty years on'. It is appalling to discover how few people are aware of the impending doom of the...

Sir: Is Sir Richard Acland (21 June) think- ing of W. B. Yeats's saying: 'Science is the religion of the suburbs'? T. A. M. lack Preston-next-Wingham, Canterbury, Kent

Sir: Re Sir Graham Sutton's letter (21 June): Welsh without mutations would be like Latin without case-endings--harder, not easier. Mutations are philologically and euphonically...

Sir: One must naturally feel honoured that such a distinguished personage as a King's scholar should find so much to criticise in a simple sentence of one's previous letter....

Sir: John Rowan Wilson (SPECTATOR, 14 June) poses the difficult question of using dispensers in African states postponing the establishment of university medical schools of the...

Sir: The 'counterblast' from the clergy (21 June) about Mr Kennedy's two articles is fundamentally unanimous and a strong expression of the Christian point of view. As an...

Sir: In his interesting review of Thomas Jones's Whitehall Diary (SPECTATOR. 21 June) Robert Skidelsky complains about the naughty habit of governments who see to it that...

Sir: 'But they [the rich nations] should not be asked to assume an open-ended moral indebtedness in areas over which they no longer exercise control,' writes John Rowan Wilson...

Sir: It's nice of Mr Brian Crozier to grit his teeth and try to find some virtue in my book about 'Portuguese' Guinea (21 June). But I fear I must ask you to print this short...

Sir: Please forgive me for this delay in writing to you about Sir Denis Brogan's re- view on 25 April of G. K. Chesterton's place in English literature, but I could not write to...

The danger in our midst FERDINAND MOUNT The shadow is dark and ever more menac- ing, not to say fraught with danger and disaster. We cannot lightly contemplate a continuing...

Sir: I must take issue with your correspon- dent, A. Walker (21 June), on the subject of Auberon Waugh's brilliant creation T. C. Skeffington-Lodge. So far from being `boring',...

Across 1 'Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night's black — to their preys do rouse' (Macbeth) (6) 4 In, I got in. That's just a way of reaching flash-point...

No. 560: Royal flush 'She is just a marvellous person and a wonderful mother . . . she has a marvel- lous sense of humour and is terribly sensible and wise . . .' Prince...