T HE United Nations Committee on Palestine has added one more to the numerous schemes for the settlement of that unhappy country. In 1937 the Peel Commission proposed partition...

The part British rule and British troops in India have played for generations in holding communal feuds in India in check has been deplorably demonstrated in the last three...

Since it is not in the nature of economic problems that they can be solved by military gentlemen employing rush tactics, it is not surprising that the publication of the...

The American authorities could not have a more perfect lesson in the difficulties of international responsibility than they are now get- ting in Greece. They would like to have...

However surprising the fact may be to those American observers who have seen nothing more in recent events in Hungary than the sinister 'attempt to extend Russian power, the...

The coal problem was not solved by the coal crisis of February, 1947, and it should be clear enough that the dollar problem has not been solved by the dollar crisis of August,...

There is one item in last week's austerity programme regarding which the Government may reasonably be asked to think again. That is the abolition of the basic petrol ration. The...

It never seemed likely that the 16 European countries meeting in Paris to draw up a schedule of joint requirements and a plan for self- help would have an easy task, and now...

Of all the bodies qualified to pronounce on the economic situation the Federation of British Industries keeps most consistently to brass tacks. The recommendations in its latest...

Mr. Calwell, the Australian Minister of Immigration, when he said in Ottawa last week that those who remain in Britain were "only helping to starve and suffocate each other,"...

N O one will be disposed to under-rate the importance of the Trades Union Congress or of the discussions at its annual Conference at Southport this week. Politics and economics,...

England have been expressing themselves on the crisis, His Grace of York proposing that his Grace of Canterbury should invite the leaders of all political parties to a conclave...

to time, and I am glad to give hospitality to testimony in their favour, particularly when it comes from so experienced a witness as Sir Kenneth Clark. I don't think I have in...

seems to have caused some scandal. It was intentional. A little variety and a little breathlessness is sometimes salutary. JANUS. * Michael Joseph. 12s. 6d.

Have Known or its companion volumes, and I should consider it iconoclasm to throw doubt on their veracity myself. But Mr. Bergen Evans, an American writer who devotes his book,...

T HE brief visit of the party of American Congressmen to this country is very welcome, though nothing could be more lamentable than that it should synchronise with one - of the...

here when they have done their part in getting in the harvest (which we mani- festly ought not to), we ought at any rate to do what is possible to make the rest of their...

By ROY HARROD N August zoth it was decided to make sterling inconvertible, after a brief run of convertibility lasting 36 days. This decision was a momentous one, not only in...

By WILLIAM R. HUGHES T HE verdict of the Nuremberg trial declared that certain Nazi organisations were criminal in character and, further, that an individual member of any of...

By H. D. WALSTON But it is not enough to set targets. For the targets to be achieved materials must be made available to the farmer, and incen- tives must be adjusted so that...

By GUNTHER STEIN New York. T HE way most Americans look at the British crisis is that of well- meaning friends at a sick man's bedside who are so much pre- occupied with worries...

By LEN ORTZEN T HIS year's harvest in France is disastrously inferior to last year's—which was not sufficient for the needs of the country. To what extent will this lack of...

By W. RUSSELL BRAIN T 0 go to Stockholm and find Grock there is to receive a bonus from the gods. How many years have passed since this clown of genius last visited England?...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HIS perfect summer, which, from the middle of July until the end of August, has given us a succession of hot days and cloud- less nights, will to the...

at any rate, for the appearance of a new Cherubino: not simply a singer I had not heard before in the role, but a new solution of what is a perma- nent problem in all...

THE Copacabana, in case you are interested, is a genuine night club in Manhattan, and is listed in the New Yorker's comprehensive list of entertainments under the heading "Big...

IN the last two months there seems to have been a spate of nine- teenth-century overture recordings—Auber's Masaniello, Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict, Weber's Freischiitz,...

THE THEATRE The Chiltern Hundreds." By Douglas Home. (Vaudeville.) OFF and on during the performance of The Chiltern Hundreds I kept thinking of the brilliant triviality of...

No, do not speak of the wind, The blue, summer wind in the bay ; It has ghosted away, For the bell is a-toll on the hill, and the windows are blind. It's too late for the song,...

LAST week's programmes contained no fewer than eleven straight plays, and of course the usual serials and documentaries. That is an impressive output, and probably no one but a...

of the Conservative Party into imagining that, in the absence of a Liberal candidate, Liberal voters would all vote for the Conservative. Actually, out of every five, two would...

Sm,—The fundamental reason for the failure of the Liberal Party to play an effective part in the affairs of the nation is only too clearly demonstrated from your own columns...

ILLITERACY IN THE SERVICES Bellenger's forthright admission of the extent of the illiteracy among new intakes into the Army draws attention to the grave problems facing...

than his. Surely his attitude explains why we have so few Liberals in the House. Had all stood by their principles and voted Liberal and not Conservative (as many did), we...

sm,—may I join with your correspondent of last week in thanking you for the courageous and forthright article on football pool problems? It has indeed focused the spotlight on a...

"a recent worker (not by choice)" in a football pool firm which seems to me to be calculated to mislead your readers, who, no doubt, have little first- hand knowledge of pools...

Sm,—How sadly right is Mr. Nicolson in his criticism of English cooking. I despair of better things because, even if a cook uses his or her brain and imagination, the ordinary...

am writing this letter to explain the situation in which I and hundreds of others find themselves today. I am a Pole. After returning from a Russian war prison in January, 1942,...

the word Pakistan. I was Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court from 1934 to 1946. Among the judges of that Court there were and still are men of great learning. When I wished...

SIR, —The Master of the Temple's pen picture of the village church must have awakened old and tender memories among those of your readers who were born and bred in an English...

StR,—Mr. Brocklesby Davis suggests that the readers of The Spectator should not "take seriously" my "acrostic derivation of the word, which, incidentally, leaves out all...

StR,—My attention has been somewhat belatedly drawn by readers in Palestine to an article by Robin Maugham, which appeared in your issue of 9th May, 1947, entitled Syria and...

Snt,—Mr. Empson may well be one of those who created and perpetuate the hierarchical tenet that an Anglo-Indian is, and must remain, "a subordinate," and vice versa. Of those I...

A ffectionatgly Yours, Fanny, by Mr. Gibbs, some inaccuracies are noted in this book. I should like to correct a mis-statement also. Fanny Kemble's grandfather was not a...

SIR,—With reference to Mr. Gibbs's letter, in which he protests against " misrepresentations " in my review of his book, I have to point out that he is curiously and...

to write to you. Recently I had the opportunity of entertaining the pastor of a big Lutheran church, situated in one of the great industrial cities of America, and his wife....

Sitt,—May I enter a protest against the growing habit of misusing the word "few "? In one of your reviews recently I observed that the writer says of a book, "It contains quite...

It is an oddity of the season that in some districts hornets, generally regarded as rather rare insects, are more common than wasps. They seem also to be more fierce than their...

of the country, the desire for water has been universal. Among the more notable seekers have been the hive-bees. They have, for example, swarmed round a dripping exhaust pipe at...

Sut,—Windmills in Britain were formerly objects of considerable use and picturesquely illustrated a phase of our agricultural life which progress has made obsolete. But...

This thirst for water has astonished me, being no poultry expert, among the pullets. They drink repeatedly and with gusto, and will empty their small bowls several times a day_...

IN a quaint old volume—The Book of Days—I came upon a quotation from that famous sportsman Col. Hawker, which strongly urged the post- ponement of the shooting season from "The...

The dry heat has ripened seed more quickly and more thoroughly than is usual, and this year, if ever, it is worth while collecting it. Even annuals sown unduly late in the...

Stit,—In fairness to the Government in the matter of paper supplies to the Press, ought not the fact be recorded that, in one of the London morning papers, the headlines—not to...

Captain Holmes IN his old age, when he was America's Grand Old Man and not unconscious of it, justice Holmes was vigorously attacked (as a lawyer) by an ornament of a great law...

A Treatise on the Novel. By Robert Liddell. (Cape. 9s. 6d.) "UN ROMAN," said Stendhal, " est comme un archet, la caisse du violon qui rend les sons, c'est Fame du lecteur." The...

TRYING to discover the face of an unknown author seemed a virtually impossible task during the war years ; the normal facilities for research had been reduced, and enquiry soon...

The First Romantics. By Malcolm Elwin. (Macdonald. 15s.) "I' DO seriously believe,' wrote Coleridge in 1803, "that the chief cause of Wordsworth's and Southey's having been...

The Problem of Reducing Vulnerability to Atomic Bombs. By Anstey J. Coale. (Oxford University Press. 10s. bd.) Tins book was prepared under the direction of the Committee on...

THE most comprehensive study of Shelley ever published is announced by Seeker and Warburg for September nth. This new biography, in two very hefty volumes, is the work of the...

Tins omnibus volume is the latest in the series which began with Novels of Mystery from the Victorian Age, and one of the most entertaining. Mr. Powell has done us a service in...

By CUSTOS IN their touchy condition markets are no longer able to stand up ta bad news, and how else, but bad could one describe the tidings from the economic front this week?...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the fin: correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week - eptember 16th....

M ' ' i II; R R 5 _ RI ID Ci1-'43:k.fi, 110E ■ 1.! ,E ! r .JNyF AIR 122 SOLUTION ON SEPTEMBER 19th The winner of Crossword No. 439 is MRS. DEAN, Millhouse, North...