A S the date of the San Francisco Conference approaches the necessity for realising how disastrous anything like failure would be increases. There is, indeed, no reason to...

T HE report of the Technical Advisory Committee on coal- mining, appointed by the Minister of Fuel last September, provides the solid basis of fact without which there can be no...

1 N the various obituaries of Mr. (for he will live as Mr.) Lloyd George there has been a little too much suggestion that the whole social reform zeal of the 1905-1910 Cabinet...

By STRATEGICUS A LTHOUGH thz veil of secrecy has been lifted slightly, it is still impossible to gather more than the main tendencies of the present phase of the war. Indeed, a...

By F. A. HAYEK W ITI-I Russian armies at the gates of Vienna the future of Austria becomes an urgent issue. So little is known about many of the factors which will determine...

By ALFRED C. BOSSOM, M.P. from it, was some L750,000,000, but only about 3o per cent. of energy in the coal consumed during this period was actua:ly made available for use—the...

By HELEN BENTIVICH COVE us the Beveridge Plan and decent education, and the country will be all right." Over and over again, during the last two years, this, or something...

By SIR FRANCIS WYLIE * " to each of the present States and territories of the United States of North America." At that date there were forty-five States in the Union and five...

133. HAROLD NICOLSON HAVE been reading with a sympathetic, but not with an I uncritical, eye the numerous tributes which during the last ten days have been paid to David Lloyd...

Hindemith's "Ludus Tonalis " LAST week Mr. Noel Mewton-Wood, the young Australian pianist,- gave the larger public of the National Gallery concerts the oppor- t u nity of...

THE CINEMA INCLUDED in a recent programme of the London Film Institute Society were Berthold Bartosch's L'Idee, Basil Wright's Song of Ceylon, and The-Strange Adventure of...

ONE can at last anticipate, without stretching the imagination, the pleasure of revisiting the great national collections, and the delight of seeing those masterpieces secreted...

Mr. Hudson's economics only hold good if we retain our existing faulty monetary system and out-of-date idea that no one is entitled to an income unless he does paid work. Under...

Gilbert Murray takes on the whole a favourable view of the Yalta formula on voting in the future Council of what he calls the New League. Nevertheless I submit that there are...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SIR,—Under Clause 23 of the new rules arising out of the Education Act passed earlier this year it is being enacted that, in future, no cleric may teach...

SIR,—I read with great interest and satisfaction Mr. J. D. Jenkins's letter of October 16th, 1944, published in your paper of November loth, 1944. This letter is almost very...

• your issue of March 23rd you published a letter of mine in which I drew attention to the very remarkable achievements of the Netherlands State mines compared with our own...

to great pains ...to show what price the country may be required to pay if a policy designed to ensure a prosperous agricultural community is adopted, but he says nothing about...

Sum,—If the basic 'scales compiled by the Burnham Committee were the last word, everyone would agree with the criticisms of its work contained in the last paragraph but one of...

SIR,—I read with great interest Sir Arthur Salter's fine tribute to "L. G." But when he writes, "To Asquith as well as to him (L. G.) is due credit for Old Age Pensions," Sir...

SIR,—" Janus " clearly places Earl Lloyd George below the level of Mr Churchill. May I submit considerations leading to an opposite view? Our present Prime Minister came into...

IN a paddock adjoining an old homestead in the Home Counties a great host of Lent lilies have flourished, perhaps for centuries. This 'year scarcely a flower is to be seen, and...

The Hero in History. By Sidney Hook. (Seeker and Warburg. 8s. 6d.) I' HAVE always been interested in the great man and his role in history. I am also interested in the relation...

Plain Speaking INVECTIVE is a form of comment or description which is generally intended for an audience or person incapable of appreciating satire, and (in its more elementary...

War in the Far East (Scribners. 10s. 6d.) Shanghai Harvest. By Rhodes Farmer. (Museum Press. 15s.) Beyond the Burma Road. By Alan Houghton Brodrick. (Hutchinson. 16s.) IT has...

Witchcraft in England. By Christina Hole. (Batsford. 21s.) PEOPLE can only believe passionately in a personal devil so long as they believe passionately in a personal God. The...

Country Planning. By C. S. Crwin. (Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d.) " COUNTRY PLANNING " is described in its sub-title as " A Study of Rural Problems." It is more than this :...

I Am Lazarus. By Anna Kavan. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) Crilley and Other Stories. By James Hanley. (Nicholson and Watson. 7s. 6d.) Interim. By R. C. Hutchinson. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.) Green...

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 17th. Envelopes...

SOLUTION ON APRIL 20th The winner of Crossword No. 315 is G. E. ROXBURGH, Esq., 22, Warriston Avenue, Edinburgh.'

IN a recent issue of a Sunday newspaper Mr. W. A. Foyle, the book- seller, wrote a letter stating that in the last forty years his firm has despatched millions of parcels and...

Why You Should be a Socialist. By John Strachey. (Gollancz. 2s. 6d.) A Boot which is scarcely worthy of so able a writer as Mr. Strachey. It was originally written aS a...

By CUSTOS IT is not easy to explain, but none the less a fact, that in recent weeks the attitude of investors towards the coming peace has been steadily growing more confident,...