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After Gandhi
The SpectatorA book written years ago on Mr. Gandhi was entitled "Naked Fakir." No disrespect was intended, and the description gains per- tinence in a week when not merely all India but all...
Persia's Turn
The SpectatorIt is Persia's misfortune to be large, weak, and full of oil. This means that she can never be left alone, but continues to be a source of suspicion between the Powers. The...
AGAINST INFLATION
The SpectatorF OR the Government to nave recognised, formally and in a White Paper, that positive action may have to be taken to stop the inflationary rise in incomes is an event whose...
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Theory and Practice in Germany
The SpectatorThe basic reality in Western Germany is that on Tuesday two and a half million people were on strike in protest against inadequate rations. This action did no good either to the...
Nationalisation and - the Nation
The SpectatorThe difference that arose in the House of Commons on Monday between the Minister of Transport and a number of private members regarding questions on the working of nationalised...
The Battle of Italy •
The SpectatorThe tacit struggle between East and West for the friendship of Italy has now reached a stage at which it is necessary to check the score. The Americans have scored with the...
The Palestine Commission
The SpectatorThe difference that has arisen at Lake Suocess between The United Nations Palestine Commission and the British Government is not surprising. When the British finally move out of...
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Horse Sense from the T.U.C.
The SpectatorA suspicion of Communist infiltration was traditionally supposed to have the same effect on British trade union leaders as a whiff of gunpowder on a cavalry charger. But the...
The Doctors' Vote
The SpectatorIf the speeches and resolutions at medical gatherings all over the country are a reliable index—as there is every reason to suppose they are—the plebiscite of the medical...
AT WESTMINSTER
The SpectatorT HE pre-war tradition that Friday was a parliamentary " off day " still lingers in these years of " streamlined " legislative activity. An adroit parliamentary manager may well...
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CHANGING PARLIAMENT
The SpectatorI N the light of the statement made by Viscount Addison in the House of Lords on Wednesday it is at least possible that by the time the next Parliament assembles not one but...
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When the New Yorker pronounces something to be good I
The Spectatorconclude that it is good. That goes (as the New Yorker would say) for MPF. The initials stand for Multi-Purpose Food, a compound based on soya bean but containing a good deal...
Is the battle for National Parks won after all? It
The Spectatorhas been a long enough battle in all conscience, but the Hobhouse Report, with its recommendations for a National Parks Commission, and local National Parks Committees to look...
Lord Baldwin's famous unsigned letter to The Times in 1917,
The Spectatorstating that he was handing a fifth of his fortune to the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been much quoted since his death. In an article on Lord Baldwin in the Cambridge Review...
I approached this paragraph in a spirit of deep concern.
The SpectatorSomeone had told me that my valued and respected colleague Harold Nicolson had used the term " blue print " wrong. That, fortunately, is only half true. What Mr. Nicolson did...
" The Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse Bill was read a
The Spectatorsecond time" said the daily papers on Tuesday, if indeed they said as much. You could hardly expect them to say more. Yet, as sometimes happens in measures of this kind, the...
A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
The SpectatorT HE restoration of harmony in the House of Lords on Wednesday was a brief, dignified and cordial proceeding. There was the usual excess of corporations over accommodation, and...
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REFORM OF THE LORDS
The SpectatorBy QUINTIN HOGG, M.P. IA ORD MELBOURNE is said always to have staved off the enthusiasm of Cabinet colleagues with an inopportune zeal for reform by the devastating question, "...
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MAHATMA GANDHI
The SpectatorBy SIR STANLEY REED, M.P. W ITH the tragic death of ,Mahatma Gandhi there passes the most arresting personality that has swept over the - vast mosaic of India for generations....
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CANON LAW-THEN AND NOW
The SpectatorBy PROFESSOR NORMAN SYKES* T HE beginning of the difficult task of revising its canon law by the Church of England through its convocations has excited as little interest as...
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GERMANS AT CAMBRIDGE
The SpectatorBy C. W. GUILLEBAUD• A NY Englishman or woman who is not devoid of either imagin- ation or human feeling must experience a sensation of inward discomfort at the sight of German...
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OCEAN WEATHER SHIPS
The SpectatorBy SIR NELSON JOHNSON• T HE public first heard of the ocean weather ships last summer when the Secretary of State for Air performed the ceremony of naming the ' Weather...
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ENCHANTMENT
The SpectatorBy J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. O NE afternoon last September I regained an old enchantment. For years I had been watching soccer, watching it breathlessly, tensely, passionately ;...
GANDHI: A BENGALI FOLK SONG
The SpectatorBy SATEYNDRA NATH DUTTA (translated by Annapurna Multherji) Oh you whimsical man, you are burning candles in broad day- light—and writing rubbish. In the streets crowds are...
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MARGINAL COMMENT
The SpectatorBy HAROLD NICOLSON L AST week, when discussing Mr. Bevin's parliamentary manner, I referred to the different habits of thinking which various in- dividuals adopt. I have been...
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CONTEMPORARY ARTS
The SpectatorTHE THEATRE THE news that an inspector from St. Petersburg is on his way— travelling, it is thought, incognito—to a small town in South Russia gravely perturbs the Mayor and...
MUSIC
The SpectatorTHE New Era Concert Society, a non-profit-making society founded in order to bring music of the highest order within the reach of everyone, gave its first concert on January...
THE CINEMA
The Spectator"L'Ange de la Nuit." (Academy.)—" Vice Versa." (Odeon.)— " Indian Summer." (Tivoli.) THREE very different types of film come under review this week ; sad French, mad English and...
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COUNTRY LIFE
The SpectatorARE our open and close seasons wisely and humanely designed? The Iluestion, which often occurs, is, of course, unanswerable, for the seasons vary by large margins. Last year...
ART
The SpectatorTins week I have seen exhibitions by a Sinhalese monk, a Parisian, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century water-colourists and a group of unknown youngsters. In such circumstances...
Scout Fires A most attractively illustrated card has been designed
The Spectatorfor Boy Scouts on the perennial subject of firewoods, and fires are given three divisions: kindling, quick and slow. The slow or continuous fire is the one which chiefly...
The Worst Weeds If a vote were taken for the
The Spectatormost offensive of weeds, that perennial " kex " (called by some ground elder, by some " the alder-weed," by some gout-weed, by some bishop's-weed and by learned botanists...
In the Garden
The SpectatorWith me snowdrops were out about mid-January, coinciding with the blossoms of the Algerian iris, and almost at the same date the hazel male catkins began to distribute pollen...
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THE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
The SpectatorSIR,—In arguments for and against the projected National Health Service there seems still to be an inadequate appreciation by the general public of the unique nature of the...
Strt,—In emphasising her plea for State medicine, Dr. Esther Carling
The Spectatoris somewhat unhappy in the choice of quotation, viz.: " Whate'er is best administered is best." It implies a coldness, a sense of fatalism ; conjures up the dangers of...
SLOW PROGRESS IN THE CARIBBEAN Sut,—There is a most excellent
The Spectatormiddle in your issue of January 30th, by W. J. Brown, M.P., entitled Jamaica Boss but also dealing generally with West Indian and Caribbean affairs. The acute and incisive...
LETTERS TO
The SpectatorTHE EDITOR WHEN BRITAIN FAILED StR,—In your issue of January 23rd Sir Geoffrey Whiskard remarks upon Mr. Gunther Stein's article Happy America in your issue of January 16th: "...
TH E
The SpectatorSPECTATOR SUBSCRIPTION RATES :— 52 weeks. 26 weeks d. £ s. d. Great Britain and Overseas by ordinary mail I 10 0 15 0 Air Mail to Members of the Forces in any part of the...
SIR,—Over the past eighteen months The Spectator has published comments
The Spectatoron the National Health Act. Always The Spectator has spoken in a lordly manner to the doctors. The doctors are to be good boys and are to sign on the dotted line, drawn up by...
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" THE RUGBY HEADMASTERSHIP "
The SpectatorSnt,—With reference to the letter in The Spectator of January 30th purporting to be signed by a Mr. A. Lattie, it will perhaps suffice to place this in its correct perspective...
PUBLICITY FOR THE CHURCH
The SpectatorSta,—As a member of the Church Assembly Publicity Commission, I was glad to read the comment on our report made by Janus and fully agree with his view that so-called religious...
REPORT FROM AMERICA
The SpectatorSIR,—Since, thanks to the courtesy of one of my English friends; I am now a regular subscriber to The Spectator, I should like to offer a word of congratulation to you on the...
THE PERPETUAL ADOLESCENT
The SpectatorStit,—I see that Mr. Harold Nicolson's too kind Marginal Comment on my book has been followed by two letters written to The Spectator. I have read the latter (Lord Antrim's),...
Sta,—Of course we all wish the new headmaster of Rugby
The Spectatorevery Success. But is there not a danger for all headmasters in the modern educational situation, with its multiplicity of forms and accessories, that they become so obsessed...
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HALF-TIME SCORE
The SpectatorStm,—Mr. Mallalieu's amusing reminiscences of Cup-tie football in your issue of January 30th contain an inaccuracy which I should like to correct. Describing the Cup Final of...
A QUESTION OF EXPRESSION
The SpectatorSnt,—Mr. Nicolson is, as all will agree, admirable as a rule in felicity of phrase. This week, however, he writes: " Lord Castlereagh, who with all his great lucidity of mind...
NOT ALL NEW
The SpectatorSm,—Let us be fair! Not all of the 2,909 Orders issued last year introduced new legislation. Many were made to correct errors or to add points overlooked in making the original...
SECOND CHAMBER REFORM
The SpectatorSIR,—You say the Conservatives' case for the reform of the Lords is weakened by the fact that they took no steps to do so while in power. Several attempts were made in 1932/33...
HUNGARY, 1848
The SpectatorSta,—As a constant reader of your paper I should highly appreciate your courtesy in publishing the following commentary on The Revolutions of 1848, giving some aspects of the...
WHO IS RICHER?
The SpectatorSta,—I have just read Honor Croome's Planners and Wages in your issue of January 16th. She argues that since miners and farm workers must be given, and are being given, a higher...
BOOKS FOR D.P. STUDENTS
The SpectatorStR,—I wonder if you would kindly consider making the fact known to your readers that any educational books they may have to spare would be extremely welcome to the Displaced...
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BOOKS OF THE DAY
The SpectatorCourrier Francais Literary Prizes (In the fifth of his surveys of current French literature M. Henri Martineau discusses the books which have won the winter's literary awards...
Decline and Fall
The SpectatorMR. TURNELL has already established himself as an acute and stimu- lating literary critic, and this book can only add to his reputation. He possesses in a rare degree the...
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Scholarship and Elegance
The SpectatorThe Harp of Aeolus and Other Essays. By Geoffrey Grigson. (Routledge. 15s.) OBSESSION with its historical or categorical meaning frequently mis- leads us, I think, with regard...
Anything Goes
The SpectatorTHERE is nothing like giving away a secret if you have a bigger one to hide. Messrs. Pearson and Kingsmill start right away with a chapter on how their book was written. Mr....
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• - Wife of Nicholas I
The SpectatorA Czarina's Story : A Memoir by the Wife of the Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Edited with an introduction and epilogue by Una Pope-Hennessy. (Nicholson and Watson. 8s. 6d.) THE...
The Music of Sibelius
The SpectatorTHIS is the third in the series of composite studies of individual composers edited by Professor Abraham. Tchaikovsky and Schubert (numbers i and 2) lent themselves more easily...
Fiction
The SpectatorLydia Summers. By L. Steni. (Falcon Press. 7s. 6d.) Asotrr eighteen years ago Mr. L. Steni published a remarkable, almost unnoticed, novel, with the odd title Prelude to a Rope...
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Shorter Notices CONSIDERING the richness and interest of the material
The Spectatorthere have been remarkably few books on Assyriology. The science is little more than a hundred years old ; we have had the notes and books of Rich and Layard, Gertrude Bell, T....
The Port of London. By John Herbert. (Collins. 5s.)
The SpectatorTHIS, the latest addition to " Britain in Pictures," is not among the most successful contributions to the series. Vital as the Thames is to the port the two are not the same...
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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 461
The Spectator,tt u _ A 14 N 0 M E.N T A E F L L E Witlu c' . 6 .!615 I L R I I C!1 lAir4 *11..,:e1K!S R A 0 siTIA Mim E R! I N' S I 0 2S L lEIR.1 A E IT wki A R KIE T ' SOLUTION ON...
" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 463
The Spectator[A 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 February 17th....
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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
The SpectatorBy CUSTOS THE' City's first reactions to the Government's White Paper on incomes, costs and prices were clearly shown in the behaviour of the Stock Exchange on Wednesday....