TOPICS OF THE DAY FRICA, the M.C.C. in it Afternoon Tea .. Air-Power, British and German Air-Raids and Nerves .. America, Home Truths from - her Railway Crisis .. - her Purpose...

P RESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S address to Congress on Wednesday may justly be termed a historic utterance, for it stated the issues facing the United States in the inter- national field...

his great offensive against Catalonia. The front stretches 70 miles from the foothills of the Pyrenees in the north, through the plain of Lerida in the centre, to the coastal...

and Tunis this week, M. Daladier; has been_ received, ,is might be expected, with intense enthusiasm. He was able to set out with a more peaczful mind since the French Budget,...

the administration of the League of Nations has, as was expected, decided to propose a cut of 20 per cent. in the League Budget. It could hardly have done otherwise. On the one...

be derived from the proposed increase in Germany's naval strength. The case is so completely covered by her naval agreements with Great Britain that her action has given no...

of the increasing ,strain of Japan's war with China. It is evident that war-needs call for a further militarisation of Japan's economy, on the lines of Admiral Suctsugu's plan...

issued showing the present position of the fund for the relief of Czech refugees which he opened in October when he was Lord Mayor of London, is a reminder of the magnitude of...

almost weekly. The television transmissions from Alexandra Park (officially limited to a thirty miles range) which were picked up in New York this week may as yet be only in the...

interesting questions. How far is it desirable that local parties should choose their own candidates ? What right has a party central office to send down to the constituencies"...

the Parliamentary Labour Party lies not merely in its tactics but in its personnel. Mt. Attlee indeed discharges the routine duties of Leader of the Opposition to the general...

represent a substantial fraction of the electorate, especially in the country districts, and a nation-wide organisation. They are therefore constrained, in spite of their...

National Opposition or Popular Front. But, by all accounts, the movement towards electoral co-operation is growing in the constituencies, particularly in the south and west. The...

by Sir Reginald Coventry at Worcester Quarter Sessions on Monday were reported at length, which is hardly a kindness to Sir Reginald, for they were not wise remarks. He " knew...

a disappointing year for both the Opposition parties. Their attacks upon the Government were frequently damaging, but somehow their own position was not strengthened thereby....

leading article in last Tuesday's Yorkshire Post, based in part on the article on " The Government and the Press " in last week's Spectator, the general question of the duty of...

B Y this time next week the Prime Minister's visit to Rome will be near its end. Mr. Chamberlain may be wise or unwise to make the journey. The prospects of a satisfactory issue...

T HE Spens Report on Secondary Education has been received with general approval. Indeed, there could hardly be any other immediate reaction to a document which, the fruit of...

in the Studio " is interesting on financial as well as artistic grounds. The picture was the property of the Czernin family and hung in Vienna. As to its value, I read that "...

of the relation between advertisers in daily papers and editorial policy is mentioned in the World's Press News. Plans for a £5o,000 advertising plan for the radio industry were...

T HE " New Party " meeting at the Caxton Hall on Wednesday evening was by all accounts something between a disaster and a farce, and the new party may, I imagine, be written off...

1 939." Publisher's Announcement.- - . Publisher's Announcement.- - . Even if we have to buy =up the last 9op0cv ourselves, presumably. , . Jams.

what are quite clearly matters of fact, not opinion, established and accepted. Interested in some recent remarks on the connexion between garrotting and flogging, I consulted...

holding himself out as being prepared to practise, dentistry, renders himself liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding Ltoo ; that is as it should be. A - Czech refugee,...

Who's Who suggest that what they call a more drastic rationalising, and what I should call (with great respect) a more rational editing of that indispensable volume " would...

By SIR ALFRED ZIMMERN [This is the first of a series of six articles on the problems that face the constituent parts of the British Commonwealth today. In next week's SPECTATOR...

By Dr. TERRY THOMAS (Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School) T HE long-awaited Report of the Consultative Com- mittee has arrived. After an expenditure of five years of patient...

By DR. W. B. SELBIE I N the year 1563, a fateful and troublesome time in our island story, the then Speaker of the House of Commons addressed Queen Elizabeth in these words : "...

By D. R. GILLIE W HETHER it be due to M. Daladier, to M. Paul Reynaud, to Signor Mussolini or simply to the innate vitality of the French, France enters the New Year in a...

By F. P. BISHOP IN the recent debate upon the freedom of the Press, .I. advertising has come in for sharp criticism. Mr. Wickham Steed, at the end of a book in which the...

By HORACE THOROGOOD A PLEASANT celebration takes place next week in Mincing Lane, the London headquarters of the tea trade. On January moth, 1839, the first importation into...

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD PLANT A SITUATION of unusual interest has been created by the decision of the Minister of Transport to refer to the Transport Advisory Council the railway...

By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT W HETHER National Service is organised on a compulsory or voluntary basis, and whether peace-time or war- time needs are given primary...

By HAROLD NICOLSON [Mr. Nicolson will contribute a page under this heading every week] T HAVE long been fascinated by Count Coudenhove- 1 Kalergi. It is an achievement, to...

much his premature ideals as his startling com- mentaries upon modern tendencies. Count Coudenhove has a habit of discovering old-fashioned ideas in the Cale- donian Market of...

tenable. It ignores Lord Chesterfield on the one hand, and on the other the Duke of Wellington. Yet as a theme for conver- sation, it has its points. Being a sentimentalist in...

" gentle- man" ? The Oxford English Dictionary (which is such a help) gives seven distinct interpretations, including " An apparatus used in soldering circular pewter ware " and...

with which he would toy occasionally, not so much as a considered theory, but as a theme for conversation. According to him the ideal gentleman was a pathetic fallacy on the...

overt emphasis on class distinctions. True it is that a denizen of the Rue de Varennes speaks with an intonation different from that of Menilmontant. True it is also that...

THE THEATRE " Marco Millions." By Eugene O'Neill. At the Westminster OCCIDENTAL writers, when they have nothing to say about the affairs of their own countries, turn as a...

" The Citadel." At the Empire The Citadel is a film of major importance to this country. It would be comparatively simple to begin by detailing a list of its defects (and it...

[Von einem deutschen KorresponclentenJ FOR manche besinnliche Naturen ist. die letzte Nacht des vergehenden, die erste des entstehenden Jahres nicht die lauteste, sondern die...

What Happens in " Don Carlos " Vzam's Don Carlos will be returning to Sadler's Wells next week after a short Christmas holiday. The opera is so little known in England, and its...

been the vogue this year : one was the nesting box, the other the lily bulb. Both carried the expectant mind forward to the spring. We were solaced in the frost, though...

Flying from Frost The snow and frost did not altogether stop the songs of thrush and robin ; but general vitality fell ; and local migrations of a sudden impulse took place....

garden has just received a charming decoration. A concrete birdlpond- has been inserted in a corner of the lawn, and at one end of its seductive pattern—it is narrow with two...

So too it is satisfactory to possess the right apparatus for containing the food of birds. A very wise commentator has been broadcasting advice upon the exact size of hole...

An international group of botanists and biologists have begun to adopt the habit of putting forth a yearly problem, and seeking information on it from all who have made any...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—With reference to Mr. Hill's account of the apparently insuperable difficulties placed by Home Office regulations in the way of getting a...

postscript to my letter published in your last issue on the subject of aiding German refugees ? I concluded my letter by describing how I had been told that, in order to obtain...

[Correspondents are requested to keep : their letters as brief as is reasonably pos s ible. Signed letters are given a preference over these bearing a pseudonym, and the latter...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATCR] SIR,—In connexion with your most interesting article " What Next in the Ukraine ? " allow me to trespass on your valuable space. Mr. H. P....

Elkelas that the solution of the Jewish problem, or one solution, lies in the formation of an autonomous Jewish State. Although the Jews will always look towards Zion as their...

In the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—You say " Professor Haldane, the chief advocate of tunnel protection, estimated in his book A.R.P. that it would take two years to construct...

endorse every word of Mr. R. W. Hill's letter in your issue of Dece:nber 3oth, except that in the case which has come to my knowledge there is no question of emigration but only...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sra,—Mr. Joelson's reply to my letter about the internationalisa- tion of the East African Dependencies is too long to answer point by point,...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—M. Reynaud's economy decrees should not be allowed to pass without attention being drawn to the striking and alarming resemblance they bear...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sit,—All over Europe the cold has been intense these last weeks, and Republican Spain has been suffering more than anywhere ; not only the...

SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the interesting article by Mr. Felix Fries on the Government and the Press in your last issue, I notice that he ends up by suggesting that Sir Samuel Hoare,...

theological outlook is not that which is frequently set forth in your columns ; hence I am all the more grateful for those three admirable articles which you have published. I...

studied your article on " The Owners of the Press " will quarrel with your conclusion that pluralism is on the whole harmless today. There is, however, one practice fostered by...

Sur,—In the article on the " Ownership of the Press " in your recent issue, no mention is made of the Daily Mirror. I shall be grateful if you can inform me who owns that...

Sza,—On the eve of Mr. Chamberlain's journey to Rome to confer with Signor Mussolini, is it too much to suggest to him, through your columns, that the visit, if not abandoned...

SLR In your " News of the Week " I find it difficult to accept your sweeping statement " that all the trouble is of Italy's making." Have you forgotten that Italy is one of the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —Some months ago you allowed me to draw attention to the Kenya Ordinance of April, 1938, which legalised the contracting of the labour of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sizt,—I disagree with Mr. Tangye, not so much on his conten- tion that we should concentrate on the production of bombers ; but on his...

would not appear ungrateful for Janus's pleasant reference to us in " A Spectator's Notebook," nor. wish to flaunt our impenitence, but we would say respectfully that while a...

American Georgics (D. W. Brogan) .. .. 24 The Knowledge of God (Canon J. K. Mozley) . . 25 Poverty and Population (Honor Croome) .. .. 25 Alexander of Jugoslavia (Archibald...

The Knowledge of God and The Service of God According to the Teaching of the Reformation. The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Aberdeen in 1937 and 1938. By Karl...

GRADUALLY, under the impact of books, newspaper articles and broadcasts, the public is waking up to the facts of its demographic future. For five hundred years the population of...

DR. COULTON stands alone among medievalists, almost alone among historians. His scholarship is at the same time meticulous and all-embracing, his outlook sympathetic to the...

" EUROPE has the Balkans it deserves," remarked a Balkan wit not long ago. That this, fortunately for Europe and for the Balkans, is no longer the case today is due to the late...

Enemies of Promise. By Cyril Connolly. (Routledge. tzs. 6(1.) MR. CYRIL CONNOLLY is in a mess. He lives in a world in which a black coffin of the unemployed man who hasn't had...

Portrait of a Chef. The Life of Alexis Soyer. By Helen Morris. (Cambridge University Press. rm. 6d.) " I PAUSE. I muse. I meditate. Where have I seen that face ? Where noted...

My Line of Life. By W. Heath Robinson. Illustrated by the Author. (Blackie. 15s.) Autobiography with a Difference. By R. H. Mottram. (Robert Hale. 12s. 6d.) Victorian Peepshow....

The Passing of the Aborigines. By Daisy Bates. (Murray. los. 6d.) To say the least, Mrs. Bates is an unusual woman. To live thirty-five years in a tent far from civilisation...

Shake Hands and Come Out Fighting. By L. A. G. Strong. (Chapman and Hall. los. 6d.) Fighting Was My Business. By Jimmy Wilde. (Michael Joseph. t5s.) Two faults mar most...

There are not many books dealing with British Mammals that are of interest to the casual naturalist, and this one (Bats- ford, 8s. 6d.), though somewhat sketchy, should be...

" Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage ; there he found occupation for an idle...

Banking centenaries, which testify to the enterprise of Sir Robert Peel's generation, have accounted for some interesting volumes in recent years. The latest of them, anonymous...

HISTORY OF PARLIAMENT • Register of the Ministers and Members, 1439-1509 If Colonel Wedgwood had issued this second volume, a " Register," before the first devoted to "...

By CUSTOS WITH only the slightest encouragement from events the City has contrived to enter 'a new year much more hopefully than seemed likely a fortnight ago. How much of this...

First among the " Big Six " British banks to announce their profits and dividends, Barclays and Martins show a rather surprising divergence of experience. Barclays' profits, at...

It is a long time since I wrote hopefully of the prospects for motor shares and that was before political apprehensions had impaired the will and falling purchasing power the...

charac- terise the political articles this month. Captain Liddell Hart in the Contemporary is peculiarly depressing in his article on " The European Crisis and Britain's...

If one is right in supposing that the motor trade is about to enter on a recovery trend, there should be plenty of scope in the shares of the well-spread businesses, such as...

recently reorganised their capital structure—prima facie evidence at least of a recovery trend in earnings—we might consider the LI preference shares of the Francois Cementation...

THE volume of bills and cheques handled by the London clearing banks in 1938 provides the first rather rudimentary yardstick by which we can measure the combined effects of...

" THE SPECTATOR," JANUARY 5TH, 1839 Preparations for foreign war are in progress. A circular from the Recruiting Department of the Horse Guards directs commanding- officers to...

A rearrangement of holdings in the diamond industry, involving £2,Soo,000, was announced last week. De Beers Consolidated Mines have bought from Anglo American Investment Trust...

Company of New York, the leading American banking house, which celebrated its hundredth birthday on January 1st. The Articles of the Bank of Commerce, which was later merged...

very obvious in the results of the leading aircraft manufacturing companies. De Havilland Aircraft Company earned a net profit of £152,812 for the year ended September 30th,...

The statement of the Exchange Equalisation Account's position as at September 30th shows the extent to which gold had been lost in defence of the pound sterling up to the peak...

BY ERIO (A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be...

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