6 JULY 1929

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INDEX FROM JULY 6th TO DECEMBER 28th, 1929, INCLUSIVE.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY. A RHO Exhibition, the .. .. 117 Afghanistan : King Nadir .. 567 Agriculture, British, a Plea for .. 480 — its Only Hope .. 616 America and Europe . .. 6...

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Parliament Last . week the new Parliament met in its curiously

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informal way for the purpose . of taking the Oaths of Allegiance and signing the Rolls. The House of Commons re-elected its Speaker without opposition, indeed with their warm...

The reference to the Young Report was so worded as

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to lead to the point that the settlement should " enable the Powers to proceed with the evacuation of the Rhineland." The next clause speaks of Naval disarmament and the...

Next the Government promised extensive slum clear- ance and provision

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of new urban and rural housing for which, of course, Mr. Neville Chamberlain has been preparing the ground. There is to be a Royal Commission upon the sale and supply of...

Unemployment is the foremost matter at home. Where Mr. Thomas

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is in charge, an ex-railwayman and Secretary of State for the Colonies, we are not disappointed in finding news of schemes already being prepared for improvements in transport...

News of the Week

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'His Majesty . ..TN February the King left London and did not return I- until last Monday. When he left for Sussex, watchers 'caught sight of an invalid's hand raised in the...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES: 99 Gower Street, London, ; W.C.1.—A Subscription

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to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on this issue : Inland...

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Cotton Matters have come to a head in the dispute

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which threatens to throw the spinning section of the Lancashire cotton industry out of gear. At a joint conference on Tuesday, at Manchester, the representatives of the...

On Wednesday Mr. Thomas gave an outline of his plans

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for increasing employment. He has lost no time in bringing the Railway Companies into agreement about spending six and a half million pounds, partly on home-made steel sleepers....

In the Upper House the address in reply to the

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Speech was moved by Lord Russell and seconded by Lord De La Warr. The party leaders, Lord Salisbury, Lord Beauchamp, and Lord Panuoor, after reference to the King's recovery,...

* * Coal In t ha Coal industry there are

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welcome signs that the Government—and also responsible miners' leaders— are going about the problem in the right way. Last week the executive of the Miners' Federation conferred...

The Permanent Mandates Commission The fifteenth session of the Mandates

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Commission opened at Geneva on Monday. That public-spirited body, which is happily free from political cares, is one of the brightest jewels in the League firmament, and we look...

Honours The Dissolution Honours which were announced last week include

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a " step " for Lord Peel, earned by much public work, besides his recent labours at the India Office. Sir William Joynson-Hicks, as expected, takes a Peerage, as his health is...

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The Balkans The tension between Bulgaria and Jugoslavia is very

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disturbing to the rest of Europe. There is little use in blaming the Governments for not exercising direct control on every frontier post which beguiles tedium by shooting at...

News from Spain The Spanish Prime Minister, General Primo de

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Rivera, made his long-awaited declaration on the subject of the new constitution at the first meeting of the summer plenary session of the National Consultative Assembly. The...

Westminster Abbey The Royal Fine Art Commission has reported to

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the Dean of Westminster, at his request, upon the proposed new Sacristy. They regret any addition to the Abbey. This general position seems to us unnecessarily static. They then...

The Universities We had no space last week to record

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the particularly interesting Encoenia at Oxford, when Lord Grey of Fallodon conferred degrees on such men as the Spanish Ambassador and General Dawes, the doyen and the youngest...

Bank Rate, 54 per cent., changed from 44 per cent.,

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on February 7th, 1929. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 1004; on Wednesday week 1004; a year ago, 1014. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 864; on Wednesday week...

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The New Parliament

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T HE Government and the new House of Commons have now met at the Palace of Westminster. We have given in our Notes of the Week the gist of the King's Speech, and our readers...

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Developing the Empire

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In more recent years there has been a tendency on the part of a section of the Labour Party to assert that the possession of negro dependencies was a moral wrong, that "...

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Europe and America:

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The Next Half-Century A NY Englishman who has been in the habit of visiting America at intervals during the last quarter of a century will have noticed that whereas originally...

The Risks of Peace Y Government consider that the time

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has come to submit to judicial settlement, international disputes in which parties are in conflict as to their re- spective rights." In these few words Great Britain does more...

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THE SPECTATOR,

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Before going abroad or away from home readers are advised to place an order for the SPECTATOR. The journal will be forwarded to any address at the following rates :— One Month...

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Cruelty in Sport

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[The Spectator welcomes this article by Sir S. H. Scott, Bart.. as a weighty contribution to the discussion on cruelty and blood sports which appears to have interested, not to...

Post-War Housing Experiments in Holland

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H OLLAND has made an important beginning in the system of management of working class property by women, initiated by the late Miss Octavia Hill. Whereas in this country only a...

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The Irishmen F . VERY summer Old Mike came over from Ireland

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for the hay harvest to the farm on the hill, with his nephews Dominick, Patrick and Jimmy, his wife's brothers, Michael and Malachi, and his son, Young Mike. One of summer's...

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The English Language for Estonia

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W HEN the little Baltic province which we now know as Estonia was under the tutelage of Russia and the heel of foreign Barons, the teaching of English was not encouraged lest it...

The Little Coombes of Exmoor T HE larger coombes of Exmoor

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are famous ; even the ubiquitous charabanc penetrates some of them—for a certain distance. But the little coombes (" goyals," Blackrnore called them) which run off from these...

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Correspondence

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A LETTER. FROM SEVILLE. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia, — On May 9th the Ibero-AMerican Exhibition at Seville was inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII, accompanied by the...

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Poetry

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A Young Thrush WHAT power of will—to follow now, In this cold hour of fear, His studies in dead sticks and stones, With all this danger near ! So here we stand, with...

A Hundred Years Ago

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Undoubtedly, Fashion has not yet had so pleasant an expositor. The author is a neat, light-handed satirist ; a person of good sense, who writes a charming style, and is not the...

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REPERCUSSIONS OF TILE TARIFF BILL.

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A very sober editorial in the London Times on Saturday warning the United States against the possibility of reprisals growing out of the new Tariff Bill, if it becomes law as...

American Notes of the Week

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(By Cable) DISARMAMENT. Developments in the Disarmament discussions leave no doubt in the mind of the American public as to the determina- tion of statesmen in both Washington...

DISTEMPER.

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American dog lovers are deeply interested in the develop. ment by British scientists of a vaccine for distemper in dogs. The production of this vaccine in England being on such...

WAR GUILT.

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German protests on the tenth anniversary of signing the Versailles Treaty against "the war guilt lie" find increasing sympathy in the United States. Professor Sidney Fay's...

GOLF.

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The extraordinary interest now manifested in golf in the United States reached its climax in the winning of the Open Championship on Sunday by Bobby Jones. The newspapers...

PACIFISM AND CITIZENSHIP.

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Nothing promises to provoke a recrudescence of strong Liberal sentiment in the United States so much as the spark lighted by the decision of the Courts to bar farm citizenship...

CONSERVATIVE TEACHERS.

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Most interesting is the result of an inquiry conducted by the Teachers' College, New York, to ascertain the attitude of mind of 3,000 typical educators scattered throughout...

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The League of Nations

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Sir Arthur Salter [The Economic Committee of the League is now in session at Geneva. This article pays tribute to a great Englishman who is acknowledged to be its 'moving...

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As the result of recent botanical and soil investigations it

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is thought that fruitful results may ensue from the making of a dictionary of plant language, with the translation of the word (that is, colour, mien or gesture) into its proper...

The discovery has, as usual, stimulated invention. I described after

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last year's harvest some crop-drying experi- ments on Major Lyon's farm in Cheshire. The system has been carried further at Oxford, and the I.C.I. are experimenting with two...

The balance of evidence is in favour of the discovery

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of a new fact. I have taken a good deal of trouble to collect the totals of labour employed on various types of farm ; and the evidence goes to show that the new sort of dairy...

HAY AND RAIN.

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Brown lawns and fields tell clearly enough of the lack of rain-44- inches in place of a normal 11 inches—during the year. Some hayfields on the chalk and limestone will be left...

VILLAGE CRAFTSMEN.

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Rural industries are going ahead with a steadiness that confutes the logical pessimists who argue that the factory system has killed the craftsmen. The success of blacksmiths...

Country Life

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THE CULT OF GRASS. The cult of grass—on lawn, green, pitch, but especially farm— is advancing rapidly, not least among men of science. How utterly our conception of grass as a...

MORE PORTABLE MILK.

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Invention is following discovery in another standard farm product. The peculiar value of pure milk for children of school age and beyond has been recently demonstrated with new...

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS.

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A new and scientific view of the language of plants is te be presently set forth in graphic form by the biologists ot Rothamsted. The idea is quaint, but likely to be fruitful:...

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Letters to the Editor

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THE OPTIONAL CLAUSE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The announcement in the King's Speech about the Op- tional Clause will give much satisfaction to the overwhelming...

THE DELAYS IN OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—It seems a far cry writing you from the gateway of the West, but your article entitled " Mr. Baldwin's Boldness" (?) in your issue of May...

THE REAL CLEAVAGE

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Whatever may be our slightly differing view of Mr, Stanley Baldwin and that very unwise party appeal imitating official noteheading,...

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THE " SPECTATOR " AND SOVIET RUSSIA.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I am not accustomed to entering into controversy with Bishops, but the letter which appears in your issue of June 22nd, from the Right...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—A rapid survey of

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the astonishing letters which you have received during the past fortnight would lead one to suppose that, in the eyes of the majority of its readers, and to their horror, the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sia,—Mr. W. D. Elliot questions the truth of the statement "that the Conservatives have been forced along the road of democracy and progress." It is interesting to observe that...

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DERATING

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have been wondering whether there are others amongst your readers who, like myself, are just now feeling the full force of recent...

ALEXANDER SMITH COCHRAN.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—The Spectator last week recorded the death of Mr. Alexander Smith Cochran, of New York, who was a very warm friend of Great Britain and...

JEWISH SLAUGHTER

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—It is with great regret that I enter the lists on the wrong side in a matter relating to humane slaughter, but the Duchess of Hamilton's...

THE ITALIAN ELECTIONS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of June 29th an anonymous contributor takes your Rome correspondent to task for stating that in the recent Italian elections...

STAG HUNTING

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—With reference to Major Lethbridge's letter in your issue of June 8th, wherein he taxes me with misquoting a sentence of his in his...

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MODERN NOVELS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I believe that many of your readers will feel grateful to Sir S. H. Scott for his timely and valuable remarks as to the influence on our...

THE INSPIRATION OF DEATH

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] - Sra,—May a young man who has had fifty years' experience of life say how much he appreciates the splendid faith of your young contributor,...

IS NATURE CRUEL?

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I think Mr. Ailwyn Best in his criticism of my letter overlooked the previous correspondence and failed to see that- my point about man...

• IN DEFENCE OF THE FAITH

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] . the course of his article on "The Spirit of Catholic Devotion," appearing in the Spectator of May 4, the Rev. Martin D'Arcy says that no...

NEW ZEALAND BARLEY

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Barley grown in Great Britain yields the highest possible brewers' extract, but owing to uncertain climatic conditions, its exclusive...

SLUMS OF SOUTHWARK

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] you permit me to animadvert on your moving article in your current issue under the title quoted above—on the last four sentences of the second...

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" HINDUISM " [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sni,—A

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writer is self-condemned when he has to explain himself, and I ought to have said (though it seems obvious) that my remarks applied only to the South of India, and, of course,...

THE PRESERVATION OF ELIZABETHAN PLYMOUTH [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Your readers interested in the most dramatic period of English history will be glad to learn that what remains of the buildings of that period in Plymouth,...

POINTS FROM =LETTERS THE OXFORD BILL.

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If Mr. Barwell will refer to his letter in your issue of May 18 and to my reply of June 1, he will see that what I denied was his statement, first, that "under it (the Oxford...

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Australian experiments in rationalization. and Safeguarding are discussed very sympathetically

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in Economic Control by N. Skene Smith of the London School of Economics (P. S. King, 15s.). The author has tried to measure the results of Australia's formidable and intricate...

Some Books of the Week

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Mu. H. W. TIMPERLEY'S English Scenes and Birds (Cape, 6s.) is a book first to be dipped into when one is on holiday, and then to be reread without hurry on winter evenings. It...

Thomas Randolph was adopted by Ben Jonson as his poetic

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son. He had a clear and colloquial style : a little cluttered here and there with classical commonplaces ; without much profundity of feeling ; marked with an air of...

Professor Earp insists more than once that he is writing

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his book (The Way of the Greeks, by R. F. Earp, Oxford University Press, 8s. 6d.) as an amateur. If by this he means that his work is slight or careless or inaccurate, he is...

No one is better qualified to write on The Pagans

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of North Borneo (Hutchinson, 30s.) than Major Owen Rutter. Professional anthropologists, a greedy and discontented race, may ask for more, but the ordinarily intelligent reader,...

Mrs. Eleanor Elsner loves the sun, and she contrives to

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bring a sunny quality into all her pleasant books of travel : Far and Near (Jenkins, 7s. 6d.) is a sweep-up of some of her travel reminiscences in the colourful countries that...

• A Holiday Competition

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THE Editor offers a prize of five guineas for the most practical suggestion for a holiday on a stated sum, which may be any- thing front 110 to £100 (including all travelling...

(" General Knowledge Competition" and "More Books of the "

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Week" will be found on pages 28 and 32.)

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Pilgrim's Progress Part Two

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sen's previous works do not need to be told that he has a EVELYN UNDERHILL. Jorgensen : an Autobiography. Vol. II. (Shoed and Ward. genius for description, and a profound...

New Ways in Education

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The Aims of Education, and Other Essays. By A. N. White- head. (Williams & Norgate. 7s. 6d.) OVER a hundred years ago Sir Walter Scott complained that children were enjoying...

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Mrs. Gaskell

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Mrs. Gaskell : Her Life and Work. By A. Stanton Whitfield. (Routledge. 7s. 6d.) THERE are many writers whose books are greater than them- selves. There are less numerous writers...

Boy and Girl Scouts

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WHEN the Boy Scout movement was scarcely two years old, Mr. J. D. Boyce of Chicago lost his way in the streets of London. A small boy offered to direct him and carry his bag. To...

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Sense and Sensibility in India

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The Remaking of Village India. By F. L. Brayne. (Oxford University Press. 5s.) Socrates in an Indian Village. By F. L. Brayne. (Oxford University Press. 7s. lid.) WHAT India...

A Great Seaman

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DAMPIER'S name is known to everyone who takes any interest in the history of English doings at sea, and his Voyages have been more than once reprinted in this generation. But it...

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Fiction

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Fury and the Woman All Kneeling. By Anne Parrish. (Bonn. 7s. 6d.) How perfect Mr. Armstrong's world is ! It is a world in which social unimpeachability has become, if not a...

William Jennings Bryan

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Bryan. By M. R. Werner. (Caps. 15s.) THERE is an epic quality about the life of William Jennings Bryan as it is set forth in the admirable biography by Mr. Werner, for there is...

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WHERE THE HEART LIES. By Ruth Bmckington (Chapman and Hall.

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7s. 6d.)—This is a particularly charming novel of the quieter kind. Lyndsey Lee, a cultured, dignified, orderly woman in her mid-thirties, has lived for some years in pleasant...

A VILLAGE MATCH AND AFTER. By M. D. Lyon. (Nash

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and Grayson. 3s. fid.).—This story purports to be the narrative of an amateur cricketer who goes with a friend to a country house-party in Suffolk. There is a village match in...

SPEEDY DEATH. By Gladys Mitchell. (Victor Gollancz. 7s. 6d.)—Speedy Death

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is above the usual run of detective stories. The heroine, or villainess, is a psycho-analyst, and we think Miss Mitchell must be almost the first champion in fiction of this....

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General Knowledge Questions

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' OUR weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded to Miss I. D. Gray, " Ellamore," Essex Road, Mount Eden, Auckland, New Zealand, for the...

The Magazines

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IN the Nineteenth Century for this month there are two good articles, one on the Flemish question by the Comtesse de Meeils, giving an admirable short history of the Frontist...

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_ Travel

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[We-publish in this column articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abrOad.1 They_ will be written by correspondents who have visited...

New Reference Books for Travellers

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Baedeker's "Austria" (Allen and Unwin, 15s.) is the twelfth edition of Baedeker's "Austria-Hungary " which first appeared as a separate volume in 1896. It deals with the...

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The eight plates illustrating P. L. Debucourt in the Masters

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of the Colour Print series (The Studio, Ltd., 5s.) include "La Promenade de la Galerie du Palais Royal," with Mlle. Ninon in the centre of its jolly crowds, and the even better...

Answers to Questions on Quotations on Birds

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1. "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (v. 13, Browning).— 2. Shakespeare's " Sonnet " (No. 73).-3. "fl Penseroso " (line 61, Milton).-4. " Fragment from Charles I." (Shelley).-5. "The...

The Conan Doyle Stories (John Murray, 7s. 6d.) is the

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companion volume to The Sherlock Holmes Stories, and will be equally welcome to many readers. There will be few who do not recognize among the many excellent yarns one or two...

More Books of the Week

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(Continued from page 22.) The annual Report of the Rose * Institute (from the Ross Institute, Putney Heath, S.W. 15) and accounts for 1928 . are encouraging reading, for the...

Murder and Mystery, by Evelyn Johnson and Gretta Palmer (Grant

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Richards and Humphrey Toulmin, 7s. 6d.), contains a number of moderately good detective stories. They are rendered more entertaining by the fact that the solutions of the...

' Two pages of Gibbon contain all that most people

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know about the Byzantine admiral whose story is fully told, for the first time in English, by Mr. S. Runciman in The Emperor Roman= Lecapenus and His Reign (Cambridge University...

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Tim EIGHT-HOUR DAY.

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At the recent annual meeting of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, the chairman referred in moderately hopeful terms to the general outlook, stating that after several years of...

A PinusniNG CONSOLIDATION.

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The past year has been a good one in the publishing trade as carried on by George Newnes, Ltd., and at the recent annual meeting the chairman, Sir Frank Newnes, made the...

BANKING IN NEW ZEALAND.

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The latest financial statement of the National Bank of New Zealand for the year ending March 31st last is a very satis- factory one. Gross profits show a rise from £684,341 to...

Financial Notes

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LARGE GOLD EFFLUX. MONETARY influences have again dominated the Stock Markets during the past week and British Funds and kindred securities have been adversely affected by the...

The Phoenix Oil and Transport Company did well last year,

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for, notwithstanding the low level of prices, profits were increased from £223,553 to 2,239,099. The conservative policy as regards dividend distributions is maintained,...

TEA PROFITS.

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In view of the big jump in trading profits of the International Tea Company's Stores, it is scarcely surprising that the directors should have decided to make a further issue of...

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A GENEROUS BEQUEST.

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„ • The City is always appreciative of generous recognition by testators of those who, in however small degree, may have aided the building up of the ,fortunes which have been...

RETIREMENT OF A VETERAN BANKER.

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• However • well earned—and in this case never was a retirement better earned—the City always learns with . regret of the retirement Of those who have taken an active . part in...