W ITH Poland temporarily expunged from the map of Europe and a relative lull prevailing in the West interest centres for the moment in the diplomatic stage. Four notable...

One satisfactory result of the statement on India's political future issued by the Congress Working Committee a month ago is the series of interviews the Viceroy has been having...

The announcement made by Mr. Eden on Wednesday that Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have all arranged to send Cabinet Ministers to London to main- tain the...

The Spanish Government had already made it quite clear that it intends to remain neutral in the war ; but General Franco, in an interview published recently in Madrid news-...

The opinion attributed to " political circles " in Berlin that neutral States like Norway, Sweden and Denmark may decide that it serves their interests to send the whole of...

The news that is vouchsafed to us about the operations of the Air Force is scanty, but it is enough to show that it is our side which is constantly on the offensive and dis- ....

North and South American Republics, has concluded its proceed- ings with a declaration establishing a " safety belt " around the Americas extending 30o miles out to sea and as...

The approach to the problems of the Budget by the House of Commons has been governed by the desire to refuse no sacrifice which a country at war ought to accept. For that reason...

The growth of juvenile crime was one of the most sinister social features of the last war, and the problem has remained in the years of peace from then to now. It is unfortunate...

It is of great importance that the President of the Board of Trade should not take any hasty steps which would stop the production of British films. Mr. Oliver Stanley announced...

The first stage of the war has produced a curious, and in some respects distressing, situation in regard to employ- ment and unemployment, which is only partly revealed in the...

How much better is the present method of calling men to the colours group by group than that feverishly employed in the enrolment of Kitchener's Army in 1914. The Pro- clamation...

Sir William Beveridge, through the columns of The Times, has issued an appeal for an effective instrument of co-ordination to deal with the infinite varieties of effort involved...

and other journals supplied to newsagents on the usual sale-or-return basis has now to be seriously restricted. Readers of The Spectator are therefore urged to place a regular...

I T was for Herr Hitler to say when the war would begin ; it is not for him or his successors to say when it will end, as Mr. Churchill observed in the course of his...

I r continues to be a cause of amazement to the friends of this country in all parts of the world that the news of what we are doing is so difficult to obtain, whilst material...

is one, in the form of an official notice —roneoed. " To . . . I notice that there is a practice of wearing somewhat unorthodox clothes by the women members of this staff. I...

William Beveridge lends point to a question which is being asked in some perplexity. Is it really the fact that the Government has no use today for men like Sir William himself,...

of the House of Commons is the impossibility of ensuring secrecy. Secrets may be kept by a gathering of four men, and conceivably by one of forty, but in an assembly of anything...

on Wednesday (very likely there were other opportunities of which I failed to take advantage) news about Moscow, Berlin, Rome, the Western Front, sinkings of neutral ships, was...

to lose our own manners even if other people lose theirs, I am not much enamoured of the B.B.C.'s new practice of dropping the prefix Herr, or Monsieur, or whatever it may...

T HE demand for a smaller War Cabinet, from which Ministers preoccupied with departmental administration should be absent, and which should devote itself solely to the larger...

By STRATEGICUS F spite of the overwhelming impression it makes on the I imagination, the machine does not decide war. It is the element that prevails. There is a final as well...

By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Paris. I N France, as in Great Britain, the time has not been considered ripe for a detailed, formal statement of war aims. But the two war...

By MARGERY PERHAM "Over 40 administrative and labour officers in the Colonial Service are attending a fortnight's course of instruction in London on labour problems in the...

By A SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER C RITICS of the evacuation arrangements have naturally fastened, as ground for their chief complaints, on the discovery that a certain proportion of...

By ROBERT POWELL rr IIE British Air Force has raided Germany with 18,000,000 leaflets since war was declared a month ago. si—issful flights have been made over a large part of...

By CANON ROGER LLOYD S INCE we are all agreed that we will not hate the Germans, and that one of our purposes in fighting this war is to set them free from the Nazi tyranny, it...

By SUZANNE MARYE N OT long ago I received an invitation from a girl friend to come and pass some days with her and her people. As I knew her fairly well and rather liked her, I...

are perfectly right in contending that the citizens of this country should show prudence in avoiding the dissemination of news which " might be of value to the enemy." They are...

been experiencing during the last weeks, signs have not been wanting that the maniacs are getting active. A whole district was roused the other night because the flapping of a...

By HAROLD NICOLSON W AR, as we know, is the most highly organised form of boredom, and it is inevitable that with all this hanging about the tempers of men and women should...

maniacs is that they are always true to form. In the Crimean War there were many otherwise sane citizens who asserted and believed that the Prince Consort had been confined for...

military mind. The big people are naturally too busy to concern themselves with censorship questions, and even those efficient officers who in the past managed with intelli-...

perhaps the worst of human vices, and the inanity of the spy maniac is only equalled by his downright unkind- ness. He selects for persecution (a) prominent British sub- jects...

public nuisance_ We must be vigilant about spy-mania in official quarters. Unquestionably a certain reticence is fitting in war-time and it is wrong to blab about military or...

European News Services \ r so long ago it was possible to identify a station by its auage, but now a great number of countries are sending o.: news bulletins and talks in...

" An Englishman's Home." At the London Pavilion.- " The Face at the Window." General release. --" L 'Homme du Jour." At the Embassy. It has already become a war-time habit for...

In a country cottage (whose windows look on a garden very bright with chrysanthemum and gladiolus) live an old couple who are great readers of the newspaper, especially in war-...

these strange country places is utterly unknown. Into a little rough field of mine running along an almost unfenced lane I saw, on an earlier occasion, a tiny tot of a girl...

We all know the strange fact that musk, once a proverb for sweetness of smell, is now a scentless plant. A Gloucester- shire Rector suggests to me the fear that laurel is going...

Where the urban child excels is in thoroughness. One had thought that the country boy knew something of the delicate and gentle art of securing apples from his neighbour's...

Plant and Butterfly I have received many charming corroborations of the preference of autumnal butterflies for particular plants, and it seems that Admirals, very rare in some...

Our country folk continue to wonder at the urban children that have crowded into their midst. It is noticed that the visitors, though much further advanced in knowledge of the...

First beauty, then use. The autumn crocuses, though the lawn where they grow was mowed very late, are flowering to perfection, and have continued to multiply. The later "...

Every sort of player and of sportsman is discussing the dubious patriotism- of pursuing his amusement ; and one un- expected but very sensible suggestion has come from a West...

the grim determination which this acceptance represents, should not, I feel, divert us from a critical examination of the ideas behind our Budget technique. While criticism for...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

Sut,—May I draw your attention to the fundamental differ- ence which exists between the Prussianised Austrian Hitler and other Germans, such as Bismarck or even the Kaiser? The...

SIR,—The slogan " Destroy Hitlerism " seems now to express for many our war aim ; but before accepting it as adequate, we should examine its real meaning and implications....

a_ r-- WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS z NI= gl le=". is= Ni= -AB ist-7 LTD. 37 Pz.terno,t o.r Row, Edinburgh. IME 48 George Street, London. Subscribers both at Home and...

So . — In your article " The Unholy Alliance," you throw doubts on the veracity of a number of people who mistrusted Ru.sia, or rather as adopting the attitude of being wise...

SIR,—You have done a useful service in giving prominence in your September 22nd issue to the decision of the Indian Congress in regard to the War, but the same can hardly be...

R.A., has asked my assistance in the formation of a library of gramo- phone records of classical music for the use of the cadets training for commissions under his command. It...

SIR, Whilst it is now clearly the time for the worries of the individual to be subjugated to those of the nation, I would beg, nevertheless, to bring to your notice the position...

your readers think it fair for tradesmen to pass on the cost of compulsory war risk insurance to their customers. Why should not any professional man increase his fees in...

22nd, wise and witty as ever, Mr. Harold Nicolson used a slightly mislead- ing phrase. He wrote, " I should imagine that if Mass.Obser- vation were still functioning, Mr. Tom...

Sut,—Mr. Hugh Ross Williamson suggests that no conceivable German government (except in the circumstances of another Versailles diktat) would " restore Danzig and the...

SIR,—While fully appreciating the difficulties of the B.B.C. at the present time, three fifteen-minute talks and an occasional reference in more general talks seem to be hardly...

WAR AND SOCIETY, W. T. Wells ... 477 THE ROMAN REVOLUTION, The Warden of Wadham 478 V . r.+33, SAND AND STARS, Cecil Lewis 478 It's Too LATE Now, Anthony Powell 480...

IN the world today the articulate airmen can be numbered on the fingers of one hand. Plenty of people write about flying ; some have thrills to write about, some war careers,...

FEW subjects might at first sight seem more remote from our present world than the political life of Rome in the first century B.C. Yet though Mr. Syme writes primarily for...

It's Too Late Now : the Autobiography of a Writer. By A. A. Milne. (Methuen. x2s. 6d.) Mk. A. A. MILNE, the youngest of the three sons of a preparatory - school's headmaster,...

The Blood of the Martyrs. By Naomi Mitchison. (Constable. 8s. 6d.) Supercargo. By Ear] Whitehorne. (Harrap. 8s. 6d.) MRS. MITCHISON has re-written The Sign of the Cross, with...

By CUSTOS AFTER their manful resistance to the Chancellor of th e Exchequer's pounding blows investors need no longer b e enjoined to hold fast. The stern discipline of two...

Even these assumptions do not, of course, answer all the investor's queries. One would like to know more about the level of interest rates the Treasury has in mind as the...

I am not surprised that the new Excess Profits Tw. has run into criticism. Nobody objects to the orincip. , ' of tapping industrial profits for the purpose of financing the war,...

the International Rubber Regulation Committee, showed that he does not exonerate the American manufacturers from re - sponsibility for the recent fluctuations in the price of...

When he spoke to the shareholders of Harrisons and Crosfield last week Mr. H. Eric Miller displayed a calm confidence based on intimate knowledge. There can, he points out, be...

_One consequence of the rise in income-tax has been to stimulate an inquiry for preference shares whose dividends are paid tax-free. Where no limit is stated (e.g., tax - free...

THE leaflets dropped over Germany by the R.A.F. have c onic for a certain amount of criticism. Some readers of Th e Spectator might be able to improve on them. We accordingly...

PRIZES of book tokens for LI Is. and los. 6d. were offered for the two best lists of inscriptions appropriate for any four of the following : (1) The Ministry of Information ;...

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 marked " Crossword...

CA PT AN O S E NO ESSE Al Pin T AesS A on I N e 0 A IA nI 5 5 2 dHEET IL a uNczNme0 A SOLUTION NFXT WEEK The winner of Crossword No 3o is Mr. W. R. Lawrence, 4o Hadham...