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FOR BRITAIN, clearly a contentious New Year was ahead, with
The Spectatornot only a general election likely but also a contest for the Oxford chair of poetry (between Robert Lowell and Edmund Blunden) in prospect. Lord Attlee celebrated his...
THE NEW YEAR HONOURS contained no hereditary titles and (also
The Spectatorto no one's surprise) entailed no by-election. Mr. Heath, on tour around Asia with an entourage of journalists, adjusted his itinerary to include Saigon. Mr. Wilson went no...
--Portrait of the Week— ENTER 1966, UNCERTAINLY: 'another year, another
The Spectatordeadly blow'? And yet the first days saw President Johnson's doves airborne around the globe, while the American bombers stayed grounded in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh, alas, seemed...
Towards a Pax Russo-Americana
The SpectatorA s this issue of the SPECTATOR goes to iipress, the pause in the American bomb- ing of North Vietnam continues and the Indo-Pakistani summit meeting enters its third day. The...
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WDEVI5
The SpectatorNothing but a Masquerade? By P. J. HONEY Co many strands are now inextricably inter- twined in the Gordian knot of Vietnam that it is hardly to be wondered at if President...
Fanfani's Fall
The SpectatorFrom OSBERT HASTINGS ROME Q UITE shortly now the Italian coalition is due by mutual agreement among the parties comprising it to take a look at itself and make whatever...
NEXT WEEK
The SpectatorMedicine Today A New Feature JOHN ROWAN WILSON After the Raj D. W. BROGAN One year's subscription to the 'Spectator': f3 15s. (including postage) in the United Kingdom and...
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The Invisible Americans
The SpectatorFrom DEV MURARKA TASHKENT T HE Soviet leaders are taking a justifiable pride in simply bringing off the Tashkent meeting, whatever may happen here. They are not even very...
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POLITICAL COMMENTARY
The SpectatorThe State of the Tories By ALAN WATKINS Now that Christmas is over and the shortest day is behind us we shall soon be looking forward In the spring and even to our summer...
King and Common Room
The SpectatorKing Henry VI fills in the form on university costs for the University Grants Committee. 0 God, methinks it were a happy life To be no better than a candidate, To sit behind a...
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Spectator's Notebook
The SpectatorQ UOODLE has departed. But I am glad to be able to begin my first Notebook by recording a last, posthumous, victory. Some weeks ago in these columns he drew attention to the...
Jo's Boys
The SpectatorSo Jo Grimond has officially announced that he may retire from the leadership of the Liberal party later this year—that is, assuming (as Lad- broke's do) that there is an...
Down With Experts . . .
The SpectatorTalking of honours, the Government's last- minute rescue operation on Fairfield's shipyard should certainly be worth a gong or two. But was it worth doing at all? Last year the...
. . . And Down With Competition Britain's first experiment
The Spectatorin coin-in-the-slot television will start in 3,000 London homes this weekend, rising to 10,000 homes by the summer. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Six bob for an...
The Lawson Scandal And now that mortgage. I think what
The Spectatorworries me most about the Lawson Affair—infinitely more than the handful of abusive letters, and more even than the occasional mildly obscene anony- mous telephone call to my...
bC Zpectator
The SpectatorJanuary 6. 1866 The Fenian trials have ended. The last ring- leader has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, and the Government. it is said. do not intend to prosecute...
Orthodoxy Rewarded
The SpectatorIf sterling is stronger this week it must surely be something to do with the knighthood awarded to the Bank of England's Maurice Parsons, that formidable pillar of financial...
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'Let me say that what might be called a Home
The SpectatorOffice issue might well compel the Liberal party to vote against the Government or forgo for ever its claim to speak for freedont:—Mr. Grimond at Scarborough, September 25,...
THE PRESS
The SpectatorBrothers in Print By CHARLES CURRAN S m national dailies quoted it simultaneously this week. Between them, they gave it sixty-six column-inches of their space; an area about...
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SHORT STORY
The SpectatorThe Invisible Japanese Gentlemen By GRAHAM GREENE T HERE were eight Japanese gentlemen having a fish-dinner at Bentley's. They spoke to each other rarely in their...
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SIR,— HO CHI MINI! REPLIES
The SpectatorI look on Johnson's latest ploy Like all his other wheezes: He only does it to Hanoi Because he knows it teases. ANTONY JAY 27 Southdown Avenue, London, W7
SIR,—The letter from Robert Dalling of Rhodesia which you print
The Spectator(December 31) illustrates clearly the tendency deplored by Lord Fisher recently in a letter to The Times: the tendency to speak of decisions taken in this country as expressions...
The Death of Quoodle
The SpectatorSIR,—S0 Quoodle has passed away. Hard to believe, and even harder to accept. May one reader, a non- Tory, be allowed a last tribute? For over two years, the prospect of...
India and Pakistan
The SpectatorSIR,—On the eve of the meeting at Tashkent be- tween Ayub Khan and Shastri, President Ayub Khan says that he would be all friends with India if India would allow Kashmir to...
Up (Some) Rebels
The SpectatorSIR,—Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie's partisan feelings seem to have got the better of his logic. He asserts that because right-wing double standards exist I have no right to indicate...
R . E'rENO `TH
The SpectatorFrom : Angus Maude, MP, Cicely Howells, Roy Boulting, Ludovic Kennedy, H. Sen. Antony Jay, Alfred Sherman, David Ashton, M. W. Palmer, Diana Atwood, David Wise, Amy Tube. Zenka...
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The Menace of the 'Sixties
The SpectatorSin.-Mr. Simon Raven's problem is not a new one; in 1840, Thackeray. describing 'file Fashionable Authoress, wrote: The readiest of ready pens has Lady Flum- mery . . . only it...
S1R,-Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie (December 31) rightly feels that different opinions
The Spectatorabout important political issues should be featured fairly by the information media, but he is mistaken, surely, to suggest that 'western' or 'right-wing' wickedness is given...
Sig.-Thank Heaven for Mr. Raven. His scintillating wit, his obvious
The Spectatorintelligence and his provocative writing now earn him the title of Honorary Female. ZENKA BARTEK III Greenhill. Hampstead, London, NW3
SIR, -Mr. Raven and his like have never been wanted in
The Spectatorthis field. One woman began the novel, another brought it to perfection, a third tilled the single chink remaining, and a fourth let in all the tedious taradiddle which Mr....
'Messiah'
The Spectatorwould like to say how strongly I agree with Mr. Charles Reid's comments on the LPO Christ- mas performance of Messiah in your issue of December 24, and how much I hope his...
Exit Everyman
The SpectatorSig,-Mr. Stuart Hood's sensitive and generous appreciation of Richard Dimbleby must have given pleasure to very many people, and one hopes that all the tributes to him have...
SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 1203
The SpectatorACROSS.-1 Salvia. 2 Craduate. 10 Toppled. 11 Cotters. 12 Last. 13 Alle- gi - etto. 16 Reason. 17 Attired. 20 Cura- cao. 21 Merman. 24 Criss-cross. 25 Amen. 27 Abigail. 29...
SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 1204
The SpectatorACROSS 28. 1. The premises of the polar club? (6. 6) 9. No, I tame an outflow (9) 10. Viva ale! But put it this way for a one-way passage (5) And, when he next doth ride...
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MO 8h1REEfEM
The SpectatorRECORDED SOUND Coffin and Keyboards By CHARLES REID O N a corner of Russell Square, Bloomsbury (at No. 38, to be exact), there is a sign in letters so small that they amount...
Hello Dali
The SpectatorI TN New York, two exhibitions of outstanding complementary interest have opened within a week of each other: a full-scale assess- ment of Rene Magritte at the Museum of Modern...
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CINEMA
The SpectatorHorror My Foot Dracula. (Warner, 'X' certificate.) T ins is Horror with Hammer week, when fangs are worn longish: we celebrate a decade of gothick gore with Dracula on the...
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RADIO
The SpectatorThe Deadly Arts T HE BBC has a corner in its kindly old heart for every wayward listener, and the place it has chosen to off-load most of these awkward angles is the Home...
THEATRE
The SpectatorPuffing and Blowing T HE theatre seems to be entering on another great period; 1965 was above all the year of the actor, both in individual performances and in ensemble playing...
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Bagehot on Books
The SpectatorBy ANTHONY BURGESS T rTHERE was a time when reviewing was a I branch of criticism; but nowadays criticism is only a branch of reviewing. We can spare whole plains of esparto...
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Brave New World
The SpectatorCastroism: Theory and Practice. By Theodore Draper. (Pall Mall Press, 35s.) THIS week Castro will be celebrating the seventh anniversary of his rise to power. The accolades are...
Into the Fire
The SpectatorThe Complete Plays of D. H. Lawrence. (Heinemann, 63s.) I ENJOY so much writing my plays—they come so quick and exciting from the pen—that you mustn't growl at me if you think...
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RE-ASSESSMENT
The Spectator'The Four Feathers' By PETER V ANSITTART W E all have a private library, not exactly Lit., but which, read in childhood, has decisively shocked the imagination. Graham Greene,...
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The Weight of China
The SpectatorBOOKS on China come in waves, and the present wave, now swelling fast, has its quotas of apologetics and realism. These three belong to the second category. Strictly speaking....
Chess
The SpectatorBy PHILIDOR 264. C. G. WATIsTSY (Good Companions, 1922) BLACK (to men) WHITE (8 men) *HrrE to play and mate in two moves ; solution next week. Solution to No. 263 (Shinkman)...
NEW PAPERBACKS.-The Spire. By William Golding. (Faber, 6s.) The Unvanguished.
The SpectatorBy William Faulkner. (Penguin, 4s.) The Groves of Academe. By Mary McCarthy. (Panther, 3s. 6d.) The Wings of the Dove. By Henry James. (New English Library, 6s.) The Pioneers....
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BAT
The SpectatorBRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO has recently been rising and now yields under 6 per cent—in fact, 5.7 per cent at the current price of 64s. But there may be some increase in the final...
Investment Notes
The SpectatorBy CUSTOS B ROKERS' reviews and recommendations for 1966 are all extremely cautious and some downright pessimistic. Most of them stress the fact that the failure to stop the...
Beer and Tobacco
The SpectatorThere is talk in the street that brewery shares have seen their best. They finished the year about 10 per cent down. The Financial Times index touched 103 in February, fell to...
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Company Notes
The SpectatorB y 1.01HIMRY S IR DENYS LOWSON, chairman of Nelson Financial Trust, is able to report another successful year ended October 31, 1965. Income from investments has risen from...
Man-Made Fibres
The SpectatorThe National Plan looked for a 14 per cent p.a. growth rate in man-made fibres and this was not unreasonable, seeing that the UK output had grown 12 per cent annually over the...
EADIPtPINO Wider Still and Wider
The SpectatorBy LESLIE ADRIAN A picture of Lake Garda's shore in the Poly booklet has only two bodies, shapely, feminine. uncomfortably reclining on gravel and concrete. Both tell a slur s...
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Revcnons a nos moutons
The SpectatorAbout a fortnight ago a rough-legged buzzard, the first I have ever seen, took up residence in my woods, where it has since been sighted almost daily, often at close range. It...
The Mirage
The SpectatorBy STRIX To the lexicographer the word means 'avoiding ex- tremes, temperate in con- duct or expression; fairly large or good.' Applied by the meteorologist to a frost it means...
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Afterthought: New York
The SpectatorBy ALAN BRIEN MANHATTAN means sky- scrapers, as everybody knows—though the word itself, originally coined to describe the top triangular sail of a yacht, and now so New...