NEWS OF THE WEEK WEE ate 1 W. an I ON )ail ssio rner ham 2,6 an lS ten iAS tvo dtio con. F 194. R.SE. F sday den ran hibi rth Lie Cr tha k 0, T HE Government has not...

The occupation of Japan is proceeding smoothly. Elaborate precautions were taken by the Allied commanders to guard against Japanese treachery or indiscipline, but there has been...

At last the Spanish Government has been ordered to quit the international zone of Tangier, which it seized in 1940 and brought under exclusively Spanish control on the...

Some weeks ago General de Gaulle found himself openly at variance with the Consultative Assembly over the question of the electoral system and the referendum, and since then...

No long-term programme for the miners will affect the output of the coal-mines during the approaching winter, when the position will be considerably worse than it was last...

In these times when there is a world scarcity of so many raw materials it is a relief to know that there is at least one essential commodity of which there is more than...

If the United States is unwilling to take severe punitive action against the commanding officers who failed to take adequate measures for the defence of Pearl Harbour in 1941,...

T is significant, and a little discouraging, that the fact that the I Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Organisation has for some time been in session in London is, in...

repre- sentatives in the Middle East—is already gathering at the Foreign Office at the Foreign Minister's behest. The senior of them is Lord Killearn, British Ambassador in...

he is making satisfactory progress—is particularly unfortunate at this moment, when the important Committee on Procedure is about to begin its sittings. Mr. Davies, in view of...

the evidences that we are a real democracy, a community governed by its own consent. Two incidents of very different kinds have brought that home to me in the last few days. One...

Relations Officer of Erik was writing to The Times pointing to a visit to Germany of Donald Wolfit's company, under the auspices of Ensa, as a proof of Ensa's virtues,...

at the foot of a high block of flats in Westminster. The tragedy caused a heavy run on synonyms in the offices of our primmer daily papers. The Evening Standard described the...

R ATHER disturbing news reaches me from Holland about the growing feeling in that country at the non-return of Dutch pro- perty of various kinds plundered by the Germans. No...

By DAVID CAIRNS, C.F. W HEN the Allied armies broke into Germany in the spring of this year they found in the German Church a situation that could only be understood in the...

By H. D. WALSTON T F the British farmer is to satisfy the consumer he must produce j more food ; to satisfy the farm-worker he must pay higher wages ; to satisfy himself and...

By AN VIIIth ARMY OFFICER LONG Italy's northern frontiers today recent history can be read on the signposts and milestones. Over the doors of the ,mall hotels in the South...

By EWART SWANSTON D URING the days of rumour and recrimination that followed the fall of Singapore in February, 1942, there came into being a legend, as partial explanation of...

By JOZEF BANASIK d M UCH space has been given lately in the press to what is known as the Polish question. It is significant that this problem should have attracted attention...

to be sent overseas. This will enable copies of The Spectator to be forwarded to friends of our readers, both civilians and those in the Forces, in any part of the world, except...

am well aware that the poets and the novelists do not, as Aristotle observed, " create what they create by taking thought ; but owing rather to natural temperament and in a mood...

should thus realise that time is measured, not by the amount of seconds it absorbs, but by the intensity of experience it contains ; and that unless he can communicate to his...

" about his own experi- ences may imagine that the problem of proportion, the actual plan, will be determined by the chronological sequence. This is an in- correct assumption....

By HAROLD NICOLSON N Sloane Square the other day I met a friend who had just been I demobilised. I asked him what he meant to do now. "Well," he answered, " as a matter of...

Sloane Square should I have encouraged or discouraged him? There are other things I might have said. I might have warned 'him of the dark days when his book would grow stale to...

THERE is a wildness still in England that will not feed In cages ; it shrinks away from touch of the trainer's hand ; Easy to kill, not easy to keep. It will not breed In a zoo...

" Rosmersholm." At the Torch Theatre. SOME time ago I had occasion to notice an excellent production by Mr. Basil Ashmore of Strindberg's Easter at the little Gateway Theatre,...

The Southerner " and " Food—Secret of the Peace." At the London Pavilion.—" Dillinger." At the Dominion and New Victoria.—" Perfect Strangers." At the Empire.—" To the Shores of...

Subscribers are reminded that notification of change of address should reach the office of The Spectator seven clear days before the alteration is to take effect.

PERIL IN PALESTINE SIR,—Brigadier Longrigg's article in your issue of August 31st gives, by means of selection and omission, a distorted view of the Palestine problem as well...

MONSIEUR LE DIRECTEUR,—Daps une lettre publiee par Le Spectator le 31 aout, le capitaine David S. J. Alexander se plaint que les Francais n'aient pas " yet realised that the...

" peril in Palestine," it is an alarmist article like that of Brigadier Longrigg, with its exaggera- tions and misrepresentations. He alleges that " for twenty-five years the...

Sm,—Janus's recent paragraph about the revival of Rhodes Scholarships may possibly give rise to some misunderstanding. As soon as the European war ended the Rhodes Trustees made...

Sta,—As a man who has made every effort in his power to get the present Government returned, I confess to slight irritation at the rather supercilious treatment, it is receiving...

Sm,—As a University voter, I hardly think that Mr. Humphreys's con- clusions about the present system of University voting are warranted. As far as I can judge, the change in...

to all aspects of bird behaviour, I should be grateful if you would allow me space to reply to the various points raised by Mr. James Fisher in his review of my book The...

Sut,—One of your readers, at least, is grateful for the detailed explanation of P.R. given by the Secretary of the P.R. Society in your last issue. One point in connection with...

StR,—It is difficult to see how the price of a house sold by public auction can be controlled by legislation. Surely it is the public who are forcing prices to an abnormal level...

A SUCCESSION of ingenious leaflets is published at intervals by Mr. Orwin and his team from the excellent Agricultural Economic School at Oxford. In the latest appear statistics...

SIR,—In his " Marginal Comment " of August 3 r st , Mr. Harold Nicolson says: " In the course of a single day the electors of this island were able, by the use of the secret...

SIR, —As fast as housing accommodation becomes available in London it i' requisitioned by the Borough Councils to house first families who have been bombed out of their homes...

That beautiful bush, which we ought to call Cydonia, not Pirus, Japonica is this year unusually full of fruit, some of it of a large size. It is worth while making it into...

SIR,—The comradeship of the Forces is one of the few good things that grew out of the conditions of war, and it will be one of the first to be missed by Service people coming...

The oddity of a robin building in a blackbird's nest was recorded last week. This week by accident I came upon the following passage in Trevelyan's Life of Lord Grey: "There are...

War has certainly taught our people, even emigrants from towns, the worth of the kindly fruits of the earth Almost every cottage household has taken advantage of the bumper crop...

A correspondent, a woman landworker, is grieved at the suggestion that the cutter-and-binder has taken all severity of labour out of harvesting. Doubtless she has ended a long...

Dickens Charles Dickens. By Una Pope-Hennessy. (Chatto and Windus. 21s.) A NEW assessment of Dickens was wanted. In spite of all that has been written about him, he has been...

MR. WILSON writes about this intricate subject with ease and just a touch of cynicism. His charts and figures denote meticulous care in their compilation and are helpful in...

THE Housing Census of 1921 gave the number of houses in England and Wales as 7,979,000. The number in 1939 was about 11,200,000, and of these Dr. Elsas estimates that 3,300,000...

Equinox. By Allan Seager. (Heinemann. 10s. 6d.) CHAOS—a state of chaos makes the common background for each of these three long novels. Allan Seager, the gifted young American...

The Road to the West: Soviet War Poems chosen and translated by Alan Moray Williams and Vivian de Sola Pinto. (Frederick Muller. 5-..) THIS collection of sixty Soviet war poems...

Gaelic in Scottish Education and Life. By John Lorne Campbell. (Johnston (Edinburgh) for the Saltire Society. 3s. 6d.) ABOUT a subject which easily arouses sentiment, Mr. J. L....

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[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, September 18th....

By CUSTOS IT is now becoming clear that in the next few months the words " reasonable net maintainable revenue " are going to assume a real significance for investors. For some...

AN admirably produced book containing facsimile reproductions of the contents of two sketch books filled by Henry Moore, the well- known sculptor, with drawings of people and...

(Methuen 15s.) Tim book deserves serious attention, and it is to be hoped that when the promised second volume appears there will be sufficient paper available for justice to be...