Sir Arthur Eddington Philosophises The Philosophy of Physical Science. By Sir Arthur Edding- ton. (Cambridge University Press. 8s. 6d.) SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON'S new book-a...

Books of the Day War in the Snow Finland's War of Independence. By Lieut.-Col. J. 0. Hannula. With an introduction by General Sir Walter M. St. G. Kirke, G.C.B., C.M.G.,...

WHERE WILL RUSSIA STOP? THE antecedents and the technique of the Russian attack on Finland are by this time matters of no more than academic interest. Russia, for her own...

More Children's Books The Radium Woman. By Eleanor boorly. Woodcuts by Robert Gibbings. (Heinemann. 4s. 6d.) The Mind of the Bees. By Julien Franqon. kMethuen. 6s.) The...

Now that a secret session of the House of Commons is I definitely fixed for next week, some misgivings about the secrecy of it seem to be felt. That is not surprising. Lord...

" A very great man died last week," someone said to me on Tuesday, " and he has gone too little noticed." That may be true so far as the obituaries of Wilfred Trotter in the...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK TAAM not surprised that the treatment of German submarine prisoners and the crews of scuttled ships should be provoking some discussion. When a number...

The port of Gdynia, I see it stated, is to be renamed I Hitlershaven. If that means anything like singeing the King | of Spain's beard I hope he will be. JANUS.

I have been greatly cheered to observe the alacrity with I which, during the last few weeks, my favourite characters in pictorial advertising have hurried to join the forces....

The Archbishop of York's important letter on War Aims in Monday's Daily Telegraph contained one sentence on which I hope he may be disposed to reflect a little further. " It...

A last word on Bolivar. Two correspondents, for whose I letters I am grateful, give authoritative reasons for deciding that, as I suggested, the accent should be on the second...

AMERICA WAGES NEUTRALITY By ERWIN D. CANHAM Washington, November THE United States is beginning to learn what the experts knew all along: that the road of administered...

Biography for More Advanced Students Little Madam. By Janet Mackay. (Bell. I5S.) THE public demand for biography continues and seems likely to increase, while the standard of...

An Anglo-Austrian Rejoinder Profits, Interest and Investment. By F. A. von Hayek. (Rout- ledge. 6s.) IF that part of the public which, at whatever distance, follows economic...

PEOPLE AND THINGS By HAROLD NICOLSON THE late Lord Balfour was bored by everybody except musicians and his own family. Being a man of courteous instincts he would try to...

Such was (and is) my love and admiration for that great man that I for long regarded the arabesques with which he decorated reality as both exquisite and wise. I am not so sure...

Every day one is faced by some recognition of a necessity coupled with hesitation to adopt the required measures in an extreme form. It is obvious, for instance, that some...

I can recall a conversation which took place on Wednes- day, May 7th, i919, upon the day after the draft Treaty of Versailles had been for the first time discussed in plenary...

We hesitate also to foresee and cope with the inevitable divergence which is bound to arise between our peace aims and those of the French. I regret that so few of our...

I recall these two conversations since They seem to me symptomatic of our national frame of mind. We flatter ourselves that we are realistic, when in fact we are only...

MRS. CHESTERTON IN RUSSIA SIR,-Your correspondent V. V. Tchernavin asks how I succeeded " in entering the homes of ' the toiling masses ' in U.S.S.R. and in sharing their...

HOLLAND'S SERVICE SIR,-As the author of a long-since out-of-print book on the rural life and industry and defence system of Holland, I should like to stress the deep sympathy...

I' ORCHARD'S BAY " SIR,-Mr. Graham Greene's review of Mr. Alfred Noves' Orchard's Bay in your issue of November 24th (which has only just come to my notice) seems to me...

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WAR SIR,-Could " Strategicus " enlighten us on the following points connected with the war? (I) Inasmuch as any bombing attack we should be called upon to...

Humour Between the gay New Yorker Album and The Pick o0 Punch, partisans of the two papers from which they are compiled may choose. Mr. Bentley's Second Thoughts, being verses...

Books for Christmas The selection from the season's new books given on the next two pages has been made, in response to requests, with the object of assisting the choice of...

The Arts The Furniture Designs of Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton, reproducing the original design books of these three great masters of English furniture, and a most...

At Home and Abroad Of the books on the English country the most distinguished have been Mr. Massingham's on decaying crafts in English husbandry, Mr. Porteous's on life on a...

France and War-Aims The addresses delivered to the French Chamber, and subsequently by radio to the French nation, by M. Daladier last week might have been more fully reported...

War Principles I The statement on what we may perhaps agree to call our war principles by Lord Halifax in the House of Lords on Tuesday was admirably firm and elevated in tone....

Active Economic Warfare I An item of news of some importance appeared in Monday's papers. From Istanbul it is reported that the British and French Governments (acting in this,...

The Net Round Germany I We do not yet know how far Germany may be able to find substitutes for her oversea trade, but there is not the least doubt about the losses she has...

Germany's Petrol One of the major factors in any calculations regarding the duration of the war is Germany's command of petrolsupplies. It is a subject on which authoritative...

The War at Sea Mr. Churchill's statement on the war at sea in the House of Commons on Wednesday was definitely encouraging, but it must be read in the light of certain...

Food for Christmas There is no reason why the buying of food for the Christmas season should be stinted, but " patriots," says Mr. Lennox-Boyd, Parliamentary Secretary to the...

Lord Nuffield's Gift for Hospitals Lord Nuffield has chosen a good moment for his munificent gift of a million ordinary shares of Morris Motors, Limited, towards the creation...

Higher Pay for the Unemployed The Government have accepted the recommendations of the Unemployment Assistance Board to increase the scale of payments to the unemployed who are...

Employment and Unemployment The unemployment figures for November I3th reveal a slight improvement as compared with the previous month, and probably Mr. Ernest Brown, the...

Plans for Post-W\ar Reconstruction Mr. Arthur Greenwood moved an Opposition amendment to tho Address which would have been admirable if it had been more restricted in scope and...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS STOCK markets are becoming increasingly selective and the . I . . - . , I task of selection gets more and more difficult. The real trouble is...

BARCLAYS (D.C.O.) PROGRESS Like the home banking institutions, Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) shows substantial movements in its first post-war balance-sheet...

CARRERAS' £2,000,000 PROFIT Experience has shown that in good and bad times alike the tobacco companies fare pretty well. There was some surprise in the City, all the same,...

WALTER SPENCER AND COMPANYI FURTHER STEADY PROGRESS WORKS FULLY EMPLOYED THE third ordinary annual general meeting of Walter Spencer and Company, Limited, was held on...

NEWS OF THE WEEK BAD weather combined with the astonishing courage and resource of the Finns has prevented any serious advance cl the Russians into Finnish territory so far,...

Threatened Neutrals A new campaign of menace, directed from both Berlin and Moscow, is in progress. Its objects include Holland Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Rumania. Against...

Commonwealth and Foreign FRANCE'S WAR-TIME ECONOMY By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBFRLIN Paris. THE war found French economy in a state of substantial recovery from the confusion and...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT (Continuing fromn page 846) BRITISH CELANESE IMPROVEMENT Shareholders in British Celanese have been well schooled in being patient. So often has this...

AUSTRALIA'S ECONOMIC PROSPECTS Mr. S. M. Ward's review of the economic position in Australia contains interesting reading for a much wider circle than the shareholders of the...

HIGHER SHIPPING FREIGHTS Tramp shipowners have gained a substantial concession in the new scales of freight rate announced this week for homeward cargoes bound to this country....

ENGINEERS' EXPANSION Since its incorporation as a public company in 1937 the old established Sheffield speed-tool makers, Walter Spencer and Co., have gone steadily ahead. For...

- EMMIES " IN TRANSITION It is apparent from Mr. Alfred Clark's review at the annual meeting of Electric and Musical Industries that this undertaking, like so many others, is...

AN ANGLO-FRENCH FEDERATION SIR,-There is a story of a lady who, travelling in the Rhineland, was congratulated by her German friends because, for a foreigner, she was able to...

THE LATEST ANTI-JEWISH HORROR SIR,-Mr. Villard's article on Hitler's Lublin scheme in your issue of December ist assembles in one appalling picture facts confirmed from many...

Literary The two latest Nonesuch books, though the Carroll has been rather capriciously compiled, both make excellent presents. Mr. Hone's book will please anyone interested in...

Christmas Cards With the exception of those from Batsford's and the British Museum, the Christmas cards this year are a rather undistinguished lot. The Museum has published...

Biography and History History and biography between them have produced far more than their proper share of the best books of the season, and to judge between them is unusually...

Public Affairs Mr. Carr's essay on international affairs during the last two decades is undoubtedly the outstanding book under this heading, though if the precedent of the...

THE EAR OF BRITAIN By PHILIP FRANK ONE way of seeing the B.B.C. as it is-few of us listen all day and every day-is to analyse a week's programmes as set out in the Radio...

EMERGENCY SCHOOL By J. R. H. MOORMAN FRIDAY, September ist, will be remembered as the day on which an army of German soldiers invaded Poland and an army of English town...

STAGE AND SCREEN BALLET Intimate Variety THE Arts Theatre Club has been reconstituted as a centre for balletomanes. It will not wholly abandon the work it has done for other...

THE CINEMA -In Name Only." At the Gaumont. THIS is a well-made depressing little picture of unhappy marriage. It is often sentimental, but the general impression which...

THE PROBLEM OF BLOOD PRESSURE By OUR MIEI)ICAL CORRESPONDENT DURING the last decade or so, and perhaps particularly in times of private or national strain such as the present,...

WHAT LISTENERS WANT IN an article on a later page an industrious statistician analyses in detail a week's broadcasting programmes as set out in the Radio Times. He has prepared...

THE TRIUMPH OF ART By HENRY W. N1INSON AMONG all the distress and apprehension of the present war, I think artists in all the arts may find comfort in an episode recalled from...

THE FATE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SIR,-All who value the contribution of the public schools to our national life regard with sympathy and concern the struggle for survival in...

SHOULD THE MIDDLE-CLASS SURVIVE? SIR,-The author of "Should the Middle-Class Survive?" seems to think of and define the middle-class in terms of income. If taxation reduces the...

WELDING THE ALLIANCE SIR,-The article under the above heading in The Spectator of November 24th does not go far enough. The world is moving too fast for the old-fashioned...

THE ALTERNATIVES BEFORE SOCIETY SIR,-Mr. Henry Savage's letter is an excellent example of just that lack of intellectual respect for Christian doctrine which Mr. T. S. Eliot...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a...

THE ALLIES' WAR AIMS SIR,-The Master of Balliol in your last issue wisely states that "we ought to do a great deal to avoid a fight to the finish." You, Sir, go even further...

ART Country Church Visiting EVACUATED gallery-and museum-goers, feeling rather lost in muddy December lanes, would do well to comfort themselves by visiting some country...

A Rhodesian Experience A long letter from Rhodesia has some interesting news concerning a reference of mine to French gardening and the value of composts, that "blessed word"...

Popular Pips It is surprising that so few p 'ol)c, either profiSi)IMal or amateur, trouble to sow apple pips. TIhev germillate vcry readily-wo long as they are kept...

Winter Birds While the " indications of spring," dear to the old diarists, are many, even in tile midst of winter, countrv folk are foretelling an unusually hard winter on the...

COUNTRY LIFE Winter's Spring One little garden on the coast of North Devon is brilliant with the blossom of gorse, bush veronica and (of all things) valerian. Yet more...

Life in Kent Country Notes. By V. Sackville-West. (Michael Joseph. ios. 6d.) THIS book, lavishly decorated by photographs whose charm and value have been almost obliterated...

New Novels The Adventures of Hiram Holliday. By Paul Gallico. (Michcel Joseph. 7s. 6d.) Before Lunch. By Angela Thirkell. (Hamish Hamilton. 7s. 6d.) My American. By Stella...

THE WAY TO SPEND By HONOR CROOME I" F you can't help, at least don't hinder "-the phrase comes back to mind from one's childhood years, as relevant to the winning of wars as...

THE WAR SURVEYED : FINLAND AND BEYOND By STRATEGICUS IN a conversation with Moreau, Napoleon once insisted that the big army must always overcome the small, and he met an...

Soviet Enigma I Was Stalin's Agent. By W. G. Krivitsky. (Hamish Hamilton. ios. 6d.) IN April and May of this year a series of articles in the wellknown American magazine, the...

THE SPECTATOR No. I3 COMPETITIONS AN eminent landscape-gardener of the eighteenth century is remembered by posterity under the title of " Capability" Brown. Prizes of book...

Three Travellers Hinterland Liberia. By Etta Donner. (Blackie. 12S. 6d.) Wanderings in the Peruvian Andes. By Dr. A. M. Renwick. (Blackie. ios. 6d.) Unknown to the...

COMPANY MEETING ENGLISH, SCOTTISH AND AUSTRALIAN BANK INCREASE IN GROSS PROFITS SOUND POSITION OF THE COMMONWEALTH | MR. S. M. WARD'S ADDRESS THE 47th ordinary general...

Shakespeare as Interpreter The Ages of Man. Shakespeare's Image of Man and Nature. Arranged by George Rylands. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) THE blurb on the dust-wrapper, with its...

WIMSEY PAPERS-IV By DOROTHY L. SAYERS [These extracts from the war-time letters and papers of the WiVmlsey family appear weekly in TIRE SPECTATOR] 7. Extracts from the...

Henson Agonistes ii The Church of England. By Herbert Hensley Hanson. (Cambridge University Press. 7s. 6d.) IN i909 a book was published with the intriguing title, Modern...