The Case of Neo-Nazism By ERNST FRIEDLAENDER M R. MORRISON recently visited Germany, and his impressions proved very helpful when he had to reply to questions in the House of...

In the Garden It is work from morning until night now if one is to keep eerything trim; beds hoed, seedlings free of vermin, lawns cut, banks tidy, greenhouses ordered with a...

In the Hop-Gardens Even if you go to the back-doors of the cottages during these bum,, weeks of June, you will get no answer, for the women are out in thc hop-gardens for the...

By Job! SIR,-The Spectator's Notebook for May 25th contains some speculation about Paul Hoffman's remark, in his new book, that " armaments do not spring into being ready-made...

General Aspects Wandering about in the lanes and over fields I note the idiosyncrasies of this belated season, after the dreary winter, and with the north wind still siffling...

COUNTRY LIFE IT is the practice in this part of the country to seal up front-dour. Many a cottage will show to the road an cntrance-porch covered il creeper, behind which...

Cryptogram Gone Wrong SIR,-May I suggest that in the near future there be a Spectator competition in which a prize is offered for the best description of the mental processes...

A History of English SIR.-I have to thank Mr. Vulliamy for his entertaining review of John W. Clark's and my A History of British and American English since 1900. but in...

A more tvpical child is There is AnoIther Suit. a good. down-to- earth yet imaginative film starring MNessrs. Maxwell Reed and Laurence Harvey and Miss Susan Shaw. It concerns...

Descendant GREAT-GRAs~nrDs was a tinker. I earn ten pounds a day. One poor, one rich. But who is which ? And is black white, or grey ? I have a glossy motor And wads of £ s. d....

MUSIC STRAVINSKY'S small cantata Babel was given its first European performance on May 30th, when it was included in the programme of the Morley College concert at the Royal...

The Fall of Dr. Browne SIR.-Your Eire correspondent drops out the essential link in the riand fall of Dr. Browne, the controversial "mother and child" schlec promoted by him as...

Probate Delays SIR,-There is considerable ioom for improvement in the granting of probate for small estates. As a layman 1 have been concerned in the administration of two In...

Interpolated Aitches SIR,-Mr. St. John Ervine confidently, and heatedly, asserts that the interpolated aitch is so rare in England, today that it is practically extinct. That...

Animal Communication I SIR,-I have just received the Spectator of April 6th, in which Janus aISM for instances of animals communicating with one another. As a child on a farm...

SIR,-NlIr. St. John Ervine's clever letter reminds me of a story which was current over forty years ago, when the names of the first four batsmen in the Surrey XI began with...

Braunton Burrows SIR,-I imagine that the antiquary's pulse beats faster as he comes in sight of the Roman Wall, the student of architecture's as he approaches York Minster....

HAIR-SPLITTING OR ACTION? T HERE have been few episodes in modern diplomacy (if anything so protracted can be termed an episode) more unedifying than the thirteen-weeks'...

American Fifth Army Commander Calculated Risk. By Gcncral Mark Clark. (Harrap. 22s. 6d.) GENERAL CLARKc, formerly commander of the American Fifth Army, is comparatively late...

Mid-Victorian Patchwork The Day Before Yesterday. By J. W. Robertson Scott. (Methluen . 2 Is.) A PUBLISHER'S advertisement informs me that a critical confr~re has said of a...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Health and the Child SIR.-The comments of your correspondent Dr. Elliston are timely, and his plea for " a re-orientation of the health services"...

Darker Americans? SIR.-! entirely share your Californian correspondent's words: "As to the pigmentation of our remote descendants. I decline to worry: the danger of there not...

Comments on America SIR,-" You may not realise that the Middle West of this country represents a larger portion of those who have longest lived ancestrally in the U.S.A." So...

New Zealand's Constitution SIR.-I am indeed sorry that the author of the article Australia Keeps Right in your issue of Junc 1st should be incorrect in his statements about the...

How to Treat with Persia SIR.-I yield to no one in my admiration for Nir. Harold Nicolson, whose writings and talks have given me much pleasure and profitable instruction. But...

Making Ends Meet: I By A RETIRED HEADMASTER " Contracta inelius parva cupidine vecligalia porrigam." I SHALL make my small income go further by reducing my wants." So Horace,...

Less Fighting-More Diplomacy At this moment there are reasons for expecting a fairly long pause in the-fighting in Korea. For, despite General Van Fleet's warning that the...

JAPANESE QUESTIONS CERTAIN number of questions concerning the Japanese peace treaty had been settled before Mr. John Foster Dulles came to London for his present talks with the...

Enmilia Stays Red B. ELIZABETH WVISKEMA NN Bologna ITALY is in the midst of a series of local elections, which wvill hase covered the wvhole contIlry by the end of this year....

Loudon, Robinson, Farrer Some4Ninetecth Century Gardeners. By Geoffrey Taylor. (Skeff- ington. 9s. 6d.) GARDENING is the most characteristic British occupation and, with...

Fiction The Sixth Column. By Peter Fleming. (Hart-Davis. gs. 6d.) Diplomat's Folly. By Henry Wade. (Constable. zos. 6d.) River Out of Eden. By Jack Jones. (Hamish...

I gather that a good many more questions are likely to be asked about the activities ot the Colonial Ievelopment uorporation yet. There are, for example, what are commonly...

Last week I promised further light on the Rise of the House of Thomond. Here it is. To begin with, " An official copy of the CONSTITUTION OF Till PRINCIPALITY OF TIIOMOND can...

The appearance this week of the fourth volume of The Life of Joseph Chamberlain represents a new chapter in a strange literary episode. Chamberlain died in 1914. Early in 1915...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK PLENTY of speculation about the succession to the Speakership of the House of Commons has found expression in the Press in the last few weeks. Colonel...

"Silently as the spring-time Its crown of verdure weaves," (misquoted from memory) another W'ho's Who arrives to coma pensate us for the failure of spring to do her duty before...

Shorter Notices Volume The Third. By Jane Austen. (Clar- endon Press. 8s. 6d.) To have to comment on a new novel by Jane Austen must inspire the reviewer with dreadful awe....

The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, The Sparkling Stone and The Book of Supreme Truth. By John of Ru-sbrocck. Transl.att d from the Flemish by C.. A. Wynsh'lenk Dom. Edited...

The Novel, 1945-1950. By 1'. H. Ncwvby. I Illust rated. (Longmans, for the British I COUcil. 2s. 6d.) Titus Brilish Council publication follows an - essay by Mr. Henry Reed...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON OME two weeks ago upon this page I wrote an article about the links of intimacy forged between oneself and such inanimate objects as have...

Trouble in Greece The squall which has blown up in Greece over the SUddcn resignation of Field Marshal Papagos, the Commander-in-Chicf, may possibly have a good result. While...

Same Old Saar - The banning by the Saar Government of the Democratic Party was not an act of political wisdom even if, as is alleged, the party disliked the constitution of the...

Yugoslav Justice Since its revolt against the tyranny of Stalinism, Tito's YLuoslavia has made a few tentative steps towards dcmocracy as it is generally understood in the...

Talking Oil The principle has now been accepted by both sides that oil is a subject on which Englishmen and Persians may usefully exchange views. But if the principle is...

The Future of Kenya It is encouraging that the statement made by the Ccliulal Secretary last week on the future of Kenya has been Se reed received in the colony.itself. - The...

In comparison with this, Happy Go Lovely, one of Engandd S[ rare attempts at a lavish musical, is about as crisp as blancnimngcAlthough Mr. Bruce Humberstone has been imported...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE "The Merry Wives of Windsor." By William Shakespeare. (Old Vic.) Tmis is one of Mr. Hugh Hunt's productions, and it has the mark of his good sense,...

"sThe York Cycle of Mystery Plays." (York.) THE York cycle of mystery plays was revived at York last Sunday before a large and appreciative audience which included the Prime...

CINEMA " On thc Riviera." (Odcon.)--Em Happy Go Lovely." (Wainer.) " There is Another Sun." (Gaurnont and Marble Ardi Pavilion.) IN his latest picture, Ott the Riviera, Mr....

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE Peace and Quiet By DAVID WAINWRIGHT (St. Edmund Hall, Oxford) T HERE is, in Oxford, a garden which few seem to know about; there are seldom more than...

"c And If We Fail-" Ashes to Ashes: A Post-Mortem on the i9So-Si Tests. By Rlx Warner and Lyle Blair. (MacGibbon and Kee. 6s.) IN other days I can imagine an exchange of...

The Old Vic's Affairs The announcement that Mr. Tyronc Guthrie has accepted an invitation to "manage" the Old Vic brings down the curtain on a highly involved tragi-comedy in...

AT WESTMINSTER A T last the spring seems to have broken in this Parliament.< Since the House of Commons returned from the Whitsun 11 holiday it has fallen into a pronounced...

Mrs. Humphry Ward and "Robert Elsmere"' Bk JANET TREVELYAN I1T is just a hundred years since the birth of my mother, Mrs. Humphry Ward. As it is usual, when centenaries occur,...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS SLOWLY and now on appropriately selective lincs the advance in equity shares continues. To see matters in perspective it is worth noting that...

Reviews of the Week The English At Leisure English Life and Leisure. By Seebohm Rowntree and G. R. Lavers. (Longmans. X Ss.) SixnY years ago Charles Booth inaugurated a new...