COUNTRY LIFE A Tree-Creeper's Home Th- ingenious naturalist who is the chief overseer of the Hird sanctuary at the Whipsnade Zoo, practises a device that ?.. sanctuary keepers...

* * * * In the Garden It is as well to remember in a garden where annuals are freely grown that the florists have studied habit and size as well as colour. The most beautiful...

Tit Janitors What sort of a hole has your nesting box tor tits? No many people have reported by pen or voice that their tiLt have spent days and indeed weeks in pecking at the...

The Ideal Zoo The Zoo, which is being developed with great skill, expressed in the obvious contentment of the animals, maintains its English atmosphere! There is the soft,...

Farmhouse Holidays Farmers sometimes complain that they are not more popular, but the popularity of the farmhouse holiday refutes them. In some counties, especially Devon and...

Science at St. Albans That excellent society which suffers under the title of " The South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies" has done so much new and original work in...

Italian or English? The most expert bee-keeper of my neighbourhood spent the better part of a long day recently in seeking out the queens; and the fidelity of their nurses...

The Ww x x bl The World's Fair, at any rate at night, is very beautiful. lI Probably, last week more beautiful than it will ever be, since nothing that Grover Whalen can do...

t w t k I In Wall Street (Oh, the leisurely peaceful business tempo l1 of Wall Street, compared with which our City of London efficiency is brusque and inhuman), it is...

AMERICAN FLASHES By FRANCIS GOWER 11 PICKED up a taxi outside the Ritz-Carlton and told the I driver the number on Wall Street. He swung dexter- ously across the traffic to...

In Washington I called on America's shrewdest political observer. It was a friendly visit and nothing was further from my mind than that I should write about what he told me,...

EXTINCTION OF FOXES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-My attention has been called to a statement In your issue of June 2nd, I939, inferring that this League is in favour...

GERMAN KINDNESS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-The letter of Anne Kennington headed "An Incident in Germany " (The Spectator, May 26th) moves me to relate another...

VARIOUS MATTERS [To the Editor of T1 SPEcrATOR] SIR,-I am an uneducated ignoramus, my school education (literally) cost one farthing per week-from age 7 to xi, when I left to...

UNWANTED PENGUINS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sni,-Some months ago, you will recall, " Janus " asked for addresses for the despatch of " Penguin " books which were more or...

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S SPEECHES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Your reviewer, like your correspondent, Mr. G. L. Jones, seems much perplexed by the publication of this...

ST. DAVID'S HEAD [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-In your issue of the i9th a correspondent takes Sir W. Beach Thomas to task about Pembrokeshire, and in doing so makes a...

Those sensible people who have sometimes observed that it would be just as rational to settle international disputes on a football-field as on a battlefield may be disposed to...

* * * * " Now I must report to you that we have spent a very peaceful week-end at our country home here, and that I had my first swim this year out of doors. It was cold but...

Mr. A. P. Herbert has already a striking record of Parlia- mentary achievement to his credit, and I shall be surprised if his campaign against the incorporation of the Oxford...

The news that Mrs. Hoster was dead must have wakened personal memories in many hundreds of London officesand a great deal further afield than that. The politicians and editors...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK THE protest made in the House of Commons against the appointment of Lord Hankey as British member of the Permanent Mandates Commission at Geneva is...

The Birthday Honours seem to be much as usual. ThrL 2 names out of the mass catch the eye-of Max Beerbohi:,. who gets a knighthood, of Dr. G. P. Gooch, and of P, J. J. Mallon,...

* * * * The riddle remains. It was borne in on me forcibly the other day when I set out from the Bassin a Flot at Boulogne, through the lock gates and out into the pool. The...

It do not say that my suspicions had not been aroused. I They had. Yet I argued as follows: -(i) That label is either authentic or else a forgery. If the latter, it is a...

I observed incidentally that the dour inhabitants of the Pas de Calais adopt towards the international situation an attitude of resigned and unquestioning fortitude such as one...

aws I I My cautionary tale is as follows. Some months ago I received a letter from a man styling himself a Captain' in the British Navy. He stated that his grandfather had...

I do not intend this week to discuss any political question. || The feast of Pentecost has passed under cloudless skies: the House of Commons on Monday met again in no holiday...

PEOPLE AND THINGS By HAROLD NICOLSON LO EVERY country, they say, has its north. Sailing from Boulogne to the Solent this week I was reminded of the truth of this apophthegmn....

I am assured by the geodetists, the ethnologists and the geopoliticians that these differences are nothing more than deliberate forms of belief; that if they exist, they are...

* * * * Labour Party tactics often cause despair. On Tuesday, I on the Unemployment Insurance Bill, Mr. Dingle Foot moved s a new clause of great importance. Government by...

The first storm on our meeting was over Spain. I I . _ 11 -- _ .- ^_A A AIc_-Ath.t t h' im n There 'r1-1 ian is no doubt at all, as Mr. Greenwood said, that tne impressluil in...

* * * * The debate on the Ministry of Labour estimates suffered, as much of the business has done, from the weather. i nere was a very scanty attendance to listen for...

The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: The House met again after the holidays in the shadow of the 'Thetis' disaster. Mr. Chamberlain's statement, and,...

I217i and the Suez Canal 1 i speech delivered by the Chairman, M. le Marquis de at the annual general meeting of the Suez Canal Co. av nvs board of directors, was naturally...

I Funds for the Farmer The subsidy for the ploughing of inferior grassland is Me most publicised feature of the new Agricultural Development Bill, but it is not the only new...

11I Emplovment and the Unemployed Last month's fall of 152,I12 in the numbers of registered unemployed makes cheerful reading, but cheerfulness is qualified by the...

GERMANS BY RACE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Mr. Hill is quite right, but not very helpful. The phrase to which he objects was not mine, but Sir John Simon's, who...

LABOUR AND CONSCRIPTION [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Those of the not inconsiderable number of your colonial and foreign readers who are unfamiliar with our...

STAMPING REVIEW COPIES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Mr. L. A. G. Strong, in a review of Mr. de la Mare's Behold This Dreamer, expresses himself " shocked that a...

DEMOCRACY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-The heading of Mr. Ensor's review of Sir Arthur Salter's book in your columns a few weeks ago is Can Democracy Defend Itself?...

ENGLAND AND THE EMPIRE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-In The Spectator of May 26th we read " This country is enjoying the unusual experience of having had two English...

THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND LIBERALISM [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-I quite agree with your correspondent who deplores the lack of a strong and effective Opposition capable...

THE FIGHING MAN'S PAY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] S,- One does not expect to read in The Spectator's columns an ex parte article such as that by Commander Grenfell. On the...

WISDOM FROM THE EAST [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Can one wonder why the dictators call England decadent and sneer that we will fight to the last Frenchman when one...

NEWS OF THE WEEK AT no moment in post-War history could the visit of a British sovereign to the United States be more oppor- tune than it is today. Both nations are facing...

* * * Herr Hitler's Hate Few of Herr Hitler's speeches have branded him as the irresponsible demagogue so decisively as the two he has delivered this week. Both were violently...

*R* * * Russian Treaty Delays Both Mr. Chamberlain's statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday and an article appearing in the Moscow paper Pravda the same day confirm the...

STAGE AND SCREEN OPERA Verdi and Shakespeare IT was possible last week to hear on consecutive nights Verdi's two Shakespearian tragedies, Otello at Covent Garden and...

THE CINEMA "1 The Storv of Vernon and Irene Castle." At the New Gallery. -La Femme du Boulanger." At the Berkeley. IT'S no use going to the new Astaire-Rogers film in a...

A HEROINE OVER-AGE Claire Clairmont: Mother of Byron's Allegra. By R. Glynn GryUs. (Murray. ios. 6d.) THE name of Claire Clairmont is famous, but the woman herself is...

DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDY Madhouse for the Million. The Crisis of Civilisation. By G. F. Morton. (Jarrolds. 8s. 6d.) HERE is a schoolmaster who refuses to remain indifferent to...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT THE City is doing its best to keep cheerful, and is achieving a fair measure of success. Of good economic news there is enough and to spare-the May...

ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT YIELDS Having tried hard earlier this year to persuade investors to switch from Associated Electrical Industries Ci Ordinaries into English Electric and...

BRAZIL DEBT DEVELOPMENTS II In these days the foreign bond market has to be content with small mercies ; hence its " satisfaction " at the House of Commons announcement that...

* * * * A GOOD INDUSTRIAL Since the preliminary figures were issued a fortnight ago the LI units of Ruston and Hornsby, the manufacturers of gas, oil and Diesel engines, &c.,...

"TILL SEPTEMBER " FOR a fortnight or more we have been enjoying to a degree rare in this capricious climate the unclouded glories of an English summer. Sunlight, foliage,...

THE GOSPELS RE-READ By C. E. M. JOAD OD [An article on " What I Find in the Gospels," by H. G. Wood, will appear in next week's SPECTATOR.] 1l LIKE many another of my...

MOTORING A Lucky Holiday Although it seems to have passed almost unnoticed one of the most remarkable features of the Whhtsuntide holiday was the broadcast on all three...

Land's End There will probably be charabancs and ginger-beer stalls, picture post-cards, and litter when you go down through the length of England to her last outpost, but they...

The LookOut Man From the moment when you leave the car and walk to the edge that overlooks the Atlantic you are alone. There is nothing left in the world but those jagged rocks...

The Big Ford There was something very genuine about the V-8 30-h.p. Ford I drove over my trial route the other day, a hearty quality which appealed to me with a good deal of...

Is Driving Improving? It was certainly very good news, but at the risk of being written down a pessimist I think one should remember that the paucity of accidents must in part...

Sturdy Simplicity There are no more frills on the 1939 Ford than there were on Lizzie herself. She was that remarkable phenomenon in those days, a 20-h.p. car selling at the...

Rollicking Efficiency The new one shows improvement on the old, principally in the steering, road-holding, and brakes. It struck me as a much steadier car than the last I...

Venturers' Corner Engineering shares are not everybody's meat, especially when profits are running at abnormally high levels, but there are obvious speculative opportunities in...

MALAccA RUBBER PLANTATIONS " I regret that I am unable to express any particularly optimistic anticipations as to the present year's working. No industrial undertaking can be...

EVER-READY COMPANY'S PROSPECrS Any shareholders of the Ever-Ready Company (Great Britain) who have felt misgivings about the decline in profits recorded last year must have...

FINANCIAL NOTES INDUSTRIAL BOOM THE May unemployment returns confirm beyond any reasonable doubt that a quiet industrial boom is growing almost unnoticed behind the facade of...

"KEY" FLATS PROGRESS - __ I__a __' ___ -1 Armong tne many msututions wnicn are anxious to see tne Government's proposals for war-risk insurance more precisely defined is London...

MR. AMERY AND THE COLONIES The German Colonial Claim. By L. S. Amery, M.P. (Chambers. 7s. 6d.) MR. AMERY summarises the now generally accepted case against Germany's Colonial...

ECONOMIC MAN AND THE DEMONS The End of Economic 'Man. By Peter F. Drucker. (Heinernann. 8s. 6d.) THE Middle Ages were the epoch of Spiritualism ; the age of the Renaissance,...

* * * France's Strength and Weaknless Addressing the executive committee of the RadicalSocialist Party on Sunday, M. Daladier delivered yet another of those confident but...

* * Crisis in Bohemia-Moravia * * Relations between the Reich and the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia have reached a crisis which may mark yet another stage in the Czechs' loss...

Unhappy Spain This week Herr Hitler in Berlin and King Victor Emmanuel in Naples have celebrated the return of their troops from Spain. The German contingent numbered some...

* * * * Prince Paul in Germany Prince Paul, the Senior Regent of Yugoslavia, has been received in Germany with demonstrative friendliness. The most immediate aim of German...

Japan and the Powers The greatest secrecy has been preserved concerning the Cabinet consultations which have taken place in Tokyo on Japan's attitude towards the European...

TOTE DICHTER - [Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten] ZWEI Dickter sind gestorben, Kameraden des Lebens und Leidens, Gleichaltrige, Freunde, Autoren des gleichen Verlages,...

ART Spanish Pictures at Geneva EXILED by the disasters of war, the pictures from the Prado look more Spanish than they have ever looked in their life. In this liberal,...

UNEARTHING THE MIDDLE EAST Buried Empires. By Patrick Carleton. Petra, The Rock City of Edom. By M. A. Murray. (Arnold. ios. 6d.) (Blackie. ios. 6d.) WHEN a stranger comes...

THE BACKGROUND OF DICTATORSHIP Modern Dictatorship. By Diana Spearman. (Jonathan Cape. ios. 6d.) Tmus is a book about which it is difficult to resist the temptation to say...

THE PROBLEM OF NORTHERN IRELAND Ulster and the British Empire, 1939. By Henry Harrison. (Robert Hale. ios. 6d.) NOTWnIHSTANDING Mr. George O'Bricn's excellent study, The Four...

Travel HOLIDAYS IN IRELAND IF first impressions count with you, and you go to Dublin, you will see the smooth hills of Wicklow raising their lovely crests above the woods and...

BOOKS OF THE DAY Gouverncur Morris (Ciristopher Hobhouse) .. ... I004 Ulster and the British Empire (Senator Frank MacDermot) ... ... ... ... ... I005 Modern Dictatorships (W....

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...

REFORMING THE RAILWAYS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-Twenty years ago the Government of the day announced their intention of instituting fundamental reforms on the...

COMPANY MEEnNGS LONDON COUNTY FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES, LIMITED THE twenty-ninth annual general meeting of this company was held, on June ist, in London. Sir William...

COMPANY MEETING LISBON ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS RECORD TRAFFICS THE forty-first ordinary general meeting of the Lisbon Electric Tramways, Limited, was held on June 7th in Lisbon. I...

RUSSIA AS AIR FACTOR By NIGEL TANGYE THE Russian air arm can be likened to the lightning tongue of a chameleon. From the vast, mysterious body of the U.S.S.R. it can make...

THE PROSPECTS FOR LABOUR By A. P. WADSWORTH ALABOUR stocktaking after the Southport Conference is rather more cheerful than one made before it could have been. The weaknesses...

THE MYSTERY OF THE 'THETIS' THE 99 lives lost in the wreck of the submarine 'Thetis' in Liverpool Bay have given this country greater cause for grief than it has known since...

IF LOVE'S A CONDITION OF MORTALITY? THE body's lost with death, its breathing stilled, eyes resigned to blindness, dancing ended, all ministering senses gone that filled life...

ON HEARING A SYMPHONY FOLLOWED BY A POLITICAL TIRADE I HAVE heard the brass make its incisive statement, And then the singing strings with swiftness grip The theme of the...

TAX-DODGING AS AN ART By JOHN FOSTER THE discussions on the Finance Bill have been once again concerned with provisions designed to limit the activities of tax-dodgers. The...

BARRACK-ROOM SOCIALISM Hitler Calls This Living! By a member of the German Freedom Party. (Sidgwvick and Jackson. 6s.) NAZI Germany is a sphinx whose haunts are being...

Commonwealth and Foreign TIRANA AND TEA By D. W. BROGAN IT may be remembered that on the Good Friday on which the inhabitants of Albania were attacked in a campaign to whose...

GERMANY, ITALY AND SPAIN By RENE MacCOLL THE difference between quality and quantity was tellingly illustrated in the Spanish War. Italian intervention was represented by the...

GERMANY'S LEGACY: III. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION By PROF. W'. G. DE BURGH IT is not surprising that German philosophy has failed to win a hold on the English thinking public, or...

FICTION Pale Horse, Pale Rider. By Katherine Anne Porter. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) Family Album. By Humphrey Pakington. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d.) Snell's Folly. By J. D....