The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 3

THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, TUESDAY. MAY 6, 1947 SPRING COLOURS IN MANCHESTER SPAIN'S MIDDLE EAST Books of the Dap THE GROWTH OF THE FORESTS By M. Philips Price By Georges Ami Two days later I bought my third-class ticket for the mail train from Barcelona to Madrid. It is easier to get a third-class than a first-class ticket in Barcelona. There is a black market in first-class tickets (there are no seconds).

"Wholesalers" buy. up all the first-class tickets a fortnight in advance and sell them at inflated prices in the big hotels to rich tourists. But I was saved that annoyance. The tram started punctually to time. We took a good half-hour to get past the industrial suburbs of Barcelona, where the metal industry alone employs some 150,000 people.

Factories and works everywhere. At last we emerged from bricks and mortar. CP trol the balance in such a way that the final object is obtained. What is that object The forester, of course, will say a crop of timber. The hiker in the Lake District will say long vistas with oak copses in the foreground.

It is here that public opinion has to be consulted in any large-scale forest operations in this country. At the same time, if we are to develop our national wealth in home-grown timber, the amenity enthusiast cannot have it all his own way. Here again a balance is essential. The later chapters of the book deal with our native trees and their characteristics, and also describe the exotic species which have been introduced here. There is an interesting chapter on soil formation.

"Soil," says the author, is not only finely divided earth. It is at once the scene of chemical activity and the home of minute organisms, such as protozoa, bacteria, and fungi, as well as earthworms and insects." Modern forest science is working at the very interesting problem of the symbiosis of forest trees and mierorhiza who live on their roots. There are chapters on the changes of forest growths in Great Britain during the course of centuries and on the modern methods of forest cultivation. It is not a text-book, but a very useful study of the function of forests in modem society which the layman could very well afford to AND SO TO BED The Bed, by Cecil and Margery Gray (Nicholson and Watson, pp. 280, 12s.

claims to be the first book and the only anthology devoted to this familiar domestic friend regarded as something other than a mere article of furniture. The rather awkward Greco-Roman subtitle, The Clinonhile's Vade Mecum." bed in the Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. Manchester Guardian Copyright MISCELLANY There spread before us a countryside that vividly recalled that of some of the most beautiful regions of the Middle East, particularly the coast between Haifa and Beirut. The strong sunlight, the blue sky, the i gentle waves of the Mediterranean rippling over the sands the stony hills laboriously terraced to retain the soil in which grow orange trees, vines, olive trees palms, and pines; the luxuriant valleys, sprinkled with tiny white houses that shone across the green bowl of an eternal spring all these were very much like the fertile coastal hill-country of the Middle East. Perhaps the only notable difference was the appearance every now and then of a mediaeval castle that made one think of Don Quixote, and a church tower instead of a minaret.

The Orient seemed very near. And the people round me behaved almost exactly like their cousins of the desert. When they were not chattering at the top of their voices, or peacefully sleeping with the hot sun on them, they ate and drank oranges, olives, omelettes, eggs, fish, fat meat, and honey cakes, an illimitable supply that would have turned green with envy any English housewife. And, of course, no lack of vin rouge I found that the Spaniards drink their wine just like the Arabs they hang it above their heads, in a sort of leather bottle, which they tip up until it trickles into their mouth, and not always quite in. In their generosity, too, my Spaniards were like their brethren of the Orient, and also in their lack of ceremony Lest I should give offence I had to take some pieces of greasy meat from very dirty fingers.

At the end of this feasting the floor was naturally covered with scraps of peel and dirty paper. Then there were the babies and the dogs and even a canary, hung where the lamp should have been but was not. When night came and the windows were closed the atmosphere defeated my resolution. I escaped to a first-class carriage where I had found room for one." BOY SUES FOR LOSS OF AN EYE Broken Glass in Playground Judgment was postponed by Mr. Justice Macnaghten at Manchester Assizes, yesterday, in the case of Harold Pawsey (5), of Lancaster Road, Pendleton, Salford, who, through his father, sued Messrs.

David Walton and Co. Ltd contractors. Cross Lane, Salford, and the Sa'ford Corporation, for damages for the loss of an eye. Mr. Basil Nield, K.C., for the plaintiff, said Walton and were building a canteen at the Modern School, Lancaster Road.

The window in a workmen's hut had been broken and glass was lying on the ground. A boy picked up a piece of the glass and threw it at Harold Pawsey. Tre glass went into his eye, causing such severe injury that the eye had to be removed Stanley David Hulme, contractor's foreman, said the window was broken and the glass removed and buried five weeks before the accident occurred Cross-examined by Mr Nield, Hulme denied that after the accident the head mistress of the school saw his men sweeping up the glass and said, It's a pity you did not do that before Mr. W. Gorman.

for the Corporation, said that while he accepted that the Corporation's duty was that of a careful parent, it could not be blamed for a piece of class which was there without its knowledge. Mr. Nield submitted that the school teachers should have seen the glass in the playground and were not wholly blameless in the matter. It was the duty of the contractors not to leave anything dangerous where they must have known children would meddle with it. TO-DAY'S LIST The following cases are down for hearing to-day, before Mr.

Justice Macnaghten (For JtuUmnit) Pa-riey WiHon mi Major Ac of Salford. Hushei t. Hllctiin (Probate); wild Morn; Lewis v. Kord; nd BUTtrnun t. Cohen THE STRATFORD SEASON On Friday, May 9, Norman Wright's production of The Tempest will take its place in the Shakespeare Festival programme at Stratford-on-Avon This is the fourth and last of the 1946 Festival plays to be revived in this year's season.

Prospero will again be played by Robert Harris, but elsewhere there are necessary changes as compared with last year's cast. Daphne Slater appears as Miranda, Joy-Parker (who is the wifof Paul Scofleld. one of the recognised stalwarts of Sir Barry Jackson's team) as Ariel. John Harrison as Ferdinand, and John Blatchley as Caliban. The settings and costumes are by Paul Shelving and the incidental music by Lennox Berkeley.

MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL B0I7 Oo-n-nuatoD Bandari tt 9 jb. antf after Matins: Holy Days tni PrldSTS mt 11 s.m Bsptls-ns liter QLi notice. Tnefdsr- sCsttss said St 11 to. Evens-mc. at 4 30.

Heal7 wlUsn Pstrc Bourdon No 1: aaQie-n. Good cbrlstlsn JCen (Bnlloci). At 2 45. FestlTsl. preacher, tbe Archdeacon of Bladtbora.

Service ot Intercession. 1 25 to 1 50 p-m It is not easy to travel in Spain without the company of a mass of preconceived ideas. But it was the people I had come to see, not the regime. For all that, on crossing the frontier at Port-Bou I felt much the same mental discomfort as in the past when i had ventured into Nazi Germany. The sense of leaving! the free world for a State which there is little respect for elementary human rights was not lessened by the melancholy fact that the frontier is closed.

Few travellers cross the Spanish frontier in these days. The trains stop at Cerbere, the last French station, and on the Spanish side at the fishing village of Port-Bou. Between these two termini is a hill on the top of which Spanish gendarmes guard the frontier post. A convoy of French taxis, perhaps half a dozen, takes passengers from Cerbere to the hill-top, and a "similar convoy on the side takes them down to Port-Bou. In the past the trains went straight from one station to the other, and chauffeurs made smaller fortunes.

While waiting for the Spanish convov I had time to recall a meeting in 1939 with a number of Spanish Republican soldiers interned at Gurs and I could not but remember the name of Guernica, the village over which the Luftwaffe made its first trial blitz. I looked at the Spanish gendarmes with no great liking. The Customs, on the other hand, offered a pleasant surprise There was only a hasty and superficial examination I could have taken into Spain not only my preconceived ideas but munitions and revolutionary literature. This raised my spirits. Four hours later I was in Barcelona, the great city of the straight boulevards crowded day and night, with its busy industrial life.

But how to make acquaintance with the Spanish people? I was given three answers at church, at the bull-fight, and in a third-class railway carriage. I witnessed the fervour and excitement of the services in Holy Week -n Barcelona and also attended a Passion play in the village of Olesade Montserrat, to which thousands of Spaniards make pilgrimage every year. The play has been given since 1642 by amateur players of the village in 1792 a monk of Barcelona wrote a Catalan text that is stil! in use. On the following day there was a bull-fight in Barcelona the Spanish said a friend but a match of which the result is known in advance. The unfortunate beast has no chance at all.

It may be able to do some damage, but it is doomed. I left the bull-fight without the satisfaction one feels at the end of a good football match. A SICK WORLD'S NEED Christianity's Opportunity The Rev. James Rae, of Northwood (Middlesex), Moderator of the Presbyterian Church or England, in his address to the General Assembly, at Newcastle-on-Tyne last night, said that when Christianity emerged at first it had won astonishing victories against every opposition of paganism because, in modern parlance, it had the goods of which a sick, diseased, devil-ridden society stood in desperate need. Science, divorced from religion, has brought us to the age of the terrifying atomic bomb with its monstrous threat of some new and final calamity overhanging mankind," he said.

Economic and industrial systems, likewise erected on a non-Christian basis, had been built primarily to minister to the greed and luxury of the few. Politics had been chiefly characterised by naked self-interest. Who could say that Christianity had put forth all its strength to warn men that they were building on sand The shame was that the unity of the faith had been wellnigh lost in mutual rivalries and antagonisms and in the widespread abuse of men's zeal merely to serve the pride and prestige of Churches. So we stood in these days very near the end of the prolonged attempt to dispense with the Christian religion. The world was beginning to grow desperately conscious that it was because of his spiritual deficiencies and disabilities that man was perishing.

The Churches remained under God the trustees of the word of life for which a whole disordered, bankrupt world was crying out Opportunity's doors were wide open once more in disillusioned Germany and Japan, among China's millions, and throughout the whole Orient. He was not doubtful of the capacity of their missionaries to meet the new challenges, but would the Church at home rise in the fullness of its strength to play its part in helping Christ to refashion this broken world LORD NATHAN INDISPOSED Lord Nathan, Minister of Civil Aviation, who had promised to visit Manchester to-day to open the municipal airways terminus at the Lower Mosley Street junction with St. Peter's Square, has had to cancel his engagement owing to an attack of laryngitis. Mr. G.

Lindgren, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry, will fly to Ringway this morning to deputise. Lord Nathan was to have spoken also at the opening of the nurses' temporary new home of the Manchester Victoria Jewish Memorial Hospital in the afternoon. The Lord Mayor (Alderman T. H. Adams) will take his place at that event ko puMitmd t-B jjje lp 1 IPs Forestry and Woodland Life.

By H. L. Edlin. Batsford. Pp.

viii. 184. 15s. This book is a survey the natural conditions under which forests have grown in the past and the artificial conditions under which they are likely to grow in the future. Nevertheless, it is not likely that man will ever be able to disregard the conditions of nature in which forests can nourish.

Those conditions are far older than man himself, who at one time was a denizen of those forests and dependent very largely upon them for his way of life. The author traces the natural growth of a forest from grass and herbs growing first on bare rocks, then shrubs creating humus and soil formation, on which trees can establish themselves, first individually and finally as forests. The general lesson is that man can only succeed in cultivating forests if he studies the character and nature of the geography, soil, and climate of any given area. A forest, in fact, is a living organism with its canopy, forest floor, and leaf mould, with its animals and birds living there, some of them harm- ful. some oenenciai, out each balancing the other That balance is sometimes upset, most frequently by man himself.

The art of forest cultivation is to con- WORDS AND USAGE To his many works on words and how to use them Mr. Eric Partridge has brought great gusto and industry. Usage and Abusage (Hamish Hamilton, pp. 381, which has been published for some years in America, abundantly illustrates his zeal and can otter amusement as well as instruction. It can be chastening few writers can examine the entries on Battered Similes or Woolliness without a qualm at their own accomplished or potential slips.

Not that Mr. Partridge is impeccable he has his own likes and dislikes which he is apt to raise as imperishable rules. Thus, while he can be scathing enough on pedants and pedantry, he is yet capable of declaring Chirology is obviously preferable to palmistry (because it refers to the whole hand and not only to the palm), whereas it is surely better to use a word that everyone understands. His list of False Comparatives and adjectives which do not admit ot more or most before them seems a little alarming when it includes akin," devoid," empty," and full surely one book may be more devoid of sense than another, or a man take a fuller draught from a glass than does his neighbour Mr. Partridge is sound on will and shall (does he know that shall has been banished from Basic English?) and he is everywhere a keen enemy to slipshod English, with a shrewd eye for such tiresomely overworked (and often distorted) adjectives as nosta.gic." His long list of nouns of asserrbly with modern instances, including a condescension of actors and a prowl of proctors," has several amusing entries With Professor Ernest Weekley's Words Ancient and Modern (Murray, pp 214.

7s. a selection from two earlier volumes that are now out of print, the field is narrower and more unfailingly authoritative there is a scholarly concern with the derivations of selected words and their rise or fall in meaning and esteem. History and national character are illustrated in such changes, and Professor Weeklev's survey is bnth wise and entertaining. G. P.

The Venetian tradition in painting In the fifteenth century was largely established by a single artist, and that fact alone makes the new Phaidon Press volume on Giovanni Bellini, by Philip Hendy and Ludwig Goldscheider (pp. 34 and 122 plates, 25s one of the most important in the series The book contains an essay by Mr. Hendy on Bellini's development, the influences to which he was subjected, and his massive impact on succeeding painters The plates are large and amply reinforced with details, and those in colour are admirable. A further volume is promised for the less innocent reader." But innocence is relative and this first volume will surely turn a good many innocents into potential students. E.

N. That all forms of life undergo perpetual change is the essence of Nature's Year, by Maribel Edwin (Longmans, pp. 128, 7s. A thoughtful book, full of facts, it is hardly one for the very young, but is more suitable for those in secondary schools who are taking an intelligent interest in nature Several of the chapter are quite absorbing, particularly those dealing with the fertilisation of plants, with camouflage, and with the decline and resurgence of the rhythm of life. The photographic illustrations, of which there are well over a hundred, are excellent and cover a great range of wild life the book is worth buying for them alone, and for one so well produced it is remarkably cheap Unfortunately it lacks an index.

A. W. The struggle to advance the Dubhca- tion of Whitaker's Almanack to its pre war date of around Christmas received a rude iolt this year from the fuel crisis, and the month of March was out before the fresh red and green of this year's issue (complete edition, pp. 1,100, 12s. 6d could be greeted again.

In other respects cuts made during the war are being swiftly restored legal notes, a number of facts about the weather, and the tables of tides and tidal constants are among pre-war items which make their appearance again One of the lustiest of the new features is the United Nations, which, with its ancillary and organisations, now demands 26 references and is probably destined to have many more in the future. CIVIL SERVICE T.U.C. AFFILIATION Manchester Opposition The main annual conference of the Civil Service Clerical Association begins on Tuesday, May 20, at Prestatyn, and will last four days Nearly 800 motions have been tabled. Affiliation of the association to the Labour party will be urged by the Ministry of Transport branch. The Board of Trade, Manchester, brancn will oppose the continued affiliation ot the association to the T.U.C, and will ask for a ballot on the subject.

Several motions have been tabled urging that concessions gained by recognised stall associations shall apply only to the members of those associations, though a contrary view, tabled by a Preston branch, endorses the rejection by the executive of the closed shop principle. Discrimination against civil servants with Left-wing political views will be deplored by several speakers, and the activities of M.I.5 will be debated. Other questions to be discussed include the five-day week, hostility to civil servants apparent in" some sections of the press, equal pay for men and women, dismissals of men as redundant while married women remain at their posts, British foreign policy in Greece, recruitment to the Civil Service, and the potitlon ot evacuated official. Thus the amiable eccentric in "Nicholas who. in a few diverting passages, lays siege to the susceptible heart of Mrs issuing these commands," says Dickens, as if there were a dozen attendants all actively engaged in their execution." Now, a mere hundred or so years later, the old gentleman's order has been carried out; the bottled lightning has arrived, in the new krypton lamps that form an airport device for blind landings.

The lamps are nine times as brilliant as sunlight, and the rapid succession of flashes caused them to be called bottled lightning." The invention is being installed at the city airport of New York, as we really might have guessed America already has the thunder sandwich Bikini brand Long Ago on Loch Ness The re-emergence of the Loch Ness Monster, so well authenticated, recalls to a correspondent with a long memorv an Ingenious series of episodes pictured Miscellany during January, 1934, under the caption Ye Monster Day by Day," in four Fyttes and a Last Extra. The first fytte depicted the exploit of a motor cyclist who had tried to run the monster down but failed to bump it off Fytte Two described how crowds of people had come from every point of the British Isles and parts of the Continent, with the possible inclusion of Ballyshannon and Ballyhoo. On the third Fytte a coroneted Monster is seen greeting Lord Scone, M.P for Perth, who had spent four hours pptrolling the northern shore of Loch Ness by motor-car while the fourth showed the Monster, speeding like waters vastly tioubled, with a motor-boat chase. It was then time for the Last Extra, in which the Monster itself, quoting several of the guesses about its nature, summed up But whatever I am, be it portent or sham. Be it physical fact or a fake.

I think I may say I'm a godsend to-day To a number of folk on the make. Partial Eclipse of Parent A small bov, two years old and the son of a clergyman, was taken to church to hear his father preach. From his pew he gazed at his parent walking up the aisle, arrayed in his cassock and long white surplice and mounting the pulpit When asked afterwards what he thought of it. the small child replied that he "did not like his father without his legs." ACTING RANKS IN THE ARMY New Qualification Periods The war-timg system of promotion for warrant officers and N.C.O.s in the Army is to be modified from July 1, 1947, to meet peace-time conditions of service, by doublmg the time which a man has to serve in an acting rank before qualifying for his war substantive rank. The old and new rules for various ranks are as follows Paid Actios Ran! Coraoral WarSubstantlTe Ranlc After (Present Rules) New Rules) 3 months 6 months Sergeant 6 months 12 month Wlour Sereeant or cqu val-nt and O.

In 6 months 12 months W.O. Class II 9 months ta months Class I 12 rcontha 24 niontha note une montn vlll oe recaohed 30 das As a concession to W.O.s and N.C.O.s already nolding acting rank, all those holding such rank on July 1 will be allowed to count the period served in mat ranK Detore mat date as double These rules apply equally to the A.T.S. STORM IN A TEACUP Alfred Thomas Sullivan, builder's joiner, of Ryedale Avenue, Monton Green, who was alleged to have assaulted and beaten his foreman during a discussion as to whether the morning brew of tea should be taken standing up or sitting down, was bound over for 12 months and ordered to pay 2 10s. costs at Eccles yesterday. Aenosa 8 A high day in safe territory (4) wire is haif beyond reproach (10).

10. A bold era anag.) (8). 11. In fact Tve been energetic (6) 12. No sir going back is not all the punishment (6).

13. Bob will sing about a rise (8). 15 Alice helps to make a cup (7) 17. Spends money, apparently on undergarments (7). 20 Plausible and meretricious (8) SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No.

IM 22. had in 23. Bit of with a 25. A friend to an 26. The clime 27.

America (4). 1. Head 2 An eye 3. atrip of 4. To bring 5 "For with (8).

6. Radiators unnecessary Tulip Manchester Stage and Screen OPERA HOUSE "Off the Record" If a Socialist P. and a naval lieutenant commander decide for their own purposes to change places for twenty-four hours, riotous farce might seem to be implicit in the recipe. With Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall as joint contrivers of the finished dish there is more to it than that the local colour is soundly managed, for example, and is well supported by Michael Weight's settings for a destroyer's wardroom and an apartment at the Admiralty House, Portsmouth. The entanglements, naval, political, and sentimental, are displayed against a background of veracity and there is a light flick of contemporary satire over the whole anair lhe pro gressively progressive Admiral trim ming his unscrupulous sails to catch what he thinks is our Socialist Government's wind and resourcefully played by Hueh Wakefield is the bieaest humbue of the lot.

but the Parliamentary private secre tary as pseudo-commander comes to more amusing grief over the wardroom details, which trip him up at every turn to the astomsnment ot nis lieutenants will Gates is a more successful impostor as the lieutenant commander turned politician (nerhacs anybody can nlav at rjolities). and incidentally shows a nice turn for natural acting as an authentic KW. type." Pamela Matthews plays easily as a managing young woman, and there is a good sketch of an incessantlv baffled flag lieutenant by Tom Gill It is all light and laughable stuff, but the detail is often pointed and always adroit, G. P. PALACE THEATRE Frank Randle brings to the Palace Theatre the boisterous kind of fun and fooling which draws crowds to the pierheads of Blackpool.

No one can dispute his high rank in this kind of popular entertainment or fail to recognise his gifts for comic character acting. But while he wins laughter easily and deservedly, there are moments when it is not censorious to wish that his comedy was a little less of the earth, earthy. His chief associate in the show is Reginald Dixon, described as "the ace organist." He is dexterous at the console, and not the least engaging feature of his performance is the twinkle of his feet over the pedal organ. Hal Swain and his Swing Sisters make play with saxophone and accordion and somehow impart an unexpected touch of neatness into their business. f.

a. Hippodrome. It would be an overstatement to describe Family Favourites as a good show, but at least one can admire the honest endeavour which it represents. triei hard. Physically, Veronica Kartell must be one of the prettiest of jugglers, and' Alec Pleon nulls his features into all sorts of shapes to provoke a laugh Leslie Strange's impersonations demand something of the same facial elasticity, but the expression of the Bashful Bovs.

who set hODelesslv entwined in other's coats, is unrelievedly dolorous For triose people wn0 luce accordions there is Primo Scala and his band a melodious blast full of unReaKOnahlv t-a-m 3i Some of the tunes are old favourites and mcir popularity is proor even against massed accordions C. PICTURE THEATRES Gaumont. There is a nice contrast in thrillers here this week, and, for once in a way, comes out well on top. If there is rather less blood spilt in Michael Balcon Hue and Cry than in the American High Window a great deal more suDtiety and humour have gone towards its making. With an air of jovial temerity it lets loose the "blood and thunder boys on a penny dreadful theme.

The result is a web of delightful improbabilities which evervone but Alastair Sim can heartily admire. High Window employs more bludgeoning methods, and one has the feeling that jL-onaon dead-end kids would have seen through it all right from the start. W. C. Odeon.

Black Narcissus" is the story or a group ot missionary nuns who try to establish a school and hospital in a hill-state north of Darjeeling. The palace they make use of is the deserted seragho of a former ruler, and the effects of its atmosphere and handsome Mr. Dean, the ruler's agent, on the nuns form the basis of a psychological melodrama. The climax is reached when Sister Ruth refuses to renew her vows, is rejected by Mr. Dean and is driven by jealousy to try to murder her Sister Superior, only to kill herself.

Good acting "and sltilfullv built-up atmosphere give the film some plausibility. Some of the Technicolor and photography is excellent. It needs a clear mind and a sure touch to make screen jouralism neither trivial nor dull, and this is where the Modern Age series scores over its more argumentative rivals. The latest issue, on the Sudan, makes an honest job of a difficult subject by fairly presenting both sides of the argument about independence, with a careful eye to the country's mixture of races and its contrasts between the primitive and the modern. "Spanish Fiesta exploits famous names in the ballet: there are some exhilsraH-- moments, and although the result is neithe ballet nor cinema the idea has great possibilities.

STT Names associated with the Ba'tle of Britain are to be carried bv a new clasv of Southern Railway locomotive. The first four will bear the names Winston Churchill," Lord Dowding," Sir Keith Park," and "Lord BeaverbrookV' and will be followed by three others named Ier- HuHfcantV' and opitnre. gives the key to the authors' approach to a nousenoio eject which provides tne habitual context for the world's births, marriages, and deaths, with all that that implies, as well as many happy leisure hours amounting, according to the statisticians, even for those who are only moderately clinophile, to roughly a third of our allotted time on earth. Much reading and erudition has gone to the compilation of this attractive and stimulating miscellany, which for convenience is subdivided into four historical sections covering antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and modern times each of which is preceded by a brief and witty semi-philosophical survey, felicitously summarising and supplementing the extracts which follow. These extracts, selected from between two and three hundred writers, are skilfullv juxtaposed so as to bring out their full flavour and to illustrate the authors' thesis that the bed is the scene not only of men's physical but of his intellectual activities, artistic, social, and political, and that it serves throughout the aEes as a barometer of civilisation.

The request that suggestions should be sent in for filling flagrant gaps may afford some readers a pleasant parlour game for wet days, but the book is all the better for not being overloaded. As it is. it conforms to the modest proportions postulated in the preface, and readily lends itself to comfortable reading in bed. morning, noon, or night L. H.

The World of Learning, 1947 (Europa Publications, pp. 520, is a valuable and welcome companion to the "International Who's -Who." The editors have aimed at giving a comprehensive guide to the academic and cultural institutions of the world The arrangement is by countries (alphabetically), and the institutions of each country are grouped according to a consistent scheme The editors explain but not insistently enough that some material (Austria, Germany) is unavoidably out of date They might have been wiser to sacrifice completeness by omitting those countries (as they do Japan) in their first edition, rather than lay traps for the unwary user. The next edition should have contents tables for all, not merely some, of the countries and a general index. This might help one to answer the blurb's sample question, How many volumes are there in the Smithsonian Institution which page 402 at any rate does not solve de C. I.

BOOKS RECEIVED We have received the following books, tec. From Frier Ltd HATH THE A FATHER Bv Frances Bullerby. 81 6(1 net MALLY LEE Bj Elisabeth Kjle 9j 6 A net From E-awortr- Press: A SUSSEX HIGHWAY Written and Illustrated by Ruth Cobb 7s 6d net NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY Its OrtKin and Significance By H. A Onr BA. 12! 6(1 net PROPHETIC PRAYER A Hlstnrr of the Chrluttn Doctrine of Prer to the Reformation Bv Trevor Hushes.

A 7s 6d net From Qeorce HsrrtD and Co THE SOVIETS AND OURSELVES How Do You Do. Tovarlan By Rft ph Parlcer Illustrated 75 net From Hutchinson and Co THE GERMANS IN An Account o( Nail Ru'e In Occunled France Bt Jacoues Lorraine 165 net BATTLE WITHOUT GLORY By Robert Coooer Troa-n 10s 6d net. THOSE VICTORIANS By Amy Baiter 9s 6d net TO A DARK LADY By Constance Klnr 9a. 6d net From Sampson Lou and CRICKETERS OF THE VELD By Louts Ouflua 8j 6i. net THE TEEN AGE BOOK Edited by Ann Seymour 11 ustrated 12.

6d net YOUR HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN By Gordon Cooper. Illustrated 12s 6d net From Andrew Melrose. Ltd. FORTY YEARS IN AMD OUT OF PARLIAMENT By irse hi. non sir percr Harris ios net ku.n away TO MURDER By Jeremy Yor gs 6d net From Methuen and Co STRAIGHT ON.

Journey to Belsen and the Road Home uy Robert corns and Han Harerxell IlH.strated. 105 fid net THE LITTLE LESS Essay tn the Political Economy of Restrlcttontam Br A Bsster 7s. 6d net PEARL OP unusAsti jonn Loavicic 7J 6d net THE GOLDEN ROOMS By Vsrdls F'-fctr 8s 6d. net. From Frederics: Muller.

Ltd IN 70 DAYS. The Storv of the Japanese Campalen 1n British Ma ay Bt Edwin Maurice OEoyer. 8s fid net JOHN AND MARY AT RIVERTON. tsy ijrjce James. cjs ne From Odiums Press, Ltd HAS THE CHURCH FAILED 1 Edited bt Si- Jatnea Mar-chant 68 6d Fro-n Oxford University Press: THE CROWN OF LIFE Essavs In Interpretation of Shakespeare's Final Plays By WUson Knliht- net From Stanley Paul sad Co.

PAINTED CLAY By Clar Ems.ey. 9 S3, net ROOF-TOP CHASE Fire-Engine Followed with Ladder Hundreds of people in Skirving Street, Liverpool, yesterday, saw a roof-top chase in which a fire-engine, with its turntable ladder extended, was used. A police constable noticed a man hiding behind a chimney stack on the roof of a blitzed shop, summoned the N.F.S.. and climbed to the roof with a fireman. There was a chase, during which the fire-engine followed along the street, the ladder touching the guttering.

The policeman and the fireman later climbed down-the ladder with a man who was taken to the police station. MILL ARSON CHARGE A Darwen Leonard Hawthorn-thwaite (49), of Vernon Street, was remanded to prison at Manchester for eight days for medical examination when he was charged at 'Darwen Magistrates' Court yesterday with arson. Superintendent R. C. Floyd said the charge followed a disastrous fire at Dai wen Paper Mill the early hours of Saturday, hen it was estimated that damage costing 30,000 was done.

Police Constable Lee said he saw Hawthornthwaite in custody at Darwen and accused said Yes, I took a mac from the paper mill, and I must have started the fire. I am a mess when I have had acme drink." Girl of the Month Club In time it was bound to be and now it has duly happened. America, which launched the Book of the Month Club idea and has since followed it up by organisations for pressing upon their subscribers the Shirt of the Month, the Fruit and Candy Parcels of the Month, and even the Tie of the Month, is now evolving a Girl of the Month Club. At any rate, its four enterprising originators have set up what they call the Lovable-Girl-of-the-Month Committee" and in order to discover her characteristics they distributed a list of questions to more than 1,600 newspaper editors, columnists and editors of college publications." How many editors broke away from their more ordinary editorial activities in order to meditate on what constitutes lovability in young women is not disclosed, but the committee reports that 54 per cent of the answers plumped for a girl's mind as the most important factor. That is some way ahead of the 37 per cent who were ready to be guided by her looks, and hopelessly swamps the acquisitive 9 per cent who held out for her bank-roll On these figures the triumph of mind over matter in lovability seems notably established Some Further Questions But why is this inquiry described a Girl-of-the-Mohth movement Is it imagined that the basis of lovability changes from month to month and.

that a girl who fills the amorous bill to perfection in March will be out of date and on the retired list by May And will the columnists and newspaper editors be badgered again for their revised specifications in July Is it lovability or instability that the committee has determined to foster And what do the girls themselves think about it Perhaps they may yet retaliate with a Boy of the Month Club In the meantime the New York Her ald-Tribune." from which the preceding details have been gleaned, might arrange to throw some more light on the many questions still unanswered. Intelligent Anticipation Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a said the old gentleman, raising his voice Nobody executing this order, the old gentleman, after a short raised his voice again and demanded a thunder sandwich." ELECTRICITY FOR INDUSTRY Compulsory Economies? The North Western Regional Board for Industry is much worried about the electricity position, said Mr. George Gibson, chairman, after the monthly meeting of the board yesterday. Five sheddings of load had been necessary within the last fortnight, and unless substantial economies were achieved and maintained during next winter there would be frequent and dangerous cuts at peak periods, particularly in the North-west. The increase in demand would be greater, and unless there was a substantial spread-over of load Lhe Dosition would be worse xnan in recent winter.

The board, Mr. Gibson said, was making further representations to the National Joint Advisory Council for Industry asking for compulsory powers to be exercised by the Government, or, if necessary, by the regional boards, to compel economies, mere naa Deen a good response from some firms, but there had not been the general response for which they had hoped. Engineering firms, who were the chief helpers, said, quite justifiably, that they were not prepared to go on shouldering the costs of-putting men on night shifts if other firms were not willing to do the same. The hold-up of railway wagons ovei the week-end, primarily owing to the introduction of the five-day week in some industries, is receiving the attention of the board. A similar situation is affecting road transport, and Mr Gibson said hauliers were askine for extra tonnage to cope with their work.

The difficulty had arisen because managements were making no arrangements to receive goods between fcTidays and Monaays. uireiauji rho tinri had as many as 22 per cent of his lorries lying idle under load at the week-end. PICTURE SHOW A second one-man show at Gibb's bookshop in Mosley Street introduces to Manchester another fresh talent of high quality and interesting character. Like his predecessor and painting companion. Harry Stevens.

John Harrison is already the master of an expressively Ime He has also a similar approach to the decoPativl treatment of Bjm prima rilv as a colounst that he responds to the vivid and luxuriant Mediterranean th.c rpsnect he stands apart. Though, sometimes u.W or perfunctory cutnpobiton ana rirl his gouache studies delight the eye with their exquisitely modulated colour. In his flower pahitines this quite "cepUonal i vision is allied with rturaT bt ftt-makir Here is a born textile destgner whom Manchester cannot afford to let go. u.i. CROSSWORD No.

107 ip mi Burns and Browning common (6). finery beginning drop (6) brings every year end (8). product of a viler 10). In Old English DOWN perils (anag.) (10). for an eye (8).

material (6). calm put a vegetable into a recess (7). courage mounteth King John make this piece (6). 7. One of a European race (4).

14- He ends with a list, probably of outdoor objects (10). 16. Sepulchral monument (8). 18. "Lamb zone" (anag.) (8).

19. Foolish beginning) to a military attack 7. 21 It may help to carrj beam (6). 22. Hurried to Scotland Yard? That's bad 6.

24. The point at which every climber must stop (4). it EE EXOTERIC p8g0 I i a A OMR I a i1 17 pi 18 I UJE5 BPiDl Ipn a r-nsrpBSInn scl TBiDgAMlgTni Stlutisn mm.