The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 3

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, JATOARlTf i 1944 3, STONE CIRCLE CHOSEN PEOPLE Profile GENERAL FRANCO si- "ii'ihr- titrrndii: jr. the Jlrl Omlsw. (Hutthtmirt. By SIR DOUGAL MAtjCdtM---' gan to cut down the number of officers, regarding them as a costly and dangerous luxury for a democracy which did not want an ORWELL The rjnvll and the Jews." Bv Joshua Traohtsntwrg. (Oxford Univer sity' Press, 23t.

'so.) "Why I. ami a Saw." Br Sdmond Fleg, Translated oV. Victor Qollanox. uoilanoz. 21.

ed.) blood of children, seducing: Christian maidens, emitting -a distinctive arid disgusting smell.idesec rHo3t, tiding oh broom-sticksgivirig weU evervthina. in lactt Al though somewhat as heretics;" Wrst-jpereecu cides' with therjeriod huntinthat is, from atioutithe twelfth- century Keiormatipn did them little good for they were equally heretics from the Protestant point of view, Martin Luther being an exceptionally bitter anti-Semite. Mr. Trachtenbere has no diffi culty in showing the irrational nature of the medieval attitude towards the Jews. There clear basis for it except the charge that the Jews were usurers, ahdi'a's he points Christian competition invaded this field as soon as moneylendipg became really profit-.

aoie. naa ne exienaea nis survey. lu uiuuviii imiea lie iiaye added that1 contemporary-i ideas about the Jews are often irrational tor instance, tne: cnar-afteristic Fascist belief the Jew somehow contrives to be a capitalist and a Communist simultaneously, or that the poverty-stricken Jewish working class are all secretly millionaires. But two things remain unexplained. One is why the persecution of Jews, which is, after all.

a pre-Christian thing, ever started. The other is why if Mr. Trachten-berg's thesis is correct this particular medieval superstition should have survived when so many others rjave' perished. Very few people now believe in witchcraft, belief in which, according to Mr. Trachtenberg, led 'to a hun dred thousand executions between 1450 and 1550 in Germany alone.

Why are so many people still ready to believe that Jews smell, or that they caused the war, or that they are plotting to conquer tne. world, or that they are responsible for slumDS. revolutions, and venereal disease? The whole sub ject needs cold-blooded investigation. And the fact that we should probably find that anti-Semitism of various kinds is alarminelv common, and that educated people are not in tne least immune it, ought not to deter us. I i Fourth Instalment empire, many of the innumerable generals Degan to conspire more or less openly.

Franco kept sagely in the background, althouah no one was more deeply hit in the very wlc ui dis convictions man trus man, to whom an army made for war was the only satisfactory social form, his only mode of self-expression. And the Republic kept him in important posts. Then Franco, a taciturn rebel against an anti-militarist demo cratic Stae, grew into a politician. Not for nothing was he, imbued with the severe military logic of Clausewitz. to whom war is a con tinuation of politics by.

different he. Franco, had to turn politics into a war by different means. The ordered hierarchy of trw Army would- DUt in its rightful place. The social structure would be based on discipline arid the hierarchical prin-ciple. The hreatening disorder with its s.

Democracy, iberalism. Commu nism, So- ci a 1 ism A narchism would be a ed out. The pale- fared, fat. little soldier, with sluggish, nervous, e-actions and without a pathy, the vo cation to be the leader. the Caudillo.

of the per- rect soldier State. had ordered i ciplined 1 soldiers to be shot without c-tion. Why should he have compunction at shootine or KUKS TOPOLSK hanging rebels' For all those who stood in the way of his ideal order were rebels against the Army and against its future Empire. Franco was the Chief of Staff of the rebellion against the Spanish Republic which broke out in all the garrisons in July, 1936. He became its Generalissimo by his own act and by the good luck which once more cleared his path.

Calvo 'Sotelo, the presumptive dictator, was killed before the actual rising, the Generals San-jurjo and Mola died in accidents. Franco was left undisputed leader. He accepted as his due the help from the Fascist and National-Socialist Powers, because he was convinced that they slood for his aims In his own country: hierarchical order, and the fight against Liberalism and all its offsprings, lumped together as Communism." This conviction never changed in this new stage of the long war, whatever the pilch of Franco's public speeches. He had to help and back his own kind. Threats and romplimenls cannot reach him, immured as he is in hs self-belief and rigid visiop of the world.

His instruments of and the Army, may splinter and break, the armies of the countries which stand for something called freedom may advance, his German colleagues may take desperate measures: General Franco has to stand and fight for his and their authoritarian world or vanish. Welsh Wonder iormm tee km 6 Imvml tahlmpootm rHEN the Captain of the Moorish Infantry, Don Francisco" Franco Baha- munclc. was informed that hel would not be promoted to the' isnk of major, in spite of his mrnts in the field, because a man of twenty-five could il be a major, he rebelled and his deserts from the Kmg of Spain. His elders and were given the lie; Fi.mco became the youngest or in the Spanish Army, hated, rnved, and distrusted accordingly. He was more alone than he had Ivm in the military academy ere he had escaped from unpopularity and ridicule into grim, i.i-cesslul study.

Major Franco was sent to 0 ic-do. to rot in the garrison, wailing in vain for his allotted hartal ion. He volunteered for the Tercw. the Foreign Legion union naa just been founded to serve as a shock-trooo in the smouldering -Moroccan war, fight ing side by side with the savage Moors. Franco, later to be welcomed else where as a Great Christian Gentle-Tnan.

became most successful and ruthless or-zam'ser and leader of the 7. gionanes. ho were more savage even than he Moors of Refju-In res. Separated nv his rank and inhuman ear nestness from the officers of his own age, isolated by his outh and ambition from those of his rank, the Coman-danTin the "Little Ma ior," lne called him studied military n'lenre and staked his" life i for he is as brave as tallous) to prove them all wrong. War was his medium and his only contact with hfe He had no friends, but he was feared and left alone.

His curious lucK inspired awe and distrust: when the founder of the Legion, Millan Astray, resigned the command because of his crippling wounds, Franco succeeded him after the death in battle of his two higher ranking competitors. He was CO. of the Legion when Spain's paternally blundering dictator, Primo de Rivera, derided to give up Morocco and the disastrous, costly, unpopular war for its conquest. Against this derision Franco rebelled at Ben Tieb, showing the old General, by a symbolic art of calculated rudeness, how strongly he felt. The Dictator put the operations into the hands of Colonel Franco; the Moroccan War was fought to its end, and Franco, aged 34.

became General. There was no longer a war in which a lonely, chubby, earnest young man could prove his strength. Franco became Director of the Military Academy. He turned himself into a theoretician. I.

a sed on the German and French sehools of exact military science, and he spoke to his pupils of that srienre and of the lost Spanish Empire to be reconquered, while tne Spanish monarchy was break-mi; up. At that time he went to' Saint-Cyr and sat at the feet of Marshal Petain. A year later, in 1931, he swore 1 he oath of loyalty to the Republic. The Court, which at one tune had supported him, had not proved the right field for his bleak ambition. But When the young Republic be- Who'd think you could make such DELICIOUS DISHES with leeks and swedes? 8 The fact thalrakx wl swedes win continue to be in good suppty, erea thwifjootber vegetables may get xatect in your rmrt of the world, isn't the only reason for eating them Believe it or not, these familiar veg's can make delicious tnain cttshe.

3 By nt ana1 ibe The tllWfl in tain Ou et a Doughty. (Jonathan Oaoa. 4 Kulneaii By J. C. TREWIN YpEW men can, have prepared for a book Witn mnrp pbhnratinn than Charles Montagu Doughty for.

The Dawn in Britain of it once as his life's work." Indeed, he was only twenty-one when he resolved to write an epic poem tu ceieDraie Britain-s neroic beginnings and to tell it (as Mrs. Ruth Robbins says in her preface to this splendidly produced single-volume edition), in the vigour of the early English Renaissance using all words stripped of associations, as if they were Detng used for the first time, in the freshness of the prime at the Mother Tongue. As it chanced, the work ap proached with such concentration. and so long in development and revision, did not appear until 1906, forty years after it was planned. Doughty had turned from his original course to write in Arabia Deserta," and tne fame of the neo-Elizabethan prose has far over-arched that of the verse.

Yet, says Mrs. Robbins, the style of Arabia Deserta owes much to the fact that "Doughty had deliberately and slovfty created an instrument of expression for the writing of his ejjic poem." To-day The Dawn in Britain stands among the century's verse use me megantns oi Avebury. it is frequently disconcerting. Doughty describes its linguistic horizon as that nearly of the davs of Spenser," and the poem seems to be plagued by self-consciousness. We do well to put aside impotent and disloyal vililv 'of speech." But.

we ask timidly, need the world be quite so derne aq.d swart (occasionally gort swan): rveea speech be so guir-landed with Need one cherish such lines (on a Queen's rescue from drowning) as They her softly oil-drooping jet. and -do outiuring Her upper weed. or. later in the poem, as these a desperate effort, like a quarryman blasting through solid rock Mow. went by Sechem; they, to that hill-gate, Approach, which, by Engaddim.

leads, to Nazareth, Through Jezreel's plain and u'hence there tray doumforth. Lies to Capernaum, and tlial city-shore But, was. ithem there constraining, the Lord's Spirit! Tfiey. if left, on their right hand, the upper Hold. league's-way forth not to mention a dozen other passages in Doughty's Basic? But early impressions fade.

In spite of inversions, ellipses, contorted syntax, battle's constant clang, the poem opens into a narrative of resistless sweep and splendour. We look, as it were through the portal of a massive trilithon, into the backward and abysm of time. Armies sway in conflict; pictures flare like caverns in the coal, on freeze in shapes of everlasting frost, And iron spires and lofty fretted ice." Now darkness and a burst of Miltonic thunder. Now light and a dawn chorus siskin, ruddock, linnet and the wren. Odzee-zit-spirrink each his lemon call Christianity reaches Britain of the druids.

Roman eagles mount above the Utmost Isle. Caratacus, Bou-dicca trie spelling is Doughty's5 reign and fall. Often the sound is dissonant, but the imagination is unsparing, and Doughty's spirit remains as vigorous throughout the epic's length as R. S. Hawker's in his tiny fragment of the Sangraal.

i If we can choose a single pas-j sage, it must be thai, glistening the dew and gold of a new 1 day, in which the Syrian saints. after tern pest-wracked wandering, sail from the star-shine of a tranquil night to find "fair morrow" in a river's mouth of Britain. As 'ight strengthens. the vessel comes up between the hazel-coppices and hanging woods and brambled primrose-banks, while Ihe awakened saints stand amazed These rfrer shores to see. on either hand: Bntam's sweet soit! Seals If their hoary heads.

Like hounds. Irom this salt flood, on triem, to gaze. among the thirty thousand lines, are passages in which, the hurly-burly done and the archaist at peace, we hear the qtiiddering stoallotoj flitter in the eaves," or find the arms Of thorny honied whin, that heath-bell shrouds; in whose frail trembling crocks the wild bee sleeps. It is in these quieter moments that -the poem strikes to the heart. Bliss is it in that dawn lo be alive.

The quairyman is still and the world renews its voulh. ISLAND KING island Farm. By F. Fraser Darling. (Bail.

15S) By A. S. WALLACE rPHIS is the record of a hard and lonely, but triumphant, experiment in husbandrv and a pointer to the revival of lifo in the West Highlands. At the close of It. in 1943.

the author writes: Thus far we have come, that a windswept, doom-ridden island property has begun to flower attain and the principle we have used can be applied elsewhere. He is writing from Tanera, a tiny isle off the coast Ross and Cromarty that dooks across two miles of water to where the odd shapes of Canisp, Suilven, and Stac Polly break the skyline. Here in 1939 he bought some seventeen acres that included a ruinous quay and buildings Through the centuries from Viking times till the herring de serted these waters I anera sheltered anchorage had been busy, and within living memory there were twenty-one families there. 1 When Dr. Darling and his wife took over, it was a wilderness where, as i he found when he broke a leg, there was not even a track wide enough to take a pair of crutches, i To-day the quay has been repaired, a habitation made, the grassland redeemed and enriched, potatoes, turnips, greens, and oats cropped, cows pastured and fed, flowers and fruit grown and all this with the labour only of the author, his wife, and visiting friends and neighbours He spends no more than four shillings a week on imported foodstuffs, and has a surplus of his own to export fraser Darling is no doubt exceptional in his skill and enthusi-i asm, but he and his wife have done no more than others with compar- able energy and knowledge can do.

(It is a wise move of the Scottish i Department of Agriculture that has commissioned him to tour the crofting areas as a teacher:) Like his earlier book, this is enriched Viv crtci 1 1 ti rpnf tion tfl wonp nnri almiKtihr-rc and bv skilled obser- 1 vation ol animal and bird life. By GEORGE IT is time that Mass Observation or, some similar body made a full inquiry into the prevalence of, delicate though this subject is in the' context of the present war. Popular prejudice against jews is certainly wiae-spread, and, may be But it is verv important to determine how far this is true an essentially magical doctrine, and how far it is mere xenophobia and rationalisation of economic grievance's. Explanations of anti-Semitism generally fall', into two schools which might be called the traditional" and the "economic." Neither is fully, satisfying. Left Win thinkers nearly always accept the second explanation, seeing the Jew as simply a convenient scapegoat whom the rulers of society can make responsible for -j their own misdeeds.

When crops fail or unemployment increases, blame it on the Jews that is the formula, roughly. The trouble is that it is not clear the Jews, rather than some other minority group, should always "De Dirked on. whv anti-Semitism also flourishes among people who have nn Htronct economic Grievance, or why it. should be mixed up with irrelevant magical beliefs. "But the other theory, which sees anti-Semitism as chiefly a heritage, from the Middle Ages, does not cover all the facts either, as these two books show.

Edmond Fleg, in his touching little book it describes his return to pie faith of his forefathers after many years of scepticism suggests that the Jews are persecuted simply "because they are that is, because they have clung io their religious and cultural identity in an alien environment. But so have manv other small groups all over the world, and it is very doubtful whether modern Europe cares enough for" doctrinal questions to want to' persecute people m'erely because they are not Christians. Mr. Trachtenberg- thinks that anti-Semitism is a medieval hang over which the modern world has somehow forgotten to get rid of. with immense wealth of instances and copious illustrations he traces the persecution of the Jews from the early Middle Ages onward.

They were lynched, burned, broken on the wheel, expelled from one country after another; they were accused of poisoning, sodomy, com municating with the Devil, practising ritual murder, drinking the New Novels reviewed by ALAN PRYCE-JONES UPTON SINCLAIR'S enormous novel is the fourth instalment of his "World's End series a work which, to distinguish it sharply from its European paqemaker, might be subtitled Les Hommcs de Mauvaise Volonte." For its underlying theme is the influence of an unscrupulous minority on continental affairs from 1913 onwards; and its main fascination Is the dexterous manner in which Mr. Sinclair has brought his hero into contact with the living statesmen, financiers, and international gangsters who share the responsibility for our present distresses. The latest instalment covers the middle 1930s, and reaches its climax in a vividly pictorial account of the Spanish war as seen by Lanny Budd, whose spiritual progress from millionaire playboy towards a sense of social responsibility is still moving anxiously forward when we leave him on the threshold of volume five. A great deal of industry and some passion have been put into all this, but at the expense of life. There is no character in the book who commands attention for five minutes; and even the carefully composed settings are as, lifeless as the models for a film which, in the present case, is little more than the Annual Register ingeniously cul.

On page B30 this I reviewer found his thoughts straving to Anatole France and wondering whether competent authors about to embark on a novel of contemporary history could not be induced first to read Monsieur Bergeret a. Paris." 1 Or does now read that small masterpiece? Miss Vlcki Baum stands at the opposite pole to Mr. Sinclair. However preposterous, her novels are always alive. And this early example, which is pretty clearly defined by its English title.

"Once in Vienna." moves lightly, arid bathed throughout in a mild opalescence, through a world of musical students in love with their teacher. It is absolutely readable; it is a thousand years away from contemporary history, or any other kind of history, and Its garish colours are washed by the pleasantly relaxing damp of the Wienerwald. A Crime Ration By MAURICE RICHARDSON V7E addicts don't ask much: just keep it easy to read. And unlike some serious novelists who take to crime, Mr. L.

A. G. Strong has remembered to do this for us. "All Fall Down" (Crime Club, 8b 6d.) gets off to a smooth, snug start with a breezy intellectual from Scotland Yard and his bookseller stooge setting out to value the library of tyrannical lower-middle-class recluse in Devonshire village which specialises in frustrated school-teachers. Two murders.

Passionate developments with a rich vein of psycho-pathology as well as a fair solution ana some very superior characterisation. You know by now that Miss M. G. Eberhart couldn't let you down if she tried. If I detect a firmer, tweedier, less chiffonesqtie note in the plucky little secretary heroine of The Man Next Door (Crime Club, 8s.

whose boss is framed for murder by the fifth oolumn in Washington's drawing-rooms, this can be interpreted as war effort like Veronica Lake's haircut. Read away. And then go on tq your other old stand-by, Mr. Hulbert Footner. In Death of a Saboteur (Crime Club, 8s.

6d.) Lee Mappin, in the intervals of discharging his duties to New York cafe society, uses a curly black-haired adventuress to help trap huge phoney Russian prince, Axis agent, of course. He is then himself trapped by dwarf Baltic Baron. Before dropping olf to sleep you might like to taste two more easy interesting' murder mysteries, one American, one E.nglish. The Tur I QUOise Shop," by Miss Frances Crane tHammond, 8s. has 'ASreeerit rebort.

to the TradfcJs: of, great importance in the. iorgposirwar. mausiry. sBrdaBVy.V reduced jin -by irHernar fmancial ranjreii that thevalimrnel luuvairy Baauig-xier mamiainea oy aw'aystem of with; Croverhmeht' sabetion; tlurdlythat ot (overoen ov- a -renresentaTivA -naflrri nraum from various ajtain Lvu. auuiuci vy toe Bef Weennhe in-dustrv lost three-oiirirterK rit nite oy-a ultra.

'increasingly, home salesave' come tbecupx larger-proportion of its-busiheis': the war to the' end of 1942). the. production of halved'; its', I exports,) have 'rbeenJ tTK.Ltjir uie.c? lists ueea SUiiiltrtcu, Hum: iuutiuiiii-, rmDiaBheeri reduced, bv arjout a Thus has ihtensifled4 usuu. lit byom.is''iSiijiMint. Prof lias iirwjiihv 'eoine bn ffor a third; Hrimti' by j- put Dfnanv ana ftrn7llinn, exborts nil to xoxai i.

(ThusfttuV. cotton' indusfiy of-this rniinfrv will be taeed.ias'after the last increase: in. competition from-; other," ex porters1 'and "natfbhaMhdustries: On after' this as tlast, thereVwUl ibe temporary-demand" for- will-itfe war-devastated tries in bbth-Europe and! Asia to supply: After ''law- permitted to. create. and; t-n -l-Clli rii.

indus-. trv's adiustment-'vtb -theVlinlited, "MMibpitfea.r which -'soon was louoweu oy again, the cotton industry will depend first on the -home, not i the -export, market; and, on Jthe extent to -natibual policies of full employment and maximum, demand, and by inter national arrahgerhents or maxi-, mum trade, total worm aemanfl-ior cloth' can 'be" Otrievit: ably situation; theiGtottpri Board Committee of "selfrdefence.i It wishes. to sellvits product at a price sufficient to keep operation the sire i or industry which-it believes ought be kept at J', Thci'-'rerbart is the first of a series of 'plans' from separate Industries for which bt Trade has called, without any guidance as, -the principles, which the.Government believe ought to apply, to post-war industrial policy. No Industry can Know wnat xne cnanees are or run employment or maximum demand' at home; nor can they, tell" what; the phnnnps will be- of international policy for trie expansion oi. wqrw consumption worm xraqe.

Therefore, naturally, they will' all Sroduce reports designed to keep In elne their rjresent -slants, or some thing slightly less, at their present. or iligntiy improved, state or efficiency: ine net eneci oi auon proposals, it translated into policy, may be to recognise the vested interest of each industry, employers, workers aiuce, in. Keeping me lnaustry as is, and to slow. Sown-the process, of ro-imViinmant iTirl arlilTctYntsnt Thus. criticisms, 'of.

the Cotton Board Committee's' report should be aaaressea. not trr-tne repreaentattves of the cotton-industry -who drew it up. but to. the Government which asked for it, without' giving any guidance on tne cnaracter oi luture policy." The -Cotton Board Committee's proposals involve a levy upon the home consumer to keep the industry at what ft considers to. be -etnclency.

Minimum' will firms in the compulsory' contribu tions made on-, each firm to buy out plant regarded a redundant- cottnnfrioth.and. secondly: maintain returri 'oar for' oth'er- iJndustries; the. i first-, domestic -problerh io raise -s'effici-ency-that Hpi, output per head to the to be doubtea1 whether, with -the' best-win 'in" the world, and' there "is'-much good will in the this can be achieved simply by price and COMPANY MEETING MIDLAND BANK LIMITED The Eaneral meetine of barebbldera -tlw svMieUarid 7 Bank IJinitfd, was the Bead Office. Poultry, London. chalrntan) reatded.

shareholders to "tslies a roaoS the report atuf "withvthe ataUriiantMnr. tha 'enainmBti nrsvlnualv clrcQlated' reproduoad tieie tirjn of th -reoort Uif directorm mam of'aceounta' for nse year enaeai(c7iDer ai. iss. Th) motion, -was by Mr. F.

Dualev TJockei' ifdiTectart -and xne louowing also rjnovad by the-', seconded by loco uavies carriea. Tnat tnu meennar aeairaa to ex. tiresa lta 'avntnathv with Pie relatives' of thoae. naemQera of the atafr lives" or been" -posted as mining or become n'risoners. and of thai civilian 1 11 1 1 1 on-n.

nave ut i. uiair members of the staftwho have lost their lives by enernyl action. and with, deep nsoret the loss the Dans; aaa- 'On- th motfort Of ti rhalnnan resolution aym- that he would-'make 'a speedy enmnlnto rawvtlTairtr. Lt." Further. nesoUrtitjna.

j-were carried, authorinlng the' payment TonFebruai of a 'dividend of nr -tKs rt cernber SI lastV-re-eltrcn MrirStanIev .1 lar, -r MIA i The -eroctwdtan-'cn'tr'M. -uiftK a- at thaniot, to the chairman. Author WILLI JIM The fajclnatlna or of areney called Unhfarsal Uneta" hie(. 4saU "parstiai; and that Is ainarenii. b6' 1 -aaaaM "iu vu IU1UU: 1J naiiym 1 faiif "has'given! account of; a Xuland-bilsy ijife It is a 'varied tale! fijll'of ffood atnvici where hiffAather om -usiano.

of New, peeh' strenuous years la me jjipio-motio'-Rp'niliw 'anrV-Foreittn Office: to' service i-ia'-" the-warl of. 184-18 and, since then, multiplicity, of nnhiiV ninrlc iri Ministerial office and Jiff -countless other a.a. lU'knli'lia' of much: "historical; interest; but there is morejinat-tnaninac. is revelation ot.a ahlni nrsonalitv -of 8 nhirirmr. rest for friendship' and sport.

and snrewa appreciation, aiiw.ot. national affairs and of. the' changes have brought ni-lriffh society. Thtire too, a.reat nf Afiim'nls with nn flrlv -i fl'flasrrtion'-forthe tuatura," straHgfe'New' Zealand creature or nennue toin-is a- lizard, was to leatl-its hippypbsii sessor 10 -tne rretiutenuai ujl the Zoological Society Best of all, 'though the. writer is now an elderly man, the memoir is instinct with the snirit crt vouth.

We are well-nigh threequarterBof the through the the author attains.the.'age of thirty years. That is very. rlghtand-'Bs it- should be. In our progress down. vate-oi or ma'v not.

crow a 'point with most 'be open; to doubt, and 6n'whlch age andj'youth' are apti'to- But we generally, become 'more respectable. And respectability "deTsirable" asj of '-'course it hotvgrbw. with -'the Thues' rainbow, as did the days 'our. 'And if those "days, with "the 'folly and the" feasting-and the fun'. of them, viewed in retrospect tin "the -vale, with -ever- heightened colours they are-none the.

worse for that. So Lord Onslow does well to pass rapidly, and with characteristic modesty, all the hard sterling work. of later years, the main events-of which are within the knowledge of everyone-; and so to give us more of his memories of the spacious times of -Queen Victoria and of good King Edward VII. There is no doubt about it those wore the days." WGHT LAMENT rpHE manner of bewailing is light, but the lament is audible and" continuous in Mr. Denis Mackail's "Ho!" (Hutchinson, 10s.

The old of pleasant houses, little dinners, room to-work, "three servants', an income tolerably, secure, was good; and is gone for good. Many other elderly -people, no doubt, makefile same, aloildrto thejirking of their families or, ashamedly, in silence. Mr. Mackail is able to it off in published, print, where it appears half-humorous. His sighing is always pleasant and gentlemanly, his comment- often shrewd." Yet persistent sighing is a little tedious.

M. C. NO PAR VALUE W. MANNING DACEY (Finemeial 'Editor) NE suggestion examined recentiv bv the Company. Law Amendment Committee, set up last year and now hard at work for-several anchths.

was that companies should be under British law as is already permitted in some countries to issue shares of. "no par value. The impression from reading the evidence' Is that the. committee could-see no real' point in the idea. The main arsumenf 1 fnr'the' "no bar share Is purely psychological ii wouia investors or me common illusion! that share must be dear it itJStands above paf, and- cheap, it it falls below.

Iri 1 reality of 'course: onlyrteat of whether a hare is fairly valued is tne -yie ra. -others, --naving regard, to the risk- 'yield 'ls the amount' of dividend as a percentage of the purchase -price, not or tne par value, nominal value, in fact, does not enter into the calculation at all. If the dividend is a shilling and the share is quoted at a pound, the yield is- 5 per cent. The position is exactly the same whether the par value of the share is 3 and the rate of dividend l.per or the par value Is a shilling and the dividend 100 per cent. then, does the nominal- or par value- mean? It is, a- -pure Action resulting' from a particular way of keeping accounts.

Probably many Jhaves.an-idea that, if fh nominal value of a share is 1 the coramDy mut, at iorne time ln- the received 1' to in-the -busiheii: ut uui'is-far. from, being-the case. If the company' is a successful one. wim a gooa earnings record; ior example. It may have been ableto issue-1 shares at a price of, 4, Filacing the 3 premium to reserve, subscribers to such shares are to receive a reasonable return on their investment say fper ceht.

then the company must pay a dividend of SO per cent, on the par value. Again, the company may have started out with shares of a nominal value of 10, struck a bad -patch, and then reduced trie nominal value of the shares to XI in a reconstruction scheme. If the business subsequently recover, a dividend of 50. Der cent. On the reduced' par Calue of the shares would represent only a.

per cent- on me actual orietnal investment- Abrjarentlv-hich rates. of this Kind give rise to. endless misunderstandings. In company reconstructions, again; there is a common impression that the Ordinary shareholders are mak ing sacrinces me nominal vauie oi their shares is cut. In fact.

they Still retain tne wnole equity ot tne dusv ness, the original bright -to, share pro rata in pronis--uniess, or course. additional Ordinary snares are created and given to some other party, such as the Preference share1 bowers. The only useful purpose served by the concept of nominal or par value is to measure the liability (ss contributories) of subscribers' to partly-paid shares. But nowadays nearly all shares are' fully oaid no. It is to be regretted that the Cohen committee were not more taken witn trie iaea or no par.

value. They seem to taave" been over- impressed by the fact that there is. admittedly, little nontUar demand far this "form -of share. But there little popular demand for railways or wireless until tnese tilings existed. size UK its a 'J 'BrillisUitiv undrtttijtliria' 'Moat cornpatijoriaMe a for the.

reader who'- deiierida on mmuifc STOUCHfOri; xioa 1 the Mountain Le An outstanding American best seller." 126, net TMo'lcps: off Bdreshing and-zestful countrywide novel of character." Diay Shttch. 86 net Flori Saridstf-om 'Author of Heart" 'Madness the 6Lnet Advance rBriarn Peritbn I An "otitipoten book about Australia jbyooefof her beat knbwn editors. 86 net rrn t. 1. 1 urrimstry of this "1 MyV'pcfaotal TlCTi Elr Culbenson't: World mas a tBe tooat il contribution to world ueact.

thai ny- wrttercof 'wt." s- mt liU a fid notet, on' hi painting-by LlLUAM-ROWSS, mn 'po'- hii rt by H. PrJT WIFltClt. delishtful -BtW. Jburhl of a tubmndrnan AONALO DUNCAN. Tbii ttoty-pf.

a yanna writer towatHUi) who whhdnw- from 'the of letters to t6 H. ARRI Bit. A amrine countryman showi the EagUsh villaafhroaab he eyes, problcnurand niakci ibold 'Jfnggciriona IltuUratti: 7S tbdWloutcRrti VjOsWHIMI trv. -withD ut vour nteti oy oetn "flotg. etc.

Ttm.iNopeii'J JE AN UNDER OUR ROOF '''MistjMp -'Rbss' writes with a sharpness of sense and i'fenunine allusiveness of entlmerrtwhich berjw'e them to b'ringoffa sub'deCffect of comedy. 'she achieves in- triis la'tetatwel has si diUrate and ctmintf XT fu Times. WOMEN IN A richer of sVcfrfc thahthe run of inovel aboutwirtirae conditions-. An individual and- fine'Iy-tcxtured of worit." ThrTimes. Outstanding its chiefe character is strikingly Erank Sininnerton.

ft. 6d. tut taeh. Land, tom theWiaters An historic, novel set in thcvFens 'at the time ctfCivil'War. 99.

(Sd. STfa Carrol SptEATFJBILD Best of week's Sunday times A DAILY-. TSUOItAPH Skiiful ajidr-pteasanv the observer' 8 s. 6d. ODLLlil6 has books reviffwil; or advertised in ttoVpf per and a large 8)efecfipn: 6f standard authore, Call Wide Is Th Oate." By Upton Sinclair.

T. Werner Laurie. 12s. oa.r Onoe In Vienna." By V)pkl Baum. (Bias.

as. ed.) "The By Edan Phlll- porta. (HutMilnaon. ea. ed.) The Chlnase By Vivian oenneii.

(Htner ana nrarpurg es. The Robbar BrMajroom." By Eudora Welty. Barilay Haad. 10a. ad.) Some may find the Devon air of the changeling rainer too relaxing.

It is a very rustic story, carried forward mainly iy quiet ripples of conversation. The dia-Insue is sometimes stiff but stiff ness is a privilege ot West Country novelists. And Mr. Phill- potts's comprehension of his own countryside, joined to a gently distinguished prose, make in them selves a charming book Again in violent contrast, "The Chinese Room is a thoroughly urban, a densely corporeal, novel It applies the primitive celebrated by D. H.

Lawrence to a London banker, his wife, secretary, and his wife's lover. Now there can be no doubt that even rich, even vefy rich, bankers are susceptible to primitive impulses; and' Mr. Connell. who constructs well, has enriched his extremely simple main plot with considerable skil). -Nevertheless, it is hard not to feel a certain detraction from the prirnitive when each an illicit rendez vous has to be reached with the help of a large car and a chauffeur.

Not that. The Chinese Room is a novel of sham sophistication; it is a serious and interesting experiment, strayed, into the wrong milieu. Miss- Welty's book of short stories, "The 'Curtain of will be remembered. The Robber Bridegroom" is a more ambitious tale than these, arid It can be recommended to the novel-reader only with extreme, diffidence. For it has been conceived in terms of poetry, and set in a wild forest-country by the Alissis-sippi during pioneering nays.

Many readers will be confused or bored by it; those, on the other hand, who are not dismayed may be enchanted. Like a ballad, it has moments of beauty sewed together with threadbare patches. Miss Welty is still exploring, but she is cutting her path with authority. GOING WEST carefully detailed New Mexico art colony and craft shop setting. Lots of parties in highly decorated adobe mansions.

More than one surprise. Mr. Gilbert Coveracks "A.T.S. Mystery" (Hurst and Blackett, 8s. 6d.) is a lively, rather pathetic little modern army life case told by too many narrators.

Authentic atmosphere and plenty of incident. As a light eye-opener on waking, try Miss Hester Holland's Under the Ciroumstanoes (Hurst and Blackett, 8s. One of those amateur psychological studies guilt-haunted governess murders women and tramps from circumstantial compulsion. Not bad at all. You should now be ready for the serious business of the.dav: the gas-fireside thrillers.

"Advance Agent" by Mr. John August (Selwyn and Blount, 7s. is a turbulent fifth-column chase in the wilds of New England, with two or three flaming affairs mostly conducted out of doors. Its blurb rails it mature emotional entertainment." In The Legion of the Lost (John Long, 9s.) Mr, John Creasey's Dr. Palfrey and his chums roam occupied Europe a series of protean impersonations rescuing anti-Fascist scientists from concentration camps.

Highly exciting but demands a lot of faith. Mr- Frank Stafford's "Lobster Post'- (Hurst and Blackett, 8s. 6d.) is an odd, picaresque affair about the adventures of the Scotch crew of a tramp steamer chartered by a' quadruple bluffing crypto-Nazi- during the appeasement era. There are some very cosy interludes in a Cornish creek. grmLeu cmvmmm rait and pepper.

Mlhod Cai die htetta in half kngth-wajs ana muh well. Cook In little sailed till Uusn. Drain well and keep the avatar Car soap Pat the leek in a grcaaed saJdng-miah, naaon with rah ana pepper eoTer with the grated eherae. Put trader the grill or in a hot OTen to met! efaeese. (For 4 peoplr) siinplybytkHng-so(1eptttrood.

(Thai's GREENS TWICE AS MCE body-buitding kind of food, the group THIS WAY i hat meat. ash. eggs and ctocsc belong Jufet try these two recipes on any man can't face leeks or swedes plain boiled He'll shout for more Mnedlsh Ouitterole 1 lh. swedes, rate (sJired thinlj) I Tiietiiurn-iMdanionor leek (rhuped); I tiruill Aeod celery (rut up): 2 lea- pmini parmley (rhoppd) 3 om. grated hem salt and pepper; I pint rari, i os.

lour. Method pir-dih. plarr shrrnalr f-r of pi rdr. onioti or lk, and r-lrr. pjrAlrv, rhefjM sod four in -alrr.

rovrr and root in a tnodrralr oren for 1 bourn. Blmd flour with a liltU-Miirr, pour in and rook for 5 minute ttriitrr dishing up. (For A propjr). to. I ti who demons if cooked for only 10 to I 5 minutes in a very tittle faM- boiling water, with the saucepan lid tightly on What's more, i-ooked this way, they don't lose aH the important Vitamin ihe Vitamin we're missing at pre-nt from oranges and lemons and other fresh frui! TRY THESE TIPS WITH VEGETABLES Shred Ihe outer leaves of cabbage lor soups or stews or cook separately ith a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.

The while stalk, graied. makes a delicious addition lo soups or slews, or saiad-s. Remember that a raw salad as pood for you as fresh fruit Add graied raw swedes lo our alad, too you get their full flavour thit vay and they have a valuable amount ofVitamm Remember that this important Mlamtn gels reduced by cooking why raw vegetables are pood for von FOR Bf.ST RF.Sl I TS WITH SALT COD II our fiihiDocecr ftaji it Itfti no! ftlrradv been soaked, soak tor I tvksl Z4 nourc skin ad up, ff pomb'e rbansiDa ihe waitr oner or twin. Drain ni nn. ut in pwen and brtns ioiK In boil, ook until todar (about 10 minute).

dram wall and neijuirvd. THIS IS WEEK TH. LAST WEEK Of MIION PERIOD No. 7 9th to fab. Sen) TKi tN.S-tr OF FOOD.

LONDON. I FOOD FACTS No 187.