MEETING THE CRISIS .sx A GROWING expectation is expressed , by people accustomed to perceive the indications of the times , that the tide of trade depression is turning .sx We must be ready , not merely to take it at the flood , but to catch it at the flow .sx One of the most important proposals which demands immediate practical attention is that to build houses .sx We hope that the Government is working out plans for setting to work the unemployed in the building trade .sx These builders are scattered all over the country .sx Houses are needed everywhere .sx There is no necessity for shifting men to any concentrated area .sx The great merit of the work is that it can be started at any point .sx The same consideration applies to small holdings .sx A movement is already in being which requires extension .sx Areas can be selected near the industrial and mining districts , especially the mining areas , to which men from the country have migrated .sx Applicants can be tested and tried out .sx Many of them have , in fact , been tested by the allotment organisations already , and only await the opportunity to get to work .sx There are political difficulties in the way at the moment , but they must be removed .sx Following closely upon , and in direct association with , these movements are the steps we must take to secure general prosperity and good trade .sx Peace and goodwill among nations is a first essential , and it is also of the most pressing importance that there should be real co-operation between all sections engaged in industry at home .sx When all countries are thinking of peaceful pursuits they create trade .sx Moreover , they are the more inclined to reduce armaments and release money for increasing trade .sx MORE HOUSES AND OPEN SPACES .sx THE most important proposal got through by the City Council at its meeting yesterday was that for an application to the Minister of Health to sanction a loan of 63,000 for building 160 houses at Cutteslowe .sx The houses are badly wanted , for the " waiting-list " under the Municipal Housing Scheme is undiminished .sx They will be an instalment , but not after all a very large instalment , of the 2,500 houses which the Corporation , in the " Five Year Plan " which it has submitted to the Ministry of Health , proposes to build .sx Even now it will be asked is it doing anything to provide adequate houses for the class which needs them most - the poorest-paid workers .sx Next to houses nothing is more wanted in Oxford than open spaces and recreation grounds in certain hitherto neglected portions of the city .sx East Oxford is specially lacking in " lungs , " and so is Headington , despite its proximity to the open country .sx The Council ought certainly to consider favourably the movement for the preservation of Bury Knowle as a public park , and some better proposal for the utilisation of the large garden surrounding the Poor Law Hospital ought to be made than that which was rejected the other day .sx Including Bury Knowle , the council has at present over 300 acres of land under its control , for the purchase of which loans amounting to over 90,000 have been sanctioned .sx Much of it is being used to public advantage ; but these lands might well be included in the inquiry about the City properties generally on which the Council decided yesterday on the motion of Coun .sx H.O. King .sx It is probable that the Council is not in all cases getting the best value for the ratepayers from its numerous properties ; but one sympathises with Coun .sx Somerton when he says that the mere money yield is " not everything .sx " The Council , unable as usual to get through its full agenda , left the fate of Wyfold Court as a home for mental defectives unsettled .sx It will not be surprising , however , if the Council , which has always had a divided mind about Wyfold Court , withdraws its consent to the purchase .sx TWENTY-ONE .sx ON the sixth of May , 1910 , King George the Fifth succeeded to the throne at a time of keen national excitement .sx Political problems were creating vehement and bitter controversies .sx The relations between the two Houses of Parliament and the ever-present prospect of trouble upon the still unsettled conditions in Ireland divided politicians into severely hostile camps .sx By general consent , efforts were made to avoid a political struggle at the beginning of the new reign and for a while there was a comparative calm .sx But , as the records show , men thought then they were living through times of stress , the vast majority little dreaming how placid were their days contrasted with what was to follow within a few short years .sx It is fairly safe to say that the most resourceful student would find it difficult to discover in the pages of history any period of 21 years so crowded with events of such intense national and world-wide importance .sx OXFORD AND SPAIN .sx IT was suggested recently in our columns that , though the report was unfounded , Oxford's Professor of Spanish , Don Salvador de Madariaga , was to be appointed to the London Embassy by the new Spanish Republican Government , and it was extremely probable that he would be called upon to take a part in the rebuilding of Spain .sx The call has come sooner , perhaps , than could have been expected , and Prof .sx Madariaga has now been appointed to the Washington Embassy .sx He has declared that his recreation is " a change of " ; and from the Oxford Spanish Chair and his Headington home to his diplomatic environment at Washington will be a change indeed .sx In the interests of the young Republic no better appointment could be made .sx Prof .sx Madariaga's experiences have touched life on many sides - literature , journalism , even railway management ; and above all , he has held positions of great importance in connection with some of the most vital work , especially disarmament , of the League of Nations .sx His presence at Washington must be of great value in the delicate international relations which now exist .sx But to Oxford Prof .sx Madariaga's departure will be a serious loss .sx The endowment of the Spanish Chair , to which Sir William Morris contributed so generously , is one of the most important steps which the University has taken towards giving modern languages their proper place in its curriculum .sx But there is much more to do before they have in Oxford the full recognition which modern conditions require .sx Prof .sx Madariaga's views on the subject , expressed in his inaugural lecture , excited great interest ; and all who shared them hoped for his practical co-operation in carrying out the developments still needed .sx Oxford sympathies will go with Prof .sx Madariaga in his work as a gifted representative of the New Spain .sx They are sympathies which are extended to the Republican regime , which has made so fair and honourable a start , but which may yet have serious troubles to meet .sx And they will certainly not be withheld from the King , whom only the other day Oxford heartily welcomed .sx His dignified submission to the popular will and his advice to all Spaniards to place no difficulty in the way of the new Government are unparalleled in the history of monarchs in exile .sx THE NOVELIST AS CREATOR .sx OXFORD this week has heard two eminent writers talking confidentially about their art , Mr. Hugh Walpole , who revealed the troubles of the novelist , and yesterday , as Romanes Lecturer , Mr. John Galsworthy , who came to the heart of the matter , " The Creation of Character in Literature .sx " That is just the aspect about which the " average reader " is always talking , speaking not of novels only , but of all imaginative work .sx How did Shakespeare create Hamlet or Falstaff , or Cervantes Don Quixote , or Molire Tartuffe , or Dickens , Thackeray , Balzac and Tolstoi the crowd of living beings that pass through their masterpieces ?sx Mr. Percy Lubbock , who writes as an expert , has said that " how a novelist finds his subject in a human being , or in a situation , or in a turn of thought - that is indeed beyond us .sx " So far as enlightenment about the creative process is concerned , Mr. Galsworthy's hearers , we fear , " came out by the same door wherein they went .sx " They were , indeed , told that his pages were supplied from " the store cupboard of the sub-conscious .sx " But his opening sentence ran :sx " Character creation is mysterious , and whether in literature or life has the same baffling unscrutability .sx " And there , in effect , after delightful pictures of himself in the throes of composition , after illuminating criticism of the novels of others , after a shrewd analysis of tendencies in the novel-writing of the moment , he left his audience .sx He had a word to say about the quick passing of reputations in a winnowing by time of which the survivors are so few .sx That , too , was a point on which Mr. Hugh Walpole dwelt , and he put Mr. Galsworthy in a little group of writers who hated shams .sx No fitter tribute could be paid to the creator of the Forsyte .sx THE INTERNATIONAL SPIRIT .sx " IF one had to choose between the economic position to-day in the United States and Great Britain , one would undoubtedly choose the latter .sx " Such is the conclusion drawn by Sir Arthur Balfour after attending the International Conference of Chambers of Commerce at Washington .sx There is no consolation in the thought that other people are worse off than oneself , and it is deplorable that America is in such an unsafe position .sx The United States , as Sir Arthur reminds us , is the largest consumer of raw material and primary products , and we are only just realising what a large portion of our trade has been involved in furnishing these raw materials and primary products .sx The platitude brought home to us by the economic facts is that all nations are dependent on each other and upon the trade they can do with each other .sx The days of insular exclusiveness belong to the dark ages .sx On broad principles there is amongst all people an awakening to the fact that we must understand each other , help each other , and pull together .sx America is not in the League of Nations in actual fact , but we are sure of American sympathy in the work which the League is seeking to accomplish .sx Disarmament is highly important of itself .sx It is the first step .sx Beyond that is the cultivation of the right spirit .sx Sir Arthur Balfour , in assuring us of our better relative position , is giving us - as he would , of course , be the first to emphasise - not an opportunity to be complacent , but an incentive to do a still bigger share in the great work of world recovery .sx PLAYING FIELDS IN PERIL .sx THERE is a growing uneasiness - and the subject will be widely discussed while Parliament is having its Whitsuntide recess - about the effect of the land taxes on playing fields and suburban and rural amenities .sx Prof .sx G.M. Trevelyan and Mr. J.M. Keynes were the first to raise a warning voice about the dangers which the Bill , as it stands , involves to playing fields other than those attached to colleges and schools and the encouragement which it may give to ribbon building .sx Prof .sx Gilbert Murray and Mr. H.A.L. Fisher are among those who have later endorsed their protest .sx Land owned by the National Trust is to be expressly exempted from taxation under the new proposals , but the National Trust is only one of several bodies now engaged in the work of preserving rural amenities .sx How would the Oxford Trust or the Cambridge Trust stand under the Bill , and how would a body like the Roads Beautifying Association , which is acquiring strips of woodland in order to save them from the speculative builder ?sx How would such a plan fare as that for the new Gosford building estate , playing fields and zoological gardens , in which Oxford is so strongly interested ?sx This is just the kind of estate , with its open spaces , kept deliberately unbuilt upon , which Mr. Snowden's measure seems directly to threaten .sx Some writers think that the dangers of the Bill will extend still further .sx " It is designed , " says one of them , " to drive the poet from his garden , and the philosopher from his solitude .sx It is a mean and soulless State that would tax the flower beds of its subjects .sx " 4 .sx