LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 172, 20 July 1907, Page 10

LITERARY.

A portrait gallery of the ladies who visited England with the various ' Premiers on the occasion of the Colonial Conference is a feature of "The Lady's Realm" for June. The photographs are of what may be termed the highly artistic order, and include Lady and Miss Ward, Mrs. Deakin and her daughters, Miss Lyne, the Misses Botha, Miss Moore, and Lady Laurier. The letterpress is supplied by Rachael A. Wright.

Max Pemberton's story, " Wheels of Anarchy," continues to develop dramatically in " Cassell's Magazine" for June. The fiction is above the average level of interest, the names of Headon Hill, Harold Begbie, H. A. Vachell, Barry Pain, and Oliver Onions appearing above short stories. P»rcy Cross Standing deals with the cricketing career of B. J. T. Bosanquet, and attempts to explain some of the secrets that have contributed to the success of this great bowler with his " googly " deliveries. An article on the real Solomon's Mines is contributed by Rider Haggard.

A naval officer criticises trenchantly in "The Monthly Review" the suggested new distribution of our fleet. "The service in general," he writes, "regards it with dismay," for "it sin 3 against the teaching and strategy, which demands the concentration of forces in as few fleets as possible, instead of its dispersion." Arthur Symons is in a fair way, wo should imagine, to bring a hornet's nest about his ears with his "Great Acting in English." He not only eulogises in unstinted language the acting of Edward Sothern and Julia Marlowe, who recently completed a six weeks' London season, but he makes comparisons which to many will be peculiarly odious. "We have nothing like it in England," says Mr Symons, "nothing on the same level, no such honesty and capacity of art, no such worthy results." Frances A. Charming supports the Small Holdings Bill, illustrating what may be done by illustration drawn from Denmark.

G. S. Street, in his readable "Ghosts of Piccadilly," deals with the Palmerstons, their essentially English type and wholesome saneness of vision. Lindsay S. Garrett writes of the realism of Thomas Hardy's novels, and F. XV. Rolt of a widely different subject on life in a North American border mining camp. Another article to which attention should be drawn is Marcus R. P. Dorman's "Some Principles of Imperial Taxation."

Captain Mahan, writing in "The National Review" for June, urges that the safety of England demands the retention by her of the powerful iveapon which the existing right to capture the merchant ships of a hostile belligerent at sea gives to her. A proposal has just been made at The Hague Conference by the United States delegate to abolish maritime capture in war, and Captain Mahan's arguments, which are based largely on history, are specially relevant. Mr. A. Griffith Roscawen, who has just returned to England from the Transvaal, contributes an article in which he throws a cold douche on the optimistic feeling which prevails in the Mother Country with respect to the future of South Africa; a feeling largely, inspired by General Botha's effusive protestations of loyalty. The triumph of that gentleman the writer declares to be "the triumph of Boer nationality and .ideals over British nationality and ideals—in other words, the Transvaal elections were a political Majuba." "Trade and Tariff" is the title of an able article by the Rt. Hon. Chas. Booth, in which he argues the fiscal question in a spirit of fairness and moderation which must commend it to the serious attention of men of all parties in the United King- : dom and outside of it. Mr. Booth suggests "that the different parts of the i Empire should agree upon a minimum scale of duty, below which the products of foreign countries should not be allowed to enter, but which should be re-' mitted on all inter-Imperial trade," these duties to be fixed by each self-governing portion of the Empire in accordance with its fiscal nolicy. In the case of the Mother Country he would impose a maximum of 12_ per cent, and a minimum of 5 per cent, upon ail finished articles of manufacture, and the same for brieadstufl's. Two other interesting article's are "The Cobden Club and the Navy," by Carlyon Bellairs, M.P., and "Ambition and Sedition in India," by Sir Evan James.

"Europe and the Turks," by Noel Buxton, is a useful and interesting contribution to the literature of the subject, and may be regarded as an attempt to bring up to date the views expressed in Freeman's "Ottoman Empire in Europe" and the Duke of Argyle's well-known work on the "Eastern Question." The main theses to which the author devotes himself are two —that the Turk is, as a ruler of Christians, simply impossible, and that England has undertaken certain definite responsibilities toward the Christian subjects of the Sultan that she cannot ignore. The author has travelled six times through the Balkan States, and he recounts at length evidence that goes to show that the Christians are quite capable of civilisation and self-government, but that their position under the Turks is just as intolerable as when Gladstone wrote his famous pamphlet on Bulgarian atrocities thirty years ago. So far 'as the present trouble in Macedonia is concerned, Mr. Buxton brings out clearly the fact that England, by compelling Russia to accept the Treaty of Berlin instead of that of San Stefano, deliberately gave the Macedonians back into slavery. Moreover, at the same time England then specifically undertook the duty of protecting the Christian subjects of Turkey against the tyranny of their masters. The later history of Macedonia and of Armenia shows how completely she has neglected these responsibilities. It is true that the Macedonian question is now complicated by the bitter rivalry between : Greeks and Bulgarians, and their competition for predominance in the Vilayets. But Mr. Buxton believes that if the Great Powers take the work seriously in hand, Macedonia can yet be saved. Remonstrances are, of course, merely futile; and Helim Pasha has shown how completely the scheme of reforms so pretentiously put forward by the Powers can be reduced to a farce. Mr. Buxton holds that the Powers might easily arrange for a system of joint control which would enable them to avoid the muchdreaded "rush for the spoil" in the Near East, and would secure the safety of the Christians still doomed to submit to the tyranny of the Turk. The concluding chapters of the book contain a powerful appeal for the establishment of a loftier ideal of moral duty and nationalconduct than has usually been associated with diplomatic dealings over the Eastern Question. , jir. John Murray is the publisher.