LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 18

LITERARY.

Mr. Ben H. Morgan, chairman of the I British Empire Producers' Association, I has written "xV. Short Introduction to the Study of Empire Economic Problems." to which he has given the title, "What Every Briton Ought to Know." He says that few people realise that the British Empire covers nearly a quarter of the earth's surface, and that its citizens number nearly a third of the world's population. He contrasts the methods by' which this vast confederation of people, has been created with the groat Empires of the past. The constitution of the Empire necessarily gives rise to ninny difficult problems, and the purpose of Mr. Morgan's treatise is to formulate the issues, more especially with reference to governance and defence, industry, trade, credit and finance, distribution of population, and transport. Reference is made to such subjects as exchanges, and a chapter is devoted to the recommendations of the Imperial Conference. 1923. The Kt. Hon. Stanley M. Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia, contributes a preface. Books designed to explain to the lay mind the meaning and significance of i Einstein's theory of gravitation continue to flow from the Press. tine of the latest is a translation by Henry I- Rroso of an essay on tbe subject written by Edwin L. Freundlieh. Director of Einstein's Tower. The book is commended, in a preface, by Einstein himself. It is doubtful, however, whether any reader who docs not possess something more than an elementary know-, ledge of mathematics will be able to follow the author iv his exposition of the subject, although it is admittedly clear nnd logical and will probably be ! readily followed by all who arc, to use j tho words of Professor Einstein, "to , some extent conversant with tbe | methods of reasoning of the exact sciences." In "Rare Luck," by Mr. Pctt Ridge, | (Melhucn), we have a novel of middle- | class London life, dealing, in a semi- , I satirical hut kindly way, with love, and I modest, but successful finance. The author has chosen as hero a newly-rich young man and the story reminds us of Warren's "Ten Thousand a Year," but in this case the young parvenu is shrewd and business-like, the exact opposite of Warren's spendthrift fool. Mr. Pctt Ridge keeps throughout to his familiar staccato style, tho abbreviated jerky sentences, and quick humorous mode of expression common to a certain type of Londoner, being well rendered. There are many smiles in "Rare Luck." "The Second Wife" by Lilian Arnold (Thornton Butterworth) a vitally modern story, concerns Courtenay Blake, whose past life has been seared by an episode of grim horror, aud two women of different types on whose lives ho exercised a magnetic influence. The contrast between Alison Seymour, an old-fashioned, clinging typo of girl, and Judith Borrowdale, modern Amazonian, and undersexed, is skilfully empnasiscd. In the development of a woman in tho difficult role of second wife tho real drama of the Btory centres. There is also involved the question should a man before marriage always reveal the secrets of hia past life. The importance of the Singapore naval base for tho defence of Britain's Easter trade and of Australia and New Zealand, is ably reviewed in an article iby Professor L. W. Lydc in the "National Review" for April. He shews that the distance from Singapore to Tokyo is greater than that from Devonshire to Matsachusetts, and very little less than from Yezo to Vancouver Island. To describe the fortification of this port as a menace to Japan is ridiculous. In the same issue of the "National" is an article by the Rt. Hon. L. S. Amcry on "Imperial Economics," in which the author shews that the colonial policy of England is mainly responsible for her commercial and industrial greatness. Tbe "Justice of the Duke," by Rafael Sabatine (Stanley Paul), is practically a collection of short stories connected by tbe part which one man—Cesare Borgia—takes in each, and so welded into an agreeable whole. In the period of which the author writes. Ttaly—or that portion known as the Romagna—was subdivided into many Slates, the ruler of each at enmity with others, and many refusing to acknowledge the over-lord-ship of the Pope. It was tbe task of Cesare Borgia to break the power of the independent nobles, and that with insufficient force at his disposal. Each of the seven chapters serves to illustrate by what shrewdness and strategy Cesare succeeded in making himself feared, and bow cleverly he used discreditable means to obtain most desirable and worthy ends. "The House of Prophecy," by Gilbert Carman (Thornton Butterworth) is a study of temperament, which mainly concerns a girl—charming, incalculable, impulsively sympathetic—and the three men who are in love with her. A practical idealist, Matty Boscaren seems to have learned wisdom during the War. Penrose she loves; and she loves the strange, crude little Jew, (Sembal; but if she married either she feels his love would not last. She loves, too, tbe highminded, maturer, stable professor, Melian Stokes, and is ready to marry him, but just before the day lixed for the wedding realises her mistake, changes her mind, and runs away to join the persistent, baffling Sembal after all. ; The importance of the story is, as always with Mr. Carman, that it Berves as a medium for the development of j his own philosophy of life and char- ! acter. E. V. Knox and E. V. Lucas have constituted themselves the poet laureates of Wembley Empire Exhibition, in default of an ode from Robt. Bridges. Their effusion, in 13 stanzas, appears in the April issue of the '•Empire l_eview,'s and is amusingly descriptive of the elements that make up the great show. The second series of letters from Mrs. R. E. Stevenson to Sir Sidney Colvin give an intimate picture of their life in the South Seas, and throw new light on the character of R.L.S. The most important paper in the April issue of this magazine is an article by Mrs. Philip Snowden, describin-cr her visit to Palestine and the results of a searching investigation into the conditions prevailing there. Her criticisms are moderate and well considered. They aro generally favourable to the administration of the mandate by tbe High Commissioner, anil hopeful that a better understanding will ultimately be established between Jews and Arabs. Withdrawal by Britain she regards as wholly undesirable in tho interests of the inhabitants of Palestine, of the British Empire, or of civilisation. Mr. John 'Murray has added to his edition of popular novels at two shillings net "The Treasure Cap," by B.nnett Copplestone, and "Tbe Return of Sherlock Holmes," by A. Cocau Doyle.

"Lip Malvy's Wife," by George Agncw Chamberlain" (Mills and Boon, per Dyruock, Sydney), is a love story, in a setting of African adventure. Lip Malvy, Hell Bentwood, and Longwan Cochrane, a triumvirate oi" ivory buccaneers, went one after the other into the forest of bull elephants too big fir a bullet, and never came out. Beatrice Malvy went in, too. When she confided her plan to Bruce Liscomb, as they neared the ominous green wall at the edge of tho Dark Continent, the blood started suddenly pounding through his veins. This plan involved grave risks and disastrous consequences, which, however, worked out for ultimate happiness and peace. LOVE LETTERS OF GREAT MEN AND WOMEN. (By DR. C. 11. CHARLES.) The woman must indeed be friendless who has no one willing and ready at I her decease to collect the faded flowers, tho looks of hair, and love letters from her personal treasures, and commit them kindly and reverently to the names. This is, perhaps, the reason why such private and intimate correspondence, as may by chance be published for all to read, is mostly but a liliel upon the character and ability of the writers. In all this great and painstak-ingly-collected assortment of letters edited by Dr. Charles, there are very few which contain sufficient evidence of feeling and emotion to bear worthily the title of "love letters." .It has been said that men "make love." We think that women "make" love, and man is left to express it when it is made. As the makers know most about love, it is in women's letters that we ■ find the finest sentiment and purest poetry. A poet seldom wastes a passionate poom upon any woman—unless Ihe also keeps a copy for bis publisher, land so it is wo see more love in volumes of poetry than in volumes of corresi pondence passed between man and maid. lln the lovo letters selected by Dt. j Charles there is little that has beauty ]or poetry. Napoleon alone seems to have had passion and energy in writing, but even lie is sel'ish in expression. Condensed, his is all aery of "Josephine; 1 want you! " i'arlylc is prosy--more prosy than in his writing of Blumine iv "Sartos Rcs-artus." It is little wonder that Jane hesitated so long. Carlyle was explicit, however, "We may nearly ' starve, but com. to mc," is not attracI tivo to many Janes. There are few men of any nationality who can put to paper a flowing pen and let their i thoughts run from it freely. This is I what any woman can do. She is only troubled that the mechanical limits ot pen, paper, and ink, so hamper her .expression of feeling. | Dr. Charles in his introductions and remarks is slangy and ultramodern, , ! but this may be his iu-Sention, to in- , crease, by comparison, our admiration for the graceful and finished phrases .of the love letters. Such arc to be , found, but graceful and finished phrases . are not common in tho necessarily i ireckless correspondence of a lover, and . it is tho (Ire and llame of love that is i , missing in all but a very few of this collection. No, we shall never see what i Nelson, when most deeply moved, wrote jto Lady Hamilton, nor the lament I and creed that Byron must have I, written to one or other of all his many •loves. To see into the hearts of lovers , through these letters Dr. Charles has - set before us is not possible, but we I may gain some idea of the character '■ of each writer and imagine how he or l she might have written in those letters > ,long ago returned to dust. 1; "Lovo Letters of Great Mon and ' Women," tiy C. IT. Charles, PhD., - Stanley Paul, London. i \ BOLSHEVIK PERSECUTION. : f | (By CAPT. F. McCULLA'gH.) When an American or other trained I journalist sits down to write a book, , when, moreover, he is a scholar and an > earnest Bible student, he brings to his I task qualities which ensure not only j good clear English, but methods of dej scription which arrest attention. Since , the publication of Stanley's last work upon his leadership of the expedition for the relief of Emir Pasha, we have not ' met with any combination of verbatim report, and personal opinion thereon, so thorough and so full of interesting details as portions of Bolshevik history. The sitting of the Soviet "Court" and tho "trial" of the Russian Patriarch and a score or more of Russian priests, recalls the "Court" of the Revolutionists t and the "trial" of the French aristocrats as related by Dickens in "The Tale of Two Cities." The Russian priests— men of education and refinement—were brought before, a tribunal consisting, of course, of illiterate ruffians, who bad, before the "trial" commenced, already j decided upon and privately recorded tho I sentence to be pronounced. It was no . restraint upon the part of the Soviet | which spared the lives of all but one lof the unfortunate prisoners, and reI duced their punishment to terms of im- ■ prison ment of from three to ton years (one priest lost his reason at the time), I and this for no worse offence than guarding consecrated church vessels from j seizure by the Soviet. With the Pope, I canon law, and their loyalty to their religion, upon one hand, and the revolu--1 tionary Government upon the other, the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church had no option but to act as conscience directed. Captain Francis ' McCullagh makes his readers give their sympathy to the priesthood, and that without any form of special pleading. It is, indeed, wonderful that the Quakers were the first to agree to conduct their services under the supervision of the atheistic Soviet, and that tho majority '■ of the Protestant sects were able to 1 square their religious ideas with the 1 dictates of their rulers. For the general integrity of the Christian religion we are tempted to think it > would have been as weil if the oxcepl tional persecution and outside pressure I . had forced a union of all Christian • churches and so produced a force beyond i even the powers of th" Soviet to crush, i Pilate, himself, was nearer conversion i than the Russian tyrants of this day. However, out of such evils may come • good, and, if so, Captain MeCullagh's ) book will not be the smallest influence - to that end. j Lenin is said to have regarded Cbris- - tianity "as philosophically contemptible, > politically subversive, and morally abom- • inable,'' also as " a vast secret society, . which the State has tho faculty to I judge and the duty to suppress." On 1 the prisoners' side, the Russian - Patriarch said, "They taught the divine . truth, which now for near two thousand . years has been the light of the world, has been hailed as the truth by the greatest of human intellects, and has led humanity to attain its highest develop- • ment." Can we doubt which opinion - will prevail? ; "The Bolshevik Persecution of Chris- - tianity" by Captain Francis McCullagh (John Murray). ~ t