"THE STATE BE SERVED!"

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

" THE STATE BE SERVED!"

A NOVEL OF THE FUTURE. Mr. John Kendal's "Unborn Tomorrow" (Collins), a first novel of striking qualities, describes a state of future society in England midway between that in Mr. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and that in Mr. Collier's later novel "Tom's a-Cold." It is the year 1995, and war and pestilence have swept the world. Society, however, has not, as in "Tom's a-Cold," been reduced to isolated groups, nor has it achieved the wholesale laboratory manufacture of humans described in "Brave New World." There is a world State run on Communistic linos. Certain countries, including Ireland and Australia, have been abandoned, and one gathers that the world population is much smaller. Children are brought up by the State, and, not unnaturally, the population is decreasing. A high state of material civilisation is maintained, but tyranny is absolute. The State is all and the individual nothing. "The State be served!" is the universal greeting. Work, marriage, recreation, all are prescribed by the rulers. Herek, the young hero, is barred from marriage because he is considered to have a tendency to "T. 8." All the old creative literature is proscribed because romance and love are considered anti-social and disgusting, and such books can only be read in libraries by selected students. Herek, a promising scientist, has, imbibed these doctrines, but a meeting with a beautiful girl student changes his outlook. The two fall completely in love and decide that there is something very much lacking in the current philosophy. Herek is banished to the Grimsby fishing fleet, and the girl is claimed by one of the high officials, a Slav. When Herek comes to rescue her he is caught and consigned to the State laboratories as a subject for experiment—a usual punishment for treason. The girl rescues him in a condition of collapse and they have most exciting adventures before they find sanctuary in the wilds of the north. The book ends with news of a revolution in favour of individualism, a concession to sentiment rather than probability. The story moves quickly and holds the attention from start to finish, but perhaps the most interesting feature of it is the detailed description of life tinder this form of world Communism. As one disgruntled citizens says, they are sheep rather than human beings. There is so little, personal property that a man allowed to own a piano is an exception. The State provides recreation and its idea of recreation is lectures on scientific discoveries and the beauties of- the new order, with the natural result that citizens become bored. All the time propa-

ganda goes on and on, until it must become to some minds as maddening as long-continued hammering is to nerves on edge. There is a complete lack of humour in the ruling class. The resemblance of all this to what is happening in Russia is obvious, but Mr. Kendal has ideat? of his own, and one of the merits of the book is that he does not caricature. His State officials are riot monsters, but human beings acting according, to their lights. This is a book valuable for its sociological import as for its romantic interest.