NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20612, 30 July 1932, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

THE TURKANA PATROL. Parergon; or, Eddies in Equatoria. By Captain Jolin Yardley. Foreword by FleldMarßh&l Viscount Allenby. J. M. Dent and Son, Ltd.' (10s 6d net.) On the south-west frontier of Abyssinia, west of Lake Rudolph, a little north of the Equator, is one of the remotest and least accessible districts for which British administration is responsible. The responsibility is a divided one, since three countries under British control —the Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda—join frontiers near here. And here live the Turkana, a powerful, numerous, and truculent tribe of naked savages. At the end of 1917 the cup of their iniquities was full, and their conduct a challenge to British rule and prestige. The real villains of the piece were Abyssinians from across the border, whose incursions into British territory for ivory poaching, cattle stealing, and, worse still, slave raiding, had too long been unchecked and had instigated and emboldened the Turkana to raid far into administered territory. A combined expedition from East Africa and the Sudan was organised to punish tho Turkana and to recover the cattle they had stolen from more peaceable tribes. This book is tho personal narrative of an officer who led a Sudanese company of the Equatorial .battalion oa the long, hard, and adventurous e\pedition or "patrol," as it was termed. The author, Captaiu Yardley, had already been twice during the war condemned by a medical board to service at home, as a result of wounds or sickness on other fronts. But he had the knack of making friends in high places, and the quality of perseverance. The first part of the book shows how lie contrived to be accepted for the Egyptian Army, and to be sent from Khar toum to the Mongall a province, where the Sudanese part of the expedition was being prepared. The length of his journey, twenty days by steamer from Khartoum and seven days by a flooded track to the expedition's base—still over three hundred miles from Lake Kudolf, where its real work would begin — gives some idea of distances and difficulties ot' communications in this remote part of the world. The tale of tho journey and of life in an equatorial garrison is told in a quiet, entertaining narrative. In addition to the usual trials aud difficulties of an expedition of this kind, in country where no wheels could move and carriers were the normal form of transport; where sudden tropical storms might flood a camp or make a track impassable in an hour or two: where at other times the problem of finding water for man and beast might be acute; and where malaria and other forms of fever, as well as the bites of poisonous snakes and insects, were a continual threat to health, the • columns were dogged and delayed by unforeseen misfortunes, such as an acute outbreak of corebro-spinal-meningitis and the disaffection of a part of tho East African force, consisting of ex-German -native soldiers, taken prisoner during the hostilities iu German East Africa. Tt says much for the resolution and endurance of the leaders that so much success was achieved: great quantities of cattle were recovered, the Turkana were taught a salutary lesson, and a large body of Abyssinian troops was defeated in a severe fight at close rango by a body of Sudanese less than one-quarter its strength, so that it fled in panic haste across tho border. This last exploit was performed by Captain Yardley's company. The story of what must have been an extremely hot fight against odds, in which all three Sudanese officers of tho company were killed, is told in the same modest and restrained, yet vivid, manner as the rest of the narrative. Captain Yardley. though he makes few criticisms, was ob viouslv not satisfied with the results of the patrol. He considers that only the permanent presence of administrators and a force to back them will ever bring respect for British rule and re move a serious blot on our name in that remote corner of His last chapter, "After-thoughts," is a serious indictment of our neglect of our responsibilities and promises to a people "who have no parliamentary votes." Captain Yardley has written a very attractive and interesting book. His style is easy and natural; he has good powers of observation and a sense of humour.' The illustrations are rather irritatingly bound in, so that their place has no relation at all to the text; and the appendix (a collection of official letters on Abyssinian raiding) would have, been better summarised few arc likelv to read them in their present indigestible form.-—"The Times" Literary Supplement.

A NOVEL OF IRELAND. The Saint and Mary Kate. By I*rank O'Connor. Hacmlllan. The publishers rightly expect considerable interest to be taken in Mr O'Connor's novel, the successor to that remarkable volume of short stories, '' Guests of the Nation,'' reviewed on this page some time ago. In the larger scope of the novel he either fails to reconcile his realistic 'detachment and his strong emotion as he did within the limits of the short story, or be has actually developed a sentimental tendency. It is noticeable here in his attitude both to Mary Kate, the unspoilably lovely flower sprung from the squalor aud degradation of the slums of Cork, and to Phil Dinan—"the saint" -—a lad who has found his own spiritual wings of escape from sordid earth; and yet in his study of the relation between these two children" Mr O'Connor has achieved something greater than in any of his short stories, and perhaps not to be achieved in any, because it is so explicit and so elaborate. Pictorially, there are scenes here which start upon the eye and hold it irresistibly In some episodes the book is quite masterly. It wants only the steadiness and singleness,of aim which Mr O'Connor does much to promise for his own, and which will make him the first of Irish and perhaps of English novelists.

NO PLACE. Memoirs of Other Fronts, By . Putnam. This is an extraordinary, sometimes tiresome, sometimes baffling, sometimes revolting, and sometimes brilliant and gripping book. It is the autobiography, in three essential sections, of a man for whom society held no place. Tie reveals himself as a member of just such :i company in just such a milieu as Mr Hemingway described —and described better in "Fiesta"; as a lover who achieved his wish, and then fled from it. Before this, though for some quite unfathomable reason the anonymous author reverses the chronological order, he had abruptly changed his mind about the War. First he had wanted to enlist; but the Fusiliers would not have him. This helped him to see that he was, after all, and always had been, anti-this and auti-that and therefore anti-militarist, and that a war which could be nothing but a "bloody mess" was a war to which l\e should conscientiously object. This section of the book, in which the memoirist records his experiences in gaol and hospital and settlement, is strikingly good. The last section, in which ho tries to assert himself as a father and makes a mess of it, is by contrast, at any rate, dull and indefinite.

VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. Six Ways of Knowing. By D. M. Datta, M.A. Allen and Unwln. (15s net.) Probably no philosophical systems are more difficult for the educated European to understand than those traditional iu India. Not only are these systems written in a foreign language; but they are the results of modes of thought alien to our own and established for centuries as the expression of minds very different in many ways from those of the West. It is all to the good therefore that the work of interpretation should be undertaken by Hindoos fami■liar with Indian metaphysics and with the English language. This book is a fine example of philosophical exposition written in excellent English. It is a study of the theory of knowledge as set forth in the Vcdanta philosophy, according to which there are six methods of knowledge. These are perception, comparison, non-cognitioji, inference, postulation, and testimony. Dr. Datta gives a critical study of each of these methods, and compares them with Western conclusions on epistemology. His main contention is that theories of knowledge cannot be separated from theories of reality. The Vedanta philosophy represents one of the greatest achievements of the human mind. Though it contains older materials, its systematisation was the work of a Brahman, Sankara, who flourished about eight hundred years after (he birth of Christ. His central doctrine was that the world of the senses is unreal. This world has value for convention and ignorance only. Belief in a personal Creator and separate self may be conceded to the average man, who is sunk in illusion. No moral purpose or aim must be attributed to the Absolute Spirit, who is identical with the inmost self of man. These tenets do not constitute a pantheism in the European sense, but an autotheism, for it is our Atman or metaphysical ego which persists in untarnished purity through all the aberrations of human nature, eternal and blessed.' It is obvious that this classical metaphysic of India will have a logic very different from that of the West, and, if it is possible for a European to grasp so unuaccustomed a theory, the present book will be a first-class aid to his doing so.

RHYMES. A Pocket Dictionary of English Khyraes. By Walter Ripman, M.A. J. M. Sent and Sons, litd. 187 pp. (7b 6d net.) The casual reader or careful student will look in vain on the dust wrapper of this book for a panegyric on its usefulness by the Poet Laureate, or a tribute by Mr Squire to celebrate rich, rare stores. Mr Gradgrind would certainly have been moved by its vast collection of facts, its mathematical arrangement and the seven thousand eight hundred and seven references in its index; but wine so good as this does not need a bush, even a busli cut and hung by Mr Masefield or Mr Gradgrind. The dictionary has been compiled from a more clear and logical plan than its predecessors. Words have been classified according to sound, not spelling; each vowel is allotted'a distinct section for every variety of length and quality and for every following consonantal sound. Related sounds can be discovered from the remarkable index. Where an ending has more than one pronunciation, its several sounds are indicated, by phonetic transcription. Further,- the poetaster who relies on Professor Kipman for his rhymes will find that they are all true; for "star" is not permitted to rhyme with "war" nor "door 7 ' with "poor." That poets have not been so scrupulous is shownin an appendix of Imperfect Rhymes, which section is the only part of the book not unexceptionably clear. In sonic imperfect rhymes Frofessor Eipman seems fastidious. Wh,o is shocked when Kipling rhymes "Laidies" with "Hades," when Wordsworth relates "splendid" and "attended," when Byron is satisfied to find a rhyme for* "Intellectual" iu "henpecked you all''? No doubt the "Pocket Dictionary of English Rhymes" will not turn its readers into a tribe of poets; but it will certainly help to make them into versifiers, and on every page there is some quaiut word that sets the fancy roaming into the realm of curious and entertaining knowledge. Who or what is a "nix," a "milt," a "siskin" or for that matter, a "griskin"? In an ode about a "dwarf," casting out the next word "wharf," you must, do your best with "corf." (And every schoolboy knows what a "corf is.) The "hilver," the "piker," the "striker" may all play the "balalaika." It is bad luck for the poet of the great outdoors that the only rhyme lie will find for "dalesman" is "salesman." It may be regretted that the sonnet on the helicopter must be written in blank verse, for if there existed a,rhyme for the word, Professor Ripman would have found it. Nor has he found a 'word to pair with that obstinate solitary, "month." ' With' these two important exceptions it is safe to say there has appeared no rhyming dictionary to clear, so entertaining and so complete.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. The Dissolution of an Empire. By Meriel Buchanan (Mrs Knowling). John Murray. 312 pp. (15s net.) Mrs Knowling, who is the daughter of the late Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg from 1910 to 1919, gives a vivid and bitter account of the Russian Revolution as she saw it. The book is Historically important, because of the account it contains of the unsuccessful negotiations for bringing the Tsar and his family to England.- It appears that shortly after the Tsar became a prisoner in the hands of Kerensky's Government, his Majesty King George V. sent him a telegram through the British Embassy offering him asylum m England. Unfortunately, the Tsar was then a prisoner in his own palace, and as there was no possibility of getting a telegram to him direct, Sir George'' Buchanan was compelled to take it to Miliukoff, a member of the Government, and ask him to deliver it. Miliukoff agreed to do so, but the next day informed the Ambassador that his Government had forbidden him to forward the telegram. Sir George Buchanan informed the Foreign Office accordingly, and was instructed to do nothing further. So ended the last chance of averting a very terrible tragedy. Mrs Knowling makes it quite clear that she regards Mr Lloyd George as responsible for this unfortunate episode, and later in the book she makes a severe and detailed criticism of his handling of relations between Russia and Britain in the early years of the Revolution. "Mr Lloyd George," she says, "seemed quite incapable of remaining of one mind as far as Russia was concerned, and it is a little difficult even now to follow and understand the fluctuations of his policy. At one moment he would send British troops to Murmansk or Archangel, and the next he would suggest that emissaries of the should attend the Peace Conference." AH this may be true; but it must also ba said that many intelligent people-be-sides Mr Lloyd George were bewildered by what happened in Russia between 1917 and 1919.

WORLD ORGANISATION. If We Want Peace. By Henry Noel Brailaford. The Hogartb Pren and tb» New Pabian Research Bureau. 61 pp. (Cloth 2/6 net; paper 1/6 net.) Mr Brailsford, who is easily the best journalist in the service of English Socialism, deals with the problems of international organisation, from a point of view which Englishmen and Americans too often, neglect. The Eng-lish-speaking nations, with their traditional distrust of political authority, have a comfortable belief that' international government can be based on goodwill and need not infringe national sovereignty. Hence the French emphasis on the need for including a genuinely international police force, and the Anglo-American emphasis on the need for disarmament and mutual trust. "In a highly organised international society," says Mr Brailsford, "the problem of sanctions would neVer arise. But we are very far from this goal: history may repeat itself: we cannot repress the proper question, What will the League do tomorrow, it its means of prevention should fail, and it is confronted by the imminent danger or the actual outbreak of war? It would be disastrous to conceive our international society as a mere system of police, but to ignore police problems may be equally ruinous." Mr Brailsford also deals thoughtfully, if inconclusively, with the problem of co-operation among Governments that are the products of . widely different political systems. The League Covenant seems to postulate ordinary Parliamentary democracy as the basis of the new world order; but at the moment Parliamentary democracy is under a cloud.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME. Crime as Destiny. A Study of Criminal Twins. By Professor Dr. J. Lange. Translated by Charlotte Haldane. George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 199 pp. (6/- „ net.) Professor Lange, in order to determine the freedom of the decisions which land so many people in prison, investigated thirteen sets of twins in which one brother or sister was a criminal. In ten out of the thirteen pairs the other members were crimin- [ ally inclined also. "This analysis," says Professor J. B. S. Haldane in a foreword to the book, "shows not the i faintest evidence of freedom of the will I in the ordinary sense of that word. A man of a certain constitution, put in a certain environment, will be a criminal. . . . Crime is destiny. The defenders of indeterminism could at most claim that free-will very occasionally tipped the balance over, and thus accounted for something in the long run, but not often enough for its effects to appear in a series of a dozen cases taken at random." The impression produced by Professor Haldane's review of the book is that he is more enthusiastic than critical; but even if Professor Lange's conclusions can bp substantially qualified, they give lawyers some tiling to think about. Nor should it be forgotten that at least one modern State has based its penal code on the dcterminist hypothesis and substituted "measures for the protection of society" for punishment. HISTORY WRITTEN SMALL. Two Silver Roubles. By Esther Salamm. Macmillaa. As an historical novel, this belongs to the comparatively small group in which no attempt is made to throw the principal characters into active and influential relation with great events; and it is an honest and sensitive pieee of work. Miss Salaman, who herself experienced the Russian revolution and the civil war of. J. 917 and after, seta us to read the story of these terrible, and momentous days in their effects upon bewildered, helpless, patient, brave, unimportant .people. They are a Jewish girl, her family and her friends, and in what is brought upon them and wrought out of them by. Revolution and pogrom the substance and spirit of this book appear. So quiet a voice as Miss Salaman's can seldom have made audible the turmoil in which an old order is wrecked and a new one drafted in lines of blood, nor have emphasised with so little effort ahd so beautifully the human virtues that outlast all change. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. (i) Memory and Other Poems. By Edward Bentley. Arthur H. Btockwell Ltd. (6d.) (11) Behold the West, Mid Other Poems. By Merryn Smith. Arthur H. Stockwell Ltd. (64.) (ill) Nature's Music, and Other Poems. By Leonard Kay. Arthur H. StockweU Ltd. . <l».> In the first of these booklets from Mr Stoekwell's bounty Mr Bentley once or twice sees a subject as a poet nnd stumbles oh to failure, but in the right direction. The second author, Mr Smith, deserves quotation: When Britain's call across the world goes sounding:, 'Tis then we'll all to the field of war so bounding; i Not tot high renown, or a nation's laws, 'Tis for ns enough if it's England's cause. Though the world is against us, we never hare failed; 'Gainst odds o'er whelming, our navy has sailed: . The Bed, White and Blue forever the same, Has shattered the proud in their fight for fame. Mr Kay's deserts are as great or j greater, especially in his Mafeking bal-1 lad: Into the trench, one dark night, I Went Captain Fits and his band, { Did execution deadly. Made Boers wish for other land. | Murder at the Moorings. By Miles Barton. W. Collins sad Sons and Co. Ltd. A well-constructed detective story, with the defect, or merit, according to the reader's taste, that he can see far ahead tff the duller detective, and must even wait for the quicker one. Murder of the Ninth Baronet. By J. S. Fletcher. George O.' Hanap and Co. Ltd. Entry No. 4 in the case book of Ronald Camberwell, whose collaboration with ex-Inspector Chaney continues to be successful. The deaths of the claimant to a baronetcy and of the titlpbolder are only two of the connected problems of an exciting investigation. Where Ignorance Is Bliss. By Richard and Elizabeth Plunket. Greene. John Murray. An exceedingly well written detec- j tive story, in which the humour and vivacity of the characterisation, especially of the elderlv bore and fuss-pot whose narrative it is, deserve,as much nraise as the rational ingenuity and development of the plot. But it develops to a point where Q.E.D. must be struck out and Query substituted. Everyman's Encyclopedia. Vols. 11 and 12, Boc-Syl and Syl-Z. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. (6s 6d net each.) The last two volumes of what ia now the most complete and modern, encyclopaedia available at so reasonable a and in so durable and handsome and convenient a form. Notice to Quit. By James Quince. Hodder and Stougfcton. (3s 6d net.) Proa W. S. Smart. A new novel at a reprint price: one of a series of thrillers and detective stories issued in this way, and well worth the railway traveller's or the fireside stay-at-home's attention.

The Poet Laureate, says the "Morning Post," costs less than a member, of Parliament and gives much better value for lie money.