NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20772, 4 February 1933, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

AN EMPIRE OUTPOST. Tristan Da Ounha. By Douglas M. Gane. Allen and TJnwin. 177 pp. (7s 6d net.)

This is another volume adding to the literature inspired by this lonely Empire outpost in the South Atlantic. The writer's interest in the island has never waned, but has rather increased in the sixteen years since he first knew it as a member of the crew of a sailing vessel. Mr Gane's plea is for the retention of the island as an Empire possession, and throughout the volume lie seeks to emphasise the responsibility of the Mother Country to this smallest of her possessions. A really interesting book.

A WAR ROMANCE. Guests of the Unspeakable. By T. W. White, D.r.C, V.D., M.P. Angus and Eobertson. 278 pp. (65.) To-day Lieut.-Colonel White, the author and hero of this fascinating book, is serving his country in a far less romantic and adventurous sphere than he did in the years 1914 to 1918. As an expert on finance and as Minister for Customs in the Government of Australia, his is a prosaic round. He has left adventure and romance in the realms of memory, from which his book recalls a chapter of the history of the war as instinct with the valour of the British race as any that has everbeen written. Lieut.-Colonel White tells of the immature beginnings of the Royal Australian Flying Corps, of which he was a distinguished member, when it commenced operations in Mesopotamia. The daring adventure of those early days, when, ill-equipped with obsolete machines and handicapped gravely by inexperience, the Australian and British flying men carried out amazingly successful scouting and bombing operations over hostile country, is modestly described by the writer. His personal part, in these exploits is under-emphasised. While he was engaged on a heroic enterprise with a companion, Captain YeatsBrown—they volunteered for the hazardous task of flying to Bagdad and cutting the telegraph wires running to the Euphrates, Constantinople, nnd Kifri —the pair were captured by the Turks, after first having a hand-to-hand struggle with hostile Arabs. It was typical of their spirit that thev carried out their work first in he face of terrible odds. For nearly the whole of the remainder of the war period the daring adventurers were "Guests of the Unspeakable." The story of the sufferings of prisoners of the Turks is graphically told; and the barbaric treatment of enemy soldiers bv the Turks, as related by Lieut.-Colonel White, is .in strange contrast to some of the inspired tales told during the wai- from Turkey. Escape was never absent from the mind of the writer, who describes the extraordinary subterfuges by which he and his companions played on the credulity of the Turks to securo better treatment and a better chance. At last fortune gave the colonel and a companion the opportunity to consummate their careful planning. As though by act of Providence, a train from which they had planned to escape was derailed, and in the confusion that followed the author and his companion made their wav into a suburb of Constantinople. Colonel White's ready wits nnd aptitude for theatricals stood him in good stead while, disguised as a Turk, he roamed the streets of Constantinople. Eventually the writer and his companion, Captain A. J. Kott, stowed awav on a Ukrainian steamer and reached Odessa. There, under the guise of Russian workmen, the hardy pair stayed for a month until the opportunitV came to stow away a P» in ' this time on a hospital ship, which evontuallv landed them at Salonika. The Armistiro. which came a tew days later, robbed them of the opportunity thev sought to serve the Empire again in the war area. This is a truly gripping book, of which tho lover of adventure can never grow tired.

SOME CHINESE PROBLEMS. Land and labour in China. By R. H. Tajuey. Allen and Unwin, 196 pp. <7s 6d net). The book is devoted to the study of two of "China' 3 most pressing problems, from which the reader may gather opinions on the basic causes of China's present disintegration industrially and tiro effects of that disintegration politically: The writer amasses a formidable array of statistics that shed light on certain important aspects of China's economic life and show the effects of the gradual invasion by. western ideas of an ancient civilisation. The volume comprises material gathered lor a memorandum presented to the Conference of The Institute of Pacific Relations, held at Shanghai m 1931. ine latter part of it describes the progress of modern education in China and discusses some of the conditions that the writer considers necessary to the establishment of a, stable political system. Incidentally, the book is illuminating as disclosing some of the causes that have made it possible for a much smaller and less populous country to invade Chinese territory and escape the tnll consequences of its temerity.

TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE. (i) Told at the Explorers' Olub. True Tales (tt, Modern Adv f= . By T. C. Bridges and H. H. T"^" 1 - George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. (7s ea net.) It is the modern world that spins excitingly in both these books, and flashes before the reader's eye the deeds of heroes almost without exception still alive and still adventuring. Not that they think of themselves as "adventurers" or delight to rush carelessly round blind corners. Most ot them go soberly about their business—so they count it—calculating prudently and as far as possible'eliminating risks instead of seeking and closing with them. The scientific explorer, Mr Roj Chapman Andrews, lor example, looks resentfully at '-adventures,-' winch "disrupt, work and mteriere with carefully laid plans"; and the same view is expressly declared by the great ©telansson, who sees in them nothing bui proof of "incompetence." There are, really, no more adventures; only /'misadventures." Fortunately for tlie boy, who will not have the times grow dry and chancelcsS as the multiplication table, they still happen; and Mr Blossom's choice of personal narratives is excellent. Mr Bridges and Mr Tiltman are as up-to-date as Mr Blossom. All the exploits they describe belong to'the last lew years ? and most of them are characteristic of modern investigation and achievement. Mr Andrews appears again, hunting for dinosaur eggs in Central Asia; Bvrd flies to the South Pole; Petty Officer Willis's knowledge and courage make possible the escape of the .crew imprisoned in the submarine Pos-Hdo'v, and so on. These stories, about twenty of them, are very well written mid have a value which is much above the merelv sensational or romantic.

STUDY OP ZOLA. Zola. By Henri Barbusse. Translated from the French by Mary Balairdie Green, M.A., and Frederick 0. Green. J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. 279 pp. (10s 6d net.)

M. Barbusse could hardly havo failed to write an arresting book, and the translators have retained as far as possible the vividness and nervousness of his style. For a biography, the form is unusual. The first part is episodical, impressionist, explosive. Later the treatment tends more and more towards pure narrative, though it never reaches narrative as it is generally understood. Scenes from the life of Zola, passages between him and his friend Cezanne, the painter, are built up from letters and documents and interspersed with the reflections of the novelist (in direct speech), in an endeavour to picture Zola in his environment. M. Barbusse is so forcible, so vital, so saturated in his subject and so enthusiastic about it, that his attempt is perhaps even too successful. M. Barbusse gives Zola a place in letters out of all proportion to his real worth. The book is eulogistic, not critical, so that the reader may sigh for the less fervid biographies of the Strachey school. The narrative method has the advantages of proportion and balance in which the modern French style is lacking. M. Barbusse has, of course, had access to all the Zola papers, and has derived assistance from members of the family. But he is so enthusiastic and uncomprising in his convictions that it is sometimes a little difficult to accept them. One would prefer evidence rather than a summing up, for M. Barbusse is undeniably stating a case. This is a picture of Zola rather than a biography. In so far as it depicts Zola head and shoulders above his contemporaries, as one of the outstanding figures in French literature, it must be considered to be inaccurate. For M. Barbusse permeates everything with his vigorous and forceful conclusions. He does not alter the outlines of the building, but the coloured spotlights he handles make the shadows change at his will. But it is a provocative book, a challenging book, and one meets in its pages people who havo influenced literature and art —Cezanne, de Maupassant, Huysman, Flaubert—and who in M. Barbusse's hands at once become real flesh and. blood.

FATHER TO SON. The Master-Light: Letters to David. By Gilbert Thomas. Allen and TJnwin. 157 pp. (5/- net.) This series of letters addressed to tho writer's sod, though originally intended to review the whole of his future career, develops along other lines, and the book carries the reader only to the point when tho baby's perambulator is beginning to be wheeled into the background. The book is not powerful, but sensitive and human and delightfully written. A father will often fall into a reverie about his son's future, but to few fathers is vouchsafed the ability to come to reasoned and orderly conclusions, as does Mr Thomas. Toys, except tho very simplest toys, and very few even of them, are proscribed. A child is perfectly happy without many toys. Give them to him and he becomes dependent upon them; take them away and he is lost and unhappy. "You were quite happy before you saw them, and would be quite happy again, after an interval of rebellion, if they were taken away. Meanwhile, you would naturally want to experiment with them. Tot in rushing from one to another, in the hopeless attempt to assimilate the wonder of them all, you would become mazed and irritable. When you aTe older, some of those toys, properlv used, might really give you joy, and at the same time instruct you." So it is with the world: it has not suddenly degenerated: it is merely trying to cope with more new things than, allowing for average human nature, we could expect it at first to know how to use; The book will attract the general reader, while it gives some very real assistance to parents who find themselves bewildered in thinking out all the problems which surround the early life of a small boy.

THIERS. Monsieur Thiers. By John M. S. Allison. Allen and TTnwin. (103 6d net.) It is opportune that we should be presented with a good study of a typical Frenchman, of the typical French politician. The alarums and excursions of the nineteenth century this biography cannot help out be a chronicle), are not many moved from present-day affairs, tiuch a work as this helps us towards a comprehension of our neighbour. The tale is enthralling in itself. Intrigue follows intrigue, the fall of the Bourbons, their return, Louis Napoleon's coup u'etat, the Revolution of 48, the rise of tab Third Republic, Sedan. Always M. Thiers has a finger in the.pie,, always a plan. As with his contemplated Ouvrage de Philosophie—one of many witty side-shows, as it were, is to be enjoyed when Pasteur hands over to his ' 'assistant" the ever-curious M. Thiers—many of his plans may have got little further than outline or become ravelled. He sprang from the bourgeoisie, and established and consolidated their power. His body lies not in the Pantheon, but, symbolically, in Pere Lachaisc—From the "Bookman."

THE MARCH OF POLITICAL THEORY. History of Political Thought. By Raymond G. Gettell. Allen and TTnwin. Glo PP. (15s net.) Professor Gettell's well-known work is a valuable text book for the student of politics as much for its exhaustive bibliography as for its Pisgah survey of the whole field of political thought from the time of the earliest philosophers to the present day. It opens the door to intensive study, if it docs not actually provide the material for such study, and its appearance in this cheaper edition will be welcomed, particularly in the universities, where the student requires somo guide beyond that supplied by his professor. Professor Gettell set out to provide what has been needed for many years—a singlevolume history of political theory—and, despite the difficulty of the task, he has gained a considerable measure of success. The difficulties are obvious. There is an ever-present problem of selection and proportion and a necessary condensation of topics that deserve much fuller elaboration. It is as ridiculous to attempt to give more than a skeleton outline of Aristotle's teaching in one section of a single chapter as it would be to present "the best" of Shakespeare in a small pocket volume. But Professor Gettell has summarised well, and his long lists of references arc in themselves of extreme value. The book has been criticised in Radical English journals on the grounds that the writer . has neglected to pay sufficient attention to proletarian authorities and that lie has given garbled and inadequate descriptions of modern proletarian movements. But his outlines are garbled only insofar as they are short, in conformity with the essential briefness of treatment. Professor Gettell has performed a valuable service in attempting to bring the present into focus with the past and to cover the whole ground of his subject in an impartial and perfectly detached manner. It is his freedom from partisanship, .his judgment, aud his orderliness of arrangement that make his work so useful.

, PEWTER. Pewter Down the Ages. By Howard Herschel Cotterell, r.H.Hist. Sac. Hutchinson and Co., London. (21s net.) Through Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.

Those whose love for old and beautiful things has been stimulated by the exhibition of antiques which are now the fashion will welcome Mr Cotterell'e fine Volume. The collection' of pieces of pewter and an appreciation' of the design arid craftsmanship of the master pewterers are of comparatively recent origin; yet there is no hobby* at once so satisfying and so cheap. A col- 1 lection of pewter, containing as it may ; do almost every article of domestic; use, designed and made for • every class of society from the peasant to the prince> apart : from its artistic value has a historic interest almost unique. Although pewter has a definite colour quality of ■• its own, and in old and well-kept pieces acquires a charming patina, the spectacular value of this fascinating alloy can hardly rival that of gold and silver. Nevertheless the choice pieces preserved m great collections, depending mainJy on perfection of design and workmanship, rise to a higher rank in the aesthetic scale than many of the glories, of the municipal and Royal collections of gold and silver plate. Mr Cotterell's. book is in essence a catalogue raisonne of 161 pieces chosen, from. the finest collections in the world, and, arranged in orderlv sequence over a period extending from mediaeval times to the present day. Those who are disappointed that Mr Cotterell's book contains neither a history of the pewterer's craft* nor any sketch of the,. development of the pewterers' guilds may be reminded that he has''already covered this ground in Old Pewter: Its Makers and its Marks. Each of the 161 specimens which are figured in this volume is introduced by a full note recording the history,.,its special qualities, and its place in the development of the art. This feature, of course, Mr Cotterell's book possesses in common with the magnificent catalogues which issue from time to time from Christie's and the Rue Drouot; but Mr' Coterell- goes further. In the first place justice is here done for the first time to the wealth of pewter pieces of Continental origin, preserved in the large collections. English pewter begins with the 15th century; but Continental examples carry the history of the, art without any serious break from , the magnificent eighteenth century Guild Flagons and ceremonial trophies to the first attempts of those Who imitated in pewter the wooden platters and pottery bowls with which Euro.pean craftsmen first furnished their cupboards and tables., Then again Mr Cottereil provides us with a full series of Dutch, German, and Austrian pictures, reproduced in half-tone.; winch show the types now treasured in collections, in daily use. The illustrations are throughout the book good, the type bold, the margins ample, and for collectors there is a valuable chart or pewterers' "marks." neatly folded in a pocket attached to the end cover.

WESTMINSTER BOOKS. (1) Do Dead Men Live Again? By V. T. Storr, M.A. I* Sin, 0„r Fault? By Stewart A. McDowall, B.D. Hodder mid Stonghton. (Sa not each.) From W. 8. Smart.

These two books, the first of the Westminster Series, are admirable examples of the newer apologetic. The patronising tone, the unseemly recrimii nation, and the triumphant demolition of positions which nobody held, which marked and marred the older, are gone (wo may hope) for "ever. Their place has been taken by sympathetic understanding of .genuine difficulties, scientific treatment of modern problems in terms consonant with modern thought and frank admission of .the limitations of knowledge.. If anyone wishes ,to know what sort of a case can be made to-day for human immortality he cannot do better than read Archdeacon Storr's book. It is a really brilliant essay, lucid in thought and, style, and sustained in interest throughout." 'No problem is avoided, or difficulty discounted. The precise meaning/ of survival, the significance of the Christian conception o| the soul, the nature of the Eesurrcctiqn body, the teaching of Jesus,-the doctrines of CbnditionaJism and Universal" smiths claims of constitute | a series of difficult problems which (only a scholar who has devoted years of careful thought to their study,-and accumulated great stores of theological and philosophical learning, could handle in so masterly a manner. The problem of human sin is One' of immense difficulty. " A groat • deal of ground has to be clearod before-any answer to Mr' McDowall's question can be attempted, and '" considerably more [than half his book is '-take* up with two important preliminary 1 discussions. The first is a discussion of the difference between freedom,, which is essentially the mode of perfect personality and therefore characteristic of God and free will, which belongs only to the incompleteness of human porspnality and cannßt be postulated of God. The argument is not easy, but it is worth mastering, and indeed must bo mastered if the subsequent discussion of the nature of sin is to be understood. The second proposition which has to be established is the validity of the traditional ■ Christian view t that goodness matters more than anything else. With these two formidable chapters behind him, the reader has no difficulty following the closely-reasoned exposition of the nature of sin.'Mr McDowall rejects the;traditional explanation of the origin of sin, and suggests, as an interim hypothesis at; any rate, that the sinful acts of men .constitute an environment that gives to all men a bias towards sin. He completes bis discussion of the whole subject by a brief study of the Christian idea of Atonement. . ',," It is quite unnecessary to praise those books further, except to say that no one who wishes to study the problems of human survival and human sin in the light of the latest philosophical and scientific knowledge can afford to neglect them.

ANTHOLOGY OF RECITATIONS. Attractive Readings in' Prow aad Verse. Selected and edited by Mrs A. M. Henderson. Allen and TTnwin. 150 pp. (2s 6d net.)

Mrs Henderson lias chosen from a wide range of writers, from whom the two most attractive readings drawn, arc perhaps Lamb's "Rejoicings upon the New Year's Coming, of Age" and Oscar Wilde's beautiful story,. "The Selfish Giant." Carefully edited> the ppssages form of themselves a delightful anthology of simple prose and verso, well suited for reading or recitation bv children. The valuable ereays upon interpretation and gesture, included in Mrs Henderson's introduce torv matter, will be a little beyond the grasp of most children, and that probably is inevitable; but with the. aji : tho'logy itself, which is by no means lacking in.appeal to peopled all,ages, they provide a very good course in recitation. v ' .