SOME TOPICAL BOOKS'

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23131, 21 September 1940, Page 5

SOME TOPICAL BOOKS'

I Mr George Walworth, who has I , herec i his evidence and formed S £ conclusions during a long asso--1 Sion with the English co-operative I cment has chosen a good time 111 ,hlish his Feeding the Nation in topub ind War (Allen and Unwin. Kp 18/- net), for the problems 5 maintaining an adequate and ecoiSl food supply m war condi--1 1: . direct anxious attention to factl0 c which arc more easily ignored. F.I not less important, in peace. P wreat part of Mr Walworth’s book I A of a critical analysis of the I coD developments of British I fSSaI policy since the Great n f and he finds all of them radiI at fault in being essentially I feed towards the lifting of proI ucer prices. His theory is that a I hmader basis for policy must be f;i Sd through studying the need to and maintain community puri t'uLng power. The general argu'd is valuable and well sustained. 'i immediate interest are Mr Wal:i urnrth’s critical comments on the I nminl fond control system. The I Eistical furniture of the book is I elaborate and permanently usciul.

Mr A. D. Divine pursues in The Wake of the Raiders (John Murray. 153 PP' 5 /‘ net ' ) thc cxtr cmely interesting story of Germany’s three nocket-battlcships, Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf c nP p The career and end of the ISt ship, off the River Plate of I cour se figure very prominently; but I Mr Divine's purpose goes beyond I that of dramatic battle narrative. I Chiefly he wants to trace systematic--1 a ]] y the part by the pocket I battleships in the naval campaign I as a whole and to detect the reasons I why it has been so ineffectual. The Deutschland, for example, on her I first cruise, was out for weeks in the I Atlantic, “keeping well wide of the | used shipping lanes and of the conS v oy routes,” and she sank two a smallish ships in that time and took I the City of Flint as a prize. The Graf Spee sank only nine British merchantmen. Only one war vessel, (he Rawalpindi, has been sunk by a pocket-battleship. In the Norwegian business the Admiral Scheer has met with mishap after mishap. The Deutschland’s fate is involved in mystery. Mr Divine considers all the available evidence and concludes: “From the menace of the pocket-battleship we are delivered.”

Mr F. C. J. Hearnshaw, Emeritus Professor of History in the University of London, adds to his admirable work on the history of the British Isles and of the British Empire his study of Sea-Power and Emnire (George G, Harrap and Co. Ltd. 292 pp. 10/6 net.), issued in the hope that this account of “the intimate and indissoluble connexion between British sea-power and the British Empire may assist in maintaining the determination of all the peoples of the British Commonwealth of Nations to keep this great naval and imperial heritage intact.” As a narrative of events, interpreted with close attention to strategic cause, and effect; this book could hardly be bettered. It is when Professor Hearnshaw turns to the political complement of this narrative that he writes less substantially and satisfyingly. The last two chapters, on developments after the Great War and on “the present and the future,” especially exhibit this defect in their sketchy and commonplace thinking. Five excellent maps accompany the text.

Mr G. F. Powell uses the question-and-answer method of exposition very skilfully in his pamphlet. What Is Democracy? (J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd, 63 pp. Is net.), which is pointed and adorned by reproductions of cartoons by Low. Here, for example, is part of Question 20 and answer:

Q. 20. Is Abraham .Lincoln’s idea of democracy—'“government of . The People for The People by The People" —for instance, reajly practical? A. No—because The People should not concern themselves with saying how things shall be done. It involves millions of decisions upon methods so technical that even the words necessarily used in discussing them are not understood by The People. . . . No elector could possibly master all the countless subjects upon which highly technical decisions must be taken daily in running an undertaking like a nation. Government by The People would, therefore, prove impossible from the very start; a.veritable nightmare of chaos.

Mr C. R. Attlee’s principal speeches on the conduct of foreign policy since November, 1933, have' been brought together and edited by Mr John Dugdale under the title War Comes to Britain (Gollancz. 256 pp. 9s net.). In November, 1933, the National Government took office in Britain and as deputyleader of the Opposition Mr Attlee took a prominent part in debates, foreign policy and defence claiming his attention more and more as the international situation deteriorated. The speeches are clear, studious, incisive, and without flourishes. The most valuable single chapter, however, is a biographical sketch of Mr Attlee himself, Avritten by the editor.

Mr Jan Petersen’s- Germany Beneath the Surface (Hutchinson. Pocket Specials series. Is 2d.) comprises a number of exciting tones on the underground movement fighting the Nazis in Germany. The .author writes mostly about the everyday lives ,of anti-Nazis.— Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.