CURRENT BOOKS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24744, 8 December 1945, Page 5

CURRENT BOOKS

EAST AND WEST Arabesque. By H.B.H. Princess Mus- . bak flatdar. Hutchinson. 244 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.

Close of an Era. By Percy Colson. Hutchinson. 128 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.

Account of life in one of the great Eastern households . . . account of harem life . . . authentic but never fails to reveal funny side of things, glancing at such phrases on the jacket, the reader would hardly be led to expect the substanticlly informative book they introduce—not even u he glanced a little further and caught references to "the other side of the Lawrence episode . political background . . . British control . . . Arabs United Nation." Substance, however, is here, well graced though it is by the author's wit and sense of comedy. (The nine short sections devoted to the betrothal and marriage of Sherif Abdul Medjid and Princess Roukhia. Prince Salahaddin's second daughter, admirably exemplify poth the author's skill in recording the ceremonial of a vanished Empire and her . lightness of touch upon its personal, dr.imt.tic side.) The author's mother, an English girl, married at the turn of the century that Ali Haidar who. when the Grand Sherif Hussein deserted the Sultan in 1916. was declared Emir of Mecca in his stead but ineffectually. The pomp and circumstance of the crumbling Ottoman Empire are revealed not only in the authors recollections of her father's house at' Chamlujab but in those of the Sultan's palace, which she frequently visited. She had a r-ear view of the last phase of the crumbling and collapse, and bears witness to the bitter hatred of the Turks for the German allies who had exploited them. S-he carries the story on from the fall of the Empire to the abolition, by Mustapha Kemal, of the Cadiphate. l nese latter Dages contain a good deal of sound comment op Middle Eastern politics and on British interests in them. t Though Mr Coison's book appears to ofler by far the deeper interest, being a survey of the wide period between the* end of Victoria's first 50 years on the Throne and the end of the Edwardian Age, it is in fact rather shallow. Mr Colson has known many eminent persons, seen much history through his own front windows read widely,' and formed many a shrewd judgment on men and events. But if the real significance of a period is to be extracted, it is less by reminiscence than by reflection: and he who is to reflect profitably will have studied economics and sociology and politics more closely and more connectedly than Mr Colson seems to have done. This is not to say, however, that Mr Colson promises more than he performs. His is not a pretentious book. It is rich in anecdotes of celebrated figures, from Gladstone to Mrs Campbell, from Canon Ainger to Whistler and Wilde. It is full of surprising reminders in point of fact, upon manners, customs, and even morals—surprising partly because change has been so rapid and so complete, partly because the fact is (sometimes) in itself so odd. Readers who ha\'e long memories will enjoy this amusing, cpinionative book best.

LABOUR IN GERMANY Hammer or Anvil. By Evelyn Anderson. Gollancz. 207 pp. In this "story of the German working class movement" hope for the rise of a vigorous and trustworthy German democracy is encouraged only by the persistent contrast between the faith courage, and realism of individuals and minorities and the weaknesses of majority leaders and popular majorities led. The working class opposition to the Kaiser's war, for example, found itself empowered by the revolution without a programme of action; u was the defeated army that knew what to do. The Weimar Governments shifted and changed in uneasy, or serY}}& ~ OT Dlind compromise with the Old Guard; and by the time the crisis of 1933 arrived the working class as a whole, dazed, disappointed, indeed cheated, saw only one more reactionary government moving out and another moving- in. Nevertheless, Miss Anderson is confident that German democracy can at last prove itself, and bsses her confidence, largely, on a survey of open and underground resistance to Nazism before and during the war, and of the various sources from which it has developed. The new leadership she, looks for "among the small circles bf the political underground movement which kept alive the tradition of the pre-Hitler Labour movement and yet have learned enough from past mistakes and from the- experience of Fascism to be the nucleus of a new movement rather than the relics of the past." JUST THINK How to Use Your Mind. By H. Ernest Hnnt. Rider. 128 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. Mr Hunt's preaching and teaching about mind, body, thought, emotion, will, memory, imagination, habit, sug--gestion, reflection, inspiration, and life take their soaring flights, but for the mo.st part hold the ground of common sense. Such sturdy doctrine as "Study your job whatever it may be and see whether you cannot make it a more important one" or "Make a habit of observing accurately" is none the worse when it is called "new thought." I MODERN GREECE | Greece. By A. W. Gomme. Oxford I University Press. 131 pp. ] This small book, in the World To- : day series, contains two invaluable introductory chapters, one on the distinct traditions, Byzantine and classical, which are fused in the character of modern Greece, and another (with excellent maps) on the geography, natural resources, and communications of the country. These are followed by complementary chapters on the political history of Greece from the Liberation of 1831 to the opening of the Venizelos reconstruction in 1910 and on economic and social progress in the same period. In his remaining three chapters, which take the story to the splendid disaster of 1941, Mr Gomme is concerned to show that war and political instability were not incompatible with constructive advances.

AUSTRALIA These Are My People. By Alan Marshall. F. W. Cheshire Pty., Ltd. 2<B pp. Through Oswald-Sealy (N.Z.) Ltd.

Mr Marshall, who had been writing humorous articles for the "A.I.F. News," had the idea of caravanning across country, collecting messages from parents, friends, and relatives of the boys for a column, "Messages from Home.'" He carried out this idea, with his wife, their dog Kim, and an extraordinary horse-drawn train, consisting of a waggon built on a Ford .chassis and the caravan hitched to that. This book is the result, the record of a journey through Victoria, in which adventures, misadventures, and encounters are described with verve\ and humour. But the encounters take first place. "These are my people," Mri Marshall accurately titled his' book,] not "This is my country." !