BOOK REVIEWS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 4, 30 September 1943, Page 6

BOOK REVIEWS

New Worlds For Old “The Atlantic Charter” by Julius Stone (Sydney: Angus and Robertson). Under the sub-title “New AVorlds for Old” Professor Stone now of Sydney University and formerly of Auckland, examines and assesses in practical iorm the ideals expressed by President Roosevelt and Air. Churchill in their joint declaration of August 12, 1941. Actually, much that is in the book was written before that date for presentation to such bodies us the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the Workers’ Educational Association. These papers, however, fit into the scheme very well and with suitable emendatious provide the necessary background lor the study of the actual text of the Atlantic Charter. Professor Stone begins with a survey of international conditions between 191 S and 1939, discusses the relationship of law and society, examines the workings of democracy and its future possibilities and follows this witli a chapter on the rise and fall of the nation-state and another on the political background of the future peace in which be sketches a pattern which the pressure of events and policies may create at the close of the present war. To this he adds an examination of the concept of federal union and an agenda for peace makers which was adopted in January, 1942, as the statement on peace aims of the New Zealand League of Na Hons Union. The book ends with two chapters directly concerned with the charter, the first entitled “Peace Planning and the Atlanic Charter” and the second “The Atlantic Charter and the Problems of South-east Asia and the South-west Pacific.” In these Professor Stone brilliantly surveys the many problems of applying the principles of ttie charter to existing conditions and incidentally sounds u warning that must be universally heeded when be says that the charter "is a promise not a fulfilment, a challenge and not an answer, a christening not an absolution. Between promise and fulfilment, between challenge and answer, between christening and absolution, everything is possible, but almost everything remains to be done.” . , . Still as a Stranger” by Alarjorie A fillers (London: Murray). There are not many novels dealing with contemporary events appearing at the moment. Alost authors seem to prefer to offer escape from the war by reconstructing earlier periods as settings for their stories. Airs. Villiers begins her tale in the late 1930 s and marries her English heroine to a charming youug Belgian who, for all his pleasant manner, is only second best to bis wife. She thought she could not get the man she wanted and so tookxthe Belgian. Thereafter the young couple live in Paris and the English girl finds family tradition very difficult to overcome. Finally the scene moves to a delightful chateau in Belgium and the story works up to a dramatic climax as the girl’s emotions, in her honest attempt to make a success of her marriage, are inextricably entangled with the anxieties of the last days before Britain’s declaration of war. 'The narrative moves swiftly and with All's. Villers’ expert handling many unlikely situations are given the appearance of reality. The book ends on an enigmatic note, the widowed heroine remaining in the chateau of her husband’s family for the period of Belgium’s occupation by Germany. The novel has a bright competence which compels the reader’s interest. “Cambridge Lectures” by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Everyman’s Library (London : Dent). The latest addition to Everyman’s Library consists of a very welcome selection of the lectures delivered by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, whose eightieth birthday falls this year. The lectures included are his inaugural before the -University of Cambridge, “On the Lineage of English Literature,” “The Art of Reading,” “On Reading the Bible,” “On Jargon,” “The ' Commerce of. Thought.” studies of three of Shakespeare’s plays, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Alacbeth,” and “Antony and Cleopatra,” and studies of Milton. W. S. Gilbert, and the poetry’ of Aleredith and Hardy. “Lend Me Your Ears” by F. Sinclair® (Wellington: Progressive Publishing Society). It is a pleasure to welcome a new edition of Professor Sinclaire’s stimulating essays and equally pleasing to sample again his magnificent prose style. Writing such as this does not lose its bloom with the passage of time, whatever may be the subject; the essays read as well at this moment as when the volume was first published. That, was scarcely eighteen months ago, but it will be true when they are as old as Hazlitt’s are now.