THE BOOKMAN

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 15

THE BOOKMAN

"The Re-making of a Mind." By First Lieut. Henry de Man, C.de G. and M.C., of the Belgian Army. New York: Charles Scribners Sons.'

(Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington.)

Lieutenant de Man was three years at the foonfc, first as private in the Belgian infantTy, and finally as trench mortar officer. He was also, liason officer aoad in touch with the British, Army. Besides seeing service ia Beleium and Franco, he had gspenence also of the Russian and Rumanian froiits.He joined up as a volunteer on 3rd Aufrust, 1914. Before that he had travelled much in England, France, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, and Scandinavia, speaking English, French,- and German, beeides his native Flemish. He became an internationalist in its broadest sense by preference, but he was also president of the International Socialist Young People's Federation. He was-present at the meetings of the International Socialist Bureau in Brussels at the end of July, -1914, when war appeared dreadfully near; when, as he says, " The personal relations amongst j delegates of different nations were excel- ■ lent" ; when Jaures and Haase toffether were to move a last joint appeal to labour organisations of all countries to bring the full pressure of their power to bear upon their Governments." Two days later Jaures was assassinated. Lieutenant de Man was the associate of Liebknecht, Yandervelde, Mnller, and otiier socialists of European note, who, as he did himself, attached so much importance to the second Internationale. Later Lieutenant d« Man -was constrained to write:— , , N . ■ i, It was not because it could not prevent war, but because, after letting thp . world believe that it would do so, it proved unable even'to attempt it, ithat one may speak not only^of the failure, but of thef moral, bankruptcy of the Second Internationale.

After going through the grim school-' ing of the war,' and partly because of his experiences, Lieut, de Man's mind underwent a change. He could see from the Gewnan as well a. 1, from his own Baigian viewpoint, but what he "toyed Germany for jmademo (he writee) hate and fight Germans all the better." Tho writer attributes the defeat of Germany to fighting in a bad cause.. He makes this^ abundantly clear in the following paragraph :— ' Both the German army and the German public have shown a capacity for sacrifice which would compel boundless admiration if it hod been displayed in a better oause, and which, even as it is, fills one with a sort of involuntary pride I ; in considering what a nation of white | men can achieve when it is strongly I organised and fired by a common aim. But what was this' sacrifice in comparison with that to which our Western democracies consented for the sake of selfdefence ! The very fact that they had to fisjht, though loving peace and hating militarism, already put them above a nation of soldiers drilled to the belief \ .) in militarism' as a means to secure their, j 1 ' place in the sun. . . . We could lose ! and go on fighting. The Germans could not. ■ ' y So Lieut, de Man's mind rot only undergoes a change, but 'a remoulding. Ha I realises that—; Whether the ascent of Labour to political power, which in Europe at least is , synonymous with the triumph of Social- •' ism, bo viewed with sympathy or not, . .'.. it must be reckoned with as a near probability. . . . One outstanding- fact . strikes us at once: European Socialism has no* 1 longer the unity it seemed to have before the war. There are two antagonistic conceptions, between which the abyss is' widening ' more and '. more' | every day. There is Bolshevikism, which believes in the establishment of Soeialisnfcthroufrh the dictatorship of- force ; and y there is democratic Socialism, which conceives Socialism as the outcome of the freely expressed will of a majority, . . " . Having made this distinction) Lieut, de Man shows how Bolshevism "exists •as/a la-tent or an active force"l everywhere. He foresees' two "Internationales"—one Bolshevik calling itself "Communist," and the 'other comprising majorities of Eastern Europe democratic Socialists. His own mental evolution is to some extent characteristic.of the general revision of democratic Socialism in Europe/ This new social order, he holds, must bo based upon the principle of government by the consent of the governed with all the corrective to unbounded majority-rule implied by the constitutionally safeguarded liberties of opinion, press, speech, and opposition by, representative bodies. That iB the only way to save Socialism from developing into despotism. State. Socialism, Lieut, de Man describes as a pronounced menace to democratic Socialism. It would "result in such inefficiency that the output would, be seriously reduced, to the loss of the community in general." Whatever ha was before the ■war, Lieut, de Man is no longer a dogmatic Marxian. From his self-revelation it would seem that Marx, like Darwin, has suffered much at the hands of his friends,.. A visiting Socialist; bearing a foreign Jewish name, was requested by the Dominion Government to leave New Zealand. He could not understand why. He admitted that he was a Marxian Socialist, but did not think that eljould have been sufficient reason for the Government deporting him. Lieut, de Man, however, shows that what wag Marxian when Marx was alive is something different from presentday conceptions of the term. Be writes:—

' Marxianism is not a system, but a I method.,.. The results obtained by this method. depend upon, who uses it, how | he uses it, and what he uees it for. So much is certain, that Marx himself has j used it in a. very different way from ] those who now lay claim to the monov poly of his inspiration. If Mars wero | still alive, he probably would not ba a Marsiiin. ' ■' It is tempting to quote at large from Lieut, de Man's work because it J9 full I of "meat." Its English ia clear, simple, flnent.i and convincing. It is undoubtedly the revelation of the soul of a Bincere, honest, and cultured man.

"Lost Legends of the Nursery Songs." By Mary Senior Clark; illustrated in colour by Alice B. Woodward. London : G. Bell and Sons. "Bide-a-Cock-Horse," like "BoJ?eep"' and some other nursery rhymes', = is believed to have > had a solid bwsis in fact. The' write? of this iittlc book turns the rhymes into pleasantly reading prose, -whioh children will apf *c. ciflta and enjoy. Those whose faculty for imagination has been represssd will want more facts than the writer has fnrniafied, but others will find much joy in these fairy tales, especially if they are read to them by a grown-up. The coloured drawings by Alice B, Woodward are a great adornment to the text, and aid the child's mind in forming mental pictures of the scenes and incidents described.