BOOK NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 76, 26 September 1942, Page 4

BOOK NOTES

"Mission To Moscow."—An enormous amount of illuminating information is given in "Mission to Moscow," published by Angus and Robertson. The author, Joseph E. Davies, was. for a period the United States Ambassador to Russia, and his book is a collection of extracts from confidential dispatches which he had sent to Washington, together with extracts from official and personal correspondence arid from his diary. His notes and comments deal with events up to October last year. Mr. Davies went to Russia with an open mind: besides being a diplomat, he was a lawyer and an industrialist, and on all that he saw and heard he brought a shrewd understanding to bear. He is outspoken in some of his criticisms of what the Soviet authorities have done and are doing, but at the same time, while disagreeing, he is prepared to give credit where credit is due. Mr. Davies answers many of the questions that have been asked about Russia. The treason' trials for instance, he makes clear, were the purging of Hitler's fifth column, and a purging took place just in time. He was shrewd enough to see bow events would shape, and he predicted the amazing performance of the Red Army. Indeed, on Russia's great resources Mr. Davies is very reassuring, and what he has to say from first-hand knowledge about Russia's vast industrial potentialities in regions far to the east of those overrun by the Nazis is most heartening. He is quite optimistic, too, about the Soviet's chances of being able to survive extensive territorial loss. For an authentic picture of the Soviet Union "Mission to Moscow" has no equal among the many books that in recent years have been written about Russia.

H. G. Wells Again.—Of the writings of H. G. Wells there is apparently no end, and advancing years do not seem to curtail .his energy. In "You Can't Be Too Careful," his latest novel, Mr. Wells stages a come-back in some measure to the genre he made famous with his "History of Mr. Polly." But only for 200 out of 300 pages, and the last third of the novel is devoted to an exposition of the ideas which Mr. Wells holds about the reformation of the world, with typical fulminations against almost everything and everybody. The story is about Edward Albert Tewler —and Mr. Wells makes it clear that we are all Tewlers. Edward Albert was desired by neither of his parents, but in spite of this his mother was passionately fond of him, and she "couldn't be too careful" how she brought him up. "Safety first was her maxim, and her treasure had to be shielded from every harm, and particularly from sin and wickedness. The education of Edward Albert is Mr. Wells at his best. But Edward Albert grows up, marries disastrously, and loathes "ideers." To his own astonishment he becomes a hero in the defence of England and receives a medal from the King, all of which is handled by Mr Wells in his own inimitable way. After which comes the sermon, or the deluge, by Mr. Wells of 1942—n0t the Wells of "Mr. Polly" days.