BOOKS AND BOOKMEN A LITERARY CORNER

Evening Star, Issue 22619, 10 April 1937, Page 24

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN A LITERARY CORNER

VERSES BIRTHRIGHT Lord Rameses of Egypt sighed Because a summer evening passed, 'And litle Ariadne cried That summer fancy fell at last To dust; and young Verona died ."When beauty’s hour was overcast. Theirs was the bitterness we know Because the clouds of hawthorn keep So short a state, and kisses go To tombs unfathomably deep, .While Raineses and Romeo And little Ariadne sleep. —John Drinkwater. " THE ‘ PEOPLE BUILT A PALACE ” Where labour calls to labour, Down east of London tide, The people built a Palace To keep the spirit’s pride; A place for song and laughter. Where men who . laugh and sing Are breath to any kingdom And grace to any King. Here London lads go bearing Daylong a London load, The looms of Empire turning Along the Mile End road; And here, that life in labour Should be a happy thing, The people built a Palace, As builded by a King. builded them a Palace As princes for delight, They made a' Muses’- mansion For beauty burning bright ; Where moaning in their numbers The bells of London ring. They built a House of Gladness, Saluted by a King. And now, by stone and timber, The shaping hand has found The purpose of the people On dedicated ground; From Palace now to Palace Goodwill is on , the wing, With sovran bounty gracing The people of a King. In majesty and beauty, The King and Queen to-day. Come out into the city With citizens at play; So. -glad fn all devotion . ' L That English hearts may bring, The people in their Palace Pray 1 God: “ God save the King.’ EThe above verses were written by m Drinkwater, whose death was announced, on March 26, on the occasion of the visit in February of the King and Queen to the People’s Palace in the Mile End road,: East End of London.]

NEW BOOKS FINE WAR STORY AUSTRALIAN OFFICIAL HISTORY DR BEAN’S LATEST .VOLUME. With the appearance of Volume V., covering the operations of the Australian troops in France in early 1918, there remains but one more volume to . complete the ‘ Australian- Official History of the War,’ which will occupy 12 / bulky books.' Despite its great length, i, however, the history throughout is one Sin which the interest never flags, and, /further, it is an exceedingly fine iiter,/ary effort. The work has been done in - a very thorough manner, it being the desire of the Government of the Com/mon wealth to tell the people the whole > truth, and, except in the case of the volume dealing with the activities of the /'Australian Navy, the writers have been / left unhampered by any form of cen-S-Borship. Consequently it is safe to asT sume that the ‘ Australian Official Hist tory ’ is one of the most complete in •the world, and therefore one of the /most valuable, for Australians were con-, /cerned in most engagements of any /magnitude during the course of the war. i The writers have collected, sifted, and /analysed an immense amount of maternal, and the history should find a place Jin the library of anyone who desires as complete a war record as possible. To v New Zealanders the books are almost

of as much interest as to Australians, for the troops of the Dominion were ?■ never far from those of the Common- (, wealth, and, in fact, often co-operated v' with them in the most Important phases Lof the fighting in France.

v Dr Bean’s yblume V. deals mainly *with the great German offensive of ‘ March 21, 1918, fromthe point of view ...of the Australian soldiers who took part -I in its final stages—an offensive which almost succeeded in breaking through ■ tljj Allied lino and driving a wedge be- ’ tweens the French and the British i’armies.. In the defensive operations the ‘•■Australian Corps and the New Zealand 5-Division played an important role in ' barring the advance of the Germans on »Amiens. Dr Bean, the official historian . ,fhas drawn on the official history and *- the French official history in order to give a comprehensive picture of the ii,G§rman offensive, and the way in which it was checked and held by the British and French armies. Some place in the * Official History ’ had to be found for

an account of the Australian signal units in Mesopotamia in 1916-17, and the Australian soldiers who served in “ Dunsterforce ” in Persia and Mesopotamia in 1918-19, and these narratives are told in an appendix of 63 pages to the present volume. Another appendix throws new light upon the death of Baron Richthofen. As Dr Bean describes so well, the period from January to April. 1918, was probably the most romantic for the Australians (and probably for the whole of

the British Army) of, the whole of the war. The romance is even richer now than formerly, for at this distance there can ■ be appreciated with fair accuracy the merits of the struggles between politicians and commanders-in-chief for the control of operations in the war areas. That was one part of the drama which could not, in the nature of things, be understood at the time. Another was the “ truth about the Fifth Army ” m that retreat in the face of the German onslaught at St. Quentin —a fighting retreat, as can now be realised. At the height of the excitement came the entry of the Australians into the battle, with their forced marches, by rail Ims, and foot, from Flanders to the Somme. The experience of the New Zealanders was exactly similar they ac * tually arrived before most Australians, arid consequently Dr Bean’s narrative applies with equal force to the men from this country. As the writer points out, it was not only the opportunity and the great crisis which raised the spirits of the Australian and New Zealand troops. There was further for many of them, the sentiment attaching Z I return to the Somme villages which earlier had become almost homes to them. There was also the tonic ol open warfare in clean country after the long endurance of trench warfare. Dr Bean is most interesting in his chapter recording the Allies strife tor a plan, the efforts of Mr Lloyd) George to subdue Haig, and the brief authority of the Supremo War Council. As the outcome of the crisis in the military alliance there were do reserves for the perilously thin line of the Fifth British Army before St. Quentin, because Mr Lloyd George had refused! to allow those available reserves to leave England. His chief reason for withholding them was that he could not trust Sfaig not to use them in a further offensive in Flanders; moreover, he was against the Western strategists, and) ■ believed that the sure glace to strike Germany was in the Last, by knocking away the props of Bulgaria and Turkey. When the Germans, struck at Gough’s Army it was witffa strength unexpectedly great, for the French insisted that the German blow would come in. Champagne, and other British observers believed that some oX it at least would fall in the north. As Dr Bean writes; —

For the extremities of danger and suffering, in which that tempest involved) the British Army, the prime responsibility must be laid by future students upon other shoulders (than Haig’s). • •. • The course taken ..by the- British Go.verntnent in preventing Haig’s project . . . by.--weakening the British ; Army. in. France is unlikely to avoid the merited censure —or even perhaps the contempt—-of posterity, . • • Haig’s chief critic, since his death, has been his former Prime Minister. Unlike his critic, Haig afterwards felt, and admitted, that he had made mistakes; and those who served under him in those crucial months, and who benefited by his magnanimity in the climax, have not failed to' note that the story of those critical times is not marked by any similar sacrifice of private interest on the part of his chief political critic.

Vivid accounts are given of the magnificent feat of arms by the Australians in the recapture of Villers Bretonneux from the Prussian Guard on the eve of Anzac Day, 1918, and) of the fighting at Dernacourt and. other places. The Australians’ share in stopping the German advance is also clearly brought out into perspective with the common effort. Exaggerated impressions of the time have been corrected. Full credit for the moral effect of the arrival of the Australian and New Zealand troops is given. “No one who came into contact with the Australians or the New Zealanders in those dark days will deny that there was a special value in their presence,” says Dr Bean. He quotes a British officer as saying: “ May we be relieved quickly, and/ may the relieving troops be Australians.’/ What _ impressed the “ hard-driven British troops and commanders who welcomed them on the actual battlefield was the abounding willingness and virility of the troops themselves, and the calibre of their officers, largely men promoted from the ranks.” The author gives instance of the high esteem in which the Australians were held at this time by British officers, by the French people, and by the enemy. Commenting on this, he writes:

The Australian troops were indeed at this time animated by a spirit different from any that had previously impelled them. Starting the year with an unpromising prospect—fresh reinforcements failing, men returned from hospital forming an ever-increasing proportion of the drafts—they had exhibited, not the signs of overstrain that some onlookers feared 1 , but a buoyancy and initiative beyond all expectation and l the perpetual wonder of their own officers. Undoubtedly it arose from their perception that now, at last, their efforts were visibly counting towards the stopping of the Germans, the protection of the French people, and the winning of the war. They met their opponent with a spirit which not merely barred his advance, but began every day to throw him back by the loss of a few posts here, a length of trench there. The German was counterattacked at Hangard Wood and Fillers Bretonneux by troops who had been thirsting to get at him ; arid, though it is untrue that these troops stopped the great offensive, it is a fair claim that, by their part in the defence of Fillers Bretonneux and Dernacourt and in the subsequent counter-attacks, they saved Amiens.

The publishers are Messrs Angus and Robertson Limited, Sydney and Melbourne. The book is admirably pro duced in clear type, and is well illnv trated with photographs, graphs, am tables. The indexing has again hem carried out on a very thorough s'-alc adding considerably to the value of the book as a work of reference.

ADVENTUROUS ARCTIC JOURNEY The lure of the frozen wastes of the earth’s frigid zones has attracted many men into adventurous expeditions. In the main, however, Arctic and Antarctic exploration has been carried out by parties, rather than by solitary individuals, who, if by any chance they do set out alone, generally confine themselves to the more or less orthodox activities of the trapper. In its way, therefore, the journey of Mr David Irwin, who, in his book ‘ Alone Across the Top of the World,’ gives an account of his 3,600-mile trek from Alaska to Hudson Bay, is rather unique. Mr Irwin is a young man who has seen a great deal of the world._ The Seven Seas are well known to him, and he is by no moans unacquainted with tropical jungles. He confesses, however, that the call of the Frozen North is the strongest as far as he is concerned. In his book he relates modestly and with simple grace in style how he followed up his ideas of prospecting the Coppermine district in North Canada, and of searching for the records of the Franklin expedition on King William Island. Having persuaded the master of a small trading vessel out of Nome to carry him round to the northern coast of Alaska and drop him at Canning River, he travels alone until he catches up with a hardy reindeer drover and his Eskimo employees. More in order to make a little money than anything else, he remains with' the herd for some time, and accumulates much interesting knowledge of tho life and customs of the strange Arctic native race. Eventually he pushes on with his dog team, suffering hardships which would have made the average man quail and possibly turn right-about in his tracks. He crosses the Great Bear Lake while it is still frozen, and puts in a season at Cameron Bay, where a search for radium is being carried out. After leaving Cameron Bay his journey becomes something of a nightmare, for at one stage he loses his sledge and provisions, and considers himself extremely fortunate to escape with his dogs. Aged beyond his years, he eventually wins through. Readers of travel and snatches of adventurous biography will be glad that he was spared to tell the world his story. His is the type of hook which helps to satisfy the wanderlust that breaks out in almost every man from time to time. Most people will agree, however, that lone Arctic treks are more enjoyable to read about-than undertake in person. Messrs Robert Hale Ltd. are the publishers. FANTASY IN TALES A collection of short stories of the romantic, fantastic order is ‘ The Floating Cafe,’ by Margery Lawrence, a delightful writer in fanciful vein. Her stories are, for the most part, wistfully unworldly, yet they are charmingly tender, humorous, and very understanding. They are very light, almost ethereal in their theme, and reflect every facet of the mysterious and adventurous. There is probably not another more fanciful writer to-day than Miss Lawrence. ‘ The Floating Cafe ’ is a remarkably beautiful tale, pure fantasy, as told by Mrs Barrett, a simple, tippling charwoman, to a journalist in a saloon bar by the sea. ‘ The Tale of Biddey Wiggin ’ is a charming tale of a ghost, while ‘ The Cinema Ghost ’ is tinged with deep pathos. Psychical in theme is ‘ John Challoner’s Wife,’ and Miss Lawrence then displays her flair for whimsical humour in ‘ Man Who Walked on Air,’ in which her inventiveness has a Heath Robinson complexity. The last of the 12 stories, ‘ The Mask of Sacrifice,’ has the element of horror to complete the emotional gamut which Miss Lawrence runs in this collection. ‘ The Floating Cafe ’ is undefinahly unusual and charming, and is recommended to readers who like the uncanny and the idealistic. Jarrolds are the publishers and Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd send the review copy.

IN THE PACIFIC WANDERINGS OF A. F. ELLIS A modern Crusoe—that is Lord Bledisioe's apt description of Mr Albert it. JUllhs whose aosorliingly interesting ‘ Ocean island anu iNauru ' nas been foilowod 0y “ Adventuring xu Coral £>oa,' tne stirring reminiscences of a man so luglily qualinea to write the romantic story 01 tne i'acilic and another storehouse or knowledge. As the tonner covernor-Oeueral, in his study at ilydney Park writes, Mr Ellis has ‘'done a public service in lifting the veil wined still so largely shrouds the activities and living creatures of the i'acihc islands, lor certain it is in the not lar distant future there will be a shifting both of population and of world interest, now mainly centred in tne densely populated areas bordering upon or contiguous to the Atlantic Ocean, to tnose sunny lands which are washed by the waters of the i’acihc.” Mr Ellis is himself a creative pioneer as the small phosphate business in which he was engaged in 1887 at Hull island, in the i’noenix group, halfway between Fiji and Hawaii, involved shifting from island to island as the limited deposits became exhausted, was the forerunner of the immense undertaking which has since developed at Ocean Island and Nauru, which were missed by an American company when prospecting on a number of islands in those latitudes during 1800 and later on in 1876. To-day Nauru and Ocean island produce 800,006 tons of the highest grade phosphate, that fertilising element so essential to the development of the root and fruit of the world’s economic plants. Mr Ellis first went to Hull Island to plant cocoanuts for copra for the London firm of J. T. Arundel and Co., for whom his father was manager. Hull is a fine instance of an atoll, the island being not more than 20ft above high water mark at any point. His fishing experiences there were thrilling and spoilt him for the sport in civilisation, as there conger eels were the size of a man’s thigh and with the jaws of sharks, it was there that he made his first discovery of guano, finding a deposit of several hundred tons, and although 11 cocoanuts were all right and quite interesting in their way,” the operations of the phosphateguano islands were of a much more stirring character and held better prospects for advancement. So he -went to Baker and Howland Islands, which to Mil intents and purposes disappeared from the ken of man when the phosphate operations closed down in 1891. But with Jarvis Island, 900 miles to the eastward, these tiny specks in Central Pacific have leapt into prominence as likely bases for Pan-America’s machines. ‘1 If Baker and Howland Islands become airports, they will be at least unique ones,” writes Mr Ellis. “Baker’s is only a mile long and two-thirds of a mile wide; its height above sea level is about 25 feet, and in our time there was not a single tree on it. Baker’s is quite flat, and the carbonate of lime bedrock, which is mostly bare and exposed, is broken and irregular in part.” To form a landing ground for aircraft, a good deal of preparation would be necessary, but there was ample material for making concrete. However, the water from the wells in the centre of the island contains too much salt and lime to be useful for European consumption or for vegetik*tion. The island is singularly depressing and dreary in appearance. Bakei-’s is well named, as the tropical sun striking down on the bare rook makes it an oven. Howland, 40 miles away, is somewhat larger, but has similar physical features. “ The exposed nature of the two islands and the degree of surf on the reef make it difficult,” in Mr Ellis’s opinion, “ to see how they can become a base for aircraft of the flying boat type, even if one makes due allowance for engineering skill in overcoming natural obstacles. And owing to the absence of any anchorage, they could hardly bo the headquarters of a vessel employed as a tender to the aircraft.” The commencement of the shipping operations at Howland was attended with disaster, a fine French barque, Genie, dashed her timber to pieces on the reef after Hie deep-sea moorings had carried away. Then Mr Ellis transports us to the Phoenix Group, which Kipling must have had in mind when he wrote:

Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone But over the scud and the palm trees an English flag -was flown.

For some of the isles are of the tiniest, and sometimes a year passes without ships visiting those lone seas, But the group is situated right in the track of the air mail route between Honolulu and the Fiji and Samoan Islands, and for Canton Island, the northernmost _of the group, the author predicts a future in the Pacific air development, as in the lagoon is the first sheltered patch in any weather on the route after Heaving Honolulu, 1,660 miles distant. Canton has one tree only—a cocoanui palm. But its lagoon could harbour a shallow-draught vessel, while a landing ground could be made on the end.

From Hull Island, in the Phoenix group, to the Great Barrier and Raine Island, below Cape York, is a far call, but the phosphate operators went there in 1890 after working out the Central Pacific deposits, and Mr Ellis is almost encyclopedic in his knowledge of the wonderful marine Hie along the Barrier —as thorough ns he was in his studies of _ the natural life in the Pacific. _ Reminiscences of people and activities at Ocean Island and Nauru (where operations commenced in 1906) follow, and Mr Ellis then shifts the scene to the Fiji group in 1909, where he prospected for phosphate. At Taveuni, he saw a geographical anomaly, a church dividecf by the 180 deg meridian. If the actual time were taken, it might be Saturday at one end of the church and Sunday at the other! Mr Ellis has an amazing fund of stories of personalities, events, and things to stimulate the imagination and to stir the spirit of adventure and personal discovery.

•' Adventuring in Coral Seas ’ is "a highly educative wander through diverse fields on the greatest ocean. Mr Ellis’s book is fact, not fiction; but his facts are not bone-dust dry. Mr Ellis has developed the art of telling a story in an informative and interesting style. ‘ Adventuring in Coral Seas ’ is of vital interest to every person living on the shores of the Pacific. It is published by Angus and Robertson.

Before the publication of his book ‘ King Edward VIII.; His Life and Reign,’ Mr Hector BoJitho wrote to his publishers: “I have alwavs been afraid of becoming a tame Court biographer, but 1 did wish, a year arm to feel that my hook told the story of a man who kept the promise he made at Carnarvon when he said that he would be a “ husband ” to his lather’s people. He failed in the end —I suppose that will be the judgment of future historians—but Heaven knows it is an impertinence for us to make any judgment of the conflict which must have gone on in the core of him.”-

FUAD OF EGYPT TEMPESTUOUS LIFE AND REIGN “It is nothing to be a prince; it is something to be useful,” said the late King Fuad of Egypt, who, although he had the urge to further his fatherland at its rebirth towards that greatness comparable with tho glories of Egypt in the past, failed to find that human perfection of which he once spoke. King Fuad, the first of the modern kings of Egypt, had a tempestuous life, in which intrigue and counterintrigue formed the principal _ ingredients, and less than a year since his death after an eventful reign Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah has written his biography, 1 King Fuad of Egypt.’_ This work is more than a mere recital of tho work of tho inspired Fuad—it is a history of Egypt of the twentieth century, over a period contemporaneous with British history. “ No sovereign in modern history has been so ill-served by his Ministers; no sovereign, even in turbulent Europe, has found himself in a position so amazingly ambiguous, and certainly no allegedly constitutional ruler has maintained such a fierce and insistent warfare with those whose purpose in life was to emulate Aristotle, if not in the interpretation of dreams, at least in crystallising the will of the people,” writes the biographer. On the death of his uncle, Hussein, Sultan of Egypt, in 1917, Fuad, a son of the Khedive Ismail Pasha, succeeded to the title, and when Britain in 1922 recognised Egypt as an independent soveign State, he took the title of King Fuad I. From tho moment he ascended the throne until illness cut him down, he was fighting. If he was not engaged in a bout with the British he was engaged in furious combat with the Ministry. Frequently it was a dual affair with the British authorities on one side, indignant and aggressively upraiding, and on the other a highly provocative and recalcitrant Cabinet. In the periods when there was no Cabinet, as such, and the King found solace in what was popularly known as “ Palace Dictatorship,” he was estranging his people. As a son of Ismail he was born, at the Palace of Gizeh, in an atmosphere of incredible intrigue and almost licentious extravagance. Egypt was then nominally Turkish, but Ismail disdained Constantinople and declared that the Khedive was above all. When, after attempting to outwit the Western Powers, the Khedive was compelled to abdicate, he resolved that Fuad should not labour without knowledge and experience for the enlightenment of Egypt, and after receiving a military education at Turin and Rome Prince Fuad joined the Ottoman Embassy at Vienna as military attache, from where he was recalled by his nephew, the young Khedive Abbas 11., to Cairo in 1892, after the Sudan had been pacified, Great Britain playing a great part in the defeat of the Dervishes. Annexation of the Sudan in the name of Britain might have been justifiable in the circumstances, but the Sudan campaign had been conducted in the name of the Khedive and sovereignty was shared by Queen Victoria and the Khedive.

Early in the Great War Abbas .was in Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire was attempting to make a display of neutrality, hut was quickly slipping into the war. In November, 1914, the British declared martial law in. Egypt, which sat on the line of the British Empire’s vital communications, and a month later Egypt was declared a British protectorate, while Abbas was no longer Khedive. Fuad’s brother Hussein was selected as Khedive, but he died in 1917, and Fuad became the ruler.

It was Prince Fuad’s misfortune that he should have been called upon to succeed Hussein when Egypt as a whole was deeply suspicious of Great Britain’s intentions towards the country and when the vast majority of the people had small conception of the difficulties which confronted the palace and were impatient, restive, and deficient in understanding. Crises were daily occurrences, as , the country had become politically minded. Sirdah Ikbal Ail Shah deals very fully and brilliantly with the complex trends of Egyptian politics, through the war and beyond the recognition of Egypt as a sovereign State and the difficult days for Fuad, as King, in his battles with Zaghul and others. His was a reign of successive storms and lulls. He had the right degree of autocracy and many qualities of statesmanship. At heart he was very little interested in politics, but education was his lifelong hobby. He was an indefatigable worker for a new Egypt. But he, on April 24 last, obeyed the Koranic injunction; “ From Allah all come, and to Him all return.”

‘ King Fuad of Egypt ’ is intensely interesting. Egypt and Britain’s foreign policy are inseparable, and, consequently, the history of the first modern King of Egypt and his peoples has a powerful interest to students of the world to-day. Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah is an authority on Islam, and has a singularly happy gift of English expression. His pen-pictures of Fuad and_ others on the Egyptian scene are vivid. The writer has compressed a tremendous amount of historical data into the volume, which is published by Herbert Jenkins, NEW NOVEL BY PAUL TRENT Paul Trent is well known to the older generation of readers as a novelist with a pleasant style and a pleasant story to tell. latest boo>., 1 Maxine,’ is worthy of his pen. It combines all of Mr Trent’s former skill in plot construction with the modern atmosphere of the broadcasting studio. Maxine Royle is the daughter of an artist, who, once quite famous, has slipped into ill-health and- is in need of careful attention. During one of his bad turns a young doctor is called in. Maxine and this doctor, Jim Mackay, become great friends. The o-irl longs for success as a broadcasting “star”; the young man keeps Harley street in view as his goal. Their' careers come before everything e l se —for the time being. Then Maxine’s father dies —just when she is becoming popular over the air. Her career is hampered, but Dr Jim. having reached Harley street, now feels himself in a position to keep a wife. The two marry and all should be well from then on. But this is a modern novel, so that it is not surprising to learn that matrimony by no means solves all their problems. How the stormy immediate future is weathered makes interesting reading. Our copy comes from the publishers, Messrs Ward, Lock, and Co. Sir Michael Sadler says that, supposing an American came to him and said: “ I intend to collect, in spotless condition, all tbe books as issued by the most representative of European writers between 1750 and 1850, but I cannot find out who the most representative writers were; can you tell me? ” he would answer with calmness; “ Yon must collect Rousseau. Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, and Karl Marx.’i