A THANKLESS GENERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18629, 9 February 1924, Page 4 (Supplement)

A THANKLESS GENERATION.

post-war problems. Sir Philip Gibbs,' in hia latest book, " Heirs Apparent " '(Hutchinson), continues his crusade against the indolence and apathy -of the generation that has grown to manhood—and womanhood since the war. ■'}'•„ •. ''.(:. . V He paints si vivid picture of post-war Oxford where life for many is a hilarious mixture of jazz and cocktails, and where the worst social crime is to speak of the war, "The late unmentionable," as it is disdainfully called. " Heirs Apparent," as its name indicates, is a story of youth, and though most of the young people in the book utterly refuse to take life seriously till forced to do so by necessity, the author is yet able to take an optimistic view of the future in their hands. "A gathering of the younger crowd!" says Caffyn, the elderly journalist. "Singing ribald songs while the world rocks to ruin. Careless of Germany in dissolution, France arranging the end of Europe, Russia waiting for the world revolution, and England pretending that nothing has happenedwith a million ©ut-of-works. What do you care ? You're not worrying!" " Not in the very least," said Olatworthy. "Let the dance proceed "Won't you have a whiskey, sir?" asked Julian. " I certainly will," said Henry Caffyn. I've a toast to oTer.'"

He raised his glass, and his bright eyes looked from one face to another.

" Here's to ' Heirs Apparent," " he said, with a friendly tilt of his glass to

Julian. " May you soon come into your kingdom. . . Youth's ail light!" What may be cai.led the sub-theme of the story deals with that sinister figure in modern journalism whose extraordinary career ended ingloriously in disgrace and imprisonment. In the book he is called Victor Buckland, but there is little attempt at disguise, and when we read of Bucklartd's scheme of Victory bonds, wo are not surprised to find in the vivid description of the trial a pen-portrait of " that tall heavy figure, with puffed eyes and massive face, who for ten years had claimed to represent the people of England, and who, in fact, had played upon the mob mind with a sure touch and some kind of genius." But the picture has light as wen as shade. , . , „ !>He had his good points, says a man who had worked for him. The world will only remember the bad side of his character and his downfall, but i remember other things. He was generous A tale of woe always made him put his hand in his pocket. He really loved the masses in his crude, showman kind of way. It wasn't all hypocrisy. .... He was a crude, ignorant, brutal man, but with a strifin of sincerity and genuine emotion." „ . Altogether "Heirs Apparent is a fine novel, animated by a sincere and lofty 'patriotism, and in these beknighted" days it is comforting to reflect that in the case of Philip Gibbs the title has been won by a sturdy champion of the right.