THE BOOKSHELF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF

CHINESE ADVENTURE BANDITS AND COMMUNISM No better introduction to Mr. Peter | Fleming's book One's Company " can be imagined than his " Warniug to the Header." It reads: " The recorded history of Chinese civilisation covers a period oi' 4000 years. The I population of China is estimated at 400 millions. China is larger than j Europe. The author of this book is j 2t> years old. He has spent altogether | about seven months in China. He does not speak Chinese." Authors of books of Russia please copy. Anil it is of Russia, which Mr. Fleming crossed on his way to China, that he says a most sensible thing. " Public opinion iu England is sharply divided on the subject of Russia. On the one hand you have the crusty majority who believe it to be a hell on earth; on the other you have the half-baked minority who believe it to be a terrestrial paradise in the making. ■. Both cling to their opinions with the tenacity respectively of the diehard and the fanatic. Both are hopelessly wrong."' These two quotations will show what a sound young man is Mr. Fleming. It is necessary to add that ho is a laughter-loving adventurer, convinced of his own unimportance, who goes through China.with such gay inconsequence that lie teaches the Eton Boating Song to a Russian dramatist in the train, attends expectantly a geisha party in Manchukuo, and extiacts infectious but not irreverent fun from breakfast and prayers with Methodist missionaries in China. His wit is irrepressible and he is continually smiling with kindly irony at the antics of his Chinese and Japanese hosts. Nevertheless the author was on a serious quest as special correspondent of the Times, and as such ho visited the lama temples of Jehol, went with the Japanese army chasing bandits in Manchukuo, but never getting to grips with them. He would come upon houses "burning merrily but enigmatically by the roadside," but that was always a sign for his driver to step on the accelerator and leave the place. Next he went across country where he says he believes no foreigner had ever been before to investigate the communistic situation in Soutti China. His conclusions are that it will exist for a long time in its Red fastnesses, but that it is unlikely to spread. Its chief weaknesses are that it aims at breaking up the family, which is the strongest social unit in China, and thus defies strong racial custom; and that instead of bringing freedom it depends on a reign of terror. Mr. Fleming is a most individual writer, who can hit things off as happily as this: " Brewster and his wife produced a bottle of whisky and a bottle of brandy and we embarked on one of those conversations which are so rich in material that they defeat their own purpose and no one succeeds in imparting or assimilating any information whatever." With his wit, his common sense, his balance, and his observant shrewdness he has produced a book of travel and inquiry which, has not been surpassed in recent years. " One's Company, a Journey to China." by Peter Fleming. (Cape.) GORDON AT KHARTOUM JOHN BUCHAX'S NARRATIVE It is difficult to imagine what led Mr. John Buchan to retell the story of " Gordon at Khartoum"; it has been done, and adequately done, many times before. But whatever the reason one can be unfeignedly glad of it. It is a story which never seems to pall. No new facts are brought forward, no new theories propounded, and 3'et tho mind and senses are glad to rise once more to the brave and dramatic march of events. Even when Mr. Buchan has nothing new to say he can be relied upon to relate a story with telling effect. He marshals his facts so clearly and orderly that the essentials are easy to grasp. Deliberately Mr. Buchan sets nis scene, the political and historical conditions in the Sudan in the latter half of the 19th century; a study of each of the four men who were destined to have most influence on its immediate future —Gladstone, Lord Cromer, Mohammed Ahmed, known as the Mahdi, and Charles George Gordon —four men all sincere, at least three of them deeply religious; all men of outstanding ability in their several spheres, who were yet capable of' such misunderstanding and lack of sympathy with each other's aims that they brought disaster to the land to which they were striving to give prosperity. Gordon's story depends for its immense appeal partly on his complex and puzzling character, but principally on its being a forlorn hope from which its hero never returned to dim his glory. Moreover, his steadfast defence is so vividly in contrast with the fumbling of the politicians at Home, and the procrastination of his relief in Egypt, that the heart quickens toward him. Mr. Buchan's book is a wholesome antidote to what the bibliography calls " Lytton Strachey's ingenious travesty."

"Gordon nt Khartoum." by Joint Buchnn (Pttcr Dnvics.)

WAR CORRESPONDENT'S STORIES

BANJO PATER SON DISCOURSING

" Happy Dispatches," by A. 13. (" Banjo ") Paterson, is a kind of running commentary on events and people with whom he lias rubbed shoulders during the course of a full life. As the most eventful part of his life has been spent as a war correspondent, it follows that the book contains a big flavour of war, in South Africa, France, Egypt and Palestine. But it avoid's war's grimness, and instead picks out the happy comradeship and social amenities which make the soldier's liie endurable. A war correspondent does not get many real opportunities of knowing great men. He sees them on parade, as it were, nt full stretch, on a job, or else carefully hiding secrets and selves from probing eye and tongue. Consequently the reader does not learn very much about the famous people who are portraved —Kipling, Allenby, Lady DudMarie Llovd, French, Churchill, Phil. May, Lord "Derby " Hell Firo Jack," " Chinese " Morrison and others, but is treated to a rare hotchpotch of anecdotes, scandal, excellent stories, mess jokes, and racy yarns, true »nd untrue. It is a kind of glorified Savage Club chairman's address, calculated to keep the room in a constant titillation of mirth and enjoyment. Mr. Paterson has an unsurpassed understanding of Australians and has deliberately preserved and brought out their characteristics. With this kind chronicler always at hand to interpret, the world might in time learn to love them. " Happy Dispatches," by A. B. Paterion. (Annus and Robertson.)