PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 4

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

British Unemployment Insurance In “ Unemployment Insurance and Assistance in Britain ” (Harrap, 12s 6d) Percy Cohen, C.8.E., presents a comprehensive guide to the history, development and actual conditions of unemployment and assistance in Great Britain. The author describes succinctly and in sufficient detail the operation of the British system as it has evolved in its various aspects, including training schemes and the special position as affecting juveniles. The survey should prove of interest to all students of social problems, and to New Zealanders it has a special interest at the present time. It is worthy of note that the British fund is now operating on surpluses, part of which are used to increase benefits, while a balance is retained against future alterations in the position. The New Triad With the April-May issue, the New Triad (Times Building, Wellington) appears in a new format, of acceptable type, and offers a readable selection of brief articles, verse and notes on musical and literary activities in New Zealand, including a warning concerning “shark publishers” of which Dominion writers should take special note. A contributor who inspected the travel papers of Miss Iris Wilkinson (“Robin Hyde”) prior to her leaving on her iourney abroad comments on the documents she carried, warning her that if she travelled to England via Japan and Russia no Government would be responsible for her personal safety.

Verse In “A Miscellany of Verse ” (A. H. and A. W. Reed, 2s 6d) Edwin J. Tapp has expressed in verse form his thoughts upon sights and sounds which have attracted his interest. He writes on such diverse subjects as a London street arab, the week-end fishing cribs by the Waiau River, and the Marquesas. In “A Thought” he pays his tribute to the “ jewels of mentality ” in these terms:

What mine more priceless is than mind? What stone more precious is than thought? For what without the latter kind Would ever be the use of aught? There are some 60 poems in the book, of equal average merit. Child Education

Undei the general title "A Key to the Heart of the Children,” the Institution of Children’s Friends, of Amsterdam, has issued a series of reports on child education methods in various countries. The methods of practical and character education of youth in the United States receive full treatment, and Canada. England and Australia are. among the countries on which brief report is made Journalism In “You Want to Be a Journalist” (Joseph, 9s) Cecil Hunt, an experienced Fleet street newspaperman, has written tersely and knowledgably upon the possibilities in London and the English provinces for aspiring journalists, and the manner in which they may fit themselves for the work. There is a chapter on openings overseas. in the course of which he praises the New Zealand press, but suggests that the openings for men from abroad arc few.

general was Roger Casement, who was later knighted and still, later shot for treasonous activities against the British Government. Because of the peculiar fascination attaching to the Casement affair, the description of his remarkable personality is one of the most interesting in the book. Even at this early period Casement’s anti-British feelings amounted almost to monomania, and on occasions caused some distinctly awkward moments. He was regarded as eccentric, if not abnormal. The author definitely states that “ Casement threw himself at Germany’s head when he was in Brazil, and the German Government had begun to nurse him before the war broke out.” Life in Brazil was not without its picturesque side. On qne occasion the sailors in Rio de Janeiro mutinied, and a major unpleasantness was narrowly averted; on another occasion, Mr Hambloch dined with a murderer who was persistent in offering his company home on a dark night, and, once, he made an interesting journey to the interior and was the guest of a big ranch owner who lived in feudal state until his assassination. Consular duties ranged from settling the domestic affairs of two Liverpool women who had married negro firemen on a Brazilian warship to dealing with the disposal of the contaminated cargo of frozen mutton on the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Turakina, which had suffered from an outbreak of fire at sea. The mutton deteriorated rapidly, and the crew almost rebelled before the task was completed. On other occasions his mission assumed diplomatic proportions rather than consular. After this strenuous time, Mr Hambloch welcomed his transfer to Ragusa in 1914 as affording an opportunity f(?r rest. Little did he know what was m store for him. A few months later came the Great War. There are significant stories of the growing excitement among the German officials he met in those last few months and of the reluctance on the part of other nationals to admit that Europe was on the verge of a disaster. Then, when the inevitable had happened, consular affairs became more and more involved. Internment threatened the officials daily while they laboured to leave thei" affairs in some sort of order and endeavoured to cope with the exodus of tourists from the affected areas. After the war, the author returned to Brazil, and he has some highly interesting remarks to make about the future of that vast and wealthy territory. Both Japan and Germany are, he says, very busy in this part of the world, and the Japanese, of whom there are a large number well established in the country, “live under the strictest control of their consuls; they constitute a State within a State." “They have," he continues, “certainly established a strong position in the country itself, and they leave nothing undone to develop trade, still small, between Brazil and Japan. There are signs, however, that Brazil is becoming suspicious of Japanese intentions, as they are of German Proclamations about Germany’s 4 rights to colonial possessions. Whether Japan or Germany has designs on Brazil, and precisely what those designs are. only Tokio and Berlin know. As to Germany, however, it is significant that the Nazi 'Foreign Organisation’ is extremely powerful in Brazil. 4 Brazilians of German blood ' have an association of their own for the declared purpose of protecting the interests of 2,000.000 Teuto-Brazilians and discipline among Germans and their descendants in Brazil is rigidly enforced.” ... , In conclusion, Mr Hambloch remarks that there -is no need for British influence to wane, but he urges that something should be done to dispel the unfortunate illusion which commonly exist abroad about the British: The illusion is that we are too proud to want to be understood." The Author: Ernst Hambloch was born in London in 1886 and was educated at St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir School and Sutton Valence School. Kent. After travelling widely on the Continent, he was employed in a London discount house, and for a year was a master at Windermere Grammar School. He passed first in the competitive examination for the British consular service in 1909 After long official service, he resigned in 1927. took up coffeeplanting in Brazil, and was Reuter's correspondent in S. Paulo. In 19315 he was secretary to the British Chamber of Commerce in Brazil and correspondent of The Times at Rio de Janeiro. He now lives in Hampstead. London. D. G. B.