A SATIRE ON SCRAP-IRON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24633, 14 June 1941, Page 4

A SATIRE ON SCRAP-IRON

Since Mr Compton MacKenzie’s new novel, THE RED TAPEWORM (Chatto and Windus, 10s), has, perhaps, no object but to amuse, all that need be said is that it achieves its purpose. For one thing, it has nothing whatever to do with the war, hut concerns itself with the elaborate and painstaking efforts of a certain Ministry of . Waste to make some, use of the tons of waste material (better styled rubbish) that materialise in England annually. It opens with the Minister of Waste making a broadcast and appealing in eloquent terms for waste material, concluding with an invitation to the public to regard him as “the nation’s rag arid bone man.” Hardly has he finished speaking than an eccentric lady arrives at the Ministry with a quantity of old china; an old hath and a paraffin stove are dumped outside the Minister’s own Mayfair residence, a few rusty birdcages and a disused perambulator are soon added to the collection, and it is not long before lorry-loads of scrap-iron are careering through London. The account of the efforts of the Ministry to deal with the rubbish is diverting in the extreme, and many chapters describe hilariously the attempts to dispose of the bath and stove—all unsuccessful. One need not look too hard for satire here, although there are a few unmistakable tilts at the 8.8. C. The book can, and will,, be enjoyed for the excellent mine of laughter that it is. '