LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3614, 19 June 1923, Page 62

LITERATURE.

XOTES OX SOME XEW BOOKS. —Mr Winston Churchill's Defence. —- A good deal of the contents of Mr Winston Churchill’s important book “The World Crisis. 1914-1918,” has already been issued in rc .: 1 form by leading journals throughout the Britisn Lmpiie, the Otago Daily limes included. lor serious readers, however, this partial publication will not lessen the interests of the complete work. Rarely in the history of the world have tremendously important events been chronicled by one had a chief hand in shaping them.' The theme of the bock, the position of its writer, his interesting, \ivio, enigmatic personality, make it one of the most important and striking contributions to the history of cur time. Mr Uhurcnul is, of course, professedly oil his defence, and trie book cannot be read as an impartial statement and judicial summing up of actions and policy during his tenure of the office of First Lord of the Admiralty. The world will have 10 wait a good while for a clear and 3 udicial account of Britain's war policy and strategy ah re by sea and land, and Winston Chuvchili s book will be one of the most valuable for the future historian to draw on. The book is published by ihoruten Lutterworth at 30s net. Last Letters of the Late Czaritsa. - After the murder, c-f the late C zar and his family at Ekaterinburg m July, 1910. two packets of letters were for net among his belongings, and both sets have now been given to the world. The fiist contained the notable letters between tne Czar and the Kaiser —the well-known “Willv-Xickv” letters. The other packet contained 199 private letters written by the Czaritsa to her husband between the commencement of the war and the end of 1916. They were written in Englishfacile but by 110 means correct English,— and are now published with accompanying Russian translations in Berlin and .n JiOiidon (Alakaroff, 5s 6d'i. When the Czar and the Czaritsa were separated (it will be remembered that after a time he assumed command of the Russian armies in the field) the Czaritsa wrote daily to her husband. Many or' the letters are purely personal and intimate, but- tici. later ones particularly contain much information and comments on the momentous affairs of the period, the Czaritsa aiming at keeping her husband jjested in the course of things at home as she saw them. Among the stories begotten by war antipathies and credulity few had wider popular credence than that the unfortunate Czaritsa was a bigoted pro-German, who desired the failure of the Allies, and who treacherously gave the Germans information which resulted 111 the torpedoing of .crd Kitchener's vessel as he was proceeding on his mission to Russia. These artless and most intimate letters furnish a. complete refutation —if such were needed—c-f such baseless slanders. They show her as profoundly concerned for the cause of her adopted country us well ns a most affectionate wife and mother. She gave personal -care to the wounded, assisting as nurse at tile most terrible operations i:i military hospitals. The cruelties of the war distressed her intensely. One letter says: “I cried reading of the horrors the Germans did to our wounded and prisoners—to think that civilised people could be so cruel. Dur. ing battle, when one is mad, that's Another thing. I know they sav our Cossacks did horrors at Mcmel. A few cases, of course, there may have been cut of revenge.”

Another letter refers with disapproval t»-> .vi larnfv order to deprive officer prisoners of their epaulets, which caused great rage in Germany. The hapless. Empress mav not have been a wise woman, but at least she could see the unwisdom as well as the unrighteousness of reprisals. ‘‘When this hideous war is over and the hatred abated, I long that one should sav that we were noble. The horror of being a prisoner is already enough for an officer, and one won't forget humiliations and cruelties—let them carry home remembrances of Christianity and honour. ’ The worst that can be said of the late Czaritza is that she, in common with her husband, fell completely under the spell of the rascally charlatan Rasputin, whom they regarded as a superior being, divinely inspired. He is usually referred to in these letters as ‘‘our Friend. ’ A vein of religious mysticism and an 111pressionable temperament made the Czaritsa a ready victim to his hypnotic power. But there is not the slightest evidence that he used it against the interests of the Allies and no hint to justify the scandalous reports circulated against the Czaritsa on his account. The Times Literary Supplement of March 29 gives a two-column notice of these pathetically interesting letters. Xevv Edition of More’s Utopia.— Mores famous work, the forerunner of hundreds of modern pictures of a reformed social system, has just been rendered into modern English, and is issued by Blackwell at Oxford, at the price of 5s net. Sir Thomas More wrote his Utopia in Latin, and it was first printed in the reign of Henry VIII, about 1516. English translations appeared about the middle of the century, and modern editions of the work have commonly followed one of them, chiefly that by Ralph Robinson, 1556. The present modernised rendering is highly spoken of, and it will be interesting to have More put into speech of the day, though probably a good many people will prefer to read him in sixteenth century English, as characteristic of the work and its author. If tho new translation results in many new readers of Utopia, it will serve a good purpose, for in many directions More is surprisingly modern;

his ideas have influenced social thinkers down to our own times, and still contain lessons tor social reformers. ■— Child Mediums.— 'The recent great revival of spiritualistic activities is open to many dangers, and one which may be very serious is the subject of a just published book, “Child Mediums; Being an Exposure of an Evil Which is VV orbing the Ruin of the Bodies and Souls of Cur Children,” (by Irene Hernaman. With an introduction by Gilbert H. Chesterton. St. Dominic’s Press, Is.) According to the author, spiritualistic societies throughout Great Britain are making an organised effort to train children between the ages of 10 and 18 to become mediums. There are, it is stated, over ij,003 child members of Spiritualistic Sunday Schools, but of course it dees not necessarily follow that any of these are being trained to be mediums. Apparently, however, the author and Mr Gilbert Chesterton are agreed that many children are being initiated into the methods of mediumship, with great injury to tnemselyes. Mr Chesterton points out that Spiritualists admit the imbecility and even indecency of some rnediumistic communications, saying that lower grade spirits, being ‘‘earthboisnd” may be readiest to communicate with earth. It is quite arguable, he'says, that the souls of ad the vilest who have gone from earth may be hanging round it" like a flock of vultures. Do we want- our children to be put into communication with them? The Reman Catholic Church has consistently forbidden its adherents to attempt communication with departed spirits. It may oe that its stand is wiser than the readiness to dally with spiritualistic practises shown by 7 some leaders in Protestant Churches. Popular Reprints of Standard Books.— e\v_ editions of the following standard 1 avourites are issued by Xelson at Is 6d each net:—“The Ingoldsby Legends,” Shirley,” ‘Palgrave’s Golden Treasury,” Scenes of Clerical Life,'’ “The Antiquary” and “Martin Ratler.” A New X.S.W. Bookstall Novel.— The latest bookstall novel, “The Red Star,” by A. R. Falk, is unusually sensaeven for a bookstall novel.'' “The Red Star is the name of a powerful and mysterious gang of robbers who for long defy all the skill of the Sydney police to track them out. In bravado they leave a small star-shapea metal disc on the scene of their depredations. A young detective named Conway is the hero cf the' story, and ultimately succeeds in discovering the mysterious agent operatin'? this criminal enterprise. _ Before long divines tii-. t tne leaaer cf tiie (jansj jg v/oman, and later_ he is forced unto the belief that a cnarming young lady who has rescued liini from imminent death through the explosion of an infernal machine and witn whom he has. duly fallen in 'love identical with the woman criminal Ultimately it turns out that the heroine leads two lives—her true one as a normal and loveable girl of refined upbringing and tne_ other an abnormal trance life induced by the guardian who has hypnotic power ever her. The story mav not accord wit n scientific pronouncements*' of hypnotic posr.bilities but it will please sensation iC% eis. the hero in his numerous oncounters with various members of the —‘! u ' alternately holds up at revolver’s point his adversary, and is held up himtelf time after time, and proves himself to have more lives than the proverbial cat. Ine story is illustrated by Vernon Lorrimer. A New Zealand Guide to Poultry Farming.— Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs issue in their we.l-known excellent style a book on poultry keeping, entitled “Utility louhry Farming in New Zealand.” (65.) Ihc author is Geo. If. Ambler, poultry expert, to the “New Zealand Farmer.” The boon gives full and precise directions on au . per bams to successful poultry roaring—choice cf ground, buildings food, artificial and natural hatching of chickens, qualities of various breeds of fowls, ailmems to which poultry are liable, and their treatment, etc. The book is plentituHy illustrated, containing many diagrams o tollhouses and the various apparatus used by poultry keepers. While the book is intended mainly for tnese who go m for poultry raising on a large scale people who keep a few fowls for hcuseho.d profit may gain from it mnen useful information. Domestic sultry eepmg i S often round unprofitable for rT foul kn f° U |n dS ' e aS the requirements of fowls if they are to be healthy and }it.d a good supply of eggs.