NEW BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4066, 16 February 1932, Page 64

NEW BOOKS.

GOOD HUMOUR AND GOOD SENSE. Saturday Mornings.” By Watter Murdoch. (Cloth; 5s 6d.) Australia: Angus and Robertson. Ltd., Sydnev. Almost all the papers here reprinted made their original appearance in the columns of the Melbourne Argus. This quite uninteresting statement is made in obedience to an old custom, for which nobody seems to have invented a satisfactory reason. If the statement saves some habitual readers of the Argus from being misled into buying the book, it will not

have been made in vain. From this note to his readers until the end of the book is a succession of chuckles in store for the reader. There is also much sound sense even in some of the lighter lines. “ Speaking Personally,” an earlier volume of essays by Professor Murdoch, was a rare literary treat. “ Saturday Mornings ” is quite up to that standard. Many books come our way and the absence of genuine humour is as conspicuous as it is welcome. We have it here and we give thanks accordingly. It is of the kind of humour which glows up inside rather than in explosive laughter. The laughter is there all the time, but the humour of this learned professor is like the quality of mercy in Portia’s speech—it is not strained. .It is equal to Professor Leacock at his best.

There are three dozen essays in this book, and the subjects range from “ Sesquipedalionism ” to “ On Collecting Tombs.” There is also a preface and, as befits a good Angus and Robertson book, a good index. If we confine our attention to the preface, the reader can imagine what is in store in essays “ On Sheep and Goats ” on “ On Laughing at Tennyson.” The preface is’“ln Defence of Fly-Poker/’ an . “ ancient and royal .game.” This game,. the .genial professor tells us, was “ once the solace of

the good l and wise, the favourite diversion of emperors and captains, of poets and philosophers.” This is the great game: “It can be played by two or any larger number of persons. Each player places in front of him on the table a lump of sugar. (That is his whole outfit; no elaborate and costly equipment is required for this game; a fact which gives it an immense advantage over some other games—polo for instance.) He also places a penny in the pool. (In the time of King George IV an attempt was made, at Tunbridge Wells, by some of the wilder spirits, to substitute threepenny bits for pennies; but it was felt that this would turn the game into an orgy, and the sturdy good sense of the English people frowned upon the innovation. Whether the diminished purchasing power of money should now be taken into account, and the stakes raised to twopence, is a question much discussed in fly-poker circles). “ Having placed your sugar in position, you sit and wait on the event. The first person on whose sugar a fly settles wins the round and gathers up the pennies; then a new pool is deposited, a feather duster is waved round the table (so that all may start fair), and the next round begins.” Such is the game. “It has no complications. Its chief beauty is its simplicity. It is less physically strenuous than golf (and less expensive), and less intellectually exacting than chess. In fact, it requires no intelligence whatever; even politicians can play it. It is an aristocratic sport—it appeals only to the very best kind of people, because it presents little or no chance of cheating.” The professor states a strong case for this game. “Itis a game which appeals to one of the deepest human instincts, the instinct for placing responsibility on some other shoulders than your own; when once you have put your sugar in its place, you have no further worry; the responsibility rests with the fly—the choice is his, not yours.” In these times of stress fly-poker should become popular. “ But the most notable feature of the game is its solacing, restful, tranquillising effect; play it for five minutes, and, no matter how the delirious world outside may move, peace descends upon you like dew from heaven; serenity slides into your soul. A Quakers’ meeting is not more soothing.” “ Fly-poker is, the professor contends,

“ immensely superior to that exciting game, beetle-bridge; though that requires even less in the way of equipment. “ But beetle-bridge is also a gambling game, and we hesitate to introduce more than one such game to our readers. Besides, there is a danger that some enterprising person may seek to corner the beetle supply. Anyhow, the book contains the principles of the game, and if there is any money to be made out of it—the game, not the book—we are not entitled to give too much away.

THE ISOLATION OF AMERICA. “ The Great Gesture.” By Hamish Blair. (Cloth; G/-.) Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons Ltd. You have just told us that America will not release hetgold or abate one cent of hetwar dues from the European nations. I will be frank, like yourself. Senator, and point out that that attitude is producing a steadily increasing exasperation in Europe against America. Incidentally it has reduced America's moral influence to nil in the comity of nations.

Mr Hamish Blair weaves a fascinating story around international politics in 1941, and the above is part of a conversation between the British Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Senator Westerhout, in England on a semi-official mission of Anglo-American understanding. The author pictures Europe struggling to pay millions to America, and the pronounced attitude of open hostility which the exhausting toll has engendered. With a keen insight into possibilities, a knowledge of international politics, a virile pen, and a controlled imagination, and with a love affair of more than ordinary interest, he has succeeded in making “ The Great Gesture ” a compelling novel. It is more than this, however, because it gives the reader an introduction to serious affairs in a congenial setting. It will be read because it is a good novel, it will be remembered because of its relation to realities.

It opens in a period when Americans travelling in Europe cannot help feeling that their country is roundly hated for its selfishness. It may be that the antagonism is prompted by envy, which the leading British. character, Robert Hamilton, describes as “ the meanest and most unreasonable of all the passions.” But he also points out that every effort made by the creditors of America “ only plunges them deeper into the morass.” He points out that “ America has taken six hundred millions sterling from Britain alone during the past 20 years, and from the rest of Europe in proportion.” (The author is speaking in 1941.) Nevertheless the British people did not grouse—they paid. Feeling was very different on the Continent. ! . The. League of Nations, the creation of American post-war idealism, had been .dissolved because of America’s attitude of selfish, isolation. In its place the United States of Europe had risen,

the prime object of which was a defensive weapon against America. “I take it,” observes the Senator, “ every nation which outdoes its competitors in prosperity is liable to be envied and disliked.” Nevertheless the Senator was perturbed at the trend of events, and he believed that an Anglo-American alliance < “■would prove an irresistible combina- . tion, the very existence of which would prevent any threat of war.” It was clear at this time that America feared a tariff war with United Europe. Martin Andreas, dictator of Volscia, a Latin State, decided to join the European combination. Every dictator must be in large degree a demagogue, and Andreas was no exception. He must also have at least one outstanding catchcry. Hatred of America was the principle which ensured the reign of Andreas, and he made the most of it. On this point he merely echoed the popular feeling, and that feeling was very strong in Volscia. While prominent Americans were dreaming of an AngloAmerican understanding, the Volscian dictator was planning an offensive ; against America. It took an unexpected and dramatic form—he had every American citizen then in Volscia ar- - rested and interned in a eamp. Asked by an English journalist friend for his excuse for what he termed such “an outrageous proceeding as these wholesale arrests.” the dictator replied haughtily: “I require no excuse. The occasion is a legitimate development of Volscian policy, which is the freeing of Volscia, and incidentally of Europe, from the economic and financial slavery in which we have all been held by America for the last 20 years.” After consideration the Englishman failed to ■ see “ how such an unprecedented violation of Volscian hospitality is going to free anyone.” But Andreas was ready with a precedent. “ Surely you haven’t . forgotten the rupture of the Amiens Treaty in 1803, and Napoleon’s wholesale arrests of English residents in France? He kept them there, if I remember rightly, for 10 or 11 years.” Included in the American internees were a dozen multi-millionaires, a United States Senator, two representatives and sundry members of State legislatures. “ I have,” declared Andreas, “ a steel king, an oil king, and a copper king now in custody. In fact, there are almost as many American kings interned in Volscia as there are crowned heads in Europe. There are also bankers, railroad presidents, and a number of other exponents of ‘big business.’ The rest are comparatively honest people.” He considered allowing the “ small fry ” to go and hold only, the big men to ransom. “ Then Volscia has become a brigand State, with highway robbery as its policy,” observed the 'Englishman. The dictator frowned. “ You may call it brigandage if you like, but it is no more brigandage than the American policy of holding the world to ransom with the war debts. It is no more brigandage than the business methods of many of the men I have now interned.”

In America the arrests created a profound impression. The populace was all for war, but America could not conduct a war so far from its base as Europe. The British Government had proffered an act of friendship in sending a warship to Volscia to convey the American Ambassador and suite, and the action impressed America. A comparatively minor episode complicated the situation. Robert Hamilton had sensed , trouble for the Americans in Volscia, • and he had persuaded Sadie Reinhart to fly with him from the Volscian capi- . tai to a small village a few miles dis- . tant. He kept on flying until Paris was reached. Sadie was indignant with the intrepid Scot, and she was not much mollified when she learned almost immediately that her father and other Americans had been arrested. Hamilton offered to return to Regnum with a mes- ■ sage for her father. He did, and was promptly arrested. And so England became involved in the Volscian net.

Events are developed quickly, and England decides on certain terms to go to war. Then comes the great gesture. America decides to cancel the war debt owing by Britain, and then frees Europe, including Volscia, from the strangulation involved in the debts.. ' These dramatic events are narrated with a powerful pen, and the situation is unfolded in dramatic fashion. The love story is the lighter side of a very absorbing book. And altogether it is worth reading, and ■will add something substantial to the reputation of it? ' author.