A LITERARY LOG

Southland Times, Issue 21773, 30 July 1932, Page 11

A LITERARY LOG

ROLLED BY lOTA.

BOOKS ON THE TABLE “Through the Dragon’s Eyes” (L. C. Arlington). “Tickets Without Goods” (Lloyd Ross). “I Dips Me Lid” (C. J - Dennis). “Unemployment Taxation” - (C. N. Gibbs).

THE REAL CHINA A Candid Friend After fifty years in the Chinese Government service which meant experience in the Chinese Navy, in the Maritime Customs and the Postal services, L. C. Arlington has written one of the most illuminating books on the Chinese yet given to the world. In “Through the Dragon’s Eyes” Arlington traces his service in China in a plain and very lucid manner, breaking off at frequent intervals to interpret the Chinese character, and show that in spite of all the recent developments, fundamentally the people of China are to-day what they were hundreds of years ago. Arlington was in the Chinese Navy in the eighties, and served under Admiral Wu when the Chinese were embroiled with the French. He served, too, with Admiral Ting, who in later years was in command of the Chinese Squadron at Wei-hai-wei, and committed suicide when the fleet had to surrender, to the Japanese. Then, as now, the chief aim of the Chinese was to “save face,” and while they displayed physical courage not to be excelled by the force of any other nation, they were, so far as the leaders were concerned, prone to take a course which to western eyes meant nothing but blatant cowardice. The fleet never desired to fight, and indeed it would have had a very short life' had it challenged the French Squadron to a general combat, but on one or two occasions when it looked as if an engagement were inevitable, Arlington noticed that the Chinese sailors stood to their guns calmly, though they must have known that disaster awaited them. The terrific hold gambling, has on the Chinese was shown to Arlington during his service in the Navy, and one gathers that gambling is as prevalent to-day as it was then. It is obvious that he puts very little faith in the new Nationalist Government. The Chinese, he says, are not unified. What is known as China is a collection of separate peoples, each using a different spoken language, and, therefore, separated by these barriers of communication. The Chinese are a queer mixture of materialism, patience and kindness, but they are capable of the most fiendish cruelty even to-day, and are tremendously excitable. Hysteria is exploded amongst them without warning, and under the influence of their excitement they are capable of doing almost anything, particularly when they have numbers behind them. He evidently regards the Nationalist Government at Nanking as in the form of a beaurocracy which in spite of its high-sounding professions and theories is not touching the fundamentals of Chinese problems because it is not drawing into the scheme of unity the great millions of the poorer Chinese. The outbursts that are. termed “national” seem to have as their basis a desire for loot. One thing that has continued through it all is the Chinese term “foreign devil,” who is hated to-day as much as he was fifty years ago because he interferes in China. The Cantonese he calls the Irish of China, and he has no confidence in Chiang Kai-shek. On the other hand, he favours Feng and Yen, who, he says, are more closely in touch with the people, and are more concerned for the good of China. An interesting point of Arlington’s is that Chiang Kaishek has deliberately tried to impress bn the world that the Left wing of the Kuomintang is linked with the Communists, when, as a matter of fact, he does not attack the Communists seriously. Chiang Kai-shek he regards as a man seeking personal supremacy by the old method of knocking his rivals out one by one, whereas Feng and Yen were seeking the unity of China. Feng’s uncertainty in alliances, he says, is no worse than the instability of other Chi ese leaders, who stigmatise as traitors only those helping the Japanese or other “foreign devils.” Arlington is very frank in his condemnation of some of the practices of the missionaries, especially those who interfere in Chinese plitics, and evidently’ he looks on them as men and women who have done more than anyone else to dam .ge the white man’s prestige in China. This is an illuminating work, a very useful work,, and it helps to correct many false ideas about the Chinese, both for and against, and anart from, that aspect it is vastly entertaining as an autobiography. “Through the Dragon’s Eyes” by ■L. C. Arlington, is published by Messrs Constable Ltd., London. THE DOUGLAS CREDIT THEORY

One of the popular beliefs is that the ,rthodox economists who will not accept the Douglas Social Credit theory

are barricaded behind prejudice and really know very little about it, and Mr Lloyd Ross, Tutor-Organiser of the W.E.A., University of Otago, in his pamphlet, “Tickets Without Goods” has set out to correct that impression. He has not contented himself with an attack on the general theory of the system, the course followed by so many of the economists who, convinced that the scheme is unsound, dismiss it rather tersely, and so he has considered the proposals in the light of their application to the world’s problems. Mr Ross makes it clear that the economists do not condem nthe Douglas theories out of blind ignorance of them, and he makes it clear that much of Major Douglas’s “discoveries” are not new. .He argues that the very foundation of the theory is unsound, and that too little attention has been given to the study of the “velocity of money.” Mr Ross presents the argument that if those who advocate the Douglas System as a result of their study of the Douglas pamphlets would only undertake a course in economics they would be in a better position to appreciate Major Douglas’s ideas. In dealing with the practical application of the proposals, he points to differences of opinion amongst the most prominent of the Douglas Credit writers as evidence of their uncertainty about details which become vital as soon as the attempt is made to show how the theories can be put into practice and what the reactions will be. This is a pamphlet which every advocate of the Douglas proposals should study, and it should be carefully considered, too, by those who are likely to have the Social Credit scheme presented to them as an unanswerable case.

“Tickets Without Goods” by Lloyd Ross, comes to me through the Georgian Bookshop, Dee Street.