BOOK CORNER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 82, 6 April 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOK CORNER.

WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE EAST AND WEST Maurice Parmelee has written several books, one of which advocates a return to nature in the matter of clothing. It would therefore be permissible to take a name from the early Greek accounts of India and call him a modern gymnosophist. But, a better description would be a materialistic or agnostic idealist, with an exceptionally fair mind and with many generous and humane impulses; a studious traveler who sees without prejudice and who is a diligent .searcher of statistical tables. His general purpose is a happy, peaceful mankind, not divided into hostile sections, but united on the broadest possible basis of common ancestry and inheritance. And he has undertaken a protracted pilgrimage through the lands of the Orient with the express purpose of gleaning a harvest of cultured ideas and emotions for the enrichment of Occidental minds, with the hope of establishing a general fund of thoughts and feelings for the whole human race. It is a generous purpose, and he is in certain ways well endowed to make it-a reality.

Fairness of mind, which always takes pains to see and understand the opposite side of any question, writes Charles Johnston in the New York Times, is a rare quality, and he possesses it in an exceptional degree. This breadth of view is well illustrated in his consideration of what is at the moment one of the chief bones of contention between Orient and Occident, namely: the problem of extraterritoriality in China. In his latest book, “Oriental and Occidental Culture,” Mr Parmelee begins by enumerating the disadvantages in China involved in the institution of foreign courts for foreigners in Chinese territory. Those disadvantages are : Derogation of national sovereignty; the fact that Chinese are compelled to deal with foreign courts when they go to law with foreigners; the unfair advantage of foreign-born Chinese who have acquired citizenship abroad; inevitable bias for, Or against, rival legal systems and so on. He then makes a list of disadvantages to foreigners, such as the limitation of privilege in parts of China outside the foreign concessions; the fact that the consular officials who preside in the extra-territorial courts are not trained judicial officers; that these courts have not the right Io compel the testimony of Chinese witnesses , and so forth. And. after thus fairly weighing and comparing both sides, and putting on record the views of thoughtful Chinese and foreigners, he reaches a conclusion which is not quite that of either side, but is fair to both: that these courts must ultimately disappear, because they aie a limitation of sovereignty; but that China must first develop a system of law and procedure which will insure even-handed justice to foreigners, a system like that of Japan and modern Turkey, based on Western legal principles. Incidentally, it may be said that one of the most entertaining and at flip same time illuminating passages in the book is the description of how the author came within the meshes of the Chinese legal system when ho somewhat rashly crossed the lines at Canton during the strike against foreign merchants, especially the British. It was a harrowing experience, but Mr Parmelee bore himself well: I was cool and self-controlled. But T remembered later that the palms of my hands were damp with perspiration duo to the severe nervous strain, the efforts of which I felt for some time thereafter. It aroused in me a temporary distaste for China and the Chinese. There seemed to be something cold and almost inhuman in the Chinese character Nevertheless, his general view of Chinese life ami institutions is broad and sympathetic. Equally fair is his treatment of another difficult problem: the industrial expansion of Japan, with the danger of international friction when Japan comes into active rivalry with the great industrial nations of the Occident. While Mr Parmelee is fully cog nizant of the immense strides of modern industrialism, ami of its remark able conquests, he is no worshipper of the machine age. He sees the decline of rural life with genuine concern ami regret, and feels and eloquently expresses a humane sympathy with the often hard lot of factory workers, cut off. for the most part, from cont ail with nature and spending long hours at monotonous tasks.

These two considerations—the danger of friction and impaired conditions of life—impel him to urge the Japan esp to think twice before they commit themselves to a still more intense in dustrialism; to ask themselves whothei they would not be wiser to remain, as they were for centuries, an agricul tural people, limiting their manufactures to such artistic trades as giv< full scope to the creative fancy of tin individual craftsman, the paintings and porcelains and fine metal worl that are the glory of old Nippon.

This brings him naturally to tinpressing problem of Japan’s dense population; and this again leads to a study of Japan’s fields of colonisation in Korea and iMachurina and, to a lesser degree, in Easter Siberia. The studies of Korea and Manchuria supplemented, as always tn this thoughtful book, by carefully analysed statistics, are, perhaps, its most valuable chapters, in part because so much less has been written concerning these two regions, and in part because the author brings to their study his exceptionally fair and unbiased mind. He in able to understand, and to consider with fiomprehending sympathy, the grave nrobleni of overpopulation which weighs so heavily on the shuutders of Japanese statesmen, and to do this while entering fully into the hardships and uadoubted sufferings of the somewhat lackadaisical Koreans, whose reiging house let sovereignty slip through its hands through sheer incompetence.

REVIEWS In Dr. Haden Guest’s book on the New British Empire, which Air Murray will publish shortly, the author dis- ■ cusses frankly tho present-day problems and possibilities of the overseas Empire. The author, a distinguished surgeon who was also a Labour Mem- , ber of Parliament until his disagrec- ’ merit on the China policy, has made a ; prolonged journey in order to study these questions at first hand. His book is one of realities and responsibilities, sonic pleasant and sonic unpleasant. | “The Master,” which Mr Murray ! will publish shortly, is an effort by Dr. Walter Bussell Bowie to interpret afresh the meaning of the life of Jesus. Dr. Bowie gives us the human story of the Personality -whose surpassing power lies in no miraculous unlikeness to the life He seemed to share, but in something profoundly at one with the most native intuitions of the human mind and soul. He*shows how tho gigantic poetry of Christ’s deed and thought transfigured the everyday commonplaces, revealing to the spirit of man the significance of our lives in their relationship to God, The lives, loves, ami intrigues of Jane Cassell, Jerry Delafield, and SylI via Bellamy is tho theme of Mrs Kathleen A orris’ new novel. “Storm House,’’ which AFr AFurray will publish shortly, 'they arc vividly real people ami irresistibly human, with everyday problems and pleasures and delights in simple happiness. JOTTINGS AFr Erie Partridge, owner of tho Scholar!is Press, belongs to Hawke’s Bay. “Ho has established his place among the successful publishing houses in London within little more than a year. ’ writes a friend, who continues: “Air Partridge elected to reprint 18th century books, but, as an experiment, he published two modern novels, both ol which have enjoyed very great successes. '1 he last great success of tho Schcdartis Press was Aliss Noah C. dames’ novel. ‘Sleeveless Errand,’ which attracted such remarkably good

Errand’ is a story of London, the London of the Cafe Royal, Piccadilly, and the crowded places where life is sharpedoed and the people clear cut. The whole action of the story is confined to 3G hours, and the reviewers have agreed that it is a. successful experiment lor a new technique in novelwriting. “So far as T know, not one of Dr. Johnson’s authenticated taverns in London survives,’* says a recent article by John o’ London. “The present Mitre in Mitrp Court. Fleet Street, is not the tavern in which he said that a man who wants to go to bed before three in the morning is a scoundrel. Il is own Mitre stood on the south side of Fleet Street itself, near Temple Bar. Near by stands the Cock Tavern, but Tennyson’s “Cock” wa s on the north side of the street on a site now overshadowed by a portion of th© Royal Law Courts —just east, 1 think, of Bell All y. “There is no actual proof that Dr. Johnson frequented the Cheshire < lioese, though this tavern and diningplace i s enshrined immutably in the minds of -Americans as his peculiar haunt, ft is not so mentioned by Boswell, or by any of his contemporaries. But proof is hardly needed because it is much easier to believe that he knew the Cheshire Cheese than to believe that ho did not. Joseph C. Lincoln, who has written twenty-seven books, most of them about Cape Cod and its people, now has a grown-up son to help him in his work Freeman Lincoln has written for the magazines and has served on the editorial staff of the Curtis publications. Now he is to make his debut as a novelist in collaboration with his lather. The novel, as yet unnamed, will be published in August by Cow-ard-McCann. David Loth, whoso book, “The Brownings: A Victorian Idyl,” was published recently by Brentano’s, has returned from Italy, where he spent two months in Florence gathering material for a life of Lorenzo the Magnificent. to be published shortly. To Nelson’s English series, the general editor of which is Sir Bendy Newbolt (Nelson. Sons and Co.), has been added “A List of Plays for Young Players and Others.” being outline descriptions and practical information about the best modern plays. The list, which has been compVofl by the Junior Flays Committee of the Village Drama Society, should be of considerable practical utility to promoters of amateur theaf ricals. There are more than 166,000 aliens in London. A silkworm spins three hundred yards of fine silk around itself when it is nine weeks old. r l ho largest Bible in the world is a manuscript Hebrew Bible in the Vatican. It weighs 3201 b. Practically the only fish that payfl any attention to its offspring is th© popular “tiddler,” or stickleback. The deepest canyon in the world, a* well as the longest is the Grand Canyon of I?ie Colorado River. In places the gorge ig more than a inr»« deep. It was an Englishman. Joseph XVTtson Swan, who in 1883 took out th-* first patent for making artificial si’*k by squirting w pulp °f wood and cce ton through ynrau holtn, Withba the «yes of ground bird* tiny reflectors whMh {fea'tk© them mo wigm the appynijch of Arthur * nomsSt. The British Air Ministry is planning the construction of largo troop transport. aeroplanes, each with accommodation for fifty infantrymen wirfi machine-guns and full equipment.