BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20690, 28 December 1938, Page 8

BOOKS AND WRITERS

BRITAIN AND FRANCE ENTENTE CORDIALE REVIEWED I .N'T ERNATI ON AL PR OBL EMS Amongst a galaxy of French newspaper writers, Madame Tabouis and “Pertinax” stand out in boldest relief, and their opinions are held in the highest esteem by the statesmen of Europe anxious to keep in touch with the marrow of French public thought. Madame Tabouis, in “Perfidious Albion,” has thought it necessary to review the Entente Cordiale, and tactfully to give Britain some very frank advice lest it should fail its purpose and, despite the fact that the understanding is irrational, contradictory and complex. The French viewpoint of international affairs is, she says, logical and cerebrated, the English practical, but opportunist. British democracy is aristocratic. In Paris there are no “gentilhommes,” save those who arp of noble family. The flexibility of British diplomacy is only understood with difficulty in France, where it is “usually labelled hypocrisy.” Steady Drift to War Since the Versailles Peace there has bpcn a steady drift to war. declares Madame Tabouis. France has been ready to sacrifice her feelings, and even her major policy, if she were certain that her security would be better assured, but England has clung to her old theory of the balance of power, and has slipped back to a thinly disguised isolation, which has enabled the Dictators to gain a momentum difficult to arrest unless both countries are prepared to exert their fullest strength. In the crumbling of Czechoslovakia and the complete destruction of the prestige and authority of France in Mittel Europa, she suggests that Britain was blinded by inherited concepts of diplomacy, and did not realise that the problem was one of warring ideologies incapable of solution by compromise. “It should be understood in London that France accused England of inability to play the game to a finish in this ‘timeless test’ with calm and due authority. Paris is resolute to do so in spite of the insufficiency of French preparations. The old revolutionary formula still holds sway—Freedom or Death.” A Great Counter-stroke

The greatest counter-stroke within the command of Britain, she insists, is universal compulsory service, which would give the Dictators furiously to think. But provided that the two nations have the sense of true grandeur—“true grandeur is a danger to nobody, true grandeur does not demand the sacrifice of spiritual, intellectual and economic force as the price of armed might”—all will he well. Each has its own independence, its glorious past, its own ideal conception of peace. France has never asked Great Britain to he false to all her democratic conditions, and the democracies are at the cross-roads, one of which leads to the abyss, to the destruction of all they stand for, of civilisation itself. It is a most eloquent, earnest plea for a better understanding of the French outlook in the mephitic fog which enwraps Europe, and in which the only warning may be the tocsin of war. ROYAL CORRESPONDENCE HARD TRAINING FOR VOCATION SOME INTERESTING LETTERS Kings dwell apart though not alone, and no artisan, no member of any profession has harder training for his chosen vocation than a King of England; and at rare intervals the curtain is lifted to let their lieges have the briefest peep at the way in which they are fitted for their most onerous tasks, as in “A Royal Correspondence, ‘letters of King Edward and King George,” just published by Macmillans, Dymocks. When the Opliir, blue-lined amidships, arrived in Melbourne with the Duke (afterwards King George V.) and Duchess of York aboard in 1901, a humble little postmistress at Mornington was all a-twitter because she had received a monstrous long cable message from the Duke, in which the home life of his children was charmingly described by Queen Alexandra. “Fancy that!” she kept gasping as she bubbled the royal nursery story to all who would listen. Admiral Sir Henry Stephenson, one of 15 children of Henry Stephenson, J picked up the threads of the Royal family when I lie Prince of Wales was I very much impressed by his masteri ful mother, Queen Victoria, and Prince ; George was in his teens and sent to I sea by his father, against the firm will ol' his grandmother. “Don’t Spoil Him” In the Navy he soon became the fifth lieutenant, and was placed under the charge of Captain Stephenson, whom Prince Edward addressed in correspondence as “My Dear Harry,”

and to whom he enjoined “I cannot place him in safer hands, only don't spoil him, please .... When he is on shore let him amuse himself, but when on duty you can do him no greater service than being very strict with him.” Time and again the Prince stressed that his son must go through the routine and mill like any other young officer, and that Prince George appreciated his democratic gruelling is evidence in that he wrote his mentor innumerable letters which deepened in affectionate tone until he subscribed himself as “Your sth Lieutenant and very sincere friend, George.” Like Nelson, the future King never got accustomed to the vagaries of the sea, and after several years on the briny in Dreadnoughts and other naval craft, still suffered miserably from sea sickness. But never did he suggest that a longshore job would be more pleasing to him. “Long to See the Dear Boy’* King Edward, almost submerged in affairs ol‘ Slate and social duties, ever kept in closest touch with the schooling of his son, and wrote when he was reaching more mature years, “I long to see the dear boy again.” Australia, of course, was there. The King favoured short-cuts m his letters and employed several useful contractions like “wh.. Pr. l’ss" for Princess Alexandra), ahd signed them “A.E.” and when Ihe Prince visited Australia in the Bacchante lie wrote Captain Stephenson, “Fancy Charlie Snott late Admiral Lord Charles Scott, who was Commander-in-chief of Hie Australian Squadron, 1889-92) having engaged himself to a fair Australian! Miss Ada Ryan, of Melbourne.) I

WELL-KNOWN AUTHORESS VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND FOUND DEADLY SNAKE IN BED Best known by her pen-name of Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, Mrs Me.Grigor Phillips, authoress and traveller, and a member of the Royal Geographical and Royal Astronomical Societies, arrived at Wellington by the Rangitane from London. Mrs Phillips has trekked aoross the African veldt, photographed lion and elephant in their natural habitations, and awakened in camp in the tropical jungle to find a deadly serpent in bed beside her. She has navigated her own yacht across the stormy waters of the North Atlantic. She said that it was her intention to spend four months in New Zealand, much of it camping in the back country. “It will be lovely to be able to sleep in the open air, without danger from wild beasts or reptiles,” she said. “You are lucky in New Zealand to have nothing that bites or stings. It is not nice to wake up with a horrible, cold, poisonous mamba in bed beside you.” Asked if that had happened to her, she. nodded assent. “But don't say too much about that.” she said. “I don’t want people to think of such creepy, horrible things.” Through African Deserts She said that she had travelled extensively in Kenya, Uganda, Belgian Congo, through the deserts of North Africa, and all up the River Nile. She had trekked with a caravan through South Africa, a six months' journey that few people had emulated. Her home, a lovely old English country house of mixed fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth century architecture, was in Westmoreland She was a lover of the Border country, with its sheep farms like those of New Zealand, and she was anxious to see much of the farming districts of the Dominion. She was president of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and was anxious to meet members in New Zealand, of whom she believed there were many.

During her stay in New Zealand she was going to write her impressions for the four great English newspapers serving the Border country and the North of England—the Manchester Guardian, Yorkshire Post, Scotsman, and Glasgow Herald. For all these papers she wrote regularly. It was not, however, her intention to write a book upon her visit to New Zealand. Keen Yachtswoman Having heard of New Zealand’s sounds and fiordland, and being a keen yachting enthusiast, she was anxious to have opportunity of sailing on the coast. On the Clyde she kept he” own 40-ton auxiliary cruiser, Sea Swallow, in which she had cruised extensively to Brittany, the Hebrides, Finland, Spain and the Azores, where she took her yacht on Its maiden voyage. She herself held a mate’s certificate and did all her own navigation. Her works included “Equatorial Dawn,” an account of her African journeys, “Swallow of the Sea,” about her North Sea and Baltic cruises, “South African Summer.” and “Lapwings and Laverocks,” “Fairings,” “Dale Folk,” and “Dale Dramas,” tales and verses of the English North Country. Mrs Phillips is tall, dark and vivacious. Her writings are remarkable for thair sincerity, verve, humour and observation.