Books & Writers

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21356, 26 February 1941, Page 8

Books & Writers

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS I = •‘SIREN SONG” A. P. HERBERT’S SATIRE THE DICTATORS RIDICULED ■ No living writer is more accom- ; plished than A. P. Herbert in the art ' of satirical and humorous expression ) in verse. He has even made a , speech in the House of Commons in ; verse! In “Siren Song” he deals with topi- ; cal matters mainly connected with j the war. The subjects vary from the , Schedule of Reserved Occupations to “Von Ribbentrop, the cosmic flop,” 5 and from Hitler’s Birthday to Musso- | lini, the “top-wop.” Mr Herbert bitingly indicts those ’ who say “We have no quarrel with ’ the German nation.” In the verses • titled “No Quarrel” he says: “We have no quarrel with the GerI man nation”; But no one else upsets the common pot. l They are the cause of every conflagration— ’ Is it a mere coincidence, or what? And then the tragedy of Hitler, who might have been so great, is told ’ in “A.H.—An Epitaph,” in which the author writes: • “And but for one unhappy trait I might be going strong today. . I had momentum, I had weight, But I could simply not go straight. Like others in the history book I lost a crown by turning crook.” The general feeling regarding Hitler is well summed up in: The Fuehrer says “Peace,” and the Fuehrer means “War.” The Fuehrer’s a bully, an ass and a bore, And we don’t really care what he says any more— We’re fed up with the Fuehrer. There will be wide agreement with Mr Herbert’s contempt of Mussolini: “Although we all regret the Hun Has, for a fleeting moment, won, We must admit he’s tough; And, much as one deplores the mess That Hitler’s made, one must confess The man has done his stuff. i This feiiow —well, I mean to say One cannot quite ignore the way That Hitler sees things through; But when I think of Hitler’s mate I really must expectorate— There’s nothing else to do. NAZIS IN AFRICA TREASON AND TREACHERY GREAT DANGER TO BRITAIN “Behind God’s Back,” by Negley Farson, is the most understanding book which has been written about Africa north from Capetown and west from Lake Victoria Nyanza, says a writer in the Sydney Sun. And is a warning to the Empire not to feel too confident about its ex-German mandated possessions. The Nazis with their diamond hard efficiency have made these outposts of Berlin. In South-west Africa they constitute a majority of the white population. With true British phlegm German settlers were permitted to retain their huge holdings after the war and they gladly and with every sign of contrition took the oath of British citizenship. But from the moment that Hitler got into the saddle they felt they were pioneers of the Fatherland to which alone they owed allegiance. Any German settler who applied for British citizenship was sent to Coventry, and ruined. Trained Fighting Men Without exception the younger generation are trained fighting men. They have gone to Germany and been put through the military machine for two years and would slip into a uniform, click their heels and form a small mechanised army overnight. Britain’s gift of democratic freedom and tolerance have been requited by treason and treachery. Mr Farson’s investigations have, however, revealed a tremendous fissure between British and German notions of the proper government of black peoples. Under the Union Jack they are slowly acquiring knowledge of selfgovernment, while the Germans employ force to hold them in slavery. At one time sixty thousand Hereroes protested. When the Germans had finished with their protest there were only twenty thousand broken Ilereros left. Extraordinary Surprises This is quite apart from the extraordinary surprises which break upon the reader—the existence of tribes near Lake Tanganyika which have a system of government ap--1 proximating to that of the democracies; the tiny bushmen whose sixinch darts kill in an hour; the last of the giant baboons fleeing 'northward; and the fact that a small charge of dynamite could, according to Mr Farson, drain the water of Lake Victoria into Lake Tanganyika, leaving the Nile a dusty riverbed.