10 FEBRUARY 1939, Page 6

* -* It is a tragic thing that Mr. Frank

Melland should have been killed by a train less than five weeks after his appoint- ment as Secretary of the Royal African Society. His last piece of work there must have been the production of what I hope it is not irreverent to call "potted Halley "—being Lord Hailey's great "African Survey," surveyed in its turn chapter by chapter by a distinguished panel of reviewers, including Lord Harlech, Sir Alan Pim, Sir Daniel Hall and Mr. Melland himself (Macmillan, as.). To those who lack the money to buy or the time to read the Survey itself, the potted Hailey can be confidently recommended. JANus.