11 FEBRUARY 1944, Page 22

Shorter Notices THIS slim volume, it is explained, is only

a summary of the plan to which Mr. Culbertson, abjuring the profitable attractions of Contract Bridge, has been devoting all his attention. Whether ex- amination of the summary will stimulate further study of the plan itself is questionable. Mr. Culbertson betrays an early affection for the fashionable, overrated and often misused term "blue-print," and his whole volume suggests a picture of an enthusiastic theorist sitting down with a few sheets of paper to draw diagrams and tabu- late solutions with a sublime disregard of most or all political realities. Take, for example, his division of the world into seven regional federations within an all-embracing world-federation. Incidentally to this all British possessions in the Western Hemisphere (including presumably Newfoundland, but excluding Canada) are to come under a federation 'consisting of the United States, Panama and the rest of the Latin-American Republics ; elsewhere the British North West African colonies (whatever they may be), and Liberia come under a federation of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal ; the Belgian Congo and the northern Sudan under a federation of Germany and Austria ; trifles like Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya, and the Rhodesias appear to be forgotten ; the unpractical solutions proposed for Palestine are too long for quotation here. So the manufacture of " blue-prints " continues. But Mr. Culbertson may at least be commended for his courage in risking so reckl7ssly in one sphere the reputation he has gained in another.