12 JULY 1940, Page 5

I wrote something last week about the psychology of Fifth

Columnists, or if you will Quislings, or if you will traitors. It is a subject that is very far from being exhausted, and to any- one disposed to pursue it further I commend with some warmth a booklet entitled simply and pregnantly The Quislings, published by Hutchinsons at sixpence. The author is an able Czech journalist, formerly editor of a large and successful German Sunday paper, Walter Tschuppik. His vivid chapters describe the personalities and careers of the traitors in a dozen countries, Seyss-Inquart in Austria, Henlein in Czecho- Slovakia, Brody in Slovakia, Clausen in Denmark, Mussert in Holland, and Germany's methods of exploiting them. Mainly it seems to be a case of little nobodies given by the German masters an opportunity to parade as somebodies, and it is easy to find money for their pay from the plunder of Jews or patriots. M. Tschuppik unfortunately finished his book too soon to include a discussion of France. We may have some- thing to learn from it even here.