13 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 28

MUST THE LEAGUE FAIL f By Mrs. L. A. Zimmern

Mrs. Zimmern has evidently asked the question her title, Most the League Fail ? (Hopkinson, 2s. 6d.), embodies under the influence of the disappointment which the League's handling of the Manchurian crisis has inspired. But one failure, which by no means everyone admits to be failure, does not mean that. all is wrong with the League from top to bottom. Mrs. Zimmern goes very near saying that it is. The Old Diplomacy (with those damning capitals), intrigue, insincerity, domination by the Great Powers, hoodwinking of the public, perpetual evasion of awkward issues—these are some of the vices the author sees rife at Geneva. Her picture is likely to be sharply challenged—not merely by the sentimentalists whom she holds up to mild derision. But the motive is constructive, as the title-page motto, qui aisle bias chalk bier, shows.