17 SEPTEMBER 1937, Page 6

Admiral Sir Barry Domvile, in his new book, Look to

Your Moat, gives us some good straight talk about things in general and politicians in particular. He has nothing but benevolent contempt for " kind-hearted old people sitting round a table at Geneva." This picture of doddering old philanthropists in their lakeside conclaves is engaging, and I relinquish it with something of a pang. But I do possess books of reference, and facts are facts. I have begun by looking up Admiral Sir Barry Domvile himself. He is 59, or will be before the year is out, and was a naval lieutenant when Mr. Eden, the regular British representative at Geneva (who is now 40) was aged 1. Lord Cranborne, who is apt to take Mr. Eden's place, is 44. M. Delbos, the French Foreign Minister, is 52. Col. Beck of Poland is 43. Contemplation of a gaggle of old persons like this must make Sir Barry Domvile feel a bit of a benevolent patriarch himself.