18 JUNE 1927, Page 33

We confess to a weakness for reading anti-British books, for

they are often stimulating. The Revolt of Asia, by " Upton Close" (Putnam, 10s. 6d.), is one of this class, for it leaves us feeling that if that is all that is bad about the British, we have not much to be ashamed of. " The End of the White Man's Dominance " is a matter that we have ourselves touched upon recently. But the author does not point his moral nor adorn his tale by ridiculous misstatements such as railing the regrettable Amritsar affair " the massacre of five hundred Moslems who had met to pray," nor the last Afghan War as " an invasion of the Punjab from which the enemy was ven back with difficulty." Still there is no doubt that the author is right in his main contention that our hold on the should be moral and not legal, and that friendship is a greater thing than force. He might remember also that truth stranger than fiction, and write a more impressive book by eePing closer to his facts.

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