20 AUGUST 1921, Page 25

War Government of the British Dominions. By Arthur Berrie- dale

Keith. (Clarendon Press. 10s. 6d. net)—Professor Keith, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Imperial affairs. describes clearly and almost dispassionately " the influence of the war on the activities of the Governments of the Dominions and in their relations to the Government of the United King- dom." His book may be read with interest and will be invalu- able for reference. It is the first of a formidable series of volumes to be published for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, containing the Economic and Social History of the World War. Professor Shotwell, of New York, is the general editor, and there are editorial boards or editors for Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Holland, and the Baltic countries. Twenty-eight monographs have already been arranged for Great Britain, and forty-four for France. If the work is carried out on this scale for all the countries affected, the older Carnegie Endowment will be required to build libraries in which the innu- merable volumes may be housed. Meanwhile Professor Keith has set a very high standard for his fellow-contributors. His treatise is self-contained and appears opportunely, on the morrow of the Imperial Conference and on the eve, as we trust, of the Conference called by President Harding at Washington. We may draw attention to Professor Keith's chapter on " Tho Dominions and India," and to the concluding remarks on " the doubts felt in the Dominions as to the wisdom of renewing the Anglo:Japanese alliance " and their desire to avoid " any obligation tending to support of Japan in a controversy with the United States, with which Power the Dominions are anxious to establish close relations of amity and co-operation." Professor Keith points out, incidentally, that if Japan's mandate for Yap and other ex-German islands north of the Equator is modified, Australia's precisely similar mandate for the ex-German islands south of the Equator may also be called in question, especially in regard to the control of immigration and trade.