THE REVIVAL OF* EUROPE. By II. G. Alexander. (0. Allen
and Unviin.. 5s. net.) • .
Since few people in Europe and America give to the League cf Nations a tithe cf the thought that it deserveS, we would draw their attention to this .book, whose sub:title is Can the League of Nations Help 2- The accounts of the League's constitution and methods and the record of its work are atisfactory, and the facts are stated accurately enough. It must be admitted that Mr. Alexander does not approach the subject with an attractive ardour. He seldom praises without some cold criticism, and his expressions of satis- faction with each piece of w( rk done seem to he grudged and only due because worse would have happened but for t he League. He gives little credit for obstacles overcome and does not mention the chief difficulty of'a League of fifty and more nations, many with no great interest: in any one question, namely, the danger of log-rolling. His earnest pleas for Germany and her admission are mainly based on the demerits of the Allies, and do not include the one that appeals most to us, that the poacher should have been turned into a gamekeeper as soon as possible. The author's trouble is explained by his chapter on " The International Spirit." He is an internationalist and pacifist without any -understand- ing sympathy with the weaknesses, amiable or otherwise, of those who cannot go so far. He wants us to subordinate patriotiSm to international good, and- we are not all ready for that wider outlook. To urge us to" give up Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus to prove that we are not aggressive in the Mediterranean only shows that he thinks we hold them for aggressive purposes, which is not the- whole truth, nor the half of it. Let Mr. Alexander continue to express reasonably the cause of the League as the best hope of the world against elf-destruction. The more it is studied and • taught, as it is in the greater part of this book, the better. With knowledge support will grow outside the League and will increase that elf-confidence within it which is needed for still better work than it has yet done.
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