Fraulein Boveri pilots us round the Mediterranean with the skill
that might be expected of one who combines long experience on the staff of the Berliner Tageblatt with intimate knowledge of southern Europe and northern. Africa. Her history is accurate ; she is a shiewd judge of national character ; her descriptions betray a pleasing affection for radiant Mediterranean views and unflustered Mediterranean manners, and her prose, as rendered by a first-class translator, soars above the level usually reached in political literature. In fact, her book (Oxford University Press, 2 Is.) is excellent but for two draw- backs. It is too expensive for a work that suits the common reader better than the research student, and, more serious, it is sadly out of date. Her German edition, which appeared in December, 1936, has been reproduced unaltered ; therefore her descriptions of the political scene often bear the hall- mark of the Abyssinian crisis, and, particularly-where she deals with Malta and Egypt, are tinged with forgotten emotions. Nothing can repair this defect, not even the rather indigestible preface which has been added to the English text. For that, too, is already a back number ; dated December, 1937, it was written before the Anschluss introduced Germany into the Mediterranean picture and altered the balance of Italy's policy. Apart from this failing, .the book contains some interesting judgements. As potential sources of trouble, it singles out Italian ambition, the Moslem struggle for independence, and the conflict between nationalist ideologies, and, since it talks of a day when Fascism will "have to contend" against English Liberalism,. it seems to consider that the last is our sealed fate.
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