Shorter Notices
Britain and Canada. By Gerald S. Graham. (Longmans. 6d.)
THE temptation to spend six months in a country, then come home and write a book about it is generally one to be resisted ; but Mr. Stembridge has succeeded better than most in this hazardous undertaking. He went to Canada early in 1939, forgetting to take the maps which he had prepared in advance, but equipped with what was far more important—a trained power of observation, a receptive mind and an engaging personality. On arrival in Canada, Mr. Stembridge immediately set out for the North-West, where the adventurous developments already going forward, plus the magnificence of the scenery, plus the undoubted charm of Westerners, so fired his imagination that his book devotes seventy-six pages to British Columbia, Alberta and the North-West Territories, leaving the rest of the country to scramble for the remaining seventy-three. But although his treatment of a great part of Canada is of necessity superficial, Mr. Stembridge has a way of laying his hand on essential facts, and although what he gives us is a sketch rather than a portrait, the result is a good likeness.
Longmans Green have added another to their pamphlets on the British Commonwealth—Britain and Canada. The author, Gerald Graham, is Associate Professor of History at Queen's University, Kingston, and he has done a clear and scholarly job. He has traced the history of Anglo-Canadian relations with precision and sym- pathy, and he has done it in neat, racy English which is good to read. Bird Music. By A. L. Turnbull. (Faber. 7s. 6d.)
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