SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.] THE SartaWtiaa Maoazarras.—The Nineteenth Century contains a long account by Captain Francis McCullagh of " Yurovsky and the Murder of the Tsar." The Tsar and his whole family were murdered at Ekaterinburg on July lath, 1918, by the Bolshevik Jew, Yurovsky, who was in charge of the prisoners. The Moscow Bolsheviks approved of the crime, but afterwards announced that the murderer had been tried and shot in 1919• Captain McCullagh, however, saw Yurovsky last March at Ekaterinburg and had a conversation with him about politics. The murderer and his accomplices took great pains to destroy all evidence of their foul deed, as if conscious that there would be in the near future a reaction against the Terror to which the Tsar and the best men and women of Russia had fallen victims. Mr. R. A. Usaher examines the attitude of the " Council of Action " towards Poland and suggests, not without reason, that alien Jewish immigrants, who hate the Roman Catholic Poles, have unduly influenced British Labour politicians against Poland. Mr. Lancelot Lawton points out that Lenin is still at the beginning of his difficulties with the peasants—ninety per cent. of the Russian people—who firmly believe in private property in land and are not likely to be converted to the idea of land nationaliz. ation. Captain Coote, replying to the question " Is Industrial Peace Possible ?" commends co-partnership as " the only practicable working out of the gospel of the identity of the interests of all those engaged in industry." Professor Longford writes on " Japan—a Great Economic Power," giving some remarkable facts and figures to illustrate Japan's rapid progress. Mr. G. W. T. Omond has an interesting paper on " Kingship." The Monarchy, he rightly believes, is as popular as ever with the overwhelming majority of British people and " is now one great bond of union between them and their fellow citizens throughout the Empire." Canon Vaughan's paper on " Changes in the British Flora " is instructive ; if we have lost a few native plants, we have gained many immigrants, just as a number of common British plants have found their way by accident to America.— Mr. Frederic Harrison in the Fortnightly expresses his anxiety for the future in forcible terms, and his concern lest our institu_ tions, lacking the support of a written constitution such as France and America have, should be swept away by " the new spirit." Sir Thomas Barclay describes " Germany's Political Resources " in some very flattering character-sketches of her leading politicians. Mr. R. C. Long gives an account of " The All-German Industrial Trust," planned, and in part established, for the revival of competition abroad. Major Lindsay. Baehford, on the other hand, writing on " Germany and Bolshevism," declares that the German working classes are suffering from great poverty and unemployment. Each foreign observer in Germany seems to see only what he has been looking for. Mr. Horace B. Samuel, who has served as a judicial officer in Palestine, discusses " The Palestinian Problem " very frankly ; to him the anti-Zionist agitation seems also anti-British, and is to be attributed to the small class of feudal landowners who resent the coming of an administration which cannot be bribed to do injustice. Mrs. Re- Bartlett writes on " Admiral Millo and the Government of Dalmatia," where, she says, the Italians have done good work, despite the difficulties caused by the Serbians. Mr. W. M. J. Williams discusses Mr. Chamberlain's heavy task of restoring our finances under the ironical title of " The Pilgrim of the Normal Year.' " Mr. H. J. Jennings states the facts regarding " Our Insolvent Railways," and argues very powerfully for releasing them from State control, which is bound to conduce to extravagance and inefficiency. An anonymous writer pleads for the recognition of Polish independence as a British interest, recalling Napoleon's lament, at St. Helena, over his " failure to establish a strong Poland, the necessary corner-stone of European stability." Miss E. Hallam Moorhouse's personal impressions Of Lord Fisher are interesting.—In the Contemporary Review Lord Monteagle advocates " Dominion Rome Rule " for Ireland in the name of " all sections of moderate Irish opinion," which is, we fear, but a phantom army. He has a " conviction that Sinn Fein is prepared to make very large concessions to 'Ulster ' for the sake of unity," but he does not say what a Roman Catholic Republic could offer to the Ulster Protestants in exchange for their liberty within the British Empire. Lord Eustace Percy discusses " The Realities of the League " in a pessimistic vein. " The truth is that the advocates of the League too often start from the wrong end. They picture how much the League might do, instead of making up their minds how much they wish their own Govern- ment to do. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of Englishmen, because the chief weakness of the League, the chief gap in the world's defences against war, is the deplorable disorganization of the machinery of British foreign policy." In other words, the League depends upon Great Britain, and her willingness to assume the immense task of a world-policeman. Lord Eustace Percy does well to emphasize an unpleasant truth. M. Renaudel, the advanced Socialist leader, explains the position of " The Socialist and Labour Movement in France," stating that at the General Election last November the Socialists polled only one vote in six, and admitting that the attempt at a general strike last May was " over-hasty," and had done the Socialist cause much harm. Mrs. Buxton writes on " Child Life and Death in Germany," and an unnamed writer deals with the native problem in East Africa. Mr. A. P. Graves has a pleasant article on " St. Columba Eta a Poet," with some verse-trans• lations of Gaelic poems attributed to the great missionary— The National Review has an article on " Our Amazing Syrian Adventure," by Mr. Bectkles Willson, who does not strengthen his advocacy of the Hedjaz Arab case by professing to report a private conversation between Lord Allenby, the -Emir Feisal, and Colonel Lawrence. Mr. Willson shows, however, the awkwardness of the situation created for us by the existence of incompatible agreements made with France, on the one hand, and with the Hedjaz on the other. Another article illustrates the importance of the coalfields in Upper Silesia, the fate of which is to be determined by a popular vote. Mr. Arthur Kitson denounces " The Treasury's Latest Craze " ; the deflation of the currency, he urges, is undesirable and dangerous. But would Mr. Kitson commend the Bolsheviks who have pursued the oppo- site policy to its extreme limits and made their own notes worthless ? Mr. A. E. Reade's " Recent Impressions of Public School Education " revive the old complaint that the public schools do not turn out Macaulays or Edisons. Mr. George L. Fox contributes an instructive letter, " Poisoning the Wells," to the controversy aroused by Mr. Stutfield's recent book. Mr. Fox shows how the Roman Catholic Church in the United States aids and abets Shin Fein.— Blackwood's has a notable article, " At the Supreme War Coun- cil," by Captain Peter Wright, who acted as assistant secretary to the Council in the winter of 1917-18. Captain Wright says that if the Allies had adhered to Sir Henry Wilson's and Marshal Foch's scheme of January, 1918, for an Executive War Board, with Marshal Foch as chairman, to direct the General Reserve. the Germans might have suffered on the Somme in March, 1918, the defeat which they sustained on the Marne in the following July. During February, 1918, however, the scheme was dropped and, when the German offensive began, the Allied reserves were not available for the relief of General Gough. Captain Wright speaks frankly of personal jealousies causing this almost fatal indecision, and he attributes the final selection of Marshal Foch. on March 26th, 1918, as virtual generalissimo to Mr. Lloyd George and Sir Henry Wilson, who persuaded M. Clemenceau to agree with them. Captain Wright refers to the article written by Colonel Repington and published in the Morning Post of February 1 lth, 1918, as "e very excellent and concise summary" of the decisions taken at a confidential sitting of the Supreme War Council—quoting " actual phrases " used by Mr. Lloyd George and recorded in the minutes of the session—which " told Ludendorff the plan " of the Allies. It is a serious charge to bring, as Captain Wright must know. The Dean of Exeter writes on " The Pilgrim Fathers," distinguishing clearly between the men of the ' Mayflower '—who were Separatists— and the founders of Massachusetts who were Puritan members of the Church of England. " In the face of the coming cele- brations which threaten to extol the Pilgrim Fathers as cham- pions of liberty," says the Dean, " it 'is well to understand that they cared not a straw about liberty for any one but them- selves." We can admire these sturdy Puritans without pre- tending that they believed in religious toleration.
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