7 MAY 1927, Page 26

Current Literature

CHINA : THE FACTS. By Lieut.-Colonel P. T. Ethe (Berm. 12s. 6d.)—We can heartily commend Co Etherton's plain statement of facts about China. He the country and the people well. He was a judge in the 13 Supreme Court in China and he has also served as our Co General in Chinese Turkestan.. Out of the plenitude of knowledge and experience he describes Chinese society, a brief sketch of China's recent history up to the spring of year, and explains why foreigners had to obtain con and extra-territorial privileges if they were to live in and carry on their trade. Colonel Etherton writes d sionately and it would be well if some of the critics of Government's Chinese policy would read his book and di how wildly they have misrepresented the situation, esPee in regard to the conditions of labour in the factories, leas five per cent. of which are British-owned. The author us that the civil war may last for a long time and that the likely outcome of it is the division of China into two with the Yangtse as boundary. He might have added that great-river- is -a -linguistic border, and that this _fact explains the failure of the Cantonese advance into Shot