Candid Comments on the Rising Generation
The Feet of the Young Men. By "Janitor." (Duckworth. 8e. Bd.) WHO is " Janitor " ? He writes well. He knows his world. 'Everybody is talking about the book. Yet under cover of his anonymity he writes some unforgivable things about Mr. Oswald Mosley, who, whatever we may think of his politics, is a brave man and a good speaker. Further, some of his comments on certain women Members of Parliament are in the worst possible taste. Finally " Janitor " appears to be a very fervid Anglo-Catholic and is not fair to the other side.
When he comes to deal with the Young Conservatives, such as Mr. Boothby (whom he suggests as the Winston Churchill of 1937), Mr. Harold Macmillan, Lord Apsley and Mr. Duff Cooper, he is decidedly amusing and informative, as he is also in a not too unsympathetic sketch of Young Labour. .There is also an excellent chapter on Lord Mihier's young men, Mr. Geoffrey Dawson, now editor of the Times, Colonel John Buchan, Messrs. Lionel Curtis and Philip Kerr, Mr. Lionel Hkhens and Sir Edward Grigg. The sketches of Lord Lloyd and Lord Irwin, again, are sympathetic and pleasant, although the writer does not appear to have a very intimate acquaintance with either. Mr. Guedalla has a chapter to himself, and it is an essay compounded, as one might expect, of honey and adder's poison. Mr. Guedalla will not mind, however, and the reader will certainly smile.
Undoubtedly, the book could be improved by the correction of the errors in taste to which we have called attention. Was it worth writing at all ? On the whole, we think it was, for the people with whom it deals are those who will make the history of to-morrow, and we—that is, the public at large— want to know what manner of men our rulers and would-be rulers are. That may be regrettable, but it appears a failing inherent in democracy. We should be less than human if we did not sometimes admit it to ourselves.
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