21 JUNE 1930, Page 20

Some Books of the Week

" A GLADSTONE come to judgment ! " is the. exclamation provoked by Mr. W. Harbutt Dawson in The Future of Empire—the World Price of Peace (Williams and Norgate, 12s. 6d.). The author is well-known forhis steadfast advocacy of German culture and German qualities. Here he traverses the whole post-War scene in a high-minded and essentially liberal spirit. What he says has all been said before, and for some time now the Spectator has shown that it endorses his non-party progressive views on the major issues of our time: His book should be read particularly for the chapters on over- population and the struggle for raw materials, on " How the Dominions can help " to establish through the League and the Mandates system an International Trust which would 'save our Imperialism for ever from poisonous growths. Mr. Dawson, incidentally, pleads for a restitution to Germany of some colonial territory, pointing out that—whatever the motive— the German Government, as a fact, " is most resolutely advocating the rights of these [backward] populations before the League." The question (of a friendly German) : " And do you really think that the world will be content for all time to see so large a part of the world monopolized by your nation ? " is one of which we need not be afraid so long as our Imperial policy follows the lines set out recently in the Spectator by Sir Herbert Samuel.

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