CURRENT LITERATURE
CHARMS OF THE CONSULAR CAREER. By H. M. Villiers, M.V.O. (Hutchinson and Co. 12s. 6d. net )
THE author of this book has held posts in H.M.'s Consular Service in North and South America, Scandinavia and Spain, which give him a wide field of experience ; and as for his efficiency we remember how the Editor of the National Review picked him out during the War as worthy of a striking com- pliment. He has tried here to Combine the matter for two books. One might have been a handbook to the Service, in- structions and hints to the would-be consul, with criticisms of the regulations and suggestions for their improvement. We know of no other book quite on these lines, and it should be useful to candidates or their parents. The suggestions for changes should be read at the Foreign Office and Board of Trade in order that those offices should see how some of the regulations appear to their officers. They will not be convinced by all the criticisms, but perhaps it is their fault that there is need of explanation of their intentions, due to lack of general and intimate sympathy ; just as Mr. Villiers shows by some complaints that he did not understand the reasons for all the instructions he received 'in War time. The broadest question he raises is whether the Service is to hang back to the old limits of local work which it has haltingly overstepped, or to go forward openly as an imperial organization for helping the Empire's trade. The rest of the book has anecdotes and chapters that illustrate a consul's life abroad. There is a good description of the writer's journey up the Magdalena to Bogota, and a delightful chapter on life in the Farne Islands, where he did good work in settling fishery disputes. These make good reading, 'sandwiched into what we have called the handbook, and will please those who like to hear of little known lands and waters.
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