APRIL REVIEWS
The Quarterly opens with some amusing reminiscences of "School and College Sixty Years Since," by Lord End!. At Balliol 'he fell foul of Dr. Jowett- because of a "rag in which he had taken part, and the Master pointedly refused to wishlffin success. in the All Souls Fellowship examination. Lord Ernie 'retorted -silently by winning'. the fellowship, and -the Master afterwards forgave- him. Sir Harrison Moore writes somewhat despondently of "The Constitution i in Crisis " ; it may be observed that his examples from recent Australian practice are scarcely typical of the Empe as a whole. .Mr. Robert ' Cceurtrieidge, a' Manager of long experience, is gravely concerned for "The Future of the Theatre," and declares that the working costs must somehow be lowered and that actors' must not iliVide their-time between the stage and the film studio. "Those who control the fund' collected and bequeathed for a National Theatre !nigh! be well advised, to. help worthy efforts in the theatre now —a plea often repeated but never successful because the money is too securely tied up. Mr. R. P. P. Rowe, the old Oxford Blue, has :an- excellent article on "The Conflict of Styles in Rowing " ; he'reviews the recent correspondence. in The Times and concludes that the old and new styles inn perhaps be reconciled if oarsmen can be taught to use 00 slides properly by a well-timed combination of body-suing and leg-thrust. Mr. John Gore, in " Thomas (reevev Reconsidered," gives an interesting account of the Whig politician and diarist of a century ago who was popular with men on both sides and was a friend- of Wellington. mr. Gore perhaps takes unvecessary trouble in showing that Mr. Lytton Strachey's account of Creevey was a spiteful travesty ; that was Mr. Strachey's way.
Africa, the organ of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, has a valuable article by Alt Mayhew on " Education in British India and Africa," emu. paring the policies and methods pursued by our authorities en the two areas. Mr. Mayhew, who has had Indian expe. rience, thinks that our educational policy in our African pos. sessions has so far been more happily inspired because it has laid more stress on the need for benefiting the African corn. munity as a whole than on the desirability of training indi. viduals for political or economic tasks. Thus in Africa we have concentrated on the elementary schools, with good results, and left higher education to be developed at a later stage.
In the Mercure de Prance M. Marcel 011ivier gravely dis. cusses " Karl Marx as Poet." In his student days Marx, like other young German liberals, wrote verse of a romantic type, after the manner of Platen and Heine, and the manuscript copy of hitherto unknown pieces by him, dated 1837, has recently been found in Germany by a Communist student, As rendered into French, the Marxian verse seems common- place and entirely devoid of the revolutionary temper. If he had been encouraged in his desire to devote himself to poetry, Europe might have been saved a good deal of trouble.
It is widely believed that at the Dissolution of the Monas- teries in 1536-9 the monks were cast adrift on the world. This was not so, as Mr. G. Baskerville shows for the Norwich diocese in the English Historical Review. Many monks and friars received livings, and all the men apparently had pen. sions which were still being paid in 1555. The Slavonic Review has two notable articles on the Russian situation. Sir Bernard Pares discusses " The New Crisis in Russia " caused by the revival of serfdom and the failure of the food supply ; incidentally he observes that tourists who know no Russian should not pose as authorities on Russian affairs, though for those who can read Russian the Soviet Press abounds, in information. Madame Kuskova asks, " Is Russian Communism taking root ? " and declares that the young people are wearied of propaganda and convinced that Communism has failed, though they do not know as yet how to replace it.
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