Jn his Politische Novelle, translated with the title The Persians
are Coining (Knopf, 6s.) Bruno Frank presents us with the first symbolic study of the European peace movement. It tells of the Meeting near Cannes between Carmer, a German jurist and statesman on the eve of his return to Germany to form a new Government, with " Achille Dorval," the great French statesman who is devoting the remainder of his life to his supreme vision of a Europe at peace. In the conversa- tion between the two men there is a remarkable picture of Europe slowly recovering from the cataclysm which destroyed all the old values, striving to regain spiritual leadership and its old unity to meet the impact of the vast colossus, America and the gathering forces of the East. " And our Salamis," says Canner, " has an uninspiring battle-cry : economic co-operation." The story concludes with the murder of the German statesman whose fancy led him to visit the brothel quarter in Marseilles—not by African or Malay but by a white man, a fitting symbol of Europe's suicide. The theme is slight, the sentiments often crude, yet this little book is one of the most stimulating we have read for a long time.
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