SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.]
THE OCTOBER Moxruuxs.—The Nineteenth. Century has an instructive article on " Nationalizers ' and the Nation " by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott, who points out that " nationalization '" means different things to different sections of the Labour Party, and urges that an effort should be made to explain to every citizen the disastrous effects either of rigid State control or of Trade Union control such as the extreme leaders desire. In either case the community would suffer, and the workman would suffer too. Paymaster LieutenantCommander Cyril Cox contributes a most informing article on " The Future of Arabia," with reference to the Hedjaz project for an Arab Federation. He reminds us that the different Arab States are sharply divided—the Emir of Nejd and the King of the Hedjaz were recently fighting one another—and he adds that a mandatory for Arabia would be " undertaking a task compared with which the labours of Hercules were trivial." Sir Malcolm McIlwraith discusses " The -Diplomatic Service," emphasizing the importance of attracting the ablest brains into the Service, insisting that our diplomatists should be good linguists, and urging that first-rate men in the Consular Service should no longer be debarred from promotion on the diplomatic side. Mr. J. D. Bourchier makes a lengthy plea for the Bulgars, under the title of " The Scramble for the Balkans," but he passes over in silence the outrageous conduct of Bulgaria during the war, and especially their atrocious cruelty to the Serbians, Greeks, and Rumanians in the occupied areas. Any one who knows what the Bulgar occupation meant to those unhappy peoples will read Mr. Bourchier's article with amazement and indignation. Miss Winifred Hoper's charming account of " Some Unpublished Windham Papers " deals with Penelope Loveday—the " Pen " of Windham's diaries which Lord Rosebery published—whom Windham vainly courted before her marriage to a country clergyman -and after she had been left a young widow.--The Fortnightly givez the first part of .a
study of " Count Witte " by his old colleague, M. Iswolsky, who takes a far less favourable view of the Russian statesman than did Dr. Dillon. " Politicus " would find " The Permanent Settlement of the Labour Trouble " in profit-sharing on a liberal scale ; the trouble is that in some of the largest industries it is rather a question of loss-sharing, while the revolutionary agitators profess to regard as abhorrent the very idea of profit. Mr. Archibald Hurd writes well on " Economy on the Fleet : Lord Fisher's Demand," illustrating the danger, and indeed the absurdity, of destroying the Navy which is the foundation of our Empire by a too literal application of the advice to " sack the lot." " A Skilled Labourer " discusses " Labour's Mistake," tracing it mainly to a failure to use the Parliamentary vote which working men and women now possess. A noteworthy article describes the Labour movement in Queensland, which has a Labour Government, and yet is very far indeed from industrial peace ; the Labour Ministry finds its bitterest foes in the Syndicalists, who denounce it in the familiar style as " capitalist " and " bourgeois."—In the Contemporary Mr. A. Maurice Low asks " Is America becoming Socialistic ? " but does not answer the question. There is no Labour Party, but both the old parties pay great attention to Labour problems. Major Gerald Hurst has a brief but timely article on the cry for " Federal Devolution," which he regards as wholly irrational and undesirable, and as " part of the fantastic camouflage which has lately been designed in order to mask a retreat from the old Unionist position with regard to Home Rule." Mr. Malcolm Letts contributes an interesting and scholarly essay on "Early Travel and the Development of the Sense of Beauty," in which he shows that sixteenth-century travellers were by no means so blind to the beauty of the Alps or of Naples as is often supposed, but that they were as a rule too much occupied with the dangers and discomforts of travel to have leisure for admiring the view. Mr. Letts confirms our general belief that the civilized people of any one age were very like those of any other, despite the superficial differences in their clothes and personal habits. Blackwood's has an excellent article on Antranik, the Armenian military leader, by a British officer who was sent on a mission to Caucasia last winter. The article reveals the complexities of the racial problems in that region, where a Mandatory Power is perhaps needed more than anywhere else. Mr. Whibley gives his impressions of a recent visit to Belgium. He tells us that the Germans did a great deal of damage to Belgian factories in the last few weeks of the war, when they knew that defeat was certain, with the object of preventing the revival of Belgian industry until long after Germany had resumed business. Those who ask us " to pity the poor Germans " either do not know these facts or wilfully ignore them.
The New Spit in Industrial Relations. By W. L. Hichens. (Nisbet. 6d. net.)—Mr. Hichens, the Chairman of the great steel firm, Cammell, Laird, and Co., says some very wise things in this address, recently delivered at the United Summer School at Swanwick. The " new spirit " lies " in the idea that if we have rights we also have duties, and that it rests with each one of us to see that these duties are faithfully and honestly carried out." That is a sound text for the times. Mr. Hichens aptly quotes Milton : " If every action which is good or evil in man at ripe years were to be under pittance and compulsion, what were virtue but a name, what praise can then be due to welldoing, what grammercy to be sober, just, or continent ? "
The series of twopenny pamphlets arranged by the Ministry of Reconstruction has ended with three interesting papers on The Business of Government, dealing with the central machinery, the work of the Departments and the Civil Service. They embody the substance of the Reports of Lord Haldane's Commission and other bodies that have recently inquired into the doings of the bureaucracy, and contain some useful criticism. We are glad to observe that an official publication, issued, it is true, by a moribund Department, lays stress on the need for " a strong and efficient central machinery for the regular supervision of what IS Eitzown as establishment work and co-ordination of staff throutftest the Civil Service." Officials who were not needed or were not suitably employed in one Department aright be tremnferred to another, as the writer says. It is more important from the public standpoint to observe that, under a central control, all the Departments might be constrained to furnish accounts of their work and to co-operate instead of
acting each for itself. The three papers deserve careful reading.
Benedictine Monachism. By Cuthbert Butler. (Longmans. 18s. net.)—The learned Abbot of Downside has written a most interesting and scholarly book on the Rule of St.. Benedict, under which he has served for forty years. Ho explains very clearly the founder's main ideas, describes the Benedictine Rule, and gives a short account of Benedictine work in spreading Christianity and, in later days, in the advancement of learning, as at St. Maur and Monte Cassino. England owes much to the Benedictines led by St. Augustine, who established the first Benedictine monastery outside Italy at Canterbury in 600. Theodore, Wilfrid of Ripon, Benet Biscop, and Bede himself were all Benedictine monks. Abbot Butler makes it clear that there is, properly speaking, no Benedictine " Order " in the ordinary sense. Each monastery is a self-governing family, though the monasteries are grouped in " congregations " with varying constitutions. This monastic autonomy, the author thinks, accounts to no small extent for the survival of the Benedictine Rule through fourteen troubled centuries, since even in the most degenerate times some isolated monasteries remained true to the spirit of the founder, whose theory of the monastic life may be summed up as self-discipline, prayer, and work.
History of Zionism, 1600-1018. By Nahum Sokolow. Vol. II. (Longmans. 21s. net.)—Mr. Sokolow's second volume is largely composed of documents illustrating the first volume, which was reviewed in the Spectator on March 22nd. In the opening pages he describes the progress of the Zionist movement immediately before and during the war, giving prominence to the British Government's declaration in favour of " the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." Mr. Sokolow does not discuss the means by which that " national home" is to be secured. In his Preface he pays a warm tribute to the late Sir Mark Sykes, who was an indefatigable advocate of Zionism.
Our Atlantic Attempt. By H. 0. Hawker and K. Mackenzie Grieve. (Methueri. 3s. 6d. net.)—This record of Mr. Hawker's attempt to fly across the Atlantic is worth reading. Apart from the narrative, Lieutenant-Commander Grieve's chapters on the difficulties of navigating an aeroplane over the sea are of considerable interest. He thinks that wireless assistance is necessary, as great banks of cloud have to bo traversed. The book is well illustrated.
A Primer of National Finance. By Henry Higgs. (Methuen. 5s. net.)—The author of this well-written and informing little book has aimed, he says, at helping readers to understand the Budget speech. The book fulfils that purpose. It also draws attention to the very serious defects in the official method of presenting financial statements, and to some of the problems of direct taxation. Mr. Higgs quotes Mr. Gladstone as complaining in 1860 of the pithlic's "ignorant patience of taxation." The complaint still holds good. But it is high time that the Government were assisted by well-informed criticism.
Admiral Sims, of the American Navy, gives a very frank account of the anti-submarine campaign in the October number of Pearson's Magazine. He says that when he arrived in London in April, 1917, he found Lord Jellicoe and the Ministry most seriously alarmed at the heavy losses of merchantmen. The one man who was unfailingly cheerful was the Primo Minister. " It was the most inspiring instance of self-control that I have ever known. There is, indeed, only ono other case in history that can be compared with it ; for Lloyd George's attitude at this period constantly reminded me of Lincoln in the darkest hours of the Civil War, when, on news of such calamities as Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville, he would entertain his Cabinet by reading selections from Artemum Ward, interlarded with humorous sayings and anecdotes of his own." We have often criticized the Prime Minister, but we have never questioned the value of his services to his country during the war. It is a pleasure to quote this impartial tribute to Mr. Lloyd George's superb courage and spirit in the worst days of the struggle. plain in the centre of South America which is shared, politically, by Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, but which was till recently in the Bole possession of very savage tribes of Indians. Mr. Barbrooke Grubb, the author of the article, was the first missionary to enter the Chaco a quarter of a century ago. The missions founded by him have transformed the natives, especially in the Paraguayan Chaco. The country is now open to settlement, and life and property are safe. Some of the Indians have been admitted to full citizenship in Paraguay. The chief troubles of the once dreaded Chaco now seem to be the lack of native reservations and the illicit sale of drink.
By the Waters of Fiume. By Lorna de Luechi. (Longman. 3s. (ld. net.)—This little book purports to have been written by an English girl who married a young Italian of Fiume just before the war. The husband had to serve as a conscript in the Austrian Army, and was shot for refusing to fire on the Italians. The wife survived him only a few months. Whether or not the story is true, it represents faithfully enough the Italian sentiments of the majority of the people of Fiume and their sufferings during a war in which all their sympathies were with the Allies and against their Austrian and Croatian oppressors.
The China Year Book, 1919-20. By H. T. Montague-Bell and H. G. W. Woodhead. (Routledge. 21s. net.)—This valuable book of reference, now in its fifth year, deserves to be better known. It contains a great deal of information that could not easily be found elsewhere. The chapter on the ChinaJapan Treaties of 1915 deserves notice. It is too often forgotten that Japan in 1915 promised to restore to China the leased territory of Kiao-chau as soon as it was "completely left to the free disposal of Japan." When the German Peace Treaty is ratified, this promise will take effect. There is no reason whatever to suppose that Japan will go back on her word.
THE PnorEcrroil OF ANCIENT Bum:a:Nos.—The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings have issued their 42nd Annual Report, copies of which can be obtained from the Secretary, 20 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, W.C. 2. In spite of the demands made by the war, the support given to the Society has suffered no diminution, and the Report as usual gives a list of the cases dealt with during the past year, many of them illustrated by most attractive photographs. The Society is anxious to develop its work, and outlines three methods by which members can help : (1) By reporting at once any cases where beautiful or famous old buildings are likely to be damaged by additions or reconstruction plans. (2) By suggesting suitable centres for propaganda work by lectures illustrated by lanternslides. (3) By informing the Diocesan Advisory Committee of cases affecting ancient churches. The Society is specially interested, just now in the question of old cottages worthy of preservation owing to beauty of design yet likely to be condemned as unfit for use. The Committee " is willing to give free advice to owners of such cottages, whether individuals or public bodies, as to the possibility of making them into healthy dwellings." A pamphlet specially dealing with the subject has been compiled and issued by the Society, price Is. 6d. Included in the Report is a useful paper by Professor S. D. Adshead on " Old Villages and Village Reconstruction."
Messrs. G. Philip and Son have published a large Peace Terms Map of Europe (2s. 6d. net), printed in colours on a scale of thirty miles to an inch, with the new Treaty boundaries for Germany and Austria boldly marked in red. It will be some time, we fear, before the map-makers can deal with the many conjectural and disputed frontiers in Eastern Europe; this map suggests some tentative solutions—giving Lemberg, for instance, to the Ukraine—which are very far from being generally acceptable.
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