5 FEBRUARY 1921, Page 22

A Vanished Dynasty Ashanti. By Sir Francis Fuller. (Murray. 16s.

net.)—Sir Francis Fuller, -who was Chief Com- missioner of Ashanti, has written a terse and dispassionate history of the country from thefounding of the dynasty in thelate seventeenth oentury to its fall in 1896, with two closing chapters on the final Ashanti insurrection of 1901 and the rapid progress made since 'then under 'British rule. The author does not disguise his belief that the Gold Coast officials did not handle the Ashanti problem very tactfully and that 'Prempeh, the last king, was to some extent the victim of circumstances. He speaks highly of the Ashantis as a people, and says something of the cocoa industry which has made them all peaceful and prosperous farmers. The book has some interesting illustrations.