CURRENT - LITERATURE
THE NOVEMBER MAGAZINES
THE Fortnightly gives first place to a vigorous defence by Mr. Robert Boothby of " The Government's Foreign Policy." " Mr. Eden," he says, " is the first member of the post-War generation to obtain real power in this country, and for this reason I believe that many politi- cians of the old school find it difficult to appreciate or even understand his methods." Mr. G. H. Wilson, discuss- ing "-Native Government in South Africa," contends that the Union Minis- try has been unfairly criticised and that its policy is working well, as for example in Zululand.
In the Contemporary Sir Frederick Whyte writes on " America, Britain and the Far East." There can, he says, be no effective intervention on behalf of China, but an Anglo-American trade agreement might impress Japan as evi- dence that the two democracies can work together. Sir Norman Angell answers the question " Can Aggressor States 1* Checked ? " by outlining a new economic and political league of the wealthy Powers, among which he places China.
Mr. N. Skene Smith and Mr. William Drower write in the Nineteenth Century on " The Japanese Outlook and Foreign Intervention," - which they both dis- courage. Mr. Drower holds that Japan has been treated unfairly by the Western Powers but will " respect our rights and interests." M. Jacques Delebecque de- velops in vigorous terms the thesis : "England and France : we must unite or perish." The Burgomaster of Ham- burg, under the title " England and Germany," gives " an open answer to Lord Lothian," disclaiming aggressive intentions and insisting on the need for goodwill and mutual understanding. But his reference to " the German Volkstum at home and abroad " is cryptic. Mr. William Teeing puts the case better in his account of " Nurem- berg, 1937 " ; he is sure that the German people do not want war.
In the National Review Captain Liddell Hart has a valuable article on the " Lessons of the Spanish War " from the military standpoint. The defence is paramount, he thinks, except where, as in the north, intensive air attack and concentrated artillery fire have broken down relatively weak defending forces. General Franco's chances of success depend on his foreign "volunteers " being greatly increased. Mr. Ian D. Colvin describes his ingenious manu- facture of a spurious Keats poem and letter which almost deceived the experts.
In the Cornhill Mr. C. S. Jarvis gives an interesting account of " The Drug Smugglers of Egypt," and Sir Charles Oman describes the contents of that dull volume of " Obsequies to the Memory of Mr. Edward King " (1638) at the end of which was Milton's Lycidas.
The Empire Review prints a notable article on " The British Empire and Backward Races," in which Sir Ernest Graham-Little protests strongly against what he regards as the official discourage- ment of research into the physical condition of the Kenya natives.
Chambers's Journal contains among some fiction and miscellaneous articles a scholarly account of " A Clerical Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century " —the Rev. Caspar Wetstein—by Pro- fessor Basil Williams.
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