NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17115, 9 April 1921, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

JAPAN. Although the serious weeklies and on tJ,lies of Britain and America jbonnd in articles on the problems presented by Japanese policy in the Pacifio «td on the Asiatic mainland", there are fewer books on the subject than one ibuld suppose Two volumes of mterrtt and value are now before us. "The *ow Japanese Peril," by Mr Sidney Osborne (London: George Allen and Baffin, Ltd.), was noticed a few days JL in a leading article in "The Press," . jai it should be read by everyone who joshes to understand a question which js of increasing importance to New Zeaand Australia. Mr Osborne is antiJapanese, as, indeed, are most.. Westerners, who have studied Far Eastern affairs, but he succeeds much better j£an ono might expect in his attempt treat the Japanese problem objectively. The position is, as he sees it, •this: that Japan, striving in 1914 to • attend her power in Asia, was presented w the -war, and its hobbling of ftnope, with a splendid opportunity of which she took full advantage. Her iatHGerman labours resulted an her Scaring herself in Shantung, and < ■ "thereafter, by a succession of agree--jents which B he was able to force upon ;.V üß sia, Britain, France, America, and, ' .We a", U P°» Chhm > sho , lei u t ' Ver " lilies very woll content with the success with which she had got round the nifficulties of the "open door" policy, ft,,, details of Japans management ot ■ £ diplomatic arrangements are set out ■ :Kv clearly and forcioiy by Air Osborne, !hdl thev should be learned by heart by ffiose who wish to form an instructed: v &nion upon Japanese policy. He sees £, clianee of preventing japan from '•■".Lecoming a menace to. the peace tf the -world except through a of America, England, •Germany, and Russia based uppn t determination to rescue China • -Tram Japan's grip and to restore that %'hinege integrity which it is the avowed <• ainiof the Anglo-Japanese treaty-and ''other instruments to preserve. China Ftoav yet be saved, but she must be Wed soon, otherwise she will go\>ver ■""%, Japan: "Japan has only to con- • vine© Peking that it would pay the Chinese nation to become part of her • ' family, and the world will be brought suddenly face to face with the fait I ■■'< : -W old, the Japanese look uppn -themselves as a chosen people,, , : '';->whose destiny is to lead the nations to '. i higher and nobler fate. Moreover, i: contemptuous attitude of the West towards Orientals has done much to S itiffen the Japanese desire for world IN -dominion. To carry out his plans, he Pftnuis'fc first demonstrate his superior js>ttulitary power, and this he can. only ■is -So when he has been accepted as the of the. Eastern nations and has :#/tWceeded in applying to them his of efficiency. With China under lESjJapanese tutelage,, the rest would be ' :,£ '£- With Mr Osborne's book must be *''Japan r B Foreign Policies," IHby A.'N. Pooley (London: George Allen |v. and tlnwin). Like Mr Osborne, Mr pi Pooley has other irorks on Japan to his I; credit.. . His last volume was called | V *'Japan at the Cross Roads," which, was '.-/-'. weli»m'ed . by ' good critics for. its 5 tcfiolarl# research and its satisfying conV, junction of special knowledge with H Bound,critical judgment. As the title .implies,, Mr 1 Pooley. then (in 1917) seems <,-/ 'to nave believed tnatHhere was as much } chasce that Japan would take the Iv right-road as'that she would ;take the '( wrorigfone. ,<Hisoook was suppressed t in' ' '.Tapani; which ndidojubti iibuMed' hint V -little;,; When■/ he( %rtite it«the'.great mags ;"of the. facta Jfelatingv.to Japan's i^.r..p^^:;durinft-'tto'- v -war'-ha4,',;et to be 'Now they are uhcoyered,: So^sad'lfr,Pooley takes up.an.;attitude of &'■;iiiwer hostility. ':• deals minutely with■. 'l&fi\ajse of -thja tne'prch.j .le^^/^bi^ging'-. China^-under; Japanese: pp;|^ip : rei^reiiceß. : V.:''-He'-!is »|i^owledgedV authority,-; but :< his ' judg-,; swayed iby his now Violent dh>' disliketof Japanese policy. We ||^&ve;f;heard.;-''a i > ■qritio; say of ithis, book' hefpamts; Japan' too Wack, or her difficul-, *Mr probably -ask; his mtio would like him .and.fwo aije afraid hisi critio: f#p|pl : ';.be say.^bnly• thatthere ,'is ;: e*--and and everyone io, and-to act' 'appropriately. i@^w!P^^^efopiiiibn t Japan is simoly IfpmlpPmswof the Far "iEast, and, like irill'^Burely/'have" ; lo.fight to ?^iapi«Atain ; the position, in Asia.which she ■sjoM&-Oos.s?T*<■'7- ..;/' : ■:•-. ■ ||^: : I f|]|i ; o '"the Bpring of' 1019, • between the and the peace/ Sir Philip g)|^ibl>si^aid s iv-.flying visit to the United for the purpose of the |^v^ ; :Jhad had upon American and what -American view of the worldwere already presenting l|^WMOKiTOs>,'. The result is a book, of Destiny'?—so-called "because l|lßiumg this time of ruin in Europe they Americans) hold, undoubtedly, the |^j||e'of: tlb: world in their hands." f The partly a series of clever sketches writer's observations and iraMi(jp|Msi6nß of .the social life of the wellWlWo -class of Americans,. and partly for the times]"J dealing largely relations, actual and potential,' United States.with. Europe, arid .with England. This phase book is Teferred to in our. I^^Btp^id;columns": to-day. ' As for the, l|j^Beif . ; little' : to 'be' said to itjjto people who are:inter|f|t^OTtw 'iii"oUr American cousins. Sir writes avowedly as one of their ?: Dut he does not allow his ad«W|ation to cloud his judgment, though ;: make him lean to mercyf ; raferrink to/ American foibles. \ 'fw%jhternal evidence we gather that N ;■ pWOTited oh this occasion only a few ?";'j^ft" o /chief cities, and a few of the ~; ; jspMer towiis in the Eastern States, P), na * make the acquaintance of |v therural American. But so far as they | v |.:aant Reading. Jfow iTork, ;with its feytorcnhg buildings and .crowded life, %;. rasciriated him, arid ho was staggere-l Ij- 'ft the vasthess and luxury of the Whether he is writing of the in Wall street,. of after--s^-) HO ori tea, with dancing, at T)elmonico's, *:'!- \°* the men and women whom he met at clubs, the author is always |itt; ■ and interesting, arid often most ti, ■':. mHnimating; The American interviewer |'v/rias riot always found an admirer in |J-'tu®. person interviewed, and Su* Philip perhaps because he was a news%s:i3*2is?v matt-himself <before he became §&, «ri ? farithbr, ' lecturer, and publicist. them "human, friendly fellows J, i*kneiw > their- job." He was li^.fP* 18 impressed by' the 'young |i| iwomen. • "There was one girl who sat |& *anarely in froitt of me, fixed me with i§|Scandid grey eyes, and for an hour.put fMjme through an examination about my P|@vfsl' "past. untilyl had revealed every-

thing. There is nothing that girl does not know about me, and I should blush to meet her again. She did not take a single note—by that I knew her as a good journalist—and wrote tjw> columns of revelation with most deadly accuracy and a beautiful style. . . • One young man, once a B,hode3 scholar at Oxford, boarded the train at .New' York, bought me a drawing-room for private conversation, and by the tune we reached Philadelphia made it entirely futile for me to give a lecture, because he had it all in his memory and told the entire history of everything I had seen and thought, through years of war, in nest day's paper." For American women. Sir Philip has great admiration. "They have made themselves the better halves of men, and the men know it, and are doterential to the desires and opinions of their women folk. It is natural that women should have a wider knowledge of literature and ideas in a scheme of lire where men have their noses down to the grindstone of' work for long hours every day. That is what most, American husbands have to do in a struggle tor existence which strives up to the possession of a Ford car on the way to a Cadillac or Packard, a country cottage on Lon" Tsland or the Connecticut shore, an occasional visit to Tiffany's lor a diamond brooch, or some other "mkeu symbolising success, a holiday at lalm Beach, week-ends at Atlantic City, and so on. "That," adds Sir Philip, "represents the social ambition of the average business man on the road to fortune, and it costs a goodly pile or dollars to be heaped up by hard work lat a high strain.of nervous tension. Meanwhile, the women, are keeping themselves as beautiful as Cod made them, with slight improvements, according to their own ideas, which are generally wrong; decorating their homes; increasing thenhousehold expenses, and reading prodigiously. The author's dictum that the New York rich in spite of their outward splendour "remain essentially 'middleclass,' " may, and no doubt is, quite true, but it is * hardly . calculated to popularise him with some members or that class, although he means it for praise. He has, indeed, little but praise for all the Americans whom 'he met. He found them warm-hearted and hospitable, and unexpectedly \ modest. f 'With all their pride in the valour of their men, not one of. them in my hearing used a braggart word or claimed too great a chare in the honour of victory." As a people they are younger than the peoples of Europo, their vitality lias hardlv been touched by their sacrifices, and their spirits are high. "Sure of their- power among thonatidus, the people I met were anxious to rise* to their high chance in history, and to do the Big Thing in a big way when they saw the straight road ahead." The "book leaves the reader with a warmer feeling for the American people, and Bhould be read by all who realise .the Eart that America must play in the istory of the coming years. (London: Selwyn and Blount. Christchurch: "Wnitcombe and Tombs.) TWO GOOD^NOVELS. . The idea of Mr Edward Shanks's new novel, "The People of the Ruins," is one which has probably been played with by every novelist—the return of a man to earth, * couple of centuries or more hence. Mr Shanks's revehant finds something very different' from; what most such revenants would be made to find. Jeremy 7 Tuft is a young scientist (studying the viscosity of liquids, and his adventure begins on the morning .on which the great general strike begins. ■•The-first'vivid chapter.is a picture of what London would he like on the eve of such a disaster. Disaster comes quickly to Jeremy Tuft, who is, •with q, fellow scientist, examining a new electric ray when'the house is blown up. He is preserved by the ray, and wakes up 150 years later to find Whitechapel an expanse ■ of meadpws, and _ modern London; an almost, forgotten ruin. The , science, arts, literature, and government of .1920, have almost utterly vanlegends survive, and mould,ermg\vmtsiieß. in the weather-rotted romains of'-the British. Museum. The kingdom is;:Bplit : into domains governed % rival leaders,' i and Jeremy Tuft's' ;country is'under l a "Speaker." Thw Speaker has somehow preserved an understanding of v .what guns can do, and his great secret is a foundry in which some very'old years been striving to make field-pieces. . Jeremy itakes Marge of-this .work, and Vwith. incredible jtoil - the manufacture of two guns. These determine the fate. of the first battle fought by the ■Speaker'. But another rival-.destroys -the" SpeakerVarmy throughrTho'treach,ery iotVthe-.Canadian condottiere, and ;the end ; ifl v the flighty of the-: Speaker > with i'his daughter -and Jeremy, arid ~their, death.,on the hillside when capVture , '-. l is inevitable. • Jeremy dies with the knowledge that still deeperdarkjiess will close ovei*Engrand. Mr Shanks has not Mr Wells's inimitable skill in making the new world real and vivid. His manner, too, is his own—the manner of the poet writing a good story; And it is the story—the adventures of Jeremy Tuft, his marvellous labour with the* guns, his love for the Speaker's' daughter, and his last desperate flight —it is ths story, that matters, and it is quite good enough, to repay for Mr Shanks's omission to hint some details of the process, of social ruin. (London: Collins and Sons. Christchurch: WhitI combe -and Tombs, Ltd.)

Mr W. J. Locke has written many ■novels, . and in a large"i number of them the theme is the romance 'of -some oddly-situated hero. "The House of Jialtazar," which we were all reading last year, was the study of a gay and gallant savant duringthe war equipped to the last detail with that apparatus, of unselfishness, genius, energy; and power to We, which Mr Locke allows to his heroes. "The Mountebank" is the story of BrigadierGeneral Andrew Lackaday, a charming fellow-and fine soldier, who began life' in a circus, and who at the outbreak of the war was "Le Petit Patau," doing turns something like" Carlton's in tne French music-harls.. "He was 1 the leanest, scraggiest, long thing I have ever seen. Sis foot four of stringy sinew and.bone, with inordinately long leg*, around whidh.his khaki slacks flapped, as though they hid stilts instead of human limbs. His'aiyns 6wung long and ungainly ; the sleeves of his tunic far above the 'bony wrist, as though his tailor in cutting; the. garment had repudiated as fantastic the. evidence of his measurements.''. Such was General Lackaday to the naked ete, but to.the. eye of friendship and understanding 'ho was :of the purest goM—a chivalrous, simple, and faithful gentleman. And 60 he walked, on leave, straight into the heart of Lady Auriol Dayne, proud with the,prid« of a house that patronised Royalty, and capable with Hie capacity bf a. traveller and a. lorrydriver of the war. Lackaday, poorl modest fellow, has no idea .of what he has done to proud beauty, and on demobilisation goes back to the variety stage in and ftiis faithful companion Elodie. There he tells his story in' letters to his and Lady Auriol's friend. Tony Hilton. Lady Auriol unexpectbdlv descends upon Los Petit Patou at "Royat, and the reader may be left to find out for himself the simple and ingenious ending that means happiness for everybody. Mr Locke is a very, graceful writer—a leisurely master of his craft, giving pleasure even x those who care less for the author a technique than for the texture -of his prose. And he gives.us some charming pictures—the* excellent Elodie, the wise and truly wittj Horatio Bakkus, Auriol, and Andrew Lackaday himself, of wrhom one asks oneself, 'Jpould any man he sudh a fine fellow?" and, reflecting, decides that Lackaday was, anyhow. The descriptions of towns and people in the Midi-are delightful. (London: Jbhn Lane. Christchurch.: kitt and Co., Lfc«L)