BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2564, 11 September 1915, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY

GERMANY VERSUS CREAT BRITAIN IN AFRICA. One of the most interesting arid.historically valuable works yet published upon t thß war in its relation to Great Britain's Over-sea Empire comes from Messrs. Cassell and Co. (per Whitcoriibe arid Tombs). The title is "The Germans and' Africa; Their Aims. on the Dark Continent, and how they. Acquired their 1 'African Colonies," the- author being Mr. ■ Evans : Lewin, the well-known librarian of the Royal Colonial Institute. Mr. Lewin has long been known as an assiduous and careful student of Im-. perial problems, and bas'produced, says Lord Grev in an interesting, preface,' a work which is "a most valuable contribution to the literature dealing ' with : Africa:" He traccs the histoiy of German, colonisation and territorial aggrandisement in v Africa from the earliest tirnos,' the days when tlie, Hanseatic League/sent traders to Africa, right up to the present day. ' The special value of the book is, says Lord 1 Grey,- that it so clearly shows tlie great difference which exists ''.between; British and German methods of colonisation. ■

While Great Britain has acquired'colonies either, in order 'to protect -ill-treat-ed natives, and to'substitute peace, law, order, and, prosperity, for / tyranny, bloodshed,' famine, and war, or for legitimate purposes of trade, Germany has, in her colonisation, 'been actuated by military consideration's. Her colonial policy "has been;directed .not by business men, but by ' soldiers." She has created military ■ settlements,-here and there, and has endeavoured to acquire strategical point's which, might serve as bases for futiire conquest: The Agadir incident 'aridGeririauy's l 'Moroccan policy generally)-are instances;of -the purely military-arid' political! character of her colonising Africa. Every-; where in" Africa Germany lias endeavoured to'block British; progress as a necessary, effect of, or.'" sequel to, the pushing of her own interests. .

Mr. .Lewin .admits that.every European Government which has joined in the "game"of grab" in South. Africa has," '.on occasion, • been more or i less selfish, and even Lord Greiy, concedes the point that "there is much, to be said for the German point; of view," and that although the game of grab can never be a polite and, gentle exercise, ,no player has really the right to complain if. another is first in the field and secures the best stakes.' More than once, owing to the superior cleverness and' audacity of their diplomats,' the Germans have secured a hold 'on territories which, had the British: Colonial Office been more keenly alive to their importance, would at least have come under : "the sphere of British influence;" Mr. Lewin: gives an interesting account of tho establishment -of various - German colonies iii Africa, and insists upon the carefully thought-out character of the .German .plans.' Especially were the Huns far-sighted -in fixing- upon points of essential'importauce, of strategical, and possible military importance, as well of probable, commercial value. Mr. Lewin pictures them as saying: "Here we must go and ■' here.- Tliis must be joined-with -that. - Hero we must establish .; towns, hero clnvo railways ,- here win some scrap of territory held by Britain or Belgium."

In accomplishing their ends, so Mr. Lewin . Makes it abundantly clear, tho resorted to the -basest of methods, the British Government being deceived the while by specious '"explana^'9 I ! s ;" As'.an example of the success which;attended German cunning and audacity, as contrasted, with British weakness ■. and lack of reasonable foresight, the author instances the case'of SouthWest Africa.;: In' February, 1883, Count Herbert Bismarck assured Great Britain that Germany, had not "the least design to establish any. footing. in South Africa." Arid ■ yet, . but two months later,.the.German flag was hoisted on' the coast of what was to become . German . South-AYest Africa,- tliat. vast and, in parts,, fertile and valuable : territory which Botha has recently conquered for the British Crown. Mr. Lewin explains how.ior a year, or so the Imperial and the Capo Governments dallied with the situation, ®e final outcome being that the sapient Colonial, Offico arrived at the conclusion : that it was too late to do anything. ...

Much, in the saime. way Germany was pormited to acquire Togoland and the Zanzibar hinterland. 'Always Great Britain "protested," and was cheated or cajoled into a sulky acquiescence. Mr, Lewin deals at some.'•length, with ; the commercial aspects, of i German colonisation in Africa, and in various appendices lias gathered together'a mass of statistical and other- of great value to the student of African questions. One point of • special importance; to all Oversea British readers of the • book seems, _ to the present writer, to stand out witlipeculiar prominence. That is the necessity, once the Great War is over, that the self-govern-"'S Oversea .States of ' the " Empire should, and simply, must, be consulted' before any "exchanges" of. colonial ter-; ritory are made with' foreign Powers. But this is too big a subject 'for-the reviewer to bo tempted into discussing 4t a,ny length. Suffice it for to-day to say that Mr. Lewin's book is a work of much more than ordinary interest and value to all students of British Iml& na 6d P ) rohlems ' (New Zoa,and prici5 >

"THE EVERY DAY SOUP BOOK." ■ "The Every Day Soup Book," published, by Stanley, Paul, and Co. (at fifteen pence), should be welcomed by housewives and cooks,, giving as it does a special soup recipe for every day in the year, including: even that February 29 lvhich comes only in leap, year. Cassell and Co. are issuing a series of 'jittlo books entitled "The British .Red Cross Society Hygiene and Sanitation Manuals." Of these No. 4is now before cs: It is a handy-sized little' volume, containing a large number of illustrations, some in colour, and diagrams, etc. iihe literary contents being edited by Lieutenant-Colonel S. Guise Moores, R.A.M.C., Deputant-Assistant Director ef Medical. Services at Aldersliot. Atthe present time, when questions 'of camp and field sanitation are being so widely discussed, the chapters dealing with these subjects are of special and timely interest to many civilians, as well as to members of the Military Medical Service.

LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

A Belloc Bundle. Admirers of Hilaire Belloc's mauysided literary talents should welcome a recent addition to Methueri's excellent Shilling library in tho shape of "A Picked Company," by Hilaire Belloc. !A selection has been made by Mr. E. V. Lucas, whose flair. for the .most piquant «ind best passages in ail author has already borne such admirable fruit in the several anthologies compiled by liim. .Included in the. little, volume are selections from Mr. Belloc's essays, two.

or three chapters from his famous book on Mario Antoinette, from his fiction — in this case, tho stinging satirical portrait of "Lord Benthorpe" from "Emmanuol Burden" and from other works, ,including the little known, but, to tho jduly. initiated, immensely funny "Caliban's Guide to Letters"'and "Nonsense Versos for Children." To those who do not know ' Mr. ■ Belloo's quality as an historian, .I : specially comriiend> the extracts from his "Mario .Antoinette," in which the author, skilfully land dramatically- contrasts ;two" of .'-the most momentous episodes 'in\the:French-Revolu-tion, the execution ■ of ..."the Austrian Woman," I" arid* what: Napoleoni called '"th©_ chief, feats of - arms -of tho; Republic," . the of; :the' Austrian's' arid the Allies'outside>. the' great froiir tier fortress -of Maubeuge. Curiously enough, rereading, for quite the fourth, or fifth time, Mr. Belloc's chapter on that epoch-making battle, I notice a sentence which has a certain added significance to-day. The author is alluding 1 to the north-east frontier of France. I He says:

•' "From tho dead flat of the spaeoast the country rises slowly into little easy hills'arid slopes, of some : confusion, but not until that fron- . tier reaches <md abuts', against ■ the Ardennes does any obstacle mark •it. It is traversed by a. score, of •, • main roads suitable'for a 1 parallel advance, all excellent in. surface, and in bridges" and. other artifice ; it is thickly set with towns and villages to afford repose arid supply. . Lastly, it is the nearest point of attack to Paris. Once forced, ten days''rapid marching from that ' frontier brings the invader to- the .capital, and there is nothing between." . And then the author remarks—his book on Marie Antoinette, be it. remembered, was written Jri 1909: - "Such advantages—which,, it is ' said, :tempt unstable brains in Berlin to-day—have rendered this line, whenever some powerful enemy hold 'its farther side, of supremo defensive importance to the French."; The "advantages" -undoubtedly tempted those, "unstable brains at Berlin," but the armies controlled by those "unstable have failed to reach Paris, just as' the' Austrians and Coburgers failed'to Teach Paris in October, 1793. Excellent value for fifteeripenco is "A Picked Company."

Two Timely Finds, A | wet evening -is not an unmixed evil—to a book-lover at least. To "Liber,"- for. instance, it affords an opportunity for indulgence in the.pleasant pastime of'"dipping," . that is, in that ; "snippety" and "desultory" reading which .. the moralists and authors of'. "guides to .reading' '— often such silly arid mischievous productions —most - properly, and solemnly deplore, but in which, nevertheless, .so many bookmen iinfeignedly delight. This habit of "dipping" resulted the other evening' in quite an interesting find.,, I had been "dipping" into an odd volume of Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff's "Notes from a Diary," ii mine of good stories, anecdotes, ana portrait sketches of leading men and women of days Victorian, and suddenly came across the following interesting entry, under date January 16,. 1896,:— . v

ihe impress Frederick' writes: ; But even this most sad episode between our two countries has not shaken my faith in our old opinions that-there are many, many , higher interests- in common, why we should get oil together, and be of use to each other in helping on civilisation and progress..: I trust that a good understanding will out- ' live hatred and jealousy.; . When . I think of my. father and of all his friends and of our friends, it ap- . pears to me almost ludicrous :that Germany and England should ever be enemies." . The diarist, by the way, does, not explain exactly what "this most sad episode" was, but I have no doubt he was referring to that famous : letter which, ion tho second of the same month in which the. Empress Frederick wrote to her English friend, the "Young Man in ,a Hurry" seht : to President Kriiger, that same.letter which, as Botha only last week reminded a.. South African audience, so griovously misled the' Boers. As for the Empress Frederick's hopes for a future unbroken peace and good I feeling between Germany and England, they were, as we now know all too well, not destined to be realised. Alas, it is _the then seemingly "ludicrous" which: has actually happened. As to the late Prince Consort, Prince Albert, the Empress Frederick's'father, what does he, I wonder, think in the shades to-day, of his precious grandson, the man wh<s authorised and gloated over the "murder most foul"—Germans love Shakespearean 'quotations!— of the Lusitania's passengers ? One certain outcome of tho Great War must be that never again will a German prince marry into the English Royal Family. Nor will, I fancy, au English princess ever desire to: marry a Hun, even should it be allowed by _ the Constitution, which in all probability will be made impossible. There must be no more German royal: sons .of English born mothers.' The Hun paternal strain is to strong for evil. .

The Kaiser as a Boy. In March 1885 I,find the diarist making the following entry apropos to a conversation ho had had with Lady Mary Feilding:— ': _ (Dean) Stanley's letters came up in the course of conversation, ana sho mentioned .Miat Miss Stanley had also a good deal of- the same power as her brother, reading, in illustration of her remark, a very vivid letter which she had received from her in 1863,- describing the ceremony in St. George's (Chapel) at tho marriage of tho. Prince of. Wales, during which the future Emperor of Germany employed himself, characteristically enough,' in- biting his uncle! Who was it told.mo the description of him, in Piatt Deutsch (low German), attributed to'his wife? "Wilhelm ist jut ■ a 'aber sin bissel plotzlich." Edward the Seventh . never, it is notorious, specially loved his nepliow at Potsdam, and it is evident that on the nephew's side, dislike of his Englsili uncle began at a'very early age, for in 1863 tho future . "War Lord of the Hohenzollerns" was but four years of age. As to the sentenco in Low German, a rough translation .would be; 1 think, "AVilliam is fair-minded, but just a little too sudden." Before tho final act- in the great European drama is played out, tho Kaiser will he a far less impetuous porson than he was in July, 1014, or in March, 18G3. Meanwhile, I think my dipping last Sunday was not altogether profitless.

Hugh Walpole, Novelist. Mr. Hugh Walpolo will have a new story out soon, to be published by Cassolls. Mr. Walpole's fino story, "The Duchess of Wrexe," published last year, was almost as good, in'its own twentieth century way, as some of Thackeray's best works. _ People asked _for other books by. this writer* aas

many were thus introduced to that strange, but peculiarly fascinating, story, "Tile AVobden Horse," which, by tlio way, you can now buy for. fifteenpence in Mr. Dent's liandy-sized and neatly-bound "Wayfarer's Library." Then, too, there is the trilogy, to which f'Mr. Porrin and Mr. Trail," and "Fortitude" . beWnged. All Mr. Walpolo's work is intensely modern in subject and tono. Like Mr. Galsworthy ho is a inastcr of irony, and as sucli will probably never bo very popular with what is known as the "big public." Ho may never be "a best seller," such as the Oorelli, tho Lord of Greoba Ca-stlc, and the egregious diaries Garbage. Literary ability is not, however, to' be gauged by tlie number of copies sold of a book, and I .to the reader who'wants something more than full-flavoured romance, second-rate melodrama, and pheap sentimentality, ° Mr. Walpolo makes an appeal which, with his. each successive book, receives a, wider response. His new story is, I see, entitled "The Golden Scarecrow," .The author, who is at present in Russia, whence. he> contributes .impressions of country and peoplo to a London weekly, is a .cousin of tho Earl of Orford, .and son of the Bishop of Edinburgh. He prefers, however, his cottage'in a Cornish village to London, and there "dodges," he says, "social and literary , functions for the greater' part of the year." "The Wooden Horse" has a purely Cornish background.'

Rudyard Kipling on New Zealand, Mr." Kipling has been making some eloquent and stirring recruiting speeches. Although an old and strenuous champion of compulsory military training, he refrains, I notice, from any flamboyant advocacy of conscription, holding that the most urgent need of the country is to make the best df eiich organisation as exists. It is no new thing,, of course, for Mr. .Kipling to maintain the value of compulsory military training, and no new thing also for . him' to beobsessed with tho strength and malignity of our present foes. In the course of a letter to ."Liber" a letter written'in April, 1910, dealing for the most • part with purely literary and personal matters, the author of "Soldiers Three" makes. the following interesting remarks: — ... I have been' keenly interested in New Zealand's attitude to-: . wards National Defence, and-1 only wish that we in England who .are almost in within arm's reach.of real and present danger, could see as clearly as your Jand does what the future means for the unprepared. 1 " No doubt to-day, .with' tho, stirring accounts of what New Zealanders and Australians; have done at the Dardanelles, Mr. Kipling is more deeply impressed than even-ne was five years ago with .tho; practical, value of New Zealand's courageous initiation of compulsory training. Milton on Power Egoism. Was Milton, I wonder, prophetically inspired wiien, in "Paradise Lost," Book I.V, 953-961, he wrote:

Army of fiends,,fit body .to fit heads, Was this your discipline and faith engaged, . . Your military, discipline, to dissolve Allegiance to, the acknowledged Power Supreme?" And, thou, sly - hypocrite, who now woiild'st seem . Patron .of, Liberty, who more than:thou Once fawiie3, and cringed and servilely adored Heaven's awful monarch?, 'Wherefore, ": but in hope To dispossess Him, and thyself to reign. Clearly, the great Puritan poet must have foreseen the "Mo Und Gott theory. Literature and Life. _ The all-too-common error that there is little in common between literature and life, finds a clever refutation in a recent sentence, of James Stephens, the, Irish poet,, whose "Crock of Gold" and' "The Demi-Gods" were such charmine expositions of Celtic . mysticism. "Youth," says Stephens,, "has nothing to give life but its energy ; it. : 'has even jess to' give'literature, : but literature is ' an expression of. the spiritual : truth: whidi runs parallel-with every material experience."- ■■ . / :

Stray Leaves. Temple .Thurston, haying finally got rid of Dick Furlong ; the artist, who was tho hero, of the trilogy of which "The :Achievement" was: perhaps the best, story,' has now written, an entirely new novel, "The Story of Anthony- Sorel and.Anna Quartermaine." Anything from the pen to which we owe "The City of Beautiful Nonsense" • will be welcomed by New Zealand readers. ■ Early in July. Mr. Edward Clodd retired from, the'position of secretary to the' London. Joint Stock Bank, a post he has held since 1872. Clodd has written much on evolution. He was a personal friend of Huxley, Grant A'llon, George Gissing, and Meredith. ' Maurice Le Blanc, following the Moriarty precedent established by Conan Doyle, has resurrected his old-time hero, Arsene Lupin, - who was supposed to have met his death in Algeria. The ingenious Arseue is now made the leading figure in- a new story, tho English title of which is . "The Teeth of the Tiger."- The background is once again Paris.

J. L. Garvin's book, "The Coming of tho Great War," to"be'published this month in London, should be worth reading, for -like Maxse, of the "National Reviow," Garvin years ago perceived the danger which threatened England from across the North Sea. Civil List' pensions, were recently granted to E. Nisbet (widow of the lato Hubert Bland, tho well-known Socialist writer) and to Mr. Walter de la Mare, the poet. Bland was .a really brilliant essayist. His. Socialism was of the mild or Fabiaii order, and in the columns of the "Sunday Chronicle," an English wekly, with a very large circulation, he not infrequently 'came to loggerheads with certain of the Socialistic faithful of a more "advanced type." - Mr. De la Mare was, so I read, not only a poet -hut acted for some years as chief "reader" for William Heinemain, tho well-known publisher. A "reader," I may explain, is a sort of literary _ "taster," who peruses the manuscripts of works submitted to his principal, and. recomends their acceptance or rejection, as the case may be. De la Maro's verse possessed great distinction of style. But few modern poets—Mr. Newbolt and Mr. Alfred Noyes_ are notable exceptions—can live by writing verse, and that alone.

SOME RECENT FICTION "The Keys of My Heart." , "The Keys of My Heart," by Violet A. Simpson (George Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a long but well written novbl, in which the chief interest centres round a clever but eccentric young inventor, who is befriended in his hour of need by a warmhearted, highly intellectual, and unconventioned woman, of good family, but totally devoid of any caste feeling, or prejudice. As a foil to tho benevolent and'lovablo Franceses, the autbor'gives us a clever character sketch of a vain and utterly, selfish cousin, through whose heartlessiiess and almost criminal carelessness,, the career of tho young inventor conies perilously near being mined. A clever and interesting story.

"Countryman AH." . Really it is becoming diffioulfc to keep up with Miss Katherine Tynan's stories, so • determinedly industrious is this always pleasing writer. Her latest production is entitled "Countrymen All" (George Bell and Sons; per 'Whitcombe iuid Tombs), and is a collection of twenty separate short stories and sketches of Irish life. la gome, the in-

tesest is purely romantic, in others largely humorous, in others,, yet again, there runs a vein of genuine pathos. In all, however, there is evidence of a close study of many and varied types of pre-sent-day life and character in tho Emerald Isle, that country which Miss Tynan knows'so well,.and which she. lias made the scenario of so many charming stories, and so much equally delightful verse.