BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 263, 2 August 1919, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

"The Pacific: Its Past and Future." Mr. Guy H. Suholefield, an ex-New Zealand }ournnli.st, now settled, in London, is tu bo congratulated upon lmving iu his book, "The Pacific; Its l'ust niut future, and tlio Policy of the Groat Towers from the Eighteenth Con-' lury" (London: John Murray), produced uu historical work of high" importance and value. Mr. Scholefleld, who had already in his book "JNcw Zealand in 'Evolution" g'ivbu'proof of his'cap.-.city to present public questions'of importance, with a laudablo clarity, and io."comment upon events in economic and industrial history in a distinctly illumin-. ing way, now shows that he has special qualifications for general historical work.. Ifia initial summary of the early history, of tlio Pacific, of the Europiin setUemo'nt of Tahiti, Hawaii, and Fiji, is a model of concentration. After a chapter specially devoted to the labour traffic in Polynesia and Melanesia, the, author sets forth the story of Fiji and the first' manifestation of German enterprise and ambition iu the Pacific. Of special interest and value is Mr. Scholelield's account of the ingenious and far-reaching schomo under which Germany gradually, extinguished the rivalry of British steamship companies in German Ivew Guinea. Two chapters are devoted to the his--tory of New Guinea and its partition, the author making it quite clear that' the Colonial Office under Lord Derby was not only most averse from encouraging the Australian demand for annexation, but was lamentably, almost grotosquoly, inefficient in its grasp of the i'uturo importance of the Pacific to tho British dependencies in these.seas, and to tho Empire as a whole. - Tho day came, however, when both Derby and Granville, having .themselves becomo Fomowhat uneasy (o the future results of German persistence. in her ambitions and claims with regard to the 'Pacific, it was agreed that Australia : should be given practically a free hand, and sinco September 1, IMG, Papua has been under tho administration of tho Commonwealth. From New Guinea the narrative now turns to Samoa, of tho complicated political' history of which group Mr. fjchole- - field gives aji excellent summary. Specially' interesting is his account of tho; part played by Sir George Grey, and,' later, by Mr. Seddon, to secure firm and successful British administration in Samoa. Governor Jervois's message to Lord' Derby, to tho effect' that it was. proposed to send tho Hincmoa, with tho' . Colonial Secretary himself on board, "to accurately ascertain Samoan feeling," seems to have, as tho author puts it,, "almost stampeded the Colonial Office." Ho says "Granville's anxiety not to offend tho Germans that had made these clandestine annexations paralysed Derby, who was all for taking action. Eventually, under pressure of two German cruisers, tho Samoan chiefs signed a.treaty practically handing over their country to Germanv for a period of fivo years, tho New Zealand expedition was abandoned,'and Downing .Street breathed freelv once more." The later progress of events at Samoa is 6et foi'th in greatdetail—tho wars between the. rival kings,, tho action of Great Britain and Germany in connection therewith, and tho final ■ settlement which was attained by tho Convention of 18!)!) aro also set forth in. detail. It is good, at this time of day, to read tho vigorously worded dispatch from Mr. Seddon, through Lord Banfurlv, to the Colonial Office in April,'J.9oov onp-sigiuticant ex : tract:'—. ' Tlio surrender of Samoa -will in future ho a source of anxiety, and entail expense on Oroat Britain and the colonios. in preparln" for and providing against eventualities. However, now that it has .teen dons it is necessary that immediately it. is opportune Btops. should bo taken to put tlio colonies admitted to be Dritisli on a satisfactory footing. Mr. Scholefleld closes his deeply interesting chapter on Samoa by. remarking that when tho great war broke out Samoa was to New Zealand what New Guinea was to Australia, "an irredenta in which the honour of tho peoplo was involved and which they hastened to redeem." ]ii successive chapters tho author deals with Spanish-American relations in tho Pacific, with Canada's responsibilities in tho far north, with the establishment of the protectorate of Tonga and with New Zealand's connection with itafotonga and other island dependencies. A 'special chapter is devoted to tlio history of cablo.communication m the iacific, and the labour problem, especially as it affects Hawaii and Fiji, where the Hindu coolie problem is made tho subject of some thoughtful and suggesuvo corament. . , An interesting section of tho woik ia that in which is sot forth the Jiistoo of the New Hebrides, where the recidivist element, as iu New Caledonia at one timo, caused considerable anxiety in Australia, and led to a long interchange of dispatches between Great Britain, and , France. The causes of the now notorious failure of the condominium system aro put forth with admirable succinctness. ThatlUr. Scholefield's book is well up to date is proved by the extracts ho gives from the reports on the New Hebrides, which he gives from the Australian Interstate Commission of 1918; indeed, all through tho book tho nuthor has evident; ly been careful to supplement, and, it necessary, modify, views based upon older history when new developments and conditions have been made a matter of public knowledge. In his final chapter, Mr. Scholefield wge3 a complete revision the High Commission 6ystem under which British inflnenco is generally exercised in the Pacific. Ho foretells tho abolition of the present system' and tl|e transference of tho supervision of the different groups to Australia and New Zealand. This, lie contends, would have the evident advantaeo of interesting these two great couiuuinitiea in the material welfare of their islands.: but. it, would accentuate, if possible, the necessity for some authority of acknowledged prestigo, whose duty it should be to coordinate administrative policy throughout tho reffion. and especially to bring about a joint policy of communications by sea. and wireless, with low freights for island produce and reciurocaj tariff treatment ; to onconrago both shipping and insular production. It might ho the nart of the local administrations to provide mteniiBiilar shipping to concentrate trade iu Biiitiible ports, but only, n joint policy can furnish an adequate 3y?lcm of ocean lines. The author is also insistent upon the teaching'of English in native schools, wherever British authority exists in tho islands. Whilst paying tribute to tho excellent work dono by private eft'ort (through the missions), ho suggests that it is now "quite a legitimate act of government that subsidies should bo granted from State funds to mission schools in consideration of the teaching of English." In an appendix is given the text of several treaties .and other important Slate documents affecting tho political history of tho Pacific, mid a praiseworthy feature of the work is tho series of excellent maps with which it is provided. Tho index also has been very well done. Altogether Mr. Scholelield's book is ono of great value to all who would study tho past history of Polynesia, Melanesia and tho Pacific generally. Tt is far'and away the best and most.useful work that has yet appeared, and it is with considerable satisfaction that we may remember that ils author is a New Zealandor, an ox-flowon and Macmillaii Brown prizeman. "Under Cossack and Bolshevik." Miss Elioda Power, author of "Under Cossack and Bolshevik" (Jlelliuen and' Co.), is an English lady who, shortly before tho Kussian Revolution, went to Jloslov on the Don, a large town in Southern Russia, to act as governess id a well-to-do family. Her cmplciyers seem to have been selfish, self-indulgent people, who put their personal comforts and luxuries before all patriotic considerations. Wore- all tlio Russian .bourgeoisie of the tjpo hero described it would, be impossible to feel

much sympathy with them. Many of' the wealthier citizens' appear to have quite openly expressed hopos that the Germans would occupy the country. Miss Power quotes from letters,'-'received from friends in Petroy.'nd, descriptive of the. Revolution, but the real interest of her booklies in its pictures .of life'in Restov after tho Bolshevik movement had become .widespread. The Cossacks, upon 'whom great reliaiico was placed by the bouigeoisie, seem- to have fought with but' little determination. Many ot the young' Cossacks Were, in fact, undermined 'by Bolshevist sympathies. ■Others simply drank and swarmed into tho kincma theatres,.whilst quite young boys shamed them by arming themselves and endeavouring to stem tho "Red" deluge'ere it overwhelmed their city. Miss.Power gives'a vivid description of 'Ih'o' terror of the'wealthier classes as tho Bnlshoviki'approached. Shu was evi'dcntly,disgusted with tile many signs of abject cowardico around her, a cowardice which found an almost humorous contrast ni the suddenly developed impudent, attitude' of the servants of the household and the workers- generally. Here and there in the narrative appears .a touch of humour, of a somewhat grim .kind, as, for instance, -wliero a train, notice is copied,' which reads: "Wilt the tovarischehi. (comrades) refrain from throwing passeiigers on • to the lines while-'the train, is in motion, as it creates a bad impression.abroad?" The notice referred to,, it may hero be explained, was the result of tho "comrades" having a playful little.habit ofthrowing out of ,the windows of tho .railway carriages . any .bourgeois who 'had'.the temerity to remain in his seat when . any gentleman, of the "right colour"—a trua nh'<?. accepted "Red"— ; wanted it .- The ignorance of tho Russian peasant is well-nigh unfathomable. Miss Power tells,- for instance, of a procession of soldiers, marching- under flags printed, with tho ono word, "Land," and crying at tho top of their voices, "Peace without Annexation and Contribution."

"Da, da" (yes, ycoi, muttered an old nioujik, tapping his uclghoour on tho shoulder: "that's wjiat we want: peaco without annexul.ion and contribution." But his friend was not bi. sure lie scratched his head iu ,i- puzzled way. v l don't know, comrade: I think wo had setter look up' iJiimß two places oi>. tlio map; they may bo useful to Kussia after all." Poor, earmwt, old peasants,-how little Ihcy understood.

Tragedy, rather than comedy, is, however, tho dominant note of the book. The author absolves the leading Bolshevik officials fi'tiiii having sanctioned wholesale plunder, but' -robbery' appears to have been' almost as much a first principle with-the average "Red Guard" as murder. "As do the bloodshed'for which the

"Kcds" wcro responsible, Miss Power's chapters tire only too rich in evidence. Mutilation"was'a Treti'ucnt- accompaniment of the Bolshevik murders.

Some of-the dead bodies which wore piclted uii"were terribly' niuti'mtecl. The eyes had been put out, feet hacked olf, and patterns curved on tho thighs. Whether these outrages, had been committed before or after the deuih of tho 'victim,., no - uuc. know,, but very many bodies wcro treated la this way. . . .

'i'ho prediction of the Bolshevik orators that the city would be "washed with blood" was fully verified. Hero is another extract from the tiv.ltil record: ... Children saw their parents killed. Wives begged in vain for tawr Husbands' lives. The pathetic lalo ol a little Cadet, made them realise that even tue children were not-safe; -I'h'o iatlici" of ■■ this little hoy was sliot before his son, and when the soldiers came up to him. the child was trenioling. "ton can follow your .cursed parem," they mid, as they took his arm. "i'orniit me to lie down," he said, "laiu-BU weal;." 1 Ho '-hey shot him us ho lay on. ilia' erouuu. Day alter oay these -murders were committed. People grow almost callous, and tiio little, street urchins laughed as they heard'the shots. Once we were greeted by shouts of mirth 'as wo turned a> corner,'and a crowd of small boys rushed towards us. 'Oh. bareshnie," they laughed. "Uiey've cut oil' tho head of a Oadet. U'b lying cu the ground, we're trying to hit the nose with snowballs." Por days Restov witnessed a perfect orgy of slaughter. The women Bolshevists became as blood-drunk as the men. Ono old toothless creature unwoaud a yelow scarf from her lijud. and, waving it in the air, danced, ana shuttled, chant' iug: "Oh, Jjorit Hod! 0 my liord Hud! Lei all tho rich be slam. U-)d, Hod, Hod! Iter eyes rolled upwards, and sue onened and snuf her hdnus. "Uy gum," naid one or the American I'.Jt.H.A. workers who had joined in, "1 guess they've all gawn clean' daft, i got into a blue luuk and beat it." Naturally Miss Power was anxious to 'quit the scene of such horrors, and greeted with joy even the prospect of so long and uncomfortable a journey as that which eventually landed her, a weary but happy refugee, at Murmansk, iu the Par North, whence she travelled to Bugland on a British transport. The author niiiltes no pretence to fine writing. The realism of her narrative is never artificially heightened. She simply sets down in simple language what she saw and heard, and her story bears the impress of bare truth and fact, it is, as 1 nave said, a very dreadful story, but it is well that such stories should bo writtenand rend.

Of geranium-flower and soft, and yellow bloom Of musk, and stains of scarlet and yellow glass. Drinkwater is an essayist and dramatist as well as a poet. A play from Ins lieu, "A bin ham Lincoln," has recently been produced in London with decided biiccess. SOME RECENT FICTION "Pink Roses." Mr. Gilbort Caiman has, although still qnito a young novelist, given us ninny excellent stones, • amongst which "Old Molo" and "Mendel" may be specially remembered. His latest ert'ort, "Pirnc Rosea" (Lonilpn: T. Fisher Unwin), is a story whicl; is slightly reminiscent, especially in its duct ii'inmine ngiire, of Mr, .AriiolJ Bennett's successful if somewhat scandalous "Protty Lady." Trevor Matthew, the hero of the story, is a young man about town, who makes 'ho pretence of studying law, but whose private means permit him to bo inanity concorned wivli ins own selli.sn amusements. He is a paltry, futile sort of fellow, and it is.difficult to believe thai Mr. Caiman, who is insistent that youth has at last, through. the great war, como into its own, andseems to think that the opinions qt the old, and even middle-aged, should 6o belittled or openly jeered 'at by everyone imder thirty, has really meant- his frtrait to be taken as anything but a lire upon it certain type ul young gentleman—nil of the present time. Tho hero—save tho mark!—falls all easy victim to the blandishments of Cora 'Dinmont, a venal beauty, who has none of the wu and cliarin, oi ill'.- jienneti's "Pretty Uidy," but is merely a silly and vulgar courtesan. The young men m the story are a selfish, conceited lot of people, fertile in glib excuses for their spirit of "philosophic dotachmenl" as far as the great struggle iu which their country i.engaged is concerned, and 'who indulge in much gross eating and drinking when they aro not indulging in cheap sneers at • those who regard lite and the war more seriously. One cannot help thinking that a week's occupation of Louden by the Huns would have vastly—and perhaps most benelicir ally—altered their outlook on the war. Ono of the best-drawn and most amusing of the minor characters is a cunning little Polish Jewess, who poses as an interesting Russian exile. .Mr. Caiman seems to be rather fond of Hebrew characters, for he introduces two elderly Jews, one a munitions profiteer,-another a financier, both of whom are surely drawn -in a spirit of caricature. In the long run the hero manages to screw up enough .manhood to emancipate himsolf from.tho toils of his vulgar Delilah, but tho sordid story of the liaison is drawn out almost to attenuation before Trevor discovers that his true affinity is Ruth Hobday. The story includes many well-known characters, but to mo it seems that Mr. Cannan is becoming so obsessed by the sex motif a* to spoil his sense of artistry. Tho story has many clever touches, but tho author cannot expect his .venders to believe • that a real life hero could long remain attached to a woman who.was capable of such peculiar displays of passion as that described on page 75! "Corn could only croon-out her ecstasy, and she kissed his eves, his lips, bis ears, and bit the tip of his nose until it was bruised and swollen." Despite nil his verhoso philosophy on the war, on the "Call to Youth," and on the alleged futility of Rcvernment by the old and middle-aged, this hero of Mr. Caiman's is, .1. repeat, a very poor creature as a man. A clever but a somewhat unwholesome story.

"A Servant of Reality." Miss Phyllis Boltome's new slory, "A Servant of Reality" (llodiicr and Stoughton), exhibits all the qualities which made the authoress's earlier novel, "A Certain Star," such a. decided success. Tho author has a decided gilt for the dissection of a complex feminine nature, and her portrait of Kitty Coslrelle— vain, worldly, selfish, a confirmed flirt, and much worse than a mere flirt, and yet possessed of a substratum of sincerity and capacity for honest affection, even devotion, which in the end rises superior to all that; is mean and base in her moral make-up—i« a brilliant and fascinating literary achievement, the vmnig doctor hero, who returns, with rihnkcn nerves, from a German prison, to find himself tho heir to a fine estate, and who teiribly affronts his family by falling a victim to the carefully-elabor-ated charms of Miss Coslrelle, who is rc*nrilcd—and from a certain p nln t of view not unjusHy-by society as a dangerous declassec, is scarcely so convincing a character as the cluet feminine figure. Hut his chivalry and devotion must havo won linn many ad-

mirers. It seems a pity that poor Kitty —with all her faults, as much to be pitied as blamed—should come to so tragic nn end, but perhaps on the whole it wero better that Tony wero left to I carve out his new future alone. Tho wit and siwrklo of much of the. dialogue aro I most fascinating, and tho minor cliaraci ters, notably Kitty's cynical, pleasure- | seeking father, and Tony's mother, a beautiful typo of tho true English gentlewoman, aro exceptionally well drawn.

"The Lady of tho Crossing." Mr. Frederick Niven's new novel, "Tho I Jiiuly of the Crossing" (Hodder ami ijtuiigrhtuii), is ;i sLory of Jifo in U>o Canadian West in lioetuuny, a jirelt ily : situated, prosperous little town in British Columbia. I'iu'tly sis a result of sensational fiction, partly through, an.impression ('railed by certain kinoiua dramas, ton many good folk imagiuo that revolver snots aro an everyday accompaniment of Western Canadian lift), and that tho genrral atmosphero js uno in which drunken cowbuys, reckless gamblers, ucsperato cattle-thieves, and train "hold-ers-up" must necessarily find most congenial. -Mr. Kiveu shows us in this wellKnit, brightly-written story of liis that what is culled the "dime novel'' gives an. untrue representation 01 present-day Western American life. Mis hero is a very likeable young iellow who lands in Kooleniiv with but seven dollars to his' name. Ho is plucky and industrious, and gradually makes his way, the variety ,- of the occupations he takes up being the i best, proof of his resourcefulness. ■ His ambitions lire greatly spurred by his passion for a young lady • who greatly - admires success, but very fortunately tor •himself:-ilia hero is oiit.i-ivn|le<l by the. manager of a local store, arid finds consolation with a fanner's daughter, his courtship of whom is. conducted with a most delightful naivete, .for its pictures of the lumbermen, the farmers, tho city lot speculators-there is a "real estate" deal in tlio yum which is most amusingly described—in, its presentation of the simple, wholesome luo of the couutrv settlers, very much, in British Columbia akin to that of tho Now Zealand: back-blocks funnel. tins story of Mr,' Niven's is well worth/reading. There is no such depth of psychological study in which its author-introduced, in those "Tho Lady of tho Crossing' as that: earlier novels-of his,. "Mien, Adair", mid ■ "Justice of tho Peace," in . which, the background was repeciively .Edinburgh and Ulnsgow. The book is replete with the clear, vigorous'air of the West, and tho characters are all--sharply' .defined rather than "suggested." in a word, tho stylo suits the subject and background. A capital story. .