BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 24, 23 October 1920, Page 3

BOOKS OF THE DAY

"The Secret.Corps." . Captain Ferdinand Tuohv, (he author of *".rfc* Secret -Corns: n Tale of 'Intelligence' on all Fronts" (John .Murray,-per Whitcombe and Tombs), has served an an officer of the British Intelligence Depnrt.nient. in Russia. Poland, Austria, Italy, as well as'in Belgium and France, in the United Kingdom, and in Palestine and Me.so'p.-itamia. The story that he tells includes many interesting, indeed quite fancinatinjr, pages. In no previous European war did espionag,: play so widespread and important a part as'in the, four venrs' contest for. supremacy be r tween* the Contral Powers and the Kntentt. Allies. The, variety of avocations pursued bv the spies, the ingenuity ol their devicVs to obtain information .and to mislead the other side 'by disseminating fal«e iftws, the nmlncity of so many of the scheme,? in which the spies : played a leading rare.' are here rfWM <;; t.£»v. • sensational stories, for tr{, t™ th l! wn,cn -the author vouches. The following pas- ' Rrnte from an carry ehipter in the book Hive* a very good idea of the many curious shapes which* espionage assumed-.— .Pair-haired yonne Englishmenttaond across Persia, dieguised as Kirds. and Grecian srirls from Chios and Mltylono we?c imported for training an agent* in * fhpns •- A merican • bar-tenders overheard Clou's mSy talk, and chfto»M«» runmazed u the kit-bars of Ronorew. McTw?re houeht to'blow ur. ba-UlertaPJ with all their n J^ a other-, for a mere bagatelle of a salary, da ly, hourly, plied the nerllous «üb« ; thev had chosen "behind the hne». -Old. FWiish ueasant.' slfiiallcd with . WindmilW aud Tailwny nortera noted th* rep* m nts wifiw throu;* their strjUon. J* ; ! maculate military nttncncß sowrlt in elh-t-ence over champagne, aockinir to merca by wine the Btudied reserve of the offlcerj thev were accredited to : and . niggling esUmir.et eirls, in clogs and .haw s. aought. intellizenee. over beer from troops billeted in the village. QiiicU-brniried actresses artlessly made their -soldier adorers chattor on. while brainless Drillcessss. minutely by ruae atateßmen, asked queßt!ons-"you interest mo ao"-or officers and other commoners only too honoured, after the manner or the age, to distract a roynl? highness. Obscure Belgians' were dropped, behind the German lines from aeronlanes and a Bolshevist girl murdered a British Intelligence officer in a railway carriage. Gouty, -cru-1 dite old Cardinals kept the Holy Horoan emnire of the Hapsbures .well mi with tho thermometer of Italian "defeatism, whilst brazen women of the boulevards aonembled hiccoughed detail from drunken poilus. Bedouin agents left their tooiprmi-s in the sand, and camouflaged patriots like ' -8010 sought to undermine a. nation. .Skilled officers get bertha in foreign munition and naval works, and monocled scions of the aristocracy listened for a stray word in the salons of diplomacy. Honest business men went down to the .i.ea to. meet the boats in the nipjit. and sinuous bangled Bashdadiß were primed by the British to report on BUBpects in the city of the Caliphß ... There are many excellent anecdotes in . Captain Tnohy'a book, a perusal of which' leaves the reader much enlightened as to the extraordinary ramifications of, and, on the whole, the. astonishing success achieved by the British. Intelligence Department. The author claims •that so far from being asleep when the war broke out, the British Secret Service Department had in existence 6iich a widespread and detailed system -in Great Britain, that within a. very few weeks affer the outbreak of hostilities the au- - thorities had gained a complete mastery | of ttarmari espionage- in England. Captain Tuohy gives detailed accounts of the doings of such notorious spies ns Muller, •who was shot in tho Tuvrfer ot ' London in ,1315 and the beautiful Jlata-Hari (Alar : ., »uev:ii>---Kelle- Kas tier-real .name), tho daughter'of a Dutch father and 1 a Japan:ise mother. I ' A curious figure in the world of espion-: age was the "iool-sp.w" The/"fool-sp,v ). was u man or woman, either a convicted ■spy or. more rarely a." simpleton, who was deliberately engaged by an Intelligence Department in order that he oi' she might get caught by the enemy. The- j idea .of the "fool-spy" is to deceive the.' enemy's contre-espionage organisation and keep -it from descending on tho real sides, the valuable ones. "Fool-spios | were principally employed by the French, j Captain Tuohy gives ah interesting do-, Bcription of the special and peculiar devices used l>y the Allies, more particularly the British, to elicit information ns to the ■ intentions and movements oi • the Germans' Oriental. allies. His book is most readable throughout, • Just at truth.'is proverbially stranger than fie- i t,ion, many of Captain Tiioliy's stories, based upon actual happenings, leave the imaginative work of novelists such ns Le Queux and Philip Oppenheim hopelessly behind. (N.Z. price, ( lfls. Gd.) "A Soul's Progress." ~ • '' . Piofessor P W. Jobertson, of Victoria College, must be credited' with having produced in his book' "A Soul's Progress-. Mezzotints in. Pro«e" (Edward Arnold, per Whiteombe aiid Tombs) one of the .best of the few works of purely imaginative literature we have had as yet from New Ze.iland authors. Ho'describes his book as consisting of 'five separate studies representing fivo'differ- ' ■ent periods in'the history of a soul, the soul of a young scientist who endeavours "to seek a refuge from the too rigid in> tellcctualism of'his. science in the lyricism of art.'" In-the first study, "A Maid of the renaissance," there is n distinct suggestion of. Walter Pater's literary methods, if not his historical and ntCstbetic points of view..'• In the second, "Duilips of Daa'zig," the author symbolises his .student's investigation into* Hin origin and naturp of beauty; and enlarges upon the early Pagan idea, the Platonic conception of- beauty. His search, however, for iniHi being still unsuccessful, lie turns to the F>ast, and in "A Burmese.Monk" describes a third spiritual excursion, in'the, course of which he makes close acquaintance with tho fascinating but shadowy doctrines of ihe Buddhists. Tn'the fourth study, entitled "Lysippor the Osirian," we are transported to ancient Egypt, the student describing his discovery of the truth as to the nature of art," and its de-pendence-of life'l, of which it is actually the expression. The final stage of a soul's development, its triumph, is the subject of the last study, "Tho AleditflKons of the Emperor Ming Huang," and weare left with thestwcheir's convic-tion,-as the result of all the?.; theoretical ! speculations, that "lovo transcended art as an expression df the wonder of life, 1 and gave a still deeper insight into its ' mystery. Carefully tending such a 'pre- ' oious.flower, he would face the unknown ! with joy in his heart For he had not ! lost sight of the fact that the unpacked- ( flowers on tho tree of life would yield, in. J tliH richness of time, emblazoned. fruit ' to those who were (o come." There is 1 a curious combination in these later- j studies of the nurelv aesthetic with the rm-nticism of the East, a combination . yh.ieli* expressed it is true in very dif- ] teionf terms, is to be found in the works of Feilding Hall and nlhnr writers; ; Th" author, however, has his own and j quite original way of working out his speculations, and in one respect—the verbal beauty- and (mite fascinating J charm of his literary style—he has notb- ! ing lo fear by comparison with earlier work of a somowliaf similar character. : There are passages in this book which display all tba' fastidiously loving regard fpr slvle which we connote with the name of .Walter Pate. Even-where is | rich evidence of deerr thought' and'sin- , et-rity of vision and treatment. As -a , contribution to latter-day jnuiginative Fr.jrlish liicrature. Professor Pobertson'r liooV \js in inn"'' wnvu n vftr.v notable , achievement. (Prio- 10=. fid.). .