BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 48, 20 November 1920, Page 13

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY "The Rising Tide of; Colour.". For Dr. Lothrop Stoddard, a Harvard man who has'written more. than, one important study in history "and economics, there is riot only such a tiling as a-Yel-low Peril, but there'are'red, brown, and blacks menaces to tho future of the civilised white races, lnhisiiow hook; "The Rising Tido of Colour 'Against White World-Supremacy" (New York: Charles Scribner'a Sons, per WMtcon.be: and .Tombs), Dr. Stoddard has produced n -work which deserves 'close and.'careful study by the statesmen nnd public men generally of the British Overseas States in tho Pacific. • Dr. Stoddard gravely rebukes those who laugh away the colour nionace as a mero ,b'ogey. He regards tho Grent AVar :as "a headlong plunge.'j.nto white Tace suicide," and holds ■ that the "white world stands to-day at the cross . roads of life and' death." ; - ; ' " ■ '"Instead of a.,world politically ninetenlhs white, .we see a world of which only 1 four-tenths at tho most can bo considered predominately white in blood, tho rest- of the world being inhabited mainly by.the other primary races- of mankind—yellows, browns, blacks',.'and reds.' Speaking bycontinents. Europe, North America, to the Uio Graude, the southern portion of South' Ameiica, the Siberian' part ,of Asia, and Australasia . constitute „ the ,- real white world: while the bulk of Asia,-virtually tho whole of Africa, and most of Central and South America form the world of colour. The respective areas of -.these two racially-contrasted -worlds are 22,000,000 square miles for tho whites and 31,(W(!,OCO square miles lor the coloured races.. .Furthermore, it must be. remembered^. that fully one-third of the white area (notably Australasia-and Siberia! is. very.. thinly inhabited, and is thus held by. . a ....verv nlendur. racial tenure—tile only tenure which counts in the long run."

The:rapid rate of-increase of the coloured raoes is duly noted. -Whereas the whites double only in SO years; ; tho ' yellows and browns doub'e in 60 years, the''blacks in 40 years. Tho tide of colour is always rising, and the resource's of the whites in providing'barriers to stem-that tide do not increase in' anything "like :the"earn 0 degree... ■ '

"The coloured world, long restive under white political domination,' is now being welded by the most fundamental of instincts, the instinct of sclt-prescrvatioii, into a common-- 'solidarity .of , feeling against the dominant white.roan,'and; in the Are of a common purpose internecine differences .tend, for the time at least, to be burned away. Before the supreme fact of 'white political world-domination, antipathies within the coloured . world .must inovitably recede into the background. -

And -bo it remembered that the culbured Taces outnumber the wlifito. races by over two. to 'one! ' r. . The chapter heaflnd 'lellow Mans Land" has a special 'interest for New Zealanders and Australians.-but Professor Stoddard evidently considers --that .America; populous, rich,, and powerful.as elie is, may well give "a possiblo "Yellow Peril"--very grave-and serious consideration: He quotes from-a- Japanese Imperialist's pronouncement, written •. in. the autumii of 1916:

As for' America-, that- fatuouß country with much money and much sentiment, hut no cohesion, no brains of government ; stood she alone wo should not need our China steed. Well did my friend speak the when he callcd her people a r.ace of thieves .'with-tile hearts of'rabbits. , America, to any warrior race, is not as a foe, but as an immense taelon ripe for the cutting

The population of Japan is increasing nt tho rate of about 800,009 a year. Professor Stoddard reminds-us that' the Japanese are bred in a ' (listiii'cliyely island,- temperate environment, ■ and,;navo not tho Cliincso adaptability: to. ■climatic variation. The Japanese does not-tlu-ivo In tropic lieat, and the tide of his emigration will inevitably he towards tomperata regions. I'or Japanese immigration

"neither ; tlio empty spaces of northern.'or southern Asia, will do. The 'natural outlets lie outside.Asia in the United States. Australasia, and the. temperate, parts .of Latin America." . . . Japan must -find lands where Japanese can breed by tena of millions if she is not to bo-automatic, ally overshadowed in course of time,- even assuming that she does not or blow up from congestion befoi'fe that ,timo arrives. This is the secret of her aggressive foreign policy; her' chronic imperialism',' her extravagant dreams of conquest ,and' .......'

Professor Stoddard' examines iii;detail, the "coloured menace": as .it. exists for. Great Britain (in her oversea Dominions, India, finu Egypt),. Tor tlio'ljnited-States, and for. tho, Latin-American .countries.-In-liis final chapter, "The Crisis of'the' Ages," he'sets forth what in his opinion is tki best mikn's, by . which the .menaCo, may be met. He states tlie "irreducible minimum, if the worst is to be averted, as follows:—

"First and foremost, the wretched Vcrnailles business will have to be thoroughly revised. As it itands.'-dragon's teeth.have been /own over lx.th Kurope and -Asia, and unless they bo'plucked; tip they with presently prov,- a- crop of cataclysms which will seal the w.hite world's doom. Second-: ly, some sort'of, provisional undcrstandinp' must'be arrived at between the white world and ronascent Asia. f Wc. whites will have to'abandon our tacit. assumption ofpermanent domination oyer Asia, ; while Asiatics will havo to fon/o .their -.dreams of migration, to white'.lands and p'enetra-' tion-of Africa, and Latin America. Unless some such understanding.is arrived at, tho world will drift into , a gigantic race-war —and genuine race-rear means war to Mi»' knife. . . . Thirdly. . even . within the white world, migration .of lower human types like those which have worked such havoc in the United .-States must'be rigorously curtailed . Such miirrations unset, utahdards,. sterilise better stocks, increase low types, apd compromißC national fitne«a more than war, revolutions, or native deterioration. Such nre the things which' simply must he. done if we arc to get. ..through the next few decades without convulsions which may render impossible the white world's recovery.".

-.Professor Stoddard's book,which is prc- ' faced fcv.a. well-v/ritlon introduction by Mr. Madison Grant, contains maps showing respectively tho distribution of 'the primai'y races,' categories of white'wprl.d . Biiprenmcy, and the. distribution-of tllo white races. fNX price 13s. Cil.) ■ Bishop Moorhou'sa. . . . Born at Shelfield fin 1821). the'lnto- . Bishop-Mooiliouse, who. passed amy at. . tho ripo old ago of eighty-eight; lield'all' his life", as the cardinal point in his religious faith, that -"the greatest- force behind everything"'as ho wrote ,a -few days before his end, "was the .force, the 'Divine Energy .of Love'." I.ove 'of ;his fellow mon wa3 the.. guiding .:.'priiiciple ' throughout tho long and tisoful life of - James JJoorhotise, Bishop of Jlclliounic, and later of Manchester, ..whose - biography, written by Mrs. Edith C. .Richards, has now been published • by • Mr. John Sli'rray. (Weltingfun, Whifcoinljc and Tombs). I'he Sheffield Blade" lie was ofton called by jocular curates and others, on account of tli<;' sharpness of his wits, but personally he was one of ' the. most lovable ot -men, winch sliarp- - wit ted men are often very far from being. Physically nnd mentally he w;as a Btrong man. The story goes that shortly after his arrival' in Melboiiriio' ho preached' a specially powerful sermon. On . leaving tho church the Bishop's registrar asked tho old vergor, "Well, what do you think of our Bishop, fo-flay?" With'-a-n awestruck face the good man replied, "I think, sir, we are ail pygmies. When Moorhouse arrived ■in. Afistfnlia .free thought ivas prevalent • iu certain..circles, Moorhouse set! manfully to work, to combat, this,'delivering 'a series,of popular lectures on .religion ' nnd science, which were atteiided by largo audiencos, and' which, were reported not only in manv leading newspapers all over Australia, but -in New Zenland. The heartiness, 'sincerity, gonnine love of Immunity, uttfr freedom from all ties of convention, which had made him . so popular witli the working men of'his native city, where his father was-head : ' of a large steel uuiuuiaoturing business, and v.-a.s for a time Master" Cutler; 1 soon ■ ha<l their effect for good hi his . work •in. Melbourne and indeed throughout -/••Victoria, for liis "visitation" tours lu fco coHhfar <Uotri<?ta i?«rfs cs> jtow

• •—~—9 (By Liber.) Give a 'man''a jripfhe can smoke, . ' ; Give a man a book he can read; And his Home is bright with .a calm delight t ... Though the room be poor indeed. 'James Thomson-

ministrative journeys, but wore largely occupied by preaching, lecturing, and other personal work. Ever a fighter ho embarked -liioro than oneo in fields of controversy into 'which a less courageous man might hot have cared to vcuture, ''ajji he by no means confined his' personal .activities to spiritual' matters. Bo championed, for instance, with characteristic cuthusiasu) fl_ scheme of'irriga-' tion, delivering lcctnrcs throughout tho colony' in which he gave tho history and .results of irrigation in India, China, America and other' countries. Years afterwards the Hon. Alfred Deakin, an eo'uall.y zealous worker in the same good cause, .generously owned that the liishop iiad been the pioneer in tho great enterprise he was now carrying on. An ardent worker in the cause of temperance and in social reform generally he bccaYne a great admirer and warm supporter of, the Salvation Army. Amongst the Australian miners mid bush settlers nwrvv in the most remote of . the. back-blocks, Moorhousc won a personal respect, and popularity which few Australian ecclesiastics have gained, fie met with many .exciting adventure's —including a narrow escape from being kidnapped, and held to ransom by tho r-otorious Kelly gang of bush-rangers. He .was sixty years of age when lih landed in England, in IS9I, j o :begin, lite, afresh _ as Bislmp of Manchester, the diocese having become vacant by the death' of Bishop Fra.scr. Lord Salisbury had not forgotten the vigorous spfcjh and stalwart Christianity of tho man under whom, when Jlo'orhouso was for vicar of a London church (St. John's, iu Rtzroy Square), tho future Fi'iino Minister had often sat. At Manchester Moorhouse had a. long and useful career, of which his biography gives a detailed and interesting record. He' iiuallv relinquished active work in 190"; at tho age of seventy-seven, carrying with him into his' retirement the respect and affection of tho Manchester people, who, like thoise of Sheffield and Melbourne, had learnt to es-. teem the ecclesiastic, and to have a deep affection for tho man. In an amieiulix are-given some interesting . letters, which exhibit and explain.the Bishop's attitude to modern criticism. The volume contains .several portraits! "International Politics." ' : Mr.. C. Delislo Bum's exposition of "International Politics" (Methuen and Co.) is to be commended to all students ol' eontciuuorar.v history, and will bo found verv useful' to i&any newspaper readers who are occasionally baffled as to the reaf.ineaifing of some of the cable-, grains from Europe and the outside world generally, which relate to the mteriih'tidii'al'" relations. 'agreements. land, obligations of the more important States of the world. Mr. Burns' explains, with

the "general -reader" kopt > epcciallv. in, viotv, the chief problems which ariße irom •the odntoct/between different governments and peoples; l£is plan has been to give .definite instances o£ these problems, and not to discuss theories and generalities.' Thus, he gets forth the main facts as to the .Great Powers, the differences in. nationality? religion, .and culture, which cliaractevioA Hie peoples of the different leading States. 110 then proceeds to describe the subordination of minor'States'and "undeveloped by the industrialism! States, thus leading up to an. exposition of the workingof international trade. Tins latter section,'with its description .of the working of tariffs, tlie effects ot varyin" currencies; the foreign # investment.- of,■■ ..money, tl.i« - X"™' 1 * financial commercial, and lndustiiaj systems and Kowr they affect international relations, is -specially well done, anil provides. iu. compact form, much very useful and valuable- information for all who are interested in international problems, not mrty political, but economic. Mr. Burns "document:) Ins essajs \ery libenllv and the statistical tables and charts' which-, he supplies aiUl greatly to the clarity and viufie *- /2 , short but very useful bibliography is an excellent feature of an xinptctentwris liut excoodinKly useful little work, which I warmly commend to young journalists, to the members of the Workers' Educational Associations.- and to the authorities of ■ oui Beeoiidnry schools. (N.Z. pnee, 7s. Gd.) "With the Prince." ■In a. well-printed, liberally-illustrated volnme. entitled "IVitlrjthe Pnnco in New Zealand" (Auckland: Eilwin Sajes), -Mr. Hector Bolitbo. one of the Press repre--s!Sves?.wlio. travelled in the.- Bojral . train, gives a vivaciously written and in-, •tereatiwr account of the tmjr. rhp various functions which His Boyat attended, from the iirst reception at 'Auckland down to tte hnnl scone when 'the-somt ' ship Uenown steamed nut of Port T.vftelton, are all ' described in (le-■tnil.7-The illustrations have been well. ■rhnsKii, there, being several poi trail.-, ot the l'rinee.- and a -better record and souvenir-of a memorable event "iit he history of tho Dominion .could not. u ell bo desired, '.(l'ricc, 7s. Gd.) "The Enistles of St. Jijhn." - Vrom Mr. JoLni 'Murray. ■ through Messrs. Whitcombe and 'Ijonibs. comes a new ■ exposition of "The-Epistles of fit. T'ib'n" by Dr. Charles Gore formerly Tlishop -of Oxford. As with Dr. Gore s previous .widel.v-rend volumes on. . Uie fWmon on the Mount/' "The TCphesians - and "The Romans:' tre author ha.-, had Serially in-view "the ordinary man and v-nnin'ii wbo lack the equipment •of u,o Scholar/' Mr. Gore says it is verv ol.vithat the.first Epistle m particular has'a very direct bearin? on preseiii-(.a.v controversies—especially on the tendencies commoiilv called Modernist-end on l ie & application of- Christianity ami tic function"of the Church .on society, l.ach Uion of the Epistles i? preceded by an explanatory analysis, (luce, 7s. Gd,)

' LIBER'S NOTE BOOK Stray Leaves. company. Despite their "tushery, s Stevenson would havo said, Fftrnnll's ciorirs. have the merit of well-plaimed ( plots ami the dramatic element in lueni should make them "go" extaneb;- wel on' the "movies. How is it that we never see any of these English films inU\" New- 7,®latid knicmas. A unpublished poem by Robert Louis Stevenson has beoj secured, f,om Mr. Lloyd Osbourne (.Stevenson a literarv executor),' for tot excellen ma"azine, tlie- I.ondon i\lcicuiy. consists Of the following three stanras:la the- house not homely yet? There let pleasant thouidils he set: With hriffht eyes and hurried t <:<-■>, There let severed friendships meet. There let sorro.v learn to smile And sweet talk the night bcnuilc. Thus 'shall each; a friendly elf. Leave vou something of liiniseir, Something dear I' 4 ,.!",! 1 '„" e ' That will Stay and talk with you. Thev 'shall go. but ono and all lieave their I'aces-on the wan. Leave bravo words of hope and lo>e T,csendwise inscribed above. Those of my readern, and I trust there i r.re many, who possess a copy of Stevenson's poems would do well to paste ihese line? at tho end 'of Uie volume. I hey are well worth preserving Thnckeray waa a delightful letto. writer, but owing probably to Ins reputed request that no biography of him 3houl»l i,o published only a iew of hw letters have found their way into print. An American collector of Tliackevayaua, utter declaring that the novelist never meant there to be a permanent taboo on I biographical matter concerning mm, has 1 now brought togotber no few than six flundred Jsttoia wthofl pi '^Tien-i

ity Fair," which ho is shortly to publish in a handsomely produced edition. When published, this will be a book to place alongside the "Letters" of Charles Dickens, which make delightful reading, but which, so I fear,, are not so well known, to New Zealand renders of the Dickens novels as they might and ought to bo. Thq London "Mercury," under the editorship of tho poet-cs'sayist, Mr. J. C. Squire, is a great success, but owing to the'"increased cost of production"—that dreadfiil phrase which has added, a new terror to modern life—the prico is to be raised to three shillings. Even at the advanced price this is still a very cheap periodical considering tho fino finality of its contents. Apropos of Squire's work I see that; a third Series of his literary essays, is announced under tho title, "Life and Letters." These no doubt will-be the essays and gossipy literary articles which Squire contributed during the war period ■to "Land and Water." They are in the same style as his articles in iihe "New Statesman," which, reprinted under the title "Books in General," have been so' greatly appreciated by lovers of good literature. Squire is still a quite a young man, and has clearly a- groat future beforo him. As an editor, whilst enconraging young and comparatively untried' talent, he does not, I notice, neglect tho older men. A specially interesting feature in a recent issue of his "Mercury" is a'scrips of extracts from a diary kept by Arnold Bennett, full ol shrewd wit nnd pungent comment lipon men nnd things—and books—of the dav. Anioricnn novels are to go up further in price, at least',, so I r.ead in the' New York "Evening Post," and are to bo published at not less than two dollars to two-fifty. Ther<» was a time wlien the dollar fifty novel used to be sold in the New Zealand bookshops at four shillings, but the dumping process has apparently been discontinued, and what with the great loss in exchange and the new -.practice of the Americans in not accenting the usual draf;M. if. will not be long before very few Yankee novels will be imported here. At least this is what ii leading bookseller told me the otheV day. The AUiaenenm announces : that the famous pllbli9hing .hou.se .of Cassells is to be' sold io one of the great newspaper combines. The original Cassell was a grocer, whose advertisement, "Buv Cas- , s-IIV Shilling 'Coffees" was familiar in the newspapers of the forties and fifties. Then' lie launched out as a jonrnaKst and newsnaner proprietor, with a weekly called "The Working Man's Friend," and scored a big.success with his "Popular Educator," from which "Liber" took his first lessons in French and German. Later on, tho firm boe'ame Ons- | sell, Potter, and Galpin. and published some of Bider Haggard's .earlier novels and Sf.veral of Stevenson's stories. That always amusing Writer, George Birmingham, otherwise Canon Haainay, has a new stoty coming out with Methuens. The title is "Tnniaheeny." The scene is laid in an island off the west coast 'of Ireland. Methuens also'announce a new volume of. essays by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, .'entitled "The Uses of Adversity," nnd a selection from the late Oscar Wilde's napers'on domestic decoration, entitled "Art. and Decoration." This, it (is understood, will be' the final volume of Messrs. Metlinen's, beautifully produced little , greon backed edition of Oseev Wilde's works, and will be Uniform wilb the volume ujf-literary .criticisms -pub lished las') year undej the title "Tho Critic in Pall Mali." SOME RECENT FICTION I "The Granite Hills." !■ Cornwall is the background of C. K Hcanley's story "The Granite Hills" (Chapman and Hall). Tho heroine, Lilhi Wilmot, the daughter of a well-bred, wolleducated lady, who has settled down in Iho quiet' little -village of Trevorrow, marries—not for lave, hut as n means, sho • thinks, to escape-'from the drab monotony of her home life—an uneducated young farmer, physically .a tine fellow, hut intellectually much his wife's inferior. The cn;rs?ness of his habits, and resentment at being compelled to become a mere household drudge, • breed deep, discouteui iii file young" wife, and when there comes along a wellmannered novelist, in search of local colour, and given to philandering, there is a love episode which very .nearly lends to domestic disaster. At tho crucial moment the heroine discovers, however, that

, Norgrave, wlio now admits lie is a mari rled man, is unworthy of her love, aml > returns to the farm, where flic finds her . otiijiid, sottish husliawl semi-paralysed by ■ ail accident". The true womanliness of , the girl-wife js now dominant to "11 • other considerations. Sho nurses the unworthy husband, and throws herself with enthusiasm into the business side of the Bfrin, taking that keen atul personal interest in the family enterprise which Is : lo lie found more frequently in the French than in the English small farmer's wife. , bhe has io conquer the jealousy and suspicion of her ni-other-in-law, but nm i through by natural, if tardily-developed ■ shrewdness and sheer grit." The husband (lies and the novelist lover, now also free i from matrimonial tics, reappears and en . tlenvonrs to rekindle tho tires. of whnt, . "U both sides is, in reality, a dead pas- . sion. Tho woman recognises that hor old , lover, who proposes to take tier away [ from tho wild moorland farm to a Lo n * > don home, has come to her morn out of - sympathy and a sense of honourable duty . than through tho prompting of any deep I' love, and tho pair part for ever, Ldlfc I finding solace and' comfort for her past , iinhappiiif.-M in TTie quiet cnntennnem . she now finds in tho managcmeiitflt tn» • farm. Tho pictured of rural Cornis.i life !. which Mr. llenriley provides arc not «J----t ways very at'ra.criv»?, tint, unlike so many other' noveJ'isU, ho (It*" f'J- . dwell unneeessority on the sordid slue of peasant life. The transforma- ' tion of the pretty, thoughtless girl-wife , into the keen-fitted, businesslike farm manager is worked out very cluv. «Tly, and tho stern and su?pi- • nioua old . peasant mother-in-law is i a eharaeter-sketeh which Thoninf , Hardy himself miglit well have, signed. Tarzan Once Again. Mr. Edgar Itico Burroughs bids fair • to leave Sir liidtr Haggard far behind t as 11 writer of weirdly exciting romances. - In his "Tarzan tho Untamed" (Methnen ' and Co.), tho American novelist works t in a war motif, his hero, Lord Grey--1 st/ike, in the British peerage, but lar- ' zan, the ''ape-man" of the wilds, turn- ' ijig up in East Africa as_ the , avenger of his wife, whom ho believes to have 1 been murdered by a peculiarly brutal ' Hun, tracking down a Germau female •.py, who is in.Toality a trusted agent L dC' the British' Secret Sen-ice, andi go- ' mg through a series of adventurous ex--1 purionees with men and wild beasts, the ; descriptions of which provide a rich 1 menu of thrills. In ,tho final chapter' I thero is a-hint of ft further instalment of' this Tarzanian fiction, wlii'di is just ! as well, for Jf.r. Burroughs has a public for these yarns which in not sasilr sat- | isficd | "The Beautiful Mrs. Davenant." Tho heroine of Mrs. Violet Tweedalo's i latest novel, "The Mrs. Da- , venant 1 ' (London, Herbert Jenkiufi, Ltd.), • is a lady with a past who settles down > in a peaceful little English villago. Iu t this village -'is a house reputodly haunted, the owner being a surly recluse. In j a curious way there is a mysterious, but ■ very important, connection between tho i beautiful Mrs. • Davenant and tho ) "ghost," which haunts the Lake House, I and Mrs. Tweadale exhibits great in- ■ gennity, first in explaining why a stil f youthful and beautiful woman should 1 burv herself in an -environment of ' bucolic dullness, and second, m laying ' the elioat." A double love story, and fionio capital character sketches of conn- > try squires, vicars, etc., help to make up a .very xcadable novel. M'Glusky in Australia.Mr. A. G. Hales trives us yet anottiev Al'GlusW yarn in ''M'GUwky the Gold- ■ Seeker"; (Hoddor Stioupliton, per Wlutcorabo and Tombs).hie rbdoubtablo hero to South America nnd delißhting liis admirers with a stirTing narrative of M'GUisky s military ' prowess and amatory adventures tn i Italy. Hales now brings }h& • genial adventurer hack to Australia, i and exhibits him in the character of a t prospector itnu mining 4 apeculator. , Mr. Halos'e powers of i show no signs of deeadenea, for this new I Rtory of his is even richer than were i its 'several .predecessors in_ pensatioiml ' incidents and humorous ipisodes.. The I -finding and working of a rich claim. ; adventures with ■ biishrangers and > rascals innumerable, together wjth a 1 liberal allowance of iove-making; and - plenty-of the characteristic JfChiskian 1 liumoui—his old comrade pinger being 3 as usual well to the front—constitute a i menu which Mr. TTales's readers, old - and now, should find vastly entertafnt ing.