THE PATH TO PEACE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 19

THE PATH TO PEACE

A Miscellany of Theory and Practice

“Challenge to Death,” by various writers, with a foreward by Viscount Cecil. (London: Constable).

In 1918 a mutilated and war-weary world witnessed the making of that peace which ended the “war to end . war.” In 1935 no thinking person can positively deny the imminent possibility of another world war. The nations have not, as of old, gone home, beaten their swords into plough shares and sunk themselves in an existence in which “the enemy” no longer plays a part. It seems certain that the historical withdrawing of a nation into itself will never again be possible. There are many deep-rooted and allembracing reasons for this formerly unimagined state of things, but the chief of them is the amazing rapid progress of aviation. A world that can be encircled in eight days presents to the mind of the older generation, problems difficult to grasp. The thought that under .war conditions, a huge city may be paralysed or destroyed within a few minutes, wipes out completely the picture of the stay-at-home civilian who pored over his war maps and daily moved his little flags. At the present moment when the idea of war in the immediate future has become an obsession with practically all classes and all nations, a book of the nature and quality of “Challenge to Death” is ensured in advance a wide and attentive reading. Although some of the sixteen contributors to the vol-

ume will be better known to the general reader than others, all are distinguished writers and many have that personal experience of war that tends to beget confidence and respect for- expressed opinions in the ordinary citizen. ““Challenge to Death” is concerned entirely with the practical possibility of World Peace. The subject is approached from widely differing angles, every known aspect is reviewed, and apparently insuperable difficulties and obstacles are analysed and discussed. Many readers are likely to be convinced on one point, and left doubting on another, but because tire problem concerns all men, because it is pressing, and because of the unquestioned sincerity and earnestness of the writers, few will fail to follow the arguments with close interest.

The differing manner of the writers will naturally appeal variously, and forms in itself a strong incentive to individual thought. The passionate urgency of Storm Jamieson (herself the mother of a son of nineteen) contrasts witli the reasoned “Peace through Science” of Mr Julian Huxley. The sane humanity of Mr. J. B. Priestley’s article will hold more appeal for certain readers than all the lurid pictures of a devastated London, and there is relief from a certain “deadliness” in the crisp satire of Mr. Guy Chapman. In spite of paradox, apparent contradictions and shifting emphasis,“Challenge to Death” is so vitally concerned with an issue that is fast becoming everyone’s business, that few men, however their private opinions may, at present, stand, can afford to leave it unread.

ATTAINING FREEDOM “The Method of x'Ycedoin,” by Walter Lippmann (London; Allen and win).This book follow.-, the lectures delivered at Harvard by the author on the foundation established in memory of Edwin Lawrence Godkin and its purpose is expressed thus: “I do not believe that liberty is, as we liave been told on high authority, a corpse. But neither do I believe it can live only or live forever in the body it inhabited during the nineteenth century. And it is in tlie conviction that freedom is finding a now incarnation in a new body of principles that these lectures have been written.” Mr. Lippmann analyses the general principles of the measures which appear to show tbe greatest promise of "restoring and maintaining order in a regime of libeHy,” and through tlie whole complicated field of concern sociological movements maintains the view -of the state as the servant and not tlie master of men.

A CRIMINAL CAREER

'Limey Breaks In,” by James Spenser. (London : Longmans.)

Mr. Spenser has already published a book about his concern with gangster activities in America which made good reading. This time he writes of liis life in England before going to America. Ilis principal source of enlightenment in childhood seems to have been the penny dreadful, and from it he built up dreams not ail of which, bad they been fulfilled, would have led him to the criminal career he actually embarked upon. “Limey Breaks In. ’ besides being a good story, is par'ieulnrly valuable psychologically. It gives into affairs of crime a penetrating and obviously truthful insight which could not be obtained by ordinary means of research. Mr. Spenser is very intelligent. in spite of the fact that he set himself against the ways of society and frequently suffered for it, and his account of the adventures of his early life is never lacking in interest.

Returning from a visit to Russia. Sir John Russell, tlie distinguished agricultural chemist, reports that bis own books on soil science have a much larger sale in that country than in the rest of the world together.