THE NEWEST BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 68

THE NEWEST BOOKS.

“THE FAIRYLAND OF THE ARCTIC.” “On Greenland’s Closed Shore.” By Isobel Wylie Hutchison. With a preface by Dr Knud Rasmussen, (Illustrations and map; cloth; 21s net). Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, Ltd. “ Kavfilioruiarumagaluarpugut! ” That is the sort of word one comes up against when trying to learn Greenlandic, but, after all, “ Iwouldlikeverymuchtodrinkcoffee ” looks even worse when it is written all together as the Greenlanders write their words. Here, by the way, is what is said to be the longest word in the Eskimo language—- “ figssualiulerssalinguakasigkaluatdlaraningorasit! ” In other words, “It is said that they . had once determined to build a large telegraph station, but the project has meanwhile been abandoned.” And you cannot wonder at it, of course, if that sort of word is to go for a penny!

Lest the reader arrive at hasty and unwarranted conclusions he must be assured that there are not too many big words in this delightful travel book. Instead it introduces to us an author with a delightful literary style with marked powers of observation, and the faculty of plainly revealing the interesting country and people as she sees them. The author lived the life of the people for a long period, the object being primarily botanical research. There is, however, nothing technical in its 400 pages—it is simply charming and delightfully informative. Dr Rasmussen explains the interest of Greenland for the adventurous spirits and for the scientists. The call of the distant Arctic and Antarctic lands from the dawn of time have summoned explorers to the very edge of our globe. “ But for my countrymen it was almost always Greenland that allured, that called, that held us more firmly than any other region.” This part of the Kingdom of Denmark has given his countrymen scope for scientific investigation, and their names are prominent in the records of the colony. “ Always,” he writes, “ have the polar lands had great power over the minds of men. Adventure is not all that attracts out there in the midnight sun, in the white summer night, in the polar darkness, and under the flaming Northern Lights; al! that stubborn defiance and inaccessibility have at all times offered to men has also created in the exploration of those regions a saga that is probably unparalleled in the history of the voyages of discovery.” Dr Rasmussen pays a fine tribute to the author of this book. “... . she is not only a raconteuse with humour, sympathy, and delicacy of feeling; she is a true artist, showing by means of a whole train of charming verse steeped iu warmth what perfect command she has over her mother tongue.” These verses serve as most appropriate introductions to the various chapters. “ To English readers,” adds the doctor, “ these sketches furthermore come at an unusually opportune moment. For just this year (his preface is dated Hundested September 2, 1930) an English expedition in charge of H. G. Watkins, and under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society, has gone to East Greenland to continue, with the aid of aeroplanes and everything else that modern technics can provide, the researches that their ancestors hundreds of years ago began with all that fearless perseverance that has always characterised the British nation.” The cablegrams of the last few weeks have brought Greenland prominently before readers. A message from Mr H. G. Watkins cabled from London on May 14 states: “ Rymill, Chapman, and I have returned from the ice cap with Courtauld, who is perfectly fit.: We were greatly surprised when the aeroplane flew over and dropped food, which was not needed. This was the first intimation that Captain Ahrenberg had been sent to join in the search. We are unable to understand the fuss made over us, as practically everything has gone according. to schedule. Courtauld and myself decided that it would sometimes be necessary for one man to remain alone on the ice cap, and neither minded being alone, as we were agreed that there was no danger.” This lonely woman, who for the time being made Greenland her home and the quaint people her friends, unfolds a strangely fascinating story. The land itself, customs, life, trade, amusements, everything is made plain. Many things will surprise the reader, but everything will interest. Away in those comparatively silent spaces the radio pene-

trates. “ I know, for instance, that England’s king lies dangerously ill, that an airship hag flown the Atlantic, that someone else has beaten the world’s motor speed record, and that ‘ Robinson ' has telegraphed to Mars.” Her travelling was by varous routes and in strange conveyances. Her attendants and helpers were original characters. After reading her book it is laid by as a treasure storehouse of knowledge of an interesting people and a strange land, in which simplicity and happiness are delightfully blended.

LOOKING AHEAD AT INDIA. “ Governor Hardj’.” By Hamish Blair. (Cloth; 7s fid.) Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, Ltd. . . . Democracy does not exist. It never has existed, and it never will exist. So long as governments are necessary they will always be run by one man, or at most by a very few. Whether you call a Slate a republic or a monarchy makes not the slightest difference. One man, or a small group of men, w’ill always require to be at the head.

This extract is from the speech of Sir John Hardy, who has been appointed Governor of Bengal. The date is March 28, 1958, and he is explaining his policy to the Durbaris. “ This,” he continues, is the fact which the British Government has at last formally recognised in the case of India, and as usual it has selected Bengal as the province in which the return of personal government must first be made. Bengal has once more been placed under a personal administration, and I have been chosen to govern it as best I can under these conditions.” Some of our readers may have read 195/,” to which “ Governor Hardy” is a sequel. The writer of this review has not, but tc Governor Hardy ” is in every sense an arresting and at‘the same time a complete book. The new administrator lays down a programme for the advancement of India, but as that policy cuts across certain vested interests he meets formidable opposition. It is presumed that many experiments have been made between the present day and 1958, though these are left to the imagination of the reader. This upright representative of Britain simply lays down his programme and hopes to have the support of his compatriots.

Sir Aaron Lawless, who has considerable means, ranges himself against the governor and his reforms, and a battle royal ensues. Hardy has a meritorious record behind him, and is widely trusted. His wife is a most estimable and talented Indian princess, and he has some staunch friends. As time goes on he needs them all. Sir Aaron manoeuvres his attack very skilfully, bringing about bank failures and commercial depression. He arranges an attack in the House of Commons, and sways both the European and the Indian Chambers of Commerce against the Hardy policy. A war in Europe arising out of a crisis at Malta complicates the position in India. “ There had. been no war iu Europe since the catastrophe of 1914-18.” Then there is a serious rising in on e of the remote provinces, and Lawless is behind that. The object is to accomplish the downfall of Hardy, but it fails. The war, thanks to the intervention of the League of Nations, is a very small affair. Sir Aaron overreaches himself, and his end and the revelations connected with it are sensational.

There are several interesting characters in this book, and many dramatic situations. It is exciting, but not sensational, and it all bears the impress of probability. A love storv which does not always run smooth "constitutes a pleasing element. The author is evidently a close student of Indian affairs, and he has given us a book which at the present moment has a topical as well as a practical value.

A BATTLE OF WITS. “Murder in Earl’s Court.” By Neil Gordon. (Cloth; 6s net.) London: John Lane (the Bodley Head, Ltd.). Peter Kerrigan was out of funds and, what was worse, was out of luck as well. The shortage of cash had not undulv worried him at first. It was not the first time, or indeed the tenth time, that he had been completely broke in the short but eventful thirty-five years of his life. But on every previous occasion he had invariablv succeeded in finding some means or other of replenishing his exchequer. Jobs, or mugs, or both, had been plentiful.

Peter Kerrigan, adventurer and crook (with principles) is the star in this moving story. It is in Mr Gordon’s best style, and his best is verv good. In these days of many, thrillers, when detectives (amateur and professional) are worked overtime by many authors, it is not so easy to ‘find an original plot. Here it is done. But first; Peter Kerrigan. He is a man of accomplishments, some of which would be ruled out in anything approaching polite society. His way of getting a living was to be crooked with crooks, though mugs came within his field of operations. Most of his work was clever, and he would have been a decided acquisition to Scotland Yard. Fourteen days was his maximum time for remaining out of funds. On one

occasion 11 of the allotted time had expired before a bronzed colonial visitor had tried to sell Mr Kerrigan a gold brick in the lounge of a Holboru Hotel. “Mr Kerrigan was fully versed in the intricacies of the gold-brick market, and did not leave the side of the bronzed colonial visitor until he had received five perfectly good Treasury notes as a token of gratitude for not informing the police of the intended transaction.” Peter Kerrigan was a man of courage, resource, and very wide experience. In the storv presented in “ Murder at Earl s Court ” he needed all these qualities and a few others. Peter Kerrigan becomes convinced that a gang of crooks is engaged in a profitable line of illicit business. He believes it is dope, and he sets himself to discover the headquarters of their operations and the members of the gang. Incidentally he becomes acquainted with Lady Mary Garde, Dick Towers (an International footballer), and Lord Ferndell (Lady Mary’s brother, Cyril, who is a dope addict). The story does not get very far before Lady Mary accuses Peter Kerrigan of being a crook. “And as a matter of fact, I am,” he answered. “But I do draw the line sometimes, and taking part in the dope-trade is one of the places where I’ve drawn it. But where I haven’t drawn the line is blackmailing people who are engaged in it.”. The dialogue at this point is electrical, and Peter bluntly informs Lady Mary that if her brother “ goes very much further on his present route, he won’t ever come back.” In desperation she persuades Towers and his friends to kidnap her brother, to place him on a sailing ship, and so wean him from drugs. Just before this is accomplished, however, Cyril is consumed with desire for dope, and enters a house where a gang is supposed to be selling it. Instead he finds a dead man, and in his frenzy he searches the pockets of the corpse, getting blood on his hands and his clothes in the process. In this state he was seized by the kidnapping party and bustled on to the sailing ship. And in this state the detectives find him, and later he is tried and convicted for murder in Earl's Court. The case looks very black, and Peter Kerrigan sets himself the apparently impossible task of clearing Lord Ferndale’s name and removing the load of anguish from Lady Mary and herfather. From this stage onward there is no lack of excitement and not a little mystery. Kerrigan pursues clue after clue and takes many risks. The final scene is a stirring one, and Mr Gordon, using Peter Kerrigan as star performer, excels himself.

TWO SEA TALES. “ Across Three Oceans.” By Conor O’Brien; “On the High Seas.” By E. Keble Chatterton. (Each, cloth; 3s 6d net.) London: Philip Allan and Co., Ltd. (Nautilus Library). The sea is ever changing, yet always unchanged; the seaman has altered in centuries less than is suspected, and in a manner far less than his ships have changed. The old war goes on in peace time as in those sharp periods of international strife, and till the crack of doom the greatest of all dramas will continue to be waged afloat, with Nature’s wind and waves contending against man in his ships. The above quotation comes from the last tale in E. Keble Chatterton’s “ On the High Seas,” a collection of yarns concerning escapes, mutinies, explorations, slavers, and pirates, from a period beginning with the dawn of the seventeenth century and going down to include some of the amazing and not universally known sea episodes which happened during the Great War. The book was originally printed in 1929. Now it appears in its second edition as No. 18 of Messrs Philip Allan and Co’s, excellent Nautilus Library, a library of daintily bound and prepared books dealing with the sea. “ Across Three Oceans,” by Conor O’Brien, is No. 17 of the same library. This book, which first appeared in 1927, is an account of an ocean cruise from England to Australia and back again in a small yacht. Since it was written its author has made a considerable study of ocean yachting, so that many of the conclusions he drew from insufficient experience and printed in the first edition are upset. “ Accordingly,” as Mr O’Brien says himself, “ the opinions which will be found expressed in the second edition are not necessarily those held at the time of the incidents which evoked them, though, for the sake of tidiness, they have been spliced into the narrative neatly as they could be tucked in.” A HANDBOOK ON PERSIAN ART, “ Persian Painting.” By Mulk Raj Anand. (Paper; Is net.) London: Faber and Faber (Criterion Miscellany ). We are impressed, first of all, by its supremely decorative quality. . . There is an exquisite observation in every detail, but all is removed into a strange and radiant world because there is no attempt to render the light and shade of nature; everything glows distinct like a jewel. . . In no other art do we feel a more sensuous appreciation by the artist of the pure and precious pigments.-

This booklet, No. 25 of the Criterion Miscellany of Messrs Faber arid Faber, gives in a nutshell a comprehensive idea of the all too little known art of an artistic country. Concerned less with the history than with a description of the quality of Persian art it leaves the reader with a sound impression of values and standards so that he feels himself able to go into further study without effort. One of the painters who incites the author’s liveliest interest is Bihzad, who, he contends, received his inspiration from the religion of Sufism. I believe he achieved his greatness because he carried the romanticism of Persian art which he had inherited, not only to its logical consequences, but a little further. He introduced into it an clement of divine love, for it seems to me that he was profoundly influenced by Sufism, which at the time of his birth and during the years of his upbringing was at the zenith of its popularity in Persia, and was supplying to the arts the fecundation and inspiration of the soul. The whole booklet is worth attention, imd makes a fitting addition to the other worthy members of the Miscellany.