Colonel Blood Outdone!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 14

Colonel Blood Outdone!

Another Edgar Wallace story has appeared—“ The Traitor’s Gate.” Like all the productions of this author, it is not lacking in mystery and thrill. This is a tale which concerns the inevitable master crook, a young Guardsman, his cashiered brother, a scoundrel Indian rajah, the inevitable “lovable girl” and one by no means all lovable. No less a coup is planned than the robbing of the strong-room in the Tower of London, wherein are contained the Crown jewels; moreover, the robbery is most ingeniously and successfully completed—and the same steamer that makes off with the second crown to please a rajah’s vanity also carries the beautiful heroine, who has been abducted to the order of the same rajah. Love and an airplane effect the rscue of diadem and damsel. All very thrilling—very! “The Traitor’s Gate,” by Edgar Wallace; Ilodder and Stoughton, Ltd. Our copy direct from the publishers. A Hard, Heroic Band A British cavalry patrol becomes lost in the burning desert —a tough, cursing, desperate crew, containing but one God-fearing man, and he a religious maniac. As for the remainder, they fear no god, no devil, nor yet the bloodthirsty desert Arabs who finally wipe them out. The story is confined to the space of a few days, but they are days—and nights —of soul-shaking adventure. A gallant band, its remnants finally besieged in an oasis, it fights to the lats man, and what a fight Tie makes! For frankness of soldierly speech “Patrol” is unique—the swearing characters in “Simon Called Peter” were psalmsingers in comparison. Many are tired of war stories, but there is a swinging action and a vividness about “Patrol” that carries one along with unflagging interest. “Patrol,” by Philip Macdonald. W. Collins, Sons and Co., Ltd. Our copy from the Auckland agents, Wyndham Street. A Hardworking Nobleman. Lord Sydenham’s Autobiography Is entitled, very exactly, “My Working Life.” He has worked hard and thoughtfully, in many parts of the Empire, and always zealously for the Empire. His book sets down, in a solid, earnest way which soon strikes one as perfect self-expression, a plain account of what he has done, and of the opinions to which he has been led. His Governorship of Victoria cured him, for example, of Liberalism and faith in democratic government, which he thinks must soon become impossible. His present conviction is that the growth of Socialism, which he cannot separate from revolution, is a growth towards disaster, of which the “once great Liberal party” is one accelerating cause, the enfranchisement of young women voters another. Lord Sydenham is never anything but blunt: the Russian revolution of 1917 he ascribes to the work of “the German agents, Lenin and Trotsky”; the Amritsar inquiry was “the greatest travesty of British justice in my lifetime”; the belief that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s plays is “this intellectually demoralising myth”, supported by a “conspiracy of silence” among newspapers and scholars. But there is more in these pages than dogmatism: valuable light is thrown on problems of Imperial defence, Colonial administration generally, and India in particular, and much beside; and though his attitude is sometimes exasperating, his sincerity, sense, shining loyalty, and tireless industry win one’s deep admiration and interest. “My Working Life.” Colonel the Lord Sydenham of Combe, G.C.5.1., G.C.M.G. John Murray. Our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs. Ltd.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED “The New Triad” for March. Brighter than “The Triad” has been these a-raary moons. “Off to the Races,” by Helen Dowker. 14pp. Connolly and Co.. Auckland. ——