THE BOOKMAN.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 356, 10 February 1937, Page 8

THE BOOKMAN.

WEEKLY NOTES. Some Reviews Of Books And Magazines. Palestine Picture, by Douglas Duff. Published by Hodder and Stoughton. Our copy from J Gardner. Stratford. Unless one is a student of current affairs or is doomed to sub-edit newspaper cables for a living, the betting is that the stories cabled in the last year or so about events in Palestine would be glossed over. The result is comparative ignorance about the cohdition o£ affairs in that country. In “Palestine Pictures,” Mr Duff, an ex-officer of the Palestine police force, returns to the Holy Land after some years away. So he can view present conditions in the light of the past, not only the past he knew during his residence there, but also the past he knows from Biblical and other historical studies. Consequently hisi "pictures” are vivid and real, not to the imagination, but to the more material outlook of fact. The controversial issue of Palestine in short is the rival claims ol Arabs and Jews for the country, and the maladministration of Britain. Hear the Arab view-point from a motor-driver. “The men of Palestine are not as they were a few years ago. . . the children who were five or six when General Allenby walked through the Jaffa Gate, are now young men in their prime . . they remember nothing of the Turkish Government. . . they have been trained . . . they know all about world affairs in the new schools set up by England . . . there is not a man amongst us ■who does' not realise that the English promised this land of ours to the Arabs in return for our help in the war . . for 16 years we have waited ... and all we have got is evasion and lie upon lie.” On the other hand the Jew holds the glorious ideal of putting an end to 2,000 years of wandering and dispersion. Palestine was l promised to him by the British and the serried ranks of gravestones in Palestine’s war cemeteries are thir title deeds. Britain occupied Palestine and made promises to those who helped her. A fanciful ideal inaugurated the Zionist movement. A too-benevolent rule has now undermined her authority. Mr Duff tells the story in 'brilliant fashion. He shows a picture of the present in the light of the past and finishes with soundly constructive suggestions for a unified Palestine. No better knowledge of current ■ events in the Holy Land could Tie 1 gained from a better source than “Palestine Pictures.”

“Short Stories,” published by The Windmill Press. Our copy from Messrs Gordon and Gotch Ltd.,, per Mr Rex Watson, Broaidway, Stratford. The name of William MacLeod Raine on the forefront of the midDecember issue of this l magazine will be sufficient to attract the keen interest of lovers' of Western type of fiction in which the author has achieved a foremost place. A generous instalment of his new novel “To Ride the River With,” deals 1 with an exciting fight against rustlers that quickly absorbs the interest of readers 1 . Six short stories afford an excellent variety of reading. “Trial of Treachery,” by Ralph Johnson, which deals with adventure at an isolated position on the east coast of Borneo is* a pretty good yarn. How gangsters were defeated by rising floods is told in “And High Water,” by Robert E. Rhode.