BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20731, 15 February 1939, Page 10

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS

"When I think nr the recent apotheosis or a cross hostile to the cross or Christ, prepared in this very r-ity or Rome, and nr the injury d-.ne to the Concordat, it does not seem superfluous Tor rne to think that some respect at least might be paid to my -white hairs. Instead, they wish lu ride roughshod over everything. - ’ —Late Pope Pius.

THE EUROPEAN SITUATION SEEN BY A PACIFIST MAN WHO “TOLD US SO” There is no more righteous ostracism , than that of the bore who constantly j ! says. “I told >ou so," writes “C.J.” in ' tiie Sydney Sun. in referring to “The : Great Illusion—Now." by Norman i Angell. Bui Ihere are exeeptions to : • the rule, and Norman Angell. the fev- ! j erish pacifist, is one of them, for 30 | ! years ago he left Old Moore's Almanac | * standing and outlined the course of i \ external history with remarkable ac- I i curacy. I There is no peace anywhere, nor the , faintest signs of it. The very earth j , trembles beneath the goose-step of j armed men, and the hearts of mankind ! vibrate with apprehension. | Statesmen spoke with eerie presI cicnce when they called London the i Heart of the Empire. To-day, the I sprawling city dictates the policy of the British Empire. And the simple civilian, not the soldier in his massive mechanised armament, nor the soldier in his steel floating fortresses, will have to withstand the first hot blast of battle. Mr Chamberlain was not blind when he said in September when war starts to-day, in the very first hour, before any professional soldier or sailor or airman has been touched, it will strike the clerk, the man In the street, or in the bus. and his wife and children. And for seven years the totalitarians have encroached upon the democracies with the creeping movement of the rising tide. If England had responded to the American suggestion that, the landgrabbing - policy of Japan should be blocked in 1031. the perilous*position of Britain might, have been avoided. Instead, England and Inter France have yielded lo the llireat of force and still the aggressiveness of the Dictators is insatiable. Price of Peace Behind the diplomacy which has brought the present crisis has been Ihe economic influence of great interests, which have held that the dominance of Europe by Dictators involves less danger to orderly life than a flood of Communism from Russia. Mr Angell confesses frankly that he would surrender the Colonies, or the Dominions, to the Dictators would this assure peace to the world, but events have deprived him of this hope and their pettisoning would be merely incitement to further demands. So he I has abandoned wishful thinking, j Britain cannot, he maintains face 'the Rome-Berlin axis in isolation; J j France cannot hold her borders against j a determined foe: Russia has been ! coldly “sent to Coventry.” We shall ’ only be able to talk with Germany on pnr.iai terms, if (a) Britain and the Seaboard States of Europe can somehow be made a defensive unit: (h) the ro-operntion of Russia be assured; (e) four hundred millions Chinese aided part of the forces resisting aggression.* (d) the growth of totalitarian power checked; and a stand made at points where a stand would not involve the annihilation of our cities.” His opinions, his advice, are, to say Ihe least, depressing, and what makes them worse they do not seem to be far away from the facts.

DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA AN AUTHOR'S OPINION PROTECTION OF BASE AREAS In a book entitled “Demand for Defence,” just published in Syd.-. Mr W. C. Wentworth expresses belief that in the event of an attack j on Australia, her sea communications \ would be destroyed and arms could I no longer be obtained from overseas, j The country, lie goes on, would have to rely on existing stocks, and its own manufactures. Us factory areas would need lo be protected if i ils army were to operate at all. Preservation of base areas should ! therefore he the primary object of I strategy, 1 iic author says. These j should he as few as possible, perhaps j nol more Ilian one lor each State. j the author claims, is a conception j new to Australian defence. In New South Wales the base area I would include Sydney, Port Kembla and Ihe llawkcsbury plain; with 1,400,0(10 people 51 per cent of the population), water and power supplies, coal mines, and a large proportion of Ihe factories. Against Evacuation Mr Wentworth opposes the application, to Australia, of the current belief that city populations should necessarily be evacuated, under attack, into the country. The base areas might be the peoples’ refuges. Decentralisation of factories (outside the Rases), is, he says, “utterly fatal to successful defence, and must be fought like the plague. “Since it is probable that the enemy | will succeed in severing connection 1 between our various bases, each must j so far as practicable, be self-contained. : making so much of its own equipment . as it can, and holding stores of the , remainder. “There is no point in having fea’f j a machine made in Sydney and ha»f j in Melbourne, when an enemy, by j cutting communications between the two towns, co'Uld render both their productions useless.” Once the bases were determined and fortiffed against enemy approach they could be used for the following purposes: As the point from which fighting supplies could continuously be drawn; as a centre for radiating defence lines; as a point from which enemy communications might be cut; as a point to which a beaten army could retire; and as a refuge for the civilian population. “Chance of Survival” Strategical consideration led the author to conclude that, if an enemy made a determined effort to invade Australia before adequate defences could be built up, it could not be prevented from occupying the Murray and Darling - basins, as well as certain coastal areas. Bases should accordingly be located in regions where defence is most practicable. Even if the forces and the civilian population should be driven into these areas, if these were properly fortified the enemy advance could be held up pending the general decision of the war outside Australia. “By constructing these bases.” says Mr Wentworth, “we thus stand at least a reasonable chance of survival; whereas, if we fail to construct them, we may be exterminated at the start of the war, and have no profit, in the eventual victory of Britain or the eventual intervention of the United States.” Naval Base Site The author reviews the international situation. In discussing naval strategy, he suggests, as a primary need, a base to the north-east of New Guinea, in or near the Solomons. He asserts m a preface: “It is evident by now that the Federal Government has no adequate plan of Australian defence, and is incapable even of carrying out its own inadequate proposals . . . “Since the Government will not take the initiative, the pressure of public opinion must be brought to bear upon it, in order to force action.” The book has many maps illustrating the probable terrain of a war waged in Australia. Proof sheets were submitted to Australian military* authorities, and it, is understood that, no objection has been offered to publication. THE LIBRARY To those who know the corridors of sun The high arched windows and the still, soft gloom Of quiet books —there is a simple * choice — To stay—and watch the passing of the hours Like weary travellers that leave no Except the subtle footprints on the mind .... In that frail mold where passing moments trace A stranger patterning titan eyes can know. . . .• To stay, and in our staying realise That back of us in straight and endless rows The great look on—m our imperAnd luii-h —as if their laughing could reveal The truth. Wilhin your fortresses you too are lost—are but frail pasFuinl °dickers on the cinema of Time. . . . James Liotla. in the Wilson Bulletin. the ballet IN HISTORY AND PICTURE SOME INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS The visit to New Zealand of a ballet ornpany will naturally stimulate interest in that form of art and entertainment. Five books have recently

been pulT-died, dealing with the ballet j iron. <!.. : • ii: ills of view. Two a;v . - d in■ ■ • • rs Mu nselw Seri:.' I.ifar > - I• .I:• Tradition .! to Modern.“ trail-: d <; i W. Beaumont Pu . : ..nd An. :\ I).din’s - Ballet c.» i: •••-.; Midi • I Joseph . and two l'r:bu . Cod a- . ,ini "Til.' Romantic Ballet in I ••• M •• Time. - by Mr Bin.ii:: ut fold Suclievi i ell Sitwell Faber . The last is mainly a picture-book; eight y-one collotype reproductions, nine in colour, of contemporary lithographs showing Ihe great dancers of the period from is:p2 to 1850. Litho- I graphs of Elssler lacing her stays, of 1 Taglioni, as Ihe S>lphide, standing on | oxer a water! - ;,li. of Rosati skating ! Lucile Gralin 11-uiing in Hie air above j a lake; lithographs by chalon and ! Bouvier and Brandard; in fact, nearly aii the lithographs of the “Romantic

j Ballet” that exist. Mr Sitwell con- i tributes on essay on the ballet; Mr j Beaumont an essay on the dancers and ! a catalogue raisonne. The book, 1 which lias been given an expensive period format, supplier Ihe source of some ohscur** references in tiie poetry of Miss Edith Sitwell. Tribute to Dancers The Masefield-Seago book is coni' rned with a general tribute to ballets f“'*en in London and to such individual dancers as Massine, Danilova, Baronova. Dolin, Sessivsteva. M. Lifar gives a learned account of Ihe academic ballet of tHe seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, and the new ballet of the present cen- j fury, and an analysis of Hie theory and j j Mature of dancing; ballet is the union I of dancing and painting, ballet "must | j throw orr the yoke of music, however | j beautiful and captivating it may be", —it is all serious, expert, full of 1 theories. Mr Dolin. on the other hand, is all | personalities and reminiscences—a I

j Royal Command performance, the re- • ctions of Ilolboru Empire audiences. ] v.hv Markova tripped Dolin’* foot | at Sadler's Wells, what happened when the champagne ran out at Cap d Antibes. Quid* to t*e Brltet The fifth book is a “Pelican -necial.** sin p y entitled if Arnold Haskell, it i- .< complete guide - let. Us th.' iry, i • - on leading per>nna]iti«N«. in and ere : - of modern ballet, and studies of Individual ballets are given with illustrations. This little book gives one the ballet and all that pertains to it in a nutshell.