BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 5

BOOKS AND WRITERS

TOUGHNESS OF FRANCE RECOVERY FROM BLOWS PROFESSOR BROGAN'S BOOK It cannot be otherwise than painful to write about “The Development of Modern France (18701939),” by D. W. Brogan, says a reviewer in the London Sunday Times. But Professor Brogan’s study deserves to be read, not merely for its own sake, but also for the impression it conveys of the enduring toughness of France. A string oi names and events from his narrative will illustrate what I mean— Bazaine, Sedan, the Paris Commune, Panama, Boulanger, Dreyfus, Calmette, Mme. Caillaux, Nivelle, Stavisky. Each one of these recalls a blow under which the Third Republic reeled, but from each of which it managed to recover. The Republic, which has now lasted much longer than any regime in France since the fall of the monarchy, has shown proof of an extraordinary power of resistance to assaults from without and weaknesses within. Professor Brogan has done a particularly useful piece of work, because, in spite of our intimate association with France for nearly 40 years, we know very little about her internal affairs before the conclusion of the Entente Cordiale and not much afterwards. It is true that all the names and events I have mentioned are familiar to everyone, but the knowledge of what they really mean which is enjoyed by the general public here is, to say the best of it, meagre. Captain Dreyfus Most Englishmen, or so it was recently suggested to me by a conversation in a company of well-inform-ed people, would say, if challenged, that Dreyfus was acquitted and his innocence established in legal form when he was brought back from Devil’s Island for the retrial at Rennes in 1899, instead of having to wait for strict legal rehabilitation until 1906. Those who do not know this do not understand for how long and with what damaging effects the “Affaire” was a running sore in the side of France. One of the effects, incidentally, was so to disorganise the French Intelligence Service that the Government and the High Command were lamentably ill-informed at the outbreak of war in 1914. French politics are, to be sure, a labyrinth through which the English mind moves in bewilderment. But through this labyrinth Professor Brogan leads the reader very convincingly. “AMERICA EXPECTS ” NEW ZEALAND WRITER HECTOR BOLITHO’S DIARY “ America Expects,” by Hector Bo•litho, is a travel diary, the story of a lecture tour made in the United States of America. Mr Bolilho set out from England in November, 1938, when resentment against Germany was such that the Europa, in which he travelled, had only 90 passengers in the first class—“ as lost and forlorn as an audience of the same number in the Royal Albert Hall.” New York, when he arrived there, seemed to him cynical and unrelenting, a city to be hurried past en route to the west, “ for there the kingdom of kindness and courage lies, to soothe the traveller after the bruises of arrival have been healed.” Mr Bolitho revised his opinion of New York later, but obviously he never came to like it, and he must have had considerable satisfaction in recording how a snowstorm could paralyse all its vaunted efficiency and hustle. The southern States also did not please him entirely, for all their mellowness and charm. He thought them renegade, their backs turned to all that was best in the civilisation of the northern States. Vitality and Intelligence For the rest of the country, Mr Bolitho has little other than praise in superlatives. He admires the hospitality of Americans, their vitality and their intelligence. Amusing illustrations by John Groth complete an entertaining story.

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS

PALESTINE TODAY j MUCH INTERNAL DISTURBANCE I DEMANDS BY ARABS In 1914. as today, the Eastern ; shores of the Suez Canal and the Red ! Sea had to be especially protected so i tr.at the vital communications of the ! Fmpire shall be inviolable, therefore j “ Palestine,” by Jemas Parkes, is 1 particularly interesting, j There has been intense internal 1 disturbance in it ever since the Veri sailles Treaty. Though the Jews are j easily its most ancient inhabitants, j they had almost deserted it in recent ] centuries, and the Arabs filtered in, i remaining primitive peasants and til—- • ling the harsh soil with ploughs and j by methods little altered since Bible | days. j In 1914 the head of the Arab Na- ! tionalists stepped up beside the Allies on condition that the Arab world was promised independence, Palestine being, in the Arabs’ opinion, part of this world. With the Great Wai won, the Arabs demanded control cf Palestine, but the provisions of the Allied agreement had been loosely worded, and Britain declared she had never pledged Palestine to Sheriff Hussein. Simultaneously, the Jews called upon their persecuted race to return to the Holy Land, and they migrated to it in tens of thousands, so that their numbers now nearly equal the Arabs, and, what is more, they have modernised husbandry and commerce, and are insisting upon local autonomy. STRANGE HOUSEHOLD ! STORY OF TEN-WAY STREET ! FASCINATING NEW NOVEL | Picture a family of two girls and a boy whose father is dead, and whose mother is a famous actress, rich, temperamental, cranky and utterly unfitted to control a household. Into this environment steps from a training school a young and attractive girl who has undertaken to be governess to the children. The children are as highly strung as their mother, wild, insulting and utterly pitiless, wise in the life of the stage and in little else. Yet the young governess has red in her hair and determination in her heart, i A young doctor who is recovering from a tropical illness is a friend of the children and an admirer of their mother, and is frequently in the house. Extraordinary complications quickly ensue. The story of that strange but fascinating household is told with sane insight and literary ability by Susan Scarlett in the novel “ Ten-Way Street.” which is now available in New Zealand. PITHY LINES 1 FROM THE NEW BOOKS ! “As unreliable as a politician’s word, a thing of change that smiles only to deceive.”—From “ The Weather Eye.” “ Better be bored than bombed.”— 1 From “ Vanguard to Victory.” I “ The world will never be safe for | man.”—‘■’Film Stories.” PITHY REMARKS j FROM THE NEW BOOKS I “ Every woman’s life is what she likes to make it.”—From “ Prisoners of Love.” “ There are more murderers walking about the streets than ever felt the noose round their necks.”—From “ Death on the Boat Train.” “ Warfare kills conventions.”— From “ What of the Mighty.” binaries* Hamilton Homes reiy on J ROLFE’S WAX ROLFE’S WAX i TH« Floor, Lino., and Furniture Poli*v | wltb tde quality reputation. * 1 )