BERLIN 11-6191 DID NOT ANSWER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 375, 30 August 1946, Page 14

BERLIN 11-6191 DID NOT ANSWER

AN elderly Scotswoman once described the dictionary as "a fine book, but a wee bit disjointit.’ The same criticism would no doubt be applied ‘by most people to "Who’s Who," though in the nature of things it has more human interest than most works of reference. But it has taken that indefatigable

researcher

JULIAN

HUXLEY

to discover "Who’s Who" as a source of enter-

tainment, in the afticle below, which we reprint irom "ihe Saturday Keview of Literature,’ he discusses some of the curious and amusing entries to be found in the current edition.

Review of Literature asked me if I would review the current issue of the British Who’s Who in their columns. It was an opportunity for which I have always been grateful, for it introduced Te years ago, The Saturday

me to the fact that Who’s Who is a min> of interesting, curious, and entertaining information, and indeed an ideal bedside book in ail respects save its format (a volume of well over 3,000 pages is a little bulky in bed).

Recently, while looking up a point in the current issue, my eye was caught by the’ name "HITLER, Adolf," and reading further I found (among much else) the following. particulars: "Chancellor of the German Reich since 1933;

Commander-in-Chief of the German Fighting Forces since 1938; Personal Commander of the Army since 1941; Supreme War Lord; Supreme Law Lord since 1942; .... of an old Upper Austrian peasant and artisan family, religion, Catholic. . . . Studied architecture and painting in Vienna; .. . became Head of the German State by law of 7th August, 1934, confirmed by Referendum of 19th August, 1934. Publication: Mein Kampf, Vol. I., 1925, Vol. IL., 1927. Address: Wilhelmstr. 77; Berlin. W. 8, T: 11-6191." There it was in black and whiteHitler’s* wartime appointments, Hitler’s address, Hitler’s telephone number-in the British Who’s Who of 1945. All temptations to try to ring him up were banished by the recollection that he was almost certainly dead, and quite certainly not obtainable at Berlin 116191. Instead, I wrote to the editor of The Saturday Review and asked whether I could try my hand at an article on Who’s Who for 1945-an article which would commemorate the demise of the six years’ wartime Who’s Who rather than celebrate its birth. He agreed: and here it is. Some Enemies Let me return to our late enemies. Stimulated by the discovery of Hitler in this British sanctuary, I looked up other prominent enemies, and from them browsed on to allies and neutrals. Goering (but under Go, not Goe) is there, with address, but not telephone number. I had forgotten that he was Reichsjagermeister-ptobably a unique official position-and that he had once been Air Adviser to Denmark, and a Director of Svenska Lufttrafik. So is Ribbentrop present ("head of import and export firm in Berlin’")-but champagne is not mentioned. "Chancellor’s principal collaborator in questions of foreign policy, 1932-33"-do not let us forget this self-made avowal. The sentences "Affiliation of Austria March 1938; Affiliation of Sudeten Area, October 1938; Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia established, March 1939; Return of the Memelland, March 1939" presumably mean that Ribbentrop felt himself to have played a decisive role in these transactions. But Goebbels, for some strange reason, is not included, nor Hess, nor Himmler, nor Ley, nor Streicher, nor Keitel, nor Rommel, nor von Rundstedt, nor Jodl -nor, in a very different category, Niemoeller. And yet Schacht is safely in (with telephone number); and von Neurath ("Senior §.S. Group Leader ‘since 1943"); and Bergius, the chemist and industrialist (complete with office and private phone numbers); and Bis- marck, Prince Otto Christian Archibald

von (though with no address, and nothing listed after 1928); and Otto Warburg, the great biologist; and Fritz Kreisler, who, though Austrian by birth, gives a Berlin address, and Professor Robert Heger, "First Conductor at the State Opera, Berlin," and author of an opera on Lady Hamilton. The reasons for inclusion seem rather arbitrary. Mussolini in Italian When we come to Italy, we find of course Mussolini (with his entry in Italian; none of. the- Nazi biographies are in German, though the refugee German writer Bruno Frank writes his entry in his native language, from an address in Beverly Hills). Mussolini’s entry recalls the astonishing symptom of Italian weakness, that he himself was Head of the Government, Prime Minister, Secretary of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Interior, Minister for War, Minister of Marine, and Air Minister. In spite of his sixtyone years, he still gave the same re-creations-violin, riding, fencing, motoring, flying-as ten years ago. But no events are listed after 1943. The Pope is there, of course, with Discorsi Panegyrici and five volumes of speeches and broadcasts among his publications. It is nice to know that he was at one time Professor at the Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics, and also Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. Scarfoglio ("literary and political

writer") is in; and Villari; and, I am glad to say, Benedetto Croce (whose entry-a remarkable record of intellectual activity-is in French); and Mascagni, the composer (in 1890) of Cavalleria Rusticana.

Among Japanese | find the painter and sculptor Hiramoto (included perhaps because he received his artistic education in the U.S.A.); the "author, social worker and Christian preacher" Kagawa (also educated partly in the U.S.A.); the elderly soldier . Prince Nashimoto ("Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum . a address Tokio"). Shigemitsu, Japan’s Foreign Minister after 1943 is there, and is listed as "Japanese Ambassador to Nanking Government, 1942-43;" but not Prince Konoye or many other of the war leaders of the country. For China there is of course Chiang Kai-shek, whose biography recalls that he visited Soviet Russia in 1923 "to study military and social system." He has (or lists) no recreations, but it is nice to know that he was given an Hon. G.C.B. in 1942. Madame Chiang Kai-shek is also there, and Wellington Koo. And Chiang, the artist and author of numerous books illustrated by himself on different parts of Britain; among

his recreations is calligraphy, and it is curious to note that he began his career as a teacher of chemistry. Also Shi Hsiung, who translated Shaw, Barrie, Thomas Hardy, and Benjamin Franklin into Chinese (I wonder how they came through in that language, especially Barrie-I can’t visualise a Chinese Peter Pan); but I can’t find Hu Shi or T. V. Soong. Stalin Gets Half a Column Russia is well represented. , Stalin’s entry has been expanded to half a column from the massive reticence of its earlier three lines. He mentions that his father was a cobbler but is alone, so far as I can discover, in listing his children under the impersonal "c" instead of "s" or "d." "With Lenin prepared and led October Revolution, 1917" seems to omit certain other protagonists. We find Molotov ("son of a shop assistant; ... . worked against Zinovievists, Leningrad, 1926; ..... worked against Bukharinists in Moscow, 1928"). His address-just "Moscow, Russia"-beats Stalin’s "The Kremlin, Moscow, U.S.S.R." Shostakovich is there and lists "Piano Quintet (First Stalin Premium of 100,000 rubles) 1941; Seventh Symphony (describing Leningrad during the war, a vigorous call to human courage and victory) 1941;" he also lists "Lady Macbeth of Mzensk’’ (1932), but does not record the hauling over the ideological coals he received for it. On the other hand Prokofieff, though very much in favour in Russia, does not appear. We find Countess Alexandra, one of Tolstoy’s daughters, who went to live in the United States in 1929 (‘‘compelled to leave Russia because the Soviets instilled anti-religious propaganda in Tolstoy’s museums and schools"); but not that other daughter who now looks after the Tolstoy Museum at Yasnaia Poliana, nor the unrelated but famous writer Alexis Tolstoy. Sholokhoy is in, but Ilya Ehrenberg is not. Mysterious Absences The mystery of the criteria of exclusion and inclusion becomes most obscure when we come to the United States. Why is Franklin Delano Roosevelt in, but Eleanor out? Why Owen Young but not Stark Young? Why Pope (Arthur Upham) of Iran and not Pope (Senator) of the Tennessee Valley Authority? (In parenthesis, the TVA gets an altogether raw deal, for none of its directors are in). Why the abovementioned Dr. Bruno Frank and not L. K. Frank? *e. Most extraordinary of all, why is President Truman not in? Granted, he was only Vice-President when the 1945 Who’s Who appeared, but he was VicePresident! Almost as extraordinary are the absences of such names as John L. Lewis, Commissioner’ Moses, Ogden Nash, Krishnamurti, James Thurber, Robert Benchley, Edward G. Robinson, Claudette Colbert, Dorothy Lamour, Frederic March, Paulette Goddard, Hedy Lamarr, Sonja Henie, Jimmy Cagney, George Raft, Ginger Rogers, and Mae West (though she enjoys the rare distinction of having her. name incorporated in the language while still living). Especially when we find such a long list of the elect-the Luces, the Lunts (Lynn Fontanne "began as child in pantomime at Drury Lane"), Mary Pickford, Walt Disney, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Paul Robeson,

Charlie Chaplin, Paul Muni, Charles Laughton, Greta Garbo, Gropius, Maurice Hindus, Mary Borden, Felix Frankfurter, Archibald MacLeish, Henry Kaiser. I do not propose to gp through other foreign countries seriatim, but it is perhaps worth noting that Finland is duly represented by Sibelius; Switzerland by C. G. Jung (whose recreations include "Researches about Primitive Psychology in North Kenya, 1925-26"); Czechoslovakia by Benes ("one of the leading figures in the Little Entente"); Sweden by Sven Hedin (who made the first of his many notable journeys in 1885, and has had some of his books translated into seventeén languages); Portugal by -- (but not Spain by Franco). France, of course, has many entries, including General de Gaulle (who lists his recreations of riding and shooting as "pre-war"’); Paul Poiret, the dress designer, who describes himself simply as "artiste" and has for his recreations "yachting propriétaire du cotre M. Dumollet" (cotre was a new word to me -it means cutter); and Sacha Guitry, among whose recreations I find the mysterious phrase "jeux icariens" which ought to signify attempts at flight ending in disaster; André‘ Siegfried, André Chevrillon, and André Maurois, the writers; Seignobos,‘ the historian; Herriot, Laval, Admiral Muselier-but not Corbusier, most famous of modern architects, nor the Duc de Guise. One Misprint But enough of foreigners and enough of exclusions. Let me end with some tidbits of British and American Who’sWhory in the last year of war. First I have to signal the only misprint I have ever discovered in any volume of Who’s Who-one page-heading reads "MPSON." I wondered from what tertitory of the Empire ‘the gentleman might hail, but discovered it was merely a mistake for SIMPSON. Then I have discovered that Mr. William Joseph Ennever (b. 1869) "added the new word Pelmanism to the English language;" that Epstein’s muchcriticised memorial to W. H. Hudson in Hyde Park "was carved by the sculptor on a block of Portland stone and unveiled by the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin;" that "Air-Commodore H. H. Raj Rajeshwar Sarmad-I-Rajhai Hindustan Maharajah Dhiraj Sri°-Sir Umaid Singhi Sahib Bahadur of Jodhpur" (where the jodhpurs come from) is "Head of the Rathor Rajput clan, and one of the leading ruling Princes of India’. . . . the younger offshoots of his family are the ruling Princes of Bikaner, Kishengarh, Idar, Rutlam, Sailana, Sitaman, and Jhabua;" that Sir Richard Acland makes no mention of the illfated Common Wealth party which he helped to found; that Majer Freddie Chapman, the noted explorer and mountaineer, was still listed, though "officially reported missing 1942"-an optimism justified by his almost miracu* lous reappearance last year; that Howard Coster, Britain’s most celebrated photographer of men, has the Freedom of the City of London; that neither Sir Charles Sherrington nor Lynn Fontanne give their age; that Sir Ian Hamilton (whom I saw recently, very active, at’ the theatre) entered the Army 72 years ago; that Picasso’s entry is only four lines (Continued on next page)

FUN WITH "WHO'S WHO" long, and gives no indication of his work except the two words "Spanish painter;" that H. St. J. Philby, the Arabian scholar and explorer, does not mention his conversion to Islam, although he lists, as his second address, after one in London, "Mecca, Arabia.’ Recreations The chief recreation of a reader of or writer on Who’s Who will always remain the Recreations of those who figure in its pages. Let me conclude with a sample culled at random. For sheer gusto, verve, and variety, I put first those of Dr. Gopal Chunder Chatterjee, M.B., F.R.I. (Lond.); "Propaganda for rousing the sanitary conscience of the people in the matters of public health, modern scientific agriculture and co-operative marketing, dairying, home crofting, co-operative water

supply, cottage industries, research in intestinal flagellate protozoa and fermentative bacteria"-never a dull moment for Dr. Chatterjee! Other Indians, too, have remarkable recreations. Professor Ven Xateswara is uncompromising, with "creative work in literature and art, philosophical problems," besides tennis and walking. The newspaper proprietor and editor Mahbub Alam specifies "Indian club exercise in the morning;" Mr. Justice Sinha democratically includes "hiking;" Mr. Varma, a Judge of the High Court, discards the traditional impersonal modesty of Who’s Who with "a keen tennis player and an excellent hand at chess," while H.H. The Jam Sahib- of Nawanagar definitely prefers the physical; "shooting, cricket, tennis, racquets, and all other games’"a sweeping assertion. The telegraphic address of Raja Sir Seth Daga, K.C.LE. is simply "Lucky." Among Englishmen, Professor H. D. Naylor seems rather out of date with "addressing League of Nations meetings." Sir Osbert Sitwell introduces a note of wartime austerity: "Thinking for himself, and not receiving, or answering unnecessary correspondence on at least one day in the week-all others in abeyance until the end of the war;" while Sacheverell has reduced his erstwhile long and playful list to~‘"none," and: Edith omits the heading entirely. G. B. Shaw, however, continues his famous entry, "Anything except sport." Athene Seyler, the actress, is one of the few who list "talking" (in this case after "walking"’). Nevinson, the artist, includes "journalism" as well as motorcaravanning; but the most incongruous pair of recreations seems to be Sir Douglas Newbold’s "archaeology and squash racquets," though Senator Gogarty’s "archery and aviation" makes a (Continued. on next page)

(Continued from previous page) good runner-up. John Piper, the painter, recreates himself exclusively with "church architecture;" Captain Knight, of Golden Eagle fame, exclusively with "falconry;" Benno Elkan, the sculptor, exclusively with "browsing through his many picture books on art of all periods and’ countries." The amateur anthropologist George Pitt-Rivers (who includes in his _ biography: "1940-42, held a_ political prisoner by order of the Home Secretary") spreads himself with "cultivating any form of art, and detesting bishops." George Robey’s recreations are very idiosyncratic-"cricket, football, collecting stamps and antiquities, and making violins." So let us leave the Anglo-Saxons, _ comforted by the thought that even the stress of the greatest war in history has not caused them to abandon their peculiarities of recreation.