The Witch's Cauldron
BETWEEN TWO WARS. By D. C. Somervell. Methuen and Co,
Study Books series, Between Two Wars, skilfully summarises much information about international affairs and the precarious peace which ended in 1939. The general outlook is robustly conservative, the atmosphere one of realism. Chamberlain is defended, Stanley Baldwin, even Lloyd George. ("It takes a great deal of human quality to make a Lloyd George or a Clemenceau, and comparatively little to make a left-wing journalist"). Mr. Somervell is a great worshipper of things as they are: if a man’s plans succeed, he is a statesman; if they fail or are never tried, an impractical dream (in one instance, I am. afraid, an "impracticable" one). He eases himself out of the Spanish difficulty by remarking that the fiercely uncompromising Spaniards are "singularly ill-fitted for parliamentary government"; we must take it then that they are well-fitted to enjoy the paternal ministrations of Franco. Mr. Somervell finds proportional representation satisfactory only to those who "make a god of the multiplication table" and discovers that "the very first necessity of a democratic parliamentary system is that it should be interesting," a popular contest, in fact, like football, wrestling, or cricket. That’s why British democracy is so much more democratic than other kinds. The after-dinner paradoxes of an Oxford high table read rather coldly in print. As is inevitable in such a summary, facts are occasionally allowed ‘to become distorted: the Southern Tyrol in 1919 certainly contained a quarter of a million people of German blood, but it also included then-though Mr. Somervell does not say so-more than that number of people of Italian blood. But the facts in Between Two Wars are generally good. Often they are surprising: we are reminded that it was. the Germans’ own refusal to use their gold reserves to buy food abroad that prolonged the blockade at the end of the 1914-18 war. Mr. Somervell’s opinions, whether we like them or not, are vigorously and effectively presented. This book was finished in the middle of 1945 and has waited over two years in the printing queue. A VOLUME in the new Home
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 10
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355The Witch's Cauldron New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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