The Transvaal Surrounded. By W. J. LEYDS, Litt.D., Author of "The First Annexation of the Transvaal." With Maps. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Spring, 1920.)
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This work is a continuation of "The First Annexation of the Transvaal" by the same author, and like the previous volume is based chiefly on British documents, Blue Books, and other official records. References are given to these, and the reader can form his own opinion from them. To find his way through the overwhelming mass of documents is only possible for the man who for long years drew up and signed most of the papers issued by his Government. For the official records accessible to the historian are incomplete; they must be supplemented by the archives of the Republic. Only when this has been done—as it has now by one who knows—will the history of the relations between England and the Boers be freed from falsehood and slander.
Modern Japan: Its Political, Military and Industrial Development. By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN, Ph.D., M.R.A.D., F.R.A.I., M.J.S., etc. Lecturer on Japanese, School of Oriental Studies (Unv. of Lond.), Priest of the Nishi, Hongwaryi, Kyoto, Japan, (Spring, 1920.)
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Unlike the book of casual impressions by the tourist or globe-trotter or a tedious work of reference for the library, Mr. McGovern's book on "Modern Japan," gives for the average educated man an interesting description of the evolution of Japan as a modern world Power, and describes the gradual triumphs over innumerable obstacles which she accomplished. The book relates how the Restoration of 1867 was carried out by a small coterie of ex-Samurai, in whose hands, or in that of their successors, political power has ever since remained. We see portrayed the perfecting of the Bureaucratic machine, the general, political and institutional history, the stimulation of militarism and Imperialism, and centralised industry. It is a vivid account of the real Japan of to-day, and of the process by which it has become so. Though comprehensible to the non-technical reader, yet the most careful student of Far Eastern affairs will find much of value in the acute analysis of the Japanese nation. The author is one who has resided for years in Japan, was largely educated there, who was in the Japanese Government service, and who, by his fluent knowledge of the language, was in intimate contact with all the leading statesmen of to-day. Furthermore his position as priest of the great Buddhist temple of Kyoto brought him in touch with phases of Japanese life most unusual for a European. While neither pro nor anti-Japanese, he has delineated the extraordinary efficiency of the machine of State (so largely modelled on Germany), while, at the same time, he has pointed out certain dangers inherent in its autocratic bureaucracy.
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION
Byways in Southern Tuscany. By KATHERINE HOOKER. With 60 full-page Illustrations, besides sketches in the text and a removable Frontispiece, the end papers being a coloured map of Southern Tuscany by Porter Garnett. Demy 8vo, cloth.
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