This is a curious and nondescript book. Beginning as a history of Russia from the earliest times, it ends rather as the impressions of a soldier who, attached to the Eastern front during the war, saw something of the Russian revolution. It is a soldier's book, breezy, untrammelled by literary and historical conventions, and distinguished by a direct simplicity which disarms criticism. The General gives an interesting account of what happened subsequently to the revolution; but his account often gives only one out of many views of the facts. Thus his chapter on the Kornilov incident is, as he states, merely a summary of Kerenski's book, and cannot therefore be accepted without considerable reserves. On pages 214-216 he gives ten outstanding facts about the Bolshevik régime "which can be proved over and over again if proof be required." We should like to see the General's proof of the first sentence in his tenth "fact," namely, that "there are no elections of any kind...." The General has also succeeded in adding a new complication to the already complicated problem of the spelling of Russian names. The gentleman whose name we have seen spelt variously by other writers Cheidze, Chheidze, and Tshcheidze appears in his book as Cheidsi.
THE PEACE IN THE MAKING. By H. Wilson Harris. Swarthmore Press. 6s. net.
It would be unfair to compare Mr. Harris's book with Mr. Keynes's, though it covers something of the same ground. Mr. Keynes is analytic and, in the end, constructive, and his subject is the rebuilding of a ruined Europe. Mr. Harris is historical and reminiscent. Like a good journalist—and it is unnecessary to say how good a journalist he is—he tells us how they made the peace rather than what kind of a peace they made and should have made. It is true that in telling us the story of peace-making at Paris he does tell us also what kind of peace they made. In fact his book has a distinct value as a clear summary of the terms eventually hammered out by the three Great Powers and accepted by Germany. But the angle of Mr. Harris's approach to his subject is that of the journalistic historian. The result is a very readable and interesting book. Putting ourselves into Mr. Harris's skilful hands, we are enabled to see, through the various journalistic spectroscopes, something of what took place behind the shuttered and curtained council chamber of the Big Four, which in effect was a Big Three.
LEAGUES OF NATIONS. By Elizabeth York. Swarthmore Press. 8s. 6d. net.
This is a useful book for those who wish to study the long and slow development of the idea of a League of Nations. The author begins with the idea of a League in ancient Greece and traces it through Dante, the "Grand Design," Grotius, Penn, Saint Pierre, Rousseau, Kant, and Bentham to Alexander I. of Russia and the Holy Alliance. The value of the book is considerably enhanced by its careful documentation, and by the fact that it gives us a translation of the text of many of the schemes and "covenants" which are not easily obtainable by the ordinary reader.
THE NEW OUTLOOK. By Lord Robert Cecil, M.P. Allen & Unwin. 1s. net.
This brochure has a double claim to interest all who concern themselves with politics. In the first place it is a remarkable revelation of the advancing spirit of democracy, of the new social conscience and widening outlook of our time. For here we have a Cecil, the type of the grand seigneurial family of high Tory traditions, calmly—or rather enthusiastically—offering us a political programme that a few years ago would have been greeted as wildly Jacobin. In the second place the views of Lord Robert derive a peculiar importance from the position which he occupies to-day in the public estimation. His high personal character, his idealism, and his ability single him out among the members of his Party—if indeed he can be said in the present political confusion to be of a Party. He gives us here half-a-dozen short essays dealing with the League of Nations, the industrial problem, finance, the reform of Parliament, and the Irish question. His practical proposals under each of these heads will not commend themselves to everyone in all their details, but none will fail to admire the generous and constructive spirit which underlies them. Those who are pessimistic about foreign affairs may well wish that we had more men of this stamp to put Europe on its feet again. Those who are exercised about the situation at home will look anxiously for the next step of this aristocrat among the democrats.
EMPIRE AND COMMERCE IN AFRICA. By L. Woolf. Labour Research Department and Allen & Unwin. 20s. net.
Mr. Woolf's object in this work is to answer the question: "What has been the result and what the lessons of the application of the power and machinery of the European State to Africa?" He examines very carefully and critically the history of the organisation of the British, French, and German Colonies in North and East Africa, as well as the Belgian Congo. The results both for Europe and for the natives he finds on the whole to be evil. The future, if we are to continue the old policy of economic imperialism, offers no better prospect. There is hope in the League of Nations, but for the mandatory system, as proposed, Mr. Woolf has no enthusiasm. To make the League effective and beneficent its forms and duties must be restated and clearly defined. The book is one which ought to be read by all who are interested not merely in African affairs but in the Colonial policies of the European Powers.