Loxpos Turoven Csuxese Eves. By M. J. Z. Tyau, (Swarthmore Press, 15s. net.)
The author of this book is a young Chinese who passed the years between 1909 and 1916 in taking a university course in England, says the "Times." He is now (or was till Ed.) the (editor "Peking Leader,"
hinese daily newspaper in the English language." From the preface, contributed by Sir John Jordan, British Minister in Peking, we learn that it is one of the most influential papers in the capital, and that its editor, who is also its founder, is "perhaps foremost amongst those who are educating public opinion in China and preparing it for the wise assimilation of Western thought and ideas."
The early part of his narrative, dealing with things seen, is a little disappointing; for a Frenchman from just the other side of the Channel might pick out the same things for comment—the unless sky; the muddy streets; the policeman weaving spells with an upraised finger, a pencil and a notebook At the outset Mr. Tyau is a little too anxious not to give offence to be convincing. For instance, in discussing the enthusiasm for football, he says that the "soccer" game is clean and scientific; we should not have picked out the former epithet to distinguish it from ther vari ties of football. Again he may involve enterprising travellers - in some inconvenience by stating that when Customs Officers are informed that there is nothing to declare they forego the examination of luggage; they are not quite as ingenuous as that. All these are comments that any foreigner might make, and it is only once that Mr. Tyau_ justifies our own conception of the man from the land of dragons Superficially the arm of the law is not autocratic, but gentle and benign. This is best illustrated by the bewigged and berobed judges, for few will ever associate the old gentlemen dressed in those grandfatherly garments as the dispensers of stern justice: they seem better fitted to play hide-and-seek with little children in their Santa It is pleasant, however, in these days of disillusionment to believe that he is sincere in discovering so much to praise in England. He finds
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.