"Cktae iN Ino1A."—By Sir Cecil Waleh, London? Ernest Benn, Ltd, Sir Cecil Walsh's early book "Indian Village Crimes" was an admirable investment for the short. story writer. Tt is not s0 cert the "same fraternity will And fruitful @ source of inspiration in this volume ut it,—nevertheless, fully justifies its. place among the publishers* "thrillers," Sir Cecil Walsh hax been many years in India as a Judge of the High Court and criticism of legal procedure ean-not be lightly treated. At the same time, there are many generalizations in his comments on indian administration which he would probahlyhave modified if he had had a more extensiveeknowledge of Indian conditions.
In many respects the reviewer is reminded' of the story of one of Harley Street's greatest authorities fon women's nerve disorders; this distinguished medical man aroused considerable criticism by reason of his very unfavourable view of the claim of the female sex generally to any virtues, moral, sgeial or spiritual, It was sugicested thit days spent in investigating the troubles of neurotie women had entirely upset the balance of the good doctor's judgment. This, mutatis mutandis, applies to Sir Cecil Walsh's obiter dicta on the work of district officers and in particular on that much abused section of officialdom known fas the Indian Police. Otherwise the book contains a very shrewd appreciation of the difficulty of arriving at the truth in India owing in the main to the ignorance of the average villager, Disagreeing with Sir Cecil there are many people with knowledge of India who consider that the inability of the Courts to obtain the truth from. witness an ingrained habit of lying, but ¢o an absence of imagination and to local conditions which are sufficiently made clear by Sir Cecil Walsh him-elf. The author devotes over 50 Pages toan interesting introduction, and he strongly repeats his conten: tion that the law of evidence India should be brought into line with ghat obtaining in England nowadays by permitting an accused to ive evidence on his own behalf. Sir Cecil Walsh makes out a very strong case for this change and to the lawyer this is, perhaps, the most, valuable part of his book. The eral reader will quarrel with more in sorrow than in. anger! account of the selection which he made from what must be a vast repertoire of crime stories, The motto of "churches la femme" can be overdone and the lurid details of the amorous intrigues of Indian villagers are not very attractive in such a strong dose: indeed, the best story in the book is the Post Office problem in the last chapter but two, in which the story of the conviction and subsequent" acquittal of a humble post office clerk is brilliantly told and shows how well the publi¢ in India is served by its corps of High Court Judges, This criticism is admittedly a little captious for, as the enormous citulation of certain Sunday papers in London shows, there is a public which will be delighted at Sir Cecil's thrilling yarns—pat.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.