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Ransome. London:
E'Unwin tae 192.
George Allen There is always a fascination shed to the work of a man who "has left his last" by striking out on a new line, and in the case of Mr, Arthur Ransome who has for a spell abandoned pure literature for tthe rough and tumble of polities we fare all agog to see how he acquits himself. Mr. Ransome is a con-old Examination Hall. By these eminent tests) Dr. Hsu Chien was something almost equivalent to a Senior Wrangler (Senior Classic is what he should have said). He found Hsu "aggressive, a brilliant man with something wrong with his brain," "unbalanced, incalculable, obstinate, and dogmatic." Hsu, who talks excellent English, elected to speak to Ransome through an inter-prefer "voloubly with quick movements of his hands, and, now and then, and ' almost siderable man of letters.
Bohemia in London" followed by Edgar Allen Poo" and among other books his very illuminating and really clever "Life of Oscar Wilde" in which 12 years after the death of that batling pater the soul of the man was captured, are all works showing an amazing critical faculty. His style is force-fol and direct and possesses markable lucidity and charm. His articles on Soviet Russia written for the "Manchester Guardian" would seem to justify HN. Brailstord's claim' in the "New Mr. Ransome is on the stof of the "Manchester Guardian" and, perplexed with the conflicting reports from China, had himself sent here in order to ace things at first hand and unravel the tangled skin of reports which he must have found bewildering. The result of his investigations found expression in a "series of articles to the "Guardian" and the "Baltimore Sun" and these are now published fu book form under the title of "The Chinese Puzzle."
'The book has been well received home. Mr, Lloyd George with Homewhat restrained eulogy intro. ducer the volume as giving a real insight into the complianted polities of the Far East and "Foreign 'Affaire' tells us that to yead Ransome's writings on China is Mike getting into a well ventilated cool, Tight room, in which thought pos ww Leader" and judgement once, more deems (Labour) exhorts its to read. the book for their "soul's "It Is full of information, pleasant and lightly conveyed. about: many thie complex Chinese pro> lem, the work of "man with 9 Kindly open mind, who doen. not rrenally become' partisan." merry and continuity inevitable from a collection of newspaper articles, reads well. Tt has sight that quality of convincingness which adheres to all work done on the tot. There is no hesitation in Mr, Ransome's treatment of subject and one can easily imagine the serious but perplexed home student of Chinese affairs rising rom ite perusal with the conviction that the Chinese Purse ts at lant solved.
The Dark Continent Unexplored There is far more in the contrast between Chen and How than Mr. Ransome gives evidence of being ire of. With Eugene Chen the: embodiment, not of the Chinese mind, but of -new allen ideas, Ransome is perfectly at home. The two speak a common language and jive in the same realm of ideals, but with Hsu who has, as we are reminded by Mr. Ransome, "the double prestige of age and China' there is no common ground. for mutual understanding, and yet Hsu stands for far more in the present situation in China then Eugene Chen or the whole of "that little group of Hankow....held together simply by the English language." Tu Hankow Mr, Ransome. stood tude the "Great Divide," he made his choice of direction and followed the stream which appeared to him to have the better defined channel, leaving the other unexplor-'The result is an_ excellent cles of views and aspects, but all through rose-coloured glasses and vivid optimism of & vection, and a somali section of the whole. The: dark continent consisting of the ass of the nation, the real Chinese who are represented more truly by George Hsu than by Eugene Chen, entirely. are left out of account almost
This is evident all through the book, national ideals are expounded Western-educated men, what seem to be reactions on a real turn out to be among a very small industrialized "Chinese ports, where existence under' economic conditions resulting from the veriest beginnings of a new order but which has hardly dented amall surfitee of China's vastness encourages an appeal sto self interest which brings to a focus smouldering discontent. There, classes, removed from their villages fand clan life, have to a large extent, ceased to be essential Chinese. The total number of Nationalist Labour Union members is said to be about 1,000,000 but it is probably that leas than 10 per cent. are Union members by conviction. Coercion is far more often the main cause for combination in Chins
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.