"Exrm Cuma! A Sruoy am Race!
ContAcr."—By George G. Barnes.
London: Edinburgh House Press, 3028. Price, 28. net.
Books on China are usually' writ ten, these days, by men who 'a point to make, a thesis to prove, That perhaps explains the unusui ly poor quality of most volumes hurriedly got off the presses to catch the sale before the news of wars and revolutions in China grow cold. Mr. Barnes is more fitted to write on China than most men.
(And. this without the slightest knowldgé of the man!) For, he apparently has spent many years in China, in interior cities, has come into contact with all classes of Chinese and has studied and apraised them with keen perception. lis short volume of only 160 pages gives one a thorough picture of the China of to-day.
Yet the book' is not convincing. In spite of the accuracy of the Portrayal and the deep knowledge: that is evidenced on every page, one leaves Mr. Barnes' statement with doubts and misgivings. The explanation for this paradox undoubtedly arises from the fact that Chinese are different and therefore we must respect them and-their differences. Of course, the Hottentots are different; the Laplanders are different; the Tungus are different. This breadth of view, which is wil ing to disregard every fact history except the sirgie one that the great should Lo merciful to tin. weak, does not make for human order and progress. It is pleasing individual, who can pat him-back that he is not narrow-minded and that he loves all men but it is frightfully bad international polities because its logical conclusion can only be international chaos, which means, in history, a prolongation of the period of impenalism; for imperialism is little more than the care of the weak and backward states by the great amd mighty one, Lafeadio Hearn has written a series of sketches, which have been brought together in volumes entitled, "Glimpscs of Unfamiliar Japan." Lafcadio Hearn does preaching, He leads to no conclusion. Ie re-creates the atmosphere in which he had lived in Japan, He stirs an emotion; he gives life to a wooden god; he paints a wrinkled face and one sees the soul beneath the yellow-brown skin; he tells of 4 temple bell and and one hears it ring clearly; he voices a con and one guages the struggle between old and new Japan, The Poet in Lafeadio Hearn avoids the insult of forced conclusions, of injecting ideas into his readers mind by trepanning without an ance thetic, Sermons are difficult enough in the church; but in a book they fare unthinkable, And that is what lessens the value of Mr. Barnes' otherwise commendable eritigue Chinese life. nally, Mr. Barnes is For instance this para-student affray ili Shanghai, the police May 1025, 24 the reuatt of Fre fereef fr on the maba "This ie the "Nationalist bodice. again with the foreigner" was the on all hands. "This was cleverly barromed down within a Tew Gays 3 than that of American mariner and French "hine-jackets. Student bands scoured the country and called. out their comrades in a general strike.
There was no British defence. Gieat Britain was not at all concerned. The shooting was done by the police of the International Settlement, which is not Brit Mary Cholmondeley, whom the older generation, anyway, will remember for her novel "Red Pottage," died in 1925. One of her old friends, Percy Lubbock, the author of "Earlham," has written a sketch of her from memory, also includes sketches of some of their mutual friends, among them Rhoda Broughton and Henry James, And further interest will be given to the book—to be published by Jonathan Cape—by extracts from the novelist's diary, book of reference of every interna final event of any importance in these six years, it is beyond praise.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.