Messin Continual eae IaarMa Gavont at Worx. His Own
wre nites & Unwin, London, Nauep. Faxin—By Robert Bernays.
Victor Gollancz, London 8/6
Mr, Andrews' second attempt to edit Mr. Gandhi's autobiography is of course, highly tinged with hero-worship, but it deals with that Botton of his career about which is less controversy." Mr. Gandhi's work in South: Aivica championing the cause of In now generally recognised classic example of humanity: endeavour which has been, on the whole, productive of good' results. The recital is on the dull side, bu the information which it gives makes its dulness pardonable and the reader obtains an insight into the remarkable vigour of of humanity, a vigour which being displayed to-day, for Mr. Bornays, writing with recent per-anal experience of Mr. Gandhi rofers vividly to the im of strength in the frail body. March last this was a twenty-four hours spent by Mr. Gandhi during his important conversations with Tord Irwin:
Meetings with gommite yesees0e Cloned with th 6308.15: Explaining to the comaitiee what had Sh; "Hetuen to the Viceroy. Me hima the whale. Ave 2-12.18: conversations vith the Vier Sram With shaw er his committee' from sleep. fought with his Be cominilitee for pete 'Mr. Bernays' comment is that strain of the London Confer-fence, will be a rest cure compared to thave gruelling Delhi conversa-
Of these two books "Naked Paki" will probably hold the field. Ut is brilliantly "impressionist, and 'a3 its basis is the -liary of exceptionally alert' special correspondent it naturally gives Piguant glimpses of life behind the Political scenes and at times it, shows how the correspondent wai forced to revise impressions which ho had first formed. In some Thus, a particularly caustic attack' on "th indian Princes, informed by rather wild Teproduetion of the usual gossip factory, has to be most immediately by: id those reservations, not free from int
Durbar' from "eriticim he excludes the Hyderal whan, for example, Me;
Plainly been left unaware of the ict that before Lord Reading lett India very drastic steps had to be taken to bring his Exalted High-administration on to modern fand he ought to have been tat we nove mailiing sean has ever been made onan Indian State than that made by the Chief Justice of Madias Wigh Court on the kind of justice obtaining in the ions. Mr. Bernays is such an attractive writer, and obviously such a sincere and. sym-Pathetic personality himself that these blemishes will be condoned. He, has a lively sense of humour and evidently managed to get cal "with Todi" poitian and alike. "He perhaps is a little bit too impressed with Me. Gandhi's sanctity and spirit of fairplay and too little inclined to go deeper and perceive the trickery and aptitude for intrigue below the surface. On tthe other hand, the picture of Lord inadequate and unfair account what happened. "In point of fact, the magnificent procession, after the Viceroy had been removed, carried on. 'The Durbar in the Fort iwas taken in charge by the senior oficial present, who delivered the Viceroy's 'Speech and, in' addition, added, in fluent Hindustani, an address which will long be remembered by all who were present then. It was never published, but vindicated to. the Princes assembled the policy of the British in India and the determination of the Government to carry that policy through.
Again, in dealing with the much-discussed Amritsar" tragedy Mr. Bernays falls into the common error of believing that General Dyer fired Sway all his eamunition, and he also declares that the crowd in the Jallianwala Bagh were unarmed As everyone knows, although many Peaceful persons were in that crowd Was organised and very largely manned by desperate con: Simed with (thins snd tt some of the men addressing the meeting were actually afterwards convicted for the murder of the European bankers in Amritsar. Then agai hin visit to Lahore gives rise to a discussion on Kipling, and. apart from placing the office where pling. worked behind the present Civil and Military Gazette" Offices instead of by the side of them, he does not seem to be. sufi aware of the fact that the ind Military Gazette" and the Pioneer" composed the same organisation as they do to-day, and therefore it was not at all surer ing that the editor of the "Civil and Military Gazette" raised no objection to Kipling being transferred to the "Pioneer." It must also be added desk, to. which "Mr. not the true desk, but is faked, as the present writer, who actually built the new "Civil and Military Gazette" offices, has Feason to know. He knew' that cloak very well, it was a standing office joke.
The value of some of Mr. Bernays" criticisms, is. vitiated by such childish remarks as purport (0 question the propriety of the Government of India's financial posals being submitted to the Gov-Jernment at home. That is a neces-ary and vital factor in. the constitutional position and. it is quite irrelevant to ask what can itr." Wea Benn know about the advisability of taxing betel-nuts. In point of fact, of course, Mr." Wedgwood in King Charles's Street cou! given him precise information on that and most other subjects affect: ing. the diversity of Indian ministration.
Mr. Bernays' Te} Bahadur is particularly gratifying to an old friend ud fof, Sir Ted, and he state remark by Sit Tel hima Sir Te} Sapra once said to me, "You English can get far more out of "Gandhi than you can gut out of In lighter vein Mr. Bernays holds out visions to the great unmarried in England, when he observes that the average single life of the Eng-nursemaid in India is about six weeks. Presumably his informants had suitable data for their information, bat those who know India are quite prepared to believe that it is correct.
Professionally, sympathy will be invoked by those very true, if slightly petulant, references to' one Jof the minor troubles of a journal-tst: He got so tired of silly females who arch their eyebrows and provides a crushing answer to those who hold with Mr. Churchill that Lord Irwin has let down the British Empire in India. Mr. Bernays triumphantly proves the Although much allowance mu he made for inevitably hurried impressions during a lightning tour of India it igo be regretted that fon several points Mr. Bornays been led into inaccuracies, some of them minor but irritating, others of greater importance. A' notable one, for example, is in reference to the attempted assassination of Lord Hardinge in 1912. He declares that after the exploding of the bomb and the wounding and removal of the Viceroy, the rest of the Viceregal party arrived white and frightened to carry on bravely with the rest of the ceremony. This is a most into India nowadays is every whit as good as, if not better than, that of the past, and as the new epoch to which he looks forward comes into being there is no doubt that their abilities and force of character will be fully. tested.
The old Simla resident will join issue withthe matter of some of the descriptions of that place, especially with his reference to Simla as a marriage market. The idea that a girl can seldom survive more than @ couple of seasons in Simla has been exploded for the last tenor years. Mr. Bernays refers to the absence of grass-widows but seems to have overlooked the enormous increase in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.