By Gilbert McAllister. Murrey, Tandon. 8/=-
In "The Portrait of a Rebel," Mr. [Gilbert McAllister has portrayed the Jevolution of James Maxton from an Jathletic Conservative graduate in JGlasgow to an unbridled Socialist IMP. in London and in so doing has depicted a portrait which resembles, a remarkable degree, another rebel," De Valera, While one cannot but admire the courage of Maxton, one is forced to Jdeprecate his desire to destroy the Jexisting social order rather than 10 assist in the construction of a better lorder within the scope of practical polities.
When appearing before a Tribunal a conscientious objector, Maxton stated:
There comes a time when a man must judge what his duty as a citizen and what it demands of him and what Is "demanded by his own con= ference, Ihave made up my. mind trid T would consider myself a shirker fo my party, a shirker to the beliefs nave been' promulgating for years, ie Tattered in the least, the stand have taken.
The sentiments expressed are a mirable but thereafter one finds that Maxton's conscience, vis-a-vis his, party, is very elastic and his duty 2 citizen is forgotten in a desire to embarrass not only his opponents Dut his friends, Keir Hardie, the Father of the Labour Movement, said that no man can ever hope to guide and sha political movement from without. The men who run the machine are masters of the situation. Had James Maxton remained within the Labour Party and encouraging it with his idealistic theories, assisted it with such practical ability as he possesses, the Party would be more firmly tablished than it is to-day and Maxton would be nearer the realiza~ tion of his ideals, the development Jof which, by his own actions, he has retarded, All those interested Ju British politics should read this book, for, by its omissions as much as by its admissions, it shows clearly that the majority of all. classes in Great Britain are strongly opposed to Communism, and even the outstanding personality of James Maxton is unable to persuade his followers 10 support a movement to which they are basically atagonistic—aax.r,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.