SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent revitsc.1 The current number of the Round Table (Macmillan and Co., 2s. 6d.) contains several important articles in addition to that upon our financial situation which has already been noticed in our leading coluMns. First we may mention a discussion upon "National Duty in War," in which the need
for a more complete realization of national and Imperial unity is. emphasited. A condition of this new unity is universal service to the State, and the consideration of this leads the writer to some interesting reflections upon discipline and freedom. "The great problem of demooraoy," he says, "is to combine liberty with self-discipline ":—
" This war, in one of its aspects, is a spiritual conflict between liberty and tyranny, between the principle of right and justice as the foundation of international relations, and the principle that might is right, in which truth is on our aide; in another it is a contest between the idea that the primary duty of the citizen is to give loyal and unselfish service to the community of which he is a part, and the idea that the primary right of the individual is freedom to ignore his duty to the community if he chooses, in which truth is with the Germans."
The same insistence upon the necessity for the individual to sacrifice himself to the community forms the keynote of another article, which deals with the industrial situation. Socially speaking, the writer argues, England has hitherto been at least two nations, and we are now reaping the harvest of our old jealousies and selfish exclusiveness. What is needed is to substitute for them a spirit of partnership. "If
that spirit of partnership can be applied, not piecemeal or in words alone, to the great industrial task that still lies before us, then victory is indeed assured, and not victory alone, but a new basis of national unity which would better even victory itself." We can only refer very briefly to the two chief remaining articles. One of these, on "The End of War," argues that "there will be no end to organized warfare until mankind is united in one state "; the other is a searching analysis of "American Public Opinion and the War." In addition to these articles, the present Round Table contains the usual valuable letters from its correspondents in the Dominions.
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