The Elian Test

Tanganyika Memories. By Gilchrist Alexander. (Blackie. 10s. 6d.)

From a Colonial Governor's Note-Book. By Sir Reginald St. Johnston, K.C.M.G. (Hutchinson. 128. (Id.)

Smell of Smoke. By Ben Magnus (Alexis Mahal). (Duckworth. 86. 6d.) Nansen Passport. By J. S. K. Soboleff. (Bell. 12s. (Id.) The Other Day. By Dorothy Whipple. (Michael Joseph. 8s. 6d)

TIIE gracious Ella declared that he could read anything which he called" a book " ; but one is sometimes tempted to wonder

how he would have confronted the mass production of a modern publishing season. The incessant spate of auto- biographies, for example—are they good books and true, or must they be relegated to that class of iriblia abiblia which defeated even his "versatility of sympathy," as Ainger described it ? What gulf, for instance, separates the military leader's voluble defence of his defeat from the official blue- book ? And how many retiring records of honourable achieve- Ment catch the light of that elusive spirit of personality Which was Elia's test of unchalkngeable literature ? It is a nice question ; and here are half a dozen autobiographies which raise the issue anew. Three of them bear witness to notable public service in high places ; a couple bubble over with hectic incident and adventure ; these abide our question, and must be estimated according to taste. But one at least

is free—sealed with the signet of charm, of intimacy, and of personality. The fact that it is by far the simplest of the lot May perhaps explain the conviction that Charles Lamb would

have certainly dismissed it with his blessing. Perhaps the others would have passed his test as well. At any rate, they invite it.

The most restrained, modest, and undecorated of them all is His Honour Judge Crawford's record of his distinguished legal career. It has been a career pursued from boyhood, when in the schoolroom he used to try his dog for murder, and other crimes of violence. If his fund reward came a little short of the scarlet and ermine of his daydreams, he did the State high service as a County Court Judge in days of great difficulty and change. Ile was appointed towards the

end of the War, when the Rent Restrictions Act kept the County Courts busy. He gives a critical account of the Obligations entailed, and of the grim glimpses into human nature which the routine of the Court reveals. He offers some

searching judgements on the inequalities of the Law's delay, the severity of law-costs, and the paramount necessity of experience in maturing the judicial mind. "No flowers by

request : no intimacies by choice" might serve as the motto of his method ; but his memories are rich in professional wisdom, and bear implicit witness to a devoted and honourable career, closed all too early, as he himself suggests, bs- the axe

of official custom.

' Another jurist follows with a wider range. Mr. Gilchrist Alexander was Chief Police Magistrate in the Fiji Islands in 1907, and Senior Puisne Judge in Tanganyika from 1920 to 1026. Here again was a ease of a responsible official entering ton duties in a state of flux and uncertainty resulting from the War. "Seldom," he says, "in the history of British Colonial Administration have so many experienced Civil Servants of diverse origin been assembled for work together as in the case of the mandated territories." The professional legal element was inevitably brought into conflict with the civil appointments of Colonial Governors. Much tact was dpmanded in the task of setting the house in order, But,Mr._

Alexander does not-confine his narrative to technieal- details. His recital of the incidents of travel, of social and native problems, of the lets and hindrances of legal etiquette, is alive with character, and gives the impression of being both moderate and just. This is a highly informative book ; but its human appeal is almost as vjtal as its information.

Mr. Gilchrist Alexander his much to say about Colonial Governors : in Sir Reginald St. Johnston's Autobiography the Governor speaks for himself. He, too, was to experience the back-wash of the War upon the coast of "ultimate islands." After earlier experience in Fiji, and active service in France, he was appointed to the Falkland Islands within, a month of the armistice. There he begins his story, a log-book of many .journeys in the course of public duty. His outlook is genial to the point of joviality ; and a cheery temperament glows through all his reminiscences. From the Falkland Islands to the West Indies, from Dominica to St. Christopher- Nevis, wherever duty calls Sir Reginald he carries his reader along upon an easy flow of history, topography, character-sketch and anecdote. . He rarely introduces a name without translating it into a living figure ; and his reflections upon an administrative career are all the more convincing for the good nature with which they are permeated.

The next two books are Russian, and awhirl with the fiery wind of revolution. Mr. Alexis Mahoff, the son of a rich landowner in the heart of European Russia, joined the Navy as a boy, was involved in the break-up of discipline and order, and escaped to join the White Cossacks. His adven- tures are swift and breathless. Writing with a vivid sense of effect, he piles incident upon incident, encounter upon encounter, peril upon peril. He may well claim that at twenty-one he knew more of life and death than any ordinary man of fifty. His escape from a Soviet Prison has something of the Casanova touch ; and there is , a vein of romance in the heart of the story which wrings the imagination.

Lieutenant Soboleff, another victim of the Revolution, was born into an old military family at Omsk in Siberia, joined the White Army at 18, was invalided with typhus, retreated to Chinese Turkestan, served in the Chinese Army with a mixed group of Russian volunteers, became a refugee, and, furnished with a Nansen Passport, started from Shanghai upon a bicycle to set a girdle round the world. His itinerary is a remarkable record of courage and endurance, no less than a generous tribute to the magnanimity still bestowed upon those who know no fear.

Finally, after the earthquake and the fire, the lamp-black and the lightning, we close our journey in the sheltered peace of a truly Elian pasturage.. Miss Dorothy Whipple's panorama of an English childhood at the beginning of the century is a positively beautiful piece of work,- a true interpretation of the childish heart hi bewildered contact with ." the tyrannical but incalculable" grown-ups. A real understanding of childhood, sympathetic but not sentimental, is one of the rarest of gifts. Mrs. Ewing possessed it ; so did Kennetk. Grahame; among living authors Miss Eleanor . Farjeon. possesses it in the highest degree. Miss Dorothy Whipple is of the same tribe, sealed 'of the elect. She sees exactly.. what children see ; she remembers precisely how. childrerP suffer ; she knows the "true inwardness" of children's naughtiness. She does not patronise, nor pity ; but she niay well make the grown-up reader blush for his own: recollections. of -parentage. The lover of _Dream auldrew would here find. his dream come true.. the wistful humour,'. the gliinmer and glow Of sympathy and understanding--; he would recognise them all, and acclaim Miss Whipple