The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 8

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 1938 8 A FAMOUS DETECTIVE DETECTED Unforgettable Not one man In many thousands could have written this book. He paints his picture superbly Hovrtrd Sprint A PERSONAL ANALYSIS Otaerw Unforgettable dead bodies have you found, Mr. Plnkerton?" Five," he answered. Then he added, modestly, I stumble over them in fogs." But we understood that you (Constable. Bd, nat) The Moral Baals of Politios." By Naomi Mitchison.

BY KEITH FEIUNC the armed forces, oppose some ways of war, as against Russia, even unto death and perhaps by revolution, since our pre Note In a recent murder case at Brighton, Mr. Evan Plnkerton not only discovered the body, but was instrumental in unmasking the criminal. He had helped Scotland Yard on several previous occasions, through his friend Inspector Buff. Mr. Plnkerton, in spite of his adventurous life, is of an extremely retiring disposition, and only reluctantly consented to see our representative, and to allow us to publish his portrait.

A FLAIR? KEEP IT DARK! "We should like to.tell our readers, Mr. Pinkerton." we said, "about your remarkable flair for finding dead bodies." sent rulers' motives are suspect even ittii they fought on the side of Russia, and far Sensational Sensational Tim It Tie Masterly Edmund BJundtn more if through neutrality they allow a Fascist victory. Immediate political action," then, in regard to the forces and, in some contingencies, action which is impossible under the slow-moving consti DigjifiiltM tutional machinery of Britain." to tne short-termers must be the sword point. ready to lose lifeand perhaps their soul. doing what is evil that they may bring the army of the faithful through.

F. D. She weeps," said the great Frederic of Maria Theresa's role in the partition of Poland, but she takes her share all the same." So Mrs. Mitchison, whose book is marked by a generous sympathy for suffering, human allowance, wit, and wis dom, offers an analysis which allows of political remedy by physical force and leaves us with hardly anything but a negation erected into a system. As a literary structure it is not easy reading, and, to me, it is unpersuasive.

For sometimes it lightly leaps what seems to be a chasm of thought, its candour is sometimes shrill, now and then flamboyance is chalked up on the wall, though one gets round the corner only to see Madame Roland sweeping by. But paragraphs and sentences flow, over a stony bed, clear and clean and swift as ever; besides this power, one who disagrees may be allowed to record the impression that it is a book worthy of study, of honest and sincere purpose, to clear my own and other people's minds." Good being provisionally defined as a question of human relationships, and involving the position that people should be themselves to the full, with scope for all their capacities and sensibilities, it does not take long to see that mankind What does all this amount to? To a Oh dear," said Mr. Plnkerton, nervously fingering his collar. I don't think you had better say I've a flair not In print. If you do, people murderers, mean might start hiding bodies from me, specially.

And Inspector Bull wouldn't like that, I'm sure." Inspector Bull relies on your help a lot?" we suggested. "Oh NO!" exclaimed Mr. Pinkerton In horror. "Honestly, I never do anything Important. It's chiefly that people confide in me.

Please tell me." he begged anxiously, "Am I the sort of person you'd want to confide in?" "PERHAPS I AM LUCKY" We assured Mr. Plnkerton that if we had done a murder we should certainly entrust him with the secret. "Still," we urged, "you do a lot more than that. We understand that quite often It is entirely through you Oh dear," he said. Honestly, I do very little, very little indeed.

I only notice things that have been overlooked. And then I work things out. And then well, sometimes I'm right. Well, yes, usually only I really don't think I'm very much help." Perhaps 1 am sometimes rather lucky," he admitted. "It's Scotland Yard that Is lucky," we suggested, and he readily agreed, though it is doubtful if he realised what we had meant.

THE NEXT VICTIM "At any rate you have come Into many famous cases How many claim that the elect, the lovers of good, have a duty to achieve the good by force, if time is against them; that, having failed to count heads by argument, they may break them; that international peace is inseparable from the universal triumph of Mr. Pinkerton's remarkable experiences are recorded in the famous novels of DAVID FROME the latest of which is THE GUILT IS PLAIN one set of social-political ideas. Are. not these the hoariest fallacies in the world, soaked in blood and tears and disillusion? A Classic SrMa Lirnrf Fascinating Mtn tan Terribly honest Timet Uu Sunt. Stands out a mile Space fails us to discuss some apparent The most interesting new book that I have read this year.

I recommend it very vehemently Raymond Monimtr la New gaps in the reasoning, or doubts of historical fact; as, for instance, that the pre sent differences within Great Britain, are found iKesiast''onei In broad "i ay--light, in the Brighton Pavilion Mr. Pinkerton shuddered. "I I can't talk about that," he said. Honestly, It was a terrible experience. Someone confided In me I shan't trust anyone again, really.

Not even when I'm sure they couldn't have done it. Couldn't have killed him, I mean." "'Killed we repeated. Killed whom?" Mr. Plnkerton smiled, a little wanly. "The next person I find dead," he explained.

have very various visions of the good, deeper than at any time since the Romans, that moral objection to war is a new thing, that Cromwell purged the Levellers, that it does not matter to productivity who owns capital in a State, or that a bad Press destroyed the or to eliminate most of them as incom 96 net patible with the definition of being themselves whether those coming under the head of feudalism." the barren and illu We cannot Pinkerton but love Mr. Dorothy Sayers moral catharsis of the general strike. Better to trv, not that it is easy, to get to the roots. Reminiscences of a Soldier sory liberty of competition under Liberalism, and plainly the totalitarian States. Even Russia will have to be very careful," lest she offend against the canon by treating persons as means and not as Mrs.

Mitchison is first concerned to get iid of what she calls pie in the sky," of the religious systems which, as she sees ends, as indeed Yagoda and his troupe in conveniently proved in the very week that them, merely prop tip the status quo: His tale is told at a cavalry trot this gay story of grim events, told with modesty and yet with feeling Air. Winston Churchill this book was published. At any rate, "being oneself spells the end of capitalism, with which right relationships which make the religious-minded, even if of good will, dangerous allies. Yet I cannot find that her own house is builded on any. rock.

While she condemns the cannot co-exist, and the making of a and planned economy of equality and plenty. This change may. and probably will, involve violence. True, there is a chance, and some hopeful signs, of a catharsis feudal schemes because they do not give a relationship which is right all she contends strenuously that all moral imperatives must die, since morality must be rationally related to social facts. Morality "must be measured or moral purging, but it is not quick by the effect on the individual," though enough.

When things are intolerable it is our reason or standard for taking we must risk the ills implicit in any violence, do evil that good may come, and actions which have to do with good and I Murder in Hospital an I immediate success Jjoseplhiiiinie BteOO's Council' better still FALL OVER CLIFF Now' Fall over Cliff' just but rising sales The best work he has done A em Mllward Kennedy LBeDttom UaVUWWHN pfiyiy Mr. Cobb has added to latest his laurels P. Hartley LIKE A GUILTY THING Peviot Burmann performs his greatest feat of solution Author of No Alibi Moore Ritchie LONGMANS THE PRESS GEN. SIR TOM BRIDGES postpone our ideal to a short-term policy. This receives further illustration from, and is in turn applied to, foreign affairs, though on this we need not enlarge; for the propositions are old and at best dubious as that Socialism means peace, that Really good Observer Exciting Times Thrilling our Government or many of them prefer the German philosophy, and that, inspired Foreword by Rt.

Hon. Winston Churchill 126 net by Baldwin the iron magnate and pig- evil it involves being yourself to the full, and those who fail cannot be free." The ideal is non-coercion; democracy, people living together in the kind of way they like and keep on choosing to live." we are only animals forwhom, at this stage at any rate, sense appetites are good, if they are properly rationed," since appetites are not opposed to morality in a mainly good person." In short, there are -many moralities, of which we must take in as many as we can; men ask not for truth, but for love, that is. bias," and the choice between truth and propaganda is a dilemma, only of degree. You can only be sure of being yourself by the feel of it," only take moral deci keeper and his actual and moral successor Chamberlain," the Conservative party Sunday Tmes would rather surrender the Empire than capitalism. And it is misusing space to discuss a short-term policy which assumes an alliance within the League of States LONiNNS THE PRESS who will renounce national sovereignty; short term which would certainly begin with a long war.

It is more worth while to examine some of Mrs. Mitchison's prac -2 The Greatest New Translation since the Authorised Version 1 Hi sion by "a pounce of spread thought." The good includes happiness, which is being unthwarted," and involves physical health, having also the accidental beatitude that it is enhanced by being in the right relationship with others. And since people have very different notions of happiness the good or being oneself is rather a direction than a force. It is to reach this atomic system of relaxed individualism, discerning morals by the poun.ee or "the feel of it." that Mrs Mitchison invokes the probability of violence and revolution in this eloquent dynamic book, so fruitful of ideas and grain by the roadside, but (to me) so fallacious in conclusion. We read that it was in part composed at Cloan, Locarno, Hammersmith." But surely the least of these was Locarno.

THE MOFFATT BIBLE laiesl thriller DORMOUSE HAS NINE tice, and to try to discover the roots of her theory. Her description of the violence needed to get us out of what is intolerable is vaguely menacing. Any country contains a certain proportion of nasty people," meaning those who are self-absorbed and bored; there is also the City and those who would, supposedly, send to concentration camps those who attack private, property; and those who obstinately hold a wrong vision." Most of these must be dealt with when they attack the ideas and practice of the good life, in short-term ways." And then, in international affairs, our rulecs cannot be trusted; while they hold power we must oppose armaments, try to introduce democracy in the discipline of THE LIVES PAUL TRENT'S Romantic Greyhound Racing Novel FLYING PETER An agreeable story with the unstereotyped background of a greyhound racing stadium for its interplay of romance and adventure." News Chronicle. Just ready. 76 net THE SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALE FRANCES TURK The story of Thea, the Englub nightingale, who for one brief night wn greater than La Superba and who, by ihe miracle of song, atoned for the sint of her father.

J'tst rtatty. 7 ntt rHE KLEINERT CASE JACK MANN Author of Gees' First Case," etc. That most attractive detective Gees, unravels here the astonishing mystery of an inventor haunted by Nothing News Chronicle. If you like the creeps here is your medicine." Daily Sketch. Just ready.

net Daily Mirror Thriller of the Klortth Grand long and thrilling yarn, with Frank King-at the top of his form" Nottingham Guardian "la the high-speed university founded by Edgar Wallace, Frank King gets a first there is no doubt of that Torquemada (Obamrver) 76 set THE FLIVVER KING HERR HITLER AND DANUBIAN EUROPE ARTHUR APPLIN LAST MINUTE LOVE Author of Tempting Ann Bravttm," etc. 10s. 6d. net) Arthur Applin can be relied upon for a good itory. His characteri are not puppeti but real men and women, and this new novel of modern youth cannot fail to enhance, his reputation.

7'tf net South of Hitler." By M. W. Fodor. (Allen and Un win, BY GEORGE GLASGOW 3 Splendid Romances of the Island of Capri by UPTON SINCLAIR 3 Europe, he returns as it were with an un OLIVE BAXTER 3 6 easy sense of danger to the "Austrian CAPRI CALLING CAPRI HONEYMOON A VILLA IN CAPRI miracle," and makes this puzzled reflec net Mnr HI- ex i KKA.K in I u- tion: "Even if to-day it looks as if Austria is to be saved from Pan-German ag fine novel of ihe North-West Frontier KHYBER CONTRABAND Vicior Bayley is a recognised authority on the North-West Frontier Events move fast, with the result, among many others, that Mr. Fodor's book in some of its main aspects became historical rather than topical in its interest even before it could see the light of day.

The book was published on March 8, four days before Herr Hitler summoned Herr von Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden. Within a month of that summons Austria had ceased to exist as an independent country. gression one never knows. Many a trivial accident has changed the course of history, and Austria may yet succumb to such an accident. It is not likely, but it is not absolutely out of the question." GERALD VERNERs Thrilling Racing Mystery Novet THE SILVER HORSESHOE This is Gerald Verner's second racing mystery story a crescendo of thrills in which the rattle of bullets blends with the thud of hooves on turf.

Just ready. ji6 rut and his tales of that wild and inhospitable region are always full of interest and thrills Sunday Time 7o net READ the FACTS BEHIND the HEADLINES The STORY of SECRET SERVICE RICHARD WILMER ROWAN 773 pages. I Si. net. John Miles of Amen Corner.

PARHINODON AVINUC, LONDON, l.C.4. WRIGHT BROWN If Mr. Fodor has been so quickly proved to have underestimated the strength of the Nazi-German sentiment in Austria, he may, at any rate, claim to have erred in a large company of other such commentators. To plunge into the vortex of Danubian politics is to invite hard knocks. Mr.

Fodor clearly knows enough about it to be prepared for the stem tests he himself invites. new romantic novel GOLD MOON OF AFRICA Susan Denver arrived in North Africa eager for adventure and batween the spell of the East and the spell of the Sheik of the Hassari she found hei6elf faced with a most difficult problem 76 net In these days an author who dares to write this sort of book must be prepared for a rub of the green which may make an important difference to his theses. Overnight present theories are swallowed up in past history. It is inevitable that the reader of Mr. Fodor's book will now turn at once to find what is written about Austria.

He will read on p. 8: But Austria survived Austria continued to live. Any other country would have succumbed. Then came the worst. Austrian-born Adolf Hitler mobilised all his cunning and power, represented by a Germany sixty-seven millions strong, against this small country.

Everybody expected in 1933 and 1934 that Austria would become a victim of this aggression. But she still carries on an independent life. Many people refer to this as the Oesterreichisches Wunder the Austrian miracle." Her latest novel THE WORLD'S DISORDER FAITH Private Duty BALDWIN AND THEN GOODBYE The story of the love of Martha yard for two taen "Miss Hedworth knows how io give the touch of compelling human interest Manchester Evaning Naws 74 net THE BOOK OF THE YEAR EUROPE lTO THE ABYSS A coiJiprrhrn'h fHi'iThaJ "irry frnri SfwlN wrtncri Invite lv authucttlen o( wurld-wiJe rrpntiii nm Robert Cecil, David L-lovd G. I. H.

Cole, Mmiame Genevieve Tabouls, loiiDt Strcbrlt i K-lrhti Mini-tor Xitrl Corrado Govonl I'rr-Mcur Hruli- no si r-ii-: Mitom Uairer Hopst-W eltenmu. Ion Rducnnu i i nin-r KlIlKM Ml III'TIT Ml linm i M. Ednj by r. Alex Forbath 760 pages. Full doth binding.

15- net. Tin- anxipdr prnrwit uipe The nmt tnpcl ami jiur horn a' l'koh im rjirrfiiL PALLAS PUBLISHING CO. 1213, Henrietta Street. London, Tlftr M-r J. To be beaten by four days of the clock is bad luck for any author.

For Mr. Fodor it is the more unlucky because he "The Balanoed Life." By Sir Samuel Hoare. (Hodder and Stoughtan. ai. nat.) The Home Secretary is a student of Montaigne, and in this delightfully phrased address as Chancellor of the University of Reading he blends, quite in his master's vein, the interest of the personal and of the philosophic.

It is an apt parallel that he draws between the atmospheres of the sixteenth century and of our own an enlargement of intellectual vision accompanied in both cases by an appalling outbreak of the darker elements of human nature. Even in this country, which escapes the worst of those calamities, there is a grim tendency towards the materialising of life. The remedial Qualities to be desider- has written a really well-informed ac 3 ANTHONY 1 count of conditions in Danubian and Central Europe, based upon many years of flrst-lTand experience and study. He is a Hungarian by birth, studied in Central Europe universities, and since the War has been correspondent for Vienna and the Balkans for certain English and American papers. His latest thriller aiea tor the world disorder are.

he CASE OF THE BECKONING DEAD John Donavan's previous novel, "THE CASE OF THE RUSTED ROOM was acclaimed by scores of critics as one of the most ingenious murder siories of ihe year and THE CASE OF THE BECKONING DEAD" demonstrates without a doubt that its author is one of the few really promising additions to ihe Tanks oi myslery-story writers 7j6 Mt MORTON What he has to say is well worth read-1 Patience, common sense in- The Baron at Bay ing. He at any rate contributes a body I the EiS'dX of undeniable fact to an understanding integral to the art of life as it should be of an area of Europe which is as hard i inculcated by a liberal education. And Winner of the 1 ,500 Cracksman Competition WORLD CRISIS Snd for th nw Itvt of book on international affaira, or see the tpecial diapriy at Bum put. J. E.

BUMPUS, LTD. 477 OXFORD STREET LONDON. W.I WAYFAIK Ml to understand as any comparable area of the earth's surface. No one knows better than Mr. Fodor how treacherous is his own ground.

At the end of his book, after a long chronique of personal observation in Balkan, Danubian, and Central in me category ol Balance he gives a prominent place to the rhythm of body and mind that a University should be constantly teaching and that Englishmen and Englishwomen should display to a world that is so greatly in need of it." H. A. G. Published by Sampson Low ROBERT HALE LIMITED 102 GREAT RUSSELL STREET WCl.