The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 7

THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1936 RELIGION IN. SOVIET RUSSIA DUTCH ROYAL WEDDING BOOKS OF THE DAY Greater Toleration From onr Moscow Correspondent Soviet News from the Source! IZVESTIA (Daily) Most Important Social and Political Newspaper in the Soviet Union. Central Organ of the Government. Subscription Rates: 1 year 2 6 months 1 3 months 10- 1 month 36 3d. per copy.

Distributed by Mfzhdunarodnaya Knis, Moscow; can be ordered through any of the 1.500 branches of Meter. W. H. Smith Son, or through your usual newsagent. THE TRIAL, OF MORE ABOUT BOSWELL Bot well's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson.

Now first published from the original MS. prepared for the press by F. A. Pottle 1 IX TT and C. H.

xviii. 435. 21s. Johnson, and Sir W. Forbes.

Found at Oxford University Press. Pp. xxviii. So shrewdly has the Church in Russia adapted itself to new conditions in the struggle for survival that anti-religionists and militant atheists have no easy time winning converts to their ideas. They have complained bitterly in recent months of the persuasive methods by which the clergy maintain their hold over considerable sections of the population.

At a conference on anti-religious propaganda held by the Communists -of a city near Moscow, one priest was reported to have said: "We must explain that Christ was of proletarian origin, the son of a carpenter. His mother was a simple toiling woman, linked by -her social origin to the proletariat and the toiling peasantry. Jesus Christ was the great Socialist-Communist, the ghostly father and predecessor of the Communist party." To the Soviet atheists, Christ's faith in the supernatural and failure to offer practical means for achieving the social justice whichhe preached make him the antithesis of a Communist. Thus, to advocate religion on the ground that Christ was "the great Socialist-Communist" is, they say, to enlist support for anti-Communist doctrines by plastering on them a bold Communist label. The Bolsheviks of the Yarosla-vl meeting were irate at learning that in the neighbouring Rybinsk region 35 per cent of the autumn harvest had been because collective farmers there celebrated no fewer than sixty-seven religious holidays during the summer, to the neglect of their work.

To combat such activities 550 persons in Yaroslavl are to receive special training as anti-religious propagandists. The case was reported not lone aco of a oriest. who hurl rlanKnr red paint on the cross of his church's spire, in oraer to snow ostensible loyalty to the Soviet regime and thus attract a congregation. Other clergymen have refused to serve peasants who are not members of collective farms. Mohammedans have so far been less affected by atheist teachines than the Christian groups.

In Adjaristan, for example, a itionamruedan district of the Caucasus, the mullah half-emptied the Government schools of their pupils by organising religious seminaries which mfit nt. nrioisilv tViA enrrm timirc So strong was the mullahs' hold over i me people roar, tneir manoeuvre was finally overcome only by installing relidious sections in the curriculum of the secular schools. The mullahs were invited to become instructors here. Pupils who read the Koran one hour were taught in the following class AFFORESTATION Efforts to Preserve Determination to continue efforts for the preservation of Eskdale and Dunner-dale from afforestation by the Forestry Commission is expressed in the News Letter," dated December 1. which has just been issued by the Friends of the Lake District.

The News Letter also refers to recent activity in matters affecting the roads, footpaths, and commons of the Lake District. It will be recoiled that the Government instructed the Forestry Commission to proceed with afforestation in and within" fifteen miles the special areas as a means of relieving unemployment, and that towards the end of 1935 the Commission acquired an estate of 7,000 ncres in the vnllevs of the Esk and Puddon. Tht whole of the Lake District lay the Commissioiiers' possible tield of action on account of its nearness to ihe Cumberland special area. Considerable objection was. raised to the planting of conifers in Eskdale and the valley of the Duddon, and an informal joint committee, composed of representatives of the Commission and of the Council ior the Preservation of Rural England, acreed that -14') acres of plant-able land in I'pper Eskdale should be excluded from the Comu-ission's scheme.

Exclusion Schemes Ihe joint committee also agreed that a central block of 300 square miles should be excluded frorr. future afforestation schemes because ot its unusual beauty and seclusion, but did not agree on the treatment of an adjoining area to the south and south-west, approximately 100 square miles in area. The C.P.K.E. representatives wanted this area, also to be preserved from afforestation, but the Commissioners could give no promise. In June a deputation on behalf of those who objected to the extension of the area proposed for afforestation was received by the Forestry Commissioners, who were asked to Terrain from plantinc not only in the 440 acres of Upper Eskdale but also in more acres of Eskdnle and in as much of the Upper Duddon Valley as possible." The deputation also that the minimum area to be excluded from afforestation in the Lake pistriet should be 330 square miles.

Neither of these suggestions was accepted. The "News Letter" comments While it is good' to note that nearly 300 square miles of the district are saved from the FALL FROM 'PLANE Air Force Pilot Officer Killed A pilot officer of the R.A.F. fell out of a service machine as it was about to land at Brough Aerodrome, East Yorkshire, yesterday, and was killed. The machine was a Vickers Virginia bomber attached to the R-A-F. station at Scamp-ton, near Lincoln.

The man killed was Pilot Officer Charles Robert Hart. The machine was flying at height of about 250 feet when Hart, who was in the tail, feil out. There were four other R-A-F. men on board. The "plane was being piloted by another flying officer, and it made a sate landing.

Men working at the aerodrome saw something fair from the machine, hut did not realise until afterwards that it was a man. When they got to Wwi they found that he was dead. that there is no God. The outcome of the experiment is not yet known. Anti-Religious Museums Anti-religious museums, familiar to every visitor to Russia, are the most popular form of atheistic nronaeanda A special exhibit of this tvne iust organised in Leningrad is devoted to i i o(jtuu, ana attempts to snow tne reac- nunary roie ot tne unurcn there.

17 1 1 i u.miu(jim ui. ecclesiastical oruiaircy, fanaticism, and backwardness are shown. The Spanish Catholics are depicted as guardians of feudalism and monarchy. The wealth and power of the Jesuits is stressed. Photographs of" an archbishop in the company of General Franco, priests manning rebel machine-guns or officiating at rebel celebrations are displayed.

A large central anti-religious museum is to be built soon in Moscow, to replace the one formerly located in the Stras-nooi Monastery, which is being demolished in the reconstruction of the city. Ihe revival of interest in atheist propaganda is apparently a reflection 1L. 1 1 i nue lcucwca ireeaom ior religion which has made its appearance in the nnsf. vpar or tu-n pprftiinlv mnM i Of tolerant attitude has been adopted towards believers and churchgoers than in iue past, tnougn no cnange has yet been made in thp 1pfh1 ctn religion. It is still against the law to teach religious doctrines except within the home.

Nevertheless, the abusive and rnwfjv ipprinn rpli4rr faTi. years ago has gone. Churches are no longer rjeing closed. In fact, many are undergoing renovation. On rpPTlf rir TTti.

siinitnl the Ukraine, your correspondent saw some interesting developments in this direction. Remarkable specimens of ancient Byzantine art, concealed under layers of eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings, are being restored to their original condition in the CatViprlr.il nf Sf Yaroslavl, Russia's second king, in a.d. iwu, tnis catnedrai had been a place of worship for hundreds of years untu it was closed in 1934, in order that archaeologists might make a detailed study of it. Stalin's Rebuke Many zealous young Communists have objected to the enfranchisement of priests, sanctioned in the new Constitution, on the ground that it is a dangerous measure of freedom. They have been assured that to withhold the franchise would be to martyrise the clergy in the eyes of many and thus win fresh sympathy for them.

In his speech opening the Extraordinary Congress of Soviets the other day, Stalin sharply rebuked those enthusiasts who recommended amending the new Constitution to forbid religious services. This would have violated the spirit of the document, he said. IN LAKE DISTRICT Amenities to Go On fate of Ennerdale and of the country round Whinlatter Pass, there still remain some 100 square miles which we must consider to be in grave danger. This area includes important districts as (1) the remaining parts of the Esk and Duddon valleys with their tributaries; (2) both sides of Coniston valley; and (3) the land lying north-west and west of Windermere between the Brathay and Esthwaite. The upper reaches of Long Sleddale and the Hard ale and Hawes-ivater valley, it is pointed out, are also omitted from the area to be excluded from afforestation.

T.o say that we are satisfied would be far from the truth," adds the News Letter." We are glad to realise that so much of the essential Lake District is for ever freed from this new threat to its beauty and present uses yet we cannot but grieve to see a Government commission so obdurate in its intention to carry out its work in a district which all should allow to be inviolate. The Friends of the Lake District will continue to search for other means to save Eskdale and Dunnerdale. They cannot let this matter drop." Mountain Roads and Motors In a reference to the "improvement" of mountain pass roads, the News Letter reports that a deputation visited a sub-committee of the Cumberland County Council to discuss this question and had the backing of over 5,000 signatories many oi whom were motorists to a statement that we are against the improvement of the by-roads and mountain trackways in the Lake District." The Friends have since been informed by the clerk to the county council that the Highways Committee was not prepared to express definite opinions which would operate to bind their successors." The News Letter commends the action of the South Cumberland Electricity Supply Company in consulting the society concerning their proposed electricity lines and in agreeing to vary seme routes. The Barrow Corporation, however, is held responsible ior some of the worst disfigurements in the Lancashire area of the Lake District." The telephone department of the Post Office Engineering Service is described as outdoing all other bodies in recognising the claim of the amenities." The survey oi common lands is beginning to take shape, and members of the footpaths sub-committee ore continuing their individual work. OLD STORTFORDIANS' DINNER The annual London dinner of the Old Stortfordians' Club was held on Saturday.

The president. Mr. J. H. Doggart, II M.D., FJR.C.S..

presided over about 140 guests, including Mr Raymond Evershed, K.C., Professor Norman Baynes, Dr. T. G. Hunt, Mr. A.

H. Grimwade. the Rev. Alan G- Knott, Dr. Gamlin, and Dr.

A. H. 'Morley. The Head Master, Mr. H.

L. Price, replying to the toast of the school, said that the Young Memorial Library, trail by private subscription at a cost of over 3,400. was now structurally complete and its shelves were rapidly filling with books. During the evening a presentation was made to Mr. C.

S. Caiman, who, after more than fifty years of association with the school as boy and master, recently retired. EDMUND GALLEY The Innocence of Edmund Galley. By Richard S. Lambert.

Newncs. Pp. 210. 10s. 6d.

Mr. Lambert tells the story of what must be the longest fight for justice in English legal annals. It lasted forty-three years. The story begins late on the night of July 16, 1835, when Jonathan May, a- prosperous farmer, was found dying by the roadside near Moretonhampstead, Devon. Returning from Moretonhampstead market, he had been murderously attacked and robbed.

Inquiries among the riff-raff that haunt markets and fairs indicated that two men were concerned, and ultimately two men were arrested an attractive young scallawag named Thomas Oliver and Edmund Galley, a poor little vagrant whose delinquencies had never been known to go higher or lower than thimble-rigging. Both were convicted and sentenced to death. Oliver's guilt was beyond dispute, but the evidence against Galley was extremely unsatisfactory; and after verdict and before sentence the former protested vehemently from the dock that Galley was not his associate in the crime, but one Longley, professionally known as Dick Turpin. Oliver was duly hanged, but Galley was respited owing to the energy ana resource of his counsel, Montague Smith, the future judge. With Smith were associated Alexander Cockburn, who happened to be present at the trial George Cherer, the official shorthand reporter, and Thomas Latimer, the young editor and proprietor of the Western Times," who had made a verbatim report for his newspaper.

The two latter could prove from their notes that the judge, Mr. Justice Williams, had grossly misdirected the jury on the identification of Gal'ev. These men saved Galley's neck, but that was all for the moment. The death sentence was commuted to trans portation for life. But the fight for justice went on, until at last in 1W9 Cockburn, now Lord Chief Justice of England, presenfc-d a demand for ualley pardon that could not be denied.

Even so. there was no idea that the poor old man in Australia should receive any compensation. That question was raised in the House of Commons in 180, and it is shameful to find a Liberal Home Secretary (Harcourt) and a Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer fLowe arcuins that Galley was not entitled to a penny because the affair had happened such a long time ago. However, as every decent man in the House was of a contrary opinion, they agreed with a very ill grace to let Galley have Mr. Lambert's history of the case is vigorous and copious just a little too copious indeed.

It would have been better if it had been less minute in detail. And his adverse view of Mr. Justice Williams is at least questionable. Williams was an erratic and unskilful judge, and he had made a aad-mes3 of the trial of the Tolnuddle case a month or two after his elevation to the Bench but he was by no means i iu-iiDerai or unKinaiy. i).

tj. THE LATE SIR EDGAR BRITTEN'S BOOK A Million Ocean Miles. By Sir Edgar T. Sir Edgar Britten's adventurous life story is something that one wants to read. He has not given us much of adventure in this book, but much of his Western Ocean life which is what we expected in the biography of a man who had supped with kings yet kept the common touch." His descriDtions of the phases of life aboard a great modern liner are crammed with interest and rare experiences, but they are not enough to give us an idea of the man who wrote them.

Now and again one finds in the book the term seamen." Britten should never have used that word when he refers to himself or to others who took their watch on a shin bridge. He was ever a sailor, never a seaman. Ihe bellboy, the telephone man, the steward, and many others wbo sign tne articles oi a snip are seamen Britten was, of course, ever a sailor." His earlv life aboard a sailing-ship shows that, no matter how manv kins of industry he had supped with. The command of a big Western Ocean liner is like the com mand of an hotel, and Sir Edear makes po secret of that. We would have liked more of the autobiotrraphy of a preat sailor, and Sir Edgar Britten was a great sailor whose name will go down in history.

A. H. B. CHINESE ART The Chinese Exhibition. A Commemora tive Catalogue.

Faber and Faber. Pp. xxviii. tQO and 160 plates. 3 3s.

Books of all kinds introductory to the study of Chinese art were published in connection with the Chinese Exhibition in London last winter. But of the exhibition itself no record in book form beyond that of the official catalogue ha been available till now. This finely produced volume contains the full test of the catalogue, including Mr. Laurence Binyon brief but illuminating introductory essay, a table of reign marks and dates, a good general index, and 160 plates in half-tone representing some 350 chosen exhibits. The plates wisely include, a hundred objects lent by the Chinese Government, for, apart from the fact that these objects were among the finest things in the exhibition, it is valuable to have a pictorial record of treasures which will probably not be seen again in Europe for many generations.

The only possible criticism of the book's arrangement' could be on the score of the' relative -amount of space allotted to the illustration of each aspect of Chinese But those responsible for choosing the pictures have doubtless considered very cars-fnllv how best to cover tneir vast field. The importance of the early bronzes, which was so striking a feature of the exhibition, is here stressed by allotting as much space (forty plates) to as to the ceramics. Paintms' comes next with thirty-five, carved jade occupies thirteen, sculpture ten, ivory and laeoner eiaht. The format and-printing are worthy Bennett. Heineraann.

Pd. A Catalogue of Papers Fettercairn House. 257. 21s. By H.

B. Even Boswell's inordinate vanity. would have been appeased bv the extent to which in the last ten years he has kept printing-houses busy. In his lifetime he published freely, but the last few years has discovered fifty times as much unpublished matter from his pen as had hitherto found its way into print. The first great trove was found in the possession of his great-great-grandson, Lord Talbot de Malahide, and in 1927 the Malahide papers, or at least as many of them as had then been recognised, were bought by Colonel Isham.

He has had them published in eighteen expensive volumes. But a little later even further riches appeared at Malahide, another box of papers within which was the original MS. of the journal of the tour with Johnson. This is the volume which Pottle and Bennett now give us in print. Its main substance, of course, and its chief charm the world already knows in the older printed text.

But the old attraction is increased by the variants and by the formerly excised passages which are now revealed. Boswell had leaned on Malone as his editor, and Malone saw to it that Boswell in public print was always decent and proper but Boswell himself with the pen in his hand was not infrequently improper, or at least unthinkingly intimate in his topics and amusingly indiscreet in his comments. The uncorrected and unexnurEated Boswell is even more the ideal fireside or bedside book than is the edited Boswell. Our onlv com plaint (apart from some commercial confusion between the expensive SOME VIEWS The Seven Pillars of Fire. A Symposium To diagnose the ills of the world and to suggest remedies is rapidly becoming the most popular of after-dinner sports.

This book contains the contributions to our betterment offered by a team of seven writers Dr. Maude Royden, Professors Jacks and A. E. Richardson, Lord Tavistock, Captain Bernard Ack-worth, Mr. C.

R. W. Nevinson, and Sir E. Denison Ross. They are a very mixed company, and each has his own nostrum to commend.

Dr. Maude Royden and Captain Ackworth agree in stating the urgent need for a rebirth of living Christianity, but whereas Dr. Royden builds her cry on a powerful and passionate argument, Captain Ackworth contents himself with the unargued assertion. It seems very unlikely, moreover, that these two writers mean at all the same thing by Dr. Jacks will save us through a more truly integrated education, and makes the interesting point that the modern philosophy of happiness is at the root of many of our troubles SYMPOSIUM ON PEACE Peace By Alan Campbell Johnson.

Methuen. Pp. xL 210. 5s. Peace, as Mr.

Johnson points out in the preface to Peace Offering," is a complicated subject these days, and none of her prophets enjoys a monopoly of truth. But it is always possible that a mixture may contain the remedy which no pure essence has yet provided, and with this aim he has collected a series of interviews interspersed with comment from all the major and minor prophets of the time. Mr. Lloyd George, Beverley Nichols, Sir Edward Grigg, and Mr. Aldous Huxley were all persuaded (generally without much difficulty) to talk for half an hour on peace and how to get it, and several others as well.

Perhaps the absolute pacifist view gets a disproportionate share of attention, but this is balanced by an interesting article (the only written contribution) by Major General Haushofer, who puts the German view with all the vigorous illogic we have come to expect from Nazi leaders. The result is an interesting and lively book, and Mr. Johnson's own comments are often intelligent and sometimes witty. It suffers a little from the lack of any clear viewpoint in the author, and most readers will find it difficult at the end to say what Mr. Johnson really thinks.

Perhaps this was intentional. Others may dislike the style this sentence, for instance (coming at the beginning of a section), may give some idea of what to expect The Writing is on the Wall and translated into terms of nationalism it still means death to Babylon." But the only real criticism of an interesting and valuable book is its form when all the prophets have spoken and written at length for our convenience, why should anyone wish to receive their message at second hand! J. M. D. P.

CIRCUS MEMORIES Crew Parade By John S. Clarke. Batsford. Pp. riii.

120. 7s. 6L The varied life of Mr. John S. Clarke, who is now a journalist and was a Labour member of Parliament, includes a long professional experience in the circus.

What he has to say in "Circus Parade" on the taming of carnivores will interest anyone concerned with how animals- are best trained for the circus or with whether they should be. trained at alL There arel" he says, no safe tame lions, tigers, leopards, or bears, and only a tool ever believes it- man who plays about with flesh-eating wild beasts is always' in danger." The gentling of carnivores can, however, in his view, be fairly effective if the mors intelligent individual animals are chosen only four lions in twenty he finds intelligent enough. Of noisy methods or training by intimidation (still, he thinks, to be found in the United States, and still shown to as in aa occasional film from Hollywood) he Relating to Bom well, By C. C. Abbott.

Charlton Viking edition and this handsome guinea reissue of it) is that the editors might have more clearly indicated the paragraphs and sentences in this edition which are its novelties. The second item under review is not really a book. It is a list of another vast Boswell and Johnson find, in all some sixteen hundred items. Over a thousand of these are letters to Boswell, nearly three hundred are copies or drafts of letters from Boswell, about torty are actual letters from seven items are cited as "maior" Boswell two of them being journals, then follow minor MSS. in Boswell hand.

and. after a miscel laneous section, the list concludes, except for an item or two of John- soniana, with about 120 letters from Johnson himself. Just how much this vast recovery will add to our real knowledge of Bos well and of Johnson remains to be seen indeed, one does not vet know how much of it merits publication. It is to be hoped, however, that Oxford's venture now in progress for the republication of Johnson will be able to avail itself fully of the new material. For the time being the readable part of Mr.

Abbott's Catalogue is the story of how he fared on his treasure hunt. The MSS. are in the possession of Lord Clinton, and his generosity has allowed Mr. Abbott full exploratory rights. His adventures in dust, his temporary disappointments, and his thrilling finds make Mr.

Abbott's story the log-book of one of those bibliographical expeditions which are the scholar's vovages of discovery. ON OUR ILLS Herbert Jenkins. Pp. 314. 8s.

Gd. There is next to nothine about hmni. ness in the Bible (though in one passage the happy man is said to he the man whom the Lord correcteth), very little in Shakespeare, and not much in any English writer, until a new era onened with the return of that devoted servant of Aptirodite his Sacred Majesty Charles II. Lord Tavistock takes up the cudgels for Social Credit, while Professor Richardson and Mr. C.

R. W. Nevinson survey the world from the point of view of an architect and an artist, and contrive to be very interesting in the process. The most pertinacious examination fails to' docket Sir E. Denison Ross.

He simply, and genially, grouses about things in general. His, the most formless and least constructive essay, is the only one which offers humanity no particular hope. Not all these seven essays justify the rather flamboyant title given to them, but two of there. Dr. Maude Royden's and Professor Richardson's, may, if the Fates are kind, light a little candle.

They are moving and convincing statements. R. B. L. has nothing good to say.

Circus Parade is a mixture of reminiscence, observation, reading, and disjointed comment. It is ill-written, but full of odd facts about the circus of to-dav and yesterday, and enriched bv a remarkably good collection of photographs. J. M. Many gastronomic books have been published during the last few years, but so far few anthologies of the savoury passages of literature have found their way into print, though many lovers of good food have made their own for private consumption.

The Epicure's Anthology of Banqueting Delights, by Nancv Ouennell (The Golden Cockerel Press, pp. 188, Ts. ougnt to prove a welcome gift book at this time of year, with its chapters on Banqueting Delights, The Philosophy of Food, and Gastronomic Oddities and Incidents the pages, too, as one might expect of this press, are delightful to look at and are charmingly decorated by Osbert Lancaster. But the somewhat high-flown style of the prefatory note raises hopes by suggesting a preamble to weightier, or at least to greedier and wittier, matter than actually follows. Still, with passages that range from Petronius and Juvenal through Boccacio and Milton to Boswell, Thackeray, and Proust, there is rjlenty of vivid reading which may stimulate readers to go to their shelves in search of suggestions for adding to a second edition.

Unless romance is merely a synonym for excitement. The Romance of Motor Racing, by Sir Malcolm Campbell (Hutchinson, pp. 300, 10s. is falsely titled. Sir Malcolm distils a pleasantly prepared brew of reminiscences, technical problems and solutions, practical maxims, and personal acquaintanceships, all of which should prove intensely interesting to the enthusiasts of high speed.

He- is exceptionally interesting when he writes of jockeying tactics in an actual race, and describes how one driver essays to force a rival to drive his engine just a fraction harder than the metal will bear; and he also contrives to analyse his own apprenticeship to this dangerous game in terms which are full of instruction for youthful aspirants. Peering into the future, he suggests that regular road-racing will probably be confined to ever smaller engines, bat that the world's land speed record may one day be raised to some such fantastic figure as 500 miles an hour. The volume would make aa admirable Christmas present for boys. Not a book of the month nor of a year, but "THE MOST IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL WORK published this CENTURY." TIME TIDE Not a book of the month nor of a year, bnt "one of the indispensable works of popularisation our generation has produced." H. J.

Laski RUSSIAN ADVENTURE We Generally Shoot Englishmen. By R. O. G. Urch.

Allen and Unwin. Pp. 300. 10s. 6d.

The title of this book, borrowed from an innocent remark addressed to the author by a Russian youth in uniform in 1918, seems a little extravagant. The further description, An English Schoolmaster's Five Years of Mild Adventure in Moscow (1915-20)," sums up justly enough the matter of this straightforward and unpretentious fragment of narrative. Mr. Urch came to Moscow a year or so after the outbreak of war from Riga, where he had been teaching English. His wife and two small children came with him.

The two years before the October Revolution were tolerably well spent, it appears the other three years were more uncomfortable and were not without anxieties of one sort or another. The story is unexpectedly bare in patches, and is not improved by scraps of historical explanation in a commonplace and not unprejudiced vein the author makes the mistake of interpreting events in terms of somebody or other's personal characteristics. However, he has a good-humoured and unexaggerated way of describing his own experiences. The February Revolution seemed to happen of its own accord in Moscow and took him by surprise he was not favourably impressed by Kerensky's oratory he stayed indoors during the subsequent week's fighting for Moscow he had the customary difficulties in obtaining food. The most interesting pageB treat of his two months' stay in tho Butyrsky prison following the general round-up of suspects as the result of the attempt on Lenin's life.

The thirty or so persons of different nationalities in hiB cell discovered ingenious methods of making themselves relatively comfortable. The author's- wife and children crossed the Finnish frontier a year before his own departure. R. D. C.

It is perhaps a little difficult to see how A Biography of Dublin, by Christine Longford (Methuen, pp. ix. 147, can claim to be entitled "Dublin" or to give a biography of that city. It might perhaps better be described as a series of sketches of the highways and byways of Anglo-Irish history. But, whatever it should be called, it is a spirited affair, a much better introduction to Irish history than any of the formal histories.

For they deaden while Christine Longford excites our curiosity with pleasing scraps of scandal, pictures of Dean Swift, O'Connell. and the Dublin theatre of the eighteenth century, and Jonah Barrington. A slipht thing, but readable eminently readable we are tempted to say when we remember how much has been written of Ireland that is exceedingly dull or disagreeable to read. J. T.

G. CHRISTMAS CARDS AND CALENDARS There can scarcely be any feature of Christmas that has changed so much during recent years aa its greeting' cards. Most people can remember the time when snow, waits, robins, village chnrches, and sleighs were almost the only symbols of jollity that the season produced. Christmas cards mainly suggested sleek comfort, overeating, and "a good time had by alL" Xowadays the atmosphere has changed and the tendency of cards is towards austerity and irrelevance. Not many of this year's productions go so far from good cheer as the series, published by Michael Joseph, in which Arthur Wragg illustrates Biblical texts with his bitter cartoons, bnt the chief impression of the batch is that the majority of mantelpieces on Christmas Day will display pictures in which robins and snow are not prominent.

Among the best of the cards are those published by the Ward Gallery, which offers a wide and excellent variety at low prices. The Medici Society have for a long time been tfie choice of people in search of permanent worth, and many of their new cards, especially the. "Modern Series." are beautifully chosen and reproduced. Messrs. W.

Heffer and Sons, of Cambridge, are another firm offering originality and good workmanship. It should not be forgotten that the British Musenm, though seeming an unlikely source for Christmas cards, provides many delightful ones. Of the more conventional type the well-known Messrs. Baphael Tuck and Sobs, IVfr? have something for. almost everybody.

ringing in price from naif a crown- a card to a penny. Messrs. A. M. Davis and Co4 supply cards which sre distinctive, gay, and often extremely pretty.

Good too, come from W. Faulkner and Ltd though the speciality "here is the dsily tear-off 'calendar won thoughts that are Shakespesxean, Great, or merely. Witty. These are also supplied in good variety by vr. Valentine's.

Among the best of tie calendars are she "Irish Calendar' edited by George Birmingham (aimpkin Marti1f: 2a. the "Country' Life Beautiful Britain" (Country Life, Blochg's Alpine Calendar" (Blsekwell's, 48-V and "Beautiful sbidi hweicd. lent' views of that eormtyVelioJcepRSsaaaBi Brayzhaw sz BzleinatB. Dolls representing Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard, which are on sale in Holland. WORLD'S NAVIES The Rearmament Programme CAPITAL SHIPS The speed with which the naval Powers of the world are setting about rearming i3 shown in the new issue of Jane's Fighting Ships," edited by Mr.

Francis E. ilcMurtrie, and published to-day (Sampson Low, Marston, and 2 Britain leads with 99 new ships under construction or in prospect, and without exception the other Powers concerned with security at sea are undertaking big programmes of new building and replace ment. In three years or so the number of new capital ships placed in commission will be greater than at any time in the last twenty years. The foreword says Capital ships, the building of which has been a rarity in recent years, are now being ordered freely by the principal Powers. In 1940 the British fleet will be reinforced by -two battleships of entirely novel design.

These two ships, the King George and Prince of Wales, are being laid down at the beginning of 1937. The United States navy will begin the construction of two ships of similar displacement at the same date, and there is every indication that Japan intends to do the same. France, having begun the Richelieu, is now about to lay down the Jean Bart, while Germany, having one in hand, is expected to start work on a sister ship in 1937. Italy's two capital ships, the Littorio and Yiitorio Veneto, were laid down in 1934. but progress is so slow that it is unlikely that they will be readv before 1940." Every one of these ships, it is stated, is believed to be designed for a speed ot 30 knots or more.

At the London Naval Conference an attempt was made to restrict the gun calibre oi capital ships to 14 inches. This was ultimately made subject to the adherence before April 1, 1937, of ail the parties to the Washington Treaty. Of this," the foreword says, there does not appear to be tlie slightest prospect. On the other hand, negotiations are well advanced for separate agreements between the British Government, on the one hand, and those of Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Soviet Cnion, embodying the main conditions of the new London Treaty." The following figures give some idea of the numbers and kinds of ships which are either being built or are projected by the leading "naval Powers Great Britain: Two battleships, three aircraft-carriers, sixteen light cruisers, three destroyer flotilla leaders, thirty-two destroyers (sixteen of a heavier type), thirteen submarines, thirteen sloops and mine-sweepers, seventeen net-layers, torpedo-boats, trawlers, total 99. France: Three battleships (two of 35,000 tons with 15-inch guns and one of 26.000 with 13-inch guns), three cruisers, two flotilla leaders, six destroyers, twelve torpedo-boats, six submarines, eleven sloops, gunboats, total 43.

Germany: One battleship (35.000 tons with 14- inch guns), two aircraft-carriers, three heavy cruisers, twelve destroyers, nine sea-going submarines, and others of a coastal type, twelve mine-sweepers, total 39. Italy: Two battleships (35,000 tons with 15- inch guas), two cruisers, four destroyers, thirty-five torpedo-boats, twenty-three submarines, total 66. United states: Two battleships 35.0O0 tons with 15-inch guns), three aircraft-carriers, eleven cruisers, fifty-two destroyers, fifteen submarines, total 83. Japan: Four battleships projected (believed to be of 35,000 tons), two aircraft-carriers, two cruisers, fourteen destroyers, four submirines, twelve torpedo-boats, total 35. MOTORIST'S LICENCE SUSPENDED Driving on Three Wheels Norman Marrow (22), of Park Grove, Old Trafford, Manchester, was fined a total of 11 at the Manchester City Police Court yesterday when he was charged with taking and driving away a motorcar without the owner's consent, driving dangerously, and driving while under the influence of drink.

Marrow was fined 5 on each of the first two charges -and 1 for driving while under the influence of drink. His drivins licence was suspended for twelve months. Marrow was alleged to have driven a one wheel oi which was missing, along Dover Street, Chorlton-on-Med-lock. When the car was eventually overtaken by a police officer, it was alleged, Marrow alighted from the car and walked to the rear to examine the damage which had been caused, through the absence of one of the wheels. it was.

then noticed that he was under' the influence of drink. Dr. Blench, police surgeon, gave evidence that he saw Marrow at the police station. There was no doubt that he was unfit through drink to have cnarge oi a car. DIOCESE OF JIANCHESTER The Bishop of Manchester has collated and instituted the Bev.

A. Lunt, B.A., to St. Edmund, WhaQey Range; and the Rev. S. B.

Stirrup to New St. George, Staiybridge, and at the same time issued his mandates for induction. He has also licensed- the following stipendiary curates: the Bev. Burnett, M-A-, to the Ascension, Broughton, and the Bev. Colin Lucas to St.

Augustine, Pendlebuxy and licensed the Bev. B. Da vies -to preach within the dioeeee of Manchester, Chesterfield. ot the ooora purpose,.