Evening star., 1935-12-15
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

Gibbs, who sets down so many
words and all of them express
u i've of opinions so eminently
correct, has in this present book un-
dertaken to examine the state Of his
England. He has examined it by talk
ing to its EngliShmen, to the sweeper
of crossings, the unemployed man in
the free shelter, the policeman Zone
almost wrote bobby, the elder states
man at dinner, the prime minister
himself, and to economists, scientists
and members of the oxford Group
Movement, and to writer's, actors and
painters, to soldiers, to city men and
rustics and to still others. His book
is q reporting of these conversations.
He has found out in sum that Eng
lands unity is alive and strong, but
that the conditions under which this
unity is to be carried forward are
changing. In other words, the world
may change, is changing in fact, but
England-well, England is still Eng
land.
Not that Sir Philip has failed to
find some growing pains in his fellow
countrymen. These changes in the
world at large-they have not taken
place, he observes, without affecting
the English people to some extent, And
It is on the youth of the nation that
one sees plainest marks Of the new day.
They seem to be, in his kindly estima-
ton, more intellectually inclined than
were their elders, but frazier both in
body and in spirit. The traditional
hardness of the breed he discovers in
the process of transfer from physique
to mind.
His conversations cover many sub
jects. but through them all one crops
up again and again, and that is the
authors fear of war in Europe at an
early date. He makes no effort to con-
ceal the fact that belief in the immi-
nence of conflict weighs upon him. He
spoke of it to men of all ranks. He
even put the question che says that it
was extraordinarily rude OF him to
have done So) to a young oxford man
at dinner which was also attended
by the elder statesman, man who
had helped make those treaties which
bind England to continental military
alliances. Would the youth of the ma
ton, asked Sir Philip, uphold those
alliances even to the point of carrying
the country into war?
The young man down from Ok
ford" replied with Spartan simplicity,
There can be no law otherwise" And
the elder statesman. turning to Sir
Philip, added the righteous comment,
"You are answered" Whereupon. Sir
Philip himself meekly murmured,
"And rebuked."
Still, coming to the confessional of
his book, he reiterates that he consid-
ers such alliances as contributory to a
peril that is already sufficiently great
and expresses the wish that the
younger men in public life would take
a strong stand. He does not find that
they are doing so. interviewing a
group of young M. P.'s, he was frankly
told by them that they had no weight
in party deliberations whatsoever.
Speaking of what would happen if
GIlEY W N4C"O 4lCaL ~
one Of them remarked, I'VE should get
into trouble with the whips Be-
sides, we have to play the game and
behave like little gentlemen;
Sir Philip then inquired why they
did not revolt, duly stating that he
made the suggestion only "for the sake
of argument" and knew that he was
''uttering blasphemy." That, he writes,
seemed only to amuse the youthful
statesmen. But for himself, he asserts
a little later, "I should not be war
correspondent in that Cthe next) war,
If it happened. I should be in prison.
perhaps"
These portions of his book are
quoted because they seem to give at
once the widest deviations from and
the most nearly perfect examples Of
playing the game" that are to be
found in this book about the England
of the moment. 1t was, the author says,
blasphemy for him to suggest to the
young representatives of the people
that they do little actual represent
ing. Nevertheless, he did suggest it
for the sake of argument, of course.
1t was rude of him to interrupt a
dinner party with talk of war and
treaties, but he did interrupt just the
same-and apologized afterward. He
feels himself out of sympathy with ma
tional leaders in being opposed at all
costs to another war. But, in modest,
deprecating manner, he remarks that
he will go to prison for his opinion on
the matter, since. of course, it is the
right of his peers to imprison the op-
position if they see fit. He would not
dispute that right either. Not Sir Phil
ip. One is reasonably confident that it
would amuse him to uphold it.
In his Epilogue he says, I'VE are
still nation Of individualists, and
one feels that if he himself is any
measure. that is the truth. He goes on:
"All this modernization is, find, very
superficial. mean it has not yet Bit
ten into the soul Of England or poi
soned its brain the crowds who
came into the streets for jubilee be-
longed to Shakespeare's England as
VIGIL do w IAILS 1CO4 sc o. A44Cy Alud
the touch of Chaucer's folk in their
blood and humor. In any time of crisis
or tribulation they reveal themselves
unchanged in their courage and sense
of comedy, which, I believe, is the
chief quality-that sense of comicality
even in misfortune-which distin-
guishes us most from other peoples, "
While this is pretty much what we
would expect from this writer, one
still hopes that he is right. You
may like the English or not, but it
would be the reverse of wise man
who would deny that it would be a
monstrous queer world without them.
They are, after all. more like ourselves
than anybody else.
Eight Men and One Woman.
PROPHETS AND POETS. BY Andre
Maurois, Harper and Brothers
New York.
WHEN Andre Maurois turned his
Nv back on the career of textile
,,oop1Yfo ef1Irer Y1ninted for him bV his