Evening star., 1936-08-08

- way are very good. Signor
i Ware, who has been for many
- years with the Italian Embassy
at Peking, writes with clarity and
understanding of the old Dowager
Empress. Tzu-Hsi, telling her compH-
Gated story from her youth in a
Manchu village to her death as head
of the Chinese government, succeeding
in making her live plausibly for his
readers, and giving lucid narrative
of the main events Of her reign. Miss
Sitwell, whose interest In things VIC
torian is well known, writes somewhat
previously about the great English
sovereign, but contrives to make book
of considerable interest. The only
thing that occurs to the reviewer as
possibly offering improvement in either
work is that the two be combined
the suggestion comes, Of course, from
the circumstance that reading them In
rapid succession seemed to heighten
the goodness of each. Particularly in
the case of Victoria Is this true: one
is well accustomed to most possible
concepts of that dear queen" whether
as ruler, woman, wife or mother. To
consider her, however, as contempo-
rary Of the great Manchu empress
Qike herself, short stout old lady
of few Words Is to see her in a new
manner. 1t Is also to have reason of
felicitously vivid sort to mediate
on the humor of what men refer to
as history.
The points of difference in the two
careers are tremendous, Of course.
Victoria was destined for her position
even before her birth; Tzu-Hsi rose
to hers from the obscurity of ''concu-
bine of the third rank" in the i'm
perial harem. Victoria ruled waxing
power, Tzu-Hsi waning one. Vic
toria was close to her people and
familiar figure to them; Tzu-Hsi lived
as an almost mythical parsonage, sell
dom seen even by her officers. Vic
toria's enemies we're openly her enc
mics, constrained to express their op-
position more or less frankly; TIL
Hsi lived in danger Of assassination
and rebellion from her intimates and
even her family-her palace was
hotbed of intrigue and conspiracy.
Victoria was sentimental;T ;Tzu-Hsi un-
winkingly realistic. Victorias concept
of art is embodied in the Albert Me-
mortal, the architect of which she
selected because he assured her that
the function of all art was to express
moral purpose; Tzu-Hsi calmly ap-
propriated the money set aside for her
navy to build the great Summer
Palace, the beauty of which so salts
fed her that she bore the defeat of
the Chinese feet by the japanese
without regret, approving the remark
of one Of her eunuchs that Even if
the money had been spent on the
navy, the Japanese would have beaten
us just the same. AS 1t is, at least we
have the Summer Palace"-and the
palace is somewhat above the memo
rial in artistic value. And one could
60 on endlessly.
Vet, as one reads the two lives, one
IS impressed with likeness between
the two women which overrides the
dissimilarities. They were both born
rulers Both had imperial hearts
imperial, not imperious. Both came
to power at the age Of 18. young girls.
crude, prejudiced, narrow. Both, from
their first assumption of power to the
end Of their days, gave every energy to
holding and improving their authority,
as they understood 1t. Both knew how
to use men and ministers to their own
ends Both kept the confidence and
affection Of their people-even as Vic
toria came to be called "the Old Lady"
and "Old Vic" so was Tzu-Hsi known
as "the Old Buddha" Neither could
be swayed when she felt that she was
right-though their canons of right
ness differed startlingly. One feels
that they would have known one an
other History can hardly ask more
exquisite moment than would have
Ltranspired If they had met-the right
>eous Victoria and the great heather.
Miss Sitwell Is delicately aware Of the
essential comicality of much of Vic
toria's career, and she gives many de-
lightful examples Of that aspect of it.
But she offers us nothing that would
equal that meeting-could it have
taken place.
Miss Sitwell's book is not a con-
nected biography, nor is it a history of
Victoria's reign. It attempts rather to
give series of pictures Of the Queen
as she was in her different stages of
growth, and merely outlines the devel-
opments of governing through which
she was passing. We see her as
child, a young girl, young Queen
We see her as young wife and as
widow. 1t was not, says Miss Sitwell,
until her old age that she achieved
greatness. She was crude, self -willed
and prejudiced in her youth and self
tpitying and hysterical in her middle
years. But she became wise and no.
BILE" in age. Then she no longer chose
ministers because they pleased her
personally, but because she believed
they would serve her people. mo de-
tail which affected the welfare of her
people was too small to escape her no
tice," says this biographer. And, as
she became great, she became lonely.
The personal relationships which had
meant so much to her in former years
"SAS SA1SaS0 Wy NNdIlA VI Wy ChpCOlCIlCy.
Not so Tzu-Hsi, who was lonely from
the moment power came into her
hands, whose rise was due to her abil-
, 1ty to outwit constant succession of
enemies who would have supplanted
and killed her, and who did her own
share Of supplanting and killing in the
grim struggle for power. She had lit
tie time for details Of 'the welfare of
her people," She was engaged
throughout her reign In an effort to
eradicate the foreign devils who were
encroaching further and further upon
her domain. This was the great issue
Of her life. She longed, above all
things, to restore China's old integrity.
After a lifetime of subtle effort, she
finally gambled more or less openly,
giving the Boxer uprising her tacit
support. And even before that trouble
was put down she knew that she had
lost. That was, says Signor Ware, a
%urv,i,,n ,ooiy,f In, Hhioeca hicfNy-v