Evening star., 1938-07-24
SIR PHILIP DIAGNOSES EUROPE
Discretion Seems Better Part Of Vaor in British Authors Ideas
About England's Policies es-Russan Author, Tilhonov
Produces Book That is Vertable Treasure

winter In camp. The book Is an ac-
count Of what went on in the regiment
the while. But more than that, it is
an unforgettably sensitive picture of
the mentality OF the real soldier-not
of the man who enlists briefly to de-
fend his country in time Of war, but of
the man who feels himself born to
fight, who loves fighting, who will
spend his life in the membership of
some military body without any cues.
ton as to the merits of the case for
which he is fighting, and whose emo
tions reach their highest peak in q
sense OF pride in and loyalty to his
regiment. OF all such soldiers within
the memory Of those now living, the
Cars Cossacks were probably the
most perfect types. They were brave,
skilled, brutal, unquestioning, ignorant,
faithful and proud of their organiza-
ton.
The life of the regiment in the book
is controlled by psychopathic officer,
Baron Ungern-Sternberg tan historic
character), who orders men burned
alive, thrown under the ice, hanged,
f1ogged and brutally exposed to the
elements, as it seems to him fit. His
officers hold him in detestation and
fear; his enlisted men adore him. And
the reason for their alteration is the
very primal one that he takes care Of
them. Under his terrible rule they
never have to think. He tells them
what to do, and, for that boon they
will spend a lifetime in taking daily
| risks of death and in enduring un-
| speakable privations. The baron is
their mother, in other words. They
accept his frightful inhumanities with
the submission of very young children
The baron, for his part, is the very
lncarpation of the spirit which destroys
his love of discipline and esprit de
corps make him the archtypal militar-
| ist. Significantly he hates women; there
is only one female character of any
| color in the book and she is intro
duced only briefly, to demonstrate how
the baron reacts to her individualism
and sanity. He has her f1ogged
/ within an inch of her life and then
exposed on the ice of a river. The
author seems to tell us that the
military spirit is purely male
The book, however, is not a sick re-
bellion against war at all. it is ro-
bust, humorous and fair; the virtues
of the soldiers are brought out as well
as their vices. the comicality of their
child-like camp life is fully presented.
1t is not only sensitive. but strong and
dispassionate. Its narrative, to be
sure, has little continuity; it simply
takes the soldiers up to the point
where Communism triumphs, and they
leave Russia in body, all asserting
that they are still the Cars Cossacks
and that they will return one day and
kill the Reds. And so we leave them.
But continuity is not needed to give
the book greatness; neither is a dis
tinguished style. The author is a man
OF unquestionable genius. That is
enough AS to what Mr.. Tikhonov
does In the future-that will bear
interested watching.
THE DARK RIVER. BY Charles Nord-
hoff and James Norman Hall
Boston: Little, Brown g. Co.
This novel, by the well-known
Bounty" collaborators, has been for
several weeks now a best seller. And
there seems no reason why it should
not be so; it has one of the oldest