August 15, 19 1 8 
Land & Water 
25 
The Reader's Diary 
Recent Novels 
THE versatile writer'whojfigured in this page last 
week- as Sir Arthur Ouiller Couch, King Edward 
VII. Professor of English Literature in the 
University of Cambridge, now crops up again 
under 'the terser and perhaps more familiar style 
of " p." It would be a futile enterprise to attempt to decide 
which of these two persons is of the more value to humanity ; 
and, in any case, if there is little that is professorial about 
Foe-Farrell (Cjlollins, 6s. net), there was not much in tlie same 
author's volume of professorial addresses. Perhaps, how- 
ever, the uplifting influence of being a professor shows itself 
in the fact that this is a story with a moral more definite 
than any that could be drawn from Dead Man's Rock or Sir 
John Constantine. This moral is, briefly, that it will be a 
bad thing for us if, in pursuing Germany with our hatred, 
we grow like her ; and " " expounds this lesson in a tale 
of the hatred which John Foe, experimental psychologist, 
bore to Peter Farrell, who accused him untruly of being a 
vivisectionist and incited a mob to destroy the results of 
eight years' work. 
I cannot trace in detail tjie manner in which Foe chases 
Farrell half over the world. The irony of the story hes in 
the fact that Farrell improves in character and physique 
under persecution, while Foe steadily deteriorates by force 
of his own hatred ; and the way in which Farrell rises while 
Foe sinks, till, after Foe's worst act of cruelty, their positions 
are reversed, is described with great subtlety and considerable 
eeriness. At the same time, the tale does not lack rousing 
and thrilling incidents. It opens well when Jimmy Colling- 
wood and Farrell begin an evening with supper in Soho and 
end with a broken window at the Ritz, a stolen taxi, and 
Farrell — the respectable furniture dealer — in a police-station, 
wavering as to whether his name is Martin Frobisher or 
Martin Luther. This is an exercise in the best manner of 
uproarious farce. And conspicuous among the other in- 
cidents comes a shipwreck with a voyage in open boats, 
in which "Q" bravely and successfully faces the difficulty 
that these things have happened in books before. The whole 
story is good and it is well told, and, as for the moral, it is 
by no means such a bad one. 
I am sorry I can find no more graceful locution in which 
to express my feeling that I am fed up with the poor dis- 
tinguished writer who cannot make a fortune by the use of 
his distinguished pen. He is bad enough in Mr. Leonard 
Merrick's When Love Flies Out 0' the Window and Cynthia 
(Hodder and Stoughton, 6s. net each) ; but in these two 
books he is at least represented as genuinely unable to earn 
any money at all by the exercise of his talents. I find him 
quite unendurable in Mr. S. P. B. Mais's Lovers of Silver 
(Grant Richards, 6s. net), where he scrapes along with diffi- 
culty on the starvation wage of £600 a year — apparently 
before the war. Mr. Merrick has, fortunately, other strings 
to harp on than the economic and domestic problems peculiar 
to genius. As Mr. Maurice Hewlett points out in his intro- 
duction to Cynlhia, this book begins as a study of the novelist 
as lover and husband-, but soon develops th,is rather arid 
theme to develop and perfect the charming character of Cynthia 
herself. In this and in the conflict and reconciliation 
between husband and wife, Mr. Merrick's handling is remark- 
ably delicate and clear ; and Mr. Hewlett is justified in think- 
ing well of Cynthia. In When Love Flies Out 0' the Window 
the situation is similar ; and Meenie Weston is not far from 
being Cynthia's equal. But another theme is introduced, 
Ralph Lingham's agony, when, owing to his failure, his wife 
is obliged to return to the musical comedy stage and is 
successful there. This again is touched with skill ; but 
Mr. Merrick falls sh'ort of the first rate apparently because 
he sijnply cannot put enough power behind his conceptions. 
Cynthia and Meenie are well sketched in a few of their intenser 
moments. But probably the chief reason for his failure to 
secure wide popularity is that he deals too exclusively with 
novelists and such.- l have read four books by him recently 
and three were about writers. As for Mr. Mais, my ever 
impressionistic mind tells me that recently I have read some 
thirty odd novels by him, though possibly the number is 
less in reality than it seems. So far as I can remember, 
they were all about " literatoors " of various kinds, which, with 
a breezy disregard of probabilities, malscs up all Mr. Mais's 
stock-in-trade ; and I suspect that, like me, the public 
— to be ungraceful again — is fed up with literary geniuses 
in books. 
Russia in Asia 
Mr. M. Philips Price was correspondent for the Manchester 
Guardian in the Russian campaigns in the Caucasus against 
Turkey, which culminated in the fall of Erzcrum ; and he 
also did a great deal of relief work in the Trans-Caucasus and 
neighbouring regions in the latter half of 1916. His book, 
therefore, War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia (Allen and 
Unwin, los. 6d. net) contains much valuable information 
about a territory and a chain of events which most persons 
in England have known only fragmentarily, if at all. His 
account of the mixed population of those regions, Armenians, 
Georgians, Tartars, Lazis, Adjarians, Russians, Turks, and 
heaven knows how many others, all living cheek by jowl, 
all with different -'aspirations, and all getting still further 
mixed under the pressure of events and the emigrations 
caused by the ebb and flow of war, is certainly bewilder- 
ing enough to make the amateur statesman throw up 
his hands in despair. The revolution, however, gives 
hope to Mr. Price ; and he describes with enthusiasm, 
and dramatically, its arrival in the Caucasus. His account 
of his interview at that time with the Grand Duke Nicholas 
is curiously vivid, and will make a useful point of light for 
future historians. His description of campaigning experi- 
ences is also done with spirit ; and he makes living men of 
the Russian and Armenian soldiers whom he met. It does 
seem odd to me, however, that Mr. Price, an accredited 
correspondent, enjoying the' hospitality of the Russian 
Army, should, even though to. confirm his own opinion of 
the feelings of the troops, have preached pacifism to 
the men with whom he came in contact. His opinion 
certainly was confirmed by their response to his over- 
tures and later, in a much more striking manner, by tfie 
revolution. 
The Minimum Wage 
Mr. Seebohm Rowntree's The Human Needs of Labour 
(Nelson, 3s. 6d. net) is a part of the work which must be done, 
officially or unofficially, before we can enter, with any prospect 
of a successful solution on the problem of industrial recon- 
struction. In this small volume, Mr. Rowntree considers, 
following the most scientific method possible, the minimum 
wage, which, for the poorest class of labour only, is required 
to keep the workers in a reasonable state of health and effici- 
ency. This he estimates by ascertaining the amoun^t of 
nourishment required in calories and grams of proteins, and 
by calculating the smallest amounts which can be spent on 
housing, clothing, and so forth. He arrives eventually at 
the figures of 4-:|s. per week for men and 25s. for women, 
calculating prices at 25 per cent, above pre-war level all 
round: And, even then, he considers that further State 
assistance must be given to men earning the minimum wage 
when they have more than three children under the age of 
fourteen. The result of his careful and sober inquiry is 
rather depressing when one remembers the rates of wages 
which prevailed for unskilled labour before the war and will 
presumably prevail after it, unless drastic measures are taken. 
But for a nation which flinches from realities of this sort it 
can be no use to win any war ; and Mr. Rowntree's essay 
must certainly be read by all employers and all Trade Unionists, 
and by all who have any influence on, or interest in, the busi- 
ness of reconstruction. 
The East African Campaign 
General Smut's Campaign in East Africa, by Brigadier- 
General J. H. V. Crowe, C.B. (Murray, los. 6d. net), and 
Sketches of the East African Campaign, by Capts^in Robert 
V. Dolbey, R.A.M.C. (Murray, 6s. net), deal with the same 
matter but, as might be expected, from different points of 
view. Brigadier-General Crowe is a stern Ccesar of military 
history — he refers to himself, when he cannot keep out of 
the picture, as "the C.R.A."— and the lighter side of cam- 
paigning does not while orders of battle and military techni- 
calities do, figure very conspicuously in his book. Captain , 
Dolbey, on the other hand, has made up a volume out of 
very breezy and various letters home ; and his, on the whole, 
is the account of the matter to be selected for reading in bed 
or in the train. General Crowe is somewhat overcrowded 
with detail ; and his narrative will be of greater interest to . 
the student of military affairs than to the general public. 
Peter Bell. 
