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MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1933.
DEFENCE OF THE
EMPIRE.
Prominent Militarist Expounds Views,
"Imperial Defence and Capture at Sen in War." By Admiral Sir Her- bort Richmond. (Hutchinson: 108. Gd. net.)
(By SIR ARCHIBALD HURD.) Successively in command of the Naval War College at Greenwich and of the College of Imperial De- fence in the years immediately
THE CHINA MAIL.
WILLIAM ORPEN THE VOLCANIC
THE MAN WHOM NO ONE
COULD DEFINE
"WORKED TO LIVE”
(By Robin H. Legge).
terms of intimate
T is one thing to have been OF friendship
with Orpen. It is quite another to have to write about him.
More than thirty years ago I'met Orpen for the first time, on the
Book Reviews
smoke as many as fifty clgarettes a day." I think there was a time, years before the war, when he dis- posed of even a greater number ["China: The Pity of It" By
3. O. P. Bland. (Heinemann," Mr. Bland'a remedy for the ills 8s. 6d. net).J
than that.
$
China's Remedy.
JAMAICA A CENTURY AGO.
A small brochure, entitled "Ja- maica of One Hundred Years Ago," by Mr. L. Graham H. Horton-Smith ("Mansfeld Chronicle," 18.), throws
a sombrely interesting light upon
But he did not smoke them. As
of Chinn, which he describes very former conditions in that island. he approached his sitter or the ob
Mr. Bland knew and loved well lucidly, is a comprehensive scheme Among its contents are letters from ject, whatsoever it might have been, the China that existed before the of intervention by the Powers, who, an officer of the 22nd Regiment, who on which he was engaged, he would Revolution of 1911, the Imperial by armed force and judicious bri- died within two months of his ar take a cigarette from a box on the form of Government, the classical bery, should subdue China's armies,
platform, light it, pull at it perhaps Confucian learning, the Peking of take over the railways, and rear-rival in the colony, four or five pulls, and as he return-more spacious days. Animated by ganise the administration. Even The ravages of the prevailing "He came back from Paris to ed to his canvas the cigarette, of these sentiments, it is not surpris if so fantastic a scheme were think-fever may be judged from the fact have twelve years of supreme which not one-quarter of an inching that he looked with dislike and able, the prolonged and costly mill-that in less than three months the But I do not think that had been smoked, was ejected on to distrust on the now forces that have tary adventures of Japan in Shang- regiment lost its colonel, major, it is to be denied that, to an in- the floor. And there it lay with arisen in modern China, and that he hai and Manchuria have provided adjutant, two surgeons, three other creasing extent, the success was thirty, forty, fifty of its kind until, has been consistently antagonistic an object-lesson against ill-consi-officers, and two hundred and thir a Dead Sea apple in his mouth. As the sitting over, Birs. Smyth, Or-to the policies framed by Great Bri- dered intervention in China and of ty men. The 84th Regiment, which
success.
following the War, in which he ser- lawn tennis courts then existing in. I understood him, Orpen was a pen's wonderful old, housekeeper,tain and other Fowers at the Was-the strength and tenneity of Chin-was also on the station, in even a
ved with distinction, Admiral Sir Trafalgar-square, Chelsea. He and
William
Nicholson challenged Herbert Richmond is well qualified to act as the guide of statesmen in Sir) Theodore Cook and me to A' all mattera affecting the defence of bout at lawn tennis, and, to the un- the Empire.
utterable joy of Orpen, he and his From that They will not, of course, listen to partner defeated us. him, and if in writing this illumina-day to his dying day we were on ting volume this officer entertained terms of devoted and intimate the hope that his plea for a dispas- friendship. sionate consideration of its pro-
Two Personalities.
tory of art.
life."
not.
opposite coast Initiates us into both the pilgrim traffic and the more elusive slave trade.
man who wanted something from would sweep up the rubbish. But hington Conference and afterwarda ese nationalist resistance.
shorter time "buried nearly one- On the credit side in China Mr.third of their man, and officers fully life with all the intensity of his smoke those cigarettes Orpen did to meet these changing conditions. vivid personality.
His latest book seeks in every Bland fails to note that the Nan- that proportion." "I do not belleve that be ever It is a thousand pities that that chapter to prove that in the past king Government has become much quite know what that something picture "of considerable documen-Mr. Bland has always been right in less a preserve of a small Kuomia-
LIFE IN THE NEAR EAST. was, but whatever it was, I am tary value, as an illustration of, his forebodings, and this continuous tang clique, and includes within its quite sure that he never found it. and humorous comment on, a phase controversial note inars the resulta fold such independent statesmen
Mr. William J. Makio has stored All through his life he worked of London's Bohemian life in the of much profound knowledge, acute and thinkers as Dra. Wellington with almost unparalleled industry full and happy days just before the observation, and interesting, inter- Koo, Hu Shih, Lo Wen-kan, and Mr. up a large quantity of colourful and persistence. His output can outbreak of the Great War" "The pretations of events. Mr. Bland's Qua Tal-chi, and, with all Nan experience, and with his gift of blema would have any direct in- We lived a few hundred yards! have had few equula in the his- Cafe Royal"-is not to be studied standpoint can best be shown by a king's fruits, it would be hard to dramatic description, he is able to
ก proferable in some English gallery. If my list of his dislikes, which include find
alternative pack bis book of "Red Sea Nights" fluence on the policy of the British from each other. Save for his pro-
"In a sense he worked to live: memory is not at fauit, this picture, America, Western education, the Government. in China today. Mr. (Jarrolds, 12s. 6d.), with entertain- Government or any of the Govern-longed visits to Paris, we supped!
Working was his life. His satis- which formed part of Sir Edmund Washington Treaties, the Foreign Bland mars a stimulating book by ment. Beginning with a chapter ments of the Dominions, he will with utmost regularity together on
faction in his surpreme crafts Davis's gift of modern English Office, the Royal Institute of In-making, on pages 190 and 197, aon the hideous underworld of Mar- certainly be disappointed. But his alternate Sundays in my house or
manship was a far more valued paintings to the Luxembourg Muse- tornational Affairs, highbrows, the personal attack on a prominent sailles, he proceeds to Egypt, monograph may affect the minds of his. We talked until three o'clock
thing than his immense earnings. um, in Paris, still hange there. It B. B. C., the League of Nations, Civil Servant, Sir John Pratt, who touches at Djibouti, takes us into M. P. and their constituents, and, in the morning.
We talked of most things under But in a sense, too, his energy is an almost unique work, of a type machine civilisation, the Round by reason of his position, is pre- the heart of Abyssinia, and on the once they grasp the serious purport
was un attempt to escape from I often used to think almost more Table, missionaries, intellectuals cluded from replying. of his conclusions, they may bring God's sun. But the more we talk-
perfectly represented Orpen five- the Chamberlain Memorandum, the pressur on the statesmen, pre-ed, the more we grew to under-
All this I, too, have felt about and-twenty years ago than much Kuomintang Republicanism, "the A WALTER SCOTT DISCOVERY. occupied with many other issues, stand each other, the less became
Feminine Man," the Institute of
His literary effects are of the full- which naturally seem to them more the possibility for "putting him Orpen. On many occasions when I other work by him.
For weeks on weeks it was my Pacific Relations, and inst, but not "New Love-Poems” By Sir Wal-blown order, but for all that 'he important since they influence votes down on paper." There was no hu- have, as it were, sat to him, now
ter Scott. Edited by Mr. Davidson | must be admitted to write well, and without which Ministers cannot man common denominator to which clad in part of the uniform of some privilege to sit in the Cafe Royal least, Mr. Lionel Curtis.
Cantonese Influence,
Cook. (Basil Blackwell. 58. net.) his resources are equal to his maintain a stable Government. Orpen could, be reduced.
military. big-wig, anon in the garb with Orpen on those Sunday morn
His most interesting chapters are
Mr: Davidson Cook, in the couras fluency. Every class of reader will Since the War British Ministers, If you read Sidney Dark and P.or part of it-of a dignitary of inge, between ten and one o'lcock' irrespective of party divisions, have G. Konody in their book "Sir Wil- the Church, I have had an opportun- when he was painting. On these these dealing with the influence of of copying some of Sir Walter and "Red Sea Nights" a book dif- been scaling down the Navy, Army, Ham Orpen, Artist and Man" you ity for studying the volcanic energy occasions the imp that was Orpen the Cantoness and emigrants from Scott's letters for the Centenary and Air Force to levels which will will read about two very varied and of Orpen, the painter. (By the way, came out gloriously, more especial- South China on Chinese polities, Edition in the Library of the South ficult to put down. convince other countries that we often quite different personalities 1 should say that when here I refer ly whon at lunch-Orpen's lunch and the effects of missionary ac- Kensington Museum, was lucky en-canceal the real passion of his life are sincere in our desire for peace in Orpen. And yet they knew to "altting for Orpen" I was mere- consisted almost constantly of cold tivities. In another chapter, after ough to come upon two M.S. volumes or hide his genuine interests. He & clothes-horse. It was the beef, pickles, and Lager, beer--we borating the League for its activi- entitled "Sir Walter Scott and His confesses to the commission of in- and are, therefore, ready always to him, alike as artist and man, even ly
ware joined by Senator Gogarty ties regarding Manchuria, he comes Contemporaries."|-
numerable poems, not least of an set an example in disarmament. as I did. And yet not quite. I see clothes he was painting, not me).
Orpen would regard at some dis-who, bubbling over with Irish wit to the interesting and correct con- Like a good scholar, he took fall epic in many hundred. Iines. In all these purposes, the Domin-Orpen and feel the spirituality of
tance the detail. upon which he was would draw Rabelaisian pictures on clusion that the creation of a thin-advantage. of his luck and closely. But more than this he harps con- ion ion Governments have kept step Orpen somehow differently."
Then, the tablecloth, a In point of fact, I am convinced working for the moment. with the Government of the United
feat Orpen ly-disguished Jappaese protoctor-investigated what turned out to be tinually on ballad poetry and the more or less prolonged emulated.
ate," the Manchukue, can solve hitherto unexplored material relat-value of Ballad legend. He was al- Kingdom, regarding defence prim- that no man, woman, or child ex after.a arily as a political issue and not as lists who could draw the perfect glance, he would dash to his canvas I have often wondered if the old neither the population nor economic ing to an early love affair of the ready keenly interested in Scot
novelist'a. To be frank, the affair tish history, and he had rape the a matter touching the life and pro- portrait of Orpen, the spiritual por- and paint and paint for dear life, waiter, whose name I have forgot-problems of Japan. perty of the peoples of the Empire, trait that would have satisfied all till the process of closs examination ten, so faithfully depleted in the In an interesting chapter Mr. was both innocent and silly, while length of writing a by no means picture, ultimately turned them In-Bland contends that Communism in the poems addressed to Jessie of negligible ballad on his own The about 500,000,000 men, women, and of us who knew him so intimately had to be repeated.
Sitting For Orpen.
China is merely a variation of the Kilso were such as might be found False Knight and the King!a, one and yet so variously. There were children, inhabiting nearly
to cash.
Herë Ja the: first- The pace of his rushes to and fro
Stanford's Portrait. time-honoured Chinese right of re-locked away in a thousand drawers, Daughter." quarter of the land surface of the countless Orpens wrapped up in
his object were so ardent as to pro- How mightily pleased was Sir bellien against a weak and unpopu rapidly yellowing and defended whisper, of the volte that was to earth. In thus setting an example (that one little body of his. in maderation, Ministers may have
duce an endless flow of perspiration, Charles Villiers Stanford at being lar Government; while this is part against the destruction amply their make the "Waverley novels 1^ been right or wrong, but at any
Sidney Dark, into whose life Or-which not only streamed down his painted by Orpen! For many years 1 true, the past and present con- due only by the hold of a faddedj cession of the wori al
But Mr. Davidson Cook From that pointed view we can rate, they have been sincere, pen camo rather late-it was to-face, but which saturated his hands Sir Charles had been rather amiably nections of these Chinese elements ribbon,
worried, as it were, by a cartoon with Russia have produced an en- was right to rescue the documents heartily welcome the little wolume » Sooner or later men everywhere wards the very end of the war that as well
which, as coming from the shake will ask how far the remaining
drawn by "Spy," which now hangs tirely new factor in the Chinese from oblivion.
The young Scott, even in his out-speare Head Freast unneces forces correspond to the atrategie
with the cartoons of many other picture, and one which is causing of the Empire..
pourings of affection, could not sary to add, is beautifully printed." distinguished members in the bil-Nanking the gravest concern. Hard-room of the Savile Club.
Back From France.
they were first on intimate terms- Here I would point out that in my has written what I feel to be true, experience it is not strictly true though he has not said all:
that "at one time Orpen used to
Dear Sir/Madam,
Gloucester Building
(Residentrat)" Dong Kong
January 16, 1933.
Just a few lines to advise you
there will be a Carnival Dinner Dance on
Wednesday the 25th January, Chinese New
Year's Eve, extension to 1 a.m.
We trust our old patrons will bring new guests to participate in this
celebration.
Assuring you at the same time
that no effort will be spared by us to ensure
a successful and pleasurable evening.
Sincerely yours,
"It's not like ma face, me boy. but it's awfully like me trousers,' said Sir Charles to me when the car- toon first was issued in "Vanity Fair." Orper's picture was, of course, the apple of Sir Charles's eye. I think he was almost prouder of being painted by Orpon than of the splendid portrait that resulted. Mr. Konody, dealing with "The Artist," and his achievement, has the whole of Orpan's life to treat 01. And mightily thoroughly he has made use of his rare opportunity.; The pictures reproduced-and quite superbly reproduced, sixty-five of them-represent the very best that Orpen had to give to mankind. Th
Very many of the portraits are: thoroughly familiar. We have de lightful reminders of Sir William MacCormick, Sir Ray Lankéster, "The Surgeon (Ivor Back), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the late Lord Leverhu} me (it was 'Augustus John's portrait, over which so much dispute arose a dozen or more years ago).
War pictures, tuo, are there, amid much else, and there is a very re- markable appendix, a chronological list of paintings made by Orpen→→ a list that bears abundant witness to Sidney Dark's dictum.as.to Or pan'a tremendous energy.
War's HorrorS
If it is not easy for the layman to see, always eye to eye with Konody in his criticisms of various draw- inga and paintings, at least all who know really knew-Orpen, will agres that Konody is right in the matter of Orpen's war pictures..
It has been said that Orpen's war pictures are heartless, and even that he enjoyed the war like a matabre carnival, and that he falled to realise its appalling significance and horror. I think these charges are unjust and based on a complete misunder standing of his outlook."
It le not a fot or, à tittle too much to say that Orpen's life was cur talled undoubtedly by the horrors of war, and that no man could have. been more sensitive to them or more appreciative of them. D
There is something in Sidney Dark's Baylog that his energy was
an attempt to escape from lifes His war experiences had bitten into this soul.
The best Ive ever smoked
THREE CASTLES
CIGARETTES
HOW
FAMOUS FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS