1926-10-23 — Page 5

WARDROBE TRUNK

Constructed for maximum strength in every detail.

New Shipment Just Arrived.

THE SINCERE CO., LTD."

NEW

CLOTHES

YOUR'E SURE TO BACK A WINNER

if you send your clothes to us for dry-cleaning or dyeing.

We specialise in renovating and pressing garments.

TRY US JUST ONCE !

THE INTERNATIONAL DRY CLEANING & DYEING CO. 19, Wyndham St., Hongkong. 36, Nathan Road, Kowloon..

It tastes Creamy It looks Creamy

It is Creamy

Carnation

BRAND

EVAPORATED

MILK

Distributors

In two sizes tail and email

Carna

STERILIZED EVAPORATED

MILK

American Milk Products Corporation.

Duddell Stroet.

Tol. C

THE HONGKONG, TELEGRAPH,

MR. WELLS, NEW BOOK

A SPLENDID HYBRID.

The following is the Observer's: critique of Mr. H. G. Well'a now

.%.

SATURDAY,

OCTOBER

1926

CHANGING RUSSIA.

MR. R. WILLIAMS ON, HIS VISIT.

Mt. Robert Williams, chairman

book, The World of William | of the Labour Party Executive, Clissold":

who spent three weeks last month; in Soviet Rusala, has returned to London with some interesting im- pressions of political and social developments in that country. He bases, a belief that the Union of. Soviet Socialist Republles fs be coming more stable on the fact that those in charge of the Govern- ment of Russia have learned, as probably no other Government has ever learned, how to compromise and adjust themselves to changed. conditions..

Dr. Wello give us a lot in his book, and aske a lot of us in his' preface. But unfortunately the relation of author and critic can not be attled on the bargain basis; if it could, the whole of my generation would be exempt from criticising Mr. Wells at all. We owe him so much, both of inspira- tion and of delight, that our eyes would be shut from scrutiny and etur pene lossened for laudation, More gratitude, however, butters rather than betters reputations. Over and above the innumerable other things we owe Mr. Well's wo owe him honesty; and, to be per- fectly honest the assumptions of this book and this preface won't quite do...

:, ।་

the destiny of their own country. The present Government was one which rested on the acquiescence, if not the consent, of those who

were governed, and the bilk of the workers, urban and agricultural, were in an increasing degree ask-

In the early days of the Soviet regime, Mr. Williams said, there was nominally and ostensibly n proletarian dietatofship. Now, however, after the experience gained through the new economic policy initiated mainly by The very title pulpitates with causes of misgiving. The World Lenin, the trade unions and. the peasants wore coming of William Clissold." The world!

more and more

control to Not in the three promised volumes, not in thirty, can even Mr. Well present the world of anybody. All that is really meant, I gather, is that we are to have a fuller picture than most novelists would give. (Well, with the name of H. G. Wells on the title-page, we should rather think so!) We are to haveing for resulta rather than phrase-. mongering, Economic standards opinions as well qe incidents. Mr.

had been enormously improved: Wells and Mr. Clissold are happily since his carlier.visit in 1920, but, at one on this point. "Is it not quite as much life' to meet and broadly speaking, nominal wages were below those obtaining in this deal with a new idea, as to meet and deal with a new lover?" asks country. There were other factors, however, besides wages which en- Mr. Wells, and Mr. Clissold im-tered into the workers' standards. purta "a short history of human and his own view was that the society as a labour-money com- plex evolved out of the primitive workers were so far content that they would fight, not only against patriarchal family." The feather-

a potential foreign invader, but pate Clementina, who gums un

alad against any mischievous home geology as "old rocka" änd paleon-

influence, whether counter-revolu- tology as "old bones," is accused tionary or even pro-revolutionary by Mr. Clissold, for whom she like that of Zinoviev and Trotsky, "professes an affection that is alwhich might attempt the formid together monstrous," of dismissing able task of upsetting the present "three-quarters of human concerns stable condition of affairs, as uninteresting." Nothing, ad- mittedly, is uninteresting-only, for the understanding of Mr. Clis- sold, what he thinks about particu- lar problems is not important in: comparison with his general state of mind and feeling. We all re alise that what Mr. Wells thinks abat particular problems is im- portant; but that brings us back to the paradox of the preface, where we are flatly told that we are not to confuse Mr. Clissold's opinions with 'Mr. Wells's..

Mr. Williams indicated that the

people were deluded concerning the position in England. "Every where I went," he said, ""I was catechized about the calling off of the general atrike. The papers are chock full of propaganda, and many of the workers, who are chil- dish in their outlook on foreign affairs, are firmly convinced that the revolution in England is only delayed by the action, or inaction, of the Right Wing lenders.,

"This is all part of a not entirely This first volume contains 2 gen. erous deal of spéculation to unsophisticated plan to let the ha'porth of narrative. At the end workers, soldiers, and peasants be- of it, we know that Mr. Clissold,lieve that all trade union leaders autobiographer, is a man of fifty-and Socialists in Western Europe nine, successful in scientific re: are betraying the cause of the search and its commercial appli-workers, while those in high places cation: that his father was a sen- in Russia are heaven blessed in in- sationally fraudulent bankrupt, telligence and moral probity." that he was educated abroad, the at Dulwich, then at South Konsing- ton; and that he has a house near mena as a system; an extremely amusing párody of Fabianism; 'an Gasse, where Clementina brings

extremely brilliant lightninghis- him flowers and the spirit of romptory of civilisation. But we are to ing interruption. We have been regard these views as merely parts given rapid sketches of the splen of the mental make-up of Mr. Clis- did inconsequent father, the de-sold! The facts are part of he- pendable brother, the feather-pate tion. But then the facts by which Clem, and Sir Rupert York great Mr. Clissold supports his. (not Mr." und single-minded authority on Wells?) arguments as, for in- "rostro-carinate implements and

stance, his experience of the Bol- auch-like riddles. Above all, the sheviks-are fiction too? Certain- mother, who appears scantily and ly, this is to ask a lot of us! Cer- faintly, has been touched off fatainly, this is make the best of one of those Wellsian flashes which both "The World of William Clis- tell you more about a single hu- sold" and the world we live in!

a deck at a tine, and a portion is

man being than any number of It may be taken for granted' short histories of labour money that many of the difficulties and complexes could do: "My mother, disproportions will disappear I know, loved to have things ex-

when we possess the whole story. plained to her. She did not listen, One volume of a three-volume no- but she loved to have things ex-vel is bound to disappoint. The plained to her," a

More expansively, we have been old; three-decker did not put to sea told that Mr. Clissold does not be- lieve in God: "For good, or evil not a portrait. But that all the dif no God je dogging me. There is culties will disappear I find it im- no shield at my back and no friend possible to believe. There is a to guard me from the ambush." central fallacy in Mr. Wella's What he does believe is this:double claim that he is not writing. about himself, and that no-author "There is much to support the as- sertion that life has been uninter- can write about anybody who is

not, in some "measure, himself- ruptedly progressive from its first not, of course, in external habit or beginning": "Mind grows and circumstance, byt, in essential ni grows at an ever-increasing pace."

ture and in mental attitude. He dismisses the whole question of.

Shakespeare, he urges, is held to hat 'real' may mean" at in-

be Hamlet. But would he urge soluble: he supposes "that this that Shakespeare is lago, and present unfolding of consciousnces Rosalind, and Henry V., and Per and will is only a birth and a bedite? The truth seems to be that ginning, that he himself is not Mr. Wells is planning and execut morely himself "but a participa- tor in a Being that has been borning, with the immense incidental but need not die." It would be success which his genius would enormously interesting to know give to anything, a kind of hybrid between fact and fiction, which that this loose and vague mya- lesser men could not hope to ticism was the conclusion of handle, and which, even in his mind as rare, as ripe, as daring, hands,ios open to grave aesthetic as powerful as Mr. Wells's. As indictment. the conclusion of an, imaginary.

"And what," he may answer, Mr. Clissold, it is manifestly not If it doce? It gives, at any so exclting. The division is no rate, a rich picture of the queer, less hampering when we turn to sprawling times in which we live; politics. Here we have an ex-it paints that picture with tremely energetic onslaught on variety, an energy, an idealism be-- Marxism, and indeed on all at yond praise. Let us ond as we tempts to present social pheno-began with gratitude.

..

TILE FIREPLACES

room, both as

The Fireplace, being one of the most central features of part of a decorative scheme, and of utilitarian purpose, should harmonise with the whole, and create a restful influence.

Simplicity of construction, restraint in colour, and pleasing lines are important factors in achieving this object, and the productions of

اچھی

THE MALKIN TILE WORKS CO., LTD.

have been designed to suit all situations where artistic tileware is used.

At all times

We are

pleased to

submit

suggestions

for all classes

of Tiling

and

Mosaic Work.

Tel, C.269.

C. E. WARREN & CO., LTD.

China Building,

(Opposite side entrance Queen's Theatre).

ARTS & CRAFTS

SHANGHAI.

INTERIOR WOODWORK, MANTELPIECES AND PANELLING Executed in Oak, or Mahogany, Imitation Stone, Real Stone, Marble,

or Bronze.

ARCHITECTS COMMISSIONS FAITHFULLY REPRODUCED.

ARTS & CRAFTS LTD.

SHANGHAI

Page 5Page 6