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The Spike or Victoria University College Review, June 1927

A Note on "The Rumour."*

A Note on "The Rumour."*

By writing this play, Mr. Munro has laid modern literature under a twofold obligation. On the one hand he has produced a play which must rank high as a work of art; and on the other hand, in so doing he has brought into the light of day the dark and secret methods whereby the modern commercial war is engineered and carried to an all too successful conclusion.

We are shown, in the opening scenes, several gentlemen "interested in financial operations" discussing the possibilities by which they hope to stir up a conflict between two small States in Middle Europe, and then to step in when both sides are exhausted, and thus secure a commercial strangle-hold over the rich resources of both States. From this unsavoury beginning the action surges to and fro across Europe, from a squalid cabaret to a Prime Minister's room, from the signing of a Peace Treaty to a glimpse of suburbia, from a conference of armament officials to the desperate meeting of plotting patriots. And from all this we gain some inkling of the technique which is used to build up a public opinion favourable to the fighting of a war by a democratic state—the arousal of mutual suspicion, distortion of news by the newspaper press, the use of atrocity stories, of high-pitched idealism, and the rest—and the culmination of it all in the usual "knock-out" Peace Conference, where representatives of the Great Powers divide the spoils of war and pose as the saviours of the Universe.

In general plan and in detailed technique it is possible to connect "The Rumour" with some of Shakespeare's plays. We find, for instance, that "The Rumour" has this in common with "Henry V": That it shows us war from all sides, from the point of view of statesman and city clerk, of friend and foe. Furthermore, page 21 there is the technique of those extraordinarily pitiful and poignant scenes where two clerks, in their discussions of cucumber frames and of the war, are shown to be reiterating, parrot fashion, the sentiments expressed on the newspaper boy's bill sheet—pitiful and poignant in the ignorance thus displayed of the political intriguings, the squabblings, the sordid machinations, which are the true reasons for Jones losing his son, "fighting in a holy war." Here we are reminded of that device of linking prince and clown which Shakespeare used with such effect in "Hamlet," for instance, to bring his audience back to everyday affairs.

And the general effect of this canvas which Mr. Munro paints with such bold sweeps of the brush, is overwhelming, and sometimes, when we realize the power of backstairs financial intrigue, terrifying. For "The Rumour," as a war play, is relentlessly realistic, and bitterly satirical of certain aspects of twentieth century civilisation. And because this satire is fashioned into magnificent art, "The Rumour" deserves to take its place beside "St. Joan" as one of the outstanding plays of modern literature.

—B.E.

* "The Rumour," by C. K. Munro: A Play in Two Parts.