Mayakovski

A modern literary giant, Mayakovski, has been translated, and a book of his verse has at last reached us. It is unfortunately apparent that the translator has considerable weaknesses, but all the same the poetry comes through.

It is the radiant energy of inspired genius which throws aside conventional expression and by sheer vitality carries his reader with him. Idealist and socialist, the poet regarded his art, not as a personal possession for his own use, but as a social weapon for his people. It is not uncommon to hear people speak of him as a man who prostituted his art. They are wrong! How wrong may be easily discovered by reading his verses. Writing on "unpoetic" subjects be is still inspired by his ideas, and his genius points the everyday object and moral with clarity. His death was a loss to literature, but the work he left behind is neither trivial nor outmoded. The translator has made only passable work—his poem "Lenin"—is the best in the selection we have. There the form seems knit with the subject in a whole which requires no change. It is a treat to discover a new literary colossus.

Letters on India

Of all books written about present-day India and its role in the fight against fascism. Letters on India (in spite of its 150 odd pages) must be placed in the top rank. Writing in reply to questions from an English worker, the author, Mulk Raj Anand, treats all the more important aspects of Indian political and social life—the Peasants, Trade Unions, the Congress Party, the War Effort, etc. Mulk Raj Anand is a socialist member of the Indian Congress Party and is well known for his other books. Coolie, Untouchable, etc.

Unlike many reviews on India, no "problem" of India is presented. This "complex problem" bolls down, in the author's words, to precisely this: "We must see that the Atlantic Charter is applied to India and that steps are taken to bring the peoples of India under the leadership of the Indian National Congress (representing united anti-fascist India) into a world alliance against fascism."

Anand emphasises that only the free Eastern peoples—the Chinese and the Filipinos—have proved to be of any value in resisting Japanese aggression and that only free Indians will be capable of defending their country against the advancing invaders.

We are not given a mere criticism and condemnation of British rule but a clear analysis of the existing situation with a plan showing how the people of India can be rallied more vigorously behind the War Effort in alliance with the United Nations.

The book concludes with an appeal to the people of the United Nations: "See to it that everything is done to achieve this simple basic programme. Only thus can victory be assured!"

—P.J.

"Britain in the World Front"

The publication of Britain in the World Front has further increased the not inconsiderable debt progressive mankind owes to the brilliant social analyst, R. Palme Butt, for his earlier penetrating and inspiring studies. Fascism and Social Revolution, World Politics and India Today.

"The present," Bays Dutt in his preface to his newest work, "is no time for recriminations over the past or philosophising over the future," but it is, rather, a time for "unity in action of all who stand tor victory over the fascist enemy. . ."The great value of the book lies in its recognition of this fundamental prerequisite for an unequivocal victory and a sustained peace; in its ruthless exposure of all forces hostile to these ends, and in the answers it provides to the manifold problems requiring solution in all sections of the war effort.

While Dutt, of course, addresses, himself mainly to Englishmen, we in New Zealand can do no better than to learn well the lessons he teaches. The chapter headed "The Face of the Enemy" would, I think, have a particularly salutary effect on those confused people who have the temerity to complain that Victoria College owns students who are "very, very anti-Fascist conscious."

—T.H.B.

Challenge

It is perhaps not surprising that Hewlitt Johnson has written another book about the Socialist Sixth. The first book by the Dean of Canterbury has sold over two and a half million copies in the English language alone. His new book, "Soviet Strength: Its Source and Challenge," should enjoy similar popularity.

Taking up the challenge Soviet Russia presents to the existing order, the Dean deals with the material growth and position of our ally. In the second section, entitled "The New Life," he writes a factual account of the personal life of Soviet citizens and then goes on to deal with the moral questions involved from the Christian viewpoint, and finds himself in agreement with the government existing today.

That is the motto for those who would dedicate themselves to usher in the New England and the new world.

And here is another, more ancient, more brief, more comprehensive, but not dissimilar; "I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly."