THE NEW TATE A NXl~I() The Week... end Review

'!loll. XLVI. No. 1183 NINEPENCE

CONTENTS COMMENTS • • .' . . Page 545 THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT-contd • Page REVIEWs-contd. Page LIFELINE FOR THE LANDLORDS . 547 Radio Notes. By William Salter . 561 Amateur Champion. By Maurice Richardson 572 SiR WINSTON'S GRAND STRATEGY 548 The Movies. By William Whitebait . 562 Advancing Frontiers. By J. O. Prestwich. 572 FIPST Fnur-rs OF FEDERATION. By Bosil CORRESPONDENCE 562 The Art of Preaching. By Helen Gardner 572 Davidson . . . 548 From Gerald Gardiner, Q.c.; Kathleen England From the Club Window. By John LONDON DIATtY. BJ Critic . . 549 Raine; A. G. Gamble; Matheson Cain; Raymond . 574 RHnoRIcAL QUESTlO". By Sagittarius 550 Christopher Moore; K.: D. Gwira; Diana The Egg of the Schoolmen. By Richard Tms ENGLAND ...... 550 Spearman; Sir Maurice Bowra and others; G. M~= . 575 THOSE \X'no I-iATE THE D.N. By 1\'1ark Gayn 550 Reitlinger; Colin Clark; Rev. W. J. S. Weir; Surrogate and Substitute. By Donald Davic 575 COLD WAR FRONTIER. By Hdnrich Fraenkel . 552 R. P. T. Gibson; Paul, Pringle; J. A. V. Vanities and Toys of Youth. By J. I. ~.\. PIGS, POULTRY AND PENICILLIN. By A. L~ Burke. Stewart 576 B,charach . 554 BOOKS IN GENERAL. By Benedict Nicolson 567 New Novels. By Antonia White. 576 ACROSS IRELAND. By J. B. Martin. 556 THE DANCE. By Theodore Roethke 568 REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS . 577 THE GENERAL'S JEW. By Victor Ross 556 LOVE POEM. By ·Padraic fallon 568 GHAMOPHONE NOTES. By Edward Sackvilk THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT: REVIEWS; i West 577 A Set Problem. By John Berger . 559 Lunar Wagon-Lit. By 1\.. C. B. Lovell 558 WEEK-END COMPETITIONS 580 Carmen. By Andrew Porter 560 To Pct or N:ot to Pet. "\Iy Medica . 568 CHESS. By Assiac . 580 Coloured Dancers. By Anll1bd Farjcon 560 The Other Island. By Ji.ouis MacNeice 570 WEEK-END CROSSWORD. By Set-square SIll i Lost Opportunit~ In• Germany? So the German civil war has begun to warm a tiny segment of a! secret organisation, negotiation. As Mr. Attlee has twice up. Last Saturd~.y the East German Min­ which cannot be eradicated because it pointed out, the grave embarrassment of istry of the Interior announced arrests in enjoys the tacit suppo~t of a great majority the Russians in the Eastern Zone provides Berlin, Pots dam, Ralle and Cottbus, and of the inhabitants of the Eastern Zone. an added reason for talks on the highest cl~.imed that a number of groups of sabo­ What should be our attitude· to these level as soon as possible. If we negotiate teurs, equipped with American radio and events? It is easy eno'ugh, from the safety today, we shall negotiate from a strength ~rms, had been smashed. In particular, of London and Washington, to applaud which few would have dreamt to be possible ,he announcement mentioned that a spy the spirit of the men 'who led the strikes two years ago. Yet neither London nor ring in the huge Leuna Works at Merseburg and protests all over the Eastern Zone Washington seems eager to seize the had been smoked out. last June, and to protest against their opportunity. True, the Russians were once There is no reason to doubt the truth arrest and punishment for continuing the again invited to Lugano, and the rigid of this announcement. As .!Vir. Fraenkel struggle since then. . But doal! those preconditions for Four-Power talks, laid suggests in the first-hand description of the who are cheering on i the German Resis­ down in the" Little Bermuda" conference, Berlin "frontier" which we print on tance Movement reali~e the logic of their have been waived. If he had come, Mr. another page, the Communist Government actions? If matters are allowed to take Molotov could have ranged over a free of Eastern Germany has now substantially their course, another 4nd far more serious agenda. But what of our side? What lost such popular support as it ever enjoyed. rising is bound to taI<;e place, either with positive proposals are Britain, America and Indeed, it is a fair deduction that only the or without the consent of the British and France putting forward? Only that we presence of a large Russian army prevents American authorities fn Germany. What are still determined, whatever happens, to a national uprising to unite the eighteen plans have been made :for this eventuality? get E.D.C. ratified and to integrate the million inhabitants of the Eastern Zone Are the Allied armies ~n Western Germany West German divisions into the Atlantic with the Federal Republic. to remain inactive, as! they did last June, defence system. It is not surprising that In such a situation the rapid emergence and coldly watch while the rising they the Russian reply to the invitation to of a Resistance Movement, with its base fostered is suppressed: by the Red Army? Lugano observes astringently that this in Western Germany and its operational If that is our policy, then we have· no right " commitment" makes nonsense of the centre in Western Berlin, would have been to encourage the Resistance. Or are our proposed conference before it starts. inevimble, even if the Americans had held· troops to cross the zonal frontier and come The time for uncompromising toughness their hand. But they have not. In Bonn, to the succour of our secret allies? On is when you are weak. The time to offer at least, no one bothers to deny that the the day that happens, World War III a compromise is when you are stron.g and American radio stations and Secret Service will begin. hold the initiative. Today the Resistance have been actively fostering the East With so perilous a choice before us, it Movement in the Eastern Zone is still a German Resistance. What was uncovered would be natural to assume that the British lever which can be used to bring the last Saturday was in all probability only Government would prefer the path of Russians to the conference table. If wc The New Statesman and Natio1l"November 7, 1953 559 The Arts and Entertainment A SET PROBLEM Figures in a Setting is the title of an exhibition which opens today at the Tate. It has been urganiseu by the Contemporary Arts Society; The Society, sensibly aware of the confusion that exists because of all the different trends and aims of contemporary art, decided that to set a number of p~inters a traditional problem (the problem of relatmg figu~·es to an interior or landscape) might help to clarIfy people's ideas. They invited 100 artists to participate, stipulating only a minimum size (one dimenSion to be at least 3ft) and the subject-figures in a setting. A few painters on the lunatic fringe of the abstract movement ignored the subject and sub~ mitted ~rids, scrib~les and donkey work, protest­ mg-wlth extraordmary unconscious irony-that the scheme was perversely narrow. ' But the' majority (induding several less prejudiced ab­ stractionists) have taken the 'Occasion seriously. And as a result, the show really gives, one some­ thing to bite on-both in terms of human content and in painterly terms of, traditional criticism. There are at least twenty paintings worth study­ ing, enjoying and talking about. Bria';1 Robb has a Portraft of an Artist, a warm grey plcture, the routes through it established by the red of the artist's waistcoat, the colour accents of two figures in the background and the paths of biscuit-coloured light. As with Robb's other por­ trait in last year's London Group, its character depends on a mysterious sense of movement implied by a -really quite static figure, on the sense' of a personality recognised in a split second. The lanky, grinning, nervous man stands there rather like a flamingo caught unawares and just about to turn away; or like an expert comedian who has come to the very front of the stage and.is about to change his whole personality yet again. The left arm is weak and possibly all the drawing is a little fey. It remains, however, impressive be­ cause it contains a firm presence. Stella Steyn's Models at the Gmnd Chaumiere although less intensely painted, is compelling in ~ somewhat similar manner. One feels the two nudes (they are resting) sharing their femininity­ not perversely-but with all the tittle-tattle secrets of the whole tradition of the feminine toilet. The twisting back of the left-hand figure, the bumps of her curved backbone and her puckered-up flesh, has been well seen; the right-hand figure is less satisfactory-her bottom rests on the stool as awkwardly as a pebble on a mantelpiece. Michael Tootill's large Witch Hunt-a picture UAcqua alle cordel"TheObelisk "Acqua aUe corde!" And the water on of real witches, huge masks, pitchforks, broom the ropes, tautening them, saved the day. sticks, torture and brimstone-has some of the in the Piazza di San Pietro in Rome was megalomania of a John Martin. The drawing is erected in 1586 with the help of 800 work­ These days the builder works with also weak, the chiaroscuro shadows tearing at the men and 140 horses. This detail from far more manageable materials. Some of flesh of his figures and stripping them into pieces. the most versatile are made by the Build­ Yet at the same time the picture's energy and Carlo Fontana'~ engraving gives some sense of urgency make it outstanding. idea of the spLendid grandeur of the ing Boards Division of the Bowater Josef Herman's Burgundian Scene, a long can­ operation. I Organisation. Made from compressed vas of peasants squatting down to their lunch in wood fibre, these boards are used, a field, is as powerful as anything he has yet done. It was a close !thing, so the story goes. The blunt, foreshortened limbs of the group their The architect had not allowed for the among a thousand other uses, as insu­ heads, their flasks of wine, make up a s~rt of enormous strairl on the ropes and their lating materials in ceilings, as partitions town of forms with the bare sweep of the field in houses, as panelling in railway coaches behind like a red sky above the town. Conse­ consequent stretching. But, though quently one is made aware of how-in the full silence was imp6sed under pain of death, or in ships ... all over the world they are sense of the words-they are" gathered together." one of the, wo&men-a sailor from San essential to the architect and builder of My only criticism is that, at both ends of the group, shadow bleeds the picture off into the Remo-shoutedat the critical moment: today. frame. I believe it would have had more strength if, on the right-hand side, the last forms had been more starkly silhouetted. I cannot understand why Robert Medley is not' Bowaters An intemationa! organisation a more popular painter than, he is. His pictures m(lking paper, board and packaging materials that tl!1S}lJCr are eminently "hangable," elegant, and with a sense of painterly savoir-faire-by which I don't the l1eeds 0] industry tlnd trade throughout the }jJorld. mean slickness-that no other English painter (except, perhaps, John) can equal. His Antique ~ THj:l BOWATER PAPER. CORPORATION LIMITED Room in thi~ show is pure pleasure for the eye (" an armchair for the senses "). The stool in the ~-Great Britain· United States?f America' Canada· Australia & South Af.dca ,. Republic ofIrdand 0 .Norway· Sweden The New Statesman and Nation, November 7, 1953 561 Again, in the costumes there is an uncertain mix­ ture of ideas. The brassieres and pants of the girls are Western in conception and would spoil the magic of any witch doctor. There is much spirit in this small company, but it needs a more coherent direction. ANNABEL FARJEO:-l

RADIO NOTES f'lrst Reading is under new management: before tempers are lost once again and a whole lot of brand-new, dirty words are unleashed, it might be worth while to look at the assumptions on which the programme is based. The main assumption is that you can produce on the air the equivalent of something that normally exists only on the printed page, the literary magazine. The assulnption is wrong. First Reading, so far as radio is concerned, is a grossly reactionary pro­ gramme: radio demands a way of writing which is not identical with that for the printed page. FiTst Reading restores the printed page and by doing so immediately subjects it, in an alien con­ text, to a test which it cannot reasonably be e"pected to meet. Tliere was a simple instance of this in Mc. Ludovic Kennedy's first number, an account of a visit to the frontier of the French and Russian zones at Lubeck. This, it seemed plain to me, was a piece of writing that would have read pleasantly in a periOdical, but, broad­ cast, it had to satisfy in a quite different way. It had to satisfy as a talk, and this it did not do : the tempo and the rhythm of writing were wrong for the spoken voice. Programmes like First Reading are bearable, and perhaps even useful, if writers and listeners Are you remember that they cannot be equivalents of literary magazines but at the best· inadequate substitutes, inadequate not only because the work the man this broadcast is put to an unfair test but also because the relationship of editor to audience is altered. Inevitably the editor b~comes an impresario, a much less pleasant being. The editor of a JtOYAL AIR FORCE "SWIFT' periodical does not feel it necessary to justify his choice of contributions and surround them in a running commentary advertising their virtues. was built for? This, it seems, is inescapable in radio magazines. A literary magazine that contained the kind of :HE Supermarine S\\tift, swept-wing contribution to the spirit and efficiency editorial linking-matter Mr. Kennedy regaled us l1i sucvessor to the Spitfire, is being of the Royal Air Force - a force that i. with, one would quite simply fling across the built i~ n";mbers for the Royal Air Force. dedicated to peace though alert to the room after the first half-dozen pages. "Here the It is an aircraft -of brilliant perfornlance, possibility of war.' poet expresses a longing, as all writers do at caIlable of exceeding the speed of sound You' are -prepared to ignore some of the sometime or another, that he could be as· other an,;l designed to match the special skill of nl0re obvious advantages of civilian life for men." In fairness to Mr. Kennedy it must be R.A.F. pilots. Perhaps you are one of the the less obvious but very real rewards of a said that his comments were no more infuriating men for WhOlU this ' Swift' might have career in the Royal Air Force. than Iv!:r. Wain's, when he was condncting the been ,designed. If so, you are young, The table below indicates the four types programme; they merely infuriated in a different possibly still at school, certainly under 28. of flying commissions available. Full way. Yol.l are fit, have an alert mind, and are details may be had by writing, giving par­ As for the contents, there were poems by Mr. probably ahead of the educational ticulars of yourself, your education, your Tiller, Mr. Merwin and Mr. James Kirkup that stap.dards required. Deep down inside career to date. Address your letter to: one could scarcely assess at a first hearing; a you there is an urge to fly. You believe Under Secretary of State, Air Ministry parody of Maugham read in such a way as com­ (though you will never be asked to say so) (Y:.X. 120), Adastra! House M,R.z, pletely to nullify the dead-pan effect that parody that you are capable of nlaking a real London, W.C.2. aims at; and an excerpt of Mr. Waugh's forth­ coming novel that had the interest of a trailer­ 4 WAYS TO A flYING COMMISSION IN THE R.A.F. film at the cinema. It was no doubt Mr. Kennedy's intention that he gave the impression ~YPE OF COMMISSION AGE LIMITS EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS of being in ardent pursuit of the innocuous. I But all this is really beside the point. Except PERMANENT 17-19 Civil Service Commission Examination as an inadequate substitute, New Reading is (R.A.F. Cadetship) bound to fail; and why can be shown very easily. PERMANENT Normal degree at recognised Unlvel'sity It happens that the best writers for radio are also (University Entry) 20-28 admirable writers in more conventional forms: ------1------1------.-----1 Mr. Pritchett, Mr. Grigson, Mr. MacNeice, Mr. : SHORT SERVICE 17l-26 scotH:,i2~dv9,~~ti(}e~~f~g[t~~:!~~~if~~lent Sykes, Mr. Henry Reed, to take the obvious names. They are excellent radio-writers because -' During General Certificate DJ Education they understand the medium and do not confuse [ ~ATIONAL SERVICE* Service Scottish Leaving Certificate or equivalent it with the literary forms in which they made their first reputations. • FaT subsequent {lying with Mr. Ewens's feature, The Black Dog, a study the R.Aux.A,P. or R.A.F. V.R. of eighteenth-century melancholy, seemed to me half uood. As an anthology of eighteenth­ centu;'y melancholy it was extraordinarily interesting. But it lacked a point of view, as the narration, with its rather offensive tendency THERE'S A PLACE FOR THE BEST IN THE R·A·f towards facetiousness, showed; The age of Angst has no call to patronise the Great Mad Century, and what was surely wanted was some explana- 562 TIle New Slatesnwn and Nation, Nove-ITlber 7, 1953 tion at eighteenth-century melancholy in modern the O'Casey of, say, The Plough and the Stars. ,psychological tenus. There was one very mov­ The latter's doors burst open to emit a gasconad­ Correspondence ing performance, Mr. Alan Wheatley as Cowper. ing old sweat in, green and gold coat: Ford's I especially enjoyed three talks during the Judge, Priest popping out of bed; summons his SOCIETY AND THE HOMOSEXUAL week: Mr. Michael Ayrton's account of his first darkie with bugle notes that crow through the glimpse of "La Madonna del Parto," by Piero old town forty years after the last battle had been SIR,-I suggest that, instead of the one rdteralioE della Francesca, a talk which vibrated with the f'lUght. Hot through the streets comes this lacka­ of the la\v in tills field which you suggest, it would heat and glare of the Italian summer sun at high­ daisical black to pull from under the bed that be preferable that a Royal Commission er Homc noon; Dr. Fraser Darling's Man, Caribou and whisky-keg without which the Judge can't Office Committee should be appointed of men and Lichen, on the balance of wild life in Alaska and "get his heart going." His heart, which needs women whose character w.ould render their reCGm­ its effect on human existence there; and Mr. its regular measure, needs even more the guitar mendations likely to be accepted by Parliament, and Robert Furneaux jordan's Rome and Oxford, a plucking out" Dixie" to the interruption of the who could consider on broader lines than you su'ggest fascinating analysis of the contrasted figures of court, visits to the old General behind his colon­ the whole question whether our present laws on this Manning and Newman in terms of the cities naded front, veterans' anniversaries in the almost subject are those most conducive to the public goed. with which they were most intimately linked. empty hall, uniforms, banners, salutes-all the Churcli of England bodies have for some time been asking for the appointment of such a Committee. \Y.!ILLIA1\,-1 SALTER extravagant revivalism of 'forgotten, lost wars. Farcical as Judge Priest is-and the comedy One aspect oi this matter which troubles some of seems to me quite as good as O'Casey's-his us is ~he extent of the danger of an innocent man heart comes more and more to engage us. He being convicted of soliciting male persons. In his THE MoviES is on the eve of elections; he braves defeat by short resignation statement Mr. Field, the late Mem­ involving himself in scandal, fending off ber for Paddington North, expressed the view that "The Sun Shines Bright," at the Academy lynchers on the jail steps; and turns his defeat this offence ought to be triable by jury. Those who "M~gambo," at the Empire into victory by following a golden-hearted read only The Times will have missed this, because .The Times omitted this part of this short resignation "Intolerance," at the Everyman brothel-keeper to her grave! and inducing-in a splendid swell of cinema-half the town to do like­ statement. It is, howeVer, a question of importance. This is John Ford's week. He is said to have:; wise. The Sun Shines [3right naturally takes in The English view that, where a conviction may affect made The Sun Shines Bl'ight for his own its stride melodrama as well as farce, sing-song a man's whole life, he ought to have a light to trial pleasure; and lucky the individual in films who and sentiment, and glee, Ford. hasn't, in the end, by jury, is sound. can do that! Mogambo, presumably, he made quite O'Casey's feeling; his piece isn't tragi­ I have been told by counsel of great experience in for someone who said, "Now John, we want a comedy but-what should one call it ?-melo­ criminal cases that they would not, in any circum­ jungle' picture-passionate, primitive-get the farce. The film triumphs, there's a hint' of stances whatever, enter a public lavatory in central gorilla in his native haunts, and give us some terror, landscape and period please, a dance and' London; so great do they feel is the risk of a wholly night-club talk under the stars:-go to it!" And a procession ravish the eye, and if sentiment-cum­ innocent man being convicted. Since then, the so-being a man of many moods and aptitudes­ capers decrees an end that can't bring itself to decision of a Divisional Court that poUce evidence he made Mogambo, of which more in a moment. end, like a riineteenth-century overture, we of conduct consisting only of smiling, once only, at His own filni is a joy. I don't at all know how acquiesce and are grateful. Charles Winninger a man, repeated in respect of several men and look­ or why the Academy acquired it, since it would as ,the golden-hearted, bourbon-loving Judge ing "in the direction of" tpeir persons, is not only appeal to ninety-nine out of a hundred in any plays his antics to the trail of tearS irresistibly. sufficient to sustain a. conviction of H persistently audience, but they are ,to be congratulated on And so from Ford at ease to Ford on the com­ importuning" the men in question for 5mmor2l pur­ this find. Long may it mn! The Sun Shines' mercial run. 'lHogambo isn;! recognisably his at poses, but is so clear a case as to make it « lamen t­ Bright I found even more endearing than The all. It's merits are the close-ups of gorillas, able" that the man should appeal, has lOet lessened Quiet Man; and it, too, though wrapt in Ken­ Technicolor glimpses of Africa, and Mr. C1ark the risk. tucky after its Civil War, is in his Irish mood. Gable exerting alia middle-aked charm; otherwise It is to be hoped that if such a Commission or There is quite a kinship between this Ford and every sort of studio c1icllehas been enlisted which Comm,inee .is appointed, the question whether meh could make an expedition td the Cameroons suc- an offence should not be triable by jury will be within cessful and superfluous.! ' their terms of reference. GERALD GARDlNER ~"' ..... " ...... : I wish I could have gone to the Everyman, 6 Walton Place, S.W.3. where Griffiths's I ntoleranc~' once more shakes the silence with its Babylonian splendours and four­ GOD'S abreast dramas; I've had to revive them in my SIR,-May'I publicly place myself among the num­ own dark, with 'flu. ber of those who would like to see the cruel laws against homosexuality altered? The law exists in WILLIAM WHITEBAIT BLANKET order to protect society, and it is for the law to protect the young of both sexes against older homosexual GEORGINA DANIELL persons of both sexes. But to persecute homm.:exuals " King John," at the Old Vie as such is barbarous and vindictive. Can it be for­ gottenhow many, both men and women, have, far As a play King 10hn is comparatively unreward­ from being enemies of society, been among its most ILLUSTRATED BY ing; but it does offer some scattered beauties of valuable members, even in the moral sphere? Can language, two or three good scenes and three fine anyone at the present time still believe that a natural JOHN FARLEIGH acting parts. These last are luckily excellently taken abnormality should be punished (lunatics used to be at the Old Vie, and in themselves will repay a visit. fl.ogged), or can be, removed by punishment? Is it Mr. Michael Hordern again proves himself not' only not a hard en~lUgh fate that any human being's love • an absolutely safe actor but ,a very versatile one. His -the growing-point of life-should run counter to King is an admirably observed study, a fa~ade of nature? Does the law exist to pUl1ish the already A story of Africa written from an strength rotted with a kind ,.of neurotic weakness punished? In spite of this tragic h21'ldicap, many intimate knowledge and understand­ which at the test crumbles into collapse. It is an men· and women have risen to greatness even to ing of tribal ways by an author who lived and worked in the Transvaal easy part to overplay; but Mr. Hordern is not the saintliness; but it is not for the law to dem~nd heroic all her life. kind .of actor to fall into that trap. Miss Fay Comp­ virtues from any minority. Perhaps I ought to add ton gives a passionate account of Con stance, making -not in any spirit of boastfulness, but simply to make An African diviner and his heroic wife are vividly portrayed at the the clamour of her grief alm.ost unbearable. A very my own standpoint clear-that, to me homosexual heart of the story. A rem.ote ,settle- • moving performance. The, Bastard, forerunner of a love is, in the most literal sense, unim'aginabIe. ment in the Drakensberg -where favourite Shakespeare character, the blunt second, 9 Paultons Square, S.W.3. KATHLEEN RAINE God's warm blanket (the sunshine) is suits Mr. Richard Burton to the ground. ,The beau­ so generously spread - is awakened tifully timed asides and the rough puncturing com­ to the presence of the white man, mentaries are admirably delivered. The flatness of SIR,-I am loath to cntlClse the liberal and en­ never to be the same again. many of the earlier scenes would provoke many pro­ lightened articles of yourself and E. M. Fors!eY on The mystery and timelessness .of ducers into ingeni.ous excesses t.o cheer them up. the subject of homosexuality, but I feel that there ;s Africa - the reader cannot but be Mr. George Devine resists, the temptation and risks an assumption behind both of them that is nat COll­ deeply fl10ved by it all. a measure of boredom to give us the scenes straight. dud ve to legal reform. Some of the surrounding detail is less successful. It Both articles imply that homosexual behaviour is L. Crown 8vo. 20Cpp. 12s. 6d. net is bold t.o play the fights so naively that we don't itself an abnormality or at least a proof that sexual take them seriously, but this, combined with some of maturity has not been attained, and that there is some­ M.otley's bizarre costumes and engines, prepares the thing naturally repellent or decadent in its manifesta­ BATCHWORTH ground for one or two false, laughs. The company tion; in other words, an unpleasant sickness, sodal gives excellent support, especially Mr. WilIiam and individual. If ihis is a true assumption, I would Squire as the French King and Mr. John Neville suggest that it can be dealt with only by severe legal curling his lip eloquently as the Dauphin. penalties or equally compulsory psychiatric treaunent. '!...... a ...... ~ ...... ! Toe. W. However, Ford and Beach in their work Patterns of