Board of Regents of the University of OklahomaUniversity of Oklahoma

Syrie et Liban: Réussite Française? by Louis JalabertReview by: Albert GuérardBooks Abroad, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer, 1935), pp. 276-277Published by: Board of Regents of the University of OklahomaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40076741 .

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• Count Antonio Alberti'Poja. V Austria non si tocca. Brescia. Giulio Vannini.

1935. 216 pages. 10 lire. - A timely book is

HEAD-LINERS

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Count Albertf s plea for Austrian integrity. Austria is the powder'barrel of Europe. She may become the center of another tremendous conflict for the leadership of western Europe. Germany contends that she is a cultural and political unit of the German agglomeration. Austria is a logical step in Germany's "Drang nach Osten," and the rest of Europe may easily prove indifferent to Austria's fate. Of his own Italy the author says:

"We Italians do not forget that ninety mil" lions of Germans. . . have always sought an outlet toward the south; these masses will resort to any means to accomplish their ends. History has taught us. Mussolini remembered when he said; * Austria knows that she can depend on us to defend her independence, and she knows that we will make every effort to improve the condition of the people'."

Within Austria itself there is much party strife. Feeling runs high between the socialists, the royalists and the present fascist govern' ment. Austria is a huge head without a body, which exists artificially. Annexation to Ger' many would mean economic relief but only at the price of political extinction. These two German'Speaking countries are two distinct states, two distinct mentalities. The Prussian spirit is abhorred in Austria. Nor must it be forgotten that a thousand years of devoted loyalty to the Hapsburgs on the part of the Austrian people cannot be effaced by a few years of postwar convulsion.

"Beyond political reasons, concepts of race, and cultural tradition, is recognizable the physiognomy of a distinct people; the physiog- nomy formed by the sum of a people's be' havior. The Austrian cannot understand the Nordic fanaticism for action. He loves a life

of ease, a world removed from that of the business-like and calculating German. The German is exact; the Austrian expansive. The former inhabits the gloomy plains; the latter the sunny mountain tops where mountain streams leap and play. - Germany stands for race prejudice, imperialism, and Protestantism; Austria stands for nationalism and only wishes to protect her Catholicism."

The author, a brilliant young Italian jour' nalist, is especially well equipped for his task. He does not base his opinions on mere theory. For the past three years he has been engaged in political writing. Himself a native of the Italian Tirol, which was Austrian before the war, he is as close to the Austrians as a native. Because he is a native Italian by birth and family he can be free of the bias of party strife. Coming from a family traditionally connected with diplomatic circles he knows the inside of the news. During the attempted Nad putsch he was living in Vienna. He is acquainted with Prince Starhemberg, vice'chancellor of Austria and prefacer of the present book.

Though he is outspokenly biased in his strong support of the present Heimwehr government and bitterly attacks the former Socialist rule as a class dictatorship, he is earnestly sincere. He neither fails to praise some of the able Socialists, like Renner, nor to condemn the decadence of the aristocracy, which he says does not justify its existence when it no longer leads in a truly virile and moral sense. It is a book which will arouse controversy. Opinions may differ, but when they are the result of sincere conviction they are always worth while. - Gertrude G. Saxe. Camillus, New York.

• Louis Jalabert. Syrie et Liban: Reussite Frangaise? Paris. Plon. 1934. 248 pages.

12 francs. - Great comfort, after so many books about "Miracle" or "Abject Failure" to have one with honest question mark. Author

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Head-Liners BOOKS ABROAD Public Questions 277

evidently well informed, honest, able. Book based on various articles not wholly harmon- ized. Economically, the Mandate is a fair sue cess: good roads, cleaning of cities, pipe line, plenty of French capital invested. Politically, the minor countries, Djebel Druse, Alawits, Lebanon, tolerably willing to cooperate; Syria proper, the major part, irreconcilable.

Not a radical condemnation of Mandate idea; still less a condemnation of France - ex- cept for getting, of her own accord, into such a wasps'* nest. Syria in fact is not one : but the Arab majority would like to make it one, by Nazi methods if necessary. France can not protect the racial and religious minorities without antagonizing the Arabs.

Claims of France historical, sentimental, religious, i.e., Catholic: therefore in oppose tion to both Moslems and Greek Orthodox. Jalabert himself a Catholic. Was fair enough not to mention Gen. Sarrail; but is rather un- just to de Jouvenel, the two High Commis- sioners who were not Catholics first of all. Mentions with deserved praise education work of Catholic missions: not a word of Mission Laique, a non-sectarian organization, with establishments in Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo. Not such great work as Hocking's Spirit of World Politics: but a convenient, fair-minded survey. - Albert Guerard. Stan- ford University. • Salvador de Madariaga. Anarquia o

jerarquia: ideario para la con&itucion de la 3a Republica Espanola. Madrid. Aguilar. 1935. 293 pages. 6 pesetas. - No book of political theory could be freer from any doctrinaire taint. Madariaga is far more of a "realist" than most practical men or material- istic interpreters of history. Refuses to accept as absolutes such metaphysical entities as "liberty" or "capitalism." Refuses also to be limited by rigid alternatives. "You must go either North or South": why not East or West? Between opposites, there may be no antinomy, and even no antagonism: but a relation which the author calls "polar." Both poles are needed; both uninhabitable; and can you imagine anything more forlorn than one pole without its brother pole, and the globe in between?

First Part: Sharp criticism of bourgeois Liberal Democracy, of the Anglo-French type. Spain unfortunate in adopting a Con- stitution of that type at the very moment when its ideology was being discarded everywhere.

Second Part: Reconstruction of "Unani- mous Democracy"; General Principles and Methods. Third Part: Special application to Spain.

Main idea: keep the "economic" and the "political" separate; but organize economic life. Dual government: economic - practically autonomous; and political. Within the econ- omic state, two sectors: (a) basic economic activities, socialized or semi-socialized; (b) other economic activities, free - but under supervision, and with limitations at both ends, to prevent excessive wealth or absolute destitution. Not unlike our New Deal.

Political State: active citizenship not an automatic right: must be deserved. Direct voting for local affairs, indirect for regional authorities, indirect twice removed for na- tional government. Council of Ministers elected for same term as Chamber: 4 years. President a mere figure head: acting as keeper of the Seal, or Notary General of the Repub- lic. A weak feature, shadow of a constitu- tional king.

Special Spanish features: Madariaga is in favor of Regionalism, amounting, in the case of Catalonia and the Basque Provinces, to Nation- alism. Condemns anti-Clericalism. Opposed to political equality of the sexes, if by that is meant a doctrinaire and absurd identity.

Most original perhaps - and most Utopian - are his proposals for the organization of the Press:

1. Creadon de una Industria publica semi- socializada para la manufactura y distribucion de los pcriodicos;

2. Creadon de una Agencia de informa- ciones y noticias;

3. Formacion de una profesion cerrada de noticieros competentes, responsables y bien pagados;

4. Atribucion de los periodicos a los parti- dos o a asociaciones sin fines lucrativos.

Chief objection: the system appears com- plicated. Actually less complicated than ex- isting conditions in England, France, America: but these are the results of a long evolution, and familiar to every one. To start a reform movement, a clear formula is needed, even though it be absurd. Madariaga's system pre- supposes the enlightened and recognized aristo- cracy which he seeks to create. At any rate, the book is thought-compelling. And, of course, admirably written. Phrases like "La intole- rancia es la sombra que da la luz de la fe," clear-cut like the best Roman medals. Wish I

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