CONTENTS · 2020. 5. 12. · And the mildly playful bowie. Rudyard Kipling, too, has told us As from sea to sea he journeyed Of the happy gracious manners Of the Land of Minnehaha,

CONTENTSPAGE

N O T E S — J . P . C O L L I N S - - - 1

K I P L I N G A N D H I S C R I T I C S — V I C T O R I A N - - - - - 3

T H E B O O K S H E L F — B A S I L M . B A Z L E Y - 4

T H E B R A I N S T R U S T A N D K I P L I N G - - - - - - 6

K I P L I N G A N D T H E V I C E R O Y - - - - - - - 7

R . K . A N D A W O U N D E D S O L D I E R - - - - - - 8

" T H E L A S T C H A N T E Y " — J . P . C O L L I N S - - - - - 1 0

A N I G H T M A R E O F N A M E S 1 3

A U S T R A L I A A N D N E W Z E A L A N D B R A N C H R E P O R T S - - - 1 4

L E T T E R B A G - - - - - - - - - - 1 6

L I B R A R Y N O T E - - - - - - - - - 1 7

T H E A N N U A L C O N F E R E N C E - - - - - - - 17

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THE KIPLING SOCIETY

VOL. XL No. 70. JULY, 1944

NotesPLEASURES OF MEMORY.

IT surely gives the Society anextra glow to possess in LordWavell a Vice-President of the

active, and not the merely passive,order. His new book, " Other Men'sFlowers," has had a wonderful press,and deserves a bolder title, exceptthat the modesty implied in theactual one is an essential part ofthe man. He has given the vogueof the anthology a new lease of life,by raising the standard without im-pairing the form. His enthusiasmfor Kipling will endear the volumeto all members, as well as his evidentpassion for poetry; and as our reviewsays, his example should give a newimpetus to the lost art of memori-sation. In fact, if he had not keptso many gems intact in the tabernacleof an accurate and retentive memory,I doubt if he could have embroideredhis pages with so many shrewd andpersuasive opinions of his own. Thatis why the appeal of the book liesin its double charm of choice citationsand appreciative estimates sandwichedtogether. As a scheme, this realisesto the full what Wordsworth calledthe

" happy toneOf meditation slipping in betweenThe beauty coming, and the beauty

gone."RIDING AND RATTING.

It adds another link with Kiplingthat our Viceroy Vice-President isa doughty Browningite, avowed andunashamed. Let me hasten to sayhe has nothing in common with thoselaborious rhapsodists and annota-tors derided by the late J. K. Stephenin his skit beginning " There's a Mesociety down in Cambridge." Bythe way, the collocation of anthologiesand Cambridge recalls a long summerday spent there years ago as a guestof Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who

has just passed away. He told meof the work he put into " The OxfordBook of English Verse " and of thegenerous help he received from hisfriend, the late York Powell, whoselearning, as he says in the foreword," proved his friends' good fortune."Powell asked him what he was in-cluding of Browning's, and whenhe was told, exclaimed, "Ah, I ex-pected that infernal Ride and thosed—d Rats." But he was mollifiedto learn that the Pied Piper had beenleft out, and his suggestions musthave counted, for the ultimate selectionwas a lavish one, like Lord Wavell's,and Kipling would not have objected,since his fondness for Browning wasproverbial. All the same, Lord Wavellhas improved on the example, foras against the three poems that " Q "gives us from Kipling, here we gettwenty-six, and an admirable all-round choice they make.

POETRY AND ACTION.Richelieu said it was better to make

history than to write it, and like theman who first said honesty was thebest policy, the great French cardinalhad tried both. Similarly we maysay it is better to be a performeron the lute than a mere professorof poetry and here again " Q " shonein a double capacity. It alwaysstruck me, however, that if R. K.had ever been an apostle of Englishliterature installed in a universitychair, he would have done exactlywhat " Q " did when he tired ofthe formal dais and desk and bundledhis audience off to his own rooms.There he let them crowd round hisbig armchair against a backgroundof well-lined shelves, and help them-selves, if necessary, from his sizableand quaint tobacco-jar. Being anaudience of one and old enough tobe frank, I asked mine host if he felthe had gained or lost by years of

2 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1944

probation in the Liberal camp, andwhat he had to say to those whothought that, like Birrell, he hadgiven up to politics what was meantfor literature and mankind. " Q "laughed aloud with that whimsicalmouth of his, and shook his head.As near as I can recall his words, hesaid he had always thought thatwith the rare exception of genius,men gained decidedly by the studyof contemporary affairs, apart fromtheir duty as citizens, and whateverline of life they pursued.

MAKING AMENDS.There was a tussle to be expected

when we talked of Kipling, but nobones were broken. As against thesuggestion that this Liberal periodhad delayed his appreciation of Kip-ling and Empire, " Q " threw outthe reminder that our poet startedwith anything but Tory views, andwe might depend that this phasehad saved him from becoming therampant Jingo that some of his de-tractors chose- to paint. Then hewent on :—" Most of us looked onKipling at first, you must remember,as an alien prodigy, and of his cruderbarrack-room stuff we said thingsin the same vein with interest. Itwas when he sailed into the fulltide of his stories that we began totake the measure of the man, andthen we soon made amends."

" Q " went on to admit that thepresent age was turning out " tosh "that exceeded anything on the partof the tyros of years ago. The worstof it was that some of these trite anduntunable youngsters claimed Kiplingas their model, which simply addedinsult to injury. In the main, "Q"considered this modern epidemic ofrubbish was neither a novelty nora thing of permanence. It was asymptom of exuberant energy inan age that was badly unsettled bysensational wars and the inventionsof science, a surfeit of pleasures anddistractions, and accessibility to printfor any ephemeral scribble that hada headline or a " kick." All this," Q " has far better said, after all,in his " Studies in Literature " andthe essay on jargon in " The Artof Writing." I came away thinkinghow much his genial admonitions

gained by the spoken word overthe printed book. In this way foryears through the medium of literaturehe has spread wisdom, discretionand taste among the undergraduatesof the past quarter of a century. Itwas in much the same way that Abelarddiffused philosophy among the pil-grim-students who lay around himin their litter of straw at the Uni-versity of Paris Centuries ago.

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION.Some of the pages of this Journal

sure of being most eagerly read arethose given up to brief accounts ofthe Society's proceedings, at branchesin Australia and New Zealand. No-body knows save those who havebeen burdened with the task of fram-ing a sessional programme and carry-ing it through to success, how diffi-cult it is sometimes to find freshaspects of R. K.'s writings for studyand discussion. One common faultis allowing things to lapse into alevel of inexcusable insipidity or same-ness, and lose sight of the great "hori-zon of his inspiration to lead us on.For the better pursuit of this en-deavour to keep things going, letme heartily commend Lord Wavell's" Other Men's Flowers " as a quarryof apt ideas. For instance, thereis the suggestion that in The Songof Diego Valdez, Kipling has fusedor confused the Valdez who captaineda squadron in the Armada, with hisbrother who was captured by Drakeand afterwards ransomed. There isthe acute remark that Shakespeareknew his Oriental well, when he madeOthello the only hero in all his playswho faces death with a full-dressperoration, all the rest are briefand to the point.

Finally there are some of the Vice-roy's own principles, where he putsup this supplication—" May the spiritof adventure and self-sacrifice berekindled and stay with us after thewar." Or else this cue of patriotism—" As for a vacant heart, easy lifeand a quiet death, I -desire none ofthis. It was the slogan ' Safety First 'that nearly ruined an Empire." Maywe not say that in a Vice-Presidentlike this we have not merely a springof action but an inspiration ?

J. P. COLLINS

July, 1944 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 3

Kipling and His CriticsBy VICTORIAN

AS far as I know, I do not thinkany mention has been madein the Journal of American criti-

cism of Kipling's early writings,but in 1890 the following criticismappeared in the New York Herald :" The most forcible impression whichis left on the average mind by Mr.Kipling's works is the dismalness,insincerity, brutality and utter worth-lessness of all classes of British hum-anity in India." However, this whole-sale condemnation of the British inIndia evoked a delightful parody ofLongfellow's " Hiawatha " in ThePioneer Mail of November 20, 1890,entitled " American Critics." As Ithink it will amuse readers of theJournal I am giving it in extenso.We are " insincere " they tell us," Brutal " are we, " dismal," " worth-

less,"So our cousins very plainlyShout across the western waterFrom their land where all are candid,Gay, sincere, and very worthyWith a worth which knows its value.Lepel Griffin tells the storyOf the happy life out yonder,Of the cultured minds of Boston,Of the bacon of Chicago,Of the Chinaman of 'Frisco,Of the negro of New Orleans,Of the Red Man and his whiskey.Of the sanctimonious Mormon,And the innocent revolver,And the mildly playful bowie.Rudyard Kipling, too, has told usAs from sea to sea he journeyedOf the happy gracious mannersOf the Land of Minnehaha,Of the land of laughing water.Very grave is our demeanour,But we sometimes yield to laughter,When America rebukes us,From the very mouth of Kipling,From the mouth of Rudyard KiplingFor the very sins we cherish,—And quite candidly are proud of,—For brutality, moroseness,Insincerity and so on.Then indeed we ache with laughter,And the Himalayas echo,And the Baboo stops to wonderWhat on earth the sahibs laugh at,What disturbs the dismal white man.

How should they know where thejoke comes ?

They, our very distant cousins,Who are all sincere and happyIn a land which owns no loafers,Where no Tommy stains the sunshine,And the women shun flirtation?There it is, as someone tells us," Humbug has a solid vally,"And the politician laboursFor his countrymen's advantageAnd is very, very honest.There the negro has his franchise,And John Chinaman is happy,And the Red Man drinks his whiskey,And the Irishman finds refugeFrom the brutal, dismal Balfour,And the " average observer "Finds the Anglo-Indian hateful.Well, he is not such as we are,And may well misunderstand us,So we freely laugh and freelyBless the Transatlantic criticWho provokes our sudden laughterAs we think of Rudyard KiplingAnd his quiet smile of pleasureAs he reads that we are " brutal,"" Dismal," " insincere " and " worth-

less."Twelve years later in 1902, when

all and sundry were furious at theappearance of The Islanders, even SirHenry Newbolt felt constrained tolecture Kipling for his declensionin a poem entitled An Essay on Criti-cism, but he did it very gently andsorrowfully. I shall only quote thelast two stanzas of his mild reproof.O Rudyard, Rudyard, in our hours

of ease(Before the war) You were not hard

to please :You loved a regiment whether fore

or aft,You loved a subaltern, however daft,You loved the very dregs of barrack

life,The amorous colonel and the sergeant's

wife.You sang the land where dawn across

•the BayComes up to waken queens in Manda-

lay,The land where comrades sleep by

Cabul ford,And Valour, brown or white, is


Borderlord,The secret jungle life of child and

beast,And all the magic of the dreaming

East.These, these we loved with you, and

loved still more,The Seven Seas that break on Britain's

shore,The winds that know its labour and

its pride,And the Long Trail whereon our

fathers died.In that Day's Work be sure you

gained, my friend,If not the critic's name, at least his

end;Your song and story might have

roused a slaveTo see life bodily and see it brave.With voice so genial and so long of

reachTo your Own People you the Law

could preach,And even now and then without

offence

To Lesser Breeds expose their lackof sense.

Return, return ! and let us hear againThe ringing engines and the deep-

sea rain,The roaring chanty of the shore

wind's verse,Too bluff to bicker and too strong

to curse.Let us again with hearts serene beholdThe coastwise beacons that we knew

of old;So shall you guide us when the stars

are veiled,And stand among the Lights that

never Failed.Thus we see Kipling castigated

in the one case with a bludgeon andin the other with a switch. Perhapsour members may agree with Newboltwhen he says :—" 'Tis hard to say if greater waste

of timeIs seen in writing or in reading

rhyme."

The Bookshelfby BASIL M. BAZLEY

THE DAYS WE KNEW. ByJ. B. Booth. T. Werner Laurie,Ltd. Nov. 1943. 21s.THOSE of us who are old enough,

and whose memories are goodenough, to recall the general

scene in the theatrical and sportingworld of the later part of the lastcentury will be enthralled by thisbook of reminiscences. Among themany who appear in this cavalcadeare Arthur Roberts, Marie Lloyd,R. S. Sievier, Henry Irving, DanLeno and H. H. Dixon (" The Druid.")Like many of us, Mr. Booth regretsthe mechanisation of our presenttimes, in spite of the obvious facilitieswhich we now enjoy; as he says," the coming of the motor-bus, andthe motor traffic which eliminatedthe horse from the London streets,deprived those streets of a peculiarhumanity which had its humorousand intimate side." Even more doeshe sorrow over the elimination ofthe music-hall; it was not a perfectinstitution, but it did portray thelife of the people and allowed the

emergence of personality, a featurethat is sadly lacking in our life to-day :" The old music-hall, as an institution,is dead. The bards have hung uptheir lyres; and the singers, suchas are left of them, have transferredtheir activities to the revue stage orto the films . . . . to-day there areno new choruses, so the camp sing-song falls back on ' The Lily of Laguna'and tried old favourites of the present-day warriors' fathers."

All this brings us to Kipling's viewson the change; no less than elevenpages are devoted to him and to thereproduction of some fifteen of hisletters (one in facsimile) which havenot, to my knowledge, seen the lightbefore their appearance here :—" There was one man who saw, andrealised to the full, the influence ofthe music-hall, and of the stage,and their appeal to the national in-stincts—Rudyard Kipling, and inSomething of Myself he reveals thepart that influence played in settingthe scheme for Barrack-room Ballads.It was in Gatti's Music Hall, during


his sojourn in Villiers Street, ' inthe company of an elderly but up-right barmaid from a pub nearby,that I listened to the observed andcompelling songs of the Lion andMammoth Comiques.' And he goeson, ' the smoke, the roar, the goodfellowship of relaxed humanity, " set "the scheme for a certain sort of song.'

The correspondence began in thisway, says Mr. Booth, a correspondencethat lasted over ten years :—" Itwas in 1925 that he first took up thetheme. I had sent him a copy ofa book of mine, Old Pink 'Un Days,in which I had tried to preserve mem-ories which were fading all too quicklyof those songs of the people, and inmany a subsequent letter he revealedhis interest in the subject, and hislasting admiration for Nellie Farren,which is for all to read in The Villagethat Voted the Earth was Flat. Bypermission of his daughter I am en-abled to quote from some of thoseletters."

Then follow the extracts referredto. I can cordially recommend allreaders to get this book and readthem, for there is much in them thatreveals Kipling as a close studentof humanity; also, there is muchgenuine humour—the power of beingamused by little ordinary things andof amusing others by describing them.Kipling seems to agree with Mr.Booth in regretting those old days,as these few words from one letterwill show :—" I sometimes wonderif the motor takes people to as muchsheer fun as the old hansom cab did.But the Pavilion of to-day wouldhave been something of a revelationto that lost world."

The Kipling letters lie in two groupsin this book. I shall end with thelines that precede the second batch :—" An intense admirer of ' The

Druid ' of a different type was Rud-yard Kipling. Has there, I wonder,been a great writer with a wider rangeof interest and knowledge than Kip-ling? For no reason whatever he wasextraordinarily kind to me and tomy efforts, so, as some slight attemptat a return, whenever I came acrossanything that I thought might in-terest him I would send it to him."Certainly a book for all lovers ofKipling's work to have and to hold.

"AMERICA AND BRITAIN."At last people are beginning to

discern the real meaning of Kipling'steachings and better known phrases.From an exceedingly clever and appo-site little book (" America and Britain,"by Maurice Colbourne), we cullthe following comment on the Kip-ling idea of the British Empire :—" Gone are the Britons who gotdrunk on Kipling. Even ColonelBlimp, though suffering so badlyfrom history's time-lag and a Kiplinghangover that he still confuses theThird (British) Empire with theSecond, now knows that Kipling'skeynote was not boastfulness about' dominion over palm and pine,'but a plea to the Lord of Hosts tobe with us yet—' lest we forget,lest we forget.' Ever since he beganwriting Kipling has warned againstthe power doctrine and told us thatEmpire, though gratifying in thebest sense to our pride, has many andvarious responsibilities; that he mayhave been deliberately misinterpretedby the ' new-clever ' and the oldhigh-brows does not impair the truthof his message. No other writerhas had his meanings so distortedand his words so purposely mis-understood as Kipling; we mustbe thankful that understanding hascome at last.

Members of the Kipling Society who possess letters, press cuttings, photographs orsketches associated with Rudyard Kipling and his works, which they think might besuitable for publication in the Journal, are invited to send particulars to the Hon.Editor, The Kipling Journal, Lincoln House, London Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill. Inthe case of cuttings from overseas publications, senders are asked to obtain formalpermission to reprint from the Editors of the journals concerned, for which dueacknowledgment will be made in " The Kipling Journal."


The Brains Trust and KiplingNAMES FOR THE BRITISH MUSEUM'S TWENTIETH

TABLET

AT a recent session of the B.B.C.Brains Trust, the following in-teresting discussion took place,

in reply to the question : " Whatnames, since Browning, would theBrains Trust place on the twentiethtablet in the British Museum ReadingRoom ?"Donald McCullough (Question Master) :

The next question comes from theRev. Edgar Jackson at Harrow." In the British Museum readingroom there are twenty tablets.Nineteen bear the names of thegreat ones of English literature,from Chaucer to Browning. Whatnames, since Browning, would theBrains Trust place on the twentiethtablet ?" This is no doubt a verypractical question, which we maybe quoted on, if we can makesome suggestions. And the lastone was Browning. I think Ican guess who—

Ian Hay : Kipling.Dr. Joad : It's not quite clear, is

it, whether they've got to be deador not.

Q.M : I don't think it matters.Joad: Oh it doesn't. Well, I'll say

Shaw, who I think is the greatestEnglish writer since Shakespeare,and noting that he's now 88, thequestion whether he's got to bedead or not doesn't matter verymuch. The great thing aboutShaw-—he's probably the only greatman that I know who wouldn'tmind one saying that about him.

Q.M : Well, if he's listening, per-haps he'll let us know how he feels.Then the first suggestion is GeorgeBernard Shaw.

Ian Hay: Well, I repeat again Rud-yard Kipling. I still think he'sthe greatest thing we've producedin the last century.

Q.M : . . . . Lord Samuel ?Lord Samuel : There've been only

nineteen from Chaucer to the pre-sent day; I rather doubt whether

there's been anyone since Brown-ing who is quite fitted to fill thetwentieth tablet, and it would beadvisable, I think, to keep it inreserve. If it were necessary tomake some suggestion, I certainlythink that probably Shaw is morelikely for immortality than any-one else in recent years—certainlymore so than Kipling.

Q.M : Shall we have one namefrom each person ? Miss Thomp-son, would you care to give onename ?

Miss Sylvia Thompson : Well, havingconsidered Noel Coward, I thinkperhaps, not Noel Coward, butI know I rather agree with IanHay—I think Kipling—I don't sup-pose I like the same things in Kip-ling if we should discuss it rightthe way through, but I think he'sgot an extraordinary variety thathe isn't given credit for, becausea great many people say he's anImperialist or jingo-writer, anddon't read him, or only read thataspect of him.

Ian Hay : Quite true.Q.M : King-Hall ?Commander King-Hall: Well, I must

say I favour the compromise of—perhaps a rather typical liberalcompromise, if I may say so, ofmy friend Lord Samuel. As Iunderstand the question, there areonly twenty tablets. We're nowgoing to fill up the last tablet forall time, and I'd give two or threehundred years breathing space be-fore we fill that last tablet up;but I think Shaw would be on thewaiting list.

Q.M : Well, there's the question oftwo hundred years. I'm afraid wecan't just fit it in this session; we'llleave it to some future BrainsTrust. The suggestions have beenShaw, Kipling and—waiting fora little time. That of course is—present company excepted.


Kipling and the Viceroy

OT H E R Men's Flowers."Compiled by A. P. (Field-Marshal Viscount) Wavell.

(Cape, 10s. 6d.) If according to thegreat Victorian orator, John Bright,a man's books reveal his character,there is surely a deeper revelationin this individual choice from thereading of years. To find an emi-nent man of action, deservedly sethigh in power, thus openly avowinghis love for the best in many kindsof poetry, is to be confronted withimagination and the great harmoniesof mind. Lord Wavell showed thesequalities in his famous lectures onwar, and again in his chivalrousapologia for a kindred spirit andcomrade, the late Lord Allenby,to say nothing of his recent speechesof farewell to the Army and of greet-ing to India. But all this cloudof witness is enhanced and eclipsedwhen we find the new Viceroy, vir-tually in the pipe and slippers vein,reeling off a bookful of his favouritepoems from memory. It adds toprivilege the sense of being lifted toa level of intimacy and exhilaration—the more so, perhaps, from the factthat this book was not intended forpublication, and we may never getits like, perhaps, from a still busierman with the like qualifications.Listen to this from the foreword :—

"The Prime Minister, Mr. WinstonChurchill, has stored in his prodigiousmemory much poetry which he de-claims on apt occasion; I have hadthe pleasure of hearing some of theverses of this anthology repeatedby him—with characteristic gusto.Lord Allenby was another underwhom I served, with a great store ofpoetry in his head, and the abilityto give it forth in season."BACK TO THE SAME GEM.

The point of memory here is im-portant, if not vital. Lord Wavellbelieves " one can never properlyappreciate a poem until one has gotit by heart." We cannot wonderat poetry-lovers without this en-viable gift, consoling themselves some-times with the satisfaction of comingwith some measure of freshness backto the same gem again and again,

Nevertheless both possession and dis-closure are striking in the case ofa man of action who has reached aposition of such power and respon-sibility. The long gallery of India'sViceroys is starred with men of wideand humane intellectuality—Dufferinand Curzon occur to mind amongthe moderns. But we have to goback to Macaulay—member of India'sSupreme Council a century ago, andcodifier of her laws—for a parallelin respect of versatility and unrelaxingmemory, to say nothing of the kin-ship of literature in general andverse in particular. Admiring, aswe must, Lord Wavell's harvest ofenthusiastic reading, we cannot helpcongratulating him and ourselves atwell.

MEMORY PALES.In the inviting foreword already

quoted, Lord Wavell admits thatwar has impaired his turn for memori-sation, but who can be surprised ?At least he has raised what used tobe called the " commonplace-book "to the level of a contemporary classicthat bids fair to last. Dust andoblivion threaten Southey's " TheDoctor," that corner-cupboard ofscraps and oddities, and Tooke's" Diversions of Purley," which maybe called the frolics of a brainy rebel.But we can see this " posie " of" Other Men's Flowers " taking apermanent place among popular gift-books, and bringing the practiceof memory back from the folly ofneglect by pure force of example.

Talking of versatility and intellectualsympathies, Mr. Gladstone once con-jured up a vision of this nation ofours being crowded off its islandinto the surrounding " moat " bysheer accumulation of bookstuff—a calamity happily postponed by oursalvage crusade and the pulping mill.Stay, was there not a chance of thedanger recurring a few years agoby an excess crop of anthologies ?Possibly the vogue has been slackenedby the conviction once expressedto the present reviewer by a greatauthority in the book trade—thatan anthology nowadays to be success-


ful ought to have a personality behindit. Now, this is exactly what LordWavell supplies. For we get notonly nearly three hundred poems andextracts, and each hall-marked bycatholicity of taste, plus the stampof personal endorsement, but wealso get a number annotated withrefreshing candour. True, the viandscannot be seasoned, but the settingis, and the pastry is often the bestof the pie.PERSONAL ELEMENTS.

It is here that the present epicureindulges in a groan—not from re-pletion, but from lack of space inthe way of paper. For it wouldtake a page or two to comment onthese commentaries, they are so brim-ful of interest and the personal ele-ment. They tell us why Lord Wavellnever took to Greek as he did toLatin, and why King Saul remainsa hero in his opinion more than David.This says something, truly, for Brown-ing as an apologist, but plenty ofreaders will agree to differ. It leadsus to the more important fact thatthe Viceroy prefers Browning andKipling to Tennyson or Wordsworth.Here is Lord Wavell's verdict :—

" Browning and Kipling are the twopoets whose work has stayed mostin my memory, since I read themin impressionable youth. I have neverregretted my choice. They havecourage and humanity, and theirfeet are usually on the ground."GENEROUS ALLOWANCE.

Twenty-six of Kipling's poems andtwenty-one of Browning's are a gener-ous allowance. The former includeMcAndrew's Hymn, the 'Mary Gloster,'

Diego Valdez, If, Tramp Royal, TheLong Trail, The Feet of the Young Men,The Last Chantey, True Thomas,The Banjo, Tomlinson, Gehazi, MyBoy Jack and several short piecesfrom the volume Songs from Books.If we miss several of our old favourites,Lord Wavell recalls several pieceswe had probably forgotten, so weare still his debtors. And we areleft wondering if the following passagefrom Flecker's Hassan was not in-cluded in the foreword—as an after-thought, perhaps—when the fate ofIndia was gravely in the balancea year ago :—

" Caliph : Ah, if there shall everarise a nation whose people haveforgotten poetry or whose poets haveforgotten the people, though theysend their ships round Taprobaneand their armies across the hills ofHindustan, though their city be greaterthan Babylon of old, though theymine a league into earth or mountto the stars on wings—what of them ?

Haman : They will be a darkpatch upon the world."THE UNKNOWN.

Fortunately anything like a sinisternote is rare in the book. It wassaid of Coleridge that the unknownwas dearer to him than the known,but as a rule, the man of action hasdone with hypothesis the momenthis plans are complete. On thewhole, it may be doubted if LordWavell has ever done anything morethorough than this garland of happyblossoms culled in his youth. Doubt-less this is why an indefeasible spiritof youth and Kipling pervades itfrom beginning to end.

R.K. and A Wounded Soldier

FROM a member, the late Mr.E. H. Crussell, of Sacramento,California, whose recent death

is recorded elsewhere in this issue,we received a facsimile of a letterwritten by Rudyard Kipling for awounded soldier during the SouthAfrican war. As the reproductionon the opposite page shows, the letterwas written in a hospital train on

the way to Cape Town and is datedFebruary 24th, 1900. The photo-graph of the soldier with the com-ment below, as shown, appearedwith the letter in an issue of theStrand magazine of that time andthe duplicate illustration was sentto the Kipling Society in Londonfor the Library. It is reproducedhere by permission,



" The Last Chantey "ONE GREAT ARTIST'S TRIBUTE TO THE GENIUS OF

ANOTHERBy J. P. COLLINS

[THE LAST CHANTEY by RKipling, illustrated by Laurence Hous-man, Pall Mall Magazine, 1893.

The original Pen and Ink Drawingsmounted and bound together with theoriginal published Pall Mall version,in green buckram, with green leatherlettering labels on front cover andspine, have been acquired by the KiplingSociety for the Library.]IT has been given to few authors,

poets especially, to supply a fitaccompaniment of drawings to

their own written work—or anyoneelse's—and with instances like thoseof Blake and Dante Rossetti, thelist among the chief of them is soonexhausted. There have been authorslike Thackeray, Chesterton and Wells,whose ability in draughtsmanshipnever did justice to their writings,for the reason that their gifts in theway of prose left their graphic powersfar behind. In effect, the culti-vation of one faculty reduced theother by comparison to a mere re-creative hobby, or at best a roughindication of the line their later illustra-tors should pursue.A FAMILY OF ARTISTS.

Rudyard Kipling came of a familyand a group of artists who all wontheir share of fame. Two of hismother's sisters married Royal Academi-cians—Sir Edward Poynter and SirEdward Burne-Jones. Nor is theremuch doubt that these painters helpedhis father to obtain the art appoint-ment which took him out to Lahoreand Bombay for many years, andlinked his son's gifts and memorieswith India for ever. Kipling senior,with an encyclopaedic knowledge ofall forms and ages of art, had con-spicuous powers as a modeller andsculptor of genuine charm and origin-ality. His favourite mode of illustra-tion, for his own writings and thoseof his wife and family, was to developeach conception in low relief andthen commit it to a photograph forreproduction. His son, Rudyard, whilerespecting and admiring this round-

about method, preferred plain pen-and-ink drawing, and it was in thisvein that his own books found someof their most successful illustrations.

It was not until Rudyard Kiplingcame to England in the 'eighties—via Mark Twain and the UnitedStates—that his rapid vogue in themagazine world created a new editorialproblem. This was how to findblack-and-white artists equal to render-ing graphic interpretation worthy ofthose strange visions that he putinto prose or verse, and more especiallythe haunting, adventurous ballad-hymns, for which he found so muchof his inspiration and descriptiveeloquence in the Authorised Versionof the Bible. In those intimate chap-ters of autobiography called Some-thing of Myself he has told us thatas a child in uncongenial surround-ings at Southsea, he was often givenpassages of Holy Writ to be learnedby heart for punishment, and thisdismal task-work familiarised his boy-ish mind with the sacred text to suchan extent as to colour his poeticphraseology and imagery for life.Indeed, no-one can range throughthe extraordinary wealth of his poemswithout perceiving that on solemnthemes and occasions the Bible inits vividness and grandeur has suppliedhim not only with standards of stylebut substance and incentive as well,from that stinging satire, The Storyof Uriah, to his resonant epic ofCalvinism, McAndrew's Hymn.EARLY LYRICS.

Halfway between early lyrics likeDepartmental Ditties and the EightBallads which may well be rankedwith the Nine Symphonies of Beethoven,there came the best of those fortyor fifty poems which he devoted tothe sea. It was almost his nativeelement, born as he was at the portof Bombay; it was certainly his firstlove among the elements, and themagic carpet that bore him to andfrom the only school he ever knew,on the edge of the sandy shores of


ONE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONSfrom the bound volume of " The Last Chantey " with the original drawings by LaurenceHousman, which has been acquired by the Kipling Society for the Library.

northern Devon at Westward Ho.It was the sea again, that broughthim back around the globe to Londonand fame, and was to waft him offfor many a voyage of imaginationand adventure, leisure and ease—journeys more real than those ofhis fictive three-deckers bound onthe way to " the Islands of the Blest."No wonder the sea swept throughhis mind when in times of inspirationhe turned to the stories of Job andJonah, the terrible admonitions ofIsaiah, and the breathless experiencesof that hardy mariner and pioneer,St. Paul, to obtain fresh materialfor brain and pen.

When Pope said of verse-makingthat "the sound should seem an echoto the sense," he might have includedthe angle of sight and observationas well. Who at any rate can questionit was the league-long rollers acrossthe Pacific or Atlantic that movedour poet to such superb manipulationof the longer metres in The Song ofDiego Valdez or The Ballad of theBolivar ? Short measures camein naturally for rapid and dramaticnarratives in verse, and brief sen-tences for animated dialogue or swiftconsecutive emotional prose; but whenit came to spiriting the reader away

on wings of fancy across half theworld, there was no medium so ampleor irresistible as the anapaest andthe hexameter. He wrote The FirstChantey almost as an experiment,it would seem; but for The LastChantey, four years away, he wentto the " Book of Revelations," andthe vistas of eternity did the rest.

This poem was written at theoutset of the 'nineties, before theheyday of the English magazineshad begun to fade and dwindle underthe onset of the cheap reprint inattractive cloth. The first Lord Astorhad given a couple of enterprisingEnglish friends carte blanche to starta first-class monthly, and in a singlenumber " The Pall Mall Magazine "had made its name. In that openingissue the chief literary feature hadbeen Swinburne's monody on SirPhilip Sidney entitled " Astrophel,"and the welcome it received stirredthe editors to secure for the secondnumber something comparable fromRudyard Kipling, then the mosttalked-about young man in London.He let them have the serial rights,as they were called, of The DipseaChantey, but as the sea or marinerelement in it had been merely second-ary to the supernatural, with a per-


spective reaching away to JudgmentDay, he allowed the editors to re-christen it The Last Chantey. Theycommissioned another rising celebrity,Laurence Housman, to furnish theillustrations, and he justified theirchoice by handing in a set of draw-ings which made a sensation, forthey were not only rich in humaninterest and symbolistic quality, butdecorated his four allotted pageswith a strong allegorical frameworkfor the text of the poem. Stageby stage, the figures of marinersand angels are woven into a fascinatinggroup or frieze where everythingis designed to satisfy the mind'seye of the beholder with inner mean-ing as well as to vindicate the waysof God to men.THE SHIPWRECKED APOSTLE,

Taking its cue from the Apocalypseof St. John, with a literal acceptationof the text " And there was no moresea," the poem conjures up pictureafter picture of what this dread con-tingency would mean, alike to fisher-men and pirates, to Greenland sealersfrom Gothavn, or to the Elizabethangentlemen - adventurers. Finally itturns to the shipwrecked apostle ofthe gentiles and the doomed betrayerof the Redeemer—that unhappy Judaswhom the legendary lore of the seaconsigned centuries ago to the sorriestof expiations—unending misery anddrifting in the Arctic regions. Allthese hordes of sea-farers in theirturn raise their clamour against thethreatened extermination of the seathey have learned to love as the onlyhome and foster-mother they know.And so we arrive at a happy endingin accordance with the facts, for theCreator in His mercy withholds Hishand. No poem of Kipling's moresubtly or daringly condenses intoperfect form the threefold themehe found so often in the Bible, thesea, and the sailor's life.SEA-LORE.

Nor is the technique and wordingof the poem in any way inferior tothe majesty of the theme or the pompand amplitude of the resoundingverse.

It enlists the service of some ofthe oldest and choicest fragmentsof sea-lore to be found in many tongues." Picaroon," usually meaning pirate,

is used to denote a pirate-ship orvessel engaged in the evil trade ofbartering human life and liberty." Frapped " is the time-honouredmethod of saving a tired and damagedship from breaking in half, by theprocess of binding strong cable roundand round the hull. This process,by the way, is described to the lifein the fine old ballad of Sir PatrickSpens (a great favourite with Kipling,by the way) and in the terrible stormrecounted in the twenty-seventh chap-ter of the " Acts of the Apostles."As for the consonantal form " frapped "instead of " wrapped," it is merelythe Scandinavian equivalent, and thisinterchange of " f " for " w " occursin many old east-coast names andsailor terms. " Silly," of course, isan old synonym for " innocent "or " simple;" and "jolly " is probablyan enclitic particle or space-unitto lighten the strain of a line. Again,the verses reveal the poet's rich storesof knowledge in history, natural orotherwise—as well as the use of theglobes. The "barracout" is a ten-foot fish of voracious habit infestingthe Indian ocean; and the " fulmar "is the North Atlantic petrel, aliasthe " molly-hawk." This bird pur-sues whalers and sealers for the sakeof the refuse thrown away at skinningor " flinching " time, the last beingthe period when whales are dismem-bered for the blubber harvest. Finally,the " windless, glassy floor " is an-other vivid picture derived from" Revelations," and in this way theBible remains to the end of the poemthe grand enchiridion of poet andapostle and mariner alike.

Since making these wonderful draw-ings, Mr. Housman has done manythings and grown famous in otherways—-as a humanist enlisted in oneprogressive cause or another, as authorof a " best seller " of years ago, namely," An Englishwoman's Love-Letters,"as a biographer, romancer, folklorist,and poet. After producing manybooks of note in the exuberance ofhis versatility, Mr. Housman lit inhis maturity upon those " LittleFlowers of St. Francis " which heturned into play-vignettes that havemade him a reputation around theworld, and have helped to make the" Spouse of Poverty " more widely


beloved than ever. Then came thoseother single-act plays on episodesin Victorian history which have givenus new conceptions of the great andmatriarchal Empress, and sought todo justice to her brilliant court ofstatesmen and divines, inventors andlawgivers, poets and philanthropists,many of whom have made theirpermanent mark on modern history.All this, in his own appealing fashion,

Mr. Housman has invested with afreshness and lightness and humourthat have caught the fancy and approvalof the English-speaking world. Butit may fairly be questioned if he hasever shown his talent and discern-ment in more poetic guise than inembroidering this lofty allegory ofthe sea so truly characteristic of themaster-pen of Rudyard Kipling.

(Publication rights reserved.)

A Nightmare of NamesAN IDEA OF THE JOURNALISTS TRIALS

' ' AS people grouse at the namesof places in Burma," writesa member, " I thought the

enclosed verses, A Nightmare of Names,which appeared in the Civil and Mili-tary Gazette at the time of the Burmesewar in the 'eighties, (when we tookover the country during the Vice-royalty of the Marquis of Dufferinand Ava), might interest readersof the Kipling Journal. They givean idea of the journalist's trials whenthe fighting in a practically unknowncountry had to be written up."

The lines are as follows :It was a wearied journalist who

sought his little bed,With twenty Burma telegrams all

waiting to be read.Then the Nightmare and her nine-

fold rose up his dreams to haunt,And from those Burma telegrams

they wove this dismal chaunt :—

" Bethink thee, man of ink and shears,"so howled the fiendish crew,

" That each dacoit has one longname, and every hamlet two.

Moreover, all our outposts bearpeculiar names and strange :

There are one hundred outpostsand, once every month, theychange.

If Poungdoungzoon and Pyalhatzeetoday contain the foe,

Be sure they pass tomorrow toGwebin or Shwaymyo

But Baung-maung-hman remember,

is a trusted Thoongye Woon,The deadly foe of Maung-dhang-

hlat, Myoke of Moung-kze-hloon.

Poungthung and Waustung-chungare not at present overthrown,

For they are near the Poon beyondthe Hlinedathalone ;

While Nannay-kone in Ningyanis near Mecakaushay,

But Shway-zet-dau is on the Ma,and quite the other way.

Here are some simple titles whicht'were best to get in writing,

In view of further telegrams de-tailing further fighting :—

Malé, Myola, Toungbyoung, Talakso,Yebouk, Myo,

Nattik, Hpan-loot-kin, Madeah,Padeng, Narogan, Mo.

Pakhang, Samaitkyon, Banzé, Mine-tseil, Minethe-Kulay,

Manngtsankin, Toungbain, Bompan,Aeng, Naung, Bana, Kan-Sau-mya,

Kteepauts, Salung, Enlay, Yindan,Nwa-koo, Mahan-gyee-kin,

Kek-kai, Nat-lone, Salay, Toung-lone, Yihon, and lastly Tsin."

It was a wearied journalist—heleft his little bed,

And faced the Burma telegrams,all waiting to be read;

But ere he took his map-book up,he prayed a little prayer :—

; Oh stop them fighting Lord knowswho, in jungles Deuce knowswhere !"


Australia and New ZealandREPORTS FROM MELBOURNE AND AUCKLAND

WAR conditions have necessarilybrought about certain delaysin communication with the

Branches of our Society overseas,but we are very glad to have newsfrom Melbourne and Auckland, whichcomes to us in the following reports.The note from Melbourne coversthe Branch's 1944 Annual Meeting,and that from Auckland relates toactivities reported early in 1943.In spite of the delay in publicationof these details in the Journal, weknow our members everywhere willbe interested to see how well thesetwo Branches are maintaining theirwork for the Society in difficulttimes, and will wish us to conveytheir greetings to all concerned.MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.

Mrs. Grace Broughton, Hon. Secre-tary of the Melbourne Branch, writes :

" At our last Annual Meeting inFebruary, 1943, it was decided thatthe Branch would still carry on, inspite of the increasing war dutiesof so many of its members; and asthe black-out rules had been relaxedit was agreed that we would go backto meetings in the evening insteadof the afternoon. This decisionbrought a great improvement in ourattendances and we have had fivegood gatherings through the year.

Our Annual meeting was quitethe most successful we have yet had,with visitors from the other literarysocieties and many friends and mem-bers. Our guest speaker was Mr.Norman McCance, a well-known Mel-bourne journalist, who gave an ex-cellent talk on Kipling in Melbourne,and recreated for us the Melbourneof the 'eighties. Mr. Croll sup-ported him in some of his statementsand comments were also made byMr. McMicken of the DickensFellowship, these gentlemen beingspecial visitors that night. In Aprilthe book " Actions and Re-actions "was discussed and interesting paperson six of the stories were given bymembers. In June Mrs. Brown favour-ed us with a fine talk on Kipling asPainter in Words which raised muchdiscussion and argument. In Sept-

ember, Mr. Morton inspired us allwith his paper on Kipling the Im-perialist, about which there was noargument, only complete agreement.And we finished the year in Novemberwith a lively night, when all present,visitors included, had to tell whichwas their favourite story or verseand why, and a great diversity ofideas resulted.

Last year the Library was onceagain taken over by Mrs. Brown, ouroriginal Librarian, and she is makingarrangements to have our Kiplingbooks more suitably stored wheremembers can have easy access tothem. Members are very gratefulto Miss Strom for deputising forMrs. Brown in her absence.

The Social side of our meetingsin Miss Tuxen's absence throughillness has been taken charge of byMrs. Morton and we are all veryglad of her help in this direction.

As reported at our last AnnualMeeting our little ship H.M.S. Kip-ling was lost, so not having it to workfor, it was decided in September thatwe support Mrs. Graham's schemeof " Gifts for Moresby " and so helpour own men in New Guinea. Mrs.Graham, having been there in chargeof a Mobile Canteen, was able totell us at first hand of the needs ofthe men in the way of literature,gramophone records, etc. As ourBank Balance was in a favourablecondition, the sum of £4 4s. 0d.was voted for this scheme and handedto Mrs. Graham.

Through the year we have gainedtwo new members and lost none,though since June we have greatlymissed Dr. Mackeddie and MissTuxen, who have both had long termsin hospital. However, we hope tohave them back with us this year,and both as keen as ever.

In conclusion, the Committee wouldlike to thank all those members whohave so loyally stood by through adifficult year and helped to make ourlittle Society the success it is, whilevery special gratitude is due to ourPresident, Dr. Boyd-Graham, who,in spite of increased war duties and


heavy work in his own profession,has never failed as our leader in alldiscussions. Also his excellent sum-maries at the end of each meetingare eagerly looked for by every mem-ber attending.

The Sixth Annual Meeting ofthe Melbourne Branch was heldon February 24th, when there wasa very large attendance of membersand friends, including members ofthe Dickens Fellowship and the Shakes-peare Society. The President, Lieut-enant-Colonel Boyd-Graham was inthe chair, and after the singing ofthe National Anthem, he referredto the splendid work of our soldiersand airmen in keeping Australiafree • from invasion, and asked allpresent to join in singing two versesof Kipling's Recessional, " Lest weforget."

Our guest speaker for the even-ing was again Mr. Norman McCanceof the Melbourne Herald. His sub-ject was " Kipling, Master of Words "and he took for his text the storyProofs of Holy Writ. Mr. McCancequoted various verses showing thatit was the right word at the rightmoment always with Kipling, andspecially referred to the wonderfuldescriptions of the sea in the poemThe Sea and the Hills, many lines ofwhich were quoted. His talk wasinspiring in every way, and wentright to the hearts of the Kiplinglovers present.

Altogether it was a very encourag-ing Annual Meeting and one thatgave hope to the Committee for asuccessful year in 1944, while, bestof all, four new members were en-rolled that night.AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.

From Mrs. Edith M. Buchanan,Hon. Secretary of the AucklandBranch, comes the following note,dated February 24th, 1943 :

The swift descent of Japan throughthe China Sea and the Pacific Ocean,almost to the shores of Australia,darkened somewhat the outlook ofthis Branch of the Kipling Societyat the beginning of the Season 1942.

Conditions of Emergency Pre-cautions Service of Home Guardand of black-out were discussed andarrangements were made for themeetings to be held in day time, atleast four times in the Season at thehouse of the Honorary Secretary.After two of these meetings had beenheld, members expressed a desireto hold the usual monthly meetingsat night, as before, and at the houseof Dr. Hilda Northcroft, which iscentrally situated.

Seven meetings were held : theaverage attendance was eighteen outof the full number of forty members.

Mr. T. S. Eliot's critical appre-ciation of Kipling's work createdmuch interest. At our first meeting,in April, Mr. Faigan, Chairman,read extracts from it, with criticalcomments. Later in the Season, MissHull read a very amusing addressentitled, " Kipling and his Critics."

All the meetings were much en-joyed. Of great interest was Mr.Faigan's address on " Rudyard Kip- .ling's re-actions to America andAmericans." The subject matter ofthe address was taken from the Journalsof the Kipling Society, and Some-thing of Myself. This " Research "revealed an America very differentfrom that of the present day, andincidentally, Rudyard Kipling's develop-ment as an Englishman.

Mr. Brandon took " Soldier Stories"as the subject of his address. Thenext evening was spent in readingaloud by members, in turn, " TheArmy of a dream." This propheticaccount of a peoples' war gave riseto much discussion.

The last evening was spent bymembers in reading their favouritepoem from Kipling's works. Thechoice corresponded closely to Mr.T. S. Eliot's selection.

The loss of H.M.S. Kipling wasa great blow to the Kipling Society.This Branch felt great pride in herachievements, and desires to expresssympathy with the relatives of thosewho were lost in action."


Letter BagCorrespondents are asked to keep letters for publication as short as possible.

KIPLING AND RUSSIA.

THE enclosed clipping from theNew York Times may not havecome to your notice.

I was not aware of the wide popu-larity of Kipling's writings in Russiathough from my own experienceknew how highly they were esteemedin Switzerland and France.

Russia gives many surprises.—F. F.BALDWIN, Clayton, Georgia, U.S.A.

(Enclosure).KIPLING NOT UNKNOWN TO

RUSSIATo the Editor of " The New YorkTimes " :

May I correct an erroneous im-pression which Topics of The Timesof Feb. 4 probably left on manyreaders ? Your columnist states, inspeaking of Russia, that " Kipling

• is not a widely translated author,"that his " having the reputation ofbeing an Imperialist would not com-mend him to people in Moscow."

Facts, however, do not bear outthe above assertions. Until I leftRussia in 1943 I taught English inthe Moscow Pedagogical Instituteof Foreign Languages. The readingand study of Kipling's prose andpoetry were part of the requiredclass and outside reading of all theRussian students.

Aside from that, the students weremore than familiar with Kipling'sworks before coming to the Institute.Kipling is not only a widely trans-lated author in Russia but I ventureto say (on the basis of many years'residence and extensive travel inthat country), one of the most popular.

I have had many Russian teacherstell me that Kipling's hymn " Reces-sional " was considered by Russiansone of the finest poems in the Englishlanguage.—ROWENA MEYER.New York, Feb. 4, 1944.FORSTER'S NOTE BOOK.

Thank you very much for publish-ing my query regarding the above,which one might say was a forerunnerof the present Journal, and I wasvery interested to read Captain Martin-

dell's comments on same. I havereferred again to Captain Martindell'sBibliography and the reason I missedthe reference before is because thisitem does not appear in the Indexto that most excellent work. Thelate Mr. Ellis Ames Ballard was notcorrect in referring to this Note Bookas "a twenty-two page booklet."The last-but-one page is certainlynumbered 21 but actually, as I men-tioned in my previous letter, thebooklet contains only twenty pagesbound in rough, purple strong papercovers. In the numbering of thepages the front cover was apparentlyincorrectly included.

Trusting this additional informationwill be of interest.—TOM P. JONES,Rio Seco, Punta Arenas, Chile.H.M.S. "KIPLING."

!t may interest your readers toknow that I showed the excellentphotograph of H.M.S. Kipling inthe Journal to a friend who was serv-ing in the ship when the photographwas taken.

He assured me that she was not"in action against enemy aircraft"but was, with other destroyers, inthe act of charging through a smokescreen to attack the Italian BattleFleet the other side of it. Theyemerged within a few hundred yardsof the fleet, discharged their torpedoeswith great success and withdrewthrough the smoke screen.—LONDONMEMBER.KIPLING ORIGINS.

Your correspondent Mr. McAdam,of Toronto, who supplies answersto three of the four questions originallyraised in the Kipling Journal of April,1943, as to the origins of the fourlines by R. K. beginning ' Ah ! whatavails the classic bent . . . .' stillseeks information about the fourthline ' To the roar of Earth on fire.'The answer is La Nuit Blanche.(Departmental Ditties.) — J. H. C.BROOKING, 346, Nell Gwynn House,Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, S.W.3.

(Colonel G. A. McL. Sceales, Exeter,writes to the same effect. Ed.)


THE MYSTERY POEM.May I draw your attention to a

printer's error in the version onpage 11 of the Kipling verses, ofwhich a photostat copy appeared onpage 9 of this month's Kipling Journal ?This copy shows that the lines, aswritten by Kipling, ended with thewords :—" And he certifies here that he drank

the beer"And always stuck to the truth."But the printed version gives " certi-fied" for " certifies," and I fear that,

if attention is not called to this slip,the mistake may be reproduced asbeing the correct version.

I would like to take this opportunityto express my congratulations on theamount of interesting matter thatappears in successive issues of ourJournal, despite all the difficultiesof the present times. — CHARLESWINGFIELD, 63, Bedford Gardens,London, W.8.

(We thank our correspondent forthis correction. The word, as he says,is certifies, and not certified. Ed.)

The Annual Conference

T HE Annual Conference of theMembers of the Society metat 68, Warwick Square, London,

S.W.I., on 5th June, 1944. Thefollowing are the Minutes of theproceedings :—Chairman.

1. The outgoing Chairman, Mr.B. W. Bazley, was unanimously elect-ed for a second year of office.President.

2. The President of the Societywas re-elected with acclamation.Vice-Presidents.

3. The Vice-Presidents of theSociety were re-elected with theexception of the following whosemembership had lapsed :—

The Dowager Viscountess Downe.M. André Maurois.

Commander Locker Lampson.Mr. Alfred Noyes.

Hon. Officers.4. The Honorary Officers of the

Society were unanimously re-elected.5. The Honorary Auditors were

unanimously re-elected with a heartyvote of thanks for their work in the past.The Journal.

6. A Special Vote of Thankswas unanimously passed to the Hon.Editor for the outstanding work hehad performed in keeping the KiplingJournal up to its very high standard.'H.M.S. " Kipling " Fund.

7. The Members decided thatthe balance of the fund collectedon behalf of H.M.S. Kipling shouldbe shown as a separate item in theaccounts until the end of the war.

Library NoteBy W. G. B.

A GIFT of books from the Libraryof the late Mr. A. E. O. Slocock,to which I referred in the last

issue, includes, amongst other volumes,a few " Firsts " and other earlyeditions, viz :—The History of theIrish Guards; Songs For Youth, with

MAITLANDKipling's Autograph signature pastedon the title page; The Day's Work;Soldier Tales; The Naulahka; Puckof Pook's Hill; The Five Nations,etc ; The Jungle Book (second reprint) ;The Second Jungle Book (first reprint).

Obituary

IT is with deep regret we haveto announce the death of Mr.Edward H. Crussell of Sacramento,

California, news of whose passingcame to hand as we went to press withNo. 69 of the Kipling Journal. Agift he made to the Library shortlybefore his death, which occurred

last December, was described inour last issue.

Edward Crussell, a keen and know-ledgeable collector of Kipling Newswas always ready to offer advice onall matters connected with the prob-lems which beset the Kipling collector.

Documents

CONTENTS · 2020. 5. 12. · And the mildly playful bowie. Rudyard Kipling, too, has told us As from sea to sea he journeyed Of the happy gracious manners Of the Land of Minnehaha,