Some Proposals for Constitutional Reform: Being the Recommendations of a Group ofConservatives.Review by: K. C. W.International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan.,1947), p. 102Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Royal Institute of International AffairsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3017790 .

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102 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

*SOME PROPOSALS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM: being the recommendations of a group of Conservatives. Preface by Cuthbert Headlam. 1946. (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 8X2" X 5". 142 pp. 7s. 6d.) THIS is a very thorough and interesting report on the machinery of government in

Great Britain. It covers Parliament, the Cabinet, the Civil Service, the problems of control by Parliament over the administration, and finally the working of the con- stitution in relation to defence and foreign policy and to economic policy. Though it is true that, on the whole, the treatment of the subject is conservative, yet it is in no sense behind the times or conventional. The recommendations made are often novel and far-reaching, and there is throughout an acceptance of the principles of democratic government in a parliamentary system which is well stated.

On some points readers will differ with the writers, but the book is well worth the study of all who are interested in modern British government. Its authors include members of both Houses of Parliament, and three prominent historians.

K. C. W.

WHEN LABOUR FAILS. By Enid Lakeman. 1946. (London: Herbert Joseph. 7'2" X 5". 146 pp. 5s.)

A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. By M. J. Landa. 1946. (London: Herbert Joseph. 7X2" X 5". 160 pp. Biblio. 5s.)

A LIBERAL WINDOW ON THE WORLD. By Reginald A. Smith. 1946. (London: Herbert Joseph. 7'2" X 5". 160 pp. 5s.)

THE WAY OF THE WEST. By Donald W. Wade. 1946. (London: Herbert Joseph. 7X'" X 5". 160 pp. 5s.) THESE four books are part of a series in which holders of the liberal faith set forth

their views as to the solution of the main problems that face the world. They are convinced that these can be most effectively put right by close adherence to the philosophy and outlook of the British Liberal Party and they give their reasons with vigour and persuasive power.

It is in Mr. R. A. Smith's book that we find the fullest study of the problem from the international angle and he sets forth interestingly the relative contributions which liberalism and communism can make and why he considers it possible for them to co-operate in the same world.

Mr. Landa's book is concerned with the distressing and difficult problem of refugees and displated persons.

GEOFFREY MANDER

GUERNSEY UNDER GERMAN RULE. By Ralph Durand. 1946. (London: The Guernsey Society. Distributed by Simpkins Marshall, London. 8X2" X 5W". 183 pp. 6s.) THE story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands is one of the curi-

osities of the war. With their occupation in 1940 the Islands passed out of the war area, and they remained unaffected by the invasion of Europe in 1944. The miseries which they suffered were those of shortage, especially an increasing shortage of food and fuel, and those of occupation by an enemy Power. This account of life in Guernsey deals with the intimate and personal side of those miseries, and not with the political and administrative difficulties of the States Controlling Committee. For that one must turn to the already published report of Sir John Leale, the Committee's president. The darkest days came just before the end, when for some weeks the is- landers had neither bread nor potatoes, and lived on roots and leaves, cooked with difficulty on the dwindling fuel available. The record tells with great frankness of the

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