Book Reviews and Notices : International Mandates and Trusteeship Systems: A Comparative Study. By R. N. CHOWDHURI. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 1955. Pp. xvi, 328. Guilders 16.50.)

• Author: Leo Gross
• Published date: 01 December 1956
• Date: 01 December 1956
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295600900414
• Subject Matter: Articles

997

undoubtedly

ranks

as

the

West’s

leading

historian

of

Far

Eastern

diplomacy

during

the

past

quarter-century.

Professor

Borton

wrote

the

sections

dealing

with

the

occupation

of

Japan

from

1945

to

1947

and

the

Korean

situation

during

the

same

two

years,

and

a

brief

one

on

the

Territory

of

the

Pacific.

The

Japan

section

is

given

added

value

by

the

fact

that

the

author

was

able

to

deal

with

some

of

the

policy

aspects

of

the

early

occupation

on

the

basis

of

personal

experience.

A

minor

criticism

of

this

material

is

that

a

substantial

portion

of

it

involves

issues

of

significance

to

the

internal

development

of

Japan

under

the

occupation,

but

not

directly

related

to

its

international

aspects.

Professor

Pearn,

not

as

widely

known

in

the

United

States

as

his

colleagues,

has

written

a

brief

(about

85

pages)

but

extremely

enlightening

account

of

the

vastly

confused

situation

in

Southeastern

Asia

(including

the

Philippines)

from

August

15,

1945,

to

December

31,

1946.

He

has

achieved

great

clarity

in

dealing

with

a

mass

of

factual

material

without

falling

into

oversimplification.

This

section,

in

combination

with

Professor

Jones’

excellent

sketch

of

Japan’s

Greater

East

Asia

Co-Prosperity

Sphere,

provides

a

clear

view

of

the

manner

in

which

Western

colonialism

in

Asia

was

brought

to

the

verge

of

dissolution

in

four

short

years.

There

is

a

long

but

regrettably

unbalanced

series

of

appendices

con-

taining

principal

documents

relating

to

the

text.

Twenty-five

of

the

twenty-

nine

documents

deal

with

Japan

and

none

at

all

with

China.

The

elimina-

tion

of

some

of

the

minor

Japanese

documents

and

the

inclusion

of

even

a

few

on

China

(for

example,

the

Sino-Soviet

treaty

of

1945

and

related

agreements)

would

have

added

considerably

to

the

value

of

this

section.

Both

the

specialist

and

the

intelligent

layman

can

read

this

volume

with

great

profit.

It

is

to

be

hoped

that

the

same

excellent

team

can

be

held

together

to

do

a

similar

volume

on

Far

Eastern

international

affairs

in

subsequent

years.

JOHN

M.

MAKI.

University

of

Washington.

International

Mandates

and

Trusteeship

Systems:

A

Comparative

Study.

By

R.

N.

CHOWDHURI.

(The

Hague:

Martinus

Nijhoff.

1955.

Pp.

xvi,

328.

Guilders

16.50.)

Professor

A.

J.

P.

Tammes

notes

in

the

Foreword

that

ten

years

after

launching

the

United

Nations

&dquo;from

all

sides

attempts

are

being

made

to

strike

a

balance,&dquo;

and

the

question

is

being

asked:

&dquo;Has

the

Charter

ful-

filled

the

anticipations

and

has

it

been

a

directing

force

in

international

affairs?&dquo;

Dr.

Chowdhuri’s

book

may

have

been

intended

to

strike

a

balance

and

answer

the

pertinent

question

with

reference

to

the

Trusteeship

Sys-

tem,

which

has

been

one

of

the

principal

fields

of

United

Nations

action.