Book Reviews and Notices : The Adaptable Commonwealth. By F. H. SOWARD. (London and New York: Royal Institute of International Affairs. 1950. Pp. 62. 50c.)

• Published date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400134
• Author: Daniel S. McHargue
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

155

the

election

of

the

Chamber

of

Deputies

(1948)

for

Italy,

and

the

rules

regarding

the

internal

business

of

the

government

of

France

(1947),

are

but

two

examples

of

new

source

materials

appearing

in

this

book.

The

section

dealing

with

the

USSR

is

quite

complete.

Beginning

with

the

Declaration

of

the

Rights

of

the

People

of

Russia

(November,

1919),

the

sources

are

intelligently

selected.

It

is

regretted

that

space

did

not

permit

a

more

extensive

presentation

of

some

of

the

documents.

The

Program

of

the

All-Russian

Communist

Party,

adopted

at

the

Eighth

Congress,

March

18-23,

1919,

leaves

out

some

important

paragraphs,

notably

those

dealing

with

public

education,

religion,

public

health,

and

housing.

A

student

might

get

a

better

picture

of

the

Soviet

philosophy

if

some

of

these

paragraphs

had

been

included.

A

valuable

contribution

of

the

editors

is

the

inclusion

of

charts

of

recent

elections

in

each

of

the

five

countries.

Especially

important

are

the

table

of

elections

for

England

from

1929

through

1950

and

the

chart

on

the

growth

and

change

of

the

Communist

Party

from

1905

through

1946.

The

value

of

this

source

book

would,

no

doubt,

be

greatly

enhanced

if

there

were

more

explanatory

notes.

Beginning

students

need

to

have

the

sources

explained

before

they

read

the

officials

texts.

Then,

too,

omissions

should

be

explained.

There

is

no

index

to

the

volume,

though

a

detailed

Table

of

Contents

largely

makes

up

for

this

deficiency.

San

Jose

State

College.

GEORGE

G.

BRUNTZ.

The

Adaptable

Commonwealth.

By

F.

H.

SOWARD.

(London

and

New

York:

Royal

Institute

of

International

Affairs.

1950.

Pp.

62.

50c.)

This

brief

report

summarizes

the

discussions

of

the

fourth

unofficial

Commonwealth

Relations

Conference

held

during

September,

1949,

at

Bigwin

Inn,

Ontario,

Canada.

Prepared

by

Professor

Soward,

the

con-

ference

Recorder,

it

will

be

followed

by

his

full

report

(Oxford

Univer,

sity

Press,

Toronto).

In

the

introduction,

Professor

Mansergh

notes

that

the

purpose

of

the

summary &dquo;...

is

to

make

available

quickly

in

concise

form

some

of

the

more

significant

trends

in

Commonwealth

thinking

that

emerged

from

the

discussions

at

Bigwin.&dquo;

Mr.

Soward

has

succeeded

admirably

in

ac-

complishing

that

purpose.

The

seventy

politicians,

professors,

publicists,

economists,

strategists,

and

businessmen

who

met

at

Bigwin

represented

a

cross

section

of

informed

opinion

from

the

United

Kingdom,

Canada,

Australia,

New

Zealand,

South

Africa,

India,

Pakistan,

Ceylon,

and

Eire.

Judging

from

the

pages

allotted

to

the

seven

subject

headings

employed

by

the

Recorder,

their