Frank N. Trager

Asia and Africa Arnold C. Brackman. Southeast Asia's Second Front: The Power Struggle in the Malay Archipelago. Pp. xv, 341. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966.

press, and Walling’s edition of Bright’s diary. On this grounding of primary source material Ausubel constructs his narrative with the special purpose of calling into question the conveniently simple labels commonly applied to Bright-pacifist, republican, persistent advocate of franchise reform, and implacable foe of protection and all forms of government intervention. Bright’s attitude towards the American Civil War, his views on monarchy, his opinions concerning the various proposals for electoral reform, and his passionate advocacy of direct government action in Ireland show the inadequacy or inaccuracy of these tags. In spite of his genius for convincing himself and others that the cure for England’s-or the world’s-ills lay in this or that simple device, Bright was too complex a man and the great questions he concerned himself with were too varied-so this book makes plain-to permit of such simple classifications. In setting these matters straight and in making his way through Bright’s long life, Ausubel is always readable and clear. He has a remarkable capacity for compressing much into little space. But in this compression and brevity there lies the source of the book’s chief faults. In spite of the massive research behind it and the care with which it is written, it is a disappointing book. No

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Critically significant in any understanding of the responses of Southern Asia to external propagandas, to politi cal pressures, is the fact of the newly won independence (since World War II) of most of the nations of this area. Western governments and Western peoples have not as yet given either the nationalist struggles or the independence of the area suffi cient weight in their deliberations and, perhaps even more, in their fundamental attitudes about the area. India and Burma will always be found, both at home and abroad, ranged against the theory and practice of imperialism. They are both engaged in major efforts to upgrade their economies through large-scale economic development programs for which they have been will ing to accept aid without strings from any quarter. India and Burma have set themselves a great task, but one which can lead to victory over the many problems they face, if we in the United States and in the West would make a supreme effort to understand these countries within their own frame of reference and supply them, without strings, with the needed goods and services. Then it could be predicted that India and Burma and, in like fashion, the other nations of Southern Asia, would strongly undergird and defend that arc of free Asia from the Pamirs to the Pacific-newly come on independence and freedom.