University Daily Kansan Wednesday. March 10, 1954
BOOKS: Japanese May Seek Revenge
Lt. Col. Oreste Pinto knows no fear. Some time ago, in a book derived from his experiences as an intelligence officer during the second World War, he stated flatly that he held a poor opinion of women as spies. Whereupon all hell broke loose. From female readers the world over came letters of fury, outrage and denunciation.
One might suppose that he had learned a lesson. But no. In his Friend or Foe? (Putnam) he has done it again. "I hold a very poor opinion," he remarks, "of women as spies." It is to be observed that the notes on the book jacket about the author omit his address.
If Colonel Pinto in a single respect speaks without chivalry, he speaks without doubt with authority. He engaged in intelligence work for 34 years and during the war against Germany he was chief examiner of the Royal Victoria Patriotic School in England. His duty was to interrogate refugees from the occupied countries across the channel, to decide which of them was friend and which foe, and furnish proof of it. His book is an account of a half-dozen or so of the most unusual and baffling cases he encountered.
There is the story of the girl who
was the embodiment of the fictional "Olga the beautiful spy." She was well born, rich, beautiful, fascinating to men, intelligent, poised fearless. She was a double-agent in the employ of both the Germans and the Allies. To which she loyal? The author admits she was one of the most difficult riddles he ever had to solve . . .
Eric Linklater, a Scot best known for humor and fantasy, turns to drama and terror for The House of Gair (Harcourt Brace)—a story of creeping evil that uses all of the dark tools of the "Gothic" novelist except the eldest visitor.
Hazeldon Crome, tenant of the hideous Victorian house on the Highland moor of Gair, is a true villain rather than one of the heroes-in-reverse of the modern thriller. The spidery old man boasts of rather than confesses the achievements of a career begun with blackmail and extended through art forgery to outright swindling.
Stephen Coryat, who first stumbled on the house of Gair by accident, soon finds himself involved in its affairs so deeply that he has good reason to fear both for his life
Editor
The lightly-written news article, "Ash Wednesday Begins Traditional Lent Period," did a great injustice to the Christian Church and to those who observe the Lenten period.
The Daily Kansan
Letters
Lent is not primarily a time for one "to drop bad habits or take on a good one;" Lent is a time for Christians everywhere to spend more time in meditation and prayer. Those who wish to do this find it profitable to drop unnecessary activities or time-consuming habits. Nor is it a time when one doesn't do things simply to save money. Many churches take a special Easter offering which represents the monetary sacrifices made during the Lenten season.
In the early Christian Church Lent was first a time of fasting and praying as an observance of the time when Christ was in the tomb. Later it was extended to include its present length.
Like all good things, Lent has been abused by those who do not know or care to know the significance it assumes in the history of the Christian Church. It is not, however, a season to be classified as a "worthwhile tradition of unknown origin."
Patricia Hafer graduate student
and his liberty when a final upsurge of violence brings the book to its crashing climax.
A present-day author attacking a theme like this has to tread carefully to avoid stepping over the line that divides tragedy from comedy. Linklater's footwork is faultless, and his book, though it may be regarded as somewhat of a curiosity, must be recognized as a skillful achievement . . .
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Daily Hansan
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An American psychoanalyst, who subjected the Japanese people to mass analysis after their World War II defeat, warns that they are likely to seek revenge for Hiroshima.
Some of the wheels in Washington can't wait till the day that American troops are shipped over to IndoChina to slug it out with the Reds in the rice paddies and jungles. Oh well, everybody knows this apparently is the only way to keep up prosperity.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"I'll take this course if this classroom has a fire escape."
Dr. James Clark Moloney gives this warning in Understanding the Japanese Mind, (Philosophical Library).
The work is not light reading; it is a study for professionals. It finds the Japanese nature fashioned by restrictive customs that remain unchanged, war or no war, and that these could again lead to belligerency.
The author calls the opening of Japan to the West a century ago by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, of the U.S. Navy, an act of aggression. He regards U. S. Consul Townsend Harris, who followed Perry shortly as having been an imperialist who threatened and coerced the Shogun. He even accuses the Americans of having deceived the Japanese in the acquisition of Hawaii.
These acts, he argues, left a bold imprint upon the Japanese mind and led to the 1941 attack upon Pearl Harbor.
This is an old one but we'll throw it in anyhow. "We always called a spade a spade until we hit our foot with one the other day."
Those who attended the auto show in K.C. last weekend reported the new models are out of this world. So are the prices.