In Central Asia Books of the Week NEWS FROM TARTARY. By PETER FLEMING. Cape. 12s. 6d. About this time last year the travel- loving world was perturbed by a rumour that Mr. Peter Fleming was missing some- where in Central Asia, between Pcking and Kashgar, for it was some six months since there had been word of that intrepid traveller. Anxiety was presently allayed by a wireless message from Kashgar announcing his safe arrival well within (as he pointed out) the limits of his own time schedule. This book tclls in detail the difficulties and delays that beset his march, and scrupulously minimizes the dangers and 'hardships of that memorable 3,500-mile journey. The object of the journey was to ascer- tain what exactly was taking place in the remote and disturbed province of Sinkiang, or Chinese Turkestan. This adventure was fraught with political as well as physical difficulty. The pro- vincial government under General Sheng had been challenged by a rebellion of Turkis and Tungans who had come within an ace of capturing the capital of Urumchi, and had only been saved by the intervention of Soviet troops unblushingly trespassing in Chinese territory. General Sheng had seized power in Sinkiang in 1933 and blackmailed the distant Nanking Govcrnment into confirming him as Governor. The so-called "rebels" con- tended with some justice that their loyalty to Nanking inspired resistance to the usurper. Mechanized warfare, however, proved too much for primitive valour and by 1934 the Tungans had withdrawn to the line of green oases that mark the Tarim Basin, south of the great desert of the Takla Makan. It was obvious that neither the Russian nor the Chinese Government would welcome a Correspondent of Thze Tin7es in Sinkiang. Mr. Fleming thereupon hit upon the daring expedient of unobtru- sively approaching his objective across country from Peking, keeping to an un- frequented and unrecognized route along the south of the great salt lake, the Koko Nor, and of the Tsaidam marsh and enter- ing the forbidden land at Cherchen in the Tarim Basin, in the faith that the Tungans would prove more hospitable to a " heavily under-passported " Press representative (if his calling should become known). His enterprise was deservedly successful, and he has brought back news as authentic as any European could hope to glean. It would have taken prolonged residence and a greater command of Chinese, Russian and Turki than he lays claim to, to dis- entangle the whole skein of Sinkiang poli- tics, but he got into touch with reliable persons possessing first-hand information which this book puts on record. Sinkiang is still a Chinese province under General Sheng, whose writ now runs- more or less-over four-fifths of the country: over all, in fact, but the Tungan- held oases. But Sheng is no more than a puppet in Russian hands; every depart- ment of the civil government, every regi- ment of the army, is equipped with a Russian " adviser"; everv key position in the State is held by a Soviet agent; " the province is in fact run from Moscow." Moreover, " the Russians have opened a military academy and an aviation school at Urumchi . . . and the chief instru- ment of internal policy is a powerful force of secret police, modelled on the GPU, and answering for its actions to none of the recognized authorities." The U.S.S.R. is wise enough to hasten slowly; neither Communism nor Soviet- ization is being unduly pressed, but some hundreds of the children of officials are annually sent to be educated, free of charge, in Tashkent, thus providing their Soviet benefac- tors w,ith an ideological hold on the rising generation in Sinkiang, and (scarcely less valuable) with hostages against the docilc behaviour of their parents, the officials. So much for Mlr. Fleming's news. To many readers the main charm of this book will be the story of the journey itself. The author's "'honest intention" results in a style vivid and convincing beyond the ordinary, and leaves in the mind a panorama of the route which is hand- somely supplemented by admirable photo- graphs. Most delightful of all are the unforgettable word-portraits of the gallant "Kini" and of the manv friends who helped the adventurers on their way: from the three old men in Peking, to whom they indirectly owed their immunity from typhus, the merchant Lu, the servant Li, the fiithful ponies and camels, to Boro- dishin " riding back along the way we had come, hunched . on his camel, eternally sucking at his long pipe, his sad loyal eyes staring across the empty lands before him." IN CENTRAL ASIA MR. PETER FLEMING'S TRAVELS