pay is by no means all gross profit, for garden-plots are perforce neglected and boot repairing must be put out and paid for. Suppose his subsidiary industry be worth five shillings per week to the man-and this is a low estimate―he has to put in five shillingsworth of overtime each week on this count alone that his budget may be normal. Next, if we consider that the increased cost of food and fuel be no more than fifteen per cent., and if, still keeping our estimate very low, of his normal wage sixty per cent. is absorbed by these two items, then nine per cent. must be added to that normal wage to make up for this increased cost of living. Now what is the position of the man whose normal rate is twenty-five shillings? He requires an additional five shillings plus nine per cent. on twenty-five shillings-in all an increase of seven shillings and threepence each week. How much overtime does this mean? If he is in Government employ and puts in three hours extra a day for each of four days, he earns eight shillings and fourpence as overtime pay-thus making one and a penny gross profit by overtime. And even the anti-labour Press admits that labourers on twenty-five shillings a week are able to make very little extra. Supposing he works but two and a half hours extra on four nights, his weekly earnings will be sixpence less than in times of peace. On the other hand, should he work all day on Sunday, he will earn nine shillings at one fell swoop, for he receives double pay for that day-a surplus of one shilling and ninepence for the loss of his day of rest.

It is the knowledge of these facts which enables one to say that the workers generally are feeling the strain of additional work and are labouring under a sense of increased injustice. Of the 10,000 strikers on the Clyde the great majority have had no increase of pay for seventeen years, the increment then having been one halfpenny per hour; and, in simple justice to them, some stress should be laid on the fact that their demand for the additional twopence was formulated and presented before there was any prospect of war. Their subsequent refusal to work overtime pending a settlement is hardly to be wondered at when one reflects that, whereas an employer would deem it disgraceful to delay his reply to a business enquiry addressed to him from without his Vol. 223.-No. 443.

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own works for longer than a week, such an enquiry coming from within his establishment may be indefinitely shelved. Yet a strike in war time and against the advice of Union officials clearly has its bad points.

Of the 8000 Liverpool carters who handed in strike notices recently not much need be said, for they have displayed both courage and patience by returning to work in so short a time. Of the London Shipowners who declined to meet Dockers' representatives nothing need be said.

Concerning the Committee appointed to report upon production in engineering and shipbuilding establishments, there has been much public talk anent the absence of Union officials from such a body; and it is not without interest to note that a very great deal is being said privately, and quite unofficially, with reference to the fact that there are no 'Men without handles to their names on the job.'

As regards the immediate present, the question of strikes may perhaps be summed up in this way. The workers have absolutely no idea of endangering the Empire or of exposing our troops to added risks. Their attention is concentrated on the notion that a state of war is being made the excuse for further exploiting them. Requests made before the war are still undealt with, while the cost of living has been much increased. Protest has been unavailing, hence the strikes-unfortunately in war time. The suggestion that our Government should adopt yet another German method and mobilise strikers overlooks the fact that a large majority of our strikers have already volunteered for active service and been told that they would be of more use to their country by remaining at work. A proposal which seems far more sound is that due to the Hon. William Pember Reeves, who suggests that we should adopt the Australian system of arbitration, at least for the period of the war. If this be done the prospects of successful working will certainly not be made more remote by the inclusion on the arbitration boards of men who understand both the work and the workmen.

A SKILLED LABOURER.

Art. 11.-INDIAN ART.

1. Indian Sculpture and Painting. By E. B. Havell. London: Murray, 1908.

2. The Ideals of Indian Art. By E. B. Havell. London : Murray, 1914.

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3. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon. Vincent A. Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. 4. Selected Examples of Indian Art. By A. K. Coomaraswamy. London: Quaritch, 1910.

5. Indian Drawings. Two Parts. By A. K. Coomaraswamy. London: India Society, 1910 and 1912.

6. The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon. By Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. London: Foulis, 1913.

7. Eleven Plates of Indian Sculpture, chiefly in English Collections. Edited by E. B. Havell. London: Probsthain, 1914.

WITH the opening of the 20th century the art of Europe finds itself in strange condition. It is full of selfquestioning, full of perplexity. It feels the desire to go forward, but is not sure of its direction. The underlying causes of this condition are not difficult to trace. It has been for centuries an accepted theory that art consists of an imitation of nature. It is true that the great artists have always understood that their fundamental business was design; but the belief that the representative side of art is its essential function has influenced the practice of all artists; and the signal success of science has also, consciously or unconsciously, coloured the minds of all of us, so that the zest of discovery and exploration has been for art too a commanding inspiration. Like men of science, artists have put their life's effort into the wrestle with nature. A perpetual reference to nature, a close touch with the inexhaustible variety of natural form, colour, and movement, makes for health and vigour in art; but with the true artist the problems of representing these are subordinated to the fundamental problem of design. And design need not be concerned, though in ripe and great art it always is concerned, with nature. After long labour and struggle, aided by scientific study of anatomy, perspective, and

atmospheric effect, culminating, with the last impressionists, in an almost feverish effort to transfer to canvas the vibration and splendour of sunlight, there has been a sudden recoil. How can we go forward on these lines? There seems nothing left to be done. Various attempts are being made under sounding or mysterious names to organise a forward movement. But like those advertised medicines for a score of diseases at once which are found, when analysed, to contain nothing but some well-tried ordinary drug, these movements only disguise something very simple-a return to design. A sure instinct is driving us back from a conception of art as specialised not merely in painting but in a special kind of painting, to a conception which relates together everything designed by human workmanship. At the moment this instinct forces up, with the elements of self-questioning discontent and rebellion, a desire to get back to the beginning. A kind of disgust with the drawing-room atmosphere of complacency which has long reigned in art leads to a weariness of the authority of accepted classics. And so, turning away from Europe, eyes are turned to the art of other and strange lands.

When we turn from the art of Europe, it is of course with the art of Asia that we are first confronted. It is truly amazing, considering our relations with the East, that the art of Asia has for so long a time remained unknown in Europe. The products of the bazaars have been known; the so-called industrial arts of the East have been long appreciated. But the greater arts of the continent, those in which its ideals have been enshrined and expressed, have been till quite recent years wholly neglected. And it must seem a singular thing that, while India was the first of the great Oriental lands to come into close contact with Europe, its art is the last to have been recognised. Japan was an unknown country till after the middle of the last century; yet it was Japanese art which first received the serious recognition of European connoisseurs. Even in the case of Japan, the grandeur of its early sculpture and the beauty of its classic painting remained for years unsuspected. When this rich world opened out, it was seen at once how much it derived from the genius and inspiring example of China; and we realised that, while for so long we had been

collecting Chinese porcelains, we had totally ignored the art of which the porcelains were merely a reflection, the splendid painting and sculpture of the classic epochs. But China again is not to be understood without reference to India, and to the Buddhist religion by which Chinese art was so powerfully affected; and, if we are to study the art of China, we must also study the art of India.

The actual study of Asiatic art, however, has not been pursued on these general lines, since it has necessarily been undertaken chiefly by specialists, who have approached the study each from his own point of view; and, while the initiation of the public has followed the sequence just indicated, the discovery and the championship of the art of India have been due to scholars steeped in Indian lore and Indian atmosphere.

Before Mr Havell wrote, it was the fashion to deny that India had produced any 'fine' art at all. That fashion is now exploded. Mr Havell has done a real service by his championship of Indian sculpture, painting, and architecture. He has shown that India possesses a creative art animated by its own ideals, and he has interpreted those ideals with sympathy and eloquence. He has made the English public, so ignorant of the real India and its achievements, and so little enlightened by the returning Anglo-Indians, acquainted with an art of which it had no conjecture. The impetuosity of his attack on ignorance and prejudice, and the very excesses of his zeal, have probably been more effective than a more critical and judicious treatment of his subject. For it must be confessed that Mr Havell's enthusiasm often outruns his judgment. Former writers had been prone to attribute anything they found of merit in Indian art to some foreign influence; especially to that of Greece. Greek influences exist in Indian art; they are notably strong in the Buddhist sculpture of Gandhara, just as Persian influence is strong in the Mogul school of painting. But these 'influences' are always being exaggerated by archeologists and historians of art. Every great art absorbs elements from without, and the most original artists are generally those who have borrowed most. The sole question to be considered is what use has been made of the borrowed material. Has it been truly absorbed into the creative energies of the