From the beginning the Church in SouthernAfrica has been unable to separate itself frompolitical issues and in the last twenty yearsindividual Christians and even some Churcheshave emerged as strenuous critics of the racialpolicies of the white Southern African regimes.It is appropriate that this selection should endwith two articles examining aspects of thisconfrontation. Both T. McLloughlin and theRevd D. B. Schultz concern themselves withthe Catholic Church in Rhodesia but the situa-tion they describe is probably true of all themajor Churches: that European congregationsare unwilling to be directed by their spiritualleaders on political issues. One of the reasonsUniversity of Rhodesiafor this is the obvious one that Whites are socaught up in the institutional privileges affordedthem by segregationist legislation that they areunwilling to examine its moral justice. But itcould also be argued that many whiteChristians do not believe that social moralityis an appropriate area for the church's concernsince traditionally the church has been inclinedsimply to reflect prevailing social attitudes. Inthe context of this collection, however, whitehostility to the 'political sermon' is ironic as inthe past Church has underwritten the processesof imperialism and few Whites would haveregarded that as anything other than whollyjust and appropriate.A. J. CHENNELLSPre-School Opportunity aad Sex Differences as Factors Affecting Educational Progress By S. F. W.Orhell, D. I. Freer and E. Hendrikz Salisbury, University of Rhodesia. 1973, Education OccasionalPaper No. 2, 30 pp. Rh$2,10.In the introduction Hendrikz explains thecircumstances in which three distinct papersare published together; admittedly there arecommon links but the papers are not as unifiedas the single title suggests and certainly they donot flow into, or build one upon the other.The first paper by Orbell entitled 'The earlyyears: the vital years of childhood' surveysevidence from such sources as Werner, Bern-stein, Biesheuvel, Piaget to The Times Educa-tion Supplement and United Kingdom politicalparty manifestos all of which have contributionsto make about the effect of the pre-school en-vironment on individual progress in school. Thisis a familiar social problem of modern societiesand as most of the evidence is taken fromstudies of European, American and Colouredimmigrants groups it is difficult to see how'suitable volunteer adolescents' would serveas adequate substitutes for the full-timemature 'tender loving care' of a mother parti-cularly in the local African context.The contribution by Freer, 'Sex bias as avariable in primary education', is a usefulsurvey of the work done in identifying thedifferent rates of development of boys and girls,and the influence of the sex of the teacher onthe different sexes, and it draws attention to theresulting problems in a co-educational school.In spite of the reference to these studies theauthor supports co-education but makes littlereference to any studies which bring out theiradvantages over single-sex schools.Hendrikz, in her paper, "Sex differences inscientific and mathematical competence atadolescence', makes, among other things, con-siderable reference to her own work withEuropean and Shona High School children inRhodesia. In order to make statistical resultsmore palatable to members of a public audiencethere seems to be a danger in overgeneralizingfrom data which show slight differences inparticular situations. As a result equal import-ance is attached to all data as long as it sup-ports the main argument. I wonder, for in-stance, whether African boarding-school girlsare conveniently described as having lives 'muchless circumscribed' than day-school girls be-cause they score better on spatial and concep-tual tests. As the difference is described as onlyfractional the evidence becomes very thin in-deed. I find it difficult to agree that 'a starthas been made in unravelling some of themysteries of the interaction of genetics andenvironment in the development of human abili-ties' (p.29). What I am more conscious of isthat the knot seems to get bigger and more in-volved. Whereas the debate in education lay131between innate and environmental influences,that is the predetermined and the modifiable,we now have to consider biological influenceswhich may be genetic or hormonal!The articles are well presented with support-ing references and very readable. The provoca-tive arguments of the authors in the situation ofa public lecture add a greater stimulation thanone normally finds in a university occasionalpaper.University of Natal, PietermaritzburgG. KENDALLGod's Irregular: Arthur Shearly Cripps. A Rhodesian Epic By D. V. Steere London, S. P. C. K.,1973, xv, 158 pp. £2,50.Paget of Rhodesia, A Memoir of Edward, 5th Bishop of Mashonaland By G. Gibbon Bulawayo,Books of Rhodesia, 1973, 172 pp. RhS5,3O.The biographies of Southern African liberalsmake depressing reading for they are invariablystories of lost causes. As our politics movefurther from compromise and as the whiteelites fortify themselves against any possibilityof peaceful change, the liberal tradition fromJohn Philip to Alan Paton seems always tohave been simplistic in its analysis and naivein its optimism.Many of the voices of that tradition were(and indeed still are) churchmen, but eventhese can be seen as eccentric within their ownecclesiastical establishments. Nor is this un-expected for the Church in Southern Africahas more often reflected the racial conventionsof our society than has that society exemplifiedthe gospel. The Anglican church has in parti-cular always been torn between its roleas a sort of unofficially established church ofthe ruling group and its duty, which a few ofits members have seen as paramount, of pro-testing against legislation and customs thatcannot be accepted as Christian.The two extremes of Anglicanism in Rho-desia are represented in the careers of ArthurShearly Cripps and Bishop Paget. Cripps fromthe beginning of his long life in Africa identi-fied with the African cause and dragged outthe last years of his life, blind, bewildered bythe turn of events around him, and living,perversely enough, in poverty. Paget retiredfrom Rhodesia to Natal, a successful careerchurchmen, honoured by the Whites whosecomplacency in their own righteousness he haddone very little to disturb.The backgrounds of the two men were notdissimilar. The families of both were firmlyrooted in the Victorian professional classes andboth were public school and Oxford men. ButCripps was a scholar who at Oxford producedsome conventionally effete poetry, while Pagetrepresented muscular Christianity and with hisgood looks and mediocre intellect suggests theideal Anglican priest that recurs so often inEdwardian novels. Their initial response toRhodesia was also predictably different. Earlyon in his life in Rhodesia Cripps decided thatthe Anglican church had sold out to the in-terests of the Chartered Company and thispolite alliance which he believed continuedwith Responsible Government was the objectof bitter satire. In his novel Bay-Tree Country,a settler who has flourished like the green bay-tree of his title and who has been notoriousfor his harshness to Africans has bishop andarchdeacon officiating at his funeral, betweenthem providing an 'Anglican train-de-luxe' tosend him on his way. It is Bishop Beaven,Paget's predecessor, whom Cripps is attackinghere but Paget would undoubtedly have playedhis part at a fashionable Rhodesian funeralwith spirit.From the beginning both Beaven and Pagetwere quick to defend the settlers against attacksfrom England. In a letter to The Times in 1920,Beaven has spoken of the kindness with whichAfricans were treated by Whites and in anotherwidely reported speech had claimed they 'weredealt with in that spirit of even handed justicefor which the flag of Britain stands'. Duringthe depression Paget appealed for more priests132