SOUTH OF TOKYO

Caldwell's scattered, unconnected findings amount- if anything-to a report on how extensive and calculated is Communist influence, how it may be combated, and what democratic forces are at work in the areas to which the title refers- areas such as Hong Kong, Formosa, Cambodia, Vietnam north and south, Indonesia, Borneo. The report tells the ""inside story"" of students who go to Red China with promises of a full life and thorough education- only to live under subhuman conditions. Caldwell remarks on the great number of Ph.D's among the Nationalist leaders, and the stamping out of disease on Formosa. The Communists, he finds, are spending millions to gain a favorable press in Southeast Asia- and he fumes that America takes no measures against them. In this hedgehopping fashion, the book speeds along- superficially informative, varied, and seldom resting upon solid, pertinent facts. It may confirm opinions or mark a wider awareness of this problem, but it will not organize concepts or deepen understanding.