British accountants have made an important contribution to the Commonwealth, in recent years, as a result of the Labor Party's plan to nationalize 20% of the economy. This section included the Bank of England and seven major industries-civil aviation, cables and wireless, coal, electricity, gas, cotton and transportation. In each of the fields named, public corporations were set up to operate the enterprises concerned in the national interest. Parliament placed the entire responsibility for operation of the coal industry upon the National Coal Board with no reference to divisions or areas, but area boards were appointed in the gas and electricity industries and in the transport field a number of executives were appointed to serve as the Transport Commission's agents. Compensation was not on a uniform basis. For the Bank of England and Cables and Wireless PLC, for instance, it was established on the basis of net maintainable revenue; for railways, air transport and electricity it was set on stock exchange quotations at stated dates and for collieries, on a global amount fixed by a tribunal.

The approach to courses for all fields of accounting, public, private, cost, tax and governmental, represents something of a paradox today. Viewed by some as too practical for admission to the cultural-centered liberal arts curriculum, by others as a field of graduate study, these courses on many campuses have been sustained largely by the intellectual prowess of faculties and the ever-increasing demand of students for practical training in areas of employment arising from the war and post-war economics. Even the most cursory glance at recent college catalogues reveals that accounting courses appear under a variety of departments, most frequently under business administration or social science, but sometimes correlated with instruction in mathematics, statistics or secretarial studies, and less frequently as part of the pre-engineering or pre-law curriculum. Teachers of all phases of accountancy in liberal arts colleges, and indeed in other institutions of higher learning, have made a valiant, if at times a somewhat ineffectual, effort to train students to cope with the rapidly shifting economic climate, and to relate the complex technical knowledge of this age to human progress.

Reviews the book "The Accounting Mission," by F. Sewell Bray.

Reviews three books on accounting. "Lord Plender: Some Writings and Speeches," edited by Lady Plender; "Random Reminiscences," by Arthur Cutforth; "Case Lore or Leaves From the Notebook of a Professional Accountant," by Ernest Evan Spicer.