Asia’s Population Problems edited by S. Chandrasekar. London: George Allen & Unwin, Limited. Pp.311. 45 shillings (U.K.)

Editors of “readers” (collections of articles focussing on a particular topic) usually tread lightly on the hands of contributors once they have been selected, but S. Chandrasekar’s imprint is well marked in this book which contains studies of Seven Asian countries, Australia, an overview of Asia as a whole and two papers on Australia’s immigration policy. Chandrasekar’s editorship is evident in two ways which make this a unique and valuable collection of articles. All too often, collections of articles are strung together in a loose way by an often unbounded general theme. The articles are, therefore, uneven, dealing solely with a particular scholar’s particular academic interest. This is useful, of course, in some cases, but in a “reader”, designed to deal with Asia’s population problems, the purpose is better served by a well-structured presentation of discussions having a similar focus.