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FOOTNOTES * As most stockholders and readers of financial pages know, Lewis Gilbert frequently attends the annual meetings of the many companies in which he owns stock: his intense concern for his own and other shareholders' interests has made him a cogent questioner of management on such occasions. This year at the General Motors Corporation annual meeting he engaged in a conversational exchange with Chairman Frederic J. Donner and Executive Office partner John Schumann, who is in charge of our world-wide services to GM. A condensation of their remarks is reprinted below, because it centers upon constructive services—a subject close to all our hearts (and workdays). Mr. Gilbert quoted from a letter to Fortune magazine by Father J. E. Cant-well of St. Louis University: "Older auditors were not content to make the income balance the outgo. They always added their observations on the condition of the business, and made recommendations as to what they thought ought to be done about it. This work was considered an important part of the audit . . ." If this is not being done today, "the profession," Father Cant-well wrote, "should be revised backward to the old style." "As far as General Motors is concerned," Mr. Gilbert said, "I should like to hear from my good friend, the auditor, as to his comments on Father- Can twell's observation." Mr. Donner said he would like first comment. "It happens that I was breaking my business teeth in auditing about forty-three years ago . . . (As) an older auditor today, at least a renegade auditor . . . I don't think that forty-some years ago they did as well what I would call the analytical side of auditing . . . advising management whether there were trends, situations... that needed consideration." Mr. Donner noted that General Motors had always "looked on our auditors as being equally concerned with giving us advice as they are merely telling us the condition of the accounts." He invited Mr. Schumann to comment. "We consider it our responsibility," Mr. Schumann said, "not merely to do the things that Father Cantwell was talking of, but . . . to render the most constructive service we can." * Contributions are still coming in to the University of Illinois Foundation to finance a Weldon Powell Professorship in Accountancy at the University. They have been received from hundreds of Weldon's partners and associates at H&S, DPH&S (Canada), other firms, and from his countless friends throughout the profession. When plans for the professorship were announced last winter, the Haskins & Sells Foundation undertook to grant an amount at least matching all other contributions. Contributions and their matching grant totalled more than $100,000 at time of publication of this issue. * We hope the following book review will be the first of many to come. All members of H&S families are invited to share their non-technical reading with the rest of the Firm in this way. Marion B. Medich, who contributed this review, is a principal in our San Juan Office. He went there in ig6$ from Cleveland, where he joined the staff in 19SQ. He appeared on the program at the 1963 Principals' Meeting. THE LUTE PLAYER by NORAH LOFTS (Published in paper back by Bantam Books 1964) The tragedy of Richard I and the 3rd Crusade is mainly told by a lute player in this historical novel by Norah Lofts. This Crusade (1189-1199), although aborted at the walls of Jerusalem, was a grand affair planned by the three most powerful rulers in Christendom, Richard the Lion Hearted, Philip of France, and Frederick Barbossa, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The gallant encounters between Richard and Sala-din, ruler of Egypt and leader of the Moslem forces, provided the romance to inspire the countless chronicles of these ancient struggles. But it is not these adventures with which the author is concerned. As in her other novels, Miss Lofts portrays vivid characters. Her portrayal of Richard, founded upon four years' research, carries the force of understanding, albeit told subtly by third parties. The legendary king is revealed as a man whose character contained inconsistencies common in most men, but curiously fascinating when found in heroic figures. Although surprisingly modern, these "flaws" are not exaggerated by the author, and this makes her portrayal so much more realistic. Since Miss Lofts is not, thankfully, a practitioner of the clinical approach to character study, much is said by circumstances themselves, such as Richard's strange courtship and marriage to Berengaria, Princess of Navarre. In most instances this leaves room for the reader to interpret the actions of the characters in the light of his own knowledge, environment, or intuition. The author wastes no time with the obvious. That Richard was among other things courageous, magnanimous, and possessed of rare leadership qualities is almost incidentally shown throughout the story. It is precisely the flashes of opposite characteristics that make the portrayal realistic. Since many epic events become so in retrospect, and virtues and faults tend to magnify in retelling, the story is particularly interesting because it does not orient events to their historical contexts and the ingredients of character are described in a simple way that makes them both ordinary and timeless. Miss Lofts' etchings of secondary characters—the lute player, Richard's mother and his wife, an abbot, a deformed princess, common soldiers, and sundry knights, are equally memorable. The only deficiency in this work is the lack of a more complete picture of the chivalrous Saladin. Although his kingdom was threatened by conspiracies which could succeed only in his absence, Richard's sole 18