East for Pleasure: The Narrative of Eight Months' Travel in Burma, Siam, the Netherlands East Indies and French Indo-China

Abstract

EAST FOR PLEASURE: The Narrative of Eight Months' Travel in Burma, Siam, the Netherlands East Indies and French Indo-China. By Walter B. Harris. London: Edward Arnold & Co. 1929. 9x6 inches; xii + 399 pages; illustrations and map. zis This is a far more serious work than its title suggests; but that is not to say that it lacks readability, for Mr. Harris is too experienced a journalist not to be able to write entertainingly on any subject he thinks fit to choose; nor is he less ex? perienced as a traveller, for he went East, as he suggests others should go, forgetting racial prejudices and with a full measure of consideration, comprehension, and good humour. His itinerary during this eight months' trip was through Burma as far north as Bhamo, from Moulmein to Penang and Bangkok; thence, via Singapore, to Java; and later he spent several weeks cruising among the lesser-known islands of the Dutch East Indies, particularly Bali, Celebes, and the Moluccas, and finally made a tour of French Indo-China, visiting Saigon, Angkor, and Hue, the capital of Annam. He thus had the opportunity of observing the conditions under which the three great colonizing Powers in the Far East?Great Britain, Holland and France?are administering their colonial possessions. Knowing what to look for, he made the best use of his time, and the result is that rare thing, a really delightful modern book of travel. Mr. Harris varies personal experience with description, both of people and of places, and description with sagacious comments on political, educational, and economic affairs. He can be amusing and serious by turn, and the thoughtful reader will find his reflections on the awakening spirit of Nationalism among the peoples of the Far East both shrewd and stimulating. All three of the colonizing Powers are faced with problems which differ only in degree. The peoples whose wardenship they assumed are now demanding what they believe to be their due. Mr. Harris is not one of those who see the finger of the Soviet Government in such demands, and his remarks on the existing situation and the manner in which it may be met merit the attention of every one who is interested in the future of the Far East. O. R.