BY AIR TO SINGAPORE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 6

BY AIR TO SINGAPORE

In 21 days' absence from Sydney recently Frank Clune travelled 10,000 miles, and his experiences and observations were great and varied enough to require a substantial book for their description. It was no extraordinary feat of speed, for he travelled by the ordinary air-line, calling at Brisbane, Gladstone, Townsville, Karumba, Groote Eylandt, Darwin, Koepang, Bima, Surabaya, Batavia and Singapore. Some of these names mean little or nothing to us, but Mr. Clune makes them real. He has an unconventional approach to men and places and an immense gusto, which the reader comes to share. It's a pity he has not learned the art of writing half as well as he has learned the art of travelling.

Of much topical interest are Mr. Clune's descriptions of the defence works and preparations which he was specially privileged to see in the Netherlands East Indies. In Java he learned there are 10,000 munition workers. At the Surabaya naval base he saw, besides much else, airraid shelters being erected for 20,000 employees, a gas instruction school and elaborate precautions against attack by parachute troops.

Up-to-the minute observations, interspersed with bits of history, odd legends and thumb-nail sketches of notable people, make this a book to be welcomed by those, the majority who know little of the lands and the peoples lying to the north of Australia. Most people will finish it with a deep impression of the astonishing changes which are being brought about every day by air travel. " All Aboard for Singapore." By Frank Clune. (Angus and Robertson). * * * * THE VATICAN IX WARTIME It goes without saying that a war in which almost the whole of Europe is concerned must present a harrowing problem to the Pope. How difficult and how harrowing this can be is shown in "Benedict XV., The Pope Of Peace" (Gifford), Toy the Rev. Henry E. G. Rope. The problem of Benedict XV. was comprised in the four years' war from 1914 to 1918. On both sides were fighting millions of men who recognised the Papal authority. The Pope could not appear as a partisan. He could neither justifv nor denounce, as could the politician. He could state publicly the principles of the Catholic faith; he could make an intercession for peace as he did in 1917. How Benedict XV. interpreted his role is shown by Father Rope j in this sympathetic study, and by implication light is thrown on the position of the Vatican to-day.