GLIMPSES OF THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 24 March 1925, Page 8

GLIMPSES OF THE EAST

ON TOUR WITH SIR HARRY LAUDER AN INTERESTING LETTER Writing from Calcutta Mr Leo du Chateau, manager for Sir Harry Lauder, says:— “Imagine giving 22 shows at _lss. top price to packed business in any other city with a population of 25,000 (the white population of Calcutta). Our send-off on January 10 was wonderful, and a fitting termination to a brilliant season. We had the Viceroy and party, the Governor cf Bengal and party, Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught, .he Rear-Admiral and- officers of the Chatham and other notabilities. We left Calcutta at 9 a.m. on January 11, and travelled one way for 82 miles through and over mud banks, with dirty yellow water churning up all round us, and most monotonous scenery on either side of the Hoogly (near enough to “ugly” to satisfy the verities), until we came to the bar, and . then for a breath of ozone and aromatic Burmah. We arrived in the Irrawady at 6 p.m. on January 13, and saw the most beautiful sunset one could imagine. Then for the wharf and the hurly burly of disembarkation with thousands of jibbering natives bustling for backsheesh -This is the land of backsheesh and the betel nut. Last night we opened to capacity, with the Governor, Sir Harrow Butler, and party occupying four boxes. Here we find a mixture of the breeds from the islands and the real Far East, with the Mongolian type most in evidence. I went to a Chinese palace yesterday, quaintly beautiful beyond description. Tho Golden Pagoda (Buddhists’ temple) glistens in the sunlight, and the wondrous palaces, the lakes, and the gorgeos palms and other tropic growths, all away from the filth and stench, of the city, are factors of entrancing beauty. Burmah is called the Garden Citv of the Middle East, and is so. “We left the city of pagodas and idolaters, Rangoon, with flying colours after playing to packed business for seven nights and one matinee. Down to Penang and Kuala Lumpur, in the; Straits Settlement. It is remarkable to me how little Penang and Kuala Lumpur are spoken of, and really they are two of the most delightful spots one could ini sgine on God’s green earth, positively the two most placid and picturesque small towns we have visited since we touched the East. - Personally, I think Lahore and Lucknow the' two beauty towns of India, and Bombay the finest city. Penang, as you know, is an island, with the South Pacific on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. The essentially Eastern little city is built practically on the water front, with a range of hills about 2900 ft. high covered with coconut and banana palms and other native foliage, as a background—this is the aspect from the Indian Ocean side. One can go right round it in about four hours in a car. The gardens and the hill railway are really wonderful. One sees no horses or cattle-drawn vehicles here, only motor cars and rickshaws. Thus, the roads, all macadamised, are like glass and shimmer like waterways from a distance in the sun. A most glorious spot for a holiday. Tho population is mostly Malay-Chinese. “By boat to K.L. (as Kuala Lumpur is called) the splendid little Straits steamer, the Ellenga, threading her way through still blue water and almost grazing some of the “Islandettes.” 'Av, but et’s bonny,’ as Lauder exclaimed. After a yarn and a toddy or two with the captain—an Ahcklander, by the way, Captain _Mci aajourn to the main deck and for the first time for months we gaze on the Southern Cross in a new moon-lit skv. Next morning at daylight we reach Port Swettenham and into cars for Kuala Lumpur, about 28 miles distant. The road is macadamised all the way and we pass through 'the true atmosphere of the . Malay Peninsula. Kuala Lumpur, which fewpeople know is on the map, has a magnificent Town Hall and other public buildings and several swell hotels, the station hotel, under Government control, comparing mere than favourably with most hotels anywhere, and the railway station itself—well, I know nothing in New Zealand to touch it. “The lay-out of all the cities in the East denotes much artistic ( ore J thought. The streets are all lined with trees with rest-grounds, picturesque reserves and flower plots in profusion. For peace and picturesque beauty commend me to Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Lahore, of all the places I have seen in the Middle East. Singapore is just a plain workaday seaport town, where during its 125. years more time has been devoted to its commercial potentialities rather than to its beauty.” *