A FOREIGNER IN ENGLAND

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1925, Page 17

A FOREIGNER IN ENGLAND

"Letters I'rom'■-■England.": By Karel ■'. .Capek."-/London-: Geoffrey "-Bles.•■■■:•-'-•- ---' Karel Capek's clever insect play, a delightful satire of- contemporary social life, was a good introduction to him on his recent visit to -England and Scotland. He went everywhere arid saw many things that would'"be of special'interest to an observant foreigner. He made an excursion into Wales, but did not cross over to Ireland. "I have submitted the Insh_ question." he writes, "to nearly all Englishmen, Scots, Cvmri, and Gaels whom I have met; I "have asked them what .1 really ought to see in Ireland, and what I should aim at there; it seemed- to me that this question was somehow unpleasant to them." H e put the question to Mr. Bernard Shaw, who "recommended only a single ■ spot in Ireland; this -is ;i small islet "in -the south, the name of which I have .forgotten.'-'- Bui the people there, according t<i Mr. Shaw, have • "preserved their primitive character, but it is . impossible to land on that island. So'over a humorous map of Ireland, from south to north and. stoppings-it Ulster, Karel Capek has written the word "Inexploratum." ' He is a

confessed worshipper of the London policeman, ho very much dislikes the English Sunday, deprecates English. cooking, venerates Oxford and Cambridge, and as for Scotland, he writes, "upon my soul, I quite'-;took a fancy to it," and he found that "its .Calvinism only bred a life ample and jolly." Tho English home, notwithstanding the contemptuous way in which, it is sometimes treated by English; novelists and playwrights, commended itself, to the; traveller. He says":— :

The English ;home, that;is tennis and warm water,.the gong summoning you to lunch, books, meadows, comfort, selected/stabilised, and blessed by the centuries, freedom of children and patriarchal disposition of - parenta, hospitality, and a formalism as comfortable as^ a dressing gown. /. . ..'•'.

The English he found to be. on. the surface. and there only, a "joyless and reticent ;people:" His own illustrations in line are amusing and clever, especially his -.caricature's, of Chesterton,/.Shaw", Wells,, and some .other/literary personages/ ! As he draws' without nialicei so he speaks without spite of- thinga -he could; not understand about England and; the/English.^ -/:.::/;,//;, ; , ,\