BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 247, 17 September 1932, Page 9

BOOK NOTES

THE GRAND DUCHY

“Cornish Seafarers,” by A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, is appropriately introduced by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch, a son and a literary interpreter of Hie Grand Duchy. Cornwall is often described as the Riviera of Britain. This is a misnomer except for tile fact that currents from the gulf stream roach it and to some extent warm. It- has a very ancient history, and lias retained its individuality, its Brythonic characteristics, and its traditional nomenclature to a remarkable degree. Cornwall is well stored with minerals. it was the Cassaterides from which the Phoenicians and the Romans obtained tin, copper and gold, bun Cornwall lives by and on the sea, and for many centuries the staple industries were smuggling, wrecking, and fisliing, the only one that remains.

Smuggling, according to Mr Jenkin, used to be an honourable, respected, and hereditary profession, and its practitioners were often, save for this one deviation from the path of civic probity, men of high principle. For instance. Captain Harry Carter, a member of a clan of “Free 'traders,'' would not allow swearing or unseemly conversation on board bis ship, “under pain of punishment.” When in remge in Hie Seilly islands with a price upon his head, he regularly conducted religious service on Sunday afternoons for the benefit of a community of Cornish smugglers awaiting an opportunity to get home. J lie truth about Cornish eccentricities in those happy-go-lucky days was as fantastic as \V. S. Gilbert’s “Pirates of Penzance.” But even now some people whose integrity is otherwise stainless see no harm in “beating” the Customs.

Tlie smugglers’ vessels, running to as much as 300 tons and heavily armed, were a match for the revenue patrols. When they moored at St. ives, Marazion, or Truro, they were welcomed by an enthusiastic populace which had not tho slightest objection to buying silk, tobacco, brandy and lace at two-thirds of the market rate. Comislimoii used to be, and, we are given to understand, still are, when fortune favours, indefatigable wreckers. That term should not be misapprehended. The stories about vessels lured to destruction by manipulation of lights are apocryphal. Technically, wrecking is simply the appropriation of spoils of the sea which Cornishmen traditionally consider to be their natural perquisite. “Flotsam and Jetsam” is a phrase which covers anything from driftwood to the remnants of a disabled aeroplane, reachable at low tide. Nor are the Cornishmen unique in this respect. Not long ago, near tho Lizard, a steamer, laden with a cargo of potted goods and other delicacies, went upon the rocks and was broken into pieces, and a large number of the cases driited ashore. The obliging natives were assiduous in helping the savage officials to haul them up to a dump on the top of the cliffs and accepted thanks with a deprecatory gesture. When the cases were opened for the purposes of auction, they were found to contain stones. There was no proof as to how, when or where the substitution had been made, but for some time the neighbourhood fared sumptuously and the salvage officials thought hard, in the old days wrecking in Cornwall was on a princely scalo. Tho “royalties,” that is to say, the lords of tli9 coast lying manors, asserted their alleged rights against all and sundry. In 1526 the Portuguese ship St. Andrew, bearing bullion, silver plate, and other treasure worth in modern currency L 160,000, was driven ashore at Gunwallos by an “outrageous tempest.” The valuables were safely landed whereupon St. Auhvn, Gadalphin, and Milaton—all magistrates of the Grown —appeared on the scene at the head of a force equipped “in a manner of battle,” and took the lot. St. Aubyn afterwards explained that this transaction was a fair bargain and a deed of mercy, Mr Jenkin had his doubts.

INDIA

“Behind Mud Wails in India,” by Mrs Charlotte Wiser and Mr \\ illiaui Wiser, enables one to appreciate the complexity ol the problems involved in sell-government tor India —problems wliion Mr Gandhi and his followers insouciantly dismiss with a wave of the hand —and of the difficulty Britain has in devising a scheme that will satisfy all interests. The book possesses the greater value as a document because the authors are Americans, and can offer dispassionate evidence. They went to a place called Karimpur in order to carry out a survey of the social, religious, and economic life of a typical North India village. At first they made little progress in the task of gathering material. The villagers, shy and suspicious, enclosed themselves literally and metaphorically behind walls, and relused to be “drawn” until their confidence had been won. A point emphasised is that these peasants are entirely different from college graduates and sophisticated town-dwellers. They live as it were, in another world and epoch, and they, with those who are engaged in village industries, comprise almost five-sixths of India’s teeming population. A dissertation put into the mouth of a villager throws a revealing light on the character of the Indian peasant. His dominating traits are caution and intolerance of change. This is not due to ignorance or irrational prejudice. According to Mr Rudyard Kipling, monkeys refuse to speak lest they should be exploited by men. That describes the attitude of the Indian “ryot.” He believes in the integrity and good intentions of the British ltaj. But lie mistrusts his fellow countrymen, his landlord, the police watchman, the petty official, anyone who has some claim to authority over him. The appearance of prosperity invites the attention ol a predatory world. The cultivator is blamed becauso of the primitive methods of tillage which ho employs. But if he used up-to-date implements the productivity of his holding would increase—and so would the rent. It is a sound policy to allow one’s house to fall into disrepair. Old clothes are to be recommended on many grounds. For instance, should you be forced to attend hospital they will obtain for you charity rates. _ It ii sheer folly to incur avoidable hills. A new deputy was appointed, and at the last moment Ixii'ore his advent it was learned that he had said that clerks could not afford to he welldressed. When he arrived they were not. In a twinkling of an eye tile new turban and the silken waistcoat had been discarded to he replaced by a loincloth and shirt, neat, but obviously past their youth. “Some may call our pretence of poverty deception. Perhaps it is. But there are times when deception, as a means of selfprotection, is justifiable. In all our self-protective activities each of us is not thinking of his own self. No villager thinks of himself apart from his family. lie rises or falls with it.” And that he may preserve its inheritance from spoliation he surrounds himself, symbolically, with walls.