POST-WAR HUNGARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

POST-WAR HUNGARY.

PEOPLE OF CREAT VIRILITY. Tho irrepressible vitality of Hungary and its chafing under tho yoke of postwar disabilities gives tho reader of " What I Saw in Hungary," much food for thought. Indeed tho vitality of this people, whose life is deeply rooted in agelong tradition, stands out ill bold relief from among tho other matter dealt with in this book of post-war travel. The author has journeyed with imagination for a companion, and with a ready and impressionable eye for the picturesque, which makes his book eminently readable. While much of it is on the lines of similar works of travel, he has devoted special attention to emphasising the need for readjustments which he feels to bo inevitable in tho peace treaties, notably that of Trianon. Of the capacity of the Hungarian peasants for work Mr. Cunningham has much to say that will interest New Zealandcrs, and although he pays tribute to the aristocracy of tho country as being a fine people of superb culture, ideals and breeding, ho vows that the peasants have his greatest affection. In vigorous words ho has imparted some of their vitality to his writing. " Fifteen hours a day cutting corn they spent during the harvest," ho says. " Fifteen solid hours of weilding a scythe. I once had six months on a tea plantation in India: the natives there were puny in their capacity for work compared with theso Hungarians. In New Zealand 1 have ploughed and worked on my own soil, and as well 1 have milked cows and acted as midwife to ewes in season. I thought I was doing rather well in those days, but it was nothing compared with theso peasants. . . . It is impossible ever completely to tnnpty a Hungarian field. Cut the corn, and, when it is gathered and taken off to be threshed, you will find a clover crop peeping through the baked ground. And when, after time, and rain and sun, that clover has grown tall and immensely green and has been cut for hay, after the plough has turned over the soil, and the discs and harrows have smoothed it, then a catch crop of vivid emerald oats appears with magic suddenness to delight your eye." " What I Saw In Hungary," by Charles Cunningham. (Ja:rrolds.)