MOTHER ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 4

MOTHER ENGLAND

A GERMAN’S AMUSING SURVEY

" John Bull At Home." By Karl Sllex. Translated by Huntley Paterson. London: George G. Harrap (8s 6d net). The book, “John Bull At Home,” will be regarded by its readers either as particularly pertinent and amusing, or as especially untruthful and impertinent. It is the work of a German who, after a residence of a few years in London, actually dares to criticise English institutions, to voice impressions of English life and temperament, which are quite often entirely contrary to our own conception of the Englishman. He refers, for example, to the habit of the English of holding themselves up as an example:— The use made in headlines of the little word “English” is all-embracing. If a newspaper boy finds something and takes it to the police station we do not read a paragraph about “ the honest newspaper boy,” but about “ English honesty.” If a child is saved from drowning, which sometimes also happens abroad, the headline is “ English bravery." Every trifling event is instructively classed as either English or un-English.' Every day the newspapers tell their readers that this or that.is the “ English way.” At every conceivable opportunity the press refers to “ this England,” “ the English heritage,” or “ England’s qualities.” • > . . Things are called “ typically English, • which might with equal justice be called typically German, French, or Italian. Playing at Soldiers Dr Silex’s criticism is very often lighthearted, consciously exaggerated, but at others it is serious and somewhat disturbing. He believes that the : English' are losing the adventurous spirit' that has been a characteristic of the race, and here most people will disagree with him; Adventure in this mechanical age is largely mechanically-conceived, and the British enterprise in air exploration, in record flights, in record speeds, is unparalleled by the accomplishments of other nations, as likewise is British • success. He also suspects that the English are a militaristic people, because they “ understand how to play at soldiers better than-any other nation.” He cites as instances the frequent military tattoos and tournaments,; which are largely attended, the crowds which watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the popularity of the training corps at the universities and schools — “There is certainly nothing very alarming about the business, but the boys love their uniforms, and the masters love the discipline ” —and the intense interest in the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements. As for his own assessment of the phrase “typically English,” he states: The ideal is regarded as typical and the exception as the rule. Girls are not fair in England; they have brown and even black hair. The girl who can warble a song, kick her legs to music, and show a head of fair hair, has all the attributes of an actress. That is why the fair Gladys Cooper is “typically English.” The same remark applies to Baldwin’s pipe. Because .the pipe is becoming more and more scarce every day, and because, after all, that is a great pity, Baldwin’s pipe is “typically English.” Talking of pipeq, by the way, Dr Silex, commenting on English extravagances, hits near the mark: “ The Englishman likes to spend money, and-loves .spending a great deal. He won’t pay 12s for his bnar pipe when he can get the same article for 255.”

English Inconsistencies The housing problem, of which Dr Silex himself gained bitter and costly experience when he went to live in London as correspondent of a German newspaper, is examined in this book with some thoroughness. but “unnecessarily to the detriment of England—most countries have had the same trouble, and many have not coped with it as well. The English proficiency in sport is also discussed, and he voices an opinion that,.if it is not generally held, can be accepted as not uncomplimentary—■ that Englishmen are not really animated by a will to victory. He says; “It is a sign of strength to be able to dispense with this will, a sign of supreme strength. It is part of that superiority which makes them also regard life as a game.” He finds the Englishman taking himself more seriously nowadays, and losing somewhat his easy self-assurance , and sense otTevity: that he ia beginning to play the game with the object pf winning, “It is a pity,” he remarks, “ for seriousness brings pomposity and officiousness in its train—qualities which have not had much of a chance of, developing ;in England hitherto.”. In his more serious observations Dr Silex is sufficiently accurate to be provoking—and something more, but it is in his generally cheerful, indulgently satirical comments that he is at his best: Strange to say, all those things which the Englishman on the Continent demands as a matter of course, and which are, therefore, regarded as English specialties, he does not possess in hie own home, and he is only now beginning to feel the lack of them. Evenin Goethe’s time the English tourist used to drive the Continental innkeeper mad with his constant demand for baths and hot water. And yet in the memoirs of Dame Margaret Lloyd George we read, to our astonishment, that as late as the year 1903 No. 10 Downing Street, a house famous throughout the world, had no bathroom, and that the present Countess of Oxford, when her husband was Prime Minister, wag obliged to use an ordinary hip-bath.

There are some peculiariteo of_ the English temperament, some contradictions in English habits of thought, which Dr Silex understands and greatly derides extremely well, and there are others he cannot understand at all—the English interest in cricket, for example. But'“John Bull At Home ” is a most amusing book, and for the New Zealander a most informing. It contains a great deal of interesting information about London life that the Londoner would not Think worth writing about, the fact that it was written primarily as an aid to_ Germans who might be contemplating visiting or settling in England, being an advantage to overseas readers. So long as the Englishman retains his sense of humour he will be able to enjoy this book, for nothing has been get down in malice, and it presents some interesting facets in the many-sided truth about the greatest little country in the world. J. M.