CONTINENT OF CONTRASTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21976, 10 June 1933, Page 4

CONTINENT OF CONTRASTS

IMPRESSIONS OF MODERN SOUTH AMERICA “South America: A Continent of Contrasts." By Kasimlr Edschmld. Translated by Oakley Willlgms. Illustrated, with, Map. London: Thorton Butterworth. (£1 Is net.) “ Argentine Tango.” By Philip Guedalla. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (8s 6d net.) “ The South American Handbook, 1933.'* London: Trade and Travel Publications. (2s 6d net.)

A German Observer “ South America: A Continent of Contrasts,” is a travel book which is difficult to classify. One thing which is early apparent is that it is in no sense a conventional record of impressions, descriptions of scenery, and vague generalisations. On the other hand, it makes no pretensions to be an authoritative survey of South America, or even of any particular aspect of the life of' the great continent. But Mr Edschmid writes with an authority when he brings forward any conclusion which he has • reached as . a result of his wanderings,- and\ he is so soon revealed as an intelligent observer (witness his early description of some fellow passengers on board the Dutch freighter) that one is willing to concede that his assessments have been guided by an equal skill in interpretation. There is a tremendous part of the continent which he has not seen, though he is occasionally tempted into speaking of unvisited places from accounts he has received. His journeyings, however, have been extensive. He conducts the reader to Panama, southward through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia. Chile, across the Corderillas to Argentina, northwards to Brazil. In the last-named places his experience does not extend far into _ the country beyond the' cities —Buenos Aires, Rio, and Pernambuco, but one is content, so confident and engaging ia Mr Edschmid’s exposition, to accept his observations as inclusive, even if' acceptance involves to some extent the assuming of the whole from the part. ... Mr Edschmid made the acquaintance ot many prominent • arid interesting South Americans, from all of whom he obtained, besides the information which they though fit to return for his questions, impressions of personality which he conveys with skill. One of the men whose character he interprets imost keenly is Leguia, who is presented as a cruel man, perhaps, but one with an almost mystical knowledge of the temperament of the people. He seeks the secret of Leguia’s power:—■ Was this a petty or a big man wljo sweated everything out of Peru _ that did not suit his book, who banished thousands, transplanted hundreds to San Lorenzo, who caused people to disappear every week, every_ night, and was surrounded bv an unrivalled network of espionage? Who was this man whom many people honestly maintained to be charming, who, in his late sixties, was still a ladies’ man, and of whom others claimed that on his island over there he had his enemies tortured and the arms of his opponents broken? This man who governed a country in which there was not a trace of a Socialist Party or Socialist Movement, in a spirit or Socialism; a man who set himself up like a Roman tribune looking for support only to tne masses, without a programme, on the strength of his personality, and whose propaganda aimed at raising the standard of the Ludios, an unheard of proposal. ... He describes an interview with the President, who greeted his caller with the thin, alluring smile of a woman,” but kept one hand significantly halfway in bis pocket. On the subject of the South American revolutions he reports a con--1 versation which may to some extent explain their frequency:— .( ... The fact is, a revolution in South America is quite a different thing from a revolution in Europe.- It has a good deal of a popular sport about it. And what attitudes they do strike. , . . A revolution is the biggest stroke of business that can be brought off in South America, But it’s the most difhcut and the most risky as well. It can, like all big business, only be floated with quite a lot of working capital. That’s why the objective of every revolution is the national treasury. Every revolution is bound to aim at. the national treasury, because in the long run, if it should succeed, a whole system, a whole Government, and all its supporters have to live on it. . . . This well-written, informative, yet provoking book, is provided with a map, in addition to several splendidly produced photographs. Guedallan Tango j It is difficult to know what to make ! of Mr Guedalla’s “Argentine Tango,” when it is placed beside an illuminating book such as Mr Edschmid’s. For Mr Guedalla seems to have made of this visit of his to the South Americas a kind of holiday task. It is so flippant, sometimes so banal, frequently so obviously superficial in its impressions, that it resembles, one would imagine, more the irresponsible cavorting* of a child dancing to itself in tile sunshine than an intense, poised, and passionate measure such as the Argentine tango must surely be. Mr Guedalla can write very brilliantly and distinctively, but wo must search these pages carefully to discover traces of that scholarship and descriptive power that have gone to the creation of his more im--1 portant essays. Too often .we find him indulging himself in the easiest and most shattering form of prose, the nimble adjective which, in an introductory passage, he forswears. “ How many travellers return from the most fascinating | scenes with nothing more to show than I a meaningless assortment of epithets.” he I laments, and we are impressed until we begin to discover the mundane plums which Mr Guedalla has picked from the bag I to make tasty his South American salad. The Pan-American ideal is “an agreeable chimera,” for the South American is suspicious of “obliging gentlemen” who would make Yankees of them; the ladies

are the “ feminine persuasion,” and information is welcomed by “ young recipients ”; the Monroe Doctrine is resented for its “ bland assumption of seniority,” and the South American cities are possessed of “ gleaming waterfronts.” One) must not forget the “ agreeable tendency ” of the newspapers to belabour one another, nor the “ alluring prospect ” which once led a “ gay admiral ” to seize Argentina as a British colony, which design soon subsided in “ the inglorious dust ” of courts-martial and official reprimands. Adjectives!—Mr Guedalla’s book is so full of obvious and frequently inappropriate ones that the soul revolts. Be it confessed that, with all its irritating mannerisms, “Argentine Tango ” is a lively and shrewd book. And in one respect at least it is reassuring, for it establishes that the view of Mr Edschmid of the rapid Americapisation of the republics is not undisputed;— . . . That is the history of South America—no gay scenario of comic Presidents succeeding one another- in a harmless rattle of revolutions, but the slow grinding of vast gates that open on a continent. It is so easy to miss its grave significance in the comic business of current politics—so easy and flattering. For what experience can be more flattering to citizens of other countries than to look on indulgently while Costaguana persecutes her latest President? It helps them to forget their own defects in the contemplation of someone else’s imperfections, to drown the shooting in their streets with Caribbean fusillades. It helps them, above all, to taste thef deep security of greater age, to feel themselves a grave community of elder brothers, looking down with kind, indulgent eyes upon the antics of the nursery.., That is the source of almost every error in the attitude of the United States towards South America; and error will persist until the Big Brother complex is resolved.

A Comprehensive Guide “ The South American Handbook,” for the year 1933, is described as the only complete reference volume of this nature printed in any language- It deals separately with each country, progressing southwards from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego. Relevant details are given concerning all the main towns and the pbysical features of each country, its government. and Constitution, the sources of agricultural and mineral wealth, coinage and measures, imports and exports, public debt, postal charges, and so on, not to mention guidance for travellers and useful summarieations for the whole continent of its air, railway, steamship, banking, and insurance facilities. Separate sections are devoted .to . literature, Products, and sport. There is an excellent map - :: M'G.