WORLD A PLAYTHING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

WORLD A PLAYTHING

SEEKER OF IMPRESSIONS. It is no mean thing to have survived so precocious and over-praised a success as “The Doom of Youth,” and still hold one’s public. In the interval Mr Alec Waugh has aged but slowly, but he continues to show literary activity in several fields, and while his writings are neither solid nor deep, they have a lively manner, and are always prone to entertain original and interesting ideas. His latest book, “The Coloured Countries,” contains an account of his ramblings and impressions of many lands. He admits to being something of a globe-trotter, forming his opinions of necessity somewhat hastily. Nevertheless he is no tourist gazing woodenly and blindly at "sights”. He cares little, perhaps too little, for facts and material things. Instead he seeks the fleeting impressions, casually gleaned, which colour the memory of distant scenes when their more obvious contours have faded—the flower-like beauty seen through a golden mist: which hovers over Constantinople— I love-making on a hibiscus-perfumed \ verandah in Tahiti—the hostile glances ■ of the freed slaves inland in Martini- j

que—the heated atmosphere of the cockpit with the tense faces—an object sense of forlornness in Singapore when he found himself penniless and cut off from supplies.

The book draws an interesting comparison between French and English colonial life. Mr Waugh dallied pleasantly in the languid atmosphere of Tahiti, and obviously enjoyed himself, gaining an insight into the native character more intimate than most travellers enjoy. Siam also enter-

tained him, and he communed with elephants and reflected on the ousting of Europeans. He travelled on many different liners, and grew to hate deck-games, bridge, and his average fellow-passengers. It will be seen that he has the proper perspective for a traveller of discernment.