The Repentance of Destiny. By Shway Dinga. (Duckworth and Co.
6s.)—There is much that is remarkable in this book. The story is of Englishmen in Burma soon after its annexa- tion. One in particular, the son of a Walworth grocer, has raised himself by his brains into the Civil Service. He goes
through the form of a Burmese marriage with a girl who jilts a native lover. She finds the Englishman's conscience revolt- ing against the position, as doing a wrong to her, a wrong to the honour of his seryice, and a wrong to the Burman lover. In a fit of mistaken jealousy she kills him and then herself. The Burman gives up his office and retires to a hermit's life of contemplation. The drawing of the Burmese families is attractively done, and particularly charming is the "wife" of another of the few Englishmen, one of the callous, drunken type. The problem of these recognized unions, which do not bind the men in English law, and their ill-effects on the Civil Service and the natives, is a serious one; to be treated seriously. But the author cannot expect to be read if he fouls his own nest, as he does in the earlier chapters. To represent a Hertford and Craven scholar as leaving Oxford with ideals of "Imperialism" that centre round "curries and concubines" is a cynical insult to Oxford; to represent these ideals as practically universal is an insult to the Government service ; and to make so much conversation treat of them in the early chapters is likely to be taken as an Insult by readers whom the writer might otherwise delight.
Previous page
