1 MAY 1936, Page 38

A FOREIGNER LOOKS AT AUSTRALIA By Paul Staal This book

(Jonathan Cape, 7s. 6d.) is interesting but super. ficial. The writer, who has been Consul-General of the Netherlands at Sydney, has compiled from other people's books a short account of Australian history: It is not a bad account, but it is bespattered with slips and errors and contains some naive interpretations of English and Australian

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historye..,.the.view of Magna Carin as a document of early and sound democracy, or the explanation of Australia's alleged indifference to military virtue by memories of early New South Wales. The lively account of the recent crisis has some merit ; but the analysis is often capricious because it is founded on a surface view of Australian history and economic geography.