To the Islands
Doctor to the Islands. By Tom and Lydia Davis, (Michael Joseph, 15s.)
WRITING to the author of The Cruise of the. Cachalot, Kipling said: 'You have thrown away material enough to make five books, and I congratulate you most heartily.' I believe he might have said something of the sort of Doctor to ti4 Islands. It is a book to be relentlessly enthusiastic about. From their New Zealand wedding day in 1940 until the day their third son was born in Massachusetts two years ago, Dr. and Mrs. Davis never paused. The doctor, part-Polynesian and part-Welsh, is appointed assistant medical officer in his birthplace, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, far to the north-east of a New Zealand government. He finds work for six doctors; a hospital neglected; villages untaught in mosquito control and cleanliness. He is sensitive, immensely able, an egotist of charm and great powers of leadership. He understands his Polynesian people and they, innately cheerful, intelligent and loyal, follow him. He is less successful with some of his European people, but he and his wife finally become affectionate comrades of an endearing Resident Commissioner whose counter-memoirs would be fascinating to read. Mrs. Davis's problems are almost as great as her husband's: Polynesian relations-by-marriage to comprehend; white people who do not understand that there is
no time for tea parties; much district nursing; and a husband who builds boats and radio sets under her feet in snatches between operations and tours of inspection.
They write in loyal turn, just as they lived : one taking over from the other at the rush, with seldom time for more than a passing hail. His sections are sound and absorbing reports of progress against a background of self-examination and affection for his Polynesians. Mrs. Davis, the writer of the two, makes an exuberant book of the whole wild rush of action, deep feeling, clear thinking, pure fun, and courage.
In the middle of the story, the infant second son becomes critically ill; the father is forced to bitterly drastic measures; the mother nurses. Her moving description is followed by his account.
For once the narrative directly overlaps; and the heightened effect is memorable. Things becorrie easier thereafter and the fear of authority's disapproval, of the doctor's apparent intolerance and of his political interest (and timely success) in native affairs, disappears with his appointment as chief medical officer. Athieve- ment follows widespread achievement and the reader begins to relax. Just as he does so, the whole family sets sail for South America in a 45-foot schooner, a voyage uniquely undertaken at
the wrong time of year. Between hurricanes, in one of which a small son comes out all over in measles, they make Rapa their last South Sea island halting place before the long passage to South America. Mrs. Davis, whose dislike of the sea is only equalled by her command of the unexpected sentence, suddenly writes:
'Dancing the hula among the empty wine bottles on the long table, I could not help wondering how long it would be before we
were doing this again.' She and h& husband will always,be doing things, and I hope they will always find time to write about them. I think they will; they could find time fdr anything.
After 'Doctor Tom's' Rarotonga, it is restful to move the few hundred miles west to Tonga. Off the main sea and air routes, ruled by a Queen whose charm and great ability emerge clearly from both books, Tonga seems without troubles, a true island paradise. The two books achieve a similar object: by presenting the history of Tonga each explains, and then proclaims, its present admirable
and happy state. The royal houses of Tonga, the devoted mission- aries, and the influence of British parliamentary and judicial
ways, have combined to produce, from a delightful island people, a small Christian nation ingenuously urbane, accepting with objective dignity and humour those Western innovations that will serve it best. Mr. MacQuarrie, from a profound knowledge of the South Seas, writes discursively and entertainingly. In Ten Years in Tonga, Mr. Neill proceeds by concise legalistic anecdote to build up a sympathetic and witty picture of Tonga and its affairs.
A. H. BARTON
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