My South African Year. By Charles Dawbarn. (Mills and Boon.
10s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Dawbarn has written an interesting book about South Africa and its problems. He describes with sympathetic insight both the policy of General Smuts and also the strangely unpractical Nationalism of General Hartzog and Mr. Tielman Roos. He discusses the Indian question, com- mending the industrious Indian trader, while admitting the difficulties occasioned by the rapid increase of the Asiatic element. He is alive to the seriousness of the native problem, especially now that the natives are being educated and are multiplying more rapidly than ever before. On these and other matters Mr. Dawbarn has much to say that deserves attention. He describes the country and the towns, and repeatedly emphasizes South Africa's need of a larger population. Whether the vast empty spaces that he saw could support more people is, however, by no means certain. Mr. Dawbarn gives a chapter to South-West Africa, where, he says, most of the German colonists have settled down peacefully. He is incorrect, by the way, in saying that the Bastards of Rehoboth are partly of German descent. They were there before the Germans entered the country ; they are the descendants of Cape Dutch farmers and Hottentots. The book is well illustrated with photographs, including a picture of Rhodes's tomb in the Matoppos with the famous view from it.
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