INS ULINDA
Louis COUPERUS earned a fame which extended far beyond Dutch-speaking limits, and the latest of his works—post- humously published—would be welcome in translation if only for his name. But this book on the Dutch Indies has
a special interest for England by reason of its subject : it considers from an unfamiliar angle the relations of East and West, in the light of our modern consciousness. Mr. Couperus is two things : first, an artist steeped in the European tradition, and constant to his European allegiance. Dutchman born, he went to Italy to satisfy his craving for beauty ; and in face of the exotic charm of the East, its sculpture, its architecture and even the plastic grace of women under Eastern drapery, he comes back and back to the assertion that Greece and Italy give us something more : a beauty that for us at least is absolute. Even when it is least national this Dutchman's sense of art perceives its remoteness from the East, and asserts an ultimate European standard. Too much tolerance of the cant which praises some Chinese carving of a monster as if it could rank with the Wingless Victory has landed us in the prevailing formless- ness ; here is simple and genuine nature ; and every page of his book shows how keenly he is alive to every manifesta- tion of beauty—even though he insist on classing it. Another facet of his mind shows the Western artist's struggle to justify Western energy—the invasion of quiet lands by clangorous machinery. Tobacco and tea plantations do not estrange Mr. Couperus ; rubber he tolerates (but rubber was in no insolent prosperity) ; yet the vast oil workings force him back to consider whether such things should really be. Grudgingly, he admits their right ; but he sees that modern machinery is providing dwellers even in the antique matriarchal regions of Sumatra with galvanized iron to replace the beautiful wooden painted roofs of their houses : it is bringing in ready-made standard-pattern stamped-out tin mosques. So far the artist ; but Mr. Couperus was also of a family, four generations of which have had distinguished careers in the Dutch Indian Civil Service, and now in these Indies also the passing of the European Civil Servant seems to be at hand. Planters and oil exploiters have no need to feel their position menaced ; but the modem mind insists that native rulers shall really rule and the European Resident be less.
Already the Resident has abandoned the sunshade which had to be of exactly the same diameter as the Regent's : often the native would surreptitiously try to add a half-inch, but the trained Dutch diplomatic eye always perceived this and ordered a new pajong of the enlarged width.
There" is a deal of quotable stuff in the book, so unlike books dealing with British India, and yet so like in its pre- occupations : for instance, a charming passage about the relation of first wife to second wife—who does all the first wife's washing and who is generally taken at the first wife's order : or the admirable story of an ex-wife of the Crown Prince of Bali who was prepared for suttee but fled (with seventeen others in the same case) and became a successful milliner. There is also a great deal of beautiful and fanciful writing mixed up with a philosophy that has humour : and in short it is a book to read.
Mr. Bruce's story of twenty years' work as an administrator in Borneo makes an odd contrast : his book is so ultra- English in its preoccupation with sport and its determination to keep always in the key of the mildly facetious.. " One must not talk too seriously of one's experiences : it is not done." This kind of -slangy writing grows wearisome when spread over a volume ; yet it is clear that Mr. Bruce enjoyed his work, and many people will share his belief that such work was better done by men like him when they did not have to write too many reports and did have to rely a great deal on their own initiative. Mr. Bruce gives one curious literary detail. When on trek he wanted " something stodgily interesting which would bear re-reading "—and almost always took Buckle's History of Civilization and Queen Victoria's Letters !
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