3 JUNE 1922, Page 20

BETWEEN TWO CONTLNENTS.

PRINCE WILLIAM OF SWEDEN has written an interesting little book, under the title of Between Two Continents (Eveleigh Nash and Grayson, 15s. net), on a journey that he made to Central America in 1920, partly with the object of studying the remains of the long extinct Maya civilization. The book has been translated by Mr. Worster and is well illustrated with photographs. The author went to Belize in a motor-ship,- calling on the way at St. Barthelemy—near Guadeloupe— which was a Swedish colony until 1877, when it was sold to France. He speaks favourably of British Honduras, but expresses surprise at our neglect of that fertile colony and at the broad tolerance which permits full-blooded negroes to sit on the Legislative Council. From Belize he went to Tuloom, in Yucatan, where the ruins of Maya temples and palaces lie hidden in the forest. Thence he visited Guatemala, and was staying in the capital when a revolution broke out and unseated President Cabrera. As the President had artillery and shelled the city for five days there was much loss of life. The author says that the Cabrera administration was extremely inefficient and corrupt. He contrasts with Guatemala the well governed and prosperous little Republic of San Salvador. He came home by way of Panama and the Canal, and was much impressed with the thoroughness of the American port officials, who examine

• The Cuckoo's Secret. By Edgar Chance. London : fildgivick and Jackson. [7s. 61. net.]

all passengers first as to their morals and politics and then as to their health. The harbourmaster at Panama proved to be a Swede. Prince William attributes the backwardness of Central America to its half-educated condition. The mixture of races—European, African and American Indian—is, however, the fatal obstacle to progress.