Years of Blindness

By H. G. Quaritck Wales

A BRITISH archaeologist who enjoyed the unusual experience of being attached to the old-fashioned court of the King of Siam surveys the countries of Eastern and Southern Asia. The book is a pleasant blend of knowledge and anecdote, fact and reflection. He cites a good many chapters and verses for the idea that the peoples of Asia will demand a new deal from the West after the war. He suggests that the white man in the East has gone soft, compared with the rugged pioneers of trade and empire, because living conditions have become so easy and convenient for the foreigner. Meanwhile the Asiatics have been acquiring a grasp of Western technical methods that makes them more assertive and self-confident.