South Sea Reminiscences. By T. R. St. Johnston. (T. Fisher
Unwin. 16s. net.)—This pleasantly discursive book is concerned with Fiji and the Lau Islands, where the author spent some years as a Government official. He touches on the vagaries of male native " housemaids" ; on the philosophic contentment of native prisoners, who treat the gaol as a home ; on the diffi- culties of dealing with the low-caste Indian coolies, and on the strange histories of the beachcombers, still to be found in the more remote islands. He tells us of Mango Island, which first changed hands for a case of gin and a musket, but now yields an income of £10,000 a year. He pays tribute to the good services of the Fijian contingent in France ; he saw a wealthy chief serving as a private in the Labour Corps and cheerfully helping to unload a cargo of flour. He says that the German squadron, on its way from the Far East to Chili in the autumn of 1914, was only diverted from its purpose of bombarding Suva by a clover ruse on the part of the Governor, Sir Bickham Sweet- Escott. He sent out a wireless message addressed to the ` Australia' : " Thanks for message. Shall expect you to- morrow at daylight." The ' Australia' was nowhere near Fiji, but the Germans, who intercepted the message, thought it best to go elsewhere.
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