ON SECOND THOUGHTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1932, Page 13

ON SECOND THOUGHTS.

LADY ANGELA’S BOOK. Lady Angela St. Clair-Erskine’s book, “Fore and Aft,” which was recalled by the publishers in November, lias been revised and reissued. The criticisms of Sir Philip Game, as Governor of New South Wales, have been deleted. In the first edition, Lady Erskine declared that Sir Philip made “extremely indiscreet’’ remarks, and in his relations with Mr Lang, “showed weakness, obstinacy, vacillation, and conciliation to the point of servility.” She now goes to the other extreme, and declares: “The anti-Lang feeling was so strong that the Governor’s quite ordinary courtesies were liable to misinterpretation It must have been an almost superhuman task to maintain a strictly neutral attitude. Apparently, Sir Philip timed his intervention to a nicety, and the policy of giving Mr Lang sufficient rope with which to lrang himself was a most effective method of dealing with him. “The flickering fire against Sir Philip blazed up when he appointed as Legislative Councillors some whose dossiers would not bear examination.” Lady Ersltine’s reference to mistaking Lady Game for a lady-in-waiting is retained, and she adds of Lady Game: “Her nerves are terribly jaded, and her restlessness devastates her entourage.” The reference to Sir Philip Game’s conversation at dinner has been deleted, and the author now declares: “He showed signs, of strain, and was jaunty, but. not gay, as if determined to escape from the grim atmosphere of Sydney by sheer will-power.” The honours list correspondence between Mr Bavin and the Governor is published without comment. The book contains many misprints and evidences of carelessness.