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ZANZIBAR: The Island Metropolis of Eastern Africa. By Major Francis B. Pearce, C.M.G. (British Resident in Zanzibar). With a Map and 32 pages Illustrations. Super Royal 8vo, cloth. 30s. net. [Second Impression.
This important work deals with the past and present history of Zanzibar. From the earliest times this island, owing to its commanding position off the coast of Africa, controlled the great trade-routes which traversed the Continent from the Indian to the Atlantic Oceans, and it has remained to the present day the Metropolis of the East African Region. It has known many over-lords, and the author, who is His Majesty's Representative in Zanzibar, traces the story of this romantic island-kingdom down the centuries. The close association of this African island with ancient and mediæval Arabia is demonstrated, and the advent of the old Persian colonists to its shores explained. Coming to later times such names as Vasco da Gama and Sir James Lancaster, that famous Elizabethan sea-captain, are met with; until leaving beaten tracks, the author introduces the reader to the hoary kingdom of Oman, whence come those princes of the Arabian desert who subdued to their sway the rich spice-island of Zanzibar and the adjacent territories of Central Africa. Modern Zanzibar is fully dealt with, and the enlightened Prince who occupies the throne of Zanzibar to-day is introduced to the reader in a personal interview. The latter portion of the work is devoted to descriptions of the ruined Arab and Persian stone-built towns—the very names of which are now forgotten—which, until cleared by the author, lay mouldering in the forests of Zanzibar and Pemba. The text is elucidated by a series of beautiful photographs, and by specially prepared maps. This volume must be regarded as the standard work on the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
MODERN JAPAN: Its Political, Military, and Industrial Organization. By William Montgomery McGovern, Ph.D., M.R.A.S., F.R.A.I., etc., Lecturer on Japanese, School of Oriental Studies (Univ. of Lond.), Priest of the Nishi Hongwanji Kyoto, Japan. 15s. net.
Unlike the book of casual impressions by the tourist or globe-trotter, or a tedious work of reference for the library, Mr. McGovern's book on "Modern Japan" gives for the average educated man an interesting description of the evolution of Japan as a modern world Power, and describes the gradual triumphs over innumerable obstacles which she accomplished. The book relates how the Restoration of 1867 was carried out by a small coterie of ex-Samurai, in whose hands, or in that of their successors, political power has ever since remained. We see portrayed the perfecting of the Bureaucratic machine, the general, political and institutional history, the stimulation of militarism and Imperialism and centralized industry. It is a vivid account of the real Japan of to-day, and of the process by which it has become so. Though comprehensible to the non-technical reader, yet the more careful student of Far Eastern affairs will find much of value in the acute analysis of the Japanese nation. The author is one who has resided for years in Japan, was largely educated there, who was in the Japanese Government service, and who, by his fluent knowledge of the language, was in intimate contact with all the leading statesmen of to-day. Furthermore, his position as priest of the great Buddhist Temple of Kyoto brought him in touch with phases of Japanese life most unusual for a European. While neither pro- nor anti-Japanese, he has delineated the extraordinary efficiency of the machine of State (so largely modelled on Germany), while, at the same time, he has pointed out certain dangers inherent in its autocratic bureaucracy.
New Volume in 'The Story of the Nations'