INTO THE HUMAN JUNGLE

By Sir Desmond Morton
FOOLS OF CHOICE, by Peter de Polnay (Robert Hale, 12a. 6d.).
IFFERENT readers will have different reactions to Peter de Polnay's account of his youthful exploits fot two years
in South America. He himself described them as " unedifying, senseless, frequently sordid and at times quite silly." It is hard to deny the truth of this, but it is certainly not the whole story. nor the most important part.
If two very young men brought up in an artificially sheltered atmosphere, with little knowledge or experience of the realities of life in this world, are suddenly projected. voluntarily or otherwise. into the human jungle without visible means of support, something is bound to happen; either they will go under or else they will survive.
This applies to body, mind and
Crossword No. 362
Prizewinners : First prize, one guinea-H. V. Budgen, Holt. Norfolk; Second prize, a hookT. Disken, Dewsbury, Yorks.
soul. If they survive, they will be enlarged, for good or for ill. The vital attraction of this book, apart from its superficial interest as an account of life in the underworld of South America, is the evidence it offers, indirectly and unconsciously, of the enlargement not only of the author. but of his brother too.
That the two young men underwent their initiation in South America. is incidental; had they chosen any other area enjoying the blessings of modern civilisation. their essential experiences would probably have been much the same. It is a favourite pastime of the Devil In persuade the citizens of one country that what happens elsewhere could not occur in their well-ordered land.
It is to be hoped that had the de Polnay brothers selected Furore for their experiment. they would have met with equal kindness and self-sacrificing charity from some of the poorest and most despised among the people. There is no doubt they would have met with the same ill-treatment from others