AustLit

Some time ago, Mr. Allan Wilkie staged at the Grand Opera House Miss Doris Egerton Jones's play, "Governor Bligh." It was an interesting and strongly dramatic picture of the period, and gave rise to some spirited controversy concerning its accuracy as history. In "A Gentleman in Black," which commences publication in the "Herald" to-morrow, W. M. Fleming has represented from another point of view the social movements in Sydney during this same period. Governor Bligh and Major Johnston are not the central protagonists of the drama in Mr. Fleming's story, as they were in Miss Jones's. They enter, however, as important elements in the general situation which sways the fortunes of the hero, a young convict. Bligh appears, as he did on the stage, in a guise of a martinet, who never troubles to be tactful, but always adopts the most downright means to an end. "He was," says Mr. Fleming, "a brave man, who had true appreciation of the dignity of an officer of the British Navy and the Governor of a British colony." On the other hand, Major Johnston, whom Miss Jones represented as an arrant scoundrel, only surpassed in objectionable qualities by Mac- arthur, becomes in Mr. Fleming's hands a moderate-minded man, doing everything he can to stem the tide of recklessness, and only giving in at the end because he had "decided that it was more dangerous to law and order to resist than to acquiesce." The "arrest" of Governor Bligh Mr. Fleming passes briefly over; but he adheres to the historical record that Bligh was burning papers when the in- surgents found him; whereas in Miss Jones's version the Governor was, at the same crisis, engaged in unearthing a young woman who had hidden herself away in a wardrobe. Conditions among the convicts are vividly painted in "A Gentleman in Black." The story opens in England, where the hero is unjustly accused of a petty crime; then follows the young man in his voyage on the convict ship, and sees the various types in Sydney—the Irish political prisoners, the emancipated men, the military bullies, and so forth—through his eyes. An aboriginal chieftain, symbolising wild brutality, as opposed to the refinements of civilised cruelty, plays a prominent part in the plot. Among previous successful novels by Mr. Fleming are "The Hunted Picaninnies," "Where Eagles Build," and "Bunyip Told Me," each of which has been well received abroad.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 1931, p4