Cirrus@Austlit

'There are no crowds, no violence, and action is confined to a single set–the house of a commander of native infantry. Although some disturbance has taken place in the district before the play opens, it is not in the thick of the uprising, and the house serves as an outpost where there is still leisure for discussion. But discussion is made urgent by the knowledge that attack may at any time be renewed: there is no division between plot and comment on India at large.

'Three groups are represented–Indian troops, British officers and British civilians. Of these, the civilians are the least convincing. One is a fledgling memsahib whose part is limited to voicing obtuse snobbery; the other, an altogether too enlightened Scots girl, acts almost as Mr. MacCormick's raisonneur by stepping outside the action and speaking in glowing terms of Britain's role in India.'

Source:

'B.B.C. Television', The Times, 28 October 1957, p.5.

'The period is 30 years after the Mutiny, the theme of the first play, and Mr. MacCormick now turns to affairs that were then overshadowed by immediate crisis. The central figure, Jock Robinson, is the son of the military hero of the first play; and he illustrates the theme of service in the life of a district officer. Jock is a more effective hero than his predecessor because he is a greater fanatic. His one concern is to improve conditions in his district. To this end he neglects his hot-blooded wife, endangers his career by flouting regulations, and finally secures victory by blackmail.'

Source:

'B.B.C. Television', The Times, 4 November 1957, p.3.

According to contemporary reviews in The Times, 'It has two subjects–the fight against disease in India, and the end of individualism among the British Raj. Mr. MacCormick relates these themes by taking as his central figure a doctor who, after struggling hopelessly against epidemics, comes at length to join a Government hospital.'

Source:

'B.B.C. Television', The Times, 11 November 1957, p.3.

'Sandy Robinson, a commissioner in the district of Dalpore, has orders to maintain the peace while natives are pouring in both directions over the India-Pakistan border. Lacking men and transport of his own, he manages to secure a shaky alliance with the local leaders, and reduces the amount of bloodshed in spite of skirmishes by a Communist faction. The leaders, as Mr. MacCormick depicts them, are unprincipled politicians over whom Robinson towers, like a reproving father, sorrowfully convinced that they are not ready for self-government.

'Having the balance tilted all one way need not, of course, vitiate the play's effectiveness. But apart from the scenes of political squabbling, with the right always on one side, the play diverges into domestic and romance byways inhabited by the commissioner's humdrum wife and his ivory-skulled son who courts an Indian girl with quotations from Kipling.'

Source:

'B.B.C. Television', The Times, 18 November 1957, p.3.