The Romantic East us a narrative of a tour in Burma, Assam, and Kashmir, and it completes the series begun in Around the World through Japan and continued in India of To-day.
The romantic side of Burma is to be found in its people who are all Oriental races the least spoiled by contact with the West, the romance of Kashmir lies in the country itself, while the romance of Assam is a purely commercial one, connected with the tea industry.
The Romantic East offers some guidance as to what may be seen during a short tour: and it will serve a useful purpose if it induces those who intend to travel at some future time to mature their plans in the present, for now is the time to visit Burma and Kashmir—before the character of the Burmese people is changed by the steady influx of alien immigrants, and before the amenities of the Kashmir Valley are endangered by the new railway. |
