PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

This book has been written to meet the needs of candidates preparing in Secondary Schools for the School Certificate Examination. Teachers —and examiners—are not infrequently puzzled by the cryptic phrase ‘ the world in outline’ which occurs in the syllabuses of some examining bodies. Obviously, an outline of world geography must differ at every stage of educational progress. The solution which is offered here for the School Certificate standard will, it is hoped, find approval from teachers of experience.

The continents have been arranged in the conventional order, and there is no gradation of difficulty in treatment. Hence, the teacher is free to take the continents as he pleases. Special emphasis has been laid on the characteristic features, whether physical or human, in each land mass. A skeleton of physical geography has been added in an appendix for revisional purposes.

Several of the illustrations are from photographs taken by the author. Acknowledgements of the source of the others are made beneath them. The author takes this opportunity of expressing a particular obligation to the Information Department of the office of the High Commissioner for Australia, to the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the South African Railways, to the Orient Line, and to the Czecho-Slovak Legation.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The lapse of a decade and the upheaval of a world war have in the main left the original text of this book unaffected. Revision might seem desirable in three directions: statistics, airways, and frontiers. No advantage appears to be gained, however, by substituting one set of pre-war figures for another, and post-war statistics, even where available, would merely serve to demonstrate the abnormalities due to the disturbance of war. As the statistics given in the book are dated, they cannot mislead. Airways had not reached full development in 1939, but the main trends are bound to persist. It has seemed best to leave the pre-war routes unaltered, except in the few instances where modifications are known to have occurred. Frontiers are still in a state of flux. He would be a bold man who would venture to predict what the international boundaries eventually will be. Consequently, it has seemed best to make a few cautious modifications and to leave the rest for revision when world affairs have become more stable.