Road to Ghana

190 pp. Alfred Hutchinson is one of the accused in South Africa's notorious mass treason trials, from which he escaped by fleeing the country when the prosecution temporarily withdrew the indictment. His book about his flight is imbued with the suspense under which every step of it was taken. Indictment withdrawn, were the prisoners free' None of them knew. It seemed urgent that Alfred Hutchinson get beyond reach of government, especially as he , a colored, was in love with a white woman and might be arrested for even being seen with her. So they laid their plans to escape, separately. But they had to set as their goal the new nation of Ghana, three thousand miles north, for nowhere short of there could they feel secure. Every stage of his journey by train, bus, truck, plane, boat, and foot Mr. Hutchinson makes fascinating. In spite of the ever present tension, in spite of never knowing when he may be caught or when he may hear that his beloved Hazel has been caught, he keeps his optimism , his love of life, his enjoyment of new friends - even when he is indeed imprisoned for two weeks in Tanganyika, a sojourn he makes delightfully vivid. When at last stout friends arrange air passage for his lap to Ghana, the reader is ready to cheer and weep simultaneously. There is a pleasing gentleness in Mr. Hutchinson's writing, a calmness of temper, possibly a reflection of the many harassed peoples he meets on his road, and of their forbearance. The author gets to Ghana, and one has a feeling the peoples of Africa too will get where they are going.