10 AUGUST 1918, Page 21

The True Story of Alsare-Lorraine. By E. A. Vizetelly. (Chatto

and Windus. 10s. 6d. net.)—This is a very readable book, describing Alsace-Lorraine and relating the history of the Provinces in con- siderable detail. No fair-minded reader will fail to be convinced that the inhabitants were and are thoroughly French at heart, and that the Provinces must be restored to France. Mr. Vizetelly reminds us that in 1815 Prussia and Bavaria annexed seventy-two communes, mainly in the Sarre Valley, including Sarrelouis, the birthplace of Marshal Ney. At Ney's trial after the Restoration his counsel tried to argue that, as his birthplace had been ceded to the foreigner, he was not amenable to a French Court. But Ney protested vio- lently: "No! No I I accept none of that. I am a Frenchman and I will die .one." There is very considerable historical justification, then, for the proposal that the Sarre Valley should be restored with Alsace-Lorraine as they were in 1871.