Adventures of War with Cross and Crescent. By Philip Gibbs
and Bernard Grant. (Methuen and Co. 2s. net.)—Mr. Gibbs represented the Graphic on the Bulgarian side and Mr. Grant represented the Daily Mirror on the Turkish side. The book which they have combined to produce does not profess to be a complete record of the history of the war. It is an account of the authors' personal experiences, and as such is a characteristic example of the work of modern war correspondents. No one will read it without gaining a more vivid conception of war, con- sidered, not as a page in the history of the world, but as an actual experience of real human beings. The two authors necessarily had very different views of the campaign. Mr. Gibbs's narrative is largely the tale of preparation and organization of the machinery of war, and of its effects upon the non-combatant members of society. He is constantly engrossed, too, in a serio- comic dispute with the Bulgarian censorship authorities, and though he succeeded eventually in reaching the firing line at Adrianople, tragedy is not overwhelmingly present in his story. With Mr. Grant the ease was very different, for he actually witnessed the Turkish retreat from Lula Burgas, and was at Tchatalja at the height of the cholera epidemic. His story is at least as horrifying as this would seem to imply. The remark- able photographs of the debacle add greatly to the interest of the book, especially one which shows the broken and panic- stricken Turkish troops crossing a bridge in the course of their retreat.
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