18 DECEMBER 1915, Page 26

Italian Leaders of To-Day. By Helen Zimmerli. (Williams and Norgate.

5s. not.)—Italy of to-day and the men who are shaping her destinies, says Miss Zimmorn in her " Foreword," are too little known to the English, and there is no doubt much truth in that assertion. In order, therefore, to make us " familiar with the type of man who predominates in Italy to-day and with whom we have to reckon in the future," she has compiled. a number of short biographies of Italian leaders, beginning with King Victor, and including, among others, Signor Salandra,. the Prime Minister, Signor Sonnino, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the chiefs of the Italian Army and Navy. The book would have had a greater value if Miss Zimmern had shown more restraint. Studies of character demand a discriminating judgment, and her enthusiasm, for or against, is somewhat un- balanced. Where she praises she does so lavishly, and where she abuses—as in the case of Signor Giolitti--she does so with equal lavishness.