20 OCTOBER 1928, Page 41

General Maynard shows in his Murmansk Venture (Hodder and Stoughton,

20s.) that the original purpose of the British expedition to North-West Russia in 1918-19 was to set up a new Eastern front which should relieve the pressure on the West, and prevent the Germans seizing and making the ice-free port of Murmansk into a submarine base. The author's clear and direct narrative is addressed particularly to the non-military reader who will appreciate the General's many difficulties with Bolshevik propaganda among the troops, with transport, local labour and the shortage of cash to pay it, the fierce climate, and the heterogeneous force with which he had to operate.