THE SECOND YEAR OF TT1 - 51 WAR.• IN a former volume
Senhor Ayres d'Ornellae had given a remarkable summary of the war from August, 1914, to August, 1915. The present book carries the story a year further. Its three hundred pages contain a concise, clear, and substantial account of politics and military action on all the fronts, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Few writers could have embraced so much without becoming hurried and confused, but the author shows himself always in command of his subject, and finds time for interesting comments by the way. He was evidently unable to correot the proofs of the last fifty pages, but the misprints are altered in an Errata list. (It is almost with regret that we find Hen Zimmermann. and Sir Hosea Smith-Dorrien corrected to Herr and Horace.) In his account of the Dublin Rebellion of Easter, 1916, the author realizes that the " Irish Republic " was not a Republic of the Irish people, but an alien institution made largely in Germany. It is a humiliating thought to Irishmen that a foreigner with less insight and less well informed might have drawn a different conclusion, and persuaded himself and his readers of the disloyalty of the Irish people. As a soldier, Senhor Ayres d'Ornellas deals sternly and pungently with the habit of compromises characteristic of the professional politician, to which, indeed, he attributes nod only the Irish disaster, but all the misfortunes of the Allies. It is impossible to accompany the author through all the multifarious events chronicled in this volume. He pays tribute to the skill, courage, and energy of Sir John French, and to the far-sighted
• 0 Segundo Anne da Guerra (Agoeto de 1915 a itgosto de 1916). Porto : Magalbies sad Monis.
views of General Botha and General Smuts, and he describes in detail the battle of Jutland, " a great German defeat," after which " the relative inferiority of her Fleet became greater than before." His denunciation of German aims and methods is as clear and uncompromising as in his earlier book. He notes her platonic protestations " (p. 111) to the neutral nations when she sinks their ships, her complicity in the massacres of Armenians (p. 219), her " infernal " exploration of conquered territories (p. 173), and dwells ironically on the brilliant future that would await small nations in the event of a German victory. He describes Verdun as a victory of the spiritual over the material, and regards the whole war as a struggle against materialism, represented by Germany, a materialism which in the long run cannot possibly prevail. The first chapter, entitled " Portugal and the War," makes it clear that there was never a question whether Portugal should join the Allies, but that there was difference of opinion as to how her forces and resources might best be utilized. Some Portuguese still hold that her military action should have been confined to Africa, and that a really well trained and equipped Portuguese expedition to East Africa would have made it un- necessary for Great Britain to send fresh troops thither in 1917. The author pronounces himself against the sending of a Portuguese army to the Western Front, since it could not materially affect the issue. This question, however, was decided two years ago, and it only remains for Portugal to act up to the decision. Fortunately for her credit, President Sidonio Pees is determined to reinforce and support to the utmost the Portuguese army sent to France in 1917. The future of Portugal, as the author recog- nizes, is not less at stake than that of the British Empire. Of Great Britain he exclaims that " the prodigious effort, the incom- parable national sentiment, which had called out the colossal figure of five million volunteers was not enough ! " And Portugal also must be, and will be, prepared to sacrifice her last man in order to avert an economic and moral slavery in comparison with which present sufferings are almost negligible.
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