Shorter Notices
IN these days when the pattern is so much more highly regarded than the patterned this book is sure of a wide reading and for the nonce it is thoroughly justified. It never loses its interest. and yet, in dealing with a difficult and delicate phase of the war. it maintains an unusual measure and balance. It is not, of course a set history, even such history as may be written hot on the heels of events ; but it covers the campaigns of Wavell in Libya, in East Africa, in Greece and Crete and in Syria, and provides a general survey that adds much to the knowledge even of those whose business it is to follow the campaigns most closely. Bo' of all it gives the background against which all of them figured, and this, though vivid and gripping, rarely fails to convince one of its essential accuracy. There is not one of these episodes that does not challenge criticism and the critic must stand or fall by the quality and accent of his criticism. Mr. Moorehead passes that test very well indeed and this may, perhaps, best be indicated by the words with which he sums up his account of Wavell's farewell to the Middle East : " There went out of Cairo and the Middle East that afternoon one of the great men of the war." They are true beyond a doubt ; but it is much that they should be set down after a study of a series of campaigns that seemed, superficially, to halt when they should have gone forward under a 'General who ventured when it might seem wiser to have held his hand.
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