25 AUGUST 1917, Page 17

Professor Knatschke. Collected and Illustrated by Hanoi. Translated by R.

L. Crewe. (Hodder and Stoughton. Is. Gal. net.) —The subtle wit of the Alsatian Rama," in his satirical writings mod drawings, was admitted by the German Government itself, long before the war, to be a real danger to its rule in Alsace. No one else loss ridiculed the heavy and conceited Prussian so cleverly. The Alsatian knows all his enemy's weaknesses, and exposes them so blandly and adroitly that many Germans used to buy and laugh over his books, although " Flansi " had been prosecuted for liee-Mtl, efg. The pompous and hypocritical Knatschke, who

• isited Paris to gloat over the worst resorts, and his sly and prudent daughter Elsa, who carries a Christmas keepsake, ready made, in her bag in case sloe should become engaged during her stay in .Alsace, are portrayed to the life in this excessively amusing book, which well deserved translation. The author, M. Waltz, has bemi Serving in the French Army throughout the war.