28 JUNE 1919, Page 21

Au Front Britannigue. Par J. Aulneau. (Paris : La Re-

naissance du Livre. 3 fr. 50 c., with temporary increase of 30 per cent.)—The larger part of M. Aulneau's excellent volume is devoted to the Australian Division in France and Belgium. The habits, character, and attitude of mind of the Anzacs in peace and war are described by a sympathetic and acute cbserver who does great justice to the many admirable qualities displayed by our Colonial troops in the field. He discovers a superficial roughness of manner, but he finds it more than compensated for by their downright and genuine friendliness, their humour, their sincerity, and their courage. There are some very vivid descriptions of life in French Flanders and of the mining operations near Bethune, of which Lieutenant Aulneom appears to have been an eyewitness. The style throughout is vigorous and lucid, and although we cannot help thinking that the various conversations reported as taking place between the French liaison officer and his Australian comrades are rather more polished and epigrammatic than is usual even in a rest camp, we are sure that the interlocutors will not object to having tlu ir mouths filled with good things ; the substance of the talk is un- doubtedly real, if the manner of it is more Latin than Anglo- Saxon. The book as a whoNs is especially interesting to any one personally acquainted with Australasian military men, and anxious to know how they appear to an ally who is not blinded liy the mists of affection, and has no blood ties or community of tastes and customs except those of loyal comradeship in action.