28 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 6

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK TN the course of the next year

or so we shall have some- .' thing like adequate material for considered judgements on the history of the last two years of the War. Mr. Lloyd George has just given us his picture of the first half of 1917. His fourth volume, taking us into the last phase, is due next month. Then the soldiers and sailors on whom he passes such scathing strictures will put their case. Lord Jellicoe's book is* already announced. He and Lord Carson have both made their defences—not very convincingly—in the past week in the Morning Post, but the coming volume, The Submarine Peril : The Admiralty Policy in 1917, will no doubt be the real apologia. More important, because covering a field where controversy is fiercer, is Mr. Duff Cooper's life of Earl Haig, which is well advanced, but not, I believe, likely to be ready this year. If it comes anywhere near the literary standard of Mr. Cooper's Talleyrand it will be something on a very high level. This is by no means all. I know of two More coming volumes, one by a soldier, the other by a politician, on the events of 1917. The former in particular is likely to be detailed and authoritative—and will challenge some of Mr. Lloyd George's theses sharply. Out of the literary contention some new deposit of objective truth may emerge.