30 JULY 1932, Page 24

Current Literature

THE BRITISH WAY IN WARFARE By Captain Liddell Hart In military matters Captain Liddell Hart is the brilliant heretic who would dethrone Clausewitz and Foch and revert to Marlborough, Marechal Saxe, the young Napoleon and Sherman as true masters of strategy. He puts his views with exceptional clarity in his new volume of essays, The British Way in Warfare (Faber, 12s. 6d.). He begins with a suggestive paper on " The Historic Strategy of Britain "—the use of combined land and sea forces and the avoidance of Continental land campaigns—which was almost utterly forgotten in the late War. He enforces the moral in " The Fallacy of French Strategy " and " The Signpost that was Missed "—namely, Grant at Vicksburg and Sherman's march through Georgia as the main factors in the defeat of the Confederate States. His " Strategy Reframed," embodying eighteenth-century principles with modern instances, is an able and impressive piece of writing. Captain Liddell Hart goes on to discuss the future of armaments and their probable use, with much technical information about mechanized infantry and artillery and about the value of aircraft in police work on the frontiers and elsewhere. His account of recent develop- ments in the British and Italian Armies is particularly well- informed. It should be added that the author, like most soldiers, is essentially a man of peace. But " rational paci- ficism must be based on a new maxim—' if you wish for peace, understand war.' " His attractive and thoughtful book will certainly help the layman to comprehend the mili- tary problems which the Disarmament Conference has to face.