30 NOVEMBER 1934, Page 6

The Passchendaele debate is, I hope, dying down. Pending some

new efflux of controversial allegations, we can well afford to wait for the contributions the very responsible biographers of Lord Haig and Lord Plumer will be able to make. But it is a curious and unfortunate coincidence—so far as I know, a perfectly genuine one—that the Official History of the War, having reached the end of 1916, is now to jump to the beginning of 1918, leaving the story of 1917 to be told later. It is in regard to the events of 1917 that a measured and considered narrative is indispensable.