SOME WAR BOOKS. * It - , war honours aro the test of

a regiment's right to have its history written and rewritten, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers r stand the test in one sense better than any other regiment in the Army. No other regiment which has normally consisted of only one battalion has played its part in so many battles. The Royal Welsh Fusiliers were raised by William III. on the Marches of Wales and fought at the Boyne. They, afterwards served at Namur, BlenheiM, Oudenarde; Dettingen, Fontenoy, Minorca, Minden, in the American War of Independence, in Martinique, in St. Domingo,. at Copenhagen, in the Peninsular War, at Waterloo, in .theCrimea, and in the Mutiny. Wo may notice two points which are often discussed in connexion with this regiment—the spelling of the name, and the wearing of the " flash,", or three pieces of black ribbon, at the back of the tunic-collar. The regiment itself prefers. the spelling " Welch," which appears in an old document, and has a pleasant touch of antiquity and a sentimental tradition. But the War Office does not recognize this spelling at all, and so in the end very likely authority will in and the " c " will disappear.. All the same, we like the old spelling, and hope the regiment will put • ,(1) The Story of the Rept Welsh Fusiliers. By H. Array Tipping, M.A, F.S.A. London (lcorge Netrnes. [7s. &l. nci.1—(?) The Kole-Boa: of an AttltrhE : &ern Months in the War Zone. By Erie Fisher Wood. IHnstrated. London: Grant Richards. [as. net.]—(3) The Great World )Par: a History. Edited by Frank A. Mumby. Parts London : The Gresham rah- 'island (b. lbs. Cal. net each part.]—(4) Field Gunnery : a Practical Manual Prepared with .Special Reference to the Heavies. By Donald A. Macallster. Leaden: John Murray. flu. Bd. net.]----(h) Op Talirg Bearing.. By it. P. Walsh. Same publisher. tts. tut.j

up a fight for it, as they did for their flash with great success..

In former days all regiments used a bow at the back of the collar to hold in position the queue or pigtail. " Flash " and " caxon " were the current words to describe the whole arrange-

ment of the wig or hair and its fastenings. The pigtail was discarded in the Army in 1808,•but the Twenty-third (the Welsh

Fusiliers) were the last regiment to give it up, and they retained their black ribbon at the back of the neck, perhaps in pious memory. In 1834, when the regiment returned from Gibraltar, the inspecting General noticed the flash, asked what it meant, said that it was not provided for in the regulations, and ordered its discontinuance. The Twenty-third appealed, and are the only regiment to wear it to-day.

Mr. E. F. Wood,2 an American citizen, was studying archi- tecture at the Beaux Arts in Paris when the war broke out.

He offered his services at the American Embassy, and was placed in charge of Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians interned in France. Afterwards he acted as messenger between the Embassy and variout capitals, and saw something of the fighting. He came across no evidence of German atrocities in France, but was only too well convinced of them in Belgium. Thera were traces, however, of an ill-conditioned spirit among the German invaders of France that was very significant of their frame of mind. In one house in which he stayed china and plate had been thrown in heaps in the corner of the dining-room after they had been used for a meal. The heaps were in a kind of series, each complete in itself ; after every one of a succession of meals

the tablecloth had evidently been simply lifted up and everything on it had been thrown on to the floor. This, as the author says, was German " efficiency " in clearing a table. He himself

suffered some personal violence and much annoyance and petty persecution when carrying his despatches in Germany. His remarks on the battle of the Marne are the most curious in the book. His opinion is that von Kluek's defeat was not in any sense the key to the Franco-British victory. Von Kluck, he says, did all that ho was set to do, and the German retreat was solely duo to the defeat of the principal German attack at Fere Champenoise. He does not mention the dramatic arrival of the Army of Paris, whiclrhad been secretly prepared by General Gallieni, and was sent to the field in taxi-cabs.

We have before us Parts VL, VII., and VIII. of The Great World Wer,3 which is edited by Mr. Frank H. Mumby, and to

which Messrs. E. A. Vizetelly, David Hannay, Claude Grahame-

White, E. S. Grew, and others are contributors. These parts contain a clear narrative of some of the trench fighting in

Flanders, of a period of the submarine warfare, of Neuve Chapelle, of the Galician campaign, of the Gallipoli landings, of the sinking of the Lusitania,' and of much else. There is no absurd attempt to reach dogmatic conclusions on insufficient evidence. The history is a handsome production, with many interesting illustrations, chiefly from photographs.

Mr. D. A. Macalister's Field Gunnery' deserves a special word of praise. He observes that in gunnery field formulae and methods are never explained. The young gunner is expected to burden his mind with formulae as though they were a kind of mystic prescription which could not be explained and must necessarily be learned by heart. But as Mr. Macalister says, the elements of gunnery, being only common-sense, can be reached by a process of reasoning of which all young gunners ought to be capable. The use of field formulae can be gradually acquired as the meaning of them becomes -clear. After all, there is no deep mystery about gunnery, and the rules can all be clarified to a greater degree than is possible in, say, astronomy.

On Taking Bearings,' by H. P. Walsh, is another of Mr. John Murray's series of military handbooks. This is also an essay

in clarification, and explains, with diagrams and in the simplest possible language, the taking of hearings, the use of the pro- tractor and the prismatic compass, and so on.