6 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 28

FOUR DAYS By Gerald Spencer Pryee

What invasion means to a peaceful country in producing general confusion as well as much individual hardship is well shown in Mr. Gerald Spencer Pryse's Four Bays (John Lane, 7s. 6d.). It describes vividly and wittily a journey. that he made by car from Boulogne to Paris between August 28th and August 81st, 1914. The British and French armies were retreating southward. Northern France was almost denuded even of French Territorials, and Iffilans were roaming about where they pleased. The roads were blocked with convoys and with multitudes of desperate villagers fleeing from the enemy. Near St.- Pol the narrator found a Couple of British soldiers who had lost their way after MORS. At intervals he ran into the edge of skirmishes between German and French detachments, and he found the Britith troops in the Forest of Compiegne. Amiens at that date was being evacuated, and Lille with its immense army stores had been abandoned. Nothing could better illustrate the Collapse of the original French plan of campaign than this simple narrative. Mr. Pryse perhaps embroiders here and there in reports of conversations, but his story of that adventurous drive is eitremely well told. .