7 JUNE 1902, Page 22

The Passing of the Flagship, and other Stories. By Major

W. P. Drury. (A. H. Bullen. 3s. 6d.)—The Marine who tells some of these stories is not unworthy to be ranked with Mr. Kipling's infantry of the Line. Possibly he exaggerates the privilege accorded to his branch of the Service, but his tales are un- questionably effective. In that from which the volume takes its title, at the very moment when the flagship sinks with all its crew, he sees a ghostly boat come to fetch the men who were buried in the cemetery of Marmarice. "A Treaty with France," though not told by Private Padgitt, is a good specimen of the same kind.