BOOKS ON THE WAR.*
Aartn the many new books about the war, the unpretentious volume which does not profess to describe military operations, but merely tells us how men and women behave in these convulsive moments of the world-process, has an irresistible charm for the layman. We are not sure, indeed, that posterity also will not treasure such a book as Mr. Will Irwin's impressions of France and Italy in war time ' more than a good many accounts of fighting which must necessarily be imperfect and based on second-hand information. For our part, we have read with keen enjoyment his sketches of daily life in Paris last year, of American ambulance men behind—but not far behind—the lines at Verdun, of the cheerful endurance of the townsfolk and villagers in the Eastern battle-zone, and of the Italian soldiers on the Isonzo or in the ice-bound solitudes of their Alpine stations. We have all heard of the telefericas or cableways by which the Italians provision their redoubts on moun- tain-peaks ten thousand feet high, but Mr. Irwin's account of his ascents and descents by these spider-webs makes one feel dizzy in reading it. The Italian Lieutenant with him induced him to talk about Shakespeare—it was the day after the Tercentenary—and poor Mr. Irwin found himself reciting the Sonnets and wondering at the same time how and where he should fall if the cable broke. His chapter on Paris in war time, though light in manner, is a touching t:ibute to the French people of all classes, whose whole heart is in the defence of their country. We like, too, his very frank study of the democratic French Army, in which individual-self-respect and military discipline are most perfectly blended, and in which promotion depends on efficiency alone and not on caste.
Mr. Beach Thomas' has written a capital account of the battle of the Somme, sketching it in broad outlines, dwelling on some of the more picturesque episodes—such as the Londoners' attack near Gommecourt or the Naval DivisiOn's amazing capture of Beaucourt —but abstaining from any attempt at a formal history, for which the time has not yet come. He illustrates the rapid developments of modern warfare that came about during this battle, not merely in the use of " Tanks," gas-shells, and so forth, but also in the evolution of the formless and indefinite lines of shell-holes which, when the orthodox German trenches had been battered into shapeless hollows, -served only too well to delay our advance. The fighting everywhere was terrible, but it vats worst of all in the six woods, to which ho gives a separate chapter.—What the Australians did at the Somme, and especially at Pozieres, is very well described by Mr. Bean,3 the Com- monwealth's " Eyewitness." They found France on the whole a sterner school of war than Anzac, though they had now the immense advantage of. being able to escape from the incessant shell-fire when they were behind the lines. After some preliminary practice in French raids at Armentieres, they went to the Somme- on July 22nd, took Pozieres and held it against unending bombardments and repeated mass-attacks. It is a wonderful story, and it is told with great spirit. Mr. Bean warns his readers that the Australian troops hate to be called " Anzacs," just as they hate being called " Colonials."—LordBeaverbrook'asecond volume 4 concerning the Canadians, which is written by him as the Canadian " Eyewitness," contains a most readable and workmanlike account of the long and titter struggles first at St. Eloi and then at Hooge, in the Ypres Salient, which ended a fortnight before the battle of the Somme began. We doubt whether many people realized at the time, or remember now, that the Salient was almost lost in this third battle of Ypres, and that the broken line was restored and maintained only by a stupendous effort on the part of the Canadians. The German attack at Hooge was intended, no doubt, to disturb our preparations for the Sozru-ne, but failed in its purpose, for Canada barred the way.
• (1) The Latin at War. By Will Irwin. London : Constable and Co. [6s. net.] —(2) With the British on the Somme. By W.Beach Thomas. London : Methuenand Co. [9s. net.)—(3) Letters from France. By C. E. W. Bean. London : CasseUand Co. 15e._ net.]—(4) Canada in Flanders. By Lord Beaverbrook. Vol. II. London : anddec and Stoughton. [1s. 3d. net.]—(5) The Invasion and the War In Belgian. By Leon Van der Essen. London: T. Fisher Unwin. (152. net.)—(9) Pictures vj Ruined Belgium. By Louis Berden. Text by G. Verdavaine. London : John Lana Fs. 64. am.}—(7) La Blade des Jean 4. Le COUila. Par Georges Le Bail. Paris : Perrin. [3 fr. 50 e.-1—(8) In afesopotamta. By Martin Swayne. London : Hodder and Stoughton. [5s. net.]—(9) The Straits Impregnable. By Sydney de. Loghe. London:. John Murray. [5s. net.]—(10) With the Turks in Palestine. By A. Aaronsohn. London : Constable and Co. [Is. net.}—(11) The Scene or War. By V. C. Scott O'Connor. London : W. Blackwood and Sons. [5s. net.1—(L2) The Ruhleben Prison Camp. By Israel Cohen. London : Methuen and Co. Us. ad. net.] —(13) Inside the German Empire. By H. B. Swope. London : Constable and Co. lbs. net.]—(14) Open Beals. By Alfred Noyes. Leaden; W. Blackwood and 40411. 12a seal Professor Leon Van der Essen, the accomplished historian of Louvain, has written the fullest and best account of the invasion of Belgium a that we have yet seen. Our daily reports at the time were confused and inaccurate, and the stupendous events of the last three years have obscured the significance of the Belgian campaign of August-October, 1914. We all know in a general way that the heroic resistance of the Belgians at Liege and on the Getto gave the French time to regroup their armies, in part at least, and enabled our Expeditionary Force to cross the Channel and take up position at Mons. This book shows in detail what the Belgians did, how this mere handful of men, pitted against count- less hordes of German Regulars of the best quality, fought one sharp rearguard action after another, as at Haden and Hout hem, till they had to retire upon Antwerp and leave the Allies to take up the task. The author gives a clear and dispassionate account of the siege and fall of Antwerp ; without entering into controversy, he suggests the bewilderment of the Allied authorities in face of an unforeseen crisis caused by the enemy's heavy siege-guns. His description of the retreat from Antwerp and of the desperate fighting on the Yser, where forty-eight thousand Belgians and French held back three German army corps and a reserve division, is excellent. The Kaiser of course was present at the final assault, and as usual had to go away disappointed. Professor Van tier Essen deals inci- dentally with the barbarous cruelties of the invaders—which our few Pacificists would have us forget and forgive. But the terrible story is treated at length in M. Verdavaine's new book,a printed in French and English, with seventy-two pen-and-ink sketches of the ruined towns which a Belgian architect, M. Berden, made on the spot after the German occupation. To any one who remembers Louvain or Dinant, those placid little survivals of the past, M. Borden's admirable drawings of their ruins will be inexpressibly painful ; but there could be no stronger evidence of German savagery " by order." No military reason could be assigned, for example, for burning the superb cathedral church at Louvain and sparing the town hall just across the square. M. Verdavaine's narrative of the massacres and outrages committed by the Huns is as temper- ately phrased as any right-minded man could make it.; but the cold- blooded slaughter of unarmed men, women, and children at one place after another, either " by order " or in brutal revenge for a defeat, would, if we did not know better, seem calculated to convince even a member of the British Socialist minority that for these horrid crimes there must and shall be retribution. With these Belgian books we may name the spirited little history of the Fusiliers-Alarins at Dixmude,7 which has been compiled by 31. Le Bail, the Deputy for Finistere. The Breton fishermen who are recruited for this Marine brigade call th&mselves and are called " Jean Le Gouin "—a corruption of " Jean Le Gwen," " Gwen " being Breton for " white "—much as our landsmen call a sailor Jack Tar. M. Le Collie has already told the world in poetic prose how the Fusiliers-Marins under Admiral Ronare'h held Dixinude in November, 1914, with six thousand men against fifty thousand Germans, until they were compelled to retire across the Yser. M. Le Bail tells the story in detail froalthe reminiscences and letters of his courageous Bretons, who kept the pass till all danger of the Yser line breaking was removed.
In a world-war there must be many " side-shows," as the irrev- erent term them, and we hear little of these minor but none the less important campaigns. For its novelty as well as for its literary merit, Mr. Martin Swayno's lively book on his experiences in Mesopo- tamia,* with coloured sketches by himself, should be read. Ho worked in a hospital at Basra during the winter of 1915-16, when the attempt to relieve Kut was being made, and afterwards up-river at Amara, where the conditions were better, save for the marauding Arabs.. A native interpreter told him that the Turks dare not have such hospitals, for then all their men would become sick ; " it is nicer to be in a hospital titan in a desert." But our men rarely yielded to the temptation to impose on a new doctor, in order to get a wash and a bed. The author gives a vivid picture of the discomforts of Basra in the hot season, with vapours from the marshes, myriads of. sand-flies, against Which mosquito-nets are of no avail, and very little ice, pure water, or fresh meat for the men newly arrived from England, who succumbed to the heat or the local fever. Things are much better now, but it is hard to believe that these difficulties might not have been foreseen and provided against. Mr. Swayne says nothing about the war, but a great deal about the country and the natives of whom we want to hear. The most famous of the " side-shows " is described in a curious autobio- graphy by Mr. De Loghe,2 who left his Gippsland farm, enlisted in the Australian artillery at a very early date, and went with the first contingent to Egypt, and-thence to Gallipoli, where he took part in the memorable and incredible landing. The common incidents of life at Anzac under the ceaseless fire arc related with evident fidelity, and though the book at times reads like fiction, it helps us to realize the position of the Australians, clinging to a mountainside for months and foiling every effort of the enemy to drive them into the sea. The state of affairs in Palestine at the outbreak of war is clearly explained by Mr. AarOnsohn,w a native of a European Jewish colony near Mount Carmel. He bought his discharge from
the Army, in which Christians and Jews were not allowed to bear arms, and returned home to find his Jewish village being plundered, even at that early date, by the Turks and Arabs. He blames the Allies for not landing in Palestine, where the Lebanon might have risen in their favour ; but the Allies of course were busy elsewhere. Meanwhile terrorism and the locusts seem to have undone such little progress as had been made in Palestine before the war. Mr. Scott O'Connor, who writes under tho name of " Odysseus," seems to have seen as many of the scenes of battle as any man could hope to do, and his collected impressions of Salonika and the Isonzo, the Somme and the Argonne, and Egypt, with a relative's account of Mesopotamia, make up a very readable book. We may single out his " Quiet Day in the Argonne," with his sketch of the war-worn French soldier—" In the first year of the war he used to ask when the war would end ; ho does not ask that question now. The granite is exposed. He knows the answer "- or the visit to a French cruiser, or the inspection of an Australian cavalry camp on the Egyptian frontier. Odysseus himself had no stranger or more varied experiences.
Mr. Cohenl= has written a very complete and interesting book on the Ruhleben prison camp, in which ho was interned for nineteen
months among thousands of other British civilians. He maintains a philosophic reserve about his hardships and sees the humorous side of camp life, but his indictment of the stupid harshness of the German officials is all the more effective for his moderation. He describes in detail the gradual organization of the camp—a set of racing stables—into a civilized community, with churches, debating- societies, classes and workshops, a theatre, sports of various kinds, and even a contested election in which the author was the Liberal candidate. All this was due to the energy, talent, and money of the prisoners themselves ; the Germans did nothing, and even had the meanness to charge them a rent of £120 a year for part of the disused racecourse as a games field. There are, indeed, no limits to the pettiness of the Hun.—Some useful information, mingled with much that is doubtful, about the state of Germany during last autumn may be found in Mr. Swope's new book,'3 which is largely taken from his letters to the New York World. Like the other American correspondents in Berlin, Mr. Swope was told and shown Precisely what the German Government wished him to hear and see. lVhen he wrote, America was still a neutral country and American newspapers like the World were still trying to put the case for either side as fully as possible. Probably Mr. Swope Would be a less indulgent critic of German official statements if he were to rewrite his book now. Yet the book is of interest, especially as a warning that Germany is by no means exhausted or penitent and that the Allies have a very great deal more to do before they conquer.
Lastly, let us call attention to Mr. Alfred Noyes's little volures,14 containing some terse narratives of German submarine outrages and several fine poems that seem like a breath of fresh clean air amid so much foulness. We are sorry for the Germans of the future, whose sea traditions will be for ever disgraced by these persistent murders of innocent merchant sailors, and passengers of all ages and both sexes, whereas our naval story alssjind.s in honest, brave men like Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to whom Dar. Noyes devotes his chief poem, " A Knight of the Ocean-Sea " :—
" But he called as he went= Keep watch and steer By my lanthorn at night ! ' Then he waved his hand With a kinglier watch-word, ` We are as near To heaven, my lads, by sea as by land ! ' "
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