17 JANUARY 1920, Page 22

The Conquerors of Palestine through Forty Centuries. By Major H.

0. Lock. (R. Scott. 7s. 6d. net.)—Major Lock has produced a readable sketch of a large subject, with a brief Introduction by Lord Allenby, the latest of the conquerors whose work he describes. An outline like this emphasizes the fact that the natives of Palestine were almost invariably passive spectators of the wars which decided their fate ; in the cases of the Maccabee revolt against the House of Seleucus and the Jewish revolt against Rome, Judaea alone was involved. Pales- tine has been a highway and not the permanent home of an independent nation. The map attached to the book is ingeniously contrived to illustrate the many periods of history on which Major Lock touches.