SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forma.] Our Silent Navy : Is it Forgotten ? (The Westminster Press. 6d.)—This volume, the first of a projected " Navy and Empire Series," contains the answers made by twenty-three writers on naval subjects and others to the question, " What do you con- sider the best means of creating amongst the general public a real interest and sympathy towards the Navy ?" Various answers are given. Mr. Rudyard Kipling says : " Make every one liable to serve." Captain Claud Harding would educate every one in naval matters. Mr. Arnold White would make the subject interesting, and suggests that when a ship that has gone through some special service is paid off, "private citizens might club together and give the crew a day's outing in London and a feast." Mr. Gerald Fiennes advocates the admirable idea of "counties" keeping their special cruisers. Colonel Alsager Pollock thinks that the Press "fails lamentably in its patriotic duty to the United Services," and that in consequence "the British public troubles itself very little indeed about the Navy, and not at all about the Army "—a hard saying, when one thinks of the columns of letters that we read in the Times—while, on the other hand, Mr. Julian Corbett, who speaks, it may be, from the point of view of a successful writer about naval men and things, believes that " the general public displays as much real interest and sympathy towards the Navy as it does towards anything else that is really interesting," and describes his attitude as " one of gratitude and satisfaction." Let us hope that he is right, for "A Naval Officer" thinks that, "despite the most able statesmanship, war is inevitable."
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