With British Guns in Italy. By Hugh Dalton. (Methuen. 8s.
(id. net.)—Mr. Hugh Dalton's vividly written account of his experiences during eighteen months' service with a British siege battery on the Italian front will be read with interest as a supplement to more general and comprehensive works such as
those of Sir Sidney Low and Mr. George Trevelyan. The volume is dedicated " To the high cause of Anglo-Italian friend- ship and understanding "—a cause which the author, judging from his own personal observations, considers to have been substantially advanced by the sending of British batteries to Italy. Incidentally, we are made to feel the glamour east by Italy's atmosphere, scenery, and tradition over those who fought for and with her : war in Italy might be terrible, but it was never sordid. So strongly was Mr. Dalton impressed by the valour and loyalty of the Italian troops that, in his review of the causes which led to the retreat from Caporetto, he feels bound to dismiss the influence of German propaganda as a comparatively negligible quantity, assigning a heavy share of responsibility to the dispositions of the High Command. Inci- dents of the retreat are well described, and with the art which knows how to relieve a dark story by touches of humour.
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