General Smuts' Campaign in Kan Africa. By Brigadier-General J. 11.
V. Crowe. (John Murray. 10s. 6d. net.)—This book is by far the best account yet published of the East African campaign of 1916, in which the author commanded the artillery. It does justice both to the able and resolute strategy of General Smuts, and to the fine spirit of the British, South Afrioen, Indian, and native troops, who endured incredible hardships in the long flank marches through dense bush by which they repeatedly upset the energy's plans. The former German colony is -twice as large as Germany. It was defended by a German sad native force estimated to number thicty thousand men. Yet in ten menthe the enemy was hustled out of all the most habitable districts and penned up in the-south- eastern comer, with neither a port nor a town of any size to call his own. The difficulties of transport and the ravages of sickness were far more serious than the opposition of a well-armed and determined enemy. General Smuts in his Introduction says that in three months he had over twelve thousand cases, mostly of malaria, removed from hospitals-along the Central Railway alone. In two months the force used up thirty-three thousand five hun- dred transport animals. Motor-lorries were the only transport to be depended upon, but the task of making roads in the hills and the endless swamps was heartbreaking. Yet, thanks to the com- mander's driving-power, the work was done. General Crowe's maps, though imperleoi, are much 'better than any we have yet seen, and enable the reader to understand the skilful moves in the second stage of the campaign south of the Central Railway. General Smuts' enveloping movements were not a complete success, because the columns could not move swiftly enough in such a country ; but he inanasuvred the enemy out of one prepared position after another, if he could not catch him.
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