The Foundations of Strategy. By Captain H. M. Johnstone. (George
Allen and Unwin. 5s. net.)—Captain Johnstone, who is Military Lecturer in the University of Edinburgh, here gives us the very book that is needed by those who wish intelligently to follow the military operations now in progress. He lays down the fundamental principles of strategy, and illustrates them both from the history of past campaigns and from an " intelligent anticipation " of the great war which is beginning just as his book is published. His description of the rival doctrines in vogue, respectively known as " German " and " French," is most interesting : the German doctrine "leads to an immediate deployment as for battle, a sweeping advance on a, broad front, the idea being to roll the great machine onward, impose one's will upon the enemy, and not hesitate even when the hostile dispositions are only very imperfectly known." Captain Johnstone's criticism is that "physical features, and a hostile fortress or group of works, are apt to bring about gaps or crowding, and it is before these have been readjusted that an active enemy, armed with good intelligence, is likely to present himself?'
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