26 MARCH 1927, Page 39

THE STORY OF THE WORLD AT WAR. By M. 13.

Synge, F.R.Hist.S. (Blackwood. 5s.)—It seems something of an achievement to have got the history of the Great War into 200 pages. But in the first seventeen of them the following inaccuracies appear : William II was not " aged but 30 " when he became German Emperor in 1888, nor was Franz Josef ever Emperor of Austria-Hungary ; the great Bismarck was not a Count in 1890 ; there was no Orange River Colony in 1899 ; Paardeburg is an ignorant misspelling ; and to call Pretoria " the .treasure-house of Africa ''is simply pha making nonsense. With such samples before us we greatly fear for the bulk.