Life at West Point. By H. Irving Hancock. (G. P.
Pntnam's Sons. 6s. net.)—Mr. Hancock offers to the leaders of his book a certificate of competence from the Superintendent of the Military Academy. He has seen West Point soldiers in the field, and he has studied the ways of the place on the spot. The general im- pression left by his narrative is that military education at West Point means business. Of details we do not feel ourselves com- petent to speak, but that the United States cadet is a very hard- worked person cannot be doubted for an instant. His hours are marvelously long ; they reverse the ordinary demand of Labour : it is an eight-hour day at West Point in the sense that eight are given to rest and sixteen to work. Advocates of military reform should study this book. The one root principle is that the Army must cease to be a happy hunting-ground for idlers.
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