SOME BOOKS OF TIIE WEEK.
[Under this heading Are +miles such Books of the week as hare not teen resertecl for retire) in other forms.] Imperial Defence and Closer Union. By Howard d'Egville. With a Preface by Colonel the Right Hon. J. E. B. Seely, and an Introduction by Rear-Admiral Sir Charles L. Ottley. (P. S. King and Son. 7s. 6d. net.)—The sub-title of this book—" A short record of the life-work of the late Sir John Colomb in connexion with the movement towards Imperial Organization"—gives an excellent idea of its scope. Mr. Howard d'Egville's history of Sir John Colomb's efforts at securing the better organization of Imperial Defence leaves nothing to be desired, and he has added to it some admirable general observations of a theoretical character upon the same subject. He insists especially upon the necessity for com- bining some form of Imperial Representation with any system of Imperial Defence, and he himself makes some suggestions as to a possible basis of such a scheme. The same point is emphasized by Sir Charles Ottley in the course of his interesting introduction. "Unless," he says, " the defensive league between ourselves and the Oversell Dominions is to disappear with the lapse of time, and the growth in the Dominions of the sense of nationality, it is urgently important that a way should be found as quickly as possible for reconciling the very natural desire of these young.
connuunities for a voice in the shaping of the Foreign Policy of the Empire, and for a control over their now rapidly growing espentliture on defence, with the fundamental strategic principle of single control in war on which every seaman and strategist naturally insists." Tho whole subject is cam which cannot bo too often discussed.
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