SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[tinder this heading we notice such Books of the weak as has. not been re served for review in other forms.] Why Britain is at War. By Sir Edward Cook. (Macmillan and Co. 2d.)—We hope that this clear and admirable state- ment of "the causes and the issues" of the present war will be read by all who have any lingering doubt on the matter. The speeches of Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey are only fully intelligible in the light of the diplomatic correspondence which was recently issued as a White Paper (Miscellaneous—No. 6, 1914). It is not every one who has both the time and the ability to master this vitally important document, and Sir Edward Cook has done most useful ser- vice in summarizing its facts. He shows how "a crisis which began by the determination of Austria (backed by Germany) to apply brute force against the independence of a small State in South-Eastern Europe came to a bead, so far as Britain is concerned, by the determination of Germany (in alliance with Austria) to ride rough-shod over the neutrality of a small State in North-Western Europe." We are fight- ing in defence of the principle of international good faith, and in maintenance, not only of our own national honour, but of the independent existence of every small State in the world which might incite the greed of a purely militarist and dishonest Power.
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