June 2^, T917 
LAND & WATER 
'J ( 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw j 
THERE come times when one is bemused by much 
reading about the war — its causes, its conduct and 
its aims — sidehghts, headhghts and flashlights on 
the war, and one is inchned to say : " Away with 
all this talk about it and about. We know what we are 
hghting and what we are fighting for. • In such an emergency 
as this it is not words that are wanted but deeds. Words 
befog the issue and unnerve the arm. Let us destroy the 
evil thing that menaces us and then we can settle dowm in 
peace and talk to our hearts content." This is a natural but 
surely not a right attitude. It is an impatience bred of 
latigue or of an incapacity for hard thinking. Much that 
is published we could no doubt do without (especially those 
of us to whose lot it falls to read most of it), but it is often 
unwise to say of any particular book that it is of no use when 
it m.ay act either as a reminder, an instructor, a stimulus or a 
whetstone to some other class of readers. Moreover, we' 
cannot all be figliting and those that fight are not fighting 
ail the time. It behoves us to spare what time we can to 
study the problems, immediate and prospective, that the war 
has created. Alertness of mind is ohviousiy as necessary to- 
day as alertness of body. 
Many of us may even need to be reminded continually 
why we are at war. Such a book as Odon Halasi's Belgium 
Under the German Heel (Cassell and Co., 6s. net), reminds us 
of more than that. It reminds us that the cause of war is 
still operative. The author is, so we are informed, a prominent 
Hungarian journalist who was given facilities for seeing by 
what methods German Kultur is being imposed on the 
l-5elgians, and who in a book appropriately decorated on the 
frontispiece with a picture of Burgomaster Max gives a 
restrained but telling description of an attempt to enslave 
the soul of a proud people. The book opens with a portrait 
of the spirited Burgomaster of Brussels ; it finishes with a 
charmmg little picture in words of Cardinal Mercier. 
***** 
Another thing that we ought to furnish ourselves with 
is the means to appraise properly the efforts of our Allies. 
VVe ought, therefore, to be particularly grateful to Mr. Herbert 
Vivian for his comprehensive study of Italy at War (J. M. 
Dent and Sons, 6s. net). We are inclined to take too little ' 
account of Italy's intervention and to forget what a large 
clement of truth there is in Mr. Vivian's statement that 
" Italy saved Europe when she took the civilised side." 
We are inclined, too, relying on maps that are bound from 
the very nature of her two theatres of war to be inadequate, 
to underestimate the scope of her efforts. With a book 
like Mr. Vivian's before us we have no further excuse for such 
ignorance of our gallant Ally. He makes us vividly ac- 
quainted with all her war activities from those of her fighting 
monarch and General Cadorna, to those of the ordinary' 
soldier in the trenches or on the mountain heights. Nor does 
he confine himself to the war. There are sketches abounding 
in humour of everyday life in Italy, such as " The Mystery 
ot Macaroni," or the extremely interesting description of the 
sport of pigeon-catching at Cava dei Tirreni, which was intro- 
duced by the Longobards in 892 and has flourished ever 
since. Italy at War is an unusually entertaining and informing 
livre de circonstance. 
***** 
The causes of the war and its incidents ^re not, save in the 
latter case to the General Staff, the subjects which need the 
closest application of the conscientious citizen. What we 
are fighting for, the aims of the war, and the means of securing 
them, should be eontimially and carefully considered from 
eveiy point of view. Here' we need the most patient and 
well-mformed thought, and here we afe most apt to get 
impatient for the destructive clement in our objective is so 
much more obvious and urgent than the constructive. I must 
admit that I read Mr. Eowes Dickinson's The Choice Before 
Us (George Allen and Unwin, 6s. net), with considerable 
impatience. His aloof attitude towards the beUigerent 
parties, as of the erstwhile John Chinaman, irritated me. 
His clean cut between the militarist and the pacifist position 
seemed to me more logical than real. Yet there is no denying 
his highmindedness and the clearness of his thought. He 
pleads with the English pacifists to realise, from French 
inspiration, that pacificism, as he sees it, " is notan obstruc- 
tion, a refusal. It is the fire at the heart of the world." 
He has definite and well-considered views as to how the future 
peace of mankind can be secured and, as no one can desire 
to go back to the status quo with all that it implies of re- 
cuirent catastrophes on the scale of the present war, his 
views deserve attention even, or perhaps, more especially 
by those who, like myself, do not like the tone in which they 
are uttered. I do not wish in this necessarily brief note oil 
an impjnant book to bias anyone against the author by my 
personal impressions, so let me quote one sentence from the 
preface to show Mr. Lowes Dickinson starts from ground 
common to the great mass of his countrymen : "I agree ~ with 
the general view that, after the invasion of Belgium, it 
wculd have been neither right nor wise for us to abstain." 
* « * * * ■ 
'Another book with somewhat similar aims to The Choice. 
Before Us is Mr. Arthur Capel's Refections on Victory, to which 
he adds the optimistic sub-title •■ And how to secure it noio" 
(T. Werner Laurie, 2s. net). The author tells us that the book, 
was written in France after eighteen months' service. It is 
a hearty denunciation of the old system of the Balance of 
Power and an urgent pleading for a Federation of Europe. 
Mr. Capel suggests the caUing now of a convention of the Allies 
and the British Dominions to draft a scheme of Federation, 
iind argues that no greater ^blow could be struck at Prussian 
militarism. The interest of the book is enhanced by historical 
retrospect, and as an introduction Henry IV. 's Grand 
Dessein is quoted from Sully's Memoirs. Are we measur- 
ably nearer the accomplishment of that'grcat vision ? 
***** 
Here is a first novel that should attract readers, for the 
author has in him the root of the matter of story-telling. 
Naomi of the Mountains, by Christopher Culley (Cassell and 
Co., 6s. net), arrests attention at the outset by its picture of 
the down-at-heel Englishman in the saloon "of Finos Altos 
and holds it throughout — an exciting tale of cowboys, Indians 
and Mexican bandits, with for feminine interest the solitary 
figure of a mad missionary's daughter. I have not enjoved 
a tale of this type so much since 1 read The Deerslayer, which 
, I think was the last of Fennimore Cooper's books I re-read. 
Not that the book is by any means flawless, even looked on as 
a moving (I had almost said " movy ") tale, and it has greater 
ambitions than that. It shows continuallv the apprentice 
hand, particularly in a marked uncertainty of direction. The 
reader is too often taken by a surprise that is not quite 
intended. This is especially the case with the not uninterest- 
ing characterisation. Mr. " Culley, for example, plays the 
rather dangerous game of leaving the reader in doubt as to 
which of two persons he wishes to secure the most sympathv, 
and, whether intentionally or not, I could not be quite certain, 
blows now hot, now cold, upon their characters. I fancy 
this is laVgely a matter of construction, and that much of the 
uncertainty would not have existed had the rescuing cowbov 
been introduced to the reader before his chum, the rescued 
Englishman. I look with interest for Mr. Culley's next. 
* . * * * « 
How it would appear on the stage I know not, but Dr. 
Marie C. Stope's play Conquest or a Piece of Jade (Samuel 
French, Ltd., is. net), is a little crude for reading. Some of 
the scenes have a certain effectiveness, notably the recruiting 
scene in a far-away station in Australia, but the machinery 
of the German prisoner-spy would require extremely con- 
vincing altering to take off the rough edges of the melodrama, 
and we fear that the 'heromc's peace-league heroics would be 
boring. For all that, there is a " certain liveliness," and an 
intense sincerity in the play. 
_ \ society for promothig the stiidv of French literature in 
this country is being formed by a number of iidtnirers of our 
gallant Ally, and it is hoped to hold a series of meetings next 
wiuter for the di.scussiou of the works of great French writers. 
Student.s of the French language and literature who desire fur- 
ther particulars should communicate with : Mr. VV. G. Hislop, 
Co, Muswell Koad, N.io. 
GOGGLES 
WJHD- SCREENS 
<ScWSNDOW5 
\ ,.^<5^i^ •:y 
* THE ONUY 
SAFETY CLASS 
