The Press Saturday, February 23, 1918. The Perfect Partnership.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16144, 23 February 1918, Page 8

The Press Saturday, February 23, 1918. The Perfect Partnership.

.There have been fow Tenters in modern times of -whom it could in truth bo said that thoir doath dimmed the gaiety of the nation. But that eulogium could indeed bo pronouncod upon the late Miss Violet Martin, known to a world of readers by her pen-name "Martin Ross," 00-autlior with her cousin Miss E. (E. Somerville of that truly delightful series of books that, beginning with "An .Irish Cousin," included "Some "Experiences of an Irish "Furt " ther Experiences," 'The Real Chart "lotte," "All on the Irish Shore," and "Somo Irish Yesterdays," and came to an end with "In Mr Knox's Country." Those books, with several others of less popularity, were the product of a. literary partnership for which, it has been claimed, no parallel can be found in fiction for its perfect unanimity. The partners were members of old. Irish families, the history of the Martins of ! Galway going far back in Irish annals, while the Somervilles settled in West Cork in the days of Cromwell. The two ladies did not meet until they woro grown -up, but in their gifts and tastes they had much common, and their acquaintance grew into a friendship broken only by tho lamented death of Miss Martin some two years ago. Of that friendship, and the collaboration that resulted from it, Miss Somerville tells us in a charming book, "Irish " Memories," published just before ( Christmas. "The. doctrine that sincere " friendship is only possible between " men dies hard," she says. "The outstanding fact, as it seems to me, "among women who live by their > "brains, is friendship, a profound ! "friendship that extends through i " every phase and aspect of life, intelj ( '*'loctual, social, and pecuniary." Else- ; where she BDoaks <jf her cousin as "the

" best comrade and the gayest playboy " and the faitbfullest friend that ever " camo to turn labour to pastime, and " lifo into a song." In most literary partnerships it is not difficult to trace tlio hand, now of one, now of the other, of the partners. It is possible, or so the reader ber lieves, to put one's finger on passages D ' of "The Wrecker," and say "This is Stevenson," or "This is Lloyd Osbourno," to separate Kipling's share in "The Xaulakha," from Walcott Balestier's, and to detect the individual contributions in the books resulting from the husband-and-wife partner- ( ships of the "Williamsons and the Askews. But it has always been impossible to say which of these two cousins was responsible for any particular part of any one of the brilliant j books that made their partnership the i_ most notable of recent years. For a considerable time, indeed, before the h sex and relationship of the 'writers I:e- - known, it was believed that cne wrote the books and the other illustrated them. Miss Somerville had indeed intended to be an artist, and studied long as an art student at Dusseldorf and Paris. The time was not wasted, as her illustrations in the books show. In "Irish Memories" Miss Somerville, referring to an enquiry as to the secret of the ideal collaboration, says: "The question "put by this lady, as to which of us "held the pen, has ever been con--71 sidercd of the greatest moment, aiid, 77 as a matter of fact, during our many n years of collaboration, it was a "point that never entered our minds ""'to consider. To those who may le " interested in an unimportant detail, " I may 6ay that our work was dene "conversationally. Ono or the other " —not infrequently both, simultane- " ously—would state a proposition. "This would be argued, combated per''haps, approved,, or modified: it would " then be written down by the (wholly " fortukous) holder of tho pen, wo;ild | "be scratched out, scribbled in again; ' "before it found itself finally trans- , " ferred into decorous MS. would i "probably have, suffered many things, ""but it would, at all events, have had "the advantage of having been well "aired." It was an extraordinai-y system, or lack of system, but literary methods can only bo judged by their results, and in this case the result was a succession of books that made an appreciative world of readers hold its sides. It would be idle to. discuss here the merits of tho books and the reasons for their deserved success, for there are probably few of our readers who have not laughed over them again and again. But one may point out that they came at an opportune time, into .a field in which they found, few competitor and none at all of their particular class. They were able to translate their love of horses and dogs into terms that awoke response in the hearts of the vast multitude of similar tastes, their love and knowledge of hunting—Miss Somerville is still M.F.H. of an Irish Hunt, and "Some Experi- j " ences of an Irish R.M." was written while Miss Martin was recovering from a bad hunting accident—appealed alike [ to hunting men and women and to the much greater number of people whose only acquaintance with "the sport of "Kings" is gained from hooks. Their character drawing was masterly—"Slip- " per," and old Mrs Knox and Flurry Knox, and the Major himself, are types that impress by their truthfulness, though only one or two of the authors' long portrait gallery were drawn from life. Their Irish peasants are tho real thing, and tho traits of Irish character that so impress tho visitor to Ireland — the irresponsibility, the gaiety, the casualness, and the genuine and irrepressible humour are depicted with loving fidelity. As such, the books were, recognised from the outset. ' At first the cousins appear to have been gratefully surprised at the publisher's appreciation- of their work. An entry in 4 Martin Ross's'' diary records their feelings when Bontley offered them £25 down for their first book, and another £2o on the sale of 500 copies. "All " comment is inadequate; wrote a dizzy "letter of acceptance, and went to "church twice in a glorified trance." Much warm praiso and many expressions of appreciation must have come to the collaborating cousins during their partnership of nearly thirty years. But probably that which the survivor values most was the assertion of a prominent military officer on the Western front that a statue should be erected to the hero of the Irish R.M, tales "for services rendered during the war." One can hardly imagine any books better calculated than these to enable man to forget the discomforts and miseries of j lifo in the trenches. Sir lan Hamilton and the War, In another column we print some extracts from Sir lan Hamilton's preface to the volume in which he collects his despatches from the Dardanelles. His protest against the mutilation of his despatches, it will be seen, is something nioro than the indignation of a good writer who sees his clear and nervous language turned into meaningless officialese, rheoretically, perhaps, his complaint -tin be shown to have no justification; -hus—a general sends his despatches to •ho Government for the Government's nformation, and what the Government may do with them is not the general's business, even if the Government suppresses them altogether. If this is a iorrect statement of tho position, howaver, the practice of Governments has antiquated the theory. Despatches are written to give information and keep alive the interest and enthusiasm of the people for the work of their men. Sir ' lan deliberately set himself, as he says, to see that "tho colder darker shade "of the Censor" did not replace that of the cold shade of aristocracy under which the British soldier fought and conquered in tho Napoleonic wars, un-

known, unchesred, and unhonourcd. Xew Zenlanders will read with sympathy and applause Sir lan's declaration that tho conditions doscribed bv Xapicr in the passage he cites would not be ropeated if he could help it; for they know, from his final despatch, that his great anxiety was to bring home to the people of the Empire, in the manner ho uses so well, the great valour and merit of the soldiers ho commanded. He does not object to a military censorship, but he complains and with justice, as everybody who has to como into contact with the censor will agree—that •tho censorship only sees a part of Us duty: "You seem to eoe nothing beyond " tho mischief that may happen if tho '■ enemy gets to know too much about ''us; you do not see that this danger can be kept within bounds, and is of small consequence when compared " with tho keenness or dullness of our own nation." "To think," he says again, "that it matters to the Turks " whether, a certain trench was taken "by the 7th Royal Scots or tho 3rd " Warwicks, is just really like children '"playing at secrets."

Consideration of the faults of the Censorship led Sir lan to make a reflection which we think is profoundly wise. "Democracy and autocracy," he said, "must fight with their" own ;; wea P° n s. If they change foils in the scuffle, then, like Hamlet and " Laertes, they are Loth of them doomed. This is a truth which, of course, ranges far beyond such a matter of detail as the censorship. Britain is a democracy, and is accustomed to a liberty which Germans would not understand. Of course this British passion for liberty has its disadvantages in some circumstances, and especially during war. Those disadvantages, which have made themselves apparent since August 4th, 1914, wore dealt with nearly fifty years ago by MatthewArnold, in a well-known passage in "Friendship's Garland." It has been found necessary sharply to restrict tho democratic freedom to which Englishmen are so deeply attached, and the good sense of the nation lias never better displayed itself than in tho universal acceptance of those restrictions. Such protests as have been made have generally been directed against sucli restrictions as have seemed to be based less on considerations of tho national safety than upon the tendency of officialdom to forget that this is not simply Britain's war, but • democracy's war— that it is not simply England, an armed State, that is fighting, but tho English people. Sir lan Hamilton means that unless tho spirit of the English people guides the war at all points, the result of tho war will be injurious to Britain. Germany, on the other hand, cannot afford to allow tho principles of democracy, any more than the principles of decency, to govern its conduct of the war; and we may add that there appears to be as little likelihood as ever there was that the German Government ■will be temptea to try any new method of carrying on. We have no sympathy "with those ill-tempcrod or disaffocted people who occasionally cry out "Prus"sianisml" as a criticism of this or that act of policy, but it is just as well, nevertheless, that men of repute—and particularly soldiers of repute—should re-summon the people's minds to reflection upon tho necessity for cherishing tho democratic spirit in waging a war for democracy and freedom.