BOOKS & AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2450, 1 May 1915, Page 4

BOOKS & AUTHORS

(By Liber.).

LITERARY NOTES ON THE WAR The Track of the War. A handsomely produocd octavo volume, with exceptionally numerous and i excellent illustrations, is that entitled "Tho Track of the War" (Simpson, Marshall and Co.", per George llobert- ( son and Co.). The author. Mr. K. Scotland Liddell,' has visited the prill- ( cipal scenos of the lighting in Belgium, accompanied by Captain Albort de lieers- | maecker, a Belgian lied Cross officer, who supplements Mr. Liddell's narrative by many personal notes. From. : tho stories of eyo-ivitnesses—soldiers, civilians, local officials, priests, and , others—the author and his Belgian confrere havo constructed a narrative ( whioh, if, Hades possesses its own li- , brary, could not bo equalled in that colletion as a record of ruthless barbaribios iuflicted upon an innocent and longsuffering people by the soldiery of a nominally civilised and so-called Christian nation. In his second chapter, "War and Its Crime," there are passages too awful to quote, narratives of positively fiendish cruelties, the details of which cannot be given in a newspaper, ' which may bo read by young people. Mr.: Liddell says:—"l have been in mauy places in Belgium. I have been in many battles. I have walked amongst the ruins of once beautiful cities. .. I have talked with tragiceyed .mou and women, and in tho piteous exodus of refugees from a stricken land I have carried orphan children in my arms.' The story 1 have to write of the German advance is one of murder and rape and torment. It is a story of sheer horror, and the facts are smear- 1 ed with the blood of innocents. It is the all too true tale of hellish deeds done by human devils.' If only oncteuth of the horrible outrages of which Air. Liddell and Captain de Keersmaecker write as having been committed upon helplesa Belgian non-oombatants, old men. women of all ages, and mere infants, aro' true, then must Hell itself be gaping wide to receive the lost souls of the perpetrators of- these foul deeds. Of German lust and bestiality I cannot, for evident reason, quote the examples cited by the authors. Of the. demoniacal cruelty of the Huns two instances—two of scores cited in the book —may, however, bo given. "I saw," says Mr. Liddell, "a German prisoner brought into Antwerp, and in a little bag which he wore at his breast, suspended by a cord hung round his neck, there was a prayer book—a special edition for the German army. In _ the same little bag were four blood-stained rings, which he laughingly admitted ho had torn from the fingers of a bludgeoned aud dying woman. On a brass plato in iront of each German helmet aro tho words. 'Mit Gott fur Koenig und Vaterland' (with God for King and Fatherland). yet.l know that there were three baby children, between the ages of three and five, who were playing with tiny 'Belgian flags by the wayside, between Brussels and (Louvaui, and I know that these innocent tots were waving their flags as children would; and I know that some German cavalry,.who came along that way,, rode, amongst them and pierced their sweet little white breast* with their accursed spears. And I- know that the poor old grandmother of the children clattered out of her little cottage at the sound of tho troops; Ad I tliat tl)6 bloody spears kilted her also." ' Mr, Liddell tells us of many special instances of. Outrages on priests. In some partß of Belgium "the wearing of a priest s coat meant instant death," As to tits' lied Cross, from the day the Huns entered the country the Red Cross badge spelt no" protection. "At Aerschot at least fifty per cent, of the Red Cross workers were killed by the Germans while moving wounded soldiers and officers from the battlefield." Complaint was made and the German reply was _ that if "the Red Cross people were injured it was unavoidable, .as the firing was at long range." This the authors denounce as a-, deliberate lie, for "one poor lad ' with tli© Red Cross sewn on his sleeve and cap was found among the Belgian wounded, with . seventeen bayonet thrusts through his intestines, is nothing of 'long range' about that kind of murder." Mr. Liddell gives an interesting account. of how . his friend de Keersmaeker saved some of tho most, valuable . art treasures from, the Malines churches, including masterpieces of Rubens, Simon de Vos, Janssens and others, his most notable rescue being the great composition of Van Dyck, "Christ on' His Cross,' which very fortunately had been cut out of its frame as it_ hung in the Cardinal's Palace at Malines, had been and stored in_ the cellar vaults! The palace was in ruins, but the famous picture was taken ill safety to Antwerp. Non-smokers, and especially those who decry the _ uso of cigarettes (even in moderation), should read the testimony paid by the authors to the soothing qualities of the cigarette. Belgium is a lond of smokers, and. the Belgian soldier, ever a brave man, is doubly calm if only he can have his cigarette. Says Mr. Liddoll: "It would, require a Charles Kirigsley to -writo in praise of cigarettes. They are wonderful. I have seen wounded men conio off tho battlefield suffering agonies of pain. I have offered 'them "cigarettes, and they have a'.l accepted and got comfort from their smoke;- No man was too ill to smoke. . . . . 'Many cases I have seen where men have declined anaesthetics before lieing ■ operated on. They asked for a cigarette instead!" Heading through this record of Belgian bravery and patient suffering, the eloquent tribute to a national and individual heroism such as tho wbrld has probably never witnessed, the tomp- ■ tation' to the reviewer to quote passage' after passage is hard to resist. The book is clearly ".one of, good faith," as Montaigne said of his famous Essays. It throws'sidelights upon l the war which rarely appear in the ' necessarily brief cablegrams by which wo have to follow the general course of the great struggle, as every page is fascinating. A special word of praise is due to the illustrations, for the uce Of many of which the authors express their indebtedness to _ Commandant Devireux, equerry to Kinp Al- . Bert of Belgium. Many of these illustrations are sad indeed to look upon, but it is well they should be seen and •' studied by British readers, whether of the Mother Country or the oversea Dominions, if only to convince them of the studied barbarity with which the enemy,wages war,'and of the necessity which' exists for. the destruction of. tho baleful power which has rendered these hidoous things possible. (Price, 7s. (5d.) , '

Tha Campaign in Poland,

In view of the immense importance of the struggle which' is proceeding in Russian -Poland and the interest which attaches to all reliable information as to the fighting in the Eastern theatre of the great war,, a .recent addition to tho "Daily Telegraph" War Book (Hodder and Stoughton, per 'S. and W. MncIcay) should be specially welcome. Tins is "Tho First Campaign in Russian Poland," bv Mr. Percy Cross Standing. JTr. Standing's book deals with tho Polish campaign up to tho commencement of December, and affords much valuable information upon the difficulties with which .Iho Russians had to contend" in tho initiatory stages of their campaign. After reviewing the sil nation after Lemberg, Mr. Standing deals successfully with the Austrian debacle between Lemberg and Jaroslax; with tllie ebb 1 aaf flcuz of bVfrtla ia Eajjtgia gas?

sia; the defence of the Vistula; the siege of l'rzomysl, and tho struggle on tho San; aud with other features of tlio campaign, a Bpecial chapter being dovoted to stories from tho fighting line; all of which coincide in the tribute they pay to tho unquonchable courage of the Tsar's troops. Evon so grim a thing a<" war may have its humorous side, and in these "Stories from tho front" it is not absent. Thus, for example, there is quite a Gilbcrtian touch about the interchange of the Kaiser's hunting box and tho Tsar's hunting box (the latter's at Spala, near Tomasciioff) in the two Polatids. The Russians appear to havo seized upon tho one and the Germans upon tho other, and to have thoroughly despoiled them. Still on the grimly humorous side ("tile hostilities in Poland are taking on a very embittered and oruel form," he says) the "Daily Tolegraph's" Petrograd correspondent tells of the form of receipt (!) that the German troops would leavo with the ignorant peasantry after commandecring all sorts of supplies. Two such written acknowledgments whioh wore shown to the correspondent ran:—"l am much obliged to you for your beautiful horse," and "Whoever presents this at the end of tho war will lm hanged." The Poles welcome tho Russian troops as deliverers, "bringing them refreshment and cigarettes, for which payment is_ refused." Mr. Standing's excellent little book is a distinctly interesting addition to the war literature. (Price, Is. 3d.).

Newnes' War History. Yet another popular history of the Great War has made its appearance. This is "The Standard History of the War," edited by Edgar Wallace, the first volume of whioh has recently been published by George Newnes, Ltd. (per S. and W. Mackay). The plan followed by the editor is to print the official dispatches and to add an explanatory chapter on each. The volume before mo comprises the Belgian, British, and French dispatohes referring to. the fighting at Liege, Mons, Cambrai, and Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne. Mr. Wallace is to be complimented upon his descriptive narratives. Maps, diagrams, and portraits add to tho general interest of what promises to develop into a very useful publication. (Price Is. 3d.)

Kaiser, Krupp, and Kultur. And still tie war books come. The latest appeal for the popular shilling (fifteenpence in' New Zealand) is made by Mr. Thedore Andrea Cook, the editor of that old-fashioned English weekly, ''The Field," which has so many excellent articles on the war. In Mr. Cook's volume, which is published by John Murray, a short historical summary is given of the development of the German Empire from Frederick the Great to the militarism of the present Kaiser, followed by a presentment of the facte proving Germany's guilt as the real instigator and planner of the war. One of the most-interesting of Mr. Cook's chapters is that in which the value of sport and sportsmanship to each side in this stupendous struggle is discusscd. It is good to blow that no fewer than "fifty-four masters of hounds are themselves at the front, and a conservative estimate gives 10,000 as the total of hunting men who will be with tho Army this season instead of across country.' Some of Mr. Cook's articles are necessarily a little out of date, hoth as to facts and comment, but on the whole tliey were well worth reprinting.