LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3059, 21 April 1917, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

The Chief of the Imperial CenenQ staff. „ "Sir William Robertson', the Life Story of the. Chief of the. Imperial I General Stafl/ ,, by G. A. Least (Cassell arid Co.; per S. and >W. MackayJ, ie'a well-written'little monograph on the career of a man to whom the Empire.has good reason to ho grateftiHn the past and from whomit expects still greater achievement in the iuture. Aβ were the Weeleys arid Ucnnyson, .William Robertson is a Lincolnshire man,. although, by tho way many people still insist upon his being a Scot by birth. Ho comes of respectable middle-class parentage, and was. supposed, to bo destined.to a cornmer- , cial career. In 1877, however, he took ™ e Queen's shilling, and enlisted in tile ■loth Lancers. A zealous and exceptionally intelligent young soldier, hie' promotion was rapid, and finally, after surmounting many difficulties, he Won his oomniission and went o'iit-.'to India in 1888-to join tho Dragoon Guards as' lieutenant. It was in India that Robertson, matriculated in that art of war of which be Jind so diligently studied the rudiments at Aldershot. He has a natural inclination for learning languages—as a niero'villagb, schoolboy a kindly and discerning clergyman had given him a good grounding in French —and directly he got to Rawul Piiidi he settled down to acquire a knowledge of Pushtu He served in several frontier expeditions, and ■ did special service ..reconnoitring in the mountainous country of Afghan Tur 7 , kestan, also visiting the Ohitral district, where lip obtained valuable information of which full use was made in 1895, during the Chitral Relief Expedition. Later on, returning to England, he was engaged in special' work : at the War Office, and did valuable work in the South African War as one of the chief intelligence officers: Tho five years 1908-1807 he spent in the Intelligence Department at'the War Office, arid then became Chief of Staff at Aldershot, just thirty years after joining there as a recruit in the West Country Barraoks. -Three, years' useful work at Aldershot now followed, and preceded his appointment as Commandant at the Staff-College, CamberJey. Tho first "ranker" to enter that college as a student,, he is the first "ranker" who has directed it. The position is regarded as one of tho ''plums" of the service. Robertson's motto has always been 1( Be thorough," and his'fiual ad- ' dress to tho officers of the Senior Division at the college, delivered in December, 1911, and reprinted .in this book, is a model of,compact, concise, practical advice. In 1913 he became Director of Military Training at the War Office, and his subsequent career is too well known to , need referring to. Mr. Leask's final chapter on the personal characteristics of Sir William is exceptionally interesting. (Price, Iβ. 6d.). ' ; - Ragamuffins. Some delightfully humorous sketches of Cockney street urchins-are to be found in a little quarto entitled "Ragamuffins," by G. L. Stampa (Duckworth and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), ttr. Stampa s name will be pleasantly amiliar to" all readers of "Punch." His workjwssesses a splendid quality of line. He gets his effects with more detail than did PhiLMay, who, Iγ the way, once produced a volume of somewhat similar sketches under a similar title. Ho does not "block , out" quite so much as.did Phil May. but the effect nevertheless is admirably broad and convincing. Phil May was apt at times to be just a trifle sardonic in his humorous sketches of London juveniles. Thorn was, indeed, just a suspicion of cruelty about somo of his , sketches of the waifs and strays of Cockayne. Air. fun is tinged by a' touch of quite rioticpablo sympathy for his ragamuffins. He does not, any more thnn did Phil May, ignore "the uglier side of life in East End courts and alleys, as witness the picture under which wo Tead:

Breathless Urchin: "Yoii'ro wnnted —dahn—our court —and bring a hamh'lnnce!" . ' ' ' ■" Policeman: "What do you \walit Hie ambulance for?" ..- ,/ Urchin: "Muvver's fahnd the lidy wot pinched our doormat." But in such drawings as "Hero Worship," which shows a slightly soiled little girl pulling at tho coat of an officer who is escorting a lady in handsome furs, ho strikes a noto of pleasant sentiment, for the legend beneath reads: . , "Please Mr. Oeneral. if ypr wnuMn'L miprl 'iondin' iiahn a hit me an , Fjliitna'd like to giro ynr a. kiBB." How the omnipresent war interest'

affects evon tho street play of Cockney youngsters is humorously depicted in ft drawing which shows a somewhat burly youth, who is carrying a formid-able-looking baton, nnd explaining to a much smaller youngster, evidently in doubt as to tho exact attractions of tho "game" how they aro to "play submarines": .

"You can be ole Tirpz in a. submarine, and I'll bo Hadmiral Jericbo on my man-o'-war. You've got to try and git .'old o' my fgot aforo I cops yer one over the 'ead—see?" A capital eighteenpence worth ,is this book of Mr. Stampa's. Stray Leaves. llobert- Hichens's neiv story, "In Uio Wilderness," is to havo for its main background Italy and • Greece. Mr. Hichens is always specially at homo witn an. Italian scenario, as wiiucr.s that fine story of his, "The Call of the Blood." General Sir Evelyn Wj id. win ten years ago cave us that capital took, ''Fro-.nMidshipman to Field Marshnl," is ccntinuin» his reminiscenccr of service life with a, new book . entitled ' Winnowed Memories."

Maxim Gorki, so long an exile froni his native country, has been back in Bussia for some months. The second volume of tho English translation ■of his autobiography, a successor to the volume entitled "In My' Childhood" (reviewed in these columns a year or two ago), is announced by Werner Laurie for speedy'publication. The title is "In.tho World.". '

Mr. John Murray hepes to publish this spring the fifth arid concluding volume of Beaconsiiold's Life, covering the period from 186S onward to tho death of tho great Imperialist statesman. <• American papers record the death of that, delightful essayist, Hamilton Wright Mabie, who for many years was editor of the New York "Outlook." Mabie's literary criticism was always gonial, but it was very searching. Ho was, it is now worth while remembering, always a good friend to Great Britain. . . '.'■ : • .

Amongst hew novels in Mpthueu's spring list aro>stories by Miss Marjorie Bowen ("The Third Estate"), Phillips Oppenheim ("The Hill Man"), and the ox-New Zealander H. Marriott AVatson ("Mulberry Wharf"). Two short novels by.tho over popular Williamsons, ••' 'Hip, Cowboy . Countess" and ' 'The Woman to the Man," are also annpiin'ced by the same publishers. There has been a distinct shortage of good novels lately.. . ,• Personally, I fail to admire tho Indian mystical 1 stories of Mr. l< , . W. Bain, but many people, I .know, find groat enjoyment in reading them. Mr. Bain's latest ,story is entitled "The Livery of Eve." -.The-interest is said to centre, on a point of diablerie less common in European than in Indian tales. : ■ ' ..

( Pierre Lofci's latest - book," ■ "La Guerre,"- has been translated for an Enclisn edition, shortly to bo published by Mr. Werner Laurie,, who'lias published English versions of several ofLoti's best-known books. In his ■flew work Loti fiva.xes oloquehtJy iudienant over the savagery of the inodern Huns, as it has been displayed in France and Beleium.