BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 122, 9 February 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Alter. "The Manic—and After," bv Major A. Corbett-Smith (Cassell and Co. Wellington, Whitcombo and Tombs and S. and W. Mackay), is a sequel, or companion volume, to that remarkable book, "The Retreat from Motis." Let mo say at once and without reserveiion that no student of the war can dispense with this second 'of Major CorbettSmitli's .war books. It deals with the turn of the tide on the Marne, with the out-manoeuvring and discomfiture of Von Kluck, with tho British advance to and crossing of the Aisne, the movo to Flanders, .and that magnificent "holding of the gate" of Ypres by tho "Old Conterhptibles," which will go down in British, and, indeed, in all military history, as one of the most superb achievements of human valour the world has ever witnessed. A detailed and most enlightening summary is given of the main features of the Battle of the Marne, the narrative being mado specially clear by some admiraulo diagrams.

It was (the author says) our French Allies who won the Battle of the Marne. The British played their part right valiantly,, hut from the nature of the contest it was' only a comparatively small part which could bo allotted to them. Tho marvel is that they w<ve in such fine fettle that they could play it afajl. And that is where Von Kluck miscalculated. ... Tho decisivo stroke, one of the most brilliant and effectivo coups-de-main in military history, was not actually delivered until tho late afternoon of Wednesday, September 9.- . . . If Englishmen aro.not particularly happy in remembering foreign names, let us at least remember and hold in the highest honour the names of Generals Foch and Manowry. The author is insistent upon tho splendid service rendered the Allies' commanders by the British Royal Flying Corps. It was entirely due, he contends, to the R.F.C. that Von Kluck's turning movement to tho south-east from just before Paris was discovered in good time. Tho news was at once sent to Joft're, and the Allied attack at the Marne was tho result. The description of the crossing of tho Aisne is one of tho finest things in an exceptionally fine book. Splendid work was done by tho sappers. It was' by an-officer named Lieutenant J. A. C. Pcnnycuik (now captain and D.5.0.) that tho'work was initiated. He began it by floating out "on some kind of raft''' and drifting down-stream to within 100 yards of the bridge at Missy in order to reconnoitre.

He could not well escape being seen, and the Germans, as soon as they had recovered from their astonishment, blazed away as hard as they could. But, to quoio Admiral Beatty's remark upon . a similar adventure (a reconnaissance by a seaplane flying at 800 feet under heavy firo from enemy cruisers), "this in no way interfered with tho clarity of his rep'ort." Pcnnycuik got back safely to tell how tho bfidgo was just a wreck, whilo the remnant of it was strongly held by tho inevitablo battery of ma-chine-guns. The sappers saw what they had to do, and did it.' Tho task was formidable indeed. The enemy had all the ranges registered for their overwhelming mass of guns, and they were fully prepared to hold up by every moans the crossing of the British. But the sappers finished their task within fortyeight hours. In that time, working under "the direct fire of the enemy s massed artillery and machine-guns, they had constructed or sufficiently iepaired no fewer than fourteen bridges along a fifteen-miles front and across a 70-yards broad river in flood I Of one incident, the crossing of a badly-shat-tered bridge bv General Haking's brigade, Major Corbett-Smith gives_ a thrilling description. There was just a single girder and a tangle of wreckage for the troops to cross over. On the far'side lay the Germans with Maxims, while up on the heights the enemy gunners worked hard to complete'the work of destruction. Says the author:

The big difficulty about-that crossing was that you could not.rush it. Under fire, when the blood is up. and a. position has to bo won, there is no thought of holding back if it can bo done at the double:- But to clamber ,in . single nle across a steel plank, over a. swol en. river, with shrapnel and "H.B.* Btesjng and plumping all round-that calls for .steady nerves. .There, .was. one big man ■in the Worcesters, I think, whose great strength served him and a comrade well that morning. The man immediately yn front got badly hit, staggered for an instant, and was on the poin; of allmg over into the. river when-"Hold up, chum!" called the big man, grabbing him by the belt. With a heave he got him round the waist, and tucked him n under his arm. Hpw he got across Z remaining fifty yards O "arrow slippery path, burdened with h s kit ta rifle! and a full-grown man with al hs Wt, remains a mystery. Bu he did it somehow by sheer, grit. Needless; to say h ? was promptly dubbed "Blondin by hlS \sthe British troops fought their.way through tho Aisne country, and later, astliey crossed the path of the Uiman invasion at many points, they came across numberless .evidences ot that almost demoniacal savagery with which the Huns behaved to the much suffering French peasantry. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Major Corbett-Smith does not deny this, but he frankly rejoices over cases where "a human Instrument of repayment is found." One such case is described as follows;—

I Was at a farm near Chateau-Thierry. A patrol of Uhlans roilo by. Through tho open door they conldsee the good wifo busy about her duties, crooning the. while to her baby as he played by the. hearth. Roughly the men demanded food, and entering, one of the patrol made as if to hurt tho child. Food was reused, the woman:saying that she had nothing in the house. A search of the house proved ■ fruitless, and.. they again made theiv demand. Again she replied that thcro was none. Thereupon the men seized her, pinned her against the door, and crucified her, arms outstretched, with knives through her wrists, lho child thev seized, broke one of bis tiny arms, anil threw him down before her. Then thev rode away, leaving behind ono of their number for some purpose or other. When (be patrol had gone, the man who remained again asked for tood and drink. The woman, in agony nodded assent Tho knives were withdrawn, lho man seated liimself at the tnblo while tho woman staggered out o tho hack. Tn a minute or two she returned, holding something under her apron. Ilia Uhlan sat qnietlv at the table looking through a note-book. Tho woman came behind him as though lo placo a dish on the table. A sudden effort, and siio drew from beneath her apron a heavy ehopner. With a single crash «he split his skull.- Then, seizing her baby, she fled out into the woods.

Several instances of how the Gorman soldier interprets Gorman "K'.iltur" arc quoted by the autlior, who reminds us that while the Chincso arc, it lias been said, adepts in the torture of tho body, "the Germans torture body and soul. Tho Chinese may torture the individual; the Germans add tho refinement of torturing two or more

together." They will, he says, "outrage a wife in tho presence of her husband, a daughter before her mother. They will tio up a mother and mutilate her baby before her eyes. All these tilings have .they done again and again, not in the heat of battle, but under tho coolness of rgid discip!i>o; with the connivance and encouragement of their officers." And yet British Bolsheviki of the Bamsay Macdonald type, Australian "No" voters, and New Zealand "lied Feds" would fain have "the British pcoplo"forgetand forgive after the war, have us trade and associate with the countrymen of these vile ruffians as if none of these horrible things had ever hapnoned. If only for the chapter which the author devotes to what he calls "the holding of the gate," at Ypres, this book must remain one of the classics of the war. No man or woman of British blood can read this chapter without a feeling of the deepest, welljustified pride of race. The odds against tho "Old Contemptiblcs" were quito six or seven to one. At what awful cost of life theeriemy was held in check one fact may show. Of tho "th Division of the Old Regular Army less than one month before there had sailed from England 4CO officers. Fortyfour returned. Their men had numbered 12,000. There were left 2336. "We thought," said ouo German officer, "that you had four army corps against us there." Forty thousand is the loss which the British suffered. Of the Germans there fell perhaps 250,000. Never at such odds have men fought. Read this—and remember:

All down the line the battle swayed this way and that. Ilere is n general in command of two companies of infantry; hero a corporal acting as a battery commander—a battery of two guns. There is a junior subaltern loading- his battalion in a desperate charge—a battalion of a hundred ijen. Every man is in. Here are euoks, grooms, officers' servants from a Gunner battery, lining up with picks and shovels, branches of trees, or barn posts. Why, in Heaven's name? To hold up and repulse half an advancing brigade! God of battles, was there a battlelike this before?. . . Who 'an toll tho delirium of the hours that followed. An enemy to tho front, to tho rear, to tho flank. A German reserve corps against the remnants of six British battalions, the men worn to a shadow by exposure, want of sleep, want of food. And yet they fought on. Now one bnihiMon is gone, destroyed. A second hits .>:) men left: out of iiSO, four officers out of sixteen. A third has no officers and but a handful of junior n.c.o.'s. to lead. And yet they fought on. Tho slaughter of it seems to pass human understanding. You hear of one British company so surrounded by tho <inemy that the, Germans did not even know it was in the midst of thorn. And you hear of tho=e fow mm within five minutes annihilalim: a German battalion, accounting for more than SCO of the strength. And still the enemy pour the masses into the battle..

Of such was the last stand of the Old Army. That stand "held the gate," saved Calais and the whole northern coast of Franco from the heel of tho Hnn. The Kaiser's dream of a Ger-man-dominated British Channel vanished into thin air. As Major CorbettSmith writes in bis fino poem,- "The Men of. Mons,", by which his book is prefaced: - ■

Who shall sing the Song of them? The wonder and the strength of them, The gaiety and tenderness They bore" across the sea? The pride that England has in them, In every heart's the Song of them, The'chivalry and fenrlesvr-.'ss That strove—and won Hov free. The book contains a number of interesting illustrations and useful maps and diagrams. (N.Z. price, -35.) "Art in Australia." A year or so ago a little band of Australian artists, art critics, and art lovers generally launched'what at first sight appeared to he a perilous enterprise, namely, the publication «f a magazine devoted purely to matters artistic. The enterprise took the shape of a beautifully-produced quarterly, entitled "Art in Australia." The third issue of this interesting publication has now reached me from the publishers, Messrs. Angus and Robertson, of Sydney (per S. and W. Mackay, Wellington). It• is safe say. that in- its typographical features, its illustrations, and tasteful format (a small quarto), "Art in Australia" would-do credit to London, Paris, or New York. The literarv and artistic contents ahke are most interesting. Mr. Radcliffe Brown s article on the. water-cplotfrs of Norman Lindsay is.accompanied by two beautiful reproductions of the well-known Australian black and -white artist s experiments in what is for him an entirely ndw medium. Julian Ashton contributes an interesting article on Blamire Young and his work", and other artists whose work is discussed at length are J. Muir Auld, Max Meldrum, James R. Jackson, and W. Lister Lister. The etchings of Bruce Robertson are the subject of a eulogistic appreciation by Bertram Stevens, and tho brilliant work done in sculpture by C. Webb Gilbert, who.in June last was elected, an Associate of tho Royal Academy, is discussed by Mr. John Shirlow. Other articles edal with the etchings of Victor Cobb,, the stilllifo studies of a clever young Victorian ladv, Margaret M'Plierson. and Industrial Art in Australia,' by K. &• Dods. The illustrations-are wholly delightful. Not in "The Studio" or "The Burlington" have I ever seen finer reproductions of colour work than those hero <iiven of Jackson's delicately charming interior, "Morning in the Studio"'; Blamire Young's fine atmospheric study, "The. Blue Moth" ; Mas Meldrum's gaily decorative .'ostume studv, "Mrs. Tarcynzki" ; and J. Muir i Aula's ''The Broken Vase," the lastnamed picture recently purchased tor tho National'Galler? of New South Wales-. The next number of. Art in Australia" will he' published in April, WIS. ■ It is .understood that future issues will include reproductions of iNow Zealand' art and siiocimens of modern European paintaings. ; (New Zealand price, 65.)

The Christmas "Bookman."

The Christmas special number of "Tlio Bookman" (Hodder and Stmignton") provides a rich store nf good and useful reiding for hooklovers, all tlio leading books of tlio winter reason being discussed bv competent critics. Mr. A. St. John Adcock's .irticle, '.or Remembrance," deals with the soldisr poets who havo fallen in the.war, ana illustrated bv a series of interesting portraits. Other good features are Dr. Barry's article "On Reading Horace,' Lewi's Melville's "John Wilkes and the Citv," and John Freeman's eloquent appreciation of the work of the' la to Edward Thomas, nature, student, topographer, critic nnd pnet. In addition to a portfolio of beautifully reproduced coloured drawings by Eleanor Sriekdale, there'a re a number '1 tull-pago plates in colour and black swl white l,v Arthur ttackhnm, Muirhead Bone, M. Brock. James Guthrie, and many other well-known artists. Tf only for its arrav of portraits of Icndi'iu writers nf the dav, the Christmas is well worth tlio half-crown at wlncn

it is priced. The publishers have never given us a better Christmas number of their invaluable publication.