BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 245, 10 July 1920, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

H'the .World After'the War;" : ' t . "The World After the War". (George ] 'Allen and Unwin), by Mr. Charles Roden < and Miss Dorothy Frances Buxton, pro- i vides'it is olaimed, a vivid picturo.of . the of: war, audi of Allied ' policy since' the war, especially upon tiio ■< lives of the common poople in all lands. < Tne object of tne authors, as stated by I thehi, is ' % to see things ooberly and distinctly; to \ disentangle from a sense of confusion tlw ~' essential outlines; to eivo a Bingle con- i nected pioturo of the wholo world in-its ; •true-proportionsr to Illustrate ,its real { meantng'in terms of simple human lives; -j and to show where those sources of re- , oovery exist whioh will enable us. to savo jpmething from the ravages.of : the storm. '.Speaking generally, the' sympathies, of ;.ith'e authors seem.,'to, bo ivith those- Social- •'■. ■ istia and ••: semi-revolutionary . elements ■whose activities have rendered the.task : • of the Allies in restoringorder in Europe ■ '• so difficult. The Allied- Powers are do. '■picfed as - being'still' tainted witb'jthe evil eplrit.of pre-war diplomacy.- -They .are charged with nee'dlessly.ihfllctins.'sui' fering upon millions of inhpeent of ignoring the human' factor, and. of edopting starvation as a weapon. .- Curi- .: ously enough, j in" the cours« ol a lengthy and elaborate apology for, if not'open • championship of, the Bolsheviks, tho au- ■ thors 'try to justify' Bolshevik misdeeds in ■•■ the ' same direotion. '..The, .Bolshevik Government is declared to have '.used the -starvation, weapon, cxaotly as : the , Allied' statesnielv 'have • us.cd it, ■ against . -those .whrinn they:. Wished -to' penalise. ■ ~ i.The old provorb'as to, two'wrongs'not • making one .right is here recalled. The | ':. authors evidently^dislike-the very .words , "nationalist" and "nationality." -.lheir j hope for the future apparently lies in , the triumph of "The International of : Thought/' which' "has the duty of.oham•pioriing tho cause of;human freedom on . the.intellectual land moral' battlefield." ; . The outlook .for, the'would, as described 'by the' authors of,this very pessimistic book,' may be cheerinjj to'the-."anti-militarists" .and- "conscientious objectors, "'whom': they- evidently hold to be - the very'salt of the world; but to otlicrpeople it may, appear somewhat alarming. ■' •- The- Injustice■ of the Earls OonfcssiToe aud the injustice of, social .privilege—the wrong done to the beaten enemy and the wrong done to the exploitod class—will bring',their, own Nemosis in their train.It may not coma though" of ten enough it . wlU.como, in the shapol of, a- dramatio . letributlon.' ~It v ""will_ certainly come in moral; paralysis and' inward' uisqiiiet, in .failure of life, in tho baflling of .'the search for happinoss. '. ' ' The "immediate effects": of .that political' and social upheaval which..... the ■" authors.;., seem.;. "to..' consider.,;'desirable 'might, they .admilv serious." "There . would be less reliance upon organisation and government, and. a tendency, per-. .haps, to a voluntary 1 Communism which for-the time being would be,:.less-effi-cient than the old system in,productive power." In Chapter- V; '"The- Meaning of Bol- ■ -shevikism," the - : anthora ■ give, .-with a greater _ : sembQance of • fairness -. than characterisefi. certain Other portions' of their book,. a lengthy and usefully informative exposition' of- the "Bolshevik .'policy'and of Bolshevikismat'work. It 'is' to be, questipne'd;;-however, whether it ;'.is correct to '.liken '"thoso'-"who' are -.figihting the,'ne)v (Bolshevik) idea* to-day" to the/'rulinsi'dasses" who-... ."plunged Europe into twenty-two yeflfs of war, who caused ■ the,-, rise of, Napoleon, :. faillodiofter all -to,.suppress the •revolutionary principle." The 'authors would not, I think, accuso Mrs. Philip Snowden, and ' those members of ' the> British, Labour .Party who .have recently visited.' Russia' and found! Bolshevikism ' ;to ? bo'a delusion' and a' : snare- for the '-' \ wpiicrs' of■•',Western Europe, of belong- ■ ing to "the. Tuliiig'classes, sind'ye'tlthe .verdict of the visitors is distinctly conyi.demnatory of. the/'new idea." '-There is' - no doubt.much food- for useful thought in'this'book, but'thotoTrible difficulties ■ which the .Allied '.Powers 'have had .to ; .face and •' are! still, facing "are" insufli- : ci6ntly ."As to the new.social • and industrial, gospel here set' forth, it is sadly Jacking in deflnifeness,. and the = authors will fail, to convince-many rf '; their' readers that their' theories can ;be, translated, into useful, realities'.'. .'" New Zealariders'in .the" VVa'r,- ' ■: Regimental or sectional histories are •' bound to increase in number as time goes on, ahd'tho parb.'played in. the war' by,-' New soldioi's.is made.the. sub-.-.Jeot.of more leisurely and detailed de-" .-. Boription...Two works of this kind, re- '-.' Cently ■ published by Messrs. Whitcombo and.Tombs, Ltd., of' Auckland, Teach me this : week-,. :These:aro . "2nd.. Auckland, 19l8,"i-bein'g a 'partial rocoi'd. of.the .war servico, v in France of the 2nd Auckland ' Rogimeint during'the Great War, byLt.-' ; Col. S. S.-Allen, CM.G., D.5.0., and "The ■'". Mounted Riflemen in Sinai, .and ' Pales...tine; the.Story of.New Zealand's Crusa- 1 .flers," by A. Briscoe Moore, late lieutenant Auckland Mounted Rifles. Lt.-Col. ; ■Allen, who claims that the 2nd Battalion Auckland - Regiment, "did. more fighting' In France than any other battalion in: the New .Zealand Division, gives a detail-! ' Ed description of the various engagements in which the Aucklanders took part from the end of February, 1918, when, after ks' covering from severe wounds sustained at .j the Battle -of ...Gravonstafel. in, October,: :,1917,.h0 resumed, command of- the bat- • talion,' down-to the Battle.of. LcQues6'oy;"'at whioh,- howefcr, 'the. author was not present, being absent on.' .leave. The colonel has a simple, direct style,' and attempts no flights ' of elo-- ■ quence, but. liis■■ narrative 'is none the ■ less interesting-in that anything in. the shape of-"fine : writing" is eschewed, His book is the record of a sustained effort, an unbroken gallantry unsurpassed by the ' efforts of any other regiment., engaged on the Western front. How dangerous, ' ahd indeed, at -timeo, positively deadly was the work 'by the Auck-1 landers is, shown by the fact that out of | 188 officers on t.lie roll,of the battalion, M were.either .killed, or died,of. wounds, or were reported mtssmp. Of other ranla the-number' on the roll was 4073. Of these.'69i- made the supreme sacrifice on tho battlefield or in -hospital or wempletted missing. The. proportion of killed' was thus, approximately, one in ever? Bix who served 'with- the battalion, tho proportion of officers killed being, apprps- ' imatolv, one in four. The author explains/ h hio preface that to descnlie tho period of 1916 and 1917 with' "its-monotonous trenfch warfare, broken only by twoi or three battles, would not be of such general' interest as the eventful campaign ■ In 1918. Tho book is a most ikcM and interesting contribution to the history of ' New Zealand's the.Great War. A specially attractive and .valuable feature of Lieutenant Briscoe Mooros liltlo vx>lnme, .'.'The.. Mounted Riflemen in Sinai and Palestine," is the large num•ber of - exceptionally interestiM' lHus.trations" which it contains, illustrations reproduced from photographs taken with the N.Z.M.R,'Brigado in the fiold. Every phase.of life .in camp, ami on Ihe ■ march . and many famous inoidents . in • the'actual fighting are horo'v reprtsent-•-.ed, and there, are also several usoful ■maps and diagrams by whioh.the progress Of the forces, as described in tho ■ fetterpTess, can be-mc-Te readily traced. The author follows tho brigade tlnougn- ' out .the two campaigni),' giving detailed descriptions of tho various. engagements, together with many, interesting ■ -sidelights upon camp life and scenes on the march. Tho New Zealand Mounted Rfle Brigwlo was, he reminds us, One of the very row units which took an aotWo part-ii tho campaign from its inception in-1515 to its the end of 1918 -Tho-Now Zealand Brigade was essentially a fighting unit from- »tart to finiih-a unit which suffered Its full share of battlo casualties, with, in tho later stages of the campaign, a big proportion of loss from tropical. diseases. It may bo • satd that during tho whole of the campaign the Brigade took Bart in evory major operation east of the Suez—a reo&id riopabls 1 possessed by thorn alone.;

How heavy were the casualties may bo ■ seen by a detached table given at the end of ohapter XIX, the total for the three mounted regiments for the war. period (not for the Sinai and Palestine campaigns alone) being 8138 officers end men. In the final chapter the. author gives what he claims, to bo an accurate account of the regrettable incident which occurred while the brigade was in bivouac at Richon about Christmas, 1918/ when as a sequel, to', the i killing of _ a New Zealand trooper by V native thief the village of Surafend waß surrounded and burned by hundreds of. men representing ..everf unit in the Anzac Division—New Zealanders, Australians, and English artillerymen—thirty • natives beipg killed.. The author-contends that . the blame for this : . regrettable affair lay in the first place with the British. ..authorities, who, he alleges, "pandered to the natives too much" and displayed great weakness generally in their ad- . ministration wherever the natives,., 'for the meat patfc of a very treacherous character, were concerned._ .Lieutenant Moore's book should be widely read juithe Dominion. His account of the perils and hardships encountered by the Blounteds' ehou'ld finally dispel what at one time was, so Colonel Findky. or : tlio Canterbury Mounted Rifles, pays "the .fairly common fallacy" that.our Mount'eds were merely -"tourists.".