THE GREATER WAR BOOK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 907, 26 February 1930, Page 8

THE GREATER WAR BOOK

Reviewers are praising the late*' anonymous tear book entitled “TTar v . M ar,” by “ex-private.” R. C. Sheer iff. author of ‘Vo urn.. End,” describes the book as “an EnaUe ill Quiet.” The c uthor bitterly criticises Mae officers, rails against tear, end attee; the J. ustralians. “/ am sorry the Australians were our side” he writes. “1 met some ver lf good ones, but their black sheep achierrd extraordinary prominence. They Kfro brave men on the whole, but not nearly such fine fellows as they boasted of being.” News Item. J HAVE in my possession the advance copy of an anonymous war book, ■which, I venture to predict, wilt tahe the reviewers by storm. it j, entitled “All Quiet is All Quiet,” 435 for Stark Realism and Truth, it knocks all the other war books into a tin helmet. The author annihilates staff officers and excels himself in apoplectic denunciation of the bare idea of wav When he was writing the chapter con. cerning the Australians, 1 believe the police were called in five times, and the doctor three times. They feared for his reason before he had finished it.

To test this chapter, the author read It aloud to an audience of Australian bushmen and bullock drivers. When he had finished the bushmen had fainted and the bullock drivers were crying weakly on each other's shoulders. The book displays the amazing knowledge of the author on all military matters and his insight into the language and customs of the trenches, is nothing short of extraordinary. Take, for example, the remarkably powerful passage where the hero, Cuthbert Cheadle, is sitting nonchalantly with three companions in a dug-out which is being submitted to a heavy barrage of revolver fire from the German trenches. To while away the time, they are playing a guessing game; tbßt of guessing the missing letters in the hoys’ names. H—NR.Y GE —RGE A-THUK TH —M —S W—LEY Suddenly one of the bullets outside, riccochets off the milk-jug which ia standing at the door of the dug-out, and whining into the room, badly cuts Cuthbert’s finger. He springs up w r ith an oath. “ —” he mouths, “These have made my * fi n ß cr bleed blood. So and you they ——me —*. "Wh? ■With these words he turns on hta heel and rushes furiously down tha trenches bellowing for the stretcher bearers.

* ?” And commenting on sergeant majors he says that he has always found them to be, “!!!•' and % ; There is an amusing anecdote concerning Earl Haig. It seems that tha Field Marshal was driving through a village behirli the lines one day, when his car stopped, and he called to a soldier who was standing at attention by the side of the road, “Who is your Company Commander?” “Captain —, Sir” answered the man. “Well, tell him that I would like to speak to him,” replied the FieldMarshal, without the slightest hesitation. The writer savagely attacks tha Australians when he says; “They were fine fighters and brauj men, but were undoubtedly hard shots.” To sum up, the volume viciously criticises the Staff, it W** terly attacks the Australians, the author wisely remains anonyffl° u ?J and it w-ill certainly be banned by a ” public libraries—in short, a success* ful war book. “All Quiet Is All Quiet” (Gooble *jlj Rickets, 7s 6d nett). Our copy from ”T----publishers.