READER'S COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 20 February 1915, Page 6

READER'S COLUMN.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WAR , ; ' " BOOKS. HISTORY UP TO THE MiWTE ; By Jamcr, Wortley, My desk lies piled, many ik'i'p with war books and pamphlets, as I write. ,()f sixteen new titles in the Daily Tolcgraph series three have been picked out, i'.iid scanned. One, "The ('anijiaie.ii Round Liege," is the history of possibly the most dramatic < vent of the greatest war in history, certainly the most drainatic so far, ami one which the pools of succeeding generations will celebrate in classic verse. The other (.w« titles were picked mi for various reasons in preference to ' ethers possibly e.|iially iiit.-r----csting. Of these "The Russian. Adve.ncc," I calculated might give i: i a , more comprehensive ami shrewder sum-i mill},' up of Hie situaton on the Eastern frontier than we ■jet from the uniformilv iflowinx cables from Petrograd, and "Hacking through Belgium" was expected to produce an account at least » little more connected and cohesive than newspaper comments. In this respect the reader will not he disappointed with any of these books. There is strong evideiic- that the authors are conversani with what is being done, and are gifted with an intelligmce ta seek for and explain in detail without a page of dullness the situation as it presents its-Mi" to the* shrewd observer. The account of tin- Russian advance begins with an enlightening chapter on the nation and the'war. 'ln it we get a grip right oil' of the attitude and mind of the Russian people. The war, with the nmjliik or peasant, is racial and religious—tic two most powerful argum: nt.s that :nn be brought to bear with primitive peoples. These of the Russian soil at all times have provided grand material for armies. Rut ':<- th • past they have been exploited by army contractors, ill-led bv ignorant' officers--and muddled with a'il this has succumbed to the new gospel of efficiency which is being propounded the world over. The innjhik. riding in to tli,. military depot to .join the troops finds the eiv.tnmary pitfalls in tli" shape of tile vodka houses closed. At this he is a little disgusted, but -never mind, it is nil right. Th- 'Little Father' (Czar).has said 'No Vodka,' therefore why complain'!" This, and the cllicicnt manner in which he is shod and clothed—thanks to the lessons of the Manclmrian campaign, have turned the Russian Tommy into a very effective, soldier indeed, Rut. despite massages from Potrogrnd, he is not having it all his own way. The advance against Prussia was rapid at. first. The battle of rimubinnen made Russia master 'of all Prussia, oast of Konigsbcrg. This town,, lk'.!iz ; g, and Herliu itself seemed only a question of a few days. But the Russian general defeated himself by advancing so far. The Russians were lured on to the swampy country near Osterode, heavy German forces and guns were brought to b-ar in an entirely successful nankins movement, which drove the Russians right into tile worst marshv ground, end ended in a frightful massacre. Tims, on the Gorman fronti<r matters are at somewhat of a standstill. Her advance on Berlin via is proceeding' with great promise. "The Campaign Around Liege" pictures the ultimate reduction of thcchain of forts which so bravely and capably held in check the German army, despite it-; enormous resources of guns and men. Some one hundred and ninety j'Mig: c provide a succinct eye-witness account of what miis t some day be written up by a more gifted pen. "Hacking through Belgium," as tin* title indicates, is an account of the bloody path which the Hermans trod through that once prosperous and confiding state.

*THE SOCIAL UNREST. Its cause, and a solution by .T. Ramsay "McDonald. London: T. X. Tonfis. This book is one that was making considerable headway with thoughtful readers just prior to the outbreak of war. And now that labor leaders arc vicing with Air. TConav Law and lord Eosobcry in bringing before the nation the duty of young men to stand by tho ships of state, it is not perhaps wise to make much of controversial questions; it is well to realise how lmieh had been done by the war to make possible afterwards a very frank stocktaking of the manhood of our nation. Efficiency, if not morality, is the keynote of all conversation, and this changed attitude will force all parties to take a non-party outlook, and see that the. man willing and anxious to learn shall be given the opportunity. In the light of recent events we cannot afford for our youth to grow up scantily clothed and 'ill-fed. Each lad and lass mnsV he developed bodily and mentally to take Ins or her place in the body corporate. To ell'eet this with the many thousands of our cities who to-day are living below normal, will mean a complete change in economic conditions. The magnificent manner in which tingreat parliamentary parties of the Imperial Covcrimieut have been able to sink their differences and work for the common weal against an armed foe, augurs well for the future. The papers print the opinions of statesmen to tho effect that party polities can never be party polities again in the same sense, and it may be that the day is already ushered in' when our representatives at Westminster and the other seats of Cm eminent throughout the Hritish Dominions will together be able to light the more insidious foes within their own household--poverty, illiteracy, disease. Such a result, and such a result only, can allov the fundamental unrest of which ~S\v Ramsay .McDonald so ably writes.

EXCLAXI.) ,AXD TIJE SEA. A particular shape of cloud, the appearance of a particular star, the holiday of some particular saint, anything in short to remind thr combatants of patriotic legends or old successes, may he enough l;o change Clue issue of a p'tcliod battle, lor it eives to the one party the IV; I>,- that High', .-.ml the larg' y interests ere with them. If ail Englishman vising to have such a feeling it must hr ahmit tilt' son. The lion is nothing to u-'; he lias not boon taken to tile liearis of (lie English people, and iiaturali/.i'd as an English ciiihli'in. The sea is our bulwark: it has been Hie scene of one greatest triumphs and dene i's. and v.- are an iisloined in lvrice.l strain,, to claim it as our own. ':'!■ prostrating experience of foreigners betvisn Calais and Dover have always an agreeable side |o English prepossessions. A man from Hedfordshire who does red, know one end' of a ship from the oilier until she begins to move, swaggers among such persons with a sense i.f liereilitarv nautical eMierienc". '!',' suppo.-e yoiir.-i'lf endowed with natural i.'.ris for (lie sea became vou are tin- eniiiiirynian of I'dake and mighty .Nelson is pi riiaps just a; unwarrantable as to iniagme Scotch i xtractirm a suOicient guarantee lliat veil will lool; well ill kilts. Hut t!i.. feeling'is there and seated hovond argument. Wo should eonsiiler ourselves unworthy of desei .'it if We did not share the nrro-l-ance of our progenitors, and please ] ''ourselves with the pretension tlyit the ■ sea is English. Even winre.it is looked j upon by the guns of auotlier nation we I regard it as a kind of English cemetery where the bones of our sea-faring fath- ' era tstke their rest until the last trum-

pel; for I suppose no other nation has lost; as many ships, or sent as many brave fellows to the bottom.—R. L. Stevenson in "The English Admirals.' 'Books supplied for review by A. S. Brooker, the B.lv,'' bookshop, Devon street.