READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 301, 29 May 1915, Page 6

READERS' COLUMN.

(By James Wortley). 'LITERATURE AI'TER THE WAR. Six writers who may bo said to have "arrived'' give in the April Bookman their ideas of what will be the kind of pabulum we shall be served :>:/ with after the war. Two very divergent views are expressed by Miss May 'Sinclair and W. L. George. The former writes: "Oi:r young intellectuals are not going to be afflicted by tin: war, and the war is certainly not going to be affected by them. It will leave ihim alone in their detachment;' and there will be no second crop c,f t/icm ju:-t yet. Aliil it would be pretty safe to say that it will make short work of the brothers and sisters of the inti , llc:ttuls: of the ' sensuists'' iii-theory-aml-on-principle, of all the bloodless, attenuated, conscientious devotees of U:e "primitive instincts." I do not think «e are going to be interested any more in thenerotics, or their sex problems, because of the enormous widening of our ran® of motives and instincts and ''motions " The opposite view, and, we may remark a very ugly one, is presented by Mr. W. L. George: "... the suggestion is that after the war we ;hall all of us be different c:iat the men will he noble, stern and brave;-that the suffragette will disappear and no longei want a vote; that the revolting daughter will ceaso to revolt; that the wife will be content; that we shall never again hear of strikes against low wages, . . .1 tliink this idiotic. 1 am convinced that after the war the agitations we'have known will come to the fore again in literature. . . The nation is not going to be pure and simple and solemn and stpuid. The literary folk are going to behave just as they used to—and more so." Why should Mr. George think we should be impure to . be cheerful? Of the class of novel he refers to there has surely been a surfeit during tiie last decade or so, and one did hope that in the near future we were to be treated, and I hope Miss Sinclair is right, to higher and wider ideals. And then possibly by way of a change we may be taken to the kindly domestic and Arcadian scenes in which it is to be hoped the world will dwell for many years after the Great I'eace is concluded. A BOOK FOR TACTICIANS. *"The Battle of the Rivers,"'by Edmund Dane. Daily -Telegraph War Books. (Hodder and »Stoughton). Even to one little versed in the most elementary military movements, it is self-evident that Mr. Dane is a man who is so well versed iii the technical points pf the game of fighting that out of the very fulness of his knowledge he is j able to give a readable and understandable account of the series of battles or the one great battle which culminated in the stand made by the German armies at the Aisne. The commencement of this great movement dates from the change of plans made by the Germans, about (so Sir John French reports) ' September 3. While the book is full of detailed information about the various moves and counter-moves made by opposing armies in which the student of strategy will tcvcl, it is so well and clearly written that the layman delights in it. It is a pleasure to read of what great things the Germans expected to do in those early months of the campaign and how completely they were foiled. The writer clearly that the desperate attempts made to break the Allied lines arose not so much from desire as imperative necessity. The German flanks had been worked round to such a position as to make their lines form a right angle, and, as the retrent of an army or series of armies is a task requiring extraordinary skill in tile best circumstances, it was impossible from such a position. Placed as is shown at right angles the armies on tlie one front must wait for the armies on the other to go back first and thus expose a flank of the other front or they must retreat together, and in doing so get hopelessly tangled for a retreat under such conditions would be like tlie closing of scissor blades. Thus was accomplished the purpose of the Allied forces —that of keeping the main military strength of Germany helpless while they wasted that strength. "To sum up, the Germans entered "France with a force of more than a million and 'a-half men. . . . The plan of the expedition had been studied for years. On the preparations for it had been bestowed a colossal labor. It appeared certain of Buccess. It was defeated by an exercise of military skill and resource which, however regarded, must stand as one of the greatest records of mastery in the art of war." Not the least interesting of this "best yet" war book is the text of some of Sir John French's despatches in an ample appendix. HAROLD BINDLOSS' LATEST. ""The Intruder,"., by Harold Bindlos* author of "JTawtrey's Deputy," etc. (London: Ward Lock and Co.; 1915). In this book we are taken to the wide free spaces and pure atmosphere of the new wheat lands of the verj; far jiortli of Canada, and set down in ' a special settlement of pioneers. Colonel Mowbray, of proud English stock, is the self-constituted head of settlement, and up to the coming of Jake Harding and his partner, Devine, farming has been conducted in the old-fashioned way that took no thought of making money. Harding's "industry appears to the oid colonel, plebian and aggressive, and as such is resented. It is an unwritten

law that each holder of land shall not mortgage without the consent of the others in the community, but this is done liy both Mowbray's sons, who wet. about sowing their wild oats in quite orthodox fashion, and get deeply in debt. Harding comes to Lance's rescue, and places himself in a very embarrassing position thereby. This in his case is particularly unfortunate, for he is in love with the colonel's daughter, Beatrice. The whole story is faseinating, • ;i"d gives a, very accurate picture of a typo of life common in the great Northern Dominion. NOTES. Tlodder and StougUton's have just announced the, result of the all-British £10(10 novel competition. The prizes wore given as follows:—C2.7l) each for the best stories sent in of Canadian, Australian, South African and Indian life. The Australian section winner was found in-Miss Prichard, of 64 Chelsea Gardens, London, S.W., for a story called ''Tile Pioneers." The only prize, to go outside Great Britain was to Mr. F. It. Rose, of Natal, for a novel entitled "Golden Glory." A prize was_ recently offered by the Pill no ontci'prisiiin; firm for flip hnst oriirinal verse, supposedly written by one who wanted'to enlist and was disqualified. Here it is: REJECTED. When I hear the drum, and see them come Equipped from head to toe, With that look in the eye as tlioy pass by i I'd give my soul to go. —M. TROUGIITON. More war literature announced is:— "Tiie Red Glutton, my experiences with the Gorman Armv at the Front," by Trvin S. Cobb (6s); 'When Blood is their Argument." bv Ford M. Hueffer, being an analysis of German culture (2s fld); and "Fighting with King Albert," by Capitaine Gabriel do Libert do Flenialle. (*Books reviewed supplied by Mr,' A. S. Booker, the B.K, Bookshop, Devon street),