THE WASTE OF WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 662, 14 March 1952, Page 10

THE WASTE OF WAR

THIS WAR _ BUSINESS, by Arthur Guy aoe The Bodley Head; English price, "S° you see, my dear Coningsby, the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes," wrote Disraeli over a century ago. The omission of this theme — that many strange faggots go to stoke the fires of war. is the major weakness of this book. (This fact is commented on by MajorGeneral J. C; Fuller in his foreword.) ‘Nevertheless, the terrifying collection of factual material on the cost and waste of war justifies a sprawling publication. The author, a Quaker, seems to have gone through all the available blue-books to assemble his facts-there are tables of naval losses, of casualties, of money costs of the 1914-18 war, and similar ones for the 1939-45 war. The losses and expenditure of each of the countries are listed; for example, in 1939-45, Great Britain Jost 4786 merchant ships (21,194,000 tons of shipping); the greatest material damages in this war were suffered by the U.S.S.R. which also had 4,500,900 of its armed forces killed and 6,000,000 civilians dead or missing | There are sections on the huge cost of war pensions, ’on conscientious objectors, on chemical and bacteriological warfare, on the moral reactions of British scientists to making atom bombs, on political and military authorities who say, "If you prepare thoroughly and efficiently for war, you get war." It is all there, and ' |

more.

W.B.

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