WAR FACTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 300, 17 December 1917, Page 9

WAR FACTS.

LITERATURE FOR NEW ZEALAND. BRITISH GOVERNMENTS GIFT. \Spccial to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Though there is happily no doubting among Zealandera about their duty in connection with the great world struggle, it is well to lose no opportunity of making known the vital principles which are at stake, and the means to the great end of securing victory for the Allied arms. There has been a'iiood of literature on varied phases of the i;reat war, and much has been sent to Sow Zealand. Now the British Government has forwarded to tlie Minister of Defence a supply of the most important pamphlets on the war, in sufficient numbers to ensure that every public libraryhas a collection of these valuable aids to an understanding of all we are fighting for. The packing process will take some time, but it is hoped to send a parcel of pamphlets to every public library in the Dominion before the end of this month. The publications are too numerous to even catalogue in a news article, but it is worth while mentioning some which strucK the eye in a view of the collection. Bishop Cleary, of Auckland, has written a booklet giving a vivid insight into Prussian militarism at work, and the British authorities evidently regard it ac of value, for there is a good supply of copies. Bishop Cleary deals with the Prussian militarist doctrine of " recourse to all means," points out what that means to the freedom-loving world. tvliat it has already meant in disregard of the laws of nations and of humanity, and concludes by declaring that the alternative to defeat of the Prussian military machine is " either a triumph of such forms of materialistic barbarism, or that barbarism making ready for another spring. And either .would be a tragedy for mankind." " Germany's Lost Colonial Empire " is the subject of a small book by John H Harris, who declares that South Africa wUI certainly refuse to surrender its hold ovqr German South-west Africa, and Australia and New Zealand will take the same attitude over the German possessions in the Pacific. "It may be," he writes, "that their demands will go even further, but as certain as to-mor-row's sun will set, the refusal to tolerate the German flag in the South Pacific is definite and final." In an attractive pamphlet, "The Gatlierag of the Clans," J. Saxon Mills has summarised up to the beginning of this year, what the overseas Dominions and dependencies have done to aid the Motherland. Hie introduetorv sentence to the New Zealand section is the following tribute: true crusading spirit, the conception of the European conflict as a holy war on Wialf of Christian civilisation,'has been manifested in New Zealand." There are books on tho spirit of Tommy Atkins, our sailors, how we have dealt with the financial problems oi the contest, the war work of our Universities. "How the English Take the War , (a clever analysis of British character by an American), the German terror in Belgium, »nd the war as it affects the different nationalities engaged. A complete set of these pampUets and booklets will bring our library war references well up to date.