A SOLDIER'S REMINISCENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 18

A SOLDIER'S REMINISCENCES.

THE VARIED LIFE OF SIR FRANCIS HOWARD. "Reminiscences," by Sir Francis Howard (Murray, London) might well bear, for sub-title, "The Making of an English Military Officer." Sir Francis Howard's training and constant efforts to maintain the higihest degree of efficiency will come as a surprise to many a young officer of to-day, and create astonishment in the minds of young colonials who were made into officers in a few months. The hook appears to be the gleanings from a diary carefully kept throughout a long and exceptionally adventurous life with the painstaking precision the author seems to have Bhown in all his work. In clear, simple, yet vivid English, "Sir Francis relates countless anecdotes and "moving incidents hy flood and field," nearly every page yielding something new. As so'dier, sportsman, and musketry expert, the close friend ol many Continental military and political authorities, the relative by descent an 1 marriage of numerous members of the German aristocracy, the trusted servant of the English War Office, and the son of a well-known diplomat, Sir Francis travelled widely, and his gifts aB a linguist assisted him to a more accurate reading of foreign thought than is generally exhibited by English writers. Swordsman, pugilist, sporting ,-hot, and personally familiar with every kind of soldiering, and shirking nothing of its worst hardships, Sir Erancis must have possessed those priceless things, sound health and a tough constitution, in addition to flexibility of mind and genial, humorous character. Berlin, Lisbon, Munich, Montreal, London, Sandhurst, Bombay Dacca, Mciktilce —the good Major-General takes us to all of them and tells us of native habits, local sport, and birds, beasts and fishes of many, and on all the journey he keeps us amused by lively little storycttes. There Is one peculiar feature about the book—it is almost without reference to women, who bulk so largely in most soldier stories. Pages are devoted to horse, dog, camel, sword, gun and rod, hut nothing of powder puff and fan. It was not until we were coming reluctantly to the last chapter that we awoko to the absence of social functions and fluttering petticoats. This alone is evidence of the entertaining nature of Sir Francis Howard's autobiographical volume. His humorous ruthlessnesS in dealing with the personal peculiarities of his acquaintances and friends well illustrates that essentially English characteristic which enables the possessor to take a jest in good part, and expect no offence to be taken when a jest is made at the expense of another. Sir Francis' good-natured "chaff" is refreshing in these days of touchiness, false pride and self-sufficiency.