WAR BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19889, 28 March 1930, Page 13

WAR BOOKS.

——<►— —- THE PRESENT DELUGE.

SIR lAN HAMILTON'S WARNING. (rEosi otra own cobbcsponozkt.) LONDON, February 13. Speaking at the annual dinner of ths Metropolitan Area of the British Legion on Saturday, Sir lan Hamilton issued a warning against the presfent deluge of war books. "We 'are living through ticklish times," h© said. -"For eleven years tire nation has been out for peace, not at any price, but at almost any price. Not? there are signs of a reaction. "Reaction is thfe natural child of exaggeration out of excess. On several sides we are tempting reaction by overdoing peace propaganda."

It was rather odd that at the very moitienfc when there were more people in tho world who had fought in war, been shelled almost put of their skins, been shot at like Aunt Sallies, been wounded, gone over the top—surely it was extra queer tlhat these elaborateattempts to exclude virtue, nobility, and even valour from war should choose this time to begin to flourish .like toadstools on the tombs of our dead heroes? The blazing and largely, deserved success of ''All Quiet oh the Western Front" and *'Journpy's End'' had shown publishers how, by employing finer writers and by cutting out more thoroughly any touches of selfsacrifice, devotioh, or loVe «if adventure. they could fio one bfetter #ith the pacifist public. Defeatist Bcoka. . "What is going to be the result of these defeatist books; of these attempt to lay the fbuidatibtiß of the temple of Peace upon fear of danger rather than upon fearlessness of danger ? You and I should be aJble. to answer that question. You. are,eafch the centre of a circle of friends who draw their views on' war from you. I meet ex-soldiers by. the thousand every week, and as cblonel of a regiment interview young gentlemen from Oxford* Cambridge, or Sandhurst Who wish to become officers.

"I c&tt L tell tbu thHt w rksuUf of trying to. preifehi whr- to ,th& public as you might push the .dirt end only, of a stick under 4 man's dose jand pretfend that was the stick; tte whole stick, and nothing, hut, the Stick —the result of this is, ethically speaking, bo great a failure already .that our younger generation are in danger pf becoming Jingoes;'' Colonel 5. b. Freyberg'a VitnJra, *

liieutenarit-fcbldnel 0. Freiberg, V.C., speaking at a - dinner of the Folkbstone Chamber of Commerce, also refected to war bdoks. ,

"The flood of war books at present is interesting for yoU and w" he iaid. "We know what wq»t on during the war.' We know jthat' is true And what is untrue. But there , is, another generation growing up, and fdr their sake-1 deprecate most strongly any such suggestion as that the people 'who fought in the war were drunkards or cowards. In ihy four years of wftr service I saw only five drunken men. I do not know of a single man shot for cowardice. "The language, I know, was tough, but, on the other side of the ledger, I can tell you there were great-hearted knen, and I saw them in thdusanda risk their lives daily. That ii what I feel about the present war books. They are written froth the wrong angle entirely."

Booksellers Without Honour. Other people give their views in the correspondence columns of the "Daily Telegraph." One Writer says: "I can bear testimony to the fact that the average officer and man wis not as he is depicted in many books, but 'a very gallant gentleman,* and that many a padre was not M the author of a recent tiovel would hqve us believe, but a 'white' man through aid through. "We need to get rid of that muddled thinking whi?h assumes that because war is evil, therefore every evil thing which occurs in War has its sole cause in war; whereas s6mfe things are due to the habits and mentality formed in pre-war times, which showed themselves in such incidents afc are depicted with nauseating detail in certain war books.

"this problem of the war book is one of the many Which beset those who, like myself, try to earn their daily bread by providing good and healthy and clean literature to those who frequent our bookshops. We, too, must surely pause and think awhile, lest We become 'war booksellers without honour.'"

Another writer says: "It is surely far better to read thd books of stlch authors as Hartimaeus,' 'Taffrail,' lan Hay, 'Banner,' Gonan Doyle, and others—all clean, wholesome, reading, portraying the high ideals of their subjects."