BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3006, 17 February 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Mr. Coleman's New War Book,

Mr. Frederio Coleman, who visited New Zealand last year, and lectured on his experiences on the Western Front, and whose book, 'From Mons to Ypres •with French," has been reviewed in ; these columns, has now written a further aoeount of what lie saw whilst \acting as a motor-driver in the British Army in France and Flanders. The title of his new book is "With Cavalry in 1915: the British Trooper in the Frenoh Lino; through tho Second Battle of Ypres" (Sampson, Low rtnd Co.; '/ per George Robertson and Co.). As in his first book, Mr. Coleman proves that he wields a facile and graphio pen, and gives us a series of strikingly effective war pictures. His narrative covers the period from January to tho end of May, 1915, and includes some vivid descriptions of ; tho desperate struggles which took place in tho Ypres sector. Ypres was hold, is still held, by the British, but at what a j frightful cost. Tlie First Infantry Division—a division which iwd Haig j for a leader, had gone out at the begin- i ning of the war 14,000 strong. In six I months, says Mr. Coleman, its total j list of casualties had reached 34,000. • j In the first battle of Ypres its battalions had suffered ornelly. The Ist ! Coldstreams had been annihilated. The | Queen's (West Surreys) came out of the line with but fifteen rnon and 110 j officers, the Biaclc Watch with j . lint sixty-men and ons officer, j ; and the Eoyal North Lancnsliires with I ( hut 150 men and two officers. When the 1 ' Division came tack to tillets, it was j commanded by a brigadier-general. | . Every colonel in the division had been ! * killed .01' wounded, and the brigades j were commanded by offioers of all ranks, j 'A captain was in command of one bri-: gade. - i It was iii front of Hooges that tho ;' heaviest losses were suffered. Captain Nicholson, of tho lith Hussars, told Mr. Colotiiau how- oub night the Prussian Guard broko through the line on -. the Moriiu ;lU'.ad? Nicholson's i'squadron was sent to stop the gap. Forty troopers and forty cyclists, ' eighty| rifles all told, went up. They had no trenches, as tlie Prussians held our orisiwiTr: '.po«Uio><9. Sp ; they lay in a sunken road, the Germans occupying a wood sixty yards away, though neither side knew of the whereabouts of the other till dawii. Nicholson sought, out General Fitzelarence, commanding the Ist. Brigade, in tho .Hark. Most of Fitrclarer/io's Brigade had been killed. Efforts to clear up the situation had borne little rcsnlt. ; Every messenger he had sent out for information had "been killed. Fitzclarence said five brigades were to bo sent to him, with which he was to counterattack. The five brigades came, and wore found to, total 1000 men all told I' Yet with tho remnants of his force, Fitssolarenco counter-attacked at dawn. Though he himself was killed, his wonderful men won through. The position , was recaptured, and Ypres saved. A glorions page in the annals of the British Army, though it cost England men . who were indeed hard to replace. "As to the losses of tho enemy," Nicholson told me, "I once scouted the . wood in front of us. It was a terrible ■j; sight; ,; Jri/many piaces among-tho trees li.could: not set my'foot-without stepping on a dead German." ■ Of the tenacity, the determination; . and' above nil of tho extraordinary sang froid of the British 6o}diors, Mr. Coleman gives numerous examples. Sere is a remarkable story of the yet more remarkable experiences of a British airman, Mapplebjwk by name, an officer in the Liverpool Regiment, attached to the Royal Flying Corps. Tho story was told to M# Coleman by Captain Moore-Brahazon, of the Flying Corps: ' '~ .' .< '' '' '. Not long ago Mapplebeclcwas up alone 011 a scout near Lille, wlien his engine went wrong; and he; had to make a descent.. He knew he was well inside the German lines;- but was shocked to see a couple of Huns, apparently doing sentry- duty, not far from where he haa , planned fo land. - - The two Germans, ran toward the machine as it came down, each grabbing hold of ; the left wiiig. , The biplane • tossed and rolled and pitched ahout as • it came to rest., Mappledeck tumbled out on the right side, .dived head first through a thick hedge ri few feet distant, and ran . hoWoot down : a deep ditoh that'.led to a'cross-hedgo not far away. " -. > '■ ■■'V;' ■ Ha lost 110 time in dodging through ,the further hedge, and was-off like a liare ■ down another ditoh. The Huns must have taken the wrong turning when pursuing him, as he got clear away and hid in a- dwelling till night. Obtaining some peasant clothing, Jlappledeck made his way into Lille. Thoucth the town was full of , Germans, his disguise was so good that lie was not bothered in any way. Finding a loyal French business man, Ma'ppledeck cashed a London cheque, for which KB received FrnTir.li notes 'bearing a German stamp. With these he bought a suit', of clothing, and started to tramp the ro*d to Belgium; , He reached Belgium safply, kept 011, " and eventually, crossed the Dutch border. Obtaininc a Tiassage to London, he at once went to Farnborough and reported. There is was given a new machine, which was rendv to come to France. He lost no time in bringing it across the Channel. and reporting'for duty,, just as if nothing uniisual had happened. 1 • , Bit by bit we nWv-"s-l from him the details of his experiences. Ho was migl'tilv modest ahout it all, and laughed at the-idea that he had done anything that was in the least out of the ordinary. Mr. Coleman is specially eulogistic in his references to .the, Canadians, so cruelly cut. up at St. Julion aiul other places! Ho has much to' say, too, of tho gas attacks which for a-time placed tho Allies in a ' vcrj* dangerous plight. He criticises freely, but it is good to read -his final ■ opinion that "the right men aro in the British Armv, and "the right men_are. at the head of it. The .hook,, which, considered as a whole, must bo considered an important contribution to the history of the war on the AVostern, Front, cou- - tains a large number of most interesting illustrations, reproduced from photographs taken by the author andhis military friends. (New Zealand price 65.)

Some American Verse, "Songs and Satires" (Werner Laurie) is a collection of poeriis in various motres, and dealing with widely different subjects, by Edgar.Lee".Masters,_ an 'American poet, whose "Srmon River 'Anthology" was reviewed in these columns last year. The "Anthology" achieved widesprend popularity in America, its author being styled, by one critic "the natural child of Walt Whitman . . ■ the only poet witli true Americanism in his bones." In his new volume, in which, I somehow suspect, Mr. Masters has included some of his earlier poetical work, produced previous to the morbid, but undoubtedly powerful. life stories, as told from the graves of the Spoon River community, the TMiet shows signs here and there of having been influenced by _ English and American poets who write on much more conventional lines. He oven attempts quit* mediaeval themes, as in "St. Franks and Lady Clare." In ether poems, how«ver, nctaWj in "The

Loop," he affects tho ultra realism of corfcain latter-day poets, describing tho dim ugliness of the sordid quarters of great cities with the meticulous detail of a mere cataloguer. As thus:— Around the loop the elevated crawls,. The giant shadows sink against the walls Where ton to twenty stories strive to hold Tho pale refraction of the sunset's gold. Slop underfoot, we pass beneath the loop. The crowd is uglier, poorer;' thore are .smells As from the depths of unsuspectecWielts, And from a groggpry where beer and soup Are sold for five cents to the thieves and ' bums. A limousine gleams quickly—with a cry A legless man fastened upon a board ' With castors 'neath it by a sudden shove Darts'out of danger. And upon a corner A lassie tells a man that God is love, Holding, a tambourine with its copper . hoard To'be augmented%y the drunken scorncr. A woman with no eyeballs in her sockets Plays "Bock of Ages" on a w'lieezy organ. Etc., Etc. In certain of the verses thoro is a pleasant lyrical touch, but the author too often drops into tho most banal of prose. And it is difficult to forgive such lines (in his. portrait of "William Marion Reedy") as these: And you see that the eyea are really the man For the thought of him proliferates This >way over to Hindoostan. ... "Proiforates" is, as olonius might have said, "good."' The poem which makes tlio strongest appeal to me is that entitled "0 Glorious France," from which I quote the first two stanzas: — You 'have become a forgo" of snowwkite firo, A crucible'of molten steel, O France! Your sons are stars who cluster to. a dawn And fade -in light for you, O glorious France! They pass through meteor changes with a song "Which to all islands and all continents Says life is neither coinfort, wealth, nor fame. Nor quiet hearthstone, friendship, -wife . nor. child, Nor-love, nor'youth's delight, nor manhood's power. Nor many days spent in a chosen work, Nor honoured merit, nor the patterned theme Of daily labour,' nor the crowns nor wreaths Of seventy years. .These are not all of life, O France, whose sons amid the roiling ; thunder ( n., Of cannon stand -in trenches where the' dead 1 .Clog the ensanguined ice. But life to these Prophetic and enraptured souls is vision, and the keen eostasy of fatal strife, And divination of the loss as gain, And reading mysteries with brightened eyes . In fiery shock and dazzling pain before The orient splendour of tlie face of Death,As a great light beside a - shadowy sea; And'in ,a high will's strenuous exercise. Where the warmed spirit finds its fullest strength ; And is 110 more afraid. And in the . stroke Of azuro lightning when the hidden essence And shifting meaning of man's spiritual, worth :, And mystical significance in time'' ; . Are instantly distilled to one clear drop Which mirrors earth and heaven. In curious oontrast to finch a poem as the one just quoted is "Tho Cocked Hat," a scathing exposure of that dreadful windbag, Mr. Bryan. I am sorry that space limits forbid quotations from this mercilessly severe satire.