SOLDIERS’ LETTERS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 29

SOLDIERS’ LETTERS

Extracts From a Lively Correspondence

“Elegant Extracts,” a duobiography by Edmund Malone and George Hawes (London: Lovat Dickson). Two retired colonels have published in this book extracts from letters which they wrote to each, other and preserved over a period of more than twenty years. In 1000, they joined different battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, one being stationed in India and the other in Egypt. From this time onward they corresponded and their letters are dated from widely differing places, from Burma, the Sudan, South Africa. Bermuda and Mauritius among others. Naturally, during this time, they saw much that was noteworthy, and had most varied experiences, from peace-time service abroad and fighting in France to social life in London and Ireland where one of them at a stage of his career was aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant. No basis for the traditional idea of th e retired colonel could possibly be found in these letters. These men were good soldiers, but their interests extended far beyond this aspect of their life, and, consequently, their correspondence, while it provides an excellent commentary on the conditions under which officers served in the army, has an appeal much more widespread than this alone could gite it. These are charming, lively letters, a little cynical in tone at times, but always tolerant and ever ready to expose any suggestion of sham or snobbery encountered. Here is vivid comment by two intelligent observers, both of whom have a neat sense of humour, on topics of unfailing interest These men, as one of them puts it, “have certainly been privileged to see some of the great sights of the world.” It is the good fortune of the reading public that they could describe so attractively what they saw and have preserved their descriptions over such a long period.