A WOMAN'S WAR BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 132, 7 June 1930, Page 21

A WOMAN'S WAR BOOK

"Not So Quiet"; Step-Daughters of War. By Helen Zenna Smith. London: Albert E. Marriott, Ltd. (through Angus and Eobertson, Sydney).

It is expressly stated that this book is not a story, but an experience. On those linos, then, there is, perhaps, some reason for publishing to the world this painful account of certain •' tragic and frequent occurrences which undoubtedly took place during the war. But to re-open wounds, and to recall to memory those things which are intolerably painful, seems unnecessary, to say the least. Surely it cannot be necessary to urge the horrors of war upon women, for probably not one woman can be found in the whole world who would consent or approve another great war. Therefore,, as few men would willingly read of the unspeakable things which happened to themselves, so this book, although it is well written, is unwanted. True, it has considerable literary merit, and the sequence of events and attention to detail are both sensibly and carefully observed, still why drag into print coarse and unpleasant conversations between the "W.A.A.C.'s" and other women assistants? This is an unpleasant element in the book, and might well have been omitted.. It may be argued that the book will act as a warning to headstrong girls, or to parents who have some regard to the morals and cleanliness of the minds of their daughters, keying them up to act more determinedly than, before in preventing girls entering into such associations, in the event of another great war. But coarse as it is in places, the book may be taken as a true and unvarnished account of the life and work of many hundreds of young women at the war-front, and a meed of respect is certainly due to them for their fine courage and self-sacrifice, their power of endurance, and their kindliness.