ADVENTURES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12928, 26 July 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT.

MB.'ERNEST BRINDLE'S BOOK ON

THE FAR EAST. ... To gain, any general view of the struggle now going on in Manchuria we must follow the steps of half a dozen different war correspondents. When it is possible to speak with any finality some one of them ■pill no doubt produce a standard work on the campaign. In the meantime we must bo content with individual glimpses. Mr. Bi'indle's book, just published, is the latest of the half-dozen or so that have already appeared.

Mr. Brindle has not attempted to make history; he has simply set down his own experiences and observations, and the result is an admirable book.

SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR.

In previous books on the war a great deal lias been written on the political and racial aspects of the struggle. . The battles have been eloquently described by . hearsay, but in most cases the restrictions that have restored the correspondent whole and sound to Europe have robbed his narrative of the vividness of the eye-witness. Mir. Brindle and his twenty journalist associates at Newchwang only heard of the fighting that was going on in their vicinity through the despatches telegraphed from London that were placed every morning in the club. No one battle is described in this narrative with any detail, and the nearest we are brought to " the real thing" is • the top of a hill near Tashihchia, where Mr. Brindle and a Russian bank manager watched the smoke of the guns in the artillery duel of Sunday, July 24. ' The description of the engagement as seen from a distant hill is good.. What Mr. Brindle saw the reader sees, for it is in his power to communicate an impression that Mr. Brindle ' excels. Our only regret is that he did not see more. Here are one or two of the points selected out of the whole panorama that show an artist's eye. The puffs "veiling the rocks with .•fully white balls of filmiest texture, which ' threaded open, in the breeze and stretched floating lines to the green plain at the foot, of the hills." . . . The people of the surrounding , country "with craning necks and straining eyes turned to the east." :. .: . The native fishermen, who "let drop the sails of their crude craft and sat idly listening to the din," and " who smiled and discussed the event between themselves with some show of animation, and postponed hauling in the' nets from the sea for an hour or two" . . . and, lastly, the Russian by Mr. Brindle's side, -who stood with " limbs • twitching excitedly, - gazing at the smoke with eyes glued to his field-glasses." All the while our thoughts are with the Russian bank manager, not with his countrymen in the trenches. We sympathise with his first delusive hopes, when there is not enough beer to celebrate the occasion. In an' hour of anxiety we are glad that he can find heart for cold lunch and cigarettes. He-is, in. fact, the dominant note in the drama throughout, until he steals away in ' the dark from his companion's side. It is an excellent picture, true and clear as- can be; but it is not enough. We feel cold at this secure detachment, while men are at the death-grip a few miles off. We want to be with the Russians behind their guns, to feel with them, to know terror and sickening, deferred hope, to fly with them, if need be, in the night, battered and broken. That is war. The rest; might be conjured up in TRAGIC EPISODE. Still, however strictly the belligerents insist on correspondents keeping outside , the area of hostilities, chanoes must occur , when they witness a little informal .blood-spilling. Mr. - Brindle"" met ' adventure " "in " a ' very tragic way.; Disgusted with the tantalising life at Newchwang (where they might be separated' by a continent from the seat of war for all they saw of the fighting), he and Mr. Lewis Et-zel, of the Daily Telegraph, at last mad© up their minds to charter a Chinese junk and sail down the Gulf of Liaotung to some neutral port' in the hope of seeing an actual engagement on the way. i The junk on which the two friends started on their adventure was barely out of the estuary when it was attacked by Chinese troops, who mistook the vessel for one owned by a gang of pirates. Brindle was writing in his diary When he suddenly heard shots. Then Etzel's voice, "What for you pull down sail? Up with sail." Looking up from the hold Brindle saw his mafoo lying prone on his stomach. "He twisted and dodged, muttering spitefully, 'Dam fool, dam fool!' an expressive phrase he had picked up from foreign mentors during seven years of his wandering life, as bullets struck and chipped the wood near his clutching fingers. Then he disappeared from sight again. ' Etzel,' I cried, ' Etzel,' but there was no answer. Again the mafoo's face appeared over the hold. 'Master,' he whispered, 'other master makee die.' I was stupefied for a moment, . and then I clambered up the side of the hold and looked down across the partition. There, stretched on his back, with an arm moving feebly i backwards and forwards in front of his face, one of his legs curved sharply at the kneejoint, and his head in a horrible pool of blood, lay my poor friend. I jumped into the hold, and knelt . down by his side. ' Etzel, old man, what's the matter? . PRESENCE OF MIND. When Brindle stepped on deck the Chinese ceased firing. It was necessary at all costs to conceal Etzel's death, for if the soldiers discovered they had killed a white man they would have had no cumpunction in shooting Brindle and his crew,, and scuttling the junk to escape i>. ■'ion and punishment. Brindle, however, with great tact and resourcefulness, prevented the Chinese officer from boarding, and tie troops sailed away with apologies. The incident is related with simplicity and re-' straint, and gains force by reticence. Mr. Brindle has an easy-balanced style he is emotional through his subject, not in spite of it, and his narrative is marked by a direct unaffectedness which steers safely between baldnees and gush. More valuable than the bird's-eye view of the fighting are the reflections scattered through the book. "The Russianisation of Manchuria in theory was the prelude to the Japanisation of China in practice," says My. Brindle, and he sees no menace to Europe in the process. To be brought into conflict with the rest of the world would be ruinous to the best interests of Japan. The Japanese are the only people equipped for the work of exploiting and developing the enormous resources of the Chinese Empire, but to carry it out they require the assistance of the West. If that assistance is not assured them by a renewal of the British alliance they will seek it fronc another Power. Japan will not run the risk of a second coalition being formed against her now that she is on the threshold of a great future.—" With Russian, Japanese, and Chunchuse," by Ernest Brindle.. John Murray.