GENERAL MONASH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22006, 12 January 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

GENERAL MONASH

WAR LETTERS PUBLISHED In "War Letters of General Monash" those who followed the fortunes of the Australians and New Zealanders during ■tho war will find an amazingly human document. The letters, with few exceptions, were written by the late Sir John Monash to his wife in Melbourne, and so contain the deeper personal feelings of one of the outstanding soldiers of the campaign. They are simple and clear, never burdensome, and reveal most vividly the fine instincts that were one of the chief characteristics of the great Australian soldier. Particularly striking is the great admiration he had for the soldiers under his command. He treats them as his personal family, with a justifiable pride in their accomplishments and a sympathetic understanding for any weaknesses they may have exhibited under the stress of prolonged active service of a most severe order. Above all, he feels with them any injustices they may have suffered.

Every letter is in itself worth reading, but here and there are outstanding passages that are invaluable eontribu- . tions to the better literature of tho war. Examples of this are to be found in the description of the evacuation of Anzae, the review of tho writer's division on Salisbury Plain by His Majesty the King and the German advanco in March, 1918. Particularly fine is the description of the road to Ypres, with its war-time traffic at its thickest. As a contrast come little homely notes that reveal the man rather than the soldier, thinking of the comfort of his family amid bis tremendous duties. Here and there he finds time in the turmoil of war to write of his garden in Melbourne and to describe his joy at finding familiar plants on the battlefields. His letters must have been made doubly interesting by the frequent enclosures, maps and papers, little war trophies and odd pressed leaves and flowers. From a military standpoint the book is fascinating to a degree. Throughout are criticisms of the shortcomings of Various staff departments, accurate descriptions of operations as seen by the man who planned them and careful explanations of battle procedure and military problems. In reading this fine war book one traces the highly successful career of one of the great soldiers of the war through his own eyes. The book should interest New Zealanders equally with Australians, as they wero frequently concerned and seldom far from the operations described. Captain Liddell Hart, the well-known British military critic wrote in a memoir for the London press on Sir John Death in 1931: If the war had lasted another year Sir John Monash would almost certainly have risen to an army commander and might even have risen to commander-in-chief. He probably had the greatest capacity for command in modern war among all who held command. The editing 6f the letters has been in the very capable hands of Mr. F. M. Cutlack, tho author, among other military works, of the Official History of Australia Duj-ing the War: The Australian Flying Corps."

" War Letters of Oeneral Momsh,*' edited by F. M. Cutlack. (Angus and Robertson.)