“THE DESERT COLUMN”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21650, 21 May 1932, Page 4

“THE DESERT COLUMN”

AN ANZAC IN PALESTINE " The Desert Column: Leaves From the Diary of an Australian Trooper." By lon L. Idriess. Foreword by General Sir Henry Chauvel, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. Sydney: Angus and Robertson (6s net). "Crosses of Sacrifice: the Story of the Empire’s Million War Dead." By J. C. Waters. Illustrated. Sydney: Angus and Robertson (Gs net). When lon Idricss compiled, in spare moments, the diary which, stripped of 20,000 words, still makes a volume of 380 pages, he had no thought of writing for publication. His diaries were, as he says, “a very young soldier’s idea.” He thought that if he survived shot, shell, and sickness he would like, when he became an old man, to be able to read exactly t what his feelings were when “things were happening,” to have a war souvenir more interesting than “ the stray bits of shrapnel, bomb, and high explosive splinters which nearly every soldier collected.” Mr Idriess has since made himself a place in Australian contemporary literature with books quite unconnected with wai 1 , but his early ffiaries are sufficiently graphic, are so vigorously alive, that they make their own claim for publication. “ The Desert Column ” is the record of a “Digger” who was through the Gallipoli campaign, and then transferred to the Desert Mounted Corps which met the Turkish attack from Sinai on the Suez canal and served under Allenby in driving the Turks out of Palestine. It is a brisk, human narrative, written by a man who observed closely, who felt keenly, and who preserved throughout three trying years that cheerful, detached spirit whigji seems to have characterised the Anzac’s behaviour in wartime. There are. gay descriptions of camp life, of the humours of the campaigns; there are telling, though sketchy, descriptions of engagements; there are passages which delineate the brutality and horror of warfare, but the tone of the book is heroic. This fatalistic, cheery optimism which is the most powerful impression we receive from “ The Desert ■ Column ” is worth, in its own way, a dozen histories of the war or a hundred morbid, defeatist novels. All are necessary, and we are not prepared to say that “ The Desert Column ” is more truly reflective of an' attitude to war than the books of the Remarque school; but it is undoubtedly a living, vital expression of the light-hearted courage with which many thousands of ordinary soldiers, faced death. Their reactions were not, perhaps, very intelligent, but they were practical. The realisation permeates this diary, as it must have the minds of the common soldiers, that though war was a ghastly, a shocking, an insane business, there was one armour against its horrors. Humour, a stout heart, and a refusal to become morbidly introspective carried the soldier through his experience of hell on N earth, where a man more keenly attuned to listen to the promptings of his inner mind, willing to. allow his sensitiveness to predominate, might find trembling. Summed up, the philosophy of Mr Idriess might be described as that pf "jeer and die,” but it went deeper than that. He, and thousands with him, could not only jeer, but laugh, and that gift for laughter retained their sense of proportion in a world gone mad.

Emergency Psychology We should not suggest that the attitude typified by Mr Idness was that ot a cheerful robot. He knew, as wc disvover in certain passages, that tins war was a distorted, irrational business. lie had the supreme good sense to accept it as such, and not to question when there could be no reasonable answer. Here is a passage that demonstrates the cmeigency psychology required to meet an emergency situation: You saw a Turk’s head, you saw his moustache, and his eye glaring along hiq rifle sight: you fired, too, with you*breath in your belly, then rushed forward screaming, to bayonet mm, to , dub him, to fall on him and tear Ins throat out . . • (jnd he met y with a replica of the berserk frightened demon that was yourself. . . It is not a polite or civilised attitude, not, perhaps, a particularly heroic, but it was the only one that gave the soldier a defence against the brutal, uncivilised thing that war is. Yet, as we have said, Mr Idriess retained his sense of humour, his sente of beauty, his sense of proportion. After a routine , description of desert marches, of skirmishes, and camp we are surprised, to nnu mm forsaking the military thread of his story to enlarge upon an antiquarian discovery In the midst of the pressing business of being a soldier, he pauses to enter in his notebook a careful description of a mosaic floor which the padre uncovered on a lonely, arid hillside. And immediately after, Mr Idriess, as if to assure himself that he is not becoming enwrapt in the glamour of such. ancient history, relates that the padre wired to the Base Records Office: } ‘Have found the bones of a saint,” and received the reply. “ Can find no record of this man. Send full name, number, and regiment ami identity disk of Trooper Saint. “ The Desert Column is a long book, and mainly written in the breezy vernacular of the Australian on active service. Therefore, we would not recomment its applied study, save to those fo whom the scene, the troops, and the st>le have a strong appeal. . But any reader will' find it worth his, while to browse through its pages at_,his R; s ure, for ie Will find there, sometimes vivid and dts tinct, sometimes amid the comparative dross of a soldier’s casual musings, a very real and sympathetic picture of an Anzac in'wartime* 11

The Author lon Idriess ba s roamed every State ot Australia, Torres Straits, and the Louth Pacific islands, in search of g° ld > platinum, and osmindium, a!ways working as a lone hand. For years be made a.decent living”,in prospecting and during this time he was struck, not only by the glamour of the search, but the history that has been made by those who him in out-of-the-way places. This he has embodied in “ Lasseter’s Last Ride ” aud “ Flynn of the Inland, while his practical experience is passed on “ Prospecting for Gold." He enlisted with the Austra-lian-forces as a young man, was twice badly wounded at Gallipoli and twice invalided to Egypt, after which lie was transferred to the Desert Column. _ He did not participate in the triumphant march to Jerusalem, as an attack ot malaria intervened. The last entry in his diary was made at Port Said Hospital, “f am to be returned to Australia as unfit for further service. Thank heaven! ,

The Empire's Dead . “ Crosses of Sacrifice ” is a book which tails of the pilgrimage to the war cemeteries of Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine, Francs, and Belgium of an Australian who, too young, to take part in the war himself, conceived its heartrending torture” during his travels. Mr Wateis writes with restraint concerning the emotions with which this pilgrimage filled him, and with no touch of that cynicism affected by some members of the post-war generation. The facts lie relates, which have the authenticity of the War Graves Commission, are at once terrible and com-forting-terrible in their story of a million British lives cut short, comforting in their assurance that the graves of these men are to be protected for all time. The book enables one to realise the immensity of the work which the War Graves Commission undertook, and the numerous excellent photographic plates show in what manner it has been carried out. .Noble memorials and great areas covered by the pathetic little stones that mark the graves of our soldiers form their own tribute to tlie work. This book should prove of value to parents, wives,, and relatives of fallen men who cannot themselves make the pilgrimage. Books and Tariffs We are glad to know, states an English literary periodical, that it has been decided by the Government to exempt books from the 10 per cent, import tariff. The principle that a free and unrestricted exchange of knowledge and ideas is for the general good, is now accepted among civilised peoples. The prohibition on the entry of certain artistes and musicians, so much discussed in the press lately, aim the fact that contemporary works of art are not exempt from the new duty, are evidence? however, that this principle has not yet obtained universal acceptance. Except in the case ot Action the prices of Docks and other publications Issued outside Australia and New Zealand reviewed on this page are the prices at the place of origin, and generally are subject to alteration Us New Zealand.