BOOKS REVIEWED

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15033, 2 September 1922, Page 11 (Supplement)

BOOKS REVIEWED

CURRENT LITERATURE. “Under the Black Ensign” —By Captain R: S. Gwatkin-Williams. To the "unwiUy” Captain GwatkinWilliams explains that by the Black Ensign is meant the White, as flown, tattered and dirty, by the miscellaneous small craft of the War-Navy destroyers, tugs, trawlers, boarding steamers, and the like. It was in two of such vessels, engaged in out-ot-the-way corners of the theatre of the naval war, that he spent some three and a-half years, with one interval ashore as Hie unwitting guest of the Senussi —an interlude which he has described in another book.

The first of his two commands, was the Hibernia, re-christened Tara, in time of peace a passenger steamer plying between Dublin and Holyhead. She was detailed for patrol duty in the North Channel, and found herself for a time the only vessel armed with guns on the west coast of England. Captain Gwatkin-Williams tells how he was awakened one morning to find moored alongside his ship a trawler which had been dispatched to sink a German mine. The mine, still unexploded, was attached to the trawler’s stern, all its detonating horns bent by banging against her. The trawler’s skipper had carried out his orders to sink the mine by rifle fire, but he had first attached a< line to it, in order to raise it again as a trophy to carry home to his wife. The sea routes were full of drifting corpses, some of which became so well known to the mine-sweepers that they used to christen them with pcl( names. One long-moustachioed corpse came to be known to a trawler’s crew as “Moike”; and it was the standing joke on that ship whenever “Moike” was encountered to summon on deck an old petty officer over whose imagination this particular body had established a strange and gruesome influence, and to watch him turn pale and tremble when he looked down on it drifting past. The author’s next command was a more important one, though it was not in one of the spectacular theatres. He was sent to the Arctic Squadron- to command the Intrepid, a name which many will recognise as that of a ship that became famous at a later date as one of the old vessels used in the blocking raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend. The Arctic Squadron was stationed off the Murmansk coast, and its duty, at that period of the war a highly important one, was that of keeping open the northern doorway at Archangel into Russia, through which vast quantities of munitions and supplies were sent into the country. The Squadron was far from home, and its surroundings and its needs were not always understood at the Admiralty. Captain Gwatkin-Williams tells us that from first to last it was consistently overlooked and starved in many important things. Letters from the Admiralty used to arrive as though his headquarters at Yukanskte was situated in Japan, and the’station was confused with ’ Hie North American station. A request for fresh meat was answered by the sending out of a flock of sheep so wild that when wanted for the table they had to be hunted with Hie rifle; and strict orders were sent that none \Vere to be killed without first being shorn of their wool for use at home.

Nevertheless, the work of the Squadron in keeping the. route clear of mines, chasing submarines, convoying vessels, and effecting the repairs of which most of them were in urgent need succeeded,, and enormous quantities of supplies passed through Archangel, and enabled the Russian armies to keep the field. The climate, the distance from home, and tile nature of tile work inflicted many hardships, of which the worst would seem lo have been the Arctic mosquito, which the author says is to its tropical cousin as a hungry lion to a harmless, unenterprising lamb. •It was necessary to cover in the whole of the ship with netting during the abort Arctic summer, and there was one occasion when all work in the open was stopped for several days, bogs were tormented to madness, and birds were driven from their nests. But in spile of these and other troubles,» Captain Gwatkin-YViiliams •relates his experiences with zest, and seems to enjoy looking hack irpon ids experiences. “Spiritual and Mental Concepts of the Maori” (By Elsdon Best). This is a far more profound work on the Maori than Mailing’s “Old New Zealand,” and it is primarily written for scientific readers. -At Llic same time, Mr Elsdon Best lias the priceless faculty in a writer of making himself understood by all classes of rcadcis. ■His first work in the scries now being published by the Government was “Some Aspects of Maori Myth and Religion.” In Unit now under notice, Mr Best shows how the Maori, in his endeavours to understand the origin ol life, the cause of growth, the change of death, the apparition of llio.se who had passed from libs liic, trod a path “as old as the human race itself.” Mr Best’s remarks on the Maori belief in YVairua, or wandering spirit of man which may leave the body during slumber, make intensely interesting reading. There is something akin to this Maori idea with that of the “ka” of tile ancient Egyptians; and it explains the reluctance of the Maoris lo wake a sleeping • person. Mr Best shows how, for all his long isolation, tlie Maori in his lack of teachings as to the fiendish tortures of the soul of man in the spirit world stood out “the superior of the cultured peoples of Uic Orient, and emphasises the abominations of the pernicious doctrines of some Christian priesthoods." Mr Best, in ids admiration of the Maori, has not perhaps seen, or if seen lias forgotten, some of tlie Oriental conceptions of Hell and its torments as depicted in temples in the East. His work is of great value, nevertheless, and especially for the simple manner in which lie handles such complex subjects as those covered by the title under notice. A League of Nations Novel.

Miss Rose, Macaulay lias been al work on a new novel for some time, entitled “Mystery al Geneva,” a tale reflecting Lin- background if not inspired by llie proceedings ul the League of Nations, the author having been on the secretariat of the League. The book is expected during the autumn from Messrs Collins, who published Miss Macaulay's "Dangerous iges,” which a year ago was awarded lli, ; prize o lie red l>\ Memma-\'ie 11eu reuse inr the best English imaginative work in l‘.i'?l-?? nine, years a Her Hie same author's “Loo Shore” had won Messrs Dodder and Stoughton’s fiIUU.O prize novel competition.