REVIEWS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 24, 11 December 1912, Page 47

REVIEWS.

With the Turks in Italy : By Ernest Bennett. (London: Methuen and Co. Auckland: Wildman and Arey.) Any work that deals with Turkey and the Turkish soldier is sure of more than an ordinary welcome since the BalkanTurco struggle is one of, if not the most, burning topics of the day. Mr Bennett, who lately sat in the Commons as member for the Woodstock Division of Oxfordshire, has the reputation of being an adventurous and spirited writer, and certainly he has justified this praise in “With the Turks in Tripoli,” which is very interesting reading indeed. Accredited by the "Manchester Guardian ’ as its war correspondent, Mr Bennett managed, after a succession of exciting experiences, to make his way through the desert, to the Turkish forces, with whom he remained until they reached Gharian, after which, he retraced his journey to the Tunisian frontier. The book makes no pretension either to literary merit, or as being a complete record of the Tripolitan campaign. Nevertheless, the work is valuable as showing the Turkish soldier in a totally different light to that iu which he is generally regarded. Exception may be taken to the decided bias in favour of the Turk which is shown by the author, but his account seems to ring true, and he has evidently described the Turkish soldiers as he knew them during, the time he was attached to the Turco-Arab forces in Tripoli. Mr Bennett has little that is good to say either about the Arabs, or the Italian conduct of the Tripolitan campaign. He is specially severe on the Italian bombardment of the unfortified towns and villages of Tripoli, though in the same breath he scoffs at the comparatively little damage done, through the shells falling ridiculously wide of their mark. Mr Bennett also seems to share the opinion of the Turks, that had the opposing forces generally come to close grips, the result would have been disastrous to the Italians. Italy's conquest, lie thinks, is likely to cost her dear, for he says: —“The war is enriching the great mass of the Tripolitans from every point of view, while at the same time inflicting a crushing expenditure on the taxpayers of Italy; and if your sociologist wishes to see poverty at its worst, let him travel amongst the towns and villages of Apulia and Calabria.” Mr Bennett

gives many examples, too, of t%c Intense detestation in which the Italians are held by the Arabs, who, if they must be protected, would have preferred a British occupation, on Egyptian lines. But though the author waxes enthusiastic about the personal and campaigning qualities of the Turkish soldier, he is severe on the Arab. “I have been brought into personal contact with very many races,'* he save, “and I can honestly say that the only people I usually dislike are the Arabs. With the exception of their undeniable courage and powers of endurance, there are few salient virtues among these men. They are, with, of course, striking exception*:, mirthless, grim, ungrateful, cruel, and, above all, filled with an absorbing spirit of greed from childhood to old age.*’ So engrained, indeed, is this lust for money that it is said that they will resort to brutal violence and cruel murder, merely to possess themselves of incredibly small sums of money, or some petty possessions of their victims. Mr Bennett has much that is interesting and informative to say about the abundance and superior quality of the food provided for the Turkish army- in war, and offers severe comments upon the absolute lack of sanitary arrangements in camp. As a natural consequence, cholera became as great a scourge to the Turkish forces as enteric in the Boer campaign. In contradistinction to English and Turkish methods is shown the Japanese conduct of such matters. Space forbids much further mention of a book whose greatest value seems to us to lie in the very graphic pictures drawn of Tripoli generally, and the many facts presented about that vilayet, which includes a survey of its future possibilities. Interesting, too, is Mr. Bennett's appraisement of the Turk a s campaigner. What Mr. Bennett says about the valour and mobility of the Turco-Arab forces and their inability, in the absence of a sufficient force of Turkish regular*?, to cope as a whole with the Italian forces, to say of the immense advantage Italy possessed in her fleet, is fully borne out by Colonel G. Ramieiotti, in his “Narrative’’

of the principal engagements of the Italian-Turco War. The Italians had the advantage, too, of aeroplane scouting, which supplied them with information about the Turco-Arab position and forces otherwise unavailable. Mr. Bennett also gives an interesting description

of the Troglodyte pits at Gharian and their strange inhabitants. Altogether, the book is a veritable mine of interest and information, though the author’s estimate of the Turk as a fighting man may read strangely in the light of recent events in the Balkans.