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over the markets in Oxford, and has the right of access to railway commerce with the privilege of detaining suspected persons found there anywhere within ten miles of Oxford.

SIR WILLIAM ORPEN AND THE WAR

SIR WILLIAM ORPEN's picture at the Royal Academy's exhibition, which he calls "To the Unknown British Soldier in France,' has set London agog. There are those who profess to find difficulty in explaining it, but its main intention is not to be mistaken: the picture is a grim and ruthless satire.

Sir William originally contracted to paint three pictures for the Imperial War Museum. Two of these are already there, one representing the Peace Conference, the other the signing of the Treaty at Versailles. The third was to represent the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles, where the Treaty was signed, with the politicians, generals, and admirals who won the war. Sir William made the portrait studies, painted the scene, and grouped the whole thirty or forty figures in the canvas. It cost him nine months of toil. But Sir William had been at the front during the war; he saw war as it was. He knew that modern war cannot be painted as Meissonier and Detaille painted the wars of the last century. He knew its horror and its terrible cost. In a sudden frenzy of rage and disgust he painted out his whole picture. Generals, admirals, and politicians vanished with a few contemptuous strokes of the brush.

And then, overcome with indignant emotion, he set on the canvas a painting to tell the world what he felt. It is not a pretty picture; it does not pretend to be one. He has shown a doorway in the Hall of Mirrors. In front of this is standing a coffin draped with the Union Jack. On each side stand two

soldiers apparently on guard. Into these figures the artist has put all the hatred and horror of war. The soldiers are nearly nude. Their flesh is not in the ordinary flesh tone, but in the horrible greenish hue of the body that has long lain on the field. They are gaunt and emaciated. In his hand each holds a rifle, and each looks out at the spectator over the coffin of the Unknown Soldier. Above them two cherubs are flying and behind, through the arch, is an avenue of light leading up to the crucifix. As an English critic says, the artist seems to cry aloud: 'To what purpose, O statesmen of the world, have you sacrificed these children?'

WHAT'S WANTED

'WHAT'S wanted' not by any particular patron of the advertising columns, but by civilization in general

is listed as follows by Sir William Bull for the British Institute of Patentees:

Glass that will bend.

A smooth road surface that will not be slippery in wet weather.

A furnace that will conserve 95 per cent of its heat.

A process to make flannel unshrinkable. A noiseless aeroplane. A noiseless gun. An aeroplane that can be easily and safely managed by a boy or girl.

A motor engine of one pound weight per horse power.

A key that will not lose its identification. A method to reduce friction.

A practical method of making use of the power of the tides.

A process to extract the phosphorus from vulcanized India rubber so that it can be, so to speak, boiled up and used again.

A pipe that can be easily and effectively cleaned.

A temperance drink that will keep and not pall on the palate.

A cinema film that will speak.

The Decisive Battles of Modern Times, by Lieut.-Colonel F. E. Whitton. London: Constable, 1923. 12s.

[New Statesman]

THIS book challenges comparison with Creasy's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World; it deserves an equal popularity. Its lucid, wellplanned narratives, its avoidance of technicalities, its excellent maps, its careful accounts of the political events leading up to the battles described, and its due regard to the wider issues involved, will make it attractive to the general reader. As with Creasy's book, there will be controversy as to the author's use of the term decisive; no one, however, can doubt the importance of the five battles which he has selected. Vicksburg, the turning-point of the American Civil War; Königgrätz, which led to the rule of Prussia and to the development of modern Germany; Mars-la-Tour, the bloodiest battle of the Franco-German War; Tsushima, which, closing the tragic career of the Russian Baltic Fleet, opened a new era for Japan; the Marne, of too recent memory each has had vast consequences. And no doubt the series is not yet closed; for, as the author of the present book points out, the outburst of violence is still remarkable.

Bismarck's Diplomacy at its Zenith, by Joseph Vincent Fuller. London: Humphrey Milford, 1923. 16s. net.

[Spectator]

BISMARCK'S Victories between 1864 and 1871 hypnotized rivals and historians alike; his later diplomacy has been judged by his earlier success. Professor Fuller subjects the critical two and a half years between August, 1885, and February, 1888, to close examination, and his conclusions are not favorable to the Chancellor. Bismarck was, as always, masterly in inducing other nations to handle hot chestnuts, in giving foreign rivals the impression that Germany was committed to action that she had no intention of taking, in behaving as an indifferent honest broker for a considerable brokerage. French policy was at times insane, and drove Salisbury, a patient man, to see possible good in an anticipated second Sedan; Russian tactics were fatuous.

But Bismarck, though he won tactical victories, did not really succeed. In 1885 Russia was inclined to friendship, France reconcilable, Great Britain at worst neutral. The unpardon

able threat to France in 1887, the treachery to Russia, the attempt to use England and Italy as catspaws in the Near East - these in the long run left Germany with Austria as her one genuine friend, and herself pledged to support Austria in an Eastern policy of which the risks outweighed the benefits. It has been a German commonplace that Bismarck would have avoided the war of 1914, or would have entered it with an arguable moral case. Professor Fuller's cold analysis sees Bismarck forcing Russia to an unwilling alliance with Republican France, the founder of the system which triumphed in 1908 to fall in 1918. Harshest judgment of all, he believes that the late Kaiser's attempt to secure diplomatic success by dynastic friendship with Russia postponed a storm made inevitable by Bismarck's obsession that Austria must be supported at all costs.

La Décomposition de l'Armée et du pouvoir, by General Denikin. Paris, 1923.

[Morning Post]

GENERAL DENIKIN, in his newly published book, La Décomposition de l'Armée et du Pouvoir, gives a moving account of the events of the spring and summer of 1917 in Russia, which resulted in the utter dissolution of that fine army which only a few months before had driven the Austro-German armies in a series of brilliant victories halfway across Galicia. The blame he attributes chiefly to the mischievous influence of the Polivanoff Commission, and the weakness of Kerenskii, which was heightened by his dread that some victorious soldier, some yet unknown Napoleon, would capture the revolution and direct it away from the vaguely socialistic channels in which Kerenskii fondly hoped that he could keep it.

The Polivanoff Commission, which was formed under the War Minister Gutchkoff, with a view to keeping the army in the hands of the new rulers of Russia, and under Bolshevist influence, promptly set out to undermine authority and sap discipline. Civil commissaries, who were merely delegates of the Soviet organizations, were attached to all the army commands, and soon succeeded in rendering the position of the commanders impossible. On May 9 the famous Declaration of the Rights of Soldiers, drafted by the Polivanoff Commission, was sanctioned by Kerenskii, in spite of the unanimous protest of the army commanders who met at G.H.Q. for the purpose. General Alexieff, who had also presided and spoken at a meeting of three hundred

officer delegates to the same effect, was relieved of his command. General Denikin resigned, and Kerenskii, who had now taken the Ministry of War out of the hands of Gutchkoff, appointed General Brusiloff to the supreme command.

The lamentable breakdown of the June offensive, and the disgraceful rout at Tarnopol, should have shown those of the revolutionary leaders who loved their country how matters really stood. Russia had no longer an army. It is at this stage that the heroic figure of Korniloff, Commander of the Eighth Army, comes into prominence. He took matters into his own hands, made a clean sweep of the Commissaries' system of discipline, or rather indiscipline, in his own command, and showed such qualities of resolution and courage that in July Kerenskii, impressed by his fearless energy, reluctantly removed Brusiloff from the supreme command to make room for Korniloff. A few weeks later Korniloff himself was removed from his command. There was reason to fear a revolutionary outbreak in Petrograd; Korniloff was naturally the man to put it down and save the Government. Kerenskii was apparently afraid of being saved, and ordered Korniloff to resign. The rest of the tragic story had best be studied in the pages of General Denikin himself.

The Ins and Outs of Mesopotamia, by Thomas Lyell. London: A. M. Philpot, 1923. 7s. 6d. net.

[Manchester Guardian]

THIS is an honest, outspoken, and vivid, though (as its title indicates) not very systematic, account of Mesopotamia by a former member of the British civil administration who has come into intimate contact with the life of the people. The writer makes the Shiitic holy cities the central point of his description, rightly insisting that little is known about them in England in proportion to their influence in the world. Certainly the picture he gives — which, though merciless, is neither unjust nor, in the true sense, unsympathetic-will interest not only readers concerned with Iraq, but all Englishmen, in India, Persia, or elsewhere, whose avocations bring them into touch with any section of the Shiitic community.

Mr. Lyell has the double merit of holding decided opinions and of letting us know what

they are, thus putting into our hands the means of controlling his conclusions. This makes his book valuable for everyone interested in his subject, whether the reader agrees with these conclusions or not. Like many Englishmen who have had practical experience of Moslem countries, Mr. Lyell has an instinctive liking for the raw human material displayed in the average character of the common man, and a distinctive aversion for the native ruling class which exploits him and the politico-religious system by which the trick is done. He is 'up against' the 'lords spiritual' (mujtabiduna) and 'lords temporal' (sheiks), and, above all, against Islam, particularly the Shiitic denomination. He stoutly defends his former chief, Sir Arnold Wilson, and forces the issue between two mutually exclusive alternatives a British administration, of the Indian kind, to be maintained for at least a century, or else contagious anarchy.

The blessed word 'Bolshevism' seems to make him lose his balance, as it does other people, but if one simply substitutes 'Russia' for it wherever it occurs, his theory becomes concrete, though controversial, and he puts his finger on one of the major perils of the immediate future, — an anti-Western alliance between Russia and Islam, - though perhaps he does not sufficiently realize that Western folly may contribute to this no less than Oriental implacability. Throughout the book, however, there breathes an impatient resentment against our major Western failings: the gulf between Christian practice and profession (a chasm which also gapes in Islam, but not so shockingly wide) and the insincerity and uncertainty of touch with which Western Imperialism has been smitten since the war.

BOOKS MENTIONED

CONSETT, REAR-ADMIRAL M.W.W.P., C.M.G. The Triumph of Unarmed Forces (1914-1918). An account of the transactions by which Germany during the Great War was able to obtain supplies prior to her collapse under the pressure of economic forces. London: Williams and Norgate, 1923. 15s.

DIBELIUS, WILHELM. England. Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Berlin: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, 1923. Two volumes, octavo.

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THIS WEEK

THOSE evasive Germans have not been doing so badly as some of their sobbing propagandists would have us believe, - a fact that is very prettily brought out between the covers of this issue of the Living Age. The author of 'France's Fallacious Plea' would have us imagine that the only difference between 1873 and 1919 was that the savage Clemenceau instead of the 'benevolent' Bismarck was dictating the terms of peace. But Edgar Brun, a Swiss, shows how the German industrialists have been manipulating the exchange to their enormous advantage in every country, especially in his own. Yet even so, the case is hardly complete without Miss Edith Pye's description of the miserable condition of the workers in the Ruhr. Her war record and Quaker affiliations vindicate her from any charge of soft-heartedness toward the Germans.

Jew-baiting is taking its place beside tennis, golf, and track athletics as a major international sport. But what, by the way, is a Jew? Count CoudenhoveKalergi, the elder, whose book on anti-Semitism has just been brought out by his son, says 'The Jews are an artificial na

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