FROM THE FRONT.*
THE fog of censorship which hung for so long over the fighting in Flanders, only penetrated at casual points by the accredited " Eyewitness," is now slowly lifting. Many volumes are appearing in which we can read more or less complete and trustworthy accounts of the gallant deeds of the soldiers who have held back the great German onslaught in the western arena of war. There are indeed so many of these volumes that it is impossible to devote to them as much space as the intrinsic interest and literary ability of some would otherwise suggest. We can only point out that such books as the five which now lie before us are all, in their several ways, deserving of being read. Mr. Will Irwin in Men, Women, and Warr gives us a collection of the things which he has seen in Flanders, and which on second thoughts strike him as best worth a permanent form. He begins on a note of veritable comedy, dealing with the adventures of the four American war correspondents who managed to blunder right through a battle in a Brussels taxicab. From this he takes us straight to the heart of the tragedy of Louvain, which he describes in terms which are the more impressive because of their studied moderation. Like many of the best Americans, Mr. Irwin is a pacificist and an adversary of war. But what he saw in Belgium has convinced him that an exception must be made in favour of the present war :— " I beg the reader," he says, "to let nothing which I have said • (1) Men Women and Var. By Will Irwin. London; Constable and Co. itteltejtiin—d n4egt7 of(3)Biirtr.Pron3T Franlc Fax. London: Granville Oortesanc.. +011.11(711 Andrew Ittelrose [Os. net.]---(4) The Bishop golondon's Visit to the Front. .the Itev,.. G. Vernon Smith. London,: ngnialis and Co. Re. natl.-0) 14 h Our Fighting By the ROY. L. Sellers. London: rde. &l. net.] carry the implication that I would turn the hands of the more civilized European nations back from their task. Democracy. attacked without and within, is on test. If the more civilized European nations fail, the end will be a worse thing than war.... The more civilized nations of Europe, joined with that nation which has such splendid possibilities of civilization, are fighting this war against old, barbaric and Pagan conceptions of kingship. It is not political warfare; it is a Holy War."
We have thrilled with a silent pride to read Mr. Irwin's chapter on what he calls "The British Calm." He has managed, as not all external observers do, to get below the surface of our notorious imperturbability and refusal to betray emotion on recognizing "the invidious and the disagreeable." He thinks that this national quality has its bad side—that to it must largely be ascribed our lack of preparation and early muddling. But ho adds that
"it is this imperturbability which prevents theni [the British] now from anything like panic over the danger ; which has enabled them to work system and efficiency out of a muddled beginning ; which makes even their raw troops behave like votorans on that nerve-racking line ; which turns every threat of Germany into a prop for the national back-bone ; which, should invasion come, will keep thorn fighting when any other nation would have resigned themselves. If they win, if their Empire survives, it will be by virtue of this quality."
Mr. Irwin's concluding chapter tells the "Splendid Story of Ypres " in a most animated fashion.
Mr. Frank Fox, who acted as correspondent of the Morning Post in the first phase of the war, now gives us a plain, unvarnished account of The Agony of Belgium.3 He compares that heroic country to a victim stretched on the rack and invited to betray his friends at each new turn of the screw. The German atrocities, as he shows, formed part of a studied policy of "frightfulness." During four months Mr. Fox watched the strength of the martyr ebb away, till the shouted "No" of Ligge faded to the barely heard whisper of Ypres. "During those four months of the torture of Belgium there have been incidents of cruelty which went beyond the relent-
less, the fiendish, and were actually bestial. But no incident could equal in 'frightfulness' the cold, considered malignity which at every turn of the rack offered to the tortured victim surcease from agony at the price of treachery."
Mr. Granville Fortescue, who went to the front early in August as the special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph and the New York American, tells us that the publication of At the Front with Three .Arrniess has been delayed for three months by the British Censorship, which insisted on much being omitted from his pages. In America the volume has been issued in a fuller and uncensored form. Mr. Fortescue, who has done ten years of military service in the United States,. is a trained observer, and it would be useful to read his full narrative. Enough is left, however, to make a most interesting story of the fighting on both the eastern and the western fronts. Perhaps the most valuable chapters of all are those which describe German life in war time, and which should be laid to heart by all who flatter themselves that the German people are not heart and soul with the Prussian rulers who made and are conducting the war.
The Bishop of London's Visit to the Front' tells the up- lifting story of what a clergyman of another denomination has well called "a holy and triumphant progrese." It has been admirably written by the Bishop's chaplain, the Rev. Guy Vernon Smith, who was with him the whole fortnight, and has recorded impressions that were still fresh in his memory. It amply illustrates the Bishop's own statement that " the realities of war have melted away the surface shy- ness of men about religion ; they feel they are '-up against' questions of life and death." Very interesting, also, is the
Rev. W. E. Sellers's account of the good work that is being so simply and devotedly done by various religious agencies, from
the Church of Rome to the Salvation Army, With Our Fight- ing Men.' Many of the narratives included in this volume will bring a lump into the reader's throat and pride of patriotism into his heart.
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