BOOKS.

THREE BOOKS ON THE WAR.*

THERE is little falling off in the quality and interest of the later books on the war. Two of .the three volumes before us are really valuable contributions to the literature of the sub- ject, and the third, as we shall endeavour to show later on, apart from its psychological interest, furnishes interesting evidence of the readiness of our countrymen to act on the maxim, alai alter= partent. . Lieutenant Blake Knox, a young Irish Army • (1.):Buller's Campaign with the Natal .Field Force of 1000. By E. Blake Knox, B.A., M.D., Lieutenant R.A.M.C. With Maps and Illustrations. London : R. Brimley Johnson. [10s. 6d.]—(2.) Naval Brigades in the South African War, 1899-1900. Written by Officers Attached to the Various Brigades, and Edited by Surgeon T. T. Jeans, R.N. With an Introduction by Commander C. N. Robinson: R.N. (retired). London : Sampson Low, Marston. and Co. With Steyn and De Wet. By Philip Pienaar, of the Transvaal Telegraph Serv:ce. London Methuen and Co. Ps. 6d..1

doctor, attached as medical officer to one or other unit in the fighting lines at all the principal engagements after the battle of Coleus° up to the relief of Ladysmith, and subse- quently during Sir Beavers Buller's advance through Northern Natal into the Transvaal, has turned to excellent account in this volume the opportunities enjoyed by him during the months of June-September, 1900. The exceptional nature of those opportunities is well set forth by him in his preface.

The Army surgeon, as he puts it, is like "the man on the stile,"— he is the non-combatant eye-witness of events likely to happen and continually happening; he can relate the exploits of the troops with a freedom denied to combatants themselves, "owing to the unwillingness of brave men to speak of their own actions"; and farther, while occupying a central position, his time is not taken up with professional work, as a rule, until the tide of battle has turned. In Mr. Knox's case these advantages were supplemented by conversations with many of the enemy, both in the performance of his duties, and on one interesting occasion as a prisoner. But Mr. Knox was not content merely to use his eyes and ears. Acting on the. principle that "a word or two fixed in at the right time is worth a cartload of reminiscence," he made a point, during lulls in his professional work, of entering all items of real interest into his diary of the day, and illustrating it with sketches, battle maps, and photographs. The result is a continuous and coherent record of the operations of the Natal Field Force which no historian of the campaign can overlook, from which no young Army surgeon can fail to derive instruction, and finally which no general reader, be he soldier or civilian, is likely to lay down unfinished. Nowhere have we read a more lucid account of the operations which culminated in the seizure and abandonment of Spion Kop, or a more convincing exposition of the view that the Twin Peaks were the true key to Ladysmith, and that our withdrawal from this position gave the Boers an unexpected victory. The book, which is furnished with excellent maps and plans, and a most instructive appendix on the medical aspects of the campaign, with special reference to inoculation and the water question, forms a most valuable commentary and supplement to" Lines- man's" brilliant war pictures of the Natal Campaign. As a writer, Mr. Knox eschews all rhetoric or literary embellish- ments, but his simple, unaffected narrative is all the more im- pressive from its lack of artifice. Lastly, we may note the admirably sympathetic temper of the book, in which there is ' no trace either of animosity or exultation. Mr. Knox is as *scrupulously careful to record any instance of chivalry or consideration on the part of the Boers as he is eager to chronicle the heroism of British or Colonial officers and men.

The work done by the Naval Brigade in the South African War fully deserved a volume all to itself, and the collection of first-hand records edited by Surgeon Jeans, R.N., brings home vividly to the reader the invaluable services rendered to the Empire by the bluejackets, Marines, and naval guns.

Indeed, it might be almost called the epic of the 47, for these guns have an individuality as well as a name

(e.g., Little Bobs," Sloper') of their own. Perhaps the most conspicuous work done by the 47 guns was in the siege and relief of Ladysmith, but for endurance and discipline the record is held by what Commander Robinson rightly calls that "wonderful movement of Grant's guns over a thousand

miles, including a seventeen days' chase of De Wet," during which it was "never necessary to bring a man before the commanding officer for any crime, neglect of duty, slackness, or other offence whatever." The longest march with guns of position was thirty- seven miles in thirteen hours in the chase after De Wet, and the finest shooting, on the authority of Captain Jones, was made in the attack on Pieter's Hill by Patrick Casham, of the Philomel,' who at a range of nine thousand yards put three- lyddite shells in one minute into the embrasure of a Boer gun on Grobler. But if the bluejackets and Marines did splendid work, it must be remembered that they enjoyed special privileges. As Captain Wilson writes

" In more than one respect we were more fortunate than other units in the Army. For one thing, we never had, whilst on the march, any outpost duty to do, and consequently, except for the few sentries over the camp, every officer and man had his full night's rest We were also most fortunate with respect to our baggage. As our ammunition was of such enormous weight and took up so much room, not more .than forty rounds could be carried in one bullock wagon, consequently when we had fired off

forty rounds we had a spare wagon to use as we liked. By putting ammunition on every wagon, we were able to say, with truth, that all our wagons were ammunition wagons,' and, by reason of their being so called, they were never separated from us and put in the baggage train."

Other advantages are noted by Surgeon Jeans in the account of the advance from Enslin to Bloemfontein, where he says that the Naval Brigade were certainly better fed than the rest of the Army, partly because of the smallness of their numbers, but chiefly because the men were more skilful in foraging and better able to cook what they received. "Every man in the Navy has, of necessity, to be a sufficiently good cook ; whilst a soldier does not have the same opportunity to learn, and therefore to gain experience in making a little go a long way."

Full justice is done to the magnificent courage and discipline of the Royal Artillery, but in one respect superiority is claimed for the "handy man" :— " There was one difference between the two batteries. Their men walked stolidly alongside the guns, each in his proper station. Our men didn't. They learnt to drive as well as the natives, learnt the names of the individual oxen belonging to their especial wagon or gun team, could crack a whip with the best, and were almost able to pick out any particular ox with the lash, without touching any other."

At Waterval Drift an amusing episode occurred when the Royal Canadian Regiment were ordered to take the guns over, on the march to Jacobsdal "It was most amusing to hear naval words of command being sung out' to soldiers. At one moment, when great care was necessary, the gunner sang out, 'Handsomely, men, handsomely ! ' whereupon, instead of checking, they hauled all the heavier. 'Handsomely, I tell you!' shouted the gunner, getting red in the face, and harder than ever they hauled. 'Avast heaving !' he shrieked, and then suddenly understanding, sang out, Stop, you idiots, stop ! ' at which they did, with broad grins on their perspiring faces."

The kind-heartedness and humanity of the bluejackets are illus- trated in many ways, in none more agreeably than their treatment of animals. In the Paardeberg laager three little chickens, "little balls of yellow fluff," had been found, and, being motherless, were taken great care of by the blue- jackets :— " They became great pets and went with us to Bloemfontein, being stowed in a kettle whilst on the march, hopping out directly we halted, and going chirping round the messes for food, returning to their kettle when tired, and waiting to be lifted back into it. Our men had other pets : a wounded dog whom they carefully tended till he recovered and rejoined his proper master ; another dog which had followed them from Madder camp and used frequently to catch horses and bring them back ; a goat which lived on newspapers and tobacco; and a very wee, miserable lamb with sore eyes, which they used to bathe daily with warm water, and round whose neck they tied a 'Doris' ribbon."

Better still is the following charming account, with which we take leave of a most genial and inspiriting volume, of an incident on the march to Bloemfontein :— "On another occasion, whilst in camp, we officers noticed a bluejacket discover an ox, sunk in the muddy river bank and dying of exhaustion, unable to move. He gave it a kick to see if it was alive and sauntered off. Cruel brute,' we said, 'he might let it die in peace.' Well, in a few minutes back he came with a coil of rope and a few chums, and these four, and a soldier, worked hard for an hour, got the beast out, dragged it under the shade of a tree, and brought it water from the river in their hats. We were under a shady tree, and even then felt half suffocated by the beat. They were exposed to the full glare of the midday sun, had been working hard all the morning in the open, and were now supposed to be enjoying their hard-earned rest under a wagon."

German papers, please copy ! one feels inclined to say, were it not for the futility of such an appeal, and for the fact that such humanity would be probably regarded as mere wanton sentimentality by the Germans.

Mr. Philip Pienaar is a young Transvaaler, a telegraphist, who saw a good deal of service with the Boers up to the battle of Machadodorp and the flight of President Kruger. He NVELS then chosen by his colleagues as leader of a fighting corps, but crossing into Portuguese territory to get accoutrements, was arrested and forbidden to recross the frontier. Of his own department be speaks with the highest praise as second to none both before and during the war ; but with the exception of Louis Botha he shows little enthusiasm for the Boer generals. The philosophic explanation he gives of this trait is worth quoting :— " One peculiar feature of the Afrikander character is the complete absence of anything like hero-worship. Perhaps this is due to the habit of ascribing success to the favour of Providence. However this may be, it is certain that General Joubert's death hardly excited even a momentary thrill of regret, in spite of his years of service as Commandant-General. As for erecting a monument to the memory of any of our great men, why, we are all equal, they say, and any one could have done as much."

It is inevitable that this individualism should be a solvent of discipline, and Mr. Pienaar, while deploring this weakness, shows that he personally could seldom be trusted to practise what he preached. To the charms of the fair sex he was. painfully susceptible, and rhapsodises about golden-haired fairies and girls with "complexions a dream of purity, melting eyes, and hair a silken web to weave sweet fancies through."

Small wonder then that this young amorist more than once incurred the displeasure of Steyn and De Wet. But, on his own showing, he lent his fellow-countrymen the utmost assist- ance in frequently tapping the wires, and goes so far as to say that about the period of the Yeomanry disaster at Lindley most of the British telegrams passed through the hands of the Boers before reaching their destination. Though a highly cultured young man, who quotes Dante and Tennyson, and writes English with perfect fluency, Mr. Pienaar's utter inability to appreciate the English standpoint may be illus- trated by the episode related on pp. 40-41. Mr. Pienaar was watching the British ambulance men collecting the corpses on Spion Kop " A sad sight I remarked to the British chaplain. They only did their duty,' was his unfeeling reply. Duty ! Is it any man's duty to kill and be killed without knowing why? For what did these poor Lancashire lads know or care about the merits of the war ?'

Mr. Knox, we may note in parenthesis, who was present on this occasion, states (Butler's Campaign, p. 93) that though the enemy watched the proceedings with respect and reverence, they rendered no assistance. The note of exultation over the death of a British officer on p. 158, the sneer at the C.I.V., the offensive reference to General Baden- Powell, are less easy for a British reader to pass over with equanimity. Surely there is no other country in the world where such a book as this—written by an avowed enemy who bore arms against us and does not disguise his hostility—could be published during the continuance of a war in which the author took part, and, but for an error in judg- ment, would still be taking an active part, without a single word of explanation or excuse.