PLUMER OF MESSINES By General Sir Charles Harington Of all
the qualities which make for greatness in-a commander none is rarer or more valuable than the power to inspire confi- dence and affection in the minds of thousands, many of whom have never seen its possessor at close quarters or exchanged two words with him. It is a quality which, among our countrymen, is usually associated with deep religious feeling and always with absolute sincerity and simplicity. The late ' Lord Plumer possessed it to a marked degree, and Sir Charles Harington's memoir (John Murray, 12s. gd.) bears witness that it was not merely a long-range power but one. which the most intimate association only served to emphasise. For two and a half years, and through the most exacting ordeals of • the War, Sir Charles was Lord Intoner's right-hand man, and the writing of this book has been for him most evidently a labour of love. It contains, as he himself says, no unkind word oPeither the living or the dead. The controversial note which embitters so many recent memoirs fittingly finds no place in it ; for Lord Plumer was no controversialist, but was content to do his work and to be judged by its result. Its author is not concerned with literary airs and graces, and this again is as it should be. But with all these virtues the book is a disappointing one, for the material so conscientiously collected is arranged with little regard to its 'comparative triviality or importance, and is presented in a rather staccato style which breaks the continuity of the story and makes uneasy reading. • Those who already cherish the memory of Lord Plainer with affection or veneration will easily overcome these drawbacks, but a generation to whom he is but a name may lay aside the book half-read ; and this will be more than a , pity, for the record of this great and simple soldier is one in which all his countrymen, be they soldiers or civilians, should find example and inspiration.
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