WHAT EVERY YOUNG MAN SHOULD . CURRENT 'LITERATURE. . MY
LIFE OF MUSIC • KNOW ABOUT WAR By Harold Roland _Shapiro IN writing this book-(Allen & Unwin, 3s, 6d) Mi._ Shapiro has set out to discover what war is really like, physically and emotionally, for the ordinary soldier. The material which he has used to assist him in answering this question has been obtained from " statements made in -wartime and especially at the front, by the medical Corps of the 'various belligerent armies." His method is to ask a series of brief questions, for instance, at random : " What may happen to me after I bayonet my enemy in the face ? What. vermin, may make my acquaint- ance at the front ? What will life in the trenches .be .like ? What is mustard gas and what can it do to me ? And these are answered from the reports, documents, journals, etc., of the various medical corps. The .effect on the reader is to produce a picture of war, colouied not with fiction but reality, Which is as shocking and terrifying as any that has ever been painted. But it is warfare of twenty years ago that we are shown. War today might well be even more appalling. The wisdom of insisting that every young man shoUld be shown such a picture is, however, by no means assured: If' the intention of the author is to promote the cause of " peace at any price " he has done well ; but those who can contemplate a situation iniwhich armed resistance and war may, some time in the near future, be necessary. may hesitate. to advise the men ,of fighting age to study this book too closely, for,it certainly offers more of- horror than of useful advice. 'It is more useful to terrify those wlio are provoking war than those who may have to fight. A fitter title to this book might,. therefore; be What :Etiery Dictator Should Ktiow. About War:
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