New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-12

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But il is, after all with the wal
itself. with the armies in the field
West and East. that Mr.. Simonds is
chiefly concerned. Even more than IN
his first book he draws for illustration
and comparison upon the position OF
Napoleon in 1918 and upon the cam
paigns Of our Civil War. In the west
/ he notes the gradual change in the
/ German position. the transition from
an offensive still maintained at the
Aisne TO a frank defensive, under
I Joffre's "nibbling" He remains Of the
oIinion that Germany's chance of sue
cess was lost in the check at the
Marine: he analyses in detail the battles
since the fall Of Antwerp on one front,
and since the battle of the Vistula on
tho other. closing the second phase
with that May Day which, according TO
Kitchener. was to mark the real open
Ing Of the war.
To Germany's titanic efforts, TO the
spirit of her people, the unimpaired
efficiency Of her war machine and the
brilliant quality of the brains that use
it he pays generous tribute. Looking
back over the nine months OF the
struggle covered by his two books, he
comes TO the conclusion that the honor
Of the greatest victory won by the
/ Allies belongs TO Russia:
In taking Przemysl the Russians
achieved by far the greatest Allied
triumph on the offensive side of
the war. The French victory at
the Marine, the Anglo-Belgian vic
tories along the User and about
Ypres. the Russian success in
holding the line Of the Bzura-
Rawka, these were OF utmost I'M
portance, but counted only as de-
fensive battles. Only the earlier
Russian victories before Lemberg
and the Serbian successes at the
Jedar and Valievo could be COM
pared with Przemysl, and this
overbore them all. To the
armies of the Gar Przemysl was
a far more serious menace than
Antwerp had been to those of the
Kaiser.
For the world at large the in
> terest in the siege lay in its con-
trast with that Of Antwerp.
The fact was that Russia wholly
lacked the heavy artillery which
German foresight had provided.
The circle of nine detached forts
about the Galiciau city was utterly
beyond the resources Of Russian
artillery.
Mr.. Simonds never forge;s that he
is writing for the general reader. He
describes and explains with admirable
clearness and directness, never, ap-
parently. feeling the need Of the en-
ployment of military technical terms.
And his maps are as clear as his text.
Certain as Mr.. Simonds is of Ger
many's ultimate defeat, Sven Hedin is
Just as confident of her victory. His
book, in its original Swedish and in an
abridged German edition. has already
been so much discussed that not much
remains to be said of Mr.. de Walter
storff's practically unabridged English
translation The Swedish explorer is
somewhat aggressively pro-German,
which means that he is ontspokenly
i-English, and there is rather OBJ
sequious note Of adulation in his pict-
ure of the Kaiser, but otherwise his
book is intensely interesting as an &C
count of the imperial armies in the field
and of the regions held by them by
conquest; and his photographs are
capital
To him, who has repeatedly warned
Sweden against the Russian danger,
Germany's war for her own continued
existence is also a war for the con-
tinued freedom Of the Scandinavian
countries. To bring this home TO them,
to link them to their Teutonic cousins,
he constantly harks back to the past,
to the days Of Gustavus Adolphus and
his campaigns. One wonders if the
German army machine works really so
smoothly, without ever even a minor
I hitch. as he represents IT TO work.
/ Wherever he went among the troops
/ he found material comfort and an in
/ domitable spirit of confidence. 'In the
/ last phase Of the Manchurian cam
paign," he says in this connection,
there was a noticeable weakening of
purpose which led 10 slackened efforts
on both sides. and caused the war to
die, so to speak, of hamilton. Was a
| like form of mental fatigue, an ex-
haustion of soul and body under the
stupendous hardships in the field, TO
leave its mark on the Germans. too -
lie believes not, but when he saw them
last autumn the time for the appear
ance Of such symptoms had not yet
come on either side.
Written by a civilian, an expression
Of personal impressions, the book does
not pretend 10 have serious military
value in the technical sense of thl
word. But it is vivid, written with
immense enthusiasm.
WARS New Weapons" is, one thinks
the best exposition Of the ways Of mod
ern warfare yet written for the infor.
nation of the layman. Its author is a
Dane, a military man, and, with Lieu
tenant r. f. Scott, of the United States