Evening star., 1917-05-27

n T different times Mr.. Curtin
N spent an appreciable part of
"A last year in Germany. This
4 ~ book is the sum of his OBJ
servance of the empire in its
third year of the war. The articles
about thirty of them in all-are plain
statements, made in no apparent bit
terness. Out of them, taken as a whole.
certain facts stand exceedingly clear.
One of these is that the German people
are being subjected to thoroughly
organized system of deception by the
German government. Their informa-
tion Is of the handled variety. Moth
ing gets through to the people that
can in any possible way interfere with
the efficiency of the system contrived
to keep them in ignorance. They be-
lieve that the English were the origi-
nal aggressors in Belgium. They be-
lieve that victory would have come
long ago if the United States had not
supplied the allies with munitions.
Upon this basis there is a carefully
erected gospel of hate, with pulpit,
press school and university, as the
chief instruments of the propaganda.
Mr.. Curtin pays tribute to the fore
sight of Germany in it's measures to
rehabilitate itself after the war. He
describes great merchant ships that
are being built for the resumption of
trade, and tells of many other meas
ures of like purpose that are being
pressed despite the enormous strain of
the war itself Among much that is
interesting, as the whole of this book
undoubtedly is. is his disclosure of
the "submarine motive" which has as
Its far objective such damage to the
worlds shipping as shall leave Ger
many, at the close of the war, in n
most promising position to launch it's
new merchant marine in something
like a monopolizing sweep of the seas.
This accounts. according to Mr.. Curtin,
for the slight preteXt under which Ger
many is today sinking neutral ships.
conspicuously those of Scandinavia.
There is an Illuminating chapter on the
war slaves-from Belgium. France and
the Industrial resources of the
country. There is another one on the
marked changes that may come. after
the war, to certain lines of industry
the substitutes that the Ger
mans have developed for some of the
given a remarkable view of the eff
cheney of the national Housekeeping
the exigencies of the present.
The book is as illuminating as it is
essentials a complete complement and
of another book on
the same lines that recent
ly came to hand. This is THE Soul of
Germany" by an English writer. who
lived in Germany a dozen years Both
size the German character to the same
and pattern.
THE BATTLES OF THE sOMME. BY
Philip Gibbs, author Of "The Soul
of the War" London: William
Heinemann.
Officially accredited as correspond
ent with the British armies in the field,
Philip Gibbs here puts out the day-by-
day articles that. for a period of three
months. he wrote on the numerous Of
fensives and defensives that are gath
cred up as the battles of the Somme."
OF these articles the author himself
says: They are pages written on the
evenings of battle, hastily and some-
times feverishly, after days Of intense
experience and firing sensation. Yet
there is in them and through them one
passionate purpose. 1t Is to reveal to
our people and tho world the high
valor. the self-sacrifcing discipline Of