Evening star., 1938-11-27

concede that Russia is one of these)
though it is precisely the dictator
countries which hold a menace to
her own possessions. Mr.. Britfault
asserts that English money financed
the secret re-arming of Germany
and that Hitler has had advance
assurance of English non-lnter-
ference IN every one of his acts OF
aggression, even as MuSsolini was
allowed by England to escape hard
and fast sanctions in the Ethiopian
matter. And so on.
Unfortunately for the credit OF
his book Mr.. Briffault does not give
his authorities for such statements.
Furthermore, he mingles these
specific charges with wildly mac
curate claims of a more general
nature which are so patiently die
tated by his personal feelings that
they throw grave doubt on the
rest of the material. He says, for
example, that war against "the
Socialist State" (by which he means
Stains Russia) has been the one
aim of international European
politics since the war. The state
ment is patent nonsense.
Mr.. Briffault writes in sudden
moods of petty hatred and sudden
accesses of personal enthusiasm,
certainly not a method to pursue
in a historical work. He may not
be working off a grudge against the
English people, but he contrives, in
places at least, to give very much
the impression that he is. 1t leaves
one wondering of Anglos which is
the more tiresome-the phile or the
phobe. The reviewer sees little to
choose between them.
THROUGH THE FOG OF WAR.
BY Liddell Hart. New York:
Random House.
Capt. Hart has written so many
books on the World War that he
seems to have acquired habit. In
this present work, at any rate. he
announces that he Is setting forth
some facts about the famous conflict
In order that nations may be guided
in the future to the avoidance Of
old errors. However, this modest
declaration would seem to be des-
tined to the fate of most prefaces
The book, to be sure, does contain
abundant material which ought to
convince any one that war IS, to
put it mildly, a bad risk. But that
anybody who might be effectively
influenced will put the warning to
purpose, Is, in the reviewers opin-
ion, highly dubious. It must remain
for the private citizen to peruse
and sigh. In spite of the captains
hope, his book appears to be just one
more revelation of the fact that
In military operations, saving genius
almost anything can happen.
1t is a fragmentary sort Of work
Part of it is given over to a short
history of the whole war, part to an
analysis of various strategies and
campaigns, part to sketches OF per-
sonalities, part to digest OF various
histories and memoirs since written
The impression which reader has
on finishing, is that the late re-
noWned conflict was fought out ir
the manner of a wrestling match
between blind men - that nobody
knew what he was doing and that
at any moment, either side might
have blundered into victory, anc
that, but for q series of uncontrolled
events, the war might be going or
yet.
With so much talk about military
machines" as we have heard, this
is surprising news-at least in the
extent to which Capt. Hart tells it
We have come to think of wars as
affairs of elaborately planned anc
scheduled movements, as the ulti.
mate, indeed, in organization. Par.
ticularly have we thought this o1
the World War, though no doubt
every age has had the same illusion
about It's particular conflict. Not al
all, says Capt. Hart. The human
element, as it is so prettily called
plays a great part too. Nerves
vanity, politics, stupidity-all these
in some measure played hob with
calculations In 1914 and continued
to do so right through the bloody
years. It may be that Capt. Har1
does expect military leaders to learr
something from his work, but un.
technical readers are likely to thinl
that its one lesson is that war o1
any kind is profoundly absurd. The