"The Ayesha: Being the Adventures of the Landing Squad of the Emden." By Kapitan-Lieutenant Von Mucke. Translated by Helene S. White. 223 pp., illustrated. (Boston, Mass.: Ritter and Company.)
This true sea tale, which appeared in the Institute Proceedings December, 1916-February, 1917, has been published in book form by Ritter and Company, Boston.
The record of the adventures of Von Mucke and his high-spirited band deserve a place between fiction and history on the book shelf, and doubtless many of our readers will be glad to obtain it in separate form for themselves or for their friends.
J. W. G.
"The Pangerman Plot Unmasked.'' By Andre Cheradame. $125. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1917.)
The thesis of M. Cheradame's book, expressed briefly, is nothing less than this: For the past 22 years, or, to be exact, since 1895, PanGermanism has been not only a doctrine but a plot, this plot "of purely Prussian origin," says the author, "has developed in a cumulative way, until, in 1911, it took more or less final shape, and was laid down in the book of Otto Tannenberg: "Crossdeutschland, die Arbeit des joteu Jahrhunderts" (Bruno Volger, Leipzig-Gohlis, 1911). This Pan-German plan of 1911 aimed at "annexing all the various regions, irrespective of race or language, of which the possession is deemed useful to the power of the Hohenzollerns." These regions include three categories, as follows: (1) Austria-Hungary, Belgium. Holland, northern France (down to a line drawn from the mouth of the Somme to the Swiss border below Belfort), western Russia (Russian Poland. Esthonia, Livonia. Courland. Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, and part of Volhynia). (2) The vassalage of all the Balkan States (Serbia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Montenegro. Albania, and Greece). (3) The political and military seizure, and the economic control of Turkey, European and Asiatic, "to the Persian Gulf." (4) The later absorption of Egypt and Persia.
Ultimately, moreover, according to the author, the possession of this immense empire, and the control of its wealth and its vast military man-power, would enable Germany to absorb colonies or spheres of influence—so the plan was—in Africa, in China, in Mexico, and in South America.
But this is not the only thesis—or, rather, there is contained within this the following thesis: Germany's most dangerous move is "the formidable peace-trap of the 'drawn war,'" by which the Allies and the world in general will be lulled into a false sense of security, should an inconclusive peace be accepted. In other words, Germany will actually win the war, and gain strength enough to carry out her gigantic plot in the future, if by the terms of peace she is permitted to retain her control over Austria-Hungary, and, beneath the surface, her control of the Balkans and Turkey.
So much for the essence of the book. In addition, three points are worthy of note. First, there is the introduction by Lord Cromer. Secondly, there is the fact that M. Cheradame has studied his great subject, the world over, for 23 years, and that he predicted a great conflict to carry out the Pan-German plan, some years before the war broke out—in 1908, for instance, in an address at Edinburgh. Thirdly, there is the quotation from documents, press articles, books, and the utterances of statesmen, in Germany.
Now, this book is either for the most part true, or it is for the most part false. In such a question, there is no half-way- truth, no possibility of avoiding a fairly clean-cut issue. If it be on the whole false, it is interesting reading. If it be on the whole true, then one would find it difficult to overestimate its importance. H. C. Washburn.
"At The War." By Lord Northcliffe. 355 PP- $-2-00. (New York: Geo. H. Doran Co.)
Few of us in this country realize the enormous power of Alfred Harms worth. Baron Northcliffe, and none but Mr. Hearst in his wildest moments ever dreamed of rivaling it in America. "What England thinks," complains Norman Angell, "is controlled by one man"; another has declared that "no man nor government can hold office, nor policy succeed in England save by the grace of Lord Northcliffe." In fact, certain Englishmen who object to the ruthless fashion in which the Northcliffe papers behead cabinet ministers, Lords of the Admiralty, and generalissimos, refer to these journals as the "lynch press."
It is, therefore, with a feeling of awe that one opens a volume written by this absolute monarch of the newspaper world. "At the War" was published at the request of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John, to which all profits from the sale of the book are devoted by author and publisher. It proves to lie a collection of extracts from Lord Northcliffe's cablegrams, telegrams, letters, and articles, much of it mere scraps pieced together by the simple expedient of a row of asterisks. From the first page the reader is conscious of a feeling of disillusionment, and the feeling grows as one reads further. This giant who builds up and pulls down governments at his own sweet will proves to be as naive and jingoistic as the delightfully ferocious old lady whom we meet in Punch. His opening sentence, referring to "our dear soldier boys." suggests the tone of the whole book. One chapter for instance, is entitled, "The Women are Splendid." The following are typical pearls of Northcliffian thought: "A million is a very large number…The faces of our soldiers, unlike those of the Germans, are full of individuality…It is the way with the British soldier; for, within the breast of a hero he cherishes ever the heart of a little child."
Sentimental jingoism, however, is not the author's worst failing as a writer on the war. Probably no other civilian ever had the opportunities afforded Lord Northcliffe for seeing the war at first hand on both the French and the Italian fronts, and yet he seems to have had eyes for only the superficial details. His glimpses of neutral Switzerland and Spain are rather interesting, especially as they reveal the sway of German sentiment in those countries.
In deference to the British Red Cross it may be said that this book has an interest of a certain kind. If one enjoys gossipy details about when General Haig, or General Joffre, goes to bed and sits down to breakfast, or about the pleasant twinkle in General Cadorna's eye, or the club that Lady Dudley founded for subalterns at Boulogne, or how an economical government has learned to make over worn-out military boots into shoestrings, this is the book. But if the reader is looking for a vision of the great spiritual facts of the war, or a graphic portrayal of the scenes and the actors in the great tragedy, he must look elsewhere.
W.O.S.