The British public is too apt to look upon the Macedonian campaign
as a prolonged picnic, and for them a dose of Mr. STEBBING would be
excellent medicine. I wish someone with our own troops would do as
sound a service for them as is done here for the Serbs and French.
But let him avoid anecdotes.

* * * * *

I am a little puzzled about _A Bolt from the East_ (METHUEN). The
publishers, who surely should know, call it "A modern and up-to-date
romance, which deals mystically but boldly with the greatest and most
pertinent of all questions--'Is Life Worth Living?'" But for my own
part the greatest and most pertinent question suggested by Mr. G.F.
TURNER'S up-to-date romance was whether it could possibly have been
intended as serious. I despair of giving you any adequate idea of its
contents. There are lots and lots of characters, and, as several of
them seem to own more than one personality, it is often more than a
little hard to say who is what. The central figure is an Indian Prince
of marvellous beauty and mysterious powers, who, being jilted by the
girl of his heart, wishes to be revenged upon the human race. To this
end he employs the activities of a German Professor, who produces what
one might call a _Kultur_ of the sterility germ. However, these cheery
projects go astray, though in precisely what manner I have no very
clear idea. But the end came at a gathering where the _Prince_ played
psychic music, and a chance union of hands between hero and heroine
transmuted the former from "a dilettante" and "polished ladies' man"
to "a virile male filled with the blasting vehemence of primary
passions." Incidentally it proved altogether too much both for the
_Professor_ and his inoculated rabbits, all of whom expired on the
spot. Just about here that most pertinent question became more acute