Though already we have so portentous an array of books jostling each
other upon the warshelf, there must be many people who will gladly
find the little space into which they may slip a slender volume
called _A General's Letters to His Son on Obtaining His Commission_
(CASSELL). So slender indeed is the book that by the time you have
read the disproportionate title you seem to be about halfway through
it. But here is certainly a case of infinite riches in a little room.
The anonymous writer is deserving of every praise for the mingled
restraint and force of his method; you feel that, were the name
less outworn, he might well have signed himself "One Who Knows," for
practical experience sounds in every line. Greatest merit of all, the
letters contrive to handle even the most delicate matters without a
hint of preaching. But no words of mine could, in this association,
add anything to the tribute paid in a brief preface by so qualified a
critic as General Sir H.L. SMITH-DORRIEN: "If young officers will only
study these letters carefully, and shape their conduct accordingly,
they need have no fear of proving unworthy of His Majesty's
Commission." This is high praise, but well deserved. Personally, my
chief regret is that so valuable a collection of advice should have
delayed its appearance so long: there would have been use and to spare
for it these three years past.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE ARTS IN WAR-TIME.

_First Tommy_ (_watching artist engaged in protective colouring_).
"MARVELLOUS, AIN'T IT, BERT, 'OW TALENT WILL OUT, EVEN IN THE MOST
ADWERSE CIRCUMSTANCES?"