In Nomine Bellis

The following books, economically, politically, historically or bio graphically related to Foreign News, have recently been published in the U. S.:

In Nomine Bellis

A STUDY OF WAR--Admiral Sir Reginald Custance -- Houghton, Mifflin ($3.50). We detect in this book a "sea dog" barking at civilian interference in the conduct of naval affairs. (The book is more a study of naval than military warfare.) It is almost a direct protest against the confusion which the civilian injects into the military aims of warfare.

Admiral Custance has not contributed anything new to the theory of war; he has clarified what has long been known. But this is a service which is important and of which the subject has long stood in need. For a book that is semitechnical and semihistorical, it is a marvellous piece of lucid writing in the simplest of language.

THE NAVAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR--Captain Thomas G. Frothingham, U. S. R.--Harvard University Press (2 vols., $3.75 each). With the exception of the British official naval history and some similar works of equal optimism, there are few books dealing competently with naval operations. The present volumes, which go as far as the "unrestricted U-boat warfare" phase of the naval war, deal dispassionately, convincingly, fairly and thoroughly with the naval operations of the War. The most important, although not necessarily the most interesting, part of these books is the chapters in Volume II dealing with the Battle of Jutland.

After describing the plans and the action of the battle, Captain Frothingham comes to the conclusion that the superior British Fleet failed to defeat the inferior German Fleet because of the limitation of the action to daylight fighting, the breakdown of inter-squadron communications, the "preconceived caution in closing a withdrawing enemy." Hence, Admiral Jellicoe, who has borne the brunt of the responsibility for the "British tragedy," is proved to be blackened with guilt but not nearly so black as he has been painted.

How far the virtual defeat of the British Navy was a tragedy is aptly summarized: It increased German morale, made possible submarine warfare, left the all-important Baltic Sea a "German Lake," permitted Admiral Scheer's Fleet considerable liberty.

There can be no doubt that this history--when it is completed--will be the most important contribution to the naval history of the War. Future generations of sailors will as certainly find it indispensable in their studies; for it will not easily be superseded.

AUSTRIA IN DISSOLUTION--Count Stephen Burian-- Doran ($6.00). Count Burian, who held office in 1915-17 and again in 1918, was virtually the last Foreign Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is true that, late in October, 1918, Count Julius Andrassy succeeded him, but as Count Burian remarks in view of the bursting storm, he "was already regarded as the first Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs."

It follows then that the book runs the gamut of the sad story of the explosion of the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire. One marvels, in view of all the enormous difficulties with which Count Burian had to contend, how the Austrian Government (the Hungarian Government voted against war) ever dared to expose the tottering Empire to what was a known peril. "

Tottering Empire" is perhaps a facile expression. Austro-Hungary, had there been no war, might have survived several more centuries; for federative reforms were much in the mind of the murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The War, as Count Burian so graphically describes, shook the heterogeneous nation to its foundations; defeat completed the destruction.

Italy and Rumania come in for two scorching chapters. Both are accused of bargaining with both sides and staying out of the conflict until they were certain of how the wind was blowing. Italy, it appears, illegally and immorally broke the alliance with Austria and Germany.

The book, in its German form, is of course well known and much of it has already passed into history. Nothing in the War was more tragic--the world lias yet to realize the tragedy's significance --than the collapse of the Dual Monarchy.

THE ROOTS AND CAUSES OF THE WARS (1914-1918)--John S. Ewart-- Doran (2 vols., $12.50). These two books have digested all the red, white, pink and orange books that have been printed at various times by the late belligerent Powers, together with all the official histories, treaties and other such data, as well as the more important of the post-bellum avalanche of memoirs.

The author, an eminent Canadian jurist, makes himself the judge of a court convened to fix the responsibility for the War. After hearing the evidence--the written word of Emperors, Kings, Princes, statesmen and others-- he sums up:

1) France was responsible for the War on the Western front (Alsace and Lorraine).

2) All the Powers were responsible for the War in the East (Balkans).

3) Russia, then Serbia, then Austro-Hungary, were in that order responsible for precipitating hostilities.

These are the principal findings of Mr. Ewart. Britain is blamed for contributing a "root" by her "fear and hatred" of Germany, who menaced her numerous interests, and by becoming "openly an associate, and secretly a virtual war-ally of France and Russia." Germany appears the least guilty of the nations. Japan, Italy, Bulgaria and Rumania were non-contributaries to the cause of the War, merely participating out of self-interest.

The finding will obviously have to be carried to a higher court and mankind must wait with what composure it can for the appellate decision, remembering that if Germany is judged half as innocent as Mr. Ewart finds her, the Versailles Treaty will become nulla virtute redemptum.