The Literary World—Reviews of Current Publications in Various Fields BEATRICE KEAN SEYMOUR. • ► —-. In "The Unquiet Field" she tells the story 'White Paper’ Consists of of a family, beginning in the England of Even Nazis Underrated George I and ending in the America of the Documents Germans Say mid-19th century. Strength of Their Army, They Found in Poland German Officer Reveals Otto Strasser Directs Strong Notable Trilogy Is Brought to Group From Exile; Another Completion With Opinions Doctor Writes a Book By Harlan Fiske Stone By Mary-Carter Roberts. By Blair Bolles. The Ge*man White Paper The Art of Modern Warfare Foreword by C. Hartley Grattan. New York: Howell, Sos- kin & Co. By Hermann Foertsch. New York: Veritas Press. This is a collection of 16 documents which were recently published Hermann Foertsch is a colonel of the German General Staff, whose by the German government as having been discovered in the archives armies by now we all recognize, however sorrowfully, as the world’s fore- of Poland after the German conquest. A subsequent story has it that most geniuses in the art of modem warfare. He composed the book last Col. Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, sold the documents to his country’s summer, finishing it before September 1, when Adolf Hitler took the vanquishers, doing so in revenge against the Allies, who, in his opinion, fateful step that, in 10 months, has advanced the art which is Col. withheld aid which might have turned the battle the other way. Be Foertsch’s life far beyond even the author’s most imaginative flights. that as it may, the documents purport to be state papers dealing with Reading Col, Foertsch after the 1940 truce of Compiegne makes us think the relations between Poland, France and England previous to the that nobody was more astonished at the speed of the German Western declaration of war. and in most of them there is the inference to be victory than the German leaders themselves. “It seems to be a made by any reader that there was distrust and double-dealing among fallacy,” Col. Foertsch writes, “to believe that just the the three countries, and plotting against Germany. Mr. Grattan, in his efficiency of modem weapons will be the guarantee of a short, a * • * foreword, makes the observation that the documents are probably ‘lightning’ war, and of a quick prostration of the adversary. It is genuine, but that they have, with equal probability, been cut and re- only the possession of an overwhelmingly superior weapon, of a technical arranged to give the effect which the German government desires. So or chemical nature, against which the adversary has no defense, that could far. says Mr. Grattan, the “color papers’’ of all the warring-nations have justify the hope of a war of short duration. So far as can be seen been prepared for their propaganda effect, rather than for their historical today, no nation has such a weapon.” accuracy. Germans Perfected Defenses The thing which gives this collection a particular interest to Ameri- Against Own Weapons. cans is the inclusion in it of reports of conversations between the Polish Of course, the that Ambassadors to the United States and France and Ambassador Bullitt. weapon turned the trick was the tank. Col. Foertsch has much to say about tanks, but he is In these talks Count Potocki, writing confidentially to his chief in Warsaw, uncertain of their effectiveness. He expected that anti-tank indicates that Mr. Bullitt went far toward committing this country to defense would be developed strong enough to thwart the land monsters. His that he support of a war against Germany—or. that is, against the doctrine of prose implies overrated the potential Western enemy. The as Fascism. “In reply to my question whether the United States would Germans, they per- fected instruments of attack, instruments of defense take part in such war,” wrote Count Potocki, “he (Mr. Bullitt) said, perfected against their own instruments of attack. the French ‘Undoubtedly yes. but only after Great Britain and France had made Apparently, they thought and the British were keeping step with the had the first move!’” Also the Polish Ambassador to France reports Mr. defensively Germans, who a fairly reliable anti-tank weapon—the “Pak” or Bullitt sfr saying, “Should war break out we shall certainly not take part “panzerabwehrkanone,” artillery which is “highly mobile and shells with in it at the beginning, but we shall end it.” HARLAN FISKE STONE. firing extremely high muzzle velocity and fiat trajectory.” Had Gen. Maxime had These seem extraordinary declarations to come without authorization A selected group of opinions Weygand these guns facing the Germans in Northern France, perhaps the long from the mouth of a diplomat, and, of course, it would be more extraor- by this associate the justice of war which Col. Foertsch envisioned would have come. But dinary if authorization had been given. It would be very interesting to Weygand Supreme Court is presented tried to halt the advance of the mobile steel forts know the extent to which the reports in the collection have been doctored. with .75-millimeter by Alfred Lief in “Public Con- guns. They were not enough. In the meantime, plain citizens would do well, in reading any “official” trol of Business.” Col. Foertsch is a concise and satisfying writer. Like other paper, to remember that it was a governmentally designed forgery—the military Harris & Photo. men turned literary, he is in the Ems telegram—which started this whole trouble—the Franco-Prussian Ewing occasionally terrifying very calmness with which he the destruction of War in out of which contemplates millions of men in the interest 1870, grew the particular bitterness which never of expressing the “art” dearest to him. But he gives us an understanding quieted, have once more embroiled the world in arms and grief. Best Sellers of the “panther” division. He studies the use of the air arm in the army which has made the most successful use of the air arm. The following list of best spectacularly Nemesis? Modem tactics and modern the of sellers is compiled weekly from strategy, history’ war and warfare the colonel describes, and he considers the of the By Douglas Reed. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co. information obtained in Wash- lessons World War from the point of vantage of 20 years after. Never for many pages, however, This is the of Otto Strasser, to Mr. Reed, is ington by The Star and in New story who, according does he let us the that more York, Boston, Chicago and San escape thought he sounds like a French the man who will some day avenge all honest Germans on Adolf Hitler. of the Gamelin Francisco the North Ameri- general school than like a German colonel. Strasser is, says Mr. Reed, the heart and soul of the anti-Nazi movement by in Germany and out, and, though in exile himself, has contrived to build can Newspaper Alliance: Predicted “More Defense” tip a formidable anti-Nazi machine. Mr. Reed met Mr. Strasser in Paris Fiction. Than Ever Before. some time ago, and now he has become convinced that the time for “Stars on the Sea,” F. Van For instance, not only Gamelin in Paris, but Foertsch in Berlin fore- writing his history for posterity has finally arrived. So here the history is. Wyck Mason; “How Green Was saw in 1939 a war of position, fought along the Maginot and Siegfried Otto Strasser came from modest surroundings, but was well educated My Valley,” Richard Llewellyn; Lines. The officer of the army which tore to shreds in 39 days the and, during the World War, acquired the rank of officer. He was a dis- “Night in Bombay,” Louis defensive of the French wrote this a year before it happened: enchanted onlooker at Germany’s confusion after the war, and came to Bromfield; “Chad Hanna,” “The impressive lesson taught by the World War, that the defensive decide finally that socialism was the cure for the republic's ills. It was Walter B. Edmonds;; “Bird in has greatly gained in strength as compared with the attack, still holds German socialism which he favored, however, not national socialism. He the Tree,” Elizabeth ©oudge; good for the future. The increased respect that is paid to defense finds makes a sharp differentiation between the two varieties, says Mr. Reed, "King's Row,” Henry Bella- strong expression in all the army regulations issued since the war, and the first being non-aggressive in aim and non-bureaucratic in practice, mann; “Quietly My Captain in the literature of military experts. The saving of strength that results and the other being, of course, what everybody knows. Waits,” Evelyn Eaton; “Mr. OTTO STRASSER. from staying on the defensive accrues to the benefit of the attack at an- Hitler was wounded the in his un- When, however, by police early Skeffington,” Elizabeth; “Cab- His work as leader of a formidable secret organization of Germans opposed to Hitlerism is other place and another time. The war of the future will see more defense successful Mr. Strasser became convinced the National Socialist putsch, bage Holiday,” Anthony Thorne; described by Douglas Reed in "Nemesis?" —Wide World Photo. than has been the case for the last hundred years.” party had fundamentally the same aims as his own—betterment of “Wild Geese Calling,” Stewart Col. Foertsch, writing long in advance of the capture of the thickly and economic conditions. became a Nazi for a social He, accordingly, Edward White; “Their Own settled Netherlands and the seizure of Rotterdam by men dropping from had the Hitler before him and while.