am Hohenzollern_ (SKEFFINGTON). A more damning indictment has never
been drawn. From the moment of the ARCHDUKE'S assassination the KAISER and
his advisers determined to make it the pretext for destroying Serbia, and
crushing Russia and France if they dared to interfere. BISMARCK once said
that "never are so many lies told as before a war, during an election and
after a shoot." His own manipulation of the Ems telegram was venial
compared to the manner in which the German diplomatists, egged on by their
ruler--whose _marginalia_ on the despatches furnish the most amusing
reading in the volume--used all the arts of chicanery to deceive Europe as
to their real intentions and to defeat the efforts of England--on whose
neutrality they confidently counted--to secure a peaceful settlement.
Though primarily addressed to the German proletariat, Herr KAUTSKY'S book
has its value for all of us--"lest we forget."

* * * * *

On page 103 of _The White Hen_ (MILLS AND BOON) we read that the _Duke_
laughed softly. "'It is just like a romance,' he sighed happily;" which was
precisely where, without intending it, the _Duke_ placed his ducal finger
upon the weak spot in the whole business. Because if ever a story was "like
a romance," and like nothing else on earth, and filled with characters each
and all pledged to preserve its unreality at all costs, here is that tale.
The plot, of which there is a generous allowance, turns chiefly upon the
problem, when is a white hen less a hen than a jewel casket? Answer, when
she has swallowed, and is erroneously thought to have retained, a famous
diamond, upon which an impoverished but noble (see above) French family had
depended for the _dot_ that should enable their daughter to wed a
plutocratic but otherwise detestable suitor. I take it you will hardly need
telling that this is the moment chosen by Romance, under the expert
guidance of Miss PHYLLIS CAMPBELL, to bring along an even more wealthy
young American, mistaken (of course) for his own chauffeur and working such
havoc upon the heart of the heroine that, when the latter accidentally
recovered the diamond from its feathered _cache_, she very sensibly decided
to say nothing about it. Whereupon, because the other characters,
especially an unpleasant Duchess, were unaware that, as the shop
announcements say, "Poultry was Down Again," much profitable confusion
resulted, though nothing to impugn the justice of the d