Touch that
and the bloom is indeed gone.
* * * * *
_With the Chinks_ (LANE), a volume of the "Active Service Series," treats
of the training of Chinese coolies for work with the Labour Corps in the
B.E.F. The special interest of the racial type was, for me, exhausted by
the charming photographs; the task remaining for Mr. DARYL KLEIN,
Lieutenant in the Chinese Labour Corps, of so conveying the atmosphere as
to absorb the reader's attention, was not achieved. On the two main aspects
of the topic, the origin in China and the result in France, he makes no
serious attempt. I got no clear impression of the coolie at home or of why
he took to being an ally, and I was left with but the vaguest conception of
the unit in France, since the narrative ended at the disembarcation.
Lastly, I have with regret to complain of one sentence in particular, where
he tells us: "It is high time I said something about the officers." He had,
from the general reader's point of view, already said too much. It is a
pity to have to speak thus moderately of a war-book obviously written with
care and treating of an enterprise which must have cost much labour in the
achieving and, in the achievement, must have duly contributed to our
victory. For those personally involved it will be a welcome memento. For
the conscientious historian it will have a certain unique value.
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