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I do not trespass upon you for any reply even as regards item in "Pan-Germanism" & hope you will not think I intrude for such reason.

17, DULWICH ROAD, HERNE HILL, S.E.

February 9. 1915

Dear Sir,

As a humble unit of your many thousands of readers, I desire to thank you, for the pleasure and interest, I am having in the perusal of your "History of the War". It seems to meet a want among those who desire to study in a concise way, the history of the war in progress. Those hitherto offered to the Public have not appealed to me, as being merely a journalistic or inane supplement to current illustrations.

May I venture to trespass upon you some thoughts of my own in the perusal of this book. I am glad to note that "it seems clear" that the Servians had nothing to do with the murder of the archduke. I happened to meet a gentleman a week or two before the war whose nationality

puzzled me. I asked him. He replied "I am a Bohemian". "Oh" said I "then you are an Austrian." "Yes" was his answer "on compulsion"; a trifling conversation followed, when he suddenly burst out "You know the Servians had nothing to do with the murder of the archduke. It was a German plot." By German I gathered he meant Austrian. Countess Zanardi Landi in her recent book says roundly that the military & court party in Vienna murdered her brother the Archduke Rudolph and also the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in both cases for political reasons.

My Bohemian friend said this view was universal in Bohemia & he amplified the reasons which are the same as in your book.

The glowing account you give of the response of India emboldens me to ask if you know anything of a remarkable statements on pages 170-173 of a book called "Pan-Germanism" by an american Professor Roland Usher Ph.D. of St Louis U.S.A. The book is already becoming a mass of ludicrous prophecies & wrong conclusions, but is at least remarkable for its guesses and conjectures as to the King in India on pages stated. I wonder if they have any foundation?

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Feby 9 - 1915

Your account of the despatch of the expeditionary force I find fascinating as also that which relates to the Navy. Modern Sea Power is wonderful, and as a student myself in the Sea Power of the Napoleonic era I take delight in noting the points of contrast, & similarity, between Jellicoe's command, and the tiny force with which Cornwallis held the Channel in 1803/5.

May I venture a respectful criticism as to a remark on page 30, viz your reference to that very honest, gallant gentleman the "veteran soldier" whose loss we still feel. I remember my own enthusiasms about him when he first came into public notice in the Afghan fighting of the Kurrum Valley & since.

I am one who agrees with Lord Salisbury that "Politics is a dirty game". It is, but while our Party system remains, perfectly sincere good people hold views on opposite sides, independent, I think, of the mass of them from prominent persons who may have interesyted motives, ambition, or something even lower.

This being so, it was incumbent upon any great Personality not to be identified with

a Party (beyond his own individual opinions) if he desired to carry weight. As it was that dear old man allowed himself to get into a position in which he was enthusiastically backed up by a political party, and as naturally discounted & viewed with suspicion by the other, including the virile rank & file of the Labour Party.

Lord Roberts was absolutely honest & sincere. He knew the coming dangers, and yet was at pains to say that his warning was for defence, and not for continental service, which to the "Blue water school" seemed needless, beyond what already existed in the Territorials that have so lately justified themselves. The controversy unhappily resolved itself into a pawn of politics in England & Ireland & is now entirely swept away as witness the remarks of Lord Charles Beresford yesterday. Voluntaryism under proper conditions has justified its existence & I do not think Lord Kitchener will need conscription for what he wants further. He never uttered a sound in public before the war & while I confess Lord Roberts (for reasons stated) left me cold, I was startled when Sir Evelyn Wood made some pungent remarks shortly before the war. I hope you will kindly forgive this criticism and the infliction of so long a letter. I appreciate the first number of your book so much that I look forward to the 2nd volume on March 3rd with much anticipation. I remain, dr Sir,

Yours faithfully

W.F. Radford P.T.O.

John Buchan Esq

P.S.

on page 31. I notice a pregnant remark as to "the factor of fear" which I am sure is most true. I lately heard Bishop Boyd-Carpenter make a remak with regard to the brutalities in Belgium in which he said they were "due to fear". This in an argument on Pschology.