—as befits a soldier—by his directness and ease of expression. He is never tangled in his remarks or un-
opinions without waste of time and necessarily iveursive. He tells his straight to the point. The publisher's remark on the dust-cover that the whole story is packed with interest literally true.
Major Ponder first gives his readers a lively picture of army life in camp on Salisbury Plain a couple of years ago. Though amusing, it is not ove! drawn and rings true in every particular, Then he details the exchange system by which he sailed for Malta, in consideration of a cash inducement from a brother officer for whom at that time "Orders Abroad" would have been particularly inconvenient Ana then he takes us on board his troopship, past the Bay and the foggy coasts of Portugal, and we settle down with him in Malta as interested 9 visitors with a twinkle in our eyes.
The Valetta Mind"
There is a certain amount of interesting historical matter in the early chapters, including a graphic reconstruction of the arrival in Malta of St. Paul, as his ship ran on the rocks, and from there we glide easily to the present day conventions of members of the Services, their wives and friends, in any British outpost or garrison town. Almost all this part of the book is so apt and so express sive of what a large section of the community consider to. be "the Shanghai Mind" and local conditions in this city that it is worth reading "Mediterranean Memories" for this alone.
4 Major Ponder says: is a good thing to remember. whether you are in the Service oF hot, that when living in a e Station, and in Mara particularly. the price you must be prepared to pay for being in any way unconventional is a high' one.
This theme he enlarges on as we g0 with him down "Snob's Alley" (where the admirals' and other social luminaries live) and past the charmed portals of the Snake Pit—which is the everyday name of the women's side of the Valetta Club. Here, he tells us, with a showman's wave. of the hand, is where your seemingly most trivial actions in public, which at home would be passed over unnoticed, are Commented upon, exaggerated, ano passed on, until the distortion become:
ridiculous.
At the Club Bar Nor do the men escape equal condemnation for spiteful gossip. The author says that in Malta, many times, in bars. messes, and Clubs, I have heard one man say to another things which 1 have known to be grossly unfair concerning a third man, and the reason that lay behind was just a desire to be unpleasant.
About himself he adds:
No sconer did it become known.
which was instantly, that I had taken a house and was living on my own, stead of staying in the moss in the bachelor quarters, than tongues began to wag. What was said I -never learned, but I know my action was regarded with the highest suspicion.
and I should not have been at Surprised to have learned that I w holding unseemly angies, so were tionable as to be only hinted at.
In another chapter a Saturday night dance at Sliema Club is described in entertaining detail, and later, greatly daring, we accompany the gallant Major on a moonlight bathing picnic in mixed and somewhat amorous company.
So such for social Malta, with which it can be imagined Major Ponder must have waged singlehanded a very pretty little guerilla war.
Something More Worthy One of the best chapters in the book is a study of the Knights of Malta and their doings. Here the author has something more worthy of him than social chit-chat, and a very spirited account it is. He tells of the siege of St. Elmo in 1565, which, he says ..,.tturned out to be the most gallant defence against overwne!ming odds which is recorded in history.
The fort was exposed to the full force of the Turkish army for a month.
Us defence was hopeless from the start, and the defenders knew it.
Finally, there is a chapter on the "Maltese in Outline", and a highly diverting history of the author's return to England, via Tunis and a small and odoriferous French cargo boat. 3 From the spirited to the satirical. and from the semi-scientific {o the frankly ridiculous, this is an entertaining miscellany. There is something in it for everyone's taste, end the unpretentious simplicity of the style is not least among its merits)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.