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HANKEY: MAN OF SECRETS. Vol. I, 1877-1918. By Stephen Roskill. Collins, 1970. Pp. 672. £ 4.50. The work which he did and the documents which he preserved make the life of Maurice Hankey important for all students of twentieth-century British political history. To understand fully the role which Hankey played at the centre of affairs from 1915 to 1938, the historian must search diligently through many archives and seek to master the variety of complicated subjects with which Hankey himself was confronted at the War Council, the War Committee, the War Cabinet and the Cabinet. Hankey's early work at the Naval Intelligence Department and the Committee of Imperial Defence must also be explored by a biographer, even though it may be of less interest to students of the major political issues between 1908 and 1914. Captain Roskill's first volume covers Hankey's career to November 1918. Five-sixths of the book is devoted to the first World War, a subject on which the author writes with the authority of one who saw active service in that conflict and who subsequently has given many years to studying its history. Now, with his unrestricted access to Hankey's diary and other papers to guide him, Captain Roskill has set out again to chart territory through which he has travelled on a number of previous occasions. Paradoxically, it is the author's expert knowledge which has been responsible for some of the major shortcomings of this book. For Captain Roskill has come to his subject with a mind moulded by old controversies, responsive only to familiar landmarks, and lacking in the curiosity that is essential for one who seeks to elucidate the political and military tangles of the years 1914 to 1918. The most irritating, though perhaps the least significant, feature of the biography is its structure and style. Hankey himself published a number of volumes dealing with his role in the war, incorporating a substantial quantity of the documentary material on which Captain Roskill's story had to be based. Except in a few cases, the author decided not to republish extracts from Hankey's diary which had already been quoted in The Supreme Command or elsewhere. The result is that several episodes can only be pursued intelligibly by having Hankey's autobiographical studies at hand as well as the new book. In shaping his chapters, Captain Roskill has also found himself in difficulties. It is impossible not to sympathize with him and his problem of bringing coherence to a crowded and copiously-documented series of events. But one's sympathies are tested by the frequent appearance of the author's mental prompting devices: 'to return to the western front', 'to return to naval affairs', 'to return to the question of the formation of an Air Ministry', and so on. A more serious irritation is the praise of Hankey's thoughts and work which Captain Roskill dispenses with a curious lack of discrimination.