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JUNKER   REVOLT   IN   GERMANY 

Story  of  the  Kapp-Luettwitz  Counter-Re  volution  and 
the  Causes  of  Its  Failure — New  Communist  Revolt 

[Period  Ended  March  20,  1920] 


THE  Ebert  Government  of  Germany 
suddenly  found  itself  facing  com- 
plete overthrow  by  a  Junker 
counter-revolution  on  March  13. 
While  it  had  been  generally  conceded 
that  a  serious  danger  threatened  the  re- 
public from  the  Communists  in  the  event 
of  acute  economic  distress,  the  strength 
of  the  reactionaries  was  supposed  to  have 
dwindled  to  an  impotent  quantity.  Thus, 
as  late  as  March  1,  Minister  of  Defense 
Noske,  in  response  to  a  question  relative 
to  the  possibility  of  a  reactionary  upris- 
ing, remarked :  "  Even  in  France  the 
militarists  and  monarchists  are  not  all 
dead.  In  Germany  they  will  never  en- 
danger the  republic  if  the  victorious 
countries  do  not  continue  to  maltreat  the 
German  democracy."  He  added  that 
every  day  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
Reichswehr  were  becoming  more  repub- 
lican in  spirit.  The  sudden  coup  d'etat 
of  the  13th  seemed  for  a  time  to  indicate 
that  Noske  had  spoken  from  a  false 
sense  of  security. 

The  incident  which  brought  the  plot- 
ting of  the  militarists  and  monarchists 
to  a  head  was,  at  the  moment,  supposed 
to  be  merely  an  outburst  of  "  rowdy 
patriotism,"  as  it  was  termed  by  Minister 
Noske.  On  March  6  some  members  of 
the  French  Military  Mission  were  dining 
at  the  Hotel  Adlon.  At  another  table 
were  seated  Prince  Joachim  Albrecht  of 
Prussia,  a  cousin  of  the  former  Emperor, 
and  Baron  von  Platen.  At  an  order 
from  the  Prince  the  orchestra  played 
"  Deutschland  iiber  Alles."  When  the 
French  officers  refused  to  rise  with  the 
rest  of  the  company  Prince  Joachim 
began  to  hurl  bottles,  plates  and  other 
missiles  at  them,  and  a  general  scrim- 
mage ensued.  Subsequently  the  Prince 
was  arrested,  and  when  this  incident  was 
followed  by  others  at  Breslau  and  Bremen 
the    Government    issued   a   proclamation 


threatening  punishment  for  "  such  mili- 
taristic excesses." 

Meantime  the  Government  had  dis- 
covered a  reactionary  plot  of  serious  pro- 
portions, rapidly  gaining  impetus  from 
the  arrest  and  probable  punishment  of 
the  Hohenzollern  Prince,  Joachim  Al- 
brecht. Thereupon  Minister  Noske 
ordered  the  arrest  of  Dr.  Wolfgang  von 
Kapp  and  Captain  Pabst,  charged  with 
attempting  a  reactionary  revolution,  and 
directed  that  the  public  security  forces 
and  the  Reichswehr  be  confined  to  bar- 
racks for  an  emergency.  Dr.  Kapp 
was  President  of  the  Fatherland  Party 
and  had  been  prominent  in  all  reaction- 
ary movements  of  the  monarchists,  and 
Captain  Pabst  had  been  a  cavalry  officer 
of  the  Guard  and  had  taken  a  leading 
part  in  suppressing  the  last  Spartacan 
revolt.  But  Noske's  order  came  too  late 
to  check  the  plot.  The  two  arch  con- 
spirators, associated  with  a  third — Major 
Gen.  Baron  von  Liittwitz — had  estab- 
lished secret  headquarters  at  Doberitz, 
twelve  miles  west  of  Berlin,  and  had  at 
their  service  the  former  Baltic  Army, 
which  had  always  been  of  doubtful  al- 
legiance to  the  republic. 

Not  until  the  12th  did  the  Ebert  Gov- 
ernment know  of  the  intended  move  of 
the  Doberitz  garrison.  It  then  issued  a 
communique  which  was  so  optimistic  and 
misleading  that  practically  all  Berlin 
went  to  bed  thinking  the  Government  had 
the  situation  well  in  hand.  However, 
toward  midnight  Minister  Noske  began 
distributing  his  troops.  Through  the 
sparse  night  traffic  rolled  armored  cars 
and  field  kitchens,  while  infantry  and 
artillery  were  observed  taking  up  posi- 
tions. 

Meanwhile  the  Ebert  Government  had 
received  an  ultimatum  from  the  rebels 
demanding  a  new  Government  and  new 
elections;    also    the    withdrawal    of    the 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


warrants  against  Dr.  Kapp  and  others. 
The  Cabinet  met  and  made  an  attempt 
to  negotiate.  It  sent  Admiral  von  Trotha 
to  Doberitz,  but  there  he  met  with  a 
blank  refusal.  He  was  handed  a  new 
rebel  ultimatum,  demanding  the  resigna- 
tion of  the  entire  Ebert  Government  by 
7  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Failing  that, 
a  force  would  advance  and  occupy 
Berlin. 

On  receipt  of  this  information  another 
Cabinet  meeting  was  held  at  an  early 
hour  of  the  13th.  It  had  then  become 
clear  that  the  Government  had  not  a 
sufficiently  strong  military  force  behind 
it  to  offer  any  effective  resistance.  Con- 
sequently orders  were  issued  to  the  Ebert 
Government  troops  to  withdraw  east- 
ward and  avoid  a  conflict. 

ENTRY  OF  REBEL  TROOPS 

At  midnight  the  rebel  troops  at 
Doberitz,  augmented  by  two  naval  bri- 
gades, were  on  the  march  to  Berlin. 
Hasty  efforts  made  to  induce  them  to 
return  to  their  quarters  were  ineffectual. 
Equally  so  was  a  display  of  Government 
troops  In  Berlin  under  Colonel  Thyssen, 
and  barbed  wire  entanglements  stretched 
around  the  Reichstag  building  and  the 
imperial  printing  works. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  13th  the 
revolting  Junker  troops  marched  into 
Berlin  and  waited  at  the  Brandenburg 
Gate  for  the  expiration  of  the  ultimatum 
time  limit.  The  Imperial  Guards  offered 
no  resistance,  and  the  rebels  proceeded 
to  occupy  the  city  without  encountering 
even  a  show  of  opposition.  When  the 
first  citizens  abroad  encountered  these 
helmeted  and  heavily  armed  soldiers 
posted  in  groups  along  Unter  den  Lin- 
den and  Wilhelmstrasse,  and  inquired 
whether  they  were  the  Government  con- 
tingents awaiting  the  Baltic  troops  from 
Doberitz,  they  were  answered  with  de- 
risive laughter  and  told  that  the  Ebert 
Government  had  fled  overnight.  Thus 
had  the  reactionaries  gained  control  of 
Berlin,  and  the  Ebert  Government  seemed 
suddenly  to  have  melted  away.  Crowds 
soon  filled  the  streets,  but  no  conflict  or 
disorder  was  repoited. 

President  Ebert  had  been  among  the 
first  members  of  the  Government  to  leave 
Berlin.      He   departed    at   5   A.    M.    for 


Dresden,  intending  to  establish  the  head- 
quarters of  the  republican   Government 
in  the  Saxon  capital.    Simultaneously  the 
Majority  Socialist  Party  issued  a  mani- 
festo for  a  general  strike.    It  was  signed 
by    President     Ebert,     Premier     Bauer, 
Defense  Minister  Noske,  Labor  Minister 
Schlike;   also  by  Dr.    Schmidt,  Minister 
of   Food;    Dr.    Eduard    David,    Minister 
without     portfolio,     and     Dr.     Herman 
Miiller,    Minister    of    Foreign    Affairs; 
these  were  the  Social  Democratic  mem- 
bers of  the  Government.     The  manifesto 
was  signed  also  by  Otto  Wels  for   the 
Executive    Committee    of    the    German 
Social   Democratic  Party.     The  text  of 
this  document,  which  proved  a  powerful 
and  effective  weapon,  was  as  follows: 
Workmen,   Comrades:     The  military  re- 
volt has  come.     Erhardt's  naval   division 
is  marching  on  Berlin  to  enforce  the  re- 
organization of  the  Imperial  Government. 
The  mercenary  troops  who  were  afraid  of 
the  disbandment  which  had  been  ordered 
desire   to   put    the    reactionaries    into    the 
Ministerial  posts. 

We  refuse  to  bow  to  this  military  con- 
straint. We  did  not  make  the  revolution 
in  order  to  recognize  again  today  the 
bloody  Government  of  mercenaries.  We 
enter  into  no  covenant  with  the  Baltic 
criminals.  Workers,  comrades;  we  should 
be  ashamed  to  look  you  in  the  face  if 
we  were  capable  of  acting  otherwise. 

We  say  "No!"  And  again  "No!" 
Tou  must  indorse  what  we  have  done. 
We  carried  out  your  views.  Now  use 
every  means  to  destroy  this  return  of 
bloody   reaction. 

Strike.  Cease  to  work.  Throttle  this 
military  dictatorship.  Fight  with  all  your 
means  for  the  preservation  of  the  republic. 
Put  aside  all  division.  There  is  only  one 
means  against  the  return  of  Wilhe'm  II. 
Paralyze  all  economic  life.  Not  a  hand 
must  move.  No  proletariat  shall  help  the 
military   dictatorship. 

Let  there  be  a  general  strike  along  the 
entire  line.  Let  the  proletariat  act  as  a 
unit. 

KAPP  AS  "IMPERIAL  CHANCELLOR" 

Among  the  few  high  officials  of  the 
Government  to  remain  in  Berlin  were 
Dr.  Schiffer,  Minister  of  Justice,  and 
Dr.  Albert,  Under  Secretary  of  State. 
These  two  received  the  rebel  leaders.  Dr. 
Wolfgang  von  Kapp  proclaimed  himself 
Imperial  Chancellor  and  Prime  Minister 
of  Prussia,  and  immediately  appointed 
Major  Gen.  Baron  von  Liittwitz  to  be 
Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army.    He 


PRESIDENT    EBERT    AND    FRAU    EBERT 
(©    International) 


also  announced  the  Oberfinanzrat  Bank 
as  Minister  of,  Finance  and  Dr.  Traub 
as  Minister  of  Justice.  A  proclamation 
was  then  issued  by  Kapp  and  Liittwitz, 
of  which  the  main  features  read: 

The  overthrow  of  the  Government  must 
not  be  taken  as  reactionary.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  a  progressive  measure  of 
patriotic  Germans  of  all  parties,  with  a 
view  to  re-establishing  law,  order,  dis- 
cipline and  honest  government  in  Ger- 
many. It  is  an  overdue  attempt  to  lay 
the  foundations  for  the  economic  resusci- 
tation of  Germany,  enabling  her  to  fulfill 
those  conditions  of  the  Peace  Treaty 
which  are  reasonable  and  not  self- 
destructive. 

Inspired  by  zeal  and  a  desire  for  the 
benefit  of  all  the  German  people,  the 
new  Government  invites  heartily  the  ac- 
ceptance and  co-operation  of  the  Inde- 
pendents for  the  creation  and  elabora- 
tion of  laws  for  the  betterment  of  the 
working   classes. 


The  manifesto  charged  the  Socialist 
Government  with  overburdening  the  peo- 
ple with  taxation,  failing  to  create  con- 
ditions for  an  increase  of  production  in 
all  lines,  suppressing  papers  which  criti- 
cised it  and  otherwise  interfering  with 
personal  liberty  and  refusing  to  dissolve 
the  National  Assembly  and  issue  writs 
for  new  elections. 

"Last  but  not  least,"  said  the  mani- 
festo, "  a  Government  whose  chief  spokes- 
man is  Erzberger  must  be  swept  away." 

NATIONAL  ASSEMBLY  DISSOLVED 

Another  proclamation,  prepared  in  ad- 
vance, was  delivered  to  the  people  by 
cavalrymen,  heavily  armed  and  helmeted. 
It  promised  freedom  and  order  and  dis- 
solved the  National  Assembly,  declaring 
that  its  mission,  which  was  to  establish 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


a  constitution  and  conclude  peace,  had 
been  fulfilled.  Elections  to  the  Reichstag, 
it  said,  would  be  held  as  soon  as  quiet 
was  restored. 

"  Chancellor "  von  Kapp  also  called 
the  Berlin  foreign  correspondents  to- 
gether and  told  them  his  was  not  a 
monarchist  movement,  but  one  rendered 
necessary  by  the  failing  Ebert  Govern- 
ment. He  said  in  so  far  as  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Peace  Treaty  were  just  they 
would  be  enforced  by  his  Government. 

General  Baron  von  Liittwitz,  on  assum- 
ing the  office  of  Commander  in  Chief, 
issued   the  following  order: 

I  am  personally  taking  over  the  execu- 
tive power  for  Berlin  and  the  Mark  of 
Brandenburg.  All  decrees  issued  by  De- 
fense Minister  Herr  Noske  in  accordance 
with  the  decree  of  Jan.  13  will  remain  in 
force.  The  decree  of  Jan.  13  relative  to 
the  proclamation  of  martial  law  is  main- 
tained and  extended  to  those  parts  of  the 
imperial  territory  not  yet  affected  there- 
by. The  state  of  siege  hitherto  existing 
in  the  free  State  of  Saxony  is  at  the  same 
time  raised.  The  troops  under  command 
of  the  newly  formed  Government  are 
charged  with  the  execution  of  the  requi- 
site measures. 

ANOTHER  PROCLAMATION 

A  proclamation  made  by  the  Imperial 
Office  for  Citizen  Guards  said  that  the 
new  government  of  labor  had  taken  the 
fate  of  Germany  in  its  hands.  Until  the 
nation's  decision  was  taken,  it  would 
continue  to  let  all  Citizen  Guards  work 
for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  order. 
The  hour  demanded,  it  added,  that  every 
German  of  whatever  party  should  exert 
himself  in  loyal  performance  of  his  duty 
to  prevent  civil  war.  In  part  this  proc- 
lamation read: 

The  National  Assembly,  which  contin- 
ues to  govern  without  a  manuate,  de- 
clares itself  in  permanent  violation  of 
the  Constitution  and  postpones  the  elec- 
tions until  Autumn.  A  tyrannous  party 
Government  would  deprive  the  people  of 
the  important  fundamental  right  of  elect- 
ing a  President.  No  means  is  left  to 
save  Germany  but  a  government  of  ac- 
tion. 

Finance,  taxation  and  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Federal  States  will  be  restored  on 
a  constitutional  federative  basis ;  the 
Government  will  safeguard  war  loans  and 
will  shortly  begin  their  repayment.  Rural 
and  town  landed  property  will  be  taxed 
for  purposes  of  reconstruction.  In 
order    to    put    landed    property    in    a    po- 


sition to  meet  this  taxation  economic 
freedom  will  be  restored  to  it. 

The  Government  will  not  be  a  Govern- 
ment of  one-sided  capitalism ;  it  will 
rather  shield  the  German  worker  against 
the  fate  of  international  servitude  to  large 
capitalists.    *    *    * 

The  Government  is  strong  enough  not 
to  begin  its  rule  with  arrests  or  other 
violent  measures,  but  any  opposition  to 
the  new  order  will  be  unsparingly  put 
down.  *  *  *  The  Government  only  knows 
German  citizens,  and  every  German  citi- 
zen who  in  this  grave  hour  gives  to  the 
Fatherland  what  belongs  to  the  Father- 
land can  count  on  the  protection  of  the 
Government. 

Let  every  one  do  his  duty,  for  Germany 
shall  be  a  moral  community  of  labor. 

Berlin  advices  of  the  14th  stated  that 
the  Berlin  municipal  government  had 
been  dissolved  and  Vermuth  deposed. 
The  Conservative  Herr  Vonderborght 
was  appointed  as  the  new  Mayor  of  Ber- 
lin. It  was  also  reported  that  Herr 
Heische,  Minister  of  Labor  in  the  Ebert 
Cabinet,  and  Herr  von  Berger,  former 
Minister  of  Public  Safetey,  had  been 
placed  under  arrest  in  their  homes.  Dr. 
Kapp  was  taking  steps  to  have  Eb6rt 
and  Bauer  arrested  on  the  charge  of 
high  treason. 

ATTITUDE  OF  SOUTH  GERMANY 
In  the  States  of  South  Germany,  al- 
most without  exception,  there  was  im- 
mediate opposition  to  the  new  Kapp- 
Liittwitz  Government.  The  old  Govern- 
ment in  Dresden,  Saxony,  issued  a  mani- 
festo in  which  it  denounced  the  Berlin 
insurrection  as  the  "  work  of  Baltic  ad- 
venturers," and  predicted  it  would  col- 
lapse of  its  own  weight  within  a  few 
days.  It  declared  that  all  orders  and  de- 
crees of  the  new  Government  were  il- 
legal and  would  not  be  recognized,  and 
called  attention  to  the  amny  officers* 
breach  of  their  oaths. 

The  Governments  of  Bavaria,  Baden 
and  Wiirttemberg  also  issued  proclama- 
tions in  which  they  declared  they  were 
immovably  opposed  to  the  "  unconstitu- 
tional machinery  of  reactionaries."  The 
Democratic  Party  at  Leipzig  pronounced 
itself  in  favor  of  the  old  Government 
and  the  National  Assembly.  Advices 
from  Frankfort  stated  that  t^  general 
strike  was  in  progress  there,  and  a  great 
procession  of  workmen  was  parading 
the    streets.     The    general    strike    was 


JUNKER  REVOLT  IN   GERMANY 


also  proclaimed  at  Osnabriick,  Han- 
over. At  Baden,  General  von  Davans, 
Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army,  as- 
serted he  would  support  the  Baden  Gov- 
ernment against  the  Berlin  Government. 
On  the  other  hand,  BaroT  von  Wan- 
genheim,  superior  garrison  officer  at  Al- 


GUSTAV    NOSKE 

German   Minister    of   Defense 

tona,  near  Hamburg,  issued  a  statement 
in  which  he  announced  the  advent  of  the 
"  Imperial  Government,"  and  declared 
that  he  assumed  executive  power  over 
Greater  Hamburg  and  the  surrounding 
district. 

PROGRESS   OF  THE  STRIKE 

The  general  strike  proclaimed  by 
President  Ebert  went  into  effect  in  Ber- 
lin on  the  14th  with  the  closing  down  of 
all  the  cafes,  traction  lines,  and  many 
other  forms  of  public  service.  At 
Cologne,  Essen  and  Diisseldorf  the  work- 
men adopted  a  resoluti  n  calling  for  a 
twenty-four-hour  strike  as  a  protest 
against  the  reactionary  coup. 

At  Hamburg  on  the  evening  of  the 
14th  Public  Security  troops  succeeded  in 


takmg  possession  of  the  town  hall,  the 
Trades  Union  Building  and  other  public 
places  in  order  to  demonstrate  their 
support  of  the  Ebert  Government. 

From  other  places,  however,  came  re- 
ports of  adherence  to  the  new  Govern- 
ment. In  Breslau,  Lieut.  Gen.  Count 
Schmeetow  assumed  the  military  com- 
mand, and  arrested  thirty  persons,  in- 
cluding Oberprasident  Philipp.  Ham- 
burg reported  Oberburgomeister  Distel 
as  having  stated :  "  We  will  follow  Ber- 
lin." l-'rom  East  Prussia  the  Governor, 
August  Winnig,  and  General  von  Es- 
torff,  chief  in  command  of  the  First 
Keichswehr,  telegraphed  Dr.  Kapp  as 
follows:  "We  of  East  Prussia,  who  are 
surrounded  by  enemy  neighbors  must 
welcome  any  development  promising 
our  province  a  chance  of  peace  and 
work." 

At  Coblenz  the  American  commander 
informed  the  Socialist  leaders  on  March 
13  that  no  general  strike  interfering 
with  the  functions  of  tKe  allied  forces 
of  occupation  would  be  permitted. 

FALL  OF  REBEL  GOVERNMENT 
Until  the  afternoon  of  the  15th  the 
reactionary  Government  kept  up  a  bold 
front,  though  its  utter  lack  of  support 
was  already  evident.  A  defiant  procla- 
mation was  issued  against  leadeirs  of  the 
general  strike,  threatening  them  with 
capital  punishment;  but  by  this  time  the 
strike  had  swept  the  country  from  end 
to  end.  Berlin  experienced  a  complete 
paralysis  of  all  its  living  and  commercial 
facilities.  Food  and  service  could  not  be 
obtained  even  in  the  hotels,  and  the  water 
supply  was  cut  off.  Railroad  and  other 
transportation  came  to  a  standstill.  It 
thus  became  evident  to  the  Kapp-Liitt- 
witz  regime  that  whatever  chance  for 
success  it  might  have  possessed  was  lost. 
Its  coup  d'etat  had  failed. 

In  this  emergency  Dr.  Kapp's  first 
move  was  to  seek  the  assistance  of  Field 
Marshal  von  Hindenburg  and  the  former 
Vice  Chancellor,  Dr.  Karl  Helfferich;  but 
they  had  kept  in  the  background  and  re- 
fused to  be  entangled  in  the  abortive 
revolt.  General  Groener,  the  .  Prussian 
War  Minister,  was  •  also  credited  with 
having  telegraphed  that,  in  his  opinion, 
the   Kapp-Liittwitz   scheme   was   impos- 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


sible,  whether  from  the  point  of  view  of 
home  or  of  foreign  affairs. 

With  the  guns  of  a  counter-revolt  begin- 
ning to  thunder  in  his  ears  "  Chancellor  " 
Kapp  next  turned  to  placate  those  he  had 
ousted.  He  ordered  the  release  of  the 
Bauer  Cabinet  members,  who  had  been 
detained,  but  kept  Prince  Albrecht 
Joachim  in  prison.  His  efforts,  however, 
to  open  negotiations  with  the  Ebert  Gov- 
ernment at  Stuttgart  proved  futile.  He 
was  again  repulsed.  As  evidence  of  the 
power  still  retained  by  Ebert,  the  Im- 
perial Finance  Minister  refused  to  turn 
over  the  money  for  the  payment  of  the 
troops  demanded  by  the  revolutionary 
Chancellor,  and  other  officials  absolutely 
declined  to  take  orders  from  the  Kapp 
Government. 

Thus  Dr.  Kapp,  deprived  of  the  sup- 
port of  the  most  influential  men  among 
the  military  party  and  rebuffed  by  the 
Majority  Socialists,  faced  a  tidal  wave 
of  the  communist  working  classes  to 
sweep  his  impossible  Government  out  of 
existence.  For  a  few  hours  more,  how- 
ever, he  held  on  to  the  "  rudderless  ship  " 
at  the  urging  of  Colonel  Bauer,  leader  of 
the  Royalist  Party,  and  of  General  Luden- 
dorff,  who  was  believed  to  be  the  evil 
genius  behind  the  whole  movement. 

After  five  days  of  doubtful  rule  the 
Kapp-Liittwitz  Government  came  to  an 
end  at  6  P.  M.  on  March  17.  Dr.  Kapp 
announced  his  resignation  in  the  follow- 
ing statement: 

General  Provisional  Director  Kapp  has 
retired,  with  the  object  of  bringing-  about 
internal  peace.  General  von  Luttwitz  has 
retired  for  similar  reasons.  The  Vice 
Chancellor,  in  the  name  of  the  Imperial 
President,  has  accepted  the  resignations 
and  has  intrusted  Major  Gen.  von  Seeckt 
with  the  provisional  conduct  of  affairs 
as  Commander  in  Chief. 

At  the   same  time  issued   a  com- 

munique in  which  he  strove  to  place  a 
patriotic  aspect  on  his  withdrawal.  It 
read : 

The  Bauer  Government  having  volun- 
tarily decided  to  fulfill  the  most  essential 
political  demands  addressed  to  it,  the 
rejection  of  which  on  Saturday  led  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Kapp  Government, 
Chancellor  Kapp  considers  his  mission 
fulfilled  and  retires,  resigning  the  exec- 
utive power  again  into  the  hands  of  the 
military  Commander  in  Chief.     In  this  he 


is  moved  by  the  conviction  of  the  extreme 
necessity  of  the  Fatherland,  which  de- 
mands solid  union  of  all  against  the  an- 
nihilating dangers  of  Bolshevism. 

FINAL  SCENE  PICTURED 

The  last  scene  was  described  by  a  cor- 
respondent as  pathetic.  Already  some 
of  the  Under  Secretaries  of  the  Bauer 
Cabinet  had  put  in  an  appearance,  and 
there  were  many  handshakes  of  con- 
gratulation. Inside  the  palace  door  a 
small  crowd  of  people  waited  to  see  the 
end.  General  von  Liittwitz  had  fled 
earlier  in  the  evening.  Most  of  the 
rooms  were  littered  with  straw  for  the 
housing  of  soldiers.  Some  of  them 
actually  slept  through  all  the  final  acts. 
Documents  were  littered  about  in  many 
rooms.  Officials  of  brief  authority  were 
packing  up  their  belongings.  Confusion 
was  everywhere.  Orders  were  being 
shouted  in  echoing  halls  and  machine 
guns  and  ammunition  were  being  stored 
away.  Here  and  there  a  motor  car 
whirred  and  dashed  away  into  the  gath- 
ering gloom. 

Presently  Dr.  Kapp  and  a  few  friends 
emerged  from  the  Chancellor's  palace 
and  entered  a  L^ay  automobile,  heaped 
with  baggage  and  bundles  of  documents. 
Out  through  the  huge  gates  it  went, 
scarcely  any  one  in  the  crowd  of  civilians 
and  soldiers  being  avmre  of  who  were 
in  the  car.  Not  a  single  soldier  saluted. 
Thus  the  Kapp  Government  d"  appeared 
into  the  night  of  rain  and  mud  from  the 
scene  of  its  astounding  coup.  "  It  was  a 
fit  setting  for  the  final  scene  in  one  of 
the  maddest,  saddest  and  clumsiest  revo- 
lutions ever  staged.  There  had  been 
nothing  picturesque  about  it.  A  Central 
American  republic  could  have  staged 
something  more  thrilling." 

RETURN  OF  NOSKE 

On  March  17  Gustav  Noske,  Minister 
of  Defense,  arrived  in  Berlin  to  take 
charge  of  the  Government  on  behalf  of 
President  Ebert.  Together  with  Vice 
Chancellor  Ochiffer,  in  whose  hands  the 
sudden  retirement  of  Dr.  Wolfgang 
Kapp  had  temporarily  placed  the  admin- 
istrative power,  he  proceeded  to  re- 
store order.  Regular  troops,  loyal  to 
the  Ebert  Government,  guarded  the 
streets,  while  detachments  of  them   be- 


IN   GERMANY 


gan  tearing  down  wire  entanglements 
and  barricades  which  the  revolutionary 
soldiers  had  erected  in  profusion. 

These  latter  took  one  last  fling  of 
vengeance  before  leaving  the  city.  When 
lined  up  for  their  departure,  they  with- 
stood impatiently  for  a  time  the  hoots 
and  jeers  of  the  crowds  in  Wilhelm- 
strasse  and  Unter  den  Linden.  Sudden- 
ly they  opened  fire  and  wounded  several 
persons.  The  crowd  rushed  to  take 
refuge  in  the  Adlon  Hotel,  where  the 
wounded  were  treated.  Again,  after 
passing  through  the  Brandenburg  Gate, 
the  retreating  revolutionary  soldiers 
fired  a  parting  volley  with  machine 
guns,  wounding  a  score  or  more.  The 
terrified  mob  once  more  rushed  to  the 
hotel,  the  gates  of  which  were  torn 
down  in  the  ensuing  panic. 

President  Ebert,  Minister  of  Defense 
Noske  and  Foreign  Secretary  Miiller, 
with  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  had 
decided  during  the  revolt  that  Dresden 
was  too  near  Berlin  for  entire  security, 
and  had  accordingly  moved  to  Stuttgart 
on  the  15th.  At  a  Cabinet  meeting  on 
the  following  day,  presided  over  by  Presi- 
dent Ebert,  the  report  of  General  Merker 
relative  to  negotiations  with  Dr.  Kapp 
was  considered.  It  was  decided  that 
there  could  be  no  negotiations  with  the 
rebels,  and  that  the  Government's  only 
response  should  be  that  Kapp  and  Liitt- 
witz  must  withdraw  immediately  from 
Berlin  with  their  troops. 

On  the  17th  the  Council  of  the  Empire 
assembled  in  the  Castle  of  Stuttgart  and 
unanimously  approved  the  Government's 
attitude  with  strong  condemnation  of  the 
coup  d'etat.  The  same  place  and  date 
were  set  for  the  National  Assembly  to 
meet  to  coijsider  the  situation.  As  a 
precautionary  measure  the  city  had  been 
garrisoned  by  several  thousand  loyal 
troops.  By  that  time  President  Ebert 
was  preparing  to  return  to  Berlin. 

NEW  COMMUNIST  UPRISING 

In  the  conflicts  which  rose  out  of  the 
general  strike  between  the  supporters  of 
the  reactionary  revolt  and  those  faithful 
to  the  Ebert  Government,  the  Communist 
"  Spartacans  "  grasped  the  opportunity 
for  their  long-meditated  uprising. 

As   the  first  revolution   following  the 


war  had  begun  with  naval  support,  so 
now  again  the  navy  was  on  the  side  of 
the  rebels,  reactionaries  though  these 
were.  On  the  16th  the  cruiser  Eckern- 
forde  bombarded  Kiel  with  the  object  of 
destroying  the  quarters  of  workmen 
opposed  to  the  Kapp  Government.  The 
cruiser   fired   through   the   streets    from 


GENERAL   VON   LUETTV^ITZ 

Military   leader  of   the  Junker  revolt 

(©    Underwood    d    Underwood) 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  harbor,  killing  hundreds  and  demol- 
ishing many  houses. 

Meanwhile  the  Independent  Socialist 
Party,  the  trade  union  leaders  and  the 
Workmen's  Council,  who,  in  co-operation, 
had  been-  busily  engaged  in  trying  to 
engineer  the  general  strike  to  their  own 
advantage,  issued  the  following  joint 
proclamation : 

The  counter-revolution  has  triumphed. 
It  is  through  you  that  the  freedom  of  the 
working-  classes,  the  revolution  and  the 
cause  of  socialism  must  be  defended  to 
the  last  man  and  the  last  woman.  Every 
worker  and  every  official  in  this  hour 
of  destiny  must  recognize  that  there  is 
only  one  solution,  namely,  a  general 
strike  along  the  whole  front.  Workmen, 
workwomen  and  officials,  away  with 
party  distinctions !  Be  united  under  the 
standard  of  revolutionary  socialism  !  You 
have  nothing  to  lose  except  your  chains ! 

On  the  15th  a  number  of  Spartacans 
seized  the  arsenal  in  Berlin,  killing  six 
officers  and  a  number  of  soldiers.  Kapp 
troops  retook  the  arsenal,  in  turn  killing 
about  200  rioters. 

Advices  of  March  16-17  reported  Spar- 
tacan  activity  throughout  Germany, 
though,  for  the  most  part,  the  south  was 
said  to  have  remained  less  affected.  In 
Westphalia  battles  took  place  between 
troops  and  bands  of  Spartacans,  espe- 
cially at  Hagen,  where  the  Radical  Ex- 
tremists had  proclaimed  a  Soviet  repub- 
lic. All  Rhenish  and  Westphalian  indus- 
try declared  itself  ready  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of.  the  Soviet.  At  Halle  and 
Ohligs,  however,  where  the  Spartacans 
had  deposed  the  Mayors  and  hoisted  the 
Red  flag,  British  troops  restored  order 
and  reinstated  the  Mayors. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  the  industrial 
region  of  Bochum  and  in  Dortmund,  Gel- 
senkirchen  and  Unna,  the  proletariat  was 
in  charge.  Armed  laborers  sped  to  vari- 
ous places  to  assist  their  comrades  in 
the  fighting,  while  Government  troops 
vigorously  used  their  artillery.  At  Miin- 
ster  8,000  amied  laborers  disarmed  two 
battalions  of  troops  and  directed  heavy 
machine-gun  fire  upon  airmen  sent  to 
observe  them.  :  eserves,  however,  were 
concentrated  at  Sost  and  Weil,  awaiting 
reinforcements.  Forty-five  persons  were 
reported  killed  at  Essen  in  street  fight- 
ing, and  one  officer  and  nine  men  were 


killed  in  a  conflict  with  Spartacans  at 
Wetter.  In  Leipsic  the  situation  was 
very  bad.  While  fighting  with  machine 
guns  was  proceeding,  food  was  becoming 
scarce,  and  the  water  supply  had  been 
cut  off,  but  the  Ebert  Government  troops 
were  holding  their  own  against  the  revo- 
lutionaries. In  the  Charlottenburg  and 
Steglitz  suburbs  of  Berlin  serious  rioting 
was  in  progress.  All  Berlin  viewed  the 
situation  with  alarm,  asking :  "  The 
White  or  Red  terror,  which?  "  Mean- 
time the  leaders  of  the  general  strike  is- 
sued a  hopeful  proclamation,  which  said: 
"  The  general  strike  of  the  railway  men 
has  been  completely  successful,  and, 
therefore,  it  is  suspended  forthwith." 

FIGHTING  THE  REDS 

When  these  pages  went  to  press,  on 
March  22,  the  Kapp  revolt  was  a  thing 
of  the  past,  but  the  Red  rebellion  that 
had  followed  in  its  wake  was  still  a  seri- 
ous and  bloody  problem  for  the  Ebert 
Government. 

The  Communist  revolt  had  grown  to 
alarming  proportions,  especially  in  the 
western  districts.  Essen  had  been  cap- 
tured by  a  Spartacan  army  after  inflict- 
ing many  hundreds  of  casualties.  The 
Ruhr  mining  district  was  in  a  fierce 
ferment  of  radical  revolt,  and  the  Com- 
munists had  a  fully  equipped  army  esti- 
mated at  70,000  men.  Serious  outbreaks 
were  reported  in  Bavaria,  Wiirttemberg 
and  Baden.  By  the  19th  the  dead  in 
these  local  conflicts  were  estimated  at 
more  than  2,000. 

President  Ebert  and  the  members  of 
his  Government  returned  to  Berlin  on 
March  21  after  a  week's  absence  and 
began  taking  vigorous  measures  to  com- 
bat the  Communist  revolt,  which'  had 
proved  much  more  formidable  than 
that  of  the  militarists.  Already  the 
Ebert  regime  had  taken  an  important 
step  toward  conciliation  of  the  radi- 
cals by  making  a  "  swing  to  the 
left "  in  its  announcement  of  its  future 
policy.  As  the  outcome  of  a  con- 
ference with  the  Strike  Committee  in 
Berlin,  which  lasted  all  through  the  night 
of  the  19th-20th,  the  following  conven- 
tion was  signed  early  in  the  morning  of 
the    20th.      Its   chief    concession    to    the 


JUNKER  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY 


9 


radicals    was    the    promise    that    Noske 
should  be  dropped  from  power: 

1.  The  Government's  representatives  will" 
intervene  with  the  various  political  parties 
in  order  to  reform  the  same.  Prussian 
Cabinet  Ministers  will  be  nominated  by 
agreement  between  the  parties  and  the 
trade   unionists. 

2.  The  labor  organizations  will  have  a 
decisive  influence  in  these  nominations, 
respecting-,  however,  the  rights  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

3.  Punishment  of  the  leaders  of  the 
recent  coup,  including  all  officials  and 
civil  servants  who  supported  the  Kapp 
regime. 

4.  Democratization  of  all  administra- 
tions and  the  dismissal  of  all  who  proved 
disloyal  to  the  Constitution. 

5.  Immediate  extension  of  existing  social 
laws  and   the  framing  of  new   laws. 

6-7.  The  immediate  socializat'on  of  all 
industries,  therefore  nationalization  of  the 
coal  and  potash  syndicates. 

8.  Confiscation  of  agricultural  products 
and  confiscation  of  land  improperly  and 
unintensively  cultivated. 

9.  Dissolution  of  Reichswehr  formations 
not  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  their 
replacement  by  formations  from  the  work- 
men, artisans  and  State  teachers. 

10.  The  resignation  of  Gustav  Noske  and 
Dr.    Karl   Heine. 

The  strike  was  declared  off  at  noon, 
and  the  state  of  siege  was  ended  the 
following  day,  but  Noske's  strong  hand 
was  still  active  in  the  work  of  combat- 
ing rebellion,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
he  would  not  retire  immediately.  The 
disturbances  everywhere  were  increasing 
in  seriousness.  The  Reds  had  occupied 
Leipzig  and  fought  a  pitched  battle  there 
with  Government  troops  on  the  19th,  re- 
sulting in  the  killing  of  3,000  persons 
before  the  Government  recaptured  the 
city.  Communist  control  was  spreading 
in  the  Rhine  districts,  and  the  German 
Republic  was  facing  the  most  serious 
crisis  in  its  brief  history. 

DOWNFALL  OF  ERZBERGER 

The  chief  event  of  the  month  in  Ger- 
many, aside  from  the  attempted  revolu- 
tion, was  the  Erzberger  trial.  The  volun- 
tary resignation  of  Minister  of  Finance 
Erzberger  on  Feb.  24  had  come  as  the 
sensational  climax  to  a  long  series  of 
attacks  which  culminated  in  accusations 
against  his  personal  integrity.  Herr 
Erzberger  was  said  to  have  become  the 
best  hated  man  in  Germany,  even  more 


so    than    Minister    of    De*  •^se    Noske, 
though  for  different  reasons. 

In  July,  1919,  a  veritable  political 
storm  swept  upon  Herr  Erzberger  when 
he  published  his  first  financial  program 
+  raise  $6,000,000,000,  principally  by 
taxation,  almost  by  confiscation,  of  capi- 
tal. As  time  went  on  the  torrent  of  vi- 
tuperation grew  in  intensity.  He  was 
charged  with  treason,  profiteering,  tax 
dodging,  &c.  In  September  former  Vice 
Chancellor  Dr.  Karl  Helfferich  declared 
that  Erzberger  was  "  a  menace  to  the 
purity  of  public  life  "  and  "  a  dangerous 
member  of  the  Government."  Thus, 
early  in  January,  1920,  Erzberger  was 
driven  to  the  extremity  of  making  a  pub- 
lic defense.  He  chose  a  libel  suit  as  his 
means  and  Dr.  Helfferich  as  his  target. 

SENSATIONS  OF  THE  TRIAL 

The  trial  began  on  Jan.  19,  and  one 
among  several  sensational  incidents  was 
the  attempted  assassination  of  Erzber- 
ger on  the  26th  by  Hirs»hfield,  a  former 
military  cadet.  He  was  seriously 
wounded.  From  the  outset  the  nature 
of  the  defense  placed  Erzberger  himself 
on  the  defensive.  Dr.  Helfferich  pleaded 
"  justifiable  libel,"  and  produced  such  an 
array  of  witnesses  that  Erzberger  pre- 
sented the  figure  of  a  man  charged 
with  a  capital  offense.  Testimony  went 
to  show  that  he  had  been  involved  in 
numerous  questionable  transactions,  and 
had  used  his  official  position  to  the  end 
of  personal  gain.  In  the  final  scene 
State  Attorney  Messerschmidt  testified 
that  Erzberger  had  smuggled  large 
amounts  of  private  funds  to  Switzerland. 
In  cross-examination  he  stated  that  he 
had  come  across  Erzberger's  trail  in 
connection  with  an  investigation  of 
Michael  Thalberg,  a  Zurich  attorney, 
who,  he  testified,  acted  as  transfer 
agent  in  financial  transactions  which  he 
believed  would  total  15,000,000  marks. 

The  proceedings  rose  to  the  dramatic 
when  Dr.  Helfferich  personally  exam- 
ined Erzberger,  and  forced  the  Minister 
to  admit  that  he  was  acquainted  with 
Thalberg,  that  the  Minister's  wife  had 
been  in  communication  with  the  attorney 
at  Zurich,  and  that  he  had  funds  on  de- 
posit there.  Herr  Erzberger,  in  attempt- 
ing to  defend  himself,  asserted  that  the 


10 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


money  on  deposit  in  Switze^'^ind  was  for 
political  and  church  use,  and  that  large 
amounts  were  used  in  defraying  the  cost 
of  his  family's  sojourn  in  that  country; 
further,  that  the  transactions  had  been 
legally  made  through  banks.  Thereupon 
Dr.  Helf  f erich  exclaimed :  "  I  know 
more  than  you  care  to  admit." 

This  testimony  left  Erzberger  no 
other  choice  than  to  tender  his  resigna- 
tion to  President  Ebert.  It  was  prompt- 
ly accepted. 

Subsequently  the  trial  proceeded  un- 
til March  11,  when  the  court  delivered 
judgment.  Dr.  Karl  Helfferich  was  fined 
300  marks  and  costs  because  he  had 
failed  to  prove  one  point  "in  his  allega- 
tions against  Mathias  Erzberger,  name- 
ly, the  latter's  intention  to  denounce 
Helfferich  to  the  Entente.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  Presiding  Judge  Baumbach 
declared  proved  the  following  allega- 
tions against  Erzberger:  "  First,  mixing 
politics  with  business;  second,  untruth- 
fulness; third,  impropriety;  fourth,  po- 
litical activity  to  Germany's  disadvan- 
tage." 

SCHEME  TO  CONTROL  RUSSIA 

The  Minister's  discomfiture  was  com- 
pleted on  Jan.  16  by  the  publication  of 
a  letter  written  by  him  six  months  after 
he  had  signed  the  armistice,  in  which 
he  urged  the  Germans  to  bear  in  mind 
"the  reasons  for  this  war,"  which  he 
defined  as  a  struggle  for  world  dominion 
between  Continental  Europe  and  the  An- 
glo-Saxon race  in  England  and  the 
United  States.  In  his  opinion  the 
"  game  "  between  London  and  Berlin  was 
the  same  as  that  once  fought  out  by  Car- 
thage and  Rome.  After  disposing  of 
France  as  weakened  beyond  recovery,  he 
added: 

If  we  succeed  in  keeping  Poland  down 
it  will  mean  enormous  gains  for  us.  In 
the  first  place,  France's  position  on  the 
Continent  is,  in  the  long  run,  untenable. 
In  the  second,  the  way  to  Russia  is  then 
open.  That  is,  even  for  a  blind  man, 
Germany's  future.  Russia  is  now  ripe  if 
planted  with  German  seed  to  come  into 
the  great  German  future.  Nothing  must 
disturb  us  in  the  great  problem  before 
us.  Poland  is  the  sole  but  very  power- 
ful obstacle.  Therefore  we  must  not  lose 
courage,  *  *  *  but  continue  our  work 
ceaselessly,     and     ever     keep     before     our 


eyes  the  gigantic  reward  which  we  hope 
to  obtain.  If  we  succeed  in  hindering 
the  building  up  of  a  strong  Poland,  then 
the  future  is  quite  clear  for  us.  Then 
the  Anglo-Saxons  cannot  close  the  road  to 
Russia  for  us.  We  will  undertake  the 
restoration  of  Russia,  and  in  the  posses- 
sion of  such  support  we  will  be  ready 
within  ten  or  fifteen  years  to  bring 
France  without  any  difficulty  into  our 
power.  The  march  toward  Paris  will  be 
easier  then  than  in  1914.  The  last  step 
but  one  toward  world  dominion  will  then 
be  reached.  The  Continent  is  ours.  Aft- 
erward will  follow  the  last  stage— the 
closing  struggle  between  Continent  and 
"  overseas." 

DIPLOMATIC  REPRESENTATIVES 

Announcement  was  made  in  Berlin  on 
Jan.  17  of  the  resumption  of  diplomatic 
relations  with  recent  enemy  countries  by 
the  appointment  of  Dr.  Shtamer,  Ham- 
burg Senator,  as  Charge  d'Affaires  in 
London;  Dr.  Meyer,  a  Bavarian  Parlia- 
mentarian, in  Paris;  the  former  State 
Secretary,  Dr.  Solf,  in  Tokio,  and  Frei- 
herr  von  Lucius  in  Rome.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  as  neither  Dr.  Shtamer  nor  Dr. 
Meyer  was  a  professional  diplomat  the 
Foreign  Office  took  credit  for  this  in- 
novation. Diplomatic  representatives 
sent  to  other  capitals  were  former  Im- 
perial Minister  Dr.  Landsberg,  to  Brus- 
sels; Count  von  Obemdorff,  Madrid;  Pro- 
fessor Saenge,  Prague,  and  Colonel  Ren- 
ner.  The  Hague.  Colonel  Renner  was 
military  attache  rt  the  Dutch  capital 
during  the  war,  and  was  known  as  an 
opponent  of  the  annexationist  policy  and 
of  ruthless  submarine  war.  It  was  also 
reported  that  Dr.  Dresel  had  arrived  in 
Berlin  to  take  charge  of  American  in- 
terests. 

For  the  first  time  since  the  war  a 
British  warship  saluted  the  German  flag 
at  Wilhelmshaven  on  Jan.  17,  when  the 
Malaya,  with  the  Interallied  Commission 
of  Control  on  board,  fired  the  customary 
peace-time  twenty-one  guns  on  entering 
the  harbor. 

COBURG  JOINS  BAVARIA 

The  formal  union  of  the  Coburg  part 
of  the  tiny  Duchy  of  Saxe-Coburg  and 
Gotha  with  the  State  of  Bavaria  was 
effected  on  Feb.  15  by  the  signing  in 
Munich  of  the  treaty  authorized  by  the 
people   of  both   States.    According   to   a 


JUNKER  REVOLT  IN   GERMANY 


11 


Munich  dispatch,  sent  out  by  the  semi- 
official Wolf  Telegraph  Bureau,  the  prin- 
cipal provisions  of  the  agreement  whereby 
the  216  square  miles  of  Coburg,  with 
their  75,000  inhabitants,  are  united  to  the 
territory  of  their  big  neighbor  are  as 
follows: 

The  territory  of  the  Free  State  of  Co- 
burg is  united  to  the  Free  State  of 
Bavaria  in  a  single  territory.  The  po- 
litical  sovereignty  over  the  territory  of 
Coburg  passes  to  Bavaria  with  this  uni- 
fication. The  territory  of  the  Free  State 
of  Coburg,  with  the  exception  of  the  do- 
main of  Konigsberg,  is  attached  to-  the 
district  of  Upper  Franconia;  the  Konigs- 
berg domain  is  attached  to  the  district 
of  Lower  Franconia.  The  cities  of  Co- 
burg, Neustadt  and  Rodach  remain  "  un- 
mittelbar  "  [i.  e.,  independent  of  the  dis- 
trict Governments]. 

In  the  election  for  the  Landtag  in  Ba- 
varia following  the  union  of  Coburg  with 
Bavaria  the  districts  formerly  belonging 
to    Coburg    will    take    part    according    to 


the  conditions  obtaining  in  Bavaria.  Un- 
til such  election  is  held,  the  Coburg  Pro- 
vincial Assembly  will  send  three  members 
to  the  Bavarian  Landtag,  who  will  have 
seats  and  voices  in  it  and  enjoy  the  same 
rights  as  the  Bavarian  Landtag  Depu- 
ties. 

On  the  day  of  the  act  of  union  the  Ba- 
varian Constitution  automatically  enters 
into  force  in  the  territory  of  the  Free 
State  of   Coburg. 

The  judicial  union  with  Prussia  and  the 
Thuringian  States  in  the  Courts  of  As- 
size and  the  Supreme  Court  is  to  be  abol- 
ished. 

The  National  Government  is  to  be  re- 
quested to  incorporate  in  the  national  law 
a  clause  regarding  the  union  of  Coburg 
with  Bavaria  providing  that  the  date  of 
the  going  into  effect  of  the  national  law 
will  be  set  by  an  order  of  the  Bavarian 
Government, 

Other  parts  of  the  agreement  regulate 
internal  matters  concerning  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  charity  and  welfare 
work,  education,  &c. 


Enforcing  the  Treaty  Terms 

How  Germany  Is  Meeting  the  Obligations  Imposed  on  Her- 
Tendency  Toward  Modification 

[Period  Ended  March  16,  1920] 


THE  question  of  Germany's  fulfill- 
ment of  the  Peace  Treaty  con- 
tinues to  be  a  source  of  extreme 
difficulty  and  friction.  In  a  stern 
note  France  declared  in  February  that 
Germany,  during  December,  1919,  had 
produced  10,450,000  tons  of  coal,  and 
that,  according  to  Article  429  of  the 
Peace  Treaty,  she  should  have  delivered 
to  the  Allies,  notably  to  France,  some 
2,500,000  tons,  instead  of  the  600,000  tons 
actually  handed  over.  Because  of  this 
failure,  the  note  added,  the  time  limits 
for  evacuation  of  the  occupied  territory 
were  suspended;  it  also  threatened  re- 
prisal measures. 

In  a  statement  issued  on  Feb.  16  by 
Erich  Schmidt,  German  Minister  of  Eco- 
nomics, Premier  Millerand  was  charged 
with  misrepresenting  the  facts  of  the 
coal  situation.  The  German  coal  output, 
Dr.  Schmidt  declared,  was  only  half  nor- 


mal; furthermore,  if  Germany  delivered 
the  2,500,000  tons  demanded  by  the 
French  Government  '  e  would  fall  below 
50  per  cent,  of  her  peace-time  supply.  In 
these  circumstances,  he  asserted,  the  al- 
lied coal  demands  on  Germany  simply 
could  not  be  met.  "  This  coal,"  he  said, 
"  the  French  must  leave  us,  if  they  are 
to  follow  a  far-sighted  policy  rather  than 
a  short-sighted  policy  of  revenge.  *  *  * 
If  she  takes  too  much  from  Germany, 
France  must  bury  her  hope  of  further 
restoration." 

REDUCTION  OF  ARMY 

One  concession  which  Germany  re- 
ceived was  an  extension  of  the  time  limit 
within  which  her  armed  forces  must  be 
reduced.  Premier  Lloyd  George  shortly 
before  Feb.  18  notified  Dr.  Shtamer,  the 
newly  appointed  German  representative 
in  London,  that  the  date  when  the  Ger- 


12 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


man  Army  must  be  reduced  to  the  pre- 
scribed total  of  200,000  men  had  been 
moved  on  to  April  10,  and  that  the  ulti- 
mate reduction  to  100,000  had  been  set 
for  July  10.  (According  to  Article  160 
of  the  Peace  Treaty,  the  full  reduction 
to  100,000  was  to  have  been  effected 
by  April  1,  1920.) 

It  was  officially  denied  in  Paris  on 
Feb.  20  that  this  extension  of  time  indi- 
cated any  weakening  of  the  allied  deter- 
mination to  enforce  the  fulfillment  of 
Article  160.  Both  France  and  Great 
Britain  stood  firmly  for  the  final  re- 
duction by  July  10.  General  Niessel, 
former  head  of  the  Baltic  Commission, 
who  had  been  charged  by  the  French 
Government  to  make  a  report  on  Ger- 
many's military  situation,  issued  at  this 
time  a  statement,  based  on  an  elaborate 
analysis  of  the  German  police  and  mili- 
tary organization,  to  prove  that  Ger- 
many was  secretly  building  up  a  large 
army,  far  beyond  the  limits  stipulated  by 
the  treaty. 

The  transfer  of  the  remaining  German 
warships  to  the  Allies  was  set  for  March 
10,  when  eight  battleships,  eleven  cruis- 
ers and  forty-two  destroyers  were  to  be 
fonnally  surrendered.  Seventy  per  cent, 
of  the  ships  transferred  were  to  go  to 
Great  Britain,  11  per  cent,  to  Italy  and 
8  per  cent,  to  Japan. 

EXTRADITION  OF  WAR  CRIMINALS 
Another  important  concession  to  Ger- 
many related  to  the  extradition  of  the 
900  Germans  accused  by  the  allied  na- 
tions of  war  crimes.  The  text  of  the 
German  note  of  Jan.  25,  proposing  the 
trial  of  those  accused  by  the  German 
Federal  Court  at  Leipzig,  and  referred 
to  in  the  allied  reply  accepting  this  pro- 
posal on  Feb.  16  (printed  in  the  March 
issue  of  Current  History),  was  not 
made  public  in  Berlin  until  Feb.  4.  It 
read  as  follows: 

The  German  Government  pointed  out  to 
the  Governments  of  the  principal  allied 
and  associated  powers  in  the  beginning 
of  last  December  the  fatal  consequences 
that  would  be  entailed  by  a  carrying  out 
of  the  conditions  contained  in  Articles 
228  to  230  of  the  Peace  Treaty  regarding 
the  extradition  of  Germans.  The  reasons 
for  this  statement  were  listed  in  a  memo- 
randum handed  to  the  representatives  of 


the  principal  allied  and  associated  pow- 
ers at  that  time,  and  now  again  included 
with  this  note. 

In  amplifying  these  expositions  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  again  expressly  and 
emphatically  pointed   out  that   the   allied 


LORD  KILMARNOCK 

British  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Berlin 

(Times    Wide    World   Photo) 


and  associated  Governments'  insistence 
upon  extraditions  would  doubtless  be 
bound  to  cause  the  most  violent  con- 
vulsions, not  only  in  the  political  but  also 
in  the  economic  field.  In  particular 
would  the  thoroughgoing  measures  which 
the  German  Government  is  about  to  un- 
dertake for  the  purpose  of  preventing  an 
economic  collapse,  especially  in  the  mat- 
ter of  increasing  production,  that  of  coal 
above  all,  be  put  in  extreme  jeopardy,  if 
not  made  entirely  impossible.  This  would 
naturally  produce  serious  reactions  in  the 
matter  of  fulfilling  the  economic  obliga- 
tions of  the  Peace  Treaty. 

In  the  memorandum  of  Nov.  5,  1919, 
there  was  also  indicated  a  way  to  ar- 
range the  matter  that  would  be  endurable 
for  Germany  and  at  the  same  1;ime  be 
capable  of  being  carried  out.  Since  then 
the  principal  allied  and  associated  pow- 
ers have  also  become  acquainted  with  an- 
other act  by  the  German  Government 
again  indicating  its  earnest  intention  of 
bringing  to  justice  and  proper  punish- 
ment Germans  guilty  of  war  crimes  or 
outrages.  This  refers  to  the  law,  enacted 
unanimously  by  the  German  legislative 
bodies  on  Dec.  18,  1919,  providing  for  the 


ENFORCING  THE  TREATY  TERMS 


13 


prosecution   of   war   criminals,    a   copy   of 
which  is  inclosed  herewith. 

The  Peace  Treaty  has  gone  into  effect 
without  the  allied  and  associated  powers 
having  made  manifest  any  intention  on 
their  part  to  take  into  account  the  urgent 
representations  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment in  this  affair.  In  a  clear  convic- 
tion, only  strengthened  by  the  impression 
of  the  last  few  weeks,  of  the  extraordi- 
nary seriousness  of  the  situation,  the 
German  Government  considers  it  its  im- 
perative duty  once  again  to  approach  the 
allied  and  asosciated  powers  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  about  a  settlement  of 
the  affair  satisfactory  to  the  interests  of 
these  powers,  and  possible  of  execution 
by  Germany.  Therefore,  it  repeats  and 
defines  once  more  the  proposal  already 
suggested,  and  accordingly  makes  the 
following  declaration: 

THE  GERMAN  PROPOSAL 

The  German  Government  will  instruct 
the  prosecuting  authorities  to  begin  at 
once  criminal  action  against  all  Germans 
against  whom  the  allied  and  associated 
Governments  bring  charges  of  having  vio- 
lated the  rules  and  regulations  of  war, 
as  soon  as  the  evidence  upon  which  these 
charges  are  based  is  received.  It  will 
suspend  all  laws  which  might  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  beginning  of  such  an 
action,  particularly  the  existing  amnesty 
acts,  in  so  far.  as  these  cases  are  con- 
cerned. The  highest  German  court,  the 
Federal  Court  in  Leipsic,  will  be  compe- 
tent to  handle  this  criminal  procedure. 
Furthermore,  the  allied  and  associated 
powers  actually  interested  will  receive  the 
right  to  take  part  directly  in  the  trial. 

A  special  agreement  could  be  reached 
regarding  the  extent  of  this  participation. 
For  example,  it  would  be  quite  possible 
to  arrange  matters  so  that  an  allied 
power  would  send  a  representative  of  its 
interests  to  the  trial,  empowered  to  take 
note  of  all  papers  and  documents  con- 
cerning the  case,  to  present  new  evidence, 
to  name  witnesses  and  experts,  as  well  as 
to  make  proposals  in  general  and  to  plead 
for  the  interests  of  the  injured  party.  All 
proposals  by  this  representative  for  bring- 
ing in  evidence  would  be  acceded  to.  Such 
witnesses  and  technical  experts  as  were 
citizens  of  an  allied  or  associated  country 
would  be  heard,  upon  the  demand  of  the 
allied  representative,  by  the  competent 
judicial  authorities  of  their  native  lands, 
in  which  case  the  presence  of  the  accused 
or  of  his  attorney  should  be  allowed. 
The  decisions  announced  by  the  Federal 
Court  would  be  published,  together  with 
their  reasons.  Furthermore,  the  German 
Government  is  ready  to  negotiate  over  the 
establishment  of  a  second   court. 

The  German  Government  is  convinced 
that  in  this  way,  and  only  in  this  way, 
can  the  intentions  of  the  allied  and  asso- 


ciated powers  upon  which  are  based  Arti- 
cles 228  to  230  of  the  Peace  Treaty 
really  be  carried  out.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
these  powers  were  to  insist  upon  the 
extradition  of  the  accused  persons,   it  is 


DR.     SHTAMER 

New    German   Charge  d'Affaires   at  London, 

the  first  Teuton  to  occupy  that 

Embassy  in  five  years 

probable'  that  only  such  persons  would 
voluntarily  present  themselves  before  the 
foreign  courts  as  felt  themselves  innocent 
and  consequently  could  count  upon  an 
acquittal.  The  really  guilty  ones,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  escape  punishment,  be- 
cause the  Government,  as  is  pointed  out 
in  more  detail  in  the  accompanying  mem- 
orandum, could  not  find  any  officials  who 
would  be  willing  to  carry  out  the  arrests 
and   extraditions. 

The  memorandum  referred  to  in  the 
German  note  enumerated  the  various 
reasons,  already  recounted  in  the  press, 
why  the  German  Government  felt  sure  it 
could  not  sui-vive  a  real  attempt  to  ar- 
rest and  hand  over  the  war  criminals. 

EFFECT  OF  ALLIES'  CONCESSIONS 

The  Entente's  note  transferring  juris- 
diction created  much  satisfaction  in  Ger- 
many, though  the  Government  main- 
tained an  attitude  of  reserve,  and  the 
Reactionary  Party  sought  to  belittle 
what  was  in  effect  a  triumph  for  the 
Ebert  Government.    Hints  of  further  dif- 


14 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ficulty  were  made  by  He/r  Noske  at 
Bremen  on  Feb.  18,  on  the  score  that 
much  that  appeared  to  the  Allies  to  be 
criminal  was  purely  a  general  war  meas- 
ure ordered  by  superiors,  which  Germany 
would  never  acknowledge  to  be  a  crime. 
Minister  of  Justice  Schiffer,  however, 
made  the  following  statement: 

The  German  Government  considers  it  a 
matter  of  national  honor  that  those  per- 
sons named  in  the  allied  extradition  list 
who  have  been  guilty  of  war  crimes  shall 
be  punished.  Should  any  of  the  accused 
fail  to  answer  the  summons  to  appear  be- 
fore the  High  Court  at  Leipsig  for  trial 
on  the  charges  preferred  against  him,  he 
will  be  promptly  arrested  and  taken 
there. 

A  number  of  prominent  Generals  and 
Admirals  who  were  among  those  listed 
issued  a  declaration  on  Feb.  27  which, 
while  reiterating  their  refusal,  to  appear 
before  a  foreign  tribunal,  expressed 
their  willingness  to-  be  tried  before  a 
German  Judge.  The  signers  of  this 
declaration  were  General  von  Luden- 
dorff,  former  First  Quartermaster  Gen- 
eral; Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  former  Minis- 
ter of  the  Navy;  General  von  Falken- 
hayn,  former  Chief  of  Staff;  Field  Mar- 
shal von  Kluck,  Admiral  von  Schroeder, 
and  numerous  other  high  army  and 
naval  officers. 

ALLIES  FAVOR  TEST  TRIAL 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Interallied  Justice 
Committee,  empowered  to  deal  with  this 
matter,  held  in  Paris  on  March  2,  a  se- 
lection of  some  forty-six  culprits  was 
made,  against  whom  the  evidence  was 
most  conclusive.  This  list  was'  sifted 
and  slightly  modified  at  a  subsequent 
meeting,  and  then  submitted  to  the  Su- 
preme Council  in  London  for  approval 
and  transmission  to  Germany.  Append- 
ed to  each  name  was  a  brief  outline  of 
the  charges.  The  plan  proposed  was 
that  Germany  should  try  these  selected 
culprits  as  a  test  of  her  sincerity.  As 
the  trials  proceeded  the  allied  commit- 
tee was  to  compare  the  case  put  forward 
by  the  prosecution  with  its  own  very 
complete  dossiers.  To  prepare  each  case 
the  Germans  would  be  given  every  fa- 
cility for  collecting  evidence  in  the  lo- 
calities where  the  crimes  occurred, 
either  in  France  or  elsewhere.     The  Al- 


lies retained  the  right  to  order  a  retrial 
or  hold  such  retrial  themselves  if  they 
considered  the  verdict  unjust. 

One  German  paper,  Vorwarts,  in  its 
issue  of  Feb.  18,  expressed  great  pessi- 
mism about  the  impartiality  the  Leip- 
zig judges,  saying  of  them: 

They  have  been  life-long  and  faithful 
supporters  of  the  old  Prussian  military 
domination.  Evil  things  have  happened. 
Civilians  have  been  massacred  for  alleged 
franc-tireur  attacks,  villages  have  been 
burned  down,  men  and  women  have  been 
deported,  but  who  will  say  this  is  impos- 
sible after  having  observed  the  spirit  and 
practices  of  German  militarism,  even  in 
peace  times? 

GERMAN   COUNTERCHARGES 

A  note  handed  to  Premier  Lloyd 
George  by  the  German  representative  in 
London  on  March  10,  on  the  other  hand, 
after  asserting  that  the  Imperial  Court 
would  be  guided  only  by  considerations 
of  justice,  and  would  conduct  an  im- 
partial inquiry,  demanded  that  the  ar- 
rest of  Germans  in  the  occupied  terri- 
tories on  charges  similar  to  those  listed 
should  cease,  and  that  those  arrested 
should  be  delivered  to  German  courts. 
The  note  further  demanded  that  the 
Allies  should  abandon  the  right  claimed 
of  arresting  and  trying  Germans  not  on 
the  list  if  caught  on  allied  territory,  say- 
ing that  incidents  arising  out  of  the  war 
should  be  consigned  to  oblivion  with  the 
advent  of  peace.  Otherwise,  it  con- 
tinued, the  resumption  of  normal  rela- 
tions would  be  made  difficult,  and  the 
German  Government  would  be  obliged  to 
take  official  cognizance  of  crimes  com- 
mitted against  Germans  by  allied  sub- 
jects. 

Regarding  this  last  possibility.  Foreign 
Minister  Miiller,  during  the  debate  on  the 
Leipzig  trials  in  the  National  Assembly 
on  March  5,  stated  that  Germany  did  not 
intend  to  send  the  Entente  at  present  a 
list  of  allied  citizens  accused  of  misdeeds, 
and  expressed  doubt  as  to  whether  the 
Allies  would  punish  any  of  their  citizens 
on  the  strength  of  German  evidence;  such 
a  move,  he  added,  would  probably  unite 
even  more  firmly  the  allied  coalition.  A 
list,  however,  he  stated,  had  been  drawn 
up,  comprising  312  pages  of  indictments 
against    French    individuals,    and    sixty- 


I 


ENFORCING  THE  TREATY  TERMS 


15 


nine  against  British.  All  the  data  had 
been  officially  corroborated,  but  publica- 
tion would  be  deferred.  Germany,  he 
declared,  would  never  demand  the  extra- 
dition of  allied  Generals.  As  to  war  mis- 
deeds, in  general,  he  laid  down  the  propo- 


ELLIS  L.  DRBSEL. 

United  States   Commissioner  and  temporary 

diplom/atic  representative  at  Berlin 

{Times  Wide  World  Photo) 

sition  that  "swinishness  and  crime" 
could  be  charged  up  to  all  the  belliger- 
ents. 

THE  REPARATIONS  COMMISSION 

The  resignation  of  M.  Jonnart  as  Pres- 
ident of  the  Reparations  Commission,  on 
the  score  of  ill-health,  occurred  on  Feb. 
18.  Premier  Millerand  offered  the  post 
to  M.  Andre  Tardieu,  who  declined  it  in 
order  to  have  a  free  hand  in  pressing 
the  execution  of  the  Peace  Treaty,  which 
he  had  helped  to  frame. 

The  official  announcement  that  ex- 
President  Poincare  had  agreed  to  rep- 
resent France  as  President  of  the  Repa- 
rations Commission  was  made  on  Feb. 
21,  and  was  received  with  much  pleas- 
ure throughout  the  country,  as  it  was 
believed  that  he,  better  than  any  other 
statesman,  would  be  able  to  defend  the 
interests  of  France. 


The  task  which  M.  Poincare  assumed 
was  a  formidable  one.  The  principal 
work  of  the  commission,  on  which  all 
the  allied  powers  are  represented,  will 
be  to  establish  by  May  1,  1921,  the  total 
amount  which  Germany  will  be  called 
upon  to  pay  as  compensation  for  the 
damage  done  by  her  armed  forces  during 
the  war.  Its  powers  are  wide.  It  has 
the  authority  to  transfer  its  sittings  to 
Germany,  if  it  deems  this  to  be  expe- 
dient. In  case  Germany  fails  to  carry 
out  her  obligations,  it  has  the  right  to 
propose  measures  of  economic  or  finan- 
cial reprisal.  The  four  principal  ques- 
tions with  which  it  will  be  called  upon 
to  deal  are  as  follows: 

1.  To  estimate  the  total  amount  of 
damage  caused  by  Germany  during  the 
war. 

2.  To  see  that  Germany  restores  all  that 
she  has  stolen,  seized  and  sequestrated 
and  to  arrange  for  the  manner  in  which 
this  restitution  shall  be  carried  out. 

3.  To  insure  the  payment  before  May  1, 
1921,  of  the  sum  of  £1,000,000,000  that 
Germany  has  undertaken  to  pay  as  a  first 
installment  of  her  debt,  and  to  decide 
whether  this  sum  shall  be  paid  in  gold, 
merchandise,  shipping  or  securities. 

4.  To  insure  that  from  now  onward  the 
sums  due  to  the  Allies  are  made  a  prefer- 
ential charge  on  the  whole  of  the  public 
revenue  of  Germany,  and  consequently  to 
insure  that  the  burden  of  taxation  on  the 
German  taxpayer  is  at  least  as  heavy  as 
that  which  has  been  imposed  on  the 
British,  French  and  other  allied  taxpay- 
ers as  the  result  of  Germany's  aggres- 
sion. 

CHANGE   TOWARD  GERMANY 

A  noteworthy  development  in  early 
March  was  a  change  in  the  attitude  of 
the  Council  of  Premiers,  indicating  a  be- 
lief that  too  severe  demands  would  bring 
Germany  to  a  point  where  she  would 
represent  a  danger  to  Europe.  This 
radical  change  in  policy,  inspired  mainly 
by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  had  met  with  con- 
siderable opposition  on  the  part  of 
France,  tenacious  of  the  reparations  al- 
lotted to  her.  Little  by  little,  however, 
it  was  said,  the  French  attitude  was  be- 
coming more  flexible. 

One  evidence  of  the  new  policy  was 
seen  in  the  Reparations  Commission's 
note  to  the  Berlin  Government,  inviting 
it  to  make  use  of  funds  it  possessed  in 


16 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


neutral  countries  to  obtain  the  food  and 
raw  materials  it  needed,  and  also  to  use 
the  capital  it  has  invested  in  neutral 
countries  for  the  same  purposes. 

In  a  "  Declaration  on  Economic  Con- 
ditions of  the  World,"  issued  by  the 
Council  of  Premiers  on  March  9,  the  de- 
plorable conditions  prevailing  through- 
out Europe  were  reviewed,  and  the  fun- 
damental economic  unity  of  the  war-dev- 
astated world  was  emphasized.  To 
remedy  these  conditions,  the  following 
measures  were  advocated:  increase  of 
industry,  reduction  of  individual  expense, 
deflation  of  credits,  purchase  of  raw  ma- 
terials through  commercial  credits,  and 
allied  co-operation  in  restoring  the  dev- 
astated areas,  especially  those  of 
Northern  France.  Germany  was  to  be 
allowed  to  raise  abroad  a  loau  to  meet 
her  immediate  needs. 

The  German  Foreign  Minister,  Herr 
Miiller,  in  an  interview  given  in  Berlin, 
protested  against  the  repeated  assertion 
in  the  Entente  press  that  Germany  does 
not  wish  to  fulfill  the  conditions  of  the 
Peace  Treaty.  The  Minister  asserted 
that  neither  in  Germany  nor  elsewhere 
was  it  realized  what  tremendous  obliga- 
tions Germany  had  already  met.  Ac- 
cording to  the  official  estimates  cited  by 
him,  the  following  values  had  been  de- 
livered: 

Marks  in  Gold. 

Sarre  mines    1,000,000,000 

Enterprises  liquidated  abroad. .  .12,000,000,000 
State    properties    in   surrendered 

regions    6,600,000,000 

Commercial  fleet   8,250,000,000 

Coal     240,000,000 

Machines    150,000,000 

Railway   material    750,000,000 

Cables    66,000,000 

State    and    army    materials    left 

behind    7,000,000,000 

Expenses  of  foreign  occupation. .      666,000,000 

Deliveries  of  cattle 390,000,000 

Dyes     200,000,000 

Claims  on  Germany'®  allies  sur- 
rendered      7,000,000,000 

Total    44.978,000,000 

TARDIEU  DEFENDS  TREATY 

Andre  Tardieu,  in  accordance  with  his 
announced  intention,  continued  his  press 
campaign  in  favor  of  complete  fulfill- 
ment of  the  Peace  Treaty  without  re- 
vision.   Speaking  ex  cathedra  as  one  of 


the  French  Peace  Commissioners,  he 
discussed  in  ITllustration  the  whole 
question  of  revision,  and  criticised  its 
advocates.  In  this  article,  which  ap- 
peared toward  the  middle  of  February, 
he  declared  that  such  a  demand  had  its 
root  in  a  legand — "  a  legend  that  the 
most  formidable  treaty  in  the  history  of 
the  world  was  improvised  and  patched 
up  by  four  fallible  and  badly  informed 
men,  secluded  in  a  dark  room,  and  im- 
posed upon  the  world  according  to  the 
vagaries  of  their  fancy."  He  added: 
"  To  this  legend  it  is  time  to  oppose 
some  facts."  Some  of  the  facts  he  gave 
were  as  follows: 

The  treaty  was  studied,  prepared  and 
discussed  for  six  months  by  fifty-two 
technical  commissions,  to  which  each 
country  sent  its  best  qualified  specialists 
and  which  held  1,646  meetings.  The  con- 
clusions of  the  commissions,  verified  by 
twenty-six  inquiries  on  the  spot,  were 
discussed  from  Jan.  10  to  June  28  by 
three  bodies,  the  Council  of  Ministers  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  which  held  39  meetings; 
the  Council  of  Ten,  which  held  72.  and 
the  Council  of  Four,  which  held  145. 

These  three  councils  heard  the  Presi- 
dents of  the  technical  commissions  and 
all  the  representatives  of  4he  allied  and 
neutral  countries  interested.  Finally, 
when  at  the  beginning  of  May  the  texts 
were  completed,  a  Council  of  Ministers  of 
each  of  the  great  powers  was  called  upon 
to  deliberate  upon  them. 

On  May  7  the  treaty  was  handed  to  the 
Germans,  and  three  days  later  they  began 
to  discuss  it.  Between  May  10  and  June 
28  the  commissions  in  over  250  sessions 
and  the  Council  of  Four  in  76  minutely 
revised  all  the  articles.  No  criticism, 
whether  formulated  by  Germany  or  not, 
was  left  in  the  background.  Everything 
was  discussed  anew.  By  June  16  a  reply 
was  sent  to  the  German  notes,  giving 
Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  a  definite 
period  in  which  to  say  yes  or  no.  On 
June  28  the  treaty  was  signed. 

CLAUSES  ALREADY  FULFILLED 

In  reply  to  the  contention  that  the 
treaty  cannot  be  fulfilled,  M.  Tardieu 
said: 

The  willing  skepticism  which  for  a  long 
time  united  cur  royalist  and  our  Bolshe- 
vist press  banished  the  execution  of  the 
treaty  into  the  uncertain  future.  But 
what  do  we  see?  The  reduction  of  Ger- 
man territory  by  84,000  square  kilometers 
quietly  executed ;  the  return  to  France  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  free  and  without 
the  burden  of  expense;  Posen,  "  the  vital 
muscle    of    the    Prussian    body,"    as    Bis- 


ENFORCING  THE  TREATY  TERMS 


17 


marck  called  it,  in  the  hands  of  Poland; 
the  Walloon  cantons  given  to  Belgium. 

Executed  also  are  the  rupture  of  the 
Government  bond  between  the  Sarre  Val- 
ley and  Prussia,  the  possession  of  the 
mines  by  France,  the  plebiscite  of  Slesvig, 
the  installation  of  the  plebiscite  commis- 
sion in  Upper  Silesia. 

Allied  troops  occupy  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  which  is  under  control  of  a  French 
Commissioner.  The  fortresses  in  the  neu- 
tral zone  are  dismantled.  The  fleet,  of 
which  France  has  received  600,000  tons, 
has  been  given  up.  The  restitution  of 
pillaged  property  is  also  being  undertaken, 
and  that  means  nine  billions  to  France. 

On  retiring  from  the  Presidency  M. 
Poincare  accepted  the  post  of  chief  politi- 
cal writer  of  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 
His  first  contributed  article,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  March  issue,  discussed  the 
whole  subject  of  the  Peace  Treaty.  It 
arraigned  severely  the  tendency  of  the 
treaty  makers  to  change  their  minds,  and 
referred  to  "  the  multitude  of  questions 
which  have  been  the  object  of  hap- 
hazard and  contradictory  solutions."  Of 
this  "ever-changing  attitude  of  the  Allies 
on  many  problems,  notably  the  questions 
of  the  East,  the  Adriatic  and  the 
Soviets,"  M.  Poincare  gave  as  an  example 
the  disposition  of  Constantinople,  which 
kept  the  Quai  d'Orsay  and  Downing 
Street  "  busy  playing  at  cross-purposes." 
In  this  connection  he  cited  a  remarkable 
memorandum  drawn  up  by  Stephen 
Pichon — while  he  was  still  in  the  For- 
eign Office — which  favored  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Sultan  in  Constantinople. 

"FRENCH   MILITARISM" 

Deep  resentment  was  shown  in  Paris 
on  publication  of  President  Wilson's 
charge,  in  his  letter  of  March  8  to  Sen- 
ator Hitchcock,  that  France  in  her 
methods  of  executing  the  Peace  Treaty 
was  actuated  by  a  spirit  of  militarism. 
The  criticism  was  denounced  by  the 
French  press  as  unjust  and  an  unwar- 
ranted interference  by  the  Chief  of 
State  of  one  country  in  the  internal  af- 
fairs of  another.  The  explanation  of 
France's  firmer  attitude  toward  Ger- 
many was  the  sole  desire  to  protect 
France,  inasmuch  as  the  League  of  Na- 
tions and  the  Anglo-French-American 
alliance  promised  no  material  results. 
As  these  substitute  guarantees,  which 
Mr.    Wilson    himself    proposed    at    the 


Peace  Conference,  have  now  come  to 
naught,  France,  it  is  held,  should  not  be 
blamed  for  wanting  to  stay  on  the  Rhine 
until  Germany  comes  to  terms. 

M.  Stephane  Lauzanne,  the  editor  of 
the  Matin,  on  March  11  published  a 
vitriolic  attack  upon  the  personality  of 
President  Wilson,  calling  him  "  the  same 
university  professor,  meddlesome  and 
ignorant,  turning  out  phrases  pretty  in 
words  but  bad  in  meaning;  the  same 
pedagogue  who,  mixing  into  the  greatest 
drama  in  history,  understood  nothing  of 
it,  and  has  learned  nothing  of  it." 

The  Temps  expressed  its  regret  that 
President  Wilson's  health  made  it  im- 
possible for  him  to  come  again  to  Europe 
and  see  the  situation  for  himself,  and 
continued : 

If  he  were  before  France,  which  counts 
on  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  before  Ger- 
many, which  is  trying  to  escape  it— be- 
fore France,  which  is  exhausting  herself 
to  repair  the  ruins  of  war,  and  before 
Germany,  where  a  new  war  is  openly 
preached— the  President  of  the  United 
States  would  not  declare  that  a  military 
party  reigns  in  France. 

Similar  articles  were  published  in 
other  papers.  M.  Andre  Tardieu  pointed 
out  in  an  interview  that  almost  the  whole 
burden  of  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the 
treaty  had  fallen  upon  France.  Most 
of  the  common  military  tasks  imposed 
by  the  Versailles  Treaty,  including  the 
occupation  of  the  Rhineland  and  plebi- 
scite regions,  were  being  borne  unaided 
by  French  troops.  It  was,  therefore,  he 
concluded,  unjust  in  President  Wilson  to 
accuse  the  French  of  imperialism. 

PLEBISCITES  AND  MANDATES 

The  result  of  the  second  plebiscite  in 
Slesvig  is  given  elsewhere  in  these 
pages.  The  Eupen  and  Malmedy  dis- 
tricts on  the  German-Belgian  frontier, 
allotted  provisionally  to  Belgium,  were 
entered  by  General  Baltia,  the  Belgian 
High  Commissioner,  on  Jan.  22.  Pro- 
ceeding through  the  gayly  decorated 
streets  of  Malmedy,  the  Commissioner 
read  from  the  steps  of  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  a  proclamation  pledging  equal- 
ity to  all  in  respect  to  language,  re- 
ligion and  civic  rights.  Civilian  em- 
ployes were  to  be  maintained  in  their 
old  positions;  Germans  might  return  to 


18 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


Germany  if  they  so  desired,  with  their 
families  and  personal  property.  Com- 
merce with  Germany  would  continue 
without  customs  borders.  The  plebiscite 
would  be  completed  within  six  months 
and  would  be  conducted  with  all  guar- 
antees of  impartiality.  An  advisory 
body  of  twelve  members,  six  from  Eupen 
and  Malmedy  and  six  from  Belgium, 
would  form  a  local  Parliament. 

General  Odry,  allied  High  Commis- 
sioner, on  Feb.  15  formally  took  over 
control  of  Memel — a  narrow  strip  of 
territory  lying  between  Lithuania  and 
the  Baltic — from  Count  Lamsdorf,  the 
German  representative.  The  Commis- 
sioner announced  that  he  would  keep 
supreme  authority  in  his  hands,  but  that 
the  business  committee"  for  the  Memel 
district,  headed  by  Mayor  Altenberg, 
would  continue  its  administration  of  lo- 
cal affairs  until  further  notice.  Under 
the  Peace  Treaty  Germany  agreed  to 
abide  by  whatever  disposition  the  allied 
and  associated  powers  might  make  of 
the  Memel  district. 

It  was  announced  on  March  12  that 
the  German  Government  had  made  an 
energetic  protest  against  a  series  of  de- 
crees issued  by  the  Commission  for  the 
plebiscite  territories  in  Upper  Silesia, 
West  Prussia  and  East  Prussia,  which 
Germany  contended  would  interfere  with 
the  judicial  organization  of  these  dis- 
tricts. 

RULING  THE  SARRE  REGION 

The    Governing    Commission    of    the 
Sarre    Basin   issued   a   proclamation   on 
Feb.   26   announcing   its   assumption   of 
control.     The  text  of  this  document  was 
given  as  follows  in  the  German  press: 
To  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Sarre  District: 
By  virtue  of  the  Peace  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles the  Governing  Commission  assumes 
its  high  office  today. 

In  the  name  of  the  League  of  Nations, 
which  has  created  it,  it  will  administer 
the  territory  of  the  Sarre  Basin  and  ex- 
ercise the  same  governing  power  there 
as  used  to  be  exercised  by  the  German 
Empire,  Prussia  and  Bavaria.  The  Gov- 
erning Commission  is  firmly  resolved  to 
carry  out  most  exactly  the  regulations  of 
the  Versailles  Treaty  and  to  see  that 
everybody  obeys  them,  not  only  accord- 
ing to  the  letter,  but  also  according  to 
the  spirit.  Above  all  does  it  regard  it  as 
its    duty   to    earn    the    confidence    of    the 


population  whose  fate  has  been  placed  in 
its  hands. 

Furthermore,  it  is  firmly  resolved  to 
maintain  order  and  peace  throughout  the 
entire  Sarre  territory.  Under  the  high 
supervision  of  the  Governing  Commission 
the  inhabitants  will  be  able  to  hold  their 
usual  local  meetings,  exercise  their  re- 
ligious liberties  and  retain  their  societies, 
their   schools  and  their   language. 

The  Governing  Commission,  in  full  con- 
sciousness of  its  duties,  is  determined  to 
create  respect  for  its  authority  and  ruth- 
lessly to  suppress  all  attempts,  no  matter 
whence  they  come,  to  disturb  the  popula- 
tion or  mislead  it  into  making  mistakes. 
The  rights  with  which  the  Governing 
Commission  has  been  clothed  by  the 
treaty  place  it  in  a  very  good  position  to 
dedicate  itself  to  its  high  task,  without 
allowing  itself  to  be  handicapped  by  pos- 
sible idle,  or  actually  criminal,  revolts. 
In  allowing  itself  to  be  guided  by  the 
same  basic  principles  from  which  the 
League  of  Nations  is  derived  it  is  de- 
sirous of  entering  into  closer  relations 
with  the  population,  in  a  hearty  spirit 
of  reconciliation.    *    *    * 

The  Governing  Commission  will  make  it 
its  special  object  to  promote  industry  and 
to  elevate  the  condition  of  the  workers. 
It  will  endeavor,  with  all  the  power  at  its 
command,  to  increase  production  and  to 
assure  to  the  office  employes  and  workers 
all  the  advantages  that  are  consistent 
with  the  maintenance  of  well  ordered 
industrial  establishments.  Proceeding 
from  this  standpoint,  it  will  take  into 
consideration  the  wishes  expressed  by  the 
organizations  of  employes  and  employers, 
and  it  will  do  so  in  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  League  of  Nations.  So  far 
as  this  point  is  concerned  it  is  aware, 
besides,  that  it  is  of  one  mind  with  the 
French  mining  authorities.  In  this  re- 
spect France  insures  it  unlimited  freedom 
of  action,  and  does  so  exactly  in  the  way 
provided  for  in  the  Peace  Treaty.  In  the 
exercise  of  the  high  office  with  which  it 
has  been  intrusted  the  Governing  Com- 
mission counts  upon  the  whole-hearted  co- 
operation of  the  population,  whose  mate- 
rial welfare  will  depend  in  many  ways 
upon  its  peaceful  attitude  and  its  display 
of  good-will. 

In  this  way  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sarre 
country  will  have  a  chance  to  give  expres- 
sion to  their  confidence  in  the  League  of 
Nations  and  at  the  same  time  to  show 
the  proper  obedience  to  the  Peace  Treaty, 
Through  demonstrated  perseverance  in 
labor,  and,  indeed,  in  all  lines  of  work, 
agricultural  as  well  a^  industrial,  they 
will  have  a  great  part  in  the  economic 
restoration   of  Europe.    *    *    * 

Done  at   Saarbriicken,   Feb.  26,   1920,   in 
the  name  of  the  Governing  Commission. 
The  President. 

V.    RAULT,    Councilor   of   State. 


Rhineland  Under  Allied  Rule 

Regulations  Adopted  by  the  High  Commission  Cause  Friction 
— Some  of  Them  Are  Modified 


THE  Interallied  High  Commission  of 
Rhenish  Territory,  whose  Presi- 
dent is  Paul  Tirard,  a  Frenchman, 
took  over  supreme  authority  in  the 
occupied  region  along  the  Rhine  in  the 
name  of  all  the  Allies  on  Jan.  11,  1920. 
The  commission's  headquarters  are  at 
Coblenz.  It  issued  the  following  procla- 
mation on  the  date  just  named: 

In  execution  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace  the 
Interallied  High  Commission  of  the 
Rhenish  countries  takes  over  on  this  day 
supreme  representation  of  the  allied  Gov- 
ernments in  the  occupied  territories.  Fol- 
lowing the  instructions  of  the  allied  Gov- 
ernments, it  wishes  to  make  a  light  as 
possible  for  the  Rhenish  people  the  burden 
of  occupation,  provided  only  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  shall  diligently  continue 
to  carry  out  the  reparations  due  to  the 
peoples  which  were  victims  of  the  war. 

The  High  Commission  guarantees  to  the 
Rhenish  people  the  fulfillment  of  the  law 
of  occupation— whose  liberality  is  unprec- 
edented in  history— both  in  letter  and 
spirit.  In  agreement  with  the  High  Com- 
mand of  the  allied  troops,  however,  it 
will  see  that  the  safety  of  its  troops  shall 
suffer  no  attack.  It  will  suppress,  with- 
out needless  severity,  but  also  without 
weakness,  every  action  aimed  at  the  se- 
curity of  those  troops  which,  in  1918, 
crossed  the  frontiers  in  the  heat  of  battle, 
still  shaken  by  the  emotion  of  seeing 
their  homes  devastated  and  by  the  hor- 
rible treatment  inflicted  on  their  wives, 
their  parents  and*  their  children,  yet  who 
won  over  themselves  the  highest  of  all 
victories,  and  for  more  than  twelve 
months  have  brought  to  the  Rhenish 
people  the  benefits  of  order,  aided  them 
with  food  supplies,  and  given  them  the 
example    of   their   discipline. 

The  Interallied  High  Commission  counts 
on  the  collaboration  of  German  officials 
and  magistrates,  acting  in  complete  har- 
mony with  the  commission,  to  insure  the 
people  of  the  occupied  territories  a  regime 
of  order,  industry  and  peace.  Responsible 
'for  public  order,  the  maintenance  of 
which  is  ultimately  incumbent  on  the 
occupying  troops,  it  intends  to  guarantee 
to  the  Rhenish  people  full  justice,  the 
exercise  of  their  public  and  individual 
liberties,  the  development  of  their  legiti- 
mate aspirations  and  of  their  prosperity. 

The  High  Commission  hopes  that  con- 
tact   between    the     troops    of    the    allied 


nations  and  the  Rhenish  people  will  prove, 
not  a  source  of  friction,  but  a  means  of 
the  various  nations  becoming  better  ac- 
quainted, and  of  progressing,  in  the  union 
of  labor,  order  and  peace,  toward  the 
future   of  a  better  humanity. 

This  document  was  posted  up  in  two 
columns,  the  French  version,  of  which 
the  above  is  a  translation,  on  the  left, 
and  the  German  version  on  the  right, 

RHINELAND  REGULATIONS 

Despite  the  idealistic  note  of  this  proc- 
lamation, ample  evidence  was  found  in 
the  German  press  that  the  regulations 
set  up  by  the  Interallied  Commission 
were  regarded  with  deep  dissatisfaction 
by  the  German  residents.  Some  of  these 
regulations,  as  printed  in  the  German 
papers,  were  as  follows: 

All  German  authorities  and  all  persons 
in  the  occupied  territory  must  obey  the 
commands  of  the  foreign  military  au- 
thorities in  the  exercise  of  their  powers 
and  authority.  German  officials  disobey- 
ing these  orders  will  not  only  be  pun- 
ished, but  they  may  also  be  removed 
from  office  by  the  High   Commission. 

All  ordinances  issued  by  the  High  Inter- 
allied Commission  have  all  the  force  of 
laws  upon  being  promulgated ;  the  Ger- 
man legislative  bodies  and  the  German 
officials  are  not  allowed  to  object  to  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  High  Commis- 
sion reserves  the  right  to  decide  which 
of  the  laws  of  the  German  Nation  or  of 
the  States  are  to  be  applied  in  the  occu- 
pied part  of  Germany. 

Anybody  who  violates  the  ordinances 
of  the  foreign  occupying  force  may  be 
turned  over  to  the  military  courts  of  the 
foreign  troops  of  occupation.  In  case  of 
necessity  the  German  authorities  must 
turn  over  all  the  official  and  other  data 
necessary   for  this   purpose. 

Any  person  whose  words,  gestures  or 
attitude  in  regard  to  the  members  of  the 
High  Commission  or  persons  attached  to 
it,  or  in  regard  to  the  occupying  troops 
or  any  member  of  these  troops,  or  in  re- 
gard to  the  flag  or  any  military  emblem 
of  the  allied  and  associated  powers,  is 
characterized  as  insulting  or  unseemly 
will  incur  the  punishments  provided  for 
the  carrying  out  of  the  ordinances  of  the 
High  Commission. 
All   uniformed   German   State   employes. 


20 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


including  the  police,  firemen,  customs  of- 
ficers and  foresters,  are  obliged  to  salute 
the  colors  and  the  officers  of  the  Entente. 
Any  one  who  facilitates,  or  commits,  an 
act  aimed  at  causing  discontent,  discord, 
or  lack  of  discipline  among  the  occupying 
troops  will  be  sent  to  prison  for  as  much 
as  five  years. 

The  High  Commission  has  the  right,  in 
certain  circumstances,  to  expel  persons 
from    the    occupied   territory. 

The  compulsory  passport  system  will  be 
maintained  for  travel  between  the  occu- 
pied and  the  unoccupied  parts  of  Ger- 
many. In  the  occupied  territory  itself 
every  person  more  than  fourteen  years  , 
of  age  must  be  provided  with  an  identi- 
fication card. 

The  postal,  telegraph  and  telephone 
systems  are  under  censorship.  The  offi- 
cials named  by  the  High  Commission  have 
the  right  to  demand  the  handing  over  of 
letters  and  postal  packages  of  all  kinds. 
Such  postal  packages  are  to  be  dealt  with 
according  to  the  instructions  of  the  High 
Commission.  The  High  Commission  re- 
serves the  right  to  forbid  newspapers, 
circulars  and  any  other  publications, 
printed  matter  and  reproductions  of  pic- 
tures, music  and  films  in  so  far  as  they 
are  calculated  to  endanger  the  mainten-  ' 
ance  of  the  public  order  or  to  militate 
against  the  safety  or  the  prestige  of  the 
High  Commission  or  of  the  occupying 
troops.  Newspapers  may  be  forbidden  for 
a  period  of  from  three  days  to  three 
months. 

Political  meetings  must  be  announced 
forty-eight  hours  before  they  occur.  The 
notice  must  give  the  object  of  the  meet- 
ing and  the  names   of  its  promoters. 

There  must  be  no  strike  in  any  vital 
industry  before  all  the  possibilities  of 
agreement  and  adjustment  have  been  ex- 
hausted and  before  the  decision  of  the 
High  Commission  has  been  called  for. 
This  applies  to  strikes  in  the  following 
industries :  Railroads  and  their  repair 
shops ;  telegraph,  telephone  and  postal 
administrations ;  coal  mines,  navigation, 
gas,  electric  and  water  works.  The  High 
Commission  can  extend  this  ordinance  to 
any  other  enterprise  by  issuing  the  proper 
order. 

OFFICIAL  GERMAN  PROTEST 

That  the  German  Government  itself 
was  by  no  means  content  with  the  rules 
and  regulations  laid  down  by  the  Inter- 
allied High  Commission  was  evidenced 
not  only  by  the  comments  of  high  offi- 
cials, but  by  the  action  of  the  German 
Foreign  Office  in  sending  a  formal  pro- 
test to  Baron  von  Lersner,  the  German 
representative  in  Paris.  This  message 
was  summarized  as  follows  in  a  Berlin 


dispatch  sent  to  the  Kolnische  Zeitung 
on  Jan.  16: 

In  this  communication  the  German  Gov- 
ernmc-t  takes  its  stand  upon  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  powers  of  the  occupation 
authorities  in  the  districts  to  Vie  left  of 
the  Rhine  are  defined  in  the  Rhineland 
agreement  which  was  signed  on  June  28, 
1919,  at  the  same  time  as  the  Peace  Treaty 
Of  Versailles,  and  that  not  only  Germany, 
but  also  the  other  parties  to  the  treaty, 
are  bound  by  the  contents  of  this  agree- 
ment, so  that  they  have  no  right  to  re- 
strict the  German  rights  beyond  the 
bounds  laid  down  in  the  agreement.  It  is 
noted  with  surprise  that  the  Rhineland 
Commission  does  not  seem  to  share  this 
opinion,  and  wishes,  through  issuing  regu- 
lations, to  establish  conditions  which 
would  be  in  gross  contradiction  to  the 
text  of  the  Rhineland  agreement  and  to 
the  repeated  assurances  of  the  allied 
and  associated  powers,  and  which  would 
represent  encroachments  of  th;  gravest 
kind  upon  the  administrative  and  judicial 
sovereignty  of  the  German  Nation  as  well 
as  upon  the  civic  political  rights  of  the 
inhabitants   of  the  occupied  territory. 

In  a  special  memorandum  the  objec- 
tions to  the  individual  provisions  of  the 
Rhineland  Commission's  plan  of  regula- 
tion are  brought  together.  In  conclusion 
the  note  voices  the  Federal  Government's 
conviction  that  an  impartial  investigation 
by  the  allied  and  associated  powers  will 
lead  to  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
the  regulations  mentioned  are  not  neces- 
sary to  assure  the  maintenance  and  the 
covering  of  the  needs  of  the  occupying 
troops,  especially  as  by  the  Rhineland 
agreement  the  High  Commission  is  al- 
ready empowered  to  resort  at  any  time 
to  any  particular  steps  necessary  for  the 
insurance  of  safety.  The  regulations  re- 
ferred to,  however,  would  not  even  pro- 
mote the  security  of  the  occupying  troops, 
but  would  be  in  sharp  contradiction  to 
the  spirit  of  international  reconciliation 
which  now,  after  the  conclusion  of  peace, 
ought  to  lead  the  nations  to  join  in  the 
common  work   of  civilization. 

REGULATIONS  MODIFIED 

That  the  necessity  of  modifying  these 
regulations  was  realized  by  the  commis- 
sion became  apparent  as  early  as  Jan. 
16,  when  the  Cologne  papers  printed  a 
summary  of  the  changes  introduced.  The 
regulations  regarding  travel  at  night  and 
automobile  travel  had  become  inopera- 
tive; only  the  regulations  about  closing 
hours  and  automobile  licenses  remained 
in  force;  the  newspapers  were  no  longer 
obliged  to  carry  at  the  top  of  their  front 
pages    the    statement    that    they    were 


RHINE  LAND  UNDER  ALLIED  RULE 


21 


issued  "  With  the  permission  of  the  Brit- 
ish (or  French,  or  Belgian)  authorities." 
All  German  newspapers  and  publications, 
even  those  formerly  excluded,  were 
allowed  to  appear. 

A  number  of  other  regulations  not 
mentioned  above  had  also  undergone 
modification  or  been  eliminated,  accord- 
ing to  statements  made  by  Sir  Harold 
Stuart,  the  British  member  of  the  Inter- 
allied Commission,  during  a  short  visit 
to  London  about  the  middle  of  February. 
The  attitude  of  the  commission,  whose 
function  it  was  to  secure  the  safety  of 
the  armies  in  the  occupied  territory,  had 
been,  he  said,  misrepresented  in  the  Ger- 
man press,  which  was  evidently  seeking 
to  convey  the  impression  that  the  Central 
German  Government  was  closely  watch- 
ing Rhineland  interests.  The  attitude  of 
the  people  toward  the  British  was  de- 
scribed by  him  as  "  quite  friendly."  The 
severity  of  the  administration,  he  said, 
had  been  greatly  relaxed  by  the  com- 
mission. The  censorship  on  postal,  tele- 
graphic and  telephonic  communications, 
as  well  as  on  the  press,  had  been  re- 
moved. 

Restrictions  on  movement,  both  within 
the  occupied  territory  and  between  the 
Ehineland  and  other  parts  of  Germany, 
had  been  lifted.  Germans  were  now  sub- 
jected only  to  German  jurisdiction,  said 
Sir  Harold  Stuart,  except  as  regards 
offenses  against  members  of  the  allied 
forces  and  matters  affecting  their  prop- 
erty. A  surrender  of  allied  military 
jurisdiction  had  been  made  to  the  extent 
that  civil  actions  relating  to  members  of 
the  allied  forces  in  their  private  capacity 
could  be  tried  in  the  German  courts;  but 
appeals  would  be  to  an  allied  court,  on 
which  there  would  be  one  German  law- 
yer. 

As  against  these  liberal  concessions  by 
the  Allies  the  Germans,  it  was  pointed 
out,  had  proclaimed  a  state  of  siege  in 
unoccupied  Germany.  The  German 
charge  that  the  High  Commission  had 
forbidden  strikes  was  declared  to  be 
quite  unfounded.  All  that  the  High  Com- 
mission had  done  was  to  require  that 
before  any  strike  took  place  among  the 
railway  men,  postal  or  telegraphic  offi- 
cials and  coal  miners  the  case  should  be 


submitted  to  a  German  Court  of  Con- 
ciliation. If  the  decision  of  this  court 
is  not  accepted  by  the  men  they  must 
give  a  week's  notice  of  their  intention  to 
strike. 

The  Germans  had  complained  that  the 
Allies  could  punish  and  dismiss  any  Ger- 
man official  who  incurred  their  dis- 
pleasure. The  fact  was  that  under 
Article  5  of  the  agreement  annexed  to 
the  Peace  Treaty  the  German  authori- 
ties in  the  occupied  territories  have  to 
conform,  under  penalty  of  removal,  to 
the  ordinances  of  the  High  Commission. 

The  regulation  compelling  all  Germans 
in  uniform  to  salute  the  Entente  colors 
had  been  abolished.  [See  German  car- 
toon on  this  subject  in  the  present  issue.] 
The  word  "  seemly  "  ("  inconvenant  "  in 
the  French  version)  had  been  omitted  in 
the  English  version  of  this  regulation, 
and  only  cases  of  actual  insult  to  the 
allied  troops  would  be  taken  up,  said 
Sir  Harola  Stuart. 

FRICTION  WITH  FRANCE 

At  the  time  of  the  crisis  over  the  ques- 
tion of  extradition  of  German  war  crim- 
inals, Premier  Millerand  notified  the 
German  Government  that  because  of  the 
non-fulmillment  of  the  treaty  terms  by 
Germany  in  failing  to  deliver  the  full 
amounts  of  coal  to  France,  the  time 
limits  placed  upon  the  allied  occupation 
of  the  Rhineland  had  been  suspended. 

The  German  Government  demanded 
that  the  independent  principality  of 
Birkenfeld,  then  occupied  by  French 
troops,  be  administered  by  high  Prussian 
officials.  It  was  stated  by  the  Echo  du 
Rhin  on  Jan.  10  that  the  French  Gov- 
ernment had  replied  to  this  in  the  nega- 
tive, on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  at 
variance  with  the  German  Constitution; 
the  military  authorities,  said  the  state- 
ment of  the  commander  of  the  French 
Army  of  the  Rhine,  General  Degoutte, 
could  deal  only  with  the  regular  admini::- 
trative  authorities  of  the  occupied  ter- 
ritories. 

Evidences  of  the  complete  harmony  of 
the  allied  leaders  in  the  Rhineland  terri- 
tory were  seen  by  the  Echo  du  Rhin  in 
friendly  and  official  visits  paid  General 
Degoutte,    the    French    commander,    by 


22 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


General  Robertson,  head  of  the  British 
Rhineland  forces,  and  by  General  Allen, 
head  of  the  American  forces.  The  latter 
visit  occurred  on  Jan.  30.  The  visit  of 
General  Michel,  the  Belgian  commander, 
was  announced  at  the  same  time. 

A  controversy  between  France  and 
Switzerland  concerning  transportation 
on  the  Rhine  between  Basel  and  Stras- 
bourg had  aroused  Swiss  public  opinion 
considerably  by  the  beginning  of  Febru- 
ary. The  French  plan  to  construct  a 
seventy-mile  canal  along  the  Alsatian 
bank  had  been  opposed  by  Switzerland 
and  its  commercial  bodies,  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  reduce  open  traffic  from 
12,000,000  to  3,000,000  tons,  would  entail 


controversies  with  French  power  sta- 
tions, would  allow  the  levy  by  the  French 
of  tolls,  forbidden  upon  natural  water- 
ways by  the  Rhine  transportation  con- 
vention, would  deprive  Basel  of  the  bene- 
fits of  its  natural  geographical  and  com- 
mercial position,  would  unduly  favor 
Upper  Alsatian  industry,  would  impair 
the  activities  of  Rotterdam  and  result  in 
increased  freight  charges  upon  necessary 
raw  material  required  by  Swiss  indus- 
tries. 

The  French  plan  depends  upon  the  con- 
sent of  the  Rhine  Traffic  Commission, 
composed  of  international  delegates, 
which  is  to  meet  within  six  months  after 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty. 


Denmark  and  the  Slesvig  Plebiscite 

Germany  Gets  the  South  Zone 


THERE  was  great  jubi- 
lation throughout  Den- 
mark over  the  reunion 
with  the  first  Slesvig  zone 
on  Feb.  10,  which  was 
hailed  as  the  greatest  event 
in  a  century  of  Danish  his- 
tory. Great  public  demon- 
strations were  organized, 
and  many  exultant  articles 
were  published  in  the  press, 
while  enthusiastic  speeches 
welcoming  the  repatriated 
people  were  delivered  in 
both  the  Landsthing  and 
Folkething. 

The  fierce  factional  strife 
arising  from  the  campaign 
in  the  second  plebiscite  zone 
almost  precipated  a  Cabinet 
crisis  in  Copenhagen,  due 
to  the  Government's  in- 
dorsement of  the  position 
taken  by  H.  P.  Hanssen- 
Norremolle,  the  new  Min- 
ister for  South  Jutland,  and 
President  of  the  North 
Slesvig  Electoral  Society. 
Mr.  Hanssen-Norremolle,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  return 
from  the  victory  in  North 
Slesvig,  when  he  was  car- 


lyy^    UNION   WITH 

■yyyli  GER 


ERMANY  Of? 
DEN  MARK 


SHADED  PORTION  BETWEEN  SOLID  BLACK  LINES  IS  ZONE 
THAT  VOTED  MARCH  14  TO  REMAIN  IN  GERMANY 


IE  SLES} 


li 


FISHER   FOLK   OF   SOUTH   JUTLAND   CELEBRATING   THE   RETURN    OF   SLESVIG  TO   DEN- 
MARK   AFTER    FIFTY-FOUR    YEARS    UNDER    THE    PRUSSIAN    FLAG 
{Times    Wide    World   Photo) 


lied  by  20,000  rejoicing  Danes  in  a  gilt 
chair  to  the  royal  palace,  voiced  this 
view  with  the  remark  that  he  wished,  in 
regard  to  the  second  zone,  "  to  see  Den- 
mark go  only  so  far  south  in  Slesvig 
as  Danish  hearts  beat."  The  Govern- 
ment, for  its  approval  of  this  attitude, 
had  been  censured  by  the  Landsthing  on 
Dec.  3. 

Even  after  the  departure  of  the  Noske 
Guards  from  Flensburg,  Jan.  25,  and  the 
substitution  there  of  a  Danish  Chief  of 
Police,  the  International  Plebiscite  Com- 
mission had  a  difficult  situation  to  cope 
with,  due  to  acts  of  violence  and  other 
efforts  at  intimidation  by  the  Germans 
against  the  Danes.  On  Feb.  19  the  com- 
mission passed  several  measures  for  the 
re-establishment  of  public  order,  and 
created  a  Commission  Tribunal  to  deal 
with  infractions  of  its  regulations.  A 
great  demonstration  was  made  in  Copen- 
hagen on  March  8  in  favor  of  the  re- 
union of  Flensburg  with  Denmark,  and 
King  Christian  addressed,  from  a  bal- 
cony, 50,000  people  who  had  marched 
in  a  procession  to  the  royal  palace. 
This    movement    had    gained    many    ad- 


herents since  August,  1919.  When  the 
plebiscite  for  the  southern  or  Flens- 
burg zone  was  held  on  March  14,  how- 
ever, the  result  favored  Germany. 
With  four  districts  still  to  be  heard 
from  at  the  time  these  pages  went 
to  press,  the  unofficial  returns  showed 
that  the  Danes  were  defeated  in  the 
Flensburg  zone  in  practically  the  same 
proportion  as  were  the  Germans  in  the 
first  Slesvig  zone — about  three  to  one. 
That  is,  48,148  votes  were  cast  for  Ger- 
many and  13,025  for  Denmark.  Only 
the  districts  of  Goting,  Hedehusum  and 
Utersum  showed  Danish  majorities. 

The  International  Commission  had  pro- 
vided against  election-day  disturbances 
by  planting  machine  guns  at  all  strategic 
positions  about  Flensburg,  and  had  de- 
tailed armed  squads  to  patrol  the  town. 
But  the  next  morning  the  Germans  be- 
came very  arrogant;  a  mob  wrecked  the 
newspaper  office  of  the  Flensburg  Avis, 
and  several  Danes  were  threatened  with 
shouts  of :  "  Tomorrow  all  Danes  must 
leave  town — we  will  prepare  a  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's night."  The  Copenhagen 
press   agreed  that  it  would  be   folly  to 


24 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


wish  the  return  of  the  Flensburg  area 
with  such  a  German  showing.  Denmark 
had  waived  the  right  to  a  plebiscite  in 
the  most  southern  of  the  three  zones 
originally  offered  by  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence, because  of  the  obviously  German 
majority  there. 

Meanwhile,  the  Rigsdag  has  been  car- 
rying on  vehement  debates  over  a  Gov- 
ernment proposition  for  an  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  and  a  revision  of  the 
electoral  law.  The  bill  is  framed  for  the 
purpose  of  admitting  the  Slesvigers  to 
representation  under  conditions  as  demo- 
cratic as  they  would  find  under  the  Ger- 
man Republic.  Men  and  women  of  Sles- 
vig  over  20  years  old  can  vote  on  the  re- 
union, but  under  present-  Danish  law 
they  would  be  excluded  from  the  exer- 
cise of  full  citizenship  rights  until  al- 
most the  age  of  40  years.    The  proposed 


change  calls  for  a  lowering  of  the  voting 
age  to  21  for  the  Folkething  and  25  for 
the  Landsthing,  and  for  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  representatives  in  both 
houses.  The  Government  further  pro- 
poses a  democratization  of  the  Land- 
sthing and  the  abolition  of  the  King's 
right  to  declare  war  and  peace. 

On  March  10  the  Governments  of  Den- 
mark, Sweden  and  Norway  announced 
their  decision  to  become  members  of  the 
League  of  Nations. 

At  the  conference  of  the  Premiers  and 
Foreign  Ministers  of  Sweden,  Denmark 
and  Norway  at  Christiania,  which  ad- 
journed Feb.  4,  they  decided  to  call  a 
meeting  of  financial  experts  of  all  their 
countries  to  study  methods  of  remedying 
the  fall  in  Scandinavian  exchange.  A 
proposal  for  an  International  Financial 
Congress  at  Amsterdam  was  approved. 


The  Fiume  Controversy 


A  SENSATION  was  created  in  Paris 
•^^  and  London  by  President  Wilson's 
note  oi  Feb.  10,  protesting  in  the  most 
energetic  terms  against  the  new  Adriatic 
settlement  reached  by  the  allied  Pre- 
miers, and  dictated  in  ultimatum  form 
to  Jugoslavia  on  Jan.  20.  The  President 
pointed  out  that  this  new  arrangement 
was  a  complete  reversal  of  the  decision 
reached  by  the  Allies  in  co-operation 
with  America  on  Dec.  9,  and  insisted  that 
this  earlier  solution  be  upheld,  warning 
the  Premiers  that  he  would  otherwise  be 
compelled  to  recall  the  treaty  with  Ger- 
many from  the  Senate,  and  to  withdraw 
from  further  participation  in  the  Euro- 
pean settlement.  This  drastic  intimation 
elicited  a  reply  which  sought  to  defend 
the  new  arrangement,  and  earnestly  ap- 
pealed to  Mr.  Wilson  not  to  "  wreck  the 
whole  machinery  for  dealing  with  inter- 
national disputes  "  by  withdrawing  the 
collaboration  of  America. 

In  his  reply  Mr.  Wilson  justified  his 
objections  to  the  new  agreement,  declar- 


ing it  to  be  in  contradiction  to  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  the  war  was  fought; 
he  suggested  that  new  parleys  be  begun 
between  Italy  and  Jugoslavia  with  a  view 
to  finding  a  solution  acceptable  to  both. 
The  allied  Premiers*  rejoinder,  offering 
to  withdraw  both  the  decision  of  Jan. 
20  and  Dec.  9  to  facilitate  the  reaching 
of  such  a  new  agreement,  was  met  by 
the  President  on  March  4  with  a  firm 
refusal  to  consent  to  the  withdrawal  of 
the  earlier  agreement  or  to  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Treaty  of  London,  on  which, 
in  case  no  agreement  was  reached,  the 
Allies  insisted  as  an  alternative. 

New  negotiations  begun  between  the 
Italian  and  Jugoslav  Ministers  in  Lon- 
don, following  the  President's  letter  of 
Feb.  24,  were  broken  off  on  March  1,  and 
no  agreement  was  reached.  The  corre- 
spondence between  Mr.  Wilson  and  the 
allied  Premiers,  with  all  new  documents 
and  facts  bearing  on  the  case,  will  be 
treated  fully  in  the  May  issue  of  Cur- 
rent History. 


BAINBRIDGE  COLBY 


New  York  lawyer  and  former  m( 'iihcr  of  Shipping  Board,  appointed 
Secretary    of    State,    surc.eding   Robert    Lansing- 


JOHN  BARTON  PAYNE 


Chicago  jurist  and  former  Chairman  of  Shipping  Board,  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  to  succeed  Franklin  K.   Lane 

(©    Hat-ris   dc   Ewlno) 


CHARLES  R.  CRANE 


Chicago  manufacturer  who  has  bciti  appointed  Minister  to  China,  to 
succeed  Dr.  Paul  Reinsch 

(©    Kei/i<tn,i.-    \  ii'ic    Co.} 


SIR 

AUCKLAND 

GEDDES 

Recently  ap- 
pointed    Bi  itish 
Ambassador     to 

the  Unittd 
States.      At   the 
time  of   his   ap- 
pointment he 
was  President 
of  the  British 
Board  of  Trade. 
Before  that  he 
had  been  Minis- 
ter for  National 
Service  and  Re- 
construction. He. 
put  throusrh  the 
bill    against 
post-bellum 
protiteering-. 
Formerly    a 
professor   in 
McGill  Univei 
sity,  Canada. 
He  is  a  graceful 

and  fluent 

speaker  and  has 

been    called    the 

"  mouthpiece    of 

the  coalition." 

iBriiiNli-    (iiiii 
C'rthwicil      r<  I  •  <•': 


HERBERT  HENRY  ASQUITH 


Former  British  I'remier  and  his  wife  receiving  congratulations  at  th< 
moment  of  his  re-election  to  Parliament 

((O     lJntU-rir<:i,<!   .(■    I  mil  rvoiHi) 


ROBERT  UNDERWOOD  JOHNSON 


Author,  poet,  and  magazine  editor,  appointed  American  Ambassador 
to  Italy,  succeeding  Thomas  Nelson  Page 


COLONEL  FRANKLIN  D'OLIER 


National   Commander  of  the  American  Legion,  the  organization  of 
American  Veterans  of  the  World  War 

(©    Hants   d-   Exciny) 


BURIAL  PLACE  OF  FORMER  CZAR  OF  RUSSIA 


Belgium's  Wonderful  Recovery 

Survey   of  Recent  Progress 


ACCORDING  to  the  reports  of  the 
X\,  United  States  Trade  Commissioner 
at  Brussels,  C.  E.  Herring,  as  well 
as  statements  made  by  the  various  de- 
partments of  the  Belgian  Government, 
Belgium,  all  but  about  one-eleventh  of 
whose  territory  of  11,373  square  miles 
had  been  for  fovir  years  occupied,  pil- 
laged, devastated,  combed  for  its  last 
strand  of  flax,  squeezed  for  its  last  drop 
of  wine,  sifted  for  its  last  speck  of  gold 
by  the  Germans,  with  a  seventh  -of  its 
population  toiling  like  slaves  in  Ger- 
many and  the  balance  kept  alive  at 
home  by  food  largely  contributed  by 
the  United  States,  has  been  first  to 
reach  a  normal  state,  and,  after  sixteen 
months  of  feverish  activity,  now  leads 
all  the  European  belligerents  in  reha- 
bilition. 

One  year  after  the  armistice  Belgium 
was  the  first  to  cease  rationing  her 
people.  She  had  reduced  the  cost  of 
living  from  1,110  per  cent,  above  normal 
to  244  per  cent.  At  the  end  of  the  war 
nearly  1,000,000  persons  were  out  of 
work.  By  February,  1920,  no  one  was 
out  of  work  unless  he  wished  to  be. 
Eighty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  coal  mines, 
100  per  cent,  of  the  railways,  and  75 
per  cent,  of  the  textile  factories  had  re- 
covered their  pre-war  average.  The  tax 
returns  for  the  first  six  months  of  the 
fiscal  year  1919-20  had  been  estimated 
at  $60,000,000;  the  actual  returns  were 
nearly  a  third  over  that  sum.  In  the 
year  before  the  war  the  trade  of  Bel- 
gium, export,  import,  and  transit, 
amounted  to  $1,725,000,000;  in  1919  it 
amounted  to  $1,022,000,000.  In  1913  im- 
ports worth  $100,000,000  came  from  the 
United  States;  in  the  first  ten  months 
of  1919  imports  from  the  same  country 
were  valued  at  $300,000,000. 

Incidentally,  Belgium  has  killed  profit- 
eering by  co-operative  buying  and  sell- 
ing. She  borrowed  $250,000,000  at  5 
per  cent,  from  Great  Britain  and  used 
$55,000,000  of  it  to  purchase  material 
from  the  departing  American  Army.  The 


net  profit,  exclusive  of  the  loss  of  that 
distributed  freely,  was  $5,000,000. 

The  last  of  Belgian  industries  to  re- 
gain pre-war  production,  says  Mr.  Her- 


PAUL   HYMANS 
Belgian  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs 

(©    Harris   &   Ewing) 

ring,   will  be  the   iron   and   steel.      He 
wrote : 

At  the  time  of  the  armistice,  out  of 
fifty-four  blast  furnaces  in  existence  in 
Belg-ium  in  1914,  about  thirty  had  been 
entirely  destroyed  or  were  so  badly  dam- 
aged as  to  necessitate  extensive  repairs. 
Of  the  101  rolling-  mills  operating  in  1914 
in  the  Province  of  Ligge  and  Hainaut, 
twenty-nine  were  completely  ruined  in  the 
former  and  a  large  number  in  the  latter. 

It  was  in  these  two  districts,  which 
comprise  the  great  majority  of  metallur- 
gical plants,  that  systematic  destruction 
was  carried  on  most  assiduously.  Thus 
of  the  twenty-three  blast  furnaces  in  the 
Li^ge  district  in  1914,  ten  were  com- 
pletely destroyed  ana  nine  considerably 
damaged.  The  rolling  mills  of  five  large 
plants  in  the  same  district  were  entirely 
demolished ;  out  of  the  fifty-three  mills 
operating    in    1914    twenty-nine   were    en- 


26 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tirely  destroyed  and  three  seriously  dam- 
aged.   *    *    * 

One  striking-  instance  of  German  sa- 
botage may  be  cited.  At  the  important 
Ougr^e-Marihaye  steel  works,  which  pro- 
duced 50,000  tons  monthly  before  the  war, 
about  44,000  metric  tons  of  machinery 
and  tools  were  scrapped  and  sent  to  Ger- 
many, about  4,000  tons  of  equipment  and 
rolling  stock  were  taken  away  intact,  and 
36,000  tons  of  raw  materials  were  ap- 
propriated. The  value  of  the  destroyed 
machinery  and  materials  was  estimated 
at  45,000,000  francs,  but  replacement  at 
present  prices  will  greatly  exceed  this 
figure. 

The  work  of  recovering  stolen  ma- 
chinery taken  into  Germany  has  pro- 
ceeded satisfactorily,  but  the  restoration 
of  the  ruined  and  damaged  furnaces  and 
mills  win  eventually  necessitate,  of 
course,  many  new  installations,  which 
must  be  made  at  the  present  inflated 
prices.    •    *    * 

In  spite  of  the  grave  difficulties  con- 
fronting the  industry,  there  has  been  no 
weakness  shown  in  the  stocks  of  the  va- 
rious iron  and  steel  plants.  All  those 
now  in  operation  are  booked  far  ahead 
with  orders,  and  it  is  said  that  former 
customers  in  export  markets  are  generally 
seeking  to  renew  their  pre-war  arrange- 
ments. 

When  the  production  of  coking  coal  in 
France  and  Germany  can  be  increased 
and  when  the  railways  of  France,  Lux- 
emburg and  Belgium  permit  the  prompt 
delivery  of  sufficient  fuel  and  ore  ship- 
ments, Belgian  iron  and  steel  products 
will  again  actively  compete  in  the  world's 
markets.  The  erection  of  new,  thoroughly 
modern  plants  to  replace  those  destroyed 
by  the  Germans  will  partially  compen- 
sate for  the  present  period  of  subnormal 
producyon  and  Belgium  will  resume  its 
place  as  one  of  the  leading  steel-produc- 
ing countries  of  the  world. 

Two  things  seems  to  make  of  Bel- 
gium's rapid  revival  a  paradox.  Labor 
Unionists  are  five  times  as  numerous  as 
they  were  in  1914,  and  in  1919  they 
called  nearly  400  strikes.  But  the  new 
laws  have  limited  the  power  of  the 
unions  while  increasing  that  of  the 
State  over  both  employer  and  employe, 
and  of  the  388  strikes  220  were  settled 
by  friendly  arbitration  and  50  by  forced. 
The  following  data  on  wages  and  tem- 
perance are  drawn  from  the  reports  of 
the  Minister  for  Labor,  M.  Wauters,  a 
Socialist  member  of  the  Government  and 
one  of  the  editors  of  Le  Peuple: 

Wages  were  formerly  very  low,  but  as 
a  result  of  these  strikes  they  are  now, 
on   an   average,   about    three  times  their 


pre-war  level.  They  are  usually  reck- 
oned in  francs  per  hour,  and  the  hours 
have  been  fixed  in  most  trades  at  eight 
per  day,  with  six  days  per  week. 

The  lowest  wages  are  those  of  agri- 
cultural laborers,  which  are  1  franc  per 
ihour.  General  laborers  and  lower 
grades  of  artisans  and  mechanics  receive 
from  1.50  to  2  francs  per  hour.  More 
highly  skilled  men  obtain  from  2  to  2.50 
francs  per  hour.  Miners  obtain  2.50  to 
3  francs  per  hour.  Postmen  are  paid  8 
francs  a  day  with  a  seven-day  week; 
tram  conductors  12  francs  a  day;  print- 
er's 18  to  19  francs  a  day.  Workers  in 
glass  mills  where  window  glass  is  pro- 
duced earn  from  250  to  300  francs  a 
week;  the  diamond  cutters  of  Antwerp 
get  400  francs  a  week. 

Social  reformers  regard  the  alcohol  re- 
striction laws  as  having  had  an  impor- 
tant effect  on  the  output  of  labor,  which 
since  the  armistice  has  been  satisfactory, 
in  spite  of  the  strikes.  In  Belgium  an 
important  distinction  was  drawn  be- 
tween the  sale  of  alcohol  in  the  form  of 
spirits  and  liquors  and  the  sale  of  wines 
and  beer.  Beer  and  wine  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  the  alcohol  restric- 
tion laws. 

No  spirits  may  now  be  sold  for  con- 
sumption on  the  premises  in  any  caf6. 
Bottles  may  be  sold  for  consumption  off 
the  premises,  but  these  are  taxed  18 
francs  a  litre,  by  a  law  of  Sept.  10,  1919. 
At  the  present  rate  of  exchange  this  is 
equivalent  to  a  tax  of  about  $2.25  a  pint. 

The  total  amount  of  pure  alcohol  which 
may  be  produced  per  month  is  now  very 
greatly  reduced  by  law.  Out  of  the  total 
quantity  allowed  —  900,000  litres— only 
one-tenth  is  left  to  the  distillers.  One- 
tenth  is  sold  to  pre-war  makers  of 
liquors.  All  the  rest  goes  to  silk  fac- 
tories,   chemists   and    photographers. 

The  result  is  that  instead  of  drinking 
from  5  to  6  litres  of  pure  alcohol  per 
head  per  year,  as  before  the  war,  the 
Belgians  are  now  only  drinking  one- 
third  of  a  litre. 

It  is  believed  that  this  reform  has 
checked  a  growing  tendency  among-  the 
working  classes  to  drink  more  spirits, 
and  has  encouraged  more  regular  work 
and  greater  output.  The  restriction  of 
the  consumption  of  alcohol  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  very  large  decrease  in  crimes 
committed  under  the  influence  of  drink. 
Medical  statistics  show  the  almost  com- 
plete disappearance  of  delirium  tremens. 
Mental  diseases  have  in  general  much 
decreased. 

On  March  3,  1920,  the  Belgian  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  voted  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage,  in  communal  elections,  at  and 
over  21  years  of  age.  Several  interest- 
ing features  marked  the  debates:  All 
the  Catholics  voted  for  the  measure,  and 


BELGIUM'S  WONDERFUL  RECOVERY 


27 


for  that  reason  the  Socialists  were 
divided  between  their  policy  of  equality 
and  their  fear  of  religious  influence. 
Paul  Hymans,  the  Minister  of  Foreign 


the  Liberals  were  against  it,  as  was 
Burgomaster  Max,  even  after  he  had 
caused  an  amendment  to  be  adopted  ex- 
cluding   women    of    "  notorious    miscon- 


Af fairs,  voted  for  it,  but  all  the  rest  of     duct "  from  the  ballot. 


Senate's  Rejection  of  the  Treaty 

By  a  Vote  of  57  to  37  the  United  States  Senate  Again  Refuses 
to  Ratify  the  Peace  of  Versailles 


r!E  United  States  Senate  rejected 
the  Peace  Treaty  with  Germany 
on  March  19,  1920.  The  vote  on 
ratification  lacked  the  necessary 
two-thirds  majority  by  seven,  the  final 
vote,  counting  the  pairs,  being  57  for 
ratification,  37  against  ratification. 
Politically  the  vote  was  divided  as  fol- 
lows: For  ratification,  counting  pairs, 
34  Republicans,  23  Democrats;  against, 
15  Republicans,  24  Democrats.  The  vote 
took  place  late  in  the  day.  Immediately 
after  the  rejection  a  resolution  was 
adopted,  by  a  vote  of  47  to  37,  as  fol- 
lows: 

That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  be  in- 
structed to  return  to  the  President  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  Germany  signed  at 
Versailles  on  the  28th  day  of  June,  1919, 
and  respectfully  inform  the  President  that 
the  Senate  has  refused  to  advise  and  con- 
sent to  its  ratification,  being  unable  to 
Obtain  the  constitutional  majority  re- 
quired therefor. 

The  effect  of  this  action  was  to  re- 
move the  treaty  from  the  Senate  and 
place  the  responsibility  for  any  further 
initiative  regarding  peace  with  Germany 
upon  the  President. 

The  treaty  had  been  laid  before  the 
Senate  July  10,  1919,  by  the  President. 
On  Sept.  10  the  Foreign  Relations  Com- 
mittee had  reported  it  to  the  Senate  with 
certain  reservations,  which  finally  num- 
bered fifteen.  Meanwhile,  President 
Wilson,  in  open  conflict  with  the  attitude 
of  the  Senate  majority,  began  a  speaking 
tour  over  the  country  in  advocacy  of  the 
treaty  without  any  reservations  which 
would  modify  its  meaning.  This  tour 
was  discontinued  Sept.  28  on  account  of 
the  sudden  illness  of  the  President. 

The  Senate,  on  Nov.  19,  voted  on  the 


treaty  with  the  fourteen  reservations  that 
had  been  adopted,  and  it  failed  to  T-eceive 
the  necessary  two-thirds  vote. 

In  January  the  contending  factions  re- 
sumed their  conferences,  with  a  view  to 
placing  the  treaty  again  before  the  Sen- 
ate. On  Feb.  9  the  Senate  reconsidered 
the  vote  by  which  ratification  had  been 
defeated,  thus  again  bringing  the  ques- 
tion before  that  body,  and  the  treaty  was 
referred  to  the  Foreign  Relations  Com- 
mittee. The  President  again  let  it  be 
known  that  he  was  strongly  opposed  to 
any  reservations  which  would  alter  the 
provisions  of  the  treaty,  and  expressed 
a  willingness  to  have  the  whole  question 
passed  upon  by  the  people  in  the  Presi- 
dential election  in  November. 

On  Feb.  10  the  treaty  was  reported 
back  to  the  Senate  with  the  same  reser- 
vations which  had  failed  of  ratification 
in  November.  The  Senate  resumed  the 
debate  on  Feb.  16,  and  it  proceeded  al- 
most daily  from  that  date  until  the  final 
action  on  March  19. 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  LETTER 
On  March  8  the  President  again  ad- 
dressed Senator  Hitchcock,  who  was  lead- 
ing the  fight  for  the  treaty,  in  a  letter 
in  which  he  reaffirmed  his  strong  opposi- 
tion to  any  changes  in  Article  X.  of  the 
treaty,  by  which  the  signatories  agreed 
to  guarantee  the  territory  of  each  other 
against  external  aggression.  In  this  let- 
ter the  President  wrote: 

Any  reservation  which  seeks  to  deprive 
the  League  of  Nations  of  the  foisije  of 
Article  X.  cuts  at  the  very  heart  and 
life  of  the  covenant  itself.  Any  League 
of  Nations  which  does  not  guarantee  as  a 
matter  of  incontestable  right  the  political 
independence  and  integrity  of  each  of  its 


28 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


members   might   be   hardly   more   than   a 

futile  scrap  of  paper,  as  ineffective  in 
operation  as  the  agreement  between  Bel- 
gium and  Germany  which  the  Germans 
violated  in   1914. 

Article  X.  as  written  into  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles  represents  the  renunciation  by 
Great  Britain  and  Japan,  which  before 
the  war  had  begun  to  find  so  many  in- 
terests in  common  in  the  Pacific ;  by 
France,  by  Italy,  by  all  the  great  fight- 
ing powers  of  the  world,  of  the  old  pre- 
tensions of  political  conquest  and  terri- 
torial aggrandizement.  It  is  a  new  doc- 
trine in  the  world's  affairs,  and  must  be 
recognized,  or  there  is  no  secure  basis 
for  the  peace  which  the  whole  world  so 
longingly  desires  and  so  desperately 
needs. 

If  Article  X.  is  not  adopted  and  acted 
upon,  the  Governments  which  reject  it 
will,  I  think,  be  guilty  of  bad  faith  to 
their  people,  whom  they  induced  to  make 
the  infinite  sacrifices  of  the  war  by  the 
pledge  that  they  would  be  fighting  to 
redeem  the  world  from  the  old  order  of 
force  and  aggression.  They  will  be  act- 
ing also  in  bad  faith  to  the  opinion  of 
the  world  at  large,  to  which  they  ap- 
pealed for  support  in  a  concerted  stand 
against  the  aggressions  and  pretensions  of 
Germany. 

If  we  were  to  reject  Article  X.  or  so  to 
weaken  it  as  to  take  its  full  force  out  of 
it,  it  would  mark  us  as  desiring  to  return 
to  the  old  world  of  jealous  rivalry  and 
misunderstandings  from  which  our  gal- 
lant soldiers  have  rescued  us  and  would 
leave  us  without  any  vision  or  new  con- 
ception of  justice  and  peace.  We  would 
have  learned  no  lesson  from  the  war,  but 
gained  only  the  regret  that  it  had  in- 
volved us  in  its  maelstrom  of  suffering. 
If  America  has  awakened,  as  the  rest  of 
the  world  has,  to  the  vision  of  a  new  day 
in  which  the  mistakes  of  the  past  are 
to  be  corrected,  it  will  welcome  the  op- 
portunity to  share  the  responsibilities  of 
Article  X. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  Senator,  that 
the  article  constitutes  a  renunciation  of 
all  ambition  on  the  part  of  powerful  na- 
tions with  whom  we  were  associated  in 
the  war.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
without  this  article  any  such  renunciation 
will  take  place.  Militaristic  ambitions 
and  imperialistic  policies  are  by  no  means 
dead,  even  in  counsels  of  the  nations 
whom  we  most  trust  and  with  whom  we 
most  desire  to  be  associated  in  the  tasks 
of  peace. 

Throughout  the  sessions  of  the  confer- 
ence in  Paris  it  was  evident  that  a  mili- 
taristic party,  under  the  most  influential 
leadership,  was  seeking  to  gain  ascenden- 
cy in  the  counsels  of  France.  They  were 
defeated  then,  but  are  in  control  now. 
The  chief  arguments  advanced  in  Paris 
in   support   of   the   Italian    claims   on    the 


Adriatic  were  strategic  arguments;  that 
Is  to  say,  military  arguments,  which  had 
at  their  back  the  thought  of  naval  su- 
premacy in  that  sea.  For  my  own  part, 
I  am  as  intolerant  of  imperialistic  de- 
signs on  the  part  of  other  nations  as  I 
was  of  such  designs  on  the  part  of  Ger- 
many. 

The  choice  is  between  two  ideals;  on 
the  one  hand,  the  ideal  of  democracy, 
which  represents  the  right  of  free  peoples 
everywhere  to  govern  themselves,  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  ideal  of  imperialism 
which  seeks  to  dominate  by  force  and  un- 
just power,  an  ideal  which  is  by  no  means 
dead  and  which  is  earnestly  held  in  many 
quarters  still. 

Every  imperialistic  influence  in  Europe 
was  hostile  to  the  embodiment  of  Article 
X.  in  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions, and  its  defeat  now  would  mark  the 
complete  consummation  of  their  efforts  to 
nullify  the  treaty.  I  hold  the  doctrine  of 
Article  X.  as  the  essence  of  American- 
ism. We  cannot  repudiate  it  or  weaken 
it  without  at  the  same  time  repudiating 
our  own  principles. 

The  imperialist  wants  no  League  of  Na- 
tions, but  if,  in  response  to  the  universal 
cry  of  the  masses  everywhere,  there  is  to 
be  one,  he  is  interested  to  secure  one 
suited  to  his  own  purposes,  one  that  will 
permit  him  to  continue  the  historic  game 
of  pawns  and  peoples— the  juggling  of 
provinces,  the  old  balances  of  power,  and 
the  inevitable  wars  attendant  upon  these 
things.  The  reservation  proposed  WOllld 
perpetuate  the  old  order.    *    *    * 

I  need  not  say.  Senator,  that  I  have 
given  a  great  deal  of  thought  to  the  whole 
matter  of  reservations  proposed  in  con- 
nection with  the  ratification  of  the  treaty, 
and  particularly  that  portion  of  the  treaty 
which  contains  the  covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  and  I  have  been 
struck  by  the  fact  that  practically  every 
so-called  reservation  was  in  effect  a 
rather  sweeping  nullification  of  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  itself. 

I  hear  of  reservationists  and  mild  res- 
ervationists,  but  I  cannot  understand  the 
difference  between  a  nullifier  and  a  mild 
nullifier.  Our  responsibility  as  a  nation 
in  this  turning  point  of  history  is  an  over- 
whelming one,  and  if  I  had  the  oppor- 
tunity I  would  beg  every  one  concerned 
to  consider  the  matter  in  the  light  of 
what  it  is  possible  to  accomplish  for  hu- 
manity, rather  than  in  the  light  of  spe- 
cial national  interests. 

FRANCE  INDIGNANT 
The  President's  reference  to  the  mili- 
tarist spirit  in  France  created  an  un- 
pleasant impression  in  that  country  and 
was  bitterly  resented  by  the  French 
newspapers  and  by  leading  French  pub- 
licists of  all  shades  of  opinion. 


SENATE'S  REJECTION  OF  THE  TREATY 


29 


The  Senate  was  not  in  accord  with  the 
President's  view.  On  March  15,  after 
days  of  serious  debate,  it  adopted  a 
strong  reservation  respecting  Article  X. 
by  a  vote  of  56  to  26;  fourteen  Demo- 
crats voted  with  the  Republicans  in 
adopting  the  reservation.  The  new  res- 
ervation was  even  stronger  than  the  one 
adopted  in  November.  It  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  United  States  assumes  no  obliga- 
tions to  employ  its  military  or  naval 
forces,  its  resources  or  any  form  of  eco- 
nomic discrimination  to  preserve  the  ter- 
ritorial integrity  or  political  independence 
of  any  other  country,  or  to  interfere  in 
controversies  between  nations— whether 
members  of  the  League  or  not— under  the 
provisions  of  Article  X.,  or  to  employ  the 
military  or  naval  forces  of  the  United 
States  under  any  article  of  the  treaty  for 
any  purpose  unless  in  any  particular  case 
the  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  full  lib- 
erty of  action,  shall  by  act  or  joint  reso- 
lution so  declare. 

THE  IRISH  RESERVATION 

A  fifteenth  reservation  was  adopted 
on  the  day  preceding  the  final  vote, 
and  it  created  wide  comment.  It  was  as 
follows: 

In  consenting  to  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty  with  Germany  the  United  States 
adheres  to  the  principle  of  self-determi- 
nation and  to  the  resolution  of  sympathy 
with  the  aspirations  of  the  Irish  people 
for  a  Government  of  their  own  choice 
adopted  by  the  Senate  June  6,  1919,  and 
declares  that  when  such  Government  is 
attained  by  Ireland,  a  consummation 
which  it  is  hoped  is  at  hand,  it  should 
promptly  be  admitted  as  a  member  of  the 
League  of  Nations. 

This  reservation  was  offered  by  Sena- 
tor Gerry  of  Rhode  Island;  it  was  op- 
posed by  the  Republican  majority,  but 
was  passed  by  a  vote  of  38  to  36,  the 
support  coming  from  21  Democrats  and 
17  Republicans;  the  Republicans  avowed- 
ly against  the  treaty  in  any  form  voted 
solidly  for  the  reservation. 

The  fourteenth  reservation  respect- 
ing the  voting  powers  of  the  different 


nations   was  adopted   by  the    Senate  as 

follows : 

Until  Part  I.,  being  the  covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  shall  be  so  amended 
as  to  provide  that  the  United  States  shall 
be  entitled  to  cast  a  number  of  votes 
equal  to  that  which  any  member  of  the 
League  and  its  self-governing  dominions, 
colonies  or  parts  of  empire,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, shall  be  entitled  to  cast,  the  United 
States  assumes  no  obligation  to  be  bound, 
except  in  cases  where  Congress  has  pre- 
viously given  its  consent,  by  any  election, 
decision,  report  or  finding  of  the  Council 
or  Assembly  in  which  any  member  of  the 
League  and  its  self-governing  dominions, 
colonies,  or  parts  of  empire,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, have  cast  more  than  one  vote. 

The  United  States  assumes  no  obliga- 
tion to  be  bound  by  any  decision,  report, 
or  finding  of  the  Council  or  Assembly 
arising  out  of  any  dispute  between  the 
United  States  and  any  member  of  the 
League  if  such  member  or  any  self-gov- 
erning dominion,  colony,  empire,  or  part 
of  empire  united  with  it  politically  has 
voted. 

This  action  brought  forth  a  declara- 
tion by  the  President  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil of  Canada,  N.  W.  Rowell,  that  if  that 
reservation  were  accepted  by  the  other 
powers  Canada  would  withdraw  from  the 
League  of  Nations. 

As  indicative  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Senate  regarding  certain  reservations: 
the  vote  for  a  specific  reservation  re- 
garding the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  58  to 
22;  on  excluding  domestic  questions  from 
the  league  the  vote  was  56  to  27;  on 
equalizing  the  voting  powers  of  this  coun- 
try and  Great  Britain  the  vote  was  57  to 
20;  on  refusing  to  accept  any  mandate 
without  express  authority  of  Congress 
the  vote  stood  64  to  4.  On  the  proposi- 
tion that  the  right  to  withdraw  from 
the  League  was  within  the  sole  jurisdic- 
tion of  Congress,  whether  or  not  the 
United  States  had  fulfilled  its  obliga- 
tions, the  vote  was  45  to  20;  on  the 
treaty  clauses  requiring  Shantung  to  be 
given  to  Japan  the  reservation  withhold- 
ing the  assent  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  4S  to  21;  but  no 
specific  reference  to  either  country  was 
made. 


Americans  Reconstruction  Activities 

Military,  Naval  and  Economic  Developments  That  Test  the 
Statesmanship  of  the  Nation's  Leaders 

[Period  Ended  March  18,  1920] 


THE  House  Military  Committee  by  a 
bi-partisan  vote  refused  on  Feb.  25 
to  include  universal  military  train- 
ing in  the  Army  Reorganization 
bill.  At  the  same  time  the  Commit- 
tee voted  that  military  training  should  be- 
come the  subject  of  separate  legislation 
to  be  framed  by  a  "  friendly  "  sub-com- 
mittee of  seven  named  by  Mr.  Kahn, 
with  an  agreement  of  the  leaders  that 
its  consideration  would  not  be  blocked 
after  a  thorough  inquiry  had  been  made 
of  the  cost  and  economic  effects.  This 
investigation  is  expected  to  delay  action 
on  the  question  until  the  next  session. 

With  this  temporary  disposal  of  uni- 
versal training,  the  committee  voted,  10 
to  6,  to  report  the  Reorganization  bill, 
providing  for  a  maximum  peace-time 
army  of  17,700  officers  and  299,000  en- 
listed men,  including  the  Philippine 
Scouts  and  unassigned  recruits.  The 
combat  strength  was  authorized  to  be 
250,000,  the  remainder  of  the  force  be- 
ing absorbed  in  the  supply  and  admin- 
istrative services,  and  the  Philippine 
Scouts  and  unassigned  recruits.  The  in- 
fantry force  was  fixed  at  a  maximum 
strength  of  110,000  men  and  4,200  offi- 
cers, the  cavalry  at  20,500  men  and  950 
officers,  the  field  artillery  at  36,500  men 
and  1,900  officers,  the  coast  artillery  at 
36,000  men  and  1,200  officers  and  the 
air  sei-vice  at  16,000  men,  including 
cadet  fliers,  and  1,514  officers. 

On  Washington's  Birthday  the  Repub- 
lic of  France,  through  its  representa- 
tives, rendered  homage  to  American  sol- 
diers of  the  New  York  district  who  fell 
in  the  war.  In  a  series  of  public  gath- 
erings held  at  various  points  in  New 
York,  in  which  distinguished  soldiers  of 
the  allied  armies  participated,  more 
than  6,000  "  certificates  of  gratitude " 
were  presented  by  representatives  of  the 
French     Government    to     relatives    and 


friends  of  soldiers  who  died  in  defense 
of  France's  eastern  frontiers. 

Soldiers  who  have  served  overseas 
since*  July  11,  1919,  will  receive  an  in- 
crease of  20  per  cent,  on  their  entire 
back  pay.  The  War  Department  an- 
nounced Feb.  14  that  the  change  was 
authorized  under  a  recent  decision  of  the 
Controller  of  the  Treasury,  and  that  a 
private  on  foreign  service  would  receive 
$36  instead  of  $33.  The  increase  is  not 
payable  for  service  in  the  Canal  Zone, 
Panama,  Porto  Rico  or  Hawaii.  It  is 
estimated  that  from  250,000  to  300,000 
soldiers  will  submit  claims  for  back  pay- 
ment, and  that  it  will  require  approxi- 
mately $1,800,000  to  settle  the  claims. 

OUR  DEAD  IN*  FRANCE 

Secretary  Baker,  on  March  12,  informed 
Chairman  Wadsworth  of  the  Senate 
Military  Committee  that  about  50,000  of 
the  American  dead  in  France  will  be  re- 
turned to  the  United  States,  while  be- 
tween 20,000  and  25,000  will  remain  per- 
manently interred  overseas.  The  Secre- 
tary, who  wrote  in  response  to  a  Sen- 
ate resolution,  estimated  the  cost  of  re- 
turning the  dead  and  concentrating  the 
bodies  remaining  in  cemeteries  overseas 
at  $30,000,000. 

Congestion  of  the  French  transporta- 
tion systems  and  shortage  of  materials 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  coffins  are 
handicapping  the  work,  Mr.  Baker  said. 

While  111  bodies  of  American  dead 
have  been  returned  from  Archangel,  the 
same  number  still  remain  in  Northern 
Russia,  and  it  is  improbable  that  any- 
thing can  be  done  toward  their  removal 
for  a  year.  Removal  of  the  bodies  from 
England  is  progressing,  while  in  Italy 
all  bodies  have  been  concentrated,  ready 
for  return  to  this  country. 

Drastic  reduction  of  permanent  offi- 
cers of  the  army  from  their  temporary 
ranks  to  regular  army  grades,  effective 


^RECONSTRUCTION  ACTIVl 


31 


March  15,  was  ordered  by  General 
March,  Chief  of  Staff,  on  Feb.  29.  Of 
approximately  3,000  officers  holding 
temporary  ranks  higher  than  their  per- 
manent appointments,  about  2,000  were 
to  be  returned  to  their  regular  status. 
Field  officers  only  were  affected.  The 
number  of  officers  holding  General  rank 
is  now  within  the  allowance,  and  there 
will  be  no  cut  in  the  grades  of  those  be- 
low the  rank  of  Major.  The  bulk  of 
demotions  was  expected  to  come  from 
the  bureaus  in  Washington. 

Under  the  commonly  termed  18,000 
officers  law,  which  authorized  that 
number  of  officers  as  the  temporary 
maximum,  all  emergency  officers  must 
be  discharged  by  July  1,  unless  addi- 
tional legislation  is  enacted.  There  were 
approximately  7,800  regular  officers 
holding  temporary  rank  at  the  signing 
of  the  armistice.  Reductions  have  been 
made  from  time  to  time  since  Nov.  11, 
1918,  in  accordance  with  the  policy  an- 
nounced by  Secretary  Baker  of  demoting 
officers  as  soon  as  the  emergency  duty 
which  justified  the  higher  grade  has  been 
completed,  with  the  result  that  to  date 
more*  than  4,000  demotions  have  occurred. 

BONUSES   FOR  SOLDIERS 

By  a  vote  of  325  to  4,  the  House  on 
Feb.  26  adopted  a  rule  referring  all  bills 
dealing  with  soldiers'  bonuses  to  the 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  with  in- 
structions to  report  a  comprehensive 
measure  for  monetary  and  land  bonuses 
for  soldiers  of  the  World  War.  This 
action  resulted  from  a  threatened  revolt 
by  forty  Republicans  who  had  recently 
informed  the  Republican  steering  com- 
mittee that  they  would  call  a  caucus  of 
House  Republicans  unless  the  original 
plan  of  the  House  leaders  to  postpone 
the  consideration  of  bonuses  to  soldiers 
was  abandoned.  It  was  finally  agreed  by 
the  forty  Republicans  that  the  caucus 
would  be  delayed  if  the  bills  were  re- 
ferred to  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit- 
tee, with  the  understanding  that  a  bonus 
bill  would  be  reported  at  this  session. 

The  agitation  for  a  soldiers*  bonus, 
stimulated  by  the  American  Legion,  has 
become  so  strong  that  members  of  Con- 
gress now  believe  that  political  exigency 
will  force  the  enactment  of  such  legis- 


lation before  Congress  takes  a  recess  for 
the  national  conventions.  Representa- 
tive Mondell,  the  Republican  House 
leader,  who  was  one  of  the  strongest 
advocates  of  bonuses,  said  recently  that 
the  state  of  finances  would  not  permit 
such  an  expenditure. 

In  a  hearing  March  2  before  the  com- 
mittee, Franklin  D'Olier,  President  of 
the  American  Legion,  suggested  that  sol- 
diers who  did  not  desire  an  allotment  of 
land  should  receive  $50  a  month  for  the 
term  of  service.  This  plan,  he  said,  was 
the  one  which  had  received  the  approval 
of  the  legion's  Executive  Committee. 

"  In  accordance  with  resolutions  passed 
at  the  National  Convention  of  the  Amer- 
ican Legion,"  he  said,  "  its  National 
Beneficial  Legislation  Committee  is  now 
ready  to  submit  recommendations  for 
legislation  covering  four  features,  as  fol- 
lows: 

1.  Land  settlement  covering'  farms  in  all 
States,  and  not  confined  to  a  few  States. 

2.  Home  aid  to  encourage  purchase  of 
homes  in  either  country  or  city. 

3.  Vocational  training-  for  all  ex-service 
persons  desiring-  it. 

4.  Adjustment  of  compensation  or  final 
adjustment  of  extra  back  pay  based  on 
length  of  service  for  those  not  desiring  to 
avail  themselves  of  any  one  of  the  pre- 
vious three  features. 

The  ex-service  person  has  his  option  of 
any  one,  and  only  one,  of  the  above  four 
features,  and  only  upon  his  application. 

If  bonuses  are  granted  by  the  present 
Congress  to  American  World  War  sol- 
diers, new  taxes  will  be  required,  and  in 
the  opinion  of  members  of  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee  a  selling  tax,  about 
the  only  means  of  taxation  unexhausted, 
must  be  applied. 

OUR  NAVAL  POLICY 

Three  provisional  naval  building  pro- 
grams, dependent  on  Senate  action  on 
the  Peace  Treaty,  were  laid  before  the 
House  Naval  Committee,  March  6,  by 
Secretary  Daniels.  If  the  United  States 
ratified  the  treaty  and  became  a  member 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  Mr.  Daniels 
said,  he  would  recommend  new  construc- 
tion only  to  "  round  out  "  the  fleet  now 
built  or  building;  if  the  Senate  rejected 
the  treaty  [which  it  did  later]  and  the 
United  States  definitely  decided  not  to 
join  the  League,  he  said  he  would  urge 


32 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


duplication  of  the  three-year  program  of 
1916,  with  some  modifications,  with  a 
view  of  making  the  fleet  "  incomparably 
the  greatest  in  the  world." 

In  case  the  Senate  took  no  final  action 
on  the  treaty  at  this  session  of  Congress 
the  Secretary  said  he  would  present  a 
sixty-nine-ship  program  for  construction 
as  rapidly  as  possible  in  order  that  the 
United  States  might  not  lose  ground  in 
competitive  naval  building.  This  pro- 
gram, he  said,  would  cost  about 
$195,000,000. 

It  was  announced  on  March  14  that  all 
three  of  the  provisional  programs  had 
been  disapproved  by  the  House  Naval 
Sub-committee,  which  decided  upon  an 
appropriation  of  $72,000,000  for  continu- 
ing the  unfinished  1916  program  as  the 
only  ship  construction  fund  to  be  pro- 
vided for  the  next  fiscal  year. 

REPORT  ON  NAVAL  AWARDS 

A  report  of  the  Senate  Naval  Affairs 
Sub-committee,  which  Investigated  the 
controversy  between  Admiral  Sims  and 
Secretary  Daniels  over  the  award  of 
naval  honors,  was  made  public  in  Wash- 
ington March  7.  The  majority  report, 
signed  by  Senators  Hale,  Poindexter-  and 
McCormick,  criticised  the  general  policy 
of  awarding  honors  to  commanders  who 
lost  their  ships,  although  it  found  that 
where  such  commanders  displayed  heroic 
service  they  should  not  be  made  ineligible 
for  honors. 

This  point  had  formed  one  of  the  bit- 
terest issues  between  Admiral  Sims  and 
Secretary  Daniels,  and  centred  upon  the 
fact  that  Secretary  Daniels  ignored  the 
recommendations  of  the  board  in  the  case 
of  Commander  D.  W.  Bagley,  his  brother- 
in-law.  Commander  Bagley  lost  his  ship 
in  peculiar  circumstances,  and  was 
recommended  by  Admiral  Sims  and  the 
Knight  Board  for  a  Navy  Cross.  Secre- 
tary Daniels  awarded  him  a  Distin- 
guished Service  medal. 

That  the  controversy  might  end  satis- 
factorily to  officers  and  men  in  the  navy, 
the  majority  recommended  that  the  re- 
port of  the  reconvened  Knight  Board, 
now  in  session,  be  followed.  The  board 
was  reconvened  late  in  December,  after 
Admiral  Sims  attacked  the  awards,  and 


began  its  sessions  on  Jan.  5.  Its  report 
is  expected  in  the  next  few  weeks,  and 
Secretary  Daniels  has  indicated  his  in- 
tention to  accept  its  recommendations  as 
final. 

ADMIRAL  SIMS  TESTIFIES 

Admiral  Sims,  testifying  on  March  9 
and  succeeding  days  before  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  outlined 
the  specific  points  on  which  he  based  his 
criticisms.  His  criticisms,  he  said,  were 
directed  at  the  policies  pursued  in  the 
first  six  months  of  the  conflict,  and  not 
at  individuals.  In  calling  attention  to 
what  he  considered  failure  of  the  Navy 
Department  to  give  the  Allies  full  co- 
operation at  first,  he  said  that  he  had 
"nothing  to  gain  and  everything  to 
lose."  Only  a  high  sense  of  his  duty  as 
a  naval  officer  and  solicitude  for  the  fu- 
ture naval  policy  of  the  country,  he  said, 
im.pelled  him  to  point  out  grave  mis- 
takes in  naval  administration. 

Basic  criticisms  of  the  navy's  policies 
were  said  by  the  Admiral  to  be: 

That  duringr  the  early  period  of  the  war 
the  department  violated  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  warfare,  leading  to  a  prolonga- 
tion of  hostilities  and  needless  loss  of 
lives  and  money. 

That  the  policies  of  the  department  in 
the  last  half  of  the  war  were  identical 
with  recommendations  rejected  during  the 
first  six  months. 

That  if  the  department  had  had  its 
proper  plans  when  the  nation  entered  the 
war  they  should  have  been  placed  in 
effect  at  once. 

That  mistalces,  if  any  were  made,  should 
be  carefully  reviewed,  to  avoid  a  future 
recurrence  and  to  help  mold  future  na- 
tional defense  policies. 

The  United  States  entered  the  war 
with  the  navy  unprepared,  he  said,  al- 
though war  had  been  a  possibility  for 
two  years  and  American  forces  on  the 
sea  were  not  in  the  highest  state  of 
readiness.  Owing  to  these  conditions, 
the  witness  added,  the  navy  failed  for 
at  least  six  months  to  throw  its  full 
force  against  the  enemy. 

Admiral  Sims  charged  that  it  was 
three  months  after  the  United  States 
entered  the  war  before  he  received  a 
statement  of  the  Navy  Department's 
policy;  that  for  seven  months  the  de- 
partment   failed    even    to    answer    his 


7A'S  RECONSTRUCTION  ACTIVITIES 


33 


cables  with  regard  to  sending  battleships 
and  then  denied  the  request,  but  a  month 
later  reversed  its  position  and  ordered 
the  Sixth  Battle  Squadron  abroad;  that 
he  first  urged  the  dispatch  of  all  avail- 
able tugs  to  the  war  zone  on  April  23, 
1917,  but  no  tugs  arrived  until  a  year 
later,  although  forty-three  were  avail- 
able to  the  Navy  Department  the  day 
war  was  declared,  in  addition  to  many 
owned  by  private  concerns;  that  al- 
though he  asked  on  June  28,  1917,  that 
American  submarines  be  sent  to  the  war 
zone  to  help  combat  U-boats,  it  was  four 
months  before  his  request  was  complied 
with,  and  then  but  five  submersibles  were 
sent,  five  more  arriving  four  months 
later. 

On  March  18  Admiral  Sims,  conclud- 
ing his  direct  testimony,  declared  that 
he  had  no  "  well  founded  "  recommenda- 
tions to  make  as  to  remedies.  This  was 
because  responsibility  for  conditions 
could  only  be  determined  after  full  in- 
vestigation of  his  charges. 

PACKERS  ENJOINED 

The  agreed  decree  under  which  the 
'•  Big  Five "  packers  are  forever  en- 
joined from  engaging  in  any  line  of  busi- 
ness other  than  that  of  handling  meat 
and  meat  products  was  filed  Feb.  27  in 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. Counsel  for  the  packers  said  in 
a  statement  to  the  court  that  the  decree 
had  been  agreed  to  by  the  defendants, 
"  not  because  of  guilt,  for  they  have  not 
violated  any  law,  but  that  the  American 
people  may  be  assured  that  there  is  not 
the  remotest  possibility  of  a  food  mo- 
nopoly by  the  packers." 

After  hearing  statements  by  counsel 
for  the  Government  and  the  packers 
Chief  Justice  McCoy  signed  the  injunc- 
tion making  effective  the  agreement. 

In  a  statement  commenting  on  the  ef- 
fect of  the  divorcement  decree  Attor- 
ney General  Palmer  said: 

The  decree,  which  the  Department  of 
Justice  has  brought  about  by  urgent  in- 
sistence, is  designed  to  restore  freedom  of 
competition  and  increase  the  opportunities 
for  individual  initiative  in  business,  which 
must  in  time  bear  good  fruit  for  the  pub- 
lic welfare. 

The  decree,  which  involves  reorganiza- 
tion of  a  great  industry  with  assets  of 


more  than  $1,000,000,000,  and  which  af- 
fects eighty-seven  corporations  and 
forty-nine  individuals,  results  from  an 
agreement  between  the  larger  meat 
packers  and  the  Department  of  Justice 
announced  on  Dec.  18.  This  agreement 
was  reached  after  the  department,  at 
the  direction  of  President  Wilson,  had 
instituted  anti-trust  proceedings  against 
the  packers  in  Chicago. 

LIVING  COST  SOARING 

Reports  received  by  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Labor  from  retail  deal- 
ers in  fifty  cities  and  published  Feb.  28 
indicated  that  the  cost  of  living  was  still 
on  the  increase.  These  figures  showed 
an  increase  of  9  per  cent,  since  January, 
1919,  and  an  increase  of  104  per  cent, 
since  January,  1913.  The  comparisons 
were  based  on  the  average  retail  prices 
of  the  following  articles,  weighted  ac- 
cording to  the  consumption  of  the  aver- 
age family:  Sirloin  steak,  round  steak, 
rib  roast,  chuck  roast,  plate  beef,  pork 
chops,  bacon,  ham,  lard,  hens,  flour, 
commeal,  eggs,  butter,  milk,  bread,  po- 
tatoes, sugar,  cheese,  rice,  coffee  and  tea. 

During  the  month  from  Dec.  15,  1919, 
to  Jan.  15,  1920,  twenty-nine  of  the 
forty-four  articles  of  food  for  which 
prices  were  secured  in  1919  increased  as 
follows:  Cabbage,  33  per  cent.;  potatoes, 
26  per  cent.;  granulated  sugar,  23  per 
cent.;  onions,  11  per  cent.;  lamb  and 
rolled  oats,  8  per  cent,  each;  hens,  7  per 
cent.;  plate  beef,  6  per  cent.;  flour,  5 
per  cent.;  sirloin  steak,  rib  roast,  chuck 
roast,  bread  and  cream  of  wheat,  4  per 
cent,  each;  round  steak  and  raisins,  3 
per  cent,  each;  canned  salmon  and  rice, 
2  per  cent,  each;  ham,  evaporated  milk, 
macaroni,  baked  beans,  tea,  coffee  and 
bananas,  1  per  cent.  each.  Bacon,  nut 
margarine,  cheese  and  crisco  each  in- 
creased less  than  five-tenths  of  1  per 
cent. 

Potatoes  increased  238  per  cent,  and 
granulated  sugar  207  per  cent,  for  the 
seven-year  period  from  January,  1913, 
to  January,  1920.  This  means  that  the 
price  in  January  of  this  year  was  more 
than  three  times  what  it  was  in  1913. 
The  price  of  nine  other  articles  more 
than  doubled  during  this  period:     Pork 


34 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


chops,  101  per  cent. ;  lamb,  202  per  cent. ; 
rice,  110  per  cent. ;  cornmeal,  120  per 
cent.;  lard,  121  per  cent.;  strictly  fresh 
eggs,  123  per  cent.;  storage  eggs,  143 
per  cent.,  and  flour,  145  per  cent. 

NEW  FUEL  CONTROL 

President  Wilson  on  Feb.  28  issued 
executive  orders  providing  for  continua- 
tion of  the  powers  of  the  Fuel  Adminis- 
tration, but  dividing  them  between  the 
Director  General  of  Railroads  and  a 
commission  of  four.  The  commission  will 
be  composed  of  A.  W.  Howe,  Rembrandt 
Peale,  F.  M.  Whittaker  and  J.  F.  Fisher. 
It  will  function  through  the  Tidewater 
Coal  Exchange,  which  had  been  sus- 
pended before  the  resignation  of  Dr. 
Garfield  as  Fuel  Administrator.  The 
order  creating  the  commission  is  effec- 
tive until  April  30.  A  second  order,  in- 
vesting Mr.  Hines  with  the  powers  of 
Fuel  Administrator  so  far  as  domestic 
distribution  is  concerned,  said  doubt  had 
arisen  as  to  whether  he  could  continue 
to  exercise  those  powers  after  the  return 
of  the  railroads  to  private  control.  A 
new  order  was  therefore  issued  extend- 
ing Mr.  Hines's  authority  beyond  the 
date  of  the  return. 

Attorney  General  Palmer  announced 
March  11  that  up  to  date  1,046  actions 
had  been  brought  against  alleged  profit- 
eers, hoarders  and  other  violators  of  the 
Lever  Food  Control  act.  He  expressed 
the  opinion  that  the  prosecutions  and 
the  activities  of  the  Department  of  Jus- 
tice agents  in  forcing  hoarded  foodstuffs 


upon  the  market  had  been  instrumental 
in  preventing  prices  from  going  above 
the  present  level.  The  Department  of 
Justice  announcement  added: 

Large  quantities  of  foodstuffs  have  been 
forced  upon  the  market  under  proper 
supervision  by  means  of  the  procedure 
prescribed  in  the  Food  Coiitrol  act. 

COAL  WAGE  AWARD 

The  commission  appointed  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  to  adjust  the  differences  be- 
tween operators  and  miners  in  the 
bituminous  coal  fields  offered  a  ma- 
jority and  minority  report  on  March  11. 
The  former  recommended  a  general  wage 
increase  of  25  per  cent,  without  any 
change  in  working  hours  or  conditions. 
The  minority  report  favored  35  per  cent, 
increase  and  a  seven-hour  day.  Secre- 
tary Green  of  the  United  Mine  Workers 
said  he  was  satisfied  that  an  agreement 
would  be  reached  which  would  prevent 
further  trouble  of  a  serious  nature  in  the 
coal  fields.  The  increase  recommended 
in  the  majority  report  means,  in  the 
event  of  its  acceptance,  that  operators 
and  miners  will  be  called  upon  by  the 
President  to  enter  into  a  contract 
whereby  11  to  12  per  cent,  will  be  added 
to  the  14  per  cent,  increase  which  was 
granted  to  the  miners  by  the  operators 
when  the  recent  coal  strike  was  called 
off. 

Acceptance  of  the  recommendations  of 
the  majority  will  mean  an  increase  in 
the  cost  of  coal  to  the  consumer  suffi- 
cient at  least  to  cover  the  additional  11  or 
12  per  cent. 


New    Epoch    for    American    Railways 

Law  Governing  Their  Operation 


IN  accordance  with  President  Wilson's 
proclamation,  the  railroads,  which 
during  the  greater  part  of  the 
war  were  under  Government  control, 
were  returned  to  individual  ownership 
and  management  on  March  1,  1920.  The 
change  was  effected  easily  and  without 
any  notable  developments.  In  many 
cases  the  same  officials  took  charge  who 
had  served  the  roads  before  the  war. 
Over  1,400  centralized  offices  were  dis- 


banded, but  most  of  the  employes  found 
employment  under  the  new  regimes. 

The  Esch-Cummins  law,  under  whose 
provisions  the  railroads  are  to  operate, 
was  passed  by  the  House  on  Feb.  21  by 
a  vote  of  250  to  150.  The  Senate  adopted 
the  bill  on  Feb.  23  by  a  vote  of  47  to  17. 
The  President  signed  it  on  Feb.  28,  and 
the  measure  became  a  law. 

The  preparation  of  the  bill  had  been 
most  difficult,  owing  to  the  complexity 


NEW  EPOCH  FOR  AMERICAN  RAILWAYS 


35 


and  magnitude  of  the  problems  involved 
and  the  opposition  encountered  from 
various  interests.  The  representatives 
of  labor  had  been  especially  active,  and 
had  secured  the  elimination  of  the  clause 
prohibiting  strikes  under  penalty  of  im- 
prisonment.    They  were  not  successful, 


EDGAR   E.    CLARK 

Chairman   Interstate    Commerce   Commission 

(©    Harris    d    Exmng) 

however,  in  securing  any  provision  for  a 
wage  increase.  Because  of  this  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the 
four  great  railway  brotherhoods  asked 
the  President  to  veto  the  bill.  They 
were  joined  in  this  request  by  the  Farm- 
ers' National  Council.  The  President  re- 
fused to  veto  the  bill,  and  also  declined 
to  grant  their  request  to  appoint  a  spe- 
cial wage  tribunal  to  pass  upon  the 
pending  demand  for  increases  in  pay. 
He  declared  that  he  believed  the  board 
provided  for  in  the  bill  would  not  only 
be  fair  and  just,  but  would  be  found  to 
be  particularly  in  the  interest  of  railroad 
employes  as  a  class. 

The  tribunal  referred  to  by  the  Presi- 
dent is  to  be  composed  of  nine  members. 


with  a  tenure  of  office  of  five  years  and 
an  annual  compensation  of  $10,000.  It 
is  to  be  known  as  the  Railroad  Labor 
Board.  All  the  members  are  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  and  confirmed 
by  the  Senate — three  of  its  members 
upon  the  nomination  of  employes,  three 
upon  the  nomination  of  the  employers, 
and  three,  without  restrictions,  to  repre- 
sent the  public.  All  controversies  re- 
specting wages  or  salaries  are  to  be  sub- 


ALBERT   B.    CUMMINS 

United  States  Senator  from  Iowa 

(©    Harris   d   Eioing) 


mitted  to  this  board,  and  also  all  other 
disputes  not  decided  by  the  boards  of 
adjustment  which  seem  likely  to  result 
in  a  substantial  interruption  of  com- 
merce. Decisions  by  the  Railroad  Labor 
Board  are  to  be  made  by  a  majority 
vote,  but  no  decision  can  be  made  unless 
at  least  one  of  the  members  representing 
the  public  joins  in  the  decision. 

One  of  the  main  objections  of  the  rail- 
road unions  to  the  Labor  Board  created 
under  the  new  law  had  been  that  the 
representatives   of  the  public   would  be 


36 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


prejudiced  against  labor.    The  President 
denied  that  this  would  be  the  case. 

The  point  was  made  by  the  President 
that  the  Labor  Board  was  required 
to  provide  wages  commensurate  with 
standards  paid  for  work  in  other  indus- 
tries, and  was  also  empowered  to  pre- 
scribe sufficient  rates  to  pay  for  reason- 
able operating  expenses  of  the  railways, 
including  wages.  This  last  statement 
was  taken  to  mean  a  hint  of  coming  rate 


JOHN   J.    ESCH 

Congressman  from  Wisconsin. 

(Photo   Bain   News   Service) 


increases,    particularly    as    a   suggestion 
of  that  kind  was  included  in  the  annual 
report  of  Director  General  Hines. 
Other  features  of  the  law  are: 

1.  A  vast  extension  of  the  powers  of  the 
Interstate    Commerce    Commission. 

2.  Competition  is  encouraged,  but  the 
competition  is  to  be  between  systems  rather 
than  individual  roads ;  merging  of  certain 
lines   into   systems   is   to  be   allowed. 

3.  For  a  period  of  six  months,  to  Sept.  1, 
1920,  the  railroads  are  guaranteed  operating 
income  equal  to  their  compensation  under 
Government    control. 

4.  For  the  same  period  existing  wages 
cannot  be  reduced,  nor  can  rates  be  reduced 
without  the  approval  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce   Commission. 

5.  For  a  period  of  two  years  after  March  1, 


1920,  a  return  of  5*/^  per  cent,  plus  an  ad- 
ditional %  per  cent,  for  betterments  Is  desig- 
nated by  Congress  as  a  fair  return  on  the 
value   of   railroad   property. 

6.  The  net  indebtedness  of  a  carrier  to  the 
Government  may  be  funded  at  the  option  of 
the   carrier. 

7.  One-half  of  all  earnings  of  individual 
carriers  in  excess  of  6  per  cent,  on  the 
ascertained  value  of  their  property  shall  be 
paid    to    the    Government. 

8.  A  $300,000,000  revolving  fund  is  created 
to  assist  the  carriers  in  financing  their  re- 
quirements during  the  transition  period 
Immediately  following  the  relinquishment  of 
Federal  control. 

The  financial  and  other  features  of 
the  new  law  were  generally  regarded  as 
establishing  a  solid  basis  for  future 
justice  to  investors  in  railway  securities 
as  well  as  to  railway  employes  and  the 
public. 

An  illuminating  explanation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  act  was  made  by  Senator 
Joseph  T.  Robinson,  member  of  the  Con- 
ference Committee  which  fused  the  Esch 
and  Cummins  bills  into  the  present 
law.  Some  of  the  points  he  brought  out 
may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

The  old  rates  of  fares  and  transporta- 
tion charges  in  effect  on  Feb.  29,  1920, 
are  to  continue  in  force  until  changed 
by  the  State  or  Federal  authorities,  but 
prior  to  Sept.  1,  1920,  they  will  not  be 
reducible,  except  on  approval  by  the  In- 
terstate Commerce  Commission.  One  of 
the  main  duties  of  this  commission  will 
be  to  fix  and  make  public  a  rate  repre- 
senting a  fair  return  commensurate  with 
the  aggregate  value  of  the  property  of 
all  the  carriers.  A  basic  rate  of  5% 
per  cent,  was  fixed  by  Congress,  but  the 
commission  was  empowered  to  add  to 
this  maximum  Vz  per  cent,  to  cover  im- 
provements or  expenses  of  equipment. 

Whatever  rate  shall  be  fixed  will  not 
bind  the  Government  to  guarantee  any 
deficit  ensuing  from  the  application  of 
the  rate  established.  The  rate  assigned 
will  be  based  wholly  on  the  real  value  of 
the  property  held  and  used  for  transpor- 
tation, and  will  have  no  relation  to  hold- 
ings of  stocks  and  bonds. 

Of  all  net  earnings  in  excess  of  6  per 
cent.,  one-half  is  to  be  set  aside  as  a  re- 
serve fund  for  the  carriers,  usable  only 
when  such  fund  totals  5  per  cent,  of  total 
value;  the  other  half  is  to  be  paid  to  the 


NEW  EPOCH  FOR  AMERICAN  RAILWAYS 


37 


commission,  and  to  constitute  a  general 
railroad  contingent  fund  to  be  used  to  aid 
needy  carriers  and  to  secure  equipment 
necessary  in  the  interests  of  the  public. 
The  rights  of  non-union  labor  to  be 
heard  before  the  Labor  Board  are  up- 
held, though  unorganized  labor  has  no 
direct  representation  on  this  board.  Rep- 
resentation of  the  public  on  the  board, 
much  criticised  by  labor,  was  made  im- 
perative, on  the  ground  that  eventually 
it  is  the  public  which  always  has  to  pay. 
Consideration  of  all  the  special  circum- 
stances on  which  the  wage  scale  was  to 


be  fixed  has  resulted  in  effect  in  a  bill 
of  rights  for  labor,  providing  for  equali- 
zation as  compared  with  other  industries, 
the  Qost  of  living,  the  hazards  of  em- 
ployment, training  and  skill  required,  de- 
gree of  responsibility  and  the  elimination 
of  inequalities  resulting  from  previous 
wage  orders  or  adjustments. 

No  penalties  are  provided  for  use  in 
enforcing  the  decisions  of  the  board,  as 
it  is  believed  that  publicity  and  public 
opinion  will  suffice  to  bring  about  com- 
pliance on  the  part  of  both  the  carriers 
and  the  workers. 


Supreme  Court  Decision  in  the  Steel  Case 


IN  a  decision  handed  down  March  1  the 
Federal  Supreme  Court  held  that 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
is  not  a  trust  in  the  meaning  of  the 
Sherman  anti-trust  law.  The  opinion 
was  read  by  Justice  McKenna  and  was 
concurred  in  by  Chief  Justice  White  and 
Justices  Holmes  and  Vandevanter.  A 
dissenting  opinion  was  rendered  by 
Justices  Clarke,  Pitney  and  Day,  and  was 
read  by  the  latter.  Two  Justices,  Bran- 
deis  and  McReynolds,  had  abstained  from 
any  expression  of  opinion.  The  reason 
for  this  on  the  part  of  Justice  McReyn- 
olds was  that  he  had  been  Attorney 
General  at  the  time  the  Government  dis- 
solution suit  was  instituted.  Justice 
Brandeis,  before  his  elevation  to  the  Su- 
preme bench,  had  in  1911  expressed  an 
opinion  that  the  Steel  Corporation  was 
in  fact  a  trust. 

The  majority  opinion  held,  in  effect, 
that  the  Steel  Corporation  had  committed 
no  overt  acts  violative  of  the  Sherman 
law  since  the  Government's  suit  was 
filed ;  that  though  by  its  size  and  its  con- 
trol of  equipment  the  corporation  was  in 
a  position  to  dominate  the  trade,  this 
was  not  to  be  considered,  since  there  was 
no  actual  evidence  that  it  did  so.  Finally 
— and  this  was  the  striking  feature  of 
the  decision — it  was  held  that  to  order 
the  dissolution  of  the  corporation  would 
involve  the  risk  of  great  disturbance  to 
the  financial  and  economic  structure, 
and  thus  would  menace  the  public  inter- 
est, which  was  of  paramount  importance. 


The  dissenting  opinion  contended  that 
the  decision,  by  not  conforming  with 
the  precedent  established  in  the  Standard 
Oil  and  American  Tobacco  Company 
cases,  constituted  an  annulment  of  the 
Sherman  law.  It  also  held  that  no 
alleged  public  interest  could  give  sanc- 
tion to  a  violation  of  law,  and  no  dis- 
turbance of  foreign  or  domestic  com- 
merce could  justify  the  abrogation  of 
statutes. 

The  majority  opinion  justified  its  de- 
parture from  the  precedents  established 
.in  the  oil  and  tobacco  cases,  on  the 
ground  that  in  the  steel  case  there  was 
no  evidence,  as  in  the  other  two,  that 
the  corporation  had  from  its  inception 
been  a  lawbreaker.  Regarding  this,  it 
said  in  part: 

In  the  tobacco  case,  as  in  the  Standard 
Oil  case,  the  court  Tiad  to  deal  with  a 
persistent  and  systematic  lawbreaker, 
masquerading  under  legal  forms,  and 
which  not  only  had  to  be  stripped  of  its 
disg-uises  but  arrested  in  its  illegality. 
A  decree  of  dissolution  was  the  manifest 
instrumentality  and  inevitable.  We  think 
it  would  be  a  work  of  sheer  supereroga- 
tion to  point  out  that  a  decree  in  that 
case  or  in  the  Standard  Oil  case  furnishes 
no    example   for   a   decree   in    fhis. 

The  decree,  it  is  thought,  will  have 
an  important  bearing  on  many  anti- 
trust cases  now  pending,  such  as  the 
suits  instituted  against  the  Sugar  Trust, 
Eastman  Kodak  Company,  Reading  Rail- 
road Company,  Keystone  Watch  Com- 
pany, and  others.  By  some  it  is  pointed 
to  as  justifying  the  agreement  reached 


38 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


without  suit  by  Attorney  General  Pal- 
mer with  the  packers.  Others  construe 
it  as  a  notification  to  "  big  business " 
that,  despite  size  and  magnitude  of  re- 
sources, any  so-called  trust  will  be  im- 
mune from  prosecution  during  good  be- 
havior. 


to  the  decree  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
not  rendered  by  a  full  bench,  and  also 
that  three  out  of  the  seven  members 
participating  vigorously  dissented,  it  was 
generally  recognized  that  it  would  have 
a  most  important  influence  on  the  whole 
anti-trust  program  of  the  Attorney  Gen- 


While    somewhat    of   weight   was   lost     eral's  office. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 


[Period  Ended  March   20,   1920] 


United  States  Cabinet  Changes 

BAINBRIDGE  COLBY,  a  lawyer  of 
New  York,  was  nominated  by  the 
President  on  Feb.  25  to  succeed  Robert 
Lansing  as  Secretary  of  State.  This 
nomination  met  with  considerable  oppo- 
sition in  the  Senate.  A  graduate  of  a 
New  England  college,  Mr.  Colby  had 
come  to  New  York  in  1892.  His  political 
career  was  marked  from  the  start  by  in- 
dependent tendencies.  He  left  the  Re- 
publican Party  in  1912  to  support  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  When  the  candidacy  of 
Charles  E.  Hughes  on  the  Republican 
ticket  was  indorsed  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  in 
1916,  Mr.  Colby  refused  to  follow,  and 
came  out  for  Wilson.  Since  that  time  he 
has  been  a  warm  supporter  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  of  his  policies.  As  a  member 
of  the  Shipping  Board  Mr.  Colby  vigor- 
ously opposed  the  effort  of  British  in- 
terests to  obtain  control  of  former  ves- 
sels of  the  International  Mercantile  Ma- 
rine transferred  to  American  registry. 
He  was  closely  associated  with  Sir 
Joseph  Maclay,  British  Minister  of  Ship- 
ping. Later  he  was  in  Paris  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Peace  Conference.  He  has 
been  a  convinced  advocate  of  the  League 
of  Nations,  and  in  an  address  delivered 
on  Feb.  18  he  paid  a  warm  tribute  to 
President  Wilson  as  its  initiator.  The 
Senate  named  a  committee  to  examine 
into  his  qualifications,  and  Mr.  Colby 
himself  appeared  before  this  committee 
by  request.  Early  confirmation  of  his 
appointment  was  expected  when  these 
pages  went  to  press. 

A   peculiar   state   of   affairs   had    de- 
veloped on  March  15  with  the  expiration 


of  the  tenure  of  Frank  L.  Polk  as  Acting 
Secretary  of  State.  Owing  to  the  delay 
of  the  Senate  in  confirming  Bainbridge 
Colby's  appointment,  the  State  Depart- 
ment was  left  without  a  head.  Mr.  Polk 
continued  to  serve,  but  his  functions 
were  considerably  curtailed.  He  was  un- 
able to  attest  signatures,  to  issue  procla- 
mations or  to  authorize  passports.  The 
passport  situation  was  said  to  be  the 
most  urgent  and  the  most  embarrassing. 
As  against  the  usual  yearly  average  oj: 
20,000,  about  23,000  passports  were  is- 
sued in  January  and  February  of  this 
year,  and  14,000  up  to  the  middle  of 
March.  Applications  for  passports  made 
by  or  before  midnight  of  March  14  would 
not  be  granted  until  the  office  of  Secre- 
tary of  State  was  filled. 

Following  his  resignation  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  Franklin  K.  Lane, 
in  a  valedictory  letter  sent  to  Presi- 
dent Wilson  on  Feb.  28,  his  last  day 
of  office,  made  sharp  criticism  of  Gov- 
ernmental methods  in  Washington  as  he 
had  found  them  during  his  seven  years 
of  Cabinet  service.  Governmental  work 
in  the  various  departments,  he  asserted, 
was  poorly  organized;  every  one  seemed 
afraid  of  every  one  else,  and  evaded  re- 
sponsibility, and  the  creative  sense  was 
blunted.  He  suggested  as  a  partial  rem- 
edy the  appointment  of  fewer  men,  but 
men  of  greater  capacity. 

As  Mr.  Lane's  successor  the  President 
appointed  John  Barton  Payne,  who  has 
been  Chairman  of  the  Shipping  Board, 
his  appointment  to  become  effective  on 
March  1.  Mr.  Payne  stated  that  he  had 
accepted   the   new   post   at   the   wish   of 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIl 


89 


the  President,  though  his  heart  was  in 
the  Shipping  Board.  He  was  bom  at 
Pruntytown,  Va.,  sixty-four  years  ago. 
Admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  age  of  21, 
he  occupied  in  rapid  succession  the  offices 
of  Chairman  of  the  Democratic  County 
Committee,  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court, 
and  Mayor  of  Kingwood,  W.  Va.  After 
moving  to  Chicago  he  soon  became 
known  as  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of 
that  city.  In  1893  he  was  elected  a 
Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Cook 
County.  In  1892  he  entered  a  large  and 
well-known  legal  firm.  During  the  war 
he  was  general  counsel  to  the  United 
States  Shipping  Board,  and  later  Secre- 
tary McAdoo  requested  him  to  act  as 
general  counsel  to  the  Railroad  Adminis- 
tration, in  which  capacity  he  served  for 
some  time. 


*     *     * 


Other  Appointments 

THE  nomination  of  Rear  Admiral  Will- 
iam S.  Benson  to  be  a  member  of  the 
Shipping  Board  to  succeed  John  Barton 
Payne,  who  had  become  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  was  confirmed  by  the  Senate  on 
March  13. 

The  appointment  of  William  Martin 
Williams  of  Alabama  to  succeed  Daniel 
C.  Roper  as  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue  was  announced  on  March  15. 
Mr.  Williams  had  occupied  the  post  of 
Solicitor  for  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, and  was  recommended  for  his  new 
office  by  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
Houston.  Mr.  Roper's  resignation  was 
to  become  effective  April  1. 

Colonel  W.  B.  Greeley,  it  was  an- 
nounced at  this  time,  had  been  appointed 
as  Chief  Forester  to  succeed  Henry  S. 
Graves.  Colonel  Greeley,  who  is  a  grad- 
uate of  the  University  of  California  and 
the  Yale  I'orest  School,  had  received  the 
French  Legion  of  Honor  and  the  British 
Distinguished  Service  Order  for  his  work 
as  Chief  of  the  Forestry  Section  of  the 
American  Army  when  he  had  been  in 
charge  of  21,000  specially  trained  troops. 
His  work  in  the  Forestry  Service  of  the 
United  States  had  ranged  through  all 
technical  grades.  His  new  appointment 
was  a  promotion  from  the  post  of  As- 
sistant Forester. 


Disability  Test  for  President 

npwO  resolutions  -wjere  introduced  in 
•*■  Congress  on  Feb.  18  proposing  that 
the  Supreme  Court  be  empowered  to  de- 
termine when  a  President  of  the  United 
States  is  incapacitated  for  performing 
the  duties  of  his  office.  Another  bill 
was  presented  the  following  day  by  Rep- 
resentative Madden  of  Illinois,  which 
proposed  that  the  Cabinet  be  authorized 
to  define  a  President's  disability.  Mr. 
Madden  expressed  his  fears  of  the  prece- 
dent established  by  President  Wilson  in 
removing  Mr.  Lansing  from  office  on  the 
ground  of  his  having  called  the  Cabinet 
together  to  discuss  national  matters  dur- 
ing the  President's  illness,  and  declared 
that  in  the  future  no.  Cabinet  would  ever 
dare  to  meet  in  a  similar  contingency. 
His  bill  provided  that,  on  the  Cabinet's 
decision,  after  investigation  of  the  Pres- 
ident's incapacity,  the  Vice  President 
should  immediately  assume  his  func- 
tions. 


The  New   British   Ambassador 

rpHE  appointment  of  Sir  Auckland 
-^  Geddes,  formerly  President  of  Mc- 
Gill  University,  Montreal,  as  British  Am- 
bassador to  the  United  States,  was  offi- 
cially announced  in  London  on  March  1. 
His  coming  to  America  to  enter  on  his 
official  duties  was  scheduled  to  occur 
within  a  month.  The  personality  of  the 
new  Ambassador  is  an  interesting  one; 
over  6  feet  2%  inches  in  height  and  very 
broad-shouldered,  he  is  noted  as  an  ath- 
lete both  in  body  and  mind.  Keenly  in- 
terested in  business  development,  he  is 
said  to  have  been  in  large  part  respon- 
sible for  the  recent  development  of  Brit- 
ish trade  policy;  though  alive  to  the 
reality  of  business  rivalries,  he  declares 
there  can  be  no  possibility  of  friction  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  Brit- 
ain on  trade  questions  if  both  nations 
show  good-will. 

Though  of  Scotch  descent,  he  has 
lived  so  long  in  Canada  and  the  United 
States  that  he  cannot  be  distinguished 
from  a  native.  To  meet  the  expenses 
of  his  new  office  Sir  Auckland  Geddes 
will  receive  a  net  allowance  of  $100,000 
yearly. 


40 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Major  Schroeder's  Air  Record 

MAJOR  R.  W.  SCHROEDER  of  the 
United  States  Army  Aviation  Corps 
set  a  new  world  record  for  altitude 
reached  in  an  airplane,  when  on  Feb.  27, 
flying  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  he  climbed  to 
a  point  36,020  feet  above  the  earth.  At 
this  altitude  of  more  than  six  miles  he 
lost  consciousness,  as  his  supply  of  oxy- 
gen had  become  exhausted,  and  fell,  as 
indicated  by  the  instruments  on  his  ma- 
chine, more  than  five  miles  in  two  min- 
utes. When  within  2,000  feet  of  the  earth 
he  recovered  conscious?iess  sufficiently 
to  right  his  machine,  and  made  a  safe 
landing  at  McCook  Field.  The  attend- 
ants there  found  him  sitting  in  his  ma- 
chine, apparently  lifeless.  He  was  blind- 
ed, his  limbs  paralyzed  with  cold,  despite 
his  electrically  heated  suit;  he'  was  also 
suffering  from  the  effects  of  lack  of 
oxygen.  In  this  condition  he  was  re- 
moved to  a  local  hospital,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  was  resting  comfortably,  with 
ice  packs  on  his  eyes,  which  were  still 
blinded  as  the  result  of  his  experience. 
Later  he  told  the  following  facts: 

The  tempera "^UTe  at  the  pea\  o.  th'> 
climb  was  67  degrees  below,  Fahrenheit. 
The  centre  section  of  my  machine  was 
coated  an  inch  thick  with  ice.  The  ex- 
haust from  the  motor  sprayed  fumes  of 
carbon  monoxide  over  me,  and  I  was 
breathing  this  continually  along  with  the 
oxygen.  I  had  set  out  with  three  hours' 
supply  of  oxygen,  and  four  hours'  fuel 
supply.  I  was  getting  along  rapidly.  I 
knew  by  reading  my  instruments  that  I 
had  broken  the  i-ecord;  that  I  was  flying 
higher  than  any  man  had  ever  flown  be- 
fore. I  had  an  hour  and  one-half  supply 
of  fuel  left  and  was  quite  elated.  I  was 
wondering  just  how  far  I  could  climb '  in 
that  time  when  I  found  my  reserve  tank 
of  oxygen  emptied. 

I  had  discarded  the  original  tank  some 
minutes  before,  because  it  did  not  func- 
tion properly,  and  when  I  exhausted  my 
reserve  I  turned  back  to  it.  It  would  not 
work.  I  had  torn  off  my  heavy  goggles, 
because  the  motor  exhaust  was  crystal- 
lizing on  them  and  interfered  with  my  vis- 
ion. I  turned  toward  the  instruments- 
then  everything  went  blank.  I  fell  into  a 
flat  nose  dive.  As  far  as  1  can  remem- 
ber, part  of  the  fall  was  in  a  straight 
dive.  The  rest  was  a  spinning  nose  dive. 
I  believe  I  was  really  34,000  feet  high 
when  I  fell  against  the  switchboard.  My 
motor  was  on  at  the  time.  I  was  trying 
to  turn  off  the  switch  as  I  nosed  the 
plane  head  down.    I  must  have  turned  the 


switch  off,  lost  consciousness  completely, 
but  revived  long  enough  to  make  a  land- 
ing. 

*      *      * 

Conviction  of  Senator  Newberry 

TWO  years  in  the  Federal  Penitentiary 
and  a  fine  of  $10,000  were  imposed 
upon  United  States  Senator  Truman  H. 
Newberry  on  March  20  by  a  verdict 
in  the  United  States  District  Court 
of  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.  Mr.  New- 
berry had  been  indicted  for  con- 
spiracy to  violate  the  Federal  statute, 
limiting  Senatorial  campaign  expendi- 
tures, in  his  campaign  against  Henry 
Ford.  The  trial,  which  was  by  jury,  was 
begun  on  Feb.  2  and  ended  with  the  con- 
viction of  the  accused  Senator  on  March 
20.  Sentence  on  sixteen  others,  in- 
cluding Senator  Newberry's  brother, 
ranged  from  two  years'  imprisonment 
and  a  $10,000  fine  to  a  fine  of  $1,000. 
A  request  for  a  ninety-day  stay  of  execu- 
tion was  granted  all  the  defendants,  and 
they  were  freed  on  their  own  recogni- 
zance until  new  bonds  could  be  made. 
The  jury's  deliberations  were  summed  up 
subsequently  by  one  of  the  jurors  as  fol- 
lows : 

We  followed  the  Judge's  instructions  and 
the  evidence.  Considering  both,  we  had 
no  other  choice  than  to  convict.  The  first 
question  to  be  determined  was  whether  a 
conspiracy  had  actually  existed  in  the 
Newberry  campaign  of  1918.  We  argued 
and  voted  until  finally  the  whole  twelve 
of  us  agreed  that  the  evidence  conclu- 
sively demonstrated  that  a  conspiracy  ex- 
isted as  defined  in  the  indictment. 
*      *      * 

Stock  Dividends  Not  Taxable 

THE  Supreme  Court  decided  on  March 
8  that  the  taxing  of  stock  dividends 
under  the  income  tax  section  of  the  1916 
revenue  law  was  unconstitutional  on  the 
ground  that  stock  dividends  are  not  in- 
come, and  cannot  be  taxed  as  such  if 
declared  by  corporations  out  of  their 
profits  accrued  since  March  1,  1913.  In 
consequence  of  this  decision  all  taxes  col- 
lected by  the  Government  for  1917  and 
1918  on  stock  dividends  and  paid  under 
protest  must  be  refunded  by  the  Govern- 
ment. According  to  the  Actuary  of  the 
Treasury,  the  refund  for  these  years 
will  reach  a  minimum  total  of  $35,000,- 
000.  This  decision  was  bitterly  attacked 
by    Samuel    Gompers,    President    of   the 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 


41 


American  Federation  of  Labor,  who  de- 
clared that  it  would  throw-  $100,000,000 
of  additional  taxation  on  other  people, 
and  was  part  of  an  "  invasion  of  the  peo- 
ple's rights  by  the  judicial  tribunals  of 
the  country." 

Pension  for  Aguinaldo 

n  ENERAL  EMILIO  AGUINALDO, 
^^  leader  of  the  Filipino  insurgents 
against  the  Spaniards  in  1896,  was  grant- 
ed a  yearly  pension  of  $6,000  by  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature  of  the  Philippines  on 
March  8.  Cayetano  A.  Arellano,  former- 
ly Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Philippines,  was  granted  a  pension 
of  the  same  amount,  and  Frank  W.  Car- 
penter, retiring  Governor  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  was  voted 
a  grant  of  $25,000. 

*     *     * 

British  Middle-Class  Union 

npHE  British  Middle-Class  Union, 
-L  branches  of  which  are  springing  up 
all  over  the  country,  has  been  organized 
by  the  salaried  population  of  Great 
Britain  to  counteract  the  increasing  de- 
mands of  the  labor  unions  and  their  con- 
tinued strikes,  tying  up  essential  public 
services.  The  new  union  points  out  that 
while  organized  labor  can  count  on  some 
10,500,000  votes,  the  middle  class  can 
rely  upon  approximately  25,000,000.  It 
utters  no  threats,  but  declares  its  inten- 
tion to  co-operate  with  the  lawful  au- 
thorities in  rendering  effective  help  in 
emergencies,  and  to  prove  that  "  the 
people  as  a  whole  are  greater  and  more 
powerful  than  even  the  most  thoroughly 
organized  minority." 


Labor  Conditions  in  Japan 

TN  the  "Report  on  Japanese  Labor" 
-L  prepared  by  Oswald  White,  British 
Vice  Consul  at  Osaka,  and  published  as 
a  Parliamentary  paper,  there  is  con- 
tained much  more  than  dry  statistics. 
Interesting  facts  on  industrial  conditions 
and  the  physical  and  mental  qualities  of 
the  Japanese  working  class  are  given. 
Labor  is  overplentif ul ;  labor-saving  de- 
vices, including  machinery,  too  few.  Low 
wages  and  unfavorable  economic  condi- 
tions react  on  efficiency.     Overwork  and 


waste  of  labor  are  commonplaces.  A 
working  day  of  from  ten  to  twelve  hours 
is  frequent.  There  is  a  great  quantity  of 
female  and  child  labor.  House  rents  are 
out  of  all  proportion  to  income  received. 
Many  workmen  use  the  doss-houses,  and 
slums  are  growing.  There  are  no  trade 
unions,  but  factories  modeled  on  West- 
ern lines  are  slowly  increasing,  and  labor 
conditions  in  these  stand  out  in  strong 
contrast  to  the  prevailing  rule. 

*  *     * 

Paying  Our  War  Account  in  Spain 
rpHE  Spanish  Minister  of  Finance  on 
-•-  Feb.  28  at  Madrid  signed  a  decree 
permitting  the  admission  into  Spain  of 
33,000,000  pesetas  (about  $6,600,000  at 
the  normal  rate  of  exchange)  to  be  paid 
by  the  United  States  in  accordance  with 
the  terms  of  the  financial  agreement 
signed  two  years  ago.  This  arrangement 
was  concluded  by  Ambassador  Willard 
on  March  7,  1918,  and  provided  for  the 
purchase  of  large  quantities  of  supplies 
in  Spain  for  General  Pershing's  forces 
in  France;  at  the  same  time  a  French 
credit  was  established  in  Madrid  for  the 
purchase  of  similar  supplies.  In  return 
for  export  concessions  the  United  States 
assured  to  Spain  whatever  cotton  and 
oil  it  required,  though  barring  all  ship- 
ments of  these  commodities  to  Germany 
before  the  end  of  the  war.  Under  this 
agreement  General  Pershing  obtained 
for  his  army  500,000  woolen  blankets, 
20,000  tons  of  leather,  100,000  tons  of 
chick  peas,  great  quantities  of  saddles 
and  bridles,  and  a  large  number  of 
mules. 

*  *     * 

The  New  French  Premier 

A  LEXANDER  MILLERAND,  who  suc- 
■^^  ceeded  M.  Clemenceau  as  Premier  of 
France  on  Jan.  18,  has  figured  as  a 
prominent  lawyer  in  many  important 
cases  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  His 
action  some  years  ago  in  declaring  his 
faith  in  socialism  startled  and  scandal- 
ized the  Palais  de  Justice,  but  he  became 
the  first  Socialist  Minister  under  the 
Third  Republic  in  the  Waldeck-Rousseau 
Cabinet,  which  endured  for  several 
years.  He  was  always  emphatic  in  his 
dismissal  of  bourgeois  fears  of  social- 
ism.   A  solid  and  convincing  speaker,  he 


42 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


never  aims  at  rhetorical  flights,  but  com- 
presses his  speeches  to  the  utmost  point 
of  concision,  until  they  can  be  summed 
up  upon  a  card.  Such  is  the  man,  sin- 
cere, efficient,  thoughtful  and  judicial  in 
temperament,  who  has  been  called  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Clemenceau. 

Despite  the  preliminary  outburst  in 
the  French  Parliament  over  the  selec- 
tion of  certain  members  of  M.  Miller- 
and's  new  Cabinet,  it  may  be  said  that 
his  Government  has  strength.  The  Min- 
isters of  Finance,  Agriculture,  Com- 
merce and  Labor  are  men  of  first-rate 
ability  in  their  respective  spheres.  M. 
Marsal,  who  recently  went  to  London  on 
a  special  financial  mission,  enjoys  the 
confidence  of  bankers  and  economists 
both  in  France  and  England.  M.  Ricard, 
who  is  only  40,  has  devoted  'his  v/hole 
life  to  the  organization  of  French  agri- 
culture. M.  Isaac,  who  proved  his  capac- 
ities at  Lyons  as  President  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  has  'for  many 
years  been  recognized  as  an  expert  on 
commercial  questions.  The  new  Minis- 
ter of  Labor,  M.  Jourdain,  was  owner 
of  a  cotton  spinning  factory  at  Altkirch, 
destroyed  in  the  war,  and  did  invaluable 
service  with  the  French  Legation  at 
Berne. 

The  main  outlines  of  the  policy  to  be 
followed  by  the  new  Cabinet  embody  a 
great  industrial  and  fiscal  effort,  a  re- 
duction of  military  service  dependent  on 
the  allied  effort  to  lighten  French  mil- 
itary burden,  insistence  on  fulfillment  of 
the  Peace  Treaty,  the  supplementing  of 
its  weak  points  by  defensive  alliances, 
and  its  modification  wherever  necessary 
in  favor  of  the  Allies. 

*       H:       H: 

Injuries  to  Mme.  Dornbluth 

rpHE  German  Government  has  filed  a 
J-  claim  for  substantial  damages  on  be- 
half of  Mme.  Dornbluth,  the  shorthand 
typist  said  to  have  been  injured  by  a 
missile  when  the  German  Peace  Delega- 
tion was  leaving  Versailles.  French  in- 
vestigators of  this  episode  stated  that  a 
small  stone  thrown  by  some  overzealous 
French  patriot  had  struck  the  woman's 
tortoiseshell  comb  a  glancing  blow  with- 
out inflicting  injury.  The  German  Gov- 
ernment, however,  has  issued  a  medical 


report  covering  some  forty  pages,  which 
reviews  the  woman's  physiological  his- 
tory from  her  birth  to  the  present  time, 
and  gives  the  most  intimate  information 
of  the  manner  in  which  she  has  been  af- 
fected; the  terrible  results  on  her  deli- 
cate feminine  organism,  presumably  pro- 
duced by  the  impact  of  the  missile  on 
her  comb,  are  exhaustively  and  scientifi- 
cally set  forth,  with  the  assertion  that 
she  has  been  rendered  incapable  of  per- 
forming the  duties  of  wife  and  mother. 
The  report  ends  with  a  demand  for  a 
pension  of  1,000  marks  a  month  from 
the  French  Government. 

*  *     * 

French   Bonuses  for  Children 

AS  part » of  a  national  movement  to- 
ward repopulation,  a  number  of 
Paris  manufacturers  have  founded  an 
association  with  the  object  of  encourag- 
ing French  working  people  to  have  larger 
families.  This  association  has  drawn  up 
a  table  of  subsidies  to  be  paid  out  of  a 
central  fund  to  families  to  which  new 
children  are  born,  and  which  are  not  able 
to  meet  the  expenses  entailed.  For  the 
first  child  a  bounty  of  250  francs  is 
paid;  for  the  second  and  subsequent  chil- 
dren 150  francs  each.  A  bounty  of  30 
francs  monthly,  furthermore,  is  paid  to 
every  mother  who  nurses  her  children. 
For  families  in  need,  an  allowance  of  10 
francs  monthly  is  assigned  for  the  first 
child,  20  francs  for  the  second,  and  30 
francs  for  the  third  and  subsequent  chil- 
dren up  to  the  age  of  14.  All  payments 
are  to  be  made  to  the  mother  of  the 
children.  To  increase  the  funds  of  the 
association,  made  up  largely  of  metal 
manufacturers,  those  firms  whose  work- 
men are  mostly  bachelors  pay  an  addi- 
tional amount  into  the  treasury.  Similar 
associations,  according  to  Paris  advices 
of  March  5,  have  been  formed  in  other 
French  cities. 

*  *     * 

Hov^   France  Aids  the  Mutilated 

AN  important  meeting  of  the  National 
Office  for  Mutilated  and  Demobil- 
ized Soldiers  was  held  in  Paris  at  the 
Trocadero  on  Feb.  1.  It  was  presided 
over  by  President  Poincare,  with  whom 
sat  M.  Paul  Deschanel,  M.  Leon  Bour- 
geois, M.  Millerand,  and  Marshals  Foch 


43 


and  Petain.  Many  other  officials  of  the 
Government  were  present.  In  the  hall 
were  crowded  more  than  4,000  mutilated 
or  discharged  soldiers,  war  widows  and 
their  families.  Among  the  speakers  was 
M.  Henri  Cheron,  a  Senator  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  Administrative  Committee  of 
the  organization  which  had  convoked  the 
assembly.  In  the  course  of  his  address 
he  gave  an  official  account  of  what 
France  was  doing  for  her  mutilated  sol- 
diers. The  main  facts  presented  by  him 
were  as  follows: 

"  The  greatest  care  had  been  given  to 
the  process  of  re-education  of  incapaci- 
tated soldiers  under  the  supervision  of 
their  employers.  Work  was  being  found 
for  war  widows  burdened  with  children 
and  household  cares.  By  the  law  of 
March  31,  1919,  allowances  were  paid  to 
war  invalids  learning  a  new  trade. 
Scholarships  were  granted,  and  im- 
portant financial  assistance  was  being 
given  to  all  organizations  devoted  to 
mutilated  or  demobilized  soldiers  and  to 
war  widows.  Above  all,  the  service  of 
*  loans  of  honor '  had  been  established, 
according  to  which  the  classes  mentioned 
might  borrow  as  much  as  2,000  francs  to 
aid  them  to  establish  themselves  in  a  new 
business.  The  rate  of  interest  was  only 
1  per  cent.,  and  the  whole  amount  could 
be  repaid  within  a  maximum  period  of 
ten  years.  Departmental  committees 
could  advance  loans  of  300  francs  with- 
out seeking  instructions.  Labor  co- 
operative societies  three-fourths  of 
whose  workmen  were  mutilated  or  de- 
mobilized soldiers  or  war  widows  could 
obtain  12,000  francs  from  the  State  and 
6,000  francs  from  the  National  Office. 
An  allotment  of  5,000,000  francs  had 
been  decided  on  for  the  construction  and 
furnishing  of  houses  for  the  classes  in 
view.  Great  efforts  were  being  made  to 
cure  tuberculosis  contracted  in  the  army 
and  to  aid  the  families  of  those  afflicted 
with  this  scourge.  Close  relations  were 
being  maintained  with  all  employment 
agencies,  and  it  was  planned  to  pay  such 
agencies  a  subsidy  pro  rata  to  the  num- 
ber of  applicants  they  placed. 

From  this  official  statement  it  will  be 
seen  that  France,  whatever  other  coun- 
tries may  be  doing,  is  making  every 
effort  to  care  for  the  large  number  of 


her  soldiers  permanently  disabled,  to  pro- 
vide for  the  families  of  her  dead,  and  to 
secure  her  demobilized  soldiers  new  op- 
portunities to  obtain  a  livelihood. 

*  *     * 

British  Memorial  for  the  United 
States  Navy 

A  T  a  luncheon  given  by  the  English- 
-^  Speaking  Union  in  London  on  Feb. 
27  a  check  for  £6,000  was  handed  to 
Ambassador  Davis  for  the  erection  in 
New  York  Harbor  of  a  monument  to 
commemorate  the  work  of  the  United 
States  Navy  in  the  European  war.  The 
sum  represented  an  overflow  from  a 
fund  originally  raised  to  set  up  a  me- 
morial at  the  Straits  of  Dover  in  honor 
of  the  combined  British  and  French 
naval  forces  that  kept  the  Germans  from 
passing.  Walter  H.  Long,  M.  P.,  First 
Lord  of  the  British  Admiralty,  in  pre- 
senting the  check  eulogized  the  action 
of  the  American  naval  authorities  in 
placing  a  fleet  of  destroyers  under 
British  control  at  Queenstown  soon  after 
America  entered  the  war ;  it  was,  he  said, 
an  act  of  highest  loyalty,  which  enabled 
the  British  at  once  to  reinforce  the  Dover 
patrol  and  make  it  efficient.  Speaking 
of  the  North  Sea  mine  barrage,  he  said: 
"That  was  laid  by  the  Americans  with 
wonderful  skill,  and  was  most  important. 
It  drove  the  Germans  down  to  Dover, 
where  the  patrol  caught  them."  Am- 
bassador Davis  said  in  reply  that  Ameri- 
can officers  asked  nothing  better  than  to 
be  classed  as  worthy  colleagues  of  the 
British  in  the  long  and  arduous  vigil 
which  enabled  1,110,000  American  sol- 
diers to  cross  the  Channel  and  return  in 
safety,  and  that  he  rejoiced  to  know  that 
there  would  be  a  permanent  memorial  of 
the  co-operation  of  British  and  American 
sailors  in  achieving  the  common  aim. 

*  *     * 

Soldier- Actors  in  Hardy's  "  Dynasts  " 

n'IHE  performance  of  Thomas  Hardy's 
-'-  monumental  epic-drama  of  the  Na- 
poleonic era,  "  The  Dynasts,"  at  Oxford 
University  in  the  week  of  Feb.  9  was 
an  event  unique  in  several  respects.  Mr. 
Hardy  is  the  first  living  dramatist  whose 
work  has  ever  been  produced  by  the 
Oxford  University  Dramatic  Society. 
His  play,  though  dealing  with  a  war  of 


44 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


a  past  period,  symbolized  the  same  quali- 
ties that  won  the  great  war  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  Among  the  actors  were 
men  who  had  fought  and  endured  on  the 
bloody  battlefields  of  France  and  who 
had  won  a  place  in  history  beside  the 
soldiers  of  Wellington  and  the  sailors 
6f  Nelson.  The  author,  now  80  years  old, 
was  present  in  person.  The  theatre  was 
packed  to  suffocation,  many  great 
notables  of  Oxford  and  London  being 
present;  and  the  gigantic  war  panorama 
unrolled  by  Hardy's  colossal  conception, 
which  had  always  been  pronounced  un- 
actable, was  witnessed  with  a  tenseness 
of  mood  and  a  concentrated  interest  such 
as  few  current  dramatic  performances 
could  produce. 

Railways  100  Years  Old 

THE  old  adage  that  great  things  start 
from  small  beginnings  was  brought 
out  anew  by  the  arrangement  in  Feb- 
ruary at  Yarm,  England,  of  a  centenary 
celebration  of  the  first  railway  in  the 
world.  This  pioneer  railway  was  built  in 
1821  in  the  North  Country  district,  be- 
tween Stockton-on-Tees  and  the  South 
Durham  coal  fields,  to  the  west  of  Dar- 
lington. The  history  of  this  epoch-mak- 
ing event  is  briefly  as  follows: 

Since  1767  efforts  had  been  made  to 
promote  a  canal  practically  over  this 
came  route,  at  an  estimated  expense  of 
a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds.  It  proved, 
however,  that  the  public  was  averse  to 
investing  in  this  enterprise,  from  which 
it  saw  no  adequate  return.  The  first 
public  suggestion  of  a  railway  was  made 
on  Sept.  18,  1810,  at  a  dinner  held  at  the 
Town  Hall,  Stockton-on-Tees,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Tees  Navigation  Com- 
pany, to  celebrate  the  shortening  of  the 
water  route  to  the  sea  by  about  two  and 
a  quarter  mile.  A  resolution  was  moved 
by  Leonard  Raisebeck,  the  Recorder  of 
Stockton,  that  a  committee  should  be  ap- 
pointed "  to  inquire  into  the  practicabil- 
ity and  advantage  of  a  railway  or  canal 
from  Stockton,  by  Darlington  and  Win- 
ston, for  the  more  easy  and  expeditious 
carriage  of  coals,  lead,  &c."  From  this 
resolution  was  born  a  definite  project  to 
construct  such  a  railroad. 

But  the  execution  of  the  project  was 


long  in  mc.terializing.  It  was  not  until 
1818  that  Mr.  Overton,  an  eminent  South 
Wales  engineer,  was  asked  to  make  a 
definite  survey  of  the  proposed  route. 
The  estimated  cost  was  fixed  at  £124,- 
000.  After  meetings  of  the  committee 
of  promoters  were  held  in  Darlington, 
Stockton  and  Yarm  a  bill  was  presented 
in  Parliament  in  1819  to  authorize  the 
undertaking;  but  owing  to  the  opposition 
of  local  landlords,  led  by  the  Earl  of 
Darlington,  the  bill  was  rejected  by  a 
majority  vote.  At  the  George  and  Drag- 
on Hotel  in  the  quaint  old  town  of 
Yarm,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Tees, 
the  committee  of  promoters  held  new 
meetings,  affirmed  their  determination 
to  carry  out  their  plan,  drafted  a  new 
bill,  and  collected  subscriptions  for  £120,- 
900. 

Owing  to  the  death  of  King  George 
III.  this  new  bill  was  not  presented  un- 
til the  opening  session  of  Parliament  in 
the  following  year,  when  it  finally  passed 
both  houses  and  received  the  royal  sanc- 
tion in  April,  1821,  and  became  the  first 
Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  act. 

There  was  no  provision  in  the  original 
act  authorizing  the  use  of  steam  power, 
as  it  was  merely  intended  to  use  horse 
traction  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  the 
trucks  of  coal  and  other  goods,  with 
coaches  containing  passengers,  along  the 
line  of  route.  Late  in  1821,  however, 
George  Stephenson  came  from  Killing- 
worth,  in  Northumberland,  and  advo- 
cated the  use  of  steam  engines.  The  pro- 
moters were  so  much  impressed  that 
shortly  afterward  they  put  a  new  bill 
through  Parliament  authorizing  the  use 
of  the  steam  engine  and  secured  the 
services  of  Mr.  Stephenson  for  laying 
down  the  line  of  rails.  He  also  supplied 
them  with  their  first  engine,  "  Locomo- 
tive No.  1,"  which  may  now  be  seen  on 
a  pedestal  in  the  Darlington  railway 
station.  Two  more  engines  were  after- 
ward ordered  at  a  cost  of  £500  each.  So 
the  vast  system  of  railways  that  covers 
the  whole  civilized  world  was  bom,  and 
in  celebration  of  the  event  the  City  of 
Yarm  is  preparing  to  hold  a  great  cen- 
tenary banquet  in  1921,  to  which  the 
Prime  Minister  and  many  notables  have 
been  invited. 


AMONG   THE    NATIONS 

Survey  of  Important  Events  and  Developments  in  Various 
Countries  in  Both  Hemispheres 

[Period  Ended  March  15,  1920] 


The  British  Empire 


ENGLAND 


r  I IHE   policy  of   attempting  to  open 
trade  with  Soviet  Russia  was  an- 


1 


nounced  in  the  middle  of  January 
by  the  British  Government;  a 
month  later  it  announced  another  which 
met  with  even  more  antagonism — the 
policy  of  maintaining  the  political  and 
religious  head  of  Turkey  at  Constanti- 
nople. 

Never  had  there  been  more  bitter  de- 
nunciation against  a  Government  by  the 
British  press — religious,  political,  eco- 
nomic and  sentimental — than  those 
launched  against  the  Lloyd  George  Gov- 
ernment for  its  utter  disregard  of  all 
British  and  Christian  traditions.  To  the 
plea  of  expediency  advanced  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, that  with  millions  of  Moslems 
under  British  rule,  it  should  do  nothing 
that  would  tend  to  alienate  them  from 
the  empire,  it  was  answered  that  the 
attitude  of  the  Right  Hon.  E.  S,  Montagu, 
Secretary  of  State  for  India,  in  at- 
tempting to  represent  Indian  Moslem 
opinion  in  this  respect,  was  open  to  sus- 
picion, as  the  Indian  Moslem  cared  very 
little  about  the  Turkish  Sultan  and 
Caliph,  but  that  the  Government  had 
been  forced  through  pressure  from 
France  and  fear  lest  a  revived  Russia 
might  some  day  unite  with  the  Turks 
and  claim  Constantinople. 

An  event  of  far-reaching  political  sig- 
nificance was  the  return  of  former 
Premier  Herbert  H.  Asquith  to  the 
House  of  Commons  as  a  result  of  the 
Paisley  by-election,  which  was  announced 
as  follows  on  Feb.  25 :  Mr.  Asquith,  who 
was  the  Liberal  nominee,  polled  14,736 
votes,  against  11,902  for  J.  M.  Biggar, 
the  Labor  candidate,  and  3,795  for  J.  A. 
D.  MacKean,  Coalition-Unionist. 

Paisley  was  the  eighth  seat  lost  by 
the  Coalition  during  the  fourteen  months 


which    have    passed    since    the    general 
election,  the  others  being: 


EDWIN  S.    MONTAGU 

Secretary  of  State  for  India 

(©    Harris    &    Ewing) 


WON   BY   INDEPENDENT    LIBERALS 

1919 

March  14— West  Leyton   (A.   E.  Newbould). 

April  11— Central  Hull  (Commander  J.  M. 
Ken  worthy). 

April  30— Central  Aberdeen  (Major  Macken- 
zie Wood). 

WON   BY   THE   LABOR    PARTY 

1919 
July  29— Bothwell   (J.   Robertson). 
Sept.   12— Widnes   (A.  Henderson). 

1920 
Jan.   3— Spen  Valley    (T.    Myers). 


46 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


WON    BY   AN    INDEPENDENT 
1920 

Feb.  20— The  Wrekin  (C.  Palmer). 
The  return  of  Mr.  Asquith  to  active 
political  life,  although  on  one  hand  it 
defeated  a  Coalition  Unionist,  and  on 
the  other  prevented  the  probable  seating 
of  a  Laborite  candidate,  is  regarded, 
even  by  certain  Coalition  officials,  as  a 
healthful  sign  of  British  politics,  as  it 
means  a  more  rational  and  dignified 
leadership  for  the  Opposition. 

On    Feb.    24    the    Secretary    of    War, 
Winston   Churchill,   announced   the   new 
army  policy  along  the  following  lines: 
On   the  31st   of  March  there  will  be   no 
conscription. 

We  alone  of  the  European  Nations, 
though  having  by  far  the  greatest  extent 
of  territory  to  control,  will  have  returned 
to   the  voluntary  system. 

Our  normal  army  will  be  weaker  than 
the   Belgian  Army. 

The  only  great  nation  wliom  we  have 
succeeded  in  persuading  to  abolish  con- 
scription is  Germany. 

It  is  idle  to  pretend  that  before  the  war 
the  army  was  proportionate  to  the  risks 
we  ran  or  to  the  part  in  European  policy 
that  we   played. 

New  and  serious  responsibilities— tempo- 
rary and  permanent— have  been  placed  on 
us  in  consequence  of  the  war,  and  the 
whole  of  the  Eastern  world,  in  which  we 
are  more  than  any  other  power  interested, 
is   in   a   state   of   extreme   disquiet. 

No  further  relief  from  the  burdens 
which  we  have  to  bear  can  be  looked  for 
until  real  peace   is  made  with  Turkey. 

We  lost  ground  steadily  during  the 
whole  of  last  year,  and  I  trust  that,  hav- 
ing dispersed  our  armies,  we  will  not 
now  take  steps  which  would  drive  the 
Turkish  people  to  despair,  or  undertake 
any  new  obligations  which  our  resources 
are   not  equal   to  discharge. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  number 
of  men  and  the  money  required  to  dis- 
charge our  responsibilities  in  the  Middle 
East,  but  the  Government  has  decided 
to  tkke  an  optimistic  view,  and  has 
made  provision  in  the  estimates  which 
involve  during  the  coming  financial  year 
a  reduction  in  the  garrisons  in  the  Middle 
East  of  about  half. 

I  favor  a  steady  increase  of  the  air 
force  at  the  expense  of  the  army  and 
navy,  and  believe  that  will  be  the  ten- 
dency  year   by    year. 

The  foregoing  policy  was  severely 
criticised  by  the  military  experts  of 
nearly  all  the  London  papers  as  being  a 
too  drastic  reduction  of  the  empire's  mili- 
tary establishment  at  a  time  when  con- 
ditions in  Germany  and  Turkey  were  still 


unsettled  and  when  the  French  Govern- 
ment was  adopting  an  altogether  dif- 
ferent policy. 

Although  the  National  Conference  of 
Coal  Miners  voted  on  March  10  for  a 
general  strike  and  "  direct  action "  in 
order  to  enforce  their  demand  for  the 
nationalization  of  the  mines — and  this  by 
a  majority  of  178,000  votes — ^^on  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  Trade  Union  Congress 
voted  against  such  action  by  a  majority 
of  2,820,000,  but  advocated  legal  political 
action  by  a  majority  of  2,717,000.  The 
London  and  provincial  press  severely 
condemned  the  action  of  the  various 
unions  barring  from  employment  war 
cripples,  especially  after  the  Govern- 
ment and  private  vocational  organiza- 
tions had  spent  millions  in  making  them 
useful. 

IRELAND 

On  Feb.  25  the  new  Home  Rule  bill, 
already  outlined  by  the  Prime  Minister, 
(See  Current  History  for  February), 
was  formally  introduced  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  While  armed  and  more  or 
less  bloody  conflict  continued  in  Ireland 
between  the  Dublin  Castle  authorities 
and  the  Sinn  Fein,  the  chief  political 
events  which  followed  the  introduction  of 
the  bill  were  as  follows :  The  Government 
promised  Ireland  even  more  freedom  of 
action  in  case  the  measure  were  accepted ; 
the  Ulster  factions,  although  still  opposed 
to  any  steps  which  might  lead  to  separa- 
tion from  the  empire,  promised  support 
to  the  bill;  while  great  surprise  in  both 
Governmental  and  Opposition  circles  was 
expressed  when  Mr.  Asquith  on  March 
11  raised  the  following  objection  to  the 
bill  which  was  about  to  pass  to  its  second 
reading  in  the  House : 

That  this  House  declines  to  proceed  with 
a  measure  which  is  inacceptable  to  any 
section  of  the  Irish  Nation,  which  denies 
national  unity  by  setting  up  the  Legisla- 
tures and  executives  with  co-ordinate 
powers,  and  which  would  indefinitely 
postpone  the  establishment  of  a  united 
parliament  for  Ireland. 

This  statement  was  supposed  to  voice 
the  Liberal  objection  to  the  bill,  and  was 
regarded  as  a  mere  political  move  to 
weaken  the  Coalition.  It  was  hailed  with 
delight  by  the  South  of  Ireland  press. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


47 


AUSTRALIA 

Australia  is  rejoicing  in  a  peace  exhi- 
bition at  Adelaide,  which  will  remain 
open  till  May  22,  but  there  has  been 
internal  war  over  a  strike  of  marine 
engineers  lasting  for  ten  weeks,  which 
seriously  affected  interstate  trade.  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  tons  of  ship- 
ping were  idle  and  25,000  workers  were 
idle  on  the  land.    On  the  other  hand,  the 


WILLIAM    M.    HUGHES 
Australian  Premier 
(©   Harris    d    Etving) 


shipping  ring  was  refusing  accommoda- 
tion to  firms  who  patronized  the  Com- 
monwealth Government  steamers,  and 
was  clamoring  for  the  sale  of  the  latter 
to  private  owners.  This  Premier  Hughes 
refused  on  the  ground  that  the  shipping 
ring  would  advance  freights  if  the  Com- 
monwealth fleet  were  sold.  The  strike 
was  finally  settled  on  Feb.  23. 

The  cost  of  living  was  rapidly  rising 
in  the  chief  Australian  cities.  The  farm- 


ers at  an  interstate  conference  at  Mel- 
bourne in  February  unanimously  sup- 
ported a  proposal  to  form  a  compulsory 
wheat  pool  controlled  by  representatives 
of  the  producers,  but  Premier  Hughes 
refused  to  sanction  it.  The  State  of 
Victoria  on  its  own  account  then  bought 
9,000,000  bushels  of  Victorian  wheat  at 
7s.  8d.  to  meet  the  State's  requirements. 
In  Western  Australia  the  Government 
is  running  State  butter  factories. 

England  is  now  selling  at  a  great 
profit  her  surplus  stock  of  wool  bought 
during  the  war  from  Australia.  The 
understanding  at  the  time  of  the  pur- 
chase was  that  profits  from  resale,  if 
any,  should  be  divided  equally  between 
the  home  Government  and  Australia. 
The  Australians  are  now  urging  imme- 
diate division,  and  the  wool  growers  are 
demanding  that  they  be  paid  at  a  rate 
corresponding  to  the  huge  profits  re- 
ceived in  England.  There  was  also  a 
housing  crisis  in  the  cities,  the  building 
trade  employes  deciding  to  restrict  work 
to  forty  hours  a  week.  State-controlled 
hotels  in  Western  Australia,  showed  a 
large  excess  of  receipts. 

To  overawe  and  cripple  the  strikers  in 
all  branches  the  Federal  Government  for- 
bade the  banks  "  or  any  "one  else  "  to  give 
money  or  goods  to  the  strikers  or  to  do 
anything  to  prolong  the  strikes.  This 
drastic  regulation  proved  abortive.  It 
was  taken  up  politically  by  the  National- 
ists, who  were  preparing  concerted  action 
to  resist  its  enforcement  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  a  blow  at  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen.  Premier  Holman  of  New  Zealand, 
which  was  also  torn  by  strikes,  con- 
demned the  regulation  as  autocratic,  say- 
ing Australia  would  be  no  fit  place  for 
British  citizens  to  live  in  if  such  a 
misuse  of  power  should  pass  without  con- 
demnation. 

The  new  Commonwealth  Parliament 
met  on  Feb.  26.  The  Nationalists,  under 
Mr.  Hughes,  have  39  seats  in  the  lower 
house,  the  Labor  Party  26,  and  the 
"Country  Party"  (anti-labor)  10.  The 
Laborites  are  furious  at  the  collapse  of 
the  strike,  which  they  attribute  to  Pre- 
mier Hughes's  use  of  war  powers  to  pro- 
hibit the  banks  from  giving  money  to  the 
men.     Industrial  and  immigration  qjies- 


48 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


tions  are  the  principal  topics  before  the 
Parliament. 

New  Zealand,  in  spite  of  its  labor 
troubles,  is  inviting  immigrants,  offering 
bonuses  in  money,  besides  the  price  of 
their  passage,  to  farm  laborers  and  their 
wives,  domestic  servants  and  other  work- 
ers, and  guarantees  employment  to 
former  soldiers  who  are  now  assisted  by 
Great  Britain. 

CANADA 

Canadians,  with  their  Parliament  in 
session,  are  discussing  a  number  of  mat- 
ters economic  and  political  that  are  of 
international  interest.  These  include 
Admiral  Viscount  Jellicoe^s  report  on  a 
proposed  naval  policy  for  the  country, 
made  at  the  request  of  the  Government; 
the  report  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Rutherford  on 
race  tracks  and  race  track  betting  in  the 
country;  the  introduction  of  a  new  Fed- 
eral franchise  bill  giving  the  suffrage 
to  all  qualified  persons  irrespective  of 
sex  at  the  age  of  21  years  and  over,  and 
the  request  of  prohibition  organizations 
for  legislation  that  will  make  it  possible 
for  any  province  to  be  "  bone  dry." 

Admiral  Jellicoe's  report  presents  four 
building  programs  from  which  Canada 
might  make  a  choice  for  the  beginning 
of  a  navy.  These  are  based  on  annual 
outlays  of  $5,000,000,  $10,000,000,  $17,- 
500,000,  and  $25,000,000  respectively. 
They  are  so  arranged  that  the  country 
could  start  with  the  smaller  and  build  up 
to  the  larger  plan  if  desired.  The  fullest 
possible  amount  of  local  control  is  out- 
lined with  training  and  ships  so  co- 
related  to  those  of  the  British  Navy  or 
the  whole  naval  force  of  the  empire  that 
the  Canadian  force  could  at  once  join 
with  it  in  time  of  war  and  not  be  a 
misfit.  At  first  there  would  necessarily 
be  a  preponderance  of  British  officers 
in  the  higher  commands.  Steps  toward 
the  training  of  Canadians  to  fit  them  for 
these  positions  are  outlined,  and  it  is 
also  suggested  that  the  Canadian  ships 
should  join  the  British  fleet  every  year 
for  the  annual  manoeuvres. 

The  $10,000,000  program  seems  to  be 
favored  by  Jellicoe  as  the  one  that  Canada 
should  begin  with.  It  would  enable  her 
to  protect  her  own  coasts  or  to  do  a 
good  deal  toward  that.     This  plan  calls 


for  three  light  cruisers,  one  flotilla 
leader,  eight  submarines,  one  submarine 
parent  ship,  eight  "  P  "  boats  for  patrol, 
and  four  trawler  mine  sweepers.  The 
Government  has  not  committed  itself  to 
any  plan  at  the  time  of  writing.  Admiral 
Jellicoe  intimates  that  the  initial  outlay 
on  ships  would  be  lightened  by  the  gift 
of  several  vessels  which  the  British 
Admiralty  could  spare,  since  it  has 
greatly  reduced  its  fleet  strength  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  war  period. 

A  projected  Canadian  navy  has  been 
the  subject  of  bitter  controversies  at 
various  intervals  in  the  past  twenty 
years,  and  any  plan  now  presented  will 
be  warmly  debated  in  Parliament  and 
throughout  the  Dominion.  The  Toronto 
Star  holds  that  any  policy  committing 
the  country  to  heavy  expenditures  and 
a  given  course  of  action  for  years  to 
come  should  be  submitted  to  the  people 
in  a  general  election. 

With  the  ratification  of  peace  early 
in  the  year  the  Canadian  order  in  coun- 
cil which  prohibited  betting  on  race 
tracks,  and  which  had  been  in  force  since 
1918,  automatically  ceased.  As  a  result 
of  the  order,  horse  racing  had  been  sus- 
pended. Racing  interests  are  now  vigor- 
ously at  work  and  are  looking  forward 
to  a  successful  season.  They  have 
awaited  the  report  on  the  inqyiry  by 
Dr.  Rutherford  with  some  eagerness, 
anticipating  that  the  Government  would 
use  it  as  a  basis  for  legislation.  He 
makes  no  recommendations,  but  empha- 
sizes certain  facts  brought  out  as  the 
result  of  his  investigation  from  coast  to 
coast.  Under  present  conditions  it  is 
possible,  he  says,  to  hold  288  days  of 
racing  in  Canada.  Long-continued  meets 
with  betting  as  a  public  adjunct  "  are 
likely  in  the  communities  in  which  they 
are  held  to  exert  a  bad  influence  on 
young  and  inexperienced  men  and 
others  lacking  in  self-control  and  moral 
stamina."  He  dwells  upon  multiplica- 
tion of  tracks  in  and  around  the  larger 
cities  and  trafficking  in  race  track  char- 
ters made  possible  through  lack  of  pro- 
vision for  adequate  provincial  or  Federal 
control. 

The  introduction  by  the  Government 
of  a  new  franchise  bill  is  in  keeping 
with  a  promise  in  the  speech  from  the 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


49 


throne.  It  is  best  described  in  the  words 
of  its  sponsor,  the  Hon.  Hugh  Guthrie, 
Solicitor  General :  "  The  franchise,  ac- 
cording to  the  terms  of  the  bill,  has  been 
established  upon  very  broad  principles. 
The  only  requirements  will  be  those  of 
British  citizenship,  residence  in  Canada 
for  one  year  and  in  the  particular  con- 
stituency for  two  months,  and  the  attain- 
ment of  the  age  of  21  years;  and  these 
requirements  will  apply  in  the  case  of 
male  and  female  voters  alike."  British 
citizenship  is  to  be  construed  as  by  birth 
or  naturalization. 

EGYPT  AND  SOMALILAND 

In  Egypt  little  progress  has  been  made 
by  the  Milner  Mission  in  its  attempt  to 
reach  a  peaceful  urxderstanding  with  the 
Nationalist  leaders,  who  demand  the  abo- 
lition of  the  protectorate  and  absolute 
separation  from  the  British  Empire. 
Rushdi  Pasha,  formerly  Prime  Minister, 
plainly  told  the  mission  that  no  solution 
was  possible  without  the  participation  of 
the  Egyptian  Nationalist  delegation, 
headed  by  Zaglul  Pasha.  The  latter  re- 
mained in  Paris  ready  to  present  a  plea 
to  the  League  of  Nations  while  the  mis- 
sion began  its  inquiries  in  Alexandria 
and  Cairo,  being  generally  boycotted. 

The  unprecedented  event  of  a  woman, 
said  to  be  an  American,  addressing  the 
Moslems  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the 
Mosque  of  El  Azhar  helped  to  swell  the 
sentiment  for  independence,  while  a  Cairo 
lawyer,  Abu  Shadi,  caused  trouble  in  the 
Delta  by  his  inflammatory  speeches  at 
Tantah.  A  British  Corporal  was  killed 
and  two  soldiers  wounded  in  the  ensuing 
riots.  Attempts  at  assissination  con- 
tinue. Soon  after  the  conviction  of  the 
Coptic  student  who  threw  a  bomb  at 
Wahba  Pasha,  formerly  Prime  Minister, 
on  Jan.  28,  another  youth,  who  escaped, 
hurled  a  similar  missile  at  Sirri  Pasha, 
Minister  of  Public  Works,  and  on  Feb. 
22  a  bomb  was  thrown  at  Shafik  Pasha, 
Minister  of  Agriculture.  In  the  latter 
case  two  arrests  were  made.  General 
Allenby  returned  to  Cairo  on  Feb.  16 
from  a  tour  of  the  Sudan  Provinces,  and 
was  met  with  Nationalist  demonstrations 
at  the  principal  railway  stations  from 
Assouan  to  Cairo. 


The  Milner  Mission,  it  should  be  re- 
membered, is  merely  a  Committee  of  In- 
quiry. Real  negotiations  with  the  Egyp- 
tians are  likely  to  be  concluded  in  Lon- 
don. One  reform  practically  determined 
upon  is  the  abolition  of  the  capitulations 
of  consular  courts  by  which  foreign  Con- 
suls try  cases  that  may  arise  between 
their  nationals  and  natives.  These,  de- 
pending upon  treaties,  can  only  be  abol- 
ished with  the  consent  of  the  Govern- 
ments concerned,  which,  however,  it  is 
believed  will  be  easily  obtained.  This  is 
the  precedent  followed  when  France  pro- 
claimed a  protectorate  over  Tunis. 

Of  greater  importance  to  the  pros- 
perity of  Egypt  is  the  vast  Anglo- 
Egyptian  irrigation  project  to  regulate 
the  waters  of  the  Nile.  Very  compli- 
mentary to  the  United  States  was  the 
selection  of  an  American  to  be  the  third 
member  of  the  Committee  of  Inquiry 
which  is  to  draw  up  plans  for  the  scheme, 
in  order  to  avail  itself  of  the  wide  knowl- 
edge in  this  country  on  questions  of  ir- 
rigation and  water  supply.  It  is  also 
proposed  to  extend  the  Egyptian  Rail- 
way from  Suakim  to  Tokar,  fifty  miles 
further  south.  In  this  connection  the 
death  of  Colonel  M.  E.  Sowerby,  Under 
Secretary  of  Communications,  who  died 
in  Cairo  on  Jan.  28,  is  a  great  loss  to  the 
country.  It  was  he  who  completed  and 
administered  the  railway  to  Palestine 
during  General  Allenby's  advance.  An- 
other upbuilder  of  Africa,  Kaid  Sir  Harry 
Maclean,  died  on  Feb.  4  in  Tangier.  He 
was  instructor  to  the  Moorish  Army  un- 
der the  late  Sultan  and  was  instrumental 
in  clearing  Morocco  of  bandits,  being 
captured  by  Raisuli  on  one  of  his  ex- 
peditions and  held  for  seven  months,  the 
British  Government  paying  $100,000  to 
obtain  his  release. 

There  appears  to  be  the  same  profiteer- 
ing by  landlords  in  Cairo  as  there  is  in 
London,  New  York  and  other  large  cities. 
To  meet  the  situation  a  law  has  been 
passed  in  Egypt  forbidding  house  rents 
to  exceed  by  50  per  cent,  the  amount 
paid  on  Aug.  1,  1914. 

A  very  important  event  for  the  safety 
of  Somaliland  and  of  all  East  Africa  was 
the  defeat  in  February  of  Mohammed 
Abdullah,  the  "Mad   Mullah"  who   for 


50 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


nearly  twenty  years  has  been  ravaging 
the  interior,  preventing  settlement  and 
arousing  the  native  rites  against  foreign- 
ers. Millions  have  been  expended  in  the 
attempt  to  curb  his  activities.  An  ex- 
pedition was  sent  against  him  in  1901, 
another  in  1902  and  a  third  in  1903, 
in  which  the  Abyssinian  Army  co-op- 
erated; 200  Sikhs  were  outnumbered  and 
beaten.  In  1904  the  Mad  Mullah  was 
severely  defeated  and  made  peace  in 
1905.  Three  years  later  he  began  his  at- 
tacks again  and  has  continued  his  rav- 
ages sporadically  ever  since.  Now  his 
forces  have  been  scattered  and  he,  him- 
self, is  a  refugee  in  Italian  Somaliland 
after  a  campaign  of  three  weeks. 

Concentrating  at  Berbera,  on  the  coast, 
a  force  of  180  men  of  the  British  Air, 
Force  started  out  in  a  fleet  of  bombing 
airplanes  on  Jan.  20,  attacked  the  Mad 
Mullah's  headquarters  at  Medishi,  200 
miles  east  of  Berbera,  the  next  day,  and, 
flying  low,  inflicted  heavy  casualties  on 
the  fleeing  dervishes.  The  Mad  Mullah 
himself  had  a  narrow  escape,  his  uncle 
being  killed  by  his  side  and  his  own 
clothes  being  singed.  For  three  days  at- 
tacks continued  until  the  dervish  force 
was  scattered  among  the  hills.  Then  a 
land  force  joined  in  the  pursuit,  occupy- 
ing Jidballi  Fort  on  Jan.  28.  The  Mad 
Mullah  was  reported  making  for  Tale, 
which  was  bombed  on  Feb.  1  and  occu- 
pied by  the  land  force  on  Feb.  11.  The 
Mad  Mullah,  with  only  seventy  horsemen, 
fled  toward  the  frontier  of  Italian  So- 
maliland. The  Italians  from  their  base 
at  Obbia  on  the  Indian  Ocean,  sent  a 
force  toward  Gagab,  in  Abyssinia,  to 
head  him  off. 

SOUTH  AFRICA 

Grave  political  and  economic  troubles 
have  recently  arisen  in  the  Union  of 
South  Africa,  where  there  have  been 
serious  mine  strikes  and  an  agitation  to 
separate  the  Union  from  the  British 
Empire.  The  irreconcilable  Boer  ele- 
ment chose  a  delegation  headed  by  Gen- 
eral Hertzog  and  planned  a  journey  to  . 
Paris  to  demand  independence  from  the 
Peace  Conference,  but  the  seamen  and 
firemen  of  the  steamer  on  which  they 
were  to  sail  refused  to  put  to  sea  with 


the  Nationalists  aboard.  Then  Admiral 
Fitzherbert  offered  to  give  passage  to 
General  Hertzog's  delegation  aboard  the 
British  warship  Minerva.  The  National- 
ists, covered  with  ridicule,  declined,  but 
continued  their  agitation  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Transvaal  and 
Orange  Free  State.  They  put  up  candi- 
dates in  97  of  the  134  constituencies  of 
the  South  African  Parliament,  but  failed 
to  carry  a  majority  of  the  seats  in  the 
elections,  which  took  place  on  March  10. 

Jan  Christian  Smuts,  the  Premier,  won 
an  overwhelming  victory  in  Pretoria 
West,  receiving  1,720  votes  against  473 
Nationalist  and  303  Labor  votes.  The 
Labor  Party,  however,  gained  many  seats 
in  the  House  of  Assembly,  and  it  was 
evident  that  there  would  be  some  diffi- 
culty in  forming  the  new  Ministry. 

General  Smuts  made  a  tour  of  the 
country  in  which  he  blamed  the  National- 
ists for  causing  the  mine  strikes  among 
the  natives,  involving  30,000  blacks  in 
the  Witwatersrand  gold  fields  alone.  The 
color  line  is  drawn  tightly  by  the  trade 
unions  and  white  workers.  The  latter 
are  generally  foremen  and  overseers,  the 
proportion  in  the  mines  being  one  white 
to  every  hundred  blacks.  The  blacks  are 
picketing  the  mines  and  doing  things 
which  General  Smuts  thought  them  in- 
capable of  doing.  Several  hundred  of 
them  attacked  white  miners  on  Feb.  25 
near  Johannesburg  and  a  pitched  battle 
ensued,  four  natives  being  killed,  thirty- 
five  injured  and  six  wounded.  A  dis- 
patch from  Johannesburg  dated  March 
3  announced  that  the  strike  had  been 
settled. 

INDIA 

Desultory  fighting  continued  on  the 
northwest  frontier  of  India,  and  official 
opinion  gradually  swerved  from  blaming 
Soviet  agents,  as  cause  of  the  revolt  of 
the  Afghan  tribes,  to  the  more  rational 
belief  in  the  duplicity  of  agents  of  the 
Turkish  Nationals. 

The  opposition  to  Delhi  as  the  capital 
of  British  India  was  brought  to  a  head 
by  a  resolution  moved  in  the  Imperial 
Legislative  Council  at  Delhi  proposing 
that  the  Government  of  India  should  be 
situated  in  one  place  throughout  the 
year.     The  resolution  was  rejected. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


51 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 


ALBANIA 

The  political  status  of  Albania  con- 
tinued to  be  anomalous.  Its  indepen- 
dence of  Turkey  was  proclaimed  at  Va- 
lona,  Nov.  28,  1912.  This  was  confirmed 
by  the  London  Ambassadorial  Conference 
a  month  later  with  the  proviso  that  a 
European  Prince  should  reign  there.  He 
came  in  the  person  of  the  German  Kais- 
er's kinsman,.  Prince  William  of  Wied, 
and  departed  with  the  war.  The  country 
has  now  a  native  Provisional  Govern- 
ment which  the  United  States  has  not 
recognized,  and  an  Italian  mandate  which 
it  has  recognized.'  The  Anglo-Franco- 
American  Adriatic  memorandum  of  Dec. 
9,  1919,  cut  off  Epirus,  or  the  southern 
part,  and  gave  it  to  Greece;  the  Anglo- 
Franco-Italian  proposals  of  a  month  later 
would  have  given  the  northern  part  as 
far  south  as  the  Drin  to  Serbia,  had 
President  Wilson  permitted. 

Meanwhile,  Constantine  A.  Chekrezi,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  was  appointed  on 
Feb.  19  the  Albanian  representative  at 
Washington.  The  State  Department  was 
so  informed  by  Louis  Bumchi,  Bishop  of 
Alessio,  head  of  the  Albanian  delegation 
at  Paris,  but  the  Harvard  man  cannot,  it 
is  said,  be  received  by  the  State  Depart- 
ment until  his  exequatur  shall  have  the 
vise  of  Italy. 

GREECE 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Council 
in  regard  to  Turkey  had  some  immediate 
results  in  the  Balkans.  M.  Venizelos, 
the  Greek  Premier,  offered  the  Council 
100,000  troops  to  maintain  order  on  the 
Cilician-Syrian  frontier  on  account  of  the 
opposition  with  which  the  French  troops 
were  meeting  at  the  outposts  north  of 
Aleppo  from  the  Turkish  Nationals,  Syr- 
ian volunteers  and  Arab  bands.  There 
was  general  satisfaction  that  the  Council 
had  decided  to  place  Eastern  Thrace  under 
Greek  authority.  The  Bulgarian  Gov- 
ernment, however,  issued  a  remonstrance, 
which,  though  dated  Sofia,  Feb.  20,  had 
been  drafted  in  ignorance  of  the  ultimate 
disposition  made  of  Eastern  Thrace  by 


the   Supreme   Council   five  days  before. 
It  read: 

Political  circles  and  public  opinion  in 
Bulgaria  are  closely  following  the  course 
of  the  deliberations  in  London,  The  re- 
ports received  here  regarding  the  deci- 
sions arrived  at,  or  to  be  arrived  at,  have 
aroused  considerable  excitement  by  rea- 
son of  the  close  connection  between  the 
fate  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  that  of 
the  former  Bulgarian  littoral  in  the 
Aegean   Sea. 

This  excitement  is  increased  by  the 
news  that  M,  Venizelos  was  admitted  to 
plead  before  the  Supreme  Council  for  the 
allocation  of  Thrace  to  Greece,  and  the 
possibility  of  such  an  allocation  has  ev- 
erywhere called  forth  loud  protests. 

In  view  of  this  eventuality,  the  Prime 
Minister,  M.  Stamboliisky,  and  the  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Madjaroff, 
called  upon  representatives  of  the  En- 
tente the  day  before  yesterday  (Feb  18) 
and  declared  to  them  that  the  Bulgarian 
people,  who  had  resigned  themselves  to 
giving  up  Western  Thrace  on  the  assurance 
that  it  would  enjoy  international  admis- 
istration,  would  never  tolerate  the  pres- 
ence of  Greece  at  the  outlet  of  its  natural 
ways  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the 
Aegean,  and  that  if,  contrary  to  all  ex- 
pectation, the  conference  in  London  were 
to  commit  this  act  of  injustice,  the  Gov- 
ernment would  no  longer  be  responsible 
for  the   consequences  of  the  decision. 

In  connection  with  this  M.  Stamboliisky 
declares  that  he  would  never  have  signed 
the  Peace  Treaty  had  he  known  that 
Thrace,  which  the  Allies  were  detaching 
from  Bulgaria,  would  be  handed  over  to 
the  Greeks. 

M.  Venizelos  made  several  notable 
speeches  in  the  Athens  Chamber  in  the 
middle  of  February  in  exposition  of  the 
policy  of  the  Liberal  Party.  He  dealt 
with  the  Agrarian  and  Labor  bills,  then 
under  discussion,  and  with  the  Royalist 
plot  for  the  restoration  of  King  Constan- 
tine. In  anticipation  of  the  successful 
passage  of  the  Agrarian  bill,  the  Gov- 
ernment had  already  partly  carried  out 
the  expropriations  on  a  large  scale  of 
big  landed  estates  and  their  resale  to 
small  farmers.  The  Labor  bill  provided 
for  the  regulation  of  strikes  and  the  ex- 
clusion from  labor  unions  of  all  persons 
not  genuine  native  workingmen.  Under 
the  bill  strikes  are  unlawful  unless  pre- 
ceded by  due  notice  and  recourse  to  Gov- 


52 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


eminent  arbitration  and  unless  voted  by 
a  real  majority  of  each  labor  union.  The 
attempt  to  limit  the  character  of  mem- 
bership in  the  unions  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  lawyers,  politicians  and  foreign  agi- 
tators had  used  the  unions  for  political 
and  anarchical  ends. 

M.  Venizelos  declared  that  he  had  been 
waited  upon  by  labor  delegates  from 
Athens  and  Piraeus  demanding  the  with- 
drawal of  the  bill.  In  declining  to  with- 
draw it,  he  had  said  that  the  Government 
was  determined  to  protect  not  only  so- 
ciety but  labor  itself  from  Bolshevism, 
and  he  reminded  the  delegates  that  the 
labor  element  of  Greece  formed  a  very 
small  minority,  and  the  Government, 
while  giving  every  protection  to  labor's 
legitimate  rights,  would  not  allow  any 
minority  to  force  its  pleasure  upon  the 
majority.  And  he  said  these  things  at 
the  risk  of  having  the  Labor  Party  with- 
draw its  support  from  the  Liberal  Gov- 
ernment. 

As  to  the  Royalist  plot,  he  admitted 
that  a  number  of  reactionaries  who  had 
been  deported  were  now  conspiring  for 
the  return  of  King  Constantine.  M. 
Gounaris  himself,  he  added,  now  a  fugi- 
tive in  Italy,  was  aiming  at  the  restora- 
tion of  Constantine.  There  was  really 
no  fear  of  these  reactionaries,  but  he 
thought  that  until  they  ceased  to  con- 
spire they  had  better  stay  out  of  Greece 
and  their  correspondence  home  be  care- 
fully censored. 

RUMANIA 

While  the  new  Prime  Minister,  M. 
Vaida-Voeved,  was  being  officially  and 
unofficially  entertained  in  London,  by- 
elections  for  the  Rumanian  Senate  took 
place  at  home,  which  were  said  by  the 
neutral  press  of  Bucharest  to  cast  dis- 
trust upon  his  Ministry,  formed  Dec.  5, 
and  the  Parliament  elected  the  month  be- 
fore, it  being  charged  that  the  newly  ac- 
quired territories  had  more  than  their 
share  of  portfolios  and  not  a  proportion- 
al number  of  seats. 

I  The  by-elections  for  the  Senate  took 
place  on  Feb.  7  and  8,  and  resulted  in 
the  election  of  all  the  candidates  repre- 
senting the  People's  League,  at  the  head 
of  which  is  General  Averesco.  The  Gen- 
eral himself  was  elected  not  only  in  the 


Old  Kingdom,  but  also  in  Bessarabia  and 
in  Transylvania.  At  the  November  elec- 
tions, it  will  be  recalled,  the  league,  in 
agreement  with  the  Democratic  Party, 
led  by  M.  Take  Jonescu  and  the  Social- 
ist Party,  abstained  from  voting,  as  they 
regarded  the  Government  of  the  General 
as  unconstitutional. 

M.  Take  Jonescu's  party,  considering 
that  the  Parliament  elected  at  that  time 
could  not  represent  the  country,  owing 
to  the  absentation  of  56  per  cent,  of  the 
electorate,  persisted  in  its  policy  and  re- 
fused to  have  anything  to  do  with  the 
by-elections  in  the  Old  Kingdom.  M. 
Jonescu,  however,  accepted  the  offer  of 
the  leaders  of  parties  in  Transylvania 
to  put  him  up  for  a  department  of  that 
liberated  province  as  a  testimony  to  his 
patriotic  attitude  during  the  war. 

On  March  15  information  received  in 
Rumanian  quarters  in  New  York  was  to 
the  effect  that  the  Cabinet  which  had 
been  formed  by  Alexander  Vaida-Voeved 
on  Dec.  9,  and  which,  during  his  absence 
in  London,  was  conducted  by  Acting  Pre- 
mier Kop,  had  resigned  and  that  King 
Ferdinand  had  asked  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  General  Fofoza  Averescu,  to 
form  a  new  Government. 

Rumania  was  raising  an  internal  loan 
of  2,000,000,000  lei  (about  $400,000,000), 
of  which  Bucharest  banks  had  subscribed 
600,000,000  lei  and  provincial  banks  very 
nearly  the  balance.  A  statement  was 
published  in  Bucharest  to  the  effect  that 
American  interests  had  offered  a  loan 
of  $4,000,000  in  exchange  for  the  Ru- 
manian petroleum  monopoly  over  a  period 
of  sixty  years.  This  was  denied  by  the 
Ministry  of  the  Treasury  in  an  inter- 
view, as  follows: 

A  loan  from  foreigm  sources,  however, 
will  be  necessary.  We  have  received 
many  proposals.  All  are  carefully  ex- 
amined. Nearly  all  of  them  are  accom- 
panied by  offers  to  sell  goods  or  have 
stipulations  for  some  monopoly.  What 
we  require  is  a  renewal  of  our  industrial 
plant  to  reconstruct  our  railways  and  to 
meet  the  wants  of  our  army,  which  has 
been  mobilized  since  1916.  First  it  was 
the  Hungarians  and  now  it  is  the  Bol- 
sheviki  who  force  us  to  keep  an  army  of 
twenty  divisions  on  the  frontiers. 

What  will  our  situation  be  if  Poland, 
followed  by  the  Entente  powers  under 
the  impulse  from  England  and  Italy,   en- 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


53 


ters  into  diplomatic  pourparlers  with  the 
Moscow  Government,  as  present  indica- 
tions seem  to  suggest  they  will  do?  Ru- 
mania more  than  any  other  country  has 
need  that  the  Entente  powers  should 
make  up  their  minds  as  to  what  common 
attitude  they  intend  to  take  up  in  regard 
to  the  Bolsheviki. 

SERBIA 

For  several  weeks  there  had  been  the 
alternative  before  the  Prince  Regent,  who 
most  of  the  time,  however,  was  sojourn- 
ing in  Paris  or  on  the  Riviera,  of  a  con- 
centration Cabinet  with  a  definite  man- 
date for  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  or 
the  formation  of  a  Government  from  the 
ranks  of  the  Opposition.  By  the  middle 
of  February  the  former  plan  had  been  re- 
jected; then  it  became  doubtful  whether 
there  was  the  necessary  majority  for  the 
latter.  Nevertheless,  after  M.  Vesnitch 
had  tried  in  vain  to  form  a  Coalition  Cab- 
inet, M.  Protitch  managed  to  form  one 
from  the  Opposition  on  Feb.  19.  As 
ultimately  revised  it  was  composed  of 
ten  Serbs,  four  Croats,  three  Slovenes 
and  one  Bosnian,  as  follows: 

Minister  President  and  Minister  for  the 
Constituent   Assembly,    M.    Protitch. 

Vice    President    and    Minister    of    Com- 
munications, M.   Koroschez. 

Commerce,   M.   Ribaratz. 

Finance,   M,   Jankowitch. 

Woods  and  Mines,  M.  Kovatchevish. 

Agrarian  Reform,  M.  Krnitsch. 

Food,    M.    Stanischitch. 

Interior,   M.    Trifkovitch. 

Foreign    Affairs,    M.    Trumbich    or    M. 
Spalajkovitch. 

Social  Policies,   Dr.   Schurmin. 

Posts,   M.  Drinkovitsch. 

Education,  M.   Trifunovitch. 

Religion,    M.    Jankovitch. 

Public  Works,   M.   Jovanovitch. 

Justice,    M,    Nintchich. 

Agriculture,    M.    Roskar. 

Health,   M.    Miletich. 

Owing  to  the  absence  of  M.  Trumbich 
with  the  Jugoslav  delegation  in  Paris, 
M.  Spalajkowitch  took  ad  interim  the 
foreign  portfolio,  and,  in  a  statement  on 
behalf  of  the  new  Administration,  desired 
two  points  to  be  emphasized  abroad: 
First,  that  the  Government  intended  to 
work  in  a  proper  constitutional  manner 
with  Parliament  and  had  every  hope 
of  being  able  to  do  so,  and,  second,  that 
a  conciliatory  reply  would  be  ready  on 
the  Adriatic  question  whenever  the  Su- 
preme Council  chose  to  ask  for  it. 


According  to  the  Politika  of  Belgrade 
the  names  of  both  M.  Hanzek  and  Dr. 
Hrastnitza,  who  had  at  first  been  in- 
cluded in  the  Cabinet,  were  nominees  of 
the  Croatian  National  Club,  which  had 
also  demanded  the  military  command  at 
Zagreb  (Agram)  for  officers  who  were 
reputedly  Austrophile.  M.  Protitch  dis- 
covered that  while  M.  Hanzek  had  identi- 
fied himself  with  Republican  propaganda. 
Dr.  Hrastnitza  was  undesirable  as  a  Cab- 
inet Minister  for  a  more  serious  reason, 
which  as  related  in  the  Politika  is  as 
follows: 

Two  months  ago  a  formal  request  was 
lodged  with  our  Minister  for  Foreign  Af- 
fairs that  proceedings  should  be  taken 
against  Dr.  All  Beg  Hrastnitza,  lawyer 
of  Serajevo,  accused  of  crimes  committed 
at  Kragujevatch  as  Austrian  Reserve  of- 
ficer and  of  participating  as  a  member 
of  the  court-martial  in  the  trial  of  peas- 
ants who,  although  innocent,  were  con- 
demned to   death  and  executed. 

The  International  Committee  of  Investi- 
gation has  ascertained  that  during  the 
proceedings  he  expressed  his  hatred  of 
Serbia  with  more  heat  and  brutality  than 
any  of  the  other  Judges. 

The  new  Government  was  said  to  have 
found  the  archives  of  the  Ministries  in 
a  deplorable  condition,  as  many  officials 
of  the  former  Goverment,  on  being  ap- 
pointed, had  received  immediate  leaves 
of  absence.  The  late  Finance  Minister 
was  found  to  have  sold  out  every  particle 
of  foreign  currency  in  order  to  embarrass 
his  successor.  Such  currency  had  been 
employed  to  stabilize  exchange.  Conse- 
quently the  American  dollar,  which  sold 
on  Feb.  16  for  21.20  dinars,  brought  24.50 
a  fortnight  later.  The  late  Government 
had  also  regulated  the  ratio  between  the 
dinar  and  the  crown  as  about  one  to  three. 
Before  the  war  each  was  worth  about 
20  cents,  and  now, while  the  dinar  is  used 
in  Serbia  the  crown  continues  to  be 
passed  in  former  Austrian  parts  of  Jugo- 
slavia. 

After  the  decree  in  regard  to  the 
ratio  the  merchants  in  the  non-Serbian 
part  of  Jugoslavia  attempted  to  restore 
the  equilibrium  by  advancing  their  prices 
three  times,  but  the  dinar  still  kept  that 
much  ahead.  One  of  the  first  petitions 
which  M.  Protitch  received  on  taking  of- 
fice was  one  from  the  Croats  which  de- 
manded that  the  crown  should  be  retired. 


54 


THU   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


but  on  a  basis  of  equality  with  the  dinar. 
These  crowns  are,  of  course,  the  legacy 
left  Jugoslavia  by  the  late  Dual  Mon-  * 
archy— part  of  the  50,000,000,000  bank- 
notes which  kept  the  presses  of  Vienna 
and  Budapest  working  at  full  pressure 
during  the  war,  and  to  which  Bela  Kun 
added  some  15,000,000,000.  Soon  after 
the  armistice  the  dinar  was  restored  in 
Serbia  by  the  simple  process  of  declining 
to  take  crowns,  but  elsewhere  in  Jugo- 
slavia there  was  no  other  currency  save 
the  crown,  and  when  the  people  there 
were  forced  to  buy  dinars  the  price  of 


the  dinar  in  crowns  went  up.  Even  at 
the  ratio  of  one  to  three  nobody  is  said 
to  care  to  part  with  dinars  for  crowns. 

It  was  announced  from  Washington  on 
Feb.  2  that  Dr.  Slavko  J.  Grouitch,  Min- 
ister of  the  Jugoslav  Government,  had 
been  recalled,  and  would  be  succeeded 
by  Jovan  M.  Jovanovitch,  who  has  been 
Minister  to  Great  Britain  for  the  past 
three  years.  Dr.  Grouitch  had  been 
named  Grand  Marshal  of  the  King's  Pal- 
ace, and  it  was  stated  semi-officially 
that  he  would  receive  the  charge  of  Min- 
ister to  Greece. 


Other  States  of  Continental  Europe 


AUSTRIA   . 

Dr.  Renner,  the  Austrian  Chancellor, 
accompanied  by  a  number  of  secre- 
taries, visited  Prague,  the  Czecho- 
slovak capital,  in  February,  thus 
taking  what  was  regarded  as  the 
first  step  toward  the  establishment  of 
normal  economic  and  other  relations 
between  these  two  countries.  The  visit 
had  special  reference  to  the  lack  of  coal 
in  Austria.  By  an  agreement  with  the 
Czechoslovak  Government  Austria  was 
to  have  been  supplied  with  a  certain 
amount  of  coal,  but  the  quantity  deliv- 
ered had  been  entirely  insufficient  to 
keep  the  Austrian  factories,  railways, 
gas  and  electric  plants  running,  besides 
leaving  practically  no  coal  for  domestic 
purposes.  In  explanation  of  the  failure 
to  keep  the  agreement  the  Czechs  de- 
clared that  their  country  also  was  suf- 
fering from  a  coal  shortage,  owing  to 
Radical  Socialist  agitation,  whereby  the 
output  of  the  Bohemian  and  Moravian 
mines  had  been  reduced  to  about  40  per 
cent. 

The  suffering  and  destitution  from 
lack  of  food  and  work  were  reported  as 
intensified,  with  but  slight  prospect  of 
relief  in  the  immediate  future. 

In  the  National  Assembly  all  parties 
were  unanimous  in  declaring  that  the 
proposals  of  the  Hungarian  Government 
for  a  plebiscite  in  West  Hungary  before 
its  evacuation  by  Hungarian  troops  were 
inacceptable.  Several  Deputies  asserted 
that    the    terrorism   prevailing   in    West 


Hungary  made  such  a  plebiscite  impossi- 
ble. 

An  open  letter  to  Trotzky  from  Fried- 
rich  Adler,  Austrian  Socialist  leader, 
was  published  in  Der  Kampf.  It  threw 
an  interesting  sidelight  on  the  Austrian 
revolution.  At  the  outbreak  of  that  rev- 
olution Adler  was  in  prison  for  shooting 
Premier  Sturghk  in  1916,  and  was  elect- 
ed an  "honorary  member  of  the  Pan 
Russian  Congress  of  Soviet  Delegates." 
At  the  same  time  Trotzky,  elated  at  the 
prospect  of  a  "world  revolution,"  imme- 
diately gave  orders  that  money  and  agi- 
tators be  sent  to  Austria  to  promote  Bol- 
shevism. Against  this  movement  Adler, 
as  leader  of  the  Austrian  Labor  Party, 
resolutely  set  his  face,  and  by  his  ac- 
tions saved  Austria  from  the  misfort- 
unes of  the  Communist  regime  in  Hun- 
gary. In  his  open  letter  to  Trotzky  cov- 
ering his  rejection  of  Bolshevist  over- 
tures Adler  said: 

I  am  not  in  a  position  to  judgre  how 
clearly  you  can  discern  the  movement  of 
the  times  and  its  influence  on  events  in 
Russia,  but  as  regards  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria you  have  been  constantly  falling  from 
one  illusion  to  another.  *  *  *  You  did 
not  send  funds  to  support  an  already  ex- 
isting Government,  but  your  money  was 
intended  to  serve  as  a  bait  for  the  crea- 
tion of  an  entirely  new  party,  undesira- 
ble from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Aus- 
trian proletariat.  Unfortunately,  togeth- 
er with  your  gold,  you  did  not  manage 
to  export  a  little  political  common  sense. 

Austria's  financial  condition  was  de- 
scribed on  March  11  as  a  "  giddy  whirl 
of   inflated   currency."     An    example    of  ■ 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


55 


II 


this  skyward  inflation  was  provided  by 
the  demand  of  organizations  representing 
the  civil  and  State  employes  for  24,000 
kronen  as  •  the  salary  for  the  lowest 
grade    official.     In    normal    times    that 


Dr.   KARL.  RENNER 
Aiistrian  Premier 


would  amount  to  $4,800,  but  now  $140 
would  purchase  that  amount  of  Austrian 
paper  money.  While  the  Government  was 
willing  to  grant  the  lowest  grade  official 
a  salary  and  allowances  amounting  to  18,- 
000  kronen,  it  was  confronted  with  the 
difficulty  of  involving  the  State  in  an 
additional  expenditure  of  1,000,000,000 
kronen  at  a  time  when  the  officially  esti- 
mated deficit  in  the  last  budget  amount- 
ed to  9,000,000,000  kronen. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

Undisturbed  by  fears  of  Bolshevism  or 
the  vociferous  agitation  of  the  German 
element  in  Bohemia,  the  Government  of 
President  Masaryk  proceeded  steadily 
with  its  work  of  reconstruction  during 
the  first  three  months  of  the  current 
year.  To  cope  with  the  first  danger,  and 
to  be  prepared  for  any  crisis  in  Central 
Euporean  affairs,  military  estimates 
were  submitted  to  the  National  Assem- 
bly late  in  January  for  an  army  in  all 
its  branches,  including  over  1,000  air- 
planes   and   two   warships,   and   totaling 


a  personnel  of  5,169  officers  and  103,384 
men. 

The  discontent  of  the  German  Bohe- 
mians was  much  allayed  by  the  new  pol- 
icy inaugurated  by  Premier  Tusar  in 
contrast  with  that  of  his  predecessor. 
Dr.  Kramarsz,  which  had  alienated  the 
Czechs  and  the  Germans  alike.  A  Ger- 
man delegation  which  came  to  Prague  in 
December,  1919,  to  protest  against  sup- 
pression of  German  schools,  refusal  of 
home  rule,  and  disfranchisement  of 
the  minority  nationalities,  including  Ger- 
mans, Magyars,  Poles  and  Ruthenians 
representing  6,000,000  out  of  a  total  pop- 
ulation of  13,000,000,  was  welcomed  by 
the  new  Premier,  and  sent  away  with  the 
assurance  that  neither  the  Germans  nor 
any  of  the  other  minority  elements  would 
be  further  discriminated  against,  and 
that  the  German  districts  would  be  grant- 
ed representation  in  the  new  election. 

In  the  elections  for  the  Diet,  held  at 
the  end  of  January,  300  Deputies  were 
elected,  of  whom  154  were  Czechs,  81 
Germans,  42  Slovaks,  14  Magyars,  6 
Poles  and  3  Ruthenians,  all  chosen  on 
the  principle  of  proportionate  represen- 
tation. Further  danger  of  German  or 
other  national  "  irredentism  "  within  the 
confines  of  the  new  republic  was  thus 
eliminated.  Fears  of  international  con- 
flict between  Czechoslovakia  and  Austria 
over  the  respective  positions  of  the  Ger- 
mans of  Bohemia  and  the  Czechs  of  Vien- 
na were  harmoniously  disposed  of  by  the 
agreements  reached  by  Dr.  Renner,  the 
Austrian  Chancellor,  and  Premier  Tusar, 
acting  with  Mr.  Masaryk,  in  conversa- 
tions held  in  Prague  toward  the  end  of 
January. 

The  movement  of  ecclesiastical  reform, 
which  began  Dec.  25  with  the  announce- 
ment that  mass  would  be  celebrated  in 
the  Czech  language,  went  on  uninter- 
rupted, despite  the  bull  of  excommunica- 
tion issued  by  the  Papal  See  on  Jan.  15, 
which  condemned  and  reproved  the  proj- 
ect of  establishing  a  new  Czech  National 
Church,  especially  the  proposal  that  the 
Czech  priests  should  be  released  from 
the  obligation  of  celibacy.  This  ecclesias- 
tical law,  said  the  Papal  announcement, 
was  sacred  and  inviolate  and  could  be 
neither  modified  nor  abolished.    A  meet- 


56 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


ing  was  held  in  Prague-Smichow  in  the 
week  of  Feb.  13  to  decide  whether  the 
Czech  clergy  should  vote  for  absolute 
schism  or  for  an  advance  of  Czech  na- 
tionalism by  internal  church  reforms  but 
adhering  to  Rome.  Out  of  211  qualified 
voters  140  favored  separation.  The  lead- 
ers of  the -movement  were  nearly  all  par- 
ish priests  who  had  left  the  Church  to 
fill  Government  posts  of  responsibility. 
Post  Office  Secretary  Stanek  declared 
that  he  believed  if  Czechoslovakia  made 
itself  independent  of  Rome  it  would  be 
a  great  step  toward  the  full  liberation 
of  the  Czech  Nation  from  the  bonds  of 
foreign  culture.  With  the  vote  of  sepa- 
ration a  committee  of  twelve  was  ap- 
pointed, and  the  organization  of  the  new 
national  Church  begun. 

On  President  Masaryk's  seventieth 
birthday — a  national  holiday  in  Czecho- 
slovakia— President  Wilson  cabled  the 
following  message: 

On  this  anniversay  of  your  birth  I  of^er 
to  you  my  warm  felicitations  and  best 
wishes,  at  the  same  time  congratulating 
the  people  of  Czechoslovalcia  on  the  good 
fortune  that  has  placed  the  administration 
of  their  affairs  in  the  hands  of  one  whose 
broad-minded  policy  and  scrupulously  fair 
treatment  of  minorities  are  contributing 
so  largely  to  the  welding  of  Czechoslo- 
vakia into  a  stable  nation. 

FRANCE 

On  Feb.  17  M.  Poincare  pronounced 
his  Presidential  valedictory  in  the  form 
of  a  message  to  the  Senate  and  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  and  on  the  following  day 
Paul  Deschanel  entered  upon  his  seven 
years'  term  of  office  as  President  of  the 
republic;  the  outgoing  President  passed 
to  him,  through  M.  Dubail,  the  Grand 
Chancellor  of  the  Order,  the  Grand  Collar 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  On  Feb.  19 
President  Deschanel  presented  his  first 
message  to  Parliament,  which  contained 
the  following  passage  in  regard  to  the 
Versailles  Treaty: 

France  wishes  that  the  treaty  to  which 
Germany  appended  her  signature  shall  be 
obeyed,  and  that  the  aggressor  shall  not 
take  from  her  the  fruits  of  her  heroic 
sacrifices.  She  means  to  live  in  security. 
The  Russian  people  fought  by  our  side 
during  three  years  for  the  cause  of 
liberty ;  may  it,  master  of  itself,  soon 
resume  in  the  plenitude  of  its  genius  the 
course     of    its     civilizing    mission.       The 


Eastern  question  causes  periodical  wars. 
The  fate  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  has  not 
yet  been  settled.  Our  secular  interests, 
rights,  and  traditions  ought  to  be  safe- 
guarded  there,    too. 

On  Feb.  24  a  railway  strike  called  by 
the  National  Federation  of  Railwaymen 
soon  developed  into  a  general  strike,  by 
orders  of  the  Federation  of  Labor,  until 
by  March  13  it  included  400,000  toilers 
in  factories,  mills,  and  mines.  The  Gov- 
ernment settled  the  railway  strike  on 
March  1  by  calling  the  railwaymen 
under  the  colors  and  by  the  direct  inter- 
vention of  Premier  Millerand,  who  prom- 
ised adjustment  of  grievances.  The  other 
Strikes  were  gradually  being  settled  by 
mutual  concessions,  hastened  by  the 
Federation,  which  found  itself  placed  on 
the  defensive  by  the  accusation  x)f  an 
attempt  to  make  Soviet  rule  dominate 
France.  Simultaneously  with  the  ending 
of  the  railroad  strike  the  National  Social- 
ist Congress  at  Strasbourg  voted  down 
a  motion,  by  the  ratio  of  two  to  one,  to 
ally  the  Socialists  of  France  with  Lenin 
and  Trotzky.  The  popular  press  of  the 
country  had  formally  condemned  the 
other  strikes  as  unpatriotic. 

Many  communes  invoked  old  laws  for 
two  purposes:  to  preserve  food  supplies 
and  private  security  in  case  of  labor 
disturbances  and  to  apply  more  special 
taxation.  Thus  Paris  is  to  have  a  tax 
on  certain  luxuries,  including  servants 
and  pianos,  in  the  hope  of  making  good 
a  $30,000,000  deficit. 

On  Feb.  22  the  General  Staff  obtained 
from  the  Government  permission  to  keep 
1,000,000  men  instead  of  800,000  under 
arms,  with  all  supply  departments  on 
an  emergency  war  footing. 

The  often  postponed  trial  of  former 
Premier  Joseph  Caillaux,  charged  with 
an  attempt  to  induce  a  defeatist  peace 
with  Germany,  was  begun  before  the 
High  Court  of  the  Senate  on  Feb.  17. 
In  sessions  held  periodically  in  the  next 
thirty  days  testimony  was  introduced  to 
show  the  defendant's  treasonable  com- 
plicity in  the  Bonnet  Rouge,  Le  Journal, 
the  Duval  and  Bolo  Pacha  affairs,  and 
his  treasonable  transactions  with  Ger- 
man agents  in  South  America  in  1915, 
and  with  defeatist  propagandists  at 
Rome  in  1916. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


57 


HOLLAND 

The  great  strike  of  the  dockers  at  the 
Dutch  ports  which  began  Feb.  12  was 
drawing  slowly  to  a  close,  its  end  ac- 
celerated by  mutual  charges  of  betrayal 
exchanged  between  the  Communists  and 
the  Socialists.  The  former  charged  that 
the  Socialist  press  did  not  properly  sup- 
port the  strike,  while  the  Socialists 
charged  that  the  Communists  had  be- 
trayed them  to  the  Russian  Bolsheviki, 
and  caused  them  to  lose  many  members 
through  Soviet  allurements.  Meanwhile 
millions  of  tons  of  foodstuffs  destined 
for  famished  Central  Europe  and  millions 
of  tons  of  German  coal  destined  for 
France,  as  required  by  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  were  held  up  for  weeks  at 
the  great  ports  of  Rotterdam  and 
Amsterdam,  guarded  by  troops  on  shore 
and  on  the  water  by  Dutch  gunboats. 

The  first  revelations  of  the  true  ob- 
ject of  the  strike,  which,  beginning  with 
a  wage  grievance,  soon  developed  into 
a  combat  for  power  over  the  shipowners 
and  control  of  the  Central  Dockers' 
Bureau,  came  from  the  Socialist  organ 
Het  Yolk;  after  encouraging  the  strike, 
this  paper  later  denounced  it  as  an  at- 
tempt of  the  Lenin  Government,  through 
the  Dutch  Communists,  to  fasten  a  Soviet 
Government  on  Holland.  It  was  charged 
that  in  the  middle  of  January  a  Dutch 
engineer  named  Rutgers,  an  official  of 
the  Soviet  Government  of  Russia,  called 
a  meeting  of  foreign  Communist  dele- 
gates at  the  Amsterdam  house  of  the 
Dutch  Communist  leader,  Wynkoop.  Miss 
Sylvia  Pankhurst  is  said  to  have  repre- 
sented British  Communism,  and  a  man 
named    Frayne,    American. 

The  Russian  Soviet  Government  placed 
at  the  disposition  of  the  conference  a 
quantity  of  jewels,  including  diamonds 
and  pearls  worth  $10,000,000,  and 
Rutgers  informed  the  conference  that 
he  could  obtain  another  similar  sum  in 
order  to  finance  each  strike.  It  was 
argued  that  Lenin  was  determined  to 
reach  the  countries  outside  of  Russia 
through  a  successful  strike  at  the  ports 
which  would  cause  such  an  embargo  as 
to  force  Holland  to  seek  relief  through 
establishing    a    Soviet    Government. 

In  order  to  make  the  strike  more  ef- 


fective the  Independent  Transport  Work- 
ers' Union,  which  had  delegates  at  the 
conference,  united  with  the  Socialist 
body  known  as  the  Modern  Transport 
Workers'  Labor  Union  and  induced  the 
latter  to  call  the  strike  purely  on  eco- 
nomic grounds,  denying  that  it  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  political  aims. 

As  Het  Volk  day  after  day  reeled  off 
the  foregoing  dismal  story  of  the  be- 
trayal of  Dutch  labor  the  Handelsblad 
gave  further  details  of  the  conspiracy, 
according  to  which  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment was  to  establish  in  Holland  a  cen- 
tral bureau  from  which  strikes  were  to 
be  directed  and  financed,  whenever  neces- 
sary, all  over  the  world;  and  in  every 
strike,  whatever  the  cause,  the  strikers 
should  demand  peace  with  Russia  which, 
it  was  acknowledged,  was  not  only  im- 
perative to  maintain  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment, but  also  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  world  revolution. 

HUNGARY 

In  Hungary,  the  "  stormy  petrel "  of 
Central  Europe,  a  plot  to  restore  ex- 
Emperor  Charles  to  the  Magyar  throne 
was  frustrated  on  Feb.  14.  The  plan 
was  to  provide  the  ex-Emperor  with  a 
false  passport  bearing  the  name  Kaspar 
Kovacs,  to  be  issued  by  the  Swiss  Con- 
sul in  Budapest.  Charles  was  then  to 
cross  from  Switzerland  into  Lichtenstein 
by  boat  over  the  Rhine,  accompanied  by 
four  companions.  From  Lichtenstein  he 
was  to  proceed  to  West  Hungary  and 
proclaim  his  return.  But  the  Budapest 
Swiss  Consul  recognized  the  photograph 
on  the  passport  as  that  of  the  ex- 
Emperor  and  promptly  reported  the 
matter  to  the  authorities. 

Rumania  yielded  to  the  demands  of 
the  Peace  Conference  by  commencing  on 
Feb.  1  to  withdraw  her  forces  at  last 
from  the  front  along  the  river  Theiss 
to  a  line  sixty  to  eighty  miles  east  of 
the  river.  By  the  27th  this  movement 
was  completed,  and  the  vacated  territory 
was  occupied  by  a  Hungarian  military 
detachment  without  conflict.  Observers 
with  the  Hungarian  force  found  the  in- 
habitants in  a  poverty-stricken  condition ; 
the  Rumanians  had  carried  off  seed, 
grain  and  agricultural  machinery,  as  well 
as  railway  supplies. 


58 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


On  March  1  the  definite  announcement 
was  made  from  Budapest  of  the  election 
of  Admiral  Nicholas  Horthy  as  Regent 
or  Protector  of  Hungary  by  a  substan- 
tial majority  of  the  National  Assembly. 
His  salary  was  fixed  at  3,000,000  kronen 
a  year.  Admiral  Horthy  went  to  the 
Parliament  Building  to  take  the  oath  of 
office  through  flag-draped  streets  amid 
enthusiastic  crowds.  Addresses  eulogized 
him  as  having  "saved  the  nation  from 
ruin."  Correspondents,  writing  of  him, 
declared  that  a  new  personality  had 
arisen  among  the  rulers  of  European 
States  and  characterized  him  as  a  pic- 
turesque figure  who  might  yet  play  a 
prominent  role  because  of  the  ends  he 
had  in  view.  These  ends  were  generally 
believed  to  include  the  restoration  of 
former  King  Charles  or  his  eldest  son 
Otto— a  policy  directly  opposed  to  the 
decision  of  the  Peace  Conference.  On 
the  5th  the  new  Protector  issued  a  mani- 
festo in  which  he  said: 

Extreme  tendencies  must  be  suppressed. 
Profiteering  and  corruption  must  cease 
and  Chiristian  morals  be  re-established. 
Amid  an  ocean  of  international  unrest  the 
Hungarian  people  is  the  first  that  is 
finding  its  way  to  consolidation.  The  new 
Hungary  must  supply  proper  economic 
and  social  conditions  to  each  class  and 
supplant  vengeance  and  hatred  with 
mutual  understanding,  in  order  that  peace 
may  return. 

The  eager  desire  of  the  Hungarians 
to  bring  to  trial  all  members  of  the 
fallen  Communist  regime  interned  in 
Austria  was  responsible  for  an  attempt  to 
kidnap  Bela  Kun  from  a  hospital  near 
Vienna  on  the  night  of  March  7.  Ten 
armed  men  suddenly  appeared  at  the  hos- 
pital and  bribed  the  watcher.  The  lat- 
ter, however,  gave  warning  to  the  police. 
The  armed  party  took  alarm  and  escaped 
before  the  police  arrived. 

London  advices  of  March  12  stated 
that  a  new  Hungarian  Peace  Treaty  had 
been  definitely  agreed  upon  by  the  Su- 
preme Council.  It  had  been  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  Drafting  Committee, 
and  was  expected  to  be  completed  within 
a  week.  In  this  new  treaty  various 
economic  concessions  were  granted,  but 
the  territorial  clauses  against  which 
Hungary  had  protested  so  vigorously  re- 
mained unchanged. 


ITALY 

After  negotiations  lasting  several  days 
with  party  leaders  Premier  Nitti  reor- 
ganized his  Cabinet  on  March  13.  The 
chief  features  in  the  new  Government 
are  the  reappearance  of  Professor  Luigi 
Luzzatti,  the  famous  founder  of  the 
People's  Banks,  as  Minister  of  the  Treas- 
ury, and  Signori  Bonomi,  Torre,  Alessio 
and  Raineri,  who  are  more  or  less  af- 
filiated with  the  Catholic  or  Popular 
Party,  which,  however,  as  a  political 
organization,  would  not  allow  its  leader, 
Signor  Meda,  to  accept  a  portfolio.  The 
complete  list  is: 
Premier  and  Minister  of  the  Interior— F.   S. 

NITTI. 
Vice  President  of  the  Council  and  Treasurer- 
Prof.   LUZZATTI. 
Foreign  Affairs— VITTORIO  SCIAIiOIA. 
War— IVANOE    BONOMI. 
Navy— Amm.    SECHI. 
Finance— CARLO    SCIANZER. 
Pardon  and  Justice— LUDOVICO  MORTAKA. 
Public  Instruction— ANDREA  TORRE. 
Public  Works— GIUSEPPE  DE  NAVA. 
Agriculture— ACHILLE  VISOCCHI. 
Industry      and      Commerce— DANTE      FER- 
RARIS. 
Posts  and  Telegraphs— GIULIO  ALESSIO. 
Transportation— ROBERTO  DI  VITO. 
Liberated   Provinces— GIOVANNI   RAINERI. 

The  general  conservative  nature  of 
the  nev7  Government,  which  contains  sev- 
eral experts  in  finance  and  industry,  en- 
gendered the  belief  in  the  press  of  the 
Peninsula  that  Signor  Nitti  was  de- 
termined to  invite  the  support  of  the 
Catholics  and  parliamentary  Socialists 
against  the  extremists  with  Bolshevist 
proclivities;  at  the  same  time  fear  was 
expressed  that  such  a  policy  could  not 
survive  if  Signor  Giolitti,  his  defeatist 
and  non-intervention  policies  of  the  war 
being  forgotten,  should  attempt  to  seize 
the  reins  of  power  with  the  co-operation 
of  the  Catholics  and  the  old  Socialist 
leaders,  Signori  Treves  and  Turati.  For 
Giolitti,  although  out  of  office  since 
March,  1914,  was  said  still  to  control 
sixty  of  the  sixty-nine  prefects  of  the 
provinces,  and  it  is  from  the  prefects, 
appointed  as  permanent  State  officials 
by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  that  the 
Deputies  take  their  orders,  and  not  from 
their  constituents.  There  were  several 
signs  of  Socialist  and  Catholic  unity  on 
questions  of  trade,  industrial,  and  social 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


59 


union  and  measures  for  the  betterment 
of  the  condition  of  the  masses,  but  a 
wide  difference  of  opinion  prevailed  as 
to  how  these  reforms  should  be  carried 
out. 

Although  the  war  rationing  was  re- 
vived in  regard  to  several  necessaries, 
the  general  financial  condition  showed 


FRANCESCO  NITTI 

Italian  Premier 

improvement,  the  deposits  in  the  savings 
banks  having  doubled  in  the  last  year, 
and  the  present  loan  rising  beyond  all 
expectation.  In  anticipation  of  a  tax 
on  capital,  notices  were  issued  on  Feb. 
20  ordering  every  one,  under  pain  of 
heavy  penalties,  to  make  a  return  of  his 
entire  capital,  including  investments  in 
other  countries,  before  March  81.  But 
Italy  still  waited  feverishly  for  Ameri- 
can and  English  coal  and  iron,  especially 
the  former.  The  well-known  engineer, 
Luigi  Luiggi,  writing  in  the  Giornale 
d'ltalia  on  Feb.  25,  urged  the  early  adop- 
tion of  "  Summer  time "  in  order  to 
economize  coal. 

He  stated  that  the  figures  from  America 
show  a  saving-  of  12%  tons  for  every  1,000 
Inhabitants,    while    the   figures    for   Eng- 


land and  France  show  a  lessened  con- 
sumption of  from  6  to  15  per  cent.  Allow- 
ing that,  in  view  of  Italy's  relatively 
small  consumption  of  coal,  the  reduction 
per  1,000  inhabitants  would  only  amount 
to  one-third  of  that  in  America,  yet  this 
would  mean  a  saving  of  160,000  tons,  the 
cost  of  which  works  out  at  some  hundred 
million  lire.  Both  the  coal  and  the  money 
are  well   worth  saving. 

SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL 

From  day  to  day  it  seemed  likely  that 
each  resignation  of  the  Allende-Salazar 
Cabinet  would  become  permanent,  but 
each  time  the  King  insisted  that  it  re- 


LUIGI    L.UZZATTI 

Member  of  new  Italia/n  CaMnet 

main  in  power,  and  so  the  fight  against 
the  Syndicalists   continued. 

Spain  has  had  no  fewer  than  eight  new 
Governments  with  fifty  ministerial 
changes  in  less  than  two  years.  Last 
year  alone  saw  four  changes  in  Cabinets 
with  forty-four  ministerial  changes. 
Virtually  every  one  of  these  changes  was 
due  to  the  military  juntas  or  "  Consulta- 
tive Committees." 

These  juntas  were  originally  formed 
to  fight  favoritism  and  injustice  in  the 
army,  the  chief  grievance  of  the  members 
being  that  places  on  the  General  Staff 


60 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


were  allotted  to  favorites  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  day.  One  of  the  first  actions 
of  the  juntas,  which  are  presided  over 
by  the  Colonels,  the  highest  ranking  offi- 
cers who  are  allowed  to  join,  was  to 
decide  that  none  of  the  members  should 
allow  their  names  to  be  placed  in  nomina- 
tion for  places  on  the  General  Staff. 

The  result  would  have  been  that  after 
the  death  or  retirement  of  the  present 
members  there  would  be  no  officers  to 
form  the  staff.  But  twenty-three  offi- 
cers refused  to  be  bound  by  this  decision, 
with  the  result  that  they  were  haled 
before  courts  of  honor  and  their  resigna- 
tions from  the  army  insisted  upon.  Gov- 
ernments, under  pressure  from  the 
Liberal,  Socialist  and  other  progressive 
elements  in  the  Cortes,  have  promised  to 
revoke  these  decisions  of  the  courts  of 
honor,  but  found  it  difficult  to  do  so, 
for  the  juntas  threatened  to  withdraw 
their  support  from  the  Government;  in 
other  words,  should  an  emergency  arise 
such  as  a  revolution  or  social  war  the 
army  would  be  leaderless. 

Thus  the  juntas  became  a  political 
force,  which  opposed  radical  legislation 
and  otherwise  interfered  in  affairs  of 
State.  They  are  really  a  great  frater- 
nal society,  the  members  of  which  accept 
orders  only  from  the  presiding  Colonels 
in  all  affairs  of  the  army,  ignoring  those 
of  King,  Generals  and  Government.  To 
dissolve  these  juntas  the  Cortes  must 
pass  a  bill  to  repeal  the  act  which  legal- 
ized them,  and  the  moment  that  is  done 
every  infantry  officer  who  obeys  the 
orders  of  his  junta  must  resign  from 
the  army.  Sooner  or  later  the  new 
Cabinet  must  face  a  debate  on  the  "  mili- 
tary question."  This  has,  since  the  in- 
tervention of  the  juntas  in  politics,  each 
time  led  to  the  downfall  of  the  Ministry. 

King  Alfonso's  name  has  invariably 
been  left  out  of  the  discussion,  but  it  is 
said  that  the  officers  induced  him  to 
support  the  organization,  and  his  action 
recently  in  attending  a  big  banquet  given 
at  Toledo  by  the  infantry  officers  has 
lent  color  to  the  report. 

Portugal's  policy  of  drift  ended  ab- 
ruptly on  March  6  when  the  Government 
was  overthrown  on  account  of  opposition 
of  the  Labor  members  to  a  policy  of 
coercion    in    order   to    end    the    strikes. 


Thereupon  Antonio  Silva,  former  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Works,  took  the  Premier- 
ship and  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs 
with  these  colleagues: 

Minister  of  the  Interior— Antonio  Bautista. 
Justice— Lorenzo    Cardezo. 
*War— Julio  Martins. 
Navy— Victor  Macedo. 
Colonies— Dominihio  Fria. 
Commerce'— Senhor  Cunhaleale. 
Agriculture— Juan  Luis. 

SWEDEN 

The  most  remarkable  event  in  the  po- 
litical annals  of  the  age  took  place  in 
Sweden,  where  with  a  King  on  the  throne 
a  Government  entirely  made  up  of  Social- 
ists began  its  work.  On  March  6  the 
Liberal-Socialist  Eden  Cabinet  resigned 
and  no  Liberal  group  could  be  gathered 
which  would  have  survived  a  vote  in  the 
second  Chamber  of  the  Riksdag,  whei-e 
the  ratio  of  the  Socialists  over  the  Lib- 
erals was  three  to  two.  Four  days  later 
Hjalmar  Branting,  leader  of  the  right 
wing,  or  parliamentary  faction  of  the 
Socialists,  offered  the  following  slate, 
entirely  made  up  of  Socialists,  to  his 
Majesty,  who  accepted  it,  Branting  him- 
self registering  as  President  of  the 
Council: 

Foreign  Affairs— Baron  Erik  Kule  Palms- 
tierna  (Baron  Palmstierna  was  Minister  of 
Marine  in  the  late  Cabinet). 

Justice— (B.  Oestern  Unden,  Professor, 
Minister  without  portfolio  in  the  late  Cabi- 
net. 

War-4P.  Albin  Nansen,  editor  of  Social- 
Demokraten,   published   by  Mr.    Branting. 

Marine— J.  Bernhard  Erikson,  ironworker, 
member  of  the  Second  Chamber  of  the 
Riksdag. 

Interior-O.  E.  Svenson,  editor  of  Folket 
(The  People),  a  radical  organ,  and  member 
of  the  First  Chamber  of  the  Riksdag. 

Finance— Fredrik  Wilhelm  Thorson,  who 
occupied   the   same  post  in   the  late  Cabinet. 

Education— Olof  Olson,  who  retained  the 
portfolio  he  held  in  the  old   Cabinet. 

Agriculture— O.  Nilson,  farmer,  member 
of  the  Second   Chamber. 

Ministers  Without  Portfolios— Rickard  J. 
Sandler,  member  of  the  First  Chamber,  and 
Thorsten  Karl  Victor  Nothin,  who  is  So- 
licitor for  the  Department  of  Finance. 

Hjalmar  Branting,  who  has  the  repu- 
tation of  having  kept  his  country  from 
joining  Germany  in  the  war  and  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  Government  after  it,  was  a 
member  of  the  old  Liberal-Socialist  Cabi- 
net, but  resigned  on  account  of  ill-health 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


61 


in  1917.  The  crisis  which  led  to  the  fall 
of  the  coalition  arose  through  the  im- 
possibility of  Liberals  and  Socialists — the 
latter  had  a  majority  in  Parliament — 
conducting  the  business  of  the  Govern- 
ment. From  now  on  the  left  wing,  or 
extreme  Socialists,  will  constitute  the 
Opposition.  They  are  in  full  accord  with 
the  Third  International  of  Lenin  and 
Trotzky,  while  the  right  wing  condemns 
the  Soviets. 

THE  VATICAN 

The  bill  introduced  in  the  French 
Chamber  of  Deputies  on  March  11 
to  re-establish  relations  between  the 
Government  of  the  Republic  and  the 
Vatican  excited  much  more  interest  in 
the  latter's  circles  than  it  did  in  France, 
where  even  those  who  were  instrumental 
twenty  years  ago  in  bringing  about  the 
Associations  Law  and  the  separation  of 
the  Church,  with  the  abrogation  of  the 
Concordat,  believed  the  bill  was  a  good 
thing,  as,  in  the  words  of  M.  Briand, 
"  France  should  not  hold  aloof  from  the 
negotiations  in  which  non-Catholic 
powers  are  participating  in  Rome." 


The  Vatican  press  has  long  held  that 
the  magnificent  work  done  in  the  war 
by  French  priests  should  meet  with 
recognition  on  the  part  of  the  French 
Government,  which  should  no  longer 
make  them  feel  that  their  patriotism  had 
not  the  sanction  of  Rome. 

Besides,  the  Catholic  majority  in  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  was  in  an  anomalous 
situation — the  Germans  when  they  took 
possession  in  1871  guaranteed  it  the  Con- 
cordat, and  now  it  found  itself  in  France, 
where  the  Concordat  had  been  repudi- 
ated. 

In  Vatican  circles  it  was  looked  upon 
as  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  bill 
in  question  would  pass  the  French  Par- 
liament without  opposition,  as  it  had  not 
only  the  support,  but  the  enthusiastic 
advocacy  of  Premier  Millerand,  and 
French  prelates  writing  to  the  Vatican 
even  went  so  far  as  to  state  that  the 
first  French  Ambassador  to  the  Vatican 
had  already  been  decided  upon  in  the 
person  of  Jules  Cambon,  successively 
Ambassador  at  Washington  and  Berlin, 
whose  brother  Paul  had  held  the  post  at 
London  for  many  years. 


Affairs  in  Asiatic  Countries 


JAPAN  AND  CHINA 

The  dilemma  forced  upon  Japan  by 
the  refusal  of  China  to  accept  the 
direct  negotiations  regarding  Shan- 
tung, offered  through  Mr.  Obata, 
the  Japanese  Ambassador  to  Peking, 
on  Jan.  19,  made  the  already  strained 
situation  still  more  acute.  Of  the 
two  parties  to  the  Shantung  dispute 
it  was  the  Chinese  who  had  the  ad- 
vantage; their  refusal  to  open  negotia- 
tions regarding  territory  ceded  under  a 
treaty  which  they  had  refused  to  sign 
was  strictly  logical,  while  the  Japanese, 
having  pledged  their  word  of  honor 
to  restore  Kiao-Chau  to  Chinese  sov- 
ereignty, were  nonplussed  by  the  refusal 
to  negotiate,  which  they  had  not  expected. 

The  announced  intention  of  the  Chinese 
Government  to  appeal  to  the  League  of 
Nations  on  the  Shantung  issue  meant 
much  more,  according  to  the  Japanese 
Chronicle,  than  a  mere  reopening  of  the 


argument  regarding  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  the  settlement.  The  Japanese 
demand  that  the  question  of  restoration 
be  left  to  their  national  honor,  this 
paper  stated,  was  in  reality  a  claim  for 
recognition  of  the  principle  that  in  dis- 
putes between  China  and  Japan  no  other 
power  has  any  right  of  interference,  and 
China's  project  to  refer  the  dispute  to 
the  League  of  Nations  amounted  essen- 
tially to  an  attempt  to  challenge  and 
defeat  this  principle  before  it  v/as  estab- 
lished in  practice. 

The  Chinese  held  that  the  original 
Japanese  proposal  made  no  mention  of 
the  privileges  that  Japan  was  retaining, 
among  which  were  listed  a  Japanese  or 
foreign  settlement  at  Tsingtao,  Japanese 
ownership  of  docks  and  railways,  mines 
and  other  concessions,  and  the  building 
of  barracks  and  hospitals  at  various 
places  in  Shantung.  Thus  the  only 
proper   course   for   Japan   to    follow,    in 


62 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


the  Chinese  view,  was  to  withdraw  com- 
pletely from  Shantung  and  allow  the 
Chinese  administration  to  resume  its 
sway. 

Besides  the  negative  weapon  of  refusal 
to  open  negotiations,  China  continued  to 
boycott  all  Japanese  goods.  One  need 
only  glance  at  the  detailed  statistics 
given  by  Millard's  Review  or  the  Herald 
of  Asia  to  realize  the  full  cost  of  the 
Japanese  policy  in  China.  The  serious 
decline  in  the  trade  of  the  Japanese 
steamship  companies  is  seen  in  the  fall 
from  154  tons  per  trip  in  1918  to  an 
average  of  barely  seventy-one  tons  per 
trip  during  the  first  ten  months  of  1919. 
Cotton  yarn,  paper,  cotton  cloth,  um- 
brellas, canvas  bags,  matches  showed  a 
net  decrease  of  70  per  cent. ;  patent  medi- 
cines, looking  glasses,  earthenware,  soap, 
hats  and  caps,  fans,  cotton  hosiery,  cot- 
ton tissues,  satin,  a  decrease  of  54  per 
cent.  The  Japanese  exhausted  every 
means  to  compel  the  lifting  of  this  boy- 
cott; strong  pressure  was  brought  to 
bear  on  the  Peking  Government  to  take 
drastic  measures  against  all  boycott 
agitators,  but  without  effect;  the  pro- 
test of  the  Japanese  Consul  General  at 
Tientsin  to  Pien  Yuch-ting's  election  to 
the  Presidency  of  the  Chinese  Chamber 
of  Commerce  at  Tientsin,  fundamentally 
on  the  ground  of  his  favoring  the  boy- 
cott, is  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  all 
Chinese. 

Mr.  Putnam  Weale,  adviser  to  the  Chi- 
nese Government,  declared  in  January  in 
an  official  memorandum  to  the  Chinese 
Cabinet  that  the  situation  caused 
throughout  China  by  the  Shantung  con- 
troversy was  one  of  dangerous  possibili- 
ties, and  might  lead  to  a  revolution  if 
the  national  sentiment  were  disregarded. 
Gigantic  demonstrations  occurred  in 
Shanghai  Feb.  15-17,  at  which  the  over- 
whelming sentiment  against  negotiations 
with  Japan  and  in  favor  of  an  appeal  to 
the  League  of  Nations  was  voiced,  and 
the  release  of  students  arrested  for  dem- 
onstrations in  Peking  was  demanded. 
During  these  manifestations,  participat- 
ed in  by  thousands  of  people,  all  Chinese 
stores  were  closed.^ 

Despite  these  evidences  of  popular 
feeling  the  Anfu,  the  Conservative  Party 


in  control  of  China's  Central  Govern- 
ment, which  favors  the  opening  of  ne- 
gotiations with  Japan,  on  Feb.  19  forced 
the  resignation  of  Lu  Tsencr-tsiang,  the 
Chinese  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and 
of  Cheng-lu,  the  Vice  Foreign  Minister, 
on  the  ground  of  their  voicing  the  na- 
tional view  that  such  negotiations  should 
not  be  opened.  Ten  days  later  (March 
1)  came  the  news  that  Ching-yung 
P'Eng,  the  Chinese  Premier,  had  been 
forced  out'  of  office  by  the  same  party, 
and  on  the  same  grounds.  He  had  been 
opposed  by  the  Military  Party,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  Anfu,  composed  of  pro- 
Japanese  military  chiefs,  since  Novem- 
ber, 1919.  Ching-yung  P'Eng  had  been 
looked  upon  by  Chinese  leaders  as  a 
power  in  the  development  of  the  new 
Chinese  Government  tending  to  the  uni- 
fication of  the  clashing  factions  of  the 
north  and  south.  The  resignation  of 
these  three  high  officials  was  expected 
by  Chinese  diplomatic  officials  to  cause 
a  strong  reaction  throughout  China. 

One  phase  of  the  Shantung  contro- 
versy was  the  condemnation  of  the  Japa- 
nese policy  embodied  in  one  of  the  reser- 
vations to  the  Peace  Treaty  proposed  in 
the  United  States  Senate.  Dr.  T.  lye- 
naga,  Japanese  Director  of  the  East  and 
West  News  Bureau,  on  Feb.  29  issued  a 
warning  that  this  reservation,  if  passed 
without  modification  by  the  Senate, 
might  have  an  "  undesirable  effect "  on 
Japanese-American  relations. 

It  became  evident  soon  after  the  offi- 
cial refusal  by  the  Washington  Govern- 
ment, couched  in  diplomatic  language,  to 
join  with  Japan  in  the  holding  of  Eastern 
Siberia  against  the  advancing  forces  of 
the  triumphant  Bolsheviki  that  the  Japa- 
nese policy  determined  on  was  one  of 
neutrality.  Japan's  disinclination  to  stem 
the  tide  of  Bolshevism  alone  by  force  of 
arms  was  made  plain  in  many  directions. 
The  policy  of  favoring  the  Socialist  Revo- 
lutionaries was  admitted  by  Mr.  Kate, 
the  Japanese  Ambassador  to  Siberia, 
who  stated  that  this  party  now  welcomed 
the  Japanese  troops  and  sought  their 
assistance  in  maintaining  order  in  the 
districts  which  it  had  taken  over. 

The  debate  in  the  Diet  on  Feb.  14  on 
universal  suffrage  broke  up  in  violent 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


63 


I 


scenes.  The  opposition  attacked  the 
Government  for  opposing  the  measure, 
and  the  President  was  obliged  to  inter- 
fere. The  police  fought  members  of  the 
House  in  the  lobby,  and  crowds  outside 
tried  to  break  into  the  building.  They 
were  held  back  by  the  police  and  mili- 
tary. Demonstrations  in  the  city  lasted 
till  late  at  night,  and  many  attacks  upon 
official  residences  occurred.  These 
demonstrations  were  continued  for  the 
next  two  weeks,  and  were  marked  by 
new  attacks  both  on  houses  and  persons. 
The  state  of  popular  unrest  over  the 
suffrage  question  was  extreme,  and  was 
the  culmination  of  widespread  dissatis- 
faction with  the  decree  of-  two  years 
ago  which  limited  the  franchise  to  those 
whose  direct  tax  exceeded  3  yen  (about 
$1.75),  thus  excluding  the  entire  body 
of  labor,  farm  laborers  and  mechanics. 

In  the  debates  on  suffrage  in  the  Diet 
a  profound  difference  of  opinion  showed 
itself  between  the  Cabinet  and  the  Ken- 
sei-kai,  the  majority  opposition  party, 
and  the  violence  of  the  discussion  indi- 
cated the  impossibility  of  an  agreement. 
Premier  Hara  on  Feb.  26,  by  a  coup 
d'etat  introduced  into  the  midst  of  a 
heated  debate,  produced  an  imperial  de- 
cree dissolving  the  Diet.  He  had  pre- 
viously declared  that  he  questioned 
whether  the  demand  for  universal  suf- 
frage was  the  voice  of  the  people  at 
large,  but  must  be  submitted  for  judg- 
ment. Extraordinary  police  activity 
outside  the  Parliament  showed  how  well 
prepared  the  Government  was  to  quell 
all  disorders  following  upon  this  decree. 

PERSIA 

It  was  announced  in  Teheran,  Feb.  8, 
but  the  announcement  was  much  delayed 
in  transmission  to  Europe,  that  the 
Anglo-Persian  Treaty  negotiated  a  year 
ago  had  borne  fruit — a  British  syndicate 
representing  the  Anglo-Persian  Oil  Com- 
pany. Armstrong-Whitworth,  Vickers 
and  Weetman  Pearson  had  secured  from 
the  Teheran  Government  permission  to 
survey  a  railway  from  the  present  rail- 
head of  the  Mesopotamian  lines  to 
Kuretu,  near  Kasri-i-Shrin,  via  Kerman- 
shah,  Hamadan  and  Kasvin  to  Teheran, 
with  a  branch  line  from  Kasvin  to  Enzeli 
on  the  Caspian.     On  the  completion  of 


the  survey  the  Persian  Government  has 
the  option  to  build  the  road  itself  by 
borrowing  money  from  the  syndicate  or 
to  allow  the  syndicate  to  do  the  building. 
According  to  the  announcement  of  Feb.  8 : 
The  survey  will  be  begun  immediately. 
The    line,    presumably,    will   be  of   metre 


gauge  in  continuation  of  the  existing 
metre  gauge  railway  from  Bagdad  to  the 
Persian  frontier.  The  track  will  probably 
closely  follow  the  road  built  by  the  Royal 
Engineers  to  Hamadan,  the  alignment  of 
which  was  made  by  the  Russians  at  an 
earlier  period  of  the  war.  From  Hamadan 
the  line  will  follow  the  existing  road  to 
Kasvin-Teheran  and  Kasvin-Enzeli.  There 
are  three  steep  passes  for  the  line  to  be 
carried  over— Pai-tak,  Asadabad  and 
Aveh. 

TURKEY 

The  news  published  by  Admiral  de  Ro- 
beck,  the  British  High  Commissioner,  on 
Feb.  17  that  the  Supreme  Council  had 
decided  not  to  deprive  Turkey  of  Con- 
stantinople, counteracted  for  a  few  days 
on  the  Golden  Horn  the  effect  of  the 
news  sent  by  Turkish  agents  that  East- 
em  Thrace  and  Smyrna  had  been  turned 
over  to  Greece,  only  to  be  succeeded  by 
further  apprehension  when  it  was  learned 
that  martial  law  might  be  proclaimed  on 
account   of   the    Cilician   massacres,    in 


64 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


which  the  Turkish  press  declares  neither 
the  Nationals  nor  the  regular  troops  had 
any  hand. 

Diplomats  in  Constantinople  attach  lit- 
tle importance  to  the  new  Cabinet  still 
(Mar.  15)  in  process  of  construction  un- 
der Sali  Pasha  as  Grand  Vizier.  So  far, 
however,  the  personnel  is  considered 
more  favorable  to  the  Entente  than  was 
the  Government  of  Djemel  Pasha,  includ- 
ing as  it  does  Djelal  Bey,  President  of 
the  Council  of  State;  Zia  Bey,  Minister 
of  Commerce,  and  Omar  Houlousse  Bey, 
Minister  of  Religious  Funds. 

The  Interallied  Mission  had  estab- 
lished beyond  any  doubt  the  complicity 
of  Djemal  with  the  Nationalist  leader 
Mustapha  Kemal  in  furnishing  arms  and 
aiding  in  the  mobilization  and  transport. 
Meanwhile  the  Sultan  was  -under  press- 
ure from  two  directions — from  the  En- 
tente and  from  Mustapha  Kemal  at  An- 
gora, who  attempted,  but  not  altogether 
successfully,  to  dictate  the  personnel  of 
the  new  Ministry;  the  Turkish  delega- 
tion to  the  Peace  Conference,  however, 
was  made  up  without  his  knowledge.  On 
March  15  it  was  announced  as  follows: 

Tewfik  Pasha,  farmer  Foreign  Minister  as 
President. 

Izzet  Pasha,  former  Minister  of  War, 

Rifaat  Pasha,  former  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs. 

Safa  Bey,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

Nabi  Bey,  Alib  Memali  Bey,  Ahmed  Riza 
Bey  and  Torgut  Pasha,  who  will  act  as  mil- 
itary adviser,  and  General  Shevken,  his  aid. 

On  March  3  the  Turkish  press  was 
much  agitated  over  the  news  announced 
by  Abdul  Kador  Effendi,  head  of  the 
Kurdish  group  in  the  Senate,  that  an 
understanding  had  been  reached  between 
the  Armeniani  c  the  Kurds,  and  that 
on  this  account  the  Kurdish  leaders  had 
redoubled  their  efforts  before  the  Peace 
Conference  to  obtain  autonomy  for  Kur- 
distan. As  Abdul  Kador  frankly  advo- 
cated this  autonomy  he  at  once  became 
the  storm  centre  of  the  Nationalist  press. 
On  Feb.  21  the  Central  Committee  of 
the  Moslem  Theological  Academy  handed 
the  following  note  to  the  Allied  High 
Commissioners: 

The  duty  of  Islam,  which  directs  the 
opinion  of  a  great  proportion  of  man- 
kind,  proclaims  to  ail  Moslems   and  the 


world  its  attitude  towards  Bolshevism. 
Whether  Bolshevist  principles  are  good  or 
evil  the  fact  that  their  application  hanns 
social  life  and  individual  property  rights 
makes  them  incompatible  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  Islam.  Since  the  beginning  of 
Islam  attacks  on  life  and  property, 
thefts,  massacres,  pillages  and  rapes  have 
been  condemned  and  penal  sentences  im- 
posed. On  the  contrary,  the  requisite  of 
Islam  is  happiness,  tranquillity  and  gen- 
eral progress.  It  forbids  taking  property 
and  lives,  and  ensures  tiie  rights  of  indi- 
viduals and  communities.  Consequently 
Islam's  ruling  is  that  every  individual 
should  have  the  right  to  dispose  at  will 
of  his  own  property  during  life  and  by 
will  after  death.  It  is,  therefore,  in  the 
interest  of  Moslemism  and  the  duty  of 
the  Khaliphate  to  oppose  Bolshevism  as 
dangerous  to  civilization,  justice  and 
right. 

On  Feb.  17  the  first  echelon  of  the 
British  garrison  at  Batum  reached  Con- 
stantinople. It  was  announced  that 
Batum  would  be  occupied  by  Georgian 
troops,  but  it  was  doubted  whether  they 
would  be  able  to  maintain  order,  which 
was  threatened  by  bands  of  two  descrip- 
tions; local  Bolshevist  sympathizers  and 
Turkish  Nationalist  bands.  The  with- 
drawal from  Batum  was  obviously  to  in- 
crease the  British  garrison  on  the  Golden 
Horn. 

On  Feb.  25  the  Azerbaijan  Government 
formally  refused  the  British  demands  to 
surrender  the  Turkish-proscribed  Pashas, 
Nury  and  Halil,  on  the  ground  that  such 
action  would  be  a  violation  of  the  laws 
of  hospitality,  and  more  so  in  view  of 
the  services  rendered  to  Azerbaijan  by 
Nury  Pasha  and  his  uncle,  Halil. 

The  events  which  led  to  the  proclama- 
tion of  Prince,  or  Emir,  Feisal  as  King 
of  Syria  and  Prince  Abdulla  as  King 
of  Irak  (The  Bagdad  region  of  Mesopo- 
tamia), the  eldest  and  third  sons  of  King 
Hussein  of  Hedjaz,  were  forecast  in  Con- 
stantinople as  early  as  Feb.  14,  when  the 
local  press  announced  that  a  new  Na- 
tional Syrian  Party  had  been  formed  at 
Damascus,  with  the  object  of  placing 
Emir  Feisal  on  the  throne.  Its  political 
program  was  said  to  include  complete 
independence,  the  union  of  Syrian  Arabs, 
the  promotion  of  learning,  equal  civil  and 
political  rights  for  everybody,  the  up- 
holding of  the  principle  of  democratic 
monarchy  by  creating  a  Royal  Parlia- 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


65 


mentary  Government  under  Emir  Feisal, 
the  amelioration  of  social  conditions  by 
means  of  co-operative  societies  and  agri- 


cultural societies,  and  the  creation  of  an 
army  to  uphold  the  Emir.  [For  further 
matter  on  Turkey  see  Pages  103-116.] 


Developments  in  Latin  America 


MEXICO 

Outrages  in  Mexico  against  American 
citizens,  which  have  been  sporadic  ever 
since  General  Carranza  became  President, 
have  continued  despite  vigorous  protests 
by  the  State  Department.  Many  of  these 
were  revealed  by  the  Senate  sub-commit- 
tee, which  has  been  investigating  condi- 
tions in  Mexico,  taking  testimony  in 
Texas  at  San  Antonio  and  El  Paso.  Colo- 
nel George  T.  Langhome,  Captain  W.  V. 
D.  Ochs  and  Captain  Leonard  F.  Mat- 
lack,  all  of  the  Eighth  Cavalry,  told  the 
Senators  that  often  Carranza's  own  men 
took  part  in  raids  on  the  American  side, 
and  that  neither  the  civil  nor  military 
authorities  of  Mexico  aided  the  American 
forces  in  fighting  Mexican  maurauderso 
Senator  Fall  of  New  Mexico,  Chair- 
man of  the  sub-committee,  obtained  its 
appointment  after  having  introduced  in 
the  Senate  a  resolution  intended  to  break 
off  our  diplomatic  relations  with  Mexico 
— a  move  against  which  President  Wilson 
at  once  protested.  Luis  Cabrera,  Car- 
ranza's  Secretary  of  Finance,  was  invited 
to  testify,  but  refused,  charging  that 
Senator  Fall  was  prejudiced  against  Mex- 
ico. The  Mexican  authorities  tried  to 
hinder  the  sub-committee's  activities  by 
refusing  to  foreigners,  who  left  Mexico 
to  testify,  permission  to  return,  and  by 
threatening  to  consider  as  traitors  Mexi- 
cans who  appeared.  It  was  also  an- 
nounced that  W.  O.  Jenkins,  former 
United  States  Consular  Agent  at  Puebla, 
whose  permission  to  act  in  that  capacity 
was  recently  revoked,  would  be  expelled 
from  Mexico  if  found  guilty  by  the  Pue- 
bla court  of  aiding  rebel  forces  in  that 
district. 

Three  cases  of  the  murder  of  Ameri- 
cans were  reported  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment early  in  January,  and  made  the 
basis  of  representations  to  Mexico.  One 
was  that  of  Gabriel  Porter,  an  employe 
of  the  Penn-Mex  Oil  Company,  who  was 
shot  by  a  Mexican  Federal  army  officer 
on  Dec.  21.    F.  J.  Roney  and  Earl  Bowles, 


employes  of  the  International  Petroleum 
Company,  were  murdered  on  Jan.  5  near 
Port   Lobos,   an  oil-loading   station  be- 


SENATOR  FALL,   OP  NEW  MEXICO 
Chairman  of  Senate  Subcommittee  investigat- 
ing Mexican  outrages 
(©    Harris   &   Ewing) 

tween  Tampico  and  Tuxpam.  Roney 
bore  a  resemblance  to  the  paymaster,  and 
the  motive  for  the  killing  was  alleged 
to  be  robbery.  The  Mexicans  reported 
the  Porter  case  as  one  of  accidental 
shooting.  Alexander  Ross,  a  British  sub- 
ject, was  kidnapped  on  Jan.  18,  near 
Orizaba,  but  was  rescued  next  day  by 
Federal  forces  under  Colonel  Durazo. 
Several  American  Army  aviators,  forced 
to  land  on  Mexican  soil,  were  detained 
for  a  time,  but  were  later  released. 

Wilson  W.  Adams,  an  American  mine 
Superintendent,  was  captured  by  bandits 
in  Zacatecas   on  Feb.   13   and  held  for 


66 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


50,000  pesos  ransom.  The  State  authori- 
ties and  Federal  troops  searched  for  his 
captors  and  obtained  his  release  after  six 
days.  Mexican  bandits  on  Feb.  27  raided 
the  general  store  of  Euby,  Ariz.,  killed 
one  of  the  owners,  Alexander  Fraser, 
and  seriously  wounded  his  brother. 
American  troops  crossed  the  border  on. 
the  trail  of  the  bandits,  but  returned 
after  an  unsuccessful  search. 

The  boldest  attack  for  several  months 
was  that  led  personally  by  Francisco 
Villa,  who  with "  a  band  of  150  armed 
men  on  March  4  held  up  a  northbound 
Mexico  City  train  near  Corralitos,  Chi- 
huahua, robbed  the  passengers,  set  the 
cars  afire,  and  carried  off  Joseph  Will- 
iams, an  American  engineer,  for  ransom. 
Fifty  Yaqui  soldiers  were  aboard  the 
train  as  a  guard;  nineteen  of  them  were 
killed  and  nearly  all  the  others  wounded; 
seven  escaping  unhurt.  The  train  had 
been  derailed  by  an  explosive  on  the 
track.  Two  conductors  were  killed,  a 
Syrian  merchant  was  carried  off,  and 
five  Mexican  passengers  who  attempted 
to  escape  were  shot.  Williams  was  re- 
leased after  being  held  four  days  by 
Villa,  who  asserted  his  power  to  enter 
towns  in  that  section  of  the  country  at 
will. 

Coincidently  with  the  latest  outrages 
the  Mexican  Foreign  Office  announced 
that  an  association  of  Mexicans  and 
Americans  had  been  discovered  on  the 
border  banded  together  for  the  purpose 
of  kidnapping  and  holding  for  ransom 
foreigners,  preferably  Americans.  In- 
structions were  issued  to  the  military 
commanders  in  Chihuahua,  Durango, 
Coahuila,  Nuevo  Leon  and  Tamaulipas  to 
break  up  these  bands.  It  is  also  planned 
to  erect  concrete  block  houses  with  a 
guard  of  fifty  soldiers  to  each  to  protect 
the  railroad  lines. 

Mexico  hopes,  as  a  result  of  the  re- 
tirement of  Secretary  Lansing,  to  be  able 
to  import  arms  from  the  United  States. 
It  was  he  who  tightened  the  already 
existing  embargo  on  sending  arms  to 
Mexico  by  an  order  requiring  special 
licenses  after  Jan.  1  from  the  State  De- 
partment for  all  such  shipments.  A 
large  consignment  of  arms  was  reported 
to  have  been  received  from  Japan  by  a 


merchant  vessel  which  touched  at  Man- 
zanillo  on  Dec.  24.  The  Mexicans  have 
been  adding  machine-gun  units  to  their 
infantry  and  cavalry  commands,  and 
their  ammunition  factories  are  busy, 
particularly  one  near  Mexico  City  under 
the  direction  of  the  German  Mexican 
General  Maximilian  M.  KIohs. 

Preparations  are  being  made  for  the 
Presidential  elections  in  July,  and  sup- 
porters of  Carranza  have  won  the  first 
skirmish  for  position,  obtaining  a  de- 
cisive majority  of  the  Permanent  Com- 
mission which  will  have  full  control  of 
the  electoral  machinery  and  will  install 
the  new  Congress  on  Sept.  1.  The  prin- 
cipal candidates  for  the  Presidency,  be- 
sides Carranza,  are  General  Alvaro  Obre- 
gon,  head  of  the  Liberal  Constitutionalist 
Party,  and  Ygnacio  Bonillas,  former 
Mexican  Ambassador  at  Washington. 
The  latter  has  the  support  of  General 
Candido  Aguilar,  son-in-law  of  President 
Carranza. 

Largely  figuring  in  the  campaign  will 
be  the  attitude  of  the  candidates  on  the 
oil  question,  especially  Article  XXVII.  of 
the  new  Constitution.  Mexico  in  that 
document  asserts  the  fundamental  right 
of  the  people  to  the  soil  of  their  country 
and  imposes  land  taxes  which  the  foreign 
oil  interests  declare  are  confiscatory. 
Taxes  were  assessed  for  "  potential  pro- 
duction," and  American  companies  pro- 
testing were  not  allowed  to  drill  new 
wells.  They  appealed  to  the  State  De- 
partment for  protection.  In  reply  the 
Mexican  Embassy  stated  that  the  capa- 
city of  the  310  oil-producing  wells  in 
Mexico  was  2,000,000  barrels  per  day, 
and  only  220,000  were  being  extracted 
for  export  and  home  consumption,  leav- 
ing a  margin  of  1,780,000  barrels  a  day 
to  be  drawn  upon  by  simply  opening  the 
valves  of  the  wells.  The  Government  de- 
nied preventing  production,  and  said  if 
there  were  a  shortage  it  was  due  to  the 
owners.  Meantime  restriction  of  ship- 
ments caused  a  rapid  rise  in  the  price  of 
fuel  oil  here. 

Several  sharp  notes  were  sent  to  Mex- 
ico by  the  State  Department  in  the  in- 
terests of  American  oil  companies,  and 
finally  on  Jan.  17  President  Carranza 
agreed  to  issue  permits  for  drilling  wells, 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 


67 


good  until  the  new  Congress  should  set- 
tle the  whole  question. 

CENTRAL  AMERICA 

With  the  adhesion  of  Salvador  to  the 
League  of  Nations  by  vote  of  her  Con- 
gress on  March  10,  and  of  Venezuela 
on  March  13,  all  the  thirteen  States  in- 
vited to  accede  to  the  covenant  have  de- 
cided to  join.  The  United  States,  Mex- 
ixo  and  Costa  Rica  are  the  only  coun- 
tries in  the  Western  Hemisphere  that 
remain  outside  the  League  up  to  March 
16. 

Salvador  has  revived  the  scheme  for 
a  Central  American  federation  or  union 
of  the  five  Central  American  republics 
of  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Nicaragua, 
Costa  Rica  and  Salvador  under  one  Gov- 
ernment. The  date  for  which  this  is 
now  set  is  Sept.  15,  1921,  the  centennial 
of  their  independence  of  Spain.  This 
initiative  followed  a  request  from  Sal- 
vador to  President  Wilson,  asking  for  an 
interpretation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
In  reply  the  President  referred  the  Sal- 
vadoreans to  his  speech  before  the  Pan- 
American  Scientific  Congress  in  Wash- 
ington on  Jan.  6,  1916,  in  which  he  ex- 
plained the  doctrine  as  demanding  that 
European  Governments  should  not  ex- 
tend their  political  systems  to  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  added  that  the 
States  of  America  must  guarantee  to 
each  other  absolute  political  indepen- 
dence and  territorial  integrity. 

Chief  opposition  to  the  Central  Amer- 
ican Union  is  said  to  come  from  Presi- 
dent Estrada  Cabrera  of  Guatemala, 
who  contends  that  the  Unionists  are  re- 
actionaries. Guatemala  was  the  first 
country  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  to 
ratify  the  Peace  Treaty,  which  she  did 
on  Oct.  1,  1919. 

Honduras  had  a  brief  revolution  in 
February,  which  was  a  revival  of  the  op- 
position to  General  Lopez  Gutierrez, 
leader  of  a  successful  revolt  which  ended 
in  his  election  to  the  Presidency  on  Oct. 
26.  The  discontented  faction  gathered  a 
small  army  in  Nicaragua  and  crossed  the 
border,  sacking  towns.  They  were 
easily  defeated,  and  on  Feb.  25  it  was 
stated  that  Honduras  had  disbanded  her 
troops,  leaving  only  small  garrisons  in 


the  department  capitals,  relying  on  the 
promises  of  President  Chamorra  of  Nica- 
ragua that  he  would  not  permit  the  ene- 
mies of  the  present  Government  of  Hon- 
duras to  obtain  arms  on  Nicaraguan 
territory. 

SOUTH  AMERICA 

One  of  the  first  questions  likely  to  be 
submitted  to  the  League  of  Nations  is 
the  long-standing  controversy  between 
Bolivia,  Chile  and  Peru  over  the  former 
provinces  of  Tacna  and  Arica.  Peru 
on  Jan.  29  gave  notice  of  her  intention 
to  submit  the  various  claims  to  the 
League,  and  the  Bolivian  Senate  unani- 
mously approved  the  report  of  the  For- 
eign Minister  on  the  negotiations  by 
which  Bolivia  seeks  to  gain  a  seaport  on 
the  Pacific. 

The  dispute  grows  out  of  the  war 
waged  by  Chile  against  Peru  and  Bolivia 
for  possession  of  the  nitrate  beds  of 
Atacama  in  1884.  Chile  was  victorious 
and  annexed  the  territory  cutting  off 
Bolivia  from  the  sea,  but  promising  a 
plebiscite  in  ten  years.  This  promise 
was  never  carried  out.  The  Chilean 
Minister  at  La  Paz  in  1900  informed 
Bolivia  that  there  would  be  no  compen- 
sation for  the  annexed  provinces,  which 
Chile  held  "  by  the  same  title  as  that  by 
which  Germany  annexed  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine " — a  plea  that  is  not  likely  to  go 
far  with  the  League  of  Nations.  In 
1904  an  indemnity  of  $4,000,000  was  paid 
to  Bolivia,  and  Chile  built  for  her  a  rail- 
road from  La  Paz  to  Arica,  giving  her 
the  coveted  outlet  to  the  sea.  But 
Bolivia  is  not  content  with  this  single 
outlet  and  wants  a  larger  coast  line,  in- 
cluding the  province  of  Tacna,  which  was 
Peruvian  before  the  war  of  1880,  leaving 
to  Chile  the  former  Bolivian  provinces  of 
Antofagasta  and  Atacama.  Peru  on 
Feb.  25  sent  a  note  to  Bolivia  expressing 
surprise  at  the  latter's  policy  aiming  at 
the  incorporation  of  Tacna  and  the  city 
of  Arica  in  Bolivian  territory,  and  saying 
that  Peru  would  never  cede  her  rights 
there  to  Bolivia  or  any  other  nation.  In 
reply  Bolivia  on  March  4  declared  her 
purpose  not  to  be  inactive  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Tacna-Arica  controversy. 
Eduardo  Diez  de  Medina  has  been  named 
to  argue  the  case  for  Bolivia  before  the 


68 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


League  of  Nations,  and  the  Bolivian 
Foreign  Office  has  ordered  the  compila- 
tion of  data  to  be  presented. 

At  the  second  Pan  American  Financial 
Conference,  which  opened  in  Washington 
on  Jan.  19,  a  comprehensive  scheme  of 
co-operation  for  the  development  of  the 
great  natural  resources  of  the  Americas 
and  the  adjustment  of  international  obli- 
gations was  considered.  On  motion  of 
Dr.  Jose  Luis  Tejadas  of  Bolivia,  the 
conference  recommended  relief  for 
Europe  from  the  United  States  through 
the  medium  of  loans  to  South  and  Cen- 
tral American  countries,  the  proceeds 
being  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  debts 
of  those  countries  to  Europe  in  the  form 
of  foodstuffs.  The  existing  exchange 
rates  would  work  to  the  benefit  of  all 
concerned,  it  was  said,  and  at  least 
$1,000,000,000  would  thus  be  made  avail- 
able to  put  Europe  on  her  feet. 

Among  other  recommendations  of  the 
Congress  were  the  following: 

That  a  uniform  census  of  all  American 
countries   be   taken   every   ten  years ; 

That  the  metric  system  of  weightsi  and 
measures   be   universally   employed ; 

That  the  plan  of  arbitration  of  commer- 
cial disputes  in  effect  between  the  Bolsa  de 
Commercio  of  Buenos  Aires  and  the  United 
States  Chamber  of  Commerce  be  adopted  by 
all  the  American  countries ; 

That  the  Importation  of  raw  materials  into 
any  country  shall  not  be  prevented  by  pro- 
Qiibitive  duties. 

More  efficient  mail  service  was  urgent- 
ly advocated  by  several  of  the  delegates. 
Dr.  Ricardo  Aldao  of  Argentina  said 
that  business  men  in  his  country  were 
recently  sixty-three  days  without  mail 
because  of  the  lack  of  steamship  service. 
Dr.  Henrique  Perez  DuPuy  of  Venezuela 
said  that  communication  between  the 
United  States  and  his  country  was  better 
twenty-five  years  ago  than  it  is  today. 
The  Brazilians  suggested  the  establish- 
ment of  an  international  training  ground 
for  the  development  of  an  aviation  serv- 
ice between  the  Americas  to  be  used 
especially  for  parcel  post  purposes.  The 
Paraguayan  representatives  urged  the 
United  States  Shipping  Board  to  estab- 
lish fortnightly  sailings  to  River  Plate 
ports,  saying  that  communication  now  is 
slower  and  less  satisfactory  than  with 
Europe. 


Development  of  the  mineral  resources 
of  Peru  and  Chile  has  led  to  a  demand 
for  better  ports  nearer  to  the  sources  of 
supply.  Abandonment  of  Mollendo, 
which  is  nothing  but  an  open  roadst^^^d, 
and  the  creation  of  a  new  port  at  Mata- 
rani  Bay  about  thirteen  miles  further 
north  has  been  urged  on  the  "  "uvian 
Government.  For  her  part  Chile  has 
been  constructing  a  large  breakwater,  a 
long  quai  wall  and  a  modern  coal  pier 
at  Valparaiso  and  plans  to  build  a  break- 
water and  modern  piers  at  Antofagasta. 
Some  American  companies  have  con- 
structed ports  and  concrete  piers  to 
handle  ore  from  their  mines. 

The  universal  quest  for  oil  is  being 
pursued  energetically  in  South  America, 
and  a  concession  to  a  British  company 
for  an  immense  petroleum  tract  on  the 
Huallaga  and  Ucayali  Rivers,  approved 
on  Jan,  29  by  President  Leguia,  is  now 
before  the  Peruvian  Congress.  Sir 
Frank  Newnes  and  a  powerful  group  of 
capitalist  are  said  to  be  back  of  the 
concession,  which  is  to  run  for  five 
years. 

There  is  a  lively  competition  also  for 
coal  fields  in  a  recently  discovered  coal 
zone  in  Southern  Chile.  American, 
British  and  Japanese  interests  are  com- 
peting with  Chileans  for  the  coal,  which 
is  reported  to  be  of  excellent  quality. 
Japan  is  also  planning  a  new  line  of  six 
sailing  vessels  equipped  with  auxiliary 
engines  for  direct  service  to  Chile.  Japan 
is  one  of  the  principal  consumers  of 
Chilean  nitrates  and  imports  a  great 
deal  of  copper  and  iron  ores.  There  is 
a  great  demand  in  Chile  for  Japanese 
cotton  goods,  glassware  and  porcelain, 
but  exports  have  been  hindered  by  high 
freight  rates,  which,  it  is  expected,  the 
proposed  line  of  5,000-ton  sailing  vessels 
will  remedy. 

Japan  is  further  stimulating  her  trade 
with  South  America  by  accepting  the 
proposal  made  by  the  Argentine  Govern- 
ment to  all  nations  last  October  that 
treaties  be  negotiated  for  free  trade 
throughout  the  world  in  articles  of  prime 
necessity,  in  order  to  reduce  the  cost  of 
living.  Japan  was  the  third  nation  to 
approve  the  project,  Italy  and  Paraguay 
having  proceeded  her. 


NOTRE    DAME    CATHEDRAL.    MONTREAL. 
(British    and  Colonial   Press) 


French  Canada  and  the  British  Empire 


By  WILLIAM  BANKS 


WHEN  a  Canadian  of  English- 
speaking  ancestry  talks  of  Can- 
ada it  is  to  the  country  as  a 
whole  that  he  refers.  When  a 
French-speaking  native  mentions  Canada 
he  thinks  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  first, 
and  very  often  of  no  other  section  of  the 
Dominion.  The  habitant — the  agricult- 
urist of  Quebec — knows  no  other  land. 
He  loves  it  with  a  devotion  that  is  found 
only  where  generations  have  been  rooted 
to  the  soil.  France  means  little  to  him. 
Immigration  from  that  country  is  almost 
negligible.  What  there  is  of  it  does  not 
always   go   to    Quebec;    the   lure   of   the 


Western  prairies  is  too  strong.  Only 
1,526  people  came  from  France  to  Can- 
ada in  1919  out  of  a  total  immigration, 
according  to  recently  issued  official  re- 
turns, of  117,633.  Of  this  number  57,251 
were  from  Britain  and  52,064  from  the 
United  States. 

In  the  Province  of  Quebec  there  are 
few  large  centres  of  urban  population. 
Montreal,  Quebec,  Sherbrooke  and  Three 
Rivers  about  exhaust  the  list.  There  is 
a  closer  touch  with  the  intricacies  of 
British  and  European  politics  in  these 
than  in  the  rural  districts.  The  habitant 
is  more  parochial,  naturally.    He  knows 


70 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


and  appreciates  in  a  general  way  that 
great  quantities  of  his  dairy  produce 
go  to  England,  and  that  there  is  a  grow- 
ing demand  there  for  his  tobacco.  He 
approves  the  attitude  of  Britain  from 
sentimental  reasons  in  joining  with 
France  in  the  great  war.  But  his  affec- 
tion for  France,  thinned  by  the  lapse  of 
the  centuries  since  his  ancestors  owed 
allegiance  to  it,  has  been  subjected  to 
the  strain  of  disapproval  of  the  action 
of  that  country  toward  the  Church  to 
which,  in  the  mass,  he  belongs. 

These  things  are  not  always  taken  into 
account  in  the  English-speaking  prov- 
inces, Ontario  and  the  West,  into  which 
the  tide  of  British  immigration  has 
poured  unceasingly,  especially  during  the 
last  fifty  years.  There  have  thus  been 
maintained  between  Britain  and  the 
English-speaking  provinces  the  closest 
possible  ties  of  personal  relationship. 
Generation  after  generation  of  Canadian- 
born  have  grown  up  with  newcomers 
from  the  motherland,  who,  in  turn,  have 
become  sturdy  Canadian  citizens  while 
still  regarding  Britain  as  "home."  This 
has  served  to  keep  Ontario  and  the  West 
very  intimately  in  touch  with  Old  World 
politics,  a  process  that  has  been  aided 
by  the  growing  trade  between  Canada 
and  Europe,  built  up  since  the  days  when 
the  Dingley  and  McKinley  tariffs 
blocked  the  channels  to  the  south. 

Moreover,  the  Orange  order  is  very 
strong  in  Ontario.  It  keeps  alive  the  re- 
ligious and  racial  prejudices.  The  aver- 
age French  Canadian  is  prone  to  judge 
his  English-speaking  and  Protestant  fel- 
low-countrymen by  the  utterances  of 
Orange  journals  and  leaders.  English- 
speaking  Canadians  do  not  always  dis- 
criminate between  the  utterances  of 
French  journals  like  Le  Devoir  and  its 
editor,  Henri  Bourassa,  the  fiery  and 
amazingly  eloquent  Nationalist,  who 
would  have  Canada  break  away  altogeth- 
er from  the  British  Empire,  and  the  ma- 
jority of  French  newspapers,  which, 
when  they  discuss  the  question,  consider 
the  existing  British  connection  the  safest 
and  the  best  policy  for  the  country. 
English-speaking  Canada  is  always  ready 
to  fight  for  that  connection,  and  to  take 
part  In  the  wars  of  Britain  or  the  em- 


pire as  a  whole.  French  Canada  is  slow- 
er to  respond  to  the  call  to  conflict  be- 
yond its  own  shores.  It  took  some  time 
for  the  habitant,  who  marries  early  and 
raises  a  large  family,  to  realize  the  dan- 
ger to  his  own  country  in  the  period  of 
the  World  War.  Invasion  or  attempted 
invasion  would  have  found  him  enrolled 
to  the  last  available  man,  particularly 
if  the  menace  threatened  his  own  beloved 
Quebec. 

LOYALTY  OF  THE  HABITANT 

The  Hon.  Rodolphe  Lemieux,  who  was 
Postmaster  General  in  the  Government  of 
the  late  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier,  once  put  that 
idea  in  words  that  are  still  recalled  with 
pleasure  by  those  who  try  to  be  impar- 
tial in  discussing  the  relation  of  Quebec 
to  Canada  and  the  empire.  He  was  de- 
scribing the  awakening  of  his  people  to 
the  seriousness  of  the  world  struggle  and 
their  duty  toward  it.  He  declared  that 
the  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  habitant  un- 
der a  series  of  concessions  made  by  the 
British  from  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of 
Paris  in  1763,  when  Canada  became  a 
British  possession,  had  made  him  a  loyal 
subject.    He  proceeded: 

When  the  American  Revolutionary  "War 
broke  out,  with  France  as  the  ally  of  the 
Thirteen  Colonies,  Lafayette,  "  Le  heros 
des  deux  mondes,"  vainly  appealed  to  the 
racial  passions  of  the  habitants,  and  could 
not  induce  them  to  join  the  rebels.  Car- 
roll, a  young  ecclesiastic,  who  later  on 
became  Bishop  of  Baltimore,  vainly  ap- 
pealed to  their  religious  feelings.  The 
habitant's  unflinching  loyalty  asserted 
itself  for  the  first  time.  Why?  Because 
England  had  been  wise  and  strong. 
*  *  *  In  1812  the  Americans  again  in- 
vaded Canada.  The  habitants  under  de 
Salaberry  again  gave  evidence  of  their 
gratitude  toward  Great  Britain  by  repel- 
ling the   invaders. 

Lemieux  used  these  historical  records 
merely  as  a  text  upon  which  to  base  his 
story  of  the  way  in  which  Quebec  was 
coming  to  a  realization  of  the  true  situa- 
tion in  the  war  with  the  Central  Pow- 
ers, for  happily  there  is  no  fear  in  these 
days  of  conflict  with  the  great  Republic. 
No  one  hailed  with  such  joyous  satisfac- 
tion the  entry  of  the  United  States  into 
the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies  as  did 
Canadians  without  distinction  of  race. 

It  is  in  the  attitude  of  bitter  hostility 


FRENCH  CANADA  AND  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


71 


to  the  conscription  measure  adopted  by 
the  Government  in  1917  and  the  contro- 
versy that  still  rages  over  it  that  some 
people,  even  in  Canada,  think  they  see 
an  unfriendliness  on  the  part  of  Quebec 
to  other  sections  of  Canada  and  to  the 
British  Empire.  These  people  overlook 
the  fact  that  Quebec  was  not  alone  in  its 
opposition  to  that  act.  There  are  many 
members  of  the  United  Farmers  of  On- 
tario, including  a  number  who  sit  in  the 
Legislature  today  and  support  the  On- 
tario Government,  who  fought  the  con- 
scription proposals  without  cessation.  It 
was  among  Ontario  farmers  that  the  idea 
of  a  monster  deputation  to  the  Federal 
Government  originated.  They  had  the 
pledges  of  the  Government,  as  individuals 
and  collectively,  that  there  would  be  no 
compulsory  calling  up  of  married  men  or 
of  farmers'  sons  who  were  bona  fide  farm 
workers — urgent  appeals  having  been 
made  to  them  to  increase  foodstuffs  pro- 
duction to  the  utmost  limit.  Ontario  men 
very  largely  organized  the  deputation, 
which  numbered  some  2,000 — the  greatest 
deputation  the  Canadian  capital  has 
known.  Most  of  these  farmers  stayed 
in  Ottawa  for  two  days,  and,  so  far  as 
the  Ontario  representation  was  concerned, 
they  began  there  the  organization  in  con- 
crete form  of  the  movement  which  has 
since  given  them  control  of  power  in  the 
Provincial  Legislature. 

POLITICAL   COMPLICATIONS 

French-Canadian  opponents  of  con- 
scription were  not  only  encouraged  in 
their  attitude  by  the  stand  of  these  On- 
tario objectors,  but  the  political  condi- 
tions in  their  own  province  were  such  as 
to  stiffen  their  deteiinination.  Sir  Wil- 
frid Laurier,  their  political  idol  for  years, 
had  refused  Sir  Robert  Borden's  belated 
offers  to  take  part  in  the  formation  of  a 
Union  Government.  In  that  Government, 
prior  to  the  inclusion  of  the  Liberals  who 
finally  accepted  seats  at  the  Cabinet  ta- 
ble, were  several  men  who  were  avowed- 
ly Nationalists,  owing  their  election  and 
their  places  of  emolument  to  the  accept- 
ance of  the  doctrines  of  Henri  Bourassa. 
The  latter,  through  his  paper  and  on  the 
platform,  was  waging  a  campaign 
against   further    Canadian    sacrifices   in 


the  war,  using  language  that  rouses  the 
ire  of  English-speaking  Canadians  yet. 
The  higher  clergy  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  who,  when  the  war  broke  out, 
urged  aid  for  Britain  and  the  empire, 
were  critical  toward  conscription.  The 
French-Canadian  press  was  for  the  most 
part  hostile. 

To  all  these  adverse  forces  was  added 
a  potent  factor  that  few  but  Canadians 
versed  in  the  intricacies  of  the  politics 
of  their  own  country  would  fully  appre- 
ciate, namely,  the  dispute  over  bilingual- 
ism  in  the  French-Canadian  separate 
schools  of  Ontario.  Regulation  17  of  the 
Ontario  Department  of  Education  made 
important  changes  in  the  methods  of 
teaching  in  these  schools.  The  French- 
speaking  people  of  the  province  believed 
that  these  infringed  on  their  legal  and 
moral  rights.  Their  battle  was  taken 
up  by  their  compatriots  of  Quebec  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  and  bitterness  that  a 
racial  argument  usually  engenders.  Of 
this  dispute  Bourassa  and  his  followers 
made  effective  use,  and  they  were  ably 
assisted  by  journals  usually  antagonistic 
to  their  nationalist  doctrines.  "  The 
wounded  of  Ontario  "  became  for  many 
French  Canadians  a  battle  cry  that 
drowned  for  a  while  the  call  from  the 
fields  of  Flanders  and  France.  It  seemed 
as  if  Bourassa  was  about  to  attain  one 
of  the  principal  aims  of  his  political  life, 
the  ousting  of  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  from 
his  place  as  leader  of  the  French-speak- 
ing Canadian  race.  The  former  Premier 
of  Canada  himself,  it  is  no  secret,  feared 
that,  too.  But  while  he  resolutely  main- 
tained his  opposition  to  conscription  with- 
out consultation  of  the  people,  he  never- 
theless continued  to  urge  that  the  duty 
of  Canadians  to  the  empire  lay  in  active 
service.  He  lived  long  enough  to  find 
out  that  he  had  somewhat  overrated 
Bourassa's  influence  in  Quebec,  and  the 
elections  which  turned  on  the  Conscrip- 
tion act  showed  that  the  majority  of  the 
people  of  Canada  believed  in  the  measure. 

Does  it  matter  now  that  there  was 
some  rioting  in  Montreal  and  Quebec 
City?  They  were  the  ebullitions  of 
crowds  led  astray  by  a  few  fanatics.  The 
upshot  of  the  whole  business  was  that 
in  the  end  all  parts  of  the  country  ac- 


72 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


cepted  conscription  as  a  matter  of  law 
to  be  obeyed,  and  registration  thereafter 
proceeded  quietly  enough.  To  this  day 
the  extremists  on  both  sides,  however, 
argue  that  Quebec  and  Ontario — and  to 
the  French  Canadian  most  of  English- 
speaking  Canada  is  judged  by  Ontario — 
are  bitterly  hostile  and  unfair  to  each 
other.  Each  will  prove  that  the  other 
failed  in  its  duty,  especially  in  the  matter 
of  voluntary  enlistments.  Here  it  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  in  the  earlier  days  of 
the  war  the  English  native  bom  was 
almost  as  slow  as  his  fellows  of  Quebec 
to  grasp  the  importance  of  the  struggle 
in  its  connection  with  Canada.  That, 
however,  is  a  controversy  which  will  be 
a  topic  for  heated  argument  by  future 
generations. 

BASIS  OF  HARMONY 
To  politicians  who  live  in  memories  of 
the  days  when  race  could  be  set  against 
race  it  is  incredible  that  there  should  be 
evidences  of  a  rapprochement  between 
French  and  English  speaking  Canadians 
on  the  question  of  imperial  relations. 
But  one  of  the  evolutions  of  the  war  has 
been  a  keen  self-analysis  of  Canada's 
status  in  the  empire.  It  has  brought 
with  it  some  changes  that  a  few  years 
ago  would  have  been  deemed  impossible. 
English-speaking  politicians  and  their 
newspaper  supporters  no  longer  see  any 
disloyalty  in  plainly  worded  contentions 
that  Canada  is  absolutely  free  to  decide 
her  own  course  in  all  international  mat- 
ters that  affect  her.  That  is  the  secret 
of  Canada's  insistence  upon  separate  rep- 
resentation at  the  Peace  Conference,  and 
the  right  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles, and  to  have  a  distinct  entity  in 
the  League  of  Nations.  Few  Canadians 
are  shocked  at  the  suggestion  that  their 
representatives  in  the  League  might  on 
occasion  vote  against  Britain  in  a  mat- 
ter involving  war  as  an  alternative  to 
arbitration.  There  is  no  measurable 
body  of  opinion  that  would  go  as  far  as 
Bourassa  and  his  Nationalist  agitators, 
who  clamored  for  a  complete  separation 
from  the  empire;  but  there  is  no  insep- 
arable gulf  between  the  best  French-Ca- 
nadian opinion  and  that  of  the  English- 
speaking  contenders  that  her  part  in 
the  war  and  the  Peace  Treaty  has  en- 


abled Canada  to  attain  a  new  status  as 
one  of  a  group  of  British  nations.  The 
Toronto  Star  recently  said: 

There  is  a  wing  of  the  Ldberal  Party 
who  have  been  strong  for  autonomy,  and 
are  now  reluctant  to  admit  that  what 
Laurier    demanded    Borden    [the    present 


HENRI   BOURASSA 

Leader  of  Canadian  Nationalists 

(Photo    B.    &    C,    Ltd.) 


Premier]  has  secured.  They  think  there 
must  be  something  wrong  somewhere  with 
what  has  been  accomplished  without  their 
aid.  There  is  another  class  who  equally 
strive  to  wave  aside  the  new  status  Can- 
ada has  won.  They  are  the  advocates  of 
centralization,  who  do  not  want  to  aban- 
don the  dream  that  some  form  of  im- 
perial federation  can  be  worked  out  and 
the  empire  ruled  from  one  central  seat  of 
authority  in  London.  Both  these  classes, 
so  very  different  in  their  purposes,  will, 
however,  have  to  accept  a  new  order  of 
things. 

The  Star  is  a  Liberal  paper,  though  it 
supported  Union  Government  and  the 
Construction  bill.  It  reads  the  impe- 
rialists out  of  court  in  the  mild  words 
just  quoted.  Bourassa,  the  advocate  of 
a  separate  Canadian  Republic,  at  about 
the  same  time  was  declaring  in  Le  Devoir 
that 
the  triumph  of  British  imperialism  would 


FRENCH  CANADA  AND  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


73 


be,  for  Christian  faith  and  civilization  and 
the  repose  of  the  world,  a  peril  as  re- 
doubtable as  would  have  been  the  victory 
of  German  imperialism,  the  realization  of 
the  dreams  of  Pan-Slavism,  or  the  per- 
manence of  the  conquests  of  Islam:  as 
disastrous  as  would  be  the  triumph  of 
international  Bolshevism  or  the  invasion 
of  the  Asiatics. 

Such  language  naturally  arouses  the  ire 
of  The  Orange  Sentinel  of  Toronto,  which 
sees  in  it  evidences  of  its  view  that 
nothing  would  better  please  the  French 
Nationalists  and  tlie  Roman  heirarchy 
than  to  see  the  British  Empire  fall  to 
pieces. 

The  discussion  at  this  writing  (Feb- 
ruary, 1920)  is  proceeding  at  a  lively 
pace  throughout  the  country,  chiefly  in 
the  columns  of  the  newspapers.  It 
originated  in  its  present  form  with  two 
statements,  one  that  it  is  proposed  to 
hold  an  imperial  conference  in  London 
to  discuss  the  constitutional  relations  of 
Britain  and  the  nations  of  the  empire; 
the  other  that  under  no  conditions  will 
Canada  consent  to  the  abandonment  of 
her  place  in  the  League  of  Nations. 

FRENCH-CANADIAN  VIEW 

It  has  been  left  to  a  French-Canadian 
newspaper,  however,  to  give  one  of  the 
clearest  expositions  of  what  is  undoubt- 
edly the  view  of  the  majority'  of  Cana- 
dians in  regard  to  imperial  connection. 
Le    Soleil,    discussing   a   speech   by   the 
Hon.  H.   H.  Asquith  in  the  Paisley  by- 
election  campaign,  in  which  the  British 
statesman  urged  that  the  colonies  of  the 
empire  remain  as  they  are,  that  they  be 
consulted  in  matters  affecting  them,  but 
not   placed    in    an   imperial   council,   ap- 
proved that  viewpoint  and  proceeded: 
We  have  always  understood  that  the  im- 
perial   bond    was    more    moral    than    ma- 
terial,   based    on    sympathy    rather    than 
antipathy,    kept   up    by   generosity   rather 
than   maintained    by   force    and    trickery. 
We  prefer  it  that  way,  and  in  our  hum- 
ble   opinion    it    is    in    that   way    that    the 
Dominions   beyond  the   seas  will   be  more 
than    ever    tightly    bound    to    the    mother 
land.     If  the  British  Empire  is  to  guard 
its  power,  it  will  not  meddle  with  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Government  of  the  colonies, 
for  that   is   likely  to   dislocate   something 
and  break  the  tie  that  has  hitherto  bound 
together  so  many  people  of  different  men- 
tality,  of  varied  tongues  and  often  of  op- 
posing aspirations. 


Nothing  is  impossible  in  the  realm  of 
Canadian  politics  if  the  history  of  the 
last  few  years  is  to  be  accepted  as  a 
criterion,  and  there  have  been  more  fan- 
tastic dreams  than  that  the  very  ques- 
tion of  imperialism,  which  has  played  so 
large  a  part  in  keeping  the  French  and 
the  English  speaking  Canadian  from  ap- 
preciating one  another,  may  bring  them 
together  on  a  platform  acceptable  to 
both.  That  will  not  come  about  with- 
out a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  old 
guard,  the  imperialists  who  want  more 
and  not  less  of  Downing  Street  influ- 
ence in  Canadian  affairs.  They  may 
find  ammunition  in  the  attack  that  the 
lower  tariff  advocates  in  the  House  of 
Commons  are  planning  to  make  in  favor 
of  freer  trade  with  the  United  States 
and  an  extension  of  the  preference  to 
Great  Britain  until  free  trade  with  that 
country  is  gradually  established. 

PROGRESS  IN  QUEBEC  PROVINCE 

It  is  sometimes  charged  against  Que- 
bec that  it  progresses  very  slowly  in  a 
material  sense,  compared  with  other 
provinces.  The  war  has,  however,  stim- 
ulated an  advancement  that  for  the  pre- 
vious decade  had  been  quite  marked.  The 
habitant  is  essentially  an  agriculturist. 
His  response  to  the  appeal  for  greater 
food  production  proves  it.  In  1914  there 
were  some  4,800,000  acres  under  cultiva- 
tion in  Quebec  Province  and  agricultural 
products  were  valued  at  $99,000,000.  The 
figures  for  1918  were  13,292,000  acres 
and  $273,000,000  in  value  of  products,  a 
war  record  that  the  people  of  Quebec 
say  was  not  equaled  by  any  other  prov- 
ince. 

The  Toronto  World,  in  combating  the 
idea  that  the  rural  political  revolution 
had  left  Quebec  untouched,  recently  said: 

Though  Quebec  has  no  counterpart  to 
United  Farmers  of  Ontario  militancy,  it 
is  much  further  ahead  than  is  generally 
supposed.  There  are  nearly  800  farmers' 
co-operative  societies  in  the  province,  and 
Le  Comptoir  Co-Operatif  of  Montreal,  a 
sort  of  clearing  house  for  their  business, 
is  increasing  its  turnover  at  a  rapidly  ac- 
celerating speed.  The  young  farm  women 
are  also  organizing  strongly.  It  will  be 
Quebec  next. 

La  Patrie,  a  widely  read  French-Cana- 
dian newspaper,  discussing  the  farmers* 


74 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


A    FAMILY    GROUP    OF    FRENCH    CANADIANS 
{Photo  B.   d   C,   Ltd.) 


movement  in  the  other  provinces,  is  of 
opinion  that  the  agricultural  class  of 
Quebec  will  be  found  as  "  well  balanced  " 
as  the  workingmen,  who  "  have  shown  a 
moderation  which  has  appreciably  helped 
to  dissipate  the  uneasiness  from  which 
the  national  industry  has  suffered."  La 
Patrie  holds  that  it  would  be  no  matter 
of  suprise  if  the  agriculturists  of  the 
province  "  acted  as  a  counterbalance  to 
the  extremists,  and  deviated  the  farmers' 
political  organizations  of  other  provinces 
from  ways  that  lead  to  danger." 

CONFLICTING  VIEWS 

Certain  journals  and  politicians  will 
still  continue  to  make  much  of  any  sug- 
gestion from  French-Canadian  sources 
that  Quebec  has  grievances  that  can  only 
be  righted  by  such  plans  as  that  proposed 
by  Wilfrid  Gascon  in  a  communciation 
to  Le  Canada,  namely,  independence 
within  the  "  limits  of  the  territory  which 
was  the  cradle  of  the  race."  The  method 
he  advocates  in  a  plebiscite  under  the 
principle  of  self-determination.  Others 
see  confirmation  of  what  they  believe  to 
be  the  true  condition  of  affairs  in  gather- 


ings such  as  that  held  at  Aylmer,  Quebec, 
early  this  year,  a  bilingual  educational 
conference  called  by  the  Government  of 
the  province.  French  Canadians,  Irish 
Catholics  and  Scotch  and  English  Prot- 
estants spoke  from  the  same  platform. 
Unity  in  the  national  sense  and  toler- 
ance in  matters  of  religion  and  education 
were  the  burden  of  their  addresses. 
These  observers  point  also  to  the  eulogies 
of  the  French  Canadian  and  other  sol- 
diers delivered  in  the  Legislature  of 
Quebec  on  the  occasion  of  the  debates  as 
to  the  aid  to  be  given  to  such  of  the  re- 
turned men  as  desire  to  become  farmers. 
Finally  they  ask  if  it  is  conceivable  that 
the  majority  of  French  Canadians  would 
favor  any  other  method  of  government 
or  connection  than  those  under  which 
they  live.  If,  for  instance,  they  become 
subjects  of  any  other  country  as  a  sep- 
arate State  or  province,  would  they  still 
be  entitled  to  the  constitutional  repre- 
resentation  in  Parliament,  65  members 
that  cannot  legally  be  lowered;  to  the 
right  of  dual  language  in  speech  and  in 
printed  word  in  all  Parliamentary  de- 
bates   and    Government    documents;    to 


FRENCH  CANADA  AND  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


75 


noninterference  with  their  provincial 
school  system  and  its  religious  lessons 
in  their  own  faith? 

English-speaking  Canada  has  itself 
passed  through  too  many  phases  of  polit- 
ical agitation,  in  which  one  side  has 
taunted  the  other  with  disloyalty,  to  war- 
rant the  throwing  of  stones  at  Quebec, 
and  it  is  not  yet  done  with  them.  One 
Toronto  weekly  newspaper  of  high  stand- 
ing thus  advertised  an  article  on  the 
farmers*  movement: 

flow  the  advanced  wing  of  the  farmers' 
party  is  advancing:  a  mile  a  day  toward 
the  United  States  border,  sing-ing  as  they 
so: 

"  We  don't  give  a  d 

If  we  land  with  Uncle  Sam." 

QUEBEC'S  ESSENTIAL  LOYALTY 

Quebec  is  bearing  without  a  murmur 
her  share  of  the  heavy  war  burdens  that 
Canada  must  meet  for  a  long  time  to 
come.  She  is  often  misunderstood  in  the 
Dominion  as  she  often  misunderstands 
the  other  provinces.  She  nevertheless 
remains  an  essential  and  integral  part  of 
the  country  her  people  are  helping  to 
erect  into  a  strong  and  progressive  na- 
tion. It  is  not  certain  that  the  National- 
ist movement  has  passed  beyond  the 
stage  where  it  may  again  be  a  source 
of  irritation  and  anxiey;  the  majority 
of  Canadians  of  both  races,  however,  pre- 


fer to  regard  that  movement  as  without 
real  life,  an  excrescence  that  will  event- 
ually be  removed  from  the  body  politic. 
They  turn  for  inspiration,  as  they  have 
often  done  of  late,  to  the  open  letter 
written  from  the  trenches  by  Captain 
Talbot  M.  Papineau,  winner  of  the  Mil- 
itary Cross  and  other  decorations,  to 
Henri  Bourassa  at  a  time  when  the  Na- 
tionalist leader  was  conducting  his  most 
vigorous  campaign  against  Canada's  ef- 
fort in  the  war.  Papineau,  a  descendant 
of  one  of  the  leaders  of  that  name  In 
the  rebellion  of  1837,  having  expressed 
his  love  for  the  French  language  and  his 
determination  to  remain  a  French  Cana- 
dian, proceeded  thus: 

Can  a  nation's  pride  or  patriotism  be 
built  upon  the  blood  and  suffering  of 
others,  or  upon  the  wealth  garnered  from 
the  coffers  of  those  who,  in  anguish  and 
with  blood  sweat,  are  fighting  the  bat- 
tles of  freedom?  If  we  accept  our  liber- 
ties, our  national  life  from  the  hands  of 
the  English  soldiers,  if  without  sacrifices 
of  our  own  we  profit  by  the  sacrifices  of 
the  English  citizens,  can  we  hope  to  be- 
come a  nation  ourselves?  How  could  we 
ever  acquire  that  soul  or  create  that  pride 
without  whicli  a  nation  is  a  dead  thing 
and  doomed  to  speedy  decay  and  disap- 
pearance? If  you  were  truly  a  Nation- 
alist—if you  loved  our  great  country  and 
without  smallness  longed  to  see  her  be- 
come the  home  of  a  good  and  united  peo- 
ple—surely you  would  have  recognized 
this  as  her  moment  of  travail  and  trib- 
ulation. 


Life  Conditions  in  England 


THE  January  number  of  The  London 
Labor  Gazette  showed  that  the  gen- 
eral level  of  living  cost,  including  rent, 
clothing,  fuel,  light,  and  food,  was  125 
per  cent,  higher  than  that  prevailing  in 
July,  1914.  Food  alone  stood  at  136  per 
cent,  above  pre-war  prices.  Another 
great  problem  was  that  of  housing.  The 
scarcity  of  houses  throughout  the  United 
Kingdom  has  long  been  for  the  Govern- 
ment a  matter  of  serious  concern.  It 
was  stated  by  Lord  Astor,  Parliamentary 
Secretary  to  the  Minister  of  Health,  on 


Jan.  8,  that  as  a  result  of  a  review  of 
the  situation  the  original  estimate  of 
500,000  houses,  required  to  shelter  the 
population,  had  been  increased  to  800,000. 
The  Director  General  of  National  Hous- 
ing announced  at  this  time  that  20,000 
houses  were  actually  in  course  of  con- 
struction. 

Plans  for  85,000  had  been  submitted, 
65,000  had  been  approved,  and  con- 
tracts for  the  building  of  some  100,000 
were  to  be  entered  into  by  the  local 
authorities. 


Poland's  Wav  With  Red  Russia 

Soviet's  Last  Opponent  on  the  Baltic  Lays  Down  Peace  Terms 
and  Defeats  Bolshevist  Forces 

[Period  Ended  March  15,  1920] 


FOLLOWING  closely  on  the  conclu- 
sion of  peace  between  Bolshevist 
Russia  and  Esthonia,  the  Polish 
Goyernment  received  from  Mos- 
cow an  official  overture  of  a  cessation  of 
hostilities  pending  ultimate  agreement  on 
special  questions  involved.  The  complete 
text  of  the  Soviet  offer,  as  given  out  in 
Moscow  on  Feb.  4,  and  published  in  the 
German-Swiss  papers  early  in  March,  is 
as  follows: 

To   Pilsudski,   the  Head  of  the  State: 
The    Council    of    People's    Commission- 
ers   of    the    Russian    Soviet    Republic    to 
the    Government   and    the   People    of    Po- 
land: 

Declaration:  It  lies  entirely  with  Po- 
land to  decide  whether  it  will  come  to  a 
conclusion  which  may  have  the  most 
fatal  -effect  upon  the  life  of  the  nation 
for  years.  All  indications  are  that  the 
extreme  imperialists  of  the  Entente,  the 
followers  or  agents  of  Churchill  or 
Clemenceau,  are  at  this  moment  at- 
tempting to  involve  Poland  in  a  liare- 
brained  and  criminal  war  against  So- 
viet "Russia. 

Conscious  of  its  great  responsibility 
to  the  laboring  masses  of  Russia  and  in- 
spired by  the  most  earnest  desire  to 
avoid  new  and  unlimited  sacrifices,  as 
well  -as  the  anisfortune  and  the  ruin  that 
threaten  both  our  peoples,  the  Council 
of  People's  Commissioners  makes  the 
following   statement: 

1.  'The  policy  of  the  'Russian  So<;ialist 
Federated  Soviet  Republic  is  not  guided 
by  accidental  and  temporary  military  or 
diplomatic  combinations,  but  by  the  in- 
alienable right  of  every  nation  to  deter- 
mine its  own  destiny.  The  Council  has 
recognized,  and  continues  to  recognize, 
unconditionally  and  unprovisionally  the 
independence  and  sovereignty  of  the  Re- 
public of  Poland.  From  the  first  day 
of  its  existence  the  Polish  State  was 
based  upon  this  recognition. 

2.  The  Council  of  People's  Commission- 
ers declares  anew,  as  it  did  at  the  time 
of  the  last  peace  proposal  made  to  Po- 
land on  Dec.  22,  by  the  People's  Com- 
missariat for  Foreign  Affairs,  that  the' 
Red  troops  will  not  cross  the  present 
front  lines  in  White  Russia,  which  run 
through  the  following  points:  Drissa, 
Disna,  Polock,  Borysof,  Paricze  and  the 
railroad  stations  of  Plycz,  Bialakore  and 
Vicze. 


As  far  as  the  Ukrainian  front  is  con- 
cerned, the  Council  of  People's  Commis- 
sioners declares,  in  its  own  name  and  in 
the  name  of  the  Provisional  Government 
of  the  Ukraine,  that  the  Soviet  troops  of 
■the  Federative  Republic  will  undertake 
no  military  operations  west  of  the  pres- 
ent  front   line,    which   runs    through   tho 


GENERAL,  PILSUDSKI 

President  of  Poland  and   Chief   Commander 

of    Polish    Arw,ies 

(Underwood   £   Underwood) 

neighborhood    of    Udnof,    Pilava,    Deratz- 
nia  and   the  City  of  Bar. 

3.  The  Council  of  People's  Commission- 
ers declares  that  the  Soviet  Republic  has 
concluded  no  agreement  or  treaty  with 
Germany  or  with  any  other  country  that 
is  aimed  directly  or  indirectly  against 
Poland,  and  that  the  nature  of  the  spirit 
of  the  international  policy  of  the  Soviet 
power  precludes  the  slightest  desire  to 
take  advantage  of  possible  conflicts  be- 
tween Poland  and  Germany  or  any 
other  country  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
croaching upon  the  independence  of  Po- 
land and  the  inviolability  of  its  terri- 
tory. 

4.  The     Council     of     People's     Commis- 


POLAND'S   WAR   WITH  RED  RUSSIA 


77 


SCENE  OF  THE  UNSUCCESSFUL  DRIVE  OF  RUSSIAN  BOLSHEVIST  TROOPS 
AGAINST    THE    POLISH    ARMY 


sioners  finds  that  in  so  far  as  the  inter- 
ests of  Poland  and  Russia  are  concerned 
there  is  no  question,  territorial,  econom- 
ic, or  of  any  other  nature,  that  cannot 
be  settled  peaceably  by  means  of  arbi- 
tration, concessions,  or  mutual  agree- 
ment, as  was  done  in  the  case  of  the  ne- 
gotiations   with    Esthonia. 

The  Council  of  People's  Commissioners 
has  directed  the  Commissariat  for  For- 
eign Affairs  to  obtain  from  the  coming 
February  session  of  the  Central  Execu- 
tive Committee  for  Russia  the  formal 
confirmation  of  the  above  outlined  basis 
of  the  policy  of  Soviet  Russia  toward 
Poland  -by  the  highest  official  body  of 
the    republic. 

The  Council  of  People's  Commission- 
ers, for  its  own  part,  believes  that, 
through  the  present  categorical  declara- 
tion, it  fulfills  its  duty  regarding  the 
peaceful  interests  of  the  Russian  and 
Polish  peoples.  It  entertains  the  confi- 
dent hope  that  all  pending  questions  be- 
tween Russia  and  Poland  will  be  set- 
tled  through   friendly  agreements. 

(Signed) 
ULIANOV-LENIN,  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil   of    People's    Commissioners. 
TCHITCHERIN,    Commissioner    for   For- 
eign Affairs. 
TROTZKY,   Military  and  Naval  Commis- 
sioner. 


PILSUDSKI'S  VIEWPOINT 

In  an  interview  given  in  Warsaw  on 
Feb.  9,  General  Pilsudski,  Polish  Chief 
of  State,  affirmed  his  belief  that, 
despite  their  peace  offer,  the  Bolsheviki 
were  contemplating  a  new  offensive 
against  the  Polish  front.  They  were,  he 
said,  strengthening  their  forces  daily  and 
preparing  to  attack.  He  conceded  that 
this  was  out  of  keeping  with  the  con- 
ciliatory tone  of  the  peace  note,  but  ex- 
plained it  as  an  alternative  in  case  the 
peace  offer  to  Poland  was  rejected.  He 
intimated,  however,  that  if  such  an  at- 
tack occurred  the  Polish  Army  would  be 
equal  to  the  task  imposed  upon  it.  Po- 
land needed  peace,  but  would  not  be  in- 
timidated according  to  the  method  fol- 
lowed in  the  case  of  Esthonia.  As  to  the 
danger  of  the  spread  of  the  Bolshevist 
propaganda  in  case  peace  were  made,  he 
declared  that  the  national  sentiment  of 
the  country  was  so  opposed  to  Bol- 
shevism that  there  was  little  to  fear  on 
this  score.  One  factor  in  the  situation 
which  Pilsudski  was  considering  was  the 


78 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


enormous  rise  in  prices  in  Esthonia  fol- 
lowing the  Dorpat  peace,  due  to  the  im- 
mediate export  of  Esthonian  commodities 
to  Soviet  Russia. 

Regarding  the  attitude  of  the  allied 
Governments  toward  Poland's  making 
peace,  Lloyd  George  stated  in  Parliament 
on  Feb.  19  that  the  question  of  peace  or 
war  was  one' that  Poland  must  settle  for 
herself.  On  the  following  day  Pilsudski 
came  out  strongly  in  favor  of  making 
peace.  His  statement  was  in  part  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  moment  to  make  peace  with  Russia 
has  come,  and  it  has  come  not  only  for 
Poland  but  for  all  the  allied  countries. 
Up  to  now  no  one  has  dared  to  tackle 
this  immense  problem.  Only  half  meas- 
ures have  been  attempted.  Kolchak,  Den- 
ikin  and  the  rest  have  constituted  a  kind 
of  ostrich's  wing  under ^  which"  diplomacy 
has  for  long-  months  been  hiding  its 
head.  These  half  measures  are  useless' 
and  reactionary.  It  is  imposisible  to  re- 
vive old  Russia  by  means  of  its  former 
servants.  One  must  find  new  methods. 
We  must  have  courage  to  admit  that  a 
formidable  change  has  come  over  Eastern 
Europe.  fThe  moment  to  have  that  cour- 
age has  arrived,  and  we  must  set  to 
work. 

Poland  proposes  to  the  Allies  to  help 
them  in  the  great  task.  We  are  not 
actuated  by  any  ambition  to  play  a  great 
role,  but  only  because,  as  Poland  is  the 
country  most  directly  interested,  it  is 
right  that  she  should  take  the  initiative. 
We  are  therefore  elaborating  a  plan 
which  seeks  to  create  a  legal  state  of 
things  in  Eastern  Europe.  This  plan  will 
soon  be  submitted  to  the  allied  powers. 
Perhaps  it  will  not  be  perfect  in  all  its 
details.  Some  of  its  clauses  will  need  to 
be  discussed,  but  in  any  case  our  plan 
can  be  considered  as  a  basis  for  the 
final  settlement. 

The  Polish  plan  was  not  revealed,  but 
it  became  known  at  this  time  that  a  Po- 
lish Peace  Commission  had  been  appoint- 
ed, which  was  divided  into  three  sections 
— military,  financial  and  po^'+^^ical -terri- 
torial. The  Military  Sub-Commission  had 
for  its  task  the  fixing  of  the  clauses  of 
an  armistice;  the  financial  group  was  to 
fix  the  proportionate  rights  of  Poland  in 
the  gold  reserves  of  the  former  empire, 
and  the  political  group  was  to  establish 
the  Polish  territorial  claims,  and  to  draw 
up  provisions  devised  to  protect  the  in- 
terests of  Eoland-'s  weaker  neighbors. 
These  commis^tnrs  were  holding  secret 


POLISH  PEACE  TERMS 

The  results  of  this  activity  became  ap- 
parent on  Feb.  24,  when  the  Committee 
of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Polish  Diet 
framed  a  note  to  the  Bolshevist  Govern- 
ment containing  a  statement  of  the  terms 
on  which  Warsaw  would  undertake  peace 
negotiations  with  Moscow.  The  five  fol- 
lowing conditions  were  laid  down: 

1.  Poland  asks  Russia  to  give  up  ter- 
ritories to  the  west  of  the  frontier  of 
1772  so  that  the  inhabitants  may  freely 
choose   their  political   future. 

2.  Russia  must  recognize  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Baltic  countries  and  leave 
them  free  to  conclude  with  Poland  such 
treaties  as  they  may  decide  upon, 

3.  Poland  states  she  will  not  continue  to 
concern  herself  with  the  Ukraine  provided 
a  stable  government  is  organized  there. 

4.  Poland  will  demand  that  the  Bol- 
shevist Government  give  sufficient  guar- 
antees against  Bolshevist  propaganda  ef- 
forts in  Polish  territory, 

5.  Poland  will  demand  from  Russia  a 
war  indemnity  for  devastations  committed 
by  the  Russian  Army  in  Poland  as  well 
as  for  damages  done  to  Polish  citizens  in 
Russia  under  the  Bolshevist  regime. 

Various  details  still  remained  to  be 
settled,  and  the  pourparlers  with  Mos- 
cow continued.  The  Polish  Government 
on  March  3  proposed  to  the  Soviet  au- 
thorities that  they  should  begin  direct 
peace  negotiations  without  the  conclusion 
of  an  armistice.  The  ground  for  this 
demand  was  the  Polish  belief  that  if  an 
armistice  were  agreed  to  the  Bolsheviki 
would  take  advantage  of  the  cessation  of 
hostilities  to  concentrate  troops  and  rein- 
force various  weak  points  along  the 
front.  It  was  planned  to  submit  the 
final  peace  proposals  by  wire  to  the 
French  and  British  Premiers  before  they 
were  transmitted  formally  to  the  Bolshe- 
vist Government. 

On  learning  of  Poland's  intention  to 
embody  in  her  peace  terms  insistence 
on  control  of  territories  west  of  her  old 
frontier,  as  it  existed  prior  to  the  first 
Polish  partition  of  1772,  the  Committee 
of  Ambassadors  in  Paris  on  Feb.  28 
drafted  a  note  to  Poland  calling  the  at- 
tention of  the  Warsaw  Government  to 
the  fact  that  Poland's  eastern  boundary, 
as  laid  down  by  the  Supreme  Council 
on  Nov.  25,  1919,  lay  far  to  the  westward 
of  the  districts  which  Poland  had  occu- 
pied by  her  armed  forces,  and  to  which 


POLAND'S   WAR   WITH  RED  RUSSIA 


79 


she  was  now  endeavoring  to  establish  a 
permanent  claim.  The  note  also  pro- 
tested against  the  proposed  holding  of 
elections  for  members  of  the  Warsaw 
Diet  in  districts  east  of  the  line  laid 
down  by  the  council. 

BOLSHEVIK!  OPEN  OFFENSIVE 

A  general  conference  of  Baltic  States 
called  to  consider  jointly  the  various 
peace  offers  made  by  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment had  been  scheduled  to  open  in  War- 
saw on  March  8.  Delegates  were  to  be 
sent  by  Finland,  Latvia  and  Rumania. 
In  a  statement  signed  by  the  Polish 
State  officials  the  intention  of  pursuing 
the  peace  negotiations  to  their  ultimate 
conclusion  was  reiterated.  At  this  junc- 
ture, however,  a  new  aspect  of  the  situa- 
tion arose  with  the  sudden  beginning  of 
a  strong  offensive  by  the  Bolsheviki  on 
both  sides  of  the  Pripet  region.  The 
first  blow,  coinciding  with  a  new  attack 
on  Finland,  was  struck  about  March  6. 
The  Polish  forces  were  said  to  be  re- 
pulsing the  enemy  and  inflicting  heavy 
losses. 

In  commenting  on  this  new  onslaught 
President  Pilsudski  said : 

Poland  wants  peace  and  is  willing'  to 
discuss  it,  but  we  refuse  to  tbe  forced  to 
that  discussion  by  threats  of  the  Red 
Army. 

At  first  I  (thought  the  Bolsheviki  would 
negotiate  with  us  peacefully,  without  ar- 
ri^re  peng^e.  I  wished  to  enter  the  dis- 
cussion with  the  same  frankness  and  had 
no  intention  of  taking  advantage  of  our 
favorable  position  to  support  our  argu- 
ments by  force  of  arms.  I  did  not  want 
peaxse  imposed  by  our  guns  and  bayonets. 

Unfortunately,  what  I  see  of  the  Bol- 
'sheviki  gives  me  the  impression  that  they 
do  not  want  a  really  pacific  peace,  but 
to  force  peace  from  us  by  the  threat  of 
their  fists,  as  they  did  with  the  Es- 
thonians.  I  am  not  a  man  to  be  treated 
like  that.  I,  too,  can  talk  strongly  and 
can  be  enraged  if  there  is  an  attempt  to 
impose  upon  me  by  threats.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  Poland  shares  my  feelings. 
We  will  not  make  peace  under  pressure 
of  threats.  We  want  either  a  pacific 
peace   freely   accepted   or   war. 

I  am  aware  that  the  Bolsheviki  are 
concentrating  large  forces  on  our  front. 
But  they  are  mistaken  if  they  think  to 
frighten  us  thus  and  offer  us  a  sort  of 
ultimatum.  Our  army  is  ready  and  I  have 
full  confidence  in  it.  If  it  is  threatened 
it  can  threaten  in  turn. 


POLES  TRIUMPH  ON  PRIPET 

News  of  a  complete  Polish  victory  in 
the  region  attacked  reached  Warsaw  on 
March  8.  Polish  forces  under  Colo- 
nel ,Sikorski  had  attacked  Bolshevist 
troops  in  the  vicinity  of  Mozir  and  Ko- 
lenkovitz,  southeast  of  Minsk,  the  day 
before,  and  captured  these  two  important 
railway  junctions  with  much  war  mate- 
rial, including  several  armored  boats  on 
the  Pripet  River.  One  thousand  Red  sol- 
diers and  many  officers  had  been  taken 
prisoner.  In  an  official  communique  it 
was  stated  that  the  attack  was  made  in 
order  to  prevent  further  hostile  opera- 
tions by  the  Soviet  Army,  and  also  to 
disperse  Bolshevist  troops  which  had 
been  concentrated  behind  the  enemy  lines. 
The  official  communique  said: 

This  victory  is  a  worthy  answer  to  the 
Bolshevist  policy  of  suing  for  peace  and 
at  the  same  time  continuing  attacks 
along  the  front. 

Warsaw  advices  indicated  that  not 
since  the  capture  of  Lemberg  a  year  ago 
have  the  Polish  people  been  so  elated 
as  they  were  on  receiving  the  news  from 
Pripet.  The  press  jubilantly  printed  the 
opinion  of  military  experts  that  by  cut- 
ting the  Mozir-Kolenkovitz  line,  and  thus 
separating  White  Ruthenia  from  Mos- 
cow, the  Red  forces  had  been  dealt  a  de- 
cisive blow.  The  Polish  exultation  was 
increased  by  new  victories  won  by  the 
Polish  troops  in  repelling  attacks  begun 
by  the  Bolsheviki  north  of  Mozir  on 
March  10;  eight  guns,  an  artillery  park 
and  a  great  number  of  prisoners  were 
taken.  The  forces  of  the  Red  Army 
were  retreating  in  disorder  beyond  the 
Dnieper,  the  right  bank  of  which  was 
in  possession  of  the  Poles. 

KERENSKVS  REVELATIONS 

At  a  lecture  delivered  in  Paris  on 
March  11  Kerensky,  the  former  Russian 
Premier,  made  sensational  revelations 
regarding  secret  agreements  arranged 
between  France,  England  and  the  Czar 
during  the  last  days  of  the  Romanov 
regime.  France  had  demanded  absolute 
ownership  of  the  Sarre  Valley  and  an 
indefinite  military  occupation  of  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  these  demands 
had  been  acceded  to,  according  to 
Kerensky,    by    Lord    Milner,    acting   for 


80 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


England,  and  by  the  Czar.  Milner  also 
agreed  to  the  Czar's  demand  for  the 
whole  of  Poland,  including  the  Austrian 
and  Prussian  sections,  despite  his  pre- 
vious promise  to  accord  that  country 
autonomy;  but  M.  Doumer,  the  French 
negotiator,  declared  that  he  must  first 
consult  his  Government.  Before  the 
French  answer  came  to  Russia,  the  Czar 
had  fallen ;  but  when  it  reached  Kerensky, 
who  was  then  in  power,  it  proved  to  be 
affirmative. 

This  revelation  caused  great  excite- 
ment among  the  Polish  correspondents 
in  Paris,  who  at  once  cabled  verbatim 
reports  to  Warsaw.  It  was  said  in  Paris 
that  Kerensky  had  made  these  disclosures 
in  retaliation  for  the  Allies'  unwilling- 
ness to  agree  to  his  idea  for  settling  the 
Russian  problem  by  a  policy  of  "  hands 
off." 

Ignace  Jan  Paderewski,  the  former 
Polish  Premier,  whose  fall  from  power 
is  said  to  have  been  precipitated  by 
German-Austrian  intrigues  working 
through  M.  Bilinski,  the  Polish  Foreign 
Minister,  and  a  former  Austrian  official. 


has  retired  to  private  life  in  his  little 
home  overlooking  Lake  Geneva.  Inter- 
viewed in  Paris  early  in  March,  he  was 
reluctant  to  talk  of  the  strenuous  period 
through  which  he  had  passed,  but  ex- 
pressed high  hopes  of  the  future  of  his 
country.  "  I  am  certain  that  an  era  of 
peace  and  prosperity  has  begun  for 
Poland,"  he  said,  "  and  that  I  have  not 
labored  in  vain."  He  declared  that  he 
would  give  no  more  concert  tours,  but 
would  devote  himself  purely  to  musical 
composition.  He  was  then  at  work  on 
the  composition  of  a  Polish  national 
anthem. 

The  Polish  Legation  at  Washington 
announced  on  March  1  that  negotiations 
for  floating  the  bonds  of  a  private  loan 
for  $50,000,000  to  be  raised  in  the  United 
States  for  Poland  had  been  concluded 
with  the  People's  Industrial  Trading 
Corporation  of  New  York.  No  objections 
to  the  proposed  loan  had  been  made  by 
the  United  States  Government.  The 
funds  raised  by  this  loan,  the  first  to 
any  of  the  States  arising  out  of  the  war, 
were  to  be  used  by  the  Polish  Govern- 
ment for  purposes  of  reconstruction. 


General  Maurice  on  Lord  Haldane 


WRITING  in  The  London  Star,  James 
Douglas  says :  "  History  will  re- 
verse the  judgment  of  journalism  with 
regard  to  three  great  English  statesmen — 
Mr.  Asquith,  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Hal- 
dane. Already  the  process  is  visible. 
There  is  an  impalpable  shifting  of  opin- 
ion. Revoluation  is  in  the  air.  The 
tempest  of  detraction  is  overpast.  There 
la  an  uneasy  silence  that  is  a  kind  of 
remorse." 

This  judgment  is  confirmed  by  Major 
Gen.  Sir  Frederick  Maurice,  who  in  re- 
viewing Lord  Haldane's  new  book, 
"  Before  the  War,"  brings  out  strongly 
the  point  made  by  Mr.  Douglas  that  the 
fate  of  the  world  trembled  on  a  narrow 
margin  of  forty-eight  hours  and  that 
"  the  organizer  of  victory  who  gave  the 
world  that  margin  was  Lord  Haldane." 
General  Maurice  says: 

When,    at   Mr.    Asquith' s   request,   Lord 

Haldane,    on   Aug.    3,    1914,    re-entered  the 


War  Office,  which  he  had  left  to  become 
Lord  Chancellor,  to  press  the  button  and 
set  in  motion  the  machine  he  had  created, 
that  machine  worked  without  the  small- 
est hitch  or  friction,  and  by  its  means 
our  Expeditionary  Force  was  assembled 
on  Aug-.  19  just  south  of  the  French 
fortress  of  Maubeuge,  ready  to  advance 
to  Mons. 

By  its  presence  there  in  those  numbers 
and  at  that  time  it  foiled  the  first  care- 
fully prepared  German  plan  of  campaign, 
it  saved  Paris,  and  it  saved  the  Channel 
ports.  I  will  not  say  that  had  it  not  been 
where  it  was  when  it  was  Germany  would 
have  won  the  war,  for  I  believe  that  the 
causes  of  Germany's  defeat  were  far 
deeper,  but,  unquestionably,  without  it 
victory  would  only  have  been  won  at  a 
cost  far  greater  than  that  under  which  we 
are    today    groaning. 

Such  is  our  debt  to  the  man,  recognized 
and  honored  by  all  soldiers,  from  Lord 
Haig  downward,  who  know  the  facts,  as 
the  greatest  Secretary  for  War  within 
memory,  a  debt  which,  to  our  shame,  has 
been  paid  by  ignorant  abuse  and  venomous 
slander. 


The  Problem  of  Russia 


I 


Progress  of  the  Soviet  Drive  for  Trade  Resumption  and  Peace 
With  Other  Nations — Attitude  of  the  Allies* 

[Period  Ended  March  15,  1920] 


THE  reaction  following  the  an- 
nounced intention  of  the  Council 
of  Premiers  to  resume  trade  re- 
lations with  Soviet  Russia 
through  the  Russian  Co-operative  So- 
cieties without  official  recognition  of 
the  Soviet  Government  was  prolonged 
throughout  February  and  March.  De- 
spite the  fact  that  the  representatives 
of  these  societies  in  Paris,  after  their 
first  confident  assertion  that  the  plan 
was  feasible,  admitted  that  the  Soviet 
Government  had  not  lent  its  sanction  to 
the  project,  the  Government  leaders  of 
the  two  chief  allies  reiterated  their  in- 
tention to  carry  it  through,  and  declared 
that  a  way  would  yet  be  found  to  make 
it  possible.  That  both  Lenin  and  Trotzky 
were  eager  to  bring  about  such  a  re- 
sumption was  stated  by  both  in  inter- 
views with  Lincoln  Eyre,  correspondent 
of  The  New  York  World.  The  attitude 
of  Trotzky  may  be  summarized  from 
these  interviews  as  follows: 

We  recognize  our  need  for  outside  help 
in  setting-  Russia  on  its  feet  industrially 
and  economically.  It  is  a  tremendous 
enterprise  that  may  take  ten  years  to 
accomplish.  But  Russia  is  rich  in  natural 
resources.  The  people  who  help  us  first 
will  be  the  first  to  profit.  Foreign  capi- 
talists who  invest  their  money  in  Russian 
enterprises  or  who  supply  us  with  re- 
quired merchandise  will  receive  material 
guarantees  of  adequate  character. 

But  the  condition  of  the  agreement  will 
be  such  as  to  prevent  its  being  made  a 
means  to  strangle  us  under  the  guise  of 
helping  to  regenerate  the  Russian  people. 
The  view  that  Germany  will  be  admitted 
"  on  the  ground  floor  "  is  absurd.  Russia 
cannot  possibly  expect  economic  assist- 
ance from  Germany,  in  view  of  that  coun- 
try's economic  instability,  due  to  her  de- 
feat in  war.  It  is  obvious  that  we  must 
loolc  to  the  victorious  nations,  to  Great 
Britain,  or  still  better,  to  America,  for 
machinery,  agricultural  tools  and  other 
imports,  which  Russia's  economic  renais- 
sance demands.  The  very  countries  that 
are  now  trying  to  throttle  us  are  the  ones 


who  have  most  to  gain  in  getting  on  a 
trading  basis  with  us. 

Lenin's  comment  was  as  follows: 
If  peace  is  a  corollary  of  trade  with  us, 
the  Allies  cannot  avoid  it  much  longer. 
I  know  no  reason  why  a  Socialistic  Com- 
monwealth like  ours  cannot  do  business 
indefinitely  with  capitalistic  countries. 
Of  course,  they  will  have  to  have  busi- 
ness relations  with  the  hated  Bolsheviki— 
that  is,  the  Soviet  Government.  This  talk 
of  reopening  trade  relations  with  Russia 
seems  to  us  insincere,  or  at  least  obscure 
—a  move  in  a  game  of  chess  rather  than 
a  frank,  straightforward  proposition  that 
would  be  immediately  grasped  and  acted 
upon.  If  the  Supreme  Council  really 
means  to  lift  the  blockade,  why  does  it 
not  tell  us  of  its  intentions?  The  states- 
men of  the  Entente  and  the  United  States 
do  not  seem  to  understand  that  Russia's 
present  economic  distress  is  simply  part  of 
the  world's  economic  distress.  Without 
Russia,  Europe  cannot  get  on  her  feet. 
In  Russia  we  have  wheat,  flax,  platinum, 
potash  and  many  minerals  of  which  the 
whole  world  stands  in  desperate  need. 
The  world  must  come  to  us  for  them  In 
the  end,  Bolshevism  or  no  Bolshevism. 
There  are  signs  that  this  truth  is  now 
being  realized.  But  Russia  can  be  saved 
from  utter  ruin,  and  Europe  also,  only 
by  quick  action.  And  the  Supreme  Coun- 
cil is  slow,  very  slow. 

LLOYD  GEORGE  EXPLAINS 
Some  light  was  thrown  upon  the  allied 
policy  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  statements 
in  Parliament  on  Feb.  11.  Taking  up 
point  by  point  the  various  arguments  for 
or  against  the  decision  reached  by  the 
Government  he  finally  shaped  a  line  of 
reasoning  which  may  be  summarized  as 
follows: 

1.  The  horrors  of  Bolshevism  are  ad- 
mitted. It  is  true  that  the  treaty  of 
Brest-Litovsk  was  a  betrayal.  Bol- 
shevism is  not  democracy,  but  rule  by  a 
privileged  minority.  The  first  "war  on 
opinion  "  was  begun  by  the  Bolsheviki 
themselves  when  they  dissolved  the  Na- 
tional Assembly. 


82 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


2.  But  it  has  become  perfectly  clear 
that  Bolshevism  cannot  be  crushed  by- 
force  of  arms.  The  Allies  were  bound  to 
give  the  anti-Bolshevist  forces  their 
chance  to  recover  Russia,  for  it  was  the 
Allies  who  first  called  them  into  being, 
originally  for  the  purpose  of  arresting 
the  German  advance  into  the  grain  area. 
But  these  forces  have  failed  in  their  at- 
tempt to  regain  the  country,  not  through 
any  lack  of  assistance  or  equipment,  but 
from  causes  of  a  fundamental  nature. 

3.  Civil  war  might  again  be  incited  in 
the  South  and  prolonged  for  many  years 
to  come;  Russia  could  be  devastated  and 
left  a  blackened  waste  for  another  gen- 
eration. But  this  would  transform  Bol- 
shevism into  a  permanent  militarism, 
which  would  spell  danger  for  the  rest  of 
Europe.  Furthermore,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult, because,  for  reasons  not  gone  into, 
the  volunteer  army  of  Denikin,  during 
its  occupation  of  large  areas  of  Southern 
Russia,  has  alienated  the  population  as  a 
whole. 

4.  An  advancing  ring  of  fire  might  be 
organized  to  encircle  Soviet  Russia  and 
finally  penetrate  to  its  heart,  through 
the  combination  of  Finland,  the  Baltic 
States,  Poland,  Rumania,  Denikin's  forces 
and  the  Japanese.  But  Finland's  attitude 
is  opposed  to  such  an  attempt;  the  Baltic 
States  are  making  peace  with  the  Bol- 
shevist Government;  Rumania  is  busy 
watching  her  Hungarian  frontier;  the 
Japanese  would  refuse  to  wage  an  ag- 
gressive war  on  Bolshevism.  And  if  such 
gigantic  armies  were  raised,  who  would 
pay  them,  who  would  equip  them  and 
maintain  them?  France  and  Italy  will 
not;  America  will  not,  and  what  British 
statesman  would  accept  the  responsi- 
bility of  putting  such  a  burden  upon  the 
taxpayers  of  Great  Britain? 

PEACE  AND  TRADE 

5.  To  the  suggestion  that  peace  should 
be  made  with  the  Bolsheviki  the  only 
answer  possible  is  this:  Until  assurances 
are  rf^reived — assuranc  -  from  observa- 
tion and  experience — that  the  Govern- 
ment in  control  of  Russia  has  dropped 
its  methods  of  "  arism  and  is  govern- 
ing by  civilized  means,  there  is  no  civil- 
ized community  in  the  rorld  which  will 
be  prepared  to  make  direct  peace.    Fur- 


thermore, this  Government's  control  of 
Ukraine  and  the  Cossack  territory  has 
not  yet  been  definitely  established;  it 
cannot  yet  show  that  it  represents  the 
whole  of  Russia. 

6.  What  is  the  only  course  left?  Eu- 
rope cannot  be  restored  without  putting 
Russia  into  circulation — its  natural 
wealth  and  resources.  The  attempt  to 
restore  Russia  to  sanity  by  force  has 
failed.  This  attempt  may  succeed 
through  the  reopening  of  trade.  Com- 
merce has  a  sobering  effect.  The  Rus- 
sians are  cold  and  hungry;  they  need 
machinery,  plows,  locomotives,  cars, 
and  the  whole  of  Europe  is  short  of 
what  they  can  give  in  return  for  these 
necessities.  Trade  alone  will  bring  an 
end  to  the  ferocity,  the  rapine  and  the 
crudities  of  Bolshevism  more  surely 
than  any  other  metho'^  The  withdrawal 
of  Russia  from  the  supplying  markets 
of  Europe  is  contributing  to  high 
prices,  the  high  cost  of  living,  to 
scarcity  and  hunger.  Before  the  war 
Russia  supplied  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
export  wheat  of  the  world — 4,000,000 
tons.  Four-fifths  of  the  flax  grown  in 
the  world  was  produced  in  Russia.  One- 
third  of  the  imported  butter  used  in 
Great  Britain  came  directly  or  indirect- 
ly from  Russia.  The  grain  and  flour 
staples,  maize,  barley,  oats,  totaled 
9,000,000  tons.  The  figures  are  pro- 
digious in  every  direction.  The  world 
needs  these  vast  upplies.  There  are 
high  prices  in  Britain,  high  prices  in 
France,  high  prices  in  Italy,  and  there 
is  stark  hunger  in  Central  Europe,  while 
the  com  bins  of  Russia,  according  to  re- 
liable information,  are  bulging  with 
grain. 

7.    In  conclusion  the  British  Premier 
said: 

I  do  not  say  that  there  is  all  this  ^ain 
in  Russia  now.  Nobody  quite  knows 
what  the  facts  are.  All  I  can  say  is  that 
our  reports  are  that  there  is  grain  avail- 
able in  Russia  if  you  can  get  the  neces- 
sary transport  organized  to  get  it  out. 
Europe  needs  it;  but  you  will  not  get  it  so 
long  as  contending  armies  roll  across  the 
borders.  It  is  not  a  question  of  recogniz- 
ing the  Government.  It  is  a  question  of 
dealing  with  the  people  who  have  got 
commodities  to  sell  and  to  exchange  for 
what  we  can  give  them.  Wlien  people  are 
hungry  you  cannot  refuse  to  buy  corn  in 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RUSSIA 


83 


Egypt  because  there  is  a  Pharaoh  on  the 
throne.  The  conditions  in  Europe  are 
serious.  Conditions  of  distrust,  jealousy 
and  strife  are  being  used  as  a  leverage  by 
organized  anarchy.  *  *  *  There  is  but 
one  way— we  must  fight  anarchy  with 
abundance. 

CO-OPERATIVES  AS  MEDITATORS 

The  method  by  which  the  renewal  of 
Russian  trade  could  be  attained  without 
recognition  of  the  Soviet  Government 
still  remained  something  of  a  mystery. 
It  appeared,  however,  from  statements 
made  by  Sir  Hamar  Greenwood  to  the 
Supreme  Economic  Council  in  Paris  that 
wireless  messages  were  being  exchanged 
with  Moscow,  and  a  delegation  of  "  extra 
Russians  "  had  left  for  that  city  by  way 
of  Copenhagen  to  initiate  negotiations. 
The  Moscow  Co-operatives,  furthermore, 
had  asked  that  they  should  be  allowed 
to  come  to  France  and  England  to  dis- 
cuss arrangements.  To  avoid  the  danger 
of  Bolshevist  propaganda  it  had  been 
decided  that  the  Co-operatives  outside 
Russia  should  demand  a  list  of  those  to 
be  sent  from  Soviet  Russia,  and  the  Su- 
preme Council  would  decide  if  those  se- 
lected were  acceptable. 

Moscow  announced  on  March  11  that 
such  a  delegation,  to  consist  of  Nozin, 
Rosovsky,  Khintchuk,  Litvinov  and  Kras- 
sin,  had  been  named.  Of  these  five  Lit- 
vinov was  persona  non  grata  because  of 
propaganda  conducted  by  him  while 
"  Ambassador "  of  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment in  London.  Krassin  is  one  of  the 
leading  Bolsheviki  of  Moscow,  the  former 
representative  of  a  German  steamship 
line;  the  remaining  three  are  acknowl- 
edged Bolsheviki,  but  little  known 
abroad. 

The  Supreme  Council  on  Feb.  24  had 
reiterated  its  decision  to  encourage  com- 
merce between  Russia  and  the  remainder 
of  Europe,  while  still  declining  to  renew 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment until  it  should  have  adopted 
civilized  methods  of  procedure.  In  its 
essence  this  decision  merely  reaffirmed 
the  council's  resolution  adopted  in 
Paris  on  Jan.  16,  but  by  this  time  the 
idea,  which  had  formerly  led  to  bitter 
attacks,  was  generally  accepted  as  a 
quite  natural  development.  The  Inter- 
national Labor   Bureau  had  decided  to 


send  a  delegation  to  Russia  to  study  con- 
ditions there;  but  the  council  expressed 
its  belief  that  supervision  of  this  dele- 
gation should  be  under  the  League  of 
Nations,  in  order  to  give  the  investi- 
gators greater  authority. 

The  main  points  of  the  decision 
reached  by  the  Council  of  Premiers  on 
this  date  were  as  follows:  Resumption 
of  trade  relations  with  Russia,  with  im- 
portant reservations;  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment would  be  asked  to  abandon  propa- 
ganda and  to  recognize  existing  loans; 
the  Allies,  on  their  part,  would  not  en- 
courage border  States  to  make  further 
war  on  the  Bolsheviki.  The  British  and 
French  Premiers  agreed  fully  on  this 
decision.  Resumption  of  political  rela- 
tions was  not  pressed,  so  that  the  real 
difficulty  of  the  Russian  situation — 
recognition  of  the  Soviet  Republic — re- 
mained unsolved. 

NEGOTIATION'S   AT   COPENHAGEN 

Meanwhile  it  was  announced  by  Har- 
old Scavenius,  Danish  Minister  at  Pe- 
trograd,  that  James  O 'Grady,  British 
representative  at  Copenhagen,  who  had 
been  conducting  negotiations  for  an  ex- 
change of  prisoners  with  Maxim  Litvi- 
nov, the  Soviet  representative,  had  been 
authorized  to  present  to  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment through  Litvinov  the  bases  of 
Great  Britain's  proposals.  The  prin- 
ciples laid  down,  according  to  a  dispatch 
from  the  correspondent  of  the  Buenos 
Aires  newspaper,  La  Nacion,  dated  Feb. 
27,  were  as  follows: 

1.  Tacit  recognition  of  the  Maximalist 
political   regime. 

2.  Noninterference  by  Great  Britain 
with  respect  to  the  internal  condition  of 
those  countries  separated  from  former 
Russian  rule  on  the  west,  namely  Fin- 
land, Esthonia,  Lithuania,  Ukrainia  and 
Poland. 

3.  Noninterference  by  Great  Britain  in 
the  affairs  of  Siberia. 

4.  Demobilization  of  the  Red  Army, 

5.  A  promise  by  the  Bolsheviki  to  recog- 
nize the  independence  of  the  southern  re- 
publics,  especially   Georgia. 

6.  Noninterference  by  Russia  with  the 
territories,  on  the  frontiers  of  Georgia  and 
Persia. 

7.  Payment  in  gold  for  goods  exported 
or  imported  between  Russia  and  Great 
Britain. 

8.  A  regime  of  commercial  equality  for 


84 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Russia    and    Great   Britain    in    the    auton- 
omous  States   on   the  western  front. 

The  Nacion  correspondent  stated  that 
the  Moscow  Government  was  disposed  to 
accept  several  of  these  points,  but  that 
it  stood  firm  against  the  fourth  and  sixth 
points. 

SOVIET  MILITARY  TRIUMPHS 

During  these  pourparlers  the  Soviet 
Government's  military  effort  to  dispose 
of  its  remaining  enemies  was  unrelaxed. 
In  the  latter  half  of  February  arid  the 
first  two  weeks  in  March  the  anti-Bol- 
shevist forces  in  North  and  South  Rus- 
sia met  defeat  after  defeat.  Archangel 
was  captured  on  Feb.  20;  the  "White" 
authorities  fled  from  the  city,  and  the 
Russian  troops  remained  'behind  and 
joined  the  Reds.  The  Government  was 
taken  over  by  the  professional  workmen 
through  an  appointed  committee.  Mur- 
mansk also,  which  had  been  the  base  of 
operations  for  the  allied  forces  in  1919, 
was  seized  by  the  Reds  on  Feb.  23,  fol- 
lowing a  revolution  which  broke  out  two 
days  before.  A  message  received  by 
Maxim  Litvinov  at  Copenhagen  stated 
that  the  whole  of  North  Russia  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Soviet  au- 
thorities. The  Bolshevist  forces  had 
stopped  their  advance  on  the  Finno-Ka- 
relian  front  on  condition  that  Finland 
open  peace  negotiations  without  delay. 

Along  the  whole  southern  front,  from 
Odessa  to  the  Sea  of  Azov,  and  thence 
to  the  Caspian  and  Caucasus  sectors,  the 
Bolsheviki,  despite  some  temporary  re- 
verses, drove  the  Denikin  forces  back  at 
will.  Rostov,  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
fighting,  was  taken  by  Denikin  again  on 
Feb.  20,  only  to  be  recaptured  by 
the  Reds  soon  thereafter.  The  forces  of 
Denikin  were  demoralized  and  decimated 
by  typhus;  the  exact  whereabouts  of  his 
main  force  was  for  some  time  unknown, 
but  it  was  reported  from  Moscow  on 
March  1  that  his  army  had  been 
"  trapped  "  in  the  Kuban  district  of  the 
Caucasus.  Advices  received  on  March 
11  indicated  that  he  was  still  fighting, 
but  with  very  indifferent  success. 

In  Siberia  the  spread  of  Bolshevism 
went  on  unchecked;  Irkutsk,  the  former 
Kolchak  capital,  according  to  Moscow 
statements,  had  been  entered  by  Bolshe- 


vist regulars  early  in  March,  but  Vladivos- 
tok still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Socialist  revolutionaries.  In  the  latter 
city  the  new  regime  showed  marked 
friendliness  to  the  American  military 
authorities,  to  whose  policy  of  noninter- 
ference it  attributed  in  part  the  success 
of  the  new  movement. 

Details  of  the  capture  and  execution  oi 
Admiral  Kolchak,  who  was  put  to  death 
by  the  revolutionists  at  Irkutsk  on  Feb. 
7,  became  available  through  a  telegram 
received  by  Rear  Admiral  Smirnov,  Min- 
ister of  Marine  in  the  Kolchak  Cabinet, 
shortly  after  his  arrival  at  Peking.  The 
story  of  the  dramatic  end  of  Kolchak's 
career  is  as  follows: 

HOW  KOLCHAK  WAS  EXECUTED 

General  Janin,  commander  of  Czech 
forces  in  Siberia,  was  under  orders  from 
the  Allies  to  protect  Kolchak  after  the 
collapse  of  his  Government  and  to  convey 
him  to  a  place  of  safety.  When  Kolchak, 
after  the  fall  of  Tomsk,  reached  Nizhni 
Udinsk,  northwest  of  Irkutsk,  he  at  once 
placed  himself  under  the  protection  of 
the  Czechs  stationed  there.  With  him 
were  forty-eight  officers  and  civilians, 
including  former  Premier  Pepeliayev,  As 
immediate  withdrawal  from  this  district 
was  imperative,  the  Kolchak  party  was 
placed  in  a  car  attached  to  a  train  of 
Czech  soldiers  going  toward  Irkutsk. 

When  the  train  reached  Chermenkovo, 
eighty  miles  northwest  of  Irkutsk,  coal 
miners  who  had  been  informed  of  Kol- 
chak's presence  on  board  demanded  his 
surrender,  threatening,  in  case  of  refusal, 
to  cut  off  all  coal  supplies  from  trains  on 
the  Trans-Siberian  Railway.  Kolchak 
offered  to  surrender  if  the  miners  would 
permit  his  followers  to  proceed  in  safety, 
but  the  latter  united  in  refusing  to  take 
advantage  of  their  leader's  sacrifice. 

The  train,  with  Kolchak  still  on  board, 
proceeded  to  Irkutsk,  but  upon  its  arrival 
there  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on 
the  Czechs,  who,  fearing  that  they  would 
be  annihilated,  finally  withdrew  their 
guard  and  permitted  the  Socialist  revo- 
lutionaries to  seize  Kolchak.  At  this  time 
there  were  5,000  Czechs  and  a  battalion 
of  Japanese  soldiers  at  Irkutsk.  After 
Kolchak  had  been  held  prisoner  at  Irkutsk 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RUSSIA 


85 


for  a  short  time  the  Socialist  revolution- 
aries learned  that  an  attempt  would  be 
made  to  free  the  captive.  They  decided 
upon  his  execution,  therefore,  and  he 
was  put  to  death,  former  Premier  Pepe- 
liayev  facing  the  firing  squad  with  him. 
These  details  were  sent  to  Admiral  Smir- 
nov  by  members  of  the  Kolchak  party 
who  had  escaped  from  Irkutsk  and 
reached  Chita,  400  miles  further  east. 

Anti-Bolshevist  elements  numbering 
more  than  35,000  reached  Trans-Baikalia 
early  in  March,  and  the  problem  of  feed- 
ing, clothing  and  giving  medical  care  to 
the  foi-mer  soldiers  of  Kolchak  after 
their  terrible  march  was  taxing  all  the 
resources  of  this  district.  Stores  belong- 
ing to  the  late  Omsk  Government  kept 
in  Manchuria  were  hurried  to  Chita  to 
meet  the  emergency.  It  was  stated  at 
this  time  that  the  Soviet  forces, 
strengthened  by  the  huge  stores  cap- 
tured at  Omsk  and  points  east  of  that 
city,  were  threatening  the  whole  Trans- 
Baikal  region. 

SEMENOV  LOSING  GROUND 
General  Semenov,  in  control  of  the 
ant i- Soviet  troops  in  Eastern  Siberia, 
was  reported  at  this  time  to  have  lost 
the  support  of  the  Buriat  tribesmen, 
upon  which  he  had  always  counted. 
Colonel  C.  H.  Morrow,  commander  of 
the  27th  United  States  Infantry,  stated 
that  Semenov's  Mongols  and  Buriats 
had  committed  nameless  atrocities,  and 
that  he  had  also  collected  evidence  of 
terrible  excesses  perpetrated  by  General 
Semenov's  regular  force.  All  races  in 
this  district,  including  the  Japanese,  had 
repudiated  him.  As  for  General  Hor- 
vath,  in  charge  of  the  operation  of  the 
Chinese  Eastern  Railway,  the  Socialist 
Conference  at  Harbin,  Manchuria,  issued 
a  note  disavowing  his  administration, 
and  recognizing  the  authority  of  the 
Zemstvo  Government  of  Vladivostok 
pending  reunion  of  all  Russian  do- 
minions under  the  Government  of  Mos- 
cow. The  Chinese  authorities  had  re- 
sisted this  decree,  and  a  clash  was  said 
to  be  inevitable.  The  Cossack  forces 
at  B^agovestchensk  had  surrendered  this 
city  to  the  Soviet  forces,  the  Japanese 
forces  there  remaining  neutral. 

While  thus  consolidating  its  military 


successes  upon  all  fronts,  the  Lenin  Gov- 
ernment continued  its  campaign  for 
peace  both  at  home  and  abroad.  In  an 
apparent  effort  to  make  its  program 
agreeable  to  the  middle-class  peasantry 
of  the  Ukraine,  which  had  been  violently 
opposed  to  the  Bolshevist  methods,  the 
Soviet  Central  Executive  Committee  in 
Moscow  adopted  a  new  agrarian  policy 
for  the  Ukraine,  which  was  printed  in 
the  Kiev  Communist  paper  Borotba,  and 
quoted  in  part  as  follows  by  the  Berlin 
Freiheit  of  Feb.  13: 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  peasantry 
forms  the  majority  in  the  Ukraine  to  a 
still  g^reater  degree  than  in  Russia,  it  is 
the  task  of  the  Soviet  Government  in  the 
Ukraine  to  win  the  confidence  not  only 
of  the  country  proletariat,  but  also  of  the 
broad  masses  of  the  middle-class  farm 
owners.  In  working  out  the  policy  of 
food  supply  (the  furnishing  of  grain 
through  the  State  for  maximum  prices, 
compulsory  distribution)  great  care  must 
be  taken  in  putting  it  into  effect,  and  it 
must  harmonize  with  the  psychology  and 
sentiments  of  the  Ukrainian  peasantry. 
The  objects  and  tasks  of  agrarian  policy 
in  the  Ukraine  should  be  the  following: 

1.  Complete  liquidation  of  the  system  of 
big  land  holding  restored  by  Denikin,  ac- 
companied by  the  giving  of  the  land  to 
the  landless  and  those  short  of  land. 

2.  Communist  administrations  must  only 
be  set  up  in  case  of  necessity  when  the 
vital  interests  of  the  local  peasantry  are 
to  be  taken   into  account. 

3.  In  matters  concerning  the  uniting  of 
the  peasants  in  communes,  artels,  &c., 
there  must  be  strictly  carried  out  that 
policy  of  the  party  which  in  this  respect 
tolerates  no  compulsion,  and  leaves  these 
things  exclusively  to  the  untrammeled  de- 
cision of  the  peasants,  severely  punishing 
any  attempts  to  apply  the  principle  of 
compulsion  in  these  cases. 

SOVIET  PEACE  DRIVE 

With  Esthonia  eliminated  from  the 
circle  of  its  enemies  by  the  Dorpat  peace, 
with  Poland  suspending  military  opera- 
tions and  considering  the  Soviet  over- 
tures of  peace  with  the  tacit  approval 
of  the  Allies,  and  with  Lithuania  and 
Rumania  consenting  to  preliminary  ne- 
gotiations, the  Bolshevist  Government 
turned  its  peace  efforts  still  further 
abroad. 

Official  overtures  of  peace  were  sent 
to  all  the  principal  allied  nations,  in- 
cluding Japan,  on  Feb.  27,  and  similar 
overtures  were  wirelessed  to  the  United 


86 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


States  Government.  Each  offer  was 
carefully  couched  to  make  its  special 
appeal  to  the  nation  addressed.  For  the 
small,  weak  Baltic  States  newly  risen 
from  Russia's  ruin  there  was  held  out 
the  recognition  of  independence,  frontier 
delimitation  on  racial  lines  and  cessation 
of  hostilities  to  permit  of  rebuilding  the 
shattered  national  life.  To  England 
were  offered  huge  stocks  of  wheat,  flax 
and  hides  at  low  prices.  France  was 
promised  that  the  Soviets  would  assume 
payment  of  14,000,000,000  francs  of  the 
bonds  issued  under  the  Czar's  rule.  Ja- 
pan was  assured  that  the  revolutionary 
propaganda  threatening  to  plunge  her 
into  chaos  would  be  stopped;  she  was 
also  offered  a  "  sphere  of  influence  "  in 
Manchuria.  Germany  was  allured  by  a 
promise  of  trade  co-operation  and  free 
access  to  sorely  needed  raw  materials ;  to 
America  was  held  out  the  bait  of  rich 
concessions  to  add  new  billions  to  her 
national  wealth. 

PEACE  OFFER  TO  AMERICA 
It  subsequently  appeared  that  two 
peace  proposals  had  been  sent  to  the 
Washington  Government,  only  one  of 
which  had  been  received.  State  Depart- 
ment officials  announced  that  no  cog- 
nizance of  it  would  be  taken,  and  that  it 
had  been  reforwarded  back  to  Nelson 
Morris,  the  American  Minister  at  Stock- 
holm. The  text  of  this  offer,  which  was 
not  given  out  by  the  State  Department, 
was  sent  to  The  New  York  American  by 
its  Berlin  correspondent,  Karl  H.  von 
Wiegand.  The  text,  as  given,  was  as 
follows : 

Moscow,   Feb.   24, 
State  Department,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

The  victorious  advance  of  the  valiant 
Soviet  army  in  Siberia  and  the  universal, 
popular  movement  against  the  counter- 
revolution and  against  foreign  invasion 
which  has  spread  with  irresistible  force 
throughout  Eastern  Siberia,  have  brought 
into  immediate  proximity  the  question  of 
re-establishing  connection  between  Soviet 
Russia  and  the  United  States  of  America. 
Reports  that  have  reached  us  from  our 
representative,  Mr.  Martens,  show  with 
clearness  that  American  commerce  and 
industry  are  able  to  help  in  a  very  large 
measure  in  the  great  work  of  the  recon- 
struction of  Russia's  economics;  that  the 
United  States  can  play  a  gigantic  role  in 
the  realization  of  this  problem,  and  that 
numerous  prominent  representatives  of  the 


American  business  world  are  quite  willing 
to  take  an  active  part  in  this  work. 

The  more  the  trials  of  civil  war  that 
Russia  has  gone  through  are  retreating 
into  the  past,  the  more  will  all  the  forces 
of  the  Russian  people  concentrate  upon 
the  fundamental  aim  of  reconstructing 
the  country,  and  American  production, 
wealth  and  enterprise  can  be  among  the 
greatest  assets  in  helping  us  to  attain  our 
purpose. 

It  can  be  affirmed  decidedly  that  the 
connection  between  Soviet  Russia  and 
America  will  be  of  the  greatest  use  to 
both  parties,  and  that  both  will  reap  from 
it  the  largest  benefit. 

Having  no  intention  whatever  of  inter- 
fering with  the  internal  affairs  of  Amer- 
ica, and  having  for  its  sole  aim  peace  and 
trade,  the  Russian  Soviet  Government  is 
desirous  of  beginning  without  delay  peace 
negotiations  with  the  American  Govern- 
ment. 

On  Dec.  5  and  7  the  All-Russian  Con- 
gress of  Soviets  solemnly  proposed  to  all 
Governments  of  the  allied  and  associated 
powers,  and  to  each  of  them  separately, 
to  commence  negotiations  with  the  view 
of  concluding  peace. 

Once  more  this  proposal  is  made,  and  we 
ask  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
of  America  to  inform  us  of  its  wishes  with 
respect  of  a  place  and  time  for  peace 
negotiations  between  the  two  countries. 
TCHITCHERIN, 

People's  Commissar  for  Foreign  Affairs. 

The  second  offer,  which  the  State  De- 
partment declared  it  had  not  received, 
was  stated  on  Feb.  28  to  have  contained 
promises  of  the  re-establishment  of  a 
Government  of  democratic  principles,  and 
the  assumption  of  60  per  cent,  of  the 
Russian  national  debt,  with  the  pay- 
ment of  accrued  interest. 

AGGRESSIVE  POLICY  DENIED 
Commenting  on  the  Soviet  peace  terms, 
both  Lenin  and  Trotzky,  in  the  inter- 
views accorded  Lincoln  Eyre,  denied 
that  Soviet  Russia  was  of  a  militaristic 
tendency,  and  that  it  had  no  idea  of 
armed  aggression  upon  any  other  nation. 
By  dint  of  stupendous  efforts,  said  Trotz- 
ky, a  peace-loving  population  of  work- 
ers and  peasants  had  been  transformed 
into  the  strongest  army  now  existing  in 
Europe.  No  other  State,  he  declared, 
could  have  done  what  Russia,  bankrupt, 
bleeding  and  starved  as  she  has  been  for 
the  last  four  years,  had  successfully  ac- 
complished. Neither  England  nor  France 
could  assemble  today  an  army  of  the 
strength  and  spirit  of  that  of  Bolshevist 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RUSSIA 


87 


Eussia,  and  it  was  the  consciousness  of 
this  military  impotency  which  had  dic- 
tated the  allied  policy  of  aiding  the  bor- 
der States  to  wage  war  for  them  vicari- 
ously. "  But  the  defeats  our  proletarian 
fighting  men  have  inflicted  have  had  a 
salutary  effect,"  he  added.  "  Already  all 
the  Baltic  States  are  conferring  with  our 
emissaries,  with  a  view  to  peace,  which 
has  now  become  merely  a  matter  of 
time." 

The  Red  Army,  Trotzky  declared,  was 
"the  most  anti-militaristic  body  in  the 
world."  Nine-tenths  of  its  members 
were  workmen  and  peasants,  and  paci- 
fists all.  The  other  tenth  were  soldiers 
and  officers  who  had  formerly  served 
under  the  Czar.  Immediate  demobili- 
zation would  be  carried  out  as  soon  as 
hostilities  ceased.  "  Militarism,  strik- 
ing as  it  does  at  the  very  roots  of  Com- 
munism, cannot  possibly  exist  in  Soviet 
Russia,  the  only  truly  pacific  country  in 
the  world." 

Lenin,  on  his  part,  declared  that  the 
only  danger  of  military  aggression  came 
not  from  Soviet  Russia,  but  from 
Poland;  even  Foch,  however,  could  not 
give  the  Poles  victory  against  the  Red 
Army,  which  had  become  invincible.  The 
Soviet  Army  had  triumphed  on  every 
front,  and  peace  was  coming  speedily 
with  all.  [An  account  of  the  Polish  suc- 
cesses won  against  the  Bolshevist  forces 
early  in  March  will  be  found  in  the 
article  on  Poland.] 

CONSCRIPTION  OF  LABOR 
Russia's  internal  situation  was  de- 
scribed by  Lenin  in  this  interview  as 
"critical,  but  hopeful."  The  cities,  he 
said,  would  be  sufficiently  supplied  by 
Spring  to  save  them  from  famine.  The 
fuel  crisis  was  impro-'-ing.  In  this  con- 
ction  he  said: 

The  reconstruction  period  is  under  way. 
thanks  to  the  Red  Army's  stupendous 
performances.  Now  parts  of  that  army 
are  transformed  into  armies  of  labor,  an 
extraordinary  phenomenon  only  possible 
in  a  country  struggling  toward  a  high 
ideal.  Certainly  it  could  not  be  done  in 
capitalistic  countries.  We  have  sacrificed 
everything  to  victory  over  our  armed 
antagonists  in  the  past ;  and  now  we 
shall  turn   all   our   strength   to  economic 


rehabilitation.  It  will  take  years,  but  we 
shall  win  out  in  the  end. 
These  "  armies  of  labor "  referred  to 
by  Lenin  were  discussed  by  Trotzky, 
Minister  of  War,  in  his  address  before 
the  Third  Russian  Congress,  held  in 
Moscow  on  Jan.  25.  His  explanation  was 
in  part  as  follows: 

Many  in  the  army  have  already  ac- 
complished their  military  task,  but  they 
cannot  be  demobilized  as  yet.  Now  that 
they  have  been  released  from  their  mili- 
tary duties,  they  must  fight  against 
economic  ruin  and  against  hunger,  they 
must  work  to  obtain  fuel,  peat  and  other 
he-^^t-producing  products,  they  must  take 
part  in  building,  in  clearing  the  lines  of 
snow,  in  repairing  roads,  building  sheds, 
grinding    flour,    &c. 

We  have  already  organized  several  of 
these  armies,  and  their  tasks  have  been 
allotted  to  them.  One  army  must  obtain 
foodstuffs  for  the  workmen  of  the  dis- 
tricts in  which  it  was  formerly  stationed, 
and  it  also  will  cut  wood,  cart  it  to  the 
railways  and  repair  engines.  Another 
army  will  help  in  the  laying  down  of 
railway  lines  for  the  transport  of  crude 
oil.  A  third  labor  army  will  be  used  for 
repairing  agricultural  implements  and 
machines,  and  in  the  Spring  will  take 
part  in  the  working  of  the  land.  *  *  • 
The  Russian  proletariat  already  feels 
responsible  for  the  welfare  of  its  country 
and  for  its  economic  life.  The  hardships 
and  poverty  we  are  suffering  are  edu- 
cating the  workers  of  the  proletariat. 
Under  those  conditions  every  workman 
and  every  workwoman  is  beginning  to 
realize  what  economic  life  means  to  the 
country.  This  makes  us  confident  that 
we  will  overcome  our  economic  disor- 
ganization. 

We  shall  succeed  if  qualified  and 
trained  workers  take  part  in  productive 
labor.  Trade  unions  must  register  quali- 
fied workmen  in  the  villages.  Only  in 
those  localities  where  trade  union  meth- 
ods are  inadequate  other  methods  must 
be  introduced,  in  particular  that  of  com- 
pulsion, because  labor  conscription  gives 
the  State  the  right  t  tell  the  qualified 
workman  who  is  employed  on  some  un- 
important work  in  his  village,  "  You  are 
obliged  to  leave  your  present  employ- 
ment and  go  to  Sormovo  or  Kolomna  be- 
cause there  your  work  is  required." 

Labor  conscription  means  that  the 
qualified  workmen  who  leave  the  army 
must  take  their  workbooks  and  proceed 
to  places  where  they  are  required,  where 
their  presence  is  necessary  to  the  eco- 
nomic system  of  the  country.  We  must 
feed  these  workmen  and  guarantee  them 
the  minimum  food  ration. 


Why  Kolchak  Failed  in  Siberia 

An  Ofl&cial  Manifesto 


r[E  following  document  throws  light 
upon   the    causes    of    Admiral    Kol- 
chak's  failure  to  get  the  support  of 
the     Siberian     communities     that     came 
under  his  rule.     It  is  a  manifesto  of  the 
President  of  the  Regional  Duma  of  Si- 
beria, issued  at  Vladivostok  last  Septem- 
ber    and    embodying    a    detailed    indict- 
ment   of    the    dictatorial    methods    em- 
ployed by  the  head  of  the  Omsk  Govern- 
ment.    The  translation  here  presented  is 
that  of  The  Contemporary  Review: 
In  these  days  of  fresh  trials,  when  our 
Fatherland  is  face  to  face  with  the  great- 
est perils,   which  threaten   it  from  within 
and  from  without,   I  consider  it  my  duty 
as  the  chief  of  the  elected  representatives 
of  Siberia,  to  address  to  my  country  the 
following  manifesto : 

Nine  months  of  dictatorship  of  Admiral 
Kolchak,  who  has,  by  sheer  violence,  over- 
thrown the  representative  Government  of 
the  Directorate,  have  now  brought  Siberia 
to  a  state  of  complete  disintegration  and 
ruin. 

The  work  of  regenerating  the  Russian 
State,  begun  by  the  democracy  with  such 
enormous  difficulties  and  sacrifices,  has 
been  criminally  ruined  by  an  irrespon- 
sible  power. 

The  army,  created  by  the  volunteer 
movement  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
population  struggling  for  a  people's  Com- 
monwealth, has  been  brought  to  the  verge 
of  complete  destruction.  The  retreat  be- 
yond the  Urals,  the  loss  of  Ekaterin- 
burg, Uheliabinsk,  Kurgan,  Tuiaen,  open- 
ing to  the  Bolsheviki  the  road  to  the 
heart  of  Siberia,  all  these  are  the  inevi- 
table consequences  of  the  disorganizing 
policy  of  the  Omsk  Government. 

Out  of  touch  with  the  population, 
peasants  and  workmen,  not  recognized  by 
the  active  elements  of  the  people  and  by 
the  local  executives,  the  Government  of 
Kolchak  proved  unfit  to  accomplish  the 
task  of  organizing  the  defense  of  the  coun- 
try, which  it  declared  to  be  its  foremost 
object. 

Poorly  clothed  and  lacking  supplies,  the 
army,  not  receiving  fresh  drafts  from  the 
rear,  was  compelled  to  take  care  of  itself 
and  to  renew  its  forces  by  mobilizing 
the  population  in  districts  adjoining  the 
front.  Again,  carts  and  corn  were  taken 
by  force  from  that  population  which,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  no  confidence  in  the 
Government.  The  General  Headquarters, 
separated  from  th^  front  by  1,000  versts, 
gave  no  aasistance  to  the  army,  and  at 


the  same  time,  through  its  orders  and 
instructions,  created  fatal  differences  in 
the  High  Command,  paralyzed  the  work  of 
the  best  commanding  Generals,  and  sowed 
among  the  soldiers  mistrust  in  their  offi- 
cers. 

This  disintegration  of  the  army  i  imply 
reflected  the  general  disorganization  in 
the  rear. 

In  spite  of  the  proclamation  of  a  state 
of  war  and  a  state  of  siege,  in  spite  of 
severe  repressive  measures  and  capital 
punishment,  the  iiresponsible  power  could 
not  establish  the  necessary  civil  order ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  furthered  civil  war 
by  destroying  the  order  which  existed 
before. 

Thanks  to  the  administration  of  Admiral 
Kolchak,  not  a  trace  is  left  of  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  the  population  greet- 
ed the  fall  of  the  Soviet  power.  The 
latent  unrest,  originating  from  the  time 
of  the  proclamation  of  dictatorship,  was 
steadily  growing,  and  in  many  places  took 
the  shape  of  open  mutiny.  A  wave  of 
peasants'  risings— those  same  peasants 
who  a  short  time  ago  had  chased  the 
Bolsheviki  out  of  the  country— swept 
through  Siberia  and  clearly  re^^ealed  the 
deep  discontent  of  the  population.  The 
Government  took  no  steps  to  appease  the 
country,  except  flogging  and  shooting 
and  brutal  violence  exceeding  that  of  the 
Bolsheviki.  Always  busy  with  intriguing 
and  political  moves,  the  Government  did 
not  show  the  least  trace  of  statesman- 
ship. It  failed  even  to  introduce  unity 
into  the  administration  and  to  curtail 
local  satraps,  every  one  of  whom  behaved 
as  an  absolute  autocrat,  making  laws  and 
ruling  the  population  according  to  his 
discretion. 

As  a  result  of  such  administration  the 
country  is  now  on  the  verge  of  a  catastro- 
phe. The  army  and  the  country  could 
not  remain  indifferent  in  the  face  of  such 
a  situation ;  their  voice  becomes  louder 
and  louder  in  calling  the  guilty  by  their 
names ;  they  grow  ever  more  definite  and 
persistent  in"  their  efforts  to  find  a  way 
out. 

Both  town  and  rural  councils  have  again 
and  again  warned  the  Government,  point- 
ing out  that  the  salvation  of  the  country 
will  be  found  not  in  the  dictatorship  and 
in  the  bayonets,  but  in  the  creation  of 
a  power  that  will  have  the  authority  and 
confidence  and  recognition  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  best  and  most  popular  Generals, 
acting  as  the  spokesmen  of  the  army, 
have  many  times  drawn  the  attention  of 
Admiral  Kolchak  to  the  necessity  of  radi- 
cal reforms  in  the  rear  in  order  to  insure 


WHY  KOLCHAK  FAILED  IN  SIBERIA 


89 


I 


the  safety  of  the  front.  Louder  and 
louder  became  the  voices  of  local  execu- 
tives, of  the  various  public  bodies,  of 
prominent  public  workers,  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  High  Command,  demand- 
ing the  immediate  convocation  of  a  repre- 
sentative assembly  and  the  creation  of  a 
responsible  Government.  And  yet  the 
Government  of  Admiral  Kolchak  remains 
deaf  and  blind  and  continues  to  lead  the 
country  to  unavoidable  ruin.  It  is  now 
evident  to  all  and  sundry  that  this  Gov- 
ernment can  not  and  must  not  remain  in 
existence. 

It  is  now  too  late  to  negotiate;  the 
enemy  is  at  the  gates.  For  the  sake  of 
the  Fatherland  we  must  act.  If  the 
existing  power  does  not  realize  its  duty 
toward  the  country,  this  duty  will  have  to 
be  discharged  by  the  population  itself. 
As  the  President  of  a  Siberian  representa- 
tive body  I  take  upon  myself  the  great 
honor  and  responsibility  of  inviting  the 
population  of  Siberia  to  proceed  imme- 
diately to  create  a  body  of  representa- 
tives of  the  people. 

So  long  as  the  Constituent  Assembly  of 
all  Siberia  is  not  convoked  such  a  repre- 
sentative body  must  be  created  by  the 
towns  and  rural  councils  elected  on  the 
basis  of  universal  suffrage,  and  also  by 
the  local  executives  of  the  Cossack  regions 
and  various  nationalities.  I  invite  all 
these  local  executives  to  elect  immediately 
representatives  to  form  the  Assembly  of 
Siberia   (Semsky  Sober). 

The  statutes  of  the  Assembly,  as  well 
as  the  time  and  place  of  its  opening  meet- 
ing,  will  be  published  in  due  course. 

The  tasks  which  will  be  put  before  the 
Assembly  are  the  following: 


1.  The  creation  of  a  provisional  Govern- 
ment responsible  to   the  Assembly. 

2.  The  working  out  of  statutes  and  regu- 
lations for  the  Constituent  Assembly  of 
all  Siberia  and  the  taking  of  steps  for  its 
prompt  convocation. 

3.  The  restoration  of  the  legal  founda- 
tions of  civil  order. 

4.  The  handing  over  of  the  local  ad- 
ministration to  the  municipal  bodies. 

5.  The  abolition  of  the  laws  and  orders 
of  the  Omsk  Government  restricting  the 
rights  of  the  peasants  to  the  use  of  the 
land,  and  the  delegation  of  the  rights 
and  duties  of  the  bodies  who  now  regu- 
late the  use  of  the  land  to  the  local  Gov- 
ernment bodies. 

6.  The  restoration  of  the  freedom  of  the 
workmen's  professional  organizations; 
urgent  legislation  for  protection  of  labor. 

7.  Abolition  of  the  reactionary  regime 
in  the  army ;  the  increasing  of  its  fighting 
capacity  for  the  struggle  for  peace  on  the 
basis   of  a   people's   commonwealth. 

8.  An  amnesty  to  the  participants  in 
peasants'  risings  who  fought  for  the  de- 
fense of  the   Constituent  Assembly. 

I  publish  the  above  manifesto,  being 
deeply  convinced  that  the  country  will 
find  ways  and  means  to  enable  its  elected 
representatives  to  accomplish  their  sacred 
duty   toward   their   Fatherland. 

In  a  complete  union  of  all  elements  of 
the  population  grouped  round  the  As- 
sembly of  the  land,  hand  in  hand  and 
ready  for  sacrifices,  there  and  there  only 
lies  the  way  of  salvation  for  the  country, 
of  the  defense  of  the  people's  freedom 
and  authority  against  all  aggressors  and 
usurpers.  J.    JAXUSHEW, 

President  of  the  Siberian  Regional  Duma. 

Vladivostok,  Sept.  5,  1919. 


Germans  in  Morocco 


rpHE  local  press  of  Morocco  City  on 
-*■  Dec.  8  announced  the  approaching 
publication  of  a  decree  of  the  Sultan 
regulating  the  terms  on  which  German 
subjects  would  be  allowed  to  return  and 
reside  in  the  French  Protectorate  of 
Morocco  and  in  Tangier.  The  terms  of 
the  decree  provide  that  no  German  sub- 
ject can  take  up  residence  in  Morocco 
without  the  authorization  of  the  Sultan's 
Government;  that  any  German  inherit- 
ing property  in  Morocco  must  dispose  of 
it  within  one  year  to  a  non-German  sub- 
ject; that  three  months  will  be  allowed 


any  German  for  the  liquidation  of  his 
affairs  in  case  authorization  to  reside 
is  withdrawn;  that  punishment  shall  be 
meted  out  to  transgressors  of  this  de- 
cree, and  that  the  French  tribunals  shall 
have  authority  to  apply  its  terms.  The 
decree  was  to  be  officially  communicated 
to  the  international  representatives  at 
Tangier  by  the  Sultan's  representative, 
and  the  Pasha  of  Tangier  was  to  have 
full  authority  to  punish  all  infractions. 
The  status  of  Germans  in  the  Spanish 
zone  remained  doubtful,  but  it  was  be- 
lieved in  Morocco  that  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities would  issue  a  similar  decree. 


[The  New  Russian  National  Spirit 

View  of  a  Pro-Bolshevist  Observer,  Who  Holds  That  All  Classes 
Are  Now  Supporting  the  Lenin-Trotzky  Regime 

The  growing  tendency  toward  some  kind  of  recognition  of  Soviet  Russia,  as 
instanced  in  the  allied  Premiers'  action  favoring  a  resumption  of  trade  relations 
with  that  country,  may  be  traced  in  part  to  the  publication,  during  February  and 
March,  1920,  of  numerous  articles  from  correspondents  praising  the  constructive 
efforts  of  the  Bolshevist  regime.  Current  History,  in  pursuance  of  its  policy  of 
giving  both  sides  of  controversial  questions,  herewith  presents  one  of  the  more 
significant  articles  of  this  nature  from  the  pen  of  a  British  pro-Bolshevist  corre- 
spondent of  The  Manchester  Guardian,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  tour  of 
Central  Russia: 


UP  to  and  even  during  the  great 
war  there  wa^  no  Russian  na- 
tional spirit  comparable  in  its 
intensity  with  the  British  or 
with  the  French.  The  Russians  fought 
in  the  war,  and  fought  well,  but  the 
peasant  soldiers  had  only  the  foggiest 
notion  of  what  it  was  all  about,  and  the 
intelligentsia  had  always  a  curious 
aloofness  in  considering  the  struggle  and 
its  probable  results.  Some  of  them,  par- 
ticularly on  the  extreme  right,  were  con- 
vinced that  Russia  was  fighting  on  the 
wrong  side. 

This  attitude  of  aloofness  persists 
among  those  who  have  deserted  the  revo- 
lution and  are  fighting  against  it  on  the 
fringes  of  Russia  and  in  the  lobbies  of 
the  European  capitals.  They  are  more 
or  less  indifferent  as  to  the  source  from 
which  they  get  their  help.  It  does  not 
occur  to  them  as  strange  that  they,  din- 
ing comfortably  abroad,  should  clamor 
for  the  continued  blockade  of  their  own 
country.  They  agitate  in  Berlin  as  in 
London,  and  with  better  hopes.  They 
know  that  if  they  do  succeed  in  beating 
their  own  country  they  will  find  readier 
help  *  *  *  from  Germany  than  from 
the  Allies,  if  only  because  Germany  is 
geographically  nearer,  and  German  re- 
action more  closely  depends  on  Russian 
reaction  for  its  own  existence.  *  *  * 
Central  Russia  alone  is  not  buying 
foreigners  to  fight  Russians,  but  is  fight- 
ing consciously  against  foreign  interfer- 
ence on  the  whole  of  its  circumference. 
It  can  have  no  "  orientation  "  toward  any 
saviors,  English  or  German,  for  all  alike 


are  its  enemies.  Here,  and  here  only,  is 
Russia,  as  Russia,  fighting  for  Russia, 
and  it  is  to  Moscow  and  not  to  the  back- 
woods that  we  must  look  for  the  organiz- 
ing force  and  for  the  spirit  with  which 
Russia  will  emerge  from  the  hardships 
to  which  we  are  submitting  her,  as  we 
temper  a  blade  by  submitting  it  to  ex- 
tremes of  heat  and  cold. 

This  enormous  political  advantage  is 
perfectly  realized  by  the  Bolsheviki, 
though  they  are  perhaps  less  conscious 
of  the  fact,  patent  to  all  independent  ob- 
servers, that  they  are  themselves  being 
transformed  into  nationalists.  The  Bol- 
shevist Stalin,  an  intimate  friend  of 
Lenin,  thus  explains  their  victories  over 
Kolchak  and  Denikin :  "  The  victory  of 
Denikin  or  Kolchak  would  mean  the  loss 
of  Russia's  independence  and  the  turning 
of  Russia  into  a  milch  cow  for  English 
and  French  moneybags.  In  this  sense 
the  Government  of  Denikin  and  Kolchak 
is  the  most  anti-popular,  the  most  anti- 
national  Government;  in  this  sense  the 
Soviet  Government  is  the  only  popular, 
the  only  national  Government  (in  the 
best  meaning  of  that  word)  *  *  * " 
(Pravda,  Dec.  28,  1919). 

EFFECTS  OF  BLOCKADE 

Then,  again,  the  hardship  caused  by  the 
continuance  of  the  war  and  the  blockade 
falls  not  on  any  political  party  alone,  but 
on  the  whole  population,  and  naturally, 
with  every  day,  more  and  more  of  the 
population  is  drawn  into  the  common 
struggle  to  end  that  hardship.  This  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  except  by  those 


K  who  swallow  the  fairy  story  that  a  small 
H  minority  of  hooligans  and  murderers 
»  have  been  able  to  keep  up  a  successful 
fight  all  these  long  months  against  forces 
equipped  far  more  efficiently  than  they. 
That  fairy  story  does  not  fit  the  facts, 
which  are  obvious  to  the  world,  and  it 
is  high  time  that  it  should  be  discarded. 

11^^  Take,  for  example,  medicine  and  the 
\^M  care  of  the  sick.  Is  it  likely  that  the  doc- 
^^H  tors  and  nurses  of  Russia,  who  well  know 
^B  that  they  obtain  drugs  for  their  patients 
^B  only  through  the  smugglers  organized  by 
^^  the  Soviet  Government,  should  blame 
that  Government  instead  of  blaming  the 
Allies  and  the  White  Russians  for  thus 
barbarously  making  the  smuggling  of 
medicaments  necessary?  Of  course  not. 
They  well  know  that  this  Government 
does  its  best  to  help  them.  Many  of  them 
have  said  publicly  that  never  before  have 
they  had  such  assistance  from  any  Gov- 
ernment. Few  of  them  are  Bolsheviki, 
but  in  the  stress  of  national  hardship 
the  realization  that  they  are  given  all 
the  help  they  ask  brings  them  into  line 
in  the  effort  to  stem  the  diseases  due  to 
that  hardship,  and  the  gratitude  of  the 
doctor  swallows  up  the  opposition  of  the 
politician.  Thus  an  active  worker  under 
the  Commissariat  of  Health  is  the  well- 
known  Academician  P.  P.  Lazarev,  who 
while  working  in  an  X-ray  institute 
which  he  has  organized  is  at  the  same 
time  engaged  in  devising  means  for  cir- 
cumventing the  scientific  blockade  im- 
posed by  the  interventionists.  Another 
well-known  doctor,  working  in  the  Com- 
missariat, N.  G.  Freiburg,  well  known 
for  his  works  on  social  hygiene,  and  an 
old  States  Councilor  under  the  Czar, 
definitely  refused  the  invitation  of  one 
of  the  anti-Bolshevist  Governments,  on 
the  ground  that  under  the  Soviets  he  is 
being  enabled  to  carry  out  the  plans  of 
a  lifetime. 

As  with  medicine  so  with  every  other 
activity  in  the  country.  Specialists  in 
industry,  in  agriculture,  not  caring  two 
pins  about  politics  one  way  or  the  other, 
suffer  from  the  blockade.  It  is  to  their 
personal  interest  that  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment should  secure  peace  and  a  lift- 
ing of  the  blockade,  and  more  and  more 
of  them,  though  for  the  most  part  not 
Bolsheviki,  are  doing  their  best  to  assist 


THE  NEW  RUSSIAN  NATIONAL  SPIRIT 


91 


it.     Russia  is  at  stake,  and  they  can  do 
no  less. 

FACTIONS    WELDED    BY    SUFFERING 

For  the  first  time  since  1914  there  is 
in  Russia  a  general  concentration  on  the 
needs  of  the  war  comparable  at  all  with 
the  concentration  of  the  English  against 
the  Germans.  There  are  women  police 
in  the  streets  of  Petrograd.  In  the  Gov- 
ernment offices  women,  wherever  pos- 
sible, take  the  places  of  men.  Numbers 
of  women  have  gone  to  the  front  to 
assist  in  any  way  possible  in  the  defense 
of  the  country  and  the  revolution.  There 
is  scarcely  a  branch  of  peaceful  industry 
in  the  country  not  handicapped  by  the 
absence  of  men  and  women.  I  have  been 
impressed  by  the  voluntary  overtime 
work  with  which  Communists  and  great 
numbers  of  non-political  men  and  women 
are  trying  to  help  these  handicapped  fac- 
tories and  railways.  A  colossal  effort 
of  this  kind  produces  the  conditions  in 
which  national  spirit  is  born.  We  are 
welding  together  the  Bolsheviki  and  their 
erstwhile  opponents. 

These  erstwhile  opponents  justify  their 
support  of  the  Government  in  all  kinds 
of  ingenious  ways.  I  have  heard,  for 
example,  Russians  of  the  old  governing 
classes,  now  willingly  working  under  the 
Soviet  system,  put  forward  the  theory 
that  people  abroad  are  entirely  wrong  in 
believing  that  a  monarchist  or  bourgeois 
reaction  is  inevitable  in  Russia,  and  will 
be  brought  in  by  Denikin.  They  say,  on 
the  contrary,  that  the  discipline  and 
strict  order  enforced  by  the  Bolsheviki 
with  increasing  success  constitute  the  re- 
action, and  that  when  historians  come  to 
look  back  on  these  times  they  will  date 
the  period  of  reaction  from  Nov.  7,  1917, 
the  day  of  the  Soviet  revolution.  These 
Russians  say  that  in  a  revolution  the 
army  grows  weaker  and  weaker  until  re- 
action sets  in,  after  which  it  grows 
stronger  and  stronger;  and  they  point 
to  the  fact  that  Russia  has  a  better  army 
today  than  at  any  time  under  the  regime 
of  Lvov  and  Miliukov  and  Kerensky. 

These  Russians  say  that  their  cousins 
abroad  fail  to  recognize  this  fact  only 
because  they  are  so  cut  off  from  Russia, 
and  get  their  information  exclusively 
from    the    romantic    accounts    of    other 


92 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


emigres,  who  have  to  justify  their  emi- 
gration and  harp  on  the  events  of  two 
years  ago  as  if  they  were  the  events  of 
today.  The  true  patriots,  they  say,  do  not 
desert  Russia  because  she  is  hungry  and 
cold,  and,  living  abroad  in  London  and 
Paris,  urge  that  war  and  blockade  shall 
make  their  country  still  hungrier  and 
colder.  They  say  that  the  main  stream  of 
Russian  history  flows  through  the  revolu- 
tion and  will  entirely  disregard  the  little 
backwaters  and  accidental  eddies  of  Rus- 
sian opinion  which  look  for  help  for 
Russia  from  outside  Russia  itself. 

BOLSHEVISM  RUSSIANIZED 
But,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
theories  whereby  they  justify  their 
action,  the  cardinal  fact  is  that  more  and 
more  of  the  old  governing  classes  are 
throwing  in  their  lot  with  the  revolu- 
tion. More  and  more  clearly  it  is  being 
realized  that  Russia  is  at  stake  as  well 
as  the  revolution.  The  revolution  is 
being  militarized  by  being  compelled  to 
fight.  It  is  being  nationalized  in  the 
same  way.  More  and  more  clearly  it  is 
felt  that  whatever  may  be  the  interna- 
tional hopes  of  the  revolutionary  leaders 
it  is  a  Russian  revolution,  a  revolution 
for  which  Russia  is  paying  in  blood  and 
tears,  a  revolution  which  is  a  natural, 
inevitable,  possibly  a  glorious  phase  in 
the  development  of  Russia,  a  revolution 
which  Russia,  starving  and  equipped  with 
nothing  but  a  new-found  indomitable 
spirit,  is  defending  against  the  whole 
world. 

I  could  mention  innumerable  symptoms 
of  this  half -conscious  Russianization  of 
the  revolution.  They  have  nationalized 
most  things  in  Russia.  We  are  now  wit- 
nessing the  final  nationalization  of  the 
revolution  itself.  In  the  beginning  the 
revolutioary  leaders,  fresh  from  Euro- 
pean exile,  insisted  on  the  international 
character  of  the  revolution.  Now  more 
and  more  the  language  of  the  revolution 
insists  on  its  Russianness.  More  and  more 
the  allusions,  the  quotations,  the  freely 
scattered  proverbs  of  the  revolutionary 
orators  are  taken  from  Russian  sources. 
Trotzky,  the  Jew;  Lenin,  the  Russian 
nobleman;  Kalinin,  the  peasant  Premier 
of  the  big  Executive  Committee  which  is 
the    Russian    Parliament,    all    alike    em- 


phazie  their  Russianness  in  every  speech 
they  make.  More  than  once  I  have  heard 
Kalinin  praised  for  this  alone,  that  "  he 
speaks  to  the  peasants  in  their  own  lan- 
guage." 

The  designers  of  uniforms  for  the  Red 
Army  do  not  look  to  Germany  or  to 
England  for  their  models,  but  have  in 
mind  the  traditional  Russian  warriors 
of  old  time.  I  have  seen  Bolshevist  po- 
litical commissars  with  high-pointed 
khaki  helmets  fronted  with  a  great  red 
star  and  short-belted  leather  coats  in 
form  exactly  modeled  on  th^  helmets  and 
armor  of  the  Bogatyrs,  the  Russian 
heroes  of  antiquity.  Even  the  illustrated 
Calendar  issued  by  the  State  Publishing 
House,  for  all  its  manifold  references  to 
internationalism,  is  as  Russian  as  the 
illustrations  of  Bilibin  in  its  colored  pic- 
tures and  its  decorative  initials.  The 
symbolic  pictures  of  "  War,"  of  peasants 
at  work,  of  the  revolution,  all  are  rich 
with  figures  that  would  not  be  out  of 
place  in  an  art  theatre  presentation  of 
"  Boris  Godunov "  or  "  Tsar  Fedor 
Ivanovitch." 

CZARIST  OFFICERS  SERVE  LENIN 

These,  it  may  be  said,  are  small  things, 
possibly  accidents.  Maybe,  but  there  are 
other  indications  of  a  more  solid  charac- 
ter. The  Whites  say  that  the  Reds  com- 
pel officers  of  the  old  regime  to  serve 
in  their  armies  under  threat  of  all  man- 
ner of  horrible  penalties.  The  first 
obvious  deduction  from  these  allegations 
is  that  indeed  officers  of  the  old  army 
are  serving  in  the  army  of  the  revolution. 
Of  course  they  are,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  they  are  serving  loyally.  Here  and 
there  one  will  desert,  believing  that  the 
Whites  will  win.  But,  for  the  most  part, 
they  do  not  desert,  even  in  the  darkest 
and  seemingly  most  hopeless  moments  of 
the  struggle,  as  when  Denikin  was  at 
Orel  and  Yudenitch  at  the  gates  of 
Petrograd.  Two  years  ago  their  loyalty 
to  the  revolutionary  army  would  have 
been  unthinkable.  Something  has  hap- 
pened in  the  meantime,  and  that  some- 
thing is  the  birth  of  a  new  Russian  army 
and  the  birth  of  a  new  Russian  national 
spirit. 

During  the  last  two  years  these  offi- 
cers have  seen  a  new  armv  r.rpatpH  r»nf 


THE  NEW  RUSSIAN  NATIONAL  SPIRIT: 


93 


of  chaos  and  inspired  by  something  that 
previous  Russian  armies  have  lacked. 
Few  professional  soldiers  could  stand  by 
and  watch  that  army  forming  in  the 
direst  moment  of  their  country's  diffi- 
culties without  wanting  to  have  a  hand 
in  it.  Quite  naturally  the  history  of  the 
French  revolutionary  army  is  repeating 
itself  in  Russia.  From  France  also  many 
good  soldiers  fled  away  and  came  back 
to  fight  their  countrymen  at  Quiberon 
and  elsewhere.  But  far  more  stayed  with 
France  for  France's  sake,  were  she  revo- 
lutionary or  reactionary,  and  came  to 
realize  the  value  of  the  revolutionary 
idea,  no  doubt  detestable  to  some  of 
them,  in  the  new  inventory  of  munitions 
of  war. 

So  it  is  in  Russia.  Kamenev,  an  old 
Czarist  officer,  now  Commander  in 
Chief,  referred  to  the  flooding  of  the 
front  with  Communists  as  the  chief 
reason  of  the  army's  regeneration  after 
the  panic  caused  by  the  British  tanks. 
A  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  when 
Napoleon  was  busy  planting  his  relations 
and  friends  on  the  thrones  of  Europe,  he 
did  not  lay  aside  the  idea  of  revolution 
which  carried  his  soldiers  from  one  vic- 
tory to  another.  And  with  him  young 
officers  leapt  swiftly  to  the  top.  A  revo- 
lutionary army,  a  revolutionary  period, 
offers  chances  to  the  soldier  of  genius 
such  as  he  can  never  hope  for  in  normal 
times.  The  career  of  Colonel  Gettis,  now 
commanding  the  western  front,  is  in  no 
way  exceptional.  A  Colonel  in  the  old 
army,  he  took  part  voluntarily  in  the 
organization  of  the  new.  When  we  took 
Archangel  he  was  appointed  to  command 
the  forces  against  us,  which  he  speedily 
turned  from  a  mob  into  an  organized 
army,  as  our  own  soldiers  have  testified, 
being  ready  to  attribute  his  work  to  the 
Germans.  From  the  north  he  was  sent 
to  command  the  army  fighting  on  the 
Voronezh  sector  against  Denikin.  Here, 
too,  he  was  equally  successful,  and  be- 
came commander  of    the  whole  southern 


front.  Thence  he  was  moved  to  the  west- 
ern front,  where  the  weaker,  less  discip- 
lined armies  were  in  need  of  the  organi- 
zation which  he  has  shown  himself  cap- 
able of  introducing.  It  was  he  who  di- 
rected the  operations  that  ended  in  the 
complete  defeat  of  Yudenitch. 

TWO  ILLUSTRATIONS 

An  ambitious  soldier  needs  no  com- 
pulsion to  serve  his  country  in  an  army 
which  offers  such  speedy  recognition. 
And  "  compulsion  "  will  not  explain  the 
readiness  of  Generals  Nikolaev  and 
Stankevitch  to  die  rather  than  desert 
the  army  in  which  they  had  fought. 
General  Nikolaev  was  executed  by  the 
Whites  on  the  Petrograd  front.  The  case 
of  General  Stankevitch  is  a  still  more 
striking  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
patriotism  and  nationalism  in  Russia 
now  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
Revolution,  I  am  told  that  earlier  in 
the  Revolution  he  was  actually  a  mem- 
ber of  an  anti-revolutionary  organiza- 
tion. He  was  an  old  General  of  the 
Imperial  Army,  then  a  commander  in  the 
Red  Army.  He  was  captured  by  Denikin, 
but  refused  to  go  over  to  the  Whites.  He 
was  hanged,  and  it  is  alleged  that  a  red 
star  was  branded  on  his  breast.  When 
the  Red  Army  recovered  Orel  peasants 
who  had  witnessed  the  execution  pointed 
out  his  grave,  and  told  how  when  the 
executioner  prepared  to  put  the  noose 
round  the  old  man's  neck  General  Stanke- 
vitch took  it  from  him  and  said,  "  I  have 
served  in  the  Red)  Army,  and  if  I  am 
condemned  to  die  I  am  well  able  to  adjust 
the  noose  myself."  He  was  62  years  old 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  His  body  was 
exhumed,  and  has  recently  been  buried 
in  the  Red  Square  in  Moscow  with  fullest 
honors  as  a  hero  of  the  Revolution.  That 
solemn  burial  under  the  red  flag  of  an 
old  General  of  the  Czar  is  a  very  re- 
markable symbol  of  the  changing  atti- 
tude alike  of  the  revolutionaries  and  of 
their  one-time  opponents. 


[The  Religious  Revolution  in  Russia 


By  DR.  PETER  J.  POPOFF* 


FOR  centuries  the  Russians  used  to 
style  their  country  "  Holy  Russia," 
but   under  the   Bolshevist   regime 
they  must  give  up  that  appellation, 
because  the  so-called  holy  relics  of  Rus- 
sian saints,  on  examination,  prove  to  be 
gross  deceptions  on  the  part  of  monks. 

There  are  scores  of  monasteries  in 
Russia  containing  relics  of  saints,  which, 
until  lately,  were  peacefully  resting  in 
their  shrines  of  silver  and  gold.  For 
centuries  the  dark  people  of  Russia,  by 
thousands,  made  pilgrimages  to  these 
monasteries,  reverently  prostrated  them- 
selves before  what  they  believed  to  be 
the  incorruptible  bodies  of  saints,  and 
liberally  contributed  according  to  their 
means  copper,  silver  and  even  gold  coins. 
This  was  the  largest  source  of  income  of 
the  Russian  Church. 

The  Bolsheviki  decided  to  find  out  and 
expose  before  the  people  the  real  state 
of  these  relics.  In  the  presence  of  high 
dignitaries  of  the  Church  and  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  the  first  exami- 
nation of  a  saints'  relics  took  place  last 
year  in  the  City  of  Varonesh  (where  the 
writer  of  these  lines  had  lived  and  studied 
theology  for  five  years,  1864-69).  In  the 
monastery  of  that  name,  the  relics  of  St. 
Mitrofan,  a  contemporary  and  coworker 
of  Peter  the  Great,  were  opened  and 
found  to  be  an  imitation  of  a  human 
body  stuffed  with  cotton.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Varonesh,  who  was  present  at 
the  examination,  remarked:  "  It  is,  of 
course,  very  sad  to  look  at  such  a  thing." 
Next  were  examined  the  relics  of  St. 
Tikhon  at  Zadonsk,  in  Varonesh  Province, 
and  found  to  consist  of  cardboard  con- 
taining some  bones.  And  the  Archbishop 
declared:  "  I  especially  believed  in  the 
relics  of  St.  Tikhon,  for  they  stood  out 
with  such  clearness  from  the  coffin  that 
one  had  a  perfect  impression  of  a  human 
body  which  had  just  been  put  in  there. 
When  I  received  information  from  the 
Abbot  of  the  Zadonsky  monastery  of 
what  was  really  found  there  I  was  very 
much  grieved,  because  I  shared  the  gen- 


eral convictior  that  the  relics  of  Tikhon 
were  fully  preserved." 

The  effect  produced  by  these  dis- 
closures on  the  people  was  overwhelm- 
ing. One  Constantin  N.  Stechelkoff,  who 
was  present  at  the  opening  of  the  relics 
of  St.  Mitrofan,  declared:  "Until  the 
examination  of  the  relics  I,  as  a  believer, 
stood  in  the  church,  feeling  fear  in  my 
heart.  When  the  relics  were  opened  and 
the  deception  was  revealed  all  my  faith 
vanished  and  gave  way  to  a  sense  of  dis- 
gust and  contempt  for  this  brazen  de- 
ception." 

Together  with  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  pilgrims,  I,  too,  over  half  a  cen- 
tury ago,  had  reverently  kissed  what  we 
supposed  to  be  the  hand  of  St.  Mitrofan, 
seen  through  a  minute  opening  in  the 
white  kid  glove  of  the  saint.  J,  too,  had 
taken  part  in  the  invocation  of  St. 
Mitrofan,  then  believed  to  be  a  "  great 
miracle  worker,"  to  pray  the  Lord  for  us. 
Now,  after  the  revelation  of  that  gross 
deception,  how  can  they  pray  thus  any 
more?  And  what  will  become  of  the 
Mitrof anievsky  monastery,  since  the  le- 
gend of  the  relics  of  St.  Mitrofan  is  rude- 
ly destroyed  ? 

In  last  April  at  a  conference  of  work- 
men's delegates  in  Tver,  counting  forty 
men,  the  question  of  the  relics  was  taken 
up.  There  came  three  priests  and  argued 
earnestly   against   the   proposal   to   open 


*The  author  of  these  lines  studied  theology 
in  the  Varonesh  Clerical  Seminary  and,  as  a 
senior  student,  he  was  bound  to  preach  in 
churches  of  Varonesh.  The  character  of 
life  of  the  local  clergy  and  monks  in  par- 
ticular forced  him  to  give  up  his  studies  for 
the  priesthood.  Thus,  instead  of  the  Clerical 
Academy,  he  entered  the  Imperial  Medical 
Academy  of  St.  Petersburg.  On  account  of 
his  liberal  political  views  he  was  compelled 
to  leave  Russia  and  emigrate  to  the  United 
States  (1871).  He  finished  his  studies  in 
the  Medical  Department  of  the  University  of 
the  City  of  New  York  (1875).  Later  on,  for 
fifteen  years  he  was  Secretary  to  the  Rus- 
sian Consulate  General,  New  York.  An 
American  citizen,  he  went  to  Russia  (1895) 
and  stayed  there  for  nine  years  as  Director 
of  an  American  life  insurance  company.  In 
1914  he  returned  to  America.  His  special 
studies  and  his  long  connection  with  the 
Russian  official  and  unofficial  world  af- 
forded him  unusual  facilities  for  observa- 
tion  of  Russian   conditions. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  REVOLUTION  IN  RUSSIA 


95 


rHE    CATHEDRAL    OF    ST.    BASIL,    IN    THE    KREMLIN    AT    MOSCOW— MOST    FAMOUS    OF 

RUSSIAN  CHURCHES 


the  local  relics.  But  all  the  deputies 
present,  except  four,  voted  in  the  af- 
firmative. On  May  18  there  took  place 
in  Tver  the  examination  of  the  relics  of 
St.  Michael  "the  Pious,"  and  of  St. 
Arseny,  "  the  miracle  worker."  Still 
earlier,  on  April  9,  there  were  opened 
the  relics  of  St.  Vasily  and  St.  Con- 
stantine  in  the  cathedral  of  Yaroslavl, 
and  those  of  St.  Theodor  in  the  Spassky 
monastery.  In  all  these  cases  there  were 
found  some  bones,  cotton  and  charcoal 
splinters. 

A  great  sensation  was  produced  by  the 
opening  of  the  relics  of  St.  Alexander 
Svirsky,  one  of  the  most  famous  saints 
of  the  Russian  Church.     It  caused  the 


Rev.  M.  T.  Fomin,  a  priest,  to  leave  the 
church  and  address  the  following  letter 
to  the  Bishop  of  Olonetzk  and  Petro- 
zavodsk : 

The  relics  of  Alexander  Svirsky,  which 
were  disclosed  to  be  a  figure  of  wax, 
showed  a  blasphemous  exploitation  of  the 
common  people  by  a  group  of  selfish 
monks.  Tou,  the  high  clergy,  could  not 
be  ignorant  of  this  deception,  but  you 
carefully  hid  it  from  us,  the  common 
priests,  and  the  people  in  general.  You 
allowed  the  worship  of  idols  in  place  of 
saints,  encouraging  it  by  your  own  ex- 
ample and  preaching.  You  intentionally 
darkened  the  eyes  and  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple and  deceived  the  trusting  Russia. 
Woe  to  you  when  the  enlightened  people 
rise  and  move  on  you  in  their  terrible 
anger,   demanding  an  answer  and  an  ac- 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


CATHEDRAL,  OF  REDEMPTION,   MOSCOW,   A  FINE  EXAMPLE  OF  RUSSIAN  GREEK  CHURCH 

ARCHITECTURE 


count  which  you  will  be  unable  to  give. 
(The  Friend  of  Russia,   December,   1919). 

In  1895,  when  I  was  at  St.  Petersburg, 
Russia,  there  was  a  question  about  an 
immediate  opening  of  the  relics  of  Ser- 
afim  in  the  Sarovsky  monastery.  A 
court  physician,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  committee  that  made  a  preliminary 
examination  of  the  relics,  spread  a  report 
to  the  effect  that  if  the  Holy  Synod  in- 
sisted upon  the  assertion  that  Serafim's 
body  was  found  incorruptible,  he,  as  an 
honest  man,  would  be  bound  to  disclose 
the  truth.  Whereupon  the  Metropolitan 
Isidor,  then  President  of  the  Synod, 
found  it  necessary  to  publish  a  letter  in 
the  Novoe  Vremya  (the  New  Times) — an 
act  unheard  of  before — to  the  effect 
that,  though  only  some  bones  and  a 
handful  of  hair  were  found,  yet  Serafim 
would  be  canonized  because  the  people 
believed  in  his  miraculous  power,  which 
had  been  manifested  many  times.     The 


public  was  shocked  on  hearing  that  Sera- 
fim was  to  be  proclaimed  a  saint,  though 
his  body  had  not  been  incorruptible,  for 
until  then  such  things  were  considered 
in  Russia  totally  incompatible. 

The  question  of  holy  relics  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  Russia,  for  it  was 
believed  that  in  town  and  village  churches 
all  over  the  country  there  were  minute 
particles  of  holy  relics  contained  in  the 
corporals.  Hence,  apparently,  proceeded 
the  claim  to  the  sancity  of  Russia;  for 
in  every  Russian  church  there  is  a  so- 
called  antimins  (antimensa),  that  is,  a 
corporal  or  communion  cloth,  on  the  altar. 
It  is  a  small  square  linen  cloth  placed 
under  the  chalice  and  platen  at  the  serv- 
ice of  the  mass.  It  must  be  blessed  by 
a  Bishop,  who  invokes  the  divine  favor 
that  the  cloth  may  be  worthy  to  cover 
and  enwrap  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
It  represents  the  winding-sheet  in  which 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  wrapped  the  dead 


THE  RELIGIOUS  REVOLUTION  IN  RUSSIA 


97 


I 


body  of  Jesus.  We  must  bear  in  mind 
that  the  Russian  Church,  like  the  Greek 
and  Roman  Churches,  believes  in  the  doc- 
trine of  transsubstantiation. 

Now,  since  the  relics  of  the  Russian 
saints  examined  by  the  Bolsheviki  proved 
to  be  a  deception,  all  the  corporals  of  all 
Russian  churches,  including  even  those 
originally  brought  from  Greece,  may  be 
placed  in  the  same  category.  This  is  a 
terrible  blow  to  the  Russian  Church  and 
religion. 

Russia  adopted  Christianity  from  By- 
zantium in  988,  when  the  Greek  clergy 
brought  to  Russia  the  first  corporals  con- 
taining particles  of  relics  of  Greek  saints. 
Later  on  there  appeared  Russian  saints 
whose  holy  relics  were  used  for  the  cor- 
porals of  churches  all  over  Russia. 

Historians  of  the  Russian  revolution 
will  not  fail  to  record  the  Bolsheviki's 
blasphemous  mockery  of  icons,  the  perse- 
cution and  even  execution  of  some  priests 
and  Bishops,  and  the  destruction  of  many 
churches  and  some  cathedrals.  The  Bol- 
sheviki are  trying  their  best  to  ignore 
the  church  authorities.  Hence  they  de- 
clare  that  no   church  marriage  will   be 


held  valid  unless  it  is  preceded  by  a  civil 
license.  All  births  and  deaths  must  be 
recorded  at  local  civil  offices,  whereas 
previous  to  the  revolution  all  such 
records  were  held  by  the  clergy  exclu- 
sively. No  church  holidays  are  now  held 
obligatory  on  any  laborers.  By  a  single 
stroke  of  the  pen  Lenin  has  moved  the 
Russian  calendar  thirteen  days  ahead, 
that  is,  he  has  ordered  the  adoption  of 
the  Western  calendar  in  Russia. 

The  religious  revolution  in  Russia  is 
as  radical  as  the  political  and  social  one. 
If  it  is  true,  as  many  believe,  that  the 
people  get  their  morals  from  their  re- 
ligion, then  it  is  a  pertinent  and  grave 
question:  Where  and  how  will  the  Rus- 
sian people  now  learn  moral  principles? 
The  writer  of  these  lines  knows  some 
Russian  sectarians,  living  in  this  country, 
who  did  not  and  do  not  recognize  the 
Russian  Church,  and  who  profess  and 
practice  the  highest  moral  principles. 
They  call  themselves  "  Spiritual  Christ- 
ians." When  order  and  peace  are  estab- 
lished in  Russia  they  will  return  to  their 
motherland  and  teach  their  old  friends 
their  new  belief. 


Remains  of  Saints  and  the  Russian  Church 

By  LEONID  TURKEVICH,  D.  D.* 

Dean  of   St.   Nicholas   Cathedral,  New  Tork   Citt 


IT  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Eastern  Orthodox  Church  to  consider 
the  remains  of  the  bodies  of  de- 
parted holy  men  as  sacred.  Our  oldest 
chronicler,  when  speaking  of  the  bap- 
tizing of  Russia  under  Prince  Vladimir, 
speaks  of  the  many  sacred  remains 
brought  to  Kiev  by  the  Greek  hierarchs 
from  Constantinople.  Later  on,  when 
the  Christian  order  developed  in  Russia, 
remains  of  local  Russian  saints  came  to 
be  accepted  also.  These  remains  were 
kept  hidden  in  underground  vaults,  or 
open  in  the  churches,  but  the  reverence 
of  the  believers  was  the  same  in  both 
cases.  Our  Church  preserves  many  au- 
thentically verified  records  of  people 
who,  praying  over  such  remains,  were 
cured  of  various  bodily  ills  or  comforted 


and  strengthened  morally  by  the  grace 
of  God  invisibly  descending  on  them. 

Veneration  of  the  remains  of  holy  men 
in  the  Russian  Church,  however,  is  not 
only  a  peculiarity  of  the  life  of  the 
nation;  it  is  also  an  important  ritual- 
istic feature  of  the  liturgic  practices. 
Particles  of  the  remains  are  sewn  in 
the    cloths     covering    the     altars,     over 


*Dr.  Turkevich,  whose  article  is  in  part  a 
reply  to  that  of  Mr.  Popoff,  was  graduated 
from  the  Theological  Academy  of  Kiev  and 
came  to  the  United  States  about  twelve  years 
ago  to  be  rector  of  the  Russian  Theological 
Seminary  in  Minneapolis.  When  the  semi- 
nary was  transferred  to  Bergenfield,  N.  J.,  he 
came  East  and  remained  with  it  some  years. 
■When  the  former  dean  of  St.  Nicholas  Ca- 
thedral recently  went  to  Russia  Dr.  Turke- 
vich became  Archpriest  there  by  virtvie  of 
seniority.  He  is  a  frequent  contributor  to 
the  Constructive  Quarterly,  a  religious 
magazine.— EDITOR. 


98 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


^hich  is  performed  the  Holy  Eucharist. 
According  to  the  Canon  of  the  Russian 
Orthodox  Church,  such  an  altar  cover- 
ng,  otherwise  the  holy  antimins,  is 
irregular  without  the  particles  men- 
tioned above,  so  that  the  liturgic  service 
cannot  be  performed  on  it. 

Russians  in  America  hear  vague 
rumors  of  what  is  going  on  in  the 
regions  of  the  religious  life  of  their 
country.  To  speak  in  a  positive  way 
here  of  anything  that  is  going  on  there 
would  be  taking  too  much  on  ourselves; 
yet  we  did  have  indistinct  tidings  about 
the  remains  of  many  Russian  saints 
having  been  inspected  by  some  parties, 
or  even  destroyed.  It  is  still  too  early 
to  draw  any  definite  conclusion  on  the 
subject  from  the  very  scant  information 
at  hand. 

The  true  state  of  things  we  can 
learn  only  later  on,  when  the  regular 
mail  service  between  the  two  coun- 
tries is  actually  re-established.  In  the 
meanwhile,  it  may  be  a  matter  of  in- 
terest to  know  the  actual  attitude  of  the 
Russian  Church  in  general  and  of  its 
ritual  in  particular  toward  the  question 
under  discussion. 

Eugene  Golubinsky,  the  famous  his- 
torian, wrote  with  much  justice :  "  There 
are  people  among  us  whose  zeal  exceeds 
their  understanding,  and  who  claim  that 
the  remains  of  the  deceased  holy  men 
are  always  and  everywhere  undecayed, 
that  is,  that  they  are  bodies  which  had 
suffered  no  destruction  and  no  change." 
But  the  universal  church  consciousness 
from  the  remotest  antiquity  never  knew 
of  any  such  claim.  In  the  catacombs 
and  the  other  churches  of  the  three  first 
centuries  divine  services  were  held  over 
the  tombs  of  martyrs,  but.it  was  not 
because  the  bodies  remained  undecayed, 
but  simply  as  a  visible  sign  of  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  faith  held  by  the  martyrs, 
whose  death  bore  witness  to  that  faith. 

The  custom  thus  acquired  by  the 
Church  was  not  given  up  when  Chris- 
tianity triumphed  over  heathendom. 
When  persecutions  became  few  and  the 
places  of  Christian  worship  many,  divine 
services  were  held  not  only  over  the 
graves  of  martyrs,  but  also  over  the 
particles    of    their    bones     and    bodies. 


piously  carried  to  new  altars.  In  time, 
divine  services  began  to  be  performed 
over  the  graves  and  the  particles  of  the 
remains  of  prelates,  ascetics  and  holy 
recluses  glorified  in  life  and  death  by 
the  efficacy  of  their  intercession  and 
service  for  their  living  brethren. 

In  the  Eastern  Church  this  custom 
took  root  in  the  eighth  century,  and  in 
its  essence  it  still  remains  unchanged; 
it  is  a  sign  of  the  communion  of  the 
living  and  the  dead.  The  Seventh 
Ecumenical  Council  meant  this  when 
stating  in  its  decree  concerning  holy 
images  and  holy  relics,  that  all  the 
sacred  symbols  are  merely  mediums  of 
the  transmission  of  the  miracle  working 
grace  of  God. 

We  believe  that  the  saints  of  the 
Russian  Church  are  still  able  to  protect 
its  children,  though  their  remains  iln 
their  coffins  be  disturbed,  burned  or 
polluted  in  any  other  way,  in  case  all 
this  is  actually  happening  these  days  in 
our  country. 

The  way  the  hierarchs  of  the  Russian 
Church  understand  this  question  can  be 
seen  from  what  Antonios,  Metropolitan 
of  Petrograd,  said  when,  in  1903,  St. 
Seraphim  of  Sarovo  was  canonized: 
"  Nothing  is  left  of  the  elder  Seraphim 
in  the  coffin  except  bones,  the  skeleton 
of  the  body.  But  as  the  remains  of  a 
man  who  pleased  God,  a  holy  man,  they 
are  holy  remains,  and  are  now  taken  up 
from  under  the  earth,  on  the  occasion  of 
his  solemn  glorification,  that  they  may 
be  piously  reverenced  by  all  who  travel 
here  to  obtain  the  intercession  and 
prayer  of  the  holy  elder  Seraphim."  To 
suppose  that  the  chief  pastors  of  the 
Russian  Orthodox  Church  of  the  present 
day  understand  the  question  of  the  re- 
mains of  saints  in  a  coarse  or  ignorant 
way  would  be  to  show  a  complete  absence 
of  any  clear  idea  either  of  them  or  of 
the  teaching  concerning  the  holy  relics 
which  the  whole  Eastern  Orthodox 
Church  has  in  common. 

Here  is  a  noteworthy  detail.  At  the 
time  of  the  canonization  of  St.  Seraphim 
quantities  of  hectographed  leaflets  were 
zealously  spread  all  over  Russia  by  a 
certain  "  League  for  Fighting  Ortho- 
doxy."     The   leaflets    insisted   that   the 


REMAINS   OF  SAINTS  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  CHURCH 


99 


I 


opening  of  St.  Seraphim's  grave  should 
not  be  allowed;  but  they  failed  to  affect 
the  Russian  Nation.  St.  Seraphim  be- 
came one  of  the  most  popular  saints, 
beloved  of  all.  The  work  of  the  secret 
league  was  fruitless.  We  are  not  by 
any  means  prepared  to  decide  whether 
the  "  League  for  Fighting  Orthodoxy," 
which  operated  in  1903,  is  in  any  way 
connected  with  the  recent  efforts  to 
shake  the  people's  faith  in  the  holiness 
of  the  saints'  remains  and  the  antimins 
or  alter  cloths  which  so  intimately  de- 
pend on  them — provided  it  is  true  that 
such  efforts  are  being  made.  But  we 
can  positively  maintain  that  to  say  any 
attempts  of  this  kind  had  succeeded  in 


discrediting  the  Orthodox  Church  of 
Russia  would  be  equal  to  saying  that 
the  body  of  Jesus  was  simply  stolen  and 
carried  away  by  His  disciples  in  the  hope 
that  by  spreading  such  fables  any 
"  league,"  ancient  or  modern,  could 
possibly  shake  the  faith  of  Christians  in 
the  Resurrected  Christ. 

The  faith  of  the  Russian  people  is  not 
supported  by  the  holy  remains  of  saints; 
on  the  contrary,  these  holy  relics  came 
as  the  result  of  the  people's  profound 
faith  in  the  vital  power  of  the  Ortho- 
dox Church.  The  blood  of  the  martyrs 
for  this  faith  shall  once  more  promote 
the  rise,  the  growth  and  the  strength  of 
the  Russian  Orthodox  faith. 


THE  CAUCASUS  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR 

By  DR.  J.  F.  SCHELTEMA 


NOTWITHSTANDING  peace  confer- 
ences and  treaties  of  peace,  the 
world  war  has  still  its  innings, 
both  peace  and  war  in  their  strange  mix- 
up  being  inevitably  subject  to  geo- 
graphical conditions,  as  again  clearly 
shown  by  the  happenings  in  the  region 
of  th6  Caucasus.  That  lofty  mountain 
range,  a  bridge  towering  in  the  clouds 
between  Europe  and  Asia,  more  strongly 
fortified  by  nature  than  the  Watergate 
of  Bosporus  and  Dardanelles,  played  its 
own  important  part  in  the  struggle  of 
races  and  civilizations  from  which  the 
present  international  situation  emerged. 
As  it  turned  to  the  south  and  southwest 
the  tides  of  devastation  in  the  wake  of 
conquerors  of  Asiatic  blood,  who  came 
from  the  east  across  the  plains  and  hills 
of  ancient  Media,  so  it  proved  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  Russian  Czars  when,  follow- 
ing their  policy  of  expansion  inaugu- 
rated by  Peter  the  Great,  they  sent  their 
hosts  from  the  north,  pushing  down  to 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian  and  Black  Sea. 
But  the  obstacle  was  surmounted. 
Swarming  on,  the  yellow-haired  warriors 
crossed  the  divide  and  subjugated  the 
peoples  of  Transcaucasia,  the  Georgians, 
Mingrelians,  and  other  dwellers  in  the 
valleys  and  on  the  plateaus  of  the  land 
of  perpetual  battle    and    romance    elo- 


quently   sung   by   Lermontov,   with    due 
emphasis  on  their  mediaeval  virtues: 
Oh,   wild   the  tribes   that   dwell   in   those 

defiles ; 
Freedom  their  God  and  strife  their  only 
law! 

It  took  the  Russians  more  than  three 
centuries  to  conquer  Transcaucasia  here. 
When  the  rule  of  the  Czars  was  at  last 
established,  with  its  local  centre  at  Tiflis, 
there  was  an  end  of  freedom.  Things 
changed  in  the  once  independent  prin- 
cipalities, khanates  and  vassal  States  of 
Turkey  and  Persia  that  composed  the 
Russian  administrative  district  of  Kav- 
kaz,  north  and  south  of  the  Caucasus 
proper — ^between  the  Black  Sea  and  the 
Caspian,  from  near  the  mouth  of  the  Don 
to  below  Batum  and  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Kuma  to  below  Lenkoran  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Aras.  In  this  region  Geno- 
ese traders  used  to  exchange  the  dried 
and  salted  product  of  their  privileged 
fisheries  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora  for 
Georgian  and  Circassian  virgins,  whom 
they  sold  with  great  profit  and  strictly 
commercial  impartiality  to  the  unspeak- 
able Turk  or  Christian  customers  of 
proved  discretion.  Where  Skobeleff,  as 
late  as  1879,  had  to  ferry  his  army  in 
flat-bottomed  barges,  the  ports  of  Poti 
and   especially   Batum,   not   to   mention 


100 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


Baku  on  the  east  coast,  became  the  em- 
poria  of  an  immense  traffic  by  steamer 
and  rail.  Meanwhile,  the  Caucasus  was 
transformed  into  a  base  for  military- 
operations  to  back  the  pacific  penetra- 
tion, which  expanded  the  sphere  of  Rus- 
sian influence  southward  and  eastward, 
an  oil-staiii  spreacmg  over  the  map  of 
Asia. 

OU  FBREAK  OF  THE   WAR 

After  the  Turkish  revolution  of  1908, 
the  dissemination  of  Pan-Turanian  and 
Pan-Islamic  sentiments  in  the  Caucasus 
by  agents  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  made  the  high  army  command 
at  St.  Petersburg  adhere  more  rigidly 
than  ever  to  the  cautious  custom  of  em- 
ploying its  Georgian,  Armenian  and  other 
Caucasian  troops  on  the  northwestern 
frontier  and  its  mujik  conscripts  on  the 
southeastern  frontier  of  Russia. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  world  war  the 
Caucasian  garrisons — ^first  of  all  that  of 
Kars — ^were  hastily  reinforced  with  regi- 
ments drawn  from  the  interior  to  parry 
the  blow  struck  by  Enver  Pasha  at  Sari- 
kamich,  terminus  of  the  railroad  from 
Tiflis  to  the  border  of  Turkish  Armenia, 
with  three  army  corps,  the  9th  (Erze- 
rum),  10th  (Erzinjan)  and  11th  (Van), 
supported  by  a  division  of  the  1st  (dis- 
patched from  Constantinople)  and  a  di- 
vision of  the  13th  (Bagdad).  First  came 
Enver's  successes,  followed  by  his  defeat 
at  the  hands  of  General  Yudenitch,  who 
was  in  pursuit  of  the  retreating  Turks 
when  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Russian  forces 
in  Transcaucasia;  the  Grand  Duke  was 
further  strengthened  with  seevral  divi- 
sions transferred  from  General  Ivanov's 
army,  which  had  broken  General  Macken- 
sen's  offensive  on  the  western  front. 

The  moment  war  had  been  declared, 
Nicolai  Nicolaievich,  co-author  with  Gen- 
eral Joffre  of  a  plan  for  Russian  par- 
ticipation in  the  task  of  foiling  German 
designs,  had  been  appointed  Russian 
Generalissimo  by  his  cousin  the  Czar.  A 
typical  soldier,  compared  by  his  admirers 
to  the  bogatyr,  or  hero  of  Russian  leg- 
endary lore,  it  was  more  his  political 
creed,  unpalatable  to  tEe  Imperial  Court, 
than  his  reverses  in  the  field  which  led 
in  September,  1915,  to  his  removal  from 


the  supreme  command  and  his  exile  to 
the  Caucasus,  customary  place  of  banish- 
ment for  military  offenders,  officers  of 
ill-regulated  habits,  or  men  of  rank  sus- 
pected of  too  liberal  views. 

GRAND  DUKE'S  SUCCESS 

True,  the  pill  was  sugar-coated  by 
giving  the  discharged  Commander  in 
Chief  the  title  of  Viceroy,  which,  since 
the  days  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael 
Nicolaievich,  had  been  in  abeyance,  save 
to  provide  a  decent  exit  from  St.  Peters- 
burg to  Count  Vorontzov  Dashkov  when 
Nicholas  II.  came  to  the  throne;  but  that 
did  not  take  the  bitter  taste  away.  Sub- 
mitting, the  new  Viceroy  bore  up  under 
his  disgrace,  and,  throwing  back  the 
Turks,  who  were  delivering  a  second  at- 
tack to  reach  Kars  as  a  stepping  stone 
to  Tiflis  on  the  line  of  communication  be- 
tween Baku  and  Batum,  he  gave  the 
enemy  no  rest.  Sweeping  on,  General 
Prjevalsky  seized   Erzerum  on  Jan.   16, 

1916,  which  made  the  Russians  masters 
of  the  military  road  to  Trebizond  (taken 
on  April  18)  and  the  roads  to  Karput 
and  Diarbekr. 

While  Enver  Pasha's  attack  was  de- 
veloping, some  Mohammedan  tribes  of 
the  Caucasus,  among  them  the  Adshars 
of  Georgian  nationality,  joined  the 
Turks,  and  Tatar  malcontents  from  As- 
trakhan and  Kirghizistan  traveled  all 
the  way  around  the  Caspian  Sea  and 
through  Kurdistan  to  fight  the  giaour 
in  the  ranks  of  their  Osmanli  co-religion- 
ists; but  the  Russian  successes  west  of 
Lake  Van  and  east  of  Lake  Urmiah, 
where  General  Saratov  was  pushing  on 
toward  Hamadan  and  Kermanshah,  pre- 
vented the  spread  of  the  insurrectionary 
movement  by  such  bands. 

Linking  up  with  the  British  forces  in 
Mesopotamia,  picked  sotnias  of  General 
Bicharakov's  Cossacks  took  part  in  the 
skirmishing  along  the  upper  course  of 
the  Dyala  after  Sir  Stanley  Maude's  cap- 
ture of  Bagdad,  but,  despite  such  ex- 
ploits, the  junction  in  greater  number, 
near  Kifry,  was,  doomed  to  remain  with- 
out effect.     The  revolution    of    March, 

1917,  put  a  stop  to  Russian  operations  in 
Iran  and  the  Asiatic  pashalics  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire. 

With  the  Russian  troops  retiring  from 


THE   CAUCASUS  AND    THE    WORLD    W%R 


101 


the  Turkish  and  Persian  fronts  the  revo- 
lutionary Government  at  St.  Petersburg 
left  the  Caucasus  to  its  own  devices  and 
foreign  intrigue,  which  became  increas- 
ingly bold  when  the  central  administra- 
tion broke  down,  the  Grand  Duke  Nich- 
olas having  been  succeeded  by  Yudenitch, 
and  Yudenitch  by  Prjevarsky,  and  Prjev- 
arsky  by  no  one  in  particular.  The  en- 
suing confusion  and  the  Brest-Litovsk 
agreement  furnished  Germany  with  an 
excellent  opportunity  to  carry  through 
in  those  regions  her  scheme  for  an  al- 
ternative line  of  communication  with  the 
East  to  countervail  the  imminent  failure 
of  her  Berlin-Bagdad  railroad  enterprise. 
Germany's  efforts  in  that  direction 
showed  such  a  lack  of  consideration  with 
respect  to  her  Turkish  ally  that  the 
Porte  entered  a  vigorous  protest  against 
its  interests  being  sacrificed  by  a  com- 
pact which,  among  other  bargains,  rec- 
ognized Russia's  prescriptive  rights  to 
Baku,  the  centre  of  the  world's  oil  in- 
dustry, though  on  the  other  hand  it  stip- 
ulated the  future  independence  of 
Georgia.  But,  says  a  Turkish  proverb, 
by  dint  of  playing  one  is  sure  to  find  the 
proper  tune,  and  so,  while  the  whole  of 
Transcaucasia,  Georgia  included,  pro- 
claimed its  independence,  Talaat  Pasha 
obtained  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Baku 
returned  to  Turkey;  at  least,  Baku  was 
returned  in  principle,  though  it  had  to 
be  taken  and  was  lost  again  and  retaken, 
the  powers  of  the  Entente,  whose  agents 
were  very  active  in  Tiflis  and  Batum  and 
around  Krasnovodsk  in  the  Caspian  oil 
fields,  bravely  resisting  the  consumma- 
tion of  this  deal. 

CHAOS  AFTER  THE  WAR 

A  Transcaucasian  Government  did 
not  exist.  All  was  chaos  and  internal 
strife.  Georgian,  Mingrelian,  and  Ar- 
menian bands  seized  with  their  habitual 
gusto  for  blood  revenge  and  internecine 
feuds  the  military  stores,  guns,  rifles, 
and  ammunition  abandoned  by  the  reg- 
ular army  in  Tiflis,  Alexandropol  and 
other  towns  of  strategic  consequence. 
Though  less  well  armed,  the  Tatar  clans 
of  the  neighboring  territories  improved 
the  advantage  of  their  geographical  lo- 
cation to  control  for  their  own  profit  the 
routes   of   entrance   into   and   exit   from 


the  districts  that  were  reverting  to  the 
ferocious  barbarism  reported  sixteen  cen- 
turies earlier  by  the  missionaries  of  Con- 
stantine  the  Great. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  Russia 
in  its  widest  sense  counts  far  more  Turk- 
ish-speaking inhabitants,  most  of  them 
Tatars,  than  Turkey  itself.  It  has  been 
asserted  that  without  them  Muscovite 
civilization  could  never  have  attained  its 
comparatively  high  level  and  preserved 
its  characteristic  originality;  at  any  rate 
their  influence  is  marked  enough  to  ac- 
count for  the  adage:  Scratch  the  Russian 
and  you  will  find  the  Tatar. 

Those  Tatars  that  remained  more  or 
less  in  the  nomadic  state  were  not  always 
amenable  to  the  progressive  Muscovite 
rule  introduced  through  contact  with 
western  modes  of  Government.  Their 
slowly  budding  ideas  of  civic  liberty, 
stimulated  in  the  sixties  by  leaders 
like  Gasprinsky,  took  oftener  than  not  a 
violently  socialistic  form,  wnich  necessi- 
tated repressive  measures,  such  as  in 
1906  culminated  in  the  arrest  of  the 
instigators  of  quasi-seditious  demonstra- 
tions in  Kazan.  The  program  of  these 
agitators  differed  very  little  from  that  of 
the  political  party  represented  by  the 
Cadets,  with  whom,  the  Mohammedan 
faction  in  the  First  and  Second  Dumas 
identified  itself.  The  Turkish  revolution 
of  1908  found  the  Tatars,  generally 
speaking,  in  full  sympathy  with  the  aims 
of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
ress; the  Russian  revolution  of  1907 
grouped  them  together  more  closely  than 
ever  before  for  th«  realization  of  Pan- 
Turanian  ideals.  Pan-Islamism,  too, 
entered   into   the  projects   for   a   future 

''cy  of  self-assertion  as  developed  in 
Mohammedan  congresses  held  at  Baku, 
Orenburg,  Moscow,  and  Kazan,  capital 
of  the  tribes  whose  predominance  the 
Caucasian,  Crimean,  Kirghiz,  and  As- 
trakhan Tatars  seem  inclined  to  ac- 
knowledge. 

DANGEROUS  SITUATION 

Hindering  the  communication  by  rail 
of  the  Transcaucasian  Christians  with 
Europe,  the  Tatars  became  a  trouble- 
some factor  in  an  already  complicated 
situation,  still  further  involved  by  the 
traditional  enmity  between  the  Georgians 


102 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


*,.Ia    2''^J!, 


TrvOOP    UF    CAUCASiAxX    COSSACKS 


and  the  Armenians.  Christians,  but  of 
different  stock  and  creed,  these  nations 
are  so  widely  separated  by  sectarian  and 
racial  hatred  that  to  spite  and  circumvent 
each  other  they  gladly  have  recourse  to 
Mohammedan  assistance,  a  disposition  of 
which  the  Tatars  were  never  slow  to 
avail  themselves.  When  the  Moslem  pop- 
ulation of  the  lands  from  Tabriz  down 
to  Kurdistan  rose  to  resist  the  wave  of 
Armenian  encroachment,  which  had 
been  set  in  motion  by  the  impulse  of 
wholesale  deportation  and  was  rolling 
eastward,  the  Georgians  sided  immediate- 
ly with  the  Tatars  against  their  breth- 
ren of  the  Gregorian  Church.  In  the 
furious  local  war  kindled  by  disputes 
about  boundaries  and  sustained  by  reli- 
gious ardor,  German  and  Turkish  agents 
espoused  the  Georgian  cause,  as  agents 
of  the  Entente  favored  the  Armenian 
cause,  to  shove  a  dependent  nation  into 
the  vacuum  created  by  the  Russian 
debacle;  both  sides  were  seeking  an  ad- 
vanced guard  in  the  perpetual  struggle 
between  East  and  West,  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  father  of  history,  forms  the 
warp  and  woof  of  our  preordained  sub- 
lunar performance. 

On  the  Caspian  Sea  the  Russian  Reds 
have     seized    Krasnovodsk,    holding    as 


in  a  vise,  preparatory  to  attacking,  the 
"  land  of  the  eternal  fire."  By  establish- 
ing themselves  in  and  around  the  Penin- 
sula of  Apsheron,  for  thousands  of  years 
the  Mecca  of  the  Ghebers,  whose  priests 
tended  there  in  the  Temple  of  Surakhany 
the  sacred  Flame  of  Life  that  had  been 
burning  since  the  flood,  and  by  com- 
mandeering the  output  of  the  richest  oil 
wells  known,  the  Bolsheviki  threaten  to 
introduce  a  new  and  superlatively  alarm- 
ing element  into  the  situation  in  the 
Caucasus. 

The  danger  is  intensified  by  the  parallel 
propaganda  of  the  Turkish  nationalists, 
with  Mustapha  Kamal  Pasha  at  the  head 
of  the  Anatolian  movement  and  Enver 
Pasha  plotting  in  Kurdistan,  both  con- 
verted, like  Talaat  Pasha,  and  for  the 
same  reason,  to  ultra-socialistic  tenets 
only  one  shade  less  red  than  downright 
Bolshevism.  The  imperiled  defenders  of 
the  mountain  barrier  btween  the  Euxine 
and  the  Caspian  may  well  repeat  the 
hymn  of  invocation,  the  song  of  Shamyl 
of  Daghestan,  champion  of  the  Caucasus 
against  Russian  aggression  under  the  old 
regime : 

O  servants  of  God ! 

Help    us    in    the    name    of    God ! 

Give  us  your  aid  ! 


ir 


The  Turks  to  Stay  in  Europe 

Treaty  Leaves  the  Sultan  in  Constantinople,  but  International- 
izes the  Straits — Lloyd  George  Explains 

[Period  Ended  March  15,  1920] 


THE  Council  of  Premiers,  which  suc- 
ceeded the  Peace  Conference,  met 
in  London  early  in  February  and 
labored  on  the  Turkish  Peace 
Treaty  almost  continuously  for  several 
weeks.  The  British,  French  and  Italian 
Premiers  were  present,  and  Japan  was 
represented  by  her  London  Ambassador. 
Belgium  and  Greece  took  an  active  part 
in  the  later  sessions.  On  Feb.  15  Premier 
Millerand  announced  the  decision  of  the 
Allies  to  allow  the  Turks  to  keep  their 
seat  of  Government  at  Constantinople, 
on  condition  that  the  Dardanelles  be 
placed  under  international  control  and 
that  the  Turkish  Army  be  reduced  to  a 
mere  police  force. 

This  decision,  which  was  understood  to 
be  tentative,  created  a  sensation  all  over 
the  world.  The  chief  reason  given  for 
allowing  the  Ottomans  to  retain  their 
European  capital  was  the  danger  of 
Moslem  uprisings  in  the  British  and 
French  colonial  possessions  if  the  "  bag 
and  baggage  "  policy  were  applied.  This 
reason  failed  to  satisfy  many  critics.  The 
opposition  party  in  Great  Britain  raised 
strong  objections  to  any  such  settlement 
of  the  Turkish  question  without  its  first 
being  referred  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
Sir  Donald  Maclean,  the  Opposition 
leader,  brought  up  the  question  in  Par- 
liament on  Feb.  19  and  compelled 
Premier  Lloyd  George,  against  the  lat- 
ter's  protest,  to  promise  the  House  an 
opportunity  to  debate  the  whole  Turkish 
situation  on  Feb.  26. 

The  sharp  cleavage  of  opinion  in  Great 
Britain  over  the  question  was  also  seen 
in  hundreds  of  press  articles  expressing 
both  points  of  view  and  in  memorials 
sent  to  the  Government  by  people  of 
prominence.  A  special  memorandum  of 
Emir  Ali,  Indian  Privy  Councilor,  was 
supplemented  on  Feb.  24  by  a  public 
statement  made  by  the  Hon.  E.  S.  Mon- 


tagu,  Secretary   of   State  for  India,  in 
which  he  declared  that  if  the  taking  of 
Constantinople  from  the  Turk  was  to  be 
a  result  of  the  war,  Great  Britain  ought 
never  to  have  asked  the  Indians  to  take 
part  in  the  war  against  Turkey.     The 
Indian  Secretary  continued  as  follows: 
From  one  end  of  India  to  another,  all 
those  who  have  expressed  an  opinion  on 
this  subject,    of  whatever  race  or  creed, 
believe  that  non-interference  with  the  seat 
of  the   Caliphate   is  indispensable   to  the 
internal  and  external  peace  of  India. 

EFFECT  OF  NEW  MASSACRES 

The  rumors  that  the  Sultan  was  to  be 
ejected  from  Constantinople,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  Mr.  Montagu,  had  been  one  of  the 
prime  causes  of  the  new  Armenian  mas- 
sacres which  had  just  occurred  at  Marash 
and  Aintab,  in  Cilicia,  some  sixty  miles 
from  Aleppo.  These  massacres  were 
made  the  subject  of  many  questions  in 
the  House  of  Commons  on  Feb.  18.  It 
was  learned  at  this  time  that  Great  Brit- 
ain had  instructed  Admiral  de  Rubeck  at 
Constantinople  to  announce  there  the  fact 
that  the  Allies  had  decided  not  to  deprive 
Turkey  of  Constantinople,  and  to  warn 
the  Turkish  Government  that  if  the  per- 
secution of  the  Armenians  continued,  the 
Peace  Treaty  might  be  considerably  mod- 
ified. The  Allies,  he  was  instructed  to 
say,  would  not  deal  leniently  with  Tur- 
key should  the  atrocities  reported  from 
Cilicia  be  continued. 

In  statements  given  to  the  press  on 
Feb.  19  and  20,  Lord  Bryce,  one  of  the 
most  influential  of  the  "  Oppositionists," 
declared  that  these  new  massacres  were 
directly  due  to  the  extraordinary  leniency 
shown  to  the  Turks  in  the  armistice. 
That  leniency,  he  said,  had  allowed  them 
to  recreate  armed  forces  in  Anatolia 
and  Armenia  and  to  resume  the  work  of 
extermination  which  in  1915  Enver  and 
Talaat  and  other  ruffians  of  the  Com- 


104 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE  MOSQUE  OF  ST.  SOPHIA,  CONSTANTINOPLE,  ERECTED  AS  A  CHRISTIAN  CATHEDRAL 
BY  EMPEROR  JUSTINIAN  IN  531.     CONVERTED  INTO  A  MOSQUE  BY  MOHAMMED  II.  IN  1453 


mittee  of  Union  and  Progress  had  car- 
ried out  by  the  slaughter  of  the  Chris- 
tian population — Nestorian,  Chaldean  and 
AiTnenian — including  women  and  chil- 
dren. Cilicia  was  the  scene  of  some  of 
the  worst  of  these  new  massacres;  the 
large  Christian  population  had  been  com- 
paratively safe  before  in  the  high  val- 
leys of  the  Taurus  Mountains.  The  Al- 
lies could  easily  have  occupied  this  coun- 
try on  the  conclusion  of  the  armistice 
sixteen  months  before,  when  the  Turks 
were  still  depressed  by  their  defeat.  Un- 
touched and  unpunished  for  so  long,  the 
Turks  had  taken  heart  and  begun  anew 
the  work  of  destruction,  undertaken  in 
the  obvious  intention  of  annihilating  all 
the  Christian  population  and  then  claim- 
ing the  country  on  the  ground  that  there 
were  no  Christians  in  it.  As  the  French 
occupying  forces  had  not  protected  the 
Armenians  from  these  new  massacres, 
he  declared,  it  was  the  clear  duty  of  the 
allied  powers  to  see  that  protection,  at 
least  for  the  future,  was  assured.  Lord 
Bryce     scored     severely     the     reported 


French  intention  to  make  terms  with  the 
Turkish  nationalists,  whom  he  charac- 
terized as  merely  continuers  of  the 
Young  Turk  movement. 

The  First  Battle  Squadron  of  the  Brit- 
ish Navy,  commanded  by  Vice  Admiral 
Sir  Sydney  Fremantle,  arrived  at  Con- 
stantinople on  Feb.  21,  and  proceeded  to 
drop  anchor  in  the  Bosporus  facing  the 
Dolma  Bagtche  Palace.  The  squadron 
consisted  of  five  battleships  and  four  de- 
stroyers, the  whole  forming  the  most  im- 
posing array  of  sea  power  ever  seen  in 
the  Bosporus.  The  visit,  though  it  had 
been  announced  beforehand,  was  sup- 
posed to  have  a  bearing  upon  the  criti- 
cal situation  in  Turkey. 

Meanwhile  the  allied  Premiers  went  on 
with  their  plan  to  internationalize  the 
Dardanelles  and  the  Bosporus,  and  com- 
missions were  appointed  to  report  on 
various  issues  of  the  whole  problem.  Of 
these  commissions,  one  was  to  decide 
upon  the  boundaries  of  the  Armenian  Re- 
public, another  to  report  on  Turkish  fi- 
nances, and  a  third  to  examine  into  the 


THE  TURKS  TO  STAY  IN  EUROPi: 


105 


Greek  claims  in  the  Smyrna  territory, 
which  Premier  Venizelos  had  expounded 
anew  on  Feb.  16.  Delay  in  drawing  up 
the  treaty  with  Turkey  was  occasioned 
by  the  necessity  of  awaiting  the  reports 
of  these  commissions.  It  was  announced 
officially  that  arrangements  had  been 
made  to  publish  throughout  India  the 
allied  decision  to  allow  the  Sultan  to  re- 
main in  Constantinople,  with  the  object 
of  mollifying  Indian  resentment  over  the 
reported  removal  of  the  head  of  the  Mus- 
sulman religion  from  his  spiritual  capi- 
tal. 

LLOYD  GEORGE  EXPLAINS 

The  eagerly  awaited  explanation  of 
Premier  Lloyd  George  regarding  the  mo- 
tives which  had  led  the  allied  powers  to 
their  decision  regarding  Constantinople 
was  given  before  the  House  of  Commons 
on  Feb.  26.  This  decision,  he  said,  was 
reached  only  after  long  study  of  the 
Turkish  situation.  Advantages  had  been 
weighed  against  disadvantages,  and  the 
council  had  finally  decided  that  the  best 
way  to  preserve  the  highest  interests  of 
everybody  concerned  was  to  retain  the 
Sultan  in  his  Bosporus  capital. 

Referring  to  the  agreement  made  early 
in  the  war,  under  which  Russia  was  to 
obtain  Constantinople,  Lloyd  George 
said  this  agreement  had  ended,  so  far  as 
Russia  was  concerned,  with  the  revolution 
of  1917  and  the  peace  of  Brest-Litovsk. 
He  reiterated  his  pledge  that  there  would 
be  **  a  different  porter  at  the  gates," 
however.  It  would  be  the  height  of  folly 
again  to  trust  the  j^uardianship  of  those 
gates  to  a  people  who  had  betrayed  their 
trust,  and  never  again  would  those  gates 
be  closed  by  the  Turks  in  the  face  of 
British  ships. 

The  Premier  referred  to  the  "  perfect- 
ly deliberate  pledge  "  given  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government  in  January,  1918,  in 
which  it  was  asserted  that  Great  Britain 
was  not  fighting  to  deprive  the  Turks  of 
Constantinople,  subject  to  the  straits  be- 
ing internationalized  and  neutralized, 
and  he  remarked  parenthetically  that 
this  was  what  would  be  done  with  the 
straits.  This  pledge,  he  explained,  was 
not  an  offer  to  the  Turks  or  the  Ger- 
mans, but  was  made  to  reassure  the 
English    people    and   the    Mohammedans 


of  India.  He  pointed  out  that  Great 
Britain  was  the  greatest  Mohammedan 
power  in  the  world,  and  that  as  a  result 
of  the  Government's  statement  of  its  war 
aims  there  had  been  an  increase  in  re- 
cruiting in  India  at  a  time  when  Great 
Britain  was  making  a  special  effort  to 
raise  additional  troops. 

The  influence  which  had  decided  the 
Peace  Conference  to  retain  the  Turks  in 
Constantinople,  the  Premier  continued, 
had  come  from  India.  The  two  peace 
delegates  of  India  in  Paris,  neither  of 
whom  was  a  Mohammedan,  had  de- 
clared that  unless  the  Allies  re- 
tained the  Turks  in  Constantinople  their 
action  would  be  regarded  as  a  gross 
breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  British 
Empire.  When  the  peace  terms  were 
disclosed,  however,  they  would  be  found 
drastic  enough  to  satisfy  Turkey's  bit- 
terest foe.  The  Premier  continued  as 
follows : 

Let  us  examine  our  legitimate  and 
main  peace  aims  in  Turkey.  Tiie  first  is 
the  freedom  of  the  straits.  The  second  is 
the  freeing  of  all  non-Turkish  communi- 
ties from  the  Ottoman  Army.  The  third 
is  the  preservation  for  the  Turks  of  self- 
government  in  communities  which  are 
mainly  Turkish,  subject  to  two  most  im- 
portant  reservations. 

The  first  of  these  reservations  is  that 
there  must  be  adequate  safeguards  with- 
in our  power  of  protecting  minorities 
that  have  been  oppressed  by  the  Turk. 
The  second  is  that  the  Turk  must  be  de- 
prived of  his  power  of  vetoing  the  devel- 
opment of  the  rich  lands  under  his  rule 
which  were  once  the  granaries  of  the 
Mediterranean.  These  are  the  main  ob- 
jects of  the  peace. 

SUBSTANCE   OF   THE  TREATY 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  then  explained  that 
the  freedom  of  the  straits  would  be  as- 
sured because  all  of  Turkey's  forts  would 
be  dismantled,  she  would  have  no  troops 
within  reach  and  would  not  be  permitted 
to  have  a  navy,  while  the  Allies  would 
garrison  the  straits.  The  only  alterna- 
tive, he  said,  was  an  international  mili- 
tary government  of  Constantinople  and 
all  the  surrounding  territory,  which 
would  be  very  unsatisfactory  and  costly 
to  the  Allies.  The  Premier  said  that  if 
the  Mohammedans  believed  the  terms 
were  dictated  with  the  purpose  of  lower- 
ing   the    Prophet's    flag   before   that   of 


106 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


INTERIOR    VIEW     OP    ST.    SOPHIA,    CONSTANTINOPLE,     SHOWING    SOME    OF    THE    GREAT 
PILLARS   OF   GREEN   MARBLE    AND   RED   PORPHYRY,    OF  WHICH   THERE   ARE    107    IN   ALL 

(©    Underwood   &    Underwood) 


Christendom,   it  would   be   fatal   to   the 
British   Government  in  the  East. 

Expressing  regret  that  America  had 
not  taken  a  mandate,  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
said :  "  For  the  moment  America  must 
be  reckoned  as  entirely  out  of  any  ar- 
rangement we  can  contemplate  for  the 
government  of  Turkey  and  the  protec- 
tion of  Christian  minorities."  He  con- 
tended that  every  precaution  had  been 
taken  in  the  treaty  for  the  protection  of 
Christians  in  the  future,  because  any  de- 
crees authorizing  persecution  of  Chris- 
tians would  be  signed  under  the  menace 
of  Eritish,  French  and  Italian  guns.   The 


Premier  said  he  believed  the  Armenians 
would  be  far  safer  from  such  persecution 
with  the  Turkish  Government  in  Con- 
stantinople under  such  a  menace  than  if 
it  were  in  Asia  Minor,  where  the  nearest 
allied  garrisons  would  be  hundreds  of 
miles  away. 

DEBATE  IN  PARLIAMENT 

Following  the  Premier's  explanations 
the  Turkish  question  was  debated  for 
many  hours  in  the  House,  much  differ- 
ence of  opinion  being  shown.  Sir  Donald 
Maclean  and  many  other  Liberals  and 
Labor  men  favored  the  expulsion  of  the 


THE  TURKS  TO  STAY  IN  EUROPE 


107 


Turks  on  the  ground  that  Constantinople 
was  a  fruitful  source  of  international 
disputes,  and  because  of  the  crimes  and 
misrule  of  the  Turkish  Government. 
Lord  Robert  Cecil  made  a  strong  plea 
for  expulsion,  declaring  that  Turkey 
must  go  sooner  or  later,  and  calling  on 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  to  influence  the  Su- 
preme Council  to  reverse  the  decision 
taken,  and  to  remove  this  blot  from  the 
peace  settlement.  The  Turkish  resi- 
dents and  even  the  Sultan  himself  might 
remain,  he  intimated,  but  the  Sublime 
Porte,  with  all  its  intrigues  and  crimes, 
must  be  ousted  forever.  He  advocated 
control  of  Constantinople  by  the  League 
of  Nations. 

The  conference  of  allied  Premiers 
closed  its  London  sessions  on  March  3, 
after  preparing  the  Turkish  treaty  and 
its  economic  conclusions  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  they  might  be  completed  by 
assistants.  It  was  announced  that 
the  treaty  would  be  handed  to  a 
Turkish  peace  delegation  at  Paris  on 
March  22.  It  was  stated  that  by  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  Turkey  would  be  left 
with  a  population  of  only  6,000,000  in- 
stead of  30;000,000,  would  occupy,  in  ad- 
dition to  Constantinople,  only  the  Asi- 
atic province  of  Anatolia,  and  would  lose 
what  remains  of  her  navy,  the  ships  of 
which  would  be  broken  up,  ^nd  practi- 
cally all.  her  army.  The  question  of 
reparations  had  not  been  settled. 

DISCIPLINARY   ACTION 

The  allied  Premiers  announced  on 
March  6  that  a  note  had  been  dispatched 
to  the  Turkish  Government  containing 
drastic  demands,  including  the  military 
occupation  of  Constantinople  with  the 
support  of  an  interallied  fleet.  The  idea 
was  to  impress  upon  the  Turks  the  fact 
that  the  world  would  not  tolerate  fur- 
ther massacres.  The  Allies  had  agreed 
that  the  French  must  retrieve  quickly 
their  recent  defeat  in  Cilicia,  and  that 
the  Turkish  Government  must  be  shown 
that  the  Allies  were  ready  to  back  their 
notes  of  warning  with  military  action. 

The  attacks  upon  the  allied  decision  re- 
garding Constantinople  continued,  mean- 
while, in  Great  Britain,  France  and  the 
United  States.    A  member  of  the  House 


of  Commons  rose  and  asked  the  Premier 
when  the  famous  Mosque  of  St.  Sofia, 
in  Constantinople,  would  be  reconsecrat- 
ed to  the  Christian  uses  for  which  it 
was  built.  Stephane  Lausanne,  edi- 
tor of  the  Matin,  warned  France  on 
March  3  of  the  unfavorable  effect  in 
America — as  well  as  in  other  friendly 
countries — of  French  support  of  the  plan 
to  leave  the  Sultan  in  Europe.  Henry 
Morgenthau,  former  United  States  Am- 
bassador to  Turkey,  declared  at  a  mass 
meeting  in  Philadelphia  that  the  Turks 
should  be  driven  from  Europe  forever. 
At  a  mass  meeting  held  in  New  York 
on  March  1  it  was  asserted  that  Con- 
stantinople was  saved  for  the  Truks  by 
the  large  French  holdings  of  Turkish 
bonds.  James  W.  Gerard,  former  Am- 
bassador to  Germany,  said  the  only  way 
to  save  the  American  Nation  was  to 
drive  the  Turks  into  Asia.  A  resolution 
introduced  by  Senator  King  in  the  United 
States  Senate  on  March  3  declared  in 
favor  of  the  expulsion  of  the  '*  Govern- 
ment of  the  Ottoman  Turks  "  from  Con- 
stantinople and  the  erection  of  three  in- 
dependent States  in  the  old  Turkish  Em- 
pire under  the  allied  nations  or  the 
League  of  Nations. 

An  important  meeting  of  the  confer- 
ence of  Premiers  in  London  was  held  on 
March  10,  at  which  the  report  of  the 
peace  Council's  commission  to^  Constan- 
tinople was  presented.  Though  the  pro- 
ceedings were  not  made  public,  it  be- 
came known  that  sharp  measures  of  re- 
pression had  been  decided  upon,  which 
would  probably  take  the  form  of  allied 
military  control  of  certain  Turkish  Gov- 
ernmental activities.  M.  Venizelos  of 
Greece,  who  was  present  at  this  session, 
was  foremost  in  urging  stern  measures 
against  the  Sultan,  on  the  ground  that 
they  would  check  the  excesses  against  the 
Armenians.  He  offered  100,000  Greek 
troops  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  Mus- 
tapha  Kemal  and  the  Turkish  National- 
ists. 

Meanwhile,  the  allied  Governments  had 
asked  President  Wilson  his  views  on 
their  proposed  settlement  of  the  Turkish 
question,  the  query  being  submitted  to 
him  by  the  British,  French  and  Italian 
Ambassadors.     His   reply  had   not  been 


108 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


made  public  when  these  pages  went  to 
press.  On  March  11,  however,  Earl  Cur- 
zon,  the  British  Foreign  Secretary,  told 
the  House  of  Commons  that  the  Turkish 


ago,  and  that  the  later  months  of  delay- 
were  due  solely  to  the  inaction  of  the 
United  States;  America,  he  said,  was  re- 
sponsible  for    many   of   the    difficulties 


question  should  have  been  settled  a  year      which  must  now  be  confronted. 


Dangerous  Complications  in  Syria 

The  Massacres  at  Marash 

[Period  Ended  March  15,  1920] 


rIE  opposition  to  the  French  occupa- 
tion of  towns  in  Syria,  especially  in 
Cilicia,  which  resulted  ultimately  in 
the  massacres  at  Marash  and  the  driving 
of  the  French  forces  from  that  town,  was 
of  a  twofold  nature.  Ever  since  Emir 
Faisal's  return  from  Paris  in  January, 
bearing  what  was  erroneously  believed  to 
be  an  understanding  on  the  question  of 
boundaries  between  the  Arab  State  and 
the  French  territory,*  events  had  shown 
that  the  views  of  the  French  on  this 
question  differed  fundamentally  from 
those  held  by  the  Arab  Nationalists,  sup- 
ported tacitly,  if  not  officially,  by  Emir 
Faisal  himself.  But  though  Faisal  and 
his  father,  Hussein,  King  of  the  Hedjaz, 
made  no  attempt  to  use  the  Arab  regular 
army,  numbering  some  10,000  troops,  to 
attain  their  national  aspirations  by  force 
of  arms,  a  great  organization  of  so- 
called  Arab  Nationalists  was  created 
throughout  Syria  to  resist  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  French  at  every  cost,  and 
a  volunteer  army  was  created,  said  to  be 


*  The  g^eneral  lines  of  the  French  demands 
•as  given  out  in  Paris  on  Jan.  7  were  as  fol- 
lows: The  Emir  was  to  agree  to  a  French 
mandate  for  the  whole  of  Syria,  France  in 
return  agreeing  tto  the  formation  of  an  Arab 
State,  taking  in  the  four  towns  of  Damascus, 
Hama,  Horns  and  Aleppo,  which  were  to  be 
administered  toy  the  Emir,  assisted  toy  French 
advisers  and  inspectors.  In  the  Bekaa  (Bika) 
region,  between  the  Letoanon  and  Anti-Leba- 
non, claimed  both  by  the  Lebanese  and  the 
Arabs,  the  policing  was  to  be  provisionally 
intrusted  to  an  Arab  gendarmerie  with  a 
cadre  of  French  military  inspectors.  The 
ultimate  destiny  of  this  district  was  left  for 
latter  decision.  The  Emir  was  to  accept 
financial  and  economic  collaboration  with 
France  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  powers. 
It  was  subsequently  stated  that  the  Emir  had 
warned  both  the  French  and  British  that  he 
feared  rthe  Araib  population  would  never  ac- 
cept the  French  territorial  claims,  and  had 
returned  to  Arabia  to  discuss  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  boundaries  with  his  Government ;  the 
French  demands,  it  appeared,  had  not  been 
definitely  agreed  to  by  him,  and  the  question 
sftill  remained  unsettled. 


able  to  muster  from  30,000  to  40,000  men. 
The  menace  created  by  this  army  and  the 
hostility  of  the  Arabs  throughout  Syria 
were  so  great  that  the  French  forces, 
which  had  originally  consisted  of  only 
some  15,000  or  20,000  men,  were  hastily 
reinforced  until  they  reached  a  total  of 
30,000,  mostly  Senegalese  and  Moroc- 
cans. 

Clashes  between  the  French  and  the 
Arab  volunteers  first  arose  over  the 
French  occupation  of  the  Bekaa  Plain, 
which  the  Arabs  pointed  out  had  been 
neutralized  by  the  French  agreement 
with  Emir  Faisal.  Serious  fighting  oc- 
curred, in  which  the  French  met  with 
considerable  losses.  The  report  of  this 
caused  intense  excitement  through  Syria 
and  strengthened  the  influence  of  the 
Arab  volunteer  movement. 

The  French  also  had  trouble  in  the 
Merj  Ayun  district  (west  of  the  Upper 
Jordan,  about  twenty  miles  inland  from 
Tyre),  where  an  Arab  uprising  began, 
to  repress  which  the  French  military  au- 
thorities sent  all  their  spare  troops  from 
Beirut  and  Lebanon.  In  Lebanon  itself 
differences  arose  between  the  French 
command  and  the  Lebanese  administra- 
tion, which  had  previously  been  Franco- 
phile, on  the  ground  of  excessive  inter- 
ference with  the  local  Government. 

THE  MARASH   MASSACRES 

On  the  other  hand,  the  French  found 
themselves  faced  by  Turkish  Nationalist 
hostility  in  Cilicia,  which  included  the 
much  hated  and  unfortunate  Armenians 
within  its  scope.  As  the  occupation 
movement  of  the  French  Senegalese  ex- 
tended from  town  to  town  in  Cilicia 
Turkish  bad  feeling  grew.  This  resent- 
ment was  particularly  strong  in  the  town 


DANGEROUS   COMPLICATIONS  IN  STRIA 


109 


SOLDIERS    OF    THE    NEW     ARABIAN    KINGDOM    OP    THE    HEDJAZ,     WITH     THEIR 

NATIONAL.    FLAG  1 


of  Marash,  where  the  massacre  of  the 
French  garrison  and  of  the  Armenian 
population  of  the  town  was  planned  by 
the  Turkish  Nationalists.  On  Jan.  20 
five  Americans  and  one  French  officer, 
proceeding  by  automobile  to  Aintab, 
were  fired  on  by  the  Turks,  but  without 
effect. 

On  Jan.  21  the  massacres  of  the  Ar- 
menians began.  More  than  two  weeks 
of  horror  followed.  The  number  of  vic- 
tims was  variously  estimated  from  5,000 
to  18,000,  the  latter  figure  being  vouched 
for  by  a  British  relief  agent.  Dr.  Ken- 
nedy, stationed  at  Adana.  The  Armenian 
quarters  of  the  city,  including  the 
churches,    had    been    burned,    he    said, 


and  1,300  women  and  children  had  per- 
ished in  their  flight  to  Adana.  Eight 
thousand  Armenians  still  remained  amid 
the  ruins  of  Marash,  many  of  them 
wounded.  The  American  home  for  Ar- 
menian girls  who  had  been  rescued  from 
Turkish  harems  was  sacked  and  eighty- 
five  girls  were  murdered  on  Feb.  7. 
American  missionary  buildings  were 
burned. 

To  defend  these  victims  of  Turkish 
fanaticism  General  Gouraud,  the  French 
commander  in  Syria,  had  sent  an  expedi- 
tion to  Marash  under  General  Normand 
and  Colonel  Bremond.  This  force  fought 
almost  continuously  until  Feb.  10,  when, 
being  greatly  outnumbered,  the  French 


110 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


were  compelled  to  withdraw  from 
Marash,  followed  by  a  bewildered  throng 
of  homeless  Armenians  fleeing  from  fur- 
ther massacres.  The  French  losses  in 
Cilicia  from  the  end  of  January  to  Feb. 
15  were  158  killed,  279  wounded  and  181 
missing.  At  least  3,000  Armenians  left 
the  city  on  foot  for  Islahieh.  A  small 
group  of  missionary  workers  from  the 
United  States  reached  that  town  in 
safety. 

DIARY  OF  THE  TRAGEDY 

A  dramatic  diary  of  the  tragic  days  in 
Marash  was  kept  by  the  Rev.  C.  T.  S. 
Crathern,  a  Boston  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Secre- 
tary, who  depicts  the  nerve-racking  ex- 
perience of  seventeen  members  of  the 
American  Committee  for  Relief  in  the 
Near  East  shut  up  for  twenty-two 
days  without  outside  communication  in  a 
mission  compound  at  Marash.  The  nar- 
rative grimly  etched  by  these  brief  daily 
extracts  recalls  the  horror  of  the  siege 
of  Peking.  Mr.  Crathern,  with  two 
Americans,  a  French  Lieutenant  and  two 
Armenians,  attempted  to  leave  Marash 
by  automobile  for  Aintab  on  Jan.  20,  but 
was  driven  back  by  a  hail  of  bullets  de- 
spite the  missionary's  display  of  the 
American  flag. 

Turkish  bad  feeling  over  the  French 
occupation  of  Marash  and  other  Cilician 
cities  had  continued  for  weeks.  On  Jan. 
21  Mr.  Crathern  found  Marash  with  its 
shops  and  bazaars  closed,  and  the  Turks 
engaged  in  talking  in  small  groups 
throughout  the  city.  The  expected  clash 
began  at  noon  that  day,  and  soon  there 
was  shooting  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  On 
the  22d  the  Americans  were  awakened  by 
guns  and  exploding  shells.  The  Ameri- 
can Hospital  was  attacked,  the  doctors 
and  nurses  having  a  narrow  escape. 
Through  his  field  glass  on  the  23d  the 
missionary  said  he  could  see  Armenians 
fleeing  through  the  streets  before  the 
Turks,  who  shot  them  down,  while 
snipers  picked  off  others  from  the  hills 
above.  The  diary  says :  "  It  was  pitiful 
to  see  them  throw  up  their  hands  and 
scream  while  attempting  to  escape.  We 
watched  them  fleeing  over  the  hills  until 
they  reached  our  compound,  some  dropping 
wounded  and  others  staggering  into  the 


mission  grounds  with  wild  eyes  and  pur- 
ple faces,  telling  of  the  awful  massacres 
just  beginning." 

HISTORY  OF  MASSACRE 

After  describing  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt by  the  French  commander,  Gen- 


EMIR  FAISAL, 
Third  son  of  the  King   of  the   Hedjaz    pro- 
claimed King   of  Syria 
(©    Harris    &   Swing) 

eral  Querette,  to  arrange  a  cessation  of 

hostilities,  the  diary  continues : 

Jan.  24— At  night  the  city  is  in  total 
darkness.  Whenever  we  go  from  one 
compound  to  another  we  creep  along 
walls  to  escape  being  hit.  Every  com- 
pound is  filled  with  frightened  refugees, 
alarmed  over  the  fate  of  their  relatives. 
The  American  Committee  for  Relief  in  the 
Near  East  is  feeding  2,000  orphans  and 
refugees,  with  only  a  few  days'  supply, 
and  the  bread  problem  is  grave. 

Today  we  raised  the  American  flag,  but 
no  sooner  had  we  raised  it  to  the  mast 
than  a  salute  from  a  dozen  guns  sent  us 
scampering  to  cover.  The  whole  country 
is  in  the  flame  of  revolt.  While  the  days 
are  exciting  the  nights  are  more  so,  with 
the  great  guns  booming  and  soldiers 
creeping  stealthily  forth  with  benzine 
torches    and    hand    grenades.      Fires    are 


DANGEROUS   COMPLICATIONS   IN  STRIA 


111 


raging  in  various  sections  and  the  city  is 
like  Dante's  Inferno. 

Jan.  25— Hundreds  of  Armenians  are 
trying  to  reach  our  compound,  but  the 
light  made  by  fires  the  Turks  are  setting 
to  Armenian  quarters  makes  their  escape 
impossible. 

Jan.  27— At  this  moment  there  is  a 
young  woman  in  our  house  who  tells  us 
she  prayed  for  five  nights  in  a  cellar 
with  a  hundred  other  persons.  The  Turks 
asked  them  to  surrender,  promising  them 
protection.  They  agreed.  The  Turks  told 
the  men  to  come  out  of  the  house.  The 
woman  said  her  husband  went  first,  and 


MAP     SHOWING    CILICIA    AND    LOCATION 
OF    THE    MARASH    MASSACRES    ' 

was  shot  by  their  own  Turkish  neighbor, 
whom  she  knew  well. 

Jan.  28— A  pitiful  case  arriving  today 
was  that  of  Mrs.  Selattian,  wife  of  the 
pastor  of  the  Third  Church.  She  was  bleed- 
ing from  bullet  and  knife  wounds.  She 
says  her  child  of  18  months  was  slain. 

Jan.  30— No  relief  in  sight. 

Jan.  31— Nine  persons  were  shot  today 
on  the  college  grounds,  some  of  them 
seriously.  Fortunately,  we  have  plenty 
of  wheat  now,  and  by  keeping  the  women 
grinding  from  sunrise  to  sunset  we  can 
feed  the  people.  Mrs.  Selattian  died  to- 
day. The  uncertain  situation  is  a  great 
strain  on  the  nerves  of  the  ladies  of  our 
party,  but  they  are  bravely  and  cheer- 
fully ministering  to  the  unfortunates. 

Feb.  1— More  children  have  been  shot  in 
orphanages,  and  hospitals  continue  to  be 
attacked.  The  refugees  are  much  alarmed) 
at  the  success  of  the  Turks. 

Feb.  6— This  is  the  eighteenth  day  of  the 
siege  of  Marash.  We  had  a  joyful  sur- 
prise. An  airplane  flew  over  the  city, 
dropping  several  messages,  which  a  high 
wind  carried  into  the  Turkish  part  of  the 
city.  But  we  knew  help  was  near.  We 
were  not  forgotten.  More  victims  today 
for  the  operating  table.  More  graves  in 
the  cemetery.     I  hope  help  will  come  be- 


fore all  the  Armenians  have  to  pay  the 
awful  price  of  this  needless  war. 

Feb.  8— French  troops  are  in  the  valley, 
their  guns  shelling  the  hills,  but  it  may 
be  days  before  they  can  encircle  the  city. 
Wounded  continue  to  come  in,  and  there 
are  many  deaths  daily.  We  spent  the 
afternoon  watching  the  battle  in  the  plain 
from  the  upper  college  windows.  We  saw 
French  relieving  troops  finally  effect  a 
connection  with  French  forces  in  the  bar- 
racks. 

Feb.  9— General  Querette  informed  us 
today  that  he  has  orders  to  evacuate  the 
city  at  midnight.  This  news  has  caused 
wild  alarm  among  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, who  are  crazed  with  fear.  We  urged 
General  Querette  to  delay  evacuation.  He 
said  he  would  try  to  secure  a  delay  of 
twenty-four  hours.  If  the  French  evacu- 
ate we  are  not  sure  what  treatment  we 
will  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  Turks. 

The  diary  then  relates  in  detail  the 
horror  of  the  journey  to  Islahieh,  in 
which  many  Armenians  perished. 

In  commenting  on  the  massacres 
French  officials  on  March  5  admitted 
their  gravity,  but  pointed  out  that  it 
was  impossible  to  foresee  and  prevent 
them,  as  the  army  of  occupation  was  not 
large  enough  to  furnish  strong  guards  at 
every  point  where  the  Turks  were  likely 
to  engage  in  an  uprising.  Other  Turkish 
attacks  on  the  French  occurred  through- 
out February,  following  in  the  wake  of 
extremist  propaganda  in  Anatolia;  ir- 
regular forces  had  made  raids  from  the 
mountains;  a  station  on  the  Bagdad 
Railway  had  been  attacked  and  raids  by 
brigands  had  been  repulsed.  The  mur- 
der of  James  Perry  and  Frank  Johnson, 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  men,  which  occurred  on  Feb. 
4  near  Aintab,  was  in  one  of  these 
attacks  by  brigands,  who  mistook  the 
American  relief  convoy  for  a  French 
patrol.  Near  Houran,  Palestine,  a  com- 
bined attack  by  Turkish  and  Arab  Na- 
tionalists resulted  in  the  death  of  400 
French  troops. 

WARNINGS  TO  TURKEY 

The  allied  warning  to  Turkey  on  this 
subject  brought  belated  action  by  the 
Ottoman  Minister  of  the  Interior  toward 
the  end  of  February.  Circulars  were 
distributed  and  posted  urging  that  at- 
tacks on  non-Moslem  peoples  be  pre- 
vented as  "prejudicial  to  the  good  dis- 
position of  the  powers  toward  Turkey." 
Definite  news  of  the  seriousness  of  the 


112 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


CHIEFS    OF    THE    HEDJAZ    ARABS 


massacres  at  Marash,  however,  impressed 
upon  the  allied  Governments  the  neces- 
sity of  taking  stronger  measures,  es- 
pecially in  view  of  the  defiant  attitude 
adopted  by  the  Nationalist  majority  in 
the  Turkish  Chamber.  The  program  of 
this  party  rejected  all  foreign  interfer- 
ence, called  for  the  return  of  all  terri- 
tory not  occupied  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  armistice,  and  demanded  the  accept- 
ance of  whatever  decision  the  Arabs  of 
Syria  reached  regarding  their  future.  It 
also  repeated  the  threat  of  the  Nation- 
alists under  Mustapha  Kemal  that  war 
would  be  begun  in  the  Spring  if  the 
Greeks  were  left  in  Smyrna  and  the 
French  in  Cilicia. 

The  Turkish  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, Saf  a  Bey,  in  discussing  the  Cilician 
situation  with  a  Constantinople  corre- 
spondent of  The  Associated  Press  on 
March  6,  asserted  that  the  Turks  at 
Marash  had  acted  in  self-defense,  having 
been  attacked  first  through  a  misunder- 
standing, and  that  "  only  100  or  200  non- 
combatants  "  had  been  killed  or  wounded. 
He  added: 

The  Government  has  done  its  best  to 
keep  order,  but  it  is  a  hopeless  task  when 
foreign  troops  penetrate  far  into  our 
country,    as    they    have    at    Smyrna    and 


Marash,  and  antagonize  the  population 
and  submit  them  to  indignities.  Free  men 
will  defend  themselves  under  such  condi- 
tions. 

FAISAL  PROCLAIMED  KING 
Meanwhile,  the  Arabs,  who  were  co- 
operating more  or  less  openly  with  the 
Turkish  nationalists  in  Cilicia  and  Ana- 
tolia, were  completing  plans  for  a  coup. 
A  Pan-Syrian  Congress  at  Damascus  on 
March  8  formally  declared  Syria  to  be 
an  independent  State,  and  the  event  was 
celebrated  with  firew^orks  in  Beirut  that 
evening.  Palestine,  Lebanon  and  North- 
ern Mesopotamia  were  included  in  the 
districts  where  the  Arabs  were  under- 
taking to  force  allied  recognition  of  a 
greater  Syria  under  a  Moslem  ruler,  with 
possibly  a  French  adviser. 

The  next  step  followed  on  the  11th, 
when  Prince  Faisal,  third  son  of  King 
Hussein  of  the  Hedjaz,  was  proclaimed 
King  of  Syria,  according  to  Cairo  ad- 
vices to  The  London  Times.  At  the  same 
time  an  assembly  of  twenty-nine  Meso- 
potamian  notables  sitting  in  Damascus 
was  preparing  to  proclaim  Mesopotamia 
a  State  under  the  regency  of  Prince  Zeid, 
a  brother  of  Faisal.  Thus  the  situation 
in  Asia  Minor  continued  to  acquire  new 
complexities  day  by  day. 


Syria  and  the  Hedjaz: 


^  French 

By  GUSTAVE  GAUTHEROT 


View 


The  Allies,  are  in  the  embarrassing  position  of  having  promised  to  the  King  of 
the  Hedjaz  certain  important  portions  of  Syria,  including  Aleppo  and!r  Damascust 
which  are  now  claimed  by  France.  Great  Britain  from  the  beginning  was  the  chief 
sponsor  for  the  new  Arab  kingdom,  and  France  was  increasingly  unfriendly,  until 
at  length  the  rivalry  came  to  an  armed  clash  between  the  Arabs  and  General 
Gouraud's  army  of  occupation  in  Syria.  The  present  article,  which  is  translated 
f 7-07)1  La  France  Neuvelle,  presents  the  facts  about  the  Hedjaz,  but  is  written  with 
a  strong  French  bias.  It  is,  however,  of  timely  interest  in  connection  with  the 
grave  situation  in  Cilivia  following  the  withdrawal  of  French  troops  and  the 
massacres  of  Ar7nenians  there.  Dispatches  have  tended  to  confirm  M.  Gautherofs 
charge  that  the  Arab  nationalists  and  the  Turkish  unionists  are  working  together. 


THE  Franco-British  agreement  of 
Sept.  15,  1919,  somewhat  dispersed 
the  obscurity  of  the  allied  policy  in 
the  Levant,  and  in  assuming  command 
of  our  Syrian  and  Cilician  troops  Gen- 
eral Gouraud,  more  fortunate  than  his 
predecessor,  General  Hamelin,  will  not 
be  obliged  to  leave  the  French  flag  un- 
furled. But  many  clouds  still  remain  to 
be  dispelled  beyond  the  mountains,  arti- 
ficial clouds  which  the  Allies  themselves, 
since  1916,  when  Hussein  I.  mounted  the 
"  throne  "  of  the  Hedjaz,  have  created. 

The  demands  made  in  1915  by  the 
Shereef  of  Mecca  on  the  British  nego- 
tiator. Sir  Henry  MacMahon,  as  the 
price  for  his  military  co-operation,  have 
now  become  known;  they  embodied  the 
creation  of  an  Arab  State  bounded  by 
the  Mediterranean,  the  Red  Sea,  the 
Indian  Ocean,  Persia  and  the  37th  degree 
of  latitude  (including  Cilicia).  Only 
that!  The  Shereef  was  willing  to  yield 
Cilicia,  but  not  Syria.  The  Damascus- 
Aleppo  region,  through  which  passes  the 
Euphrates-Nile  and  Constantinople-Cairo 
railway,  remains  Zone  A  (Arab  Zone), 
and  the  British  troops  will  evacuate  it 
without  our  being  called  to  take  their 
place. 

What  is  the  Hedjaz,  which  thus  out- 
weighs the  powers  whose  victorious  arms 
are  the  re-creators  of  life  and  civiliza- 
tion in  the  Orient?  What  domination  do 
the  followers  of  the  Shereef  aspire  to 
establish?  They  proclaim  Wilsonian 
principles.  What  traffic  is  covered  by 
this  flag?  What  soil,  what  race,  what 
dynasty,  what  services,  what  policy? 


Cast  your  eyes  upon  the  historical 
maps  where  the  boundaries  of  vanished 
empires  mark  the  furthest  advance  of 
successive  civilizations :  From  Cyrus  and 
Alexander  to  the  Romans  and  the  feudal 
lords,  the  Arabian  peninsula,  south  of 
Palestine,  has  been  left  intact;  the  great 
Arab  sovereigns  of  the  Middle  Ages 
themselves  left  it  neglected,  the  Ottoman 
Empire  did  not  embrace  it,  and  if  it  was 
attached  to  it  in  our  days,  it  was  only 
by  the  weakest  of  ties;  and  yet  it  con- 
tained Mecca! 

The  reasons  for  this  abandonment  are 
obvious  to  the  traveler  in  Arabia:  vol- 
canic mountains,  deserts  where  every 
year  four  or  five  torrential  rains  revive 
a  fugitive  vegetation.  *  *  *  Is  it 
famine  which  perpetuates  the  divisions 
among  the  inhabitants?  In  the  Hedjaz, 
a  region  relatively  populated,  between 
the  coast  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  desert 
of  the  West,  the  territory  is  distributed 
between  the  many  Bedouin  tribes,  half 
nomads,  ready  to  fight  for  the  highest 
bidder,  but  unwilling  to  go  too  far  from 
their  possessions  lest  they  be  seized  by 
their  neighbors  during  their  absence. 
The  "  warriors "  readily  attack  a  rich 
convoy;  they  know  how  to  make  use  of 
the  ground,  but  aside  from  this  they 
have  no  knowledge  of  military  science 
and  will  not  stand  before  my  real  dan- 
ger. "  I  cannot  fight  any  serious  bat- 
tle," acknowledged  Emir  Ali,  "  for  the 
day  that  I  should  lose  a  hundred  of  my 
men  all  these  tribes  would  turn  their 
backs  on  me."  After  discharging  their 
guns  from  shelter  the  Bedouins  fall  back 


114 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


-^-^ -^.r^^^ 


ARABIAN    PENINSULA,     PRACTICALLY    THE    WHOLE    OF    WHICH    IS     CLAIMED    BY    THE 
KING   OF   THE   HEDJAZ   AND   HIS    SON.    PRINCE    FAISAL 


immediately;  should  we  then  be  surprised 
that  Medina  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  Turks  until  January,  1919? 

The  Governors  of  the  towns  are 
Shereefs  or  Lords  tracing  their  descent 
from  the  two  sons  of  the  Prophet  Ali. 
Formerly  pensioners  of  the  Turkish 
Government,  their  wealth,  their  material 
power  determined  their  degree  of  in- 
fluence; there  are  some  who  belong  to 
the  lowest  classes. 

Mecca,  still  a  city  forbidden  to  Chris- 
tians, is  inhabited  by  merchant  import- 
ers, by  robbers  of  pilgrims,  by  pilgrims 
representing  all  the  races  of  Islam — Per- 
sians, Hindus,  Malays,  Javanese,  Sene- 
galese and  Moors.  Debauchery  and  the 
putridity  of  the  worst  maladies  pervade 
the  Holy  City  as  much  as  they  do  Djed- 
dah,  its  port  on  the  coast. 

HUSSEIN    AND    HIS   SONS 

Hussein  Ben  Ali,  of  the  tribe  of 
Hachem,  governed  these  two  cities;  he 


was  thus  an  important  Shereef.  But  the 
war,  by  ruining  pilgrimage  and  by  block- 
ading the  Hedjaz,  cut  off  his  revenues 
and  his  supplies.  He  had  been  for  thirty 
years  the  pupil  and  confidant  of  Abdul 
Hamid;  he  derived  from  this  master,  as 
well  as  from  his  old  friend,  the  ex- 
Khedive  Abbas,  his  political  principles. 
His  second  son,  Abdallah,  became  Vice 
President  of  the  Ottoman  Chamber,  and 
continued  to  lean  toward  Constantinople; 
Abdallah,  who  was  very  ambitious,  was 
jealous  of  the  hereditary  rights  of  his 
elder  brother,  Ali,  and  carefully  fostered 
his  own  popularity  among  the  Bedouins. 
The  two  younger  brothers,  Faisal  and 
Zeid,  pursued  the  profits  of  war,  and 
each  showed  himself  as  jealous  of  the 
other's  successes  as  he  was  unmoved  by 
the  other's  defeats. 

Faisal,  the  most  enterprising  of  the 
four  Emirs,  wished  above  all  to  carry  out 
his  great  project  of  becoming  Prince  of 
Syria.      To    accomplish    this   he    needed 


i 


SYRIA   AND  THE  HEDJAZ 


115 


strong  foreign  aid.  He  found  this  in 
the  English  and  in  the  connivance  of 
certain  Syrians  which  he  purchased  with 
cash  or  with  fine  promises;  certain 
Christians  formerly  favorable  to  the 
French,  certain  Libanese  who  before  the 
war  had  showed  themselves  fervent 
patriots,  constituted  his  "  court "  and 
showed  great  activity,  placing  at  his  dis- 
posal all  their  education,  their  diplomacy 
and  their  own  ambitions. 

Such  was  the  extent  and  the  political 
nucleus  of  the  Arab  Empire  dreamed  of 
by  Hussein. 

In  1916  the  revolt  against  the  Turks 
by  the  High  Shereef  of  Mecca  aroused 
great  hopes  in  the  Allies;  on  the  Asiatic 
front  it  meant  a  mortal  blow  dealt  our 
enemies,  it  was  "  Pan-Islamism "  con- 
fiscated in  our  favor,  the  Sovereign  of 
the  first  of  Holy  Cities  being  bound  to 
substitute  his  favorable  influence  for  that 
of  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople.  This 
"  Pan-Arabism "  would  safeguard  the 
African  interests  of  France,  a  great 
Mussulman  power. 

The  uprising  of  the  Hedjaz  certainly 
offered  us  immediate  advantages;  the 
immobilization  of  two  Turkish  divisions 
to  the  west  of  the  Arabian  Peninsula 
would  facilitate  the  operations  in  Pales- 
tine and  Mesopotamia;  the  breaking  off 
of  too-easy  communications  between  Ger- 
manized Turkey  and  the  African  Con- 
tinent would  dam  up  the  stream  of  emis- 
saries who,  through  Abyssinia,  Darfour, 
and  Sahara,  went  forth  to  foment  trouble 
in  our  possessions.  The  alliance  with 
Hussein,  then,  was  useful ;  but  what  help 
did  it  bring  us  in  the  Hedjaz  itself? 

THE  SHEREEF'S  ARMY 

Richly  paid  with  fine  gold  pieces  sacri- 
ficed by  the  patriotism  of  allied  citizens, 
and  well  provisioned,  Hussein  was  able 
to  add  lustre  to  his  crown,  to  pay  off 
his  immediate  dependents,  his  function- 
aries, his  soldiers  and  his  partisans,  who 
had  never  known  such  abundance  before. 
His  action  was  thus  extended  to  some 
40,000  or  50,000  Bedouins,  bands  nat- 
urally without  organization,  without 
power  of  resistance,  without  warlike 
valor.  His  small  regular  army,  less  than 
4,000  soldiers  composed  of  Turkish  de- 
serters, and  natives  of  the  Yemen,  black 


slaves,  was  commanded  by  former  Turk- 
ish officers  or  by  Arab  officers  who  had 
learned  their  trade  among  the  Turks, 
or  by  the  dozen  or  so  of  European  offi- 
cers and  the  few  hundreds  of  soldiers  of 
the  French  and  British  Military  Mis- 
sions. A  few  Captains  and  Lieutenants, 
with  their  65  and  80  millimeter  guns  and 
their  machine  guns,  were  the  centre  of 
every  operation  of  any  extent,  and  the 
Bedouin  chiefs,  before  taking  part  in  it, 
would  ask  if  our  men  were  in  it.  At  the 
School  of  Military  Instruction  of  Mecca 
an  officer  and  ten  French  sharpshooters 
trained  "  regulars  "  for  the  "  armies  "  of 
the  Emirs. 

It  is  impossible  to  sum  up  here  the 
guerrilla  warfare  initiated  by  these 
"  armies "  against  the  4,000  to  5,000 
Turks  of  the  Expeditionary  Force  to  the 
Hedjaz.  The  narrow  gorges  and  the 
mountain  regions  favored  it,  and,  above 
all,  the  interminable  line  of  Turkish  com- 
munications. The  small  Turkish  posts 
doing  vigil  over  the  thousand  kilometers 
of  the  Maan-Medina  railway  were  often 
surprised,  the  rails  often  damaged,  with  a 
frequency  increased  by  the  prospect  of 
convoys  to  be  pillaged;  but  trains  still 
continued  to  run  in  1918!  On  Nov.  11, 
1917,  Emir  Ali  tried  to  destroy  the  road 
at  Bouat  and  obtained  no  result,  his 
Bedouins  having  refused  to  fight  against 
the  Turks;  on  Nov.  17  Captain  Pisani 
himself  lighted  the  explosives  placed  on 
the  rails  near  Akabet,  but  saw  the  Arabs 
disperse  as  soon  the  enemy's  fire  was 
discha-rged.  On  Jan.  24,  1918,  the  attack 
on  Maan  failed  despite  a  very  great 
numerical  superiority  and  the  aid  of  the 
English  automatic  machine  guns,  because 
the  Arabs  refused  to  attack  the  fortress. 
And  one  could  cite  many  other  examples 
analogous  to  these. 

THE  SHEREEF'S  ADMINISTRATION 

The  administrative  and  political  inca- 
pacity of  Hussein's  Government  corre- 
sponds to  its  military  impotency.  In 
November-December  1918,  the  Kibla,  his 
official  sheet,  published  long  lists  of  Gen- 
erals, officers,  soldiers,  officials  and 
even  servants.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
old  Turkish  officials  continued  their  ad- 
ministration, and  it  was  British  officers, 
British  soldiers,  who  governed  and  main- 


116 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tained  order — a  wholly  relative  order — 
in  the  Arab-Syrian  zone.  How  could  it 
have  been  otherwise  when  Hussein  had 
no  firm  ground  on  which  to  stand? 

We  had  believed  in  the  unifying  virtue 
of  his  religious  ascendency.  Gross  illu- 
sion! The  religious  unity  of  Islam  was 
non-existent,  and  this  Sunnite  Emir 
could  no  more  subject  to  his  control  the 
Shiites  of  Arabia  than  those  of  Syria, 
Persia,  or  India.  Mussulmans  of  all  sects 
wished  from  him  only  one  service:  To 
guard  the  holy  places  and  to  assure 
the  freedom  of  pilgrimage;  toward  him 
personally  they  preserved  an  independ- 
ence ever  ready  to  revolt  if  he  dared  to 
threaten  them.  In  December,  1918,  as 
in  1915,  he  exercised  authority  only  in 
Mecca,  where  he  was  virtually  as  much 
besieged  as  Fakri  Pasha  was  at  Medina. 
The  hostile  tribes  of  the  Wahabites  and 
the  Shammars  had  defeated  him  to  east 
and  south  in  November  and  December; 
further  to  the  south  the  Turkophil  Arabs 
and  the  Turks  of  Moheddin  held  various 
towns.  In  the  north,  in  Nedj,  the  Emir 
Ibn  el  Seoud,  conqueror  of  the  royal 
Emir  Abdallah,  and  in  Central  Arabia 
the  Emirs  Ibn  el  Reshid  and  Ibn  Sabah, 
whom  even  the  Turks  had  never  con- 
quered, showed  themselves  indomitable. 
When  in  May,  1919,  Hussein  proclaimed 
himself  "  Commander  of  the  Faithful," 
that  is,  Khalif,  the  high  religious  leader 
of  Islam,  Ibn  el  Seoud  swore  that  he 
himself  and  his  two  brothers  "  in  God  " 
would  never  cease  their  struggle  against 
the  usurper.  "  All  the  Sultans  of  Arabia 
are  lords  and  shereefs,"  he  observed, 
"  whose  noble  origin  is  more  authentic 
than  that  of  the  Emir  of  Mecca." 

The    royal    throne    which    the    Allies 


have  erected  in  Mecca  is  therefore  main- 
tained only  by  their  support  and  other- 
wise has  no  foundation  in  reality.  The 
Hedjaz  is  not  the  "  power  "  which  cer- 
tain diplomatic  organs  would  lead  one  to 
suppose,  and  the  conception  of  which  was 
inspired  by  political  strategy.  *  *  * 
But  under  the  cover  of  war  the  drones 
have  swarmed.  Bedouins  have  occupied 
the  western  half  of  Syria,  are  installed 
in  its  principal  towns,  Damascus  and 
Aleppo,  on  the  railway  which  connects 
three  continents,  and  which,  for  Western 
civilization,  of  which  it  is  the  creation, 
has  inestimable  value  for  the  reclaiming 
of  immense  tracts  of  territory  to 
economic  life.  Must  we  leave  these 
Bedouins  there? 

"I  am  only  a  Bedouin,"  Emir  Faisal 
is  reported  to  have  said  on  meeting  M. 
Clemenceau,  "  a  wandering  Bedouin  of 
the  desert,  who  comes  to  speak  to  you 
with  his  heart."  We  have  learned  since 
of  the  feeling  which  he  cherished  toward 
us  in  his  heart — a  deep  and  unscrupulous 
hostility;  and  in  regard  to  the  Allies 
generally,  an  Arab  "  nationalism  "  which, 
in  its  essence,  in  its  procedures,  in  its 
collusions,  is  the  brother,  the  younger 
brother  of  the  Young  Turk  Nationalism. 
Already  the  movement  of  Arab  inde- 
pendence has  been  fused  with  that  which 
the  Turkish  "  Unionists  "  persist  in  con- 
ducting, and  it  can  end  only  in  renewals 
of  the  most  violent  fanaticism. 

The  interest  of  Syria  itself  requires 
us  to  save  her  from  such  a  danger,  and 
compels  us,  acting  in  harmony  with  our 
allies,  to  enforce  the  superior  rights  of 
humanity  as  against  the  unjustified  and 
vain  ambition  of  a  son  of  the  desert. 


Constantinople  Under  the  Germans 

Life  in  the  Turkish  Capital  in  1917  and  1918  Described  by 
an  American  Eyewitness 

THE  Germans  were  literally  the  mas- 
ters of  Turkey  and  the  lords  of 
Constantinople  in  1917  and  1918. 
The  Turkish  cafes  were  full  of 
them,  drinkirfg  beer  and  champagne; 
they  "  swanked "  in  the  streets  and  on 
the  cars  and  trains;  the  dun-colored, 
swiftly  flying  automobiles  of  the  Ger- 
man officers  were  everywhere;  high  liv- 
ing, concert  and  chamber  music,  garden 
parties,  sangefeste  occupied  their  days 
and  nights.  The  very  Professors  of  Turk- 
ish and  Oriental  languages  in  the  col- 
leges were  supplanted  by  bespectacled 
Teuton  pedants.  The  army,  navy,  the 
Cabinet,  the  railways,  and  all  foreign 
policy  were  controlled  by  them. 

Naturally  those  nationals  of  the  allied 
nations  who  for  various  reasons  re- 
mained in  the  Turkish  capital  after  the 
departure  of  the  allied  missions  were 
cordially  hated  by  the  swaggering  Ger- 
mans, and  their  feeling  was  reciprocated 
in  kind,  though  with  discretion.  Amer- 
icans, on  the  whole,  were  much  better 
treated  than  other  nationalities.  They 
were  at  no  time  interned,  and  though  al- 
ways conscious  of  surveillance,  enjoyed 
full  freedom  of  movement;  the  American 
colleges  and  other  institutions,  despite 
the  efforts  of  the  Germans  to  have  them 
confiscated,  remained  untouched  owing 
to  the  favorable  attitude  of  Djavid  Bey, 
the  Minister  of  Finance  during  the  Ar- 
menian massacres,  and  of  Talaat  Pasha, 
the  Grand  Vizier,  with  both  of  whom  on 
this  matter  Enver  Pasha,  Minister  of 
War  and  virtual  dictator  under  the  Ger- 
mans, stood  constantly  in  opposition. 

One  of  these  American  residents  of 
Constantinople  during  the  last  two  years 
of  the  war — Barnette  Miller,  a  Professor 
of  History  in  Constantinople — in  a  vivid 
narrative  published  by  The  Yale  Review 
in  its  January  issue,  tells  the  story  of 
German  "  occupation "  of  the  Sultan's 
capital  throughout  this  period. 

This    story,    which    might   be    entitled 


FIELD  MARSHAL  VON  DER  GOLTZ 

The  German  officer  who  trained  the  Turkish 

Army.    He  died  in  1918 

(©    International) 

"  Germany's  Decline  and  Fall  in  Turkey," 
begins  logically  with  the  wrecking  of  all 
the  German  hopes  of  the  famous  Berlin- 
to-Bagdad    Railway   as    a   result  of   the 
terrific  explosion  of  the  Haidar  Pasha 
Arsenal  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bos- 
porus on  Sept.  6,  1917.     The  writer  says 
of  this  momentous  and  symbolic  disaster : 
Though  we  did  not  realize  its  full  mean- 
ing at  the  time,  this  terrible  event  proved 
to  be  an  important  link  in  the  chain  that 
led  to   the  victory  of  the  Allies.     For  in 
those  few  hours  on  that  fateful  Septem- 
ber day  in  1917  the  last  great  hazard  of 
the   Turks    in    the   game   of   war   literally 
went   up    in    smoke.     "What    had    fed    the 
flames    that    leaped    half    way    across    the 
Bosporus  was  th6  greater  part  of  the  am- 
munition, the  rolling  stock,  the  motor  lor- 


118 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


GERMAN   OFFICERS    WHO    COMMANDED   THE    TURKISH    FLEET 


ries,  the  artillery,  and  all  the  varied  par- 
aphernalia of  modern  war  which  the 
Turks  and  Germans  had  assembled  for  a 
colossal  drive  that  was  to  retake  Bagdad. 
The  campaign  had  been  christened  in  ad- 
vance with  the  magic  name  Yilderim 
(Thunderbolt),  by  which  one  of  the  early 
Turkish  Sultans  was  called  "  Yilderim 
Bayazid  "  —  whom,  curiously  enough,  we 
Westerners  know  only  in  his  eclipse  as  the 
Bajazet  of  Marlowe's  "  Tamburlaine." 
"  The  Yilderim  campaign— Yilderim— Yil- 
derim "—one  heard  the  phrase  on  the  lips 
of  the  bearded  old  men  in  the  caf^s  and  in 
the  bathhouse  gossip  of  the  Turkish 
hanuvvs.    *    *    * 

All  during  the  Summer  of  1917  prepa- 
rations for  this  great  drive,  which  was  to 
save  the  Turkish  Empire,  had  gone  on. 
The  assembling  of  the  materials  was  at  its 
height,  the  Germans  had  promised  150,- 
000  men,  and  the  transportation  had  be- 
g:un— there  were  even  two  trains  loaded 
with  troops  ready  to  pull  out  of  the  sta- 
tion—when the  end  came.        • 


For  several  days  afterward  we  heard 
the  rumor  that  an  English  airplane  from 
Mudros  had  dropped  a  bomb  on  the  ar- 
senal. The  official  explanation  of  the  dis- 
aster was  that  some  part  of  a  crane  had 
broken  as  it  was  hoisting  a  box  of  am- 
munition and  the  box  fell — for  the  rest  no 
expert  testimony  was  needed.  Overnight 
the  word  "  Yilderim  "  passed  out  of  the 
street  vocabulary  of  the  Turk— the  Thun- 
derbolt had  struck,  but  not  in  Bagdad,  as 
he  had  planned.  The  Haida  Pasha  ex- 
plosion was  irrevocably  the  beginning  of 
the  end  of  his  dream  of  Pan-Turanism 
and  a  German  victory. 

THE  FOREIGN  RESIDENTS 

Of  all  the  allied  residents  the  British, 
says  this  writer,  were  the  most  hated,  as 
the  Germans  doubtless  intended  they 
should  be.  Of  the  10,000  Kut-el-Amara 
prisoners  about  85  per  cent,  died  from 
disease  and  hardship.    A  score  of  Eng- 


CONSTANTINOPLE    UNDER    THE    GERMANS 


119 


I 


lish  women  and  children  and  two  men, 
exiled  from  Bagdad  on  the  approach  of 
the  British  Army,  were  nine  months  on 
their  journey  across  the  desert  and 
mountain.  At  Mosul,  with  other  refu- 
gees to  the  number  of  thirty-six,  they 
were  confined  for  months  in  a  black  hole. 
When  they  finally  reached  Constantino- 
ple, after  indescribable  sufferings,  two 
of  their  number  had  fallen  in  their  tracks 
and  died.  But  in  the  capital  civilian  Eng- 


ENVER   PASHA 

Turkish  leader  chiefly  responsible  for  alliance 

vyith    Germany 

(©    Underwood  <£   Underwood) 

lishmen  were  in  general  discreetly  treat- 
ed, though  several  were  exiled  into  the 
interior. 

The  Armenians  and  Greeks,  who  were 
counted  among  the  pro-ally  groups,  were 
not  deported  in  a  body,  but  many  inci- 
dents occurred  which  brought  before  the 
writer's  eyes  all  the  horror  of  the  per- 
secution to  which  the  first-named  nation 
was  being  subjected.  One  of  these  epi- 
sodes, dramatic  and  horrible  enough  in 
its  suggestion,  is  narrated  in  these 
words: 

One   day  as  I   was  riding  on  the   tram 


tiiroug-hi  the  European  suburb  of  Bechik- 
tash  I  was  startled  by  the  sight  of  a  great 
brute  of  a  young  Anatolian  Turk — dressed 
in  the  shapeless,  unpressed  fez,  the  open 
shirt,  the  baggy  blue-  trousers  and  the 
pointed  shoes  of  the  interior— dragging  a 
handsome  Armenian  girl  (a  peasant  of 
perhaps  15  or  16)  along  the  street  by  the 
arm.  Evidently  she  had  just  been  torn 
from  her  home,  for  she  wore  no  head  cov- 
ering, and  she  half  walked,  half  ran,  with 
difficulty  on  the  wooden  clogs  that  Ori- 
ental women  wear  in  the  house.  On  the 
face  of  her  captor  was  an  expression  of 
almost  satyrlike  glee  as  he  hauled  the 
girl  along,  while  she  looked  absolutely 
paralyzed  with  terror.  As  the  tram  passed 
on  we  continued  to  hear  the  man's  shouts 
of  fiendish  laughter.  So  dramatic  was  the 
incident  that  the  German  and  Turkish  of- 
ficers, of  whom  the  car  was  full,  all  stood 
up  to  see  what  was- happening,  yet  not  a 
single  officer  lifted  a  hand  or  a  voice 
against  the  wanton  brutality  of  the  act. 

The  life  of  the  German  allies  of  the 
Sultan  in  the  capital  is  graphically  de- 
scribed by  Professor  Miller.  The  Ger- 
mans were  everywhere  j  they 
filled  not  only  the  tranis  of  Constantino- 
ple but  the  streets  as  well.  Their  wide, 
low,  dun-colored  cars,  emblazoned  with 
the  Imperial  German  crest — the  type  used 
by  the  German  superior  officer— drove 
ceaselessly  and  recklessly  through  the 
crowded  thoroughfares  packed  to  full  ca- 
pacity. They  were  always  parked  near 
the  War  Office  in  great  numbers.  On 
Monday  mornings  these  cars  were  lined 
up  at  the  quays  awaiting  their  owners, 
who  would  return  to  town  loaded  with 
flowers,  fruits,  vegetables  and  other  spoils 
of  a  week-end  at  the  Prince's  Island.  The 
lack  of  regulation  of  the  food  supply  and 
higher,  pay  for  foreign  service  made  life 
so  much  pleasanter  in  Constantinople  than 
in  Berlin  that  Germans  openly  expressed 
a  preference  for  a  billet  in  the  Turkish 
capital  during  the  latter  part  of  the  war. 
Here  they  not  only  enjoyed  greater  lee- 
way themselves,  but  they  were:  able  to 
provide  their  families  with  extra  sup- 
plies. In  addition  to  the  large  quantities 
of  food  which  the  Germans  forced  the 
Turks  to  let  them  export  from  the  coun- 
try, individual  officers  smuggled  out  a 
great  deal  by  post,  and  they  filled  to 
overflowing  their  compartments  in  the 
Balkanzug  when  they  made  journeys 
home.    •    •    • 

GERMANS  AND  TURKS 

There  was  of  course  no  fraternization 
of  the  German  officers  with  the  Turkish 
officers,  nor  even  with  the  Austrians, 
whose  social  life  was  quite  apart.  The 
German  officers  were  generally  very 
bumptious    and    overbearing   in    their   de- 


120 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


meaner  toward  the  Turk ;  in  return  they 
were  cordially  detested,  and  their  assump- 
tion of  authority  was  greatly  resented. 
I  think  the  heavy  loans  made  by'  Ger- 
many to  Turkey  had  convinced  the  Ger- 
mans that  the  Turks  were  wholly  in  their 
power— as  in  fact  they  were.  The  Turks 
feared  the  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  Ger- 
man troops,  said  to  have  been  kept  in 
Constantinople  for  use  in  case  of  an  anti- 
German  uprising,  and  especially  the  bat- 
.  tleships  Goeben  and  Breslau,  whose  guns 
could    easily   have    terrorized    the    city. 

It  was  a  curious  fact  that,  though  the 
two  ships  had  been  rechristened  the 
Selimie  and  the  Medelli,  the  Turks  were 
never  allowed  to  man  or  officer  them, 
and  the  several  thousand  German  sailors 
did  not  even  bother  to  change  the  original 
names  on  their  caps.  Near  where  the 
battleships  were  anchored  in  Stenia  Bay 
on  the  upper  Bosporus,  in  one  of  the 
broad  valleys  that  intersect  the  hills  at 
right  angles  to  the  strait,  these  sailors 
cultivated  a  large  garden  of  twenty  or 
thirty  acres,  from  which  they  supplied 
themselves  with  the  delicacies  of  the 
season.  Its  trellised  gates  and  extremely 
neat  asphalt  paths  .were  eloquent  testi- 
mony to.  the  idea  of  permanent  occupa- 
tion in  the  German  mind.  The  whole- 
sale corrupti'^n  by  the  German  sailors 
and  soldiers  of  the  Greek  and  Armenian, 
especially  the  Greek,  women  in  the  Bos- 
porus villages,  whose  husbands  had  been 
drafted  or  deported,  and  who  Were  com- 
pelled to  choose  between  starvation  and 
German  money,  was  one  of  the  most  de- 
plorable results  of  the  German  occupa- 
tion. 

An  interesting  account  of  the  air  raids 
on  Constantinople  by  British  bombing 
planes  from  the  Summer  of  1918  on  is 
given  by  the  narrator.  During  July, 
August  and  September  of  that  year  these 
raids  occurred  on  all  moonlight  nights. 
The  chief  targets  of  the  British  aviators 
were  the  War  Office  in  Stamboul,  the 
arsenals  at  Haidar  Pasha  and  Haskeuy, 
and  the  Goeben  anchored  off  Stenia.  The 
Turks  had  no  airplane  to  defend  them- 
selves with,  and  they  resented  the  fact 
that  the  Germans  did  not  supply  them 
with  any.  Anti-aircraft  guns,  however, 
were  mounted  ^t  all  suitable  places,  and 
with  the  guns  of  the  Goeben  made  a 
fine  tumult  when  the  British  planes 
made  their  hits  and  flew  back  over  the 
Thracian  Hills. 

The  main  Turkish  representative  of 
German  influence  in  Constantinople  was 
Enver  Pasha.  His  exterior  personality, 
as  described  by  the  narrator,  is  strange- 


ly at  variance  with  his  real  characteris- 
tics.     Professor   Miller   says: 

Enver  Pasha  was,  when  I  met  him, 
still  a  slight,  very  youthful  looking  sol- 
dier with  a  noticeably  shy  manner.  His 
smile  was  winning,  and  his  brown  eyes 
were  so  gentle  as  to  be  positively  gazelle- 
like, if  I  may  use  a  favorite  F. stern 
figure.  Yet,  his  appearance  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding,  he  was  a  man  of 
absolutely  iron  will,  who,  though  brilliant, 
knew  what  he  wanted  and  how  to  get  it; 
and  he  was  totally  devoid  of  the  humaniz- 
ing emotions.  During  the  war  he  became, 
with  German  backing,  practically  an 
autocrat  far  more  powerful  than  the 
Sultan  or  even  the  Grand  Vizier,  Talaat 
Pasha. 

THE  END  OF  GERMAN  POWER 

News  of  the  Bulgarian  debacle  and 
of  the  opening  of  negotiations  with  the 
Allies  reached  Constantinople  in  Septem- 
ber, 1918.  On  receipt  of  these  tidings 
the  Armenians  showed  self-restraint,  the 
Turkish  population  apathy,  but  the  Gov- 
ernment and  high  officials  were  panic- 
stricken.  For  two  or  three  days  the 
Germans  tried  to  rally  public  opinion  by 
guaranteeing  that  whatever  happened 
they  would  keep  open  communication  by 
railway  between  Turkey  and  Berlin.  The 
impossibility  of  this  was  soon  evident. 
They  then  promised  to  keep  open  a  route 
by  land  and  water  via  Bucharest.  In 
this,  too,  they  failed,  and  the  second 
boat  to  try  the  route  was  forced  to  put 
back.  Its  return  was  a  signal  for  panic 
among  the  Germans  and  the  pro-German 
element. 

The  resignation  of  Talaat's  Cabinet 
and  the  hasty  flight  of  the  committee 
followed.  Enver  Pasha,  seeing  that  the 
game  was  up,  gave  an  elaborate  dinner 
at  his  palace  on  the  Bosporus  nine  days 
before  the  entrance  of  the  allied  fleet, 
and  bade  farewell  to  his  guests  standing 
on  his  quay.  He  then  went  ostensibly  to 
his  harem;  the  lights  of  the  palace  were 
darkened,  and  the  sentries  went  off 
guard.  Half  an  hour  later  the  launch 
which  had  taken  away  the  guests  re- 
turned without  lights,  took  Enver  on 
board,  and  steamed  away  to  the  Black 
Sea.  Thua  the  famous  Turkish  trium- 
virate disappeared  from  the  scene,  to 
reappear,  according  to  recent  reports,  in 
Switzerland   and   Germany.     Enver  Bey 


CONSTANTINOPLE  UNDER  THE  GERMANS 


121 


as  the  leader  of  the  Turks  and  Tatars 
of  Western  Asia  with  German  material 
and  Bolshevist  aid  against  the  allies. 

f  ALLIED  FLEET  ARRIVES 

On  Tuesday,  Nov.  13,  the  long-awaited 
hour  of  deliverance  from  Turk  and  Ger- 
man arrived  for  the  allied  residents  of 
Constantinople.  At  8  o'clock  in  the 
morning  the  advance  guard  of  the  great 
fleet  of  sixty  or  more  vessels  steamed 
into  view  coming  up  the  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora. 

There  was  a  light  mist  [writes  Pro- 
fes.sor  Miller],  not  enough  to  obscvire 
but  merely  to  soften  the  outlines.  It 
gave  a  touch  of  unreality— an  effect  of 
mirage— to  the  stately  procession  of  silent 
ships.  There  were  no  salutes,  no  strings 
of  flags  on  the  masts,  no  tootings.  *  *  * 
It  was  almost  impossible,  as  we  stood  on 
the  hill  watching,  to  realize  that  we  were 
present  at  the  fall  of  the  Turkish  capital. 
And  of  course,  at  that  moment,  we  hardly 
sensed  the  fact  that  only  twice  before  in 
the  course  of  its  unparalleled  sixteen 
centuries  of  empire  had  Constantinople 
surrendered   to   a   victorious   power. 

Thus  the  last  chapter  of  German 
dominance  in  the  East  was  written.  The 
narrative  concludes  as  follows: 


The  English  made  it  their  first  business 
after  they  were  installed  in  Constantinople 
to  sweep  the  city  clean  of  Germans.  Four 
ships  were  provided  to  convey  them  to 
Odessa,  whence  they  were  to  make  their 
way  through  Russia.  After  the  manner 
of  their  kind  they,  of  course,  complained 
bitterly  of  the  dangers  and  hardships  of 
the  journey.  And  what  a  sudden  and 
amazing  change  there  was  in  their  man- 
ner !  They  were  no  longer  condescending- 
ly arrogant,  but  crestfallen,  almost  slink- 
ing. For  a  few  days  German  libraries 
and  archaeological  collections  were  offered 
at  bargain  prices,  but  the  more  easily 
transportable  goods,  such  as  fine  Oriental 
rugs,  metal  work,  and  curios  of  their  own 
and  of  their  allied  landlords— for  they 
were  thieves  to  the  bitter  end— the  Ger- 
mans attempted  to  take  with  them,  until 
even  the  Turkish  authorities  forced  them 
to  disgorge  their  loot.  The  streets  were 
noticeably  free  from  German  soldiers ; 
the  quays  were  crowded  with  them,  wait- 
ing to  embark.  The  woebegone  few  for 
whom  there  was  no  room  on  the  ships 
remained  to  be  interned.  So  also  did 
the  chief  offenders,  whom,  by  the  way, 
the  excellent  British  Intelligence  seemed 
.to  know  all  about.  Thus  within  a  re- 
markably short  time  the  far-reaching 
German  grip  on  Turkish  affairs— which 
not  long  before  had  seemed  to  us  so 
hopelessly  strong— had  been  loosed ;  and 
the  German  sway  of  a  decade  in  Con- 
stantinople  had   passed   into   history. 


Hallowed  Ground 

By  E.    MYRTLE   DUNN 

Oh,   let  them  sleep   in  peace !     They   paid   the  price 

For  rest  and   quiet  in  that  stricken  land. 
They   gladly   gave   their  lives  !     Let  that  suffice 

To  hold  in  sacred  bond  that  noble  band. 
Is  it  not  so?     The  world   looked   on,    amazed 

To  see  the  eager  thousands  cross  the  sea ; 
To  watch  the  brave  young  faces   as  they   gazed. 

And  heard   that    "  Forward   March  "    for  Liberty ! 


Oh,  let  them  rest !     You  would  not  know  them  now ! 

Their   forms   were   sadly   broken   in   the   strife. 
You   could   not   kiss   the   lips    nor   touch   the   brow 

That  feels  no  more   the  thrilling  pulse  of  life. 
They   went   to   fight,    and   die  "if   need   there   seemed ; 

To   rescue    tortured   brothers   from   the    foe. 
You   would   not   find  the   smiles  in   eyes   that  beamed- 

The  tones  that  answered  when  you  let  them  go. 

So  let  them  rest!     The  work   so  nobly   done— 

A    grander    monument    than    marble    tomb. 
The   victory    sure    which    they   so   bravely   won 

Will   shine  forever  through   the   saddest   gloom. 
A  little  while,   and   they  will  rise  again. 

Responsive   to   that   last   long   trumpet   sound. 
Then  grief   shall   be  effaced— no   weeping  then. 

For  wheresoe'er  they   sleep   is   Hallowed   Ground. 


Popular  Highlights  of  the  Great  War 


By  FRANKLIN  B.  MORSE 


THE  years  of  the  great  war  were 
fraught  with  countless  episodes, 
dramatic,  tragic,  sentimental  and, 
in  some  instances,  comic.  Historic 
sayings  were  plentiful.  Hundreds  of 
personalities  emerged  above  the  level  of 
thQir  fellows — and  so  with  the  songs, 
books,  speeches,  military  orders,  music, 
&c.  To  pick  out  of  this  conglomeration 
the  outstanding  things  which  made  the 
greatest  appeal  to  the  popular  imagina- 
tion— the  things  which  the  people  re- 
member in  connection  with  the  war  most 
vividly — is  the  object  of  this  article. 

Every  one  who  has  read  anything  con- 
cerning the  war  is  familiar  with  the 
first  battle  of  the  Mame,  in  which  the 
initial  tide  of  the  German  invasion  was 
rolled  back  from  the  gates  of  Paris  to 
the  Aisne  River.  Doubtless  the  people 
of  Germany  are  more  familiar  with  the 
great  victory  at  Tannenberg,  as  the  de- 
tails of  the  Mame  were  purposely  kept 
from  them;  but  the  Central  Powers  rep- 
resented a  minority  of  the  populations 
of  the  world  arrayed  against  them.  Thus 
to  the  first  battle  of  the  Mame  is  ac- 
corded the  position  as  the  outstanding 
battle. 

Those  competent  to  judge  tell  us  that 
poets  were  inspired  to  write  a  few  ex- 
amples of  verse  destined  to  be  preserved. 
No  attempt  is  being  made  in  this  article 
to  judge  of  the  merits  or  demerits  of 
anything  or  any  one.  Its  purpose  is  to 
judge,  as  nearly  as  possible,  what  most 
appealed  to  the  popular  fancy,  what  was 
most  referred  to  either  in  speech  or  in 
print,  and  thus  brought  before  the 
masses.  It  is  doubtful  if  anything  in 
the  realm  of  poetry  made  a  greater  ap- 
peal, either  in  England  or  in  this  country, 
than  "  In  Flanders  Fields,"  the  beautiful 
lyric  written  by  Lieut.  Col.  Dr.  John  Mc- 
Crae  of  Montreal,  Canada,  while  the  sec- 
ond battle  of  Ypres  was  in  progress. 
The  author's  body  a  few  months  later 
found  a  resting  place  in  Flanders  fields. 
No  bit  of  verse  was  more  quoted  than 


the    last    stanza    of    this    poem,    which 

reads : 

Take  up  our  quarrel  with  the  foe; 

To  you  from  falling-  hands  we  throw 
The  torch ;   be  yours  to  hold  it  high. 
If  ye  break   faith  with  us   who   die, 

We  shall  not  sleep,  though  poppies  g-row 
In  Flanders  fields. 

This  poem  was  particularly  favored 
by  the  "  Four  Minute  Men  and  Women  " 
who  spoke  in  the  various  patriotic  drives 
for  loans  and  other  war  activities.  They 
had  much  to  do  with  bringing  the  poem 
to  the  notice  of  the  public. 

There  are  many,  however,  who  may 
be  inclined  to  think  that  Allan  Seeger's 
"  I  Have  a  Rendezvous  with  Death " 
struck  an  equally  popular  chord,  and 
with  them  we  have  no  quarrel.  It  is  a 
fact,  however,  that  this  poem  did  not 
adapt  itself  to  quoting  as  did  McCrae's, 
and  so  failed  to  reach  the  public  to  the 
extent  of  "In  Flanders  Fields."  There 
are  several  other  poems  inspired  by  the 
war  which  found  much  favor,  but  I  do 
not  believe  there  were  any  more  favor- 
ably received  or  popularly  known  than 
the  two  mentioned. 

A  poem  which  had  a  great  vogue  as 
reprint  matter  in  the  newspapers 
throughout  the  country  was  "  A  Toast," 
by  George  Morrow  Mayo,  printed  in  The 
Washington  Star.  Its  appeal  was  more 
local — confined  to  this  country — as  shown 
in  these  three  stanzas: 
Here's  to  the  Blue  of  the  windswept  North, 

When  we  meet  on  the  fields  of  France; 
May  the  Spirit  of  Grant  be  with  you  all, 

As   the   Sons   of  the   North   advance. 

And    here's    to    the    Gray    of    the    sun-kissed 
South, 

When  we  meet  on  the  fields  of  France; 
May  the    Spirit   of  Lee   be   with   you  all, 

As  the  Sons  of  the  South  advance. 

And  here's  to  the  Blue  and  Gray  as  one. 
When  we  meet  in  the  fields  of  France.; 

May  the   Spirit   of   God   be   with   us   all 
As   the   Sons   of   the  Flag  advance. 

Of  music  and  songs  there  appeared 
to  be  no  iend,  and  yet  no  great  composi- 


^tion  seem 


POPULAR  HIGHLIGHTS  OF  THE  GREAT   WAR 


123 


tion  seems  thus  far  to  have  been  born 
of  the  war.  "  Over  There,"  by  George 
M.  Cohan,  probably  was  played  by  more 
marching  bands  and  sung  by  more  gath- 
erings than  any  other  song  written  for 
and  on  the  war.  "  Tipperary "  will 
doubtless  be  identified  for  all  time  with 
Tommy  Atkins  in  the  great  war,  even 
as  "  There'll  Be  a  Hot  Time  in  the  Old 
Town  Tonight,"  with  common  consent, 
has  been  turned  over  as  the  property  of 
Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt's  famous  reg- 
iment of  Rough  Riders  in  the  Spanish- 
American  war.  The  song  "  Joan  of 
Arc "  would  seem  to  be  deserving,  at 
least,  of  an  honorable  mention. 

FAMOUS  WAR  CARTOONISTS 

The  war  made  known  tWo  artists  to 
the  world.  They  are  Louis  Raemaekers 
of  Holland  and  Bruce  Bairnsfather  of 
England.  Of  the  hundreds  of  cartoons 
drawn  by  Raemaekers  favoring  the  cause 
of  the  Allies  it  would  be  difficult  to 
select  any  one  which  is  better  known 
than  a  dozen  others.  In  the  case  of 
Bairnsfather,  who  touched  on  the  lighter 
side  of  the  conflict,  although  he  was 
quite  as  prolific  as  his  contemporary,  it 
is  not  difficult  to  place  one's  finger  on 
"  The  "Better  'Ole  "  as  being  one  of  the 
outstanding  cartoons  of  the  war  in  the 
mind  of  the  people.  No  more  whimsical 
conception  ever  was  produced  than  the 
depiction  of  the  two  British  war  veterans 
crouching  in  a  shell  hole,  with  a  hail  of 
bullets  flying  close  over  head.  One  of 
them  is  made  to  remark :  "  Well,  if  you 
knows  of  a  better  'ole  go  to  it."  Artists 
all  over  the  world  borrowed  from  this 
drawing,  rendering  their  "  apologies  "  to 
the  man  who  conceived  it. 

Among  the  war  pictures  exhibited  at 
the  London  Royal  Academy  none  made 
a  deeper  impression  in  England  than 
that  by  Alfred  Priest,  entitled  "  Mother! 
Mother!  "  It  was  described  by  the  critic, 
Sir  Walter  Armstrong,  as  "too  painful 
for  description."  It  depicts  a  young  sol- 
dier in  the  shambles  of  a  trench  after  a 
fight,  surrounded  by  the  dead,  calling 
in  his  agony  to  his  mother. 

MOST  POPULAR  WAR   BOOKS 

It  has  been  said  that,  next  to  the 
Bible,  the  great  war  already  stands  sec- 


ond in  the  vastness  of  the  literature  it 
has  called  forth.  To  any  one  who,  like 
myself,  has  conceived  the  fancy  to  col- 
lect a  war  reference  library,  this  does 
not  sound  like  an  exaggeration.  In  se- 
lecting the  book  with  the  greatest  vogue 
— the  best  seller — we  are  aided  by  fig- 
ures obtainable  from  publishers,  and  by 
the  statistics  of  librarians.  From  these 
it  would  seem  that  of  the  nonfictional 
books  Guy  Empey's  "  Over  the  Top  "  has 
the  right  to  claim  a  place  among  those 
at  the  head  of  the  list.  Of  the  fictional 
works  H.  G.  Wells's  "  Mr.  Britling  Sees 
It  Through "  had  a  tremendous  vogue 
during  the  war.  The  post-war  fictional 
work  to  arrest  the  largest  share  of  pop- 
ular attention  has  been  "  The  Four 
Horsemen  of  the  Apocalypse,"  by  the 
Spanish  author  Blasco  Ybanez. 

In  picking  out  the  personalities  of  the 
great  war,  which,  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other, have  become  most  widely  known, 
one  courts  the  endless  possibilities  of 
differing  opinions.  I  will  make  my  se- 
lections without  comment,  feeling  fairly 
confident  they  will  be  fit  company  for 
any  others  selected  by  the  reader  by  way 
of  substitution : 

America  —  Woodrow  Wilson,  Herbert 
Hoover,  General  John  J.  Pershing. 

Great  Britain— Lloyd  George,  Field  Mar- 
shal   Haig-. 

France  —  Clemenceau,  Marshals  Joffro 
and  Foch. 

Belgium— King  Albert,  Cardinal  Mercior, 
Burgomaster  Max. 

Italy— Gabriel e  d' Annunzio. 

Germany— Kaiser,  Crown  Prince,"  ^Hin- 
denburg,    Ludendorff. 

•  Of  the  lesser  heroes,  aside  from  Major 
Whittlesey  of  "  Lost  Battalion  "  fame  in 
this  country,  the  airmen  appear  in  the 
limelight.  Of  the  Americans  we  have 
William  Thaw,  Raoul  Lufbery  and  Ed- 
die Rickenbacker.  Few  will  dispute  first 
place  to  Guynemer  among  the  French 
aces,  while  Richthofen,  Boelcke  and  Im- 
melmann  are  the  particular  stars  among 
the  German  birdmen.  For  Italy  d' Annun- 
zio overshadowed  all  her  other  fliers  in 
the  newpaper  reports  during  the  war, 
and  this  fact  made  him  the  foremost  char- 
acter of  that  country  in  the  popular  esti- 
mation. Even  General  Diaz,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  armies  that  finally 
brought  victory  to  Italy,  is  little  known 


124 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  the  masses  in  other  countries.  Eng- 
land hid  the  feats  of  her  aviators  under 
a  cloak  of  secrecy,  so  that  none  of  them 
may  be  said  to  be  "  popularly  "  known. 

Of  the  men,  the  millions  in  the  ranks, 
the  limelight  beat  most  fiercly  on  Alvin 
Yorke,  popularly  rated  as  the  greatest 
individual  hero  of  the  American  Army. 

POPULAR  PHRASES 

Many  historic  sayings  are  recorded, 
but  probably  none  enjoys  the  worldwide 
reputation  of  "  They  shall  not  pass," 
which  was  the  watchword  of  the  French 
amid  the  bloody  scenes  of  carnage  enact- 
ed about  the  Fortress  of  Verdun  during 
1916.  The  origin  of  the  slogan  has  never 
been  definitely  settled.  It  has  been  vari- 
ously ascribed  to  Marshal  Joffre,  Mar- 
shal Petain,  in  command  of  the  forces 
there,  and  to  the  troops  themselves. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  already  consider- 
able doubt  exists  as  to  the  origin  of  a 
number  of  well-known  dramatic  phrases, 
epigrams,  slogans  or  army  orders. 
Among  these  is  the  famous  sentence, 
"  Lafayette,  we  are  here !  "  popularly 
put  in  the  mouth  of  General  Pershing 
when  he  placed  a  wreath  on  Lafayette's 
tomb  in  the  Picpus  Cemetery.  Icono- 
clasts have  begun  the  work  of  tearing 
down  before  history  is  fully  reared  by 
attributing  this  saying  to  Colonel 
Charles  E.  Stanton,  a  member  of  Gen- 
eral Pershing's  staff,  and  there  seems 
to  be  every  reason  to  believe  he  is  en- 
titled to  the  credit.  As  this  particular 
incident  is  one  of  the  popular  dramatic 
highlights  of  the  war  in  connection  with 
the  arrival  of  the  American  Army  in 
France,  it  is  worth  while  to  know  what 
The  Spokesman-Review  of  Spokane, 
Wash.,  has  to  say  on  the  subject  editori- 
ally: 

All  the  King's  horses  and  all  the  King's 
men  cannot  keep  out  of  the  next  crop  of 
school  readers  the  statement  that  Gen- 
eral Pershing  of  the  United  States  Army- 
made  a  gesture  and  enunciated  (in 
French):  "Lafayette,  we  are  here!  " 
No  matter  how  many  times  the  General 
raises  his  right  hand  and  swears  (or  af- 
firms) that  he  never  said  it,  that  he 
doesn't  know  so  much  French,  that  he 
couldn't  have  thought  of  anything  so 
dramatic,  that  he  was  there  and  knows 
who  really  did  say  it— in  spite  of  all  these 
things,  the  phrase  is  going  down  in  his- 
tory with  Pershing's  name  tagged  to  it. 


One  does  not  wish  to  be  a  kill-joy.  It 
is  freely  admitted  that  an  American  of- 
ficer, at  the  proper  time  and  place,  said: 
"  Lafayette,  we  are  here!  "  It  is  a  noble 
phrase,  and  mankind  should  not  be 
cheated  out  of  it.  It  was  said,  and  it  de- 
served every  one  of  the  thrills  it  aroused 
between  here  and  Paris.  But  Colonel 
Stanton  of  Persliing's  staff,  who  said  it, 
ought  to  have  the  credit,  particularly  as 
Pershing  would  not  have  the  credit  at  any 
price,   being  a  just  man. 

However,  the  Colonel  has  very  little 
chance.  A  first-class  historical  blunder 
like  this  never  dies,  but  gets  bigger  and 
more  exaggerated  as  the  years  go  on, 
and  is  found  invaluable  as  a  topic  for 
commencement  orations.  You  will  re- 
member that  General  Sherman  always 
contended  that  he  never  said  "war  is 
hell,"  but  he  might  as  well  have  saved 
his  breath. 

FAMOUS  WORDS  OF  OFFICERS 

Admiral  Sims  and  one  of  the  officers 
in  command  of  one  of  the  vessels  of  the 
American  fleet  variously  are  credited 
with  having  made  the  reply,  "  We  can 
start  at  once,"  to  the  question  of  a  Brit- 
ish Admiral  as  to  when  the  American 
fleet  would  be  ready,  after  its  arrival, 
to  join  the  British  in  stalking  the  skulk- 
ing German  submarines.  Americans 
were  thrilled  by  the  retort  of  the  Ameri- 
can officer  at  Chateau-Thierry  to  the 
French  order  that  a  retreat  be  com- 
menced. "  The  American  flag  has  been 
compelled  to  retire.  This  is  unendurable. 
We  are  going  to  counterattack,"  are  the 
words  attributed  by  some  to  Major  Gen. 
Robert  L.  Bullard  and  by  others  to  Major 
Gen.  Omar  Bundy.  To  the  casual  ob- 
server it  would  seem  as  though  it  would 
be  easy  to  fix  definitely  upon  the  authors 
of  these  disputed  utterances  while  they 
still  are  alive.  Later  on  the  chance  will 
be  gone. 

No  question  exists  as  to  the  authorship 
of  the  words,  "  Too  proud  to  fight." 
Those  in  opposition  to  the  President  saw 
to  that.  This  phrase  was  quoted  around 
the  world  and  was  the  inspiration  of 
countless  cartoons  and  newspaper  para- 
graphers.* 


*  The  phrase  was  used  by  President  Wilson 
in  an  address  delivered  in  Philadelphia  be- 
fore 4,000  newly  naturalized  citizens  on  May 
10,  1915,  three  days  after  the  sinking  of  the 
Lusitania.  "  The  example  of  America,"  he 
said,  "  must  be  the  example  not  merely  of 
peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but  of  peace 
because   peace   is   the   healing   and    elevating 


POPULAR  HIGHLIGHTS  OF  THE  GREAT   WAR 


125 


Of  the  many  "  orders  of  the  day  "  is- 
sued by  army  commanders  to  their 
troops,  the  two  which  made  the  greatest 
appeal  to  the  popular  imagination  came 
out  of  the  tense  crisis  of  battle.  These 
are  Joffre's  immortal  words  before  the 
first  battle  of  the  Marne :  "  The  hour 
has  come  to  advance  at  all  costs — to  die 
where  you  stand  rather  than  give  way." 

It  was  Field  Marshal  Haig  who,  on 
April  13,  1918,  ordered  his  men  as  fol- 
lows :  *'  Every  position  must  be  held  to 
the  last  man.  There  must  be  no  retire- 
ment. With  our  backs  to  the  wall,  and 
believing  in  the  justice  of  our  cause, 
every  one  of  us  must  fight  to  the  end." 

When  the  Germans  called  on  Major 
Whittelsey  to  surrender  the  "  Lost  Bat- 
talion "  his  brief  reply,  "Go  to  hell!" 
made  an  instantaneous  hit  in  America. 

Of  the  incidents  appealing  to  the  sen- 
timental side,  none  probably  is  better 
known  than  the  request  made  by  General 
Pershing  of  the  French  commander  that 
the  Americans  be  permitted  to  share  in 
the  great  conflict  which  was  being 
waged  to  stem  the  supreme  effort  of  the 
Germans  in  the  Spring  of  1918.  "  In- 
fantry, artillery,  aviation,"  wrote  Per- 
shing, "  all  that  we  have  is  yours.  Dis- 
pose of  them  as  you  will." 

MOST  NOTORIOUS  DEEDS 

There  were  so  many  German  atrocities 
and  brutalities  during  the  war  that  it 
would  seem  well-nigh  impossible  to  se- 
lect any  one  which  shocked  the  civilized 
nations  more  than  another;  yet  a  few 
may  be  mentioned  as  having  especially 
revolted  the  world  and  aroused  indigna- 
tion against  the  German  perpetrators. 
These  were: 

The  sinking  of  the  Lusitania. 

The  execution  of  Edith  Cavell. 

The  execution  of  Captain  Fryatt. 

Drowning  of  forty  of  the  crew  of  the  Bel- 
gian Prince. 

The  first  three  incidents  are  too  well 
known  to  need  comment.  In  the  case  of 
the  Belgian  Prince,  Kapitan  Paul  Wagen- 


influence  of  the  world,  and  strife  is  not. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too 
proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a 
nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to 
convince  others  by  force  that  it  is  right."— 
Editor. 


fuhr  sank  the  vessel;  then,  lining  up  the 
members  of  its  crew  on  the  deck  of  his 
submarine,  he  closed  the  hatches  and 
submerged. 

It  may  be  contended  that  the  whole- 
sale slaughter  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren before  German  firing  squads  was 
quite  as  monstrous.  It  was;  but  this 
article  is  dealing  only  with  incidents 
which  were  so  presented  to  public  atten- 
tion that  they  fired  the  imagination  of 
the  masses.  They  are  the  outstanding 
cases  that  people  remember. 

Amid  so  much  of  tragedy  there  was 
little  room  for  comedy.  Strange  as  it 
may  seem,  the  greater  part  of  the  com- 
edy was  furnished  to  the  newspapers 
and  magazines,  and  through  these  to  the 
public,  by  the  persons  of  William  Ho- 
henzollern  and  his  eldest  son,  until  lately 
a  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia.  No  end  of 
sarcasm  resulted  from  the  Kaiser's  "  will 
to  dine  "  in  Paris.  The  son  was  treated 
as  a  buffoon  by  both  cartoonists  and 
paragraphers.  A  cartoon  by  Bronstrup 
of  The  San  Francisco  Chronicle  is  an  ex- 
ample of  the  fun  derived  at  the  expense 
of  both  father  and  son.  This  artist  de- 
picted a  war-tattered  .  Crown  Prince, 
bandaged  and  court-plastered,  standing 
at  a  field  telephone  back  of  the  fighting 
lines.  He  was  saying:  "  Iss  dot  you, 
papa?  Yah,  dot's  all  drue  aboudt  dose 
Americans." 

The  former  Kaiser's  right  to  be  classed 
among  the  highlights  of  the  war  is  de- 
rived largely  from  the  fact  that  prob- 
ably in  no  age  has  a  personality  been 
more  thoroughly  and  heartily  detested 
by  so  great  a  number  of  the  world's  pop- 
ulation. Other  men  have  been  as  in- 
tensely hated,  either  in  their  own  coun- 
try or  in  an  enemy  country,  or  in  both; 
but  the  Hohenzollem  Emperor  is  unique 
in  all  history  in  that  practically  the 
whole  world  was  his  enemy. 

No  single  event  has,  in  such  a  com- 
paratively short  period  of  time,  added 
so  many  words  to  the  English  language. 
A  number  of  war  books  have  had  to  sup- 
ply glossaries  for  the  information  of 
their  readers.  Even  the  United  States 
Government  published  a  "  War  Cyclo- 
pedia "  defining  the  new  words  and 
terms  used  in  connection  with  the  war. 


126 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


How  many  of  these  words  will  remain  a 
part  of  the  spoken  and  written  language, 
time  alone  can  tell.  At  the  present  time 
we  can  think  of  no  one  word  which  has 


become  more  universally  adopted  by 
the  people  than  "  camouflage."  In  this 
country  the  verb  to  "  hooverize "  has 
made  some  headway. 


One  Hundred  Tests  of  Intelligence 


Questions  and  Answers 
By  CARSON  C.  HATHAWAY 


HERE  are  one  hundred  questions 
concerning  men,  women,  and 
events  frequently  mentioned  in 
the  magazines  and  newspapers. 
By  grading  yourself  1  per  cent,  on  each 
question  you  may  get  a  fair  estimate  of 
your  information  on  present-day  world 
affairs. 

These  persons  died  in  the  year  1919. 
What  were  they,  or  what  had  they  done 
that  made  them  widely  known? 

1.  Frank    W.    Woolworth. 

2.  John  Fox,   Jr. 

3.  Adelina  Patti. 

4.  William   Waldorf  Aster. 

5.  Horace   Fletcher. 

6.  Dr.   Mary  Walker. 

7.  Charles   E.   Van  Loan. 

8.  Dr.    Anna    Howard    Shaw. 

9.  John    Mitchell. 

10.  Sir   William    Osier. 

11.  Henry   Clay   Frick. 

12.  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 

In  what  position  has  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing named  persons  acquired  national 
or  international  prominence? 

13.  Joseph    P.    Tumulty. 

14.  Norman    Hapgood. 

15.  Franklin   D'Olier. 

16.  Dr.   Frank  Crane. 

17.  Frank   L.    Polk. 

18.  Joshua  W.   Alexander. 

19.  Walker  D.   Hines. 

20.  Lew   Dockstader. 

21.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

22.  Walt    Mason. 

23.  John    L.    Lewis. 

24.  William    O.    Jenkins. 

25.  Harry    A.    Garfield. 

26.  Gilbert  M.  Hitchcock. 

27.  David  F.    Houston. 

28.  Franklin    D.    Roosevelt. 

29.  Edward    M.    House. 

30.  John    W.    Davis. 

31.  Nicholas  Murray   Butl^. 

32.  Glenn    E.    Plumb. 

33.  Frank  H.   Simonds. 


34.  George  B.   Vincent. 

35.  Alexis    Carrel. 

36.  James  W.    Gerard. 

37.  Franklin  K.   Lane. 

38.  W.   P.    G.    Harding. 

39.  Homer    S.    Cummings. 

40.  Calvin    Coolidge. 

41.  Miles  Poindexter. 

42.  William   S.    Sims. 

43.  Peyton  C.  March. 

These  are  foreign  names  frequently 
mentioned.  Why?  What  was  or  is  the 
position  or  the  activity  that  made  these 
persons  widely  talked  of? 

44.  Rosa  Luxemburg. 

45.  Admiral  Kolchak. 

46.  Francesco    Nitti. 

47.  Bela   Kun. 

48.  Ludwig   C.    A.    K.    Martens. 

49.  Harry    G.    Hawker, 

50.  Ignace   Jan   Paderewski. 

51.  Georges   Clemenceau. 

52.  Gabriele  d'Annunzio. 

53.  Eamonn    De   Valera. 

54.  Viscount   Grey. 

Here  are  a  few  questions  on  happen- 
ings abroad: 

55.  What  limit  does  the  Treaty  of  Versailles 
place  on  the  number  of  men  in  the  Ger- 
man Army? 

56.  Where  was  the  interned  German  fleet 
sunk? 

57.  What  nations  made  up  the  "  Big  Five  "  ? 

58.  What  is  meant  by   "  Bastile  Day  "  ? 

59.  What  important  coal  region  was  awarded 
to   France   by   the   Peace   Treaty? 

60.  When  was  the  German  Peace  Treaty 
signed? 

61.  What  nation  refused  to  sign   the  treaty? 

These  individuals  spend  their  lives 
entertaining  you.     What  is  each? 

62.  Harrison   Fisher. 

63.  Alma    Gluck. 

64.  Fritz    Kreisler. 

65.  Rose   O'Neil. 

66.  Bud   Fisher. 

67.  Josef  Hofmann. 

68.  Alice  Brady. 


ONE  HUNDRED  TESTS  OF  INTELLIGENCE 


127 


What  do  these  characters  stand  for? 

69.  G.  O.  P. 

70.  H.  C.  L. 

71.  Y.  M.  H.  A. 

72.  S.  O.  S. 

73.  R-34. 

And  of  course  you  can  answer  these 
questions : 

74.  Who  are  called  the  "  Bitter  Enders  "  ? 

75.  What  distinguished  Belgian  prelate  visited 
America  in  1919? 

76.  What  Constitutional  amendment  was 
passed  by  Congress  in  1919  and  submitted 
to  the  States  for  adoption? 

77.  What  man  resigned  from  President  Wil- 
son's Cabinet  to  become  a  United  States 
Senator? 

78.  What  United  States  Senator  was  recently- 
indicted  for  alleged  corruption  in  his 
election? 

79.  What  man  was  elected  Governor  in  1919 
on  the  promise  that  he  would  make  his 
State  as   "  wet  as  the  Atlantic  "  ? 

80.  Where  will  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention meet  in  1920?  The  Democratic 
Convention? 

81.  How  many  States  ratified  the  prohibition 
amendment   to    the    Constitution? 

82.  What  Socialist  was  denied  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Representatives? 

83.  What  airplane  made  the  first  trans- 
atlantic flight? 

84.  Who  was  Director  General  of  the  Amer- 
ican  Relief  Commission   in  Europe? 

85.  What  Cabinet  member  narrowly  escaped 
death  from  a  bomb   in  1919? 

86.  When  did  wartime  prohibition  go  into 
effect? 

87.  What  incident  occurred  at  Centralia, 
Wash.,    on   Nov.    11,    1919? 

88.  What  bill  was  vetoed  twice  by  President 
Wilson  and  was  then  passed  by  Congress 
over    the   Veto? 

89.  What  honor  was  conferred  on  Pershing 
by   Congress? 

90.  What  reigning  sovereign  addressed  Con- 
gress in  1919? 

If  you  have  the  normal  American 
interest  in  athletics  these  last  will  be 
the  easiest  questions  of  all;  feminine 
readers,  however,  may  enlist  the  help  of 
expert  masculine  friends: 

91.  What  baseball  team  won  the  1919  world 
series? 

92.  Who  headed  the  batting  list  in  1919? 

93.  Who  broke  the  major  league  record  for 
home  runs? 

94.  Who  is  the  manager  of  the  New  York 
"  Giants  "  ? 

95.  What  baseball  team  is  known  as  the 
"  Tigers  "  ? 

96.  Who  won  the  national  lawn  tennis  cham- 
pionship in  1919? 

97.  Who  won  the  amateur  golf  championship 
in   1919? 

98.  Who  holds  the  world's  altitude  record  in 
airplane  flying? 


99.  Who  is  the  French  heavyweight  boxing 
favorite? 

100.  Who  is  called  the  "  Flying  Parson  "  ? 

ANSWERS 
Following  are  the  answers  to  the  fore- 
going   questions,    arranged    with    corre- 
sponding numbers: 

1.  Founder   of  5   and   10   cent   stores. 

2.  Author   of   "  The  Trail   of   the   Lonesome 
Pine,"    &c. 

3.  Concert  singer. 

4.  American  millionaire  who  became  British 
peer. 

5.  Advocate  of  proper  food  mastication. 

6.  Advocate  of  male  attire  for  women. 

7.  Short  story   writer. 

8.  Suffragist. 

9.  Conservative  labor  leader. 

10.  British  physician,  popularly  (but  inac- 
curately) believed  to  have  said  that  a 
man  is   useless  after  he   is  40. 

11.  Steel  magnate. 

12.  Writer  of  popular  poetry. 

13.  Private   Secretary   to   President  Wilson. 

14.  Ex-Minister    to   Denmark. 

15.  National  Commander  of  the  American 
Legion. 

16.  Writer    of    inspirational    articles. 

17.  Assistant   Secretary   of   State. 

18.  Secretary    of    Commerce.. 

19.  Director   General  of  Railroads. 

20.  Comedian. 

21.  Republican  leader  of  the  Senate,  and 
chief  figure  in  the  fight  to  attach  reserva- 
tions to  the  German  Peace  Treaty  before 
ratifying  it. 

22.  Kansas  poet  whose  verses  are  widely 
syndicated. 

23.  President  of  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America. 

24.  United  States  Consular  Agent  at  Puebla, 
Mexico. 

25.  Federal  Fuel  Administrator  during  the 
war. 

26.  Democratic  Senator  in  charge  of  the  Ad- 
ministration's fight  for  the  Peace  Treaty. 

27.  Secretary    of   the   Treasury. 

28.  Assistant  Secretary   of  the   Navy. 

29.  President  Wilson's  private  adviser  ;  Amer- 
ican delegate  to  the  Peace  Conference. 

30.  Ambassador    to    Great    Britain. 

31.  President    of    Columbia    University. 

32.  Advocate   of  nationalization   of  railroads. 

33.  Newspaper    correspondent. 

34.  President  of  Rockefeller  Foundation. 

35.  French-American   physician. 

36.  Ex-Ambassador   to   Germany. 

37.  Secretary  of  the  Interior  until  March  1, 
1920. 

38.  Governor  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board. 

39.  Chairman  of  Democratic  National  Com- 
mittee. 

40.  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

41.  United  States   Senator  from  Washington. 

42.  Rear  Admiral   United    States   Navy. 

43.  Chief  of  Staff  United  States  Army. 


128 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


44.  Leader  of  German  radicals,  or  Sparta- 
cans  ;  she  and  Karl  Liebknecht  were 
killed  by  a  Berlin  mob,   Jan.  15,  1919. 

45.  Anti-Bolshevist  Russian  leader,  who  was 
captured  by  the  Reds  at  Irkutsk  and 
executed   Feb.    7,    1919. 

46.  Premier    of   Italy. 

47.  Ex-dictator  of  Hungary. 

48.  "  Ambassador  "  to  United  States  from 
Russian    Soviet   Government. 

49.  Daring  Australian  who  made  the  first 
(unsuccessful)  attempt  at  a  non-stop 
flight  across  the  Atlantic  in  an  airplane. 

50.  Famous  pianist ;  ex-Premier  of  Poland. 

51.  Ex-Premier   of  France. 

52. .Italian   poet  who   seized   Fiume. 

53.  "  President  of  Irish  Republic." 

54.  British  Foreign  Minister  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war;  recently  spt^jial  Ambas- 
sador to  the  United  States. 

55.  One   hundred   thousand   men. 

56.  Scapa  Flow. 

57.  United  States,  Great  Britain,  France, 
Italy,   Japan. 

58.  French  national  holiday  commemorating 
the  fall  of  the  Bastile,   July  14,   1789. 

59.  The   Saar  Valley. 

60.  June  28,  1919. 

61.  China. 


62. 

Artist  famous  for  his  "  Harrison,  Fisher  " 

91. 

pictures. 

92. 

63. 

Concert   singer. 

93. 

64. 

Austrian   violinist. 

94. 

65. 

Designer  of  the   "  Kewpies." 

95. 

66. 

Creator  of  "  Mutt  and  Jeff." 

96. 

67. 

Pianist. 

97. 

68. 

Actress. 

98. 

Grand    Old    Party, 
publican  Party. 


term    applied    to   Re- 


70.  High  cost  of  living. 

71.  Young   Men's   Hebrew  Association. 

72.  Wireless  distress  call. 

73.  Name  of  the  first  dirigible  to  cross  the 
Atlantic. 

74.  A  group  of  United  States  Senators,  iC'i 
by  Borah  and  Johnson,  who  are  opposed 
to  ratification  of  the  Peace  Treaty  on 
any  terms,  so  long  as  it  contain*  the 
League  of  Nations  covenant. 

75.  Cardinal  Mercier. 

76.  Woman   suffrage    amendment. 

77.  Carter  Class  of  Virginia. 

78.  Truman  H.   Newberry  of  Michigan. 

79.  Governor  Edwards   of  New   Jersey. 

80.  Chicago;   San  Francisco. 

81.  Forty-five. 

82.  Victor  L.   Berger  of  Wisconsin. 

83.  NC-4. 

84.  Herbert  Hoover. 

85.  A.  Mitchell  Palmer,  Attorney  General. 

86.  July  1,  1919. 

87.  Death  of  four  ex-soldiers  at  hands  of 
I.   W.   W.   during  Armistice  Day  parade. 

88.  Repeal   of   daylight   saving  law. 

89.  Made   a  General   for   life. 

90.  King    Albert    of    Belgium. 

Cincinnati  "  Reds." 

Tyrus    R.    Cobb. 

"  Babe  "    Ruth. 

John    McGraw. 

Detroit   American    League    team. 

William   M.    Johnston. 

S.  Davidson  Herron. 

Major   R.    W.    Schroeder,    Feb.    27,    1920, 

reached   a  height  of  36,020  feet. 

99.  Georges   Carpentier. 

100.  Lieutenant  R.   W.    Maynard. 


Changes  in  the  Strand 


THAT  famous  thoroughfare  of  London, 
the  Strand,  which  has  undergone  so 
many  changes  in  the  last  fifteen  years 
that  most  of  its  Victorian  landmarks 
have  already  disappeared,  is  to  be  still 
further  transformed.  The  blocks  of 
buildings  between  Simpson's  restaurant 
and  Wellington  Street  have  just  been 
purchased  for  something  like  £1,500,000, 
and  the  buildings  will  be  cleared  away 
and  a  large  new  hotel,  a  newspaper 
office  and  shops  are  to  be  built  on  the 
space  thus  made  available.  The  Strand 
will  be  widened  starting  from  the  Savoy 
Hotel.      Among    other    landmarks    Bur- 


gess's fish-sauce  shop,  one  of  the  old 
London  shops  with  a  yard  behind  and 
a  quay  of  its  own  on  the  river,  where 
small  ships  discharged  limes  and  oils 
from  Italy,  which  had  been  converted 
into  a  cinematograph  theatre,  will  finally 
disappear.  There  is  still  a  queer,  narrow 
little  entry  near  by,  leading  to  steps  that 
descend  picturesquely  to  the  Savoy 
churchyard.  A  large  area  touching  the 
Strand  on  the  other  side  is  also  for  sale. 
The  Strand  and  its  environments,  from 
the  Savoy  Hotel  to  Australia  House, 
when  these  plans  are  completed,  will  take 
on  the  aspect  of  a  wide,  modern  metro- 
politan avenue. 


Losses  of  France  in  the  War 

By  GABRIEL  LOUIS-JARAY 

[Director  op  the  France-America  Committee] 

In  this  important  article  from  the  official  organ  of  the  France-America  Com- 
mittee (France-Etats-Unis)  the  war  sacrifices  of  France  are  thrown  into  bold  relief. 
In  comparing  them  with  those  of  the  great  allied  powers,  as  M.  Firmin  Roz,  the 
editor  of  the  review,  points  out,  one  is  struck  by  the  fact  that  France,  apart  from 
her  moral  anguish,  has  suffered  far  more  heavily  in  material  ways  than  the  United 
Kingdom,  Italy,  and  the  United  States.  The  reasons  for  this  disproportion  are 
explained  in  detail.  The  article  is  based  in  part  on  statistics  formulated  by  Joseph 
Kitchin,  an  English  statistician,  and  in  part  on  statistical  data  collected  by  the 
French  Deputy,  M.  Louis  Dubois,  and  presented  to  the  French  Chamber  on 
Dec.  18,  1919. 


THE   sacrifices   accepted  by  France 
during  the  war  in  defense  of  her 
own  liberty  and  that  of  the  world 
are  beyond  anything  the  imagina- 
tion could  have  grasped  in  1914. 

Sacrifices  in  money,  in  men,  in  land, 
the  sum  total  seems  to  be  too  heavy  for 
the  forces  of  the  nation.  And  yet  we 
are  assured  that,  from  this  bath  of 
blood  and  pain,  a  new  France  may  rise, 
rejuvenated,  thanks  to  the  marvelous 
qualities  of  labor,  social  equilibrium,  and 
natural  moderation  of  the  French  people, 
if  only  our  politicians  are  not  too  inferior 
to  our  soldiers,  and  if  our  allies  and 
friends  guarantee  to  us  the  help  which 
justice,  regard  for  their  defense,  their 
own  interest  rightly  understood,  and  their 
friendship  command  them  to  grant  us. 

THE  MONEY  SACRIFICE 
Before  the  war  the  yearly  budget  of 
France  was  over  5,000,000,000  francs, 
and  during  those  five  years  our  expenses 
amounted  to  some  150,000,000,000  francs. 
In  the  period  we  are  now  entering 
our  national  debt  will  be  not  less  than 
188,000,000,000,  the  yearly  interest 
thereon  being  about  9,290,000,000,  and 
our  annual  general  expenses,  counting 
2,000,000,000  for  pensions,  about  15,600,- 
000,000. 

Such  figures,  no  doubt,  cannot  be 
taken  as  absolutely  accurate ;  but  what  a 
light  they  throw  on  the  burden  France 
will  have  to  support! 

But  to  appreciate  its  full  weight,  noth- 


ing is  better  than  the  comparison  Mr. 
Kitchin,  the  British  statistican,  draws  be- 
tween the  different  great  nations.  The 
result  proves  that  France's  sacrifices  in 
money  have  been  unequaled;  if  the 
amount  of  the  national  wealth  of  the 
country  at  the  eve  of  the  war  and  that 
of  the  national  debt  at  its  close  are  put 
side  by  side,  it  is  seen  that  the  United 
States  has  mortgaged,  so  to  speak,  only 
4%  per  cent,  of  national  wealth,  the 
United  Kingdom  32  per  cent.,  Germany 
50  per  cent.,  and  France  62  per  cent. 
And  let  us  notice  that  the  English  sta- 
tistician compares  our  national  debt 
after  the  war  with  our  national  wealth 
before  the  war.  What  would  it  be  if  he 
had  written  opposite  it  our  present  na- 
tional wealth  decreased  in  ten  devastated 
departments?  Germany  doubtless  will 
have  to  make  good  this  destruction,  but 
when,  and  how? 

Still  keeping  to  Mr.  Kitchin's  calcula- 
tions, let  us  compare  the  national  revenue 
of  the  great  nations  before  the  war  and 
the  annual  expenses  they  have  or  will 
have  to  meet  after  the  war;  in  the  United 
States  4  per  cent,  of  the  revenue  will 
suffice,  in  England  23  per  cent.,  in  Ger- 
many 35  per  cent.,  and  in  France  42  per 
cent.  Germany  doubtless  will  have  to 
refund  the  sums  paid  for  pensions  and 
relief,  but  France's  pre-war  national 
revenue  has  been  decreased  by  the  loss 
of  all  that  our  devastated  regions 
brought  in,  and  their  reconstruction  will 


130 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


FRANCE 


not    be    complete,    nor    even   well    under 
way,  ten  years  hence. 

Is  another  comparison  desired?  Mr. 
Kitchin  compares  the  population  of  the 
great  States  in  1914  and  the  amount  of 
their  real  national  debt  at  the  end  of  the 
war,  and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
each  Frenchman  will  have  to  bear  a 
burden  of  4,675  francs  on  this  head, 
whereas  each  citizen  of  the 
United  States  will  have  one 
of  525  francs  only,  the  Eng- 
lishman 3,100  francs,  and  the 
German  2,950  francs.  And 
if  our  population  has  been 
somewhat  increased  by  the 
annexation  of  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, let  us  think  of  the 
2,230,000  Frenchmen  in  the 
devastated  provinces  whose 
sources  of  wealth  have  been 
destroyed. 

In  the  tragedy  of  the  great 
war,  it  is  on  France  that  the 
financial  burden  falls  by  far 
the  most  heavily,  as  may  be 
seen  by  the  tabulation  at  the 
foot  of  the  following  page. 
(See  also  Diagram  I.) 

THE    HUMAN    SACRIFICE 

And  it  is  of  France  again 
that  the  heaviest  sacrifices 
in  men  have  been  asked  on 
the  side  of  the  victorious 
powers.  The  official  figures 
furnished  by  the  different 
military  administrations  have 
not  been  fixed  immutably; 
yet,  if  they  have  to  undergo 
certain  alterations,  these  will 
certainly  be  unimportant;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  methods 
of  calculating  and  checking 
are  perhaps  not  everywhere 
so  rigorous  as  in  France,  as 
M.  Louis  Marin  shows  in  a 
report  laid  before  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  But  such  as  they  are  to- 
day, the  figures  are  sufficient  for 
one  to  be  able  to  draw  painful  conclu- 
sions from  them;  it  is  sufficient  to  con- 
sider the  graphic  presentation  of  com- 
parative losses  as  shown  in  Dia- 
gram II.,  [on  Page  132,]  to  be 
struck     by     the      enormous      sacrifices 


accepted  by  France,  and  the  part 
she  takes  in  the  bloody  payment  of 
our  common  victory;  1,355,000  of  her 
sons  have  fallen  in  battle,  against  648,- 
000  citizens  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
465,000  Italians,  and  51,000  North  Amer- 
icans; out  of  100  inhabitants  of  France, 
3.4  have  perished,  whereas  the  propor- 
tion works  out  at  1.4  for  the  United  King- 


FlNf^NCIfM  SirUfi^TtON  COMPARED 


W/TH  £ND  OF  WAf^//N pounds) 

/ACC0RDIN6  TO  eiNGUSH  STATIST/ Cf AN 
Mf./C/TC/f/N) 


U.S. 


GERMANY 


PROPORTION  OFmriONAL  DEBT POR  £ACH  /NHA  - 
BlTf\NT    BBFO/?£  WAR  (fN  POUAiOsJ 


FRANCE 


U.S. 


GERMANY 


UNITED 
KINGDOM 
PROPORTION  OF  NATIONAL  DEBT  COMPARED 
i^/TH  NATIONAL   WEALTH  BEFORE  WAR 


/ANNUAL  PUBLIC 

y/^      T/N  MlLUON<,OE  POVNOf, 


FRANCE 


U.S. 


GERMANY 


UNITED 
KIN6DOM 
39MIL.INHAB     t^'^MIt.'/NHAB.      i02  MIL.INMAB.      (,7lilL./m 

191"*-  fSff  'Sfb  '9'^ 


DIAGRAM    I. 

dom,  1.3  for  Italy,  0.05  for  the  United 
States,  and  even  at  2.9  for  Germany.  It 
may  therefore  be  affirmed  that  in  France, 
out  of  100  physically  sound  men,  young 
enough  to  work,  10  at  least  have  been 
killed,  and  the  number  of  those  who  have 
either  been  slightly  or  severely  wounded 
or  are  mutilated  is  put  at  20. 

Such   is   the   particularly   cruel   price 


LOSSES  OF  FRANCE  IN  THE  WAR 


131 


)f  our  victory,  a  price  to  which  France 
has  once  again  contributed  more  than 
her  due.  To  the  moral  sufferings  under- 
gone by  nearly  every  family  in  the 
country  add  the  economical  and  social 
consequences,  which  are  particularly 
grave,  owing  to  the  very  extent  of  the 
sacrifice;  these  dead,  like  the  wounded 
and  mutilated,  are  chiefly  young  men, 
the  flower  of  French  youth,  those  who 
should  have  put  out  the  greatest  eco- 
nomic effort  in  the  years  to  come,  those 
who  should  have  given  the  most  sons  to 
France*;  100  men  of  25  have  a  quite 
different  economic  value  and  national 
value  for  the  repopulation  of  a  country 
than  100  men  of  60;  the  calculations 
have  not  been  made,  but  I  am  certain 
that  out  of  100  sound  young  men  living 
in  1914,  about  20  have  been  killed,  and 


between  20  and  40  have  been  wounded  or 
mutilated.  Such  is  for  France  the  awful 
balance  sheet  of  the  great  war,  as  con- 
cerns men;  it  may  be  seen  at  a  glance 
in  the  tabulation  at  the  foot  of  Page 
133.     (See  also  Diagram  II.) 

If  the  great  allied  and  associated 
powers  have  shared  largely  in  the  com- 
mon sacrifices  in  men  and  money,  com- 


*I  shall  say  nothing  new  to  Frenchmen,  but 
something:  perhaps  of  which  foreigners  are 
ignorant,  in  stating  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  there  was  a  thorough  hecatomb  of 
the  61ite  of  our  youth;  our  young  officers 
and  non-coms,  knowing  nothing  of  the  new 
methods  of  warfare,  let  themselves  be  killed 
at  the  head  of  their  troops  with  extraordin- 
ary enthusiasm,  in  order  to  stimulate  their 
men  and  make  up  for  our  inferiority  in 
armament  and  preparation. 


FINANCIAL  SITUATION  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  STATES  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  THE  WAR 

(According  to  Joseph   Kitchin)  t 

In  millions  of  pounds  sterling. 

BEFORE   THE   WAR 

United  United 

,    Kingdom.       France.  States.           Italy.     Germany. 

National    debt    650                1,315  200              550                   240 

Yearly  interest   on   the   debt 19                     ,52  5                20                       8 

National  wealth    18,000              12,000  50,000                ..              16,000 

Yearly    national    revenue    2,400  '             1,500  8,000                . .                2,100 

Yearly    public    expenses     198                   208  145                . .                    166 

National    wealth     (in    pounds,     per    in- 
habitant)               390                   300  476                . .                    235 

DURING    THE    WAR 

Direct  war  expenses   (not  including  ad-  - 
vances    between    allies) 7,600  6,000  4,000  2,400  8,750 

AFTER    THE  WAR 

National    debt    5,700  7,500                2,250          3,000                8,000 

Yearly  interest  on  the  debt 285  368                    96             150                  400 

Yearly    public    expenses    555  624                   306                . .                    729 

Proportion  of  the  national   debt  to  the 

national  debt  before  the  war 32%  62%                   4i^%         ..                    50% 

Proportion  of  the  yearly  public  expenses 

to  the  national  revenue  before  the  war.  23%  42%                   4%            . .                    35% 
National     debt     (in     pounds     per     in- 
habitant)   124  187                     21                ..                   118 


tM.  Kitchin  has  fixed  approximative  figures,  which  were  published  in  The  London 
Times  on  January  6,  1919,  and  are  chiefly  valuable  as  a  means  of  comparison,  by  supposing 
that  the  expenses  of  the  war  will  finally  be  what  they  would  have  been  if  the  expenses  of  the 
last  year  of  the  war  had  been  continued  until  July  31,  1919,  and  suddenly  stopped  there ;  that 
is.  to  say,  had  lasted  during  a  five  years'  war.  The  questions  of  the  reparation  of  damage 
done  and  of  indemnities  are  not  taken  into  account.  For  the  calculation  of  the  public  ex- 
penses after  the  war,  Mr.  Kitchin  adds  the  interest  of  the  debt  (not  counting  the  sinking- 
fund),  the  pre-war  expenses  (without  counting  interest  on  the  debt,  but  including  the 
average  military  expenses),  the  increase  in  different  expenses  and  pensions  (which  he  puts 
at  2,000,000,000  francs  for  France,  against  a  total  post-bellum  expense  of  15,600.000,000 
francs.  Mr.  Kitchin  put  the  total  direct  expense  of  the  war.  incurred  by  all  the  belligerents, 
at  about  975,000,000,000  francs),   or  $195,000,000,000. 


132 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


1.355.000 


FRANCE 


parison  is  needless  if  the  third  class  of 
sacrifices  accepted  by  France  is  taken 
with  consideration.  When  it  is  said  and 
written  that  France  has  been  the  boule- 
vard of  the  liberty  of  the  world,  it  is 
not  sufficiently  remembered  that  she  has 
paid  for  that  honor  not  only  by  the  occu- 
pation of  ten  departments,  as  took  place 
in  Belgium  and  in  the  north  of  Italy, 
but  especially  by  a  systematic  destruc- 
tion of  her  territory  which 
nothing  can  parallel  in  the 
slightest  extent  in  the  West. 
Generalized  devastation  is  a 
spectacle  which  the  foreigner 
can  see  on  French  soil  only; 
it  affects  a  tenth  of  our  ter- 
ritory and  2,250,000  of  our 
inhabitants. 

Nothing  is  more  difficult 
than  to  translate  into  figures 
the  cost  of  the  disaster,  and 
the  treaty  of  peace  has  given 
until  May  1,  1921,  to  fix  the 
estimate.  But  a  preliminary 
inquiry  has  been  carried  out 
for  the  Budget  Commission 
of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
and  makes  it  possible  to 
gather  an  idea  of  the  extent 
of  the  damage. 

M.  Louis  Dubois  has  de- 
termined the  essentials  of  it 
in  an  eighty-page  pamphlet 
which  we  summarize  in  the 
schedule  we  have  drawn  up; 
he  reaches  the  tremendous 
figure  of  100,000,000,000  for 
direct  material  damage  to 
property;  this  is  the  damage 
the  treaty  of  peace  makes 
Germany  responsible  for. 

This  circumstance  leads 
superficial  minds  to  think 
that  France,  from  an  eco- 
nomic point  of  view,  at  least, 
will  not  suffer  from  it,  since  reparation 
has  been  granted  her. 

This  is  a  strange  verbal  delusion, 
which  a  little  reality  soon  dissipates. 
First  of  all,  we  do  not  know  when  the 
reparation  due  will  be  carried  out.  Ger- 
many has  to  refund  to  all  the  powers, 
not  only  their  damage  to  property  and 
civilians,  but  also  the  cost  of  pensions, 
of  grants  to  families,  the  upkeep  of  the 


armies  of  occupation,  and  the  payment 
of  food  and  raw  material  that  the  Allies 
and  associates  furnish  to  her.  The  total 
amount  will  be  tremendous  and  there  is 
no  prior  right  for  the  payment  of  the 
cost  of  the  reconstruction  of  devastated 
territories.  After  what  lapse  of  time 
then  will  our  population  be  indemnified? 
They  cannot  tell,  and  if  Germany  takes 
a  hundred  years  to  pay  her  debt,  where 


COMPf\RfKTI  V£ .  3(\CRIFtC£5  IN  MEN 

2.000.000 


IT/a>LY 


UNITED 
KINGDOM 

NUMBER  OF  KILLED aind  Ml 55/ NO 


GERMAN1 


FRANCE 


GERMANY 


U  KITED  ITALY 

KINGDOM 
PROPORTION  OF  KILLEPcind  MISSING  pet  100  iNHftBlTflNTS 


DIAGRAM  11. 

shall  we  find  the  necessary  advance? 
Justice  would  require  that  these  in- 
demnities for  reparations  should  have 
the  preference  over  all  others  and  that 
an  interallied  loan  should  discount  the 
total  sum  owed  by  Germany  on  this 
head;  the  populations  would  be  paid 
their  indemnity,  and  Germany,  for  a 
hundred  years,  if  need  be,  would  pay 
the  allied  and  associated  powers  the  in- 


LOSSES  OF  FRANCE  IN  THE  WAR 


133 


terest  and  the  sums  necessary  for  the 
amortization  of  this  sacred  debt.  This 
would  be  an  international  loan  for  the 
reconstruction  of  the  devastated  terri- 
tories. 

But  this  very  important  question  of 
lapse  of  time  and  execution  is  not  all. 


I 


Mf\TERI/M  MD  DIRECT  PAMA6£  IN 
DEVAdTATED  FRANCE. 

fMCQRD/r^G  TO  M.10UJ5  pUBOts) 


W. 


HOUSES;'  AGRI-      COAL     INDUSTRY,  MEANS    OTHER 

DWELLINGS    CULTURE,   MINES    ALL  INDUS-      OF         DAM" 

AND  PUBLIC      tA/VOS,  TRIE.5,IR0N    TRANS-    AGES, 

MONUMENT,^     'WOODS.  MINBS,  PORT    COMMEl? 

tiUNTlNb.  MIHIN6  IN-  CIAL 

FliHINO  OUSTRIBS  AND 

excEPrcoAL  PROFES- 

SIONS 
TOTAL  DIRECT  AND  MATERIAL  DAMAGES  ■   \00  BILLIONS 
DAMAGES  THEORETICALLY    R?E-IMBURSEP  BY  GERMAtSY 


DIAGRAM  III. 


Let  us  examine  a  concrete  case,  which 
will  enable  us  to  grasp  the  reality  better. 
A  cultivator  had  in  the  devastated  part 
of  France  a  house,  land  and  stock  worth 
20,000  francs,  from  which  he  drew  by 
his  work  a  revenue  of  5,000  or  6,000 
francs  yearly.  You  renew  his  stock,  you 
restore  his  land  to  its  former 
state,  you  rebuild  his  house, 
you  give  him  back  his  stolen 
agricultural  instruments,  you 
recover  the  money  and  sav- 
ings taken  from  him,  you 
present  him  with  furniture 
in  exchange  of  that  which 
has  disappeared,  you  do,  in 
a  word,  everything  the  Peace 
Treaty  provides  for,  and  to 
the  fullest  extent,  for  many 
cultivators,  all  this  will  be 
done  only  two,  three,  five, 
or  ten  years  hence.  Let  us 
suppose,  however,  that  the 
one  we  are  considering  is 
particularly  favored,  that  he 
is  fully  compensated,  and 
that  all  this  restitution  and 
reparation  is  carried  out  dur- 
ing the  years  1920-21,  and 
is  finished  at  the  end  of  July, 
1922.  He  will  have  been  de- 
prived of  the  normal  fruit  of 
his  labor  from  August,  1914, 
till  August,  1922,  that  is,  for 
eight  years.  This  loss  will 
have  been  absolute  for  five 
years,  partial  for  three 
years;  that  is  to  say,  he  will 
have  lost  at  the  least  35,000 
francs.  It  is  true  he  will  have 
been  able  to  do  work  during 
these    five   years,    but   what 


MILITARY    SACRIFICES   OF  THE   PRINCIPAL.   STATES    DURING    THE    WAR 


France. 

Population**     39,600.000 

Number    of    mobilizedt 8,390,000 

Number  of  killed  and  missing}..     1,355,000 
Proportion  of  the  number  of  killed 
and  missing  to  100  inhabitants.         3.4 


United 

United 

Kingdom. 

Italy. 

States. 

Germany. 

45,370,000 

35,858,000 

102,017,000 

67,810,000 

5,700,000 

5,250,000 

3,800,000 

11,200,000 

648,000 

465,000 

51.000 

2,000,000 

1.4 


1.3 


0.05 


2.9 


♦♦According  to  Lieutenanc  Frangois  Maury:  L' apogee  d' effort  militaire  frangais.  Union 
des  grandes   Associations   frangaises,    1919,    Page   156. 

tOfficers  and  men.  The  figures  for  France  and  Germany  are  drawn  from  the  above 
work;  the  other  figures  from  the  report  of  M.  Louis  Marin,  d6put6,  on  (de  p6cule  aux 
families  des  militaires  disparus)  (Chambre  des  D6put6s,  No.  6235,  annex  to  the  sitting  of 
June    3.    1919). 

iOf  Marin's  report,  Page  48;  Page  43  for  America,  Page  32.  for  England. 


134 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


kind  of  work,  and  under  what  conditions  ? 
We  show  that  elsewhere.  It  is  thus 
probable  that  his  real  loss  in  revenue 
is  not  inferior  to  some  20,000  francs, 
that  is,  it  is  equal  to  his  loss  in  capital. 

What  will  Germany  refund  on  this 
head?  Nothing  for  the  period  between 
Aug.  1,  1914,  and  Nov.  11,  1918,  5  per 
cent,  for  the  period  commencing  on  May 
1,  1921,  and  a  sum  not  fixed  by  the 
treaty,  but  one  which  will  represent  only 
nprmal  interest  for  the  period  between 
Nov.  11,  1918,  and  May  1,  1921.  Thus,  in 
the  concrete  case  we  are  examining,  and 
supposing  that  the  interest  during  the 
intermediary  period  is  fixed  at  6  per 
cent.,  Germany  could  make  good  the  loss 
of  the  20,000  francs  capital  on  Aug.  1, 
1922,  by  adding  thereto  merely  about 
4,200  francs  for  loss  of  revenue,  and 
only  if  it  be  a  question  of  reparation  in 
money  and  not  in  kind. 

The  longer  the  period  of  reconstruc- 
tion is  the  greater  the  loss  will  keep 
growing,  since*  on  the  one  hand  the 
annual  revenue  the  cultivator  drew  from 
his  land  was  from  5,000  to  6,000  francs, 
and  the  annual  interest  Germany  would 
pay,  if  she  does  not  settle  the  indemnity 
due,  is  only  1,000  francs. 

It  is  thus  only  by  a  misnomer  that  it 
may  be  said  that  the  damage  done  to 
France  will  be  entirely  repaired  by  Ger- 
many. Even  if  the  problem  is  considered 
merely  from  the  financial  point  of  view, 
a  very  large  part  of  the  losses  experi- 


enced will  always  be  laid  upon  France, 
and  the  surplus  will  be  paid  under  con- 
ditions and  at  a  period  about  which 
nothing   is  known. 

Our  friends  and  allies  can  thus  under- 
stand that  they  are  being  singularly  de- 
luded when  the  "  integral  reconstruc- 
tion "  of  France  is  promised,  as  is  shown 
clearly  at  the  foot  this  page.  (See 
Diagram  III.) 

[To  this  figure  is  to  be  added,  as  direct 
material  damage,  damage  relative  to: 
(1)  commercial  enterprises,  public  offices 
of  courts  of  justice  and  different  pro- 
fessions; (2)  specie  and  personal  prop- 
erty, by  theft,  pillage,  war  contributions, 
&c.,  as  well  as  damage  done  to  persons 
considered  as  factors  of  production.  An 
estimate  completed  thus  would  rise  about 
100,000,000,000.  This  damage  is  that  for 
the  reparation  of  which  the  treaty  makes 
provision;  it  has  been  estimated  at 
about  three  times  the  pre-war  value,  con- 
formably to  the  clause  of  the  Peace 
Treaty  which  provides  that  the  expense 
occasioned  by  reparation  and  reconstruc- 
tion shall  be  estimated  according  to  the 
cost  of  reconstruction  at  th3  time  when 
the  work  is  carried  out.] 

Such  is  the  balance  sheet  of  France 
as  regards  men,  money,  and  territory. 
This  balance  sheet  is  so  striking  that  the 
foreign  business  men  who  are  studying 
our  country  are.  somewhat  inclined  to 
pessimism.  This  pessimism  does  not 
seem  to  me  to  be  justified  for  any  one 
acquainted  with  French  traditions.     The 


ESTIMATE   OF   THE    DIRECT    MATERIAL    DAMAGE    IN  THE    DEVASTATED 

REGIONS  OF  FRANCE 

(According  to  M.  Louis  Dubois)* 

In   millioTis   of  francs 

Raw  Material, 
Movable        Agricultural 

Immovable  Material,             Produce, 

Property.  Stock.            Provisions. 

1.  Dwelling   (and  public  monuments) 19,000  10,000 

2.  Agriculture     (shooting,     fishing,     irrigation,     woods 

and   forests) 6,580  5,364                      5,839 

3.  Coal  mines    1.434  1,404                         400 

4.  Industry     (comprising    iron    mines    and    extracting 

industries   other   than   coal   mines) 3,236  12,789                    22,522 

5.  Means    of   transport 5,196  295 

Total 35,446  29,852                    26,761 

General   total    94,059 

♦Note  brought  forward  in  the  name  of  the  Budget  Commission,  by  M.  Louis  Dubois 
(Chambre  des  D6put6s,  No.  5432,  sitting  of  Dec.  18,  1918)  ;  the  figures  have  been  determined 
according   to   the  information  which  had   reached   the   author   up   to   Jan.    31,    1919. 


WSSES  OF  FRANCE  IN  THE  WAR 


135 


nation  has  given  proof  of  sterling  quali- 
ties of  work,  balance,  moderation,  and 
perseverance.  Just  as  the  French  soldier 
has  astonished  the  world  by  his  calm,  his 
stoicism,  his  endurance,  his  optimism 
and  his  intelligence,  so  the  French 
peasant  will  show  the  same  qualities, 
being  the  same  man.  Frivolousness, 
carelessness,  vivacity,  exaltation  fol- 
lowed by  depression,  all  these  defects 
which  were  said  to  be  the  basis  of  the 
French  character  are  just  the  reverse 
of  our  qualities.  The  legend  has  set  up 
the  contrary  of  the  truth,  and  it  is  thus 
only  that  all  French  history  can  be  ex- 
plained: in  her  gravest  misfortunes, 
France  has  never  let  herself  lose  heart; 
after  passing  convulsions  and  crises  in 
her  growth,  France  has  always  recovered 
her  calmness;  her  social  equilibrium  is 
wonderful,  and  no  country  in  the  world 


has  so  many  small  peasant  landholders 
cultivating  the  soil  with  their  own  hands, 
and  uncompromising  enemies  of  all  far- 
reaching  social  upheavals.  His  turn  for 
saving  is  the  outward  sign  of  his  perse- 
verance and  moderation:  he  does  not 
consume  in  a  day  the  fruit  of  his  labor, 
but  puts  it  by  to  make  it  bear  fruit  anew 
in  its  turn.  Thus,  defying  every  eco- 
nomic and  financial  appearance,  the 
French  peasant  cultivating  the  soil  of 
France  will  recreate  French  prosperity 
in  peace,  as  in  war  he  defended  his  native 
land,  not  only  with  the  ardor  and  en- 
thusiasm he  was  credited  with,  but  with 
a  coolness,  a  tenacity,  a  calm,  imper- 
turbable optimism  he  was  said  not  to 
have.  However,  for  the  gigantic  task  of 
revivification  our  people  need  good 
economic  and  political  guidance  and  the 
help  of  our  allies  and  friends. 


German  Losses  in  the  War 


Official  figures  of  the  German  Im- 
perial Department  of  Health,  published 
at  Berlin  in  January,  1920,  gave  the  mili- 
tary deaths  in  1914  as  193,201;  in  1915, 
390,669 ;  in  1916,  311,160,  making  a  total 
for  the  three  years  of  895,030.  Statistics 
for  the  remaining  years  were  still  lack- 
ing. Assuming  that  the  military  deaths 
were  350,000  in  each  of  the  two  succeed- 
ing years,  the  total  German  loss  would 
reach  about  1,600,000. 

According  to  figures  published  in  the 
Vorwarts  of  Berlin,  the  casualties  suf- 
fered by  the  German  Army  in  the  war 
were  as  follows: 

Officers.         Men. 

Killed    62,693       1,655,553 

Wounded   116,015       4,118,092 

Prisoners  and  missing.     23.104       1,050,515 

Total    201,812       6,824,160 

A  Socialist  publicist  named  Thiele,  who 
collected  lists  of  dead  published  during 
and  after  the  war,  states  that  these  offi- 
cial lists  contain  the  names  of  1,718,246 
persons  belonging  to  the  German  Army 
who  were  reported  dead,  1,655,553  of 
these  being  men  in  the  ranks  and  62,693 
officers.  The  number  of  wounded  ac- 
cording to  these  lists  was  4,234,107,  of 
whom  116,015  were  officers,  while  the 
number  of  non-commissioned  officers  and 


privates  reported  as  prisoners  or  missing 
is  1,050,516,  and  of  officers  23,104,  which 
brings  the  total  loss  incurred  up  to  over 
7,000,000. 

According  to  the  same  lists,  the  Ger- 
man Navy  lost  24,112  sailors  and  petty 
officers  dead,  29,830  wounded,  and  11,654 
prisoners.  The  number  of  naval  offi- 
cers who  were  killed  and  wounded  during 
the  war  is  not  given. 

The  Imperial  Office  of  Health  reports 
that  of  the  members  of  the  German 
Army  w;ho  died  during  the  first  three 
years  of  the  war,  829,361,  or  92.7  per 
cent.,  fell  before  the  enemy  or  died  of 
wounds  received,  and  only  65,669,  or  7.3 
per  cent.,  died  of  illness.  Of  these  latter 
7,751  died  of  typhus,  6,007  of  infection 
resulting  from  wounds,  5,248  of  tuber- 
culosis cff  the  lungs,  5,891  of  inflamma- 
tion of  the  lungs,  6  of  smallpox,  2,516 
of  dysentery,  66  of  venereal  diseases,  47 
of  leprosy,  1,505  of  diseases  of  the 
respiratory  organs,  472  of  concussion  of 
the  brain,  2,006  of  diseases  of  the  ner- 
vous system,  4,035  of  diseases  of  the 
digestive  organs,  1,631  of  diseases  of  the 
urinary  and  genital  organs,  and  2,592 
committed  suicide.  In  14,685  cases 
the  cause  of  death  could  not  be  as- 
certained. 


Foch  One  of  the  "Immortals'' 

His  Tribute  to  French  Soldiers 


MARSHAL  FOCH  took  his  seat  in 
the  French  Academy  at  the  after- 
noon session  of  Feb.  5,  in  the 
presence  of  4,000  people,  who  had  come 
to  look  upon  "  the  greatest  soldier  of 
them  all"  as  he  received  the  highest 
tribute  France  can  pay  to  her  men  of 
achievement.  A  Marshal  of  France, 
General  in  Chief  of  the  Armies  of  the 
West,  and  conqueror  in  a  World  War, 
welcomed  to  the  highest  literary  and 
scientific  body  of  the  world  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  a  great  and  triumphant  repub- 
lic, is  not  a  spectacle  witnessed  every 
day.  The  ceremony  was  marked  by  the 
traditional  formulas,  including  the  wear- 
ing of  the  green  frock  coat  consecrated 
by  custom.  Marshal  Foch  entered  at  1 
o'clock,  heralded  by  the  long  roll  of 
drums,  accompanied  by  his  sponsors. 
General  Joffre  and  M.  Freycinet,  and 
followed  by  Marshal  Petain.  He  was 
welcomed  by  a  thunder  of  applause.  Fol- 
lowing the  traditional  custom,  he  pro^ 
nounced  a  eulogy  upon  his  predecessor, 
the  Marquis  de  Vogue.  As  he  spoke  his 
virile  face,  typical  of  the  French  officer, 
illumined  by  clear  blue  eyes,  full  of  in- 
telligence and  kindliness,  and  cut  by  a 
heavy  mustache,  remained  calm  and  im- 
passive. Extreme  simplicity  and  absolute 
self-control  characterized  all  his  words 
and  all  his  bearing.  He  began  with  this 
tribute  to  the  armies  he  had  led  to  vic- 
tory: 

Above  my  head  you  have  done  honor  to 
the  glorious  phalanxes  who  for  more  than 
four  years  waged,  despite  all  hardships, 
in  many  kinds  of  weather,  and  at  the 
price  of  hitherto  unknown  sacrifices,  the 
most  violent  and  longest  of  battles.  It 
was  ta  do  homage  to  the  greatness  of 
the  duty  accepted  by  all,  to  the  unani- 
mous intention  to  conquer  at  all  cost, 
to   pay   a   humble    tribute    to    that    army, 


that  the  Academy  desired  to  take  into  its 
company  yet  another  soldier,  "  after  the 
illustrious  chief  who,  far  from  despair- 
ing for  the  safety  of  his  country,  broke 
the  invasion  and  conquered  on  the 
Marne  (Joffre)." 

Marshal  Foch  then  paid  this  tribute 
to  the  French  soldier: 

Constantly  great  through  the  ages,  with 
his  noble  disregard  for  danger  and  his 
lofty  idealism:  the  soldier  of  the  old 
monarchy,  of  the  Revolution,  of  the 
Empire,  the  soldier  who  will  show  him- 
self grander  still  in  the  war  of  1914, 
crusader  of  the  eternal  crusade  of  Justice 
and  Liberty,  against  oppression  and  force. 

President  Poincare  in  his  speech  of 
welcome  reviewed  the  career  of  Marshal 
Foch.  In  concise  but  telling  style  he 
sketched  all  the  salient  features  of  the 
great  war,  stressing  particularly  the 
crisis  of  Ypres,  where  Foch's  resolution 
and  swift  action  averted  disaster,  and 
the  fateful  day  of  Doullens,  when  the 
decision  to  make  Foch  General  in  Chief 
of  all  the  allied  forces  was  taken.  Com- 
menting on  the  charge  that  the  Marshal 
was  more  of  a  metaphysician  than  a 
man  of  action,  he  declared  that  General 
Foch  had  shown  his  ability  to  translate 
his  deductions  into  realities.  A  storm  of 
applause  greeted  the  following  words: 

It  was  for  you  to  make  war ;  it  was 
not  for  you  to  make  peace.  Yet  you  had 
the  right  to  say  what,  in  your  opinion, 
that  peace  should  be  in  order  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  war.  The  memoirs  which 
you  have  written  since  November,  1918, 
to  set  forth  the  military  guarantees  which 
you  judged  indispensable,  bear  the  mark 
of  your  patriotism  and  your  experience. 
Let  us  hope  the  world  will  never  repent 
of  only  partially  following  your  judg- 
ment. *  *  *  Your  victory  is  a  victory 
of  reason,  of  intellectual  and  moral 
power;  it  is  profoundly  national  from 
every  point  of  view.  Not  only  did  it  save 
our  nation ;  it  bears  its  very  mark. 


Achievements  of  French  Surgeons 

By  DR.  FRANCOIS  HELME 

It  is  not  generally  known  that,  after  the  infantryy  it  was  the  French  medical 
service  that  suffered  most  on  the  battle  front;  of  the  10  per  cent,  that  fell  in  the 
aggregate,  the  names  of  the  young  assistant  surgeons  and  Battalion  Surgeon  Majors 
were  by  far  the  most  frequent  on  the  casualty  lists.  The  following  tribute  to  these 
unsung  heroes,  which  has  been  translated  for  Current  History,  was  delivered  by 
Dr,  Helme  before  a  large  congress  of  surgeons  and  medical  men  in  the  main  amphi- 
theatre of  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris  on  Jan.  25,  1920: 


TO  our  medical  service  fell,  first  of 
all,  the  task  of  protecting  the 
combatants  against  the  deadly  mi- 
crobes that  surround  embattled  armies. 
The  typhus  bacillus,  from  the  time  the 
non-vaccinated  reserves  entered  the  line, 
threatened  to  destroy  the  army.  The 
medical  service  drove  out  the  typhus 
bacillus  and  eliminated  typhoid  fever. 

Then  came  tetanus — each  day  brought 
a  new  scourge.  By  means  of  injections — 
"  barrage "  injections,  as  they  were 
called — tetanus,  as  later  the  new  develop- 
ment of  gas  gangerene,  was  also  domi- 
nated. As  the  result  of  a  fatal  error, 
shared  by  all  the  belligerents,  it  was  be- 
lieved that  the  projectiles  of  modern  war- 
fare would  be  aseptic,  while  in  reality 
they  were  contaminated  by  the  most  in- 
fective germs.  Gas  gangrene,  acute  in- 
fection of  wounds,  even  hospital  gan- 
grene— all  the  scourges  that  had  afflict- 
ed our  ancestors  in  the  wars  of  old — 
rose  up  again  before  us  one  by  one.  Ah, 
the  dark  days  of  fear  and  despair!  But 
France,  like  the  young  Antigone  of 
Greek  tragedy,  was  resolved  not  to  yield 
to  Fate. 

Like  our  fellow-belligerents  we  im- 
mediately modified  our  technique.  Carrel 
from  the  beginning  brought  us  new  hope 
by  his  system  of  the  continual  irrigation 
of  wounds,  a  method  which  can  never  be 
overpraised,  and  which  the  Germans  im- 
mediately adopted.  Then  came  Professor 
Gaudier  of  Lille,  to  whom  the  surgical 
society  has  awarded  its  chief  medal  of 
honor.  This  benefactor  of  humanity, 
whose  name  deserves  to  be  remembered, 
had  the  simple  yet  momentous  idea  of 
using  the  bistoury — a  slender  surgical 
knife — to  clean  out  wounds  contaminated 
by    germs    and    projectile    splinters    or 


shreds  of  clothing.  When  the  wound  was 
thus  emptied,  as  one  cuts  away  the  bad 
portions  of  a  spoiled  fruit,  the  healthy 
tissues,  by  the  simple  operation  of  the 
laws  of  life,  sufficed  to  resist  all  com- 


DR.   ALEXIS   CARREL 

Eminent  French  surgeon,  now  of  Rockefeller 

Institute,  New  York 

(©    Savoy   Studio) 


plications.       And     complications    disap- 
peared. 

But  medical  aid  had  to  be  adminis- 
tered swiftly  and  good  operators  were 
likewise  necessary.  Surgical  groups 
were  organized;  Marcille  created  the 
mobile  surgical  ambulance,  the  so-called 
"  auto-chir."  The  big  hospitals  at  the 
front    were    organized,    cities    of    pain 


133 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


peopled  by  thousands  of  wounded.  For 
the  divisions,  the  complementary  surgical 
groups,  recalling  in  a  more  modern  form 
the  flying  ambulances  of  Larrey,  brought 
assurance  of  victory  over  evil.  Every- 
where the  sanitary  transports  were 
multiplied,  from  all  sides  the  surgeons 
hastened,  following  the  need,  from  one 
sector  to  another. 

At  the  same  time  large  organs  of  in- 
formation ana  control  were  formed.  The 
younger  men  first  gathered  the  data, 
and*  then  the  army  medical  groups  ar- 
ranged the  facts,  organizing  and  criticis- 
ing them.  The  surgical  society,  taking 
up  these  preliminary  studies,  then 
passed  them  through  the  sieve  of  ex- 
perience, while  the  consultative  commis- 
sion of  the  health  service  studied  and 
supervised  the  application  of  new 
measures.  Finally  large  congresses  of 
physicians  and  surgeons  of  the  interallied 
armies  met  periodically  to  discuss  ques- 
tions which  remained  obscure.  The  re- 
sults reached  by  these  assemblies  will 
remain  the  indestructible  monument  of 
man  in  his  fight  against  death,  at  the 
moment  when  the  work  of  death  had  to 
be  pursued! 

From  this  methodical  organization,  to 
which  each,  from  the  humble  to  the  great, 
brought  all  his  heart,  there  came  forth 
many  new  developments,  from  which  all 
humanity  will  profit  in  time  to  come. 

First  of  all,  surgery  became  more 
closely  united  with  medicine,  whose 
processes  it  adopted  for  the  exact  study 
of  the  human  tissues.  The  laboratory 
became  the  indispensable  annex  of  the 
operating  rooms.  There,  through  the  use 
of  instruments  more  perfect  and  pene- 
trating in  their  means,  the  human  senses, 
more  limited  in  action  and  sometimes  fal- 
lacious, were  supplemented.  Here  were 
instruments  of  the  physicist,  of  the  chem- 
ist, of  the  bacteriologist,  instruments  to 
measure  the  strength  and  suppleness  of 
the  heart  or  the  blood  vessels — a  whole 
new  arsenal  employed  by  the  latter-day 
surgery.  And  we  may  say,  even  though 
no  epoch-making  discovery  was  made, 
that  surgical  art  made  more  progress  in 
four  years  of  war  than  in  forty  years 
of  peace.  A  splendid  work,  and  fertile 
for  the  future,  honoring  v.ot  only  the 
profession    but    the    country    which    en- 


gendered it:  even  our  enemies  have  had 
to  pay  it  homage. 

In  recalling  what  was  done,  I  have 
wished  only  to  honor  the  dead  in  my 
own  fashion.  Nothing  could  have  been 
accomplished  without  their  co-operation. 
Such  good  men  they  were,  if  you  but 
knew  it!  I  have  known  some  who  had  in 
their  hearts  all  the  tenderness  and  fervor 
of  the  saints:  sometimes,  beneath  the 
helmet,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  could  see 
a  halo. 

There  were  men  of  all  ages  in  the 
health  service,  for  the  medical  and  phar- 
maceutical services  furnished  more  elder- 
ly men  than  any  other  branch.  It  was 
these  veterans  who  set  the  example  for 
the  ambulances  at  the  front.  At  certain 
times  the  medical  staff  worked  beyond 
all  human  strength.  No  useless  word 
was  uttered;  only  the  muffled  moans  of 
the  wounded :  one  felt  one's  self  in  a  silent 
realm.  After  the  work  came  relaxation, 
and  only  then  broke  forth  discussions 
from  every  side,  invariably  about  the 
destiny  of  man.  This  ever-active  chosen 
group  was  unwilling  to  limit  itself  to  the 
present,  for  it  knew  that  it  was  paving 
the  way  for  the  future.  How  many 
various  problems  have  I  heard  debated 
with  the  vigor  of  youth  and  the  sincerity 
of  men  whose  whole  code  and  scale  of 
values  was  summed  up  in  their  attitude 
toward  danger! 

I  should  like  to  reproduce  here  the 
long  conversations  of  the  former  country 
physicians  in  the  ambulances,  with  men 
who,  like  themselves,  had  come  from  the 
soil.  The  home  soil!  TJiey  spoke  of  it 
constantly.  How  many  times,  they  won- 
dered, would  it  change  its  Summer, 
Winter,  Spring,  or  Autumn  dress  before 
it  would  be  vouchsafed  them  to  see  it 
again.  They  forgot  this  theme  only 
when  they  spoke  of  their  wives,  their 
children,  whose  photographs,  taken  out 
of  their  knapsacks,  were  soon  spread  out 
upon  the  beds.  No  more  differentiations 
of  rank  and  origin  existed  among  those 
sons  of  the  same  mother:  they  were  only 
brothers  in  misery  consoling  one  another. 

During  these  intervals  of  calm  the 
nurses,  both  men  and  women,  were  able 
to  take  a  little  rest.  They,  too,  did  good 
service  for  the  country.  As  the  result  of 
lack  of  sleep  in  their  constant  attendance 


ACHIEVEMENTS   OF   FRENCH  SURGEONS 


139 


on  operations,  many  of  them  lost  their 
health  and  even  their  lives.  It  is  such 
a  delicate  task  to  remodel  the  living 
flesh,  so  long  to  sew  it  up  again,  a  body- 
torn  with  shot  and  shell!  And  then,  can 
one  even  think  of  sleeping  when  the 
stream  of  wounded  flows  in  from  every 
side?  But  the  next  day  the  operations 
were  even  more  numerous. 

The  litter-carriers  should  also  be  re- 
membered. Tired  fathers  of  families,  or 
young  auxiliary  aids  with  narrow  shoul- 
ders, they  played  their  part  as  beasts 
of  burden  in  a  work  whose  obscure  merit 
only  their  chiefs  understood.  "  If  only, 
from  time  to  time,  we  could  fire  a  shot, 
what  a  relief  it  would  be!  "  one  of  them 
said  to  me.  "  But  always  taking,  and 
never  returning — that's  what  is  hard !  " 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  the  bat- 
talion doctors  and  the  auxiliary  doctors 
— "  the  little  auxis,"  as  we  called  them — 
whom  we  loved  the  most.  Students,  hos- 
pital interns  or  externs,  invariably  fond 
of  athletics  and  sports,  they  had  never 
been  willing  to  admit  that  they  were  sons 
of  a  vanquished  nation.  And  when  the 
drum-beat  resounded,  they  departed 
resolutely  to  settle  the  old  account  which 
could  be  settled  only  with  blood.  Brave 
little  chaps !  They  were  in  all  the  blood- 
iest battles.  Always  on  the  go.  Their 
name  written  on  a  paper,  with  a  new 
address,  and  they  were  off,  sometimes  to 
the  other  end  of  the  world,  made  into 
other  men,  with  other  responsibilities, 
other  dangers.  One  moment  changed 
their  destinies.  And  here  one  saw  at 
the  same  time  all  the  nobility  of  war  and 
the  harsh  service  of  the  army  in  its  most 
formidable   grandeur ! 

When  our  "  auxis  "  returned,  after  the 
first  releases  were  granted,  with  their 
pale  faces,  their  eyes  which  the  terrible 
visions  of  war  seemed  to  have  made 
larger,  their  mothers  could  scarcely 
recognize  them  under  their  steel  helmets. 
Sometimes,  when  they  raised  their  voices 


a  little  or  made  an  impatient  gesture, 
signs  of  new  strength  of  will  still  de- 
veloping, the  mothers  divined  that  they 
had  become  more  remote  from  them,  that 
these  were  less  their  sons.  A  tender  fear 
would  take  possession  of  them  then,  soon 
driven  away  by  a  smile.  In  spite  of  all, 
they  were  proud  of  them:  "Just  think: 
my  soldier!  " 

I  was  always  their  friend,  their  con- 
fidant sometimes,  in  the  black  hours  of 
the  "  cafard."*  They  would  seek  me  out, 
and  I  would  watch  them  go  back  to 
their  battalion  or  their  battery  at  a 
brisk  pace.  We  would  exchange  the 
banal  greeting  of  farewell,  in  which  each 
of  us  would  put  his  whole  soul.  How 
many  never  returned,  how  many  of  these 
young  flowers  of  manhood  were  prema- 
turely cut  down!  It  is  here  that  their 
splendid  performance  of  Christ's  work 
must  be  revealed. 

Non-commissioned  officers  by  rank, 
officers  by  their  attainments,  the 
"  auxis  "  and  major  battalion  physicians 
soon  won  an  authority  which  had  im- 
portant consequences.  Revered  priests 
of  the  new  cult,  science,  they  exercised  on 
the  poilus  an  undeniable  moral  influence. 
Until  that  time,  for  the  simple-minded,  the 
physician  had  been  a  man  who  watched 
suffering,  who  aided  suffering,  but  who 
seemed  himself  superior  to  suffering. 
But  during  the  war  the  soldier  saw  at 
his  side  the  little  "  Major,"  who  suffered 
like  himself  in  the  trenches,  who,  like 
himself,  rose  when  the  hour  of  attack 
had  sounded,  who  was  wounded  and  died 
like  himself.  Imagine  what  an  affection- 
ate esteem,  on  the  one  side,  what  a  legit- 
imate authority  on  the  other,  must  have 
sprung  from  such  a  fraternity  of  arms. 
This  beneficent  influence  was  used  by 
these  young  men  wholly  in  the  service  of 
their  country.  Doubly  leaders,  our  young 
doctors  were  not  only  healers  but  arousers 
of  energy.    We  must  never  forget  it. 

*French  military  slang  for  "  the  blues." 


Fate  of  German  Spies  in  England 

How  the  British  Secret  Service  Countered  the  Underground 
Campaign  of  the  Kaiser's  Agents 


THE  hitherto  unpublished  details  of 
how  the  British  Government,  by- 
skillful  secret  service  work,  was 
able  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  to 
arrest  twenty-one  of  the  twenty-two 
spies  distributed  by  the  German  In- 
telligence Department  at  various  im- 
portant ports,  and  thus  to  frustrate  that 
country's  whole  program  of  espionage, 
sabotage,  and  arson  in  England,  have 
become   available   through   a    series    of 


IGNATIUS    T.    T.    LINCOLN 

Spy   sentenced    to   prison   T>if   the   British 

(©   Bcuin  News   Service) 

articles  by  Sidney  Theodore  Felstead 
which  began  in  the  London  Morning  Post 
on  Feb.  2,  1920.  The  authenticity  of 
this  narrative,  written  from  the  inside, 
and  confirmed  by  facsimile  illustrations 
of  important  documents,  was  vouched  for 
by  the  publishers. 


The  outbreak  of  the  European  war 
found  Germany  without  a  spy  system  in 
Great  Britain,  despite  the  unceasing  and 
widely  ramifying  activities  of  that  Ger- 
man Master-Spy,  Herr  Steinhauer,  the 
Kaiser's  personal  friend,  appointed  as 
the  head  of  the  German  Secret  Service 
in  1905.  It  was  in  this  year  that  the 
German  Emperor  first  began  clearly  to 
reveal  his  deep-rooted  hatred  for  Eng- 
land and  his  projects  of  world  domina- 
tion. What  those  projects  were  the  so- 
called  "  Willy-Nicky  "  letters  have  re- 
vealed. 

Steinhauer  signalized  his  advent  by 
throwing  around  Europe,  and  especially 
around  Russia,  France  and  Great 
Britain,  a  network  of  male  and  female 
spies.  Those  in  Great  Britain  were  long 
known  to  the  British  Government,  whose 
secret  agents  followed  all  their  move- 
ments, intercepted  their  correspondence, 
and  drew  up  a  full  "  tree  "  of  every  spy 
employed.  Much  of  the  information  on 
which  the  British  agents  worked  was 
furnished  unconsciously  by  a  German 
barber  named  Karl  Gustav  Ernst,  who, 
at  a  princely  salary  of  one  pound  a  week, 
later  increased  to  thirty  shillings,  re- 
posted  with  British  stamps  large  packets 
of  German  letters  sent  to  him  periodical- 
ly by  a  German  "  Commerical  Agency." 
This  forwarding  of  instruction  to  secret 
agents  had  been  known  to  the  British 
Intelligence  Division  since  1910.  All 
these  "  commercial "  letters  were  opened 
and  carefully  read  by  the  British  agents, 
then  re-forwarded.  It  was  mainly  on  the 
basis  of  this  information  that  the  list  of 
German  spies  referred  to  was  drawn  up. 
For  their  own  purposes  the  authorities 
refrained  from  arresting  any  of  those 
involved,  but  their  knowledge  of  the 
latters*  activities  was  so  complete  and 
damning  that  when  Aug.  4,  1914,  came, 
the  Military  Intelligence  Department  had 
only  to  wire  to  the  Chief  Constables  of 
the  various  coast  towns  where  the  Ger- 


FATE  OF  GERMAN  SPIES  IN  ENGLAND 


141 


mans  were  operating  to  net  the  arrest 
of  twenty-one  of  the  spies  involved. 
Only  one  escaped  by  way  of  Hull. 

LIST   OF   SPIES   ARRESTED 

One  of  those  arrested  was  Ernst  him- 
self. On  cross  examination  he  alleged 
that  at  first  he  had  been  ignorant  of  the 
real  character  of  the  work  to  which  he 
had  lent  himself.  He  confessed,  however, 
to  communicating  with  Steinhauer  in 
Berlin,  whose  nom  de  guerre  was  tem- 
porarily Madame  Reimers.  His  tale  was 
destitute  of  all  plausibility,  and  he  was 
sentenced  on  Nov.  13,  1914,  to  seven 
years'  penal  servitude.  The  full  list  of 
the  other  spies  arrested,  as  given  by  Mr. 
Felstead,  was  as  follows: 

Arrested  in 
Antonius  J.  F.  Dummenie    London 

Karl   Stubenwoll Newcastle 

Karl   Meyer Warwick 

Johann   Kuhr Newcastle 

Oscar   Buckwaldt Brighton 

Karl    Hemlar Winchester 

Frederich    Apel Barrow-in-Furness 

Max  A.    Laurens London 

Franz   H.    Losel Sittingbourne 

Thomas    Kegnamer.- Southampton 

Adolph    Scaneider London 

Karl   von   W^eller Padstow 

Marie   Kronauer London 

Celse  Rodrigues Portsmouth 

Frederich   Diederichs London 

August    Kluneer London 

Lina  M.   Heine Portsmouth 

Heinrich    Schutte Weymouth 

Fredrich   Lukowski Newcastle 

Otto  Kruger Mountain  Ash 

Johann  A.   Engel Falmouth 

It  will  be  seen  at  once,  from  this 
list,  that  what  the  German  Government 
specially  desired  was  naval  information. 
Most  of  the  spies  arrested  cheerfully 
revealed  all  their  secret  activities  in  full 
detail,  and  quite  aj  cheerfully  departed 
for  the  internment  camps,  which  were 
"  much  to  be  preferred  to  fighting  for 
the  Fatherland  on  the  already  blood- 
stained battlefields  of  France  and  Flan- 
ders." Thus,  scarcely  had  the  war  begun, 
when  Germany  found  her  espionage-gaze 
into  the  naval  and  political  secrets  of  her 
formidable  rival,  England,  completely 
blinded,  and  English  troops  were  enabled 
to  cross  the  Channel  to  bring  aid  to 
their  hard-pressed  French  brothers  seven- 
teen days  before  the  German  Govern- 
ment had  knowledge  of  what  had  hap- 


pened to  her  staff  of  agents  under  Eng- 
lish  skies. 

Her  attempts  to  rebuild  that  staff  were 
attended  with  a  certain  amount  of  suc- 
cess. Despite  the  taking  over  of  the 
railways  by  the  Government  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  cable  censorship,  and  the 
registration  of  aliens,  large  numbers 
of  neutrals  still  passed  unchallenged 
through  British  ports,  and  no  satis- 
factory means  of  differentiating  the 
harmless  South  American  or  Dutch 
trader  from  the  German  agent  who  came 
spying  under  the  cloak  of  commerce, 
duly  provided  with  a  forged  passport 
quite  en  regie,  was  at  first  devised.  It 
was  only  much  later  that  this  defect  of 
the  intelligence  system  was  remedied; 
meanwhile,  Germany  found  means  to  get 
a  certain  number  of  paid  agents  into 
the  country.  "It  is  one  of  the  greatest 
mysteries  of  the  war,"  says  Mr.  Fel- 
stead, '*  that  with  32,000  Germans  in 
Great  Britain,  no  attempts  at  sabotage 
took  place.  Whatever  the  reason,  it  is 
beyond  all  doubt  that  we  were  never 
subjected  to  sabotage  of  the  kind  so 
common  in  America  in  1915  and  1916." 

KARL  HANS  LODY 

Two  of  the  German  spies  who  ap- 
peared in  England  soon  after  the  out- 
break of  the  war,  Karl  Hans  Lody  and 
Anthony  Kiipferle,  met  a  tragic  end;  one 
died  an  officer's  death,  the  other  com- 
mitted suicide  in  his  cell.  They  were 
not  mere  hirelings,  but  men  actuated  by 
strong  patriotic  motives.  Both  were  be- 
trayed by  the  callous  neglect  of  their 
employers  at  Berlin.  Both  were  note- 
worthy for  utter  inefficiency  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  new  calling  which  they  had 
adopted  and  for  which  their  mental 
equipment  was  apparently  unsuited. 

Lody,  however,  had  special  qualifica- 
tions for  the  role  he  voluteered  to  play. 
A  man  of  about  50  years,  who  had  long 
resided  in  the  United  States,  and  who 
spoke  excellent  English  with  an  Ameri- 
can accent,  the  year  1900  found  him  a 
Lieutenant  in  the  German  Navy,  whence 
he  was  subsequently  transferred  to  the 
Reserve  of  Officers  after  a  resignation 
due  to  lack  of  means.  He  then  served 
as    a    tourist-guide    on    the    Hamburg- 


142 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


American  steamship  line,  traveling  in 
that  capacity  all  over  England.  Lody 
returned  to  Berlin  from  a  Norwegian 
tour  a  few  days  before  Aug.  4,  1914, 
and  offered  his  services  to  the  German 
Government  as  a  professional  spy.  To 
secure  his  entrance  to  England,  the  Ger- 
man Intelligence  Department  abstracted 
the  passport  of  an  American,  Charles 
A.  Inglis,  from  the  Foreign  Office  where 
it  lay  awaiting  vise  to  enable  its  owner, 
then  staying  in  Berlin,  to  continue 
traveling  through  Europe,  substituted 
Lody's  photograph  for  that  of  Inglis, 
and  handed  it  over  to  Lody  made  out  in 
Inglis's  name. 

LODY'S  WORK  IN  ENGLAND 

The  first  time  the  presence  of  Inglis, 
alias  Lody,  came  to  the  notice  of  the 
British  authorities  was  after  the  arrival 
of  the  spy  in  Edinburgh,  where,  posing 
as  an  American  tourist,  ■  he  took  a 
room  in  the  North  British  Station  Hotel. 
A  telegram  sent  by  him  thence  to  one 
Adolf  Burchard  in  Stockholm  aroused 
suspicion  and  Lody  became  thenceforth 
a  marked  man.  Recognizing  the  danger 
of  staying  in  a  large  hotel,  he  took 
private  lodgings  and  cycled  for  a  fort- 
night, searching  out  places  of  naval  in- 
terest around  Edinburgh.  In  Rosyth 
especially  he  aroused  more  than  ordi- 
nary curiosity  with  the  questions  he 
asked.  Still  in  the  guise  of  an  Ameri- 
can sightseer,  Lody  next  turned  up  in 
London  at  a  Bloomsbury  hotel  and 
studied  the  protective  measures  that 
were  taken  after  the  first  Zeppelin  raid 
on  London.  The  covering  of  the  Houses 
of  Parliament,  Buckingham  Palace,  the 
Bank  of  England,  and  other  places,  with 
strong  wire  netting,  was  reported  by 
Lody  to  Berlin  via  Stockholm;  or  at  least 
Lody  thought  he  was  so  reporting;  as 
a  matter  of  fact  his  messages  were  al- 
ready being  intercepted  by  the  postal 
censorship. 

After  two  days  in  London  Lody  went 
back  to  Edinburgh,  and  thence  to  Liver- 
pool, wholly  unaware  that  his  every 
movement  was  being  closely  watched. 
The  business  of  fitting  out  big  ocean 
liners  as  auxiliary  cruisers  was  then  in 
full  blast  at  Liverpool,  and  Mr.  "  Inglis," 


using  his  technical  knowledge  to  full  ad- 
vantage, made  a  detailed  report  on  these 
activities  to  the  German  Secret  Service 
in  Berlin.  From  Holyhead  he  took  boat 
for  Ireland.  He  was  permitted  to  land 
at  Dublin  after  a  challenging  of  his 
identity  which  so  aroused  his  fears  that 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  Herr  Burchard,  in 


KARL  HANS   LODY 

German  spy,  shot  in  the   Tower  of  London, 

Nov.    6,    191k 

(©    Underwood   &    Underivood) 

which  he  suggested  the  advisability  of 
his  disappearing  for  some  time  to  come. 
In  this  letter  he  reviewed  all  that  he 
had  seen  so  far.  Most  of  his  information, 
from  the  first  to  last,  would  have  been 
of  little  value  to  the  Germans  even  if 
it  had  reached  them,  which  it  did  not. 
One  piece  of  "  news  "  which  was  allowed 
to  go  through  was  that  of  the  landing 
of  thousands  of  bearded,  booted  Rus- 
sians, "with  the  snow  of  the  steppes 
still  clinging  to  their  boots,"  passing 
through  England  on  their  way  to  the 
western  front,  an  item,  incidentally, 
which  evoked  much  perturbation  in  the 
German  General  Staff. 

Lody's  "  career  "  was  at  last  cut  short 
at  Killamey,  where  he  was  detained  by 


FATE  OF  GERMAN  SPIES  IN  ENGLAND 


143 


the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  on  Oct.  2 
to  await  the  arrival  of  detectives  from 
Scotland  Yard.  In  his  kit-bag  were 
found  the  forged  passport,  £145  in  Bank 
of  England  notes,  £30  in  English  gold, 
some  German  gold  and  Norwegian  notes, 
a  notebook  with  particulars  of  the  naval 
fight  in  the  North  Sea,  addresses  in 
Berlin,  Stockholm,  Bergen  and  Ham- 
burg, and  copies  of  his  four  communica- 
tions to  Burchard  in  Stockholm,  suffi- 
cient of  themselves  to  condemn  him  ir- 
revocably. 

Lody  was  brought  to  London  and 
tried  by  court-martial  at  the  Guildhall, 
Westminster,  on  Oct.  30  and  31.  With 
flushed,  clean-shaven  face  and  deep,  be- 
spectacled eyes,  he  listened  to  the  damn- 
ing evidence  against  him;  then,  through 
his  counsel,  he  declared  to  the  court  that 
he  had  simply  done  his  duty,  and  left  the 
consequences  completely  in  their  hands. 
His  grandfather,  he  stated,  had  been  a 
great  soldier  who  had  held  a  fortress 
against  Napoleon,  and  it  was  in  that 
spirit  that  he  appeared  before  his  judges 
on  this  day.  He  did  not  wish  to  cringe 
for  mercy,  was  ashamed  of  nothing  he 
had  done,  and  would  accept  the  court's 
decision,  whatever  it  might  be,  as  that  of 
just  and  righteous  men. 

LODY'S   LAST   MESSAGES 

The    accused    was    found    guilty    and 
sentenced  to  death.     The  execution  was 
carried  out  five  days  later.     Before  his 
death  he  wrote  two  letters,   one  to  his 
relatives  in   Stuttgart,  the  other  to  his 
prison  guard.     They  were  as  follows: 
My  Dear  Ones:   I  have  trusted  in   God, 
and  He  has  decided.     My  hour  has  come, 
and  I  must  start  on  the  journey  throu^ 
the    Dark    Valley,    like    so    many    of    my 
comrades  in  this  terrible  war  of  nations. 
May    my    life    be    honored    as    a    humble 
offering  on  the  altar  of  the  fatherland. 

A  hero's  death  on  the  battlefield  is  cer- 
tainly finer,  but  such  is  not  to  be  my  lot, 
and  I  die  here  in  the  enemy's  country 
silent  and  unknown.  But  the  conscious- 
ness that  I  die  in  the  service  of  the 
Fatherland  makes  death  easy. 

The  supreme  court-martial  of  London 
has  sentenced  me  to  death  for  military 
conspiracy.  Tomorrow  I  shall  be  shot 
here  in  the  Tower,  I  have  had  just 
judges,  and  I  shall  die  as  an  officer,  not 
as  a  spy. 
Farewell.     God  bless  you.  HANS. 


Lody's  letter  to  his  guard  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

London,    Nov.    5,    1914. 

Tower   of   London. 
To    the    Commanding    Officer    of    the    3d 
Battalion,   Grenadier  Guards,  Welling- 
ton Barracks. 
Sir:     I   feel    it   my    duty   as   a   German 
officer  to  express  my  sincere  thanks  and 
appreciation   toward   the   staff  of   officers 
and  men  who  were  in  charge  of  my  person 
during  my  confinement. 

Their  kind  and  considered  treatment 
has  called  my  highest  esteem  and  admira- 
tion as  regards  good-fellowship,  even  to- 
ward the  enemy,  and,  if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted, I  would  thank  you  to  make  this 
known  to  them.  I  am.  Sir,  with  profound 
respect, 

(Signed)      KARL  HANS  LODY. 
Senior      Lieutenant,       Imperial      German 
Naval  Reserves. 

It  was  strongly  felt  by  all  the  English 
officials  who  came  in  contact  with  Lody 
during  his  short  imprisonment  that  his 
character  was  a  fine  one,  and  his  de- 
meanor even  won  their  admiration.  The 
date  set  for  his  execution  was  Friday, 
Nov.  6,  1914.  On  the  morning  of  that 
day,  when  the  Assistant  Provost  Marshal 
came  to  his  cell  to  tell  him  that  his  time 
had  come,  he  said :  "  I  suppose  you  will 
not  care  to  shake  hands  with  a  German 
spy."  "  No,  I  would  not,"  said  the 
Provost  Marshal,  "but  I  will  shake 
hands  with  a  brave  man."  Lody  was 
then  taken  to  the  place  of  execution, 
where  he  proved  the  truth  of  the  Provost 
Marshal's  words  by  meeting  his  death 
without  flinching,  and  refusing  to  have 
his  eyes  bandaged.  So  Karl  Hans  Lody 
died. 

THE  STORY  OF  KUEPFERLE 

Anthony  Kiipferle,  alias  Copperlee,  an 
ex-non-commissioned  officer  of  the  Ger- 
man Army,  who  went  to  England  from 
America  ostensibly  as  a  traveler  of 
Dutch  extraction,  was  "  the  German  spy 
of  the  fiction  writer:  stiff,  upstanding 
hair,  round  spectacles,"  and  a  painfully 
forced  attempt  to  pass  himself  off  as  an 
American.  "  He  was  quite  an  artless  in- 
dividual," says  Mr.  Felstead,  "  and  ap- 
parently imagined  that  his  simulation  of 
frankness  would  disguise  the  real  pur- 
pose of  his  visit."  From  Feb.  14,  when 
he  arrived  in  Liverpool,  the  British 
Counter-Espionage  Department  was 
busily    engaged    in    collecting    evidence 


144 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


against  him.  An  apparently  harmless 
letter  to  an  address  in  Holland  first 
aroused  suspicion  when  opened  by  the 
postal  censorship  in  London,  because  of 
the  very  futility  of  its  content,  merely 
announcing  his  arrival  in  Liverpool  and 
his  intention  to  continue  his  way  to  Lon- 
don to  open  business  transactions  there 
the  following  day.  A  trace  of  invisible 
ink  between  the  lines  led  to  the  applica- 
tion of  a  re-agent  which  revealed  a  de- 
scription of  the  war  vessels  which  the 
writer  had  seen  in  his  trip  across  the 
Atlantic. 

After  a  short  trip  to  Dublin,  Kiip- 
ferle  went  to  Euston,  where  he  wrote 
to  his  employers  in  Holland  asking  for 
money  and  saying  that  he  was  held  up 
"  because  of  those  damned  U-boats." 
An  intensified  submarine  campaign  had 
just  been  started,  in  fact,  but  this  had 
no  effect  on  Kiipferle's  departure,  as 
he  was  already  under  close  observation 
and  marked  for  arrest.  He  was  taken 
in  custody  at  Victoria,  and  brought  to 
Scotland  Yard.  When  searched  all  the 
materials  for  invisible  writing  were 
found  in  his  possession.  Under  inter- 
rogation he  lied  so  clumsily  and  even 
stupidly  that  he  stood  convicted  before 
he  left  the  room.  At  the  trial  in  Old 
Bailey  he  stood  in  the  dock,  dressed  in 
a  black  frock  coat,  buttoned  tightly 
across  the  chest,  his  cold,  pale-blue  eyes 
following  the  proceedings  with  the  clos- 
est attention.  There  was  virtually  no 
defense,  and  when  the  court  adjourned 
until  the  morrow,  it  was  beyond  question 
that,  barring  a  miracle,  he  would  pay 
the  penalty  of  his  espionage  with  his 
life.  But  the  second  day  of  the  trial 
never  came;  on  the  following  morning 
Kiipferle  hanged  himself  in  his  cell. 
There  was  found  written  on  the  slate 
allowed  prisoners  the  following  message: 

To  whom  it  may  concern:  My  name 
is  Kiipferle,  nee  to  (born  in)  Sollingen, 
A/Rastatt  I/B  (Baden).  I  am  a  soldier 
with  rank  I  do  not  desire  to  mention. 
In  regard  on  my  behalf  lately,  I  can 
say  that  I  have  had  a  fair  trial  of  the 
U.  Kingdom,  but  I  am  unable  to  stand 
the  strain  any  longer  and  take  the  law 
in  my  own  hand.  I  fought  many  a  bat- 
tles and  death  is  only  a  saviour  lor  me. 

I  would  have  preferred  the  death  to  be 
shot,   but  don't   wish  to   ascend   the   scaf- 


fold as  a— [here  follows  a  Masonic  sign]. 
And  hope  the  AUmighty  Architect  of  this 
Universe  will  lead  me  in  the  Unknown 
Land  in  the  East.  I  am  not  dying  as  a 
spy,  but  as  a  soldier;  my  fate  I  stood 
as  a  man,  but  can't  be  a  liar  and  perjur 
myself.  Kindly  I  shall  permit  to  ask 
to  notify  my  uncle,  Ambros  Droll,  Sol- 
lingen,  A/Rastatt  I/B  Germany ;  and 
all  my  estate  shall  go  to  him. 

What  I  done,  I  have  done  for  my  coun- 
try. I  shall  express  my  thanks  and  may 
the  Lord  bless  your  all.       Yours, 

(Signed)       ANTON  KUPFERLE. 

My  age  is  31  years  and  I  am  born 
June  11/1883. 

The  body  was  buried  in  a  nameless 
grave  at  Streatham  Park  Cemetery.  It 
was  ascertained  that  Kiipferle  had  fought 
against  the  British  on  the  western  front, 
and  his  face  bore  the  scar  of  the  butt- 
end  of  a  clubbed  rifle.  Before  his  sui- 
cide he  wrote  a  letter  to  another  spy 
awaiting  trial,  breathing  the  deepest 
hatred  of  his  country's  enemy,  England. 

MASTER  SPY  IN  FRANCE 

Rudolf  Funck,  considered oneof  the  most 
important  German  spies  in  France  during 
the  war,  was  executed  at  Vincennes  at 
dawn  on  Feb.  2,  1920.  Funck,  who  was 
54  year  sold,  had  formerly  been  a  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  Austrian  Army.  The  out- 
break of  the  war  found  him  living  in 
Paris.  With  the  aid  of  false  papers, 
which  enabled  him  to  claim  Australian 
citizenship,  and  having  a  perfect  com- 
mand of  English  and  French,  he  passed 
unsuspected  through  the  severe  test  ap- 
plied to  every  foreigner  during  the  early 
days  of  the  war,  and  obtained  a  minor 
post  in  one  of  the  Paris  banks.  This  he 
held  to  the  end  of  July,  1918,  when  he 
apparently  came  to  the  conclusion  that, 
as  a  result  of  Foch's  last  great  of- 
fensive, all  hope  of  German  victory  was 
at  an  end.  At  that  time  he  managed  to 
cross  the  frontier  into  Spain. 

After  his  departure  the  French  autho- 
rities came  into  possession  of  irrefutable 
evidence  that  for  many  months  he  had 
given  valuable  assistance  to  the  enemy 
by  furnishing  information  as  to  the 
points  where  Gotha  bombs  and  Big 
Bertha  shells  had  fallen  in  the  city. 
Even  then  he  probably  would  have  man- 
aged to  escape  unscathed  if  he  had  not 
made  the  mistake  of  again  venturing  on 


FATE  OF  GERMAN  SPIES  IN  ENGLAJ^D 


145 


the  French  side  of  the  frontier  for  the 
purpose  of  claiming  a  trunk  belonging  to 
him  which  had  been  left  at  the  frontier 
station  of  Hendaye.  He  was  immediately 
arrested  as  a  spy  and  was  condemned 
to  death  by  court-martial  last  June,  but 
the  judgment  was  quashed  on  technical 
grounds.  A  second  trial  brought  Funck 
to   the   firing  post. 

The  condemned  man  met  his  death 
bravely.  Tall  and  erect,  with  pointed 
white  beard  and  dressed  in  well-cut 
clothes,  with  patent  leather  shoes  and  soft 
hat,  Funck  was  probably  the  calmest  man 
in  the  little  group  that  left  the  prison  for 
Vincennes.  When  they  reached  the  door 
he  asked  for  an  overcoat,  which  he  put 
on  with  a  shiver  due  to  the  chilly  morn- 
ing air,  then  carelessly  held  out  his  hands 
for  the  handcuffs.  Refusing  to  allow  his 
eyes  to  be  bandaged  or  his  arms  to  be 
tied  to  the  post,  he  claimed  the  privilege 
as  an  officer  to  give  the  order  to  the 
firing  squad,  and  then  after  calmly  re- 
moving the  overcoat,  which  he  placed 
on  the  ground  beside  him,  politely  lifted 
his  hat  as  a  signal  to  the  soldiers  to  fire 
the  fatal  volley. 

OTHER  CASES  IN  BRIEF 
Other  spies  captured  were  Karl  Fried- 
¥Jch  Miiller,  Robert  Rosenthal,  Haicke 
Petrus  Marinus  Janssen,  Willem  J.  Roos, 
Ignatius  Trebitsch  Lincoln,  George  T. 
Breeckow  and  his  accomplice,  Mrs.  Lizzie 
Wertheim,  Fernando  Buschman,  Augusto 
Roggen  and  Ernst  Waldemar  Melin. 

Rosenthal's  advent  was  betrayed  to  the 
British  authorities  by  a  letter  from  Co- 
penhagen, addressed  to  Berlin,  which  by 
some  error  had  been  put  in  the  London 
mail  bag.  He  was  caught  at  Newcastle 
on  a  steamer  about  to  sail  to  Copenha- 
gen. After  strenuous  denials,  he  was 
confronted  with  the  evidence,  confessed, 
and  proclaimed  himself  a  German  sol- 
dier. It  turned  out  that  he  was  a  con- 
victed forger,  and  had  never  been  a  sol- 
dier. He  died  with  apparent  pride  that 
he  had  rehabilitated  himself  with  his 
countrymen. 

Janssen  and  Roos  were  fellow-spies  on 
the  same  mission,  whose  detection  was 
due  to  the  extraordinary  number  of 
cigars  ordered  by  them  from  Holland.  It 
developed  that  the  name  of  each  brand 


indicated  the  figure  of  a  cipher  code. 
Janssen  died  stocially;  Roos,  after  an  un- 
successful attempt  at  suicide,  died  non- 
chalantly. This  was  in  May,  1915.  By  the 
Summer  of  1915  the  British  counter- 
espionage organization  had  become  so 
efficient  that  in  one  fortnight  seven  spies 
were  taken — a  record  haul  that  paralyzed 
the  enemy  schemes  of  re-establishing  a 
spy  service  in  England. 

Augusto  Roggen  was  a  dapper,  dark- 
haired  little  individual,  who  had  been 
born  in  Montevideo.  He  was  caught  at 
Lake  Lomond,  where  he  was  sojourning 
ostensibly  for  his  health,  which  seemed 
excellent;  the  proximity  of  Tarbet,  where 
vital  experiments  were  being  carried  out 
with  a  new  torpedo,  coincided  with  infor- 
mation received  by  the  authorities  of 
important  "  leaks."  Roggen  was  exe- 
cuted in  the  Tower  of  London  in  Septem- 
ber, and  met  his  death  boldly.  Melin 
was  a  well-educated  German  of  52,  who 
had  entered  the  espionage  service  to 
make  a  living.  Scraps  of  information 
written  by  him  on  the  edges  of  news- 
papers brought  his  conviction  and  exe- 
cution. 

MUELLER  AND  LINCOLN 

Miiller  is  characterized  by  Mr.  Fel- 
stead  as  "  probably  the  most  important 
spy,  individually,  who  came  our  way  dur- 
ing the  war."  His  arrest  and  execution 
had  far-reaching  effects  on  the  enemy's 
espionage  plans.  Long  resident  in  Eng- 
land, he  passed  as  a  Russian  citizen  from 
the  Baltic  provinces,  where  he  had  been 
bom,  and  spoke  Russian  and  various 
other  languages  with  facility.  An  appa- 
rently harmless  letter,  treated,  with  a  hot 
iron,  brought  out  information  of  consid- 
erable importance  written  in  German  be- 
tween the  lines.  The  trail  led  to  the 
bakeshop  of  one  Peter  Hahn  at  Deptford. 
Hahn  was  arrested,  and  finally,  by  clever 
detective  work,  the  whereabouts  of  Miil- 
ler was  discovered  in  London.  Hahn  re- 
ceived a  prison  sentence;  Miiller  was  exe- 
cuted in  the  Tower  on  June  23,  1915.  All 
night  long  before  the  day  set  he  was 
heard  sobbing  in  the  cell  for  his  wife 
and  children. 

Ignatius  T.  T,  Lincoln  was  one  of  the 
most  brazen  spies  ever  known.  By 
origin  a  Hungarian  Jew,  he  finally  drift- 


146 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ed  to  England,  rose  by  his  undoubted 
abilities  to  the  position  of  Liberal  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  for  Darlington,  tried 
to  insinuate  himself  in  the  counterespion- 
age service  despite  the  fact  that  he  was 
an  alien,  and  proposed  to  betray  pseudo 
naval  secrets  of  North  Sea  operations 
ostensibly  to  trap  the  German  fleet.  He 
was  finally  advised  to  leave  England  by 
the  authorities;  after  coming  to  America 
he  was  extradited  for  forgery,  and  re- 
turned for  a  penal  sentence.  He  re- 
mained in  prison  during  the  war,  but  in 
1919,  after  his  English  naturalization 
papers  had  been  canceled,  he  was  shipped 
back  to  Germany.  The  Ebert  Govern- 
ment, shortly  before  its  overthrow  last 
month,  appointed  Lincoln  to  the  post  of 
telegraphic  censor. 

HOW  TWO  SPIES  FACED  DEATH 

Breeckow  posed  as  an  American  of 
wealth  traveling  in  England  for  '  his 
health.  Put  in  touch  through  the  Ger- 
man Intelligence  vdth  Mrs.  Wertheim,  a 
woman  of  immoral  life,  who  had  obtained 
British  citizenship  through  marriage,  he 
joined  her,  and  the  tv^o  together  played 
their  game  of  espionage  as  long  as  the 
authorities  allowed  them.  Much  of  their 
time  was  spent  in  pleasure  junkets.  Mrs. 
Wertheim  went  to  Scotland  to  pick  up 
information  of  the  Grand  Fleet.  Some  of 
her  questions  of  the  naval  officers  to 
whom  she  made  herself  "more  than 
agreeable  "  finally  led  to  her  arrest  and 
conviction.  Both  the  man  and  woman 
were  brought  before  the  authorities  and 
questioned;  Breeckow  broke  down  com- 
pletely, but  the  woman  was  so  unabashed 


that  had  it  not  been  for  Breeckow's  con- 
fessions a  conviction  might  not  have 
been  assured.  The  woman  was  sentenced 
to  ten  years'  penal  servitude.  Breeckow 
was  executed  in  the  Tower.  He  was  so 
agitated  that  he  died  of  heart  disease 
before  the  bullets  of  the  firing  squad  en- 
tered his  body. 

Almost  a  poetic  figure  was  that  of 
Fernando  Buschman,  with  whom  this  se- 
ries closes.  Bom  in  Paris,  brought  up 
in  Brazil,  a  musician  of  ability  and  an 
expert  in  aeronautics,  he  had  traveled 
widely  in  Europe.  He  entered  the  Ger- 
man Intelligence  in  1914,  and  in  1915, 
after  a  course  of  training  in  espionage, 
he  appeared  in  England  in  the  guise  of  a 
commercial  traveler.  He  visited  both 
Portsmouth  and  Southampton.  His  ca- 
reer was  cut  short  by  falling  short  of 
money,  which  prompted  him  to  write  to 
Holland  for  a  renewal  of  funds.  The  ar- 
rest took  place  at  his  lodgings  in  South 
Kensington.  Letters  found  on  his  person 
established  his  guilt.  He  was  tried  at 
the  Westminster  Guild  Hall  on  Sept.  20, 
1915.  He  thanked  his  judges  courteously 
after  the  trial.  His  request  that  he  be 
allowed  to  keep  his  violin  was  granted, 
and  for  hours  he  sat  discoursing  beauti- 
ful music,  oblivious  to  the  death  that 
awaited  him.  Taken  to  the  Tower  the 
night  before  his  execution,  he  again 
asked  for  his  violin,  and  for  hours  he 
forgot  his  coming  doom  in  the  solace  of 
music.  When  taken  to  execution  he 
picked  up  his  violin,  kissed  it  passion- 
ately, and  exclaimed :  "  Good-bye,  I  shall 
not  want  you  any  more!  "  He  refused 
to  have  his  eyes  bandaged,  and  met  his 
death  with  a  smile. 


fe 


wm 


H 


MEDALS  EXPRESSING  GERMAN  HATRED  OF  ENGLAND 

Germany's  Hatred  of  England 

Historical  Light  on  the  Legend  of  "Perfidious  Albion 
Its  Part  in  Causing  the  War 


and 


NO  theory  of  modern  times  has 
been  more  dangerous  to  the 
prestige  and  influence  for  good 
of  any  given  nation  than  that 
embodied  in  the  now  classic  and  familiar 
phrase,  "  Perfidious  Albion,"  as  applied 
to  the  underlying  motives  of  the  Con- 
tinental policy  of  Great  Britain.  Firmly 
established  in  France  since  the  French 
Revolution,  and  expanded  and  intensi- 
fied by  the  rancor  of  Germany, 
balked  in  her  designs  of  crippling  and 
dividing  France,  it  grew  beyond  the 
Rhine  into  a  credo  of  hatred  through  the 
embittered  utterances  of  Treitschke,  was 
given  constant  expression  in  Germany's 
foreign  policy,  which  aimed  at  England's 
isolation,  and  burst  forth  with  volcanic 
fury  when  Great  Britain  intervened  in 
the  war  to  save  France. 

In  a  long  and  carefully  documented 
review  of  the  subject  Professor  W.  Ali- 
son Phillips,  in  the  January  issue  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  has  investigated  the 
origin  and  growth  of  the  whole  legend, 
and  marshals  a  considerable  body  of 
evidence  to  prove  that  it  is  a  legend, 
and  nothing  more.  That  the  existence 
of  such  a  belief  was  momentous  he  has 
no  doubt  at  all.    "  It  is  worth  while,"  he 


says,  "  to  inquire  into  the  origins  of  a 
legend  which  has  had  so  profound  and 
terrible  an  effect  upon  international  re- 
lations." 

The  height  which  this  fever  of  hatred 
and  distrust  reached  in  Germany  is 
brought  out  by  citation  of  the  remark- 
able memorandum  addressed  by  the  ex- 
Kaiser  to  Chancellor  von  Bethmann 
Hollweg  on  July  30,  1914,  in  which  Wil- 
helm  declared  that,  in  spite  of  all  efforts 
to  prevent  it,  the  "  encirclement "  of 
Germany,  plotted  by  King  Edward  VII., 
had  become  an  accomplished  fact ;  and 
that  a  situation  had  been  created  which 
gave  England  the  desired  pretext  for 
destroying  Germany,  "  with  the  hypo- 
critical semblance  of  justice  presented 
by  helping  France  to  maintain  the  no- 
torious balance  of  power  in  Europe." 
All  these  machinations,  he  said,  must 
now  be  unsparingly  laid  bare,  and  "the 
mask  of  Christian  peaceableness  openly 
and  violently  torn  from  them  in  public." 
Finally,  the  whole  Mohammedan  world 
must  be  incited  to  "  a  savage  uprising 
against  this  hated,  lying,  unscrupulous 
nation  of  hucksters."  • 

Professor  Phillips  comments  on  this  as 
follows : 


148 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


At  first  sight  this  language  suggests 
that  the  Kaiser's  mind  had  become  un- 
hinged ;  but  if  so,  there  was  method  in  his 
madness.  There  was  even  something 
more ;  for  it  is  possible  to  detect  in  this 
insensate  outpouring  of  hatred  against 
England  a  note  of  sincerity  and  of  a  con- 
viction that  is  more  than  the  outcome  of 
mere  individual  prejudice.  And  indeed, 
*  *  *  the  Kaiser's  language  was  not  his 
own,  but  a  mere  echo  of  what  he  had 
been  taught  as  a  boy,  and  of  what  all 
other  German  boys  of  his  age  and  genera- 
tion had  been  taught,  about  the  character 
of  England  and  the  selfishness  and  un- 
scrupulousness  of  her  foreign  policy. 
There  is  plentiful  evidence  that  in  using 
this  language  the  Emperor  was  at  one 
with  his  people,  whose  long  pent-up 
hatred  of  England  burst  forth  in  an 
amazing  torrent  of  vituperation  the 
moment  the  floodgates  were  opened  by 
the  British  declaration  of  war.* 

A  manifestation  so  unbridled  and  so 
disreputable  came  with  a  shock  of  sur- 
prise to  the  English.  They  would  have 
been  less  surprised  had  they  known  that 
for  two  generations  past  the  German  peo- 
ple had  been  methodically  taught  that 
England,  as  a  power,  had  always  been 
mercenary,  selfish  and  cowardly ;  that  she 
had  consistently  abused  her  insular  posi- 
tion, her  policy  having  always  been  to 
set  the  continental  peoples  by  the  ears 
in*  order  that,  herself  safe  behind  her 
"  moat,"  she  might  be  able  to  profit  by 
the  exhaustion  of  her  rivals  to  extend 
her  colonial  empire,  and  secure  a  virtual 
monopoly  of  the  world's  wealth.  It  has 
to  be  remembered,  too,  that  this  legend — 
for  legend  it  is— has  been  in  the  past  by 
no  means  confined  to  Germany.  Before 
the  war  it  was  equally  current  in  France, 
and  it  is  only  since  the  war  that  French 
historians  have  begun  to  suspect  the 
fundamental  misconception  underlying  the 
traditional  estimate  of  la  per  fide-  Albion. 

Even  with  the  object  lessons  of  the  war 
before  them,  not  all  have  been  able  to  rid 
themselves  of  their  inherited  prejudices. 
M.  Edouard  Driault,  for  instance,  in  a 
volume  published  in  1917,  at  the  very 
time  when  the  British  blockade  was  forc- 
ing Germany  to  loosen  the  grip  that  was 
strangling  France,  declared:  "It  is  cer- 
tain that  Napoleon  (in  the  proclamation 
of  the  Continental  blockade)  represented 
right,  strict  right,  natural  right,  against 
the  indefensible  misuse  which  England 
made  of  her  supremacy  at  sea."  It  is, 
then,  not  surprising  that  the  legend  of 
the  peculiar  unscrupulousness  and  hypoc- 
risy of  British  foreign  policy  should 
have  been  widely  accepted  on  the  Conti- 
nent,  since  the  selfishness  and  perfidy  of 


.  *In  confirmation  of  this  statement  the 
writer  cites  "  Wehe  dir,  England!"  an  an- 
thology of  117  "  hymns  of  hate,"  Leipzig, 
third  edition,  1915. 


England   were   the   stock   themes   of   both 
French  and  German  publicists. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  LEGEND 

Tracing  down  the  origin  of  the  legend 
and  its  development  through  the  nine- 
teenth century,  this  writer  finds  its  first 
evidence  in  the  France  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  political  dogma  formulated  by 
Montesquieu  even  before  the  Revolution, 
that  the  republic,  per  se,  was  Virtue, 
brought  the  inescapable  corollary  that 
all  opposers  of  the  republic  were  open 
to  criminal  reproach.  Hence,  from  the 
moment  the  convention  resumed  the  tra- 
ditional French  policy  of  aggression  in 
the  Netherlands,  and  incurred  thereby 
the  enmity  of  Great  Britain,  it  followed 
logically  that  English  statesmen  were,  of 
all  other  statesmen  of  Europe,  the  most 
destitute  of  moral  principle.  The  at- 
tacks of  Barrere  and  Robespierre  in  the 
convention  sound  today  like  the  anti- 
British  onslaughts  of  the  Germans.  "  It 
is  this  Government  which  uses  the  treas- 
ures of  India  to  enslave  Europe,"  de- 
clared Barrere,  "  the  benefits  of  com- 
merce to  destroy  freedom,  the  favor  of 
social  relations  to  corrupt  men,  and  the 
tributes  of  the  people  to  compass  the 
death  of  Frenchmen."  "  It  is  in  Eng- 
land," asserted  Robespierre  on  May  7, 
1794,  "  that  Machiavellianism  has  pushed 
this  royal  doctrine  (that  honest  men  are 
of  no  use  to  Kings)  to  the  highest  degree 
of  perfection." 

This  legend  of  la  per  fide  Albion, 
spread  under  the  republic  in  countless 
orations,  in  official  documents,  in.  books 
and  polemical  pamphlets,  was  seized 
joyously  by  Napoleon  as  a  multiple  con- 
firmation of  his  hatred  of  the  British, 
whom  he  Had  contemptuously  stigmatized 
as  "  a  nation  of  shopkeepers."  Deliberate- 
ly, according  to  this  writer,  he  employed 
a  host  of  hired  scribblers  to  spread  the 
legend  throughout  the  Continent.  The 
object  of  Napoleon,  who,  like  William  II., 
recognized  in  that  impassable  moat  the 
unscalable  barrier  to  the  consummation 
of  his  dream  of  world  dominion,  was 
clearly  evident  in  his  stirring  up  in  all 
Europe  a  clamor  for  the  "  freedom  of 
the  seas."  Such  isolated  voices  as  that 
of  the  German,  Friedrich  von  Gentz,  who 
protested  that  Britain  was  the  guarantor 
of  the  liberties  of  Europe,   and  that  it 


GERMANY'S  HATRED   OF  ENGLAND. 


149 


I 


was  British  sea  power  which  stood  be- 
tween Europe  and  slavery,  were  voices 
crying  in  a  German  wilderness. 

THE  LEGEND  IN  GERMANY 

One  might  have  supposed  that  the 
common  effort  at  Waterloo  would  have 
mitigated  the  virulence  of  the  legend  in 
Germany.  If  it  survived  and  persisted, 
stronger  than  ever,  this  was  due  to  the 
trend  of  policy  pursued  by  the  British 
statesmen  in  1814  and  1815.  Realizing 
the  rapacity  of  Prussia's  designs  on 
France,  a  danger  to  the  world  which 
must  be  diverted,  they  successfully  op- 
posed demands  including  the  partition 
of  France,  the  restoration  to  Germany  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and  the  calling  into 
being  of  a  formidable  German  confedera- 
tion, planned  to  englobe  both  Switzer- 
land and  the  Netherlands.  Disappointed 
and  enraged,  Prussian  patriots  heaped 
abuse  on  Britain  and  accused  her  of  de- 
siring to  throw  the  Continent  into  new 
convulsions  for  her  own  profit.  So  the 
old  legend  was  revived,  notably  by  the 
great  Prussian  soldier  Gneisenau,  in  a 
memorandum  addressed  to  En^peror 
Alexander  I.  Professor  Phillips  says  in 
this  connection: 

This  was  not  merely  the  splenetic  out- 
burst of  a  soldier  who  believed  himself 
to  be  cheated  of  the  spoils  of  victory ;  it 
was  the  deliberate  expression  of  a  re- 
vived opinion,  and  as  such  it  is  quoted  by 
Treitschke,  in  his  "  Deutsche  Geschidhte," 
with  entire  approval,  and  enlarged  on  by 
him  with  characteristic  venom  and 
characteristic  contempt  for  historic  proba- 
bilities.   *     -    * 

Although  Treitschke  did  not  create  the 
legend,  he  did  more  than  any  other  man 
to  give  it  a  wide  currency  in  modern 
Germany.  His  influence  during  the  crit- 
ical formative  period  of  the  new  German 
Empire  was  enormous,  and  until  his 
death,  in  1896,  he  used  this  influence  to 
destroy  the  admiration  surviving  among 
German  Liberals  for  England  and  Eng- 
lish institutions,  in  order  to  establish  in 
its  place  the  worship  of  the.  Prussian 
militarist  ideal  In  season  and  out  of 
season,  in  his  historical  works,  in  his 
professorial  lectures,  in  the  pages  of  his 
"  Preussische  Jahrbucher,"  and  doubtless 
also  as  the  future  Emperor's  tutor,  he 
played  endless  variations  on  the  theme  of 
England's  "  shamelessness  "  (die  Unver- 
schamtheit  Englands),  and  the  blindness 
of  her  so-called  democracy  by  "  huck- 
ster's  egotism  "    (Krameregoismus). 

Such  is  the  legend  of  la  per  fide  Albion 


as  originated  in  Revolutionary  France 
and  developed  by  German  hatred.  This 
legend  was  undoubtedly  favored  by 
Great  Britain's  traditional  foreign  policy, 
though  that  policy,  rightly  understood, 
intimates  Professor  Phillips,  is  the  libel's 
most  convincing  refutation.  He  con- 
tinues : 

It  is  true  that  from  time  to  time  Eng- 
land has  been  content  "  to  revolve  in  her 
own  orbit,"  sometimes  with  disturbing 
effect  on  the  European  system.  But 
sooner  or  later  an  irresistible  force  has 
drawn  her  back  into  her  predestined 
place  as  what  Montesquieu  called  the 
puissance  executive  of  Europe  and  the 
guardian  of  its  liberties.  Even  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, though  of  all  British  statesmen  the 
one  most  disposers  to  avoid  "  continental 
entanglements,"  realized  the  existence  of 
this  force.    »    *    • 

THE  BRITISH  TRADITION 

The  most  striking  thing  in  the  history 
of  British  foreign  policy,  continues  the 
writer,  is  the  almost  unbroken  continuity 
of  this  great  tradition.  In  1694  Lord 
Halifax  laid  down  the  prime  condition 
of  British  security  in  the  following 
phrase :  "  Look  to  your  moat.  The  first 
article  of  an  Englishman's  creed  must 
be  that  he  believeth  in  the  sea."  In  1800 
Pitt  explained  the  fundamental  cause  of 
the  war  with  France  as  "  security 
against  a  danger  which  threatened  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth."  The  moral 
authority  of  Great  Britain  in  the  coun- 
cils of  Europe  was  founded  on  the  gen- 
eral conviction  that  in  certain  vital  re- 
spects her  interests  and  those  of  the 
Continental  peoples  were  identical.  Eng- 
land might  be  safe  behind  her  moat,  but 
she  would  remain  so  only  so  long  as  no 
power  should  arise  strong  enough  to  dis- 
pute her  mastery  of  the  seas.  She  was 
thus  forced  into  the  position  of  protector 
of  the  "  balance  of  power  "  which  was 
universally  recognized  as  the  conserva- 
tive basis  of  the  European  States  system. 
This  position,  though  motivated  by  "  se- 
curity," brought  with  it  moral  conse- 
quences of  the  greatest  importance;  it 
made  Great  Britain  the  champion  of  the 
rights  of  weaker  States,  and  the  cham- 
pion of  the  sanctity  of  the  treaties  by 
which  these  rights  were  secured.  The 
pursuit  of  this  policy  sometimes  involved 
war,  but  it  was  not  a  warlike  policy. 


150 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


When,  mainly  through  Great  Britain, 
Napoleon's  power  was  brought  low,  the 
island  nation  made  it  clear  that  she  had 
no  intention  of  using  her  enhanced 
prestige  for  selfish  ends.  "  The  wish  of 
the  Government,"  wrote  Castlereagh  on 
Feb.  6,  1814,  "  is  to  connect  its  interests 
in  peace  and  war  with  those  of  the  con- 
tinent." While  the  state  of  Europe  af- 
forded little  hope  of  a  better  order  of 
things.  Great  Britain  had  no  other  course 
left  than  to  create  an  independent  posi- 
tion for  herself;  but  now  that  she  might 
look  forward  to  a  return  to  ancient  prin- 
ciples, she  was  ready  to  make  the  neces- 
sary sacrifices  to  reconstruct  a  balance 
in  Europe.  In  accordajice  with  this  in- 
tention, she  presented  a  long  list  of  the 
conquered  colonies  which  she  was  pre- 
pared to  restore  to  France  and  Holland. 
This  action  created  a  profound  impres- 
sion, and  gave  her  a  prestige  which 
enabled  her  to  mediate  successfully  be- 
tween the  violently  conflicting  interests 
at  Vienna,  to  prevent  a  renewal  of  war, 
and  to  bring  about  the  settlement  of 
1815,  which  remained  the  foundation  of 
peace  for  nearly  fifty  years. 

THE  "GRAND  ALLIANCE" 

To  preserve  the  balance  of  power  thus 
re-established,  and  the  treaties  on  which 
it  was  based,  was  the  guiding  principle 
of  British  Continental  policy  for  many, 
years.  As  an  effective  means  to  this 
end,  it  was  deemed  wise  by  British 
statesmen  to  preserve  the  "  Grand  Al- 
liance"  which,  originally  concluded  be- 
tween the  four  powers  and  directed 
against  France,  was  given  wider  scope 
in  1815  and  converted  in  1818  into  an 
alliance  of  all  five  Continental  great 
powers  by  the  admission  of  France.  It 
soon  became  clear,  however,  that  there 
was  a  fundamental  difference  of  prin- 
ciple between  Great  Britain  and  the  Con- 
tinental allies  in  this  League.  From  the 
first  the  British  statesmen  protested 
against  the  attempts  of  the  autocratic 
powers,  terrified  by  sporadic  symptoms 
of  revolutionary  unrest,  to  exalt  the 
alliance  into  a  kind  of  super-tribunal, 
armed  with  vague  powers  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  status  quo.  And  when 
this  claim  was  actually  formulated  by 
the  three  autocratic  powers  at  Troppau, 


in  1820,  Great  Britain  protested  vigor- 
ously, and  proclaimed  the  principle  of 
non-intervention  as  a  cardinal  doctrine 
of  British  foreign  policy;  that  is  to  say, 
the  right  of  nations  to  manage  their  own 
affairs  so  long  as  they  do  not  offend 
against  their  neighbors. 

It  was  the  assertion  of  this  principle 
that  led  to  the  first  breach  (and 
eventually  to  complete  separation)  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  Continental 
Alliance.  When,  at  the  Congress  of 
Verona  in  1822,  it  was  proposed  to  give 
royalist  France  a  European  mandate  to 
suppress  the  Liberal  system  in  Spain, 
Great  Britain  protested,  and  when  her 
protests  were  unheeded  withdrew  her 
representative  from  the  conferences. 
After  Castlereagh's  death  Canning  pro- 
claimed anew  all  the  well-known  prin- 
ciples of  Britain's  policy.  Under  Palmer- 
ston  occurred  the  events  connected  with 
the  successful  revolt,  in  1880,  of  the  Bel- 
gians against  the  union  with  Holland  im- 
posed on  them  in  1815.  For  two  years 
Palmerston's  diplomacy  prevented  the 
outbreak  of  a  general  European  war  over 
this  dispute.  When,  finally,  in  1832,  a 
British  squadron  and  a  French  army  co- 
operated in  forcing  the  Dutch  to  evacuate 
the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  and  to  retire  be- 
hind the  frontiers  assigned  to  Holland 
by  the  powers,  this  action  was  interpreted 
by  the  autocratic  nations  as  fresh  proof 
of  the  "  perf  idiousness "  of  Great 
Britain,  and  in  September,  1833,  the 
meeting  of  Miinchengratz  proclaimed 
their  resolve  to  draw  together  in  support 
of  the  sacred  principles  of  the  Holy  Al- 
liance. 

THE  EUROPEAN   BALANCE 

The  situation  thus  created  was  com- 
mented upon  by  Palmerston  as  follows: 
The  division  of  Europe  into  two  camps 
is  the  result  of  events  beyond  our  control, 
and  is  the  result  of  the  French  Revolution 
of  July.  '  What  they  really  complain  of 
is  not  the  existence  of  two  camps  but  the 
equality  of  the  two  camps.  The  plain 
English  of  it  is,  that  they  want  to  have 
England  on  their  side  against  France, 
that  they  may  dictate  to  France  as  they 
did  in  1814  and  1815;  and  they  are  pro- 
voked beyond  measure  at  the  steady  pro- 
tection France  has  derived  from  us.  But 
it  is  that  protection  which  has  preserved 
the  peace  of  Europe.  Without  it  there 
would  long  ago  have  been  a  general  war. 


^     With  th 


GERMANY'S  HATRED   OF  ENGLAND 


151 


With  the  revolutionary  years  1848  and 
1849,  which  saw  the  rise  of  Louis  Na- 
poleon to  power,  the  relations  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Continent  entered  on  a 
new  phase.  These  years  heralded  the 
break-up  of  the  old  order  in  Europe,  and 
marked  the  beginning  of  that  universal 
clash  of  national  ideals  which,  in  the 
next  twenty  years,  was  to  lead  to  the 
creation  of  the  German  Empire  and  of 
United  Italy.  Palmerston,  though  favor- 
ing oppressed  nationalities,  still  pursued 
the  tradition  of  the  balance  of  power. 
He  favored  Italian  aspirations  only  be- 
cause he  believed  the  amputation  of  the 
Italian  provinces  would  strengthen  Aus- 
tria for  her  proper  life  work  as  the 
guardian  of  the  west  against  the  over- 
grown power  of  Russia.  He  refused  to 
intervene  on  behalf  of  Hungarian  inde- 
pendence. The  attempts  of  Great  Britain 
to  combine  the  championship  of  the 
weaker  nations  with  her  traditional 
policy  gave  fresh  life  to  the  old  legend, 
contradicted  by  the  whole  attitude  of 
England  at  the  opening  of  the  second 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  she 
came  out  in  favor  of  free  trade,  that  is 
to  say,  unfettered  intercourse  between 
nations. 

ENGLAND'S  WEAK  POLICY 

It  was  England's  very  desire  for 
peace  which,  after  Lord  Palmerston's 
retirement  in  December,  1851,  caused  a 
weakness  of  policy  that  had  regrettable 
consequences.  There  would  have  been 
no  Crimean  war,  says  Professor  Phillips, 
if  Great  Britain  had  made  it  clear  from 
the  first  that  she  would  resist  in  arms 
any  attack  by  Russia  on  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  Her  very  peaceableness,  em- 
phasized by  the  pacifist  propaganda  of 
Cobden  and  Bright,  completely  deceived 
Czar  Nicholas  as  co  the  temper  of  the 
British  people.  The  fault  of  the  British 
attitude  was  not  that  it  was  perfidious, 
but  that  it  was  weak.  In  1854  this  weak- 
ness was  partly  due  to  the  weakness  of 
the  army  and  navy.  The  Crimean  war 
and  the  Indian  mutiny  still  further  ex- 
hausted Great  Britain's  strength.  A 
greater  firmness  was  displayed  in  1860 
when  Lord  John  Russell  proclaimed  the 
sympathy  of  England  with  the  cause  of 
Italian    independence;    and    again   when 


Great  Britain  refused  to  join  her  naval 
forces  with  those  of  France  in  order  to 
prevent  Garibaldi  and  his  thousand  from 
crossing  the  Strait  of  Messina;  but  Rus- 
sell's protest  in  the  name  of  the  treaties, 
against  the  treatment  meted  out  to  Po- 
land by  the  Emperor  Nicholas  after  the 
insurrection  of  1863,  helped  the  Poles 
not  at  all,  and  earned  for  Great  Britain 
a  humiliating  snub,  followed  by  another 
of  the  same  kind  encountered  by  an 
equally  futile  protest  in  1864  against 
the  seizure  of  the  Danish  duchies  by  the 
German  powers.  Thus  England's  pres- 
tige, as  Disraeli  said  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  was  noticeably  lowered.  Bis- 
marck shaped  his  policy  accordingly,  and, 
availing  himself  of  Louis  Napoleon's 
restless  efforts  to  secure  compensations 
in  Luxemburg  and  the  Netherlands  for 
the  aggrandizement  of  Prussia,  drove 
England  into  an  angry  neutrality  when 
the  attack  on  France  was  launched  in 
1870  by  publishing  the  celebrated  draft 
treaty,  drawn  up  by  the  French  Ambas- 
sador Benedetti,  under  the  terms  of  which 
Belgium  was,  under  certain  contingen- 
cies, to  be  annexed  to  France.  Great 
Britain  then  intervened  only  to  safe- 
guard the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  and  left 
France  to  meet  her  fate  alone. 

THE  GERMAN  MENACE 

From  the  time  of  the  crushing  defeat 
of  France  and  the  consolidation  of  the 
German  Empire  in  1871,  until  the  crea- 
tion of  the  new  entente  with  France  in 
1904,  Great  Britain,  says  Professor  Phil- 
lips, can  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  a 
Continental  policy  at  all.  The  treaties 
had  been  torn  to  pieces;  the  balance  of 
power  had  ceased  to  be.  The  power  of 
the  German  Empire  now  surpassed  that 
of  any  other  State.  Four  years  later  it 
was  still  more  strengthened  by  the 
alliance  with  Austria,  which  in  1882  be- 
came the  Triple  Alliance  by  the  adhesion 
of  Italy.  Great  Britain  accepted  the 
situation  and  turned  her  attention  to  the 
East. 

With  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  in  1878, 
the  chapter  of  European  history  which 
opened  in  1815  may  be  said  to  have 
closed.  In  the  scramble  for  world  power 
which  began  in  the  eighties,  the  storm 
centre  was  transferred  to  Egypt,  Tunis, 


152 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Nigeria  and  Manchuria.  To  isolate 
France  and  distract  her  attention  from 
Alsace-Lorraine,  Bismarck  encouraged 
her  rivalry  with  England  in  Africa;  to 
divert  the  threat  of  Russia  against  Ger- 
many he  directed  her  ambitions  to  the 
Far  East,  where  she  came  in  dangerous 
touch  with  Great  Britain  on  the  borders 
of  India.  With  England  and  Russia  at 
odds  in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  France  and 
England  engaged  in  the  bitter  rivalry 
which  culminated  in  1898  in  the  Fashoda 
incident,  there  was  no  prospect  of  re- 
storing the  balance  of  power  in  Europe, 
and  Germany's  purposes  were  served. 

THE  TRIPLE  ENTENTfl 

It  was  not  till  the  opening  years  of 
the  present  century  that  the  growing 
self-assertion  of  Germany,  backed  by  the 
increase  of  her  armaments,  awoke  Great 
Britain  to  the  fact  that  her  position  in 
the  world  was  being  definitely  chal- 
lenged, and  that  her  empire  might  once 
more  have  to  fight  out  its  defense  on  the 
battlefields  of  Europe.  It  was  the  sense 
of  a  common  peril  which  drew  Franco 
and  Russia  again  together,  which  united 
once  more  France  and  England.  So  was 
created  the  Triple  Entente,  to  counteract 
and  oppose  the  Triple  Alliance.  Eng- 
land had  been  driven  back  again  to  her 
traditional  policy  of  the  balance  of 
power. 

That  peace,  nevertheless,  was  not  pre- 
served, is  attributed  by  Professor  Phil- 
lips to  the  same  weakness,  or  rather  un- 
certainty of  policy,  which  had  left  the 
Czar  of  Russia  in  the  dark  as  to  Britain's 
intentions  on  the  eve  of  the  Crimean 
war.     "  If,  from  the  first,"  he  says,  "  it 


had  been  made  quite  clear  that  England 
would  stand  beside  her  allies  in  the  event 
of  their  being  attacked  by  Germany,  the 
balance  of  power  would  have  been  com- 
plete and  obvious,  and  Germany  would 
never  have  risked  a  war.  It  Vas  the 
uncertainty  of  Great  Britain's  attitude 
that  made  war  possible.     *     *     * " 

For  this  uncertainty  the  conditions 
under  which  British  foreign  policy  had 
to  be  pursued,  keeping  ever  in  view  a 
wholly  uninformed  public  opinion,  were 
mainly  responsible.  The  welding  of  the 
Entente  into  a  definite  defensive  alliance 
would  have  been  strenuously  opposed  by 
a  large  section  of  the  nation.  "  It  needed 
"  the  German  violation  of  Belgium  to 
"  open  the  eyes  of  the  British  de- 
"  mocracy,"  says  Professor  Phillips,  "  and 
"  then  it  was  too  late  to  save  the  world 
"  from  the  agony  of  the  most  terrible 
"  of  all  wars.  But  we  may  dismiss  at 
"  once,  as  utterly  without  foundation, 
"  the  legend  of  the  *  encirclement '  of 
"  Germany,  pretext  for  a  deliberate  war 
"  of  aggression.  Great  Britain's  earnest 
"  desire  for  peace  was  proved  by  Sir 
"  Edward  Grey's  dispatches  during  the 
"  crisis  of  July,  1914,  which  show  the 
"  transparent  honesty  of  his  language 
"  and  his  intentions.  In  this  respect  he 
"was  but  following  the  true  tradition 
"  of  our  Foreign  Office,  which  may  be 
"  summed  up,  in  the  words  of  Canning, 
"  as  *  respect  for  the  faith  of  treaties ; 
"  respect  for  the  independence  of  na- 
"tions;  respect  for  the  established  line 
"  of  policy  known  as  the  balance  of 
"  power ;  and,  last  but  not  least,  respect 
"  for  the  honor  and  interests  of  this 
"  country.'  The  legend  of  *  perfidious 
"  Albion  '  is  a  legend  and  nothing  more." 


I 


,Why  the  German  Navy  Failed 

Captain  Persius,  Germany's  Foremost  Naval  Critic,  Discusses 
the  ex-Kaiser  and  Admiral  von  Tirpitz 


CAPTAIN  PERSIUS,  the  sanest 
and  most  noted  of  German  naval 
critics,  has  written  a  book  on 
"  The  Sea  War."  As  the  naval  ex- 
pert of  the  Berliner  Tageblatt  he  had 
chafed  bitterly  at  the  iron  restrictions 
placed  upon  him  by  the  German  censor- 
ship. When  that  censorship  was  re- 
moved, he  wrote  his  book  to  tell  what 
he  thought  of  the  German  naval  policy 
before  and  during  the  war.  His  revela- 
tions constitute  one  of  the  most  formid- 
able indictments  of  the  ex-Kaiser  and  his 
naval  chief,  von  Tirpitz,  which  have  ever 
appeared  in  print.  Like  Maximilian 
Harden,  Captain  Persius  criticises  wholly 
from  the  German  viewpoint,  a  method 
which  makes  his  attacks  all  the  more 
deadly. 

At  the  outset  Captain  Persius  gives 
interesting  details  of  the  personalities 
of  the  ex-Kaiser,  who  was  the  Supreme 
Chief  of  the  German  Navy,  and  of  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia,  who  occupied  the  posi- 
tion of  Senior  Admiral.  Of  the  building- 
up  to  the  German  Navy  he  says  : 

"With  a  few  cruisers  and  with  the  friend- 
ly assent  of  Great  Britain  BismarcIiL 
gained  nearly  all  our  colonies  for  us. 
No  threat  was  seen  in  our  naval  arma- 
ments, which  fully  sufficed  for  Germany's 
interest.     But  at  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 


tury the  time  began  when  Tirpitz  set  to 
worlc  in  order  to  carry  out  the  Kaiser's 
words:  "The  trident  belongs  to  our 
hand."  What  motives  had  William  II. 
to  increase  naval  construction?  In  the 
first  place,  megalomania  and  vanity.  In 
order  to  satisfy  these  he  needed  a  strong 
fleet,  strong  at  least  in  numbers.  Crass 
materialism  was  the  driving  force  behind 
the   Kaiser's   every  action. 

KAISER  AND   PRINCE  HENRY 

Naval  construction,  intimates  this 
German  critic,  was  carried  on  by  the 
Kaiser  for  his  own  pleasure  and  enter- 
tainment. He  needed  the  fleet  as  a  back- 
ground during  the  Kiel  week,  and  as  an 
escort  during  the  Hohenzollern  excur- 
sions. His  evil  influence  was  widespread 
among  the  officers,  among  whom  servil- 
ity to  superiors,  brutality  to  inferiors, 
unhealthy  rivalry,  love  of  enjoyment  and 
bombast  were  encouraged.  Under  the 
Kaiser's  regime  luxtjry  and  good-living 
flourished.  During  the  war  he  often 
appeared  at  Kiel  and  Wilhelmshaven  and 
made  grandiloquent  speeches.  During  the 
naval  manoeuvres  he  perpetrated  prac- 
tical jokes  which  were  almost  incredibly 
coarse  and  vulgar. 

Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  the  ex- 
Kaiser's  royal  brother,  stands  equally  low 
in  the  estimation  of  Captain  Persius.  He 


GERMAN    SUBMARINE    CRUISER   OP  HEAVIEST   TYPE,    EQUIPPED   WITH  LARGE    CALIBRE 
GUN  AND  MINE-LAYING  APPARATUS 


154 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


says  Prince  Henry  was  a  pronounced 
Anglophile,  most  at  home  when  strolling 
along  Pall  Mall  or  Piccadilly,  or  when,  in 
evening  dress,  the  guest  of  some  English 
club.  An  interesting  account  is  given 
of  Prince  Henry's  pleasure  cruise  to  the 
Far  East  in  the  German  war  cruiser,  the 


GRAND    ADMIRAL.   VON    TIRPITZ 
G-ei'man  Naval  Secretary  and  chief  advocate 
of  submarme  warfare 

Deutschland.     Before  his  departure  the 

Kaiser  said  to  him: 

If  any  one  should  venture  to  offend  us 
in  our  good  right,  then  bring  your  mailed 
fist  (gepanzerte  Faust)  into  action !  And, 
if  God  wills  it,  weave  laurels  around  your 
youthful   brows. 

To  this  the  Prince  rejoined: 

I  go  forth  to  bring  to  the  nations  the 
evangel  of  your  Majesty's  hallowed  per- 
son ! 

On  this  Captain  Persius  comments  that 
the  "  gepanzerte  Faust,"  which  became 
world-famous  subsequently  in  English 
translation  as  the  "  mailed  fist,"  referred 
to  the  Deutschland,  an  armored  cruiser 
of  an  old,  ramshackle  description  and  the 
object  of  much  ridicule  among  the  Eng- 
lish. 

Captain  Persius  was  a  member  of  the 
Deutschland   party   on  this   cruise,    and 


came  back  with  many  uncomplimentary 
anecdotes  of  Prince  Henry,  which  he  sets 
down  in  his  book.  Once,  while  the  ship 
was  lying  near  Bangkok,  a  number  of 
Siamese  Princes  and  dignitaries  arrived 
in  a  yacht.  They  were  decked  out  with 
all  kinds  of  orders,  and  their  uniforms 
blazed  with  gold.  Their  leader,  a  choco- 
late colored  Siamese,  was  the  worse  for 
liquor.  When  Captain  Persius  expressed 
his  amusement  at  these  absurd  person- 
ages, Prince  Henry  waxed  furious,  and 


ADMIRAL.    VON    CAPELLE 

German  Seoretary   of  the  Navy,   succeedmg 

von   Twpitis 

exclaiming :  "  No  more  of  this,  please ! 
Be  careful  what  you're  saying!  Why, 
you  don't  seem  to  have  the  slightest 
dynastic  feeling!  "  walked  away  in  a  fit 
of  bad  temper. 

TIRPITZ  AND  U-BOAT  WAR 

Of  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  the  man  re- 
sponsible for  the  execution  of  the  Kaiser's 
naval  policy,  Captain  Persius  writes: 
It   is   no   exaggeration   to   say   that,    ex- 
cept for  the  few  gentlemen  who  owed  him 
personal  gratitude,  our  naval  officers  felt 
no  sympathy  for   Tirpitz.     His    character 


WHY  THE  GERMAN  NAVY  FAILED 


155 


I 


was  generally  known— his  crass  egoism, 
his  domineering  spirit,  his  megalomania, 
his  lack  of  understanding  for  the  needs  of 
the  fleet,  his  feebleness  in  the  face  of 
the  bureaucracy.  Known,  too,  were  the 
orgies  he  carried  on  in  the  Marine  Minis- 
try and  the  way  in  which  he  failed 
'  whenever  new  problems  in  ship  construc- 
tion or  naval  artillery  appeared.  *  * 
He  failed  in  the  precise  direction  in  which 
he  should  not  have  failed— U-boats !  He 
showed  plenty  of  energy  where  less  energy 
was  needed— torpedo  boats  and  airships. 
Tirpitz  was  often  great  in  little  things. 
In  this  respect  he  somewhat  resembled 
a  Prussian  Sergeant  Major.  *  *  *  The 
Kaiser  did  not  find  Tirpitz  sympathetic 
(although  he  Imagined  he  needed  him). 
It  was  my  frequent  experience  that  he 
treated  him  contemptuously.  But  Tirpitz' s 
skin  was  as  thick  as  his  c  science  was 
robust.  *  *  *  Today  no  wideawake 
German  thinks  of  Tirpitz  except  sorrow- 
fully. *  *  *  Tirpitz  who  torpedoed  Ger- 
man happiness,  German  contentment,  Ger- 
man wealth. 

Captain  Persius  blames  Admiral  von 
Tirpitz     severely     throughout     for     not 
realizing   the  value   of   the   submarine; 
even  in  peace  time,  he  says,  the  German 
Naval  Command 
neglected   the   most  modern   weapon,    the 
submarine,  which  would  have  been  of  the 
highest  value  for  us,  who  were  the  weaker 
at  sea.     The  chief  guilt  lies  with  Tirpitz, 
who   did   not   further   the   U-boat   weapon 
before    the    war    as    interests    of    national 
defense  demanded.     He  furthered  the  con- 
struction   of    big    battleships    with    great 
ardor.      And    thus    he    created    England's 
hostility   to  us,    and   thus  he  created   the 
war. 

As  a  consequence  of  von  Tirpitz's  mis- 
conceptions, Germany  entered  the  war 
with  only  twenty-seven  submarines.  Cap- 
tain Persius  gives  a  series  of  figures 
showing  the  slow  growth  of  the  German 
submarine  fleet.  Not  only  von  Tirpitz, 
but  his  successor,  Admiral  von  Capelle, 
were  at  first  opposed  to  U-boat  construc- 
tion, and  when  they  realized  the  value 
of  this  weapon  they  advocated  intensi- 
fied U-boat  warfare  prematurely,  so  that 
when  a  really  formidable  number  of  sub- 
marines had  been  launched  England  had 
perfected  her  defensive  measures.  The 
unrestricted  U-boat  war  which  was 
opened  in  1917  Captain  Persius  calls  the 
greatest  mistake  made  by  the  Germans 
after  the  invasion  of  Belgium,  because  it 
brought  America  into  the  war.  In  this 
connection  he  says: 

Sensible     Parliamentarians    opposed    it. 


From  Capelle's  mouth  came  the  words: 
"  America— zero,  zero  and  zero  once 
again!"  He  rejected  the  arguments  of 
those  who  pointed  to  possible  war  with 
America  by  saying  that  he  was  of  one 
mind  with  his  former  chief  Tirpitz.  Even 
in  January,  1918,  he  said  to  a  representa- 


'*^'  "-"---■^^^ 


TORPEDO   EXPLODING  AMIDSHIPS   UNDER  A 
BRITISH    MERCHANTMAN 

tive  of  the  Neues  Pester  Journal: 
"  America'^  military  assistance  is  a 
phantom." 

GERMAN  NAVAL  CENSORSHIP 
To  the  very  last  the  German  naval 
censorship  adopted  a  policy  of  secretive- 
ness  and  falsification.  Captain  Persius 
compares  this  policy  with  that  of  the 
British  Admiralty,  which  admitted 
frankly  all  losses:  the  only  exception  to 
this  rule  was  the  loss  of  the  Audacious, 
and  this  was  admitted  immediately  after 
the  armistice.  In  Germany  all  was 
hushed  up,  obscured,  invented.  In  all 
cases  of  official  announcements  of  naval 
battles  in  which  the  British  and  German 
versions  conflict.  Captain  Persius  estab- 
lishes the  fact  that  the  British  version 
was  truthful  and  accurate,  the  German 
version  untruthful  and  inaccurate.  "  The 
German  people  were  bluffed  and  deceived 
until  they  lost  all  faith  in  their  own 
rulers." 
A  case  in  point  involved  the  transpor- 


156 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


tation  of  American  soldiers  to  the  battle- 
fields of  France.  To  the  last  the  Ger- 
man naval  authorities  denied  that  Amer- 
ican troops  were  being  sent.  On  July  5, 
1917,  the  Rotterdam  correspondent  of  the 
Berliner  Tageblatt  wired  that  German 
submarines  had  attacked  American 
transports,  the  implication  being  that 
the  attack  had  been  unsuccessful.  This 
wire  was  submitted  by  Captain  Persius 
to  the  Staff  of  the  German  Admiralty. 
The  reply  received  was  as  follows :  "  The 
telegram  can  be  published  only  if  a  com- 
ment, making  the  news  appear  ridiculous, 
is  added."  The  edited  version,  which 
made  the  message  appear  vague  and 
problematic,  was  not  accepted,  and  the 
news  about  the  attack  on  American 
transports  was  suppressed  altogether. 
Every  engagement,  large  or  small,  was 
similarly  misinterpreted  or  hushed  up  in 
the  grossest  and  most  childish  manner. 
Some  of  the  official  reports  quoted  by 
Captain  Persius  are  absurd  and  insult- 
ing to  the  intelligence  of  the  German 
people.  For  this  von  Tirpitz  and  his 
successor  were  responsible. 

THE  REVOLUTION 

It  is  significant  that  the  German  revo- 
lution broke  out  first  in  the  navy.  The 
responsibility  for  this  Captain  Persius 
attributes  in  great  part  to  the  evil  in- 
fluence of  the  Kaiser  already  mentioned, 
his  superficiality,  grandiosity,  love  of 
display,  and  nepotism  of  a  widespread 
character,  as  a  consequence  of  which 
officers  and  men  became  mutually 
estranged.  Though  there  was  much  in- 
activity during  the  war,  the  men's  leave 
was  cut  down,  and  many  irksome  and 
unnecessary  restrictions  were  imposed 
upon  them.  While  the  seamen  lived  on 
war  rations,  the  officers  reveled  in 
luxury.  Realization  of  the  stupidity  of 
the  German  naval  policy  also  sapped  the 
confidence  of  the  men,  and  the  personal- 
ity of  the  Kaiser  widened  the  breach. 
On  June  5,  1916,  just  after  the  battle 
of  Jutland,  in  which  the  British  lost 
6,104  men  and  117,150  tons  of  shipping, 


as  against  the  German  loss  of  2,414  men 
and  60,720  tons,  the  Kaiser  said  to  a 
delegation  representing  the  crews  of  all 
the  ships  engaged,  assembled  on  board 
his  flagship  at  Wilhelmshaven : 

The  English  fleet  has  been  beaten.  The 
first  mighty  hammer-blow  has  been  de- 
livered. The  halo  of  English  world- 
dominion  has  vanished.  You  have  opened 
a  new  chapter  in  the  world's  history.  The 
Lord  of  Hosts  has  steeled  your  arms,  and 
has  cleared  your  eyes.  Children,  what 
you  have  done,  you  have  done  for  our 
Fatherland,  so  that  in  all  the  future  and 
on  all  seas  it  may  have  a  free  path  for 
its  work  and   all   its  deeds. 

A  very  loyal  old  naval  officer,  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  battle  and  was 
present  during  the  delivery  of  the 
Kaiser's  grandiloquent  speech,  made  this 
pithy  comment: 

We  were  laying  to  with  our  badly  rid- 
dled ships.  The  many  dead  and  wounded 
were  brought  to  land.  On  the  quays  stood 
their  kin  clothed  in  black ;  women  and 
children  wept  piteously.  We  were  not 
intoxicated  by  victory.  We  knew  that 
this  was  the  first  and  last  battle  we  could 
fight.  We  had  had  amazing  luck,  and 
it  seemed  incredible  that  things  had  gone 
so  well  for  us.  Then  the  Kaiser  came  on 
board,  in  high  spirits,  smothered  in 
decorations,  surrounded  by  his  great  en- 
tourage that  distributed  handshakes  and 
congratulations  right  and  left,  smiling 
graciously.  The  Kaiser's  bombastic 
speech  and  the  whole  ceremony  were 
so  repulsive  to  me  that  I  shuddered.  I 
shall  get  rid  of  my  uniform  as  soon  as 
possible. 

It  was  episodes  such  as  this  that 
destroyed  the  confidence  of  the  crews  in 
their  rulers.  When  the  end  of  the  great 
drama  approached,  and  the  entire  Ger- 
man fleet  was  ordered  to  steam  out  and 
give  battle — which  meant  annihilation — 
the  sailors  got  wind  of  this  "  devilish 
proposal,"  and  the  news  went  from 
mouth  to  mouth  like  wildfire.  "  They 
were  going  to  murder  us,  one  and  all, 
in  the  last  moment  of  the  war!  "  The 
men  of  the  German  Navy  refused  to  bo 
murdered,  they  mutinied,  the  revolution 
began,  and  the  whole  imperial  edifice 
collapsed  like  a  house  of  cards. 


War  Guilt  of  Count  Berchtold 

His  Falsification  of   Records 


FOLLOWING  the  publication  by  the 
Austrian  Foreign  Office  of  the  first 
part  of  a  Red  Book  giving  the  of- 
ficial documents  found  in  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  archives  which  recorded  the 
events  leading  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
World  War,  certain  Hungarian  publi- 
cists seized  upon  the  report  of  the  joint 
ministerial  council  of  July  7,  1914,  in 
Vienna  (printed  in  the  December  issue 
of  Current  History),  as  evidence  that 
the  late  Count  Stephan  Tisza,  then 
Premier  of  Hungary,  through  his  objec- 
tions to  the  procedure  of  the  council,  had 
shown  himself  a  lover  of  peace.  But  the 
second  and  third  parts  of  the  Austrian 
Red  Book,  published  in  December,  1919, 
showed  that,  although  the  Count  had 
been  cautious  at  the  first  council,  at  the 
second,  held  on  July  19,  he  had  been 
already  converted  to  the  doctrine  of  force 
and  entered  heartily  into  the  plans  for 
aggression. 

The  Vienna  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  in  its 
issue  of  Dec.  27,  1919,  devoted  a  long 
article  to  the  Red  Book,  and  asserted 
that  its  contents  also  proved  that  Count 
Leopold  von  Berchtold,  who,  as  Austro- 
Hungarian  Foreign  Minister,  presided 
over  the  council  of  July  7  and  constantly 
urged  war  upon  Serbia,  was  guilty  of 
wholesale  falsifications  in  his  work  of 
1915,  called  "  The  Diplomatic  Documents 
of  the  Antecedents  of  the  War."  How 
quickly  Count  Tisza  was  converted  to  the 
plan  to  coerce  Serbia,  regardless  of  con- 
sequences, says  this  Austrian  Socialist 
newspaper,  is  shown  by  the  following 
"  very  secret "  report  sent  to  Berlin  on 
July  14,  1914,  by  von  Tschirschky,  the 
German  Ambassador  in  Vienna: 

Count  Tisza  looked  me  up  today  after 
his  conversation  with  Count  Berchtold. 
The  Count  said  that  he  had  always  been 
the  one  so  far  who  had  counseled  caution, 
but  that  every  day  strengthened  in  him 
the  sentiment  that  the  monarchy  [Austria] 
must  come  to  an  energetic  decision  in 
order  to  show  its  vitality  and  to  put  an 
end  to  the  intolerable  conditions  in  South 
Slavia.  "  It  was  with  difficulty  that  I 
decided  to  advise  war,"  said  the  Minister, 
"  but  I   am   now  firmly   convinced  of  its 


necessity  and  I  shall  work  with  all  my 
strength  for  the  greatness  of  the 
monarchy.  *  *  *  The  note  to  Serbia 
will  he  so  worded  that  an  acceptance  is 
as  good  as  excluded."  *  *  *  At  the 
close  Tisza  warmly  shook  my  hand  and 
said:  "Now,  united,  we  shall  calmly 
and   firmly   face   the   future." 

On  July  24,  1914,  the  Hungarian 
Premier  telegraphed  to  Berchtold  as  fol- 
lows: 

I  ask  your  Excellency  to  emphasize,  in 
my  name  if  necessary,  that  in  case  of  no 
satisfactory  answer  from  Serbia  it  would 
be  imperatively  necessary  immediately 
to  order  mobilization.  Any  hesitation  in 
this  matter  would  be  bound  up  with  fate- 
ful   consequences. 

In  taking  up  the  case  of  Count  Berch- 
told's  Red  Book  of  1915,  the  Arbeiter- 
Zeitung  remarks  that  while  the  Count 
only  mentioned  sixty-four  official  docu- 
ments covering  the  period  from  May  29 
to  Aug.  24,  1914,  the  Foreign  Office's 
publication  gives  352  for  the  period  from 
July  2  to  Aug.  27,  1914.  Furthermore,  it 
avers  that  Count  Berchtold  not  only 
omitted  many  important  documents  from 
his  book,  but  he  also  "  touched  up  "  the 
dispatches  which  he  printed  so  as  to 
make  the  reader  believe  that  the  World 
War  had  been  willed  by  the  Entente  and 
that  the  central  empires  were  the  inno- 
cent victims.  Then  the  Vienna  news- 
paper proceeds  to  cite  some  examples  of 
the  Count's  work,  as  follows: 

Through  the  entire  course  of  the  nego- 
tiations before  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
there  runs  the  assertion  that  Serbia  had 
already  ordered  general  mobilization  on 
July  25,  1914,  at  3  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon. So  Grey's  efforts  for  peace  were 
answered  on  July  26,  [Berchtold  to  Count 
Mensdorf,  the  Austrian  Ambassador  in 
London],  "  that  almost  at  the  same  time 
as  he  [Grey]  had  directed  his  note  to 
Prince  Lichnowsky  [German  Ambassador 
in  London],  that  is,  yesterday  at  3 
o'clock,  Serbia  had  already  ordered  gen- 
eral mobilization,  which  shows  that  in 
Belgrade  there  was  no  inclination  toward 
a  friendly  arbitration  of  the  matter." 
On  July  28  Berchtold  again  notified  Count 
Mensdorf  in  London  that:  "Your  Excel- 
lency will  lay  great  emphasis  in  your 
conversation  with  Sir  Edward  Grey  upon 
the  circumstance  that  the  general  mobil- 


158 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ization  of  the  Serbian  Army  w$is  ordered 
for  the  25th  at  3  P.  M. ;  we  had  not  pre- 
viously made  any  military  preparations, 
but  were  forced  by  the  Serbian  mobiliza- 
tion to  go  into  them  on  a  big  scale." 
[See  Tisza's  report  that  this  had  been 
decided  upon  long  before!]  But  what 
was  the  real  situation  regarding  the 
Serbian  order?  On  July  24,  1914,  Baron 
von  Giesel  sent  a  really  extremely  *^el- 
ligerent  report  from  Belgrade  to  Berch- 
told,  which  nevertheless  contained  the 
following: 

"  Serbia's  present  military  weakness, 
due  to  the  uncertain  and  sacrifice-entail- 
ing situation  in  New  Serbia,  even  if  not 
overlooked  by  far-sighted  politicians,  Is 
regarded  even  by  them  as  a  quantity 
negligeable,  just  because  the  Monarchy, 
for  internal  and  external  reasons,  is  con- 
sidered feeble  and  incapable  of  any  ener- 
getic action.  That  the  serious  words  al- 
ready spoken  by  our  authoritative  offi- 
cials are  regarded  as  a  bluff  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  no  measures  for  pre- 
paring the  army— or  at  least  none  worth 
speaking  of— are  being  taken ;  the  re- 
servists are  being  dismissed  without  arms 
in  small  groups  from  New  Serbia  to  Old 
Serbia,  and  no  arrangement  has  yet  been 
ma^de  for  the  mobilization  of  the  second 
levy.  All  reports  to  the  contrary  are 
thus   far   lacking   confirmation." 

From  this  it  is  plainly  seen  that  the 
assertion  of  the  ordering  of  the  mobiliza- 
tion before  the  delivering  of  the  answer 
is  a  fable,  thought  out,  as  Tisza  said  to 
Tschirschky  on  July  14,  for  the  purpose 
of  "  especially  "  affecting  England.  This 
w^hole  section,  which  so  clearly  refutes 
the  fable,  is  simply  left  out  of  the  Berch- 
told    Red    Book.    *    *    * 

On  July  25,  1914,  Berchtold  gave  in- 
structions to  Ambassador  Count  S'zapary 
in  Petrograd.  *  *  *  Count  Szapary  was 
instructed  by  Berchtold  to  tell  Sazonov 
[the  Russian  Foreign  Minister]  "  that 
we  are  going  to  the  limit  in  order  to  put 
through  our  demands  and  do  not  even 
shrink  from  the  possibility  of  European 
complications."  These  last  words,  which 
plainly  show  that  the.  scoundrels  of  the 
Ballhaus  knew  very  well  whither  they 
wei-e  driving,  Berchtold  omitted.  The 
world  has  been  told  that  the  Russian 
policy  of  those  days  was  absolutely  bel- 
ligerent; the  version,  as  is  known,  ran 
that  Russia  had  "  suddenly  fallen  upon  " 
the  innocent  Central  Powers.  But  on 
July  26,  1914,  Szapary  reported  to  Berch- 
told on  the  sentiment  in  Petrograd  and 
about  his  interview  with  Sazonov,  and  in 
this  report  were  the  following  sentences : 

"  Had  impression  of  great  nervousness 
and  worry.  Consider  desire  for  peace 
sincere,  military  declarations  in  so  far 
correct  that  complete  mobilization  has, 
indeed,  not  been  ordered,  but  preparatory 
measures  very  far  reaching.  They  are 
plainly    trying    to    gain    time    for    fresh 


negotiations  and  for  continuation  of  the 
work  of  arming.  The  internal  situation 
also  gives  undeniable  cause  for  serious 
worry.  Main  feature  of  the  sentiment, 
hope  in  Germany  and  mediation  by  his 
Majesty.  Although  the  immediate  infor- 
mation of  the  German  Military  Attach^ 
indicates  nervousness  on  the  part  of 
Sazonov,    and    mobilization    only    against 


COUNT    BERCHTOLD 
Austro-Hungarian  Foreign  Minister  in  19U 

Austria  in  case  the  Serbian  border  is 
crossed,  rather  seems  to  betray  the  in- 
tention of  exercising  diplomatic  pressure, 
there  must  not  be  left  out  of  the  cal- 
culation, together  with  the  falsity  of 
promises  here,  the  lack  of  unity  between 
the  diplomatic  and  the  military  pro- 
cedures, as  well  as  the  importance  of 
gaining  time  for  the  Russian  mobiliza- 
tion." 

All  this  left  out,  falsified  away !  Berch- 
told omitted  the  following  parts  from 
Szapary's  report  of  his  conversation  with 
Sazonov  to  Berchtold  of  July  27.  (The 
report  is  only  a  couple  of  lines  in  length 
in  the  Berchtold  Red  Book ;  the  correct 
report  occupies,  in  a  true  reproduction, 
more  than  three  pages !) : 

"  M.  Sazonov  received  me,  in  contrast 
with  his  very  impatient  attitude  on  Fri- 
day, very  aimiably.  He  referred  to  the 
above-mentioned  communications  of  Count 
Pourtal^s  [German  Ambassador  at  Petro- 


WAR  GUILT  OF  COUNT  BERCHTOLD 


159 


grad]  and  said  if  I  had  not  announced 
myself  he  would  have  asked  me  to  call 
upon  him,  so  as  to  talk  openly  with  me 
once.  Friday  he  had  been  somewhat  sur- 
prised and  had  not  controlled  himself  as 
well  as  he  could  have  wished,  and  then 
our  conversation  surely  was  only  a  purely 
official   one." 

Here  follow  the  declarations  of  th:i  Am- 
bassador, after  which  he  reports  on 
Sazonov's    answer: 

"  M.  Sazortov  animatedly  agreed  with 
me  and  showed  himself  uncommonly 
pleased  over  the  tendencies  of  my  state- 
ments. He  made  many  promises  that  in 
Russia,  not  only  he,  but  the  whole  Cabinet 
and,  what  is  of  the  most  weight,  the 
sovereign,  were  animated  with  the  same 
feelings  toward  Austria-Hungary.  He 
could  not  deny  that  in  Russia  old  grudges 
were  entertained  against  the  Monarchy ; 
he,  too,  had  them,  but  still  this  all  be- 
longed to  the  past  and  must  not  play  any 
r61e  in  practical  politics ;  and  so  far  as 
the  Slavs  were  concerned,  indeed  he 
ought  not  to  tell  this  to  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Ambassador,  but  he  had  no 
feeling  for  the  Balkan  Slavs.  They  were 
even  a  heavy  burden  for  Russia  and  we 
could  hardly  imagine  what  one  had  al- 
ready had  to  endure  for  them.  Our  aim, 
as  I  had  described  it  to  him,  was  per- 
fectly legitimate,  but  he  opined  that  the 
way  in  which  we  were  seeking  to  ac- 
complish it  was  not  the  safest.    *    *    * 

"  At  the  close  of  his  interview  M. 
Sazonov  again  expressed,  in  the  warmest 
terms,  his  joy  over  the  explanations  that 
I  had  given  and  that  had  materially 
calmed  him.  He  will  also  report  this  to 
Emperor  Nicholas,  whom  he  will  see  day 


after  tomorrow  on  his  reception  day." 

This  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  report  of 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Ambassador  and  it 
certainly  does  not  indicate  any  insuper- 
able desire  for  war  by  Russia.  Naturally 
Berchtold  couldn't  use  this,  so  he  falsi- 
fied it  away.  And  now  another  example 
of  how  everything  was  twisted  around 
through  lying.  Berchtold's  last  crime,  as 
is  known,  was  the  rejection  of  Grey's  pro- 
posal of  mediation,  which  was  sent  to 
him  by  the  German  Imperial  Chancellor 
through  Tschirschky— because  it  was 
made  by  Grey  to  the  German  Ambassador. 
In  his  circular  telegram  to  the  Ambas- 
sadors in  Berlin,  London  and  Petrogrrad 
Berchtold  reproduced  the  report  of 
Tschirschky,  and  in  it  there  was  also 
the  following: 

"  To  the  Italian  Ambassador,  whom 
Sir  E.  Grey  received  shortly  after  Prince 
Lichnowsky,  the  English  Secretary  of 
•State  said  he  believed  he  could  procure 
every  possible  satisfaction  for  Austria- 
Hungary.  There  would  be  no  question  of 
a  meek  drawing  back  by  Austria- 
Hungary,  as  the  Serbs  under  all  circum- 
stances would  be  chastised  and,  with  the 
consent  of  Russia,  be  compelled  to 
subordinate  themselves  to  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  desires.  Therefore,  Austria- 
Hungary  could  obtain  guarantees  for  the 
future  also  without  unchaining  a  World 
War." 

Thus  the  world,  even  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian world,  would  have  recognized, 
even  then,  that  the  rejection  of  this  pro- 
posal was  a  crime  and  a  piece  of  in- 
sanity. Therefore,  Berchtold  suppressed 
this  entire  section,  simply  falsified  it 
away. 


Armenian  Girls  Branded 


BRANDED  Armenian  women,  said 
William  T.  Ellis  in  The  New  York 
Herald,  are  now  returning  from  captiv- 
ity among  the  Turks,  after  five  years 
of  enforced  degradation.  Were  it  not 
for  the  patriotic  resolution  of  their 
fellow-Armenians  to  regard  these  girls 
and  women  as  martyrs  of  the  race,  their 
fate  would  be  horrible  to  contemplate. 
All  the  world  knows  how  the  Turks, 
Kurds,  Arabs,  and  other  savage  tribes 
took  their  pick  of  the  Armenian  women 
among  the  deported  people,  and  made 
thousands  of  these  members  of  Moslem 
households.  Among  the  Kurds  and 
Arabs,  particularly,  it  is  the  custom  to 
tattoo  the  faces  of  the  women,  in  the 
belief  that   such  tattooing   leads   to   an 


enhancement  of  natural  beauty.  Fore- 
head, lips,  chin  and  cheeks  sometimes  re- 
ceive only  a  few  simple  designs,  some- 
times an  elaborate  "  adornment."  The 
Armenian  girls  thus  disfigured  returned 
to  their  homes  with  the  story  of  their 
slavery  written  plainly  upon  their  faces, 
which  they  could  not  even  hide  with 
veils,  as  the  Armenians  do  not  follow 
the  Moslem  custom  of  veiling  their  faces. 
Sensitive  to  this  public  disclosure  of  their 
shame,  many  of  these  Armenian  girls 
and  women  so  branded  have  resorted  to 
burning  to  obliterate  the  tatoo,  at  the 
cost  of  permanent  unsightly  scars.  Many 
others,  unable  to  face  the  ordeal  of  re- 
turning, have  preferred  to  remain  in  the 
Moslem  households  where  they  have  been 
enslaved. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


In  Industry,  Engineering,  Physics,  Aeronautics 
and  Electricity 

Exploring  the  Depths  of  the  Earth 


AFTER  exploring  the  polar  regions, 
/\  the  upper  air,  and  the  electrical 
J\  mysteries  of  the  atom,  man  has 
begun  exploring  the  earth  beneath 
and  the  waters  under  the  earth.  From 
the  recent  boring  of  deep  oil  wells  and 
mining  shafts  science  has  obtained  new 
data  looking  toward  an  understanding 
of  the  nature  of  the  crust  of  the  earth, 
the  source  of  the  intense  heat  in  the 
earth's  interior  and  the  law  governing 
the  distribution  of  that  heat  from  the 
surface  to  the  centre  of  the  earth. 

Hitherto,  for  the  solution  of  this  three- 
fold mystery,  scientists  have  had  several 
hypotheses.  For  instance,  we  are  told 
that  this  terrestrial  sphere  has  a  cen- 
tral, red-hot  nucleus,  ranging  in  tem- 
perature from  3,000  to  180,000  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  Some  scientists  hold  that 
the  earth  is  a  cooling  globe  radiating 
heat  developed  during  condensation  from 
the  original  nebula;  others  attribute  the 
subterranean  heat  to  chemical  reactions; 
others,  more  recently,  believe  it  is  caused 
by  the  disintegration  of  radium  in  sub- 
terranean rocks. 

But,  whatever  may  prove  to  be  the 
source  of  the  subterranean  heat,  the  fact 
that  it  is  encountered  in  fast-increasing 
intensity  the  deeper  down  men  work 
their  way  constitutes  a  seemingly  in- 
superable obstacle  to  exploration  at 
depths  comparable  to  the  atmospheric  al- 
titudes attained  by  aviators.  On  the 
Rand,  in  British  South  Africa,  where  a 
depth  of  4,500  feet  was  reached  lately, 
it  is  found  that  the  thermometer  goes 
up  one  degree  for  every  250  feet  it  is 
carried  downward.  A  speaker  at  a  Feb- 
ruary meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  in  London,  Mr.  Marriott,  who 
has  been  associated  with  the  deepest 
drilling  on  the  Rand,  called  this  the  most 
moderate  rate  of  increase  he  had  ever 
found;  yet  even  this,  being  128  degrees 


at  three  miles  and  149  degrees  at  four 
miles,  would  make  it  practically  impos- 
sible to  go  more  than  three  or  four  miles 
into  the  earth  on  account  of  cooling  dif- 
ficulties. On  the  same  principle  a  much 
shallower  depth  limit  would  have  to  be 
set  in  America,  where  temperatures  have 
been  found  to  be  incomparably  higher, 
and  so  variable  that  no  gradient  has 
been  established. 

THE  WORLD'S  DEEPEST  MINE 

Sir  Charles  Parsons,  at  the  same 
meeting,  spoke  of  the  deepest  mining 
shaft  in  the  world — that  of  the  Morro 
Velho  mine  of  the  St.  John  del  Rey  Com- 
pany, in  Brazil.  At  a  depth  of  6,426 
feet  work  had  been  halted  by  a  tem- 
perature of  116  degrees  in  the  rock  at 
the  bottom  and  98  degrees  in  the  air.  An 
ammonia  refrigerating  plant  is  being  in- 
stalled to  cool  the  air.  Sir  Charles  spoke 
of  the  possible  use  of  liquid  air  for  cool- 
ing purposes. 

For  years  the  well,  7,348  feet  deep,  at 
Czuchow,  Germany,  stood  unrivaled. 
Then  enterprising  American  prospectors 
for  gas  and  petroleum  bored  the  Goff 
well,  eight  miles  from  Clarksburg,  W. 
Va.;  after  400  days  of  actual  drilling 
they  reached  a  depth  of  7386  feet,  in 
March,  1918.  Then  the  work  was  halted 
by  the  breaking  of  the  cable,  leaving  a 
ponderous  string  of  tools  at  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft.  The  object  was  to  sink  a 
shaft  8,000  feet  deep  to  the  Clinton 
sand,  which  at  higher  levels  in  Ohio  ha.- 
yielded  richly  in  oil  and  natural  gas. 

But  the  deepest  well  in  the  world  is 
the  one  bored  on  the  J.  H.  Lake  farm, 
near  Fairmont,  W.  Va.,  to  a  depth  of 
7,579  feet.  Here  the  objective  was  the 
same  as  in  the  Goff  well.  The  Lake 
well  was  begun  in  June,  1916,  and  in 
September,  1917,  the  work  was  haltec^. 
at  a  depth  of  6,720  feet  to  await  a  nev.- 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


161 


cable.  The  war  delayed  the  receipt  of 
this,  so  that  drilling  could  not  go  on  un- 
til the  end  of  October,  1918.  In  June, 
1919,  a  cave-in  far  down  the  bore  halted 
operations  at  a  depth  of  7,579  feet.  Fail- 
ure to  line  the  sides  for  nine-tenths  of  a 
mile  in  the  lower  section  of  the  shaft  had 
left  it  unsupported  against  the  surround- 
ing pressure  and  the  shock  of  the  heavy 
percussion  drill,  and  thus  had  caused  the 
collapse.  However,  the  man  who  made 
this  depth  of  well  possible  is  confident 
that,  with  a  suitable  reinforcement  of 
casing,  a  depth  of  10,000  feet  is  practi- 
cable. 

The  expense  of  such  operations  varies 
according  to  the  geological  difficulties 
encountered.  The  R.  A.  Geary  well,  not 
far  from  McDonald,  Pa.,  cost  $100,000 
to  drill  down  7,248  feet.  At  this  point, 
a  water  pressure  of  nearly  3,000  pounds 
to  the  square  inch  crushed  in  the  tube 
casing,  burying  the  drilling  tools  and 
stopping  the  pentration  within  a  few 
hundred  feet  of  the  Clinton  sand.  The 
cost  of  boring  the  Goff  well  was  $50,- 
000;  whereas  that  of  the  Lake  well  was 
only  $29,000. 

Besides  being  of  great  use  to  science, 
such  enterprises  have  revealed  great  po- 
tentialities in  the  way  of  economic  and 
commercial  values.  After  passing  a 
depth  of  6,800  feet,  in  the  Geary  well, 
the  drills  struck  layer  after  layer  of 
rock  salt  ranging  from  five  to  ten  inches 
in  thickness;  and  these  salt  strata  ex- 
tended in  unbroken  sheets  throughout 
areas  of  many  thousands  of  square  miles. 
An  eminent  geologist  has  suggested  the 
possibility  that  these  areas  are  remains 
of  fossil  ocean  water,  imprisoned  in  mid- 
Paleozoic  time,  and  that  deposits  of  some 
of  the  potash  salts  may  be  found  inter- 
bedded  with  the  common  salt.  This 
would  be  a  find  of  agricultural  impor- 
tance, looking  toward  independence  of 
German  potash  for  fertilizer. 

WORKING  AT  GREAT  DEPTHS 

Except  possibly  the  Morro  Velho  shaft 
in  Brazil,  the  deepest  mine  in  the  world 
is  shaft  No.  3  of  the  Tamarack  mine,  in 
Michigan,  with  a  depth  of  5,200  feet. 
The  sinking  of  a  mining  shaft  is  limited 
to  about  a  mile.     Below  this  depth  the 


heat  of  the  rocks  is  beyond  human  en- 
durance. Not  even  with  the  aid  of  ar- 
tificial ventilation  can  workmen  bear  up 
under  it.  But  in  boring  a  well  six  inches 
in  diameter  the  depth  of  penetration  de- 
pends only  upon  the  design  of  the  drills, 
the  strength  of  the  cable,  and  the  skill 
of  the  men  in  telling  from  the  feel  of 
the  steel  cable  at  the  ground  level  how 
their  tools  are  taking  effect  thousands 
of  feet  below.  For  the  method  known  as 
cable  drilling  the  drills  vary  from  one  to 
two  tons  in  weight.  Adequate  wire  rope 
cables  are  fashioned  to  bear  the  strain 
of  lifting  and  dropping  such  weights 
when  these  ponderous  drills  drive  their 
way  downward. 

For  the  study  of  temperatures  in  the 
Geary,  Goff  and  Lake  wells,  C.  E.  Van 
0  strand,  physical  geologist  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  devised  in- 
genious instruments,  especially  maximum 
thermometers.  In  experimenting  with 
thermometers  employing  the  mercury 
column  principle  and  those  employing 
the  principle  of  temperature  registra- 
tion by  electric  resistance  he  found 
liabilities  to  error  in  each  that  neces- 
sitated a  combination  of  the  two  prin- 
ciples. In  the  electric  resistance  ther- 
mometer the  deflection  of  the  needle  of 
a  Wheatstone  bridge  indicates  the  flow 
of  electric  current,  and,  accordingly,  the 
temperature  of  the  resistance  element 
lowered  into  the  well.  The  difficulty 
with  the  mercury  thermometer  lay  in 
having  to  expose  it  for  an  hour  at  the 
depth  required  for  a  reading,  and  after- 
ward in  preventing  jars  on  its  way  to 
the  surface  that  tended  to  shake  the 
mercury  down  into  the  bulb  again. 

In  the  electric  resistance  thermometer 
the  difficulty  lay  in  preventing  the 
insulating  compounds  surrounding  the 
lowered  circuit  from  being  dissolved  by 
petroleum.  Its  advantage  lay  in  having 
to  lower  only  the  electric  circuit  while 
keeping  the  registering  apparatus  above 
ground.  It  worked  well  to  a  depth  of 
3,000  feet.  But  by  using  two  sets  of 
three  maximum  thermometers,  one  hav- 
ing the  mercury  bulbs  inverted,  it  was 
found  possible  to  take  much  more  satis- 
factory readings  at  depths  greater  than 
4,500  feet. 


162 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


In  the  Geary,  Goff  and  Lake  wells  a 
temperature  of  about  55  degrees  Fahren- 
heit was  found  100  feet  down.  In  the 
Geary  well  this  temperature  increased  to 
142  degrees  Fahrenheit  at  a  depth  of 
6,100  feet;  159.3  degrees  in  the  Goff  well 
at  7,300  feet,  and  168.6  degrees  in  the 
Lake  well  at  a  depth  of  7,500  feet.    It 


was  estimated  that  in  any  of  these  three 
wells  the  boiling  point  would  be  reached 
at  10,000  feet.  From  such  studies  it  is 
inferred  that  the  practicability  of  tapping 
the  earth's  vast  reservoir  of  heat  for  in- 
dustrial and  other  uses  has  been  brought 
appreciably  nearer  by  these  boring  en- 
terprises. 


How  U-Boats  Were  Located  at  Sea 


Among  the  inventions  perfected  in 
secret  during  the  World  War,  none  has 
a  more  important  bearing  on  the  arts  of 
peace  than  the  wireless  compass.  This 
radio  instrument,  which  has  put  at 
the  disposal  of  mariners  and  aeronauts 
such  aids  to  navigation  as  were  never 
before  dreamed  of,  was  evolved  from  the 
theory  underlying  the  apparatus  in- 
vented by  Pupin  or  that  of  Weagant  for 
the  elimination  of  static  interference  in 
wireless  communication. 

Having  become  thus  able  to  send  radio- 
grams in  all  weathers  from  Washington 
to  men-of-war  in  the  Gulf  and  distant 
parts  of  the  Qcean,  and  to  get  clear 
answers, 'the  navy  was  still  in  pressing 
need  of  means  of  intercepting  radio- 
grams of  the  enemy  and  of  tracing  the 
same  to  their  sources.  Marconi  had  con- 
ducted experiments  before  the  war  with 
a  similar  apparatus,  but  the  exigencies 
of  the  German  submarine  campaign 
brought  about  the  development  of  the 
radio  compass,  first  in  the  British  Navy, 
and  then,  in  a  higher  degree,  in  the 
American  Navy.  Here  it  was  developed 
under  the  direction  of  Captain  S.  C. 
Hooper,  U.  S.  N.,  head  of  the  Radio  Divi- 
sion of  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineer- 
ing. The  evolution  of  this  instrument  is 
the  story  of  the  destruction  of  the  Ger- 
man U-boat  power.  America  and  the 
Allies  had  no  hope  of  victory  on  the  sea, 
except  by  thus  striking  at  the  enemy's 
wireless  system,  which  was  the  integrat- 
ing factor  of  the  enemy's  naval  warfare. 

The  wireless  compass  is  a  masterpiece 
of  simplicity.  The  appliance  consists  of 
an  arrangement  of  coils  in  the  receiving 
apparatus  so  that  the  full  wave  length 
will  be  registered  on  the  receiver  only 
when  the  sensitized  coil  is  in  direct  align- 
ment with  the  sending  apparatus.     The 


instrument  is  mounted  on  a  pivot,  the 
base  of  which  conforms  to  the  positions 
on  the  compass.  It  was  turned  around 
until  it  reached  the  point  on  the  compass 
where  the  signal  waves  registered  the 
strongest  whenever  a  submarine  used 
its  wireless  device.  In  that  direction  was 
the  submarine.     The  sea  fight  followed. 

All  sizable  naval  vessels  have  been 
equipped  with  this  compass,  and  radio- 
compass  stations  are  fast  being  installed 
at  all  ports,  as  a  means  of  promoting  the 
safety  of  sea  or  aerial  navigation. 

The  original  system  was  installed  in 
July,  1917,  to  trace  amateur  wireless 
sets  in  New  York.  One  station  was  on 
Building  5,  Bush  Terminal,  and  the  other 
on  top  of  the  Administration  Building  of 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
Though  still  in  the  experimental  stage 
then,  it  soon  proved  valuable  in  discover- 
ing illegal  wireless  apparatus.  From  this 
beginning  was  created  the  Naval  Com- 
munication Service,  with  headquarters  at 
44  Whitehall  Street,  New  York,  and  with 
its  co-ordination  into  a  system  of  aids 
to  navigation  of  the  five  radio  stations 
at  Montauk  Point,  Fire  Island,  Rock- 
away,  Sandy  Hook,  and  Mantoloking, 
N.  J. 

After  the  war  the  Naval  Communica- 
tion Service  adapted  its  wireless  com- 
pass to  the  arts  of  peace  without  funda- 
mental change.  By  consolidating  these 
five  stations  off  New  York  into  one  sys- 
tem, it  has  provided  service  of  great 
value  to  navigators.  It  is  often  called 
into  use,  and  a  few  times  it  has  saved 
vessels  from  running  ashore  by  giving 
them  their  bearings.  The  service  is 
known  to  nearly  all  masters  of  ships  hav- 
ing wireless  equipment.  Whenever  they 
lose  their  bearings  off  New  York,  in  a 
fog  or  otherwise,  they  call  up  the  central 


^m  station  on  Whitehall  Street,  with  a  re- 
^p  quest  for  their  bearings.  The  operator 
^"  on  duty  in  the  bureau,  sitting  among  the 
buzzing  coils  and  clicking  instruments, 
orders  all  five  stations  to  receive  signals 
from  the  ship  that  is  calling.  Then  he 
advises  the  ship  to  repeat  the  call.  Each 
station  receives  the  full-strength  signal 

I  waves  from  a  different  angle,  the  exact 
degree  and  fraction  being  indicated  on 
the  card  of  the  wireless  compass. 
Then  each  station  transmits  the  direc- 
tion to  the  central  station,  where  each  of 
the  station  compass  readings  is  plotted 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


163 


immediately  on  a  map  showing  the  con- 
tour of  the  coast  and  the  position  of  each 
station.  Dummy  ships,  each  attached 
by  a  movable  straight  line  to  the  centre 
of  a  radio  station  compass  (indicated  on 
the  chart),  are  moved  into  position;  and 
the  point  where  the  straight  lines  inter- 
sect indicates  the  exact  position  of  the 
ship  that  has  called.  Then  the  central 
operator  notifies  the  ship,  in  the  proper 
nautical  readings,  where  it  is — say,  south- 
west of  Montauk,  south  of  Fire  Island, 
southeast  of  Rockaway,  east  of  Sandy 
Hook,  and  northeast  of  Mantoloking. 


Seeing  in  the  Dark"  by  Wireless 


The  higher  development  of  the  wireless 
(radio)  compass,  making  it  applicable  to 
aerial  navigation,  was  perfected  under 
wartime  secrecy  by  the  genius  of  a  youth 
of  20,  Earl  C.  Hanson,  an  electrical  ex- 
pert who  was  connected  throughout  the 
war  with  the  Radio  Division  of  the  Bu- 
reau of  Steam  Engineering  of  the  Navy 
Department.  He  solved  the  problem  of 
landing  aircraft  safely  in  darkness,  dense 
fog,  or  other  untoward  atmospheric  con- 
ditions. The  dangers  of  the  groping 
previously  necessary  presented  the  great- 
est obstacle  to  the  widespread  use  of 
flying  machines  for  commercial  purposes. 
The  Navy  Department  allowed  Mr.  Han- 
son to  divulge  the  secret  of  his  invention 
in  May,  1919,  when  it  was  being  put  to 
important  service  on  the  navy  airships 
that  were  making  the  famous  transat- 
lantic flights. 

His  plan  for  an  aircraft  landing  sta- 
tion comprises  the  combination  of  three 
well-tried  devices  into  a  radio  directive 
transmission  system  for  the  guidance  of 
aircraft  at  high  speed  in  a  direct  course 
between  cities  or  other  points.  This  is 
accomplished  by  means  of  that  finer  de- 
velopment or  intensifier  of  wireless 
transmission  which  is  termed  audio  fre- 
quency. This  makes  possible  a  more 
ready  detection  of  radio  signals  in  entire 
independence  of  other  radio  flashes  that 
may  be  passing  through  the  same  aerial 
section  or  block,  without  interference 
with  straight  wireless  flashes. 

By  the  system  followed,  audio  fre- 
quency energy  is  projected  to  a  prede- 


termined altitude,  but  it  is  restricted  to 
areas  over  the  landing  field.  Working 
with  this  is  a  buried  illumination  system 
which  serves  as  a  guide  for  the  landing, 
once  the  aviator  has  received  his  instruc- 
tions and  has  penetrated  fog  or  other 
bothersome  atmospheric  conditions  down 
toward  the  landing  field.  This  lighting 
signal  is  kept  below  the  ground  level  and 
revealed  through  a  heavy  glass  surface 
even  with  the  level  of  the  field.  Thus 
there  is  no  searchlight  flashing  into  the 
eyes  of  the  aviator. 

The  audio  frequency  transmission  sys- 
tem indicates  the  exact  location  of  the 
landing  field  to  the  air  pilot  in  such  a 
way  that  in  crossing  the  beam  of  pro- 
jected audio  energy  he  not  only  becomes 
aware  that  the  field  lies  directly  below, 
but  also  he  can  determine  under  any 
conditions  his  approximate  altitude.  With 
the  combination  of  the  audio  frequency 
signal  and  the  lighting  system  the  land- 
ing station  is  so  equipped  that  the  aviator 
can  steer  a  direct  course  between  two 
ports  by  noting  the  route  in  which  the 
maximum  strength  of  radio  signals  is 
received. 

During  the  war  this  apparatus  played 
a  great  part  in  finding  German  vessels 
in  the  English  Channel.  Also,  through 
the  use  of  these  "  dictographs "  of  the 
air,  naval  intelligence  officers  could 
interrupt  messages  from  the  German 
radio  plants,  both  on  shipboard  and  on 
land,  and  thus  obtained  accurate  infor- 
mation of  the  enemy's  plans. 


164 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Talking  With  Norway  by  Wireless 


Norway  began  talking  directly  with 
the  United  States  by  wireless  on  Nov.  20, 
1919,  when  the  new  station  at  Stavanger, 
in  Southwestern  Norway,  was  opened  in- 
formally. The  American  station  at 
Chatham,  near  Boston,  with  which  it  is 
to  communicate,  was  not  yet  ready,  so 
the  connection  was  made  with  the  Anna- 
polis and  Philadelphia  stations. 

The  Norwegian  Director  of  Telegraphs, 
Thomas  Heftye,  closed  the  contract  for 
the  Stavanger  station  with  the  Mar- 
coni Wireless  Company,  Ltd.,  in  August, 
1913,  and  it  was  approved  by  his  Govern- 
ment. In  June  of  that  year  the  Storthing 
appropriated  for  the  project  the  sum  of 
$567,000,  though  the  station  cost  a  little 
more  before  it  was  completed.  The  fol- 
lowing year  witnessed  the.  completion  of 
the  station  buildings  and  the  homes  of 
its  personnel,  but  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
delayed  the  installation  of  machinery 
and  other  equipment  until  the  Autumn 
of  1917. 

In  the  large  commercial  relations  that 
are  expected  to  develop  between  the 
United  States  and  Norway  this  new 
means  of  communication  holds  great  po- 
tential benefits  for  the  business  interests 
of  both  countries.  Day  and  night  the 
Stavanger  wireless  will  keep  in  touch  with 
the  American  station,  establishing  con- 
stant communication  between  the  Stock 
Exchange  of  Christiania  and  the  Stock 
Exchanges  of  American  cities.  The  direct 
exchange  of  news  between  all  parts  of 
the  United  States  and  every  valley  of 
Norway  should  have  far-reaching  social 
effects  in  the  little  kingdom.  The  Nor- 
wegian daily  papers  will  have  repre- 
sentatives in  American  cities,  as  they 
have  long  had  in  metropolitan  centres  of 
Europe.  The  ability  of  any  Norwegian 
with  a  telephone  in  his  house  to  send  a 


message  to  kith  and  kin  in  any  part  of 
America  is  expected  to  lead  to  a  degree 
of  acquaintanceship  and  understanding 
between  the  two  nationalities  never 
before  dreamed  of. 

The  superiority  of  this  means  of  com- 
munication over  the  cable  lies  in  the 
duplex  system  of  the  Stavanger  wireless, 
making  it  possible  to  receive  and  trans- 
mit messages  simultaneously  without  the 
speed  limits  necessitated  by  the  nature 
of  the  cable.  With  the  aid  of  phono- 
graphs and  other  mechanical  and  elec- 
trical means  of  receiving  the  messages  it 
is  probable  that  messages  can  be  de- 
livered at  as  high  a  rate  as  100  words  a 
minute.  To  facilitate  the  duplex  action 
the  receiving  station  built  at  Naerbo  is 
separated  from  the  transmission  station 
by  a  distance  of  more  than  eighteen 
miles.  The  former  has,  besides  its  receiv- 
ing air  net,  a  so-called  balance  air  net  to 
counterbalance  the  work  of  the  trans- 
mission station.  The  latter  is  situated  at 
a  place  called  Ullanhaug,  over  three 
miles  from  Stavanger.  Each  of  the  ten 
masts  of  nearly  500  feet  high.  The 
sides  of  the  rectangle  formed  by  the 
points  measure  32,480.35  by  7,283.45  feet. 
From  the  support  rope  stretching  from 
mast  to  mast  hang  twenty-four  air 
threads  provided  with  rod-shaped  insula- 
tors of  porcelain.  The  foundation  of  each 
mast  is  a  strong  block  of  concrete  sunk  in 
the  ground. 

The  power  is  supplied  from  the  Sta- 
vanger Electrical  Works  at  Oltedalen, 
where  the  city  has  large  holdings  of 
water  power.  The  cost  of  telegraphing 
by  the  Stavanger  wireless  to  America  is 
to  be  90  ore  (25  cents)  a  word.  The 
station  will  facilitate  internal  communi- 
cation throughout  Norway,  as  well  as 
with  the  outside  world. 


INTERNATIONAL  CARTOONS 
I      ON  CURRENT  EVENTS 


H 


I 


iiiiininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■■■■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■■iiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillillliliiiiiiiiiiiiliiiilliniiil 

[American  Cartoon] 

The  Two  "Willful  Gentlemen"  Who  Are 
Holding  Back  the  World 


From    The   New    Ym-Jc    Tribune 


[■j'liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


IIIIIMIIIIIIIII 


■  ■■■■■■■■■■■Ill ■■■■■■■■■■■•■■■■^ > I niiiiiiMfn 


165 


Qillilliliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■• > •■• ■■• iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiii 

i  [Dutch   Cartoon] 


iiiiiiiiniiKiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 

The  Demand  for  the  Kaiser's  Surrender  I 


I 


s  —From  De  AmsterdaTnmer,  Amsterdam         5 

||l  Maid  of  the  Netherlands   (to  Wilhelm) :     "  Follow  the  example  of  Jan    = 

|i    van  Schaffelaar.     Then  you  will  free  me  from  my  difficulty"  | 

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166 


Jllllllllllllllll 


"""" •"""""»•■••■ »......n..iiiii...„ „„„„, ii........y.,„„„„„„„ 

[American  Cartoon] 

Shall  He  Go  In  or  Stay  Out? 


'■••■■•■•■I iiiiiiiiiiip] 

r 


—From   The  Newark  Netvs 

"  The  whole  question  of  war  and  peace  comes  to  a  head  here  where  all  the  powers 
are  struggling  to  get  through  this  narrow  passage  to  the  East.  It  seems  impossible,  there- 
fore, to  urge  strongly  enough  the  necessity  for  America's  entering  Turkey  in  some  au- 
thoritative capacity.  No  other  solution  can  bring  more  than  temporary  peace."— Constan- 
tinople   cable    dispatch 


.UIIIIMIIIIlliii 


lllllllllllllllllll 


llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllillllllllllllllllll 


167 


Qiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■■■■■■■iniiiiiiiiiiiiifi iiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiinnimiiiiniiiiiiiiiinmiinniimnP] 


[German  Cartoon] 


The  New  Gessler  Hats 


("William    Tell"    to   Date) 


:  — From    the   Deutsche    Tageszeitung,    Berlin 

I  "In  the  name  of  the  Entente,  halt  and  salute !  " 

i  [Under   the    regrulations    of   the    Rhineland    Commission    every    German    in    uniform, 

=  from  the   soldier  or  policeman   to  the  humblest  forest   guard,    was   at  first  compelled   to 

=  salute  the  flags  and  officers  of  the  allied  and  associated  powers] 


Qjiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiifal 

168 


■  ■iiiii ■ Ml Miiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiii I mil I Mil iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii||iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iimiiiiiiiiiiiimifri 


[American  Cartoon] 


The  Hole  in  the  Doughnut 


From  The  San  Francisco  Chronicle 


B' 


illlllMlllillMIIIII Illli 


llllllliillliilil IIIII ■■■■•■••■■IMIIIIII 


iiiiiii mil mim ■• 


'ii 


169 


Qllliliiiiiiiilillliiiililllillli>»i>l>>"""">i>"i""> ■ ■■■■■iiiiiiiiiiniinii«>> liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiii  iiiiiiiiiiiiii lllinC] 

I  [American  Cartoon]  | 


The  Modern  Archimedes 


—From  The  Philadelphia  Inquirer 

He  could  move  the  world  if  only  he  had  a  fulcrum  for  his  lever 


[Italian  Cartoon] 

Italy  and  the  Elusive  Butterfly 


:  —From  II  420,  Florence  = 

i  How  much  longer  is  this  miserable  joke  going  to  last?  5 

3'""""" •••■nil iiiiiii ■••IIIIIIII...I........ ..„ •••••••luiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiii , , iiiMiiiiQ 

170 


\*\ ••■ IIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIII HUM Ilinillllllllllllll Ill IlillllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllMlMI ■illllillllllllllillllim 


[American  Cartoon] 


A  Hand-fed  Eruption 


—From  The  Dayton  News        = 


Qiiiii 


III II Ill IIMIIIII If  Mill II Illlllll •■■ 

171 


QiiiiiiiiniiiMiiiiiiini iiliiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiii itiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniii ■■■■■■■■■■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I  PI 

5  [German-Swiss    Cartoon]  | 

I  Bolshevism  1 


As  it  is  pictured 


—From    Nehelspalter,    Zurich 
As  it  pictures   itself 


L.IIIIIIII ■iniMiniiiiiiiiiini iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieiiiii 


>i  II  III!  niiiimiimiiiiiiiiii  III!  IIIIIIIIIIIIII  111  f»l 


172 


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[English  Cartoon]  i 

Lloyd  George,  Like  Macbeth,  Sees  a  Phantom     \ 

[Mr.  Asquith,  whom  Lloyd  George  superseded  as  Premier,  has  been  re-elected  to  Parlia-      : 
ment  by  a  Paisley  constituency]  : 


B.< 


—From  London  Opinion         s 

Lloyd  Macbeth  George:     "The  time  has  been,  = 

That    *     *     *     the  man  would  die,  - 

And  there  an  end;  but  now,  they  rise  again     *     *  = 

And  push  us  from  our  stools"  5 

."«"""" .......n....""" ■ " """ 0 


173 


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174 


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At  It  Again 


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—New   York   World 


-San  Francisco  Bulletin 


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'B-o-o-o-ard! 


—Newspaper  Enterprise  Association 


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184 


11  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  n  II  II 


CURRENT    HISTORY 

A     MONTHLY     MAGAZINE     OF 
OIi|p  ^^m  fork  Oltmw 


Published   by 

The 

New 

York 

Times    Company.    Times 

Square, 

New    York.    N.    T. 

Vol. 

XIL, 

No. 

2 

MAY, 

1920 

35  Cents  a  Copy 
$4.00  a  Year 

LIL 

II  II  II 

II  II  II  II 

.11  11 

1  II  II 

II.  II  II 

II  II  II  II  II  II  II 

II  II  II  II  II 

II   II   II   II 

1   II    II   II   II    II   II    II   II 

TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

TURBULENT  DAYS  IN  IRELAND 187 

The    New   Irish    Secretary,    Sir    Hamar    Greenwood 191 

ALL    SIDES   OF    IRELAND'S   CASE     (Map): 

Premier's   Defense   of   Home  Rule   Bill 192 

Sir  Edward  Carson  on  Home  Rule 195 

Ex-Premier  Asquith's  Opposition 197 

Bonar    Law's    Reply    to    Asquith 198 

John    Devlin's   Nationalist   View 199 

HOME    RULE    BILL:      SUMMARY   OF    ITS   PROVISIONS     ...     201 

LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  IN  OPERATION 204 

EMPLOYMENT  OF'  DISABLED  BRITISH  SOLDIERS 208 

ROTOGRAVURE  ILLUSTRATIONS— PRESIDENTIAL  ASPIRANTS: 

Herbert  Clark  Hoover  Edward   I.    Edwards 

Leonard  Wood  Warren  G.  Harding 

William  Gibbs  McAdoo  A.  Mitchell  Palmer 

Hiram  Warren   Johnson  Frank   O.   Lowden 

CAN  CONGRESS  MAKE  PEACE?     Both  Sides  of  a  Debate     ...     209 

AMERICAN   DEVELOPMENTS 217 

Expulsion,  of  Socialist  Assemblymen 222 

THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY     (Map) 224 

FRENCH  SEIZURE  OF  GERMAN  CITIES     (Map) 231 

CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 235 

Contents   Continued  on   Next  Page 

Copyright,    1920,    by    The    New    York    Times    Company.      All    Rights    Reserved. 
Entered    at    the    Post   Office    in   New    York   and   in    Canada    as    Second    Class    Matter. 


I  II  II  II  I.  n  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  I I "  "  'I  II  II  II  II  II  H  I'  "  " '  "  "  "  "  "  "  ^ 

185 


1  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  n  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  H  II  II  II  fnp 


J      Table  of  Contents — Continued 

AMONG  THE  NATIONS:     A  WORLDWIDE  SURVEY: 

PAGE  PAGE 

Albania    248  Hungary    250 

Argentina     262  India   242 

Armenia    257  Italy     246 

Australia    240  Japan    258 

Austria    251  Mexico     260 

Azerbaijan   259  Mesopotamia    259 

Bolivia     262  New  Zealand    241 

Brazil    263  Persia    258 

Bulgaria    248  Peru   264 

Canada   240  Poland     254 

Chile   264  Portugal   247 

China    258  Rumania    249 

Denmark    243  Russia    252 

Ecuador   264  South  Africa  . . .  = 242 

Egypt    241  Spain    247 

England    239  Syria   257 

France     245  Tripoli   242 

Germany    224  Turkey    255 

Greece    248  Uruguay    264 

Guaeemala    261 

THE   MARCH  OF   SCIENCE: 

Wonders  of  Wireless  Telegraphy 265 

An  Engine  That  Saves  Fuel  Waste 272 

INTERNATIONAL    CARTOONS    ON    CURRENT    EVENTS     ...  273 

LIFE  IN  PICTURESQUE  PORTO  RICO     ...     By  F.  P.  Delgado  289 
CAN  WE  KEEP  OUR  MERCHANT  MARINE? 

By  Graser   Schornstheimer  295 
SIBERIA  UNDER  KOLCHAK'S  DICTATORSHIP 

By  Major  Henry  W.  Newman  300 

BRITISH-AMERICAN  WIRELESS 309 

RECONSTRUCTION    IN    SOVIET    RUSSIA 310 

ITALY'S  PART  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR     .     By  Colonel  di  Bernezzo  316 

WITH  D'ANNUNZIO   AT   FIUME     ...     By  Dr.   Orestes  Ferrara  318 

THE    TANGLED    TURKISH    QUESTION     (Maps) 323 

GENERAL  HARBORD'S  REPORT  ON  ARMENIA 330 

LIFE    IN   CONSTANTINOPLE    TODAY     ...     By   Maurice   Prax  334 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THRACE By  Dr.  J.  F.  Scheltema  337 

BULGARIA'S  NEW  FRONTIERS     (Map) 339 

PALESTINE  AND  THE  ZIONIST  PROJECT 341 

THE  AGRARIAN  AND  JEWISH  QUESTIONS  IN  RUMANIA 

By  Nicholas  Petrescu  344 

DIARY  OF  THE  GERMAN  CAPTAIN  WHO  SANK  THE  LUSITANIA  348 

GERMAN    EAST    AFRICA    DIVIDED    UP     (Map) 350 

FIRST    CAIRO-TO-CAPE    FLIGHT     (Maps) 351 

THE  STATUS  OF  PROHIBITION  IN  MEXICO     .     By  Carleton  Beals  355 

WHAT   PEACE    HAS    DONE    TO    KRUPP'S 357 

HUMOR   AT    THE    PEACE    CONFERENCE 358 

THE  MORAL  CRISIS  IN  FRANCE 360 

FRANCE    AND    THE    HOLY    SEE 363 

CONTRIBUTIONS    FROM    READERS 365 


I  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  I I  II  II  II  II  II  !i  II  II  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  rrg 


186 


TURBULENT  DAYS  IN  IRELAND 


Reign     of     Terror     in     the     Island — Hunger 
Strike  of  Prisoners — Home  Rule   Controversy 

[Period  Ended  April  20,  1920] 


CHAOTIC  conditions  have  prevailed 
in  Ireland  ever  since  the  election 
of  Dec.  14,  1918,  in  which  the  Sinn 
Fein  Party  polled  more  votes  than 
either  the  Nationalists  or  Unionists  and 
elected  seventy-three  members  to  the 
British  Parliament,  all  of  whom  declined 
to  take  their  seats.  The  overwhelming 
preponderance  of  the  Sinn  Feiners  in 
Ireland  was  again  shown  in  the  munici- 
pal elections  on  Jan.  15,  this  year,  when 
approximately  85  per  cent,  of  their  can- 
didates were  chosen  and  the  green,  white 
and  orange  colors  were  raised  over  the 
chief  cities  of  Ireland. 

Even  in  Londonderry  the  Unionists 
were  defeated,  while  in  the  whole  of  Ul- 
ster the  vote  stood  238,374  for  self-de- 
termination against  238,318.  This  was 
regarded  as  a  disapproval  of  the  new 
Home  Rule  bill  outlined  in  the  House  of 
Commons  by  Lloyd  George,  in  a  speech 
in  which  the  Premier  said :  "  Three- 
fourths  of  the  people  of  Ireland  are  not 
merely  governed  without  their  consent, 
but  they  manifest  bitter  hostility  to  the 
Government."  At  the  same  time  he 
stated  that  he  did  not  believe  Iceland 
would  accept  any  measure  of  self-govern- 
ment that  England  was  prepared  to  give. 
Since  then  conditions  have  grown 
steadily  worse  until  a  reign  of  terror 
prevails  not  exceeded  in  the  old  days  of 
Land  League  boycotts  and  ruthless  evic- 
tions. Crime  is  rife  in  every  county,  and 
the  British  have  poured  troops  into  the 
country  until  Ireland  today  resembles  an 
armed  camp.  To  grant  home  rule  to  a 
State  so  hopelessly  divided  is  a  paradox 
that  can  only  be  explained  by  the  desire 
of  Great  Britain  to  bow  to  the  almost 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  world  that  Ire- 
land should  have  a  greater  measure  of 
freedom. 

Another  motive  was  the  necessity  that 
exists  of  providing  a  substitute  for  the 


Home  Rule  act  of  1914,  which  otherwise 
automatically  comes  into  operation  on 
the  conclusion  of  peace — when  the  treaty 
with  the  last  of  the  Central  Powers  has 
been  ratified.  Thus  the  San  Remo  meet- 
ing of  the  Supreme  Council  to  settle  the 
terms  of  the  Turkish  compact  had  a  bear- 
ing upon  the  Irish  question.  That  the 
situation  was  becoming  increasingly  dif- 
ficult was  shown  on  April  1  by  the  res- 
ignation of  Ian  Macpherson,  Chief  Sec- 
retary for  Ireland,  which  was  semi- 
officially reported  on  April  17  to  have 
been  followed  by  that  of  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant, Viscount  French.  Sir  Hamar 
Greenwood,  a  Canadian  by  birth,  was 
named  on  April  2  to  succeed  Macpherson, 
and  his  advent  was  generally  regarded 
as  an  augury  of  better  days.  ■ 

RECORD  OF  CRIMES 

Before  Lord  French  resigned  he  had 
furnished  a  remarkable  statement  to  the 
House  of  Commons  detailing  the  crimes 
and  attempts  at  crime  since  Jan.  1,  1919. 
In  that  period  eighteen  members  of  the 
Royal  Irish  Constabulary  and  six  of  the 
Dublin  metropolitan  police  had  been  mur- 
dered, while  two  soldiers  and  one  other 
Government  employe  met  the  same  fate. 
There  were  sixty-five  attempted  murders 
of  members  of  the  constabulary,  seven- 
teen of  the  police,  four  attacks  on  soldiers 
and  three  on  other  Government  servants 
in  the  same  time.  In  addition  there  were 
twenty-five  attacks  on  police  barracks. 

These  outrages  were  connected  with 
the  political  Bemand  for  complete  inde- 
pendence, opposition  to  the  proposed 
Home  Rule  bill  and  anger  at  the  military 
occupation  of  many  districts  of  Ireland 
by  English  troops  and  the  activities  of 
the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  and  local 
police.  Some,  however,  are  difficult  to 
explain  on  any  theory.  For  instance, 
Thomas   MacCurtain,  who  was   Captain 


188 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  local  Sinn  Fein  volunteers  and  had 
been  elected  Mayor  of  Cork,  was  taken 
from  his  bed  by  a  body  of  eight  masked 
men  on  March  20  and  shot  dead  in  his 
own  house.  Two  hours  earlier  a  constable 
was  killed  in  the  street,  his  body  being 
found  riddled  with  bullets. 

MacCurtain  was  popular  among  all 
parties,  and  two  miles  of  mourners  es- 
corted his  body  to  the  Cork  Town  Hall, 
where  it  lay  in  state,  and  15,000  persons 
accompanied  it  to  the  grave  two  days 
later.  Sinn  Feiners  say  MacCurtain  was 
murdered  by  agents  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, while  correspondents  of  London 
newspapers  declared  it  to  have  been  an 
act  of  reprisal  because  MacCurtain  had 
publicly  denounced  some  of  the  more 
heinous  Sinn  Fein  offenses.  They  add 
that  he  had  been  expelled  from  the  Irish 
Republican  Brotherhood  at  a  secret  meet- 
ing on  March  17.  As  far  as  actual  proof 
is  concerned  the  real  motive  for  the  mur- 
der remains  a  mystery.  No  arrests  were 
made.  On  April  10  it  was  stated  that 
two  hours  before  his  murder  the  British 
authorities  had  issued  orders  for  his  ar- 
rest. Soldiers  and  constables  were 
about  to  serve  the  papers  when  the  news 
came  of  his  assassination. 

On  March  22  soldiers  of  the  Berkshire 
Regiment  in  Dublin  attended  a  perform- 
ance at  the  Theatre  Royal  and  went  to 
their  headquarters  afterward,  singing. 
A  crowd  collected  and  threw  stones  at 
them  near  the  Portobello  military  bar- 
backs.  A  large  body  of  soldiers  occupied 
the  bridge  leading  from  the  city  to  the 
suburb  of  Kathmines  and  fired  at  the 
crowd,  killing  a  man  and  a  woman  and 
wounding  several  others. 

On  March  24  a  civilian  was  walking 
along  a  street  in  the  centre  of  Dublin  in 
the  afternoon  when  three  men  following 
him  pulled  out  revolvers  and  shot  him 
dead.     All  escaped. 

On  March  26  Alan  Bell,  a  resident 
Magistrate  70  years  old,  who  had  pre- 
sided over  an  inquiry  into  dealings  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  with  Irish  banks,  was  dragged 
from  a  crowded  street  car  in  Dublin  at 
10  o'clock  in  the  morning  by  a  band  of 
men,  some  wearing  masks,  and  shot  to 
death  at  the  side  of  the  road  in  full  view 
of  the  other  passengers.     The  assassins 


had  boarded  the  same  car  and  rode  with 
the  Magistrate  as  far  as  Ball's  Bridge. 
After  the  murder  they  walked  quietly 
away.  They  were  apparently  Dublin 
citizens. 

WAR    ON  POLICE   BARRACKS 

Early  in  April  the  war  on  police  bar- 
racks in  Ireland  was  renewed  and  in- 
cendiarism became  rife.  Some  of  the 
police  strongholds  were  wrecked  by 
bombs,  others  carried  by  assault.  The 
assailants,  having  wrecked  the  buildings, 
withdrew  without  harming  the  inmates. 
One  instance  is  mentioned  where  the 
head  of  the  raiders  restrained  his  follow- 
ers from  injuring  the  police  as  they  came 
out  from  the  ruins  of  their  barracks. 

On  the  night  of  April  3  fires  were 
started  in  the  offices  of  Government  In- 
spectors, Surveyors  and  Tax  Collectors  in 
many  parts  of  Ireland,  especially  in  Dub- 
lin, where  the  fire  brigade  was  kept 
busy  all  night.  Records  and  papers  were 
burned.  Among  other  offices  wholly  or 
partly  destroyed  were  those  at  Cork, 
Clifden,  Clonmel,  Ballina  and  Ballina- 
hinch.  At  the  same  time  220  police  bar- 
racks were  burned.  If  the  object  of  the 
incendiaries  was  to  destroy  machinery 
for  the  collection  of  the  income  tax  it 
was  a  failure,  as,  officials  declared,  new 
assessment  lists  will  be  made  out  and  in- 
dividuals who  have  already  paid  will 
have  to  show  their  receipts. 

Another  phase  of  these  destructive  ac- 
tivities was  big  cattle  drives  in  Galway 
and  County  Mayo,  in  which  at  least  1,800 
men  took  part  on  April  3,  clearing  the 
cattle  from  thousands  of  acres,  the  police 
and  graziers  being  powerless  to  check 
the  drives.  Police  and  military  had  a 
task  collecting  the  cattle  and  finding 
their  owners. 

Naturally  the  British  Government,  de- 
siring to  restore  order,  continued  to  rein- 
force the  troops  in  Ireland,  especially 
around  Easter  time,  fearing  a  repetition 
of  the  attempted  revolt  of  1916.  Military 
cordons  were  drawn  around  Dublin,  Lon- 
donderry and  other  places  and  all  per- 
sons passing  either  way  were  searched 
and  required  to  tell  their  business.  No 
revolt  broke  out,  however,  and  there  were 
less  outrages   during  the  days  immedi- 


TURBULENT  DAYS  IN  IRELAND 


189 


ately  following  Easter  than  in  those  that 
preceded  it. 

There  were  a  few  arrests  made  in  con- 
nection with  all  the  outrages  in  Ireland; 
not  every  one  escaped.     By  April  there 

J  had  been  collected  in  Mount  joy  prison 


GENERAL  SIR  WILLIAM  ROBERTSON 
Commander    of    m-ilitary    forces    of    British 
Empire  and  responsible  for  the  mili- 
tary  safeguarding   of  Ireland 

104  Sinn  Feiners  charged  with  various 
offenses.  On  April  4  they  went  on  a 
hunger  strike,  persistently  refusing  food. 
The  Government  for  its  part  refused  to 
resort  to  forcible  feeding  and  some  of  the 
prisoners  became  so  weak  they  had  to  be 
sent  to  hospitals. 

THE  PRISONERS'  HUNGER  STRIKE 

There  is  no  evidence  that  political  pris- 
oners were  ill-treated;  nevertheless,  the 
Irish  Trades  Union  Congress  issued  a 
call  to  the  workers  of  Ireland  for  a  gen- 
eral strike  throughout  the  country  to 
take  place  on  April  13.  The  strike  was 
preceded  on  April  11  by  a  flat  refusal 
by  the  Government  to  grant  ameliora- 
tions to  the  prisoners  at  Mountjoy.  In 
fact,  in  reply  to  a  petition  from  the  visit- 
ing Justices  that  the  prisoners  be  ac- 
corded  the    special   treatment   given   to 


political  offenders  the  Assistant  Under 

Secretary  replied: 

There  is  no  power  under  the  rules  made 
in  November  to  extend  political  treatment 
to  convicted  prisoners  who  are  excluded 
from  ameliorations.  Untried  prisoners  are 
treated  under  the  rules  made  for  untried 
prisoners.  His  Excellency  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant does  not  propose  to  modify  the 
rules  in  the  direction  you  sugrgest.  All 
prisoners  on  hunger  strike  have  been 
forewarned  as  to  the  consequences  of  pcr- 


THOMAS  MCCURTAIN 

The    Sinn   Fein   Lard   Ma/yor    of   Cork,    who 

was   murdered   in   his   house    by  raiders 

(©    International) 

severance  in  their  conduct,  in  accordance 
with  the  decision  of  his  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  general  strike  went  into  effect  on 
April  13  and  met  with  a  large  response. 
It  was  not  in  effect  in  Belfast  or  the 
North  of  Ireland,  but  all  over  the  South 
business  was  at  a  complete  standstill. 
All  the  shops,  public  houses  and  res- 
taurants of  Dublin  were  closed,  and  the 
hotel  staffs  quit;  the  Post  Office  service 
was  at  a  standstill,  except  the  telegraph 
department.  No  tramcars  or  trains 
were  run,  and  all  industries  were  closed 
down.  The  same  conditions  existed  in 
all  other  towns  in  the  South. 

On  April  14  the  Government  capitu- 
lated.     The   eighty-nine  hunger-striking 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


prisoners  were  released  from  Mountjoy 
unconditionally ;  as  a  result  of  the  release 
the  general  strike  was  immediately  called 
off. 

Eighty-one  of  the  hunger  strikers  had 
not  been  tried.  Twenty  were  imprisoned 
under  the  Defense  of  the  Realm  act, 
without  an  indication  even  of  the  charge 
against  them  other  than  that  their  de- 
tention was  merely  preventive.  Sixty 
were  awaiting  trial,  mostly  by  court- 
martial,  for  sedition,  though  no  charges 
had  been  made  against  them,  and  they 
were  virtually  in  the  same  position  as 
the  Defense  of  the  Realm  act  prisoners. 

HOME  RULE  CONTROVERSY 

Just  at  the  height  of  the  disturbances 
in  Ireland  the  Home  Rule  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  Parliament.  It  evidently  satis- 
fies neither  side.  Three-quarters  of  the 
population  of  Ireland  are  declared  to  be 
against  it,  and  assert  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  put  it  in  operation  now, 
when  the  English  Government  is  search- 
ing the  homes  of  Irishmen,  suppressing 
freedom  of  speech  and  assembly,  and  de- 
porting civilians  on  suspicion  and  with- 
out trial. 

Among  the  things  charged  against 
England  of  remoter  origin  are  her  failure 
to  encourage  Irish  industries  or  to  aid  in 
the  development  of  the  country,  her  fail- 
ure to  provide  better  educational  facili- 
ties I'or  Ireland  and  her  failure  to  make 
any  attempt  to  reconcile  Ulster  Prot- 
estants and  Southern  Catholics.  More 
recently  the  substitution  of  the  new 
Home  Rule  bill  for  the  act  of  1914  has 
been  construed  to  mean  England's  desire 
to  placate  the  Ulster  minority. 

The  act  of  1914,  it  will  be  remembered, 
provided  one  legislative  body  for  the 
whole  of  Ireland.  The  new  measure 
would  furnish  two  Parliaments  and  one 
Senate  or  Council.  There  has  been  a 
complete  reversal  in  the  attitude  of  Ire- 
land toward  the  home  rule  question.  The 
great  majority  of  the  people  want  com- 
plete separation,  but  Lloyd  George  warns 
them,  as  well  as  their  friends  in  America, 
that  secession  will  not  be  tolerated  in 
Ireland  any  more  than  it  was  in  our 
Southern  States,  and  if  attempted  will 
be  crushed  just  as  rebellion  in  the  United 
States  was  put  down. 


On  the  other  hand,  when  the  Home 
Rule  bill  of  1914  was  being  enacted  Sir 
Edward  Carson  was  openly  drilling  his 
Ulster  volunteers  and  preparing  to  re- 
sist its  enforcement.  The  Irish  assert 
that  one  reason  for  the  substitution  of 
the  new  bill  is  the  wish  to  placate  Ulster 
— a  suspicion  which  they  say  has  been 
confirmed  by  Sir  Edward's  acceptance  of 
the  measure.  To  American  eyes  that 
acceptance  appeared  rather  grudging  and 
reluctantly  given,  but  the  South  of  Ire- 
land regarded  this  as  merely  camou- 
flage. 

ATTITUDE    OF    SEPARATISTS 

The  extraordinary  anticipations  of  full 
freedom  for  Ireland  as  a  small  nationality 
demanding  self-government  were  awaked 
by  the  cry  of  self-determination  as  one 
of  the  results  of  the  great  war — a  cry 
which  can  only  be  met  by  even-handed 
justice  to  all  parties  concerned.  Thirty 
years  ago  Southern  Ireland  would  have 
rejoiced  at  such  a  measure  of  home  rule 
as  the  present  bill  provides,  but  today  it 
regards  the  act  of  1914  as  the  more 
liberal  of  the  two,  inasmuch  as  it  gives 
control  of  the  Post  Office  to  Ireland, 
which  the  present  draft  does  not. 

Neither  measure  is  considered  ade- 
quate, but  some  of  the  sep  -ratist  lead- 
ers declare  they  would  be  willing  to  con- 
sider an  agreement  or  treaty  with  Great 
Britain  for  mutual  protection  in  case  of 
attack  by  some  foreign  power.  Neverthe- 
less, the  substitute  bill  passed  through 
Parliament  in  its  first  stages  more 
smoothly  than  any  similar  measure  had 
ever  done,  in  great  measure  owing  to 
the  refusal  of  the  seventy-three  Sinn 
Fein  members  to  attend  at  Westminster 
and  take  part  in  the  debate.  It  should 
also  be  remembered  that  the  new  bill 
differs  from  all  its  predecessors  in  the 
fact  that  none  of  the  Irish  parties  has 
been  consulted  in  its  preparation. 

Concerning  the  division  of  Ireland  be- 
tween the  two  Parliaments  some  excep- 
tion has  been  taken  to  the  measure,  be- 
cause it  does  not  separate  Ulster  from 
the  rest  of  Ireland  as  a  whole,  but  in- 
cludes some  of  the  Catholic  parts  of  Ul- 
ster in  the  southern  jurisdiction,  leaving 
others  under  the  Ulster  Parliament.  A 
strategic    frontier    is    created    like    that 


TURBULENT  DAYS  IN  IRELAND 


191 


formed  by  the  Peace  Conference  between 
Italy  and  Austria  in  the  Tyrol.  Official 
Ulster  would  prefer  the  partition  as  out- 
lined, for,  with  Donegal,  Cavan  and  Mon- 
aghan  out,  there  would  remain  in  Ulster 
440,000  Catholics  against  740,000  Prot- 
estants. Including  those  counties  the 
Protestants  would  number  only  890,000 
against  690,000  Catholics,  and  conse- 
quently have  less  power. 

The  Ulster  Legislature,  or  "  Parlia- 
ment of  Northern  Ireland,"  will  include 
the  Counties  of  Antrim,  Armagh,  Down, 
Fermanagh,  Londonderry  and  Tyrone 
and  the  Boroughs  of  Belfast  and  Lon- 
donderry. The  partition  was  stoutly  de- 
fended by  Ian  Macpherson  when  the  sec- 
ond reading  of  the  bill  was  moved  in 
the  House  of  Commons  on  March  29,  but 
was  strongly  condenmed  the  next  day 
by  Mr.  Asquith,  who  attacked  the  meas- 
ure as  a  cumbrous  duplication  and  multi- 
plication of  offices,  and  came  out  for  a 
single  Irish  Legislature  and  what  he 
called  "  Dominion  Home  Rule."  In  reply 
Bonar  Law  reminded  the  House  that  the 
empire  controlling  the  army  and  Ireland 
contributing  to  its  support  would  not  be 
dominion  home  rule,  and  that  the  con- 
nection of  the  dominions  with  the  em- 
pire depended  on  themselves.  If  any 
chose  to  break  away  they  could  do  so. 
To  give  such  choice  to  Ireland,  he  de- 
clared, would  mean  an  Irish  republic. 

A  Coroner's  inquest  into  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Cork  de- 
termined in  a  verdict  made  public  April 
17  that  "  the  Lord  Mayor  had  been  mur- 
dered by  the  Irish  Royal  Constabulary 


under  circumstances  of  the  most  callous 
brutality  officially  directed  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government."  The  jury  also  returned 
a  "  verdict  of  willful  murder  against 
David  Lloyd  George,  Prime  Minister  of 
England;  Lord  French,  Lord  Lieutenant 


SIR   HAMAR   GREENWOOD 
Successor  to  Ian  Macpherson  as  Chief  Secre- 
tary for  Ireland 
(©    Keystone    View   Co.) 

of  Ireland;  Ian  Macpherson,  late  Chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland;  Acting  Inspector 
General  Smith  of  the  Royal  Irish  Con- 
stabulary, Divisional  Inspector  Clayton 
of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  District 
Inspector  Swanzy  and  some  unknown 
members  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabu- 
lary." 


The  New  Irish  Secretary 


rpHE  appointment  by  the  British  Gov- 
■*■  emment  of  Sir  Hamar  Greenwood 
as  Secretary  of  State  for  Ireland  has 
been  received  with  the  greatest  interest 
in  Canada,  where  the  future  Secretary, 
known  as  "  Tom  "  Grenwood  in  his  boy- 
hood days,  was  bom  and  educated.  After 
coming  into  the  limelight  by  heading  a 
sensational  revolt  of  the  students  of  the 
University  of  Toronto  in  protest  against 
the  expulsion  of  a  student-editor,  Green- 
wood, following  his  graduation,  went  to 


England  on  a  cattleship,  intending  to 
make  a  short  visit  to  the  mother  coun- 
try. He  attracted  public  attention  in 
England  first  as  a  lecturer  on  temper- 
ance. He  soon  found  steady  employment 
in  the  Liberal  organization,  studied  law, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Within  ten 
years  he  had  made  himself  so  valuable 
to  the  party  that  a  seat  in  Parliament 
was  found  for  him,  and  he  entered  the 
House  of  Commons  in  the  great  Liberal 
triumph  of  1906.  Since  then  his  rise 
has  been  gradual  but  continuous. 


All  Sides  of  Ireland's  Case 

Historic  Utterances  in  Parliament  by  Four  Clashing  Leaders 
in  the  Home  Rule  Debate 

The  House  of  Commons  passed  the  Irish  Home  Rule  bill  on  its  second  reading, 
March  31,  1920,  by  a  vote  of  3^.8  to  94.  Sir  Edward  Carson  and  the  Ulster  members 
abstained  from  voting  on  the  bill,  in  accordance  with  their  announced  intention.  The 
minority  was  com/posed  a^  follows :  Labor  ^3,  Independent  Liberals  20,  Conservatives 
24,  Irish  Nationalists  7,  The  National  Democratic  Party  voted  for  the  bill,  and  the 
labor  vote  against  the  bill  included  all  the  labor  members  present  with  one  or  two 
exceptions. 


Premier's  Defense  of  Home  Rule 


PREMIER  LLOYD  GEORGE  in  his 
address  in  support  of  the  Irish 
Home  Rule  bill  said  that  if  the 
people  of  Ireland  were  asked  what 
plan  they  would  accept,  by  an  emphatic 
majority  they  would  reply,  "We  want 
independence,  and  also  a  republic."  The 
elected  representatives  of  Ireland  now, 
by  a  definite  majority,  have  declared  for 
independence  and  secession.  But  is  there 
a  single  party  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
a  single  group  or  fraction  of  a  party,  that 
would  accept  that  solution?  Having 
dramatically  asked  this  question  and 
paused  through  a  brief  silence  that  was 
an  answer,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  continued: 
fTherefore,  it  is  no  use  talking-  about  self- 
determination.  Self-determination  does  not 
mean  that  every  part  of  a  country  which  has 
been  acting  with  the  other  parts  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  shall  have  the  right  to  say, 
"  We  want  to  :et  up  a  separate  republic." 
That  is  exactly  the  very  thing  that  was 
fought  for  in  the  civil  war  in  America. 

If  any  section  in  Wales  were  to  get  up  and 
say,  "  We  want  to  set  up  a  Welsh  Republic," 
I  should  certainly  resist  it  to  the  utmost  of 
my  power ;  and  Britain,  in  its  own  interests, 
including  the  interests  of  Wales,  would  be 
right  to  resist  it;  yet  it  has  as  definite  and 
as  clear  a  nationality  as  any  other  nation- 
ality in  this  kingdom.  The  same  thing  ap- 
plies to  Scotland.  If  Brittany  demanded 
self-determination,  that  does  not  mean  that 
France,  which  has  been  in  favor  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-determination,  ought  to  grant  a 
separate  republic  to  Brittany. 

There  must  be  a  limitation  to  the  appli- 
cation of  any  principle.  Otherwise  you 
might  carry  it  to  every  fragment  and  every 
area  and  every  locality  in  every  country 
throughout  the  world.     When  you  lay  down 


a  principle  of  that  kind  you  must  lay  it 
down  within  the  limitations  which  common 
sense  and  tradition  will  permit.  That  is  my 
answer  about  Ireland. 

I  now  ask  the  leader  of  the  Labor  Party, 
is  he  speaking  on  behalf  of  his  party  in 
favor  of  applying  the  principle  of  self-deter- 
mination to  Ireland? 

Mr.  Clynes :  If  an  answer  is  required,  the 
answer  is,  "  Not  self-determination  as  you 
have  defined  it." 

Mr.  Lloyd  George:  That  means  that  the 
Labor  Party  is  not  prepared  to  give  self- 
determination  to  Ireland.  That  is,  if  Ireland 
demands  a  separate  Irish  Republic,  the  La- 
bor Party  is  opposed  to  it.  It  only  misleads 
Irish  electors,  in  Ireland  and  this  country, 
into  the  belief  that  the  Labor  Party  means 
to  concede  self-determination. 

Now  I  come  to  the  suggestion  made  by 
Mr,  Asquith.  He  has  a  plan.  Can  he  name 
any  Irish  party  or  any  section  of  a  party 
in  Ireland  that  would  say,  "  We  will  ac- 
cept it?  " 

What  is  it?  The  Act  of  1914,  with  Domin- 
ion Home  Rule  added,  so  far  as  I  can  un- 
derstand, subject  to  serious  limitations.  It 
gives  the  power  to  erect  a  tariff  wall  against 
Great  Britain,  to  exclude  British  goods  from 
Ireland,  to  give  preference  to  America,  or 
even  to  Germany.  That  is  the  proposal,  but 
with  the  exclusion  of  Ulster  counties.  He 
says :  "I  would  give  an  Irish  Parliament 
to  the  whole  of  Ireland  with  county  option." 
He  can  say  what  he  will  about  it,  that  is 
partition.  It  may  be  the  partition  of  four 
counties  instead  of  six.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
partition. 

DISAGREEMENT  ON  EVERYTHING 

The  speaker  stated  that  the  Asquith 
proposal  would  be  rejected  with  scorn 
by  Sinn  Feiners,  Nationalists  and  Ulster- 
ites,  and  continued: 

What   is    the    use    of   saying,    under    those 


ALL  SIDES  OF  IRELAND'S  CASE 


193 


JMW/f' 


PtREfi  OF  IRELfiND 
AND  PENNSri-VANiA 


We&T  KERRY 


.^^ 


y»^  ;        W6SX     ^— -;,.^    —x      PAST     1    50UTH  \    /   -' 

^r     ;    EAST   •  <\«-rH  co.?K_  ,  V.^.  J  ^Crj\\  te«. 

?/•    KERRY '^^  /N0f?THEA5T/       WATglfFORD  ^_^   ^^      X^ 


V^^v;/..^  ,>>,CO«K  S 


sou  . 
KERRY 


/  No'f?TH  EAST  f  WATE  (?  f='0  R  D 

*-0      rncl^     tC  *8SflW^ 


UNIONIST 

REPUBLICAN 
NATIONALIST 


^CST- 


CORK    ^ 


MAP  OF  THE  COUNTIES  OP  IRELAND,  SHOWING  THE  POLITICAL  PROBLEM  TO  BE 
SOLVED  IN  MAKING  ULSTER  A  SEPARATE  GOVERNMENT 


Circumstances,  that  no  plan  is  acceptable 
unless  Irish  opinion  will  accept  it?  I  have 
pointed  out  that  there  is  no  plan  acceptable 
to  any  British  party  which  is  acceptable  to 
any  party   in    Ireland   at   the   moment. 

That  is  one  of  the  fundamental  facts.  You 
have  not  a  foundation  to  build  on  until  you 
accept  it.  It  is  no  use  talking  about  this 
bill  not  being  acceptable  to  Irish  opinion. 
Mr.  Asquith's  plan  is  not  acceptable.  Mr. 
Clynes  would  have  a  convention  in  Ireland 
and  a  constituent  assembly,    I  take  it,   with 


legislative  powers.  There  has  been  a  con- 
vention in  Ireland  and  not  even  Nationalist 
opinion  was  agreed  there.  There  is  a  docu- 
ment signed  by  twenty-two  Nationalists  and 
another  signed  by  twenty-six  Nationalists, 
disagreeing. 

In  speaking  of  the  powers  given  to 
the  Parliament  by  the  act,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  said: 

The.'^e    are    the    powers    given    by    the    act, 
and  it  is  a  great  mistake,   it  is  unfair,  it  is 


194 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


misleading,  it  can  do  no  good  to  represent 
to  the  people  of  this  country,  and  especially 
to  the  people  of  Ireland,  that  these  are  not 
powers  of  a  gigantic  kind  which  are  con- 
ferred   on    these    Parliaments    by    these    pro- 


The  position  is  of  a  character  which  makes 
it  absolutely  essential  that  before  anything 
can  be  done  for  the  whole  of  Ireland  there 
should  be  agreement  between  North  and 
South.  We  have  deliberately  framed  it  in 
such  a  way  that  no  powers  beyond  those 
which  we  have  specified  should  be  given 
over  the  whole  of  Ireland,  except  with  the 
consent,  not  merely  of  the  North,  but  of  the 
South  as  well.  The  South  can  veto  the  North 
and  the  North  can  veto  the  South,  unless 
there  is  unity  between  them. 

Much  will  depend,  when  you  try  to  achieve 
unity,  on  the  attitude  of  the  Sinn  Fein  popu- 
lation of  the  South.  They  can  bring  unity 
nearer  by  years  if  they  'like  to  make  an 
effort  to  work  this ;  but  if  they  work  for  the 
purpose  of  inflicting  harm  on  Ulster  or  on 
the  population  of  this  country  they  will  post- 
pone union  indefintely. 

It  is  for  that  reason  I  think  it  is  a  mis- 
fortune that  the  population  of  Ireland  has 
been  misled  as  to  what  the  bill  really  con- 
tains, because  in  that  temper  they  cannot 
counter  it.  I  know  there  are  many  men  in 
Ireland  who  sincerely  desire  to  see  this  bill 
through;  men  who  are  just  as  good  Nation- 
alists as  those  sitting  on  that  bench. 

This  scheme  holds  the  field  because  it  rec- 
ognizes the  facts.  It  recognizes  that  you 
cannot  satisfy  Irish  opinion  in  its  present 
state  of  exaltation  without  destroying  the 
essential  unity  of  the  United  Kingdom.  I 
regret  it. 

The  second  point  is  that  the  demand  in 
Ireland  for  the  moment  is  a  demand  for 
independence,  for  secession  and  not  self- 
government. 

REMINDER  TO  AMERICA 

I  want  to  say  this  to  our  American 
friends.  Mr.  de  Valera  is  putting  forward 
the  same  claim,  in  exactly  the  same  lan- 
guage, as  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis ;  and  the  an- 
cestors of  some  of  'the  men  who  voted  for 
that  motion  in  the  Senate  the  other  day 
fought  to  the  death  against  conceding  to 
the  Southern  States  of  the  United  States  of 
America  that  very  demand  they  were  sup- 
porting in  Ireland. 

The  acceptance  of  that  demand  was  never 
conceded.  It  is  a  demand  which,  if  it  is 
persisted  in,  will  lead  to  exactly  the  same 
measures  of  repression  as  in  the  Southern 
States  of  America.  We  claim  nothing  more 
than  the  United  States  claimed  over  these; 
we  will  stand  no  less. 

The  second  point  I  want  to  put  is  this: 
There  are  certain  powers  which  might  (be 
conferred  on  Ireland  when  she  settles  down 
and  accepts  union  and  works  union,   which. 


if  given  to  her  in  her  present  mood,  would 
only  be  used  for  the  hurt  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  her  own.  It  would  be  placing 
dangerous  weapons  in  the  hands  of  an  in- 
furiated people. 

Take  customs.  If  you  handed  them  over 
they  would  be  used  inevitably  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  war  on  Great  Britain.  Those 
are  powers  we  cannot  see  our  way  to  confer 
until  Ireland  settles  down,  until  Ireland  es- 
tablishes union,  until  Ireland  accepts  in  good 
faith  parnership  with  the  United  Kingdom 
just  like  any  other  nationality  in  this  land. 

The  other  fact  is  that  referred  to  by  Sir 
Edward  Carson,  with  regard  to  Ulster. 
Ulster  has  been  treated  as  if  it  were  a 
minority  to  be  protected.  Ulster  is  not  a 
minority  to  be  safeguarded.  Ulsiter  is  an 
entity  to  be  dealt  with.  It  is  a  different 
problem.  It  is  a  separate  and  different  part 
of  Ireland, 

It  is  exactly  the  problem  in  Silesia  which 
we  were  dealing  with  in  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. We  might  have  treated  Silesia  as  a 
whole,  which  it  always  had  been ;  but  we 
felt  that  that  would  be  unfair.  If  the  ma- 
jority had  been  in  favor  of  the  Germans 
you  would  put  solid  blocks  of  Poles  inside 
Germany;  if  the  majority  had  been  in  favor 
of  the  Poles  you  would  have  put  solid  blocks 
of  Germans  inside  Poland. 

WRONG   IDEA   OF   GOVERNMENT 

There  is  a  good  deal  in  Ir'sh  government 
that  one  regrets,  but  the  real  fact  is  this— 
that  for  not  100  years  but  for  700  years 
the  majority  of  the  people  have  been  disso- 
ciated from  responsibility  in  their  own  Gov- 
ernment—and the  hand  that  extended  good 
government  to  them  was  the  same  hand  that 
extended  bad  government. 

It  is  not  that  Irishmen  sympathize  with 
murder.  That  is  not  the  point.  They  say 
that  is  the  business  of  the  Government,  and 
the  Government  is  not  theirs.  The  Govern- 
ment belongs  to  somebody  eLse. 

My  right  honorable  friend  said  the  teach- 
ers were  very  badly  paid  in  Ireland  and  he 
talked  as  if  that  was  purely  a  matter  with 
Great  Britain.  It  is  not.  We  rate  ourselves 
heavily.  We  make  our  own  efforts  to  pay 
contributions  to  our  teachers.  In  Ireland 
they  say  that  is  the  business  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  whole  system  of  government  in 
Ireland  is  vitiated  by  the  fact  that  you  sever 
the  people  from  law  and  government.  That 
has  got  to  be  put  right. 

There  is  no  union.  There  is  union  between 
Scotland,  England  and  Wales.  There  is 
union  that  bears  the  test  of  death.  There  is 
no  union  with  Ireland.  Her  grappling  hook 
was  not  union.  I  am  sanguine  enough  to 
believe  that  we  shall  get  it  through  this  bill. 

I  do  not  say  you  will  get  it  in  a  year,  or 
two,  or  three  years.  You  cannot  remove 
misconceptions,  misunderstandings,  bitter- 
ness of  centuries  in  a  year  or  two.  Ireland 
is  a  country  of  long  nxemories.     In  fact  the 


ALL  SIDES  OF  IRELAND'S  CASE 


19i 


one  trouble  of  Ireland  is  that  it  has  struck 
its  roots  rather  too  deep  into  the  past  and 
has  got  into  poor  soil. 

Ireland  needs  root-pruning;  but  I  believe 
that  with  patience  and  with  that  sort  of 
good  humor  which  Britons  under  certain 
iconditions  display,   and  not  taking  too  much 


Sir  Edward  Carson  on  Home  Rnle 

Ulster  Leader  Opposes  It  in  Every  Form 


I 

jf\_  Council  on  March  11,  at  which  were 
present  the  leaders  of  Ulster,  the 
following  resolutions  were  carried: 

The  Ulster  Unionist  Council  reaffirms  once 
more  its  belief  that  the  highest  interests  of 
the  Empire,  of  Ireland  and  of  Ulster  are 
better  safeguarded  by  the  maintenance  of 
the  Legislative  Union  between  Britain  and 
Ireland  than  any  other  system  of  govern- 
ment ;  nevertheless,  in  view  of  the  fact  tha'', 
despite  the  persistent  opposition  of  Ulster  and 
loyal  subjects  of  the  King  in  other  prov- 
inces, there  is  now  on  the  statute  book  an 
act  of  Parliament  which  comes  into  force 
upon  the  conclusion  of  peace  unless  legisla- 
tion limiting  its  authority  is  enacted.  This 
council  has  given  careful  consideration  to  the 
Government  of  Ireland  bill  now  before  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  resolves  as  follows : 

(1)  Inasmuch  as  the  new  bill  is  based  on 
the  principles  of  Home  Rule  and  deprives  us 
of  our  position  in  the  Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  this  council  cannot  rec- 
ommend the  Parliamentary  representatives 
of  Ulster  to  accept  any  responsibility  for  it. 

(2)  But  inasmuch  as  the  bill  is  in  substi- 
tution for  the  Government  of  Ireland  act, 
1914,  and  it  recognizes  the  right  of  six 
counties  of  Ulster  to  separate  treatment  (for 
which  Ulster  has  so  tenaciously  striven)  and 
offers  a  preferable  alternative  to  the  act  of 
1914,  and  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  prospect 
of  procuring  the  simple  repeal  of  the  act, 
this  council  is  of  opinion  that  the  Ulster 
representatives  should  not  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility of  attempting  to  defeat  the  bill, 
but  should  press  for  such  amendments  of  the 
bill  as  are  necessary  and  desirable  in  the 
interests  of  Ulster  and  of  Unionists  through- 
out the  South  and  West  of  Ireland  in  the 
event  of  the  second  reading  of  the  bill  being 
carried. 

Sir  Edward  Carson,  political  leader  of 
Protestant  Ulster,  in  his  address  in  the 
House  in  opposition  to  the  bill  said  that 
he  had  never  believed  in  it;  he  did  not 
believe  in  it  now;  and  he  believed  it 
would  be  fraught  with  disaster  to  the 
Empire  and  to  Ireland. 

His  own  country  would  be  cut  off  from 


notice  of  mere  histrionic  displays  of  disaf- 
fection, and  dealing  firmly  with  all  real  cases 
of  treason  and  lawlessness,  you  will  gradu- 
ally arrive  at  the  union  of  North  and  South 
—a  union  of  Protestant  and  Catholic,  a  real 
union  of  good  partners  in  a  great  concern, 
of  which  all  alike  equally  will  be  proud. 


the  greatest  kingdom  that  had  ever 
existed.  No  longer  would  they  be  able 
to  rely  on  her  strength;  and  of  all  the 
extraordinary  proposals  put  forward,  the 


SIR    EDWARD    CARSON 

Leader  of  the  Ulster  Unionists  in  Parliament 

(Photo    Central   News    Service) 

one  to  which  he  most  profoundly  ob- 
jected as  being  absolutely  impossible  and 
uneconomic  was  that  Irish  members 
would  be  there  in  that  House  in  reduced 
numbers,  while  the  Imperial  Parliament 
retained  the  power  of  taxation  to  the 
full.  Ireland  would  be  mad  to  give  up 
her  representation  in  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament. 


196 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


It  also  cut  him  to  the  quick  to  see 
that  the  Government  was  going  to  de- 
sert his  loyal  fellow-subjects  and  co- 
religionists in  the  south  of  Ireland.  He 
believed  that  to  be  a  gross  act  of  treach- 
ery to  faithful  friends. 

No  one  had  been  able,  during  the  de- 
bate, to  suggest  an  alternative  to  the 
Union.  It  was  pathetic  to  see  Mr. 
Asquith  standing  up  in  that  House,  kill- 
ing his  own  child,  the  Act  of  1914.  There 
was  no  alternative  to  Union  except 
separation. 

He  had  been  called  a  traitor  because 
he  was  not  now  prepared  to  go  all  the 
way  to  fight  every  form  of  Home  Rule. 
By  the  present  bill  he  got  the  six  coun- 
ties excluded  from  a  Dublin  Parliament. 
If  he  succeeded  in  killing  the  bill,  the 
Act  of  1914  automatically  came  into 
force.  Therefore,  if  he  were  to  fight 
agains't  this  bill  he  would  be  a  lunatic. 

Mr.  Devlin— But  you  are  getting  all  you 
want,   and  more. 

Sir  E.  Carson— No,  I  have  not.  If  I  had 
got  all  I  asked  for  there  would  never  have 
been  a  Home  Rule  bill.  I  cannot  agree  to 
Home  Rule  and  I  won't  vote  for  it.  At  the 
same  time,  for  reasons  I  have  stated,  I  will 
do  nothing  to  prevent  this  bill  becoming  law. 

He  dared  Liberal  Home  Rulers  to  go 
to  the  country  on  the  proposal  to  drive 
Ulster  under  a  Sinn  Fein  Dublin  Parlia- 
ment, adding: 

I  ask  you,  from  your  hearts,  do  you  want 
me  to  go  over  and  say  to  the  Ulster  people: 
"  Go  and  intrust  your  destinies  and  the  des- 
tinies of  your  children  to  a  Sinn  Fein  Par- 
liament? "  Is  that  what  you  want  me  to 
do?  If  I  did  it  you  would  have  lost  your 
last  friends  in  Ireland. 

In  a  previous  speech  at  Belfast  he  had 
said: 

The  most  insane  and  ridiculous  policy  that 
I  have  ever  read  of  in  history  is  the  policy 
of  Sinn  Fein.  Now  just  imagine.  Let  us 
suppose  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  became  the 
law  of  the  land  and  we  were  under  it.  I  go 
over  to  England  as  an  alien  and  become 
subject  to  alien  law,  and  I  would  not  be 
eligible  in  England  or  in  any  other  part  of 
the  whole  Empire  for  a  position  in  the  Civil 
Service  or  any  other  official  position  under 
the  various  Governments  that  rule  our  domin- 
ions. I  would  have  no  glory  of  protection 
from  our  splendid  navy  and  I  would  not  be 
admissible  to  England's  army.  I  would  have 
nothing  to  do  and  would  have  no  claim  upon 
the  greatest  partnership  of  nations  that  ever 
existed.  And  why?  I  would  be  a  poor,  mis- 
erable shorn  lamb,  trying  to  browse  about 
on  pastures  which  I  would  have  to  steal  in 


the  dark  in  order  that  I  might  be  able  to 
sustain  my  alien  body.  Of  all  the  ridiculous, 
farcical  humbugs  never  was  there  one  to 
equal  Sinn  Fein. 

In  referring  to  the  plan  to  cut  off  from 


mn%nm 

fit  illliSt 


tetftustt  I 


SANDWICH  MEN  CARRYING  BOARDS  WITH 

ANTI-SINN    FEIN   APPEALS,    PARADING   IN 

FRONT    OF    HOUSE    OP    COMMONS 

(©    Intemiational) 


the  Northern  Parliament  the  Counties  of 
Donegal,  Monaghan  and  Cavan  (over- 
whelmingly Catholic)  Sir  Edward  said: 

Ought  we  to  include  the  three  outlying 
counties  if  the  result  of  that  was  that  our 
Parliament  in  Ulster  would  most  certainly 
fail?  What  is  the  use  of  setting  up  a  Par- 
liament if  it  is  to  be  torn  to  pieces  almost 
before  it  has  come  into  existence?  What  is 
the  use  of  our  pretending  that  we  could 
govern  Donegal,  Monaghan,  and  Cavan  if  it 
is  not  true?    *    *    * 

What  would   be   the   good   of  a  weak   and 


ALL  SIDES  OF  IRELAND'S  CASE 


197 


tottering  Ulster?  A  strong  Ulster  of  the 
six  counties  on  the  borders  of  these  other 
counties  can  do  far  more,  believe  me,  to 
help  them  than  a  weak  and  tottering  fabric 
of  the  whole  nine  counties  in  the  province.  I 
know  there  will  be  people  disappointed,  but 
after    all    there    are    890,000    Protestants    in 


Ulster,  and  the  six  counties  bring  in  830,000. 
And  what  you  would  really  be  doing  if  you 
brought  in  three  outlying  counties,  in  my 
opinion,  would  be  that  you  would  be  sacri- 
ficing the  830,000,  while  at  the  same  time 
you  really  conferred  no  benefits  at  all  upon 
the  other  60,000. 


¥ 


Ex-Premier  Asquith's  Opposition 

His  Substitute  Proposal 


HERBERT  H.  ASQUITH,  the  former 
Premier  and  present  leader  of  the 
Opposition,  speaking  against  the 
Home  Rule  bill  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  March  31,  contended  that  no 
new  scheme  of  government  should  be 
imposed  upon  Ulster.   He  continued: 

Ireland  is  a  country  so  circumstanced  that 
this  bill  proposes  to  create  two  Legislatures, 
two  or  perhaps  three  executives,  two  judica- 
tures, two  exchequers,  two  consolidated 
funds,  and  potentially,  at  any  rate,  two  sys- 
tems of  taxation.  On  the  face  of  it  that  is 
a  costly  and  cumbrous  duplication  and  mul- 
tiplication of  institutions  and  offices.  From 
the  mere  point  of  view  of  administrative  ef- 
ficiency and  economy,  particularly  in  times 
like  these,  there  is  nothing  whatever  to  be 
said  for  such  a  proposal.  It  can  only  be 
justified  as  a  concession,  taking  it  by  con- 
siderations of  high  policy,  to  a  clamorous 
national  demand.  Is  there  such  a  demand? 
One  thing  is  certain  about  this  bill,  which 
cannot  be  disputed  by  anybody— no  section 
of  Irish  opinion  asks  for  it,  and  no  Irish 
sentiment— at  present  so  sore  and  mutinous- 
will  be  soothed  or  appeased  by  it.  No  one 
in  Ireland  wants  two  Parliaments.  No  one 
in  Ireland  wants  to  see  the  judicial  bench 
cut  in  half.  No  one  in  Ireland  desires  the 
establishment  in  the  administrative  sphere 
of  two  Dublin  Castles,  however,  reformed, 
expurgated  and  regenerated,  in  place  of  one. 
Every  previous  Home  Rule  ibill  has  received 
the  support  if  not  of  four-fifths  at  least  of 
three-quarters  of  the  elected  representatives 
of  Ireland  in  this  House.  It  is  doubtful 
when  we  come  to  a  division  on  the  second 
reading  if  one  single  Irish  member  of  any 
section  will  support  it.  This  is  the  first  ex- 
periment in  the  domestic  or  inter-imperial 
sphere  of  the  great  principle  of  self-deter- 
mination. [Cheers  and  laughter.]  That  is 
the  bill  on  its  merits— a  large,  cumbrous, 
costly,  unworkable  scheme,  which  is  not  de- 
manded or  supported  by  any  section  of  opin- 
ion in  the  country  to  which  it  is  to  be 
applied. 

To  call  this  a  Home  Rule  bill,  said 
Mr.  Asquith,  was  a  misnomer.  He  con- 
tinued: 


Home  Rule  has  always  meant  to  us  Home 
Rulers  the  establishment  in  Ireland  of  a  sin- 
gle Legislature  with  an  Executive  responsible 
to  and  dependent  upon  it.  We  have  agreed 
from  the  first  that  you  cannot  carry  out 
that  which  is  the  dominant  purpose,  the  gov- 
erning principle,  the  aim  and  goal  of  our 
policy,  without  providing,  on  the  one  hand, 
adequate  safeguards  for  the  maintenance  of 
imperial  supremacy,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
reasonable  protection  for  the  rights  and  pos- 
sible dangers  of  Irish  minorities.  But  this 
present  bill  wholly  discards  the  principle  of 
all  previous  Home  Rule  bills.  It  proposes 
to  create  two  co-ordinate  and  mutually  in- 
dependent Legrislatures  and  Executive®. 

He  asserted  that  the  proposed  Irish 
Council  was  "  a  fleshless  and  bloodless 
skeleton "  without  power,  except  when 
given  power  by  identic  acts  of  the  two 
Parliaments.  He  asserted  that  there  was 
no  hope  of  the  two  Parliaments  ever 
uniting.  He  quoted  from  an  address  of 
a  leading  Ulster  member.  Captain  Craig 
of  Antrim, 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  said  in  this 
debate  about  the  time  when  there  is  to  be 
union  between  us.  It  has  been  said  that  this 
bill  lends  itself  to  the  union  of  Ulster  and 
the  rest  of  Ireland.  It  would  not  be  fair  to 
the  House  if  I  lent  the  slightest  hope  of  that 
union  arising  within  the  lifetime  of  any  man 
in  this  House.  I  do  not  believe  it  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

Mr.  Asquith  added: 

Then  he  goes  on  to  explain  this  is  going 
to  be  frustrated  by  the  machinery  provided 
by  the  bill  itself:  "  If  we  had,"  he  says,  "  the 
nine  counties."  that  is  to  say,  a  Northern 
Parliament  representing  the  whole  province 
of  Ulster,  the  nine  counties  Parliament, 
"  with  sixty-four  members,  the  Unionist  ma- 
jority would  be  about  three  or  four.  The 
three  excluded  counties  contain  some  70,000 
Unionists  and  261,000  Sinn  Feiners  and  Na- 
tionalists, and  the  addition  of  that  large 
block  of  Sinn  Feiners  and  Nationalists  would 
reduce  our  majority  to  such  a  level  that  no 
sane  man  would  undertake  to  carry  on  a 
Parliament  with  il," 


198 


THE  NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


So  you  have  got  to  reduce  Ulster  for  this 
purpose  from  nine  counties  to  six.  Here  you 
are  creating  a  Northern  Parliament  with  co- 
ordinating powers  with  a  Southern  Parlia- 
ment, and  in  the  constitution  of  the  North- 
ern Parliament  you  except  three  of  the  nine 
Ulster  counties,  with  the  result  which  the 
honorable  and  gallant  member  gloats  over— 
that  they  will  always  have  a  majority  and  be 
able  to  defeat,  permanently,  every  move  for 
the  attainment  of  a  single  Parliament  for 
Ireland. 

He  advocated  giving  the  Irish  Legis- 
lature the   power   of  imposing  customs, 


excise  and  income  tax.  He  criticised 
the  bill  because  it  gave  no  protection 
to  the  religious  minorities  in  either  Par- 
liament, and  favored  county  option  for 
the  Province  of  Ulster.  He  also  advo- 
cated as  a  substitute  a  suggestion  made 
by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett — the  summon- 
ing of  a  Constituent  Assembly  with  in- 
structions to  set  up  an  Irish  Legislative 
Assembly  and  leave  to  the  Constituent 
Assembly  the  responsibility  for  working 
out  the  scheme. 


Bonar  Law's  Reply  to  Asquith 

Object  of  the  Bill  Explained 


ANDREW  BONAR  LAW,  spokesman 
J^  for  the  Government,  in  replying  to 
Mr.  Asquith,  twitted  him  with  his 
failure  to  accomplish  anything  when  he 
was  Premier.  Accusing  him  of  a  short 
memory,  since  the  Asquith  Government 
in  1916  had  tried  to  carry  out  proposals 
almost  identical  with  those  of  the  Lloyd 
George  Government,  Bonar  Law  went  on 
to  say  that  the  following  were  the  only 
possible  alternatives  in  dealing  with  the 
situation: 

First,  repeal  the  Home  Rule  Act. 

Second,  Dominion  Home  Rule. 

Third,  to  give  self-determination  to  the 
representatives  of  the  Irish  people;  that  is, 
to  create   an   Irish   Republic. 

Fourth,  to  give  to  Ireland  the  largest  meas- 
ure of  home  rule  compatible  with  national 
security  and  pledges  given.  That  is  the  ob- 
ject of  the  bill. 

It  is  obvious  [he  continued]  that  repeal  is 
not  possible  to  the  present  Government.  I 
believe  in  the  value  to  the  nation  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  Coalition  Government.  If 
the  policy  of  repeal  were  the  right  policy  I 
should  say  at  once  the  Coalition  should  come 
to    an   end. 

Another  alternative  is  Dominion  Home 
Rule.  Mr.  Asquith  used  that  phrase,  but  did 
he  mean  it?  The  very  words  he  used  showed 
that  he  did  not  mean  it.  What  is  the  es- 
sence of  Dominion  Home  Rule?  The  essence 
is  that  the  Dominions  have  control  of  their 
whole  destinies,  of  their  fighting  forces,  and 
of  the  amount  that  they  contribute  to  the 
general  support  and  security  of  the  Empire. 
Does  the  right  honorable  gentleman  propose 
to  give  these  things  to  Ireland  ?  Not  at  all ; 
he  was  going  to  reserve  the  armed  forces 
and  state  the  contribution  which  should  be 
made.  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  House, 
least   of  all   the   right  honorable   gentleman. 


who  would  not  admit  that  the  connection  of 
Dominions  and  the  Empire  depends  upon  the 
Dominions.  If  Australia,  Canada,  or  New 
Zealand  chose  to  say,  "  We  will  not  remain 
part  of  the  British  Empire,"  we  would  not 
force  them.  Dominion  Home  Rule  means  the 
right  to  decide  their  own  destinies. 

The  right  honorable  gentleman  says  that 
this  is  demanded  by  the  legal  representatives 
of  the  Irish  people.  They  are  still  as  much 
legal  representatives  when  they  are  Sinn 
Feiners,  and  to  say  he  is  prepared  to  give 
Dominion  Home  Rule  means  nothing  less 
than  that  he  is  prepared  to  give  an  Irish 
Republic.  My  right  honorable  friend  shakes 
his  head,  but  that  is  no  answer. 

DANGER  IN  SEPARATION 

The  speaker  challenged  the  labor  mem- 
bers to  declare  they  favored  an  Irish  Re- 
public. There  was  no  answer  to  his  chal- 
lenge.  He  then  continued  as  follows: 

It  is  one  of  the  most  childish  mistakes  to 
assume  that  because  Ireland  is  separated 
from  us  by  a  sheet  of  water  she  is  in  any 
degree  less  essential  to  the  national  security 
than  if  she  were  part  of  this  island.  All  the 
experience  of  the  growth  of  nationalities 
shows  that  water  connections  have  as  much 
to  do  with  the  grouping  of  peoples  as  land 
connections.  That  is  the  cause  of  the  dif- 
ficulty in  settling  the  Adriatic  question  to- 
day. Though  this  water  is  between  us  it  is 
no  less  dangerous  to  have  Ireland  out  of  the 
orbit  of  our  national  defense.  The  policy  of 
separation  has  never  (been  adopted  under 
such  circumstances  by  any  nation  in  the 
history  of  the  world  except  after  defeat  and 
under  compulsion.  It  was  against  such  a 
policy  that  a  most  bloody  war  was  waged 
in  the  United  States.  Let  us  see  clearly 
where  we  are  going.  Those  who  talk  loosely 
of  self-determination  should  see  exactly 
where  it  leads,  and  ask  themselves  whether 


ALL  SIDES  OF  IRELAND'S  CASE 


199 


they  are  prepared  to  follow  that  road  to  the 
end. 

The  speaker  argued  that  the  proposed 
bill  was  the  nearest  to  self-government 
that  national  security  would  permit.  He 
said  that  the  Ulster  Parliament  was 
made  up  of  the  six  counties  instead  of 
the  nine,  in  order  to  make  ultimate  union 
possible.     He  then  added: 

We  wish  to  keep  on  the  best  terms  with 
America.  We  shall  do  what  is  rig-ht,  and 
trust  to  that  winning  respect.  But  it  is  not 
merely  America,  it  is  our  self-governing-  do- 
minions. I  have  hardly  met  an  Australian 
or  Canadian  who  has  not  said,  "  Why  don't 
you  give  them  home  rule?  "  To  all  of  these 
we  say  that  by  this  bill  England  ceases  to 
interfere,  and  that  Ireland  has  the  power  to 
govern  in  her  own  hands  the  moment  Irish- 
men  can   agree   among  themselves. 

Why  have  we  taken  the  six  counties?  In 
the  first  place  in  the  election  manifesto  of 
my  right  honorable  friend  and  myself  we 
stated  that  we  intended  to  deal  with  the 
matter  on  the  basis  of  the  six  counties.  In 
1916  there  was  a  real  attempt  to  get  a  set- 
tlement for  the  first  time  on  the  basis  of 
recognizing  facts  as  they  were.  The  leaders 
of  the  Ulster  Party  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Nationalist  Party  met.  They  decided  to  try 
to  carry  the  six  counties.  If  at  the  time 
when  there  was  a  real  desire  for  settlement 
both  sections  thought  that  a  fair  settlement, 
I  say  that  this  House  has  a  right  to  regard 
it  now  as  a  fair  settlement.  My  right  hon- 
orable friend  quoted  Captain  Craig  as  saying 
that  in  his  belief  there  would  be  no  union 
in  the  lifetime  of  any  of  us.  How  can  any 
one  forecast  the  future?  If  we  had  kept 
the  whole  of  Ulster  what  would  have  been 
the  position?  We  would  have  been  told  by 
every  Nationalist  on  the  opposite  benches 
that  the  three  Ulster  counties  were  identical 
in  sympathy  with  the  rest  of  Ireland,  and 
that  it  was  monstrous  to  exclude  them  from 
Southern  Ireland.     *    *    * 

If  the  whole  of  Ulster  had  been  in  the 
Parliament  the  other  side  would  have  tried 
to  keep  as  the  whole  issue  this  arrangement 
with  the  six  counties.  By  this  arrangement 
the  six  counties  will  fall  into  normal  lines. 
If  you  free  these  six  counties  you  will  free 
them  from  this  old  quarrel  and  they  will  take 
new   directions,     I   have    seen   something   of 


those  six  counties  and  I  think  they  are  the 
most  democratic  population  in  these  islands. 
My  right  honorable  friend  said  the  Central 
Council  is  purely  humbug.  It  is  exactly  the 
amount  of  humbug  that  the  honorable  mem- 
ber and  his  friends  choose  to  make  it.  It 
gives  machinery  for  the  closest  co-operation 
between  the  two  Parliaments  if  they  agree. 
If  they  do  not  agree  what  is  the  sense  of 
talking  about  giving  to  Ireland  control  of 
their  own  affairs?    »    *    * 

HOW  BILL  WOULD  WORK 

The  moment  this  bill  becomes  law  these  two 
Parliaments  are  constituted.  I  think  the 
House  has  a  right  to  know  what  will  happen 
if  the  contingency  suggested  by  Mr.  O'Con- 
nor really  happens,  and  if  the  Sinn  Feiners 
were  in  a  majority  and  refused  to  work  our 
Parliament.  What  would  happen  would  be 
that  instantly  we  should  revert  to  the  pres- 
ent position  and  it  must  be  made  perfectly 
plain  that  until  the  Parliament  is  properly 
constituted  and  has  taken  the  oath  the  act 
cannot   come    into    operation. 

Mr.   Devlin— Does  that  apply  to  Ulster? 

Mr.   Bonar  Law— Yes. 

Mr.  Devlin— If  the  rest  of  Ireland  refuses 
to  recognize  this  Parliament,  would  the  Par- 
liament be  put  into  operation  in  Ulster? 

Mr.  Bonar  Law— Most  certainly,  and  may 
I  point  out  to  the  House  that,  in  my  view, 
that  gives  good  ground  for  hoping  that  this 
will  ultimately  succeed?  You  set  up  these 
Parliaments;  the  Ulster  Poi-liament,  I  pre- 
sume, will  at  once  work,  the  rest  of  Ireland 
will  see  that  it  is  working  satisfactorily. 
There  will  be  toefore  their  eyes  the  evidence 
that  they  can  have  the  same  self-government 
the  moment  they  like.  Even  suppose  that 
for  the  first  Parliament  the  Sinn  Feiners 
refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it,  or  re- 
fuse to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  we  drop 
back  to  where  we  are.  If  the  whole  south 
of  Ireland  is  composed  of  people  who  will 
have  nothing  but  a  republic,  then  no  settle- 
ment is  possible.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is,  as  we  are  constantly  told,  a  large 
element  among  the  Nationalist  population 
who  are  sane,  and  who  look  at  things  with 
a  real  desire  to  do  the  best  for  Ireland,  I 
do  not  believe  that  when  they  see  these 
powers  working  in  the  rest  of  Ireland  before 
them  they  will  refuse  to  accept  the  situation 
and  take  advantage  of  it. 


John  Devlin's  Nationalist  View 

Bitter  Attack  on  the  Bill 


JOHN  DEVLIN,  the  Irish  Nationalist 
member  from  Falls,  replied  to  Bonar 
Law.     He    asserted    that    the    Irish 
Nationalists  had  never  agreed  to  Parlia- 
mentary partition.   In  the  interest  of  the 


nation  they  did  agree  to  the  postpone- 
ment of  bringing  the  act  into  operation 
for  the  period  of  the  war,  on  the  con- 
dition that  immediately  after  the  war  an 
imperial  conference  of  representatives  of 


200 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  dominions  should  be  held  to  consider 
the  future  government  of  the  empire, 
including  the  future  government  of 
Ireland.  On  the  strength  of  that  agree- 
ment they  went  to  their  constituents  and 
got  them  to  agree,  although  it  was  no 
easy  task. 

He  confessed  that  he  could  not  under- 
stand the  bill.  In  his  judgment  it  was 
conceived  in  Bedlam.  Everybody  and 
everything  but  Ireland  counted  in  the  bill. 
Irish  opinion  artd  sentiment,  Irish  griev- 
ances and  the  permanent  solution  of 
Irish  difficulties — none  of  those  matters 
was  considered  at  all.  He  intimated  that 
the  Premier's  first  idea  in  introducing 
the  bill  was  to  satisfy  American  senti- 
ment, to  satisfy  labor  opinion  and  to 
secure  the  moral  sanction  of  the  world 
for  a  reasonable  effort  to  solve  the  Irish 
problem.  (Mr.  Lloyd  George  shook  his 
head.)  Did  anybody  think  the  bill  would 
touch  the  imagination  or  command  the 
good- will  of  the  American  people  ? 

Mr.  Devlin  said  many  taunts  had  been 
hurled  against  Irishmen  for  contributing 
nothing  to  a  solution  of  this  problem. 
One  would  imagine  that  the  Irish  Con- 
vention was  an  organized  and  riotous  as- 
sembly of  discordant  Irishmen.  It  was 
nothing  of  the  sort.  More  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  convention,  consisting  of 
Southern  Unionists,  Ulster  Labor  men, 
and  the  Nationalists,  agreed  in  favor  of 
one  Legislature  for  all  Ireland.  The  only 
point  on  which  there  was  any  difference 
was  the  question  of  the  customs.  At  the 
convention  national  unity  was  regarded 
as  sacrosanct,  and  the  Nationalists  were 
anxious  to  make  any  sacrifice  to  get 
Ulster  in.  The  Ulster  representatives, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  not  say  what 
they  wanted.  They  never  moved  a  single 
inch.  They  stood  today  precisely  where 
they  stood  for  the  last  thirty  years,  with 
this  in  their  favor,  that  they  threatened 
a  rebellion  and  succeeded.  A  minority 
rebelled,  and  it  got  what  it  wanted;  a 
majority  rebelled,  and  was  put  in  prison. 

They  were  told  they  would  have  union 
through  the  operation  of  the  Central 
Council  proposed  by  the  bill,  and  it  was 
argued  that  the  whole  responsibility  for 
the  conduct  of  the  Central  Council  would 


rest  with  the  Orangemen  in  the  North 
and  with  the  Nationalists  in  the  South. 
Unity  was  to  be  secured  by  giving 
twenty-six  counties  precisely  the  same 
representation  on  the  National  Council 
as  six  counties,  and  the  spirit  of  the  six 
counties  was  shown  by  Captain  Craig's 
statement  that  there  would  not  be  unity 
in  the  lifetime  of  the  youngest  member 
in  the  House.  He  could  conceive  of  no 
plan  which  would  contribute  more  largely 
to  the  poisoning  still  further  of  the  well- 
springs  of  harmony  and  concord  in  Ire- 
land itself  and  in  the  relationship  be- 
tween this  country  and  Ireland. 

The  Catholics  in  the  six  counties  repre- 
sented 34  per  cent,  of  the  population. 
They  were  to  be  placed  under  an  Ulster 
Parliament.  He  would  be  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  that  Parliament,  and  if 
ever  it  were  set  up  he  would  go  over  and 
break  every  law  in  Ulster.  In  that  Par- 
liament the  Unionists  would  have  such 
perfect  electoral  and  gerrymandering 
machinery  as  to  secure  a  majority.  It 
would  merely  be  an  enlarged  edition  of 
the  Belfast  Town  Council. 

Passing  to  the  areas  of  the  two  Par- 
liaments, Mr.  Devlin  said  that  Providence 
had  arranged  the  geography  of  Ireland, 
and  the  Government  had  altered  it.  They 
had  sacrificed  geography  for  Parlia- 
mentary euphony.  They  had  placed 
Donegal  in  the  south  of  Ireland. 
They  might  send  their  Sir  Nevil 
Macready  to  Ireland;  they  might  send 
over  the  whole  army  and  navy,  but  might 
was  right  only  for  a  time.  Let  them  not 
think  that  they  were  going  to  preserve 
militarism  in  Ireland  among  a  peaceful 
and  lav.'-abiding,  among  a  Christian 
and  virtuous  people,  among  even,  if 
they  would,  a  Conservative  people.  Great 
problems  were  solved  and  nations'  heart 
desires  were  only  satisfied  by  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  justice  and  by  the 
concession  of  freedom. 

The  attitude  of  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders 
toward  the  Government  bill  was  one  of 
unyielding  opposition ;  they  declared  that 
no  Home  Rule  bill  would  prove  accept- 
able, and  that  they  would  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  independence  and 
the  recognition  of  an  Irish  Republic. 


I 


The  Home  Rule  Bill — Summary  of  Its  Provisions 


TIE     Irish    Home    Rule    bill,    which 
passed    its    second    reading    in   the 
House  of  Commons  by  a  vote  of  348 
to  94  on  March  31,  contains  the  follow- 
ing provisions: 

1.  Two  Parliaments— On  and  after  the  ap- 
pointed day  there  should  be  established  a 
•Parliament  of  Southern  Ireland  and  a  Par- 
liament of  Northern  Ireland,  each  consisting 
of  the  King  and  a  House  of  Commons.  No 
Second  Chambers. 

Northern  Ireland  consists  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary counties  of  Antrim,  Armagh,  Down, 
Fermanagh,  Londonderry  and  Tyrone,  and 
the  Parliamentary  boroughs  of  Belfast  and 
Londonderry.     The  rest  is  Southern  Ireland. 

II.  The  Council— 1.  The  Council  of  Ireland, 
to  be  constituted  as  soon  as  may  be  after 
the  appointed  day,  to  bring  about  harmonious 
action  between  the  Parliaments,  to  promote 
mutual  intercourse  and  uniformity  in  mat- 
ters affecting  all  Ireland,  and  to  administer 
services  mutually  agreed  upon  or  assigned 
to  it  by  this  act. 

2.  The  Council,  in  the  first  instance,  to  be 
the  King,  as  President,  and  twenty  mem- 
bers of  each  House  of  Commons,  chosen  as 
each  house  may  determine ;  this  to  be  the 
first  business  of  each  House  of  Commons. 

3.  The  Constitution  of  the  Council  may  be 
varied  by  identical  acts  of  the  two  Parlia- 
ments, which  may  provide  for  all  or  any  of 
its  members  to  be  elected  by  Parliamentary 
electorate. 

III.  Parliament  for  All  Ireland— 1.  The  tWO 

Parliaments  by  identical  acts  may  establish 
in  lieu  of  the  Council  of  Ireland  a  Parlia- 
ment for  the  whole  of  Ireland,  consisting  of 
the  King  and  one  or  two  house;;.  The  whole 
Constitution  of  this  Parliament  as  to  mem- 
bers, mode  of  election  or  appointment,  and, 
if  there  are  two  Houses,  their  relations  to 
one  another,  are  to  be  determined  by  the 
Provincial  Parliaments.  The  date  at  which 
the  Parliament  of  Ireland  is  to  be  established 
is  afterward  referred  to  as  the  date  of  Irish 
union. 

2.  On  the  date  of  Irish  union  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland  receives  the  powers  of  the 
Council,  all  matters  which  at  that  date  cease 
to  be  reserved  under  this  act  and  any  powers 
conferred  by  the  Provincial  Parliaments. 

3.  All  the  powers  of  the  Provincial  Parlia- 
ments pass  to  the  Parliament  of  Ireland, 
except  so  far  as  the  constituent  acts  other- 
wise provide,  and,  if  no  powers  are  reserved, 
the  constituent  acts  must  settle  financial  re- 
lations between   the   Exchequers. 

4.  If  any  powers  are  reserved  at  first  they 
may  be  transferred  by  identical  acts  later, 
when  the  Provincial  Parliaments  would 
cease  to  exist. 


LEGISLATIVE  AUTHORITY 

IV.  Reserved  Powers  —  1.  The  Provincial 
Parliaments  have  full  powers  within  their 
respective  areas,   except  in  respect  of: 

(1)  Crown  succession,   &c. 

(2)  Peace  or  war  or  matters  arising 
from  a  state  of  war,  or  the  regulation  of 
the  conduct  of  subjects  toward  hostilities 
between  foreign   States. 

(3)  Navy,  army,  pensions,  &c. 

(4)  Treaties  of  foreign  relations  or  re- 
lations with  the  Dominions,  extradition, 
or  the  return  of  fugitive  offenders. 

(5)  Dignities   or  titles  of  honor. 

(6)  Treason,    naturalization,   aliens,   &c. 

(7)  Trade  external  to  the  area  (except 
as  affected  by  the  powers  of  taxation 
given  or  agencies  for  the  Improvement  or 
protection  of  trade),  export  bounties, 
quarantine  or  navigation,  except  inland 
waters. 

(8),  (9),  (10)  and  (11)  Cables,  wireless, 
aerial  navigation,  lighthouses,  &c. 

(12)  and  (13)  Coinage  measures,  trade 
marks,  copyrights,  patents,  &c.,  and 

(14)  Any  matter  reserved  by  this  act. 

V.  Iielig:ious  Freedom— 1.  This  clause  for- 
bids either  Parliament  to  make  a  law  "  so  as 
either  directly  or  indirectly  to  establish  or 
endow  any  religion  or  prohibit  or  restrict 
the  free  exercise  thereof  or  give  a  prefer- 
ence, privilege,  or  advantage  or  impose  any 
disability  or  disadvantage  on  account  of  re- 
ligious belief. 

VI.  Conflict  of  L,aws— 1.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ments have  no  power  to  repeal  or  alter  any 
act  passed  by  the  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom  after  the  appointed  day,  though  it 
deal  with  a  matter  with  respect  to  which 
they  have  power  to  make  laws. 

2.  Where  an  act  of  either  Irish  Parlia- 
ment conflicts  with  an  Imperial  act,  it  is 
void  so  far  as  it  conflicts. 

VII.  Provision  for  Private  Bills  —  This 
clause  assigns  to  the  Council  of  Ireland 
power  of  private  bills  legislation  affecting 
both  areas. 

VIII.  Executive  Authority— The  executive 
power  and  prerogative  of  the  Crown  are 
vested  in  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  are  to  be 
exercised  through  such  departments  as  may 
be  established  by  each  Provincial  Parlia- 
ment. "  The  Lord  Lieutenant  may  appoint 
officers  to  administer  those  departments, 
and  those  officers  shall  hold  office  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant."  The 
heads  of  departments  and  such  others  as  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  may  appoint  are  the  Pro- 
vincial  Ministers. 

A  Provincial  Minister  must  be  a  member 
of  the  Privy  Council  of  Ireland,  must  not 
hold  office  more  than  six  months  unless  he 
is  or  becomes  a  member  of  the  Provincial 
House  of  Commons,  and  if  he  is  not  the  head 


202 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  a  department,  holds  office  during  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  head  of  a  department. 

The  Provincial  Ministers  form  an  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Ireland, 
called  the  Executive  Committee  of  Northern 
or  Southern  Ireland,  to  advise  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  exercise  of  his  executive  powers 
in  the  province. 

In  the  exercise  of  executive  power  there 
should  be  no  religious  privilege  or  disability, 
except  where  the  nature  of  the  case  in- 
volves it. 

The  seat  of  government  in  each  province 
is  to   be  determined   by  the  province. 

"  Irish  services  "  in  each  province  include 
all  civil  government,  except  as  restricted  or 
reserved  by  this  act. 

IX.  Police,  Appointment  of  Justices— 1.  The 
Royal  Irish  Constabulary  and  the  Metropoli- 
tan Police,  and  the  administration  of  acts 
relating  thereto,  including  the  appointment 
and  the  removal  of  magistrates,  are  reserved 
until  transferred  by  Order  in  Council  to  the 
Provincial  Parliaments,  but  not  longer  than 
three  years  after  the  appointed  day.  If 
transferred  after  the  date  of  Irish  union, 
however,  they  go  to  the  Government  of  All 
Ireland,  unless  otherwise  provided  by  the 
constituent  acts. 

2.  While  reserved,  these  forces  are  con- 
trolled by  a  representative  appointed  by  each 
Provincial  Government  and  a  third  appointed 
by  the  Crown,  "  and  that  body  shall  have 
such  powers  in  relation  to  the  maintenance 
of  law  and  order  in  Ireland  as  his  Majesty 
in  Council  may  by  order  determine." 

3.  The  postal  service,  post  office,  and 
trustee  savings  banks,  postal  or  revenue 
stamps  and  the  Public  Record  Office  of  Ire- 
land are  reserved  until  the  date  of  Irish 
union,  when,  so  far  as  they  are  within  the 
powers  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  they  are  to 
be  transferred  to  the  Government  of  Ireland. 
They  are,  however,  to  be  transferred  before 
the  date  of  Irish  union  to  the  Council  of 
Ireland  if  the  two  Provincial  Parliaments 
so  provide  by  identical  acts. 

4.  The  general  subject  matter  of  the  Land 
Purchase  act  is  reserved  until  transferred  by 
an  imperial  act  of  Pai*liament,  but  the 
reservation  does  not  include  the  powers  of 
the  Congested  Districts  Board,  with  a  finan- 
cial exception,  nor  does  it  include  the  powers 
of  the  Irish  Land  Commission  as  to  the  col- 
lection and  recovery  of  purchase  annuities. 

X.  Powers  of  the  Irish  Council— 1.  The  Pro- 
vincial Parliaments,  by  identical  acts,  may 
delegate  any  of  the  provincial  powers  to  the 
Council. 

2.  The  powers  of  the  Imperial  Parliament 
over  railways,  including  legistation,  are 
transferred  to  the  Irish  Council. 

3.  The  Council  has  various  deliberative  and 
advisory  functions  as  to  the  welfare  of  both 
provinces,  including  the  recommendation  of 
identical  acts  to  delegate  desirable  powers 
from  the  Provincial  Parliaments  to  the 
Council. 


4.  Orders  of  the  Council  of  a  legislative 
character  are  to  be  presented  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  for  the  Royal  assent  as  if  they 
were  bills. 

THE  TWO  PARLIAMENTS 

XI.  and  XII.  A  Session  Every  Year— There 
must  be  a  session  every  year  with  less  than 
twelve  months  between  summons,  proroga- 
tion and  dissolution  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 
Royal  assent  to  bills  is  to  be  given  by  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  subject  to  instructions  from 
the  Crown  and  reservations,  if  directed  by 
the  Crown,  for  the  direct  Royal  assent. 

XIII.  Number  of  M.  P.'s:  P.  R.  Elections— 
The  House  of  Commons  of  Southern  Ireland 
to  have  128  members  and  that  of  Northern 
Ireland  to  have  52. 

General  elections  by  proportional  represen- 
tation,  single  transferable  vote. 

The  term  of  each  Parliement  is  to  be  five 
years,  unless  sooner  dissolved.  After  three 
years  from  the  first  meeting-  each  Parlia- 
ment may  alter  the  whole  election  law  ex- 
cept as  to  the  number  of  members  of  Par- 
liament. 

XIV.  Election  L.aws— All  existing  election 
laws  apply  except  as  altered  by  this  act  or 
by  the  Provincial  Parliaments  under  this  act. 

XV.  Money  Bills— The  Provincial  Parlia- 
ments may  not  pass  money  bills,  &c.,  except 
in  pursuance  of  a  recommendation  from  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  in  the  session  in  which  they 
are  proposed. 

XVI.  Privileges— The  privileges  of  each  Par- 
liament and  its  members  are  never  to  exceed 
those  of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  King- 
dom, and  are  to  be  the  same  as  those  until 
defined  by  acts  of  the  Provincial  Parlia- 
ments. Peers  may  be  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons. 

XVII.  Irish  M.  P.'s  at  Westminster— Until 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  other- 
wise determines  there  are  to  be  forty-two 
Irish  members  in  the  Imperial  Parliament. 
The  present  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons are  to  vacate  their  seats  on  the  ap- 
pointed day  and  writs  are  to  be  issued  for 
the   election   of   new   ones. 

FINANCIAL   PROVISIONS 

XVIII.  Finance — There  is  to  be  a  Consoli- 
dated Fund  for  each  of  the  two  areas.  The 
Parliaments  have  power  to  make  laws  im- 
posing, charging,  levying  and  collecting  taxes 
other  than  customs  duties,  excise  duties  on 
articles  manufactured  and  produced,  and 
excess  profits  duty  and  the  United  Kingdom 
income   tax.     But, 

The  imposing,  charging,  levying  and 
collection  of  customs  duties  and  of  excise 
duties  on  articles  manufactured  and  pro- 
duced, and  the  granting  of  customs  and 
excise  drawbacks  and  allowances,  and, 
except  to  the  extent  hereinafter  mentioned, 
the  imposing,  charging,  levying  and  col- 
lection of  income  tax  (including  super- 
tax)   and    excess    profits    duty,    shall    be 


.E  BILL 


203 


11 


reserved  matters  and  the  proceeds  of  those 
duties  and  taxes  shall  be  paid  into  the 
Consolidated  Fund  of  the  United  King- 
dom, 

The  Joint  Exchequer  Board  is  to  determine 
what  part  of  the  proceeds  of  these  duties 
are  properly  attributable  to  Ireland.  Each 
year  Ireland  is  to  make  a  contribution 
toward  Imperial  liabilities.  For  the  first  two 
years  this  is  to  be  £18,000.000.  Of  this  con- 
tribution for  the  first  two  years  Southern 
Ireland  will  provide  56  per  cent,  and  North- 
rn  Ireland  44  per  cent.,  after  which  the 
roportions  will  be  determined  by  the  Joint 
Exchequer  Board.  Every  year  a  sum  equal 
to  the  Irish  share  of  reserved  taxes  is  to 
be  paid  out  of  the  United  Kingdom  Consoli-. 
dated  Fund  to  the  Irish  Exchequers,  after  de- 
ducting the  amount  of  the  Irish  contribution 
toward  Imperial  liabilities,  and  while  any 
services  remain  reserved  the  net  cost  of  these 
will  be  deducted. 

XIX.  Income  Tax— The  Irish  Parliaments 
are  to  have  power  to  impose  an  additional 
income  tax  or  super  tax,  to  be  called  a  sur- 
tax. The  land  purchase  annuities  are  to  be 
collected  by  the  Irish  Governments  and  paid 
into  the  appropriate  account.  Provisions  are 
made  against  double  death  duties  and  so 
forth. 

A  clause  enacts  that  after  the  date  of  Irish 
Union  the  question  of  allowing  Ireland,  con- 
trol over  customs  and  excise  may  be  con- 
sidered. 

XX.  Supreme  Court— The  Supreme  Court  of 
Ireland  will  cease  to  exist  and  there  will  be 
two  Supreme  Courts,  one  for  Southern  Ire- 
land and  one  for  Northern  Ireland.  All  mat- 
ters relating  to  these  Supreme  Courts  are 
"  reserved  matters  "  until  the  date  of  Irish 
Union,  but  here  again  identical  acts  passed 
by  both  Parliaments  might  secure  their 
amalgamation.  Existing  Judges  and  civil 
servants  are  secured  in  their  office. 

All  existing  laws,  institutions  and  authori- 
ties are  to  be  continued  with  the  necessary 
modifications  until  altered  so  far  as  they  can 
be  altered  within  the  powers  of  the  Parlia- 
ments. 

The  existing  exemptions  and  immuni- 
ties of  Dublin   University,  Trinity  Col- 


lege and  Queen's  University  at  Belfast 
are  to  continue;  £18,000  is  to  be  appro- 
priated by  the  Northern  Parliament  for 
Queens  University  and  £5,000  by  the 
Southern  Parliament  for  Trinity.  Both 
Parliaments  are  forbidden  to  enact  laws 
prejudicial  to  Free  Masons.  The  final 
provisions  of  the  bill  are  as  follows: 


The  Appointed  Day— 1.  This  act  shall,  ex- 
cept as  expressly  provided,  come  into  opera- 
tion on  the  appointed  day,  and  the  appointed 
day  for  the  purposes  of  this  act  shall  be  the 
first  Tuesday  in  the  eighth  month  after  the 
month  in  which  this  act  is  passed,  or  such 
other  day  not  more  than  seven  months  earlier 
or  later,  as  may  be  fixed  by  Order  of  his 
Majesty  in  Council  either  generally  or  with 
reference  to  any  particular  provision  of  this 
act,  and  different  days  may  be  appointed  for 
different  purposes  and  different  provisions 
of  this  act,  but  the  Parliaments  of  Southern 
and  Northern  Ireland  shall  be  summoned  to 
meet  not  later  than  four  months  after  the 
said  Tuesday,  and  the  appointed  day  for 
holding  elections  for  the  House  of  Commons 
of  Southern  and  Northern  Ireland  shall  be 
fixed   accordingly: 

Provided  that  the  appointed  day  as  respects 
the  transfer  of  any  service  may,  at  the  joint 
request  of  the  Governments  of  Southern  Ire- 
land and  Northern  Ireland  be  fixed  at  a  date 
later  than  seven  months  after  the  said  Tues- 
day. 

2.  Nothing  in  this  act  shall  affect  the  ad- 
ministration of  any  service  before  the  day 
appointed  for  the  transfer  of  that  service 
from  the  Government  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

Supremacy  of  Westminster- Notwithstand- 
ing the  establishment  of  the  Parliaments  of 
Southern  and  Northern  Ireland,  or  the  Par- 
liament of  Ireland,  or  anything  contained  in 
this  act,  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Par- 
liament of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  remain 
unaffected  and  undiminished  over  all  per- 
sons, matters  and  things  in  Ireland  and 
every  part  thereof. 

Repeal  of  1914  Act— 1.  This  act  may  be 
cited  as  the  Government  of  Ireland  act,  1920. 

2.  The  Government  of  Ireland  act,  1914,  is 
hereby  repealed. 


League  of  Nations  in  Operation 

International  Court,    the  Mission  to  Russia,  and   the   Mandate    for 
Armenia  Occupy  World  Council 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


WITH  its  machinery  practically  com- 
pleted,  and  strengthened  by  the 
accession    of   new   members,    the 
League  of  Nations  continued  in  March 
and  April  its  discussions  of  international 
affairs. 

A  joint  scheme  for  the  establishment 
of  a  permanent  international  Court  of 
Justice  was  drawn  up  by  a  conference 
of  representatives  of  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  Switzerland  and  the  Nether- 
lands, which  concluded  its  labors  on  Feb. 
27.  The  chief  points  of  the  program 
agreed  upon  were  as  follows: 

Complete  equality  of  the  States  for  the 
appointment  of  judges  and  deputy  judges 
who  will  be  elected  by  the  League  of  Na- 
tions. 

Elimination    of    all    political    influences 

from  the  court  and  its   sphere   of  action. 

Complete   independence   of   the   judge   in 

the   exercise   of  his   functions   as   regards 

the  State  to  which  he  belongs. 

The  recomimendation  with  regard  to 
candidate  to  be  made  by  the  States  which 
belong  to  the  league. 

The  highest  judiciary  and  administra- 
tive authorities  and  the  Faculties  of  law 
of  the  universities  of  the  States  belonging 
to  the  league  to  assist  in  the  composition 
of  the  lists  of  candidates. 

The  judges  to  be  elected  for  nine  years 
or  for  life  and  reside  at  the  headquarters 
of   the   court. 

Even  those  States  which  are  not  mem- 
bers of  the  league  to  have  the  right  to 
plead  before  the   court. 

The  court  only  to  recognize  private  in- 
terests in  so  far  as  the  States  to  which 
the  individuals  concerned  belong  take 
upon  themselves  the  task  of  defending 
these  interests. 

The  court  only  to  deal  with  disputes  of 
an    international    character. 

The   methods    of   procedure   to   be   anal- 
ogous to  those  adopted  in  the  conventions 
of  the   second   Peace    Conference    at   The 
Hague  in  1907. 
Each  party  to  pay  its  own  costs. 

THE  COMMISSION  TO   RUSSIA 

The  Executive  Council  of  the  League 
held  its  third  sitting  in  the  Clock  Room 
of  the  French  Foreign  Office  on  March 
13.     The  members  were  the  same  as  at 


previous  meetings,  except  that  Mr.  Bal- 
four represented  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Tit- 
toni  Italy,  and  M.  Athos  Romanos 
Greece,  replacing  M.  Venizelos.  Mr. 
Balfour  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
discussion,  which  was  devoted  to  the 
question  of  sending  a  Commission  of  In- 
vestigation to  Soviet  Russia  under  the 
League,  as  asked  by  a  note  from  the 
allied  Premiers  early  in  March. 

Mr.  Balfour  expounded  his  views  amid 
keen  attention.  He  proposed  that  the 
League  should  constitute  the  commission 
under  the  protection  of  the  Supreme 
Council,  but  with  its  mandate  from  the 
League,  to  insure  the  impartiality  and 
authoritativeness  which  the  allied  Coun- 
cil desired;  that  it  should  consist  of  ten 
members,  each  assisted  by  two  coun- 
selors, and  that  two  members — an  em- 
ployer and  a  workman — should  be  pro- 
posed by  the  International  Labor 
Bureau.  M.  Chardigny,  formerly  French 
Consul  in  Russia,  had  been  already 
chosen  as  Secretary  General.  Mr.  Bal- 
four explained  that  he  foresaw  no  dif- 
ficulty from  the  fact  that  the  Inter- 
national Labor  Bureau  was  sending  a 
similar  commission,  provided  that  its  ac- 
tivities were  limited  to  labor  problems. 
The  employer  and  workman  members  of 
the  League  Commission  would  supply 
the  necessary  link. 

Mr.  Balfour's  proposals  met  with 
unanimous  approval  by  the  League  Ex- 
ecutive Council,  and  it  was  decided  to 
send  the  following  telegram  to  the  Soviet 
authorities : 

The  Conncfl  of  the  League  of  Nations, 
having  been  invited  to  consider  the  possi- 
bility of  dispatching  a  commission  to  Rus- 
sia, has  decided  to  constitute  a  commis- 
sion with  the  view  to  collecting  impartial 
and  trustworthy  information  of  the  actual 
state  of  that  country.  The  permanent 
Secretariat  of  the  League  is  charged  to 
inquire  of  the  Soviet  authorities  if  they 
are  prepared  to  recognize  the  right  of  the 
commission  to  cross  without  hindrance 
the  frontiers,   going  and  coming;  to  take 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  IN  OPERATION' 


805 


k 


1 

t 


measures  to  assure  its  complete  liberty 
to  move  about,  communicate  and  investi- 
gate ;  and  to  guarantee  the  absolute  im- 
munity and  dignity  of  its  members  and 
the  inviolability  of  their  correspondence, 
archives  and  belongings.  The  commission 
Avill  enter  on  its  functions  immediately 
these  facilities  and  rights  are  formally  as- 
sured it  by  the  Soviet  authorities.  Di- 
rectly an  affirmative  reply  has  been  re- 
ceived the  composition  of  the  commission 
will  «be  notified  with  as  little  delay  as 
possiblp. 

Up  to  the  time  when  these  pages  went 
press  no  reply  to  this  telegram  had 
en  received  by  the  League.  A  state- 
ent  made  by  Foreign  Minister  Tchitche- 
,  reported  on  April  14,  indicated  that 
the  Soviet  authorities  were  averse  to  the 
sending  of  such  a  mission.  M.  Tchitche- 
rin  was  reported  as  saying: 

I  cannot  permit  these  gentlemen  to  come 
into  Russia  to  act  for  such  a  purpose. 
The  Government  of  the  Soviets  cannot 
wait  upon  their  judgment  like  a  school- 
boy. For  the  defense  of  our  interests  we 
must  control  the  movements  of  the  for- 
eign army  officers  who  will  be  part  of 
the  commission.  The  inquiry  ought  to  be 
made  in  a  manner  compatible  with  the 
dignity   of  the   Soviet   State. 

On  Mr.  Balfour's  suggestion  at  the 
Paris  meeting  of  the  Executive  Council, 
a  resolution  was  passed  calling  for  the 
immediate  creation  of  a  permanent  con- 
sulting committee  on  hygiene,  to  meet  in 
London  toward  the  end  of  April,  in  order 
to  take  urgent  measures  to  fight  the  ty- 
phus epidemic  in  Poland.  This  resolu- 
tion approved  the  appeal  sent  by  Mr. 
Balfour  on  Feb.  24  to  the  International 
League  of  Red  Cross  Societies  to  help 
the  populations  to  combat  typhus  and 
cholera. 

THE  MANDATE  FOR  ARMENIA 

A  mandate  for  Armenia  was  offered 
the  League  toward  the  end  of  March  by 
the  Allied  Council  of  Ministers.  Under 
the  arrangement  proposed,  all  Armenian 
territories  would  be  included,  with  the 
exception  of  Cilicia,  which  would  be  left 
under  French  protection,  and  an  outlet 
to  the  Black  Sea  would  be  provided. 

The  proposal  was  publicly  discussed 
by  the  Executive  Council  at  its  fourth 
session,  held  in  the  Luxembourg  Palace 
on  April  11.  Private  discussions  had  oc- 
curred on  April  9  and  10.  The  public 
session  was  attended  by  about  fifty  at- 


taches of  the  various  Diplomatic  Corps. 
Herbert  A.  L.  Fisher,  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation of  Great  Britain,  presented  the 
Armenian  situation.  He  expressed  the 
sympathy  of  the  League  with  the  idea  of 
a  mandate,  but  asked:  "  What  nation  is 
likely  to  accept  the  responsibility  ?  "  The 
necessity  of  taking  military  measures, 
as  well  as  financial  problems,  were  as- 
serted to  be  the  chief  obstacles  to  ac- 
ceptance of  a  mandate,  the  League  pos- 
sessing neither  military  nor  financial  re- 
sources to  carry  out  such  an  undertaking. 
The  decision  to  reject  a  mandate  was 
therefore  reached. 

[For  text  of  decision  see  Turkish  arti- 
cle, Pages  328  to  330.] 

The  council  decided  that  the  assump- 
tion of  guardianship  of  the  racial  minor- 
ities in  Turkey  was  within  its  province, 
but  deferred  discussion  of  ways  and 
means  until  the  Turkish  Treaty  should 
be  finally  drafted.  Baron  de  Gaiffier 
d'Hestroy,  the  Belgian  Ambassador,  ex- 
pressed the  League's  sympathy  for  the 
plight  of  the  2,000,000  non-Moslems 
whose  lives  were  at  stake,  and  stated 
that  the  League  would  co-operate  closely 
in  the  allied  policy  to  prevent  further 
massacres  pending  the  Turkish  settle- 
ment at  San  Remo. 

Count  Donin-Longare,  the  Italian  Am- 
bassador, reported  on  the  question  of 
prisoners  of  war  in  Siberia.  He  stated 
that  there  were  between  120,000  and  200,- 
000  prisoners  of  many  nations  in  Siberia, 
and  that  they  were  in  desperate  straits. 
It  was  decided  to  name  a  commission  to 
study  means  for  their  repatriation.  The 
decision  of  the  Allied  Council  of  Minis- 
ters to  repatriate  German  prisoners  from 
Siberia  is  referred  to  elsewhere  in  these 
pages. 

Consideration  of  the  status  of  Danzig 
resulted  in  the  sending  of  a  telegram  to 
Sir  Reginald  Tower,  High  Commissioner 
for  Danzig,  approving  his  plan  for  the 
coming  elections  in  the  district  of  the 
free  city. 

NEW  MEMBERS  OF  LEAGUE 

The  League  Council  on  Jan.  25  an- 
nounced that  Persia,  in  response  to  an 
invitation  to  join  the  League,  had  sent 
in  its  adhesion.  Holland's  accession  was 
passed    on    Feb.    20,    Copenhagen    and 


206 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


MR.    BALFOUR    ADDRESSING    FIRST    LEAGUE    OF    NATIONS    MEETING:      CHIEF    FIGURES, 

LEFT  TO  RIGHT,  ARE  BARON  MATSUI,   JAPAN;   MR.  BALFOUR,   BRITAIN;   MR.   BOURGEOIS, 

FRANCE;    SIR    ERIC    DRUMMOND,    SECRETARY;    SIGNOR    FERRARIS,    ITALY 


Sweden  voted  in  favor  of  membership  on 
March  4,  Norway  on  March  5.  The  de- 
cision of  the  Scandinavian  countries  to 
join  the  League  had  been  much  delayed 
by  fear  that  membership  would  presup- 
pose a  military  obligation.  Lord  Robert 
Cecil,  the  British  representative  of  the 
League,  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  by  the 
President  of  the  Norwegian  Storthing, 
replied  as  follows:  "  Undoubtedly  it  was 
never  meant  to  put  on  any  member  of 
the  League  the  burden  and  duty  to  keep 
up  military  forces." 

Switzerland,  whose  special  position  as 
a  neutral  had  been  recognized  in  the 
League  pact,  voted  in  favor  of  member- 
ship on  March  5.  The  so-called  "  Ameri- 
can clause "  by  which  Switzerland's 
entry  into  the  League  would  depend  on 
similar  action  by  the  United  States  was 
eliminated  from  the  resolution,  which 
deferred  a  definite  decision  until  after 
the  taking  of  a  plebiscite  to  be  held  on 
May  16,  in  which  the  Swiss  people  would 
voice  their  desires. 

All  the  neutral  countries  of  South  and 
Central  America  had  joined  the  League 
by  April  6,  including  Argentina,  Para- 
guay, Chile,  Salvador  and  Venezuela. 


LEAGUE   UNION'S    APPEAL 

An  appeal  was  issued  in  England  by 
the  League  of  Nations  Union  on  April  6 
for  a  national  fund  of  $5,000,000  to 
support  the  League.  This  appeal  was 
signed  by  Lord  Grey,  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
Earl  Beatty,  former  Premier  Asquith, 
Lord  Robert  Cecil  and  J.  R.  Clynes.  It 
read  in  part  as  follows: 

In  the  long  and  bitter  years  of  the  war 
which  we  fought  for  truth  and  honorable 
dealing,  millions  sacrificed  themselves  in 
order  that  the  world  might  be  cleaner 
and  freer  and  that  there  might  be  no 
more  war.  Do  not  let  us  in  these  early 
days  of  peace  already  forget  our  ideals 
and  their  sacrifices.  If  the  world  should 
be  allowed  to  relapse  into  the  antago- 
nisms and  ambitions  which  led  up  to  and 
culminated  in  the  war  it  would  be  the 
greatest  triumph  of  evil  in  all  ages.  *  *  * 
Our  primary  object  is  to  keep  fresh  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  this  country 
the  spirit  and  ideals  which  underly  the 
covenant  of  the  League.  To  do  this  the 
union  must  undertake  a  very  extensive 
educational  campaign.  *  *  *  To  do  the 
work  effectively  we  need  something  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  million  poimds,  and 
that  necessitates  a  national  campaign  for 
funds.  The  sum  named  sounds  like  a 
large  one,  but  it  is  indeed  the  bare  cost 
of  four  hours  of  the  late  war. 
Viewed    in    this    way   it   is   not   a    great 


LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS  IN  OPERATION 


207 


deal  to  provide  as  insurance  against  an- 
other war,  for  if  Great  Britain  does  not 
support  the  League  with  all  her  might  and 
resources  (and  this  depends  solely  upon 
the  will  of  the  people)  the  League  itself 
will  assuredly  wither  and  die,  and  if  the 
League  should  die  God  help  our  children, 
for  no  human  agency  can  save  them  from 
calamities  to  which  the  late  war  will  ap- 
pear as  the  merest  trifle. 

In  a  statement  issued  in  Paris  on  April 
16,  M.  Leon  Bourgeois,  President  of  the 


Nations,  and  to  provide  it  with  the  neces- 
sary means  of  action  is  all  that  now  re- 
mains to  be  accomplished.  This  is  really 
a  question  of  good-will  and  common 
understanding. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Council  of  the 
League  was  announced  for  April' 25  in 
Rome.  A  full  program  of  discussion 
was  adopted  on  April  2.  After  the 
Rome  conference  the  council  will  as- 
semble in  Brussels  to  deal  with  inter- 


THE    FREE    CITY    OP    DANZIG:      BRITISH    TROOPS    ENTERING    THROUGH    THE    HISTORIC 
"  GREEN    GATE  "    TO    HELP    ESTABLISH    THE    NEW    REGIME 


League  Council,  declared  that  the  League 
had  proved  its  usefulness,  and  could  no 
longer  be  characterized  by  its  opponents 
as  a  "splendid  Utopia."  M.  Bourgeois 
said: 

The  work  of  its  Executive  Council  is 
already  sufficient  proof  that  the  League 
is  a  practical  body.  The  Governments 
and  peoples  who  want  a  difference  set- 
tled or  wish  to  make  a  complaint  have 
already  been  coming  to  the  council,  with 
the  certainty  that  they  are  appealing  to  a 
powerful  and  moral  authority  which  will 
be  capable  of  having  its  decisions  re- 
spected. *  *  *  All  the  delegates  are 
inspired  with  deep  feelings  of  humanity 
and  strict  justice.  Enormous  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  direction  of  world 
peace.     People   believe   in   the   League  of 


national  finances.  The  United  States 
had  declined  to  participate  in  this,  as 
well  as  in  other  League  activities,  in 
view  of  the  failure  of  the  Senate  to 
ratify  the  Peace  Treaty  with  Germany. 

RULING   THE   SARRE   REGION 

Steps  toward  reconciling  the  German 
inhabitants  of  the  Sarre  Mining  district, 
which  for  fifteen  years  is  to  help  pay 
France  for  the  damage  done  to  her  in- 
dustrial regions,  were  taken  by  the 
Governing  Commission,  which  assumed 
control  at  the  close  of  February  under 
a  mandate  from  the  League  of  Nations. 

At  the  official  reception  following  the 


208 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


formal  entry  of  the  Governing  Commis- 
sion, President  V.  Rault  assured  those 
present  that  in  future  there  would  be  no 
more  officials  subject  to  the  Prussian, 
Bavarian  or  German  Governments,  but 
only  officials  of  "  a  free  country  under 
the  supervision  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions." These  officials  would  be  chosen 
from  among  the  Sarre  population  as  far 
as  possible.  Especially  was  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  to  be  left  to  natives, 
and  the  courts  would  be  unhampered. 
President  Rault  emphasized  the  main- 
tenance of  religious  freedom  and  also  the 
intention  of  the  Governing  Commission 
to  look  after  the  material  well-being  of 
the  inhabitants.  Mayor  A.  Klein  of 
Saarbrucken  pointed  out  the  menace  to 
the  welfare  of  the  Sarre  district  caused 
by  the  tariff  wall  on  the  eastern  border 
and  the  fall  of  exchange  in  the  west,  and 
President  Rault  assured  him  that  the 
commission  would  do  everything  in  its 
power  to  relieve  the  situation. 

In  the  afternoon  of  March  11,  imme- 
diately upon  his  return  from  Paris, 
President  Rault  received  a  delegation 
representing  the  Social  Democratic,  Inde- 
pendent Socialist,  Democratic  and  Cleri- 
cal parties  of  the  Sarre,  and  spent  four 
hours  discussing  the  wishes  of  the  in- 


habitants, this  discussion  revealing  what 
the  correspondent  of  the  Kolnische 
Zeitung  called  "  a  happy  unity  of  pur- 
pose among  the  parties."  Herr  von  Boch, 
the  Sarreland  member  of  the  Governing 
Commission,  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
discussion,  in  the  course  of  which  Presi- 
dent Rault  declared  his  intention  of  ac- 
ceeding  to  the  wishes  of  the  people,  and 
laid  down  a  program  including  the  fol- 
lowing points: 

Immediate  ending  of  military  rule,  the 
troops  only  to  stay  a  while  longer  as 
police  until  the  civil  administration  could 
be  set  up  and  a  body  of  Sarreland  police 
created.  Quick  action  toward  insuring 
the  food  supply,  including  a  possible 
fourteen-day  lifting  of  the  duties  on  neces- 
sities and  permanent  free  trade  in  Sarre 
products  adapted  for  exchange  for  Ger- 
man foodstuffs.  The  passport  system  to 
be  dropped  within  the  Sarre  district  and 
general  travel  across  the  border  to  be 
made  easier.  No  more  Sarrelanders  to  be 
deported,  and  those  already  deported  to 
be  readmitted  upon  examination  of  each 
case.  Censorship  on  letters. to  be  stopped 
and  freedom  of  the  press  to  be  restored 
shortly.  Freedom  of  assemblage  and 
organization  to  be  granted  as  soon  as  the 
commission  was  convinced  there  would  be 
no  abuse  of  such  liberty.  Local  election 
within  three  months. 
This  program  embraced  practically  all 

the  demands  voiced  by  the  people  at  five 

large  mass  meetings. 


Employment  for  Disabled  British  Soldiers 


UNDER  the  national  scheme  initiated 
in  September,  1919,  some  12,000 
British  employers  of  labor  have  given 
undertakings  to  employ  men  disabled  in 
the  war.  To  encourage  this  patriotic 
movement  a  King's  National  Roll  was 
compiled,  containing  the  names,  addresses 
and  trade  descriptions  of  these  employ- 
ers, and  a  first  edition  issued  in  March. 
The  book,  some  300  pages  long,  includes 
all  employers  to  whom  certificates  of 
membership  on  the  National  Roll  had 
been  issued  up  to  the  end  of  1919.  The 
number  enrolled  was  9,524,  employing 
1,486,225  workpeople,  among  whom  had 
been  included  89,619  disabled  ex-service 
men.  Up  to  the  middle  of  February, 
1920,  the  number  of  names  on  the  list 


had  increased  to  10,867,  representing 
1,755,431  workpeople  and  102,011  dis- 
abled men.  The  number  of  employers 
registered  was  constantly  growing,  and 
the  total  in  March  was  more  than  12,000. 
The  National  Roll  was  being  distributed 
to  all  employment  exchanges,  free  libra- 
ries, and  other  public  buildings.  It  was 
hoped  through  this  scheme  to  find  open- 
ings for  the  31,000  disabled  men  still 
unemployed,  as  well  as  for  those  not  yet 
discharged  from  the  hospitals.  The 
project  has  received  much  encourage- 
ment from  the  announcement  made 
by  many  of  the  employers  regis- 
tered that  they  had  not  found 
these  disabled  men  at  all  difficult  to 
utilize. 


PRESIDFJNTIAL  ASPIRANTS      NO    I 
HERBERT  CLARK  HOOVER 


Fro]    t'ontroller  of    Cnitf'    Sr.ates   from    Aug.    10,    U»1T,    u      il    Ian     l'> 

1!'10,   nhen   It     v  is  made   Director  General   (>f 

Internet  i  V  —  '  Pn'^-o-^'  Orj^anization 


PRESIDENTIAL  ASPIRANTS.     NO.  II. 
LEONARD    WOUJJ 


Major  General  of  United  States  Army  and  present  Commander  of 
Department  of  Great  Lakes 


((f,     Mnliyuir, 


PRESIDENTIAL    ASPIRANTS.      NO. 
WILLIAM  GIBBS  M'ADOO 


III. 


Former   Secretary  of  United  States  Treasury  and   Director  General 

of  Railroads  during'  the  war 

(©   a.    V.   fi>i,k\ 


PRESIDENTIAL    ASPIRANTS.      NO.    IV. 

HIRAM  WARREN  JOHNSON 


T'A-irf    Onvptrtov  of  Talifrania  and   IJn^'-d  State'-    St^nntor   from   Cali- 
•  fo;  ria   -incr    i  '^.'\ 


PRESIDENTIAL    ASPIKANTS.      NO     V 
EDWARDLEDWARDS 


F;ier'<'rl     Democratic    (Jovernor    of    New    Jersey.     U»1P.    on    an    anti- 
prohibition    platfonn 


PRESIDENTIAL    ASPIRANTS.      NO.   VI. 
WARREN  G.  HARDING 


Lieutenant  Governor  of  Ohio,   1904-5;   United   States 
Ohio   since   Nov.   3,    1914 

(©    Clinrdinst    Studio) 


Senator  from 


PRESIDENTIAL  ASPIRANTS.     NO    VIT 
A.  MITCHELL  PALMEK 


Alien  Property  Custodian  during  the  war  and  now  Attorney  General 
of  the  United  States 


Harris    <(■    Eviiip) 


PRESIDENTIAL   ASPIRANTS.     NO.  VIII. 
FRANK  0.  LOWDEN 


RppublicaTi  Governor  of  Illinois;  term  of  office  expires  in   FebniMrv 

1921 


CAN   CONGRESS   MAKE    PEACE? 


II 


Text  of  Joint  Resolution  Declaring  War  Status 
Ended — Both     Sides     of    a     Historic     Debate 


THE  refusal  of  the  United  States 
Senate  to  ratify  the  Versailles 
Treaty  of  Peace  with  Germany 
and  the  failure  of  President  Wil- 
son to  resubmit  the  treaty  with  modifica- 
tions to  the  ratifying  body  developed  a 
new  phase  of  American  diplomatic  and 
legislative  history  on  April  9,  1920,  when 
the -House  of  Representatives,  by  a  vote 
of  242  to  150,  passed  a  resolution  declar- 
ing the  state  of  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Germany  to  be  at  an  end. 
This  action  of  the  House,  a  body  with  no 
treaty-making  powers,  was  the  first  step 
toward  joint  action  of  both  branches  of 
Congress,  and  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  deadlock  between  the  President  and 
the  Senate  majority  apparently  could  not 
be  broken.  It  was  the  result  of  confer- 
ences between  the  Republican  leaders  of 
the  two  houses. 

With  the-  introduction  of  this  resolu- 
tion the  scenes  that  had  attended  the  pro- 
longed struggle  over  the  treaty  in  the 
Senate  were  transferred  to  the  House, 
and  the  alignment  of  the  members  was 
revealed.  In  the  final  vote  only  two  Re- 
publicans— Fuller  of  Massachusetts  and 
Kelley  of  Michigan — opposed  the  reso- 
lution, while  twenty-two  Democrats  voted 
with  the  Republicans;  otherwise  the  vote 
—242  to  150 — followed  party  lines,  and 
the  passage  of  the  resolution  was  a  Re- 
publican act. 

The  resolution  then  went  to  the  Sen- 
ate and  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Relations,  of  which  Senator 
Lodge  is  Chairman.  It  had  not  been  re- 
ported out  when  these  pages  went  to 
press  (April  20).  It  was  confidently  as- 
serted, however,  that  it  would  pass  the 
Senate,  but  that  President  Wilson  would 
veto  it;  thus  the  real  test  would  come 
with  the  effort  to  get  the  necessary  two- 
thirds  vote  of  each  house  for  the  passage 
of  the  measure  over  the  President's  veto. 

TEXT  OF  THE  RESOLUTION 

The  resolution  as  passed  by  the  House 
was  formulated  by  Congressman  Porter 


•  (Rep.)  of  Pennsylvania,  Chairman  of  the 
House  Foreign  Relations  Committee.  The 
text  was  as  follows: 

Whereas  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  performance  of  his  constitutional  duty 
to  give  to  the  Congress  information  of  the 
state  of  the  Union,  has  advised  the  Congress 
that  the  war  with  the  Imperial  German  Gov- 
ernment has  ended : 

Resolved,  &c.,  (Sec.  1.)  That  the  state  of 
war  declared  to  exist  between  the  Imperial 
German  Government  and  the  United  States 
by  the  joint  resolution  of  Congress  approved 
April  6,  1917,  is  hereby  declared  at  an  end. 

Sec.  2,  That  in  the  interpretation  of  any 
provision  relating  to  the  date  of  the  termina- 
tion of  the  present  war  or  of  the  present  or 
existing  emergency  in  any  acts  of  Congress, 
joint  resolutions,  or  proclamations  of  the 
President  containing  provisions  contingent 
upon  the  date  of  the  termination  of  the  war 
or  of  the  present  or  existing  emergency,  the 
date  when  this  resolution  becomes  effective 
shall  be  construed  and  treated  as  the  date  of 
the  termination  of  the  war  or  of  the  present 
or  existing  emergency,  notwithstanding  any 
provision  in  any  act  of  Congress  or  joint  res- 
olution providing  any  other  mode  of  deter- 
mining the  date  of  the  termination  of  the  war 
or  of  the  present  or  existing  emergency. 

Sec.  3.  That  with  a  view  to  secure  recipro- 
cal trade  with  the  German  Government  and 
its  nationals,  and  for  this  purpose,  it  is 
hereby  provided  that  unless  within  forty-five 
days  from  the  date  when  this  resolution  be- 
comes effective  the  German  Government 
shall  duly  notify  the  President  of  the  United 
States  that  it  has  declared  a  termination  of 
the  war  with  the  United  States,  and  that  it 
waives  and  renounces  on  behalf  of  itself  and 
its  nationals  any  claim,  demand,  right,  or 
benefit  against  the  United  States  or  its 
nationals  that  it  or  they  would  not  have 
had  the  right  to  assert  had  the  United 
States  ratified  the  Treaty  of  Versailles, 
the  President  of  the  United  States  shall 
have  the  power,  and  it  shall  be  his  duty, 
to  proclaim  the  fact  that  the  German  Gov- 
ernment has  not  given  the  notification  here- 
inbefore mentioned,  and  thereupon  and  un- 
til the  President  shall  have  proclaimed  the 
receipt  of  such  notification  commercial  inter- 
course between  the  United  States  and  Ger- 
many and  the  making  of  loans  or  credits  and 
the  furnishing  of  financial  assistance  or  sup- 
plies to  the  German  Government  or  the  in- 
habitants of  Germany,  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  the  Government  or  the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  shall,  except  with  the  license  of 
the  President,  be  prohibited. 

Sec.  4.  That  whoever  shall  willfully  violate 


4 


210 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  foregoing:  prohibition  whenever  the  same 
shall  be  in  force  shall  upon  conviction  be 
fined  not  more  than  $10,000,  or,  if  a  natural 
person,  imprisoned  for  not  more  than  two 
years,  or  both;  and  the  officer,  director,  or 
agent  of  any  corporation  who  knowingly  par- 
ticipates in  such  violation  shall  be  punished 
by  a  like  fine,  imprisonment,  or  both,  and 
any  property,  funds,  securities,  papers,  or 
other  articles  or  documents,  or  any  vessel, 
together  with  her  tackle,  apparel,  furniture 
and  equipment,  concerned  in  such  violation 
shall  be  forfeited  to  the  United  States. 

Sec.  5.  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall 
be  construed  as  a  waiver  by  the  United 
States  of  any  rights,  privileges,  indemnities, 
reparations,  or  advantages  to  which  the 
United  States  has  become  entitled  under  the 
terms  of  the  armistice  signed  Nov.  11,  3918, 
or  which  were  acquired  by  or  are  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  United  States  by  reason  of  its 
participation  in  the  war,  or  otherwise;  and 
all  fines,  forfeitures,  penalties  and  seizures 
imposed  or  made  by  the  United  States  are 
hereby  ratified,   confirmed  and  maintained. 

The  passing  of  this  resolution  by  the 
House  was  an  act  without  precedent  in 
American  legislative  history,  hence  the 
debate  proved  of  deep  interest  and  es- 
tablished two  widely  conflicting  views  of 
Congressional  authority. 

OPENING  THE  DEBATE 

The  debate  was  opened  on  April  6  by 
Congressman  Venable  of  Mississippi, 
who  spoke  against  the  resolution.  His 
initial  argument  was  based  on  constitu- 
tional objections.  He  held  that  the  reso- 
lution was  in  effect  a  treaty  of  peace, 
and  that  it  contravened  the  Constitution 
in  seeking  to  confer  power  on  the  House 
to  participate  in  treaty  making.  In  sup- 
port of  this  position  he  quoted  from  the 
writings  of  Hamilton,  Jay,  Washington, 
and  cited  numerous  constitutional  au- 
thorities. In  answer  to  the  argument 
that  the  resolution  is  not  a  treaty  he 
said: 

This  resolution  requires  that  Germany 
agree  to  certain  things;  it  provides  that  she 
relinquish  and  waive  all  rights  which  she 
now  has  as  a  country  at  war;  she  is  to  agree 
that  certain  rights  of  certain  of  her  citizens 
now  existing  shall  be  extinguished ;  she  is  to 
grant,  confirm,  and  acknowledge  certain 
rights  in  the  United  States  to  certain  of  her 
property.  In  short,  she  is  to  write  into  the 
resolution  all  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles  which  could  in  any  wise  affect 
her  or  her  citizens  or  the  United  States  and 
their  citizens  in  regard  one  to  the  other.  She 
is  to  relinquish  rights  to  property  and  bind 
herself  to  do  and  not  to  do  many  things. 


Surely  no  sane  man  can  or  will  deny  that 
this  resolution  is  the  tender  and  offer  of  an 
agreement,  binding  in  honor  if  accepted,  on 
the  parties  and  containing  that  character  of 
stipulations  which  have  been  entered  into 
heretofore  exclusively  by  treaty. 

But  I  have  heard  it  said  that  this  is  simply 
a  legislative  i-ecognition  of  a  fact  that  the, 
war  is  over,  and  that  this  is  valid  even 
though  Germany  does  not  accept.  The  an- 
swers are  apparent.  Admitting  for  the  sake 
of  argument  that  the  mere  declaration  of  a 
state  of  peace  does  not  have  to  be  done  by 
treaty  and  is  the  exercise  of  a  legislative  and 
not  a  treaty  power,  it  is  impossible  to  sepa- 
rate this  part  of  the  resolution  from  the 
other."  We  surely  could  not  presume  that  the 
Congress  would  pass  the  one  without  the 
other.  The  fact  that  we  are  "declared  to  be 
at  peace,  even  though  Germany  rejects  the 
offer,  does  not  help  the  situation,  for  the 
question  is  whether  the  House  has  the  power 
to  make  the  tender  at  all,  and  not  what  con- 
sequences would  flow  if  it  were  accepted. 

If  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate,  should  negotiate 
an  agreement  with  Germany  containing  these 
identical  terms,  would  any  one  contend  that 
it  was  not  a  treaty?  If.  then,  it  would  be  a 
treaty  under  these  circumstances,  it  must  be 
likewise  when  parading  through  the  House 
vmder  the  guise  of  a  resolution,  for  else  we 
would  have  the  treaty-making  power  resident 
in  separate  agencies,  which  we  have  seen 
cannot  be. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  POWERS 

But  it  is  being  urged  that  Congress  has  the 
power  to  declare  peace,  since  it  has  it  to  de- 
clare war,  and  while  this  is  not  strictly  in 
issue,  since  we  have  seen  that  the  resolution 
does  more  than  this,  yet  it  might  be  of  some 
interest  to  consider  this  for  a  brief  while. 
Wheaton's  International  Law,  fourth  edition, 
says: 

By  the  forms  of  the  Constitution  the 
President  has  the  exclusive  power  of  mak- 
ing treaties  of  peace,  which,  when  ratified, 
with  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  be- 
come the  supreme  law  of  the  land  and 
have  effect  of  repealing  the  declaration 
of  war— 

And  so  forth.  I  have  already  endeavored  to 
point  out  that  no  such  specific  power  was 
granted,  and  none  was  necessary  and  proper 
to  be  exercised  by  the  Congress  in  its  legis- 
lative capacity.  *  *  *  The  framers  of  the 
Constitution  did  not  intend  to  confer  upon 
and  did  not  understand  that  the  House  had 
any  such  authority.    *    *    * 

Does  it  follow,  where  there  is  in  existence 
an  enemy  sovereignty  capable  of  continuing 
war,  legally  at  least— one  capable  of  choosing 
whether  it  will  continue  the  status  of  war  as 
far  as  itself  and  citizens  are  concerned — that 
a  peace  status  can  be  restored  simply  by  a 
declaration  of  one  of  the  countries  that  it  is 
so?  It  cannot  if  an  agreement  be  necessary, 
for  agreements  between  this  and  other  coun- 


CAN  CONGRESS  MAKE  PEACE? 


211 


tries  are  committed  for  their  making  solely 
to  the  treaty-making  power,  the  President, 
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  Senators  present.    *    *    * 

The  making  of  peace  implies  that  old  dif- 
ferences have  been  settled  and  are  no  longer 
a  ground  of  war  under  international  law.  It 
cannot  be  a  state  of  peace  when  either  of  the 
countries,  having  never  relinquished  its  atti- 
tude of  war,  may  lawfully  renew  the  actual 
fighting  whenever  it  chooses.  In  a  state  of 
peace  it  is  held  to  be  unlawful  under  inter- 
national law  to  seize  the  goods  and  imprison 
the  citizens  of  a  friendly  country,  but  this  Is 
permitted  when  a  country  is  at  war ;  then  the 
citizens  of  the  other  country  are  enemies.  It 
is  not  a  state  of  peace  when,  though  one 
country  has  declared  that  it  is  at  peace,  the 
other  is  at  liberty  to  seize  the  goods  and 
persons  of  the  first.  When  countries  are  at 
war  the  citizens  of  each  are  the  enemies  of 
the  citizens  of  the  other  and  intercourse  and 
trade  are  prohibited.  It  will  be  noted  that 
these  limitations  flow  from  the  fact  that  one 
country  chooses  to  retain  the  war  status  as 
far  as  it  is  concerned.  In  short,  there  is  a 
status  of  war  even  though  one  of  the  parties 
assumed  to  say  that  it  is  at  peace. 

These  considerations  and  illustrations  might 
be  multiplied,  show  beyond  dispute,  I  submit, 
that  when  the  status  of  war  has  been  as- 
sumed by  warring  Governments  which  con- 
tinue to  exist  as  sovereignties,  with  the  pow- 
ers of  government  and  the  exercise  of  gov- 
ernmental will  unimpaired,  with  power  to 
continue  the  war  status,  as  far  as  itself  and 
its  nationals  and  concerned,  the  only  way  in 
which  a  peace  status  can  be  obtained  is  by 
mutual  agreement  and  consent. 

This  being  true,  under  our  Government  it 
can  be  attained  only  by  the  exercise  of  the 
peace  power,  since  this  only  has  jurisdiction 
of  agreements  with  other  nations  with  respect 
to  national  matters. 

CONGRESSMAN    LITTLE    REPLIES 

The  opposite  view  was  presented  by 
Congressman  Little  (Rep.)  of  Kansas, 
who  said: 

If  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi  [Mr. 
Venable]  is  correct,  it  requires  these  repre- 
sentatives of  100,000,000  people  to  involve 
this  country  in  war;  but  once  it  is  involved 
in  war  God  Almighty  Himself  could  not  get 
us  out  of  it  if  Woodrow  Wilson  did  not  want 
us  to  get  out.  The  gentleman  suggests  that 
the  idea  that  this  House  and  the  Senate  can 
stop  the  fight  which  it  and  the  Senate 
started  would  be  humorous  if  it  were  not 
tragic,  and  it  might  be  both.  The  idea  that 
there  is  no  way  to  get  this  country  out  of 
war  unless  the  President  lets  us  stop  is  ti'agic 
and  is  humorous,  too.  The  gentleman  bases 
his  entire  argument  upon  a  very  curious 
fallacy,  which  is  that  it  takes  a  treaty  to 
stop  a  fight.  Under  the  ordinary  laws  of  na- 
ture and  of  common  sense  anybody  who  can 


start  a  fight  can  stop  that  fight  if  the  other 
fellow  is  willing. 

In  this  case  Germany  has  sued  for  peace, 
and  all  that  is  necessary  now  is  for  somebody 
to  tell  her  that  she  can  quit,  and  under  the 
Constitution  all  powers  given,  not  otherwise 
specifically  assigned,  can  be  exercised  by 
Congress,  and  the  time  necessary  has  arrived 
when  the  treaty  makers  failed  to  function. 

The  gentleman  speaks  of  this  as  if  we  were 
making  a  treaty.  We  are  not.  Germany 
sues  for  peace  and  we  deliver  an  ultimatum 
and  we  say,  "  Yes;  you  may  quit  under  cer- 
tain conditions."  If  Germany  accepts  them, 
then  the  treaty-making  power  can  go  to  work 
and  make  a  treaty.  We  are  not  negotiatmg 
a  treaty.  We  are  announcing  an  ultimatum. 
The  gentleman's  argument  flows  gracefully 
on  in  eloquent  and  rounded  periods  just  as 
soon  as  he  leaves  h's  first  premise.  If  his 
premise  were  correct,  it  would  be  a  logical 
and  persuasive  speech,  but  it  is  all  bottomed 
on  the  singular  and  curious  fallacy  that  wars 
can  only  be  terminated  by  written  treaties; 
that  nations  can  live  in  peace  only  when 
their  agreements  to  do  so  have  been  signed, 
sealed,  registered,  and  recorded.  That  fal- 
lacy exploded,  his  brilliant  argument  hangs 
wavering  in  the  air  without  foundation  and 
ceases  to  be  of  force  or  effect. 

If  Germany  accepts  our  ultimatum,  then  the 
treaty  makers  can  begin  again.  Every  man 
with  horse  sense  knows  that  this  war  is  over, 
and  it  is  high  time  that  the  clock  struck  of- 
ficially the  hour  of  its  end.  We  cannot  af- 
ford to  have  a  river  of  horrors  and  expenses 
of  war  engulfing  our  Republic  till  somebody 
is  willing  to  take  advice  he  does  not  like. 
The  people  have  vested  in  the  representatives 
all  reserve  powers  necessary  to  preserve  the 
Republic  and  its  citizens.  This  is  a  Govern- 
ment of  checks  and  balances,  and  if  other 
departments  fail  Congress  must  do  its  duty. 
That  is  what  Congress  is  for  and  that  is  why 
it  wields  the  thunderbolt  of  the  will  of  a 
hundred  million  Americans. 

CONGRESSMAN  PORTER'S  REPORT 
Stephen  G.  Porter,  Chairman  of  the 
Foreign  Relations  Committee  of  the 
House,  in  his  report  on  the  resolution, 
recited  various  powers  given  to  President 
Wilson  "  so  drastic  in  character  and  ap- 
preciation that  the  liberties  of  the  individ- 
ual were  largely  abridged."  He  argued 
that  seventeen  months  after  the  armistice 
the  treaty  had  been  rejected  and  that  the 
deadlock  between  the  Senate  and  the 
President  might  continue  indefinitely; 
meanwhile  the  country  remains  legally 
at  war  and  subject  to  all  the  penalties 
of  wartime  legislation.  He  argued  that, 
following  precedents  of  President  Madi- 
son at  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  of 
President  Polk  at  the  close  of  the  Mexi- 


214. 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


a  waiver  by  the  United  States  of  any  of  its 
rights.  Section  2  provides  that  the  war  laws 
shall  no  longer  be  in  effect.  Sections  4  and  5 
cover  the  third  subject  of  the  resolution  and 
provide  for  the  resumption  of  trade  with 
Germany  upon  conditions  named.  It  is  only 
to  these  conditions  that  Germany  is  required 
to  assent.  As  to  no  other  matter  connected 
with  the  resolution  is  German  agreement  re- 
quired. It  is  upon  these  sections  that  those 
who  argue  that  the  resolution  is  an  effort 
to  make  an  agreement  with  Germany  rely. 
These  sections  may  be  stricken  from  the  reso- 
lution and  yet  leave  it  a  perfect  whole.  If 
they  are  unconstitutional,  that  fact  cannot 
affect  the  validity  of  the  other  sections  of 
the  resolution.  But  they  are  not  unconstitu- 
tional. 

In  almost  the  same  language  has  Congress 
passed  previous  laws.  Section  3  of  the  Mc- 
Kinley  Tariff  act  of  Oct.  1,  1890,  was  almost 
identical  in  substance.  That  law  was  held 
constitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  the  case  of  Field  against 
Clark,  one  hundred  and  forty-third  United 
States,  Page  649.  The  court  held  that  the 
placing  of  conditions  upon  trade  with  a 
foreign  country  which  involved  affirmative 
action  by  that  country  was  not  an  inter- 
ference with  the  treaty-making  powers  of 
the  President  and  did  not  constitute  negotia- 
tion.   *    *    * 

NO  PLEDGE  TO  ALLIES 

I  cannot  agree  with  those  who  may  argue 
that  we  are  bound  in  honor  to  join  in  a 
treaty  with  the  nations  associated  with  us 
in  the  war.  They  entered  the  war  without 
our  leave.  We  entered  it  upon  our  own  ini- 
tiative. We  co-operated  with  them  to  de- 
feat the  common  enemy.  We  went  into  the 
war  unpledged  to  our  associated  nations.  We 
have  come  out  of  the  war  without  owing 
them  anything;  to  the  contrary,  they  are 
our  debtors.  The  honor  of  America  is  not 
pledged  to  unite  in  a  common  treaty  with 
our  associated  nations.  It  is  pledged  neither 
expressly  nor  by  implication.  The  people 
have  not  pledged  American  honor,  neither 
has  it  been  pledged  by  Congress  nor  by  any 
one  authorized  by  the  people  to  speak  for 
them.  We  entered  the  war  for  reasons  of 
our  own ;  we  spent  our  blood  and  treasure 
without  stint;  we  have  asked  neither  land 
nor  money,  favors  nor  indemnity ;  we  fought 
in  defense  of  the  civilization  of  the  world. 
Continued  co-operation  with  the  nations  asso- 
ciated with  us  in  the  war  is  neither  obli- 
gated nor  compelled.  We  will  hereafter,  as 
I.  hope,  act  freely,  as  heretofore,  for  the  wel- 
fare and  dignity  of  America  and  for  the 
peace    and    hope    of   mankind. 

The  nations  associated  with  us  in  the  war 
have  made  peace  with  Germany.  America 
alone  of  all  the  nations  retains  her  war 
status.  We  do  not  abandon  our  associated 
nations  by  terminating  the  state  of  war.  We 
do  but  join  them  in  their  status  of  peace. 
We  do  not  abandon  them  to  a  common 
enemy.      They    are    at    peace    and    no   longer 


require  our  support  or  protection.  It  is 
absurd  to  say  that  American  honor  is  pledged 
to  stand  alone  among  the  nations  in  a  state 
of  war  with  Germany.  If  in  any  sense 
American  honor  is  under  pledge,  it  is  to  pro- 
mote peace,  harmony,  and  good-will  at  home 
and  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 

SAYS  RESOLUTION  IS  A  TREATY 

Congressman  Connolly  of  Texas,  in 
opposing  the  resolution,  argued  that  it 
clearly  was  an  exercise  of  treaty-making 
power  by  Congress,  and  hence  unconsti- 
tutional.    He  said  in  part: 

To  those  who  say  that  no  treaty  is  to  be 
made  let  me  inquire:  The  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles, if  ratified  by  the  United  States, 
would  be  a  binding  and  legal  treaty,  would 
it  not?  But  hereafter,  so  far  as  Germany's 
obligations  to  the  United  States  are  concerned 
it  is  to  be  as  binding  as  though  ratified. 
Then,  will  it  not  be  a  treaty  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany?  To  whom  will 
the  obligations  which  Germany  may  assume 
be  due— to  the  United  States?  Where  are 
those  obligations  defined?  In  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles.  Suppose  Germany  violates  the 
rights  of  some  American  citizen,  where  will 
you  look  to  find  the  character  of  obligation 
which  Germany  violated?  Will  you  simply 
look  to  this  act,  or  must  you  not  look  to  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles? 

The  very  fact  that  this  act  proposes  to  in- 
duce or  compel  Germany  to  avow  her  willing- 
ness to  observe  the  treaty,  imports  the  ex- 
pectation of  benefit  to  be  derived  therefrom 
by  the  United  States.  If  the  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles were  now  a  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  Germany,  the  fact  that  the  United 
States  will  be  released  from  obligation  under 
it  will  not  change  the  fact  that  it  will  remain 
a  treaty  upon  Germany  assenting  to  the 
amendment.  The  contract  may  consist  in  part 
of  this  act  and  in  part  of  the  treaty,  just  as 
it  might  consist  of  two  diplomatic  notes  ex- 
changed between  us.  We  send  Germany  by 
cable  this  resolution ;  she  sends  back  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles.  Is 
there  not  a  meeting  of  the  minds;  is  not  an 
agreement  created  whose  terms  are  defined 
by  the  two  instruments? 

It  is  not  a  question  of  the  degree  of  obliga- 
tion or  the  extent  of  benefit;  all  of  the  one 
may  be  in  one  party  and  all  of  the  other  in 
the  remaining  party.  As  has  heretofore  been 
observed,  an  agreement  may  place  all  of  the 
obligations  on  one  party.  An  ordinary 
promissory  note  is  a  familiar  example;  it  is 
only  signed  by  the  maker,  but  is  construed 
to  be  a  written  contract  enforceable  between 
the  parties.  In  the  present  instance  our 
armies  are  now  on  German  soil.  By  this 
resolution  we  agree  to  end  the  war  with 
Germany,  and  there  of  course  arises  implied 
obligation  on  our  part  to  withdraw  our 
troops.  The  test  is  whether  there  is  an  agree- 
ment between  two  nations:  the  fact  that  the 


CAN  CONGRESS  MAKE  PEACE? 


obligations  imposed  are  owing  by  one  to  the 
other,  and  that  to  determine  the  character  of 
rights  conferred  or  duties  enjoined  recourse 
must  be  had  to  such  agreement. 

Measured  by  this  standard  there  certainly 
will  be  a  treaty.  If  it  be  not  a  treaty— no 
agreement — then  Germany,  not  being  bound, 
could  withdraw  at  any  time.  Will  any  one 
claim  that  she  could  do  so  without  violating 
a  treaty?  If  an  American  right  should  be 
violated,  the  United  States  would  demand 
redress  of  Germany.  Suppose  Germany 
should  deny  liability.  Our  reply  would  be, 
"  You  agreed  to  abide  by  the  treaty."  If 
she  should  then  assert  that  this  resolution 
and  her  agreement  is  not  a  treaty,  we  should, 
of  course,  answer,  "  "Whether  you  call  it  a 
treaty  or  a  resolution  or  legislation,  you 
'  agreed  and  contracted  '  to  observe  the 
treaty,  and  you  are  bound.  If  you  break 
your  promise  you  will  justify  a  renewal  of 
the  war  by  the  United  States."  Will  any 
one  longer  deny  what  is  so  plain?  If  not  a 
treaty,  it  is  nothing— a  vain  thing,  a  fraud, 
a  pretense,  a  hypocritical  deception,  and  a 
deliberate  delusion, 

ENDING  WARS  WITHOUT  TREATIES 

Congressman  Rogers  of  Massachu- 
setts cited  many  instances  of  ending  wars 
without  treaties.  In  this  connection  he 
said: 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  precedent  for 
our  purpose  is  the  situation  which  arose  in 
the  sixties  as  a  result  of  the  war  between 
Peru  and  Chile  on  the  one  hand  and  Spain 
on  the  other.  In  1868  actual  hostilities  had 
been  terminated  about  two  years.  Peru  had 
purchased  of  the  United  States  two  monitors, 
which  were  awaiting  delivery  in  New  Or- 
leans. If  a  state  of  war  was  still  operative 
it  was  improper  for  the  United  States,  as  a 
neutral,  to  make  delivery.  If  war  had  ended 
—which  was  claimed,  although  no  treaty  of 
peace  had  been  executed— delivery  was  per- 
fectly proper.  The  Minister  from  Spain  to 
the  United  States  protested  against  the  de- 
livery by  us  which  was  then  anticipated  on 
the  ground  that  war  was  still  continuing. 
Secretary  of  State  Seward  replied,  on  July  9, 
1868,  in  part,  as  follows: 

The  situation  of  peace  may  be  restored 
by  the  long  suspension  of  hostilities  with- 
out a  treaty  of  peace  being  made.     His- 
tory is  full  of  such  occurrences. 
Here  we  have  a  formal  recognition  by  an 
American  Secretary  of  State  of  the  fact  that 
a  war  need  not  be  ended  by  treaty. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  as  Secretary  Seward 
said,  history  is  full  of  such  instances.  Some- 
times peace  comes  as  a  result  of  a  long-con- 
tinued drift  from  a  state  of  war  into  a  state 
of  peace,  the  consequence  either  of  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  belligerents,  of  distaste  for 
the  war,  or  of  some  other  change  of  circum- 
stances which  makes  the  prosecution  of  the 
war   impossible    or    undesirable.      Sometimes 


peace  comes  as  a  result  of  the  conquests  and 
subjugation— often  followed  by  annexation— 
of  one  of  the  powers  by  the  other. 

HISTORICAL   EXAMPLES 

Further  in  his  remarks  Congressman 
Rogers  said: 

The  suggestion  is  occasionally  heard  that 
in  some  unexplained  way  this  [resolution] 
involves  the  making  of  a  treaty;  some  critics 
calling  it  a  treaty  of  peace,  others  calling  it 
a  treaty  of  trade.  Of  course,  it  is  neither  in 
fact.  It  is  not  a  treaty  of  peace  because  it 
involves  a  mere  recognition  on  the  part  of 
Germany  that  the  undoubted  status  of  peace 
is  admitted  and  accepted  by  her  as  a  fact. 

Nor  is  it  a  treaty  of  trade  or  commerce.  In 
substance  it  provides  that  if  Germany  does 
not  send  the  requisite  notification  within  the 
stipulaed  period  the  President  shall  proclaim 
that  fact  and  thereupon  commercial  inter- 
course shall  cease,  except,  in  effect,  under 
such  a  system  of  licenses  as  are  now  in  ef- 
fect under  the  Trading  with  the  Enemy  act. 

The  fallacy  fallen  into  by  the  critics  of  this 
section  results  from  their  failure  to  recall 
that  by  no  means  all  international  arrange- 
ments, whether  simple  or  complex,  important 
or  trivial,  constitute  treaties  and  hence  in- 
volve the  necessity  of  Executive  and  Sena- 
torial concurrent  action.  The  Executive 
alone  may  effect  many  international  arrange- 
ments. He  may  negotiate  a  protocol;  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  for  example,  negotiated  the 
original  peace  protocol  with  Spain  in  1898. 
Similar  protocols  were  negotiated  with  Costa 
Rica  and  Nicaragua  in  connection  with  the 
Interoceanic  Canal  and  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Boxer  troubles  in  China  in  1901.  In  like 
manner  the  President  alone  may  negotiate  a 
modus  Vivendi  or  by "  a  simple  exchange  of 
notes  may  conclude  a  diplomatic  agreement 
with  another  country.  The  international 
postal  conventions  of  1891  and  1897  were 
concluded  by  the  Executive  without  submis- 
sion to  the   Senate. 

Many  acts  of  Congress,  some  of  them 
dating  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, others  as  recent  as  the  Underwood 
Tariff  act,  provide  that  if  other  nations  do  or 
do  not  do  certain  things  the  President  shall 
have  the  power  to  do  certain  other  things. 
These  acts  have  been  questioned,  first,  be- 
cause they  are  in  reality  treaties,  and  hence 
beyond  the  powers  of  Congress  as  such,  and 
second,  because  they  involve  the  delegation 
of  legislative  power  by  Congress  to  the  Pres- 
ident. The  great  case  of  Field  against  Clark, 
decided  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
in  1891,  put  an  end  to  these  objections  for  all 
time.  The  President's  power  under  this  sec- 
tion does  not  involve  the  exercise  of  legis- 
lative authority.  It  simply  requires  him  to 
find  a  fact,  upon  the  ascertainment  of  which 
certain  things  follow.  It  is  not  a  delegation 
of  power,  it  is  not  the  making  of  a  treaty; 
it  is  simply  a  trade  arrangement.  As  such  it 
is  in  line  with  many  established   precedents 


216 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


and  is  squarely  under  the  authority  of  Field 
against  Clark. 

RESOLUTION  NOT  A  TREATY 

Mr.  Rogers  cited  numerous  statutes 
dating  from  1794  to  1911  which  involved 
trade  arrangements  with  other  countries 
passed  by  Congress,  which  gave  powers 
to  the  President  either  to  modify  trade 
relationships  with  other  countries  or  to 
do  certain  other  things  if  the  statutes 
were  not  accepted.  Among  these  were 
the  following:  The  McKinley  Tariff  act 
of  1890,  which  provided  that  the  Presi- 
dent should  suspend  certain  provisions 
of  the  act  by  proclamation  in  the  event 
he  was  satisfied  that  certain  reciprocal 
trade  arrangements  were  being  fulfilled; 
this  was  sustained  by  the  Supreme  Court 
in  the  case  of  Field  vs.  Clark.  He  cited 
also  sections  of  the  Dingley  Tariff  act 
of  1897  and  the  Canadian  Reciprocity  act 
of  1911.  He  drew  the  following  deduc- 
tions : 

Under  the  foregoing-  precedents  and  de- 
cisions there  can  be  no  valid  question  raised 
as  to  the  constitutionality  of  Section  3.  Sec- 
tion 3  is  not  an  offer  of  a  treaty  or  a  dele- 
gation of  legislative  power.  It  is  simply  a 
foreign  trade  arrangement  of  ia  sort  repeat- 
edly enacted  by  Congress.  Even  if  there 
were  no  statutory  or  judicial  affirmation  of 
the  legality  of  the  section  it  would  be  sus- 
tained under  the  clause  of  the  Constitiition 
which  permits  Congress  to  "  regulate  com- 
merce with  foreign  nations,"  and  as  the  sec- 
tion involves  the  regulation  of  exports  and 
imports  it  may  also  be  sustained  by  the 
clause  which  after  granting  powers  of  taxa- 
tion to  Congress  provides  that  Congress  may 
pass  laws  necessary  for  the  general  welfare. 
It  has  none  of  the  elements  of  a  treaty  of 
peace,  because  it  might  equally  well  have 
been  enacted  by  Congress  if  the  war  with 
Germany  had  already  ended  in  the  usual 
manner  by  a  duly  ratified  treaty  of  peace. 

QUESTION   OF   CONSTITUTIONALITY 

Congressman  Flood  of  Virginia  op- 
posed the  resolution.  He  argued  against 
its  constitutionality  and  held  that  its 
passage  would  jeopardize  important  com- 
mercial rights.     He  said: 

The  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  Ger- 
man ships  which  we  seized  during  the  war 
is  very  doubtful.  These  ships  have  never 
been  through  a  prize  court,  and  when  they 
were  first  seized  it  was  the  general  under- 
standing that  unless  they  did  go  through  a 
prize  court  they  would  be  subject  to  be 
libeled  by  their  owners  in  any  neutral  ports 
in   which   they   might  be   found.     They  were 


not  put  through  the  courts,  our  Government 
depending  upon  the  treaty  to  take  care  of 
our  interests  in  them.  These  ships  are  of 
very  great  value  and  constitute  one  of  the 
few  items  by  way  of  reparation  that  the 
American  Government  will  get  for  its  tre- 
mendous expenditure  of  money  and  blood  in 
the  World  War.  I  do  not  think  Congress 
should  hastily  and  without  proper  considera- 
tion enact  a  measure  that  might  cause  the 
loss  of  these  ships  and  yet  this  is  just 
what  the  Republican  majority  here  proposes 
fo  do. 

The  Alien  Property  Custodian  funds, 
amounting  to  something  over  $500,000,000, 
cannot  be  dealt  with  otherwise  than  by 
restoration  to  the  owners,  unless  German 
consent  to  their  application  to  other  pur- 
poses is  obtained.  This  resolution,  if  it  be- 
comes law,  would  make  it  impossible  to 
obtain   Germany's   consent. 

The  resolution  declares  that  a  state  of 
peace  exists,  and  provides  for  the  repeal  of 
wartime  laws,  and  then  attempts  to  impose 
the  harsh  terms  of  the  treaty  upon  Ger- 
many under  the  threat  of  cutting  off  com- 
mercial relations  with  her.  No  one  who  has 
studied  the  history  of  the  Versailles  Treaty 
and  considered  the  reluctance  with  which 
Germany  consented  to  it  and  signed  it,  would 
think  for  a  moment  that  Germany  would 
consent  to  a  resolution  that  imposes  upon 
her  again  the  obligations  of  that  treaty.  So 
far  as  we  are  concerned,  she  is  free  from 
the  terms  of  that  treaty,  and  we  will  never 
get  her  to  assent  to  its  ter  s  again.  Inter- 
national law  does  not  permit  the  confisca- 
tion, of  private  property  unless  the  enemy 
Government  consents  to  the  use  of  such 
property  for  the'  satisfaction  of  rlaims  against 
it.  Without  Germany's  consent,  we  cannot 
take  that  property.  Under  the  Versailles 
Treaty  Germany  consented  that  the  claims 
of  the  United  States  and  its  nationals  against 
the  German  Government  might  be  satisfied 
out  of  it.  Out  of  this  fund  we  expected  to 
take  care  of  the  widows  and  orphans  who 
were  made  so  by  the  Lusitania  outrage  and 
other  outrages  practiced  against  civilization 
by  the  German  Government  during  the  war. 
The  rights  of  these  people  will  be  put  in 
peril,  if  not  sacrificed,  by  this  legislation. 

CLOSING  THE    DISCUSSION 

Congressman       Mondell,      Republican 
leader,  in  closing  the  debate,  said: 

The  only  reason  why  conditions  of  peace 
have  not  been  restored  through  the  more 
usual  method  of  a  treaty  is  that  the 
Chief  Executive  refused  to  sanction  in  the 
legislative  body,  whicli  co-ordinates  with  him 
under  the  Constitution  in  the  making  of 
treaties,  the  same  freedom  of  judgment  and 
action  that  he  insisted  upon  for  himself. 
For  it  is  known  of  all  men  who  care  to  be 
informed  that  the  prevailing  opinion  in  the 
matter  is  confirmed  by  the  public  announce- 
ment of  a  Democratic  Senator  that  but  for 
the   pressure   by   the   Chief   Executive   to   the 


^  m     contrary 


CAN  CONGRESS  MAKE  PEACE? 


217 


contrary  the  treaty  would  have  been  ratified 
with  reservations  safeguarding  the  Republic 
and  preserving  its  sovereignty  and  peace  thus 
secured   and   proclaimed. 

In  such  a  situation  is  there  any  one  with 
so  poor  an  opinion  of  our  form  of  Govern- 
ment as  to  believe  that,  having  waited  pa- 
tiently seventeen  months  for  a  treaty  of 
peace,  for  the  relief  from  burdensome  and 
extraordinary  control,  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  normal  conditions  of  trade  and 
intercourse,    we    are    helpless    to    cure    the 


situation  and  must  indefinitely  wait  upon  the 
will  of  one  man,  and  he  the  one  on  whom 
we  have  conferred  powers  and  prerogatives 
and  jurisdiction  which  the  people  have  care- 
fully reserved  in  themselves  only  to  be 
guardedly  conferred  upon  the  President  dur- 
ing  the    imperative   exigencies   of  war? 

As  we  glory  in  our  country  and  in  our 
Constitution,  we  decline  to  accept  a  con- 
struction so  narrow,  so  destructive,  so  sub- 
versive of  the  theory  and  principles  of  the 
Republic. 


American  Developments 

rmy    and   Navy    Questions    and   Attempts    at    Solution    of 
Pressing  Domestic  Problems 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


THE  long-drawn-out  debate  in  the 
Senate  on  universal  compulsory 
military  training  ended  on  April 
9  in  a  defeat  for  the  advocates  of 
the  system.  The  Senate  substituted  for 
it  a  voluntary  training  system.  By  a 
vote  of  46  to  9  that  body  adopted  amend- 
ments to  the  Army  Reorganization  bill 
proposed  by  Senator  Frelinghuysen  of 
New^  Jersey  changing  the  compulsory 
features  of  the  training  provisions  so 
that,  instead  of  requiring  every  young 
man  to  receive  military  training  for  at 
least  four  months,  only  those  who  apply 
for  it  will  receive  it. 

Seven  of  the  nine  were  Republicans 
and  two — Myers  of  Montana  and  Pittman 
of  Nevada — Democrats.  The  seven  Re- 
publicans were  Brandegee  of  Connecticut, 
Keyes  of  New  Hampshire,  McCumber  of 
North  Dakota,  Moses  of  New  Hampshire, 
New  of  Indiana,  Poindexter  of  Washing- 
ton, and  Wadsworth  of  New  York.  The 
Democrats,  with  two  exceptions,  accepted 
the  voluntary  plan,  though  they  would 
have  voted  almost  as  solidly  against  com- 
pulsory training. 

AMERICAN  TROOPS  ON  RHINE 

President  Wilson,  on  April  1,  re- 
sponded to  the  request  made  by  the 
House  on  March  25  for  information  as  to 
the  status  of  United  States  troops  on  the 
Rhine.  These,  he  said,  were  under  his 
direction  and  not  under  that  of  Field 


Marshal  Foch,  and  most  of  them  are  in 
the  Coblenz  area. 

There  were  on  March  28  last  726  of- 
ficers and  16,756  enlisted  men  in  Ger- 
many, the  President  said  in  his  letter, 
operating  not  only  under  the  terms  of 
the  original  armistice,  but  under  the 
later  conventions  which  prolonged  the 
armistice. 

WAR  RISK  INSURANCE 

Legislation  designed  to  bring  the  Gov- 
ernment war  risk  insurance  in  closer 
touch  with  former  service  men  was  ap- 
proved March  25  by  the  House  Interstate 
Commerce  sub-committee.  The  collection 
of  insurance  premiums  at  Post  Offices, 
the  establishment  of  State  war  risk  in- 
surance offices  and  funds  for  advertising 
the  benefits  of  Government  insurance  are 
provided  for. 

For  establishing  regional  offices  and 
other  sub-offices  the  bill  carries  $1,000,- 
000,  while  $250,000  is  appropriated  for 
advertising.  Besides  collecting  insurance 
premiums,  Post  Offices  would  handle  ap- 
plications for  reinsurance  and  reinstate- 
ment of  policies.  No  premiums  on  re- 
newable term  insurance  would  be  col- 
lected temporarily  from  men  while  re- 
ceiving hospital  care  or  vocational  train- 
ing or  while  suffering  total  temporary 
disability. 

For  one  year  after  the  passage  of  the 
bill  the  Government  would  provide  with- 


218 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


out  charge  all  medical,  dental  and  surgi- 
cal care  for  men  suffering  from  diseases 
resulting  from  the  service. 

RETURN  OF  WAR  DEAD 

It  was  announced  on  March  23  that  an 
agreement  had  been  reached  between  the 
French  and  American  Government  repre- 
sentatives under  which  all  American  dead 
in  France  may  be  removed  to  this  coun- 
try as  soon  as  arrangements  can  be  com- 
pleted. "  This  practically  ends  the  con- 
troversy between  the  United  States  and 
France  over  the  return  of  our  soldier 
dead,"  said  Chairman  Porter  of  the 
House  Foreign  Affairs  Committee.  Sec- 
retary Baker  recently  wrote  Congress 
that  about  50,000  of  the  American  dead 
would  be  brought  home  at  the  request  of 
the  next  of  kin,  and  that  the  remainder, 
about  20,000,  would  be  concentrated  in 
major  cemeteries  in  France,  which  would 
be  maintained  by  the  War  Department. 

ARMY   CAMPS 

Two  opposing  reports  on  the  Congres- 
sional investigation  of  the  construction 
of  thirty-two  army  camps  and  canton- 
iients  were  submitted  to  the  House, 
April  12,  by  the  War  Expenditures  Com- 
mittee. The  majority  report,  presented 
by  Republican  committeemen,  criticised 
Government  agencies  and  officials  in 
charge  of  the  war  building  program, 
while  the  minority  report  of  the  Demo- 
crats defended  the  Administration. 

The  Government  lost  $78,531,521  on  the 
sixteen  National  Army  cantonments,  it 
was  estimated  by  the  majority  report, 
which  asserted  that  this  was  due  to 
"  waste,  inefficiency  and  graft "  result- 
ing from  cost-plus  contracts  which  were 
said  to  be  "  wide  open."  No  estimate  of 
loss  on  the  National  Guard  camps  was 
made  by  the  majority. 

Dissenting  from  the  majority  findings, 
the  minority  declared  that  the  construc- 
tion work  was  equivalent  to  building 
thirty-two  cities,  each  with  37,000  to 
46,000  population,  and  added :  "  This  tre- 
mendous task  was  practically  completed 
in  three  months  and  stands  out  as  one 
of  the  great  achievements  of  the  war." 

By  a  vote  of  15  to  6,  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee  of  the  House  adopted, 


April  2,  a  resolution  offered  by  Repre- 
sentative Longworth  to  report  bonus 
legislation  before  another  month.  The 
resolution  also  declared  against  raising 
the  money  through  a  bond  issue  and 
favored  obtaining  it  by  means  of  a  sales 
or  luxury  tax.  It  is  expected  that  the 
bonus  bill  will  provide  for  vocational 
education  and  monetary  bonuses  and  in- 
volves an  expenditure  in  excess  of 
$1,500,000,000.  This  legislation  will  be 
worked  out  in  detail  by  sub-committees. 

NAVY  DESERTIONS 
Rear  Admiral  Thomas  Washington, 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation,  told 
the  Senate  Investigating  Committee  on 
April  9  that  thousands  of  desertions  in 
the  last  year  had  brought  about  condi- 
tions unparalleled  in  American  naval  his- 
tory. The  whole  naval  service,  he 
warned,  is  threatened  with  disaster  un- 
less Congress  immediately  enacts  legis- 
lation raising  the  pay  of  officers  and 
men  to  a  point  that  will  allow  the  navy 
to  compete  with  civil  occupations. 

There  were  4,666  desertions  in  the  last 
six  months  of  1919,  Rear  Admiral 
Washington  declared,  and  thus  far  this 
year,  he  said,  they  have  averaged 
around  700  a  month,  many  of  the  de- 
serters being  petty  officers  of  several 
years'  experience.  At  present  rates  of 
pay,  he  said,  recruits  cannot  be  obtained. 
Failure  of  Congress  to  act,  he  de- 
clared, has  also  resulted  in  the  resig- 
nation of  hundreds  of  officers.  The  re- 
sult is  that  the  navy  is  in  a  "  bad  way," 
and  if  conditions  continue  it  not  only 
will  be  undermanned  by  1921,  but  90  per 
cent,  of  those  on  the  roster  will  be  in- 
experienced boys. 

FLETCHER  REMOVAL  INQUIRY 

Investigation  of  reasons  for  the  re- 
moval of  Rear  Admiral  William  B. 
Fletcher  from  command  of  the  American 
naval  base  at  Brest  was  begun  at  Wash- 
ington before  a  Naval  Court  of  Inquiry, 
March  25.  Little  testimony  was  intro- 
duced at  the  first  session,  most  of  it  be- 
ing documentary.  In  a  letter  to  Secre- 
tary Daniels  Admiral  Sims  denied  that 
he  removed  Admiral  Fletcher  because  of 
the  loss  of  the  transport  Antilles,  assert- 
ing that  he  had  reached  the  decision  some 


AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENTS 


219 


I 


time  before  when  he  had  learned  that  on 
two  occasions  transports  were  permitted 
to  start  back  without  adequate  convoy. 
The  sinking  of  the  Antilles,  Admiral 
Sims  wrote,  led  him  to  decide,  however, 
that  Admiral  Fletcher  should  have  no 
European  command. 

Testifying  in  his  own  behalf.  Admiral 
Fletcher,  who  requested  that  the  court 
be  convened,  charged  that  at  no  time 
did  Admiral  Sims  in  his  orders  lay 
down  specific  rules  as  to  convoy  forma- 
tions and  the  minimum  protection  that 
should  be  accorded  vessels  off  the 
French  coast.  The  first  direction  he 
received  as  to  this,  he  said,  wac  given 
verbally  and  in  a  "  very  general  way  " 
by  Lieut.  Commander  Daniels,  Admiral 
Sims's  aid,  when  he  visited  Brest  in 
August,  1917.  Despite  the  difficulty  of 
adequately  protecting  troop  and  supply 
transports  with  the  small  force  of  de- 
stroyers and  yachts  at  his  disposal,  the 
Admiral  said  this  force  had  been  used  to 
the  best  possible  advantage. 

Admiral  Fletcher  presented  a  copy  of 
an  order  from  Admiral  Sims  in  August, 
1917,  which  placed  Captain  R.  H.  Jack- 
son, American  naval  representative  at 
the  French  Ministry  of  Marine,  in  com- 
mand of  "  all  American  naval  and  avia- 
tion bases  "  in  France. 

Admiral  Sims  told  the  court  that 
"  either  the  copy  or  the  original "  con- 
tained a  typographical  error;  that  he  had 
intended  to  order  Captain  Jackson  to 
command  only  the  "naval  aviation 
bases."  The  inclusion  of  the  "  and," 
which  made  the  order  apply  to  all  bases, 
he  said,  was  a  "  rank  absurdity."  The 
Judge  Advocate  said  the  situation  was 
"  complicated  "  because  the  original  order 
could  not  be  located  in  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment files. 

The  order  created  an  "  anomolous " 
situation,  Admiral  Fletcher  said,  and  re- 
sulted in  great  delay  in  operation,  as  it 
was  necessary  to  route  all  communica- 
tions between  his  office  and  Admiral 
Sims  through  Captain  Jackson. 

Counsel  for  Admiral  Sims  produced 
several  communications  from  Sims  to 
Fletcher.  The  first,  dated  Sept.  7,  em- 
phasized the  need  for  greater  precision 
and  regularity  in  convoy  operations,  and 


contained  a  report  from  the  Chief  of 
Naval  Operations  to  Admiral  Sims  that 
two  transport  convoys  had  been  intrusted 
to  entirely  too  inadequate  escort  on  leav- 
ing the  French  coast.  Three  weeks  later 
Admiral  Sims  again  wrote  the  Brest 
commander  emphasizing  the  need  for 
greater  protection  to  returning  trans- 
ports. 

Admiral  Fletcher  testified  under  exam- 
ination that  he  realized  the  situation 
demanded  remedying,  but  that  the  only 
remedy  lay  in  augmenting  his  "  small 
and  poorly  adapted  convoy  forces."  Re- 
peated representations  to  this  effect  had 
been  made  to  Admiral  Sims,  he  said,  but 
with  small  result  up  to  the  time  of  his 
detachment. 

Admiral  Henry  B.  Wilson,  who  had 
succeeded  Fletcher  at  Brest,  criticised 
Vice  Admiral  Sims  in  his  testimony  on 
April  5.  Basing  of  all  destroyers  used  in 
convoying  American  troops  and  supply 
transports  into  French  ports  on  Queens- 
town,  instead  of  Brest,  up  to  the  Spring 
of  1918,  Admiral  Wilson  declared,  meant 
that  the  destroyers  "  worked  only  one 
way  "  and  "  wasted  mileage  "  in  the  long 
trip  back  to  Queenstown  for  refueling. 

If  originally  based  on  Brest,  he  de- 
clared, these  destroyers  could  have 
worked  "  both  ways,"  convoying  trans- 
ports out  as  well  as  into  the  French 
ports,  and  thus  made  to  render  their 
maximum  service,  as  was  demonstrated 
some  eight  months  later,  he  added,  when 
this  plan  was  permitted. 

Disagreeing  with  the  testimony  of 
Captain  Byron  C.  Long,  Sims's  aid  for 
operations  at  London,  who  said  Admiral 
Fletcher's  request  that  destroyers  be 
based  on  Brest  was  denied  because  of  a 
lack  of  oiling  facilities  there.  Admiral 
Wilson  declared  that  at  the  time  he  suc- 
ceeded Fletcher  facilities  at  Brest  were 
adequate  for  "  quite  a  large  force." 

SIMS-DANIELS  CONTROVERSY 
Testimony  given  before  the  Senate 
Naval  Investigating  Committee  developed 
sharp  differences  of  opinion  among  Rear 
Admirals  and  other  officials  as  to  the 
Navy  Department's  preparedness  for 
war  in  1917. 

Rear  Admiral  Bradley  A.  Fiske,  re- 
tired,      severely      criticised      Secretary 


220 


THiJ  NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Daniels.  The  Secretary's  characteristics 
and  "  previous  training,"  Admiral  Fiske 
said,  prevented  him  from  taking  "  a 
broad  and  profound  view  "  of  the  navy's 
needs.  Up  to  1917,  the  Admiral  declared, 
Mr.  Daniels  seemed  convinced  that  there 
would  never  be  another  war. 

Mr.  Daniels,  Admiral  Fiske  said,  paid 
too  much  attention  to  details  and  did 
not  sufficiently  interest  himself  in  broad 
questions  of  plans  and  policies.  Naval 
officers  generally  felt  that  he  attached 
undue  importance  to  the  comfort  of  the 
men  and  carried  his  efforts  to  "  demo- 
cratize the  navy"  to  an  extent  incon- 
sistent with  discipline. 

Admiral  Mayo,  who  was  Rear  Admiral 
Sims's  immediate  superior,  technically  at 
least  during  the  war,  took  issue  with 
some  of  the  statements  made  by  that  of- 
ficer in  his  indictment  of  the  depart- 
ment's conduct  of  the  war.  To  the  charge 
that  no  adequate  plan  for  co-operation 
with  allied  navies  had  been  made  in  ad- 
vance, Admiral  Mayo  answered  that  the 
office  of  Chief  of  Operations  had  been 
created  only  in  1915  and  was  not  compre- 
hensive enough  to  secure  the  best  possible 
results,  but  that  without  it  conditions 
would  have  been  chaotic. 

The  navy  was  as  well  prepared  for 
war  in  1917  as  were  the  British,  French 
and  Italian  navies  in  1914,  Admiral 
Mayo  asserted,  adding  that  it  would  have 
been  better  prepared  had  the  Operations 
Bureau  been  created  sooner. 

Admiral  Rodman  denied  categorically 
that  the  navy  entered  the  war  without 
plans  or  policies ;  that  it  was  unprepared 
to  fight,  or  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  at- 
tempt to  direct  naval  operations  from 
Washington.  Admiral  Rodman  declared 
that  never  in  his  more  than  forty  years 
of  service  had  the  fleet  been  in  a  better 
state  of  preparedness  than  in  the  Spring 
of  1917.  Some  types  of  vessels  were 
lacking,  he  conceded,  notably  battle 
cruisers  and  scout  cruisers,  but  generally 
speaking  the  navy  "  was  ready  to  fight." 

Admiral  H.  B.  Wilson,  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Atlantic  Fleet,  declared  that 
the  active  fleet  never  was  better  pre- 
pared for  war  than  in  April,  1917.  The 
navy's  accomplishments  in  the  war,  the 
Admiral  said,  "  deserve  the  commenda- 


tion of  the  nation,"  for  they  were  so 
stupendous  as  to  make  "  relatively  un- 
important "    any   mistakes. 

Five  days  after  the  United  States  de- 
clared war  Secretary  Daniels  told  rep- 
resentatives of  the  allied  Admiralties 
that  the  United  States  Navy  would  do 
whatever  they  suggested  as  best  for  the 
common  cause,  the  witness  .said,  and 
plans  then  agreed  on  were  immediately 
placed  in  effect. 

COAL  CONTROL  ENDS 

President  Wilson  on  March  23  ordered 
the  termination  on  April  1  of  the  Gov- 
ernment's control  over  bituminous  prices. 
At  the  same  time  he  asked  the  operators 
and  miners  to  negotiate  a  new  working 
agreement,  based  on  the  majority  report 
of  his  strike  settlement  commission.  This 
will  permit  partial  absorption  in  coal 
prices  of  the  27  per  cent,  increase  in 
wages  allowed  by  the  commission. 

The  Coal  Commission's  majority  and 
minority  reports  were  inclosed  in  the 
President's  letter  to  the  operators  and 
miners,  but  the  President  assumed,  he 
said,  that  both  groups,  as  previously 
agreed,  would  consider  the  majority  re- 
port binding. 

The  wage  increase  of  27  per  cent, 
recommended  by  the  majority  report, 
which  the  President  calls  the  award, 
absorbs  the  14  per  cent,  increase  allowed 
in  the  strike  settlement  and  means  a  still 
further  annual  increase,  it  is  said,  of 
$96,000,000  and  a  total  of  $200,000,000 
since  October,  1919.  To  have  shortened 
the  working  day  one  hour,  as  recom- 
mended by  the  labor  representative  on 
the  commission,  would  cost  an  additional 
$100,000,000,  according  to  the  majority 
report.  Secretary  Wilson  before  the 
strike  urged  an  increase  of  31.6  per  cent., 
and  Dr.  Garfield,  former  Fuel  Adminis- 
trator, an  increase  of  14  per  cent. 

On  March  29  the  joint  conference  of 
miners  and  operators  agreed  that  the 
monetary  provisions  in  the  award  of  the 
Bituminous  Coal  Commission,  as  affirmed 
by  President  Wilson,  should  become 
effective  on  April  1,  when  the  old  con- 
tract expired.  It  was  agreed  also  that 
the  mines  should  continue  in  operation 
pending  the  working  out  of  the  details  of 
the  new  agreement,  which  was  left  to  a 


m 

^B   "       snh-r»nm 

u 


AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENTS 


221 


sub-committee  of  eight  miners  and  eight 
operators. 

RAILWAY  WAGE  DEMANDS 

The  bi-partisan  board  which  had  been 
considering  the  $1,000,000,000  wage  in- 
crease demanded  by  the  railway  employes 
reached  a  deadlock  April  1  and  abruptly 
ended  its  sessions.  The  railway  execu- 
tives upon  the  board  insisted  that  the 
matter  must  be  passed  on  to  the  Labor 
Board,  created  under  the  new  Railway 
bill,  on  the  theory  that  the  public  must 
have  representation  when  so  huge  a  de- 
mand is  being  considered. 

E.  T.  Whiter,  Chairman  of  the  Rail- 
road Executives*  Conference  Committee, 
issued  a  statement  saying  that  the  ex- 
ecutives had  asked  the  unions  to  form 
a  committee  to  prepare  data  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Labor  Board,  but  the  unions 
had  refused.  The  unions,  said  this  state- 
ment, declared  they  would  appeal  to  the 
Labor  Board. 

MINE  LEADERS  JAILED 

The  strike  of  Kansas  and  Illinois  coal 
miners  because  they  were  dissatisfied 
with  the  awards  of  wage  tribunals  led 
to  drastic  action  on  the  part  of  the  ju- 
dicial authorities.  On  April  9  Alex- 
ander Howat,  leader  of  the  Kansas 
miners'  organization,  President  of  Dis- 
trict 14,  United  Mine  Workers  of  Amer- 
ica, was  sent  to  the  Crawford  County 
Jail  by  Judge  Andrew  J.  Curran  for 
contempt  of  court  for  his  refusal  to  ap- 
pear before  the  new  Court  of  Industrial 
Relations  after  he  had  been  summoned 
as  a  witness.  Howat  was  to  stay  in  jail 
until  he  consented  to  appear  as  a  wit- 
ness before  the  court  and  answer  ques- 
tions, or  until  he  was  released  on  bond 
if  an  appeal  were  taken  to  the  Kansas 
Supreme  Court.  Before  going  to  prison 
he  made  this  statement: 

Our  position  is  unchanged.  We  stand 
where  we  stood.  We  refuse  to  testify 
before  this  court  because  we  do  not  rec- 
ognize the  court.  It  is  an  institution 
founded   to   enslave   the   worliingman. 

Sentenced  with  Howat  were  his  asso- 
ciate officers  of  the  district  organiza- 
tion, Thomas  Harvey,  Secretary  Treas- 
urer; August  Dorchy,  Vice  President, 
and   Robert  B.   Foster,   Auditor.     Each 


received  the  same  sentence  as  that  given 
to  Howat,  and  must  pay  the  costs  of  the 
case.  Howat  had  refused  to  appear  be- 
fore the  Court  of  Industrial  Relations  be- 
cause of  his  enmity  to  the  new  law. 

THE  "  OUTLAW  "  STRIKE 

One  of  the  most  serious  railroad 
strikes  that  have  ever  menaced  the  eco- 
nomic prosperity  and  food  supply  of  the 
nation  was  initiated  April  2,  when  700 
switchmen  and  yardmen  in  Chicago  and 
Milwaukee  quit  work.  The  movement 
was  in  direct  defiance  of  the  leaders  of 
the  four  railway  brotherhoods.  It  spread 
with  great  rapidity  until  almost  all  the 
railroad  systems  in  the  country  were 
seriously  crippled.  Freight  was  moved 
with  difficulty  and  passenger  service  was 
greatly  curtailed  or  in  some  cases  dis- 
continued. On  the  Erie  road  a  mail  train 
was  abandoned  en  route  by  its  crew. 
Violence  in  many  cases  was  used  against 
engineers  and  firemen  who  refused  to 
join  the  strikers.  In  the  suburbs  of  the 
great  cities  "  Indignation  Specials " 
manned  by  volunteers  were  the  ©nly 
means  by  which  some  commuters  were 
able  to  get  to  and  from  their  places  of 
business.  Fifty  thousand  men  were 
thrown  out  of  work  in  Chicago,  200,000 
in  the  Pittsburgh  district,  and  other 
centres  suffered  proportionately. 

The  direct  charge  that  the  outlaw  rail- 
road strike  was  engineered  by  the  I.  W. 
W.  as  a  part  of  the  worldwide  Com- 
munist movement  was  made  on  April  14 
by  Attorney  General  Palmer.  The  At- 
torney General  disclosed  this  to  the 
Cabinet  at  the  first  meeting  which  Presi- 
dent Wilson  had  attended  since  last  Sep- 
tember. 

The  Government's  policy,  it  developed, 
would  be  to  reveal  this  information  to 
hundreds  of  patriotic  American  workers 
among  the  strikers  in  the  hope  that  they 
would  realize  that  they  had  been  duped 
and  would  return  to  work.  If  this  step 
did  not  prove  effective,  strong  repres- 
sive measures  would  be  taken,  Mr.  Palmer 
promised. 

The  attitude  of  the  chiefs  of  the  rail- 
way brotherhoods  was  indicated  by  the 
following  statement,  issued  April  9: 
The  present  strike  of  men  engaged  in 


222 


THE  NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


switching  service  was  originated  in  Chi- 
cago by  a  new  organization  that  has  for 
its  purpose  the  destruction  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  Railroad  Trainmen  and  the 
Switchmen's  Union  and  in  its  inception 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  wage  question, 
but  was  a  demand  for  the  reinstatement 
of  the  leader  of  this  opposition  organiza- 
tion. 

After  this  strike  was  instituted  for  this 
purpose  the  leaders  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion then  injected  tlie  wage  question  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  deceiving  the  yard- 
men throughout  the  United  States  and  to 
promote  the   "  One  Big  Union  "   idea. 

There  can  be  no  settlement  of  pending 
wage  questions  while  this  illegal  action 
continues.  We  insist  that  all  members 
of  these  Brotherhoods  do  everything 
within  their  power  to  preserve  their  exist- 
ing contracts,  which  if  abrogated  may 
take  years  to  rebuild.  The  laws  of  all  of 
these  organizations  provide  penalties  for 
members  engaging  in  illegal  strikes  and 
these  penalties   will  be   enforced. 

L.   E.    SHEPPARD,   President  Order 

of   Railroad   Conductors. 
W.    G.    LEE,    President  Brotherhood 

of  Railroad  Trainmen, 
W.  S.  STONE,  Grand  Chief  Engineer 
Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engi- 
neers. 
W.  S.  CARTER,  President  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Firemen  and 
Engineers. 

STRIKE  LEADERS  ARRESTED 

On  April  15  the  Government  took  ac- 
tion, and  John  Grunau,  the  chief  leader 
and  organizer  of  the  strike,  and  twenty- 
two  other  leaders  were  arrested  in  Chi- 
cago. Sixteen  of  those  held  were  re- 
leased by  United  States  Commissioner 
Mason  on  their  own  recognizance.  In  the 
meantime  the  men  agreed  to  take  no  part 


whatever  in  the  strike.  The  remaining 
members  obtained  their  release  on  the 
presentation  of  the  $10,000  security  de- 
manded by  the  Government. 

The  arrests  came  as  a  complete  sur- 
prise to  those  taken.  Many  of  them 
were  at  their  homes,  and  others  were 
picked  up  at  strike  meetings  or  as  they 
arrived  at  strike  headquarters.  None 
resisted. 

Special  Assistant  Attorney  General 
Harry  Mitchell,  who  was  in  Chicago  from 
Washington  to  conduct  the  case  against 
the  strikers,  told  them  at  the  hearing 
that  the  Government  would  press  the 
prosecution  to  the  limit.  Speaking  be- 
fore Commissioner  Mason  he  said: 

These  men  are  charged  with  a  serious 
offense  against  the  Government.  They 
have  interfered  with  the  health  of  the  en- 
tire nation  by  causing  its  food  shipments 
to  be  delayed  and  stopped.  They  have 
caused  industry  to  stop  because  of  lack 
of  fuel,  and  we  are  convinced  that  there 
was  a  conspiracy  to  aim  a  blow  at  the 
Government. 

According  to  the  warrants,  the  men 
arrested  were  charged  with  violations  of 
that  part  of  the  Sherman  law  having  to 
do  with  interference  with  interstate  ship- 
ments, and  that  part  of  the  Lever  law 
having  to  do  with  interference  with  food 
and  fuel.  There  was  no  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  to  include  charges 
of  radicalism  or  conspiracy  with  the 
I.  W.  W.  or  other  organizations. 

By  the  middle  of  April  the  strike 
showed  every  indication  of  gradual  col- 
lapse. 


Expulsion  of  Socialist  Assemblymen 

Action  of  New  York  Legislature 


rE  suspension  by  the  Legislature  of 
New  York  State  on  Jan.  7  of  five 
duly  elected  members  of  that  body — 
all  Socialists  from  New  York  City — 
created  a  sensation.  The  men  suspended, 
charged  with  affiliations  with  an  anti- 
Governmental  party,  and  with  treason- 
able utterances,  were  the  following: 
Louis  Waldman  and  August  Claessens 
of  Manhattan,  Samuel  A.  De  Witt  and 
Samuel  Orr  of  the  Bronx,   and   Charles 


Solomon  of  Kings  County.  The  sus- 
pended members  announced  their  inten- 
tion of  resisting  expulsion.  Strong  pro- 
tests were  also  made  by  Judge  Charles 
E.  Hughes  and  the  Bar  Association  of 
New  York,  on  the  ground  that  the 
method  of  procedure  adopted  was  uncon- 
stitutional, and  that  the  men  should  be 
reinstated  pending  proof  of  the  charges. 
A  committee  sent  by  the  Bar  Association, 
headed  by  Justice  Hughes,  to  argue  these 


m 

■     noints 


EXPULSION  OF  SOCIALIST  ASSEMBLYMEN 


223 


I 


points  was  excluded  by  the  Assembly 
after  a  secret  vote  at  the  first  session 
of  the  trial. 

The  trial  of  the  accused  Assemblymen 
began  on  Jan.  20  and  closed  on  Feb.  27. 
The  proceedings  were  opened  before  the 
largest  throng  that  the  State  Assembly 
Chamber  had  ever  held.  The  Assembly- 
men in  a  body,  many  Senators  and  State 
officials,  departmental  employes  and 
some  2,000  visitors,  including  representa- 
tives of  eighty  civic  and  labor  organiza- 
tions, followed  the  trial  with  the  closest 
attention. 

The  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee declared  that  the  five  Assembly- 
men were  accused  of  being  pro-German 
during  the  war,  and  allied  with  a  party 
which  sought  to  overthrow  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  by  force.  The 
accused  men  were  defended  by  the  So- 
cialist lawyer,  Morris  Hillquit,  who  de- 
clared that  they  were  the  victims  of  per- 
secution. The  period  between  Jan.  20 
and  Feb.  5  was  devoted  to  the  hearing 
of  testimony  to  prove  the  Assembly's 
charges.  Personal  charges  against 
Waldman,  Claessens  and  Solomon,  es- 
pecially, tended  to  show  that  these  three 
men  had  made  treasonable  and  seditious 
utterances  in  public  speeches  or  other- 
wise. Charges  made  by  Miss  Chivers, 
a  witness,  that  Solomon  had  spat  upon 
the  American  flag  during  a  public  ad- 
dress on  socialism,  were  contradicted  by 
police  testimony.  Much  of  the  evidence 
taken  dealt  with  the  official  pronounce- 
ments of  the  Socialist  Party,  to  which  all 
the  five  accused  Assemblymen  belonged. 
The  period  between  Feb.  17  and  Feb.  27 
was  devoted  to  the  hearing  of  the  de- 
fense, which  consisted  of  general  denials 
of  the  Assembly's  charges. 

The  final  decision  was  not  taken  until 
April  1,  after  an  all-night  debate,  which 
showed  a  majority  of  the  Assembly 
strongly  in  favor  of  expulsion.  Opposi- 
tion speeches  were  made  by  Colonel 
Roosevelt,  who  had  argued  against  ex- 
pulsion throughout,  and  by  the  majority 
leader,   Simon  L.  Adler.     Despite  these 


and  other  arguments  for  the  defense,  at 
10  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  Assembly 
expelled  the  five  Socialists  and  declared 
their  seats  vacant.  The  vote  for  expul- 
sion, taken  on  each  individual  case,  was 
overwhelming.  In  the  case  of  Claessens, 
Waldman  and  Solomon,  against  whom  in- 
dividual charges  had  been  preferred  and 
considered  proved,  the  vote  was  116  to 
28;  in  the  cases  of  Orr  and  De  Witt  the 
vote  was  104  to  40. 

The  majority  report  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee,     after     declaring     that    the 
charges  had  been  fully  proved,  declared 
that  the  accused  were 
not  obedient  to  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  New  York,   nor  desirous  of  the  welfare 
of  the  country,    nor  in  hearty  accord   and 
sympathy  with   its   Government  and   insti- 
tutions,   and    for    said    reasons,    and    also 
because    of    the    other    facts    and    reasons 
set  forth,    they   are  disqualified  to   occupy 
seats  in  the  Assembly  of  the  State  of  New 
York  as  members   thereof. 

One  clause  of  the  report  excluded  from 
the  official  ballot  of  the  State  any  party 
that  accepted  aliens  in  its  membership. 
A  large  part  of  the  report  was  devoted 
to  a  severe  indictment  of  the  Socialist 
Party  and  its  anti-militarist  program 
during  the  war,  including  the  issuing  of 
a  party  manifesto,  framed  by  Morris 
Hillquit.  This  manifesto  had  called 
upon  workers  to  refrain  from  aiding  in 
the  production  of  munitions  of  war.  The 
report  also  condemned  the  Socialist 
Party's  control  of  its  legislative  members 
by  a  party  oath,  as  seen  in  the  case  of 
the  expelled  members,  who  had  voted 
during  their  membership  against  every 
bill  presented  for  State  defense;  its  dis- 
loyal propaganda  campaign  against  the 
war  and  its  expressed  identification  with 
the  aims  of  the  Bolshevist  Government 
to  overthrow  the  Governments  of  the 
world,  including  that  of  America,  and  to 
substitute  a  Soviet  regime. 

The  five  men  unseated  and  disquali- 
fied attacked  the  decision,  saying  that 
the  voters  had  been  betrayed,  and  de- 
clared that  they  would  take  their  appeal 
to  the  nation's  highest  tribunal  if  they 
did  not  gain  revision  in  the  State  court. 


The  Labor  Revolt  in  Germany 

Dramatic  Events  in  Ruhr  Region  After  the  Junker  Fiasco- 
Fall  of  the  Bauer  Cabinet 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


PRESIDENT  EBERT  and  the  Bauer 
Cabinet  returned  to  Berlin  on 
March  21,  after  the  dispersal  of 
the  fly-by-night  Junker  Govern- 
ment headed  by  Dr.  Kapp.  The  general 
strike,  which  had  helped  to  defeat  the 
reactionaries,  had  been  called  off,  but 
the  political  atmosphere  remained  heav- 
ily charged  with  potential  trouble.  The 
Strike  Committee,  which  represented 
the  labor  and  radical  parties  in  the 
capital,  immediately  confronted  the  Gov- 
ernment with  demands  for  a  thorough 
housecleaning  of  all  elements  favorable 
to  reactionary  designs.  These  demands 
emphasized  the  determination  of  German 
labor  to  shake  off  the  domination  of 
Junkerdom  and  militarism  and  to  seize  a 
larger  share  of  power.  Incidentally  the 
committee's  program  of  reforms  de- 
manded the  resignation  of  Gustav  Noske 
and  Dr.  Karl  Heine. 

During  protracted  negotiations  the 
Government  endeavored  to  appease  the 
labor  demand  by  ordering  the  arrest  of 
Dr.  Kapp,  General  von  Liittwitz  and 
other  leaders  of  the  reactionary  revolt, 
and  by  promising  drumhead  courts- 
martial  for  such  offenders,  and  a  large 
representation  of  Radicals  in  the  Cab- 
inet. The  conflict,  however,  centred 
first  on  Minister  of  Defense  Noske.  He 
had  become  especially  obnoxious  to  the 
Left  Parties  owing  to  his  vigorous  sup- 
pression of  the  Radical  and  Spartacan 
revolts,  and  his  lack  of  the  same  activity 
displayed  in  the  recent  temporary  success 
of  the  reactionaries  brought  down  upon 
him  the  charge  of  militarist  complicity. 
His  position,  therefore,  became  unten- 
able and  his  resignation  was  tendered 
to  President  Ebert  on  March  22. 

From  the  23d  to  the  26th  Premier 
Bauer  strove  to  remodel  the  Cabinet  to 
suit  the  importunities  of  those  arrayed 
against  him  by  including  in  its  members 
Herr  Gessler,  Mayor  of  Nuremberg,  as 


Minister  of  Defense;  Captain  Cuno,  a 
Director  of  the  Hamburg-American 
Steamship  Company,  as  Minister  of 
Finance;  Herr  Boltz  as  Minister  of  the 
Treasury,  and  Herr  Silberschmidt  of  the 
Builders'  Trades  Union  as  Minister  of 
Reconstruction.  But  the  Left  refused  to 
accept  Captain  Cuno  on  the  ground  of 
his  hostility  to  labor,  and,  because  of  this 
and  other  objectionable  features,  the  re- 
modeled Cabinet,  as  a  whole,  was  de- 
nounced by  the  Labor  Federation  as  un- 
satisfactory. In  view  of  this  crisis 
Premier  Bauer  resigned.  At  the  same 
time  the  Prussian  Cabinet  tendered  their 
resignations. 

FORMING  THE  NEW  CABINET 

Prolonged  conferences  between  the  Ma- 
jority Socialists  and  Independent  Social- 
ists, on  the  one  side,  and  Democrats  and 
Centrists,  on  the  other,  came  to  nothing, 
because  the  Independents  held  out  for  an 
all-labor  Cabinet.  The  Centrists  and 
Democrats  refused  to  entertain  any  such 
proposal.  A  proposal  that  the  Indepen- 
dents be  granted  a  few  seats  in  the  Cabi- 
net was  rejected  by  the  body  thus  in- 
tended to  benefit.  Finally,  in  deference 
to  the  unanimous  wish  of  the  Democrats, 
President  Ebert  invited  Herman  Miiller 
to  form  a  new  Ministry.  Herr  Miiller  an- 
nounced the  completion  of  his  Cabinet  on 
March  27,  himself  taking  the  posts  of 
Premier  and  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs. The  remainder  of  the  Cabinet  was 
as  follows: 

Minister  of  Transport— DR.  BELL  (Social- 
ist). 

Minister  Without  Portfolio— DR.  EDUARD 
DAVID    (Socialist). 

Vice  Premier  and  Minister  of  the  Interior 
—HERR    KOCH    (Democrat). 

Minister  of  Defense  —  HERR  GESSLER 
(Democrat). 

Minister  of  Justice  —  HERR  PFLUNCK 
(Democrat). 

Minister  of  Finance  —  GUSTAV  BAUER 
(Socialist). 


■  ■;   Minister 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY 


225 


Minister  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs  —  JO- 
HANN  GIESBERTS    (Centrist). 

Minister  of  Food  —  ANDREAS  HERMES 
(Centrist). 

Minister  of  the  Treasury  —  DR.  WIRTH 
(Centrist). 

The  entry  of  the  Miiller  Cabinet  upon 
its  duties  was  said  to  have  been  with 
the  approval  of  the  Labor  Federation. 

THE  LABOR  REVOLT 

The  proclamation  of  the  general  strike 
by  President  Ebert  as  the  most  effective 
weapon  to  scatter  the  brief  regime  of 
Dr.  Kapp  proved  easier  than  its  recall 
when  the  task  was  done.  Labor  and 
Spartacan  forces  had  worked  and  waited 
for  precisely  such  an  opportunity  to 
overthrow  the  Ebert  Government,  itself 
charged  with  harboring  reactionary  and 
militarist  partisans,  and  were  not  to  be 
brought  to  heel  when  the  hour  seemed 
most  auspicious  to  accomplish  that  real 
revolution  of  the  German  proletariat. 

In  accounting  for  the  labor  revolt  that 
followed  the  Junker  fiasco  it  was  gen- 
erally held  that  there  was  no  real  Bol- 
shevist sentiment  among  the  German 
workmen,  even  in  the  Ruhr  district, 
where  so-called  Soviet  councils  were  set 
up.  Its  outward  manifestation  was  clearly 
a  nation-wide  spasm  of  wrath  directed 
against  militarist  plotting,  of  which  Gen- 
eral Ludendorff,  the  former  Quarter- 
master General  of  the  German  Army, 
was  charged  with  being  the  principal 
instigator  behind  the  scenes.  In  this  con- 
nection the  Reichswehr,  or  loyal  Govern- 
ment troops,  many  of  whose  officers 
were  accused  of  imperial  militarism, 
were  denounced  and  fought  as  fiercely 
as  those  of  avowed  allegiance  to  the 
Kapp  conspiracy. 

Thus  in  Berlin,  where  the  fever  of 
strife  ran  its  course  for  six  days  with 
94  killed  and  721  wounded,  there  was 
also  reported  a  savage  massacre  of  mili- 
tary officers  at  the  Johannistal  flying 
grounds.  This  and  similar  instances  of 
the  revengeful  anti-militarist  temper  of 
the  populace  moved  the  Government  on 
March  23  to  order  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Reichswehr  and  the  formation  of  Berlin 
workmen's  guards. 

In  Saxony  the  flame  of  the  revolt 
blazed  up  spontaneously,  but  amid  much 
confusion,  owing  to  lack  of  news  from 


Berlin  regarding  the  speedy  fall  of  the 
Kapp  Government.  Both  Halle  and  Leip- 
sic  became  the  scenes  of  desperate  con- 
flict, in  which  hundreds  were  killed  and 
thousands  wounded.  For  four  days  Leip- 
sic  was  subjected  to  a  reign  of  terror. 
Bloody  hand-to-hand  street  fighting  went 
on  continuously  between  Government 
troops  and  the  rebels,  in  which  artillery 
was  used  to  such  devastating  effect  that 
scarcely  a  building  remained  undamaged 
or  a  window  escaped  the  shattering  of 
machine  gun  fire.  But  the  arrival  of  a 
large  body  of  Reichswehr  troops  under 
General  Merker — at  the  moment  when 
the  rebels  were  running  short  of  ammu- 
nition— brought  the  Saxon  labor  revolt 
to  an  end  on  March  27. 

BATTLES  IN  RUHR  DISTRICT 

While  Bavaria  and  other  parts  of  Ger- 
many reported  labor  uprisings  of  more  or 
less  concern,  by  far  the  most  serious  of 
all,  both  locally  and  for  its  international 
consequences,  Wi.s  that  throughout  the 
industrial  region  of  Westphalia,  espe- 
cially in  the  Ruhr  district.  From  March 
19  to  23  reports  reached  the  outside 
world  that  the  workers  had  taken  con- 
trol of  practically  the  whole  of  this  dis- 
trict; that  they  possessed  a  well  armed 
and  organized  force  of  50,000  or  more, 
and  that  they  were  supported  actively 
by  Russian  military  and  other  agents. 

The  centre  of  the  war  zone  was  at 
Essen,  the  site  of  the  great  Krupp 
works.  A  correspondent  who  arrived 
there  on  the  23d  found  that  workers' 
councils  had  been  set  up  in  all  the  cities 
of  the  district,  but  nowhere  had  a  Soviet 
republic  been  proclaimed,  and  the  work- 
ers were  not  so  much  intent  on  estab- 
lishing communism  as  on  overthrowing 
the  power  of  the  Reichswehr,  whom  they 
had  always  hated  and  suspected  because 
of  their  officers.  Hitherto  the  warfare 
had  been  wholly  of  a  guerrilla  nature,  but 
the  workers  were  then  organizing  on  the 
basis  of  unity  of  command.  The  corre- 
spondent found  about  6,000  Reichswehr 
troops,  who  were  receiving  reinforce- 
ments from  the  peasantry  opposed  to  the 
revolt,  in  conflict  with  15,000  workers, 
who  had  captured  5  cannon,  6  trench 
mortars,  3,000  rifles  and  2,000  rounds  of 
ammunition. 


226 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


By  March  27  the  workers'  forces  had 
been  beaten  back  more  than  a  mile  from 
before  Wesel,  and  negotiations  were  pro- 
ceeding between  Government  emissaries 
and  the  workers  at  Bielefeld,  an  armis- 
tice was  being  arranged,  though  inter- 
mittent fighting  still  went  on.  Mean- 
while, it  became  evident  that  the  new 


DR.    HERMANN   TIUELLER 

New  German  Premier 
(©    Underwood    &    Underwood) 

Democratic  Coalition  Government  was 
gaining  confidence  among  the  parties  of 
law  and  order,  and  that  Dr.  Gessler,  Min- 
ister of  Defense,  was  following  "  Old 
Doctor"  Noske's  priescription  for  the 
Spartacan  and  extreme  radical  ailment: 
"  Be  good  or  you  will  get  spanked." 

ROUT  OF  WORKMEN'S  ARMY 

The  v'hole  armed  uprising  in  West- 
phalia had  collapsed  by  the  28th,  though 
the  "  Red  Army "  was  still  holding  a 
line  from  Wesel  to  Haltem,  along  the 
Lippe,  with  the  river  separating  it  from 
the  Government  troops.  The  Reds'  po- 
sition was  threatened  by  an  encircling 
movement.  Leonard  Spray  described  the 
rout  of  the  workmen's  forces  at  Wesel 
in  tragically  picturesque  detail  as  fol- 
lows: 

When  I  left  the  front  a  few  hours  later 


the  left  wing  had  broken,  and  what  I  saw 
was  the  most  pitiful  of  all  spectacles— 
an  army's  retreat  with  its  mingled  ele- 
ments panic-stricken  in  the  realization  of 
defeat.  *  *  *  The  setting  of  the  first 
scene  was  in  Barracks  Square  of  Miil- 
heim,  the  great  headquarters  of  the  Red 
Army  south  of  Essen.  There  were  drawn 
up  three  great  motor  lorries  packed  with 
armed  men  and  youths  in  their  workaday 
clothes,  some  with  the  grime  of  the  fac- 
tories and  forges  still  on  their  faces.  The 
call  had  come  for  reinforcements  for  the 
Wesel  front.  *  *  *  Before  this  ragged 
regiment  went  a  man  appeared  at  a  win- 
dow overlooking  the  square  and  demanded 
silence  with  a  gesture  of  his  arm,  around 
which  was  a  red  band  lettered  in  black, 
"  Battle  Leader."  "  You  won't  hesitate," 
he  shouted;  "you  know  that  what  hap- 
pens during  the  fighting  is  a  bagatelle 
to  what  will  come  if  you  lay  down  arms 
ibefore  victory.  Go  forward  to  fight  for 
freedom  and  the  workers'  rights." 

Of  the  actual  retreat  witnessed  from 
Dinslaken,  a  town  north  of  Essen  close 
up  to  the  fighting  line,  its  pavements 
littered  with  the  jetsam  of  civil  war. 
Mr.  Spray  wrote; 


DR.    WOLFGANG   KAPP 

Leader  of  the  unsuccessful  Junker  revolt 

(Wide    World   Photo) 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY 


227 


Many  of  the  steadier  men  interrupted 
their  retreat  and  tried  to  rally  their  com- 
rades to  go  back  and  face  the  enemy. 
*  *  *  There  was  suddenly  heard  the 
devil's  rattle  of  machine  guns,  and  the 
boys,  to  whom  clearly  this  was  the  first 
experience  of  warfare,  broke  into  a  panic 
and  ran,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
sound  they  heard  was  the  firing  of  their 
own  comrades,  who  were  trying  to  cover 
their  retreat. 

A  few  moments  later  our  car  was  closed 
around  by  a  group,  bearing  in  their  midst 
a  man  and  a  girl,  both  wounded,  the 
latter's  chest  pierced  by  a  stray  bullet. 
We  put  them  into  the  car  to  seek  the 
hospital,  but  had  moved  only  a  short  dis- 
tance when  there  was  a  touch  of  com- 
pelling drama.  Our  wounded  warrior  had 
been  hit  by  six  machine-gun  bullets,  but 
without  warning  he  sat  upright  and 
shouted  in  a  voice  hoarse  but  thrilling  to 
the  outside  passing  column:  "My  com- 
rades, I  am  finished.  I  cannot  fight 
again.  But  you  men,  go  back,  go  back 
and  face  them."  Then  he  fell  back  un- 
conscious into  his  place,  and  the  poor 
girl  beside  him,  with  blood  still  oozing 
through  the  bandages,  broke  into  sobs. 
With  our  stricken  nurse  was  a  second 
girl,  herself  unharmed,  but  going  home 
with  the  rest.  "  St^-p !  "  she  shrieked. 
"  Let  us  get  out.  I'm  going  to  stay  with 
my  comrades." 

That  was  the  last  scene  we  witnessed 


in  this  tragedy  of  fanaticism,  which  had 
gone  to  fight  without  guidance  of  armed 
troops,  without  discipline,  with  leaders 
divided  among  themselves. 

END  OF  THE  RUHR  REVOLT 

A  subsequent  rally  of  the  "  Red  Army  " 
after  its  defeat  at  Wesel  was  but  a  for- 
lorn hope.    Though  grown  to  100,000  in 


MAJOR   GEN.    KENRY  T.    ALLEN 

Commander   of   American   troops   of  occupa' 

tion  on   the  Rhine 

(©    Harris   d   Ewing) 


DR.    GESSLER 
Successor   of  Noske   as  Minister   of  Defense 


number  and  possessing  some  artillery,  it 
had  no  chance  of  a  victory  over  the 
75,000  disciplined  Government  troops,  in- 
cluding one  cavalry  division  and  rein- 
forcements of  Bavarian  and  Wiirttem- 
berg  regiments,  which  had  been  poured 
into  the  region.  On  April  1  the  Central 
Committee  and  200  delegates  assembled 
at  Essen  unanimously  voted  to  accept 
the  terms  offered  by  the  Government  at 
Bielefeld.  This  ended  the  organized  revolt, 
though  bands  of  Communists  continued 
to  operate  in  the  territory  about  Essen, 
Dortmund,  Duisburg  and  Miilheim.  Os- 
tensibly to  clear  the  region  of  these 
marauders.  Government  troops  fought 
their  way  into  Duisburg  on  April  3  and 
proceeded  to  restore  order  in  the  indus- 
trial district  toward  Wanheim  and  the 
woods  near  Miilheim.  On  the  6th  Reichs- 
wehr  forces  advanced  on  Essen,  the  last 
Communist  stand.  They  found  the  Com- 
munists  had   taken  up   a   defensive   po- 


228 


THE  NEW    YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


GERMAN  REVOLUTIONARY   SOLDIERS   IN  THE   RUHR   DISTRICT 


sition  on  the  canal,  but  when  charged  by 
the  Reichswehr  on  both  flanks  the  Com- 
munists broke  and  fled.  Some  of  them 
surrendered  their  arms  at  the  City  Hall, 
while  others  threw  them  away. 

Hundreds  of  the  "  Red  Army,"  fearing 
the  "  white  terror,"  took  refuge  in  the 
British  occupied  zone,  where  they  were 
disarmed.  The  losses  of  the  Reichswehr 
up  to  April  4  were  given  as  170  killed, 
346  wounded  and  123  missing. 

By  the  8th  the  Ruhr  district  was  again 
resuming  normal  industrial  peace  con- 
ditions. According  to  the  terms  of  the 
Bielefeld  agreement,  by  which  the  Gov- 
ernment granted  the  rebels  unUl  noon  of 
the  10th  as  a  period  of  grace  to  return  to 
public  order,  dissolution  of  the  "  Red 
Army  "  was  proceeding,  work  in  the  coal 
mines  had  been  started,  mostly  with  full 
crews,  and  the  railroads  were  operating 
out  of  Essen.  More  than  20,000  rifles 
were  surrendered.  On  April  10  the  rule 
of  the  workmen  ceased  throughout  the 
Ruhr  district  when  the  Executive  Com- 
mittees at  Diisseldorf,  Eberfeld,  Barmen 
and  Hagen  relinquished  authority  to  the 
municipal  officials  at  noon  in  compliance 
with  the  Bielefeld  terms.  The  Ruhr  labor 
revolt  in  this  phase,  therefore,  had  ter- 
minated. 

FRENCH  OCCUPATION 

Meanwhile  Premier  Miiller  had  applied 
to  the  Entente  Governments  for  permis- 
sion, under  the  terms  of  the  Peace 
Treaty,  to  send  troops  temporarily  into 


the  neutral  zone  of  the  Ruhr  region  with 
the  sole  object  of  restoring  public  order. 
While  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  were  not  adverse  to  the  petition, 
the  French  Government  took  the  stand 
that  such  occupation  was  unnecessary  in 
view  of  the  possibility  of  order  being  re- 
stored by  negotiation. 

When,  however,  7,000  troops  belonging 
to  German  marine  brigades  made  occu- 
pation of  the  neutral  zone  north  of  Lippe 
an  accomplished  fact,  the  French  Govern- 
ment decided  to  move  troops  into  the 
neutral  zone  in  accordance  with  the 
terms  of  the  Peace  Treaty.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  April  6,  therefore,  the 
3d  Moroccan  Rifles  marched  into  Frank- 
fort and  Darmstadt  without  opposition. 

On  April  7  an  affray  took  place  be- 
tween the  French  Moroccan  troops  and  a 
German  mob  on  Schillerplatz,  Frankfort, 
in  which  seven  persons  were  reported 
killed.  Crowds  outside  the  Imperial  Ho- 
tel, the  headquarters  of  the  French  force, 
pressed  excitedly  forward  against  the 
cordon  of  Moroccan  troops.  When  the 
attitude  of  the  crowd  became  menacing 
and  the  order  to  stand  back  was  not 
obeyed  the  Moroccan  soldiers  opened  fire. 
Burgomaster  Voigt  stated  that  the  inci- 
dent was  the  outcome  of  the  refusal  of 
the  French  to  permit  him  to  issue  a  proc- 
lamation enjoining  the  people  to  remain 
calm.  On  the  French  side.  General 
De  Metz,  in  command  of  the  French 
troops,  declared  that  the  Imperial  Hotel 
affray  was  caused  by  anti-French  propa- 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY 


22§ 


GERMAN    REGULARS .  INTRENCHED    NEAR    WESEL,    ENGAGED    IN    PUTTING    DOWN    THE 

REVOLT    OF    LABOR    RADICALS 

(Photo  F.    E.    Peguillan) 


gandists  inciting  the  crowd  to  jeer  and 
insult  French  officers. 

DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISTS 

Labor  organizations  which  had  par- 
ticipated in  the  general  strike  and  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Right  Socialist  and 
Independent  Socialist  Parties  held  a 
meeting  on  April  6,  at  which  it  was  de- 
cided to  present  certain  demands  to  the 
Government.    These  demands  read: 

1.  The  withdrawal  of  regular  troops 
from  the  nevxtral  zone  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  public  order  by  local  defense 
bodies. 

2.  No  advance  to  be  made  by  regular 
troops  south  of  the  Ruhr  region. 

3.  The  formation  of  a  defense  body  in 
the  area  outside  the  neutral  zone  occupied 
by  regulars,  whereupon  the  regulars  are 
to  be  withdrawn. 

4.  Punishment  of  untrustworthy  officers 
and  the  stoppage  of  supplies  of  ammuni- 
tion to  counter-revolutionary  formations 
like  General  Erhardt's  Baltic  brigade. 

5.  The  present  Government  to  reorgan- 
ize the  Security  Guard  by  means  of  or- 
ganized workers. 

After  conferences  between  the  Cabinet 
and  officials  of  the  trade  unions,  to- 
gether with  leaders  of  both  Socialist 
Parties,  an  agreement  was  reached  on 


the  8th.  By  its  terms  the  Government 
promised  to  withdraw  the  troops  from 
the  Ruhr  Valley  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment,  and  to  halt  advance  into  the 
region  south  of  the  Ruhr.  These  con- 
cessions, combined  with  the  additional 
promise  of  Minister  of  Defense  Gessler 
that  he  would  withdraw  all  troops  which 
had  committed  excesses,  and  that  the 
Ruhr  line  would  not  be  passed,  were  re- 
garded as  having  averted  a  crisis.  A 
number  of  well  known  Socialist  leaders 
had  been  sent  into  the  newly  occupied 
district  to  persuade  the  people  to  re- 
main in  their  shops  and  not  to  give  any 
further  trouble  to  the  French  troops. 

From  Mayence  it  was  reported  that 
General  Allen,  commanding  the  Ameri- 
can troops  on  the  Rhine,  had  not  re- 
ceived any  instructions  in  view  of  the 
French  advance,  and  consequently  main- 
tained an  attitude  of  watchfulness  only. 

PROBLEMS  AND  DISTURBANCES 
At  three  sessions  of  the  Cabinet  on 
April  10  various  phases  of  the  situation 
were  discussed.  The  Government  was 
doing  its  best  to  arrest  Kapp,  Liittwitz, 
Jagow  and  other  principals  in  the  recent 
reactionary  revolt,  but  they  had  fled  to 


230 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


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MAP    OP    GERMANY    SHOWING    SITUATION    AT    TIME    OF    KAPP    REVOLT 


parts  unknown.  Baron  von  Falkenhausen 
and  twenty  officers,  however,  had  been 
arrested  and  were  to  be  tried.  The  Gov- 
ernment on  the  10th  notified  all  the 
States  of  Germany  that,  in  conformity 
with  the  Peace  Treaty,  the  Reichswehr 
must  be  reduced  to  200,000  men  and 
begged  the  States  to  act  accordingly. 

The  announcement  was  made  on  the 
11th  of  the  withdrawal  of  all  German 
troops  no  longer  needed  in  the  Euhr  dis- 
trict. On  the  12th  Premier  Muller,  in  the 
course  of  a  statement  before  the  National 
Assembly,  said:  "All  troops  not  indis- 
pensable will  be  withdrawn.  Negotiations 
are  going  on  with  the  Allies  for  a  three 
months'  extension  of  the  convention  of 
August,  1919.  The  occupation  of  the 
main  cities  will  end  shortly." 

Continued  unrest  was  manifested  in 
South  Germany.  At  Munich  the  citizen 
guards  refused  to  surrender  their  arms, 
and  declared  that  if  the  French  wished 
to  disarm  them  they  must  come  and  do  it. 
Dr.  von  Kahr,  President  of  the  Bavarian 
Ministry,  declared  on  April  10  that 
Bavaria  purposed  to  assert  her  rights, 
even   at  the  cost   of  a  break  with  the 


Central  Government.  In  Brunswick  a 
Guelph  party  was  formed  under  the 
leadership  of  Minister  Hempel,  with  the 
object  of  establishing  the  Grand  Duchy 
as  an  autonomous  monarchy. 

What  was  termed  a  strike  took  place 
on  the  Berlin  Stock  Exchange  on  April 
12,  when  thirty  members  engaged  in 
stormy  scenes  and  compelled  the  Board 
of  Directors  to  close  the  institution. 
Some  of  the  Directors  were  badly 
handled.  The  cause  of  the  disturbance 
was  the  Government's  announcement  in 
the  morning  papers,  without  previous 
notice,  that  all  foreign  securities  must 
be  given  up  for  delivery  to  the  Entente 
powers  under  Article  298  of  the  Peace 
Treaty.  As  the  designated  rates  were  in 
most  cases  lower  than  the  day's  prices, 
the  Exchange  members  worked  them- 
selves into  a  frenzy,  in  which  Cabinet 
members  as  well  as  Stock  Exchange  Di- 
rectors were  accused  of  having  profited 
by  selling  stock  at  much  higher  prices. 
When  it  became  known  that  the  bourses 
of  Frankfort  and  Hamburg  had  closed 
for  the  same  reason,  a  panic  ensued  such 
as  had  never  before  developed. 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  GERMANY 


231 


In  an  address  to  the  National  Assem- 
bly on  April  14,  Premier  Miiller  said 
that  danger  from  the  reactionary  parties 
was  still  threatening,  especially  in  Pom- 
erania  and  Silesia,  where  the  Baltic 
troops  were  quartered;  a  new  fire  might 
break  out  any  day,  but  it  would  be  com- 
bated as  energetically  as  before.  This 
statement  was  backed  up  by  the  arrest  on 


April  15  of  General  von  Luttwitz  and 
Major  Bischoff,  officers  of  the  Baltic 
forces  that  had  figured  in  the  Kapp  re- 
volt. A  few  days  later  Dr.  Kapp  fled 
from  Germany  by  airplane  to  Sweden, 
where  he  was  interned.  The  German 
Government  was  taking  energetic  meas- 
ures to  thwart  another  reactionary  up- 
rising. 


French  Seizure  of  German  Cities 

Temporary   Rift   in   the  Entente 


THE  most  acute  crisis  that  had 
arisen  between  Germany  and  the 
Allies  since  Germany  was  sum- 
moned, on  a  threat  of  immediate  in- 
vasion, to  accept  the  terms  of  the 
treaty,  developed  late  in  March  and 
reached  its  highest  point  in  the  beginning 
of  April.  The  immediate  cause  was  the 
demand  by  Germany,  on  March  17,  that 
she  be  allowed  to  dispatch  her  Reichs- 
wehr  forces  to  the  Ruhr  district  on  the 
lower  Rhine  to  suppress  armed  disorders 
which  had  followed  on  the  heels  of  the 
Kapp  coup  d'etat  in  Berlin.  Informed 
on  March  23  that  the  Berlin  Govern- 
ment intended  to  send  a  much  larger 
force  than  it  admitted  officially,  the 
French  Government,  acting  on  its  own 
initiative,  refused  its  consent. 

In  the  French  Chamber  on  March  26 
Premier  Millerand  emphasized  the  dan- 
ger which  France  was  facing  from  Ger- 
man militarism,  and  from  the  German 
Government's  alleged  refusal  to  fulfill 
the  terms  of  the  treaty.  On  March  10, 
he  said,  no  war  material  had  been  sur- 
rendered to  the  Corrimittee  of  Control, 
and  it  was  obvious  that  Germany  was 
failing  to  disarm.  France,  furthermore, 
was  still  awaiting  the  reparations  due 
her,  and  the  question  of  the  German  de- 
liveries of  coal,  which  were  becoming 
less  month  by  month,  was  one  of  life 
and  death.  Tomorrow,  as  yesterday,  the 
Premier  declared,  France  would  be  the 
first  to  suffer  from  any  fresh  assault. 
"  She  cannot  wait  indefinitely  the  satis- 
faction due  her,"  he  added,  amid  ap- 
plause from  all  parts  of  the   Chamber. 


The  animated  debate  that  followed  re- 
sulted in  an  overwhelming  vote  of  con- 
fidence, and  in  the  unanimous  passing 
of  a  resolution  to  insist  on  the  strict 
execution  of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles. 

This  action  was  admitted  to  be 
France's  reply  to  the  British  revisionist 
movement,  and  to  the  German  disturb- 
ances in  the  Rhine  area.  The  bitter  at- 
tack upon  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  on  the 
British  policy  of  favoring  Germany,  made 
by  M.  Barthou  on  the  day  before,  was 
disapproved  by  Premier  Millerand  as  un- 
wise, but  the  lack  of  harmony  between 
France  and  her  British  ally  was  plainly 
visible  at  this  time.  M.  Millerand's 
speech  was  hailed  by  the  French  press 
generally  as  "  the  end  of  France's  nega- 
tive policy,"  and  as  a  clear  indication 
that  after  fifteen  months  of  patient  wait- 
ing, France  was  about  to  resume  a  policy 
of  independent  action  in  Europe. 

Meanwhile  Germany's  efforts  to  ob- 
tain consent  to  a  temporary  occupation 
of  the  Ruhr  district  continued,  the  BerKn 
Government  addressing  its  notes  directly 
to  the  French  Government,  instead  of  to 
the  Allied  Council.  In  answer  to  a  pro- 
posal that  the  German  forces  enter  the 
Ruhr  Valley  for  twenty  days,  and  that 
the  French  would  be  entitled  to  occupy 
the  towns  of  Frankfort,  Darmstadt, 
Homburg  and  Hanau,  all  lying  due  east 
of  the  French  line,  if  the  German  forces 
did  not  evacuate  within  the  specified 
period,  Premier  Millerand,  on  March  31, 
handed  to  Herr  Mayer,  the  German 
Charge  d'Affaires  at  Paris,  a  note  which 
declared  that  an  authorization  of  the  en- 


£32 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


GERMAN  TERRITORY  OCCUPIED  BY  ALLIES  AND  SCENE  OF  WORKMEN'S  REVOLT  IN 
RUHR  DISTRICT.  ARROWS  NEAR  FRENCH  BRIDGEHEAD  INDICATE  CITIES  OCCUPIED 
BY   DEGOUTTE'S   FORCES  TO  COMPEL  GERMAN  ARMY'S  WITHDRAWAL   FROM  RUHR    REGION 


FRENCH  SEIZURE   OF  GERMAN    CITIES 


try  of  German  troops  into  the  prohibited 
Rhine  area  would  constitute  an  infringe- 
ment of  Articles  43  and  44  of  the  Peace 
Treaty,  which  could  not  be  justified  "  ex- 
cept by  imperious  and  evident  neces- 
[sity."  The  refusal  to  give  consent  was 
[based  on  expert  military  opinion  that 
[German  military  intervention  in  this  dis- 
trict "  would  be  useless  and  dangerous." 

GERMANS   ENTER  RUHR 

Despite  the*  explicit  "  No  "  of  France, 
|the  Berlin  Government,  on  April  4,  sent 
troops  into  the  Ruhr  district,  and  be- 
'gan  an  active  offensive  against  the  in- 
surgent workers,  basing  its  action  on  the 
ground  of  national  necessity.  The  French 
Government  lost  no  time  in  recrimina- 
tions; it  decided  on  swift  action.  In  a 
note  issued  on  the  evening  of  April  4,  it 
declared  that  the  German  Government 
had  yielded  to  pressure  by  the  militarist 
party,  "  not  fearing  to  infringe  upon  the 
imperative  and  most  solemn  stipulations 
of  the  Versailles  Treaty."  Pointing  out 
that  if  the  German  Government  had  ful- 
filled the  disarmament  clauses  of  the 
treaty,  neither  the  Kapp  revolution  nor 
the  creation  of  a  Red  army  in  the  Ruhr 
could  have  occurred,  the  note  said  in  con- 
clusion : 

The  situation  created  by  the  abrupt 
offensive  of  the  German  troops  in  the 
Ruhr  obliges  the  French  Government  to- 
day to  consider  military  measures  the 
execution  of  which  cannot  be  deferred. 
The  sole  object  of  these  measures  is  to 
bring  Germany  to  a  due  respect  of  the 
treaty;  they  are  exclusively  of  a  coercive 
and  precautionary  character. 

GERMAN  CITIES  OCCUPIED 

The  French  immediately  made  all 
preparations  for  invasion,  in  the  face  of 
the  disapproval  of  their  allies  and  of  the 
repeated  German  protests,  and  carried 
out  the  movement  early  in  the  morning 
of  April  6.  Frankfort  and  Darmstadt 
were  entered  at  5  o'clock,  Homburg, 
Hana.u,  Dieburg  and  the  surrounding  ter- 
ritory within  four  hours.  German  Reichs- 
wehr  forces  still  in  the  region  withdrew, 
the  population  showed  no  hostility,  and 
no  conflict  occurred.  General  Degoutte, 
at  the  head  of  the  occupation  movement, 
proclaimed  that  his  forces  would  be  with- 
drawn  as   soon   as   the   German   troops 


evacuated  completely  the  neutral  zone  of 
fifty  kilometers,  where  armed  forces  had 
been  expressly  prohibited  by  Articles  42, 
43  and  44  of  the  Peace  Treaty.  The 
August  protocol  had  given  Germany 
special  permission  to  maintain  17,000  sol- 
diers in  this  district  until  April  10.  Ac- 
cording to  French  information  the  Ger- 
mans had  sent  about  40,000  soldiers  into 
the  Ruhr  Valley.  These  figures  the  Ger- 
mans disputed,  Herr  Miiller,  the  Chan- 
cellor, declaring  that  the  French  argu- 
ments seeking  to  justify  the  occupation 
were  but  a  flimsy  pretext  for  wanton 
aggression,  and  charging  the  French  with 
a  desire  to  disintegrate  Germany  by  seiz- 
ing the  gateways  between  the  north  and 
south.  A  formal  and  official  protest  was 
handed  to  the  French  Government  on  the 
same  day,  defending  Germany's  full  right 
to  suppress  the  Ruhr  disorders,  asserting 
that  the  French  fears  were  groundless, 
and  insisting  that  France,  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  itself,  could  take  action 
regarding  alleged  infractions  only  in 
union  with  the  other  allies.  Meanwhile 
the  French  troops  held  the  towns,  grimly 
awaiting  the  complete  evacuation  on 
which  the  Paris  Government  insisted. 

Martial  law  was  proclaimed  in  all  the 
cities  occupied.  In  Frankfort,  a  town 
of  considerable  size  and  importance,  the 
Moroccans  and  Senegalese,  who  had 
marched  down  the  long  Mainzerland- 
strasse  in  full  fighting  gear,  with  hel- 
mets and  rifles  ready  for  action,  were 
posted  at  close  intervals  throughout  the 
city,  every  signal  box  and  every  crossing 
and  bridge  being  occupied.  The  Senega- 
lese held  in  force  the  main  square  of  the 
city,  and  all  the  main  streets  were  com- 
manded by  machine  guns  and  auto  can- 
non. 

A  false  report  to  the  effect  that  Great 
Britain  and  Italy  demanded  immediate 
evacuation  had  tragic  consequences  on 
April  7.  According  to  an  official  report 
by  General  Demetz,  in  charge  at  Frank- 
fort, rioting  started  in  the  afternoon  be- 
fore the  Imperial  Hotel,  which  was  the 
French  headquarters.  Anti-French  prop- 
agandists jeered  the  French  colored 
soldiers  and  insulted  the  officers.  The 
French  troops  ordered  the  mob  to  stand 
aside,    and   when    they   continued    their 


234 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


menacing  attitude,  they  opened  fire. 
Three  men,  three  women  and  a  boy  were 
killed  and  several  wounded.  This  epi- 
sode aroused  great  excitement  in  Frank- 
fort; mobs  paraded  through  the  streets, 


GENERAL   DEGOUTTE 

Commander    of    French    forces    temporarily 

occupying    Frankfort    and    other 

German  cities 


and  several  clashes  occurred  on  the  fol- 
lowing day. 

ANGLO-FRENCH  RIFT 

Germany,  on  April  8,  supplemented  its 
protest  to  the  Allied  Council  by  a  formal 
appeal  to  the  League  of  Nations  to  inter- 
vene on  behalf  of  Germany  against 
France.  At  this  date  a  new  crisis  arose, 
this  time  between  the  French  and  Brit- 
ish Governments.  After  full  discussions 
between  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  M.  Paul 
Cambon,  the  French  Ambassador,  a 
Cabinet  council  was  held  in  London,  at 
which  the  French  policy  was  fully  ex- 
plained. Shortly  afterward  the  British 
Government  issued  a  statement  which 
completely  disavowed  France's  action, 
and  which  declared  that  France  had 
acted  entirely  on  her  own  initiative  in 
occupying  the  German  towns;  that  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  Italy  and 
Belgium   had    all   been   opposed   to   the 


plan,  and  that  France,  by  executing  it  on 
her  own  authority,  had  created  a  delicate 
situation,  responsibility  for  which  could 
not  be  shared  by  her  allies.  France's 
answer  to  Germany's  precipitate  in- 
vasion of  the  Ruhr  district  had  been  in 
effect  an  action  of  last  resort  reserved 
for  combined  action  by  all  the  'Allies. 
Great  Britain,  for  herself,  and  for  the 
other  allies,  declined  to  admit  that  the 
Ruhr  situation  necessitated  police  duty 
at  that  time:  should  this  become  im- 
perative, all  the  Allies  would  act  to- 
gether to  enforce  Germany's  compliance. 

This  note  was  followed  up  by  a 
notification  to  France  that  if  she  per- 
sisted in  acting  alone  in  measures  to  en- 
force the  treaty.  Great  Britain  would 
withdraw  her  'representative  from  the 
Committee  of  Ambassadors — the  official 
body  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the 
Versailles  Treaty.  This  note  produced 
a  serious  impression  upon  French  offi- 
cials. The  fact  that  Belgium  had  just 
come  out  in  approval  of  France's  action, 
even  offering  troops  to  aid  the  occupa- 
tion, accentuated  England's  admonitory 
attitude. 

M.  Millerand  at  once  replied  to  the 
British  note,  defending  the  course  that 
his  Government  had  followed.  A  series 
of  note  exchanges  followed  amidst  tense 
feeling,  reflected  in  the  press  of  both 
countries.  On  April  14  it  was  announced 
that  the  French  and  British  Governments 
had  finally  reached  an  agreement.  France, 
it  appeared,  had  pledged  herself  to  take 
no  further  action  without  the  full  consent 
of  her  allies,  and  had  also  promised  to 
withdraw  her  troops  from  the  occupied 
towns  as  soon  as  the  supplementary  Ger- 
man forces  had  evacuated  the  forbidden 
area.  The  period  for  complete  evacuation 
had  been  extended  from  April  10  for  one 
month.  The  British,  on  their  part,  had 
given  full  assurances  that  Germany's 
disarmament  would  be  insisted  upon. 
Further  discussion  of  the  Ruhr  situation, 
as  well  as  of  the  French  status  in  the 
British  evacuation  of  Constantinople, 
was  reserved  for  the  meeting  of  the 
Council  of  Allied  Ministers  at  San 
Remo,  Italy,  which  had  been  set  for 
April  19. 


II 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 


[Period  Ended  April  20,  1920] 


The  Presidential  Campaign 

IN  this  issue  of  Current  History 
appear  rotrogravure  portraits  of 
eight  widely  known  aspirants  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States,  viz.: 
Republican:  General  Leonard  Wood, 
Herbert  C.  Hoover,  Senator  Hiram 
Johnson  of  California,  Governor  Frank 
O.  Lowden  of  Illinois,  Senator  Warren 
G.  Harding  of  Ohio;  Democratic:  For- 
mer Secretary  of  the  Treasury  William 
G.  McAdoo,  Governor  E.  J.  Edwards  of 
New  Jersey  and  Attorney  General  A. 
Mitchell    Palmer. 

In  April  a  number  of  State  primary 
preferential  elections  were  held,  but 
they  showed  no  decisive  trend  toward 
any  candidate.  The  outstanding  devel- 
opment during  the  month  was  a  decla- 
ration by  Mr.  Hoover  that  he  was  a  can- 
didate only  as  a  Republican,  and  would 
not  accept  a  Democratic  nomination  or 
run  as  an  independent. 

Primaries  in  the  populous  States  of 
New  York,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wiscon- 
sin gave  no  indication  of  a  popular 
swing  toward  any  particular  aspirant. 
One  definite  result  of  the  primaries 
was  the  strengthening  of  the  candidacy 
of  Senator  Johnson,  in  that  his  vote  in 
the  States  named  was  larger  than  had 
been  expected. 

The  campaign  for  the  Republican 
nomination  became  more  active  as  the 
convention  day  (June  8,  at  Chicago) 
drew  nearer,  and  considerable  bitter- 
ness developed  among  the  various  can- 
didates. Enough  delegates  with  varied 
instructions  had  been  chosen  to  prevent 
a  nomination  on  the  first  ballot,  and 
there  was  every  indication  that  there 
would  be  a  sharp  contest  before  a  choice 
was.  made. 

The  Democratic  campaign  was  more 
impersonal.  Attorney  General  Palmer 
was  the  only  aspirant  who  was  making 
a  general  speaking  tour,  though  others 
were  seeking  votes  by  speeches  in  their 
own  States.  There  were  rumors  during 
the  month  that  President  Wilson,  if  his 


health  permitted,  would  in  the  end  accept 
a  third  term  nomination  in  order  per- 
sonally to  bring  the  Versailles  Peace 
Treaty  before  the  electorate;  it  was 
stated  that  if  his  physicians  forbade  this 
he  was  nevertheless  in  a  position  to  con- 
trol the  choice  of  the  Democratic  nom- 
inee. The  candidacy  of  Governor  Ed- 
wards was  avowedly  based  on  his  strong 
opposition  to  the  prohibition  amendment; 
on  this  issue  he  was  directly  combated 
by  William  Jennings  Bryan,  former  Sec- 
retary of  State,  who  received  a  number 
of  votes  in  the  various  primaries.  Will- 
iam G.  McAdoo,  former  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  declined  to  permit  his  name 
to  be  voted  upon  in  the  primaries,  the 
presumption  being  that  he  would  not 
actively  engage  in  the  campaign  until 
some  definite  announcement  was  made 
by  the  President  (Mrs.  McAdoo's 
father)  respecting  his  own  attitude. 


First   Woman   Member   of   the    Civil 
Service  Commission 

THE  first  woman  to  be  appointed  to 
the  office  of  United  States  Civil 
Service  Commissioner  was  nominated  by 
President  Wilson  on  March  22.  The  new 
incumbent  is  Mrs.  Helen  Hamilton 
Gardener  of  Washington.  She  succeeds 
Charles  M.  Galloway  of  South  Carolina, 
who,  with  Herman  Craven,  Republican, 
was  asked  by  President  Wilson  to  re- 
sign. Mr.  Galloway  had  stated  publicly 
that  he  and  Mr.  Craven  "  were  not  will- 
ing that  the  commission  should  be  a 
mere  adjunct  to  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment," and  subservient  to  it  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  Presidential  Postmasters. 

Mrs.  Gardener  was  born  in  Winches- 
ter, Va.,  in  1858,  the  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Alfred  G.  Chenoweth.  She  began  writing 
at  an  early  age  under  the  pen  name  of 
Helen  H.  Gardener,  and  subsequently  had 
this  name  legalized.  In  1901  she  married 
Colonel  Selden  Allen  Day  of  the  army, 
who  died  last  year.  She  has  been  active 
in  the  movement  for  woman  suffrage  and 
is    a    Vice    President    of    the    American 


236 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Suffrage  Association.  She  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Congressional  Committee 
of  this  organization,  and  is  a  counselor 
of  the  newly  formed  League  of  Woman 


MRS.   HELEN  HAMILTON  GATIDENER 
First  woman  member  of  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission 
(©    Harris    d   Eiving) 

Voters.     She  has  published  a  number  of 
novels  and  plays. 

Britain's  Bill  in  Paris 
TN  connection  with  the  bill  for  £503,388 
-■-  for  expenses  of  the  British  Peace 
Delegation  in  Paris,  which  was  pre- 
sented in  the  House  of  Commons  late  in 
March,  charges  were  made  that  the  Gov- 
ernment had  indulged  in  reckless  ex- 
travagance, and  Sir  Alfred  Mond,  First 
Commissioner  of  Works,  was  sharply 
questioned  regarding  the  three  items  of 
food,  champagne  and  dances.  He  dis- 
claimed responsibility  for  these,  as  well 
as  for  the  expense  of  clothing  and  type- 
writers. One  member  of  the  House  de- 
clared that  it  would  have  been  better  for 
the  British  delegates  to  go  to  bed  to 
think  over  the  business  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference than  to  indulge  in  champagne 
drinking  and  dancing,  but  that  if  they 
did  indulge  in  such  pleasures  they  should 
have  stood  the  expense  from  their  own 


pockets.  The  Government  representative 
admitted,  in  response  to  a  charge  that 
the  Government  had  maintained  "  huge 
staffs  in  Paris  hotels,"  that  the  British 
had  five  hotels  and  three  other  temporary 
abodes,  as  compared  with  the  Americans, 
who  had  only  one  hotel;  but  he  declared 
that  the  Americans  had  spent  even  more 
money  than  the  British.  The  total  staff 
of  the  British  delegation  was  524. 
*     *     * 

Mrs.  Humphry  Ward 

THE  death  of  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward, 
the  well-known  novelist,  occurred  at 
London  on  March  24.  Acute  heart 
trouble  was  given  as  the  cause  of  her 
death.  The  passing  of  Mrs.  Ward  was 
commented  upon  with  genuine  sorrow 
by  the  press  not  only  of  Great  Britain 
but  of  the  entire  English-speaking  world. 

Mrs.  Ward  was  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Thomas  Arnold,  second  son  of  the  fa- 
mous Arnold  of  Rugby.  Her  maiden 
name  was  Mary  Augusta  Arnold,  and 
she  was  born  in  New  Zealand  in  1851. 
When  her  father  was  forced  to  resign 
his  post  as  Inspector  of  Schools  for  Tas- 
mania because  of  his  conversion  to  Ca- 
tholicism, he  returned  to  England  with 
all  his  family  in  1856,  and  soon  received 
an  appointment  as  professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Dublin.  Part  of  the  earliest 
childhood  of  the  future  novelist  was 
thus  spent  in  Ireland,  amid  a  constant 
struggle  with  straitened  means.  Her 
father's  teaching  career  took  him  next 
to  Birmingham,  then  to  Oxford,  where, 
in  1872,  Miss  Arnold  met  and  married 
T.  Humphry  Ward,  then  a  fellow  at 
Brasenose  College. 

By  this  time  Mrs.  Ward  had  begun  her 
literary  career  by  contribution  to  minor 
journals.  Her  first  attempt  at  fiction 
was  a  child's  tale  published  in  1882.  A 
translation  of  Amiel's  "  Journal  Intime  " 
gave  her  inspiration  for  a  novel  which 
established  her  reputation  at  one  stroke 
— the  famous  "  Robert  Elsmere,"  begun 
in  1885,  but  not  published  until  1888. 
Before  its  publication  another  novel, 
"Miss  Bretherton,"  had  been  issued. 
"  Robert  Elsmere  "  had  an  unprecedent- 
ed success.  Mr.  Gladstone  reviewed  it  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century;  every  one  read 
and  discussed  it  with  the  greatest  ardor; 
by  some  critics  it  was  called  "  a  clever 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 


237 


attack  upon  revealed  religion,"  by  others, 
including  Mr.  Gladstone,  it  was  inter- 
preted as  an  attempt  to  get  rid  of  the 
supposed  lumber  of  Christian  theology. 
In  its  three- volume  form  the  book  ran 
through  seven  editions  in  five  months. 
Half  a  million  copies  have  been  sold  in 
America,  and  it  has  been  translated  into 
several  European  languages. 

There  followed  in  1892  "  The  History 
of  David  Grieve,"  and  in  1894  "  Mar- 
cella,"  which  ranks  next  to  "  Robert  Els- 
mere  "  in  popularity.  All  the  many 
later  novels,  from  "  Sir  George  Tres- 
sady"  (1896)  to  "Missing"  (1917), 
were  assured  of  a  wide  public  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America.  Besides  her  work 
as  a  novelist  Mrs.  Ward  had  an  im- 
portant place  as  a  settlement  worker  and 
a  student  of  social  conditions. 
*     *     * 

Bermondt  the  Adventurer 

ACCORDING    to    Russian    papers    of 
Novorossisk,  South  Russia,  the  real 
name  of   Colonel   Avalov-Bermondt,   the 
Russo-German    adventurer   who   led   the 
Courland    expedition    ostensibly    against 
the  Bolsheviki,   is   Bermant.     According 
to  these  accounts,  he  was  born  in  Eastern 
Siberia,     and     took     his     second     name, 
Avalov,   from   his   mother.     During   the 
Russo-Japanese  war  he  was  bandmaster 
to    one    of    the    regiments    quartered    in 
Siberia,  but  after  the  war  he  was  dis- 
missed   from    the    army    and    went    to 
Europe,  where  he  lived  both  in  Russia 
and  abroad.     During  the  European  war 
he  acted  as  Adjutant  to  General  Mish- 
chenko.     After  the  revolution  he  went  to 
the  Ukraine;  he  was  there  when  Skuro- 
padsky,  with  German  aid,  became  Het- 
man,  and  was  by  him  appointed  Acting 
Governor    of    the    town    of    Rovno.      A 
"  Southern  Russian  Army  "  was  formed 
by   the    Germans    in    the    Ukraine,    and 
Bermondt,  or  Bermant,  was  made  head 
of  its  secret  service.     When  the  Bolshe- 
viki arrived,  Bermondt  escaped  in  time 
and  went  to  Germany,  where  he  raised 
the  German-Russian  force  which  was  de- 
feated  so   disastrously  by   the   Letts   at 
Riga.     He  is  said  to  be  a  handsome  and 
energetic  man,  very  fond  of  self-praise 
and  flattery,  delighting  in  fine  phrases 
and  fond  of  creating  a  sensation.    While 


living  in  Petrograd  between  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war  and  the  conflict  of  1914, 
he  was  a  special  protege  of  Gregory 
Rasputin,  whose  influence  at  Court  en- 
abled Bermondt  to  escape  the  conse- 
quences of  many  of  his  escapades. 
*     *     * 

King  Hussein's  Banquet 

A  BANQUET  giveii  by  King  Hussein 
of  the  Hedjaz  to  Lord  Allenby,  the 
British  High  Commissioner,  as  described 
by  an  Arab  correspondent  of  The  Lon- 
don Times  on  March  2,  was  a  striking 
example  of  Oriental  magnificence.  After 
preliminary  visits  and  military  reviews, 
in  which  the  Bedouin  cavalry  dashed  by 
at  full  speed,  firing  their  rifles,  the  ban- 
quet was  held  in  true  Arab  style  in  the 
municipality  buildings  at  Jeddah.  On 
the  table,  which  was  eighteen  feet  broad 
by  thirty  feet  in  length,  barefooted 
waiters  dressed  in  rich  Arab  costumes 
walked  about  helping  the  guests,  seventy 
in  number,  to  slices  of  the  joints  of 
roasted  half -sheep  stuffed  with  almonds, 
rice  and  spices.  Each  guest  had  three 
or  four  plates,  and  was  surrounded  by 
some  twenty  or  thirty  dishes  of  salads, 
fish,  roasted  chickens,  pilaff  of  mutton 
and  sweets  of  all  descriptions.  The 
King's  band  of  musicians  played 
throughout  the  banquet.  At  the  end  of 
the  feast  the  King's  servants  handed 
round  silver  basins  with  ewers  of  scented 
water  for  the  guests  to  wash  their  hands 
in.  Coffee  was  served  in  another  room 
while  guests  of  a  lower  degree  sat  down 
at  the  banqueting  table.  The  remnants 
of  the  feast,  which  were  considerable, 
were  distributed  among  the  inhabitants 
of  Jeddah  and  the  crews  of  the  British 
ships  at  anchor  in  the  harbor. 
*  *  * 
Crime  Wave  in  Germany 

THE  increasing  wave  of  crime  in 
Germany,  by  which  acts  of  violence 
connected  with  highway  robbery  and 
burglary  surpassed  all  former  records, 
was  attributed  by  an  Oberregierungsrat 
of  the  Berlin  criminal  police  to  the  bad 
influence  of  army  life  during  the  war. 
This  official  said: 

The  crime  wave  is,  of  course,  colossal. 
To  speak  of  a  huge  increase  is  not  mere 
sensationalism.  But  there  are  no  new- 
varieties    of    crime,    only    the    old    crimes 


238 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


committed  in  greater  number  and  with 
added  violence.  *  *  *  You  can't  expect 
anything  else  after  a  war.  People  have 
grown  used  to  violence  and  think  little  of 
it.  *  *  *  Our  young  men  have  been' 
terribly  demoralized  by  four  years  of  war, 
followed  by  revolution  and  social  misery. 
The  country  is  full  of  desperadoes.  Many 
of  those  who  come  before  me  must  have 
been  refined  and  decent  fellows  before  the 
war,  but  are  now  nervous  wrecks,  with 
all  their  moral  stamina  gone,  careless  of 
life  and  thinking  nothing  of  murdering 
another  man  for  the  sake  of  a  few  marks. 

From  another  source  it  was  gathered 
that  carpets  had  become  the  special  de- 
sire of  thieves,  owing  to  their  immense 
rise  in  value.  Thus  Persian  carpets, 
which  before  the  war  cost  36  marks  a 
square  foot,  now  sold  for  between  2,000 
and  3,000  marks.  It  had  also  become 
necessary  to  establish  a  special  depart- 
ment at  Police  Headquarters  to  deal  with 
typewriter  and  automobile  stealing. 
While  last  year  ten  or  twelve  typewrit- 
ers were  reported  stolen  daily  during 
the  months  of  January  and  February, 
this  year  over  1,200  machines  disap- 
peared in  that  period.  Police  statistics 
show  that  thefts  from  hotels  have  treb- 
led in  number,  and  murders  and  other 
crimes  accompanied  by  violence  increased 
about  400  per  cent,  in  1919  as  compared 
with  the  previous  year. 


Socialist  society,  and  we  live  in  an  age  of 
transition. 

The  marriage  law  is  not  only  a  means 
of  counteracting  clerical-religious  influ- 
ences upon  the  people.  That  law  is  revo- 
lutionary and  socialist.  It  sweeps  away 
all  the  patriarchal  and  feudal  hindrances 
to  marriage,  differences  of  religion,  re- 
ligious prohibitions,  &c.  It  establishes 
complete  equality  between  man  and 
woman,  in  so  far  as  this  depends  upon 
the  provisions  of  the  marriage  law.  It 
does  not  make  the  aim  of  marriage  to  be 
the  birth  of  children.  The  family  is 
based,  not  upon  marriage,  as  it  was 
formerly,  but  upon  actual  parentage.  It 
establishes  complete  freedom  of  divorce, 
thus  refraining  from  making  marriage  a 
lifelong  institution.  In  a  word,  every  day 
of  the  existence  of  these  marriage  laws 
is  an  assault  upon  the  individualist  view 
of  marriage,  "  the  legal  fettering  of  hus- 
band and  wife." 

In  the  province  of  family  law  our  first 
code  rejects  all  fictions,  places  in  the  fore- 
ground the  true  state  of  affairs,  actual 
parentage ;  accustoms  people  to  truth-tell- 
ing, frees  them  from  superstitions,  not  in 
words,  but  in  fact ;  places  all  the  children 
on  an  equal  footing  as  regards  their 
rights,  without  distinction  of  birth,  and 
enables  them  easily  to  make  use  of  this 
equality. 

The  Soviet  marriage  law  requires  a 
wife  to  support  an  ill  or  helpless  hus- 
band, if  she  continues  to  live  with  him, 
as  explicitly  as  it  requires  a  husband  to 
support  an  invalid  wife. 


Marriage  Under  Soviet  Law 

THE  preface  to  the  new  code  of  mar- 
riage laws  promulgated  by  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  Government,  as  published  in 
translation  by  the  Contemporary  Review 
for  March,  throws  light  upon  the  Bolshe- 
vist ideas  of  marriage.  This  official 
preface  and  explanation  was  written  by 
Alexander  Hoichbarg,  chief  editor  of  the 
Law  Bureau.  The  portion  dealing  with 
registration,  marriage  and  the  future  of 
children  is  given  in  summary  below: 

Certain  principles  of  this  code— for  in- 
stance, those  of  the  marriage  law— may 
at  first  sight  not  appear  socialistic.  Espe- 
cially lively  criticism  has  been  leveled  at 
the  institution  of  registration  of  mar- 
riages by  the  civil  authorities  (the  Soviet). 
"  Registration  of  marriage,  official  mar- 
riage—what kind  of  socialism  is  that?" 
people  cried.  No  registration  is  necessary. 
Indeed,  in  a  socialist  society,  to  use  the 
expression  of  Kautsky,  the  legal  fettering 
of  husband  and  wife  becomes  useless.  But 
that  is   the   case   in   a  firmly   established 


Middle  Class  Union  in  France 

FOLLOWING  closely  on  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Middle  Class  Union  in 
Great  Britain,  whose  manifesto  was 
noted  in  the  March  issue  of  Current 
History,  a  similar  union  in  France  was 
announced  in  Paris  on  March  10.  The 
name  chosen  for  the  new  body  is  "  Les 
Compagnons  de  I'lntelligence,"  and  its 
manifesto  is  signed  by  a  large  number 
of  eminent  men,  headed  by  M.  Louis 
Barthou,  and  including  men  well  known 
in  artistic,  technical  and  professional 
fields.  The  manifesto  opens  by  stating 
that  intelligence  is  in  danger  because  the 
middle  classes  are  threatened  by  the 
power  of  money,  on  the  one  hand,  and  by 
the  power  of  numbers  on  the  other.  It 
protests  against  the  false  doctrine  that 
regards  manual  labor  as  the  generator 
of  all  wealth,  and  that  denies  the  vital 
importance  of  management,  technical 
skill  and  invention. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 

)urvey  pf  Important  Events   and  Developments  in  Various 
Countries  in  Both  Hemispheres 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 

[For  alphabetical  index  of  countries  see  Table  of  Contents'} 

The  British  Empire's  Knotty  Problems 


UNITED  KINGDOM 

A  LTHOUGH  by  the  middle  of  the 
/\  month  no  agreement  had  been 
4  \  reached  between  the  British  Gov- 
ernment and  the  National  Union 
of  Railway  Men,  the  Coal  Miners  Fed- 
eration on  April  15,  by  a  majority  of 
65,135  out*  of  a  total  vote  of  820,000, 
accepted  the  Government's  proposal  of 
2  shirings  increase  per  diem,  when 
they  had  asked  for  3.  Thus  of  the 
two  serious  national  disputes  which 
actually  threatened  the  life  of  the  United 
Kingdom  the*  less  serious  was  settled. 
The  coal  production  in  the  week  preced- 
ing the  settlement  was  about  what  it 
was  for  the  corresponding  week  of  last 
year— 4,800,000  tons.  The  lowest  week 
was  for  July  26,  when  it  sank  to  2,- 
537,954.  If  the  demands  of  the  miners 
had  been  accepted  it  would  have  cost 
the  nation  £45,000,000  more  annually. 

The  revenue  returns  for  the  final 
quarter  of  the  year  ended  March  31 
maintained  buoyancy  to  the  close.  For 
the  first  quarter  of  the  year  there  was 
an  increase  of  £30,000,000;  for  the  sec- 
ond quarter  the  expansion  was  £86,- 
000,000;  for  the  third  quarter  there  was 
a  growth  of  £72,000,000;  and  for  the  last 
quarter  of  the  year  the  expansion  was 
no  less  than  £263,000,000,  making  a  total 
increase  for  the  year  of  £450,000,000,  as 
compared  with  the  Chancellor's  original 
estimate  of  an  increase  of  £312,000,000. 
The  position  for  the  year  may  be  briefly 
stated  as  follows: 

RESULTS  FOR  1919-20 

Ordinary  revenue    £1,339,571,381 

Expenditure   chargeable 
against   revenue    1,665,772,928 


Deficit     £326,201.547 

First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  Long  is- 
sued the  naval  estimates  for  1920-21  in 


the  form  of  a  White  Paper  on  March  15; 
they  totaled  £84,372,300,  as  against 
£157,528,810  and  the  maximum  £334,- 
091,227  in  1919-20  and  1918-19,  re- 
spectively. 

On  March  26  the  War  Office  an- 
nounced that  the  rank  of  Brigadier  Gen- 
eral would  be  abolished  with  the  passing 
of  the  Annual  Ai-my  act. 

On  March  19  an  official  announcement 
was  made  of  the  appointment  of  Thomas 
J.  McNamara,  Parliamentary  Secretary 
to  the  Admiralty,  to  the  portfolio  of 
Minister  of  Labor,  in  succession  to  Sir 
Robert  Stevenson  Home.  Sir  Robert  be- 
came President  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
succeeding  Sir  Albert  Stanley.  Charles 
A.  McCurdy,  then  Secretary  to  the  Min- 
istry of  Food,  was  appointed  Minister  of 
Food.  Mr.  McCurdy  succeeded  George 
H.  Roberts,  who  resigned  as  Food  Min- 
ister early  in  February. 

According   to    speeches   made   by    op- 
posing  leaders    in   the    House   of    Com- 
mons, the  future  of  the  Coalition  Gov- 
ernment was  reposed  in  the  principle  of 
co-operation,    not    of    fusion,    while    the 
new  Opposition,  led  by  former  Premier 
Asquith,     ridiculed     co-operation,     reas- 
serted that  its  aim  was  fusion,  and  that 
the  time  had  come  for  the  Unionists  and 
Liberals  to  stand  or  fall  on  their  own 
party  programs.     In  a  speech  delivered 
by   the   Prime   Minister   before   the   Co- 
alition  Liberal   members   of   Parliament 
on     March     18,     some     of     Mr.     Lloyd 
George's  more  striking  phrases  were: 
A  real  danger  would  be  that  in  a  con- 
flict between    Unionists   and   Liberals   the 
Socialists  would  snatch  a  temporary  ma- 
jority,   and  a  temporary  majority  now  is 
enough    to   do    the   mischief. 

I  want  to  see  more  co-operation,  closer 
co-operation,  between  all  those  who  have 
a  common  purpose.    Unless  you  do  it  the 


240 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


forces  of  anarchy,  the  forces  of  subver- 
sion will  inevitably  triumph.  You  cannot 
trust  to  luck. 

The  wild  gamble  of  socialism,  if  the 
experiment  is  tried  :in  this  country,  will 
fail.  But  the  experiment  will  be  harm- 
ful, because  commercial  wealth  and  pros- 
perity, once  they  depart,  very  rarely 
come  back  again.     So  our  peril  is  great. 

CANADA 

It  is  officially  announced  that,  owing 
to  heavy  financial  commitments  and 
pending  a  decision  as  to  the  British  Em- 
pire's naval  policy,  Canada  will  not  en- 
ter upon  the  upbuilding  of  a  large  naval 
establishment.  In  the  interim  she  will  ac- 
cept from  the  British  Admiralty  one  light 
cruiser  and  two  destroyers,  all  of  mod- 
ern type,  for  training  purposes.  These 
will  displace  the  obsolete  Rainbow  and 
Niobe,  cruisers  obtained  from  Britain 
some  time  before  the  war,  and  formerly 
used  for  the  training  of  men  who  wanted 
to  enter  the  naval  service. 

So  far  as  is  publicly  known  it  is  still 
the  intention  of  the  British  Government 
to  call  an  empire  conference,  to  be  held 
in  London  this  Spring.  The  constitution- 
al relationships  of  the  empire  will  be  dis- 
cussed, as  well  as  matters  relative  to 
defense.  Unofficially  the  opinion  is  ex- 
pressed in  well-informed  quarters  that 
Canada's  future  policy  respecting  naval 
matters  will  be  largely  shaped  by  the  in- 
formation presented  in  the  course  of  the 
discussions.  To  what  extent  this  policy 
will  be  affected  by  the  naval  expansion 
plans  of  the  United  States  remains  to  be 
seen. 

The  Government  has  agreed  upon  the 
plans  for  the  formation  of  the  Canadian 
Air  Force  as  part  of  the  country's  de- 
fense system.  It  will  be  confined  for  the 
present  to  an  enlistment  of  5,000  officers 
and  men  from  the  many  thousands  of 
Canadians  who  served  with  the  imperial 
air  force,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  by 
arrangement  with  the  British  authori- 
ties received  their  training  in  camps  in 
Canada.  The  permanent  personnel  will 
be  very  small.  One  month's  training  in 
each  year  will  be  given,  except  in  the 
case  of  those  who  wish  to  qualify  for  su- 
perior commands,  and  who  pass  the  nec- 
essary preliminaries.  Camp  Borden,  in 
Ontario,  where  there  is  a  million  dollars* 


worth  of  British  equipment,  has  been 
taken  over  as  the  first  traininr:  r^round. 
A  number  of  British  machines  Lave  al- 
ready arrived,  and  some  of  tho  h;'.est  and 
fastest  models  are  on  the  way  for  the 
new  force.  Enlistments,  it  is  announced, 
are  coming  in  at  the  rate  of  between 
fifty  and  sixty  per  day. 

By-elections  in  debatable  constituencies 
continue  to  go  against  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. Angus  McDonald,  a  labor- 
farmer  candidate,  was  elected  for  the 
Temiskaming  riding,  formerly  represent- 
ed in  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  Hon. 
Frank  Cochrane,  once  Minister  of  Rail- 
ways, who  died  recently.  The  Govern- 
ment candidate  was  second,  and  the  Lib- 
eral Opposition  candidate  third.  The  rid- 
ing includes  a  number  of  gold  and  silver 
mining  centres,  where  the  labor  element 
is  strong. 

The  Ontario  Legislature  is  debating 
measures  to  strengthen  the  prohibition 
laws.  It  is  expected  that  it  will  ask  the 
Dominion  (Federal)  Government  to  al- 
low the  taking  of  a  plebiscite  on  the 
prevention  of  the  importation  into  On- 
tario of  liquor  for  private  residences 
from  Quebec  Province  or  any  other  place. 
Of  itself  the  Legislature  will  probably 
pass  a  law  forbidding  "  short  circuiting," 
that  is,  the  ordering  of  liquor  in  Quebec 
and  the  supplying  of  it  from  distilleries 
and  warehouses  in  Ontario. 

Anticipatory  interest  in  the  details  of 
the  reported  amalgamation  of  the  lead- 
ing steel,  coal,  shipbuilding  and  steam- 
ship companies  of  Canada  is  keen.  Re- 
port places  the  Dominion  Steel  Corpora- 
tion, the  Nova  Scotia  Steel  and  Coal 
Company  and  the  Canada  Steamship 
Company  in  the  merger  which,  it  is  said, 
is  to  include  concerns  in  Britain  and 
Australia.  The  Canadian  companies 
named,  if  combined,  would  make  the  new 
concern,  next  to  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway,  the  largest  corporation  in  Can- 
ada. A  gigantic  shipbuilding  program 
for  the  Dominion  and  the  supplying  of 
steel  plates  for  a  much  wider  market  is 
said  to  be  part  of  the  initial  plans  of 
the  company  to  be  formed. 

AUSTRALIA 

Australia  is  gradually  changing  her 
attitude  on  economic  and  labor  questions. 


'HE  BRITISH  EMPIRE'S  KNOTTY  PROBLEMS 


241 


I 


The  United  Chambers  of  Commerce  re- 
cently urged  that  in  view  of  the  unsatis- 
factory experience  of  compulsory  arbi- 
tration some  means  of  obtaining  more 
satisfactory  relations  between  capital  and 
labor  be  sought,  and  asked  the  Govern- 
ment to  arrange  conferences  between  em- 
ployers and  employes  to  this  end.  Com- 
pulsory arbitration  has  long  been  re- 
garded as  a  failure  by  both. 

Parliament  is  considering  tariff  in- 
creases varying  from  5  to  20  per  cent, 
on  more  than  500  items.  Countries 
agreeing  to  reciprocity  are  to  have  fa- 
vored treatment.  To  keep  a  large  supply 
of  wool  for  home  consumption  the  ex- 
port of  tweeds  and  other  materials  has 
been  forbidden  except  under  license. 

After  a  trial  of  sixty-five  years  the 
State  of  Victoria  has  abolished  its  com- 
pulsory vaccination  laws.  In  New  South 
Wales  the  population  has  just  reached 
the  2,000,000  mark,  according  to  the  Gov- 
ernment statistician.  More  than  half  the 
population  is  in  Sydney  and  other  towns. 

The  destroyer  flotilla  presented  by 
Great  Britain  to  Australia  was  expected 
to  arrive  in  Sydney  on  April  25,  Anzac 
Day.  The  crews  will  serve  in  the  Austra- 
lian Navy  for  two  years.  The  British 
Navy,  nevertheless,  is  likely  to  remain  for 
some  years  to  come  the  bulwark  of  de- 
fense, in  the  opinion  of  Sir  Joseph  Cook, 
Commonwealth  Minister  of  the  Navy. 

NEW  ZEALAND 

New  Zealand  is  having  trouble  with 
profiteers.  Recently  the  embargo  on  the 
export  of  hides  was  removed  and  prices 
advanced  from  50  to  100  per  cent,  above 
those  previously  fixed  by  Government. 
In  Napier  the  Headmasters  of  schools 
advised  their  pupils  to  attend  barefoot  in 
protest  against  the  i-.creased  cost  of 
shoes.  Dearer  bread  has  caused  the 
Government  to  set  a  minimum  price  of 
7s.  3d.  a  bushel  on  wheat.  The  present 
scarcity  is  due  to  the  fact  that  farmers 
have  found  it  more  profitable  to  raise 
sheep  and  cattle,  and  there  has  been  a 
steady  decrease  in  wheat  acreage  for  the 
last  five  years.  This  season's  acreage 
is  estimated  at  142,960,  about  two-thirds 
of  the  previous  sen  son. 

The  British  Imperial  Government  has 
notified  New  Zealand  that  it  will  not  re- 


new its  contract,  expiring  July  1,  to  take 
over  frozen  meat  and  wool.  There  will 
thus  be  available  about  600,000  bales  of 
wool,  for  a  portion  of  which  New 
Zealand  producers  are  seeking  a  market. 
New  Zealand  has  accepted  the  man- 
date for  German  Samoa,  which  she  has 
been  administering  since  1915,  and  which 
is  to  be  known  as  the  "Territory  of  West- 
ern Samoa."  Natives  and  white  resi- 
dents are  demanding  a  plebiscite,  saying 
they  have  suffered  from  four  years  of 
misrule  and  would  prefer  to  be  incor- 
porated with  American  Samoa. 

EGYPT 

The  Milner  Mission  finished  its  work 
and  went  home,  and,  although  the  report 
of  its  investigations  in  Egypt  will  not  be 
published  until  its  appearance  in  the 
form  of  a  White  Paper,  the  press  of 
Egypt  has  been  permitted  to  outline 
its  observations  and  suggestions  for  re- 
forms. The  official  summary  reads  in 
part; 

The  Egypt  which  the  Milner  Mission 
adumbrates  will  have  its  Sultan  as  titular 
head  of  the  Government,  its  Council  of 
Ministers  and  its  Chamber,  or,  rather, 
Chambers,  because  it  is  believed  that  a 
return  to  the  bicameral  system,  which 
was  in  vogue  till  Lord  Kitchener's 
"  reign,"  is  recommended.  The  upper 
house  will  consist  of  members  partly 
elected  indirectly  and  partly  nominated 
by  the  Government,  the  latter  not  being 
more  than  25  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  The 
lower  house   will   be  entirely  elected. 

The  "Parliament"  will  not  have  con- 
trol over  the  Ministry,  for  the  Ministers, 
as  now,  will  be  appointed  by  the  Sultan, 
nor  will  it  have  power  to  stop  existing 
sources  of  revenue.  Additional  direct 
taxation,  however,  must  be  agreed  to  by 
the   Chambers. 

The  powers   of  the   proposed   Chambers 
will  not  be  those  of  a  sovereign  assembly. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  make  them  so. 
But  they  will  have  every  chance  to  make 
good.     If  they  have  the  ability  they  will 
indubitably  control  the  Ministry. 
Great  Britain  will  control  the  finances 
and    the    Suez    Canal    and    maintain    a 
naval  base  at  Alexandria.   There  will  be 
a  thorough  remodeling  of  the  Egyptian 
Government  and  a  sweeping  reduction  of 
British    officials.     This    is    expected    to 
satisfy  the  majority  of  educated  Egyp- 
tians and  to  go  far  toward  anticipating 
the    wishes    of    the    Nationalist    Party, 
headed  by  Zaglul  Pasha.     Fifty-two  of 


242 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


the  sixty-six  elected  members  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly  gathered  at  Zag- 
lul's  house  on  March  10  and  passed  a 
resolution  declaring  the  British  pro- 
tectorate null  and  void  and  proclaiming 
independence.  The  thanks  of  the  meet- 
ing were  cabled  to  Zaglul  Pasha,  who 
was  in  Paris,  for  advocating  their  cause 
before  the  members  of  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. Meantime,  General  Allenby  is 
maintaining  order  in  Egypt  through 
martial  law,  while  awaiting  the  result  of 
Lord  Milner's  mission. 

TRIPOLI 

[ITALIAN] 

Italy  has  begun  preparations  for  es- 
tablishing a  Parliament  in  her  colony  of 
Libya,  or  Tripoli  and  Cyrenaica,  which 
she  annexed  in  1912  as  a  result  of  the 
war  with  Turkey.  The  process  is  slow 
owing  to  the  obstacles  which  have  to  be 
overcome  in  a  country  that  has  never 
before  enjoyed  such  privileges.  The  re- 
call of  many  of  the  Italian  troops  has  en- 
couraged natives  of  the  hinterland  to 
rebel  under  the  leadership  of  Radaman 
el  Sceteui,  a  chief  who  has  never  recog- 
nized Italian  authority. 

SOUTH  AFRICA 

The  South  African  Parliament  met  on 
March  18,  the  Premier,  General  J.  G. 
Smuts,  with  the  help  of  the  Unionists 
and  Independents,  having  a  majority  of 
four.  Parties  are  thus  dividec*  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  elections:  Nationalists,  43; 
South  Afri.an  party  (Smuts),  40; 
Unionists,  25;  Labor,  21;  Independents, 
3,  with  two  vacancies.  General  Smuts 
announced  as  among  the  subjects  to  be 
discussed  the  questions  of  profiteering, 
of  securing  fair  rents,  dealing  with  the 
housing  problem,  establishing  industrial 
councils  and  regulating  wages  and  con- 
ditions of  labor,  railway  construction, 
irrigation  and  land  settlement.  He  can 
count  on  the  support  of  many  of  the 
labor  members.  The  Nationalists,  who 
are  the  most  numerous  party,  favor 
separation  from  the  "^ritish  Empire. 
General  Christian  de  Wet,  one  of  their 
leaders,  in  a  speech  at  Pretoria  on  March 
31  declared  that  ,his  party  would  persist 


in  pleading  with  Great  Britain  for  inde- 
pendence until  she  became  so  tired  of 
them  she  would  say:  "  Go,  form  your 
own  Government." 

INDIA 

Advices  from  Delhi,  dated  March  22, 
noted  great  preparations  being  made  in 
India  for  the  reception  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  in  May. 

In  anticipation  of  the  Hunter  report 
on  the  Punjab  riots  of  April,  1919,  which 
is  understood  to  justify  the  methods  used 
by  the  military  in  order  to  suppress 
them,  the  special  commission  appointed 
by  the  Indian  National  Congress  com- 
pleted its  report  in  three  volumes  and 
published  them  in  Delhi  on  March  23. 
According  to  the  digest  published  in  The 
London  Times: 

After  tracing  the  course  of  events  and 
describing-  the  policy  of  Sir  Michael 
O'Dwyer's  administration,  the  Rowlatt 
acts  and  the  Satyagraha  agitation,  the 
commission  states  that  the  arrest  of  Mr. 
Gandhi  and  the  deportation  of  Dr. 
Kitchlew  and  Dr.  Satyapal  were  respon- 
sible for  the  first  outbreaks,  and  con- 
demns these  acts  of  the  Punjab  Govern- 
ment as  uncalled  for,  saying  "  They  were 
like  matches  applied  to  inflammable  ma- 
terial." 

The  Central  Government  is  blamed  and 
the  Viceroy  accused  of  not  taking  the 
trouble  to  examine  the  people's  case,  of 
supporting  the  Punjab  Government  with- 
out inquiry,  and  of  hastily  incf-^mnifying 
officials.  The  commission's  report  states 
that  Lord  Chelmsford  has  proved  himself 
incapable  of  holding  his  high  office  and 
demands  his  recall.  It  declares  that  no 
conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  British  Gov- 
ernment was  proved.  It  insists  that  the 
Satyagraha  and  Rowlatt  acts  agitation 
were  not  anti-British,  and  that  the  facts 
made  public  did  not  justify  martial  law. 

The  "  Government  excesses  "  are  con- 
demned, as  are  equally  the  excesses  of 
the  mob.  The  Jallianwala  Bagh  affair 
(Amritsar)  is  described  as  "  a  calculated 
piece  of  inhumanity  unparalleled  in  fe- 
rocity." 

The  report  demands  that  Sir  Michael 
O'Dwyer,  General  Dyer,  Colonel  Frank 
Johnson,  Colonel  O'Brien  and  Mr.  Bos- 
worth  Smith  (Deputy  Commissioner  of 
the  Punjab)  and  two  Indians  should  be 
relieved  of  their  offices  under  the  Crown. 
Finally  the  repeal  of  the  Rowlatt  acts  and 
the  punishment  of  certain  minor  Indian 
officials  are  demanded. 


Constitutional  Crisis  in  Denmark 

Fall  of  the  Zahle  Cabinet 


DENMARK  was  on'  the  verge  of  an 
anti-monarchical  revolution.  The 
plebiscite  held  in  February  in  the 
first  Slesvig  zone  produced,  as  a  fore- 
gone conclusion,  a  large  majority  for 
union  with  Denmark;  but  the  plebiscite 
held  in  March  in  the  second  zone  pro- 


FORMER  PRIME  MINISTER  ZAHLE 

Whom  King  Christian  wus  forced  to  dismiss 

by   the   labor  parties'   general  strike 

<(S)    Underwood  &   Underwood) 


duced  an  even  larger  majority  in  favor 
of  German  nationality.  It  was  then 
charged  that  the  Zahle  Government, 
while  remaining  passive  during  the  first 
plebiscite,  had  actually  connived  at  pro- 
ducing the  German  majority  in  the  sec- 
ond. One  astonishing  result  of  the  vote 
in  the  second  zone  was  that  the  im- 
portant commercial  City  of  Flensburg, 
which  all  through  the  Prussian  adminis- 
tration of  fifty-four  years  was  supposed 
to  have  preserved  its  Danish  character, 
registered  an  overwhelming  German  vote. 
Beginning  the  last  week  in  March 
there  then  ensued  a  series  of  events  which 
produced  two  Ministries,  brought  the 
labor  forces  in  open  conflict  with  the 
Socialist,  produced  a  general  strike,  and 


at  one  time  threatened  the  supplanting 
of  the  monarchy  by  a  republic. 

For  seven  years  the  causes  of  conflict 
had  remained  dormant;  it  only  needed 
the  plebiscite  of  the  second  zone  to 
bring  them  into  activity.  From  the  first 
the  Government,  dominated  by  the  Radi- 
cal, C.  T.  Zahle,  since  1913,  had  been 
openly  opposed  to  bringing  any  popula- 
tions into  the  realm  which  were  not  en- 
tirely Danish.  For  this  reason  it  de- 
clined to  entertain  the  idea  of  a  plebi- 
scite in  the  third,  or  Southern,  zone,  and 
so  expressed  itself  to  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. It  feared  an  addition  to  the  Con- 
servative and  reactionary  political  forces 
of  the  kingdom,  which  might  undo  the 
results  of  the  movement  to  deprive  the 
King  of  many  of  his  prerogatives  em- 
bodied in  the  Constitution  of  1849. 
Some  of  these  had  been  taken  away  by 
amendments  adopted  in  1855,  1863  and 
1866;  but  the  most  drastic  came  in  1914, 
when  the  Zahle  Government,  then  scarce- 
ly a  year  in  office,  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  suffrage  reform,  an  extension  of 
membership  in  the  Folkething,  or  lower 
house,  and  a  reorganization  of  the 
Landsthing,  or  upper  house,  which  pro- 
duced in  both  houses  a  large  Radical 
and  Socialist  membership. 

Throughout  the  war,  while  King 
Christian  X.  and  a  majority  of  the  Danes 
were  enthusiastically  anti-German,  the 
Government  of  Premier  Zahle  and  Par- 
liament remained  neutral,  with  strong 
German  sympathies.  Since  the  armistice, 
however,  the  Zahle  attitude  toward  Sles- 
vig had  caused  it  to  lose  its  great  ma- 
jority, until,  after  the  vote  in  the  second 
zone,  it  could  only  summon  a  plurality 
of  four  in  the  lower  house.  The  King 
and  the  Consei-vatives  by  these  deflec- 
tions measurably  augmented  their 
strength  on  patriotic  and  pan-Danish 
lines. 

On  March  27  the  King  demanded  the 
resignation  of  the  Government,  on  the 
ground  of  its  "  unpatriotic "  attitude, 
and  called  the  Liberal  leader,  M.  Neer- 


244 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


gaard,  to  form  a  new  Cabinet.  There- 
upon a  Socialist  delegation  waited  upon 
the  King  and  demanded  the  reinstate- 
ment of  the  Zahle  Government,  while 
progressive  party  leaders  in  a  manifesto 
declared  that  the  alternative  was  the 
proclamation  of  a  republic.  The  King 
flatly  refused  to  reinstate  the  Zahle 
Government,  and,  as  M.  Neergaard  could 
not  command  a  majority,  he  appealed  to 
M.  Liebe,  a  Supreme  Court  official,  who 
was  not  a  member  of  Parliament,  to 
form  a  non-political  Cabinet  whose  chief 
function  should  be  the  issuing  of  writs 
for  the  elections  to  the  Folke thing  and 
directing  affairs  until  the  elections 
should  have  taken  place.  M.  Liebe 
finally  got  together  with  the  King's 
mandate  the  following  slate: 
Otto  Liebe.. 

Premier  and  Minister  of  Justice 
Commander  Konow.  .Minister  of  Defense 
De    Grevenkop-Castenskiold. . 

Foreign    Affairs 

Professor    Rovsing- Education 

State    Councilor   Monberg Traffic 

M.  Oxholm Interior  and  Agriculture 

M.   Hjerl-Hansen , Finance 

The  Rev.  Hass Public  Worship 

M.  Svenson Trade 

The  action  of  King  Christian  was  se- 
verely censured  in  the  Socialist  and  Rad- 
ical press.  It  was  called  "  Unconstitu- 
tional "  and  "  Christian  X.'s  Coup  d  Etat," 
and  the  Kapp  coup  in  Berlin  was  used 
against  it.  In  the  towns  opinion  was 
about  evenly  divided.  In  the  country  dis- 
tricts there  were  enthusiastic  demon- 
strations in  favor  of  the  King.  His  reply 
to  his  critics  was  that  as  the  lead- 
ers of  Parliament  had  shown  that  the 
Zahle  Ministry  no  longer  possessed 
a  majority,  he  had  been  obliged  to  dis- 
solve it  and  await  the  results  of  the 
elections;  meanwhile  he  had  appointed  a 
non-political  Government  to  keep  the  ma- 
chinery going. 

On  March  31  the  (Socialist)  Trade 
Union  Congress  declared  a  general  strike 
— the  water,  gas  and  electric  services 
only  being  excepted — to  take  effect  April 
6.  All  parties  except  the  radical  Social- 
ists issued  proclamations  to  the  voters 
urging  them  to  stand  loyally  by  the  King 
and  the  new  Cabinet.  The  radical  Social- 
ists, however,  issued  a  proclamation,  al- 
leging that  a  coup  was  being  planned  for 
the  annexation  of  Flensburg. 


Against  the  impending  strike  danger 
all  the  troops  in  Copenhagen  were  sei-ved 
with  ball  cartridges  on  April  1,  and  the 
Cabinet  issued  a  call  for  all  the  enlisted 
men  not  then  in  service,  to  have  them 
ready  for  the  occupation  of  the  Flens- 
burg zone;  these  men  were  to  assemble 


JOSEPH    CLARK    GREW 

Newly   appointed    United  States  Minister  to 

Denmark 

(©    Harris   &   Ewing) 

on  April  6,  when  the  strike  was  to  cul- 
minate. All  classes  of  the  population 
began  to  hoard  food,  petroleum,  candy 
and  water.  The  police  kept  the  situation 
well  in  hand. 

On  April  2  Premier  Liebe  summoned 
the  Folkething  to  assemble  on  April  14 
for  dissolution  on  April  21,  and  an- 
nounced that  elections  would  be  held  on 
April  28.  On  April  2,  also,  delegates 
from  Flensburg  appeared  before  the 
Liebe  Government  in  Copenhagen  and 
the  International  Commission  at  Paris 
demanding  that  the  city  should  not  be 
"handed  over  to  the  Prussians."  Labor 
manifestos  from  the  same  place  were 
addressed  to  the  Socialist  leaders  in  Den- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CRISI 


245 


mark  declaring  that  the  threatened  strike 
should  not  be  employed  "  to  restore 
Flensburg  to  Germany." 

Nevertheless,  the  general  strike,  op- 
posed by  local  labor  groups,  was  declared 
and  proceeded,  gaining  much  moral  sup- 
port from  the  similar  means  which  had 
been  used  to  paralyze  the  Kapp  coup  in 
Berlin.  On  the  night  of  April  3-4  the 
King  held  negotiations  with  the  Parlia- 
mentary leaders,  with  the  result  that  the 
general  strike  was  called  off,  the  LieFe 
Government  resigned,  and  M.  Friis,  for- 
mer Director  of  the  Ministry  of  Justice, 
accepted  the  Premiership  and  assembled 
the  following  Cabinet,  the  members  of 
which  were  said  to  be  opposed  to  the 
King's  action  in  dissolving  the  Zahle 
Government : 

M.  Friis— Premier  and  Minister  of  Defense 

Oscar    Scavenius Foreign   Affairs 

M.    Sonna Agriculture 

H.     P.     Prior Trade 

M.    Vendel Interior 

M.    Sciiroeder Justice 

M.    Kof  oed Finance 

M.    Jensen Labor 

M.    Pedersen Education 

M.   Riishansen Traffic 

M.   Ammentorp .Public  Worship 


By  the  settlement  arrived  at  an  am- 
nesty was  granted  political  offenders 
(many  arrests  had  been  made  and  some 
property  destroyed  during  the  strike), 
electoral  reforms  were  promised  and  the 
date  of  the  general  election  brought  for- 
ward to  April  22. 

In  both  Sweden  and  Norway,  as  well 
as  in  Denmark,  the  view  generally  ex- 
pressed in  the  moderate  Conservative  and 
Liberal  newspapers  was  that  King  Chris- 
tian X.'s  action  could  not  be  regarded  as 
a  personal  coup  d'etat,  and  that  any- 
thing of  the  sort  would  have  been  en- 
tirely inconsistent  with  his  past  record. 
He  made  use  of  the  right  conferred  on 
him  by  the  Constitution,  it  was  said,  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  wishes  of  the 
Danish  people,  whom  M.  Zahle  refused 
to  consult.  At  the  same  time  the  view 
was  taken,  particularly  in  Sweden,  that 
the  King  made  a  tactical  error  in  dis- 
missing the  Ministry  by  extra-Parlia- 
mentary means  when,  in  view  of  the 
state  of  the  parties  in  the  Folkething,  its 
days  were  clearly  numbered,  and  by  dis- 
missing it  without  having  in  readiness 
a  regular  political  Ministry  to  succeed  it. 


Events  in  France,  Italy  and  Spain 

Heavy    Tax  on  French  Bachelors 


FRANCE 

A  LTHOUGH  officially  denied  at  the 
J\^  White  House,  M.  Andre  Tardieu's 
story,  printed  in  I'Hlustration  of 
March  27,  telling  how  M.  Clemenceau 
succeeded  in  securing  the .  insertion  in 
the  Versailles  Treaty  of  an  additional 
protective  clause  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
inforcing the  existing  stipulations  pro- 
viding for  an  allied  occupation  of  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  Rhineland  for  a  period 
of  fifteen  years,  may  have  a  certain 
bearing  on  the  Anglo-French  dispute  over 
the  French  initiative  of  April.  M.  Tar- 
dieu  writes: 

On  April  23,  1019,  in  a  private  interview 
M.  Clemenceau  asked  Mr.  Wilson  the  fol- 
lowing question:  "The  treaty  as  it  stands 
is  satisfactory  to  me  from  the  point  of 
view  of  guarantees,  but  neither  you  nor 
I  can   command   the  future.     You  have  a 


Senate,  but  I  have  a  Parliament  to  reckon 
with.  Neither  of  us  can  be  sure  what  they 
will  do  in  ten  years'  time  or  even  to- 
morrow. If,  for  instance,  the  special 
treaties  with  England  and  America  are 
not  ratified,  what  will  be  the  situation 
of  France?  What  other  guarantee  shall 
we  be  able  to  put  in  place  of  them?  " 

President  Wilson  replied:  "What  you 
say  is  perfectly  right,  but  it  brings  up  a 
very  difficult  problem.  Let  us  see  if  we 
can  find  a  means  to  solve  it." 

On  April  29  the  President  and  M.  Clem- 
enceau, in  accord  with  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
drew  up  the  final  text  of  a  clause  which 
they  believed  met  the  difficulty.  This  was 
the  clause  which  forms  the  last  para- 
graph of  Article  429  of  the  treaty.  Those 
who  read  this  paragraph  will  compre- 
hend its  importance. 

The  paragraph  in  Article  429,  referred 
to  by  M.  Tardieu,  reads : 

If  at  that  date  the  guarantees  against 
unprovoked    aggression    by    Germany    are 


246 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


not  considered  sufficient  by  the  allied  and 
associated  Governments,  the  evacuation 
of  the  occupying  troops  may  be  delayed 
to  the  extent  regarded  as  necessary  for 
the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  required 
guarantees. 

The  bachelor  tax,  which  has  formed 
the  subject  of  so  much  humor,  made  its 
first  stage  on  its  way  to  becoming  a 
grim  and  accomplished  fact  when  the 
Finance  Commission  of  the  Chamber 
uanimously  recommended  that  all  unmar- 
ried persons  of  both  sexes  who  are  sub- 
ject to  the  income  tax  shall  pay  an  ex- 
tra 10  per  cent,  in  this  kind  of  taxation. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  male  bachelors  are 
already  indirectly  taxed,  as  present  laws 
make  certain  rebates  in  favor  of  fathers 
of  families.  The  commission  also  fixed 
the  percentage  of  tax  payable  by  various 
categories  of  incomes. 

The  peace  loan  closed  on  March  21, 
and  on  April  12  the  result  was  an- 
nounced —  the  total,  15,730,000,000 
francs,  of  which  6,800,000,000  was  in 
new  money. 

According  to  the  Journal  Officiel  of 
April  4,  French  production,  despite  the 
difficulties  of  manufacturing,  had  so  far 
increased  as  nearly  to  triple  the  exports 
in  the  last  twelve  months.  The  Petit 
Parisien  quoted  one  of  the  chief  cus- 
toms officials  as  stating  that  the  in- 
crease in  imports  of  raw  materials  dur- 
ing the  first  two  months  of  1920  was 
equivalent  to  the  increase  in  exports  of 
manufactured  goods. 

The  customs  official  pointed  out  that 
within  a  year  France's  exports  had  been 
nearly  tripled,  and  tha'  the  figures  for 
the  first  two  months  of  this  year 
amounted  to  almost  two-thirds  of  the 
equivalent  figures  for  pre-war  exports. 

There  were  repercussions  in  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  of  the  German  general 
strike  which  was  used  to  put  down  the 
Kapp  military  revolt.  A  general  strike 
was  called  at  Strasbourg  on  March  22, 
and  the  next  day  railway  employes  were 
ordered  out  throughout  the  two  prov- 
inces. The  obvious  connection  between 
the  movements  and  the  German  general 
strike,  however,  caused  the  French  Gen- 
eral Federation  of  Labor  to  intervene 
and  stop  them. 

On  March  22  the  Minister  of  War 
signed  a  decree  making  football  obliga- 


tory in  the  French  Army  and  placing 
the  game  on  the  same  basis  as  field  ex- 
ercises and  ordinary  drill  as  part  of  the 
usual  training  of  a  soldier.  Each  regi- 
mental section  will  in  future  possess  its 
own  football  club,  and  matches  between 
companies,  battalions,  regiment-,  divi- 
sions and  army  corps  will  be  organized 
systematically.  American  outfitters  in 
football  goods  are  being  sought. 

On  April  15  the  trial  of  former  Pre- 
mier Caillaux  before  the  Senatorial  High 
Court  was  drawing  near  its  close  without 
any  new,  sensational  evidence.  In  the 
session  of  April  14  M.  Lescouve,  in  his 
address  for  the  prosecution,  uttered 
what  is  considered  a  mild  indictment 
when  he  said: 

It  is  possible  that  M.  Caillaux  may  have 
had  in  view  only  the  interests  of  France, 
but  what  was  permissible  before  the  war 
became  a  crime  after  the  opening  of 
hostilities. 

ITALY 

The  reorganized  Government  of  Pre- 
mier Nitti,  the  roster  of  which  was 
printed  in  these  columns  last  month, 
needs  a  word  or  two  concerning  cer- 
tain new  departures  and  new  members, 
both  famous  and  unknown;  Signor  Bono- 
mi,  who  holds  the  portfolio  of  War,  has 
a  post  usually  assigned  to  a  solider. 
Admiral  Sechi,  who  remains  at  the  Min- 
istry of  Marine,  will  resign  his  commis- 
sion in  the  navy.  Signor  Bonomi  is  a 
follower  of  Signor  Bissolati.  Two  of 
the  new  Ministers  are  Radicals  and  two 
are  Liberals  from  the  Right.  Signor 
Falcioni  is  a  most  prominent  Giolittian, 
and  his  nomination  implies  Signor  Gio- 
litti's  support.  Signor  Luzzatti  is  the 
most  eminent  of  the  new  Ministers. 
Premier  in  1910,  he  is  Italy's  leading 
financier.  He  was  Minister  of  the  Treas- 
ury in  1891,  in  1903,  and  1906,  and  of 
Agriculture  in  1909.  He  has  negotiated 
twenty-eight  commercial  treaties  and  has 
had  fifty-five  years  of  public  life..  He 
is  enthusiastically  Anglophile  and  a 
strong  fried  of  Armenia.  The  only  new- 
comer is  Signor  Torre. 

The  Catholic,  or  Popular,  Party,  which, 
at  the  eleventh  hour,  decided  not  to  be 
represented  in  the  Government,  held  a 
congress  at  Naples  in  the  first  week  of 


EVENTS  IN  FRANCE,  ITALY  AND  SPAIN 


247 


April  to  define  its  policy.  Two  factions 
came  into  evidence:  One,  headed  by  the 
veteran  Catholic  leader,  Signor  Meda, 
stood  for  social  order  in  collaboration 
with  the  Nitti  Government,  directly  or 
indirectly;  the  other,  led  by  Signor  Mi- 
glioli,  formerly  head  of  the  Christian 
Socialists,  presented  a  program  to  divide 
the  land  among  the  peasants,  ally  them- 
selves with  the  Socialists  and  re-estab- 
lish relations  with  Russia. 

There  were  tumultuous  sittings  of  the 
Chamber  in  March,  with  little  practical 
legislation  being  accomplished,  but  with 
almost  daily  expectation  that  the  Gov- 
ernment would  be  voted  out.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  March  31,  after  a  sitting 
of  ten  hours,  Signor  Nitti  obtained  a 
majority  of  fifty-five  on  a  direct  vote 
of  confidence,  or  more  than  double  his 
majority  on  the  last  occasion;  445  out  of 
508  Duputies  were  present  and  voted. 
All  the  Catholics,  including  the  Social- 
istic Catholic,  Signor  Miglioli,  voted  for 
the  Government,  while  the  minority  was 
composed  of  official  Socialists,  Eepubli- 
can  Combatants,  and  the  Right.  The 
Chamber  then  adjourned  until  April  20. 
The  final  debate  showed  a  growing  de- 
sire to  settle  the  questions  of  the  peace 
treaties,  which  come  up  for  revision  on 
an  economic  basis.  Signor  Trevas,  the 
Socialist  leader,  in  an  attack  on  England, 
said  that,  while  Great  Britain  was  still 
extending  her  empire,  factories  were 
shutting  down  for  lack  of  raw  materials 
— all  Italy  wanted  of  Turkey  was  raw 
materials. 

SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL 

Although  Spanish  industries  per  se 
continued  to  be  afflicted  on  opposite 
sides  by  the  lockouts  instituted  by  the 
Federation  of  Employers  and  the  strikes 
of  the  syndicalists,  a  large  number  of 
foreign  companies  were  registered  in  the 
industrial  districts — some  American, 
some  British,  French,  Belgian,  and  some 
German — all  seeking  shelter  of  Spanish 
registration  to  avoid  the  heavy  taxation 
levied  on  foreign  enterprises.  The 
American  firms  were  mostly  banks  and 
insurance  companies. 

In  the  Cortes  the  interminable  debate 
on  the  budget  alternated  with  the  inter- 


minable debate  concerning  the  steps  the 
Government  was  taking  against  the 
coercive  measures  adopted  by  the  em- 
ployers and  the  syndicalists. 

In  the  third  week  in  March  nearly  all 
the  papers  dedicated  at  least  one  article 
to  what  Senor  Dato  had  described  in 
the  Cortes  as  the  "  coming  great  his- 
torical crisis."  Luis  Araquistain's 
article  was  entitled  "  Revolutionary 
Symptomatology,"  and  he  wrote: 

Each  day  the  situation  becomes  more 
o.cute.  There  is  no  more  solidarity  and 
discipline.  The  owners  prefer  the  ruin 
of  industry,  which  is  their  ruin  and  that 
of  the  nation,  to  meeting  the  demands  of 
the  workmen.  The  workers  on  their  side 
prefer  to  sacrifice  their  life  to  hunger, 
a  life  that  is  theirs  but  also  of  society, 
rather  than  submit.  *  *  *  The  historical 
parties  have  entirely  lost  their  solidarity 
and  discipline.  *  *  *  There  are  now 
nearly  as  many  monarchist  parties  as  in- 
dividuals, ready  to  sacrifice  the  monarchy 
to  their  quarrels,  to  personal  vanity,  or 
to  a  pathological  greed  of  power. 

The  Heraldo  de  Madrid  declared: 
Spain  is  at  a  turning  point  in  her 
destinies,  which  may  lead  to  further 
greatness  or  to  an  irremediable  catas- 
trophe. A  few  more  months  of  present- 
day  politics,  destitute  of  ideals,  and  the 
future  of  Spain  will  take  the  path  of 
anguish  and  tragedy. 

In  Portugal  the  new  Government,  with 
Senhor  Silva  as  Prime  Minister,  formed 
on  March  6,  had  hardly  begun  to  func- 
tion before  Senhor  Alvaro  de  Castro 
was  asked  to  form  another.  He,  too, 
withdrew,  and  then  a  week  later  Colonel 
Antonio  Maria  Baptista,  having  been 
promised  the  support  of  the  majority  of 
Parliament,  presented  a  third  slate: 
Colonel  Antonio   Maria  Baptista, 

Premier  and  Interior 

Dr.  Joseramos  Preto Justice 

Major   Estevao   Aguas War 

Commandant  Judice  Biker Marine 

Major    Pina    Lopes Finance 

Dr.  Xavier  da  Silva Foreign  Affairs 

Colonel    Utra    Machado Colonies 

Senhor  Ducio  de  Azevedo Commerce 

Senhor   Bartholomeu    Severino. ..-..  .Labor 

Dr.    Joao   Ricardo Agriculture 

Dr.    Vasco    Borges Instruction 

Throughout  the  protracted  crisis,  and 
in  spite  of  the  numerous  strikes  that 
were  demoralizing  trade  and  industry, 
public  order  was  maintained  without  the 
intervention  of  force,  all  parties  ap- 
parently working  hard  on  the  give-and- 


248 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


take  principle  to  restore  normal  business. 
In  many  cases  the  strikers  returned  to 
work  on  the  promise  that  a  co-operative 
system  would  be  introduced  by  their 
employers.      The  hew   Government   will 


chiefly  concern  itself  with  the  strikes 
of  public  servants.  On  March '28  it  gave 
the  striking  postal  and  telegraph  em- 
ployes 48  hours  in  which  to  return  to 
duty  or  be  discharged. 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 

Albania  Recognized  by  Italy 

ALBANIA  ^^^^^  country  and  to  oppose  any  kind  of 

foreign   interference. 

rpHE  recognition  by  the  Italian  Gov-  RTTTrARTA 

X    emment   of    the    autonomous    Gov-  ISUljUAniil. 

ernment  of  Albania  on  April  7  is  Encouraged  by  the  note  of  President 
believed  to  Be  the  Italian  initiative  to-  Wilson   to    the    Supreme    Council,   made 
ward  a  solution  of  the  Adriatic  problem,  public  in  America  on  March  30,  in  which 
It  is  a  step  more  nearly  in  accord  with  the    writer    made    a    plea    for    Eastern 
the    Anglo-Franco-American    memoran-  Thrace  in  favor  of  Bulgaria,  the  press  of 
dum    of    Dec.    9,    1919,    than    with    the  Sofia  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  Turkish 
Anglo-Franco-Italian    note    of   a   month  treaty  of  peace  had  some  unpleasant  sur- 
later,  to  which  President  Wilson  objected.  prises  in  store  for  the  Greeks.   The  Echo 
By  the  memorandum  the  southern  part  of  Bulgaria  of  March  23  had  a  typical 
of  Albania  or  Northern  Epirus  was  to  article  headed,  "  Hellenic  Madness." 
be  divided  between  Greece  and   Serbia,  After  the  defeat  of  the  strikes  and  the 
while  the  note  recognized  Serbian  rights  successful   criminal   proceedings   against 
in  the  north  as  far  south  as  the  Drin.  The  the  leaders  of  the  short-lived  Soviets,  at- 
Italian  announcement  also  followed  a  re-  tempts  were  made  to  unite  the  two  Social- 
port  received  in  Washington  on  March  jgt  parties,  with  a  view  to  establishing 
20   to   the   effect  that   conversations  in  an  economic  union  throughout  the  penin- 
Paris  between   Foreign   Minister  Trum-  sula,  with  the  possible  adhesion  of  the 
bitch  of  Jugoslavia  and  M.   Konitsa  of  Italian    Socialists.     On   the   other  hand, 
Albania  had  resulted  in  a  protocol  for  Bishop  Platon,  formerly  of  Odessa,  re- 
the  Serbo-Albanian  frontier.     Meanwhile  ceived  a  commission  from  King  Boris  to 
C.  A.  Chekrezi,  the  Albanian  representa-  work  for  an  alliance  between  Bulgaria, 
tive  at  Washington,  had  this  to  say  in  Jugoslavia  and  Greece  in  order  to  insure 
regard  to  the  situation:  the    mutual    safety    of    these    countries 
Following  the  circulation  of  the  reports  against  the  Communists.     On  March  21 
that,    in    the    allied    project    which    was  the  Bishop  was  in  Bucharest  on  the  first 
protested    against    by    President    Wilson,  ,             j?  u-     ^:   „:^« 
for   the   settlement   of  the   Adriatic   prob-  ^tage  of  his  mission, 
lem.    it    is    provided    that    the    outlying  With  a  greatly  depleted  electorate  Bul- 
northern    and    southern   provinces    of   the  garia  held   its   first   post-bellum   general 
Albanian   State   should   go   to   Serbia  and  election  on  March  28,  with  the  following 
Greece,     respectively,     and    the    remnants  ,,    .                    ,   , 
would   be    placed   under    an    Italian   man-  ^^sult  m  general  terms: 

date,    an    overwhelming    wave    of    violent  Communists     48  seats 

indignation   swept   the   Albanians.  Socialists    25  seats 

On  the  28th  of  January  last  the  National  Agrarians    113  seats 

Assembly    was    hastily    summoned,    and  rpj^^  latter,  of  coursB,  represent  the  ab- 

after  an  unsuccessful   attempt  to   have   it  .    ,            .                   i  •  i     j.-i.       t»         •          iv/r 

sit  at  Durazzo.   the  provisional   capital.  solute  vote   on   which  the  Premier,   M. 

its  members  assembled  at  Dushnja,   some  Stambouliisky,  can  depend, 

thirty  miles  south   of  Durazzo.     The   As-  r'l?T?l?r'l? 

cembly    voted    unanimously    a    resolution  {sKMxtjMiiK^tj 

calling   the   Albanian    people   to   resist   to  „,.   ,,              ■Di.i-\^,,^i-^^   «-p   +Vi«   Mini  of  w 

the   last  man    every   attempt   against   the  Chsthenes    Phllaretos   of   the   Ministry 

independence  and  territorial  integrity  of  of  National   Economy  at  Athens  issued 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


249 


a  brochure  on  March  14  dealing  with 
the  mining  and  industrial  opportunities 
and  needs  in  Greece.  None  of  the  mines 
or  industries,  he  stated,  was  producing 
10  per  cent,  of  its  capacity.  This  was 
due  to  lack  of  exploitation  and  the  needs 
of  modern  methods  and  machinery,  parti- 
cularly the  latter  in  the  utilization  of  the 
water  power.  Only  about  12  per  cent, 
of  the  total  area  of  Greece,  he  said,  was 
cultivated,  when  the  percentage  should 
be  40.  Some  of  his  observations  and 
suggestions  are: 

There  exists  in  Greece  proper,  6  or  7 
miles  from  the  coast,  a  body  of  iron  ore 
containing-  no  less  than  fifty  million  tons 
of  good  quality  ore,  and  as  much  more 
of  iron  ore  is  found  in  the  neighboring 
islands.  Some  of  these  iron  ores  contain 
chrome,  manganese  and  nickel.  Coal  for 
the  reducing  of  this  iron  into  pig  and 
even  refining  it  into  steel  can  be  pro- 
cured from  undeveloped  coal  mines  situ- 
ated near  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  and 
at  a  distance  of  about  500  miles  by 
water  from  the  above-mentioned  iron  ore 
deposits. 

There  is  a  large  amount  of  lignite  of 
good  quality  found  in  Greece  and  its 
islands,  but  few  of  these  mines  are  being 
worked.  The  main  company  producing 
lignite  in  fairly  large  quantity,  say  300 
tons  a  day,  is  the  mine  of  Kymi,  while 
smaller  mines  to  the  number  of  30  give 
a  yearly  production  of  120,000  tons.  1  .is 
production  could  be  increased  consider- 
ably. The  present  yearly  demand  of  co  • 
is  about  1,000,000  tons. 

The  mountainous  districts  of  Greece 
with  its  rivers,  lakes  and  falls  offer  a 
great  field  for  the  development  of  hydro- 
electric power.  Studies  of  several  of 
these  power  propositions  have  been  under- 
taken by  the  Hellenic  Government.  Thus 
far  the  amount  of  power  calculated  from 
steam  measurements  would  give  a  total 
of  150,000  horse  power.  The  Government 
is  open  to  any  reasonable  offer  made  by 
foreign  capital,  which  capital  will  be  as- 
sisted in  forming  one  or  several  electric 
light  and  power  companies  by  local  banks 
and  others. 

RUMANIA 

The  Cabinet  which  was  forming  on 
March  15  under  General  Fof  oza  Averesco, 
who    had    succeeded    Alexander    Vaida- 


Voeved,  was  completed  a  few  days  later 
with  a  rather  distinguished  list,  particu- 
larly in  regard  to  the  portfolios  of  For- 
eign Affairs,  Finance  and  War,  held  re- 
spectively by  Duiliu  Zamfiresco,  M.  Ar- 
getoyano  and  General  Rasccano.  The 
first  is  a  well-known  author  of  dramas 
and  a  diplomat  of  experience.  The  sec- 
ond, a  youthful  and  ardent  politician, 
has  been  described  as  the  "  Rumanian 
Roosevelt."  The  third  was  associated 
with  the  Premier  in  the  war,  and  later 
with  him  formed  the  People's  League. 

It  was  officially  reported  in  Bucharest 
on  March  17  that  the  Government  had 
come  to  agreement  with  the  Russian 
Soviet  army  leaders  through  a  protocol 
drawn  up  by  General  Marderescu  cover- 
ing the  following  points : 

1.  Rumania  demands  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Soviet  troops  from  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Rumanian  frontier. 

2.  Unconditional  recognition  of  the  an- 
nexation of  Bessarabia  to  Rumania,  and 
the  inviolability  of  Rumanian  territory. 

3.  Cessation  of  all  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda in  Rumania  from  outside  the  Ru- 
manian border,  that  is,  from  Soviet  Rus- 
sia. 

4.  Soviet  Russia  must  bind  herself  not 
to  give  support  to  the  Bolsheviki  in  Ru- 

ania. 

5.  Immediate  liberation  of  all  the  Ru- 
manian war  prisoners  still  in  Russia. 

6.  Conclusion  of  a  commercial  treaty, 
with  a  reciprocal,  most-favored-nation 
clause  as  regards  customs  duties. 

The  Moscow  Government  appointed 
MM.  Krassin  and  Winarski  to  go  to  Ru- 
mania and  negotiate  a  treaty.  The  Ru- 
manian Government  selected  Dorna  Vat- 
ra,  Bukowina,  as  the  place  of  meeting. 
On  April  1  the  Rumanian  Army,  ac- 
cording to  plans  devised  by  General  Aver- 
esco, began  to  be  demobilized  and  placed 
on  a  semi-peace  footing,  thus  saving  $30,- 
000,000  a  month.  There  is  to  be  a  peace 
army  of  30,000  men,  and  a  national  po- 
lice of  as  many  more  for  the  newly  ac- 
quired provinces,  which  double  the  na- 
tion's population  as  well  as  its  territory. 


New  Government  in  Hungary 

Distress  in  Austria 


HUNGARY 

ADMIRAL  NICHOLAS  HORTHY, 
the  new  Lord  Protector  and  Re- 
gent of  Hungary,  is  a  man  of 
about  45  years,  whose  sympathies,  po- 
litically, are  supposed  to  be  strongly  on 
the  side  of  the  Hapsburgs.  He  is  not  a 
member  of  the  higher  aristocracy,  like 
most  of  the  officers  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Navy,  but  is  of  the  small  land- 
owner class. 

As  a  naval  officer  Admiral  Horthy 
achieved  a  brilliant  record.  When  war 
broke  out  he  was  Captain  of  a  battleship, 
but  it  was  as  commander  of  the  fast 
cruiser  Novar  that  he  established  his 
name  as  a  daring  officer  and  adventur- 
ous seaman.  His  principal  achievement 
was  in  leading  the  small  squadron  which 
broke  through  the  Allies'  lines  at  the 
Straits  of  Otranto.  He  sank  several 
small  allied  ships,  and  brought  his  own 
squadron  safely  into  port,  though  ho 
was  wounded  in  the  action.  For  these 
services  he  was  promoted  to  Admiral, 
and  became  a  popular  hero. 

After  the  war  Admiral  Horthy  retired 
to  his  farm,  but  when  the  Rumanians 
left  the  country  he  raised  an  army  to 
keep  order,  to  which  stable  elements 
among  the  Hungarians  rallied.  Until 
then  he  had  never  entered  politics.  He 
insisted  that  the  Parliament  should  give 
him  certain  powers,  and  that  the  party 
leaders  should  attach  their  signatures  to 
this  agreement  in  writing.  The  draft 
specified  the  many  important  powers  he 
would  gain.  Only  when  duly  signed  did 
the  Admiral  consent  to  take  the  oath  of 
Lord  Protector  and  Regent. 

With  reference  to  the  numerous  re- 
ports from  Hungary  of  White  terrorism 
and  wholesale  executions  of  persons  ob- 
noxious to  the  Government,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
on  March  12,  that  "  the  Government  had 
received  a  long  and  detailed  report  from 
his  Majesty's  High  Commissioner  at 
Budapest,  which  indicated  that  the  va- 
rious reports  which  continued  to  be  re- 
ceived  in  this   country  were  much  ex- 


aggerated, and  that  the  Hungarian  Gov- 
ernment was,  on  the  whole,  maintaining 
order  well,  and  was  in  no  way  indulging 
in  political  persecutions."  He  proposed 
shortly  to  communicate  the  report  to  the 
House,  and  was  confident  they  would 
agree  that  his  Majesty's  Government 
would  not  be  justified  in  interfering  in 
what,  after  all,  was  a  question  of  in- 
ternal Hungarian  politics. 

A  new  Hungarian  Cabinet  was  formed 
on  March  14  under  the  Premiership  of  M. 
Simonyi-Semadam.  Admiral  Horthy  and 
M.  Huszar  had  brought  about  the  unity 
of  the  Christian  National  Union  and  the 
Agrarian  parties.  M.  Huszar  retired, 
but  the  bulk  of  the  Cabinet  remained,  and 
the  jettisoning  of  ex-Premier  Friedrich 
promised  to  promote  internal  harmony. 
The  appointment  of  Count  Paul  Teleki  to 
the  Foreign  Office  was  regarded  as  a 
great  improvement.  Among  the  princi- 
pal points  of  the  compromise  were  the 
signature  of  the  Peace  Treaty,  land  re- 
form, reform  of  the  Constitution,  and 
the  solution  of  the  Jewish  question.  The 
new  Cabinet  is  as  follows: 

M.  Simonyi-Semadam,  Premier  and  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior. 

Count  Paul  Teleki,  Foreign. 

General  Soos,  War. 

M.  Julius  Rubinek,  Agriculture. 

M.  Stephan  Haller,  Public  Worship. 

Baron  Friedrich  Koranyi,  Finance. 

M.  Alexander  Kulin,  Justice. 

M.  Stephanszabo  Nagynyi,  Food. 

M.  Sokoropatka,  Small  Farmers. 

M.  August  Benard,  Public  Welfare. 

M.  Jacob  Bleyer,  National  Minorities, 

Early  in  April  the  former  War  Minis- 
ter, Stephen  Friedrich,  was  indicted  be- 
fore a  military  court  of  honor  for  com- 
plicity in  the  assassination  of  Count 
Tisza,  war  Premier  of  Hungary  and  one 
of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  Central 
Powers.  His  trial  is  expected  to  reveal 
a  daring  plot  involving  the  restoration 
of  King  Charles  IV.  to  the  throne  of 
Hungary.  Meanwhile  a  highly  esteemed 
Hungarian  journalist,  Paul  Keri,  is  in 
prison  under  a  ten-year  sentence  for  the 
crime  in  question. 

On  March  29  the  Conference  of  Am- 


NEW  GOVERNMENT  IN  HUNGARY 


251 


^bassadors  at  Paris  continued  considera- 
tion of  the  response  to  be  sent  to  the 
Hungarian  plenipotentiaries  concerning 
questions  which  had  arisen  with  regard 
to  the  peace  terms  submitted  to  Hun- 
gary. 

The  Hungarian  peace  delegates  at 
Paris  declared  on  April  10  that  they 
would  refuse  to  sign  any  treaty  which  did 
not  provide  for  plebiscites  in  the  terri- 
tories detached  from  their  country  by  the 
Treaty  of  Neuilly.  They  asserted  that 
no  party  existed  in  Hungary,  and  none 
could  be  formed,  that  could  hold  power 
after  accepting  the  proposed  amputa- 
tions, and  that  the  Peace  Conference 
could  enforce  such  a  treaty  only  by 
power  of  arms. 

AUSTRIA 

In  Austria  the  economic  conditions 
during  March  and  the  first  two  weeks 
of  April  underwent  no  improvement.  The 
return  of  Baron  Koranyi,  Minister  of 
Finance,  from  Paris  empty-handed,  ex- 
cept for  some  small  food  credits,  added 
to  the  general  feeling  of  dejection. 
Manufacturers  declared  that  these  small 
food  loans,  in  view  of  the  imminent  ex- 
hauston  of  supplies,  were  futile,  and  pre- 
dicted the  complete  economic  breakdown 
of  the  country  if  large  quantities  of  coal 
and  raw  materials  were  not  speedily  ob- 
tained. Coal  contracted  for  in  Czecho- 
slovakia had  not  been  delivered,  while 
the  country's  main  source  of  coal  supply, 
Upper  Silesia,  had  been  temporarily  cut 
off  pending  the  plebiscites  to  be  taken  in 
this  region.  Meanwhile  Austrian  in- 
dustries lay  idle. 

Regarding  the  food  question,  reports 
received  at  the  American  Red  Cross 
headquarters  on  April  11  indicated  that 
school  children  in  Vienna  were  so  weak- 
ened by  insufficient  nourishment  that 
they  were  rapidly  falling  victim  to  the 
epidemics  that  were  constantly  ravaging 
the  city  and  the  surrounding  country. 
Of  187,000  children  ranging  from  6  to  14 
years  of  age  only  7,000  were  found  to  be 
sufficiently  nourished.  Though  the  high 
mortality  among  these  underfed  children 
was  the  most  alarming  feature  of  the 
situation,  the  condition  of  the  adult  pop- 
ulation was  stated  to  be  extremely  seri- 


ous, acute  suffering  prevailing  among 
the  600,000  or  mx)re  of  the  poorei* 
classes,  and  also  among  the  middle  class. 
More  than  25,000  persons  were  being 
cared  for  at  the  public  hospitals. 

Temporary  relief  had  been  afforded 
over  Easter,  according  to  this  same  re- 
port, by  the  arrival  in  Vienna  of  ninety- 


ADMIRAL  NICHOLAS  VON  HORTHY 
New  Regent  of  Hungary 


three  carloads  of  food,  drugs  and  cloth- 
ing on  April  1.  These  supplies  were  im- 
mediately distributed  to  the  sick  and 
destitute.  An  Easter  message  of  thanks 
was  sent  to  the  American  people  by 
President  Seitz,  who  stated  that  these 
supplies  had  enabled  the  Government  "  to 
make  Easter  a  veritable  feast  of  joy  for 
many  poor  families." 


CHILDREN  AT  ONE  OF  THE  HOOVER  FIGEDING  STATIONS  IN   VIENNA 


Soviet  Russia  Seeking  Peace 

Desire  for  Commercial  Relations 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


SOVIET  Russia's  policy  of  fighting  its 
enemies  vigorously  with  one  hand 
and  offering  peace  with  the  other 
underwent  no  change  in  March  and 
April.  The  remnants  of  the  army  of 
Denikin,  disheartened  and  demoralized 
by  a  series  of  uninterrupted  defeats, 
were  driven  successively  from  Novoros- 
sisk  and  Ekaterinodar,  in  the  Cossack 
Kuban  region,  and  31,000  prisoners  were 
taken  by  the  victorious  Reds.  A  desper- 
ate exodus  of  the  Denikin  forces  began 
from  Theodosia,  on  the  southeast  coast 
of  the  Crimea,  following  the  general 
principle  of  "  sauve  qui  peut,"  British 
and  other  allied  warships  standing  by  to 
take  off  the  survivors. 

Denikin  himself  gave  up  the  hopeless 
struggle  and  left  for  Constantinople, 
where  he  arrived  with  his  chief  aid, 
Colonel  Romanovsky,  on  April  6.  In  the 
Russian  Embassy,  soon  after  arrival, 
Colonel  Romanovsky  was  assassinated  by 
persons  unknown,  and  Denikin  was  taken 
on  board  a  British  warship,  which  left 
for  Malta  on  April  8.  It  was  estimated 
at  this  time  that  there  were  over  50,000 
Russian  refugees  in  Constantinople,  al- 


ready overcrowded  and  suffering  for 
lack  of  food;  and  General  Agapiev,  the 
commander  of  the  South  Russian  forces 
in  Constantinople,  was  planning  a  gen- 
eral deportation  of  all  officers  and  men 
of  military  age  back  to  the  Crimea. 

Meanwhile  the  Bolshevist  Government 
continued  its  efforts  to  secure  a  re- 
opening of  trade  with  the  allied  nations, 
and  conversations  were  initiated  at 
Copenhagen  to  arrange  for  the  dispatch 
to  London  of  a  Soviet  delegation  to  be 
headed  by  Krassin  and  ostensibly  to 
speak  for  the  Co-operative  Societies  of 
Soviet  Russia  in  the  anticipated  discus- 
sions. The  Copenhagen  parleys,  how- 
ever, were  suddenly  broken  off  on  April 
11.  Various  reasons  for  this  rupture 
were  assigned,  one  explanation  being 
that  Krassin  had  refused  to  go  to  Lon- 
don without  Litvinov,  whom  England  had 
barred  on  the  ground  that  she  had  al- 
ready expelled  him  for  undersirable  Bol- 
shevist activities.  A  French  charge  that 
the  break  was  a  result  of  an  alleged  Bol- 
shevist repudiation  of  the  Russian  debt 
was  denied  by  Krassin  himself  at  Stock- 
holm on  April  15.     The  French  further 


SOVIET  RUSSIA  SEEKING  PEACE 


253 


I 
I 


charged  political  activities  on  the  part  of 
the  Soviet  delegates,  and  pointed  to  the 
following  order  issued  shortly  before  in 
Moscow: 

With  a  view  to  preventing  the  over- 
lapping of  tlie  work  of  the  co-operatives 
with  Soviet  organizations,  the  local  Co- 
operative Societies  will  be  gradually  abol- 
ished and  their  functions  transferred  to 
the  corresponding  central  and  local 
Soviet  organizations,  the  Commissariats 
of  Food,  Agriculture  and  Education, 
which  are  parallel  and  competing  bodies. 

This  order,  declared  the  French  dele- 
gates, proved  that  all  further  talk  of 
dealing  with  the  Co-operative  Societies 
was  useless. 

After  protracted  negotiations,  agree- 
ment on  the  question  of  an  exchange  of 
prisoners  was  reached  by  M.  Litvinov 
and  Mr.  O'Grady,  the  British  represen- 
tative in  Copenhagen,  on  Feb.  11.  By  its 
terms  the  Moscow  Government  set  all  its 
British  prisoners  free  and  provided  rail- 
way transportation  and  food  supplies  for 
their  return.  Rejoicing  at  their  libera- 
tion after  months  of  captivity,  they  left 
Moscow  on  March  8. 

The  last  American  contingents  left  Si- 
beria on  April  1.  The  spread  of  Bolshe- 
vism in  Siberia  became  such  a  menace  to 
Japan  that  she  abandoned  her  provi- 
sional intention  of  withdrawing  her 
troops.  After  the  departure  of  the  Amer- 
ican forces,  according  to  the  Japanese  of- 
ficial statement,  the  hostility  of  the  Rus- 
sians in  and  around  Vladivostok  became 
pronounced,  and  a  series  of  attacks  be- 
gan on  the  Japanese  troops  at  Nikolsk 
and  elsewhere.  To  secure  its  military 
base  against  the  Bolshevist  wave  and 
to  insure  the  immediate  safety  of  its 
forces,  the  Japanese  military  adminis- 
tration seized  the  City  of  Vladivostok  on 
April  5  after  eight  hours'  heavy  fighting 
in  different  parts  of  the  city,  including 
the  Korean  quarter;  the  Russian  leaders 
in  control  of  the  Government  were  ar- 
rested. The  occupation,  which  was  sup- 
ported by  heavy  artillery  and  machine 
guns,  whose  fire  was  directed  by  search- 
lights from  the  Japanese  battleship  in 
the  bay,  began  with  a  surprise  attack  at 
1  o'clock  in  the  morning.  By  daylight 
the  city  was  quiet,  with  Japanese  patrols 
preserving  strict  order. 


General  Semenov,  the  Cossack  leader 
in  Transbaikal,  had  regained  his  lost 
prestige  by  instituting  reforms,  and 
was  again  co-operating  with  the  Japa- 
nese. The  latter  had  captured  the  entire 
line  of  the  Ussuri  Railroad  by  April  10. 
The  Chinese,  encouraged  by  Bolshevist 
promises,  were  asserting  their  claims  to 
control  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway 
in  opposition  to  the  administration  of 
General  Horvath. 

In  Soviet  Russia  the  economic  situa- 
tion underwent  little  improvement,  de- 
spite Trotzky's  new  system  of  labor 
armies,  employed  mainly  in  railroad  con- 
struction and  repair  in  Russia  and  Si- 
beria, and  the  Soviet  decree  of  compul- 
sory labor  for  all  male  citizens  between 
the  ages  of  16  and  50,  and  for  all  female 
citizens  between  16  and  45.  In  his  decree 
of  Feb.  27,  addressed  to  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Communist  Party,  Trotzky 
had  declared  that  compulsory  labor  was 
an  essential  part  of  Communist  Govern- 
ment, and  that  free  labor  was  possible 
only  under  a  capitalistic  form  of  govern- 
ment. In  this  belief,  any  refusal  to  work 
was  punished  by  internment,  and  a  new 
system  of  "  work-books  "  was  organized, 
enforced  by  a  Communist  Disciplinary 
Committee,  by  which  every  worker  was 
required  to  give  proof  that  he  was  con- 
tributing his  full  measure  of  labor. 

Reports  of  expert  economists,  pre- 
sented in  Warsaw,  stated  that  the  food 
situation  in  Soviet  Russia  was  bad,  and 
that  the  Government,  contrary  to  its  as- 
sertions, had  no  stocks  of  wheat  and  flax 
for  export,  that  no  mills  were  running, 
and  that  the  transportation  system,  both 
by  rail  and  water,  was  so  badly  demoral- 
ized that  it  was  only  2  or  3  per  cent, 
efficient.  There  were  only  300  servicea- 
ble locomotives  in  the  country.  The  rail- 
way system  was  admitted  by  Krassin, 
in  Stockholm  on  April  4,  to  be  very  un- 
satisfactory, and  Soviet  Russia's  need  of 
rolling  stock  and  other  railway  equip- 
ment emphasized.  L.  C.  A.  K.  Martens, 
the  Bolshevist  "  Ambassador "  to  the 
United  States,  declared  at  this  time  that 
he  was  placing  orders  for  2,000  locomo- 
tives in  the  United  States. 


Poland's  War  With  Soviet  Russia 

Poles,  Victorious  on  Russian  Front,  Lay  Down  Strong  Terms  of  Peace 

to  Lenin  and  Trotzky 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


EMBOLDENED  by  its  military  suc- 
cesses against  the  Soviet  forces 
early  in  March,  and  by  further  vic- 
tories gained  in  subsequent  battles 
through  the  month,  the  attitude  of  the 
Polish  Government  toward  the  peace  pro- 
posed by  Moscow  became  stronger  and 
stronger.  The  conferences  initiated  at 
Warsaw  with  the  representatives  of  Fin- 
land, Latvia  and  Eumania  resulted  in 
complete  agreement  between  those  coun- 
tries and  Poland  regarding  the  principles 
to  govern  the  negotiations  with  the  Bol- 
shevist Government.  Meantime,  the  Po- 
lish government,  having  duly  considered 
the  peace  proposals  of  the  Soviet,  made 
a  formal  reply,  embodying  the  terms  on 
which  it  was  willing  to  make  peace. 
These  terms,  as  made  public  on  March 
26,  were  as  follows: 

1.  Russia  must  renounce  sovereignty  to 
all  territories  obtained  through  the  par- 
titioning of  Poland,  the  Western  Russian 
frontier  to  revert  to  that  of  1772,  be- 
fore the  first  partitioning  of  Poland.  The 
territories  and  peoples  in  the  regions  be- 
tween the  eastern  frontier  of  Poland,  as 
decided  by  negotiations,  and  the  old 
frontier  of  1772,  are  to  fall  under  a  Polish 
protectorate,  to  assure  such  peoples  of 
the  right  of  free  decision  as  to  their 
future  fate  and  national  connections  by 
general  vote. 

2.  Russia  must  recognize  the  independ- 
ence of  all  t^  ■.  states  which  on  the 
western  frontier  of  Russia  have  estab- 
lished de  facto  Governments. 

3.  Russia  must  agree  to  refrain  from 
any  propaganda  whatever  on  territories 
forming  part  of  the  Polish  States. 

4.  Russia  must  indemnify  Poland  for 
the  devastation  of  lands  and  industries 
caused  by  the  overrunning  of  Poland  by 
Russian  armies  since  1914. 

5.  Russia  must  return  to  Poland  all  loco- 
motives and  rolling  stock,  including  the 
thousands  of  railway  carriages  taken 
from  Poland  by  Russia  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  in  1914,  this  rolling  stock 
to  be  returned  in  good  condition,  or  the 
value  of  such  rolling  stock  in  cash. 

6.  Russia  must  indemnify  in  cash  all 
Poles  inhabiting  Russian  territory  whose 
properties   have  been  destroyed. 

7.  The  exchange  of  war  prisoners  must 


be  undertaken  and  the  free  return  to  Po- 
land of  all  emigrants  is  to  take  place 
from  the  moment  of  the  signing  of  the 
armistice. 

8.  Russia  will  supply  trains  so  that  the 
Polish  Arm  in  Siberia  may  return  to 
Poland,  and  this  with  the  honors  of  war, 
with   ammunition,    arms   and  food. 

9.  Russia  must  return  to  Poland  all  the 
archives,  the  works  of  art,  libraries  and 
collections  taken  from  Poland,  from  the 
first  invasion  of  Poland  during  the  first 
partitioning  of  the  Polish  State  up  to 
the  present  time,  this  applying  equally  to 
both  public   and   private  collections. 

10.  As  a  guarantee  that  Russia  will  keep 
these  conditions,  the  Polish  Army  will  oc- 
cupy the  Government  of  Smolensk,  to- 
gether with  the  town  of  Smolensk,  from 
which  territory  it  will  withdraw  as  soon 
as  Russia  has  fulfilled  the  last  condition 
of  peace  with  Poland. 

11.  The  peace  treaty  must  be  ratified  by 
a  duly  elected  Russian  representative 
Diet. 

Answering  a  wireless  note  sent  from 
Moscow  by  Tchitcherin  on  March  6,  and 
addressed  to  the  allied  Governments, 
which  declared  that  all  military  action 
against  Poland  was  a  consequence  of  the 
Polish  offensive  in  the  Ukraine,  M. 
Skulski,  the  Polish  Prime  Minister,  de- 
clared that  it  was  rather  the  threaten- 
ing concentration  of  Soviet  forces  against 
the  Polish  front  which  had  brought  about 
a  renewal  of  hostilities.  Poland,  how- 
ever, said  the  Minister,  was  ready  to  dis- 
cuss the  terms  proposed.  A  wireless 
sent  to  Moscow  at  the  end  of  March 
fixed  April  10  as  a  date  of  meeting  be- 
tween the  Polish  and  Soviet  negotiators, 
and  the  town  of  Borysov  (fifty  miles 
northeast  of  Minsk)  as  a  place  of  dis- 
cussion. 

A  hitch  arose  over  a  demand  of 
Moscow  that  the  negotiations  be  con- 
ducted in  Esthonia  and  that  hostilities 
cease  meanwhile  along  the  entire  front. 
Both  of  these  suggestions  the  Poles  re- 
fused, and  reiterated  their  original  pro- 
posal. 

The  Soviet  Government,  however,  on 
April  12  definitely  rejected  Borysov  as  a 


POLAND'S  WAR  WITH  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


St55 


meeting  place,  and  announced  that  if  no 
agreement  were  reached  it  would  address 
a  note  of  protest  and  complaint  to  the 
allied  Governments  and  America.  The 
Soviet  note  again  insisted  on  holding  the 
meeting  in  Esthonia,  and  attributed  the 
Polish  demand  for  a  local  armistice 
around  Borysov,  "  the  centre  of  the  fight- 
ing front,"  to  hidden  military  plans.  The 
note  added: 

The  Polish  Government,  by  refusing  our 
proposal,  is  now  responsible  for  the  mis- 
fortunes of  war  on  the  working  classes 
of  both  nations.  We  do  not  see  what 
Poland  has  in  view  by  insisting  on  con- 
tinuance of  military  operations,  thus  pre- 
venting creation  of  desirable  conditions 
for  a  peace  conference.  Consequently,  we 
doubt  the  real  pacific  feelings  of  Poland. 

Ignace  Jan  Paderewski,  former  Polish 
Premier,  announced  in  Geneva  on  April 
11  that  at  the  special  request  of  his  Gov- 
ernment he  had  consented  to  resume  his 
duties  as  a  member  of  the  Polish  Diet.  He 
had  previously  declared  that  he  had  re- 
tired permanently  from  politics  and 
would  devote  his  remaining  years  to 
musical  composition. 

Living  conditions  in  Poland  during 
March  were  far  from  favorable:  the  food 


and  fuel  shortage  continued,  and  typhus 
was  reported  to  be  epidemic  throughout 
the  country. 


M.    SKULSKI 

Polish  Premie)^   successor  to  Paderewski  as 

head   of  Polish  Mintstry 


Affairs  in  Asiatic  Countries 

Attitude  of  Moslem  Parties  on  Turkish  Peace  Treaty — Prince  Feisal 
and  Syria  — Japan  and  China 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


TURKEY 

TIE  decision  of  the  Supreme  Council 
that  the  Sultan,  with  some  of  his 
political  and  all  of  his  ecclesiastical 
prerogatives,  would  be  allowed  to  remain 
in  Constantinople  was  clearly  shown  by 
diplomatic  correspondence  to  have  been 
a  sop  thrown  to  the  Moslem  subjects  of 
Great  Britain  and  France  rather  than  a 
concession  made  to  the  Turks  them- 
selves. The  Sultan,  whatever  may  have 
been  his  good  intentions  toward  the  En- 
tente, which  was  trying  to  keep  him  in 
the  ancient  Byzantine  city,  had  no  more 
power  to  stop  the  massacres  of  Ar- 
menians in  Cilicia,  the  attacks  upon  the 


French  in  Syria,  the  revolutions  there 
and  in  Turkestan,  Kurdistan,  Mesopo- 
tamia and  Azerbaijan,  than  he  had  over 
the  Nationalist  Army  mobilized  by  Mus- 
tapha  Kemal  Pasha  at  Angora.  But,  as 
intrigues  in  favor  of  Kemal  were  still 
going  on  in  Constantinople,  and  even 
threatening  a  rising  in  the  city  itself,  it 
became  necessary  for  the  Entente  to  stop 
them,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  support 
the  de  jure  Government. 

Consequently  Constantinople  was  oc- 
cupied in  a  military  sense  by  an  Anglo- 
Franco-Italian  army  under  the  British 
General  Sir  George  F.  Milne  on  the 
morning  of  March  16,  landing  under  the 
guns    of   the    Entente   warships.      [For 


£56 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


text  of  proclamation  and  other  details 
see  Page  323.] 

Five  hours  after  the  occupation  the 
Allied  High  Commissioners  informed  the 
Grand  Vizier,  Salih  Pasha,  who  had  just 
completed  the  slate  of  his  new  Cabinet 
with  the  appointment  of  Mahamud 
Pasha  as  Minister  of  Marine,  of  the  fait 
accompli. 

Naturally,  as  his  Ministers  had  been 
appointed  on  the  orders  of  Kemal  and 
several  of  them  were  on  the  proscribed 
list  of  the  Interallied  Mission,  they  could 
not  remain.  Nevertheless,  Salih  felt  con- 
strained to  issue  a  proclamation  the  next 
day,  in  which  he  stated  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  do  everything  in  its  power 
to  defend  the  rights  of  Turkey  and  to 
demonstrate  its  readiness  for  reform. 

Then  the  hegira  of  the  political  agita- 
tors of  the  Nationalists,  Nationalist  M. 
P.'s,  and  certain  noble  families  began  in 
the  direction  of  Kemal's  headquarters  at 
Angora,  situated  on  the  railway,  215 
miles  southeast  of  the  Golden  Horn. 

Although  the  occupation  had  been  ac- 
complished without  opposition  in  the  cap- 
ital, a  storm  was  produced  in  the  prov- 
inces. In  the  vilayets  of  Anatolia,  Kemal 
told  the  Turks  to  restrain  themselves,  as 
he  would  presently  make  an  announce- 
ment; in  Adrianople  the  Nationalist 
Military  Governor,  who  had  already  be- 
gun to  fortify  Eastern  Thrace  against 
Greek  occupation,  issued  the  following 
proclamation : 

Early  on  March  16  the  British,  after 
collisions  by  force,  occupied  our  civil  and 
military  departments.  Naturally,  faced 
with  this  situation,  the  national  forces 
in  Anatolia  will  do  their  utmost  to  assure 
the  integrity  of  the  empire.  Every  one 
knows  that  the  lot  of  the  Adrianople 
province  is  intimately  bound  up  with  the 
destinies  of  the  empire.  Consequently, 
for  as  long  as  there  is  not  at  Constanti- 
nople a  Government  enjoying  entire  na- 
tional confidence  the  civil  and  military 
administration  of  Adrianople  declares 
itself  independent  to  obtain  its  national 
aim. 

On  March  24  his  paper,  The  People, 
issued  another  proclamation  with  the 
heading  "  Stamboul  in  Flames,"  which 
read  in  part: 

Constantinople,  under  the  protection 
whereof  so  many  nations  lived  since  1453, 
has  been  occupied  without  any  reason  by 
Bl-ltish      detachments  —  by      that      power 


whose  navy  constitutes  its  strength.  The 
unhappy  city  has  lost  its  national  author- 
ity and  our  flag  its  domination.  The 
official  departments  have  been  seized  by 
British  personnel.  It  is  certain  that  the 
British  intend  to  seize  the  seat  of  the 
Caliphate  and  deprive  us  of  the  right  to 
iive,  ending  our  national  sovereignty  and 
our  Constitution.  Today  the  world  must 
be  made  to  know  that  between  Thrace 
and  Anatolia  is  the  unbreakable  link  of 
the  capital  of  the  Caliphate,  without 
which  Turkey  cannot  live.  Let  us  carry 
independence  to  the  death  and  oppose 
oppression  by  the  uprising  of  three  hun- 
dred million  Moslems. 

Although  Parliament  had  for  some 
time  been  in  a  state  of  gradual  dissolu- 
tion and  no  quorum  could  be  assembled, 
Damad  Ferid  Pasha  was  requested  to 
form  a  new  Ministry  with  himself  as 
Grand  Vizier.  He  had  already  been 
Grand  Vizier  and  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  in  March,  1919,  and  President  of 
the  peace  delegation  to  Paris  last  June. 
The  Revolution  of  1908  had  made  him 
a  Senator,  but  owing  to  his  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  ultra-Nationalist  ideals  and 
with  Germany,  he  had,  since  1914,  re- 
frained from  politics,  latterly  at  the 
Sultan's  request. 

On  April  6  he  appointed  Durrizade 
Abdulla  Effendi  Sheik-ul-Islam,  and  dis- 
tributed  these   portfolios: 

Minister  of  Justice Ali  Ruchid  Bey 

Education Fahreddin  Bey 

Public  Works Djemal  Pasha 

Commerce   General  Hassein 

Agriculture Rennis  Pasha 

Finance Rechad  Pasha 

On  March  19  the  Chamber  had  ad- 
journed for  two  months,  but  an  anti- 
Nationalist  minority  continued  to  hold 
spasmodic  meetings  until  April  13,  when 
the  Sultan  actually  dissolved  the  "  rump," 
ordered  new  elections,  and  designated  the 
Cabinet  as  the  proper  authority  for  rat- 
ifying the  Treaty  of  Peace  when  it  should 
be  delivered. 

Meanwhile  an  opposition  Government 
was  coming  into  form  at  Angora  under 
the  direction  of  Kemal.  The  refugee 
members  of  the  Turkish  Parliament  he 
had  formed  into  a  congress,  while  the 
fact  that  sooner  or  later  he  intended  to 
usurp  both  the  political  and  the  religious 
prerogatives  of  Sultan  Mohammed  VI., 
was  said  to  be  foreshadowed  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that,  on  April  11,  he  desig- 


AFFAIRS  IN  ASIATIC  COUNTRIES 


257 


nated  the  Chief  of  the  Dervishes  in  Ana- 
tolia as  his  Sheik-ul-Islam  in  order  to 
have  ecclesiastical  authority  for  so 
doing.  Meanwhile,  also,  he  declined  to 
treat  with  a  British  mission  under  Gen- 
eral Rawlinson  until  the  troops  of  the 
Entente  should  have  been  removed  from 
Turkish  soil,  and  he  dispatched  agents 
to  every  vilayet  to  send  delegates  to  a 
National  Assembly  at  Angora.  Here,  it 
was  reported,  before  the  end  of  April 
the  subject  of  an  independent  S'ultan  and 
Caliph  would  be  discussed,  it  being  con- 
tended by  Kemal  that  Mohammed  VI., 
having  been  deprived  of  his  political  and 
religious  powers  by  the  Entente,  was 
in  no  position  to  exercise  either,  but  that 
Turkey  must  have  a  Sultan  with  hands 
free  and  Islam  a  Caliph. 

SYRIA 

Prince  Feisal,  according  to  the  press 
of  Beirut  and  Damascus  as  late  as  March 
28,  renounced  one  after  another  the  pre- 
rogatives he  had  claimed  as  King  of 
Syria  and  the  demands  he  had  made  on 
the  Entente,  on  the  occasion  of  his  elec- 
tion by  the  Pan-Syrian  Congress  as- 
sembled at  Damascus  on  March  8.  The 
Lissan-ul-Hal  of  Boirut,  founded  by  a 
Syrian-Frank  as  long  ago  as  1877,  gave 
credit  to  the  story  that  the  congress 
was  nothing  but  an  Arab  gathering  with 
tribal-appointed  delegates,  who  in  no 
sense  represented  the  population. 

Among  the  hundreds  of  local  and  racial 
expostulations  that  were  sent  to  M. 
Millerand,  the  French  Premier,  was  one 
from  the  Council  of  Lebanon,  where  the 
people  claim  descent  from  the  ancient 
Phoenicians,  and  assert  that  they  have 
never  been  conquered  by  either  Turk  or 
Arab  in  all  the  two  thousand  years  of 
their  existence.  Another  came  from  the 
Syrian  Jews.  Still  another  was  sent  by 
Chekri  Ganem,  President  of  the  Central 
Syrian  Committee.  This  was  a  telegram, 
which  read: 

If  it  be  true  that  General  Gouraud  has 
tendered  his  congratulations  to  the  Cabi- 
net of  Damascus,  then  we  protest  against 
this  recognition  of  an  illegal  authority 
which  no  allied  power  has  sanctioned  and 
against  which  every  Syrian  protests.  To 
allow  for  a  moment  the  establishment 
of  an  Arab  or  Shereefian  Government 
would  be  to  hand  over  Syria  to  an 
incompetent,      anarchic      and      retrograde 


power,   worse   than   that   from   which   the 
allied  victory  has  delivered   her. 

We  pray  the  Goverftment  of  the  Repub- 
lic to  hold  fast  by  the  engagements  en- 
tered into  by  all  its  successive  heads. 

On  April  4  it  was  reported  that  Feisal 
had  dropped  the  demand  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  Syria  be  recognized  by  the 
Entente.  It  was  expected  that  he  would 
appear  in  person  before  the  Supreme 
Council  at  an  early  date  and  explain 
matters. 

ARMENIA 

On  March  20  the  Supreme  Council  of- 
fered the  protection  of  the  League  of 
Nations  to  an  independent  Armenia, 
which  should  include  the  territory  run- 
ning from  the  Black  Sea  littoral  in  a 
southwesterly  direction  to  the  vilayet  of 
Aleppo,  including,  besides  the  Russian 
Armenian  Republic  of  Erivan,  the  devas- 
tated territory  of  the  middle  ground.  On 
April  11  the  League  found  itself  unable 
to  accept  the  mandate  because  it  lacked 
"  the  machinery  for  administering  the 
region,"  but  it  suggested  that  the  coun- 
cil pursue  its  investigations  and  recom- 
mended that  the  members  of  the  League 
make  collective  arrangements  to  meet 
the  financial  needs  of  the  projected  Ar- 
menian State. 

Meanwhile,  the  Armenians  to  the 
north  and  to  the  south  of  the  devastated 
regions  were  subjected  to  further  indig- 
nities. War  between  them  and  the  Ta- 
tars broke  out  in  the  district  of  Zan- 
gezur;  the  Moslem  Council  at  Erivan 
complained  to  the  Peace  Conference  that 
the  Armenians  were  ill-treating  the  Ta- 
tar peasants,  although  other  reports  to 
the  conference  stated  that  the  rural  Ar- 
menians were  being  rounded  up  by 
Tatar  bands  from  Azerbaijan  and  that 
17,000  had  perished.  On  April  12,  25,000 
Armenians  were  seeking  refuge  in 
Georgia  from  Baku.  In  the  soith,  in  the 
vilayet  of  Aleppo,  the  Januaiy  mas- 
sacres at  Marash  were  followed  by  raids 
on  towns  in  the  vicinity — Urfa,  Aintab, 
and  Hadjin.  Aintab,  the  seat  of  extensive 
American  mission  and  educational  work, 
was  relieved  by  a  French  column  of 
3,000  on  March  28,  sent  by  General 
Gouraud.  Aintab  had  been  practically 
besieged  by  Turkish  Nationalists  since 
Feb.  1. 


258 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


PERSIA 

Reports  received  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay, 
Paris,  from  Teheran  were  to  the  effect 
that  part  of  the  Persian  Ministry  had 
balked  at  executing  the  Anglo-Persian 
Treaty,  although  reports  at  Downing 
Street,  London,  stated  that  the  Anglo- 
Persian  Commission  under  Sir  H.  Llew- 
ellyn Smith  provided  for  in  the  treaty, 
had  been  formed  and  was  at  work  revis- 
ing the  customs  regulations  and  drafting 
the  terms  for  the  military  agreement. 

Meanwhile,  the  comprehensive  case  of 
Persia,  with  particular  reference  to  its 
relations  with  neighboring  States,  was 
presented  to  the  Supreme  Council  by 
Prince  Firuz  Nosrat  ed  Dauleh,  the  For- 
eign Minister,  in  person.  The  document, 
which  represents  the  views  and  opinions 
held  in  official  Persian  circles,  throws  a 
flood  of  light  upon  various  ramifications 
of  the  whole  Turkish  question.  Some  of 
its  observations  are: 

The  sentiments  of  other  branches  of  the 
Moslem  world  in  respect  to  the  Sultan's 
position  as  Caliph  are  not  shared  by  the 
Persians,  who  are  Shiahs,  or  by  other 
Shiah  Moslems  in  the  Caucasus,  India  and 
elsewhere ;  nevertheless,  the  Government 
has  always  been  anxious  to  maintain  the 
best  relations  with  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment. The  Persian  Government  now  seeks 
the  aid  of  the  Supreme  Council  to  secure 
just  reparation  for  the  damages  which 
have  been  directly  inflicted  on  Persia  by 
the  Turks.  As  to  the  damage  caused  in- 
directly by  the  Turkish  military  opera- 
tions, it  is  declared  that  it  is  incalcula- 
ble. 

The  Persian  Government  desires  that  the 
Kurdistan  settlement  should  be  of  a  na- 
ture to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  the  con- 
stant frontier  troubles.  It  is  pointed  out 
that  over  1,000,000  Kurds  still  live  in  Per- 
sian territory,  and  this  is  given  as  an 
additional  reason  why  Persia  is  keenly  in- 
terested in  the  new  status  to  be  given  that 
portion  of  the  Kurdish  race  which  lives 
outside   Persia. 

As  regards  the  frontier  and  territorial 
differences  with  Russia,  particularly  on 
the  Caucasian  frontier,  it  is  declared  that 
the  Russian  Government  on  various  occa- 
sions annexed  Persian  territory.  Since  the 
creation  of  the  new  Transcaucasian  Gov- 
ernments those  differences  have  been  re- 
moved to  a  certain  extent,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  establishment  of  a  natural 
frontier  line  will  be  sufficient  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  friendly  relations  between 
•      those  countries  and  Persia. 

Up  to  the  present  the  Russian  Bolshe- 
viki  have   not  violated   Persian  territory. 


As  far  as  Persia  is  concerned,  she  will  be 
guided  by  the  principle  of  instituting 
friendly  relations  with  her  neighbors,  and 
she  hopes  that  in  due  course  she  may  be 
able  to  adopt  the  same  attitude  toward 
the  Bolsheviki, 

CHINA  AND  JAPAN 

Following  strictly  the  point  of  view 
expressed  by  Dr.  C.  T.  Wang,  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  Chinese  peace  dele- 
gation to  Paris,  on  his  return  to  China, 
the  Chinese  Government  continued 
through  March  and  April  to  decline  all 
negotiations  with  Japan  over  the  return 
of  Shantung.  The  Chinese  attitude,  as 
summed  up  by  Dr.  Wang,  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

China's  only  hope  for  a  just  settlement 
of  the  Shantung  question  now  lies  with 
the  League  of  Nations,  not  in  direct  ne- 
gotiations between  Japan  and  China, 
which  Tokio  is  seeking  to  open. 

The  Japanese  Foreign  Office  on  March 
22  admitted  that  its  attempts  to  open 
such  discussions  had  failed;  it  declared, 
however,  that  it  had  in  no  way  modified 
its  policy.  Meanwhile  the  boycott  of 
Japanese  goods  continued,  bringing,  in 
the  words  of  the  Japanese  Consul  at 
Tientsin,  *' incalculable  ^--s"  to  Japa- 
nese commerce,  and  neither  threats  nor 
persuasions  availed  against  the  unalter- 
able resolution  of  the  Chinese  merchants 
not  to  handle  Japanese  goods. 

In  Siberia  the  Chinese  official  policy 
was  one  of  armed  neutrality  against  the 
Bolsheviki.  It  was  officially  announced 
on  March  21  that  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment had  received  assurances  from  the 
Bolshevist  Government  of  the  latter's 
good-will.  A  proffer  of  peace  had  also 
been  made,  based  on  a  renunciation  of 
Russia's  share  of  the  Boxer  indemnity 
and  on  transference  to  China  of  the  right 
to  control  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway. 
The  Chinese  frontier  garrisons,  how- 
ever, had  been  strengthened. 

Attempts  by  Japan  to  persuade  China 
to  occupy  North  Manchuria  as  a  defen- 
sive measure  against  the  Bolshevist  in- 
vasion had  failed.  At  several  points  on 
the  Amur  River  the  Chinese  had  estab- 
lished excellent  relations  with  the  Bol- 
sheviki, and  they  systematically  re- 
sisted all  Japanese  attempts  to  gain 
control  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway 


AFFAIRS  IN  ASIATIC  COUNTRIES 


259 


as  a  communication  base.  This  im- 
portant line  was  being  policed  by  the 
Chinese,  in  accordance  with  an  inter- 
allied agreement,  pending  China's  option 
to  purchase  it  from  Russia  in  1939,  and 
they  insisted  that  their  forces  were 
amply  sufficient  to  guard  this  railway 
and  the  Manchuiian  frontier. 

AZERBAIJAN 

Last  July  the  Interallied  Mission  at 
Constantinople  unearthed  a  treaty  be- 
tween the  Transcaucasian  republic  of 
Georgia  and  Turkey  negotiated  the  year 
before,  but  it  remained  for  the  Entente 
military  authorities  on  the  Golden  Horn 
to  unearth  one  negotiated  three  months 
after  the  Georgian  discovery,  between 
Turkey  and  the  sister  republic  of  Azer- 
baijan, which,  together  with  Georgia  and 
Russian  Armenia,  were  supposed  to  form 
a  barrier  protecting  Persia  and  old,  dev- 
astated Armenia,  between  the  Black  and 
Caspian  Seas,  from  the  Bolsheviki  of 
Ciscaucasia.  The  independence  of  these 
three  republics  was  recognized  by  the 
Entente  last  January  for  this  and  other 
reasons — Azerbaijan  holding  the  Baku 
oil  fields  and  part  of  the  Caspian  coast; 
Georgia,  with  its  capital  at  Tiflis,  and 
the  Armenian  Republic  of  the  Caucasus, 
with  its  capital  at  Erivan.  The  adjoin- 
ing vilayets  of  Diarbekir,  Bitlis  and  Van, 
in  old  Armenia,  were  described  by  the 
Harboard  report  as  desolate  wastes  with 
remnants  of  a  starving  population. 

These  States  were  originally  created 
under  German  direction,  and  the  infor- 
mation which  has  since  come  to  hand 
proves  that  subsequently,  while  seeking 
protection  from  the  Entente,  they  were 
at  the  same  time  negotiating  with  Tur- 
key. It  is  now  feared  that  these  treaties, 
proving  inoperative  at  Constantinople, 
were  taken  over  by  Mustapha  Kemal 
Pasha  and  the  de  facto  Turkish  National- 
ist Government  at  Angora. 

Azerbaijan  is  supposed  to  have  strong 
Moslem,  if  not  Turkish,  sympathies.  Its 
delegate  who  signed  the  treaty  was  Gen- 
eral Kerimof  f .  According  to  the  text,  the 
two  States  bind  themselves  to  grant  re- 
ciprocal assistance  against  such  foreign 


aggression  against  the  territorial  integ- 
rity of  either  "  as  mky  be  inflicted  by  the 
Treaty  of  Peace." 

In  order  that  mutual  co-operation  may 
be  the  more  effectively  secured,  the  re- 
public binds  itself  to  allow  the  Turkish 
Government  to  organize  its  army  and 
supply  the  officers  and  soldiers  required 
for  the  proper  training  of  the  Tartar 
troops.  In  return  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment undertakes  to  supply  such  guns, 
rifles,  munitions  and  aircraft  as  may  be 
available  in  excess  of  its  own  require- 
ments after  the  conclusion  of  peace. 
Azerbaijan  agrees  not  to  enter  into  mili- 
tary agreements  with  neighboring  States 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Porte,  and 
finally  the  treaty  ends  with  elaborate 
safeguards  as  to  its  interpretation  and 
execution. 

MESOPOTAMIA 

Although  reports  from  the  various 
British  Commissioners  at  Bagdad  showed 
that  Mesopotamia  was  being  more  suc- 
cessfully administered  than  any  other 
remnant  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  all 
through  the  month  the  Opposition  in  the 
British  House  of  Commons  made  it  a 
particular  theme  for  attacking  the  Lloyd 
George  Government.  Former  Premier 
Asquith,  in  a  speech  on  March  25,  de- 
clared that  the  force  of  60,000  men  neces- 
sary to  maintain  peace  in  the  region 
would,  if  attacked,  lead  to  an  infinite 
expansion  of  force  and  territory,  and  that 
the  British  should  confine  their  adminis- 
tration to  the  Vilayet  of  Basra  and  no 
further.  Even  Winston  Churchill,  Sec- 
retary for  War,  declared  that  other 
means  of  administration  must  be  de- 
vised if  the  whole  of  Mesopotamia  were 
to  be  retained,  and  he  suggested  an  ex- 
tensive airplane  patrol. 

Two  reports  from  Bagdad  indicate  a 
high  stage  of  efficient  improvement  in 
many  departments  other  than  those  di- 
rectly connoted  by  them.  One  is  from 
the  Censor  Office  at  Basra,  and  shows 
that  the  population  had  been  counted  in 
three  months  and  was  found  to  be  for 
the  entire  region  2,849,282.  The  second 
report  dealt  with  the  crops,  adding  this 
interesting  item  on  another  subject: 
Practically-   all    prisoners    of    war    d6- 


260 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


port^s  have  now  returned  to  Mesopo- 
tamia. It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  of 
17,000  or  more  thus  repatriated  during 
the  past  twelve  months  scarcely  a  dozen 
have  come  before  the  courts  for  any  form 
of  lawbreaking.  The  steps  taken  by 
local  governments  to  look  after  their  fami- 
lies in  their  absence  are  greatly  appre- 
ciated by  returned  prisoners. 


Official  dispatches  received  at  the 
India  Office,  dated  as  late  as  April  1, 
made  no  mention  of  the  inauguration  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Irak  (Bagdad  Vilayet) 
and  the  proclamation  of  Emir  Abdulla, 
third  son  of  King  Hussein  of  Hedjas,  as 
King. 


Developments  in  Latin  America 

Serious  Rebellion  in  Mexico — Overthrow  of  Cabrera  in  Guatemala 
— Radical  Triumph  in  Argentina 


MEXICO 

A  SERIOUS  rebellion  has  occurred  in 
Mexico,  overshadowing  the  Presi- 
dential campaign  and  threatening  to 
disrupt  the  republic.  Sonora,  next  to  Chi- 
huahua the  largest  State  in  Mexico,  has 
seceded  and,  after  refusing  to  submit  to 
Carranza's  summons  to  lay  down  arms, 
began  invading  the  neighboring  State  of 
Sinaloa. 

There  was  a  strike  on  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad  of  Mexico  and  a  Fed- 
eral Judge  at  Nogales  announced  that 
unless  the  railway  and  its  striking  em- 
ployes came  to  an  agreement  within 
three  days  the  Government  would  seize 
the  railroads  and  operate  the  trains  with 
soldiers.  The  strike  was  ordered  de- 
spite a  Federal  court  injunction,  and  the 
road  was  completely  tied  up.  The 
Judge's  ultimatum  was  issur  i  on  April  6. 
On  April  9,  the  day  it  expired,  the  State 
Government  of  Sonora,  anticipating  Fed- 
eral action,  seized  the  railroad  and  began 
to  operate  it,  employing  the  strikers  and 
promising  to  grant  all  their  demands. 

The  Sonora  Legislature  elected  Gov- 
ernor de  la  Huerta  as  "  supreme  power  of 
the  Republic  of  Sonora."  The  Gov- 
ernor sent  a  telegram  to  President  Car- 
ranza  protesting  against  sending  Fed- 
eral troops  into  the  State  and  asking 
suspension  of  the  troops  movement. 
Carranza  replied,  saying  any  opposition 
by  the  State  to  the  entrance  of  Federal 
troops  would  be  considered  an  "  evidence 
of  insurrection."  The  situation  was 
similar  to  the  difference  between  Presi- 
dent   Cleveland    and    Governor    Altgeld 


about  sending  Federal  troops  into  Illinois 
without  requests,  except  that  Illinois  did 
not  resist. 

Next  day,  April  11,  the  State  Congress 
at  Hermosillo  ordered  all  Federal  prop- 
erty taken  over.  General  Calles  was 
made  Commander  in  Chief,  and  all  Sonora 
soldiers,  whether  Federal  or  State,  were 
called  upon  to  join  the  Sonora  army  to 
resist  invasion  by  Carranza's  troops. 
General  Dieguez,  Carranza's  northern 
military  commander,  warned  General 
Calles  that  military  measures  would  be 
taken  unless  Sonora  returned  to  its  al- 
legiance. The  Sonora  authorities  be- 
gan to  fortify  Pulpito  Pass,  the  gate- 
way from  Chihuahua  to  Sonora,  which, 
it  is  said,  a  few  hundred  men  can  defend 
against  a  large  army.  All  the  Federal 
troops  in  Sonora  went  over  to  the  rebels, 
except  a  few  of  their  officers. 

General  Dieguez  arrived  in  Mexico 
City  from  Guadalajara  on  April  13  to 
confer  with  Carranza,  and  a  movement 
was  started  in  the  capital  for  mediation. 
At  the  same  time  troops  were  being 
rapidly  sent  north  to  attack  Sonora.  The 
first  clash  of  the  rival  forces  took  place 
at  El  Fuerte  on  the  border  between  Sina- 
loa and  Sonora.  Eight  hundred  Feder- 
alists on  April  14  left  Juarez  for  Casas 
Grandes,  Chihuahua,  to  march  overland 
into  Sonora.  Yaqui  Indians  who  have 
been  at  war  with  Carranza  made  peace 
with  Sonora  and  agreed  to  fight  the  Fed- 
eral forces.  A  German  steamer,  the 
Vorwarts,  seized  at  Guaymas  by  order 
of  the  Carranza  Government,  was  taken 
over  by  Sonora  and  refitted  as  a  cruiser. 
She  was  to  have  been  used  as  an  army 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  LATIN  AMERICA 


261 


'-'  transport  along  the  west  coast  of  Sonora. 
The  Sonora  troops  won  the  first  battle, 
capturing  El  Fuerte  and  San  Bias,  an- 
other town  in  Sinaloa,  and  pushed  on 
toward  Culiacan,  the  capital  of  that 
State.  Federal  troops  in  Sinaloa  were 
said  to  be  deserting  and  joining  the  reb- 
els. The  commanders  and  crews  of  the 
gunboats  Guerrero  and  Chiapas  also 
placed  their  vessels  at  the  disposal  of 
General  Calles,  these  being  the  only  two 
war  vessels  of  the  Carranza  Government 
in  Pacific  waters.  Sonora  leaders  said 
the  success  of  their  movement  would  re- 
sult in  the  overthrow  of  Carranza,  and 
after  that  they  would  be  willing  to  re- 
turn to  the  Mexican  national  allegiance. 

Carranza  on  April  16  was  planning  a 
triple  attack  on  Sonora,  one  by  landing 
troops  from  transports  at  southern  ports, 
one  through  Sinaloa  and  one  from  Chi- 
huahua. He  also  asked  permission  of 
the  United  States  to  move  troops  through 
American  territory  so  as  to  make  a 
fourth  attack  from  the  north  in  the  re- 
gion of  Agua  Prieta.  Sonora,  in  answer 
to  this  move,  stated  that  if  permission 
were  granted  it^  would  mean  a  battle  at 
the  border,  and  probable  damage  to 
American  property.  The  Governor  of 
Texas  opposed  granting  passage  to  the 
Carranza  troops. 

Sonora  troops  under  General  Angel 
Flores  entered  the  City  of  Culiacan, 
capital  of  Sinaloa,  on  April  17.  The 
Carranza  garrison  of  3,500  men  was  de- 
feated in  a  lively  engagement  and  many 
prisoners  were  taken. 

Governor  de  la  Huerta  ascribed  the 
break  with  Carranza  to  politics  as  well 
as  to  a  desire  to  put  down  the  strike. 
He  said  the  President  was  notoriously 
partial  in  the  electoral  campaign.  An 
order  was  issued  on  April  8  for  the  arrest 
of  General  Benjamin  Hill,  leading  sup- 
porter of  General  Obregon  for  the  Presi- 
dency. As  a  result  both  Hill  and  Obre- 
gon prudently  disappeared  in  Mexico 
City  a  few  days  after  the  candidate  was 
acquitted  of  charges  of  having  been  im- 
plicated in  the  Vera  Cruz  revolt.  Obre- 
gon has  announced  his  opposition  to  the 
Sonora  rebellion,  as  has  his  rival  can- 
didate, Ygnacio  Bonillas.  The  latter  is 
believed  to  be  favored  by  Carranza.  The 
election  will  take  place  on  July  4  unless 


the  rebellion  should  become  so  serious  as 
to  necessitate  its  postponement. 

GUATEMALA 

A  revolt  broke  out  on  April  7  against 
Estrada  Cabrera,  President  of  Guate- 
mala   since    1898.      The    cause    of    the 


SONORA,      THE     MEXICAN      STATE     THAT 

HAS  REVOLTED  AGAINST  THE   CARRANZA 

GOVERNMENT 


trouble  was  the  agitation  for  a  Central 
American  union  of  the  five  republics 
of  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Nicaragua, 
Salvador  and  Costa  Rica.  Such  a  union 
would  have  terminated  the  rule  of  the 
dictator,  and  he  began  making  wholesale 
arrests  of  all  who  favored  it.  A  large 
number  of  college  students  were  thrown 
into  prison  for  favoring  the  union,  and 
many  are  reported  to  have  been  ex- 
ecuted. There  had  been  riots  and  other 
disturbances,  ruthlessly  put  down  by 
troops  since  early  in  March. 

Finally  the  Unionists  gained  control 
of  Guatemala  City  in  spite  of  Cabrera's 
army,  the  largest  in  Central  America. 
The  President  was  at  his  Summer  home, 
La  Palma,  in  the  suburbs,  and  imme- 
diately ordered  an  attack  on  the  city, 
threatening  it  from  three  sides.  He  be- 
gan shelling  it  on  April  8  and  for  three 
days  shells  continued  to  fall  in  the  city, 
many  non-combatants  being  killed.     The 


262 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


whole  country  by  this  time  had  joined 
the  revolutionists,  who  formed  a  new 
Government  with  Carlos  Herrera  as 
President.  His  volunteer  troops  held  the 
capital  and  the  principal  railroad.     On 


HENRY  MORGENTHAU 

Former  Minister-  to  Turkey,  now  Ambassador 

to   Mexico 

(©    Undericood    d    Underwood) 

the  night  of  April  11  a  conference  was 
held  by  both  sides  at  the  American 
Legation  in  Guatemala  City  and  an 
armistice  between  the  Unionists  and  the 
forces  of  President  Cabrera  was  signed. 
The  suggestion  was  made  that  Cabrera 
leave  the  country;  the  Unionist  leaders 
guaranteed  safe  conduct  for  him  and  his 
family. 

Senor  Cabrera  was  formally  deposed 
from  the  Presidency  on  April  17  by  the 
National  Assembly,  and  Dr.  Carlos  Her- 
rera was  named  as  President.  On  the 
same  morning  the  Cabrera  forces  near 
Guatemala  City  surrendered  and  Cabrera 
himself  was  taken  prisoner.  The  new 
Government  at  once  began  functioning, 
and  perfect  order  was  reported  through- 
out Guatemala. 

Following  the  assassination  of  General 


Barrios,  Cabrera  had  been  elected  Presi- 
dent of  Guatemala  on  Oct.  2, 1898.  He  pro- 
moted education  and  commerce  and  built 
railroads,  but,  aiming  at  a  dictatorship, 
he  encouraged  the  imprisonment,  torture 
and  execution  without  trial  of  political 
opponents.  The  people  lived  in  terror 
of  him  and  he  in  turn  lived  in  terror  of 
assassination.  He  was  able  to  get  him- 
self re-elected  in  1905,  1911  and  1917, 
but,  like  President  Diaz  of  Mexico,  was 
finally  overthrown. 

ARGENTINA 

One  of  the  most  bitter  electoral  cam- 
paigns in  years  ended  on  March  7  in  the 
complete  triumph  of  the  radical  party, 
to  which  President  Irigoyen  belongs, 
over  a  coalition  of  the  democratic  pro- 
gressists with  the  conservatives.  For  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  Argentina 
there  were  two  women  candidates.  Dr. 
Julieta  Lanteri  de  Renshaw,  leader  of 
the  National  Feminist  Party,  and  Dr. 
Beron  de  Estrada,  on  one  of  the  So- 
cialist tickets.  As  a  result  of  the  election 
the  Argentine  Congress,  which  will  as- 
semble early  in  May,  will  consist  of  102 
Radicals,  46  Conservatives  and  10  So- 
cialists. The  campaign  had  been  accom- 
panied by  labor  disturbances  and  strikes. 
Prompt  action  by  the  Government  pre- 
vented the  movement  from  becoming 
general.  Troops  were  quartered  in  Buenos 
Aires,  twenty  anarchists'  headquarters 
were  closed  and  200  arrests  were  made. 
Large  quantities  of  bombs  and  explosives 
were  seized.  There  was  also  disaffection 
among  the  metropolitan  police.  Some 
policemen,  refusing  to  perform  their 
duties  unless  they  received  more  pay, 
were  arrested  and  a  citizen  guard  was 
mobilized. 

Medical  students  of  the  University  of 
La  Plata  on  April  5  engaged  in  a  riot 
over  precedence  for  examinations;  a  stu- 
dent was  killed.  The  police  arrested  130 
students  and  took  from  them  120  re- 
volvers. 

BOLIVIA 

General  Ismael  Montes,  twice  Presi- 
dent of  Bolivia,  is  about  to  present  to 
the  League  of  Nations  a  plea  for  an  ad- 
justment of  the  dispute  with  Peru  and 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  LATIN  AMERICA 


263 


Chile  and  the  need  of  his  country  for  a 
seaport;  he  is  returning  to  Europe  for 
that  purpose.  Bolivia's  desire  for  a  sea- 
port is  favored  by  Chile;  the  port  which 
Bolivia  now  wants,  however,  is  not  her 
former  town  of  Antofogasta,  but  the 
former  Peruvian  town  of  Ariea.  Instead 
of  asking  for  her  own,  Bolivia  is  seeking 
what  belonged  to  her  former  ally  in  the 
war  against  Chile  in  1880. 

Peru  resented  this  attitude,  and  a 
Bolivian  merchant's  establishment  in 
Juliaca  was  attacked.  A  large  mob  in 
La  Paz,  the  Bolivian  capital,  attacked 
the  Peruvian  legation  on  March  14.  The 
Bolivian  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Lima  offi- 
cially expressed  regret  for  the  occur- 
rence. Chancellor  Porras  of  Peru  mean- 
time sent  a  note  to  the  United  States 
Government  saying  that  Chile  was  urg- 
ing Bolivia  to  extreme  measures. 

The  American  Government  sent  a  note 
to  La  Paz  insisting  that  Bolivia  should 
not  disturb  the  peace  of  South  America. 
A  communication  was  also  sent  to  Chile 
asking  her  to  leave  nothing  undone  to 
prevent  a  rupture  between  Peru  and 
Bolivia.  These  notes  stirred  all  South 
America.  The  Chilean  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs  declared  Chile  would  not 
allow  interference  "  from  any  power  or 
powers,"  and  the  Argentine  press  severe- 
ly criticised  the  "  arrogant  "  tone  of  the 
notes  from  Washington.  Angry  feelings 
were  calmed  by  Secretary  Colby,  who 
announced  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment did  not  intend  to  exercise  pres- 
sure or  intervene  in  any  form.  Brazil 
took  the  same  view  as  the  United  States 
and  agreed  to  act  as  arbitrator  in  the 
dispute  between  Peru  and  Bolivia;  pre- 
liminary steps  to  this  end  were  said  to 
have  been  taken.  Nevertheless,  in  her 
latest  note  to  Peru,  published  on  April 
10,  Bolivia  announced  her  "  irrevocable 
resolution  "  to  obtain  the  port  of  Arica 
as  an  outlet  to  the  Pacific. 

BRAZIL 

Unlike  most  nations  which  took  an  ac- 
tive part  in  the  war,  Brazil  profited 
rather  than  suffered  by  the  conflict. 
The  enormous  demand  from  Europe  had 
the  effect  of  developing  Brazilian  agri- 
culture  beyond    all   expectations.      Last 


year  the  favorable  balance  of  trade  of 
Brazil  was  about  $200,000,000.  Coffee 
is  still  the  chief  item,  but  its  percentage 
is  steadily  declining.  Brazil's  excess  of 
exports  has  placed  her  in  a  very  advan- 
tageous position  from  the  standpoint  of 
favorable  exchange  rates,  and  the  expan- 
sion of  trade  forced  her  paper  money 
up  to  par.  Credits  were  not  as  extended 
as  here,  but  there  was  inflation  that  re- 
sulted in  similar  labor  unrest. 

A  strike  of  railway  men  in  March  was 
followed  by  one  of  motormen  and  drivers. 
Then  the  Federation  of  Labor  called  a 
general  strike.  Trade  in  Rio  Janeiro 
was  practically  paralyzed.  Firemen  on 
all  Brazilian  steamships  walked  out  in 
sympathy  with  teamsters  and  truck  driv- 
ers. At  Sao  Paulo  all  the  clothing  fac- 
tories were  closed  by  a  strike.  Waiters 
and  cooks  in  Rio  Janeiro  struck,  restau- 
rants were  closed,  and  hotels  had  diffi- 
culty in  meeting  their  guests'  require- 
ments. The  Government  announced  it 
would  prosecute  and  deport  all  foreign- 
ers involved  in  disturbances,  and  1,600 
arrests  were  made.  The  strike  culmi- 
nated on  March  28  in  the  explosion  of 
three  bombs  in  Rio  Janeiro,  without, 
however,  doing  much  damage.  Finally 
the  Federation  of  Labor  called  off  the 
strike  on  the  Government's  promise  to 
release  most  of  the  men  arrested. 

Brazil  needs  labor  to  develop  the  in- 
terior of  her  vast  country,  and  President 
Pessoa  recently  signed  a  decree  opening 
a  credit  of  $500,000  for  expenses  in  con- 
nection with  the  transport,  reception  and 
settlement  of  immigrants  from  Europe. 
Preliminary  work  has  begun  on  the  con- 
struction of  great  irrigation  canals  in 
the  drought-stricken  section  of  North- 
eastern Brazil,  and  it  is  planned  to  ex- 
tend railroads  there. 

German  ships  seized  by  Brazil  will  be 
taken  over  by  a  syndicate  of  French 
ship  owners  on  payment  of  $26,000,000, 
according  to  the  Paris  Journal. 

The  new  Congress  meets  on  May  3  to 
consider  the  tariff  bill  submitted  by 
President  Pessoa.  The  bill  provides  for 
a  decided  reduction  on  articles  of  prime 
necessity,  and  indicates  a  departure  from 
the  protective  principle  hitherto  prevail- 
ing.    It  does  not  affect  the  20  per  cent. 


264 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


preferential  reciprocal  tariff  on  certain 
products  of  the  United  States  imported 
into  Brazil. 

CHILE 

A  new  Chilean  Cabinet  succeeded  the 
Quezada  Ministry  on  March  26,  Pedro 
Nelasco  Montenegro,  formerly  Minister 
of  War,  becoming  Premier  and  Minister 
of  the  Interior.  Antonio  Huneus,  who 
has  held  portfolios  in  many  Chilean 
Cabinets  in  the  last  twenty  years,  is 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

Charges  of  conspiracy  of  a  revolution- 
ary character  are  reported  in  a  Buenos 
Aires  dispatch  of  April  14  to  have  been 
made  against  thirty-five  Chilean  army 
officers,  including  six  Generals.  The 
death  penalty  is  said  to  have  been  de- 
manded by  General  Hurtado,  Military 
Attorney  General.  A  court-martial  was 
to  be  convened  to  try  the  accused. 

PERU 

Major  General  W.  C.  Gorgas,  who  won 
fame  by  his  work  in  the  Panama  Canal 
Zone,  has  begun  extensive  sanitary  im- 
provements in  Peru  under  a  five-year 
contract  with  the  Peruvian  Government, 
involving  an  expenditure  of  $100,000,000. 
The  work  includes  providing  Lima  and 
thirty  other  cities  with  fresh  water, 
drains,  paving,  garbage  disposal  plants 
and  other  municipal  advantages.  Paita, 
which  has  been  infested  with  yellow 
fever,  is  to  be  totally  destroyed  and  a 
new  town  erected  on  its  site.  General 
Gorgas  has  gone  to  West  Africa  by  way 
of  Belgium,  having  left  Lima  on  April  1, 
but  will  return  to  Peru  in  January. 

The  All-America  cable  line  was  opened 
to  Arica  on  April  1,  connecting  with 
land  lines  to  Tacna  and  La  Paz.  Its 
completion  was  delayed  by  a  submarine 
earthquake  on  Feb.  28,  west  of  MoUendo, 
Peru,  where  the  subterranean  outlet  of 
Lake  Titicaca  is  supposed  to  enter  the 


ocean.     Ten  miles  of  the  broken  cable 
were  buried  beyond  recovery. 

ECUADOR 

President  Alfredo  Baquerizo  Moreno 
of  Ecuador  and  President  Marco  Suarez 
of  Colombia  met  early  in  April  at  Ipiales 
on  the  border  of  their  respective  States 
and  laid  the  cornerstone  of  a  monument 
commemorating  the  signing  of  the  treaty 
in  July  last  defining  the  exact  frontier 
between  the  two  countries.  Dr.  Jose 
Luis  Tamayo,  President  of  Ecuador,  be- 
fore entering  upon  his  duties  in  Septem- 
ber will  make  a  visit  to  England. 

Italy  has  sent  a  military  and  com- 
mercial mission  to  Ecuador,  which  re- 
ported on  April  6  that  it  had  arranged 
a  tobacco  monopoly  for  an  Italian  com- 
pany in  that  country  in  consideration  of 
which  Italy  agrees  to  undertake  the  con- 
struction of  public  works  in  Ecuador. 

URUGUAY 

Washington  Beltran,  editor  of  the 
Pais,  a  newspaper  of  Montevideo,  was 
shot  and  killed  in  a  duel  on  April  2  by 
Jose  Batlle  y  Ordones,  former  President 
of  Uruguay,  causing  great  political  ex- 
citement. Beltran  in  referring  to  the 
last  elections  called  Batlle,  head  of  a 
rival  political  party,  the  "  champion  of 
fraud."  This  led  to  the  duel.  Batlle 
voluntarily  gave  himself  up  to  the  police, 
as  there  is  a  law  against  dueling  in 
Uruguay.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies 
voted  an  annual  pension  of  $3,000  to  Bel- 
tran's  widow. 

Uruguay  has  been  experimenting  with 
her  Constitution.  The  new  document, 
which  has  been  in  operation  a  year,  lim- 
its the  powers  of  the  President,  dividing 
the  executive  functions  with  a  Commis- 
sion Nacional  de  Administracion.  Now  it 
is  proposed  to  do  away  with  the  Presi- 
dent altogether  and  have  the  Government 
run  by  a  commission  of  eleven  members. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 

Rise  of  the  Wireless  Telephone  and  Some  of  the  Wonders 

It  Has  Achieved^ 


^^  AN  amateur  wireless  operator  at  St. 
/\     Mary's,  Ohio,  was  taking  a  mes- 
jMJ    \  sage  in  telegraph  code  one  night 
^^P  early    in    February,    1920,    when 

suddenly  he  was  dumfounded  to  hear  a 
human  voice  in  his  instrument.  The 
voice  came  from  Ossining,  N.  Y.,  and 
it  was  coming  on  wireless  waves  into 
an  amateur  instrument  hundreds  of  miles 
away  meant  only  for  dots  and  dashes. 
The  Ohio  operator  knew  that  something 
revolutionary  was  happening.  Having 
no  telephone  apparatus  he  had  to  tick 
back  his  acknowledgment  in  dashes  and 
dots.  This  incident  illustrates  the  way 
in  which  wireless  telephony  has  grown 
out  of  wireless  telegraphy.  In  many 
places  the  same  plant  is  equipped  for 
both. 

The  evolution  of  adequate  receiving 
and  transmitting  apparatus  for  long- 
distance radiophony  is  an  eventful 
drama,  which  began  a  little  over  five 
years  ago;  and  although  wireless  inven- 
tions have  made  almost  all  the  world  a 
whispering  gallery,  the  half  has  not  yet 
been  realized;  at  the  same  time  the 
story  is  still  unfolding  so  fast  that  it  is 
impossible  to  keep  timely  record  of  the 
improvements. 

The  feat  just  referred  to  was  per- 
formed by  an  engineer  of  the  De  Forest 
Radio  Company  of  Ossining,  N.  Y.  He 
afterward  communicated  with  Chicago, 
and  later  with  Valley  City,  N.  D.,  almost 
fifteen  hundred  miles  away.  Even  this 
distance,  it  is  true,  was  only  a  small 
fraction  of  distances  that  had  been 
covered  by  wireless  telephone  from 
Washington  with  a  high-power  plant;  the 
remarkable  fact  about  the  Ossining  feat 
was  that  it  eclipsed  all  previous  records 
with  the  low-power  apparatus  allowed  by 
law  to  amateur  operators.  The  New 
York  amateur's  new  record  was  made 
with  a  small  amount  of  aerial,  a 
short    wave-length,    and    only    one-third 

*Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Radio 
Corporation  of  America. 


of  a  kilowatt  of  power — an  important 
cheapening  of  the  long-distance  radio- 
phonic   process. 

Though  in  this  and  other  instances 
wireless  telephony  has  made  a  dicta- 
phone, so  to  speak,  of  a  wireless  tele- 
graph instrument,  the  fields  of  the  two 
arts  are  as  distinct  as  are  those  of  wired 
telephony  and  telegraphy,  and  the 
amount  of  interference  of  one  with  the 
other  is  negligible.  Moreover,  though  the 
wireless  telephone  has  attained  high 
practical  value,  it  is  not  expected  ever 
to  supersede  the  wired  telephone.  Rather, 
one  complements  the  other. 

TALKING  ACROSS  THE  OCEAN 

When  Secretary  Daniels  communicated 
by  radiophone  with  President  Wilson  on 
Feb.  22,  1919,  while  the  latter  was  sail- 
ing from  France  to  the  United  States, 
the  Secretary  used  the  ordinary  desk 
telephone  in  his  office  at  Washington, 
which  was  connected  by  long-distance 
with  the  radio  transmitter  of  the  naval 
radio  station  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J., 
whence  the  words  were  carried  aboard 
the  George  Washington,  nearly  a  thou- 
sand miles  out  at  sea.  Having  no  trans- 
mitting radiophone  apparatus,  the  Presi- 
dent could  reply  only  by  wireless  te- 
legraphy. On  the  President's  second 
voyage  to  France,  the  radio  station  at 
New  Brunswick  kept  in  communication 
with  him  all  the  way  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  even  at  Brest — the  conversation 
being  still  only  "  one  way."  But  before 
the  President's  final  return  home  the 
George  Washington  was  fitted  up  with 
a  powerful  radiophone  apparatus,  so 
that  he  could  carry  on  a  distinct  "  both- 
way "  conversation  with  Washington 
from  the  moment  he  boarded  his  ship  at 
Brest. 

The  wireless  telephone .  requires  no 
fixed  channels  of  communication,  via 
expensive  wire  lines,  whose  construction 
and  upkeep  necessitate  an  accessible  path 
between   stations.      It   is   free   from   all 


266 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


cost  of  line  construction  and  mainte- 
nance. But,  unlike  the  wire  telephone,  it 
does  not  secure  secrecy,  or  power  effi- 
ciency, or  selection  of  a  desired  station, 
or  freedom  from  interference.  Never- 
theless, radiophony  is  of  high  utility  in 
its  own  field.  It  is  practicable  at  sea,  in 
the  air,  and  in  inaccessible  places  on 
land,  where  the  ordinary  telephone  is 
a  physical  impossibility. 

To  connect  a  wire  system  with  a  radio 
system  is  just  as  simple  as  connecting 
two  wire  lines  by  means  of  a  repeater. 
To  reach  most  persons  one  can  best  use 
a  combination  of  the  wireless  telephone 
with  the  network  of  ordinary  telephone 
wires  extending  to  perhaps  99  per  cent, 
of  the  stations;  the  other  1  per  cent., 
however,  to  which  it  is  impracticable  to 
build  wire  lines,  must  be  reached  by 
radio  transmission  alone.  This  prac- 
ticability of  the  radio  as  a  connecting 
link  between  wire  systems  insures  for  it 
an  ever-increasing  demand,  especially  to 
provide  communication  with  arctic  sta- 
tions, and  with  stations  on  islands,  in 
deserts,  and  in  sparsely  settled  regions. 
As  wireless  telephony  can  be  used  in 
the  same  station  with  wireless  telegra- 
phy, and  does  not  require  an  expert 
technical  operator,  it  will  ultimately  be 
preferred  wherever  secrecy  and  accuracy 
are  not  important. 

STIMULUS  OF  THE  WAR 

Though  wonders  are  still  being  added 
to  the  power,  range  and  economy  of 
wireless  telephony,  the  art  was  secretly 
brought  to  a  high  stage  of  development 
under  the  exigencies  of  the  World  War. 
On  both  land  and  sea,  as  well  as  in  air- 
planes, it  was  of  tremendous  importance 
in  winning  the  conflict.  It  was  the  main 
determinant  of  air  strategy.  Naval 
strategy  was  revolutionized  by  it. 
Wonders  began  to  be  realized  through 
the  high  improvement  in  amplifiers,  for 
increasing  the  wave  length,  especially  at 
receiving  stations.  The  British  con- 
structed a  nineteen-stage  amplifier  which 
enabled  naval  operators  to  "  listen  in  "  to 
German  radiophonic  conversations  over 
300  miles  away.  Unsuspectingly  the  Ger- 
mans used  on  their  warships  in  the  Kiel 
Canal  the  buzzer  sets  which  they  sup- 
posed to  be  practicable  only  for  inter- 


communication between  ships  lying  less 
than  a  mile  apart,  or  at  most  less  than 
five  miles  apart.  So  the  official  orders, 
important  messages  and  the  usual  gossip 
between  operators,  which  they  telephoned 
with  unconcern  through  these  buzzers, 
enabled  the  Allies  to  share  the  Germans' 
plans  and  keep  in  touch  with  the  latest 
developments  of  the  German  fleet. 

By  the  same  token,  with  all  the  stu- 
pendous   improvements    in    the    way    of 


ERNST    F.    W.    ALEXANDERSON 
Chief  engineer.  Radio  Corporation  of  Amer- 
ica; inventor  of  the  Alexanderson  high- 
frequency  alternator  and  creator  of  the 
high-power    radio    station    at 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

amplifiers  and  the  post-bellum  vacuum 
tube,  even  an  amateur  wireless  operator 
in  any  part  of  the  United  States  today 
cannot  be  sure  that  his  words  are  not 
picked  out  of  the  air  in  Japan  or  China. 
However,  but  for  the  impetus  given  by 
the  war  to  both  radio  arts,  their  phe- 
nomenal development  of  the  last  five 
years  would  not  have  taken  place;  par- 
ticularly is  this  true  in  regard  to  wire- 
less telephony.  Most  wireless  stations 
nowadays  are  equipped  with  a  telephone 
receiver  and  transmitter  for  radiophony 
as   well   as  with   a   telegraph    key   for 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE— WIRELESS  TELEPHONY 


267 


radio     telegraphy,     together     with     the 
other  apparatus  essential  to  each. 

RECENT   HISTORY 

The  possibilities  of  wireless  telephony 
were  demonstrated  by  many  investigators 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war.  During 
the  year  1915  the  United  States  Navy 
Department  carried  on  experiments  in 
wireless  voice  transmission  over  great 
distances,  in  conjunction  with  radio 
engineers  of  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company,  and  the  Western 
Electric  Company.  On  Aug.  27,  1915, 
signals  were  sent  from  the  naval  radio 
station  at  Arlington,  Va.  (just  across 
the  Potomac  River  from  Washington, 
D.  C),  to  the  naval  radio  station  at 
Darien,  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  a 
distance  of  about  2,100  miles.  The  mes- 
sages comprised  a  few  sentences  spoken 
into  the  transmitter  by  various  officials, 
of  which  only  words  and  phrases  were 
received  by  the  operators  at  Darien ;  but 
they  were  able  to  recognize  two  selec- 
tions played  by  a  phonograph. 

On  Sept.  19,  1915,  a  combined  radio 
and  wire  telephony  test  was  carried  out 
between  the  naval  radio  stations  at 
Arlington,  Va.,  and  Mare  Island,  Cal. 
Both  kinds  of  telephony  had  to  be  used 
then,  so  that  conversation  could  be  car- 
ried on  in  both  directions.  The  long- 
distance wire  line  from  New  York  was 
connected  with  the  radiophone  transmit- 
ter at  Washington,  and  the  wire  line 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  was 
connected  with  the  radiophone  at  the 
latter  city.  Speech  was  successfully 
transmitted,  without  relay,  from  New 
York  to  Washington  by  wire  telephone, 
from  Washington  to  San  Francisco  by 
wireless  telephone;  then  replies  were  re- 
ceived in  New  York  by  wire  telephone 
from  San  Francisco. 

Having  succeeded  in  talking  by  wire- 
less over  a  distance  of  2,500  miles,  the 
United  States  Navy  Department  ar- 
ranged for  the  test  which  set  the  record 
for  long-distance  radiophone  transmis- 
sion. On  Oct.  23,  1915,  it  transmitted 
signals  from  Arlington  which  were 
simultaneously  received  in  Honolulu  and 
in  the  Eiffel  Tower  at  Paris. 

The  success  of  this  experiment  led  to 
a  comprehensive  study  by  the  Navy  De- 


partment of  the  possibilities  of  mobiliz- 
ing wireless  telephony  for  use  in  naval 
operations.  The  foregoing  experiments 
had  consisted  of  one-way  conversations 
only.  In  May,  1916,  a  radiophone  trans- 
mission set  was  installed  on  the  battle- 
ship New  Hampshire,  and  when  she  was 
fifty  miles  at  sea  both-way  conversa- 
tions were  satisfactorily  carried  on.  For 
shore  transmission  the  Arlington  station 
was  used,  but  many  operators  at  other 
shore  stations  along  the  Atlantic  Coast 
received  the  signals  on  wireless  telegraph 
apparatus,  and  heard  the  whole  test. 
Observers  reported  that  the  transmission 
was  even  better  than  with  a  wire  tele- 
phone, various  sounds  on  shipboard  being 
distinctly  heard,  such  as  the  footfalls  of 
officers  walking  on  the  deck.  The  ap- 
paratus installed  on  the  lower  bridge 
deck  of  the  New  Hampshire  differed 
from  the  apparatus  at  Arlington  only  in 
size.  The  receiver  and  transmitter  were 
installed  on  the  bridge  itself,  whence  the 
Captain  could  converse  while  on  duty 
directing  the  movements  of  the  ship. 

Though  perfect  transmission  of  speech 
was  secured  by  these  experiments,  the 
apparatus  comprising  several  score  of 
vacuum  tubes  arranged  in  parallel,  the 
tests  were  so  expensive  that  the  costly 
apparatus  was  later  dismantled.  The 
cost  of  maintenance  of  such  an  outfit 
would  haV3  been  prohibitive.  Neverthe- 
less, experiments  continued  for  military 
and  naval  uses,  in  which  transmission 
over  distances  so  vast  was  not  essential, 
and  the  United  States  entered  the  war 
with  a  number  of  serviceable  types  of 
wireless  telephones,  the  demand  for 
which  resulted  in  very  rapid  commercial 
and  industrial  development. 

TELEPHONING  TO  AIRPLANES 

The  most  striking  development  of  wire- 
less telephony  during  the  war  was  in 
connection  with  aircraft.  Wireless  teleg- 
raphy had  been  used  for  scouting  and 
the  control  of  gun  fire;  but  only  spark- 
gap  types  of  telegraph  apparatus  had 
been  used,  and  its  field  had  been  limited 
to  one-way  communication.  In  May, 
1917,  the  problem  of  radiophonic  inter- 
communication between  airplanes  while 
in  flight  was  presented  to  a  group  of 
American  engineers  and  scientists,  at  the 


268 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE     EPOCH-MAKING    MACHINE     THAT     MAKES     IT     POSSIBLE     TO     TALK     ACROSS     THE 

ATLANTIC       BY      WIRELESS       TELEPHONE:        THE       ALEXANDERSON       HIGH-FREQUENCY 

ALTERNATOR     IN     THE     WIRELESS     STATION    AT    NEW     BRUNSWICK,     N.    J. 


request  of  Major  Gen.  Squier,  Chief  Sig- 
nal Officer  of  the  army.  Laboratory 
work  was  directed  especially  toward  pro- 
ducing a  telephone  transmitter,  or  micro- 
phone, which  should  be  responsive  to 
voice  frequencies,  and  at  the  same  time 
insensitive  to  extraneous  noises,  such  as 
those  made  by  the  motor  and  the  wind. 
At  the  same  time  a  headset  was  devised 
for  the  aviator,  comprising  a  leather  hel- 
met with  a  transmitter  and  with  the  re- 
ceiving elements  so  disposed  and  screened 
from  external  noises  that  the  wearer 
could  readily  detect  the  weak  radio 
signals. 

A  full  transmission  set  was  taken  into 
the  air  on  July  2,  the  same  year,  and, 
when  the  plane  was  two  miles  away, 
speech  of  good  volume  and  quality  was 
received  at  the  ground  station.  On  July 
4  the  receiving  set  was  taken  into  the 
air  and  the  aviator  received  spoken  mes- 
sages clearly  when  several  miles  from  the 
ground  station.  Such  tests  and  experi- 
ments were  kept  up  through  the  Summer, 
and  on  Dec.  2,  1917,  an  official  demon- 
stration of  both  receiving  and  hearing 
was  successfully  made  at  Dayton,  Ohio, 
in  the  presence  of  members  of  the  Air- 


craft Production  Board,  the  Joint  Army 
and  Navy  Technical  Board,  and  various 
Signal  Corps  officers,  all  together  a 
party  of  about  thirty. 

This  demonstration  consisted  of  a 
three-cornered  conversation,  the  ma- 
noeuvres of  two  two-place  airplanes 
being  directed  from  the  ground  station. 
By  connecting  a  loud-speaking  receiver 
with  the  ground-station  radio  set  in  a 
certain  way  a  dictaphone  was  formed  by 
which  the  whole  party  could  overhear  the 
conversation  between  the  planes  and  the 
ground  and  that  between  one  plane  and 
the  other.  They  heard  the  fliers' 
acknowledgments  of  orders  transmitted 
from  the  ground  station,  and  saw  the 
planes  carry  out  the  orders  in  the  re- 
quired evolutions.  Even  after  the  air- 
planes were  eight  miles  away  and  out 
of  sight,  the  party  could  overhear  what 
the  pilot  and  observer  of  one  plane  said 
to  the  pilot  and  observer  on  the  other, 
and  what  the  aviators  said  to  the  officer 
on  the  ground.  The  success  of  this 
demonstration  was  so  conclusive  that  the 
Signal  Corps  immediately  placed  quan- 
tity orders  with  manufacturers  for  the 
radiophone   apparatus  thus  proved. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE— WIRELESS  TELEPHONY 


269 


Under  the  stress  of  limited  time  many 
and  intricate  problems  were  overcome  in 
adapting  the  designs  to  manufacture  in 
commercial  quantity.  This  is  the  first 
instance  on  record  in  which  the  pro- 
duction of  either  kind  of  wireless  ap- 
paratus was  put  on  a  manufacturing 
basis  on  a  scale  comparable  with  that 
obtaining  in  ordinary  lines  of  electrical 
manufacture.  The  timely  means  thus 
afforded  of  communication  between 
battleplanes  when  flying  in  squadrons 
were  of  inestimable  value  in  increasing 
the  war  efficiency  of  aircraft. 

THE  VACUUM  TUBE 

Since  then,  great  advances  have  been 
made,  both  widening  radiophonic  range 
and  restricting  the  range  of  an  apparatus 
at  will.  This  twofold  marvel  has  re- 
sulted from  the  constantly  higher  per- 
fection attained  in  that  manifold  wonder- 
machine  known  as  the  vacuum  tube.  The 
long-distance,  two-way  conversations 
made  possible  by  it  are  of  immense 
naval  advantage,  enabling  an  officer  in 
high  command  to  direct  strategic  move- 
ments of  a  fleet  from  department  head- 
quarters in  Washington  or  from  any  im- 
portant naval  base.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  in  May,  1919,  carried  on  a 
two-way  conversation  from  his  Washing- 
ton office  with  an  officer  on  an  airplane 
150  miles  out  at  sea.  In  the  same  month, 
Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  Acting  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  sitting  at  his  desk  in  Wash- 
ington, conversed  reciprocally  with  Secre- 
tary of  War  Baker,  who  was  on  board 
the  George  Washington  200  miles  at  sea. 
This  demonstration  was  a  testing  out  of 
the  epochal  invention  which  enabled 
President  Wilson  to  converse  reciprocally 
with  the  departments  at  the  capital,  from 
the  time  he  boarded  the  George  Wash- 
ington at  Brest  until  he  reached  the 
United  States:  this  invention  being  the 
Alexanderson  high-frequency  alternator 
— or  alternating-current  generator — the 
invention  of  Ernst  F.  W.  Alexanderson, 
who  also  is  the  creator  of  the  high  power 
station  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

Wireless  telephony,  or  radiophony,  like 
wireless  telegraphy,  depends  on  electro- 
magnetic waves  traveling  through  ether- 
filled  space.  These  waves  are  of  two 
Rinds,  intermittent  and  persistent;  or,  as 
they     are    technically     called,     damped 


waves  and  undamped.  As  an  illustration 
of  intermittent  (damped)  waves,  consider 
the  concentric  ripple's,  or  waves,  which 
one  starts  by  throwing  a  pebble  into  a 
pond.  The  series  of  waves  radiating 
from  the  point  where  the  pebble  strikes 
the  water  consists  of  waves  of  unequal 
length;  they  tend  to  die  away.  Throw- 
ing another  pebble  starts  a  similar  series 
of  waves  of  unequal  length.  Such  waves 
are  intermittent  (damped).  A  succes- 
sion of  such  series  of  waves  is  called  a 
train. 

Next,  as  an  illustration  of  persistent 
(undamped)  waves,  consider  the  waves 
one  makes  by  stirring  the  water  with  a 
paddle.  In  this  way  one  can  so  apply 
power  to  the  paddle  at  will  as  to  create 
series  and  trains  of  waves  of  equal 
length.  The  length  of  a  wave  is  the  dis- 
tance from  crest  to  crest.  Such  waves 
created  with  a  paddle  are  persistent 
(undamped). 

Now  think  of  waves,  not  in  water,  but 
in  the  ether  that  fills  all  space  and  all 
matter.  The  electro-magnetic  waves, 
which,  in  wireless  communication,  travel 
through  the  ether  at  the  rate  of  186,000 
miles  per  second,  in  a  radial  direction, 
are  created  by  the  discharge  of  a  con- 
denser (of  the  Leyden-jar  type)  across 
a  spark-gap  through  self-inductance  coil. 
The  simple  circuit  thus  formed  for  the 
passage  of  the  periodic  discharge  is  con- 
nected, directly  or  indirectly,  with  the 
antenna  (air-wiring)  system  and  ground. 
The  function  of  the  antenna  and  ground 
is  to  propagate  the  waves  into  the  ocean 
of  ether  at  the  transmitting  end,  and  to 
detect  the  waves  at  the  receiving  end. 

For  example,  consider  the  antenna  and 
ground  as  a  hinged  paddle  dipping  in 
the  pond.  Suppose  another  hinged  paddle 
is  placed  some  distance  away  in  the  same 
pond.  If  the  first  paddle  is  moved  back 
and  forth  the  waves  that  radiate  from  it 
will  make  the  other  paddle  oscillate  as 
soon  as  they  reach  it.  These  oscilla- 
tions, in  turn,  can  be  made  to  strike  a 
bell,  drive  a  pencil  to  and  fro  on  a  sheet 
of  paper,  or  otherwise  to  indicate  that 
the  second  paddle  is  affected  by  the 
waves  started  from  the  first  one.  Such 
is  the  action  of  the  transmitting  antenna 
and  ground  on  the  receiving  antenna  and 
ground  in  wireless  communication. 


270 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE  WHEEL,   THAT   CREATES    THE   ELECTRIC   POWER   FOR    THE   WIRELESS    TELEPHONE 
OR    TELEGRAPH:       200    KILOWATT    HIGH-FREQUENCY    ALTERNATOR 


The  antenna  and  ground  go  together, 
at  each  end  of  the  line  of  communication. 
The  antenna,  or  aerial  (as  the  air-wiring 
system  is  also  called),  consists  of  one  or 
another  arrangement  of  wires  elevated 
on  one  or  more  masts.  If  one  mast  is 
used  the  aerial  wires  extend  in  umbrella 
formation  from  its  top  to  the  earth, 
and  a  lead-in  wire  connects  them  from 
near  the  top  with  the  radio  instrument 
below.  This  "'  umbrella "  type  of  an- 
tenna is  the  type  used  by  the  United 
States  Forest  Service  on  Mount  Hood, 
Ore.,  where  it  is  conducting  tests  with 
a  view  to  introducing  wireless  telephones 
in  the  national  forests.  There  the  mast 
used  is  a  50-foot  bamboo  pole,  which  can 
be  taken  down  in  case  of  sleet  storms. 

If,  as  more  generally,  two  masts  are 
used,  a  harp-shaped  arrangement  of 
some  half-dozen  wires  is  stretched  be- 
tween them;  then  from  these  wires  con- 
verges a  fan-shaped  system  of  wiring 
down  to  the  lead-in  wire. 

For  very  high-power  radio  stations 
three  masts  with  a  "V-antenna"  are  used. 
To  one  of  these  masts  from  each  of  the 
other   two    is    stretched    a    harp-shaped 


wiring  arrangement,  forming  the  "  V." 
Then  down  from  each  "  harp  "  converges 
a  fan-shaped  wiring-set,  the  two  "  fans  " 
meeting  in  "  V  "  formation  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  lead-in  wire. 

The  two-masted  harp-antenna  can  be 
installed,  in  little,  on  an  automobile, 
enabling  the  motorist  to  communicate 
with  his  home  station  or  with  another 
motorist  similarly  equipped.  Other  types 
of  antenna  are  too  numerous  to  mention 
here.  During  the  war  live  trees,  with  a 
nail  driven  in  near  the  top  for  attach- 
ment of  the  upper  end  of  the  lead-in  wire, 
proved  good  receiving  antennae,  and 
were  used  successfully  for  transmitting 
within  a  very  few  miles. 

The  condenser  is  charged  by  any  of 
several  means  well  known  in  electricity. 
These  include  induction  coils  and  dyna- 
mos, as  incorporated,  often  on  a  gigantic 
scale,  in  the  Alexanderson  high-frequency 
alternator.  The  condenser  is  to  intensify 
the  induced  current.  Its  discharge  across 
the  spark-gap  is  a  succession  of  sparks 
so  rapid  as  to  look  like  one  spark.  The 
condenser  discharges  its  accumulated 
energy  in  one  tremendous  rush  across  the 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE— WIRELESS  TELEPHONY 


271 


gap^  first  in  one  direction,  then,  in 
another  rush  of  current,  somewhat  less 
powerful,  in  the  opposite  direction;  and 
so  on,  pendulum-wise,  each  discharge  be- 
coming weaker  than  the  preceding  one, 
until  the  condenser  has  completely  dis- 
charged its  original  accumulation  of 
energy. 

All  this  takes  place  in  a  mere  instant 
of  time.  One  discharge  each  way  across 
the  gap  constitutes  what  is  called  a  cycle. 
The  rapidity  with  which  these  discharges 
are  made  is  called  the  frequency  (of  the 
radio  waves  or  oscillations).  This  radio 
frequency  depends  on  the  length  of  the 
waves;  therefore,  the  value  of  the  radio 
waves,  or  oscillations,  is  given  in  wave 
lengths.  The  frequency  is  determined  by 
the  number  of  cycles  per  second.  A 
standard  wave  length  of  10,000  meters 
has  a  frequency  of  only  30,000  cycles  per 
second,  while  a  wave  length  of  200  meters 
has  a  frequency  of  1,500,000  cycles  per 
second. 

Except  in  special  cases  the  amateur 
wireless  station  is  limited,  by  United 
States  law,  to  a  wave  length  of  200 
meters  for  the  transmitter.  The  Govern- 
ment took  over  the  control  of  all  radio 
work  during  the  war,  to  concentrate  and 
perfect  it ;  and  this  law  was  made  to  pre- 
vent amateurs  from  "  jamming "  the 
waves  of  Government  stations.  Ship- 
station  transmitters  use  a  wave  length 
of  300  to  600  meters ;  while  much  greater 
wave  lengths  are  used  in  Government 
and  long-range  stations.  Only  in  experi- 
mental work  are  wave  lengths  greater 
than  18,000  meters  used;  because  the 
equivalent  frequency  becomes  too  low  to 
be  practical,  while  necessitating  too 
great  power  to  make  the  charge  and  too 
vast  an  antenna  system  to  project  It 
into  space. 

To  make  practical  use  of  the  waves 
for  sending  messages  and  receiving  the 
same  at  distant  points,  it  is  necessary 
to  create  regular  electrical  disturbances 
in  a  circuit  which  starts  the  wave. 
Next,  by  means  of  the  transmitting  an- 
tenna, the  waves  must  be  got  into  sur- 
rounding space  and  started  on  their  jour- 
ney at  high  speed.  On  reaching  a  dis- 
tant station,  these  transmitted  waves 
have  to  set  up  electric  currents  in  the 
receiving    circuit,    to    which    they    are 


turned  over  after  they  strike  the  receiv- 
ing antenna.  Within  the  receiving  cir- 
cuit the  waves  of  the  currents  are 
changed  so  that  they  may  be  detected 
(rectified)  by  certain  electric  instru- 
ments, so  that  the  operator  can  take  the 
message.  Usually  he  takes  it  through 
signals  in  a  telephone  receiver,  although, 


ANTENNA    TUNING    COIL 

A  wonderful  new  invention  that  has  greatly 

increased   the   distances   covered  1>y 

the    wireless    telephone 

as  before  indicated,  the  message  some- 
times becomes  audible  in  a  wireless  tele- 
graph instrument. 

Wireless  telegraphy  transmits  by 
means  of  damped  (intermittent)  waves, 
which  the  telegraph  key  interrupts  to 
form  the  dots  and  dashes.  In  wireless 
telephony,  undamped  (persistent)  waves 
are  used,  which  are  not  interrupted,  but 
are  modified  by  the  voice  and  the 
amplifying  and  modulating  instruments. 

The  function  of  the  sensitive  electric 
instruments  within  the  receiving  circuit 
is  to  amplify  transmission  waves  that 
arrive  too  weak,  or  to  reduce  radio  fre- 
quency to  what  is  called  audio  frequency. 


272 


THE  NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


A  wireless  telegraph  receiving  set  can 
take  a  message  on  a  radio  frequency  of 
over  a  thousand  times  what  would  be 
possible  for  the  receiving  telephone 
diaphragm  to  follow  or  the  human  ear 
to  hear.'  The  upper  limit  of  audio  fre- 
quency for  the  human  hearing  is  16,000 
to  20,000  sound  waves  per  second. 

Here  is  no  space  to  mention  any  mem- 
ber of  this  receiving-circuit  set  except 
the  epochal  vacuum  tube,  whose  mani- 
fold capacities  for  wonder  working  in 
both  kinds  of  telephony  and  telegraphy 
have  earned  it  the  epithet  of  the  new 
Aladdin's  lamp.  Briefly,  it  is  an  electric 
light  bulb,  containing  the  usual  incan- 
descent filament,  a  pole-plate,  and  be- 
tween these  a  transforming  element 
called  the  grid.  The  electric  charge  in 
the  filament  is  negative,  that  in  the  plate 
is  positive.  That  in  the  grid  can  be 
made  one  or  the  other  at  will,  for  raising 


or  lowering  the  power  of  the  current 
from  the  filament  to  the  plate.  The -tube 
can  powerfully  modulate  the  waves  re- 
ceived, or  in  a  transmission  set  it  can 
create  very  high-power  waves.  The 
vacuum  tube  first  made  very  long  dis- 
tance telephony  (wired  or  wireless)  pos- 
sible. It  eliminates  static  interference  (the 
interference  of  atmospheric  electricity). 
As  a  transmitter  it  is  only  surpassed 
by  the  Alexanderson  high-frequency 
alternator.  But  even  with  this  alterna- 
tor, the  vacuum  tube  is  necessary  to 
modulate  the  waves  produced  by  the 
alternator.  The  tube  superimposes  the 
telephonic  signals  on  the  waves  from  the 
alternator.  Only,  the  alternator  is  dur- 
able and  cheap  in  upkeep.  The  tube  is 
costly  in  upkeep,  and  the  alternator 
economically  reduces  the  number  of  tubes 
needed.  Alternators  are  built  ranging 
in  power  from  2  kilowatts  to  200. 


An  Engine   That  Saves  Half  Its   Fuel  Waste 


Everybody  has  noticed  the  waste  steam 
that  issues  from  the  radiators  of  an  auto- 
mobile. To  save  such  thermal  waste  as 
this,  an  Englishman,  William  Joseph 
Still,  after  eight  years  of  research  and 
experiment,  has  created  an  internal-com- 
bustion engine,  which  British  engineers 
and  scientists  regard  as  more  economical 
and  stable  for  many  services  than  even 
the  Diesel  engine,  which  made  so  re- 
markable a  record  during  the  war.  This 
new  Still  engine  uses  any  gas  or  oil  for 
fuel,  is  self-starting,  and  provides  a  res- 
ervoir of  power  capable  of  sustaining  a 
large  overhead  of  steam  for  a  short 
time,  even  when  overloaded  to  a  degree 
under  which  an  ordinary  internal-com- 
bustion gives  up  work.     It  raises  steam 


from  such  heat  as  is  lost  by  other  en- 
gines in  the  steam  jacket  and  the  ex- 
haust, and  then  expands  it  at  the  back 
of  the  main  piston,  which  gives  one 
stroke  for  the  steam  and  one  for  the 
combustion  pressure.  One  expert  has 
claimed  for  it  an  efficiency  of  10  per 
cent,  over  the  Diesel  engine.  By  recov- 
ering the  heat  "which  passes  through  the 
combustion  cylinder,  it  both  increases  en- 
gine power  and  reduces  fuel  consumption. 
Its  capability  of  self-starting  raises  its 
efficiency  from  30  to  42  per  cent.  It 
weighs  20  per  cent,  less  than  the  geared 
turbine  plant  used  in  marine  propulsion, 
and  is  alleged  to  consume  2,000  pounds 
less  fuel  for  a  round  trip  lasting  1,000 
hours.  More  than  50  per  cent,  of  the 
fuel  energy  is  recovered. 


INTERNATIONAL  CARTOONS 
t     ON  CURRENT  EVENTS 

R]llllllllllllllllllllllMlllllillllMIIIIMI II Illllllllilli Illlllilllllllllllllillilllllillllil Illllllll Illlllilllllllllillllimillllillilillfn 


[American  Cartoon] 


Not  the  Setting  Kind 


-From    The   San   Francisco    Chronicle 


Illllllllilli  liiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiQ 

273 


ISliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiilliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinmiiiiP] 


[English  Cartoon] 


"Splendid  Isolation 


99 


—From  The  Passinff  Show,  London 


Qlllil'lliliiilliliiiiiiiiiiriilillllllllllllinillltllllllllllllllllllllillllini iiiliiililiiiiiliiiiiliil llllllllll iiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiuiiii^ 

274 


Qui liiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■iiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■■■ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniii  .iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii  [V| 


[American  Cartoon] 


ii 


No  European  Entanglements" 


—From  The  New  York  Tribune         = 


Quiiiiiiiii ■■■■■■■■I1IIIII , 


■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinntiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiniimnmnimmmimiiiiil"! 

275 


[■Jiiillli iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiinitiiniiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiinniiiunumiiiiiuitin[V| 


[American  Cartoon] 


Not  So  Sick  After  AU 


-From  The  Newspaper  Enterprise  Association,  Cleveland 


falllllllllllllllllHlilHliilHlimillHHlUlllimiitiimiiiiiiimiiimi iiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii liii iiiiiiMliiliillllliliiliiiilltllliliiiiillilllii[3 

276 


Ia1llllltilMliililllillllilll>>>ii>iliiliii*lii'>i''ill'll""""""""""""""'"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""l"l'lll»lQ 

:  [American  Cartoon]  '  i 

Just  One  More  Spree  Before  the  Country       = 
I  Goes  Dry  I 


—Central  Press  Association,  Cleveland 


V"" ■■■iiiiiiniiiiiii iiiiiiiiMii 


■  ■mil m llimilllllll IlllllllHlllllllllllimiml lllllllimlHl|»l 

277 


RliiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiii Ill iiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 

1  [American  Cartoon]  = 


Not  Making  the  Load  Any  Lighter 


-^From   The  New   York   Times 


Qlllllllllllllllllllllinnilllllllllll ■■■■Ill ■IIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIUMIIIIIIIIIIIIII ■IIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII HUM IIMUIIIIIIIII IIIMMlQ 

278 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiixiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'iii""'"""' •■■■■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ■■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiKiiiiiiiiKr 


[German-Swiss    Cartoon] 

The  Eastern  Question 


^ 


f^lM>^t'"'^>-^ 


fM.'^ 


—From.   Nehelspalter,   Zurich 
Does  Japan  stretch  forth  its  hand  to  help  Russia  or  to  grab  Siberia? 

[Dutch  Cartoon] 

The  Demand  for  German  War  Criminals 


:  —From  De  Amsterdammer ,  Amsterdam        i 

\  German  Michel   (to  Court):     "I  thank  you  for  this  demand.     You  have   i 

i     ^ow  so   clearly  overdriven  things   that   I    am   certain   of   the   sympathy  of   the   = 
:    public  (neutral  nations)  in  the  gallery"  | 

»""""" """"«""«nnimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMi n|T3 

279 


pll Illinill IMHIII llllllllllinilllllllllllllllllllllllMIIIMII (■■■■■••ilMlllllillllllllllllMIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIII|||||||||M|||||,|,,,,j,„-7l 

I  [English   Cartoons]  i 

1  The  Mountaineers  = 


—From  Reynolds's  Newspaper,  London 
The  mountaineers  were  climbing  fast; 
From  peak  to  peak  they  quickly  passed; 
It  was  the  Fat  Man  led  the  climb, 
And  he  kept  shouting  all  the  time — 

"Excelsior!" 


The  Lucky  Bird 


—From  John  Bull,  London 
Here  is  the  Yankee  Eagle,  he  He's  got  a  nest-egg,  too — ^my  word! 

Is  "feathering  his  nest,"  you  see;  He  is  a  lucky  dicky-bird. 


Jilliiiiliiiiiiiniiiiiiii 11 


■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilii 

280 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


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[American  Cartoon] 


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283 


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[Polish    Cartoon] 

The  Terms  of  Peace 


[English    Cartoon] 

Allied  Policy  Toward 
Germany 


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Entering  the   Giants'   Den 


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283 


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284 


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[English  Cartoon] 


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— F?'OW  Tlie  Passing  Show^  London 


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?88 


TYPICAL    WAYSIDE    SCENE    IN   PICTURESQUE   PORTO    RICO    UNDER   AMERICAN    RULE 

Life  in  Picturesque  Porto  Rico 

By  F.  P.  DELGADO 


IT  is  significant,  even  in  this  modern 
day,  when  the  disadvantages  of 
distance  and  the  discomforts  of 
travel  have  been  annihilated,  that 
Porto  Rico  must  be  discovered  anew  and 
approached  by  sea  as  when  Columbus 
and  the  Conquistadores  set  sail  for  it  in 
the  fifteenth  century.  The  same  tropical 
skies,  the  same  blue  waters  strewn  with 
sargassum  like  goldenrod  on  purple  hills 
and  alive  with  glistening  flying  fish,  the 
same  starry  nights  with  their  flaming 
constellations  and  the  Southern  Cross 
upon  the  horizon  greet  the  modern  ex- 
plorer as  they  did  the  old.  Seen  from 
the  sea,  afar  off,  the  vision  is  the  same 
— the  distant  hills  and  the  towering  peak 
of  El  Yunque,  a  gleaming  jewel  set  in  a 
silver  sea. 

It  is  only  upon  entering  the  beautiful 
Harbor  of  San  Juan  that  the  simile  ceases 
to  exist  and  the  present  divorces  the  past. 
Even  the  fern-covered  walls  of  battle- 
scarred  El  Morro  and  the  picturesque 
Casa  Blanca  of  Ponce  de  Leon,  impres- 
sive landmarks  of  a  noble  past  and  a 
departed  glory,  have  outlived  the  func- 
tions   for    which    they    were    originally 


erected,  and  are  now  incongruously 
blended  in  an  aspect  of  modernism  which 
not  even  the  white-walled  houses  with 
their  multi-colored  roofs  can  completely 
dispel. 

THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

Spain  brought  to  the  New  World  the 
great  tradition  of  Christendom,  the  un- 
tarnished glory  of  Ferdinand  the  Cath- 
olic and  Isabella  of  Castile,  the  pomp 
and  prowess  of  Spanish  arms  extending 
from  the  Peninsula  to  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. Today  all  this  has  changed  and 
only  the  legend  remains,  with  here  and 
there  a  few  pitiful  landmarks,  a  pile 
of  ancient  stone,  perhaps,  on  which  lies 
a  lizard  sleeping  in  the  sun.  The  Amer- 
ican occupation,  the  ruthlessness  of 
progress,  the  traffic  and  commerce  of 
the  world,  the  swift  forgetfulness  of  an 
unimaginative  people  have  brought 
about  an  astounding  change,  fruitful  if 
regarded  in  the  light  of  modern  and  pro- 
gressive standards,  but  regrettable  in  the 
disregard  of  much  that  was  picturesque 
and  full  of  charm.  In  the  Harbor  of  San 
Juan    great    derricks    unload    the    steel 


290 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


ships  in  their  modern  quays  where,  of 
old,  worn  pavilions  with  a  sail  above  an 
oar  laid  their  wooden  keels  on  the  sandy 
shore.  Unlike  many  other  less-favored 
lands,  the  transition  from  the  old  to  the 
new  has  been  violent  and  abrupt.  To 
gain  one  thing  it  is  frequently  necessary 
to  lose  another,  and  Porto  Rico  has  paid 
the  price. 

So  much  for  the  past  and  the  memories 
and  traditions  that  have  been  scattered. 
But  what  of  Porto  Rico  of  today  and 
its  many  problems  still  to  be  solved,  in- 
volving not  only  its  relations  with  the 
United  States,  but  also  those  concerned 
with  its  own  internal  welfare?  For  twen- 
ty years  the  island  has  presented  a  fer- 
tile field  for  the  study  and  examination 
of  that  important  and  mooted  question — 
whether  the  laws,  social  conditions,  in- 
spirations and  aspirations  of  one  coun- 
try can  successfully  be  engrafted  upon 
another.  In  view  of  similar  conditions 
elsewhere  arising  out  of  the  results  of 
the  great  war,  the  experience  of  Porto 
Rico  is  of  peculiar  and  timely  interest. 

POLITICAL  STATUS 

The  present  great  problem  is  that  of 
its  political  status.  Is  the  island  only  a 
colony  or  possession,  as  some  hold,  or  is 
it  an  integral  part  of  the  United  States, 
as  asserted  by  others?  The  confusion  and 
uncertainty  engendered  by  this  question 
are  responsible  for  much  of  the  political 
unrest  on  the  island  today.  A  good  deal 
of  this  is  due  to  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  new  "  Organic  act "  of  Congress, 
known  as  the  "Jones  bill."  The  main 
features  of  this  act  are  the  granting  of 
American  citizenship  to  the  Porto  Ricans, 
the  separation  of  the  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive functions,  extension  of  the  ap- 
pointive judiciary  system,  and  an  elective 
House  of  Representatives  and  Senate. 
Representative  government  is  implied  by 
the  presence  in  Congress  of  a  Resident 
Commissioner  elected  by  the  people  of 
the  island. 

But  an  important  faction  of  the  Porto 
Rican  electorate  demands  more  than  that. 
Citizenship  without  statehood  seems  an 
anomaly  to  it.  It  chafes  at  the  fact  that 
the  executive  power  resides  in  an  Amer- 
ican Governor,  and  that  associated  with, 
him  is  an  Executive  Council,  of  which  six 


of  the  eleven  members  are  Americans, 
each  at  the  head  of  an  important  admin- 
istrative department.  A  further  source 
of  irritation  is  the  fact  that  acts  of  the 
Porto  Rican  Legislature  must  be  ap- 
proved by  Congress  and  the  Governor. 

NOT  AN  INCORPORATED  TERRITORY 

It  has  been  asserted  by  many  Porto 
Ricans,  contrary  to  the  contention  of  the 
Attorney  General  of  the  island,  that  Por- 


CROSS  AT  AGUADILLA,   PORTO  RICO,   MARK- 
ING   THE    SPOT    WHERE    COLUMBUS    FIRST 
LANDED   ON   THE    ISLAND  IN    1493 


to  Rico  is  an  incorporated  Territory  of 
the  United  States.  This  interpretation 
was  strengthened  a  short  time  ago  by 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Porto  Rico  and  the  District  Court  of  the 
United  States  for  Porto  Rico  in  two  im- 
portant cases  (The  People  of  Porto  Rico 
vs.  Carlos  Tapia  and  The  People  of  Por- 
to Rico  vs.  Jose  Muratti,  245  U.  S.,  639). 
Recently,  however,  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  reversed  these  deci- 
sions, and  upheld  the  opinion  maintained 


LIFE  IN  PICTURESQUE  PORTO  RICO 


291 


^^  by  the  Attorney  General.    Referring  to 
. ..-     it  in  a  recent  report  he  said : 

tThe  Supreme  Court  followed  precedent 
to  the  effect  that  the  question  of  the  po- 
litical status  of  a  Territory  was  to  be  de- 
termined by  Congress,  and  depends  upon 
the  expression  of  Congressional  intent. 
The  new  "  Organic  act "  conferred 
American  citizenship  upon  Porto  Ricans, 
but  the  question  of  the  incorporation  of 
a  Territory  does  not  depend  upon  citizen- 
ship  alone. 

Legally  the  island  is  thus  an  organized 
but  not  incorporated  Territory  of  the 
United  States.  It  enjoys  many  of  the 
same  rights  which  an  incorporated  Ter- 
ritory has,  including  the  fundamental 
guarantees  of  the  United  States  Consti- 
tution, the  privilege  of  the  Grand  Jury, 
a  Public  Service  Commission  and  the 
regulation  of  its  own  internal  commerce. 
Furthermore,  it  is  largely  exempt  from 
both  Federal  and  war  taxes.  By  this 
new  act  all  internal  revenue  laws,  un- 
less specifically  made  applicable  to  Porto 
Rico,  do  not  apply  there,  and  such  rev- 
enue already  collected  there  is  to  be  given 
back,  a  ruling  applicable  to  no  other 
Territory. 

GENERAL  POLITICAL  UNREST 

Thus,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  position  of  Porto  Rico  is 
ideal,  and  Congress  seems  in  no  mood  to 
modify  or  change  its  attitude.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  average  Porto  Rican 
it  is  far  from  being  so;  unfortunately, 
however,  he  does  not  always  know  what 
he  wants,  and  realizes  only  that  he  is  dis- 
satisfied with  existing  conditions.  Be- 
sides those  demanding  statehood,  rep- 
resented by  the  Republican  Party,  there 
is  also  the  important  Unionist  Party, 
which  is  in  favor  of  complete  independ- 
ence. Another  and  a  minor  group  would 
welcome  back  the  old  Spanish  rule.  The 
last  question  is  purely  academic.  The 
methods  and  the  means  to  realize  it  are 
quite  impossible  at  the  present  time,  yet 
it  is  symptomatic  of  the  general  politi- 
cal unrest.  Recently  Joseph  G.  Cannon, 
the  former  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, delivered  an  address  before 
a  joint  session  of  the  Insular  Legislature 
in  which  he  strongly  deprecated  the  idea 
of  immediate  Porto  Rican  independence. 
"  Why  are  you  worrying  about  statehood 


and  independence?  "  he  asked.  "  You  will 
get  either  or  both  just  as  soon  as  you 
are  ready.  Do  not  get  the  idea  that  we 
are  lying  awake  nights  trying  to  do  you 
an  injustice!  "  His  unconciliatory  re- 
marks made  a  somewhat  painful  impres- 
sion upon  his  hearers. 

LACK  OF  MUTUAL  UNDERSTANDING 

Accordingly  the  political  future  of  Por- 
to Rico  waits  upon  the  knees  of  the  gods. 
The  theory  of  "  self-determination "  as 
applicable  to  small  nations  has  lost  too 
much  caste  to  'be  revived  there  success- 
fully. The  principal  trouble  between  the 
authorities  in  Washington  and  the  na- 
tives of  the  island  is  a  complete  lack  of 
mutual  understanding.  The  absence  of  a 
common  language  is  a  formidable  bar- 
rier. The  present  Governor,  Arthur  Ya- 
ger, is  accompanied  everywhere  by  an 
interpreter.  American  officials,  appoint- 
ed often  for  political  rewards  at  home, 
without  any  especial  fitness  for  their 
office,  are  often  unsympathetic  to  Latin 
traditions  and  ideals.  Despite  loud  expos- 
tulations to  the  contrary,  the  average 
Porto  Rican  is  neither  an  American  nor 
a  Spaniard  at  heart.  He  is  first,  last 
and  all  the  time  a  Porto  Rican,  with  a 
very  limited  and  insular  viewpoint.  This 
might  lead  one  to  assume  that,  perhaps, 
it  would  be  better  if  he  were  left  free 
and  unhampered  to  work  out  his  own  po- 
litical destiny,  but  the  popular  intelli- 
gence needed  for  such  an  experiment  is 
not  yet  sufficiently  developed. 

Yet  in  spite  of  divergent  political  views 
and  the  misunderstandings  and  the  un- 
rest occasioned  thereby  Porto  Rico  pros- 
pers, at  least  officially  and  according  to 
statistics.  But  the  prosperity  is  not  dis- 
tributed. It  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the 
better  class,  the  small  minority.  The  few 
have  prospered,  the  wealthy  sugar,  to- 
bacco and  coffee  planters  and  the  pro- 
fessional classes.  They  send  their  sons 
to  the  United  States  or  Spain  to  be  edu- 
cated. They  are  seeking  to  preserve  the 
pure  strain  of  their  Spanish  blood.  Last 
year,  for  instance,  commercial  business 
was  both  active  and  growing.  External 
trade  reached  a  total  of  $141,896,400, 
and  there  was  a  trade  balance  in  favor 
of  the  island  of  $17,095,680. 

But  prosperity  did  not  reach  the  level 


292 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


PARISH   CHURCH,   OUR   LADY   OF  THE   ASSUMPTION,    AT  AGUADILLA,    PUREST   EXAMPLE 
OF   .SPANISH    CHURCH    ARCHITECTURE    IN    PORTO    RICO 


of  the  great  majority.  Nearly  80  per 
cent,  of  the  population  are  desperately 
poor.  Unfortunately,  there  is  no  middle 
class,  the  backbone  and  the  sinews  of 
any  democracy.  Between  the  favored  few 
and  the  miserable  many  lies  a  great 
gulf,  an  almost  impassable  barrier.  If 
there  is  often  a  lack  of  vision,  even 
among  the  chosen  few,  what  must  be 
said  of  the  viewpoint  of  the  average  Por- 
to Rican,  the  small  shopkeeper,  the  street 
vendor,  the  hewers  of  wood  and  the 
drawers  of  water,  the  workers  in  the 
fields,  especially  on  the  sugar  planta- 
tions, and  the  unclean,  afflicted  beggars 
who  abound  everywhere?  Living  under 
sanitary  conditions  that  are  shocking,  ill- 
fed  and  emaciated,  the  prey  of  tropical 
fevers  and  diseases,  their  condition  is  a 
pitiable  one.  Largely  black  or  half-breed, 
intermarriage  is  prevalent  and  immoral- 
ity is  common  among  them.  They  still 
live  under  a  state  of  peonage,  although 
officially  and  technically  they  are  free. 
Ignorance  is  their  besetting  sin,  and  lazi- 
ness their  prevailing  characteristic. 
Manana  is  still  their  watchword  today, 
even  as  it  was  under  the  Spaniard. 

Touring  the  country  you  will  pass 
countless  thatched  bohios,  or  shanties, 
consisting  of  one  room,  where  a  family 


of  six  or  more  live  huddled  together  with 
a  pig  and  a  few  chickens  under  sanitary 
conditions  that  are  obvious.  There  is  no 
furniture,  perhaps  only  a  hammock  for 
the  lord  and  master  of  the  house.  The 
floor  supplies  the  need  of  bed.,  table  and 
chairs.  For  food,  the  wild  plantain,  a 
handful  of  rice  and  beans  must  suffice. 
Life  flows  by  monotonously,  hopelessly, 
varied  only  by  the  birth  of  another  child 
to  increase  the  already  too  numerous  off- 
spring; or  else  by  a  death;  a  cheap  and 
pitiful  wooden  casket  is  carried  care- 
lessly by  the  men  to  the  cemetery,  while 
the  women  remain  at  home  and  weep. 

Prosperity  did  not  mean  much  to  this 
class.  There  were  some  increases  in  the 
wages  of  the  workers,  but  these  were 
hardly  sufficient  to  offset  the  increase 
in  the  cost  of  the  necessities  of  every- 
day life.  Also  the  bringing  back  of  large 
bodies  of  laborers  who  had  been  taken 
to  the  American  Continent  by  the  War 
Department  for  urgent  war  work  just 
before  the  armistice,  and  the  rapid  de- 
mobilization of  the  soldiers  of  the  Porto 
Rican  contingent  of  the  national  army 
occasioned  many  problems  of  unemploy- 
ment and  re-employment  that  were  very 
difficult  to  solve.  In  addition,  the  terri- 
ble earthquake  near  the  close  of  the  year 


LIFE  IN  PICTURESQUE  PORTO  RICO 


293 


PORTO    mCAN    TOBACCO    FIELDS    COVERED    WITH    MUSLIN    NETTING,    WHICH    TEMPERS 
THE    SUN'S    RAYS    AND    IMPROVES    THE    QUALITY    OF  THE    PRODUCT 


1918,  and  the  subsequent  serious  epi- 
demic of  influenza,  in  which  over  ten 
thousand  perished,  took  their  toll  chiefly 
among  the  poor. 

EDUCATION  URGENT  NEED 

There  is  no  doubt,  since  more  than  60 
per  cent,  of  the  people  are  illiterate,  that 
the  most  vital  problem  for  the  island  to- 
day is  that  of  education.  And  this  has 
a  distinct  bearing  on  Porto  Rico's  future 
political  status,  because  questions  of 
government  require  brains  for  their  solu- 
tion. The  public  schools  of  the  island 
were  founded  by  the  American  adminis- 
tration, and  they  have  not  had  time  as 
yet  to  present  telling  results.  Most  of 
the  men  over  31  years  of  age,  and  a 
large  percentage  also  under  that  age, 
are  uneducated.  Only  about  one-third 
of  the  school-age  population  is  attending 
school.  To  be  exact,  last  year  (1919) 
the  total  enrollment  was  160,794.  The 
total  number  of  children  within  the 
school  ages  (5  to  18  years)  is  estimated 
at  441,465.  In  regard  to  teachers  there 
are  2,984,  all  of  whom,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  148,  are  native  Porto  Ricans. 


These  figures  are  not  an  eloquent  tes- 
timony of  Porto  Rico's  boasted  educa- 
tional progress.  Added  to  this  unfor- 
tunate condition  of  affairs,  the  work  of 
the  public  schools  was  considerably 
handicapped  lately  by  war  conditions,  as 
many  men  teachers  resigned  to  enter 
the  military  service.  The  reason  that 
instruction  is  given  chiefly  by  natives  is 
that  teachers  from  the  States  are  not  at- 
tracted by  the  low  salaries  paid.  This 
naturally  results  in  a  loss  of  efficiency. 
English  is  taught  in  the  schools,  but  is 
largely  forgotten  outside  of  the  class- 
room. In  fact,  the  English  language  in 
Porto  Rico,  except  as  spoken  by  the 
American  colony  and  a  few  well-edu- 
cated natives,  is  practically  non-existent. 
Without  a  knowledge  of  Spanish,  the 
stranger  or  traveler  will  get  nowhere. 
The  Spanish  spoken  by  the  people,  it 
should  be  said,  has  suffered  many  local 
changes,  and  their  speech  is  far  removed 
from  the  Castilian  fluency  of  their  sires. 

Governor  Yager  has  declared  that 
"  all  the  hopes  of  Porto  Rico  for  im- 
"provement  in  political,  social  and  eco- 
"  nomic  conditions  rest  upon  the  general 


294 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


**  education  of  its  people.  There  is  such 
"  an  enormous  population  (at  present  es- 
"timated  at  1,263,474)  compared  to  the 
"  area  and  wealth  of  the  island,  and 
"  there  is  such  an  accumulation  of  illit- 
"  eracy  and  ignorance  due  to  neglect  of 
"this  duty  in  years  long  past,  that  it 
"  seems  impossible  for  the  insular  Gov- 
"  ernment  to  accomplish  this  immense 
"  task  without  outside  help  and  within 
"  a  reasonable  time."  In  his  latest  an- 
nual report  the  Governor  further  de- 
clares that  "  only  a  beginning  has  been 
"made  in  the  tremendous  task  of  edu- 
"  eating  the  people  of  Porto  Rico." 

Another  element  in  the  educational 
system  that  is  not  conducive  to  social  or 
moral  welfare  in  a  community  in  which 
moral  laxity  is  prevalent  is  the  associa- 
tion of  white  and  black  children  in  the 
same  classrooms,  where  companionships 
and  friendships  are  formed,  often  lead- 
ing later  to  unfortunate  ties  of  intimacy. 
The  race  question  cannot  be  helped  by 
such  conditions. 

THE  RACIAL  PROBLEM 

The  solution  of  the  race  problem,  in- 
deed, is  vital  for  the  future  of  the  island, 
and  a  discussion  of  it  presents  many  dif- 
ficulties, because  ethnologically  there  is 
no  characteristic  and  distinctive  Porto 
Rican  people.  To  try  to  trace  their 
lineage,  to  endeavor  to  establish  their 
common  origin,  presents  a  problem  more 
in  the  domain  of  the  student  of  atavism 
than  of  history. 

Generally  speaking,  the  Porto  Rican 
of  today  may  be  said  to  be  descended 
from  three  distinct  races — the  Indian, 
the  Spaniard  and  the  negro.  The  Indian 
aboriginal  welcomed  the  conquering 
Spaniard  kindly,  then  turned  against  him 
because  of  his  cruelty  and  oppression, 
and  in  turn  was  exterminated  because 
the  bow  and  arrow  were  no  match  for 
the  arquebus  and  the  sword.  The  Span- 
iard, during  his  early  voyages  of  con- 
quest and  colonization,  brought  no  wo- 
men with  him,  so  that  there  naturally 
sprang  up  wherever  he  went  a  mixed 
race,  pur  sang  on  the  one  hand  and  ab- 
original on  the  other — the  mestizo,  hybrid 
both  physically  and  morally.  The  negro 
slave  imported  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century  to  take  the  place  of  the  exter- 


minated Indian  introduced  a  new  racial 
element,  and  by  the  side  of  the  mestizo 
there  developed  the  zambo,  common  off- 
spring of  the  two.  Later,  the  bringing 
of  negro  women  from  Santo  Domingo 
and  other  islands  added  the  mulatto  to 
an  already  heterogeneous  condition  of 
race.  It  was  not  until  very  late  in  the 
history  of  the  island  that  corrective 
features  and  elements  were  introduced 
by  a  new  influx'  of  prosperous  Spanish 
settlers  and  their  families  driven  from 
Venezuela  and  the  mainland  by  the  in- 
cessant revolutions  in  those  countries. 
Accordingly,  the  modem  Porto  Rican 
has  many  racial  and  natural  handicaps 
to  overcome.  And  all  this  bears  deci- 
sively on  the  question  of  the  island's  ad- 
mittance into  the  comity  of  our  state- 
hood. 

INFLUENCE  OF  CHURCH 

As  in  most  Catholic  countries,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Church  has  been  a  potent 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  Porto  Rican 
people.  In  the  old  days,  with  the  ex- 
plorer and  the  soldier  came  the  regular 
clergy  and  the  monastic  orders,  such  as 
the  Dominicans  and  Franciscan  friars, 
with  constant  bickerings  between  the 
two,  and  with  the  usual  appeals  on  the 
part  of  both  to  royal  authority  for  rec- 
ognition and  power.  Under  such  condi- 
tions, the  Inquisition  introduced  from 
Spain  fattened  on  the  life  and  energy  of 
the  inhabitants.  Yet  the  influence  of 
the  Church  from  that  day  to  this  has 
been  so  influential  in  ruling  quarters 
that  the  effort  of  Protestantism  to  es- 
tablish both  creed  and  missions  has  been 
negligible. 

With  the  coming  of  the  Americans, 
however,  a  decided  change  for  the  bet- 
ter arose  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church. 
The  Diocese  of  Porto  Rico,  erected  in 
1511  by  Pope  Julius  II.  and  by  Apostolic 
Brief — "  Actum  Praeclare  " — is  immedi- 
ately subject  to  the  Holy  See.  The  pres- 
ent Catholic  Bishop  of  the  island  is  the 
Right  Rev.  William  A.  Jones,  O.  S.  A., 
D.  D.,  who,  in  spite  of  his  Welsh  name, 
is  an  American,  and  further  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  speaking  Spanish. 

Modernism  has  destroyed  and  sup- 
planted much  that  was  old  and  beautiful 
in  the  traces  of  early  Spanish  ecclesiasti- 


LIFE  IN  PICTURESQUE  PORTO  RICO 


295 


cal  art.  With  the  exception  of  the  parish 
church  of  Aguadilla,  which  is  dedicated 

•  to  Our  Lady  of  the  Assumption,  and 
which  contains  two  old  and  beautiful 
Spanish  hand-carved  and  lifelike  repro- 
ductions in  wood  of  Murillo's  "  Assump- 
tion "  and  "  Immaculate  Conception," 
the  interiors  of  the  churches  of  Porto 
Rico  are  uninviting  from  an  artistic 
standard.  In  San  Juan,  for  instance,  the 
cathedral  has  been  remodeled  along  mod- 
em and  garish  Italian  lines;  the  ancient 
convent  of  the  Carmelites  has  been  sold 
and  now  harbors  a  garage,  and  the  old 
and  venerable  church  of  San  Francisco — 
the  oldest  church  in  all  the  Americas — 
has  been  torn  down  and  replaced  by  a 
modern  high  school.  Thus  the  ancient 
symbols  of  belief  have  been  put  aside  for 
the  utilitarian  demands  of  the  day.  Here 
and  there  are  old,  abandoned  churches, 
some  set  upon  a  hill  as  at  Trujillo  Bajo, 
where  in  centuries  past  the  pious  have 
looked  up  for  light  and  inspiration. 
Now  deserted,  with  leaky  roofs  and 
drafty  aisles,  they  stand  alone  and  dig- 
nified in  their  desolation,  silently  mind- 
ful of  their  mission  to  prove  that  a  city 
built  upon  a  hill  cannot  be  hid. 

Such  is  Porto  Rico  of  today,  unimagin- 
ative and  very  matter  of  fact,  absorbed 
in  its  own  local  problems  and  largely 
ignorant  of  the  great,  outside  world; 
patient,  plodding  and  pathetic  in  the 
poverty  and  ignorance  of  its  poorer 
classes.  But  if  one  has  imagination,  and 
can  laboriously  retrace  the  milestones 
of  the  ages,  can  visualize  the  past  and 


ignore  the  present,  the  island  presents 
many  highways  and  byways  wherein  the 
mind  may  wander  and  grasp,  here  and 
there,  illusive  pictures  of  both  the  old 
days  and  the  old  ways.  Here  dwelt  one 
of  the  early  outposts  of  European  civili- 
zation, the  cradle  of  that  new  life  which, 
spreading  westward,  was  to  transform  a 
vast  continent  and  to  establish  a  new 
and  imperious  race.  First  regarded  as 
part  of  the  fabled  Indies  and  christened 
San  Juan  Bautista,  aYid  then  as  a  treas- 
ury of  unmined  gold  to  refill  the  de- 
pleted coffers  of  the  mother  country,  it 
rightly  stirred  the  imagination  and  cu- 
pidity of  those  old  Spanish  soldiers  of 
fortune,  knights,  courtiers  and  adven- 
turers, with  their  numerous  satellites 
and  unsavory  followers,  who  sought  to 
find  in  this  new  El  Dorado  a  virgin  field 
for  activities  denied  them  in  the  Old 
World.  The  chivalry  of  Spain  came  and 
left  its  bones  on  its  untilled  reaches  and 
uncharted  shores.  Columbus,  Juan  Ponce 
de  Leon,  Soto-Mayor,  discoverers,  ex- 
plorers and  men-at-arms,  sought  its 
primitive  richness.  But  the  gold  was 
only  a  phantom,  a  yellow  will-of-the- 
wisp,  and  continual  warfare  between 
themselves  and  the  natives,  pestilence 
and  devastating  hurricanes  dispelled  the 
illusion  and  denied  the  dream. 

Thus  today  all  the  pomp  and  the 
pageantry  are  laid  away,  and  a  new  race 
has  vigorously  taken  up  the  worn 
threads  which  an  old  one  so  laboriously 
laid  down.  The  past  persists,  as  it  ever 
will,  but  only  in  a  dream,  a  faint  shadow 
in  the  sun  glare,  a  last  and  lost  illusion. 


Can  We  Keep  Our  Merchant  Marine? 

By  GRASER  SCHORNSTHEIMER 


AT  the  time  of  the  civil  war  the  lack 
of  the  cotton  export  trade  and  the 
L  ravages  of  Confederate  commerce- 
raiding  cruisers  nearly  drove  the 
American  flag  from  the  seas.  From 
that  time  until  the  beginning  of  the  Eu- 
ropean war  the  merchant  marine  was 
wasting   away   to   nothingness.     Among 


the  causes  of  this  decline  were  lack  of 
Government  interest  and  high  cost  of 
operation. 

When  the  labor  unions  were  created 
the  sea  trades  banded  together  and 
formed  their  organizations.  These  sent 
the  cost  of  operating  American  ships 
skyward.      With    political    aid    they    at 


296 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


length  sent  wages  so  high  as  to  force 
the  American  flag  from  the  world  of 
seagoing  merchantmen. 

As  a  result  of  their  political  operations 
the  La  Follette  Seaman's  act  was  passed 
in  1915.  This  act  forced  the  shipping 
companies  to  better  the  conditions  of 
their  crews  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  run- 
ning in  direct  opposition  to  the  large  and 
powerful  Japanese  lines,  discontinued  its 
foreign  trade.  A  very  bad  feature  of  the 
act  is  the  conditions-of-pay  clause.  A 
seaman  may  draw  half  the  pay  due  him 
at  any  port.  The  practice  of  paying 
crews  before  the  completion  of  voyages 
had  been  tried  before,  and  always  with 
bad  results.  The  seaman  received  his 
pay  and  was  never  heard  from  again, 
while  his  ship  limped  home  shorthanded 
and  crippled.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
Japanese  lines,  with  their  full  crews  and 
low  rates,  are  taking  our  Pacific  trade 
from  under  our  very  noses?* 

In  normal  times  the  La  Follette  law 
would  have  broken  the  back  of  American 
shipping.  It  would  have  forced  the  costs 
and  uncertainties  of  operation  so  high  as 
to  cut  off  any  possibility  of  competition 
with  foreign  shipping  companies.  The 
war,  however,  temporarily  suspended  its 
evil  effects.  The  loss  of  the  German 
market  was  more  than  repaid  by  our  new 
business  in  markets  fonnerly  supplied 
by  the  Germans.  This  statement  applies 
particularly  to  the  South  American 
trade,  which  American  business  had  been 
trying  for  a  decade  to  capture.  Allied 
shipping,  moreover,  was  almost  entirely 
engaged  in  naval  operations  or  military 


*The  United  States  Supreme  Court,  in  a 
decision  rendered  on  March  29,  1920,  upheld 
the  constitutionality  of  the  provisions  of  the 
La  Follette  Seamen's  act  relating  to  the 
payment  of  wages  to  sailors  on  demand. 
The  court  at  the  same  time  confirmed  pre- 
vious Federal  court  decrees  which  held  that 
the  American  law  applied  to  foreign  seamen 
on  foreign  vessels  in  United  States  ports. 
Foreign  seamen  on  the  British  steamers 
Strathearn  and  Westmeath  had  brought 
libel  proceedings  to  obtain  part  of  their 
wages  on  arrival  in  this  country,  and  the 
decisions  in  these  cases  resulted  in  appeals 
by  the  British  ship  owners.  The  final  de- 
cision was  against  them  and  in  favor  of 
the  sailors.— Editor. 


transportation,  leaving  the  world's  trade 
open  to  the  neutrals. 

STIMULUS  OF  WARTIMES 

From  the  first  this  situation  was  a 
rich  boon  to  American  shipping.  Freight 
rates  were  up  beyond  the  dreams  of  the 
most  ardent  dreamers,  making  the  opera- 
tion of  American  ships  profitable.  Car- 
goes were  plentiful,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  half  a  century  the  American  ship 
was  a  familiar  sight  in  the  ports  of  the 
world. 

With  the  German  submarine  campaigns 
came  great  shipping  losses  to  both  the 
Allies  and  the  neutrals.  The  effect  of 
this  was  to  double  the  Allies'  demand 
for  materials  and  foodstuffs,  and  to  send 
shipping  rates  out  of  sight.  Bottoms 
were  scarce.  One  had  but  to  uncover 
an  old  hulk  that  had  not  seen  service 
since  the  civil  war,  modernize  it  a  lit^ 
tie,  and  send  it  to  Europe  with  a  cargo; 
presto!  one's  fortune  was  made.  The 
shipbuilding  industry  received  fresh  im- 
petus, and  our  merchant  fleet  began  to 
grow  in  leaps  and  bounds. 

In  such  extraordinary  circumstances 
America  entered  the  war,  and  our  new 
merchant  marine  was  born.  Tied  to  our 
docks  was  the  pick  of  the  German  and 
Austrian  merchant  fleets.  They  had 
been  lying  idle  in  our  harbors  since  1914, 
with  only  skeleton  crews  aboard.  When 
these  vessels  were  taken  over  by  the 
Government  it  was  found  necessary  to 
man  them  with  navy  crews,  as  Amer- 
ican civilian  seamen  were  not  to  be 
found.  This  act  was  about  the  first 
American  instance  of  Government  own- 
ership and  operation  of  merchant  ships. 

One  of  the  first  requests  from  the  al- 
lied Governments  was  for  merchant  ves- 
sels. Under  Government  control  the  ship- 
yards already  in  existence  were  pushed 
to  the  limit.  Under  Government  owner- 
ship new  yards  were  built  and  put  into 
operation.  Mistakes  were  made,  as  in  all 
other  enterprises,  the  worst  being  the 
wooden  ship.  Since  1880  the  wooden  ship 
has  been  considered  impractical  because 
of  the  advantages  the  steel  vessel  has 
over  it;  yet  the  Government  was  in- 
veigled into  building  useless  wooden 
hulks  by  thousands  of  tons. 

However,  we  have  no  war  record  that 


CAN  WE  KEEP  OUR  MERCHANT  MARINE? 


297. 


can  quite  compare  with  that  of  our  ship- 
building. In  August,  1914,  we  had  624 
steam  vessels,  aggregating  1,758,465 
gross  tons,  in  our  merchant  marine. 
When  the  armistice  was  signed  we  had 
1,366  steam  vessels  of  4,685,263  gross 
tons.  In  1918  3,033,385  tons  of  merchant 
ships  were  built  in  American  yards.  In 
1919  we  built  4,075,385  tons,  and  in  1920 
we  have  approximately  2,966,000  tons 
under  construction.    In  these  figures  lies 

)t  only  a  war  record  but  a  world  rec- 

rd. 

During  the  years  just  mentioned  the 
British  yards  were  tied  up  with  warship 
construction.  In  1920  naval  construction 
in  Great  Britain  has  practically  ceased, 
and  all  facilities  are  turned  to  the  con- 
struction of  merchant  vessels.  In  1918 
1,348,120  tons  of  merchant  ships  were 
built;  in  1919,  1,620,442  tons,  and  while 
the  figures  for  1920  are  still  lacking.  The 
Associated  Press  is  reliably  informed 
that  the  British  construction  is  consid- 
erably more  than  the  American. 

In  Scandinavia  and  Holland  the  mer- 
chant ship  construction  in  1918  totaled 
207,542  tons;  in  1919  it  was  283,401  tons. 
In  1918  489,924  tons  were  built  in  Japan; 
in  1919  611,883  tons  were  built,  and  at 
present  there  are  309,000  tons  under 
construction  there,  with  further  ships  to 
be  laid  down  in  the  near  future.  The 
Japanese  Government  is  making  every 
effort  to  increase  its  merchant  marine, 
and  has  built  new  shipyards  in  the  last 
few  years.  By  reason  of  this  Govern- 
ment aid  to  ship  construction  some  au- 
thorities expect  to  see  Japanese  merchant 
ship  construction  reach  1,000,000  tons 
this  year. 

COST  OF  OPERATION 

To  find  the  moral  in  these  figures  one 
must  turn  to  the  operation  costs  of  the 
vessels.  In  1913  it  was  estimated  that 
the  British  could  run  vessels  more  cheap- 
ly than  Americans  by  20  per  cent.,  the 
Scandinavians  by  30  to  40  per  cent.,  and 
the  Japanese  by  40  to  50  per  cent.  This 
condition  still  exists,  and  with  foreign 
labor  reaching  its  low  mark,  we  may  ex- 
pect foreign  ships  to  be  run  at  even 
greater  percentages  of  advantage.  In  the 
United  States,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
price  of  labor  is  increasing  with  almost 


every  hour.  These  facts  show  clearly 
that  it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  op- 
erate— without  naval  control — the  huge 
merchant  fleet  we  have  built  up  during 
the  war  under  Gonvernment  subsidy  or 
Government  ownership. 

For  centuries  the  very  existence  of 
Great  Britain  has  been  dependent  upon 
her  merchant  marine.  This  continues  to 
be  as  true  now  as  in  the  past.  The  idea 
of  wrenching  commercial  supremacy 
from  England  in  order  to  build  up  our 
merchant  marine  is  wholly  impossible. 
England's  attitude  on  this  subject  is 
clearly  indicated  in  the  following  lines 
from  the  comprehensive  report  prepared 
by  the  British  shipping  experts  for  the 
information  of  Parliament: 

Our  finding-s  and  recommendations  are 
accordingly  based  on  two  hypotheses, 
neither  of  which  is  likely  to  be  contro- 
verted—the first,  that  -the  maritime 
ascendency  of  the  empire  must  .be  main- 
tained at  all  costs,  and  the  second,  that 
the  irrave  wastage  sustained  by  the  mer- 
cantile marine  during  the  war  must, 
therefore,    be   repaired   without  delay. 

The  American  merchant  marine  is  in 
a  perilous  position.  Shipping  rates  are 
already  beginning  to  tumble,  and  the  de- 
mand for  bottoms  will  soon  be  back  to 
normal.  Already  foreign  shipping  com- 
panies are  taking  over  the  trade  that 
has  been  going  in  American  bottoms. 

PROBLEM  OF  SUBSIDIES 

The  nation  is  talking  of  a  merchant 
marine  privately  owned,  but  operated 
under  a  Government  subsidy.  Under 
what  kind  of  Government  subsidy,  and 
how  large  a  merchant  marine?  The  va- 
rious forms  of  foreign  subsidies  would 
be  rejected  by  American  ship  owners,  as 
they  give  bounties  on  the  number  of  ships 
constructed  and  on  cargoes  carried. 
Neither  plan  suits  our  case.  A  more 
likely  form  of  subsidy  would  be  a  bounty 
on  the  wages  paid  out — say  20  per  cent, 
a  month.  It  is  estimated  that  this  would 
just  about  make  the  operation  of  Amer- 
ican ships  a  profitable  venture.  Even 
this  form  has  its  shortcomings.  The 
amounts  paid  out  in  such  a  case  would 
be  so  large  as  to  force  the  Government 
soon  to  discontinue  it,  and  charges  of 
"  graft  "  would  make  the  entire  way  very 
unpleasant  for  all  concerned. 


298 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Government  operation  of  the  merchant 
fleet  is  perhaps  the  most  possible  solu- 
tion of  the  problem.  U^ider  control  of 
the  navy  a  sizable  merchant  fleet  might 
be  maintained.  When  one  visits  a  prize 
warship  and  sees  the  engineering  "  E  " 
on  her  funnel,  the  high  efficiency  and 
economy  of  our  navy  becomes  apparent. 
Should  this  efficiency  be  extended  to  the 
merchant  fleet  the  impossible  might  be 
accomplished. 

LACK      OF  AMERICAN  SAILORS 

Today  both  the  navy  and  the  merchant 
marine  are  seriously  hampered  by  lack 
of  men.  The  high  price  paid  for  un- 
skilled labor  is  drawing  our  few  Amer- 
ican seamen  inland.  One  cannot  expect 
a  man  to  go  to  sea  in  the  fo-c'sle  of  a 
dirty  ocean  tramp  for  $75  a  month  when 
he  can  make  from  two  to  three  times 
that  amount  in  a  factory  with  almost 
ideal  working  conditions. 

American  merchant  ships  are  now  op- 
erated principally  by  foreign  crews.  De- 
sertions from  foreign  ships  have  been 
greater  in  American  ports  than  in  any 
other,  and  no  wonder;  the  wages  paid 
to  American  seamen  are  higher  than 
those  paid  to  any  other  seamen  in  the 
world.  The  difficulty  with  Americans, 
however,  is  not  altogether  a  matter  of 
wages;  our  young  men  have  no  liking 
for  the  life  of  a  sailor.  The  only  remedy 
for  this  situation  is  to  train  America's 
youth  for  the  merchant  marine.  Train- 
ing stations  have  been  established  for 
the  naval  service,  and  if  we  are  to  con- 
tinue to  have  any  merchant  fleet  at  all 
they  must  be  duplicated  for  the  merchant 
marine. 

In  time  of  war  the  merchant  fleet  is 
an  auxiliary  to  the  navy.  One  of  the 
principal  reasons  upon  which  our  new 
merchant  fleet  was  built  is  that  it  en- 
hances the  value  of  the  battle  fleet  in 
war.  A  merchant  fleet  large  enough  to 
maintain  the  warship  fleet  in  any  possi- 
ble theatre  of  war  is  of  the  right  size 
for  our  maintenance.  With  this  idea  in 
view  the  Shipping  Board  recently  decided 
to  order  two  gigantic  30-knot  liners  for 
the  transatlantic  passenger  service,  but 
later  abandoned  the  plan  temporarily  on 
account  of  the  prohibitive  cost.  Though 
such  large  vessels  can  yield  good  divi- 


dends in  normal  times,  it  was  believed 
that  under  present  conditions  they  would 
be  a  losing  venture.  The  episode  at  least 
indicated  the  Shipping  Board's  tendency 
toward  fast  passenger  liners. 

POSSIBILITIES  OF  TRADE 

Into  what  channels  could  our  merchant 
marine  profitably  be  directed?  A  fast 
transatlantic  passenger  service  is  to  be 
tried.  If  this  line  is  fast  enough,  and 
is  freed  from  the  handicap  of  prohibi- 
tion, it  may  yield  a  profit.  On  the  Pa- 
cific it  would  be  folly  to  run  a  line 
directly  to  Japan  in  the  face  of  the  low 
Japanese  rates;  but  to  run  a  line  from 
our  west  coast  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
and  the  Philippines,  and  thence  to  China, 
India  and  Australia,  is  entirely  within 
the  bounds  of  profitability.  A  general 
passenger  and  freight  service  with  Cen- 
tral and  South  America  is  probably  the 
most  desirable  American  line  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  American  merchant. 
In  1918  our  exports  to  South  America 
were  to  the  value  of  $302,840,975,  and 
our  imports  about  double  that  amount. 
Our  chief  trade  in  South  America  is  with 
Argentina.  In  normal  times  this  trade 
is  principally  in  British  bottoms,  but 
since  the  war  it  has  been  in  our  own. 
Only  recently  it  was  announced  that  an 
American  firm  had  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing an  order  for  locomotives  for  Argen- 
tine railways,  and  both  English  and  Ger- 
man firms  had  been  competitors  for  the 
order.  This  tends  to  show  that  the 
American  manufacturer  is  doing  business 
and  may  be  expected  to  increase  his 
trade  if  provided  with  American  ships 
in  which  to  transport  his  products. 

Throughout  our  history  our  coastal 
trade  has  been  a  paying  venture.  High 
as  were  the  shipping  rates  during  the 
war,  sea  transportation  cost  less  than 
rail. 

The  greatest  share  of  our  foreign 
trade  is  with  the  British  Empire.  Brit- 
ish exports  will  come  to  us,  in  most 
cases,  in  British  bottoms,  but  a  good 
share  of  our  exports  to  British  posses- 
sions should  and  could  be  given  to 
American  shipping  interests.  Asia  and 
South  America  are  the  next  most  attrac- 
tive foreign  fields  for  American  business. 
Our  exports  to  Asia  in  1918  were  to  the 


CAN  WE  KEEP  OUR  MERCHANT  MARINE? 


299 


ralue  of  $445,594,169,  and  our  imports 
$853,443,245.  One-half  of  these  exports 
and  over  one-third  of  the  imports  were 
to  and  from  Japan.  This  means  that 
practically  half  of  our  trade  with  the 
East  came  and  went  in  Japanese  bot- 
toms. China  is  trading  with  the  United 
States.  Our  imports  from  China  doubled 
our  exports,  and  to  a  great  extent  this 
trade  was  in  Japanese  and  English 
bottoms.  These  conditions  could  be 
changed.  While  the  Japanese  trade  will 
inevitably  be  in  Japanese  bottoms,  with 
a  properly  organized  merchant  fleet  and 
our  merchants  alive  to  the  possibilities 
of  trade  with  China,  a  larger  Chinese 
trade  would  surely  be  carried  under  the 
American  flag. 

FORMER   GERMAN    LINERS 

Recently  the  public  has  considered  it- 
self outraged  at  the  attempt  of  the 
Shipping  Board  to  sell  twenty-nine  of 
the  former  German  liners.  The  general 
impression  gained  by  the  public  was  that 
they  were  being  sold  indirectly  to  the 
British.  Such  was  not  the  case.  Only 
American  firms  were  bidders,  and  their 
bids  were  refused.  The  plea  of  the  War 
Department  for  the  retention  of  the 
large  liners  under  the  American  flag  is 
probably  the  real  reason  for  the  exclu- 
sion of  foreign  bidders.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  giant  Leviathan  and  some 
of  the  oldest  ships,  they  are  of  great 
value  to  the  merchant  marine  for  the 
Asiatic  and  South  American  trade.  The 
Leviathan,  as  has  been  explained  by 
other  writers,  never  was  a  paying  propo- 
sition and  was  built  more  as  a  German 
advertisement  than  as  a  money  maker. 
AVhile  some  believe  that  the  Leviathan 
could  not  be  profitably  operated,  let  it 
be  known  that  the  Navy  Department 
converted  her  from  a  coal  burner  to  an 
oil  burner,  doing  away  with  about  300 
firemen,  reducing  the  fuel  consumption 


and  the  corresponding  cost  of  fuel. 
Therefore  the  Leviathan  must  not  be 
considered  thoroughly  impossible  until 
proved  so. 

The  recent  decision  of  the  Shipping 
Board  to  sell  all  wooden  ships  complete 
or  on  the  stocks  is  justified  by  the  sit- 
uation. The  announcement  gave  the  im- 
pression that  foreign  bidders  would  be 
allowed,  and  this  surely  is  desirable,  as 
the  vessels  have  proved  themselves  quite 
worthless  for  our  purposes. 

A  naval  officer  recently  estimated  our 
future  merchant  marine  at  1,000  steam 
vessels  of  3,900,000  tons.  He  was  basing 
his  figures  on  cost  of  operation  and 
relative  value  to  American  merchants 
and  the  navy.  If  our  merchant  fleet  is 
to  be  maintained  at  this  or  a  similar  size, 
Americans  must  get  used  to  seeing  their 
ships  sold  to  foreign  steamship  com- 
panies. Private  ownership  of  all  lines 
possible  is  to  be  encouraged,  but  on  the 
very  necessary  lines,  where  competition 
is  so  keen  as  to  render  private  ownership 
impossible,  the  merchant  fleet  should  be 
run  by  the  navy.  It  would  seem  to  be 
a  good  plan  to  sell  what  merchant  ships 
we  may  at  once,  as  the  demand  for  bot- 
toms still  exists,  and  the  price  of  ton- 
nage will  never  be  any  higher  than  at 
present. 

The  crux  of  the  whole  problem  is  this: 
With  the  La  Follette  law  repealed  we 
would  not  be  able  to  induce  American 
seamen  to  man  our  ships;  with  the  law 
as  it  stands  we  may  be  able  to  get  the 
men  still  on  our  ships  to  stay  in  the 
merchant  service,  but  they  are  too  few 
for  our  purpose.  It  is,  therefore,  evident 
that  to  operate  a  medium-sized  merchant 
fleet  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  foreign 
seamen,  and  whether  we  can  get  enough 
of  these  is  still  a  matter  of  doubt.  Even 
with  a  modern-sized  merchant  marine 
properly  manned  we  must  expect  to  take 
a  loss. 


Siberia  Under  Kolchak's  Dictatorship 

By  MAJOR  HENRY  WARE  NEWMAN,  M.  D. 

[Deputy    Commissioner    American    Red    Cross    to    Siberia] 


ADMIRAL  KOLCHAK  never  at- 
/\  tained  to  any  very  secure  con- 
^  %  trol  over  the  group  in  Omsk 
whose  nominal  head  and  dic- 
tator he  remained  for  a  good  many 
months.  He  gave  orders  late  in  1918 
that  the  plant  of  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture out  behind  the  city  should  be 
vacated  and  turned  over  to  the  American 
Red  Cross  for  a  great  base  hospital  to 
serve  the  armies  at  the  front.  The  build- 
ings were  then  occupied  by  some  so- 
called  Cossacks,  and  even  there,  almost 
within  sight  of  the  office  of  the  dictator, 
the  soldiers  stayed  on  for  two  months  or 
more  in  violation  of  written  orders  to 
vacate.  One  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Ministry  of  War  finally  admitted  that 
the  Government  could  not  force  the  sol- 
diers out  before  they  were  ready  to 
move.  And  when  we,  in  need  of  blankets 
for  refugees,  asked  Kolchak's  Minister 
of  War  to  arrange  to  sell  us  overcoating 
material  from  the  Government  mills  for 
making  the  blankets  we  needed,  he  in- 
formed us  that  they  were  unable  to  get 
enough  of  this  material  for  overcoats  for 
the  Omsk  garrison  itself.  But,  going 
direct  to  the  official  in  Ekaterinburg 
who  had  charge  of  the  manufacture  of 
this  half -wool  and  half -wood-fibre  cloth, 
we  had  no  difficulty  in  getting  from 
him  as  many  thousand  yards  of  it  as  we 
asked  for — for  a  cash  consideration,  of 
course.  And  this  official  was  supposed 
to  be  an  appointee  of  the  Minister  of 
War. 

As  to  the  "  All  Russia  "  in  the  title  of 
Kolchak's  dictatorship,  even  all  Siberia 
would  have  been  too  broad  to  describe  its 
scope,  for  Semenov,  with  his  friendship 
for  Japanese  interests,  never  at  any 
time  subordinated  his  authority  to  any 
Omsk  Government.  And  I  have  known 
the  Kolchak  agents  to  beg  us  of  the 
American  Red  Cross  to  bring  across 
Siberia  supplies  for  their  soldiers  and 
hospitals,  because  the  officials  of  the 
Trans-Siberian  Railroad  under  Horvath 


made  it  impossible  for  the  All-Russian 
Government  of  Omsk  to  escort  their  own 
supply  trains  through  the  eastern  terri- 
tory. And  certainly  the  common  people, 
the  mass  of  the  people  of  Siberia,  never 
saw  in  this  dictator  and  his  Government 
the  promise  of  free  institutions  and 
democracy  that  might  have  brought  them 
loyally  to  his  support. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  out-and- 
out  Red  Anarchists  throughout  the 
length  of  Siberia,  but  I  am  convinced 
from  personal  acquaintance  with  the  peo- 
ple that  by  far  the  great  majority  of 
them  love  liberty  and  hope  for  a  real 
democracy.  They  are  people  who  will 
lend  quiet  support  to  a  Bolshevist  Govern- 
ment because  they  see  nothing  that  offers 
for  the  present  any  greater  promise  of 
liberty.  Surely  a  dictator  of  the  Kol- 
chak type,  with  reputed  strong  sym- 
pathies for  a  return  of  the  monarchy, 
giving  them  only  a  rule  of  weak  force, 
could  never  hope  to  enlist  their  support; 
and  he  went  to  the  end  without  popular 
support,  except  in  so  far  as  he  was 
able  to  force  the  young  men  into  his 
army. 

ADMIRAL  KOLCHAK'S  ARMY 

He  raised  a  considerable  army  of  men 
by  methods  of  conscription  which  might 
not  bear  too  close  scrutiny.  Certain  it 
is  that  few  men  went  willingly  into 
training  for  the  front.  Raw  country 
boys  of  from  16  to  20  most  of  them  were, 
illiterate  and  uncouth.  They  came  from 
home  in  rags,  and  many  of  them  never 
got  much  better  from  their  command.  I 
recall  seeing  a  rabble  of  recruits  going 
away  from  a  small  railway  station  along 
in  the  Summer  of  last  year.  Their 
families  had  come  to  speed  them  upon 
their  journey.  Fathers,  mothers,  little 
sisters  and  brothers  and  sweethearts  all 
were  there,  simple  peasant  folk,  and  all 
were  laughing,  crying,  silly  drunk  with 
"  spiritus  " — the  vodka  that  the  Czar 
abolished.     I    have    seen    regiments    of 


HOUSE  IN   EKATERINBURG   WHERE   THE   CZAR  WAS   CONFINED  AND   EXECUTED  BY   THE 

BOLSHEVIKI 
{Photo  H.  W.  Newman) 


Tartars  entraining  for  the  front  when 
many  of  them  had  no  better  footgear 
than  what  they  could  weave  out  of  slip- 
pery-elm bark,  and  nothing  for  the  Sum- 
mer to  take  the  place  of  the  goatskin  cap 
they  had  worn  the  previous  Winter. 

Late  in  the  Winter  the  British  military 
mission  in  Siberia  undertook  to  bolster 
up  a  part  of  the  Kolchak  army  into  a 
Gemblance  of  fighting  form.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  uniforms  made  for  Brit- 
ish soldiers,  with  caps,  leggins,  boots  and 
knapsacks,  were  shipped  in  and  put  on 
these  recruits.  The  division  of  General 
Kappel  was  selected  as  the  first  recipient 
of  the  honor  of  parading  in  the  uniform 
of  Tommy  Atkins.  Very  well  the  men 
looked  while  the  stuff  was  new,  and  they 
really  seemed  to  feel  more  like  soldiers. 
One  began  to  feel  that  after  all  there 
might  be  something  in  the  dictatorship — 
until  one  saw  them  again,  up  nearer  the 
front,  or  coming  back  in  the  hospital 
trains  as  dirty  as  ever,  utterly  bedrag- 
gled, and,  it  must  be  said,  many  of  them 
shot  through  the  left  hand  and  the  left 
foot.  There  were  so  many  of  these  self- 
inflicted  wound  cases  that  we  refused  to 
let  them  occupy  beds  in  the  American 
Red  Cross  hospitals. 

TROUBLE  AMONG  THE  CZECHS 

It  was  in  the  Fall  of  1918,  late  in 
October,  that  it  became  apparent  that 
there  was  serious   disaffection   and  loss 


of  morale  among  the  Czech  troops,  who 
were  still  the  mainstay  of  the  front. 
Once  more  Winter  was  shutting  down, 
and  with  its  coming  would  ensue  all  the 
hardships  they  had  known  already  for 
four  or  five  such  Winters. 

In  November  a  certain  regiment  which 
had  been  resting  in  Ekaterinburg  re- 
ceived orders  from  Gaida  to  entrain  for 
the  front.  The  fighting  was  perhaps 
not  more  than  forty  or  fifty  versts  from 
the  city  at  this  time,  and  every  day  saw 
trains  of  wounded  arrive,  and  always 
with  a  box  car  or  two  of  the  bodies  of 
those  killed  in  action.  The  hospitals  were 
full,  and  every  day  the  military  funerals 
wended  their  way  out  to  the  cemetery. 
One  day  I  counted  twenty-four  piiTe 
boxes  in  one  long  procession.  And  almost 
all  these  casualties  were  from  the  less 
than  50,000  war-weary  Czechoslovak 
troops.  Here  they  were,  strangers  in  a 
strange  land,  fighting  and  dying  to  keep 
one  group  of  Russians  from  driving  out 
another  group  of  Russians.  This  par- 
ticular regiment  flatly  refused  to  go  out 
to  the  front.  The  men  opined  that  it 
was  too  cold,  so  cold,  in  fact,  that  their 
hands  would  freeze  to  their  rifles;  and 
they  added  that  they  should  like  to  know 
what  they  were  fighting  about  any- 
way. 

Over  behind  the  Ufa  front  a  week  or 
so  later,  in  the  city  of  Cheliabinsk,  there 
was   a  notable  funeral,   that  of  Colonel 


302 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Schmidt  of  the  3d  Czech  Regiment,  a  sui- 
cide when  the  men  of  his  regiment  re- 
fused to  go  back  and  attack  a  position 
they  had  lost.  Over  the  grave  General 
Sirovi,  in  command  of  all  the  Czechs, 
was  overcome  with  emotion  in  saying 
that  they  were  burying  a  martyr  and  a 
hero. 

Only  a  week  or  two  later  there  arrived 
in  Ekaterinburg  soldier  delegates  from 
each  eschelon  and  each  regiment  of  the 
Czechs  to  demand  of  their  war  govern- 
ment that  they  be  sent  home  and  taken 
forthwith  from  the  fighting  in  which 
their  nation  had  only  a  very  remote 
interest. 

TALENTED  SOLDIERS 

Fine,  intelligent  men  and  real  soldiers 
these  Czechs  seemed  to  me,  and  most 
democratic  even  in  their  army.  College 
professors  I  have  seen  in  the  ranks,  with 
bakers  and  other  artisans  in  office  over 
them.  Of  artistic  talent  there  was  a 
plenty  among  these  Slavs  of  Bohemia.  I 
went  one  night  as  a  guest  to  a  concert 
given  by  Czech  soldiers  in  the  theatre 
of  the  railroad  station.  It  was  a  bitter 
cold  night  outside,  and  the  hall  was 
packed  with  soldiers  in  overcoats  and  fur 
caps  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder.  The 
artists,  soldiers  all,  rendered  a  program 
of  music  that  could  hardly  be  excelled 
in  any  European  or  American  city.  The 
land  that  produced  a  Dvorjak  and  a 
Kubelik  gave  us  that  night  also  a 
Schmidt,  in  his  art  of  the  violin  the  equal 
of  either,  and  a  soldier  in  the  ranks. 

In  December  came  General  Stephanie, 
sent  direct  from  Paris  and  Prague  by 
President  Masaryk.  I  talked  with  him 
the  day  he  arrived  in  Cheliabinsk.  He 
was  free  in  speaking  of  the  fact  that  his 
soldiers  were  wanting  to  get  out  of  the 
fight.  "Today,"  he  said,  "I  have 
visited  the  troops  and  the  hospitals  and 
the  cemeteries,  and  I  see  an  army  that 
is  tired  both  physically  and  morally. 
They  must  go  home  to  their  own  coun- 
try, and  we  are  determined  to  take  them 
home  just  as  soon  as  we  can  possibly  do 
so.  It  would  be  manifestly  unfair  for 
us  to  withdraw  from  our  position  at  the 
front  just  now  and  leave  it  undefended 
against  the  Bolsheviki.  It  is  necessary 
for  us  to  give  our  Siberian  friends  time 


enough  to  get  an  army  trained  so  that 
they  may  hold  their  own  front."  Then, 
turning  to  face  us  more  directly,  he 
asked :  "  Will  you  of  the  American  Red 
Cross  start  right  away  by  taking  home 
for  us  our  invalids  from  Vladivostok  by 
way  of  Trieste?  " 

Since  that  day  eight  shiploads  of 
invalids  and  cripples  have  made  the  trip 
to  Trieste  under  our  care.  And  these 
poor  fellows,  after  five  years  of  being 
prisoners  and  of  fighting  in  Siberia, 
when  they  do  get  home  to  their  own  free 
republican  land  are  met  with  a  coolness 
that  makes  them  wonder  if,  after  all, 
their  sufferings  and  sacrifices  have  not 
been  endured  in  vain. 

GUARDING  THE  RAILROAD 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  the  Red 
Army  drove  the  Czechs  out  of  Ufa,  the 
central  point  in  the  defense  of  the  Ural 
front.  Then  came  the  order  from  Kol- 
chak  to  replace  all  Czech  troops  on  the 
fronts  with  Siberian  troops.  The  Czechs 
were  retired  to  railroad  guard  duty  be- 
hind Omsk,  the  stretch  from  Novo 
Nickolaevsk  to  Irkutsk  being  intrusted 
to  them.  This  part  of  the  line  had  given 
a  deal  of  trouble;  raiding  parties  of 
Reds  were  continually  burning  stations 
and  derailing  trains. 

For  a  month  or  two  every  day  saw 
train  loads  of  Czech  troops  ipoving  east 
and  other  trains  of  Siberians  moving 
westward  to  take  their  places  on  the 
front.  There  was  no  mistaking  the  one 
sort  of  train  from  the  other :  The  Czechs, 
quiet,  orderly,  with  their  ugly  red  box 
cars  always  decorated  with  green  boughs, 
and  frequently  the  car  doors  done  in 
pictures,  war  scenes  or  scenes  from 
home,  made  of  moss  and  bark,  or  with 
perhaps  a  large  photo  of  their  beloved 
President  Masaryk  wreathed  in  green; 
the  Russians,  always  noisy  and  dirty, 
singing  as  the  train  pulled  out — an  irre- 
sponsible rabble  of  boys.  And  the  man- 
ner of  marching  in  the  street  is  as  char- 
acteristic of  the  men  as  is  their  appear- 
ance. The  Czechs  march  quietly,  with 
rather  a  tired  air,  while  the  Russians 
march  always  singing,  and  with  a  long, 
free,  swinging  stride. 

Within  a  month  or  two  of  their  com- 
plete occupation  of  the  front  these  Rus- 


SIBERIA   UNDER  KOLCHAK'S  DICTATORSHIP 


303 


SERBIAN    RECRUITS    IN    KOLCHAK'S    ARMY    AT    KRASNOYARSK 
(.Photo   H.    W.   Newman) 


sian  traops  began  to  have  some  success. 
On  the  north  they  were  now  commanded 
by  Gaida,  the  Czech,  who  had  resigned 
from  his  own  army  to  be  made  a  Lieuten- 
ant General  under  Kolchak,  and  in  the 
Urals  they  were  led  by  Hanjine.  Perm 
was  taken  in  the  north,  and  then  in  the 
latter  part  of  March  Ufa  was  retaken, 
with  great  stores  of  war  materials.  The 
Red  Army  was  said  to  be  on  the  run  for 
Moscow  and  Petrograd.  It  was  expected 
every  day  that  Samara  would  fall  to  the 
Kolchak  armies. 

Within  ten  days  of  the  fall  of  Ufa  I 
talked  with  General  Hanjine  in  Chelia- 
binsk  on  the  subject  of  Red  Cross  help 
in  attempting  to  control  the  fearful  epi- 
demic of  typhus  that  was  raging  all 
through  the  war  zone.  He  asked  the 
interallied  anti-typhus  expedition  to  go 
to  Ufa  immediately  with  supplies  for 
opening  up  a  typhus  hospital  of  a  thou- 
sand beds.  Being  asked  to  take  personal 
charge  of  this  project,  I  put  the  matter 
up  to  the  Red  Cross  Commission;  it  was 
also  considered  by  the  Interallied  Com- 
mission, but  through  failure  to  agree  in 


the  matter  the  hospital  was  not  under- 
taken. 

CLOSE  VIEW  OF  KOLCHAK 

My  first  meeting  personally  with  Kol- 
chak was  in  the  first  week  in  May  of  last 
year.  I  had  gone  to  Cheliabinsk  with 
a  large  staff  to  take  over  a  group  of 
hospitals  there  and  make  them  into  one 
large  base  for  the  wounded  and  sick  from 
the  front.  The  chief  surgeon  of  Han- 
jine's  army,  General  Surov,  had  asked 
us  to  come  there  to  take  these  hospitals 
and  thus  release  four  or  five  complete 
Russian  hospital  units  for  moving 
further  toward  the  front,  to  Ufa  and 
Samara.  Kolchak's  special  train  rolled 
into  the  station  one  morning  on  the  way 
to  an  inspection  of  reconquered  terri- 
tories. The  whole  station  area  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  cordon  of  armed  guards, 
and  no  one  was  allowed  to  approach  the 
train  except  after  the  closest  scrutiny 
on  the  part  of  a  staff  officer.  My  Amer- 
ican uniform  was  enough  to  gain  me 
admittance. 

I  talked  with  Admiral  Kolchak  in  the 


304 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


reception  room  of  his  train.  A  very 
serious  individual  I  found  him,  quiet  and 
almost  sad,  with  never  a  smile,  the  more 
noticeable  that  as  a  rule  one  finds  the 
Russians  most  affable  and  even  in  times 
of  stress  -possessed  of  a  buoyancy  of 
spirits.  I  recall  remarking  later  to  my 
American  colleagues  that  Kolchak  looked 
like  a  man  who  knew  that  he  was  in 
great  danger,  and  that  whatever  the  out- 
come in  Siberia  he  personally  would  not 
survive.  We  spoke  of  the  plans  we  had 
talked  over  with  Surov,  and  he  urged 
us  to  establish  our  work  there  as  soon  as 
possible  in  order  that  the  Russian  hos- 
pital units  might  move  in  haste  to  more 
advanced  positions. 

TURNING  OF  THE  TIDE 

He  asked  us  also  if  we  would  equip 
and  operate  several  hospital  trains  to 
run  from  the  front  back  to  our  hospitals 
in  the  rear.  We  agreed  to  take  as  many 
trains  as  he  would  furnish  us  the  cars 
for.  We  agreed  also  to  accept  hospitals 
locally  up  to  as  many  as  2,000  beds  just 
as  soon  as  sufficient  personnel  then  on 
the  road  from  America  should  arrive. 

A  certain  day,  the  Saturday  of  that 
same  week,  was  set  as  the  time  for  us 
to  accept  the  first  of  the  hospital  plants, 
and  by  arrangement  at  noon  on  this 
Saturday  we  presented  ourselves,  doctors 
and  nurses,  ready  to  take  charge.  ,It 
was  something  of  a  surprise  to  be  in- 
formed that  in  the  last  half-hour  this 
hospital  had  received  orders  not  to  leave 
at  all,  but  rather  to  prepare  to  receive 
immediately  500  new  patients.  The 
equipment,  which  had  been  loaded  mostly 
on  a  train  of  box  cars  lying  on  the  sid- 
ing, was  even  at  that  moment  being  un- 
loaded again  and  carried  back  into  the 
hospital  buildings.  The  chief  of  the  hos- 
pital was  unable  to  give  us  any  light 
upon  the  change  in  orders,  and  suggested 
that  we  talk  with  General  Surov  in 
person. 

This  we  did  within  the  hour,  and 
learned  from  him,  in  confidence,  that 
there  had  come  a  reverse  beyond  Ufa, 
and  that  the  Reds  were  driving  the 
troops  back  upon  that  place ;  it  was  prob- 
able, he  said,  that  all  the  sick  would 
have  to  be  moved  back  from  those  ad- 
vanced points.     He  proposed  to  go  per- 


sonally to  Ufa  the  following  day  and  in- 
vited me  to  go  with  him  to  see  just  what 
the  conditions  were. 

URAL  MOUNTAINS   IN  MAY 

That  trip  over  the  Ural  Mountains  in 
the  middle  of  May  was  one  of  the  most 
interesting  that  I  have  ever  taken.  In 
hollows  and  in  the  shade  there  were  still 
the  remains  of  the  Winter's  snowdrifts, 
but  the  trees  were  all  in  new  leaf,  and 
the  ground  was  covered  with  young  grass 
and  almost  hidden  by  the  profusion  of 
early  wild  flowers.  The  streams  tumbling 
down  the  coves  and  rushing  along  in  the 
more  level  stretches  were  still  turbid, 
but  gave  promise  of  clearing  up  for  the 
short  Summer. 

Our  train  rolled  through  Zlatoust  up 
on  the  divide  between  Asia  and  Europe, 
and  we  looked  down  over  the  great  steel 
mills  in  the  valley  below,  the  "  Sheffield 
of  Russia."  Then  down  on  the  European 
slope  of  the  mountains  we  came  out 
through  the  broad  fields  planted  to 
wheat,  just  beginning  to  show  light  green 
after  the  Spring  planting.  And  then 
around  a  bend  and  under  some  cliffs  we 
came  upon  Ufa,  perched  upon  a  hilltop 
in  a  broad  bend  of  the  Volga  River, 
whose  waters  flow  south  to  the  Caspian 
Sea. 

Here  was  held  a  council  of  the  Gen- 
eral Staff,  and  coming  from  it  Surov 
met  us  at  the  hotel  on  Alexanderskia. 
He  told  us,  again  in  confidence,  that  it 
had  been  decided  that  Ufa  should  be 
evacuated  as  rapidly  as  possible;  first 
the  sick  and  wounded  should  go,  then  all 
stores,  and  after  them  the  troops  and 
as  many  of  the  civil  population  as  wanted 
to  go  and  could  find  a  means  of  getting 
away.  We  were  asked  to  go  out  with 
the  first  hospital   train. 

RECORD  OF  THE  REDS 

We  found  that  the  people  fully  ex- 
pected the  city  to  fall  again  to  the  Red 
army.  Every  one  who  could  do  so  would 
get  out  and  go  east.  One  reason  for  this 
was  that  under  Bolshevist  rule  during 
the  Winter  months  all  the  people  had 
been  on  bread  cards  at  the  rate  of  about 
six  ounces  a  day — a  very  small  ration 
for  a  people  whose  mainstay  is  bread. 
We  heard  some  good  things   said  about 


SIBERIA   UNDER  KOLCHAK'S  DICTATORSHIP 


305 


SOME    OF    KOLCHAK'S    SOLDIERS    IN    OMSK 
(Photo  H.   W.  Newman) 


the  Red  Government,  however;  orphan 
children  to  the  number  of  several  hun- 
dred had  been  put  into  an  institution  on 
State  support,  and  dependent  mothers 
had  been  cared  for.  Entertainments 
were  given  for  the  children  of  the  city, 
band  concerts  and  movies.  The  women 
of  the  place  were  not  seriously  molested; 
there  was  not  even  any  suggestion  of 
their  being  "  nationalized."  Shops  pretty 
generally  had  stayed  closed,  and  there 
were  few  vendors  in  the  street  bazaars; 
soldiers  of  the  Red  army  were  wont  to 
take  what  it  pleased  them  to  take  with- 
out troubling  to  pay,  3iT\A  the  money 
current  was  worth  little  more  than  so 
much  waste  paper.  A  handful  of  paper 
notes  would  not  buy  a  loaf  of  bread. 

The  children  on  the  streets  were  frank 
in  expressing  their  hope  that  the  Reds 
would  come  back.  I  saw  no  evidence 
whatever  of  destruction  of  property  be- 
yond a  degree  of  general  dilapidation 
that  was  not  different  from  similar  con- 
ditions all  through  Russian  territory; 
simply  an  accompaniment  of  five  years 
of  war. 

Back  in  Cheliabinsk  we  turned  in  to 
help  the  Russian  hospitals  prepare  for 


evacuation  of  the  sick  and  wounded  from 
Ufa.  We  divided  up  our  staff,  some 
going  to  one  hospital  and  some  to 
another,  and  gave  of  our  supplies  to 
every  hospital  in  the  district.  Some  of 
us  became  convinced  that  the  situation 
could  be  handled  far  better  if  we  could 
have  it  all  actually  under  American  Red 
Cross  control  rather  than  for  us  to  act 
merely  as  supply  agents,  so  I  set  out  for 
Omsk  to  urge  the  Ministry  of  War  to 
turn  over  the  hospitals  to  us  as  they 
had  offered  to  do  in  the  first  instance. 
Surgeon  Gen.  Lobosov  saw  the  strength 
of  our  argument  and  wrote  a  personal 
letter  to  Surov  suggesting  that  all  the 
hospitals  in  the  front  district  about 
Cheliabinsk  should  be  given  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  American  Red  Cross. 

GAIDA'S  INSUBORDINATION 

While  I  was  in  Omsk  the  Chief  of 
Staff  of  the  Kolchak  army.  General 
Lebediev,  was  removed  from  office.  It 
transpired  that  Gaida,  up  on  the  Perm 
front,  conceived  the  idea  that  things 
were  not  being  properly  managed  in 
army  affairs.  He  wired  to  Kolchak  de- 
manding that  the  Chief  of  Staff  be  dis- 


306 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


missed  forthwith.  Kolchak  answered 
that  it  would  not  be  quite  convenient  to 
do  so  just  at  that  time.  Gaida  wired 
back  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Omsk 
to  arrest  the  Chief  of  Staff.  Kolchak 
went  out  a  hundred  miles  or  so  to  meet 
him  and  they  talked  the  thing  over.  The 
Chief  of  Staff  was  given  another  job, 
but  Gaida  did  not  get  the  place ;  Kolchak 
gave  as  his  reason  that  Gaida  was  not  a 
man  of  sufficient  military  training  for 
so  difficult  and  technical  a  position;  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  he  had  been 
a  student  of  pharmacy.  Gaida  resigned 
his  command  and  went  on  east  to  rejoin 
his  Czech  comrades. 

LAST  GLIMPSE  OF  KOLCHAK 

There  occurred  at  this  time  in  Omsk 
a  public  ceremony  that  afforded  me  my 
last  glimpse  of  Admiral  Kolchak.  It 
was  the  annual  review  and  dedication  of 
the  wearers  of  the  Cross  of  St.  George. 
It  took  place  on  the  parade  grounds  near 
the  great  cathedral.  A  hollow  square 
was  formed  by  the  troops  wearing  the 
cross,  a  square  whose  sides  were  almost 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  long.  In  the  centre 
was  an  altar  of  the  Greek  Church,  with 
the  high  priest  and  other  ministry  all 
in  robes  of  cloth  of  gold,  bare-headed,  all 
but  the  senior,  who  wore  a  tall  mitre  of 
golden  design.  Huge  double-armed 
crosses  and  banners  picturing  the  twelve 
apostles  were  arranged  about  the  altar. 
And  while  the  priests  chanted  and  waved 
their  pots  of  incense  for  an  hour  or  two 
the  dictator  with  his  staff  stood  before 
the  altar,  hat  in  hand.  With  him  stood 
General  Janin,  who  later  surrendered 
Kolchak  to  the  revolutionaries  at  Irkutsk. 
Looking  at  Kolchak  standing  there,  I 
could  not  fail  to  note  again  his  look  as 
of  fixed  purpose  without  hope. 

Back  west  I  went  with  my  letter  from 
Lobosov  to  Surov.  I  found  that  in  order 
to  deliver  the  letter  in  person  I  should 
have  to  go  again  over  toward  Ufa.  That 
city  had  fallen  meantime  and  the  Gen- 
eral Staff  headquarters  had  been  moved 
back  to  Satka,  a  little  place  in  the  moun- 
tains. 

On  reading  the  letter  from  his  su- 
perior, the  chief  surgeon  decided  to  fol- 
low the  suggestion  it  contained.  The 
other  officers  of  his  personal  staff  were 


strongly  opposed  to  giving  us  control 
over  the  Cheliabinsk  hospital  group.  He 
told  us  that  he  would  have  tea  with  us 
on  board  my  private  car  sometime  in  the 
afternoon.  At  tea  time  he  came  alone. 
He  had  been,  he  said,  to  see  the  new 
Chief  of  Staff,  General  Sakarov,  and 
the  Chief  quite  agreed  that  the  army 
could  be  best  served  by  putting  the  hos- 
pitals under  one  head.  He  sat  down  at 
my  table  and  wrote  in  pencil  on  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross  paper  the  order  for  the 
transference  of  control  to  us.  I  am  sure 
that  he  much  preferred  not  to  have  to 
put  this  letter  through  the  usual  chan- 
nels of  assistants  and  stenographers. 
Such  was  the  lack  of  cohesion  and  dis- 
cipline that  he  could  not  be  at  all  sure 
it  would  come  out  whole  even  in  his  own 
office  and  with  the  verbal  backing  of 
the  Chief  of  Staff. 

REFUGEES  FROM  UFA 

The  railroad  from  the  east  was  now 
being  kept  busy  hauling  an  endless  pro- 
cession of  troop  trains  carrying  the  sol- 
diers of  Kappel's  division,  all  in  their 
British  togs.  They  hoped  that  these 
loyal  troops,  fresh  from  training  in  the 
rear,  would  be  able  to  stem  the  onrush- 
ing  Reds.  And  coming  from  the  west 
every  train  was  jammed  with  people 
from  Ufa,  and  many  from  even  further 
west,  people  of  means  mostly  who  had 
parted  with  fabulous  rolls  of  rubles  to 
the  railroad  officials,  and  who  had  been 
glad  to  obtain  room  in  box  cars  or  flat 
cars  or  any  sort  of  rolling  stock  that 
could  be  attached  to  the  outgoing  trains. 
They  had  left  their  homes  and  their  all, 
these  people,  to  run  from  the  Red 
menace;  and  thousands  of  them  perished 
in  their  journey,  stricken  with  typhus 
and  cholera.  Many  of  these  box  cars  I 
have  seen  piled  up  with  choice  furniture, 
grand  pianos  and  Persian  rugs,  and 
always  a  samovar. 

By  this  time  June  had  come,  and  the 
mountains  were  in  their  full  glory. 
White  birches,  maples,  poplars  iand  elms 
were  in  full  leaf,  and  the  clear  mountain 
streams  looked  their  invitation  to  the 
sportsman.     And  rare  sport  is  there. 

Arrived  back  in  Cheliabinsk,  we  set 
about  unifying  the  hospitals  and  getting 
them  properly  staffed  and  equipped.  Our 


SIBERIA   UNDER  KOLCHAKS  DICTATORSHIP 


307 


ROOM   IN    HOUSE    LAST    OCCUPIED    BY    CZAR   AND    LATER    USED    BY    GENERAL    GAIDA    AS 

STAFF   HEADQUARTERS    IN    EKATERINBURG 

(Photo    H.    W.    Newman) 


large  warehouses  were  filling  up  with 
hospital  supplies  from  Vladivostok, 
landed  from  American  army  transports. 
Our  American  doctors  and  nurses  were 
arriving  on  the  same  transports  and 
being  hurried  out  west  to  reinforce  us 
as  fast  as  possible.  The  best  that  could 
be  done,  however,  was  three  to  four 
weeks  for  the  5,000-mile  rail  trip  from 
the  sea. 

But  the  sick  and  wounded  came  to  us 
much  more  rapidly  than  reinforcements 
for  our  staff.  Every  day  came  the  trains 
from  over  the  mountains,  and  as  fast 
as  we  were  able  to  get  beds  set  up  in 
thoroughly  cleaned  and  disinfected  wards 
the  beds  were  needed  and  filled.  Up  to 
this  time  the  majority  of  our  staff  was 
of  necessity  Russian,  for  the  reason  that 
American  help  had  not  arrived  in  suf- 
ficient numbers  to  carry  the  work  we 
had  undertaken;  but  by  the  1st  of  July 
we  were  getting  things  pretty  well  or- 
ganized and  doing  a  deal  of  important 
work. 

Early  in  June  was  held  in  Cheliabinsk 
a  great  celebration  on  the  first  anniver- 


sary of  the  driving  out  of  the  Bolsheviki. 
Special  performances  at  the  theatre  were 
given;  parades  of  soldiers  from  the  local 
garrison  were  held,  and  band  concerts  in 
the  city  park  lasted  all  night  long.  One 
could  hear  the  wise  remark  that  it  was 
as  well  to  get  this  celebration  done  and 
over  with  as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  Red 
army  was  getting  nearer  every  day. 

The  first  half  of  July  and  its  hap- 
penings are  very  nearly  a  blank  to  me 
personally;  I  had  been  down  with  fever. 
One  day,  the  15th  it  was,  I  realized  that 
I  was  about  to  be  put  on  a  stretcher 
carried  by  two  of  our  hospital  orderlies. 
A  nurse  told  me  that  we  were  going  to 
the  train.  We  were  evacuating  our  hos- 
pital, and  the  whole  city  and  garrison 
were  evacuating  as  well.  The  Red  army 
had  nearly  surrounded  our  position,  and 
there  was  no  longer  any  chance  that  the 
city  could  be  held.  We  started  off  that 
night  on  a  trip  across  Siberia,  a  trip 
that  lasted  five  weeks.  We  were  near 
the  end  of  August  in  reaching  Vladivo- 
stok. 

The  first  few  days  after  leaving  the 


308 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


city  our  progress  was  slow  indeed.  The 
road  was  congested  in  almost  inconceiv- 
able fashion,  engines  nosing  other  trains 
ahead,  all  trying  to  get  further  away 
from  the  advancing  Red  army.  One 
young  American  woman — a  newspaper 
correspondent. — riding  on  our  train, 
wrote  of  those  days: 

I  have  spent  twenty-four  hours  in  hell. 
*  *  *  We  were  stalled  at  the  railway- 
station  of  Petropavlovsk,  far  Western 
Siberia,  and  somewhere  to  the  west  of  us 
the  Red  armies  were  coming  on.  To  the 
right  of  us,  left  of  us,  rear  of  us  were 
typhus  fever  trains,  box  cars,  passenger 
cars,  twenty-five,  thirty,  even  thirty-five 
cars  to  a  train,  and  all  loaded  with  men 
from  the  front  and  from  the  evacuated 
hospitals  who  were  in  various  stages  of 
the  dread  disease. 

To  those  of  us  who  had  been  seeing 
such  things  for  a  year  or  more  and  work- 
ing with  just  such  trains  and  in  typhus 
hospitals  it  had  come  to  be  something  of 
a  Tnatter  of  course;  but  for  the  new 
arrivals  from  America  it  did  look  like 
something  of  a  visit  to  some  lower 
region. 

But  what  a  beautiful  trip  over  5,000 
miles  of  marvelous  country!  It  was 
Summer,  and  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  Siberia  was  in  full  bloom; 
wheat  fields  sometimes  stretching  as  far 
as  the  limit  of  vision,  and  great  broad 
steppes  dotted  with  groves  of  birch, 
where  the  ground  was  waist  high  in  wild 
flowers,  a  riot  of  color.  Lake  Baikal 
was  as  blue  as  the  sky,  and  not  a  ship 
nor  a  sail  in  sight  as  our  train  followed 
the  south  shore  for  nearly  a  day.  Then, 
east  of  the  lake,  we  began  to  see  an  oc- 
casional camp  of  our  own  American 
troops  posted  out  there  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  railroad.  Our  train,  besides 
the  cars  of  Red  Cross  personnel,  had 
more  than  300  of  the  refugee  children 
from  Petrograd  that  we  had  been  caring 
for  since  the  Fall  before,  and  then  away 
on  the  tail  of  the  train  were  ten  cars  of 
French  colonials,  veterans  of  Verdun 
and  St.  Mihiel.  The  French  were  all  being 
withdrawn   from   Siberia. 

BEGINNING  OF  THE  END 

As  soon  as  I  had  sufficiently  recovered 
to  be  thoroughly  rational  again  I  realized 
that  our  work  in  Siberia  was  seeing  the 
beginning  of  its  end.    Having  lived  with 


the  Kolchak  army  for  the  greater  part 
of  a  year,  I  knew  that  the  army  was 
literally  going  to  pieces,  that  it  would 
be  unable  again  to  offer  any  real  ob- 
stacle to  the  Red  advance.  Other  counsel 
prevailed,  however.  By  the  desire  of 
other  Red  Cross  workers  to  stay  there 
and  carry  on  the  work,  indeed,  I  was 
almost  persuaded  that  physical  weakness 
had  rendered  me  pessimistic.  A  large 
force  of  Red  Cross  workers  and  most  of 
the  supplies  evacuated  from  Cheliabinsk 
were  planted  at  the  university  city  of 
Tomsk,  and  preparations  were  made  for 
organizing  a  large  hospital  plant  similar 
to  the  one  we  had  left  at  Cheliabinsk. 
A  month  or  so  later  our  whole  force  was 
compelled  to  leave  Tomsk.  Again,  fur- 
ther east,  Irkutsk  was  tried,  but  even 
that  had  to  be  abandoned  in  the  Fall. 

KOLCHAK'S   EXECUTION 

The  rest  is  still  fresh  in  the  world's 
memory.  Kolchak,  finally  driven  out  of 
Omsk,  hastened  east  and  got  as  far  as 
Irkutsk.  There  he  re-established  his 
"All  Russian"  Government.  It  did  not 
last  many  weeks,  or  was  it  days?  Social 
revolutionaries  seized  the  city.  The  rail- 
road station,  which  lies  on  the  side  of 
the  broad  Angara  River  opposite  the  city, 
was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Czech 
troops.  British  and  other  allied  missions 
were  there  at  the  station  with  their  spe- 
cial trains.  Deserted  by  his  army,  Kol- 
chak finally  went  to  the  Czechs  asking 
for  personal  protection  and  asylum. 
News  dispatches  tell  us  that  a  few  days 
later  General  Janin,  the  French  officer 
nominally  in  charge  of  the  Czech  Army, 
finally  gave  Kolchak  over  to  the  revolu- 
tionists of  Irkutsk  upon  their  threat  to 
wipe  out  those  sections  of  the  Czech 
Army  that  yet  remained  to  the  west  of 
Irkutsk.  Soon  came  the  news  that  Kol- 
chak had  been  executed.  A  good  man  and 
a  brave  one;  a  man  weighed  down  with 
care.  I  believe  he  realized  even  in  the 
early  Spring  that  he  would  never  come 
out  of  the  campaign  alive.  A  chauvinist, 
and  doomed  to  failure.  Siberia  nor  any 
other  part  of  Russia  wanted  then  or 
wants  today  a  dictator  of  monarchical 
leanings. 

The  ever  ambitious  Gaida,  after  Kol- 
chak refused  to  make  him  his  Chief  of 


SIBERIA   UNDER  KOLCHAK'S  DICTATORSHIP 


309 


Staff,  had  gone  east  to  rejoin  the  Czechs. 
A  bit  later,  again  leaving  the  Czechs  and 
associating  himself  with  another  Rus- 
sian group,  he  turned  upon  his  former 
Russian  friends  with  an  attempt  to 
start  a  brand-new  revolution  in  Vladi- 
vostok. He  seized  the  railroad  station 
and  started  from  there  to  capture  the 
city;  but  the  local  garrison,  nominally- 
loyal  to  Kolchak,  took  up  a  position  on 
a  bridge  on  Svetlanskia,  the  main 
business  street,  the  bridge  overlooking 
the  railroad  station,  and  proceeded  to 
send  a  few  well-placed  shells  into  the 
station.  Gaida  surrendered  and  was  de- 
ported. It  is  probable  that  only  the 
moral  influence  of  American  and  other 
allied  troops  in  Vladivostok  prevented 
Gaida  from  finding  the  same  sort  of  end 
as  did  Kolchak  a  few  weeks  later. 

During  the  Fall,  when  the  Czechs  were 
preparing  to  move  down  to  the  sea  on 
their  way  home.  General  Semenov,  who 
throughout  the  year  and  more  of  rough 
going  in  the  west,  had  sat  with  his  mixed 
"  Kossaks,"  Buriats  and  Mongolians  with 
a  sprinkling  of  genuine  Russians,  ban- 
dits for  the  most  part,  comfortably 
astride  the  Trans-Siberian  Railroad, 
growing  fat  from  the  graft  and  pickings 
from  the  traffic,  sent  a  peremptory  note 


to  General  Sirovi,  in  command  of  the 
Czechs,  demanding  in  the  name  of  hu- 
manity that  the  Czeohs  should  not  at  this 
time  of  danger  desert  their  allies,  the 
Siberian  forces,  and  leave  them  to  the 
mercy  of  the  Bolsheviki.  Sirovi  answered 
that  this  talk  of  protecting  Siberia  from 
the  Reds  would  come  better  from  some 
one  who  had  actually  done  some  fight- 
ing, and  furthermore  that  if  Seminov  or 
any  one  else  wanted  to  try  to  stop  the 
Czechs  from  going  home  he  was  welcome 
to  start  his  preventing  just  as  soon  as 
he  thought  he  could  get  away  with  it. 

Now  Siberia  is  practically  all  nomi- 
nally under  the  Soviet  Government  from 
Moscow.  Does  this  mean  that  Siberia 
has  become  a  howling  wilderness  of 
anarchists?  Not  by  any  means.  It 
signifies  that  the  efforts  at  restoration 
of  the  monarchy  are  dead.  They  will 
probably  never  come  to  life  again.  But" 
I  am  certain  that  among  the  people  now 
inhabiting  Siberia  there  is  enough  leaven 
of  common  sense  and  true  democracy  to 
raise  the  common  lump  ultimately  from 
a  state  of  destructive,  ignorant  com- 
munism to  a  plane  of  decent,  socialistic 
democracy.  That  is  what  I  think  will  be 
the  final  outcome  of  the  Russian  mess. 


British-American  Wireless 


Tr\IRECT  commercial  wireless  com- 
-*-^  munication  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  was  opened  at 
midnight  of  March  1,  and  greetings  were 
exchanged  between  New  York  and  Lon- 
don Chambers  of  Commerce  and  Mer- 
chants' Associations,  and  also  between 
British  and  American  wireless  officials. 
The  first  message  sent  by  the  American 
company  was  as  follows: 

May  this  messagre,  which  opens  com- 
mercial wireless  telegraph  service  be- 
tween America  and  England,  mark  an 
epoch  in  history  from  which  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  future  shall  date.  Communi- 
cation is  the  leverage  which  shall  lift  the 
world  to  better  understanding  and  thus 
lead  to  closer  ties  of  friendship  between 
all  nations.  It  is  the  mission  of  our 
respective  companies  to  so  strengthen  and 


improve  the  wireless  service  that  distance 
shall  be  made  negligible  and  communica- 
tions  practically   instantaneous. 

The  British  company  answered: 
Tour  first  message  by  the  new  direct 
wireless  service  between  America  and 
England  expresses  exactly  the  desires 
animating  the  activities  of  every  one 
here.  We  are  certain  that  this  day  will 
pass  into  history  as  one  upon  which  was 
forged  a  most  valuable  link  of  communi- 
cation between  the  EnglisTi-speaking  peo- 
ples of  two  great  continents.  The  British 
Nation  whole-heartedly  desires  the  closest 
possible  friendship  with  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  my  company,  imbued 
with  the  national  sentiment,  will  spare 
no  pains  in  contributing  to  the  fulfill- 
ment of  this  desire  by  assisting  in  the 
provision  of  practically  instantaneous 
means    of    communication. 


Reconstruction  in  Soviet  Russia 

How  the  Bolsheviki  Are  Trying  to  Build  New  Institutions  in 
All  Departments  of  Life 


FTHIHE    triumph   of   the    Soviet  Army 
over  its  enemies  at  home  brought 


1 


in  its  wake  the  new  allied  policy 
of  abandoning  intervention  and  of 
undertaking,  instead,  to  resume  trade  re- 
lations with  Bolshevist  Russia.  Allied 
recognition  of  the  Lenin-Trotzky  Govern- 
ment, however,  was  still  withheld  until  it 
should  be  proved  that  that  Government 
had  radically  reformed  its  terroristic 
methods.  Since  then  both  English  and 
American  newspapers  have  sent  corre- 
spondents to  Moscow  to  find  out  what 
the  real  conditions  are.  Among  these 
writers  Arthur  Copping,  Lincoln  Eyre 
and  W.  T.  Goode  have  been  especially 
prolific  in  furnishing  articles  on  the  con- 
structive efforts  of  the  Soviet  regime. 
While  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
fact  that  these  observers  have  been  per- 
mitted to  see  only  the  pro-Bolshevist  side 
of  the  picture,  the  sum  total  of  the  new 
and  interesting  details  which  they  fur- 
nish regarding  the  work  of  the  Moscow 
Government  in  education,  sanitation, 
labor,  social  welfare,  criminology  and 
other  lines  is  so  extensive  that  it  calls 
for  attention  in  any  record  of  current 
history. 

Several  divisions  of  the  Soviet  Army, 
since  the  Dorpat  peace  with  Esthonia, 
have  been  mobilized  for  constructive 
labor;  at  the  same  time,  however,  Rus- 
sia presents  a  strange  paradox — that  of 
the  most  rabid  anti-militaristic  theorists 
in  the  world  commanding  a  trained  army 
of  3,000,000  men,  the  strongest  military 
organization  now  in  existence. 

According  to  Lenin,  the  decree  which 
fixed  Jan.  22,  1920,  as  the  date  on  which 
the  death  penalty  was  abolished  in  Soviet 
Russia,  marked  the  passing  of  the  Gov- 
ernment's former  methods  of  terrorism. 
Only  a  renewal  of  armed  intervention  by 
the  Allies,  he  says,  can  force  a  return  to 
the  policy  of  blood.  This  statement  is 
echoed  by  Peters,  former  head  of  the  All- 
Russian  Extraordinary  Commission,  who 


was  personally  responsible  for  thousands 
of  executions.  "  When  we  were  trem- 
bling under  blows  from  without  and  con- 
spiracies from  within,"  he  told  Mr.  Eyre, 
"  we  were  obliged  to  handle  our  foes  a 
bit  roughly.  That  is  the  logic  of  self- 
preservation.  Well,  I  am  glad  it  is  over." 
Peters  further  said: 

I  have  unearthed  a  good  many  plots, 
and  had  a  good  many  people  shot,  but  I 
challenge  any  one  to  prove  that  I  ever 
sentenced  any  prisoner  unjustly.  As  for 
the  stories  of  my  brutality,  let  me  say 
that  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  an 
execution,  though  sometimes  it  was  my 
duty  to  be  present.  I  could  not  stand 
seeing  any   one  shot. 

The  total  number  of  persons  con- 
demned to  death  for  counter-revolution 
in  the  year  from  November,  1918,  to  No- 
vember, 1919,  was  given  by  Peters  as 
4,444.  Of  this  number  533  were  shot 
in  Moscow  and  more  than  500  in  the 
provincial  town  of  Peza,  following  a 
White  uprising  there. 

FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS 

In  the  Governor  General's  former 
palace,  where  the  Moscow  Soviet  is 
housed,  M.  Kamenev,  the  President  of  the 
Soviet,  declared  to  the  Manchester  Guard- 
ian's correspondent,  Mr.  Goode,  that 
for  the  Soviet  workers  generally  there 
was  no  such  liberty  anywhere  as  in  Rus- 
sia at  the  present  day.  Meetings  of  all 
kinds  were  constantly  held  without  police 
permission.  The  great  halls  of  former 
restaurants  and  clubs  had  been  given 
over  to  workmen's  clubs,  which  were 
allowed  the  fullest  freedom  of  discus- 
sion. But  this  applied  only  to  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Soviet  system.  No  freedom 
of  speech  for  others.  "  We  are  at  war," 
said  M.  Kamenev,  "  and  a  la  guerre 
comme  a  la  guerre:  we  have  to  take  our 
precautions  and  institute  war  measures. 
We  could  no  more  permit  the  unrestrict- 
ed expression  of  opinion  to  the  favorers 
of  Kolchak  and  Denikin  than  would  the 
English  Government  to  pro-Germans  and 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


311 


such-like    during    the    great    war.      We 
cannot  open  the  door  to  our  enemies." 

As  for  the  freedom  of  the  press,  the 
Soviet  regime  had  completely  reversed 
the  old  order  of  things;  it  was  now  the 
workers'  press  that  was  large  and  power- 
ful, while  the  press  of  the  other  groups 
was  completely  overshadowed.  Strict 
control  of  the  press  had  been  rendered 
necessary  by  the  serious  shortage  of 
paper,  and  preference  was  naturally 
shown  to  the  workers.  Despite  this 
shortage  the  Committee  of  National 
Publishing  had  printed  and  issued  edi- 
tions of  Russian  masterpieces  of  litera- 
ture, editions  of  half  a  million  having 
been  published,  as  against  30,000  under 
the  old  regime,  and  3,600,000  copies  of 
the  Soviet  Constitution  had  been  sent 
out.  The  intellectual  classes,  doctors, 
teachers,  technicians,  &c.,  at  first  entire- 
ly hostile,  had  at  last  understood  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Soviet  movement  were 
honestly  striving  to  spread  its  benefits 
to  the  whole  population,  said  M.  Kam- 
enev,  and  many  of  them  had  gone  over 
to  the  Soviet  heart  and  soul  and  were 
working  for  it. 

POSITION  OF  LABOR 

With  the  downfall  of  autocracy  the 
number  of  labor  unions  increased  with 
bewildering  rapidity:  in  less  than  six 
months  there  arose  more  than  1,000 
separate  organizations  with  a  member- 
ship of  about  2,000,000.  In  the  Kerensky 
era  the  unions  used  "  direct  action  "  to 
enforce  their  demands,  but  they  did  not 
obtain  an  eight-hour  day  and  other  re- 
forms until  the  Bolshevist  revolution  in 
November,  1917.  The  workmen's  com- 
mittees, which  brought  to  the  manage- 
ment of  national  industries  almost  un- 
limited powers,  soon  proved  their  in- 
competence, owing  to  their  lack  of  tech- 
nical knowledge,  and  an  ever  larger  pro- 
portion of  these  powers  was  transferred 
to  the  Central  Government,  through  a 
Commissariat  of  Labor.  At  present  the 
system  of  one-man  control  is  in  force  in 
the  factories,  subject  to  the  committees 
retained  as  a  check  on  this  executive. 

With  this  taking  over  of  the  main 
functions  of  control  the  trade  unions 
were  transformed  into  subsidiary  or- 
ganizations of  the  Soviet  Republic,  and 


thus  lost  their  former  principal  weapon 
— the  strike.  President  Melnichansky  of 
the  Moscow  unions  stated  that  any  body 
of  workers  that  would  venture  to  walk 
out  on  strike  would  be  considered  as 
traitors  to  their  Socialist  fatherland,  and 
would  doubtless  be  shot  as  such.  More 
than  80  per  cent,  of  all  Soviet  employes, 
according  to  this  authority,  including 
members  of  the  liberal  professions,  were 
unionized,  totaling  a  membership  cover- 
ing 200  separate  unions  of  about  3,000,- 
000,  as  compared  with  2,500,000  persons 
employed  in  all  Russia's  industries  before 
the  war. 

Certain  civic  duties,  such  as  register- 
ing the  unemployed,  reporting  on  sani- 
tary conditions  in  houses  and  factories, 
&c.,  are  imposed  on  these  unions.  Com- 
pulsory labor  is  decreed  for  all,  with 
certain  specific  exceptions,  embracing 
illness  and  maternity  cases,  for  which  a 
time  exemption  of  six  months,  three 
before  and  three  after  childbirth,  is  pro- 
vided. Workers  enforcedly  idle  by  lack 
of  occupation  receive  a  Government 
allowance  until  able  to  find  work,  the 
amount  assigned  being  equal  to  what 
they  would  normally  be  able  to  earn  if 
employed. 

Moscow  and  Petrograd  unions  are 
magnificently  housed  at  national  ex- 
pense. In  Moscow  they  occupy  the  former 
Nobles'  Assembly  Hall,  possessing  club- 
rooms,  a  theatre  and  other  attractions; 
in  Petrograd  they  have  a  large  labor 
palace,  surrounded  by  twelve  other  im- 
posing edifices.  In  the  latter  city  there 
is  a  special  clubhouse  for  labor  dele- 
gates visiting  Petrograd,  provided  with 
all  the  luxuries  of  a  first-class  hotel. 

SYSTEM   OF  JUSTICE 

An  important  adjunct  of  the  Extraor- 
dinary Commission  is  that  of  the  revo- 
lutionary tribunals.  These  are  not  per- 
manent courts,  but  are  specially  sum- 
moned to  try  particular  cases.  Most  of 
the  offenders  brought  before  them  at 
present  are  individuals  charged  with 
illicit  speculation  dangerous  to  the  safety 
of  the  republic.  Particular  severity  is 
shown  toward  Government  functionaries 
who  have  used  their  official  positions 
for  their  own  profit.  Appeal  from  the 
decision  of  one  of  these  tribunals  may  be 


312 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


carried  before  a  supreme  tribunal  sit- 
ting as  a  judicial  branch  of  the  Central 
Executive  Committee.  Only  important 
cases  concerning  the  safety  of  the  State 
are  tried  before  these  tribunals. 

One  such  case  was  the  trial  of  Count 
Samarin,  former  head  of  the  Moscow 
nobility,  and  ten  "  popes "  (priests)  of 
the  Russian  Church,  for  treason  against 
the  Soviet  Republic.  This  trial  took 
place  in  Moscow  toward  the  middle  of 
January,  in  a  spacious  chamber  that  had 
been  the  grand  hall  of  the  Nobles' 
Assembly  Building,  now  the  headquarters 
of  the  municipal  trades  unions. 

Thus  Samarin  was  placed  on  trial  for 
his  life  in  the  very  room  in  which,  as 
President  of  the  most  aristocratic  or- 
ganization in  the  Russian  Empire,  he  had 
been  the  central  figure  in  many  magnif- 
icent assemblages,  and  he  faced  as  his 
judges  three  young  workingmen  still 
dressed  in  their  factory  clothes,  with 
hard  but  intelligent  faces,  who  sat  behind 
a  broad  table  on  a  dais  raised  about  a 
foot  above  the  level  of  the  floor.  On  their 
left  was  Krylenko,  first  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Red  Guards,  who  acted  as 
Public  Prosecutor.  On  the  right  sat  the 
prisoners  in  two  rows,  all  of  whom,  ex- 
cept Samarin,  were  priests,  wearing  the 
round  black  hats  and  long  black  cassocks 
of  their  calling.  Three  lawyers  acted  as 
counsel  for  the  defense.  The  witnesses 
for  the  defense,  according  to  Mr.  Eyre, 
who  saw  the  trial,  were  given  as  much 
freedom  of  statement  as  those  for  the 
prosecution. 

The  result  of  this  trial  was  that 
Samarin  and  one  of  the  priests,  charged 
with  the  establishment  of  a  Church 
Soviet  designed  to  wean  the  peasants 
from  their  allegiance  to  the  republic, 
were  sentenced  to  be  shot.  They  were, 
however,  reprieved  by  the  general  aboli- 
tion of  the  death  penalty,  and  were  sent 
instead  to  an  internment  camp  for  an 
indeterminate  period — a  favorite  sen- 
tence of  the  revolutionary  tribunals. 
Political  prisoners  thus  confined  are 
forced  to  do  hard  labor,  but  may  be  re- 
leased following  a  report  to  the  Extraor- 
dinary Commission  of  their  good  con- 
duct and  pledge  to  abstain  from  counter- 
revolutionary agitation  in  the  future. 


THE   PEOPLE'S   COURTS 

Minor  cases  of  "  graft "  and  crime,  as 
well  as  civil  suits  between  individuals, 
are  tried  by  the  People's  Courts,  which 
first  came  into  being  on  Nov.  30,  1918. 
In  view  of  the  incomplete  ess  of  the 
Soviet  Government  code,  the  Judges  are 
often  obliged  not  only  to  apply  but  to 
create  the  law,  in  which  they  are  to 
be  governed  by  "  a  sense  of  Socialist  con- 
ception of  right."  In  formulating  new 
provisions  a  Judge  will  call  for  opinions 
from  persons  connected  with  the  case,  or 
even  from  spectators  in  the  courtroom. 
The  manual  laborer  invariably  receives 
more  leniency  than  representatives  of 
any  other  class.  Bourgeois  speculators 
and  exponents  of  sabotage  receive  small 
consideration. 

Civil  actions  have  decreased  by  12  per 
cent,  since  the  first  anniversary  of  the 
revolution,  a  change  explained  by  the 
great  reduction  in  private  ownership  of 
property.  From  November  to  Novem- 
ber, 1918-19,  only  47,120  persons  were 
tried  for  crime  in  Petrograd,  as  against 
160,000  in  1914.  A  reduction  of  23  per 
cent,  was  reported  in  Moscow.  Murder, 
burglary  and  highway  robbery  are  said 
to  be  rare.  The  only  form  of  larceny 
that  has  increased  is  theft  of  foodstuffs, 
explained  by  the  actual  starvation  in  the 
cities,  and  punished  only  by  light  sen- 
tences, unless  it  is  proved  that  the  food 
was  stolen  for  purposes  of  speculation, 
in  which  case  the  maximum  penalty  is 
assigned.  The  general  scarcity  of  serious 
crime  is  explained  by  the  Bolshevist  au- 
thorities as  due  to  the  iron  order  which 
they  maintain  and  to  the  ban  on  vodka. 
A  burglar  caught  in  the  act  may  ex- 
pect to  be  shot  down  by  the  nearest  mili- 
tiaman. The  fear  of  such  immediate 
justice,  says  one  writer,  has  made  the 
streets  of  Petrograd  and  Moscow  safer 
than  the  streets  of  New  York  at  night. 

TREATMENT  OF  CONVICTS 

Convictions  show  about  the  same  per- 
centage as  under  the  rule  of  the  Czar, 
and  similar  punishments  are  meted  out, 
crimes  against  property,  paradoxically 
enough,  in  a  republic  whose  Government 
is  seeking  to  destroy  the  ownership  of 
property  altogether,  being  most  severely 
punished.     Fines  predominate  in  70  per 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


313 


cent,  of  all  minor  offenses.  Violent  and 
lawless  criminals  are  condemned  to 
prison  or  to  hard  labor  in  the  internment 
carnps. 

Prison  life  has  undergone  a  great  re- 
form since  May,  1918,  when  the  Govern- 
ment proclaimed  its  intention  of  treating 
convicts  "  not  like  men  cast  out  of  so- 
ciety but  as  involuntary  victims  of  a 
former  social  organization  and  as  mental 
invalids  who  must  be  cured  quickly  and 
as  wisely  as  possible."  Prisoners,  fol- 
lowing this  conception,  are  divided  into 
categories  based  not  on  the  nature  of 
their  crimes  but  on  their  individual 
characters.  Special  commissions  com- 
posed of  medical  men  and  penal  authori- 
ties were  created  to  classify  inmates  ac- 
cording to  these  new  lines.  Sentence 
could  be  shortened  or  lengthened,  de- 
pending on  the  demonstrated  tendencies 
of  the  prisoner.  Special  institutions  to 
separate  amateur  from  professional  crim- 
inals and  to  correct  cases  of  diseased 
morality  were  established.  The  prisoners 
receive  te  food  ration  of  heavy  work- 
ers, and  get  union  wages,  two-thirds  of 
the  amount,  however,  being  retained  for 
food  and  lodging. 

EDUCATIONAL  MEASURES 

M.  Lunacharsky,  well  known  in  Rus- 
sia before  the  revolution  as  an  authority 
on  education,  and  now  Soviet  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  was  interviewed  in 
March,  1920,  by  Lincoln  Eyre  of  The 
New  York  World.  He  laid  special  stress 
on  the  country-wide  character  of  the 
Bolshevist  system  of  education,  pointing 
out  that,  though  the  maximum  effort  to 
establish  schools  was  being  made  in 
thickly  populated  centres,  the  remoter 
districts  were  far  from  being  forgotten. 
M.  Lunacharsky  gave  official  figures  to 
show  the  enormous  increase  of  schools, 
instructors  and  scholars  in  certain  Gov- 
ernments. Even  in  far-off  Turkestan, 
he  stated,  the  number  of  children  receiv- 
ing a  first-grade  education  had  increased 
from  40,000  to  120,000,  and  the  number 
of  teachers  had  increased  from  2,000  to 
5,000.  Despite  paper  shortage  and  the 
lack  of  printing  facilities  2,500,000  pupils 
had  been  furnished  with  free  books  dur- 
ing 1919,  and  almost  10,000,000  pairs  of 
shoes  had  been  distributed.     The  educa- 


tional budget   for  that  year  reached   a 
total  of  20,000,000,000  rubles. 

One  of  the  great  /iifficulties  was  that 
of  finding  a  sufficient  number  of 
suitable  teachers.  Many  of  those  who 
had  taught  school  under  the  Czar's 
regime  were  hostile  to  the  Communist 
doctrine.    This  difficulty  had  been  over- 


M.    LUNACHARSKY 
Bolshevist  Minister  of  Education  in  Russicm 


come  in  the  elementary  schools,  but  the 
teachers  in  the  high  schools  required  a 
strong  hand  from  the  start  and  thorough- 
going Soviet  supervision.  "  Such  opposi- 
tion as  they  now  offer,"  said  Lunachar- 
sky, "  is  passive,  and  not  vitally  dangerous 
to  us."  New  teachers  were  constantly 
being  trained;  the  former  Catherine 
Institute,  one  of  Moscow's  foremost  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  had  been  devoted 
altogether  to  preparing  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing class  of  Communist  instructors,  a 
number  of  whom,  on  graduation,  were 
being  sent  throughout  the  country  to 
spread  the  knowledge  they  had  gained 
to  less  favored  districts.  A  new  institu- 
tion, the  Sverdlov  University,  had  been 
opened  on  Feb.  1;  it  was  primarily 
meant  to  give  students  from  all  over  the 
country  "  a  thorough  insight  into  Com- 


314 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


munist  doctrines  from  the  political,  social 
and  economic  point  of  view  *  *  * 
and  world  revolution,"  but  it  was  also 
expected  that  it  would  produce  much 
good  teaching  material. 

Another  feature  of  the  educational 
program  was  the  creation  of  pedagogic 
courses  to  prepare  a  teaching  personnel 
for  abnormal  and  defective  children,  in- 
cluding a  study  of  physical  and  psy- 
chological peculiarities  and  methods  for 
overcoming  such  defects  through  instruc- 
tion. 

DECREE  AGAINST  ILLITERACY 

Regarding  illiteracy  among  adults  the 
Soviet  Government  had  issued  a  special 
decree.  Among  the  provisions  of  this 
decree  were  these: 

The  whole  population  of  the  Soviet  Re- 
public must  be  able  to  read  and  write. 
All  Russians  between  the  ages  of  8  aJid 
50  who  are  illiterate  are  bound  hereby 
to  learn  to  read  and  write  in  the  Russian 
language  or  in  their  original  tongue,  as 
they  please.  All  literate  persons  may  be 
called  upon  to  assist  in  teaching  the  illi- 
terate. The  period  in  which  illiteracy  is 
to  be  abolished  shall  be  fixed  by  the 
municipal  or  Provincial  Soviet  in  each 
district.  For  adult  citizens  undergoing 
instruction  in  reading  and  writing,  the 
working  day  is  abridged  by  two  hours 
during  the  entire  educational  period.  Citi- 
zens evading  duties  specified  by  this  de- 
cree or  in  any  way  interfering  with  its 
provisions  are  subject  to  trial  by  the 
revolutionary  tribunal. 

The  number  of  men  in  the  Red  Army 
who  can  read  and  write,  according  to 
M.  Lunacharsky,  has  increased  from  15 
per  cent,  to  60  per  cent. ;  in  the  navy, 
illiteracy  has  been  virtually  eliminated. 
He  says  that  in  Petrograd  illiteracy  has 
decreased  from  30  per  cent,  to  8  per  cent, 
in  two  years.  M.  Lunacharsky  expects 
that  illiteracy  will  be  completely  abol- 
ished within  three  years.  Day  and  even- 
ing classes  for  adults  are  compulsory. 
It  is  a  quaint  sight  to  see  bearded 
peasants  being  drilled  in  the  rudiments 
of  the  alphabet.  Refusal  to  attend  these 
classes  is  punished  first  by  withdrawal 
of  the  vote  in  Soviet  elections,  and  con- 
tinued refusal  is  punished  by  harsher 
methods.  Workers  in  the  city  are  gen- 
erally eager  to  learn.  Difficulty  is  en- 
countered in  the  rural  districts,  because 
of   the   belief  inculcated   by  the   priests 


that  education  is  equivalent  to  traffick- 
ing with  the  evil  one.  Forceful  measures, 
are  being  taken  to  overcome  these  super- 
stitions. **  We  are  determined,"  said  M. 
Lunacharsky,  "  to  permit  nothing  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  national  enlighten- 
ment, because  in  that  way  only  does 
salvation  for  the  mass  of  the  people 
lie." 

PROPAGANDA    TRAINS 

Details  of  the  Soviet  system  of  official 
propaganda  by  means  of  special  propa- 
ganda trains  were  given  to  this  inter- 
viewer by  Angelica  Balabanova,  Secretary 
of  the  Third  Internationale,  who  is  said 
to  be  "  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
women  the  revolution  has  produced." 
Five  such  trains  were  in  existence,  each 
with  ten  cars,  equipped  with  libraries, 
cinematographs,  a  printing  plant  that 
publishes  a  daily  paper,  a  wireless  equip- 
ment and  a  telephone  which  at  each  sta- 
tion can  be  connected  with  the  local  ex- 
change. A  machine-gun  detachment  was 
not  forgotten,  to  provide  means  of  de- 
fense against  the  counter-revolution.  The 
cars  were  painted  luridly,  like  those  of 
an  American  circus,  with  allegorical 
scenes  depicting  capitalistic  serpents 
being  slain  by  the  Red  Army,  happy 
peasants  exchanging  fraternal  greetings 
with  equally  happy  workers,  and  so 
forth.  Inscriptions,  such  as  the  now 
famous  Soviet  slogan,  "  Workers  of  the 
World,  Unite!"  and  "All  Power  to  the 
Workers',  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Depu- 
ties! "  were  painted  in  big  letters 
across  each  car.  Pamphlets  were  dis- 
tributed at  each  station  describing  the 
benefits  of  the  Communist  Government, 
while  for  the  illiterate  there  were  posters 
and  picture  books  dealing  not  only  with 
political  matter  but  with  hygiene,  agri- 
culture, and  other  subjects  especially 
interesting  to  the  peasant.  Among  the 
hundreds  composing  the  personnel  of 
these  trains  there  were  always  a  dozen 
or  more  experienced  speakers;  to  these  a 
rustic  audience  will  listen  for  hours  at 
a  time. 

SANITATION  AND  MEDICINE 

Dr.  Semashko,  head  of  the  Soviet 
Sanitary  Department,  declared  to  the 
correspondent  of  The  Manchester  Guar- 
dian that  all  the  Soviet  medical  services 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


315 


had  been  unified  into  one  vast  depart- 
ment. The  blockade  had  cut  off  Ger- 
many as  a  means  of  obtaining  medica- 
ments, but  some  had  been  obtained  from 
Ukrainia  and  some  millions'  worth  had 
been  brought  in  by  contraband.  The 
sanitary  condition  of  the  country  was 
not  bad.  Since  the  1918  typhus  epidemic, 
workmen's  committees,  teachers  and 
others  had  been  organized  to  teach  the 
necessity  of  cleanliness.  The  average 
number  of  cases  in  Moscow  was  only 
twenty-four,  a  small  percentage  in  a  city 
of  1,500,000  inhabitants.  Some  score  of 
cholera  cases  existed  in  Petrograd  and 
Kursk,  and  in  Voronezh  there  were 
sporadic  cases  brought  in  by  the  Denikin 
Army,  where  it  was  widespread,  as  well 
as  in  the  districts  occupied  by  him.  In 
Moscow  there  were  also  fourteen  cases 
of  Asiatic  cholera,  but  the  great  care 
taken  at  the  Moscow  waterworks  had 
made  Moscow  singularly  free  from  epi- 
demics. 

Research  was  being  constantly  carried 
on ;  the  typhus  bacillus  had  been  isolated 
and  a  serum  found.  On  all  committees 
organized  to  combat  venereal  diseases, 
prostitution,  tuberculosis,  &c.,  there  were 
representatives  of  the  trades  unions  and 
other  professional  alliances.  Prostitu- 
tion had  practically  disappeared  from 
Moscow,  owing  to  the  Soviet  view  of  the 
economic  position  of  women.  Some  re- 
pressive measures,  including  segregation, 
had  been  introduced.  All  medical  service 
was  gratuitous,  whether  in  hospital,  dis- 


pensaj:-y  or  home,  and  some  63  sectors 
with  120  assistants  were  at  the  disposal 
of  the  population  of  Moscow  at  a  cost  of 
2,000,000  rubles.  Extensive  and  thorough 
measures  had  been  introduced  by  Mrs. 
Lebedev,  head  of  the  Maternity  Depart- 
ment of  the  Commissariat  of  Social  Main- 
tenance, who  established  her  staff 
in  an  immense  building  across  the  river, 
built  by  Catherine  the  Great  as  a  found- 
ling asylum,  to  aid  the  present  and 
future  mothers  of  the  republic  and  their 
offspring,  by  means  of  a  chain  of  creches 
and  maternity  hospitals. 

MARRIAGE  AND  DIVORCE 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  1918  a 
completely  new  code  on  marriage  and 
divorce  had  been  created,  which  did  away 
with  all  patriarchal  obstacles  to  mar- 
riage, such  as  difference  of  faith,  re- 
ligious prohibitions,  &c.  It  recognized 
complete  equality  before  the  law  of  both 
men  and  women,  including  an  equal  re- 
sponsibility to  support  the  other  con- 
tracting party;  it  made  all  issue,  even 
those  born  out  of  wedlock,  equal  with  re- 
gard to  support  and  recognition;  it  also 
nullified  the  old  laws  cf  inheritance,  ex- 
cept to  a  limited  degree  during  the 
transitional  period,  decreed  that  only  civil 
marriages  were  legal,  and  made  divorce 
dependent  on  the  mutual  desire  of  both, 
or  on  that  of  only  one.  Guardianship 
was  provided  for  for  those  children  de- 
prived by  divorce  or  otherwise  of 
parental  care. 


Italy's  Part  in  the  World  War 

By  COLONEL  DI  BERNEZZO 

[Italian  Miutary  Attache  at  Washington] 


IT  is  my-  object  in  the  present  article 
to  bring  before  the  American  public, 
on   the    basis    of   official    data,   the 
vast  sum  of  lives,  energies,  treasure 
and    personal    sacrifice    contributed    by 
Italy   in   the   gigantic    struggle   against 
Germany  and  her  allies. 

Out  of  a  total  population  of  about 
38,000,000,  inclusive  of  her  colonies,  Italy 
mobilized  from  her  twenty-six  year 
classes  a  total  of  5,615,000  men,  Italian 
colored  troops  were  never  used  at  the 
front;  they  served  only  at  the  rear,  on 
the  lines  of  communication. 

The  number  of  Italians  killed  in  the 
war  was  officially  fixed  at  496,921,  but, 
allowing  for  those  reported  as  missing 
or  taken  prisoners,  and  subsequently 
proved  to  have  been  killed  on  the  battle- 
field, this  total  will  undoubtedly  rise 
above  a  half-million.  Considering  only 
the  official  figures  just  given,  the  per- 
centage of  Italian  dead  is  1.3.  If  we  in- 
clude the  colonial  population  of  the  coun- 
tries concerned,  Italy's  percentage  of  loss 
is  highest  of  all  the  allied  nations,  as 
seen  in  the  following  table: 

Approx-         Men 
imate  Killed 

Population,  in  War.  P.C. 
France  &  colonies..  87,000,000  1,071,300  1.2* 
England   &   colonies.  .430,000,000      689.246  0.16 

United    States     10.5,000,000        72,9510.07 

Italy    &    colonies 38,000,000      496,9211.3 

It  should  again  be  recalled  that  many 
of  the  British  and  French  losses  were 
borne  by  colonial  troops,  while  the  Ital- 
ian losses  fell  wholly  upon  the  popula- 
tion of  the  kingdom.  It  should  further- 
more be  remembered  that  in  these  losses 
are  not  included  those  incurred  by  the 
Italian  forces  in  Russia  and  Palestine. 

The  number  of  Italian  wounded  during 


*The  French  figures,  quoted  by  M.  Louis 
Marin  before  the  French  Chamber,  and  giv- 
en in  the  April  Curuent  History,  are  very 
different  from  these.  M.  Marin  gave  France's 
total  sacrifice  in  men  as  1,355,000,  or  3.4 
per  cent,  of  the  population  of  France,  ex- 
clusive of  colonies.  The  article  just  men- 
tioned gave  the  British  loss  as  648,000  for 
the  United  Kingdom  alone,  or  1.4  per  cent, 
of  population.— EDITOR. 


the  war  reached  a  total  of  949,576,  and 
the  number  of  those  crippled  or  perma- 
nently incapacitated  amounted  to  219,- 
454.  Some  570,000  men  were  discharged 
as  unfit  for  further  service,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  wounds  or  illness.  Throughout 
the  whole  period  of  the  war  the  hospitals 
of  Italy  cared  for  5,000,000  wounded  and 
sick  soldiers. 

These  figures  show  clearly  the  great-- 
ness  of  the  effort  made  by  Italy  during 
the  war.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
Italy  entered  the  conflict  only  after  a 
year  of  war  had  passed,  that  her  losses 
were  thus  more  concentrated  in  point  of 
time,  and  that  her  mourning  for  her  dead 
was  hence  crowded  into  shorter  intervals, 
and  exacted  a  heavier  toll  of  suffering 
from  the  population. 

In  the  following  table  are  shown  the 
losses  of  the  Italian  mercantile  marine, 
as  compared  to  those  of  France  and  Brit- 
ain: 

Tonnage,         Losses         Per- 
Aug.  to  Nov.       cent- 

Nations.  1,  1914.  11.  1918.      ■  age. 

England    18,356,000       7,825,598       42.63 

France     2,300,000  908,068       39.44 

Italy     1,534,738  905,393       58.93 

From  these  figures  it  is  apparent  that, 
among  all  the  nations  of  the  Entente, 
Italy  suffered  the  highest  percentage  of 
loss  caused  to  the  allied  merchant  ijia- 
rine  by  the  war.  It  should  further  be 
noted  that  the  ships  lost  by  Italy  were 
all  of  comparatively  recent  construction, 
which  brings  the  relative  percentage  of 
loss  even  higher. 

Italy's  financial  sacrifice  also  was  com- 
paratively greater,  in  view  of  her  great- 
er poverty,  as  contrasted  with  other  na- 
tions. The  vast  amount  of  treasure 
which  Italy  expended  may  be  seen  by  a 
simple  comparison  of  the  national  debt 
before  and  after  the  war.  This  debt, 
on  Aug.  1,  1914,  amounted  to  14,839,- 
000,000  lire;  on  Feb.  28,  1919,  it  had 
reached  70,599,000,000  lire. 

Italy  defeated  Austria,  her  eternal 
enemy,   in   fourteen  memorable   battles. 


ITALY'S  PART  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR 


317 


One  of  the  gravest  events  of  this  long 
war  was  the  battle  of  Caporetto,  in  Oc- 
tober, 1917.  In  this  battle  Italy  had  to 
sustain,  completely  alone,  the  onslaught 
of  the  whole  Austrian  Army.  By  reason 
of  the  Russian  defection,  Austria  had 
been  able  to  free  all  her  forces  on  the 
Eastern  front,  and  to  throw  them  in 
the  balance  against  Italy,  reinforced  by 
German,  Turkish  and  Bulgarian  contin- 
gents. The  Caporetto  disaster  and  the 
Italian  retreat  to  the  Tagliamento  and 
the  Piave  ensued.  In  its  remarkable  de- 
fensive fighting  on  the  Piave  in  Novem- 
ber and  December  of  that  year,  the 
Italian  Army  could  hope  for  no  aid  from 
the  allied  troops,  which  had  come  to  co- 
operate, but  which,  for  various  reasons, 
could  not  be  brought  immediately  into 
action.  I  say  this,  not  to  depreciate  the 
help  brought  by  the  Allies,  which  was 
very  great,  especially  morally,  but  so 
that  all  may  know  what  the  heroic 
virtues  of  the  Italian  soldier  were  able 
to  accomplish  without  external  aid. 

It  was  only  during  the  attacks  car- 
ried out  by  Austria  in  June,  1918,  after 
a  whole  Winter  of  intense  preparation, 
that  the  allied  troops  fought  beside  the 
Italians.  They  had  taken  their  place  in 
the  trenches  during  the  Winter  and 
Spring,  and  throughout  the  Austrian  of- 
fensive of  June  they  fought  most  bravely, 
and  repulsed  violent  and  repeated  enemy 
attacks.  The  British  and  French  forces 
which  came  into  action  at  this  time  were 
as  follows: 

14th  British   Corps,    with   three   divisions. 

12th    French    Corps,    with    two    divisions. 

These  troops  were  incorporated  with 
the  Sixth  Italian  Army,  under  General 
Montuori.  After  having  broken  the  Aus- 
trian offensive  of  June,  the  allied  troops 
in  Italy  were  assigned  a  new  location. 
In  the  offensive  carried  out  by  the  Ital- 
ian Army  in  October  of  that  same  year 
the  Austrian  Army  was  routed  complete- 
ly, and,  after  a  desperate  resistance,  was 
compelled  to  sue  for  an  armistice,  which 
amounted  practically  to  unconditional 
surrender.  The  allied  troops,  throughout 
this  period,  were  reinforced  by  the  Amer- 
ican 832d  Infantry  Regiment,  and  by  the 
6th  Czechoslovak  Division.  Their  distri- 
bution was  as  follows: 


Two  British  Divisions  (7th  and  23d)  of  the 
14th  British  Corps,  and  the  332d  United 
States  Infantry  Reg-iment,  formed  part  of 
the  Tenth  Army:  PosUion.  Middle  Piave. 

One  British  Division*  (48th)  in  Sixth  Army : 
Position,   Asiag-o  Plateau. 

One  French  Division  (23d)  with  Twelfth 
Army:  Position,  at  the  Piave's  outlet  to  the 
plain. 

One  French  Division  (240th)  with  Sixth 
Army:  Position,  Asiago  Plateau. 

The  number  of  Italian  troops  fighting 
on  fronts  outside  the  limits  of  Italy  was 
certainly  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  allied 
forces  fighting  on  the  Italo-Austrian 
front.  The  distribution  of  these  troops 
was  as  follows: 

2d  Italian  Army  Corps:  Two  divisions,  op- 
erating in  France. 

16th  Italian  Army  Corps:  Three  divisions, 
operating  in  Albania. 

35th  Italian  Division :  Four  brigades,  op- 
erating  in   Macedonia. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  35th  Italian 
Division  had  the  strength  of  65,000  men, 
or  one  complete  army  corps,  but  for  rea- 
sons connected  with  the  command  of  the 
allied  forces  in  Macedonia,  bore  the  desig- 
nation of  division. 

There  were  also  Italian  detachments 
operating  in  Palestine  and  Russia,  and 
over  100,000  Italians  fought  bravely  un- 
der the  flag  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
In  calculating  the  Italian  war  effort, 
also,  one  must  not  forget  that  over 
100,000  Italians,  in  labor  companies, 
worked  in  France  for  the  upkeep  and 
adjustment  of  the  near  lines  of  com- 
munication, and  that  several  thousand 
others  worked  at  the  British  and  French 
bases  in  Italy. 

The  full  measure  of  Italy's  contribu- 
tion to  the  war  can  be  realized  only  in 
the  light  of  economic  considerations.  Out 
of  a  total  male  population  of  17,000,000, 
Italy,  in  view  of  the  proportion  of  her 
immigrants,  could  count  only  on  some 
9,000,000  economically  productive  men. 
The  mobilization  reduced  this  number  by 
more  than  one-half,  and  the  economic  ca- 
pacity of  the  country  suffered  corre- 
spondingly. One  may  calculate  that 
every  100  men  who  remained  at  home  had 
to  support  320  individuals  under  15  years 
of  age.  Despite  the  reduction  of  man 
power  and  the  comparatively  undevel- 
oped state  of  the  nation's  productive  re- 
sources, a  powerful  organization  of  war 


318 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


production    was    completed    and    main- 
tained. 

Food  conditions  resulting  from  the  war 
imposed  great  sacrifices  upon  the  people 
of  Italy.  For  over  three  years  there  was 
only  black  bread  to  eat.  Meat  could  be 
had  only  jon  coupons,  and  was  distributed 
only  two  or  three  times  a  week.  Butter, 
milk,  sugar,  bread,  eggs,  spaghetti  and 
rice,  all  primary  necessities,  were  dis- 
tributed in  greatly  reduced  rations. 
These  conditions  of  rationing  still  exist 
in  Italy  for  nearly  all  the  staples  enu- 


merated, though  more  than  a  year  has 
elapsed  since  the  Allies  completed  their 
victory. 

The  facts  and  figures  I  have  given 
will  suffice  to  show  the  intensity  and 
extent  of  the  Italian  sacrifice  contributed 
to  the  winning  of  the  war.  Italy,  in  a 
word,  marshaled  all  her  energies,  and 
welded  all  her  nationals  into  one  great 
national  will,  to  overcome  her  traditional 
enemy,  and  to  do  her  full,  unstinted  part 
in  bringing  about  the  triumph  of  the 
allied  cause. 


With  d'Annunzio  at  Fiume 

By  DR.  ORESTES  FERRARA 

[Translated  by  Leopold  Grahame] 

Dr.  Orestes  Ferrara,  who  is  of  Italian  birth,  is  a  iv ell-known  writer  on  inter- 
national subjects  and  Professor  of  Public  Law  at  the  National  University  of  Havana; 
for  several  years  he  was  Speaker  of  the  Cuban  House  of  Representatives.  He  is 
proprietor  and  editor  in  chief  of  the  Heraldo  de  Cuba,  La  Reforma  Social,  and 
other  publications,  and  is  the  author  of  "  Causes  and  Pretexts  of  the  World  War/' 
"'Lessons  of  the  War  and  the  Peace  Conference,"  and  other  works. 


THE  adventure  of  Gabriele  d'An- 
nunzio, exquisite  poet  and  writer 
of  incomparable  prose,  is  ap- 
proaching its  end.  It  has  called 
forth  mingled  approval  and  censure,  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  audacity  of 
the  enterprise  will  leave  its  mark  in  his- 
tory. Because  of  his  dramatic  military 
seizure  of  Fiume,  that  comparatively 
small  city  on  the  Adriatic  has  been  some 
months  the  Mecca  of  many  Americans, 
British,  French,  Italians  and  others 
whose  Interests  and  sympathies  have 
been  excited  by  the  demonstration  that 
the  world  is  not  always  better  governed 
by  the  application  of  rigorous  juridical 
principles.  Inspired  by  this  belief,  and 
in  order  to  create  for  myself  in  later 
years  a  souvenir  of  the  past,  I  decided 
to  cross  to  Fiume  by  way  of  Istria. 

This  section  of  the  Istrian  peninsula  is 
mountainous  and  arid,  lacking  the  natural 
beauty  usually  found  in  regions  of  that 
character.  Mountain  beyond  mountain, 
small  villages  where  the  word  hygiene  is 
Unknown,  expressionless  men  and  women 
with  large,  round  eyes,  looking  vaguely 
about  them;  and,  at  every  step,  a  figure 


of  the  crucified  Christ  or  a  sea-green. 
Madonna  covered  with  the  dust  and  mud. 
of  the  road.  That,  in  brief,  is  the  famous 
Istria.  Today  the  whole  region  is  in- 
fested by  highwaymen — remnants  of  the 
former  Austrian  Army.  So  terrifying 
have  these  robbers  become  that  as  I 
passed  in  my  automobile  on  the  narrow 
road  from  Trieste  to  Fiume  I  saw  a 
group  of  them  attack  a  village  and  carry 
away  all  that  could  be  had. 

This  northern  part  of  the  peninsula  is 
entirely  Slav.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be 
either  a  linguist  or  an  anthropologist  to 
hear  and  see  it.  The  inhabitants  of 
these  dead  regions,  whose  principal  occu- 
pation appears  to  be  to  chop  wood  and 
to  hitch  themselves  up  with  their  animals 
under  heavily  laden  carts,  have  purer 
Slavic  blood  running  in  their  veins  than 
three-fourths  of  the  subjects  of  Lenin. 
In  this  part  of  the  former  Austrian 
Empire,  which  must  not  be  confused 
with  the  Trentino  or  Tyrol,  the  coast  is 
Italian,  the  mountains  Slav,  and  the 
valleys  German.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
that  the  war  ended  with  the  armistice 
and  that  Austria  has  been  changed  from 


I5 

^m    a  great  i 


WITH  D'ANNUNZIO   AT  FIUME 


319 


a  great  military  power  into  a  mere  geo- 
graphic expression,  this  small  region  is 
practically  in  a  state  of  war.  Two  armies 
stand  face  to  face,  watching  each  other, 
with  their  cannon  ready,  while  two 
States  are  planning  attack  and  defense. 
Constant  military  movements  are  to  be 
seen  on  the  Italian  side,  where  all  along 
the  road  great  storehouses  and  numerous 
guards  are  gathered.  On  the  other  side, 
the  troops  of  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
State,  many  of  whom  are  Croats  and 
Slavs  who  served  under  the  Austrian 
flag  during  the  war,  are  making  similar 
preparations. 

LIFE  IN  THE  CITY 

On  arrival  at  Fiume  the  authorities 
discovered  a  flaw  in  the  passport  of  my 
chauffeur  and  wished  to  send  me  back 
to  the  opposite  trenches,  but,  thanks  to 
a  soldier  keener  than  the  others  and  with 
less  regard  for  technicalities,  we  were 
permitted  to  enter  the  isolated  city.  In 
a  narrow  street  bordering  on  the  open 
bay  to  the  left,  a  large  hotel  appeared  in 
sight.  One  could  read  the  word  "  Hotel  " 
in  large  letters,  but  the  name  which 
should  have  followed  was  blurred  and 
made  indistinct  by  partial  erasure;  in 
fact,  it  was  covered  with  patches  of  mud. 
This  phenomenon  was  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  hotel  had  previously  borne 
the  name  of  President  Wilson,  but  in 
view  of  the  decided  change  of  opinion 
of  the  Fiumans  as  to  the  attitude  and 
declarations  of  the  President,  the  pro- 
prietor had  thought  it  desirable  to  re- 
move the  name  from  view.  On  entering 
the  establishment  I  was  approached  by 
an  obese  individual,  evidently  the  pro- 
prietor, who  informed  me  that  only  the 
restaurant  was  open,  as  the  hotel  was 
occupied  by  the  volunteers  of  d'An- 
nunzio.    But  I  remained. 

Beneath  my  room  and  in  the  adjoining 
streets  there  were  strains  of  music  and 
singing.  They  came  from  d'Annunzio's 
soldiers,  who  were  spending  the  night 
in  the  brilliant  moonlight  shining  over 
the  city  and  bay.  The  songs  were  of 
mixed  dialects  from  all  parts  of  Italy 
and  sung  in  plaintive  tones.  They  seemed 
to  breathe  the  soul  of  Fiume,  facing  an 
unknown  fate  and  fearing  the  philosophy 
of  the  Paris  Conference  and  the  wisdom 
of  its  experts. 


Fiume  is  organized  today  on  a  me- 
diaeval pattern,  due  as  much  to  circum- 
stances as  to  the  fancy  of  the  poet  who 
governs  it  in  a  way  largely  influenced 
by  his  long  nights  of  previous  study  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  poet,  perhaps,  as 
a  cherished  memory,  thought  of  making 
a  division  of  military  and  civil  functipns; 
of  the  authority  of  the  Gonfaloniero, 
Podesta  (Mayor  or  Alcalde),  or  Coman- 
dante,  and  General  Councils;  and  thus 
he  organized  a  small  State,  himself  as- 
suming the  title  of  "  Comandante "  or 
defender  of  the  city  and  the  city's  rights. 
The  council  controls  civic  affairs,  but 
the  "  Comandante "  is  in  full  command 
of  every  branch  of  the  temporary  Gov- 
ernment. The  Chief  of  Staff  is  Major 
Giuriati,  a  lawyer  from  Venice,  later  a 
good  soldier  many  times  wounded  in  the 
war,  strong  and  amiable,  serious  and 
courtly,  a  model  partisan  in  every  way 
appropriate  to  the  present  atmosphere 
of  mediaeval  forms. 

MAJOR  GIURIATrS  VIEWS 

Dr.  Antonio,  who  is  a  prominent  per- 
sonality in  Fiume,  which  city  he  recently 
represented  in  an  appeal  before  the 
United  States  Senate,  escorted  me  on 
my  visit  to  Major  Giuriati  in  the  beauti- 
ful palace  overlooking  the  city.  This 
palace,  once  occupied  by  the  Hungarian 
representative,  is  now  the  home  of 
d'Annunzio  and  his  chief  officials.  At 
7:30  A.  M.  Giuriati  was  already  at  work 
in  a  large  room,  through  which  the  rays 
of  the  sun  were  reflected  on  the  austere 
portraits  of  the  ancient  Hungarian 
Governors  adorning  the  walls.  Almost 
before  I  had  time  to  speak,  after  the 
brief  but  cordial  welcome  extended  to 
me,  he  gave  me  the  whole  history  of 
Flume's  adventure.  Without  the  action 
of  d'Annunzio  the  city  would  have  been 
subjected  to  the  control  of  the  new  Jugo- 
slav State.  Judging  from  the  plans  of 
organization  which  he  had  found,  in- 
cluding even  lists  of  names  of  those  who 
were  to  form  part  of  the  occupying  gov- 
ernment of  the  city,  Giuriati  had  little 
doubt  that  the  Jugoslavs  had  intended  to 
make  a  complete  coup  in  their  own  favor, 
as  d'Annunzio  had  done  in  favor  of 
Italy. 

Giuriati     does    not    understand    why 


320 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


President  Wilson  is  so  opposed  to  the 
self-government  of  Fiume;  with  the  evi- 
dent desire  of  spurring  me  on  to  argu- 
ment, he  poked  fun  at  the  Fourteen 
Points  of  the  President.  To  d'Annunzio's 
political  adviser  the  Entente  attitude  is 
part  of  au  economic  scheme  by  means  of 
which  the  Anglo-Saxons  wish  to  dominate 
the  commerce  of  Central  Europe,  and, 
by  a  virtual  occupation  of  Danzig,  Fiume 
and  Constantinople,  to  turn  to  their  ad- 
vantage the  Germanic  dream  of  Mittel- 
europa.  My  arguments  to  the  contrary 
availed  little,  although  I  have  the  sad 
but  positive  belief  that  no  combination 
will  ever  prevent  Germany  from  ulti- 
mately carrying  out  her  strongly  in- 
grained economic  policy  in  Central 
Europe. 

Giuriati  strongly  criticised  President 
Wilson  and  was  equally  unsparing  in 
his  attacks  upon  Nitti,  as  he  was  una- 
ware of  my  sincere  and  intimate  friend- 
ship with  the  head  of  the  Italian  Govern- 
ment. I  therefore  said  nothing  upon  this 
point,  but  listened  to  his  talk  because 
of  his  intelligent,  vigorous  personality 
and  of  his  earnest  defense  of  a  cause 
with  which  I  confess  myself  to  be  in 
sympathy.  "  Nitti  has  broken  the  sacred 
union  of  the  Italians,"  said  Giuriati, 
*'  and  that  is  why  the  Socialists  have 
won  so  many  votes  in  the  last  election." 
He  added: 

They  wanted  to  force  us  out  of  the  war, 
and  we  prevented  it.  Today  we  shall  pre- 
vent their  forcing  us  out  of  peace.  This 
boast  is  justifiable,  though  it  may  appear 
inappropriate.  These  few  thousands  of 
volunteers  shut  up  in  Fiume  are  invin- 
cible. The  Jugoslavs  do  not  attack  them 
because  they  in  turn  would  be  attacked 
by  the  whole  Italian  Army ;  the  Italians 
do  not  drive  them  out  because  the  sol- 
diers would  all  join  with  d'Annunzio  rather 
than  oppose  him;  the  United  States  does 
not  cross  the  ocean  for  this  bagatelle ;  the 
French  have  terrific  problems  on  the 
Rhine,  and  the  English  do  not  put  their 
hands  in  the  fire  to  pull  out  the  chestnuts 
for  others. 

POPULAR  SENTIMENT 

The  day  following  a  victorious  revolu- 
tion usually  evokes  popular  enthusiasm, 
and  for  months  Fiume  has  been  stirred 
by  that  sentiment.  It  is  enjoying  a  con- 
tinual celebration  of  a  great  holiday. 
Two     companies     of     Alpinos     recently 


passed  into  d'Annunzio's  small  army, 
which  consists  of  about  10,000  men.  The 
two  companies  were  being  sent  in  de- 
tached bodies  by  the  Italian  Government 
to  watch  the  i^oet's  forces  from  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city.  The  officer  in  com- 
mand, in  league  with  the  engineer  of  the 
train  which  carried  them,  took  them 
right  into  Fiume  instead  of  stopping  two 
kilometers  away.  The  Alpinos  were  una- 
ware of  the  plan,  but  were  received  with 
music  and  flags.  The  "  Comandante " 
delivered  an  oration,  and  the  other  sol- 
diers embraced  them,  with  the  result  that 
when  the  commander  of  the  two  compa- 
nies declared  that  those  who  wished  could 
go  back,  all  gave  expression  to  their 
happiness  at  being  able  to  incorporate 
themselves  into  the  army  of  the  city. 
It  was  a  moving  scene.  Old  men,  children, 
women  and  younger  men  wept  in  evi- 
dence of  the  pathologic  condition  of  the 
city,  which  every  one  would  prefer  to 
see  destroyed  rather  than  handed  over 
to  the  Jugoslavs. 

A  still  more  exciting  spectacle  was  that 
which  I  witnessed  one  night  at  the  Verdi 
Theatre,  where,  in  honor  of  the  same 
two  Alpine  companies,  there  was  a  gala 
performance  of  the  beautiful  tragedy  of 
"  Fiaccola  sotto  il  moggio,"  ("  The 
Torch  Under  the  Bushel"),  an  exquisite 
production  by  d'Annunzio  himself.  The 
theatre  was  crowded  almost  from  the 
moment  the  doors  were  opened,  and  at 
the  fall  of  the  curtain  on  the  first  act 
d'Annunzio  entered.  From  a  box  on  the 
second  tier  above  the  stage  there  sud- 
denly appeared  the  figure  of  a  man  who 
presented  less  the  idea  of  a  military 
hero  than  of  one  who  had  passed  his 
mature  life  in  the  salon  and  in  the 
library. 

The  applause  was  deafening.  Women, 
wounded  soldiers  in  great  numbers,  and 
the  actors,  who  reappeared  on  the  stage 
with  the  flags  of  Fiume  and  of  Italy,  all 
took  part  in  the  demonstration.  By  rais- 
ing his  right  hand  the  poet  indicated  his 
desire  to  speak,  and  after  silence  was 
gained  he  exclaimed :  "  Let  us  discon- 
tinue this  tedious  tragedy,  and  sing  our 
happy  war  hymns!  " 

For  upward  of  an  hour  a  unanimous 
chorus  lifted  its  voice  to  heaven  with  a 
devotion    that   recalled    the    Sunday    ec- 


WITH  D'ANNUNZIO   AT  FIUME 


321 


clesiastical  functions  of  the  smaller  Ital- 
ian cities.  D'Annunzio  joined  with  strong 
voice  and  lent  greater  expression  to  his 
song  by  suitable  and  vigorous  gestures. 
The  orchestra  took  up  one  hymn  after 
another,  and  when  there  were  no  more 
hymns  the  songs  of  the  past  -war  began — 
those  of  the  Alpinos,  of  the  Arditi  (Dare 
Devils),  of  the  Grenadiers  and  others; 
and  every  now  and  then  the  cry  of  at- 
tack, "Eya!  Eya!  Eya!  "  The  splendid 
tragedy  was  continued,  and  at  2  A.  M. 
the  spectators  left,  still  singing  their  war 
hymns  with  the  fervor  of  the  initiated. 

D'ANNUNZIO    AT  WORK 

At  10  o'clock  the  following  morning  I 
entered  the  spacious  room  from  which 
d'Annunzio  issues  his  instructions.  Two 
attendants  opened  the  door.  I  saluted 
two  Generals,  who  had  been  conferring 
with  him,  and  approached  the  "  Com- 
andante."  He  appeared  more  impressive 
in  his  bearing  than  when  I  had  seen  him 
at  the  theatre.  Having  accorded  me  a 
particularly  courteous  reception,  he 
promptly  entered  into  a  most  engaging 
conversation,  confirming  the  view  that 
the  reputation  he  has  gained  for  charm 
of  manner  and  the  abundant  laurels  he 
has  garnered  from  his  feminine  admir- 
ers are  justified  by  the  fact  that  his 
entire  personality  at  once  radiates  in- 
telligence,  superiority   and   sympathy. 

"  The  rebels  against  the  Paris  Con- 
ference feel  that  they  are  ill  judged,  be- 
cause misunderstood."  Thus  d'Annunzio 
explained  to  me  the  reasons  for  his  act. 
He  spoke  as  one  absolutely  convinced. 
What  he  has  done  is  for  the  supreme 
good,  inevitable,  as  final  as  destiny;  and 
with  tranquillity,  without  any  posing  or 
mental  effort,  he  went  on  to  say: 

"  You  have  seen  these  people,  you  have 
admired  their  enthusiasm,  you  know  their 
determination ;  because  of  these  qualities, 
whatever  happens  I  shall  not  desert 
them;  I  shall  leave  the  city  only  when 
the  wishes  of  Fiume  have  been  ful- 
filled." 

D'Annunzio  spoke  well  of  Croatia. 
"We  Italians,"  he  said,  "can  live  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  Croatians;  we 
can  give  each  other  mutual  help,  and  the 
mass  of  the  Croatians  do  not  hate  us,  as 
is  shown  in  these  very  days  by  the  fact 


that  the  Croatian  schools  have  adopted 
the  Italian  language,  which  comes  next 
to  the  official  vernacular." 

According  to  him,  th§  Fiume  question 
is  the  result  not  of  the  ethnical  diversity 
of  the  population  on  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic,  but  of  the  wrong  ideas  of  the 
Paris  Conference,  a  body  which,  he 
thinks,  did  not  measure  up  to  the  intel- 
lectual height  of  its  predecessor  of  a 
century  ago,  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 

ATTITUDE  TOWARD  WILSON 

D'Annunzio  is  very  much  interested  in 
President  Wilson,  whom  he  regards  as 
an  idealist;  but  he  cannot  understand 
why  the  President  does  not  wish  to  apply 
his  ideals  to  Fiume,  a  community  that  is 
trying  literally  to  follow  the  doctrine  of 
self-determination.  It  was  very  hard  for 
me  to  impress  upon  him  that  President 
Wilson  is  not  so  much  an  idealist  as  a 
practical  statesman  and  a  very  decided 
partisan.  The  poet  did  not  understand  me, 
because,  throughout  Europe,  Wilson  is 
regarded  as  a  dreamer  who,  in  homage 
to  his  theories,  sacrifices  the  urgent 
needs  of  nations. 

"  The  President's  theories  may  be 
superficially  idealistic,"  I  said,  "but  at 
root  they  are  profoundly  practical." 

"Why,  then,"  replied  d'Annunzio,  "is 
he  opposed  to  letting  Fiume  decide  her 
own  destinies?  I  think  that  the  bad 
impression  received  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  discussion  of  the  matter,  and 
a  natural  tendency  to  persist  in  carrying 
out  the  original  thought,  are  the  most 
plausible  reasons  one  can  give  for  the 
inexorable  decision  of  the  man  whom 
we  Italians  had  recently  so  much  praised 
and  admired.'^ 

I  pointed  out  to  him  that  few  in  the 
United  States  are  interested  in  the  Fiume 
question,  and  that  if  it  were  put  to  the 
people  today,  99  per  cent,  of  them,  who 
hardly  knew  the  name  of  Fiume  before 
the  war,  would  say  that  so  far  as  they 
were  concerned  those  who  wished  to  have 
it  could  take^it.  On  hearing  this  d'An- 
nunzio used  the  identical  words  with 
which  the  Italian  Premier,  Francesco 
Nitti,  had  replied  to  me  when  discussing 
this  matter: 

"  Yes,  our  American  friends  are  con- 
stantly  repeating   that   to    us,    but   just 


3^2 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


now  the  President's  position  and  Amer- 
ica's position  are  one  and  the  same 
thing." 

D'Annunzio  and  Nitti,  once  very  inti- 
mate friends,  are  now  implacable  ene- 
mies. For  this  reason  I  thought  it  wise 
to  make  no  comment  on  the  similarity  of 
the  two  opinions. 

An  hour's  conversation  with  d*Annunzio 
convinced  me  that  Fiume  has  in  this 
man  a  full-armored  defender.  In  depart- 
ing I  asked  the  poet :  "  What  form  of 
activity  do  you  propose  to  assume  in  the 
future?  " 

"  After  four  years  of  more  or  less 
armed  conflict,"  he  said.  "  I  cannot  re- 
turn to  my  literary  life;  but  as  soon  as 
our  question  is  settled  I  shall  direct  the 
Rome-Tokio  flight,  and  after  that  I  shall 
probably  see  you  in  America." 

Outside  I  found  the  streets  of  Fiume 
filled  with  soldiers  on  their  way  to  a 
review  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city.  The 
troops  were  well  disciplined  and  well 
armed.  "  Who  pays  this  army  and 
supports  this  organization? "  I  asked. 
A    prominent    native    of    Fiume    'ironi- 


cally replied,  "  The  Italian  Govern- 
ment." The  fact  is  that  no  Government 
could  rule  in  Italy  that  did  not  treat  the 
question  of  Fiume  from  the  Italian  stand- 
point. Socialists  and  capitalists  are 
agreed  on  that.  The  Italian  army,  en 
masse,  does  not  occupy  the  city,  because 
it  is  not  necessary,  but  if  it  were  neces- 
sary the  Fiume  Army  and  the  Italian 
Army  would  be  one  and  the  same. 

In  a  recent  conversation  with  the  ex- 
Empress  Eugenie,  the  last  surviving 
relic  of  the  grandeur  and  misfortune  of 
the  reign  of  Napoleon  III.,  that  vener- 
able lady  said  to  me  with  a  sparkle  of 
wit  that  showed  no  signs  of  her  95  years : 
"  Nitti  will  not  do  with  d'Annunzio  what 
Cavour  did  with  Garibaldi."  Cavour, 
who  did  not  admire  Garibaldi's  audacity, 
turned  it  to  his  own  advantage.  The 
aged  ex-Empress  believed  that  Nitti 
would  be  unable  to  do  the  same  with  the 
"  Comandante  "  of  Fiume. 

The  adventure  of  d'Annunzio  is  not  a 
disagreeable  page  in  history;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  causes  us  to  reflect  that,  in  the 
turmoil  of  the  twentieth  century,  poetry 
and  politics  are  not  inimical  forces. 


Death  of  Kaid  Maclean 


rpHE  death  of  "  Kaid  "  Sir  Harry  Mac- 
-*-  lean,  announced  at  Tangier  on  Feb. 
4,  recalls  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
personalities  of  Europe  in  the  last  three 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Bap- 
tized as  Harry  Aubrey  de  Maclean,  of 
the  Macleans  of  Drimmin,  he  was  born  72 
years  ago.  While  serving  with  his  regi- 
ment at  Gibraltar  in  1876,  a  chance  visit 
to  Tangier  decided  his  whole  future  life. 
The  Moorish  Sultan,  Mulai  Hassan, 
whose  army  .was  badly  in  need  of  in- 
struction, was  struck  by  Maclean's  per- 
sonality, and  offered  him  the  post  of 
instructor.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and 
proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  an  offi- 
cial association  with  Morocco  which 
lasted  for  nearly  thirty  years. 

Despite  its  famous  parades  at  Tan- 
gier in  slippers,  the  Moroccan  Army  had 
good  stuff  in  it,  and  under  Maclean's 
supervision  was  made  into  an  effective 
body  for  collecting  taxes.  Many  stories 
were  told  of  the  magnificence  in  which 
Kaid  Maclean  lived :  his  salary  was  $35,- 


000  monthly,  and  he  owned  palaces  at 
Fez  and  Marrakesh,  as  well  as  in  Tan- 
gier. A  keen-eyed,  elert  man,  with  a 
decisive  manner,  he  adopted  a  semi- 
Moorish  dress  and  wore  a  white  turban. 
Of  great  daring  and  a  splendid  shot,  he 
was  concerned  in  many  adventures,  espe- 
cially in  the  days  of  Mulai  Hassan. 

In  1894  Mulai  Hassan  died  while  on 
his  way  to  Fez.  Maclean,  who  was  with 
the  Sultan's  bodyguard,  helped  to  con- 
ceal the  ruler's  death  until  the  party  had 
reached  Fez  and  the  new  Sultan,  Abd-el- 
Aziz,  had  been  safely  proclaimed.  In  1904 
Maclean  narrowly  escaped  capture  by 
tribesmen  in  the  neighborhood  of  Arzila. 
Three  years  later  (on  July  1,  1907)  he 
was  kidnapped  by  the  famous  bandit, 
Raisuli,  while  conducting  negotiations  at 
the  latter's  camp  on  behalf  of  the  Sultan. 
His  captivity  lasted  seven  months:  mili- 
tary expeditions  sent  to  effect  his  rescue 
failed,  and  finally  the  British  Legation 
was  compelled  to  pay  Raisuli  a  large 
sum  for  his  release. 


The  Tangled  Turkish  Question 


Allied  Occupation  of  Constantinople — FeisaFs  Ambitions  in 

■  Syria — Armenian  Mandate  Goes  Begging 

[Period  Ended  April  15,  1920] 


THE  decision  of  the  Allies  to  leave 
the  Turks  in  Constantinople  has 
aroused  a  storm  of  conflicting 
opinion,  but  no  nation  has  shown 
any  desire  to  assume  the  burdens  in- 
volved in  the  contrary  policy.  The  United 
States  has  definitely  refused  the  prof- 
fered mandate  for  Armenia,  as  well  as 
that  for  Turkey;  even  the  League  of 
Nations  has  given  notice  that  it  is  unable 
to  accept  a  mandate  for  Armenia  because 
it  lacks  the  machinery  and  the  troops 
for  administering  such  a  charge.  The 
best  it  could  do  was  to  offer  to  find  a 
mandatary  for  Armenia  if  some  one  else 
would  find  the  money.  This  was  the 
situation  at  the  middle  of  April,  pending 
the  completion  of  the  Turkish  Peace 
Treaty. 

Earnest  debate  of  the  Turkish  ques- 
tion continued  in  Great  Britain  and 
France  during  the  month  under  review. 
Premier  Lloyd  George,  replying  to  Mr. 
Asquith's  criticisms  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  March  25,  blamed  the  United 
States  for  the  long  delay  in  reaching  a 
decision  on  Turkey;  it  was  only  when 
America  definitely  refused  the  mandate, 
he  said,  that  the  Allies  had  determined 
to  proceed  without  her.  The  Premier 
stated  that  the  proposal  to  oust  the 
Sultan  had  been  rejected  because  it  left 
the  question  of  the  Government  of  Con- 
stantinople undecided,  and  the  Allies 
were  anxious  to  avoid  the  expense  and 
responsibility  of  its  administration.  It 
was  quite  impossible,  he  said,  for  Eng- 
land to  send  armies  to  keep  order  in 
Armenia  and  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor, 
though  she  would  do  her  utmost  to  exert 
pressure  in  Constantinople  to  obtain  the 
safety  of  Christians.  France's  burden  in 
Cilicia  was  heavy.  Thus  far  the  Allies 
had  received  from  the  United  States  only 
requests  to  protect  Armenia,  without  any 
offer  to  accept  responsibility. 

The  determination  of  the  Allies  to  con- 


vince the  Turks,  by  a  military  demonstra- 
tion, that  the  massacres  of  Armenians 
must  cease,  was  made  concrete  on  March 
16,  when  allied  forces  under  General  Sir 
George  F.  Milne  occupied  the  Ministries 
of  War  and  Marine  and  took  control  of 
the  posts,  telegraphs  and  telephones. 
Resistance  was  encountered  only  at  the 
War  Office,  where  several  Indian  sol- 
diers and  Turks  fell  in  the  fighting.  The 
landing  and  occupation  were  carried  out 
under  the  guns  of  the  formidable  allied 
fleet  anchored  in  the  Bosporus;  one 
dreadnought  was  moored  at  the  Galata 
quay,  her  guns  trained  on  Stamboul; 
another  faced  the  arsenal  in  the  Golden 
Horn,  and  all  the  other  warships  stood 
by  with  their  decks  cleared  for  action; 
4,000  bluejackets  and  marines  were 
landed  from  the  British  warships,  with 
contingents  from  the  forces  of  all  the 
Allies  stationed  in  Constantinople. 
Indian  Moslem  troops  took  part  in  the 
occupation.  A  proclamation  printed  in 
Greek,  English  and  French  was  posted 
on  the  dead  walls  of  the  city,  warning 
that  hostile  acts  would  be  punished  by 
death.  Subsequently  the  British,  French 
and  Italian  High  Commissioners  issued 
another  proclamation,  which  read  as  fol- 
lows : 

First— Occupation  is  provisional. 
Second— The  Entente  Powers  have  no 
intention  to  destroy  the  Sultan's  author- 
ity. They  wish  rather  to  strengthen  it 
in  all  places  which  shall  remain  under 
Ottoman  administration. 

Third— The  Entente  '  Powers  persist  in 
their  purpose  not  to  deprive  the  Turks  of 
Constantinople.  But  if,  God  forbid, 
troubles  develop  and  massacres  occur, 
that  decision  probably  will  be  modified. 

Fourth— In  this  critical  hour  every  one 
must  attend  to  his  own  affairs  and  assist 
in  maintaining-  general  security  without 
permitting  himself  to  be  deceived  by  those 
whose  frenzy  tends  to  destroy  the  last 
hope  of  building-  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  Turkish  Empire  a  new  Turkey. 
In  short,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  person  to 
obey  orders   issuing  from   the   Sultan. 


324 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


<3     A      R. 

O  I       I 

^^     ;  ^         \  PRE- WfMZ  TURKISH 

^    Hi  I  BOUNDARY 

y 
f        ^ADRIANOPLE  KIRK  KILIS&A 


I 


-r  U  RKEV    '^'    ASI  A^ 


SINCE  THE  MARASH  MASSACRE  THE  ALLIES  HAVE  CONTEMPLATED  REDUCING  TURKEY'S 

EUROPEAN    POSSESSIONS    TO    THE    LITTLE     CORNER    BETWEEN    CONSTANTINOPLE    AND 

THE    SECOND    PROPOSED    BOUNDARY    SHOWN    IN    THE    MAP 


Fifth— Certain  persons  implicated  in 
threats,  of  which  more  will  be  told  later, 
have  been  arrested  in  Constantinople. 
They  naturally  will  be  held  responsible 
for  these  acts  and  for  the  consequent  re- 
sults. 

This  last  clause  referred  to  a  number 
of  Turkish  Nationalist  leaders  and  agita- 
tors, who  had  been  seized  on  the  night 
preceding  the  occupation.  Among  them 
were  Djemal  Pasha,  former  Minister  of 
War;  Djavid  Pasha,  his  Chief  of  Staff, 
Senator  Mahmud  Pasha,  Essad  Pasha 
and  Reouf  Bey. 

By  nightfall  the  city  was  quiet.  The 
French  were  patrolling  Stamboul  with 
Senegalese  troops,  the  British  were 
guarding  Pera,  the  suburb  northwest  of 
the  Golden  Horn,  and  the  Italians  were 
in  control  of  Scutari,  the  part  of  Con- 
stantinople that  is  on  the  Asiatic  side 
of  the  Bosporus. 

The  British  Parliament  was  officially 
informed  of  the  occupation  of  Constan- 
tinople on  March  17  by  Andrew  Bonar 
Law,  who  stated  that  the  Turkish  Gov- 
ernment had  been  warned  that  the  occu- 


pation would  continue  until  the  terms 
of  the  Peace  Treaty  were  accepted  and 
executed,  and  that  further  Armenian 
massacres  would  only  make  the  condi- 
tions of  this  treaty  more  severe. 

The  Turkish  Chamber  adjourned  tem- 
porarily on  March  19,  after  passing  a  reso- 
lution condemning  the  Chairman  of  the 
Bar  Association  and  President  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  for  cowardice  in 
leaving  the  city  before  its  occupation  in 
order  to  escape  arrest.  The  Senate  re- 
mained in  session,  but  was  unable  to 
obtain  a  quorum.  Few  traces  of  the 
Turkish  Government  remained.  About 
thirty  of  the  Turkish  Nationalists  ar- 
rested were  transferred  to  the  British 
battleship  Benbow,  to  be  transported  to 
Malta,  where  a  court-martial  awaited 
them. 

SULTAN    DISAVOWS    NATIONALISTS 

Mohammed  VI.,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  took 
his  weekly  ride  in  state  from  Yildiz 
Palace  to  Mejidieh  Jami  for  his  Selam- 
lik,  or  official  attendance  at  prayers,  on 


the  same  day 


THE  TANGLED   TURKISH  QUESTION    • 


325 


ttie  same  day.  It  was  reported  that  he 
looked  old  and  broken.  Despite  the 
allied  proclamation  that  the  Sultan's 
power  would  be  upheld  provisionally,  the 
crowds  which  watched  this  unhappy  old 
man  emerge  from  his  palace  overlooking 
the  picturesque  minarets  and  towers  of 
Stamboul  and  the  sun-bathed  waters  of 
the  Bosporus  showed  by  their  attitude 
and  comments  that  they  realized  that  800 
years  of  Turkish  rule  in  Constantinople 
had  virtually  ended.  While  a  proclama- 
tion issued  by  the  Sultan  was  being 
posted  calling  on  the  population  to  pre- 
serve order  and  pursue  their  usual  vo- 
cations in  spite  of  the  occupation,  the 
Benbow  was  steaming  toward  Malta 
carrying  the  Nationalist  leaders  who  had 
been  supporting  Mustapha  Kemal  in  his 
opposition  to  the  dismemberment  of 
Turkey. 

The  arrest  of  so  many  of  their  leaders 
was  a  heavy  blow  to  the  Nationalists  in 
Constantinople,  who  fulminated  against 
the  Sultan,  charging  him  with  cowardice 
and  lack  of  patriotism.  The  Sultan's 
Cabinet  decided  to  remain  in  office,  but 
fell  on  April  6,  and  a  new  Cabinet,  headed 
by  Damad  Ferid  Pasha,  succeeded  it. 

Under  pressure  of  an  allied  note, 
which  called  on  the  Turkish  Government 
to  disavow  the  activities  of  Mustapha 
Kemal  and  the  Nationalists,  official  in- 
structions were  read  to  the  new  Grand 
Vizier  when  installed  in  office  deploring 
the  troubles  produced  by  the  National- 
ists, and  declaring  that  a  prolongation 
of  this  "  state  of  rebellion  "  might  lead 
to  grave  dangers.  Punishment  of  or- 
ganizers and  instigators  of  trouble  was 
urged,  so  that  "  all  faithful  subjects  may 
be  more  closely  united  with  the  Sultanate 
and  the  Caliphate,  and  former  relations 
be  established  with  the  great  powers 
in  order  to  mitigate  the  peace  terms  and 
improve  the  economic  situation." 

SCHISM  IN  MOSLEM  CHURCH 

Events  indicated  that  the  Nationalists 
were  attempting  not  only  to  create  an 
entirely  new  Government,  but  also  a  new 
church  organization,  with  a  new  Caliph 
as  well  as  a  new  Sultan.  Mustapha 
Kemal  on  April  10  designated  the  Chief 
of    the    Dervishes    in    Anatolia    as    his 


Sheik  ul  Islam,  representative  of  the 
Church  in  the  Nationalist  Cabinet. 

This  move  was  followed  by  decisive 
action  on  the  part  of  the  Sultan's  Gov- 
ernment. Mobilization  of  the  regular 
troops  was  begun  in  the  Black  Sea  region 
and  other  districts  loyal  to  the  Sultan. 
The  Sheik  ul  Islam  at  Constantinople, 
Deurrizade  Abdullah  Effendi,  appealed 
to  all  Moslems,  urging  them  to  a  holy 
war  upon  the  Nationalists.  "  Wrath  of 
heaven  and  eternal  torments  of  hell " 
were  called  down  on  the  heads  of  all 
Moslems  who  did  not  support  the  Sultan. 
He  excoriated  the  Nationalists,  and  de- 
clared "  all  Mussulmans  who  kill  Na- 
tionalists will  be  blessed  by  Allah,  and 
all  who  die  fighting  the  rebels  will  earn 
eternal  glory  hereafter."  Replying  to 
this,  the  Nationalist  Sheik  ul  Islam  at 
Angora  issued  a  religious  decree  de- 
nouncing the  Sultan  and  discrediting  the 
Constantinople   appeal. 

Turkish  military  officers  on  April  13 
formally  closed  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties at  Constantinople  under  an  order 
from  the  Sultan  which  provided  for  the 
election  of  a  new  Chamber  within  four 
months.  The  Sultan's  edict  said :  "  Po- 
litical reasons  make  the  dissolution  of 
Parliament  necessary."  The  Chamber 
really  dissolved  itself,  as  it  was  largely 
Nationalist  in  character  and  most  of  the 
members  were  sitting  in  the  Congress  at 
Angora,  the  headquarters  of  Mustapha 
Kemal  Pasha. 

MEDIATION  OFFER  REFUSED 

Colonel  Rawlinson  of  the  British  Army 
went  to  Erzerum  early  in  April  to  con- 
fer with  Kiazim  Pasha,  the  Nationalist 
leader  there,  and  to  offer  his  services 
to  bring  back  harmony  between  the  Con- 
stantinople Government  and  Kemal 
Pasha,  head  of  the  Nationalist  movement. 
He  was  told,  however,  that  there  could 
be  no  negotiations  until  the  allied  forces 
were  withdrawn  from  Turkish  soil. 

Meanwhile  communication  with  virtu- 
ally all  Asiatic  Turkey,  especially  with 
Anatolia,  was  broken  off  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  connecting  bridges  by  British 
forces.  At  Angora  (215  miles  east- 
southeast  of  Constantinople)  the  Govern- 
ment of  Mustapha  Kemal  continued  to 
hold  the  destinies  of  Asia  Minor  at  its 


326 


THE'  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


mercy,  and  to  quell  relentlessly  all  at- 
tempts of  the  plundered  population  to 
rebel  against  its  authority.  Great  un- 
easiness was  felt  for  welfare  workers  in 
Anatolia  and  Cilicia,  for  whom  it  had 
been  impossible  to  afford  protection. 

Dispatches  of  April  7  stated  that 
Turks  had  destroyed  the  village  of  Ha- 
rouniyi,  northeast  of  Adana,  and  burned 
the  United  States  orphanage  there.  Two 
thousand  Armenian  orphans  were  re- 
moved under  fire  and  taken  to  Adana 
in  safety  by  William  M.  Gilbert,  Jr.,  an 
American  member  of  the  Near  East  Re- 
lief Association.  Turkish  Nationalist 
forces  were  still  cutting  off  from  the 
outside  world  a  considerable  region 
north  of  Adana,  and  hundreds  of  ref- 
ugees were  arriving  in  that  city  daily. 
American  relief  workers  were  fired  upon 
while  journeying  between  Adana  and 
Konia. 

THE  SITUATION  IN  SYRIA 

The  military  situation  in  Cilicia  con- 
tinued after  the  Marash  massacres  to 
become  more  and  more  critical.  Toward 
the  end  of  March  the  Armenians  were 
being  armed  by  the  French  authorities. 
The  French  lines  were  thinly  held  and 
facing  heavy  odds.  Forces  of  Mustapha 
Kemal  and  local  Mohammedans  were 
threatening  the  whole  province.  The 
entire  Adana  section  was  in  a  ferment, 
and  the  roads  were  infested  with  hill- 
men,  co-operating  with  Turkish  Nation- 
alists. The  town  of  Hadjin  was  being 
strongly  besieged  and  was  in  danger  of 
capture,  with  all  the  horrors  of  a  new 
massacre  of  the  Christian  population, 
unless  help  came. 

A  relief  force  of  French  troops 
reached  Aintab  on  March  28,  opening  a 
road  blocked  by  bandits  since  the  killing 
of  two  Americans  at  this  point  on 
Feb.  1.  The  relief  column  had  to  fight 
its  way  through  3,000  Turks,  while  the 
Aintab  garrison,  which  met  the  relievers, 
was  harassed  by  800  more.  The  French 
found  eighty-nine  dead  Turks  and  Kurds. 
Americans  and  Armenians  had  taken 
refuge  in  churches,  in  expectation  of 
new  massacres. 

A  sensation  was  aroused  in  both  Paris 
and  London  by  the  news  that  Prince 
Feisal,  son  of  King  Hussein  of  the  Hed- 


jaz,  had  been  chosen  King  of  Greater 
Syria,  including  North  Syria  and  Pales- 
tine, by  the  Syrian  Congress  at  Damas- 
cus on  March  8,  when  the  Congress  de- 
clared the  independence  of  Syria.  Simul- 
taneously Feisal's  brother.  Emir  Zaid, 
had  been  proclaimed  King  of  Irak  (Vi- 
layet of  Bagdad)  and  of  Mesopotamia, 
now  under  a  provisional  British  protec- 
torate. The  day  was  described  as  a 
memorable  one  for  Syria.  General  joy 
prevailed  throughout  Damascus.  The 
members  of  the  Congress  visited  the 
palace  early  in  the  afternoon  and  of- 
fered the  crown  to  the  Emir,  who  ac- 
cepted it.  Feisal  and  his  brother,  ac- 
companied by  a  number  of  Emirs  and 
members  of  the  Congress  and  the 
Princes'  Guard,  then  drove  to  the  Munic- 
ipal Palace.  Arab  soldiers  lined  the 
route,  crying  "Long  live  the  King!" 
while  the  crowds  cheered  and  Arab  wo- 
men showered  flowers. 

The  Congress  dissolved  the  same  day, 
after  determining  what  the  flag  of  the 
new  Empire  should  be — a  seven-pointed 
white  star  placed  in  the  red  field  of  the 
Hedjaz  banner. 

Though  Prince  Feisal,  following  the 
ceremony  of  his  proclamation  as  King, 
announced  that  this  would  not  affect  his 
relations  with  the  Allies,  the  Syrian 
Congress,  before  dissolving,  signed  a  de- 
cree requesting  the  French  to  leave 
Syria,  and  a  similar  request  was  made 
of  the  British  in  the  case  of  Palestine. 
Posters  displayed  at  Damascus  at  this 
time  read  in  part: 

In  spite  of  himself  the  Moslem  is  brother 
to  the  Christian  and  the  Jew.  The  Arabs 
existed  before  Christ,  Moses  or  Moham- 
med, and  freedom  and  independence  are 
rig-hts  of  Syria.  Religion  is  of  God,  and 
the  fatherland  belongs  to  His  children. 

FEISAL'S   EXPLANATION 

In  an  interview  published  in  Le  Petit 
Parisien,  Emir  Feisal  explained  his  ac- 
tion as  follows: 

I  believed  for  a  long  time  that  it  was 
best  to  wait,  but  the  incessant  modifica- 
tions which  the  Allies  were  making  in  the 
control  of  my  country,  disposing  one  day, 
for  example,  of  Palestine  to  the  Jews  and 
the  next  day  giving  it  to  England,  offer- 
ing one  day  an  ill-defined  mandate  to 
France  in  Syria,  then  letting  it  be  under- 
stood that  this  mandate  would  become, 
in  time,  a  protectorate;  and,  on  the  other 


THE  TANGLED   TURKISH  QUESTION 


hand,  the  wishes  of  the  Syrian  people, 
who  consistently  proclaimed  their  desire 
for  independence,  have  not  permitted  me 
to  wait  any  longer  and  defer  the  solu- 
tion which  the  country  desires  with  such 
growing  ardor.  "What  can  the  allied  pow- 
ers wish,  if  it  is  not  to  assure  to  free 
peoples  the  determination  of  their  own 
destinies  and  the  accomplishment  of  their 
desires?  Europe  appears  to  hesitate  and 
not  to  understand  the  aspirations  of  the 
Arabs.  Our  proclamation  of  independence 
was  made  in  order  to  enlighten  them  on 
this  point.  Knowing  today  the  legitimacy 
of  our  desires,  Europe  can  do  nothing 
but  recognize  us  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  of  justice  and  right  which  tri- 
umphed in  the  war. 

In  case  they  refuse  this  recognition, 
neither  my  people  nor  I  will  be  responsi- 
ble for  the  consequences.  *  *  «  rpj^g 
Syrian  people,  by  its  delegates  to  the 
conference  which  proclaimed  independ- 
ence, have  only  indicated  their  desire  to 
see  the  soil  of  their  country  freed  from 
foreign  troops.  The  wish  is  quite  legiti- 
mate, but  it  has  been  left  to  the  Govern- 
ment to  choose  the  time  and  means  to  be 
employed  to  assure  effective  realization 
of  this  desire.  The  time  has  not  come  to 
demand  of  France  the  withdrawal  of  her 
troops.  We  hope  the  time  will  come  soon 
when  France  will  see  the  wisdom  of  with- 
drawing them.  My  intention  is  to  estab- 
lish a  constitutional  Government  in  Syria, 
but  I  am  aware  that  the  country,  in  some 
parts,  is  not  qspecially  ready  for  such  a 
regime.  We  heed  advice  and  the  aid  of 
technical  collaboration.  France  can  ask 
anything  except  one  thing— the  compro- 
mising of  our  independence;  that  is  un- 
thinkable. 

Feisal  was  summoned  by  the  Allies  on 
March  16  to  come  to  Paris  to  explain 
his  assumption  of  royal  power. 

News  was  received  in  London  on 
March  13  that  the  Christian  and  Mo- 
hammedan inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  had 
joined  hands  in  an  agitation  against 
handing  over  Palestine  to  the  Nationalist 
Party,  which  forms  only  a  minority  of 
the  population,  and  had  presented  a  peti- 
tion to  the  British  Governor  against  the 
separation  of  Palestine  from  Syria.  The 
ground  for  this  action  was  stated  to  be 
fear  that  extensive  Jewish  immigration 
from  Russia  would  lead  to  dispossession 
of  the  non-Jewish  inhabitants,  most  of 
whom  are  farmers. 

Clashes  between  Jews  and  Mohamme- 
dans led  to  the  declaration  of  martial  law 
by  the  British  authorities  on  April  5,  and 
entrance  to  the  city  was  forbidden.  New 
conflicts  occurred  on  April  6  and  7,  re- 


sulting in  the  death  of  several  on  each 
side  and  in  the  injury  of  about  200. 
Normal  conditions  were  being  re-estab- 
lished at  this  date,  but  the  "  state  of 
war "  remained  in  force.  Martial  law 
was  maintained  for  several  days. 

THE  GREEKS  IN  TURKEY 

It  was  tentatively  decided  by  the  Coun- 
cil of  Ambassadors  on  March  29  that 
Smyrna  and  the  hinterland  along  that 
section  of  the  Turkish  coast  should  be 
awarded  to  Greece.  The  relations  between 
the  Greeks  and  Italians  on  the  coastland 
were  very  much  improved  by  an  amica- 
ble agreement  over  the  vilayets  of  Smyr- 
na and  Adalia,  the  latter  held  by  Ital- 
ian forces.  The  Greeks  are  asking  for  a 
strip  off  the  western  end  of  Anatolia  ex- 
tending on  both  sides  of  Smyrna  (al- 
ready occupied  by  their  forces),  as  well 
as  Eastern  Thrace.  The  Italians  are 
asking  for  the  southern  coast  of  Anato- 
lia, running  from  the  Greek  holdings 
eastward  to  the  Gulf  of  Alexandretta 
and  comprising  about  one-third  of  Ana- 
tolia on  the  south.  The  rest  of  Anatolia 
from  Samsun  to  the  Gulf  of  Alexan- 
dretta, under  this  arrangem:;nt,  would  be 
left  to  the  Turks. 

In  view  of  the  threatening  situation 
created  by  the  activities  of  Mustapha 
Kemal  in  the  French  zone  and  elsewhere 
in  Syria,  M.  Venizelos,  the  Greek  Pre- 
mier, offered  to  the  Allied  Council  the 
use  of  a  Greek  force  to  protect  the 
Christian  populations,  especially  the  Ar- 
menians, and  on  April  7  it  was  an- 
nounced from  Athens  that  the  allied  Min- 
isters, acting  through  the  Supreme  Mili- 
tary Council,  had  authorized  Greek 
troops  to  advance  in  anticipation  of  an 
attack  by  Mustapha  Kemal.  The  Greeks 
at  this  time  occupied  a  stategic  position 
east  of  the  Smyrna  section  to  await  de- 
velopments. In  Thrace,  meanwhile,  the 
Turkish  commander  had  denounced  the 
armistice,  defied  both  Constantinople  and 
the  Allies,  and  proposed  to  establish  a 
new  Turkish  Government  in  Adrianople. 

SITUATION  IN  ARMENIA 

The  situation  in  Armenia  was  depicted 
as  deplorable  by  Archbishop  Kholn,  an 
Armenian  from  Erivan,  who  arrived  in 
London  toward  the  end  of  March  to  lay 


328 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


his  country's  plea  before  the  allied  au- 
thorities. He  declared  that  Tatars  short- 
ly before  his  departure  had  massacred 
17,000  Armenians  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  new  Armenian  State  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  Young  Turk  agitators  in 
the  Azerbaidjan  Government.  Three 
thousand  persons  were  being  herded  in 
Tatar  villages,  and  portions  of  the  Ar- 
menian frontier  were  being  held  by  Ta- 
tar forces,  the  Archbishop  said.  In  De- 
cember, 1919,  he  charged,  14,000  Arme- 
nians at  Akoulis,  in  Azerbaidjan,  had 
been  murdered  on  the  pretext  that 
Tatars  had  been  killed  in  Armenian  ter- 
ritory. He  attributed  many  of  the  re- 
cent massacres  to  the  fact  that  the 
frontiers  of  the  Caucasus  republics  had 
not  been  defined  by  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. 

A  report  on  a  resolution  introduced  in 
September,  1916,  was  presented  in  the 
United  States  Senate  by  a  sub-committee 
of  the  Senate  Foreign  Relations  Commit- 
tee on  March  24.  This  report  recom- 
mended that  the  American  Government 
should  provide  arms  and  ammunition  for 
an  Armenian  army  sufficiently  large  to 
police  the  country  and  protect  its  people 
against  the  Turks  and  Kurds,  but  disap- 
proved of  authorizing  the  President  of 
the  United  States  to  use  the  military 
and  naval  forces  to  preserve  order  in  Ar- 
menia until  that  country's  status  had- 
been  fixed  by  the  Turkish  treaty. 

PRESIDEN5T  WILSON'S  NOTE 

The  whole  Turkish  problem  and  the 
drafting  of  the  treaty  with  Turkey  pre- 
sented such  difficulties  to  the  allied  Min- 
isters that  only  tentative  decisions  could 
be  reached.  A  list  of  these  decisions  was 
transmitted  to  President  Wilson  in 
March  through  French  diplomatic  chan- 
nels, with  a  request  that  he  outline  his 
views  of  these  decisions.  The  President's 
reply  was  made  public  on  March  30.  Its 
essential  feature  was  the  view  that  the 
Turkish  Government  should  be  expelled 
from  Constantinople  and  Europe,  an 
opinion  at  direct  variance  with  the  tenta- 
tive decision  reached  by  the  allied  Gov- 
ernments. 

The  President  took  the  position  that 
there  was  no  valid  reason  for  fearing  the 
outbreak  of  a  Holy  War,  in  view  of  the 


fact  that  Moslems  had  not  only  witnessed 
the  defeat  of  Turkish  power  without  pro- 
test, but  had  even  materially  assisted  in 
this  defeat.  Russian  representation  on 
the  international  council  to  administer 
Constantinople  and  the  straits  was  ap- 
proved. The  note  suggested  that  the  fu- 
ture of  Syria,  Arabia,  Palestine,  Meso- 
potamia and  the  former  Turkish  islands 
be  settled  by  the  great  powers,  in  whose 
hands  these  territories  should  be  pro- 
visionally placed  by  Turkey.  A  solution 
of  the  Armenian  question  which  would 
give  the  new  State  "  easy  and  unincum- 
bered access  to  the  Black  Sea  "  was  rec- 
ommended, and  the  hope  was  expressed 
that  this  would  be  secured  by  the  grant- 
ing of  the  port  of  Trebizond  to  Armenia. 

The  President  approved  the  giving  of 
Eastern  Thrace  to  Greece,  but  declared 
that  the  cities  of  Adrianople  and  Kirk 
Kilisse  in  Northern  Thrace,  with  sur- 
rounding territory,  belonged  to  Bulgaria 
on  ethnical  and  historical  grounds,  es- 
pecially because  of  the  great  losses  of 
Bulgarian  population  and  territory  to 
Jugoslavia  in  the  formation  of  a  strate- 
gic frontier.  On  Smyrna  the  President 
declined  to  pronounce  for  lack  of  infor- 
mation. 

President  Wilson's  note  came  as  a 
shock  to  all  Turkish  parties,  as  well  as  to 
the  Greeks.  Considerable  imeasiness 
was  expressed  in  Constantinople  as  to 
the  effect  it  would  have  in  Asiatic  Tur- 
key, where  some  500  American  relief 
workers  were  cut  off.  The  Greeks,  on 
their  part,  were  much  displeased  at  the 
President's  unwillingness  to  approve 
their  Smyrna  claims  and  on  his  insist- 
ence that  Adrianople  be  given  to  the  Bul- 
garians. Up  to  the  time  when  these 
pages  went  to  press  no  reply  to  the 
President's  note  had  been  received  from 
the  allied  Governments. 

THE  LEAGUE'S  REFUSAL 

Two  important  decisions  were  made 
known  at  a  public  session  of  the  Exec- 
utive Council  of  the  League  of  Nations 
in  Paris  on  April  11.  Regarding-  the 
assumption  of  guardianship  over  racial 
minorities  in  Asia  Minor  the  League  had 
decided  that  it  could  accept  such  a  duty, 
but  that  it  could  not  commit  itself  as 
to    ways   and   means    until    the   Turkish 


GREEK    TROOPS    ARE    HOLDING    THE    REGION    AROUND    SMYRNA    AND    ITALIAN    FORCES 

OCCUPY    THE    REGION    NORTH    OF    THE    GULF    OF    ADALIA.      THE    FRENCH    SPHERE    IN 

SYRIA    IS    IN    THE    NEIGHBORHOOD    OF   ALEXANDRETTA    BAY.    AND    THE    BRITISH   HOLD 

PALESTINE    AND    MESOPOTAMIA 


treaty  had  been  fully  drafted.  As  to  the 
mandate  for  Armenia,  however,  the 
League  declared  itself  unable  to  accept 
this,  because  it  lacked  the  machinery  for 
administering  such  a  charge.  The  deci- 
sion on  Armenia,  which  was  read  by  Her- 
bert Fisher,  the  British  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation, began  by  saying  that  on  March 
12  the  Supreme  Council  had  asked  the 
League  if  it  would  accept  the  protection 
of  the  future  independent  State  of  Ar- 
menia. Here  is  the  text  of  the  Council's 
reply: 

The  Council  of  the  League  is  of  opinion 
that  the  best  means  to  an  end  on  all 
hands  admitted  to  be  desirable  would  be 
the  acceptance  of  a  mandate  for  Armenia 
by  a  civilized  State  under  the  League  of 
Nations.  Such  a  solution  would,  it  is  un- 
derstood, be  welcome  to  the  Armenians, 
would  offer  the  best  earnest  of  efficient 
and  prospei-ous  administration,  and  would 
be  in  conformity  with  arrangements 
which  have  recently  been  planned  under 
the  League  of  Nations  in  other  parts  of 
Asia  in  which  political  conditions  are  not 
entirely  dissimilar. 

It  may  be  asked,  however,  whether  any 
State  is  likely  to  accept  such  a  responsi- 
bility.    The  Council  of  the  League  is  of 


the  opinion  that  the  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion will  depend  partly  on  the  military 
measures  which  may  be  devised  to  liber- 
ate the  territory  and  to  protect  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  new  State,  and  partly  upon 
finance.    *    *    * 

The  new  State  will  need  credits  to  tide 
it  over  the  first  years  of  its  existence, 
and  credits  imply  financial  guarantees. 
The  Council  of  the  League  is  prepared  to 
submit  to  the  Assembly  of  the  League 
that  its  constituent  members  should  con- 
sider provisions  of  collective  guarantees. 

Meanwhile,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  Assembly  will  not  meet  until  Au- 
tumn, the  Council  of  the  League  is  enter- 
ing into  communication  with  the  Supreme 
Council  with  a  view  to  seeing  what  pro- 
visional financial  arrangements  can  be 
made  to  facilitate  that  solution  of  the 
problem  which  commends  itself  to  the 
general  sense  of  the  Council  of  the 
League  as  being  likely  to  lead  to  the 
most  satisfactory  result. 

With  regard  to  the  protection  of  racial 
minorities  in  Turkey  the  Council  showed 
itself  disposed  to  do  what  it  could  for 
their  benefit.  The  decision  on  this  point 
was  read  by  Ambassador  Gaiffier  d'Hes- 
troy  for  Belgium.    It  said  in  part: 

The    Council    at    once    appreciated    the  ^ 


330 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


importance  of  the  problem  for  which  it 
was  asked  to  find  a  solution.  The  fate 
of  2,000,000  non-Mussulmans  was  at 
stake. 

The  Council  had  unanimously  decided 
that  its  mission  and  the  expectations  of 
the  civilized  world  require  it  to  accede 
to  this  request.  It  considers  that  it 
would  be  carrying  out  the  great  task  for 
which  it  was  constituted  by  contributing 
in  every  possible  way  to  prevent  the  repe- 
tition of  the  abominable  crimes  which 
have  so  often  been  committed  in  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  thus 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  the  war  which 
these  massacres  may  bring  about. 

It  believes,  however,  that  it  may  find 
itself  confronted  with  responsibilities  of 
which  it  is  unable  to  measure  the  scope. 


It  could  not  find  a  practical  solution  un- 
til the  clauses  of  the  peace  treaty  to  be 
concluded  with  Turkey  have  been  defi- 
nitely fixed.  Therefore  the  Council  of 
the  League  of  Nations  has  decided  to  in- 
form the  Supreme  Council  of  its  keen 
sympathy  with  the  recommendations  it 
has  submitted  and  to  inform  them  that  it 
is  ready  to  enter  into  communication  with 
them  with  a  view  to  determining  what 
measures  are  necessary  to  guarantee  the 
execution  of  the  clauses  for  the  protec- 
tion of  minorities. 

Meanwhile  Turkey's  fate  was  expected 
to  be  decided  definitely  at  a  session  of 
the  Supreme  Council  to  be  held  at  San 
JRemo  on  April  19. 


General  Harbord's  Report  on  Armenia 

Mandate  Question — Both  Sides 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  on  April  3, 
1920,  sent  to  the  Senate  the  re- 
port made  to  him  in  tke  Fall  of 
1919  by  the  Mission  to  Armenia,  headed 
by  Major  Gen.  James  G.  Harbord. 
This  mission  had  been  sent  to  gain 
information  as  to  whether  it  would 
be  advisable  for  the  United  States  to 
accept  a  mandate  for  Armenia.  Follow- 
ing his  instructions  strictly,  General 
Harbord  confined  himself  to  setting  forth 
the  facts  and  conclusions  reached  after 
six  weeks*  travel  and  study  of  conditions 
in  Armenia,  Turkey,  Anatolia,  Roumelia 
and  Transcaucasia.  The  report  makes 
no  attempt  to  recommend  or  to  dis- 
countenance the  undertaking  of  such  a 
mandate  by  the  United  States,  but  gives 
estimates  of  how  much  time  would  be 
required  to  restore  order  and  to  set  up 
a  stable  regime  in  Armenia,  as  well  as 
of  the  cost  in  men  and  money  of  such 
a  venture. 

Arguments  both  for  and  against  the 
acceptance  of  such  a  mandate  are  sepa- 
rately marshaled,  and  conditions  con- 
sidered indispensable  for  success  in  case 
the  decision  were  favorable  are  set  forth 
in  full  detail.  Among  these  are  complete 
control  by  the  mandatary  of  the  financial 
and  diplomatic  arrangements  of  Turkey, 
including   guarantees    from   the   powers 


that  this  control  shall  be  absolute,  and 
that  the  Turks  should  be  expelled  from 
Europe.  This  conclusion  is  the  one 
adopted  by  President  Wilson  in  his  recent 
note  to  the  Allies  on  the  Turkish  ques- 
tion. 

The  report  was  referred  to  the  Foreign 
Relations  Committee  of  the  Senate.  It 
consisted  of  thirteen  bound  volumes,  one 
devoted  to  the  report  and  the  others  to 
findings  of  experts  who  accompanied 
General  Harbord. 

TEXT  OF  REPORT 

We  would  again  point  out  that  if  Amer- 
ica accepts  a  mandate  for  the  region 
visited,  it  will  undoubtedly  do  so  from  a 
strong  sense  of  international  duty  and 
at  the  unanimous  desire,  so  expressed  at 
least,  of  its  colleagues  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  Accepting  this  difficult  task 
without  first  securing  the  assurance  of 
conditions  would  be  fatal  to  success.  The 
United  States  should  make  its  own  condi- 
tions as  a  preliminary  to  consideration  of 
the  subject— certainly  before  and  not  after 
acceptance,  as  there  are  a  multitude  of 
interests  that  could  conflict  with  what 
any  American  would  consider  the  proper 
administration  of  the  country. 

Every  possible  precaution  against  inter- 
national complications  should  be  taken 
in  advance.  In  our  opinion  there  should 
be  specific  pledges  in  terms  of  formal 
agreements  with  France  and  England  and 
definite  approval  from  Germany  and  Rus- 


GENERAL  HARBORD'S  REPORT  ON  ARMENIA 


331 


sia  of  the  dispositions  made  of  Turkey 
and  Transcaucasia  and  a  pledge  to  re- 
spect them. 

Of  particular  importance  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

Absolute  control  of  the  foreign  relations 
of  the  Turkish  Empire,  no  Ambassador, 
envoy.  Minister,  or  diplomatic  agent  to 
be  accredited  to  Turkey  and  the  latter 
to  send  none  abroad. 

Concessions  involving  exclusive  privi- 
leges to  be  subject  to  review  if  shown 
contrary  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State. 
Concessions  undesirable  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  mandatary,  upon  which  work 
has  not  been  started,  to  be  canceled. 
Compensation  to  be  allowed  to  holders 
when  necessary. 
The  system  by  which  specified  revenues 
ire  assigned  for  particular  purposes  to 
be  discarded ;  all  revenues  to  be  controlled 
])y  the  Treasury,  and  all  creditors  to  look 
to  the  Treasury  as  the  source  of  payment. 
Foreign  control  of  Turkish  financial  ma- 
chinery to  cease— meaning  the  dissolution 
of  the  Council  of  Administration  of  the 
Ottoman  Public  Debt,  reserving  the  right 
to  retain  some  individual  members  of  the 
council  as  advisers  because  of  their  fa- 
miliarity with  Ottoman  finances. 

All  foreign  obligations  of  the  Empire  to 
be  unified   and   refunded. 

Those  countries  receiving  territory  of 
the  Turkish  Empire,  that  is  Syria  and 
Mesopotamia,  to  assume  their  reasonable 
share  of  the  paper  currency,  of  .the  for- 
eign obligations,  and  of  obligations  for 
possible  reparations  payments. 

Abrogation,  on  due  notice,  of  existing 
commercial  treaties  with  Turkey. 

All  foreign  Governments  and  troops  to 
vacate  territorial  limits  of  mandate  at 
dates  to  be  fixed  by  the  mandatory 
power. 

Consent  to  many  of  these  measures 
would  not  easily  be  obtained.  Many  na- 
tions now  have  some  sort  of  financial 
control  within  the  Ottoman  Empire  and 
would  not  see  it  taken  away  without 
protest. 

It  needs  no  argument,  'however,  to 
show  that  the  United  States  could  not 
submit  to  having  her  financial  policies 
controlled  from  foreign  capitals.  The  re- 
funding of  the  debt,  possibly  with  a  re- 
duction of  the  capital  amounts,  would 
raise  a  storm  of  protest,  but  it  should 
be  insisted  upon.  Otherwise  American 
administration  would  be  embarrassed  and 
run  the  risk  of  being  discredited. 

The  mission  has  not  felt  that  it  is  ex- 
pected to  submit  a  recommendation  as  to 
the  United  States  accepting  a  mandate 
in  the  Near  East.  It,  therefore,  simply 
submits  the  following  summary  of  rea- 
sons for  and  against  such  action,  based 
on  information  obtainable  during  six 
weeks'  constant  contact  with  the  people 
of  the  region: 


REASONS  FOR 

1.  As  one  of  the  chief  contributors  to 
the  formation  of  a  League  of  Nations  the 
United  States  is  morally  bound  to  accept 
the  obligation  and  responsibilities  of  a 
mandatary. 

2.  The  insurance  of  world  peace  at  the 
world's  crossways,  the  focus  of  war  in- 


MAJOR-GEN.   JAMES  G.   HARBORD 

Head  of  mission  to  the  Near  East  and  former 

Chief  of  Staff  under  General  Pershing 


fection  since  the  beginning  of  history. 
Better  millions  for  a  mandate  than  bil- 
lions for  future  wars. 

3.  The  Near  East  presents  the  greatest 
humanitarian  opportunity  of  the  age,  a 
duty  for  which  the  United  States  is  better 
fitted  than  any  other,  as  witness  Cuba, 
Porto  Rico,  the  Philippines,  Hawaii,  Pana- 
ma and  our  altruistic  policy  of  developing 
peoples  rather  than  material  resources 
alone. 

4.  America  is  practically  the  unanimous 
choice  and  fervent  hope  of  all  the  peoples 
involved. 

5.  America  is  already  spending  millions 
to  save  starving  people  in  Turkey  and 
Transcaucasia,  and  could  do  this  with 
much  more  efficiency  if  in  control.  Who- 
ever becomes  mandatary  for  these  regions 
we  shall  still  be  expected  to  finance  their 
relief  and  will  probably  eventually  fur- 
nish the  capital  for  material  development. 

6.  America  is  the  only  hope  of  the  Ar- 
menians.     They    consider    but    one    other 


332 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


nation,  Great  Britain,  which  they  fear 
would  sacrifice  their  interests  to  Moslem 
public  opinion  as  long  as  she  controls 
hundreds  of  millions  of  that  faith.  Oth- 
ers fear  Britain's  imperialistic  policy  and 
habit  of  staying  where  she  hoists  her 
flag.  For  a  mandatary,  America  is  not 
only  the  first  choice  of  all  the  people  of 
the  Near  East,  but  of  each  of  the  great 
powers  after  itself.  American  power 
is  adequate;  its  record  clean,  its  motives 
above  suspicion. 

7.  The  mandatory  would  be  self-sup- 
porting after  an  initial  period  of  not  to 
exceed  five  years.  Building  railroads 
would  offer  opportunities  to  our  capital. 
There  would  be  great  trade  advantages 
not  only  in  the  mandatory  region  but  in 
the  proximity  to  Russia,  Rumania,  &c. 
America  would  clean  this  hotbed  of  dis- 
ease and  filth  as  in  Cuba  and  Panama. 

8.  Intervention  would  be  a  liberal  edu- 
cation for  our  people  in  world  politics, 
give  outlet  to  a  vast  amount  of  spirit  and 
energy,  and  would  furnish  a  shining  ex- 
ample. 

9.  It  would  stop  further  massacres  of 
Armenians  and  otherlChristians,  give  jus- 
tice to  Turks,  Kurds,  Greeks  and  other 
peoples. 

10.  It  would  increase  the  strength  and 
prestige  of  the  United  States  abroad  and 
inspire  interest  at  home  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  Far  East. 

11.  America  has  strong  sentimental  in- 
terests in  the  region  of  our  missions  and 
colleges. 

12.  If  the  United  States  does  not  take 
responsibility  in  this  region  it  is  likely 
that  international  jealousies  will  result 
in  a  continuance  of  the  unspeakable  mis- 
rule of  the  Turk. 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain:  Where 
is  Abel,  thy  brother?  And  he  said,  I 
know  not;  am  I  my  brother's  keeper? 

REASONS  AGAINST 

1.  The  United  States  has  prior  and 
nearer  foreign  obligations  and  ample  re- 
sponsibilities with  domestic  problems 
growing  out  of  the  war. 

2.  This  region  has  been  a  battleground 
of  militarism  and  imperialism  for  cen- 
turies. There  is  every  likelihood  that  am- 
bitious nations  will  still  manoeuvre  for 
its  control.  It  would  weaken  our  position 
relative  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  prob- 
ably eventually  involve  us  with  a  recon- 
.stituted  Russia.  The  taking  of  a  mandate 
in  this  region  would  bring  the  United 
States  into  the  politics  of  the  Old  World, 
contrary  to  our  traditional  policy  of  keep- 
ing free  of  affairs  in  the  Eastern  Hemis- 
phere. 

3.  Humanitarianism  should  begin  at 
home.  There  are  a  sufficient  number  of 
difficult  situations  which  call  for  our 
action  within  the  well-recognized  spheres 
of  American  influence. 


4.  The  United  States  has  in  no  way  con- 
tributed to  and  is  not  responsible  for  the 
conditions,  political,  social  or  economic, 
that  prevail  in  this  region.  It  will  be  en- 
tirely consistent  to  decline  the  invitation. 

5.  American  philanthropy  and  charity 
are  worldwide.  Such  a  policy  would  com- 
mit us  to  a  policy  of  meddling  or  draw 
upon  our  philanthropy  to  the  point  of  ex- 
haustion. 

6.  Other  powers,  particularly  Great 
Britain  and  Russia,  have  shown  continued 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  Armenia.  Great 
Britain  is  fitted  by  experience  and  gov- 
ernment, has  great  resources  in  money 
and  trained  personnel,  and  though  she 
might  not  be  as  sympathetic  to  Armenian 
aspirations,  her  rule  would  guarantee  se- 
curity and  justice.  The  United  States  Is 
not  capable  of  sustaining  a  continuity  of 
foreign  policy.  One  Congress  cannot 'bind 
another.  Even  treaties  can  'be  nullified 
by  cutting  off  appropriations.  Non-parti- 
sanship is  difficult  to  obtain  in  our  Gov- 
ernment. 

7.  Our  country  would  be  put  to  great 
expense,  involving  probably  an  increase  of 
the  army  and  navy.  Large  numbers  of 
Americans  would  serve  in  a  country  of 
loathsome  and  dangerous  diseases.  It  is 
Questionable  if  railroads  could  for  many 
years  pay  interest  on  investments  in  their 
very  difficult  construction.  Capital  for 
railroads  would  not  go  there  except  on 
Government  guarantees.  The  effort  and 
money  spent  would,  get  us  more  trade  in 
nearer  lands  than  we  can  hope  for  in 
Russia  and  Rumania.  Proximity  and  com- 
petition would  increase  the  possibility  of 
our  becoming  involved  in  conflict  with  the 
policies  and*  ambitions  of  States  which, 
now  our  friends,  would  be  made  our 
rivals. 

8.  Our  spirit  and  energy  can  find  scope 
in  domestic  enterprises  or  in  lands  south 
and  west  of  ours.  Intervention  in  the 
Near  East  would  rob  us  of  the  strategic 
■advantage  of  the  Atlantic  which  rolls  be- 
tween us  and  probable  foes.  Our  reputa- 
tiontfor  fair  dealing  might  be  impaired. 

9.  Peace  and  justice  would  be  equally 
assured  under  any  other  of  the  great 
powers. 

10.  It  would  weaken  and  dissipate  our 
strength,  which  should  be  reserved  for 
future  responsibilities  on  the  American 
continent  and  in  the  Far  East.  Our  line 
of  communication  to  Constantinople  would 
ibe  at  the  mercy  of  other  naval  powers  and 
especially  of  Great  Britain,  with  Gibraltar 
and   Malta,    &c.,   on  the   route. 

11.  These  institutions  have  been  respect- 
ed even  by  the  Turks  throughout  the  war 
and  the  massacres,  and  sympathy  and  re- 
spect would  be  shown  by  any  other 
mandatary. 

12.  The  Peace  Conference  has  definitely 
informed  the  Turkish  Government  that  it 
may  expect  to  go  under  a  mandate.  It 
is    not    conceivable    that    the    League    of 


GENERAL  HARBORD'S  REPORT   ON  ARMENIA 


333 


mi 


Nations  would  permit  further  uncontrolled 
rule  by  that  thoroughly  discredited  Gov- 
ernment, 

13.  The  first  duty  of  America  is  to  its 
own  people  and  its  nearer  neig-hbors.  Our 
country  would  be  involved  in  this  ad- 
venture for  at  least  a  generation,  and  in 
counting  the  cost  Congress  mu?t  be  pre- 
pared to  advance  such  sums,  less  such 
amounts  as  the  Turkish  and  Transcau- 
casian  revenues  could  afford,  for  the  first' 
five  years,  as  follows:  First  year,  $275,- 
000,000;  second  year,  $174,000,000;  third 
year,  $123,750,000;  fourth  year,  $96,750,000; 
fifth  year,  $85,750,000.  Grand  total,  $756,- 
014,000.    *    *    * 

MILITARY  PROBLEM   INVOLVED 

EstinTates  of  the  number  of  mandatory 
troops  vary  greatly  from  23,000  to  200,000. 
Conditions   change    so   rapidly   that   plans 

ade  today  for  the  use  of  troops  might  be 
ibsolete  in.  six  months.  Uncertainty  as 
0  the  time  the  mandate  will  be  tendered 
and  accepted  makes  estimates  merely  ap- 
proximate. Under  conditions  as  they 
exist  today  the  undersigned  believes  that 
a  force  of  two  American  divisions  with 
several  hundred  extra  officers,  or  a  total 
force   of  59,000,    would   be   ample. 

Such  force  should  be  specially  organ- 
ized ;  one  airplane  squadron ;  a  minimum 
of  artillery,  not  to  exceed  one  regiment  of 
75's  motorized,  a  minimum  of  the  special 
services ;  four  times  the  usual  number  of 
sanitary  troops,  four  regiments  of  cavalry 
with  minor  changes  in  organization,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  senior  general  officer 
on  duty  with  the  mandatary  Government. 
This  force  could  be  substantially  reduced 
at  the  end  of  two  years  and  by  50  per 
cent,  at  the  end.  of  the  third  year.  After 
that  some  further  reductions  could  be 
slowly  effected,  but  the  irreducible 
minimum  would  be  reported  at  about  the 
strength   of   one  division. 

The  annual  cost  for  the  force  of  the 
army  above  stated  would  be,  at  the 
maximum,  for  the  first  year  $88,500,000, 
at  the  end  of  two  years  perhaps  $59,000,- 
000,  at  the  end  of  three  years,  $44,250,000, 


with,  therefore,  a  continuing  appropria- 
tion of  that  sum  less  such  amount  as 
local  revenues  could  afford,  probably  a 
very  substantial  fraction  of  the  cost. 
To  offset  our  expenditores  there  would 
be  available  at  least  a  part  of  the  naval 
and  military  budget  hitherto  used  for  the 
support  of  the  disbanded  armies  in  the 
region.  In  Turkey,  before  the  war,  this 
totaled  about  $61,000,000  annually  for  the 
army,  including  $5,000,000  for  the  navy. 

The  naval  establishment  should  consist 
Of  a  station  ship  for  the  capital  and  prob- 
ably one  each  for  Smyrna,  Messina, 
Batum  and  Baku  to  meet  local  needs  in 
quick  transportation  of  troops.  A  troop- 
ship of  light  draft,  capable  of  carrying  a 
complete  regiment,  should  be  permanently 
on  station  at  the  capital.  Four  to  six 
destroyers  would  be  needed  for  communi- 
cation and  moral  effect.  Collier,  repair 
and  hospital  service  afloat  should  be  in 
support.  Old  ships  of  obsolete  type  would 
probably  answer  for  all  except  the  station 
ship  at  the  capital  and  the  destroyers. 
Some  ships  of  the  Turkish  Navy,  of  which 
there  are  over  thirty,  could  doubtless  be 
used  with  American  crews,  soon  to  be  re- 
placed by  natives.  The  naval  establish- 
ment might  not  entail  any  additional 
Federal  appropriations.  Ships  and  per- 
sonnel could*  probably  be  drawn  from 
existing  establishments;  the  only  addi- 
tional expense  would  probably *be  the  dif- 
ference in  cost  of  maintenance  in  Near 
Eastern  and  home  waters. 

A  power  which  should  undertake  a 
mandate  for  Armenia  and  Transcaucasia 
without  control  of  the  contiguous  terri- 
tory of  Asia  Minor,  Anatolia  and  of 
Constantinople,  with  its  hinterland  of 
Roumelia,  would  undertake  it  under  most 
unfavorable  and  trying  conditions,  so  dif- 
ficult as  to  make  the  cost  almost  pro- 
hibitive, the  maintenance  of  law  and  order 
and  the  security  of  life  and  property  un- 
certain, and  ultimate  success  extremely 
doubtful.  With  the  Turkish  "Empire  still 
freely  controlling  Constantinople  such  a 
power  would  be  practically  emasculated 
as  far  as  real  power  is  concerned. 


The  decision  of  the  Council  of  Premiers  to  allow  the  Sultan  to  remain  in 
Constantinople,  on  condition  that  the  Turkish  massacres  of  Armenians  should 
cease,  and  the  energetic  action  taken  in  occupying  Constantinople  by  an  interallied 
force  following  confirmation ,  of  the  Marash  outrages,  lend  a  special  interest  to  the 
following  vivid  article  by  the  French  publicist,  Maurice  Prax,  which  was  published 
in  the  March  issue  of  Lectures  pour  Tous,  and  which  is  here  translated  in  part 
for  Current  History: 


THE  foreigner  who  has  lived  in  Con- 
stantinople, if  he  is  frank,  must 
speak  first  of  Pera,  the  European 
city.  For  it  is  in  Pera  that  he  lives, 
amuses  himself,  meets  other  foreigners 
of  both  sexes.  Stamboul,  the  Turkish 
city,  which  is  the  only  Constantinople, 
which  is  the  Orient,  which  is  Turkey, 
which  is  mystery,  is  for  the  foreigner 
only  an  object  of  curiosity,  which  he 
visits  guidebook  in  hand.  What  stranger 
would  consent  to  live  in  Stamboul,  where 
there  is  not  one  hotel,  where  there  are 
no  gypsy  restaurants,  where  there  is  not 
even  a  cinema? 

Pera  is  the  Constantinople  of  business 
and  pleasure,  of  all  races,  of  all  coun- 
tries, of  all  religions.  It  is  neither  beau- 
tiful nor  clean.  One  large  street,  which 
might  be  called  the  spinal  column  of  the 
city,  dominates  the  rest;  like  ribs  on 
either  side,  run  malodorous  little  streets, 
which  end  no  one  knows  where. 

Pera  is  certainly  not  a  pretty  town. 
But  it  is  the  city  of  all  cities,  the  cross- 
ways  of  all  nationalities,  the  bazaar  of 
all  capitals.  One  may  stand  before  the 
Tokatlian    restaurant    and    see    twenty 


people  pass,  and  one  may  be  sure  that 
those  twenty  people  are  of  different 
nationalities,  races  and  religions.  All  these 
conflicting  languages  and  dialects,  all 
these  intermingling  races,  produce  the 
effect  of  a  perpetual  carnival. 

When  the  Allies  entered  Constanti- 
nople, all  Governmental  policy  had  disap- 
peared. There  was  not  even  a  political 
party,  the  only  really  organized  party, 
Union  and  Progress,  having  disap- 
peared like  magic  over  night.*  Since  then, 
the  situation  has  not  changed,  for  there 
is  still  no  political  party,  still  no  politics. 
Only  the  party  of  Union  and  Progress 
has  again  come  to  the  front. 

"  UNION  AND  PROGRESS  " 

What  Union  and  Progress  represents 
is  still  rather  vaguely  known.  They  say 
that  even  our  diplomats  have  not  yet 
found  out.  It  was  originally  an  anony- 
mous society  whose  object  it  was  to  ex- 
ploit Turkey.  By  belonging  to  Union 
and  Progress  one  became  a  stockholder 
and  received  dividends  on  the  country. 
Or  one  obtained  well-remunerated  sin- 
ecures, became  a  State  contractor,  gained 


LIFE  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE  TODAY 


335 


control  of  war  markets.  Or  else  one  ac- 
quired the  right  to  swindle  others,  to 
smuggle,  to  make  a  fortune  illegitimately. 
If  one  did  not  belong  to  the  "  society," 
one  remained  in  the  category  of  those 
exploited,  was  pillaged,  ransomed,  mar- 
tyrized and  in  many  cases  slain. 

In  these  circumstances  the  Turks  pre- 
ferred to  be  stockholders  and  torturers 
rather  than  to  belong  to  the  exploited 
and  tortured.  Hence  Union  and  Progress 
became  a  great  political  party,  and 
hence  Enver,  Talaat  and  Djemal  were 
able,  during  four  years  of  war,  to  gain 
complete  possession  of  Turkey.  That  is 
why  Union  and  Progress  still  exists,  in 
spite  of  two  or  three  hangings  and  of 
all  the  eloquent  speeches  delivered  in 
Paris.  Must  we  conclude  from  this  that 
the  Turks  are  to  be  hated  and  are  and 
will  remain  our  enemies?  Certainly  not. 
But  we  must  know  them,  nevertheless, 
before  we  like  them. 

Among  the  Turks  we  have  strong 
friends.  They  are  numerous,  but  they 
are  weak,  because  we  do  not  support 
them,  and  even  often  do  not  know  them. 
And  they  are  weak  also  because  they 
are  fatalistic. 

I  have  known,  I  think,  all  the  Govern- 
mental officials  of  Turkey,  all  those  who 
remained  in  Constantinople  to  receive 
the  Allies.  I  have  known  a  tottering, 
senile  old  Grand  Vizier.  I  have  known 
Ministers  who  were  amiable,  obliging 
and  weak.  I  ask  forgiveness  if  I  cannot 
recall  their  faces,  their  words,  and  some- 
times even  their  names.  They  were  to 
me  like  shadows.  I  remember  only  the 
fine-looking  bronze  servants  in  the 
Ministerial  palaces,  who  brought  me, 
with  furtive  gaze  and  deep  bows,  the 
little  cup  of  fragrant  Turkish  coffee. 

And  yet  I  saw,  one  day,  in  Stamboul, 
some  real  and  aggressive  statesmen. 
They  were  strolling  quietly  in  a 
pretty  garden,  surrounded  by  wonderful 
scenery.  They  might  have  been  able  to 
tell  me  very  interesting  things,  but  they 
were  prisoners,  and  sentries  who  knew 
only  this  one  word,  cried  out  "Yok! 
Yok!  "  which  meant  that  no  one  could 
gain  access  to  those  within.  Some  of 
the  highest  dignitaries  of  Union  and 
Progress  were  imprisoned  there.  They 
were  to  be  tried  without  delay,  and  to 


be  hanged,  without  exception,  on  the  little 
square  in  front  of  the  War  Ministry  re- 
served for  the  execution  of  prisoners  of 
note.  But  if  the  Turks  showed  them 
clemency,  the  Allies  showed  them  even 


MUSTAPHA    KEMAL 

Leader  of  the  Turkish  Nationalist'  movement 

iPJioto   International) 

more.      Yavash!     Yavash!     These   high 
personages  have  not  yet  been  hanged. 

AHMEX)  RIZA 

One  of  the  most  notable  figures  of  the 
whole  world,  a  year  ago,  was  undoubted- 
ly Ahmed  Riza,  President  of  the  Senate. 
He  is  a  handsome  old  man,  tall  and  thin, 
with  an  expressive  face  and  wearing  a 
carefully  clipped  white  beard.  Threat- 
ened with  arrest  under  the  abject  rule 
of  Abdul  Hamid  for  treasonable  utter- 
ances, he  fled  to  Paris,  where  he  re- 
mained for  nineteen  years.  A  personal 
friend  of  M.  Clemenceau,  his  activities 
in  Constantinople  were  much  counted  on. 
It  was  thought  that  he  would  be  able  to 
form  a  party  devoted  to  a  campaign  of 
renovation,  reparation  and  public  safety. 
Why  did  he  fail?   Mystery — and  "  Union 


336 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


and  Progress!  "  He  is,  at  all  events,  an 
amiable,  intelligent  man.  How  many 
times,  in  the  fairy-like  palace  which  he 
occupies  as  President  of  the  Senate,  and 
which  is  laved  by  the  multicolored  waters 
of  the  Bosporus,  have  I  heard  him  speak 
of  France.     *     *     * 

THE  CROWN  PRINCE 

Another  figure  which  attracts  atten- 
tion in  Turkey  today  is  that  of  the 
Crown  Prince.  With  his  light,  almost 
blonde  hair,  his  delicate  mustache.  Prince 
Abdul-Medjid  greatly  resembles  a  Euro- 
pean. He  gave  me  a  very  clear  analysis 
of  his  political  opinions.  In  1914,  he 
said,  he  had  made  every  possible  effort 
to  prevent  Turkey  from  throwing  her- 
self into  the  abyss  of  war.  But  the 
reigning  Sultan,  Mehmed  Reched,  was 
a  weak  and  worthless  kind  of  ruler,  who 
spent  all  his  time  drinking  the  national 
liquors.  So  Enver  became  supreme,  and 
Enver  wished  literally  to  "  annihilate 
England."  As  for  France,  she  was  con- 
sidered as  crushed  in  advance. 

I  remember  a  few  sad  words  Prince 
Abdul-Medjid  said  to  me,  notably  the 
following : 

All  our  misfortunes  date  from  the  day 
when  a  little  army  Lieutenant,  Enver, 
took  the  train  for  Berlin,  where  he  had 
just  been  appointed  as  an  assistant  to  the 
military  attach^.  This  little  Lieutenant 
soon  returned  to  Turkey  impregnated  and 
poisoned  with  Teutonic  ideas.  *  *  * 
How  could  we  ever  have  entered  this 
war?  How  could  we  have  allowed  our- 
selves to  be  influenced  by  barely  a  dozen 
scoundrelly  men?  What  a  misfortune! 
What  a  misfortune ! 

MUSTAPHA    KEMAL 

I  also  knew  a  dried-up,  queer  little 
man,  who  was  very  interesting.  He  was 
my  neighbor,  at  the  Pera  Palace  Hotel. 
His  face  was  clear-cut,  hard  and  ener- 
getic, his  eyes  were  like  steel,  his  cheek- 
bones high  and  projecting,  he  wore  a 
drooping  mustache  almost  red  in  hue. 
When  I  was  tired  of  bargaining  for  car- 
pets I  would  go  and  interview  this 
strange  little  man.  He  had  been  a  com- 
mander   under    Falkenhayn.     "  Falken- 


hayn  amounts  to  nothing,"  he  said  to  me. 
He  had  seen  Ludendorff  at  work. 
"  Ludendorff  is  a  personality,"  he  de- 
clared.    To  this  he  added: 

I  loathe  the  Grermans.  They  wished  to 
treat  us  Turks  like  slaves.  They  wanted 
to  teach  us  the  science  of  war.  We  found 
It  possible  to  teach  them  courage.  Their 
officers,  members  of  German  missions, 
living  continuously  in  Constantinople, 
crowded  all  the  clubs  and  gambling 
houses,  while  our  soldiers  were  being 
killed   at   Gallipoli   or   in   Mesopotamia. 

We  were  betrayed  by  the  Unionists; 
Enver,  Talaat,  Djemal  and  all  their  ac- 
complices deserve  death.  Why  do  the 
Allies  delay  to  have  these  rascals  hung? 
*  *  *  The  alliance  with  Germany  was 
an  act  of  madness.  We  learned  the  true 
character  of  the  Germans  during  the  war. 
All  of  us  Turks  have  felt  that  we  detest 
the  German  race,  and  that  we  cannot 
ally  ourselves  with  it. 

But  Turkey  has  now  other  aims  than  to 
make  war.  It  must  have  a  small  army, 
composed  of  a  few  thousand  men.  And 
it  must  have  gendarmes. 

The  strange,  dried-up  little  man,  who 
spoke  in  such  a  crisp  and  mordant  way, 
left  the  Pera  Palace  Hotel  one  day.  He 
was  General  Mustapha  Kemal,  who  went 
to  Anatolia  to  raise  an  insurgent  army 
against  the  Allies.  Draw  your  own  con- 
clusions. 

I  have  spoken  of  Pera,  the  Constanti- 
nople of  foreigners.  Must  I  pass  the 
bridge  and  enter  Stamboul,  the  Con- 
stantinople of  the  Turks?  Has  not 
everything  been  said?  It  is  the  city  of 
St.  Sophia,  a  miracle  of  light,  of  bold 
and  picturesque  grace.  It  is  the  city  of 
the  vast  and  swarming  bazaar,  as  richly 
colored  as  a  Persian  tale;  it  is  the  city 
of  little  wooden  houses  and  little  grated 
windows  behind  which  the  mystery  of 
Islam  has  been  concealed  for  many  cen- 
turies. It  is  the  city  of  minarets,  of 
prayers,  of  pigeons,  of  bearded  old  men, 
furtive,  imprisoned  women,  of  little 
flower-grown  cemeteries  which  await  the 
living  at  the  corner  of  almost  every 
narrow  street.  One  can  say  nothing 
more  of  Stamboul,  seen  from  the  Golden 
Horn,  nor  of  the  lovely  shores  of  the 
Bosporus:  all  words  have  been  employed 
to  evoke  those  marvels. 


The  Problem  of  Thrace 

By  Dr.  J.  F.  SCHELTEMA 


WHEN  the  World  War  was  in  its 
first  year,  and  old  plans  for  the 
partition  of  Turkey  were  being 
revised  with  a  view  to  the  new  grouping 
of  the  European  Powers,  the  question 
"  What  will  the  Allies  do  with  Thrace?  " 
began  to  trouble  thoughtful  observers  in 
both  hemispheres,  and  in  the  intervening 
years  it  has  steadily  gained  in  signifi- 
cance. 

From  the  pre-classic  period  to  our  day 
the  name  Thrace  has  at  different  times, 
to  suit  different  purposes,  been  applied 
to  areas  of  widely  different  extent. 
Bounded  by  the  Haemus  Mountains  (Bal- 
kan Range),  the  Rhodope  Mountains,  the 
Aegean,  the  Propontis  (Sea  of  Marmora) 
and  the  Euxine  (Black  Sea),  the  Roman 
Province  of  Thracia,  south  of  Moesia 
Inferior,  corresponded,  roughly  speaking, 
with  the  Bulgarian  territory  formerly 
known  as  Eastern  Rumelia  and  the 
Turkish  vilayets  of  Adrianople  and  Con- 
stantinople. [See  map  Page  340.]  This 
region  fell  to  Lysimachus  after  the  death 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  gave  much 
trouble  to  that  restless  military  chief. 
Under  Vespasian's  rule  it  lost  the  last 
vestige  of  autonomy. 

When  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire 
slackened  its  grip,  Thrace  suffered  suc- 
cessively from  the  inroads  of  the  Goths, 
the  Huns  and  the  Bulgars.  Then  the 
Turks  arrived  on  the  scene,  and  Murad 
I.,  continuing  the  conquests  of  his  father 
Orchan,  who,  in  1358,  had  gained  a  foot- 
hold on  European  soil  at  Gallipoli,  estab- 
lished, in  1361,  his  Court  at  Adrianople. 
Passing  again  under  Asiatic  control, 
Thrace  became  a  piece  of  the  crazy-quilt 
known  as  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Thenceforward  a  dependency  of  the 
House  of  Othman,  Thrace  shared  in  its 
fortunes,  in  its  rise  as  now  in  its  de- 
cline. In  the  long  period  of  manoeuvring 
for  place  against  the  demise  of  the 
"  sick  man  "  at  Stambul,  it  was  on  Rus- 
sia's cards,  played  out  in  the  Treaty  of 
San  Stefano,  1878,  but  trumped  at  the 
Congress  of  Berlin,  to  weaken  Turkish 
authority  in  Thrace,  as  in  Macedonia  and 
Albania,  and  so  to  bring  about  a  change 


in  the  Balkan  equilibrium  calculated  to 
profit  Bulgaria  to  the  prejudice  of 
Austria  and  incidentally  of  Greece.  The 
Balkan  Entente,  which  followed  the 
Turkish  revolution  of  1908,  resulted  in 
agreements  which,  in  1912,  provided  for 
a  division  of  Northern  Macedonia  be- 
tween Bulgaria  and  Serbia,  of  Southern 
Macedonia  between  Bulgaria  and  Greece, 
with  the  fate  of  Saloniki  reserved  for 
later  negotiations,  while  Montenegro  was 
to  be  rewarded  with  a  slice  of  the  sanjak 
of  Novi  Bazar. 

Montenegro  commenced  hostilities  on 
Oct.  8  and  Greece,  Bulgaria  and  Serbia  on 
Oct.  18,  1912.  Details  of  the  Bulgarian 
campaign  in  Thrace  do  not  belong  here; 
neither  does  an  account  of  the  co-ordinate 
exploits  of  the  Greek  armies  in  Mace- 
donia and  Epirus,  or  of  the  new  war 
waged  by  the  victors  hotly  at  variance 
over  the  spoils  according  to  their  re- 
spective interpretations  of  the  agree- 
ments just  referred  to.  Enough  to  re- 
member that  the  Turks,  profiting  by  the 
occasion,  reoccupied  Adrianople,  and  that 
the  Peace  of  Bucharest,  Aug.  10,  1913, 
allowed  Greece  to  advance  her  northeast- 
ern boundary  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mesta, 
far  beyond  Saloniki,  while  Bulgaria, 
badly  beaten,  had  also  to  put  up  with  a 
demarkation  line  of  her  Serbian  frontier 
which  was  determined  by  the  watershed 
between  the  Vardar  and  the  Struma, 
with  the  cession  to  Rumania  of  a  vast 
tract  of  land  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Danube  and  the  dismantling  of  the 
strongholds  of  Rustchuk  and  Chumla. 

To  make  up  for  those  losses,  Bulgaria 
was  promised  by  the  Allies,  as  the  price 
of  her  neutrality  in  1914,  the  whole  of 
Eastern  Thrace  down  to  the  Enos-Midia 
line  and  a  favorable  rectification  of  her 
western  border  as  defined  by  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest.  After  a  long  period  of 
hesitation  and  of  dickering  impartially 
with  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna,  St. 
Petersburg  and  Constantinople,  King 
Ferdinand  thought  that  he  could  do 
better  by  throwing  in  his  lot  with  the 
Central  Powers  and  the  Porte. 

Ferdinand's  mistake  has    prepared   a 


338 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


fine  opportunity  for  the  ultra-Hellenistic 
patriots  who,  raising  their  banner  in  the 
cause  of  Grecia  Irredenta,  demand  the 
annexation  of  Thrace  to  Greece.  The 
Greeks  at  the  same  time  are  trying  to 
get  Macedonia  and  Epirus,  besides  a 
slice  of  Asia  Minor  larger  than  the  old 
Pontian  Empire.  The  abdication  of  King 
Constantine  and  the  entry  of  Greece  into 
the  war  on  the  allied  side  have  served 
as  a  further  basis  for  these  claims. 
Though  the  officially  directed  press  at 
Athens  expands  on  the  theme  that  Tur- 
key should  be  left  sufficiently  intact  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  a  stable  and 
enduring  peace,  the  Greeks  are  busy  with 
armed  activity  which  they  endeavor  to 
screen. 

The  1  nredeemed  Greeks  in  the  Otto- 
man Empire,  estimated  by  some  to  num- 
ber more  than  2,000,000,  are  classified 
by  M.  Stephanopoli,  editor  of  the  Mes- 
sager  d'Athenes,  as  belonging  to  four 
principal  groups:  Those  of  Thrace; 
those  of  Constantinople,  its  straits  and 
the  connecting  stretch  along  the  Sea  of 
Marmora;  those  of  the  west  coast  of 
Asia  Minor,  and  those  of  the  south  coast 
of  the  Black  Sea.  The  two  latter  include 
Greek  settlements  in  the  interior,  which, 
though  not  always  of  Hellenic  speech, 
have  preserved  their  ancestral  customs, 
manners  and  traditions. 

Confining  ourselves  to  Thrace,  and 
taking  it  in  its  most  restricted  sense  as 
consisting  of  the  vilayets  of  Adrianople 
and  Constantinople,  the  Ottoman  census 
of  1910  gave  it  676,000  inhabitants  of 
Greek  extraction,  against  113,500  Bul- 
gars.  The  latest  Greek  information, 
dated  1919,  makes  these  numbers  respec- 
tively 730,822  and  112,174,  adding  that 
there  are  957,425  Turks  in  a  total  popu- 
lation of  2,200,646.  Bulgaria  claims  the 
Thracian  Moslems  of  the  Pirin  and 
Rhodope  Mountains,  who  speak  a  Bul- 
garian dialect  and  are  known  under  the 
name  of  Pomaks.  She  also  derives 
another  and  more  valid  argument  in 
support  of  her  rights  to  the  disputed 
region  from  its  geographical  configura- 
tion and  her  own  economic  needs. 

Thrace  being  the  buffer  between  the 
European  domains  of  the  Othmanlies  and 
the  hordes  which,  crossing  the  Danube, 
had    harassed    the    Byzantine    Empire, 


Murad  I.,  Mohammed  the  Conqueror,  and 
Solyman  the  Magnificent  fortified  Adria- 
nople with  the  avowed  object  of  keeping 
out  the  Bulgars,  blocking  their  path  to 
the  south.  Deprived  for  centuries  of  a 
door  on  the  Aegean,  Bulgaria  made  dur- 
ing the  Balkan  wars  strong  attempts  to 
secure  at  least  Dedeagatch  and  Kavala, 
the  seaport  of  Strumnitza  and  other  dis- 
tricts to  the  west,  which,  with  the 
Maritza  valley,  she  considers  geographic- 
ally her  own.  Countenanced  and  thwart- 
ed in  turn,  according  to  the  changeable 
currents  of  Balkan  politics,  her  title  to 
Kavala  was  twice  acknov/ledged,  even  by 
Greece,  her  bitterest  enemy,  which  now 
wants  the  whole  of  Eastern  with  Western 
Thrace,  Macedonia  and  Epirus  up  to 
Argorikastro  and  Goritza  in  Albania — 
and  as  much  more  as  she  can  get. 

"  In  Thrace,"  writes  M.  Constantine 
Stephanove,  delegate  of  the  Macedonian 
Central  Committee  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Peace  Conference  (the  New 
Europe,  July  31,  1919),  "as  well  as  in 
Macedonia,  Hellenization,  no  matter  how 
intense  its  efforts,  was  unable  to  assimil- 
ate the  Slavs  and  Bulgars  settled  there." 
If  anywhere  it  is  in  those  regions  that 
abstract  concepts  of  the  terms  "  nation  " 
and  "  nationality "  are  absolutely  mis- 
leading. Reared  on  the  substructure  of. 
an  aboriginal  Thracian  population,  with 
a  Slavo-Grecian  admixture,  and  fortified 
with  Armenian  and  Syrian  elements, 
owing  to  a  wave  of  immigration  fostered 
by  the  Byzantine  Emperors,*  we  find 
an  Ottoman  fabric  composed  of  other 
incongruous  ingredients.  By  and  for  the 
occupants  of  this  ethnically  and  lin- 
guistically inharmonious  edifice,  a  battle 
of  religious  hatreds  is  raging  no  less 
fierce  than  that  of  nationalistic  dif- 
ferences. 

Bulgaria  at  present  is  regarded  aG  a 
negligible  quantity,  because  King  Ferdi- 
nand made  the  mistake  of  betting  on  the 
wrong  horse.  Nevertheless,  Greece  has 
not  yet  reached  the  Maritza,  although  a 

*In  the  tenth  century  alone  some  200,000 
Armenians  settled  at  the  imperial  command 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Philippopoli  and  the 
old  stock  of  a  very  mixed  population  was 
further  diversified  with  colonists  from  the 
Sredna  Gora  and  other  parts.  Cf.  Jovan 
Cvijic,  "  La  Peninsule  Balkanique,  G6o- 
graphie    Humaine." 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THRACE 


339 


resolution  adopted  by  the  Foreign  Rela- 
tions Committee  of  the  Senate — which 
proposed  that  all  Thracian  territory  sur- 
rendered to  the  Allies  by  Turkey  and 
Bulgaria  should  be  awarded  to  her,  pro- 
vided an  outlet  on  the  Aegean  Sea  were 
given  to  Bulgaria — was  echoed  in  the 
provisional  Turkish  settlement  adopted 
by  the  Peace  Conference.  Another  ar- 
rangement recently  propounded,  which 
assumes  the  expulsion  of  the  Turks  from 
Europe,  at  any  rate  from  what  remained 
to  them  of  that  continent  west  of  the 
Chatalja  line,  favors  the  foundation  of 
an  autonomous  Thracian  State. 
As  time  goes  on  it  seems  increasingly 


hard  to  find  a  generally  acceptable  an- 
swer to  the  Thracian  question  without 
sowing  the  seeds  of  new  broils.  While 
the  allied  Premiers  deliberate,  however, 
Premier  Venizelos  offers  the  military 
services  of  Greece  to  force  the  solution 
of  a  problem  of  wider  scope  in  which 
the  lesser  issue  is  involved.  He  proposes 
to  coerce  the  Turks,  both  in  Asia  and 
in  Europe,  to  improve  their  tractability 
and  assure  their  concurrence  in  what- 
ever decisions  may  be  proclaimed.  Such 
an  offer  presumes  payment,  and  the 
grant  of  Thrace  to  its  furthest  eastern 
limit  would  set  a  regenerated  Hellas  far 
on  the  road  to  a  redeemed  Byzantium. 


Bulgaria's  New  Frontiers 

Loss  of  Aegean  Coast 


rIE  Treaty  of  Neuilly  changes  Bul- 
garia's boundaries  for  the  ninth  time 
in  less  than  half  a  century.  By  that 
treaty  the  Peasant  Kingdom  is  deprived 
of  its  Aegean  littoral,  which  goes  to 
Greece;  it  still  has  commercial  access  to 
the  Mediterranean,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, through  Dedeagatch,  but  that  port 
has  only  a  poor  roadstead  where  all 
goods  have  to  be  landed  or  embarked  in 
lighters. 

The  shaded  areas  on  the  accompanying 
map  show  the  portions  of  territory  lost 
by  Bulgaria.  The  three  strips  on  the 
west,  which  are  assigned  to  Serbia, 
formed  part  of  Bulgaria  even  under  the 
Turkish  administration,  and  are  now 
taken  from  her  for  strategic  rather  than 
ethnological  reasons.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  Strumnitza  (now  also  allotted  to 
Serbia),  which  brought  the  Bulgarian 
frontier  uncomfortably  near  the  railway 
running  north  from  Saloniki. 

The  territories  lost  in  the  south  had 
been  predominantly  Greek  or  Turkish; 
the  proportion  of  Bulgarians  in  this  area 
was  never  considerable,  even  after  the 
departure  of  many  coast-dwelling  Greeks 
from  1913  on.  To  the  northwest  of 
Adrianople,  a  small  strip  of  territory 
yielded  by  Turkey  in  1915  is  retained  by 
Bulgaria;  the  remainder  of  her  1915 
acquisitions  are  again  lost. 


The  history  of  Bulgarian  boundaries 
since  the  year  1878  was  reviewed  in  The 
London  Times  on  March  5;  following  is 
a  summary  of  that  article: 

After  the  "  Bulgarian  atrocities "  of 
May,  1876,  which  brought  the  effects 
of  Turkish  misrule  strongly  before  West- 
ern Europe,  a  conference  of  Ambassa- 
dors formulated  a  plan  for  the  autonomy 
of  a  Bulgaria  (reaching  from  Nish  to 
Burgas  and  from  Kastoria  to  Tulcha,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube),  which  was  a 
great  deal  larger  than  the  old  Turkish 
Province  of  Bulgaria.  After  the  Rus- 
sians defeated  Turkey  in  1878,  an  even 
larger  Bulgaria  was  provided  for  by  the 
Treaty  of  San  Stefano  (March  3,  1878), 
which  embraced  almost  all  Macedonia  ex- 
cept Saloniki,  and  took  in  Lule  Burgas 
in  Thrace.  This  "  San  Stefano  line " 
has  represented  a  supreme  Bulgarian 
ambition  ever  since. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  (latified  on 
Aug.  4,  1878)  Bulgaria  was  confined 
within  narrower  limits,  and  Northern 
Thrace  was  made  a  separate  autonomous 
province  under  the  name  of  Eastern 
Rumelia;  Aleko  Pasha  Vogorides  was 
appointed  Vali  by  the  Sublime  Porte  on 
May  30,  1878.  By  a  coup  d'etat  in 
Philippopolis,  the  capital  of  the  province, 
union  with  Bulgaria  was  proclaimed  on 
Sept.  18,  1885. 


340 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


AREAS    SHADED    DIAGONALLY    SHOW    TERRITORY    DEFINITELY    LOST    TO    BULGARIA    BY 

THE   TREATY   OF   NEUILLY 


The  war  declared  by  Serbia  in  con- 
sequence of  this  coup  (Nov.  13,  1885) 
resulted  in  an  unexpected  Bulgarian  vic- 
tory (March  17,  1886),  but  led  to  no 
change  of  frontier  at  this  point.  Turkey, 
however,  though  giving  her  assent  to  the 
rule  of  Alexander  of  Battenberg,  Prince 
of  Bulgaria,  as  Vali  of  Eastern  Rumelia, 
insisted  on  the  recovery  of  the  Rhodope, 
Tumrush  and  Kirjali  districts  of  this 
province,  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
mainly  inhabited  by  Moslems.  Apart 
from  the  exchange  of  a  few  acres  of 
land  with  Serbia  in  settlement  of  the 
long-standing  dispute  over  Bregovo, 
there  were  no  further  changes  in  the 
Bulgarian  boundaries  for  nearly  a 
generation. 

Bulgaria  entered  the  first  Balkan  war 
on  Oct.  17,  1912.  On  May  30,  1913,  Bul- 
garia and  Turkey  signed  the  Treaty  of 


London,  whereby  Bulgaria  obtained  the 
"  Enos-Midia  line  "  as  her  frontier  to  the 
southeast.  The  second  Balkan  war, 
caused  by  dissensions  between  the  Balkan 
allies  over  the  division  of  Macedonia, 
was  terminated  by  the  Peace  of  Bucha- 
rest (Aug.  6,  1913),  which  gave  to  Bul- 
garia only  a  small  share  of  Macedonia, 
and  forced  her  to  cede  a  large  part  of 
the  Bulgarian  Dobrudja  to  Rumania. 
Profiting  by  Bulgaria's  distractions, 
Turkey  seized  the  opportunity  to  occupy 
Adrianople,  and  Bulgaria,  realizing  that 
the  guarantees  of  the  Treaty  of  London 
were  worthless,  was  forced  to  accept  the 
Treaty  of  Pera,  which  returned  most  of 
her  territorial  conquests  on  the  south  to 
the  Porte. 

The  Central  Powers,  as  an  inducement 
to  Bulgaria  to  enter  the  war  on  their 


BULGARIA'S  NEW  FRONTIERS 


34] 


I 


promised  to  induce  the  Turks  to 
modify  the  Treaty  of  Pera  in  favor  of 
Bulgaria  by  a  substantial  cession  of  all 
Turkish  territory  west  of  the  Maritza 
River,  together  with  a  small  strip  along 
the  east  bank.  The  main  thought  of  Ger- 
many in  making  this  offer  was  the  possi- 
bility of  thus  securing  direct  communica- 
tion with  Turkey  overland  during  the 
continuance  of  the  war.     Czar  Nicholas 


consented  to  abandon  Bulgaria's  neutral- 
ity on  these  terms,  and  entered  the  war 
on  Oct.  14,  1915.  The  armistice  sued  for 
by  Bulgaria  was  obtained  on  Sept.  29, 
1918.  Czar  Nicholas  was  deposed  on 
Oct.  4,  1918,  and  the  Peasant  Kingdom 
paid  the  price  of  its  former  ruler's  mis- 
take by  the  surrender  of  its  Aegean  coast 
lands,  as  dictated  by  the  terms  of  the 
Treaty  of  Neuilly  on  Sept.  27,  1919. 


Palestine  and  the  Zionist  Project 

Survey  of   Present  Conditions 


THE  arrangements  under  which  the 
proposed  Zionist  State  in  Palestine 
is  to  be  created  under  a  British 
mandate,  its  boundaries  reconciled  with 
both  French  and  Arab  territorial  claims, 
and  its  political  position  established, 
have  not  yet  been  completed,  and  the 
status  quo  is  being  maintained  under  a 
provisional  British  administration.  A 
brief  survey  of  the  present  status  of  the 
Zionist  project  and  of  the  situation  in 
Palestine  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest. 

It  is  not  on  the  ground  of  representing 
a  majority  of  the  whole  population  of 
Palestine  that  the  European  and  Asiatic 
Jews  ask  for  Palestine  as  the  home  of 
the  future  Jewish  Nation.  Of  the  600,000 
or  700,000  inhabitants  of  the  Promised 
Land  only  about  10  per  cent,  now  are 
Jews.  A  smaller  number  are  Christians 
and  the  rest  are  Moslems.  About  one- 
fourth  of  the  Jews  live  in  agricultural 
settlements  or  colonies  founded  in  the 
last  forty  years;  the  remainder  live  in 
the  towns  and  constitute  either  a  ma- 
jority or  the  largest  single  element  in 
Jerusalem,  Tiberias  and  Safed.  A  con- 
siderable number  speak  Arabic.  Within 
recent  years  there  has  come  a  consider- 
able influx  of  Jews  from  the  Yemen, 
most  of  them  skilled  craftsmen,  jewelry 
workers,  masons  and  the  like.  A  small 
number  of  peasant  Russians,  converted 
to  Judaism  in  their  home  land,  are  also 
established  in  Palestine.  According  to 
a  special  correspondent  of  The  Man- 
chaster  Guardian,  whose  articles  are 
freely  drawn  upon  in  the  following  ac- 
count, there  are  about  a  quarter  of  a 
million  of  these  Russo-Judaists  still  in 


Russia,  mostly  on  the  Volga,  and  it  is 
e::pected  that  many  of  them  will  join 
their  co-religionists  in  Palestine,  with 
whom  in  the  second  generation  they  inter- 
marry. 

THE  OLD  AND  NEW  YISHUB 

In  Palestine  itself  there  are  two  dis- 
tinct classes  of  Jews — those  belonging  to 
the  old  Yishub  (settlement)  and  those 
of  the  new  Yishub.  The  first  are  repre- 
sented by  those  Jews  who,  from  the 
early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
have  been  flowing  into  Palestine,  moved 
chiefly  by  religious  ideals,  and  by  the 
first  generation  of  Jewish  settlers  in  the 
colonies.  The  former  settled  in  the  cities 
to  study  and  pray,  and  depended  upon 
public  charity  to  maintain  them.  The 
war  has  broken  up  this  system,  and  the 
transference  of  the  headquarters  of  the 
Zionist  Commission*  has  concentrated  at- 
tention upon  the  necessity  of  substituting 
productive  work  for  charity,  a  project 
feasible,  in  the  minds  of  the  Zionists, 
when  the  present  economic  stagnation  is 
broken  by  the  influx  of  new  Jewish  labor 
and  capital.  The  older  settlement  con- 
sists of  small  farmers  and  their  families, 
representing  a  sober,  conservative  ele- 
ment of  the  population. 

The  new  Yishub  are  of  the  last  genera- 
tion who  settled  in  town  and  country- 
farmers,  laborers,  artisans,  business 
men,  professional  men.  Many  of  them 
have  brought  with  them  from  abroad 
ideas  of  socialism  and  the  creation  of  an 
ideal  State.  Many  experiments  in  co- 
operative agriculture,  co-operative  bank- 
ing and  co-operative  industry  and  com- 


S42 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


merce  are  due  to  them.  They  insist  on 
the  employment  of  Jewish  rather  than 
Arabic  labor,  wherever  possible,  in  order 
to  maintain  the  Jewish  standard  of  labor, 
which  is  much  higher  than  that  of  the 
Arab. 

EDUCATION  IN  PALESTINE 

The  Zionist  organization  alone  is 
spending  $540,000  a  year  on  education  in 
Palestine.  Hebrew  is  the  language  of 
instruction  in  nearly  all  the  schools.  Re- 
formed religious  schools  and  other  schools 
of  the  three  usual  grades  are  main- 
tained, all  of  which  receive  no  public 
funds.  College  and  university  plans  at 
Haifa  and  Jerusalem  are  in  the  making. 
The  American  Zionists  for  nearly  two 
years  have  maintained  a  system  of  hos- 
pital, clinic  and  nursing  schools.  There 
are  two  Hebrew  dailies  in  Jerusalem, 
and  numerous  weeklies,  monthlies  and 
quarterlies. 

The  representative  in  Palestine  of  both 
Palestinian  Jewry  and  of  world-Jewry  is 
the  Zionist  Commission,  which  is  appoint- 
ed by  the  Zionist  organization.  It 
mediates  with  the  British  administration 
in  Palestine  as  the  Zionist  executive 
does  with  the  Home  Government  in 
London  and  with  the  allied  Governments. 
It  is  a  provincial  organization.  Its  Chair- 
man is  Dr.  Weissmann,  its  acting  Chair- 
man Mr.  Ussishkin,  a  Russian  Zionist. 
Dr.  Eder  of  London  has  been  a  member 
from  the  beginning  and  I.  M.  Sieff  of 
Manchester  is  General  Secretary. 

Of  the  other  elements  of  the  popu- 
lation, the  Orthodox  Christians  have 
suffered  most  severely,  owing  to  events 
in  Russia.  The  Greek  Patriarchate  is  so 
burdened  by  debt  that  it  is  planning  to 
sell  its  lands  near  Jerusalem.  Because 
of  sectarian  rivalries  between  the  Greek 
and  Roman  Catholics,  as  well  as  the 
Protestants,  who  have  developed  much 
missionary  activity,  an  ecclesiastical 
political  assistant,  Father  Waggett,  has 
been  appointed  by  the  administration. 

One  great  source  of  trouble  for  Zion 
comes  from  the  Palestine  Moslems.  The 
great  majority  of  these  occupy  the  land. 
The  Moslem  landowner  is  usually  an 
absentee  living  in  the  city,  who  lets  his 
land  to  a  village  of  peasants  for  a  rental 
ranging, from  one-fifth  to  one-third  of 


the  gross  produce.  To  evade  the  law  of 
possession  after  a  three  years'  continuous 
tenure,  the  landowner  shifts  his  peasants 
repeatedly,  and  he  is  often  not  averse  to 
ejecting  a  whole  village.  Much  of  the 
land  is  allowed  to  lie  fallow  because  of 
lack  of  cultivation  facilities.  The  Govern- 
ment takes  one-tenth  of  the  gross  prod- 
uct. The  high  price  of  commodities  and 
a  better  system  of  taxation  have  re- 
lieved the  peasant  somewhat,  but  his 
status  remains  substantially  the  same, 
while  the  autocratic  attitude  of  the 
landed  effendi  has  undergone  little  change 
since  the  disappearance  of  the  Turkish 
regime.  Although  many  Syrian  Chris- 
tians and  some  Jews  are  in  Government 
offices,  the  Moslem  is  very  influential: 
he  purports  to  represent  the  Moslem 
masses,  and  to  make  demands  or  even 
threats  in  their  name,  and  in  many  cases 
the  British  administration  yields  to 
him. 

Both  the  British  occupation  and  Zion- 
ism were  construed  by  these  effendi  as 
a  threat  against  their  social  and  economic 
eminence.  They  are  especially  hostile  to 
the  Jews,  and  have  told  the  ignorant 
fellahin  and  townsmen  that  the  Jews 
are  coming  to  drive  them  out  of  their 
land,  to  oppress  their  religion,  destroy 
their  holy  places,  and  govern  them  with 
a  rod  of  iron.  The  anti-British  agitation 
was  a  natural  development.  During  the 
troubles  in  Egypt,  emissaries  were  at 
work  in  Palestine,  and,  according  to  The 
Manchester  Guardian  writer,  agents 
from  Mustapha  Kemal  are  there  now. 
Rifles  and  bombs  were  secreted  and 
stored,  and  threats  were  made  to  murder 
Dr.  Weissmann.  Both  Arabs  and  Mos- 
lems, however,  are  becoming  more  amen- 
able to  reason  as  they  see  that  they  them- 
selves will  profit  by  Jewish  development 
of  the  country,  and  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time  when  the  regime  of  the  effendi 
will  disappear.  It  will  then  be  for  the 
Jews  to  strive  to  understand  the  Moslem 
and  the  Arab  psychology,  and  to  prove 
by  concrete  achievements  that  the  growth 
of  a  national  Jewish  State  is  for  the  good 
of  both. 

Neither  at  the  Peace  Conference  nor 
since  have  the  Zionists  asked  that  the 
government  of  Palestine  be  handed  over 
to  the  Jews,  who,  they  well  realize,  rep- 


PALESTINE  AND   THE   ZIONIST  PROJECT 


343 


resent  a  minority  of  the  population. 
What  they  ask  is  that  a  mandate  should 
be  given  to  Great  Britain  to  govern 
Palestine,  and  that  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  that  Government  should  be  the 
re-establishment  of  Palestine  as  the 
Jewish  national  home,  representing  14,- 
000,000  Jewish  people  now  scattered  over 
the  world.  In  this  they  are  in  accord 
with  the  declared  policy  of  the  Allies. 
The  geographical  frontiers  for  which 
the  Zionists  have  been  asking,  and  which 
have  received  the  approval  of  the  British 
authorities  in  Palestine  after  two  years' 
study  on  the  spot,  may  be  summarized 
as  follows: 

The  western  frontier  to  be  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  ■  the  coastline  to  extend  as 
far  to  the  north  as  is  required  by  the 
development  and  the  security  ft  Haifa.  On 
the  south  the  natural  limit  is  the  desert 
which  is  El  Arish,  but  the  political 
frontier  of  Egypt  actually  extends  north 
of  El  Arish  to  Rapah.  The  Zionists  ask 
that  an  adjustment  should  be  made,  if 
practicable,  to  bring  the  political  into  har- 
mony with  the  economic  frontier,  but  they 
agree  that  no  such  arrangement  can  or 
should  be  entered  into  without  the  free 
consent  of  Egypt.  On  the  east  the  natural 
frontier  is  the  desert,  but  the  economic 
consideration  runs  counter  to  an  im- 
portant sentimental  factor.  The  Hedjaz 
Railway  lies  to  the  west  of  the  desert, 
and  it  was  built  by  Moslem  subscriptions. 
For  that  reason  the  Zionists  have  asked 
that  the  eastern  frontier  should  run 
parallel  with  the  Hedjaz  Railway  but  a 
little  to  the  west  of  it  as  far  as  Maan,  and 
from  Maan  should  I'un  to  Akaba,  on  the 
Red  Sea.  That  would  give  to  Palestine 
most  of  the  land  east  of  the  Jordan  which 
belongs  properly  to  her,  and  make  her 
self-sufficing  in  meat  and  corn.  A  port 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Akaba  would  give 
her  an  outlet  on  the  sea  east  as  well  as 
west,  and  give  her  control  of  a  through 
route  through  Asia  and  Europe  which  in 
the  past  rivaled  that  across  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez,  and  which  may  become  once 
again  of  considerable  economic  im- 
portance. It  is  asked  that  the  northern 
frontier  shall  include  the  water  which  is 
vital  to  Palestine  for  irrigation  and  elec- 
tric power.  These  sources  are  the  head- 
waters of  the  Litany  and  the  headwaters 
of  the  Jordan,  with  so  much  of  the  snows 
of  Hermon  as  go  to  Palestine. 

Against  the  assignment  of  this  frontier 
to  the  new  Palestine  still  militate  two 
different  sets  of  agreements  concluded 
between  the  allied  diplomats  before  Gen- 
eral Allenby  entered  Palestine— the  so- 
called  Sykes-Picot  pact,  and  the  pact  be- 


tween Great  Britain  and  the  King  of  the 
Hedjaz.  The  first  of  these  divided 
Palestine  into  three  areas,  England  to 
have  Haifa  and  the  bay  of  Acre;  France 
to  have  most  of  Galilee  and  the  rest  of 
the  country  to  be  placed  under  an  inter- 
national regime.  This  compact  disre- 
garded the  whole  question  of  Jewish  na- 
tionalism. The  agreement  with  the  King 
of  the  Hedjaz  envisaged  Arab  rule  in 
some  form  over  all  Transjordania  (the 
district  lying  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan 
River).  To  protect  themselves  against 
Arab  and  Bedouin  raiders,  to  whom  the 
River  Jordan  has  never  been  an  obstacle, 
the  Zionists  ask  their  eastern  frontier  to 
be  extended  to  the  desert,  which  is  their 
natural  boundary. 

The  present  diplomatic  situation  is  as 
follows:  France  is  pressing  for  strict 
observance  of  the  Sykes-Picot  line,  and 
seeks  to  establish  a  quasi  protectorate 
over  the  Arab  State.  But  the  Sykes-Picot 
Treaty  is  now  practically  obsolete,  Rus- 
sia no  longer  being  a  party  to  it,  and 
France  herself  having  approved  the  proj- 
ect of  a  national  Jewish  State.  The 
Zionist  objection  to  French  control 
of  the  Arab  State  is  that  it  would  carry 
with  it  control  over  Transjordania  and 
the  Hedjaz  Railway  from  Damascus. 
The  British  policy  seeks  to  effect  an  ar- 
rangement mutually  satisfactory  to  both 
the  French  and  the  Arabs,  while  pre- 
serving the  interests  of  the  Zionists. 

In  January  of  the  present  year,  to 
conciliate  the  French,  who  complained 
that  the  British  occupation  of  Syria  was 
undermining  their  prestige,  the  British, 
against  the  advice  of  Lord  Allenby,  with- 
drew their  military  forces  from  Syria 
and  all  Transjordania,  including  Damas- 
cus, Deraa,  Es  Salt,  Ammon,  and  except- 
ing only  at  one  point  (opposite  Semakh, 
south  of  Lake  Tiberias)  no  longer  have 
any  armed  forces  east  of  the  Jordan. 
Throughout  this  district  the  French 
forces  have  replaced  the  British.  In  the 
north  the  British  hold  a  line  roughly 
from  Ras-el-Nakura  to  the  north  of  Lake 
Tiberias,  which  cuts  off  one  of  the  Jew- 
ish colonies  in  Palestine — Metulleh — and 
puts  it  under  French  control.  It  was 
around  Metulleh  that  some  of  the  worst 
of  the  recent  fighting  between  French 
and  Arabs  took  place. 


The  Agrarian  and  Jewish  Questions  in 

Rumania 

By  NICHOLAS  PETRESCU,  PH.  D.* 


ANEW  order  of  things  has  been 
inaugurated  in  Rumania  since 
the  signing  of  the  armistice.  The 
introduction  of  agrarian  and 
electoral  reforms  has  thoroughly  changed 
the  social,  economic,  and  political  aspect 
of  that  country.  The  Rumanian  peasants 
as  well  as  the  Rumanian  Jews  partici- 
pated for  the  first  time  as  direct  voters 
in  the  general  elections  for  the  Ruma- 
nian Parliament  last  November. 

Of  all  the  problems  which  have  agi- 
tated the  social  and  political  life  of  Ru- 
mania during  the  last  forty  years,  the 
agrarian  question  and  the  Jewish  ques- 
tion have  been  the  most  acute.  The 
foreign  press  has  generally  regarded  the 
last  as  an  isolated  case,  as  though  there 
had  been  no  connection  whatever  between 
it  and  the  agrarian  question.  There  was, 
however,  an  organic  interdependence  be- 
tween the  two  questions.  The  Jewish 
question  in  Rumania  was,  as  will  be  seen 
hereafter,  merely  the  consequence  of  the 
agrarian  question, 

SYSTEM    OF   LARGE    ESTATES 

The  agrarian  question  in  Rumania 
arose,  as  it  did  in  many  other  European 
countries,  from  the  mediaeval  system  of 
large  estates.  Before  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  this  system  held  in 
bondage  the  Rumanian  peasants.  The 
land  was  mostly  owned  by  a  few  persons, 
by  monasteries,  or  by  the  State,  only  a 
very  little  portion  being  owned  by 
peasants.  In  1864,  under  the  reign  and 
on  the  initiative  of  Prince  Cuza,  an  act 
was  passed  by  which  the  property  of  the 
monasteries  was  secularized  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  land  owned  privately  was  ex- 
propriated by  the  State  for  the  benefit 


*The  author  of  this  article  is  a  Rumanian 
who  has  studied  in  the  Universities  of  Paris, 
Berlin,  and  Oxford,  and  who  last  year  was 
an  instructor  in  Wabash  College,  Crawfords- 
ville,  Ind.  He  is  now  a  resident  of  New 
York  and  has  recently  contributed  articles 
on  financial  and  economic  subjects  to  the 
Bankers  Magazine  and  the  Pan-American 
Magazine. 


of  the  peasants,  who  thus  became  pro- 
prietors. In  1879  and  in  1889  new 
measures  were  taken  by  the  Parliament 
for  allotting  land  to  peasants.  In  spite 
of  these  reforms  the  agrarian  question 
was  far  from  being  settled.  The  proper- 
ties generally  held  by  peasants  (from 
seven  to  fifteen  acres)  were  too  small  to 
maintain  the  owners  independently  in  the 
long  run.  The  growth  of  population 
made  their  maintenance  value  shrink  to 
nothing.  In  many  cases  the  small  holders 
wejre  obliged  to  sell  their  land  and  to 
become  again  dependent  upon  the  land- 
lord in  order  to  improve  their  material 
situation. 

All  these  conditions  led  to  the  peasant 
uprisings  of  1907,  when  the  necessity  of 
a  radical  reform  of  land  tenure  made 
itself  felt  more  than  ever.  A  few  half 
measures  were  subsequently  passed  till  a 
national  assembly  was  called  to  deal  with 
the  problem  just  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  world  war.  Finally,  in  1917,  the 
Rumanian  Parliament,  assembled  at 
Jassy,  voted  unanimously  for  the  expro- 
priation of  the  large  estates.  According 
to  the  new  Land  act  no  estates  should 
exceed  500  hectares.  The  land  expro- 
priated by  the  Government  is  allotted  to 
the  peasants  on  easy  terms  payable  in 
annual  installments. 

ELECTORAL  REFORMS 
Besides  agrarian  reforms,  electoral  re- 
forms have  been  passed  by  the  Rumanian 
Parliament.  According  to  the  new  elec- 
toral law  all  inhabitants,  irrespective  of 
wealth,  become  direct  voters.  Before  the 
war  the  electoral  system  in  Rumania, 
like  that  in  Prussia,  was  based  upon 
property.  Since  the  majority  of  peasants 
had  no  property,  it  followed  that  they 
had  no  right  to  vote  directly.  They  had 
only  the  right  to  choose  the  electors  who 
voted  for  the  representatives  in  Parlia- 
ment. The  so-called  third  college,  which 
was  supposed  to  represent  the  peasant 
class,    sent    into    Parliament    gentlemen 


THE  AGRARIAN  AND  JEWISH  QUESTIONS  IN  RUMANIA         345 


who  lived  in  the  cities  and  who  cared 
little  for  the  affairs  of  the  rural  popula- 
tion. For  this  reason  it  has  aptly  been 
called  the  "lie  college." 

We  see,  then,  that  the  Rumanian 
peasants,  who  form  the  largest  quota  of 
population  (nearly  80  per  cent.),  were, 
before  the  war,  both  economically  and 
politically,  unemancipated.  Under  such 
conditions  their  social  status  was  inferior 
to  that  of  any  other  class.  They  were 
practically  unable  to  take  a  responsible 
role  in  the  affairs  of  their  community, 
or  to  resist  those  who  sought  to  exploit 
them.  In  other  words,  the  Rumanian 
peasant  was  a  sort  of  grown-up  child, 
unconscious  of  his  social  obligations  and 
incapable  of  defending  himself  against 
the  vicissitudes  of  society. 

The  Government,  instead  of  trying  to 
uplift  him  by  fundamental  reforms,  pre- 
ferred to  assume  the  role  of  protector. 
The  truth  is  that  many  of  the  members 
of  the  Government  were  landowners,  who 
regarded  the  agrarian  question  from 
their  own  point  of  view.  The  attitude 
of  the  Rumanian  Government  was,  in 
fact,  based  upon  the  same  old  conception 
which  in  former  times  made  the  English 
landlord  look  after  his  tenants:  paternal 
protection  in  so  far  as  it  does  not  inter- 
fere with  the  right  of  feudal  authority 
and  property.  It  was  from  the  same 
viewpoint  that  the  Rumanian  Govern- 
ment always  deemed  it  a  duty  to  protect 
the  helpless  peasantry  from  the  economic 
supremacy  of  the  Jews. 

LARGE   JEWISH    POPULATION 

The  Jewish  question  in  Rumania  arose 
directly  from  the  state  of  affairs  just 
described.  It  was  neither  race  prejudice 
nor  religious  intolerance,  but  simply  the 
helpless  situation  of  the  peasants  that 
determined  the  Rumanian  Government  to 
retard  the  political  emancipation  of  the 
Jews.  The  following  facts  should  be  re- 
membered in  this  connection:  Rumania 
had  before  the  war  a  greater  percentage 
of  Jewish  population  than  any  other 
country  in  the  world.  The  number  of 
Rumanian  Jews  was  conservatively  esti- 
mated at  400,000,  or  more  than  5  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population  of  the  old 
kingdom  of  Rumania  (7,500,000).  Even 
if  we  apply  the  same  comparison  to  the 


Russian  Empire,  the  country  with  the 
greatest  bulk  of  Jewish  population  before 
the  war,  we  find  a  smaller  proportion 
than  in  Rumania.  Russia  had  about 
6,000,000  Jews,  which  means  less  than  4 
per  cent,  in  proportion  to  her  total  popu- 
lation of  160,000,000.  If  we  extend  the 
comparison  to  a  country  like  Belgium, 
which  has  the  same  population  as  Ru- 
mania, we  find  Rumania's  quota  serious- 
ly large.  Belgium  has  a  Jewish  popula- 
tion of  only  12,000,  that  is,  thirty  times 
less  than  Rumania. 

But  another  fact  more  decisive  than 
that  of  number  was  the  prosperous 
economic  condition  of  the  Rumanian 
Jews.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  trade 
and  finances  of  the  country  were  con- 
trolled by  Jews.  With  their  traditional 
gift  for  business  and  speculation,  the 
Jews  had  a  very  easy  field  of  develop- 
ment in  Rumania ;  for  both  the  rural  and 
urban  populations  were  economically 
backward  or  indifferent  to  the  business 
demands  of  modern  times.  It  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  most  unfortunate  characteris- 
tics of  the  average  Rumanian  to  be  deep- 
ly averse  to  business.  While  there  were 
thousands  of  peasants  literally  poor, 
there  were  no  really  poor  Jews  in  Ru- 
mania before  the  war.  The  Jews  who 
emigrated  to  the  United  States  had  left 
Rumania  more  for  political  or  personal 
reasons  than  for  economic  reasons.  Many 
of  them  were  disappointed  to  find  the 
struggle  for  existence  in  this  country 
harder  than  in  Rumania.* 

ANTI-RUMANIAN  AGITATION 

i-inally,  another  fact  to  be  taken  into 
account  is  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Rumanian  Jews  toward 
Rumanian  institutions.  About  40  per 
cent,  of  them  hailed  from  foreign  coun- 
tries, especially  from  Russia  and  Aus- 
tria-Hungary. The  foreign  Jews  were 
wholly  unassimilated  and  did  not  even 
care  to  learn  the  language  of  their  coun- 
try of  adoption.  Some  retained  their 
original  citizenship  as  a  matter  of  per- 
sonal   security,    and,    while    engaged    in 


*The  moral  disappointment  and  the  phys- 
ical discomfort  of  the  Rumanian  Jew  in 
New  York  (east  side)  has  been  described  by 
M,  E  Ravage,  an  Americanized  Rumanian 
Jew,  ir.  " }  book,  "  An  American  in  the 
TIaking-,"    Nev/    York,    1917. 


346 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


profitable  business  in  Rumania,  conduct- 
ed abroad  a  systematic  propaganda 
against  the  Rumanian  State.  Encour- 
aged by  the  clandestine  conduct  of  the 
foreign  element,  the  indigenous  Jews 
adopted  a  similar  attitude,  so  that  in 
the  end  the  whole  Jewish  population  in 
Rumania  seemed  to  be  bent  on  destroying 
the  authority  and  reputation  of  the  Ru- 
manian State. 

One  of  the  most  decisive  reasons  of 
estrangement  between  Rumania  and  the 
United  States  before  the  war  was  the 
one-sided  propaganda  spread  in  this 
country  by  the  Rumanian  Jews.  Un- 
fortunately the  Rumanian  Government 
has  always  refused  to  contradict  or 
counteract  this  propaganda,  on  the 
ground ;  that  the  Jewish  question  was  a 
purely  domestic  affair.  If  the  Rumanian 
Government  had  taken  the  trouble  to  pre- 
sent to  the  international  public  the  real 
conditions  of  the  Jewish  question,  many 
misunderstandings  which  exist  today  be- 
tween the  great  powers  and  Rumania 
would  have  been  eliminated. 

RUMANIA'S  PLEDGES 

The  strongest  argument  advanced 
against  Rumania  by  the  foreign  press  is 
that  she  has  not  lived  up  to  the  pledge 
contained  in  Article  44  of  the  Berlin 
Congress  (1878),  whereby  she  is  required 
to  extend  civil  rights  to  all  her  inhabi- 
tants. As  a  matter  of  fact,  Rumania  ac- 
cepted the  terms  of  that  treaty  only 
under  pressure  of  force.  Just  as  she 
was  obliged  by  them  to  i^nounce  the 
Province  of  Bessarabia  to  Russia,  she 
acquiesced  in  that  article  against  her 
will  and  moral  conviction.  Pressed  by 
the  demands  of  the  great  powers,  the 
Rumanian  Parliament  voted  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  by  which  the 
execution  of  the  civil  rights  clause  was 
made  possible.  The  Constitutional  amend- 
ment, however,  did  not  extend  naturaliza- 
tion to  the  Jews  en  masse,  but  only  indi- 
vidually. Thus  every  Jew  desirous  of 
acquiring  citizenship  was  subject  to  the 
decision  of  the  Parliament.  This  measure, 
of  course,  did  not  satisfy  the  majority  of 
the  Rumanian  Jews,  because  it  entailed 
conditions  which  not  all  could  meet. 
These  were  of  a  moral  and  physical 
nature.      In   the  first  place  it  was  de- 


manded that  the  candidate  show  certain 
moral  guarantees  of  his  ability  to  be- 
come a  Rumanian  citizen  in  spirit.  Then 
the  candidate  had  to  prove  that  he  was 
born  in  Rumania,  and  that  he  did  not 
hold  citizenship  in  another  country.  In 
spite  of  these  restrictions  many  Jews  had 
been  naturalized — many  more  than  the 
foreign  press  acknowledged. 

AMERICAN  INTERVENTION 

There  have  been  several  attempts  on 
the  part  of  the  American  Government  to 
intervene  on  behalf  of  the  Rumanian 
Jews.  In  1891  President  Benjamin  Har- 
rison, in  1902  Secretary  Hay,'  and  in  1913 
Secretary  Bryan,  undertook  to  interest 
the  signatory  powers  of  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin  in  making  Rumania  live  up  to 
Article  44.  It  is  not  my  object  to  enlarge 
on  this  subject,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  the  following  dialogue  between 
two  members  of  the  Committee  on  For- 
eign Affairs,  United  States  House  of 
Representatives,  in  December,  1913.  Rep- 
resentative Henry  D.  Flood  of  Virginia, 
Chairman  of  the  Committee,  after  hear- 
ing the  recital  of  the  Jewish  question  in 
Rumania  made  by  Representative  W.  M. 
Chandler  of  New  York,  who  had  just 
declared  that  the  total  number  of  natural- 
ized Jews  in  Rumania  was  only  176, 
asked  the  latter:  "What  evidence  have 
you  to  show  that  more  than  176  were 
entitled  to  have  been  naturalized  during 
those  thirty  years?"  Mr.  Chandler: 
"Well,  176  Jews  out  of  100,000,  if  that 
statement  is  correct,  is  a  small  number, 
and  is  preposterous  upon  its  face."  Mr. 
Chairman :  "  Well,  that  is  hardly  evi- 
dence." (Sixty-third  Congress,  Second 
Session,  House  Resolutions  Nos.  138  and 
183.) 

The  gist  of  the  whole  question  lies  in 
the  word  "  entitled."  The  majority  of 
Rumanian  Jews  were  not  "  entitled  "  to 
be  naturalized  en  masse  under  the  con- 
ditions given  above,  namely,  as  long  as 
they  were  too  many,  too  prosperous,  and 
two  hostile.  All  these  three  facts  were 
a  direct  consequence  of  the  agrarian 
problem.  The  Rumanian  Jews  were  too 
many,  because  the  Rumanian  peasants 
counted  too  little  in  the  affairs  of  the 
country.  Again,  the  Rumanian  Jews 
were   too    prosperous,    because   the    Ru- 


THE  AGRARIAN  AND  JEWISH  QUESTIONS  IN  RUMANIA        347 


manian  peasants  were  too  poor.  Finally, 
the  Rumanian  Jews  were  too  hostile,  be- 
cause the  Rumanian  Government,  in 
order  to  protect  the  helpless  peasants, 
had  to  resort  to  political  restrictions, 
which  engendered  resentment  among  the 
Jews. 

L  LOCATING  THE  BLAME 

The  point  which  I  have  tried  to  make 
clear  is  that  the  Jewish  question  in  Ru- 
mania was  the  immediate  consequence  of 
the  agrarian  question,  and  that  for  this 
reason  it  was  a  purely  domestic  affair. 
The  Rumanian  Go^jernment  was  thus 
justified  in  brooking  no  foreign  interfer- 
ence in  a  problem  which  had  its  reason 
and  solution  in  the  national  conditions  of 
the  country.  If  I  were  to  bring  home 
the  situation  to  the  American  public,  I 
would  state  that  there  was  a  striking 
analogy  between  the  Jewish  question  in 
Rumania  and  the  Japanese  question  in 
California.  The  exclusion  of  a  foreign 
element  from  certain  civic  rights  was  in 
both  cases  the  necessary  outcome  of  social 
and  national  conditions.  The  State  has 
always  the  duty  to  look  after  the  secu- 
rity of  its  own  subjects.  Proceeding  upon 
this  principle,  the  Government  of  Ru- 
mania, like  that  of  California,  carried  out 
a  policy  of  self-defense.  In  this  it  acted 
in  accordance  with  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  statesmanship.  But  where  its 
right  ends,  there  begins  its  wrong. 

It  is  in  the  agrarian  question  that  the 
guilty  factor  is  to  be  found.  For  forty 
years  the  Rumanian  Government  delayed 
to  remedy  a  state  of  affairs  which 
menaced  the  very  foundation  of  the  coun- 
try. It  kept  the  largest  and  soundest 
element  of  the  nation  in  a  state  of  feudal- 
ism in  order  to  uphold  the  selfish  rights 
of  a  minority.  In  short,  the  Rumanian 
Government  protected  the  peasants  from 
the  economic  supremacy  of  the  Jews  be- 
cause such  a  course  alone  could  prolong 
the  existence  of  an  obsolete  system  of 


society  which  was  gratifying  the  wishes 
of  a  privileged  class.. 

UNDER   NEW  CONDITIONS 

After  emancipating  the  peasants,  the 
Rumanian  Government  could  well  afford 
to  grant  the  Jews  full  political  rights,  for 
the  danger  of  seeing  the  largest  element 
of  the  population  subject  to  the  competi- 
tion of  the  Jews  was  thereby  removed. 
Neither  the  number  nor  the  economic 
competition,  nor  the  hostile  attitude  of 
the  Jews  could  any  more  affect  the  vital- 
ity of  the  nation.  Besides  the  economic 
and  electoral  emancipation  of  the  peas- 
antry a  new  factor  intervened  in  the 
readjustment  of  the  social  and  economic 
affairs  of  the  country.  Rumania  was 
emerging  from  the  war  with  both  its  ter- 
ritory and  its  population  doubled  in  size. 
The  national  organism  was  thereby  able 
to  assimilate  a  foreign  element  much 
more  easily  than  had  been  possible 
hitherto. 

Although  under  the  new  order  of 
things  the  Rumanian  Jews  have  become 
en  masse  citizens,  yet  there  is  still  a 
voice  of  protest  to  be  heard  on  their 
behalf  in  foreign  countries.  The  Peace 
Treaty  with  Austria  required  a  super- 
guarantee  for  the  protection  of  minor 
nationalities  in  the  countries  which  had 
directly  benefited  from  the  dissolution  of 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire.  The  Ru- 
manian Government  signed  the  Austrian 
Treaty  and  the  special  minorities  treaty 
only  under  the  pressure  of  the  great 
powers.  What  is  required  in  the  latter 
treaty  amounts  to  an  infringement  of 
the  principle  of  national  sovereignty  upon 
which  the  structure  of  every  civilized 
State  is  based. 

Under  the  new  order  of  things  Ru- 
mania will  show  good-will  toward  all 
minor  nationalities.  The  economic  and 
social  reconstruction  of  the  country  de- 
pends upon  the  co-operation  of  all  her 
inhabitants.  The  Jewish  question  is  thus 
definitely  settled. 


Diary  of  the  German  Captain  Who  Sank  the 

Lusitania 


THE  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  off  the 
Irish  coast  on  May  7,  1915,  with  a 
loss  of  1,195  lives,  sent  a  thrill  of 
horror  through  the  civilized  world  and 
brought  about  a  series  of  events  which 
culminated  in  the  entry  of  the  United 
States  into  the  war.  The  commander  of 
the  Gennan  submarine  which  sent  the 
great  passenger  ship  to  the  bottom  was 
Lieutenant  Captain  Schwieger.  The  brief 
story  of  how  he  committed  the  terrible 
act,  just  as  he  wrote  it  down  in  his  of- 
ficial log  at  the  time,  is  reproduced  in 
facsimile  on  the  opposite  page.  It  is  a 
leaf  torn  from  the  running  record  of 
sinkings  and  of  the  general  course  of 
life  in  the  submarine  from  day  to  day. 
The  record  for  May  7,  when  the  Lusitania 
was  sighted,  was  inscribed  on  the  eighth 
page  of  the  log.  The  exact  translation 
of  the  entries  is  as  follows: 

Ri^ht  ahead  appear  four  funnels  and 
two  masts  of  a  steamer  with  course  verti- 
cal to  us.  (She  steered  from  S.  S.  W., 
coming  toward  Galley  Head.)  Ship  Is 
made  out  to  be  large  passenger  steamer. 
2:05.  Submerged  to  11  meters  and 
traveled  with  high  speed  on  course  con- 
verging toward  steamer,  hoping  she  would 
change  course  to  starboard  along  Irish 
coast. 

2:50.  The  steamer  turns  starboard,  di- 
rects her  course  toward  Queenstown,  and 
makes  possible  an  approach  for  a  shot. 
Ran  at  high  speed  until  3  P.  M.  in  order 
to  gain   position   directly  ahead. 

3:10.  Clean  bow  shot  from  700  meters 
range,  (G  torpedo,  3  meters  depth  ad- 
justment), cutting  angle  90  degrees.  Esti- 
mated speed  twenty-two  sea  miles.  Shot 
hits  starboard  side  right  behind  bridge. 
An  unusually  heavy  detonation  follows 
with  a  very  strong  explosion  cloud. 
(High  in  air  over  first  smoke  stack.) 
Added  to  the  explosion  of  the  torpedo, 
there  must  have  been  a  second  explo- 
sion. (Boiler  or  coal  or  powder.)  The 
superstructure  over  point  struck  and  the 
high  bridge  are  rent  asunder,  fire  breaks 
out  and  smoke  envelops  the  high  bridge. 
The  ship  stops  immediately  and  quickly 
heels  to  starboard,  at  the  same  time 
diving  deeper  at  the  bow.  She  has  the 
appearance  of  being  about  to  capsize. 
Great  confusion  on  board,  boats  being 
cleared  and  part  being  lowered  to  water. 
They  must  have  lost  their  heads.  Many 
boats  crowded  come  down  bow  first  or 
stern  first  in  the  water  and  immediately 
fill    and    sink.      Fewer    lifeboats    can    be 


made  clear  on  the  port  side  owing  to  the 
slant  of  the  boat.  The  ship  blows  off, 
in   front  appears  the   name   Lusitania  in 


LIEUTENANT    CAPTAIN    SCHWIEGER 

The     ^^-Bout     Commander     who     sank     the 

Lusitania.    He  wa^  afterward  drowned 

(©    International) 


gold  letters.  The  stacks  were  painted 
black,  no  stern  flag  was  up.  She  was 
running  at  a  speed  Of  twenty  sea  miles. 

3 :25.  It  seems  as  if  the  vessel  will 
be  afloat  only  a  short  time.  Submerge 
to  24  meters  and  go  to  sea.  I  could  not 
have  fired  a  second  torpedo  into  this 
throng  of  humanity  attempting  to  save 
themselves. 

4:15.  Go  to  11  meters  and  take  look 
around.  In  the  distance  astern  are  drift- 
ing a  number  of  lifeboats.  Of  the  Lusi- 
tania nothing  is  to  be  seen.  The  wreck 
must  lie  off  Old  a.iead  of  Kinsale  Light- 
house, in  3.58  degrees  R.  W.,  fourteen  sea 
miles  off  in  90  meters  of  water,  (27  miles 
from  Queenstown),  51  degrees,  22.6  N. 
and  8.32  W.  The  shore  and  lighthouse 
are  clearly  seen. 

The  rest  of  the  page  is  concerned  with 
an  attack  on  another  boat,  which  failed. 


DIARY  OF  A   GERMAN  CAPTAIN 


349 


h'O  pi. 


oCud 


h2f  j)l» 
4. 15  ?i, 

4,50  pg, 
5,05  p». 


./. 


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nioht  festgeatellt,  waa  fur  ein  Veraager  Po; 
lajBi,  !>•'  Torpedo^verlie^  das  RBhr  ricntig,  und  iat  eniwede: 
Jfarnioht  gelaufen,  oder  in  falaohen  Ifinkel  Falaohe  iin» 
Mtellung9n  an  Rohi  nieht  noqiioluda  aioh  der  Ixtrp^dooffizt 
aohtervbefand,  Der  Banpfer  ein  traohtdanpfer  der  Cunard^Lt 


FACSIMILE  OF  PAGE  OP  THE  DIARY  OF  LIEUTENANT  CAPTAIN  SCHWIEGER,  COMMANDER 
OP   U-BOAT    20,    NARRATING    THE    ACTUAL    STORY    OP   THE    LUSITANIA    SINKING 

(©    International) 


German  East  Africa  Divided  Up 

Belgium  Gets  Two  Large  Provinces,  and  Great   Britain  Takes 
Rest,  Renaming  It  Tanganyika  Territory 


the 


ANEW  country  has  taken  its  place 
on  the  African  map.  German  East 
Africa  has  been  divided  up  between 
Great  Britain  and  Belgium,  and  the  lion's 
share,  which  goes  to  the  British,  has 
been  renamed  Tanganyika  Territory  by 
the  British  Foreign  Office.  It  comprises 
366,000  of  the  384,000  square  miles 
formerly  under  German  rule,  and  the 
remaining  18,000  square  miles  have  been 
assigned  to  Belgium  as  an  addition  to 
the  Belgian  Congo.  This  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Council  was  made  public  early 


in  March,  1920,  when  The  London  Times 
published  the  main  outlines  of  the  settle- 
ment, with  a  map. 

Theoretically  both  Belgium  and  Britain 
are  taking  over  the  Governmental  con- 
trol of  these  vast  regions  as  mandataries 
of  the  League  of  Nations;  how  far  this 
arrangement  shall  ultimately  differ  from 
absolute  ownership  will  depend  upon  the 
fortunes  of  the  League,  which  thus  far 
is  too  weak  to  have  much  real  power  in 
such  matters. 

Belgium  gave  substantial  help  in  the 


/////    P*o  'gT  0*0  \J  EsTk 


EA&T   AFRICA 


TANGANYIKA  TERRITORY,  THE  NEW  BRITISH  DEPENDENCY,  INCLUDES  ALL  OF  FORMER 
GERMAN    EAST    AFRICA    EXCEPT    THE    NORTHWEST    CORNER,    ASSIGNED    TO    BELGIUM 


GERMAN   EAST  AFRICA    DIVIDED    UP 


351 


conquest  of  German  East  Africa,  and 
as  a  reward  for  that  help  she  receives 
the  two  large  provinces  of  Ruanda  and 
Urundi,  with  the  exception  of  a  strip 
on  the  east,  which  she  concedes  to  Great 
Britain  in  order  to  facilitate  the  building 
of  a  railway  from  Tanganyika  Territory 
northward  to  Uganda.  This  line  is  an 
indispensable  link  in  the  Cape  to  Cairo 
Railway,  which  Cecil  Rhodes  dreamed  of, 
and  which  Great  Britain  is  now  planning 
to  construct.  In  return  for  her  consent 
to  this  connection  between  South  Africa 
and  Egypt,  Belgium  received  important 
concessions   at   other   points. 

The  British  acceded  to  the  Belgian 
desire  for  a  free  outlet  from  the  central 
regions  of  the  Belgian  Congo  by  means 
of  a  railway  running  from  Kigoma- 
Ujiji,  on  Lake  Tanganyka,  to  Dar-es- 
Salaam,  on  the  Indian  Ocean;  they 
agreed  to  grant  concession  areas  for  this 
purpose  at  Kigoma  and  Dar-es- Salaam, 
where  goods  could  be  stored;  the  Bel- 
gians also  have  the  right  to  haul  mer- 
chandise from  the  lake  to  the  ocean  in 
their  own  cars. 

Some  time  must  elapse  before  the  new 
Anglo-Belgian    frontier    can   be    located 


exactly,  as  it  depends  to  a  slight  extent 
upon  the  route  chosen  for  the  British 
railway  to  Uganda;  but  as,  under  the 
agreement,  it  cannot  vary  more  than  ten 
miles  from  the  boundary  shown  by  the 
line  of  heavy  crosses  on  the  map,  this 
marks  the  ultimate  frontier  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes.  The  Germans,  to  develop 
the  great  possibilities  of  Ruanda,  in  1913 
surveyed  a  route  for  a  railway  from 
Tabora  (on  the  Kigoma-Dar-es-Salaam 
line)  to  the  Kakera  River  where  it  bends 
south  from  the  British  Uganda  boundary. 
The  British  have  adopted  the  German 
project  and  propose  to  continue  the  line 
into  Western  Uganda,  where,  in  time,  it 
will  be  connected  with  the  system  that 
is  to  run  to  Cairo. 

While  Great  Britain  thus  adds  to  its 
colonial  empire  a  region  greater  than 
the  whole  of  Germany  before  the  war, 
Belgium  also  acquires  18,000  square 
miles  of  territory  of  great  actual  and 
potential  value.  Ruanda  is  densely  popu- 
lated and  of  a  healthy  climate,  owing  to 
its  altitude;  it  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant cattle  regions  in  all  Africa.  Bel- 
gium, with  this  new  acquisition,  becomes 
supreme  ruler  over  1,000,000  square  miles 
of  tropical  Africa. 


First  Cairo-to-Cape  Flight 

Two  South  African  Aviation  Officers  Complete  the  Dangerous  Trip — 
The  London  Times  Expedition 


THE  British  Air  Ministry  sent  an  ex- 
ploring party  in  1919  to  arrange  a 
series  of  aerodromes  across  the 
tropical  wilderness  of  Africa  from  Cairo 
to  Cape  Town;  it  entailed  a  year's  hard 
work,  but  the  route  was  completed  by 
the  beginning  of  1920,  as  described  in 
the  March  Current  History.  On  Jan. 
24  The  London  Times  sent  into  the  air 
a  Vickers-Vimy  airplane  with  five  men 
to  be  the  first  "  to  test  the  practical 
utility  of  the  Cairo-to-Cape  air  route," 
and  to  determine  "  whether  Africa  can 
be  traversed  easily  and  safely  from  end 
to  end  by  proper  aircraft  under  ordi- 
nary conditions — a  pioneer  effort  in  ex- 
ploration from  the  air." 


The  result  was  far  from  proving  that 
the  trip  could  be  made  "  safely  and 
easily,"  for  it  was  attended  by  a  series 
of  mishaps  and  disasters,  ending  in 
honorable  failure;  no  lives  were  lost. 
Meanwhile  the  British  Air  Ministry  sent 
out  two  airplane  expeditions  of  its  own 
to  attempt  the  same  achievement,  and  a 
private  concern  sent  a  fourth.  Of  the 
four,  the  crew  of  one  Government  plane 
alone,  consisting  of  two  South  African 
aviation  officers — Ryneveld  and  Brand 
— succeeded  in  making  the  whole  adven- 
turous journey  of  5,000  miles  by  air  from 
Cairo  to  the  Cape,  though  they  had  to 
use  three  machines  to  do  it. 


352 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


CLEARING    THE    WILDERNESS    FOR   THE    AERODROME    AT    ULENDO,    WHERE    25,000   TONS 
OP    ANTHILLS    ALSO    HAD    TO    BE    REMOVED    BY    NATIVE    CARRIERS 


The  four  rival  expeditions  were  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  London  Times,  Vickers-Vimy,  piloted 
by  Captain  S.  Cockerell  and  F.  C. 
Broome,  with  Sergeant  Major  James 
Wyatt  as  mechanic  and  C.  Corby  as 
rigger,  and  with  Dr.  Peter  Chalmers 
Mitchell,  a  noted  scientist  and  member 
of  The  Times  staff,  as  scientific  observer. 
It  left  Brooklands,  near  London,  Jan.  24. 

A  Vickers-Vimy  Rolls,  piloted  by  Lieut. 
Col.  van  Ryneveld  and  Flight  Lieuten- 
ant jirand,  both  from  the  Union  of  South 
Africa.  This  army  machine,  named  the 
Silver  Queen,  left  London  Feb.  4  and  flew 
600  miles  to  Turin  by  the  evening  of  the 
same  day.  Its  crew  were  the  only  men  to 
reach   Cape  Town  by  air. 

A  D.  H.  14-Napier  machine,  flown  by 
the     Aircraft     Manufacturing     Company, 


piloted  and  navigated  by  Flight  Lieu- 
tenant Cotton  and  Lieutenant  "W".  A. 
Townsend,  both  of  the  Royal  Air  Force. 
This  machine  left  Hendon   on   Feb.   4. 

A  Handley-Page  Rolls-Royce,  piloted  by 
Major    H.     G.    Brackley    and    Lieutenant 
Symms.     This  machine,  also  starting  from   • 
England,  had  reached  Brindisi  by  Feb.  9. 

The  Times  machine,  a  commercial  air- 
plane adapted  from  the  Vimy  bomber  for 
peace  service,  and  similar  to  that  used 
by  the  late  Sir  John  Alcock  and  Sir  A. 
W.  Brown  for  their  transatlantic  flight 
in  June,  took  the  air  on  Jan.  24  from 
Brooklands,  near  London,  to  fly  to  Heliop- 
olis,  the  aerodrome  station  of  Cairo, 
Egypt,  where  the  flight  to  the  Cape  was 
to  begin.  The  route  it  took  across  Europe 


KEEPING   AN    AFRICAN    LANDING   GROUND    LEVEL   BY    MEANS    OP   HOME- 
MADE   ROLLER,      NOTE    NATiyjJ}    PIRD    DECORATIONS    ON    SHELTER 


FIRST  CAIRO-TO-CAPE  FLIGHT 


353 


ROUTE  OF  THE  FLIGHT  FROM  LONDON 
TO  CAIRO 

id  the  Mediterranean  is  indicated  in 
the  small  map  on  this  page.  This  pre- 
liminary journey  was  accomplished  with- 
out serious  mishap,  and  the  airplane 
landed  at  Cairo  on  Feb.  3. 

The  route  across  Africa  is  shown  in 
the  larger  of  the  accompanying  maps. 
The  total  distance  from  Cairo  to  Cape 
Town  by  this  route  is  5,206  miles. 
There  are  24  landing  grounds  and  19 
emergency  landing  grounds;  of  these, 
Abercorn  and  Broken  Hill  are  444  miles 
apart,  with  only  one  emergency  station 
between,  and  Mongalla  and  Jinja  on  the 
Victoria  Nyanza  are  344  miles  apart, 
with  a  similar  scarcity  of  places  to 
alight.  The  course  for  most  of  the  way 
down  this  portion  of  tropical  Africa  is 
over  regions  infested  by  reptiles,  lions, 
and  cannibal  tribes;  there  are  swamps, 
dense  forests,  and  occasional  volcanoes, 
while  the  air  above  is  subject  to  constant 
agitation  and  frequent  storms  of  tropical 
violence.  The  danger  from  such  storms 
had  been  illustrated  in  the  recent 
London-to-Australia  flight,  when  one 
machine  was  blown  back  by  main  force 
from  Bangkok  to  Rangoon,  more  than 
300  miles.  Such  were  the  perils  faced 
by  the  African  air  pioneers. 

The  Times  plane  left  Cairo  on  the 
morning  of  Feb.  6,  and  its  adventures 
and  ultimate  fate  were  described  from 
day  to'  day  by  Dr.  Chalmers  Mitchell. 
After  stopping  at  Luxor  to  mend  a  water 
leak  it  came  down  for  the  night  at 
Assouan,  425  miles  from  Cairo.  The 
air  had  been  "bumpy,"  but  traveling 
through  it,  said  Dr.  Mitchell's  dispatch, 
"was  no  worse  than  in  a  fast  train." 


By  Feb.  8  the  machine  had  reached 
Khartum  after  two  stops  to  mend  leak- 
ing water-jackets.  Deserts  and  volcanic 
mountains  had  been  traversed,  and  one 
of  the  stops  had  been  made  in  a  wild 
desert,  where  the  aviators  had  to  wait 
for  water  to  be  brought  by  camels. 

After  the  party  left  Khartum  on  Feb. 
10  nothing  more  was  heard  from  Dr. 
Mitchell  until  the  12th,  when  he  reported 
its  arrival  at  Jobelein,  1,252  miles  from 
Cairo.  Six  leaks  had  developed  since  the 
beginning  of  the  trip,  and  a  night  had 
been  spent  in  a  dried  swamp  amid  thick 


ROUTE  FOLLOWED  IN  DARING  ATTEMPTS 
TO   FLY  FROM   CAIRO  TO   CAPE  TOWN 


354 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


AERODROME  OFFICERS'  QUARTERS  IN  TROPICAL  AFRICA— A  PERMANENT 
RESIDENCE.     ON   THE    LEFT   IS   THE   BUSINESS    OFFICE   ON   STILTS 


bush.  Next,  in  trying  to  reach  Mon- 
galla,  the  aviators  lost  their  way  and 
spent  another  night  in  the  open.  The 
following  day  Captain  Broome  and  Dr. 
Mitchell  walked  five  miles  through  the 
bush  to  Mongalla,  where  the  Governor 
offered  them  every  service  possible.  On 
Feb.  20  they  crossed  the  northern  part 
of  the  Uganda  Protectorate,  reaching 
Jinja,  at  the  source  of  the  Nile,  2,133 
miles  out  from  Cairo.  Their  flight  had 
taken  them  over  mountains  4,000  feet 
high  without  mishap. 

The  Times  airplane  crossed  the  equator 
on  Feb.  24  and  landed  at  Kisumu,  in 
British  East  Africa.  It  was  suffering 
considerably  from  the  heat  and  the 
"bumpy"  air  currents;  engine  defects 
and  forced  landings  in  dangerous  areas, 
Dr.  Mitchell  reported,  were  requiring  a 
good  deal  of  philosophy.  The  attempt 
to  reach  Tabora  on  the  26th  ended  in 
swift  and  irreparable  disaster.  Owing  to 
a  water  leak  into  the  induction  coils 
Captain  Cockerell  had  switched  off  one 
engine  and  tried  to  effect  a  straight 
landing,  but  a  hidden  stump  carried  off 
the  right  wheels,  throwing  the  plane 
nearly  around;  only  the  crashing  of  the 
emergency  wheel  through  the  nose  of  the 
machine  prevented  a  complete  overturn. 
The  damage  was  beyond  repair. 


"The  mechanics,"  says  Dr.  Mitchell, 
"  solemnly  shook  hands  immediately  on 
getting  out.  The  language  of  the  pilot 
and  myself  was  regrettable."  The  engines 
were  dismantled  with  the  help  of  railway 
workers,  and  the  great  adventure  was  at 
an  end  for  The  Times  party.  Its 
stranded  members,  looking  into  the  sky 
on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  had  the  cold 
comfort  of  seeing  the  rival  South  Afri- 
cans passing  over  them.  The  South  Afri- 
can Government  had  told  its  fliers  by 
wireless  to  pick  up  the  wrecked  aviators, 
but  the  message  had  not  been  received, 
so  they  did  not  stop.  Dr.  Mitchell  and 
his  companions  remained  near  their  shat- 
tered plane,  awaiting  a  good  opportunity 
to  return  home. 

When  The  Times  aviators  were  at 
Khartum  they  had  received  word  that 
the  South  African  officers  in  the  Silver 
Queen  had  crossed  the  Mediterranean  in 
a  continuous  night  flight  from  Italy  last- 
ing fourteen  hours,  the  first  time  that 
this  had  ever  been  accomplished  by  day 
or  night.  On  landing  at  Cairo  Colonel 
van  Ryneveld  and  Captain  Brand  had  a 
thrilling  story  to  tell  of  incessant  strug- 
gling against  furious  winds  in  utter 
darkness,  their  lights  having  given  out; 
often  they  were  swept  back  for  miles. 

The  Silver  Queen  took  the  air  at  Cairo 


FIRST  CAIRO-TO-CAPE  FLIGHT 


355 


?on  Feb.  11  only  to  come  to  grief  at 
Korosko  in  the  first  day's  flight.  Re- 
turning to  their  starting  place  Colonel 
Ryneveld  and  Captain  Brand  obtained  a 
new  machine  of  the  same  model  as  the 
first,  and  made  a  fresh  start  on  Feb.  22. 
By  the  26th  they  had  reached  Mongalla 
despite  some  trouble  with  leaking  water- 
jackets.  After  leaving  Mongalla  they 
met,  even  at  7,000  and  8,000  feet,  in- 
numerable whirlwinds  caused  by  heat. 
Passing  unawares  above  the  shipwrecked 
Times  party  at  Tabora,  they  managed, 
despite  engine  trouble,  to  reach  Living- 
stone, where  they  were  met  by  officials 
of  Northern  Rhodesia.  They  were  well 
on  their  way  toward  their  goal,  but  on 
the  flight  to  Pretoria  their  machine 
crashed  at  Bulawayo  and  was  damaged 
beyond  repair. 

Undaunted,  the  South  African  aviators 
obtained  a  Vortrekker  machine  from  the 
Union  Government  and  completed  the 
flight  to  Cape  Town  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  March  20.  Thus  Colonel 
van  Ryneveld  and  Captain  Brand  were 
the  first  to  make  the  Cairo-to-Cape  jour- 


ney by  air,  though  no  single  machine  had 
won  through.  * 

The  other  machines  that  had  attempt- 
ed the  flight  came  to  grief  at  various 
points  along  the  route.  The  DH-14 
crashed  in  Calabria.  The  Handley-Page 
reached  Heliopolis  and  set  out  from  there 
on  Feb.  23,  but  crashed  seventy-six  miles 
north  of  Atbara,  on  the  way  to  Khartum. 
A  Royal  Air  Force  Vickers-Vimy,  which 
left  Cairo  on  Feb.  18  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  route,  also  met  with  a 
mishap  near  Assouan  and  abandoned  the 
trip. 

A  French  achievement  of  the  same 
period  calls  for  mention.  Major  Vuille- 
min  and  Lieutenant  Chains,  French  Army 
aviators,  accomplished  the  remarkable 
feat  of  flying  across  the  Sahara  Desert, 
a  distance  of  3,500  miles.  They  left  a 
point  near  Paris  on  Jan.  26,  flew  to 
Algiers  and  thence  to  Tamar asset,  half 
way  across  the  desert,  arriving  there  on 
Feb.  17.  At  that  place  their  plane  was 
damaged,  and  it  was  a  month  later  when 
they  were  able  to  finish  the  flight  to 
Dakar,  which  they  reached  on  April  2. 


The  Status  of  Prohibition  in  Mexico 

By  CARLETON  BEALS 

[Principal   of   the    American   High    School   of   Mexico    City] 


THE  worldwide  trend  toward  prohibi- 
tion has  drawn  Mexico  in  its  wake. 
This  is  indicated  in  the  recently  an- 
nounced determination  of  the  National 
Board  of  Health — Consejo  Superior  de 
Salubridad — to  regulate  the  liquor  traffic 
so  stringently  as  to  remove  its  worst 
evils,  as  this  body  is  authorized  to  do 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  land.  It  is 
also  preparing  to  inaugurate  a  vigorous 
publicity  campaign  in  schools,  churches, 
theatres,  clubs,  labor  unions,  and  the 
press,  in  an  attempt  to  point  out  the 
dangers  to  the  individual  and  to  society 
inherent  in  the  use  of  alcohol,  and  to 
crystallize  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
complete  prohibition. 

While  the  reversion  last  year  of  the 
State  of  Sonora  from  a  dry  State  to  a 
wet  State  might  indicate  that  prohibition 
is  losing  ground  in  Mexico,  on  the  whole, 


the  attitude  of  the  press,  the  Government 
officials,  and  the  vigorous  pamphlet  and 
cartooning  campaign  that  has  been  con- 
ducted recently  in  various  quarters, 
would  show  that  the  forces  in  favor  of 
prohibition  are  alert  and  active.  Indeed, 
prohibition  is  one  of  the  main  points  in 
the  program  of  the  Constitutionalist 
group,  or  Government  party.  The  first 
prohibition  law  of  Mexico  was  issued  as 
a  decree  by  Seiior  Manuel  Aguirre  Ber- 
langa,  present  Secretary  of  State,  when 
he  was  Governor  of  the  prosperous  State 
of  Jalisco.     He  then  stated: 

Considering'  that  one  of  the  ideals  of 
the  Constitutionalist  Revolution  is  to  insure 
the  greatest  possible  welfare  of  the  peo- 
ple, it  is  incumbent  upon  the  Government 
to  dictate  laws  that,  like  the  present  one, 
tend  to  promote  the  development  of  the 
life  of  the  individual ;  cleansing  the  so- 
ciety in  which  he  moves  by  radically  at- 


356 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tacking  the  greatest  and  most  pernicious 
of  human  evils— alcholism. 

A  somewhat  similar  statement  was 
^made  by  General  Calles,  recent  Secretary 
of  Labor,  when  he  issued  a  prohibition 
decree  while  acting  as  Governor  of 
Sonora.  All  the  laws  in  force  in  the 
Republic  of  Mexico,  in  fact,  indicate  in 
their  preambles  that  they  have  been 
issued  as  a  part  of  the  program  of  the 
Constitutionalist  Revolution.  Probably 
the  new  masters  of  Mexico  remembered 
vividly  that,  before  the  revolution,  the 
most  powerful  force  among  the  Cientifi- 
cos  was  the  Pulque  Trust,  which  used  its 
great  financial  power  to  corrupt  the 
Government. 

In  any  event,  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention held  in  Queretaro  in  1917  con- 
sidered at  great  length  the  question  of 
alcoholism  and  possible  prohibition,  and 
the  traces  of  that  discussion  may  be  dis- 
covered by  a  casual  reading  of  the 
present  Mexican  Constitution,  which  has 
numerous  provisions  in  regard  to  regu- 
lating the  production  and  sale  of' intoxi- 
cants. However,  owing  to  the  feeling 
with  regard  to  State  rights,  the  main 
proposition — complete  prohibition — was 
defeated  in  the  convention  by  a  small 
margin. 

At  present,  either  by  law  or  by  mili- 
tary decree,  four  States  are  nominally 
dry  in  Mexico:  Jalisco,  the  California 
of  Mexico;  Chihuahua,  Villa's  paradise; 
Sinaloa,  the  most  prosperous  of  the  west 
coast  States,  and  Yucatan,  the  land  of 
the  henequin  grower.  Other  States  have 
restricting  legislation.  These  four  States 
comprise  about  one-fifth  of  Mexico  in 
area  and  about  one-sixth  in  population. 
Although  nowhere  are  the  regulations 
adequately  enforced,  if  enforced  at  all, 
the  basis  has  been  laid  for  future  gains 
for  prohibition. 

At  last  year's  session  of  the  Camara 
de  Diputados  the  Yucatan  delegation 
introduced  a  prohibition  law  for  the 
Federal  district  and  territories,  the  latter 
being  Quintana  Roo  and  Baja  California; 
buc  the  President,  in  view  of  the  pre- 
carious condition  of  Government  finances, 


introduced  a  substitute  measure,  impos- 
ing a  50  per  cent,  tax  on  pulque.  After 
heated  debate  the  President's  wishes  were 
followed,  it  being  felt  that  such  a  high 
tax  would  diminish  the  amount  of  pulque 
consumed.  Actually  pulque  consumption 
has  increased  at  least  100  per  cent,  since 
the  passage  of  the  bill.  A  movement  is 
now  on  foot  to  introduce  a  bill  at  the 
next  session  of  Congress  providing  for 
complete  prohibition. 

Meanwhile  the  National  Board  of 
Health  is  at  work.  Its  new  regulations 
may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

1.  New  establishments  for  the  sale  of 
intoxicants   may   not   be   opened. 

2.  Poisonous  alcohols,  such  as  those 
made  from  wormwood,  may  not  be  manu- 
factured. 

3.  At  the  end  of  six  months  intoxicants 
must  not  be  drunk  on  the  premises  or  in 
the  streets  or  plazas. 

4.  The  manufacture  of  pulque  must  be 
in  accordance  with  given  regulations  as 
to  the  cleanliness  and  purity  of  composi- 
tion. 

5.  At  the  end  of  a  year  intoxicants  made 
from  cereals  may  not  be  manufactured  or 
sold. 

Another  factor  that  must  be  taken  into 
consideration,  however,  is  that  the  exist- 
ing brewery  establishments  of  the  United 
States  may  be  transplanted  in  Mexico. 
A  representative  visited  Mexico  some 
months  ago  for  the  purpose  of  looking 
over  the  ground,  sounding  the  Govern- 
ment, &c.,  and  he  made  a  public  state- 
ment that  a  certain  large  corporation 
was  planning  to  establish  six  breweries 
in  as  many  different  sections  of  the  re- 
public. 

On  the  other  hand,  various  prohibition 
organizations  in  the  United  States  are 
looking  for  new  worlds  to  conquer,  and 
are  planning  to  extend  their  propaganda 
to  all  Latin-American  countries.  This 
will  intensify  the  public  interest  in  the 
question  of  alcoholism  in  Mexico  as  in 
other  Spanish-speaking  countries.  With 
prohibition  as  a  part  of  the  .  Constitu- 
tionalist program  of  reform,  rather  defi- 
nite results  favorable  to  the  cause  of 
prohibition  should  logically  be  obtained 
in  Mexico. 


What  Peace  Has  Done  to  Krupp's 

Transforming  a  Great  War  Factory 


HE  Krupp  works  at  Essen,  upon 
which  the  German  armies  depended 
for  cannon  during  the  European 
war,  have  practically  ceased  all  further 
war  production.  The  entire  staff, 
numbering  85,000  men  and  women,  were 
busily  engaged  in  peaceful  activities 
when  the  workmen's  revolt  that  followed 
the  Junker  coup  d'etat  threw  all  Essen 
into  temporary  confusion.  The  works 
of  peace,  however,  were  soon  resumed. 
Big  guns  are  being  sent  back  to  Krupp's 
to  be  dismantled  and  prepared  for  use 
in  the  manufacture  of  automobiles  and 
agricultural  machinery.  Railway  engines 
and  trucks  are  being  manufactured,  in- 
stead of  Big  Berthas.* 

To  adapt  itself  to  this  radical  change 
the  immense  war  factory  was  completely 
remodeled.  The  famous  institution  which 
forged  Germany's  most  terrible  ^weapons 
was  transformed  almost  over  night  from 
a  destructive  agency  to  one  of  creation 
and  reconstruction,  and  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  founded  some  seventy  years 
ago  by  Alfred  Krupp  ceased  suddenly  to 
exist. 

It  was  toward  the  end  of  the  '50s  of 
the  last  century,  says  a  special  corre- 
spondent of  The  Manchester  Guardian, 
that  Alfred  Krupp  produced  a  cast-steel 
tube  for  a  three-pounder  gun,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  vast  fortune  and 
of  his  sinister  fame  in  Europe,  which 
made  his  very  name  a  nightmare  both 
to  the  Socialists  and  pacifists  of  Ger- 
many and  to  the  militarists  of  other 
European  nations.  Many  of  the  heaviest 
financial  burdens  which  troubled  Europe 
during  the  last  fifty  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  were  due  to  the  ever- 
changing  views  regarding  quantity  and 
system  which  the  Krupp  output  com- 
pelled, depleting  the  national  treasuries 
and  enriching  the  manufacturers  of 
arms. 

At   Krupp's    the   manufacture    of   big 


*S'o-called  from  Bertha  Krupp,  daughter  of 
Friedrich  Krupp,  who  succeeded  her  father 
as  head  of  the  works. 


guns  soon  surpassed  in  importance  all 
other  production.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  '70s  the  number  X)f  gun  shops  had 
increased  to  four,  and  many  of  the  older 
shops  had  been  equipped  for  ordnance 
production  and  for  the  making  of  gun 
carriages.  After  meeting  the  increased 
demands  made  by  Germany  herself  fol- 
lowing on  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  the 
rapidly  developing  institution  found  its 
greatest  customer  in  Russia.  All  these 
orders  made  necessary  the  equipment  of 
the  big  gun-testing  range  at  Meppen. 
To  meet  the  wishes  of  the  German  Ad- 
miralty in  1890 — three  years  after  the 
death  of  Alfred  Krupp — the  armor-plate 
shops  were  started  which  turned  out  the 
famous  Krupp  armor  plate,  the  manu- 
facture of  which  became  the  leading 
undertaking  of  its  kind. 

The  enormous  growth  of  the  Krupp 
arms  industry  following  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  may  be  seen  by  the  fact  that  in 
August,  1914,  only  12,000  persons  out 
of  a  total  of  34,000  were  engaged  in  war- 
production,  whereas  in  July,  1918,  59,500 
were  so  employed  out  of  a  total  of  97,400, 
while  the  capital  of  the  firm  was  in- 
creased from  $45,000,000  to  $57,250,000. 
This  ever-increasing  expansion  was  cut 
short  by  the  armistice  and  the  Peace 
Treaty,  which  reduced  the  German  Army 
to  little  more  than  a  police  force,  whose 
needs  could  be  fully  supplied  by  the 
State  arsenals  at  Spandau  and  elsewhere, 
and  which  gave  a  monopoly  in  the  trade 
of  war  production  to  the  Entente  facto- 
ries. Krupp's  bowed  to  the  inevitable, 
scrapped  what  had  been  its  pride  and 
the  source  of  its  fortune,  and  adapted 
itself  to  an  extensive  peace  program. 
The  enormous  furnaces  for  the  manu- 
facture of  cast  steel  continued  their 
activity,  unconcerned  by  the  new  destina- 
tion of  the  finished  product.  The  largest 
of  the  shops  formerly  devoted  to  execu- 
tion of  the  "  Hindenburg  Plan,"  instead 
of  turning  out  big  guns,  was  turned  into 
a  factory  of  railway  engines. 

When  in  full  working  order  this  shop 
is  to  turn  out  one  complete  engine  and 


358 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ten  railway  trucks  every  day,  an  under- 
taking of  the  highest  importance  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  lack  of  good  engines 
has  become  one  of  the  most  difficult 
problems  of  German  transport.  To  meet 
this  situation  Krupp's  is  also  taking  in 
locomotives  for  repair  at  the  rate  of 
about  150  at  a  time,  lifting  the  engines 
bodily  in  and  out  by  means  of  powerful 
traveling  cranes.  The  shops  formerly 
devoted  to  turning  out  armored  turrets 
and  giant  cannon  for  the  navy  have  been 
given  over  wholly  to  this  new  work,  and 
only  a  few  turning  disks  of  former  tur- 
rets and  sections  of  the  monster  guns — 
cut  neatly  into  vertical  or  horizontal 
lengths  by  means  of  oxygen  burners — 
betray  their  former  occupation.  Only  a 
few  formidable  squares  of  steel,  breeches 


of  the  famous  42-centimeter  siege  guns 
which  pounded  the  forts  of  Liege  to 
pieces,  were  waiting  to  be  delivered  to 
the  melting  furnaces  when  the  Kapp 
revolt  brought  temporary  disorganization 
and  labor  strife  to  Essen. 

All  other  war  munition  shops  have 
been  stripped  and  dismantled,  and  many 
of  the  big  machines  which  turned  out 
powerful  projectiles  destined  to  burst 
over  Calais  and  English  soil  have  been 
sold  all  over  Germany  and  converted  to 
other  purposes.  An  assurance  given  by 
one  of  Krupp's  Directors  that  no  war 
material  of  any  kind  was  being  manu- 
factured was  confirmed  by  trade  union 
officials,  labor  leaders.  Socialists  and 
representatives  of  various  other  classes. 
Peace  is  taking  its  revenge  at  Krupp's. 


Humor  at  the  Peace  Conference 

An  Interpreter's  Stories 


PROFESSOR  PAUL  MANTOUX,  the 
talented  French  author  and  Lon- 
don University  instructor,  who 
acted  as  interpreter  in  the  Supreme  War 
Council  at  Paris  and  who  is  now  director 
of  the  political  section  of  the  Secretariat 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  was  enter- 
tained by  the  Foreign  Press  Association 
in  London  when  the  League  held  its  first 
meeting  there  in  February,  1920.  In  the 
course  of  an  after-dinner  speech  Profes- 
sor Mantoux  threw  some  interesting  side- 
lights on  the  "  Big  Four  "  at  Paris.  The 
interpreter's  was  a  curious  trade,  he  said; 
during  the  proceedings  in  Paris  he  fre- 
quently felt  that  his  head  served  as 
a  sieve  through  which  other  men's 
thoughts  were  passed.  Amazing  state- 
ments, for  which  he  was  in  no  way  re- 
sponsible, flowed  from  his  mouth.  He 
had  in  a  sense  acted  as  a  fifth  member 
of  the  Council  of  Four  and  had  been 
present  even  at  the  intimate  meetings  in 
President  Wilson's  room,  where  the  coun- 
cil really  decided  the  main  points. 

There  Mr.  Lloyd  George  occupied  a 
large,  comfortable  armchair;  M.  Clem- 
enceau  occupied  another  near  President 
Wilson,  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  table, 
where  he  sat,  was  Signor  Orlando,  who 


showed  great  eagerness  to  know  every- 
thing that  was  going  on.  Conversation 
was  very  informal  and  very  friendly. 
Sometimes,  when  some  unknown  locality 
was  mentioned,  such  as  Jerusalem  or 
Constantinople,  a  large  map  was  brought 
in,  and  then  those  great  men  might  be 
seen  crawling  on  the  floor.  He  saw  it 
once  or  twice  with  great  delight.  He  had 
really  a  hard  time.  He  had  to  rush  to 
the  Foreign  Office  at  9  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  dictate  notes  of  what  he  had 
heard  during  five  hours  of  the  day  before, 
and  present  something  as  much  like  it  as 
possible  in  about  two  hours.  He  had  to 
dictate  at  full  speed,  like  a  man  running 
for  dear  life.  He  afterward  jumped  into 
a  motor  car  and  went  to  President  Wil- 
son's house,  where  the  sitting  began  a 
few  moments  afterward. 

Sometimes  the  Council  of  Four  had 
their  moment  of  leisure,  when  documents 
were  required,  and  the  interval  was 
passed  in  story-telling.  President  Wilson 
was  good  at  short  stories,  and  they  were 
always  much  enjoyed.  He  told  one  about 
a  Chinaman  and  the  moon.  He  said  there 
was  a  Chinaman  who,  when  taking  water 
out  of  a  well  and  seeing  the  reflection  of 
the  moon,  said  to  himself:  "Oh,  this  is 


HUMOR  AT  THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 


359 


very  serious  indeed.  The  moon  has  fallen 
into  the  well  and  it  is  my  duty  to  try  to 
take  it  out."  Then  he  dropped  his  bucket 
and  pulled  as  hard  as  he  could — so  hard 
that  he  fell  on  his  back — and  on  looking 
up  saw  the  moon  in  the  sky.  He  then 
said  to  himself:  "Well,  that  is  good 
work!  "  That  was  typical  of  the  small 
stories  which  President  Wilson  would 
give  between  two  great  discussions. 

On  another  occasion,  during  an  in- 
tei-val  in  the  proceedings,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  asked  M.  Clemenceau  his  opinion 
of  the  great  orators  of  the  French  Tri- 
bune, and  M.  Clemenceau  gave  a  very 
vivid  picture  of  his  friends  who  had 
spoken  in  French  assemblies  during  the 
last  forty  or  fifty  years.  He  placed  M. 
Viviani  in  the  forefront  as  the  greatest 
living  Frenchman,  and  considered  that 
among  the  orators  he  had  heard  M.  Gam- 
betta  and  M.,  Jarues  were  first  by  a  long 
distance.  Though  he  had  quarreled  very 
much  with  both,  he  did  not  mind  ex- 
pressing his  warm  admiration  of  their 
great  powers  in  that  line. 

M.  Clemenceau  attended  the  gathering 
of  great  men,  always  wearing  gray  gloves, 
and  never  took  them  off.  This  gave  rise 
to  much  speculation,  but  a  simple  ex- 
planation was  eventually  forthcoming. 
M.  Clemenceau  told  him  that  his  skin 
was  constantly  getting  drier,  so  he  kept 
it  oiled  or  something  of  that  sort.  He 
therefore  put  on  gloves,  because  he  could 
not  shake  hands  with  people  or  write 
with  hands  in  that  condition.  That  was 
the  key  to  the  gloves  mystery.  M.  Clem- 
enceau was  sometimes  very  angry  with 
some  one  or  other,  but  when  he  under- 


stood the  point  of  view  upon  which  the 
difference  arose  he 'admitted  there  was 
something  good  in  it. 

On  his  last  appearance  M.  Clemenceau 
delivered  a  long  speech  to  a  few  dele- 
gates representing  the  Jugoslavs,  in 
which  he  persuaded  them,  however  dif- 
ficult it  might  be,  to  accept  the  settle- 
ment. All  present  were  deeply  moved  on 
that  occasion.  Before  everything  else  the 
French  statesman  was  a  man  of  great 
courage.  He  saw  it  in  a  small  way  when 
M.  Clemenceau,  in  crossing  to  England  in 
a  destroyer  last  December,  broke  a  rib. 
When  he  reached  London  he  was  asked 
if  he  would  not  like  to  consult  a  doctor, 
and  replied,  "  That  is  no  good;  I  have 
been  a  doctor  myself."  It  was  only  on 
his  return  to  Paris  that  he  had  to  get 
advice,  and  then  it  was  discovered  that  a 
rib  had  been  broken.  As  a  consequence 
M.  Clemenceau  had  to  remain  indoors 
for  some  days,  and  it  was  during  that 
period  that  he  (Mr.  Mantoux)  witnessed 
a  most  striking  scene.  There  came  to  the 
house  of  this  French  citizen  the  Aus- 
trian plenipotentiary,  a  pathetic  figure, 
begging  for  bread  in  the  name  of  the 
country  that  was  so  great  and  important 
before  the  war.  It  was  an  occasion  that 
he  would  always  remember. 

What  had  struck  him  in  his  position 
as  interpreter  at  the  Peace  Council  was 
the  good-will  and  understanding  that  pre- 
vailed—the desire  to  understand  and  ap- 
preciate each  other's  point  of  view.  This 
had  been  one  of  the  great  lessons  of  the 
last  few  years,  and  if  it  was  a  supreme 
task  for  an  interpreter  it  was  a  glorious 
one. 


The  Moral  Crisis  in  France 


How  the  War  Has  Affected  French  Psychology- 

With  England 


A  Parallel 


THERE  is  a  good  deal  of  talk,  in 
England,  the  United  States,  and 
France  herself,  on  the  after-war 
psychology  of  the  French  people, 
and  in  some  quarters  a  pessimistic  view 
of  the  situation  is  taken.  In  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Review  for  December,  1919,  for 
instance,  Albert  Dauzat,  in  a  remarkable 
study,  painted  a  picture  of  considerable 
gloom.  His  general  point  of  departure 
was  summed  up  in  his  opening  para- 
graph : 

It  has  been  said  that  the  war  has 
changed  our  characters ;  this  is  a  superfi- 
cial opinion.  The  war  has  simply  pro- 
duced new  reactions,  by  the  play  of  dif- 
ferent forces,  in  the  human  beings  whose 
world  has  been  transformed.  By  the 
formidable  shock  which  this  has  pro- 
duced, by  the  destruction  of  the  normal 
balance  of  social  life,  the  war  has  pro- 
duced a  general  moral  crisis,  more  visible 
and  deeper,  undoubtedly,  in  the  van- 
quished, but  apparent  also  in  the  victors. 
The  relaxation  which  has  followed  the 
armistice  has  served  only  to  bring  it  out 
into  clearer  relief,  if  not  to  aggravate  it. 

At  first,  says  M.  Dauzat,  there  was 
the  sentiment  of  the  common  danger, 
which  evoked  a  magnificent  impulse  of 
solidarity,  fraternity,  self-sacrifice,  and, 
at  the  front,  innumerable  acts  of  courage 
and  heroism.  With  the  diminution  of  the 
danger  the  fundamental  egotism  of  the 
race  again  appeared;  after  the  Marne, 
when  the  danger  of  the  invasion  had  dis- 
appeared, the  pre-war  mentality  again 
asserted  itself,  a  change  symbolized 
humorously  by  a  writer  in  the  Figaro 
who  said :  "  On  the  day  of  mobilization 
I  kissed  my  concierge.  *  *  *  g^^  gjx 
months  later  I  had  to  move!  "  In  the 
second  year  of  the  war  the  selfish  atti- 
tude of  the  French  people  regarding 
economy  and  hoarding  contributed  to  the 
high  cost  of  living,  which  is  still  seen  in 
France,  as  elsewhere,  at  the  present 
time. 

Examining  the  principal  social  ele- 
ments of  France,  this  writer  complains 
that  art  and  literature  are  becoming  more 


and  more  mercantilized.  Politicians  have 
become  discredited  by  the  many  notorious 
scandals  that  have  bespattered  the  whole 
fraternity.  The  nouveaux  riches  are 
rightly  hated  for  their  ostentation.  The 
employer  class  is  struggling  against"  the 
claims  of  employes.  Many  service  men 
were  taken  back  only  under  the  penalty 
of  the  law.  Many  fraudulent  tax  re- 
ports have  been  presented.  Merchants 
in  France,  especially  in  the  retail  trade, 
have  become  exceedingly  unpopular  in 
ratio  as  they  have  enriched  themselves 
at  the  expense  of  the  public,  though,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  the  wholesale 
merchant  who  was  the  chief  war 
profiteer.  These  abuses  were  courageous- 
ly attacked  by  the  Eclair,  a  well-known 
French  newspaper. 

The  Governmental  budget,  according 
to  M.  Dauzat,  has  been  plundered  by  of- 
ficials, whose  demand  for  salary  raises 
has  become  more  and  more  insatiable. 
Even  the  learned  professions,  teaching, 
medicine,  law,  formerly  consecrated  to 
an  ideal,  are  regarded  by  the  people  as 
having  an  unquenchable  thirst  for 
profit.  The  result  has  been  a  loss  of 
respect  and  moral  authority.  The  union- 
ized school  teachers  have  unquestionably 
lost  prestige  with  the  farmers  and  other 
classes  among  whom  they  labored. 

ATTITUDE  OF  LABOR 

This  universal  egotism  has  appeared 
in  all  its  fierceness  in  the  demands  of 
labor  unions.  When  the  postal  clerks 
last  September  demanded  that  all  the 
Post  Offices,  telegraph,  and  telephone 
offices  be  closed,  the  objection  was  made 
that  this  step  might  deprive  sick  people 
of  medical  assistance.  The  answer  was: 
"What  is  that  to  us?  We  wish  to  rest 
and  go  to  the  movies.  They'll  get  along. 
They  got  along  all  right  when  there  was 
neither  telegraph  nor  telephone." 

The  workman  has  been  incontestably 
spoiled    by    the    war.      He    has    earned 


THE  MORAL  CRISIS  IN  FRANCE 


36] 


salaries  transcending  all  his  hopes,  espe- 
cially in  munition  factories  and  ship- 
yards; usually  he  has  had  no  rent  to 
pay;  all  metal  workers,  from  the  first 
year  of  war,  were  brought  back  from  the 
front  and  withdrawn  from  the  dangers 
of  war.  The  workman  is  then  a  real 
gainer  by  the  war,  but  he  does  not 
realize  it  and  goes  on  with  his  recrimina- 
tions. 

He  asserts,  first  of  all,  that  the  rise 
in  salaries  does  not  cover  the  increase 
in  the  cost  of  living.  This,  declares  M. 
Dauzat,  is  untrue.  Waiving  minor  con- 
siderations, the  obvious  proof  of  the  con- 
trary is  that  since  the  war  the  workman 
has  lived  in  a  style  which  he  never  knew 
before ;  he  bought,  and  still  is  buying,  at 
the  markets,  regardless  of  price,  chicken 
and  fine  fruits  which  the  petit  bourgeois 
can  no  longer  afford.  Wine  has  never 
been  lacking  to  his  table,  nor  brandy 
either.  And  yet,  while  he  spends  his 
high  wages  foolishly,  for  the  coarse  satis- 
factions of  the  appetite,  he  envies  and 
hates  the  "bourgeois,"  though  he  him- 
self, if  he  became  less  improvident  and 
more  economical,  could  become  the  master 
of  all  industries  in  a  few  decades.  But 
for  this  he  needs  education.  A  reduction 
of  his  high  wages  in  some  factories 
reorganized  on  a  peace  basis  has  been 
resented  by  the  workman  of  this  class, 
and  has  been  one  of  the  contributing 
causes  of  his  discontent. 

AVERSION  FOR  WORK 

But  the  most  serious  symptom,  ac- 
cording to  this  author,  is  the  aversion 
for  work,  a  tendency  seen  all  over  the 
world  today,  including  Germany,  which 
formerly  boasted  of  her  productive 
energy,  and  also  Austria.  In  these  coun- 
tries the  jobless  demand  allowances  equal 
to  the  wages  of  the  workers.  Snow 
shovelers  could  not  be  had.  Advanced 
Socialists  like  Kautsky  exhort  the  prole- 
tariat to  moderate  their  demands  and  to 
work  more  if  they  do  not  wish  to  drive 
their  country  to  ruin.  In  England, 
similarly,  miners  demand  a  six-hour  day, 
and  the  mine  strikers  in  America  adopt 
a  program  of  a  six-hour  day  and  a 
thirty-hour  week,  though  the  eight-hour 
day,  at  the  present  time,  represents  the 
extreme  limit  of  reduction  possible. 


The  peasants,  on  their  part,  have  gone 
through  the  ordeal  of  shot  and  shell,  for 
they  represented  the  large  majority  of 
the  fighters.  Those  who  remained  in 
the  fields  suffered  from  lack  of  help. 
Yet  in  two  or  three  years,  thanks  to  the 
high  prices,  the  peasants  have  paid  their 
debts  and  acquired  considerable  savings. 
But  often,  to  do  this,  they  have  abused 
the  situation  by  speculating  in  prices, 
by  hoarding,  and  in  other  ways.  The 
desire  for  work,  at  least,  the  peasant  has 
preserved,  but  he  is  drawn  more  and 
more  by  the  high  wages  of  the  towns, 
and  the  desertion  of  the  country  districts 
remains  one  of  the  most  disquieting  prob- 
lems which   France  must   solve. 

As  for  the  civic  spirit  of  both  the 
peasant  and  the  workman  class,  they 
evade  in  all  ways  possible  the  payment 
of  all  new  taxes  on  their  agricultural 
profits;  no  one  declares  his  profits,  and 
verification  is  almost  impossible.  The 
workman,  more  frank  and  brutal  than 
the  peasant,  roundly  refuses  to  pay, 
burns  or  sends  back  tax  bills,  and  finds 
support  for  this  conduct  in  his  union. 
Despairing  of  remedying  this  situation, 
the  Government  by  a  decree  of  May  26, 
1919,  was  compelled  to  suspend  all  prose- 
cutions arising  from  tax  infringements. 

ATTITUDE  OF  WOMEN 

Frenchwomen,  lastly,  as  studied  in 
this  analysis,  could  not  escape  the  gen- 
eral crisis,  the  responsibility  for  which 
they  share  with  the  men,  as  they  have 
been  the  ones  to  push  the  latter  to  ex- 
pense and  to  higher  wage  demands.  An 
impulsive  being,  moved  by  generous  de- 
sires, the  Frenchwoman  practiced  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  the  most  disinterest- 
ed devotion,  especially  in  her  work  in 
the  hospitals.  But  this  altruistic  im- 
pulse could  not  and  did  not  endure.  All 
voluntary  nurses  have  now  left  the  hos- 
pitals and  been  replaced  by  professionals. 
Luxury  and  selfishness  have  again  ap- 
peared upon  the  surface.  In  Paris,  dur- 
ing the  first  three  months  of  war,  the 
women  eschewed  fine  dress;  little  by 
little,  however,  rich  toilets  have  reap- 
peared under  various  pretexts,  with  the 
result  that,  even  before  the  armistice, 
luxury  had  attained  unprecedented  pro- 
portions.    This  has  spread  through  all 


362 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


classes  and  constitutes  a  grave  social 
danger,  for  it  arose  in  the  promiscuity  of 
the  munition  factories  and  the  absence 
of  husbands,  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
spread  of  vice,  which  has  reached  dis- 
quieting proportions;  the  number  of  di- 
vorces, almost  all  demanded  by  the  hus- 
band, has  increased  by  nearly  10  per 
cent,  in  the  department  of  the  Seine  since 
the  armistice. 

Although  they  have  suffered  most,  and 
precisely  because  they  have  suffered, 
says  M.  Dauzat,  the  demobilized  soldiers 
are  the  least  discontented,  so  greatly  do 
they  appreciate  the  joy  of  having  escaped 
the  supreme  sacrifice  and  of  being  re- 
stored to  normal  life.  Some  of  these 
are  embittered,  yet  on  the  whole  it  is 
among  the  service  men  that  the  best  ele- 
ments for  social  renovation  are  to  be 
found. 

From  this  analysis  two  contradictory 
facts  are  deduced :  never  has  France  been 
better  off  financially;  and  never  has 
there  been  such  widespread  discontent, 
such  loud  and  incessant  clamors  for  ad- 
vantage. The  only  remedy  is  the  moral 
reform  advocated  by  Renan  in  1871.  The 
people  must  return  to  Pastor  Wagner's 
simple  life.  The  ideal  of  devotion  and 
disinterestedness  must  return.  The  period 
now  beginning  is  destined  to  be  a  hard 
one,  and  a  great  and  protracted  effort  is 
necessary  to  repair  the  ruins  of  war. 
Only  the  laborious — individuals  as  well 
as  peoples — will  win  again  their  places 
at  the  banquet  of  life. 

VIEW  OF  M.  TARDIEU 

Andre  Tardieu,  one  of  the  five  French 
plenipotentiaries  at  the  Peace"  Confer- 
ence and  Minister  of  the  Liberated  Dis- 
tricts, interprets  the  situation  in  France 
less  pessimistically.  In  an  interview  re- 
ported by  0.  Philippe  Millet  for  the  Ob- 
server he  summarizes  the  way  France  is 
attacking  some  urgent  problems.  Thrift 
in  France,  he  points  out,  is  now  just  as 
marked  as  it  ever  was.  The  small  wage- 
earners,  with  the  increase  of  their  wages 
and  in  spite  of  the  enormous  rise  in  the 
cost  of  living,  are  now  saving  seven 
times  more  than  before  the  war.  No 
doubt,  he  admits,  there  is  widespread  dis- 
content, for  the  exceedingly  high  cost  of 
living,  the  scarcity  of  essential  commod- 


ities, such  as  coal,  and  many  other  hard- 
ships are  beginning  to  tell  upon  a  nation 
which  has  already  undergone  the  great 
ordeal  for  five  years.  This  discontent  is 
found  in  a  more  acute  degree  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  devastated  regions,  in- 
furiated by  every  hitch  in  the  work  of 
reconstruction.  Statistics  cited  by  M. 
Tardieu  prove  that  the  attacks  on  the 
Government  in  this  regard  have  been 
unjustified. 

France,  he  observes,  has  to  recover 
from  a  terrible  crisis,  and  it  is  the 
economic  situation  that  presents  the 
greatest  difficulty,  now  that  peace  is 
signed.  We  have  heard,  he  says,  some 
unexpected  retorts  when  France  has 
asked  her  friends  to  make  it  easier 
for  her  to  recover  her  material  balance. 
Some  Americans  accused  the  French  of 
being  lax  in  imposing  additional  taxation 
on  themselves  (a  laxness  which  the 
article  of  M.  Dauzat  emphasizes)  to  re- 
lieve the  financial  burdens  of  the  coun- 
try. Commenting  on  this  M.  Tardieu 
says: 

This  misconception  arises,  I  believe, 
from  the  fact  that  foreig-n  observers  only 
look  at  our  income  tax  without  realizing- 
that  this  newly  created  tax  only  plays 
as  yet  a  secondary  part  in  French  finance, 
while  our  main  revenues  are  derived  from 
indirect  taxation.  The  aggregate  taxes 
paid  by  the  average  Frenchman  in  1913, 
including  the  local  taxes,  were  142.59 
francs  per  head.  They  were  297.37  francs 
in  1918,  and  will  be  598  francs  in  1920. 
From  1913  till  1920  this  amounts  to  an 
increase  of  319.3  per  cent,  in  taxation, 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  more 
than  one-fifth  of  the  national  wealth  has 
been  destroyed  by  the  war.  The  result 
is  so  encouraging  that  it  may  be  ex- 
pected that  after  taxation  has  been  ex- 
tended to  the  devastated  regions  of  the 
north  and  to  Alsace-Lorraine  the  present 
taxes  will  yield  something  like  fifteen 
billion  francs.  As  our  budget  will  re- 
quire about  twenty  billion  francs  it  will 
not  be  very  difficult  to  raise  the  neces- 
sary revenue  in  order  to  make  both 
ends  meet. 

PARALLEL  WITH   ENGLAND 

An  interesting  parallel  between  France 
and  England  was  drawn  by  the  English 
Churchman  Dean  W.  R.  Inge  in  com- 
menting on  the  article  of  M.  Dauzat. 
In  most  points,  Dean  Inge  says,  the  lat- 
ter's  description  of  France  might  serve 


THE  MORAL  CRISIS  IN  FRANCE 


363 


very  well  for  England.     In  this  regard 
he  adds: 

We,  too,  have  our  profiteers,  our  dis- 
contented officials,  and  our  anti-social 
labor  movements,  acting  by  incessant 
"demands"  and  threats.  In  both  coun- 
tries alike  there  is  the  amazing  phe- 
nomenon of  apparent  universal  prosper- 
Iity  following  on  the  most  costly  and  de- 
structive war  ever  recorded  by  history. 
We  are  only  just  beginning  to  realize 
that  we  are  galloping  along  the  road  to 
ruin.  Our  factitious  prosperity  is  the  re- 
sult partly  of  seizing  for  war  purposes 
whatever  could  be  realized  of  the  ac- 
cumulated wealth  of  the  country,  and 
*'  partly    by    the    issue    of    unlimited    paper 

money,  which  is  the  modern  equivalent  of 
that  time-honored  expedient  of  govern- 
ments in  difficulties— the  debasement  of 
the  coinage. 

But  there  are  one  or  two  differences 
between  the  two  countries.  M.  Dauzat 
finds  that  extreme  poverty  (la  mis^re) 
has  disappeared  from  France.  With  us, 
unfortunately,  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
real  distress,  amounting  almost  to  star- 
vation, among  the  middle  class,  who  are 
ground  between  the  upper  and  nether 
millstones  of  the  profiteers  and  the  trade 
iinions.       This    class,     believing    that    its 


sufferings  are  incurred  for  the  good  of 
the  country,  has  bcy:ne  them  with  ex- 
emplary patience  and  self-sacrifice ;  but 
distress  is  extreme.  Large  numbers  of 
the  parochial  clergy  are  almost  in  rags, 
and  have  not  enough  to  eat.  Refined 
gentlernen  and  ladies  are  reduced  to  ac- 
cepting presents  of  cast-off  clothing  and 
old  boots.  The  richer  professional  men, 
though  they  have  enough  left  to  keep  the 
wolf  from  the  door,  have  lost  about  fifteen 
shillings  in  the  pound  of  their  incomes 
before  the  war,  50  per  cent,  being  taken 
from  them  by  taxation  and  50  per  cent, 
of  the  remainder  by  increase  in  the  cost 
of  living. 

Tliis  enormous  transference  of  wealth, 
caused  chiefly  by  the  threats  of  organ- 
ized labor,  which  while  the  country  was 
fighting  for  its  life  it  was  impossible  to 
resist,  constitutes  a  social  revolution  such 
as  this  country  has  never  seen  before. 

There  is  one  other  point  in  which  our 
experience  does  not  agree  with  that  of 
the  French.  The  women— those  at  least 
who  belong  to  the  upper  and  middle 
classes— have  not  shown  i.ny  eagerness  to 
throw  up  their  war  work.  They  are  still 
showing  themselves  worthy  of  their  new 
political  privileges  by  admirable  devotion 
to   the    service    of   the    country. 


France  and  the  Holy  See 

Movement  in  the  French  Chamber  to  Renew  Diplomatic  Relations 

With   the  Vatican 


THE  question  of  a  resumption  of 
diplomatic  relations  between  France 
and  the  Vatican,  which  were  broken 
off  twenty  years  ago,  when  Church  and 
State  were  separated,  has  again  come  to 
the  fore.  The  subject  has  acquired  new 
interest  since  France  regained  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  where  the  concordat  under 
German  rule  had  been  continuously  in 
force. 

The  debate  in  the  French  Chamber  of 
Deputies  in  the  first  week  of  February 
showed  that  the  question  was  rapidly  be- 
coming an  issue.  The  Government  had 
to  answer  a  number  of  interpellations 
on  foreign  policy,  and  in  one  of  these  the 
question  of  a  resumption  of  relations 
with  Rome  was  definitely  raised.  After 
M.  Cornudet  had  asked  for  a  clear  decla- 
ration on  foreign  policy,  M.  Edouard 
Soulier,  a  Protestant  pastor,  addressed 
the  Deputies  on  the  subject  of  the  Vati- 


can.    His   address   may  be   summarized 
as  follows: 

He  was,  he  said,  a  convinced  supporter 
of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State, 
but  he  was  equally  convinced  that  the 
continuance  of  such  a  regime  should  not 
work  to  the  injury  of  any  one  in  the  coun- 
try. The  question  of  relations  with  the 
Holy  See  depended  upon  political  motives, 
and,  so  judged,  it  was  clear  how  it  should 
be  settled.  The  Vatican  was  a  diplo- 
matic centre  of  the  first  order,  and  France 
had  suffered  from  being  unrepresented 
there  during  the  war.  At  the  present 
time  she  had  no  right  to  refrain  from 
availing  h^-self  of  the  means  of 
strengthening  her  influence  in  the  world, 
and  of  moral  means  least  of  all.  Besides, 
French  Catholics  felt  themselves  placed 
in  a  position  of  inferiority,  as  compared 
with  Protestants  and  Freethinkers,  by  the 
absence  of  such  relations ;  and  so  France 
would  never  have  a  really  lay  or  neutral 
regime,  under  which  there  should  be 
mutual  respect  for  consciences,  until  this 
wounding  of  the  feelings  of  Catholics 
was    ended.      The    regeneration     of    the 


364 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


country  should  be  based  on  international 
ana  social  peace,  but,  a  foundation  of 
religious  peace  was  precedent  even  to 
tliem. 

The  words  of  M.  Soulier  were  en- 
thusiastically received  by  the  Deputies. 
M.  Miller  and,  the  new  French  Premier, 
replied   as   follows: 

The  national  interests  of  France  will 
ever  be  our  guide.  On  the  day  when  the 
national  interest  shall  seem  to  require  a 
resumption  of  relations  with  the  Vatican, 
on  that  day,  openly  and  publicly,  the 
Government  will  lay  the  matter  before 
Parliament,  with  whom  the  decision  will 
rest. 

Brief  as  this  answer  was,  it  was  re- 
ceived with  general  applause,  and  se- 
cured a  vote  of  confidence  of  513  votes 
against  66. 

In  commenting  upon  this  incident  the 
Tablet,  in  its  issue  of  Feb.  14,  drew 
attention  to  the  fact  that  a  resumption 
of  relations  with  the  Vatican  had  been 
touched  upon  in  the  program  of  the 
Republicans  of  the  Left,  which  had  made 
the  following  declaration :  "  The  Re- 
publicans of  the  Left  desire  that  France 
should  be  officially  present  everywhere 
where  she  has  rights  and  interests  to  de- 
fend." To  a  representative  of  L'Echo 
de  Paris,  M.  Georges  Noblemaire,  Deputy 
for  the  Hautes-Alpes,  who  held  the  post 
of  military  attache  in  Italy  for  two 
years  during  the  war,  and  who  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  which  drafted 
the  program,  emphasized  the  word 
"  everywhere."  Rome,  he  said,  was  the 
only  place  where  France  was  not  repre- 
sented, and  as  all  roads  lead  there,  why 
should  she  not  take  them?  That  did  not 
mean,  he  intimated,  that  there  should  be 
any  disturbance  of  the  regime  of  separa- 
tion; but  it  did  mean  that  the  present 
unsatisfactory  and  provisory  situation 
should  be  replaced  by  a  stable  and 
generous  modus  vivendi. 

This  could  be  effected,  M.  Noblemaire 
declared,  without  touching  the  principle 
of  separation,  or  having  recourse  to  a 
concordat  similar  to  that  which  had 
been  denounced.  The  time  would  come 
when   it  would  be  possible  to   estimate 


what  the  cause  of  France  had  suffered 
by  her  official  absence  from  the  Vatican, 
and  people  would  then  understand  the 
magnitude  of  the  error  committed  by 
successive  French  Governments  in  leav- 
ing the  field  at  Rome  open  to  German 
enterprises  and  keeping  it  closed  to 
themselves.  Some  points  of  contact  had 
been  kept  up,  but  such  unofficial  di- 
plomacy was  unworthy  of  a  country  like 
France,  and  condemned  it  to  ineffective- 
ness. What  was  needed  at  the  Vatican 
for  France  was  an  officially  accredited 
representative,  who,  without  disrespect 
or  exaggerated  deference,  would,  in  the 
fullest  independence,  serve  the  interests 
of  the  republic.  M.  Noblemaire  stressed 
the  importance  of  such  representation  in 
the  following  "words : 

There  is  our  age-long  influence  in  the 
East,  and  especially  in  Syria  and  the  Holy 
Places  to  be  restored  and  developed ;  the 
works  of  our  missions  scattered  over  the 
world  to  be  encouraged  and  supported; 
and  in  Europe,  especially  in  Poland, 
Czechoslovakia  and  Jugoslavia,  the  inter- 
vention of  religious  influence  in  political 
problems  to  be  studied  and  watched.  In 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  which  are  under  a 
concordat,  is  there  not  some  fresh  adapta- 
tion and  evolution  to  be  effected,  espe- 
cially as  the  matter  is  one  of  the  greatest 
delicacy,  seeing  that  our  brethren  there 
are  very  sensitive  on  the  matter?  At 
Rome  other  powers,  even  those  which  are 
not  Catholics,  set  us  an  example.  The 
conclusion,  then,  is  plain :  France  must 
be  present  there  as  everywhere  else.  Good 
sense   and   patriotism   alike   demand  it. 

The  well-known  writer,  M.  Anatole 
France,  a  strong  opponent  of  this  move- 
ment, holds  that  a  resumption  of  rela- 
tions would  involve  a  fresh  concordat 
and  consequent  interference  by  the  Vati- 
can in  French  affairs.  To  this  argu- 
ment the  Tablet  replies: 

In  this  he  is  imitating  the  tactics  of 
the  defeated  Radical-Socialists,  who  are 
always  talking  about  the  menace  of  the 
Right  and  its  reactionary  influences.  The 
program  that  won  the  elections  is  one  of 
tolerance  and  appeasement,  which  would 
adapt  existing  legislation  to  the  needs  of 
the  present  and  the  future  in  a  spirit  of 
conciliation,  and  with  a  view  to  the  prac- 
tical interests  of  the  nation. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 

CuRRicxT  History  nndertakes  in  this  department  to  publish  such  open  letters  as  if  cOll' 
lers  of  general  interest.  No  letter  will  be  used  without  the  name  and  address'  of  the 
On  co-ntroversial  questions  it  will  be  the  aim  to  give  all  sides  an  equal  chance  at 
representation;  Current  History,  however,  aiming  to  record  events  as  nearly  as  possible 
ivith'OUt  comment  or  bias,  disclaims  responsibility  for  opinions  contained  in  these  letters. 


f  RUMANIA  DEFENDED 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 
I  have  read  with  great  interest  and  profit 
)ur  excellent  article  on  Rumania  in  the 
irch  number ;  I  note,  however,  a  few  state- 
ments vrhich  my  recent  tour  in  that  country 
lables  me  to  rectify.  The  present  dc  facto 
jvernment  in  Rumania  is  oiot  Liberal;  in 
;t,  the  great  surprise  of  the  November 
jctions  was  the  downfall  of  the  Liberal 
:-ty,  which  had  control  of  the  electoral 
Machinery.  I  was  impressed  with  the  fair- 
;ss  of  the  elections,  and  the  order  which 
:evalled.  Not  merely  did  the  Liberals  lose, 
Jut  a  large  block  of  Peasants'  Party  candl- 
ites  was  returned,  together  with  a  score 
Hungarians,  still  more  Germans,  a  dozen 
lussians,  six  or  seven  Jews  and  several 
Bulgarians.  I  was  present  at  the  opening  of 
lis  first  Parliament  of  Greater  Rumania, 
^bieh  I  described  in  The  New  York  Times, 
id  have  never  witnessed  a  more  inspiring 
jectacle. 

It  is  true  that  the  Transylvanian  Ruma- 
'nians  are  in  a  backward  condition ;  but  that 
is  the  result  of  the  economic,  political  and 
especially  intellectual  serfdom  in  which  the 
Hungarians  held  them.  A  shortage  of  trained 
teachers  for  the  new  Rumanian  schools  is 
one  of  the  chief  problems  confronting  the 
Government;  the  heritage  of  Magyar  tyranny 
will  be  long  in  disappearing.  We  must  not 
forget  that  many  prominent  Hungarians,  in- 
cluding their  most  famous  King,  were  Tran- 
sylvanian Rumanians ;  and  now,  that  educa- 
tion is  no  longer  denied  them,  their  progress 
will  be  gratifying. 

It  is  also  hardly  fair  to  speak  of  the 
"  characteristic  incompetence,  politically  and 
economically  speaking,  of  the  Rvimanians." 
One  forgets  that,  unlike  Greece  (which  had 
the  warm  support  of  the  West)  and  Serbia 
and  Bulgaria  (fostered  by  Russia),  Rumania 
won  her  independence  and  made  her  re- 
markable economic  progress  almost  unaided ; 
and  she  had  no  reason  to  feel  ashamed  of 
her  statesmen— Cuza,  Kogalnichano,  the  elder 
Bratiano,  Maiorescu  and  others.  The  Ru- 
manian State  ran  its  railways  admirably ; 
trains  were  frequent,  rates  low,  accommoda- 
tions good,  and  the  State  netted  an  annual 
profit  for  many  years  of  100,000,000  francs 
or  over.  It  ill  becomes  us,  after  our  rail- 
road and  political  exhibition  of  the  past  year 
or  two,  to  cast  a  stone  at  the  "incompetence" 
of  others. 

You  quote  Count  Apponyi's  statement  that 
Hungary  was  left  only  twenty-seven  locomo- 


tives by  the  Rumanians.  General  Prezan, 
the  Rumanian  Commander  in  Chief,  told  me 
that  he  took  the  advice  of  British  experts 
to  find  out  how  many  locomotives  the  Hun- 
garians needed  for  commercial  purposes ;  he 
did  not  wish  to  cripple  them  industrially, 
being  anxious  merely  to  prevent  another 
surprise  attack  on  Rumania  like  that  of 
Bela  Kun.  "  They  told  me,"  he  said,  "  that 
they  thought  Hungary  could  get  along  with 
2,000  locomotives;  so  I  left  them  2,300."  I 
saw  many  more  than  twenty-seven  in  Hun- 
gary myself. 

I  presume  you  went  to  press  before  the 
General  Bandholtz  interview,  which  you  sum- 
marize, was  officially  disavowed.  I  was  In 
Budapest  at  the  end  of  October,  and  was 
astonished  at  what  I  saw,  after  the  stories 
of  Rumanian  spoliation  which  had  been  tele- 
graphed us  so  lavishly.  One  of  Friedrich's 
Ministers  actually  told  me,  with  tears  in 
his  voice,  that  the  Rumanians  had  requi- 
sitioned all  the  cattle,  horses,  plows,  &c.,  in 
occupied  Hungary.  And  with  my  own  eyes 
from  the  train  window,  as  we  passed  through 
Hungary  coming  into  Budapest,  I  had  been 
admiring  the  sleek  oxen,  the  handsome 
horses,  the  abundant  poultry  in  every  Hun- 
garian farmyard— a  striking  contrast  to  the 
desolation  wrought  by  the  enemy  in  Rumania 
itself !  I  found  the  markets  in  Budapest 
abundantly  supplied  with  everything  but 
wheat,  which  it  appears  the  peasantry  were 
holding  for  higher  priees;  curiously  enough, 
the  Rumanian  authorities  were  having  to 
import  grain  from  Transylvania  to  keep  up 
the  bread  supply  ! . 

One  of  our  Peace  Commission  in  Paris  had 
painted  to  me,  from  General  Bandholtz' s  re- 
ports, a  sad  picture  of  the  destitution  of  the 
city;  I  could  hardly  believe  my  eyes  when 
I  looked  over  the  crowded  tea  room  of  the 
Ritz  every  afternoon,  the  well-provided  res- 
taurant and  hotel  menus,  the  throngs  going 
to  the  races,  the  art  exhibitions  or  the  the- 
atres, the  well-stocked  stores  full  of  shop- 
pers ;  our  party  bought  many  articles  we 
could  hardly  find  in  Bucharest,  including 
very  handsome  silk  shirts  costing  about  $5 
each  in  American  money.  For  the  benefit 
of  my  Paris  friend  I  clipped  the  current 
market  report  from  the  Pester  Lloyd  (the 
great  German  daily),  which  stated,  inter 
alia,  that  the  poultry  supply  was  "  iiber- 
reich  "  (overabundant),  and  that  in  spite  of 
the  affluence  of  buyers  the  prices  of  geese, 
turkeys  -and  ducks  had  fallen  some  ten 
crowns  a  kilogram.  I  failed  to  persuade 
him.      He    wrote    back    tL\l.^    ^2^^/^    not   be 


366 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


right,  and  the  allied  military  obserrers 
(who,  by  the  way,  were  notoriously  pro- 
Hungarian   and   anti-Rumanian)   wrong! 

General  Prezan  told  me  that  the  only  re- 
quisitions of  farm  produce  he  had  made  were 
in  the  strip  east  of  the  Theiss,  and  were  only 
15  per  cent.,  as  against  the  82  per  cent, 
which  Czernin  boasted  that  he  had  taken,  of 
the  Rumanian  cattle.  As  regards  the  con- 
duct of  the  Rumanian  troops,  General  Green- 
ley,  the  British  observer  with  them,  is  on 
record  as  testifying  that  "  they  behaved  at 
least  as  well  as  a  British  Army  of  Occupa- 
tion would  have  done."  I  talked  with  Dr. 
Kiss  Arnold,  the  chief  rabbi  of  Budapest. 
He  said  frankly  that  he  thought  the  Magyar 
population  had  very  little  to  complain  of  at 
the  hands  of  the  Rumanians,  and  he  was 
plainly  much  worried  over  probable  anti- 
Semitic  reprisals  after  the  Rumanians  had 
left.  These  excesses  at  once  came  about. 
The  recent  petition  to  the  Peace  Conference, 
signed  by  100,000  Jews  of  Budapest,  beg- 
ging that  the  Rumanians  be  ordered  to  re- 
occupy  Budapest,  is  an  eloquent  testimony 
to  his  clearsightedness  and  to  General  Band- 
holtz's  partisanship. 

You  do  a  public  service  also  in  printing 
the  special  treaty  with  Rumania.  It  should, 
however,  be  mentioned  that  the  chief  reason 
why  the  Rumanians  fought  tooth  and  nail 
against  signing  it  was  that  it  originally  con- 
tained a  number  of  obnoxious  provisions, 
which  their  opposition  finally  succeeded  in 
striking  out,  and  which,  of  course,  do  not 
appear  in  the  final  draft  in  your  columns. 
I  possess  a  copy  of  the  original,  in  which 
the  preamble  states  that  Rumania's  inde- 
pendence was  only  conditional,  never  having 
been  altered  since  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  (and 
the  United  States,  by  the  way,  is  grouped 
cmong  the  powers  signatories  of  the  Treaty 
of  Berlin)  !  It  is  probable  that  we  Ameri- 
cans would  have  protested  if  told  by  France 
and  England  that  we  must  put  into  our 
fundamental  law  provisions  like  those 
Of  the  original  Article  IX.,  which  would 
force  us  to  maintain  only  German  ele- 
mentary schools  in  Dutch  Pennsylvania 
or  some  wards  of  Milwaukee,  only  French 
schools  in  some  New  England  mill 
towns,  only  Spanish  schools  in  much 
of  the  Southwest ;  those  of  the  original 
Article  X.,  which  provided  for  Jewish  con- 
fessional schools  under  local  Jewish  com- 
mittees, at  State  expense;  or  of  the  original 
Article  XI.,  which  would  prevent  our  holding 
law  courts,  registration  or  elections  on  a 
Saturday.  And  what  should  we  think  of  the 
original  Article  XVI.,  which  would  virtually 
deprive  us  of  the  right  of  fixing  tariffs  over 
our  railroads  and  rivers  for  business  origi- 
nating, e.  g.,  in  Canada  and  terminating  in 
Mexico  ? 

I  did  not.  know  a  single  American  or  Eng- 
lishman in  Bucharest  who  did  not  feel 
strong  sympathy  for  the  Rumanians  in  their 
fight  against  signing  the  first  draft  of  this 
extraordinary    document— suitable    rather    to 


a  conquered  foe  than  to  a  gallant  and  sorely 
tried  ally,  and  I  knew  many  Americans  who 
were  indignant  that  our  Government  should 
apply  relentless  pressure  to  force  the  Ruma- 
nians to  sign  without  a  change  or  a  reser- 
vation. CHARLES  UPSON  CLARK. 
Yale  Club,  New  York  City,  March  24,  1920. 

JAPAN'S  ACTS  COMPARED  WITH 
JAPAN'S  WORDS 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

History  belies  the  apologetic  of  the  Mar- 
quis Okuma  transcribed  in  Current  History 
for  March,  1920,  from  the  Japanese  Maga- 
zine. If  Japan  is  the  Good  Samaritan  her 
statesmen  would  have  us  believe,  she  can 
very  simply  prove  it  by  her  actions.  But 
as  long  as  those  actions  proclaim  her  the 
Prussia  of  the  Far  East  the  world  must 
question  the  sincerity  of  her  apologists. 

Let  Japan  remember  that  the  world  has 
not  forgotten  the  story  of  Korea.  The 
Korean  independence  movement  of  today 
and  the  stories  of  outrages  perpetrated  on 
defenseless  peasants  by  Japanese  soldiery 
and  police  keep  it  fresh  in  our  minds.  Japan 
entered  Korea  in  1904  because  the  Russian 
bear  had  placed  one  paw  on  Northern  Korea 
and  was  eagerly  eyeing  the  port  of 
Fusan  at  Korea's  southernmost  tip,  the 
possession  of  which  would  be  a  dagger 
pointed  at  Japan's  back.  The  treaty  with 
Korea  under  which  Japan  entered  Korea 
to  attack  Russia  guaranteed  Korean  in- 
dependence and  integrity.  Russia,  beaten, 
in  1906  signed  the  treaty  of  Portsmouth 
recognizing  Japan's  "  paramount  interests 
in  Korea."  Korea  had  nothing  to  say  about 
the  stipulations  of  that  treaty,  but  her 
Emperor  signed  it  because  the  Marquis  Ito 
told  him  to  and  a  Japanese  army  occupied 
Korea  at  the  time.  In  1910  Japan  annexed 
Korea. 

Now,  most  of  the  European  powers  whose 
peaceful  intervention  and  consequent  seizures 
of  territory  furnished  Japan  a  model  de  luxe 
for  her  Korean  episode  have  had  the  grace 
to  take  sufficient  time  about  the  operation 
of  absorption  to  smooth  some  of  the  ruffled 
feelings.  But  Japan  didn't  even  give  the 
world  a  chance  to  forget  that  she  had 
guaranteed  Korean  independence.  She  went 
ahead  with  the  operation  immediately  after 
the  Russian  war  and  within  six  years  broke 
her  pledge,  thereby  giving  the  inevitable  im- 
pression that  she  had  never  intended  to 
keep  it. 

With  this  example  fresh  in  our  minds,  what 
other  conclusion  can  we  draw  from  Japan's 
propaganda  of  today  than  that  she  desires 
to  repeat  the  process  on  a  much  larger  scale 
in  China?  Certainly  her  politico-economic 
expansion  in  Manchuria,  Eastern  Mongolia, 
Fukien  and  Shantung,  and  her  blunt  Twenty- 
one  Demands  of  1915  strengthen  such  a  sup- 
position. 

In  the  face  of  such  facts  the  Marquis 
Okuma  blandly  proclaims  that  "  Japan  cer- 
tainly   has    no    designs    on    any    territory    of 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 


367 


China.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  Japan's  main 
desire  and  policy  to  preserve  the  territorial 
integrity  of  China."  He  admits  that  Japan 
does  not  "  deem  it  improper  to  desire  the 
economic  and  commercial  development  of 
'  hina,  which  would  mean  mutual  profit  to 
;ill."  It  must  be,  then,  that  Japan  presented 
the  Twenty-one  Demands  believing  that  they 
were  primarily  for  China's  good.  No  one 
will  claim,  however,  that  China  received  them 
with  open  arms,  nor  even  that  she  signed 
that   agi'eement   without   protest. 

Okuma  complains  that  China  got  ahead  of 
Japan  at  the  Peace  Conference.  "  China  not 
only  dispatched  men  of  eloquence  and  learn- 
ing   to    the    Peace    Conference,    but    backed 

lem  up  with  all  the  usual  force  of  propa- 

mda,  while  Japan  was  satisfied  to  send 
"imply  gentlemen."  C'est  k  rire.  The  Chi- 
nese delegates— men  of  eloquence;  the  Japa- 
nese—merely gentlemen.  Granted  the  former  ; 
but  what  would  the  Marquis  Saionji,  Baron 
Makino,  Viscount  Chinda  and  the  Messrs. 
Matsui  and  Ijuin  say  to  the  inference  that 
they  were  statesmen  of  inferior  qualifica- 
tions when  compared  with  Messrs.  Lou  and 
Wang?  Was  it  not  these  same  "  gentlemen  " 
who  pulled  the  wool  over  President  Wilson's 
eyes— he  admits  it— until  the  secret  treaties  be- 
tween Japan  and  certain  allied  powers  came 
to  light,  showing  that  China  had  already 
been  handed  over  to  her  kindly  neighbor  by 
mutual  agreement  of  her  persecutors?  Yet 
the  Marquis  asks:  "How  can  Japan,  which 
is  not  as  powerful  as  her  rivals,  be  sus- 
pected of  trying  to  get  the  lion's  share  of 
the  profit  out  of  China?  "  And,  forgetting 
Korea,  he  continues:  "And  as  for  her  at- 
tempting to  play  the  tyrant  in  China,  the 
idea  is  too  absurd  for  honest  consideration." 
Is  her  massacre  of  Christians  in  Korea  "  too 
absurd  for  honest  consideration"?  Only  the 
Sultan,  Kaiser,  Czar  and  Soviet  Dictator 
can  share  with  the  Mikado  such  honors. 

The  claim  is  made  that  we  in  the  United 
States  misunderstand  Japan's  policy  in  China. 
Let  us  admit  that  it  is  not  easy  at  all  times 
for  Occidentals  to  understand  Oriental  ways. 
Still,  it  is  a  principle  understood  and  ac- 
cepted equally  by  both  that  actions  speak 
louder  than  words.  If  Japan  would  justify 
herself  before  the  world  let  her  adopt  a  pro- 
gram more  consistent  with  the  policy  she 
proclaims.  The  following  steps  are  sug- 
gested : 

1.  Let  her  withdraw  her  military  forces 
and  officials  from  Korea,  leaving  a  civil 
Government  in  which  Japanese  officials  shall 
be  gradually  displaced  by  natives,  and  giv- 
ing the  Korean  people  a  pledge,  through  the 
League  of  Nations,  that  in  ten  years  they 
shall  decide  their  own  lot  by  plebiscite. 

2.  Let  her,  now  that  the  Peace  Conference 
has  given  her  her  own  way  in  Shantung, 
voluntarily  retire  from  the  province,  re- 
taining no  privileges  whatever  by  force,  but 
negotiating  with  China  a  new  treaty  to  se- 
cure economic  privileges  such  as  China  shall 


feel    it    consistent    with    her    sovereignty    to 
allow. 

3.  Let  her  pool  her  interests  in  Mongolia 
and  Manchuria  in  the  proposed  International 
Consortium  formed  for  the  purpose  of  financ- 
ing China,  giving  to  others  the  open  door 
which  she  demands  for  herself. 

4.  Let  her  revise  all  treaties  with  China 
so  as  to  eliminate  the  element  of  compulsion 
which  has  entered  into  practically  all  of 
them,  so  that  the  two  countries  may  join  in 
protecting  Asia  from  European  oppression 
and  render  to  each  other  the  economic  as- 
sistance each  needs. 

5.  Let  her  apologists  take  care  not  to  harm 
her  case  before  the  world  by  arguments  so 
openly  false  that  they  deceive  no  one  ac- 
quainted   with    the    facts. 

HENRY   C.    FENN, 
2,627   Boulevard,    Jersey   City,    N.    J.,    March 
25.  1920. 

SOVIET  RELIGIOUS  POLICY 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

May  I  be  permitted  to  add  a  few  facts  to 
those  given  in  my  article  in  the  April  Cur- 
rent History  on  "  The  Religious  Revolution 
in  Russia  "  ? 

In  their  efforts  to  emancipate  the  people 
from  their  religious  superstitions,  the  Bol- 
sheviki  have  attained  quite  Unforeseen  re- 
sults. The  London  Morning  Post  communi- 
cates that  Bolshevist  soldiers  now  are  sing- 
ing everywhere  with  particular  zest  a  song 
beginning:  "We  have  sent  God  into  retire- 
ment." The  Soviet  authorities  understand 
that  the  soldiers  becoming  blasphemous  to 
such  an  extent  may  easily  get  a  notion  to 
send  "  into  retirement "  any  commissary 
who  fails  to  please  them.  Hence  Trotzky, 
the  Bolshevist  Minister  of  War,  a  reputed 
atheist,  found  it  necessary  to  prohibit  the 
singing  of  this  and  other  ribald  songs.  The 
Morning  Post  says: 

The  immediate  cause  of  Trotzky's  pious 
admonition  was  a  sound,  practical  cause. 
The  conscripted  muzhik  Reds  and  the  vol- 
unteer Lettish  Reds  stationed  at  Nijny- 
Ufimsk,  just  west  of  the  Urals,  fought  a 
pitched  battle  (twenty-three  dead)  be- 
cause the  Letts  defiled  the  local  Orthodox 
Church.  As  a  result,  all  over  East  Russia 
spread  an  anti-Lettish  ferment,  which  se- 
riously threatened  the  solidarity  of  the 
Red  forces.  Noteworthy,  as  showing  the 
measure  in  which  Bolshevism  is  obliged 
to  rely  upon  non-Russian  elements,  is  the 
fact  that  in  this  matter  the  Soviet  press 
mostly  took  sides  with  the  Letts,  and 
strongly  criticised  the  Moscow  Govern- 
ment's policy,  declaring  that  while  State 
patronizing  of  superstition  would  never 
succeed  in  winning  over  the,  at  heart, 
counter-revolutionary  muzhiks,  it  might 
dangerously  incense  those  enlightened 
Lettish  elements  which  are  genuinely  and 
stalwartly  Bolshevist.  The  Government, 
as   usual,   got   its   way:   a  Lettish   officer 


368 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


was  degraded ;  the  central  authorities  be- 
gan to  discourage  fanaticism ;  and  even 
the  local  Soviet  magnates,  who  are  usual- 
ly much  less  politic,  set  themselves  to 
regulating  instead  of  attacking  their  sub- 
jects' faith.  And  so  out  comes  a  decree 
from  avowed  atheists  prescribing  to  pious 
citizens  how  they  shall  pray  and  adore, 
all  in  the  best  spirit  of  the  late  Constantin 
Pobiedonost^eff,  Procurator  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  who  transformed  Orthodoxy  un- 
der the  komanoffs  into  a  handful  of  dry 
bones. 

Thus,  on  one  side,  the  Bolshevist  authori- 
ties are  trying  to  "  standardize  "  religion, 
compose  their  own  hymns  and  prayers  for 
the  people,  and  deliver  lectures  on  lay  or 
scientific  morality ;  on  the  other  side  they 
resort  to  the  motion  picture  in  their  educa- 
tional campaign  against  superstitions.  The 
Morning  Post  saj's: 

All  over  Soviet  Russia  are  being  shown 
filmed  representations  of  the  opening  by 
Soviet  officials  of  the  coffins  of  reputed 
saints,  the  aim  being  to  prove  that  the 
relics  to  which  pious  citizens  ascribed 
healing  virtues  were  inventions  of  priests 
and  monks.  The  best-advertised  films 
show  the  opening  of  the  coffins  of  St. 
Serge  of  Radonezh  in  the  Trinity-Sergie- 
yev  Monastery,  north  of  Moscow,  and  of 
St.  Tikhon  of  Zadonsk.  In  order  to  prove 
the  impartiality  of  these  inquiries,  monks, 
doctors  and  archaeologists  are  forced  to 
attend  and  be  filmed.  The  exhumations 
represent  the  educational  side  of  the  anti- 
religious  campaign,  which  is  to  continue 
until  all  Russians  are  converted  into  un- 
believers. Meantime  the  believers  are, 
•according  to  the  new  principle,  to  be 
wisely  regulated  and  guided,  and  occa- 
sionally, according  to  the  old  practice, 
to  be  beaten,  tortured,  or  shot. 
L'Humanit^  of  Paris  speaks  of  a  new  Soviet 
attitude  toward  religion  in  Russia: 

At  first  the  clergy  were  molested  by  the 
Soviet  Government,  but  the  time  of  perse- 
cution has  passed.     The  Bolsheviki,  who 
have  to  do  with  an  extremely  credulous 
populace,  are  not  foolish  enough  to  perse- 
vere in  an  anti-religious  policy,  which  would 
make    them    most    unpopular.      They    are 
content   to   pursue    a   strictly   lay  policy. 
They  are  keeping   up   their   harsh   treat- 
ment of  the  parish  priests,  who  are  gen- 
erally hated  by  the  muzhik,  but  they  re- 
spect   freedom    of    worship,    and    Moscow 
remains  as  ever  the  City  of  Churches. 
There  is  some  analogy  between  the  present 
religious    revolution    in    Russia    and    that    of 
the  great  French   Revolution.     French   radi- 
cals, too,   sent  their  Catholic  God   "  into  re- 
tirement,"     and     persecuted     and     executed 
Catholic  priests.    But  the  French  authorities, 
like  the  Russian  Reds,  soon  realized  that  the 
people  needed  some  religion,   and  so  they  in- 
vented  the   Goddess  of  Reason,   who,   in   the 
form   of  a  beautiful  woman,    was   adored   in 


the  great  cathedral,  Notre  Dame  of  Paris. 
But  the  goddess,  too,  was  soon  sent  "  into 
retirement,"  together  with  her  inventors,  and 
a  new  mystic  God  appeared  with  new  rulers. 
Then  came  Napoleon,  who  could  live  and 
rule  freely  along  with  the  old  Catholic  re- 
ligion. It  remains  to  be  seen  what  the  Rus- 
sian Napoleon  will  do ;  for,  according  to 
historic  precedents,  he  must  come  sooner  or 
later.  P.  j.   POPOFF. 

121  Jamaica  Avenue,  Flushing,  N.  T.,  March 
28.  1920. 

D'ANNUNZIO  DEFENDED 

To  the  Editor   of  Current  History: 

My  patriotic  fervor  forces  me  to  make  a 
few  statements  regarding  Mr.  Jerich's  article 
on  "  d'Annunzio's  Claims  "  in  your  Febru- 
ary issue.  Mr.  Jerich  says,  "  The  Peace 
Conference  assigned  the  city  of  Danzig  to 
Poland  because  Poland  needed  a  seaport." 
To  this  I  answer  that  Danzig  was  Polish 
from  its  founding,  which  was  about  1519, 
until  the  partition  of  Poland  in  1772.  There- 
fore, the  action  of  the  Peace  Conference  was 
fitting  and  proper.  Danzig  was  given  to 
Poland,  not  because  Poland  needed  a  seaport, 
but  because  it  was  hers. 

I  admit  that  Italy  has  no  riglit  to  steal 
Jugoslavia's  mercury,  and  that  it  would  not 
be  just  for  d'Annunzio  to  come  and  seize  a 
coal  district  in  the  United  States  on  the  plea 
that  Italy  has  no  coal.  But  is  it  right  for 
Jugoslavia  to  attempt  to  take  that  -^hich  is 
not  hers?  Is  it  right  for  Jugoslavia  to  claim 
Piume?  If  it  is  not  right  for  d'Annunzio  to 
come  and  seize  coal  districts  on  the  plea 
that  Italy  has  no  coal  mines,  why  is  it 
right  for  the  Jugoslav  Generals  to  attempt 
to  claim  the  seaport  of  Fiume  on  the  ground 
that  Jugoslavia  has  no  seaport?  Fiume  is 
as  Italian  as  Danzig  is  PolisTi.  Why  did  not 
the  Peace  Conference  justify  itself  by  giving 
to  Italy  the  land  which  was  unjustly  taken 
away  from  her?  The  land  which  the  Jugo- 
slavs want  has  been  Italy's  for  centuries. 
Can  Mr.  Jerich  or  any  one  else  prove  that 
Fiume  is  not  Italian? 

As  for  the  plea  that  "  every  State  needs 
a  seaport  for  commerce,  just  as  a  human 
body  needs  lungs,"  I  should  like  to  remind 
Mr.  Jerich  that  the  prosperous,  industrious 
and  peaceful  Switzerland  "has  no  seaport. 
Many  nations  just  formed  or  forming  from 
the  great  Russian  Empire  will  have  no  sea- 
ports. What  about  them?  According  to  Mr. 
Jerich's  statement  they  will  die  for  lack  of 
lungs— a  seaport. 

D'Annunzio  said,  "  Fiume  is  Italian,  and 
it  is  not  a  question  of  transferring  the 
port  to  Jugoslavia;  it  is  a  question  of  free- 
dom or  slavery  for  the  Italians  who  in- 
habit Fiume.  *  *  *  Fiume  shall  exist  as 
an  Italian  city  or  it  shall  cease  to  exist." 
That  is  the  determination  of  a  true  patriot 
and  of  the  millions  who  sympathize  with 
him.  SALVATORB   C.    MANTIONE. 

182  East  Railroad  Street,  Pittston,  Pa.,  Feb. 
24,    1920. 


CURRENT    HISTORY 

A     MONTHLY     MAGAZINE     OF 
®I|?  Nrm  fork  ©im^a 

PUBLISHED    BY     THE     NEW    YORK     TIMES     COMPANY,     TiMES     SQUARE,     NeW     YORK.     N.     Y. 

Vol.  XIL,  No.  3  JUNE,  1920  llSo'TYt.?''''' 

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TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

PAGE 

THE   KNOX  RESOLUTION     ....     By  George  W.  Wickersham  367 

MAKING  PEACE  WITHOUT  A  TREATY:     The  Senate  Debate     .      .  372 

THE    SAN    REMO    CONFERENCE 379 

AN  INSIDE  VIEW  OF  ITALY'S  AFFAIRS     .     By  Dr.  Orestes  Ferrara  385 

AMERICAN   DEVELOPMENTS 390 

THE    SOCIALIST    NATIONAL    CONVENTION 395 

A  HISTORIC  ACT  OF  FRIENDSHIP  FOR  FRANCE 

By  John  B.   Kennedy  896 

DEATH  OF  TWO  PROMINENT  AMERICANS .398 

THE  RUSSO-ESTHONIAN  TREATY:     FULL  TEXT 400* 

AMONG  THE  NATIONS:     A  WORLDWIDE   SURVEY: 

Overthrow  of  the  Carranza  Government     (Map)      ......  407 

Race  for  South  American  Trade 414 

The  British  Empire  and   Its   Problems 418 

The  Latin  Nations  of  Europe 426 

Radicalism  Defeated  in  Denmark 430 

Belgium's  New  Prosperity 432 

Critical   Period   for   Germany 433 

Nations   of  the   Former  Austrian   Empire 438 

States   of  the   Balkan   Peninsula 441 

Dismemberment  of  the  Turkish  Empire     (Map)      ......  445 

Poland's  New  War  on  Soviet  Russia     (Map) 454 

Russia  and  the   New   Baltic   States 457 

The     Caucasus     Republics 460 

Status  of  the  Japan-China  Dispute 463 

Conlenis   Continued  on   Next  Page 

Copyright,    1920,    by    The    New    York    Times    Company.      All    Rights    Reserved. 
Entered    at    the    Post    Office    in    New    York    and    in    Canada    as    Second    Class    Matter. 

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II  II  i 


Table  of  Contents — Continued 

ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  NATIONS  TREATED; 


PAGE 

Albania    441 

Argentina    415 

Armenia    448 

Australia    423 

Austria    438 

Azerbaijan   460 

Belgium    432 

Bolivia 416 

Brazil    416 

Bulgaria   442 

Canada  422 

Chile  416 

China    463 

Czechoslovakia   439 

Denmark    430 

Egypt    425 

England    418 

France  426 

Germany   433 

Greece    443 

Guatemala    413 

Holland    432 

Hungary    440 

Ireland    419 

Italy  428 


PAGE 

Japan    463 

Jugoslavia    442 

Kurdistan    452 

Mexico     407 

Mesopotamia    453 

Neiw  Zealand    424 

Palestine    448 

Perslv     453 

Poland   454 

Portugal   428 

Rumania   444 

Russia    457 

Scotland   422 

South  Africa  425 

Smyrna    450 

Spain    427 

Sweden    431 

Switzerland    430 

Syria  451 

Turkey    445 

United  States    390 

Uruguay    417 

The  Vatican   429 

West  Indies    413 


CURRENT    HISTORY    IN    BRIEF 465 

CARTOONS  OF  THE  MONTH  FROM  MANY  NATIONS     ....  465 

PIGEONS  IN  THE  WAR:     What  Bird  Messengers  Did     .      .      .      .      .  490 
THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE: 

The  Einstein  Theory  and  Its  Revolutionary  Effects 495 

Listening    for    Martian    Signals 499 

Talking  Through  the  Ground  by  Geophone 500 

An  Aerial   Sextant  and  Other  Aeronautic  Aids 500 

Airmen's  Problems  in  Tropical  Africa 501 

The  Photostat:    A   Revolutionary  Aid  to   Research 502 

SOME  FACTS  ABOUT  ARMENIA.  (Map)   .  By  Benjamin  Burges  Moore  504 

GREAT   BRITAIN'S   SHARE    IN    THE    VICTORY 512 

COSTS  OF  THE  WORLD  WAR 514 

JAPAN'S     NAVAL     EFFORT     (Map) 518 

JAPANESE     EMIGRATION 521 

RUSSIA'S  PART  IN  THE  ALLIED  VICTORY 522 

RELIGIOUS  CUSTOMS  IN  RUSSIA     ...     By  Constantin  Fraboni  529 

THE    SOVIET    MARRIAGE    CODE 533 

LIGHT  ON  AUSTRIA'S  WAR  GUILT     .      .     By  Louise  E.  Matthaei  535 

THE  CANADIAN  FARMER  ENTERS  POLITICS 

By  Charles  W.  Stokes  540 

Canadian   Minister  to   the   United    States 544 

THE  JUGOSLAV  MINORITIES  TREATY 545 

TEXT  OF  BULGARIA'S  MINORITY  GUARANTEES     .....  548 

CONTRIBUTIONS    FROM    READERS 550 


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II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II 


THE    KNOX    RESOLUTION 

Merits   and  Defects  of  the   Senate   Measure  for   Ending  the 
State  of  War  With  Germany 

By  GEORGE  W.  WICKERSHAM 

[Former  Attorney   General  op  the   United   States] 


THE  adoption  bj^  the  United  States 
Senate,  on  Saturday  last  (May  15, 
1920),  of  the  Knox  substitute  for 
the  House  joint  resolution  pro- 
posing to  establish  peace  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany  and  the 
United  States  and  Austria  gives  rise  to 
many  interesting  questions.  Admittedly 
the  action  is  without  precedent  in  our 
history;  but  the  situation  of  affairs  in 
which  the  country  finds  itself  is  also 
without  precedent.  That  hard  cases 
make  bad  law  is  an  old  proverb,  whose 
complement  is  the  saying  that  necessity 
is  the  mother  of  invention.  The  impasse 
between  the  President  and  the  Senate 
over  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  has  re- 
sulted in  a  most  embarrassing  situation 
in  our  relations  with  foreign  countries, 
attended  also  with  inconveniences  and 
anomalies  at  home.  The  President  has 
shown  an  absolute  unwillingness  to  yield 
to  the  views  of  the  Senate;  the  Senate, 
with  the  aid  of  the  House,  now  proposes 
a  way  out  of  the  dilemma  which  it  is 
hoped  may  appeal  to  the  people  as  rea- 
sonable, and  thus  put  upon  the  President 
the  onus  of  responsibility  for  continuing 
the  existing  unsettled  state. 

What  is  the  validity  and  effect  of  this 
proposed  action  ?  Why  is  there  such  dif- 
ficulty in  removing  the  present  state  of 
uncertainty  ? 

War  is  not  merely  armed  conflict  be- 
tween two  nations;  it  is  a  legal  status, 
involving  legal  consequences,  not  only  to 
the  belligerent  countries  and  their  in- 
habitants, but  to  other  powers.  The 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  has 
vested  in  the  Congress  the  power  to  de- 
clare war.  In  modern  times  hostilities 
usually  have  occurred  without  prelim- 
inary declarations  on  either  side.  The 
customary  formality  has  been,  after  one 
or  more  acts  of  aggression  on  the  part 


of  one  of  the  disputants,  to  adopt  reso- 
lutions recognizing  and  declaring  the 
existence  of  a  state  of  war. 

OUR  OBJECT  IN  THE  WAR 

President  Wilson,  in  his  address  to  the 
Congress  on  April  2,  1917,  asked  that 
body  to  declare  that  the  recent  course  of 
the  Imperial  German  Government  was  in 
fact  nothing  less  than  war  against  the 
Government  and  people  of  the  United 
States,  to  formally  accept  the  status  of 
belligerency  thus  created,  and  to  exert 
all  the  power  of  the  nation  to  bring  the 
Government  of  Germany  to  terms  and  to 
end  the  war.  The  object  of  the  war  on 
our  part,  he  said,  would  be 

to  vindicate  the  principles  of  peace  and 
justice  in  the  life  of  the  world  ag-ainst 
selfish  and  autocratic  power  and  to  set 
up  among  the  early  free  and  self-govern- 
ing peoples  of  the  world  such  a  concert, 
purpose  and  action  as  will  henceforth  in- 
sure the  observance  of  those  principles. 

We  shall  fight  [the  address  concluded] 
for  the  things  which  we  have  always  car- 
ried nearest  our  hearts— for  democracy, 
for  the  right  of  those  who  submit  to  au- 
thority to  have  a  voice  in  their  own  g-ov- 
ernment,  for  the  rig-hts  and  liberties  of 
small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion 
of  right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples 
as  shall  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all 
nations  and  make  the  world  itself  at  last 
free. 

Thereupon,  on  April  6,  1917,  the  Con- 
gress, by  joint  resolution,  after  reciting 
that  the  German  Government  had  com- 
mitted repeated  acts  of  war  against  the 
Government  and  the  people  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  formally  declared  the  exist- 
ence of  the  state  of  war  "which  has  thus 
been  thrust  upon  the  United  States, " 
and  authorized  and  directed  the  Presi- 
dent to  employ  the  entire  military  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States  and 
the  resources  of  the  Government  to  carry 


368 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


on  the  war  and  bring  the  conflict  to  a 
successful  termination. 

How  the  strength  of  this  nation  was 
put  forth  in  that  effort,  and  with  what 
success,    is   familiar   history.      On   Nov. 
11,    1918,    an    armistice    or    agreement 
to    suspend   hostilities,    dictated   by   the 
allied    and    associated    powers,    was    ac- 
cepted by  Germany,  which  was  to  con- 
tinue for  thirty  days,  with  option  to  ex- 
tend, and  with  the  right  to  be  denounced 
by  any  one  of  the  contracting  parties  on 
forty-eight  hours'  previous  notice.     This 
act    terminated    further   hostilities,    but 
it  did   not   make   peace.      An   armistice 
does  not  establish  peace, 
because  the  condition  of  war  remains  be- 
tween   the    belligerents    and    neutrals    on 
all   points    beyond    the   mere    cessation   of 
hostilities. 

PRECEDENT  OF  SPANISH  WAR 

Attorney  General  Griggs,  in  August, 
1898,  advised  that,  notwithstanding  the 
armistice  signed  with  Spain  and  the  ces- 
sation of  hostilities,  a  state  of  war  still 
existed  between  this  country  and  Spain, 
as   peace   can   only  be   declared  pursuant 
to     the     negotiations     of     the     authorized 
peace   commissioners. 

The  Supreme  Court,  in  ruling  on  some 
questions  which  arose  during  the  war 
with  Spain,  said,  in  1904: 

A  state  of  war  did  not  in  law  cease 
until  the  ratification  in  April,  1899,  of 
the  treaty  of  peace.  "  A  truce  or  sus- 
pension of  arms,"  says  Kent,  "  does  not 
terminate  the  war,  but  it  is  one  of  the 
commercia  belli  which  suspends  its  opera- 
tions. *  *  *  At  the  expiration  of  the 
truce  hostilities  may  recommence  without 
any   further   declaration   of  war." 

Both  the  President  and  the  Congress 
have  recognized  this  fact  by  a  series  of 
official  acts  since  the  date  of  the  Ger- 
man armistice.  Some  of  these  were 
enumerated  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  a 
recent  decision  upholding  the  validity  of 
the  War  Prohibition  act,  which  was  ap- 
proved ten  days  after  the  armistice  with 
Germany  was  signed.  Among  the  ex- 
amples cited  were:  the  passage  by  Con- 
gress on  Oct.  28,  1919,  over  the  Presi- 
dent's veto,  of  the  National  Prohibition 
act,  which,  in  making  further  provisions 
for  the  administration  of  the  Wartime 
Prohibition  act,  treated  the  war  as  con- 
tinuing   and    demobilization    as    incom- 


plete; the  refusal  of  the  Senate  on  Nov. 
19,  1919,  to  ratify  the  Peace  Treaty  with 
Germany;  the  resumption  by  the  Presi- 
dent on  Oct.  30,  1919,  of  the  control  of 
the  fuel  supply  under  the  Lever  act;  the 
continued  operation  by  the  President  of 
the  railroads,  control  of  which  had  been 
taken  as  a  war  measure,  ■  til  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Transportation  act  of  1920 
on  Feb.  28,  1920;  the  veto  by  the 
President  on  Nov.  18,  1919,  of  a  Senate 
bill  because  it  diminished  that  control; 
the  continued  control  by  means  of  the 
Food  Administration  Grain  Corporation 
of  the  supply  of  grain  and  wheat  flour 
throughout  the  United  States,  &c.  These 
and  many  other  acts  all  constitute  a 
recognition  of  the  continuance  of  a  legal 
state  of  war  long  after  actual  hostilities 
have  ceased.  How,  then,  may  this  state 
of  war  be  terminated? 

METHODS  OF  ENDING  WARS 

Generally  speaking,  a  war  may  be 
brought  to  an  end  only  by  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing three  methods: 

(1)  By  the  complete  collapse  of  one 
of  the  belligerents. 

(2)  By  the  mere  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties and  a  continued  state  of  technical 
war,  until  an  agreement,  express  or  im- 
plied, is  arrived  at  between  the  contest- 
ants. Such  a  condition  arose  after  the 
war  between  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  and 
Frederick  Augustus,  King  of  Poland. 
An  armistice  was  concluded  between 
them,  whereby  the  actual  fighting  was 
suspended,  but  the  state  of  war  between 
the  two  countries  remained  and  continued 
for  nearly  ten  years,  neither  side  being 
disposed  to  resume  military  operations 
against  the  other.  Finally,  a  state  of 
peace  was  declared  and  legalized  by 
means  of  letters  exchanged  between  the 
monarchs. 

Similar  conditions  arose  at  the  time 
of  the  revolt  of  the  American  colonies 
of  Spain  against  the  mother  country. 
A  number  of  years  elapsed  after  the 
suspension  of  hostilities  before  treaties 
of  peace  were  made.  In  1868,  the  State 
Department  of  the  United  States  had 
brought  to  its  attention  a  question  as  to 
the  status  between  Spain  and  Chile  and 


THE  KNOX  RESOLUTION 


369 


Sr  iin  and  Peru.    Mr.  Seward,  in  a  note 

to  the  Spanish  Minister,  said: 

What  period  of  suspension  of  war  is  nec- 
(  isary  to  justify  the  presumption  of  the 
1  3storation  of  peace  has  never  yet  been 
J  3ttled  and  must  in  every  case  be  deter- 
1  lined  with  reference  to  the  collateral 
ficts  and  circumstances.  *  *  *  When- 
( ver  the  United*  States  shall  find  itself 
(  bliged  to  decide  the  question  whether  the 
■</ar  still  exists  between  Spain  and  Peru 
( r  whether  that  war  has  come  to  an  end, 
it  will  make  that  decision  only  after  hav- 
ing carefully  examined  all  the  pertinent 
lacts  which  shall  be  within  its  reach  and 
after  having  given  due  consideration  to 
.such  representations  as  shall  have  been 
made  by  the  several  parties  interested. 

The  United  States  was  a  neutral  with 
respect  to  the  controversies  there  dis- 
cussed, and  it  was  because  of  its  obli- 
gations as  a  neutral  that  it  became 
necessary  to  suggest  to  the  Government 
of  Spain  that  it  might  have  to  consider 
and  itself  determine  whether  or  not  as  a 
I  fact  war  still  existed  between  Spain  and 
Chile  or  Peru, 

THE  THIRD  METHOD 
Generally  speaking,  therefore,  not  only 
the  relations  between  the  belligerent 
parties,  but  with  respect  of  neutral  coun- 
tries, demand  the  definite  ascertainment 
of  a  legal  state  of  peace  by  means  of  an 
agreement  or  treaty  between  the  com- 
batants. 

I  have  yet  to  learn  [wrote  Br.  Bayard, 
Secretary  of  State,  to  the  Spanish  Minis- 
ter, in  1886]  that  a  war  in  which  the 
belligerents,  as  was  the  case  with  the  late 
civil  war,  are  persistent  and  determined, 
can  be  said  to  have  closed  until  peace  Is 
conclusively  established,  either  by  treaty 
when  the  war  is  foreign,  or  when  civil  by 
proclamation  of  the  termination  of  hos- 
tilities on  one  side  and  the  acceptance  of 
such  proclamation  on  the  other. 

The  Supreme  Court,  in  discussing  the 
question  when  the  rebellion  should  be 
considered  as  having  been  completely 
suppressed  within  the  meaning  of  certain 
acts  of  Congress,  said: 

In  a  foreign  war  a  treaty  of  peace  would 
be  the  evidence  of  the  time  when  it  closed, 
but  in  a  domestic  war,  like  the  late  one, 
some  public  proclamation  or  legislation 
would  seem  to  be  required  to  inform  those 
whose  private  rights  were  affected  by  it 
of  the  time  when  it  terminated. 

(3)  Therefore,  as  a  matter  of  practi- 
cal necessity,  the  customary  method  of 
restoring  peace  is  by  agreement  or  treaty 


between  the  belligerents.  By  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  the  Presi- 
dent is  empowered  to  mak6  treaties,  by 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate,  provided  two-thirds  of  the  Sen- 
ators present  concur.  It  was  proposed 
in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787 
to  give  the  power  to  make  peace  to  the 


GEORGE  W.    WICKERSHAM 

Former    Attorney    General    of    the    United 

States— in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Taft 

Congress — the  same  body  which  had 
authority  to  make  war.  Mr.  Ellsworth, 
afterward  Chief  Justice,  said: 

There  is  a  material  difference  between 
the  cases  of  making  war  and  making 
peace.  It  should  be  more  easy  to  get  out 
of  war  than  into  it.  War  also  is  a  simple 
and  overt  declaration,  peace  attended 
with  intricate  and  secret  negotiations. 

After  brief  discussion,  the  suggestion 
was  unanimously  rejected,  and  the  peace- 
making power,  as  a  part  of  the  power 
to  make  treaties,  was  left  with  the  Presi- 
dent and  Senate.  We  have  Alexander 
Hamilton's  statement  that  it  was  under- 
stood by  all  who  framed  the™Uonstitu- 
tion  that  the  intent  of  the  provision  was 

to    give    to    that    power    the    most    ample 
latitude — to  render  it  competent  to  all  the 


370 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


stipulations  which  the  exigencies  of 
national  affairs  might  require ;  com- 
petent to  the  making  of  treaties  of  al- 
liance, treaties  of  commerce,  treaties  of 
peace,  and  every  other  species  of  con- 
vention usual  among  nations ;  and  com- 
petent in  the  course  of  its  exercise  for 
these  purposes  to  control  and  bind  the 
legislative  power  of  Congress. 

"the  PRESIDENT'S  POWERS  AND 
LIMITATIONS 

Throughout  the  history  of  our  Gov- 
ernment it  has  been  recognized  that  the 
power  to  initiate  treaties  was  vested  in 
the  President,  but  that  a  treaty  nego- 
tiated by  him,  or  under  his  authority, 
was  only  tentative  until  approved  by 
the  Senate  by  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the 
members  present.  The  Senate  constantly 
has  exercised  its  right  to  withhold  ap- 
proval of  treaties  negotiated  by  the 
President  until  they  should  be  modified 
and  amended  to  meet  its  views. 

President  Wilson,  therefore,  in  the 
negotiations  which  preceded  his  concur- 
rence in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  should 
have  taken  into  account  the  constitu- 
tional necessity  of  securing  the  approval 
of  the  requisite  majority  in  the  Senate 
to  the  instrument  which  he  should  sub- 
mit for  its  consideration.  An  attitude  of 
stubborn  unwillingness  to  yield  in  the 
slightest  degree  his  judgment  as  to  the 
treaty  provisions  was  as  unreasonable 
and  as  unconstitutional  as  the  attitude 
on  the  part  of  certain  members  of  the 
Senate  to  insist  upon  loading  the  treaty 
with  conditions  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  depriving  the  President  of  the  credit 
of  achievement. 

The  final  rejection  of  the  treaty  by  the 
Senate  left  the  country  in  the  same  tech- 
nical state  of  war  with  Germany  and 
Austria  which  existed  the  day  after  the 
armistice  was  signed,  a  state  which  can 
only  be  satisfactorily  terminated  by  an 
agreement  between  the  President  and 
the  Senate  respecting  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  or  the  negotiation  and  sub- 
mission to  the  Senate  for  its  approval 
of  a  new  treaty.  But  the  state  of  mind 
which  has  developed  in  both  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  majority  of  the  Senate  has 
precluded,  for  the  present,  at  least,  the 
adoption  of  either  alternative,  and  has 
led  to  the  novel  expedient  on  the  part 
of  the  Congress  to  attempt  the  creation 


of  a  fourth  method  of  ending  the  state 
of  war.  The  Knox  resolution  proposes 
to  repeal  the  joint  resolution  of  April  6, 
1917,  which  declared  the  existence  of  a 
state  of  war  with  Germany,  and  to  de- 
clare that  state  of  war  to  be  at  an  end. 

FLAW  IN   KNOX  RESOLUTION 

Had  the  resolution  stopped  there,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  successfully  chal- 
lenge its  effectiveness  so  far  as  merely 
restoring  a  peace  status  is  concerned. 
A  repeal  of  the  declaration  of  war  by  the 
same  power  which  made  it — Congress 
and  the  President — would  seem  to  be 
within  the  power  conferred  by  the  Con- 
stitution, even  if  it  did  leave  unsettled 
the  many  questions  which  in  the  interest 
of  both  parties  should  be  settled. 

But  this  resolution,  recognizing  what 
the  fact  is,  that  no  satisfactory  peace  be- 
tween belligerent  powers  can  be  attained, 
save  by  agreement  between  them,  that  is, 
by  a  treaty,  proceeds  to  qualify  its  dec- 
laration by  a  proviso,  first,  that  the 
United  States  shall  retain  possession  of 
all  the  property  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment and  its  subjects  now  in  its  posses- 
sion, until  a  treaty  shall  be  made  and 
ratified  between  the  two  countries  con- 
taining suitable  provisions  for  the  satis- 
faction of  claims  growing  out  of  the  war 
by  the  United  States  or  its  citizens 
against  the  German  Government,  or  until 
the  latter  has  made  treaty  provision 
granting  to  subjects  of  the  United  States 
most  favored  nation  treatment  in  mat- 
ters of  residence,  business,  profession, 
trade,  navigation,  commerce  and  indus- 
trial property  rights,  and  confirming  to 
the  United  States  all  fines,  forfeitures, 
penalties  and  seizures  imposed  or  made 
by  its  during  the  war  in  respect  of  prop- 
erty of  the  German  Government  and  its 
nationals,  and  waiving  any  pecuniary 
claim  based  on  offenses  which  occurred 
at  any  time  before  such  treaty  came  into 
effect,  anything  in  any  existing  treaty 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding;  and, 
second,  that  until  by  treaty  or  act  or 
joint  resolution  of  the  Congress  it  shall 
be  otherwise  determined,  the  United 
States,  although  it  has  not  ratified  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles,  does  not  waive  any 
of  the  rights,  privileges,  &c.,  to  which  it 
or  its  citizens  have  become  entitled  under 


ir 


THE  KNOX  RESOLUTION 


371 


tl  3  terms  of  the  armistice,  or  any  exten- 
si  ms  of  it,  or  which  are  secured  to  it 
u:  der  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  as  one  of 
tl  e  principal  associated  and  allied  pow- 
ei3. 

The  proposed  establishment  of  peace 
seems  to  be  conditioned — for  that  is  the 
p  obable  effect  of  the  proviso,  upon  all 
Garman  property,  both  public  and  pri- 
vate, which  has  been  taken  possession  of 
by  the  United  States,  or  under  its  au- 
thority during  the  war,  remaining  in  its 
possession,  until  a  treaty  shall  have  been 
made  between  the  two  countries.  But 
tlie  resolution  either  does  or  it  does  not 
establish  peace.  If  it  does  establish 
peace,  in  the  absence  of  a  treaty  to  the 
contrary,  under  the  well-settled  prin- 
ciples of  international  law,  as  well  as 
by  force  of  existing  treaties,  the  private 
property  of  German  citizens  may  not  be 
confiscated  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. 

WOULD    CREATE    LIABILITY    TO 
DAMAGE   SUITS 

The  regulations  respecting  the  laws 
and  customs  of  war  on  land,  adopted  by 
The  Hague  Conference  of  1907,  and  rat- 
ified by  the  United  States  Senate  on 
March  10,  1908,  specifically  provide  that 
'private  property  of  an  enemy  cannot  he 
confiscated.  This  is  in  acordance  with 
the  principles  formulated  by  Dr.  Francis 
Lieber,  and  adopted  in  1863,  during  the 
civil  war,  as  a  part  of  the  instructions 
for  the  government  of  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  in  the  field.  Even  with 
respect  to  the  occupied  territory  of  the 
enemy,  these  instructions  declared: 

The  United  States  acknowledge  and  pro- 
tect in  hostile  countries  occupied  by  them 
religion  and  morality ;  strictly  private 
property;  the  persons  of  the  inhabitants, 
especially  those  of  women,  and  the 
sacredness  of  domestic  relations.  *  *  * 
Private  property,  unless  forfeited  by 
crimes  or  by  offenses  of  the  owner,  can  be 
seized  only  by  way  of  military  necessity 
for  the  safety  or  other  benefit  of  the 
army  or  of  the  United  States.  If  the 
owner  has  not  fled,  the  commanding  offi- 
cer will  cause  receipts  to  be  given  which 
may  serve  the  spoliated  owner  to  obtain 
indemnity. 

If,  therefore,  the  Knox  resolution 
should  establish  peace,  without  any 
agreement  on  the  part   of   Germany  to 


accept  the  conditions  suggested  in  the 
proviso,  the  United  States  and  its  citi- 
zens will  at  once  become  liable — at  least 
in  international  law — to  Germany  and 
her  citizens  for  all  the  private  property 
of  German  subjects  seized  by  the  United 
States  during  the  war,  and  it  would  be  a 
serious  question  how  far  the  resolution 
would  be  available  as  a  defense  to  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  in  suits  by 
German  subjects  with  respect  to  their 
property.  It  certainly  would  give  rise 
to  claims  against  the  United  States  en- 
forceable in  any  court  of  international 
justice,  such  as  The  Hague  tribunal. 

The  effect  of  the  resolution  upon 
neutral  States  is  also  a  matter  of  grave 
question. 

A  DISCREDITABLE  FEATURE 

The  implication  arising  from  the  at- 
tempt in  the  last  paragraph  but  one  of 
ithe  proviso,  to  secure  to  the  United 
States,  as  against  Germany,  the  benefits 
which  it  might  derive  under  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles,  a  treaty  which  the  Senate 
has  refused  to  ratify,  is  an  effort  as  dis- 
creditable as  it  is  futile.  At  best,  it  con- 
stitutes a  notification  to  Germany  that 
the  public  property  belonging  to  her  Gov- 
ernment within  our  power,  and  the  pri- 
vate property  of  her  citizens,  will  be  re- 
tained by  the  United  States,  in  violation 
of  principles  of  international  law  and  the 
provisions  of  treaties,  unless  and  until 
she  shall  come  into  an  agreement  where- 
by she  shall  secure  to  the  United  States 
all  the  advantages  which  it  would  derive 
as  a  party  to  the  Treaty  of  Versailles, 
which  it  has  repudiated. 

The  exigencies  of  party  politics  often 
induce  action  on  the  part  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  one  political  body  or  an- 
other which  in  cooler  moments  are 
viewed  with  regret.  I  venture  to  sug- 
gest that  popular  opinion  in  this  country 
will  not  sanction  such  an  attempt  as  this 
to  secure  for  ourselves  the  advantages 
of  a  bargain  whose  obligations  we  have 
rejected,  as  a  condition  to  bringing  about 
a  definite  peace  with  a  defeated  enemy, 
where  the  failure  to  reach  an  intelligent, 
legal,  conventional  and  satisfactory 
peace  is  chargeable,  not  to  the  enemy, 
but  to  political  complexities  and  mutual 
jealousies  of  branches  of  our  own  Gov- 


372 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


emment.  It  can  hardly  be  said  that  the 
resolution  is  not  within  the  constitutional 
powers  of  Congress,  although  it  does 
embody  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  civilized  warfare,  for  which  the 
United  States  has  striven  from  the  days 
of  Franklin  to  the  present  time. 

The  Senate  and,  indeed,  a  large  num- 
ber of  our  people  seem  to  have  forgotten 
that  we  entered  the  war  against  Ger- 
many not  merely  to  resist  the  aggres- 
sion of  the  Imperial  Government,  but 
"  to  set  up  among  the  really  free  and 
"  self-governing  peoples  of  the  world 
"  such  a  concert  of  purpose  and  action  " 


as  will  henceforth  secure  the  observance 
of  principles  of  peace  and  justice  in  the 
life  of  the  world  against  selfish  and  au- 
tocratic power.  The  existence  of  a  state 
of  war  with  Germany  may  be  terminated 
by  one  method  or  another,  but  we  shall 
have  failed  to  accomplish  the  things  for 
which  so  much  blood  and  treasure  have 
been  devoted  unless  we  become  parties 
to  an  intelligent  and  genuine  effort  to 
establish  "  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples 
"  as  shall  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all 
"  nations  and  make  the  world  itself  at 
"  last  free." 

New  York,  May  18,  1920. 


Making  Peace  Without  a  Treaty 

Debate  and  Passage  of  the  Knox  Resolution  Aiming  to  End 
Our  State  of  War  With  Germany 

[Period  Ended  May  20,  1920] 


THE  Foreign  Relations  Committee 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  on 
April  30,  by  a  strict  party  vote, 
reported  favorably  a  resolution 
drafted  by  Senator  Knox  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Secretary  of  State  in  the  Roose- 
velt Administration  and  former  United 
States  Attorney  General,  repealing  the 
declarations  of  war  against  Germany  and 
Austria.  The  Knox  resolution  was  of- 
fered as  a  substitute  for  a  resolution  on 
the  same  subject  adopted  by  the  House 
of  Representatives  on  April  9  by  a  vote 
of  242  to  150. 

THE  KNOX  RESOLUTION 
The  text  of  the  Senate  measure  was  as 
follows : 

Joint  resolution  repealing  the  joint  resolu- 
tion of  April  6,  1911,  declaring  a  state  of 
war  to  exist  between  the  United  St<ates  and 
Germany,  and  the  joint  resolution  of  Deo. 
7,  1917,  declaring  ifhat  a  state  of  war  exists 
hetiveen  the  United  States  and  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government. 

RESOLVED,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  Congress  assembled,  that  the 
joint  resolution  of  Congress  passed  April  6, 
1917,  declaring  a  state  of  war  to  exist  be- 
tween the  Imperial  German  Government  and 
the  Government  and  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  making  provisions  to  prosecute 
the   same,   be,    and   the   same   is   hereby,    re- 


pealed, and  said  state  of  war  is  hereby  de- 
clared at  an  end ; 

Section  1— Provided,  however,  that  all  prop- 
erty of  the  Imperial  German  Government  or 
its  successor  or  successors,  and  of  all  Ger- 
man nationals  which  was  on  April  6,  1917, 
in  or  has  since  that  date  come  into  the 
possession  or  under  control  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  or  of  any  of  its 
officers,  agents  or  employes,  from  any  source 
or  by  any  agency  whatsoever,  shall  be  re- 
tained by  the  United  States  and  no  disposi- 
tion thereof  made,  except  as  shall  specifical- 
ly be  hereafter  provided  by  Congress,  until 
such  time  as  the  German  Government  has 
by  treaty  with  the  United  States,  ratifica- 
tion whereof  is  to  be  made  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  made  suit- 
able provisions  for  the  satisfaction  of  all 
claims  against  the  German  Government  of 
all  persons,  wheresoever  domiciled,  who  owe 
permanent  allegiance  to  the  United  States, 
whether  such  persons  have  suffered  through 
the  acts  of  the  German  Government  or  its 
agents  since  July  31,  1914,  loss,  damage  or 
injury  to  persons  or  property,  directly  or 
indirectly,  through  the  ownership  of  shares 
of  stock  in  German,  American  or  other 
corporations,  or  otherwise,  and  until  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  given  further  under- 
takings and  made  provisions  by  treaty,  to 
be  ratified  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Senate,  for  granting  to  persons 
owing  permanent  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  most-favored  nation  treatment, 
whether  the  same  be  national  or  otherwise, 
in   all   matters  affecting  residence,   business. 


IP 


MAKING  PEACE   WITHOUT  A   TREATY 


373 


I    I  ofession,   trade,  navigation,   commerce   and 
^.  dustrial    property    rights,    and    confirming 
H  «he    United    States    all    fines,    forfeitures, 
B  Jilties   and   seizures   imposed   or   made   by 
t  le  United   States   during   the   war,    whether 
i  I   respect    to    the    property    of    the    German 
C  overnment  or  German  nationals,  and  waiv- 
ing   any    pecuniary    claim    based    on    events 
vhich  occurred  at  any  time  before  the  com- 
ing into   force   of   such   treaty,    any   existing 
t  -eaty   between   the   United   States   and   Ger- 
many to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

To  these  ends,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  fully  friendly  relations  and 
commercial  intercourse  between  the  United 
States  and  Germany,  the  President  is  hereby 
requested  immediately  to  open  negotiations 
with  the  Government  of  Germany. 

Section  2— That  in  the  interpretation  of  any 
provision  relating  to  the  date  of  the  termina- 
tion of  the  present  war  or  of  the  present  or 
existing  emergency  in  any  acts  of  Congress, 
joint  resolutions  or  proclamations  of  the 
President  containing  provisions  contingent 
upon  the  date  of  the  termination  of  the  war 
or  of  the  present  or  existing  emergency,  the 
date  when  this  resolution  becomes  effective, 
shall  be  construed  and  treated  as  the  date  of 
the  termination  of  the  war  or  of  the  present 
war  or  existing  emergency,  notwithstanding 
any  provision  in  any  act  of  Congress  or 
joint  resolution  providing  any  other  mode  of 
determining  the  date  of  the  termination  of 
the  war  or  of  the  present  or  existing  emer- 
gency. 

Section  3— That  until  by  treaty  or  act  or 
joint  resolution  of  Congress  it  shall  be  de- 
termined otherwise,  the  United  States,  al- 
though it  has  not  ratified  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  does  not  waive  any  of  the  rights, 
privileges,  indemnities,  reparations  or  ad- 
vantages to  which  it  and  its  nationals  have 
become  entitled  under  the  terms  of  the 
armistice  signed  Nov.  11,  1918,  or  any  exten- 
sions or  modifications  thereof  or  which  under 
the  Treaty  of  Versailles  have  been  stipulated 
for  its  benefit  as  one  of  the  principal  allied 
and  associated  powers  and  to  which  it  is 
entitled. 

Section  4— That  the  joint  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, approved  Dec.  7,  1917,  declaring  that 
a  state  of  war  exists  between  the  Imperial 
and  Royal  Austro-Hungarian  Government 
and  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United 
States  and  making  provisions  to  prosecute 
the  same,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  re- 
pealed and  said  state  of  war  is  hereby  de- 
clared at  an  end,  and  the  President  is  hereby 
requested  immediately  to  open  negotiations 
with  the  successor  or  successors  of  said  Gov- 
ernment for  the  purpose  of  establishing  fully 
friendly  relations  and  commercial  inter- 
course between  the  United  States  and  the 
Governments  and  peoples  of  Austria  and 
Hungary. 

SENATOR  KNOX'S  ADDRESS 
Senator  Knox  addressed  the  Senate  on 
May    5    in    support    of    the    resolution. 


After  referring  to  the  necessity  of  a 
state  of  peace  in  order  to  compose  the 
revolutionary  turmoil  with  which  the 
world  was  seething  he  charged  that 
President  Wilson  had  maintained  an  "  al- 
leged state  of  war  in  order  to  coerce 
the  Senate  into  accepting  the  Versailles 
Treaty,  now  "  almost  universally  dis- 
credited in  all  of  its  parts,"  when  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  declared  enemy  of 
the  United  States,  the  Imperial  German 
Government,  had  disappeared.  By  this 
course,  he  said,  the  President  had  created 
a  situation  so  "  fraught  with  the  possi- 


PHILANDER  C.   KNOX 

Senator   from    Pennsylvania   and   Author   of 

peace  resolution 

(©    Harris    &    Eiving) 

bility  of  disaster  that  one  cannot  recon- 
cile it  with  the  operations  of  sane  states- 
manship." 

Senator  Knox  recalled  that  wars  may 
be  terminated  in  one  of  three  ways. 
These  are,  first,  abstention  by  both  par- 
ties from  further  acts  of  war;  second, 
a  special  treaty  of  peace;  third,  one  of 
the  belligerents  may  completely  subju- 
gate his  adversary.  The  speaker  cited 
the  commonly  named  instances  of  the 
ending  of  war  by  the  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities, including  the  war  between  Swe- 
den   and    Poland,    terminating    in    1716; 


374 


THE  NEW  York  times  current  history 


between  Spain  and  France,  ending  in 
1720;  between  Russia  and  Persia,  end- 
ing in  1801;  between  France  and  Mex- 
ico, ending  in  1867.  To  these  the  Sen- 
ator added  the  war  between  Spain  and 
the  Allied  South  American  States  in 
the  late  sixties.  In  that  instance,  actual 
hostilities  having  ceased  in  1866,  Mr. 
Seward  in  1868  instructed  our  repre- 
sentative in  Spain  to  say  that  as  the 
technical  continuance  of  war  incon- 
venienced all  neutral  States,  especially 
the  United  States,  a  formal  armistice 
was  desirable.  In  a  discussion  with  the 
Spanish  Minister  which  followed  Mr. 
Seward  said: 

It  is  certain  that  a  condition  of  war  can 
be  raised  without  an  authoritative  declara- 
tion of  war,  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
situation  of  peace  may  be  restored  by  the 
long  svispension  of  hostilities  without  a  treaty 
of  peace  being  made.  History  is  full  of  such 
occurrences. 

"  Thus,"  Senator  Knox  observed,  "  our 
Government  is  committed  to  the  prin- 
ciple that  war  may  come  to  an  end  by 
the  silent  cessation  of  hostilities." 

SAYS  ARMISTICE  BROUGHT  PEACE 
He  next  proceeded  to  recall  the  main 
events  of  the  World  War,  saying  that  the 
conditions  under  which  we  entered  it  are 
useful  to  a  proper  understanding  of  the 
present  international  situation.  He 
quoted  liberally  from  the  addresses  of 
President  Wilson,  with  special  reference 
to  our  being  at  war  not  with  the  German 
people  but  with  the  German  Government. 
Examination  of  the  armistice,  in  view  of 
the  definitions  of  that  word  by  The  Hague 
conventions,  Halleck  and  others,  con- 
vinced the  Senator  that  "  it  is  an  armi- 
stice in  name  only ;  that  in  reality  it  is  a 
surrender,  a  capitulation  by  a  nation  de- 
feated beyond  all  hope  of  immediate  re- 
cuperation."    He  continued: 

From  the  moment  in  which  hostilities  did 
end  there  has  been  no  real  patriotic  purpose 
served  by  continuing  to  consider  the  United 
States  at  war,  in  so  far  as  her  domestic 
affairs  were  concerned.  Actual  fighting 
over  the  condition  to  meet  which  the  war 
powers  are  given  and  for  which  Congress 
had  exercised  them  was  terminated.  A  wise 
statesmanship,  an  unselfish  estimate  of  pa- 
triotic duty,  required  the  President  imme- 
diately to  place  this  country  domestically 
upon  a  basis  of  peace.  Such,  however,  was 
not  the  course  followed. 


SAYS  TREATY  AUTOMATICALLY 
ENDED  WAR 

The  treaty  itself,  negotiated  and  signed 
by  the  President,  Mr.  Knox  pointed  out, 
specifically  provided  for  the  act  which 
would  terminate  the  war.  The  first  pro- 
ces-verbal  of  the  deposit  of  ratification 
was  to  be  drawn  up  as  soon  as  the  treaty 
had  been  ratified  by  Germany  and  by 
three  of  the  principal  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers.  It  was  the  intention  to 
terminate  the  war  at  that  time. 

Thus  [the  Senator  went  on]  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  itself,  which  treaty  is  now 
with  our  consent  and  by  virtue  of  our 
stipulation  come,  in  that  respect,  into  full 
force  and  effect,  the  war  has  terminated; 
and  in  this  connection  I  venture  to  observe 
that  if,  as  the  minority  report  to  the  House 
resolution  contends,  the  making  of  peace 
is  an  Executive  function,  then  the  Executive 
has  already  acted.  If  it  is  not  an  Execu- 
tive function,  then  Congress  may,  as  to  ap- 
propriate matters,  act  in  a  manner  to  bring 
peace. 

It  has  resulted  furthermore  from  the  de- 
posit of  ratifications  as  above  outlined  that 
Germany  and  the  other  powers  concerned 
are  observing  and  carrying  out  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  in  full  detail.  So  far  as  I  am 
advised,  committees  and  organizations  pro- 
vided for  by  the  treaty  have  been  organized 
and  are  functioning.  The  various  measures 
of  Germany's  disarmament,  demobilization 
and  evacuation  of  territory,  of  the  holding 
of  plebiscites,  of  the  surrender  of  territory, 
of  the  adjustment  of  territorial  rights  are 
being  carried  out  to  the  letter  save  as  they 
are  modified  by  the  mutual  consent  of  the 
parties. 

The  privileges  and  advantages  stipulated  in 
the  treaty  for  nationals  of  the  allied  and  as- 
sociated powers  in  respect  of  trade,  com- 
merce, residence,  business  and  professions 
are  being  carried  out  and  enjoyed  by  the 
nationals  of  all  the  powers,  including  our 
own,  save  only  where  our  own  citizens  arc 
being  injuriously  curbed  by  the  restrictions 
imposed  by  our  own  Government  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  contention  of  the  Executive  that 
a  state  of  war  continues  between  ourselves 
and  Germany.  There  is  everywhere  outside 
of  the  United  States  itself,  with  all  the 
great  powers,  including  ourselves  (save  only 
Russia),  peace  from  the  recent  conflict.  The 
powers   say   it,    the   Germans   say   it. 

Internationally,  therefore,  we  are  at  peace. 
Our  late  allies  and  associates  say  we  are  at 
peace.  Our  erstwhile  enemies  say  we  are  at 
peace.  All  are  going  forward  on  a  peacetime 
basis  under  terms  and  conditions  of  a  treaty 
negotiated  by  our  associates  and  us  and  rat- 
ified by  them  and  the  enemy. 

Our  national  Executive,  with  a  stubborn  ir- 


MAKING  PEACE   WITHOUT  A   TREATY 


375 


responsibility,  continues  to  declare  we  are  at 
war.  But  as  a  practical  matter  the  only  war 
which  he  wages  is  against  American  citizens 
and  American  industry.  With  Germany  he 
wages  no  war.  Not  a  single  shot  has  been 
fired  for  more  than  eighteen  months.  He  co- 
operates in  the  measures  of  those  who  are  at 
peace  with  Germany  and  who  are  conducting 
relations  under  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  situa- 
tion is  so  anomalous  and  so  iniquitous,  is  so 
fraught  with  injustice  and  with  possibility  of 
disaster,  that  one  cannot  reconcile  it  with  the 
operations  of  a  sane  statesmanship. 

SCOPE  OF  WAR  POWER 

Senator  Knox  next  turned  to  the  do- 
mestic condition  in  respect  to  war.  The 
framers  of  the  Constitution,  he  said, 
regarded  the  term  war  as  having  the 
meaning  of  violent  struggle  through  the 
application  of  armed  force — actual  hos- 
tilities. He  quoted  from  early  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court  to  show  that  it 
held  the  same  view.  The  essence  of  war, 
as  defined  by  all  the  authorities,  he  said, 
is  armed  conflict,  and  war  de  facto  ceases 
when  the  armed  contention  stops. 

He  quoted  the  observations  of  Hamil- 
ton and  Madison  regarding  the  charac- 
ter, extent  and  purpose  of  the  war  pow- 
ers, and  continued: 

Now,  as  war  power  is  bestowed  in  order 
that  war  may  be  successfully  carried  on,  it 
necessarily  follows,  and  this  is  vital,  that 
such  powers  exist  only  in  time  of  war— that 
is,  actual  hostilities.  Moreover,  the  extent 
to  which  the  people  are  to  be  deprived  of 
their  liberties  is  dependent  entirely  on  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  war  exigency.  The 
exclusive  right  to  determine  how  great  the 
need,  to  what  extent  these  liberties  shall  be 
restrained  and  which  of  them  shall  be 
touched,  is  in  the  Congress, 

The  speaker  contended  that  the  ending 
of  hostilities  likewise  caused  the  statutes 
conferring  war  powers  to  cease  to  be 
operative. 

SUMMARY   OF    ARGUMENTS 

Summing  up,  he  gave  these  four  rea- 
sons why  the  war  is  ended: 

1.  The  war  is  at  an  end  by  virtue  of  the 
armistice  of  Nov.  11,  1918,  and  of  the 
amendments  and  renewals  thereof,  such 
armistice  being  in  fact  a  capitulation  ending 
hostilities  by  the  virtual  surrender  of  the 
enemy. 

2.  The  war  is  at  an  end  by  the  silent 
cessation  of  hostilities,  which  concluded  the 
war  in  fact. 

3.  The  war  is  at  an  end  because   the   Gov- 


ernment against  which  w^  specifically  de- 
clared war  has  ceased  to  exist  and  the  Pres- 
ident avowed  we  had  no  quarrel  with  the 
people  behind  it.  Since  our  declared  enemy 
is  non-existent  we  have  no  one  with  whom 
to  fight,  hence  no  war. 

4.  The  war  is  at  an  end  because  we,  to- 
gether with  our  associates  in  the  hostilities, 
negotiated  with  the  people  whom  we  had 
been  fighting,  now  living  under  a  new  form 
of  government,  a  treaty  of  peace  which  pro- 
vided in  terms  that  the  war  should  terminate 
arid  diplomatic  relations  be  resumed  when 
the  treaty  came  into  force ;  and  because  the 
treaty,  pursuant  to  its  provisions,  did  come 
into  force  in  January  last  when  it  was  rati- 
fied by  Germany  on  the  one  hand  and  three 
of  the  allied  and  associated  powers  on  the 
other  hand.  By  virtue  of  the  treaty  and 
these  provisions  of  it,  the  whole  woi-ld,  in- 
cluding the  United  States,  is  at  peace  'in 
fact  and  in  law. 

Thus,  so  far  as  our  international  relations 
are  concerned,  we  are  legally  and  in  fact  at 


In  so  far  as  the  domestic  situation 
is  concerned,  Senator  Knox  said  he  had 
shown  that: 

1.  War  is  a  state  or  condition  of  Govern- 
ments contending  by  force,  a  violent  struggle 
through  the  application  of  armed  force— in 
other  words,  war  is  actual  hostilities. 

2.  That  it  was  so  understood  by  our  consti- 
tutional fathers,  by  the  great  Chief  Justice 
and  by  our  War  Department. 

3.  That  the  power  to  declare  war  was 
exclusively  in  Congress,  which  created  the 
status  of  war  by  a  law  which,  like  any 
other  law,  could  be  amended,  modified  or 
repealed. 

4.  That  the  purpose  of  the  war  powers  of 
the  Constitution  was  to  give  to  the  National 
Government  the  legal  power  and  practical 
ability  to  conduct  a  successful  war— that  is, 
actual  hostilities. 

5.  That,  war  powers  being  given  to  enable 
the  Government  successfully  to  wage  actual 
hostilities,  the  powers  could  not  be  exercised 
before  a  war  was  legally  declared  or  de  facto 
existing,  nor  after  actual  hostilities  had 
ceased,  and  that  the  very  fact  of  ending 
hostilities  ended  the  war  powers  without 
any  action  whatever  by  Congress. 

6.  That  the  powers  of  the  President  come 
from  two  sources— that  of  the  Chief  Execu- 
tive and  that  of  the  Commander  in  Chief; 
that  these  two  capacities  were  separate  and 
distinct,  wholly  independent  one  from  the 
other;  that  the  powers  of  neither  capacity 
could  be  invoked  to  augment  the  other;  that 
he  possessed  no  extraordinary  powers  as 
Chief  Executive,  save  only  and  to  the  extent 
such  powers  were  conferred  by  statute, 
which,  to  authorize  action  by  him,  must  be 
duly  and  legally  in  operation. 


376 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


SEPARATE    TREATY    NEEDED 

Senator  Knox  maintained  that  we 
were  already  at  peace  both  internation- 
ally and  domestically  without  any  fur- 
ther act  by  either  the  executive  or 
legislative  branches  of  the  Government. 
He  ended  his  speech  as  follows: 

To  what  end  has  all  this  juggling  with  ob- 
vious facts  and  universally  recognized  prin- 
ciples been  maintained?  The  answer  is  easy 
and  known  to  all.  The  purpose  has  been  to 
coerce  the  Senate  to  approve  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles— a  treaty  that  is  almost  universally 
discredited  in  all  its  parts.  The  majority  of 
its  negotiators  concede  this.  Its  economic 
terms  are  impossible ;  its  League  of  Nations 
is  an  aggravated  imitation  of  the  worst  fea- 
tures of  the  ill-fated  and  foolish  Holy  Al- 
liance of  a  century  ago.  It  promises  little 
but  mischief  unless  recast  on  such  radical 
lines  as  will  entirely  obliterate  its  identity. 

The  Parisian  peacemakers  should  have  con- 
fined their  activities  to  making  peace,  and 
then,  as  soon  as  world  conditions  permitted 
participation  therein  by  all  peoples,  initiated 
an  international  conference  to  formulate  for 
submission  to  the  nations  of  the  world,  with 
a  view  to  adoption  by  them,  an  arrangement 
providing  for  the  codification  of  international 
law,  the  establishment  of  a  court  of  inter- 
national justice  and  the  outla^vry  of  war. 
This  arrangement  to  be  as  complete,  compre- 
hensive and  compelling  as  shall  be  consistent 
with  human  rights  and  human  liberty,  with 
the  progress  of  civilization,  with  the  pres- 
ervation and  fostering  of  free  institutions, 
and  with  the  inherent  right  of  every  people 
to  be  secure,  to  enjoy  peace,  and  to  work  out 
unhampered  its  own  destiny,  subject  only  to 
like  equal  rights  of  all  other  peoples. 

It  remains  open  to  us,  so  long  as  we  are 
unbound  by  the  proposed  discredited  cove- 
nant, to  initiate  such  an  agreement  among 
the  nations. 

DEBATE  IN  THE  SENATE 
Senator  Hitchcock  of  Nebraska,  the 
Administration  leader,  on  May  12  re- 
plied to  the  address  of  Senator  Knox. 
The  whole  case  built  up  by  Senator  Knox 
on  the  theory  that  a  state  of  peace  actu- 
ally existed  tumbled  to  the  ground,  Sen- 
ator Hitchcock  said,  under  the  force  of 
the  Supreme  Court's  decision  in  the  war- 
time prohibition  case  that  a  technical 
state  of  war  continued.  In  reviewing 
Republican  efforts  to  hit  upon  a  suitable 
peace  resolution  he  said:  "The  moun- 
tain has  labored  and  'brought  forth  a 
mouse."  He  said  that  first  the  Republi- 
cans got  behind  the  Lodge  resolution  of 
Nov.  19,  which  in  a  dozen  words  declared 


the  war  at  an  end.  That  was  abandoned 
for  the  Knox  resolution  of  Dec.  12,  which 
declared  that  peace  existed,  and  which 
was  given  up  in  favor  of  a  different 
Knox  resolution  which  "  neither  declared 
the  war  at  an  end  nor  proclaimed  the 
advent  of  peace."  That,  in  turn,  was  set 
aside,  Mr.  Hitchcock  said,  for  the  Porter 
resolution,  which  the  House  passed,  and 
which  has  now  been  superseded  by  the 
fifth  attempt  in  the  form  of  the  present 
Knox  resolution.     He  continued: 

Altogether,  the  five  desperate  attempts  to 
defy  the  Constitution  and  substitute  a  reso- 
lution for  a  treaty  make  a  fine  display  of 
legislative  experimentation.  Resolved  that 
the  war  has  ended;  resolved  that  peace 
exists;  resolved  that  we  force  Germany  to 
grant  us  what  we  might  get  if  we  signed 
the  treaty;  resolved  that  the  President  be 
requested  to  negotiate  a  separate  peace; 
resolved  that  we  will  not  give  up  German 
property;  resolved  that  we  will  not  waive 
any  rights  under  the  treaty— one  and  all  of 
them  foolish  and  futile  attempts  to  invade 
the  constitutional  way  of  securing  peace  by 
ratifying  the  treaty  negotiated  in  a  consti- 
tutional way.  All  of  them  hopeless.  All  of 
them  doomed  to  defeat.  All  of  them 
attempted  simply  as  a  desperate  means  of 
getting  out  of  a  bad  situation  which  certain 
statesmen  find  themselves  in. 

Senator  Hitchcock  read  from  a  maga- 
zine article  written  by  Senator  Lodge 
which  was  printed  in  December,  1918,  in 
which  Mr.  Lodge  said  that  "  it  would 
brand  us  with  everlasting  dishonor  and 
bring  ruin  to  us  also  if  we  undertook  to 
make  a  separate  peace." 

Republicans,  the  Senator  said,  refused 
to  compromise  and  bring  about  treaty 
ratification. 

Senator  Thomas,  Democrat,  of  Col- 
orado followed  with  a  speech  in  which 
he  criticised  the  President  for  the  lat- 
ter's  telegram  to  Mr.  Hamaker  of  Port- 
land, Ore.,  condemning  the  Lodge  reser- 
vations to  the  treaty  as  inconsistent  with 
the  nation's  honor. 

THE   PRESIDENTS   TELEGRAM 

The  telegram  in  question  was  made 
public  on  May  9.  It  was  addressed  to 
G.  E.  Hamaker,  Chairman  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Central  Committee,  Portland,  Ore., 
and  read  as  follows: 

I  think  it  imperative  that  the  party  should 
at  once  proclaim  itself  the  uncompromising 
champion  of  the  nation's  honor  and  the  advo- 
cate   of    everything    that    the    United    States 


MAKING  PEACE   WITHOUT  A    TREATY 


377 


can  do  in  the  service  of  humanity;  that  it 
should  therefore  indorse  and  support  the 
Versailles  Treaty  and  condemn  the  Lodge 
reservations  as  utterly  inconsistent  with  the 
nation's  honor  and  destructive  of  the  world 
leadership  which  it  had  established,  and 
which  all  the  free  peoples  of  the  world, 
including  the  great  powers  themselves,  had 
shown  themselves  ready  to  welcome. 

It  is  time  that  the  party  should  proudly 
avow  that  it  means  to  try,  without  flinching 
or  turning  at  any  time  away  from  the  path 
for  reasons  of  expediency,  to  apply  moral 
and  Christian  principles  to  the  problems  of 
the  world.  It  is  trying  to  accomplish  social, 
political  and  international  reforms,  and  is 
not  daunted  by  any  of  the  difficulties  it  has 
to  contend  with.  Let  us  prove  to  our  late 
associates  in  the  war  that  at  any  rate  the 
great  majority  party  of  the  nation,  the  party 
which  expresses  the  true  hopes  and  purposes 
of  the  people  of  the  country,  intends  to  keep 
faith  with  them  in  peace  as  well  as  in  war. 
They  gave  their  treasure,  their  best  blood 
and  everything  that  they  valued  in  order 
not  merely  to  beat  Germany  but  to  effect  a 
settlement  and  bring  about  arrangements  of 
peace  which  they  have  now  tried  to  formu- 
late in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles.  They  are 
entitled  to  our  support  in  this  settlement  and 
in  the  arrangements  for  which  they  have 
striven. 

The  League  of  Nations  is  the  hope  of  the 
world.  As  a  basis  for  the  armistice  I 'was 
authorized  by  all  the  great  fighting  nations 
to  say  to  the  enemy  that  it  was  our  object 
in  proposing  peace  to  establish  a  general 
association  of  nations  under  specific  cove- 
nants for  the  purpose  of  affording  mutual 
guarantees  of  political  independence  and 
territorial  integrity  to  great  and  small  States 
alike,  and  the  covenant  of  the  League  of 
Nations  is  the  deliberate  embodiment  of  that 
purpose  in  the  treaty  of  peace. 

The  chief  motives  which  led  us  to  enter  the 
war  will  be  defeated  unless  that  covenant  is 
ratified  and  acted  upon  with  vigor.  We 
cannot  in  honor  whittle  it  down  or  weaken  it 
as  the  Republican  leaders  of  the  Senate  have 
proposed  to  do.  If  we  are  to  exercise  the 
kind  of  leadership  to  which  the  founders  of 
the"  Republic  locked  forward  and  which  they 
depended  upon  their  successors  to  establish, 
we  must  do  this  thing  with  courage  and 
unalterable  determination.  They  expected 
the  United  States  to  be  always  the  leader  in 
the  defense  of  liberty  and  ordered  peace 
throughout  the  world,  and  we  are  unworthy 
to  call  ourselves  their  successors  unless  we 
fulfill  the  great  purpose  which  they  enter- 
tained and  proclaimed. 

The  true  Americanism,  the  only  true 
Americanism,  is  that  which  puts  America 
at  the  front  of  free  nations  and  redeems  the 
great  promises  which  we  made  the  world 
when  we  entered  the  war,  which  was  fought 
not  for  the  advantage  of  any  single  nation 
or  group  of  nations,  but  for  the  salvation  of 


all.  It  is  in  this  wS,y  we  shall  redeem  the 
sacred  blood  that  was  shed  and  make 
America  the  force  she  should  be  in  the 
counsels  of  mankind.  She  cannot  afford  to 
sink  into  the  place  that  natious  have  usually 
occupied  and  become  merely  one  of  those 
who  scramble  and  look  about  for  selfish 
advantage.  The  Democratic  Party  has  now 
a  great  opportunity,  to  which  it  must 
measure  up.  The  honor  of  the  nation  is  in 
its   hand.ci  WOODROW  WILSON. 

ADDRESS    OF    SENATOR    M'CUMBER 

Senator  McCumber,  Republican,  of 
North  Dakota,  in  a  Senate  speech  on 
May  11  declared  that,  while  he  was  op- 
posed to  the  Knox  resolution,  he  felt  that 
President  Wilson  had  made  a  colossal 
blunder  by  injecting  the  treaty  and  the 
League  of  Nations  into  a  political  cam- 
paign. He  said: 

The  thought  of  the  people  of  this  country 
is  engrossed  with  the  perplexities  that  sur- 
round us.  We  are  this  moment  surrounded 
by  a  thousand  imminent  dangers  demand- 
ing our  immediate  attention  and  solution. 
We  stand  almost  helpless  while  debts.  State, 
national,  municipal  and  industrial,  are  pil- 
ing mountain  high.  We  behold  the  hours 
of  idleness  of  our  people  ever  increasing, 
production  dangerously  decreasing,  cur- 
rency becoming  more  and  more  inflated, 
the  yoke  of  taxation  ever  growing  greater 
and  more  galling,  the  prices  of  all  necessi- 
ties of  life  ever  advancing. 

We  are  now  living  in  the  midst  of  strikes 
and  threats  of  strikes.  We  are  living  in  im- 
minent danger  of  having  our  industries  para- 
lyzed and  the  distribution  of  commodities 
on  which  our  very  lives  depend  stopped  at 
any  moment  by  lawless  hands. 

The  very  atmosphere  is  poisoned  by  the 
infectious  breath  of  socialism,  while  anarchy, 
fevered  by  hate  and  envy,  waits  only  the 
opportunity  to  work  a  reign  of  hell  such  as 
today   is   consuming  agonized   Russia. 

Search  as  you  will  for  excuses,  the  Ameri- 
can people  know  where  to  lay  the  blame  for 
this  dire  condition.  The  war  is  not  the  cause 
of  this  threatening  situation.  The  American 
people  are  the  victims  of  the  new  system 
of  purchasing  political  support  by  enacting 
purely  class  legislation. 

They  are  the  victims  of  a  policy  of  surren- 
dering the  interests  of  the  unorganized  and 
ineffective  many  to  serve  the  demands  of 
the  organized  and  effective  few.  They  are 
the  victims  of  a  policy  of  utilizing  the  Fed- 
eral Treasury  to  meet  the  demands  of  organ- 
ized classes,  no  matter  how  exorbitant  or  in- 
equitable  such  demands. 

The  whole  policy  of  the  present  Adminis- 
tration has  been  one  of  surrender  to  those 
demands.      That    course    has    been    followed 


378 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


from  the  day  the  Executive  forced  the 
Adamson  bill  down  the  throats  of  a  re- 
luctant Congress. 

That  course  followed  during  -the  war  en- 
tailed upon  us  a  cost  at  least  five  times  what 
the  war  should  have  cost  us.  A  few  months 
of  the  application  of  that  policy  to  the  op- 
eration of  railways  under  Government  con- 
trol bankrupted  every  railroad  in  the  United 
States.  That  policy  manifested  itself  in  the 
vast  number  of  Socialists  and  theorists  with 
whom  nearly  every  official  place  has  been 
filled  during  the  last  four  unhappy  years. 
That  policy  is  manifest  today  in  nearly 
every  appointment  that  comes  to  the  Senate 
for  confirmation. 

Senator  McCumber,  in  discussing  the 
question  of  making  peace,  said  that  Con- 
gress undoubtedly  had  power  to  ter- 
minate the  war  which  it  had  power  to 
begin,  but  declared  that  settlement  of 
peace  questions  must  be  through  the 
medium  of  a  treaty. 

MR.   REED'S   BITTER   ATTACK 

Senator  Reed,  Democrat,  of  Missouri, 
bitterly  assailed  the  attitude  of  the  Pres- 
ident in  an  address  on  May  14.  Taking 
up  the  President's  statement  that  the 
Democrats  must  "  keep  faith  "  and  safe- 
guard the  nations's  honor,  he  asked: 

Keep  faith  with  whom  and  what?  The 
President  says  in  his  telegram  that  he  was 
authorized  by  the  great  fighting  nations  to 
inform  the  enemy— Germany,  in  other  words 
—that  the  League  of  Nations  had  been  de- 
cided on.  Our  pledge  then  is  to  Germany. 
On  his  speaking  tour  the  President  called 
the  opponents  of  the  League  pro-German.  Now 
we  are  told  we  must  accept  the  League  be- 
cause we  promised  it  to  Germany. 

No  sane  man  believes  it  possible  that  the 
Peace  Treaty  can  be  ratified  before  March 
4,  1921.  If  the  Democratic  Party  writes  into 
its  platform  a  declaration  for  unconditional 
acceptance  of  the  treaty  there  cannot  be 
such  a  change  made  in  the  complexion  of  the 
Senate  as  would  prevent  its  rejection.  Nobody 
outside  of  a  lunatic  asylum  believes  unquali- 
fied ratification  possible. 

I  wonder  what  will  become  of  Democratic 
candidates  for  re-election  to  the  Senate  with 
the  treaty  a  party  issue.  Does  not  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  the  President  insure  their 
defeat? 

Taking  up  the  President's  telegram  in 
detail,  Mr.  Reed  said  that  Democrats 
would  be  called  upon  to  support  "  inde- 
fensible things."  He  enumerated  the 
plural  votes  allowed  the  British  Empire 
in  the  League  Assembly,  the  question  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the  article  re- 
lating to  disarmament. 


We  are  asked  to  defend  before  the  Ameri- 
can people  [he  said]  the  proposal  that 
when  this  nation  is  engaged  in  war,  and  de- 
fending itself  against  an  invader,  we  cannot 
raise  a  single  soldier  nor  call  into  being  a 
single  ship  without  the  consent,  the  unani- 
mous consent,  of  a  council  composed  exclu- 
sively of  foreigners,  sitting  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain  in  S"witzerland,  in  the  new  capital 
of  the  world.  We  are  asked  to  sanction  giv- 
ing up  what  no  nation  or  no  man  ever  should 
give   up— the   right  of  self-defense. 

THE  FINAL  DEBATE 

The  resolution  was  amended  on  May 
13  on  motion  of  Senator  Lodge,  and  was 
agreed  to  without  debate  by  eliminating 
the  request  to  the  President  that  he  ne- 
gotiate a  separate  treaty  with  Germany. 

The  Senate  voted  on  the  Knox  reso- 
lution May  15,  and  passed  it  '«y  a  vote 
of  43  to  38;  three  Democrats,  Senators 
Reed,  Shields  and  Walsh  of  Massachu- 
setts, voted  aye;  one  Republican,  Sen- 
ator Nelson,  voted  no,  and  one  Repub- 
lican, Senator  McCumber,  was  paired  in 
the  negative;  two  Democratic  Senators, 
Gore  and  Smith  of  Georgia,  and  New- 
berry (Rep.)  of  Michigan  were  not 
paired  and  did  not  vote. 

The  debate  before  ^  le  final  vote  was 
brief.  Senator  Underwood,  the  Demo- 
cratic leader,  opposed  the  resolution  on 
the  ground  that  it  m'  -^t  a  separate 
peace  treaty  with  Germany.  This  Sen- 
ator Knox  denied,  asserting  that  it  did 
not  mean  a  separate  peace  treaty,  but  a 
treaty  of  commercial  relatio  s.  Sen- 
ator Underwood  asserted  that  the  Presi- 
dent could  not  accept  it  and  would  re- 
fuse to  sanction  it.  Senator  Pomerene 
(Dem.)  of  Ohio  asserted  that  the  reso- 
lution was  an  attempt  to  make  a  treaty 
by  legislation.  Senator  Walsh  of  Mon- 
tana, who  had  voted  for  the  Lodge 
reservations,  opposed  the  Knox  resolu- 
tion on  the  ground  that  it  opened  our 
markets  to  be  flooded  with  German 
goods  without  safeguarding  our  com- 
mercial interests.  Senator  Hitchcock, 
the  former  Democratic  leader,  assailed 
the  resolution  as  prompted  by  partisan- 
ship and  charged  that  it  was  an  attempt 
to  usurp  the  powers  of  the  Executive. 

The  resolution  was  reported  to  the 
House  on  May  19  as  a  substitute  for  the 
one  passed  by  that  body,  and  was  re- 
ferred to  a  conference  committee  of  the 
two   houses. 


BEAUTIETJL  SAN  REMO,   IN  THE  ITALIAN  RIVIERA,   OVERLOOKING  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 
AND   IN   SIGHT   OF   THE    ALPS 

The  San  Remo  Conference 


How  the  Allied  Premiers  Reached  Full  Agreement  With  Re- 
gard to  Germany — Solution  of  the  Turkish  Problem 


IN  beautiful  San  Remo,  amid  the  hills 
of  North  Italy,  overlooking  the  Medi- 
terranean, the  British,  French  and 
Italian  Premiers  met  on  April  18, 
1920,  and  began  their  historic  confer- 
ences regarding  Germany,  in  the  hope 
of  settling  all  differences  which  had 
arisen  between  the  Allies  themselves — 
notably  between  Great  Britain  and 
France — and  of  reaching  a  solution  of 
the  vexed  question  of  German  fulfill- 
ment of  the  Peace  Treaty.  Amid  cacti 
and  carnations,  palm  trees  and  pink 
roses,  the  Villa  Devachan,  where  their 
sessions  were  held,  sends  down  its  white 
gleam  to  the  wayfarer  passing  on  the 
roads  leading  through  the  hamlet  of  red- 
roofed  houses  far  below.  On  the  south 
the  Mediterranean  glittered  silverly. 
From  whatever  window  the  allied  states- 


men gazed,  their  eyes  beheld  scenes  of 
peace  and  tranquillity. 

But  when  Messrs.  Lloyd  George,  Mil- 
lerand  and  Nitti  met  around  the  council 
table  there  was  little  harmony  at 
first.  The  action  of  France  in  occupy- 
ing German  towns  to  the  east  of  May- 
ence,  as  a  guarantee  of  the  withdrawal 
of  the  German  troops  from  the  Ruhr 
district,  had  brought  a  rift  in  the  En- 
tente, which  had  barely  been  healed  after 
a  rapid-fire  exchange  of  diplomatic  notes 
between  Paris  and  London.  Great  Brit- 
ain, on  her  part,  had  assured  France  of 
her  intention  to  compel  Germany  to  dis- 
arm and  fulfill  strictly  the  neglected 
provisions  of  the  Versailles  Treaty. 
France,  on  the  other  hand,  had  pledged 
herself  to  evacuate  the  occupied  German 
towns  as   soon  as  the  Germans  reduced 


380 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


their  forces  in  the  Ruhr  district  to  the 
prescribed  limitation,  and  had  further 
agreed  that  she  would  not  again  take  in- 
dependent action  without  full  consulta- 
tion with  her  allies. 

But  many  matters  still  remained  un- 
settled, and  the  British  and  French  Pre- 
miers met  at  San  Remo  in  a  tense,  com- 
bative mood,  based  largely  on  mutual 
misunderstandings  which  the  coming  dis- 
cussions were  destined  to  clarify  and 
finally  resolve. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George,  supported  by  Signer 
Nitti,  was  resolved  not  to  yield  to  any 
extreme  demands  on  Germany  which 
France  might  make;  M.  Millerand,  as 
spokesman  for  all  his  countrymen,  was 
equally  determined  to  maintain  France's 
insistence  that  Germany  disarm,  that  she 
yield  the  coal  supplies  which  she  had 
promised  and  not  delivered,  and  that  she 
pay  the  full  indemnity  and  make  the  full 
reparations  which  the  Versailles  Treaty 
stipulated.  Against  the  alleged  British 
and  French  sentiment  for  treaty  re- 
vision, M.  Millerand  was  ready  to  fight 
"  to  the  death." 

SOLUTION  OF  GERMAN  PROBLEM 

The  rapidity  with  which  these  grave 
differences  and  misunderstandings  were 
composed  at  San  Remo  is  one  of  the 
wonders  of  European  diplomacy.  In 
barely  a  week's  time  the  allied  Council 
of  Premiers  accomplished  more  than  the 
Paris  Peace  Conference  had  accom- 
plished in  weeks,  even  months,  of  dispu- 
tation and  debate.  While  Germany  and 
the  world  awaited  the  outcome  with  the 
keenest  interest;  while  Signor  Nitti  was 
evolving,  for  the  benefit  of  the  swarm 
of  correspondents,  his  philosophy  of 
smiling,  now  that  the  war  was  over,  and 
while  many  reports  were  disseminated 
of  bitter  quarrels  among  the  assembled 
Premiers,  the  three  allied  statesmen 
were  reaching  harmony  on  all  questions 
before  them,  and  notably  the  question  of 
what  should  be  done  in  the  case  of  Ger- 
many. 

That  decision  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows:  M.  Millerand  gained  re- 
assurance from  Lloyd  George  that  no 
revision  of  the  Versailles  Treaty  was 
planned  by  Great  Britain,  and  that  both 


Great  Britain  and  Italy  would  stand 
firmly  behind  France  in  her  demand  for 
strict  fulfillment  of  the  treaty.  Com- 
plete solidarity  was  achieved  by  the 
drafting  and  dispatch  of  a  stern  note  to 
Germany,  in  which  the  Allies  accused 
Germany  of  bad  faith  and  served  notice 
on  her  that  they  were  prepared  to  use 
all  methods,  including  militaiy  force,  to 
compel  the  fulfillment  of  the  treaty.    In 


SKETCH  MAP  SHOWING  LOCATION  OF  SAN 

REMO,  NEAR  THE  FRENCH  BORDER,   IN 

NORTHERN  ITALY 

this  note  Germany  was  reminded  that 
she  had  not  fulfilled  the  tenns  in  respect 
to  the  surrender  of  war  material,  the  re- 
duction of  her  armed  forces,  the  delivery 
of  coal  and  the  payment  of  the  costs  of 
the  army  of  occupation.  Germany  w^as 
also  rebuked  for  not  having  made  pro- 
posals for  a  definite  settlement  of  the 
amount  of  indemnity,  as  provided  in  the 
treaty.  Two  requests  received  shortly 
before  from  Germany,  both  of  them  re- 
forwarded  from  Paris,  that  she  be  al- 
lowed to  retain  an  army  of  200,000,  in- 
stead of  the  100,000  men  provided  for  in 
the  treaty,  were  met  with  a  curt  refusal. 
Regarding  the  French  occupation  of  the 
German  towns,  it  was  expressly  stated 
that  France  disclaimed  any  intention  of 
permanent  occiipation  of  Rhine  terri- 
tory, and  would  withdraw  her  forces  as 
soon  as  Germany  withdrew  the  supple- 
mentary forces  sent  by  her  to  suppress 
the  Ruhr  insurrection  in  the  prohibited 
area.  [Both  withdrawals  were  effected 
by  May  19.] 


THE  SAN  REMO   CONFERENCE 


381 


VILLA    DEVACHAN,    IN    A    BEAUTIFUL    PARK    AT    SAN    REMO,    WHERE    THE    PEACE    CON- 
FERENCE  WAS   HELD   IN   APRIL 


The  second  part  of  this  note,  consid- 
ered as  a  victory  for  the  policy  of  Lloyd 
George,  admitted  frankly  the  difficulties 
with  which  Germany  was  faced,  and  in- 
vited her  to  send  her  representatives  to 
Spa,  Belgium,  to  meet  allied  delegates  on 
May  25,  bearing  with  them  concrete  pro- 
posals for  fulfilling  the  financial  and 
other  conditions  of  the  treaty. 

The  contingency  of  the  establishment 
at  Berlin  of  a  Government  hostile  to  the 
execution  of  the  Versailles  Treaty  had 
been  already  provided  for  in  an  identi- 
cal note  from  the  allied  powers  received 
by  Germany  from  Paris  on  April  20.  The 
seizure  of  power  by  such  a  Government 
was  threatened  with  the  establishment 
of  an  economic  blockade. 

So  the  rift  in  Entente  harmony  was 
closed,  and  Germany  was  disillusioned  of 
her  last  hope  of  treaty  revision  through 
allied  dissension. 

RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY 
The  Russian  problem  was  only  pro- 
visionally and  tentatively  settled.  Signor 
Nitti's  advocacy  of  the  policy  of  reopen- 
ing trade  relations  with  Soviet  Russia 
without  formal  recognition,  though  he 
admitted  that  such  a  resumption  would 
lead  eventually  to  recognition,  was  gen- 
erally approved  by  the  allied  Premiers, 
though    each    country    was    left   free    to 


bring  about  such  trade  reopening  in  the 
manner  which  it  considered  best.  It  was 
stated  from  Italian  and  other  sources 
that  in  urging  this  step  Signor  Nitti 
was  influenced  by  the  strong  radical  sen- 
timent prevailing  in  Italy.  In  a  public 
statement  issued  at  San  Remo  the  Ital- 
ian Premier  declared  that  he  believed 
this  step  was  the  surest  and  most  ef- 
fective method  of  exposing  to  the  world 
the  economic  and  moral  bankruptcy  of 
the  Bolshevist  regime.  The  general 
statement  approved  by  the  Premiers 
along  these  lines  was  considered  by  Nitti 
as  a  personal  triumph. 

The  remaining  details  of  the  Turkish 
settlement  were  also  agreed  upon.  [For 
a  full  account  of  this  settlement,  see  ar- 
ticle on  Turkey.]  As  previously  agreed 
in  London,  the  Sultan  was  to  be  left  in 
Constantinople  and  the  Turkish  straits 
internationalized.  Turkey  was  shorn  of 
all  military,  naval  and  political  power, 
and  her  boundaries  were  reduced  to  a 
mere  fraction  of  what  they  had  been. 

The  Supreme  Council  on  April  25  de- 
cided to  send  to  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, through  the  President,  a  for- 
mal offer  of  the  mandate  for  Armenia, 
which  the  League  of  Nations  had  found 
itself  unable  to  accept,  owing  to  lack  of 
funds  and  the  military  equipment  requis- 


382 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


ROOM    IN    VILLA    DEVACIIAN,    SAN    REMO.    WHERE    THE    ALLIED    MINISTERS    MET 


ite  to  protect  the  new  Armenian  boun- 
daries. Great  Britain  was  made  the 
mandatary  for  Mesopotamia  and  Pales- 
tine, and  France  the  mandatary  for 
Syria.  Pledges  were  given  to  the  Zion- 
ist delegation  at  San  Remo  that  the  mil- 
itary administration  of  Palestine,  which 
has  proved  irksome  to  the  Jews,  would 
be  changed  to  a  sympathetic  civil  rule.    - 

Zionists  all  over  the  world  rejoiced  at 
Great  Britain's  acceptance  of  the  Pales- 
tine mandate.  The  Zionist  Organization 
of  America  received  hundreds  of  jubilant 
telegrams.  Telegrams  from  many  Zion- 
ist associations  were  sent  to  the  British 
Government  expressing  gratitude  for  its 
willingness  to  accept  the  mandate. 

The  San  Remo  Conference  broke  up 
amid  general  satisfaction.  Signor  Nitti 
was  pleased  with  the  council's  general 
approval  of  his  scheme  for  continuing 
the  negotiations  with  Soviet  Russia  for 
a  resumption  of  trade  relations.  Mr. 
Lloyd  George,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
won  his  point  in  bringing  about  direct 
negotiations  with  the  Germans,  and  had 
healed  the  breach  threatened  between 
Great  Britain  and  France.     M.  Millerand 


considered  the  results  of  the  conference 
as  an  absolute  vindication  of  France, 
both  in  respect  to  the  Rhineland  occupa- 
tion and  the  strict  insistence  on  treaty 
fulfillment.  Even  the  Germans  had 
their  cause  for  contentment  in  gaining 
at  last  their  long-requested  opportunity 
for  oral  discussions.  The  Premiers  left 
the  Villa  Devachan  and  San  Remo  smil- 
ing. The  return  of  M.  Millerand  and 
General  Foch,  who  accompanied  him, 
was  like  a  triumphal  procession;  large 
crowds  and  enthusiastic  ovations  wel- 
comed them  at  every  large  railway  sta- 
tion in  Italy  and  France. 

On  the  following  day  M.  Millerand,  ap- 
pearing before  the  French  Chamber,  an- 
nounced that  the  Allies  had  reached 
complete  agreement  on  the  strict  fulfill- 
ment of  the  Versailles  Treaty.  His 
statement  was  greeted  with  a  storm  of 
applause  that  shook  the  house.  On  April 
29  Lloyd  George  appeared  before  the 
British  Parliament  to  render  an  account 
of  the  San  Remo  accomplishment.  In  a 
long  and  sustained  speech,  delivered  in 
keen  and  trenchant  style,  and  absolutely 
free  from  any  apologetic  spirit,  he   de- 


THE  SAN  Rl 


I 


scribed  the  disharmony  and  misunder- 
standing that  had  prevailed  and  traced 
the  course  of  the  discussions  which  had 
brought  accord. 

QUESTION  OF  DISARMAMENT 
Among  the  lucid  explanations  in  Mr. 
Lloyd    George's    speech    were    the    fol- 
owing : 

This  is  the  position  with  regard  to  dis- 
armament: Guns  we  will  get;  airplanes 
we  will  get.  We  cannot  allow  these  ter- 
rific weapons  or  war  to  be  left  lying 
about  in  Germany,  with  nobody  in  au- 
thority to  see  to  them.     It  is  too  danger- 


eration.  They  must  come  there  as  a  peo- 
ple who  mean  business  on  the  basis  of  the 
acceptance  of  the  treaty. 

They  must  show  that  they  are  grappling 
with  the  problem.  That  is  all  we  ask  at 
the  present  moment.  Upon  all  these  Ger- 
man questions  that  have  arisen  out  of 
the  German  treaty  I  am  glad  to  be  able 
to  tell  the  House  that  we  have  established 
most  complete  accord  among  the  Allies. 
The  strain  had  disappeared  and  there  was 
the  same  old  gladness  of  comradeship 
that  carried  us  through  the  trials  of  the 
great  war. 

Hundreds  of  uninvited  delegates  from 
every  comer  of  the  world  had  come  to 


PROOF    THAT    THE    PEACE    TREATY    HAS    NOT    WHOLLY    DEPRIVED    THE    GERMAN    GOV- 
ERNMENT  OF  ARTILLERY.      THIS   ARMORED   TRAIN   WAS   PHOTOGRAPHED    IN    BERLIN   AT 
THE    TIME    OF    THE    KAPP    REVOLT 
{Photo   Underwood   &    Underwood) 


ous;  you  never  can  tell  what  may  hap- 
pen. Therefore,  they  have  got  to  be 
cleared  up.  Rifles  have  been  infinitely 
difficult  to  get,  but  rifles  without  big 
guns  and  machine  guns  are  not  very  for- 
midable, although  they  are  dangerous  as 
weapons  of  disorder,  and  we  shall  do  our 
best  to  secure  them.    *    *    * 

We  must  ask  Germany  to  make  some 
proposal  to  pay.  I  have  been  on  various 
sides  in  regard  to  this  indemnity,  but,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  proposed  nothing 
new  with  regard  to  it.  Our  complaint  is 
that  Germany  has  taken  no  steps;  our 
complaint  is  that  she  is  not  taking  steps 
as  if  she  really  meant  to  pay,  and  she 
must  do  it.  I  want  to  make  it  particular- 
ly clear  before  we  meet  at  Spa  that  we 
are  not  going  there  to  discuss  abstract 
questions.  Germany  must  come  there 
with  something  definite,  some  proposal 
with  regard  to  the  sum  she  can  pay  and 
with  regard  to  the  method  by  which  she 
proposes  to  pay,  or  any  other  liquidation 
of  their  liabilities.  They  will  be  guaran- 
teed very  fair,   impartial  and  just  consid- 


San  Remo  to  wring  special  concessions 
for  their  respective  countries.  Assyro- 
Chaldeans,  Esthonians,  Letts,  Lithu- 
anians, Ukrainians,  Hungarians,  Turks, 
Caucasians,  and  other  races  too  numer- 
ous to  mention  were  in  consternation 
when  the  conference  broke  up  without 
having  granted  them  a  hearing.  Some 
of  these  uninvited  "  walking  delegates  " 
had  been  living  in  San  Remo  at  a  cost 
of  8,000  kroner  a  day.  They  departed 
sadly,  bewailing  their  unhappy  fate,  and 
meditating  how  they  should  break  the 
news  to  their  expectant  Governments. 

THE  HYTHE  CONFERENCE 

A  second  conference,  also  of  the  great- 
est importance,  was  held  at  Hythe,  Eng- 
land, on  May  15.  This  conference  was 
arranged  by  Premier  Millerand  with  Mr. 
Lloyd    George   at  the   close   of  the   San 


884 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


Remo  Conference  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
cussing the  program  for  the  Spa  meet- 
ing, which  the  German  Chancellor  had 
been  invited  to  attend.  M.  Millerand  had 
made  it  clear  to  the  British  Premier  that 
he  did  not  intend  to  allow  any  loophole 
for  proposals  to  revise  the  treaty,  and 
Lloyd  George  had  suggested  a  prelim- 
inary conference  in  England.  Premier 
Millerand  was  accompanied  by  the 
British  Ambassador  in  Paris  and  by  the 
Minister  of  Finance  and  Coal  Controller, 
Frangois  Marsal.  In  the  country  home 
of  Sir  Philip  Sassoon  at  Hythe,  finely 
situated  on  a  green  and  flowery  hillside 
overlooking  the  Channel  and  Romney 
Marsh,  the  French  statesmen  met  Lloyd 
George  and  his  advisers. 

The  Hythe  discussions  lasted  two 
days.  Important  agreements  were 
reached.  Special  concessions  were 
granted  France  following  the  exposition 
of  her  financial  proposals.  France's 
claims  as  a  preferential  creditor  in  the 
distribution  of  the  German  indemnity 
payments  were  admitted.  Lloyd  George, 
however,  countered  M.  Millerand's  con- 
tention that  the  devastated  French  dis- 
tricts should  have  first  claim  with  the 
observation  that  M.  Clemenceau  had  al- 
ready waived  this  priority.  The  French 
Premier  agreed  provisionally  that  the 
total  amount  of  reparation  to  be  exacted 
from  Germany  should  be  fixed  in  a 
lump  sum — a  proposal  to  which  he  had 
opposed  serious  objections  in  San  Remo. 
A  French  victory  was  won  by  the  eventu- 
al raising  of  the  sum  proposed  by  the 
British  delegates— 100,000,000,000  francs 
—to  120,000,000,000  francs.  M.  Mil- 
lerand then  set  forth  his  country's  im- 
perative need  of  immediate  cash,  and 
urged  that  Germany  be  allowed  to  issue 
bonds  to  cover  her  first  and  subsequent 
annual  payments,  on  which  pledges 
France  could  realize  forthwith.  The 
British  delegates  demurred  to  guarantee- 
ing such  a  bond  issue,  but  the  French 
v/ere  insistent  that  German  bonds  would 


find  a  ready  market  in  the  United 
States. 

In  these  and  other  respects  the  pro- 
gram for  the  Spa  discussions  was  defi- 
nitely agreed  upon.  Treaty  revision  was 
resolutely  excluded.  Germany's  immedi- 
ate disarmament  was  to  be  insisted  on. 
It  was  finally  decided  to  postpone  the 
conference  at  Spa  until  after  the  German 
general  elections.  June  21  was  the  new 
date  fixed. 

One  question  affecting  the  Allies  only 
was  discussed  at  Hythe,  namely,  the 
method  of  liquidation  of  the  debts  of  the 
Allies  to  one  another.  The  rate  and 
time  of  such  liquidation  was  made  con- 
tingent on  the  arrangements  ultimately 
concluded  with  Germany.  The  United 
States  was  to  be  consulted  on  the  grant- 
ing of  a  moratorium  on  all  allied  debts. 
The  British  delegates  received  favorably 
the  French  request  that  France's  debt 
to  Great  Britain,  amounting  to  30,000,- 
000,000  francs,  be  made  subordinate  to 
Germany's  payments  to  France,  but  re- 
served final  decision  until  after  consulta- 
•  tion  with  her  own  principal  creditor,  the 
United  States. 

The  French  feeling  regarding  the  dis- 
cussions at  Hythe  was  summed  up  by  an 
article  in  the  Matin  on  May  18.  The 
Matin  article  said  in  part: 

Before  the  conference  at  Hythe  the 
Allies  had  no  financial  system.  Since  this 
meeting  they  have  one.  That  it  is  perfect 
and  definite  neither  Millerand  nor  Lloyd 
George  pretends.  At  least  the  two  Pre- 
miers can  feel  that  they  have  entered  to- 
gether and  almost  pari  passu  upon  the 
ground  of  realities. 

In  so  far  as  the  Hythe  Conference  de- 
cided upon  the  total  amount  of  the  Ger- 
man indemnity  it  usurped  one  of  the 
most  important  functions  that  had  been 
assigned  to  the  Reparations  Commission 
by  the  treaty.  An  immediate  result  was 
the  resignation  of  M.  Poincare  from  the 
Presidency  of  that  body  on  the  ground 
that  his  presence  would  no  longer  be  of 
much  use. 


An  Inside  View  of  Italy's  Affairs 

By  DR.  ORESTES  FERRARA 

[Translated  by  Lbxjpold  Grahame] 


THE  fall  of  the  Nitti  Cabinet  in  Italy 
was  rather  due  to  the  complicated 
parliamentary  situation  created  by 
the  last  general  elections  than  to 
my   organized   attack   by   the   opposing 
)arties  for  the  purpose  ©f  succeeding  to 
)ower.     The  Italian  Constitution  estab- 
Ishes  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  as  the 
Lembodiment   of  national   sovereignty  in 
'that  its  members  are  elected  by  popular 
vote,  while  the  Senate  is  an  appointive 
rbody  selected  by  the  Crown.     Thus,  the 
[retention  of  office  by  any  Government  is 
entirely   dependent*  on   the   will    of   the 
majority  in  the  lower  house. 

The  present  Chamber  of  Deputies  con- 
sists of  three  groups,  neither  of  which 
constitutes  a  majority  separately?  while 
reciprocally  they  exclude  each  other. 
The  strongest  of  the  three  is  the  Con- 
stitutional group,  with  nearly  250  mem- 
bers, divided  into  various  factions  not 
always  in  general  accord;  the  second  is 
the  Socialist  group,  with  156  members, 
who,  though  differing  in  thought  upon 
many  subjects,  are  united  by  the  strict- 
est discipline  in  imitation  of  German 
Socialism,  of  which  the  Italian  species 
is  the  legitimate  offspring;  and  the 
third  is  the  Catholic  Party  of  100  mem- 
bers, which  has  for  the  first  time  made 
a  vigorous  entrance  into  politics.  With- 
out direct  reliance  on  the  Vatican,  it 
follows  the  inspiration  of  the  high  prel- 
ates, though  with  a  lofty  conception  of 
patriotic  duty  it  has  abandoned  one  of 
its  most  cherished  aspirations — that  of 
securing  temporal  power  for  the  Papacy, 
to  which  no  one  in  Italy  today  gives  a 
thought,  not  even  Pope  Benedict  XV. 
himself.  The  constitution  of  Parliament 
by  these  three  groups  is  the  great  dif- 
ficulty before  Italy,  now  that  the  Adri- 
atic question  has  become  a  matter  of 
secondary  importance,  and  that  the  labor 
agitation  is  diminishing  and  the  finan- 
cial problems  of  the  State  are  being 
solved  by  the  general  acceptance  of  new 
and  v€ry   onerous   taxation.     The   diffi- 


culties created  by  the  unequal  distribu- 
tion of  parties  in  the  Chamber  cannot  be 
removed  except  by  dissolution  of  Parlia- 
ment and  new  elections;  and  the  moment 
is  not  yet  opportune  for  the  adoption 
of  that  method  of  constitutional  pro- 
cedure. 

ITALIAN  POLITICAL  LEADERS 

At  the  present  time  of  universal 
neurasthenia,  the  usual  stimulant  of  elec- 
tions would  doubtless  fail  to  bring  about 
such  a  reorganization  of  parties  as 
would  provide  any  Government  with  a 
clear  majority  on  definite  party  lines. 
Two-thirds  of  the  Constitutionals  have 
generally  voted  with  the  two  Nitti  Min- 
istries, and  the  Catholics,  much  against 
their  will  (until  the  last  vote)  followed 
the  same  course,  some  of  them  probably 
acting  in  obedience  to  the  indications  of 
a  greater  power  whose  highest  interest 
is  the  maintenance  of  order.  This  small 
combination  majority  is  headed  by  a 
Constitutional  group  directed  by  An- 
tonio Salandra,  President  of  the  Council 
of  Ministers  which  declared  war  against 
Germany.  It  was  Salandra  who  deliv- 
ered from  the  Capitol  the  splendid  ora- 
tion universally  recognized  as  one  of  the 
finest  examples  of  wartime  oratory. 

It  was,  however,  largely  the  will  and 
audacity  of  Premier  Nitti  that  succeeded, 
for  one  year,  in  obtaining  the  support  of 
these  conflicting  factions,  to  whom, 
when  opposed  to  him,  he  seemed  to  say 
in  all  his  speeches,  "  Define  the  future 
policy  of  your  opposition  and  I  will  give 
you  power  with  the  greatest  joy." 
These  characteristics  of  Nitti  made  it 
exceedingly  difficult  for  any  other  lead- 
er to  assume  the  task  of  forming  a  new 
Cabinet.*  The  only  outstanding  figure 
who,  like  Nitti,  is  a  parliamentarian  as 
well  as  a  statesman,  was  Vittorio  Eman- 
uele    Orlando,    the   "  unsuccessful   nego- 

*The  King:  invited  Nitti  to  form  a  new 
Cabinet  on  May  17,  as  this  article  was  going 
to  press.— Editor. 


386 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


tiator  of  Paris,"  now  President  of  the 
Chamber.  Orlando  is  a  man  of  excep- 
tional intelligence  and  keen  perceptive 
power,  though  lacking  firmness  of  atti- 
tude and  the  necessary  force  to  carry  his 
rapidly  conceived  solutions  of  the  most 
difficult  problems  into  execution.  Other 
eligible  former  Presidents  of  the  Coun- 
cil were  too  tenacious  of  their  personal 
views  to  reconcile  all  parties  to  their 
policies,  and  for  this  reason  Giovanni 
Giolitti  and  Antonio  Salandra  did  not 
appear  best  fitted  to  direct  the  affairs 
of  the  nation  at  this  juncture. 

GIOLITTI  AND  SALANDRA 

Giolitti,  who  is  about  80  years  old,  is 
a  born  leader  of  men,  still  remarkably 
vigorous,  with  a  clear  grasp  of  affairs. 
He  has  been  President  of  the  Council 
of  Ministers  (Premier)  several  times, 
and  occasionally  for  long  periods,  being 
always  able,  in  former  times,  to  manipu- 
late popular  elections  to  suit  his  own 
views.  Personally  incorruptible,  he  has 
frequently  betrayed  an  aptitude  for  the 
questionable  employment  of  national  re- 
sources for  party  purposes ;  but  with  the 
changed  atmosphere  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  and  the  present  temper  of  the 
people,  a  repetition  of  such  practices 
would  be  unlikely  to  meet  with  success. 
Giolitti  was  so  decidedly  opposed  to  the 
war  that  on  many  occasions,  owing  to 
hostile  demonstrations  in  the  streets  and 
public  demands  for  his  head,  he  was 
prevented  from  going  to  Parliament, 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  if 
these  events  had  occurred  in  France  in- 
stead of  in  Italy,  he  would  have  had  to 
face  the  ordeal  to  which  Caillaux  was 
subjected  before  the  bar  of  justice. 

Salandra  is  a  Conservative  faithful  to 
parliamentary  law  and  traditions,  and 
might  find  support  in  the  Catholic 
Party;  but  its  members  are  so  opposed 
to  being  generally  regarded  as  conserva- 
tive, although  a  majority  of  them  in 
reality  are,  that  they  would  not  enter 
any  Cabinet  under  that  banner.  The 
Catholic  Party  in  Italy  presents  curious 
contrasts.  It  fights  against  Socialism 
on  its  own  ground,  yet  offers  agrarian 
and  industrial  reforms  that  would  be  ac- 
ceptable to  many  Socialists;  it  organizes 
labor  unions  in  just  the  same  way  as  the 


Socialist  Party,  and,  in  its  very  midst, 
there  are  to  be  found  those  who,  like 
Deputy  Miglioli,  accept  the  Soviet  rule. 

In  its  foreign  policy  the  Catholic 
Party  supports  the  views  of  Nitti,  being 
equally  opposed  to  those  of  the  anti- 
German  Salandra  and  the  decidedly  pro- 
German  Giolitti.  No  Government  that  is 
possible  could  secure  the  co-operation, 
in  internal  policies,  of  this  disciplined 
group  of  a  hundred  votes.  Primarily, 
the  Catholics  demand  the  Portfolio  of 
Public  Instruction,  with  the  obvious  pur- 
pose of  largely  restoring  the  hold  they 
had  for  centuries  on  education.  They 
also  ask  the  Government  to  bind  itself 
not  to  renew  the  proposal  to  adopt  the 
divorce  law,  which  nearly  went  through 
Parliament  successfully  a  few  years 
ago;  and  lastly,  through  a  sense  of  rival- 
ry, they  are  trying  to  destroy  the  politi- 
cal and  labor  organizations  of  the  So- 
cialists so  as  to  build  up  like  organiza- 
tions of  their  own. 

The  difficulty  of  governing  under  such 
conditions,  with  a  Chamber  composed  of 
so  many  antagonistic  elements,  would 
merely  be  increased  by  a  dissolution  of 
Parliament.  The  present  is  a  time  when 
statesmen  should  be  judged  less  by  what 
they  have  accomplished  than  by  the  dif- 
ficulties they  have  overcome. 

WHAT  NITTI  ACCOMPLISHED 
Nitti  has  been  invaluable  to  Italy 
during  the  past  year,  in  which  he  has 
had  almost  individual  control  of  the 
country.  He  has  avoided  bloodshed  of 
the  fiercest  kind  among  the  contending 
parties;  he  has  given  a  different  aspect 
to  the  Fiume  question,  eliminating  the 
morbid  and  sentimental  from  what 
should  be  the  purely  patriotic  view;  he 
has  dispelled  the  hatred  between  Ger- 
many and  Italy,  and,  by  extending  the 
hand  of  friendship  to  Austria,  has  also 
effected  a  reconciliation  with  that  coun- 
try as  a  result  of  the  recent  visit  of 
Chancellor  Renner  to  Rome,  which  has 
sealed  a  friendship  that  still  seems  in- 
credible. He  has  put  into  execution  a 
financial  policy  which  carries  its  severity 
to  the  brink  of  expropriation  without  a 
single  protest,  and  he  has  collected  20,- 
000,000,000  lire  in  subscriptions  to  the 
last  national  loan,  which  was  a  supreme 


AN  INSIDE  VIEW  OF  ITALY'S  AFFAIRS 


387 


effort,  looking  at  the  available  financial 
resources  of  Italy. 

The  achievement,  however,  which  most 
fully  revealed  his  power  and  influence 
was  the  change  he  created  in  foreign 
political  feeling  toward  Italy,  particu- 
larly in  British  and  French  opinion.  At 
the  time  of  his  rise  to  power  the  Anglo- 
French- American  "  combine  "  had  taken 
a  definite  line  of  action  in  the  Adriatic. 
His  diplomacy  separated  these  interests 
and  caused  England  and  France,  by  an 
unexpected  reconsideration  of  their  stand, 
to  line  up  in  favor  of  Italy,  much  to  the 
surprise  of  President  Wilson  as  ex- 
pressed in  his  last  note  on  the  subject. 
Nitti  had  never  before  been  active  in 
international  politics,  which,  among  the 
European  nations,  are  invariably  handled 
by  technical  experts;  but  caught  by  the 
tide  of  circumstances  he  was  forced  to 
take  a  prominent  place  in  world  affairs, 
which  has  resulted  in  an  increased  recog- 
nition both  at  home  and  abroad  of  his 
qualities  of  statesmanship. 

NITTI   ON    IMPERIALISM 

Nitti's  realistic  policy  springs  from 
the  purest  traditional  school  of  Italian 
politics,  while  his  optimism  is  shared  to- 
day by  a  majority  of  Italians.  What 
this  policy  and  optimism  signify  is  of 
such  wide  interest  that  I  took  advantage 
of  my  many  recent  meetings  with  him 
in  London  and  Rome  to  submit  a  num- 
ber of  arguments  and  questions  to  him 
in  order  to  gain,  at  first  hand,  some  very 
useful  information.  In  reply  to  my  re- 
.  mark  that  conquered  Germany,  like 
many  others  in  history,  was  conquering 
her  conquerors  and  inoculating  them 
with  those  very  principles  of  hegemony 
which  were  the  cause  of  her  downfall. 
Signer  Nitti  replied: 

It  is  impossible,  immediately  after  a 
war,  to  restrain  certain  ambitious  hopes, 
but  it  is  the  way  of  human  nature  to  give 
place  to  reason,  sometimes  spontaneously 
and  often  through  sheer  necessity.  For 
instance,  England,  who  comes  out  of  the 
heavy  conflict  most  powerful  of  all,  needs 
the  close  friendship  of  the  United  States, 
the  help  of  France,  the  economic  devel- 
opment of  Germany,  and  the  unwritten 
traditional  alliance  with  Italy.  The 
United  States  is  in  danger  of  an  economic 
catastrophe  if  it  does  not  safeguard  its 
chief  market,  Europe,  and  if  it  refuses  to 


assist  her  in  the  work  of  reconstruction. 
France  must  bring  about  comfortable  re- 
lations with  Germany  if  she  is  not  to  re- 
vive a  deadly  conflict  with  a  powerful 
neighbor.  Italy  must  see  to  it  that  the 
Mediterranean  shall  again  become  the 
economic  centre  of  the  world  if  she  wishes 
to  retain  her  ancient  grandeur ;  and  this 
cannot  be  secured  unless  through  peace 
with  Russia,  through  close  economic  rela- 
tions with  England  and  the  United  States, 
and  through  intimate  co-operation  with 
France  and  Jugoslavia. 

Imperialism  is  not  a  social  tendency ;  it 
is  rather  a  disease,  a  morbid  exaggeration 
of  patriotism  and  a  form  of  concentrated 
blind  ambition.  For  all  these  reasons  I 
refuse  to  fight  for  territorial  compensa- 
tions in  the  East ;  and  that  is  why  I  am 
opposed  to  the  dismemberment  of  age-old 
empires  whose  difficulty  lies  not  in  dis- 
tribution but  in  substitution.  Force, 
which  is  still  the  guiding  rule  for  securing 
the  people's  rights,  may  cause  destruc- 
tion, especially  after  a  victorious  war; 
but  force  cannot  create  new  systems  and 
regimes  based  on  foreign  ambitions,  or 
even  on  ethical  principles  which  are  not 
in  harmony  with  existing  conditions. 

These  declarations  expresss  briefly 
the  three  important  points  which  Nitti 
maintained  at  the  San  Remo  confer- 
ence: (1)  Peace  with  Germany  sincere- 
ly and  morally  conceived,  so  that  the 
nation  may  resume  its  place  as  an  ef- 
ficient factor  in  the  world's  progress; 
(2)  peace  with  Russia  in  order  that  she 
may  be  freed  from  the  fear  and  danger 
of  foreign  attack  on  her  institutions  and 
wealth,  and  may  give  herself  unrestrain- 
edly to  the  re-establishment  of  internal 
order;  (3)  the  maintenance  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire,  if  possible,  exacting  from 
its  authorities  a  guarantee  of  freedom 
of  commerce  and  of  respect  toward  the 
nations  who  form  it.  This  attitude  con- 
siderably influenced  the  other  Premiers 
at  the  conference,  notably  Lloyd  George. 

ITALY'S  INTERNAL  PROBLEMS 

Night  after  night,  in  the  small  salon 
of  his  Roman  house,  usually  after  fif- 
teen hours  of  arduous  work,  Nitti  dis- 
cussed with  me  the  most  important  of 
Italy's  domestic  problems.  On  one  of 
these  occasions  he  said: 

We  have  three  political  factors  to  con- 
sider— Nationalism,  Socialism  and  Cathol- 
icism. Nationalism  is  a  fictitious  move- 
ment which  will  disappear  the  day  the 
masses  understand  that,  the  war  being 
won,  we  have  secured  our  natural  geo- 
graphical   limits,    or,    at   least,    what   has 


388 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


been  the  legitimate  aspiration  of  many 
generations  in  Italy.  Fiume  is  the  last 
page  of  our  patriotic  history,  which,  if 
we  are  patient  enough,  we  shall  inscribe 
with  the  same  pride  as  all  the  rest. 

Socialism  will  not  constitute  a  menace. 
Most  of  those  who  profess  it  are  states- 
men, or,  rather,  men  of  practical  possibil- 
ities, who  will  before  long  separate  from 
those  agitators  who  have  no  practical  end 
in  view,  while  the  latter  will  stand  dis- 
credited in  the  eyes  of  the  Italian  public, 
which  is  supremely  realistic. 

Political  Catholicism  is  a  force  of  social 
conservation  which  is  especially  useful  in 
Italy  at  this  time.  The  question  of  tem- 
poral power  exists  only  in  form,  and  even 
in  this  respect  will  soon  disappear.  There 
will  be  no  need  for  a  great  declaration, 
nor  for  pompous  renunciation,  nor  for  re- 
'C'isio.ns  of  the  past;  it  will  fall  like  all 
decaying  things.  One  fine  day,  without 
knowing  how,  we  shall  come  to  an  under^- 
standing.  Cardinals  will  enter  our  Sen- 
ate, the  Pope  will  send  us  a  Nuncio,  and 
we  will  reply  by  sending  an  Ambassador 
to  the  Pope.  To  the  head  of  this  great 
organization,  which  is  the  Catholic 
Church,  we  give  all  due  respect  and  ex- 
tend to  him  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
to  which  history  entitles  him;  and  with 
the  fulfillment  of  that  duty  he  will  have 
no  desire  to  dispute  with  us  the  right  of 
having  our  own  country.  The  Cavournian 
formula  of  a  Free  Church  in  a  Free 
State  will  be  adopted  for  mutual  conven- 
ience. 

STRIKES  NOT  REVOLUTIONARY 

At  a  distance  the  Italian  strikes  would 
appear  to  be  revolutionary  movements,  a 
circumstance  due  to  their  theatrical 
demonstration  and  to  the  nervous  char- 
acter of  the  Italian  temperament.  I  was 
in  the  City  of  Milan  at  the  time  of  the 
recent  general  strike,  which  lasted  a  few 
days,  and  I  was  greatly  surprised  to 
find  that  it  was  described  in  the  press 
of  England,  France  and  the  United 
States  as  "  a  revolution  in  Milan."  As 
a  matter  of  fact  there  were  imposing 
processions  in  the  streets,  with  cries  and 
revolutionary  songs  and  red  flags;  but 
it  was  a  smiling  public  and  smiling  strik- 
ers who  greeted  each  other,  as  if  it  had 
been  a  day  of  celebration  rather  than  a 
day  of  terror.  Only  in  the  suburbs  and 
in  the  Piazza  del  Duomo  one  night  did, 
any  fighting  take  place,  when  two  or 
three  among  the  rough  element  were 
wounded. 

Strikes  have  not  been  more  frequent 
in  latter  years  in  Italy  than  they  are  in 


France  and  the  United  States.  This  is 
shown  by  the  increase  in  industrial  pro- 
duction during  January  and  February 
last,  when  the  difference  between  im- 
ports and  exports  amounted  to  1,000,- 
000,000  lire,  or  less  than  one-half  of  the 
inequality  for  the  entire  year  of  1919 
and  less  than  one-quarter  of  the  differ- 
ence in  the  months  of  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, 1918.  Still,  labor  agitation  in 
Italy  has  assumed  a  more  political  tend- 
ency than  in  other  countries.  The  So- 
cialist Party  and  the  labor  unions  are 
controlled  by  the  same  groups  and  re- 
spond to  the  same  influences  in  a  more 
accentuated  form  than  before  the  war, 
and  the  Socialist  Party  has  taken  ad- 
vantage of  this  coalition  to  extend  its 
power  in  the  country  and  in  Parlia- 
ment. 

ITALY'S  CHIEF  GRIEVANCE 

The  reason  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in 
a  firm  belief  among  all  Italian  Social- 
ists that  the  benefits  received  by  Italy 
from  the  war  have  been  wholly  dispro- 
portionate to  the  sacrifices  resulting 
from  the  tremendous  efforts  she  put 
forth.    Their  argument  is  this: 

We    have    suffered    more    and    given 
more  of  our  wealth  than  any  other  nation. 
We  had  to  face  alone  an  Austrian  army 
which  was  hardly  less  than  one-third  of 
the    entire    Austro-German    armies ;    and 
while  England  has  secured  practically  all 
the   German   colonies,    France   the   impor- 
tant   provinces    of    Alsace    and    Lorraine, 
with  the  Sarre  to  exploit,  in  addition  to  a 
big  share  of  the  German  indemnity ;  and 
while  the  United  States,   as  a  happy  out- 
come of  the  conflict,  has  actually  doubled 
its  national  wealth,  we,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  received,  with  the  addition  of  only  a 
few    square    kilometers,    the    actual    terri- 
tory offered  to  us  by  Austria  as  a  con- 
cession  for   not  entering  the  war. 
This   erroneous  belief  that   Italy  has 
been  "  left "  is  the  source  of  all  the  dif- 
ficulty, and  has  derived  added  strength 
from   the   arguments  of  those  who  had 
opposed  the  war,  and  who  now  claim  to 
have  had  clear  vision  in  being  against 
Italy's  participation ;  also  from  the  argu- 
ments of  the  Nationalists — who  favored 
the     war — because     their     imperialistic 
aspirations  have  not  been  satisfied.    The 
feeling  against  war  since  the  Paris  Con- 
ference has  become  so  intense  that  army 
officers  who  had  always  enjoyed  popu- 


^ 


AN  INSIDE  VIEW  OF  ITALY'S  AFFAIRS 


389 


larity,  even  among  the  lower  classes,  are 
now  obliged  to  avoid  populous  districts. 
Salandra  himself  was  forced  to  cease 
addressing  his  constituents,  owing  to  the 
cries  of  "  Down  with  those  who  caused 
(the  war!  "  which,  lately,  have  invariably 
Igreeted  his  appearance  before  the  elec- 
tors of  his  own  district. 

THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY 

The    masses,    overwrought    by    three 
lyears    of     suffering,    through    hunger, 
'through   the   loss    of   500,000    dead   and 
il,500,000    wounded,    finding    themselves 
Ewith  what  they  consider  to  be  a  fruitless 
[victory,  have  given  themselves  over  to 
the  Socialist  agitators  more  as  an  ex- 
)ression  of  protest  than  from  actual  con- 
dction.     To  this  state  of  mind,  coinci- 
'dent  with  the  extension  of  universal  suf- 
frage   and    proportional    representation 
dating  only  a  few  years  back,  may  be  at- 
tributed the  large  vote  given  to  Socialist 
candidates  for  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
at  the  last  elections  in  Italy. 

This  situation,  however,  is  ephemeral, 
and  that  impression  is  felt  by  the  new 
adherents  of  the  party  and  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  party  itself.  In  fact,  the  So- 
cialist Party  is  more  held  together  by 
energetic  disciplinary  measures  than  by 
the  identity  of  the  opinions  of  its  mem- 
bers. A  small  group  recently  defeated 
in  the  Socialist  Congress  at  Bologna 
advocates  revolution;  a  larger  group 
seeks  to  conquer  the  public  authorities 
by  means  of  parliamentary  action;  and 
a  third,  the  intellectuals  of  the  party, 
aim  at  co-operation  with  the  bourgeoisie 
for  the  good  of  the  proletariat.  TBhe 
latter  group  comprises  many  distin- 
guished men,  including  such  writers  as 
Deputies  Turati,  Treves  and  Modigliani. 
The  cohesion  of  these  conflicting  sec- 
tions is  naturally  weak  and  has  often 
been  near  collapse;  but  with  the  elec- 
toral victory  of  the  past  six  months, 
those  not  entirely  in  accord  with  the 
majority  do  not  appear  inclined  at  the 
moment  to  desert.  There  is  little  doubt, 
however,  that  in  the  not  distant  future 
the  "  co-operationists  "  will  take  a  def- 
inite step  toward  power,  putting  back 
the  irreconcilable  Socialists  in  Parlia- 
ment into  an  insignificant  minority. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 

The  Italian  Government  has  sought  in 
every  way  to  stablize  its  finances,  so 
greatly  disorganized  by  the  war;  and  this 
is  being  gradually  accomplished  by 
methods  based  on  heavy  encroachment  on 
the  pockets  of  the  people.  Yet  the 
Senate,  which  is  representative  of  the 
wealthy  classes,  has  criticised  the  fiscal 
measures  introduced  as  being  too  mild 
in  the  degree  of  taxation  provided  for. 
The  new  laws  create  a  tax  of  from  1  per 
cent,  to  25  per  cent,  on  capital,  according 
to  amount;  normal  and  super-taxes  on 
income  ranging  from  1  to  30  per  cent.; 
and  a  tax  on  wealth  derived  from  war 
profits,  which  in  some  cases  reaches  80 
per  cent.,  without  giving  immunity  from 
the  other  forms  of  taxation  mentioned 
above. 

With  the  revenue  to  be  obtained  from 
these  additions  to  existing  taxes  the  Gov- 
ernment expects  not  only  to  balance  its 
budgets,  but  also  to  provide  for  other 
responsibilities  imposed  on  the  country 
by  the  war.  Neither  the  industrials  nor 
the  agriculturists  appear  to  be  alarmed 
at  these  measures.  The  latter  have 
benefited  greatly  through  the  war,  be- 
cause, being  now  free  from  the  competi- 
tion of  Southern  Russia  and  Asia  Minor, 
they  are  selling  their  own  products  at 
very  high  prices  in  spite  of  the  restric- 
tive legislation  enacted  to  prevent  profi- 
teering. '  In  some  regions  land  has  in- 
creased four-fold  in  value,  and  this  has 
caused  much  Italian  emigration  to  coun- 
tries where  heavy  investments  in  land 
have  been  made  on  a  basis  of  cost  suit- 
able to  the  capital  possessed. 

The  industrials,  through  immense  prof- 
its derived  from  the  war,  have  largely 
increased  their  plants  and  output,  owing 
in  many  cases  to  a  Government  decree 
prohibiting  stock  companies  from  dis- 
tributing annual  dividends  .  exceeding  8 
per  cent.  Largely  as  a  result  of  this, 
factories  which  formerly  employed  100 
hands  now  employ  thousands.  The  tri- 
angle, Turin-Milan-Genoa,  in  horse  pow- 
er capacity  and  number  of  workmen  em- 
ployed, constitutes  one  of  the  principal 
industrial  centres  of  the  world.  During 
the  war  certain  mines  at  Val  d'Aosta, 
previously   thought  to   be   unproductive. 


390 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


have  been  opened  up  with  astonishing 
results;  in  the  island  of  Sardinia  other 
unworked  mines  are  being  successfully 
developed;  and  since  the  signing  of  the 
armistice  some  Italian  concerns  have  ac- 
quired the  so-called  "  Mountain  of  Iron  " 
in  Austria,  where  they  have  found  im- 
portant deposits  of  mercury.  On  this 
subject  Deputy  Beneduce,  until  recently 
Director  of  the  Institute  of  National  Se- 
curity, said  to  me:  "  If  we  can  secure 
enough  coal  we  will  be  able  to  triple  our 
industrial  production  on  our  present  or- 
ganization." 

The  great  difficulty  of  the  moment  in 
Italy  is  the  scarcity  of  coal.  I  say  "  for 
the  moment "  because  the  general  tend- 
ency is  to  bring  into  operation  the  pow- 
er to  be  obtained  from  the  abundant 
waterfalls  in  the  zones  of  the  Alps  and 


Apennines.  If  adequate  resources  were 
applied  to  the  exploitation  of  these  great 
sources  of  water  power  for  industrial 
purposes,  Italy  would  become  a  serious 
competitor  in  that  field,  even  of  the 
countries  best  organized  industrially,  by 
reason  of  her  possession  of  ample  raw 
material  and  a  plentiful  supply  of  labor. 
As  in  all  other  countries  today,  there  is 
much  restlessness  and  much  hopeful  am- 
bition in  Italy — restlessness  as  to  the  im- 
mediate course  of  events  and  an  ambi- 
tion to  increase  the  wealth  and  happi- 
ness of  the  country  and  its  people.  If 
the  political  and  social  problems  facing 
Italy  are  dealt  with  on  the  lines  of  the 
policy  of  pacification  initiated  by  Nitti, 
the  restlessness  will  soon  disappear  and 
the  national  ambitions  will  be  speedily 
realized. 


American  Developments 

Efforts  to  Diminish  Industrial  Unrest  and  to  Decrease  th. 

Cost  of  Living 

[Period  Ended  May  15,  1920] 


SURMOUNTING  the  inroads  of  de- 
mobilization, the  recruiting  cam- 
paign begun  early  in  1920  has,  ac- 
cording to  the  latest  War  Depart- 
ment figures,  brought  the  total  strength 
of  the  regular  army  to  within  35,000  of 
the  254,000  personnel  authorized  under 
the  National  Defense  act  of  1916.  Most 
of  these  enlistments,  recruiting  officers 
report,  are  by  men  anxious  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  army's  vocational  educa- 
tion, an  "  earn  while  you  learn "  sys- 
tem, to  fit  a  soldier  for  a  trade  by  the 
time  he  leaves  the  army.  Last  year 
75,000  men  were  accepted  who  never  be- 
fore had  been  in  the  service.  Nearly 
half  of  the  enlisted  men  are  going  to 
school,  and  the  army  is  becoming  not  a 
"  university  in  khaki,"  but  a  vast  mili- 
tary trade  school. 

The  House  and  Senate  conferees  on 
the  Army  and  Navy  Pay  bill  reached  an 
agreement  on  April  24  under  which  in- 
creased pay  will  be  given  to  all  enlisted 
men  in  both  services,  as  well  as  all  com- 
missioned  officers   up   to   and   including 


the  rank  of  Colonel  in  the  army  and  Cap- 
tain in  the  navy.  The  conferees  agreed 
tentatively  on  a  25  per  cent,  increase  in 
pay  for  Ensigns  and  Second  Lieutenants, 
with  a  30  per  cent,  advance  for  those 
above  those  ranks  up  to  Lieutenant  Com- 
mander in  the  navy  and  Major  in  the 
Army,  with  15  per  cent,  above  those 
ranks. 

Under  the  agreement  enlisted  men  in 
the  navy  will  receive  the  average  in- 
crease of  39  per  cent,  provided  in  the 
House  bill,  while  enlisted  men  in  the 
army  will  receive  the  average  of  20  per 
cent,  proposed  in  the  Senate  measure. 

The  increases  agreed  upon  affect  be- 
sides the  army  and  navy,  the  marine 
corps,  coast  guard,  coast  and  geodetic 
survey,  public  health  service  and  army 
and  navy  nurses. 

FRAUDULENT  CONTRACTS 

Attorney  General  Palmer  announced 
on  April  23  that  investigation  by  his  de- 
partment of  alleged  fraudulent  war  con- 
tracts had  uncovered  illegal  transactions 


AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENTS 


391 


involving  millions  of  dollars.  Millions 
will  be  saved  for  the  Government 
through  civil  and  criminal  prosecutions 
now  completed  or  under  way,  the  Attor- 
ney General  declared.    He  added: 

Questionable  vouchers  unearthed  in  one 
class  of  contracts  alone  have  resulted  in 
withholding  payments  by  the  Government 
amounting  to  approximately  $4,420,000. 
These  contracts,  under  investigation  for 
months,   affect  a  very  restricted  area. 

Reports  indicate  that,  as  a  result  of  in- 
dictments already  returned  against  fif- 
teen defendants  in  the  Northern  Pacific 
division  at  Seattle,  about  .$150,000  will  be 
recovered  from  shipbuilders  and  former 
representatives  of  the  United  States  Ship- 
ping Board,  Emergency  Fleet  Corpora- 
tion. Similar  cases  in  the  same  district, 
involving  approximately  $265,000,  will  be 
presented  to  Grand  Juries. 

The  Bureau  of  Investigation  now  has 
before  it  fifteen  fraud  cases.  All  of  these 
involve  large  claims.  One  which  is  being 
prepared  for  presentation  to  a  Grand  Jury 
in  Ohio  involves  $325,000. 

NAVAL  APPROPRIATIONS 

The  Senate  on  April  27  virtually  com- 
pleted consideration  of  the  annual  naval 
appropriation  bill.  Within  eighty  min- 
utes and  practically  without  debate  ap- 
propriations of  $464,891,000  were  ap- 
proved, as  compared  to  $424,500,000  au- 
thorized by  the  House.  There  was  no 
discussion  of  the  building  program,  for 
which  appropriations  were  increased 
from  $48,000,000  to  $52,000,000  in  order 
to  expedite  completion  of  the  three-year 
program  authorized  in  1916. 

As  fast  as  the  Reading  Clerk  could 
read  the  bill  the  Senate  voted  its  ap- 
proval of  items  carrying  millions  of 
dollars,  including  an  increase  from  the 
House  appropriation  of  $15,876,000  to 
$25,000,000  for  naval  aviation,  an  initial 
appropriation  of  $1,000,000  for  a  new- 
naval  base  on  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  in- 
creased appropriations  for  a  number  of 
training  stations.  An  increase  of  naval 
reserve  force  from  50,000  to  500,000  was 
approved. 

A  system  of  voluntary  naval  training 
for  civilians  was  adopted,  being  much 
like  the  voluntary  training  provision  of 
the  Army  Reorganization  bill.  It  au- 
thorizes the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to 
establish  Summer  schools  where  youths 
of  16  to  20  years  may  be  trained.    After 


this  they  are  enrolled  as  naval  reserves. 
Senator  Swanson  said  it  had  been  esti- 
mated by  the  Navy  Department  that 
5,000  young  men  could  be  trained  yearly. 

New  items  for  the  Pacific  Coast  added 
by  the  Senate  included  $1,050,000  for  a 
fuel  oil  storage  plant  at  Puget  Sound, 
and  $1,000,000  for  a  similar  plant  at 
Pearl  Harbor;  $500,000  for  a  submarine 
base  at  San  Pedro,  and  $100,000  for  a 
submarine  and  destroyer  base  at  Port 
Angeles,  Wash. 

An  amendment  by  Senator  Calder,  Re- 
publican, of  New  York,  was  adopted  giv- 
ing six  months'  pay  to  widows,  children 
or  other  dependents  of  officers  and  men 
in  the  navy  or  Marine  Corps  dying  from 
wounds  or  disease. 

SIMS-DANIELS    CONTROVERSY 

Secretary  Daniels,  testifying  before 
the  Senate  Naval  Investigating  Commit- 
tee May  14,  severely  criticised  Vice  Ad- 
miral Sims.  Admiralty  reports  and 
awards  of  credit  to  thd  Americans  were 
accepted  by  Admiral  Sims,  Mr.  Daniels 
said,  although  the  British  demanded 
absolutely  conclusive  proof  before  giving 
credit  for  the  sinking  of  a  submarine  in 
the  case  of  an  American  vessel,  while 
using  a  less  rigorous  standard  in  the 
case  of  British  ships. 

Out  of  256  attacks  on  submarines  by 
American  vessels,  the  British  gave  the 
United  States  forces  credit  for  but  twen- 
ty-four successful  attacks,  most  of  which 
were  listed  as  "  possibly  slightly  dam- 
aged," said  Secretary  Daniels. 

That  prisoners  or  wreckage  were  not 
absolutely  required  before  a  vessel  was 
credited  with  sinking  a  submarine  is 
shown,  said  the  Secretary,  by  Ithe  re- 
ports from  the  British  Admiralty  rec- 
ords of  cases  classed  as  known  sunk. 

Proof  of  the  Navy  Department's  ef- 
forts to  prepare  for  war,  Mr.  Daniels 
declared,  was  contained  in  the  recom- 
mendations for  appropriations  from  1913 
to  1917,  and  the  organization  in  1915  of 
the  Naval  Consulting  Board  with  Thomas 
A.  Edison  at  its  head. 

"  The  charge  of  the  prolongation  of 
the  war,"  said  the  Secretary,  "  was  made 
with  reckless  disregard  of  the  facts  and 
the  reasoning  and  statistics  adduced  in 
its  support  are  those  which  one  might 


392 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


expect  to  find  in  the  fantastic  tales  of  a 
Baron  Munchausen." 

Admiral  Sims  based  his  estimate  of  an 
unnecessary  loss  of  500,000  lives  on  an 
average  loss  for  the  Allies  of  3,000  men 
a  day,  Mr.  Daniels  said. 

This  charge  was  further  based  on  the 
assumption  that  had  there  been  a  million 
American  soldiers  in  France  by  March, 
1918,  the  war  would  have  ended  four 
months  sooner,  Mr.  Daniels  said,  and 
Admiral  Sims  completed  the  reasoning 
by  assuming  that  the  tonnage  losses  of 
1917  prevented  carrying  that  number  of 
troops  overseas  by  that  date  and  that 
failure  of  the  American  Navy  to  co-op- 
erate heartily  in  the  first  months  of  the 
war  resulted  in  the  heavy  tonnace  losses. 
Mr.  Daniels  commented  on  this  as  fol- 
lows: 

It  is  not  necessary  to  wander  far  into 
the  realm  of  statistics  or  technical  ques- 
tions t(y  show  the  absolute  fallacy  of  Ad- 
miral Sims' s  claim.  The  net  tonnage 
available  for  the  Allies  May  1,  1917,  was 
27,000,000  tons.  It  is  a  matter  of  com- 
mon knowledg^e  that  on  May  1,  1918,  the 
tonnage  was  less  than  on  May  1,  1917. 
Testimony  given  by  Admiral  Sims  would 
indicate  that  the  net  loss  during  the  year 
was  about  2,000,000  tons.  This  is  probably 
a  sufficiently  close  estimate  for  prac- 
tical purposes.  Now,  then,  owing  to  the 
tonnage  losses  of  1917  and  the  early  part 
of  1918,  the  net  tonnage  available  to  the 
Allies  had  been  reduced  from  27.000,000 
on  May  1,  1917,  to  25,000,000  on  May  1. 
1918.  Yet  it  is  admitted  by  Admiral  Sims 
that  in  the  Spring  of  1918  American  troops 
were  transported  to  France  at  the  rate  of 
nearly  300,000  a  month,  or  more  than  ten 
times  the  rate  to  which  he  said  trans- 
portation had  been  restricted  in  1917  be- 
cause of  the  destruction  of  tonnage. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  American  Army 
materially  shortened  the  war.  It  got  to 
the  front  as  soon  as  it  was  humanly  pos- 
sible, not  by  a  chance,  but  as  a  result  of 
careful  plans  involving  complete  co-oper- 
ation between  the  army  and  navy,  care- 
fully carried  out. 

ADMIRAL  BENSON'S  TESTIMONY 

Admiral  W.  S.  Benson  on  May  8  testi- 
fied before  the  Senate  Naval  Committee 
that  Admiral  Sims's  charge  that  navy 
delays  had  caused  the  loss  of  500,000 
lives  was  an  outrage  and  injustice  to  the 
navy.     Admiral  Benson  said: 

The  safe  transport  of  the  American 
Army  to  France  and  back  was  the  most 
wonderful   feat   the  world   had    ever   seen 


or  dreamed  of,   and  it  shortened   the  war 
very    materially. 

Admiral  Benson  declared  that  never  in 
the  history  of  the  world  had  a  navy  been 
expanded  as  rapidly  as  was  that  of  the 
United  States  after  this  country  entered 
the  war.  The  expansion,  both  in  ma- 
terial and  personnel,  handicapped  the 
department  in  carrying  out  its  plans 
at  first,  he  said,  but  the  close  of  the  war 
found  the  American  Navy  with  more 
than  500,000  officers  and  men,  more  even 
than  there  were  in  the  British  Navy. 

"  Ours  was  the  greatest  navy  power 
the  world  has  ever  seen,"  the  Admiral 
declared. 

Admiral  Benson  said  he  couid  not  re- 
call whether  in  his  final  instructions  to 
Admiral  Sims  he  said  "  Don't  let  the 
British  pull  the  wool  over  your  eyes;  we 
would  as  soon  fight  them  as  the  Ger- 
mans," but  added  that  if  he  used 
such  language  it  was  for  the  purpose  of 
impressing  upon  the  Admiral  that  the 
United  States  was  still  a  neutral  at  that 
time.  He  explained  that  in  this,  as  well 
as  in  another  warning,  he  was  prompted 
by  what  he  described  as  a  feeling  grow- 
ing in  the  United  States  that  Admiral 
Sims  was  permitting  his  friendship  for 
the  British  to  influence  him  unduly  in 
using  American  destroyers  to  protect 
British  shipping. 

PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    ADVICE 

Something  of  a  sensation  was  pro- 
duced at  the  inquiry  by  Secretary 
Daniels's  revelation  of  a  speech  made  by 
President  Wilson  to  American  naval  of- 
ficers in  August,  1917.  The  most  strik- 
ing part  of  the  address  was  as  follows: 
We  have  got  to  throw  tradition  to  the 
wind. 

Now,  as  I  have  said,  gentlemen,  I  take 
it  for  granted  that  nothing  that  I  say 
here  will  be  repeated,  and  therefore  I  am 
going  to  say  this:  Every  time  we  have 
suggested  anything  to  the  British  Ad- 
miralty the  reply  has  come  back  that  vir- 
tually amounted  to  this,  that  it  had  never 
fceen  done  that  way,  and  I  felt  like  say- 
ing: "  Well,  nothing  was  ever  done  so 
systematically  as  nothing  is  being  done 
now."  Therefore,  I  should  like  to  see 
something  unusual  happen,  something 
that  was  never  done  before;  and  inas- 
much as  the  things  that  are  being  done 
to  you  were  never  done  before,  don't  you 
think  it  is  worth  while  to  try  something 


393 


that  was  never  done  before  against  those 
who  are  doing  them  to  you? 

There  is  no  other  way  to  win,  and  the 
whole  principle  of  this  war  is  the  kind  of 
thing  that  ought  to  hearten  and  stimu- 
late America.  America  has  always  boast- 
ed that  ^he  could  find  men  to  do  anything. 
She  is  the  prize  amateur  nation  of  the 
world.  Germany  is  the  prize  professional 
nation  of  the  world. 

Now,  when  it  comes  to  doing  new  things 
and  doing  them  well,  I  will  back  the  ama- 
teur against  the  professional  every  time, 
because  the  professional  does  it  out  of  the 
book  and  the  amateur  does  it  with  his 
eyes  open  upon  a  new  world  and  with  a 
new  -set  of  circumstances.  He  knows  so 
little  about  it  that  he  is  fool  enough  to 
try  the  right  thing.  The  men  that  do  not 
know  the  danger  are  the  rashest  men,  and 
I  have  several  times  ventured  to  make 
this  suggestion  to  the  men  about  me  in 
both  arms  of  the  service. 

Please  leave  out  of  your  vocabulary  al- 
together the  word  "  prudent."  Do  not 
stop  to  think  about  what  is  prudent  for 
a  moment.  Do  the  thing  that  is  audacious 
to  the  utmost  point  of  risk  and  daring, 
because  that  is  exactly  the  thing  that 
the  other  side  does  not  understand,  and 
you  will  win  by  the  audacity  of  method 
when  you  cannot  win  by  circumspection 
and  prudence. 

I  think  that  there  are  willing  ears  to 
hear  this  In  the  American  Navy  and  the 
American  Army,  because  that  is  the  kind 
of  folks  we  are.  We  get  tired  of  the  old 
ways  and  covet  the  new  ones. 

ATLANTIC  FLEETS  RETURN 
The  great  Atlantic  Fleet  returned  to 
home  waters  on  May  1  after  three 
months'  battle  practice  and  manoeuvres 
at  Guantanamo  Bay,  Cuba,  and  met  with 
an  enthusiastic  reception  as  it  entered 
New  York  Harbor. 

Admiral  Wilson  said  that  in  his  public 
statement  he  wished  to  stick  closely  to 
the  facts  of  the  Winter  training  and  not 
to  mix  other  questions.  He  prepared  in 
advance  the  statement  given  in  part  be- 
low: 

The  Atlantic  Fleet  left  the  southern 
drill  grounds,  off  the  Virginia  Capes,  on 
Jan.  8  for  the  usual  Winter  exercises.  A 
carefully  planned  schedule  had  been 
evolved  by  the  Commander  in  Chief. 

The  fleet,  which  has  been  exercising  this 
Winter  in  accordance  with  the  schedule, 
consisted  of  battleships,  destroyers,  sub- 
marines, the  air  detachment  and  the  train 
—the  train  being  the  group  of  supply 
ships,  repair  ships,  fuel  .ships  and  tugs. 

Seven  battleships  sailed  with  the  fleet 
and  were  joined  by  the  eighth,  the  North 
Dak.ota,  at  Bridgetown,  Barbados,  the 
North   Dakota   having   been    in    European 


waters  for  a  cruise  after  taking  abroad 
the  body  of  the  late  Signor  Cellere,  the 
Italian  Ambassador  to  the  United  States. 
The  number  of  destroyers  with  the  fleet 
increased  during  the  Winter,  as  new  boats 
were  built,  until  there  were  thirty-three. 

The  work  accomplished  by  the  fleet  con- 
sisted, briefly,  in  training  the  new  reser- 
vation in  the  centre  of  the  Winter  drill 
grounds  of  the  Atlantic  Fleet.  In  addi- 
tion to  facilities  provided  here  for  the 
strictly  professional  side  of  naval  work 
there  is  here  one  of  the  largest  athletic 
fields,  and  its  facilities  are  enjoyed  to  the 
full  by  the  personnel  of  the  fleet.  The 
final  boxing  and  wrestling  contests  for 
the  championship  of  the  fleet  were  held 
here  on  the  night  of  April  23. 

In  addition  to  visiting  the  British  West 
Indies,  about  ten  days  were  spent  in  the 
Panama  Canal  Zone.  Here  the  authori- 
ties placed  a  daily  train  at  the  service  of 
the  fleet,  and  trips  were  made  along  the 
route  of  the  canal  to  Panama  City. 

RAILROADS  ASK  AID 

Increased  freight  rates  that  will  yield 
an  additional  revenue  of  $1,017,000,000 
were  asked  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  on  May  4.  Daniel  Willard, 
President  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  be- 
gan the  presentation  of  the  railroad 
argument,  telling  the  commission  that 
the  Eastern  group  of  roads  needed  $544,- 
000,000  additional  revenue  to  restore  the 
relation  of  revenues  to  expenses  and  to 
adjust  their  income  to  6  per  cent. 

Railroads  in  Eastern  territory  esti- 
mate the  need  of  an  increase  in  all  rev- 
enue of  21.1  per  cent,  or  50.4  per  cent, 
in  freight  rates.  Southern  railroads  pro- 
pose to  advance  freight  rates  by  30.9  per 
cent,  to  provide  20.7  per  cent,  larger  rev- 
enues. The  needed  freight  advance  in 
the  West  is  put  at  23.9  per  cent,  to  in- 
crease all  revenues  by  17  per  cent.  The 
greater  needed  advances  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, it  is  stated,  are  largely  due  to 
the  standardization  of  railroad  wages 
and  working  conditions  effected  during 
the  war. 

Tables  submitted  by  the  carriers 
showed  that  their  net  income  in  1916 
was  $1,056,000,000  and  thajt  in  1919  it 
fell  to  $510,000,000,  notwithstanding?  an 
increased  investment  in  these  three 
years  of  more  than  $2,000,000,000.  But, 
the  carriers  point  out,  if  the  present 
level  of  costs  had  been  in  operation 
throughout  1919,  the  year's  net  would 
have  been  only  $220,000,000,  only  a  little 


394 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


more  than  1  per  cent,  on  their  property 
investment  of  $20,000,000,000. 

FREIGHT  CONGESTION 

It  was  stated  in  Washington  on  May 
12  that  the  freight  situation  was  ex- 
tremely grave.  Appeals  for  relief  pour- 
ing into  Washington  to  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  the  Railroad  Ad- 
ministration and  to  Congress  pictured 
the  railroad  galteways  as  choked  with 
thousands  of  loaded  freight  cars  unahle 
to  move  because  of  shortage  of  men  and 
motive  power. 

Although  the  situation  had  been  show- 
ing local  effects  for  some  weeks  past, 
it  was  now  being  shown  in  its  nation- 
wide aspects,  and  the  appeals  for  relief 
coming  to  Washington  contained  predic- 
tions that  unless  the  jam  were  broken  it 
would  be  reflected  more  than  ever  in 
decreased  production,  slowing  down  of 
industry  and  probably  a  tremendous  la- 
bor upset. 

RESIGNATION  OF  MR.  HINES 

Walker  D.  Hines,  Director  General  of 
Eailroads,  it  was  announced  on  April  24, 
had  resigned,  and  his  resignation  had 
been  accepted  by  President  Wilson,  to 
become  effective  May  15.  Mr.  Hines 
had  served  with  the  Railroad  Adminis- 
,  tration  since  its  creation  in  December, 
1917,  when  the  railroads  of  the  country 
were  taken  over.  He  was  appointed  then 
as  Assistant  Director  General,  and  when 
Secretary  McAdoo  retired  to  private  life 
on  Jan.  11,  1919,  Mr.  Hines  was  made 
Director  General. 

In  accepting  Mr.  Hines's  resignation 
the  President  wrote  that  he  could  not  let 
the  Director  General  retire  without  tell- 
ing him  how  he  had  "  personally  valued 
and  admired  the  quite  unusual  services 
you  have  rendered  the  Government  and 
the  country." 

WAR  ON  PROFITEERING 

Profiteers  were  denounced  in  the  Sen- 
ate April  24  by  Senator  Capper,  Repub- 
lican, of  Kansas,  who  presented  statistics 
which  he  said  showed  that  the  earnings 
of  many  American  corporations  repre- 
sented profiteering,  "  open,  scandalous, 
and  shameless."  He  attacked  the  Depart- 
ment   of    Justice's    cheaper    meat    cam- 


paign, and  said  increased  prices  for 
sugar  were* "  the  most  brazen  challenge 
we  have  had  in  this  saturnalia  of 
greed." 

Senator  Lenroot*  Republican,  of  Wis- 
consin, agreeing  with  the  Kansas  Sen- 
ator's declaration  that  profiteering  had 
become  a  national  menace,  said  Attorney 
General  Palmer  was  "  setting  a  few 
mousetraps  around  the  country  when  he 
ought  to  be  setting  beartraps  "  to  catch 
the  big  or  millionaire  profiteers.  The 
Administration  was  held  responsible  by 
Senator  Lenroot  for  the  increasing  sugar 
prices. 

Senator  Capper  said  ample  laws  exist- 
ed to  check  profiteering  and  "  if  those 
charged  with  enforcement  of  these  laws 
will  see  that  profit  hogs  are  sent  to  jail 
prices  will  soon  tumble.  "  He  added  that 
if  law  enforcement  officers  could  not  en- 
force the  statutes  they  should  resign  and 
let  men  who  could  take  their  places. 

Excessive  margins  of  profit  were  proof 
of  profiteering,  Senator  Capper  said  in 
presenting  his  list  of  corporations  whose 
profits  were  placed  at  from  20  to  200! 
per  cent.  The  list  included  textile  manu- 
facturing concerns,  steel  companies,  shoe 
and  leather  manufacturers  and  makers 
of  nearly  all  the  State  commodities. 
Farmers  were  acquitted  of  blame  by  the 
Senator. 

LOWER  PRICES  ALLEGED 

The  Department  of  Justice  on  April 
23  officially  declared  that  many  com- 
modities had  fallen  in  price.  The  cost  of 
twenty-two  food  articles  had  declined 
more  than  one-half  of  1  per  cent,  dur- 
ing the  last  month.  Other  necesssaries, 
such  as  clothing,  had  dropped  from 
15  to  30  per  cent,  in  price  to  the  con- 
sumer, said  Howard  Figg,  the  Special 
Assistant  to  the  Attorney  General  in 
charge  of  the  campaign,  in  an  authorized 
statement.  Especially  satisfactory  re- 
sults in  the  movement  had  been  obtained 
within  the  last  two  months,  Mr.  Figg 
declared. 

No  part  had  been  taken  in  the  overalls 
drive  by  the  department,  but  officials 
said  that  the  movement  would  accom- 
plish much  good  by  calling  the  public's 
attention  to  the  need  for  careful  buying. 

Attorney  General  Palmer  said: 


AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENTS 


395 


I  do  not  know  that  the  overalls  move- 
ment itself  will  cure  all  the  evil.  But  it 
will  make  the  people  think.  We  have 
had  a  campaign  against  the  "  buy  now  " 
agitation  for  a  long  time.  This  old- 
clothes  plan  will  put  the  light  idea  in  the 


minds  of  the  people.  If  every  one  would 
exercise  care  in  purchasing,  prices  would 
come  down  within  thirty  days. 

The  department  is  still  pushing  its 
anti-profiteering  crusade  with  great  vig- 
or, Mr.  Palmer  said. 


The  Socialist  National  Convention 

Debs  Nominated  for  President 


THE  Socialist  Party  held  its  nomi- 
nating convention  in  New  York 
City  during  the  week  May  8-14. 
Eugene  V.  Debs,  now  serving  a  ten-year 
sentence  in  the  Federal  Penitentiary  at 
Atlanta  for  violation  of  the  Espionage 
act,  was  nominated  for  President  by  the 
Socialist  Party  in  National  Convention, 
to  head  its  ticket  for  the  fifth  time. 

Characterized  as  the  "  Lincoln  of  the 
Wabash  "  by  Edward  Henry  of  Indiana, 
who  nominated  him.  Debs  was  hailed  by 
other  speakers  as  the  emancipator  ex- 
pected to  destroy  the  system  of  capital- 
ism as  Lincoln  did  that  of  slavery. 

Morris  Hillquit  of  New  York,  author 
of  the  platform  adopted  after  criticism 
by  the  ultra-radicals  as  too  conserva- 
tive, declared  that  the  nomination  of 
Debs  was  a  challenge  to  the  "  entire 
rotten  capitalistic  system,"  and  showed 
that  the  Socialist  Party  of  America  was 
determined  not  to  recede  one  inch  in  its 
program  of  revolutionary  socialism. 

The  nomination  of  their  imprisoned 
leader  was  received  with  great  enthusi- 
asm both  by  the  delegates  and  by  the 
spectators,  who  crowded  Finnish  So- 
cialist Hall  to  its  capacity.  The  demon- 
stration lasted  twenty-five  minutes  and 
was  accompanied  by  clapping,  cheering 
and  the  singing  of  the  "  Internationale," 
the  "  Marseillaise,"  the  "  Hymn  to  Free 
Russia  "  and  the  "  Red  Flag." 

The  convention  after  long  debate  de- 
cided to  retain  the  declaration  that  the 
Socialist  Party  does  not  intend  to  in- 
terfere with  internal  affairs  of  labor 
unions,  but  added  a  statement  that  it 
favored  the  organization  of  the  workers 
along  the  lines  of  industrial  unionism, 
working  as  one  organized  working  class 
body,  or  the  "  One  Big  Union  "  idea,  the 
system  of  organization  of  the  I.  W.  W. 


and  of  only  a  few  of  the  bodies  affiliated 
with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

It  struck  out,  admittedly  because  of 
expediency,  the  reference  to  the  alleged 
capitalistic  control  of  churches  after  a 
debate  in  which  both  the  churches  and 
religion  generally  were  bitterly  attacked, 
although  defended  by  some  speakers. 

The  Declaration  of  Principles,  as  final- 
ly adopted,  was  not  materially  changed 
from  the  draft  of  the  committee,  of 
which  Morris  Hillquit  is  Chairman,  and 
represented  a  victory  for  the  conserva- 
tive element.  Other  important  declara- 
tions included  a  statement  that  the  So- 
cialist Party  was  not  opposed  to  the 
institution  of  the  family,  a  declaration 
against  war  and  militarism,  and  a  plea 
for  the*  closer  international  relation  of 
workers  throughout  the  world. 

INDORSES   THIRD    INTERNATIONAL 

The  convention  on  May  14  adopted  the 
majority  report  of  its  Committee  on  For- 
eign Relations,  presented  by  Morris  Hill- 
quit, declaring  the  adherence  of  the  So- 
cialist Party  of  America  to  the  Third 
International,  organized  and  dominated 
by  Lenin,  Trotzky  and  the  Communist 
Party  of  Russia,  with  instructions  to  its 
international  delegates  to  insist  that  no 
special  method  for  the  attainment  of  the 
Socialist  Commonwealth,  such  as  the 
"  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,"  be  im- 
posed as  a  condition  of  affiliation.  The 
delegates  were  also  instructed  to  par- 
ticipate in  movements  looking  to  the 
union  of  all  Socialist  organizations  in 
the  world  into  one  international. 

Upon  the  plea  of  Mr.  Hillquit  that  its 
adoption  would  necessitate  a  change  in 
the  method  of  the  Socialist  Party  of 
America  from  one  of  political  action  to 
a  program  of  violence  and  a  recurrence 


396 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  street  fighting  and  barricades  of 
the  Paris  Commune,  the  convention 
voted  down  the  ultra-radical  substitute 
offered  by  J.  Louis  Engdahl  of  Illinois 
and  William  F.  Quick  of  Wisconsin,  as 
a  minority  of  the  committee,  merely  re- 
affirming the  adherence  of  the  party  to 
the  Third  International  without  any 
qualifications.  This  substitute  was  de- 
feated by  a  vote  of  90  to  40,  constituting 
a  clear-cut  division  between  the  con- 
servatives and  the  ultra-radicals.  Under 
the  party  rules  the  minority  report  will 
be  submitted  to  a  referendum  of  mem- 
bers. 

DEBS'S  RELEASE  REQUESTED 
Release  of  Eugene  V.  Debs,  the  So- 
cialist Party's  nominee  for  President, 
and  of  all  other  political  prisoners,  was 
asked  in  a  petition  presented  to  Attor- 
ney General  Palmer,  May  14,  by  a  com- 
mittee of  which  Seymour  Stedman,  the 
party's  Vice  Presidential  nominee,  was 
Chairman.  Mr.  Stedman  said  the  dele- 
gation did  not  believe  that  Mr.  Palmer 
had  been  favorably  impressed  by  the  ap- 
peal for  general  amnesty.  He  added 
that  the  Attorney  General  had  told  them 
he  would  take  under  advisement  the 
matter  of  releasing  Debs,  who  is  serving 


a  ten  years'  sentence  in  the  Atlanta 
Penitentiary  for  violation  of  the  war- 
time espionage  act.  Mr.  Stedman  told 
Mr.  Palmer  he  believed  Debs  had  paid 
sufficient  penalty  for  his  alleged  wrong- 
doing and  that  nothing  further  was  to 
be  gained  by  his  further  imprisonment. 

The  memorial  presented  to  the  Attor- 
ney General  said  that  the  "  practice  of 
prosecuting  citizens  for  holding  and  ex- 
pressing political  views  opposed  to  those 
of  the  administration  in  power,  or  for 
participating  in  working  class  move- 
ments and  struggles  not  favored  by  it, 
is  deeply  repugnant  to  the  genius  of 
democracy. 

The  memorial  said  that  all  powers 
participating  in  the  war,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  United  States,  had  grant- 
ed amnesty  to  their  political  prisoners, 
and  continued: 

To  say  that  the  United  States  is  still  at 
war  is  to  reply  to  a  demand  for  justice  by 
an  unworthy  quibble  and  technicality. 
The  United  States  is  not  wagingr  war  at 
this  time,  and  has  not  been  engaged  in 
warfare  for  eighteen  months.  Further 
detention  of  the  so-called  political  war 
offenders  cannot  be  seriously  justified  on 
the  theory  of  wartime  necessity,  but 
assumes  the  character  of  a  vindictive  per- 
secution of  political  opponents. 


A  Historic  Act  of  Friendship  for  France 

By  JOHN  B.  KENNEDY 


rIE  Knights  of  Columbus  are  about 
to  present  an  equestrian  statue  of 
the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  to  the 
Republic  of  France.  When  this  act 
of  international  friendship  was  first  an- 
nounced it  was  argued  by  a  few  critics 
that  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  being  a 
Catholic  organization,  could  not  con- 
sistently do  such  signal  honor  to  Lafay- 
ette, who  died,  but  certainly  did  not  live, 
a  Catholic.  Furthermore,  the  Republic 
of  France  has  long  been  distinguished 
for  anti-clericalism.  Then  it  was  re- 
called, however,  that  the  celebrated 
Viviani,  who  had .  spoken  on  a  certain 
heated  occasion  of  snuffing  out  the  light 
of  Heaven,  came  post-haste  to  the  United 
States  looking  for  help  when  France  was 
in   crave  danger — and   reecived   it;    and 


that  Lafayette,  in  his  day,  had  a  reputa- 
tion for  being  a  statesman  of  the  Viviani 
school. 

But  the  critics  missed  the  real  object 
of  the  enterprise,  which  is  to  signalize 
the  origin  of  the  historic  friendship  be- 
tween America  and  France  and  to  leave 
an  international  emblem  of  amity  in  the 
City  of  Metz,  whence  Lafayette  issued 
on  his  mission  to  the  struggling  colonies 
of  America.  They  apparently  over- 
looked, also,  the  appropriateness  of  the 
idea  that  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  who 
made  so  enviable  a  record  in  France, 
should  thus  commemorate  their  work  in 
the  war — the  war  that  saw  an  effective 
union  between  the  forces  of  America  and 
France. 

In  this  one  majestic  piece  of  sculpture 


FRIENDSHIP  FOR 


397 


the  Knights  of  Columbus  will  connect 
the  story  of  the  revolution  with  the  story 
of  the  World  War,  for,  on  the  pedestal 
beneath    the    figure    of    Lafayette,    his 


STATUE  OF  LAFAYETTE 

Heroic   bronze    by    Paul    W.    Bartlett,   to   be 

presented  to  France  by  the  Knights 

of    Columbus 

sword  upraised — as  the  sculptor,  Paul 
W.  Bartlett,  conceived  him  leaving  the 
gates  of  Metz  for  America — will  be  four 
bas-reliefs.  The  first  will  show  Christo- 
pher Columbus  on  the  Santa  Maria,  in 
the  act  of  discovering  America;  the 
second  bas-relief  will  show  President 
Wilson  announcing  his  Fourteen  Points 
of  peace  to  the  world  from  the  narthex 
of  the  Capitol  at  Washington;  the  third 
will  show  General  Pershing  at  the  tomb 
of  Lafayette  uttering  his  famous  greet- 
ing, "  Lafayette,  we  are  here !  "  while  in 
the  folds  of  the  flags  above  the  tomb  will 
appear  the  spirit  of  Washington;  the 
fourth  will  show  Marshal  Foch  prophesy- 
ing final  victory  to  officers  of  the 
Knights   of   Columbus  in   August,   1918. 


The  cartouche  above  each  bas-relief  will 
be  the  arms  of  Lafayette.' 

The  bas-reliefs  are  being  made  of  Ten- 
nessee marble,  while  the  bronze  statue 
is  being  cast  in  Belgium.  By  the  first 
week  in  September  the  statue  will  be  in 
place  and  unveiled.  The  largest  Amer- 
ican pilgrimage  since  ^he  end  of  the  war 
will  then  go  to  France  for  the  dedica- 
tion. It  will  be  composed  of  500  Knights, 
who  will  leave  the  K.  of  C.  Lafayette 
Convention  in  New  York  and  proceed  to 
Metz.  President  Deschanel,  Cardinal 
Amette,  Marshal  Foch  and  other  notables 
of  France  will  be  present  at  the  dedica- 
tion. James  A.  Flaherty  of  Philadelphia, 
Supreme  Knight  of  the  K.  of  C,  will 
head  the  pilgrims  from  the  United 
States. 

The  Knights  have  not  appealed  to  the 
public  for  one  cent  toward  the  statue 
fund — which  is  upward  of  $60,000.  The 
entire  fund  is  being  raised  among  the 
700,000  Knights,  and  the  bulk  of  it  will 
be  contributed  by  the  100,000  Knights 
who  saw  active  service  in  the  war. 
This  constitutes  another  point  in  the 
record  of  friendship  for  France  which 
the  gift  will  consummate.  The  statue, 
with  its  striking  bas-reliefs,  will  be  put 
up  in  the  exact  place  wfiere  the  statue 
of  Friedrich  of  Germany  stood  in  Metz 
before  it  was  summarily  removed  by  the 
joyous  populace  on  the  day  of  victory; 
and  this  new  bond  between  America  and 
France  will  be  sealed  by  the  pilgrimage. 
The  French  Government  is  showing  its 
appreciation  of  this  fact  by  placing* at 
the  service  of  the  Knights  its  official 
tourist  organization. 

Within  the  surprisingly  short  time  of 
three  months  the  entire  idea  has  been 
put  into  detailed  effect — the  money  for 
the  statue  collected,  the  statue  and  the 
bas-reliefs  designed  and  practically  com- 
pleted, and  the  task  of  arranging  the 
tour  finished. 

The  statue,  which  will  be  about  eight- 
een feet  high,  will  constitute  the  key- 
note of  a  new  park  plan  in  Metz,  a  park 
to  commemorate  the  return  of  the  lost 
provinces  to  France.  It  will  be  a  free 
gift  to  the  French  Republic,  without 
stipulations  of  any  kind.  The  spirit  of 
the  gift  was  made  manifest  in  the  fol- 


398 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


JAMES  A.   FLAHERTY 
Supreme  Knight  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus 

lowing  poem,  which  appeared  recently  in 

The  New  York  Times : 

Out  from   Metz   on   a  bright   June   day- 
Came   the   Marquis  de   Lafayette. 

The  chimes  rang  out  and  the  town  was  gay; 
Bold   in  his  youth  he  rode   away. 

Away  to  the  West,  and  there  he  met 
Soldiers   of  France,    brave   Jouquerin, 

Pelletier  and  his  gallant   crew. 


Every   one    a   fighting   man, 
Every    one    a   man    who   knew 
That  life  is  brief  and  love  is  long, 
And  liberty's  all   of  a  freeman's  song. 

Out  to  the  struggling  West  he  came. 

Noble   Marquis   of  Lafayette  ! 
Out  to  the  West  he  brought  the  flame. 
The  flame  of  France.     His  magic  name 

Caught  men's  hearts   in   its  magic  net. 
The  flame   of  France  to  a  darkened   land. 

On  and  on  in  the  struggle  it  went ; 
The  flame   of  France,   to  a  stumblii  g  band. 

Ragged  and  worn   and   all  but  spent. 
It  gave   new   zeal   to  the  freemen's   fight, 
Till    the    whole   world    shone    in    its    glorious 
light. 

Back  to  Metz  from  the  wondrous  West, 

Hail   to   the    Marquis   of   Lafayette ! 
Back  with  bays  from  a  chivalrous  quest, 
Write  his  name  with  the  nation's  best. 

The   names   Columbia  can't  forget. 
In  the  heart  of  Metz,   there  let  him   stand- 
in  America's  heart  his  niche  is  made- 
Facing  the  West,  his  sword   in  hand. 
Glorious,   young  and  unafraid  ! 
Knights  of  France  in  a  hundred  fights. 
Take  this  tribute  from  New  World  Knights. 

This  represents  the  idealistic  side  of 
the  reconstruction  program  of  the 
Knights  of  Columbus.  They  have  also 
found  jobs  for  350,000  former  service 
men,  no  job  paying  less  than  $18  a  week, 
the  average  wage  being  $40;  they  are 
sending  502  former  fighters  through  col- 
leges and  universities,  and  they  are  edu- 
cating more  than  160,000  former  service 
men  and  women  in  night  schools — sixty- 
five  of  them — in  our  principal  cities,  and 
everything  is  free  just  as  it  was  in  the 
K.  C.  huts  in  home  camps  and  overseas. 
That  is  the  practical  side  of  their  recon- 
struction record. 


Death  of  Two  Prominent  Americans 


WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS,  a  dom- 
inant figure  in  the  world  of  Amer- 
ican letters  for  half  a  century,  died  on 
April  11,  1920,  in  New  York,  at  the  age 
of  84.  At  his  funeral  many  of  the  best- 
known  American  writers  paid  tribute  to 
his  fine  qualities  as  a  man  and  his  re- 
markable achievements  as  an  author. 

Mr.  Howells  was  bom  at  Martin's 
Ferry,  Ohio,  on  March  1,  1837.  His 
father  removed  to  Hamilton,  Ohio,  earn- 
ing there  a  meagre  living  on  a  country 
newspaper.      The    future    novelist    thus 


passed  his  boyhood  in  the  atmosphere  of 
printer's  ink,  the  period  described  in  his 
"Years  of  My  Youth."  A  few  years 
later,  when  the  family  moved  to  Colum- 
bus, young  Howells  worked  as  a  com- 
positor on  The  Ohio  State  Journal.  At 
22  he  was  an  editor  of  The  State  Jour- 
nal. His  first  real  literary  venture,  a 
book  of  poems  called  "  The  Two 
Friends,"  and  written  in  collaboration 
with  John  J.  Piatt,  was  published  in 
1860,  when  he  was  23  years  old.  In  the 
same  year  he  published  a  campaign  biog- 


DEATH  OF  TWO  PROMINENT  AMERICANS 


399 


raphy  of  Lincoln.  In  1866  he  was  ap- 
pointed assistant  editor  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  on  whose  staff  he  remained  for 
many  years.  In  1886  he  was  asked  to 
take  over  the  "Editor's  Study"  depart- 
ment of  Harper's  Monthly.     The  "Edi- 


WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS 
Dean    of    American    Letters/'     wh' 
April  11,  1920 


died 


tor's  Easy  Chair "  of  this  magazine, 
which  he  began  in  1901,  became  the  me- 
dium of  his  views  on  life  and  literature 
combined  with  his  rich  and  mellow  rem- 
iniscences. 

The  most  widely  read  of  his  novels 
was  "The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,"  re- 
garded by  many  as  the  best  American 
novel.  Other  early  stories  were  "  A 
Hazard  of  New  Fortunes  "  and  "  A  Mod- 
em Instance."  His  most  noted  non- 
fiction  work  was  "  Venetian  Life,"  writ- 
ten when  he  was  Consul  at  Venice  in  the 
late  '60s.  Among  his  many  other  books 
may  be  mentioned  "  A  Chance  Acquaint- 
ance," "The  Minister's  Charge,"  "A 
Traveler  from  Altruria,"  "  My  Literary 


Passions,"  "  Literary  Friends  and  Ac- 
quaintances," "  The  Kentons,"  "  Litera- 
ture and  Life,"  "  London  Films,"  and 
"  Through  the  Eye  of  the  Needle." 

Mr.  Howells  was  married  in  Paris  in 
1862  to  Elinor  G.  Mead  of  Brattleboro, 
Vt.  His  wife  died  in  1910.  He  had  one 
son  and  a  daughter. 

Levi  P.  Morton,  Vice  President  of  the 
United  States  during  Harrison's  Presi- 
dency, ended  his  long  and  active  life  on 
May  16.  Mr.  Morton  was  bom  on  a  lit- 
tle farm  in  Shoreham,  Vt.,  on  May  16, 
1824.  His  father  was  a  Congregational 
minister  of  the  strictly  Puritan  type, 
whose  maximum  salary  was  $600  a  year. 
After  receiving  a  limited  education  at 
the  Academy  of  Shoreham,  young  Mor- 
ton began  his  career  at  the  age  of  16  as 
a  clerk  in  a  store  at  Enfield,  Mass.  At 
20,  through  his  thrift,  he  was  able  to 
purchase  a  general  store  in  Hanover, 
N.  H.  From  that  time  forth  his  success 
in  business  was  steady  and  striking.  Be- 
coming a  member  of  a  New  York  bank- 
ing house,  he  entered  the  larger  domain 
of  finance,  and  in  1875  formed  the  New 
York  syndicate  that  funded  the  national 
debt.  He  had  become  an  international 
figure  in  the  financial  world  before  he 
was  50  years  old.  His  fortune  was  one 
of  the  largest  in  America. 

Mr.  Morton  was  first  appointed  to 
public  office  by  President  Hayes  as  Hon- 
orary Commissioner  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1878.  In  the 
same  year  he  was  elected  to  Congress, 
where  he  became  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs.  In  1882  he 
was  appointed  Minister  to  France.  At 
the  Republican  Convention  in  Chicago, 
in  1888,  Mr.  Morton  became  the  run- 
ning mate  with  Mr.  Harrison.  His  four 
years  at  Washington  were  marked  by 
his  lavish  and  cordial  receptions,  which 
had  already  won  him  celebrity  abroad. 
After  his  retirement  he  lived  on  his 
beautiful  1,000-acre  farm,  Ellerslie,  at 
Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson.  In.  1895-96  he 
was  Governor  of  New  York.  He  re- 
mained to  the  end  of  his  life  a  great 
philanthropist. 


PARADE   IN   REVAL.    THE    CAPITAL.  OP  ESTHONIA.    ON   THE   SECOND    ANNIVERSARY   OP 
THE     NATION'S     INDEPENDENCE,     FEB.     24,      1920 
(Photo    Underwood  d    Underwood) 

The  Russo-Esthonian  Treaty 

Full  Text  of  the  First  Peace  Treaty  Made  by  Soviet  Russia 
With  One  of  the  New  Baltic  States 


A  TREATY  of  peace  between  Es- 
thonia  and  Soviet  Russia  was 
signed  at  Dorpat  on  Feb.  2,  1920, 
after  negotiations  lasting  about 
a  month.  The  full  text  of  this  document, 
which  finally  reached  this  country  via 
the  Esthonian  press,  confirms  the  sum- 
mary printed  in  Current  History  last 
March  and  shows  what  concessions  the 
Bolshevist  Government  of  Russia  was 
willing  to  grant  in  order  to  bring  about 
peace  with  one  of  its  new  Baltic  neigh- 
bors. 

The  treaty  apparently  has  been  ef- 
fective for  some  time,  as  a  London  cable- 
gram of  Feb.  17  said  it  had  been  ratified 
by  the  Esthonian  Assembly,  making 
peace  immediately  effective,  the  implica- 
tion being  that  it  had  already  been  rati- 
fied in  Moscow.  A  Reval  cablegram  of 
Feb.  23  told  of  the  arrival  of  two  Bolshe- 
vist delegations,  one  of  which  was  to 
administer  the  provisions  of  the  treaty. 
Late  in  April  the  German  press  reported 
that  Russia  had  already  paid  over  to 
Esthonia  the   15,000,000  rubles   in   gold 


mentioned  in  the  treaty,  but  these  re- 
ports lack  confirmation. 

The  preamble  to  the  treaty  in  the 
Esthonian  newspapers  gives  the  delegate 
personnel  of  the  peace  conference  as  fol- 
lows :  For  the  Government  of  the  Estho- 
nian democratic  republic — ^Jaan  Poska, 
Ants  Piip  and  Mail  Puuman,  members 
of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  and  Jaan 
Soots,  Major  General  of  the  General 
Staff;  for  the  Soviet  of  People's  Com- 
missioners of  the  Russian  Socialist  Fed- 
eral Soviet  Republic — Adolph  Yoffe, 
member  of  the  Central  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  All  Russian  Soviets  of 
Workers*,  Peasants'  Red  Army  and  Cos- 
sack Deputies,  and  Isidor  Gukovsky, 
member  of  the  Collegium  of  the  People's 
Commissariat  of  State  Control. 

The  text  of  the  treaty  of  peace 
reads : 

ARTICL.E  I.— The  war  between  the  sigrna- 
tories  of  this  treaty  shall  cease  from  the  day 
this   treaty   becomes    effective. 

AKTICL-E  II.— In  accord  with  the  avowed 
intention  of  the  Russian  Socialist  Soviet 
Federal    Republic   to   recognize   the   right   of 


THE   RUSSO-ESTHONIAN    TREATY 


401 


nations  to  self-determination,  even  when  this 
involves  a  complete  separation  from  the 
States  of  which  they  were  parts,  Russia 
recognizes  the  absolute  independence  and 
individual  existence  of  the  Esthonian  State, 
renouncing  voluntarily  and  forever  all  sover- 
eign rights  that  Russia  held,  according  to 
the  laws  of  the  State  and  international 
treaties,  over  the  Esthonian  people  and  terri- 
tory ;  such  rights  shall  be  null  and  void 
forever. 

All  obligations  toward  Russia  on  the  part 
of  the  Esthonian  people,  derived  from  that 
people's  former  attachment  to  Russia,  are 
abrogated. 

ARTICLE  III.— 1.  The  frontier  between 
Esthonia  and  Russia  is  as  follows :  From  a 
point  on  the  Gulf  of  Narva  one  verst  [a  verst 
equals  two-thirds  of  a  mile]  south  of  the 
fishermen's  house,  to  the  village  of  Ropsha, 
then  along  the  Mertwitskya  Brook  and  the 
Rosson  River  to  the  village  of  Ilkino,  from 
Ilkino  one  verst  west  of  the  village  of 
Keikino,  one-half  a  verst  west  of  the  village 
of  Iswos  to  the  village  of  Kobuliaki,  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Shchutschka  River,  to  the 
village  of  Krivaya  Luka,  to  the  Petchurki 
estate,  to  the  juncture  of  the  three  branches 
of  the  Vtroya  River,  through  the  southern 
part  of  the  village  of  Kuritcheki,  together 
with  its  land ;  then  in  a  straight  line  to 
the  middle  of  Lake  Peipus,  from  the  middle 
of  Lake  Peipus  to  one  verst  east  of  the 
Island  of  Porka,  then  through  the  centre  of 
the  strait  to  the  Island  of  Salu ;  from  the 
middle  of  the  strait  at  Salu  to  the  middle 
of  the  strait  between  the  Islands  of  Tabalsk 
and  Kamenka,  west  of  the  village  of  Poddu- 
bye  (on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Pskov), 
to  the  railroad  watchman's  house  in  the  vil- 
lage 01  Gryadischtsche,  west  of  the  village 
of  Shahintsy,  east  of  the  village  of  Novaya, 
to  the  Lake  of  Poganovo,  between  the  vil- 
lages of  Babina  and  Vymorsk,  one  and  a 
half  versts  south  of  the  forester's  house 
(north  of  Glybotchina),  to  the  village  of 
Sprechtitch   and   the   Kudepi    estate. 

(Note  1.  The  frontier  defined  in  this  arti- 
cle is  indicated  in  red  on  the  map  forming 
Appendix  1  to  this  article,  on  a  scale  of 
three  versts  to  an  inch). 

In  case  of  discrepancies  between  the  text 
and  the  map,  the  text  shall  be  considered  as 
authoritative.  The  actual  surveying  and 
setting  up  of  boundary  marks  between  the 
signatories  of  this  treaty  shall  be  done  by 
a  special  frontier  commission  composed  of 
an  equal  number  of  representatives  of  both 
contracting  parties.  In  establishing  the 
frontier  through  settled  sections  the  com- 
mission mentioned  above  shall  take  into  con- 
sideration the  ethnographic,  economic  and 
local  conditions  affecting  the  inhabitants  and 
shall  vest  sovereignty  in  one  or  the  other 
of  the  signatories  in  accordance  with  such 
conditions. 

2.  The  Esthonian  territory  east  of  the 
Narova  River,  the  Narova  River  and  the 
islands  of  Narova  River,  as  well  as  the 
whole  zone  south  of  Lake  Pskov  between  the 


above-mentioned  frontier  and  the  line  of 
vilages  of  Borok-Smokny-Belkova-Sprech- 
titch,  shall  be  considered  a  neutral  military 
zone  until  Jan.  1,  1922.  The  Esthonian  State 
shall  not  keep  any  military  forces  in  the 
neutral  zone,  except  such  forces  as  are 
necessary  for  frontier  duties  and  -  main- 
taining order,  and  *hen  only  in  such  num- 
bers as  stipulated  In  Appendix  2  of  this 
article.  The  Esthonian  State  shall  ^t  con- 
struct forts  nor  observation  posts,  shall  not 
establish  stores  of  any  military  or  technical 
supplies,  except  such  stores  as  are  necessary 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  forces  permitted 
by  this  treaty,  and  shall  not  establish  bases 
or  stores  for  any  ships  or  aerial  forces. 

3.  Russia  shall  not  maintain  military  forces 
in  the  territory  toward  Pskov  west  of  a  line 
running  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Velikaya 
River  and  through  the  village  of  Sivtseva, 
the  village  of  Luhnova,  the  village  of 
Samulina,  the  village  of  Shalki  and  the  vil- 
lage of  S'prechtitch,  except  such  forces  as 
are  necessary!  for  frontier  duty  and  for 
maintaining  order,  and  then  in  no  larger 
numbers  than  defined  in  Appendix  2  of  this 
article. 

4.  The  signatories  of  this  treaty  shall  not 
keep  armed  vessels  on  the  lakes  of  Peipus 
and  Pskov. 

Appendix  1— (Map.) 

Appendix  2— Both  signatories  are  bound: 
(1)  To  withdraw  their  forces  from  the  dis- 
trict between  the  Gulf  of  Finland  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Schuchka  River  to  the  frontier 
of  their  own  territory  within  twenty-eight 
days  from  the  date  of  ratification  of  the 
peace  treaty.  (2)  To  withdraw  to  their  own 
territories  their  military  forces,  together  with 
all  supply  stores  and  property,  from  neutral 
zones  where  they  cannot  be  kept,  according 
to  Article  III.,  Section  2  and  3,  of  this  treaty 
—except  such  forces  and  stores  as  are  neces- 
sary for  frontier  duty  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  order— within  forty-two  days  from 
the  date  of  ratification  of  this  treaty. 
(3)  To  withdraw  within  forty-two  days  from 
the  date  of  the  ratification  of  this  treaty  all 
armed  vessels  from  the  Lakes  of  Peipus  and 
Pskov,  as  provided  for  by  Article  III.,  Sec- 
tion 4,  of  this  treaty,  or  to  dismount  all  guns, 
torpedo  appliances  and  devices  for  the  laying 
of  mines,  and  to  remove  all  stores  of  ammu- 
nition from  these  vessels.  (4)  To  maintain 
in  the  neutral  zones,  where  military  forces 
are  not  allowed  to  be  kept,  forty  men  for 
each  verst  of  the  frontier  during  the  first 
six  months  following  the  ratification  of  this 
treaty,  and  after  that  period  thirty  men  for 
each  verst.  Barbed  wire  fences  may'  be 
built  along  the  frontier.  Not  more  than  500 
men  for  the  maintenance  of  internal  order 
are  to  be  kept  in  each  neutral  zone.  (5)  To 
keep  on  Lakes  Peipus  and  Pskov  only  coast 
guard  vessels,  such  vessels  not  to  exceed 
five,  and  not  to  be  armed  with  more  than 
two  47-millimeter  guns  and  two  machine  guns 
apiece. 

ARTICLE  IV.— Persons  of  non-E.sthonian 
origin    more    than     18    years     old    living    in 


402 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Esthonian  territory  shall  have  the  ".ght  to 
choose  Russian  citizenship  during  the  year 
following  the  ratification  of  this  treaty,  the 
father's  citizenship  including  that  of  children 
under  18  and  of  the  wife,  if  there  exists  no 
special  agreement  on  this  subject  between 
husband  and  wife.  Persons  choosing  Rus- 
sian citizenship  must  leave  Esthonian  terri- 
tory within  one  year  from  the  day  their 
option  is  filed,  but  such  persons  retain  the 
right  to  movable  property  and  have  the  right 
to  take  such  property  with  them.  Persons 
of  Esihonian  origin  living  in  Russian  terri- 
tory have  the  same  right  to  choose  Esthonian 
citizenship  during  the  same  period  and  under 
the  same  conditions.  The  Governments  of 
both  signatories  shall  have  the  right  to  deny 
citizenship  to  the  persons  mentioned  above. 

(Note.  In  doubtful  cases,  persons  are  to 
be  regarded  as  of  Esthonian  origin  when 
their  names,  or  the  names  of  their  parents, 
appear  in  the  birth  records  of  the  communes 
or  in  the  birth  records  of  other  institu- 
tions.) 

ARTICLE  v.— If  the  permanent  neutrality 
of  Esthonia  is  recognized  internationally, 
Russia  is  bound  to  recognize  such  neutrality 
and  to  participate  in  the  results  growing  out 
of  the  maintenance  of  such  neutrality. 

ARTICLE  VI.— In  case  of  the  international 
neutralization  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  both 
signatories  of  this  treaty  shall  join  in  this 
neutralization  on  conditions  to  be  worked 
out  by  all  the  parties  interested  in  such 
neutralization  and  defined  by  the  proper 
international  action.  They  shall  also  appor- 
tion their  naval  forces,  or  parts  of  them,  as 
may  be  determined  by  the  international 
agreement  mentioned   above. 

ARTICLE  VII.  —  Both  signatories  are 
bound 

1.  To  prohibit  the  maintenance  on  their 
territories  of  any  armies  besides  the  armies 
of  their  Government  and  the  armies  of 
friendly  powers  that  have  entered  into  a 
military  agreement  with  one  of  the  signa- 
tories, but  who  do  not  wage  actual  war 
against  the  other  signatory  of  this  treaty. 
They  are  also  bound  to  prohibit  all  as- 
sembling or  mobilizing  of  persons  in  their 
territories  by  such  States  with  the  intent 
of  waging  war  against  the  other  signatory 
of  this  treaty. 

2.  To  disarm  the  army  units  and  naval 
forces  on  their  territories  that  were  not 
subject  to  their  Governments,  as  of  Oct.  1, 
1919;  to  neutralize  and  demobilize  before 
Jan.  1,  1922,  all  army  and  navy  equipment, 
artillery  and  quartermaster's  supplies  (except 
provisions  and  raw  materials),  of  engineering 
and  aeronautics,  such  as  guns,  machine  guns, 
rifles,  ammunition,  airplanes,  armored  auto- 
mobiles, tanks,  armored  trains  and  other  mili- 
tary property  belonging  to  the  above-men- 
tioned army  units  or  naval  forces,  except  such 
military  property  and  technical  appliances 
as  belong  to  signatories  of  this  treaty  or  to 
other  States  and  were  loaned  to  the  above- 
mentioned  armies  and  forces.  Property  and 
supplies    belonging   to    other    States    must   be 


removed  within  six  months  from  the  date 
of  the  ratification  of  this  treaty.  The  dis- 
arming of  the  above-mentioned  army  and 
naval  forces,  as  well  as  the  demobilization 
and  neutralization  of  the  military  stores  and 
all  the  property  of  the  army  not  controlled 
by  the  Governments  must  be  carried  out  as 
follows :  The  first  30  per  cent,  of  all  army 
and  navy  forces  and  properties  subject  to 
disarming,  neutralization  and  demobiliza- 
tion, within  seven  days  from  the  date  of 
the  rati'^'-ation  of  this  treaty,  and  then  35 
per  cent,  of  all  the  forces  and  properties 
mentioned,   during  each   subsequent  week. 

3.  To  prohibit  the  soldiers  and  commanding 
officials  of  armies  not  subject  to  the  Gov- 
ernments signatory  to  this  treaty,  and  which 
are  to  be  disarmed,  according  to  Section  2 
of  this  article,  from  entering  the  national 
armies  of  the  signatories  of  this  treaty  in 
any  capacity,  including  that  of  volunteers, 
except  in  these  cases  of  the  following  per- 
sons: (a)  Persons  of  Esthonian  nationality 
living  outside  of  Esthonian  territory,  but 
who  choose  Esthonian  citizenship;  (b)  per- 
sons not  of  Esthonian  nationality  who  re- 
sided until  May  1,  1919,  on  Esthonian  terri- 
tory, but  who  do  not  choose  Russian  citizen- 
ship;  (c)  persons  not  of  Esthonian  national- 
ity who  do  not  choose  Russian  citizenship, 
but  who  served  in  the  Esthonian  Army  until 
Nov.  22,  1919.  Persons  mentioned  in  sub- 
sections (a),  (b)  and  (c)  have  the  right  to 
join   the    Esthonian    Army. 

4.  (a)  To  prohibit  States  waging  war 
against  the  other  signatory  of  this  treaty— 
and  organizations  and  groups  aiming  at 
armed  warfare  against  the  other  signatory— 
from  using  its  ports  and  territory  for  the 
transportation  of  anything  that  might  be 
used  to  attack  the  other  signatory  of  this 
treaty,  such  as  armed  forces,  military  equip- 
ment, appliances  and  supplies  of  a  military 
nature,  supplies  for  the  artillery,  engineering 
and  air  services  of  the  above-mentioned 
States,  organizations  and  groups.  (b)  To 
prohibit,  except  in  cases  provided  for  in 
international  law,  the  passage  through  or 
the  stationing  in  their  territorial  waters  of 
any  war  vessels,  gunboats  or  torpedo  boats 
belonging  to  organizations  or  groups  intend- 
ing to  wage  armed  warfare  against  the  other 
signatory  of  this  treaty,  or  to  States  in  a 
state  of  war  with  the  other  signatory,  if 
the  intention  of  these  vessels  is  to  attack 
the  other  signatory  and  if  such  intention 
has  become  known  to  the  signatory  to  which 
the   territorial   waters   and  ports   belong. 

5.  To  prohibit  the  residence  in  their  terri- 
tories of  any  organizations  or  groups  that 
pretend  to  be  the  Government  of  the  whole 
or  of  a  part  of  the  territory  of  the  other 
signatory  of  this  treaty,  and  also  to  pro- 
hibit the  residence  on  their  territory  of  the 
representatives  and  officials  of  such  organiza- 
tions and  groups  as  intend  to  overthrow  the 
Government  of  the  other  signatory  of  this 
treaty. 

6.  The  Governments  of  the  signatories  of 
this    treaty    are    bound    to    submit    to    each 


THE   RUSSO-ESTHONIAN    TREATY 


403 


other  at  the  time  of  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  treaty  all  facts  concern- 
ing the  positions  of  the  armies  which  are 
not  subject  to  these  Governments,  their 
stores  (movable  and  stationary)  and  their 
military  and  technical  equipment  which  at 
the  time  of  the  ending  of  military  opera- 
tions, i.  e.,  Dec.  31,  1919,  were  on  the  terri- 
tory of  the  signatories. 

7.  For  the  supervision  of  the  execution  of 
all  the  military  guarantees,  a  mi-  i  com- 
mission shall  be  created,  the  personnel, 
rights  and  duties  of  which  are  defined  in  the 
instructions  contained  In  the  appendix  to 
this   article. 

Aiipetuiix—lnstvuctions  of  the  mixed  com- 
mission to  be  created  according  to  Article 
VII,    Section    7,    of   this    treaty: 

1.  For  the  supervision  of  all  the  reciprocal 
military  guarantees  defined  in  Article  VII., 
a  mixed  commission  of  the  representatives 
of  both  signatories  shall  be  created. 

2.  Four  persons  from  the  two  parties  com- 
pose the  commission,  which  is  to  consist  of  a 
Chairman,  two  military  representatives  and 
one  naval  representative. 

3.  The  duty  of  the  commission  shall  be  the 
actual  supervision  of  the  carrying  out  of  all 
terms  defined  in  Article  VII.,  Section  2,  as 
given  in  subsequent  sections  of  these  instruc- 
tions. 

(Note.  The  information  required  according 
to  Article  VII.,  Section  3,  shall  be  given  to 
the  commission  for  the  adjustment  of  the 
differences  that  may  arise  between  the  two 
Governments.) 

4.  The  commission  shall  receive  from  the 
respective  Governments,  or  from  the  local 
organs  of  these  Governments,  all  necessary 
information  concerning  the  terms  of  the 
military    guarantees. 

5.  In  order  to  ascertain  the  facts  in  con- 
nection with  the  execution  of  the  military 
guarantees,  the  commission  has  the  right 
to  verify  this  information  in  the  localities 
concerned,  as  stated  in  Section  4,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  proceed  to  such  localities  and 
examine  the  situation  covered  in  Article  VII., 
Section  2. 

6.  For  the  maintenance  of  unrestricted  com- 
munication between  the  members  of  the  com- 
mission and  their  Governments,  a  direct 
telegraphic  connection  (Hughes  apparatus) 
shall  be  established  between  Wesenberg,  the 
headquarters  of  the  commission  in  Esthonia, 
and  Petrograd  and  Moscow.  The  headquar- 
ters of  the  commission  on  Russian  territory 
shall  be  in  Pskov  and  a  direct  telegraphic 
connection  with  Reval  shall  be  established. 
These  Commissioners  shall  also  have  the 
right  to  dispatch  couriers  and  telegrams 
without  hindrance.  Their  communications 
sent  by  telegraph  or  courier  shall  have  the 
status    of  diplomatic   correspondence. 

7.  The  commission  shall  make  a  general 
report  (in  Esthonian  and  Russian)  of  the  re- 
sults of  its  work  and  its  decisions,  which 
shall  be  submitted  to  the  respective  Gov- 
ernments. 

8.  When  the  commission  shall  have  fulfilled 


its  duties,  as  defined  in  Section  3  of  these 
instructions,  and  shall  have  finished  the 
actual  work  of  supervision,  in  the  order 
prescribed  in  Section  5  of  these  instructions, 
the  activities  of  the  commission  shall  be 
considered  over ;  but  its  existence  shall  not 
be  ended  before  one  month  shall  have  elapsed 
from  the  day  when  the  respective  Govern- 
ments shall  announce  that  the  terms  of  the 
military  guarantees  over  which  the  commis- 
sion has  had  jurisdiction  have  been  fulfilled. 
The  two  Governments  may  agree  to  prolong 
tne    life    of    the    commission. 

AKTICI.E  VIII.— Both  signatories  of  this 
treaty  reciprocally  renounce  all  claims  for 
the  payment  of  military  expenditures,  i.  e.. 
State  expenses  incurred  in  waging  war,  as 
well  as  claims  for  war  losses  caused  by  mili- 
tary operations  against  them  or  their  citi- 
zens, including  all  requisitions  made  on 
enemy  territory. 

ABTICLE  IX.— Prisoners  of  war  of  both 
signatories  must  be  transported  to  th6ir  re- 
spective countries  as  soon  as  possible.  The 
order  of  the  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war 
will  be  defined  in  the  appendix  to  this  article. 

(Note  1.  Prisoners  of  war  are  persons  cap- 
tured and  not  serving  in  the  armies  of  the 
State  that  captured  them.) 

(Note  2.  Prisoners  of  war  captured  by  the 
armies  not  under  the  control  of  the  Govern- 
ments, and  who  do  not  serve  in  the  ranks 
of  such  armies,  shall  be  transported  back 
under   the    general   provisions.) 

Appendix— 1.  Prisoners  of  war  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  go  to  their  respective  countries,  in 
case  they  do  not  wish  to  rem.ain,  with  the 
consent  of  the  Government  of  the  territory 
where  they  are  living,  within  its  boundaries, 
or  they   may   go   to   other   countries. 

2.  The  dates  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners 
of  war  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Govern- 
ments after  the  ratification  of  the  Peace 
Treaty. 

3.  When  the  prisoners  of  war  are  liber- 
ated they  shall  receive  the  personal  property 
which  was  confiscated  by  order  of  the  Gov- 
ernment which  captured  them,  as  well  as 
the  unpaid  and  unaccounted  parts  of  their 
pay. 

4.  Each  signatory  of  this  treaty  agrees  to 
repay  the  expenses  which  its  former  adver- 
sary has  borne  in  maintaining  its  captured 
citizens,  except  in  so  far  as  these  expenses 
have  been  covered  by  the  work  of  the  prison- 
ers of  war  in  State  or  private  enteiijrises. 
The  repayment  shall  be  made  in  the  currency 
of  the  State  that  made  the  capture. 

(Note.  The  expenses  of  maintaining  prison- 
ers of  war  consist  of  expenditures  for  their 
food,    clothing    and    other    supplies.) 

5.  Prisoners  of  war  shall  be  transported  to 
the  frontier  in  squads  at  the  expense  of  the 
State  that  captured  them.  The  transfer  shall 
be  effected  according  to  a  prepared  list  upon 
which  are  given  the  first  name,  the  name  of 
the  father,  and  the  family  of  the  prisoner, 
the  date  of  his  capture,  and  the  army  unit 
in  which  the  prisoner  was  serving  when  cap- 
tured.    It  must  also  be  stated  in  the  record 


404 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


whether  the  prisoner  has  been  punished  dur- 
ing his  confinement  for  criminal  offenses 
and,  if  so,  for  what  offenses  and  at  what 
time. 

6.  Immediately  following  the  ratification  of 
the  Peace  Treaty  there  shall  be  created  a 
commission  composed  of  representatives  of 
both  signatories  for  the  exchange  of  prison- 
ers of  war.  The  duty  of  this  commission 
shall  be  the  supervision  of  the  carrying  out 
of  the  terms  as  stated  in  this  appendix,  the 
fixing  of  the  ways  and  means  for  transport- 
ing the  prisoners  of  war  to  their  countries 
and  the  fixing  of  the  amount  of  expenditures 
by  prisoners  of  war  transported  home,  ac- 
cording to  the  reports  submitted  by  the 
respective  parties  at  the  time  of  the  ex- 
change   of   prisoners. 

ARTICLE  X.— Simultaneous  with  the  trans- 
portation home  of  prisoners  of  war  and  in- 
terned civilians,  both  signatories  shall  pardon 
them  for  offenses  that  were  committed  in 
the  interest  of  the  enemy  and  imposed  upon 
them  by  courts,  as  well  as  free  them  from 
all  disciplinary  punishments.  Persons  who 
shall  have  committed  the  above-mentioned 
offenses  against  discipline  subsequent  to  the 
signing  of  this  treaty  will  not  be  included  in 
this   grant   of   amnesty. 

Prisoners  of  war  and  interned  civilians 
convicted  for  offense  not  covered  by  this 
amnesty  before  the  ratification  of  this  treaty, 
or  after  it,  but  not  later  than  one  year  after 
its  ratification,  shall  be  deported  to  their 
countries  after  they  have  served  the  sen- 
tences  imposed. 

Those  who  have  been  indicted  for  offenses 
not  covered  by  this  amnesty  shall  be  de- 
livered to  the  officials  of  their  country,  to- 
gether with  all  the  evidence  of  the  crimes 
they  are  accused  of,  if  the  court  decision  be 
not  given  within  one  year  from  the  date  of 
the  ratification   of  this   treaty. 

AKTICLiE  XI.— Russia  renounces  all  claims 
on  former  Russian  money,  property  and  real 
estate  and  all  claims  for  compensation  for 
the  above-mentioned  properties,  no  matter 
what  such  properties  may  consist  of.  includ- 
ing military  and  other  buildings,  forts,  har- 
bors, vessels  of  all  descriptions,  including 
warships,  cargoes,  &c.,  as  well  as  claims  on 
all  kinds  of  former  Russian  rights  over 
money,  property  and  real  estate  of  private 
persons,  provided  the  above-mentioned  prop- 
erty is  located  on  Esthonian  territory,  or 
was  so  located  at  the  time  of  the  German 
occupation,  i.  e.,  on  Feb.  24,  1918.  Russia 
also  renounces  all  claims  on  vessels,  includ- 
ing warships,  that  entered  Esthonian  waters 
during  the  German  occupation,  or  were  seized 
during  the  war  between  Esthonia  and  Russia 
by  the  Esthonian  or  other  naval  forces  and 
given  to  Esthonia.  All  the  above-mentioned 
property  is  declared  to  be  solely  the  prop- 
erty of  Esthonia,  free  of  all  obligations  from 
Nov.  15,  1917,  or,  if  Russia  acquired  it  later, 
from  the  day  of  such  acquisition. 

Esthonia  shall  acquire  all  financial  claims 
of  the  Russian  State  against  Esthonian  citi- 
zens,   if    such    claims    are    to    be    made    good 


on  Esthonian  territory,  but  only  in  so  far 
as  such  claims  are  not  liquidated  by  counter- 
claims  of   the    debtors. 

The  Russian  Government  shall  turn  over 
the  documents  and  acts  that  confirm  the 
rights  mentioned  in  this  section  to  the 
E.'^thonian  Government,  but  in  case  this  is 
not  done  within  six  months  after  the  ratifi- 
cation of  this  treaty  they  shall  be  declared 
null  and   void. 

Esthonia,  on  its  part,  shall  not  press  any 
claims  against  Russia  based  on  its  former 
alliance  with  the  Russian  Empire. 

ARTICLE  XII.— Without  taking  into  ac- 
count the  agreements  mentioned  in  Article 
XI. 

1.  Russia  shall  give  to  Esthonia  15,000,000 
rubles  in  gold,  8,000,000  of  which  shall  be 
delivered  within  one  month  and  the  remain- 
ing 7,000,000  within  two  months  from  the 
date    of   the   ratification   of   this   treaty. 

2.  Esthonia  shall  not  bear  the  responsibili- 
ties of  Russian  debts  or  of  any  other  obli- 
gations, including  those  created  by  the 
issuing  of  paper  money.  State  treasury  notes, 
obligations  and  serial  certificates  of  the 
Russian  Treasury,  the  guarantees  of  internal 
and  foreign  loans,  the  guarantees  of  loans 
of  various  institutions  and  enterprises,  and 
all  such  claims  by  the  creditors  of  Russia 
in  matters  concerning  Esthonia  shall  be 
directed   to   Russia. 

3.  Regarding  compensation  for  bonds  of 
the  Russian  Government  or  for  bonds 
guaranteed  by  that  Government,  or  for 
private  bonds  issued  by  societies  and  institu- 
tions which  have  been  nationalized  by  the 
Russian  Government,  it  Is  agreed  that  Rus- 
sia shall  recognize  as  belonging  to  Esthonia 
and  Esthonian  citizens  all  such  bonds  cir- 
culating within  the  boundaries  of  Esthonia, 
including  claims  of  Esthonian  citizens  against 
the  Russian  Treasury,  also  all  franchises, 
rights  and  privileges  granted,  or  to  be 
granted,  to  foreign  States,  to  their  citizens, 
societies   and   institutions. 

(Note.— The  claims  of  Esthonian  citizens 
against  the  branches  of  the  banks  in  Estho- 
nian territory  that  were  nationalized  by  the 
decree  of  nationalization  issued  by  the  Cen- 
tral Executive  Committee  [Code  of  Laws,  No. 
10]  on  Dec.  14,  1917,  if  such  claims  origi- 
nated before  the  issuing  of  the  above-men- 
tioned decree,  shall  be  considered  as  claims 
against  the  Russian  Treasury  in  so  far  as 
these  claims  cannot  be  covered  by  the  prop- 
erty that  remained  in  the  possession  of  these 
branches.) 

4.  The  Russian  Government  shall  deliver  to 
Esthonia  and  shall  turn  over  to  the  Estho- 
nian Government  the  property,  including 
libraries,  archives,  school  appliances,  docu- 
ments and  other  articles,  belonging  to  the 
University  of  Dorpat,  as  well  as  to  all  insti- 
tutions of  education  and  science  and  Govern- 
mental or  social  institutions  that  are,  or 
were,  situated  in  Esthonian  territory ;  also 
all  documents,  archives  and  other  articles  of 
scientific  or  historical  value  to  Esthonia,  in 
so    far    as    tlie    above-mentioned    articles    are 


THE  RUSSO-ESTHONIAN   TREATY 


405 


in  the  possession,  or  may  come  into  the  pos- 
session, of  the  Russian  Government,  or  of 
its   Governmental   or   social   institutions. 

5.  The  Russian  Government  shall  restore 
to  Esthonia  valuables  of  all  kinds  (except 
gold  and  precious  stones),  bonds  and  valuable 
documents,  such  as  securities,  bills  of  ex- 
change, &c.,  that  were  taken  away  from 
Esthonian  territory  by  the  Government  or 
institutions,  or  by  private  or  other  organiza- 
tions, including  educational  institutions,  if 
the  Esthonian  Government  officials  give  in- 
formation as  to  the  location  of  these  valu- 
ables. If  such  information  is  not  given,  or 
if  the  information  furnished  does  not  lead 
to  their  discovery,  the  Russian  Government 
shall  recognize  as  the  owners  of  these  bonds 
and  other  articles,  in  carrying  out  the 
terms  mentioned  in  Section  3  of  this  article, 
the  persons  who  submit  sufficent  proof  that 
the  bonds  and  other  articles  belonging  to 
them  were  evacuated  during  the  war.  For 
this  purpose  a  special  mixed  commission 
shall   be   created. 

6.  The  Russian  Government  shall  be  bound 
to  give  to  the  Esthonian  Government  every 
instruction  and  information  necessary  for  the 
carrying  out  of  the  terms  mentioned  in  Sec- 
tions 3,  4  and  5  of  this  article  and  every 
assistance  in  the  discovery  of  the  property, 
archives,  articles,  documents,  &c.,  that  are 
to  be  turned  over.  All  questions  arising  in 
connection  with  these  matters  shall  be  set- 
tled by  a  special  commission  composed  of  an 
equal  number  of  members  from  both  sides. 

ARTICLE  XIII.— Russia  declares  that  The 
franchise,  rights  and  privileges  given  to 
Esthonia  and  to  its  citizens  by  this  treaty 
cannot,  in  any  case  nor  under  any  circum- 
stances, be  regarded  as  precedents  in  the 
making  of  peace  treaties  by  Russia  with 
other  States  which  have  arisen  upon  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  former  Russian  Empire.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  in  concluding  such  peace 
treaties  with  the  above-mentioned  States, 
they  or  their  citizens  receive  special  fran- 
chises, rights  or  privileges,  such  franchises, 
i-ights  and  privileges  shall  be  extended  im- 
mediately and  without  special  agreements  to 
Esthonia  and  to  Esthonian  citizens. 

ARTICIiE  XIV.— Settlement  of  questions  of 
public  and  special  rights  that  may  arise  be- 
tween the  citizens  of  the  States  signatory 
to  this  treaty,  as  well  as  settlement  of  spe- 
cific questions  between  the  two  States,  or  be- 
tween the  States  and  the  citizens  of  the 
other  signatory,  shall  be  made  by  special 
Esthonian  and  Russian  mixed  commissions 
which  shall  be  created  immediately  after  the 
ratification  of  this  treaty.  The  composition, 
rights  and  duties  of  every  such  commission 
shall  be  decided  upon  and  defined  by  both 
signatories  of  this  treaty.  Among  the  mat- 
ters coming  under  the  jurisdiction  of  these 
commissions    are : 

1.  The  concluding  of  commercial  agree- 
ments and  the  settling  of  questions  of  an 
economic   nature. 

2.  The  settling  of  questions  arising  from 
the    acts    of    former    institutions    of    justice, 


from  administrative*  archives  and  expedi- 
tions, from  court  or  administrative  decisions 
and  from  acts  having  to  do  with  the  civilian 
estate. 

3.  The  settling  of  questions  arising  in  con- 
nection with  the  delivery  of  the  property  of 
Esthonian  citizens  in  Russia  and  of  Russian 
citizens  in  Esthonia ;  also  the  settling  of 
questions  connected  with  the  safeguarding  of 
the  interests  of  the  citizens  of  one  of  the 
signatories  in  the  territory  of  the  other 
signatory. 

4.  The  settling  of  questions  arising  in  con- 
nection with  the  property  of  the  communes 
which  are  to  be  divided  by  the  fixing  of  the 
frontier. 

ARTICLE  XV.— Diplomatic  and  Consular 
relations  between  Esthonia  and  Russia  shall 
be  arranged  at  a  date  to  be  fixed  in  a  future 
agreement. 

ARTICLE  XVI.— Economic  relations  be- 
tween Esthonia  and  Russia  are  defined  in 
the  appendices  to  this  article. 

Appendix  i.  Section  1.— The  signatories  of 
this  treaty  agree  that  simultaneous  with  the 
conclusion  of  peace  the  economic  warfare 
between  them  shall  cease.  2.  The  partici- 
pants agree  to  begin,  as  soon  as  possible 
after  the  ratification  of  this  treaty,  nego- 
tiations for  the  conclusion  of  commercial 
agreements  based  upon  the  following  prin- 
ciples :  (a)  Favorable  treatment  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  signatories  to  be  accorded  to 
the  citizens  of  the  other  signatory,  to  their 
commercial,  industrial  and  financial  enter- 
prises and  associations,  to  their  ships  and 
cargoes,  to  the  products  of  their  soil,  farms 
and  industry,  and  to  the  export  of  goods 
to  the  territory  of  the  other  signatory  of 
this  treaty,  (b)  No  custom  duties  or  tariffs 
shall  be  levied  on  goods  transported  across 
the  territory  of  the  other  signatory  of  this 
treaty,  (c)  Freight  rates  in  both  countries 
shall  not  be  higher  than  the  rates  for  the 
local  transportation  of  goods  of  the  same 
nature  over  the  same  distance.  (Note.— Until 
a  commercial  agreement  is  effected  com- 
mercial relations  between  Esthonia  and  Rus- 
sia shall  be  arranged  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples laid  down  here.)  3.  Esthonia  shall 
provide  Russia,  in  Reval  or  in  some  other 
Esthonian  port  where  a  free  port  is  estab- 
lished, with  as  much  space  as  is  required 
by  Russian  trade  for  transshipping,  storing 
and  transferring  goods  coming  from  Russia 
or  to  be  transported  into  Russia,  and  the 
charges  for  the  use  of  such  space  shall  not 
be  higher  than  the  charges  paid  by  its  own 
citizens  for  the  same  kind  of  accommoda- 
tions for  goods  in  transit.  4.  The  signatories 
shall  not  make  demands  for  privileges  that 
one  party  may  give  to  another  country  with 
which  it  has  effected  a  customs  or  any  other 
union.  5.  In  case  of  the  death  of  a  citizen 
of  one  of  the  signatories  in  the  territory  of 
the  other  signatory,  his  movable  property 
shall  be  turned  over  in  its  entirety  to  the 
Con.sular  or  other  similar  representative  of 
his  country  to  be  administered  according  to 
the  laws  and  rules  of  his  country. 


406 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Appendix  2,  Section  1.— Artificial  diversion 
of  water  from  Lakes  Peipus  and  Psliov  caus- 
ing the  lowering  of  the  average  level  of  the 
waters  of  these  lakes  by  more  than  one  foot, 
as  well  as  enterprises  which  may  raise  the 
level  more  than  one  foot,  shall  be  permit- 
ted only  through  a  special  agreement  be- 
tween Esthonia  and  Russia.  2.  A  special 
agreement  between  the  signatories  shall  be 
made  regarding  the  fishing  in  Lakes  Peipus 
and  Pskov,  with  devices  that  do  not  per- 
manently decrease  the  number  of  fish ;  also 
an  agreement  regarding  the  commercial  ves- 
sels  operating   on   these   lakes. 

Apiiendix  3,  Section  1.— Esthonia  grants  to 
Russia  the  right  to  obtain  electric  power 
through  the  use  of  the  waterfalls  of  the 
Narova  Ri  er,  provided  that  the  compensa- 
tion to  be  paid  to  Esthonia  and  the  other 
conditions  be  defined  in  a  special  agree- 
ment. 2.  Russia  grants  to  Esthonia  the  rignt 
to  construct  and  exploit  a  direct  single  or 
double  track  railroad  connecting  Moscow 
with  some  point  on  the  Esthonian  frontier, 
together  with  the  means  for  the  preliminary 
surveys  and  construction  work,  provided  that 
the  duration  of  the  concession,  the  right  to 
purchase  the  railroad  before  the  expiration 
of  the  concession,  and  other  conditions,  be 
defined  in  a  special  agreement.  3.  Russia 
grants  to  Esthonia  rights  over  1,000,000 
dessiatines  [2,700,000  acres]  of  forest  land 
in  the  Governments  of  Petrograd,  Pskov, 
Tver,  Novgorod,  Olonetz,  Vologda  and  Arch- 
angel under  conditions  to  be  defined  in  a 
special  agreement. 

ARTICI.E  XVII.— Both  signatories  are  re- 
ciprocally bound  to  take  all  measures  neces- 
sary for  safeguarding  the  movement  of  mer- 
chantmen in  their  respective  waters,  such 
as  furnishing  the  necessary  pilots  at  pas- 
sages, keeping  lighthouses  in  order,  setting 
up  the  necessary  signals,  sweeping  the 
waters  of  mines,  using  special  devices  for 
defining  the  limits  of  the  mine  fields,  &c. 
Both  parties  express  a  willingness  to  partici- 
pate in  clearing  the  Baltic  Sea  of  mines,  this 


work  to  be  done  according  to  a  special  agree- 
ment between  the  parties  interested.  In  case 
such  arrangement  is  not  effected,  the  degree 
to  which  each  side  shall  participate  shall 
be  determined  by  the  court  of  arbitration. 

ARTICLE  XVIII.— The  rights  and  privi- 
leges accorded  by  this  treaty  and  its  ap- 
pendices to  Esthonia  and  its  citizens  are 
applicable  also  to  rural,  district,  municipal, 
social,  beneficial,  church,  ecclesiastical  and 
educational  institutions  and  also  to  all  kinds 
of  juridical   persons. 

ARTICLE  XIX.— In  the  interpretation  of 
this  treaty  both  texts,  the  Esthonian  and  the 
Russian,    shall  be   considered   authentic. 

ARTICLE  XX.— This  treaty  must  be  rati- 
fied. The  exchange  of  the  documents  of 
ratification  must  take  place  in  Moscow  as 
soon    as    possible. 

The  treaty  of  peace  shall  become  effective 
from   the   date   of  ratification. 

Everywhere  in  this  treaty  where  the  time 
of  ratification  is  mentioned  as  the  effective 
date  of  its  terms,  it  is  understood  that  the 
date  intended  is  that  upon  which  the  signa- 
tories reciprocally  acknowledge  the  fact  of 
said    ratification. 

In  confirmation  of  the  above,  the  delegates 
of  both  parties  have  attached  their  signatures 
and  seals  to  this  treaty. 

The  original,  drawn  up  and  written  in  two 
copies    in     Dorpat     on     the     second    day     of 
February,   1920. 
(Signed) 

J.   POSKA,  J.    SOOTS, 

A.   PUP,  J  GUKOVSKY, 

M.  PUUMAN,  A.    TOFFE. 

J.   SELJAMAA, 

A  special  cable  dispatch  to  The  New 
York  Times  from  Copenhagen,  April  13, 
said  that  railroad  connection  between 
Esthonia  and  Soviet  Russia  had  been  re-^ 
established,  and  that  the  first  Russian 
train  had  arrived  at  Narva. 


Protest  Regarding  Eupen  and  Malmedy 


THE  provision  of  the  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles, whereby  the  inhabitants  of 
Eupen  and  Malmedy,  during  the  six 
months  following  Jan.  10,  1920,  have  the 
right  to  indicate  their  preference  for 
either  German  or  Belgian  rule,  was  the 
subject  of  the  following  German  protest 
in  April: 

The  Belgian  High  Commissioner  for  the 
districts  of  Eupen  and  Malmedy  declared, 
in  his  proclamation  of  Jan.  1,  1920,  that 
the  views  of  the  people  would  be  regis- 
tered honestly  and  under  the  strictest 
observance  of  Article  34  of  the  Peace 
Treaty. 

The  facts  are  in  the  most  crass  opposi- 
tion   to    this    regulation.      For    instance, 


there  are  only  two  lists  for  the  voting, 
one  in  Eupen  and  one  in  Malmedy,  and 
they  are  open  only  three  hours  a  day. 
The  German  Government  also  protests 
against  the  constant  and  unlawful  in- 
fluencing of  those  entitled  to  vote  by  the 
Belgian  officials.  Among  other  things, 
the  Commissioners,  without  any  justifica- 
tion, demand  all  sorts  of  information  as 
to  the  reasons  which  cause  individuals  to 
register.  And,  besides  this,  it  is  alleged 
that  persons  entitled  to  vote  have  been 
dissuaded  or  even  intimidated  from 
voting  by  Belgian  officials.  Those  who 
registered  for  the  voting  have  been  de- 
prived of  a  number  of  favors.  The  Ger- 
man Government  energetically  protests 
against  this  and  other  open  violations  of 
the  Peace  Treaty. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 

survey  of  Important  Events   and  Developments  in  Various 
Countries  of  Both  Hemispheres 

[Period  Ended  May  15,  1920] 
IFor  alphabetical  Index  of  countries  see  Table  of  Contents} 

Overthrow  of  the  Carranza  Government 


MEXICO 

Gl^^TERAL  VENUS  riANo'^  CAR- 
RANZA, President  of  Mexico,  has 
been  deposed  with  almost  as  much 
ease  as  Cabrera  was  in  Guatemala 
and  with  proportionately  less  loss  of 
life.  The  Mexican  revolution,  whose 
beginnings  were  noted  last  month,  has 
been  far  less  destructive  than  any  that 
preceded  it.  Originating  at  Hermosillo, 
the  capital  of  Sonora,  most  northwest- 
erly of  the  Mexican  States,  it  rapidly 
spread  south  until  virtually  the  whole 
republic  of  twenty-eight  States  was  in 
arms   against   Carranza. 

Sinaloa,  adjoining  Sonora,  was  the 
next  State  to  secede.  After  the  capture 
of  its  capital,  Culiacan,  Sonora  troops 
under  General  Angel  Flores  continued 
their  easily  victorious  march  southward 
toward  Mazatlan  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
General  Obregon,  the  most  formidable 
rival  of  Bonillas,  Carranza's  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  reappeared  after  his 
flight  from  Mexico  City  and  openly 
joined  the  revolution.  Hundreds  of 
former  Carranza  soldiers  flocked  to  the 
rebel  army,  bringing  with  them  full 
equipment  in  arms,  ammunition  and 
food  supplies.  Reinforcements  were 
also  sent  to  General  Flores  from  Hermo- 
sillo. 

Nyarit,  the  next  coast  State  south  of 
Sinaloa,  where  the  people  were  indig- 
nant because  Carranza  had  deposed  their 
constitutional  Governor,  Seiior  Godinet, 
next  revolted,  Colonel  Yaddi  with  500 
men  leaving  Tepic  to  join  the  revolu- 
tionary army.  At  the  same  time  a  sepa- 
rate secession  movement  in  the  State  of 
Michoacan,  west  of  Mexico  City,  was 
announced.     General  Pasqual  Ortiz  Ru- 


bio.  Governor  of  the  State  and  i.  strong 
supporter  of  Obregon,  left  the  capital, 
Moellea,  and  fled  to  the  hills,  taking  with 
him  the  contents  of  the  State  Treasury 
and  150  soldiers.  Chihuahua  State 
troops,  ordered  by  Carranza  to  attack 
Sonora  on  the  east,  refused,  and  there 
were  many  deserters  from  the  Federal 
regiments  sent  north  to  check  the  rebel- 
lion. On  April  19  it  was  announced  that 
1,200  Carranza  soldiers  at  Santa  Rosa- 
lia, in  Chihuahua  had  revolted.  A  large 
part  of  this  command  consisted  of  Yaqui 
Indians,  whose  tribe  had  long  been  at 
war  with  Carranza. 

General  Salvador  Alvarado  was  sent 
as  special  representative  of  the  Sonora 
Republic  to  Washington,  where  he  ar- 
rived on  April  19.  He  announced  that 
General  Alvaro  Obregon  was  the  real 
head  of  the  revolution  and  that  it  would 
continue  until  Carranza  was  deposed  and 
a  constitutional  Government  established. 
The  revolt  was  said  to  be  spreading  in 
Chihuahua  and  Durango.  The  revolution, 
General  Alvarado  explained,  was  the  re- 
sult of  Carranza's  efforts  to  keep  himself 
in  power  under  the  mask  of  Bonillas's 
candidacy,  adding:  "The  discontent  in 
Mexico  is  so  intense  and  so  general  that 
the  revolution  may  triumph  so  precipi- 
tately as  almost  to  avoid  bloodshed  " — 
which  has  turned  out  to  be  the  case. 

PROGRESS  OF  REVOLT 

By  April  21  ten  States  were  reported 
in  revolt.  They  were:  Sonora,  Sinaloa, 
Nyarit,  Michoacan,  Chihuahua,  Durango, 
Guerrero,  Zacatecas,  Hidalgo  and  Tlax- 
cala;  that  is,  the  western  half  of  Mexico 
north  of  the  capital  and  the  two  little 
States  last  named  on  the  northeast.  Vera 


408 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


MAP   OF   MEXICAN    STATES,    FROM    SONORA    TO    YUCATAN,    THROUGH    WHICH    THE    REVO- 
LUTION    SWEPT.       THE    ARROW    IN    VERA    CRUZ    SHOWS     WHERE     CARRANZA    ESCAPED 
INTO    THE    MOUNTAINS    AFTER    HIS    LAST    BATTLE 


Cruz,  on  the  Atlantic,  and  Tehuantepec, 
on  the  Pacific,  were  announced  to  be  in 
revolt  on  April  22. 

General  Arnulfo  Gomez,  with  3,000 
men,  occupied  Tuxpan,  the  second  great- 
est oil  exporting  city  of  Mexico,  and  was 
reported  to  be  threatening  Tampico,  a 
hundred  miles  further  north,  where  Gen- 
eral Murguia,  the  Carranza  commander 
in  the  oil  district,  was  opposing  him. 
Fighting  was  in  progress  between  their 
forces  on  April  23.  The  first  defection  of 
Carranza  troops  in  Northeast  Mexico  had 
occurred  on  April  21  at  Linares,  Neuvo 
Leon,  where  Colonel  Rodolfo  Gallegos, 
with  his  garrison  of  400  men,  left  to  join 
the  anti-Carranza  forces. 

Sonora  revolutionists  on  April  23  an- 
nounced the  establishment  of  a  new  Pro- 
visional Government  in  Mexico  with  Gov- 
ernor de  la  Huerta  as  supreme  com- 
mander. A  proclamation  was  issued 
called  "  the  Plan  of  Agua  Prieta,"  under 
which  a  Provisional  President  was  to  be 
appointed,  declaring  for  effective  suf- 
frage and  no  re-election.  In  addition 
to  repudiating  Carranza  it  called  for  the 
repudiation  of  Carranza  officials  illegal- 


ly selected  in  several  States  and  of  some 
Mexico  City  Councilmen,   also  requiring 
the  recognition  of  Sei  or  Godinet  as  Gov- 
ernor  of   Nyarit.      Of   chief   interest   to 
foreigners  was  a  clause  which  said: 
The  Supreme  Commander  of  the  Liberal 
Constitutionalist  Army,    and   all   civil   and 
military     authorities     who     support     this 
movement,  will  afford  all  legal  protection 
and   enforcement   of   their   legal   rights   to 
all  citizens  and  foreigners,  and  especially 
favor    the    development    of    all  industries, 
commerce  and  business  in  general. 

CARRANZA  SEEKS  COMPROMISE 

President  Carranza  sought  to  compro- 
mise with  the  revolutionary  leaders  and 
sent  eighteen  members  of  the  Mexican 
National  Congress  to  Sonora  to  attempt 
a  settlement  of  the  difficulties  between 
the  States  and  the  Federal  Government. 
They  arrived  at  Hermosillo  on  April  25, 
having  reached  there  by  a  circuitous 
route  through  Chihuahua  to  Nogales. 
They  were  accompanied  by  General 
Ignacio  Pesquiera  and  Governor  Mireles 
of  Coahuila,  Carranza's  former  Secre- 
tary. Their  efforts  were  fruitless.  Part 
of  their  journey  had  been  by  rail  through 


OVERTHROW  OF  THE  CARRANZA  GOVERNMENT 


409 


the  United  States,  and  this  led  to  a  re- 
port that  Washington  had  been  asked  to 
permit  Mexican  Federal  troops  to  pass 
through  Texas,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
to  put  down  the  rebellion.  Such  a  re- 
quest, it  was  subsequently  stated,  had 
actually  been  made  but  emanated  only 


VENUSTIANO   CARRANZA 
Deposed  President   of  the   Mexican  Republic 

from  army  officers  in  an  unofficial  and 
informal  way. 

As  early  as  April  7,  Americans  at 
Mazatlan,  anticipating  trouble  on  ac- 
count of  the  railroad  strike,  had  asked 
through  the  American  Consul  that  a 
United  States  warship  be  sent  there  to 
protect  them.  The  Mexican  Federal 
commander  urgently  seconded  the  re- 
quest. This  was  granted  and  on  April 
24  the  cruiser  Salem  and  the  destroyer 
McCauley  left  the  naval  base  at  San 
Diego,  Cal.,  for  Mazatlan  and  Topolo- 
bampo,  respectively.  The  scout  cruiser 
Sacramento  was  already  at  Tampico. 
Later  a  division  of  six  destroyers,  the 
Isherwood,  Case,  Lardner,  Putnam,  Dale, 
and  Reid  and  the  tender  Black  Hawk, 
with  Captain  Byron  Long  in  command, 
was  ordered  to  Key  West.  These  war- 
ships had  been  anchored  in  the  Hudson 
River  off  New  York  and  left  on  May  5 
for  their  destination,  whence  they  could 
speedily  reach  the  Gulf  Coast  of  Mexico 
if  required. 

General  Manuel  Palaez,  the  rebel  com- 


mander who  has  more  or  less  controlled 
the  oilfields  on  the  east  coast  for  many 
months,  joined  forces  with  General 
Arnolfo  Gomez,  formerly  in  command 
of  the  Federal  garrison  at  Tuxpan,  on 
April  22  and  began  an  attack  in  the 
Tampico  district.  At  the  same  time 
Colonel  Gallegos,  in  command  in  Neuva 
Leon,  rebelled  with  his  garrison  at  Mon- 
terey. Fighting  was  reported  at  Cuer- 
navaca,  close  to  the  capital  on  the 
south,  and  General  Enrique  Estrada  of 
Zacatecas  came  out  in  favor  of  Obregon. 
Mazatlan  was  under  attack  by  April  24. 
Manzanillo,  an  important  Pacific  port 
in  the  State  of  Colima,  due  west  of  the 
capital,  was  also  threatened, 

CARRANZA'S    MEASURES 
INADEQUATE 

It  is  now  evident  that  Carranza  and 
his  advisers  did  not  appreciate  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation  until  too 
late.  A  summary  of  events  was  issued 
by  the  Federal  Government  on  April  25 
in  which  it  was  shown  that  Carranza 
had  planned  to  surround  Sonora  with  a 
ring  of  troops.  General  Manuel  Dieguez 
was  heading  troops  that  had  already  been 
sent  north,  and  General  Candido  Agui- 
lar,  Carranza's  son-in-law,  was  organiz- 
ing a  strong  column  at  Vera  Cruz.  One 
army  was  to  go  through  Sinaloa,  an- 
other from  Chihuahua,  and  a  third  to 
proceed  by  sea  retaking  Guaymas,  which 
had  fallen  on  April  12  without  a  shot 
being  fired. 

Utterly  inadequate  measures  were 
taken  to  head  off  the  revolution.  By 
April  26  Oaxaca  was  affected  and  the 
Tehuantepec  Railway  cut,  while  Cuerna- 
vaca  was  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels. 
Federal  troops  in  Puebla  had  revolted 
and  General  Maycotte  in  Guerrero,  on 
whom  the  Carranzistas  had  relied  to 
crush  the  rebel  forces  of  General  Ben- 
jamin Hill,  a  partisan  of  Obregon,  had 
joined  the  enemy.  It  was  to  Guerrero 
that  General  Obregon  had  fled  three 
weeks  previously  after  his  disappear- 
ance from  Mexico  City.  Together  Obre- 
gon, Hill  and  Maycotte  planned  an  at- 
tack on  the  capital.  General  ObregOn 
was  personally  directing  the  movements 
in  Guerrero,  according  to  information 
given  out  on  April  27  at  Agua  Prieta, 


410 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


which  was  the  headquarters  for  the  dis- 
semination of  revolutionary  news. 

Defections  from  Carranza  occurred 
hourly.  General  Dieguez,  moving  against 
Sonora,  was  unable  to  get  transporta- 
tion from  Jalisco  or  to  recruit  forces 
there.  His  own  men  began  to  desert 
him.  The  Federal  garrison  at  Chihuahua 
City  revolted  on  April  26.  One  battalion, 
which  refused  to  join  and  fought  with 
their  former  comrades,  surrendered  the 
next  day.  Late  on  April  28  Federal 
officials  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  from 
Juarez,  which  is  in  Chihuahua  on  the 
railway  about  a  hundred  miles  north  of 
Chihuahua  City,  and  brought  with  them 
the  funds  of  the  Juarez  Custom  House, 
depositing  them  in  an  El  Paso  bank  for 
safekeeping.  The  Postmaster  General 
from  Mexico  City  also  crossed  the  border 
on  the  same  day  on  his  way  to  Sonora, 
stating  at  Laredo  that  he  had  accepted 
an  appointment  as  Postmaster  General 
of  the  Sonora  Republic.  The  State  of 
Tabasco,  bordering  on  Guatemala,  went 
over  to  the  rebels  under  the  leadership 
of  its  Governor,  Don  Carlos  Green,  de- 
scendant of  an  American  formerly  promi- 
nent in  Mexico. 

The  first  clash  between  Carranza 
troops  and  revolutionists  occurred  on 
April  29  in  the  mountains  dividing  the 
States  of  Chihuahua  and  Sonora  near 
Pulpito  Pass.  The  Sonorans  captured 
eleven  Carranza  soldiers.  The  prison- 
ers offered  to  enlist  in  the  Sonora  army 
and  told  of  many  desertions  daily  from 
the  Carranza  ranks.  Next  day  the  rail- 
road between  Mexico  City  and  Guadala- 
jara was  cut  and  Zamora,  the  second 
largest  city  in  Michoacan,  was  captured. 
The  rebels  restored  telegraphic  communi- 
cation between  Chihuahua  City  and  Her- 
mosillo  on  April  30,  giving  them  a  great 
advantage  in  planning  movements  in  the 
north. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  END 

Juarez  joined  the  revolution  on  May 
3  and  Washington  now  began  to  see  that 
Carranza's  days  were  numbered.  Re- 
ports began  to  circulate  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  about  to  flee  from  the  country. 
His  Generals  advised  Carranza  to  resign, 
but  he  refused.  He  agreed,  however,  to 
the  withdrawal  of  his  candidate  for  the 


Presidency,  Ygnacio  Bonillas,  Ambassa- 
dor to  the  United  States. 

Casas  Grandes,  the  sole  loyal  garrison 
in  Chihuahua  on  May  4,  was  reported 


GENERAL.  ALVARO  OBREGON 
Leader    of    the    successful    Mexican   Revolu- 
tion 
(©    Vnderivood.    d:    Underwood) 

captured,  and  Torreon,  a  centre  of  the 
Mexican  cotton  fields  in  Durango,  was 
turned  over  without  a  fight.  General  Mur- 
guia  arrived  at  Mexico  City  on  May  5 
to  assume  charge  of  the  defense  of  the 
capital,  the  revolutionary  government  of 
Sonora  having  refused  Carranza's  early 
overtures  of  peace.  It  was  authorita- 
tively stated  in  Washington  on  May  2 
that  the  only  basis  of  peace  which  the 
Mexican  revolutionists  would  entertain 
was  the  elimination  of  Carranza  from 
position  and  power  in  Mexico. 

With  half  of  Carranza's  territory  in 
their  hands  the  leaders  of  the  revolution 
considered  it  time  to  organize  the  Pro- 
visional    Government     more     definitely. 


OVERTHROW  OF  THE  CARRANZA  GOVERNMENT 


411 


II 


Governor  Adolfo  de  la  Huerta  of  Sonora 
— no  relation  of  the  former  Mexican 
President — was  continued  in  temporary 
power.  General  P.  Elias  Calles  was 
named  Minister  of  War  and  General  Sal- 
vdor  Alvarado  Minister  of  Finance  at 
a  meeting  held  at  Naco  on  May  4.  Gen- 
eral Rubio,  Governor  of  Michoacan,  was 
designated  as  Minister  of  Communicg,- 
tions,  and  Governor  Enrique  Estrada  of 
Zacatecas  Minister  of  Agriculture.  They 
decided  to  ask  Serior  Alberto  Pani,  Mexi- 
can Minister  to  France  under  Carranza, 
to  be  Minister  of  Industry  and  Com- 
merce, provided  he  would  accept  the  pro- 
gram of  the  revolution. 

General  Pablo  Gonzalez,  regarded  as 
the  stanchest  supporter  of  Carranza, 
secretly  left  the  capital.  Reappearing 
a  few  miles  east  of  the  city  with  two 
regiments  of  troops  he  joined  the  revo- 
lution and  cut  the  railroad  to  Vera  Cruz. 
This  closed  any  chance  of  Carranza  es- 
caping from  the  country  in  that  direc- 
tion, although  one  route  through  the 
Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  into  Guatemala 
was  believed  to  be  still  practicable.  De- 
velopment of  the  revolution  was  so  rapid 
it  became  generally  recognized  that  Car- 
ranza could  no  longer  retain  power.  The 
Federal  forces  rarely  offered  battle  and 
were  hourly  deserting  to  the  revolution. 

President  Carranza  on  May  5  issued  a 
manifesto  to  the  people  of  Mexico,  draw- 
ing parallels  between  the  revolts  of 
former  President  Huerta  and  that  of 
Obregon  and  Gonzales.  He  promised  to 
make  every  effort  to  prevent  the  coun- 
try falling  into  the  hands  of  the  leaders 
of  the  revolution,  predicting  that,  if  it 
did,  there  would  be  further  bloodshed 
caused  by  these  leaders'  disputes.  He 
refused  to  suiTender  office  until  the 
rebels  were  defeated  and  then  only  to 
whoever  should  be  legally  chosen  to 
succeed  him.  He  called  upon  the  army 
to  remain  loyal  and  upon  the  Mexican 
people  to  furnish  new  troops. 

On  the  following  day  the  Federal  gar- 
rison at  Vera  Cruz  revolted  and  left  the 
city  and  the  State  Government  at  Cor- 
doba moved  into  it.  The  Pan-American 
railway  to  the  border  of  Guatemala  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  revolutionists. 

On  Friday,  May  7,  it  was  reported 
that    Carranza   had    secretly   fled    from 


Mexico  City  at  1  o'clock  that  morning 
and  Luis  Cabrera,  head  of  the  Carranza 
Cabinet,  was  said  to  be  in  flight  to  the 
United  States  by  way  of  Piedras  Negras. 
At  noon  the  same  day  the  revolutionary 
forces  entered  the  capital. 

General  Francisco  Murgia,  whom  Car- 
ranza had  called  to  defend  the  city  at 
the  last  moment  before  evacuating  it, 
axecuted  one  of  those  bloody  reprisals 
which  so  often  have  stained  the  pages 
of  history  in  similar  situations.  He  car- 
ried out  a  wholesale  slaughter  of  politi- 
cal prisoners  in  the  Santiago  Military 
Prison,  fifteen  Mexican  Generals  being 
among  the  victims.  This  cruel  act 
shocked  the  citizens  and  they  were  quite 
ready  to  welcome  the  revolutionary 
army  when  it  arrived.  A  contingent  of 
the  forces  of  General  Pablo  Gonzalez, 
commanded  by  General  Jacinto  Trevino, 
was  the  first  to  enter  the  city  on  the 
east.  Later  General  Alvaro  Obregon  en- 
tered with  his  troops  on  the  west.  Gon- 
zalez and  Obregon  were  rival  candidates 
for  the  Presidency,  the  latter  seemingly 
having  the  most  support.  Four  of  the 
American  destroyers  at  Key  West  sailed 
for  Tampico  on  May  9  and  the  super- 
dreadnought  Oklahoma  was  ordered 
south  from  New  York. 

Carranza,  with  Ygnacio  Bonillas,  ac- 
companied by  General  Murgia  and  three 
trains  full  of  troops,  left  the  Federal 
District  by  the  northern  route  through 
Tlaxcala  instead  of  the  southern  one 
through  Puebla.  Both  roads  form  a 
loop,  join  at  San  Marcos  and  continue  in 
another  loop  to  Vera  Cruz.  Troops  from 
Puebla  City  hurried  to  San  Marcos 
Junction  to  head  off  Carranza,  and  his 
trains  were  halted  between  Apizaco  and 
Humantla,  the  first  station  west  of  San 
Marcos.  Carranza,  at  bay,  determined 
to  give  battle.  General  Trevino  was 
sent  on  May  9  by  the  revolutionary  lead- 
ers to  try  and  induce  Carranza  to  sur- 
render, as  they  wished  to  save  his  life. 

Carranza's  forces  were  variously  esti- 
mated at  from  4,000  to  7,000  men,  and 
occupied  advantageous  positions  near  the 
railway  eastward  from  Humantla  across 
the  San  Marcos  Junction  to  Rinconada. 

The  revolutionists  soon  surrounded 
them  as  completely  as  the  broken  nature 


412 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  ground  would  allow,  and  fighting 
began  on  May  10.  Carranza  was  joined 
by  his  son-in-law,  General  Candido 
Aguilar,  who  came  from  Vera  Cruz  and 
was  allowed  to  pass  through  the  be- 
siegers' lines  with  his  staff,  but  with  no 
troops,  on  his  promise  to  tell  Carranza 
the  exact  condition  of  affairs  and  inform 
him  that  his  life  would  be  spared. 

But  the  President  still  stubbornly  re- 
fused to  yield,  and  furious  fighting  oc- 
curred on  May  12  north  of  San  Marcos. 
Two  of  the  Carranza  trains  left  standing 
on  the  track  were  burned,  and  the  revo- 
lutionists succeeded  in  dividing  his  army, 
pressing  part  of  it  north  in  the  direction 
of  the  State  of  Hidalgo.  Carranza  com- 
manded his  left  wing  between  San  Mar- 
cos and  Rinconada  in  person,  holding  a 
line  about  three  miles  long.  Every  as- 
sault was  met  by  a  perfect  storm  of 
rifle  and  machine-gun  bullets. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  Friday,  May 
14,  just  a  week  after  leaving  Mexico 
City,  Carranza  with  a  small  remnant  of 
his  force  amounting  to  about  a  thousand 
men  succeeded  in  breaking  through  the 
rebel  lines  south  of  Rinconada,  and 
headed  southeast  for  the  mountains  be- 
tween Puebla  and  Orizaba,  which  offer 
an  almost  insurmountable  barrier  to 
travel  on  the  western  border  of  the 
State  of  Vera  Cruz  below  the  pass 
through  which  the  railroad  runs.  A 
revolutionary  force  started  in  pursuit. 

General  Pablo  Gonzalez  in  a  mani- 
festo issued  on  May  15  announced  that 
he  had  definitely  withdrawn  from  the 
Presidential  race.  This  eliminated  any 
chance  of  friction  between  himself  and 
General  Obregon,  the  two  chief  military 
leaders  of  the  Liberal  revolutionary 
party.  General  Obregon  is  the  only  re- 
maining Presidential  candidate,  unless 
Ygnacio  Bonillas  should  return,  which 
was  deemed  improbable. 

General  Candido  Aguilar,  son-in-law 
of  Carranza,  was  captured  at  Jalapilla, 
Vera  Cruz,  on  May  15,  but  was  reported 
two  days  later  to  have  escaped.  All  of 
the  members  of  Carranza's  Cabinet  were 
captured  and  sent  to  Mexico  City. 

Francisco  Villa  was  evidently  very 
anxious  to  join  the  revolution,  but  the 
leaders  were  decidedly  cool  to  his  over- 


tures. With  200  men  he  appeared  at 
Santa  Eulalia,  20  miles  east  of  Chihua- 
hua City,  on  April  26,  and  offered  to 
join  the  revolting  forces  if  they  would 
allow  him,  in  case  of  their  success,  to 
execute  any  of  his  enemies  who  might 


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GENERAL,  R.    PINA 

Commander  of  the  military  forces  in  Sonora 

that   started   the   Mexican   revolution 


be  captured,  chief  of  whom  was  General 
Escobar,  commander  of  the  Juarez  gar- 
rison who  defeated  Villa  last  June.  This 
cheerful  offer  was  refused.  Finally 
Villa  agreed  to  lay  down  his  arms  and 
turned  his  followers  over  to  General 
Ignacio  Enriquez,  revolutionary  com- 
mander of  the  Chihuahua  district. 

Only  three  States,  Chiapas,  Campeche 
and  Yucatan,  the  most  southerly  in  the 
republic,  remained  loyal  to  Carranza. 
Mazatlan  on  the  Pacific  was  finally  cap- 
tured by  General  Flores  on  May  10. 
Tampico  fell  on  May  9,  the  big  oil  works 
had  not  been  damaged.  Matamoras  sur- 
rendered on  May  14. 

General  de  la  Huerta,  recognized  by 
both  Obregon  and  Gonzalez  as  tempora- 
ry head  of  affairs,  summoned  Congress 
to  meet  in  Mexico  City  on  May  24  for 
the  purpose  of  appointing  a  provisional 
President  of  Mexico.  The  name  of  An- 
tonio Villareal,  who  presided  over  the 
Constitutional   Convention  of  1914,  had 


W  OF  THE  CARRANZA  GOVERNMENT 


413 


been  mentioned  in  this  connection,  as 
had  that  of  Fernando  Calderon,  leader 
of  the  Liberal  Party.  Whether  the  na- 
tional election,  which  legally  would  oc- 
cur on  July  4  this  year,  could  take  place 
or  not,  remained  undecided. 

CENTRAL  AMERICA 

GUATEMALA— Dr.  Carlos  Herrera, 
who  succeeds  Estrada  Cabrera  as  Provi- 
sional President  of  Guatemala,  is  an  influ- 
ential business  man,  owner  of  large  sugar 
and  coffee  estates,  and  is  very  well 
known  in  the  United  States.  Prominent 
in  his  Cabinet  is  Louis  Aguirre,  of  an  old 
and  highly  honored  Guatemalan  family. 
Both  are  warm  friends  of  the  United 
States. 

Casualties  in  the  bombardment  of  Gua- 
temala City  by  Cabrera  and  in  the  ten- 
day  revolution  which  ended  in  his  over- 
throw on  April  16  were  about  800  men, 
women  and  children  killed.  Guatemalan 
political  refugees  are  returning  to  the 
country  and  are  being  received  enthusias- 
tically. 

Cabrera,  the  deposed  President,  has 
been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  sitting  as  a  Supreme 
Court,  and  his  trial  on  five  criminal 
charges  was  determined  upon.  The  United 
States  has  made  strong  representation 
to  the  new  Government  to  spare  his  life. 

A  decree  was  issued  by  President  Her- 
rera on  April  25  providing  for  elections 
for  a  new  President  to  be  held  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  August,  and  a  call  was  issued 
for  special  elections  to  fill  vacancies  in 
the  General  Assembly.  Another  decree 
provides  for  the  allotment  under  certain 
conditions  of  all  public  lands  not  under 
cultivation. 

Salvador  and  Nicaragua  recognized  the 
new  regime  within  a  few  days. 

COSTA  RICA — Julio  Acosta  was  in- 
augurated as  President  of  Costa  Rica  on 
May  9. 

PANAMA — Some  stir  was  occasioned 
by  the  recent  acquisition  by  the  United 
States  of  the  major  portion  of  Taboga 
Island  for  fortification  as  a  part  of  the 
Pacific  defense  scheme  of  the  Panama 
Canal.  There  are  several  rugged  islands 
in  the  Harbor  of  Panama,  two  of  which, 
Perico   and   Flamenco,   already  belonged 


to  the  United  Stages.  Taboga  has  an 
elevation  of  935  feet  and  was  a  place 
of  country  residence  for  wealthy  P ana- 
mans.  Its  acquisition  was  very  unpopu- 
lar in  Panama  and  there  was  a  torchlight 


MANUEL,  ESTRADA  CABRERA 
Deposed  President  of  Guatemala 


parade  in  the  capital  on  the  night  of 
May  2  in  protest  against  the  transaction. 
General  Pershing,  who  was  driving  to  a 
ball  in  his  honor,  was  turned  back  by 
the  mob  and  forced  to  return  to  his  hotel. 
Mobs  threw  stones  at  Panama  officials, 
some  of  whom  were  wounded. 

The  matter  was  brought  up  in  the; 
British  House  of  Commons  by  Majo] 
Christopher  Lowther,  who  asked  whether, 
in  view  of  Great  Britain's  desire  to  pro- 
tect the  rights  of  small  nations,  a  pro- 
test would  be  made  against  the  "  seiz- 
ure "  of  Taboga.  Cecil  Harmsworth  re- 
plied that  it  did  not  appear  to  be  a  mat- 
ter in  which  the  British  Government  was 
called  upon  to  intervene. 

WEST  INDIES 

CUBA  is  having  the  novel  experience 
of  a  shortage  of  sugar,  and  the  price 
has  risen  to  24  cents  a  pound  retail. 
There  is  a  decline  of  117,000  tons  in  the 
crop,  which  amounts  to  3,850,000  long 
tons  this  year,  according  to  the  latest 
estimates,  whereas  a  crop  of  4,700,000 
tons  had  been  predicted.  But  the  main 
cause  of  the  high  price  of  the  staple  in 


414 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Cuba  is  the  European  shortage  of  500,- 
000  tons.  Buyers  from  abroad  bought  up 
almost  the  entire  crop  early  in  the  sea- 
son, outbidding  competitors  here. 

Final  plans  have  been  made  for  the 


CARLOS   HERRERA 
Provisional  President  of  Guatemala,  follow- 
ing  the   downfall   of   Cabrera 
(©    Harris  &   Ewing) 

inauguration  of  an  American  college  in 
Cuba,  to  be  known  as  the  Havana  Col- 
lege of  Business  Administration.  It  will 
be  a  branch  of  a  Boston  institution,  and 
there  will  be  an  interchange  of  profes- 
sors and  students. 

Cuba,   like   the   United    States,   is   on 
the  eve  of  a  Presidential  election,  and 


the  Republican  Party  has  nominated 
Senator  Maza  y  Artola  to  succeed  Presi- 
dent Menocal,  whose  term  expires  on 
May  20,  1921. 

HAITI  is  again  under  consideration 
as  a  new  naval  base  for  the  United 
States,  and  Senator  King  of  Utah  has 
returned  from  the  Caribbean  Sea  con- 
vinced that  Guantanamo  is  entirely  inad- 
equate for  the  requirements  of  the 
American  fleet.  He  proposes  that  the 
United  States  begin  negotiations  with 
Haiti  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a 
concession  at  Port  au  Prince,  which  is 
at  the  apex  of  a  huge  bay,  with  the  isl- 
and of  Gonaives  forming  a  natural  de- 
fense for  the  harbor,  which  is  200  square 
miles  in  extent.  The  project  is  likely  to 
go  over  until  next  year. 

JAMAICA  is  endeavoring  to  strength- 
en the  ties  which  unite  her  with  the  other 
British  West  Indian  islands  and  with  the 
empire  by  an  agitation  in  favor  of  pref- 
erential tariffs.  A  commission  was  about 
to  confer  with  the  Canadian  Government 
on  the  subject  at  a  meeting  in  Ottawa, 
and  was  instructed  to  favor  uniform  tar- 
iffs in  all  British  colonies  and  domin- 
ions, with  the  greatest  possible  exten- 
sion of  the  free  list,  especially  for  citrus 
fruits. 

Members  of  the  Jamaican  Legislature 
have  been  criticising  the  British  Con- 
suls in  neighboring  republics,  saying  that 
West  Indians  receive  no  protection  in 
Central  America  and  Cuba.  Induced  to 
leave  home  by  promise  of  high  wages, 
they  are  often  beaten,  shot  or  imprisoned 
and  have  no  redress. 

A  revaluation  of  the  land  of  Jamaica 
for  taxation  purposes  shows  an  increase 
of  £1,250,000  since  1911. 


Race  for  South  American  Trade 

Germany  Already*  a  Strong  Rival 


THE  United  States,  Great  Britain  and 
Gennany  are  engaged  in  a  race  for 
South    American    trade,    and    it    is 
growing  keener  every  month.     Italy  and 
France  also  are  in  the  contest,  but  the 
chief  competitors  are  British  and  Ameri- 


cans. The  Gei-mans,  who  remained  un- 
derground during  the  war,  have  ware- 
houses filled  to  the  brim  with  goods,  and 
are  beginning  to  exploit  southern  mar- 
kets and  at  the  same  time  endeavor  to 
sow   discord   between   their   British   and 


RACE  FOR  SOUTH  AMERICAN   TRADE 


American  rivals.  Some  months  ago  Ger- 
man salesmen  appeared  and  offered  to 
accept  orders  at  much  lower  figures 
than  those  quoted  by  North  Americans. 
They  are  said  to  have  booked  a  large 
number  of  orders.    Although  practically 


FRANKLIN  ADAMS 

Counselor    of    the    Pan-American    Union,   an 

office  just  created 

©    Harris    &    Ewing) 


no  merchandise  has  arrived  from  Ger- 
many, the  fact  that  lower  prices  were 
offered  has  tended  to  cause  some  dis- 
satisfaction among  South  American  buy- 
ers, and  the  cancellation  of  some  orders. 
Another  point  which  tells  slightly 
against  United  States  trade  is  that  Eng- 
lish manufacturers  are  extending  six 
months'  credit  as  against  three  months' 
allowed  by  Americans.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  establishment  of  American 
banking  institutions  and  American  Cham- 
bers of  Commerce  is  proving  of  great 
value  to  the  export  trade  of  the  United 
States. 

This  country  was  also  represented  at 
the  recent   Pan-American    Architectural 


Congress  in  Montevideo  and  exhibited 
specimens  of  wartime  construction.  Its 
relative  cheapness  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  some  of  the  larger  cities,  where 
it  is  planned  to  build  dwellings  to  relieve 
congestion  and  high  rents  in  the  poorer 
quarters. 

An  international  convention  for  the 
protection  of  trade  marks,  signed  on 
Aug.  20,  1919,  at  the  fourth  International 
Congress  of  American  States,  has  been 
ratified  by  fourteen  Governments,  the 
Peruvian  Congress  agreeing  to  it  on 
April  14.  It  provides  that  any  trade 
mark  registered  in  one  of  the  signatory 
States  shall  be  considered  as  registered 
also  in  the  other  States  and  is  designed 
to  nrevent  piracy  of  distinctive  brands. 

ARGENTINA 

The  Argentine  Government  on  May 
15  paid  off  in  New  York  City  a  $25,000,- 
000  loan  floated  five  years  ago,  and 
liquidated  an  equal  amount  in  London 
the  same  day.  The  United  States  au- 
thorities did  not  favor  extending  the 
loan  for  the  reason  that  Argentina  al- 
ready enjoyed  a  favorable  balance  in 
trade  operations  with  the  United  States, 
and  to  extend  the  loan  would  have  en- 
abled that  country  further  to  deplete  our 
gold  stocks.  Since  Jan.  1,  1920,  Argen- 
tina has  taken  approximately  $60,000,000 
American  gold.  It  was  stated  that  Lon- 
don bankers  advanced  the  funds  to  the 
Government  to  meet  the  loan  here  and 
to  liquidate  the  equal  amount  which 
matured  there. 

Argentina  has  reduced  her  wheat  acre- 
age this  year  by  12  per  cent.,  but  the 
coming  harvest  is  estimated  by  the  In- 
ternational Institute  of  Agriculture  in 
Rome  at  5,800,000  metric  tons,  or  16  per 
cent,  more  than  last  year,  and  43  per 
cent,  over  the  average  yield  from  1914 
to  1918.  Nevertheless,  the  price  of  wheat 
at  Buenos  Ayres  has  reached  the  un- 
precedented quotation  of  27  pesos  a  hun- 
dred kilogrammes,  or  about  $3.37  a 
bushel.  More  than  8,000,000  bushels 
were  exported  in  one  week  recently,  and 
it  is  predicted  that  Argentina's  export- 
able surplus  of  wheat  will  be  exhausted 
by  the  end  of  October,  two  months  before 
the  harvesting  of  the  next  crop  begins, 
unless  steps  are  taken  to  reduce  exports. 


416 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


This  the  Government  so  far  has  refused 
to  do.  Argentina  this  year  is  shipping 
wheat  to  Portugal,  Spain,  Egypt  and 
South  Africa,  besides  exporting  to  Italy, 
England,  France,  Holland  and  all  the 
Northern  European  nations  which  have 
formerly  been  supplied. 

Naturally  the  farmers  and  the  busi- 
ness men  generally  are  profiting  by  the 
rise  in  prices  and  this  is  reflected  in 
the  general  extravagance  of  those  fortu- 
nately situated.  The  season  at  Mar  del 
Plata,  Buenos  Ayres'  favorite  resort  by 
the  sea,  has  been  exceptionally  brilliant 
this  year.  Never  were  the  hotels  so  full 
or  the  cottages  so  occupied.  The  demand 
for  automobiles,  especially  American 
automobiles,  has  increased  fourfold  since 
1914  and  last  year  $2,711,232  worth  of 
passenger  cars  were  imported  from  the 
United  States  and  tires  and  accessories 
valued  at  $5,546,572.  At  the  same  time 
gasoline  has  gone  up  to  60  cents  a  gallon 
against  27  ^^  cents  before  the  war. 

A  factor  in  Argentine  trade  in  which 
the  United  States  admittedly  excels  her 
European  competitors  is  advertising  and 
the  Washington  Bureau  of  Foreign  and 
Domestic  Commerce  calls  attention  to 
the  admirable  medium  offered  by  Argen- 
tine newspapers,  which  it  considers  bet- 
ter than  those  of  any  other  Latin-Ameri- 
can country.  One  point  recently  indi- 
cated by  Carlos  A.  Tornquist,  Financial 
Commissioner  of  the  Argentine  Republic, 
who  lately  visited  the  United  States, 
works  to  prejudice  Argentinians  against 
merchants  here.  It  is  that,  while  Ameri- 
can banks  may  freely  carry  on  business 
in  Argentina,  no  Argentine  bank,  not 
even  the  great  Banco  de  la  Nacion,  can 
establish  a  branch  in  the  United  States. 
Signs  of  the  dissatisfaction  this  has  cre- 
ated is  shown  by  a  bill  introduced  in  the 
Argentine  Congress  to  impose  a  tax  of 
20  per  cent,  on  the  profits  of  all  foreign 
banks  whose  countries  do  not  extend  the 
same  facilities  to  Argentine  banks. 

BRAZIL 

There  is  a  shortage  of  farmhands  in 
the  coffee  and  grain  districts  of  Brazil, 
which  has  led  the  Government  to  au- 
thorize a  special  credit  of  $500,000  for 
the  transportation  and  care  of  immi- 
grants.    It  expects  to  provide  for  3,000 


Germans  and  2,000  immigrants  of  other 
nationalities  this  year  who  will  be  dis- 
tributed principally  in  the  States  of  Sao 
Paulo,  Minaes  Geraes  and  Rio  Janeiro. 
In  1918  there  arrived  in  Brazil  20,501 
immigrants,  more  than  one-quarter  being 
Japanese. 

As  in  other  countries,  the  standard  of 
living  has  advanced  rapidly  since  the 
war.  Before  it  nearly  all  the  musical 
instruments  sold  were  of  German  make 
and  of  cheap  grade.  American  pianos 
captured  the  market  during  the  war 
simply  because  it  was  impossible  to  get 
any  from  Europe.  By  reducing  their  size 
and  following  European  styles  they  still 
hold  the  trade.  The  same  thing  happened 
with  automobiles,  which  have  become 
very  popular  and  are  stimulating  the 
movement  for  better  roads. 

BOLIVIA 

A  commercial  treaty  was  signed  early 
in  April  between  Bolivia  and  China.  It 
was  the  first  treaty  in  which  China 
makes  no  extraterritorial  concessions. 

A  clever  financial  arrangement  has 
just  been  made  by  which  Bolivia  profits 
to  the  extent  of  $4,000,000  and  pays  off 
two  loans  floated  in  France  in  1910  and 
1913,  aggregating  56,603,000  francs.  The 
Bolivian  Government  borrowed  $10,000,- 
000  in  New  York  and,  owing  to  the  de- 
preciation of  the  franc  and  the  low  rate 
of  exchange,  will  be  able  to  retire  both 
loans  and  have  about  $4,000,000  left, 
which  it  expects  to  use  for  railroad  con- 
struction. In  return  for  the  $10,000,000 
loan  Bolivia  will  issue  fifteen-year  serial 
bonds  bearing  6  per  cent,  interest. 

CHILE 

While  the  trade  of  the  United  States 
with  Chile  as  a  whole,  especially  the 
northern  part,  has  been  vastly  benefited 
by  the  Panama  Canal,  the  cutting  of  the 
great  waterway  has  been  disastrous  to 
the  Chilean  port  of  Punta  Arenas,  on  the 
Strait  of  Magellan,  the  most  southerly 
city  in  the  world.  Statistics  just  received 
show  that  in  the  five  years  after  1913 
the  number  of  vessels  touching  there  de- 
creased from  476  to  99  and  the  direct 
transits  through  the  strait  fell  from 
10^  to  4.  This  has  been  partly  made  up 
'^ ;  the  increase  of  sheep  raising  on  the 


RACE  FOR  SOm 


AMERICAN   TRADE 


417 


Island  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  half  of  which 
is  Chilean  territory.  Exports  of  wool  to 
the  United  States  last  year  amounted  to 
$11,850,000. 

Chile  is  about  to  add  to  her  navy,  as  a 
result  of  negotiations  with  Great  Britain, 
the  dreadnought  Canada,  three  torpedo 
boat  destroyers  and  a  transport.  The 
Canada  is  one  of  two  battleships  built  for 
Chile  in  England,  both  of  which  were 
requisitioned  by  the  British  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war.  Chile  has  accepted  the 
destroyers  and  transport  in  place  of  the 
other  dreadnought. 

The  Presidential  election  will  take 
place  on  June  25.  Electors  will  be 
chosen  who  will  name  the  President  the 
following  month;  their  functions,  as  in 
the  United  States,  being  merely  nominal. 
The  President's  term  is  five  years  and  he 
is  not  re-eligible.  The  Allied  Liberal 
parties,  composed  of  democrats  and  radi- 
cals, on  April  25  nominated  Arturo 
Alessandri,  formerly  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior, on  a  platfoi-m  favoring  adminis- 
trative decentralization  and  compulsory 
arbitration  of  labor  disputes.  The 
Unionist  Convention  which  met  on  May 
4  nominated  Ruis  Barros  Borgono, 
President  of  the  National  Mortgage 
Bank,  as  its  candidate. 

Chile  has  come  out  best  in  another 
kind  of  contest — the  fourth  South  Amer- 
ican Olympic  tournament — which  closed 
at  Santiago  on  April  25.  For  the  third 
time  the  Chilean  athletes  were  victors, 
scoring  sixty-one  points  against  forty- 
three  for  Uruguay  and  twenty  for  Ar- 
gentina. 

URUGUAY 

Dr.  Baltazar  Brum,  President  of  Uru- 
guay, in  a  remarkable  address  to  the 
students  of  the  University  of  Monte- 
video on  April  21,  urged  the  formation 


of  an  American  League  of  Nations  for 
common  action  against  aggression 
threatening  any  of  them  from  outside 
and  for  the  arbitration  of  purely  Ameri- 
can disputes.  There  should  be  absolute 
equality  among  all  the  participating 
States  and  all  should  make  a  declaration 
similar  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  placing 
them  on  the  same  footing  as  the  United 
States  for  joint  action  against  European 
aggression  and  to  secure  the  solidarity 
of  the  American  Continent.  The  Ameri- 
can League  should  be  formed  without 
prejudice  to  the  League  of  Nations  and 
should  any  member  have  a  controversy 
with  the  League  of  Nations  that  member 
should  ask  for  the  co-operation  of  the 
American  League  in  settling  the  contro- 
versy. Following  this  address  a  dele- 
gation of  residents  from  the  United 
States  congratulated  President  Brum, 
and  the  Peruvian  Chamber  of  Deputies 
telegraphed  a  message  congratulating 
the  Uruguayan  people  and  Parliament 
upon  the  doctrine  of  American  solidarity 
formulated  by  Dr.  Brum,  saying  it  "has 
the  approval  of  the  honorable  nations 
of  America." 

There  were  some  critics  at  home,  how- 
ever, and  the  Pais,  one  of  the  principal 
Montevideo  newspapers,  severely  at- 
tacked the  President  for  his  speech.  Dr. 
Brum  challenged  Dr.  Rodriguez  Lar- 
reta,  director  of  the  Pais,  to  fight  a  duel. 
The  latter  replied  that  he  would  fight 
only  if  the  duel  took  place  in  a  foreign 
country,  as,  if  he  injured  or  killed  the 
President,  the  police  might  make  trouble. 
Thereupon  the  duel  was  called  off.  Dr. 
Larreta  was  codirector  of  the  Pais  with 
Washington  Beltran,  who  was  killed  in 
a  duel  by  the  former  President,  Jose 
Batlle  y  Ordonez,  as  noted  last  month  by 
Current  History. 


The  British  Empire  and  Its  Problems 

Increasing  Turbulence  in  Ireland 


ENGLAND 

THE  British  Government's  chief  prob- 
lems   during    the    month    under    re- 
view were  connected   with  the  new 
budget,  labor  unrest,  the  acute  housing 
situation,  and  the  strengthening  of  the 
territorial   army. 

The  new  Budget  bill  brought  in  and 
presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  on 
April  19  aroused  great  interest  and  wide- 
spread discussion.  In  introducing  this 
bill  Mr.  Chamberlain,  the  British  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  spoke  for  two 
hours  in  serious  mood.  As  a  rule  it  is 
the  income  tax  and  super-tax  passages 
in  a  budget  speech  that  create  the  great- 
est interest.  Mr.  Chamberlain  touched 
on  these  but  lightly.  There  was  evident 
relief  when  he  announced  that  there 
would  be  no  change  in  the  standard  rate 
of  6d.  to  the  pound,  and  the  labor  mem- 
bers were  all  attention  when  he  stated 
that  he  reserved  judgment  on  the  pro- 
posal to  levy  income  tax  on  the  profits 
of  co-operative  societies.  The  recom- 
mendations of  the  Income  Tax  Commis- 
sion, he  said,  were  to  be  accepted  in  their 
entirety.  The  general  scheme  of  income 
tax  reform  was  to  be  embodied  in  a  later 
bill.  Certain  income  tax  increases,  how- 
ever, were  enumerated  in  detail;  many 
large  increases  were  announced,  repre- 
senting a  total  of  from  40  to  60  per  cent., 
from  Jan.  1  of  the  present  year. 

Of  the  general  financial  situation  Mr. 
Chamberlain  spoke  hopefully.  The  huge 
floating  debt,  he  said,  was  the  worst 
feature,  but  he  hoped  to  be  able  at  the 
close  of  the  financial  year  to  apply 
£234,000,000  to  reduction  of  the  whole 
debt  and  £70,000,000  to  reduction  of  the 
floating  debt,  which  on  April  1  stood 
at  £1,812,000,000.  The  burden  of  meet- 
ing an  estimated  expense  of  £1,184,102,- 
000  on  the  budget  proposed,  which  asked 
only  for  £1,418,300,000,  he  said,  would 
be  terrific;  yet  it  would  be  a  heroic  ac- 
complishment, which  no  other  country  in 
Europe  could  contemplate.    Twenty  such 


budgets,  he  stated,  would  wipe  out  the 
entire  national  debt. 

The  housing  problem  continued  to  give 
solicitude.  A  White  Paper  issued  in 
April  recommended  that  raises  in  rent 
should  be  limited  to  40  per  cent.,  and 
that  a  time  limit  be  fixed  for  the  making 
of  repairs.  The  construction  policy  of 
the  Ministry  of  Health  was  the  object 
of  frequent  attack  as  extravagant  and 
unwise.  Mr.  A.  A.  Hudson,  K.  C,  former 
President  of  the  Tribunal  of  Appeal  un- 
der the  London  Building  acts,  estimated 
toward  the  end  of  April  that  there  would 
be  an  average  loss  of  £50  per  annum 
on  each  house  which  the  Ministry,  vested 
with  unlimited  powers,  was  constructing. 
This  loss  must  fall  on  the  taxpayer.  The 
causes  of  the  excessive  cost  were  two: 
the  obsession  of  the  ideal  of  the  Garden 
City  had  led  to  unnecessary  size  of  con- 
struction, and  detachment,  or  semi-de- 
tachment, instead  of  grouping  in  rows; 
and  no  attempt  had  been  made  by  the 
Ministry  to  keep  down  the  expenses 
either  in  the  case  of  the  local  authorities, 
the  labor  contractors,  or  the  laborers 
themselves,  who  asked  virtually  whatever 
salary  they  pleased. 

A  negative  side  to  the  Ministry's  pol- 
icy was  set  forth  by  John  W.  Simp- 
son, President  of  the  Royal  Institute  of 
British  Architects,  who  declared  that 
this  policy  was  likely  to  cause  wide- 
spread unemployment  in  the  building 
trades  and  to  affect  its  steadiest  and 
most  highly  skilled  artisans.  The  Min- 
istry, he  pointed  out,  had  prohibited 
every  kind  of  building  but  its  own. 

Dr.  Addison,  the  Minister  of  Health, 
in  laying  the  first  slab  of  a  block  of 
concrete  houses  on  April  24,  defended 
the  Ministry's  policy,  asserted  that  every 
effort  was  being  made  to  achieve  econ- 
omy, and  denied  that  the  Ministry  was 
causing  or  would   cause  unemplbyment. 

The  miners'  strike  was  settled  by  the 
miners'  acceptance  of  the  Government 
offer  on  April  15. 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


419 


Although  the  Government  had  made 
headway  in  the  formation  of  joint  indus- 
trial councils,  only  the  transport  work- 
ers had  welcomed  this  medium  of  arbi- 
tration, the  organized  trades  standing 
aloof  and  regarding  the  Government 
councils  with  clearly  shown  suspicion. 

British  foreign  policy  continued  to  be 
the  object  of  attack  by  leaders  of  the 
Labor  Party.  At  a  conference  of  dele- 
gates representing  169  trade  union,  co- 
operative and  labor  organizations,  held 
on  April  24,  Ramsay  Macdonald,  lead- 
er of  the  Labor  Party,  attacked  the 
results  reached  by  the  San  Remo  Con- 
ference, which  he  denounced  as  tempo- 
rary patchwork  and  futile,  and  declared 
that  if  labor  wished  to  govern  it  must 
create  and  follow  a  foreign  policy  of  its 
own.  This  policy  must  be  based  upon 
world  need  alone,  upon  world  independ- 
ence. 

A  significant  countermovement  was 
reported  from  the  Midland  counties  on 
April  26,  when  a  large  conference  of 
Unionist  workingmen,  held  at  Leaming- 
ton, launched  a  formal  revolt  against  the 
attempts  of  the  Laborites  and  Socialists 
to  capture  the  trades  unions  and  co-op- 
erative societies,  and  against  national- 
ism, socialism,  syndicalism,  and  all  the 
things  which  meant  the  destruction  of 
the  old  order  on  which  the  foundations 
of  British  society  and  democracy  re- 
posed. Similar  meetings  were  being  held 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  at  the  same 
time. 

The  Labor  delegation  charged  to  con- 
duct a  mission  of  investigation  in  Soviet 
Russia,  after  some  delay,  succeeded  in 
obtaining  passports  from  the  Foreign 
Office  on  the  authorization  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  with  the  consent  of  the  Su- 
preme Council  at  San  Remo,  on  April 
22,  and  its  departure  for  Moscow  was 
expected  soon.  This  delegation  was  com- 
posed of  representatives  of  the  trades 
unions,  the  Labor  Party  and  the  Inde- 
pendent Labor  Party.  The  object  was 
to  find  out  whether  the  Bolsheviki  had 
abandoned  the  Red  Terror,  and  whether 
they  had  the  support,  direct  or  tacit,  of 
the  bulk  of  the  population;  to  determine 
whether  Russia  was  in  a  position  to  ex- 
port goods,  and  to  what  extent;  and  to 
ascertain  the  condition  of  Russian  Soviet 


industries,  and  whether  they  can  be  run 
successfully  under  the  Soviet  regime.  A 
similar  labor  mission  to  Hungary  to  in- 
quire into  the  massacres  in  that  country, 
the  internment  camps  and  the  condition 
of  the  working  classes  was  projected  as 
soon  as  the  necessary  passports  could  be 
obtained. 

The  inauguration  ceremony  of  the 
British  memorial  erected  in  the  cemetery 
at  Zeebrugge  in  honor  of  the  officers  and 
men  of  the  Salvage  Corps  who  died  at- 
tempting to  block  up  this  port  on  the 
night  of  April  23,  1918,  took  place  in 
Brussels  on  April  25.  Representatives  of 
the  British  and  Belgian  Navies  were  pres- 
ent and  stirring  addresses  were  delivered. 
A  somewhat  similar  ceremony  occurred 
at  Antwerp  on  the  following  day,  when 
the  steamship  Brussels,  formerly  com- 
manded by  Captain  Fryatt,  one  of  the 
martyrs  of  the  German  U-boat  campaign, 
was  solemnly  handed  over  to  the  British 
authorities  at  midday. 

.     IRELAND 

The  Irish  disorders  continued  to  be  a 
grave  problem  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment, the  situation  becoming  rather 
worse  than  better.  The  fact  that  Eng- 
land was  facing  actual  revolution  in 
Ireland  was  evidenced  at  the  time  the 
Irish  declared  a  general  strike,  when  a 
whole  city^Waterf  ord — was  captured  by 
a  detachment  of  Irish  cyclists,  the  tele- 
graph wires  cut,  the  Government  build- 
ings occupied  and  all  municipal  functions 
taken  over.  In  the  latter  part  of  April 
the  murder  of  Irish  loyalists  went  oh 
unabated.  Attacks  on  person  and  prop- 
erty were  carried  on  with  virtual  im- 
punity, owing  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  organization.  The  policy  of 
besieging  and  burning  police  barracks 
scattered  in  isolated  parts  of  Ireland  was 
pursued  systematically  through  May,  and 
was  invariably  attended  with  success. 

The  British  Government,  on  its  part, 
gave  no  sign  of  weakening  and  mani- 
fested its  determination  to  fight  fire  with 
fire.  Repeated  Government  raids  on  the 
homes  and  haunts  of  Sinn  Feiners  were 
carried  out  in  Ireland,  netting  consider- 
able numbers  of  prisoners,  who  were 
placed  in  the  prisons  of  Dublin  (Mount- 


420 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


SEARCHING  A  CART  FOR  ARMS  AND  HAND  GRENADES  IN  ONE  OP  THE  STREETS  OF  DUBLi:: 

(©    Intern<itional) 


joy  Prison),  Belfast  and  London  (Worm- 
wood Scrubbs  Prison).  Wherever  con- 
fined the  Irish  nationalists  adopted  the 
tactics  of  the  hunger  strike,  which  they 
carried  to  such  extremes  that  for  the 
Government  it  became  a  question  either 
of  liberation  or  of  permitting  deaths  to 
occur.  Many  hungar  strikers  gained 
freedom  through  this  device. 

The  most  sensational  of  these  strikes 
was  that  of  some  150  political  prisoners 
in  Wormwood  Scrubbs  Prison,  London. 
Demonstrations  by  vast  throngs,  esti' 
mated  at  from  5,000  to  10,000  people  of 
both  sexes,  occurred  on  April  26.  They 
were  attended  by  scenes  of  great  emo- 
tional stress,  owing  to  the  report  that 
several  of  the  Irish  prisoners  were  in  a 
dying  condition  from  lack  of  food.  The 
surging  throng,  singing  Irish  songs  and 
waving  Sinn  Fein  flags,  was  kept  in 
check  by  police  and  military.  Newspa- 
per flares  were  lighted,  and  communica- 
tion was  established  with  the  prisoners, 
crowded  in  the  prison  windows,  by  means 
of  megaphones.  A  priest  recited  the 
"  Rosary "  in  Celtic,  while  the  crowd 
knelt  on  the  wet  grass.  Demonstrations 
and  counterdemonstrations  occurred  on 
the    following    days.      Serious    develop- 


ments occurred  on  April  29,  when  mount- 
ed policemen  were  obliged  to  charge  the 
rioting  mob  of  Sinn  Feiners  and  Loyal- 
ists. On  April  30  Irish  "  stalwarts " 
appeared,  wearing  steel  helmets  and  oc- 
cupying front  positions,  bending  all  their 
energies  to  the  protection  particularly  of 
the  Sinn  Fein  women,  large  numbers  of 
whom  appeared  in  the  crowd.  Mean- 
while the  men  within  carried  on  their 
hunger  strike;  several  were  at  death's 
door.  Declaring  then  that  it  was  unwill- 
ing to  make  martyrs  of  these  men,  the 
Government  released  them  in  batches  un- 
til all  were  liberated. 

One  delegation  of  Irish  Loyalists  from 
Southern  Ireland,  toward  the  middle,  and 
another  toward  the  end  of  April,  de- 
picted the  conditions  prevailing  through- 
out Ireland  as  little  less  than  appalling. 
Anarchy  and  barbarism,  they  declared, 
were  the  order  of  the  day.  Discussions 
of  the  Irish  situation  in  Parliament  in- 
dicated that  the  seriousness  of  the  ques- 
tion was  thoroughly  realized.  Mr.  Bonar 
Law,  the  Government  spokesman,  on 
April  27  announced  that  the  Irish  Gov- 
ernment had  been  instructed  to  prepare 
a  report  on  the  conditions  in  Ireland. 
Lord  Robert  Cecil  at  this  session  spcke 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


421 


422 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


in  strong  condemnation  of  the  vacillat- 
ing nature  of  the  Government's  policy. 
Law  in  Ireland,  he  declared,  no  longer 
existed.  There  had  been  sixteen  mur- 
ders committed  within  three  weeks,  and 
the  muider  record  w^as  steadily  rising. 

The  Irish  disorders  showed  signs  of 
crisis  around  the  middle  of  May.  In  a 
single  night  (May  12-13)  no  fewer  than 
fifty  police  barracks  were  attacked  by 
armed  bands  of  Sinn  Feiners,  captured 
after  pitched  battles,  and  many  of  them 
burned  to  the  ground.  A  score  of  in- 
come tax  offices  were  also  raided  and 
all  papers  destroyed.  New  attacks  oc- 
curred the  following  day. 

A  new  system  of  treating  Irish  politi- 
cal prisoners  through  a  special  judiciary 
body  was  adopted  by  the  Government, 
and  new  measures  of  control  by  military 
action  decided  on.  The  policy  advocated 
by  General  Sir  Nevil  Macready,  com- 
mander of  the  Government  forces  in  Ire- 
land, was  that  of  closer  co-operation  be- 
tween the  police  and  the  military.  Gen- 
eral Macready  favored  the  establishment 
of  military  posts  in  isolated  districts 
where  police  barracks  had  been  aban- 
doned or  burned  down.  Soldiers  were 
being  used  instead  of  police  in  the  first 
two  weeks  of  May  for  patrol  work  and 
for  checking  the  land  agitationists.  Cav- 
alry was  being  employed  to  prevent  fur- 
ther cattle  driving,  and  in  some  of  the 
western  towns,  where  disorders  had  been 
most  prevalent,  cavalry  contingents  had 
been  permanently  quartered.  No  evi- 
dence of  a  reported  dissension  between 
Lord  French,  General  Macready  and  Sir 
Hamar  Greenwood,  the  new  Irish  Secre- 
tary, had  been  perceptible.  Lord  Birken- 
head, the  Lord  High  Chancellor,  on  May 
13  declared  that  the  Irish  police  would 
be  protected  in  their  "  heroic  work  "  by 
the  armed  forces  of  the  Crown. 

Debate  of  the  Home  Rul^  bill,  which 
had  passed  its  second  reading  at  the  end 
of  March,  continued  through  April  and 
May.  In  these  discussions  the  Govern- 
ment made  clearly  manifest  its  determi- 
nation not  to  abandon  the  bill,  though  it 
was  admitted  on  April  22  that  conces- 
sions in  respect  to  Irish  control  of  cus- 
toms were  being  planned.  The  Irish  Na- 
tionalist members  on  May  1  repeated 
their  refusal  to  take  part  in  further  dis- 


cussions of  the  bill.  A  plea  made  by 
Mr.  Asquith  at  the  session  of  May  10  in 
favor  of  a  single  Irish  Parliament  was 
voted  down  decisively. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George,  on  his  return  from 
the  San  Remo  Conference,  April  30,  at 
once  took  up  the  Irish  question,  confer- 
ring with  Mr.  Bonar  Law,  Lord  French 
and  Lord  Lieutenant  Sir  H.  G.  Denis 
Henry  in  London. 

Some  eighty-seven  members  of  the 
United  States  House  of  Representatives 
on  April  15  made  a  formal  protest  to 
Secretary  of  State  Colby  against  the 
British  treatment  of  Ireland.  A  memo- 
randum was  sent  on  May  4  to  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  signed  by  eighty-eight 
Congressmen,  embodying  a  similar  pro- 
test. This  memorandum  was  commented 
on  by  the  London  press  with  resentment. 
Irish-American  feeling  was  also  shown 
on  May  6  at  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention held  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  when 
the  Sinn  Fein  organization  was  approved 
and  the  project  of  an  Irish  republic  eu- 
logized. 

SCOTLAND 

A  bill  providing  home  rule  for  Scot- 
land passed  its  second  reading  in  Parlia- 
ment on  April  16.  The  author  and  de- 
fender of  the  bill  was  Robert  Munro, 
Secretary  of  State  for  Scotland.  Its  an- 
nounced object  was  to  create  a  Scots 
Legislature  to  deal  with  purely  Scottish 
interests.  The  debate  following  the  read- 
ing showed  a  strong  current  of  opinion 
against  it  as  unnecessary,  and  above  all 
inopportune.  The  House  rose  without 
coming  to  a  vote,  and  the  issue  of  the 
debate  was  left  in  doubt. 

CANADA 

Announcement  of  the  completion  of 
arrangements  whereby  a  diplomatic 
representative  of  Canada  will  be  sta- 
tioned at  Washington  was  simultane- 
ously made  in  the  British  and  Cana- 
dian Houses  of  Commons  on  May  10. 
The  official  announcement  appears  on 
Page  544  of  this  magazine. 

For  the  Liberal  opposition  the  Hon.  W. 
L.  Mackenzie  King,  the  leader,  asked  that 
all  the  papers  relative  to  the  matter  be 
brought  before  the  House  as  early  as 


'HE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


423 


H 


possible,  which  was  promised.  Mr.  King 
expressed  surprise  that  "  the  whole 
transaction  is  finally  settled  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment and  the  United  States  Government, 
and  this  Parliament  has  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  giving  any  consideration  to  the 
question  in  its  far-reaching,  interimperial 
and  international  relations."  This  is  a 
feeling  that  seems  to  be  shared  by  a 
good  many  of  the  newspapers,  which  ex- 
press the  hof)e  that  now  that  the  Pre- 
mier, Sir  Robert  Borden,  has  returned  to 
Ottawa  after  a  prolonged  absence  in 
search  of  renewed  health,  there  will  be  a 
full  and  frank  explanation  of  all  the  rea- 
sons for  the  step,  and  of  the  attitude  that 
Canadian  Ministers  propose  to  take  in 
respect  to  a  number  of  questions  relative 
to  the  constitutional  relationships  of  the 
British  Empire,  which  are  to  be  dis- 
cussed at  a  conference  to  be  held  in 
London,  The  Toronto  World  remarks  in 
its  discussion  of  the  decision  to  send  a 
representative  to  Washington:  "  Nothing 
seems  plainer  than  that,  without  the  ad- 
vice or  knowledge  of  Parliament,  there 
is  being  set  up  at  Washington  a  sort  of 
diplomatic  entity  that  is  neither  fish, 
flesh,  fowl  nor  good  red  herring.  But  it 
is  said  to  be  an  authentic  portion  of  Ca- 
nadian nationality." 

Assent  having  been  given  by  the  Gov- 
ernor General  to  the  necessary  legisla- 
tion passed  by  the  Commons  and  the 
Senate,  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway  has 
become  Canada's  property  and  part  of 
the  publicly  owned  Canadian  National 
Railway  system.  The  country  is  now  in 
possession  of  some  22,000  miles  of  rail- 
road on  the  former  privately  owned  sec- 
tions, of  which  there  are  large  deficits 
to  be  faced,  an  estimate  for  the  year 
putting  the  aggregate  as  high  as  $47,- 
000,000.  The  Government  and  its  ad- 
visers nevertheless  hold  to  the  opinion 
that  with  proper  management  the  sys- 
tem can  be  made  to  pay,  and  a  good  deal 
of  rolling  stock  and  equipment  has  been 
ordered.  It  is  intimated  that  the  rates 
on  the  lines  will  be  increased.  This  could 
not  well  be  done  without  granting  simi- 
lar rights  to  the  Canadian  Pacific  Rail- 
way, which  will  be  the  only  rival  to  the 
Government  system. 

Lieut.    Gen.    Sir    Arthur    Currie,    In- 


spector General  of  th*e  Canadian  Militia, 
has  resigned  to  accept  the  principalship 
of  McGill  University  of  Montreal,  which 
had  been  tentatively  accepted  by  Sir 
Auckland  Geddes,  who  later  became  Brit- 
ish Ambassador  to  Washington.  The  an- 
nouncement was  reecived  in  Canada  with 
profound  interest.  The  incident  is  unique 
in  the  annals  of  the  country.  General 
Currie,  who  is  six  feet  four  inches  in 
height  and  built  in  proportion,  is  a  native 
Canadian.  He  went  to  the  World  War  in 
command  of  a  regiment  and  became  com- 
mander of  the  Canadian  corps,  directing 
its  most  striking  offensives.  On  his  re- 
turn he  reorganized  the  Canadian  milita, 
which  had  formed  the  nucleus  of  the 
Canadian  corps,  and  was  made  Inspector 
General.  The  General,  who  has  received 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
from  McGill,  is  not  a  university  man. 
Educational  circles  in  particular  are 
watching  McGill's  experiment  keenly. 

At  this  writing  it  would  appear  that 
the  Federal  Government  has  no  inten- 
tion of  taking  any  action  in  respect  to 
racing  and  race  track  gambling,  which 
was  recently  the  subject  of  an  exhaustive 
inquiry  by  a  specially  appointed  Com- 
missioner, Dr.  Rutherford.  The  Farmer- 
Labor  Government  of  Ontario  is  appar- 
ently convinced  that  nothing  may  be 
expected  from  the  Federal  authorities 
this  year  and  is  taking  action  itself  to 
get  more  revenue  from  race  track  license 
fees,  this  being  a  matter  coming  under 
its  jurisdiction,  while  gambling  is  not. 

Several  thousand  Mennonite  settlers  in 
Saskatchewan,  dissatisfied  with  the  at- 
tempts of  the  Provincial  Government  to 
get  them  to  send  their  children  to  the 
provincial  schools,  are  threatening  to 
emigrate  in  a  body  to  Missouri,  which 
State  they  claim  has  offered  them  the 
rights  and  privileges  they  were  assured 
they  would  be  allowed  to  enjoy  in  per- 
petuity on  coming  to  Canada  years  ago. 
Chief  of  these  is  instruction  of  their 
young  in  private  schools  under  the  direc- 
tion of  their  Bishops  and  in  the  German 
language. 

AUSTRALIA 

Australia  is  knitting  closer  her  bonds 
with  the  British  Empire  through  her 
new  tariff,  which  provides  for  three  sets 


424 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  rates — the  British  preferential,  to  be 
applied  to  imports  from  the  United 
Kingdom;  the  intermediate,  to  be  grant- 
ed upon  conclusion  of  reciprocity  treaties, 
and  the  general  rates,  to  be  applied  to 
all  countries  not  entitled  to  either  of  the 
other  tariffs.  It  is  stated  unofficially 
that  preferential  treatment  will  be  with- 
held from  British  dominions  with  a  lower 
economic  standard  than  that  of  Austra- 
lia. In  general  the  difference  between 
the  general  and  the  preferential  tariff 
is  10  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  and  between 
the  intermediate  and  the  other  two  5  per 
cent.  The  new  tariff  is  far  more  pro- 
tective than  its  predecessor,  one  of  its 
announced  objects,  as  stated  by  the 
Prime  Minister,  being  "  to  protect  indus- 
tries born  during  the  war  and  to  encour- 
age others  that  are  desirable  and  will 
diversify  and  extend  existing  ones." 

Australia  last  November  restricted  the 
importation  of  a  number  of  articles,  with 
a  view  to  giving  them  additional  protec- 
tion pending  the  preparation  of  the  new 
tariff.  These  restrictions  were  with- 
drawn on  May  13. 

Several  Australian  shipping  firms  are 
planning  to  build  a  huge  coal  and  oil 
bunkering  depot  in  Sydney  for  the  rapid 
supply  of  fuel  to  ships.  Steps  are  also 
being  taken  to  convert  most  of  the  Aus- 
tralian passenger  steamers  into  oil 
burners.  Experts  of  the  Anglo-Persian 
Company  are  busy  seeking  new  sources 
of  oil  in  Papua,  for  which  the  Australian 
Government  is  granting  authorization. 

The  House  of  Representatives  has 
passed  the  Labor  bill  in  favor  of  intro- 
ducing the  initiative  and  referendum  in 
Australia. 

With  the  view  to  assist  Australia's 
trade  and  industry  the  Government  has 
established  a  Board  of  Trade,  a  Bureau 
of  Commerce  and  Industry  and  an  Ad- 
visory Council  of  Science  and  Industry. 

There  are  fears  in  Australia  of  a  wheat 
shortage  next  year  owing  to  the  bad 
season  and  the  necessity  of  exporting  to 
Great  Britain  wheat  already  contracted 
for.  Steps  to  remedy  this  situation,  as 
well  as  the  wool  shortage,  proved  un- 
successful. 

Like  the  wheat  harvest  and  also  the 
wool  clip,  the  mineral  output  of  New 
South  Wales  is  expected  to   show  con- 


siderable decrease,  mainly  owing  to  the 
drought.  Many  mines  were  forced  to 
shut  down. 

Queensland  is  resorting  to  chlorine  gas 
as  used  in  the  war  to  rid  its  pasture 
lands  of  the  prickly  pear  or  cactus,  which 
originally  came  from  the  United  States, 
being  intended  for  use  as  a  natural 
hedge.  More  than  20,000,000  acres  are 
now  infested  with  the  noxious  growth. 

An  All-Australia  Peace  Exhibition  has 
just  been  opened  at  Adelaide,  South  Aus- 
tralia, which  is  the  most  comprehensive 
display  of  its  kind  ever  held  in  Australia. 
Goods  from  the  various  States  are  on 
view,  and  the  collection  gives  a  good  idea 
of  the  industrial  progress  made  by  the 
Commonwealth. 

NEW  ZEALAND 

Lord  Jellicoe's  appointment  to  be 
Governor  General  of  New  Zealand  in 
succession  to  the  Earl  of  Liverpool, 
whose  term  was  extended  to  cover  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  visit  to  the  islands,  is 
especially  pleasing  to  New  Zealanders, 
who  remember  his  two  months'  tour  last 
year  and  his  recommendations  for  an  in- 
crease in  the  Australian  and  New  Zea- 
land Navies.  This  was  followed  by  Great 
Britain's  gift  of  a  number  of  warships, 
of  course  not  entirely  disinterested,  for 
in  case  of  war  the  empire  would  have 
to  depend  largely  upon  the  New  Zealand 
Navy  for  the  defense  of  her  trade  and 
commerce  in  the  South  Pacific. 

The  National  Defense  League  recently 
organized  in  New  Zealand  is  another 
notice  to  the  world  of  the  unity  of  the 
empire.  General  Russell,  President  of 
the  league,  has  issued  a  statement  of  its 
policy  in  which  he  points  out  that  the 
world's  storm  centre  is  moving  eastward 
and  that  New  Zealand  as  an  outpost  of 
the  white  race  must  prepare  for  outpost 
duty. 

The  visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  co- 
incided with  a  railroad  strike,  but  it  was 
represented  to  him  that  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  in  finding  crews  to  take 
his  train  on  its  tour,  although  the  people 
in  general  were  deprived  by  the  strike 
of  railway  accommodation.  "  Then,"  said 
the  Prince,  "  I  will  not  ride  either,  for  I 
am  one  of  the  people  " — a  remark  which 
assured  him  a  hearty  reception  wherever 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


he  went,  especially  at  Auckland,  Welling- 
ton and  Nelson.  At  Rotorua  there  was 
a  picturesque  celebration  arranged  by 
Maori  tribesmen,  formerly  enemies  of 
the  British. 

Another  recent  visitor  to  New  Zealand 
has  been  Theodore  E.  Burton,  once 
United  States  Senator  from  Ohio,  who 
says  he  was  surprised  and  amazed  "  at 
numerous  manifestations  of  unfriendli- 
ness to  the  United  States."  A  New  Zea- 
land newspaper,  commenting  on  his 
statement,  says  that  the  people  of  the 
country  cannot  be  charged  with  being 
unfriendly  in  a  general  sense,  but  admits 
they  have  been  alarmed  by  the  threat 
they  see  in  the  Webb  act.  This  measure, 
the  paper  adds,  is  being  interpreted  there 
to  mean  that  American  manufacturers 
and  exporters  are  being  encouraged  to 
capture  foreign  trade  by  trust  methods, 
such  as  underselling  competitors  for  the 
purpose  of  gaining  a  footing  and  using 
freely  every  device  of  monopolistic  trad- 
ing, which,  if  practiced  in  America, 
would  be  punished  as  criminal. 

EGYPT 

Great  Britain  has  officially  recog- 
nized as  heir  apparent  to  the  throne 
of  Egypt  Sultan  Fuad's  infant  son, 
Prince  Faruk,  now  about  three  months 
old.  The  British  thus  far,  however,  have 
not  succeeded  in  conciliating  the  masses 
of  the  people.  Conspiracies  and  assas- 
sinations continue.  Two  British  orderlies 
were  shot  and  wounded,  and  these  at- 
tempts at  assassination  were  followed 
on  May  6  by  the  murder  of  a  Lieutenant 
by  four  "  Young  Egyptians  "  in  one  of 
the  main  thoroughfares  of  Cairo.  A 
bomb  was  thrown  at  Hussein  Darviche, 
Minister  of  Public  Works,  as  he  was  re- 
turning home  from  his  office  in  Cairo 
on  May  8,  but  he  was  unhuii;.  A  student 
standing  near  by  was  mortally  wounded 
and  died  the  next  day. 

A  serious  railway  accident  to  the 
express  train  from  "Vienna  to  Berlin 
recently  drew  attention  to  one  source 
whence  the  "  Young  Egyptians  "  are  re- 
cruited. Among  the  killed  and  badly 
wounded  were  a  large  number  of  Egyp- 
tian students.  Investigation  showed  that 
the  Nationalists  in  Egypt  had  arranged 


with  the  German  reactionaries  to  have 
sent  to  Berlin  all  those  Egyptian  stu- 
dents who  formerly  were  sent  to  Vienna, 
Geneva,  Paris  or  English  universities. 
At  Berlin  such  students  were  placed  in 
charge  of  Abdul  Aziz  Shavish,  a  Turkish 
official  conspicuous  for  his  enmity  to  the 
Allies. 

Aside  from  politics,  Egypt  has  been 
prospering  as  never  before.  Egypt's 
revenue  receipts  for  the  fiscal  year  1919- 
1920  have  been  so  large  that  instead  of 
an  expected  deficit  of  $7,750,000  there 
will  be  a  surplus  of  $15,000,000.  Illiter- 
ate natives  have  made  thousands  of 
pounds  and  mortgage  loans  have  been 
reduced  from  $'200,000,000  to  $140,000,- 
000.  The  production  of  cotton  was  stim- 
ulated greatly  by  the  war  and  Egypt 
built  up  a  large  favorable  trade  balance. 
One  reason  why  food  is  so  dear  in  Egypt 
is  that  farmers  have  been  rooting  up 
cereals  to  plant  cotton.  General  Allenby 
has  issued  orders  that  cultivators  doing 
this  shall  be  fined  £100  an  acre  and  a 
restriction  of  the  cotton  area  for  1921 
is  under  consideration. 

UNION  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

General  Smuts  in  South  Africa  on  May 
17  was  still  holding  his  own  in  Parliament 
with  his  meagre  coalition  majority.  The 
Prime  Mmister  proposed  to  General 
Hertzog,  leader  of  the  Nationalist  or 
Separatist  party,  that  they  should  sink 
their  differences  and  a  "  best  man  gov- 
ernment "  be  formed.  General  Hertzog 
made  the  counterproposition  that  a  Pre- 
mier should  be  appointed  by  a  majority 
of  the  co-operating  members  in  the 
House  of  Assembly  and  that  the  co- 
operation should  be  limited  to  the  two 
parties,  nothing  to  be  done  in  Parlia- 
ment to  promote  or  counteract  the  seces- 
sion movement.  This  proposal  General 
Smuts  rejected  as  unworkable,  saying 
that  it  would  have  the  appearance  of  an 
anti-British  combination  and  a  return  to 
that  racial  policy  which  South  Africa 
had  outgrown.  Meanwhile  the  Assem- 
bly has  voted  for  the  extension  of  the 
franchise  to  women. 

One  of  the  best  indications  of  the 
progress  of  South  Africa  along  indus- 
trial lines  is  the  amalgamation  of  the 


426 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT  HISTORY 


Pretoria  Iron  Mines  with  the  Union 
Steel  Corporation.  Plans  have  .  been 
adopted  for  the  erection  of  new  blast 
furnaces,  fully  equipped,  with  coke  ovens 
and  with  a  by-product  recovery  plant,  so 
that  tar,  sulphate  of  ammonia  and  benzol 
will  be  produced.  Steel  furnaces  will  be 
installed  and,  in  fact,  the  company  will 


be  able  to  provide  everything  that  can 
be  used  in  the  way  of  iron  and  steel. 

There  is  no  shortage  of  sugar  in 
South  Africa.  The  result  of  the  crush- 
ing season  in  Natal  shows  the  greatest 
output  so  far  recorded,  about  185,000 
tons  of  manufactured  sugar,  compared 
with   155,000  last  year. 


The  Latin  Nations  of  Europe 

Cabinet  Changes  in  Italy  and  Spain 


FRANCE 

ASIDE  from  paramount  international 
J^\_  issues,  which  are  described  else- 
where, the  most  important  event 
for  France  was  a  series  of  strikes  in 
nearly  every  department  of  industry, 
from  mining  to  transportation.  The  Bol- 
shevist leaders,  beginning  with  May  1 
for  a  great  general  strike,  launched  sev- 
eral waves  of  attack  against  the  so-called 
"  capitalist "  Government. 

Few  unions  responded  to  the  call  for  a 
walkout  on  May  1,  except  as  a  matter  of 
demonstration  in  the  principal  cities,  and 
in  Paris  three  persons  were  killed  owing 
to  an  attack  on  students  who  had  at- 
tempted to  keep  the  bus  lines  running. 
Then  the  General  Federation,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  extremists  of  the  Railway 
Federation,  called  a  general  strike  for 
May  3.  This  was  responded  to  by  20  per 
cent,  of  the  railway  workers  and  the 
sailors  and  dockmen  at  Marseilles  and 
Havre.  On  May  6  this  strike  extended 
to  the  metal  workers  of  the  Department 
of  the  Seine.  So  the  strikes  gradually 
spread,  in  some  cases  only  amounting 
to  one  or  two  days  of  demonstration, 
with  no  claims  against  employers,  but 
all  with  the  aim  of  attaining  the  over- 
throw of  the  Government  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  administration  controlled 
by  the  proletariat. 

On  May  11  the  Government  announced 
its  determination  to  dissolve  the  General 
Federation  of  Labor  by  virtue  of  Arti- 
cles III.,  V.  and  IX.  of  the  law  of  March 
28,  1884,  which  lays  down  the  exclusive 
rights  of  syndicates  and  unions  to  mere 


study  of  the  defense  of  their  economic  in- 
terests. With  this  threat  no  more  unions 
obeyed  the  dictates  of  the  General  Fed- 
eration, and  by  May  16  the  Government 
looked  for  normal  conditions  within  a 
few  days.  Meanwhile,  the  activities  of 
the  extremists,  growing  more  and  more 
unpopular  with  the  general  public,  had 
cost  the  country  some  $20,000,000  in  prod- 
ucts and  the  workers  little  less  in  wages. 

The  stories  of  alleged  atrocities  prac- 
ticed by  the  French  black  troops  at 
Frankfort,  which  originally  appeared  in 
the  London  labor  organ.  The  Daily  Her- 
ald, reached  Berlin  in  the  first  week  in 
May,  and  were  set  forth  as  truth  by 
their  own  discovery  in  the  Socialist  Vor- 
waerts  and  other  papers.  On  May  8  Pre- 
mier Millerand  made  a  formal  denial  of 
the  allegations,  which  had  meanwhile 
obtained  the  support  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment; he  added  that  all  black  troops 
had  been  withdrawn  from  the  occupied 
Rhine  zone.  The  General  Staff  completed 
its  plans  to  keep  a  standing  army  of  700,- 
000^  men  until  Germany  should  have  ex- 
ecuted the  terms  of  the  Versailles  Treaty. 

The  tension  produced  by  the  Govern- 
ment's announcement  that  France  was 
absolutely  dependent  upon  Germany  for 
potash,  iron,  coke  and  textiles  was  re- 
lieved by  the  discovery  of  extensive  phos- 
phate deposits  as  well  as  oil  fields  in 
French  Morocco. 

On  April  23  the  Chamber  adopted  an 
amendment  to  the  new  tax  bill  taxing 
business  transfers,  which,  it  was  said, 
would  produce  a  revenue  of  5,000,000,000 
francs  per  annum. 


WHEN  A  NEW  AMBASSADOR  ARRIVES   IN   SPAIN  THE   KING'S   CARRIAGES   ARE  PLACED 

AT  HIS  DISPOSAL.     IN  THIS  PICTURE  THE   FRENCH  AMBASSADOR  IS  ABOUT  TO  PRESENT 

HIS    CREDENTIALS    AT   THE    SPANISH    COURT 

(©    International) 


SPAIN 

On  May  4  Eduardo  Dato,  former  Pre- 
mier and  Liberal  leader,  was  invited  to 
form  a  new  Cabinet  by  King  Alfonso, 
which  he  did  as  follows,  with  himself  as 
Premier  and  with  the  portfolios  of  War 
and  Navy,  for  the  first  time,  in  civilian 
hands : 

Marquis  de  Lema Foreign  Affairs. 

Montijo Justice. 

Francisco  Bergamin Interior. 

Count  de  Bugallal Finance. 

Jose  Chacon Marine. 

Abilio  Calderon Public   Works. 

Visconde  d'Eza Food. 

Uncertain War. 

No  unusual  incident  had  led  to  the  res- 
ignation of  the  Salazar  Coalition  Cabinet, 
which  had  retired  on  April  28;  it  had 
merely  completed  its  task  by  passing  the 
budget  by  a  large  majority  in  both  Cham- 
bers. But  all  parties  attached  great  im- 
portance to  the  period  which  followed,  as 
it  was  felt  that,  unless  a  homogeneous 
Government  were  quickly  formed,  the 
King  might  exercise  his  prerogative  in 
the  unusual  circumstances. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
Cortes  the  leaders  freely  expressed  them- 
selves in  words  which  are  usually  said  to 


the  King  in  private,  so  as  to  reassure 
the  public  if  not  his  Majesty.  The  Con- 
servatives declared  themselves  united  and 
ready  to  assume  office;  so  did  the  Lib- 
erals; the  Reformists  promised  a  demo- 
cratic program,  but  declined  to  support 
a  Liberal  Government.  The  Radical  Re- 
publicans, by  the  voice  of  Sefior  Lerroux, 
declared  themselves  tired  of  maintaining 
an  isolated  Opposition,  and  expressed 
themselves  ready  to  support  any  pro- 
gram "  without  furling  the  Republican 
flag,  and  so  usefully  that  the  King  would 
come  to  us  without  bitterness."  It  was 
Sefior  Lerroux  who  said  this,  and  he 
added  significantly: 

Who  can  say,  if,  some  day,  interposing- 
myself  between  your  impotency  and  an- 
archy, I  will  not  be  the  means,  through 
the  medium  of  a  republic,  of  saving  Spain? 

There  had  been  turbulent  scenes  in  the 
Spanish  Cortes  on  April  20.  Then,  as 
just  twelve  months  before,  the  Deputies 
of  the  prosperous  Basque  provinces  were 
reproaching  the  Government  with  having 
tried  to  curb  their  prosperity  for  the 
benefit  of,  drowsy  Andalusia;  those  of 
Catalonia  still  demanded  political  au- 
tonomy;  the  Government  was  still  pre- 


428 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


sen  ting  projects  to  curb  the  Employers* 
Association  on  one  hand  and  the  Gen- 
eral Federation  of  Labor  on  the  other; 
the  budget  was  still  being  debated;  the 
censor  was  still  active. 

The  usual  number  of  strikes  occurred, 
suddenly  begun  and  as  suddenly  ended, 
all  apparently  without  any  political  or 
economic  reason.  From  April  27  until 
April  30  a  strike  tied  up  Saragossa,  fol- 
lowed by  the  arrest  of  fifteen  leaders; 
on  May  2  in  Valencia  the  same  thing  was 
repeated,  with  the  arrest  of  sixty-five 
Syndicalists  and  the  wounding  of  three 
by  the  new  Security  Police. 

In  the  political  field  the  Spanish  So- 
cialists definitely  split  on  April  25,  divid- 
ing just  as  they  had  done  in  other  coun- . 
tries  between  Communists,  who  demand 
the  introduction  of  Soviet  forms  of  Gov- 
ernment, and  Moderates,  who  follow  the 
old  political  lines.  On  May  9  the  Gov- 
ernment was  strengthened  by  the  an- 
nouncement that  Premier  Date's  Cabinet 
would  enjoy  the  support  of  the  groups 
of  the  Conservative  Party  headed  by  for- 
mer Premier  Maura  and  Juan  Enrique 
Cierva,  despite  the  fact  that  the  Minis- 
try is  made  up  solely  from  the  members 
of  the  Liberal  Conservative  group.  Then 
both  leaders  published  manifestoes,  de- 
claring that  they  and  their  followers 
would  do  everything  in  their  power  to 
further  the  Premier's  efforts  to  preserve 
public  order,  and  would  also  aid  him  in 
constructive  legislation. 

On  May  7  the  old  wireless  service  be- 
tween Jaen  and  Nauen,  near  Berlin, 
which  so  well  served  German  propaganda 
during  the  war,  was  re-established  for 
commercial  purposes. 

By  the  law  of  July,  1918,  the  press  was 
to  receive  Government  financial  aid  on 
account  of  the  rising  price  of  paper.  El 
Sol,  a  Liberal  organ,  alone  declined  to 
avail  itself  of  the  privilege.  In  a  recent 
speech  in  the  Cortes  Seiior  Prieto  dem- 
onstrated what  such  a  system  was  cost- 
ing the  taxpayers,  who,  however,  could 
still  buy  papers  of  six  or  ten  pages  at 
the  old  prices  of  one  or  two  cents  a  copy. 
It  was  charged  that  the  constantly  aug- 
menting price  of  print  paper  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  monopoly  of  manufac- 
ture was  held  by  La  Papelera,  which  had 


found  it  profitable  to  export  much  paper. 
Bills  were  introduced  to  lower  the  duty 
on  imported  paper,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
to  place  a  qualified  embargo  on  exporting 
the  home  product,  on  the  other. 

Spain,  which  already  had  a  Beggars* 
Court,  opened  its  first  Children's  Court 
at  Bilbao  May  10. 

The  press  took  up  the  Socialist  pro- 
posal for  the  State  to  purchase  the  hunt- 
ing lands  of  the  grandees  and  turn  them 
over  to  the  poor  for  cultivation  on  the 
co-operative  plan. 

PORTUGAL 

In  Portugal  Colonel  Baptista's  Cab- 
inet, which  had  rapidly  become  known 
as  the  "  Government  of  conciliation,"  is- 
sued a  general  amnesty  in  a  firm,  un- 
compromising proclamation.  A  letter 
from  former  King  Manoel  congratulating 
the  Government,  but  advising  it  to  go 
further,  was  circulated.  In  the  115 
months  of  Republican  rule  there  had  been 
366  Governments.  The  time  had  come  to 
call  a  halt.  Manoel  wrote  from  his  exile 
in  England: 

Were  all.  Royalists  and  Republicans 
alike,  to  renounce  a  little  of  their  narrow- 
ness and  frankly  meet  on  the  common 
ground  of  suppressing  international  agi- 
tators and  co-operating  with  Great  Brit- 
ain in  her  sincere  desire  to  see  Portugal 
and  Portuguese  trade  flourishing  and  sta- 
ble, who  knows  to  what  heights  Portu- 
gal's fortunes  might  not  yet  soar? 

And  if  it  is  said  that  this  wish  is  not 
altogether  disinterested,  so  much  the  bet- 
ter for  Portugal,  because  that  co-opera- 
tion is  the  best  in  which  both  sides  are 
the  gainers.  The  British  Empire  is  giving 
Portugal  a  great  opportunity  to  realize 
her  share  in  the  victory  of  the  war.  She 
may  never  have  such  another. 

ITALY 

By  a  snap  vote  on  a  question  of  posts 
and  telegraphs  on  May  11,  in  which 
the  Catholics  joined  the  Socialists 
against  the  Government,  Signor  Nitti, 
who  had  succeeded  Orlando  in  June,  1919, 
was  defeated  by  193  to  112,  and  at  once 
resigned  with  his  colleagues.  Following 
the  adverse  vote,  Signor  Nitti,  who  was 
not  only  Premier  but  also  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  made  a  motion  to  adjourn 
the  Chamber  until  the  Ministerial  crisis 
had  been  adjusted.  This  motion  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  225  to  126. 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


429 


m 


Signor  Nitti  received  the  mandate  of 
the  King  and  the  Chamber  last  Summer 
in  the  hope  that  he  would   be  able  to 
adjust  the  Adriatic  problem   and  bring 
rder   out   of   the   chaotic    economic    in- 
emal    conditions.     The    November   gen- 
eral  elections   complicated   his    position, 
or   then    the   new    Catholic    Party,    the 
artito    Popolare,    came    into    existence 
ith  101  seats  out  of  a  total  of  508,  and 
e   Socialists,   owing   to   the   apathy   of 
e  bourgeoisie,  made  great  gains,  reg- 
tering  156  Deputies. 
By  the  reconstruction  of  his  Cabinet 
March  Signor  Nitti  had  hoped  to  give 
portfolios    to    both    Catholics    and    So- 
ialists,  and  so  count  on  the  support  of 
oth  these  organized  parties,  as  he  had 
ittle  to  hope  from  the  usual  Government 
factions — Liberals,     Radicals,     Constitu- 
tionalists, Reformers  and  Nationalists — 
who    were     hopelessly     divided     among 
themselves.     But    no    Catholic    and    no 
Socialist  would  enter  his  Cabinet. 

Early  in  April  the  Popular,  or  Cath- 
olic, Party  held  a  convention  at  Naples, 
and  while  the  majority  under  Signor 
Meda  voted  to  support  the  Government, 
the  minority,  led  by  Signor  Miglioli, 
voted  to  support  the  Socialists  on  certain 
economic  questions.  The  Socialists  also 
held  a  convention  at  Bologna,  where  the 
Government  was  denounced  for  not 
hastening  the  re-establishment  of  rela- 
tions with  Russia. 

Thus  the  Nitti  Government,  the  Pre- 
mier being  able  to  count  on  neither  of 
the  parties  which  held  the  balance  of 
power,  was  doomed  to  defeat,  and  even 
as  early  as  May  6  the  press  began  to 
speculate  on  its  successor.  Signor  Nitti 
himself  favored  the  Catholic  leader, 
Meda,  who  had,  but  not  with  a  Catholic 
mandate,  been  Minister  of  Finance  in  the 
short-lived  Bosselli  Cabinet.  The  return 
of  Giolitti  with  an  official  Socialist  back- 
ing was  also  spoken  of,  as  was  that  of 
Tittoni,  who  could  control  a  Catholic 
majority  and  some  of  the  factions  of  the 
lesser  parties.  Meanwhile,  both  the  So- 
cialists and  the  Catholics  formulated 
programs  of  internal  reforms,  some  of 
the  items  of  which  were  identical,  such 
as  peasant  ownership  of  land  and  free 
schools.     Finally,    on    May    17,    Signor 


Nitti  himself  accepted  the  King's  invita- 
tion to  form  a  new  Ministry  after  his 
Majesty  had  conferred  with  former  Pre- 
miers Tittoni  and  Orlando. 

Italy's  crying  need  was  still  coal. 
Though  she  received  73,000,000  tons  from 
England  in  1913,  she  only  got  35,000,000 
tons  in  1919,  while  her  home  consump- 
tion was  20,000,000  greater  than  in  1913. 
In  his  latest  report  to  Washington  the 
American  Trade  Commissioner,  H.  C. 
MacLaren,  particularly  emphasized  this 
point.  He  also  showed  the  country's  need 
for  her  industries  of  iron,  textile  ma- 
terials, and  cellulose.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  showed  that  the  trade  balance  re- 
vealed improvement. 

THE  VATICAN 

By  an  impressive  ceremony  unequaled 
for  magnificence  in  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  rendered 
unusually  spectacular  by  electrical  de- 
vices of  lighting,  Pope  Benedict  XV. 
completed  the  canonization  Joan  of 
Arc  at  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  on  Sunday, 
May  16.  Regarded  as  either  a  sorceress 
or  a  hysteric  for  nearly  five  hundred 
years  abroad,  but  in  France  as  a  national 
heroine,  whether  as  hysteric  or  a  mys- 
tical virgin  with  an  actual  message  from 
heaven,  the  Maid  of  Orleans  finally 
achieved  beatification  and  canonization 
through  the  following  chronology — from 
peasant  girl  of  Domremy,  savior  of 
France,  a  martyr  of  the  Church  and  for 
centuries  the  dismay  of  philosophers,  his- 
torians and  theologians: 
Born  of  devout  peasant  parents  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Domremy,  Jan.  6,  1412. 
First  heard   the    "voices"    imparting  her 

career,    1425. 
Declared     her     mission     to     save     France 

from  the   English,   May  28,   1428. 
Entered  the  town  of  Orleans,  besieged  by 

the    English,    April   29,    1429. 
Raised  the  siege  of  Orleans,   May  8,  1429. 
Defeated    the    English    Army    at    Patay, 

June   18,    1429. 
Present    at    the    Dauphin's    coronation    at 
Rheims    and    saluted   him    as   King   as 
she  had  promised,   July  17,   1429. 
Ignoring  her  "  voices,"  which  bade  her  go 
home,   she  continued  to  fight  the  Eng- 
lish   invaders    until    captured    by    the 
Burgundians    at    Compiegne,     May    24, 
1430. 
Sold     by     John     of     Luxembourg     to     the 
English  for  .$12,000.   November,  1430. 


430 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Burnt  at  the  stake  in  the  market  place  at 
Rouen  after  a  long  trial  conducted  by 
the  Bishop  of  Beauvais  and  the  Fac- 
ulty of  the  University  of  Paris,  May 
30,  1431. 
Vindicated    at   Rouen   by    orders   of   Pope 

Calixtus  III.,  1456. 
Michelet's  "  History  of  France  "  rehabili- 
tated her  in  the  eyes  of  scholars  and 
beg'an  a  revival  of  her  memory  which 
has   lasted   untifc  today,    1841. 
Her  statue  inaugrurated  at  Orleans,  Sept. 

13,    1851. 
The  435th  anniversary  of  her  deliverance 

of  Orleans  celebrated,  May  14,  1865. 
Anniversary     of     her     death     celebrated 

throughout  France,   May  30,   1878. 
The  Roman  Curia  took  up  her  claims  to 

canonization,    1875. 
Declared    "  venerable "    by    the    Church, 

1902. 
Her  beatification  approved  by  Leo  XIII., 

Jan.  27,  1894. 
Her     canonization     proposed,      February, 

1903. 
Ceremony  of  beatification  begun  in  Rome, 

Jan.    6,    1904. 
Beatification    completed    at     St.     Peter's, 

Rome,    April    18,    1909. 
Canonization    completed    at    St.    Peter's, 
May  16,  1920. 

At  the  ceremony  in  St.  Peter's  Diego 
von  Bergen,  the  new  German  Ambas- 
sador to  the  Vatican,  made  his  first  of- 
ficial reappearance  in  the  Eternal  City. 
Hitherto  he  had  been  the  Prussian  Min- 
ister to  the  Holy  See,  a  post  suppressed 
in  April.    The  Bavarian  Legation,  how- 


ever, was  maintained  at  the  Vatican,  as 
was  also  the  Nunciature  at  Munich. 

At  no  time  since  the  Papacy  was  de- 
prived of  its  temporal  power  and  secular 
sovereignty  in  1870  had  the  Vatican  been 
able  to  boast  of  such  a  large  Corps 
Diplomatique.  An  Ambassador  from 
France  is  expected,  and,  aside  from  the 
German  Ambassador  and  the  Bavarian 
Minister,  there  were  representatives 
from  '  Argentina,  Austria,  Belgium, 
Bolivia,  Chile,  Colombia,  Costa  Rica,  the 
Dominican  Republic,  Great  Britain,  Hol- 
land, Jugoslavia,  Nicaragua,  Peru,  Po- 
land, Portugal,  Russia,  the  Ukraine, 
Venezuela,  China  and  Japan. 

SWITZERLAND 

On  May  15-16  Switzerland,  by  refer- 
endum, voted  in  favor  of  accepting  mem- 
bership in  the  League  of  Nations.  The 
vote  of  the  Cantons,  or  States,  was  11.50 
for  and  10.50  against;  the  popular  vote, 
400,000  to  300,000.  For  the  League  the 
greatest  majority  was  polled  in  Vaud — • 
61,000  against  4,000.  The  German-speak- 
ing Cantons  polled  a  majority  of  10,000 
against  the  League. 

The  Tenth  Congress  of  the  Second  In- 
ternational, the  Socialist  organization 
against  direct  action  and  government  by 
Soviet  unless  reached  by  parliamentary 
means,  will  meet  at  Geneva  on  July  31. 


Radicalism  Defeated  in  Denmark 


DENMARK 

THE  results  of  the  election  of  the  new 
Danish  Folkething  (lower  house  of 
the  Rigsdag),  held  April  26,  show 
that  the  constitutional  crisis  in  March, 
springing  from  King  Christian's  dismiss- 
al of  the  Zahle  Ministry,  was  mostly 
mere  sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing 
except  a  noisy  minority.  Communistic 
socialism  has  signally  failed  to  gain  a 
foothold  in  Denmark,  as  it  has  in  the 
other  Scandinavian  countries. 

Out  of  1,022,870  votes  cast,  only  3,807 
were  polled  by  the  Danish  "  Left  So- 
cialists," comprising  all  the  Syndicalist, 
Communist  and  Bolshevist  elements.  The 
votaries  of  Lenin  and  Trotzky  thus  made 
a  showing  of  about  one-third   of  1  per 


cent,  of  all  the  Danish  voters.  They 
elected  no  members.  Election  day 
passed  without  disturbance,  even  in  Co- 
penhagen, where  the  demonstrations  fol- 
lowing the  dismissal  of  the  Zahle  Cab- 
inet were  largely  confined.  They  had 
not  affected  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  in- 
dustrial conditions  became  normal 
throughout  the  country  in  a  few  days. 
The  shipping  strike  was  broken  by  the 
Danish  seafaring  farmers. 

When  the  Rigsdag  was  convened  it 
took  only  forty-eight  hours  to  agree  on 
the  new  Danish  election  law,  which  it 
passed  on  April  11.  This  law  conforms 
with  the  amended  Constitution  of  1915. 
It  fixes  the  number  of  the  Folkething 
members  at  140,  who  are  elected  by  a 


RADICALISM  DEFEATED  IN  DENMARK 


431 


dual  method  combining  the  proportional 
representation  method,  which  Denmark 
adopted  in  1855,  with  the  single-member 
district  method,  which  has  always  been 
used  in  the  United  States.  The  same 
method  was  used,  by  way  o'  experiment, 
in  the  Folkething  election  of  1918,  to  the 
^'  listinct  advantage  of  the  conservative 
md  moderate  elements.  The  recent  elec- 
tion and  the  one  of  1918  compare  as  fol- 
tows: 

Votes.     Seats.  Votes.  Seats. 
1920.        1920        1918.     1918. 

?ft  Party   350,407       48       271,879       45 

Jonservative     Peo- 
ple's   Party 201,031       28       167,865       22 

)cial     Democratic 

Party   299,892       42       262,796       39 

ladical  Left  Party.  122, 144       17       195,159       33 
tradesmen's  Party  29,279        4         11,934         1 

In  the  recent  election,  besides  the  fore- 

;^going,     the     "  Free     Social     Democratic 

[Party,"   formed  by   M.   Marott,  the   So- 

tcialist  editor,  and  favoring  the  annexa- 

ftion  or  internationalization  of  Flensburg, 

.polled  7,255  votes;   and  the  new  "  Cen- 

Itrum "  Party,  formed  by  the  conserva- 

^tive  Professor  Birck,  and  opposed  to  the 

i.annexation     or     internationalization     of 

^Flensburg,  polled  9,055  votes.      Neither 

of  these  parties,  nor  the  "  Left  Socialists, 

succeeded  in  electing  any  members.    The 

"  Reds  "  lost  fifteen  seats. 

In  the  new  Folkething  the  former  Gov- 
ernment parties  (the  Radical  Left  and 
the  Social  Democratic  Parties)  have  only 
fifty-nine  of  the  140  members,  whereas 
the  former  opposition  parties  (the  Left 
and  the  Conservative  People's  Parties 
and  the  Conservative  Tradesmen's 
Party)  have  eighty  members. 

The  Liberal  leader,  N.  Neergaard, 
heads  the  new  Cabinet  as  Prime  Minister 
and  Minister  of  Finance.  Of  the  Friis 
Provisional  Cabinet  only  the  Foreign 
Minister,  Harald  Scavenius,  foraier  Dan- 
ish Minister  to  Russia,  is  retained.  I.  C. 
Christensen,  former  Premier  and  leader 
of  the  Left  Party,  is  Minister  of  Church 
Affairs.  The  other  Cabinet  members  are: 
Sigurd  Berg,  interior;  Jacob  Appel,  edu- 
cation; Svenning  Rytter,  justice;  M.  N. 
Slebsager,  traffic;  Th.  Madsen  Mygdal, 
agriculture;  Klaus  Berntsen,  defense, 
and  Tyge  Rothe,  commerce. 

Danish  land  and  sea  forces  occupied 
Northern  Slesvig  May  5,  the  first  plebis- 


cite zone,  which  was  won  by  Denmark  in 
the  voting  on  Feb.  10,  the  International 
Commission  having  determined  the  new 
Danish  boundary  in  April.  The  redeemed 
Danish  population  at  Hederslev,  Tondem, 
and  other  centres  made  their  advent  a 
festive  occasion,  with  great  rejoicing. 

SWEDEN 

The  Crown  Princess  of  Sweden,  wife 
of  Prince  Gustav  Adolph,  died  in  Stock- 
holm on  May  1.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Connaught,  and  before  her 
marriage  to  the  Crown  Prince,  who  sur- 
vives her,  with  four  sons  and  a  daughter, 
she  was  Princess  Margaret  of  Con- 
naught.  The  British  royal  family  held 
memorial  services  for  her  in  West- 
minster Abbey,  May  13. 

A  new  marriage  law  was  passed  by 
both  Chambers  of  the  Swedish  Riksdag 
on  April  17,  the  general  aim  of  which 
is  to  secure  matrimonial  equality  for 
both  sexes.  By  its  provisions  the  hus- 
band is  deprived  of  personal  guardian- 
ship over  the  wife  and  of  legal  right  to 
dispose  of  his  wife's  personal  property. 
The  wife  can  acquire  property  in  her 
own  right.  If  the  husband  owns  the 
family  home  he  cannot  sell  it  over  the 
children's  heads  without  the  consent  of 
the  wife.  If  both  parties  to  a  marriage 
desire  a  divorce  no  court  action  is  neces- 
sary; instead  of  bringing  suit  they  have 
only  to  go  and  register  before  a  Judge 
and  the  marriage  is  automatically  dis- 
solved.   No  publicity  is  demanded. 

Hjalmar  Branting,  the  Swedish  Pre- 
mier, though  heading  the  first  Socialist 
Cabinet  in  Scandinavia,  is  pursuing  a 
strictly  conservative,  legal  program.  He 
proposes  to  set  up  committees  to  inves- 
tigate the  practicability  of  socializing 
certain  branches  of  production  and  com- 
merce, looking  toward  industrial  de- 
mocracy. He  favors  restoring  trade  re- 
lations with  Russia,  but  announces  his 
intention  to  wait  upon  the  position  of 
England,  France  and  America.  Any  per- 
sons, as  delegates  from  Russia,  who  are 
found  guilty  of  incendiary  propaganda 
will  be  deported.  While  he  considers  his 
Cabinet  as  representing  especially  the 
working  classes,  he  holds  that  his  Gov- 
ernment is  for  the  whole  people  and  not 
for  a  party. 


432 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


HOLLAND 

Like  most  other  nations,  Holland  is 
suffering  from  a  lack  of  coal  and  is 
striving  to  get  a  supply  from  Germany. 
An  agreement  was  announced  at  The 
Hague  on  May  11  according  to  which 
the  Dutch  were  to  credit  Germany  with 
60,000,000  guilders  for  the  purchase  of 
foodstuffs  in  exchange  for  coal.  Ger- 
many agrees  to  buy  5,000  tons  of  wheat 
for  1,570,000  guilders,  also  large  quan- 
tities of  meat,  herring,  milk,  cheese  and 
jam. 

The  Dutch  are  also  buying  up  cheaply 
in  Germany  industrial  plants  with  a  view 
to  turning  an  honest  penny  when  ex- 
change improves.  One  large  steel  and 
iron  concern  has  bought  a  big  interest 
in  the  famous  Phoenix  Mining  and 
Smelting  Company  of  Horde,  a  concern 
capitalized  at  106,000,000  marks,  which 
controls  and  operates  iron  mines,  smelt- 
ers, steel  works  and  manufacturing 
plants. 

Holland,  however,  will  not  resume 
trade  with  Soviet  Russia  until  the 
League  of  Nations  acts.  Eight  Dutch 
steamship  companies  have  combined  to 
form  the  United  Dutch  Navigation  Com- 
pany, the  principal  effort  of  the  com- 
bination being  directed  to  opening  new 
lines  to  Australia,  the  Far  East  and 
Africa  and  to  control  trade  routes  to 
North  and  South  America.  The  new 
company  has  a  capital  of  200,000,000 
guilders,     and     includes     the     Holland- 


America  Line  and  the  Royal  Dutch 
Steamship  Company. 

The  fonner  Kaiser  has  been  more 
closely  watched  by  the  Dutch  authorities 
since  the  Junker  coup  d'etat  of  Dr.  Kapp 
in  Germany,  and  whenever  he  went  from 
Amerongen  to  see  his  new  home  at 
Doom,  which  was  almost  daily,  he  was 
always  accompanied  by  a  number  of  con- 
stables on  bicycles.  His  walks  at 
Amerongen  were  restricted  to  a  few 
paths.  The  Dutch  Government  is  taking 
no  chances  of  his  escape.  He  finally  oc- 
cupied his  new  quarters  at  Doom  on 
Saturday,   May   15. 

Holland  has  bought  the  small  vicarage 
at  Wieringen,  the  only  available  house 
on  the  island,  and  it  has  been  assigned 
by  royal  decree  "as  a  permanent  resi- 
dence for  the  former  Crown  Prince  of 
Germany."  These  precautions  are  the 
result  of  negotiations  with  Great  Britain, 
revealed  in  a  note  by  Lloyd  George  pub- 
lished on  April  27. 

A  regular  passenger  and  mail  air 
service  between  Amsterdam  and  London 
was  begun  on  May  17.  The  Royal  Neth- 
erlands Aero  Company  contracted  with  a 
British  company  for  a  service  three 
times  a  week.  If  successful,  it  will  be 
the  beginning  of  a  network  of  services 
with  Germany,  Denmark  and  the  whole 
of  Northern  Europe.  The  voyage,  which 
is  via  Ostend  and  Calais,  crossing  the 
narrowest  part  of  the  Channel,  takes 
three  hours,  and  the  passenger  fare  is 
$60. 


Belgium's  New  Prosperity 


BELGIUM 

THAT  Belgium  has  almost  entirely  re- 
covered from  the  ravages  of  war  is 
the  astonishing  statement  made  in 
London  by  Emil  Cammaerts,  the  famous 
Belgian  historian.  Antwerp,  he  said,  is 
in  almost  pre-war  condition.  About  70 
per  cent,  of  Belgium's  pre-war  industrial 
output  has  been  attained,  and  about  70 
per  cent,  of  the  machinery  stolen  by  the 
Germans  has  been  returned.  Clothing, 
shoes  and  food  are  cheaper  in  Belgium 
than  in  the  United  States,  even  without 
considering  the   difference  in   exchange. 


Cutlery,  however,  is  very  much  dearer. 
Coal  mining  and  transportation  are 
better  off  than  before  the  war,  the  num- 
bers employed  in  the  former  industry 
being  104  per  cent,  and  in  the  latter  107 
per  cent,  of  those  engaged  in  1913. 

One  of  the  chief  problems  confronting 
Belgium  was  the  enormous  amount  of 
German  paper  marks  in  circulation.  The 
Belgian  Government  has  been  gradually 
replacing  them  with  her  own  currency 
and  has  signed  a  convention  with  Ger 
many  for  their  reimbursement  on  a  very 
ingenious  scheme  which  is  expected  to 
extinguish  the  debt  in  twenty  years.  The 


BELGIUM'S  NEW  PROSPERITY 


convention  provides  that  in  exchange  for 
the  sum  of  5,500,000,000  marks  with- 
drawn from  circulation  Germany  will  de- 
liver to  Belgium  forty  Treasury  bonds 
bearing  interest  at  5  per  cent,  from  May, 
1921,  of  which  eight  bonds  of  50,000,000 
marks  each  are  payable  half-yearly  from 
May  1,  1920,  to  Nov.  1,  1923;  eight  of 
'  tOO,000,000,   due  from   May   1,   1924,    to 

rov.   1,  1927;   eight  of  150,000,000,  due 
the  next  four-year  period;   eight   of 

)0,000,000  ending  in  1935,  and  eight  of 
187,500,000  due  from  May  1,  1936,  to 
Nov.  1,  1939. 

A  Belgian  mission  headed  by  Emile 
Franqui,  Minister  of  State,  arrived  in 
the  United  States  early  in  May  to  obtain 
an  extension  of  the  $50,000,000  ac- 
ceptance credit  loan  maturing  on  June 
30,  but  bankers  here  say  it  cannot  be  re- 
newed owing  to  a  ruling  of  the  Federal 
Resei've  Board  against  such  acceptances. 
It  was  stated  that  the  loan  would  be  paid 
at  maturity  and  another  floated. 

For    the    fortnight    ending    April    22 


Brussels  held  an  iAdustrial  fair,  opened 
by  Burgomaster  Max,  in  the  park  op- 
posite the  royal  palace  and  in  the  Palais 
d'Egmont.  The  displays  amply  demon- 
strated the  country's  recuperative 
powers.  There  were  1,394  exhibitors,  of 
whom  1,051  were  Belgian,  201  French 
and  88  British. 

A  bill  giving  women  the  right  to  vote 
in  communal  elections  passed  the  Belgian 
Senate    by   60    to    33. 

Some  difficulty  occurred  in  the  latter 
part  of  April  in  the  occupied  districts  of 
Eupen  and  Malmedy,  said  to  be  en- 
gineered from  Berlin.  Among  the  dis- 
satisfied elements  were  the  clergy,  who 
wished  to  be  under  the  archbishopric  of 
Cologne,  and  other  pro-Germans  who  de- 
manded a  secret  referendum  as  to  their 
desire  to  see  the  whole  or  part  of  the 
territory  remain  German  instead  of  a 
record  in  writing  in  accordance  with 
Article  34  of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles. 
Troops  were  sent  to  the  district  and  re- 
stored order,  stopping  an  incipient  strike. 


Critical  Period  for  Germany 

A  Month's  Checkered  History 


GERMANY 

AFTER  the  Kapp  and  labor  revolts 
Germany  turned  mainly  to  a  con- 
sideration of  her  financial  and 
economic  affairs.  The  Government  en- 
deavored to  strengthen  its  position,  while 
the  reactionaries  and  radicals  vented 
their  disappointment  in  threats  of  more 
trouble  to  come.  Pomerania  and  East 
Prussia  were  still  hotbeds  of  anti- 
republican  conspiracy.  In  East  Prussia 
the  Junker  families  were  establishing  a 
feudal  system  of  rule  with  an  independ- 
ent Hohenzollern  grand  duchy  as  their 
immediate  aim.  Considerable  easement 
of  the  situation  in  the  French  occupation 
followed  the  withdrawal  of  the  37th 
Division  from  Frankfort  to  Wiesbaden. 

For  the  first  time  in  history  a  Hohen- 
zollern Prince  occupied  the  defendant's 
bench  in  a  criminal  court  when,  on  April 
16,  Prince  Joachim  Albrecht,  Baron  von 
Platen  and  Prince  Hohenlohe-Langen- 
burg  were  charged  with  having  attacked 


members  of  the  French  Commission  in 
the  Hotel  Adlon,  the  action  which  precip- 
itated the  Kapp  revolt.  A  quick  trial 
resulted  in  the  three  defendants  being 
fined  500,  300  and  1,000  marks  re- 
spectively. 

Dr.  Wolfgang  Kapp,  leader  of  the 
March  revolt,  who  had  fled  by  airplane 
to  Sweden,  was  arrested  at  Soedertilge 
on  April  16,  but  was  allowed  to  stay  at 
a  hotel  in  Stockholm  and  move  about  the 
city  in  the  custody  of  detectives.  He 
promised,  if  permitted  to  remain  in 
Sweden,  to  devote  his  time  to  scientific 
research;  but  in  the  event  of  his  being 
deported  he  asked  the  Swedish  Govern- 
ment for  a  passport  by  way  of  Holland, 
Belgium  and  France  to  Switzerland. 

The  first  specified  list  of  forty-six 
German  war  culprits  to  be  arraigned  in 
the  Leipsic  Supreme  Court  at  the  behest 
of  the  Allies  was  announced  on  May  12. 
The  accused  ranged  from  an  army  corps 
commander  to  a  simple  private.    Promt- 


434 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


nent  among  those  included  were:  Prince 
Ernst  of  Saxony  and  General  von  Biilow, 
charged  with  cruelty  in  the  Namur  dis- 
trict of  Belgium,  General  von  Kirchback 
and  Colonel  von  Seydlitz,  accused  of 
cruelties  committed  at  Kalisz,  Poland; 
and  the  submarine  commander,  Arnauld 
de  la  Perriere,  held  responsible  for  tor- 
pedoing Italian  vessels.  Three  other 
submarine  commanders,  Neumann  von 
Nostitz,  Werner  and  Patzig,  were  on  the 
list  charged  respectively  with  torpedoing 
the  English  hospital  ships  Dover  Castle, 
Torrington  and  Llandovery  Castle.  Gen- 
eral Stenger  stood  accused  of  ordering 
that  prisoners  and  wounded  taken  by 
his  brigade  be  shot;  General  Kruska 
with  spreading  typhus  among  prisoners 
in  the  Cassel  camp,  and  Dr.  Oscar 
Michelsohn  with  causing  the  death  of 
sick  and  wounded  in  his  charge  by  sys- 
tematic ill-treatment. 

The  opening  of  the  National  Assembly 
on  April  12  was  marked  by  the  presence 
of  Lord  Kilmarnock  and  other  allied 
representatives  in  the  diplomatic  box. 
The    President    of   the    Assembly,    Herr 


Fehrenbach,     after     reading     telegrams 
from  deputies  in  Silesia  complaining  that 
they  had  been   prevented  by  the   Allied 
Commission  from  exercising  their  man- 
dates,   energetically   denounced   the    En- 
tente   for    this    "  encroachment    of    the 
rights  of  the  German  people'^  representa- 
tives," and  requested  the  Government  to 
take  steps  to  end  this  state  of  affairs. 
Herr  Miiller,  the  Chancellor  and  Premier, 
then  spoke  from  manuscript,  saying: 
Only  a  fortnight  ago  I  described  as  tlie 
principal    aim    of    our    foreign    policy    the 
disavowal  of  all  warlike  views  and  war- 
like methods  in  foreign  policy.     We  know 
today    that     on     the     other    side     of    the 
frontier    a    similar    repudiation     has    not 
taken    place,     and    is    even    not    desired. 
French    militarism    has    advanced    on    the 
Main.      Senegalese   negroes  are   quartered 
in  Frankfort  University  and  are  guarding 
Goethe's   house.    Whence   has   the   French 
Government  found   its  pretext  for   invad- 
ing  German  territory? 

Thereupon  Herr  Miiller  proceeded  at 
length  to  defend  the  action  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  sending  troops  into  the  Ruhr 
region.  The  object,  he  said,  was  solely 
"  to  combat  the  rabble  which  had  liber- 


VIEW  OF  UNTER  DEN  LINDEN  AND  THE  BRANDENBURG  GATE,  BERLIN,  AT  THE  MOMENT 
OF  DEPARTURE  OP  THE  BALTIC  TROOPS  AFTER  THE  ABORTIVE  KAPP  REVOLT 

(©    Intei~)iational) 


CRi 


'AL  PERIOD  FOR  GERMANY 


435 


HEADQUARTERS  OF  FRENCH  FORCES  AT  THE  HOTEL,  IMPERIAL,  FRANKFORT.  DURING 
THE  TROUBLOUS  WEEKS  WHEN  THE  CITY  WAS  OCCUPIED  BY  FRENCH  COLORED  TROOPS 


ated  prisoners,  plundered  shops,  and  in- 
dulged in  numerous  murders  and  extor- 
tions." In  laying  emphasis  on  the  serious- 
ness of  the  revolt  the  Chancellor  pointed 
to  the  latest  casualty  lists,  whereby  15 
Reichswehr  officers  and  145  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  men  were  killed, 
with  6  officers  and  93  men  missing,  and 
19  officers  and  329  of  other  ranks 
wounded. 

President  Ebert  said  to  a  correspond- 
ent on  April  24: 

Democracy  is  safe  in  Germany  now,  but 
must  continue  fighting-  hard  for  a  long 
wiiile  to  maintain  itself.  *  *  *  Germany 
has  now  what  we  consider  the  most 
democratic  Constitution  in  the  world. 
Most  of  the  German  States  are  already 
on  a  democratic  basis.  The  task  of 
democratization  is  also  being  pushed  in 
the  Government  administration,  in  the 
civil  service,  in  the  army— in  fact,  all 
along  the  line.  *  *  *  The  failure  of  the 
Kapp  coup  proved  how  deeply  and  strong- 
ly young  democracy  is  rooted  in  the  Ger- 
man people. 

Dr.  Gessler,  the  new  Minister  of  De- 
fense,    attributed     Germany's     present 
troubles  largely  to  a  physiological  fact. 
In  an  interview  on  April  26  he  said: 
After  being  on   scant  rations   for   years 
millions  of  Germans  are  literally  stomach- 
sick,  which  causes  the  irritability  and  un- 
rest that  breeds  radicalism.     On  the  other 


hand,  many  Germans  are  genuinely  heart- 
sick over  the  collapse  of  the  old  order  of 
the  German  Empire,  the  monarchy,  and 
they  cannot  reconcile  themselves  at  once 
to  the  new  order,  the  republic.  The  revo- 
lution was  a  terrible  shock  to  these  people, 
almost  as  great  a  shock  as  it  would  be 
to  Americans  if  the  impossible  were  to 
happen  and  America  suddenly  became  a 
monarchy.  Yet  to  millions  of  Germans  it 
seemed  just  as  impossible  for  Germany  to 
become  a  republic.  *  *  *  The  idea  of  a 
democratic  republic  supplanting  the 
monarchy  had  made  them  heart  sick. 
This  explains  the  persistence  of  a  strong, 
active  monarchical  resistance.  One  must 
understand  and  respect  the  feelings  of 
such  people,  which  certainly  are  not  un- 
natural. 

Dr.  Gessler,  however,  took  an  optimis- 
tic view  of  these  conditions,  relying  on 
time  to  strengthen  German  democracy 
by  healing  the  heart-sickness  of  the  re- 
actionaries. He  was  also  hopeful  that 
improved  economic  conditions  would 
gradually  cure  radicalism. 

The  opening  of  the  campaign  for  the 
National  Assembly  brought  forth  some 
illuminating  features.  At  the  conclusion 
of  a  two  days'  debate  of  the  National 
Conference  of  the  Majority  Socialists  on 
May  7,  an  unbridgeable  abyss  was  proved 
to  exist  between  the  Moderate  and  Ex- 
treme   socialists:    the   weakness    of    the 


436 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


former  was  increasing,  and  bankruptcy 
loomed  ahead  of  any  form  of  practical 
socialism.  In  reference  to  the  latter 
Chancellor   Bauer   said : 

We  have  the  most  democratic  constitu- 
tion in  the  world,  but  that  doesn't  mean 
we  CSJL  carry  out  socialism.  We  lack  the 
necessities  of  production  which  would 
enable  us  to  take  our  place  in  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  Even  if  we  obtained 
an  absolute  majority  in  Germany,  our 
economic  development  toward  socialism 
would   still   have   to   be   slow. 

During  the  conference  former  Minister 
of  Defense  Noske  was  subjected  to 
strong  attacks  for  his  failure  to  crush 
the  Kapp  revolt  at  its  inception.  It  was 
charged  that  while  exerting  vengeance 
•upon  the  radicals  he  had  permitted  the 
reactionaries  to  intrench  themselves  in 
the  army.  In  defending  himself  Herr 
Noske  replied: 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  revolution  the 
officers  were  all  of  one  mold  and  con- 
stituted a  sort  of  Hohenzollern  guard. 
Any  artificial  attempt  to  form  a  repub- 
lican officers'  corps  is  bound  to  fail,  be- 
cause you  lack  the  material.  Reform  of 
the  army  is  more  difficult  than  ever. 
What  republican  will  undertake  to  shoul- 
der  a   rifle   for   twelve   years? 

In  an  interview  with  Professor  Luso 
Brentano  at  Munich  on  May  4,  George 
Renwick  found  the  distinguished  scholar 
and  publicist  living  in  a  stable  behind  a 
block  of  flats  which  he  owned.  Pro- 
fessor Brentano  laughingly  waved  a  hand 
around  his  study,  which  was  whitewashed 
and  furnished  in  workday  style,  as  he 
said :  "  Here  two  horses  used  to  be 
stabled.  Next  door,  which  is  my  library, 
there  once  lived  three  horses,  and  my 
bedroom  upstairs  was  once  a  hayloft." 
The  professor  explained  that  he  had 
given  up  his  flat  to  live  in  the  country, 
but  on  returning  found  he  was  not  al- 
lowed to  occupy  his  own  flats,  as  the 
City  Council,  composed  mainly  of  Inde- 
pendent Socialists,  had  enforced  the  com- 
munistic housing  laws,  which  were  intro- 
duced under  the  short-lived  Red  Gov- 
ernment. 

A  strong  note  from  Lord  Kilmarnock 
to  the  German  Government  demanding 
an  apology  and  indemnity  for  the  arrest 
and  maltreatment  in  Essen  of  Mr.  Voight 
of  the  Manchester  Guardian  by  Lieuten- 
ant Linsenmayer  of  the  Reichswehr 
emphasized    the    fact    that    Prussianism 


was  not  entirely  absent  during  the  sup- 
pression of  the  revolt  in  the  Ruhr  region. 
The  German  Foreign  Office  had  already 
expressed  regret  for  the  simultaneous 
arrest  of  Mrs.  Stan  Harding  of  The 
London  Daily  News.  Mr.  Voight,  in 
describing  his  experience,  said: 

Mrs.  Harding-  and  I  were  taken  before  a 
kind  of  examining  officer.  He  was  a 
short,  dark-complexioned  man  and  wore  a 
black-ribboned  monocle.  His  name  is 
Lieutenant  Linsenmayer.  The  Lieutenant 
looked  at  me  through  his  monocle  and 
screamed  with  astonishing  vehemence, 
"  Take  your  hand  out  of  your  pocket ; 
stand  three  paces  back."  I  was  mysti- 
fied and  began  to  explain,  "  I'm  English 
and  *  *  *."  But  before  I  could  con- 
tinue the  Lieutenant  jumped  up  and  burst 
into  a  raucous  screeching  torrent  of 
vituperation,  his  face  distorted  with 
violent  passion.  "  Englischer  Schwein- 
hund  !  "  was  the  epithet  with  which  he 
began   his    outburst. 

I  was  about  to  utter  another  protest 
when  the  Lieutenant  again  began  to 
screech,  "  Zwei  Posten  (two  guards)  ! 
Teach  this  Englishman  to  behave  in  the 
presence  of  a  German  officer !  "  Two 
soldiers  rushed  forward.  One  of  them 
yelled,  "  I'll  teach  you  what  a  German 
is."  I  turned  round  and  received  a  heavy 
blow  in  the  face.  I  do  not  remember 
every  detail  of  all  that  followed,  because 
it  was  too  sudden,  but  I  have  a  distinct 
and  vivid  recollection  of  a  red-faced,  in- 
furiated Reichswehrman  swinging  his 
grenade  (the  German  grenade,  with  its 
wooden  handle  and  heavy  cylindrical  top, 
makes  a  formidable  club)  and  then  of  my 
fingers  tightening  round  his  throat  and 
his  round  mine— the  two  of  us  locked  to- 
gether in  a  violent  struggle,  the  soldier 
trying  to  dash  my  head  against  the  wall. 

Lieutenant  Linsenmayer  at  last  made 
him  desist.  "Don't  strike  him  any  more," 
he  said.  "  Take  him  off  to  the  guard 
room  and  teach  him  how  to  behave  in 
Germany.     Take  that  woman,  too." 

Eventually  Mr.  Voight  was  released 
by  the  aid  of  Mrs.  Harding,  after  being 
detained  seven  or  eight  hours.  In  ex- 
planation of  the  incident  Colonel  Baum- 
bach  said  the  officers  at  the  Town  Hall 
thought  Mr.  Voight  was  a  spy  wiring 
information  for  the  benefit  of  the  Red 
Army.  When  told  by  Mr.  Voight  of  the 
treatment  he  had  experienced.  Colonel 
Baumbach  seemed  slightly  surprised,  but 
remarked  that  Mr.  Voight  ought  not  to 
have  spoken  to  an  officer,  hand  in 
pocket. 

An  alarming  financial  condition  was 
frankly  laid  before  the  Budget  Commit- 


I 


CRITICAL  PERIOD  FOR  GERMANY 


437 


tee  of  the  National  Assembly  by  Dr. 
Wirth,  Minister  of  the  Treasury,  on 
April  15.  In  his  statement  the  Minister 
asserted  that,  unless  the  financial  policy 
could  be  brought  in  line  with  economic 
principles,  he  saw  no  way  out.  Herr 
Noske  supported  this  with  the  state- 
ment that  the  people  were  living  in  a 
state  of  intoxication,  and  that  the  out- 
look for  next  year  seemed  hopeless.  A 
debacle  was  certain,  he  said,  if  the  peo- 
ple did  not  live  most  frugally. 

From  the  array  of  enormous  figures 
presented  by  Dr.  Wirth  it  was  gathered 
that  the  consolidated  debt  on  March  21 
amounted  to  90,000,000,000  marks,  and 
that  the  floating  debt  totaled  105,000,- 
000,000,  with  a  great  increase  in  pros- 
pect. The  Minister  added  that  the  Postal 
Administration  would  show  a  deficit  of 
900,000,000  marks,  and  a  new  credit  of 
3,000,000,000  would  be  required  for  re- 
ducing prices  until  the  end  of  June.  The 
Kapp  revolt  and  the  demands  of  trades 
unions  for  strike  pay  would  cost  the  Gov- 
ernment billions  of  marks.  The  Minister 
shuddered  when  he  thought  of  the  next 
railway  budget.  According  to  estimates 
the  deficit  would  not  be  less  than  12,000,- 
000,000  marks. 

Before  the  National  Assembly  on 
April  25  Dr.  Bell,  Minister  of  Transport, 
declared  that  the  Government's  purchase 
of  the  Federal  State  Railways  was  one 
of  the  most  gigantic  financial  transac- 
tions ever  effected  by  any  Parliament. 
It  not  only  involved  a  capital  investment 
of  40,000,000,000  marks,  with  14,000,000 
yearly  interest,  but  transferred  a  million 
employes  to  the  Government  payroll. 

With  regard  to  the  food  supply,  Herr 
von  Haase,  Director  of  the  Food  Divi- 
sion of  the  Ministry  of  Economics,  an- 
nounced on  April  26  a  huge  revictual- 
ing  scheme  which  embraced  cereals, 
cheese,  rice,  potatoes,  condensed  milk, 
live  cattle  and  pigs,  totaling  6,000,000,- 
000  marks.  In  this  transaction  America 
had  contracted  to  help  feed  the  German 
people  to  the  extent  of  2,750,000,000 
marks,  in  conjunction  with  Holland, 
Scandinavia  and  England. 

A  further  exchange  of  notes  between 


the  Dutch  Governnlent  and  the  Allies 
relative  to  the  ex-Kaiser  disclosed  the 
fact  that  the  mansion  of  Doom,  recently 
purchased  by  the  exile,  was  not  approved 
by  the  Allies  as  his  place  of  internment. 
While  the  Allies  accepted  the  proposal 
of  the  Holland  Government,  whereby  "  it 
agreed  to  be  responsible  for  the  ex- 
Kaiser  and  undertook  to  take  all  efficient 
precautionary  measures  deemed  neces- 
sary to  subordinate  the  liberty  of  the  ex- 
Emperor  "  and  prevent  his  again  becom- 
ing a  menace  to  Europe,  on  April  1,  in 
again  emphasizing  Holland's  responsibil- 
ity, the  Allies  gave  The  Hague  to  under- 
stand that  Doom  as  his  residence  was 
regarded  as  unsatisfactory.  The  pre- 
sumed reason  was  that  Doom  was  too 
near  to  the  German  frontier.  Diplomatic 
conversations  on  the  subject  were  ex- 
pected to  continue. 
\  Meanwhile  preparations  went  forward 
at  Amerongen  which  indicated  the  ex- 
Kaiser's  early  removal  to  Doom.  On 
May  11  he  gave  a  farewell  dinner  to  the 
Bentinck  family,  his  hosts  of  a  year  and 
a  half,  to  which  a  number  of  local 
notables  were  invited.  On  the  morning 
of  the  15th  an  open  car  came  swiftly 
down  the  broad  drive  which  connected 
Bentinck  Castle  with  the  main  road,  and 
made  its  way  toward  Doom.  Immediate- 
ly behind  the  driver  sat  General  Vonden- 
berg  and  Countess  von  Keller,  a  friend 
of  the  former  Empress,  holding  an  arm- 
load of  pink  carnations  and  tulips.  The 
ex-Emperor  and  his  wife  occupied  back 
seats,  the  former  proudly  erect  and  ap- 
parently glad  at  the  prospect  of  finally 
finding  himself  under  his  own  roof.  As 
the  party  passed  there  were  no  cheers 
and  no  signs  either  of  disapproval  or 
sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants. 
Before  noon  the  ex-Kaiser  was  duly  in- 
stalled in  Doom  Mansion. 

Settlement  of  the  ex-Crown  Prince's 
case  was  announced  in  a  royal  decree, 
read  in  the  Dutch  Parliament  on  March 
23,  by  which  the  island  of  Wieringen  was 
granted  to  the  imperial  exile  as  a  place 
of  residence  "  without  prejudice  to  future 
arrangements." 


Nations  of  the  Former  Austrian  Empire 

New  Czechoslovak  Constitution 


AUSTRIA 

PUBLIC  opinion  hailed  the  visit  of 
Chancellor  Renner  to  Rome  as  the 
beginning  of  a  new  and  better  era. 
For  the  first  time  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Republic  the  press  of  Vienna 
strikes  an  optimistic  note.  The  Chan- 
cellor, accompanied  by  several  Secre- 
taries of  State  and  the  Italian  Minister, 
Marchese  di  Torretto,  left  for  Rome  at 
the  invitation  of  Premier  Nitti  on  April 
5  and  returned  on  the  14th.  His  re- 
ception is  described  as  the  heartiest  pos- 
sible. Most  important,  according  to  the 
press,  of  the  concessions  obtained  is 
Italy's  promise  to  grant  Austria  most 
favored  nation  treatment,  together  with 
a  free  zone  in  the  Port  of  Trieste,  where- 
by the  much-coveted  sea  outlet  for  Aus- 
trian trade  is  secured.  Italy,  moreover, 
pledges  to  advance,  as  her  share  in  the 
allied  credit  to  Austria,  flour,  grain  and 
raw  materials  to  the  value  of  100,000,000 
lire.  Italy  undertakes  to  construct  a 
railway  through  the  Predil  Pass,  fur- 
nishing the  shortest  route  to  Vienna,  an 
enterprise  which  the  Austrians  have 
considered  for  some  time,  but  from 
which  they  refrained  for  strategic  rea- 
sons. Steps  to  improve  passenger  and 
freight  traffic  to  Trieste  are  also  prom- 
ised by  Italy. 

The  question  of  autonomy  for  the 
German  minority  in  South  Tyrol  was 
discussed,  but,  though  Premier  Nitti  vir- 
tually promised  autonomy,  no  definite 
arrangement  was  framed. 

The  Vienna  newspapers  declare  that 
Renner's  mission  has  succeeded  in  re- 
storing normal  relations  between  the  two 
States,  and  emphasize  that  Italy's  atti- 
tude is  all  the  more  remarkable  as  Ren- 
ner had  gone  to  Rome  empty-handed. 

After  his  return  the  Chancellor  re- 
ceived representatives  of  the  great  pow- 
ers and  also  those  of  the  neighbor  States, 
and  said  it  was  his  intention  to  enter 
negotiations  at  once  with  a  view  to  ex- 
ecuting the  peace  treaty. 

The  agitation  for  joining  the  German 


Republic   continues,   especially  in   Tyrol 
and  Salzburg.     The  main  motive  of  this 
agitation  was  the  desire  to  ease  the  food 
situation.       In   the   first  half   of   April 
delegations  from  these  provinces  sought 
audiences  with  Entente  representatives, 
but  were   refused.     Chancellor    Renner, 
in  a  speech  before  the  National  Assem- 
bly, declared  that  for  the  time  being  the 
question    of    union    with    Germany    has 
been    settled     in     the    negative   by    the 
treaty  of  St.  Germain.    He  said,  in  part : 
Keen   as   on    the  very   first   day   is   the 
sorrow  of  our  people  because  it  has  been 
denied    to   us    to    join    the   mother    nation 
and  to  have  no  other  foreign  policy  than 
hers.      Only    one    expedient    remains,    an 
appeal   to  the    League    of   Nations.      The 
National  Assembly  will,  as  soon  as  peace 
is   ratified,    apply    for   admission   into   the 
League.     For   the  present  all  we  can  do 
is    to    follow    with    sympathy    the    destiny 
of  the  German  Reich,  and  there  is  nobody 
in  our  land  who  would  not  feel  that  sym- 
pathy   in    every    fibre    of   his    soul.      Our 
present  foreign  policy  can  be  nothing  but 
a  determination  to  carry  out,  to  the  best 
of  our   ability,    the  peace   treaty   that   we 
have    signed— until   a   way    is    offered   for 
its  revision— and  thereby  to  convince   our 
late   enemies   that  the   Austrian   people  is 
for    peace    in    its    innermost    heart    and 
desires    the   reconciliation    of    all    nations 
with  us  and  with  one  another.     *    *     * 

The  Chancellor  explained  his  trip  to 
Rome,  and  thanked  the  neutral  nations 
and  the  United  States  for  their  assist- 
ance in  Austria's  plight.  Outlining  the 
tasks  facing  the  National  Assembly,  he 
named  a  general  capital  levy  and  the  re- 
framing  of  the  Constitution  along  Fed- 
eral lines  as  the  most  important  meas- 
ures to  be  enacted. 

In  the  National  Assembly  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  Finances  declared  that 
the  Austrian  Government  does  not  con- 
template stamping  of  the  currency,  as 
has  been  done  in  Czechoslovakia,  Jugo- 
slavia and  recently  in  Hungary.  In- 
stead, a  capital  levy  will  be  resorted  to 
by  way  of  relief.  He  also  said  that  the 
plan  for  subletting  the  State's  tobacco 
monopoly  to  a  foreign  syndicate  had  been 
dropped. 


fATIONS  OF  THE  FORMER  AUSTRIAN  EMPIRE 


439 


I 


A  five-day  strike  of  the  employes  of 
the  Southern  Railway,  the  system  con- 
necting Vienna  with  Italy,  Jugoslavia 
and  the  Adriatic,  was  concluded  on  April 
21  by  a  compromise.  The  settlement 
averted  a  catastrophe  of  the  food  situa- 
tion, desperate  in  advance.  Vienna  is 
the  most  expensive  town  of  the  world 
to  live  in,  and  prices  are  still  rising. 
Thus  in  the  middle  of  April  milk  ad- 
vanced from  about  80  cents  to  about 
$3  a  quart;  80  per  cent,  of  the  in- 
habitants have  had  no  milk  for  several 
years.  A  growing  menace  is  the  adul- 
teration of  everything  eatable.  There  is 
practically  nothing  not  tampered  with. 
In  March  the  courts  handled  3,437  cases 
of  food  adulteration. 

The  craze  for  strikes  has  assumed 
farcical  dimensions.  Everybody  is  strik- 
ing against  everybody  else.  One  day  in 
April  all  the  Viennese  waiters  walked 
out  because  a  restaurant  proprietor 
killed  a  cat  owned  by  a  waiter.  Another 
novelty  is  the  middle-class  strike.  There 
was  a  strike  of  cafe  owners  and  mer- 
chants, another  of  doctors.  The  Volks- 
wehr,  or  militia,  organizes  demonstra- 
tions against  the  police.  Most  serious 
of  all  disturbances  is  the  anti-Semitic 
campaign  engineered  by  German  Nation- 
alists undergraduates  on  the  Budapest 
pattern.  Clashes  occurred  repeatedly  in 
the  university  building. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

New  Constitution 

The  new  Constitution  is  characterized 
by  critics  as  a  conservative  document, 
combining  the  spirit  and  phraseology  of 
the  American  Constitution,  with  tech- 
nical arrangements  borrowed  from  the 
French.  How  jealously  guarded  in  the 
representative  principle  as  contrasted  to 
that  of  "  direct  government,"  becomes 
clear  from  the  fact  that  the  scope  of  the 
referendum  is  limited  to  a  single  emer- 
gency. If  a  Ministerial  measure  is  lost 
in  both  houses,  the  Government  may 
appeal  to  a  popular  vote.  This  elimi- 
nates the  critical  alternative,  dissolution 
of  Parliament  or  resignation  of  the 
Ministry. 

The  upper  Chamber,  or  Senate,  has 
150  members,  the  lower,  or  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  300.     All  men  and  women  21 


years  of  age  vote  ^or  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  while  in  the  Senate  elections 
voters  must  be  26  years  of  age.  Eligible 
for  Deputy,  are  those  above  30;  for  Sen- 
ator those  above  45.  The  Senate  is 
chosen  for  eight  years,  the  Chamber  for 
six.  Power  is  overwhelmingly  with  the 
lower  Chamber;  the  Senate  is  merely  an 
organ  of  revision. 

Simultaneously  with  the  Constitution 
was  enacted  a  law  assuring  to  racial  mi- 
norities rights  greater  than  those  stipu- 
lated by  the  Peace  Treaty.  All  districts 
in  which  any  racial  minority  numbers 
more  than  20  per  cent,  are  considered 
mixed,  and  members  of  the  minority 
may  use  their  language  in  public  offices 
and  courts  and  may  have  their  own 
schools. 

The  electoral  law,  which,  like  the 
above,  forms  a  sort  of  appendix  to  the 
Constitution,  provides  for  a  complicated 
system  of  proportional  representation 
which  enables  the  German  and  Magyar 
minorities  to  obtain  about  30  per  cent,  of 
the  National  Assembly  seats.  Voting  is 
by  districts  and  party  lists;  to  insure 
the  fairest  possible  division  of  seats 
three  successive  counts  are  made. 

A  language  law  was  also  adopted,  pro- 
viding for  Czech  as  the  official  language 
of  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  and  Slovak  for 
Slovakia.  A  motion  of  the  National 
Democrats,  led  by  former  Premier 
Kramarz,  to  have  Czech  and  Slovak  de- 
clared "  State  languages,"  to  be  ex- 
clusively used  in  public  offices  and  form- 
ing a  compulsory  subject  of  instruction, 
was  defeated  by  the  Governmental  coali- 
tion of  Socialists,  Agrarians  and  Cath- 
olics. 

The  law  of  defense  provides  for  grad- 
ual reduction  of  amounts.  For  the  time 
being  the  menace  of  German  and  Mag- 
yar militarism  necessitates  universal 
military  service  with  a  two  years'  term. 
Three  years  hence  the  term  will  be  re- 
duced to  eighteen  months;  in  another 
three  years,  to  fourteen  months,  provided 
the  transformation  of  the  army  into  a 
militia  should  be  found  inadvisable.  The 
size  of  the  army  is  set  at  150,000  officers 
and  men;  control  is  largely  reserved  to 
the  National  Assembly. 

On  April  15  the  first  National  As- 
sembly,   which    had    sprung    into    being 


440 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


with  Czechoslovak  independence  and  per- 
formed the  same  task  for  Czechoslovakia 
as  the  Continental  Congress  had  per- 
formed for  the  new-born  United  States 
of  America,  came  to  the  close  of  its  la- 
bors. The  Tusar  Ministry  resigned,  and 
President  Masaryk  fixed  the  elections 
for  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  for  April 
18,  for  the  Senate  for  April  26.  The  first 
counting  of  votes  (a  second  is  to  be  held 
to  correct  and  supplement  the  result  in 
accordance  with  the  proportional  ar- 
rangement) showed  the  following  out- 
come: 

The  Czech  parties  secured  110  seats, 
distributed  as  follows:  Social  Democrats 
1,067,959  votes  for  44  seats,  Agrarians 
601,720  for  21  seats.  National  Socialists 
471,802  for  17  seats.  National  Catholics 
463,301  for  14  seats.  National  Democrats 
389,326  for  12  seats,   and  two  others. 

From  the  German  parties  there  have 
polled:  Social  Democrats  688,261  for  23 
seats.  Nationalists  289,003  for  8  seats. 
Agrarians  239,234  for  6  seats.  Christian 
Socialists  213,438  for  4  seats.  Democrats 
105,532  for  2  seats. 

Of  the  total  votes  cast  the  Czechs  1  ave 
consequently  obtained  3,096,391,  the  Ger- 
mans 1,422,038,  and  the  Jewish  National- 
ists 21,076. 

In  Slovakia,  where  95  per  cent,  of  the 
electorate  are  said  to  have  polled,  43  out 
of  the  total  of  61  Deputies  were  elected 
from  the  first  count.  The  Socialist  Demo- 
crats have  achieved  a  marked  succe.ss  by 
securing  20  seats,  the  Popular  Catholic 
Party  obtains  13,  and  the  National  Peas- 
ants' Party  10  seats. 

The  Magyars  were  completely  routed. 
All  the  three  parties  mentioned  above 
stood  for  the  maintenance  of  the  union 
with  Bohemia. 

All  leaders  of  parties,  including  the 
ex-Premier  Tusar  and  Foreign  Minister 
Benes,  were  re-elected.  It  should  be  ex- 
plained that  the  Social  Democrats 
(Tusar's  party)  are  advanced  Marxians; 
the  Socialists  correspond  to  the  moderate 
Reform-Socialist  party  in  Italy;  the 
National  Democrats  are  a  bourgeois 
party,  strongly  patriotic  and  moderately 
liberal. 

HUNGARY 

The  stamping  of  paper  money,  to 
which  the  Horthy  Government,  on 
Czechoslovak  and  Jugoslav  pattern,  re- 
sorted as  a  device  to  bolster  up  the  mori- 
bund currency,  seems  to  have  ended  in  a 


failure  and  national  scandal.  The  plan 
of  the  Government  was  to  stamp  the  so- 
called  blue  money  only,  or  the  notes  is- 
sued by  the  old  Austro-Hungarian  Bank, 
50  per  cent,  of  the  face  value  being 
retained  as  a  forced  loan  at  4  per  cent, 
interest.  The  measure  was  calculated  to 
raise  the  purchasing  power  of  the  krone 
and  thus  cause  a  fall  in  prices.  What, 
according  to  Vienna  newspapers,  actu- 
ally happened  was  that  a  few  days  be- 
fore the  date  set  for  stamping  every- 
body owning  blue  money  rushed  to  ex- 
change it  for  wares,  thus  sending  prices 
skyrocketing.  To  stop  this,  the  Govern- 
Liient  arrested  and  interned  a  number  of 
merchants,  with  the  result  that  less 
goods  were  put  on  the  market  and  prices 
continued  rising. 

The  Government  estimated  the  amount 
of  blue  currency  in  the  country  at  about 
fifteen  billions  (normally,  about  $3,000,- 
000,000).  According  to  official  reports, 
only  five  billions  were  brought  up  for 
stamping,  but  part  of  this  sum  was  pre- 
sented by  municipalities  whose  holdings 
were  exempt  from  the  50  per  cent, 
levy.  Thus  the  Government  succeeded,  at 
the  best,  in  raising  a  loan  of  about  two 
billions.  The  budget,  presented  to  the 
National  Assembly  by  Baron  Koranyi, 
Minister  of  Finance,  shows  a  deficit  of 
over  8,800,000,000  kronen  (about  $1,760,- 
000,000  normal).  In  order  to  cover  up, 
partly,  the  failure  of  the  forced  loan,  the 
Government  took  over  three  billion 
kronen  in  "  blue  money  "  from  the  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian Bank,  now  under  liqui- 
dation. 

Much  smuggling  of  the  blue  notes  into 
Austria,  where  they  circulated  un- 
stamped, and  counterfeiting  by  amateur 
speculators  went  on.  Postal  money  is- 
sued by  the  Hungarian  postal  savings 
system  was  exempted  from  stamping. 
It  was  asserted  that  the  Cabinet  had 
made  huge  fortunes  by  tin?ely  exchange 
before  the  stamping  measure  was 
adopted. 

Demonstrations  against  signing  the 
Peace  Treaty  are  the  order  of  the  day  at 
Budapest  and  elsewhere.  Four  classes  of 
the  army  were  called  to  the  colors  on 
May  9,  and  there  are  rumors  that  re- 
servists called  for  two  months'  drill  will 
be  retained  for  two  years.    Ammunition 


NATIONS  OF  THE  FORMER  AUSTRIAN  EMPIRE 


441 


IF 


2S  at  Budapest  are  reported  work- 
ing overtime.  The  chauvinistic  agitation 
is  headed  by  the  radical  wing  of  the 
Christian  Socialists  under  Stephen  Fried- 
rich,  the  former  Minister  of  War,  Their 
principal  argument  is  that  the  major 
Allies  have  no  means  at  their  disposal 
to  coerce  Hungary,  and  that  it  is  safe 
for  the   Magyars   to   take  the  law   into 

eir  owns  hands. 

A  decree  prohibiting  the  retailing  of 
alcoholic  drinks  was  issued  at  Budapest. 
,The  display  of  red  banners  and  cockades 

also  forbidden. 

It  is  announced  that  a  delegation  con- 
isting  of  prominent  politicians  and  led 
y  Charles  Huszar,  the  former  Premier, 

11  visit  the  United  States  on  a  propa- 
anda  tour  for  the  present  Hungarian 
egime  and  the  revision  of  the  Treaty  of 
Neullly. 

It  was  announced  on  May  12  from 
Budapest  that  the  controlling  Hungarian 
powers  had  finally  concluded  to  sign  the 
treaty  presented  by  the  Allies,  but  under 
protest.  Co  ant  Julius  Andrassy,  in  an 
address  before  the  Council  of  Ministers, 
declared:  "  The  treaty  crucifies  the 
nation.  *  *  *  We  must  bow  before 
superior  force  coupled  with  intellectual 
incompetence."  Notwithstanding  the  new 
frontiers  fixed  by  the  treaty,  the  schools 
in  Hungary  use  the  old  maps,  the  teachers 
telling  the  pupils  that  the  territories 
lopped  off  will  some  day  be  recovered. 
Count  Apponyi  in  protesting  against  the 
treaty  said  that  to  put  Transylvanians 
under  Rumanian  rule  was  the  same  as 
putting  a  white  race  under  negro  rule, 
yet  he  said  the  treaty  would  have  to  be 
signed,  but  it  would  certainly  foment 
future  wars. 


In  a  press  interview  Admiral  Horthy, 
the  Regent,  declared  *  that  there  is  no 
White  Terror  in  Hungary  and  that  the 
general  situation  shows  marked  improve- 
ment. Socialism,  he  said,  is  practically 
dead.  The  stories  about  the  White 
Terror  and  the  persecution  of  Jews  are 
being  circulated,  he  said,  by  Hungary's 
enemies — the  Communists,  Rumanians, 
Czechs  and  Serbs.  He  asserted  that  per- 
fect order  prevails  at  Budapest,  and  it 
is  possible  for  everybody  to  go  about  his 
work  without  interference  from  any  side. 
On  the  other  hand,  Budapest  newspa- 
pers, among  them  Governmental  organs, 
repott  the  decision  of  the  Medical  Asso- 
ciation of  Budapest  to  the  effect  that  no 
physician  or  surgeon  will  leave  his  home 
to  answer  calls  after  9  P.  M.,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  "  brachial  force  "  are  assault- 
ing and  maltreating  passersby.  The  Uj 
Nemzedek,  a  Christian  National  organ, 
writes : 

After  9  P.  M.  walking-  in  the  Budapest 
streets  involves  mortal  danger,  as  even 
Christians  are  being  assaulted  and  beaten, 
frequently  also  plundered,  by  members  of 
the  "  brachial  force  "  (officers'  detach- 
ments) and  other  irresponsible  elements. 

No  Jewish  students  were  permitted  to 
enroll  for  the  Summer  semester  in  the 
University  of  Budapest.  Jews  attempt- 
ing to  register  were  beaten  and  ejected 
by  the  armed  detachment  of  anti-Semitic 
students.  This  detachment  exacted  from 
Gentile  undergraduates  pledges  that 
they  will  have  no  intercourse  with  Jews, 
Those  refusing  to  sign  such  pledges  were 
prevented  from  enrolling.  The  Com- 
mercial Academy,  with  an  attendance 
largely  Jewish,  was  forced  to  close  its 
sessions  altogether,  as  its  building  was 
raided  daily  by  the  "  Awakening  Mag- 
yars." 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 

The  New  Bulgarian  Parliament 


ALBANIA 

ALBANIA  still  held  public  attention, 
Xx  in  view  of  the  unsettled   Adriatic 
problem,   because   both   the   Anglo- 
Franco-American   memorandum   of   Dec. 
9  and  the  resolution  of  the  United  States 


Senate  Foreign  Relations  Committee  of 
May  3  gave  Northern  Epirus  to  Greece, 
while  the  compromise  measure  of  Jan.  20, 
although  it  did  not  make  that  award,  had 
given  Serbia  a  still  larger  Albanian  ter- 
ritory in  the  north. 


442 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


On  May  9,  C.  A.  Chekrezi,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Albanian  Government 
of  Durazzo  at  Washington,  remonstrated 
against  the  resolution  in  a  letter  to  Sen- 
ator Lodge,  just  as  he  had  against  the 
memorandum,  which  had  the  support  of 
President  Wilson,  and  the  compromise 
measure  which  had  not  that  support. 
In  his  letter  Mr.  Chekrezi  complained 
that  the  awarding  of  the  two  Southern 
Albanian  provinces  of  Koritza  and 
Arghyrocastro  to  Greece  had  been  fa- 
vored without  holding  hearings  as  he 
had  requested,  he  technically  having  no 
standing  with  the  Secretary  of  State. 
He  called  the  committee's  action  unjust, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  taken  "  with- 
out granting  the  natives  of  Koritza  and 
Arghyrocastro  the  elementary  right  of 
a  hearing  before  the  committee."  This 
action,  he  added,  was  without  "  any  par- 
allel in  the  history  of  America,  for  Al- 
bania has  not  been  either  an  enemy  or 
an  ally  of  the  United  States." 

BULGARIA 

The  Sobranje  elections  of  March  28 
did  not  turn  out  quite  so  satisfactorily 
for  Premier  Stamboliisky  as  had  been 
generally  expected.  True,  his  party  (the 
Peasants)  gained  twenty-five  seats,  and 
a  substantial  plurality  (though  not  ab- 
solute majority)  is  assured;  but  the 
Premier's  primary  object  in  dissolving 
the  old  Sobranje  was  to  crush  the  Com- 
munists politically  in  the  elections  as  he 
had  crushed  them  by  "  direct  action  "  in 
the  great  railroad  strike.  But  the  Com- 
munists actually  gained  three  seats,  and, 
according  to  the  Sofia  press,  the  mere 
fact  that  they  were  not  annihilated 
counts  for  a  moral  victory. 

The  following  table  shows  the  distri- 
bution of  seats  in  the  new  Parliament : 

Repre- 
Votes.  sentatives. 

Peasant  Party   347,000     ■    '110 

Communists     182,000  50 

Democrats    98,000  23 

Populists     71,000      '       16 

Socialists     55,000  9 

Prog-ressives    53,000  7 

Radicals    47,000  7 

Ghenadievists     26.000  3 

Liberals     23,000  3 

The  most  notable  feature  of  the  elec- 
tion is  the  complete  defeat  of  the  Social- 


ists, whose  thirty-nine  seats  were  reduced 
to  nine. 

On  April  19  the  new  Sobranje  was 
opened.  A  member  of  the  Peasant  Party, 
Potev,  was  elected  Speaker.  Premier 
Stamboliisky  then  announced  the  retire- 
ment of  the  three  members  of  his  Cab- 
inet, Madjarov,  Burov  and  Danev,  who 
did  not  belong  to  the  Peasant  Party. 
The  royal  address,  read  by  the  Premier, 
struck  an  optimistic  note,  emphasizing 
the  readiness  of  the  Bulgarian  people  to 
start  on  the  task  of  reconstruction,  and 
to  resume  friendly  co-operation  with  its 
former  enemies. 

A  Cabinet  council,  held  after  the  ses- 
sion, decided,  that,  as  a  token  of  Bul- 
garia's good-will  and  solicitude  to  fulfill 
the  peace  treaty,  the  shipments  of  coal 
to  Serbia  would  be  undertaken  without 
delay. 

During  the  month  under  review  the 
Bulgarian  press  kept  up  the  demand  for 
a  Bulgar  Thrace  and  a  Free  State  for 
the  remaining  Turkish  littorial  of  Con- 
stantinople. 

JUGOSLAVIA 

Antagonism  between  Federalists  and 
Centralists  continues  as  the  pivotal  do- 
mestic issue  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs, 
Croats  and  Slovenes.  The  fall  of  the 
Davidovitch  Cabinet,  backed  by  the 
Democrats  and  Socialists,  signified  the 
breakdown,  at  least  temporary,  of  the 
tendency  to  transform  the  seven  Jugo- 
slav lands  into  a  strongly  centralized 
state  on  the  French  model.  The  new 
Premier  Protitch,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
is  supported  by  a  coalition  of  radicals 
and  regionalist  factions,  holds  that 
Jugoslav  unity  is  best  served  by  grant- 
ing broad  autonomy  to  the  seven  prov- 
inces, which  lived  up  to  the  union  in  1918, 
under  widely  different  laws,  and  repre- 
sent a  wide  range  of  political,  cultural 
and  economic  development. 

The  settlement  of  the  constitutional 
question  in  indefinitely  delayed  by  the 
deadlock  in  the  Skupshtina,  due  to  the 
rule  requiring  a  quorum  of  more  than 
half  the  total  membership.  As  the 
Protitch  Government  does  not  muster 
an  absolute  majority,  the  opposition  ob- 
structs progress  by  the  simple  device  of 
not    attending    sessions.     This    situation 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


443 


prevents  the  enactment  of  a  uniform 
electoral  law  under  which  a  new  Con- 
stituent Assembly  could  be  chosen.  In 
the  meantime  the  provinces  which  have 
formerly  belonged  to  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Monarchy  are  being  administered 
by  local  bodies  of  a  more  or  less  im- 
promptu character,  and  working  with  a 
very  imperfect  co-ordination,  a  circum- 
stance greatly  retarding  economic  recon- 
struction. 

In   the   field   of   foreign   relations  the 

»rotitch  Government  has  taken  over  the 

)olicies  of  its  predecessor,   the   Foreign 

[inister,   Mr.    Trumbitch,   retaining  his 

jortfolio.     Here  the  burning  question  is 

that  of  Fiume  and  the  Adriatic.     A  solu- 

ion   of   the    Fiume   problem   was   again 

jported   on   May   12,  when    Mr.    Trum- 

jitch    was    quoted    as    saying    that    the 

ttalian   delegates    at   the   conference   at 

•Pallanza  agreed  to  recognize  the  "  Wil- 

bon  line "  as  the  frontier  between   the 

ftwo  countries;   also,  that  Fiume  should 

Fhe  placed  under  Italian  sovereignty,  but 

[with  the  League  of  Nations  administer- 

[ing  the  port. 

The  Jugoslav  delegates  were  reported 
to  have  entered  a  claim  for  rectifying 
the  northern  frontier  of  Albania  in  their 
favor.  No  solution  of  the  Adriatic  prob- 
lem was  reported. 

The  Jugoslav  Government  has  made 
representations  to  the  Supreme  Council 
against  the  belligerent  attitude  of  Hun- 
gary. Concentration  of  10,000  Magyar 
troops  in  a  menacing  position  near  the 
Jugoslav  frontier  was  complained  of.  A 
Hungarian  uprising  at  Subotitsa  on 
April  19  had  been  suppressed. 

On  April  16  a  railroad  strike  was 
proclaimed  over  almost  the  entire  terri- 
tory of  the  Jugoslav  kingdom.  The 
strikers  were  soon  joined  by  the  crews 
of  river  shipping.  Communist  propa- 
ganda was  active  in  the  movement,  and 
in  several  instances  rioting  had  to  be 
put  down  by  the  military.  A  week  later 
the  conclusion  of  the  strike,  apparently 
by  compromise,  was  reported. 

GREECE 

The  terms  of  the  Turkish  Treaty  of 
Peace,  although  more  or  less  anticipated 
by  the  press  of  Athens  under  the  pro- 


phetic guidance  of  M.  Venizelos,  the 
Prime  Minister,  may  -be  misinterpreted 
by  the  friends  of  Greece  abroad.  Her 
status  in  Smyrna,  which  Turkey  is  re- 
quired to  acknowledge,  is  elsewhere  de- 
fined in  this  number  of  Current 
History,  as  is  also  her  complete  sover- 
eignty over  Thrace,  save  the  City  of  Con- 
stantinople and  its  small  covering  area. 
Besides  these  concessions  Greece  is  to 
administer  the  islands  of  the  Aegean,  in- 
cluding Imbros,  Tenedos,  Memnos,  Samo- 
thrace,  Mitylene,  Samos,  Nikaria  and 
Chinos,  pledging  herself  to  protect  the 
minorities  therein,  although  the  islands 
of  the  southern  archipelago,  known  as 
the  Dodecanese,  held  in  bond  by  Italy 
ever  since  the  Turko-Italian  war  of 
1911-12,  are  definitely  ceded  by  the 
treaty  to  Italy,  thereby  confirming  the 
Treaty  of  London  of  April  26,  1915. 

Therein  may  lie  the  misapprehension, 
as  these  islands  are  predominantly 
Greek  in  history,  culture,  and  population 
and  have  been  striven  for  by  M.  Veni- 
zelos ever  since  the  armistice.  It  is 
merely  another  case  of  the  Shantung 
concession  to  Japan,  however.  As  long 
as  the  Adriatic  question  remains  unset- 
tled, the  Treaty  of  London  is  technically 
in  force,  and  the  Supreme  Council  could 
not  ignore  that  treaty  by  having  Turkey 
cede  the  islands  to  Greece.  Therefore, 
they  will  be  held  by  Italy  until  the 
protocol  reached  by  M.  Venizelos  and 
Signor  Orlando  in  January,  1919,  shall 
emerge  from  the  Adriatic  settlement 
either  by  a  definite  settlement  between 
Italy  and  Jugoslavia  or  by  the  execution 
of  the  Treaty  of  London,  when  the 
islands  will  be  turned  over  to  Greece, 
Italy  retaining  certain  economic  and 
strategic  privileges. 

The  Turkish  Treaty  of  Peace  brings 
under  the  Athens  Government  an  addi- 
tional Greek  population  of  2,500,000,  giv- 
ing a  total  of  7,500,000,  two-thirds  of 
the  new  nationals  being  contributed  by 
Turkey  and  one-third  by  Bulgaria.  There 
still  remain  outside  of  the  New  Greece 
in  the  Levant  about  2,000,000  Greeks. 

Of  these  850,000  are  known  as  Pontine 
Greeks  living  in  and  around  Trebiz(vnd, 
on  the  Black  Sea.  The  press  of  Athens 
as  well  as  M.  Venizelos  began  an  active 
campaign      to      secure      complete      inde- 


444 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


pendence  for  Pontus,  now  included  in 
the  still  unsettled  vilayet  of  Trebizond. 
Pontus,  ever  since  the  seventh  century 
B.  C,  has  been  ethnically  Greek.  It  now 
claims  an  area  of  35,000  square  miles 
with  a  population  of  1,700,000,  of  whom, 
as  has  been  said,  850,000  are  Greeks ;  the 
remainder  are  Jews,  Tartars,  Arabs  and 
Armenians. 

Another  project  undertaken  by  the 
same  interests  was  the  project  for  an 
Italo-Greek  League  with  the  aim  to 
dominate,  if  not  to  control,  the  future 
development  of  commerce  in  the  Levant 
and  the  surrounding  littoral.  Still 
another  project  begun  by  the  Athens 
Government  was  a  concordat  between  the 
Greek  Orthodox  Church  and  the  Vatican. 
The  Metropolitan  of  Athens  began  a  cor- 
respondence with  the  Vatican  with  this 
in  view. 

Sentences  were  meted  out  to  the 
conspirators  against  the  life  of  M.  Veni- 
zelos  in  the  plot  of  last  December.  In 
Athens  on  May  10  General  Libritis, 
Colonels  Derleres  and  Karapateas  and 
Captain  Xanabouvos  were  sentenced  to 
life  imprisonment;  fifteen  other  officers 
received  sentences  ranging  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  years;  twenty-four  were 
acquitted. 

RUMANIA 

In  the  field  of  domestic  policy  central- 
ization is  the  motto  of  the  Avarescu 
Government,  which  came  into  power 
after  the  dismissal  of  the  Vaida-Voevod 
Cabinet,  last  January.  A  notable  victory 
of  the  centralist  tendency  was  achieved 
when  the  National  Councils  of  Tran- 
sylvania, Bukovina  and  Bessarabia  were 
dissolved.  The  former  two  had  been  or- 
ganized at  the  time  of  the  collapse  of 
Austria-Hungary;  they  acted  as  pro- 
visional governments  in  the  transition 
period  and  later  as  autonomous  admin- 
istrations under  the  authority  of  Bucha- 
rest. The  dissolution  of  the  Transyl- 
vanian  Council  meets  with  bitter  criti- 
cism on  the  part  of  many  Transylvanian 
leaders,  chiefly  Dr.  Vaida-Voevod,  the 
former  Premier,  and  Dr.  Maniu.  On  the 
other  hand.  General  Avarescu  is  sup- 
ported by  the  party  of  Octavian  Goga, 


the  great  Transylvanian  poet,  whose  fol- 
lowers favor  close  union  of  the  lands 
composing  the  new  Rumania.  The  Sax- 
on and  Magyar  element  in  Transylvania 
and  the  Ukrainian  element  in  Bukovina 
and  Bessarabia  are  greatly  embittered 
by  the  rescission  of  autonomy. 

Another  change  tending  to  insure  the 
ascendency  of  the  old  Kingdom  of  Ru- 
mania over  the  newly  acquired  terri- 
tories is  the  subdivision  of  the  entire 
State  into  departments,  with  prefects 
nominated  directly  from  Bucharest.  Fi- 
nally, the  number  of  Deputies  in  the 
Chamber  has  been  reduced  from  548  to 
324.  Here  again  the  Transylvanians 
charge  discrimination,  as  they  are  to  lose 
more  seats  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
ber under  the  old  kingdom.  Elections 
for  the  new  Parliament  have  been  set 
for  the  end  of  May. 

Mr.  Argetoianu,  the  Minister  of  Fi- 
nance and  General  Avarescu 's  chief  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Cabinet,  estimates  Ru- 
mania's total  war  expenditure  (including 
losses  and  immediate  reconstruction)  at 
thirty  billion  leis  (at  normal  rates  a 
leis  is  19.30  c^nts).  To  meet  the  situa- 
tion, the  Government  contemplates  the 
introduction  of  two  budgets,  a  war 
liquidation  budget  and  an  ordinary  bud- 
get. For  the  purposes  of  the  latter,  in- 
come taxes  will  be  increased,  but  not 
over  twofold  of  the  present.  Military 
units  were  converted  by  the  Premier  into 
labor  armies  to  improve  communication 
and  transport  services.  Various  civic  and 
political  reforms  were  instituted.  With 
regard  to  the  financial  and  economic  de- 
velopment of  the  kingdom,  the  Minister 
said,  foreign  assistance  is  necessary, 
both  in  money  and  technical  equipment 
and  talent.  For  the  moment  the  only 
export  articles  are  petroleum  and  its 
by-products,  but  soon  there  will  be  salt 
and  timber  to  dispose  of.  Grain  will  not 
be  available  for  export  before  1921. 

In  the  beginning  of  May  the  Ruma- 
nian Government  resumed  negotiations 
with  Poland  for  a  military  alliance 
against  Soviet  Russia.  The  Premier, 
General  Avarescu,  visited  Warsaw,  and 
preparations  to  restore  the  army  to  a 
war  basis  were  begun. 


Dismemberment  of  the  Turkish  Empire 

Terms  of  the  Final  Peace  Treaty  of  the  World 
War  —  Effects    on    the    Map    of   Asia    Minor 


TURKEY 

HE  Turkish  Peace  Treaty,  as  finally 
shaped  after  the  San  Remo  Confer- 
—  ^—        ence,  was  handed  to  Tewfik  Pasha, 
■^■ead  of  the  Sultan's  peace  delegation,  at 
I^Kie  French  Foreign  Office  in  Paris  on 
I^Kay  11.     On  handing  the  treaty  to  the 
■^Bttoman  delegate  M.  Millerand  observed 
IHbiat  Turkey  had  prolonged  the  war  by 
"^Taking  sides  with  the  Central  Empires  and 
must  pay  the  price.    He  also  stated  that, 
though  the  allied  powers  had  decided  to 
leave  the  Sultan  in  Constantinople,  they 
were    determined    that    law    and    order 
should  prevail  in  what  was  left  of  Tur- 
key.    Tewfik  Pasha  was  informed  that 
Turkey  had  thirty  days  in  which  to  make 
reply  to  the  terms  laid  down. 

Under  these  terms,  considered  general- 
ly, the  seat  of  Government,  though  re- 
maining at  Constantinople,  will  be  under 
the  dominating  influence,  if  not  the  di- 
rection, of  an  •  interallied  commission ; 
Turkey  loses  all  military  and  naval 
power;  her  national  finances  will  be  in 
the  hands  of  an  Anglo-Franco-Italian 
mission;  the  territory  of  the  empire  has 
been  so  contracted,  distributed  and  as- 
signed as  to  make  it  impossible  again 
for  the  Turk  to  exercise  his  former  con- 
trol over  the  lives  and  property  of  the 
ancient  races  and  religions  in  what  for 
centuries  has  been  a  reproach  to  Chris- 
tianity and  a  stigma  on  the  politics  of 
Western  Europe. 

The  financial  terms  are  especially 
drastic.  The  treaty  establishes  a  strict 
and  permanent  control  of  Turkish  fi- 
nances by  giving  to  the  international 
mission  complete  power  of  final  ap- 
proval over  all  Turkish  budgets,  super- 
vision over  the  execution  of  all  Ottoman 
financial  laws,  and  the  reformation  of 
the  Turkish  monetary  system.  No  loan, 
internal  or  external,  can  be  contracted 
without  the  commission's  approval.  This 
commission  is  empowered  to  fix  the  an- 
nual sum  to  be  paid  the  allied  nations  by 
Turkey  to  cover  the  cost  of  occupation. 


By  this  treaty  the  allied  determination 
that  the  control  of  the  straits,  including 
the  Dardanelles,  the  Sea  of  Marmora 
and  the  Bosporus  shall  pass  out  of  Turk- 
ish hands  permanently  is  assured.  The 
navigation  of  these  straits  is  to  be  open 
in  time  of  peace  and  war  alike  to  all 
vessels  of  commerce  or  war  without  dis- 
tinction of  flag.  These  waters  are  not 
to  be  subject  to  blockade,  and  no  act  of 
war  may  be  committed  there  except  in 
enforcing  the  decisions  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  A  Straits  Commission  is  es- 
tablished, to  be  composed  of  representa- 
tives of  all  the  allied  nations,  Russia 
and  Bulgaria  (if  they  join  the  League), 
and  of  the  United  States  if  it  wishes  to 
be  represented. 

One  section  of  the  treaty  assures  the 
protection  of  minorities,  without  distinc- 
tion of  birth,  nationality,  language  or 
religion.  All  religious  and  political  pris- 
oners are  to  be  released.  The  Allies  and 
the  League  of  Nations  are  to  be  respon- 
sible for  the  strict  execution  of  these 
provisions. 

Turkey,  for  police  purposes  alone,  is 
allowed  to  maintain  a  force  of  35,000 
men,  with  an  emergency  increase  of  15,- 
000  in  case  of  special  necessity.  The 
Sultan  may  Lave  a  bodyguard  of  700 
men.  Turkey  is  forbidden  to  maintain 
a  fleet  or  military  airplanes.  All  forti- 
fications along  the  straits  are  to  be  de- 
stroyed. An  army  of  occupation  there 
is  to  be  maintained  by  France,  England 
and  Italy,  Greece  to  furnish  additional 
forces  if  required.  Turks  charged  with 
war  crimes  are  to  be  tried  by  allied  mili- 
tary tribunals.  Turkey  must  hand  over 
the  persons  responsible  for  the  massa- 
cres that  have  occurred  since  August, 
1914,  who  are  to  be  tried  by  a  League  of 
Nations  court  or  some  similar  tribunal. 
All  allied  financial  losses  in  the  war  are 
to  be  admitted  as  liabilities  by  Turkey, 
as  was  done  in  the  case  of  the  German 
and  Austrian  treaties. 

Such,  in  brief,   are  the   terms   of  the 


446 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


£       &     Y      P      T 


Map  of  TurTzey  as  affected  hy  the  decisions  of  the  San  Remo  Conference.  Pending 
the  announcement  of  definite  boundaries,  the  various  mandatory  spheres  of  control  one 
indicated  only  in  a  general  way  by  the  black  circles.  More  detailed  information  in 
each  case  is  given  in  the  adjoining  pages. 


treaty  that  shears  Turkey  of  all  her 
power,  military,  naval  and  political; 
which  is  intended  to  control  her 
future  acts  toward  the  non-Turkish  ele- 
ments left  in  her  population,  and  which 
exacts  retribution  for  her  acts  of  war  on 
the  side  of  the  Central  Powers.  But 
Turkey's  greatest  humiliation  lies  in  the 
territorial  terms,  which  leave  her  but  a 
fraction  of  the  vast  area  she  formerly 
misgoverned.  The  treaty  lays  down  the 
dismemberment  of  the  former  empire 
systematically.  The  decisions  reached 
are  treated,  country  by  country,  below. 

The  moving  factor  in  bringing  about 
Turkey's  vast  territorial  loss  was  Great 
Britain,  which,  de  facto  if  not  de  jure, 
has  become  the  mandatary.  Although 
France  owns  from  60  to  65  per  cent,  of 
the  Ottoman  bonds,  an  Englishman,  Sir 
Adam  Block,  is  President  of  the  Debt 
Administration.  Although  French,  Ital- 
ian and  Greek  troops  may  independently 
protect  the  portions  of  the  empire  to  be 
administered  by  their  several  Govern- 
ments, a  British  General  will  enforce  the 
treaty  terms  at  Constantinople,  and  even 
the  sanctity  of  the  harems  will  no  longer 
be  observed  by  his  agents  in  search  of 
forced  alien  converts  to  Islam. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  World  War 


the  Turkish  Empire  included  in  Europe 
10,882  square  miles  of  territory,  with  a 
population  of  1,891,000,  and  with  the 
Asiatic  vilayets  and  sanjaks  a  total  area 
of  710,224  square  miles,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  21,273,900.  Although  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  contracted  empire  were  not 
entirely  determined,  the  treaty  of  peace 
reduced  the  territorial  entity  to  less  than 
100,000  square  miles,  with  a  population 
of  about  5,000,000,  a  majority  of  whom 
are  Moslems  but,  paradoxical  as  it  may 
seem,  a  minority  of  whom  are  actual 
Turks,  of  the  Ottoman  type. 

To  particularize:  There  remain  to  the 
Turk  in  Europe  the  vilayet  of  Constan- 
tinople and  the  sanjak  of  Chatalja,  with 
an  area  of  2,238  square  miles  and  a 
population  of  1,281,000,  only  half  of 
whom  are  Moslems  and  a  third  Moslem 
Turks;  in  Asia  Minor  he  will  have  ma- 
jorities in  the  sanjak  of  Ismid  and  the 
vilayets  of  Brusa,  Kastamuni,  and  An- 
gora, with  an  additional  area  of  75,470 
square  miles  and  a  population  of  3,743,- 
500;  parts  of  Konia,  Sivas,  Trebizond;  in 
old  Armenia  parts  of  Erzerum  and 
Mamuret-ul-Aziz.  That  is  all. 

Mustapha  Kemal  Pasha  continued  to 
mobilize  the  Turkish  National  Ai-my  and 
the     Turkish     "  inimp "     Parliament     at 


DISMEMBERMENT  OF  THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE 


Angora,    215    miles    southwest    of    Con- 
stantinople   by    rail,    but    he    made    no 
further   act   "  to   save   the   country   and 
Sultan  from  foreign  influence."    He  re- 
frained from  taking  the  name  of  Grand 
Vizier  on  the  ground  that  nomination  to 
the    post    was    the    prerogative   of  the 
Sultan.     The    son   of   the    Sheik    of   the 
Senussi     was     merely     nominated    Vice 
Sheik-ul-Islam.    The  ex-President  of  the 
old  Chamber,  Djelaleddin  Arif,  whom  the 
Jlies  tried  to  arrest  at  the  time  of  the 
:cupation,  was  made  Minister  of  Jus- 
ice,  and,  by  an  adroit  move,  Halide  Edib 
[anoum,    the    Turkish   woman   novelist, 
iieived     the     portfolio     of     Education, 
[ustapha  Kemal  denied  that  he  contem- 
jilated  usurping  either  the  title  or  the 
lights  of  the  Caliph-Sultan. 
Kemal  was  said  to  have  60,000  moder- 
itely  well  armed  men.    It  was  believed 
Entente  circles  in  Constantinople  that 
^lie  would  remain  on  the  defensive  and 
await  developments.  It  was  also  asserted 
there    that    the    Sultan's    fetwa,    issued 
when  Damad  Ferid  Pasha  was  appointed 
Grand  Vizier,  had  an  immense  and  aug- 
menting influence  on  the  morale  of  his 
followers.    There  were  many  deserters. 
The  Sultan's  decree  read  in  part: 

The  difficulties  created  by  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Nationals  have  seriously  com- 
promised our  political  position,  which, 
since  the  armistice,  had  been  greatly  im- 
proving-. The  peaceful  measures  which 
have  been  taken  up  to  now  against  the 
Nationalist  movement  have  been  in  vain, 
as  has  been  shown  by  recent  events. 

As  the  existence  of  this  state  of  rebel- 
lion may  give  rise  to  further  grave  oc- 
currences, it  is  our  firm  desire  that  the 
provisions  of  the  law  be  strictly  ap- 
plied against  those  who  have  organized 
and  encouraged  these  disturbances,  but 
that  on  the  other  hand  a  general  am- 
nesty be  proclaimed  in  favor  of  those 
who,  having  been  led  astray,  subsequently 
recognized  their  error  and  did  not  par- 
ticipate  in   this  rebellion. 

It    is    also    our    firm     desire    that    you 
should  use  your  utmost  efforts  to   estab- 
lish   friendly   and    sincere    relations    with 
the  allied   great   powers,   to   endeavor,    on 
the   basis    of   the    principle    of   right    and 
justice,  to  mitigate  the  peace  terms  and  to 
bring  about  a  speedy  conclusion  of  peace. 
It  is  the  intention  of  the  Entente,  ac- 
cording to  the  announced  policy  of  Lieut. 
Gen.  Sir  G.  F.  Milne,  commander  of  the 


interallied  forces  at  Constantinople,  to 
aid  the  Sultan  in  asserting  his  authority 
over  Kemal  and  the  Nationalists  rather 
than  directly  to  employ  foreign  troops 
for  that  purpose.  The  new  Grand  Vizier 
submitted  to  the  interallied  mission  the 
budget  of  an  armed  expedition  against 
Kemal,  while  sending  an  envoy  to  An- 
gora with  a  strongly  worded  message 
from  Mohammed  VI. 

General  Milne  went  150  miles  by  train 
in  the  direction  of  Angora  on  a  tour  of 
inspection.  Four  battalions  of  Turkish 
loyal  troops  had  already  preceded  him 
through  the  sanjak  of  Ismid.  Admiral 
de  Bobeck,  the  British  commander  of  the 
allied  fleet  in  the  Dardanelles,  sailed 
along  the  south  shore  of  the  Black  Sea 
with  a  squadron  led  by  H.  M.  S.  Ajax, 
and  took  possession  of  Batum,  mean- 
while reducing  fortifications  at  various 
points  and  landing  detachments  of  occu- 
pation at  the  principal  strategic  ports. 

Although  there  were  reports  that 
Colonel  Jafar  Tayar,  the  Military  Gov- 
ernor of  Adrianople,  had  been  to  see  Gen- 
eral Milne  at  Constantinople  and  had 
actually  surrendered  to  the  French  mis- 
sion, he  nevertheless  replied  to  the  Sul- 
tan's fetwa  against  the  Nationalists  by 
the  following  proclamation  in  his  paper 
The  People: 

Moslems  of  Thrace !  The  Imperial  re- 
script and  fetvxt  are  lies  issued  under 
foreign  influence.  Previously  the  Sultan 
said  that  the  Nationalist  forces  showed 
the  true  national  spirit,  but  he  is  now 
forced  to  say  the  opposite,  and  the  Brit- 
ish, on  some  pretext  or  other,  have  oc- 
cupied Constantinople  and  trampled  on 
the  rights  of  the  imperial  dynasty.  It 
is  said  that  Thrace  will  be  given  to 
Greece.  The  Greeks  are  distributing- 
arms  in  order  to  raise  trouble. 

Our  religious  aim  is  to  deliver  the  Sul- 
tan from  the  foreigner.  It  is  not  our  in- 
tention to  rob  or  massacre,  and  the  ob- 
ject of  the  Nationalist  forces  is  altogether 
different  from  what  is  alleg-ed  by  the 
fetwa,  or  Sultan's  rescript. 

Several  newspaper  correspondents 
made  their  way  over  the  Anatolian  rail- 
way and  interviewed  Kemal  at  Angora, 
but  their  reports  added  nothing  to  what 
was  already  known  of  his  position  and 
his  aims. 

With  the  coming  into  power  of  the 
Damad  Ferid  Cabinet  and  the  military 
occupation  of  Constantinople  by  General 


443 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


Milne  there  were  arrests  of  prominent 
Nationalist  leaders,  including  Izzet 
Pasha,  former  Grand  Vizier,  and  Gen- 
eral Alirza  Pasha,  with  hundreds  of  the 
rank  and  file.  There  was  also  a  clean 
sweep  made  of  the  ministerial  and  war 
departments.  The  official  personnel  of 
the  Ottoman  gendamerie  was  entirely 
reconstructed  by  an  Italian  military 
board. 

From  April  16  until  April  20  the 
papers  in  the  French  and  Greek  lan- 
guages did  not  appear  in  Constantinople, 
owing  to  a  strike  of  the  compositors; 
the  proprietors  then  decided  to  adopt  the 
Paris  method  of  last  Autumn,  and  pub- 
lished a  joint  sheet  in  both  languages. 

ARMENIA 

When  the  Turkish  treaty  was  delivered 
there  was  already  in  existence  the  Trans- 
caucasian  independent  republic  of  Ar- 
menia consisting  of  the  former  Russian 
Government  of  Erivan  and  parts  of 
Kars,  Tiflis  and  Elizabethpol,  with  its 
capital  at  Erivan.  It  had  been  recog- 
nized by  the  Entente  and  by  the  United 
States  of  America;  during  the  war  it  had 
been  the  chief  asylum  of  the  Armenians 
fleeing  from  Turkish  territory.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Treaty  of  Peace  Turkey  must 
recognize  the  adjacent  territory,  consist- 
ing of  the  vil?yets  of  Van  and  Bitlis  and 
parts  of  Erzerum,  now  occupied  by  the 
Turkish  Nationalists  of  Kemal,  and 
Trebizond,  as  an  independent  State 
united  with  the  Transcaucasian  area  al- 
ready established.  The  frontiers  between 
the  new  Armenia  and  the  republics  of 
Georgia  and  Azerbaijan  are  to  be  ad- 
justed by  negotiations  between  it  and 
those  nations;  the  frontiers  touching 
Turkey  and  access  to  the  sea  are  to  be 
settled  by  the  arbitration  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  to  which  act 
Turkey  in  the  treaty  was  asked  to  give 
her  consent. 

The  first  Armenian  State  comprised 
about  25,000  square  miles,  with  a  popu- 
lation before  the  war  of  2,050,000, 
only  200,000  of  whom  dwelt  in  the  towns, 
and  about  two-thirds  of  whom  confessed 
Armenian  origin.  The  Armenia  taken 
from  the  Turkish  vilayets  includes  ap- 
proximately 50,630  square  miles,  with  a 
population  of  1,978,500,  of  whom,  owing 


to  the  migrations  during  the  war  and 
the  massacres,  fewer  than  a  million  now 
belong  to  Armenian  nationality. 

The  decision  of  the  League  of  Nations 
to  decline  a  mandate  for  Armenia  and 
the  offer  of  the  mandate  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Supreme  Council  have  been 
treated  elswhere  in  these  pages. 

The  Armenian  paper  Jagadamard, 
published  in  Constantinople,  which  pe- 
riodically issues  communiques  from  the 
Erivan  Government,  declared  that  early 
in  April  the  Armenians  of  the  Zangezur 
and  Karabagh  districts  had  entered  the 
Azerbaijan  Tartar  territory,  defeated 
the  5th  and  7th  Battalions  of  the  Tartar 
regular  army,  and  captured  several  hun- 
dred prisoners.  Armenian  newspapers 
ascribe  the  outbreak  to  the  attempt  of 
the  Azerbaijan  Government  to  disann 
the  Armenian  villages,  both  in  Karabagh 
and  in  the  neutral  zone  of  Zangezur. 

The  Harbord  report  was  amplified  on 
May  10  by  the  publication  in  Washington 
of  the  report  of  Eliot  G.  Mears,  the 
American  Trade  Commissioner  at  Con- 
stantinople. Seed  supply,  immigration, 
water  power,  better  transportation,  and 
protection  from  Kurdish  nomads  were 
declared  essential  for  productive  activity. 

PALESTINE 

According  to  the  Turkish  treaty 
Palestine  is  to  be  a  British  mandate,  as 
decided  by  the  Allies  with  the  approval 
of  the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations. 
The  mandatary  will  fix  the  boundaries; 
the  League  will  establish  a  commission 
for  the  protection  of  the  different  re- 
ligions. As  for  a  Jewish  homeland  in 
Palestine,  the  policy  of  the  Supreme 
Council  is  shown  by  the  practical  incor- 
poration in  the  treaty  on  April  24  of 
A.  J.  Balfour's  declaration  of  Nov.  2, 
1917.  The  declaration,  which  was  later 
subscribed  to  by  France  and  Italy  and 
indorsed  by  President  Wilson  in  a  letter 
to  the  head  of  the  British  Zionist  Or- 
ganization, reads: 

His  Majesty's  Government  view  with 
favor  the  establishment  in  Palestine  of  a 
national  home  for  the  Jewish  people,  and 
will  use  their  best  endeavors  to  facilitate 
the  achievement  of  this  object,  it  being 
clearly  understood  that  nothing  shall  be 
done  which  may  prejudice  the  civil  and 
religious    rights    of    existing    non-Jewish 


I 


DISMEMBERMENT  OF  THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE 


449 


EIGHT  THOUSAND  ARABS,   TURKS  AND  CHRISTIANS  PARADING  THE  STREETS  OP  JERU- 
SALEM   AS    A    PROTEST    AGAINST    THE    PROPOSAL,    THAT    PALESTINE    BE    HANDED    OVER 

TO    THE    JEWS 

(©    International) 


communities  in  Palestine,  or  the  rights 
and  political  status  enjoyed  by  Jews  in 
any  other  country. 

Official  reports  came  to  hand  concern- 
ing the  Arab-Jewish  riots  which  took 
place  in  Jerusalem  on  April  4-5  and 
caused  the  death  of  over  fifty  persons 
and  injury  to  twice  that  number.  On 
Easter  Sunday  a  group  of  Arabs  had 
arrived  in  the  city  from  Hebron  to  cele- 
brate the  festival  of  Nebi  Mussa.  Out- 
side the  Jaffa  gate  they  were  met  by 
Syrian  agitators,  who  made  speeches  to 
them  inciting  them  to  attack  the  Jews 
and  Zionists.  One  of  the  speakers  raised 
the  portrait  of  Emir  Feisal,  asking  the 
mob  to  take  oath  that  they  would  defend 
Palestine,  after  which  the  Arabs  rushed 
into  the  town  and  attacked,  beat,  and 
robbed  every  Jew  whom  they  met,  and 
plundered  their  shops.  The  performance 
at  the  Jaffa  Gate  was  repeated  at 
Batrak  and  in  the  Jewish  quarter.  The 
Arab  police  were  said  to  have  aided  the 
mob,  even  lending  the  rioters  their 
weapons.  Disturbances  continued  until 
the  arrival  of  British  troops  the  next 
day. 


In  the  courts-martial  which  were  held 
on  April  9,  11  and  12,  among  those  sen- 
tenced were  two  Arabs  and  one  Jew, 
each  to  fifteen  years'  imprisonment,  the 
Arabs  for  rape  and  arson,  and  the  Jew 
for  being  in  possession  of  arms  and  ball 
ammunition.  The  Jew  sentenced  was 
Vladimir  Jabotinsky,  a  prominent  Zion- 
ist and  a  former  Lieutenant  in  the  Brit- 
ish Army,  the  founder  of  the  famous 
Zion  Mule  Corps  of  Gallipoli,  and  the 
hero  of  a  book  by  Colonel  Patterson  of 
the  British  Army. 

Most  of  the  Jews  arrested  and  sen- 
tenced were  charged  with  having  Gov- 
ernment arms  in  their  hands.  Their 
plea  was  invariably  self-defense.  Nine- 
teen received  sentences  of  three  years 
each  on  this  charge.  These  sentences 
created  great  consternation  among  the 
Palestine  Jews.  On  April  10  General 
Sir  Louis  Bols,  the  Chief  Administrator 
of  Palestine,  convoked  a  meeting  of 
twenty  Moslem,  Christian  and  Jewish 
leaders,  and,  according  to  the  Al  Mokat- 
tam  of  Cairo,  addressed  them  as  follows: 

Calm  has  been  re-established,  and  mat- 
ters   have    now    resumed      their     normal 


450 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


MAIN  BUILDINCx  OF  THE  HEBREW  UNIVERSITY  AT  JERUSALEM,  NOW  BEING  CON- 
STRUCTED ON  THE  MOUNT  OP  OLIVES  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  PROFESSOR  PATRICK 
GEDDES  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH.  AMONG  THE  NOTED  PROFESSORS  WHO 
HAVE    AGREED    TO    JOIN    THE    FACULTY    ARE    DR.    ALBERT    EINSTEIN    OF    BERLIN    AND 

DR.    AUGUST    WASSERMANN 

(©    Underwood   &    Underwood) 


course,  but  the  recent  disorders  were  so 
violent  tiiat  they  have  left  a  feeling  of 
uncertainty  and  bitterness.  The  agitation 
was  most  prejudicial  to  the  country,  and 
the  arrested  persons  will  be  tried  in- 
dividually by   civil   or  military   courts. 

I  called  you  here  to  make  you  under- 
stand that  there  is  only  one  authority,  and 
that  is  mine.  I  have  a  large  military 
force,  with  which  I  can  repress  disorder, 
and  I  will  employ  it  in  the  future  without 
restriction.  You  are  always  free  to  ex- 
press opinions,  and  they  will  be  taken 
into  serious  consideration.  This  is  the 
only  path  to  follow,  but  if  you  have  re- 
course to  violence  we  shall  be  obliged 
to  adopt  similar  action. 

Herbert  Samuel,  former  British  Cab- 
inet Minister  and  Special  Commissioner 
to    Belgium,    in   passing   through    Cairo 
from  Jerusalem  on  his  way  home,  issued 
a  statement  to  the  press,  both  native  and 
British,   in  which   he   declared   that  the 
riots   in   Jerusalem   had   been   due   to   a 
misconception  of  Zionism  on  the  part  of 
the  non- Jewish  population.  He  wrote: 
They  have  assumed  that  Mohammedans 
and   Christians   will   be   placed   under  the 
Government    of    a    Jewish    minority,    that 
the  present   possessors   and   cultivators  of 
the  soil  will  be  dispossessed  of  their  prop- 
erty, that  the  ownership  of  Mohammedan 
and  Christian  holy  places  will  be  affected, 


and  that  the  Jews  will  fill  the  adminis- 
trative offices  to  the  prejudice  of  others. 
All  these  assumptions  are  untrue,  but, 
even  if  the  Zionist  organizations  enter- 
tained such  ideas.  Great  Britain  would 
not  permit  their  adoption. 

SMYRNA 

The  Turkish  treaty  gives  Smyrna  and 
the  hinterland,  extending  to  a  depth  of 
80  miles  and  a  breadth  of  150,  to  Greece 
under  limited  sovereignty.  Greece  must 
formulate,  in  consultation  with  the 
League  of  Nations,  a  plan  for  control 
of  the  territory,  and  at  the  end  of  two 
years  the  population  shall  decide  by 
plebiscitum  whether  they  desire  this  ar- 
rangement to  continue  or  whether  the 
territory  shall  be  annexed  to  Greece. 
Meanwhile,  the  Greek  customs  service 
will  be  established  and  a  local  Parlia- 
ment inaugurated  on  the  principle  of 
proportional  representation.  On  an  out- 
er fort  of  the  hinterland  the  Turkish 
flag  is  to  be  flown. 

General  Paraskevopoulo,  the  new 
Greek  Generalissimo  at  Smyrna,  in  an- 
ticipation of  an  attack  from  the  Turk- 
isk  Nationalists  under  Mustapha  Ke- 
mal,  of  whom  there  were  about  30,000 


DISMEMBERMENT  OF  THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE 


451 


CROWDS  OF  ARABS  IN  JERUSALEM  LISTENING  TO  BITTER  HARANGUES  BY  NATIONALIST 

AGITATORS    AGAINST    THE    ZIONISTS 

(©    Intei-national) 


mobilized  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Angora- 
Konia  frontier,  called  upon  all  his 
countrymen  between  the  ages  of  20  and 
30  for  immediate  military  service,  ex- 
cepting only  those  of  Turkish  birth. 

The  Greek  forces  under  Paraskevo- 
poulo  number  97,000  men — nominally 
six  divisions.  The  Government  at  Ath- 
ens assured  him  that  there  were  two 
•divisions  in  Thrace  which  would  be  sent 
him  should  he  need  reinforcements. 

SYRIA 

Subject  to  approval  by  the  League  of 
Nations,  France  is  to  become  the  man- 
datary for  Syria  and  Great  Britain  for 
Mesopotamia,  and  in  the  Turkish  treaty 
of  peace  the  Sultan  is  required  to  rec- 
ognize the  independence  of  these  new 
States,  whose  status  will  be  similar  to 
that  of  Palestine,  but  unlike  that  of 
Smyrna,  where  actual,  although  quali- 
fied, Greek  sovereignty  will  prevail. 
The  boundaries  of  the  new  States  will 
be  determined  by  special  commissions 
appointed  by  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Council  of  the  League.  As  both 
France  and  Italy  have  relinquished  the 
claim  to  mandatory  powers  over  Cilicia 
and  Adalia,  respectively,  reserving 
only  special  economic  privileges  on  the 


Levantine  littoral,  it  is  evident  that  the 
treaty  still  preserves  for  the  Anatolian 
vilayets  of  Turkey  a  window  on  the  sea 
between  Smyrna  and  Syria. 

Reports  received  at  the  French  War 
Office  showed  that  General  Gouraud,  in 
attempting  to  rescue  the  Armenians  of 
A.leppo  and  Mesopotamia  and  to  establish 
French  outposts  there,  met  with  dis- 
aster on  account  of  the  smallness  of  the 
forces  sent  and  the  animosity  of  both 
Turks  and  Arabs  toward  their  co- 
religionists, the  French  Senegalese 
troops. 

The  reports  showed,  however,  no  doubt 
of  the  treachery  of  Namik  Effendi,  the 
commander  of  the  Turkish  Nationalists, 
in  attacking  the  French  garrison  of  Ufa 
on  its  way  to  the  coast  after  he  had 
promised  it  safe  conduct — an  attack  in 
which  200  of  the  Senegalese  out  of  500 
were  slaughtered,  many  after  they  had 
surrendered.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
demonstrated  that  after  the  withdrawal 
of  the  French  troops  from  the  Aintab 
district,  the  civil  population  and  their 
foreign  helpers  fared  better  at  the  hands 
of  the  Turks. 

No  further  steps  were  taken  to  solve 
the  problem  raised  by  the  declaration  of 
independence  of  Syria — including  Pales- 


45^ 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tine — made  by  the  Damascus  National 
Congress  of  Arabs,  and  the  elevation  of 
Emir  Feisal  as  King  of  the  new  mon- 
archy. The  Supreme  Council  of  the 
Allies,  however,  refused  to  recognize 
General     Nuri     Pasha,     the     envoy     of 


ARCHBISHOP     CHEKRALLA    KHOURI 

From     the     Lebanon    Mountains     of     Syria,     Now 

Visitiyig  the  Syrian  Catholic  Churches  of  America 

by   Direction    of   the   Syrian   Patriarch. 

<Times  Wide  World  Photos.) 


"  King  "  Feisal,  and  demanded  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Emir  himself — but  simply  in 
his  capacity  as  a  delegate  representing 
his  father.  King  Hussein  of  Hedjaz. 

Nevertheless,  under  the  tolerant  eyes 
of   Generals   Allenby   and   Gouraud,   the 


organization  of  Feisal's  "Kingdom  " 
went  merrily  on.  He  appointed  the  fol- 
lowing cabinet: 

Prime  Minister Rida  Pasha  Rikaby 

President  of  the  Council 

Aladdin  Pasha  Deroubi 

Interior Rida  Bey  el  Souln 

Foreigrn  Affairs Said  Bey  el  Husseini 

War..L.ewa  Abdul  Hamid  Pasha  Kultukji 

Finance Fares  Bey  el  Khoury 

Justice Djelal    Bey 

Public  Works Youssef  Bey  el  Hakim 

Education Satia  Bey 

The  first  act  of  the  new  Ministry  war, 
the  publication  of  a  statement  of  its  in- 
tentions, in  which  the  following  points 
were  emphasized: 

To  safeguard  and  consolidate  the  com- 
plete independence  proclaimed  by  the 
■  Congress  at  Damascus. 

To  safeguard  public  security  in  all 
Syria  and  apply  justice  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants without  distinction  between  creeds 
and  classes,  and  g-uard  the  rights  of  com- 
munities and  the  interests  of  the  powers 
and  those  of  their  subjects  in  Syria. 

To  establish  the  best  relations  between 
Syria  and  foreign  States. 

To  make  efforts  to  reorganize  the 
country  in  such  a  way  as  to  guarantee 
its  moral  progress  and  the  development 
of  its  natural  resources. 

To  assist  the  allied  Governments  in 
safeguarding-  public  peace  in  the  Near 
East. 

Various  official  appointments  were 
also  made  by  the  Ministry,  and  the  law 
courts  began  to  issue  their  judgments  in 
the  name  of  the  "  King  of  Syria,"  whose 
domestic  arrangements  were  brought 
into  conformity  with  his  new  rank.  A 
body  of  Arab  lawyers  was  also  directed 
by  Djelal  Bey  to  draft  a  Syrian  code, 
which  will  differ  from  the  Ottoman  code 
on  several  important  points. 

KURDISTAN 

Kurdistan  emerges  from  the  Turkish 
treaty  better  than  does  Azerbaijan. 
Azerbaijan  is  only  incidentally  mention- 
ed. Geographically  one  is  superimposed 
upon  the  other.  So  the  blunder  the  En- 
tente made  last  January  in  recognizing 
the  independence  of  Azerbaijan  is  now 
wiped  out  in  the  treaty,  for  therein  the 
local  autonomy  of  Kurdistan,  which  had 
already  made  peace  with  Transcau- 
casian  Armenia,  is  required  of  Turkey; 
the  frontiers  are  to  be  fixed  by  a  com- 
mission of  British,  French  and  Italians; 
and  the  League  of   Nations   shall  have 


DISMEMBERMENT  OF  THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE 


453 


the  power  to  create  it  into  a  free  and 
independent  State  if  the  Kurds  at  some 
future  time  shall  request  it. 

Before  the  war  Kurdistan  lay  partly 
in  Turkey  and  partly  in  Persia.  In 
Turkey  it  included  the  vilayets  of  Diar- 
bekir,  Bitlis  and  Mamuret-ul-Aziz,  and 
in  Persia  the  provinces  of  Adelan  and 
Azerbaijan.  Of  these  vilayets  the  new 
Armenia  is  to  have  Bitlis.  Meanwhile, 
the  Tartars  of  Azerbaijan  starting  from 
the  Persian  province  have  practically 
absorbed  that  part  of  Turkish  Kurdistan 
which  is  dealt  with  in  the  treaty,  and 
these  Tartars  are  now  fighting  the 
Armenians  and  at  the  same  time  making 
peace  with  the  Russian  Bolsheviki. 

The  entrance  of  the  Bolsheviki  into 
Baku  on  April  27  and  the  Bolsheviza- 
tion  of  the  Azerbaijan  Republic  have 
been  treated  of  elsewhere  in  these  pages. 
The  report  that  Georgia  had  allied  itself 
with  Moscow  was  not  confirmed. 

MESOPOTAMIA 

Although  Mesopotamia,  like  Syria,  has 
been  created  into  an  independent  State 
under  Article  22  of  the  covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  with  a  mandatary 
nominated  by  the  Entente,  and  although 
its  independence  is  required  to  be  recog- 
nized by  Turkey,  the  boundaries  of  Meso- 
potamia— which  includes  the  former  vil- 
ayets of  Mosul,  Bagdad  and  Busra,  with 
an  area  of  143,250  square  miles  and  a 
prevailing  nomadic  population  of  over 
2,000,000,  or  only  about  10  persons  to  the 
square  mile — became  of  grave  concern 
to  the  British  Government.  In  spite  of 
the  magnificent  progress  made  in  restor- 
ing this  vast  region  between  the  Tigris 
and  the  Euphratos  Rivers,  as  was  shown 
in  these  columns  last  month,  the  crit- 
icisms of  Mr.  Asquith  and  the  Opposition 
to  a  comprehensive  mandate  were  later 
revealed  to  be  not  without  reason  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Government's  experts. 

Parts  of  the  vilayets  of  Van  and 
Mosul,  lying  between  the  Tigris  and  the 
Persian  frontier,  although  administered 
by  the  British,  are  claimed  by  Kurdistan 
as  far  south  as  the  Diaia  River  and  the 
Bagdad-Khanikin  railway.  Even  the 
British  Government  finally  acknowl- 
edged that  to  extend  the  mandate  over 
the  northern  section  would  be  beyond  its 


strength,  and  that  commerce  must  take 
its  chance  for  the*  development  of  the 
Zakho  oil  fields ;  the  rest  of  Mesopotamia 
could'  not  have  security  unless  the  out- 
posts of  civilization  were  pushed  to 
Mosul  town  on  the  Tigris;  the  southern 
section,  including  Suleimanie,  must  be 
included  in  the  mandate;  finally,  it 
would  be  idle  to  pacify  and  hold  Persia 
in  order  if  a  no-man's-land  were  contin- 
ued between  Persia  and  Mesopotamia. 

The  British  Government  placed  great 
hopes  in  the  Assyrian  and  Armenian  mi- 
grations, which  took  place  from  Asia 
Minor  to  Mesopotamia  during  the  closing 
year  of  the  war,  particularly  in  the  50,- 
000  Assyrians  who  returned  to  the  birth- 
place of  the  Assyrian  Empire.  Assyria 
ceased  to  exist,  with  its  King,  Sin-Shar- 
Ishkun — the  Sardanapalus  of  tradition 
— about  606  B.  C.  According  to  histo- 
rians her  methods  in  prosperity  had  been 
an  unhappy  blend  of  Prussian  Shreck- 
lichkeit  and  Turkish  administration — a 
blend  that  led  the  prophet  Nahum  to  cel- 
ebrate her  downfall  with  triumphant 
poetry.  As  a  just  punishment  for  her 
cruelty,  pride  and  intolerance,  Assyria' 
underwent  a  term  of  penal  servitude, 
and  for  five  and  twenty  centuries  has 
been  purging  her  soul  in  the  house  of 
bondage  under  various  masters,  the  last 
of  whom  were  the  Turks. 

PERSIA 

Both  the  British  and  Persian  Gov- 
ernments were  apprehensive  of  the  mili- 
tary situation  at  Teheran,  for  in  the 
Persian  capital  the  strongest  military 
force  still  consisted  of  a  Cossack  divi- 
sion under  Russian  officers.  A  mixture 
of  Czarism,  well  leavened  with  Bol- 
shevism, kept  Russian  influence  alive 
there.  Every  type  of  Persian  malcon- 
tent or  extremist,  whether  reactionary  or 
demagogic,  was  swept  into  its  net,  and 
among  these  Cossacks  Great  Britain  was 
represented  as  a  greedy,  capitalistic  and 
imperialistic  power.  The  nev/s  of  the 
Bolshevists'  victory  at  Baku,  and  their 
subjugation  of  the  Government  of  Azer- 
baijan, caused  fights  between  the  re- 
actionary and  the  radical  factions  of  the 
Cossacks,  which  the  Persian  Gendarmerie 
was  afraid  to  put  down.     The  Persian 


454 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Government  thereupon  called  upon  the 
British  Commissioner  at  Bagdad  for 
troops. 

Vossoukh  ed  Dowleh,  the  Persian 
Prime  Minister,  reorganized  his  Ministry 
and  issued  a  manifesto  in  which  he  chal- 
lenged  his    opponents     on    the     highest 


grounds  of  the  country's  future,  justified 
his  pro-British  policy  and  appealed  to 
the  patriotic  element  to  rally  to  his  sup- 
port. The  independence  of  Persia,  he 
said,  was  not  endangered  by  either  Brit- 
ish relations  or  her  foreign  neighbors, 
but  by  the  bad  internal  situation. 


Poland's  New  War  on  Soviet  Russia 

Pilsudski,  in  Alliance  With  Petlura,  Pushes  Oifensive  Toward  Kiev 

and   Odessa 


ONE  of  the  strangest  developments 
in  the  Russian  situation,  from  which 
so  many  surprises  have  already 
come,  was  the  conclusion,  toward  the  end 
of  April,  of  a  treaty  of  alliance  for  offen- 
sive purposes  between  Poland  and  the 
Ukraine  and  the  initiation  of  a  vigor- 
ous joint  campaign  to  drive  the  Bolshe- 
vik! out  of  Little  Russia.  For  Poland 
and  Ukraine  had  long  been  enemies  and 
had  engaged  in  bitter  warfare  in  East 
Galicia  and  along  the  line  leading  down 
lo  the  borders  of  Western  Ukraine,  whose 
right  to  independence  the  peasant  leader, 
Petlura,  had  supported  for  many  months 
against  the  forces  of  Denikin,  the  Soviet 
Republic  and  Poland  herself. 

Petlura,  faced  with  the  occupation  of 
most  of  the  Ukraine  by  the  Bolsheviki 
following  the  final  defeat  of  General 
Denikin,  had  fled  to  Poland,  and  it  was 
there  that  this  Polish-Ukrainian  compact 
was  signed.  Reading  the  handwriting  on 
the  wall,  Petlura  had  already  concluded 
a  preliminary  agreement  in  December, 
1919.  The  terms  of  this  first  compact 
had  been  secret,  but  the  Ukrainian  press 
in  some  way  had  got  wind  of  it,  and 
printed  it  textually,  with  the  result  that 
a  tremendous  storm  had  been  raised,  es- 
pecially in  Galician  and  Ruthenian 
(White  Russian)  circles,  who  saw  them- 
selves betrayed  in  their  aspiration  of 
national  independence  by  the  very  ones 
who  should  have  been  their  national  sup- 
porters. But  Petlura,  faced  by  the  unin- 
terrupted advance  of  the  Bolsheviki  and 
the  prospect  of  losing  forever  the 
Ukraine's  own  chances  of  independent 
existence,  preferred  the  alternative  of  a 
compromise  agreement  with  Poland. 


A  proclamation  issued  by  President 
Pilsudski  said  that,  "together  with  the 
Poles,  there  are  returning  to  the  Ukraine 
its  heroic  sons  under  Simon  Petlura,  who 
have  found  refuge  in  Poland  and  help 
in  the  darkest  days  for  the  Ukrainians." 
The  substance  of  the  agreement  con- 
cluded was  that  Petlura,  embodying  the 
Ukrainian  Government,  gave  up  his  claim 
on  Eastern  Galicia,  while  the  Poles  in 
exchange  promised  to  conquer  for  him 
Podolia,  Volhynia  and  Kiev. 

Following  the  signing  of  this  agree- 
ment and  Pilsudski's  proclamation  the 
Poles,  on  April  28,  launched  a  whirlwind 
campaign  on  a  250-mile  front,  from  the 
Pripet  to  the  Dniester,  which  gave  the 
Bolsheviki,  whose  transportation  and 
other  weaknesses  now  became  strongly 
apparent,  but  little  chance  to  counter. 
Victory  after  victory  was  won  by  the 
Poles,  with  whom  the  Ukrainians  were 
co-operating  in  the  southern  sector,  and 
the  Polish  troops  pushed  deeply  into  the 
Ukraine,  taking  many  prisoners  and 
much  rolling  stock  from  the  demoralized 
Bolsheviki.  The  official  communique 
from  Warsaw  on  April  30  announced  the 
capture  of  15,000  prisoners.  Mohilev  had 
been  taken  and  the  Poles  were  moving 
southeast  along  the  Dniester. 

Polish  cavalry  reached  the  outskirts  of 
one  of  the  main  objectives — Kiev — ^by 
May  1.  At  this  time  Trotzky,  Soviet  War 
Minister,  had  ordered  a  new  mobilization 
to  defend  the  western  and  southern 
fronts.  Despite  a  stiffening  of  the  Red 
Army's  resistance,  the  Polish  forces 
drove  ahead,  and  closed  in  on  Kiev  in  a 
wide  semicircle.  Fierce  fighting  was  rag- 
ing on  May  5  on  a  wide  front  around  the 


POLAND'S  NEW  WAR  ON  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


455 


SCALE  or  MIL£i 


ISO  ioo 

BOUNOfiKY  OF  fOLANO 
BerOITE  PARTIT/OH  IN  I//2 
f>OtJ\NO  AS  DEF/NEO  BY 

Tfhirrr  of  yejesAiu£i  1919 

■TERItlTOKY  5I>BJ£CT  TO 
PLBB/SCITE  aerwEEN 
POLANO   ANO   OEKMAUr 


POLAND'S   NEW  WAR  ON   SOVIET   RUSSIA:      ARROWS   INDICATE    LINES    OF   SUCCESSFUL 
ATTACK    IN    RUSSIA    AND    THE    UKRAINE 


Kiev  bridgehead,  where  the  Bolshevist 
defense  was  concentrated.  On  May  8  the 
Poles  took  the  hills  overlooking  the  city, 
the  Red  Army  retreating  across  the  Dnie- 
per. A  relentless  artillery  battle  con- 
tinued both  north  and  south  of  the  city. 
Hand-to-hand  fighting  occurred  between 
the  Poles  and  the  Bolsheviki  in  attempts 
made  by  the  former  to  cross  the  river. 
Meanwhile  the  combined  Polish  and 
Ukrainian  troops,  supported  by  armored 
trains,  were  turning  toward  the  south, 
already  heading  for  the  second  objective, 
Odessa. 

The  campaign  launched  by  Poland  put 
an  effectual  quietus  on  the  proposed  ne- 
gotiations of  peace  with  Soviet  Russia. 
Many  preliminary  notes  had  been  ex- 
changed, but  no  place  for  the  meeting 
could  be  agreed  upon,  and  now  the  proj- 
ect was  abandoned. 

The  Polish  War  Minister,  Major  Bou- 
fall,  in  a  statement  made  on  April  15, 


blamed  the  Bolsheviki  alone  for  the  fail- 
ure to  make  peace.  The  Soviet  proposal 
of  a  general  armistice,  he  declared,  was 
but  a  trick.  Poland  asked  only  the  re- 
turn of  all  territory  annexed  by  Russia. 
Poland  was  ready  to  grant  the  people  of 
all  these  territories — Latgalians,  Lithu- 
anians, White  Ruthenians  and  Ukrain- 
ians— the  right  of  self-determination. 
Poland  admitted  frankly  that  she  desired 
to  form  a  chain  of  buffer  States  under 
her  economic  and  political  influence. 
Because  of  the  aggressive  policy  of  the 
Soviet  Government  she  did  not  wish  to 
be  Russia's  next-door  neighbor. 

M.  Patek,  the  Polish  Premier,  left 
Warsaw  on  April  24  to  go  to  Paris  and 
London  to  explain  his  country's  policy 
both  in  regard  to  Soviet  Russia  and  the 
Ukraine.  Measures  were  being  taken  in 
Rome  to  counteract  the  effect  on  Signer 
Nitti  and  the  Italian  Socialists  of  M. 
Tchitcherin's  charges  of  imperialistic  ag- 
gression. 


456 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


THE  RULERS  OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA 

The  latest  photographs  of  the  chief  leaders 
of  Bolshevist  Russia,  given  herewith,  are 
intimate  and  charactecistic  likenesses  of  the 
two  men  who,  since  November,  1917,  have 
ruled  Russia  with  an  absolutism  more  com- 
plete than  that  of  the  Czars.  Kerensky  fell 
through  weakness  and  indecision.  Lenin  and 
Trotzky  won  by  ruthless  determination. 
Counter-revolution  against  the  Red  republic 
was  punished  mercilessly  by  thousands  of 
executions ;  the  Red  Terror  was  fostered  and 
encouraged.  The  Red  Army  organized  by 
Trotzky  as  War  Minister  was  given  enor- 
mous extension,  and  sternly  disciplined.  One 
by  one  the  Soviet's  enemies,  Kolchak,  Yude- 
nitch  and  Denikin,  were  defeated  in  the  field, 
despite  the  financial  and  other  aid  given  by 
the  Allies.  Triumphant  on  every  front,  the 
Bolshevist  leaders  turned  to  reconstruction 
and  made  their  fighting  armies  over  into 
armies  of  labor.  Declaring  for  peace,  they 
have  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  Allies 
make  indirect  proposals  for  the  reopening 
of  trade.  Lenin  recently  boasted  before  the 
Soviet  Congress  in  Moscow  that  Soviet  Rus- 
sia had  scored  a  complete  victory  over  Its 
internal  enemies  and  the  Entente. 


NIKOLAI   LENIN 

Premier,  and  called  "  the  Brains  "  of  Soviet 

Riissia.     From  a  new  photograpih 

(©    International) 


LEON   TROTZKY 

Soviet  Minister  of  War,  second  only  to  Lenim, 

in  the  Government  of  Soviet  Russi<t> 

(©    International) 


Russia  and  the  New  Baltic  States 

Soviet  Government's  Tireless  Attempts  to  Reopen  Trade  With  the 
Outside  World — Attack  of  Poles  and  Ukrainians 


RUSSIA 

SPURRED  on  by  the  desperate  eco- 
nomic situation  at  home,  the  Bolshe- 
vist authorities  during  the  month 
under  review  multiplied  their  efforts  to 
obtain  resumption  of  trade  relations  with 
the  outside  world.  Owing  to  the  alleged 
temperamental  unfitness  of  Krassin  and 
the  other  Bolshevist  delegates  to  the 
Stockholm  conference,  and  to  Krassin's 
insistence  on  the  inclusion  of  Litvinov — 
formerly  Russian  Ambassador  at  London 
— in  the  commission  which  it  was 
planned  to  send  to  England  on  behalf 
of  the  Russian  Co-operative  Societies, 
the  negotiations  fell  through.  The  Brit- 
ish Government's  refusal  to  receive 
Litvinov,  expelled  from  England  for  sub- 
versive Bolshevist  propaganda,  remained 
unshaken,  while  France,  on  her  part,  de- 
clined to  admit  the  Bolshevist  contention 
that  the  debt  of  pre-war  Russia  should 
be  eliminated  from  the  present  Govern- 
ment's obligations — a  proposal  tanta- 
mount to  complete  repudiation  of  the 
debt  of  26,000,000,000  francs  due  France 
on  existing  bonds. 

The  discussions  of  the  Russian  prob- 
lem at  the  conference  at  San  Remo — de- 
scribed elsewhere  in  these  pages — led  to 
no  definite  result.  The  view  of  Signor 
Nitti,  the  Italian  Premier,  that  a  re- 
sumption of  trade  should  be  encouraged 
was  favored  in  general  terms  by  the  al- 
lied Premiers,  but  each  nation  was  left 
free  to  take  the  steps  it  deemed  expedi- 
ent. France  was  cool  to  the  project, 
but  both  Lloyd  George  and  Nitti  ex- 
pressed their  belief  that  the  opening  of 
trade  relations  was  desirable.  It  was 
stated,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  San 
Remo  conference,  that  a  well-known  Bol- 
shevist official,  M.  Klishko,  would  visit 
England  to  discuss  the  question.  Italy, 
on  her  part,  opened  negotiations  with  the 
Soviet  ostensibly  to  discuss  the  question 
of  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  but  the 
plain  words  of  Signor  Nitti  at  San  Remo 


left  no  doubt  of  his  intention  to  reopen 
trade. 

The  Soviet  authorities,  meanwhile,  did 
not  remain  inactive.  A  special  commer- 
cial delegation  was  sent  on  April  2  to 
Copenhagen,  where  they  were  joined  by 
Krassin,  and  on  April  23  an  agreement 
was  signed  with  international  commer- 
cial interests  looking  to  an  early  re- 
sumption of  relations.  At  this  time  a 
general  industrial  and  commercial  con- 
ference, to  meet  in  Copenhagen  toward 
the  end  of  May,  was  announced.  Kras- 
sin's attempts  to  conclude  trade  rela- 
tions with  Sweden  proved  abortive.  The 
efforts  of  Moscow  to  stir  up  American 
interest  continued  unabated.  Through 
the  office  of  L.  A.  K.  Martens,  self-styled 
"  Ambassador  "  to  the  United  States,  an 
offer  was  made  on  April  25  to  deliver 
at  Reval  $20,000,000  in  gold  for  the 
opening  of  a  trade  credit  in  this  country. 
Certain  American  business  men,  who  had 
booked  large  orders  with  the  Moscow 
Government  through  Martens,  discussed 
this  project  enthusiastically,  expressing 
resentment  at  their  inability  to  fill  these 
orders  and  regret  that  their  European 
competitors  were  gaining  advantage  in 
the  race  for  Russian  trade.  The  Amer- 
ican Commercial  Association  for  Pro- 
moting Trade  with  Russia  announced 
that  it  would  at  once  send  a  new  appeal 
to  Washington  to  provide  facilities  for 
initiating  active  commercial  relations. 

The  repatriation  of  British,  German, 
French  and  Italian  prisoners  by  Russia 
continued.  The  situation  in  Siberia  gen- 
erally remained  unchanged,  though  a 
protocol  was  signed  on  April  29  between 
the  Japanese,  still  in  control  of  Vladivos- 
tok, and  the  Russian  officials  in  that 
city  which  amounted  to  the  practical 
elimination  of  the  Russian  forces  in  Far 
Eastern  Siberia.*    The  alleged  arbitrary 


*By  the  terms  of  this  agreement,  which 
were  at  first  resisted  by  the  Russians,  all 
Russian  forces  were  to  be  withdrawn  for  a 
distance  of  30  kilometers  from  the  Japanese 
zone. 


458 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


acts  of.  the  Japanese  military  group  in 
Siberia  elicited  a  strong  protest  from 
the  members  of  the  Interallied  Railway 
Commission  to  their  respective  Govern- 
ments, in  which  they  declared  that  the 
guarding  and  running  of  the  railway 
lines  was  being  interfered  with  by 
Japanese  soldiers.  General  Semenov  and 
the  Japanese  leaders  were  said  to  be 
working  hand  in  hand.  A  strong  current 
of  anti-Japanese  sentiment,  however, 
was  setting  in,  and  the  general  situation 
gave  the  Japanese  much  ground  for 
anxiety.  Japanese  residents  in  many 
towns  of  Far  Eastern  Siberia  were  flee- 
ing to  other  points.  Several  hundred 
Japanese  at  Nikolaevsk  were  reported 
on  April  19  to  have  been  exterminated, 
and  on  this  date  the  Nippon  Government 
sent  two  warships  and  a  military  con- 
tingent to  rescue  survivors.  Because  of 
Winter  conditions,  Nikolaevsk  could  not 
be  reached;  meanwhile,  however,  many 
Japanese  residents  were  taken  off  at 
Alexandrovsk. 

The  Bolshevist  armies,  whose  advance 
was  so  much  feared  by  the  Japanese,  did 
not  put  in  an  appearance,  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  Moscow's  fighting  divisions 
indicated  that  there  was  only  one  Soviet 
Army  in  the  Far  East  (the  Fifth  Army), 
stationed  west  of  the  Lake  Baikal  region, 
which  was  controlled  by  the  Siberian 
Social  Revolutionaries,  who  in  turn  were 
in  contact  with  the  Japanese  forces.  Be- 
cause of  the  strained  situation  and  the 
danger  to  Japanese  residents  and  prop- 
erty, the  Tokio  Government  saw  no  im- 
mediate prospect  of  withdrawal.  The 
main  object  of  the  Japanese  occupation — 
the  repatriation  of  the  Czechoslovak  sol- 
diers— still  remained  only  partially  ac- 
complished. According  to  Japanese  re- 
ports, it  was  important  to  complete  this 
repatriation  as  soon  as  possible,  inas- 
much as  the  Czechs,  who  had  long  been 
exposed  to  Bolshevist  virus,  were  dis- 
playing pro  -  Bolshevist  sympathies. 
There  was  no  confirmation  of  the  re- 
port that  Moscow's  offers  of  an  alliance 
with  China,  including  support  of  her  na- 
tional claims  against  Japan  and  other 
foreign  aggressors,  had  been  accepted. 

With  the  capture  of  the  three  Cossack 
aiTTiies    reported    on    May    4    the   whole 


campaign  against  Denikin  was  virtually 
liquidated  by  the  Bolsheviki.  Denikin 
himself,  after  a  stay  of  two  days  in 
Constantinople,  sailed  on  a  British  war- 
ship to  England.  He  arrived  in  London 
on  April  19,  accompanied  by  the  children 
of  General  Komilov,  who  met  his  death 
under  the  Kerensky  regime.  General 
Denikin  was  met  by  British  officials,  and 
England  gave  him  a  cordial  reception. 
The  question  of  the  treatment  to  be  ac- 
corded to  his  captured  army  was  dis- 
cussed greatly  by  Great  Britain  with  the 
Soviet  Government.  The  Soviet  answer 
to  Great  Britain's  first  note  was  con- 
sidered highly  unsatisfactory,  the  Soviet 
taking  the  ground  that  there  was  no 
essential  difference  between  the  position 
of  Denikin's  soldiers  and  that  of  the  Red 
Communists  arrested  in  Hungary,  and 
implying  that  Great  Britain's  interven- 
tion in  the  case  of  the  latter  would  be 
expected  in  return  for  concessions  in  the 
case  of  the  Denikin  forces.  Further  ex- 
changes were  continuing. 

Relieved  of  the  Denikin  menace,  the 
Soviet  Government  was  faced  with  new 
dangers  in  a  coalition  of  the  Poles  with 
the  Ukrainian  forces  commanded  by 
Petlura.  [For  a  description  of  this  cam- 
paign, in  which  the  Poles  and  Ukrainians 
met  with  considerable  success,  see  the 
article  on  Poland.]  This  new  military 
offensive  by  Poland  in  union  with  Pet- 
lura gave  much  cause  for  anxiety  to  the 
Moscow  Government,  and  had  the  effect 
of  cementing  the  bond  between  Poland 
and  Finland  and  of  deterring  the  Letts 
from  following  Esthonia's  example  in 
making  peace  with  Lenin.  A  long  wire- 
less message  received  at  Stockholm  to- 
ward the  end  of  April  protested  at  Po- 
land's new  aggression  and  stated  that 
the  Soviet  would  not  again  warn  Poland 
that  all  negotiations  toward  peace  would 
be  impossible  while  the  Polish  forces 
continued  this  offensive.  Finland's  de- 
termination to  retain  the  North  Russian 
Finnish  territory  now  in  her  possession 
remained  unchanged  by  Moscow's  refusal 
to  arrange  a  temporary  armistice  for 
the  purpose  of  discussion. 

The  economic  situation  in  Soviet  Rus- 
sia remained  deplorable  in  respect  to 
food  and  fuel  shortage,  epidemics,  lack 


■  of  rolling 


RUSSIA   AND    THE  NEW  BALTIC  STATES 


4.59 


of  rolling  stock  and  complete  disintegra- 
tion of  the  transport  system.  Toward 
the  end  of  April  the  assassination  of  G. 
Zinoviev,  President  of  the  Third  Moscow 
International  and  known  as  the  "  fire- 
brand of  the  revolution,"  was  announced. 
The  circumstances  of  the  assassination 
were  not  given.  Prince  Eugene  Troubetz- 
koy,  the  well-known  philosopher  and 
editor  of  the  journal  Logos,  died  early 
in  April  at  Moscow  of  starvation.  The 
typhus  epidemic  was  increasing  from 
month  to  month. 

Regarding  the  internal  situation, 
Lenin,  at  the  Ninth  Communist  Con- 
gress, advocated  the  concentration  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  one  person. 
Trotzky's  system  of  the  military  organ- 
ization of  labor  was  approved.  The 
Soviet  propaganda  organization  contin- 
ued its  world-wide  efforts  to  distribute 
revolutionary  literature.  It  was  pointed 
out  in  the  Swedish  press  toward  the  be- 
ginning of  April  that  the  Krassin  mis- 
sion should  be  looked  upon  with  sus- 
picion, and  the  statements  of  Zinoviev 
that  all  diplomatic  negotiations  aimed 
ultimately  at  the  Bolshevization  of  Eu- 
rope, and  ultimately  of  the  whole  world, 
were  pointed  to  as  significant. 

The  State  Department  at  Washington 
on  April  18  gave  out  a  memorandum 
through  Secretary  of  State  Colby  which 
tended  to  show  that  the  creation  of  a 
"  World  Soviet  Republic "  by  interna- 
tional revolution  was  the  common  object 
of  the  Russian  Communist  Party,  the 
Third  Communist  International  and  the 
Russian  Soviets.  This  memorandum  was 
prepared  by  D.  C.  Poole,  Chief  of  the 
Division  of  Russian  Affairs  in  the  State 
Department,  and  all  the  material  pre- 
sented was  from  original  sources,  in- 
cluding the  utterances  of  the  Bolsheviki 
themselves,  extracts  from  their  party 
organs  and  from  the  official  press,  wire- 
less messages  from  the  Soviets,  and  the 
publications  of  the  Third  International. 

FINLAND    ' 

The  situation  in  the  Baltic  States 
(exclusive  of  Poland,  which  is  treated 
elsewhere  in  these  pages)  showed  little 
change  during  the  month  under  review. 
Finland   remained   in   a   state   of  armed 


defense  upon  her  borders,  varied  by 
sporadic  conflicts  with  the  Finnish  Red 
Guard,  many  of  whom  were  Bolshevized 
Finns.  The  tendency  of  the  Finnish  Gov- 
ernment was  to  make  peace  with  Soviet 
Russia,  but  only  on  condition  that  the 
Finnish  terms,  which  embraced  frontier 
rectifications,  the  obtaining  of  an  ice- 
free  port  at  Petchenga  (north  of  Mur- 
mansk) and  the  taking  of  a  plebiscite 
in  East  Karelia,  be  granted.  This  policy, 
as  explained  by  the  members  of  a  Fin- 
nish political  mission  sent  to  England 
toward  the  beginning  of  April,  was  due 
to  the  sentiment  that  Russia  was  too 
powerful  a  neighbor  to  make  it  expedi- 
ent to  continue  hostile  relations,  and  also 
to  the  urgent  necessity  for  Finland  to 
have  a  larger  food  supply.  In  accordance 
with  this  belief  Finland  took  steps  late 
in  April  to  open  negotiations  for  an  ar- 
mistice; but  the  Soviet  authorities,  an- 
gered, it  was  said,  by  the  failure  of  the 
Krassin  commercial  delegation  to  Swe- 
den, refused  to  stop  hostilities.  Mean- 
while Finland,  strengthened  by  her  un- 
derstanding with  Poland,  refused  to 
modify  her  terms,  and  the  relations  be- 
tween the  two  countries  assumed  the 
nature  of  an  impasse. 

In  Finland  itself  large  labor  meetings 
held  on  May  Day  resulted  in  the  adop- 
tion of  resolutions  favoring  a  general 
strike.  Serious  rioting  occurred  the  day 
before,  with  many  casualties.  Details 
of  the  March  elections,  made  available 
on  May  2,  showed  that  the  Socialist  ele- 
ments of  the  Government  were  growing 
stronger  and  had  recovered  the  ground 
lost  after  the  Red  and  White  terrors. 
Germany  had  presented  a  bill  of  127,- 
000,000  marks  for  assistance  in  the  Fin- 
nish wai"  of  liberation.  It  was  announced 
from  Washington  on  April  17  that  John 
Reed,  the  American  magazine  writer, 
had  been  in  jail  at  Abo  since  his  arrest 
on  March  17  for  stowing  away  on  an 
Abo  steamer  and  for  being  in  possession 
of  large  sums  of  money  and  much  Bol- 
shevist literature  of  various  kinds. 

LATVIA 

The  Lettish  negotiations  with  Soviet 
Russia,  like  those  of  Lithuania,  made 
little  headway.  This  was  due  partly  to 
the  strong  showing  made  by  Poland  in 


460 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  military  operations  undertaken  by 
that  country  against  the  Reds,  and 
partly  to  the  Lettish  demands,  which 
the  Soviet  representatives  deemed  ex- 
cessive. The  preliminary  negotiations 
for  both  countries  were  being  held  at 
Moscow  in  the  middle  of  April.  The  de- 
mands made  by  Latvia  included,  besides 
strategical  guarantees,  a  guarantee  of 
Latvia's  independence  and  the  rectifica- 
tion of  the  Lettish  frontier;  also  an  in- 
demnity of  2,000,000,000  rubles  for  dam- 
age done  in  the  war  and  for  railway 
stock,  bank  funds,  cattle  and  machinery 
which  the  Bolshevist  troops  carried 
away.  The  Letts  also  asked  for  a  pro- 
portionate share  of  Russia's  national 
gold  fund. 

The  Bolshevist  Government  was  op- 
posed to  compensation  for  war  damages, 
regarding  these  as  a  war  indemnity 
which  should  be  waived  on  both  sides. 
The  Letts'  claim  to  Russian  national 
property  they  proposed  to  defer  for  later 
discussion.  They  also  held  that  Latvia 
should  give  Russia  the  right  to  use  her 
ports.  By  April  30  it  had  been  agreed 
that  Latvia  should  be  independent  and 
that  she  should  take  over  part  of  the 
Russian  national  debt  in  exchange  for  a 
proportional  share  of  the  Russian  gold 


The  German  Government,  it  was  stated 
at  this  time,  had  agreed  to  pay  the  Let- 
tish Government  the  sum  of  150,000,000 
rubles  as  an  indemnity  for  damage  done 
by  the  troops  under  General  Avalov- 
Bermondt. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  on 
the  life  of  the  Lettish  Premier,  M.  Ul- 
manis,  in  April,  in  the  City  of  Walk. 
The  would-be  assassin  escaped.  This 
was  the  third  time  that  M.  Ulmanis  had 
been  attacked. 

LITHUANIA 

Peace  negotiations  between  Lithuania 
and  Soviet  Russia  were  agreed  to  on 
April  7.  The  negotiations  began  in  Mos- 
cow on  April  15.  The  independence  of 
Lithuania  was  agreed  to  and  a  delimita- 
tion of  Lithuanian  territory  on  an  ethno- 
graphical basis  was  mapped  out.  Lith- 
uania insisted  on  a  recognition  of  her 
claim  to  the  towns  of  Vilna  and  Grodno. 
The  whole  question  of  the  Lithuanian 
frontier  dispute  with  Poland  was  a  vexed 
one  and  could  not  be  settled  pending  the 
continuance  of  the  Polish  offensive  on 
the  Soviet  front.  The  temper  of  the 
Lithuanian  population  was  dangerous, 
owing  to  food  scarcity  and  unsettled  con- 
ditions, and  Bolshevist  propaganda  was 
said  to  be  finding  here  a  fertile  field. 


The  Caucasus  Republics 


Azerbaijan  Capital  Opened  to  Bolshevist  Forces — Threat  of  Soviet 
Control  of  the  Whole  Caucasus  Region 

[See  Map  on  Page  509] 


THOUGH  the  main  issue  before  the 
San  Remo  Conference  was  the  com- 
pulsion of  Germany  to  disarm  and 
to  fulfill  in  other  respects  the  strict  let- 
ter of  the  Versailles  Treaty,  decisions 
were  confirmed  regarding  the  partition 
of  Turkey,  and  especially  the  countries 
lying  just  to  the  east  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, which  rank  in  historical  impor- 
tance with  the  collapse  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire  and  the  ascendency  of  the  Turk 
in  Europe.  These  decisions  allowed  the 
Sultan  to  remain  in  Constantinople, 
while  stripping  him  of  executive  power, 


internationalized  the  straits,  gave 
Smyrna  and  its  hinterland,  as  well  as  a 
strip  of  the  southern  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  to  Greece;  authorized  Italy  to  re- 
tain the  strip  of  this  same  coast  occu- 
pied by  its  forces,  delivered  a  mandate 
over  Syria  to  France,  a  mandate  over 
Mesopotamia  to  Great  Britain,  and  rec- 
ognized the  existence  of  an  independent 
Arab  State,  exclusive  of  the  French  Syr- 
ian protectorate  and  the  new  State  of 
Palestine.  This  last  arrangement  was 
not  at  all  to  Arab  liking,  for  Emir  Fei- 
sal  had   formed   far-reaching   plans   for 


THE   CAUCASUS  REPUBLICS 


461 


the  erection  of  a  Pan-Arab  State,  includ- 
ing Palestine,  Syria  and  even  Lebanon, 
under  his  own  rule.  But  neither  the 
claims  of  France  nor  those  of  the  Zion- 
ists could  be  disregarded  by  the  allied 
Premiers. 

With  regard  to  the  three  new  repub- 
lics of  the  Caucasus — Armenia,  Georgia 
and  Azerbaijan — little  could  be  done  at 
the  San  Remo  Conference  either  in  the 
way  of  transforming  these  "  Balkan 
States  of  Asia  Minor "  into  a  bulwark 
and  buffer-State  for  Great  Britain's 
rule  in  Egypt,  Mesopotamia  and  India, 
or  in  harmonizing  the  serious  problems 
arising  from  conflict  between  these 
three  uneasy  neighbors,  and  from  their 
relations  with  the  ever-present  Turk  and 
the  militant  Bolsheviki  of  Russia.  The 
impending  invasion  of  the  Caucasus  by 
Soviet  forces  indicated  a  secret  pact  be- 
tween Russia  and  Turkey,  which  had  for 
its  object  the  breaking  down  of  the  weak 
Caucasian  barrier  between  them.  By 
May  8  it  was  reported  that  Tiflis  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Bolsheviki, 
and  that  the  seizure  of  Batum  by  local 
Bolshevist  adherents  was  momentarily 
expected.  The  ultimate  fall  of  the  whole 
Caucasus  region  under  the  power  of 
Moscow  seemed  inevitable. 

ARMENIA 

The  situation  in  Armenia  at  the  time 
of  the  sessions  at  San  Remo  may  be 
sketched  as  follows: 

Systematic  massacres  of  Armenians 
by  the  Turks,  Kurds  and  Tartars  had  so 
decimated  the  Armenian  populations  in 
Turkey  that  many  districts  had  none 
left.  The  whole  region  that  used  to  be 
known  as  Armenia,  south  of  the  Black 
Sea,  was  swept  bare  of  these  unfor- 
tunate people;  300,000  refugees  had  fled 
from  the  terrible  massacres  and  were 
crowded  on  the  soil  of  the  Caucasus  re- 
public of  Armenia,  which  has  its  capital 
at  Erivan,  and  which  is  the  only  Ar- 
menia politically  existent  at  present.  No 
Armenian  could  cross  the  boundary  of 
this  little  republic  and  return  to  his  dev- 
astated home  in  Turkish  Armenia  with- 
out danger  of  death.  [For  a  full  ac- 
count of  this  situation  see  article  on 
Page  504.] 


Before  any  decision  could  be  taken  by 
the  Allies  regarding  Armenia,  it  was 
necessary  to  define  and  delimit  its  new 
boundaries.  The  problem  was  almost 
insoluble.  Besides  the  enormous  expense 
entailed  in  setting  up  a  new  Armenia 
large  enough  to  defend  itself,  and  in 
forming  an  army  to  drive  out  the  Turks 
in  those  parts  of  it  which,  under  the 
Armenian  plans,  should  be  embraced  in 
their  new  national  confines,  it  was  seen 
to  be  imperative  to  afford  Armenia  con- 
stant protection  against  the  aggressions 
of  their  Turkish  and  Tartar  neighbors. 
Only  a  nation  of  great  financial  re- 
sources and  great  political  idealism  could 
venture  to  undertake  such  a  problem  in 
Armenia's  interest.  The  British,  French 
and  Italian  Premiers,  realizing  their  own 
inability  either  to  decide  what  the  final 
borders  of  the  new  State  should  be,  or  to 
undertake  to  maintain  them  when  de- 
limited, passed  the  dilemma  on  to  the 
United  States.  In  a  joint  note  to  Pres- 
ident Wilson  they  asked  that  the  United 
States  assume  a  mandate  for  Armenia, 
and  that  he  draw  the  boundaries  of  the 
new  republic  as  he  should  see  fit. 

Since  this  note  was  dispatched,  new 
difficulties  have  arisen  for  the  Arme- 
nians on  the  soil  of  their  neighbor, 
Azerbaijan.  The  population  of  this  Tar- 
tar republic  are  Turks  by  ethnology,  re- 
ligion and  sympathy.  They  have  long 
been  hostile  to  the  Armenians,  and  a 
serious  quarrel  has  existed  for  some  time 
between  their  Government  and  that  of 
Armenia  over  the  question  of  bounda- 
ries. The  two  nationalities  in  Azerbaijan 
are  desperately  intermingled.  Armenian 
villages  are  found  everywhere  in  the 
mountains;  the  Azerbaijani,  corre- 
sponding to  their  later  arrival  as  con- 
querors, occupy  the  plains.  Conflicts  be- 
tween the  two  peoples  have  been  con- 
stant; the  Armenians  have  been  at- 
tacked, beaten  and  in  many  cases  mas- 
sacred. The  murder  of  a  Tartar  soldier 
at  Shusha,  following  a  street  brawl 
which  occurred  in  March,  led  to  lynch- 
ings  of  Armenians  in  the  provinces  of 
Karabagh  and  Zangelour,  When  the  of- 
ficial protests  of  the  Armenian  Prime 
Minister  and  the  British  High  Commis- 
sioner at  Tiflis  proved  fruitless,  the  Ar- 
menian Army  marched  to  Karabagh  to 


462 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


defend  their  persecuted  compatriots,  at- 
tacked on  a  twelve-mile  front,  and  occu- 
pied most  of  the  district.  They  seized 
the  Tartar  Governor,  Dr.  Sultanov,  and 
brought  him  to  Erivan  as  a  hostage. 
Fighting  ensued  and  lasted  up  to  the 
middle  of  April,  when  an  armistice  was 
arranged.  The  Azerbaijan  Government 
sent  an  ultimatum  to  Armenia  on  May  1 
demanding  that  the  latter  withdraw  from 
disputed  frontier  territory,  failing  which 
armed  forces  would  be  sent  into  Ar- 
menia. Armenia  refused  to  comply  with 
this  ultimatum.  The  hostile  relations 
between  Armenia  and  Azerbaijan  was 
another  aspect  of  the  whole  Armenian 
problem  which  the  allied  Premiers  at  San 
Remo  found  it  impossible  at  that  time  to 
solve. 

AZERBAIJAN 

The  pro-Turk  attitude  of  the  Azerbai- 
jan Government  has  long  been  evident. 
The  Tartar  republic,  since  its  inception, 
has  been  looked  upon  as  a  protege  by 
the  Young  Turk  and  Pan-Turanian  ex- 
tremists, who  see  here  a  means  of  es- 
tablishing communication  with  Turkes- 
tan and  getting  a  foothold  on  the  Cas- 
pian. The  immense  value  of  the  oil  fields 
around  Baku  has  made  the  political  con- 
trol of  this  State  additionally  desirable. 
The  British  did  their  best  to  hold  Baku, 
but  were  compelled,  for  military  reasons, 
to  withdraw  their  forces.  Whether  or 
not  the  report  that  a  defensive  and  of- 
fensive alliance  between  the  Tartar  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Nationalists  of  Mus- 
tapha  Kemal  was  signed  at  Constantino- 
ple in  October,  1919,  be  true,  the  Turks 
have  never  hidden  their  belief  that  they 
had  rights  over  this  republic.  Since  De- 
cember, 1919,  when  the  Allies  recognized 
the  republic,  it  has  assumed  more  and 
more  a  pro-Turkish  character. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  affiliation 
with  the  Turkish  Nationalist  and  Young 
Turk  parties,  a  pro-Bolshevist  tendency 
has  manifested  Itself  more  and  more 
strongly,  and  the  eyes  of  the  Azerbaijani 
have  been  turned  across  the  Caucasus 
to  Soviet  Russia,  cut  off  from  its  logical 
partisans  in  Transcaucasia  by  this  great 
natural  barrier.  The  official  "  Mussa- 
vat "  Government,  however,  through  rea- 
sons of  expediency,  did  not  desire  to  take 


this  plunge  into  Bolshevism.  Conse- 
quently it  was  overthrown.  Moscow 
wireless  advices  of  May  1  stated  that  a 
revolution  had  taken  place,  and  that  the 
Mussavat  Government  had  been  expelled 
from  power.  The  Azerbaijan  Provisional 
Military  Revolutionary  Committee  had 
taken  over  control.  Baku  was  in  its 
hands.  The  committee  had  appealed  to 
Moscow  for  assistance  against  the  Allies 
and  all  other  enemies.  This  appeal  ended 
with  the  following  words: 

Not  having-  sufficient  strength  of  its 
own  to  resist  the  pressure  of  the  Allies, 
the  Azerbaijan  Revolutionary  Committee 
proposes  to  the  Russian  Soviet  Republic 
a  brotherly  alliance  for  joint  action 
against  the  world  imperialists,  and  asks 
for  immediate  and  real  assistance  by  the 
dispatch  of  Red  Army  detachments. 

In  consequence  of  this  appeal  Russian 
Bolshevist  forces  occupied  Baku  on  April 
28.  All  parties  met  the  day  before  and 
agreed  to  place  the  authority  in  the 
hands  of  the  Soviet  administration.  The 
Azerbaijan  republic  was  thereupon 
recognized  by  the  Bolsheviki  and  the 
entry  of  the  Red  troops,  it  was  declared, 
brought  no  abrogation  of  this  agreement. 
By  the  occupation  of  Baku  the  Bolshe- 
viki obtained  control  of  enormous  sup- 
plies of  oil,  which  they  needed  for  their 
industries,  and  which  they  planned  to 
convey  by  means  of  their  fleet  on  the 
Volga,  via  the  riverways  and  canal  sys- 
tems, to  the  Russian  capital. 

GEORGIA 

The  situation  in  Georgia  in  the  month 
under  review  showed  much  obscurity. 
The  Government  long  retained  control 
over  the  strong  Bolshevist  factions,  and 
officially  refused  alliance  with  So- 
viet Russia,  proclaiming  its  fixed  policy 
of  maintaining  its  neutral  status.  Its 
claim  to  Batum  has  not  been  recognized 
by  the  Allies.  A  strong  unofficial  army, 
called  the  "  People's  Guard,"  estimated 
to  consist  of  20,000  men  and  commanded 
by  one  Jugeli,  a  former  student  of  the 
Moscow  University,  was  said  to  be  the 
strongest  organized  force  in  the  country, 
outrivaling  by  far  the  official  Georgian 
Army.  Jugeli's  ambition  was  to  conquer 
Batum  for  Georgia,  and  it  was  said 
that  he  desired  to  have  Georgia  ally  her- 
self with  Soviet  Russia.     His  attitude, 


THE   CAUCASUS  REPUBLICS 


463 


as  well  as  his  power,  proved  a  source  of 
embarrassment  to  the  present  Georgian 
Government. 

On  May  9  it  was  reported  by  Moscow 
wireless  that  the  Georgian  Government, 


yielding  to  Bolshevist  pressure,  had  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  the  Moscow  Gov- 
ernment. Up  to  the  time  when  these 
pages  went  to  press  this  report  had  not 
been  officially  confirmed. 


Status  of  the  Japan-China  Dispute 

China  Still  Refuses  to  Negotiate 


JAPAN 

IN  addition  to  her  suffrage  troubles,* 
Japan  toward  the  end  of  April 
faced  new  difficulties  in  respect  to 
finances.  An  era  of  feverish  speculation 
by  the  public  led  eventually  to  the  clos- 
ing of  three  Exchanges.  The  crash  was 
precipitated  by  the  fall  of  operators  on 
margins.  The  stock  market  was  swamped 
by  securities.  Tokio  Exchange  stock 
dropped  210  points.  Baron  Takahashi, 
Minister  of  Finance,  issued  a  statement 
on  April  16  which  cautioned  the  people 
against  speculation  and  promised  the 
help  of  the  Bank  of  Japan  to  concerns 
or  banks  deserving  it.  Contributing 
causes  of  the  crash  were  the  tightening 
of  the  money  market,  the  loss  of  gold 
and  the  adverse  balance  of  trade.  The 
excess  of  imports  during  the  first  three 
months  of  1920  was  $130,000,000,  equal 
to  nearly  50  per  cent,  of  total  exports. 
The  Chinese  boycott  played  an  important 
part  in  the  unfavorable  trade  balance. 

This  boycott  was  resolutely  continued 
by  the  Chinese  throughout  the  month 
under  review.  The  Chinese  Government 
at  Peking,  though  controlled  by  the  pro- 
Japanese  militarist  party,  has  found  it- 
self unable  to  go  counter  to  the  intense 
national  feeling  aroused  in  China  by  the 
cession  of  Shantung  Peninsula  to  the 
Japanese.  In  a  document  drawn  up  at 
the  request  of  Premier  Chin  Yung  Peng 
last  March,  but  killed  by  the  militarist 
group  before  it  could  be  presented  to  the 
foreign  legations  in  Peking,  the  exact 
motives  of  the  present  Chinese  policy  of 
refusing  to  negotiate  over  Shantung  are 
explained.       This     document     sums     up 


*See  Current  History  for  May. 


China's     condition     of     negotiation     as 
follows : 

The  Chinese  Government  insists  that 
before  entering:  upon  negotiations  with  the 
Japanese  Government,  the  latter,  now  at 
peace  with  both  China  and  Germany, 
should  cease  to  occupy  the  concession  of 
Tsingtao,  the  Kiaochow  leased  territory, 
and  the  Tsingtao-Tsinan  railway  and 
should  malce  unconditional  restoration 
of  these  concessions  and  properties  to 
China.  If  Japan's  occupation  of  Chinese 
territories  and  properties  were  abandoned 
China  would  be  ready  at  once  to  enter 
into  a  convention  with  the  powers  in- 
terested in  trade  in  Shantung,  with  a 
view  to  the  internationalization  of  the 
port  of  Tsingtao  and  of  the  port's  public 
utilities,  the  complete  control  of  the  cus- 
toms of  the  port  by  the  Chinese  Inspec- 
torate of  Customs,  and  the  flotation  of 
an  international  loan  to  repurchase  the 
German  shares  in  the  Tsingtao-Tsinan 
railway,  after  which  it  could  be  incor- 
porated in  the  Chinese  Government  rail- 
ways and  its  management  placed  under 
international  supervision.    *    *    * 

Having  frankly   stated   its  present  atti- 
tude toward  the  Shantung  question,  which 
tlie  Japanese  Government  is  now  desirous 
of    settling    through    direct    negotiations, 
the  Chinese  Government  expresses  an  ear- 
nest desire   that   an   opportunity   may  be 
afforded  to   bring  the  whole  question  be- 
fore an  international  tribunal  to  be  judged 
according  to  international  law  and  equity. 
This   attitude  of   China,  voicing   com- 
pletely the  sentiment  of  the  people,  the 
Japanese    have    found    themselves    thus 
far   utterly   unable   to   shake.    Repeated 
overtures  have  encountered  only  passive 
resistance,  delay  and   a  clear  intention 
not  to  negotiate.    That  Ihe  Japanese  are 
equally  determined  that  the  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment shall  negotiate  is  obvious.    Late 
in  April  the  Japanese  Foreign  Office  in- 
structed Minister  Obata  again  to  make 
official   overtures   for  discussion  of  the 
return    of    Shantung    to    China    direct. 
Foreign    Minister    Uchida    explained    to 


464 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  Cabinet  on  April  23  that  the  period 
of  three  months  after  the  signing  of  the 
Versailles  Treaty  prescribed  for  the  vest- 
ing of  Germany's  former  rights  in  Japan 
had  elapsed  on  April  9.  The  representa- 
tions of  the  Japanese  Ambassador,  like 
all  other  previous  attempts  to  bring 
about  discussion,  met  with  failure,  and 
the  tide  of  popular  feeling  against  Japan, 
expressed  particularly  by  the  boycott, 
ran  high  in  China  through  April  and 
May.  This  feeling  has  even  spread  to 
the  Chinese  residents  in  other  lands — ^in 
San  Francisco,  on  May  8,  a  huge  bonfire 
was  lighted  in  the  Chinese  quarter  and 
fed  with  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of 
Japanese  imported  goods,  including  silks 
and  other  fineries. 

CHINA 

Thomas  W.  Lamont  of  the  American 
group  of  financiers  negotiating,  in  con- 
cert with  British,  French  and  Japanese 
representatives,  with  the  Peking  Govern- 
ment for  a  loan  of  $50,000,000  or  more 
to  China,  stated  on  May  1  as  he  left  for 
Tokio  that  China's  repudiation  of  the 
German  issues  of  the  Hukuan  Railway 
bond  coupons  was  a  serious  obstacle  to 
further  loans  being  made  to  China  and 
that  he  had  so  warned  the  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment. The  development  of  the  Hu- 
kuan Railway  on  a  large  scale  was 
among  the  main  considerations  of  the 
consortium,  Mr.  Lamont  pointed  out. 
Japan,  he  intimated,  was  ready  to  with- 
draw its  reservations  with  regard  to 
Manchuria  and  Mongolia,  which  had 
long  been  a  stumbling  block  in  the  way 
of  the  proposed  consortium. 

This  withdrawal  was  officially  an- 
nounced in  Tokio  on  May  7.  A  two 
years'  effort  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment to  provide  for  the  financing  of 
China  by  representative  groups  of  bank- 
ers in  each  of  the  four  countries  men- 
tioned above  was  thus  crowned  with  suc- 
cess. Japan  had  long  contended  that 
Manchuria  and  Mongolia  should  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  operation  of  the  con- 
sortium because  of  her  special  rights 
and  concessions  in  these  provinces.  The 
United  States  had  refused  to  consent  to 


this  exclusion.  By  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  concluded,  Japan  will  have  the 
right  to  object  to  loans  for  any  work 
which  she  feels  will  jeopardize  her  na- 
tional life  or  vitally  affect  her  sover- 
eignty. Under  this  head  would  fall  the 
construction  of  railroads  in  certain  sec- 
tions of  China,  particularly  Manchuria. 
All  loans  made  by  the  banking  groups, 
which  in  the  United  States  include 
thirty-seven  banks  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  must  be  approved  by  the  State 
Department.  The  same  procedure  will 
be  followed  in  the  other  countries. 
After  full  discussion  in  Japan,  Mr.  La- 
mont stated  that  the  Japanese  under- 
standing of  the  project  had  been  much 
clarified. 

China,  like  Japan,  is  having  her  in- 
ternal troubles,  but  far  more  serious  and 
long  standing.  The  lawlessness  of  the 
Tuchuns  and  of  their  unpaid  armies,  the 
inability  of  the  Southern  and  Northern 
Government  to  reach  a  settlement  of  the 
civil  war  that  has  so  long  kept  the  coun- 
try in  a  state  of  anarchy,  with  dissen- 
sions in  the  Governments  of  both  sec- 
tions, have  conspired  to  destroy  inward 
peace.  Wu  Ting-fang,  former  Minister 
of  Finance  in  the  Canton  Government, 
was  restrained  through  an  injunction  is- 
sued on  April  15  by  the  British  Court  of 
Shanghai  from  collecting  a  large  sum  in 
Government  moneys  deposited  in  his  own 
name  at  the  Hongkong  and  Shanghai 
Bank.  Fierce  factional  fighting  oc- 
curred toward  the  end  of  April  in  the 
Anhai  district  of  South  China.  More 
than  1,000  people  were  killed,  and  the 
soldiers  were  raiding  the  country,  while 
the  people  fled  from  their  homes.  New 
conflicts  were  preparing.  In  Northern 
China  students'  demonstrations  and  the 
anti-Japanese  boycotting  activities  of 
the  students'  and  merchants'  associations 
continued. 

As  stated  elsewhere  in  this  issue,  the 
Chinese  official  Government  made  no 
reply  to  the  Russian  Soviet  Govern- 
ment's proposals  of  an  alliance,  and  its 
attitude,  as  between  the  Japanese  and 
Bolshevist  forces  in  Siberia,  has  been 
professedly  one  of  neutrality. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 

With  the  Best  Cartoons  of  the  Month 
From  Many  Nations 

[Period  Ended  May  15,  1920] 


Lord  Kitchener's  Death 

SIR  GEORGE  ARTHUR'S  "Life  of 
Lord  Kitchener,"  which  recently  ap- 
peared in  London,  gives  a  full  and  inter- 
esting account  of  the  career  of  one  of 
England's  greatest  soldiers.  The  dominat- 
ing position  which  Kitchener  of  Khartum 
occupied  in  the  military  and  political 
counsels  of  his  country,  his  long  and 
memorable  service  abroad,  in  Palestine, 
Cyprus,  Egypt,  South  Africa  and  India; 


[Polish   Cartoon] 

dki 

f 

M/Bl       i^^I 

1 

^^  ^Hj 

HP 

L 

1 

^Mucha,  Warsaw 

SENTENCED  FOR  ETERNITY 

I  will  never 


WiLHELM  (to  the  Entente) 
become   your   prisoner  " 

Satan  (to  Wilhelm) 
cease  to  be  mine  " 


Nor  will  you  ever 


the  important  part  he  played  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  World  War  as  War  Secre- 
tary— all  lent  to  his  tragic  death  off  the 
Scottish  coast  in  1917  the  aspect  of  a 
national  disaster.  In  Sir  George  Arthur's 
work  the  events  leading  up  to  that 
tragedy  are  made  available. 

Things  were  going  badly  in  Russia  in 
the  Spring  of  1917  and  the  Czar  had 
sent  word  in  May  that  he  would  like  to 
have  Lord  Kitchener  visit  his  country  to 
see  conditions  for  himself.  Kitchener 
consented  and  it  was  decided  that  he 
should  embark  at  Scapa  Flow — a  place 
now  doubly  historic  —for  Archangel  on 
June  5.  After  lunching  with  Lord  Jelli- 
coe  in  Scapa  Flow,  he  went  on  board  the 
Hampshire — the  ship  which  was  to  carry 
him  to  Archangel.  The  subsequent  course 
of  events  is  recounted  by  Kitchener's 
biographer  as  follows: 

The  wind  at  Scapa  that  day  had  been 
northeasterly  and  the  Admiral,  with 
intent  to  make  the  passage  to  the  north- 
ward as  easy  as  possible,  directed  that 
the  Hampshire  should  proceed  on  what, 
with  that  wind,  would-  be  the  leeside  of 
the  Orkneys  and  Shetlands.  By  an  un- 
happy error  of  judgment  an  unswept 
channel  was  chosen  for  the  passage  of 
the  cruiser,  and  Kitchener— the  secret  of 
whose  journey  had  been  tbetrayed— was  to 
fall  into  the  machinations  of  England's 
eneix-es  and  die  swiftly  at  their  hands. 

At  5  o'clock  the  Hampshire  steamed 
from  the  Grand  Fleet  to  her  doom.  She 
sped  forward  so  fast  and  under  such 
stress  of  weather  that  the  destroyers  who 
formed  her  titular  escort  turned-  about, 
leaving  the  vessel  to  her  fate.  When  the 
crash  came— the  death-knell  of  all  but 
some  thirteen  souls  on  board— Kitchener 
was  resting,  reading  in  his  cabin.  He 
was  summoned  thence  by  the  Captain  and 
was  seen  standing  on  the  deck  looking  out- 
ward,  Fitzgerald  faithful  at  his  side. 

Nothing    is    known    of    what    then    hap-  ' 
pened  to  him— little,   indeed,   comes  within 
just   surmise.     One   thing  is   certain- that 


466 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  brave  eyes,  which  had  faced  so  many- 
difficult   and   dangerous   passages   in  life, 
looked  steadily  in  the  face  of  death. 
*     *     * 

Tunnel  Under  English  Channel 

A  PROJECT  which  for  half  a  century- 
was  considered  as  fantastic — the 
linking  of  Great  Britain  and  France  by 
means  of  a  tunnel  underneath  the  Eng- 
lish Channel — is  at  last  to  be  realized 
and  official  authorization  has  been  given 
to  competent  experts  to  begin  the  work. 
More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  the 
French  engineer,  Mathieu,  proposed  to 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  the  construction  of 
such  a  tunnel.     Nothing  was  done,  but 


the  idea  was  again  taken  up — this  time 
under  Napoleon  III. — by  the  Belgian, 
Thome  de  Gammond,  and  by  Caillaux, 
the  father  of  the  ex-Premier  of  France, 
the  story  of  whose  trial  appears  else- 
where in  this  issue.  De  Gammond's  ap- 
peal for  support  was  answered  on  both 
sides  of  the  Channel  and  societies  to 
further  the  undertaking  were  formed. 
The  advent  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war 
put  a  sudden  stop  to  these  activities. 

In  1875  the  French  Tunnel  Society  re- 
sumed the  interrupted  labors,  and  even 
erected  at  Sangatte,  south  of  Calais,  a 
factory  which  is  still  in  existence.  It 
made    more    than    7,000    soundings    and 


[American  Cartoon] 


WHILE  THE  TAXI  WAITS 


— ©    Chicago  Tribune 


p 

P  P^  finally  co 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


467 


finally  constructed  an  under-water  gal- 
lery nearly  2,000  meters  in  length.  A 
similar  tunnel  was  dug  from  the  English 
side  of  the  Channel.  The  great  project 
seemed  to  be  near  realization.  Suddenly 
the  spectre  of  invasion  aroused  a  wave 
of  opposition  to  the  scheme  in  England. 
An  anonymous  pamphlet  representing 
Dover  as  invaded  by  disguised  soldiers 
increased  the  public  commotion,  which 
rose  to  such  proportions  that  when  the 
contracting  companies  presented  the  bills 
for  authorization  the  Parliamentary 
committee  refused  to  approve  them  and 
recommended  that  the  work  be  aban- 
doned. 

Again  in  1906  it  seemed  as  though  the 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Tfie  Neio  York  World 

BOGUS 

long-deferred  dream  would  be  realized; 
but  the  hopes  based  on  the  entente 
cordiale  did  not  materialize  and  a  new 
war  came  to  interrupt  the  project.  Too 
late,    after    Great    Britain    had    joined 


hands  with  France  against  the  German 
danger,  did  the  two  allied  nations  regret 
that  the  scheme  had  not  been  fulfilled 
and  realize  the  injiumerable  advantages 
which  the  existence  of  such  a  tunnel 
would  have  brought  to  the  common 
cause.  The  lessons  of  the  great  upheaval, 
however,  were  not  forgotten,  and  Bonar 
Law  was   finally  able   to   announce  the 

[English  Cartoon] 


-The  Star,  London 
"TICKLE,   TICKLE!" 

official  consent  of  Great  Britain  to  have 
the  work  carried  through  to  completion. 
Sir  Francis  Fox,  engineer  of  the  English 
company,  was  made  Director  of  the  work 
in  collaboration  with  M.  Sartinaux, 
Director  General  of  the  French  com- 
pany. Both  of  these  experts  have  pub- 
lished detailed  studies  of  the  projected 
plans. 

According  to  these  plans  the  tunnel 
will  consist  of  two  cylinders  at  a  depth 
of  50  feet  and  32  miles  in  length.  Elec- 
tricity will  furnish  the  power  and  the 
ventilation.     A   military   guard    is    con- 


468 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


templated.  It  is  stated  that  the  entire 
work  can  be  completed  within  four  years. 
If  no  further  obstacles  intervene,  political 
or  otherwise,  Great  Britain  will  cease  to 

be  an  island  in  1924. 

*     *     * 

Hostile  Tribes  in  Hindustan 

THE  revolts  stirred  up  against  the 
British  in  India  by  Bolshevist  emis- 
saries have  been  particularly  grave  on 
the  northwestern  frontier,  where,  for 
over  six  months,  the  British  Indian  forces 
have  waged  war  against  the 
Pathan  tribes  defying  cap- 
ture on  the  inaccessible  peaks 
of  Hindu-Koosh.  This  natural 
fortress  is  cut  by  only  three 
passes,  and  only  two  of  these, 
the  Khyber  and  Kurram 
Passes,  are  large  enough  for 
an  army  to  pass.  All  in- 
vasions, from  prehistoric  to 
modern  times,  have  depended 
on  the  forcing  of  one  or  the 
other  of  these  defiles. 

Hindu-Koosh,  more  than 
any  other  region  of  India, 
has  been  affected  by  its  geo- 
graphical location.  Every 
valley,  or  group  of  valleys,  is 
settled  by  a  special  race. 
Here  are  found  black  tribes, 
descendants  of  the  first  in- 
habitants of  India;  white 
tribes,  Aryans  who  came 
originally  from  Bactriana 
and  dominated  the  blacks, 
and  who  have  degenerated 
into  a  condition  approaching 
savagery;  yellow  tribes,  with 
high  cheek  bones  and  slant- 
ing eyes;  Semitic  tribes 
whose  ancestors  were  deported  by  the 
Assyrian  Kings  to  Mesopotamia,  and  who 
fled  eastward  to  escape  further  oppres- 
sions; Greek  tribes,  descendants  of  sol- 
diers of  the  army  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  which  invaded  India  through  the 
Khyber  Pass. 

The  only  common  trait  which  all  these 
diverse  tribes  possess  is  the  love  of  fight- 
ing, either  among  themselves  or  against 
the  peaceful  populations  of  the  adjoin- 
ing plain.  The  most  belligerent,  as  well 
as  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  tribes, 
says  a  contributor  to  Les  Annales,  is  that 


of  the  Afridis,  who  number  some  300,000, 
and  who  live  in  fortified  villages  built  in 
inaccessible  valleys  and  defended  in  pure- 
ly mediaeval  style  by  a  system  of  outer 
and  inner  walls,  with  a  central  tower 
of  refuge  and  last  defense.  Formerly 
Zoroastrians  by  religion,  according  to  the 
tradition,  they  are  now  fanatic  Islamites. 
The  men  are  tall  and  strongly  built,  with 
fine  features.  They  wear  their  hair  long 
upon  their  shoulders.  In  the  past  fifteen 
years,  thanks  to  the  connivance  of  Ger- 

[German  Cartoon] 


-Jugem,  Mwnich' 
THE  LAST 

Tax  Dragon  :  "  And,  for  the  fig  leaf,  in 
addition  to  import  duty  you  must  also  pay 
luxury   tax  " 


man  agents,  they  have  obtained  modern 
rifles,  and  in  the  last  year  they  have 
obtained  through  the  Bolsheviki  large 
supplies  of  smokeless  powder.  Dressed 
in  stone-colored  tunics,  their  sharpshoot- 
ers, practically  invisible,  decimate  from 
their  rocky  fastnesses  the  marching 
columns  of  the  Indian  Government  on 
the  plain  below. 

The  Afridis,  as  well  as  others  of  these 
hostile  tribes,  represent  one  of  the  great- 
est problems  with  which  the  British  Gov- 
ernment has  to  deal.  All  means  to  pacify 
these  rebellious  folk  have  failed:  bomb- 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


ing  airplanes  have  merely  drawn  their 
fire  and  affrighted  them  not  at  all. 
Owing  to  their  incorrigible  treachery,  at- 
tempts to  make  peace  with  them  have 
proved  equally  ineffectual,  and  many  an 
English  officer  has  been  ambuscaded  and 
slain  by  them  after  the  conclusion  of  an 
armistice.  Emboldened  by  Bolshevist 
propaganda,  they  represent  a  menace  to 


England's  power  and  prestige  in  India 
which  the  British  themselves  have  little 
disposition  to  deny. 

Memoirs  of  von  Hindenburg 
rpHE   bulky  volume  of  Field  Marshal 
■^    von  Hindenburg's  war  memoirs  is  of 
value    chiefly    for    the    light    which    it 
throws  on  the  mentality  of  the  Prussian 


[American  Cartoon] 


'RAUS  MIT  HIM! 


—San  Francisco  Chronicle 


470 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  old  school.  A  careful  reading  of 
this  whole  autobiography  makes  it  easier 
to  understand  why  von  Hindenburg,  and 
not  von  Tirpitz  or  Ludendorff,  became 
the  national  idol  of  the  German  people. 
The  London  Telegraph  says  in  this  con- 
nection : 

These  memoirs  show  us  better  than  any 
other  literary  fruit  of  the  war  the 
legendary  figure  of  the  Prussian  officer 
of  the  departed  type,  in  all  his  strength, 
yet  in  his  essential  quality  as  a  born 
enemy  of  freedom  and  a  standing  danger 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Central   Press   Association 
THE  POWER  BEHIND  THE 
THRONE 

to  Europe.  That  Germany,  in  a  state  of 
war,  should  have  made  such  a  man  its 
demigod  was  a  natural  consequence  of 
German  history,  tradition  and  mental 
training.  The  very  nature  of  the  man 
inspired  confidence  in  the  people,  bitterly 
needed  as  it  was  while  the  soldiers  and 
statesmen  of  the  new  Germany  were 
screaming  feverishly  at  their  country's 
enemies,  and  plotting  against  one  another 
round  the  throne  of  a  ruler  who  embodied 
all  that  was  weak  in  the  new  militarism, 
as  Hindenburg  embodied  all  that  was 
powerful  in  the   old. 

The  feeling  of  Germany  for  von  Hin- 
denburg, adds  the  same  critic,  is  one 
for  which  popularity  is  an  utterly  inade- 
quate term.  He  has  been  idolized — even 
literally,  as  in  Berlin's  colossal  image  of 
wood — as  no  other  German  military 
leader  ever  was  by  a  race  for  which  its 
great  soldiers  were  always  the  favorite 


objects  of  hero-worship;  for  wha£ 
Frederick  the  Great  was  to  Prussia, 
Hindenburg  has  been  to  all  Germany. 
Yet  others  showed  themselves  not  only 
more  furious  haters,  but  more  formidable 
enemies  of  Great  Britain  than  Hinden- 
burg. Von  Tirpitz  and  the  other  foster- 
ers of  the  submarine  warfare  did  far 
more  damage  to  the  Entente  than  von 
Hindenburg  ever  did  in  the  field.  The 
real  military  dictator  was  Ludendorff, 
not  von  Hindenburg.  Yet  neither  von 
Tirpitz  nor  Ludendorff  was  ever  idol- 
ized, and  both  now  rest  under  a  cloud 
of  opprobrium,  while  von  Hindenburg 
remains  the  popular  idol  which  he  had 
been  ever  since  his  victory  at  Tannen- 
burg  in  the  early  stages  of  the  war. 

What  is  the  explanation?  Tannenburg 
began  his  fame,  but  his  victories  in  East 
Prussia  contributed  greatly  to  increase 
it.  The  Russian  invasion  of  this  district 
was  the  only  invasion  of  German  soil 
that  took  place  during  the  war,  and  its 

[American  Cartoon] 


—BrooT^''im  Eagle 

ROOTING  IT  UP 

occurrence  at  the  very  beginning  appalled 
the  German  people.  The  feeling  of  re- 
lief and  of  gratitude  to  von  Hindenburg, 
when  he  repelled  this  danger,  can  be 
easily  understood.  The  savage  power 
with  which  Samsonov's  army  was  anni- 
hilated aroused  only  pride  and  jubila- 
tion. 

But    the    true    explanation    of    Hin- 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


[American  Cartoon] 


— ©    New  York  Tribune 

WHAT  WILL  HAPPEN  WHEN  THEY  MEET? 


472 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


denburg's  popularity  is  that  he  belongs 
to  the  heroic  age  of  German  militarism; 
to  the  "generation  which  built  up,  with 
iron  and  blood,  what  the  present  genera- 
tion was  to  bring  to  nothing  by  the  same 
barbarous  means.  He  embodied  the  spirit 
of  1870,  and  all  that  was  admired  in  it. 
His  personal  character  was  a  symbol ;  he 
was  a  junker  of  junkers,  believing  only  in 
force  and  Prussia's  destiny  to  dominate 
the  whole  world.  These  beliefs  he  com- 
bined with  religious  conviction,  honesty, 
simplicity.    Hindenburg,  the  creation  and 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Cincinnati   Past 

HOW  MUCH   MORE   WILL  IT 

STAND? 

the  slave  of  a  barbarous  ideal,  could  say 
more  truly  than  any  of  his  contempora- 
ries :  "  Throughout  my  life  and  conduct, 
my  criterion  has  been,  not  the  approval 
of  the  world,  but  my  inward  conviction, 
duty  and  conscience." 

*     *     * 

Shcktage  of  Unskilled  Labor 
rpHE  Interracial  Council  declared  to- 
-*-  ward  the  end  of  April  that  Amer- 
ican industries  were  short  from  4,000,000 
to  5,000,000  unskilled  workers  as  a  re- 
sult of  dwindling  immigration  during  the 
war.  This  statement  was  given  out  by 
the  President  of  the  council  in  answer 
to  statistics  issued  at  Ellis  Island  tend- 
ing    to     show     that     emigration     from 


America  had  been  offset  by  immigration. 
It  said  in  part: 

For  the  twenty-two  white  races  supply- 
ing- unskilled  labor,  chiefly  in  the  iron 
and  steel  mills,  textile  factories,  railroads, 
farms  and  construction  work,  the  offi- 
cial figures  show  that  68,790  came  into 
this  country  and  166,925  went  out,  and 
of  these  coming  38,000  were  Mexicans, 
who  did  not  relieve  the  labor  market 
except  in  three  Southern  States.  Elim- 
inating Mexicans,  we  have  a  total  of 
30,000  unskilled  immigrant  workmen-  and 
their  families.  This  demonstrates  that 
approximately  five  times  as  many  un- 
skilled male  immigrant  workers  left  this 
country  from  November,  1918,  to  October, 
1919,  as  came  in  during  that  period. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  has  been 
no  official  survey  to  determine  accurately 
the  extent  of  the  shortage  of  unskilled 
workers,  the  Interracial  Council  holds  to 
its  estimate  of  a  shortage  of  from  4,000,- 
000  to  5,000,000  immigrant  workers,  which 
Is  borne  out  by  a  close  study  of  condi- 
tions and  by  inquiry  among  the  indus- 
tries  in   the   country. 

One  important  reservoir  of  labor  supply 
— Italy — is  still  being  generously  tapped. 
Some    13,000    Italians   left   their   homes 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Brooklyn    Eagle 
THE  NEW  BADGE  OF  COURAGE 

for  the  United  States  in  January,  17,000 
in  February  and  50,000  were  forced  to 
await  later  steamers.  In  March  more 
than  29,000  were  granted  vises.  The 
American  Consulates  in  Genoa,  Trieste, 
Palermo  and  Naples,  even  now,  are  being 
besieged  by  applicants.    Italy  apparently 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


is  quite  willing  to  speed  at  least  one 
element  of  this  strong  (Outflowing  tide. 
Speaking  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
Signor  Treven,  a  Socialist  Deputy,  said 
on  April  15 :  "  The  police  would  like  to 
sweep  out  these  people  (the  Reds)  as 
quickly  as  possible  while  there  are  no  re- 
strictions." The  reasons  given  are  two: 
Italy,  by  emigration,  hopes  to  reduce  the 
army  of  the  unemployed,  and  also  to  rid 
the  country  of  its  anarchistic  and  turbu- 


lent elements.     THis  summarizes  a  situa- 
tion which  may  have  far-reaching  im- 
portance for  the  United  States. 
*     *     * 

Human  Life  and  Automobiles 

STARTLING  revelations  are  made  iu. 
a  report  published  by  the  National 
Safety  Council.  The  conclusion  reached 
is  that  "  the  automobile,  as  much  be- 
"  cause  of  the  carelessness  of  pedestrians 
"  as  of  drivers,  is  now  the  deadliest  ma- 


[American  Cartoon] 


—San  Francisco  CJironicle 

BUT  YOU  CAN'T  MAKE  HIM  DRINK 


474 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


"  chine  in  America,  and,  unless  quick  and 
"  decisive  action  is  taken,  is  destined  to 
"  become  even  more  deadly,  because  of 
"  its  rapidly  increasing  popularity."  Ac- 
cording to  the  mortality  report  of  the 
Census  Bureau,  supplemented  by  avail- 
able statistics  from  other  sources,  auto- 
mobile accidents  in  recent  years  have 
resulted  in  approximately  one-half  the 
number  of  deaths  caused  by  industrial 
accidents  of  all  sorts.  In 
Chicago  420  persons  were 
killed  in  automobile  accidents 
during  1919;  in  Cleveland, 
136;  in  St.  Louis,  97;  in  New 
York,  677,  including  191 
children  under  15  years  of 
age.  "In  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  as 
many  deaths  were  caused  by 
automobile  accidents  as  by 
street  cars,  railroads  and  in- 
dustrial accidents  combined. 
"  Even  more  alarming  than 
"  these  statistics,"  says  the 
report,  "is  the  fact  that  in 
"  almost  every  case  a  com- 
"  parison,  year  by  year,  of 
"  the  number  of  automobile 
"  deaths  and  the  number  of 
"  automobiles  in  use  indicates 
"  that  the  deaths  are  increas- 
"  ing  in  almost  exact  mathe- 
"matical  ratio  with  the  in- 
"  crease  in  number  of  auto-* 
"mobiles."  In  1910  there 
were  400,000  automobiles  in 
the  United  States,  and  out  of 
every  100,000  population  dur- 
ing that  year  an  average  of 
two  and  one  third  persons 
were  killed  by  automobiles. 
In  1917  there  were  3,000,000  automobiles 
in  use,  and  an  average  of  nine  and  one- 
sixth  persons  were  killed  out  of  the  same 
unit  of  population.  In  1920  it  is  estimated 
that  9,000,000  automobiles  and  trucks 
will  be  in  use.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  the  average  of  fatal  accidents 
will  mount  to  27  in  100,000  population. 

An  All-Moslem  Training  School 
A  WRITER  in  The  London  Daily  News, 
-^^  while  on  a  recent  visit  to  Cairo, 
heard  Egypt  described  as  the  junction 
of  the  Mohammedan  world.  This  defini- 
tion, on  investigation,  proved  to  be  some- 


thing more  than  a  clever  phrase;  he 
found  that  Egypt  was  regarded  as  the 
true  centre  of  Islam,  as  the  spot  where 
the  prophet  proclaimed  his  faith.  And 
the  nerve  centre  of  this  universal  Moslem 
life  he  found  to  be  El  Azhar. 

This  world-university  for  Moslem  stu- 
dents, situated  in  Cairo,  is  being  at- 
tended by  from  15,000  to  16,000  students, 
coming    from    India,     Palestine,     Syria, 

[American  Cartoon] 


^^m 


^\%« 


mTHC  LIMIT 


—BrooMyn  Eagle 
WITH  HIS  BACK  TO  THE  WALL 

Morocco,  Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algeria,  Turkey 
and  Afghanistan.  Unlike  ordinary  stu- 
dents, they  believe  in  mass  intervention 
in  politics,  as  their  recent  strike  against 
the  presence  of  the  Milner  Commission 
demonstrated.  The  potential  importance, 
as  well  as  the  actual  significance  of  this 
large  body  of  young  Mohammedans,  is 
declared  by  this  writer  to  be  great.  At 
El  Azhar  future  agents  of  revolt  against 
Great  Britain,  with  her  great  Asiatic 
possessions,  or  against  whatever  Euro- 
pean nation  may  be  in  control  of  a  given 
student's  country — ^be  it  Afghanistan, 
Algeria,  or  Morocco — are  being  constant- 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


475 


ly  sent  out,  to  become  new  propagators 
of  the  social  unrest  and  spirit  of  re- 
bellion with  which  Egypt  now  seethes. 
The  role  which  the  Cairo  university  is 
playing  should  not  be  overlooked,  de- 
clares this  writer:  it  is  actually  a  train- 
ing centre  of  Pan-Mohammedanism,  for 
"  when  you  say  the  students  of  Cairo, 
you  mean  the  youth  of  every  Moham- 
medan country  in  the  world." 
*     *     * 

The  Virgin  Islands 

MAURICE  FRANCIS  EGAN,  United 
States  Minister  to  Denmark  from 
1907  to  1918,  recently  explained  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  sale  of  the  Virgin 
Islands   to   the   United    States   in   1917. 


Denmark  was  not,  be  said,  eager  to  sell 
the  islands.  It  was  her  "  poverty,  but 
not  her  will,"  which  urged  her  to  part 
reluctantly  with  the  Danish  West  Indies 
for  the  sum  of  $25,000,000. 

The  necessity  of  mobilization,  due  to 
fears  of  a  German  invasion,  was  costing 
the  little  country  enormous  sums  of 
money.  To  these  expenditures  had  been 
added  the  outlays  for  maintaining  hos- 
pitals and  providing  for  the  comfort  of 
the  people.  The  buying  power  of  Danish 
money  had  decreased.  Danish  agriculture 
in  1917,  owing  to  the  stoppage  of  ferti- 
lizers from  the  United  States,  Russia  and 
other  countries,  was  almost  at  a  stand- 
still, unable  to  overcome  unaided  "  one 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Des   Moines   Capital 

CABINET  MEETINGS  RESUMED 


476 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  worst  climates  and  worst  soils  of 
the  world."  Denmark's  fats  were  de- 
creasing; her  cows  and  hogs  were  in 
danger  of  dying  from  starvation.  To 
have  a  credit  of  $25,000,000  in  the  United 
States  was  so  tempting  an  offer  at  this 
time  that  the  Danish  Government  found 
it  impossible  to  refuse. 

The  motive  of  the  United  States  in 
acquiring  these  non-supporting  and — in 
themselves — insignificant  bits  of  ocean 
territory  was  obvious.  They  were  far 
more  necessary  to  this  country  from  a 
military  point  of  view  than  even  the 
Galapagos.  Commercial  considerations 
did  not  enter  into  the  purchase  in  any 

[American  Cartoon] 


WHER£DOIC£rOfFj' 


—Brooklyn    Eagle 
OVER  THE  TOP 

degree.     As  to  the  effect  of  the  change 
of  administration,  Mr.  Egan  said: 

One  of  the  reasons  for  the  opposition 
[to  tlie  sale]  among  the  Danish  philan- 
thropists was  that  the  inhabitants  of  these 
islands  would  fare  worse  under  American 
than  under  Danish  rule ;  and  they 
have.  *  *  *  The  present  condition  of 
the  island  is,  if  we  may  judge  from  trust- 
worthy   reports,    deplorable.      It    is    true 


that  they  ought  to  be  made  to  pay,  that 
they  ought  not  to  become  a  financial 
burden ;  but  first  of  all,  we  should  con- 
sider, following  our  own  example  in  the 
Philippines,  the  well-being  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  these  islands,  whom,  with  the 
territory  in  which  they  live,  we  so  benev- 
olently assimilated. 

Hope  was  expressed  by  Mr.  Egan  that 
a  report  on  these  islands  soon  to  be  pre- 
sented   by    Senator    Kenyon    would    stir 

[Italian   Cartoon] 


—II  1,20,   Florercc 

WILSON  RE-ENTERS  THE  FIUME 
FIGHT 

[When  President  "Wilson  recovered  from 
his  illness  and  sent  his  new  Fiume  note, 
the  Italian  press,  which  has  become  very 
hostile  to  him,  published  this  cartoon, 
showing  Jugoslavia  crying,  "Hall:luia! 
Our  savior  is  resurrected  !  "] 

Congress  to  take  adequate  action  to 
remedy  the  unfavorable  conditions  re- 
ferred to. 

*     *     * 

Mr.  Keynes  on  Peace 

JOHN  MAYNARD  KEYNES,  the  of- 
ficial representative  of  the  British 
Treasury  at  the  Paris  Peace  Conference, 
resigned  on  June  7,  1919,  because  he  had 
given  up  hope  of  any  substantial  modifi- 
cation in  the  draft  terms  of  peace,  which 
he  strongly  disapproved  on  economic 
grounds.  His  book  on  the  economic  con- 
sequences of  this  peace,  which  has  recent- 
ly appeared  in  England  and  the  United 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


477 


States,  was  written  as  an  apologia  for 
his  action  in  resigning,  and  as  a  warning 
for  the  future.  An  example  of  Mr. 
Keynes's  skill  in  description  may  be 
found  in  his  pen-picture  of  M.  Clemen- 
ceau: 

At  the  Council  of  Four  he  wore  a 
square-tailed  coat  of  very  good,  thick 
black  broadcloth,  and  on  his  hands,  which 


were  never  uncovgred,  gray  suede  gloves: 
his  boots  were  of  thick  black  leather, 
very  good,  but  of  a  country  style,  and 
sometimes  fastened  in  front,  curiously, 
by  a  buckle  instead  of  laces.  *  *  *  He 
spoke  seldom,  leaving  the  initial  state- 
ment of  the  French  case  to  his  Ministers 
or  officials ;  he  closed  his  eyes  often,  and 
sat  back  in  his  chair  with  an  impassive 
face  of  parchment,  his  gray-gloved  hands 


[English  Cartoon] 


—The  Pas^sing  Shew,  London 
THE  BREAKING  POINT? 


478 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


clasped  in  front  of  him.  A  short  sentence, 
decisive  or  cynical,  was  generally  suffi- 
cient, a  question,  an  unqualified  abandon- 
ment of  his  Ministers,  whose  face  would 
not  be  saved,  or  a  display  of  obstinacy 
reinforced  by  a  few  words  in  a  piquantly 
delivered  English.  *  *  *  My  last  and 
most  vivid  impression  is  of  *  *  *  the 
President  (Mr.  Wilson)  and  the  British 
Prime  Minister  as  the  centre  of  a  surging 
mob,  and  a  babel  of  sound,  a  welter  of 
eager  impromptu  compromises,  all  sound 
and  fury  signifying  nothing,  the  great 
issues  of  the  morning's  meeting  forgotten 


and  aloofness,  and  that  he  was  not  much 
concerned  about  the  rest.  It  was  the 
tenacity  of  Clemenceau  that  was  mainly- 
responsible  for  President  Wilson's  grad- 
ual compromises  on  positions  that  he  had 
originally  cherished  most,  thinks  Mr. 
Keynes,  though  the  President  came 
through  all  the  barter  and  argument  con- 
vinced to  the  end  that  he  had  been  true 
to  his  ideals.  To  Mr.  Keynes  the  tragedy 
of  the  treaty  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 


[English  Cartoon] 


-The   Star,   Lotidon 


A  MARRIAGE   OF  CONVENIENCE 


and  neglected ;  and  of  Clemenceau,  silent 
and  aloof  on  the  outskirts— for  nothing 
which  touched  the  security  of  France  was 
forward— throned,  in  his  gray  gloves,  on 
the  brocade  chair,  surveying  the  scene 
with  a  cynical  and  almost  impish  air ; 
and  when  at  last  silence  was  restored,  and 
the  company  had  returned  to  their  places, 
it  was  to  discover  that  he  had  disap- 
peared. 

Mr.  Keynes  emphasizes  throughout  his 
book  that  M.  Clemenceau  got  what  he 
wanted    for   France,   despite   his    silence 


necessary  alertness  to  overcome  political 
chicaneries  was  not  attained,  nor  even 
approximated.  As  an  economist  he  takes 
the  position  that  the  basis  of  economics 
was  almost  utterly  overwhelmed  by  "  the 
weaving  of  that  web  of  sophistry  and 
Jesuitical  exegesis  that  was  finally  to 
clothe  with  insincerity  the  language  and 
substance  of  the  whole  treaty."  He  cites 
examples  of  language  that  he  considers 
deliberately    intended    to    confuse.      He 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


479 


then  proceeds  to  erect  his  argument 
against  the  treaty  on  the  basis  of  his 
statistics. 

The  gist  of  his  conclusions,  based  on 
these  statistics,  is  that,  including  all 
niethods  of  payment — immediately  trans- 
ferable wealth,  ceded  property,  and  an 
annual  tribute— £2,000,000,000  is  a  safe 
maximum  figure  of  Germany's  capacity 
to  pay,"  and  yet,  he  points  out,  the  de- 
mand of  the  victors  is  for  three  or  four 
times  this  amount. 

This  critic  proposes  that  the  demands 
for  reparation  be  lessened  so  as  to  come 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Newspaper  Enterprise  AssociaUon,  Cleveland 
HERE'S    YOUR   KAPP,   WHAT'S   YOUR 
HURRY?" 


within  what  he  considers  Germany  can 
actually  pay;  that  the  treaty  clauses  re- 
lating to  coal  be  modified,  and  provision 
for  an  exchange  of  iron  ore  be  made  so 
as  to  permit  German  industry  to  con- 
tinue, and  that  a  Free  Trade  Union  be 
formed  under  the  League  of  Nations. 
*     *     * 

Piracy  in  the  Black  Sea 

rpHE  Transcaucasus  region  in  these 
-^  days,  when  Armenia  and  Azerbaijan 
are  at  swords'  points,  when  Armenians 
are  being  massacred  by  the  Azerbaijanis 
and  the  Turks   alike,  when  the  French 


are  in  continuous  warfare  with  the  na- 
tionalist Arabs  and  the  nationalist 
Turks,  when  the  Bolsheviki  have  entered 
Baku  and  the  Georgian^  are  trembling 
before  the  menace  of  a  Soviet  invasion 
of  Batum,  is  not  what  might  be  called  a 
haven  of  safety  for  man  or  woman.  The 
conditions  of  anarchy  prevailing  have 
recently  been  emphasized  in  a  most  dra- 
matic way.  The  French  packet  Souirah 
left  Batum  on  May  6,  en  route  to  Mar- 
seilles. The  steamer  was  crowded  with 
refugees,  fleeing  from  the  uninterrupted 
advance  of  the  Bolshevist  tide  into  the 
Caucasus.  Most  of  them  had 
converted  their  property  into 
money  to  avoid  confiscation 
by  the  Bolshevist  leaders. 
Among  these  refugees  was 
Mrs.  Haskell,  wife  of  Colonel 
William  Haskell,  Director 
General  of  American  Relief 
in  the  Near  East,  and  other 
ladies  whose  husbands  have 
been  connected  with  relief 
work  in  Armenia. 

At  9  o'clock  on  the  night 
of  May  6  fifteen  unknown 
men,  who  wore  black  masks 
and  were  apparently  Rus- 
sians, sprang  up  from  various 
parts  of  the  ship,  where  they 
had  been  booked  either  as 
passengers  or  as  members  of 
the  crew,  covered  officers 
and  passengers  with  revol- 
vers and  shouted  warnings 
that  they  would  kill  any  one 
who  resisted  them.  For  two 
hours  they  were  busy  robbing 
every  one  of  cash  and  jewels. 
Mrs.  Haskell  saved  $20,000  in  cash  by 
hiding  it  in  a  waste-water  receptacle  in 
her  cabin,  but  all  her  other  money  and 
$2,000  in  jewels  were  taken  from  her. 
All  the  cabins  were  search*- d  repeatedly. 
The  pirates'  guard  over  the  wireless  pre- 
vented the  flashing  of  appeals  to  the 
allied  warships  cruising  in  the  vicinity 
of  Batum.  Until  2  o'clock  the  next 
morning  the  passengers  were  terrorized, 
while  the  pirates  forced  the  steamer  to 
continue  its  way  on  a  route  dictated  by 
themselves.  Finally  they  went  ashore 
in  boats  which  they  compelled  the  crew 
to  man.     The  whole  raid  was  evidently 


480 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


carefully  planned  and  worked  out  with 
the  greatest  efficiency. 

*     *     * 

The   "  Red   Terror  of   Falkenstein  " 

THE  capture  and  imprisonment  of  Max 
Holz,  the  "  Red  Robber  Baron  of 
Saxony,"  ended  a  picturesque  criminal 
career  more  suited  to  the  Middle  Ages 
than  to  the  twentieth  century.  Holz  was 
a  German  Communist  of  the  Spartacan 
type,     who    undertook     to     run     amuck 

[ITALUN  Cartoon] 


—L'Asino,  Rome 
AFTER  THE  KAPP  FIASCO 

German  Militarism  (peeping  out) :  "  Bad 
weather !  it  is  better  to  go  in  and  be  dead 
again— for   the   present  " 

against  modern  civilization  by  becoming 
a  robber  baron  of  the  mediaeval  sort, 
seizing  Falkenstein  Castle  in  Saxony  as 
the  base  for  his  bandit  raids  and  gath- 
ing  about  him  a  force  of  about  5,000 
men,  many  of  them  returned  soldiers  in- 
fluenced by  Bolshevist  propaganda.  With 
this  small  army  he  became  a  scourge  to 
the  whole  region,  until  he  was  finally 
driven  across  the  Czechoslovak  boundary, 
where  the  Czechs  promptly  arrested  and 
imprisoned  him  on  April  20. 


At  the  height  of  his  sway  in  Saxony 
this  up-to-date  bandit  made  raids  on  the 
smaller  towns  near  Falkenstein  Castle, 
burning  the  homes  and  destroying  the 
property  of  all  who  refused  to  join  his 
"  army."  His  greatest  exploit  was  that 
of  demanding  a  tribute  of  100,000  marks 
weekly  from  Plauen,  the  chief  manufac- 
turing town  of  that  district.  All  the 
principal  men  were  locked  up,  and  the 
whole  town  was  placed  under  guard  by 
the  outlaws  until  the  first  installment 
was  paid. 

After  this  feat  Holz  decided  that  the 
climate  elsewhere  would  be  more  con- 
ducive to  long  life,  and,  taking  all  his 
treasure,  he  started  for  Czechoslovakia 
in  an  automobile.  But  some  of  his  duped 
followers,  furious  at  his  desertion  of 
them,   went    in    purfeuit    and    helped    to 

[Italian   Cartoon] 


—L'AsinOj  Rome 

AT  THE  ODDS-AND-ENDS  SHOP 

"  Take  this,   Sir;  it  is  so  rare  " 

"  Rare?  " 

"Very  rare;  it  contains  the  Fourteen 
Points,  which  even  the  author  does  not 
remember  " 

hasten  his  journey;  barely  had  he  crossed 
the  frontier  when  he  was  seized  by  Czech 
soldiers  and  imprisoned  at  Eger,  near 
Carlsbad.  Holz  is  a  small,  lithe,  dark- 
complexioned  man,  extremely  energetic, 
of  great  calmness  and  assurance,  a  fluent 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


481 


and  effective  public  speaker.  He  had 
previously  been  a  moving-picture  lec- 
turer. He  was  apparently  a  convinced 
Communist  of  the  extreme  type.  His  ex- 
ploits became  notorious  all  over  Ger- 
many, and  the  German  press  gave  him 
muoh  attention. 

*     *     * 

Dynastic    Marriage   for   Prince   Carol 

THE  love  romance  of  Prince  Carol  of 
Rumania,   who   married    Miss    Lam- 
brino,  daughter  of  a  Rumanian  General, 

[German-Swiss   Cartoon] 


—Nebelspalter,    Zurich 

GERMAN  MICHEL'S  BOOTS 

"  I  can  polish  them  as  much  as  I  like — but 
I  can't  wear  them" 


in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  his  parents 
and  the  Ministry,  and  who  was  placed 
under  arrest  for  desertion  from  his  reg- 
iment, while  his  marriage  was  declared 
null  and  void,  was  supposed  to  have  been 
definitely  settled  by  the  Prince's  letter 
to  the  Rumanian  Cabinet  renouncing  his 
right  to  the  throne  in  favor  of  his 
younger  brother  Nicola.     But  the  Queen 


mother  refused  to  accept  this  solution 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  Nicola  was  a 
weak  and  delicate  boy,  and  that  Ru- 
mania could  not  afford  royal  matrimo- 
nial escapades  at  a  time  when  the  country 
was  just  out  of  an  expensive  war,  and 
surrounded  by  enemies  watching  for  a 
chance  to  get  back  what  the  Peace  of 
Versailles  had  given  her.  Queen,  Par- 
liament and  Ministers  therefore  worked 
together  once  more,  and  finally  per- 
suaded Prince  Carol  to  withdraw  the  let- 
ter in  which  he  had  re- 
nounced his  royal  rights  and 
to  promise  to  marry  a  Prin- 
cess which  the  Rumanian 
Government  should  choose 
for  him.  In  consenting  to 
this  plan  he  reaffirmed  his 
love  for  the  woman  who  has 
been  his  wife  for  a  year  or 
more. 

*     *     * 

Death  of  Bissolati 

LEONIDA  BISSOLATI, 
whose  funeral  was  held 
in  Rome  on  May  8,  had  been 
a  picturesque  figure,  a  man 
of  robust  intellect,  virtually 
the  leader  of  the  Socialist 
Party  in  Italy  for  many 
years.  An  ardent  patriot, 
whose  slogan  was  "  Political 
honesty  and  love  of  country," 
he  won  the  esteem  of  all, 
irrespective  of  party,  and  his 
writings  and  speeches  were 
always  received  with  the 
greatest  respect.  His  work 
and  teaching  as  editor  of  the 
Socialist  paper  Avanti  did 
much  to  contribute  to  the 
complete  democratization  of 
the  Italian  Nation.  A  man 
of  strong  convictions,  Bis- 
solati left  his  party  with 
the  rise  of  the  new  and 
irresponsible  Socialist  element  in  Italy 
and  elsewhere.  His  belief  in  politi- 
cal evolution,  as  against  revolution, 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  sup- 
port the  violent  upheavals  advocated  by 
the  Bolshevist  apostles  of  the  party  of 
which  he  had  been  the  soul  for  many 
years.  Bissolati  was  an  enthusiastic 
supporter  of  the  allied  cause  during  the 


482 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


war.  He  worked  to  induce  Italy  to  enter 
the  conflict,  voted  for  it  in  the  Chamber, 
which  he  had  entered  twenty  years 
before,  fought  in  the  army  as  a  Sergeant 
of  the  Alpini,  though  already  past  50 
years  of  age,  and  abandoned  the  field 
only  after  receiving  a  severe  wound. 

Signor  Bissolati's  resignation  from  the 
Orlando  Cabinet  in  December,  1918, 
marked  his  condemnation  of  the  ultra- 
nationalist  policy  represented  by  Son- 
nino,  which  ended  in  the  rupture  of 
Italy  with  her  allies  at  the 
Peace  Conference  in  Paris. 
Much  blamed  for  his  with- 
drawal, hooted  and  heckled 
in  Milan,  Bissolati  awaited 
his  justification  from  time. 
A  bare  six  months  sufficed 
to  prove  to  Italy  the  clarity 
of  his  political  vision. 

In  character  Bissolati  was 
lovable;  in  dress  and  manner 
simple.  His  soft,  wide- 
brimmed  hat  was  as  much  a 
part  of  his  exterior  personal- 
ity as  "  Uncle  Joe  "  Cannon's 
inevitable  cigar,  and  seems 
about  to  pass  into  the  Italian 
language     as    a    hat    "  alia 

Bissolati." 

*     *     * 

Advice  of  Britain's  New 
Envoy 

SIR  AUCKLAND  GED- 
DES,  the  new  British 
Ambassador  to  the  United 
States,  arrived  at  New  York 
on  April  19  with  Lady  Ged- 
des  and  was  met  by  British 
diplomatic  officials.  Threats 
made  by  the  Irish  women 
pickets  in  Washington  and 
fears  of  other  Irish  demonstrations 
led  to  the  decision  to  take  the  new 
Ambassador  off  the  ship  at  the  Quaran- 
tine Station.  Before  he  landed  he  re- 
ceived a  bouquet  of  roses  from  the  sky 
as  a  token  of  welcome.  The  flowers  were 
dropped  by  a  young  woman  war  worker, 
Miss  Florence  Parbury,  who  flew  over 
the  ship  in  an  airplane.  Irish  demon- 
strators, who  arrived  with  banners  at 
the  pier  to  make  a  demonstration,  were 
disappointed  to  learn  that  the  Ambas- 
sador had  already  been  taken  off  and 


eventually  dispersed  with  no  attempt  to 
parade  their  banners. 

The  Ambassador,  in  a  statement  given 
out  on  arriving,  said  that  he  looked  on 
his  appointment  as  the  highest  honor,  as 
he  believed  that  the  hope  of  world  peace 
depended  on  mutual  respect  and  har- 
mony between  Great  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica. Asserting  that  his  country  was  the 
defender  of  the  oppressed  and  the  bearer 
of  progress,  he  took  occasion  to  discuss 

[Dutch  Cartoon] 


-De  Notenkrakerj  Amsterdam 

PvESURRECTION  OF  MILITARISM  IN 
GERMANY 


briefly  Great  Britain's  difficulties  with 
Ireland.     In  this  connection  he  said: 

The  British  Government,  after  careful 
study  of  the  Irish  question,  is  convinced 
that  now  the  only  hope  of  ending  that 
centuries-old  distemper  is  to  place  fairly 
and  squarely  on  the  shoulders  of  Irishmen 
in  Ireland  the  constitutional  responsibil- 
ity of  finding-  for  themselves  within  the 
framework  of  the  British  Empire  the 
solution  for  their  political  differences. 

The  new  Home  Rule  bill,  which  passed 
its  second  reading  in  the  British  House 
of  Commons  by  a  great  majority  on 
March   31,    is   designed   with   intention   to 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


483 


secure  that  end.  When  it  becomes  oper- 
ative it  will  be  the  duty  of  all  British 
su'  ^ects  who  are  not  domiciled  in  Ireland 
to  stand  aside  and  leave  those  who  live 
there  to  solve  their  problem.  I  venture 
to  add  that  it  will  also  be  helpful  if  the 
many  in  all  parts  of  the  world  who  are 
not  British  subjects,  but  are  interested 
in  Ireland,  likewise  stand  aside  and  leave 
the  Irish  in  Ireland  to  grapple  with  their 
own   political    difficulties. 

Another  subject  discussed  by  Sir 
Auckland  was  the  project  of  resuming 
trade  with  Soviet  Russia.  He  denied  that 
Great  Britain  was  seeking  her  own  self- 
ish interests  in  this  policy,  and  declared 
that  she  was  working  in  close  co-opera- 
tion with  the  United  States  on  behalf  of 
the  economic  needs  of  the  entire  world. 


Lansbury  on  Bolsheviki 

SOON  after  his  return  from  Soviet 
Russia,  where  he  went  to  investi- 
gate conditions,  Mr.  Lansbury,  a  promi- 
nent   representative    of    British    Trades 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Sunday  Chronicle^  Manchester 
THE  HARP  THAT   ONCE,  &C. 

Lloyd   George:    "Now,   here's   the   music; 
let's  have  a  little  harmony  " 

Unionism  and  Socialism,  described  some 
of  his  experiences  to  a  large  audience  of 
London  Bolsheviki  on  March  21.  He 
had  never  been  so  proud  and  happy,  he 


said,  as  when  he  crossed  the  border  and 
got  among  these  men  and  women — "  my 
friends."  He  then  went  on  to  admit  that 
his  belief  that  the  stories  of  Bolshevist 
atrocities  were  without  foundation  had 
been  a  mistaken  one.  In  this  connection 
he  said: 

I  am  not  now  of  opinion  that  people 
who  come  back  from  Russia,  and  tell 
stories  of  atrocities  are  simply  lying.  I 
have  heard  so  much  on  both  sides.     I  am 

[Dutch   Cartoon] 


-De    NotenTcraTcer,    Amsterdanv 
SPRING  IN  EUROPE 

"  Confound     it !     I     sowed     helmets,     not 
liberty    caps  !  " 

now  quite  certain  that,  irrespective  of 
the  leaders  on  either  side,  a  very  great 
many  atrocities  have  definitely  been  com- 
mitted. But  I  am  convinced  that  the 
Central  Government  in  Russia  has  done 
more    to    put    down    terrorism    than    any 


484 


THE   NEW    YORK    TTMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


other  Government  in  similar  circumstances 
could  be  expected   to  do. 

Dealing  with  the  alleged  persecution 
of  religion,  he  admitted  that  he  had  seen 
a  poster  near  the  Kremlin  with  the 
words:  "Religion  is  the  opium  of  the 
People."    But,  he  said: 

It  all  depends  on  what  you  mean  by 
religion.  I  do  not  think  that  religion 
any  more  than  Socialism  is  a  matter  of 
organization  and  words.  It  is  a  matter 
of  spirit  and  deed.  There  's  perfect  free- 
dom in  Russia.  The  Government  has 
disestablished  and  disendowed  the 
Church.  In  Russia  they  have  done  to  the 
Greek   Church    exactly   what   Clemenceau 


compel  every  able-bodied  citizen  to  work 
or  starve.  No  Socialist,  he  declared, 
could  logically  object  to  the  application 
of  this  principle,  especially  in  Russia, 
ravaged  by  famine  and  pestilence.  Groups 
of  peasants  and  workers  were  still  organ- 
izing and  managing  local  food  and  fac- 
tory industries.  Work  on  railways,  in 
mines  and  great  economic  industries  was 
work  for  the  nation,  and  it  was  for  this 
that  the  Labor  Armies  were  being  em- 
ployed. This  was  the  "  bloodless  front." 
Iron  discipline  of  the  workers  by  the 
workers,  he  declared,  wac  necessary  in 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Westminster  Gazette 

LITTLE  RED  RIDING  HOOD  IN  IRELAND 

The  Ulster  Wolf:     "  You  needn't  be  afraid  of  me!  You're  not  worth  biting!  " 


and  his  friends  did  to  the  French  Church 
a  few  years  ago. 

In  an  article  in  The  London  Daily 
Herald  of  April  5  Mr.  Lansbury  praised 
Trotzky's  Labor  Army.  Soviet  labor 
conditions,  he  had  told  Lenin,  combine 
common  sense  with  expert  direction.  For 
every  workshop  two  managers  are 
elected  by  the  workers  and  one  of  these 
is  an  expert.  Mr.  Lansbury  defended 
the  right  of  the   Soviet  Government  to 


Russia,  as  it  would  be  necessary  in  Eng- 
land and  other  countries  when  the  work- 
ers gained  the  power.  "  We  have,"  he 
said,  "  no  love  for  coercion  of  any  kind, 
"  but  we  cannot  visualize  a  modern  State 
"  without  it.  Our  choice  is  for  that  com- 
"  pulsion  which  aims  at  transforming  the 
"  chaotic,  anarchical  struggle  of  today 
"  into  the  ordered  co-operative  State  of 
"  tomorrow." 

Mr.  Lansbury  also  praised  Lenin  for 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


485 


his  belief  in  the  continuous  education  of 
the  lower  classes.  The  children,  par- 
ticularly, were  being  brought  up  and 
treated  "  in  the  most  lovable,  beautiful 
manner."  In  discussing  the  social  revolu- 
tion which  was  to  sweep  away  all 
"  capitalistic  "  Governments,  Mr.  Lans- 
bury  reported  Lenin  as  saying: 

You,  Lansbury,  believe  in  Christianity. 
You  believe  that  you  can  bring  -bout  in 
England  a  peaceful  revolution.  I  do  not 
believe  that.  But  if  you  can,  nobody  will 
be  more  pleased  than  we  in  Russia.  Blood- 
shed is  a  bad  business.  But  look  at 
Finland,  where  the  middle  class  have 
armed  a  White  Guard  and  refused  to 
allow  the  Parliament  to  make  peace  with 
Russia  or  to  give  an  amnesty  to  political 
prisoners. 

*      *      * 

Greek  Optional  at  Oxford 

THE  abolishment  of  compulsory  Greek 
was  voted  at  Oxford  in  convocation, 
by  a  vote  of  434  to  359,  on  March  1. 
Only    those    taking    final    honors    other 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Cincinnati  Post 
A  GIFT  FROM  MR.  HOOVER 

than  in  natural  science,  mathematics  or 
jurisprudence,  were  still  required  to  pass 
in  Greek.  To  celebrate  the  decision,  hun- 
dreds of  undergraduates  organized  a 
"  rag,"  and,  attired  in  ancient  Greek  cos- 
tumes and  headed  by  a  Hellenic  high 
priest  carrying  an  urn  filled  with  red- 


hot  ashes,  paraded  the  town  and  recited 
Greek  verse  in  the  market  place. 

*     *     * 

Tax  on  Capital  in  Italy 
rpHE  bill  for  taxing  capital  was  laid 
-•-  before  the  Italian  Parliament  before 
the  end  of  February,  and  by  March  31 
every  person  in  Italy  was  bound  under 
a  heavy  penalty  to  send  in  a  return  on 
his  capital.  This  tax  is  payable  not  only 
by  Italian  citizens,  but  by  all  foreigners 

[American  Cartoon] 


—New  York  Times 

DRY! 

[The  cartoonist's  wliy  of  showing  to 
what  extent  the  new  law  is  enforced  in 
New   York] 


on  their  "  capital  consisting  of  property 
existing  within  the  State."  All  foreign- 
ers, British  or  others,  must  pay  an  in- 
come tax  on  all  property  valued  above 
20,000  lire  (only  about  $1,600  according 
to  the  present  rate  of  exchange),  but  are 
exempt  from  the  additional  tax  on  prop- 
erty owned  outside  of  Italy.  Non-resident 


486 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


foreigners  are  excused  from   paying  on  perts    as    likely    to    discourage    foreign 

investments   in   the   Italian    War   Loan,  investments  in  Italy, 
provided     the     scrip     is     kept     abroad. 

Foreign  diplomats  are  exempt,  if  not  en-  Paris  Streets  Renamed 

gaged  in  trade  in  Italy.    All  churches  are  QJOME   of  the  best-known   streets   and 

exempt  from  taxation  on  their  property.  ^  boulevards    in    Paris    have    received 

The  proposal  to  tax  foreign  capitalists  new   names   to   commemorate    men    who 

has  been  severely  criticised  by  Italian  ex-  won   fame   in   the  war.     Boulevard    St. 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Central   Press   Association,    Cleveland 

THE  PROHIBITION  FIGHT 

The  cry  is  still,  "  They  come !  "  Our  castle's  strength  will  laugh  a  siege 
to  scorn.  *  *  *  Blow,  wind!  Come,  wrack!  At  least  we'll  die  with  harness 
on  our  back — Macbeth 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


487 


II 


Germain,  the  aristocratic  avenue  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Seine,  will  henceforth 
be  known  as  the  Boulevard  Georges 
Clemenceau  from  the  Seine  to  the  Rue 
du  Bac,  and  from  this  point  as  far  as 
the  Rue  Napoleon  it  will  be  called  the 
Rue  Marechal  Retain.  The  Boulevard 
Raspail,  also  on  the  left  bank,  will  be 
named  the  Boulevard  Marechal  Foch  as 
far  as  the  Rue  de  Rennes,  and  thence  to 
the  Boulevard    Montparnasse   it  will  be 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Knoxville  Journal 
NOT  DANIEL— DANIELS 


called  the  Boulevard  Marechal  Joffre; 
beyond  this  point  it  will  retain  its  old 
name.  The  Rue  de  Babylon  will  be  known 
in  future  as  the  Rue  President  Poincare. 
*  *  * 
The  American  Indian  in  the  War 
rpHE  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs, 
-■-  Cato  Sells,  pointed  out  in  a  speech  on 
Dec.  7,  1919,  that  the  Indian  had  acquitted 
himself  well  in  the  World  War,  in  which 


he  had  made  a  record  worthy  of  pride. 
As  a  scout  and  guide  in  the  battlefields 
of  France  he  had  upheld  nobly  the  best 
traditions  of  his  race,  and  thrilled  the 
paleface  with  his  daring.  And  after  the 
war's  close  he  had  returned  to  his  reser- 
vation or  his  home  with  a  brighter  and 
keener  vision  and  a  better  understand- 
ing of  life.     Mr.  Sells  said: 

The  war  was  in  many  ways  a  liberal 
education  to  the  Indian,  and  he  is  coming 
out  of  it  with  greater  indi- 
viduality and  a  diminishing 
tribal  propensity.  He  is  less 
timid,  has  greater  self- 
confidence  and  greater  re- 
spect for  authority.  He 
realizes  more  than  ever 
that  there  is  a  place  for 
him  in  the  community,  and 
that  he  is  a  unit  in  the 
great  nation  he  went  forth 
to  defend.  The  Indian  sol- 
dier has  high  qualities  that 
will  go  into  his  life  and 
character  as  a  citizen. 

Out  of  a  total  of  some 
33,000  Indians  eligible  for 
military  service  approxi- 
mately 10,000  entered  some 
branch  of  the  army  or 
navy,  inclusive  of  those 
from  the  northern  border 
who  joined  the  Canadian 
organizations,  about  7,000 
by  enlistment,  among  whom 
were  many  commissioned 
officers  and  a  considerable 
number  advanced*  to  the 
rank  of  Captain  and  Major. 
The  Indians  made  subscrip- 
tions to  the  five  issues  of 
Liberty  bonds  amounting  to 
nearly  $25,000,000,  or  an 
equivalent  of  about  $75  for 
every  Indian  of  any  age  in 
the  United  States,  and 
large  purchases  of  War 
Savings  Stamps  were  made 
by  both  adults  and  chil- 
dren, chiefly  from  their 
own  earnings.  These  thrift 
purchases  now  exceed 
$1,000,000.  Incomplete  re- 
turns show  that  the  Indians 
took  more  than  10,000  Red  Cross  member- 
ships. 

It  is  reasonably  due  the  Indian  to  men- 
tion the  contributions  of  his  more  primi- 
tive endowments  to  the  methods  and 
strategry  of  modern  warfare,  as  disclosed 
in  individual  adroitness  of  attack,  in 
trench  tactics,  in  concealed  approach  and 
creeping  offensive,  and  in  many  success- 
ful features  of  reconnoissance  and  ma- 
noeuvre, conceded  to  be  largely  borrowed 
from  the  aboriginal  American,  who  was 
ever  a  natural  trailer,  who  slipped  noise- 


488 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


lessly  througrh  tanglewood  and  made  him- 
self a  part  of  the  trees,  who  was  a  born 
sharpshooter,  a  scout  oy  intuition,  and  an 
instinctive  artist  in  the  intricacies  of 
camouflage. 

Our  recent  policy  clearly  has  been  that 
we  want  no  dead  Indians,  good  or  bad, 
but  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  save  their 
lives  and  keep  them  in  health.  That  much 
has  been  fundamental,  and  every  pos- 
sible   energy    has    been    directed    to    that 


end.  The  facilities  have  not  been  fully 
adequate,  but  the  remarkable  results  are 
seen  in  better  homes,  better  sanitation 
and  hygiene,  more  healthy,  laughing 
babies,  and  more  vigorous,  happy  adults. 

At  a  meeting  of  Indian  tribal  repre- 
sentatives held  at  Riverside,  Cal.,  in 
February,  1920,  Chief  Red  Fox  of  Wash- 
ington urged  a  movement  to  urge  the  abol- 
ishment of  the  Federal  Indian   Bureau 


[American  Cartoon] 


— ©   New  Yorh  Tribune 

THE  SUFFAGE  SITUATION 

All  ready  but  the  last  button 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


489 


and  to  ask  that  the  red  man  'he  given 
the  full  rights  of  United  States  citizen- 
ship. He  held  that  the  bureau  was  doing 
more  harm  than  good,  and  attacked  the 
Government  for  giving  the  ballot  to 
European  imm,igrants  and  refusing  it  to 
the  Indian,  American  born,  and  in  most 
cases  more  ready  for  citizenship  than  the 
alien.  The  younger  educated  Indians  at 
the  California  gathering  were  all  in 
favor  of  the  movement,  and  a  mass 
meeting  addressed  by  Chief  Red  Fox 
adopted  resolutions  favoring  citizenship. 
♦     ♦     * 

Rapid  Recovery  of  France 
BRIGHT  future  for  France  was  pre- 
dicted  by   Premier   Millerand   in   a 
jeech  delivered  before  the  International 
Interparliamentary    Conference    at    the 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Dayton  News 
THE  RECORD   STILL  STANDS 

Sorbonne  on  May  7,  He  stressed  France's 
financial  solvency.  Ever  since  the  San 
Remo  conference  the  exchange  rate  for 
the  franc  had  been  rising.     In  other  re- 


spects, also,  the  situation  was  encourag- 
ing. The  general  strike,  which  the  Gov- 
ernment was  controlling,  had  proved  a 
failure;  railway,  dock  and  mine  workers 
were  returning  to  their  work.  M. 
Millerand  pointed  out  that  French  ex- 
ports for  the  first  three  months  of  1920 
had  more  than  doubled  those  of  the  cor- 
responding months  a  year  ago.  "  If  this 
progress  continues,"  he  said^"we  have 

[Dutch   Cartoon] 


-De    Amsterdammcr,    Amsterdam 

THE    UNSUCCESSFUL    COUP 

D'ETAT  IN  DENMARK 

Danish     People     (to     King-     Christian) : 

"Take    care!     Don't    overreacli    yourself" 

a  right  to  expect  that  France  will  re- 
cover completely  her  position  among  the 
nations.  Speaking  of  interallied  unity 
M.  Millerand  said: 

Each  day  should  contribute  to  make 
closer  the  ties  which  unite  us,  so  that, 
from  the  financial,  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial, as  well  as  the  diplomatic  point 
of  view,  we  may  form  that  Society  of 
Nations  which  we  desire  to  make  a 
reality. 


Pigeons  in  the  War 

What  Bird  Messengers  Did 


A  FORMER  dispatch  rider  in  the  Euro- 
pean war  has  contributed  to  the 
Japan  Weekly  Chronicle  an  inter- 
esting account  of  the  part  played  by  pig- 
eons in  bringing  important  news  from 
the  front  to  positions  behind  the  lines. 
The  extent  to  which  pigeons  were  used, 
says  this  writer,  is  little  known  to  the 
public;  in  fact,  it  was  not  until  success- 
ful experiments  had  been  carried  out 
during  the  early  stages  of  the  war  that 
their  value  was  realized  by  the  British 
General  Staff  as  a  means  of  communi- 
cation from  the  front-line  trenches  to  the 
back  area.  A  special  pigeon  section  was 
then  organized,  forming  a  branch  of  the 
Signal  Service,  which  had  hitherto  em- 
ployed only  the  traditional  methods  of 


communication  by  telephone,  telegraph, 
&c. 

A  great  number  of  homing  pigeon 
clubs  already  existed  in  the  Midlands  and 
the  North  of  England.  From  the  men 
in  charge  of  them  was  recruited  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  Pigeon  Service,  which  was 
directed  only  by  those  who  had  had  pre- 
vious experience  in  the  rearing  and 
training  of  these  birds.  The  method  of 
training  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

Pigeon  lofts  were  placed  in  suitable 
locations  in  the  back  areas  at  intervals 
along  the  whole  of  the  front.  The  num- 
ber of  these  lofts  varied  with  the  activity 
of  the  line  in  that  particular  region,  so  as 
to  meet  the  demand  for  the  birds  at  the 
most  active  moments.     The  pigeons  were 


[American  Cartoon] 


— Chicago   Drover's   Journal 

AN  UNHEALTHY  WAISTLINE 


PIGEONS  IN  THE  WAR 


reared  at  centres  far  behind  the  lines, 
and  when  old  enough  to  cultivate  their 
homing  instinct  to  military  advantage 
they  were  taken  to  the  lofts  and  trained. 
The  only  training  which  they  really 
needed  was  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
the  country  in  which  their  particular 
loft  was  situated,  so  that  they  would  be 
able  to  locate  the  position  when  released 
for  flight.  It  was  partly  instinct  and 
partly  their  wonderful  sense  of  locality 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Taeonia    News- 
It^  A   TIGHT   PLACE 

v/hich  enabled  them  to  return  home  when 
released. 

To  enable  them  to  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  the  region  they  were  released  from 
their  loft  at  regular  intervals  during 
the  day.  They  circled  around  in  a  flock 
in  the  vicinity  of  their  abode,  perform- 
ing extraordinary  evolutions,  each  ap- 
parently having  its  particular  place  in 
the  ranks  of  the  wedge-shaped  formation 
in  which  they  flew.  One  bird  invariably 
assumed  the  lead,  and  it  was  interesting 
to  watch  the  maintenance  of  their  posi- 
tion in  the  formation,  although  the  leader 
directed  a  most  erratic  course. 

When  the  younger  birds  had  had  a  suf- 


ficient number  of  these  recreative  flights, 
they  were  taken  a  mile  or  so  away  and 
released.  After  circling  once  to  obtain 
their  bearings,  they  would  fly  straight 
for  their  loft.  This  method  was  carried 
out  with  increasing  distances,  until  the 
birds  were  considered  proficient  enough 
to  be  released  from  the  line.  They  were 
then  given  one  or  two  practice  flights 
from  the  front  trenches  to  make  sure 
that  their  homing  instinct  was  not  de- 
stroyed by  the  din  of  gun- 
fire. Many  of  the  poor  birds 
were  terrified;  they  were 
quite  unsuitable  for  the 
dangerous  work,  and  were 
not  used. 

Transferred  by  fours  in 
large  hampers  to  a  point  near 
the  line,  the  efficient  ones 
were  then  brought  in  pairs 
to  the  front.  Here  they 
were  used  only  in  case  of 
emergency,  such  as  S  0  S 
messages,  when  other  forms 
of  communication  had  been 
destroyed  and  cables  blown 
up,  from  isolated  positions 
after  an  attack.  In  many 
cases  the  first  message  stat- 
ing the  situation  of  a  new 
line  after  a  successful  at- 
tack was  by  a  pigeon  mes- 
sage. This  was  owing  to  the 
fact  that  when  an  attack  was 
made  the  lines  of  communica- 
tion were  usually  destroyed 
by  the  enemy's  defensive  bar- 
rage. A  good  example  of 
isolated  position  may  be  found 
tanks,  which  often  broke  com- 
pletely through  the  enemy  lines,  thus 
making  it  necessary  to  inform  headquar- 
ters of  the  results  accomplished  and  the 
position  attained.  If  such  a  message 
were  required,  a  pigeon  was  released 
bearing  the  necessary  information. 

The  paper  used  in  these  messages  was 
very  thin,  similar  to  cigarette  paper,  ar- 
ranged in  the  form  of  a  writing  tablet 
with  carbon  sheets,  so  that  every  message 
might  be  duplicated.  The  paper  was  then 
screwed  up  and  placed  in  a  small  alumi- 
num cylinder  about  an  inch  long  and  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  with  a 


Tribune 


an 

in 


492 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


cap  fitted  to  secure  the  message.  Two 
pliable  metal  projections  were  fixed  on 
the  exterior  of  the  cylinder,  by  means  of 
which  the  receptacle  was  clamped  to  the 
pigeon's  leg.  The  bird  was  then  re- 
leased, often  at  a  most  critical  time,  amid 
a  tornado  of  bursting  shrapnel,  bearing  a 
message  often  of  vital  importance  to  the 
men  who  released  it.  Amidst  the  storm 
the  pigeon  made  one  circle  and  then  flew 
off   at  a  tangent  straight  for  the  loft 


which  it  had  formerly  occupied  in  the 
rear.  At  this  loft  a  man  was  always  on 
the  watch  for  carrier  pigeons.  The  mo- 
ment a  homing  bird  entered  its  loft,  it 
was  taken  to  a  signal  office  and  the 
message  telegraphed  to  its  destination. 
Some  of  the  birds  arrived  in  a  frightful 
state,  with  feathers  disheveled  and 
pierced  by  shrapnel  wounds. 

Whole    companies    of    men    marooned 
under  fire  and  threatened  with  extinction 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Sioux    City    Journal 

I  CANNOT  SING  THE  OLD  SONGS  " 


PIGEONS  IN  THE  WAR 


493 


were  rescued  by  means  of  the 
messages  thus  carried.  An 
officer  of  the  British.  Pigeon 
Service,  writing  for  The 
London  Chronicle,  discusses 
the  invaluable  services  per- 
formed by  these  war  pigeons 
as  follows: 

The  breeders  who  presented 
the  Government  with  the  80,- 
000  pigeons  used  for  war 
service  "have  been  sent  an 
official  letter  of  thanks  from 
the  Air  Council,  together 
with  a  list  of  those  birds 
which  rendered  signal  serv- 
ice and  have  been  especially 
mentioned  in  dispatches. 
Many  of  the  incidents  men- 
tioned are  extremely  thrill- 
ing, and  in  a  few  cases  old, 
war-worn  birds  have  been 
pensioned  off  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  are  now  living  In 
peace  and  plenty.  One  of 
these  is  a  pigeon  which  was 
shot  through  the  eye  while 
delivering  a  message.  It 
recovered  from  the  wound 
and  is  now  at  Westgate,  on 
"  light   duty." 

The  number  of  lives  saved 
by  pigeons  during  the  war 
will  never  be  known,    for   in 


[American  Cartoon] 


-^San  Francisco  Bulletin 
CLIMBING   UP 


—Newspaper   Enterprise    Association,    Cleveland 
TURKEY:   " ALLAH!  ALLAH! » 


addition  to  the  many  pilots 
and  observers  ^ho  have  been 
'rescued  from  wrecked  ma- 
chines as  a  result  of  mes- 
sages faithfully  delivered, 
the  birds  have  been  used 
to  establish  communications 
with  troops  who  were  sur- 
rounded by  the  ene»-  ,  by 
dropping  them  from  air- 
planes in  baskets  attached  to 
parachutes. 

Carrier  pigeons  were  em- 
ployed in  all  parts  of  the 
battle  zone,  even  in  the  front- 
line trenches,  by  British, 
French  and  American  con- 
tingents. The  Meuse-Argonne 
offensive,  particularly,  was  a 
challenge  to  the  swift  wing 
of  the  pigeon.  On  this  front, 
442  birds  were  used  by  the 
American  forces  alone,  and 
403  important  messages  were 
delivered.  Owing  to  the 
rapid  change  of  American 
units,  the  distance  to  be 
flown  varied  from  twenty  to 


494 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


fifty  kilometers.  Not  more  than  10  per 
cent,  of  the  little  messengers  failed  to 
return  to  their  lofts,  and  no  important 
Inessage  went  astray,  according  to  the 
account  of  a  writer  in  The  Home  Sector. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  many  of  these 
trained    British    and    American    pigeons 


were  disposed  of  by  sale  and  in  various 
ways.  More  than  500  of  the  American 
birds,  however,  were  sent  back  to  the 
United  States  by  the  military  au- 
thorities, and  most  of  these  bird-veterans 
can  be  seen  today  at  their  lofts  in  Poto- 
mac Park  at  Washington. 


[German  Cartoon] 


MAikcyx-f^A*: 


—Wahre  Jakob,  Stuttgart 

THE  SICK  MAN  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE 

**  By  Allah !  I  wonder  which  stilt  the  Allies  will  take  away.     Perhaps  both !  " 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 

Professor  Einstein's  Theory  of  Relativity  and  Its  Revolution- 
ary Effects  in  Practical  Physics 


EVEN  before  the  guns  of  the  World 
War  had  ceased  their  thunder 
preparations  were  making  in 
England  for  the  expeditions  to 
observe  and  photograph  at  Sobral,  in 
Northern  Brazil,  and  at  the  Island  of 
Principi,  off  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
the  solar  eclipse  which  was  due  to  ap- 
pear there  May  29,  1919.  The  object  ac- 
complished by  these  solar  eclipse 
expeditions  was  the  verification  of  a 
hypothesis  which  was  almost  the  only 
piece  of  pure-science  knowledge  not  set 
aside  by  the  war  emergency.  Since  the 
announcement  of  the  results  of  these  ex- 
peditions at  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Royal 
Society  and  the  Royal  Astronomical  So- 
ciety in  London,  Nov.  6,  1919,  this 
hypothesis — the  Einstein  principle  of 
relativity  and  the  deflection  of  light  by 
gravitation — has  stood  as  the  most  revo- 
lutionary discovery  in  physical  science 
since  Newton. 

Einstein's  theory  in  no  way  invalidates 
the  law  of  gravitation  discovered  by 
Newton,  but  only  supplements  it.  By 
itself  the  principle  of  relativity  is  in- 
sufficient to  lead  to  a  law  of  gravitation ; 
it  merely  acts  as  a  criterion  of  the  con- 
ditions which  must  be  satisfied  by  such 
a  law.  Still,  it  necessitates  a  very  fun- 
damental alteration  both  of  our  theories 
of  gravitation  and  ether  and  of  our 
whole  conception  of  time,  space,  mass 
and  motion. 

The  penultimate  overthrow  of  our  phy- 
sical-scientific way  of  looking  at  the  uni- 
verse was  consummated  350  years  ago. 
Up  to  that  time  mediaeval  humanity  had 
lodged  quite  comfortably  in  the  three- 
story  world  edifice  erected  on  the  theory 
of  the  old  Greek,  Aristotle.  The  earth 
extended  as  a  flat  plain  in  all  directions 
into  the  unknown,  and  was  inhabited  by 
men  created  in  the  image  of  God.  Over 
the  earth  arched  the  heavens  like  a  great 
bell,  and  therein  lived  the  saints  and 
the  angels.     The  nethermost  story  was 


the  space  under  the  earth.  The  deeper 
it  reached  the  hotter  it  became;  and 
here  his  Satanic  Majesty  had  his  realm. 
All  the  stars  were  in  relation  to  the  earth 
only  diminutive  lights,  which  by  some 
mysterious  mechanism  described  fixed 
orbits  in  the  heavens. 

This  concept  was  overturned  in  the 
sixteenth  century  by  Copernicus,  Kepler 
and  Galileo.  With  a  bold  stroke  these 
put  the  sun  in  the  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse and  left  the  earth  as  a  little,  insig- 
nificant planet  traversing  its  orbit 
around  the  central  fire.  Today  these 
views  have  become  so  thoroughly  bone  of 
our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh  that  we 
no  longer  sense  the  magnitude  of  the 
revolution  of  those  days. 

NEWTON    AND    HIS    SUCCESSORS 

The  Copernican  way  of  looking  at  the 
universe  prevailed  in  the  face  of  the  en- 
mity of  the  Church,  and  150  years  later 
the  great  English  physicist,  Newton, 
finished  this  theory  scientifically.  New- 
ton began  with  the  mechanics  of  the 
heavens,  but  he  created  over  and  beyond 
this  a  mechanics  universally  applicable 
to  all  earthly  phenomena. 

In  his  theory  of  light,  however,  New- 
ton held  that  light  rays  consist  of  mi- 
nute particles  expelled  at  high  velocities 
from  a  luminous  source  and  traveling 
through  empty  space  in  straight  lines. 
Hooke,  on  the  contrary,  suggested  the 
wave  theory  of  light,  and  Huygens  dem- 
onstrated that  the  theory  of  the  wave 
motion  of  light  easily  explained  the  law 
of  refraction.  Newton's  theory  pre- 
vailed among  his  contemporaries,  but 
later  scientists  found  that  on  this  point 
he  was  wrong.  It  remained  for  Young 
and  Fresnel  to  establish  the  undulatory 
theory  of  light  by  their  experiments  early 
in  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  nineteenth  century  saw  many 
other  changes,  passing  early  into  an  age 
of  steam  and  latterly  into  an  age  of  elec- 


496 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tricity.  It  dawned  on  men  that  mass 
and  matter  were  electrical  at  bottom. 
Peering  into  the  nature  of  the  atom, 
they  no  longer  conceived  space  as  an  in- 
finite vacuum  in  whose  cold  void  rolled 
the  planets.  It  was  pervaded  by  restless 
energy  whose  medium  was  the  light-bear- 
ing ether.  The  ether  also  pervaded  all 
matter.  To  reconcile  the  new  laws  of 
electricity,  however,  with  the  classic  dy- 
namics of  Newton  was  a  hard  problem. 
Gravitation  stubbornly  resisted  every 
effort  to  bring  it  within  the  scope  of  the 
electrical  theory  of  matter.  Every 
known  property  of  matter  was  electrical- 
ly explicable  except  the  one  common  to  all 
forms  of  matter,  namely,  weight.  Ether 
began  to  lose  standing. 

The  failure  of  Newton's  view  of  the 
universe  to  accord  with  the  philosophical 
doctrine  of  the  relativity  of  space  and 
time  has  seriously  troubled  men's  minds. 
Neither  do  his  laws  account  for  the  dis- 
tinction made  by  the  physical  relations 
between  "fixed  direction"  and  "fixed 
position  "  of  a  body  in  space. 

MICHELSON^S  •PROBLEM 

Hailing  with  relief  the  advent  of  ether 
as  a  substitute  for  empty  space,  physi- 
cists made  vain  attempts  to  measure  all 
velocities  and  rotations  as  relative  to  it. 
They  could  not  make  the  ether  disclose 
the  measurements.  In  1881  Michelson, 
then  an  ensign  in  the  United  States 
Navy,  devised  an  experiment  for  measur- 
ing the  velocity  of  the  earth  relative  to 
the  ether,  which  he  performed  in  the 
astro-physical  laboratory  at  Potsdam. 
He  was  astonished*to  find  no  indication 
of  the  earth's  motion  through  ether. 
Michelson  and  Morley  repeated  the  ex- 
periment with  greater  care  at  the  West- 
ern Reserve  University,  with  the  same 
negative  result.  All  that  could  be  in- 
ferred from  their  failure  was  that  either 
the  ether  was  carried  along  with  the 
earth  or  more  likely  the  ether  had  no 
being  except  as  a  creature  of  the  scien- 
tific imagination. 

With  the  turn  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury came  the  marvelous  discoveries  of 
radio-activity  and  the  exploration  of  the 
electro-magnetic  mysteries  of  the  atom, 
but  still   no  inkling   of  the   relation   of 


electricity  to  gravity  and  no  proof  of  the 
existence  of  ether.  But  the  precursors 
were  at  hand  of  the  new  revolution  in 
physical  science;  the  achievements  of 
Einstein,  in  fact,  resemble  those  of  New- 
ton in  bringing  together  and  unifying 
many  loose  threads  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, after  showing  the  interrelation  of 
several  independent  antecedent  discov- 
eries. 

EINSTEIN'S  SOLUTION 

Dr.  Albert  Einstein,  though  holding  a 
professorship  in  a  research  institution 
affiliated  with  the  University  of  Berlin, 
is  legally  a  Swiss,  who  formerly  held  a 
chair  in  the  Zurich  Polytechnic  School. 
Also,  for  some  time  he  was  a  professor 
in  the  University  of  Prague.  He  pro- 
tested against  the  manifesto  of  the  Ger- 
man professors  in  1914.  He  is  45  years 
old. 

Einstein's  theory  of  relativity  grew 
out  of  his  participation  in  the  effort  to 
explain  the  Michelson-Morley  experiment 
on  the  so-called  ether-drift  of  the  earth 
and  its  negative  result.  Professor 
Michelson  suggested  that  the  negative 
result  might  be  owing  to  a  shortening 
undergone  by  the  apparatus  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  line  of  motion.  Later,  that 
everything  undergoes  shortening^thus  as 
it  moves  through  space  was  assumed  by 
the  Dutch  physicist,  Lorenz;  that  the 
earth's  diameter  of  7,899  miles  gets 
shortened  up  three  or  four  inches, 
enough  to  explain  scientifically  why  the 
Michelson-Morley  experiment  failed  to 
show  that  the  earth  was  moving  through 
ether.  The  same  .explanation  of  the 
paradox  was  independently  given  almost 
simultaneously  by  Fitzgerald.  But  none 
of  these  physicists  appreciated  the  bear- 
ing of  their  suggestions. 

That  the  necessary  higher  mathemat- 
ics was  ready  to  Einstein's  hand  to  prove 
the  principle  of  relativity  by  a  formula 
of  electrodynamic  equations  was  demon- 
strated when  Minkowski  (building  bet- 
ter than  he  knew)  showed  how  the  life 
history  of  a  moving  particle  could  be 
represented  by  a  curve  in  four-dimen- 
sional space.  The  conception  of  time  as 
a  fourth  dimension  was  by  no  means 
new.  The  history  of  the  world  passes 
inseparably  in  both  time  and  space.    So, 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


497 


by  plotting  time  mathematically  as  a 
fourth  dimension  (not  on  paper),  the  old 
philosophic  doctrine  of  the  relativity  of 
space  and  time  is  vindicated. 

As  early  as  1905,  when  Einstein  was 
employed  in  the  Swiss  Patent  Office,  he 
incorporated  all  the  foregoing  points  in 
his  relativity  theory,  which  b.3  formu- 
lated with  remarkable  perfection  in  a 
short  article  entitled  "  Concerning  the 
Electrodynamics  of  Moving  Bodies."  He 
showed  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
"  fixed  position  "  for  a  body  in  space ; 
therefore  all  motion  is  relative,  so  that 
there  can  be  no  permanent,  absolute 
standard  against  which  motion  can  be 
measured.  The  velocity  of  a  moving 
body  is  only  relative  to  the  velocity  of 
some  other.  There  are  two  ways  of 
measuring  a  moving  body;  either  by  tak- 
ing its  measure  on  the  moving  body  it- 
self or  by  observation  from  another  mov- 
ing body.  Each  method  of  measurement 
gives  a  different  result,  as  a  moving 
body  shortens  in  the  direction  of  its  line 
of  motion.  Alsoj  its  mass  increases  with 
the  speed,  becoming  infinite  as  the  veloc- 
ity of  light  is  approached.  The  velocity 
of  light,  186,000  miles  per  second,  is  the 
maximum  speed  attainable.  Gravitation 
is  brought  into  the  scope  of  electric 
theory  on  the  principle  that  gravitation 
is  rooted  in  energy.  A  beam  of  light 
has  momentum,  also  weight,  and  is  sub- 
ject to  deflection  when  passing  through 
a  gravitational  field.  The  motion  of  the 
existence  of  an  ether  thus  becomes 
superfluous,  and  more  of  a  hindrance 
than  an  aid  to  scientific  progress. 

Einstein  published  in  1911  the  paper 
which  deduces  the  influence  of  gravity 
on  the  propagation  of  light,  and  which 
astronomical  observations  have  since 
confirmed.  Also  he  solved  the  problems 
which  scientific  querists  presented  to 
him  as  growing  out  of  his  statements  in 
his  article  of  six  years  before.  Out  of 
the  equations  and  expressions  in  the  pure 
mathematics  of  Riemann,  Christoffel, 
Ricci  and  Levi-Civita  he  selected  and 
applied  those  most  nearly  akin  to  those 
of  mathematical  physics.  By  these  he 
was  able  to  plot  space  and  time  in  four 
and  even  five  dimensions,  without  which 
facilities  he  could  scarcely  have  proved 


his  theory.  So  we  are  called  upon  to 
consider  a  four-dimensional  map  which 
can  be  both  warped  and  stretched  to 
represent  what  takes  place  in  space  and 
time. 

NEW  SCOPE  OF  GRAVITATION 

We  are  called  upon  to  forget  the  old 
Newtonian  view  of  space  as  something 
absolute  and  extending  in  all  directions 
into  infinity,  and  to  learn  that  the  es- 
sence and  attributes  of  this  space  are  in- 
fluenced by  the  bodies  present  in  it. 
Likewise  we  are  to  relegate  to  limbo  the 
absolute  notion  of  time  that  we  have 
held  since  Newton  as  something  that 
passes  at  all  places  in  space  with  perfect 
uniformity,  uninfluenced  by  spatial  oc- 
currences. The  old  notion  of  the  relativ- 
ity of  time  and  space,  which  has  so  long 
been  held  as  a  doctrine  by  philosophers, 
only  now  receives  the  sanction  of  scien- 
tific  demonstration. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  even  to  inti- 
mate, within  the  present  compass,  the 
full  content  of  the  new  doctrine  that 
goes  under  the  name  of  the  Theory  of 
Relativity  and  overturns  our  collective 
view  founded  on  Newton.  It  can  only 
be  stated  that  time  and  space  exist  in 
nowise  indepedently  of  each  other,  but 
as  closely  united  parts  of  a  four-dimen- 
sional form,  the  "  universe,"  in  the  sense 
of  the  Relativity  Theory.  Furthermore, 
mass  and  energy  likewise  do  not  exist 
side  by  side  as  two  independennt  things, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  can  pass  over  into 
each  other.  Mass  can  be  transmuted 
into  energy  and  energy  into  mass.  Also, 
energy  possesses  weight;  and  light,  that 
form  of  energy  which  we,  in  the  New- 
tonian sense,  are  wont  to  represent  as 
absolutely  imponderable,  is,  by  the  at- 
tractive power  of  the  stars,  attracted 
just  as  much  as  any  mass-body.  Light- 
rays  that  pass  close  to  the  sun  from  the 
stars  are  therefore  warped,  so  to  speak. 
This  was  proved  by  the  observations  of 
the  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  Brazil  in  May, 
1919,  and  since  that  time  the  correctness 
of  the  new  theory  could  no  longer  be 
doubted. 

This  new  way  of  looking  at  nature  de- 
mands of  our  imagination  and  perceptive 
faculty  something  almost  superhuman. 
Little    as    the    milkmaid    or    even    the 


498 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


learned  village  pastor  of  1550  could  com- 
prehend that  "  above  "  and  "  below  "  are 
only  relative  notions  which  constantly 
change   from   one   place   on  the   earth's 


DR.    ALBERT    EINSTEIN 
(Times   Wide   World  Photos) 

surface  to  another,  just  so  little  will  it 
be  obvious  to  us  that  even  time  and  dis- 
tance are  also  merely  relative  notions 
and  can  be  shifted  from  place  to  place 
and  even  be  bent  out  of  shape. 

PRACTICAL  BEARINGS  OF  EINSTEIN'S 
PRINCIPLES 

As  navigators  at  once  drew  useful 
technical  conclusions  from  the  labors  of 
such  theorists  as  Copernicus,  Kepler  and 
Galileo,  and  as  a  Columbus  then  rea- 
soned, "  If  the  earth  is  a  ball,  I  can 
cruise  around  to  India,"  so  the  investi- 
gator and  technician  in  radio-activity 
and  electro-magnetism  in  our  day  are  al- 
ready evaluating  the  new  theory  in  prac- 
tical work.  Witness  the  research  lab- 
oratory maintained  by  the  General  Elec- 
tric Company,  where  the  basic  nature 
of  matter  is  being  studied  in  the  light 
of  the  Einstein  theory. 

Hitherto,  we  have  assumed,  after  the 
Newtonian  theory,  that  the  active  energy 


of  a  body  equals  the  product  of  half  its 
mass  by  the  square  of  its  velocity.  A 
projectile  which  possesses  a  mass  of  ten 
kilograms  and  is  shot  with  a  velocity  of 
1,000  meters  a  second  has  therefore  an 
active  energy  of  10,000,000  meter-kilo- 
grams. According  to  the  new  theory,  on 
the  contrary,  every  mass  possesses,  be- 
sides this,  another  energy,  which  equals 
the  product  of  this  mass  by  the  square 
of  the  velocity  of  light.  The  velocity  of 
light  amounts  to  300,000,000  meters 
(186,000  miles)  a  second.  That  projectile 
of  ten  kilograms  mass  would,  therefore, 
even  at  rest,  possess  another  energy  of 
900,000  billion  meter-kilograms. 

Now  it  is  for  us  to  free  this  energy, 
to  make  it  available  and  to  turn  it  to 
our  uses  as  soon  as  fortune  favors  us 
with  the  fit  way  of  disintegrating  the 
atoms  of  this  projectile.  Its  mass 
would  therefore  be  annihilated ;  its  atoms 
disintegrated.  A  kilogram  mass  would 
vanish  from  the  universe  without  a 
trace,  a  thing  impossible,  according  to 
the  Newtonian  theory;  but  an  amount 
of  energy  of  almost  a  trillion  meter- 
kilograms  would  thereby  become  of  use. 

At  the  outset  of  the  investigations  of 
radium,  one  had,  without  exception,  to 
deal  with  great,  hard  portions  of  matter, 
intricate  in  structure.  These  spontane- 
ously collapsed  in  giving  off  gigantic 
quantities  of  energy.  It  was  then  as- 
sumed that  the  act  of  creation  must  not 
have  been  quite  successful  in  these  hard- 
est substances,  or  that  the  relations  of 
the  created  world  must  have  somehow 
changed  in  the  last  billennium,  so  that 
these  particular  substances  contained  no 
more  energy.  Today  we  know,  accord- 
ing to  the  new  theory,  that  every  mate- 
rial contains  these  gigantic  quantities  of 
energy;  and  here  are  opened  up  vast 
perspectives. 

The  whole  amount  of  energy  that  we 
have  laboriously  dug  out  of  the  earth, 
in  the  yearly  output  of  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  tons  of  coal,  inheres  also  in  a 
few  blocks  of  common  sandstone,  which 
we  could  conveniently  remove  from  the 
earth's  surface.  To  pulverize  these 
blocks  into  nothing,  to  resolve  them  into 
such  stuff  as  light  is  made  of  and  thus 
make  available  their  latent  energy — such 
will  be  the  task  of  the  coming  technic. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


499 


DR.   F.   H.   MILLENER  AND  HARVEY  L.   GAINER  LISTENING  FOR   SOUNDS   FROM  MARS 
WITH   THE    MOST   POWERFUL.    WIRELESS    TELEPHONE    INSTRUMENT    IN    THE    WORLD 


Listening  for  Martian  Signals 


It  will  be  several  years  before  Mars 
again  comes  as  near  to  the  earth  as  it 
did  during  the  week  ended  April  25, 
while  Dr.  Frederick  H.  Millener,  a  radio 
engineer  of  Omaha,  assisted  by  Harvey 
Gainer,  electrical  expert,  carried  on  their 
impressive  experiments  to  get  into  com- 
munication with  the  neighboring  planet. 
Though  no  sounds  came  across  the  abys- 
mal space  between  the  two  worlds  to  re- 
ward the  listening  ears  of  the  scientists, 
these  Omaha  experiments  are  memor- 
able as  titanic  achievements  in  wireless 
telephony.  No  other  radiophonic  feat 
on  record  is  comparable  to  them. 

In  the  matter  of  equipment,  whereas 
the  antennae  of  an  ordinary  commercial 
radio  station  covers  not  more  than  ten 
acres,  those  of  Dr.  Millener's  station 
cover  an  area  of  twenty-five  square 
miles.  While  the  wave  length  of  the  or- 
dinaiy  commercial  wireless  station  is 
seldom  as  high  as  16,000  meters,  and 
wave  lengths  above  18,000  meters  have 
never  been  used  except  for  experimental 


purposes,     Dr.     Millener    used    a    wave 
length  of  300,000  meters. 

The  night  of  April  21  being  the  time 
of  Mars's  greatest  earth-nearing,  Dr. 
Millener  and  Mr.  Gainer  began  their 
vigil  at  8  o'clock  P.  M.  At  first  they 
used  wave  lengths  of  15,000  to  18,000 
meters.  For  several  hours,  as  mere  side 
issues  of  their  task,  they  picked  up  mes- 
sages from  Mexico,  from  Berlin,  and 
from  all  the  large  stations.  They 
seemed  to  hear  every  sound  in  the  world. 
There  was  much  static  interference,  in- 
cluding that  of  a  distant  thunderstorm, 
whose  lightning  dinned  all  around  them 
"  like  hailstones  on  a  tin  roof."  About 
2  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  weather 
cleared  up  and  all  was  quiet.  Then  they 
hitched  up  the  long  wave  lengths  that 
took  them  out  into  space  beyond  hearing 
of  anything  that  might  be  taking  place 
on  earth.  For  hours  they  listened,  but 
there  came  no  answer  from  the  earth's 
planetary  neighbor  to  show  whether  or 
not  it  is  inhabited  by  intelligent  beings. 


500 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Talking  Through  the  Ground  by  Geophone 


Under  the  exigencies  of  trench  war- 
fare, French  ingenuity  devised  the  geo- 
phone as  a  defensive  means  of  locating 
German  countermining  operations.  Since 
the  war  American  engineers  have  in- 
creased its  sensitiveness  by  application 
of  the  wonderful  improvements  in  wire- 
less telephony,  until  they  have  devel- 
oped what  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Mines  (after  numerous  experiments) 
pronounces  a  priceless  aid  to  the  pro- 
tection of  life  and  property  in  the  min- 
ing industry. 

Those  who  earn  their  living  far  un- 
derground in  quest  of  the  treasures  of 
the  earth  have  to  be  alert  against  the 
invasion  of  fires,  explosions,  and  fire- 
damp, and  the  menace  of  entombment. 
If  miners  are  still  alive  after  being  cut 
off  by  a  cave-in  of  rock  and  earth,  the 
geophone  becomes  the  means  of  locating 
their  signals  of  distress;  or  if  the  dis- 
tance is  not  more  than  150  feet  the 
buried  miners  can  use  the  geophone  to 
talk  with  their  companions  and  rescuers 
through  the  ground. 

When  fire  is  burning  through  a  valu- 
able coal  seam  the  geophone  makes  it 
unnecessary  for  anybody  to  risk  his  life 
in  a  personal  exploration  of  the  fire 
area  with  the  aid  of  a  breathing  ap- 
paratus. Fire  sends  through  the  earth 
a  characteristic  sound  whose  source  can 
be  located  by  geophone  often  from  a  dis- 
tance as  high  as  1,500  feet.  When  the 
fire  is  thus  located  from  above  ground, 
partly  with  the  guidance  of  a  blueprint 


plat  of  the  underground  operations, 
boreholes  can  be  sunk  at  the  right  points 
and  streams  of  mud  poured  down  to 
form  a  wet  bank  against  the  fire's  fur- 
ther progress,  and  thus  to  seal  it  off, 
so  that  it  will  die  out  for  lack  of  air. 
Or,  if  the  fire  has  to  be  located  from 
points  underground,  the  geophone  facili- 
tates the  choice  of  a  place  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance from  the  fire  to  build  a  sealing 
bank  to  arrest  and  deaden  it. 

French  scientists  took  their  idea  for 
the  geophone  from  that  of  the  old  seis- 
mograph, or  earthquake  recorder.  In  that 
the  records  of  the  earth  tremors  were 
obtained  through  the  relative  motion  be- 
tween the  earth  and  a  suspended  mass 
possessing  large  inertia.  In  the  case  of 
the  geophone,  which  was  developed  into 
an  instrument  to  be  used  like  a  phy- 
sician's stethoscope,  the  relative  motion 
takes  place  between  an  iron  ring,  which 
is  in  contact  with  the  ground,  and  a 
leaden  disk.  This  leaden  disk  is  fastened 
between  two  mica  disks  and  is  thus  held 
in  a  central  position  within  the  iron  ring. 
The  mica  disks  are  held  in  place  by  two 
metal  caps.  Through  a  hole  bored  in 
the  upper  cap  the  variations  of  internal 
air  pressure  are  borne  to  the  ear  by 
means  of  a  rubber  tube.  When  a  distant 
blow,  as  of  a  pick,  imparts  a  feeble 
tremor  to  the  earth  the  leaden  disk  is 
comparatively  undisturbed.  Hence  the 
characteristic  sounds  are  produced  by  the 
compressions  and  rarefactions  of  air 
within  the  case. 


An  Aerial  Sextant  and  Other  Aeronautic  Aids 


The  seafarer's  problem  in  finding  his 
latitude  and  longitude  is  simple  com- 
pared with  the  aeronaut's.  The  latter, 
however,  is  getting  valuable  aid  from 
other  departments  of  applied  science. 
Lieut.  Commander  H.  L.  Byrd,  U.  S.  N., 
perfected  a  sextant  applicable  to  air  nav- 
igation, without  which  the  transatlantic 
flights  of  the  NC-1,  the  NC-3  and  the 
NC-4  would  have  been  as  impossible  as 
Columbus's  voyages  without  a  mariner's 
compass.    Until  these  flights  no  airplane 


had  flown  far  enough  out  to  sea  to  call 
for  a  fixing  of  its  geographical  position 
by  the  sun,  moon,  or  stars.  As  in  the 
ordinary  mariner's  sextant,  the  purpose 
is  to  measure  the  altitude  of  the  sun, 
or  another  heavenly  body,  above  the  hori- 
zon, or  the  angular  distance  of  two  stars 
or  other  objects.  The  aerial  sextant, 
however,  must  give  the  measurement  as 
much  more  quickly  than  the  common  sex- 
tant as  the  speed  of  the  airplane  exceeds 
that  of  a  ship.     Also,  the  aerial  sextant 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


501 


must  be  independent  of  the  horizon  dur- 
ing flight  by  night  or  above  clouds. 
There  remains  the  old  relation  between 
the  horizon-glass  and  the  index-glass, 
and  the  mirror  of  each  to  bring  into 
coincidence  the  images  of  the  two  objects 
sighted.  But  the  special  feature  of  the 
Byrd  sextant  is  a  bubble,  which  takes  the 
place  of  the  sea  horizon  and  observa- 
tions. A  specially  constructed  lens  is 
used  for  sighting  the  bubble,  which  is 
reflected  in  a  mirror,  and  the  sun  is  re- 
flected in  the  other  mirror.  Both  the 
bubble  and  the  sun  are  brought  simul- 
taneously tangent  to  a  line,  and  this  gives 
the  observer  the  altitude  of  the  sun.  At 
night  the  bubble  is  lighted.  In  calcu- 
lating position  with  this  aerial  sextant, 
the  curvature  of  the  earth  can  be  disre- 
garded. In  connection  with  the  aerial 
sextant,  a  projection  chart  of  the  ocean 
was  devised,  which  enables  the  aeronaut 
to  perform  his  astronomical  calculations 
in  one-fifth  of  the  time  formerly  neces- 
sary, and  without  difficult  mathematical 
processes. 

The  air  navigator  cannot  use  the  mari- 
ner's log  in  order  to  ascertain  the  speed 
he  is  making.  Moreover,  being  more  at 
the  mercy  of  side  winds  than  the  sea 
navigator,  the  aeronaut  must  have  surer 
means    of    ascertaining    how    much    he 


drifts  sidewise.  Jn  order  to  fill  these 
needs,  which  the  compass  cannot  fill,  use 
is  made  of  depth  bombs,  which  ignite  on 
striking  the  surface  of  the  water  and 
bum  for  ten  minutes  with  dense  smoke 
and  a  bright  flame.  For  use  in  con- 
junction with  this  bomb  an  instrument 
is  devised  for  taking  the  necessary  ob- 
servations. By  sighting  on  the  light  of 
the  bomb  by  night  and  on  the  smoke  by 
day,  the  air  navigator  can  determine  the 
direction  and  velocity  of  the  wind.  Hav- 
ing made  the  observations  necessary  for 
this,  with  the  speed  and  drift  indicator, 
there  is  available  for  him  still  another 
instrument  for  solving  the  triangle  of 
forces,  so  that,  after  making  allowance 
for  speed  and  drift,  he  can  calculate  his 
true  course  without  having  to  go  through 
cumbersome  mathematical  processes. 
This  latter  instrument  is  called  a  course 
and  distance  indicator,  as  by  it  he  also 
ascertains  how  much  distance  he  has 
left  to  cover.  To  facilitate  all  these  ob- 
servations and  calculations,  the  naviga- 
tor's cockpit,  in  the  forepart  of  the  fuse- 
lage, has  to  be  equipped  with  a  chart- 
board,  a  chart-rack  and  lights;  also  a 
wireless  telephone  headset  for  communi- 
cating his  orders  to  the  pilot  in  spite  of 
the  din  of  the  motors. 


Airmen's  Problems  in  Tropical  Africa 


The  wonderful  clearness  of  the  African 
atmosphere  enables  the  aviator  to  ob- 
serve a  strip  from  50  to  800  miles  wide, 
so  that  he  sees  more  of  the  Dark  Con- 
tinent in  a  few  hours  than  Dr.  Livingstone 
could  see  in  a  decade.  But  the  picking 
of  air  routes  differs  from  the  choice  of 
jungle  and  desert  trails  in  necessitating 
the  selection  of  altitudes  needed  to  shun 
monsoons  and  tropical  thunderstorms. 
Success  in  dodging  one  thunderstorm  not 
long  ago  is  attributed  by  a  British  avi- 
ator to  his  depending  on  the  instinct  of 
three  African  vultures  which  he  followed 
to  a  region  of  clear  air,  keeping  within 
200  yards  of  the  birds. 

Then  there  is  the  problem  of  tempera- 
ture, which  becomes  arctic  at  certain 
heights — even  above  the  equatorial 
plains    and    mountains.      Probably    the 


lowest  natural  temperature  ever  regis- 
tered is  150  degrees  Fahrenheit  below 
freezing  point,  recorded  some  years  ago 
by  an  experimental  balloon  sent  up  from 
Victoria  Nyanza.  During  the  extensive 
wartime  aviation  in  East  Africa  the 
general  experience  of  airmen,  flying  at 
an  average  height  of  6,000  feet,  showed 
an  atmosphere  differing  little  from  that 
of  temperate  climes,  except  in  the  pres- 
ence of  air  pockets,  which  they  found  at 
even  greater  altitudes.  They  had  to 
carry  on  long  reconnoissance  the  same 
amount  of  warm  clothing  as  on  a  Winter 
trip  from  London  to  Paris.  One  aviator, 
while  flying  from  Dodoma,  on  the  Cen- 
tral Railway,  got  a  carburetor  frozen  at 
7,000  feet. 

The  winds  of  the  tropics  present  an 
important  problem.     One  British  army 


502 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


aviator,  during  the  East  African  cam- 
paign, had  to  fly  on  a  reconnoissance  as- 
signment from  Kilwa  to  a  point  about  60 
miles  inland.  The  wind  was  blowing  due 
east  with  a  velocity  of  40  miles  an  hour. 
Thus  favored,  he  reached  his  objective  in 
30  minutes.  After  completing  his  recon- 
noissance he  turned  homeward,  expecting 
a  rough  experience,  but  on  reaching  an 
altitude  of  5,000  feet  he  was  astonished 


to  find  the  wind  blowing  there  due  west 
at  a  velocity  of  60  miles  an  hour.  He 
regained  Kilwa  in  20  minutes,  and,  drop- 
ping to  2,500  feet,  he  found  the  wind 
still  blowing  due  east.  People  on  the 
ground,  who  could  not  believe  he  had  car- 
ried out  his  reconnoissance,  told  him  that 
the  wind  had  not  varied  in  direction  or 
velocity. 


^T  SMIT'S  ^/lYlN  rA'^I.Y  'TV/-.?.?. 


J 


ILLUSTRATION    FROM    A    HISTORY    OF    OLD   NEW    YORK   REPRODUCED    QUICKLY    AND 

PERFECTLY    WITH    THE    PHOTOSTAT 

(Courtesy  New    Yoi-k   Public   Library) 


The  Photostat:    A  Revolutionary  Aid  to  Research 


Next  after  the  printing  press,  the 
greatest  mechanical  aid  to  learning  is 
the  photostat,  the  commercial  camera 
primarily  intended  to  reproduce  manu- 
scripts and  the  printed  page.  It  is  of 
great  importance  to  American  scholar- 
ship, especially,  as  it  facilitates  scholas- 
tic enterprises  in  this  country  otherwise 
impossible.  In  its  brief  period  of  ex- 
istence it  has  become  indispensable  in  the 
equipment  of  our  larger  metropolitan 
and  university  libraries,  and  has  changed 
our  whole  method  of  advanced  study. 
This  is  because  it  so  often  relieves  the 
student  of  going  abroad  for  research 
work;  it  makes  it  cheaper  for  him  to  im- 
port    reproductions     of     the    necessary 


books,  manuscripts,  maps,  pictures,  &c., 
than  to  study  the  originals  in  Europe. 
Moreover,  these  photostatic  reproduc- 
tions are  just  as  clear  as  the  originals — 
when  they  are  not  better — thanks  to  the 
combination  of  powerful  prismatic  lenses 
and  sensitized  paper  in  the  work  of  the 
instrument.  The  work  of  a  copyist  with 
pen  or  typewriter  is  never  sure  to  be 
accurate,  and  is  several  times  as  expen- 
sive as  photostatic  sei-vice. 

For  so-called  negative,  or  first-print 
copy,  where  white  letters  on  black  ground 
are  obtained,  the  New  York  Public 
Library  charges  twenty  cents  a  pair  of 
pages.  Such  copy  serves  well  enough  for 
most  purposes;  but  even,  as  often  in  the 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


503 


case  of  pictures,  maps  and  obscure  pas- 
sages, where  need  of  greater  clearness  calls 
for  a  second  reproduction,  to  secure  black 
on  white,  this  double  cost  is  less  than 
handwork  or  typewriting.  Not  only  is 
the  photostatic  work  accurate  to  the  least 
detail,  but  also  it  can  enlarge  print  or 
handwriting  for  greater  legibility  or  re- 
duce pictures  and  maps  to  more  con- 
venient sizes.  An  expert  with  a  photo- 
stat can  be  sent  abroad  for  about  $1,500 


way  the  American  'Nation  is  coming  by 
a  great  wealth  of  cultural  treasure  from 
abroad,  and  the  world  is  getting  insured 
against  such  cultural   tragedies   as   the 


I'OIITRAIT     OF    I'Ol^;     RErKODUCED     AS    A 
"  NEGATIVE  "   BY  A  SINGLE  CONTACT  EX- 
POSURE   WITH    THE    PHOTOSTAT 
(.Courtesy   New    York    Public   Library) 

and  can  reproduce  enough  work  in  a  sea- 
son to  keep  a  scholar  busy  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

A  rare  manuscript  or  book  that  has 
become  yellow  and  brittle  from  age  and 
deterioration  can  be  manifolded  and  im- 
proved by  the  photostat  so  that  the 
original  need  seldom  be  usedj  and  copies 
can  be  sold  to  many  institutions  for  more 
general   use   and   safekeeping.      In   this 


SAME  PORTRAIT  OF  FOE  REPRODUCED 

AS   A   •'  POSITIVE  "   AFTER   SECOND 

PROCESS  WITH  PHOTOSTAT 

(Courtesy  New   York  Public   Library) 

destruction  of  the  ancient  Alexandrian 
Library. 

The  photostat  is  coming  into  general 
use  also  in  large  engineering  offices  and 
institutions,  where  it  is  invaluable  as  an 
accurate  reproducer  of  maps,  plans,  spec- 
ifications, drafts  and  designs.  The  ad- 
justments of  the  instruments  are  auto- 
matic, and  little  skill  in  photography  is 
needed  in  its  operation,  though  the  more 
photographic  expertness  and  judgment 
the  operator  has  the  better. 


Some  Facts  About  Armenia 


By  BENJAMIN  SURGES  MOORE 

American    Commission    to 


[Formerly     Chief    of    Tiflis    Party,     Russian     Field    Mission 

Negotiate   Peace] 


WHEN  the  Turks  began  their 
systematic  attempts  to  exter- 
minate the  Armenians,  the 
latter  inhabited  a  strip  of 
territory  extending  from  the  Caucasus 
Mountains  to  the  Mediterranean,  rough- 
ly parallel  to  a  line  drawn  between 
Tiflis  and  Alexandretta,  but  did  not 
form  a  large  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 
Armenians  were  for  centuries  divided 
into  Turkish  and  Russian  subjects, 
which  fact  has  created  a  certain  differ- 
ence in  the  characters  of  the  Turkish 
and  Russian  Armenians  of  today.  The 
territory  of  the  present  Armenian  Re- 
public, however,  occupies,  roughly  speak- 
ing, only  the  former  Russian  provinces 
of  Kars  and  Erivan,  and  lies  therefore 
entirely  to  the  north  of  the  frontier 
which  separated  the  Russian  Empire 
from  Turkey  and  Persia.  In  this  re- 
stricted area  there  are  now  living,  in 
addition  to  the  native  population,  some 
300,000  refugees  from  Turkish  Armenia 
— practically  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
latter  region  which  were  not  extermi- 
nated by  the  Turks. 

Transcaucasia,  of  which  the  Arme- 
nian Republic  forms  a  part,  is  occupied 
to  the  north  by  the  lofty  mountains  of 
the  Great  Caucasus,  to  the  south  by  the 
Little  or  Anti-Caucasus,  a  high  plateau 
with  volcanic  summits,  sloping  toward 
the  AiTnenian  highlands.  These  ranges 
are  separated  by  the  narrow  valleys  of 
two  rivers  flowing,  one  westward  into 
the  Black  Sea,  the  other  eastward  into 
the  Caspian.  Through  these  valleys 
runs  a  railway,  which  joins  Batum  on 
the  Black  with  Baku  on  the  Caspian 
Sea  and  forms  the  great  artery  of  com- 
munication across  Transcaucasia  to 
Persia  and  Central  Asia.  At  Tiflis, 
about  half  way  between  Batum  and 
Baku,  the  famous  Georgian  Military 
Road  crosses  the  mountains  northward 
to  Vladikavkaz,  and  a  branch  railway 
runs  south  to  Kars  and  Erivan  in  Ar- 


menia, forming,  with  the  exception  of 
a  bad  road  to  Batum,  her  only  means  of 
communication  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  From  the  strategic  and  economic 
points  of  view,  Transcaucasia  is  there- 
fore like  a  narrow  corridor  between  the 
Black  and  Caspian  Seas,  with  in  the 
centre  one  outlet  northward  and  one 
southward.  This  fact,  not  to  mention 
potent  political  and  economic  reasons, 
makes  the  three  Transcaucasian  re- 
publics— Georgia,  Azerbaijan  and  Anne- 
nia — completely  interdependent. 

A  glance  at  the  map  on  Page  509  will 
show  that  the  Armenian  Republic  is  com- 
pletely surrounded  by  an  unbroken  chain 
of  hostile  peoples.  To  the  west,  the 
province  of  Batum  is  theoretically  under 
British  military  administration,  and  the 
poii;  of  Batum  is  fortunately  still  occu- 
pied by  British  troops;  but  between 
Batum  and  Armenia  the  country  is  un- 
der the  control  of  hostile  Mohammedans. 
To  the  north  lies  the  "  Democratic  Re- 
public of  Georgia,"  whose  inhabitants, 
although  Christians,  were  at  war  with 
Armenia  in  December,  1918,  and  are 
still  ill-disposed  to  her.  On  the  north 
and  east  she  borders  on  the  Moham- 
medan Tartar  Republic  of  Azerbaijan, 
whose  hatred  of  Armenia  is  second  only 
to  that  of  the  Turks  and  constantly 
leads  to  hostilities.  On  the  south  and 
southwest  she  faces  the  Kurds,  and  the 
Turkish  Nationalists  under  Mustapha 
Kemal  Pasha. 

The  geographic  situation  of  the  Ar- 
menians is  the  primary  cause  of  their 
persecution;  the  attempts  of  the  Turks, 
abetted  by  the  Germans,  to  exterminate 
them  were  due  to  the  fact  that  they 
created  the  single  break  in  the  great 
Pan-Turanian  chain  that  was  to  stretch 
from  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  to  Central 
Asia.  Today  the  followers  of  Mustapha 
Kemal  Pasha  and  of  Enver  Pasha  may 
hate  the  Armenians  for  racial-religious 
reasons,  but  the  enmity  of  both  leaders 


SOME  FACTS  ABOUT  ARMENIA 


505 


BARDIZOG,    A   TYPICAL    ARMENIAN    VILLAGE 


is  created  by  their  Pan-Turanian  ambi- 
tions. Even  with  its  present  restricted 
territory,  the  Armenian  Republic  is  ex- 
posed to  peculiar  dangers  by  its  geo- 
graphic position. 

NATIONAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  princes 
created  by  Russia  there  is  no  aristocracy 
among  the  Armenians,  who  may  be  di- 
vided into  the  following  classes:  A  large 
peasantry,  robust,  hard  working,  re- 
ligious and  patriotic ;  a  commercial  class, 
which  has  spread  over  the  entire  world 
owing  to  extraordinary  business  ability 
not  unlike  that  of  the  Jews ;  and  a  small 
but  very  powerful  intelligentsia.  Mem- 
bers of  the  last  class  frequently  held  im- 
portant positions  under  the  Imperial 
Russian  Government,  and  are  generally 
highly  educated,  many  of  them — particu- 
larly professional  men — having  secured 
their  education  by  their  own  efforts  in 
the  face  of  obstacles  and  persecutions 
difficult  for  Americans  to  realize. 

Armenians  of  all  classes  are  often 
criticised  as  selfish,  and  some  of  them 
are  most  untrustworthy.  Their  business 
success  makes  them  hated  by  other  races, 
and  this  feeling  is  increased  by  their 
own  lack  of  tact.  Nevertheless  the  pa- 
triotism, determination,  industry,  intelli- 
gence, and  European  culture  of  the  Ar- 


menians call  for  admiration  and  place 
them  on  a  higher  level  than  any  of  the 
neighboring  races. 

GOVERNMENT  OF  ARMENIA 

When  in  the  Autumn  of  1917  the 
Russian  Army  on  the  Caucasian  front 
had  dissolved  and  Transcaucasia  had 
been  automatically  separated  from  the 
central  Russian  Government  by  the  Bol- 
shevist revolution,  an  anti-Bolshevist 
Transcaucasian  Federal  Government 
was  formed  by  Georgian,  Azerbaijanese 
and  Armenian  politicians  with  the  pur- 
pose of  governing  the  country  until  or- 
der had  been  restored  in  Russia,  there 
being  at  that  time  no  intention  to  estab- 
lish an  independent  State  or  States. 
£)uring  the  Winter  and  Spring  of  1918 
the  Turkish  advance  into  Transcaucasia 
created  the  gravest  dangers  for  this 
Government  and  led  to  dissensions 
among  its  various  racial  elements.  On 
April  22,  1918,  the  Transcaucasian  Fed- 
eration declared  itself  independent  of 
Russia;  but  when  the  Turks  were  within 
thirty  miles  of  its  capital,  Tiflis,  the 
representatives  of  Georgia,  Azerbaijan 
and  Armenia  were  unable  to  agree  upon 
a  common  policy,  and,  between  May  26 
and  30,  successively,  declared  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  respective  countries. 

This  was  the  origin  of  the  present  Ar- 


506 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


A    BEGGAli    IN    TURKISH    ARMENIA 

menian  Republic,  the  only  one  of  the 
three  Transcaucasian  Governments 
whose  de  facto  existence  the  United 
States  has  recognized  (April,  1920),  al- 
though the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Al- 
lies in  January  of  this  year  recognized 
de  facto  the  Governments  of  Georgia 
and  Azerbaijan  as  well  as  that  of  Ar- 
menia. 

The  Armenian  Republic  is  governed 
by  a  Parliament  and  by  a  Cabinet  of 
six  Ministers,  one  of  whom  acts  as  Min- 
ister-President. Mr.  Khatissian,  who 
has  held  the  post  since  its  creation,  was 
Mayor  of  Tiflis  under  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment and  played  an  important  role  in 


the  Transcaucasian  Federal  Govern- 
ment. He  is  subtle  as  an  Oriental,  but  is 
also  a  man  of  real  ability  and  a  sincere 
patriot  who  has  bravely  faced  crushing 
difficulties  and  dangers.  The  other 
Ministers  and  political  leaders  vary  in 
ability  and  disinterestedness,  corruption 
being  one  of  the  most  dangerous  ele- 
ments in  the  political  life  of  all  the 
Transcaucasian  peoples. 

The  Parliament,  which  has  eiglity 
members,  was  formed  in  the  following 
way:  In  September,  1917,  all  the  Arme- 
nians living  within  the  boundaries  of 
Russia  elected  an  Armenian  National 
Assembly.  After  the  Transcaucasian 
Federal  Government  had  been  dis- 
rupted this  Assembly,  which  had  con- 
trolled Armenian  affairs  from  Tiflis, 
moved  to  Erivan  in  Armenia  (the  seat 
of  the  present  Government)  and  expand- 
ed into  a  Parliament,  the  original  mem- 
bers selecting  twenty-nine  new  ones. 
When  in  June,  1919,  the  Ministry  with- 
out consulting  Parliament  proclaimed  the 
independence  of  united  Turkish  and  Rus- 
sian Armenia,  and  seated  twelve  repre- 
sentatives of  Turkish  Armenia  in  Par- 
liament, a  parliamentary  crisis  occurred, 
as  the  People's  Party,  considering  the 
procedure  followed  by  the  Ministry  to 
be  illegal,  withdrew  its  representatives 
from  both  the  Ministry  and  Parliament. 
Elections  to  a  new  and  larger  Parlia- 
ment, the  first  directly  elected  one  Ar- 
menia has  had,  were  then  held,  the 
Dashnaksutun  gaining  seventy  out  of  the 
eighty  seats,  as  the  People's  Party  re- 
fused to  participate. 

The  two  political  parties  just  men- 
tioned are  the  only  ones  of  any  im- 
portance. The  People's  Party  (or  Lib- 
eral Democrats)  is  opposed  to  Socialism 
and  to  the  Dashnaksutun.  It,  however, 
believes  that  political  agitation  should 
be  suspended  in  order  to  concentrate  all 
energies  on  the  problems  of  national 
existence.  In  many  ways  it  stands  for 
what  is  best  in  Armenia,  and  was  well 
represented  in  the  Ministry  and  Parlia- 
ment until  last  June.  Its  withdrawal 
from  political  life,  even  should  it  prove 
only  temporary,  is  to  be  regretted. 

The  Dashnaksutun  is  a  secret  society 
rather  than  a   real   political   party.     It 


SOME  FACTS  ABOUT  ARMENIA 


507 


was  founded  in  1890  to  secure  the  libera- 
tion of  Turkish  Ai-menia,  and  until  1902 
worked  against  the  Turkish  Government, 
principally  in  the  army.  It  then  began 
propaganda  throughout  Europe  in  favor 
of  Armenian  independence,  thereby  com- 
ing into  conflict  with  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment, which  arrested  several  of  its 
members.  In  retaliation  it  resorted  to 
terrorism  directed  against  Russian  offi- 
cials and  took  an  active  share  in  the 
Russian  revolution  of  1905.  In  1917  it 
played  a  very  important  part  in  the 
Transcaucasian  Federal  Government, 
and  in  1918  was  largely  responsible  for 
Armenia's  valiant  resistance  to  the 
Turks.  Its  strongest  section  is  "The 
Bureau,"  a  secret  political  club  of  ultra- 
Socialists,  who  terrorize  the  more  mod- 
erate elements  in  the  Government.  The 
Dashnaksutun  is  highly  organized,  has 
agents  everywhere,  and  now  rules  Arme- 
nia, as  it  controls  both  Parliament  and 
the  Ministry,  where  it  is  represented  by 
five  out  of  the  six  Ministers.  It  ter- 
rorizes the  people  at  elections,  is  aggres- 
sive and  intriguing,  and  has  done  and 
does  much  to  increase  hostility  to  Ar- 
menia. Despite  its  patriotic  aims,  it  is 
not  likely  that  sound  government  can  be 
established  in  Armenia  unless  this  so- 
ciety be  suppressed  or  rendered  harm- 
less. 

ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGN 
POWERS 

The  Armenians  were  the  only  race  in 
the  Caucasus  which  the  Imperial  Rus- 
sian Government  oppressed,  not  for  gen- 
eral reasons,  as  it  frequently  did  all  its 
subjects,  but — like  the  Poles  and  Finns — 
for  racial  ones,  this  in  the  case  of  the 
Armenians  being  due  to  their  participa- 
tion in  terrorism  and  the  revolution  of 
1905.  Nevertheless,  they  are  at  present 
the  only  people  in  Transcaucasia  well 
disposed  toward  Russians  (not  Bolshe- 
viki),  dislike  of  whom  as  oppressors  has 
of  late  been  artificially  developed  among 
the  other  races  by  local  politicians  from 
purely  selfish  motives. 

The  Armenian  Government  did  not 
share  the  hatred  and  dread  of  General 
Denikin  and  his  anti-Bolshevist  army  felt 
by  those  of  Georgia  and  Azerbaijan.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  veasons  why  these  Gov- 


ernments harassed  Armenia  was  because 
they  feared  she  rilight  form  an  alliance 
with  Denikin.  In  Armenia  there  is 
practically    no    field    for    political    Bol- 


ARMENIAN  GIRL  SPINNING  STRANDS  FOR 
THE    WEAVING    OF    RUGS 

shevism,  and  Government  and  people 
are  heartily  opposed  to  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment of  Moscow.  The  fact  that  since 
the  collapse  of  Denikin's  forces  the  Bol- 
sheviki  have  advanced  into  Transcau- 
casia, have,  after  overthrowing  the  Tar- 
tar Government  of  Azerbaijan,  occupied 
Baku,  with  its  endless  supplies  of  oil, 
and  will  probably  soon  be  in  control  of 
all  Transcaucasia,  creates  new  difficul- 
ties for  Armenia.  Unless  unforeseen 
events  arrest  the  advance  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki,  she  must  inevitably  make  terms 
with  them.  Should  these  be  favorable 
and  the  Bolsheviki  restrain  the  Tartars, 
and  perhaps  the  Turks,  her  situation 
might  in  some  ways  be  improved,  for — 
to  cite  an  Armenian  General — "  Better 
the  Bolsheviki  than  the  Turks." 


508 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Whatever  may  occur  in  the  immediate 
future,  Russian  influence  will  long  re- 
main strong  in  Armenia,  and  she  will 
probably  be  well  disposed  to  the  non- 
Bolshevist  great  Russia,  which  sooner 
or  later  must  be  re-established.  This 
disposition  is  fortunate,  since  it  favors 
the  peace  of  Transcaucasia,  and,  in- 
cidentally, of  the  Near  East. 

For  Great  Britain  the  Armenians  have 
always  entertained  the  most  friendly 
feelings,  but  during  the  British  occupa- 
tion of  Transcaucasia  (November,  1918, 
to  August,  1919)  they  were  aggrieved  by 
British  policy,  which,  although  well  in- 
tentioned,  was,  largely  through  force  of 
circumstances,  in  several  instances  seri- 
ously mistaken.  Armenians  ought,  how- 
ever, to  remember  that  if  the  British 
had  not  occupied  Transcaucasia,  Arme- 
nia as  a  State  would  probably  not  be  in 
existence  today. 

The  Armenian  Nation  is  naturally 
drawn  to  the  United  States,  where  many 
of  its  members  have  lived  and  been 
educated,  and  where  its  propaganda  (one 
of  the  most  active  and  effective  in  ex- 
istence) has  aroused  wide  interest  in  its 
cause.  Armenians  are  also  sincerely 
grateful  to  us,  since  it  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  they  would  have  dis- 
appeared as  a  nation  had  it  not  been  for 
the  splendid  help  given  them  by  the 
Near  East  Relief  and  the  American 
Food  Administration.  Both  gratitude 
and  interest  therefore  bind  Armenia 
closely  to  the  United  States.  Her  treat- 
ment by  Turkey  and  Germany  is  too  no- 
torious to  need  mention  here. 

RELATIONS   WITH    NEIGHBORS 

From  the  ethnological  point  of  view, 
the  Caucasus  offers  one  of  the  strangest 
and  most  complex  problems  in  the  world, 
as  its  small  area  is  still  inhabited  by 
some  forty  distinct  racial  groups.  This 
ethnic  diversity  is  further  complicated 
by  the  fact  that,  with  the  exception  of 
a  fairly  compact  group  of  Georgians 
and  another  of  Tartars,  these  races  are 
not  settled  in  distinct  regions,  but  are 
inextricably  commingled.  For  the  entire 
territory  claimed  by  Armenia  in  Trans- 
caucasia, figures  furnished  by  Armenian 
officials,    and    therefore    certain    not    to 


favor  other  racial  elements,  place  the 
total  population  at  2,160,000,  of  which 
only  1,293,000  (59.87  per  cent.)  are  Ar- 
menians. 

This  extraordinary  confusion  of  races 
is  one  of  the  main  causes  why  political 
questions  assume  such  acute  and  com- 
plex forms  in  the  Caucasus.  As  the  ma- 
jority of  the  inhabitants  are  still  half 
savage,  race  hatreds  have  continued  to 
exist  from  prehistoric  times,  and  during 
recent  years  have  been  deliberately  in- 
flamed by  political  agitators  of  all 
races.  In  addition  to  this,  local  enmities 
have,  since  the  division  of  Transcauca- 
sia into  separate  republics,  been  brought 
to  white  heat  by  territorial  disputes  and 
the  resultant  armed  collisions  in  regard 
to  an  entire  series  of  provinces,  all 
claimed  by  two  and  some  by  all  three  of 
the  Governments.  In  this  connection  it 
is  necessary  to  call  attention  to  two 
facts:  First,  that  while  the  Allies  at  the 
San  Remo  Conference  last  April  agreed 
to  create  an  independent  Armenia,  they 
did  not  decide  its  boundaries;  second, 
that  whatever  territory,  great  or  little, 
be  granted  Armenia,  the  delimitation  of 
it  will  increase  hatred  of  her  and  almost 
certainly  lead  to  armed  attacks  upon  her. 

Although  a  certain  improvement  has 
recently  taken  place,  Armenia's  relations 
with  Georgia  and  Azerbaijan  have  been 
of  the  worst  and  are  likely  to  remain 
most  unsatisfactory  despite  the  resolu- 
tions, intended  to  terminate  the  conflicts 
between  the  three  republics,  which  were 
adopted  by  their  representatives  at 
Tiflis  last  April.  Armenians  consider 
that  they  were  betrayed  by  Georgia  in 
1918  and  thereby  forced  to  make  peace 
with  Turkey.  Ill-feeling  was  increased 
in  December,  1918,  by  the  small  war  be- 
tween Georgia  and  Armenia  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  Province  of  Borchalo. 
Georgian  hatred  of  Armenians  is  really 
economic  rather  than  racial,  being  mainly 
a  result  of  the  commercial  superiority 
of  the  latter,  who  dominate  commerce 
even  in  the  Georgian  capital,  Tiflis. 
Georgia  takes  advantage  of  the  fact  that 
all  traffic  to  and  from  Armenia  must 
pass  through  her  territory  in  order  to 
exert  pressure  on  the  Armenian  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  June,  1919,  the  Georgian 
Government  even  impeded  the  transport 


SOME  FACTS  ABOUT  ARMENIA 


Sketch  of  an  official  boundary  map  of  the  new  Caucasus  republics,  Georgia^ 
Armenia  and  Azerbaijan.  Areas  still  in  ddspute:  (1)  Batum,  under  British  military 
governorship ;  (2)  Ardahan,  under  local  control  of  Tartars;  (S)  Olti,  under  local  control 
of  Kurds;  (if)  Borschalo,  mixed  Georgian- Armenian  control  under  British  arbitration; 
(5)  Nakhichevan,  under  control  of  Tartar  tnsurgents;  (6)  Karabagh,  assigned  to 
Azerbaijan  but  now  under  a  focal  Armenian  National  Coimcil.  Armenia's  territorial 
claims  in  Turkey  are  still  in  abeyance;  no  Armeniaoi's  life  is  safe  south  of  the  former 
Russian  frontier. 


of  American  relief  supplies  to  Armenia. 
(It  should  be  stated  that  Georgia's  be- 
havior in  this  case,  although  impossible 
to  approve,  was  natural  under  the  cir- 
cumstances.) After  Georgia  and  Azer- 
baijan had  signed  a  defensive  .alliance 
(June  16,  1919)  they  used  fair  means 
and  foul  to  force  Armenia  to  join  it. 
Although  an  alliance,  or  even  a  federa- 
tion, of  all  three  TranscaucaLian  repub- 
lics is  highly  desirable,  Armenia  could 
not  under  the  circumstances  accept  her 
neighbors'  proposals. 

INTENSE  RELIGIOUS   HATRED 

A  predominant  majority  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Azerbaijan  are  Mohammedan 
Tartars,  between  whom  and  the  Arme- 
nians racial-religious  hatred  has  existed 
for  centuries.  Not  only  in  Azerbaijan, 
but  also  throughout  the  rest  of  Trans- 
caucasia (including  Armenian  territory), 


where  they  are  widely  scattered,  they 
have  frequently  attacked  and  massacred 
the  Armenians;  the  latter,  as  is  natural, 
seldom  miss  an  opportunity  of  retaliat- 
ing. The  presence  of  an  important  and 
very  rich  Armenian  colony  in  the  City  of 
Baku  is  a  cause  of  constant  enmity  and 
of  frequent  massacres,  usually  commit- 
ted by  the  Tartars,  but  in  at  least  one 
notable  case  by  the  Armeni  ns  also.  As 
recently  as  last  April  the  Allied  High 
Commissioner  to  Armenia  reported  that 
local  minor  officials  and  natives  were 
daily  committing  crimes  against  the  Baku 
Armenians  and  that  the  latter  were  in 
imminent  danger  of  extermination. 

The  Tartar  Government  (overthrown 
by  the  Bolsheviki  on  April  27),  although 
it  was  in  some  ways  the  weakest  in 
Transcaucasia,  held  a  highly  advantage- 
ous position  owing  to  its  control  of  the 
immense  Baku  oil  fields.     Like  its  sub- 


510 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


jects,  who  fought  on  the  side  of  Turkey, 
it  was  strongly  pro-Turanian,  har- 
bored innumerable  Turkish  agents  (in- 
cluding Nuri  Pasha  and  probably  also 
Enver  Pasha)  and  allowed  its  terri- 
tory to  become  a  field  for  active  and 
widespread  Turkish  intrigue.  It  even 
signed  a  secret  treaty  with  Turkey  in 
October,  1919,  a  fact  that  the  Allies  seem 
to  have  forgotten  or  to  have  been  igno- 
rant of  when  they  granted  it  recogni- 
tion. 

A   DISPUTED    DISTRICT 

The  mutual  hatred  of  Armenians  and 
Tartars  has  been  greatly  augmented  by 
the  question  of  Karabagh-Zangezur,  the 
Alsace-Lorraine  of  Transcaucasia.  This 
district,  situated  to  the  north  and  east  of 
the  present  Armenian  frontiers,  is  the 
cradle  of  the  Armenian  race,  and  in  the 
mountain  region  Armenians  admittedly 
form  the  majority  of  the  population.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  very  numerous  Tar- 
tar shepherds  have  for  centuries  been 
accustomed  to  move  to  its  mountains  in 
Summer,  when  their  flocks  cannot  live 
in  the  Azerbaijanese  plains.  Moreover, 
owing  to  its  geographical  situation,  the 
economic  outlet  of  Karabagh  is  not  Ar- 
menia, but  Baku.  This  fact  is  probably 
the  principal  reason  why  the  British,  at 
the  beginning  of  their  occupation  of 
Transcaucasia,  made  Karabagh  a  part 
of  Azerbaijan  and  placed  it  under  a 
Tartar  Governor.  Their  decision  finally 
produced  a  state  of  warfare  (still  in 
existence)  between  the  local  Armenians 
and  Tartars,  as  well  as  Armenian 
massacres  perpetrated  with  the  conniv- 
ance of  the  Tartar  Governor.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  peace  cannot  be  definitely  es- 
tablished in  Transcaucasia  until  the 
Karabagh  problem  has  received  a  just 
solution. 

Further  trouble  arose  when  in  June, 
1919,  the  British  authorities  assigned 
to  the  Armenians  the  Province  of 
Nakhichevan  (adjoining  Karabagh), 
then  under  Tartar  control,  and  permit- 
ted the  repatriation  of  Armenian  refugees 
in  that  district.  The  attempts  of  the 
Armenian  Government  to  carry  out  the 
repatriation,  and  the  mistakes  of  the 
civil  administration  they  tried  to  install, 
led  to  hostilities,  directed  by  a  Turkish 


officer,  in  this  district  also.  Owing  to 
the  intervention  of  the  ablest  of  the 
American  officers  assigned  to  duty  in 
Transcaucasia,  Colonel  James  C.  Rhea, 
then  acting  Allied  High  Commissioner, 
acts  of  warfare  were  suspended,  but 
have  since  recurred  intermittently. 

ECONOMIC  SITUATION 
Economically  Armenia  is  but  slightly 
developed.  Communications,  fairly  ef- 
ficient under  Russia,  are  now,  as  else- 
where throughout  the  Caucasus,  com- 
pletely disorganized.  There  are  almost 
no  railways,  and  the  few  existing  miles 
form  part  of  the  single  Transcaucasian 
system;  there  is  also  practically  no  roll- 
ing stock,  the  number  of  locomotives 
owned  by  Armenia  in  the  Summer  of 
1919  being  just  nineteen.  Under  Russia 
the  Armenian  peasant  was  land-starved 
and  often  forced  to  emigrate,  as  he  was 
only  allowed  to  hold  one-thirtieth  of  the 
quantity  of  land  allotted  to  Russians. 
He  is  now  eager  to  till  the  soil,  scientific 
irrigation  is  possible,  and  Armenia  has 
her  own  European-trained  engineers. 
Socialistic  redistribution  or  nationaliza- 
tion of  the  land  is  unlikely. 

Financially  Armenia,  like  the  other 
Transcaucasian  countries,  is  bankrupt,  a 
fact  that  under  present  circumstances 
does  not  seem  to  have  the  serious  conse- 
quences one  would  expect.  The  value 
of  her  undeveloped  resources  is  diffi- 
cult to  decide,  Armenian  estimates  being 
rosy  and  those  of  competent  allied  offi- 
cials varying  greatly.  The  most  im- 
portant resources  are:  Minerals  (salt, 
iron,  copper),  petroleum,  water  power, 
grain  (wheat,  barley,  rice),  cotton, 
grapes,  cattle.  Armenia  appears  to  be 
naturally  rich,  but  is  probably  less  so 
than  certain  other  parts  of  Trans- 
caucasia. It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  country  has  been  devastated, 
that  the  people  are  exhausted  to  the 
verge  of  extinction  by  massacres  and 
war,  and  that-  their  problem  is  compli- 
cated by  the  presence  on  their  territory 
of  some  300,000  miserable,  diseased,  and 
still  half-starving  refugees,  who  cannot 
be  repatriated  without  the  use  of  armed 
force. 

The  intense  desire  of  all  Armenians 
for  autonomy  is  beyond  doubt,  as  is  their 


SOME  FACTS  ABOUT  ARMENIA 


511 


right  to  it  earned  by  preserving  their 
national  existence  for  centuries  in  the 
face  of  persecutions  almost  without  par- 
allel. This  right  the  Allies  recently 
acknowledged  at  the  San  Remo  confer- 
ence, but  they  did  not  solve  the  real  dif- 
ficulty.     What    territory    ought    to    be 


AL  KHATISSIAN 
Acting  President  of  Armenia 

granted  Armenia  is  a  most  complicated 
problem,  but  what  can  be  granted  her 
under  existing  conditions  is  one  infinite- 
ly more  so.  Whatever  limits  be  fixed,  it 
is  unlikely  that  a  reasonably  homo- 
geneous State  can  be  formed  unless 
Armenia  exchange  certain  populations 
with  her  neighbors,  a  process — on  ac- 
count of  the  nomadic  nature  of  the  races 
in  question — less  impossible  than  it 
seems. 

Armenian  territorial  claims  include 
half  of  Russian  Transcaucasia  and  a 
large  part  of  Asia  Minor  (the  "  six  vil- 
ayets and  Cilicia")>  forming  a  great 
territory  that  would  stretch  from  a 
boundary  near  the  Caucasus  Mountains 
across  to  the  Mediterranean  around 
Adana  and  Alexandretta,  and  also  along 
the  Black  Sea  for  miles  beyond  Trebi- 
zond.  There  are  almost  no  Armenians 
left  on  Turkish  soil  now,  but  in  defense 
of  their  claims  they  assert  that  they 
ought  not  to  be  penalized  because  they 
have  been  driven  from  their  homes  and 


their  numbers  skockingly  reduced  by 
massacres.  Whatever  weight  this  argu- 
ment may  have,  it  is  doubtful,  despite 
Armenian  estimates  to  the  contrary, 
whether  many  more  than  2,000,000 
Armenians  can  be  found  to  inhabit  a 
Greater  Armenia.  They  could  therefore 
never  govern  so  large  a  country,  and  the 
attempt  to  do  so  would  inevitably  end  in 
the  extermination  of  many  more  of  them. 
To  grant  all  their  historic  claims  for 
sentimental  reasons  would  be  like  giv- 
ing a  child  its  dead  father's  razor  to 
play  with  because  it  had  cried  for  it. 

On  the  other  hand  the  circumstances, 
dissentions,  and  ambitions  of  the  pres- 
ent time  seem  likely  to  end  in  the 
creation  of  an  Armenia  "  so  circum- 
scribed, so  beset  by  enemies,  so  mort- 
gaged "  as  to  make  its  existence  impos- 
sible. The  proposal  to  assign  her  only 
the  territory  she  now  occupies,  with  an 
outlet  through  Batum  made  a  free  port 
under  allied  control,  is  an  impossible  one. 
Even  if  Batum  be  kept  open  to  her,  Ar- 
menia cannot  exist  when  all  her  trans- 
port must  pass  through  an  independent 
or  Bolsheviki-controUed  Georgia.  A  direct 
outlet  of  her  own  on  at  least  the  Black 
Sea  is  indispensable  to  her  very  exist- 
ence. 

A  MANDATE 

That  Armenia  cannot  exist  without 
foreign  assistance  for  at  least  a  certain 
period  is  a  fact;  that  help  can  best  be 
given  her  by  a  mandatory  power  is  be- 
yond doubt;  but  that  a  nation  willing 
and  able  to  accept  the  mandate  can  be 
found  appears  unlikely.  Even  if  Ar- 
menia be  granted  her  own  direct  outlet 
she  must  remain  for  years  politically  and 
economically  in  close  interdependence 
with  the  other  Transcaucasian  Govern- 
ments, both  of  them  ill-disposed  toward 
her.  In  order  to  maintain  her  Govern- 
ment, to  repair  devastations,  construct 
indispensable  means  of  communication, 
and  exploit  her  resources,  she  must  have 
foreign  capital  and  guidance  until  she 
becomes  strong  enough  to  care  for  her- 
self. Without  foreign  support  she  can 
not  solve  her  political  problems  and  es- 
tablish civilized  relations  with  her  neigh- 
bors. Her  present  territory  is  too  small 
for  her  inhabitants  and  the  refugees,  yet 


512 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


she  cannot  send  one  of  them  across  her 
actual  borders  without  exposing  him  to 
certain  death  if  not  protected  by  armed 
force.  To  repatriate  her  refugees  and 
to  defend  herself  against  aggressions 
certain  to  occur,  no  matter  what  means 
short  of  armed  intervention  the  Allies 
may  take  to  prevent  them,  she  has  only  a 
brave  but  tiny,  underfed,  exhausted,  and 
almost  unarmed  army. 

Despite  the  keen  sympathy  Americans 
feel  for  Armenians,  it  would  be  an  act  of 
political  and  economic  folly  for  the 
United  States  to  accept  a  mandate  for 
Armenia  alone,  the  only  practical  man- 
date in  the  Near  East  being  one  for  the 
entire  Turkish  Empire  and  Transcau- 
casia. This  statement  accords  with  the 
views  of  high  American  officials  who 
know  the  situation  in  the  Ne^r  East, 
but  is  one  whose  proofs  are  too  lengthy 
to  be  be  given  in  a  brief  article.  ' 

If,  however,  we  can  not  or  will  not  ac- 
cept the  dangerous  and  costly  mandate 
for  Armenia,  the  efforts  of  eminent  and 
well-intentioned  persons  in  this  country 
to  force  the  burden  on  others  should 
cease.  The  only  two  countries  capable 
of  assuming  it.  Great  Britain  and 
France,  did,  and  suffered  far  more  than 


we  during  the  war,  and  in  addition  have 
already  assumed  vast  responsibilities  for 
the  protection  9nd  development  of  back- 
ward races,  which  tasks,  notwithstanding 
all  that  criticism  can  allege  against  them, 
they  have  in  the  past  fulfilled  and  are 
in  the  present  fulfilling  better  than  any 
other  nations  in  history. 

Should  the  Armenia  whose  indepen- 
dence has  been  lecognized,  but  whose  ter- 
ritory has  not  been  delimited,  be  obliged, 
as  now  seems  probable,  to  work  out  her 
own  salvation  without  the  help  of  a  man- 
datory power,  the  best  that  sympathetic 
Americans  can  do  is  to  continue  and  en- 
large the  present  admirable  work  of  the 
Near  East  Relief,  and  in  addition  or- 
ganize— if  possible  with  Government  ap- 
proval and  support — to  supply  Armenia 
with  arms,  munitions,  stores  of  every 
sort,  and  above  all  men  competent  to 
advise  the  directors  of  her  various  un- 
dertakings. Aside  from  the  immediate 
material  advantages  of  such  assistance, 
Armenia  would  be  greatly  benefited  by 
the  fact  that  her  enemies  would  realize 
she  had  the  moral  support  of  the  entire 
American  Nation,  whose  moral  prestige 
in  the  Near  East  is,  although  waning, 
still  potent. 


Great  Britain's  Share  in  the  Victory 

Revised  Official  Figures 


THE  British  Empire's  contribution  to 
the  victory  of  the  Allies  over  Ger- 
many is  embodied  in  the  following 
tables,  which  have  the  sanction  of  the 
British  War  Office,  and  which  are  more 
complete  than  any  previously  made  pub- 
lic. Pride  of  place,  so  far  as  man  power 
is  concerned,  belongs  to  France,  though 
the  actual  figures  of  the  strength  of  her 
armies  are  not  available  for  comparison. 
Great  Britain,  who,  between  Aug.  4, 1914, 
and  Nov.  11,  1918,  passed  more  than 
6,000,000  men  through  the  ranks  of  her 
armies,  occupies  the  second  place  in  re- 
spect of  the  contingents  contributed  for 
military  service.  The  third  largest  con- 
tribution was  made  by  the  United  States, 
who  sent  close  on  2,000,000  men  to  fight 
in  France. 


The  captures  of  enemy  prisoners  and 
guns  in  France  during  the  victorious  of- 
fensive against  the  German  Army  be- 
tween July  18  and  Nov.  11  were  as  fol- 
lows : 

COMPARISON    OF    CAPTURES 

Prisoners.  Guns. 

British   armies 200,000  2,540 

French   armies 13"), 720  1,880 

American    armies 43,300  1,421 

Belgian    armies 14,500  474 

Over  and  above  the  fighting  on  the 
western  front  80,000  British  troops 
helped  the  Italian  Army  in  the  final 
defeat  of  Austria,  capturing  30,000 
prisoners,  and  in  Palestine  and  Mesopo- 
tamia about  400,000  British  troops  fought 
throughout  1918,  where  they  achieved  the 
complete  defeat  of  the  Turkish  Army 
and  took  85,000  prisoners. 


GREAT  BRITAIN'S  SHARE  IN  THE  VICTORY 


513 


TOTAL  OF  BRITISH  TROOPS 

British  Isles  5,704,416 

Canada     640,886 

Australia   416,809 

New  Zealand 220.099 

South  Africa  136,070 

India  1,401,350 

Other  colonies*  134,837 

Total 8,654,467 

♦Includes  colored  troops  recruited  from 
South    Africa,    West    Indies,    &c. 

The  total  casualties  exceed  3,000,000, 
being  in  detail  as  follows : 

TOTAL  CASUALTIES 

Approx. 

Killed,  •Approx. 

Died  of  Missing 

Wounds,  and 

Died.  Prisoners.  Wounded. 

British    Isles. .  .662,083  140,312  1,644,786 

Canada   56,119  306  149.733 

Australia   58,460  164  152,100 

New  Zealand...  16,132  5  40,749 

South   Africa...     6,928  33  11,444 

India    47,746  871  65,126 

Other   coloniesf.     3,649  366  3,504 

Total 851.117         142,057         2,067,442 

♦Prisoners  repatriated  not  shown.  Men  now 
known  to  be  killed  shown  under  heading  of 
"  killed." 

flncludes  colored  troops  from  South  Africa, 
&c.,  but  excludes  44,262  African  native  fol- 
lowers—i.  e.,  died  and  killed,  42.318;  wounded, 
1,322;  missing.  622.  The  deaths  were  due 
mainly  to  epidemics. 

In  the  table  that  comes  next,  "  ration 
strength,"  comprises  the  total  number  of 
men  (excluding  colored  labor  and  prison- 
ers of  war)  who  were  being  fed  from 
army  stocks  in  France.  The  figures 
under  this  heading  include  thousands  of 
men  whose  duty  it  was,  not  to  fight,  but 
to  supply,  equip,  and  in  other  ways  assist 
the  fighting  men.  The  "  combatant 
strength "  includes  all  fighting  troops, 
together  with  the  troops  in  divisional  or 
base  depots,  while  the  "  rifle  strength  " 


is  that  of  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
infantry  battalions  alone. 


LORD  KII-CHENER 

The  vian  who  planned  the  first  British 

campaAgn   agavnst   Germany 

(©    Underwood   d    Underwood) 


BRITISH    ARMY    IN    FRANCE,    1918 

R  ition  Combatant  Rifle 

Strength.  Strength.  Strength. 

March  11 1.828,098  1,293.000  616,000 

April    1 1,667,701  1,131,124  528,617 

Sept.    23 1,752,829  1,200,181  493,306 

Nov.  11 1,731,578  1,164.790  461,748 

The  following  are  the  comparable 
figures  for  the  United  States  drawn  up 
from  official  sources: 

UNITED  STATES  ARMY  IN  FRANCE.  1918 

Ration  Combatant  Rifle 

Strength.  Strength.  Strength. 

March  11 245.000  123.000  49,000 

April    1 319.000  214,000  51.000 

Sept.    25 1,641.000  1,185.000  341.000 

Nov.   11 1,924,000  1,160.000  322,000 


Costs  of  the  World  War 

Direct  and  Indirect  Costs  of  European  Conflict  Reach  the 
Gigantic  Total  of  Almost   $338,000,000,000 


IN  a  long  and  detailed  analysis  of  the 
total  costs  of  the  war,  alike  direct 
and  indirect,  and  to  both  the  belliger- 
ent and  the  neutral  nations,  A.  H. 
McDannald,  managing  editor  of  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Americana,  contributes  to 
the  latest  edition  of  that  work  a  mass  of 
data  and  statistics  of  the  greatest  value 
in  estimating  the  gigantic  outlays  in 
money,  life  and  material  inflicted  upon 
the  civilized  world  by  Germany  and  her 
allies.* 

War  costs,  he  explains  at  the  outset, 
are  of  two  kinds — direct  and  indirect. 
Direct  costs  embrace  all  expenditures 
made  by  belligerents  in  carrying  out  hos- 
tilities; indirect  costs  include  the  eco- 
nomic losses  resulting  from  deaths  at- 
tributable directly  or  indirectly  to  the 
war,  the  value  of  property  damaged  or 
destroyed,  the  loss  in  production  growing 
out  of  the  transfer  of  men  from  civil 
to  military  pursuits,  expenditures  for 
war  relief  work,  the  costs  of  the  war  to 
neutral  nations,  and  the  like. 

The  direct  costs  of  the  World  War,  ac- 
cording to  the  latest  and  most  reliable 
statistics,  reached  the  stupendous  total 
of  $183,333,637,097.  The  estimates  of 
some  statisticians  are  even  higher.  One 
authority  has  estimated  that  the  seven 
major  belligerents  alone  spent  $194,000,- 
000,000.  Another,  Edgar  Crammond,  in 
an  address  before  the  Institute  of  Bank- 
ers in  London  on  March  26,  1919,  as- 
serted that  the  total  direct  costs  of  the 
war  amounted  to  $210,175,000,000.  The 
Secretary  of  War  for  the  United  States, 
Newton  D.  Baker,  has  placed  them  at 
$197,000,000,000. 

The  indirect  costs  of  the  war  are  ex- 
tremely hard  to  determine.     A  conserva- 


*  Most  of  these  figures  are  credited  in  the 
original  article  to  Professor  Ernest  L.  Bo- 
g-art of  the  University  of  Illinois,  or  to  his 
volume.  "  Direct  and  Indirect  Costs  of  the 
Great  World  War,"  published  by  the  Car- 
negie Endowment  for  International  Peace, 
'and  recognized  as  perhaps  the  most  authori- 
tative work  yet  issued  upon  the  subject. 


tive  estimate  reaches  the  total  of  $151,- 
646,942,560.  In  this  estimate  is  included 
a  capitalized  value  of  loss  of  life — allow- 
ing about  $3,000  as  the  economic  value  of 
each  person  that  perished — amounting  to 
a  total  of  $67,136,942,560. 

In  considering  the  direct  costs  one 
must  remember  that  the  war  was  fought 
mainly  on  credit.  At  the  average  daily 
cost  of  $123,000,000  for  the  first  three 
years  of  the  war  the  gold  coin  available 
at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  was  not  suf- 
ficient to  have  kept  it  going  for  more 
than  forty  or  fifty  days.  The  total 
amount  of  gold  coin  available  in  July, 
1914,  was  only  slightly  in  excess  of 
$4,750,000,000,  a  trifie  over  one-fiftieth 
of  the  sum  that  was  spent  for  war  pur- 
poses during  the  slightly  more  than  four 
years  of  fighting.  Excluding  the  tabu- 
lation presented  by  the  article  under 
analysis,  one  remarks  that  Great  Britain 
possessed  gold  reserves  amounting  only 
to  $190,000,000,  as  against  France,  $830,- 
000,000;  Russia,  $800,000,000;  Germany, 
$390,000,000,  and  the  United  States, 
$1,184,000,000.  These  figures  are  only 
approximate,  and  there  are  reasons  for 
thinking  that  the  gold  reserves  of  Eng- 
land, France  and  Germany  were  greater 
than  the  figures  stated.  Even  as  esti- 
mated, however,  they  show  clearly  that 
to  run  this  gigantic  and  widely  ramify- 
ing war  on  a  cash  basis  was  a  physical 
impossibility. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  carry  on  the 
conflict  from  year  to  year  all  the  bel- 
ligerents had  to  resort  to  credit,  includ- 
ing the  issuance  of  notes,  paper  money 
and  various  promises  to  pay.  Consider- 
able sums  were  raised  for  war  purposes 
in  some  of  the  countries  by  taxation,  but 
it  has  been  estimated  that  almost  nine- 
tenths  of  the  money  expended  was  raised 
by  loans,  that  is,  by  the  sale  of  Govern- 
ment notes,  bonds  and  other  evidences  of 
debt  upon  which,  in  certain  cases,  inter— 


COSTS  OF  THE  WORLD  WAR 


515 


I 


est  will  have  to  be  paid  for  more  than 
fifty  years. 

DIRECT  WAR  COSTS  FOR  THE  ALLIES 

Taking  up  the  direct  costs  of  the  war 
by  countries,  as  treated  in  the  Encyclo- 
paedia Americana  article,  one  must  re- 
member that  a  certain  proportion,  by  no 
means  inconsiderable,  consisted  of  ad- 
vances made  to  allies.  This  applies  to 
Germany  as  well  as  to  the  Entente  and 
the  United  States. 

UNITED  STATES— Although  the  last 
great  power  to  enter  the  conflict,  the  net 
war  expenditures  of  the  United  States 
amounted  to  $22,625,252,843.  This  was 
almost  twenty  times  the  pre-war  debt  of 
the  country  and  almost  enough  to  have 
paid  the  entire  expenses  of  the  Govern- 
ment from  1791  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
struggle.  It  represented  an  expenditure 
of  over  $1,000,000  an  hour  from  the  mo- 
ment America  became  a  belligerent  down 
to  April,  1919,  and  was  sufficient  to  have 
carried  on  the  Revolutionary  War  for  a 
thousand  years  at  the  rate  of  expendi- 
ture disbursed  during  that  conflict.  Eng- 
land, a  participant  from  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  spent  barely  $12,000,000,000 
more  than  America;  France  not  quite 
$2,000,000,000  more,  and  Russia  about 
$30,000,000  less.  Had  the  war  lasted 
another  year  the  expenditures  of  the 
United  States  would  thus  have  equaled 
those  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany. 
Even  as  it  was  our  gross  expenses,  in- 
cluding the  net  sum  and  advances  to  the 
Allies  amounting  to  $9,455,000,000,  to- 
taled $32,080,266,968,  exceeding  the  gross 
expenditures  of  France  by  about  $6,000,- 
000,000.  The  advances  of  the  United 
States  similarly  exceeded  the  advances 
of  Great  Britain  to  her  allies  by  about 
$1,000,000,000. 

About  two-thirds  of  the  gross  amount 
expended  by  America  was  raised  by 
loans;  the  remainder  by  taxation.  Few 
things  were  omitted  from  the  taxable 
list,  but  incomes  and  war  and  excess 
profits  were  made  to  carry  the  greater 
part  of  the  burden.  Up  to  May,  1919, 
five  Government  loans  were  issued.  The 
yield  from  these  and  from  War  Saving 
Certificates  reached  a  total  of  $22,478,- 
416,250. 


The  United  States  began  advancing 
money  to  the  Allies  soon  after  she  en- 
tered the  conflict.  The  largest  loans 
were  made  to  Great  Britain,  to  which  we 
advanced  $4,316,000,000.  To  France  we 
advanced  nearly  $3,000,000,000,  to  Italy 
about  $1,500,000,000.  Other  advances 
ranging  from  $187,000,000  to  $5,000,1)00 
were  to  Russia,  Belgium,  Serbia,  Czecho- 
slovakia, Greece,  Rumania,  Cuba  and 
Liberia. 

GREAT  BRITAIN— Among  the  En- 
tente Allies,  the  war  bill  of  Great  Britain 
was  the  heaviest.  Her  expenditures  to- 
taled $44,029,011,868,  but  from  this 
amount  should  be  deducted  advances  to 
co-belligerents  amounting  to  $8,695,000,- 
000,  leaving  $35,334,011,868  to  represent 
her  net  expenditures.  Increased  taxa- 
tion and  internal  and  foreign  loans  were 
resorted  to  to  cover  this  cost.  Over 
$2,000,000,000  were  lent  to  France,  Italy 
and  Russia,  respectively;  other  loans  to 
Belgium,  Serbia,  other  Allies  and  the  Do- 
minions brought  the  total  of  advances 
up  to  $4,493,813,072.  India's  expendi- 
tures included  a  gift  of  $500,000,000  to 
the  British  Government,  a  gift  from  the 
Maharajah  of  Nahba  of  $100,000,  an- 
other from  the  Gaikwar  of  Baroda  of 
$33,000  and  still  antoher  from  the 
Maharajah  of  Mysore  of  $330,000. 

FRANCE— A  report  made  to  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  in  February,  1919, 
fixes  the  expenditures  of  France  at  $36,- 
400,000,000.  Professor  Bogart  places 
that  at  $25,812,782,800,  less  advances  to 
allies  of  $1,547,200,000,  making  her  net 
expenditures  $24,265,582,800.  The  gross 
cost  of  the  war  to  France  is  estimated 
by  deducting  from  the  estimated  cost  of 
the  five  war  years — a  total  of  $30,879,- 
714,000 — the  normal  expense  for  five 
peace  years,  or  $5,066,931,200,  leaving  a 
net  balance  of  $25,812,782,800.  Deduct- 
ing again  $1,547,200,000  to  cover  ad- 
vances, a  net  expense  of  $24,265,582,800 
remains.  This  was  provided  from  va- 
rious sources;  four  national  loans 
brought  in  $11,012,200,000;  the  Banks  of 
France  and  Algeria  advanced  $3,430,- 
000,000;  Great  Britain  loaned  $2,170,- 
000,000,  and  the  United  States  $2,852,- 
000.000. 

RUSSIA — Russia     virtually     dropped 


516 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


out  of  the  war  in  September,  1917, 
when  the  new  provisional  Government 
was  ousted  by  the  Bolsheviki.  Up  to  that 
time  the  country's  war  expenditures  to- 
taled $22,593,950,000.  The  usual  methods 
were  employed  to  cover  this  cost,  and,  in 
addition,  enormous  issues  of  paper  money 
were  made.  Seven  internal  loans  brought 
in  $6,176,000,000;  $2,840,000,000  was 
borrowed  from  Great  Britain;  $187,000,- 
000  from  the  United  States;  $333,000,000 
from  Japan. 

ITALY— The  direct  cost  of  the  war  to 
Italy  was  $12,413,998,000.  Of  this  sum 
$607,840,000  represents  her  expenditures 
for  mobilization  and  other  military  ex- 
penses between  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
and  May  24,  1915,  the  day  she  became  a 
belligerent.  Five  internal  loans  yielded 
$3,053,700,000;  large  sums  were  bor- 
rowed from  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States. 

BELGIUM— Great  difficulties  have 
been  encountered  by  statisticians  in  their 
attempts  to  estimate  the  direct  cost  of 
the  war  to  Belgium.  With  most  of  her 
territory  under  hostile  control,  she  was 
not  in  a  position  either  to  raise  rev- 
enues or  to  issue  loans.  Accepting  her 
borrowings  as  a  gauge  of  her  expendi- 
tures, an  amount  somewhat  over  $1,- 
000,000,000  would  cover  her  costs.  Eng- 
land loaned  $435,000,000;  France,  $434,- 
125,000;  the  United  States,  $341,000,000. 
On  March  21,  1919,  the  Belgium  Min- 
ister of  Finance  asserted  that  Germany 
owed  Belgium  $1,930,000,000  for  cash 
requisitioned  during  the  occupation;  but 
as  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  provides  that 
Germany  must  restore  the  amounts  com- 
mandeered, these  sums  have  not  been  in- 
cluded in  Belgium's  war  costs. 

OTHER  ENTENTE  ALLIES— The 
war  expenditures  of  all  the  other  En- 
tente allies,  taken  together,  amounted  to 
$2,809,400,000,  distributed  as  follows: 
Rumania,  $1,600,000,000;  Japan,  $40,- 
000,000;  Serbia,  $399,400,000;  Greece, 
$270,000,000;  Brazil,  China,  Cuba,  Guate- 
mala, Haiti,  Honduras,  Liberia,  Monte- 
negro, Nicaragua,  Panama,  Portugal, 
San  Marino  and  Siam,  an  aggregate  of 
$500,000,000. 

GERMAY'S    DIRECT    COSTS 

Whether  or  not  Germany  was  primar- 
ily responsible  for  starting  the  war,  one 


cannot  survey  her  pre-war  plans  without 
reaching  the  conclusion  that  her  states- 
men considered  war  inevitable,  and  were 
preparing  for  it  financially  as  well  as 
militarily.  As  far  back  as  the  days  of 
Frederick  the  Great  a  fund  known  as  the 
"  War  Chest "  was  created.  Into  this 
was  placed  $30,000,000  from  the  indem- 
nity forced  from  France  at  the  close  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  war.  In  July,  1914, 
the  funds  in  the  "War  Chest"  totaled 
$51,000,000.  In  1913,  after  France 
adopted  compulsory  military  service, 
Gei-many  enacted  legislation  to  raise 
$250,000,000  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
her  own  enlarged  army.  Soon  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  many  financial 
measures  were  enacted  by  Germany  that 
undoubtedly  had  been  prepared  in  ad- 
vance to  meet  just  such  a  contingency. 
Her  gross  war  expenses  have  been  placed 
at  $40,150,000,000  by  her  Minister  of 
Finance.  Advances  to  cobelligerents  to- 
taled $2,375,000,000,  leaving  her  net  war 
costs  $37,775,000,000.  To  cover  this 
cost  she  resorted  at  first  to  war  loans, 
nine  of  which  were  floated,  yielding  in 
all  $24,640,419,925.  Before  the  end  of  the 
war,  however,  she  was  driven  to  taxa- 
tion of  everything  taxable 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— The  war  cost 
Austria-Hungary  $20,622,960,000,  all  of 
which  she  was  forced  to  borrow,  as  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  found  her  in  a 
very  bad  financial  condition.  Her  debt 
in  1914  was  burdensome,  her  credit  im- 
paired. This  was  due  to  the  large  sums 
of  money  borrowed  in  the  preceding 
decade  to  increase  her  armaments.  War 
loans  yielded  $6,957,914,200  in  Austria 
proper;  $3,665,546,400  in  Hungary.  Bank 
advances  and  foreign  loans  brought  in 
more  than  $20,000,000,000  for  both  coun- 
tries. 

TURKEY  AND  BULGARIA— The  war 
is  said  to  have  cost  Turkey  $1,430,000,- 
000.  Bulgaria  spent  $815,200,000.  Both 
countries  were  in  financial  straits  at  the 
close  of  the  war. 

INDIRECT  WAR  COSTS  FOR  BOTH 
SIDES 
The  most  formidable  and  tragic  item 
of  indirect  costs  of  the  war  is  that  re- 
cording the  loss  in  human  life.  Pro- 
fessor Bogart  says:  "  The  loss  of  human 


COSTS  OF  THE  WORLD  WAR 


517 


life  and  the  race  deterioration  result- 
ing from  war  are  the  most  appalling 
and  pei-manent  costs  of  the  war,  for  they 
affect  not  only  the  present,  but  are 
traceable  through  future  generations." 
Official  and  semi-official  reports  of  both 
main  and  minor  belligerc---^s  prove  that 
9,998,771  men  of  all  nations  made  the 
supreme  sacrifice.  The  death  toll  of  all 
the  wars  fought  during  the  preceding  125 
years,  beginning  with  the  Napoleonic 
war  of  1790  and  ending  with  the  Balkan 
war  of  1912-13,  was  only  about  one-half 
as  great.  The  percentage  of  dead  esti- 
mated by  various  statisticians  from  the 
"  prisoners  or  missing "  list  of  the 
World  War  would  bring  the  tragic  fig- 
ure up  to  12,990,570. 

Before  one  can  recover  from  the  shock 
occasioned  by  the  contemplation  of  so 
many  deaths  among  the  very  flower  of 
the  world's  manhood,  one  learns  that  to 
the  deaths  of  soldiers  must  be  added 
10,000,000  more  to  cover  fatalities  among 
civilians  resulting  from  causes  directly 
or  indirectly  attributable  to  the  war. 
Famine  and  cold  took  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  civilian  lives;  Spanish  influenza, 
attributed  directly  to  the  war,  caused 
6,000,000  deaths.  More  than  4,000,000 
Armenians,  Syrians,  Jews  and  Greeks 
were  massacred  while  the  war  raged. 
One-third  of  the  civilian  population  of 
Poland  was  wiped  out;  2,000,000  Russian 
noncombatants  perished;  Rumanian 
deaths  numbered  800,000;  Gei-many  lost 
800,000  civilians;  Austria  and  Serbia 
nearly  1,000,000.  The  death  rate  in  the 
occupied  territory  of  France  rose  tre- 
mendously, while  in  Belgium,  which  Ger- 
many hoped  to  possess,  it  was  not  so 
pronounced.  Approximately  100,000 
fishermen  and  sailors  lost  their  lives  in 
mined  waters  or  from  causes  due  directly 
to  the  war. 

Accepting  the  social  value  of  each  in- 
dividual in  the  various  countries  at  sums 
ranging  from  $4,000  to  $2,000,  the  capital- 


ized value  lost  is  estimated  at  over  $67,- 
000,000,000. 

To  these  indirect  costs  must  be  added 
the  estimated  loss  of  property*  on  land 
and  sea,  the  estimated  loss  in  production, 
the  enormous  sums  spent  by  all  the 
countries  for  war  relief,  and  the  offici- 
ally reported  loss  to  neutrals.  This  last 
item  covers  $672,000,000  for  Holland, 
$250,000,000  for  Switzerland,  $429,800,- 
000  for  Sweden,  $130,000,000  for  Nor- 
way, $90,000,000  for  Denmark  and  $178,- 
200,000  for  other  countries. 

TOTAL   COST   OF   THE   WAR 

Combining  all  results  of  these  calcula- 
tions, the  total  cost  of  the  World  War, 
both  direct  and  indirect,  for  the  Allies 
and  the  Central  Powers,  as  well  as  the 
neutral  nations,  would  stand  as  shown 
in  the  following  tabulation: 

Direct    costs $186,333,637,097 

Indirect  costs: 
Value  of  human  lives  lost: 

Soldiers    $33,568,471,280 

Civilians 33,568,471,280 

Value  of  property  lost: 

On  land   29,960,000,000 

On  sea   6,800,000.000 

Loss   in   productiont 45,000,000,000 

War  reliefl:   1,000,000,000 

Loss    to    neutrals 1,750,000,000 

Total    $151,646,942,560 

Grand  total   ' $337,980,579,657 


♦The  property  losses  in  Belgium  totaled 
$7,000,000,000;  in  France,  $10,000,000,000;  in 
Italy,  nearly  $3,000,000,000;  in  Serbia,  Al- 
bania and  Montenegro,  $2,000,000,000;  Russia, 
Poland.  East  Prussia,  Austria  and  the 
Ukraine,  Rumania,  the  British  Empire  and 
Germany  all  lost  values  ranging  from  one 
to  two  million  dollars.  Great  Britain  lost 
7,756,659  tons  of  shipping,  Norway  nearly 
2,000.000,  both  Italy  and  France  nearly 
900,000,  other  belligerent  and  neutral  coun- 
tries considerably  less. 

fProfessor  Bogart  estimates  that  an  aver-i 
age  of  20,000,000  men  served  in  the  armed 
forces  during  eacn  of  the  four  and  a  half 
years  of  war.  The  total  loss  in  production 
he  bases  on  an  average  earning  capacity 
of  $500  a  year. 

^Statistics  for  war  relief  are  available  only 
for  the  English-speaking  countries. 


Japan's  Naval  Effort 

How  Her  Fleet  Aided  the  Allies  in  the  Pacific  and  Mediterra- 
nean— Her  Newly  Acquired  Islands 


JAPAN  declared  war  on  Germany  in 
co-operation  with  the  Allies  on 
Aug.  23,  1914.  "From  that  day 
to  this,"  says  Captain  Hitaka  of 
the  Japanese  Navy,  in  a  semi-official 
article  in  the  Japan  magazine  of  Tokio, 
"  the  Imperial  Government  never  failed 
to  guide  its  action  according  to  the  war 
situation  and  the  tactics  of  the  Allies." 
When  the  war  broke  out,  Captain 
Hitaka  explains,  the  exact  position  of 
the  enemy's  fleet  was  not  known,  but  it 
was  soon  ascertained  that  the  main  squad- 
roh  on  the  Pacific  was  in  the  South 
Seas,  and  the  rest  of  the  ships  in  Oriental 
waters  were  in  Tsing-tao.  The  Japa- 
nese objective  assumed  therefore  a  dual 
character,  to  destroy  the  German  fleet 
in  the  Pacific  and  to  attack  the  German 
naval  base  at  Tsing-tao.  Combined  with 
this,  of  course,  was  the  further  plan  of 
seizure  of  the  enemy  base  of  operations 
in  the  South  Seas,  in  order  to  insure  pro- 
tection of  allied  trade. 

To  secure  these  objects  the  Japanese 
fleet  was  first  separated  into  detach- 
ments to  hunt  down  the  German  ships 
in  the  Pacific.  One  of  these  divisions 
remained  about  Tsing-tao  and  in  adjacent 
waters;  another  steamed  to  the  South 
Seas,  while  still  another  detachment  pro- 
ceeded toward  South  America  to  track 
down  German  ships  in  this  direction. 

Tsing-tao  fell  to  the  British  and 
Japanese  in  November,  1914.  The  German 
fleet  in  the  South  Seas,  furthermore, 
was  destroyed  by  the  British  Navy. 
Thus  all  German  ships  were  swept  from 
both  the  Pacific  and  the  Indian  Oceans. 
The  only  enemy  ships  remaining  in  the 
Far  East  were  those  that  had  escaped 
into  neutral  ports,  and  these  had  been 
interned. 

In  these  changed  circumstances  the 
Japanese  fleet  adopted  a  new  formation 
and  set  itself  to  guarding  the  coasts  of 
Japan  herself,  and  of  the  territory  of 
the    Allies,    extending    its    cruises    also 


in  the  South  Seas,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and 
along  the  coasts  of  Russia.  It  took  an 
important  part  in  convoying  the  Austra- 
lian and  New  Zealand  troops  to  Europe. 
On  invitation  of  the  British  Government, 
it  sent  in  1916  a  force  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean to  protect  transports  and  other  ships 
from  submarines.  It  also  patrolled  the 
waters  between  North  India  and  the  east 
coast  of  Africa,  as  well  as  the  south 
coast  of  Australia. 

Part  of  the  Japanese  fleet  was  sent 
into  Siberian  waters  when  the  Russian 
revolution  spread  to  the  Far  East  in 
1917;  and  when  the  Allies  sent  forces  to 
aid  the  Czech  troops  isolated  in  East 
Russia,  after  German  and  Austrian  in- 
fluences had  begun  to  penetrate  there, 
the  expedition  was  supported  by  the 
Japanese  fleet. 

THE   DETAILED   STORY 

The  interesting  story  of  Japan's  naval 
co-operation  with  the  Allies  is  summar- 
ized by  Captain  Hitaka  from  official 
records.  When  the  war  began,  he  says, 
though  some  of  the  enemy's  Pacific  fleet 
was  in  the  South  Seas,  other  ships  were 
at  Tsing-tao,  and  some  of  these  escaped 
into  the  Pacific  before  Japan  declared 
war  on  Germany,  and  were  seen  off  the 
coast  of  Hawaii  and  along  the  coast  of 
North  America.  The  great  battle  cruiser 
Kongo  was  dispatched  in  pursuit  of  the 
enemy  ships  in  the  Pacific;  and  two 
squadrons  were  dispatched  to  the  South 
Seas,  the  one  to  secure  the  enemy  base  of 
operations,  the  other  to  keep  open  the 
route  of  communications.  The  German 
colonies  in  the  Marshall  Islands  surren- 
dered to  Japan  in  due  course,  while  her 
ships  patrolled  all  the  adjoining  waters 
among  the  islands  everywhere.  The 
enemy's  base  of  operations  thus  having 
been  captured,  the  German  ships  were 
obliged  to  gather  along  the  coasts  of 
South  America.  Thus  did  the  Japanese 
navy  do   something  to  drive  the  enemy 


JAPAN'S  NAVAL  EFFORT 


CHART  SHOWING  MAIN  LINES  OP  JAPAN'S  NAVAL,  OPERATIONS   DURING  THE   WAR.     THE 

BLACKEST.  LINES    INDICATE    THE   ROUTES   TRAVERSED    MOST    FREQUENTLY,    OR   BY   THE 

LARGEST    NUMBER    OF    WAR    SHIPS 


fleet  into  the  hands  of  the  British  fleet, 
which  destroyed  it  off  the  Falkland 
Islands.  The  Hizen  and  the  Asama  were 
sent  to  join  the  Izumo  off  the  coast  of 
Mexico  to  co-operate  with  the  British 
squadron  in  that  direction.  At  this  time 
the  German  cruiser  Geier  appeared  off 
Honolulu,  and  was  obliged  to  take  refuge 
with  an  attendant  ship  in  the  harbor 
there,  owing  to  the  presence  of  the  Hizen 
and  Asama  outside,  and  so  the  enemy- 
was  interned  by  the  American  authori- 
ties. 

Thus  was  the  North  Pacific  made 
secure  for  allied  troops.  But  the  South 
Pacific  was  still  menaced.  On  learning 
that  a  small  detachment  of  the  British 
fleet  had  been  defeated  off  the  coast 
of  Chile,  the  Japanese  fleet  in  the  South 
Seas  steamed  in  that  direction,  while  the 
American  coast  squadron  went  forth  with 
British  ships  on  a  search  for  the  enemy 
along  the  west  coast  of  Central  America. 
Thus  the  German  ships  were  forced 
southward,  and  the  combined  action  of 
the  three  fleets  drove  the  Germans  into  , 
action  with  Vice  Admiral  Sturdee  off  the 
Falkland  Islands.  In  this  action  the 
main  force  of  the  enemy  was  destroyed, 
only  two  cruisers,  the  Dresden  and  the 
Prince  Eitel  Friedrich,  escaped,  and  were 
lost  trace  of  for  a  time.  Another  Ger- 
man ship  that  had  been  hiding  among  the 
islands  of  the  Caroline  group,  feeling 
itself  in  danger,  fled  to  Guam,  where  it 
was  interned. 

The    Chitose    and    Tokiwa    were    dis- 
patched to  the  west  coast  of  North  Amer- 


ica in  February,  1915,  to  hunt  down  re- 
ported German  ships,  especially  the 
Dresden  and  the  Eitel  Friedrich.  The 
latter  ship  ran  into  Newport  News  and 
was  interned.  The  former  was  tor- 
pedoed by  a  British  cruiser  off  the  coast 
of  Chile  in  March.  On  hearing  of  this 
the  Tokiwa  returned  and  left  the  Chitose 
to  patrol  the  coast  of  North  America. 

After  America's  entry  into  the  war  in 
1917,  the  Japanese  and  American  fleets 
co-operated  to  protect  allied  interests  in 
the  Pacific.  Japanese  cadet  training 
ships  shared  the  task  of  guarding  and 
patrolling  the  American  coasts  at  this 
tiriie.  In  the  transportation  of  British 
gold  from  Russia  to  Canada  the  Japa- 
nese fleet  did  valuable  service;  a  total  of 
about  £50,000,000  was  taken  across  these 
waters  by  Japanese  ships. 

IN   SOUTHERN   WATERS 

After  the  declaration  of  war  Japan 
sent  three  cruisers,  the  Ibuki,  Tsukuba, 
and  Nisshin,  to  the  Indian  Ocean  to  pro- 
tect British  and  allied  trade  along  the 
coasts  of  South  China  and  India  from 
German  ships  escaped  from  Tsing-tao. 
The  German  sea-rover  Emden  was  doing 
much  damage  in  these  waters.  Mean- 
while the  Ibuki  engaged  in  convoying 
Australian  troop  transports  to  Aden. 
"  It  was  rather  a  risky  task  for  one 
Japanese  cruiser  to  convoy  thirty-eight 
big  transports  full  of  soldiers,"  says 
Captain  Hitaka,  "but  the  Ibuki  was 
equal  to  it,  and  she  received  high  praise 
from  the  British  authorities." 


520 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


As  the  Emden's  raids  grew  bolder,  the 
Tokiwa  and  Yakumo  were  sent  after 
her,  but  before  they  could  reach  her  she 
was  destroyed  by  the  British  ship  Syd- 
ney, off  the  Cocos  Islands.  Eelieved  of 
this  menace,  the  British  organized  three 
squadrons  for  the  protection  of  the 
Egyptian  route,  and  the  Japanese 
cruisers  went  elsewhere. 

From  December,  1914,  the  Japanese 
fleet  undertook  the  entire  guardianship 
of  Oriental  waters,  her  ships  constantly 


PREMIER    HARA    OF    JAPAN 

Who   recently    dissolved    the    Diet    in   his 

attempt    to    defeat    universal   suffrage 

(Wide    World   Photos) 


patrolling  the  China  Sea,  the  Sea  of 
Solu,  and  around  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
keeping  open  the  course  of  trade.  The 
Philippines  were  also  included  in  this 
incessant  patrol.  A  riot  in  Singapore  in 
February,  1915,  was  put  down  by  Japa- 
nese marines.  A  dangerous  menace  from 
an  enemy  converted  cruiser  off  the  coast 
of  South  Africa  was  eliminated  by  the 
raider's  destruction  by  a  mine.  All  these 
things  go  to  prove  how  necessary  it  was 
to  guard  the  seas,  and  how  the  Japanese 
Navy  earnestly  and  efficiently  partici- 
pated with  the  British  fleet  in  driving 
the  enemy  away,  says  this  writer.  The 
entire  Pacific  was  well  patrolled  by  the 
Japanese  fleet  during  all  the  danger 
periods  of  the  war. 

IN   THE   MEDITERRANEAN 

The  Japanese  naval  service  in  the 
Mediterranean  is  described  by  Captain 
Hitaka  as  follows: 

In  February,  1917,  the  British  authori- 
ties asked  Japan  to  talce  part  in  guard- 
ing the  sea  traffic  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  a  special  service  squadron  comprising 
the  Akashi  and  two  destroyer  flotillas 
was  dispatched  to  Europe,  where,  with 
a  base  at  Malta,  it  co-operated  with  great 
effect  in  protecting  allied  transports  and 
trade  ships  from  enemy  submarines.  At 
this  period  of  the  operations  British  ships 
were  under  Japanese  management  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  request  of  the  British 
Admiralty.  A  second  Japanese  squadron 
was  intrusted  with  patrol  of  the  waters 
between  Gibraltar  and  Port  Said,  extend- 
ing the  service  also  to  the  ports  of  France 
and  Italy.  A  good  part  of  this  time  the 
Japanese  Navy  had  most  of  the  work  on 
the  Mediterranean  to  itself,  and  many 
allied  transports  were  convoyed  with  safe- 
ty. In  fact  the  number  of  times  transports 
were  convoyed  was  300  and  thie  number 
of  dangerous  miles  traversed  in  this  duty 
was  about  210,000,  the  number  of  ships 
under  convoy  totalling  680. 

Enemy  submarines  were  so  active  in 
these  waters  that  there  were  many  op- 
portunities for  battle  with  them,  and  in 
nearly  all  these  battles  Japanese  destroy- 
ers gave  the  enemy  the  worst  of  it.  The 
only  destroyer  lost  was  the  S'akaki,  which, 
with  her  brave  Captain,  went  down  by  a 
mine  explosion.  The  activities  of  the 
Japanese  fleet  on  the  Mediterranean  were 
the  admiration  of  the  Allies  for  skill  and 
efficiency   in  dealing  with  the  enemy. 

MUNITIONS   SUPPLIED 

While  the  ships  of  the  imperial  navy 
were  assisting  the  Allies  as  above  out- 


JAPAN'S  NAVAL  EFFORT 


521 


lined,  the  naval  arsenals  in  Japan  were 
busy  turning  out  munitions  and  weapons 
for  the  Allies,  the  quantity  of  guns  and 
ammunition  supplied  for  Great  Britain 
totaling  27,600,000  yen  in  value,  while 
twelve  destroyers  were  built  for  France 
and  other  munitions  totaling  6,500,000 
yen  were  sent  to  that  country.  To  Rus- 
sia Japan  returned  the  warships  Tango, 
Sagami,  and  Soya  taken  from  that  coun- 
try during  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  and 
supplied  munitions  to  the  value  of  27,- 
500,000  yen.  These  figures  include  only 
what  the  navy  alone  supplied  to  the 
Allies  during  the  war,  and  not  what 
Japan  did  outside  of  the  naval  depart- 
ment. 

If,  in  all  her  numerous  operations  on 
behalf  of  the  Allies  [says  Captain 
Hitaka],  Japan  did  not  have  the  honor  of 
doing  any  very  great  exploits,  it  was 
due  to  her  geographical  position  rather 
than  to  her  want  of  willingness  or  any 
other  reason.  The  point  is  that  the 
Japanese  Navy  did  all  it  was  expected  to 
do,  and  would  have  done  more  "had  it 
been  possible.  *  *  *  Japan  relieved  the 
Allies  of  all  anxiety  for  their  Pacific  sea 
routes  and  left  them  free  to  carry  on  tihe 
war    in    Europe. 

JAPAN'S    SEA    BARRIER 

The  predominating  position  won  by 
Japan  in  the  Pacific,  with  her  possession 
of  the  islands  that  fell  to  her  with  the 


destruction  of  the .  German  power,  has 
assumed  great  importance  in  connection 
with  the  problem  of  checking  the  tide  of 
Bolshevism  in  the  East.  The  great  altera- 
tion in  the  Russian  situation  brought  by 
the  collapse  of  the  anti-Bolshevist 
armies,  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Red 
armed  menace  toward  Persia,  India, 
China,  and  Japan  herself,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  American  forces  from  Siberia, 
have  brought  the  defensive  and  offensive 
potentialities  of  the  Japanese  Navy  again 
to  the  fore.  Japan's  control  over  the 
portant  bearing  on  the  situation. 

The  Pacific  islands  north  of  the 
equator,  won  by  Japan  at  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, constitute  a  natural  barrier 
which  starts  with  the  Kuriles  near 
Kamchatka  and  ends  with  Japan  herself 
at  the  Island  of  Formosa.  This  chain 
runs  via  Bonin,  the  Ladrones,  Mariana, 
and  Carolina  Islands,  east  of  the  Philip- 
pines to  Micronesia.  It  is  stated  that 
Japan  is  making  an  intensive  study  of 
the  possible  use  of  submarines  based  on 
this  long  chain  of  islands,  is  training 
submarine  officers,  and  making  a  special 
study  of  the  operations  of  German  sub- 
marines in  the  World  War.  These  newly 
acquired  islands,  with  those  which  were 
previously  owned  by  Japan,  are  regarded 
as  giving  that  nation  immunity  from 
naval  coercion  by  any  foreign  power. 


Japanese  Emigration 


IN  pre-war  times,  says  the  Japanese 
Chronicle,  the  Japanese  emigrants 
to  South  America  numbered  from  1,500 
to  2,000  on  each  steamer.  The  industrial 
boom  during  and  after  the  war,  how- 
ever, lessened  the  number  of  these  emi- 
grants, so  that  at  the  end  of  1919  the 
South  American  steamers  were  carrying 
only  from  150  to  200  on  each  trip.  A 
steamer  of  the  Osaka  Shoshen  Kaisha 
Line  took  only  one  solitary  emigrant 
from  Kobe  to  South  America  on  March 
21  of  the  present  year.  It  is  now  an- 
ticipated that  the  Japanese  shipping 
agencies  may  give  up  completely  further 
transportation  of  South  American  emi- 
grants.    One  contributing  cause  of  this 


transformation  may  be  found  in  the  re- 
cent revision  of  the  Japanese  immigrant 
regulations  made  by  the  Argentine  Gov- 
ernment. Formerly  any  one  not  ob- 
viously a  pauper  was  allowed  to  enter, 
but  under  the  new  ruling  the  regulation 
calling  for  proper  certificates  is  applied 
with  much  greater  strictness. 

By  an  official  ruling  in  February  no 
Japanese  women-emigrants  are  now  al- 
lowed to  leave  for  America  as  picture 
brides.  Out  of  3,239  emigrants  in  1919 
there  were  485  picture  brides.  The  sys- 
tem was  officially  abandoned  for  reasons 
of  political  expediency  and  not  from  any 
consideration  of  the  happiness  or  un- 
happiness  of  such  unions. 


Russia's   Part   in  the   Allied   Victory 

Official  Account  of  the  Vast  Sacrifices  of  Life 
on  the  Eastern  Fronts  Which  Aided  the  Allies 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Colonel  A.  Nikolaieff,  Military  Attache  to  the  Russian 
Embassy  at  Washington,  Current  History  has  received  the  official  report  (first 
part)  issued  in  Paris  in  1919  from  the  headquarters  of  the  military  representative 
of  the  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Russian  Army.  Under  the  title,  "  Russia  in  the 
War:  1914-1918,"  this  report  narrates  briefly,  from  official  documents,  the  various 
catnpaigns  waged  by  Russia  on  all  her  fighting  fronts,  and  shows  how  powerfully 
the  continuous  menace  of  the  Russian  arms  affected  the  ultimate  decision  on  the 
western  front.  In  the  following  pages  are  given,  in  condensed  form,  the  essential 
portions  of  this  report. 


A  WAR  unprecedented  in  the  his- 
tory of  humanity  for  its  blood- 
shed and  for  the  energies  which 
it  forced  into  war  activities  has 
ended  in  the  victory  of  those  with  whom 
Russia  entered  it  as  an  ally.  But  there 
was  no  place  for  Russia  at  the  rejoicings 
of  victory.  She  had  left  the  ranks  be- 
fore the  final  triumph,  and  while  the  al- 
lied flags  float  proudly  and  joyously  in 
the  air,  Russia  herself  is  bleeding  to 
death,  ravaged  by  mortal  illness.  The 
sacrifices  offered  up  by  Russia,  how- 
ever, during  her  three  and  a  half  years 
of  incessant  combat  were  not  in  vain. 
Among  the  factors  which  brought  vic- 
tory to  the  Allies,  they  hold  a  place  of 
honor.  The  record  of  Russia's  cam- 
paigns, year  by  year,  shows  the  part  she 
played  in  the  common  struggle  for  truth 
and  right,  the  powerful  infuence  of  her 
military  efforts  on  the  final  decision. 
The  official  account  of  these  campaigns 
may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

1914 

In  directing  the  majority  of  her  mo- 
bilized divisions  to  the  western  front, 
Germany's  aim  was  to  deal  a  crushing 
blow  to  France  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  war.  The  force  of  this  blow  was 
somewhat  weakened  by  the  heroic  resis- 
tance of  Belgium.  The  task  of  weaken- 
ing it  still  further,  and  of  preventing 
Germany  from  bringing  her  forces  on 
the  French  front  to  an  overwhelming 
numerical  superiority,  was  undertaken 
by  Russia,  and  fulfilled  with  courageous 
stubbornness. 

Our  invasion  of  East  Prussia  and  the 


results  of  the  first  series  of  battles  with 
the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  forced  the 
German  High  Command  to  turn  its 
eyes  anxiously  to  their  eastern  frontiers. 
The  advance  of  our  First  and  Second 
Armies  in  East  Prussia  was  a  matter  of 
pure  self-sacrifice.  It  was  not  necessi- 
tated by  the  events  on  our  front,  and 
was  undertaken  only  on  pressing  appeals 
for  help  from  France.  Insufficiently  or- 
ganized and  prematurely  launched,  this 
invasion  of  the  enemy's  territory  ended 
in  disater  for  our  Second  Army.  But 
its  effect  had  been  to  force  the  Germans 
to  withdraw  several  army  corps  from 
France,  thus  enabling  the  Allies  to  wage 
the  battle  of  the  Marne  in  much  better 
conditions   of   relative  strength. 

The  events  on  the  Austro-Hungarian 
front  caused  Germany  much  greater 
anxiety.  They  had  taken  such  a  menac- 
ing turn  for  our  foe  that  the  German 
High  Command  was  forced  to  prepare 
decisive  measures  to  save  her  ally. 
These  measures  comprised  the  reinforce- 
ment of  the  eastern  front  with  masses 
of  German  troops  originally  assigned 
for  the  crushing  of  France.  The  inter- 
play of  strategy  developed  by  the  en- 
suing operations  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows : 

1.  August  and  September :  An  invasion 
of  Russian  Poland  by  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian armies  was  beaten  off  by  forty 
days'  fighting.  The  Austrian  retreat  was 
changed  to  a  rout  by  Russian  pursuit 
and  by  the  menace  of  the  armies  of 
Brusilqff  and  Russky  i-dvancing  from  the 
Kiev  zone.  Galicia  and  its  capital,  Lvov, 
were  captured  with  great  war  booty. 
This  position  of  the  Austrian  armies  was 
critical  toward   the  end  of  September. 


RUSSIA'S  PART  IN  THE  ALLIED   VICTORY 


523 


2.  The  menace  to  Germany  of  Austria's 
capitulation  led  her  to  withdraw  eighteen 
divisions  from  the  French  front  just  at 
a  time  when  she  was  preparing  to  throw 
into  the  balance  on  the  western  front 
eight  divisions  liberated  by  the  Belgian 
retreat  on  the  Yser,  supported  by  twelve 
new  divisions  formed  in  the  interior  of 
Germany.  At  this  time  the  well-known 
"  race  to  the  sea  "  was  developing  and 
the   battle   of  the   Tser   beginning. 

3.  These  new  divisions,  combined  with 
Austro-Hungarians,  began  a  councerad- 
vance  in  Galicia  and  Russian  Poland. 
This  offensive  led  to  the  Transvistula 
battle,  which  lasted  from  October,  1914, 
to  January,  1915.  The  German  operations 
ended  In  failure :  the  Austrians  suffered  a 
severe  defeat  on  the  San  and  fell  back  on 
Cracow,   losing  thousands   of  prisoners. 

4.  A  new  German  offensive  on  Warsaw 
was  met  by  a  Russian  counteroffensive 
in  the  Lodz  region ;  the  German  troops 
barely  escaped  disaster.  By  the  end  of 
November  Austria  suffered  a  third  seri- 
ous defeat.  Diversive  attacks  on  War- 
saw by  Germany  lasted  through  the 
whole  of  December,  1914,  and  part  of 
January,  1915.  The  Russians  lost  Lodz 
and  other  points,  but  they  had  check- 
mated Germany  in  all  her  attempts  to 
save  Austria  from  disaster,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  that  country  remained  critical. 
The  whole  condition  of  the  Russian  front 
had  compelled  Germany  to  increase  her 
forces  in  the  east,  making  it  impossible 
for  her  to  force  a  decision  in  the  west. 

1915 

Russia's  disastrous  defeats  in  the 
campaigns  of  1915  are  explained  as  fol- 
lows: Since  August,  1914,  Russia  had 
been  in  continuous  heavy  fighting  with 
almost  the  whole  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian,  an  ever-increasing  part  of  the 
German,  and  an  important  part  of  the 
Turkish  forces.  Being  totally  unpre- 
pared for  such  a  long  military  strain, 
she  entered  on  the  fighting  of  1915  with 
hardly  any  ammunition  and  with  a  loss 
of  75  per  cent,  in  her  infantry.  The 
ammunition  and  artillery  problems  were 
serious.  By  the  end  of  1914  countless 
battles  in  Galicia,  East  Prussia,  Poland 
and  the  Caucasus  had  emptied  her  small 
reserves  of  shells  and  transformed  the 
greater  part  of  her  artillery  into  use- 
less baggage.  The  material  help  which 
her  allies  gave  her  in  1915  was  so  in- 
significant that  it  could  not  better  her 
position  to  any  appreciable  degree.  She 
did  not  even  receive  the  little  she  had 
counted  on.     Out  of  the  1,400,000  shells 


she  was  to  have  received  from  France, 
only  the  negligible  number  of  57,000 
light  shells  was  ready  for  shipment  to 
Russia  by  the  end  of  August,  1915.  In 
these   circumstances   Russia  was   bound 


3y/o  Zbyo  lb.5Jo ^.5%  zo/o    ZJo    27o     1.5% 
PER  CENT  OF  TOTAL  ML  I  ED  L05SE5 

FIGURES        INDICATE        APPROXIMATELY 

EACH     NATION'S     TOTAL    OF     KILLED     IN 

THE       WAR,       WITH       PERCENTAGE       OF 

GRAND     TOTAL 


524 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  fight  a  losing  battle  with  an  enemy- 
equipped  with  all  implements  of  modern 
war.  The  only  offset  to  this  disastrous 
inequality  was  the  wonderful  buoyancy 
of  her  armies'  morale. 

The  military  and  strategical  opera- 
tions of  this  year  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows: 

1.  The  right  flank  of  the  Russian 
armies  in  East  Prussia  was  overwhelmed 
by  German  attacks  in  February,  and  the 
Russian  forces  flung  back  to  their  own  soil. 
This  placed  the  whole  Russian  line  to  the 
right  of  Warsaw  in  a  precarious  position. 

2.  Though  struggling  against  lack  of 
communications,  scarcity  of  ammunition 
and  food,  bad  weather  and  terrible  fa- 
tigue, the  Russian  armies  continued  to 
harass  Germany's  ally.  Severe  Austrian 
defeats  from  January  to  March  led  to 
Russian  forces  penetrating  the  valleys  of 
Hungary. 

3.  The  complete  disorganization  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Army  following  these 
Russian  victories  completely  changed 
Germany's  policy  of  striving  to  deal  a  de- 
cisive blow  to  France  and  maintaining  a 
system  of  defense  (by  offensive,  according 
to  the  German  tactic)  on  the  eastern 
front.  Russia  now  loomed  before  her 
eyes  as  a  far  more  dangerous  foe.  She 
therefore  determined  to  crush  her  once 
and  for  all,  and  thus  secure  a  free  hand 
to  deal  with  the  French  and  British 
armies   as    she   desired. 

4.  To  carry  out  this  new  policy,  five 
new  divisions  were  formed  on  the  Russian 
front  during  March  and  April  and  twelve 
others  were  transferred  from  France.  The 
fighting  power  of  Austria-Hungary  was 
reorganized.  By  the  end  of  April  all 
preparatory  movements  were  completed. 
In  June,  after  the  offensive  began,  six 
infantry  and  two  cavalry  divisions  were 
transferred  from  France,  and  seven  new 
divisions  were  formed  by  "  Ersatz  "  bat- 
talions  on  the   Russian   front. 

5.  The  advance  of  the  combined  Ger- 
man-Austro-Hungarian  armies  began  in 
Northwest  Galicia  at  the  end  of  April.  In 
May  and  June  the  operations  had  spread 
to  the  whole  of  Galicia  and  Poland— by 
July,  northward  to  Courland,  covering  in 
all   a   front   of   1,300   kilometers. 

6.  The  enemy's  advance  (nded  in  Septem- 
ber. The  Russian  armies  left  the  whole 
of  Poland  and  Courland  and  the  greater 
part  of  Galicia  and  Lithuania  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  They  had  lost  two- 
thirds  of  their  fighting  effectives  and  shot 
away  what  small  reserves  of  shells  they 
had. 

7.  By  the  end  of  1915  Russia  was  weak- 
ened to  such  an  extent  that  Germany's 
hands  were  at  last  imtied  on  this  front. 
After  closing  the  ser?.es  of  her  operations 
in  the  east  by  the  destruction  of   Serbia, 


she    gained    the    long-desired    freedom    of 
operation   on    the    western   front. 

THE  TURKISH  CAMPAIGNS 

Meanwhile  other  Russian  armies,  ul- 
timately placed  under  command  of  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  were  delivering  heavy 
blows  against  Turkey.  The  Turkish  cam- 
paigns for  the  whole  war  period  may  be 
summed  up  here  as  follows: 

On  entering  the  war  in  November,  1914, 
the  Ottoman  Empire  had  concentrated  its 
forces  in  two  chief  groups— one  in  the 
region  of  Constantinople  for  the  defense 
of  the  straits,  and  another  in  the  region 
of  Erzerum  against  Russia.  The  second 
of  these  groups  invaded  Russia's  Trans- 
caucasian  territory,  but  by  the  end  of 
December  suffered  heavy  defeats,  the 
remnants  seeking  refuge  under  cover  of 
the  fortress  of  Erzerum  and  in  the  diffi- 
cult passes  of  Upper  Armenia,  leaving 
thousands  of  prisoners  and  rich  military 
booty  behind  them.  From  Bagdad  and 
Constantinople  this  shattered  army  was  re- 
inforced, and  continuous  fighting  went  on 
through  the  whole  of  1915  on  a  front 
reaching  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Per- 
sian frontier;  in  this  unceasing  battle  the 
Russians  were  nearly  always  the  victors. 
With  five  new  army  corps  freed  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Allies  from  Gallipoli, 
Turkey  then  undertook  to  strike  a  decisive 
blow  at  the  Russians,  who  were  menacing 
the  most  vital  parts  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire. Fully  informed  of  these  new  plans, 
the  Russian  command  took  the  heroic  de- 
cision to  attack  the  fortress  of  Erzerum 
in  the  middle  of  Winter  and  to  defeat  the 
Turkish  Army  before  the  arrival  of  the 
reinforcements  from  Gallipoli.  Though  de- 
fended by  over  a  thousand  guns,  includ- 
ing 460  heavy  guns  from  Krupp's,  Er- 
zerum was  taken  after  ten  days  of  heavy 
open  fighting,  in  which  the  Turks  lost 
more  than  60.000  men  (a  loss  of  50  per 
cent.)  and  several  hundred  guns.  The 
Russians  spread  their  operations  to  the 
coast  and  captured  Trebizond.  The  ar- 
rival of  the  Turkish  reinforcements  could 
not  stop  the  Russian  advance ;  heavy 
fighting  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  year, 
in  which  Russia  captured  a  number  of 
important  places  and  inflicted  a  series  of 
severe   defeats   upon   her  Asiatic  foe. 

The  Winter  of  1916-17  put  a  stop  to 
Russia's  active  operations,  and  the  revo- 
lution of  1917  prevented  her  from  reaping 
the  fruits  of  the  junction  with  the  Brit- 
ish forces,  which  took  place  after  the  fall 
of  Bagdad  in  the  Spring  of  1917.  But  her 
allies  found  the  military  power  of  the 
enemy  broken  by  the  heavy  blows  dealt 
by  Russia  during  1914-16,  and  the  victories 
in  Palestine  and '  Mesopotamia  were 
bought  by  the  blood  of  Russia's  Cauca- 
sian  Army. 


RUSSIA'S  PART  IN  THE  ALLIED   VICTORY 


525 


dlj 


INFANTRY  DNS. 
f^OMNST  RUSSIA 
INF-fiiNTRY   DIV^. 
IN  FRANCE 

CP\VALRY  DJVS 
fiiOAINST  RUSSIfi^ 
CAVALRY  DIV'S 
IN  FRANCE 


BLACK    COLUMNS,    AS    COMPARED    WITH    SHADED    ONES,     SHOW    HOW    MANY    MORE 
DIVISIONS    GERMANY    SENT    AGAINST    THE    RUSSIANS    THAN    AGAINST    THE    ALLIES 

IN    FRANCE 


Only  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  did  Germany  obtain 
the  possibility  of  concentrating  in 
France  a  force  suff^'cient  for  derling 
V'^-at  she  planned  to  be  a  decisive  blow. 
Her  new  offensive  on  the  west  soon 
followed.  But  condi'  -  meanwhil'^  had 
taken  a  consider  bly  better  turn  for 
Russia's  allies.  The  time  that  Russia 
had  won  for  the  Entente  powers  had  al- 
lowed them  to  concentrate  in  France  a 
British  Army  of  over  a  million  men,  to 
supply  the  Franco- Anglo-Belgian  Armies 


with  heavy  artillery,  to  create  a  reserve  of 
nearly  50,000,000  shells,  to  instruct  the 
troops  in  the  novel  methods  of  trench 
warfare,  to  push  the  engineering  of  de- 
fenses to  the  limits  of  technical  perfec- 
tion, and  to  prepare  Italy's  mobilized 
fighting  force.  Though  Germany,  in  be- 
ginning her  "  decisive  "  blow,  was  stimu- 
lated by  her  victories  in  the  east,  it  was 
those  victories  which  were  responsible 
for  her  failures  in  France  in  1916,  and 
which  contained  the  germ  of  her  future 
final  defeat. 


526 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


1916 

The  position  of  Russia  toward  the 
close  of  the  1915  campaigns  allowed  Ger- 
many to  start  conveying  back  troops 
from  the  eastern  front  to  France  as 
early  as  October,  1915.  The  German 
offensive,  which  began  in  February, 
placed  our  allies  in  difficult  straits.    Al- 


GRAND  DUKE  NICHOLAS 

Comma-nder  of  the  Rtossian  Armies'  in  the 

Caucasiis    and   Armenia 

(©    Underwood   &    Underwood) 


ready  at  the  beginning  of  March,  1916, 
the  attacks  on  Verd  had  developed  into 
the  menace  of  a  great  enemy  success, 
and  forced  the  Allies  to  appeal  to  Russia 
again  for  help.  Though  our  country, 
after  the  clo^e  of  the  1915  campaign,  had 
begun  to  reconstruct  her  broken  armies, 
and  the  ranks  had  been  filled  up  by  the 
beginning  of  1916,  the  rebuilding  of  the 
material  and  the  forming  of  reserves  of 
artillery  ammunition  up  to  the  Summer 
of  191(5  had  met  wit  serious  difficulties, 
owing  to  the  insufficient  production  of 
our  industry.  But,  true  to  her  obliga- 
tions to  her  allies,  Russia  responded  to 
the  pressing  appeals  of  France,  and  in 
March   began   an   offensive   on   a  large 


scale  from  Riga  to  Baranovitchi  without 
waiting  to  complete  the  rebuilding  of  her 
fighting  power. 

This  operation  cost  her  250,000  men, 
and  was  stopped  by  the  Spring  melting 
of  snows.  Though  it  brought  no  decisive 
results,  in  consequence  of  the  unprepared 
condition  of  the  armies,  it  obliged  the 
German  command  to  transfer  several  di- 
visions from  the  French  front  to  the 
east  in  the  midst  of  most  strenuous 
operations. 

This  offensive  had  barely  ended  when 
the  Allies  again  appealed  to  their  long- 
suffering  ally  for  help,  this  time  for 
Italy.  The  Italian  armies  had  been 
placed  in  such  critical  circumstances  by 
Austria-Hungary's  April  operations  on 
the  Italian  front,  where  she  had  concen- 
trated 35  divisions  (as  against  39  in- 
fantry and  11  cavalry  divisions  opposed 
to  Russia),  that  only  immediate  help 
could  avail  to  avert  a  serious  disaster. 

At  that  time  the  Russian  armies  were 
preparing  for  new  offensive  operations 
on  the  Vilna-Baranovitchi  front  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  plan  worked  out  by 
the  Allied  Military  Conference  at  Ghan- 
tilly  in  February,  1916.  The  Russian 
High  Command,  however,  renounced  the 
only  chance  it  had  had  during  the  whole 
war  of  undertaking  a  thoroughly  pre- 
pared offensi'^e,  responded  to  Italy's  caU, 
and  improvised  a  new  strategical 
manoeuvre  the  success  of  which  depended 
on  the  high  morale  of  our  troops  and 
the  strength  of  their  attack.  A  hasty 
concentration  of  our  forces  took  place, 
and  on  June  6  the  offensive  of  the  armies 
of  the  southwestern  front  began  under 
General  Brusiloff's  command.  The  di- 
rect results  of  this  offensive,  unequaled 
in  history  for  the  quantity  of  military 
booty  taken,  may  be  summarized  as  fol- 
lows: 

1.  The  i  r.meciiate  ending  of  Austria- 
Hungary's  offensive  in  Italy. 

2.  The  transfer  oi  7  divisions  from  Italy 
to  the  Russian  front. 

3.  The  transfer  by  Germany  to  the  Rus- 
sian front  of  18  divisions  from  France,  3% 
divisions  from  the  Saloniki  front,  and  4^ 
newly  formed  divisions  from  the  interior. 

4.  The  new  defeat  of  Austria-Hungary. 

5.  The  entrance  of  Rumania  into  the 
war. 

6.  The  Autumn  campaign  in  Rumania, 
which     demanded     new     and     strenuous 


527 


efforts  by  Russia  by  the  end  of  1916  and 
in  1917. 

THE  RUMANIAN  CAMPAIGNS 

The  disastrous  series  of  events  in  Ru- 
mania may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

The  Russian  High  Command  had  fore- 
seen the  disastrous  consequences  which 
were  certain  to  follow  Rumania's  declara- 
tion of  war,  and  had  done  all  it  could  to 
keep  Rumania  neutral.  When  she  de- 
clared war,  all  General  Alexeieff's  fears 
were  realized.  The  Rumanian  Army 
was  wholly  unprepared.  Russia,  forced 
to  defend  the  Rumanian  front  herself, 
found  her  line  lengthened  by  500  kilome- 
ters, and  was  compelled  to  face  two  new 
foes,  Bulgaria  and  Turkey. 

The  charge  that  Russia  allowed  the  ene- 
mies to  throw  part  of  their  forces  against 
Rumania  by  not  continuing  active  opera- 
tions in  Bukowina  and  Galicia  after  the 
opening  of  the  Rumanian  offensive  in 
Transylvania  is  unjustified ;  the  Russian 
offensive  in  the  two  regions  mentioned 
had  already  died  down  and  could  not  be 
renewed  in  the  natural  course  of  things. 
The  four  infantry  divisions  which  Rus- 
sia agreed  to  give  for  defense  of  the 
southern  boundaries  of  Rumania  during 
her  Transylvanian  offensive  were  fur- 
nished, and  further  help  Rumania  her- 
self at  this  time  declined.  Beaten  back 
to  her  own  territory  by  Falkenhayn's 
army,  Rumania  appealed  to  Russia  for 
help,  which  was  given  lavishly.  But  the 
necessity  to  face  a  new  attack  by  Mack- 
cnsen  weakened  the  six  army  corps  sent 
by  Russia  to  Rumania,  and  the  re- 
mainder, insufficiently  supplied  with  ar- 
tillery and  shells,  could  not  prevent  Fal- 
kenhayn  and  Mackensen  from  joining 
hands  and  taking  the  Rumanian  capital. 
To  save  the  fleeing  Rumanian  Army,  the 
Russian  command  transferred  new  forces 
to  the  Rumanian  front,  and  stopped  the 
enemy's  advance  on  the  Sereth,  where 
the  unhappy  Rumanian  campaign  of  1916 
came  to  an  end. 

During  the  Winter,  three  Russian  armies 
were  forced  to  hold  465  kilometers  of  the 
Rumanian  front.  The  double  offensive 
conducted  in  the  Summer  of  1917  on  the 
south  Ave  stern  and  Rumanian  fronts  broke 
down  through  the  poison  of  the  Russian 
revolution.  To  meet  heavy  attacks  by 
Germany  on  the  Rumanian  front  begun 
by  Mackensen  on  Aug.  6,  the  Russian 
revolutionary  troops  and  the  whole  re- 
organized Rumanian  Army  fought  so  ob- 
stinately that  Mackensen's  assault  ended 
in  failure,  as  a  result  of  which  all  the 
Austro-German  forces  were  chained  to 
the  Rumanian  front  till  the  conclusion  of 
the  Bucharest  peace. 

Summing  up,  Russia  gave  Rumania  far 
more  help  than  she  had  ever  demanded, 
and  the  disasters  encountered  by  Ru- 
mania were  the  result  of  conditions  fore- 


seen by  Russia,  which  caused  her  to  op- 
pose Rumania's  entry  into  the  war,  and 
which  threw  a  heavy  burden  on  Russia 
herself  which  she  could  ill  afford  to 
carry. 

1917 

During  the  Winter  of  1916-17  Russia 
accomplished  the  gigantic  task  of  reor- 
ganizing her  army.    The  number  of  our 


GENERAL    ALEXEIEFF 

Russian   Commander  in  Chief 

(Underwood    d    Underwood!) 


infantry  divisions  was  enlarged  by  25 
per  cent.,  and  we  were  considerably 
strengthened  by  artillery,  machine  guns 
and  technical  equipment,  so  that  by  the 
Spring  of  1917  we  were  stronger  than 
ever.  The  organized  work  of  our  fac- 
tories secured  for  us  the  quantity  of  mu- 
nitions necessary  for  any  effective  fight- 
ing. We  were  at  last  fully  prepared  for 
grappling  with  the  foe. 

But  the  blow  which  the  enemy  had 
vainly  tried  to  deal  us  during  the  two 
years  and  a  half  of  war  was  dealt  us  by 
the  revolution  at  the  beginning  of  1917. 

Our  command,  true  to  our  allies,  did 
all  that  was  possible  to  prevent  the  rev- 


528 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


olution  from  gaining  control  of  the 
anny;  but  they  met  with  the  opposition 
of  the  revolutionary  leaders,  headed  by 
Kerensky.  Having  no  faith  in  the  Rus- 
sian command,  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment kept  pouring  into  the  army  the 
poison  of  politics,  criticism  and  "  revolu- 
tionary freedom  " — things  absolutely  in- 
compatible with  military  discipline.  De- 
moralized by  hasty  and  careless  reforms, 
undermined  by  the  pacifist  propaganda 
of  the  Germans  at  the  front  and  by  the 
work  of  their  allies,  the  Bolsheviki,  in 
the  rear,  the  Russian  Army  was  doomed 
to  die  by  what  may  be  called  a  process 
of  psychological  disintegration. 

Firmly  believing  in  the  effectiveness 
of  the  measures  it  had  taken,  and  in 
the  sane  instincts  of  the  people,  the  Pro- 
visional Government  undertook  an  of- 
fensive on  the  southwestern  front  in 
July,  1917.  The  ignominious  defeat 
which  followed  the  first  successes 
showed  the  demoralizing  results  of  the 
revolution.  After  this,  our  fighting 
power  declined  rapidly. 

The  Bolshevist  coup  d'etat  at  the  end 
of  October,  1917,  definitely  put  us  out 
of  action,  and  at  the  beginning  of  1918 
the  Soviet  Government  signed  the  sep- 
arate peace  of  Brest-Litovsk. 

But  up  to  the  Brest-Litovsk  treaty 
Russia  continued  to  hold  important 
enemy  forces  on  her  front  by  the  very 
fact  of  her  remaining  in  the  war,  even 
though  her  armies  suffered  disintegra- 
tion and  defeat,  and  finally  became  in- 
active. When  the  enemy  was  at  last 
free  in  the  east  and  gained  the  long- 
sought  freedom  of  action  in  the  west, 
Germany  was  no  longer  the  terrible 
menace  she  had  been  in  the  first  periods 
of  the  war.  The  Allies  had  been 
strengthened  by  the  entry  of  the  United 
States  into  the  struggle,  and  had  them- 
selves attained  the  maximum  of  their 
power;  they  could,  therefore,  enter  the 
last  and  decisive  stage  of  the  war  with 
full  confidence,  and  win,  for  Europe  and 
the  world,  a  victory  all  too  long  deferred. 

CONCLUSION 

During  the  great  war  the  Russian 
Army  at  times  had  brilliant  successes, 
at   times    suffered   bitter    defeats;    but, 


taken  as  a  whole,  the  events  on  the  Rus- 
sian front  were  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant factors  that  brought  victory  to 
the  Allies. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  self-sac- 
rifice of  the  Russian  Army  helped  the 
Allies  to  establish  a  balance  of  power 
between  themselves   and   the   enemy;   it 


WM 

1 

iW^^W: 

'J 
i 

•V  ^       m 

GENERAL    A.    A.    BRUSILOFF 

One  of  the  most   brillicmt  leaders   of  the 

Czar's   armies 


helped  to  weaken  the  crushing  blow 
which  Germany  sought  to  deliver  to 
France,  Belgium  and  England  before  the 
last-named  country  had  had  sufficient 
time  to  prepare  adequate  measures  of 
defense. 

Subsequently,  Russia's  unrelaxing 
pressure  on  Austria-Hungary,  which 
threatened  to  put  an  end  to  Germany's 
ally  as  a  fighting  power,  forced  the  Ger- 
man High  Command  to  pay  more  and 
more  attention  to  the  eastern  front.  As 
early  as  the  Autumn  of  1914  Russia  had 
made  it  impossible  for  the  German  High 
Command  to  deal  the  Franco-Anglo-Bel- 
gian Armies  a  decisive  blow.  In  1915 
she  forced  a  radical  change  in  the  Ger- 
man plan  of  campaign,  whose  chief  ef- 
forts were  turned  perforce  against  the 
Russian  menace  on  the  eastern  front. 
The  lull  in  the  German  offensive  on  the 
western  front,  which  prevailed  from  No- 
vember, 1914,  to  January,  1916,  is  to  be 


RUSSIA'S  PART  IN  THE  ALLIED   VICTORY 


529 


attributed  directly  to  the  Russian  cam- 
paigns. This  enforced  suspension  of  the 
German  offensive  allowed  Russia's  allies 
to  undertake  a  series  of  measures  un- 
hindered by  the  enemy — measures  which 
gave  them  the  possibility  of  facing  the 
new  onslaught  begun  by  Germany  sub- 
sequently with  complete  confidence  of 
eventual  victory.  This  possibility  was 
purchased  at  the  price  of  rivers  of  Rus- 
sian blood,  and  was  the  fruit  of  Russia's 
unselfish  and  loyal  spirit  of  self-sacri- 
fice. 

This  sacrifice  was  continuous.  Rus- 
sia had  just  begun  to  recover  from  the 
terrible  stress  of  the  fighting  of  1915, 
when,  in  March,  1916,  there  came  an  ur- 
gent appeal  from  France,  hard-pressed 
at  Verdun.  To  this  appeal,  as  well  as 
to  Italy's  cry  in  June  of  the  same  year, 
Russia  could  not  turn  deaf  ears. 

The  entry  of  Rumania  into  the  ranks 
of  the  Allies  called  for  new  sacrifices 
from  Russia,  sacrifices  which  endan- 
gered her  most  vital  interests.  Loyally 
she  offered  this  sacrifice,  the  conse- 
quences of  which  she  had  foreseen,  in  full 
knowledge  of  Rumania's  military  impo- 


tency,  which  made  her  defeat  a  foregone 
conclusion  at  the  very  moment  of  declar- 
ing war. 

On  the  Asiatic  front  it  was  due  to 
three  years'  heroic  efforts  of  the  Rus- 
sian armies  that  General  Allenby  won 
his  final  victory.  It  was  Russia  who 
opened  the  gates  of  Asia  Minor,  Meso- 
potamia, Syria  and  Palestine  for  the  Al- 
lies. Even  after  the  revolution,  weak- 
ened and  harassed  by  mortal  illness  as 
she  was,  Russia,  up  to  the  signing  of 
the  Brest-Litovsk  treaty,  kept  consider- 
able enemy  forces  engaged  against  her. 
Her  premature  exit  from  the  war  de- 
prived her  of  the  happiness  of  taking 
part  in  the  rejoicing  of  the  victors,  but 
it  cannot  impair  the  value  of  her  serv- 
ices during  the  first  and  middle  period 
of  the  fighting — for  the  sacrifices  of 
Russia  in  that  period  had  a  decisive  in- 
fluence on  the  whole  course  of  the  death 
struggle  with  Germany  and  prepared  the 
final  victory  of  the  Allies.  This  victory 
was  due  in  large  part  to  Russian  blood 
spilled  in  the  common  fight  for  the  tri- 
umph of  right  over  brutal  strength. 


Religious  Customs  in  Russia 

By  CONSTANTIN  FRABONI 


rriHE  Russian  people,  from  the  most 
JL  remote  time,  have  been  deeply  re- 
ligious by  nature;  therefore,  the 
present  attempt  of  the  Bolshevist  leaders 
to  alienate  them  from  the  ancient  Ortho- 
dox faith  is  not  likely  to  have  any  large 
degree  of  success.  A  brief  account  of 
the  religious  customs  of  Russia  as  they 
still  exist — except  where  temporarily 
interfered  with  by  the  Lenin-Trotzky 
Government — cannot  fail  to  be  of  inter- 
est to  readers  of  Current  History. 

In  every  public  establishment,  in  every 
office,  railroad  station,  post  office, 
bank,  tavern,  store,  and  almost  in  every 
room  of  a  private  dwelling,  there  is  an 
"ikon"  (holy  picture),  placed  in  a 
corner,  with  an  oil  light  before  it,  stead- 
ily burning.  These  "  ikons  "  look  like 
bas-relief;  only  the  head  and  hands  of 
the    image    are    painted    on    the    back- 


ground; the  rest  of  the  picture  is  com- 
posed of  engraved,  gilded  metal,  very 
often  of  real  gold  and  silver  incrusted 
with  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones. 
The  Russian  believes  that  the  ikon  has 
a  protecting  and  healing  power.  When 
a  family  moves  from  one  house  to 
another,  the  first  thing  to  be  brought 
into  the  new  apartment  and  fixed  in  its 
place  is  an  ikon.  When,  after  a  wed- 
ding, the  bride  and  bridegroom  come 
back  from  the  church,  the  mother  meets 
and  blesses  them  with  an  ikon,  which 
afterward  is  given  them  as  a  symbol 
of  future  happiness.  When  a  young 
man  goes  away  to  be  a  soldier,  his  mother 
invariably  gives  him  an  ikon.  A  new 
bank,  shop,  factory,  store,  school,  office, 
or  any  establishment,  whatever  its 
nature,  is  scarcely  opened  before  an  ikon 
is  put  in  the  most  conspicuous  place  and 


530 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


a  religious  service  is  held,  with  choir 
and  priests,  who  bless  the  new  edifice 
and  pray  before  the  image. 

Almost  every  school  and  factory,  and 
almost  every  wealthy  private  house,  has 


ligion  forbids  him  to  cut  his  hair  and 
beard ;  so  that  many  priests,  who  have 
abundant  hair,  are  obliged  to  plait  it  in 
the  same  way  as  a  woman,  hiding  the 
braid  under  the  tunic.     Nobody  can  be- 


PICTURESQUE    TYPES    OF    RUSSIAN    MUJIKS    OR    PEASANTS 


a  specially  built  chapel,  with  altar  and 
rich  images,  where  a  mass  is  said  every 
Sunday  and  holiday.  Once  a  year  priests 
go  around  in  every  apartment  of  the 
houses  surrounding  their  churches  and 
bless  each  room  with  holy  water.  ,  Some 
ikons  are  believed  to  be  miraculous  and 
are  brought  in  procession  with  great 
pomp  and  solemnity,  from  one  town  to 
another,  followed  by  many  clergymen 
and  a  crowd  of  devotees. 

The  "  pope "  (Russian  priest)  has  al- 
ways been  considered  as  a  holy  person 
and  his  hands  and  tunic  are  reverently 
kissed  by  the  peasants.  The  Orthodox 
priest  wears  a  very  wide  and  long  tunic, 
black,  gray,  or  brown  in  color;  his  re- 


come  a  priest  if  he  is  not  married,  and 
not  long  ago  clergymen  were  obliged  to 
marry  only  clergymen's  daughters.  A 
country  priest  is  generally  very  poor  and 
lives  exclusively  on  fees  paid  him  at 
baptisms,  weddings  and  funerals,  and 
these  fees  are  largely  in  the  form  of 
eggs,  chickens,  flour,  &c.,  which  he  re- 
ceives from  the  peasant  instead  of 
money. 

The  Russian  clergy,  being  constantly 
in  contact  with  the  people,  and  especially 
with  the  ignorant  mujik,  has  been  a 
powerful  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
ruling  powers,  which  used  the  priests  to 
inculcate  and  maintain,  under  the  guise 
of  religion,  such  sentiments  and  beliefs 


RELIGIOUS  CUSTOMS  IN  RUSSIA 


531 


A    LARGE    GOLD    "IKON"    WITH    PRECIOUS    STONES    GUARDED    BY    TWO    MONKS 


as  would  aid  in  maintaining  that  form  of 
despotic  government  which  predominated 
in  Russia  before  the  v/ar.  This  fact  has 
had  much  to  do  with  the  recent  loss  of 
that  moral  influence  and  prestige  which 
was  enjoyed  to  so  large  an  extent  by  the 
clergy,  and  which  has  been  greatly  weak- 
ened since  the  Bolshevist  revolution. 

Churches  are  beautiful  outside  and 
inside,  and  many  of  them,  especially  in 
Moscow,  Petrograd  and  Kiev,  contain 
immense  treasures.  Services  are  very 
long,  no  music  is  permitted,  and  no 
chairs  or  benches  allowed;  everybody 
stands  or  kneels  down.  A  sepulchral 
silence  is  maintained  during  a  religious 
function,   which    is    generally   conducted 


by  three  priests,  who  recite  the  prayers, 
singing  them  in  a  monotone  with  impos- 
ing deep  bass  voices.  The  altar  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  hall  of  the  church  by  a 
low  gilded  door,  and  no  woman  ever  can 
pass  through  it;  this  would  be  a  horrible 
sacrilege ! 

Russian  people  observe  rigorously  all 
religious  holidays;  five  at  Christmas,  ten 
at  Easter,  three  at  Carnival,  and  almost 
every  week  one  extra  day,  when  an  an- 
niversary of  some  saint  is  celebrated; 
on  these  days  everything  is  closed  and 
nobody  works.  The  six  weeks  of  fasting 
preceding  Easter  are  strictly  observed 
by  everybody,  and  the  more  devout  do 
not  even  eat  eggs  or  drink  milk,  and  do 


532 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


A  SHRINE  IN  A  MOSCOW   STREET,   WHERE   PEOPLE   STOP  ON  THEIR  WAY  FOR  A 

SHORT   PRAYER 


not  use  sugar,  because  it  is  refined  with 
blood.  The  last  three  days  of  Holy  Week 
are  still  more  respected,  for  no  food  at 
all  is  consumed;  it  is  not  surprising, 
then,  if  the  Russians  celebrate  Easter 
Sunday  by  stuffing  themselves  with  all 
kinds  of  food,  from  morning  till  night. 
For  this  occasion  (before  the  present 
scarcity),  very  large  cakes,  sometimes 
three  or  four  feet  high,  were  cooked  with 
beautiful  ornaments  on  the  top,  and  eggs 
were  skillfully  painted.  Both  cakes  and 
eggs,  with  other  eatables,  are  brought  on 


Easter  Eve  near  the  church  and  placed 
all  about  on  the  ground.  After  the  mid- 
night mass  a  procession  of  priests  and 
choirs  comes  out  and  walks  around  the 
church,  blessing  all  the  food,  which  is 
arranged  before  them  as  in  a  market. 

Easter  Sunday  and  the  two  following 
days  are  dedicated  to  paying  visits. 
Every  man  calls  upon  his  acquaintances. 
Before  the  war,  when  conditions  were 
normal,  it  was  not  an  easy  task  to  follow 
such  a  custom,  for  in  every  house  there 
was  displayed  a  large  table  full  of  all 


RELIGIOUS  CUSTOMS  IN  RUSSIA 


533 


kinds  of  foods  and  relishes;  beside  the 
gigantic  cakes  and  artistic  eggs  there 
were  placed  large  hams,  little  pigs, 
caviar,  turkeys,  various  kinds  of  smoked 
fish,  preserves,  fruits  and  scores  of  bot- 
tles with  different  wines,  liquors  and 
vodkas.  Visitors  were  obliged  to  eat  and 
drink  wherever  they  happened  to  go, 
otherwise  they  would  offend  the  host; 
the  results  may  be  imagined  when  such 
a  merriment  continued  from  9  in  the 
morning  until  after  midnight. 

A  widespread  custom  in  Eussia  at 
Easter  time  is  that  of  kissing.  When 
two  acquaintances  meet  one  says: 
"  Christ  is  risen !  "  The  other  replies : 
"  Indeed  He  is !  "  Then  they  give  each 
other  three  kisses,  one  on  each  cheek  and 
one  on  the  lips.  Many  years  ago  it  was 
not  possible  to  dodge  this  custom  when 
the  sacred  words  were  pronounced,  but 
now  the  ladies  may  refuse  to  let  them- 
selves be  kissed,  and  this  is  a  great  im- 
provement, because  it  was  not  a  pleasure, 
certainly,  for  a  pretty  and  dignified 
young  woman  (even  if  very  religious)  to 
let  herself  be  kissed  by  some  intoxicated, 
big-whiskered   fellow.     On    Holy    Satur- 


day, when  the  high  mass  is  said  at  mid- 
night, the  priest  solemnly  pronounces, 
"Christ  is  risen!  "  and  everybody  in  the 
church  kisses  all  those  who  happen  to 
be  near  him.  On  Easter  Sunday  every 
employe  calls  upon  his  employer,  who 
kisses  all  of  them.  The  powerful  Czar 
himself,  on  that  day  used  to  kiss  not 
only  the  dignitaries  of  his  Court,  but  also 
his  humble  servants.  Such  a  custom, 
though  antiquated,  proves  the  religious 
and  humanitarian  sentiment  of  the  true 
Russian  people,  who  believe  in  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  Christianity,  that 
is :  "  We  are  all  brothers  in  this  world." 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  subdual  of 
Russia  by  a  group  of  usurpers  was  due 
mainly  to  the  almost  complete  illiteracy 
of  90  per  cent,  of  her  inhabitants;  but 
there  is  no  doubt,  also,  that  the  strong 
religious  faith  of  these  same  inhabitants 
will  be  the  principal  factor  which  will 
throw  off  the  present  yoke  and  promote 
the  redemption  of  that  unfortunate 
country. 


Note.— Mr.  Fraboni  lived  fifteen  years  in 
Russia  and  knows  thoroughly  her  customs, 
language  and  people. 


The  Soviet  Marriage  Code 

How   Communist    Russia  Legitimizes    Illegitimacy — A  Step    Toward 

Abolishing  Wedlock 


THE  full  text  of  the  new  marriage 
law  of  Soviet  Russia  was  published 
in  the  April  issue  of  the  Contempo- 
rary Review.  In  the  main  it  avoids  radical 
changes — for  the  present.  Many  of  the 
provisions  dealing  with  the  necessary 
formalities  to  be  observed  in  the  case 
of  marriage,  divorce,  maintenance,  guard- 
ianship, &c.,  differ  in  no  essential  de- 
gree from  the  laws  of  other  nations.  The 
legal  obligation  of  each  party  to  a  mar- 
riage, irrespective  of  sex,  to  support  the 
other  party  in  case  of  illness  or  inca- 
pacity is  a  new  departure,  in  line  with 
the  Soviet  attempt  to  place  the  two 
sexes  on  an  absolute  equality  so  far  as 
marriage  is  concerned.  The  same  prin- 
ciple is  followed  in  allowing  either  party 
the  absolute  right  to  obtain  a  divorce  by 
formally  transmitting   an  expression  of 


his  or  her  desire.  The  mutual  consent 
of  both  parties,  irrespective  of  the 
grounds  for  the  divorce — in  other  words, 
what  other  marriage  laws  would  charac- 
terize as  "  collusion  " — is  accepted  by  the 
Soviet  law  as  a  simple  matter  of  course. 

One  aspect  of  the  Soviet  code,  how- 
ever, represents  a  radical  departure  from 
old  standards,  namely,  its  way  of  dealing 
with  the  problem  of  illegitimate  births. 
The  injustices  of  the  social  order  in  re- 
spect to  illegitimacy  have  long  been  held 
up  to  opprobrium,  but  no  definite,  offi- 
cial step  has  been  taken  by  any  Govern- 
ment to  remedy  the  alleged  abuses.  It 
has  remained  for  Soviet  Russia  to  make 
the  rights  of  the  illegitimate  child  abso- 
lutely equal  to  those  of  the  child  born 
in  wedlock;  to  compel  the  mother  to  re- 
veal the  name  of  the  father  three  months 


534 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


before  confinement,  and  to  force  the 
father  to  recognize  and  support  the  ille- 
gitimate offspring.  In  cases  where  the 
paternity  cannot  be  established  among 
various  others  with  whom  the  mother 
has  had  relations,  all  those  named  are 
held  to  proportionate  contributions  for 
support.  The  clause  relating  to  this 
subject  are  as  follows: 

SECTION  III.— FAMILY  LAW 

Chapter   I.— Concerning    Parentage 

133.  The  basis  of  the  family  shall  be 
actual  parentage ;  no  distinction  shall  be 
established  between  natural  parentage 
and  legitimate  parentage. 

Observation  I.— Children  not  born  in 
matrimony  shall  have  the  same  rights  as 
children  born  to  persons  whose  marriage 
has   been  registered. 

Observation  II.— The  regulation  con- 
tained in  this  article  shall  apply  equally 
to  illegitimate  children  born  before  the 
publication  of  the  decree  concerning  civil 
marriage    (of   Dec.    20,    1917). 

134.  The  persons  entered  in  the  register 
as  father  and  mother  shall  be  held  to  be 
the  father  and  mother  of  a  child. 

135.  Failing  the  registration  of  the  father 
and  mother,  or  in  the  case  of  a  false 
entry  in  the  registry,  or  an  entry  lacking 
sufficient  detail,  the  interested  persons 
shall  have  the  right  to  prove  paternity 
and  maternity  by  judicial  means. 

Observation— Questions  of  parentage 
shall  be  within  the  competence  of  the 
local  popular  tribunal. 

136.  The  right  of  proving  the  actual 
parentage  of  a  child  shall  belong  to  the 
interested  persons,  and  to  the  mother 
among  them ;  and  those  persons  shall  be 
registered  as  father  and  mother  of  the 
child  who,  at  the  time  of  its  conception, 
or  of  its  birth,  are  united  in  registered 
marriage,  or  in  a  marriage  which  has  the 
validity  of  a  registered  marriage. 

137.  If,  during  the  inquiry  into  the 
matter,  the  tribunal  shall  prove  that  the 
entry  in  the  register  is  false  and  based 
upon  the  false  evidence  of  the  persons 
who  have  passed  themselves  off  as  the 
father  and  mother,  the  persons  guilty  of 
false  evidence  shall  be  prosecuted  under 
the  criminal  law,  and  the  entry  in  the 
register   shall   be    declared   void. 

138.  Within  three  days  of  the  passing  of 
the  sentence  the  tribunal  shall  advise  the 
Registry  Office  where  the  birth  Is  regis- 
tered of  the  declaration  of  the  nullity  of 
the  entry,  and  of  the  proof  of  actual 
parentage  of  the  child,  after  having  made 
the  appropriate  alterations  in  the  entry. 

139.  In  cases  where  the  child  is  not 
acknowledged  by  the  father,  paternity 
shall  be  proved  in  accordance  with  the 
forms   prescribed    in    Articles    140-145. 

140.  An  unmarried  pregnant  woman  shall 
make  a  declaration  at  the  Registry  Office 


not  later  than  three  months  before  the 
birth  of  the  child,  indicating  the  date  of 
conception,  the  name  and  domicile  of  the 
child's    father. 

Observation— A  married  woman  may 
make  a  like  declaration  if  the  father  of 
the  child  conceived  is  not  her  registered 
husband. 

141.  The  Register  shall  advise  the  per- 
son named  in  the  declaration  as  the 
father  of  that  declaration  (Article  140), 
and  the  said  person  shall  have  the  right, 
within  two  weeks  of  the  day  upon  which 
he  receives  the  notice,  to  initiate  an  action 
for  the  nullification  of  the  mother's  decla- 
ration. Failure  to  dispute  the  declara- 
tion within  the  stated  period  shall  be 
equivalent  to  the  recognition  of  the  child 
as   his. 

142.  Questions  of  the  establishment  of 
paternity  shall  be  examined  in  accordance 
with  the  usual  forms,  but  the  parties 
shall  be  required  to  speak  the  truth,  and 
if  they  do  not  fulfill  this  duty  they  shall 
be    held    responsible    as    for    giving    false 

.  evidence. 

143.  If  it  shall  be  established  that  the  ' 
connection  of  the  person  mentioned  in 
Article  141  with  the  mother  of  the  child 
was  such,  that  in  the  natural  course  of 
things  that  person  would  be  the  father  of 
the  child,  the  tribunal  shall  pronounce 
judgment,  recognizing  that  person  as  the 
father,  and  at  the  same  time  shall  decree 
that  he  shall  bear  a  share  of  all  expendi- 
ture caused  by  pregnancy,  confinement, 
birth  and  maintenance  of  the  child. 

144.  If,  during  inquiry  into  the  matter, 
the  tribunal  shall  establish  that  at  the 
time  of  the  conception  of  the  child  the 
person  mentioned  in  Article  141  had  inti- 
mate relations  with  the  mother  of  the 
child,  but  at  the  same  time  as  other 
persons,  the  tribunal  shall  order  them  all 
to  be  summoned  as  defendants,  and  shall 
charge  them  with  a  share  of  the  expenses 
provided  for   in   Article  143. 

That  the  foregoing  portion  of  the  Rus- 
sian Communist  Code  is  intended  as  a 
transition  step  toward  the  total  abolish- 
ment of  marriage  is  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing explicit  statement  recently  made 
by  Karl  Kautsky,  German  Socialist  leader: 
The  complete  equality  of  rights  between 
all    the    children,    without    distinction    of 
parentage,    is    a    measure    of    social    psy- 
chology  preparing   the   way   for   applying 
the  care  of  the  community  to  all  children, 
removing    the    last    foundations    of    bour- 
geois   marriage,    with    its    privileges,    its 
narrow  family  interests,  its  isolatioji,  and 
its  patriarchal   limitations. 

This  frank  avowal  of  the  intent  to  de- 
stroy the  family  and  the  home  indicates 
the  extent  and  nature  of  the  revolution 
which  the  Moscow  International  is  try- 
ing to  force  upon  the  rest  of  the  world. 


Light  on  Austria's  War  Guilt 

Analysis  of  the  New  Red  Book 

By  LOUISE  E.  MATTHAEI 

[Staff  Member  op  International  Section  of  The   Contemporary   Review,    London] 


THE  Austrian  Red  Book  published 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war  gave 
not  a  single  document  between  the 
dates  of  July  6  and  July  21,  1914. 
Three  weeks  of  momentous  history  were 
ignored  by  the  apologists,  and  the  Haps- 
\hurg  empire  was  blandly  presented  as 
)roceeding,  with  a  kind  of  dignified  sim- 
)licity,  in  a  direct  line  from  the  crime 
of  Serajevo  to  its  consequences.  The 
facts  were  otherwise,  and  evidence  pro- 
duced by  other  parties  showed  it.  But 
the  Hapsburg  authorities,  having  once 
stated  their  case,  left  it  at  that.  Trained 
to  address  the  most  futile  of  official  com- 
muniques to  a  public  which  was  too 
clever  to  accept  them  but  too  engrossed 
in  music,  drama,  trade,  and  the  whole  art 
of  amusing  living  to  dispute  them,  the 
Austrian  Government  wrote  its  apologia 
to  Europe  as  though  it  had  been  ad- 
dressing the  witty  and  indifferent  pub- 
lic of  Vienna.  Europe  could  not  turn  it 
into  a  Schnitzler  dialogue;  and  taken 
au  grand  serieux  it  was  ridiculous.  But 
it  had  been  drafted  by  the  correct  royal 
and  imperial  official  in  the  correct  royal 
and  imperial  department;  it  had  ob- 
tained the  royal  and  imperial  apos- 
tolic consent  through  the  royal  and  im- 
perial Ministers,  and  that  was  all  there 
was  about  it,  in  the  eyes  of  royal  and 
imperial  officialdom. 

The  negotiations  leading  up  to  the  war 
fell  into  two  halves,  before  and  after  the 
presentation  of  the  Austric-n  demands  to 
Serbia  on  July  23,  1914.  Serbia  accepted 
most  of  those  demands.  She  was  not 
intended  to  do  so;  the  Austrian  bureau- 
crat had  reckoned  confidently  on  a  re- 
fusal, and  he  was  exceedingly  taken 
aback;  he  had,  so  to  say,  all  the  trouble 
of  starting  over  again.  The  history  of 
his  efforts  has  been  discussed  at  great 
length  by  all  who  have  written  on  the 
"  twelve  days."  But  his  first  and  original 
scheme  has  been  less  discussed,  owing  to 
want  of  evidence. 


The  Socialist-Coalition  Government  of 
the  Austrian  Republic  is  now  in  process 
of  publishing  a  new  Red  Book,  the  first 
part*  of  which  fills  up  that  notorious 
gap  between  July  6  and  July  21,  1914. 
It  gives  us,  for  instance,  the  minutes  of 
two  Ministerial  councils  held  at  Vienna 
on  July  7  and  19;  it  was  at  these  two 
councils  that  Austrian  policy  was 
shaped;  it  was  here  that  a  handful  of 
futile  and  foolish  officials  contrived  to 
evoke  out  of  a  threatening  situation  an 
"  inevitable  "  war. 

The  policy  pursued  did  not  embrace 
within  its  vision  the  whole  of  the  Triple 
Alliance,  or  even  the  whole  of  the  Teu- 
tonic race.  Nothing  is  more  striking  in 
these  documents  than  the  revelation  of 
the  inner  disintegration  of  the  three 
members  of  the  Triple  Alliance;  this  is 
particularly  so  when  we  consider  the 
accepted  and  popular  estimate  of  the 
interlocking  nature  of  the  Wilhelms- 
strasse  and  the  Ballplatz.  But  "  Vienna 
worked  while  Berlin  slept,"  says  Vor- 
warts,  and  the  description  seems  pecul- 
iarly apt. 

TISZA  IN  A  NEW  ASPECT 

Again,  up  till  now  it  had  been  sup- 
posed that  "  Vienna  at  work "  was  in- 
spired by  the  Hungarian,  Count  Tisza, 
the  great  instigator  of  war,  the  best 
hated  man  in  Europe.  Vienna  was  sup- 
posed to  be  Budapest  in  rather  more 
polite  terms.  It  will  perhaps  be  remem- 
bered what  an  extraordinary  outburst  of 
hate  followed  Tisza's  fall  half  way 
through  the  war.  This  outburst  was 
closely  connected  with  the  legend  that 
Tisza  was  a  bloodthirsty  tyrant,  who 
among  other  despotic  acts  had  decreed 
the  war.  Yet  very  pronounced  Hunga- 
rian radicals,  who  had  not  a  good  word 

*A  translation  has  now  been  published  by 
Messrs.  Allen  &  Unwin.  The  quotations 
I  give  are  my  own  translation  from  the 
orig-inal  text. 


536 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


for  such  "  Liberal  "  politicians  as  Count 
Apponyi,  and  whose  enthusiasm  even  for 
Karolyi  was  decidedly  lukewarm,  could 
be  heard  to  speak  with  real  respect  of 
Tisza,  and  even  to  the  distant  observer 
Tisza,  if  at  heart  a  villain,  did  contrive 
sometimes  to  seem  a  better  imitation  of 
a  statesman  than  his  enemies. 

The  new  records  now  put  before  us 
most  remarkably  reverse  the  popular 
view.  It  is  Tisza  alone  who  stands  up 
against  Count  Berchtold  and  his  theory 
of  a  "  radical  solution  by  means  of  mili- 
tary intervention."  "The  Hungarian 
Premier,"  we  read,  "  pointed  out  what  a 
frightful  calamity  a  European  war  would 
be  under  present  circumstances,"  and, 
as  far  as  we  can  gather,  he  was  the  only 
person  in  that  Irresponsible  group  who 
did  at  all  consider  a  European  war  as 
in  the  nature  of  a  "  calamity."  It  is  the 
Hungarian  Premier  again  who  objects  to 
forcing  Serbia  into  fighting,  because  that 
will  put  the  empire  in  an  "  impossible 
position  "  in  the  eyes  of  Europe. 

Count  Tisza,  in  fact,  was  the  only 
person  of  authority  in  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Empire  who  may  be  said  to  have 
had  a  European  outlook.  The  rest. 
Counts  Berchtold  and  Stiirkgh  and  Bilin- 
ski,  the  War  Minister  and  the  navy  rep- 
sentative  et  hoc  genus  onme,  were  true 
sons  of  that  provincialism  which  was 
the  mark  of  this  dying  empire.  They 
were  perfectly  capable  of  carving  Serbia 
up  in  their  imaginations,  of  providing 
her  (end  of  the  first  Ministerial  council) 
with  suitable  "  frontier  modifications," 
or,  alternatively,  of  "  reducing  "  her  by 
carving  off  large  slices  and  handing 
these  on  a  platter  to  Rumania  and 
Greece;  they  could  depose  the  Kara- 
georgevich  dynasty  and  thoughtfully 
supply  Serbia  with  a  suitable  new  King 
from  "  somewhere  in  Europe ";  they 
could  put  this  new  King  with  his  little 
kingdom  in  a  pr  jper  state  of  dependency, 
"  military  and  economic,"  on  the  Haps- 
burg  monarchy;  but  not  one  of  these 
men  was  able  to  see  Europe  in  front 
of  him.  There  is  a  kind  of  wild  satire, 
when  we  think  of  the  present  state  of 
what  was  once  the  Hapsburg  empire,  in 
the  argument  of  Count  Stiirkgh,  who 
wanted  the  war  brought  on  quickly,  "  so 


that  our  trade  and  commerce  may  be 
spared  a  long  period  of  unrest."  So 
little  was  he  able  to  understand  what 
were  the  relations  of  his  own  country 
to  Europe  and  what  Europe  would  make 
of  him  and  of  his  like. 

TIMING  THE  BLOW 

These  minutes,  then,  to  a  large  extent 
rehabilitate  the  reputation  of  Count 
Tisza.  But  they  condemn,  even  more 
than  before,  his  entourage.  It  is  ap- 
parent that  both  sides  came  to  these 
councils  with  their  minds  made  up; 
Tisza  had  lost  before  he  had  opened  his 
mouth.  It  was  only  owing  to  his  ex- 
traordinary force  of  character  that  he 
was  able  to  carry  the  question  over  still 
nominally  sub  judice  to  a  second  council, 
and  he  would  not  have  done  so  had  it 
not  suited  the  others  to  admit  a  certain 
delay. 

We  have  a  great  deal  of  mention,  in 
the  letters  which  passed,  as  to  the  exact 
hour  at  which  the  note  shall  be  handed 
over  to  Serbia;  those  who  were  playing 
with  the  destinies  of  continents  were 
punctilious  and  precise  on  the  question 
of  minutes  and  spent  a  considerable 
amount  of  brain  power  in  arguing 
whether  4:30  P.  M.  or  6  P.  M.  would  be 
the  better  hour.  The  timing  was  very 
delicately  done;  Poincare  was  to  have 
left  Petrograd  when  the  news  reached 
the  Czar;  consequently  his  influence 
would  be  lost  to  the  world  while  he  was 
tossing  about  on  the  high  seas;  it  would 
also  look  polite  to  wait  for  the  termina- 
tion of  this  visit;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
first  fine  flair  of  indignation  about 
Serajevo  was  dying  down;  that  which 
was  absolutely  calculated  to  the  minute 
was  to  appear  as  spontaneous  and  nat- 
ural indignation;  but  this  is  a  little  dif- 
ficult when  three  weeks  have  passed, 
and,  finally,  Berlin  was  "  getting  ner- 
vous ";  Berlin,  in  fact,  was  beginning  to 
wake  up  and  some  most  pertinent  in- 
quiries were  coming  through. 

At  that  fatal  council  of  July  7  the 
morning  sitting  had  broken  up  under  a 
threat  of  resignation  from  Count  Tisza. 
The  council  had  wanted  impossible  pro- 
posals to  Serbia  leading  up  to  a  war; 
the  War  Minister  had  tentatively  sug- 
gested that  it  might  even  be  advisable 


LIGHT  ON  AUSTRIA'S  WAR  GUILT 


537 


to  drop  the  impossible  proposals  and  to 
proceed  to  war  sans  phrase,  and  he 
quoted  the  Russo-Japanese  and  the  Bal- 
kan wars,  both  begun  "  without  previous 
declarations  of  war  " ;  Tisza  had  stood 
out  for  proposals,  "hard,  but  not  im- 
possible of  fulfillment."  In  vain  he 
tried  to  buy  off  opposition  of  the  others 
by  dangling  in  front  of  them  "  a  dazzling 
diplomatic  success " ;  they  would  have 
none  of  it.  He,  in  his  turn,  was  equally 
unpersuadable ;  but  in  the  afternoon  they 
overbore  him,  not  by  quality  of  argu- 
ments, but  by  weight  of  numbers,  by  the 
deadly  force  of  the  united,  narrow-mind- 
ed Austro-Hungarian  administration. 
The  contest  was  then  carried  to  the  last 
and  highest  court.  Berchtold  duly  re- 
ported to  the  Emperor  and  was  forced 
by  Tisza  to  carry  with  him  a  memorial 
recommending  a  note  to  Serbia  "  couched 
in  a  moderate,  not  in  a  threatening,  tone, 
containing  our  concrete  complaints  and 
including  definite  demands  connected 
therewith." 

GERMANY'S  SUPPORT 

Tisza 's  appeal  was  in  vain;  the  Berch- 
told policy  scored  a  victory  over  the  cool- 
est brain  and  the  most  determined  will 
in  Europe.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether 
Berchtold  could  have  done  this  without 
making  a  skillful,  though  risky,  use  of 
an  alleged  "  unconditional  support " 
from  Germany. 

We  here  enter  upon  the  complex  ques- 
tion of  the  Austro-German  relations  dur- 
ing the  month  of  July,  1914.  The  for- 
mal side  of  these  relations,  as  they  ap- 
pear in  the  new  Red  Book,  is  as  follows: 
A  personal  letter  on  the  Serajevo  affair 
was  addressed  by  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  to  the  Emperor  William  and 
handed  over  to  the  latter  by  a  special 
emissary,  Count  Hoyos,  on  July  5.  It 
was  not  answered  until  July  14  from 
Bornholm.  Both  documents  are  printed 
at  full  length  in  the  Red  Book;  they  are 
conventional  prpers  drawn  up  under 
Ministerial  advice  and  contain  safe  sen- 
timents of  mutual  esteem  and  support. 
One  now  looks  for  some  report  from  Vi- 
enna to  Berlin,  via  the  two  Foreign  Of- 
fices, of  the  all-important  council  of 
July  7  at  Vienna.  The  astonishing  thing 
is  that  there  never  was  any  such  report. 


Truly  amazing  is  the  way  in  which  Vi- 
enna condescended  to  inform  Berlin  of 
what  she  had  decided.  Imbedded  in  an 
unimportant  communication  to  the  Aus- 
trian representative  at  Berlin,  the  fol- 
lowing sentences  occur: 

Will  your  Excellency  also  communicate 
to  Herr  von  Bethmann  HoUweg  that  a 
joint  Ministerial  council  was  held  here 
yesterday  to  discuss  the  further  meas- 
ures to  be  taken,  and  that  I  am  today 
going  to  Ischl  to  report  to  his  Imperial 
Apostolic  Majesty?  As  soon  as  final  de- 
cisions have  been  taken  (the  date  also 
depends  on  when  the  inquiry  into  Sera- 
jevo is  concluded),  I  will  communicate 
these  without  delay  to  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment.    (Red  Book,  No,  11.) 

And  that  is  all  that  Berlin  ever  heard 
of  either  council  until  the  day  when 
rude  Socialist  fingers  broke  open  the  se- 
cret dossiers  of  either  Foreign  Office. 
Such  was  the  formal  side  of  the  negotia- 
tions between  two  powers  which  were 
popularly  supposed  to  make  up  only  one 
diplomatic  dog  between  them,  where  the 
head  was  supposed  to  growl  and  the  tail 
to  wag  in  perfect  unison. 

But  the  Red  Book  also  reveals  another 
side.  Long  before  Emperor  William  had 
put  pen  to  paper  to  reassure  his  cousin 
and  brother.  Emperor  Francis,  Count 
Berchtold,  at  the  July  7  council,  had 
been  able  to  tell  his  brother  Ministers 
of  Germany's  unqualified  support,  and, 
strange  to  say,  although  he  was  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  forestalling  events,  he  was 
not  altogether  telling  lies. 

THE    KAISER'S    RESPONSIBILITY 
The   fact   is   that   it   is   a   mistake  to 
talk  of  "Vienna"  and  "Berlin";   just 
as  there  were  at  least  two  Viennas,  i.  e., 
Counts  Berchtold   and  Tisza  in   rivalry, 
so  also  were  there  two  Berlins,  in  this 
case  the  Emperor  and  his  Ministers.     In 
so  far  as  the  Emperor  spoke  his  mind, 
while  his  Ministers  remained   sublimely 
asleep,  he  had  the  advantage  over  them. 
That  the   Emperor   spoke  his  mind,   al- 
though he  ivrote  nothing  that  was  not 
safe  and  good,  is  apparent  from  the  fol- 
lowing reports  of  the  Austrian  Ambassa- 
dor at  Berlin  to  his  home  Government: 
At    first    his    Majesty    told    me    that   he 
liad   expected   serious  action  on   our  part 
against  Serbia,   but  he  must  confess  that 
in   consequence   of   the   exposition   of  my 
imperial   sovereign   he   must   consider   the 


538 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


possibility  of  a  serious  European  compli- 
cation, and  therefore  would  give  no  defi- 
nite answer  without  consultation  with 
the  Chancellor.  After  lunch,  when  I 
again  put  the  seriousness  of  the  situation 
with  the  greatest  emphasis,  his  Majesty- 
empowered  me  to  announce  to  our  gra- 
cious sovereign  that  in  this  case,  too,  we 
might  count  on  Germany's  full  support.  As 
said  before,  he  must  wait  to  hear  the 
Chancellor's  opinion,  but  he  had  no  man- 
ner of  doubt  but  that  Herr  von  Bethmann 
HoUweg  would  be  completely  of  his  opin- 
ion. More  especially  would  this  be  true 
in  relation  to  any  action  of  ours  against 
Serbia.  But  in  his  (the  Emperor's)  opin- 
ion this  action  must  not  be  delayed.  Rus- 
sia's attitude  would  certainly  be  hostile; 
but  he  had  been  prepared  for  that  for 
years  past,  and  even  if  it  came  to  a  war 
between  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia,  we 
might  be  convinced  that  Germany  would 
stand  at  our  side  in  wonted  loyalty. 
However,  at  the  present  juncture  Russia 
was  not  at  all  prepared  for  war  and 
would  .certainly  pause  long  before  appeal- 
ing to  arms.  But  she  would  make  in- 
terest against  us  with  the  other  powers 
of  the  Triple  Entente  and  would  fan  the 
flame  in  the  Balkans. 

He  understood  very  well  that  his  Apos- 
tolic Majesty,  with  his  well-known  love  of 
peace,  would  find  it  hard  to  march  into 
Serbia,  but  should  we  really  become  con- 
vinced of  the  need  of  warlike  action 
against  Serbia,  then  he  (Emperor  Will- 
iam) would  regret  our  neglecting  the 
present  very  favorable  opportunity. 
(No.  6.) 
Further  this: 

But  in  addition  to  these  political  con- 
siderations weighing  with  the  Govern- 
ment, there  is  in  the  case  of  Emperor 
'William  a  purely  personal  factor;  this  I 
know  from  a  most  authoritative  source, 
one  very  close  to  his  Majesty's  person; 
that  factor  is  his  superlative  iunbegrevuz- 
ten)  enthusiasm  for  our  gracious  sov- 
ereign, and  for  the  extraordinary  energy 
he  shows  in  his  personal  communication 
in  supporting  the  vital  interests  and  the 
prestige  of  the  lands  committed  to  his 
care.     (July  12,  No.  15.) 

HOW  BERLIN  WAS  INFORMED 

The  Red  Book  contains  also  a  very  in- 
teresting communication  from  Berchtold 
to  Tisza  (No.  10),  in  which  the  former 
tries  to  bear  down  Tisza's  opposition  by, 
so  to  say,  threatening  him  with  the  dis- 
pleasure of  Berlin — a  very  ill-calculated 
movement  over  against  the  proud  Mag- 
yar, who  had  already  remarked  acid]y 
at  the  council  that  "It  was  not  Ger- 
many's place  to  judge  whether  we  should 
deal  a  blow  to  Serbia  or  not." 


It  is  true  that  among  the  early  com- 
munications of  this  Austrian  representa- 
tive at  Berlin,  Count  Szogyeny,  may  be 
found  some  expressions  from  which  one 
might  infer  that  the  German  Ministers 
were  also  agreed  to  the  "  forceful  blow  " 
theory.  But  their  interpretation  of  a 
forceful  blow  deserves  to  be  quoted;  it 
is  (interview  with  Zimmermann  on  July 
4,  No.  5)  to  recommend  "the  greatest 
caution  and  advise  against  putting  hu- 
miliating demands  to  Serbia."  That  is, 
at  an  early  stage.  The  head  of  the  Ger- 
man Foreign  Office  then  went  off  on 
his  honeymoon.  Later,  when  the  alarm 
had  been  sounded,  the  Berlin  authorities 
begin  to  question  Szogyeny.  Two  most 
striking  telegrams  came  from  Szogyeny 
to  his  Government  on  July  21  (Nos.  39 
and  41),  in  which  even  he  took  upon 
himself  the  unprecedented  course  of  dis- 
obeying an  explicit  order.  This  explicit 
order  (it  seems  almost  incredible)  had 
been  only  to  communicate  the  demarche 
at  Belgrade  to  Berlin  simultaneously 
with  communicating  it  to  all  other  Euro- 
pean Cabinets.  Some  paragraphs  of  this 
letter-telegram  deserve  to  be  quoted: 

In  my  telegram  of  today's  date,  No. 
271,  I  had  the  honor  to  announce  to  your 
Excellency  that  in  my  opinion  it  was 
urgently  necessary  to  communicate  the 
note  we  intend  to  hand  on  to  Serbia  on 
the  23d  of  this  month  at  an  earlier  date 
to  Berlin  than  to  the  other  Cabinets,  and, 
indeed,  as  soon  as  may  be. 

Seeing  that  from  the  very  first  moment 
all  authoritative  persons  here  from  the 
Emperor  William  downward  have  prom- 
ised us  their  support  in  the  most  loyal  way 
without  making  the  slightest  difficulty,  I 
think  we  should  avoid  a  state  of  offense 
here  such  as  might  arise  in  that  we,  by 
making  known  our  note  to  Serbia  to  all 
Cabinets  simultaneously,  treat  the  Cab- 
inet of  Germany,  who  is  our  ally,  on  a 
level  with  the  Governments  of  the  other 
great  powers. 

I  therefore  recken  confidently  on  your 
Excellency's  empowering  me  to  communi- 
cate immediately  tu  the  Government  here 
the  information  in  question.  (Annex  to 
Decree  No.  3426,  confidential,  of  the  20th 
of  this  month.)     *    *    * 

Finally,  I  hold  it  incumbent  on  myself 
to  emphasize  to  your  Excellency  that  the 
Secretary  of  State  gave  me  clearly  to  un- 
derstand that  Germany  would  obviously 
support  us  unconditionally  and  with  all 
her  power,  but  that  just  on  this  account 
it  was  of  vital  interest  for  the  German 
Government  to  be  informed  in  good  time 


LIGHT  ON  AUSTRIA'S  WAR  GUILT 


539 


"  whither  we  were  going,"  and,  in  par- 
ticular, whether  we  proposed  a  pro- 
visional occupation  of  Serbian  territory, 
or  whether,  as  Count  Hoyos  himself  al- 
lowed it  to  be  hinted  at  in  the  course  of 
his  last  interview  with  the  Chancellor,  we 
contemplated  a  partition  of  Serbia  as 
ultima  ratio. 

The  rest  of  this  communication  retails 
von  Jagow's  advice  to  do  nothing  with- 
out previous  arrangement  with  Italy, 
which  clearly  proves  that  he  had  no  con- 
ception either  of  the  quality  or  of  the 
pace  of  the  Austrian  diplomacy,  for  Aus- 
tria had  long  since  determined  to  pro- 
ceed without  consulting  Italy. 

To  sum  up,  an  honest  reading  of  this 
Red  Book  makes  the  case  against  Aus- 
tria, and  not  least  the  case  of  her  Ger- 
man ally  against  Austria,  fairly  clear. 
The  Austrian  answer  is,  very  briefly,  a 
categorical  statement  from  Count  Berch- 
told*  that  the  text  of  the  Serbian  note 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  German  Ambas- 
sador at  Vienna,  Count  Tschirschky,  on 
the  morning  of  the  21st,  and  that  it  was 
his  responsibility  to  hand  it  on.  This 
would  seem  confirmed  by  two  short 
documents  (Nos.  47  and  46)  in  the  new 
Red  Book.  Yet  even  this  important  point 
is  not  perfectly  clear,  nor  can  it  be  ar- 
gued that  a  communication  only  two  days 
before  action  was  taken  made  good  the 
dishonest  silence  of  the  previous  fort- 
night. 

STATEMENT  OF  VICTOR  SCHIFF 

In  any  case,  the  following  communica- 
tion— drawn  from  an  unofficial  source — 
seems  of  sufficient  interest  to  bear  quo- 
tation in  extensoy  although  I  do  not  as- 
sert that  it  is  a  final  proof,  or  that  there 
might  not  be  quite  reasonable  explana- 
tions which  would  reconcile  it  with  Count 
Berchtold's  statement.  It  is  a  statement 
by  Victor  Schiff,  published  in  the 
Sozialistische  Korrespondenz : 

In  July,  1914,  I  was  editor  in  the  cen- 
tral Berlin  office  of  Wolff's  Telegraphic 
Bureau.  As  such  I  was  on  duty,  together 
with  other  colleagues,  on  the  evening  of 
July  23,  1914,  when  the  note  of  the  Vienna 
Government,  handed  in  at  Belgrade  at  6 
o'clock,  was  being  expected.  We  all  took 
for  granted  that  it  would  come  through 
by  telephone  from  the  Vienna  official  Cor- 
respondence   Bureau    about    7    o'clock,    at 


*Neue  Freie   Presse,    Oct. 


1919. 


latest  about  7:30*  But  8  o'clock  came, 
half-past  8,  even  9  o'clock,  and  the  ex- 
pected  call   still   did   not   come. 

Meanwhile  the  official  authorities  them- 
selves at  Berlin  began  to  get  nervous ; 
they  rang  us  up  again  and  again.  In  par- 
ticular the  Foreign  Office  and  the  Chan- 
cellery kept  on  calling  us  up:  "What's 
the  matter  with  the  Austrian  note?  What 
does  the  note  say?  Where  is  the  note?  " 
Among  the  official  personages  of  whom  I 
can  say  with  certainty  that  they  asked 
us  questions  of  this  kind,  again  and  again, 
over  the  telephone,  I  will  here  mention 
the  Chief  of  Department  of  that  date  in 
the  Chancellery,  Wahnschaffe,  Bethmann 
HoUweg's  right  hand,  and  Privy  Council- 
or Hamann,  the  doyen  of  the  Foreign 
Office.  On  our  repeated  assurances  that 
we  still  had  nothing  from  Vienna,  these 
gentlemen  begged  us  most  urgently  to 
telephone  on  the  contents  of  the  note  as 
soon  as  it  arrived.  It  was  half-past  9 
before  the  first  call  came  through  from 
the  Vienna  Correspondence  Bureau ;  the 
bureau  began  by  telling  us  that  the  docu- 
ment was  an  unusually  long  one  and 
would  scarcely  be  got  through  in  five 
calls. 

When  this  was  communicated  to  the  au- 
thorities I  have  mentioned  their  nervous- 
ness apparently  increased  more  and  more, 
for  at  first  they  wanted  the  text  to  be 
sent  to  them  by  messengers  as  soon  as 
obtained,  but  afterward— it  was  now  11 
o'clock— they  sent  Councilor  of  Legation 
V.  Weber  down  to  the  Wolff  Bureau,  who 
was  to  wait  for  the  complete  document. 

From  all  these  calls  and  questions  I 
inferred  with  certainty  that  Wilhelm- 
strasse  did  not  know  the  document  handed 
in  at  Belgrade,  neither  as  to  contents,  nor 
as  to  length,  nor  as  to  character.  They 
did  not  know  that  it  was  an  ultimatum,* 
for  they  kept  on  asking  only  for  the  note, 
and  the  request  to  communicate  it  by  tele- 
phone shows  that  they  had  no  notion  of 
the  length  of  the  document.  The  fact  that 
the  Chief  of  the  Chancellery,  Wahn- 
schaffe, was  among  those  who  called  us 
up  shows  that  the  first  officer  of  the  em- 
pire. Chancellor  von  Bethmann  Hollweg, 
knew  as  little  about  the  character  and  the 
contents  of  the  fatal  Berchtold  con- 
coction as  we  knew  ourselves.  It  is  ob- 
viously utterly  impossible  that  any  of 
these  gentlemen  deliberately  set  himself 
to  play  a  part  toward  the  edtiors  of  the 
Wolff    Bureau. 

The  foregoing  is  translated  from 
Vorwarts  of  Sept.  22,  1919,  which  added 
that  Schiff  communicated  this  informa- 
tion  during   the   war,   when  he   was    a 


•The  Foreign  Office  officials  were  in  the 
right;  the  note  was  technically  not  an  ul- 
timatum ;  see  No.  6G  of  the  new  Red  Book. 


540 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


soldier  at  the  front,  to  the  Internationale 
Korrespondenz,  but,  on  application,  both 
the  Foreign  Office  and  the  Wolff  Bu- 
reau informed  that  paper  that,  though 
the  facts  were  true,  it  was  highly  inad- 


visable to  publish  them.  From  these 
facts,  at  length  made  public,  the  reader 
may  be  left  to  make  his  own  summing 
up  of  the  degree  of  Germany's  respon- 
sibility. 


The  Canadian  Farmer  Enters  Politics 


By  CHARLES  W.  STOKES 


THE  rise  of  the  Canadian  farmer  as 
a  political  force  is  one  of  the  re- 
markable social  phenomena  of  the 
last  five  years.  The  word  "  re- 
markable "  is  used  for  several  reasons. 
First,  a  weak,  defensive  alliance  for 
economic  protection  has  become  a  strong 
and  aggressive  alliance  for  political  as- 
sertion. Secondly,  the  movement  in  its 
progress  from  one  to  the  other  has 
financed  itself  by  one  of  the  most  con- 


E.    C.    DRURY 

Premier  of  Ontario  and  leader  of  farmers* 

administration    of    that    Province 


spicuously  successful  co-operative  ven- 
tures in  the  history  of  agriculture. 
Thirdly,  the  farmers'  political  party, 
after  third  parties  innumerable  have 
flickered  a  few  brief  nights  and  then 
disappeared,  is  the  first  serious  challenge 
to  the  traditional  system  of  two  G.  0. 
P.'s  holding  alternate  political  su- 
premacy. And  lastly,  because  of  the 
peculiar  combination  of  circumstances 
inevitable  to  rule  by  a  none-too-powerful 
Coalition  Government,  the  farmers  of 
Canada  practically  hold  the  destinies  of 
their  country  in  the  hollow  of  their 
hands. 

At  the  present  time  eleven  "  United 
Farmer "  members  occupy  the  "  cross 
benches  " — that  political  No  Man's  Land 
from  which  sniping  is  carried  on  in  both 
directions — in  the  new  Parliament  Build- 
ings in  Ottawa.  They  are  not  all  farmer- 
members  in  the  sense  that  they  were 
definitely  elected  on  the  program  of  that 
party;  indeed,  several  of  them  are  old 
members  who  have  merely  moved  over 
from  other  parties  because  they  sensed 
the  fact  that  such  would  be  the  desire 
of  their  constituencies.  A  proposal  has 
been  made  by  themselves,  not  yet  with 
any  popular  acceptance,  to  run  under  the 
colors  of  the  National  Progressive 
Party. 

Eleven  does  not  seem  a  very  powerful 
factor  in  234,  anyway;  but  Canada  is 
governed  by  a  Coalition  party  made  up 
of  115  of  whose  loyalty  it  is  sure 
and  38  who  seceded  during  war- 
time on  a  very  acute  question  of  war 
policy  from  the  party  which  was  and  is 
the  hereditary  enemy  of  the  party  to 
which  the  115  belong.  A  rapid  calcula- 
tion shows  that  should  this  flying- 
wedge  of  dubious  loyalty  revert  to  its 
old  party — as  it  very  likely  might  on  a 


THE  CANADIAN  FARMER  ENTERS  POLITICS 


541 


question  of  historic  policy — it  could  con- 
vert the  at  present  substantial  coalition 
majority  into  a  small  deficit;  while  every 
seat  lost  to  the  new  United  Farmers' 
Party,  or  every  Version  to  them,  hastens 
that  evil  day,  for  while  it  is  uncertain 
how  far  the  United  Farmers  will  go  with 
the  "  opposition  "  it  is  as  broad  as  day- 
light that  they  will  never  go  anywhere 
at  all  with  the  Coalition. 

LAST  YEAR'S  LANDSLIDE 

This  is  in  the  Dominion  house.  Cana- 
da, like  the  United  States,  has  a  Federal 
system,  and  each  of  its  nine,  provinces 
has  its  own  Legislature.  On  Oct.  20  last 
a  general  election  took  place  in  the  most 
populous  and  probably  the  richest  prov- 
ince, Ontario,  to  replace  the  Legislature 
that  had  just  dissolved.  Exactly  similar 
to- the  United  States,  Canada  has  always 
had  two  G.  O.  P.s,  Liberals  and  Con- 
servatives, in  both  Federal  and  provincial 
politics.  Of  the  two,  it  would  be  safe 
to  say  that  minus  its  own  candidate  the 
agricultural  vote  would  usually  be  Lib- 
eral. At  the  date  of  dissolution,  the  On- 
tario Legislature  comprised  77  Conserva- 
tives, 30  Liberals,  2  Independents,  and 
2  "  United  Farmers  of  Ontario." 

Ontario  was  a  good  old  Conservative 
Province,  as  Conservative  as  the  South- 
em  States  are  Democratic;  in  fact,  it 
was  the  boast  of  Conservatives  to  speak 
of  "  good  old,  hide-bound,  rock-ribbed, 
Tory  Ontario."  Liberals  were  not 
ashamed  to  confess  their  own  fears — 
and  as  for  that  fresh  young  outfit  just 
rising  above  the  horizon,  the  United 
Farmers  of  Ontario,  it  was  to  laugh. 
But  something  happened  somewhere. 
This  is  who  was  elected  in  Ontario: 

United   Farmers    45 

Liberals    28 

Conservatives     25 

Labor    11 

Independent    2 

On  the  ruins  of  this  landslide,  there- 
fore, the  United  Farmers  of  Ontario,  in 
coalition  with  Labor,  have  assumed  the 
reins  of  power,  with  a  working  farmer, 
E.  C.  Drury,  as  Premier. 

Seven  days  later  a  series  of  five  "by- 
elections  "  (to  fill  vacancies  created  by 
death,  &c.),  in  the  Federal  House  took 
place.    Farmer  candidates  were  again  of- 


fered. Three  of  them  were  successful  in 
such  widely  separated  Provinces  as  New 
Brunswick,  Ontario  and  Saskatchewan, 
defeating  respectively  a  Consei-vative- 
Coalitionist,  an  Independent-Coalitionist, 
and  a  Liberal.  Then,  after  another  week, 
a  candidate  of  the  United  Farmers  of 
Alberta  defeated  a  Liberal  in  a  by-elec- 
tion for  the  Legislature  of  that  Western 
Province. 

The  farmer  was  thus  suddenly  in  the 
political  ascendant.  The  case  of  the  As- 
siniboia,  Saskatchewan,  Federal  by-elec- 
tion may  not  be  typical,  but  it  is  interest- 
ing. It  is  a  rural  constituency.  There 
being  no  Coalition  or  Conservative  candi- 
date, the  fight  resolved  itself  into  one 
between  a  straight  Liberal  and  a  straight 
"  farmer."  The  Liberal  was  the  Hon.  W. 
R.  Motherwell,  who  is  not  only  a  farmer 


THOMAS    A.    CRERAR 
Former  Federal  3Iinister  of  Agriculture 


542 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


himself  and  was  for  twelve  years  Minis- 
ter of  Agriculture  in  the  Liberal  Admin- 
istration of  the  Province,  but  was  the 
man  in  whose  brain  what  has  since  be- 
come known  as  the  "  Grain  Growers' 
Movement "  took  birth.  Since  that  day, 
nineteen  years  ago,  when  he  was  the  first 
President  of  the  first  Grain  Growers' 
Association  formed  in  Canada,  down  to 
the  present,  when  the  associations  are 
extraordinarily  powerful  combinations, 
he  has  been  intimately  identified  with 
them.  Yet  the  new  party,  an  offshoot 
of  his  own  idea,  turned  him  down  so  de- 
cisively— because  its  official  politics  had 
no  place  for  a  Liberal — that  he  forfeited 
his  election  deposit. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  MOVEMENT 

The  Grain  Growers'  Movement  began 
in  a  small  town  in  Saskatchewan  in  the 
Winter  of  1901.  It  was  at  first  inspira- 
tional and  educative — not  along  profes- 
sional but  rather  on  economic  lines.  It 
crystallized  the  farmers'  economic  griev- 
ances, and  sought  to  obtain  redress  for 
them.  Within  seven  years  were  formed 
the  Saskatchewan  Grain  Growers'  Asso- 
ciation, the  Manitoba  Grain  Growers'  As- 
sociation and  the  United  Farmers  of  Al- 
berta. They  were  something  different 
from  the  Granges  and  Leagues  of  Equity 
that  elsewhere  had  forerun  them.  They 
grew  by  rapid  bounds,  until  they  are  now 
the  voice  of  the  western  farmer.  Their 
officials  are  consulted  by  the  Federal 
Government  on  matters  of  agricultural 
interest  before  action  dare  be  taken. 
Their  annual  conventions,  with  sometimes 
from  1,000  to  1,500  delegates,  are  far 
more  the  Parliaments  of  the  West  than 
the  Legislatures. 

As  has  been  said,  this,  the  idealistic 
side  of  the  movement,  has  been  financed 
by  a  remarkably  successful  business  de- 
partment. In  1906  the  Grain  Growers' 
Grain  Company  of  Winnipeg  was  estab- 
lished as  a  co-operative  line  and  ter- 
minal elevator  company.  It  was  followed 
in  due  course  by  the  Saskatchewan  Co- 
operative Elevator  Company  and  the  Al- 
berta Farmers'  Co-operative  Elevator 
Company,  of  which  the  latter  has  since 
amalgamated  with  the  Grain  Growers' 
Grain  Company  as  the  United  Grain 
Growers,  Limited. 


Almost  unexampled  in  the  history  of 
co-operation — or,  at  least,  of  agricultural 
co-operation— has  been  the  success  of 
these  commercial  activities.  From  run- 
ning that  little  elevator  company  they 
have  expanded  until  now  they  not  only 
act  as  selling  agents  for  all  that  their 
members  can  produce,  but  also  as  pur- 
chasing agents  for  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  their  staple  needs,  such  as 
coal,  lumber,  flour,  apples,  fencing  ma- 
chinery, &c.  The  subscribed  capital  of 
these  two  companies  now  exceeds  $6,000,- 
000,  with  a  volume  of  business  in  1918 
of  $202,000,000  and  a  dividend  to  61,000 
farmer  shareholders  of  10  and  8  per 
cent.,  respectively.  The  two  companies 
now  own  and  operate  altogether  over  600 
elevators. 

EFFICIENT  LEADERS 

The  farmers  were  very  fortunate  in 
that  they  attracted  men  as  executives 
who  were  not  only  in  fullest  sympathy 
with  their  ideals,  but  were  also  extreme- 
ly good  business  men.  Among  them, 
for  instance,  was  Thomas  A.  Crerar,  now 
President  of  the  United  Grain  Growers, 
Ltd.  Mr.  Crerar  piloted  the  old  Grain 
Growers'  Grain  Company  so  successfully 
that  when,  in  1917,  Sir  Robert^^  Borden, 
Conservative  Premier  of  Canada,  dis- 
solved his  Government  and  formed  a 
Union  Government  of  all  parties  for  the 
more  active  prosecution  of  the  war  he 
appointed  Mr.  Crerar,  who  had  hitherto 
never  engaged  in  politics,  to  the  post  of 
Federal  Minister  of  Agriculture — than 
which  no  appointment,  at  that  acute  mo- 
ment in  the  production  and  consumption 
of  food,  could  have  been  wiser.  This 
post  Mr.  Crerar  held  until  last  Summer; 
he  is  now  the  leader  of  the  eleven  who 
sit  on  the  cross-benches,  defying  Union 
Government. 

In  1910  the  Canadian  Council  of  Agri- 
culture was  formed,  a  consolidation  for 
purposes  of  more  forcible  expression  of 
the  various  educative  and  co-operative 
organization.  The  council  first  stepped 
into  the  limelight  when  in  the  Spring  of 
1917  it  refused,  in  the  name  of  the 
western  wheat  growers,  the  offer  of  the 
first  proposed  fixed  price  for  wheat, 
$1.30.  Up  till  1914  the  movement  had 
been  purely  a  western  one,  but  in  that 


THE  CANADIAN  FARMER  ENTERS  POLITICS 


543 


year  it  came  down  and  contributed  both 
men  and  money  to  the  formation  of  the 
United  Fanners  of  Ontario  and  the 
United  Farmers'  Co-operative  Company 
of  the  same  province.  Premier  Drury  of 
Ontario  was  the  first  President  of  the 
former  organization  and  is  still  a  direc- 
tor of  the  latter.  The  total  farmer  mem- 
bership of  this  one  eastern  and  these 
various  western  organizations  is  now 
150,000.  There  are  others  not  yet  affil- 
iated, the  United  Farmers  of  New  Bruns- 
wick and  the  United  Farmers  of  British 
Columbia. 

FARMERS*  POLITICAL  ATTITUDE 

This  is  the  sub-structure  upon  which 
the  farmers'  political  aspirations  are 
based.  After  using  the  existing  parties 
as  far  as  possible,  the  farmers  have  ap- 
parently become  dissatisfied,  and  have 
entered  their  own  candidates,  with  the 
results  indicated  above.  It  would  seem 
that  they  have  committed  themselves, 
tacitly  at  least,  to  insistence  upon  recog- 
nition as  a  class.  President  H.  W.  Wood 
of  the  United  Farmers  of  Alberta,  who 
is  also  President  of  the  Canadian  Council 
of  Agriculture,  said  at  the  annual  con- 
vention in  January: 

I  believe  in  economic  class  group  organi- 
zation, but  I  do  not  believe  in  class  legis- 
lation, and  no  one  has  ever  heard  me  ad- 
vocate either  class  legislation  or  class 
domination. 

Premier  Drury  of  Ontario  said,  shortly 
after  being  elected: 

It  is  true  in  a  sense  that  we  represent 
the  farming  community,  and  in  all  truth 
that  section  of  the  people  has  been  in 
great  need  for  many  years  of  a  greater 
voice  in  the  Legislature.  But  in  a  very 
real  sense  we  represent  not  only  the  40 
per  cent,  of  the  people  who  are  on  the 
farm,  but  also  the  great  bulk  of  the  com- 
mon people  everywhere.  We  must  stand 
for  no  class  leg-islation  of  any  kind. 

Both  gentlemen,  it  would  seem,  found 
it  necessary  to  reassure  the  common  peo- 
ple everywhere  on  that  point. 

As  things  stand,  the  majority  of  the 
different  organizations  are  committed  to 
political  action  upon  the  platforms  they 
have  laid  down,  their  machinery  being 
not  the  existing  parties  but  their  own 
party.  Their  platforms  are  quite 
lengthy,  but  in  the  main  they  follow  the 
Liberal  platform,  except  that  they  place 


greater  insistence  upon  the  question  of 
tariff  reduction.  They  also  seem  anxious 
to  extend  the  policy  of  nationalization 
much  further  than  at  present. 

HOSTILE  TO  THE  TARIFF 

I  said  at  the  beginning  that  the  farm- 
ers of  Canada  are  practically  in  control 
of  the  political  future  of  their  country. 
It  is  the  question  of  the  tariff  that  may 


W.    R.    MOTHERWELL 
Until  recently  Provincial  Minister  of  Agri- 
culture  in   Saskatchewan 


cause  the  upheaval.  Canada  has  always 
been  a  tariff  country;  even  the  Liberal 
Party,  which  has  always  advocated  the 
reduction  of  the  tariff,  has  never  advo- 
cated its  abolition — except  once.  That 
"  once  "  was  the  ill-fated  episode  in  1911 
of  reciprocity  with  the  United  States, 
which  virtually  shipwrecked  the  trium- 
phant career  of  its  sponsor,  the  late  Sir 
Wilfrid  Laurier. 

But  the  farmer  who  is  in  politics  not 
only  wants  tariff  reduction,  he  wants  tar- 
iff abolition,  especially  with  the  United 
States  and  with  Great  Britain,  and  es- 
pecially upon  those  articles  which  he 
uses  in  his  business,  and  which  he  im- 


544 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ports  from  either  of  those  countries.  The 
protected  interests  in  Canada  are  ready, 
I  think,  to  fight  him  to  a  showdown; 
but  the  method  by  which  the  farmer  pro- 
poses to  get  the  tariff  abolished  is  much 
easier  and  more  direct. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  pres- 
ent Government  is  a  Union  one,  com- 
posed of  high-tariff  Conservatives  and 
low-tariff  Liberals.  The  latter  seceded 
from  Laurier,  not  upon  a  question  of  the 
tariff,  but  upon  whether  conscription  was 
or  was  not  a  good  thing  for  Canada. 
They  thought  it  was.  But  suppose  some 
one  were  to  introduce  a  measure  calling 
for  the  downward  revision  of  the  tariff. 


This  is  part  of  the  Liberal's  creed, 
whether  he  believes  in  conscription  or 
not.  It  would  not  need  all  the  Unionist- 
Liberals  to  revert  back  to  wipe  the  Con- 
servative-Unionists out;  supposing,  how- 
ever, that  some  of  them  held  back,  there 
would  still  be  the  sturdy  eleven  farmer 
members  on  the  cross  benches.  So  the 
number  of  the  latter  will  probably  grow, 
for  every  one  added  to  it  weakens  the 
Government  without  strengthening  the 
official  Opposition,  and  every  vacancy 
that  occurs  is  likely  to  be  fought  out  by 
the  farmer  with  the  wild  strength  that 
has  come  from  his  successes  of  the  last 
six  months. 


Canadian  Minister  to  the  United  States 


It  was  officially  announced  on  May 
10,  1920,  by  the  British  Embassy  at 
Washington  that  Canada  would  be  rep- 
resented in  this  country  by  a  resident 
Minister,  this  being  a  further  step  in 
recognition  of  the  complete  independence 
of  Canada.  It  was  generally  understood 
that  the  appointment  would  be  made  in 
the  Fall.  Sir  Robert  Borden,  former 
Premier  of  Canada,  was  mentioned  as 
likely  to  become  the  first  Canadian  Min- 
ister at  Washington.  The  official  an- 
nouncement follows: 

As  a  result  of  recent  discussions  an 
arrangement  has  been  concluded  between 
the  British  and  Candian  Governments  to 
provide  more  complete  representation  of 
Canadian  interests  at  Washington  than 
has  hitherto  existed.  Accordingly,  it  has 
been  agreed  that  his  Majesty,  on  the 
advice  of  his  Canadian  Ministers,  shall 
appoint  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  who 
will  have  charge  of  Canadian  affairs  and 
will  at  all  times  be  the  ordinary  channel 
of  communication  with  the  United  States 
Government  in  matters  of  purely  Cana- 
dian concern,  acting  upon  instructions 
from  and  reporting  direct  to  the  Canadian 
Government.  In  the  absence  of  the  Am- 
bassador the  Canadian  Minister  will  take 


charge  of  the  whole  embassy  and  of  the 
representation  of  imperial  as  well  as 
Canadian  interests.  He  will  be  accredited 
by  his  Majesty  to  the  President,  with  the 
necessary   powers    for    the    purpose. 

This  new  arrangement  will  not  denote 
any  departure  either  on  the  part  of  the 
British  Governor  or  of  the  Canadian 
Government  from  the  principle  of  the 
diplomatic    unity   of    the    British    Empire. 

The  need  for  this  important  step  has 
been  fully  realized  by  both  Governments 
for  some  time.  For  a  good  many  years 
there  has  been  direct  communication  be- 
tween Ottawa  and  Washington,  but  the 
constantly  increasing  importance  of  Cana- 
dian interests  in  the  United  States  has 
made  it  apparent  that  in  addition  Canada 
should  be  represented  there  in  some  dis- 
tinctive manner,  for  this  would  doubtless 
tend  to  expedite  negotiations,  and,  nat- 
urally, first-hand  acquaintance  with  Cana- 
dian conditions  would  promote  good  un- 
derstanding. 

In  view  of  the  peculiarly  close  relations 
that  have  always  existed  between  the 
people  of  Canada  and  those  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  confidently  expected  as  well 
that  this  new  step  will  have  the  very  de- 
sirable result  of  maintaining  and  strength- 
ening the  friendly  relations  and  co-opera- 
tion between  the  British  Empire  and  the 
United   States. 


The  Jugoslav  Minorities  Treaty 

Text   of   the   Pact   That   Assures   Liberty   to    All    Classes    of 
Citizens  in  Greater  Serbia 


WHEN  the  principal  allied  and 
associated  powers  dictated 
peace  terms  to  Germany  and 
Austria-Hungary  they  also 
resented  to  the  newly  created  States 
of  Central  Europe — and  to  those  so 
greatly  enlarged  by  the  war  as  to  be 
virtually  new — a  series  of  supplementary 
treaties  in  which  each  of  these  new  States 
promised  the  Allies  to  give  complete  in- 
dividual freedom,  regardless  of  race,  re- 
ligion, or  language,  to  every  minority 
group  in  its  population.  Poland  signed 
a  minorities  treaty  of  this  kind  without 
hesitation  at  the  time  that  peace  was 
signed  with  Germany.  The  text  of  that 
pact  was  published  in  Current  History, 
August,  1919.  The  delegates  of  both 
Rumania  and  Jugoslavia,  however,  when 
their  turn  came  a  few  months  later,  de- 
clared that  they  could  not  sign  such  a 
document  without  consulting  their  Gov- 
ernments. Rumania  withheld  her  con- 
sent for  three  months ;  finally,  on  Dec.  9, 
1919,  after  receiving  an  ultimatum  from 
the  Supreme  Council,  her  representative 
in  Paris  signed  both  the  Austrian  peace 
treaty  and  the  minorities  treaty.  The 
text  of  the  latter  was  published  by 
Current  History  in  its  issue  of  March, 
1920. 

The  minorities  treaty  handed  to  Jugo- 
slavia was  signed  by  her  delegates  under 
protest  on  Sept.  10,  1919.  The  Jugo- 
slavs, like  the  Rumanians,  contended  that 
the  minority  clauses  amounted  to  an  in- 
fringement of  their  sovereignty.  On  this 
ground  the  Davidovitch  Government  re- 
signed two  days  after  the  treaty  was 
signed,  placing  also  on  record  its  con- 
vinced opposition  to  the  stipulations  of 
the  peace  treaties  with  Austria  and 
Bulgaria.  These  last  were  signed  by 
Jugoslavia  only  on  Dec.  5,  1919. 

TEXT  OF  THE  TREATY 

The  full  text  of  the  Jugoslav  treaty 
promising  equal  rights  to  all  citizens, 
irrespective  of  race  or  religion,  as  trans- 


lated by  The   Contemporary  Review,  is 
as  follows: 

The  United  States  of  America,  the  British 
Empire,  France,  Italy  and  Japan,  the  prvtv- 
cipal  allied  and  associated  powers,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
on  the  other  hand: 

HXUhtttSl^*  Since  the  commencement  of  the 
year    1913    extensive    territories 
have  been  added  to  the  Kingdom  of  Serbia, 
and 

(Ltl|)ttt9|S^>  "^^^  Serb,  Croat  and  Slovene 
peoples  of  the  former  Austro- 
Hungarian  Monarchy  have  of  their  own  free 
will  determined  to  unite  with  i'erbia  in  a 
permanent  union  for  the  purpose  of  forming 
a  single  sovereign  independent  State  under 
the  title  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats 
and  Slovenes,   and 

(lJt[l|)ttt90>  The  Prince  Regent  of  Serbia 
and  the  Serbian  Government 
have  agreed  to  this  union,  and  in  conse- 
quence the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats  and 
Slovenes  has  been  constituted  and  has  as- 
si*med  sovereignty  over  the  territories  in- 
habited by  these  peoples,  and 
{lSl|^tt0ft!^>  It  is  necessary  to  regulate  cer- 
tain matters  of  international 
concern  arising  out  of  the  said  additions  of 
territory   and   of   this   union,    and 

CiiQld^t^ftiSf*  ^^  ^^  desired  to  free  Serbia 
from  certain  obligations  which 
she  undertook  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  of 
1878  to  certain  powers  and.  to  substitute  for 
them  obligations  to  the  League  of  Nations, 
and 

i^^ttt^^t  The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
of  its  own  free  will  desires  to 
give  to  the  populations  of  all  territories  in- 
cluded within  the  State,  of  whatever  race, 
language  or  religion  they  may  be,  full 
gMarantees  that  they  shall  continue  to  be 
governed  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
of  liberty  and  justice ; 

For  this  purpose  the  high  contracting  par- 
ties have  appointed  as  their  plenipotentiaries  : 
[Here  follow  the  names  of  plenipotentiaries.] 

Who,  after  having  exchanged  their  full 
powers,  found  in  good  and  due  form,  have 
agreed  as  follows: 

The  principal  allied  and  associated  powers, 
taking  into  consideration  the  obligations  con- 
tracted under  the  present  treaty  by  the  Serb- 
Croat-Slovene  State,  declare  that  the  Serb- 
Croat-Slovene  State  is  definitely  discharged 
from  the  obligations  undertaken  in  Article 
35  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  of  July  13,  1878. 


546 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


CHAPTER  I. 

ARTICI.E  1— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
undertakes  that  the  stipulations  contained  in 
Articles  2  to  8  of  this  chapter  shall  be 
recognized  as  fundamental  laws,  and  that  no 
law,  regulation  or  official  action  shall  con- 
flict or  interfere  with  these  stipulations,  nor 
shall  any  law,  regulation  or  official  action 
prevail  over  them. 

ARTICLE  2— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
undertakes  to  assure  full  and  complete  pro- 
tection of  life  and  liberty  to  all  inhabitants 
of  the  kingdom  without  distinction  of  birth, 
nationality,  race  or  religion. 

All  inhabitants  of  the  Kingdom  of  the 
Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes  shall  be  entitled 
to  the  free  exercise,  whether  public  or  pri- 
vate, of  any  creed,  religion  or  belief,  whose 
practices  are  not  inconsistent  with  public 
order  or  public  morals. 

ARTlCLiE  3— Subject  to  the  special  pro- 
visions of  the  treaties  mentioned  below  the 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  admits  and  declares 
to  be  Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationals  ipso  facto 
and  without  the  requirement  of  any  formal- 
ity Austrian,  Hungarian  or  Bulgarian  na- 
tionals habitually  resident  or  possessing 
rights  of  citizenship  (pertinenza,  heimats- 
recht)  as  the  case  may  be  at  the  date  of  the 
coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty  in 
territory  which  is  or  may  be  recognized  as 
forming  part  of  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
State  under  the  treaties  with  Austria,  Hun- 
gary or  Bulgaria  respectively,  or  under  any 
treaties  which  may  be  concluded  for  the 
purpose  of  completing  the  present  settle- 
ment. 

Nevertheless,  the  persons  referred  to 
above  who  are  over  18  years  of  age  will  be 
entitled  under  the  conditions  contained  in 
the  said  treaties  to  opt  for  any  other  nation- 
ality which  may  be  open  to  them.  Option 
by  a  husband  will  cover  his  wife,  and  option 
by  parents  will  cover  their  children  under  18 
years  of  age. 

Persons  who  have  exercised  the  above  right 
to  opt  must  within  the  succeeding  twelve 
months  transfer  their  place  of  residence  to 
the  State  for  which  they  have  opted.  They 
will  be  entitled  to  retain  their  immovable 
property  in  the  territory  of  the  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  State.  They  may  carry  with  them 
their  movable  property  of  every  description. 
No  export  duties  may  be  imposed  upon  them 
in  connection  with  the  removal  of  such  prop- 
erty. 

ARTICLE  4— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
admits  and  declares  to  be  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
nationals  ipso  facto  and  without  the  require- 
ment of  any  formality  persons  of  Austrian, 
Hungarian  or  Bulgarian  nationality  who 
were  born  in  the  said  territory  of  parents 
habitually  resident  or  possessing  rights  of 
citizenship  (pertinenza,  heimatsrecht)  as  the 
case  may  be  there,  even  if  at  the  date  of 
the  coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty 
they  are  not  themselves  habitually  resident 
or  did  not  possess  rights  of  citizenship 
there. 


Nevertheless,  within  two  years  after  the 
coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty,  these 
persons  may  make  a  declaration  before  the 
competent  Serb-Croat-Slovene  authorities  in 
the  country  in  which  they  are  resident,  stat- 
ing that  they  abandon  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
nationality,  and  they  will  then  cease  to  be 
considered  as  Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationals. 
In  this  connection  a  declaration  by  a  hus- 
band will  cover  his  wife,  and  a  declaration 
by  parents  will  cover  their  children  under  18 
years  of  age. 

ARTICLE  5— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
undertakes  to  put  no  hindrance  in  the  way 
of  the  exercise  of  the  right  which  the  persons 
concerned  have,  under  the  treaties  concluded 
or  to  be  concluded  by  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  with  Austria,  Bulgaria  or 
Hungary,  to  choose  whether  or  not  they  will 
acquire  Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationality. 

ARTICLE  6— All  persons  born  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  who 
are  not  born  nationals  of  another  State  shall 
ipso  facto  become  Serb-Croat-Slovene  na- 
tionals. 

ARTICLE  7— All  Serb-Croat-Slovene  na- 
tionals shall  be  equal  before  the  law  and 
shall  enjoy  the  same  civil  and  political  rights 
without  distinction  as  to  race,  language  or 
religion. 

Difference  of  religion,  creed  or  confession 
shall  not  prejudice  any  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
national  in  matters  relating  to  the  enjoyment 
of  civil  or  political  rights,  as,  for  instance, 
admission  to  public  employments,  functions 
and  honors,  or  the  exercise  of  professions 
and  industries. 

No  restriction  shall  be  imposed  on  the  free 
use  by  any  Serb-Croat-Slovene  national  of 
any  language  in  private  intercourse,  in  com- 
merce, in  religion,  in  the  press  or  in  publica- 
tions of  any  kind,  or  at  public  meetings. 

Notwithstanding  any  establishment  by  the 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  Government  of  an  official 
language,  adequate  facilities  shall  be  given 
to  Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationals  of  other 
speech  than  that  of  the  official  language  for 
the  use  of  their  own  language,  either  orally 
or  in  writing,  before  the  courts. 

ARTICLE  8— Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationals 
who  belong  to  racial,  religious  or  linguistic 
minorities  shall  enjoy  the  same  treatment 
and  security  in  law  and  in  fact  as  the  other 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  nationals.  In  particular 
they  shall  have  an  equal  right  to  establish, 
manage  and  control  at  .their  own  expense 
charitable,  religious  and  social  institutions, 
schools  and  other  educational  establishments, 
with  the  right  to  use  their  own  language 
and  to  exercise  their  religion  freely  therein. 

ARTICLE  9— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  Gov- 
ernment will  provide  in  the  public  educa- 
tional system  in  towns  and  districts  in  which 
a  considerable  proportion  of  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  nationals  of  other  speech  than  that 
of  the  official  language  are  resident  ade- 
quate facilities  for  insuring  that  in  the 
primary  schools  the  instruction  shall  be  given 
to  the  children  of  such  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
nationals   through   the  medium   of  their  own 


THE  JUGOSLAV  MINORITIES  TREATY 


547 


language.  This  provision  shall  not  prevent 
the  Serb-Croat-Slovene  Government  from 
making  the  teaching  of  the  official  language 
obligatory   in   the   said   schools. 

In  towns  and  districts  where  there  is  a 
considerable  proportion  of  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
nationals  belonging  to  racial,  religious  or 
linguistic  minorities,  these  minorities  shall  be 
assured  an  equitable  share  in  the  enjoyment 
and  application  of  the  sums  which  may  be 
provided  out  of  public  funds  under  the  State, 
municipal  or  other  budget,  for  educational, 
religious   or  charitable  purposes. 

The  provisions  of  the  present  article  apply 
only  to  territory  transferred  to  Serbia  or  to 
the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats  and 
Slovenes   since   Jan.    1,    1913. 

ARTICLE  10— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
agrees  to  grant  to  the  Mussulmans  in  the 
matter  of  family  law  and  personal  status 
provisions  suitable  for  regulating  these  mat- 
ters in  accordance  with  Mussulman  usage. 

The  Serb-Croat-'Slovene  State  shall  take 
measures  to  assure  the  nomination  of  a 
Beiss-Ul-Ulema. 

The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  undertakes  to 
insure  protection  to  the  mosques,  cemeteries 
and  other  Mussulman  religious  establish- 
ments. Full  recognition  and  facilities  shall 
be  assured  to  Mussulman  pious  foundations 
(Wakfs)  and  religious  and  cliaritable  estab- 
lishments now  existing,  and  the  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  Government  shall  not  refuse  any  of 
the  necessary  facilities  for  the  creation  of 
new  religious  and  charitable  establishments 
guaranteed  to  other  private  establishments 
of  this  nature. 

ARTICLE  11— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
agrees  that  the  stipulations  in  th  foregoing 
articles,  so  far  as  they  affect  persons  be- 
longing to  racial,  religious  or  linguistic 
minorities,  constitute  obligations  of  interna- 
tional concern  and  shall  be  placed  under  the 
guaranteed  to  ot^  ^r  private  establishments 
shall  not  be  modified  without  the  consent  of 
the  council  of  the  League  of  Nations.  The 
United  States,  the  British  Empire,  France, 
Italy  and  Japan  hereby  agree  not  to  withhold 
their  assent  from  any  modification  in  these 
articles  which  is  in  due  form  assented  to  by 
a  majority  of  the  council  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  agrees  that 
any  member  of  the  council  of  the  League  of 
Nations  shall  have  the  right  to  bring  to  the 
attention  of  the  council  any  infraction,  or 
any  danger  of  infraction,  of  any  of  these 
obligations,  and  that  the  council  may  there- 
upon take  such  action  and  give  such  direc- 
tions as  it  may  deem  proper  a  -i  effective 
In  the  circumstances. 

The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  further  agrees 
that  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  ques- 
tions of  law  or  fact  arising  out  of  these 
articles  between  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
State  and  any  one  of  the  principal  allied  and 
associated  powers  or  any  other  power  a 
member  of  the  council  of  the  League  of  Na- 


tions shall  be  hel4  to  be  a  dispute  of  an 
international  character  under  Article  14  of 
the  covenant  of  the  League  of  Nations.  The 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  hereby  consents 
that  any  such  dispute  shall,  if  the  other 
party  thereto  demands,  be  referred  to  the 
Permanent  Court  of  International  Justice. 
The  decision  of  the  permanent  court  shall  be 
final  and  shall  have  the  same  force  and 
effect  as  an  award  under  Article  13  of  the 
covenant. 

CHAPTER  II. 

ARTICLE  12— Pending  the  conclusion  of 
new  treaties  or  conventions,  all  treaties,  con- 
ventions, agreements  and  obligations  between 
Serbia  on  the  one  hand  and  any  of  the  prin- 
cipal allied  and  associated  powers  on  the 
other  hand,  which  were  in  force  on  Aug.  1, 
1914,  or  which  have  since  been  entered  into, 
shall  ipso  facto  be  binding  upon  the  Serb- 
Croat-Slovene  State. 

ARTICLE  13— The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State 
undertakes  to  make  no  treaty,  convention  or 
arrangement  and  to  take  no  other  action 
which  will  prevent  her  from  joining  in  any 
general  convention  for  the  equitable  treat- 
ment of  the  commerce  of  other  States  that 
may  be  concluded  under  the  auspices  of  the 
League  of  Nations  within  five  years  from 
the  coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty. 

The  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  also  under- 
takes to  extend  to  all  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  any  favors  or  privileges  in 
customs  matters  which  it  may  grant  during 
the  same  period  of  five  years  to  any  State 
with  which  since  August,  1914,  the  allied  and 
associated  powers  have  been  at  war,  or  to 
any  State  which  in  virtue  of  Article  222  of 
the  treaty  with  Austria  has  special  customs 
arrangements  with  such  States. 

ARTICLE  14— Pending  the  conclusion  of 
the  general  convention  referred  to  above,  the 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  undertakes  to  treat 
on  the  same  footing  as  national  vessels  or 
vessels  of  the  most-favored  nation  the  vessels 
of  all  the  allied  and  associated  powers  which 
accord  similar  ^^atment  to  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  vessels.  As  an  exception  frjri  this 
provision,  the  right  of  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
State  or  of  any  other  allied  or  associated 
power  to  confine  its  maritime  coasting  trade 
to  national  vessels  is  expressly  reserved.  The 
allied  and  associated  powers  further  agree 
not  to  claim  under  this  article  the  benefit  of 
agreements  which  the  States  obtaining  terri- 
tory formerly  belonging  to  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Monarchy  may  conclude  as  regards 
coasting  traffic  between  the  ports  of  the 
Adriatic   Sea. 

ARTICLE  15— Pending  the  conclusion  under 
the  auspices  of  the  League  of  Nations  of  a 
general  convention  to  secure  and  maintain 
freedom  of  communications  and  of  transit 
the  Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  undertakes  to 
accord  freedom  of  transit  to  persons,  goods, 
vessels,  carriages,  wagons  and  mails  in  tran- 
sit to  or  from  any  allied  or  associated  State 


548 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


over  Serb-Croat-Slovene  territory,  including 
territorial  waters,  and  to  treat  them  at  least 
as  favorably  as  Serb-Croat-Slovene  persons, 
goods,  vessels,  carriages,  wagons  and  mails 
respectively  or  those  of  any  more  favored 
nationality,  origin,  importation  or  ownership, 
as  regards  facilities,  charges,  restrictions 
and   all   other   matters. 

All  charges  imposed  in  the  territory  of  the 
Serb-Croat-Slovene  State  on  such  traffic  in 
transit  shall  be  reasonable  having  regard  to 
the  conditions  of  the  traffic.  Goods  in  tran- 
sit shall  be  exempt  from  all  customs  or  other 
duties. 

Tariffs  for  transit  across  the  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  State  and  tariffs  between  the  Serb- 
Croat-Slovene  State  and  any  allied  or  asso- 
ciated power  involving  through  tickets  or 
waybills  shall  be  established  at  the  request 
of  the  allied  or  associated  power  concerned. 

Freedom  of  transit  will  extend  to  postal, 
telegraphic  and  telephone  services. 

Provided  that  no  allied  or  associated  power 
can  claim  the  benefit  of  these  provisions  on 
behalf  of  any  part  of  its  territory  in  which 
reciprocal  treatment  is  not  accorded  in  re- 
spect of  the  same  subject  matter. 

If  within  a  period  of  five  years  from  the 
coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty  no 
general  convention  as  aforesaid  shall  have 
been  concluded  under  the  auspices  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
State  shall  be  at  liberty  at  any  time  there- 
after to  give  twelve  months'  notice  to  the 
Secretary  General  of  he  League  of  Nations 
to  terminate  the  obligations  of  this  article. 


ARTICLE  16— All  rights  and  privileges  ac- 
corded by  the  foregoing  articles  to  the  allied 
and  associated  powers  shall  be  accorded 
equally  to  all  States  members  of  the  League 
of  Nations. 

The  present  treaty,  in  French,  in  English 
and  in  Italian,  of  which  in  case  of  di- 
vergence the  French  text  shall  prevail,  shall 
be  ratified.  It  shall  come  into  force  at  the 
same  time  as  the  treaty  of  peace  with 
Austria. 

The  deposit  of  ratifications  shall  be  made 
at   Paris. 

Powers  of  which  the  seat  of  the  Govern- 
ment is  outside  Europe  will  be  entitled  merely 
to  inform  the  Government  of  the  French 
Republic  through  their  diplomatic  representa- 
tive at  Paris  that  their  ratification  has  been 
given ;  in  that  case  they  must  transmit  the 
instrument  of  ratification  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. 

A  procfes-verbal  of  the  deposit  of  ratifica- 
tions will  be  drawn  up. 

The  French  Government  will  transmit  to  all 
the  signatory  powers  a  certified  copy  of  the 
proc^s-verbal  of  the  deposit  of  ratifications. 

In  faith  whereof  the  ubove-named  plenipo- 
tentiaries have  signed  the  present  treaty. 

Done  at  Saint-Germain-en-Laye,  the  tenth 
day  of  September,  one  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  nineteen,  in  a  single  copy  which  will 
remain  deposited  in  the  archieves  of  the 
French  Republic,  and  of  which  authenticated 
copies  will  be  transmitted  to  each  of  the 
signatory  powers. 

[Here  follow  the  signatures.'] 


Text  of  Bulgaria's  Minority  Guarantees 

Important   Clauses  of  Peace  Treaty 


THE  treaty  of  peace  between  the  al- 
lied and  associated  powers  and  Bul- 
garia, which  was  signed  at  Neuilly- 
sur-Seine,  Nov.  27,  1919,  contains  special 
provisions  for  the  protection  of  minori- 
ties. These  clauses  differ  in  some  re- 
spects from  those  on  the  same  subject  in 
the  treaties  signed  by  Rumania  and 
Jugoslavia. 

The  text  of  the  section  of  the  Bul- 
garian Treaty  dealing  with  this  ques- 
tion is  as  follows: 

SECTION  IV.— PROTECTION  OF 
MINORITIES 

ARTICL.E  49— Bulg-aria  undertakes  that  the 
stipulations  contained  in  this  section  shall 
be  recognized  as  fundamental  laws,  and  that 
no  law,  regulation  or  official  action  shall 
conflict   or  Interfere  with  these  stipulations, 


nor  shall  any  law,  regulation  or  official  ac- 
tion prevail  over  them. 

ARTlCIiE  50— Bulgaria  undertakes  to  as- 
sure full  and  complete  protection  of  life  and 
liberty  to  all  inhabitants  of  Bulgaria  with- 
out distinction  of  birth,  language,  race  or 
religion. 

All  inhabitants  of  Bulgaria  shall  be  en- 
titled to  the  free  exercise,  whether  public  or 
private,  of  any  creed,  religion  or  belief, 
whose  practices  are  not  inconsistent  with 
public  order  or  public  morals. 

ARTICL-E  51— Bulgaria  admits  and  declares 
to  be  Bulgarian  nationals  ipso  facto  and 
without  the  requirement  of  any  formality  all 
persons  who  are  habitually  resident  within 
Bulgarian  territory  at  the  date  of  the  com- 
ing into  force  of  the  present  treaty  and  who 
are  not  nationals  of  any  other  State. 

ARTICLE  52— All  persons  born  in  Bulga- 
rian territory  who  are  not  born  nationals  of 
another  State  shall  ipso  facto  become  Bul- 
garian nationals. 


TEXT   OF  BULGARIA'S  MINORITY   GUARANTEES 


549 


ARTICLE  53— All  Bulg-arlan  nationals  shall 
be  equal  before  the  law  and  shall  enjoy  the 
same  civil  and  political  rights  without  dis- 
tinction as  to  race,  language  or  religion. 

Difference  of  religion,  creed  or  profession 
shall  not  prejudice  any  Bulgarian  national 
in  matters  relating  to  the  enjoyment  of  civil 
or  political  rights,  as,  for  instance,  admis- 
sion to  public  employments,  functions  and 
honors,  or  the  exercise  of  professions  and 
industries. 

No  restriction  shall  be  Imposed  on  the  fi'ee 
use  by  any  Bulgarian  national  of  any  lan- 
guage in  private  intercourse,  in  commerce, 
in  religion,  in  the  press  or  in  publications 
of  any  kind,  or  at  public  meetings. 

Notwithstanding  any  establishment  by  the 
Bulgarian  Government  of  an  official  lan- 
guage, adequate  facilities  shall  be  given  to 
Bulgarian  nationals  of  non-Bulgarian  speech 
for  the  use  of  their  language,  either  orally 
or  in  writing,  before  the  courts. 

ARTlCIiE  54— Bulgarian  nationals  who  be- 
long to  racial,  religious  or  linguistic  minori- 
ties shall  enjoy  the  same  treatment  and  se- 
curity in  law  and  in  fact  as  the  other  Bul- 
garian nationals.  In  particular  they  shall 
have  an  equal  right  to  establish,  manage 
and  control  at  their  own  expense  charitable, 
religious  and  social  institutions,  schools  and 
other  educational  establishments,  with  the 
right  to  use  their  own  language  and  to  ex- 
ercise their  religion  freely  therein. 

ARTICIiE  55— Bulgaria  will  provide  in  the 
public  educational  system  in  towns  and  dis- 
tricts in  which  a  considerable  proportion  of 
Bulgarian  nationals  of  other  than  Bulgarian 
speech  are  resident  adequate  facilities  for 
insuring  that  in  the  primary  schools  the  in- 
struction shall  be  given  to  the  children  of 
such  Bulgarian  nationals  through  the  me- 
dium of  their  own  language.  This  provision 
Bhall  not  prevent  the  Bulgarian  Government 
from  making  the  teaching  of  the  Bulgarian 
language  obligatory  in  the  said  schools. 

In  towns  and  districts  where  there  is  a 
considerable  proportion  of  Bulgarian  na- 
tionals belonging  to  racial,  religious  or  lin- 
guistic minorities,  these  minorities  shall  be 
assured  an  equitable  share  in  the  enjoyment 
and  application  of  sums  which  may  be  pro- 
vided out  of  public  funds  under  the  State, 
municipal  or  other  budgets  for  educational, 
religious  or  charitable  purposes. 


ARTlCIiE  56— Bulgaria  undertakes  to  place 
no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  exerci."^e  of 
the  right  which  persons  may  have  under  the 
present  treaty,  or  under  the  treaties  con- 
cluded by  the  allied  and  associated  powers 
with  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  Russia  or 
Turkey,  or  with  any  of  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  themselves,  to  choose  whether 
or  not  they  will  recover  Bulgarian  nation- 
ality. 

Bulgaria  undertakes  to  recognize  such  pro- 
visions as  the  principal  allied  and  associated 
powers  may  consider  opportune  with  respect 
to  the  reciprocal  and  voluntary  emigration 
of  persons  belonging  to  racial  minorities. 

ARTICLE  57— Bulgaria,  agrees  that  the 
stipulations  in  the  foregoing  articles  of  this 
section,  so  far  as  they  affect  persons  be- 
longing to  racial,  religious  or  linguistic  mi- 
norities, constitute  obligations  of  interna- 
tional concern  and  shall  be  placed  under  the 
guarantee  of  the  League  of  Nations.  They 
shall  not  be  modified  without  the  assent  of 
a  majority  of  the  council  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  The  allied  and  associated  powers 
represented  on  the  council  severally  agree 
not  to  withhold  their  assent  from  any  modi- 
fication in  these  articles  which  is  in  due 
form  assented  to  by  a  majority  of  the  coun- 
cil of  the  League  of  Nations. 

Bulgaria  agrees  that  any  member  of  the 
council  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall  have 
the  right  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the 
council  any  infraction,  or  any  danger  of 
infraction,  of  any  of  these  obligations,  and 
that  the  council  may  thereupon  take  such 
action  and  give  such  direction  as  it  may 
deem  proper  and  effective  in  the  circum- 
stances 

Bulgaria  further  agrees  that  any  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  questions  of  law  or  fact 
arising  out  of  these  articles  between  the 
Bulgarian  Government  and  any  one  of  the 
principal  allied  and  associated  powers,  or 
any  other  power,  a  member  of  the  council 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  shall  be  held  to  be 
a  dispute  of  an  international  character  under 
Article  14  of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  The  Bulgarian  .Government  hereby 
consents  that  any  such  dispute  shall,  if  the 
other  party  thereto  demands,  be  referred  to 
the  Permanent  Court  of  International  Jus- 
tice. The  decision  of  the  permanent  court 
shall  be  final  and  shall  have  the  same  force 
and  effect  as  an  award  under  Article  13  of 
the  covenant. 


General  Provisions 


Following  this  section  are  general 
provisions  by  which  Bulgaria  accepts  the 
abrogation  of  the  Brest-Litovsk  treaties 
and  other  pacts  with  the  Bolshevist  Gov- 
eniment  of  Russia,  and  recognizes  the 
frontiers,  as  they  will  finally  be  fixed,  of 
Austria,     Greece,     Hungary,     Rumania, 


Jugoslavia  and  Czechoslovakia;  also  the 
treaties  concluded  by  the  Allies  with 
Germany,  Austria,  Hungary  and  Turkey, 
as  well  as  the  French  protectorate  over 
Morocco  and  the  British  protectorate 
over  Egypt. 

The  main  provisions  of  the  treaty  were 


550 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


previously  published  in  Current  History 
Magazine,  and  a  map  of  Bulgaria's  new 
boundaries  appeared  in  these  pages  last 
month.  Among  the  most  important  of 
the  general  clauses  are  the  following: 
Limiting  the  Bulgarian  military  forces 
to  20,000  and  abolishing  universal  com- 
pulsory military  service;  limiting  the 
Bulgarian  Navy  to  four  torpedo  boats 
and  six  motor  boats,  all  without  tor- 
pedoes; forbidding  the  employment  of 
any  military  or  naval  air  forces  or  the 
keeping  of  any  dirigibles.  The  repara- 
tion clauses  compel  Bulgaria  to  pay 
2,250,000,000  francs  gold  (about  $450,- 
000,000)  in  semi-annual  installments  over 
a  period  of  thirty-seven  years,  beginning 
July  1,  1920,  with  interest  at  5  per  cent, 
per  annum.  In  addition,  it  provides  for 
the  return  to  Greece,  Rumania  and  Ser- 
bia of  any   objects   or  securities   seized 


during  the  invasion.  It  requires  Bul- 
garia to  deliver  to  Greece,  Rumania  and 
Serbia  within  six  months  after  the  treaty 
came  into  force  the  following  live  stock: 

Serb-Croat- 
Slovene 
Greece.    Rumania.     State. 
Bulls    (18  months  to 

3  years) 15  60  50 

Milch    cows    (2    to    6 

years)    1,500  6,000  6,000 

Horses  and  mares  (3 

to  7  years) 2,250  ,5,250  .5,000 

Mules    4.50  1,0-50  1,000 

Draught  oxen 1,800  3,400  4,000 

Sheep    6,000  15,000  12,000 

It  also  provides  that  50,000  tons  of 
coal  shall  be  delivered  annually  for  five 
years  to  Jugoslavia.  There  is  a  provi- 
sion requiring  Bulgaria  to  pay  the  total 
cost  of  all  armies  of  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  occupying  Bulgarian  ter- 
ritory from  the  signing  of  the  armistice, 
Sept.  29,  1918,  to  the  coming  into  force 
of  the  treaty. 


CONTRIBUTIONS   FROM  READERS 

Current  History  undertakes  in  this  department  to  publish  such  open  letters  as  it  comr- 
siders  of  general  interest.  No  letter  will  be  used  without  the  name  and  address  of  the 
writer.  On  controversial  questions  it  will  be  the  aim  to  give  all  sides  am,  equal  chance  at 
representation;  Current  Hisix)rYj  however,  aiming  to  record  events  as  nearly  as  possible 
without  comment  or  bias,  disclaims  responsibility  for  opi/nions  contained  in  these  letters. 


FAIR  PLAY  FOR  BULGARIA* 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

Occasionally  I  come  across  a  number  of 
your  excellent  magazine  and  have  found  your 
department,  "  Among  the  Nations,"  of  great 
interest  and  usually  well  grounded.  Of 
course,  I  am  especially  interested  in  what 
you  publish  on  the  Balkan  question,  and  on 
Bulgaria  in  particular.  Your  information  on 
this  subject  is  not  always  correct,  being  often 
based  on  telegrams  emanating  from  enemy 
sources.  We  Bulgarians  are  surrounded  by 
enemies.  To  explain  the  how  and  wherefore 
of  this  condition  of  things  would  be  to  enter 
into  the  history  of  the  Balkans  for  genera- 
tions, even  centuries,  past.  But  I  will  take 
up  your  remarks,  if  you  will  allow  me,  on 
Bulgaria,  in  your  February  number.  This 
will  give  me  an  opportunity  to  throw  some 
light  on  a  subject  of  great  interest  to  all 
lovers  of  fair  play,  but  on  which  many  have 
little  information. 
You   speak  of  an  anti-dynastic   revolt,    and 


*The  writer  of  this  letter,  Mr.  Mattheeff.  is 
President  of  the  English-Speaking  League  in 
Sofia,  Bulgaria;  was  Bulgarian  Commissioner 
to  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition  and  a 
guest  of  President  Roosevelt  at  the  White 
House  in  1904;  before  that,  Bulgarian  Min- 
ister to  Athens. 


of  100  killed  in  the  streets  of  Sofia,  and  say 
that  the  revolt  was  organized  by  the  friends 
of  the  proscribed  enemies  of  the  Government. 
The  entire  affair  was  limited  to  a  general 
strike  of  the  personnel  of  the  communication 
services— posts,  telegraphs  and  railways.  Not 
a  man  was  killed  in  Sofia.  This  strike  was 
organized  by  the  Socialists,  The  general  dis- 
content gave  them  the  opportunity.  The 
struggle  between  the  Government  and  the 
strikers'  organization  was  severe  and  de- 
termined. The  traffic  and  general  interests 
suffered,  but  in  six  weeks  the  strikers  ca- 
pitulated and  signed  a  declaration  renounc- 
ing for  the  future  the  right  to  join  associa- 
tions liable  to  lead  to  strikes.  Several 
hundreds  of  the  prominent  strikers  have  been 
refused  service,  not  a  few  are  under  criminal 
prosecution.  There  have  been  strikes  in  all 
the  countries  surrounding  us,  and  in  every 
case  the  Government  made  concessions  to  tl  - 
strikers.  In  Bulgaria  the  Government  brol  . 
the  strike  and  dealt  a  crushing  blow  to  tl  •• 
Socialists.  In  the  recent  elections  for  the 
Sobranye  (House  of  Representatives),  tl '■ 
Socialists,  responsible  for  the  strike,  obtainc-I 
seven  seats  against  thirty-seven  in  the  las' 
House.  The  strike  troubles  were  not  fol- 
lowed, as  you  state,  by  the  resignation  of 
the  Cabinet,   or  any  change   in   it. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 


551 


I 


Your  statement  that  the  Mussulmans  of 
"Western  Thrace,  according  to  the  Athens 
press,  welcomed  the  Greek  occupation  of  the 
country  is  not  true.  The  version  of  the 
Echo  de  Bulgarie  is  correct.  The  Moslems  of 
Eastern  as  well  as  those  of  Western  Thrace 
are  united  and  unanimous  against  Greek 
dominion.  Your  readers  have  meanwhile 
heard  of  troubles,  of  calling  up  the  reserves 
in  Adrianople ;  the  whole  movement  is  di- 
rected against  the  Greeks.  There  cannot  be 
love  between-  the  Bulgarian  and  Turk,  and 
I  cannot  hold  a  brief  for  him,  but  the  hatred 
and  contempt  on  the  part  of  the  Turk  for 
the  Greek  is  undoubted.  The  Greek  has 
never  scored  a  victory  over  the  Turk,  and 
the  recent  behavior  of  the  Greeks  in  Smyrna 
has  not  improved  the  feeling  between  the 
two  nations. 

It  is  with  diffidence  that  I  have  ventured 
to  write  on  the  subject  of  the  relations  be- 
tween Bulgarians  and  Greeks  for  readers  in 
America.  My  impressions  are  that  Greek  en- 
terprise, activity  and  opportunity  have  com- 
pletely biased  American  public  opinion 
against  the  Bulgarian.  The  Greeks  are  mas- 
ters of  the  American  field,  and  the  Bulgarian 
and  his  cause  are  condemned  without  a  hear- 
ing. The  Bulgarian  has  been  reduced  to  the 
dog  given  a  bad  name.  No  Bulgarian  is  per- 
mitted to  travel  to  America.  The  vis6  to 
his  passport  is  refused  him  by  the  American 
Consul ;  this  measure  is  strictly  enforced. 
No  vis6  to  a  Bulgarian  passport  is  given 
without  special  permission  from  the  State 
Department  in  Washington.  No  Bulgarian 
capable  of  making  himself  heard  in  the  con- 
troversy— between  Bulgarians  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Greeks  and  Serbians  on  the 
other— can  go  to  America  to  refute  the 
calumnies  launched  every  day  against  us. 
And  Bulgaria  has  not  been  at  war  with 
America !  There  are  Americans  who  know 
the  truth,  but  they  are  few.  Not  long  ago 
we  heard  of  a  deputation  of  Greeks  from 
Thrace  waiting  upon  President  Wilson  with 
a  petition  bearing  the  signatures  of  300,000 
Thracians,  asking  his  support  that  Thrace 
be  annexed  to  Greece.  Why  carry  such 
proofs  that  Thrace  is  a  Greek  country  as 
far  as  America,  when  the  truth  can  be  ascer- 
tained on  the  spot  by  two  or  three  inde- 
pendent men,  selected  and  duly  appointed? 
If  the  Greek  contention  is  secure,  why  not 
permit  a  fair  consultation  of  the  population 
concerned?  Both  Bulgarians  and  Turks  of 
these  countries  are  willing  and  ready  to  sub- 
mit the  question  to  just  arbitration ;  not  so 
the  Greeks,  The  300,000  signatures  to  the 
petition  in  question  are  of  no  more  value 
than  the  Greek  pretensions  to  Macedonia  or 
to   Smyrna. 

Think  of  the  position  of  the  Greeks  before 
the  first  Balkan  war;  it  was  hopeless;  they 
were  in  a  slough  of  despond.  It  was  the 
victories  of  the  Bulgarians  over  the  Turks 
which  enabled  the  Greeks  to  seize  Mace- 
donia behind  their  backs;  and  now,  without 


one  single  distinction  on  the  battlefield,  into 
which  they  were  driven  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  they  are  soaring,  in  pretentions  far 
beyond  merit  and  reason.  The  French  saying 
— "  I'absent  a  toujours  tort  "  ("  the  absent  is 
always  in  the  wrong  ")— is  right  in  this  case. 
The  Greeks  and  Serbians  have  a  free  field  in 
America,  and  have  captured  American  public 
opinion ;  joined  together  they  are  heaping 
calumny  upon  the  Bulgarians,  while  the  Bul- 
garian is  denied  the  right  to  say  a  word  in 
self-defense.  Surely  there  is  a  wrong  some- 
where !  Is  it  fair  for  Americans,  free  and 
independent  of  the  Old  World's  prejudices, 
to  allow  unchallenged  such  a  condition  of 
things,  which  involves  the  happiness  or  the 
misery  of  millions  of  human  beings  to  hear 
accusations  and  deny  self-defense,  to  blindly 
support  tyranny  and  abet  falsehood,  when 
the  whole  truth  may  be  so  easily  ascertained 
by  application  of  the  principles  proclaimed 
by  President  Wilson  and  approved  by  the 
other  allies? 

Bulgaria  did  not  join  in  this  war  out  of 
sympathy  or  love  for  Germany,  nor  for  con- 
quest of  foreign  populations  or  territories. 
She  had  a  national  ideal  to  attain,  to  free 
her  own  race  from  a  foreign  yoke,  the  race 
and  territory  recognized  as  hers  by  the  Sul- 
tan's firman,  instituting  the  Bulgarian 
Church  (1870),  by  the  Constantinople  Inter- 
national Conference  (1876),  by  the  San  Ste- 
fano  Treaty,  by  the  Bulgaro-Serbian  Con- 
vention (1912).  The  refusal  of  Serbia  to 
give  up  to  Bulgaria  what  she  seized  from 
her  by  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  where  Bul- 
garia was  forced  to  treat  one  against  five, 
made  it  impossible  for  Bulgaria  to  go  to  the 
aid  of  Serbia,  to  fight  on  her  side.  Rumania 
made  her  bargain  before  she  undertook  to 
join  the  Entente ;  Serbia  secured  the  terri- 
tories she  robbed  Bulgaria  of  in  Bucharest; 
Greece  was  forced  into  the  war  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet ;  Bulgaria,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  not  permitted  to  demand  anything,  be- 
cause Russia  was  against  granting  any  com- 
pensation to  Bulgaria,  secure  that  Bulgaria 
would  submit  to  her  orders  and  was  not  in 
a  position  to  fight. 

Bulgaria  is  a  small  country,  but  her 
tragedy  is  great,  and  is  intensified  by  the 
belief  that  the  American  public  refuses  to 
take  notice  of  her  suffering  and  persists  in 
denying  her  fair  play,  or  even  a  hearing. 

P.   M.   MATTHEEFP. 

Sofia,   Bulgaria,   April  8,   1920. 


RUSSIA  AND  THE  CAUCASUS 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

I  notice  in  the  note  on  Page  493  of  the 
March  number  of  Current  History  the  state- 
ment that  [at  the  time  of  the  Brest-Litovsk 
treaty]  the  Bolsheviki  ceded  to  Turkey  two 
Georgian  provinces,  Batum  and  Ardagha. 
To  this  statement  I  might  take  exception  on 
a  ground,  more  or  less  technical,  that  the 
provinces  were  not  ceded  to  Turkey,   but  to 


552 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  people  thereof,  who  were  to  be  assisted 
in  setting  up  their  Government  by  their 
neighbors,  which,  of  course,  meant  primarily 
the  Turks.  The  real  significance  of  this 
cession  is  lost  sight  of  unless  it  is  noted: 

1.  That  Kars  was  also  ceded. 

2.  That  the  cession  corresponds,  chap- 
ter and  verse,  to  the  cession  by  Turkey 
to  Russia  according  to  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin,    1878. 

3.  Unless  it  is  studied  in  connection 
with  the  Cyprus  Convention  of  1879. 

May  I  presume  to  call  your  attention 
therefore  to  the  note  that  I  inserted  in  the 
last  number  of  the  American  Journal  of  In- 
ternational Law,  which  calls  attention  to 
these  points,  and  may  I  be  pardoned  for  the 
suggestion  that  there  is  as  much  significance 
to  be  attached  to  the  points  I  have  stated 
above  as  to  the  note  that  I  refer  to  in  your 
magazine?  ARTHUR  I.  ANDREWS. 

Tufts  College,   Mass.,    March  12,   1920. 


THE    DANGEROUS    SITUATION    IN 
ASIA    MINOR 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

The  rumor  is  circulating  in  Smyrna  today 
that  Aidin  is  to  be  handed  over  to  the  care 
of  the  Italians.  While  to  the  very  large 
majority  of  the  people  in  the  United  States 
this  rumor  means  nothing,  yet  to  the  people 
who  are  living  in  this  part  of  Asia  now 
under  military  occupation  by  the  Greek 
Army  it  brings  a  varied  feeling  of  hope 
and    despair. 

Aidin  in  itself  is  not  of  great  moment, 
having  been  a  town  of  some  40,000  inhabi- 
tants before  its  destruction  last  June,  and 
at  the  present  time  not  over  5,000,  located 
about  100  kilometers  as  a  crow  flies  from 
Smyrna.  It  is  on  the  railroad  which  leads 
down  toward  Palestine,  at  a  distance  under 
normal  conditions  easily  traversed  in  three 
hours,  but  at  the  present  time  requiring 
from  ten  to  twelve  hours ;  the  traveler  passes 
the  station  of  Ephesus,  a  point  of  great 
interest  to   readers   of   the   Bible. 

Today  the  beautiful  valley  surrounding 
Aidin,  with  its  groves  of  olive  and  fig  trees, 
and  with  its  fields  the  most  fertile  in  Asia 
Minor,  lies  abandoned.  Aidin  war?  taken 
over  fro'^  the  Turks  last  June  following  the 
occupation  of  Smyrna  by  the  Greek  Army. 
In  this  same  month  of  June  there  happened 
in  Aidin  that  which,  had  it  happened  in 
America,  would  have  filled  every  heart  with 
horror ;  but  such  an  event  in  Asia  Minor 
hardly  receives  a  passing  notice— namely,  the 
Greek  Army,  having  retired  from  Aidin, 
some  say  because  of  lack  of  ammunition,  the 
Turks  occupied  the  city,  and  although  they 
prom.sed  safety  to  the  inhabitants,  yet  3,000 
people  were  massacred,  many  of  them  in  the 
most  horrible  manner ;  a  troop  of  boy  scouts 


were   flayed,    and    more    than   half    the   town 
was    burned. 

For  a  time  it  was  thought  that  England 
and  France  might  occupy  this  little  valley, 
and  preparation  was  even  started  for  Eng- 
land to  take  the  mandate  of  the  whole  region, 
but  by  some  turn  of  fate  the  Greek  Army 
was  allowed  to  re-enter  Aidin.  Naturally 
the  Turks  retired.  Two  or  three  hours'  walk 
from  Aidin  brings  one  again  to  the  trenches, 
and  the  crack  of  rifles,  the  rattle  of  ma- 
chine guns,  and  the  roar  of  cannon  are  still 
a  familiar  sound  to  those  terrified  inhabi- 
tants. When  the  train  crosses  those  trenches 
a  truce  is  declared,  but  ere  the  train  passes 
out  of  hearing  the  sharpshooters  are  again 
at   their   work. 

The  Levantines,  who  form  a  very  large 
percentage  of  the  population  of  Smyrna  and 
its  environs,  are  discontented  that  this  coun- 
try should  be  taken  away  from  the  Turks, 
because  under  an  agreement  with  "  the 
powers  "  and  the  Turkish  Government, 
people  of  foreign  nationality  had  certain 
privileges  and  were  not  subject  to  Turkish 
courts,  but  to  consular  courts,  and  they  were 
enabled  to  avoid  paying  duties,  and  through 
other  privileges  were  enabled  to  make 
favorable  gains  and  to  avoid  some  tax- 
ation, privileges  which  will  not  be  granted  to 
them  under  the  Greek  Government.  These 
Levantines,  in  order  to  get  the  above  privi- 
leges, have  taken  out  citizenship  papers  as 
English  or  French,  so  that,  if  the  country 
cannot  be  governed  by  the  Turk,  they  prefer 
English  or  French  mandates  and  lend  their 
influence  toward  propaganda  against  the 
occupation  of  the  Greek  Army,  although  a 
very  large  percentage  of  the  inhabitants  are 
Greek, 

The  Greek  Army  is  mobilizing  its  forces 
to  the  limit  in  the  Smyrna  region  in  order 
to  meet  any  emergency  when  the  treaty  is 
announced.  *  *  *  One  really  does  not  need 
to  be  a  prophet  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times 
in  the  Near  East.  Italy's  ambitions  are 
great.  She  is  clashing  with  the  Greeks,  not 
only  here,  but  al.so  in  Northern  Epirus. 
Eliminating  the  Turkish  Government  in 
Thrace,  an  elimination  which  seems  absolute- 
ly essential,  the  logical  solution  is  to  give 
Thrace  in  its  entirety  to  Greece;  yet  this 
will  only  increase  the  probability  of  a  re- 
newed struggle  between  Greece  and  Bulgaria, 
should  Bulgaria  find  a  sufficiently  powerful 
ally.  This  alliance  is  already  evident  and 
may  be  threefold.  There  remains  to  Gree(  - 
as  a  natural  ally  in  the  Balkans  one  countr\ 
recently  greatly  enlarged,  which  is  a  natur;il 
enemy  to  the  other  above-named  countrie.s, 
so  that  we  are  still  confronted  with  the  Bal- 
kan problem,  and  still  we  ask,  "  What  1.-- 
the   answer?  " 

H.    A.    HENDERSON. 
American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  with  the  Greek  Army, 
March   15,   1920.     Address<'"44  Rue  Metro- 
politan,   Athens,    Greece. 


CURRENT    HISTORY 

A     MONTHLY     MAGAZINE     OF 
2II|^  $Jfm  flork  ©im^fi 


Published    by 

The 

New 

York 

T 

iMEs    Company,    Times 

Square. 

New    York. 

N. 

Y. 

Vol. 

XIL, 

No. 

4 

JULY, 

1920 

35  Cent 
$4.00  a 

5  a  Copy 
Year 

II  II  II  II 

II  II  II  1 

II  II 

II  II  II 

II   II   II 

HE 

II  II  II  II  II  1 

II  II  II  II  II 

II   II   II   II 

II    II    II    II    II    II 

II    II 

II    II 

nn 

TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


PAGE 

THE    REPUBLICAN    NATIONAL    CONVENTION 551 

Text  of  the   Republican    Platform 555 

PROHIBITION   UPHELD   BY   THE    SUPREME    COURT     ....  563 

AMERICAN    DEVELOPMENTS 564 

WHAT  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  HAS  DONE 568 

POLAND— THE    GREAT   PROBLEM      (Map) 

By  Major  A.  B.  Richeson  573 

THRACE  AND   GREECE By  N.   J.   Cassavetes  578 

ALBANIA  AND  ITALY  AT  LOGGERHEADS     (Map) 

By   Constantine  A.   Chekrezi  581 

AMONG   THE    NATIONS:      A   WORLDWIDE    SURVEY: 

Republics    of    Latin    America 585 

The  British  Empire  and  Its  Problems 595 

The    Latin    Nations    of    Europe 603 

Strained  Relations  of  the  Low  Countries 608 

Progress  in  Scandinavian  Countries 610 

Germany's  First  Republican  Reichstag 612 

Hungary    and    Neighboring    States 615 

States  of  the  Balkan   Peninsula 620 

Turkey  and  Her  Former  Dominions 625 

Complex  Situation  in  the  Caucasus 631 

Poland's  War  on  Moscow 632 

Soviet   Russia's   Trade   Relations 635 

Japan  and  the  Chinese  Consortium 638 

Contents   Continued  on   Next  Page 


Copyright,    1920,    by    The    New    York    Times    Company.      All    Rights    Reserved. 
Entered    at    the    Post    Office    in    New    York    and    in    Canada    as    Second    Class    Matter. 


I  11  II  II  M  I II  II  II  II  II "  "  " ■'  " H  II  II  I'  II  It  Jmnait 


E 


Table  of  Contents — Continued 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  NATIONS  TREATED; 


Albania    622 

Argentina   .- 592 

Armenia   631 

Australia     600 

Austria     618 

Azerbaijan    632 

Belgium     608 

Bolivia    593 

British  East  Africa 602 

Bulgaria     623 

Canada    599 

Chile    : 593 

China   639 

Colombia    593 

Congo    603 

Czechoslovakia    619 

Denmark     610 

Egypt 601 

England     595 

France    603 

Georgia   631 

Germany    612 

Greece 620 

Guatemala    592 

Holland     609 

Hungary    615 

India   600 

Ireland  597 

Italy    " 604 


page 

Japan    638 

Jugoslavia  624 

Mexico   585 

Mesopotamia   453 

New   Zealand    600 

Nicaragua    592 

Norway   611 

Palestine    629 

Paraguay    594 

Persia   630 

Peru    593 

Poland    632 

Portugal    607 

Rumania    624 

Russia    635 

Salvador   592 

Senegal    603 

South    Africa 602 

Smyrna  630 

Spain 607 

Switzerland   608 

Syria    630 

Turkey  625 

Uganda   602 

United    States    564 

Uruguay  594 

Venezuela    594 

The  Vatican   606 

West  Indies 594 


SECRETARY  POLK   SUCCEEDED   BY   NORMAN   H.   DAVIS     .      .  640 
THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE: 

Long-Distance  Oratory  by  Wireless 641 

Hearing  the  Printed  Page 641 

Flightless  Hydroplanes 643 

A     Stride    in    Wireless    Control 644 

A   Portable   Radiophone   Receiving   Set 645 

STRANGE    CAREER    OF    EX-EMPRESS    EUGENIE 645 

CURRENT    HISTORY    IN    BRIEF 647 

INTERNATIONAL  CARTOONS  ONCURRENT  EVENTS  (38Cartoons)  647 

CONTRIBUTIONS    FROM    READERS .674 

VENICE  DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  WAR 677 

PANAMANIAN-AMERICAN  RELATIONS  IN   CHIRIQUI 

By  Elbridge  Colby  682 

FORCED    LABOR    IN    RUSSIA 686 

BRITISH  MEMORIALS  TO   THE   FALLEN 693 

THE    SOCIALIST    INTERNATIONAL 694 

DEALING    WITH    RED    AGITATORS 698 

THE  NEW  TIDE  OF  IMMIGRATION 704 

VETO  OF  THE  KNOX  PEACE  RESOLUTION     .......  707 

NO    AMERICAN    MANDATE    FOR   ARMENIA 710 

THE    CONSPIRACY    AGAINST    ARMENIA .713 

AN  AMERICAN  WOMAN  WINS  HIGH  OFFICE 715 

THE    TURKISH    PEACE    TREATY     (Map) 716 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  CZECHOSLOVAKIA 727 

THE  NEW  RULERS  OF  THE  SARRE  BASIN 736 


J 


THE    REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 


Sketch  of  Historic  Gathering  That  Nominated 
Harding  and  Coolidge — Text  of  the  Platform 


^^^TIHE  Republican  National  Convention 
wK     I        assembled    at    Chicago    June    8, 
I        1920.     It  was  called  to  order  by 
Chairman   Will   H.    Hays   of  the 
National     Committee.       Senator     Henry 
Cabot     Lodge     of     Massachusetts,     who 
had    been     chosen     as    the     Temporary 
l^w  Chairman,    presided    over    the    opening 
[^■session    and    delivered    the    opening    ad- 
|HUress.     He  defended  the  Senate's  oppo- 
^^Kition   to   the   Peace   Treaty   as   a   high 
^^Fand    patriotic    duty,    and    accepted    the 
^H  President's  challenge  by  asserting :    "  We 
^^rmake  the  issue;  we  ask  approbation  for 
^^Ewhat  we  have  done.   The  people  will  now 
^Btell  us  what  they  think  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
^^»  League  and  the  sacrifice  of  America." 
^H     Mr.  Lodge  favored  a  firm  policy  toward 
^^*  Mexico  under  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  de- 
fended the  record  of  Congress,  and  in  the 
course  of  his  speech  said :    "  Many  vital 
economic  measures  and  especially  tariff 
legislation   to  guard  our  industries  are 
impossible     with     a     Democratic     free 
I         trader   of   socialistic   proclivities   in   the 
White  House."    He  reviewed  the  action 
of  the  Senate  witL  relation  to  the  Peace 
Treaty    in    detail,    maintained    that    the 
action   of   the    Senate   in   resisting   Mr. 
Wilson's  demand  for  ratification  of  the 
treaty   enabled    the   people    at   large   to 
understand  what  it  meant  and  what  it 
threatened.    Referring  to  the  result  of 
the  treaty  debate  on  the  American  peo- 
ple, he  said: 

They  saw  it  was  an  alliance  and  not  a 
league  for  peace.  They  saw  that  it  did 
not  mention  The  Hague  conventions  which 
we  all  desired  to  have  restored  as  founda- 
tions for  further  extensions,  did  nothing- 
for  the  development  of  international  law, 
nothing  for  a  world  court  and  judicial 
decisions,  and  nothing  looking  toward  an 
agreement  as  to  dealing  with  non-jus- 
ticiable questions.  These  real  advances 
toward  promoting  peace,  these  construct- 
ive measures  were  all  disregarded,  and 
the  only  court  mentioned  was  pushed  into 
an  obscure  corner. 
The  people   began   to  perceive  with   an 


intense  clearness  that  this  alliance,  silent 
as  to  real  peace  agreements,  contained 
clauses  which  threatened  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  United  States  as  an  independ- 
ent power— threatened  its  sovereignty, 
threatened  its  peace,  threatened  its  life. 
The  masses  of  the  people  became  articu- 
late. Public  opinion  steadily  changed,  and 
today  the  number  of  Americans  who 
would  be  willing  to  accept  the  covenant 
of  the  League  of  Nations  just  as  the 
President  brought  it  back  from  Europe  is 
negligible. 

The  American  people  will  never  accept 
that  alliance  with  foreign  nations  pro- 
posed by  the  President.  The  President 
meantime  has  remained  inflexible.  He  is 
determined  to  have  that  treaty  as  he 
brought  it  back  or  nothing,  and  to  that 
imperious  demand  the  people  will  reply  in 
tones  which  cannot  be  misunderstood.  No 
man  who  thinks  of  America  first  need 
fear  the  answer. 

Mr.  Lodge  strongly  attacked  Article  X. 
of  the  treaty,  and  maintained  that  the 
more  it  had  been  studied  the  more  con- 
vinced the  majority  of  the  Senate  had 
become  that  "  it  dragged  us  not  only 
into  every  dispute  and  into  every  war 
in  Europe  and  in  the  rest  of  the  world, 
but  that  our  soldiers  and  sailors  might 
be  forced  to  give  their  lives  for  quar- 
rels not  their  own,  at  the  bidding  of  for- 
eign Governments."  He  defended  the 
reservations  that  were  adopted  by  the 
Senate,  also  the  Knox  peace  resolution 
criticising  the  President  for  having 
vetoed  it.  He  censured  the  Mexican  pol- 
icy of  the  Administration  as  well  as  the 
request  of  the  President  for  a  mandate 
in  Armenia.  He  asserted  that  the 
American  people  had  a  deep  sympathy 
for  Armenia,  having  given  over  $40,000,- 
000  for  her  relief,  adding,  "  but  a  man- 
date to  protect  and  govern  that  country 
would  involve  our  sending  our  sons  and 
brothers  to  serve  and  sacrifice  their 
lives  in  Armenia  for  an  indefinite  time." 
The  second  session  of  the  convention 
met  on  the  9th;  Senator  Lodge  was  re- 
tained as  Permanent  Chairman.  Sena- 
tor   Watson    of    Indiana    was    elected 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


WARREN  G.  HARDING 

Republican  nominee  for 
President 

Warren  G.  Harding-,  the  Re- 
publican nominee  for  President, 
was  born  in  Corsica,  Morrow 
County,  Oliio,  on  Nov.  2,  1865. 
He  was  educated  at  the  Ohio 
Central  College  and  started  his 
career  in  Marion,  Ohio,  as  the 
publisher  and  editor  of  a  small 
newspaper,  which  eventually  be- 
came the  most  influential  daily 
in  that  part  of  the  State.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Ohio  Senate 
in  1900  and  became  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Ohio  in  1904,  occu- 
pying that  post  until  1906.  As 
Republican  nominee  for  Gover- 
nor in  1910  he  was  defeated. 
He  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  from  Ohio  in  1915. 
Though  having-  some  reputation 
in  Congress  for  his  oratory  and 
dignity  of  presence.  Senator 
Harding  was  practically  un- 
known to  the  country  in  1916, 
when  he  was  put  forward  as  a 
possible  "  dark  horse "  candi- 
date for  the  Presidency.  His 
nomination  by  the  Republican 
Convention  on  June  12,  1920, 
came  in  the  nature  of  a  sur- 
prise. 

(©    Moffett,  Chicago) 


Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolu- 
tions. 

The  chief  interest  in  the  convention 
centred  in  the  report  of  this  committee. 
It  was  in  continuous  session  for  nearly 
forty-eight  hours;  at  times  it  seemed  as 
if  it  would  be  unable  to  agree,  and  a 
party  split  was  predicted.  A  group  headed 
by  Senators  Johnson,  Borah,  McCormick 
and  other  Senators  who  were  opposed  to 
a  League  of  Nations  in  any  form,  threat- 
ened openly  to  bolt  the  convention  if  the 
platform  contained  indorsement  of  the 
League. 

When  the  convention  assembled  on  the 
morning  of  June  10  the  air  was  full  of 
rumors  and  an  impression  prevailed  in 
many  circles  that  an  agreement  was  im- 
possible and  a  bolt  unavoidable.  Shortly 
after  the  opening,  however,  the  Resolu- 
tions Committee  reported,  to  the  delight 


of  the  convention,  that  the  members  had 
finally  agreed  and  the  platform  would 
be  presented  in  a  unanimous  report  as 
soon  as  the  drafting  of  the  document 
could  be  concluded.  The  convention  took 
a  recess  amid  intense  enthusiasm  and 
reassembled  at  4  P.  M.,  when  the  Com- 
mittee on  Resolutions  reported.  The 
report  was  unanimously  accepted. 

The  nominations  for  President  were 
made  at  the  session  of  Friday,  June  11. 
General  Leonard  Wood  was  nominated 
by  Governor  Allen  of  Kansas,  Governor 
Frank  O.  Lowden  by  Congressman  Will- 
iam A.  Rodenberg  of  Illinois,  Senator 
lliram  Johnson  by  Charles  S.  Wheeler 
of  California,  Nicholas  Murray  Butler 
by  Senator  Ogden  Mills  of  New  York, 
Senator  Warren  G.  Harding  of  Ohio  by 
former  Governor  Frank  B.  Wills  of  Ohio, 
Governor  Calvin  Coolidge  of  Massachu- 


REPUBLICAN  NATIONAL  CONVENTION 


553 


CALVIN  COOLIDGE 

Republican  nominee  for  Vice 
President 

Calvin  Coolidge,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  the  Republican 
nominee  for  Vice  President,  was 
born  on  Independence  Day,  1872, 
at  Plymouth,  Vt.,  of  a  dis- 
tinguished Massachusetts  fam- 
ily. He  was  graduated  from 
Amherst  College  in  1895.  He 
studied  law  in  the  offices  of 
Hammond  &  Field,  in  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  and  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  within  two  years. 
In  1899  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Northampton  City 
Council.  In  1900  and  1901  he 
was  City  Solicitor.  In  1907-08 
he  served  in  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives  and 
was  elected  Mayor  of  North- 
ampton in  1910.  For  four  years 
he  served  in  the  State  Senate. 
From  1916-18  he  occupied  the 
post  of  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  and  in  the  Fall 
of  1918  he  was  elected  Governor. 
He  won  nation-wide  fame  for  his 
firm  attitude  in  repressing  the 
police    strike    in    Boston. 

<©    Central  News) 


setts  by  Congressman  Frederick  H.  Gil- 
lett,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives; Governor  William  C.  Sproul  of 
Pennsylvania  by  Mayor  J.  Hampton 
Moore  of  Philadelphia,  Herbert  Hoover 
of  New  York  by  Judge  Nathan  L.  Miller 
of  New  York,  Senator  Howard  Suther- 
land of  West  Virginia  by  Joseph  M. 
Sanders  of  that  State. 

The  first  four  ballots  were  as  follows : 
Candidate.  First.    Second.  Third.    Fourth. 

^^'ootl    2871/2       2891/2       .303  .3141/2 

Lowden    211i^       2.59i^       282%       289 

Johnson   13.3i/i       146  148  "       140l^ 

Harding    65i^         59  58%         61% 

Butler    69  4X  25  20 

Sproul    83%         78%         79%         79% 

Coolidge    '34  32  27  2.") 

La  Follette. . .  24  24  24  22 

Pritchard    21  10 

Sutherland    ...  17  15  9  3 

Poindexter   ...  20  15  15  15 


Candidate.  First.    Second.  Third.    Fourth. 

Hoover  5%  5%  5%  5 

Du    Pont 7  7  2  2 

Borah   2  1  1  1 

Knox    1  2  2 

Watson    ..  2  4 

Warren    1 

Not  voting  ...     1 

Number  of  delegates 984 

Necessary  to  a  choice 493 

After  the  fourth  ballot  the  convention 
adjourned  to  the  following  day,  with  no 
choice  in  sight. 

The  convention  differed  from  previous 
National  Conventions  in  that  there 
seemed  to  be  no  group  in  control.  On 
reassembling  Saturday,  June  12,  it  was 
any  one's  race,  though  there  were  rumors 
that  a  combination  had  been  formed  to 
prevent  the  nomination  of  both  Lowden 
and  Wood.    This  was  not  indicated,  how- 


554 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ever,  by  the  ballots  which  followed.  There 
were  wild  rumors  of  a  break  for  Sproul 
of  Pennsylvania  and  considerable  talk  of 
Senator  Knox.  It  seemed  clear  that  Sen- 
ator Johnson  was  out  of  the  contest, 
also  that  the  disclosures  of  the  large 
sums  expended  in  the  primary  cam- 
paigns by  supporters  of  Wood  and  Low- 
den  had  prevented  their  nomination. 
After  the  seventh  ballot  it  was  noticed 
that  Senator  Harding  of  Ohio  began  to 
gain,  and  the  report  became  current  that 
an  agreement  for  his  nomination  had 
been  reached. 

After  the  eighth  ballot,  when  Senator 
Harding's  vote  jumped  to  113^/4,  a  recess 
was  forced  in  order  to  enable  the  friends 
of  Lowden  and  Wood  to  ascertain 
whether  either  could  command  sufficient 
support  to  head  off  the  Harding  move- 
ment. On  reassembling,  when  the  ninth 
ballot  was  taken,  Harding  led  with  374 
votes,  Wood  dropped  from  299  on  the 
eighth  to  249  on  the  ninth,  and  Lowden 
from  307  to  121 1/^.  Johnson  had  dropped 
to  82. 

It  was  now  clear  that  Harding  would 
be  the  nominee.  On  the  tenth  ballot  he 
received  692  1-5  votes,  200  more  than  a 
majority.  On  the  motion  to  make  the  nomi- 
nation unanimous  the  delegates  from 
Wisconsin,  who  had  been  consistently 
voting  for  La  Follette,  voted  no,  but  did 
not  leave  the  hall. 

The  nomination  for  Vice  President  fol- 
lowed quickly.  Governor  Coolidge  of 
Massachusetts,  Senator  Lenroot  of  Wis- 
consin and  Governor  Allen  of  Kansas 
were  the  chief  nominees.  On  the  first 
ballot  Governor  Coolidge  received  614V2 
votes.  The  nomination  was  made  unan- 
imous amid  great  enthusiasm.  The  con- 
vention adjourned  at  7:30  P.  M.  June  12, 

The  first  reaction  was  disappointment 
over  the  Presidential  nominee.  Among 
the  group  of  Republicans  affiliated  pre- 
viously with  the  progressive  wing  of 
the  party  it  was  charged  that  the  con- 
vention had  been  finally  controlled  by 
"  standpatters "  and  "  the  Old  Guard 
Senators."  There  was  also  visible  dis- 
appointment among  the  active  supporters 


of  the  other  candidates.  However,  three 
or  four  days  later,  it  was  evident  that 
the  Republicans  as  a  whole  were  thor- 
oughly united  for  the  first  time  in  twelve 
years  and  that  the  nominee  would  re- 
ceive strong  support  from  all  wings  of 
the  party.  The  selection  of  Governor 
Coolidge  for  Vice  President  was  enthu- 
siastically received  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  his  choice  was  regarded  as  a 
distinct  help  to  the  ticket. 

Warren  G.  Harding  started  life  as  a 
printer's  devil  in  Marion,  Ohio,  and 
worked  there  as  printer,  reporter,  cir- 
culation manager,  business  manager,  edi- 
tor and  publisher  before  he  entered  poli- 
tics. He  was  born  in  Corsica,  Ohio,  in 
1865;  was  elected  a  State  Senator  in 
1889  and  Lieutenant  Governor  in  1904, 
was  defeated  for  Governor  of  Ohio  in 
1910,  and  in  1914  was  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate.  He  placed  Presi- 
dent Taft  in  nomination  for  President 
before  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion in  1912  and  was  Chairman  of  the 
Republican  Convention,  making  the  key- 
note speech,  in  1916.  He  supported  the 
Lodge  reservations  to  the  Peace  Treaty 
in  the  Senate. 

Governor  Coolidge  was  born  in  Plym- 
outh, Vt.,  July  4,  1872;  graduated  from 
Amherst  College  in  1895,  studied  law  at 
Northampton,  Mass.,  and  opened  a  law 
office  there.  In  1899  he  was  elected 
member  of  the  Northampton  City  Coun- 
cil, in  1900  became  City  Solicitor,  was  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  in  1907-08, 
Mayor  of  Northampton  in  1910-11, 
served  four  years  in  the  State  Senate, 
during  two  of  which  he  was  its  Presi- 
dent. He  was  elected  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts  in  1916,  serving 
till  1918,  and  in  the  Fall  of  1918  became 
the  Governor  of  the  State.  He  leaped 
into  national  fame  in  the  Winter  of 
1919-20  when  he  defied  the  Boston  police 
strikers  and  by  his  firmness  in  installing 
a  volunteer  police  force  saved  the  city 
from  riots  and  lawlessness,  becoming  the 
chief  factor,  by  his  example,  in  ending 
the  strike  tendency  of  municipal  func- 
tionaries, such  as  police  and  firemen. 


Text  of  the  Republican  Platform 


THE  full  text  of  the  platform  adopted 
by  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion at  Chicago  June  10,  1920,  is  as 
follows : 

The  Republican  Party,  assembled  in  repre- 
sentative national  convention,  reaffirms  its 
unyielding  devotion  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  and  to  the  guarantees  of 
civil,  political  and  religious  liberty  therein 
contained.  It  will  resist  all  attempts  to  over- 
throw the  foundations  of  the  Government  or 
weaken  the  force  of  its  controlling  principles 
and  ideals,  whether  these  attempts  be  made 
in  the  form  of  international  policy  or  of  do- 
mestic agitation. 

For  seven  years  the  National  Govern- 
ment has  been  controlled  by  the  Democratic 
Party.  During  that  period  a  war  of  un- 
paralleled magnitude  has  shaken  the  founda- 
tions of  civilization,  decimated  the  popula- 
tion of  Europe,  and  left  in  its  train  economic 
misery  and  suffering  second  only  to  war 
itself. 

The  outstanding  features  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Administration  have  been  complete  un- 
preparedness  for  war  and  complete  unpre- 
paredness   for   peace. 

UNPREPAREDNESS  FOR  WAR 

Inexcusable  failure  to  make  timely  prepara- 
tion is  the  chief  indictment  against  the 
Democratic  Administration  in  the  conduct  of 
the  war.  Had  not  our  associates  protected 
us,  both  on  land  and  sea,  during  the  first 
twelve  months  of  our  participation  and  fur- 
nished us  to  the  very  day  of  the  armistice 
with  munitions,  planes  and  artillery,  this 
failure  would  have  been  punished  with 
disastei'.  It  directly  resulted  in  unnecessary 
losses  to  our  gallant  troops,  in  the  imperil- 
ment  of  victory  itself  and  in  an  enormous 
waste  of  public  funds  literally  poured  into 
the  breach  created  by  gross  neglect.  Today 
it  is  reflected  in  our  huge  tax  burden  and 
in  the  high  cost  of  living. 

UNPREPAREDNESS  FOR  PEACE 

Peace  found  the  Administration  as  un- 
prepared for  peace  as  war  found  it  unpre- 
pared for  war.  The  vital  needs  of  the  coun- 
try demanded  the  early  and  systematic  re- 
turn to  a  peace-time  basis.  This  called  for 
vision,  leadership  and  intelligent  planning. 
All  three  have  been  lacking.  While  the  coun- 
try has  been  left  to  shift  for  itself,  the  Gov- 
ernment has  continued  on  a  wartime  basis. 
The  Administration  has  not  demobilized  the 
army  of  place  holders.  It  continued  a  method 
of  financing  which  was  indefensible  during 
the  period  of  reconstruction.  It  has  used  leg- 
islation passed  to  meet  the  emergency  of  war 
to  continue  its  arbitrary  and  inquisitorial 
control  over  the  life  of  the  people  in  time  of 
peace,    and    to    carry    confusion    into    indus- 


trial life.  Under  the  despot's  plea  of  neces- 
sity or  superior  wisdom,  executive  usurpa- 
tion of  legislative  and  judicial  functions  still 
undermines  our  institutions. 

Eighteen  months  after  the  armistice,  with 
its  wartime  powers  unabridged,  its  war- 
time departments  undischarged,  its  wartime 
army  of  place  holders  still  mobilized,  the  Ad- 
ministration continues  to  flounder  helplessly. 

The  demonstrated  incapacity  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  has  destroyed  public  confidence, 
weakened  the  authority  of  Government  and 
produced  a  feeling  of  distrust  and  hesitation 
so  universal  as  to  increase  enormously  the 
difficulties  of  readjustment  and  to  delay  the 
return    to   normal   conditions. 

Never  has  our  nation  been  confronted  with 
graver  problems.  The  people  are  entitled  to 
know  in  definite  terms  how  the  parties  pur- 
pose solving  these  problems.  To  that  end, 
the  Republican  Party  declares  its  policies 
and  program  to  be  as  follows: 

COSTITUTIONAL  GOVERNMENT 

We  undertake  to  end  executive  autocracy 
and  to  restore  to  the  people  their  constitu- 
tional  Government. 

The  policies  herein  declared  will  be  carried 
out  by  the  Federal  and  State  Governments, 
each  acting  within  its  constitutional  powers. 

CONGRESS  AND  RECONSTRUCTION 

Despite  the  unconstitutional  and  dictatorial 
course  of  the  President  and  the  partisan  ob- 
struction of  the  Democratic  Congressional 
minority,  the  Republican  majority  has  en- 
acted a  program  of  constructive  legislation 
which  in  great  part,  howevei-,  has  been  nul- 
lified by  the  vindictive  vetoes  of  the  Presi- 
dent. 

The  Republican  Congress  has  met  the  prob- 
lems presented  by  the  Administration's  un- 
preparedness  for  peace.  It  has  repealed  the 
greater  part  of  the  vexatious  war  legislation. 
It  has  enacted  a  transportation  act  making 
possible  the  rehabilitation  of  the  railroad 
systems  of  the  country,  the  operation  of 
which  under  the  present  Democratic  Admin- 
istration has  been  wasteful,  extravagant  and 
inefficient  in  the  highest  degree.  The  Trans- 
portation act  made  provision  for  the  peaceful 
settlement  of  wage  disputes,  partially  nulli- 
fied, however,  by  the  President's  delay  in 
appointing  the  Wage  Board  created  by  the 
act.  This  delay  precipitated  the  outlaw  rail- 
road   strike. 

We  stopped  the  flood  of  public  treasure, 
recklessly  poured  into  the  lap  of  an  inept 
Shipping  Board,  and  laid  the  foundations  for 
the  creation  of  a  great  merchant  marine.  We 
took  from  the  incompetent  Democratic  Ad- 
ministration the  administration  of  the  tele- 
graph and  telephone  lines  of  the  country 
and  returned  them  to  private  ownership.  We 
reduced    the    cost    of   postage    and    increased 


556 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  pay  of  the  postal  employes— the  poorest 
paid  of  all  public  servants.  We  provided 
pensions  for  superannuated  and  retired  civil 
servants  and  for  an  increase  in  pay  of 
soldiers  and  sailors.  We  reorganized  the 
army  on  a  peace  footing  and  provided  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  powerful  and  efficient 
navy. 

The  Republican  Congress  established  by 
law  a  permanent  women's  bureau  in  the  De- 
partment of  Labor;  we  submitted  to  the 
country  the  constitutional  amendment  for 
woman  suffrage  and  furnished  twenty-nine 
of  the  thirty-five  Legislatures  which  have 
ratified    it    to    date. 

Legislation  for  the  relief  of  the  consumers 
of  print  paper;  for  the  extension  of  the 
powers  of  the  Government  under  the  Food 
Control  act;  for  broadening  the  scope  of  the 
War  Risk  Insurance  act;  better  provision  for 
the  dwindling  number  of  aged  veterans  of  the 
civil  war  and  for  the  better  support  of  the 
maimed  and  injured  of  the  great  war,  and 
for  malting  practical  the  Vocational  Re- 
habilitation act  has  been  enacted  by  the 
Republican   Congress. 

We  passed  an  oil  leasing  and  water  power 
bill  to  unlock  for  the  public  good  the  great 
pent-up  resources  of  the  country.  We  have 
sought  to  check,  the  profligacy  of  the  Ad- 
ministration, to  realize  upon  the  assets  of 
the  Government,  and  to  husband  the  rev- 
enues derived  from  taxation.  The  Repub- 
licans in  Congress  have  been  responsible  for 
cuts  in  the  estimates  for  Government  ex- 
penditure of  nearly  $3,000,000,000  since  the 
signing  of  the  armistice. 

We  enacted  a  national  executive  budget 
law;  we  strengthened  the  Federal  Reserve 
act  to  permit  banks  to  lend  needed  as- 
sistance to  farmers.  We  authorized  finan- 
cial incorporations  to  develop  export  trade, 
and  finally  amended  the  rules  of  the 
Senate  and  House,  which  will  reform  evils  in 
procedure  and  guarantee  more  efficient  and 
responsible    Government. 

AGRICULTURE 

The  farmer  is  the  backbone  of  the  nation. 
National  greatness  and  economic  indepen- 
dence demand  a  population  distributed  be- 
tween industry  and  the  farm  and  sharing  on 
equal  terms  the  prosperity  which  is  wholly 
dependent  on  the  efforts  of  both.  Neither 
can  prosper  at  the  expense  of  the  other  with- 
out  inviting  joint   disaster. 

The  crux  of  the  present  agricultural  condi- 
tion lies  in  prices,  labor  and  credit. 

The  Republican  Party  believes  that  this 
condition  can  be  improved  by  practical 
and  adequate  farm  representation  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  Governmental  officials  and 
commissions;  the  right  to  form  co-operative 
associations  for  marketing  their  products 
and  protection  against  discrimination;  the 
scientific  study  of  agricultural  prices  and 
farm  production  costs  at  home  and  abroad, 
with  a  view  to  reducing  the  frequency  of  ab- 
normal fluctuations ;  the  uncensored  publica- 


tion of  such  reports;  the  authorization  of  as- 
sociations for  the  extension  of  personal 
credit;  a  national  inquiry  on  the  co-ordina- 
tion of  rail,  water  and  motor  transportation, 
with  adequate  facilities  for  receiving,  han- 
dling and  marketing  food ;  the  encourage- 
ment of  our  export  trade ;  an  end  to  unnec- 
essary price  fixing  and  ill-considered  efforts 
arbitrarily  to  reduce  prices  of  farm  products, 
which  invariably  result  to  the  disadvantage 
both  of  producer  and  consumer,  and  the  en- 
couragement of  the  production  and  importa- 
tion of  fertilizing  material  and  of  its  exten- 
sive use. 

The  Federal  Farm  Loan  act  should  be  so 
administered  as  to  facilitate  the  acquisition 
of  farm  land  by  those  desiring  to  become 
owners  and  proprietors  and  thus  minimize 
the  evils  of  farm  tenantry  and  to  furnish 
such  long-time  credits  as  farmers  may  need 
to  finance  adequately  their  larger  and  long- 
time production  operations. 

INDUSTRIAL  RELATIONS 

There  are  two  different  conceptions  of  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor.  The  one  is 
contractural,  and  emphasizes  the  diversity 
of  interests  of  employer  and  employe.  The 
other  is  that  of  co-partnership  in  a  common 
task. 

We  recognize  the  justice  of  collective  bar- 
gaining as  a  means  of  promoting  good-will, 
establishing  closer  and  more  harmonious  re- 
lations between  employer  and  employes  and 
realizing  the  true  end  of  industrial  justice. 

The  strike  or  the  lockout,  as  a  means  of 
settling  industrial  disputes,  inflicts  such  loss 
and  suffering  on  the  community  as  to  justify 
Government  initiative  to  reduce  its  fre- 
quency and  limit  its  consequences. 

We  deny  the  right  to  strike  against  the 
Government;  but  the  rights  and  interests  of 
all  Government  employes  must  be  safe- 
guarded by  impartial  laws  and  tribunals. 

In  public  utilities  we  favor  the  establish- 
ment of  an  impartial  tribunal  to  make  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  facts  and  to  render  a  de- 
cision to  the  end  that  there  may  .be  no  or- 
ganized interruption  of  service  to  the  lives 
and  health  and  welfare  of  the  people,  the 
decisions  of  the  tribunal  to  be  morally,  but 
not  legally,  binding,  and  an  informed  public 
sentiment  to  be  relied  on  to  secure  their  ac- 
ceptance. The  tribunal,  however,  should  re- 
fuse to  accept  jurisdiction  except  for  the  pur- 
pose of  investigation  as  long  as  the  public 
service  be  interrupted.  For  public  utilities 
we  favor  the  type  of  tribunal  provided  for  in 
the  Transportation  act  of  1920. 

In  private  industries  we  do  not  advocate 
the  principle  of  compulsory  arbitration,  but 
we  favor  impartial  commissions  and  better 
facilities  for  voluntary  mediation,  concilia- 
tion and  arbitration  supplemented  by  that 
full  publicity  which  will  enlist  the  influence 
of  an  aroused  public  opinion.  The  Govern- 
ment should  take  the  initiative  in  inviting 
the    establishment    of    tribunals    or    commis- 


TEXT  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PLATFORM 


557 


sions  for   the  purpose   of  voluntary   arbitra- 
tion and  investigation  of  this  issue. 

We  demand  the  exclusion  from  interstate 
commerce  of  the  products  of  convict  labor. 

NATIONAL  ECONOMY 

A  Republican  Congress  reduced  the  esti- 
mates submitted  by  the  Administration  for 
the  fiscal  year  1920  almost  $3,000,000,000  and 
for  the  fiscal  year  1921  over  $1,250,000,000. 
Greater  economies  could  have  been  effected 
had  it  not  been  for  the  stubborn  refusal  of 
the  Administration  to  co-operate  with  Con- 
gress in  an  economy  program.  The  vmiver- 
sal  demand  for  an  executive  budget  is  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  incontrovertible  fact  that 
leadership  and  sincere  assistance  on  the  part 
of  the  executive  departments  are  essential 
to  effective  economy  and  constructive  re- 
ti'enchment. 

The  Overman  act  invested  the  President 
of  the  United  States  with  all  the  authority 
and  power  necessary  to  restore  the  Federal 
Government  to  a  normal  peace  basis  and  to 
reorganize,  retrench  and  demobilize.  The 
dominant  fact  is  that  eighteen  months  after 
the  armistice  the  United  States  Government 
is  still  on  a  wartime  basis  and  the  expendi- 
ture program  of  the  Executive  reflects  war- 
time extravagance  rather  than  rigid  peace- 
time economy. 

As  an  example  of  the  failure  to  retrench 
which  has  characterized  the  post-war  policy 
of  the  Administration  we  cite  the  fact  that, 
not  including  the  War  and  Navy  Dcpart- 
ments,  the  executive  departments  and  other 
establishments  at  Washington  actually  re- 
cord an  increase  subsequent  to  the  armistice 
of  2,184  employes.  The  net  decrease  in  pay- 
roll costs  contained  in  the  1921  demands  sub- 
mitted by  the  Administration  is  only  1  per 
cent,  under  that  of  1920.  The  annual  ex- 
penses of  Federal  operation  can  be  reduced 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  without  im- 
pairing the  efficiency  of  the  public  service. 

We  pledge  ourselves  to  a  carefully  planned 
readjustment  to  a  peacetime  basis  and  to  a 
policy  of  rigid  economy,  to  the  better  co- 
ordination of  departmental  activities,  to  the 
elimination  of  unnecessary  officials  and  em- 
ployes and  to  the  raising  of  the  standard  of 
individual  efficiency. 

THE  EXECUTIVE  BUDGET 

We  congratulate  the  Republican  Congress 
on  the  enactment  of  a  law  providing  for  the 
establishment  of  an  executive  budget  as  a 
necessary  instrument  for  a  sound  and 
businesslike  administration  of  the  national 
finances,  and  we  condemn  the  veto  of  the 
President  which  defeated  this  great  financial 
reform. 

REORGANIZATION    OF    DEPART- 
MENTS 

We  advocate  a  thorough  investigation  of 
the  present  organization  of  the  Federal  de- 
partments and  bureaus,  with  a  view  to  secur- 


ing consolidation,  a  more  businesslike  distri- 
bution of  functions,  the  elimination  of  dupli- 
cation, delays  and  overlapping  of  work  and 
the  establishment  of  an  up-to-date  and  ef- 
ficient administrative  organization. 

WAR   POWERS   OF    PRESIDENT 

The  President  clings  tenaciously  to  his  au- 
tocratic wartime  powers. 

His  veto  of  the  resolution  declaring  peace 
and  his  refusal  to  sign  the  bill  repealing  war- 
time legislation,  no  longer  necessary,  evi- 
dence his  determination  not  to  restore  to  the 
nation  and  to  the  States  the  form  of  govern- 
ment provided  for  by  the  Constitution.  This 
usurpation  is  intolerable  and  deserves  the 
severest  condemnation. 

TAXATION 

The  burden  of  taxation  imposed  upon  the 
American  people  is  staggering,  but  in  pre- 
senting a  true  statement  of  the  situation  we 
must  face  the  fact  that,  while  the  character 
of  the  taxes  can  and  should  be  changed,  an 
early  reduction  of  the  amount  of  revenue  to 
be   raised   is   not   to    be   expected. 

The  next  Republican  Administration  will 
inherit  from  its  Democratic  predecessor  a 
floating  indebtedness  of  over  $3,000,000,000, 
the  prompt  liquidation  of  which  is  demanded 
by  sound  financial  considerations.  Moreover, 
the  whole  fiscal  policy  of  the  Government 
must  be  deeply  influenced  by  the  necessity 
of  meeting  obligations  in  excess  of  $5,000,- 
000,000  which  mature  in  1923.  But  sound 
policy  equally  demands  the  early  accom- 
plishment of  that  real  reduction  of  the  tax 
burden  which  may  be  achieved  by  substitut- 
ing simple  for  complex  tax  laws  and  proced- 
ure, prompt  and  certain  determination  of 
the  tax  liability  for  delay  and  uncertainty, 
tax  laws  which  do  not  for  tax  laws  which 
do  excessively  mulct  the  consumer  or  need- 
lessly  repress   enterprise   and   thrift. 

We  advocate  the  issuance  of  a  simplified 
form  of  income  return,  authorizing  the 
Treasury  Department  to  make  changes  in 
regulations  effective  only  from  the  date  of 
their  approval,  empowering  the  Commission- 
er of  Internal  Revenue,  with  tiie  consent  of 
the  taxpayer,  to  make  final  and  conclusive 
settlements  of  tax  claims  and  assessments, 
barring  fraud,  and  the  creation  of  a  Tax 
Board  consisting  of  at  least  three  represen- 
tatives of  the  tax-paying  pviblic  and  the 
heads  of  the  principal  divisions  of  the  Bu- 
reau of  Internal  Revenue  to  act  as  a  stand- 
ing committee  on  the  simplification  of  forms, 
procedure  and  law,  and  to  make  recom- 
mendations  to    the   Congress. 

BANKING  AND  CURRENCY 

The  fact  is  that  the  war,  to  a  great  extent, 
was  financed  by  a  policy  of  inflation  through 
certificate  borrowing  from  the  banks  and 
bonds  issued  at  artificial  rates  sustained  by 
the    low    discount    rates    established    by    the 


558 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Federal  Reserve  Board.  The  continuance  of 
this  policy  since  the  armistice  lays  the  Ad- 
ministration open  to  severe  criticism.  Almost 
up  to  the  present  time  the  practices  of  the 
Federal  Reserve  Board  as  to  credit  control 
have  been  frankly  dominated  by  the  con- 
venience of  the  Treasury. 

The  results  have  been  a  greatly  increased 
war  cost,  a  serious  loss  to  the  millions  of 
people  who  in  good  faith  bought  Liberty 
bonds  and  Victory  notes  at  par,  and  exten- 
sive post-war  speculation,  followed  today  by 
a  restricted  credit  for  legitimate  industrial 
expansion.  As  a  matter  of  public  policy,  we 
urge  all  banks  to  give  credit  preference  to 
essential   industries. 

The  Federal  Reserve  system  should  be  free 
from  political  influence,  which  is  quite  as 
important  as  its  independence  of  domina- 
tion   by   financial    combinations. 

THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

The  prime  cause  of  the  "  high  cost  of  liv- 
ing "  has  been,  first  and  foremost,  a  50  per 
cent,  depreciation  in  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  dollar,  due  to  a  gross  expansion  of 
our  currency  and  credit.  Reduced  produc- 
tion, burdensome  taxation,  swollen  profits 
and  the  increased  demand  for  goods  arising 
from  a  fictitious  but  enlarged  buying  power 
have  been  contributing  causes  in  a  greater 
or  less  degree. 

We  condemn  the  unsound  policies  of  the 
Democratic  Administration  which  have 
brought  these  things  to  pass  and  their  at- 
tempts to  impute  the  consequences  to  minor 
and  secondary  causes.  Much  of  the  injury 
wrought  is  irreparable.  There  is  no  short 
way  out  and  we  decline  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple with  vain  promises  or  quack  remedies. 
But  as  the  political  party  that  throughout 
its  history  has  stood  for  honest  money  and 
sound  finance,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  earnest 
and  consistent  attack  upon  the  high  cost  of 
living  by  rigorous  avoidance  of  further  in- 
flation in  our  Government  borrowing,  by 
courageous  and  intelligent  deflation  of  over- 
expanded  credit  and  currency,  by  encour- 
agement of  heightened  production  of  goods 
and  services,  by  prevention  of  unreasonable 
profits,  by  exercise  of  public  economy  and 
stimulation  of  private  thrift  and  by  revision 
of  war-imposed  taxes  unsuited  to  peacetime 
economy. 

PROFITEERING 

We  condemn  the  Democratic  Administra- 
tion for  failure  impartially  to  enforce  the 
anti-profiteering  laws  enacted  by  the  Re- 
publican Congress. 

RAILROADS 

We  are  opposed  to  Government  ownership 
and  operation  or  employe  operation  of  the 
railroads.  In  the  view  of  the  condition  pre- 
vailing in  the  country,  the  expenditures  of 
the  last  two  years  and  the  conclusions 
which    may    be    fairly    drawn    from    an    ob- 


servation of  the  transportation  systems  of 
other  countries,  it  is  clear  that  adequate 
transportation  service,  both  for  the  present 
and  the  future,  can  be  furnished  more  cer- 
tainly, economically  and  efficiently  through 
private  ownership  and  operation  under 
proper  regulation  and  control. 

There  should  be  no  speculative  pfofit  in 
rendering  the  service  of  transportation ;  but 
in  order  to  do  justice  to  the  capital  already 
invested  in  railway  enterprises,  to  restore 
railway  credit,  to  induce  future  investments 
at  a  reasonable  rate  and  to  furnish  enlarged 
facilities  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
constantly  increasing  development  and  dis- 
tribution, a  fair  return  upon  the  actual  value 
of  the  railway  property  used  in  transporta- 
tion should  be  made  reasonably  sure,  and 
at  the  same  time,  to  provide  constant  em- 
ployment to  those  engaged  in  transportation 
service  with  fair  hours  and  favorable  work- 
ing conditions  at  wages  or  compensation  at 
least  equal  to  those  prevailing  in  similar 
lines  of  industry. 

We  indorse  the  Transportation  act  of  1920 
enacted  by  the  Republican  Congress  as  a 
most  conservative  legislative  achievement. 

WATERWAYS 

We  declare  it  to  be  our  policy  to  encourage 
and  develop  water  transportation  service  and 
facilities  in  connection  with  the  commerce 
of  the   United  States. 

REGULATION    OF    INDUSTRY   AND 
COMMERCE 

We  approve  in  general  the  existing  Federal 
legislation  against  monopoly  and  combina- 
tions in  restraint  of  trade,  but,  since  the 
known  certainty  of  a  law  is  the  safest  of 
all,  we  advocate  such  amendment  as  will 
provide  American  business  men  with  better 
means  of  determining  in  advance  whether  a 
proposed  combination  is  or  is  not  unlawful. 
The  Federal  Trade  Commission,  under  a 
Democratic  Administration,  has  not  accom- 
plished the  purpose  for  which  it  was  created. 
This  commission,  properly  organized  and  its 
duties  efficiently  administered,  should  af- 
ford protection  to  the  public  and  legitimate 
business.  In  this  there  should  be  no  per.-<e- 
cution  of  honest  business,  but  to  the  extent 
that  circumstances  warrant  we  pledge  our- 
selves to  strengthen  the  law  against  vmfair 
practices. 

We  pledge  the  party  to  an  immediate  re- 
sumption of  trade  relations  with  every  na- 
tion with  which  we  are  at  peace. 

INTERNATIONAL  TRADE  AND 
TARIFF 

The  uncertain  and  unsettled  conditions  of 
international  balances,  the  abnormal  eco- 
nomic and  trade  situation  of  the  world  and 
the  impossibility  of  forecasting  accurately 
even  the  near  future  preclude  the  formula- 
tion   of    a    definite    program    to    meet   condi- 


TEXT  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PLATFORM 


559 


It 


tions  a  year  hence.  But  the  Republican 
Party  leaffirms  its  belief  in  the  protective 
principle  and  pledges  itself  to  a  revision  of 
the  tariff  as  soon  as  conditions  shall  make 
it  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  home 
market  for  American  labor,  agriculture  and 
industry. 

MERCHANT  MARINE 

The  national  defense  and  our  foreign  com- 
merce require  a  merchant  marine  of  the  best 
type  of  modern  ship,  flying  the  American 
flag,  manned  by  American  seamen,  owned 
by  private  capital  and  operated  by  private 
energy. 

LAW  AND  ORDER 

The  equality  of  all  citizens  under  the  law 
["has  always  been  a  policy  of  the  Republican 
Party. 

Without  obedience  to  law  and  maintenance 
[of  order,  our  American  institutions  must 
'perish.  Our  laws  must  be  impartially  en- 
forced and  speedy  justice  should  be  secured. 

PUBLIC  ROADS  AND  HIGHWAYS 

We  favor  liberal  appropriations  in  co- 
opei-ation  with  the  States  for  the  construc- 
tion of  highways,  which  will  bring  about 
a  reduction  in  transportation  costs,  better 
marketing  _of  farm  products  and  improve- 
ment in  rural  postal  delivery,  as  well  as 
meet   the   needs   of   military   defense. 

In  determining  the  proportion  of  Federal 
aid  for  road  construction  among  the  States, 
the  sums  lost  in  taxation  to  the  respective 
States  by  the  setting  apart  of  large  portions 
of  their  area  as  forest  resei'vations  should 
be  considered  as  a  controlling  factor. 

Conservation  is  a  Republican  policy.  It 
began  with  the  passage  of  the  Reclamation 
act,  signed  by  President  Roosevelt.  The  i-e- 
cent  passage  of  the  Coal,  Oil  and  Phosphate 
Leasing  bill  by  a  Republican  Congress  and 
the  enactment  of  the  Water  Power  bill,  fash- 
ioned in  accordance  with  the  same  principle, 
are  consistent  and  landmarks  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  conservation  of  our  national 
resources.  We  denounce  the  refusal  of  the 
President  to  sign  the  Water  Power  bill, 
passed  after  ten  years  of  controversy.  The 
Republican  Party  has  taken  an  especially 
honorable  part  in  saving  our  national  forests 
and  in  the  effort  to  establish  a  national 
forest  policy.  Our  most  pressing  conserva- 
tion question  relates  to  our  forests.  We  are 
using  our  forest  resources  faster  than  they 
are  being  renewed.  The  result  is  to  raise 
unduly  the  cost  of  forest  products  to  con- 
sumers, and  especially  farmers,  who  use 
more  than  half  the  lumber  produced  in 
America,  and  in  the  end  to  create  a  timber 
famine.  The  Federal  Government,  the 
States  and  pi'ivate  interests  must  unite  in 
devising  means  to  meet  the  menace. 

We  indorse  the  sound  legislation  recently 
enacted    by    the    Republican    Congress    that 


will  insure  the  promotion  and  maintenance 
of    the    American    merchant    marine. 

We  favor  the  application  of  the  Workmen's 
Compensation  acts  to  the  merchant  marine. 

We  recommend  that  all  ships  engaged  in 
coastwise  trade  and  all  vessels  of  the  Amer- 
ican merchant  marine  shall  pass  through  the 
Panama  Canal   without  premium  of  tolls. 

IMMIGRATION 

The  standard  of  living  and  the  standard  of 
citizenship  are  its  most  precious  possessions, 
and  the  preservation  and  elevation  of  those 
standards  is  the  first  duty  of  our  Govern- 
ment. 

The  immigration  policy  of  the  United 
States  should  be  such  as  to  insure  that  the 
number  of  foreigners  in  the  country  at  any 
one  time  shall  not  exceed  that  which  can  be 
assimilated  with  reasonable  rapidity,  and  to 
favor  immigrants  whose  standards  are  sim- 
ilar to  ours. 

The  selective  tests  that  are  at  present  ap- 
plied could  be  improved  by  requiring  a  high- 
er physical  standard,  a  more  complete  ex- 
clusion of  mental  defectives  and  of  criminals 
and  a  more  effective  inspection,  applied  as 
near  the  source  of  immigration  as  possible, 
as  well  as  at  the  port  of  entry.  Justice  to 
the  foreigner  and  to  ourselves  demands  pro- 
vision for  the  guidance,  protection  and  better 
economic  distribution  of  our  alien  popula- 
tion. To  facilitate  Government  supervision 
all  aliens  should  be  required  to  register  an- 
nually until   they  become   naturalized. 

The  existing  policy  of  the  United  States 
for  the  practical  exclusion  of  Asiatic  immi- 
grants is  sound  and  should  be  maintained. 

NATURALIZATION 

There  is  urgent  need  of  improvement  in  our 
naturalization  law.  No  alien  should  become 
a  citizen  until  he  has  become  genuinely 
American,  and  tests  for  determining  the 
alien's  fitness  for  American  citizenship 
should  be  provided  for  by  law. 

We  advocate  in  addition  the  independent 
naturalization  of  married  women.  An  Amer- 
ican woman  should  not  lose  her  citizenship 
by  marriage  to  an  alien  resident  in  the 
United  States. 

FREE  SPEECH  AND  ALIEN  AGITA- 
TION 

We  demand  that  every  American  citizen 
shall  enjoy  the  ancient  and  constitutional 
right  of  free  speech,  free  press  and  free  as- 
sembly and  the  no  less  sacred  right  of  the 
qualified  voter  to  be  represented  by  his  duly 
chosen  representatives,  but  no  man  may  ad- 
vocate resistance  to  the  law,  and  no  man 
may  advocate  violent  overthrow  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

Aliens  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States  are  not  entitled  of  right  to  liberty  of 
agitation  directed  against  the  Government 
or  American  institutions. 

Every   Government  has   the   power   to   ex- 


560 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


elude  and  deport  those  aliens  who  constitute 
a  real  menace  to  its  peaceful  existence.  But 
in  view  of  the  large  numbers  of  people  af- 
fected by  the  Immigration  acts  and  in  view 
of  the  vigorous  malpractice  of  the  Depart- 
ments of  Justice  and  Labor,  an  adequate 
public  hearing  before  a  competent  adminis- 
trative tribunal  should  be  assured  to  all. 

LYNCHING 

We  urge  Congress  to  consider  the  most 
effective  means  to  end  lynching  in  this  coun- 
try, which  continues  to  be  a  terrible  blot 
on  our  American  citizenship. 

RECLAMATION 

We  favor*  a  fixed  and  comprehensive  pol- 
icy of  reclamation  to  increase  national 
wealth   and   production.  ■  • 

We  recognize  in  the  development  of  recla- 
mation through  Federal  action  with  its  in- 
crease of  production  and  taxable  wealth  a 
safeguard  for  the  nation.  We  commend  to 
Congress*  a  policy  to  reclaim  lands  and  the 
establishment  of  a  fixed  national  policy  of 
development  of  natural  resources  in  relation 
to  reclamation  through  the  now  designated 
Government  agencies. 

THE  SERVICE  MEN 

We  hold  in  imperishable  remembrance  the 
valor  and  the  patriotism  of  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  of  America  who  fought  in  the  great 
war  for  human  liberty,  and  we  pledge  our- 
selves to  discharge  to  the  fullest  the  obli- 
gations which  a  grateful  nation  justly  should 
fulfill  in  appreciation  of  the  services  ren- 
dered by  its  defenders  on  sea  and  on  land. 

Republicans  are  not  ungrateful.  Through- 
out their  history  they  have  shown  their 
gratitude  toward  the  nation's  defenders. 
Liberal  legislation  for  the  care  of  the  dis- 
abled and  infirm  and  their  dependents  has 
ever  marked  Republican  policy  toward  the 
soldier  and  sailor  of  all  the  wars  in  which 
our  country  has  participated.  The  present 
Congress  has  appropriated  generously  for  the 
disabled  of  the  World  War.  The  amounts 
already  applied  aud  authorized  for  the  fiscal 
years  1920-21  for  this  purpose  reached  the 
stupendous  sum  of  $1,180,571,893.  This  legis- 
lation is  significant  of  the  party's  purpose 
in  generously  caring  for  the  maimed  and 
disabled  men   of  the  recent   war. 

CIVIL  SERVICE 

We  renew  our  repeated  declaration  that 
the  civil  service  law  shall  be  thoroughly  and 
honestly  enforced  and  extended  wherever 
practicable.  The  recent  action  of  Congress 
in  enacting  a  comprehensive  civil  service  re- 
tirement law  and  in  working  out  a  compre- 
hensive- employment  and  wage  policy  that 
will  guarantee  equal  and  just  treatment  to 
the  army  of  Government  workers,  and  in 
centralizing  the  administration  of  the  new 
and    progressive    employment    policy    in    the 


hands    of    the    Civil    Service    Commission    is 
worthy  of  all  praise. 

POSTAL  SERVICE 

We  condemn  the  present  Administration 
for  its  destruction  of  the  efficiency  of  the 
postal  service  and  of  the  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone service  when  controlled  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  for  its  failure  properly  to  com- 
pensate employes  whose  expert  knowledge  is 
essential  to  the  proper  conduct  of  the  affairs 
of  the  postal  system.  We  commend  the  Re- 
publican Congress  for  the  enactment  of  legis- 
lation increasing  the  pay  of  postal  employes, 
who  up  to  that  time  were  the  poore:st  paid 
in   the   Government   service. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 

We  welcome  women  into  full  participation 
in  the  affairs  of  Government  and  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  Republican  Party.  We  earn- 
estly hope  that  Republican  Legislatures  in 
States  which  have  not  yet  acted  upon  the 
suffrage  amendment  will  ratify  the  amend- 
ment, to  the  end  that  all  of  the  women  of 
the  nation  of  voting  age  may  participate  in 
the  election  of  1920,  which  is  so  important 
to  the  welfare  of  our  country. 

SOCIAL  PROGRESS 

The  supreme  duty  of  the  nation  is  the  con- 
servation of  human  resources  through  an 
enlightened  measure  of  social  and  industrial 
justice.  Although  the  Federal  jurisdiction 
over  social  problems  is  limited,  they  affect 
the  welfare  and  interests  of  the  nation  as 
a  whole.  We  pledge  the  Republican  Party 
to  the  solution  of  these  problems  through 
national  and  State  legislation  in  accordance 
with  the  best  progressive  thought  of  the 
country. 

EDUCATION  AND  HEALTH 

We  indorse  the  principle  of  Federal  aid  to 
the  States  for  the  purposes  of  vocational 
and  agricultural  training. 

Where  Federal  money  is  devoted  to  educa- 
tion, such  education  must  be  so  directed  as 
to  awaken  in  the  youth  the  spirit  of  America 
and  a  sense  of  patriotic  duty  to  the  United 
States. 

A  thorough  system  of  physical  education 
for  all  children  up  to  the  age  of  19,  including 
adequate  health  supervision  and  instruction, 
would  remedy  conditions  revealed  by  the 
draft  and  would  add  to  the  economic  and 
industrial  strength  of  the  nation.  National 
leadership  and  stimulation  will  be  necessary 
to  induce  the  States  to  adopt  a  wise  system 
of  physical  training. 

The  public  health  activities  of  the  Federal 
Government  are  scattered  through  numerous 
departments  and  bureaus,  resulting  in  ineffi- 
ciency, duplication  and  extravagance.  We 
advocate  a  greater  centralization  of  the 
Federal  functions,   and  in  addition  urge  the 


TEXT  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PLATFORM 


561 


better  co-ordination  of  the  work  of  the  Fed- 
eral, State  and  local  health  agencies. 

CHILD  LABOR 

The  Republican  Party  stands  for  a  Fed- 
eral child  labor  law  and  for  its  rigid  en- 
forcement. If  the  present  law  be  found 
unconstitutional  or  ineffective  we  shall  seek 
other  means  to  enable  Congress  to  prevent 
the  evils  of  child  labor. 

WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 

Women  have  special  problems  of  employ- 
ment which  make  necessary  special  study. 
We  commend  Congress  for  the  permanent  es- 
tablishment"  of  the  Women's  Bureau  in  the 
United  States  Department  of  Labor  to  serve 
as  a  source  of  information  to  the  States  and 
to  Congress. 

The  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal  serv- 
ice should  be  applied  throughout  all 
branches  of  the  Federal  Government  In 
which  women  are  employed. 

Federal  aid  for  vocational  training  should 
take  into  consideration  the  special  aptitudes 
and  needs  of  women  workers,  * 

We  demand  Federal  legislation  to  limit  the 
hours  of  employment  of  women  engaged  in 
intensive  industry,  the  product  of  which  en- 
ters into  interstate  commerce. 

HOUSING 

The  housing  shortage  has  not  only  com- 
pelled careful  study  of  ways  of  stimulating 
building,  but  it  has  brought  into  relief  the 
unsatisfactory  character  of  the  housing  ac- 
commodations of  large  numbers  of  the  in- 
habitants of  our  cities.  A  nation  of  home- 
owners is  the  best  guarantee  of  the  main- 
tenance of  those  principles  of  liberty  and 
law  and  order  upon  which  our  Government 
is  founded.  Both  national  and  State  Gov- 
ernments should  encourage  in  all  proper 
ways  the  acquiring  of  homes  by  our  citizens. 
The  United  States  Government  should  make 
available  the  valuable  information  on  hous- 
ing and  town-planning  collected  during  the 
war.  This  information  should  be  kept  up  to 
date  and  made  currently  available. 

HAWAII 

For  Hawaii  we  recommend:  Federal  as- 
sistance In  Americanizing  and  educating 
their  greatly  disproportionate  foreign  popu- 
lation; home  rule  and  the  rehabilitation  of 
the  Hawaiian  race. 

FOREIGN  RELATIONS 

The  foreign  policy  of  the  Administration 
has  been  founded  upon  no  principle  and 
directed  by  no  definite  conception  of  our  na- 
tion's rights  and  obligations.  It  has  been 
humiliating  to  America  and  irritating  to 
other  nations,  with  the  result  that  after  a 
period  of  unexampled  sacrifice,  our  motives 
are  suspected,  our  moral  influence  is  im- 
paired and  our  Government  stands  discredit- 


ed and  friendless  among  the  nations  of  the 
world. 

We  favor  a  liberal  and  generous  for- 
eign policy,  founded  upon  definite  moral  and 
political  principles,  characterized  by  a  clear 
understanding  of  and  firm  adherence  to  our 
own  rights,  and  unfailing  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others.  We  should  afford  full  and 
adequate  protection  to  the  life,  liberty  and 
property  and  all  international  rights  of  every 
American  citizen,  and  should  require  a 
proper  respect  for  the  American  flag;  but 
we  should  be  equally  careful  to  manifest  a 
just  regard  for  the  rights  of  other  nations. 
A  scrupulous  observance  of  our  international 
engagements  when  lawfully  assumed  is  es- 
sential to  our  own  honor  and  self-respect 
and  the  respect  of  other  nations.  Subject  to 
a  due  regard  for  our  international  obliga- 
tions, we  should  leave  our  country  free  to 
develop  its  civilization  along  the  line  most 
conducive  to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of 
the  people,  and  to  cast  its  influence  on  the 
side  of  justice  and  right  should  occasion  re- 
quire. 

MEXICO 

The  ineffective  policy  of  the  present  Ad- 
ministration in  Mexican  matters  has  been 
largely  responsible  for  the  continued  loss  of 
American  lives  in  that  country  and  upon  our 
border;  for  the  enormous  loss  of  American 
and  foreign  property;  for  the  lowering  of 
American  standards  of  morality  and  social 
relations  with  Mexicans,  and  for  the  bring- 
ing of  American  ideals  of  justice  and  na- 
tional honor  and  political  integrity  into  con- 
tempt and  ridicule  in  Mexico  and  throughout 
■  the  world. 

The  policy  of  wordy,  futile,  written  pro- 
tests against  the  acts  of  Mexican  officials, 
explained  the  following  day  by  the  President 
himself  as  being  "  meaningless  and  not  in- 
tended to  be  considered  seriously  or  en- 
forced," has  but  added  in  degree  to  that 
contempt,  and  has  earned  for  us  the  sneers 
and  jeers  of  Mexican  bandits,  and  added  in- 
sult upon  insult  against  our  national  honor 
and  dignity. 

We  should  not  recognize  any  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment unless  it  be  a  responsible  Govern- 
ment, willing  and  able  to  give  sufficient 
guarantees  that  the  lives  and  property  of 
American  citizens  are  respected  and  pro- 
tected, that  wrongs  will  be  promptly  cor- 
rected and  just  compensation  will  be  made 
for  injury  sustained.  The  Republican  Party 
pledges  itself  to  a  consistent,  firm  and  ef- 
fective policy  toward  Mexico  that  shall  en- 
force respect  for  the  American  flag  and  that 
shall  protect  the  rights  of  American  citizens 
lawfully  in  Mexico  to  security  of  life  and 
enjoyment  of  property,  in  connection  with 
an  established  international  law  and  our 
treaty  rights. 

The  Republican  Party  is  a  sincere  friend 
of  the  Mexican  people.  In  its  insistence  upon 
the  maintenance  of  order  for  the  protection 


562 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


of  American  citizens  within  its  borders  a 
great  service  will  be  rendered  the  Mexican 
people  themselves,  for  a  continuation  of 
present  conditions  means  disaster  to  their 
interest  and  patriotic  aspirations. 

MANDATE  FOR  ARMENIA 

We  condemn  President  Wilson  for  asking 
Congress  to  empower  him  to  accept  a  man- 
date for  Armenia.  The  acceptance  of  such  a 
mandate  would  throw  the  United  States  into 
the  very  maelstrom  of  European  quarrels. 
According  to  the  estimate  of  the  Harbord 
Commission,  organized  by  authority  of  Pres- 
ident Wilson,  we  would  be  called  upon  to 
send  59,000  American  boys  to  police  Armenia 
and  to  expend  $276,000,000  in  the  first  year 
and  $756,000,000  in  five  years.  This  estimate 
is  made  upon  the  basis  that  we  would  have 
only  roving  bands  to  fight,  but  in  case  of 
serious  trouble  with  the  Turks  or  with  Rus- 
sia, a  force  exceeding  200,000  would  be  neces- 
sary. 

No  more  striking  illustration  can  be  found 
of  President  Wilson's  disregai'd  of  the  lives 
of  American  boys  or  American  interests. 

We  deeply  sympathize  with  the  people  of 
Armenia  and  stand  ready  to  help  them  in  all 
proper  ways,  but  the  Republican  Party  will 
oppose  now  and  hereafter  the  acceptance  of 
a  mandate  for  any  country  in  Europe  or 
Asia. 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  Republican  Party  stands  for  agree- 
ment among  the  nations  to  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  world.  We  believe  that  such  an 
international  association  must  be  based  upon 
international  justice,  and  must  provide 
methods  which  shall  maintain  the  rule  of 
public  right  by  development  of  law  and  the 
decision  of  impartial  courts,  and  which 
shall  secure  instant  and  general  international 
conference  whenever  peace  shall  be  threat- 
ened by  political  action,  so  that  the  nations 
pledged  to  do  and  insist  upon  what  is  just 
and  fair  may  exercise  their  influence  and 
power  for  the  prevention  of  war.  We  be- 
lieve that  all  this  can  be  done  without  the 
compromise  of  national  independence,  with- 
out depriving  the  people  of  the  United  States 
in  advance  of  the  right  to  determine  for 
themselves  what  is  just  and  fair,  when  the 
occasion  arises,  and  without  involving  them 
as  participants  and  not  as  peacemakers  in  a 
multitude  of  quarrels,  the  merits  of  which 
they  are  unable  to  judge. 

The  covenant  signed  by  the  President  at 
Paris  failed  signally  to  accomplish  this  pvir- 
pose  and  contained  stipulations  not  only  in- 
tolerable for  an  independent  people  but  cer- 
tain to  produce  the  injustice,  hostility  and 
controversy  among  nations  which  it  proposed 
to  prevent. 


That  covenant  repudiated,  to  a  degree 
wholly  unnecessary  and  unjustifiable,  tht 
time-honored  policy  in  favor  of  peace  de- 
clared by  Washington  and  Jefferson  and 
Monroe  and  pursued  by  all  American  admin- 
istrators for  more  than  a  century,  and  it 
ignored  the  universal  sentiments  of"  America 
for  generations  past  in  favor  of  international 
law  and  arbitration,  and  it  rested  the  hope 
of  the  future  upon  mere  expediency  and  ne- 
gotiation. 

The  unfortunate  insistence  of  the  President 
upon  having  his  own  way,  without  any 
change  and  without  any  •regard  to  the  opin- 
ion of  the  majority  of  the  Senate,  which 
shares  with  him  in  the  treaty-making  power, 
and  the  President's  demand  that  the  treaty 
should  be  ratified  without  any  modification, 
created  a  situation  in  which  Senators  were 
required  to  vote  upon  their  consciences  and 
their  oaths,  according  to  their  judgment, 
vipon  the  treaty  as  it  was  presented  or  sub- 
mit to  the  commands  of  a  dictator  in  a  mat- 
ter where  the  authority,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, was  theirs,  and  not  his. 

The  Senators  performed  their  duty  faith- 
fully. We  approve  their  conduct  and  honor 
their  courage  and  fidelity,  and  we  pledge  the 
coming  Republican  Administration  to  such 
agreement  with  the  other  nations  of  the 
world  as  .shall  meet  the  full  duty  of  Ameri- 
ca to  civilization  and  humanity  in  accord- 
ance with  American  ideals  and  without  sur- 
rendering the  right  of  the  American  people 
to  exercise  its  judgment  and  its  power  in 
favor  of  justice  and  peace. 

Pointing  to  its  history  and  relying  upon  its 
fundamental  principles,  we  d  jclare  that  the 
Republican  Party  has  the  generous  courage 
and  constructive  ability  to  end  executive 
usurpation  and  restore  constitutional  Gov- 
ernment; to  fulfill  our  world  obligations 
without  sacrificing  our  national  indepen- 
dence; to  raise  the  national  standard  of  edu- 
cation, health  and  general  welfare;  to  re- 
establish a  peacetime  administration  and  to 
substitute  economy  and  efficiency  for  ex- 
travagance and  chaos;  to  restore  and  main- 
tain the  national  credit;  to  reform  unequal 
and  burdensome  taxes;  to  free  business  from 
arbitrary  and  unnecessary  official  control; 
to  suppress  disloyalty  without  denial  of  jus- 
tice ;  to  repeal  the  arrogant  challenge  of  any 
class ;  to  maintain  a  Government  of  all  the 
people  as  contrasted  with  a  Government  for 
some  of  the  people,  and,  finally,  to  allay  un- 
rest, suspicion  and  strife  and  to  secui-e  the 
co-operation  and  unity  of  all  citizens  in  the 
solution  of  the  complex  problems  of  the  day, 
to  the  end  that  our  country,  happy  and  pros- 
perous, proud  of  its  past,  sure  of  itself  and 
its  institutions,  may  look  forward  with  con- 
fidence to  the  future. 


Prohibition  Upheld  by  Supreme  Court 

iighteenth  Amendment   and  Volstead  Law  Declared    Valid  by  the 
Nation's  Highest  Tribunal 


THE  final  decision  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  on  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  and  the  Volstead  law  was 
handed  down  and  published  on  June  7, 
1920.  The  constitutionality  of  both 
amendment  and  law  was  confirmed.  The 
decision  amounted  to  a  decree  of  nation- 
wide "  bone-dry "  prohibition,  at  least 
until  Congress  should  decide  to  enact  a 
less  stringent  enforcement  law.  The 
ability  of  any  State  to  override  the  Fed- 
eral Government  and  to  maintain  any 
degree  of  "  wetness  "  beyond  that  fixed 
by  Congress  was  denied.  The  petitions 
of  Rhode  Island  and  New  Jersey,  as 
well  as  other  State  appeals  from  Massa- 
chusetts, Kentucky,  Wisconsin  and  Mis- 
souri to  prohibit  enforcement ;  the  action 
brought  by  Christian  Feigenspan  of 
Newark,  and  all  pending  injunctions, 
were  dismissed.  Petitions  for  a  rehear- 
ing were  immediately  filed  by  three  of 
the  principal  opponents.  The  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court  was  unanimous; 
four  of  the  Judges,  though  sustaining 
the  Volstead  act,  disagreed  regarding 
some  of  its  interpretations. 

By  this  sweeping  dismissal  of  all  at- 
tacks upon  the  constitutionality  of  the 
prohibition  laws,  the  long  battle  between 
the  "  drys  "  and  the  "  wets  "  reached  its 
culmination  and  resulted  in  a  triumph 
for  the  prohibitionists.  Two  attempts, 
made  on  Feb.  25  and  March  4,  to  have 
Congress  repeal  the  Volstead  law  had 
failed  of  success.  Four  States  lost  suits 
to  have  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  de- 
clared unconstitutional  on  the  ground  of 
infringement  of  State  rights.  The  first 
of  these  actions  was  brought  by  Rhode 
Island  on  Jan.  25,  and  immediately  gave 
rise  to  a  countersuit  brought  on  March 
1  by  twenty-one  States  leagued  to- 
gether, to  ask  the  Supreme  Court  to  dis- 
miss Rhode  Island's  suit.  Having  heard 
arguments  in  the  Rhode  Island,  Ken- 
tucky and  Massachusetts  cases  on  March 
8,    the    Supreme    Court    on    March    15 


granted  New  Jersey  permission  to  bring 
original  proceedings  against  the  amend- 
ment. Previous  to  this  decision  (on 
March  2)  Governor  Edwards  of  New  Jer- 
sey signed  a  bill  permitting  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  beer  containing  3.50 
per  cent,  alcohol.  Governor  Edwards 
assailed  the  Anti-Saloon  League  and  the 
Prohibition  activities  of  W.  J.  Bryan  and 
declared  that  there  could  be  "  no  greater 
work  of  God  than  the  defense  of  ancient 
American  liberty." 

Besides  the  presentation  of  the  State 
cases,  an  attack  upon  the  constitution- 
ality of  the  amendment  and  law  was 
made  in  briefs  filed  in  the  Supreme 
Court  on  March  27  and  argued  by  Elihu 
Root  and  William  G.  Guthrie  on  behalf 
of  Christian  Feigenspan,  a  brewer  of 
Newark,  N.  J.  The  first  hearing  oc- 
curred on  March  29.  By  the  final  de- 
cision of  the  Supreme  Court  this  test 
case,  as  well  as  all  State  appeals  and 
test  injunctions,  was  dismissed. 

Pending  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  other  States  besides  New  Jersey, 
passed  bills  providing  for  the  State  sale 
of  2.75  per  cent.  beer.  Massachusetts 
had  declared  for  such  a  bill  by  legisla- 
tive action,  but  Governor  Coolidge  vetoed 
the  bill  passed  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  be  hypocrisy,  since  it  could  bring 
the  people  no  beer,  and  to  act  under  it 
would  be  an  infraction  of  national  law. 
New  York  State,  however,  on  May  24, 
followed  the  example  of  New  Jersey  by 
passing,  with  Governor  Smith's  approval, 
the  Walker  bill  for  2.75  per  cent.  beer. 
In  approving  this  bill,  the  New  York 
Governor  said  that  it  represented  the 
majority  sentiment  of  New  York  and 
of  its  Legislature.  In  signing  the  meas- 
ure he  stated  that  he  accepted  the  Legis- 
lature's decision  that  2.75  per  cent,  beer 
was  non-intoxicating.  The  New  York 
law,  like  the  rest  of  its  kind,  became 
void  after  the  Supreme  Court's  decision. 
Despite  frequent  and  vigorous  warn- 
ings  emanating  from  the  new  Federal 


564 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Prohibition  Commissioner,  John  F.  Kra- 
mer, and  his  agents  it  was  an  open  se- 
cret that  liquor  was  being  freely  sold  in 
New  York  City  over  the  bar  and  other- 
wise. The  flagrant  violation  of  the  Vol- 
stead law  was  revealed  in  May  by  a  well- 
known  clergyman,  whose  revelations, 
based  on  personal  investigation,  led  to  a 
Grand  Jury  investigation  and  to  raids 
on  the  restaurants  and  other  places 
which  he  named.  Commissioner  of  Pub- 
lic Welfare  Coler,  on  May  9,  declared  the 
prohibtion  law  so  poorly  enforced  that 
the  hospitals  were  again  filling  with  al- 
coholic patients.  He  threatened  a  thor- 
ough investigation  if  a  better  observance 
of  the  law  were  not  enforced  within  a 
month.  Supervisor  James  S.  Shevlin,  in 
charge  of  prohibition  enforcement  in 
New  York,  blamed  the  police  for  failure 
to  co-operate  with  Federal  officials.  Va- 
rious Judges  commented  on  the  large 
number  of  cases  of  drunkenness  that 
came  up  before  them.  Dr.  Menaz  S.  Greg- 
ory, Director  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  said 
on  May  9  that  the  number  of  alcoholic 
patients  received  in  the  ten  days  prior 
to  that  date  was  ten  times  that  of  a 
month  earlier. 

A  marked  decrease  in  the  illicit  sale 
of  liquor  in  New  York  City  followed  the 
Supreme  Court  decision  upholding  all 
prohibition  legislation,  and  was  indicated 
by  reports  of  the  Federal  Enforcement 


Agents  on  June  9.  Prohibition  of- 
ficials in  Brooklyn,  Long  Island  and 
New  Jersey  reported  that  many  saloon- 


JOHN   F.    KRAMER 
Federal  Prohibition  Comviissioner 


keepers  were  retiring  from  business. 
Those  remaining  in  business  were  very 
cautious  in  selling  drinks.  A  number  of 
arrests  for  illegal  sale  of  liquor  were 
made  during  the  first  half  of  June. 


American  Developments 

Peace-Time  Army  Fixed  at  297,000  Officers  and  Men- 
Attempts  to  Curb  Profiteering 

[Period  Ended  June  15,  1920] 


rE  Army  Reorganization  bill,  as 
agreed  upon  by  the  House  and 
Senate  on  May  27,  and  as  enacted 
into  law,  is  substantially  differ- 
ent from  the  one  proposed  originally  by 
the  Senate.  It  provides  for  a  peace-time 
regular  army  of  297,000  officers  and 
men,  including  the  Philippine  Scouts ;  for 
continuation  of  the  National  Guard  sub- 
stantially on  the  present  basis,  and  for 


the  organization  of  an  enlisted  reserve 
corps  liable  for  fifteen  days  of  training 
duty  a  year,  except  in  case  of  war 
emergency. 

The  Senate  proposal  to  create  the  post 
of  Under  Secretary  of  War  to  have 
charge  of  procurement  of  war  supplies 
was  accepted  in  substance  by  placing 
this  duty  on  the  Assistant  Secretary  at 
an  increased   salary  of  $10,000  a  year. 


AMERICAN   DEVELOPMENTS 


565 


The  Assistant  Secretary  will  function  as 
a  business  manager.  The  law  also 
creates  within  the  department  a  per- 
manent War  Council  composed  of  the 
Secretary,  Assistant  Secretary,  the  Gen- 
eral of  the  Army  and  the  Chief  of  Staff, 
which  will  determine  military  and  mu- 
nition problems. 

Senate  provisions  reconstructing  the 
General  Staff  on  French  Army  lines  and 
making  separate  branches  of  the  Air 
Service,  Signal  Corps  and  Chemical 
Warfare  sections  were  retained,  the  Air 
Force  to  include  1,514  officers  and  16,- 
000  men  commanded  by  a  Major  General. 
For  the  line  of  the  army  21  Major  Gen- 
erals, 46  Brigadiers,  525  Colonels,  674 
Lieutenant  Colonels,  2,245  Majors  and 
4,490  Captains  are  provided,  chiefs  of 
infantry,  cavalry  and  field  artillery  to 
be  Major  Generals,  and  the  Porto  Rican 
Infantry  to  be  incorporated  into  the 
regular  army.  Promotions  will  be  from 
a  single  list  under  yearly  classification 
with  provision  for  discharge  of  unfit 
officers,  and  the  Summer  training  camp 
system  is  perpetuated  to  aid  in  develop- 
ing reserve  officers. 

General  John  J.  Pershing  on  June  7 
asked  Secretary  of  War  Baker  to  put 
him  on  the  inactive  list. 

This  does  not  mean  that  General 
Pershing  has  resigned;  he  has  only  asked 
to  be  retired  from  active  duty,  subject 
to  call  to  military  duty  in  the  case  of  an 
emergency  or  otherwise. 

SOLDIERS*    BONUS 

By  a  vote  of  289  to  92  the  House  on 
May  29  passed  the  bill  to  provide  bonuses 
for  ex-service  men,  and  in  doing  so  broke 
legislative  precedents  by  suspending  the 
rules  and  passing,  after  forty  minutes' 
debate,  a  measure  which  called  for  an 
expenditure  of  more  than  $1,600,000,000. 
Under  the  gag  rule  plan  devised  to  com- 
pel voting  directly  upon  the  bill  it  was 
necessary  to  obtain  a  two-thirds  vote 
instead  of  a  majority.  This  was  ac- 
complished, with  35  more  than  required. 

Forty  Republicans,  including  Repre- 
sentatives Mann,  ex-Speaker  Cannon,  S. 
D.  Fess,  Chairman  of  the  Congressional 
Campaign  Committee,  and  Representa- 
tive  Kahn,    Chairman    of    the     Military 


Affairs  Committee,  deserted  their  col- 
leagues, while  112  Democrats  joined  the 
majority  and  supported  the  measure 
after  Representative  Rainey  of  Illinois 
had  urged  them  to  do  so. 

The  bill  was  sent  to  the  Senate,  but  no 
action  was  taken  on  it  by  that  body.  The 
adjournment  of  Congress  therefore  left 
the  bonus  project  at  least  temporarily 
sidetracked. 

WAR  SUPPLIES  SOLD 

The  report  submitted  by  the  United 
States  Liquidation  Commission  of  the 
War  Department,  June  6,  showed  tre- 
mendous transactions  carried  out  quick- 
ly and  successfully.  The  war  stocks  had 
been  located  chiefly  in  France;  some 
were  in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Hol- 
land, Belgium,  Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy. 
Supplies  and  equipment  worth  $672,000,- 
000  were  returned  to  this  country,  the 
balance  was  sold  in  Europe  for  $822,- 
923,225.    Said  the  report: 

Sales  of  approximately  $108,700,000  were 
made  for  cash  on  delivery,  sales  of  ap- 
proximately $532,500,000  were  made  to  the 
French  Government,  sales  amounting  to 
about  $29,000,000  were  made  to  Belgium 
and  sales  aggregating  $140,100,000  were 
made  to  Poland,  Czechoslovakia,  Serbia, 
Rumania  and  other  so-called  liberated  na- 
tions of  Central  Europe  and  the  Near 
East.  Those  made  to  the  nations  men- 
tioned are  evidenced  by  their  5  per  cent, 
interest-bearing  bonds,  maturing  from  two 
to  ten  years  after  date.  Other  sales  were 
made  on  short-term  credits,  which  have 
been  or  are  being  collected  by  the  appro- 
priate army  services. 

TO  ACCOMPANY  WAR  DEAD 

Secretary  Baker  announced  on  June  8 
that  transportation  from  Hoboken  to 
their  homes  would  be  furnished  by  the 
War  Department  to  relatives  of  soldiers 
who  died  abroad  and  whose  bodies  are 
being  returned  to  this  country  for  in- 
terment. One  relative  or  friend  will  be 
allowed  to  accompany  each  body  from 
the  ship  to  the  home  town  at  the  Gov- 
ernment's expense. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  [Secre- 
tary Baker  explained]  the  bodies  of  sol- 
diers who  have  died  in  the  service  are 
accompanied  from  the  place  of  death  or 
port  of  arrival  in  this  country  to  the  home 
of  the  deceased  by  an  official  convoyer, 
but  under  army  regulations  the  War  De- 
partment is  allowed  to  substitute  for  this 


566 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


official  conveyer  a  relative  or  friend  of 
the  deceased.  The  War  Department  is  not 
able  to  furnish  transportation  to  Hoboken, 
nor  is  it  in  a  position  to  pay  any  expenses 
incurred  during:  the  time  consumed  in 
awaiting  shipment  of  the  body. 

This  arrangement  is  made  in  order  that 
relatives  who  wish  to  do  so  may  secure 
early  control  of  the  bodies  of  their  loved 
ones  and  bestow  upon  them  that  sympa- 
thetic care  which  they  so  naturally  desire 
to  give. 

The  new  American  dreadnought  Ten- 
nessee, one  of  the  greatest  battleships 
afloat,  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $20,000,- 
000,  was  put  into  commission  at  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard  on  June  3.  The 
new  vessel  is  expected  to  start  on  or 
about  Aug.  1  on  her  way  to  join  the 
Pacific  Fleet. 

POSTAL  PAY  INCREASES 

On  June  3  a  measure  was  passed  by 
both  Senate  and  House  to  increase  the 
pay  of  postal  employes.  It  passed  the 
House  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  343 
members  present.  Amendments  adopted 
by  the  Senate  changed  the  measure  but 
little  and  prompt  agreement  in  confer- 
ence was  reached. 

The  act  affects  approximately  300,000 
postal  employes  in  the  United  States, 
Porto  Rico,  Hawaii  and  Alaska.  It  be- 
comes effective  on  July  1,  and  will  in- 
crease the  postal  payroll  the  first  year 
$34,375,000.  Additional  increases  for  the 
succeeding  three  years  will  average  ap- 
proximately $3,700,000  annually. 

The  measure  carries  out  recommenda- 
tions recently  made  by  the  Joint  Con- 
gressional Commission,  following  an  in- 
vestigation covering  more  than  a  year 
into  the  salaries  received  by  Post  Office 
employes. 

HELP  FOR  RAILROADS 

Important  steps  were  taken  on  May 
21  in  the  effort  to  free  the  railway 
lines  from  the  freight  congestion  that 
had  checked  industry  and  contributed  to 
the  cost  of  living.  The  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  announced  that  it 
would  recommend  allowing  the  railroads 
$125,000,000  out  of  the  $300,000,000  re- 
volving fund  so  that  necessary  equip- 
ment may  be  purchased,  and  proposed 
the  organization  of  an  equipment  corpo- 
ration with  a  capital  of  $500,000,000. 


The  American  Railway  Association 
also  sent  out  telegraphic  instructions  to 
railway  officials  which  will  result  in  the 
formation  of  local  committees  in  thirty 
large  cities  to  supervise  and  expedite 
the  task  of  clearing  the  rails. 

The  railways  are  in  sore  need  of 
equipment,  the  present  emergency  being 
largely  due  to  an  actual  shortage  of  cars 
and  locomotives.  The  local  committees 
will  be  able  to  handle  their  own  particu- 
lar problems  much  more  rapidly  and  ad- 
vantageously than  a  central  body  acting 
in  Washington.  It  is  stated  that  the 
railroads  will  need  as  a  minimum  2,000 
locomotives  and  100,000  freight  cars,  in- 
cluding 20,000  refrigerator  cars. 

RAILROAD    VALUATION 

Figures  presented  to  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  on  May  27  put 
the  value  of  the  railroads  far  above  their 
capital.  The  statement  was  presented 
to  the  commission  by  Thomas  W. 
Hulme  of  Philadelphia,  Vice  Chairman 
of  the  Valuation  Committee  for  the  car- 
riers, and  was  that  the  Government  en- 
gineering reports  for  fifty  railroad  sys- 
tems, with  a  mileage  of  51,853,  will 
show  that  the  cost  of  reproduction  at 
1914  prices,  including  the  value  of  land, 
would  be  $3,203,782,543,  as  compared 
with  a  property  investment  account  of 
only  $3,158,275,156  carried  in  the  books 
of  the  companies.  Railroad  executives 
attending  the  hearings  maintain  that  the 
data  presented  conclusively  answered  all 
the  "  watered  stock  "  charges  of  recent 
years,  including  the  Plumb  Plan  allega- 
tions. 

Mr.  Hulme  stated  that  costs  now  were 
more  than  100  per  cent,  higher  than 
those  prevailing  in  1914.  Railroad  valu- 
ation experts  believe  the  aggregate 
worth  of  all  the  roads  will  prove  more 
than  $2,000,000,000  in  excess  of  their 
capitalization  and  more  than  $6,000,000,- 
000  in  excess  of  the  present  aggregate 
market  value  of  their  stocks  and  bonds. 

It  was  announced  on  May  19  that 
President  Wilson  had  appointed  John 
Barton  Payne,  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
to  be  Director  General  of  Railroads, 
succeeding  Walker  D.  Hines,  whose  res- 
ignation was  accepted,  effective  May  15. 


AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENTS 


567 


RESERVE  BOARD  REPORTS 

Little  actual  relief  from  high  prices 
was  seen  in  the  analysis  of  May  busi- 
ness presented  by  the  Federal  Reserve 
Board  on  May  30.  The  board  expressed 
the  belief  that  there  was  a  drift  toward 
a  "  far-reaching  alteration  of  the  essen- 
tial price  structure,"  but  added: 

The  continuance  of  labor  difficulties  and 
vmrest,  particularly  in  connection  with  the 
railroads,  when  added  to  the  difficult 
situation  produced  by  car  shortage  and 
lack  of  equipment,  has  caused  consider- 
able interruption  to  business  operations, 
and  the  whole  outlook  has  been  such  as  to 
bring  about  a  severe  curtailment  in  the 
volume  of  stock  and  securities  transac- 
tions and  to  compel  very  material  lessen- 
ing- in  the  market  value  of  Liberty  bonds 
and  of  other  securities  of  the  first  grade. 
In  addition  to  intense  shortage  of  labor 
on  farms  and  at  other  points  of  primary 
production,  sporadic  strikes  in  many  lines 
of  manufacturing,  notably  textiles,  have 
continued  to  indicate  unrest.  Wages  have 
apparently  fallen  behind  the  advance  in 
prices  and  cost  of  living.  The  movement 
of  labor  from  the  farms  to  the  cities  is 
continuing. 

"Various  demands  for  higher  wages  have 
been  taken  vmder  advisement  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  about  compromise  ad- 
justments between  employers  and  em- 
ployes. General  complaint  of  low  effi- 
ciency or  small  output  per  unit  of  labor 
continues  to  be  prevalent.  The  difficulty 
of  getting  skilled  labor  in  some  of  the 
more  highly  developed  lines  of  manu- 
facture   is   very    considerable. 

WOOLEN  COMPANIES  INDICTED 

The  American  Woolen  Company  of 
Massachusetts,  the  American  Woolen 
Company  of  New  York  and  William  M. 
Wood,  President  of  both  companies,  were 
indicted  under  the  Lever  act  on  a  charge 
of  profiteering  by  a  Federal  Grand  Jury 
in  New  York  on  May  26.  The  irdictment 
contained  fourteen  counts,  each  dealing 
with  the  sale  of  woolen  cloth  at  a  price 
alleged  to  be  exorbitant.  The  cost  and 
sale  prices  quoted  showed  transactions 
that  netted  the  woolen  companies  100 
per  cent,  profit. 

Herbert  C.  Smyth,  special  assistant 
United  States  Attorney  General  in  charge 
of  the  prosecution,  said  the  Govern- 
ment's investigation  had  revealed  that 
besides  "  enormous  "  salaries  from  both 
companies,   Mr.   Wood  in   1919   received 


$515,482.86  in  commissions.  This  was 
charged  as  a  part  of  the  manufacturing 
and  selling  expense. 

On  June  11  the  indictments  were 
quashed  by  Federal  Judge  Mack.  The 
order  for  dismissal  was  based  on  an 
amendment  to  the  Lever  act  which  in- 
cluded "  wearing  apparel  "  among  the 
things  which  came  under  the  ban  against 
profiteering.  The  Judge  held  that  by 
specifically  naming  wearing  apparel 
the  amendment  limited  profiteering  to 
clothes  and  excluded  cloth. 

A  fine  of  $55,000  was  imposed,  June  2, 
on  the  John  A.  Roberts  Company  of 
Utica,  N.  Y.,  dealers  in  wearing  apparel, 
convicted   of   profiteering. 

HOOVER  ON  COST  OF  LIVING 

Herbert  C.  Hoover,  testifying  in  New 
York  before  the  Lusk  Joint  Investigating 
Committee  on  May  24,  blamed  the  Presi- 
dent, Attorney  General  Palmer  and 
others  of  the  Cabinet  for  failure  to  ac- 
cept the  Sugar  Equalization  Board's 
recommendation  that  the  Cuban  1920 
crop  be  bought  up.  Had  this  been  done, 
he  said,  when  the  crop  was  offered  at 
6^/4  cents  a  pound,  sugar  today  would 
cost  not  more  than  12  cents,  instead  of 
more  than  100  per  cent,  in  excess  of  that 
figure.  Mr.  Hoover  read  a  prepared 
statement,  in  which  he  said: 

I  would  list  the  predominating  causes 
of  the  high  cost  of  living  as : 

1.  Shortage  in  commodities  due  to  the 
underproduction  of  Europe  and  to  our 
participation  there  through  the  drain 
upon  us  by  exports. 

2.  Inflation,  more  especially  in  its  ex- 
pansion of  credit  facilities  for  the  pur- 
pose of  speculation  and  nonessential  in- 
dustry. Perhaps  that  would  be  more  cor- 
rectly stated  not  for  the  purpose  but  for 
the  use. 

3.  Profiteering  and  speculation  arising 
from  the  combined  opportunity  in  the  two 
previous   items. 

4.  Matter  of  adjustment  of  taxation, 
particularly  the  excess  profits  tax. 

5.  Decrease  in  our  own  productivity  due 
to  relaxation  of  effort  since  the  war,  to 
strikes  and  other  causes. 

6.  Increase  in  our  own  consumption,  the 
waste  of  commodities  and  increase  in  ex- 
travagance. 

7.  Deterioration  of  our  transport  system 
during  the  war. 

8.  Expensive  and  wasteful  distribution 
system  and  other  less  important  causes. 


What  the  League  of  Nations  Has  Done 

Summary  of  Its  Definite  Achievements  in 
the    First    Five    Months    of    Its   Existence 


THE  League  of  Nations  had  been  in 
existence  exactly  five  months  on 
June  16,  1920.  What  has  it  ac- 
complished in  the  way  of  positive 
results  ?  Has  it  been  languishing  like  a 
sickly  child,  nerveless,  doomed  to  an 
early  death,  as  some  of  its  detractors 
charge,  or  has  it  fundamental  strength 
which  time  itself  is  developing?  The 
only  criterion  is  the  record  of  its 
achievement.    These  are  the  facts: 

A  small  body  of  nine  men  represent- 
ing five  great  and  four  small   powers, 
gathered  in  a  conference  of  the  nations, 
has  held   five  important  meetings.     At 
each   of   these   meetings   the   unanimity 
necessary    before    recommendations    can 
be   made    to   the    powers   was    attained. 
These  meetings  were  held  as  follows: 
Jan.    16,    Paris— Council    organized    and 
Sarre     Basin     Frontier     Commission     ap- 
pointed. 

Feb.  11,  I<o»tdoM^Switzerland's  pro- 
visional accession  accepted.  Rules  of 
council  procedure  adopted.  Sarre  Basin 
Governing  Commission  and  High  Com- 
missioner for  Danzig  (Sir  Reginald 
Tower)  appointed.  Obligation  of  Polish 
Minority  Treaty  to  see  that  racial  mi- 
norities in  Poland  are  protected,  accepted. 
Plans  for  organization  of  permanent 
Court  of  International  Justice,  for  free- 
dom of  communication  and  transit,  and 
for  the  International  Health  Office,  ap- 
proved. International  Finance  Confer- 
ence summoned. 

March  13,  Paris— Plans  for  sending  a 
League  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  Rus- 
sia approved.  Measures  for  the  preven- 
tion of  typhus  in  Poland  decided  on. 

April  9,  Paris— Request  of  Supreme 
Council  that  the  League  take  a  mandate 
for  Armenia  answered.  The  League 
stated  that  it  would  exercise  a  general 
supervision,  but  that  it  did  not  possess 
the  necessary  military  and  financial 
equipment  to  administer  this  territory 
directly. 

May  12,  Rome— At  this  fifth  meeting  of 
the  council  the  following  subjects  were 
discussed :  Drafting  of  plans  for  acces- 
sion of  new  States,  convening  of  League 


Assembly,  the  permanent  Secretariat,  the 
League  budget  and  its  apportionment 
among  the  member  nations,  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  permanent  Armaments  Com- 
mission, the  appointment  of  an  Interna- 
tional Statistics  Commission,  action  on 
report  regarding  communications  and 
transit,  the  repatriation  of  ex-enemy  pris- 
oners in  Siberia,  action  on  reports  of 
Central  European  relief  and  typhus  in 
Poland,  discussion  of  report  on  "Wash- 
ington Labor  Conference,  the  registra- 
tion and  publication  of  all  new  treaties 
between  League  members. 

Jtme  H,  London— This  meeting  was  a 
special  one,  called  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
sidering Persia's  appeal  for  aid  against 
Bolshevist  aggression.  Discussion  of  this 
appeal  was  just  beginning  when  this  is- 
sue of  Current  History  went  to  press. 

SUMMARY  OF  PROGRESS 

The  present  status  of  accomplishment 
regarding  these  and  other  subjects  may 
be  summarized  briefly  as  follows: 

Assembly — A  meeting  of  three  repre- 
sentatives of  all  members  of  the  League, 
competent  to  discuss  any  matter  affect- 
ing world  peace  and  to  be  the  final  re- 
pository of  moral  authority  in  interna- 
tional relations,  is  to  be  first  summoned 
by  President  Wilson  and  to  be  held 
some  time  in  1920.  The  agenda  for  this 
first  meeting  is  being  prepared. 

Secretariat — A  permanent,  trained  in- 
ternational staff,  chosen  for  special 
knowledge  rather  than  for  nationality, 
and  intrusted  with  gathering  inforaaa- 
tion,  preparing  plans  and  carrying  out 
recommendations,  has  been  organized 
and  now  has  a  staff  of  100  men.  It  is 
located  temporarily  in  London,  and 
divided  into  sections  corresponding  to  its 
work,  viz..  Legal,  Mandates,  Internation- 
al Health,  Transit,  International  Bu- 
reaus, Political  Administrative  Commis- 
sion, Economic,  Public  Information  and 
Financial. 

Court  of  International  Justice — At  the 


WHAT  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  HAS  DONE 


569 


council  meeting  of  Feb.  11  an  or- 
ganizing committee  of  this  court  was 
appointed.  It  consisted  of  the  following 
eminent  international  jurists: 

United  States,   Elihu  Root. 
Japan,    Mr.    Akidzuki. 
Spain,    Senor   Altamira. 
Brazil,   Senhor  Devilaqua. 
Belgium,    M.    Descamps. 
Argentina,  M.  Drago. 
Italy,   Signor  Fadda. 
France,    M.   Fromageot. 
Norway,    Mr.    Fram. 
Holland,    Mr.    Loder. 
Great  Britain,    Mr.    Phillimore. 
Jugoslavia,   M.   Vesnitch. 

Pending  the  convening  of  this  organiz- 
ing committee,  a  special  committee  of 
expei-ts  has  been  engaged  in  bringing  to- 
gether all  the  pertinent  data  and  pre- 
paring a  general  scheme  for  the  final 
plans  to  be  submitted  later  to  the  as- 
sembly. 

The  formal  opening  of  this  commis- 
sion was  scheduled  for  June  16  at  the 
Peace  Palace  of  The  Hague.  Great  Brit- 
ain, France,  Japan,  Belgium,  Brazil,  Hol- 
land, Spain  and  Jugoslavia  were  to  be 
officially  represented.  Two  speeches 
were  to  be  made  at  the  opening  session, 
one  by  Signor  Anzilotti,  Under  Secretary 
General  of  the  League,  and  the  other  by 
the  Dutch  Foreign  Minister.  The  Hague 
diplomatic  corps  and  many  officials  had 
been  invited.  Elihu  Root  arrived  at  The 
Hague  on  June  12. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  DEPARTMENTS 

International  Labor  Conference — The 
first  session  of  this  new  body  was  held 
in  Washington  in  October,  1919.  Six 
draft  conventions  were  approved  for  the 
eight-hour  day  and  the  forty-eight-hour 
week,  the  protection  of  mothers  and  chil- 
dren, and  the  establishment  of  unemploy- 
ment offices  and  insurance.  Various 
other  recommendations  were  made  tend- 
ing to  make  unemployment  less  dangerous 
and  employment  less  precarious.  The 
execution  of  these  recommendations  was 
left  to  each  League  member  to  write  vol- 
untarily into  its  national  law. 

International  Labor  Office — The  In- 
ternational Labor  Office  is  now  quite 
fully  organized,  with  Albert  Thomas  of 
France  as  Director  General  and  a  gov- 
erning body  of  twenty-four  representa- 


tives of  Government,  labor  and  capital  in 
the  most  important  and  industrial  States. 
It  has  held  several  meetings,  begun  the 
assembling  and  publication  of  labor  data 
covering  the  world  and  called  another 
international  conference  to  meet  in 
Genoa  in  June  on  the  subject  of  seamen's 
labor. 


ELIHU  ^  ROOT 

American  representative  in  the  creation  of  a 

League  of  Nations  High  Court 

(©    Underivood  &   Underwood) 


International  Health  Office — Its  func- 
tion is  to  bring  together  in  common  asso- 
ciation the  various  national  and  semi- 
official agencies  seeking  to  improve  the 
health,  prevent  disease  and  mitigate  suf- 
fering throughout  the  world.  It  is  be- 
ing organized  now  in  London. 

Disarmament — The  permanent  com- 
mission called  for  in  the  covenant  to 
draw  up  recommendations  for  the  reduc- 


570 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


tion  of  armaments,  for  the  interchange 
of  information  on  armaments  and  for  the 
removal  of  private  profit  in  armament 
manufacture  was  constituted  at  the  coun- 
cil meeting  at  Rome. 

Freedom  of  Communications  and 
Transit — A  permanent  commission  has 
been  set  up  to  carry  out  the  special 
duties  prescribed  in  the  peace  treaties  to 
assure  freedom  of  transit,  especially  for 
the  new  States,  on  certain  most  vital 
rivers  which  have  been  internationalized, 
namely,  the  Rhine,  Danube,  Elbe,  Nie- 
men  and  Oder,  and  on  certain  railroads 
connecting  different  States.  It  was  de- 
cided at  the  council  meeting  held  in  Rome 
to  call  a  world  conference  before  the  end 
of  the  year  to  work  out  plans  for  the 
greatest  possible  sharing  in  the  great 
highways  of  nature  and  for  the  preven- 
tion of  embittering  discriminations  be- 
tween States. 

The  Minorities — The  League  has 
definitely  accepted  the  responsibility  of- 
fered it  in  the  special  treaty  with  Po- 
land to  assure  protection  to  racial,  re- 
ligious and  linguistic  minorities  in  that 
country  and  will  shortly  accept  similar 
responsibilities  in  treaties  with  Czecho- 
slovakia, Rumania  and  Jugoslavia.  Al- 
ready certain  infractions  of  these 
treaties  are  being  threatened,  with  the 
result  that  data  are  being  collected  in 
case  action  is  needed. 

Mandates— With  13,000,000  natives  of 
the  former  German  colonies  and  possibly 
large  blocks  of  the  former  Turkish  Em- 
pire placed  under  the  guarantee  of  the 
League,  the  special  treaties  defining  the 
terms  under  which  these  territories  are 
to  be  administered  by  more  advanced 
nations  have  been  drawn  up  and  are 
ready  for  approval.  Also  the  Permanent 
Mandate  Commission,  which  is  to  receive 
the  annual  reports  of  States  accepting 
mandates  and  see  to  it  that  the  terms  are 
carried  out,  is  outlined  ready  for  ap- 
pointment. 

WORK  OF  COMMIISSIONS 

The  Sarre  Valley — The  vitally  impor- 
tant coal  district  with  650,000  people  is 
now  being  administered  directly  by  a 
governing  commission  appointed  by  the 
League.    This  commission  was  appointed 


by  the  council  Feb.  13,  consisting  of 
Rault  of  France,  Alfred  von  Boch  of 
Sarrelouis,  Major  Lambert  of  Belgium, 
Count  de  Moltke  Hvitfeldt  of  Denmark 
and  Waugh  of  Canada.  It  assumed  its 
duties  Feb.  26  with  a  proclamation  to  the 
people  notifying  them  of  their  adminis- 
tration by  the  League  and  will  continue 
in  office  until  the  plebiscite  fifteen  years 
hence  decides  the  permanent  fate  of  the 
district. 

Danzig — A  vitally  important  seaport, 
German  in  character,  but  essential  to 
Poland  as  an  outlet  to  the  sea,  has  been 
created  by  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  as 
a  free  city  under  the  protection  of  the 
League.  It  is  being  administered  by  Sir 
Reginald  Tower  as  High  Commissioner 
on  behalf  of  the  League.  He  has  drawn 
up  plans  for  a  Constituent  Assembly, 
called  an  election  for  this  month,  and 
laid  plans  for  a  permanent  Constitution. 

International  Financial  Conference — 
An  international  financial  conference 
to  discuss  the  abnormal  economic  and 
financial  conditions  created  in  Europe  by 
the  war,  and  to  find  a  remedy  for  them, 
has  been  called  by  the  council  meeting 
of  Feb.  11  and  will  be  held  in  Brussels 
in  July.  The  invitations,  together  with 
a  detailed  questionnaire  as  to  taxes, 
budgets,  debts,  export  figures  and  the 
like,  went  out  some  time  ago  to  all  Gov- 
ernments, including  the  United  States, 
and  it  is  .expected  that  information  and 
recommendations  of  the  most  important 
character  will  result. 

PROBLEMS  IN  RUSSIA 

Commission  of  Inquiry  on  Russia — 
This  commission  was  authorized  at  the 
council  meeting  held  on  Feb.  1.  The  per- 
sonnel was  appointed,  despite  the  uncer- 
tainty as  to  how  the  proposal  to  send 
such  a  mission  to  Moscow  would  be  re- 
ceived by  the  Soviet  authorities.  A 
statement  was  issued  from  the  League 
headquarters  on  May  5  to  the  effect  that 
the  Soviet  Government  had  made  no  re- 
ply to  two  radio  notes  sent  by  Sir  Eric 
Drummond  asking  its  approval  of  the 
project.  The  first  of  these  notes  had 
been  sent  on  March  17;  the  second,  sent 
on  May  1,  had  urged  a  reply  in  time  for 


WHAT  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  HAS  DONE 


571 


I 


action  to  be  taken  at  the  Rome  con- 
ference. 

The  Soviet  reply  was  received  while 
this  conference  was  in  session.  In  sub- 
stance it  accepted  the  League  commis- 
sion, but  declined  to  receive  as  delegates 
the  representatives  of  any  nation  or  na- 
tions aiding  or  encouraging  the  Poles 
and  Ukrainians  in  their  joint  campaign 
against  Soviet  Russia;  France  was  un- 
mistakably aimed  at  in  this  exclusion. 
The  council  drafted  tentatively  a  reply 
implying  that  it  construed  the  imposi- 
tion of  this  condition  as  tantamount  to 
a  refusal.  It  urged  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment to  reconsider  its  decision,  and 
threw  on  it,  in  the  event  of  refusal,  the 
sole  responsibility  for  rejecting  an  offer 
inspired  only  by  a  desire  to  improve  the 
economic  condition  of  the  world. 

The  Official  Journal — This  organ,  de- 
vised to  do  away  with  secret  diplomacy 
in  every  form,  began  publication  in  Feb- 
ruary with  an  issue  containing  the  cove- 
nant, the  minutes  of  the  first  court 
meeting,  the  documents  of  accession  of 
five  neutrals,  and  a  report  on  the  inter- 
national labor  conference.  A  special  edi- 
tion is  being  arranged  for  treaty  pub- 
lication. 

Budget  of  the  League — A  budget  has 
been  drawn  up  providing  $600,000  for 
the  organization  period  through  March 
30,  1920,  and  about  $2,500,000  for  the 
first  fiscal  year,  a  negligible  sum  when 
divided  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 
Already  over  half  the  money  called  for 
has  been  paid  in,  so  that  the  League  has 
an  excess  of  funds.  Canada,  for  in- 
stance, has  contributed  $64,000  as  her 
share. 

THE  CONFERENCE  AT  ROME 

The  fifth  session  of  the  Council  of  the 
League  met  at  the  Ministry  of  the  Colo- 
nies in  Rome  in  the  afternoon  of  May 
14.  On  a  motion  by  Leon  Bourgeois  of 
France,  Signor  Tittoni,  President  of  the 
Italian  Senate,  was  elected  President  of 
the  League  and  delivered  the  inaugural 
speech.  Thirty-six  nations  were  repre- 
sented. Regret  for  the  absence  of  a 
delegate  from  the  United  States  was 
formally  expressed.  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel received  the  delegates  officially 


at  the   first  public  sitting  on   May  19 
and  gave  a  dinner  in  their  honor. 

The  main  subject  under  discussion  was 
the  question  of  the  reduction  of  arma- 
ments. "  It  is  in  this  connection,"  said 
M.  Bourgeois,  "that  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  world  are  eagerly  and  anxiously 
watching  our  proceedings.  If  we  fail  in 
our  performance  of  this  essential  duty, 
our  decisions  on  other  issues  will  be 
lacking  in  any  effective  sanction."  A 
board  of  naval,  military  and  aerial  ex- 
perts for  consultative  and  executive  pur- 
poses was  appointed.  The  League  in- 
structed this  board  not  only  to  elaborate 
the  naval,  military  and  aerial  standards 
to  which  a  number  of  States  seeking  ad- 
mission to  the  League  would  be  expected 
to  conform,  but  also  the  standards  to 
which  all  the  members,  big  and  little, 
must  ultimately  subscribe.  Esthonia, 
for  instance,  would  have  its  armament 
fixed  relatively  to  that  of  the  surround- 
ing border  States,  while  Luxembourg's 
defenses  would  condition  those  of  other 
small  States  in  similarly  exposed  situa- 
tions and  surrounded  by  larger  powers. 

An  interesting  development  was  the 
indorsement  by  the  League  Council  of 
M.  Bourgeois's  contention  that  the 
League  should  make  itself  responsible 
for  the  fulfillment  by  Germany  of  Article 
213  of  the  Treaty,  whereby  Germany 
pledged  herself  to  submit  to  any  inves- 
tigation of  her  military  conditions  or- 
dered by  the  League  Council  or  a  ma- 
jority of  its  members.  The  council  also 
decided  to  request  the  signatories  to 
the  Arms  Traffic  Convention  of  Sept. 
10,  1919,  and  all  the  other  members  of 
the  League,  to  set  up  a  central  office 
to  prevent  unlawful  or  undesirable  traf- 
fic in  arms  and  munitions  tending  to 
stimulate  or  protract  small  wars. 

Other  subjects  discussed  by  the  coun- 
cil are  enumerated'  in  the  summary 
given  of  the  Rome  session,  on  Page  568. 
Among  other  decisions  was  that  to  call 
a  world  conference  on  transportation 
questions  before  the  end  of  the  year. 
The  first  plenary  assembly  of  the 
League,  called  by  President  Wilson,  was 
scheduled  to  meet  in  Geneva  at  some 
date  in  the  early  Autumn. 


572 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE  SESSION  IN  LONDON 

The  Council  of  the  League  held  its 
sixth  session  in  the  picture  gallery  of 
St.  James's  Palace,  in  London,  on  June 
14.  The  meeting  was  a  special  one, 
called  to  discuss  the  appeal  to  the 
League  by  Persia  to  aid  her  to  keep 
Bolshevist  forces  away  from  the  Persian 
borders.  This  appeal  was  considered  by 
many  to  be  the  first  big  test  case  "  which 
the  League  had  been  called  to  decide 
upon.  Toward  the  end  of  May  the  Per- 
sian Foreign  Minister  had  forwarded  to 
the  League,  of  which  Persia  was  an  orig- 
inal member,  a  strong  protest  against 
the  Bolshevist  bombardment  and  occu- 
pation of  Enzeli  on  the  south  coast  of 
the  Caspian  Sea,  which  it  characterized 
as  a  gross  breach  of  international  law. 
A  peculiar  situation  arose  from  this  ap- 
peal in  consequence  of  the  relation 
which  Great  Britain  held  to  Persia.  The 
French  press  expressed  the  sentiment 
that  inasmuch  as  England  had  estab- 
lished a  virtual  protectorate  over  Per- 
sia, it  would  fall  to  her,  and  not  to  the 
League,  to  respond  to  this  appeal. 
Charges  were  made  that  Lloyd  George 
was  trying  to  get  the  League  to  recog- 
nize the  Anglo-Persian  Treaty  or  the 
Soviet  Government,  or  both.  The  semi- 
official Temps  was  especially  hostile  to 
the  League's  entering  upon  such  an  un- 
dertaking as  the  Persian  appeal  en- 
visaged and  saw  in  it  only  the  advance- 
ment of  British  schemes.  Discussion  of 
the  appeal  was  just  beginning  when  this 
issue  of  Current  History  went  to  press. 

NEW  MEMBERS  OF  LEAGUE 

The  definite  decision  by  Switzerland 
that  she  would  enter  the  League  of  Na- 
tions was  confirmed  by  the  plebiscite 
held  in  that  country  from  May  15  to  16. 
The  vote  cast  in  favor  was  as  4  to  3, 
Zurich  holding  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  referendum,  with  all  the  French  can- 
tons for  and  the  German  cantons  against 
entrance.  Some  700,000  votes  were  cast 
in  all. 

Premier  Millerand  on  June  5  sent  the 
Swiss  Government  a  note  assuring  it 
that  the  question  of  changing  the  seat  of 
the  League  of  Nations  from  Geneva  had 
not  been  raised.     It  had  been  announced 


from  Berne  on  May  28  that  Switzerland, 
before  the  result  of  the  plebiscite  was 
known,  had  addressed  a  note  to  all  the 
members  of  the  League  favoring  the  re- 
tention of  Geneva  as  the  seat  of  the 
League.  Geneva  was  making  all  prepa- 
rations to  reecive  the  assembly  of  the 
League  in  the  Fall. 

Applications  for  membership  to  the 
League  were  filed  by  Iceland  toward  the 
end  of  April.  Three  other  States  had 
filed  applications,  viz.,  the  new  republic 
of  Georgia,  San  Marino  and  Luxemburg. 
All  four  applications  were  considered  at 
the  Rome  session.  Esthonia,  Ukrainia  and 
Finland  expressed  their  consent  to  enter 
toward  the  end  of  May.  The  adherence  of 
Haiti  on  June  2  left  only  Honduras, 
Costa  Rica,  China  and  the  United  States 
of  all  the  nations  eligible  for  admission 
out  of  the  League.  The  question  of  the 
admission  of  Germany,  Austria  and  Bul- 
garia remained  in  abeyance,  though  it 
was  stated  that  Germany  would  be  al- 
lowed representation  at  the  International 
Financial  Conference  to  be  held  in  July 
at  Brussels.  A  German  League  of  Na- 
tions Union,  which  agitates  for  the  in- 
clusion of  Germany  in  the  League  and 
for  a  revision  of  the  Peace  Treaty  under 
its  auspices,  was  stated  by  Dr.  Jach,  its 
President,  on  May  8,  to  number  more 
than  9,000,000  members,  including  the 
most  important  members  of  all  parties, 
except  the  German  National  Party  and 
the  German  Volks  Party. 

MR.  BALFOUR  ON   LEAGUE 

A.  J.  Balfour,  Lord  President  of  the 
council,  outlined  before  the  House  of 
Commons  on  June  17  the  progress  ac- 
complished in  organizing  the  League  of 
Nations  and  expounded  its  prospects. 
The  League,  he  said,  had  already  ren- 
dered considerable  service  to  the  comity 
of  nations.  The  Secretariat  was  now 
adequate  to  execute  the  immediate  duties 
of  the  council  and  an  office  had  been 
established  for  the  registration  of 
treaties. 

Mr.  Balfour  declared  that  the  League's 
most  valuable  service,  in  his  opinion,  was 
that  it  would  do  away  with  all  secret 
diplomacy.  With  regard  to  international 
finances,  the  whole  question  of  expendi- 


WHAT  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  HAS  DONE 


573 


tures  among  the  nation  members  of  the 
League  would  be  frankly  and  openly  dis- 
cussed when  the  International  Finance 
Commission  met  at  Brussels.  The  fun- 
damental task,  said  Mr.  Balfour,  was  to 
induce  the  nations  to  disarm  in  so  far 
as  possible;  this  object  must  be  attained 
or  the  tragedy  of  the  world  would  begin 
anew. 

The  League  in  its  present  stage,  Mr. 
Balfour  said,  must  not  be  overloaded 
with  responsibilities.  It  could  not  take 
the  place  of  the  Supreme  Council  in  res- 
cuing the  world  from  chaos.  Armenia, 
he  admitted,  was  a  tragic  problem,  as 
neither   Great    Britain   nor   the    League 


had  the  troops  or  financial  resources  nec- 
essary for  intervention.  In  other  direc- 
tions, however,  the  machinery  of  the 
League  could  be  used  to  build  up  a  body 
of  public  opinion  which  would  prevent 
disasters  such  as  the  world  was  now 
suffering  under. 

In  conclusion  Mr.  Balfour  said  that 
if  the  League  was  to  be  a  success  it 
must  comprise  all  the  nations  of  the 
world.  This  was  an  obvious  reference 
both  to  Germany  and  to  Russia.  Even 
now,  he  said,  the  League  was  crippled 
because  it  had  so  far  been  unable  to  in- 
duce the  United  States  to  become  a 
member. 


Poland — The  Great  Problem 


By  MAJOR  A.  B.  RICHESON 


ANY  discussion  on  this  side  of  the 
/\  Atlantic  about  Poland,  and  the 
1  \  carrying  of  the  war  against  the 
Bolshevists  into  territory  still 
recognized  as  belonging  to  Russia,  may 
well  begin  with  a  brief  reminder  of 
America's  interest  in  Poland. 

President  "Wilson,  in  his  message  to 
Congress  on  May  26  vetoing  the  proposed 
peace  by  resolution,  stated  among  other 
reasons  that  this  measure  said  "  nothing 
about  the  re-establishment  of  an  inde- 
pendent Polish  State."  The  President 
thus  reiterated  his  championship  of 
Poland,  which  began  long  before  he  pro- 
claimed his  famous  Fourteen  Points  as 
a  basis  for  ending  the  great  war.  So 
much  for  the  moral  guardianship  of 
America  over  Poland.  As  for  America's 
more  tangible  interests  in  Poland,  Hugh 
Gibson  of  Belgium  Embassy  fame,  and 
America's  first  Minister  to  Poland,  in  a 
speech  at  Pittsburgh  on  June  7  uttered 
these  words : 

No  matter  how  much  we  want  to  stay 
at  home  and  mind  our  own  business,  it 
can't  be  done  according  to  old  conceptions. 
The  success  or  failure  of  Poland  or  Czecho- 
slovakia is  more  fraught  with  conse- 
quences to  us  now  than  the  success  or 
failure  of  the  Government  of  Mexico 
would  have  been  before  the  war.  The 
Avhole    structure    of    world    finance    and 


business  is  so  interlocked  that  we  have 
no  choice  as  to  participation  or  non- 
participation. 

In  another  recent  speech,  made  in  New 
York  City,  Mr.  Gibson  rather  extolled 
the  manner  in  which  Poland  had,  in  the 
past  year,  ended  the  various  wars  she 
found  on  her  hands  at  the  moment  of  her 
rebirth,  leaving  her  now  with  but  one 
enemy  where  there  had  been  five,  and 
one  of  them  now  an  active  ally.  He  said, 
in  this  speech: 

Poland  has  practically  no  settled  fron- 
tiers. That  is  not  a  matter  that  lies  in 
her  hands.  She  is  waiting  for  plebiscites ; 
she  is  waiting  for  a  new  Russia  to  emerge 
from  chaos  with  whom  she  can  conclude 
agreements  as  to  her  eastern  frontiers ; 
she  is  doing  every  blessed  thing  she  can 
in  maintaining  orderly  government  within 
the  limits  held  by  the  Polish  armies. 

POLAND  NOT  IMPERIALISTIC 

Mr.   Gibson  took  up   the  charge  that 
Poland     is     pursuing     an     imperialistic 
career,  and  disposed  of  it.     He  said: 
The  Poles  are  misunderstood  to  a  certain 
extend  abroad.     They  are  supposed  to  be 
very    aggressive    and    to    be    chiefly    con- 
cerned   with    picking    quarrels    with    their 
neighbors.     When  I  went  to  Poland  there 
was  not  a  mile  of  frontier  that  was  not 
held    by    some    active     enemy.       General 
Pilsudski  and  Mr.  Paderewski  set  to  work 
with  great  energy  on  that  question.     To- 


574 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


clay  there  is  no  fighting  on  the  German 
frontier.  They  have  reached  an  armistice 
with  the  Lithuanians.  They  have  sub- 
mitted their  troubles  with  the  Czechs 
first  lo  arbitration,  then  to  plebiscite. 
The  Ukrainians,  who  were  active  enemies 
a  little  while  ago,  have  been  turned  into 
active  friends,  fighting  side  by  side  with 
the  Poles.  Except  on  the  Bolshevist  front 
there  is  practically  not  a  Polish  soldier 
on  any  frontier  of  Poland— the  frontiers 
are  held   by  customs   guards. 

From  the  Polish  point  of  view  Mr. 
Gibson's  statements  leave  little  to  be  de- 
sired. His  vindication  of  Poland  on  the 
imperialism  charge  would  seem  to  be  an 
expression  of  the  opinion  of  the  Wash- 
ington Government.  No  objection  has 
been  interposed  to  the  Polish  Govern- 
ment loan  now  being  floated  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  United  States  has  supplied 
Poland  with  food  and  given  credits  on 
clothing,  surplus  war  supplies,  rolling 
stock,  and  has  provided  medical  supplies 
and  relief. 

THE  MILITARY  SITUATION 

The  Washington  Government  has  given 
out  that  the  military  situation  is  not 
dangerous  for  Poland.  Despite  the  su- 
preme effort  of  the  Bolsheviki,  Kiev  is 
held  securely  by  the  Ukrainians  and 
Poles  [this  situation  changed  later],  and 
in  the  north,  although  the  battleline  has 
fluctuated,  the  Poles  have  kept  the 
enemy  from  all  of  his  objectives.  Minsk 
and  Vilna  remain  in  Polish  hands. 

Official  Warsaw  advices  of  June  1 
reported  the  recapture  of  the  Beresina 
River  line  near  Borisov,  a  scene  of 
heaviest  fighting,  with  the  defeat  of 
three  Red  divisions  and  the  capture  from 
them  of  2,000  prisoners  and  400  horses, 
one  having  been  a  cavalry  division. 
Another  official  dispatch  on  June  3  from 
Warsaw  stated  that  "  the  military  situa- 
tion inspires  great  confidence.  With 
our  help  organization  of  the  Ukraine  is 
soundly  developing.  The  crops  inspire 
great  hope  and  will  ameliorate  the  food 
situation." 

The  reaction  in  the  north,  where  the 
Reds  drove  in  the  Polish  lines  somewhat, 
showed  that  the  Bolsheviki  still  had 
fighting  ability.  Also  it  showed  correct 
perception  of  the  military  advantage  to 
be  gained  by  a  drive  on  Vilna  in  an 
effort    to    separate    the    Poles    and    the 


Letts,  which  would  enable  direct  nego- 
tiations with  the  Lithuanians;  the  latter, 
situated  between  the  Poles  and  the  Letts, 
had  rejected  previous  Bolshevist  over- 
tures. The  plan  failed,  however,  and 
the  general  situation  remained  un- 
changed. 

This  means  that  Poland,  with  her  new 
ally,  the  Ukraine,  apparently  is  secure 
in  occupation  of  about  three-fourths  of 
the  territories  of  the  ancient  Kingdom 
of  Poland.  About  half  this  territory  is 
outside  the  provisional  eastern  boundary 
fixed  for  Poland  by  the  Supreme  Council 
of  the  Peace  Conference  at  Versailles. 
The  Polish  operations  in  this  territory 
have  been  called  a  war  of  conquest,  and 
on  this  the  charge  of  imperialism  has 
often  been  made,  and  as  often  denied. 

POLAND'S  JUSTIFICATION 

In  order  fully  to  understand  Poland's 
justification  for  thus  occupying  so  much 
of  her  former  territory  in  White 
Ruthenia,  or  so-called  White  Russia,  it 
is  necessary  to  go  back  to  November, 
1918,  when  the  nation  regained  her  free- 
dom. The  Bolsheviki  were  almost  at 
the  gates  of  Warsaw,  fighting,  killing, 
looting.  The  Poles  hastily  gathered  an 
army  and  set  to  work.  When  the  Peace 
Treaty  was  signed  in  June,  1919,  the 
Reds  had  been  driven  a  few  hundred 
kilometers  to  the  east. 

It  was  six  months  after  that,  in  De- 
cember, 1919,  that  Poland's  eastern 
boundary  was  fixed — provisionally.  In 
the  meantime,  the  Poles,  organizing  as 
they  went,  had  continued  to  drive  back 
the  Reds,  and  then  maintained  a  strong 
strategic  line  just  east  of  Minsk,  250 
kilometers  east  of  Brest-Litovsk,  where 
the  new  boundary  lay,  but  still  well 
within  their  ancient  boundaries. 

All  this  the  Poles  had  done  for  them- 
selves, from  a  beginning  so  dismal  that 
America  and  England  had  withdrawn 
from  the  field  in  Northern  Russia,  leav- 
ing Russia  to  work  out  her  own  salva- 
tion, and  Poland  to  survive  if  she  could. 

The  Poles  were  invited  by  the  Supreme 
Council  to  fall  back.  Naturally  they  de- 
clined, as  no  provision  whatever  was 
made  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  follow- 
ing up  such  a  move  and  turning  it  into 
a  Polish  debacle.     This  left  the  Poles  in 


EASTERN  BOUNPARV  OF  P01>\ND 

""^^  PROPOSfO   BT   PEME    CONFEREi 

_^.^  601/NDARlES  OF  ruiAJiO   e">TflBLIS«£I> 

^^*^  BY  PEACE     CONFERENCE 

Yff/////A  POLISH  -6ERMAM    PLEBISCITE  A*£Ab 

I  I  POUSM-CZEOtO-SLOVAKIft       "  " 

_X-X—  PR0VI50RT  BOUNOORY  SETWEEH  UTMUANI« 

■••^«      POLI5H  BOUnDART  BEFDI7E  PARTITION 

OF  1772 
■  ■•■•■    POLISH  -  BOLSHEVIST  BATTLE  LINE 

THE  BROKEN  LINE  THROUGH  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  MAP  SHOWS  THE  TENTATIVE 
EASTERN  BOUNDARY  OF  POLAND  FIXED  BY  THE  ALLIES  LAST  DECEMBER.  THE 
DOTTED  LINE  IN  RUSSIAN  TERRITORY  SHOWS  THE  POLISH  BATTLEFRONT  IN  JUNE. 
THE  BOUNDARIES  BETWEEN  POLAND  AND  GERMANY  ARE  NO  .LONGER  IN  DISPUTE. 
EXCEPT    IN    THE    SHADED    PLEBISCITE    AREAS 


the  technical  position  of  invaders  in  ter- 
ritory they  had  delivered  from  the  Bol- 
sheviki,  where  they  were  feeding  and 
protecting  the  inhabitants,  and  doing 
what  they  could  to  put  it  in  a  productive 
state,  as  they  were  doing  at  home.  They 
point  out  they  had  neither  warred  on 
her  nor  conquered  the  inhabitants,  who 
were  their  former  nationals,  and  did  not 
lay  claim  to  this  territory  by  virtue  of 
occupation  and  former  affiliation.  All 
Poland  clamored  for  the  right  of  self- 
determination  for  these  inhabitants  of 
White  Ruthenia.  General  Pilsudski,  in 
his  capacity  as  Chief  of  State,  and  the 
Diet  as  well,  proclaimed  to  the  world 
their  disavowal  of  any  forcible  annexa- 
tion program. 


POLAND'S  RIGHTS  IN  UKRAINE 

It  is  perhaps  not  generally  known  in 
this  country  that  the  instrument 
which  fixed  Poland's  eastern  provisory 
boundary  practically  left  the  nation  a 
free  hand  to  establish  itself  as  much 
farther  east  as  it  mi[  t  be  able.  In  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles  Poland  was  re- 
minded that  it  was  to  the  victory  of  the 
allied  arms  over  Germany  that  she  owed 
her  regained  independence.  Recognizing 
this,  Poland  signed  the  treaty,  which  left 
her  eastern  boundary  "  subsequently  to 
be  determined  by  the  principal  allied  and 
associated  powers."  After  several 
months'  wrestling  with  the  question, 
while  the  Poles  fought  back  Bolshevism, 
the  Supreme  Council  brought  forth  this 


576 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


proclamation  to  solve  the  problem  of  re- 
constituting Poland  without  taking  any- 
thing from  Russia: 

The  principal  allied  and  associated 
powers  recognize  that  it  is  important  as 
soon  as  possible  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
existing  conditions  of  political  uncertainty 
in  which  the  Polish  Nation  is  placed, 
without  prejudicing  the  provisions  which 
must  in  future  define  the  eastern  frontiers 
of    Poland. 

This  declaration,  after  fixing  the 
boundary,   concluded   by   stating: 

The  rights  that  Poland  may  be  able  to 
establish  over  the  territory  situated  to 
the  east  of  said  line  are  expressly  re- 
served. 

WHAT  POLAND  DEMANDS 

When  Poland,  during  the  war  thrust 
upon  her  by  Soviet  Russia,  seeks  to  estab- 
lish her  rights  in  the  Russian  border 
State,  the  Bolsheviki  cry  "  imperialism  " 
and  prolong  the  war.  Thus  Poland  runs 
foul  of  the  commercial  susceptibilities  of 
her  creators  and  sponsors,  especially 
England,  which  is  so  anxious  to  trade 
with  Russia. 

Poland  demands  that  the  Reds  retire 
beyond  her  1772  boundaries,  that  is, 
beyond  the  Poland  of  before-the-first- 
partition,  as  a  peace  condition.  The 
Reds  counter  with  a  proposal  to  recog- 
nize the  Polish  military  line  as  it  stood 
before  the  drive  into  the  Ukraine,  as  a 
basis  of  negotiations  for  Poland's  future 
eastern  boundary. 

Poland  abandoned  claim  to  some  of  her 
former  territory  when  she  cleared  the 
Ukraine  of  the  Reds,  delivered  Kiev,  and 
recognized  Ukrainian  independence.  Thus 
Poland  gained  an  active  ally,  as  well  as 
protecting  the  great  Polish  minority  by 
the  concession  of  a  Polish  Ministerial 
post  in  the  Ukrainian  Government. 

The  Peace  Treaty  and  the  subsequent 
boundary  proclamation  excluded  some 
8,000,000  Poles  from  Poland,  and  left 
that  country  an  area  little  more  than 
one-third  that  of  the  kingdom  in  1772, 
smaller  even  than  Poland  was  at  the 
time  of  the  third  and  final  partition. 
Grateful  though  they  were  for  all  that 
had  been  done  for  them,  the  Poles  could 
not  reconcile  themselves  to  their  new 
condition.  If  Poland  was  reconstituted 
to  repair  the  historic  crime  of  the  parti- 


tions, said  the  Poles,  why  was  the  nation 
not  reconstituted  in  all  her  former  terri- 
tories? But,  as  any  such  arrangement 
could  only  be  at  the  expense  of  Russia, 
the  Peace  Conference  would  not  further 
dismember  prostrate  Russia,  the  former 
ally  who  had  sacrificed  her  all. 

PROVISIONAL  BOUNDARY 

If  Poland  was  reconstituted  to  estab- 
lish a  strong  independent  State  as  a 
check  in  the  east,  in  case  Germany's 
military  ambition  should  revive,  the 
Poles  believe  that  the  effort  failed  of  its 
purpose.  The  provisional  boundary  not 
only  excluded  the  8,000,000  Poles  referred 
to,  but  it  was  a  line  not  naturally 
adapted  to  military  defense,  and  was 
open  at  both  ends,  north  and  south,  to 
the  influx  qf  Bolshevism,  which  the 
Poles  were  fighting  in  the  field. 

Thus,  the  Poles,  a  most  intensely 
nationalistic  group  of  the  great  Slav 
race,  left  in  this  untenable  position,  and 
with  only  the  nebulous  support  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  upon  which  Poland's 
delimitation  was  based,  began  to  have 
visions  of  again  being  squeezed  out  be- 
tween Germany  and  Russia.  Having  the 
living  memories  of  their  former  experi- 
ences, they  determined  at  all  costs  to 
prevent  this  by  stopping  the  Red  wave 
from  Russia,  and  by  strengthening 
Poland  in  every  way. 

While  Poland  knows  and  has  pro- 
claimed the  necessity  for  living  in  peace 
and  amity  with  Russia,  her  future  great- 
est trade  market,  Poland  had  no  reason 
to  refrain  in  friendship  from  trying  to 
re-establish  herself  at  Russia's  expense; 
especially  as  the  Poles  were  only  trying 
to  get  back  territory  that  had  been 
theirs  for  centuries  until  seized  by  Rus- 
sia 150  years  ago — territory  where 
several  million  Poles  reside. 

The  task  of  strong  re-establishment 
was  begun  by  uniting  with  Latvia  in 
hostilities  against  the  German  Baltic 
troops  in  the  Riga  operations,  and  the 
subsequent  joining  up  of  the  Polish  and 
Lettish  military  fronts  against  the 
Bolsheviki.  Pursuing  this  task,  Poland's 
mission  is  to  free  from  Russia  the  former 
Polish  territory,  or  where -parts  of  this 
territory,    such    as   the   Ukraine,   set  up 


r 

^H  independent 
^B  with  them. 

H 


POLAND— THE  GREAT  PROBLEM 


577 


States,    to    form    alliances 


GERMAN  PROPAGANDA 

Whenever  the  Poles  have  a  military 
success,  as  in  the  recent  operation  driv- 
ing the  Reds  from  the  Ukraine,  the  cry 
of  imperialism  is  reflected  in  various 
quarters  in  Europe,  and  the  sedulous 
propagandist  sees  that  it  is  well  heralded 
in  America.  While  England  would  have 
the  Bolsheviki  placated  for  her  own 
trade  purposes,  nothing  is  so  dismaying 
to  Germany  as  the  sight  of  Poland  re- 
establishing herself  by  the  force  of  her 
own  arms  and  at  the  expense  of  Russia, 
whither  Germany  looks  for  economic  and 
consequently  political  rehabilitation. 

The  provisional  eastern  boundary  of 
Poland  has  been  likened  to  a  bulwark  for 
the  Bolsheviki  (while  the  Poles  fight 
them  back)  and  a  suspension  bridge  for 
Germany  to  go  about  the  "  peaceful 
penetration  "  and  exploitation  of  Russia 
so  soon  as  trade  can  be  resumed.  Much 
German  documentary  evidence  indicates 
that  this  was  carefully  prepared  for 
while  the  great  war  was  going  on. 

During  the  unsuccessful  Bolshevist 
offensive  in  March  the  Warsaw  Gov- 
ernment notified  its  diplomatic  repre- 
sentatives here  that  there  was  a  flood 
of  hostile  propaganda  in  Central  Europe. 
Berlin  press  agencies  were  especially 
active  in  predicting  disaster  to  the  Poles 
and  continue  to  send  out  such  reports 
every  time  heavy  fighting  occurs. 

Von  Haimhausen,  German  Under 
Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  in  a 
recent  interview  naively  expressed  fears 
that  the  Poles  might  be  overwhelmed  by 
the  Reds.  The  Poles  would  be  defeated 
in  the  Ukraine,  and  the  Reds  would  drive 
on  Vilna  and  Warsaw,  he  said,  citing  a 
German  army  officer  as  his  informant. 
But  Von  Haimhausen  finished  with  a 
disingenuous  plea  that  Germany  ought  to 
be  allowed  to  retain  armed  forces  to 
meet  such  a  contingency  as  a  Bolshevist 
advance  to  the  German  frontier.  This 
is  the  keynote  of  all  present  German 
utterances. 

The  success  of  Poland's  operation  in 
the  Ukraine  seems  to  be  bringing  to  a 
head  the  long  dallying  and  indecision  of 
the   principal    powers,    dating    from    the 


Peace  Conference.  The  League  of  Na- 
tions gave  Poland  no  aid  during  the  long, 
dark  days,  but  now  the  subject  of  Poland 
as  a  world  problem  is  scheduled  to  come 
up  before  a  meeting  of  the  council. 

Should  the  Ukraine  situation  endure, 
Poland,  unaided,  will  have  established 
herself  over  a  geographically  defensible 
area,  gained  the  alliance  of  most  of  her 
nationals  not  allotted  to  her,  and  possibly 
secured  a  Black  Sea  outlet  at  Odessa. 

FREE  CITY  OF  DANZIG 

The  Poland  reconstituted  by  the  Su- 
preme Council  emerged  from  the  Peace 
Conference  in  leading  strings  held  by 
the  great  western  powers,  as  a  writer 
who  was  at  the  conference  aptly  put  it. 
Such  a  Poland  included  the  bulk  of  the 
purely  Polish  population,  and  contained 
within  itself  practically  all  necessities 
for  economic  existence. 

To  provide  a  Baltic  outlet  a  corridor 
was  cut  through  German  territory  from 
Poland  to  the  port  of  Danzig,  or  Gdansk, 
which  is  the  revived  Polish  name.  But 
the  powers  could  not  quite  bring  them- 
selves to  give  Poland  the  city,  so  they 
made  it  a  free  city,  which  includes  the 
corridor  strip.  As  practically  all  business 
was  in  German  hands,  Poland,  in  trying 
to  make  full  use  of  the  port,  finds  on 
every  hand  the  difficulties  that  had  been 
anticipated.  Hope  still  lives  that 
eventually  the  city  will  become  Polish  in 
name  and  fact.  One  seaport  all  its  own : 
Surely  that  does  not  seem  too  much  for 
a  nation  to  ask. 

At  the  time  of  the  Peace  Conference, 
Poland's  hopes  lay  in  the  Fourteen  Points 
of  President  Wilson,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  self-determination  of  peoples. 
Poland  longed  to  see  the  several  million 
Poles  living  in  White  Ruthenia,  the  Rus- 
sian border  State,  again  brought  under 
the  white  eagle.  But  the  Supreme  Coun- 
cil would  not  order  such  a  plebiscite. 
As  a  Polish  writer  said,  not  without 
bitterness :  "  The  right  of  self-determina- 
tion cannot  be  applied  to  peoples  which 
are,  or  pretend  to  be,  a  distinct  nation, 
when  they  have  the  bad  luck  to  occupy 
territory,  *  indubitably  Russian.'  " 

Regarding  White  Russia,  the  Poles  say 
the  name  is  simply  an  Anglicized  Rus- 
sian word  for  White  Ruthenia,  inhabited 


578 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


by  a  Slav  race  distinct  from  the  Musco- 
vites as  are  the  Poles.  It  is  a  matter 
of  history  that  White  Ruthenia  federated 
with  Lithuania  and  became  part  of 
Poland  by  the  union  of  Greater  Lithuania 
and  Poland  in  1386,  and  so  continued  on 
down  to  the  partitions.  This  area,  the 
Poles  say,  is  far  more  Polish  than  Rus- 
sian, due  to  centuries  of  political  affilia- 
tion, greater  similarity  of  language,  re- 
ligious affiliation  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  to  the  fact  that  millions  of 
Poles  and  comparatively  few  Russians 
live  there. 

The  economic  development  of  the  coun- 
try depends  entirely  on  Poland  because 
of  its  geographical  situation,  and  was 
systematically  retarded  under  Russian 
domination,  the  Poles  say,  citing  statis- 
tics   of    its    former    productivity.     The 


country  is  rather  sparsely  settled,  with- 
out any  great  industrial  or  immensely 
wealthy  agricultural  sections,  and  the 
Poles  contena  that  it  would  not  consti- 
tute any  great  loss  to  Russia. 

The  most  authentic  figures  obtainable 
show  that  Poland  will  have  a  population 
of  27,500,000,  in  a  total  area  of  291,000 
square  kilometers,  if  the  results  of  tha 
German  and  Czechoslovakian  plebiscites 
are  favorable,  as  seems  likely.  Before 
the  partitions  Poland  included  753,000 
square  kilometers,  where  ..bout  52,000,000 
people  now  live.  Should  Poland  succeed 
in  winning  the  eastern  border  State,  the 
total  population  of  Poland  would  be 
about  35,000,000.  This  is  the  most  the 
Poles  profess  to  have  any  hopes  for,  and 
still  would  leave  the  nation  far  short 
of  its  former  greatness. 


Thrace  and  Greece 

By  N.  J.  CASSAVETES 

[Director  of  the  National  Pan-Epirotic  Union  in  America] 
[For   mcAp    of    Greece    see   Page    621] 


THE  Bulgarian  Treaty  signed  at 
Neuilly  provided  that  Bulgaria 
should  evacuate  Western  Thrace, 
given  to  her  by  the  Treaty  of 
Bucharest  of  1913.  Furthermore,  Bul- 
garia was  to  hold  definitely  certain 
northern  districts  of  Western  Thrace, 
such  as  Moustapha  Pasha,  Achi-Tselibi, 
Egri-Dere,  Dari-Dere,  and  a  part  of  the 
district  of  Ortakioi,  and  was  to  accept 
the  decision  of  the  allied  and  associated 
powers  as  to  the  future  disposition  of 
the  remaining  districts  of  Western 
Thrace. 

Allied  troops,  under  the  command  of 
General  Franchet  d'Esperey,  occupied 
both  Western  and  Eastern  Thrace.  At 
London,  thanks  to  England's  support, 
Greece  was  awarded  that  portion  of 
Western  Thrace  which  was  occupied  by 
allied  "forces,  as  well  as  all  Turkish  or 
Eastern  Thrace,  up  to  the  line  of  the 
Tchataldja  Hills.  At  San  Remo  the 
Allies  put  the  final  touches  to  the  Tur- 
kish Treaty,  and  Mr.  Venizelos  returned 
to  Greece  with  the  permission  of  the 
council  to  occupy  Western  Thrace  imme- 
diately. 


It  is  true  the  Bulgarians  at  Sofia 
organized  mass  meetings  to  protest 
against  the  award  of  Western  Thrace  to 
Greece.  But  the  protests  were  mere 
formalities.  Bulgaria,  in  her  Treaty  of 
Neuilly,  had  agreed  to  accept  uncondi- 
tionally the  disposition  of  Western 
Thrace  by  the  Allies. 

The  Greek  Army  completed  the  occupa- 
tion of  Western  Thrace  on  May  10.  Tur- 
kish and  Bulgarian  reports  have  confused 
the  facts  in  connection  with  this  occupa- 
tion with  a  view  to  misrepresenting 
the  Greek  occupation  as  unwelcomed  by 
the  inhabitants,  and  in  the  hope  of  pre- 
venting the  advance  of  the  Greek  troops 
into  Eastern  Thrace. 

OCCUPATION  OF  WESTERN  THRACE 

The  facts  in  connection  with  the  Greek 
occupation  of  Western  Thrace  were 
cabled  from  Xanthi,  Western  Thrace,  to 
the  League  of  Friends  of  Greece  and  the 
Pan-Epirotic  Union  in  America  by  W.  A. 
Lloyd,  the  Constantinople  correspondent 
of  The  Liverpool  Courier,  former  Aus- 
tralian    war     correspondent     with     the 


THRACE  AND  GREECE 


579 


armies   of   General   Allenby.      The  cable 

reads : 

Xanthi,  Thrace,  Sunday,  May  30.— Greek 
occupation  of  Thrace.  The  whole  of  what 
was  formerly  Bulgarian  Thrace  has  now 
been  occupied  by  the  Greek  forces.  The 
Greek  Army  was  received  with  popular 
rejoicing  at  Kouleli,  Bourgaz,  Demotica, 
Soufli,  Dedeagatch  and  Gumuldjina.  At 
Soufli  floral  triumphal  arches  were  erect- 
ed by  the  residents  and  a  troop  of  local 
f^Greek  boy  scouts  took  an  active  part  in 
'the  proceedings.  At  Gumuldjina,  a  few 
^Bulgarians,  about  two  miles  from  the 
town,   fired  on  the   Greek  soldiers.     They 

jwere     soon    captured    and    disarmed.       A 

Hjurious  feature  of  the  affair  was  the 
jdiscovery  that  the  Bulgarians  were  armed 
Iwith    new    Russian    rifles. 

The  conduct  of  the  Greek  army  of  occu- 
pation has  been  exemplary  throughout, 
and  In  many  cases  even  prominent  Turks 
have  publicly  praised  the  manner  in  which 
the  occupation  has  been  carried  out.  To- 
day, feunday,  the  Greek  flag  was  publicly 
hoisted  in  Xanthi.  Speeches  were  made 
by  prominent  residents  and  by  W.  A. 
Lloyd,     Constantinople     representative    of 

'  The  Liverpool  Courier.  All  the  speakers 
received  great  ovations.  A.  notable  feature 
of  the  proceedings  was  the  large  number 
of  Turks  present.  The  demonstration  was 
not  made  to  order  by  the  military  authori- 
ties, who  very  wisely  left  the  conduct  of 
affairs  in  the  hands  of  civilians. 

Although  there  has  been  an  exodus  of 
Bulgarians  in  certain  districts,  the  Turks 
have  shown  no  disposition  to  leave  their 
homes  or  cease  their  ordinary  occupa- 
tions. The  Turk  everywhere  openly  ex- 
presses a  preference  for  Greek  rule  over 
Bulgarian,  mainly  because  the  Greek  au- 
authorities  have  scrupulously  avoided  say- 
ing or  doing  anything  to  offend  the  re- 
ligious susceptibilities  of  their  Moslem  fel- 
low-citizens. The  Turk  accepts  the  situa- 
tion philosophically  and  there  is  not  the 
slightest  ill-feeling  between  Turks  and 
Greeks  so  far  as  this  part  of  Thrace  is 
concerned. 

THE  TURKS  QUIESCENT 

Since  May  30  we  have  the  following 
additional  information:  that  Bulgarian 
irregulars  have  attempted  to  cross  the 
frontiers  from  Bulgaria,  but  were  re- 
pulsed with  heavy  casualties;  that  the 
Turks  are  elated  over  the  new  Greek  ad- 
ministration; that  Turkish  communities 
from  Eastern  Thrace  are  sending  delega- 
tions to  ask  the  Greek  troops  to  advance 
and  occupy  their  districts,  and  that  the 
Greek  General  Staff  has  established  its 
headquarters  at  Dedeagatch,  awaiting 
the  signature  of  the  Turkish  Treaty  to 


order  the  Greek  forces  to  occupy  Eastern 
Thrace. 

Turkey  was  expected  to  sign  the 
treaty  on  June  11.  To  gain  time,  in  the 
hope  of  creating  complications  and  thus 
obtaining  a  revision  of  the  treaty,  the 
Turks  asked  the  Allies  for  one  month's 
additional  grace.  The  Allies  granted 
them  two  weeks.  Thus,  the  Turkish 
Treaty  is  to  be  signed  on  June  25. 

Much  confusion  has  been  created  in 
the  minds  of  the  American  public  by  the 
continuous  reports  sent  from  Constan- 
tinople by  the  correspondent  of  The  Asso- 
ciated Press.  These  reports  speak  of  the 
exasperation  of  the  Turks,  of  the  de- 
termination of  the  Nationalists  to  fight 
the  Greeks  in  Thrace  and  at  Smyrna,  and 
of  Bulgarian  co-operation  with  the  Turks 
against  Greece.  Are  all  these  disturb- 
ing messages  substantiated  by  facts? 

We  remember  the  reports  which  were 
issued  from  Sofia  previous  to  the  occu- 
pation of  Western  Thrace  by  Greece, 
The  Associated  Press  correspondent  at 
Sofia  cabled  daily  the  news  of  general 
and  ominous  unrest  in  Bulgaria,  of  thou- 
sands of  Bulgarian  irregulars  and  Turks 
ready  to  oppose  the  advance  of  the 
Greeks.  And  when  the  Greek  troops  ad- 
vanced the  Bulgarians  merely  fled,  while 
the  Turks  accepted  the  situation  stoically 
and  in  many  instances  with  rejoicing. 

The  rumors  about  Turkish  resistance 
and  Bulgarian  oposition  in  Eastern 
Thrace  should  not  be  taken  seriously. 
The  Turks  are  in  no  condition  to  meet 
the  Greeks.  The  Bulgarian  irregulars 
had  a  better  opportunity  of  resisting  the 
Greeks  in  Western  Thrace,  but  they 
merely  ran  away. 

WET  BLANKET  FOR  A  FIREBRAND 

Much  is  being  written  about  General 
Tjafer  Tayar  Pasha  and  his  determina- 
tion to  resist  the  Greeks  at  Adrianople. 
We  have  recent  information  that  Tjafer 
Tayar  Pasha  goes  from  city  to  city  in- 
viting the  Turkish  populations  to  resist 
the  Greeks.  Our  correspondent  informs 
us  that 

only  a  few  hundreds  of  young  warm- 
blooded Turks  respond  to  his  appeals  and 
enlist  as  irregulars,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
Turkish  population  is  apathetic.  It  is 
sick  of  war,   and  feels  that  no  resistance 


580 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


could  stop  the  advance  of  the  Greeks. 
The  irregular  forces  of  Tayar  Pasha  have 
neither  machine  guns  nor  guns,  nor  even 
sufficient  ammunition.  Even  if  the  Bul- 
garians keep  their  promise  and  send 
12,000  irregulars  to  assist  him,  Tayar 
Pasha  could  not  hold  longer  than  two 
weeks  against  the  well-organized  and 
fully  equipped  three  Greek  divisions  that 
are  ready  to  advance  on  Adrianople  from 
the  west  and  south. 

The  Turkish  press  urges  the  Turks  of 
Thrace  to  resist  the  Greeks,  and  assures 
them  that  France  and  Italy  will  insist 
upon  a  revision  of  the  Turkish  Treaty  in 
such  a  way  as  to  remove  the  boundaries 
from  the  Tchataldja  line  to  the  Raedestos- 
Midia  line. 

Recently  a  letter  of  Weil,  former 
director  of  the  Turkish  Tobacco  Regie  at 
Constantinople,  was  made  public.  Weil 
urges  his  friend  Beha  Bey,  a  Turkish 
lawyer,  to  prevail  over  the  Turks  not  to 
lose  courage,  because  a  group  of  French- 
Jewish  capitalists  is  exerting  all  its  in- 
fluence to  defeat  the  terms  of  the  present 
Turkish  Treaty,  which  have  been  imposed 
by  England. 

FAITH  IN  VENIZELOS 

Ex-King  Constantine  and  his  support- 
ers are  carrying  on  a  vigorous  propa- 
ganda to  misrepresent  the  internal  situa- 
tion in  Greece  as  very  critical  and  un- 
favorable to  Mr.  Venizelos.  Our  in- 
foi-mation  about  actual  conditions  is  as 
follows : 

There  are  in  Greece  today  two  classes 
representing  a  very  small  part  of  the 
total  Greek  population  which  are  carry- 
ing on  a  vociferous  press  war.  One  class 
consists  of  the  Government  officials  of 
the  Venizelist  party;  the  other  of  the 
Government  officials  of  the  opposition 
party.  The  foreigners  misunderstand 
readily  the  clamors  of  these  interested 
classes  as  the  genuine  voice  of  the  Greek 
people.  The  great  mass  of  the  Greek 
people,  however,  feels  that  Venizelos  is 
the  great  statesman  of  Greece.  But  the 
memories  of  the  glorious  years  of  1912- 
13  keep  Constantine  alive  in  their 
hearts. 

The  Greek  people  entertain  even  now 
the  hope  that  a  compromise  might  be 
effected  between  the  greatest  Greek 
diplomat  and  the  greatest  Greek  Gen- 
eral. Should  events  prove,  however,  that 
this  cannot  take  place,  the  people  say: 

If  Venizelos  brings  to  us  Thrace,  Smyr- 
na,   the    Islands    and    Epirus    we    are    for 


Venizelos.      If   he  fails  in   that,    then   he 
has    been   fooled    by   the   Allies,    and   we 
shall     be     convinced     that     Constantine' s 
policy  of  neutrality  was   the   wisest  pol- 
icy,   and    shall    vote    against   Venizelos. 
Fortunately,  in  spite  of  many  vacilla- 
tions,  the   Allies   have   decided  to   keep 
their    promises    to    Venizelos,    and    the 
great  bulk  of  the  Greek  people  will  bring 
him  triumphantly  into  power  at  the  next 
election.     Mr.   Venizelos   is   running  no 
risk  of  losing  at  the  polls.    The  new  ac- 
quisitions,    Thrace,     Epirus     and     the 
Islands,  are  all  solidly  for  him.    But  his 
confidence  in  the  support  of  the  Greek 
people    is    so   great   that   he   twice   an- 
nounced in  the  Parliament  that  if  in  the 
next   elections   he   is  not   returned   into 
power  by  a  majority  of  the  electors  of 
the  Old  Kingdom,  he  will  abstain  from 
politics. 

Even  in  the  event  of  the  defeat  of  the 
Venizelist  party  there  is  no  reason  to 
fear  that  Greece  would  lack  able  and 
conscientious  leadership.  The  fear  that 
Constantine  may  return  is  unfounded. 
Constantine  has  resigned.  In  order  to 
come  back  to  the  Greek  throne  there 
must  be  a  Constitutional  Assembly  to 
decide  upon  the  question.  At  this  As- 
sembly all  the  new  territories  will  be 
represented,  and  in  that  case  the  Con- 
stantinists  will  be  greatly  outnumbered 
by  the  anti-Constantinists.  Thus  we  may 
consider  as  a  foregone  conclusion  that 
Constantine  can  never  come  back  to 
Greece. 

FOR  A  GREEK  REPUBLIC 

King  Alexander  may  return  from 
Paris,  or  he  may  prefer  to  adhere  to 
Miss  Manou  and  to  enjoy  his  automobiles 
rather  than  to  be  a  dummy  King  at 
Athens.  In  that  case  the  Constitutional 
Assembly  may  decide  to  give  Greece  a 
republican  form  of  government,  or  to 
import  a  new  dynasty,  this  time  from 
England.  There  is  one  thing  that  needs 
emphasis,  namely,  that  Constantine  will 
never  return  to  Greece,  and  that  the  for- 
eign policy  of  Greece,  whether  the  Veni- 
zelists  hold  the  reins  or  the  anti-Veni- 
zelists,  is  going  to  be  the  same — that  is, 
pro-ally.  Mr.  Venizelos  himself  said  to 
the  American  correspondents  at  San 
Remo: 


THRACE  AND  GREECE 


581 


The  opposition  party  hates  me  person- 
ally. It  does  not  differ  with  me  in  my 
foreign  policy.  That  is  a  matter  upon 
which  all  Greek  statesmen  are  agreed. 
Our  foreign  policy  is  and  will  be  one  of 
friendship   toward    the   Allies. 

As  soon  as  the  Turkish  Treaty  is 
signed  the  Greeks  will  occupy  Eastern 
Thrace.  The  threats  of  the  Turks  are 
mere  "bluff";  but  in  case  of  resistance 
the  Greeks  will  overmaster  them  easily. 
In  Asia  Minor  Mustapha  Kemal  is  bluff- 


ing just  as  Tayar  Pasha  is  bluffing  in 
Thrace. 

While  the  treaty  remains  unsigned  the 
Turks  hope  to  intimidate  England  and 
force  her  to  revise  it.  But  as  soon  as 
the  treaty  is  signed  and  the  Greek  divi- 
sions advance  we  shall  hear  of  as  much 
Turkish  opposition  in  Eastern  Thrace 
and  in  Asia  Minor  as  of  Bulgarian  re- 
sistance in  Western  Thrace.  The  Turks, 
like  the  Bulgarians,  will  accept  the  in- 
evitable. 


Albania  and  Italy  at  Loggerheads 

By  CONSTANTINE  A.  CHEKREZI 


[Albanian  Minister  to  the  United  States] 


IKE  thunder  from  an  almost  clear 
sky  came  the  news  that  Albanian 
insurgents  had  started,  on  June 
6,  a  widespread  revolutionary 
movement  against  the  Italians,  the  ob- 
ject of  which  was  to  drive  the  Italian 
troops  out  of  Albania.  Hitherto  the 
world  had  been  under  the  impression 
that  the  Albanian  people  were  only  too 
glad  to  attach  themselves  to  the  chariot 
of  Italy  under  the  form  of  either  the 
old-fashioned  protectorate  or  the  now 
stylish  mandate.  The  main  purpose  of 
my  appointment  as  Commissioner  of  Al- 
bania to  the  United  States  has  been  no 
other  than  to  emphasize  the  determina- 
tion of  the  Albanian  people  not  to  accept 
any  foreign  protectorate  or  mandate  in 
any  form. 

Ever  since  the  occupation  of  Albania, 
or  the  major  part  thereof,  by  the  Italian 
troops  during  the  war,  Italy  has  carried 
on  in  all  lands,  and  especially  in  the 
United  States,  a  powerful  propaganda 
with  the  object  of  persuading  the  public 
that  the  Albanian  people  were  too  well 
satisfied  under  Italian  occupation  to  give 
even  a  passing  thought  to  the  desire  for 
national  independence.  This  propaganda 
made  use,  first,  of  the  gratitude  felt  by 
the  Albanians  toward  Italy  because  she 
freed  from  the  Greeks  a  part  of  South- 
ern Albania,  the  province  of  Arghyro- 
castro;   such  gratitude  was  deliberately 


misinterpreted  as  a  willingness  on  the 
part  of  the  Albanians  to  attach  them- 
selves to  the  wheel  of  Italy.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  the  Italian  propaganda  made 
it  a  duty  to  advertise  broadcast  the  weak 
position  of  Albania,  adding :  "  Albania 
needs  a  protecting  friend." 

The  "  protecting  friend  "  propaganda 
did  not  fail  to  appeal  even  to  the  Al- 
banians themselves,  who  had  not  forgot- 
ten that  Serbia  and  Bulgaria  had  as 
their  protecting  friend  the  powerful  Rus- 
sia of  the  Czars;  and  that  Greece  has 
had,  and  still  has,  the  benevolent  counsel 
of  Great  Britain  and  France,  who  went 
so  far  as  to  dethrone  King  Constantine 
when  it  seemed  that  he  was  leading  his 
country  to  ruin.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, the  Italians  overreached  themselves 
in  their  zeal  to  get  the  sanction  of  the 
world  for  their  designs  on  Albania.  Re- 
ports were  circulated  that  the  Albanians 
are  utterly  incapable  of  governing  their 
country  and  that  Italy  should  have  at 
least  a  controlling  power  there,  either  in 
the  form  of  a  protectorate  or  in  the  form 
of  a  stringent  mandate. 

The  next  step  was  to  explain  to  the 
world  that  Italy  should  have  Valona,  the 
chief  seaport  of  Albania,  in  order  to  be 
in  a  better  position  to  enforce  the  pro- 
tectorate or  the  mandate.  The  "pro- 
tecting friend "  proposition  was  soon 
discarded   and   forgotten  in  favor  of  a 


582 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


more  direct  interference  in  the  affairs 
of  Albania,  external  and  internal. 

ITALY'S  PROMISES 

On  June  3,  1917,  the  commander  of 
the  Italian  expeditionary  forces  in  Al- 
bania, General  Giacincto  Ferrero,  issued 
at  Arghyrocastro  an  official  proclama- 
tion in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Italy, 
by  virtue  of  which  the  Albanian  people 
were  promised  that  they  would  have  a 
Government  of  their  own  "under  the 
protection  and  shield  of  the  Crown  of 
Italy."  This  solemn  proclamation  of  the 
Italian  protectorate  caused  dismay,  not 
only  among  the  Albanians,  but  also 
among  the  European  powers. 

Even  so,  the  Albanian  people  were  not 
able  to  have  a  Government  of  their  own, 
on  account  of  Italian  opposition,  until 
the  visit  to  Rome  of  President  Wilson, 
in  December,  1918,  when  he  uttered  the 
ringing  words,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  that  the  Balkan  States 
should  henceforward  be  left  free  and  un- 
hampered by  foreign  interference.  The 
utterances  of  the  Chief  Executive  of 
America  emboldened  the  Albanian  peo- 
ple to  the  point  of  forcing  the  issue.  So 
three  weeks  later,  i.  e.,  on  Dec.  25, 
1918,  the  National  Albanian  Assembly 
convened  at  Durazzo  and  elected  the  first 
Government  of  the  re-established  Al- 
bania, even  in  the  face  of  the  opposition 
of  the  Italian  military  authorities. 

The  Italian  Government  did,  neverthe- 
less, interfere  again  in  two  ways. 
Through  the  control  of  the  cables,  tele- 
graphs and  mails  it  kept  from  the  world 
the  news  of  the  formation  of  the  Al- 
banian Government.  Secondly,  by  re- 
fusing to  issue  passports  to  the  Alba- 
nian delegates  to  the  Peace  Conference, 
Italy  brought  pressure  to  bear  in  the  se- 
lection of  the  members  of  both  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  delegation.  Further- 
more, during  the  whole  period  of  the  de- 
liberations of  the  Peace  Conference  the 
Albanian  delegation  was  admitted  before 
the  conferees  only  on  two  occasions,  both 
of  them  formal  ones.  Had  Italy  played 
fair  with  Albania,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  Albanian  delegation  would  have  had 
a  better  reception  by  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence than  it  had. 


But  Italy  was  distrustful  lest  the  Al- 
banian delegation  might  spill  the  beans, 
as  the  saying  goes,  by  destroying  the 
already  created  impression  that  Albania 
was  nothing  but  a  cog  in  the  political 
wheel  of  Italy.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Italian  Government  went  even  further 
than  that,  for  the  Foreign  Minister  of 
Italy  at  that  time,  Baron  Sidney  Son- 
nino,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Italian 
delegation,  stated  that  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  have  a  separate  Albanian  dele- 
gation to  the  Peace  Conference,  inas- 
much as  the  Italian  delegation  would 
assume  the  defense  of  the  Albanian 
rights  before  that  body.  The  Albanian 
delegation  called  on  him  then  and  there 
to  ask  the  Italian  Minister  to  define,  at 
least,  the  attitude  of  Italy  toward  Al- 
bania, but  Signor  Sonnino  evaded  the 
issue  altogether  by  merely  stating  that 
Italy  would  do  her  best  in  that  direction. 

SECRET  TREATY  OF  LONDON 

Pretty  soon,  however,  there  came  for 
discussion  the  famous,  or  rather  in- 
famous, secret  Treaty  of  London,  April, 
1915,  whereby  Albania  is  entirely  par- 
titioned in  favor  of  Italy,  Greece  and 
Serbia;  and  this  had  been  concluded  by 
Signor  Sonnino  himself.  He  was  asked 
again  as  to  whether  that  treaty  would  be 
put  into  effect  and  thus  bring  about  the 
dismemberment  of  Albania;  but  Baron 
Sonnino  replied  in  the  same  evasive  way 
by  saying  that  Italy  would  see  to  it  that 
the  rights  of  Albania  be  safeguarded. 

Such  was  the  apocryphal  policy  of 
Baron  Sonnino  toward  Albania.  Conse- 
quently the  Albanian  delegation  lost 
faith  entirely  in  the  attitude  of  Italy. 
So,  on  April  14,  1919,  it  broke  off  rela- 
tions with  Italy  by  adopting  an  inde- 
pendent policy  and  by  sending  to  the 
Peace  Conference  a  ringing  protest.  The 
gist  of  this  was  that  Italy  had  nothing 
in  view  but  to  subjugate  Albania  alto- 
gether or  dismember  her  completely 
through  the  carrying  out  of  the  secret 
Treaty  of  London. 

After  Baron  Sonnino  fell  and  was  suc- 
ceeded in  the  Ministry  of  Foreign-  Af- 
fairs by  Count  Tittoni,  under  the  Presi- 
dency of  Signor  Nitti,  things  were  going 
still  worse.     One  day  last  September  the 


ALBANIA    AND   ITALY  AT  LOGGERHEADS 


583 


•erIonitzaT'-OKvitza 


IB  1  ^ 


-SCALE.    OF     MIUES. 


MAP   OF   ALBANIA    AS    IT    WAS    BEFORE    THE    WAR.      THE    BOUNDARIES    AND 
SOVEREIGNTY    OF    ALBANIA    ARE    STILL    IN    DISPUTE.       ITALY    DESIRES    TO 
HOLD    THE    COUNTRY    AS    A    PROTECTORATE 


Albanian  Government  and  delegation 
were  astounded  to  learn  that  Italy  had 
concluded  a  separate  agreement  Avith 
Greece  for  the  construction  of  a  railway 
line  through  Southern  Albania  without 
consulting  at  all  either  the  Albanian 
Government  or  the  population  concerned. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  Italian  Government 
was  acting  as  though  Albania  were  al- 
ready an  Italian  province. 

Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  the 
Albanian  delegation  called  last  January 
on  Signor  Nitti  while  he  was  in  Rome  in 
order  to  make  a  last  bid  for  the  support 
of  Italy;  inasmuch  as  it  was  now  being 
freely  and  publicly  talked  that  after  the 
departure  of  Mr.  Frank  L.  Polk  as  rep- 
resentative of  the  United  States  in  the 
Supreme  Council  Italy  was  earnestly  de- 
manding the  execution  of  the  secret 
Treaty  of  London.  The  Albanian  dele- 
gation made  every  possible  offer  to  safe- 
guard the  interests  of  Italy  and  her 
supremacy  in  the  Adriatic  as  a  consider- 
ation for  the  recognition  on  the  part  of 


Italy  of  the  independence  and  territorial 
integrity  of  Albania. 

ATTEMPT  AT  PARTITION 

The  concessions  offered  were  more 
than  fair  and  honorable,  especially  so 
far  as  Italy  was  concerned.  Nitti 
promised  the  Albanian  delegation  that 
he  would  give  a  reply  on  his  imminent 
return  to  Paris.  No  reply  ever  came. 
Instead  of  that  the  Italian  Government 
readily  indorsed  the  monstrous  agree- 
ment of  Jan.  20  whereby  Albania  was  to 
be  dismembered  among  Italy,  Greece  and 
Jugoslavia.  Happily  for  Albania  the 
Jugoslav  Government  rejected  the  agree- 
ment and  stood  openly  for  the  inde- 
pendence and  territorial  integrity  of  Al- 
bania. After  that  refusal  there  came 
the  exchange  of  the  famous  Adriatic 
notes  in  which  President  Wilson  branded 
as  criminal  the  partition  of  Albania.  It 
was  thus  that  Albania  was  saved,  and  by 
a  very  narrow  margin. 

Meanwhile,  the  report  that  Italy  had 


584 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


already  agreed  to  the  partition  of  Alba- 
nia spread  among  the  Albanian  people, 
whose  indignation  was  unbounded.  After 
several  clashes  with  Italian  troops  that 
tried  to  prevent  its  convocation  a  new 
National  Assembly  was  convened  at 
Lushnja  on  Jan.  28,  1920.  Durazzo  had 
been  barred  to  it  by  the  Italians.  The 
Italian  commander  made  a  last  attempt 
to  dissolve  the  Assembly  and  bring  about 
at  the  same  time  a  civil  war  in  the  coun- 
try by  ordering  an  Albanian  detachment 
commanded  by  Italian  officers  to  dis- 
perse the  assembled  delegates,  but  the 
detachment  applaudingly  joined  the  As- 
sembly. 

The  result  of  the  deliberations  of  the 
National  Assembly  was  the  overthrow 
of  the  former  Government,  which  was 
replaced  by  a  new  one  whose  members 
pledged  themselves  to  oppose  by  all  means 
any  form  of  foreign  interference,  Ital- 
ian or  other.  The  Assembly  addressed 
also  several  messages  to  the  Italian  Gov- 
ernment and  Parliament,  in  which  it 
stated  that  "  the  Albanian  people  have 
enough  blood  in  their  veins  not  to  accept 
the  humiliation  of  seeing  their  country  in 
the  rank  of  an  Italian  colony."  It  also 
sent  several  appeals  to  the  allied  powers 
and  the  United  States,  emphasizing  the 
determination  of  the  Albanian  people  to 
defend  their  independence  and  territorial 
integrity  with  the  last  drop  of  their 
blood. 

ATTACKS  ON  ITALIAN  TROOPS 

The  new  Government  took  up  its  seat 
at  Tirana,  an  inland  city,  instead  of  the 
maritime  Durazzo,  in  order  to  be  far 
away  from  the  threatening  muzzles  of 
the  guns  of  the  Italian  Navy,  Italy  not 
having  been  able  to  reconcile  herself  to 
the  new  situation. 

At  the  beginning  of  June,  however, 
the  Nitti  Government  decided  to  with- 


draw the  Italian  troops  from  Albania, 
not  so  much  because  of  the  daily  clashes 
with  the  native  population  as  because 
of  the  expense  their  maintenance  en- 
tailed. It  was  at  this  point  that  the 
Italian  Government  committed  a  fatal 
mistake.  Instead  of  withdrawing  its 
troops  altogether,  the  Nitti  Government 
ordered  them  to  concentrate  at  the  vari- 
ous Albanian  ports,  so  as  to  keep  the 
Albanian  people  bottled  up  and  cut  off 
from  all  communication  with  the  out- 
side world. 

This  measure  brought  about  the  open- 
ing of  hostilities  between  the  native 
maritime  population  and  the  Italian 
troops  that  were  being  concentrated  in 
the  seapoits.  The  cup  of  exasperation 
was  filled  to  overflowing.  So  on  June  6 
the  populations  of  the  seaboard  prov- 
inces not  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Albanian  Government  began  a  general 
.attack  on  the  Italian  troops.  Up  to  the 
moment  of  this  writing,  the  insurgents 
have  driven  the  Italians  from  Alessio, 
Durazzo,  Santi  Quaranra  and  Chimarra. 
But  their  gallant  and  heroic  efforts  to 
storm  Valona,  the  Gibraltar  of  the  Adri- 
atic, have  proved  futile,  because  the 
Italian  army  encamped  therein  has  the 
support  of  the  warships. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Albanian 
Government  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
insurrectionary  movement  which  brpke 
out  in  the  territories  that  are  not  under 
its  jurisdiction,  just  as  it  is  needless  to 
deny  the  false  reports  circulated  by  the 
Italians  that  the  insurgents  were  joined 
by  "American-equipped  Serbian  officers 
wearing  American  uniforms."  It  may, 
however,  be  necessary  to  make  an  em- 
phatic denial  that  the  recently  assassi- 
nated Essad  Pasha  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  insurrection,  which  was  entirely 
spontaneous.  Essad  could  have  no  such 
influence  in  Albania. 


THE    LATE    PRESIDENT    CARRANZA    ATTENDING    HIS    LAST    PUBLIC    FUNCTION,    ON    MAY    5, 

WHEN    HE    PLACED    FLOWERS    ON    THE    GRAVES    OF    MEXICAN    HEROES    OF    1862    IN    SAN 

FERNANDO    CEMETERY.      HE    WAS    ASSASSINATED    ON    MAY    21. 


AMONG  THE  NATIONS 

Survey   of   Important   Events   and   Developments    in   Half    a 
Hundred  Countries  of  Both  Hemispheres 

IFor  Alphabetical  Index   of  Countries   see    Table   of   Contentsi 

[Period  Ended  June  15,  1920] 


Republics  of  Latin  America 


MEXICO 

UNDER  dripping  skies,  in  a  plain 
wooden  box,  which  was  covered 
by  a  raincoat,  the  body  of 
President  Carranza  was  borne 
into  Necaxa,  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State  of  Puebla,  on  Sunday,  May  23. 
It  had  been  brought  from  Tlaxcalan- 
tongo,  where  he  was  the  victim  of  a  most 
brutal  and  cowardly  assassination  on  the 
morning  of  May  21.  After  escaping  on 
May  14  through  the  cordon  of  revolu- 
tionary troops  which  almost  surrounded 
him  in  the  battle  of  Rinconda,  as  related 
in  Current  History  for  June,  Carranza 
with  about  150  soldiers  had  turned  north 
toward  the  Zacapoaxtia  Mountains. 

These  mountains  form  the  watershed 
between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic,  and  it 


was  evidently  Carranza's  intention  to 
make  his  way  through  this  wilderness 
region  to  the  coast  between  Vera  Cruz 
and  Tampico.  He  was  reported  on  May 
18  at  Cuantempano.  There  he  called  a 
conference  to  decide  on  the  route  to  be 
taken.  General  Murguia,  who  commanded 
the  Carranza  forces,  General  Francisco 
Mariel,  Ygnacio  Bonillas  and  others  took 
part.  They  were  advised  by  people  living 
in  the  mountains  that  it  was  dangerous 
to  continue,  as  Colonel  Lindoro  Hernan- 
dez and  General  Rodolfo  Herrera,  whose 
soldiers  were  known  to  be  in  the  vicinity, 
had  joined  the  revolution.  Nevertheless 
General  Mariel  insisted  that  they  pro- 
ceed. 

Soon  afterward  General  Herrera,  with 
a  small  body  of  troops  at  Patla,  met  the 


586 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Carranza  party,  who  then  numbered 
about  eighty  men.  No  distrust  was  felt, 
as  Herrera  had  surrendered  to  Carranza 
last  March  and  had  been  assigned  to  the 
forces  of  General  Mariel.  Carranza  was 
glad  to  obtain  the  services  of  men  who 
knew  the  country  thoroughly,  and  Gen- 
eral Mariel  left,  intending  to  join  the 
column  with  more  troops  a  few  miles 
further  on.  Under  Herrera's  guidance 
Carranza  and  his  escort  continued  north, 
arriving  on  May  20  at  Tlaxcalantongo, 
an  oval-shaped  village  on  the  steep  slope 
of  a  mountain,  the  main  street  forming 
the  only  entrance  and  exit. 

Here  Herrera  assured  Carranza  he 
was  absolutely  safe  from  attack  and  per- 
sonally escorted  him  to  a  hut,  arranging- 
a  bed  for  him  in  one  corner.  Two 
civilians  and  two  staff  officers  of  Car- 
ranza's  party  were  to  sleep  in  the  one- 
room  hut  with  the  President.  Herrera 
then  left,  saying  he  would  visit  the  out- 
posts, after  placing  a  guard  of  soldiers 
around  the  house.  The  other  officers  and 
principal  men  of  Carranza's  escort  were 
quartered  in  other  huts  in  the  village, 
which  has  a  population  of  about  500. 

Just  before  4  o'clock  the  next  morning 
all  were  awakened  by  the  sound  of  brisk 
firing.  Herrera's  men  were  attacking 
the  hut  where  Carranza  was  sleeping 
and  also  the  houses  occupied  by  the  more 
prominent  members  of  his  party.  The 
firing  at  Carranza's  quarters  was  di- 
rected toward  the  corner  of  the  room 
where  his  bed  had  been  placed.  It  was 
still  dark,  and  heavy  mountain  clouds 
were  hanging  low,  so  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  see  clearly.  General  Murguia,  who 
was  quartered  with  his  staff  in  a  house 
about  400  yards  away  from  that  of  Car- 
ranza, summoned  a  few  followers  and 
tried  to  occupy  the  tower  of  the  church. 
Failing  to  reach  that,  he  attempted  to 
form  a  skirmish  line  in  the  street,  but 
four  of  his  men  were  killed  and  he  took 
to  the  hills,  awaiting  daylight. 

The  firing  was  soon  over  and  Car- 
ranza was  dead.  His  hip  bone  had  been 
broken  by  the  first  volley  and  Herrera's 
men,  entering  the  hut,  fired  five  shots 
into  his  body.  Then  they  stole  his  shoes 
and  money,  turning  his  pockets  inside 
out.     The  four  men  who  had  been  sleep- 


ing in  the  same  room  were  made  prison- 
ers, as  were  about  sixty  others  of  the 
Carranza  party.  These  were  hastily 
driven  on  north  by  the  forces  of  Herrera, 
who  feared  the  return  of  General  Mariel. 
They  were  freed  later,  Herrera  forcing 
the  leaders  to  sign  papers  saying  that 
Carranza  had  committed  suicide. 

At  the  same  time  he  stated  that  he 
was  acting  under  orders  from  General 
Peleaz  to  kill  Carranza  without  fail. 
Peleaz  has  been  the  chief  authority  in 
the  Tampico  oil  region  for  more  than 
two  years,  defying  the  Government  at 
Mexico  City  and  collecting  taxes  for  him- 
self and  his  followers.  During  the  fight 
at  Tlaxcalantongo,  all  witnesses  state, 
Herrera's  forces  were  constantly  shout- 
ing "  Viva  Peleaz !  " 

Details  of  the  tragedy  were  tele- 
graphed from  Necaxa  the  same  evening 
in  a  dispatch  signed  by  Ygnacio  Bonillas, 
Carranza's  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
and  former  Mexican  Ambassador  at 
Washington;  also  by  Generals  Barragan, 
Mariel,  Montes,  Marco  Gonzalez  and 
others,  who  asked  General  Obregon  to  be 
allowed  to  accompany  Carranza's  body 
to  the  capital.  This  brought  out  a  sharp 
reply  from  General  Obregon,  who  blamed 
them  for  having  permitted  Carranza  to 
be  assassinated  instead  of  protecting 
him,  and  told  them  they  should  have 
shared  his  fate. 

To  this  General  Juan  Barragan,  Car- 
ranza's Chief  of  Staff,  replied  that  his 
followers  did  their  utmost,  fighting  val- 
iantly as  long  as  they  could,  but  Her- 
rera's men  were  well  prepared  for  their 
acts  of  treachery.  General  Obregon 
thereupon  ordered  the  arrest  of  Herrera 
and  his  forces,  commanding  that  they  be 
brought  to  Mexico  City  for  trial  by 
court-martial.  A  commission  of  four 
members,  named  by  Obregon  and  Gon- 
zalez to  inquire  into  the  murder,  re- 
ported the  facts  as  given  above;  but,  to 
satisfy  the  press.  General  Obregon  in- 
vited the  four  leading  newspapers  of 
Mexico  City  to  appoint  one  reporter 
from  each  to  make  a  fuller  inquiry. 

The  newspaper  men  found  that  the 
Indian  residents  of  Tlaxcalantongo  scout- 
ed the  idea  that  Carranza  committed  sui- 
cide.    General  Herrera,  who  voluntarily 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


587 


y^H 

^KiKl^^m^''^^^KUm^^i^''^V' 

^J 

H 

^BGMHf^n^^^^Hlli^j 

I'^^^Bn 

^^^H 

kXpl 

■■H 

p^^  "^^SIIIhPHHH 

m^tK^^^M 

V^SI^^K 

%^ 

f'wm^ 

„    Jjp'^^t    <hifc»  •'^ 

^ 

Jr^ 

'' j^HM^^^ffm.            ^mM^^^^^^^^m^^M  ^-^.J 

m^A 

J^E^k/^'SBEm^ 

^^yyi 

PRESIDENT  CARRANZA'S  BODY,  COVERED  WITH  THE  MEXICAN  FLAG,  LYING  IN  STATE 
AT  VILLA  JUAREZ,  PUEBLA.  AMONG  THOSE  GROUPED  IN  THE  BACKGROUND  ARE 
(1)   GENERAL  MARIEL,   (2)   GENERAL  JUAN  BARRAGAN.    (3)   GENERAL  FEDERICO  MONTES. 

(©    Underwood  it   Underwood) 


went  to  Mexico  City,  repeated  the  suicide 
story  before  the  military  court  which  was 
conducting  an  official  inquiry.  He  was 
confronted  with  companions  of  the  dead 
President  on  June  10  and  wavered  in  his 
statements.  He  had  been  interviewed  by 
General    Ohregon,    and    his   declarations 


were  turned  over  to  the  War  Department 
for  use  in  connection  with  the  investiga- 
tion. During  the  session,  which  lasted 
ten  hours,  so  many  contradictions  in  his 
testimony  were  revealed  that  the  Judge 
ordered  his  immediate  arrest.  Generals 
Murguia,  Urquizo,  Montes  and  Barragan 


688 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


were  also  detained  and  indicted  for  not 
having  defended  Carranza. 

The  body  of  President  Carranza  ar- 
rived at  Mexico  City  early  on  May  24 
and  was  buried  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day  in  Dolores  Cemetery  in  the 
section  reserved  for  pauper  burials;  this 
was  done  according  to  express  directions 
given  to  his  daughters  before  starting 
on  his  last  journey,  when  the  aged  chief 
had  stated  that  he  would  return  a  victor 
or  dead,  and  that  if  he  died  they  should 
bury  him  among  the  graves  of  the  poor, 
where  his  only  friends  were. 

Not  in  years  had  Mexico  City  seen 
such  crowds  as  those  which  choked  the 
streets  during  Carranza's  funeral.  Peo- 
ple of  all  classes  blocked  the  Paseo  de  la 
Reforma  as  the  procession  passed,  and 
at  the  cemetery  the  crowds  pushed  up 
to  the  very  edge  of  the  grave,  causing 
some  delay  in  lowering  the  coffin. 

That  same  evening  an  extra  session  of 
the  Mexican  Congress  met  in  the  Na- 
tional Palace  and  elected  Adolfo  de  la 
Huerta  Provisional  President.  He  was 
Governor  of  Sonora  and  had  begun  the 
revolution  which  overthrew  Carranza, 
being  acknowledged  as  "  Supreme  Chief 
of  the  Liberal  Constitutionalist  Army." 
In  the  balloting  he  received  224  votes 
against  28  for  General  Pablo  Gonzalez 
and  1  each  for  Antonio  ^Villareal  and 
Fernando  Iglesias  Calderon.  In  a  decree 
issued  on  May  22  at  Hermosillo  Huerta 
had  postponed  the  Presidential  elections 
from  July  4  to  Sept.  5,  arranging  for  the 
inauguration  to  take  place  on  Dec.  1. 

President  de  la  Huerta  left  his  capital 
in  Sonora  on  May  24  for  Mexico  City  via 
Mazatlan  and  by  steamer  to  Manzanillo. 
He  arrived  at  the  Federal  capital  on 
May  30  and  immediately  took  to  his  bed, 
suffering  from  a  mild  form  of  appendi- 
citis. On  his  way  from  Hermosillo  he 
received  the  adherence  of  500  Yaqui 
Indians,  last  of  the  bands  which  have 
harassed  the  Mexican  Government  for 
more  than  ten  years.  He  also  appointed 
by  telegraph  General  P.  Elias  Calles  as 
Minister  of  War  and  Marine.  It  was 
General  Calles  who  commanded  the 
Sonora  army  in  its  march  southward 
against  the  Carranza  forces  in  Sinaloa. 
He  has  a  force  of  4,000  men  with  him  in 
Mexico  City. 


Although  he  is  Provisional  President, 
Huerta's  power  rests  on  the  support  of 
General  Obregon,  who  is  looked  upon  as 
the  real  head  of  affairs  and  the  coming 
man  in  Mexico.  The  most  remarkable 
feature  of  the  revolution  was  the  con- 
currence of  all  the  revolutionary  parties 
in  recognizing  Obregon  as  their  leader. 
His  chief  rival.  General  Pablo  Gonzalez, 
has  suiTendered  publicly  his  authority 
and  announces  his  retirement  to  private 
life.  General  Felix  Diaz,  a  nephew  of 
the  former  President,  has  requested  per- 
mission to  leave  Mexico,  having  been 
abandoned  by  his  troops. 

General  Eugenio  Lopez  of  Tamaulipas 
and  General  Gabriel  Barrios  of  Puebla 
gave  their  adherence  to  the  plan  of 
Agua  Prieta.  General  Manuel  Pelaez,  in 
control  of  the  oil  field  district  around 
Tampico,  says  he  is  united  with  the 
movement  represented  by  Gonzalez  and 
Obregon.  Ygnacio  Bonillas,  President 
de  la  Huerta  announced,  would  be  set 
free,  but  if  shown  to  be  a  foreigner 
would  be  expelled  from  the  country.  This 
refers  to  the  report  that  Bonillas  had 
been  naturalized  as  a  citizen  of  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

In  an  outline  of  his  proposed*  policy 
President  de  la  Huerta  announced  his 
intention  to  give  every  facility  to  foreign 
capital,  to  interpret  liberally  the  laws 
regarding  the  development  of  petroleum, 
to  prohibit  alcoholism  and  gambling, 
and  to  decentralize  the  Government,  giv- 
ing larger  powers  to  Congress  and  de- 
creasing those  of  the  Executive. 

General  Obregon  at  the  same  time  in 
a  published  interview  announced  that  the 
new  Government  means  peace  and  the 
end  of  banditry  in  Mexico.  All  invest- 
ments would  get  the  protection  of  the 
Government,  and  no  obstacles  would  be 
put  in  the  way  of  the  employment  of 
foreign  capital  in  Mexico.  While  believ- 
ing in  regulation  of  the  drink  evil,  he 
did  not  believe  in  total  prohibition  for 
any  people.  He  hoped  to  see  the  day 
when  the  northern  border  would  be  as 
peaceful  and  unguarded  as  the  Canada 
line,  and  soldiers  could  be  withdrawn 
from  all  frontiers.  He  sent  to  Wash- 
ington Luis  M.  Morones,  Secretary  of  the 
Mexican   Labor  Party,  to   assure   Presi- 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


589 


GENERAL    OBREGON'S    FORCES    ENTERING   THE    MAIN   PLAZA    OF   THE    CITY    OF   MEXICO, 

MARKING    THE     CULMINATION     OF    THE     REVOLUTION    THAT    OVERTHREW     CARRANZA'S 

GOVERNMENT.      THE    CITY    WAS    TAKEN    WITHOUT    BLOODSHED 

(©    Underwood  &   Underwood) 


dent  Wilson  that  the  revolutionists  de- 
sired the  most  harmonious  relations  with 
the  United  States. 

As  an  earnest  of  their  intentions,  one 
of  the  first  acts  was  to  send  an  ultima- 
tum to  Francisco  Villa  to  decide  whether 
he  was  to  be  at  peace  or  war  with  the 
new  Government,  and  giving  him  until 
May  25  to  answer.  General  Calles,  who 
sent  the  ultimatum,  proposed  that  Villa 
promise  to  retire  to  private  life  perma- 
nently after  the  elections,  meanwhile  go- 
ing to  Sonora  with  a  small  escort,  there 
quietly  to  await  the  result.  In  reply 
Villa  announced  his  opposition  to  the 
new  Government, 

The  State  of  Chihuahua  set  a  price  of 
$50,000  on  his  head,  and  General  Ignacio 
Enriquez  was  sent  with  a  strong  column 
of  troops  into  Southern  Chihuahua  to 
capture  the  bandit  or  put  an  end  to  his 
activities.  Villa  had  forced  the  closing 
of   the  American   Minmg  and   Smelting 


Company,  the  Boquillas  Power  Company 
and  the  Alvarado  Mining  and  Milling 
Company,  all  in  the  Parral  section,  de- 
manding about  $500,000  ransom  in  the 
aggregate.  George  Miller,  Superin- 
tendent of  the  latter  company,  was  held 
and  a  payment  of  $50,000  demanded,  but 
he  was  released  later. 

Two  other  detachments  were  immedi- 
ately sent  out  after  Villa,  that  of  Mar- 
celo  Caraveo  and  J.  Gonzalez  Escobar, 
who  had  been  appointed  military  com- 
mander of  the  State  of  Chihuahua  by 
President  de  la  Huerta.  Escobar,  who 
is  a  bitter  personal  enemy  of  Villa, 
started  with  1,000  men  on  May  26  from 
Jimenez  for  El  Valle,  where  Villa  was 
reported  to  be.  A  clash  between  the 
bandit's  outposts  and  Escobar's  troops  at 
Valle  de  Allende  was  reported  on  May 
28,  Villa  escaping  into  the  hills.  He 
made  an  unsuccessful  attack  on  Parral 
on  June  1. 


590 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Adolfo  de  la  Huerta  was  inaugurated 
President  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
on  the  afternoon  of  June  1,  taking  the 
oath,  which  he  read  himself  with  his 
right  hand  raised.  He  delivered  no  in- 
augural address,  but  departed  for  his 
future    official    residence,    the    National 


General  Candido  Aguilar,  Carranza's 
son-in-law  and  recently  Governor  of  Vera 
Cruz,  surrendered  to  the  new  Govern- 
ment and  was  permitted  to  go  to  Vera 
Cruz  to  sail  abroad,  and  his  family  ar- 
rived there  on  June  1,  intending  to  leave 
by    the    first    available    steamer.      The 


GENERAL,  OBREGON,  WITH  AN  INCIPIENT  BEARD,  AS  HE  APPEARED  ON  MAY 
9.  THE  DAY  HE  ENTERED  MEXICO  CITY.  WITH  HIM  STANDS  GENERAL  GON- 
ZALEZ.     THE    OTHER    DOMINATING    FIGURE    IN    THE    NEW    MEXICAN    REGIME 


Palace,  as  unostentatiously  as  he  had 
come.  He  was  pale  and  evidently  far 
from  well.  During  the.  gathering  in  the 
Chamber  Generals  Obregon  and  Gon- 
zalez sat  side  by  side  in  the  gallery 
chatting  in  a  friendly  manner,  a  sign 
according  to  many  Mexicans  that  the 
new  Government  will  be  a  stable  one, 
backed  by  the  strongest  forces  in  the 
nation. 

The  great  demonstration  occurred  in 
the  morning,  when  30,000  Mexican  troops 
from  all  parts  of  the  republic  and  in  all 
kinds  of  picturesque  uniforms  paraded 
through  the  streets.  General  Obregon 
rode  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  was 
acclaimed  with  enthusiasm  along  the  en- 
tire route.  It  was  his  last  appearance 
as  a  military  commander,  for  he  has  re- 
signed from  the  army  to  enter  the  cam- 
paign as  a  civilian  for  the  Presidency. 
He  has  let  it  be  known  that  if  elected 
he  will  modernize  the  army — a  much- 
needed  reform.  No  one  doubts  that  he 
will  be  chosen,  probably  unopposed. 


Chinese  Republic  was  the  first  to  recog- 
nize the  new  Government  on  June  1. 

The  report  of  Senator  Fall,  Chairman 
of  the  United  States  Senate  Sub-Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs,  recommends 
that  Mexico  be  forced  to  alter  her  Con- 
stitution— the  one  adopted  in  1917,  made 
part  of  the  plan  of  Agua  Prieta,  on 
which  the  successful  revolution  was 
based,  and  adhered  to  by  the  present 
Government,  The  report  wants  Amer- 
icans excepted  from  the  law  forbiding 
foreigners  to  own  Mexican  lands  or  sub- 
soil products,  to  act  as  teachers,  mission- 
aries or  preachers,  to  establish  schools, 
and  to  do  many  things  which  it  would 
be  advantageous  pecuniarily  and  other- 
wise for  Americans  to  do. 

Senator  Fall  suggests  that  if  Mexico 
fails  to  alter  her  Constitution  in  accord- 
ance with  his  views  the  United  States 
invade  the  country  and  "maintain  open 
every  line  of  communication  between  the 
City  of  Mexico  and  every  seaport  and 
every  border  port  of  Mexico." 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


591 


An  outbreak  of  bubonic  plague  at 
Vera  Cruz  was  reported  on  May  15,  and 
the  nature  of  the  disease  was  definitely 
established   on   May  27.     The  city  was 


ADOLFO    DE   LA   HUERTA 
Provisional  President  of  Mexico 

(©    Keystone   View  Co.) 


quarantined  on  May  30,  and  a  relief 
train  with  sanitary  agents  and  supplies 
was  sent  from  Mexico  City.  At  the  same 
time  President  Wilson  sent  hospital 
ships,  nurses,  doctors  and  supplies  from 
the  United  States.  Vessels  entering 
American  ports  from  Vera  Cruz  were 
ordered  fumigated.  Our  Consul  at  Vera 
Cruz  reported  on  June  14  that  out  of 
twenty-four  cases  twenty-three  had 
proved  fatal.  The  Federal  authorities 
had  destroyed  all  railroad  tracks  for  five 
miles  inland  to  stop  the  spread  of  the 
plague.  The  Sanitary  Commission  at 
Tampico  on  June  14  reported  the  first 


case  of  the  dread  disease  at  that  port. 
It  had  proved  fatal. 

The  Mexican  Government  will  tolerate 
no  communistic  agitation.  Five  Bolshe- 
viki  were  arrested  in  the  first  week  of 
June  and  expelled  from  the  country,  em- 
barking at  Tampico  for  Havana.  Three 
Russians,  who  fled  from  New  York  dur- 
ing the  war  to  escape  military  service, 
also  were  arrested.  One,  named  Stoch, 
was  identified  as  being  concerned  in  a 
strike  in  Tampico  last  November.  The 
new   Government   is   determined   not   to 


TGNACIO    BONILLAS 

Former  Mexican  Ambassador   to   the    United 

States,   temiporarily   imprisoned   by   the 

revolutionan-y    Government 

(©    CUenclinst) 

permit    Mexico    to    become    a    centre    of 
propaganda. 

While  the  Presidential  election  takes 
place  on  Sept.  5,  that  for  Senators  and 
Deputies  will  be  held  on  Aug.  1. 


592 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


CENTRAL  AMERICA 

Increasing  interest  is  being  shown  in 
Central  America  in  unexpected  quarters. 
Prince  William  of  Sweden,  second  son  of 
King  Gustave,  passed  through  New  York 
recently  after  some  months'  exploration 
in  Honduras,  Salvador  and  Guatemala 
for  the  purpose  of  conducting  archaeo- 
logical and  ethnological  researches. 
American  archaeologists  elso  recently 
met  in  Philadelphia  and  organized  the 
Maya  Society  for  the  study  of  the  Indian 
races  of  Central  America  and  Mexico. 
William  Gates  of  Point  Loma,  Cal.,  a 
Trustee  of  the  San  Diego  Museum,  was 
elected  President.  France  is  sending  to 
Central  America  an  official  mission, 
headed  by  Georges  Desbons,  a  prominent 
lawyer  and  economist,  to  promote  closer 
relations. 

GUATEMALA— Estrada  Cabrera,  the 
deposed  President  of  Guatemala,  is  in 
prison  awaiting  trial  and  his  friends  in 
the  United  States  say  he  is  being  sys- 
tematically starved,  or  an  attempt  is  be- 
ing made  to  kill  him  by  slow  poisoning. 
Seven  prominent  participants  in  the 
bombardment  of  the  capital  in  the  April 
revolution  were  tried  by  court-martial 
and  sentenced  to  death,  this  being  the 
first  time  in  twenty-two  years,  or  since 
Cabrera  became  President,  that  persons 
charged  with  a  high  crime  have  had  a 
legal  trial.  The  hearing  was  public  and 
the  condemned  persons  will  have  a 
chance  to  appeal  their  case. 

Dr.  Carlos  Herrera,  the  Provisional 
President,  has  expelled  from  Guatemala 
the  Italian  agitator,  Onofre  Auele,  as 
an  undesirable  foreigner.  A  well-known 
Peruvian  poet,  Jose  Santos  Chocano,  who 
went  to  Guatemala  to  write  poems  on 
Latin  America  and  became  an  energetic 
defender  of  Cabrera,  was  imprisoned  by 
the  revolutionists  when  the  dictator's 
Government  was  overthr.own.  An  effort 
to  obtain  his  release  has  been  started  by 
the  Paris  Figaro. 

NICARAGUA— J.  Andres  Urtecho,  a 
prominent  engineer,  has  been  nominated 
for  President  of  Nicaragua  in  opposition 
to  the  candidate  of  the  Liberal  Party.  A 
delegation  of  Liberals  was  sent  to  Wash- 
ington to  confer  as  to  a  candidate;   if 


they  failed  to  receive  encouragement,  it 
was  announced  on  June  4,  they  would 
vote  for  the  re-election  of  General  Emil- 
iano  Chamorro,  whose  term  expires  on 
Dec.  31. 

Arrangements  have  been  made  with  a 
Barcelona  firm  for  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  in  Nicaragua  and  the  introduction 
of  Spanish  colonists  to  develop  the 
northern  departments  of  Matagalpa  and 
Jinotega. 

SALVADOR  —  Exceptionally  large 
crops  this  year  have  brought  to  Salva- 
dor the  greatest  prosperity  in  her  his- 
tory. The  coffee  harvest  is  estimated  at 
100,000,000  pounds,  an  increase  of  25  per 
cent,  above  the  average. 

SOUTH   AMERICA 

ARGENTINA— The  rapid  depletion  of 
Argentina's  stock  of  wheat  owing  to  Eu- 
ropean demands  caused  President  Iri- 
goyen  in  his  message  to  Congress  on 
June  2  to  urge  an  additional  export  duty. 
The  Chamber  of  Deputies  immediately 
passed  a  bill  to  that  effect  and  sent  it 
to  the  Senate.  The  British,  French  and 
Italian  Ministers  at  once  protested  be- 
cause the  bill  would  apply  to  wheat  al- 
ready contracted  for  and  awaiting  em- 
barkation. It  also  provided,  in  addition 
to  the  duty  of  4  pesos  per  hundred  kilos 
(about  90  cents  a  bushel  in  gold),  that 
the  exporters  on  the  completion  of  the 
harvest  in  the  northern  hemisphere 
should  resell  to  the  Argentine  Govern- 
ment an  amount  of  wheat  equal  to  the 
total  they  export  at  a  price  10  pesos  less 
than  that  prevailing  when  the  export 
was  made.  The  result  in  Argentina  was 
an  immediate  stoppage  of  shipments,  a 
fall  of  about  25  per  cent,  in  the  price 
of  wheat  in  less  than  two  weeks,  and 
cheaper  bread.  There  was  question  of 
retaliation  in  Great  Britain  by  withhold- 
ing coal  exports  to  Argentina,  but  the 
Board  of  Trade  decided  against  it. 

Three  Russian  Bolsheviki  arrived  at 
Buenos  Aires  on  June  3  with  material 
for  propaganda,  but  were  not  allowed  to 
land.  They  had  previously  attempted  to 
disembark  at  Rio  Janeiro,  but  had  been 
refused  admittance.  This  is  a  result  of 
the  recent  police  convention  adopted  by 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


59:3 


several  South  American  States  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  out  undesirables. 

Dr.  Alfredo  Palacios,  a  prominent  Ar- 
gentine Socialist,  has  declined  to  accept 
the  decoration  of  the  Legion  of  Honor, 
which  was  offered  him  by  the  French 
Government  on  account  of  his  action 
during  the  war  in  favor  of  the  allied 
cause.  He  admitted  his  love  for  France 
as  "  the  depositary  of  active  idealism," 
but  said  he  was  unable  to  accept  the 
honor  because  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment's attitude  toward  labor. 

Germany,  the  Argentine  Foreign  Of- 
fice announced  on  June  5,  had  paid  an 
indemnity  of  $62,000  to  the  owners  of 
the  Argentine  sailing  vessel  Monte  Pro- 
tegido,  which  was  sunk,  but  not  "  spur- 
los,"  by  a  German  submarine. 

BOLIVIA — According  to  a  dispatch 
from  La  Paz  on  May  21,  Bolivia  will 
propose  to  Chile  that  she  give  to  Bo- 
livia the  desired  outlet  to  the  sea  at  a 
point  anywhere  within  the  former  Bo- 
livian littoral,  Bolivia  engaging  to  con- 
struct the  necessary  port  works.  This 
means  the  abandonment  of  the  long- 
standing demand  of  Bolivia  for  the  port 
of  Arica  in  the  territory  formerly  be- 
longing to  Peru  for  so  many  years  in 
dispute  with  Chile. 

CHILE — President  San  fuentes,  in 
opening  Parliament  on  June  2,  declared 
that  the  only  exception  to  the  cordial 
international  relations  of  Chile  was  the 
dispute  with  Peru.  He  added  that  in 
adhering  to  the  League  of  Nations  Chile 
had  made  the  express  reservation  that 
the  treaty  of  Ancon,  on  which  the 
Tacna  and  Arica  dispute  hinges,  would 
not  be  submitted  to  the  League.  The 
Chilean  Minister  to  Bolivia  declared  that 
the  solution  would  take  the  form  either 
of  making  Arica  a  free  port  or  of  ceding 
to  Bolivia  a  strip  of  territory  with  in- 
ternationalizing of  the  railroad.  Chile, 
he  said,  would  not  oppose  a  plebiscite  in 
the  provinces  of  Tacna  and  Arica.  Thus 
the  long-standing  dispute  apparently 
will  be  settled  without  hostilities. 

Very  important  railway  projects  are 
being  considered  by  Chile,  including 
unification  of  the  Chilean  and  Argen- 
tine sections  of  the  Trans-Andean  Rail- 
way.    Snow    defenses    are    to    be    con- 


structed, which,  on  the  Chilean  side  of 
the  'divide,  will  be  most  useful,  as  that 
is  the  more  exposed  to  great  snowfalls, 
particularly  during  July  and  August.  A 
railway  is  in  contemplation  from 
Iquique  to  Pintado,  another  from  Los 
Angeles  to  Santa  Barbara,  and  a  third 
from  Loncoche  to  Villarica. 

COLOMBIA— The  sub-committee  of 
the  United  States  Senate  Foreign  Rela- 
tions Committee  on  June  3  recommended 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  1914  for 
the  settlement  of  differences  with  Co- 
lombia arising  out  of  the  partitioning 
of  Panama  in  November,  1903,  and  the 
full  committee  approved  the  report.  It 
provides  for  the  payment  of  $25,000,000 
to  Colombia  for  America's  interests  in 
Panama,  including  Colombia's  former 
sovereignty  over  the  canal  v/rested  from 
her  by  the  partition.  The  treaty  was 
near  ratification  a  year  ago,  but  was 
withdrawn  by  the  committee  because 
President  Suarez  of  Colombia  had  issued 
a  decree  which  practically  nationalized 
the  oil  properties  of  that  country.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  Colombia  declared  the 
decree  unconstitutional,  and  the  Colom- 
bian Congress  adopted  petroleum  legis- 
lation amply  safeguarding  the  interests 
of  owners  of  private  property  and  lib- 
eral in  its  terms,  inviting  American  and 
other  capital  to  develop  the  petroleum 
industry  upon  the  national  lands  of  Co- 
lombia. The  treaty,  therefore,  goes  back 
to  the  Senate  and  action  upon  it  prob- 
ably will  be  taken  at  the  next  session, 
which  begins  in  December. 

PERU — Federico  A.  Pezet,  Peruvian 
Ambassador  at  Washington,  early  in 
June  requested  the  United  States  to  de- 
tail one  or  more  American  naval  officers 
as  advisers  to  the  Peruvian  Navy,  and 
Secretary  Daniels  announced  that  a  se- 
lection of  the  officers  would  be  made 
soon.  Peru  is  thus  the  first  country  to 
seek  the  aid  of  American  naval  experts 
following  the  enactment  of  legislation 
authorizing  the  Navy  Department  to  de- 
tail officers  to  accept  such  service  with 
compensation  under  any  South  American 
Government. 

Tezanos  Pinto,  Peruvian  Minister  to 
Ecuador,  in  presenting  his  credentials, 
said   he   had   been   instructed  to   try   to 


594 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


obtain  a  settlement  of  the  boundary 
question  between  the  two  countries.  This 
is  the  first  time  Peru  has  offered  to 
treat  with  Ecuador  directly,  heretofore 
always  insisting  on  arbitration. 

PARAGUAY— Dr.  Manuel  Gondra, 
Paraguayan  Minister  to  the  United 
States,  will  succeed  Jose  Montero  as 
President  of  Paraguay  as  a  result  of  the 
recent  elections,  in  which  the  radical 
party  obtained  a  majority  in  the 
electoral  college. 

URUGUAY — A  congress  of  architects 
from  all  South  American  countries  as 
well  as  the  United  States  concluded  its 
sessions  in  Montevideo  on  May  31  after 
urging  worldwide  legislation  to  stop  the 
"  hideous  deformity  "  of  streets,  parks, 
gardens  and  plazas,  and  to  beautify 
cities.  Classes  in  universities  and  spe- 
cial schools  of  architecture  were  also 
proposed,  and  emphasis  was  laid  on  the 
need  of  construction  with  Government 
aid  of  cheap  and  hygienic  homes  for  la- 
borers in  industrial  sections. 

VENEZUELA— There  is  a  move  on 
foot  in  Venezuela  to  curb  the  domination 
of  the  oil  fields  by  the  allied  British  and 
Royal  Dutch  interests,  whose  conces- 
sions the  Government  is  moving  to  have 
cancelled.  The  Royal  Dutch  interests 
through  the  Colon  i  development  Com- 
pany, Limited,  holds  a  fifty-year  conces- 
sion on  the  entire  Colon  district  of  the 
State  of  Zulia,  embracing  some  5,000,000 
acres.  During  the  thirteen  years  it  has 
been  in  force,  the  Government  asserts, 
only  2,000  acres  have  been  occupied, 
while  the  company  has  not  complied 
with  its  contract  to  pay  the  Government 
16  cents  an  acre  annually  on  its  conces- 
sion. Other  British  companies  holding 
concessions  on  nearly  ten  million  acres 
may  also  be  obliged  to  forfeit  them  if 
the  action  against  the  Royal  Dutch  goes 
through.  Caracas  meanwhile  is  full  of 
agents  of  oil  monopolies  of  North  and 
South  America,  including  Venezuela  her- 
self and  Trinidad,  hoping  to  fall  heir  to 
some  of  the  concessions  if  the  Govern- 
ment wins. 


WEST  INDIES 

Representatives  of  the  British  West 
Indies  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada  met 
in  conference  in  Ottawa  on  May  31.  The 
sessions  were  opened  by  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  the  Governor  General,  who 
praised  the  co-operative  spirit  of  the 
various  parts  of  the  British  Empire  and 
said  that  the  paramount  issue  was  to 
make  its  future  secure.  One  of  the 
prime  necessities  to  this  end  was  to  make 
the  empire  self-supporting.  The  Ba- 
hamas, Barbados,  Bermuda,  Demerara, 
Granada,  Jamaica  and  the  Leeward 
Islands  were  represented,  besides  the 
Canadian  officials  and  Captain  E.  J.  Ed- 
wards, Trade  Commissioner  for  Great 
Britain. 

In  contrast  with  the  harmony  dis- 
played at  Ottawa  were  the  charges 
against  the  American  Military  Adminis- 
tration in  Haiti  and  against  the  policy 
of  the  United  States  in  other  Latin- 
American  republics,  made  in  addresses 
at  the  Clark  University  Conference  on 
the  Caribbean.  Jacinto  Lopez,  a  Vene- 
zuelan editor,  said  the  President  of  the 
United  States  exercised  a  virtual  dicta- 
torship over  the  Caribbean.  In  the  Cuban 
elections  of  1916,  he  declared,  President 
Menocal  was  overwhelmingly  defeated, 
and  owing  to  the  attempt  to  override  the 
results  a  revolt  occurred  which  the 
American  Government  aided  in  suppress- 
ing. The  present  Government  of  Nica- 
ragua, he  said,  would  be  overthrown  by 
the  people  were  it  not  protected  by  the 
United  States.  Otto  Schoenrich  of  New 
York,  once  an  official  of  the  Dominican 
Republic,  denounced  the  dealings  of  the 
United  States  in  Santo  Domingo  and  said 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Virgin  Islands 
were  complaining  that  they  had  less  free- 
dom under  the  United  States  than  they 
had  had  under  Danish  rule.  This  possibly 
refers  to  the  extension  of  prohibition  to 
those  islands,  a  matter  which  has  become 
a  live  political  issue  also  in  British  Ja- 
maica, where  a  campaign  against  alco- 
holic drinks  has  been  started  by  the 
Rev.  E.  H.  Curtis  of  Columbus,  Ohio. 

As  to  Haiti,  defenders  of  American 
occupation  say  accusations  of  ineffi- 
ciency and  indifference  are  gross  mis- 
representations.     Good   macadam   roads 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


595 


are  being  built  throughout  the  republic, 
and  Port-au-Prince  has  been  changed  in 
five  years  from  a  condition  of  filth  and 
disease  to  one  of  public  cleanliness. 

In  Cuba,  in  opposition  to  the  candidacy 
of  Senator  Maza  y  Artola,  nominated  by 
the  Republican  Party  to  succeed  Presi- 


dent Menocal,  the  Conservatives  in  na- 
tional convention  unanimously  nomi- 
nated General  Rafael  Montalvo  on  May 
23.  General  Montalvo  was  Secretary  of 
Gobemacion  during  the  administration 
of  President  Palma  and  is  a  wealthy 
sugar  planter. 


The  British  Empire  and  Its  Problems 

Irish  Situation    Becomes  Acute 


ENGLAND 

IN  England  the  most  noteworthy  po- 
litical event  was  the  arrival  in  Lon- 
don of  the  Russian  Bolshevist  Mis- 
sion, headed  by  Gregory  Krassin,  Soviet 
Minister  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  and  in 
the  industrial  world  the  granting  of  a 
substantial  increase  of  wages  to  the  rail- 
way men. 

In  the  House  of  Commons  Sir  R. 
Home,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
announced  increases  in  the  price  of  coal 
to  take  effect  almost  immediately.  He 
said  that  the  Government  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  household  coal  should 
no  longer  be  sold  for  less  than  coal  for 
industry,  and  that  both  should  be  sold 
at  a  price  sufficient  to  meet  the  cost  of 
production  and  the  standard  profits  al- 
lowed by  the  Coal  Emergency  act.  To 
effect  this  result  it  was  necessary  to  in- 
crease the  price  of  industrial  coal  by  4s. 
2d.  per  ton  and  the  price  of  household 
coal  by  14s.  and  2d.  per  ton.  The  new 
price  would  be  the  maximum,  not  a  fixed 
price. 

After  two  years  given  the  Ministry  of 
Transport  to  formulate  a  permanent 
railroad  policy  for  the  country,  an  out- 
line of  its  plans,  mainly  approved  by 
the  Government,  was  made  public.  While 
nationalization,  in  the  ordinary  meaning 
of  the  term,  was  ruled  out,  the  Ministry 
held  that  the  time  function  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  this  sphere  was  to  assist  the 
big  railway  companies  to  attain  a  higher 
standard  of  efficient  and  economical 
working  rather  than  to  attempt  any 
direct  management  of  the  vast  machin- 
ery of  internal  transport.  The  general 
principle    aimed    at,    therefore,    was    to 


maintain  the  management  and  control  of 
the  great  railroad  companies  intact,  with 
the  Ministry  of  Transport  supervising 
the  trade  requirements  of  the  country, 
assisting  the  boards  of  the  companies  to 
remove  the  hindrances  of  past  legisla- 
tion, and  promoting  co-ordination  of 
working  for  the  elimination  of  expensive 
and  unnecessary  competition. 

On  June  4  the  National  Wages  Board, 
which  had  been  considering  the  claims 
of  railway  men  for  an  all-round  increase 
of  £1  per  week,  issued  a  report  recom- 
mending increases  from  2s.  to  7s.  6d. 
The  cost  of  conceding  the  men's  demands 
in  full  would  have  been  about  $175,000,- 
000  (normal  exchange),  and  the  recom- 
mendations made  were  estimated  to  cost 
about  $50,000,000.  As  a  result  of  this 
decision,  the  public  was  faced  with  the 
prospect  of  double  railway  fares  and 
rates,  and  agricultural  laborers,  gas 
workers  and  other  dissatisfied  trades 
were  provided  with  an  immediate  stimu- 
lant to  demand  relatively  higher  wages. 

A  deputation  of  blind  men  who  called 
upon  the  Prime  Minister  received  a  sym- 
pathetic welcome,  but  went  away  without 
a  promise  from  Lloyd  George  that  the 
Government  would  accept  Ben  Tillett's 
bill  containing  a  provision  of  $10,000,000 
(normal  exchange)  for  their  benefit. 
Ben  Purse,  who  presented  the  case  for 
the  blind,  informed  the  Prime  Minister 
that  of  nearly  35,000  blind  people  in  the 
British  Isles  not  more  than  2,000  were 
employed  in  special  institutions  existing 
for  that  purpose,  while  10,000  wfere  de- 
pendent on  poor  law  agencies,  and  not 
more  than  5,000  were  engaged  in  casual 
occupations.    He  added  that  12,000  sight- 


596 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


less  people  were  totally  incapacitated. 
A  possibly  significant  incident  of  the 
times  was  the  reappearance  on  the  Lon- 
don streets  of  "  growlers  "  (four-wheel 
cabs)  and  hansoms  after  a  long  "lie 
up."  Several  of  these  vehicles  were  ob- 
viously the  worse  for  age  and  wear. 
Their  return  to  a  somewhat  vagrant  use- 
fulness was  due  to  the  high  price  of  gaso- 
line and  consequent  increase  in  taxicab 
fare,  and  was  taken  as  a  sign  that  the 
horse-drawn  conveyance  might  yet  re- 
gain some  of  its  lost  prestige. 

Bonar  Law,  who  took  the  place  of  the 
Prime  Minister  at  a  send-off  to  the  Local 
Housing  Bonds  campaign  at  the  Guild- 
hall, said  the  object  for  which  they  were 
meant  demanded  an  effort  by  the  nation 
almost  as  great  as  was  demanded  during 
the  war.  If  they  did  not  make  every 
effort  in  their  power  to  improve  the  con- 
ditions of  the  people,  they  should  have 
to  face  a  discontented,  sullen,  and  per- 
haps angry  nation,  and  that  would  be 
fatal  in  the  last  degree  to  British  trade, 
industry  and  credit.  Bad  as  were  the 
housing  conditions  before  the  war,  these 
had  been  added  to  during  the  past  five 
years.  Arrears  had  to  be  made  up,  and 
it  was  hopeless  to  do  this  by  ordinary 
efforts.  They  were  committed  to  this 
scheme,  and  had  reason  to  be  thankful 
that  a  start  had  been  made.  *  *  *  The 
State  had  not  only  agreed  to  pay  a  large 
pai-t  of  the  exceptional  cost  of  building 
houses,  but  would  help  in  every  way 
within  its  power  to  stimulate  the  locali- 
ties into  raising  the  money. 

Following  the  example  of  large  Amer- 
ican stores  in  voluntarily  reducing  prices, 
a  leading  firm  initiated  the  movement 
in  London  on  May  31.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  was  remarked  that  the  reckless 
buying  of  the  last  four  years  had  practi- 
cally ceased.  The  tendency  to  throw 
money  away  heedlessly  had  practically 
disappeared.  Owing  to  the  same  tend- 
ency to  economize,  it  was  also  observed 
that  there  was  a  marked  decline  in  rail- 
road traveling  during  holidays  owing  to 
the  higH  fares. 

On  June  8  King  George  visited  Mill- 
bank  Hospital  and  decorated  Major  Gen. 
Gorgas  of  the  American  Medical  Service 


with  the  Order  of  St.  Michael  and  St. 
George  in  recognition  of  his  services  to 
the  British  Empire  and  the  rest  of  the 
world.  It  was  announced  on  the  9th 
that  Viscount  Rothermere,  former  Sec- 
retary of  State  for  Air  Forces,  had  en- 
dowed a  professorship  of  United  States 
History  at  Oxford  University  with  £20,- 
000  in  memory  of  his  son  killed  in  the 
war.  A  return  to  the  normal  State  so- 
cial functions  was  marked  on  June  10, 
when  the  King  and  Queen  held  a  brill- 
iant court  at  Buckingham  Palace,  which 
was  attended  by  the  American  Ambas- 
sador and  the  staff  of  the  American  dip- 
lomatic body. 

The  unostentatious  arrival  in  London 
of  Gregory  Krassin,  the  Russian  Bol- 
shevist Minister  of  Trade  and  Commerce, 
was  announced  on  May  27.  M.  Krassin 
was  accompanied  by  M.  Klisko  and  a 
staff  of  secretaries.  The  mission  took 
up  its  residence  in  a  quiet  hotel  fre- 
quented chiefly  by  business  men  from 
the  provinces.  Vigorous  opposition  to 
the  presence  and  presumed  objects  of 
the  mission  was  promptly  forthcoming 
from  a  section  of  the  press  and  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  On  May  31  a  pre- 
liminary meeting  took  place  between 
members  of  the  British  Cabinet  and  MM. 
Krassin  and  Klisko  in  Downing  Street. 
A  period  of  exchanges  of  views  between 
the  Russian  Mission  and  the  British 
Government  ensued.  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
stated  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  June 
3,  in  response  to  a  flood  of  questions, 
that  it  was  irrelevant  to  contend  against 
trading  with  a  misgoverned  country  such 
as  Russia,  since  there  was  the  absolute 
need  of  Russia  in  the  world's  reconstruc- 
tion; but  this  did  not  imply  consenting 
to  recognition  or  to  diplomatic  relations, 
unless  the  Soviet  Government  adopted 
civilized  methods.  He  appealed  to  the 
House  not  to  seek  quarrels  in  a  world 
full  of  explosive  matter,  and  provoked 
hearty  laughter  when  he  said:  "This 
country  has  opened  up  most  of  the  can- 
nibal trade  of  the  world.  It  is  a  new 
doctrine  that  you  must  approve  the 
habits  and  customs  of  any  Government 
before  trading."  On  June  15  the  nego- 
tiations were  still  in  progress  without 
having  reached  any  definite  decision. 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 

_ — _ ^ 

TWO  FUNERALS:    A  TRAGIC  CONTRAST 


597 


I 


ROYAL    IRISH    CONSTABULARY    FOLLOWING   THE   BODY   OF   THEIR   COMRADE,    SERGEANT 

BRADY,    WHO    DIED    OF   WOUNDS    RECEIVED    WHEN    A    DUBLIN    COUNTY    BARRACK    WAS 

ATTACKED.       THE    STREET    IS    EMPTY    OF    INHABITANTS 


FUNERAL  OF  FRANCIS   GLEESON,   A  YOUNG  SINN  FEINER  WHO   DIED  AFTER  A  HUNGER 

STRIKE    IN    A    DUBLIN    PBISON.      THE    STREET    IS    THRONGED    WITH    SPECTATORS 

(Photos    Underwood    &    Underwood) 


IRELAND 

It  was  conceded  on  all  sides  that  the 
crisis  in  Ireland  continued  to  grow  more 
intense  from  week  to  week,  and  that 
over  a  considerable  area  of  the  country 
a  condition  of  anarchy  was  rapidly  ap- 
proaching. The  whole  machinery  of 
British  law  was  openly  set  at  defiance 
by  the  Sinn  Fein  organization,  and  few 
were  able  to  resist  an  influence  which 
visited  severe  retribution  upon  those 
who  refused  to  obey  its  decrees. 

The  popular  strength  of  the  organiza- 
tion was  manifested  in  the  regular  func- 
tioning of  its  land  courts,  conducted  in 
a  dignified,  business-like  manner,  and 
the  willingness  of  the  people  to  abide 
by  such  decisions.  For  the  punishment 
of  convicted  offenders  the  Sinn  Feiners 
even  appropriated  a  small,  uninhabited 


island  three  miles  off  the  Galway  coast, 
which  was  turned  into  a  sort  of  penal 
settlement.  Culprits  were  simply  ma- 
rooned there  with  enough  food  to  keep 
them  alive  until  the  boat  returned  to 
take  them  away.  The  defect  of  the 
place  as  a  penitentiary,  however,  seemed 
to  be  that  only  prisoners  who  could  not 
swim  to  the  mainland  were  compelled  to 
wait  for  their  release. 

On  the  other  hand  Sinn  Fein  warfare 
against  British  rule  attained  such  pro- 
portions in  attacks  upon  the  police  and 
authorities,  that,  following  the  murder 
of  Resident  Magistrate  Beil  in  Dublin,  a 
number  of  high  Irish  officials  abandoned 
their  homes  and,  for  safety,  took  up 
their  residence  in  Dublin  Castle.  There 
not  a  single  officer  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment dared  show  his  face  outside  the 
walls  day  or  night  without  an  armed  es- 


)98 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


cort.  The  situation  was  described  as 
"  without  parallel  in  the  world,  and  cer- 
tainly not  equaled  in  Europe." 

At  this  pass  the  British  Government 
decided  to  send  an  army  of  occupation 
into  Ireland,  estimated  to  exceed  80,000 
of  all  arms.  These  troops  were  poured 
into  the  country  from  May  15  onward. 
While  a  special  camp  was  established  to 
receive  them  at  the  Curragh,  cavalry 
regiments  were  rushed  to  take  up  stra- 
tegic positions  in  the  South  and  West. 
At  the  same  time  hundreds  of  dis- 
charged English  and  Scottish  soldiers 
were  recruited  to  strengthen  the  ranks 
of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  a  force 
daily  becoming  more  frankly  military  in 
character. 

Coincident  with  this  move,  a  new 
force  of  disorder  came  to  the  front  in 
the  activity  of  the  extreme  radical  and 
Bolshevist  elements  of  Irish  labor.  Thus 
a  labor  decree  against  the  export  of 
Irish  foodstuffs,  until  prices  were  re- 
duced and  ample  supplies  for  home  con- 
sumption thereby  secured,  was  crowned 
with  almost  immediate  success  by  the 
capitulation  of  the  pig  and  bacon  trade. 
This  action  was  followed  on  May  20  by 
a  refusal  to  unload  munition  supplies  ar- 
riving in  Dublin  for  the  British  Army, 
and,  on  May  24,  by  the  threat  of  a  gen- 
eral strike  among  the  railwaymen  if 
compelled  to  transport  military  stores. 
The  next  day  members  of  the  National 
Union  of  Railwaymen  put  the  threat 
into  effect  by  paralyzing  traffic  at  the 
North  Wall  Station.  Simultaneously 
workers  in  the  power  stations  which 
supplied  electric  current  to  the  giant 
cranes  on  the  wharves  followed  suit,  and 
the  discharge  of  munitions  from  vessels 
was  brought  to  a  standstill.  This  re- 
sulted in  the  holding  up  of  several 
steamers  in  Dublin  Bay,  and  in  compel- 
ling others  to  return  to  English  ports 
with  cargoes  partly  unloaded. 

On  May  28  the  House  Foreign  Affairs 
Committee  in  Washington,  by  a  vote  of 
11  to  7,  reported  favorably  a  resolution 
of  sympathy  with  the  Irish  people  and 
expressed  the  hope  that  they  would  ob- 
tain the  Government  of  their  choice.  The 
resolution  read: 

Whereas,    The    people    of   Ireland    have 


always  sympathized  with  the  aspira- 
tions of  every  people  seeking  political 
freedom ;     and 

Whereas,  The  people  of  Ireland  have 
shown  unmistakably  their  desire  to 
govern    themselves ;    and 

Whereas,  The  conditions  in  Ireland 
today  consequent  upon  the  denial  of 
that  right  endanger  world  peace;  and 

Wherefvs,  In  particular  the  unrest 
caused  by  these  conditions  is  inevitably 
reflected  in  these  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, tending  to  weaken  the  bonds  of  unity 
and  the  ancient  ties  of  kinship  which  bind 
so  many  of  our  people  to  the  people  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland :  Therefore,  in 
the  interest  of  world  peace  and  of  inter- 
national good-will,   be   it 

Resolved,  by  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives (the  Senate  concurring),  That  the 
House  of  Representatives  views  with  con- 
cern and  solicitude  these  conditions  and 
expresses  its  sympathy  with  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  Irish  people  for  a  Govern- 
ment of   their  own  choice. 

Irish  election  returns  of  June  4  stated 
that  the  Sinn  Feiners  had  swept  the 
board  in  the  County  Councils  of  Mun- 
ster,  Leinster,  and  Connaught  and  had 
captured  two  Carsonite  strongholds  in 
the  Ulster  Counties  of  Fermanagh  and 
Tyrone.  These  latter,  however,  would 
have  normally  stood  for  home  rule  but 
for  the  system  of  voting  v/hich  gave 
them  to  the  Orange  Party. 

Meanwhile  armed  assaults  and  burn- 
ing of  police  barracks,  raiding  of  coun- 
try estates  and  attacks  upon  the  mili- 
tary increased  in  number  and  daring 
practically  throughout  the  country. 
While  these  breaches  of  the  law  were 
too  numerous  to  give  in  detail,  two  in- 
stances of  well-executed  attack  at  least 
display  the  helplessness  of  the  authorities 
in  the  face  of  a  widespread  revolt. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  June  4  a 
party  of  sixty  armed  and  undisguised 
Sinn  Feiners  surprised  a  military  de- 
tachment at  the  King's  Inn  in  Henrietta 
Street,  Dublin.  After  relieving  the 
sentry  of  his  rifle,  the  raiders  rushed 
within  and  herded  the  guard,  who  were 
off  duty  and  amusing  themselves,  into 
a  comer  at  the  points  of  revolvers.  The 
raiders  then  carried  off  thirty  rifles  and 
several  thousand  rounds  of  ammunition 
in  waiting  automobiles.  Again,  on  June 
6,  a  military  and  police  patrol  of  twelve 
fully  armed  men  was  trapped  and  dis- 
armed  by   a   company  of   Sinn   Feiners, 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLBIM^ 


599 


who  had  pretended  to  be  playing  bowls 
by  the  roadside.  Of  mansions  destroyed, 
Oak  Grove  House  in  mid-Cork,  Glena- 
hiry  Lodge  in  County  Waterford,  and 
the  magnificent  residence  of  Captain 
Smith  at  Churchtown,  County  Meath, 
were  specially  mentioned  as  containing 
objects  of  value. 

Following  a  resolution  of  the  British 
Miners'  Federation  in  opposition  to  Gov- 
ernment policies  in  Ireland  on  June  10, 
a  manifesto  was  issued  by  the  Irish 
Labor  Party  and  Trade  Union  Congress 
pledging  support  for  the  Dublin  railway 
men  and  dockers  in  their  refusal  to 
handle  munitions  for  the  British  army 
of  occupation.  In  part  the  manifesto 
read : 

Not  all  the  armies  in  the  empire  will 
compel  us  to  become  traitors  to  our  own 
nation.  "We  will  not  shrink  from  the  con- 
sequences of  that  view,  although  the 
whole  question  of  the  Commonwealth  be 
convulsed. 

A  general  boycott  against  the  Irish 
constabulary  was  proclaimed  throughout 
County  Leitrim  on  June  13  by  the 
"Irish  Republican  Army,"  situated  in 
Northern  Roscommon.  Enforcement  of 
the  order  stopped  supplies  of  food,  milk 
and  other  necessaries  to  the  police  and 
their  wives  and  children. 

The  British  Government  gave  warning 
in  the  House  of  Commons  on  June  15 
that  it  had  every  intention  of  trying  to 
pass  the  Home  Rule  bill  at  an  early  date, 
and,  in  case  it  became  a  law,  to  set  up 
the  Ulster  Parliament  forthwith.  If  the 
south  of  Ireland  refused  to  organize  its 
Parliament,  the  powers  of  that  body 
would  be  taken  over  by  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant and  a  committee  of  privy  coun- 
selors. 

CANADA 

In  his  first  budget  since  his  appoint- 
ment as  Minister  of  Finance  Sir  Henry 
Drayton  announced  a  number  of  special 
taxes  as  a  result  of  which  it  was  ex- 
pected that  at  least  $70,000,000  would 
be  added  to  the  revenues,  though  some 
Government  members  are  hopeful  that 
the  amount  will  reach  $100,000,000.  Re- 
nunciation of  national  borrowing  and  a 
determination  that  Canada  should  pay 
its  way  were  the  chief  reasons  advanced 


for  the  new  taxes.  The  removal  of  the 
IVz  per  cent,  extra  war  customs  duty  on 
a  number  of  specified  articles,  an  in- 
crease in  the  exemptions  of  7  to  10  per 
cent,  under  the  business  profits  tax,  and 
the  repeal  of  the  duty  on  moving-picture 
films  were  all  far  more  than  offset  by 
the  new  imposts.  The  tax  that  has  since 
come  to  be  popularly  known  as  the 
"  luxury  tax  "  is  the  one  felt  by  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people,  and  the  popular 
clamor  against  it  since  it  went  into  ef- 
fect on  May  19  resulted  in  the  Minister 
of  Finance  announcing  on  June  8  that 
sweeping  modifications  would  be  made. 
At  this  writing  these  have  not  become 
effective  and  taxes  are  being  imposed 
and  collected  on  the  May  budget  basis. 

As  originally  introduced  the  luxur^i 
tax  ranges  from  10  to  50  per  cent,  of  the 
selling  prices  of  goods,  whether  imported 
or  manufactured  in  Canada,  where  those 
prices  exceed  amounts  specified  in  the 
budget  schedules.  These  goods  include 
textiles,  boots  and  shoes,  articles  made 
of  gold  or  silver,  and  sporting  goods. 
The  basis  of  the  tax  is  the  whole  cost 
of  the  article.  Boots  and  shoes  costing 
more  than  $9  a  pair,  suits  and  dresses 
costing  more  than  $45,  pay  10  per  cent, 
on  the  whole  selling  price,  the  purchaser 
paying  the  tax.  Thus  one  buying  a  $12 
pair  of  shoes  pays  $1.20,  while  the  pur- 
chaser of  a  $46  suit  or  dress  pays  $4.60 
in  addition  to  the  selling  price.  The  reg- 
ulations prevent  the  purchase  of  suitings 
in  separate  garments  at  different  pe- 
riods with  the  idea  of  evading  the  tax. 

The  principal  argument  in  opposition 
to  this  portion  of  the  new  taxation 
schemes  was  that  it  imposed  a  new  and 
heavy  burden  on  the  buyer  of  necessities. 
It  was  urged' that  it  should  be  based  on 
the  principle  of  the  United  States  luxury 
tax,  the  tax  being  paid  on  the  cost  of 
goods  above  a  certain  limit.  This  is  ad- 
mitted in  the  modified  proposals,  which 
will  undoubtedly  have  become  law  by 
the  time  this  is  in  print.  The  tax  is 
raised  to  15  per  cent,  and  will  be  on  the 
excess  retail  cost  above  the  limiting 
prices  named  in  the  schedule.  Limiting 
prices  are  also  set  on  sporting  goods, 
under  which  no  tax  will  be  imposed,  in- 
stead   of    the    original    plan    of    taxing 


600 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


everything  in  that  line  which  sold  for 
more  than  50  cents. 

No  ciiange  is  announced  as  contem- 
plated in  the  1  per  cent,  tax  on  all  sales 
of  manufacturers,  wholesalers,  import- 
ers, jobbers  and  agents;  this  tax  applies 
to  everything  except  specified  articles  of 
food  for  man  and  beast,  and  coal.  In 
practice  it  has  been  found  that  this  tax 
leads  to  pyramiding;  the  manufacturer, 
wholesaler,  jobber  and  retailer  all  have 
to  meet  in  turn,  with  the  result  that 
from  1  to  5  per  cent,  is  added  to  the 
cost  for  the  consumer.  Nor  does  any 
change  appear  to  be  pending  in  the 
heavy  excise  tax  on  spirituous  liquors, 
the  2-cent  tax  on  every  share  of  stock 
transferred,  and  an  addition  of  5  per 
cent,  to  the  previous  taxes  on  incomes  in 
excess  of  $5,000.  These  and  certain 
other  taxes,  including  15  per  cent,  on 
costly  furniture  and  china,  are  apparent- 
ly to  stand. 

The  Dominion  Government  has  also  in- 
troduced legislation  for  the  supervision 
of  race  track  betting  by  Government  in- 
spectors, the  fixing  of  the  amount  of 
profits  that  the  various  associations  or 
clubs  shall  take  from  the  betting  allowed 
through  the  pari-mutuels,  no  other  form 
of  betting  being  permitted,  and  the  fix- 
ing of  a  percentage  of  profits  to  go  into 
purses  for  the  various  races.  The  bet- 
ting profits  are  to  be  7  per  cent,  where 
the  amount  bet  on  a  race  is  under 
$20,000,  6  per  cent,  on  amounts  over 
$20,000  and  under  $30,000,  and  so  on  to 
3  per  cent,  on  any  amount  over  $50,000 
bet  on  a  race.  The  bill  has  passed 
through  most  of  its  stages. 

AUSTRALIA 

W.  A.  Watt,  Treasurer  of  the  Austra- 
lian Commonwealth,  has  been  in  England 
endeavoring  to  arrange  a  loan,  provided 
the  money  could  be  borrowed  abroad 
more  cheaply  than  in  Australia.  He  was 
also  to  represent  Australia  at  the  Brus- 
sels Financial  Congress.  One  lesson  of 
the  war,  he  declared,  was  that  the  work- 
er was  out  for  a  larger  share  of  the 
product  of  his  labor,  and  he  thought 
Parliaments  and  Governments  in  every 
country  would  be  wise  to  give  it.  The 
Australian  public,  he  said,  does  not  want 


German  goods  or  German  trade,  and  in- 
tends to  keep  them  out. 

Australia  is  about  to  go  into  the  oil 
business,  and  in  partnership  with  the 
Anglo-Persian  Oil  Company  to  form  a 
refining  enterprise,  a  bill  to  that  effect 
having  passed  both  Houses.  A  large 
body  of  oil  shale  east  of  the  Kalgoorlie 
gold  fields  in  Western  Australia  has 
just  been  discovered. 

The  wheat  crop  in  New  South  Wales 
has  been  disastrously  affected  by 
drought,  and  it  is  estimated  that  the 
yield  will  be  only  4,296,000  bushels,  the 
smallest  amount  in  twenty  years,  and 
not  enough  for  domestic  consumption. 
Meanwhile,  the  shortage  of  houses  in 
all  the  Australian  States  is  increasing, 
and  the  girls  of  Melbourne  say  it  is 
easier  to  get  a  husband  than  a  house. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  has  been  enjoy- 
ing his  trip  to  Australia,  taking  part  in 
a  review  at  Melbourne  of  the  Australian 
naval  seamen  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Jutland,  May  31.  He  arrived 
in  Melbourne  on  May  26  and  was  due 
at  Sydney  on  June  16. 

NEW  ZEALAND 

The  New  Zealanders  are  as  strongly 
opposed  as  the  Australians  and  South 
Africans  to  giving  Asiatics  any  oppor- 
tunities for  colonization.  The  Prime 
Minister  of  New  Zealand  is  especially 
anxious  that  no  alien  race  be  established 
in  the  islands  in  the  South  Pacific.  He 
hinted  that  the  recent  strike  in  Fiji  had 
much  more  behind  it  than  an  industrial 
disturbance.  To  the  Wellington  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce,  he  declared:  "Look 
at  what  has  happened  in  Hawaii.  There 
are  60,000  Japanese  there,  and  all  the 
power  of  the  United  States  cannot  get 
them  out.  They  are  practically  going  to 
run  the  Sandwich  group." 

The  Rev-  R.  Piper,  a  representative  of 
the  Pacific  islands  at  the  Methodist  Con- 
ference in  Brisbane,  Australia,  v/as  pessi- 
mistic as  to  the  future  of  the  islands, 
considering  their  orientalization  to  be 
inevitable  and  merely  a  matter  of  time. 

INDIA 

The  terms  of  the  Turkish  peace  treaty 
were  published  in  India  toward  the  mid- 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


601 


die  of  May.  They  aroused  resentment 
among  all  classes  of  Indian  Moslems, 
which  whom  many  Hindus  sympathized. 
The  feeling  expressed  was  that  in  re- 
gard to  Thrace  and  Smyrna  there  had 
been  a  breach  of  the  Prime  Minister's 
pledge,  and  that  the  Moslems  would  not 
have  taken  the  active  part  they  did  in 
the  war  if  they  had  known  that  the 
Holy  Places  of  the  Moslem  world  would 
pass  under  a  different  rule. 

A  conservative  tendency,  however,  was 
visible.  One  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
■Caliphate  Committee  resigned  on  the 
■  ground  that  non-co-operation  with  the 
Government  would  be  fatal  to  the  Mos- 
lem community.  Two  members  resigned 
in  protest,  but  Mr.  Gandhi  deprecated 
all  such  resignations  until  the  formal 
protest  against  the  treaty  was  pre- 
sented. A  threatened  emigration  to 
Afghanistan  did  not  develop,  and  the 
tendency  was  to  await  the  calling  of  for- 
mal conferences.  The  Nizam  of  Hydera- 
bad issued  orders  prohibiting  Caliphate 
demonstrations  as  useless  and  preju- 
dicial. The  Madras  Nationalists  were 
dissociating  themselves  from  the  move- 
ment against  co-operation.  The  indus- 
trial situation  showed  uneasiness,  es- 
pecially among  railway  workers. 

BRITISH  AFRICA 
EGYPT — The  report  of  Lord  Milner's 
mission  in  Egypt  was  still  being  awaited 
in  June,  and  the  Nationalists  were  busily 
engaged  in  a  press  campaign  against 
British  rule.  General  Sir  Owen  Thomas, 
a  member  of  the  mission,  who  went  to 
Egypt  with  a  strong  feeling  that  if  the 
whole  or  a  large  majority  of  the  people 
desired  independence  they  ought  to  have 
it,  explained  that  the  mission  was  prac- 
tically kept  from  learning  the  views  of 
the  manual  workers  and  fellaheen,  or 
peasants,  who  number  more  than  12,000,- 
000  of  a  population  of  13,000,000. 

He  thought  if  the  economic  problem 
were  solved  the  political  problem  would 
be  greatly  simplified.  The  substitution 
of  cotton  for  cereals  was  bringing  the 
hunger  spectre  perilously  near.  It  pays 
financially  better  to  grow  cotton  than 
corn,  and  anything  from  £500  to  £1,000 
an  acre  could  be  got  for  land  on  which 


to  grow  cotton.  But  people  cannot  eat 
either  cotton  or  bank  notes,  and  the  cost 
of  living  in  Egypt  rose  from  250  to  400 
per  cent.  As  the  bulk  of  the  laboring 
population  are  employed  in  agriculture 
the  question  of  land  occupation  becomes 
most  important.  Sir  Owen  Thomas  says 
in  Lower  Egypt  36  per  cent.,  in  Middle 
Egypt  53  per  cent.,  and  in  Upper  Egypt 
40  per  cent,  have  no  land.  Nearly  1,- 
500,000  families  have  no  land,  although 
there  are  large  areas  of  unclaimed  land 
lying  idle.  "  While  so  many  families  re- 
main landless,"  he  declared,  "  so  long 
will  discontent  remain  and  spread." 

At  the  same  time  Sir  Valentine  Chirol, 
a  well-known  authority  on  Eastern  af- 
fairs, points  out  another  cause  of  dis- 
content in  the  recognition  of  the  infant 
son  of  Sultan  Fuad  as  heir  to  the  Egyp- 
tian Sultanate.  This,  he  said,  will  be  in- 
terpreted as  identifying  the  British  pro- 
tectorate more  closely  than  ever  with  a 
ruler  "  of  whose  unpopularity  with  all 
classes  and  parties  we  have  to  bear  the 
burden  as  we  chose  him  and  imposed 
him  upon  the  people  of  Egypt."  His  au- 
thority is  defied  by  the  University  of  El 
Azhar,  the  great  Mohommedan  institu- 
tion, and  the  Princes  of  his  own  family, 
who  boldly  indorsed  the  Nationalist  pro- 
gram. 

Zaglul  Pasha,  head  of  the  Egyptian 
delegation  in  Paris,  late  in  May  tele- 
graphed to  Suleiman  Pasha  in  Cairo  that 
the  Milner  mission  had  invited  the  dele- 
gation to  go  to  London  to  discuss  prin- 
ciples sei-ving  as  a  basis  for  an  accord 
between  Egypt  and  Britain.  The  delega- 
tion in  reply  selected  Mahmud  Pasha, 
Aziz  Fahmi  Bey  and  Ali  Maher  Bey  to 
go  to  London  and  "  ascertain  the  inten- 
tions of  Great  Britain  in  regard  to  Egyp- 
tian aspirations  relative  to  complete  in- 
dependence." 

The  Ministry  formed  by  Wahba  Pasha 
in  the  parlous  times  of  last  Autumn, 
when  that  aged  Egyptian  statesman 
stepped  into  the  breach  caused  by  the 
resignation  of  Said  Pasha,  went  out  of 
office  on  May  18  and  four  days  later  a 
new  Ministry  was  formed,  as  follows: 

Tewfik  Nessim   Pasha 

Prime  Minister  and  Interior 
Ahmed  Ziwar  Pasha Commrmications 


602 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Ahmed   Zulfikar   Pasha Justice 

Hussein   Darwish   Pasha 

Wakfs  (Pious  Foundation) 
Mohamed    Shafik   Pasha 

Public  Works,   War  and  Marine 

Yusef  Suleiman   Bey Agriculture 

Tewfik  Rifaat  Pasha Education 

Mahmud   Fakhry   Pasha Finance 

The  new  Prime  Minister,  who  is  one  of 
the  younger  school  with  Cromer  and 
Kitchener  for  tutor,  is  about  45  years 
old,  and  had  a  brilliant  career  in  the 
courts,  where  he  prosecuted  in  many  po- 
litical trials  at  a  time  when  anti-British 
feeling  was  running  high.  He  first  at- 
tained Cabinet  rank  a  year  ago.  On 
June  12  an  attempt  was  made  to  assassi- 
nate him  by  means  of  a  bomb — part  of 
the  Nationalist  plot  for  the  removal  of 
high  native  officials  in  the  British  pro- 
tectorate. He  escaped  unharmed,  but 
three  persons  were  wounded,  and  the 
bomb  thrower  was  arrested. 

Newcomers  to  the  Ministry  are  Mah- 
mud Fakhry  Pasha,  Governor  of  Cairo 
and  son-in-law  of  the  Sultan;  Tewfik 
Rifaat  Pasha,  former  Procureur  General, 
and  Yusef  Suleiman  Bey,  a  well-known 
Coptic  Judge  of  the  native  courts. 

UGANDA — A  tragic  episode  in  the 
history  of  Uganda  was  commemorated  at 
Rome  on  June  6  when  the  ceremony  of 
the  beatification  of  twenty-two  negroes 
who  died,  martyrs  for  the  faith  under 
King  Mwanga,  was  celebrated  with  great 
pomp  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter's.  Car- 
dinals, Bishops  and  missionary  priests 
worn  by  their  labors  in  torrid  climates 
rceived  the  announcement  from  Pope 
Benedict  and  in  his  company  venerated 
the  pictures  and  relics  of  these  humble 
saints.  The  twenty-two  negroes  were 
catechumens  of  the  French  White  Fathers 
who  entered  Uganda  in  1878  by  permis- 
sion of  King  Mtesa.  Two  years  later 
the  Arabs  induced  the  King  to  expel  the 
missionaries,  but  they  returned  in  1885 
under  King  Mwanga,  who  was  also  per- 
suaded by  the  Arabs  to  turn  against  the 
missionaries  and  their  converts.  In  May, 
1886,  about  thirty  converts,  including 
Joseph  Mkasa,  chief  of  the  royal  pages, 
were  burned  alive,  £^nd  soon  afterward 
seventy  more  died  for  their  religion.  The 
Arab  Mohammedans,  who  were  more 
powerful  than  the  King,  expelled  the  mis- 


sionaries because  the  leader.  Father 
Lourdel,  was  loyal  to  Mwanga.  There 
were  constant  fights  between  the  dif- 
ferent chiefs  until  the  British  finally 
took  over  the  country  and  declared  a 
protectorate,  transporting  King  Mwanga 
to  the  Seychelles  Islands,  where  he  died 
in  1903. 

BRITISH  EAST  AFRICA— Although 
80  per  cent,  of  the  trade  and  commerce 
of  the  British  East  Africa  protectorate 
is  carried  on  by  Indians,  who  number 
about  25,000,  as  against  5,000  Europeans 
and  Eurasians  and  a  native  African 
population  of  more  than  4,000,000,  the 
Indians  are  denied  the  franchise  and 
have  no  representation  in  the  Legislature. 
They  are  denied  trial  by  jury  and  are 
not  allowed  to  own  land.  The  Legisla- 
tive Council,  inaugurated  in  1909,  passed 
a  series  of  measures  directed  against 
Indians,  the  last  in  1919,  which  conferred 
the  franchise  upon  Europeans  but  with- 
held it  from  men  born  in  India.  In  the 
Nairobi  municipal  area  Indians  number 
6,000,  against  2,000  Europeans,  and  pay 
more  than  half  the  taxes,  yet  they  are 
allowed  only  two  seats  by  nomination 
(which  they  have  refused  to  take)  against 
fifteen  elected  members  representing  the 
Europeans.  When  Crown  lands  are  for 
sale  it  is  made  a  condition  that  only 
British  subjects  of  European  origin  may 
bid.  These  and  other  grievances  have 
been  laid  before  the  British  public  by 
A.  M.  Jeevanjie,  head  of  a  big  firm  of 
ship  owners,  merchants  and  contractors 
of  Karachi  and  Bombay. 

SOUTH  AFRICA  —  General  Smuts's 
position  as  Premier  of  South  Africa  was 
considerably  strengthened  by  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Profiteering  bill,  62  votes  to 
40,  the  minority  consisting  solely  of  Na- 
tionalists, the  Labor  men  refusing  to 
lend  themselves  to  Nationalist  tactics. 
Next  General  Smuts  brought  forward  a 
native  affairs  bill,  in  which  he  urged  the 
establishment  of  native  councils  with  the 
idea  of  building  up  self-governing  insti- 
tutions parallel  to  those  in  Europe. 

"  We  are  making  a  great  experiment," 
General  Smuts  said  in  a  published  inter- 
view. "  We  are  trying  to  make  black 
and   white    live   together   in   peace   and 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS 


603 


work  out  a  civilization  which  does  justice 
to  both." 

General  Smuts  advocates  the  establish- 
ment of  equal  status  under  the  crown  be- 
tween the  Governments  of  the  dominions 
and  United  Kingdom.  The  matter  will 
come  up  before  the  Imperial  Constitu- 
tional Conference  next  year. 

An  impressive  ceremony  was  that  of 
the  burial  of  Sir  Starr  Jameson  at 
World's  View,  near  Bulawayo,  on  May 
22.  A  great  company  of  South  Africans 
and  Rhodesians  attended  the  funeral  of 
the  famous  "  Dr.  Jim,"  who  by  his  inva- 
sion of  the  Transvaal  on  Dec.  29,  1895, 
brought  the  South  African  question  to 
the  front  and  obtained  for  the  leader  a 
sentence  of  fifteen  months'  imprisonment 
in  England.  Despite  the  censure  of  the 
House  of  Commons  on  Jameson,  Cecil 
Rhodes  and  Alfred  Beit,  fate  dealt  kindly 
with  Jameson,  and  he  returned  to  be- 
come Premier  and  founder  of  Britain's 
African  empire,  many  of  whose  authori- 
ties attended  the  last  rites  amid  rocky 
solitudes. 


FRENCH  AFRICA 

SENEGAL — By  bringing  native  troops 
from  Africa,  France  may  have  kindled 
national  aspirations  similar  to  those 
shared  by  Britain's  Indian  troops.  A 
brigade  of  Senegalese  black  soldiers  who 
took  part  in  the  French  occupation  of 
Frankfort  on  arriving  at  Marseilles  re- 
fused to  embark  for  military  duty  in 
Syria.  They  had  been  quartered  in  two 
camps  where  there  were  other  negro 
troops  from  Senegal  on  their  way  home 
to  be  demobilized.  When  they  were  lined 
up  and  the  order  was  given  to  shoulder 
their  knapsacks  for  embarkation  the  men 
folded  their  arms  and  did  not  move. 
When  the  order  was  repeated  they  broke 
ranks  and  scattered.  The  officers  re- 
ported the  situation  to  Paris.  The  men 
salute  their  officers  and  obey  all  orders 
except  the  one  to  go  to  Asia  Minor. 
They  say  they  want  to  go  home. 

CONGO — M.  Victor  Augagneur,  for- 
merly Minister  of  Marine  and  at  one 
time  Governor  General  of  Madagascar, 
has  been  appointed  Governor  General  of 
Equatorial  Africa. 


The  Latin  Nations  of  Europe 

Failure  of  the  General  Strike  in  France — Another  Change  of 
Government    in  Italy 


FRANCE 

THE  general  strike  begun  early  in 
May  in  defiance  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment came  to  a  sudden  end  on 
May  21,  when  95  per  cent,  of  the  strik- 
ing workmen  in  various  branches  of  in- 
dustry returned  to  work  at  the  order  of 
the  General  Confederation  of  Labor.  The 
breaking  of  this  general  strike,  which 
threatened  the  very  existence  of  the 
French  Government,  was  due  to  the 
drastic  and  determined  action  of  the 
Millerand  Ministry  in  ordering  the  disso- 
lution on  May  11  of  the  confederation 
and  arresting  the  strike  leaders  and  or- 
ganizers. The  surrender  of  that  powerful 
labor  organization  marked  the  passing  of 
a  crisis.  Though  the  railway  union  re- 
fused to  call  off  the  strike,  nine-tenths 
of  the  railway  workers  returned  to  work. 


In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  May  21 
M.  Millerand,  the  Premier,  following  a 
three  days'  debate  on  the  strike,  justi- 
fied the  Government's  action  by  declar- 
ing that  the  object  of  the  confederation 
in  demanding  nationalization  was  purely 
revolutionary  in  character.  He  pointed 
out  that,  though  the  confederation  under 
the  law  of  1884  was  organized  only  to 
secure  better  conditions  for  the  work- 
ers, no  question  of  shorter,  hours  or  bet- 
ter wages  was  involved  in  the  strike 
just  ended,  and  that  the  confederation 
had  endeavored  to  assume  the  position 
of  a  dictator  to  the  Government  in  de- 
fiance of  the  wishes  of  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  workers  and  of  the  interests 
of  the  nation  itself.  Meanwhile  some 
1,000  of  the  radical  strike  leaders  re- 
mained in  jail;  a  number  of  these  were 


604 


THE  NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


pro-Soviet  agitators.  A  large  number 
of  documents  seized  by  the  police  showed 
the  existence  of  a  well-organized  plot  to 
overthrow  the  Government  and  substi- 
tute a  Soviet  rule,  financed  from  Mos- 
cow via  Amsterdam  and  otherwise. 
Revolution,  said  M.  Millerand  plainly, 
was  aimed  at,  while  the  enemies  of  the 
republic  waited  without. 

Debate  on  the  new  taxation  bill  voted 
by  the  Chamber  continued  on  May  22. 
M.  Marsal,  the  Finance  Minister,  pointed 
out  the  seriousness  of  the  financial  sit- 
uation of  France  and  emphasized  the 
need  of  covering  the  nation's  enormous 
outlays.  Beyond  the  sums  raised  by  the 
taxes  in  operation  there  was  a  large 
deficit  which  could  be  met  only  by  the 
new  taxes  to  be  imposed.  The  burden 
of  these  new  taxes,  he  admitted,  was 
heavy,  but  not  beyond  the  power  of  the 
French  taxpayers.  With  these  taxes 
France  would  be  able  to  meet  both  her 
war  and  peace  costs.  As  for  the  vast 
sums  needed  to  restore  the  devastated 
regions  and  the  willful  damage  done  by 
Germany,  these,  said  M.  Marsal,  must 
be  met  by  Germany  alone. 

M.  Millerand  on  May  29  appeared  be- 
fore the  Chamber  and  asked  for  a  vote 
of  confidence  on  his  agreement  with  the 
other  allied  Premiers  to  exact  from  Ger- 
many a  lump  sum  for  reparations,  which 
all  should  unite  in  collecting.  No  total, 
he  explained,  had  yet  been  fixed  pending 
the  holding  of  the  conference  with  Ger- 
many's representatives  at  Spa,  though  at 
the  Hythe  discussions  he  had  asked  for 
a  total  of  200,000,000  francs.  He  set 
forth  in  detail  the  arguments  in  favor  of 
accepting  such  a  lump  sum,  for  which 
a  scheme  for  negotiating  German  bonds 
in  payment  was  being  arranged,  and 
asked  for  the  Chamber's  approval.  This 
he  secured  by  a  vote  of  five-sixths  of  all 
the  Deputies  present.  On  the  same  day 
ex-President  Poincare,  in  his  political 
article  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes, 
explained  his  resignation  as  head  of  the 
Reparations  Committee  on  the  ground 
that  France  was  yielding  to  England's 
and  Italy's  desire  of  making  the  peace 
tolerable  for  Germany;  this  tendency  he 
attacked  most  earnestly,  expressing  the 
fear  that  France  would  be  led  to  "  sell 


for  a  mess  of  pottage  her  most  sacred 
rights." 

Of  the  seven  traitors  who  were  con- 
demned on  July  28,  1919,  to  be  shot  as 
proved  workers  in  the  pay  of  the  Ger- 
man Gazette  des  Ardennes,  four — three 
men  and  one  woman — were  executed  on 
May  16  in  the  grove  surrounding  the 
prison  of  Vincennes  in  the  outskirts  of 
Paris.  Those  shot  were  Mme.  Aubert, 
and  the  three  men,  Toque,  Lemoine 
and  Herbert.  President  Deschanel,  after 
numerous  appeals  had  been  taken  and 
lost,  refused  to  exercise  his  constitu- 
tional prerogative  of  clemency. 

It  was  announced  officially  on  June  1 
that  the  Government  decision  to  award 
medals  to  mothers  of  large  families  had 
led  to  a  large  number  of  applications. 

All  France  was  thrilled  on  May  24 
by  the  news  that  President  Deschanel, 
while  attempting  to  open  a  window  on 
his  train,  which  was  bearing  him  from 
Paris  on  an  official  visit,  had  fallen 
headlong  upon  the  track  while  the  train 
was  still  in  motion  and  sustained  serious 
bruises  and  undergone  a  great  shock.  A 
trackwalker  on  the  line  met  the  Presi- 
dent walking  barefoot  in  pajamas,  with 
his  hair  in  disorder  and  his  face  covered 
with  blood.  Unwilling  at  first  to  believe 
that  this  was  the  President,  this  man 
telegraphed  on  ahead,  and  the  Presi- 
dential coupe  was  found  to  be  empty.  M. 
Deschanel  was  taken  to  a  hospital  at 
Montargis,  where  it  was  found  that  he 
was  suffering  from  scalp  lacerations  and 
bad  bruises  of  one  leg.  He  returned  to 
Paris  the  following  day.  The  official 
physicians  declared  that  he  was  not 
seriously  injured.  It  was  stated  in  Paris 
on  May  29,  however,  that  his  condition 
was  not  wholly  satisfactory  and  was 
causing  anxiety. 

ITALY 

The  political  situation  in  Italy  has 
dominated  public  interest  for  a  month  as 
it  probably  never  had  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Third  Italy.  Francesco 
Saverio  Nitti  was  called  upon  by  the 
King  on  May  17  to  form  his  third  Minis- 
try. Six  days  later  the  slate  was  ready 
with  the  added  portfolio  of  Labor  and 
Social  Welfare.    Including  himself  it  was 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


G0.5 


made  up  of  five  Liberal  Democrats,  four 
Conservative  Liberals,  two  Catholics, 
three  Radicals  and  one  non-political 
member.  Admiral  Giovanni  Sechi,  with 
the  portfolio  of  the  Navy,  and  possibly 
also  Senator  Vittorio  Scaloja,  who  as 
an  unpronounced  Liberal  Democrat  was 
retained  at  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs. Carlo  Schanzer  was  also  retained, 
changing  his  portfolio  from  that  of  Fi- 
nance to  the  Treasury.  Schanzer  has 
been  called  the  lieutenant  of  Giovanni 
Giolitti,  the  man  who  was  practically 
dictator  of  Italy  from  1903  until,  in  the 
Spring  of  1915,  although  a  year  out  of 
office,  he  lost  both  his  popularity  and 
his  influence  by  attempting  to  have  Italy 
remain  neutral  and  regain  Italia  Irre- 
denta from  Austria-Hungary  through  di- 
plomacy. 

The  Ministry  formed  by  Nitti  resigned 
on  June  9  without  risking  a  vote  in  the 
Chamber,  and  Giollitti  was  called  to  suc- 
ceed him  as  the  "  indispensable  man." 
Nitti's  task,  both  as  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  as  director  of  legislation,  had 
been  rendered  difficult  and  then  impossi- 
ble by  two  factors.  As  Minister  of  the 
Interior  he  had  tried  to  govern  by  de- 
crees which  brought  about  strange 
anomalies  of  policy.  In  Bologna  the  Bol- 
shevist mobs  paraded  unchecked,  but  in 
Rome  a  procession  of  patriotic  students 
was  fired  into  by  the  military  with  fatal 
results;  in  Turin  Socialists  openly 
preached  the  Soviet  doctrine  and  revolu- 
tion by  force,  but  in  Rome  visitors  from 
Fiume  and  Dalmatia  were  sent  to  jail. 
Finally  he  lowered  the  price  of  bread  for 
certain  classes  by  a  Government  subsidy 
and  then  raised  it  again  when  he  found 
that  it  cost  the  Treasury  too  much.  The 
first  decree  antagonized  the  middle  and 
upper  classes;  the  second  aroused  such 
a  storm  among  Socialists  and  Catholics 
alike  that  he  resigned  before  disapproba- 
tion could  be  registered  in  a  parlia- 
mentary way. 

The  second  factor  working  against 
Nitti,  which  really  made  necessary  his 
attempted  administration  by  decrees,  was 
the  heterogeneous  character  of  the 
Chamber.  The  balance  of  power  was  in 
the  hands  of  two  well-organized  parties 
whose   morals   and  programs  were   dia- 


metrically opposed  to  each  other:  The 
Socialist  Party,  which,  making  a  gain  of 
79  Deputies  in  the  November  election, 
held  156  seats,  and  the  Catholic  Popular 
Party,  which  had  elected  101.  The  Lib- 
eral Party,  of  which  Nitti  himself  was 
a  member,  had  lost  157  Deputies  and 
could  only  seat  161  after  the  election,  and 
of  these  Nitti  could  only  count  on  50 
personal  followers,  the  balance  being 
hopelessly  disorganized  by  post-bellum 
questions,  both  foreign  and  internal.  The 
other  factions  which  made  up  the  rest 
of  the  Chamber  at  Montecitorio  with  its 
508  total  seats  represented  persons  rath- 
er than  policies  and  hence  were  more  di- 
vided than  were  the  Liberals. 

Both  after  the  fall  of  the  second  Niti 
Ministry  and  after  the  fall  of  the  third, 
the  King,  whose  democratic  leanings  are 
well  known,  tried  in  vain  to  select  some 
party  leader  or  former  Premier  who,  by 
a  policy  of  compromise  between  the  par- 
ties, might  sustain  a  Government,  at 
least  on  the  economic  reforms  of  which 
the  country  stood  in  sore  need.  He  asked 
Luigi  Meda,  the  Catholic  leader,  but  the 
Freemasons  among  the  Liberals  inti- 
mated that  this  would  be  impossible.  He 
tried  Ivanoe  Bonomi,  the  leader  of  the 
Reformists,  or  those  Socialists  who  had 
broken  away  from  the  pacifists  when 
Italy  entered  the  war,  but  Bonomi  was 
obnoxious  to  the  Catholics  on  account  of 
his  Freemason  connections  and  was  still 
called  a  "  traitor  "  by  the  Socialists.  His 
Majesty  also  summoned  the  former 
Premiers  Salandra,  Orlando  and  Sonnino, 
and  the  ex-Ministers  Luzzatti  and 
Tittoni. 

Each  could  count  on  a  certain  number 
of  followers,  some  on  some  questions, 
some  on  others,  but  not  one  could  count 
on  a  sufficient  number  of  followers  to 
control  the  Socialists  on  all  important 
questions,  and  the  Socialists  would  take 
part  in  no  Ministry  unless  invited  to  take 
entire  control,  which,  if  possible,  would 
have  arrayed  against  their  156  Deputies 
a  concentrated  Opposition  formed  of  all 
the  other  parties  and  factions. 

Both  the  Catholics  and  the  Socialists 
advocated  popular  legislation,  but  nat- 
urally in  very  different  ways.  A  Catho- 
lic leader  with   the  co-operation  of  the 


606 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Liberals,  the  Radicals,  and  the  Reform- 
ists would  have  been  able  to  hold  the 
Socialists  in  check  sufficiently  to  legis- 
late, had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that 
the  Freemasons  feared  a  revival  of  Vati- 
can political  influence  and  would  have 
denounced  a  Ministry  dominated  by 
Catholics.  A  Liberal  leader  with  the  co- 
operation of  the  Catholics,  the  Radicals 
and  the  Reformists  would  have  been  able 
to  perform  the  same  feat  if  only  he  could 
depend  upon  his  own  party,  as  Nitti 
could  not  do. 

Thus  the  alternative  was  set  before 
the  King:  To  recall  Giolitti,  who  could 
do  what  Nitti  had  neither  the  influence, 
the  ability,  nor  the  courage  to  do,  or  to 
dissolve  Parliament  and  order  a  new 
election.  The  last  would  have  been  re- 
sented by  both  Socialists  and  Catholics — 
by  the  former  because  they  feared  that 
a  reawakening  of  the  bourgeoisie  would 
inevitably  cut  down  their  big  November 
gains;  by  the  latter  because  they  feared 
the  revival  of  Freemasonry  against  them. 
And  Socialist  resentment  was  likely  to 
take  an  unpleasant  form. 

So  Giolitti,  who  is  called  the  "  Magi  di 
Dronero,"  because  he  is  considered  a  wise 
man  and  was  born  in  Dronero,  was  re- 
called and  asked  to  form  a  Ministry.  By 
June  15  he  had  completed  his  slate.  It 
read : 

LIBERALS 
Giovanni    Giolitti,    President    and    Minister 
of   Interior. 
Luigi  Rossi,   Colonies. 
Francesco  Tedesco,  Finance. 
Camillo  Peano,   Public  Works. 
Giovanni  Raineri,  Liberated  Provinces. 
CATHOLICS 
(Popular  Party) 
Filippo  Meda,   Treasury. 
Giuseppe    Micheli,    Agriculture. 

RADICALS 
Luigi  Fera,  Justice. 
Giulio  Alessio,   Industry. 

Rosario  Pasqualino-Vassallo,  Posts  and 
Telegraphs. 

REFORMISTS 
(Parlinmentary    Socialists) 
Ivanoe  Bonomi,  War. 
Arturo  Labriola,  Labor  and  Social  Welfare. 

NON-POLITICAL    EXPERTS 
Senator      Count      Carlo      Sforza,      Foreign 
Affairs. 

Senator  Rear  Admiral  Giovanni  Sechi, 
Navy. 


Senator  Professor  Benedetto  Croce,  Educa- 
tion. 

The  striking  difference  between  the 
Giolitti  Ministry  and  the  third  Nitti  is 
that  the  former  possesses  leaders  of 
their  respective  parties  like  Meda, 
Alessio  and  Bonomi,  while  the  latter  did 
not.  Count  Sforza  is  a  brilliant  young 
diplomat  who  was  attached  to  the  Peace 
Conference.  Admiral  Sechi,  one  of  the 
best-known  naval  experts  in  the  world, 
held  his  present  portfolio  during  the  war 
and  in  the  three  Nitti  Cabinets.  Pro- 
fessor Croce  is  one  of  the  best-known 
Italian  men  of  letters.  Aside  from  Sechi, 
the  Ministers  who  held  portfolios  under 
Nitti  are  Rossi  and  Tedesco  in  the  first, 
Bonomi,  Alessio  and  Raineri  in  the  sec- 
ond, and  Peano,  Micheli  and  Rossi  in  the 
third. 

One  reason  why  Giolitti  could  do 
what  Nitti  could  not  do  is  that  in 
Italy  Deputies  take  their  orders  not 
from  their  constituents  but  from  the 
provincial  Prefects  who  have  "  super- 
vised "  their  elections,  and  of  these  sixty- 
nine  Prefects  the  "  Magi  di  Dronero " 
still  controls  sixty — survivals  of  his  long 
term  as  Minister  of  the  Interior  prior  to 
the  Spring  of  i:)14.  Since  then,  although 
some  of  them  proved  to  have  German,  or 
at  least  Austrian,  proclivities,  no  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior,  from  Salandra  to 
Nitti,  dared  to  oust  them.  Under  these 
defeatism  flourished.  In  the  elections  of 
last  November,  however,  their  influence, 
principally  due  to  the  absence  of  Giolitti, 
was  in  a  measure  usurped  by  the  party 
leaders,  whose  aid,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Socialist  leaders,  Giolitti  has  now  ap- 
parently secured. 

THE  VATICAN 

On  May  31  Pope  Benedict  XV.  issued 
an  encyclical  on  "  Christian  Reconcilia- 
tion," which  rescinded  the  veto  on  official 
visits  of  Catholic  sovereigns  to  the  King 
of  Italy  at  the  Quirinal.  Under  this  veto 
the  late  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  of  Aus- 
tria could  never  return  the  visit  made 
to  Vienna  by  King  Humbert.  Their  Most 
Catholic  Majesties  of  Belgium  and  Spain 
were  said  to  have  had  a  measurable  in- 
fluence on  the  Pope  in  issuing  the  en- 
cyclical, of  which  his  Holiness  said :    "  It 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


607 


I 


seems  to  be  called  for  by  the  gravity  of 
the  moment  and  the  established  custom 
of  exchanging  visits  for  consultation  be- 
tween the  heads  of  States  and  Govern- 
ments." 

The  Pope  added,  however,  that,  so  far 
from  relinquishing  his  protest  against 
the  actual  abnormal  position  of  the  Holy 
See  and  its  supreme  representative,  he 
expected  a  reconstructed  society  to  facil- 
itate a  solution  compatible  with  the  dig- 
nity of  the  Church. 

The  latter  refers  to  the  dogmatic  doc- 
trine of  temporal  power,  of  which  Pope 
Pius  IX.  was  deprived  by  the  Italian 
Government  in  1871  against  his  will,  and 
to  the  need  of  a  rapprochement  between 
the  Vatican  and  the  Quirinal.  It  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  old  idea  of  tem- 
poral power  as  defined  by  the  fathers 
of  the  Church,  but  with  the  fact  that 
Pope  Pius  IX.,  in  his  aspect  of  an  earthly 
monarch  and  not  as  the  Vicar  of  Christ, 
was  deprived  of  his  material  realm — the 
Papal  States  with  their  capital,  the  Eter- 
nal City.  Pope  Pius  X.  in  defining  the 
new  doctrine  of  temporal  power  said  that 
the  Pope  could  extend  or  contract  his 
realm  by  negotiation  with  other  sov- 
ereigns or  Governments,  but  that  he 
could  not  be  deprived  of  his  realm  by 
force,  or  if  deprived  of  it  by  force  it 
became  a  usurpation  which  the  Holy 
See  could  never  ratify. 

On  May  23  Oliver  Plunket,  the  Irish 
divine  who  was  made  first  Archbishop 
of  Armagh  in  1669  by  Pope  Clement  IX. 
and  was  executed  for  treason  at  Tyburn 
July  1,  1681,  was  beatified  at  St.  Peter's. 
There  was  a  large  gathering  of  Irish  pil- 
grims headed  by  Cardinal  Logue,  the  oc- 
togenarian Primate  of  all  Ireland.  On 
May  26  the  more  celebrated  among  them 
were  received  in  farewell  audience  in  the 
Consistorial  Hall. 

SPAIN   AND  PORTUGAL 

The  week  of  May  26  was  called 
"  French  Week  "  in  Madrid,  although  the 
most  famous  guests,  Marshal  Joffre  and 
ex-Empress  Eugenie,  had  departed.  The 
program  for  the  week  included  three  con- 
certs of  French  music  at  the  Royal  Opera 
House,  a  dinner  at  the  Ministry  of  For- 
eign  Affairs,   a   reception  at  the   Royal 


Palace  and  the  laying  of  the  foundation 
stone  of  the  Villa  Velasquez,  a  school  for 
French  painters,  for  which  the  Spanish 
Government  has  donated  a  splendid  site. 
It  is  to  be  organized  on  the  same  lines  as 
the  French  School  at  Rome. 

The  only  discordant  notes  were  the 
bread  riots  on  account  of  the  shortage  of 
wheat,  which  has  reduced  Madrid's  bread 
output  from  350,000  kilograms  to  50,000, 
and  an  article  published  in  the  official 
paper,  the  Epoca,  in  regard  to  Franco- 
Spanish  financial  relations,  which  read  in 
part: 

While  Spain  always  fulfills  her  financial 
obligations  with  France,  the  latter  nation 
makes  the  admission  of  Spanish  products 
difficult.  Now  France  is  demanding  revo- 
cation for  two  years  of  a  financial  con- 
vention with  Spain,  making  it  necessary 
to  enter  into  negotiations  to  settle  mutual 
problems.  Reprisals  constitute  the  only 
way  left  open  for  this  country  to  follow. 

A  report  to  Washington  by  Consul 
General  Carlton  Bailey  Hurst,  stationed 
at  Barcelona,  dealt  with  Spanish  emigra- 
tion and  immigration  as  follows: 

In  1918  transatlantic  emigration  from 
the  ports  of  Spain  comprised  26,406  per- 
sons, the  lowest  number  during  the  dec- 
ade 1909-18.  For  the  first  time  the  num- 
ber of  laborers  coming  to  Spain  exceeded 
that  of  the  emigrants,  the  heaviest  emi- 
gration having  been  in  1912, 

The  causes  producing  the  change  in  1918 
were  the  lack  of  shipping  for  the  trans- 
portation of  emigrants,  the  risks  of  sea 
travel,  the  restrictions  imposed  in  many 
countries  on  immigration,  and  the  general 
insecurity  of  labor  conditions  in  countries 
to  which  Spanish  emigrants  usually  go. 

Most  of  these  emigrants  are  farmhands, 
chiefly  from  the  Provinces  of  Salamanca, 
Le6n,  Avila,  Zamora,  Palencia  and  Ca- 
ceres.  During  the  war  the  demand  for 
labor  in  France  counteracted  in  large 
measure  Spanish  transatlantic  emigration, 
and  the  majority  of  the  farmhands  re- 
turned to  Spain  after  the  harvests  had 
been  gathered  in  France. 

On  June  6  Antonio  Maria  Bautista, 
Portuguese  Premier  and  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  died  suddenly  in  Lisbon,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Ramos  Preto,  the  Min- 
ister of  Justice.  Senhor  Bautista  was  57 
years  of  age.  He  served  in  the  African 
colonies,  where  he  won  decorations,  and 
for  three  years  in  France,  where  he  com- 
manded a  counterattack  against  the  Ger- 
mans in  the  battle  of  the  Lys  in  April, 
1918. 


608 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


SWITZERLAND 

The  result  of  the  plebiscite  of  May  16, 
by  which  the  Swiss  people  declared  its 
adherence  to  the  League  of  Nations  by  a 
majority  of  almost  90,000  votes  (414,660 
for,  322,729  against),  is  the  subject  of 
animated  discussion  in  the  Swiss  press. 
The  anti-League  sentiment  of  a  portion 
of  German  Switzerland  is  voiced  by  the 
Berner  Tagblatt,  which  says  that  by 
throwing  its  ancient  neutrality  over- 
board Switzerland  also  hands  part  of  her 
independence  over  to  foreign  States.  The 
paper  ironically  expresses  the  fear  that 
the  singing  of  the  "  Marseillaise "  and 
the  displaying  of  the  French  Tricolor  will 
be  made  compulsory.  "  The  supremacy 
in  the  Swiss  State,"  the  Tagblatt  con- 
cludes, "  has,  by  this  decision,  gone  ever 
to  '  Welsh  '  Switzerland ;  from  now  on 
the  French  Swiss  are  our  leaders."  The 
Socialist  press  of  the  German  cantons, 
which  opposed  joining  on  the  ground 
that  the  League  is  an  imperialistic  con- 
spiracy, is  very  much  embittered  over 
what  it  calls  the  "  treachery "  of  the 
French  Swiss  proletariet,  which  sup- 
ported the  League  by  an  overwhelming 
vote.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pro- 
League  newspapers  of  the  western  can- 
tons praise  the  good  sense  and  patriotism 
of  those  German  Swiss  who  voted  in  the 
affirmative  in  spite  of  the  violent  na- 
tionalistic propaganda  against  joining. 


The  financial  program  of  the  Federal 
Government  includes  an  ambitious 
scheme  of  age  and  health  insurance  for 
all  citizens.  To  cover  the  new  expendi- 
ture taxes  on  beer,  tobacco,  inheritances 
and  gifts  are  proposed,  as  well  as  an  ex- 
tension of  the  Federal  monopoly  of  alco- 
hol. In  French  Swiss  circles  the  plan  of 
an  inheritance  tax  meets  with  much  op- 
position, chiefly  on  the  ground  that  it 
clashes  with  the  principle  of  cantonal 
rights.  The  Government's  proposal  pro- 
vides that  the  revenue  from  inheritance 
taxes  should  be  equally  shared  by  the 
confederacy  and  the  cantons,  while  the 
indirect  taxes  should  go  into  the  Federal 
Treasury. 

In  view  of  the  growing  menace  of 
housing  shortage  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment proposes  a  credit  of  10,000,000 
francs  for  building  purposes.  In  addi- 
tion the  Government  calls  upon  indus- 
trial concerns  to  facilitate,  on  a  volun- 
tary basis,  the  formation  of  co-operative 
building  associations  among  their  em- 
ployes. 

The  report  of  the  Federal  Railways 
for  1919  shows  a  gross  revenue  of  341,- 
746,755.55  francs  and  an  expenditure  of 
290,892,079.88  francs.  The  net  earnings 
of  the  railways  thus  amount  to  50,854,- 
675.67  francs.  Since  1913  the  freight 
traffic  has  increased  90  per  cent.,  while 
passenger  traffic  has  grown  by  18  per 
cent.  only. 


Strained  Relations  of  the  Low  Countries 

Holland  Grapples  With  Red  Internationalism 


BELGIUM 

AVERY  acute  difference  of  opinion 
has  arisen  between  Belgium  and 
Holland  over  navigation  of  the 
outlets  to  the  sea  by  way  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Scheldt.  This  led  to  the  suspen- 
sion of  treaty  negotiations  just  as  they 
had  apparently  reached  the  final  stage, 
on  May  26.  The  sea  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Scheldt  is  very  shallow  and  there  are 
only  three  passable  channels  below 
Flushing.  Two  of  these,  the  Oostgat  and 
the  Deurloo,  turn  to  the  north  along  the 


Dutch  coast,  but  the  third,  the  Wielingen 
channel,  which  is  the  largest  and  most 
used,  skirts  the  Belgian  coast  as  far  as 
Blankenberghe.  At  the  Zwyn,  where  the 
Dutch  and  Belgian  land  frontier  reaches 
the  shore,  the  whole  width  of  the  chan- 
nel available  for  larger  navigation  is 
within  the  three-mile  limit,  and  is  conse- 
quently Belgian  water.  Suddenly,  on 
May  3,  the  Dutch  delegation  handed  to 
Belgium  a  note  claiming  exclusive  sover- 
eignty over  the  Wielingen  channel,  and 
the  Belgians  broke  off  negotiations,  re- 
ferring  the  matter  to  the  Chamber  of 


STRAINED  RELATIONS  OF  THE  LOW  COUNTRIES 


Deputies,  which,  on  May  26,  unanimously 
approved  their  action.  Here  is  another 
matter  for  the  League  of  Nations  to 
settle. 

The  Belgian  Socialists  have  just  lost 
six  seats  in  the  Senate  at  by-elections 
held  to  fill  vacancies  of  members  w^hose 
selection  had  been  invalidated.  The 
Senate  thus  consists  of  sixty-three  Cath- 


REGION     OF     THE      BOUNDARY      DISPUTE 
BETWEEN    BELGIUM    AND    HOLLAND 


olics,  a  gain  of  four;  thirty-eight  Lib- 
erals, a  gain  of  two,  and  nineteen  Social- 
ists, a  loss  of  six.  The  latter  indicates 
a  return  to  their  old  allegiance  of  many 
vote'-s  who  cast  their  ballots  in  Novem- 
ber for  the  Labor  candidates. 

Captain  Charles  Fryatt's  historic  ship, 
the  Brussels,  was  offered  for  sale  on 
June  23.  This  is  the  vessel  which  the 
British  Captain  once  ordered  to  ram  a 
German  submarine,  an  act  which  led  to 
his  execution  at  Bruges  after  the  enemy 
had  captured  him.  The  ship  was  taken 
by  the  Germans  in  June,  1916,  and  was 
torpedoed  by  the  British  during  the  Zee- 
brugge  raid  on  April  24,  1918.  One  of 
the  stipulations  of  the  auction  was  that 
no  bids  would  be  accepted  from  any  but 
British  subjects. 

Belgium's  quest  of  foreign  trade  has 
been  stimulated  through  the  acquirement 
by  the  Lloyd  Royale  Beige  of  ten  more 
freighters  of  the  4,000-ton  type  from  the 
United  States  Shipping  Board,  increas- 
ing the  company's  fleet  to  eighty-four. 

King  Albert  and  Queen  Elizabeth  will 
leave  Belgium  in  August  for  a  tour  in 
Brazil,  which  will  undoubtedly  strength- 
en Belgium's  relations  with  South  Amer- 


ica, as  the  new  loan  of  $50,000,000,  con- 
cluded with  New  York  bankers,  has  sol- 
idified her  financial  relations  with  North 
America.  At  the  same  time  the  sporting 
world  of  all  countries  is  looking  to  Bel- 
gium for  the  results  of  the  international 
Olympic  games  now  in  progress  at  Ant- 
werp, which  were  inaugurated  by  the 
opening  of  the  vast  stadium  on  May  24. 

HOLLAND 

Holland  is  engaged  in  endeavoring  to 
shut  out  foreign  agitators  from  interfer- 
ing with  her  institutions,  while  at  the 
same  time,  apparently,  they  plot  within 
her  borders  against  other  States,  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  the  abortive 
strikes,  which  were  to  usher  in  the  ter- 
rorist revolution  in  France,  w^ere  ordered 
by  the  international  Communist  bureau 
at  Amsterdam,  following  instinictions 
from  Nikolai  Lenin.  An  American 
named  Louis  Frayne,  alias  Ralph  Snyder, 
according  to  the  Paris  Matin,  represents 
the  United  States  at  this  headquarters, 
while  Sylvia  Pankhurst  and  Nora  Smith 
are  the  English  delegates,  and  Mme. 
Rosalie  Grimm  represents  the  Swiss 
Communists. 

To  remedy  this  situation  Holland  es- 
tablished a  deadline  zone  at  her  frontiers 
beyond  which  no  one  might  pass  except 
along  recognized  roads,  railways  or 
water  routes  on  penalty  of  being  shot  if 
he  refused  to  halt.  This  w^as  one  of  the 
measures  adopted  to  prevent  the  en- 
trance of  undesirable  persons,  particu- 
larly Bolsheviki. 

An  Anti-Revolutionary  bill,  introduced 
in  the  Second  Chamber  on  June  2,  goes 
much  further  than  the  plotting  or  carry- 
ing out  of  overt  acts,  and  is  directly 
aimed  at  the  moderate  Socialists  as  well 
as  the  Communists.  The  Socialist  lead- 
er, Troelstra,  declares  that  the  bill 
breaks  with  all  existing  rules  and  is  di- 
rected against  one-fourth  of  the  Dutch 
people.  Riots  and  strikes  followed  its 
introduction  and  there  was  fighting  at 
The  Hague  between  mounted  police  and 
the  demonstrators,  whose  leaders  car- 
ried placards  reading :  "  Away  with  Re- 
action." 

This  whole  question  of  international 
disturbance  was  likely  to  be  considered 


CIO 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


by  the  jurists  who  were  gathering  at  The 
Hague  to  attend  the  first  session  of  the 
commission  on  the  construction  of  a  per- 
manent International  Court  of  Justice, 
called  by  the  League  of  Nations  to  meet 
on  June  16.  Elihu  Root,  who  had  been 
invited  to  take  part  in  the  deliberations, 
arrived  at  Plymouth  on  June  10  and  pro- 
ceeded directly  to  The  Hague.  . 

Holland  is  keeping  close  watch  on  the 
Hohenzollerns  during  the  critical  situa- 
tion in  Germany.     Two  suspicious  char- 


acters were  arrested  just  inside  the 
gates  of  the  former  Kaiser's  new  estate 
at  Doom  in  the  latter  part  of  May.  As 
a  consequence  the  number  of  Dutch  po- 
lice about  the  place  was  increased  and 
many  detectives  in  plain  clothes  were 
quartered  in  the  village.  P.  J.  Peere- 
boom,  Burgomaster  of  Wieringen,  on  the 
island  where  the  former  Crown  Prince 
lives,  was  appointed  private  secretary  to 
the  ex-Kaiser  and  usually  accompanied 
the  son  on  his  visits  to  Doom. 


Progress  in  Scandinavian  Countries 

An    International    Electric    Project 


DENMARK 

CONCURRENT  with  the  report  that 
Danish  industrial  concerns  have  ne- 
gotiated the  purchase  of  1,000,000 
tons  of  American  coal  for  shipment  this 
year  and  next,  the  Scandinavian  press  is 
commenting  on  vast  Danish  plans  to 
convey  electrical  power  from  Norway  to 
take  the  place  of  coal.  A  Danish  com- 
mittee has  sifted  these  plans  in  con- 
junction with  Mr.  Hanssen,  Director- 
General  of  Waterfalls  Control  in  Nor- 
way, and  found  them  feasible.  The  de- 
sign is  to  convey  power  from  the  fun- 
nels of  the  Skien  and  Rjukan  Falls,  in 
Southern  Norway,  by  means  of  an  under- 
water cable  1,000  kilometers  (about  620 
miles)  long  across  the  Skagerrak  to 
Jutland.  It  is  considered  feasible  also 
to  convey  the  power  via  Sweden  to  Den- 
mark by  means  of  an  air-line.  The  eco- 
nomic problems  are  not  all  worked  out 
yet  by  the  Danish  committee,  but  if  the 
price  of  coal  continues  at  its  present 
height  the  committee  will  push  the  proj- 
ect. Denmark  is  a  low  country  with 
practically  no  water  power,  and  plans  for 
conveying  cheap  power  from  Norway 
are  arousing  intense  interest. 

No  other  country  is  as  rich  as  Norway 
in  great  waterfalls,  not  even  Switzer- 
land. By  hamessing  her  cataracts  Nor- 
way could  become  the  creditor  of  the 
British  Isles  and  France  if  the  coal  sit- 
uation   should    become    acute    in    those 


countries.  Within  the  last  ten  years 
practically  every  farmer  in  Norway  has 
come  to  be  supplied  with  electric  light, 
heat  and  power  on  his  land,  as  water- 
falls are  accessible  in  every  neighbor- 
hood. 

The  strike  at  Copenhagen  of  the  sail- 
ors, stokers  and  dockers,  which  persisted 
after  all  the  other  divisions  of  the  gen- 
eral strike  following  the  dismissal  of 
the  Zahle  Government  had  failed,  came 
to  an  end  June  11.  This  shipping  strike 
was  broken  by  about  4,000  volunteers 
from  among  the  seafaring  farmer  popu- 
lation of  Denmark.  These  farmers  have 
manned  some  150  ships,  which  have 
sailed  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  so  it 
will  be  some  months  before  many  sail- 
ors and  stokers  can  get  places  on  board 
ship  again. 

The  introduction  of  the  Danish  krone 
into  the  first  Slesvig  zone  has  created  a 
panic  in  the  Flensburg,  or  second,  zone. 
With  the  krone  so  much  higher  in  value 
than  the  German  mark,  when  the  Flens- 
burg zone  has  only  German  paper 
money,  the  people  of  the  second  zone 
feared  that  the  Danes  would  buy  up  all 
their  supplies  with  krone  and  make  a 
famine.  Berlin  papers  reported  from 
Flensburg  that  the  International  Slesvig 
Commission  had  prohibited  all  goods 
traffic  between  these  two  zones. 

On  June  15  the  International  Plebi- 
scite Commission  announced  at  Flensburg 
that  it  had  established  the  boundary  be- 


PROGRESS  IN  SCANDINAVIAN  COUNTRIES 


611 


tween  Denmark  and  Germany,  as  deter- 
mined by  the  plebiscites  held  in  Slesvig, 
and  that,  having  discharged  all  its  duties 
as  laid  down  in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles, 
the  commission's  authority  in  the  plebi- 
scite region  would  cease  at  once. 

Danish  and  German  commercial  and 
financial  interests  have  been  holding  ne- 
gotiations in  Copenhagen  to  arrange  a 
deal  to  make  profitable  the  large  Scan- 
dinavian stocks  of  German  marks  both 
to  the  possessors  and  to  German  indus- 
try and  trade.  This  amount  of  German 
money,  deposited  against  interest  in  a 
new  banking  concern  in  Copenhagen,  is 
to  serve  as  a  guarantee  for  loans  for  the 
purchase  of  raw  materials  for  Germany. 
The  bank  guarantees  credits  desired  by 
Germany  for  the  purchase  abroad  of  cot- 
ton, iron  ore,  &c.  A  similar  arrange- 
ment had  been  made  by  Germany  with 
Holland,  where  a  syndicate  had  been 
started  under  the  style  of  "  Credit  en 
Belegingsbank."  This  and  the  Danish 
banking  concern  will  have  an  important 
influence  in  promoting  Germany's  for- 
eign trade,  as  they  will  both  import  raw 
materials  and  foodstuffs  for  Germany 
and  export  German  industrial  goods  by 
way  of  Copenhagen  and  Rotterdam. 

The  American-Scandinavian  Founda- 
tion has  awarded  nineteen  traveling  fel- 
lowships to  American  college  students 
nominated  by  their  Alma  Maters  for 
study  in  Denmark,  Norway  and  Sweden. 

NORWAY 

Dr.  Fridtjof  Nansen,  the  Norwegian 
explorer,  has  been  appointed  head  of  the 
organization  set  up  by  the  League  of 
Nations  to  repatriate  as  many  as  possi- 
ble of  the  200,000  German,  Austrian  and 
other  war  prisoners  still  held  in  Russia. 

The  Norwegian  Government,  with  the 
approval  of  the  Storthing,  has  notified 
the  Russian  Soviet  Government  that 
Norway  is  ready  to  resume  at  once  com- 
mercial relations  with  Russia,  without, 
however,  officially  recognizing  the  So- 
viet as  the  legal  Russian  Government. 

Norway  is  rapidly  regaining  her  im- 
portant place  on  the  sea  by  a  great  ship- 
building program  for  her  merchant  ma- 


rine. Though  her  loss  of  merchant  ship- 
ping during  the  war  was  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  Scandinavian  country, 
most  of  the  shipping  companies  have 
built  up  strong  reserves  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  their  present  and  future 
development.  New  tonnage  is  being  con- 
tracted for  almost  daily,  and  delivery  of 
new  ships  has  begun  at  a  rate  that  bids 
fair  to  make  Norway  as  strong  in  mer- 
chant shipping  in  1921  as  she  was  before 
the  war.  Owing  to  the  offer  of  preferen- 
tial rates,  Norwegians  are  letting  most 
of  their  foreign  tonnage  contracts  in 
Great  Britain. 

For  several  months,  as  reported  by 
the  United  States  Consul  at  Bergen,  Nor- 
wegian shipping  concerns  have  been 
making  high  profits  by  carrying  cargoes 
of  American  chocolate  and  other  food- 
stuffs to  Norwegian  ports,  transshipping 
them  there  and  carrying  them  back  for 
resale  in  the  United  States.  The  de- 
preciation of  the  Norwegian  krone,  the 
rise  of  the  dollar,  and  the  rise  of  prices 
in  the  United  States — also  the  low 
freight  rates  to  the  United  States,  as 
compared  with  the  high  freight  rates 
from  America  to  Scandinavia — are  given 
as  the  causes  of  this  line  of  business. 

Efforts  are  being  made  to  secure  co- 
operation of  the  three  Scandinavian 
countries  for  better  mail  service  between 
them  and  the  United  States.  The  back- 
wardness of  this  service  is  owing  to 
strikes  and  other  disturbances  in  Den- 
mark and  Germany.  The  regular  mails 
between  America  and  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  with  transit  to  Finland  and 
Esthonia,  are  now  conveyed  via  Eng- 
land, Belgium,  Germany  and  Denmark. 
Such  co-operation  is  all  that  is  needed  to 
secure  rapid  daily  mail  service  between 
Scandinavian  countries  and  America. 
The  Swedish  New  York-Gothenburg 
Line  has  two  steamers,  the  Norwegian 
New  York-Christiania  Line  has  two  and 
the  Danish  New  York-Copenhagen  Line 
has  three.  Postmaster  General  Juhlin 
of  Sweden,  after  a  careful  study  of  con- 
ditions in  the  United  States  last  year, 
has  tried  ever  since  to  secure  this  co- 
operation. 


Germany's  First  Republican  Reichstag 

A  Period  of  Scrambled  Politics 


GERMANY 

CONFUSION  worse  confounded  sum- 
marizes the  political  situation  in 
Germany  as  the  result  of  the  elec- 
tion on  June  6  of  the  first  Reichs- 
tag chosen  since  the  overthrow  of  the 
Hohenzollern  dynasty  on  Nov.  9,  1918. 
Nothing  was  settled  except  the  fact  that 
there  is  likely  to  be  another  general  elec- 
tion within  a  few  months.  The  strength  of 
the  parties  supporting  the  old  Majority 
Socialist  -  Democratic  -  Clerical  Coalition 
Government  was  reduced  from  336  out  of 
a  total  of  421  seats  in  the  old  National 
Constituent  Assembly  to  222  out  of  an 
estimated  total  of  460  (according  to  re- 
turns up  to  June  15).  The  situation 
indicated  that  only  the  support  of  the 
People's  Party  or  of  the  Independent 
Socialists  could  furnish  a  basis  for  some 
sort  of  a  combination  Government. 

The  makeup  of  the  new  Reichstag,  as 
indicated  by  the  returns  up  to  June  15, 
was  as  follows: 

Popular 
Parties.  Deputies.        Vote. 

Majority  Socialists   110         5,531,137 

Independent  Socialists   80         4,809,862 

Centrists    67         3,500,800 

German    Nationalists 65         3,638,851 

German  People's  Party 61         3,456,131 

Democrats    45         2,152,509 

Christian    Federalists 21         1,254,963 

Communists     2  438,190 

Bavarian  Peasants'   Party 4  

Guelphists  5  318,104 

The  German  election  was  by  the 
proportional  representation  method,  and 
one  Deputy  was  supposed  to  be  ap- 
portioned to  every  60,000  votes ,  cast 
for  each  party.  The  Communists 
(Spartacus  League)  were  expected 
to  have  about  seven  Deputies  when 
the  final  computation  was  made.  With 
the  vote  for  the  Bavarian  People's 
Party  estimated  at  250,000,  the  total  vote 
cast  amounted  to  about  25,350,000,  as 
compared  with  a  vote  of  some  29,000,000 
in  the  election  to  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly. There  was  no  election  in  East 
Prussia,  in  the  Oppeln  district  in  Upper 
Silesia,    or    in    Slesvig-Holstein,    because 


the  political  destiny  of  these  districts 
was  subject  to  settlement  through 
plebiscites.  The  thirty-eight  members  of 
the  old  National  Assembly  from  these 
districts  will  sit  in  the  new  Reichstag 
until  the  fate  of  their  constituencies  is 
decided.  Eighteen  of  them  are  Majority 
Socialists,  8  Democrats,  8  Centrists,  2 
German  Nationalists,  1  People's  Party 
and  1  Holstein  Peasants'  League. 

In  the  National  Constituent  Assembly, 
elected  Jan.  19,  1919,  the  makeup  had 
been  as  follows: 

Popular 

Parties.  Members.       Vote. 

Majority    Socialists 163        11,112,4.:0 

Centrists    92         5,338,804 

Democrats    71         5,552,930 

German    Nationalists 41         2,739,19<i 

German  People's  Party 23  1,106,408 

Independent    Socialists 22         2,188,30.') 

Bavarian  Peasants'  League. . .     4  

Bavarian  Middle  Party 1  

Brunswick  Provisonal  League.     1  

Slesvigr-Holstein       Peasants' 

League    1  .  

Wiirttemberg    Citizens'     and 

Peasants'    League 2  

Immediately  following  the  announce- 
ment of  the  result  of  the  election  the 
Cabinet,  headed  by  Chancellor  Hermann 
Miiller,  offered  its  resignation,  but  was 
asked  by  President  Ebert  to  carry  on 
until  a  new  Cabinet  could  be  formed. 
Chancellor  Miiller  tried  to  obtain  the 
co-operation  of  the  Independent  Social- 
ists, but  in  vain;  then  Ebert  asked  Dr. 
Rudolph  Heinze,  Chairman  of  the  Peo- 
ple's Party,  to  undertake  the  task  of 
forming  a  new  governing  group,  but  the 
latter  was  rebuffed  by  the  Majority  So- 
cialists, and  quit.  Karl  Trimborn,  leader 
of  the  Centre  Party,  was  then  asked  to 
try  his  hand,  but  on  June  15  it  was  an- 
nounced that  he,  too,  had  abandoned  the 
task.  On  the  17th,  when  these  pages 
went  to  press,  Herr  Trimborn  was  still 
trying  in  vain  to  form  a  workable 
coalition. 

The  elections  have  shown  that  the 
dream  of  the  old  conservative  German 
Nationalists — of  the  Heydebrandt  and 
Reventlow  type — of  a  restoration  of  the 


GERMANY'S  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  REICHSTAG 


613 


monarchy  has  no  prospect  of  ever  com- 
ing true.  Hence,  the  more  far-seeing 
members  of  that  Junker  group  are  ex- 
pected to  line  up  with  the  big  business 
men  controlling  the  People's  Party  and 
work  for  a  strong  Government  which 
under  the  form  of  a  republic  may  be 
able  to  check  the  rising  tide  toward  so- 
cialization of  industry.  To  these  groups 
may  be  added  the  Centrists  and  the 
Democrats,  in  their  great  majority,  and 
the  Bavarian  Peasants  and  the  Guelph- 
ists.  On  the  other  side  stand  the  Ma- 
jority and  Independent  Socialists,  the 
Communists  and  small  factors  of  the 
Centrists  and  Democrats.  Both  the  In- 
dependents and  the  Communists,  during 
the  campaign,  emphasized  the  necessity 
of  establishing  the  "  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat."  They  bitterly  attacked  the 
Majority  Socialists  for  their  alleged 
moderate  tactics  and  stressing  of  democ- 
racy. 

The  whole  campaign  was  waged  with 
bitterness  and  mud-slinging  on  all  sides. 
The  Socialists  and  Democrats  accused 
the  People's  Party  of  being  under  the 
thumb  of  Herr  Stinnes,  who  had  bought 
up  some  threescore  newspapers,  includ- 
ing the  former  semi-official  Deutsche 
Allgemeine  Zeitung,  to  influence  public 
opinion;  and  with  raising  huge  campaign 
funds  from  the  other  Rhine  Industrialists. 
Meanwhile  the  Conservative  groups 
charged  the  Majority  Socialists  with 
using  Government  money  for  campaign 
purposes  and  pointed  to  the  granting  of 
leave  of  absence  to  Prussian  school 
teachers  to  take  part  in  the  struggle,  as 
evidence  of  favoritism.  The  Communists 
and  Independents  denounced  all  the 
others  and  each  other  as  enemies  of  the 
masses.  Also  a  non-political  offshoot  of 
the  Communist  Party,  known  as  the 
Communist  Labor  Party,  branded  all  the 
rest  as  traitors  to  the  working  people. 

Nearly  all  the  prominent  leaders  of 
the  various  parties  were  returned  to 
the  Reichstag.  Among  the  new  mem- 
bers are  twenty-two  women,  as  com- 
pared with  thirty-eight  in  the  old  As- 
sembly. Louise  Zietz,  the  Independent 
Socialist  who  created  so  much  excite- 
ment in  the  old  Assembly  by  her  caustic 
anti-Government    comments,    will    have 


competition  in  the  person  of  the  veteran 
Klara  Zetkin,  elected  on  the  Communist 
list.  Matthias  Erzberger  was  re-elected 
on  the  Centrist  ticket,  though  he  had 
been  forced  out  of  the  Ministry  of  Fi- 
nance last  Winter.  Count  von  Bern- 
storff,  ex-Ambassador  to  the  United 
States,  ran  on  the  Democratic  ticket  and 
was  badly  beaten.  The  new  Reichstag 
is  to  set  the  date  for  the  popular  elec- 
tion of  a  President  to  succeed  Herr 
Ebert,  who  says  he  will  not  be  a  can- 
didate. 

The  last  session  of  the  National  As- 
sembly, held  on  May  21,  ended  in  bitter 
partisan  strife.  This  was  due  mainly  to 
an  announcement  by  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior Koch  that,  because  of  revolution- 
ary agitation  by  radical  elements,  the 
Government  would  be  unable  to  end  the 
state  of  siege  throughout  the  country, 
as  had  been  demanded  in  a  resolution 
which  the  Socialist  members  had  forced 
through  the  Assembly  the  day  before. 
Herr  Koch  promised  that,  although  the 
state  of  siege  could  not  be  ended  in  the 
Ruhr  district  or  in  Gotha,  it  would  be 
partly  relieved  in  Bavaria  and  that  gen- 
eral conditions  would  be  improved.  The 
Independent  Socialists  moved  to  vote  a 
lack  of  confidence,  but  Konstantin 
Fehrenbach,  President  of  the  Assembly, 
refused  to  submit  this  motion  because 
it  was  signed  by  fewer  members  than 
the  necessary  fifteen. 

The  next  day  President  Ebert  pro- 
claimed the  ending  of  the  state  of  siege 
throughout  Germany,  except  in  the  Diis- 
seldorf  district.  East  Prussia,  and  in 
Silesia  and  Saxony,  thus  showing  the 
Government's  confidence  in  the  general 
situation  in  spite  of  wild  stories  of 
plots  and  counterplots.  In  the  districts 
still  held  under  the  state  of  siege  the 
military  authorities  were  put  under  the 
control  of  civilian  Commissioners,  and 
the  powers  of  the  courts-martial  were 
limited,  their  members  to  be  appointed 
by  the  Commissioners. 

On  May  31  the  commanders  of  the 
garrison  of  Greater  Berlin  visited  Minis- 
ter of  Defense  Gessler  and  solemnly 
swore  to  defend  the  Government  from 
all  attacks,  either  from  the  Right  or  the 
Left,     On   the   same   day  the   so-called 


614 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Volunteer  Corps,  which  was  originally 
organized  to  protect  the  Government, 
but  had  proved  unreliable  when  the 
Kapp  reactionary  coup  was  attempted 
in  March,  was  ordered  out  of  existence. 
President  Ebert  issued  an  edict  provid- 
ing severe  punishments  for  any  one  at- 
tempting to  prevent  its  dissolution. 
Some  of  the  more  reliable  elements  were 
taken  into  the  Reichswehr  (regular 
army),  a  special  body  of  which,  called 
the  Doberitz  Brigade,  under  Major  Gen. 
Reinhardt,  ex-Minister  of  War,  is  sup- 
posed to  constitute  the  Pretorian  Guard 
of  the  republic. 

Late  in  May  it  was  announced  that 
Admiral  von  Trotha,  ex-Chief  of  the 
Admiralty;  Rear  Admiral  von  Levent- 
zow,  ex-Govemor  of  Kiel,  and  Major 
von  Falkenhausen,  at  one  time  an  As- 
sistant Secretary  of  State,  with  twelve 
other  naval  and  military  officers,  had 
been  dismissed  from  the  service  and 
their  cases  turned  over  to  the  Public 
Prosecutor  because  of  their  share  in  the 
Kapp  revolt.  Twenty-five  other  officers 
were  relieved  of  duty  and  their  cases 
sent  to  the  Prosecutor. 

On  June  10  a  Berlin  report  stated 
that,  in  accordance  with  the  revised 
terms  of  the  Versailles  Peace  Treaty, 
the  German  Army  had  been  reduced  to 
200,000  men. 

With  the  cutting  down  of  the  German 
forces  in  the  neutral  zone  along  the 
Rhine,  the  French  troops  that  had  occu- 
pied Frankfort,  Darmstadt,  Hanau,  Die- 
burg  and  Homburg  early  in  April  to 
enforce  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the 
Peace  Treaty  were  withdrawn  on  May 
17.  There  was  little  complaint  as  to  the 
conduct  of  the  occupying  troops,  but 
there  was  much  bitter  comment  on  the 
use  of  French  colored  soldiers  from  the 
colonies;  these  soldiers  were  charged 
with  attacks  upon  women  and  girls.  The 
French  military  authorities,  and  Premier 
Millerand  as  well,  vigorously  denied  the 
German  charges  and  submitted  data 
showing  that  of  the  85,000  French 
troops  in  the  occupied  region  along  the 
Rhine  only  7,490  were  negroes.  On  May 
29  it  was  announced  that  the  main  body 
of  black  troops  would  soon  be  with- 
drawn. 


Business  conditions  in  Germany  were 
in  a  state  of  flux,  due  in  part  to  the  rise 
in  the  exchange  value  of  the  mark  to 
nearly  3  cents,  compared  with  1  cent  last 
Winter.  There  were  the  usual  labor 
troubles. 

Stories  of  huge  investments  in  German 
industries  and  real  estate  by  Americans, 
due  to  the  low  value  of  the  mark,  filled 
the  Berlin  press.  Werner  Wintermantel, 
Director  of  the  American  department  of 
the  Deutsche  Bank,  stated  on  June  8 
that  these  investments  amounted  to 
more  than  15,000,000,000  marks.  Dr. 
Otto  Weidels,  Director  of  the  Berlin 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  estimated  the 
foreign  investments  in  Germany  since 
the  signing  of  the  Peace  Treaty  at  50,- 
000,000,000  marks,  of  which  nearly  half 
had  come  from  America.  At  a  confer- 
ence in  Paris  between  five  German  busi- 
ness men,  headed  by  Dr.  Deutsch  of  the 
German  General  Electric  Company,  and 
representatives  of  French  industry,  plans 
were  worked  out  for  the  resumption  of 
full  trade  relations  between  the  two 
countries,  which  are  expected  to  be  ap- 
proved by  the  Berlin  and  Paris  Govern- 
ments. 

Although  the  food  situation  was  re- 
ported to  have  been  improved  through 
the  arrangement  of  credits  for  facilitat- 
ing imports,  it  was  decided  at  a  meeting 
between  the  Ministers  of  Agriculture  of 
the  various  German  States  and  the  Fed- 
eral authorities  to  continue  the  rationing 
of  bread  and  meat  during  the  harvest 
season  and  to  maintain  the  regulations 
compelling  delivery  of  certain  percent- 
ages of  agricultural  products,  with  the 
exception  of  peas  and  beans.  The  gen- 
eral crop  outlook  is  good,  except  in  the 
case  of  wheat,  which  is  a  little  below  the 
average.  A  plan  has  been  sanctioned  by 
the  Federal  food  authorities  providing 
for  the  creation  this  season  of  a  potato 
reserve  of  some  160,000,000  bushels, 
through  co-operation  of  the  cities,  the 
nation  and  the  farming  interests,  to 
guard  against  a  potato  famine  next  Win- 
ter. The  plan  calls  for  compulsory  de- 
livery at  18^/^  marks  per  bushel. 

American  packing  companies  had  ad- 
vanced an  additional  credit  of  $45,000,000 
to  the  GeiTnan  Government  for  the  pur- 


GERMANY'S  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  REICHSTAG 


615 


chase  of  meats  and  other  provisions  to 
cover  deliveries  for  twenty-two  months, 
according  to  a  report  from  the  American 
Commissioner  in  Berlin  reaching  Wash- 
ington June  11. 

In  connection  with  the  multitude  of 
robberies  prevailing  in  Germany  it  was 
reported  on  June  6  that  vandals  had  in- 
vaded the  Grand  Ducal  vault  at  Weimar 
and  stolen  golden  wreaths  from  the  cof- 
fins of  Schiller  and  Goethe. 

Captain  Imhof,  a  German  officer  ac- 
cused of  looting  chateaux  during  the  oc- 
cupation of  France,  was  sentenced  to 
sixteen  years  in  prison  by  a  French  mil- 
itary judge  at  Ludwigshaven  on  May  31. 

General  von  Kluck,  commander  of  one 
of  the  armies  that  tried  to  reach  Paris 
in  1914,  arrived  in  Switzerland  on  June 
7  with  the  avowed  intention  of  making 
his  home  there,  as  life  in  Germany  had 
become  "  intolerable."  He  is  reputed  to 
have  made  considerable  money  out  of  his 
reminiscences. 

On  June  10  Count  Adolph  Montgelas, 


a  diplomat  of  the  old  school,  arrived  in 
New  York  en  route  to  take  up  his  duties 
as  German  Minister  to  Mexico.  The  same 
day  Dr.  W.  S.  Solf,  ex-Minister  of  Col- 
onies, left  Berlin  for  his  post  as  Ambas- 
sador in  Tokio. 

A  step  toward  the  revival  of  the  Sol- 
diers' Councils  idea  in  the  German  Army 
was  reported  on  June  14  in  an  order  by 
President  Ebert  creating  a  Provisional 
Army  Advisory  Committee,  to  work  with 
the  Ministry  of  Defense,  and  a  corre- 
sponding Navy  Advisory  Committee. 
The  Army  Committee,  to  be  headed  by 
the  Chief  of  Staff,  will  be  made  up  of 
fourteen  army  officers,  five  medical, 
three  veterinary  and  three  technical  au- 
thorities, thirteen  non-commissioned  of- 
ficers and  twenty-nine  privates.  The 
Navy  Committee,  under  the  Admiralty 
Chief,  will  consist  of  nine  officers,  three 
medical  men,  three  warrant  officers,  four 
petty  officers  and  six  privates.  The  sol- 
dier and  sailor  delegates  will  be  elected 
by  trustees  in  different  districts. 


Hungary  and  Neighboring  States 

Mourning    in  Budapest  When  the  Hungarian  Delegation  Signs 

the  Peace  Treaty 


HUNGARY 

THE  treaty  of  peace  between  Hungary 
and  the  Allies  was  signed  by  the 
Hungarian  delegation  at  Versailles 
on  the  afternoon  of  June  4.  It  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  delegation  for  Hungary 
only  after  protest  and  a  demand  for 
modification,  especially  regarding  boun- 
daries, for  which  a  decision  by  plebiscite 
was  asked. 

'  The  text  of  the  allied  reply  was  pub- 
lished in  Paris  on  May  6.  In  this  re- 
sponse the  difficulty  of  the  ethnographic 
problem  was  frankly  recognized;  but  it 
was  pointed  out  that  the  conditions  in 
Central  Europe  were  such  that  it  was 
impossible  to  make  the  political  frontiers 
coincide  with  the  ethnic.  More  than  one 
aggregation  of  Magyars,  consequently, 
said  M.  Millerand,  the  allied  spokesman, 
must  of  necessity  find  themselves  under 
the  sovereignty  of  another  State.     A  re- 


turn of  such  territories  to  Hungary, 
when  containing  compact  masses  of  pop- 
ulation averse  either  to  union  or  assimi- 
lation, would  be  impossible.  Hence  the 
allied  Governments  refused  on  practical 
grounds  to  modify  the  frontiers.  It  was 
further  stated  that  plebiscites,  if  con- 
ducted fairly,  would  bring  no  substantial 
alteration  in  the  boundaries  as  laid  down 
by  the  allied  experts  after  careful  scien- 
tific study  of  the  conditions  prevailing. 

After  this  unequivocal  rejection  of  the 
Hungarian  demands,  however,  the  note 
announced  that  the  allied  and  associated 
powers  had  adopted  a  method  of  correct- 
ing frontier  lines.  The  Delimitations 
Commissions,  which  had  already  begun 
their  work,  were  given  power,  in  case 
they  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  boun- 
dary provisions  of  the  treaty  created  in- 
justice, to  report  this  to  the  Council  of 
the  League  of  Nations,  which  could  then 


616 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


offer  its  good  offices  to  rectify  the 
original  line.  Two  new  articles,  further- 
more, had  been  added  to  the  treaty.  The 
first  (207)  provided  that  one  or  other  of 
the    Danube   countries — Jugoslavia,   Po- 


IN  THIS  HUNGARIAN  POSTER  THE  PEACE 
CONFERENCE  IS  SHOWN  CUTTING  GREAT 
SLICES  FROM  HUNGARY  AND  LEAVING 
IT  ONLY  A  FRAGMENT  OF  ITS  FORMER 
SELF 

land,  Austria,  Rumania  or  Hungary — 
should  within  six  months  begin  negotia- 
tions to  conclude  a  convention  for  the  re- 
newal of  trade  exchanges.  The  second 
new  article  (293)  strengthened  this 
policy  of  solidarity  by  instituting  a 
Middle  Danube  Commission  under  a 
President  appointed  by  the  League  of 
Nations,  empowered  to  maintain  in  its 
broad  lines  the  existing  fluvial  regime, 
thus  creating  a  fresh  tie  between  Hun- 
gary and  her  neighbors. 

Regarding  reparations,  the  allied  pow- 
ers maintained  their  refusal  to  allot  a 
fixed  sum,  adhering  to  the  system  of 
estimating  compensation  by  a  reparation 
commission  over  an  extended  period — 
the  plan  originally  decided  on  in  the  case 
of  Germany.  The  note  stated  that  it 
was  not  desired  to  saddle  Hungary  with 
a  heavier  burden  than  she  could  bear, 
but  that  it  was  believed  that  she  could 


make  certain  payments  between  1920  and 
1926,  and  that  the  possibility  of  bene- 
fiting from  any  amelioration  in  the  eco- 
nomic life  would  be  reserved.  Modifica- 
tions on  the  subjects  of  national  minori- 
ties, military  and  naval  clauses  and  war- 
guilty  nationals  were  similarly  re- 
jected, and  Hungary  was  given  ten  days 
in  which  to  declare  her  willingness  to 
sign  the  terms  imposed. 

M.  Prasenowski,  Hungarian  Minister, 
reached  Paris  from  Budapest  on  May  21, 
the  last  day  of  the  time  limit.  Early  in 
the  afternoon  he  notified  the  allied  au- 
thorities that  his  Government  accepted 
the  treaty  as  drawn.  A  note,  signed  by 
the  Hungarian  Premier  and  Foreign 
Minister,  was  also  presented,  stating 
that  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  would 
be  carried  out  loyally. 

The  ceremony  of  signing  was  held  on 
June  4  in  the  long  gallery  of  the  Grand 
Trianon.  It  was  brief  and  unspectacu- 
lar.   At  the  time  set  for  the  ceremony— 


.SEGiTSlfEK 

kMmmsQ 


PLACARD  POSTED  THROUGHOUT  HUN- 
GARY SHOWING  THE  COUNTRY,  TYPI- 
FIED BY  A  CITIZEN,  TRYING  TO  DEFEND 
ITSELF  AGAINST  THE  WOLVES  SEEKING 
TO    TEAR    IT    TO    PIECES 


HUNGARY  AND  NEIGHBORING  STATES 


617 


4:15  P.  M. — the  Hungarians,  escorted 
by  officers  of  each  of  the  four  allied  na- 
tions, walked  through  the  gardens  to  the 
palace;  when  they  entered  the  gallery 
and  were  formally  announced  all  the 
delegates  rose  from  the  horseshoe  table. 
When  the  Hungarians  and  the  allied 
representatives  were  seated,  M.  Millerand 
rose  and  briefly  invited  the  Hungarians 
to  sign  the  treaty.  August  Beynar,  the 
Hungarian  Minister  of  Labor,  and  Al- 
fred de  Drasche  Lazar,  Minister  Pleni- 
potentiary, then  rose,  walked  to  the  little 
rosewood  table  before  M.  Millerand  and 
iffixed  their  signature.  The  American 
^Ambassador,  Mr.  Wallace,  was  next  to 
sign,  followed  by  the  other  allies  in  turn. 
The  whole  ceremony  took  less  than  half 
an  hour.  M.  Millerand  then  declared  the 
proceedings  at  an  end.  As  they  left  the 
building  the  Hungarian  delegates  re- 
ceived the  salute  of  the  military  guard. 

The  act  of  signing  was  preceded  by 
violent  agitation  in  Hungary,  led  by 
former  Premier  Friedrich,  chief  of  the 
"  irreconcilable  "  wing  of  the  Christian 
National   Party,  who  asserted  that  the 


Allies  had  no  means  of  coercing  Hungary 
if  the  Magyar  Government  refused  to 
sign.  The  day  of  signing  was  made  a 
day  of  national  mourning  in  Budapest. 
The  city  was  bedecked  with  black  flags 


POSTER  REPRESENTING  THE  HUNGARIAN 

PEOPLE       AS       SWEARING      THAT       THEY 

WOULD    NEVER    ACCEPT    THE    TERMS    OF 

THE  PEACE   TREATY 


POSTER   REPRESENTING  HUNGARY  FIGHT- 
ING  OFF   THE    FOES    THAT    COMPASS    THE 
NEW    NATION    ON     EVERY     SIDE 

and  draperies,  railways  and  street  cars 
stopped  service,  and  stores  and  banks 
were  closed.  One  of  the  features  of  the 
celebration  was  a  series  of  riots,  in  which 
"  awakening  Magyars "  killed  several 
Jews  and  wounded  many  more.  These 
occurrences  were  reported  to  the  State 
Department  at  Washington  by  U.  Grant 
Smith,  American  High  Commissioner  at 
Budapest,  who  said  that  the  allied  mis- 
sions at  Budapest  protested  to  the  Hun- 
garian Government,  demanding  the  res- 
toration of  law  and  order. 

The  Peace  Treaty  was  denounced  in 
the  National  Assembly,  in  the  churches 
and  public  meetings  as  an  outrage 
against  justice  and  humanity.  Speakers, 
including  Cabinet  Ministers,  pointed  out 
that  the  provisions  could  not  be  fulfilled 
and  contained  the  seed  of  new  wars. 

On  June  8  the  International  Trades 
Union  Conference  and  the  General  Coun- 
cil  of   the    International    Federation    of 


618 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Transport  Workers  announced  at  Am- 
sterdam that  a  general  boycott,  to  take 
effect  on  June  20,  was  declared  on  all 
commerce  with  Hungary,  including  rail 
and  wire  communications,  as  a  retalia- 
tion for  the  persecution  of  Socialists  and 
trade  unionists  by  the  Horthy  Govern- 
ment. 

Four  new  classes  of  recruits  have  been 
called  to  the  colors  by  the  Minister  of 
Defense.  Vienna  newspapers  report  that 
the  Magyar  Army,  reduced  by  the  Peace 
Treaty  to  35,000  men,  actually  amounts 
to  thrice  that  number.  It  has  been  dis- 
covered that  agents  of  the  Hungarian 
Government,  aided  by  a  certain  British 
journalist,  have  smuggled  enormous 
quantities  of  arms  and  ammunition,  be- 
longing to  the  Austrian  Government, 
across  the  Hungarian  frontier.  Several 
persons  involved  in  the  plot  are  under 
arrest  in  Vienna. 

In  the  National  Assembly  the  cleav- 
age separating  the  pro-Hapsburg  Chris- 
tian Nationalists  from  the  anti-Haps- 
burg  Farmers'  Party  widens.  Nineteen 
members  of  the  latter — all  of  them  large 
proprietors — have  seceded  and  formed  a 
new  Agrarian  Party,  which  co-operates 
with  the  Christian  Nationals.  Violent 
scenes  occurred  in  the  House  when 
Deputies  belonging  to  the  Farmers' 
Party  protested  against  the  outrages 
perpetrated  on  Jews  and  Socialists  by 
the  officers'  detachments,  activities 
which  brought  the  nation  into  disrepute. 
Christian  National  members  demanded 
that  the  protesters  be  ejected. 

The  Court  of  Justice  at  Budapest  put 
an  embargo  on  all  possessions  of  Count 
Michael  Karolyi,  late  President  of  the 
republic,  now  a  refugee  in  Czechoslo- 
vakia. A  bill  of  attainder  against  all 
members  of  his  Government  has  been 
proposed. 

Agitation  for  outlawing  all  Masonic 
organizations,  declared  hotbeds  of  liber- 
alism and  internationalism,  is  conducted 
by  the  Clericals  and  chauvinists.  Offi- 
cers belonging  to  the  Move  (Magyar 
Defense  Union)  invaded  the  Budapest 
headquarters  of  the  Masonic  Grand 
Lodge  and  took  possession  of  the  build- 
ing and  furnishings.  The  house  serves 
now  as  an  officers'  club.     Similar  action 


was  taken  in  other  cities,  despite  the  pro- 
tests of  Masonic  organizations  abroad. 

Among  the  latest  anti-Jewish  meas- 
ures urged  by  the  Friedrich  group  is  a 
bill  apportioning  newsprint  to  Jewish 
newspapers  on  the  basis  of  the  percent- 
age of  Jewish  population.  Publications 
owned,  managed  or  written  by  Jews  are 
considered  Jewish,  and  it  is  proposed 
that  they  be  compelled  to  bear  their 
name  in  Jewish  characters  on  the  first 
page. 

The  mission  of  the  British  Labor  Par- 
ty, led  by  Colonel  Wedgwood,  M.  P.,  has 
arrived  at  Budapest  to  investigate 
charges  about  the  White  Terror. 

AUSTRIA 

Anti-Semitic  riots  with  numerous 
casualties  occurred  in  the  streets  of 
Vienna  with  the  participation  of  the 
Union  of  ex-Officers  and  German  Na- 
tionalist students.  Disturbances  of  a 
similar  nature  resulted  in  the  death  of 
fourteen  persons  in  Graz,  the  capital  of 
Styria.  It  is  charged  that  the  anti- 
Semitic  agitation  is  financed  and  other- 
wise assisted  by  the  Hungarian  Govern- 
ment, which  seeks  co-operation  with  the 
Austrian  monarchist  and  militarist  cir- 
cles. On  the  other  hand,  the  anti- 
Semitic  press  asserts  that  the  disorders 
were  instigated  by  Communist  refugees 
from  Budapest  and  Munich. 

The  anti-Semitic  organizations  de- 
mand that  all  Jews  be  removed  from 
public  offices  and  the  army,  that  the 
percentage  of  Jewish  students  in  high 
schools  be  limited  by  law,  and  that  all 
foreign  Jews  be  expelled  from  Austria. 
Systematic  attempts  by  German  chauvin- 
ist students  to  exclude  their  Jewish  col- 
leagues from  the  university  building  oc- 
casioned the  closing  of  the  premises  by 
order  of  the. rector.  Many  Jewish  stu- 
dents were  severely  beaten,  and  Hun- 
garian officers  in  uniform  were  observed 
in  the  mob. 

The  antagonism  between  the  "  bour- 
geoisie "  and  the  Socialists  is  growing 
sharper  in  every  phase  of  public  life. 
The  alignment  on  the  issue  of  constitu- 
tional reform,  soon  to  be  taken  up  by 
the  Assembly,  is  determined  by  the  de- 
sire of  the  Socialists  to  retain  for  Vien- 


HUNGARY  AND  NEIGHBORING  STATES 


619 


na,  where  they  are  in  the  majority,  su- 
premacy in  the  republic;  while  the  mid- 
dle class  parties,  above  all  the  Christian 
Socialists  and  the  peasants,  are  bent 
upon  securing  strong  decentralization  on 
a  basis  of  federalism. 

An  unusual  manifestation  of  this 
struggle  is  the  anti-militaristic,  or, 
rather,  anti-military,  propaganda  of  the 
"  bourgeois  "  press,  above  all  the  liberal 
Neue  Freie  Presse  and  the  Clerical 
Reichspost.  These  papers  declare  that 
Austria  neither  needs  nor  can  afford  an 
army  even  of  the  size  to  which  it  is  re- 
duced by  the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain,  and 
urge  that  the  entire  military  force  be 
disbanded.  The  Socialists,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  strong  for  keeping  the  army 
intact.  The  explanation  is  that  70  per 
cent,  of  the  new  army  of  30,000  consists 
of  "class-conscious  proletarians,"  or  So- 
cial Democrats  and  Communists.  It 
happened  recently  in  Vienna  that  a  ses- 
sion of  the  Citizens'  Council  was  at- 
tacked by  a  mob  of  Socialists,  who  were 
first  repulsed  by  the  police,  but  returned 
reinforced  with  two  battalions  of  sol- 
diers and  dispersed  the  meeting,  police 
and  all. 

The  Socialists,  on  their  side,  demand 
dissolution  of  the  Vienna  police,  which, 
they  charge,  is  nothing  but  a  bourgeois 
"  White  Guard,"  and  its  substitution 
with  a  proletarian  "  Sicherheitswehr." 

The  budget  of  the  State,  submitted  by 
Finance  Minister  Dr.  Reisch,  shows  a 
deficit  of  over  10,000,000,000  kronen, 
with  an  expenditure  of  over  16,000,- 
000,000  kronen  against  revenues  total- 
ling 6,000,000,000  kronen.  The  Govern- 
ment has  been  authorized  to  cover  the 
excess  by  further  credit  operations, 
though  prospects  to  raise  new  loans  are 
regarded  as  desperate.  Chancellor  Ren- 
ner  himself  said  recently  that  State  em- 
ployes are  facing  a  payless  payday. 

M.  Margaine,  Chairman  of  the  Repara- 
tions Commission,  in  a  report  submitted 
to  the  French  Parliament  declares  that 
the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain  is  impossible 
of  fulfillment,  since  the  Austrian  Re- 
public cannot  subsist  independently.  As 
the  only  alternative  to  its  union  with 
Germany,  M.  Margaine  urges  that  the 
Allies   initiate  a  policy  creating  a  con- 


federation of  all  the  Danubian  States. 
As  an  instance  of  the  growing  Ger- 
man influence  in  Austria  it  is  reported 
that  Herr  Stinnes,  the  German  multi- 
millionaire, who  is  the  financial  backer 
of  the  German  People's  Party,  victorious 
in  the  recent  elections,  has  bought  up 
four  important  Vienna  dailies,  among 
them  the  Neues  Wiener  Tagblatt  and 
the  Achtuhrblatt. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

President  Thomas  G.  Masaryk  was  re- 
elected for  a  term  of  seven  years  by 
the  newly  chosen  National  Assembly, 
called  after  the  ratification  of  the  new 
Czechoslovak  Constitution.  Masaryk's 
re-election  was  a  pure  formality,  inas- 
much as  the  Constitution  practically  pro- 
vides for  his  continuance  in  office  for 
life.  Masaryk  received  284  votes,  among 
them  those  of  several  German  and  Mag- 
yar Deputies,  while  61  German  National- 
ists voted  for  Herr  Naegel,  Rector  of  the 
German  University  of  Prague,  and  16 
ballots  were  left  blank. 

The  final  returns  of  the  National  As- 
sembly elections  show  that  body  to  be 
composed  of  199  Czechoslovaks,  72  Ger- 
mans and  10  Magyars.  One  hundred 
and  one  Deputies  belong  to  the  different 
factions  of  the  Socialist  Party,  74  ad- 
hering to  Premier  Tusar's  group  of 
Social  Democrats;  the  Farmers'  Party 
counts  40  members,  the  Catholic  Clerical 
People's  Party  33,  while  the  National 
Democratic  following  of  the  former 
Premier,  Dr.  Kramarz,  was  reduced  to 
19.  Among  the  72  Germans  31  are 
Socialists,  the  rest  divided  among  bour- 
geois groups,  and  4  of  the  10  Magyar 
members  are  Social  Democrats. 

In  the  Senate  102  Czechoslovaks  face 
37  Germans  and  3  Magyars.  The  Social- 
ists have  a  plurality,  but  no  majority. 
Nineteen  seats  of  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties and  ten  of  the  Senate  are  still  vacant, 
pending  the  outcome  of  the  Teschen 
plebiscite. 

The  foraiation  of  the  new  Cabinet  was 
intrusted,  as  generally  expected,  to 
Vladimir  Tusar,  whose  resignation  from 
the  Premiership  on  the  eve  of  the  elec- 
tion had  been  regarded  as  a  mere  for- 
mality.    The  new  Ministry  is  composed 


620 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  Social  Democrats,  Agrarians,  National 
Socialists,  National  Democrats  and  Slo- 
A'aks.  The  Government  is  being  sup- 
ported by  a  coalition  of  these  parties, 
while  the  Clerical  People's  Party,  sus- 
pected of  royalist  leanings,  together  with 
the  Germans  and  Magyars,  forms  the  op- 
position, though  the  German  Magyar  So- 
cial Democrats  are  likely  to  co-operate 
with  their  Czechoslovak  fellow-Socialists. 
The  list  of  the  Ministry  follows: 

Premier  and  Acting  Minister  of  Defense- 
Vladimir  Tusar  (Socialist). 

Minister  of  Interior— Svehla  (Agrarian). 

Foreign   Minister— Benes    (Socialist). 

Finance— English    (non-party,    expert). 

Health  and  Administrative  Unification— 
Srobar    (Slovak). 

Posts  and  Telegraphs— Stanek  (National 
Democrat). 

Education— Habermann    (Socialist). 

Railways— Stribrny    (Socialist). 

Justice— Meisner   (Socialist). 

Public  Works— Vrbensky    (Socialist). 

Commerce — Sonntag  (National  Demo- 
crat). 

Food— Johanis    (Socialist). 

Slovak  Minister— Derer  (Slovak  So- 
cialist). 

Agriculture— Prashek    (Agrarian). 

Minister  Without  Portforio— Hotovec 
(non-party,  expert,  in  charge  of  foreign 
trade  expansion). 

Serious    clashes   between    Czechs   and 


Poles  have  occurred  in  the  Karwin  dis- 
trict of  Silesia.  The  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Council  to  postpone  the  plebiscite 
to  July  12  has  caused  great  bitterness  on 
both  sides.  The  Czechoslovak  organiza- 
tions of  the  Teschen  area  protest  against 
the  ruling  of  the  International  Commis- 
sion permitting  persons  having  no  domi- 
cile in  the  disputed  territory  to  vote  at 
the  plebiscite.  It  is  also  charged  that 
the  Polish  authorities  refuse  to  honor 
Czechoslovak  passports  and  other  cre- 
dentials. 

The  last  of  the  Czechoslovak  troops 
in  Siberia  have  embarked  at  Vladivostok 
and  are  now  on  their  way  home. 

Foreign  Minister  Benes  advised  M. 
Tchitcherin,  the  Foreign  Minister  of 
Soviet  Russia,  that  a  Czechoslovak  peace 
commission  will  be  sent  out  to  meet  a 
similar  body,  to  be  named  by  the  Soviet 
Government,  to  discuss  peace  between 
the  two  republics. 

It  was  announced  that  the  Govern- 
ment contemplates  raising  a  large  loan 
abroad  to  finance  the  food  supply  scheme 
for  1920-21.  The  Government  has  pur- 
chased, for  immediate  delivery,  8,500 
carloads  of  American  grain,  via  Holland, 
as  well  as  3,500  carloads  of  flour  and 
corn  from  Rumania. 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 


Territorial     Gains    of   the    Greeks 


GREECE 

THE  Greek  Parliament  held  a  session 
on  May  14  which  was  historically 
momentous.  It  was  the  occasion 
for  a  scene  of  the  deepest  enthusiasm, 
caused  by  the  appearance  before  the  del- 
egates of  M.  Venizelos,  the  Prime  Min- 
ister, who  announced  Greece's  triumph 
in  the  terms  laid  down  to  Turkey.  By 
these  terms  Turkey  was  left  a  State  in 
name  only,  stripped  of  its  most  impor- 
tant territories,  and  reduced  from  its 
former  greatness  to  a  nation  no  larger 
than  the  boundaries  of  the  new  Greece 
created  by  the  efforts  of  the  Greek  Pre- 
mier. The  historical  significance  of  the 
announcement   of   M.    Venizelos,    telling 


how  the  Hellas  of  300  B.  C,  when  Greece 
was  in  her  prime,  had  been  at  last  re- 
stored, was  attested  by  the  tumultuous 
applause  of  the  assembled  delegates. 

By  his  extraordinary  ability  Venizelos 
had  won  for  Greece  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence even  more  than  he  had  dared  to 
hope  when  Constantine  was  overthrown. 
His  dream  of  reuniting  the  scattered 
Hellenes  to  the  utmost  degree  which 
geographical  difficulties  admitted  had 
been  fulfilled.  He  had  begun  the  work 
years  before  w^th  the  liberation  of  Crete. 
He  completed  it  in  1920  by  wresting 
from  Turkey  Thessaly,  Saloniki,  West- 
ern Thrace,  Eastern  Thrace  up  to  the 
outer  ramparts  of  Constantinople,  a  zone 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


621 


i  BOV/VOARY 

\  GReecE  /p/'^ 

•  BOUNDARY  or 
6f?EEC£  AS  f/XED 
^r  TREATY   I^ZO 
TERRITOKY   6AINED   IB$7 
TERRITORY  GAINED    Ig/lf 
TERRITORY    GAI/VEO    l}ZO 


MAP  SHOWING  THE  REMARKABLE  EXPANSION  OF  GREECE.  THE  SHADED  AREAS 
INDICATE  THE  NEW  ACCESSIONS  OF  TERRITORY.  THE  DODECANESE  ISLANDS,  MARKED 
•'  TO  ITALY  "  ON  THE  MAP,  WERE  AT  ONCE  HANDED  OVER  TO  GREECE  BY  THE  ITALIANS 


on  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  a  Greek  protec- 
torate over  Smyrna  in  Asia  Minor  and 
its  hinterland,  and  by  obtaining  from 
Italy  the  cession  of  the  Greek  Dodecanese 
Islands,  which,  under  the  Turkish  Treaty, 
were  provisionally  assigned  to  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Rome.  Only  one  step  re- 
mained still  to  be  taken,  to  obtain  the 
Island  of  Cyprus  from  Great  Britain, 
and  that  last  step  M.  Venizelos  was  al- 
ready preparing  to  take. 

Provision  by  provision,  he  recapitu- 
lated the  triumphs  won  for  Greece  under 
the  Turkish  Treaty.  By  the  acquisition 
of  Thrace,  Greece  expanded  over  a  num- 
ber of  cities  which  had  been  centres  of 
Hellenism.  Bulgaria  had  been  granted 
an  economic  outlet  through  Dedeagatch. 
A  mixed  international  commission,  in- 
cluding a  Bulgarian  representative, 
guaranteed  Bulgaria  free  transit.  The 
Greek  coast  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora  had 


been  declared  neutral  to  a  depth  of  about 
nine  miles,  but  the  Turkish  coast  neu- 
tralized reached  to  a  depth  of  sixty-two 
miles.  The  islands  Imbros  and  Tenedos 
were  annexed  to  Greece;  Turkey  had 
been  forced  to  renounce  her  claims  to 
the  islands  of  Lemnos,  Samos  and  others, 
which  had  been  ceded  to  Greece  by  the 
London  Conference  of  1913.  Of  the 
Dodecanese  group,  only  Casrellorizo  had 
been  completely  lost;  all  the  others,  as- 
signed to  Italy  by  the  treaty,  were  trans- 
ferred at  once  to  Greece  by  a  treaty 
signed  by  the  former  country  simultane- 
ously; Rhodes,  it  was  true,  remained  un- 
der Italian  occupation  provisionally,  but 
its  ultimate  reversion  was  expected. 

Regarding  Smyrna,  the  treaty  pro- 
vided for  abandonment  by  Greece  of 
part  of  the  Vilayet  of  Aidin,  M.  Veni- 
zelos explained,  but  the  entire  sanjak  of 
Smyrna  and  certain  districts  of  the  san- 


622 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


jaks  of  Magnes  and  Akhissar  had  been 
ceded  to  the  Greeks,  moving  back  the 
frontier  to  double  the  distance  occupied 
up  to  this  time  by  Greek  forces.  In  the 
north  the  frontier  was  extended  as  far 
as  the  middle  of  the  Bay  of  Adramyti; 
in  the  south,  to  Kemer.  The  conditions 
of  the  creation  of  this  second  Hellenic 
State  were  as  follows:  The  City  of 
Smyrna  and  its  hinterland  became  de- 
tached territories  of  Turkey  remaining 
technically  under  Ottoman  sovereignty, 
but  with  Turkey  transferring  to  Greece 
the  right  to  exercise  this  sovereignty  in 
practice.  A  Turkish  flag  on  a  fort  near 
Smyrna  to  be  designated  by  the  Allies 
was  to  symbolize  the  Turkish  ultimate 
ownership.  A  local  Government  was  to  be 
formed,  with  the  right  to  maintain  mil- 
itary forces  in  Smyrna  and  the  hinter- 
land to  preserve  order.  A  local  Parlia- 
ment was  to  be  elected  assuring  propor- 
tional representation  of  all  parts  of  the 
population,  including  minority  nationals. 
A  customs  frontier  was  to  be  created 
and  incorporated  within  the  Kingdom  of 
Greece.  Turkey  obtained  the  right  to 
have  a  customs  zone  in  the  port  of 
Smyrna,  where  she  would  enjoy  full 
freedom  of  import  and  export. 

The  treaty  further  provided  that 
Greece  should  present  to  the  League  of 
Nations  within  six  months  a  set  of  laws 
conforming  to  these  provisions.  Elec- 
tions should  be  postponed  until  the  Greek 
population  expelled  by  the  Turks  should 
be  repatriated,  the  delay  not  to  exceed 
one  year.  The  relations  of  the  Hellenic 
administration  with  the  local  Parliament 
were  to  be  regulated  by  the  Hellenic 
Government  in  accordance  with  the  Con- 
stitution of  Greece.  After  five  years 
the  local  Parliament  by  a  majority  vote 
shall  have  the  right  to  ask  the  Council 
of  the  League  of  Nations  for  permanent 
reunion  with  Greece,  to  be  decided  by  a 
plebiscitum;  should  this  be  favorable, 
Turkey  must  renounce  all  rights  and 
titles  possessed  by  her  in  Smyrna  and 
the  hinterland.  The  rights  of  minority 
populations  in  the  zone  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Dardanelles  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Bosporus,  on  the  Black  Sea,  were 
to  be  assured  by  the  creation  of  an  in- 
ternational commission. 


ALBANIA 

[For  map  of  Albania  see  Page  583] 
The  murder  of  Essad  Pasha  in  front 
of  the  Hotel  Continental  at  Paris,  June 
15,  and  the  attack  of  Albanian  rebels 
directly  against  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  indirectly  against  the  Italian 
troops  occupying  the  Avlona  hinterland, 
because  these  troops  had  attempted  to 
defend  the  menaced  Government,  were 
events  so  handled  by  certain  news 
agencies  as  to  connote  the  death  of  an 
excellent  patriot  in  the  first  place  and 
the  efforts  of  a  little  nation  to  throw  off 
a  foreign  yoke  in  the  second,  so  that  the 
deduction  was  invited  that  the  assassin, 
Rustem,  who  passed  through  Rome  on 
his  way  to  Paris,  may  have  been  an 
agent  of  the  Provisional  Government, 
which  had  been  recognized  by  Italy,  bent 
on  the  mission  of  removing  the  leader  of 
the  rebels. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Essad  Pasha  was 
a  mere  adventurer;  in  the  Balkan  war 
he  defended  Scutari  with  the  Turko-Al- 
banian  garrison  and  then  betrayed  it  to 
the  Montenegrins;  after  the  recognition 
of  Albania  as  an  independent  State  by 
the  London  Ambassadorial  Congress  in 
1913,  for  a  time  he  supported  the  for- 
tunes of  the  Prince  of  Wied,  who  had 
been  made  sovereign  of  the  new  State  by 
the  powers;  he  then  led  a  rebellion 
against  him  and  had  himself  proclaimed 
President.  At  that  time,  as  an  Al- 
banian chief,  he  had  a  small  Moslem  fol- 
lowing in  Central  Albania. 

During  the  first  ten  months  of  the 
great  war  he  made  an  ineffectual  effort 
to  have  the  title  of  President  confirmed, 
first  by  Austria-Hungary  and  then  by 
the  Entente.  When  Italy  entered  the 
war  in  the  Spring  of  1915  he  was  in 
Rome  trying  to  induce  General  Poro  to 
exchange  the  strategy  of  attacking  Aus- 
tria-Hungary on  the  Isonzo  for  that  of  a 
campaign  through  the  Balkans.  When 
this  proved  vain  he  shook  the  dust  of 
Italy  from  his  feet  and  went  to  Paris, 
and  then  to  London  in  a  more  or  less  suc- 
cessful attempt  to  interest  the  authori- 
ties in  his  military  scheme  to  bring  the 
war  to  a  close  in  the  Balkans.  For  cer- 
tain reasons  he  was,  for  a  time,  encour- 
aged by  the  French;  at  Saloniki,  at  the 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


623 


French  Headquarters  there,  he  was 
treated  more  or  less  as  a  person  of  dis- 
tinction. Just  before  the  surrender  of 
Bulgaria  he  returned  to  Albania  and  at- 


ESSAD    PASHA 

Head  of  Alhaniun  delegation  in  Paris,  assaS' 

sinated    by    an   Albanian   student 

(.Photo     Underuood    d    Underwood) 


tempted  to  raise  an  army.  His  success 
was  doubtful;  at  any  rate,  the  army 
never  took  the  field. 

During  the  Peace  Conference  he  was 
at  first  treated  with  some  consideration 
by  the  Entente  until  delegation  after 
delegation  of  Albanians  repudiated  him; 
he  was  also  repudiated  by  Albanians 
abroad,  particularly  those  in  the  United 
States. 

But  Essad  Pasha  had  no  connection 
with  the  revolt  of  the  Moslem  and  Catho- 
lic Albanians  which  attempted  through 
the  month  to  overthrow  the  Provisional 
Government  and  drive  out  the  Italian 
troops.  This  revolt  was  inspired  by  the 
attitude  of  the   United   States   Govern- 


ment toward  the  Adriatic  aspirations  of 
Italy  and  promoted  by  funds  and  muni- 
tions sent  by  Albanians  abroad.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  Albanian  societies  in 
the  United  States  expressed  their  faith 
in  the  Provisional  Government  and  the 
necessity  of  an  Italian  protectorate. 

As  most  of  the  alleged  news  from  both 
sides  regarding  the  progress  of  the  mili- 
tary operations  was  either  colored  on  one 
side  or  censored  on  the  other  for  propa- 
ganda purposes,  the  actual  situation  was 
unknown.  The  story  that  the  Italians 
had  been  obliged  to  retreat  to  the  protec- 
tion of  the  warships  off  Avlona  and  that 
the  rebels  numbered  15,000  well-armed 
men  was  probably  correct;  as  was  also 
the  story  that  the  Italian  garrison  was 
being  measurably  reinforced. 

BULGARIA 

Bulgaria  began  the  reconstruction  of 
her  gendarmerie  in  conformity  with  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  Stefan 
G.  Dentcheff  was  appointed  press  repre- 
sentative of  the  Bulgarian  Legation  at 
Washington.  A  lot  of  commercial  and 
industrial  information  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington forwarded  by  Graham  H.  Kem- 
per, the  American  Consul  at  Sofia,  and 
collected  by  the  Near  East  Division,  Bu- 
reau of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Com- 
merce. Wool  was  shown  to  be  the  great 
future  product  of  the  country  if  only 
modern  methods  of  cultivation  could  be 
introduced,  while  the  development  of 
railway  building  since  the  war  was  also 
described : 

Bulgaria,  because  of  its  economic  ex- 
haustion, is  not  in  a  position  to  under- 
take any  vast  schemes  of  railway  ex- 
tensions, and  must  perforce  confine  her 
energies  to  the  improvement  of  the  ex- 
isting system.  In  view  of  the  altered  cir- 
cumstances, the  Government  is  now  plan- 
ning to  improve  the  main  trunk  line— 
the  Tsaribrod-Sofia-Mustafa  Pasha  Line. 
This  route,  which  has  already  been  re- 
laid  with  heavier  rails  for  a  distance  of 
fifty  kilometers,  will  be  relaid  throughout 
its  whole  length,  and  it  has  now  been 
decided  to  take  the  necessary  survey  for 
the  construction  of  a  double  line  between 
Tsaribrod  and  Mustafa  Pasha.  When 
the  financial  position  has  improved  the 
Government  proposes  to  proceed  with  the 
completion  of  the  Shumla-Karnobat  Line. 


624 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


JUGOSLAVIA 

On  May  16,  after  prolonged  ne'jotia- 
tions   between   the   various   Government 
and  Opposition  Parties,  a  Coalition  Cab- 
inet  was   formed   and    accepted   by   the 
Prince    Regent   from   the   hands   of    M. 
Vesnitch;  it  contained  nine  members  of 
the  Parliamentary  Union  group  of  par- 
ties, which  was  in  power  in  the  last  Gov- 
ernment, and  eight  members  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic  Union  group,  which  formed  the 
Opposition.    The  list  was: 
M.  VESNITCH  (Old  Rad.). Prime  Minister 
Dr.    TRUMBITCH    (Dal.) .  .Foreign   Affairs 
M.    DAVIDOVITCH    (Lead- 
er   of    Democratic    Party 
and     Prime     Minister     in 

August,    1919) Interior 

M.      TRIFKOVITCH      (Old 

Radical)    Justice 

M.       YINTCHITCH        (Old 

Radical)     Commerce       (and 

Foreign      Affairs 
in  the  absence  of 
Dr.  Trumbitch) 
M.       VELISAR       YANKO- 

VITCH   (Old  Radical) Agriculture 

M.     DRINKOVITCH     (Na- 
tional  Croatian   Club) Posts   &   Tel. 

M.        YITTSA       YOVANO- 

VITCH    (Old    Radical).  ..Public  Works 
M.    KORISEC     (Leader    of 

Slovene   Popular  Party) .  .Transport 
M.  PRIBITCHEVITCH 

(Democrat)     Public  Instruction 

M.  RISTA  YIVITCH  (Mon- 
tenegrin)      Food 

M.    MARINKOVITCH 

(Democrat)    Religious   Affairs 

M.  KOVATCHEVITCH 

(National  Croatian  Club)  .Forests   and  Mines 
M.        KISTA        STOYANO- 

VITCH    (Democrat)    Finance 

M.   KRISMAN    (?  Kristan) 

(Croatian    Democrat) Agrarian   Reform 

M.    KIUKOVETS    (Slovene 

Democrat). Social   Policy 

General    BRANKO    YOVA- 

NOVITCH    War 

M.    RAFAILOVITCH 

(Democrat)    Public  Health 

M.  Protitch,  the  leader  of  the  Old  Radicals 


and  the  last  Prime   Minister,   will  also  be  a 
member  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  first  work  of  the  new  Cabinet  was 
to  consider  the  agreement  reached  by  the 
Jugoslav  and  Italian  negotiators  at  Pal- 
lanza  in  regard  to  the  settlement  of  the 
Adriatic  problem. 

RUMANIA 

Under  the  ilecisions  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, the  area  of  Rumania  was  practi- 
cally doubled,  and  the  population  in- 
creased from  7,500,000  to  15,000,000. 
Some  details  concerning  the  new  prov- 
inces and  their  resources  were  noted  as 
follows  by  the  British  Commercial  Agent 
at  Bucharest: 

The  area  of  Transylvania  is  about  5,- 
780,000  hectares  and  the  population  2,- 
600,000  (1911  census).  The  land  is  di- 
vided as  follows  •  Cultivated  land,  29  per 
cent.  ;  pasture,  14  per  cent.  ;  hay,  1.5  per 
cent.  ;  forest,  38  per  cent. ;  sterile,  4  per 
cent. 

A  large  number  of  cattle,  horses  and 
sheep  thrive  in  this  country.  Iron  ores 
are  found,  and  Transylvania  and  the 
Banat  produced  annually  before  the  war 
230,000  tons  of  pig  iron  and  190,000  tons  of 
iron  and  steel.  The  metal  foundries  em- 
ployed nearly  20,000  men.  Transylvania 
had  2,278  kilometers  of  railways  in  1911. 

The  area  of  Bukowina  is  about  1,000,- 
000  hectares  and  the  population  800,000. 
The  land  is  divided  as  follows:  Cultivated 
land,  28  per  cent. ;  orchards,  1  per  cent. ; 
hay,  12%  per  cent.  ;  pasture,  12%  per 
cent.  ;  forests,  43  per  cent.  The  exports, 
in  order  of  importance,  are  corn,  potatoes, 
sugar  beets,  &c.  It  is  proposed  to  erect 
a  large  paper  factory. 

The  area  of  Banat  is  about  2,800,000 
hectares  (with  a  population  of  1,-500,000), 
divided  as  follows :  Cultivated  land,  11 
per  cent. ;  orchards,  1  per  cent. ;  forests,  47 
per  cent. ;  pasture,  28%  per  cent. ;  hay, 
3%  per  cent.  ;  sterile,  9  per  cent. 

The  people  are  occupied  mainly  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits— 86%  per  cent,  being 
rural  and  13%  per  cent,  town  population. 
The  Banat  had  1,950  kilometers  of  rail- 
ways in  1910. 


II 


PRIVATE    BODYGUARD    OF    SULTAN    MOHAMMED    VI.    AT    THE    GATE    OF    THE    ROYAL 
PALACE    IN    CONSTANTINOPLE.      THE    SULTAN    IS    SEEN    STANDING   IN   THE   ARCH^^^Y 

(©    International) 

Turkey  and  Her  Former  Dominions 

Attacks  on   the    Peace   Treaty 

Note— T7ie   Turkish  Peace   Treaty,  printed  elsewhere  in  this   magazine,  is   to   he   modified 
in  important  details,  according  to  an  annotmcement  issued  on  June  it  hy  the  allied  Premiers. 


TURKEY 

THE  Turkish  Government  received 
a  cipher  dispatch  on  May  14  from 
the  head  of  the  Turkish  Mission 
at  Paris,  Tewfik  Pasha,  containing 
the  principal  provisions  of  the  Peace 
Treaty.  On  June  1  the  full  text  arrived 
at  Constantinople.  Criticism  of  the 
terms  meanwhile  arose  from  three 
sources — the  Government  organs,  the  Na- 
tionalist papers,  and  the  anti-Nationalist 
papers.  There  was  not  a  phase  of  the 
treaty  which  was  not  attacked  from  all 
three  sources. 

Aside  from  the  loss  of  territory  the 
Government  papers  condemned  the  main- 
tenance of  the  capitulations  and  their 
extension  to  subjects  of  States  which  had 
not  previously  enjoyed  capitulary  rights; 
also  the  grant  of  wide  administrative 
powers  to  the  International  Commission 
which  will  control  the  Straits,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  reduce  Turkish 
sovereignty  at  Constantinople  to  a  mere 
shadow.  Finally,  it  was  asserted  that 
the  majority  of  the  population  in  Cilicia, 


North  Syria,  and  in  the  Urfa,  Diarbekir 
and  Mosul  regions  is  Turkish  and  should 
not  be  handed  over  to  the  States  of  Syria 
and  Mesopotamia.  The  Government 
press  waived  the  Smyrna  grievance, 
trusting  to  a  reversal  in  the  plebiscite, 
but  the  absolute  surrender  of  Thrace  was 
declared  to  be  unendurable,  as  it  brought 
the  Greeks  to  the  very  gates  of  Con- 
stantinople. 

The  Nationalist  organs,  the  most  pro- 
nounced of  which  are  published  in 
Angora  and  Adrianople,  contained  a 
number  of  manifestoes  addressed  to  the 
Ulema,  to  officers  and  soldiers  returned 
from  captivity,  and  to  the  "  youth  of 
Turkey  and  the  Ottoman  Army."  They 
called  upon  the  Turkish  people  not  to 
support  Damad  Ferid  Pasha,  the  Grand 
Vizier.  All  patriots  in  Stambul  were 
urged  to  repair  at  once  either  to  Angora 
or  Adrianople  and  join  "  the  defenders 
of  their  country."  "  What  is  the  use 
of  remaining  in  Stambul,"  it  was  asked, 
"  if  the  Greeks  are  to  occupy  Thrace  up 
to  the  Tchataldja  lines?  Constantinople 
will  be  a  prison  rather  than  a  capital, 


626 


THE  NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


--ij 

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BRITISH    SOLDIERS    OK   THE    YORKSHIRE   REGIMPJNT   ON   PATROL    DUTY    NEAR 

JERUSALEM.     THE    HILL    IN    THE    BACKGROUND    IS    THE    MOUNT    OF    OLIVES, 

FAMOUS   IN- NEW   TESTAMENT   SCENES 


and  the  Greek  Prime  Minister  will  be- 
come the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier." 

The  anti-Nationalist  organ,  the  Peyam- 
Sabah,  published  a  leading  article 
from  its  editor,  Ali  Kemal,  who,  after 
declaring  that  the  Nationalists  and 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 
were  to  blame  for  having  brought  this 
humiliating  treaty  to  pass,  roundly  as- 
sumed that  the  terms  were  such  as  to 
deprive  Turkey  of  all  hope  of  leading 
an  independent  national  life.  Three 
courses,  added  Ali  Kemal,  were  open  to 
the  Turkish  people: 

1.  To  throw  themselves  upon  the  mercy 
of  the  powers,  pointing  out  that  the  loss 
of  Smyrna  will  injure  Turkey,  without 
advantages  to  the  Greeks,  while  the 
Tchataldja  frontier  will  cause  endless  hos- 
tility between  the  races  and  envenom 
future   relations. 

2.  To  sign  the  treaty  and  trust  to  the 
future  to  improve  Turkey's  position;  but 
what  Turkish  statesman  can  sign  such  a 
treaty? 

3.  To  offer  passive  resistance  to  the 
execution  of  the  peace  terms,  since  the 
hope   of  armed   resistance   is  vain. 

On  May  17  Salih  Pasha,  who  was 
Grand  Vizier  before  Damad  Ferid  Pasha, 
with  about  fifty  notables  eluded  the 
police  and  "  escaped  "  to  Angora  to  join 
the  Nationalist  leader,  Mustapha  Kemal 
Pasha. 


On  May  21  the  Entente  Liberal  Party 
organized  a  public  meeting  at  Stambul, 
where  order  was  maintained  by  the 
Turkish  police,  assisted  by  the  inter- 
allied police.  The  speakers  included 
Sabri  Effendi,  the  former  Sheik-ul-Is- 
1am;  the  Senator  and  philosopher,  Riga 
Twelfik;  Said  Mahir,  the  ex-Deputy  for 
Smyrna;  Rassih  Bey,  and  a  Turkish 
schoolmistress.  There  were  between 
three  and  four  thousand  in  the  audience. 
Sabri  Effendi  made  a  speech  typical  of 
all,  in  which  he  said: 

We  prefer  that  the  whole  of  our  coun- 
try should  be  occupied  by  one  of  the 
great  powers  rather  than  accept  the 
peace  conditions.  Our  sole  weapon  con- 
sists of  the  power  of  speech  and  senti- 
ment, and  we  have  confidence  in  divine 
justice  for  the  setlement  of  our  destiny. 

He  referred  to  Great  Britain  as  the 
greatest  Mohammedan  power,  and  ex- 
pressed the  hope  that  Great  Britain 
would  therefore  take  into  consideration 
the  appeal  of  the  Moslem  Turks.  Said 
Mahir  declared  that  Islamism  would 
never  submit  to  a  civilization  whose 
emblem  was  the  cross. 

Even  the  papers  which  have  been  con- 
sistently pro-Entente  since  the  armistice, 
like  the  Alemdar  and  the  Turkish 
Times,  declared  that  the  only  evidence 


IKEY  AND   HER   FORMER  DOMINIONS 


627 


BRITISH    AND    INDIAN    TROOPS    GUARDING    ST.    STEPHEN'S    GATE,    JERUSALEM, 
SAID    TO    BE    THE    GATE    WHERE    STEPHEN    WAS    STONED    TO    DEATH    IN    THE 

TIME   OF   CHRIST 


of  civic  courage  now  left  would  be  not 
to  sign  the  treaty. 

A  communique  appeared  in  the  press 
from  the  court-martial  announcing  that 
the  following  Nationalist  chiefs  had 
been  condemned  to  death  by  default  for 
high  treason,  rebellion,  and  instigation 
of  a  long  list  of  crimes  ranging  from 
massacre  to  confiscation  of  funds  be- 
longing to  orphanages:  Mustapha  Kemal 
"  Effendi "  of  Saloniki,  ex-Inspector 
General  of  the  Third  Army;  Kara  Vassif 
Bey;  Ari  Fuad  Pasha,  ex-commander  of 
the  20th  Army  Corps;  the  convert  to 
Islam,  Ahmed  Eustem,  formerly  known 
as  Alfred  Rustem  Bilinski,  ex-Ambas- 
sador at  Washington;  Dr.  Adnan  Bey 
and  his  wife,  Halida  Edib  Hanum.  With 
the  exception  of  Kara  Vassif,  who  was 
in  British  custody  at  Malta,  and  Ahmed 
Rustem,  who  was  believed  to  be  in  Italy, 
all  the  foregoing  were  with  the  leader, 
Mustapha  Kemal,  at  Angora. 

The  Nationalist  papers  which  con- 
tained the  manifestoes  against  the 
treaty  also  brought  the  first  official 
news  to  Constantinople  of  the  opposition 
Government  established  at  Angora  by 
Mustapha  Kemal.  His  so-called  National 
Assembly  was  composed  partly  of  dele- 
gates **  elected  "  in  the  proportion  of  five 
per    sanjak,    plus    a   certain    number   of 


Deputies  of  the  dissolved  Chamber  at 
Stambul,  and  was  invested  with  the 
functions  of  both  a  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive body.  Its  officials  were  Mus- 
tapha Kemal,  President  of  the  Assem- 
bly; Nejm-ed-Din  Arif  (ex-Speaker  of 
the  Turkish  Parliament),  Second  Presi- 
dent; Shelebi  Konia,  head  of  the  Mevlevi 
Dervishes,  First  Vice  President,  and  the 
head  of  the  Bektashi  Dervish  Order, 
Second  Vice  President. 

This  Assembly  had  voted  to  refuse  to 
be  bound  by  any  treaty  negotiated  by  the 
Turkish  Government  as  at  present  con- 
stituted, and  would  decline  to  recognize 
any  peace  treaty  unless  negotiated  by 
persons  delegated  by  itself.  The  As- 
sembly also  enacted  that  any  person 
guilty  of  action,  speech,  or  propaganda 
hostile  to  the  National  Assembly  should 
be  liable  to  the  death  penalty. 

Angora  is  215  miles  southeast  of  Con- 
stantinople, to  which  it  is  connected  by 
rail.  The  collapse  of  the  Sultan's  troops 
left  the  British  alone  to  guard  the  Bos- 
porus and  Marmora  littoral  and  the 
railway  terminals  opposite  the  Golden 
Horn  at  Scutari.  The  Nationalists  ad- 
vanced their  lines  so  as  to  be  just  out  of 
fire  of  the  British  warships  patrolling 
the  Straits,  and,  on  June  6,  drew  the 


628 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


SULTAN  MOHAMMED  VI. 

Latest  portrait  of  Turkish  ruler,  taken  in 

Constantinople 

(©    International) 


warships'  fire  near  Touzla,  thirty-eight 
miles  west  of  Ismid. 

On  June  12  Damad  Ferid  Pasha,  the 
Grand  Vizier,  left  Stambul  for  Paris 
via  Italy.  On  July  11  he  is  expected  to 
tell  the  allied  peace  delegation  that  he 
cannot  sign  the  treaty,  for  if  he  did  so 
his  life  would  pay  the  forfeit.  Before  he 
departed  on  the  steamer  Goljemal,  which 
will  land  him  at  Taranto,  four  men  con- 
victed of  conspiring  against  his  life  were 
publicly  hanged.  Among  them  were 
Kasad  Riza  Pasha,  a  General  of  artil-, 
lery,  and  Michad  Pasha,  formerly  in 
command  of  the  Turkish  troops  at  the 
Dardanelles. 

THRACE 

From  interallied  sources  of  informa- 
tion the  situation  in  Thrace  was  deduced 
as  follows: 

On  May  12  the  French  raised  the  Tri- 
color on  all  the  railway  stations  in  West- 
ern and  Turkish  Thrace  and  announced 
that  they  would  continue  to  operate  the 
railways  until  the  Greeks  occupied  the 
territory.  This  implied  sufficient  de- 
tachments of  French  troops  as  railway 
guards.  Up  to  May  22  only  about  fifty 
suspect  Bulgars  had  actually  appeared 
at  Kirk  Kilisse,  thirty-five  miles  east  of 
Adrianople,  and  150  in  the  neighboring 
villages. 

In  every  considerable  village  there 
was  an  organization  under  a  Turkish 
Captain  and  Lieutenant.  This  con- 
trolled an  amount  of  military  munitions 
greatly  exceeding  that  believed  to  exist. 
There  was  no  real  rapprochement  be- 
tween the  Bulgars  and  the  Turks.  In 
the  week  of  May  22  Tjafar  Tayar  Pasha 
convened  a  meeting  of  notables  at 
Adrianople.  This  decided,  by  a  vote  of 
118  to  82,  to  resist  the  Greek  occupa- 
tion; but  the  minority  complained  that 
Tayar  Pasha  only  obtained  a  majority 
by  packing  the  meeting  with  officers. 
The  total  force  that  could  be  counted 
upon  to  resist  the  Greeks  in  Turkish 
Thrace  was  estimated  at  8,000.  Against 
these  the  Greeks  could  bring  three 
divisions. 

To   this   information  was   added   that 


TURKEY  AND  HER   FORMER  DOMINIONS 


629 


contained  in  a  letter  received  from 
Adrianople.  This  stated  that  Tayar 
Pasha  had  attempted  to  restore  the 
fortifications  of  the  city  and  had  placed 
batteries  in  position  at  Pavlokeui  and 
Uzun-Keupru,  and  that  3,800  well-armed 
troops  and  irregulars  had  moved  to  the 
latter  station,  which  was  not  far  from 
the  former  Bulgar-Turkish  frontier. 
Finally,  the  Turkish  Thracian  Commit- 
tee had  imposed  a  per  capita  tax  of  5 
liras  on  the  population  for  a  war  budget. 
The  Nationalist  press  of  Adrianople, 
as  well  as  the  press  of  Sofia,  made  capi- 
tal out  of  the  report  of  the  French  cen- 
sors on  the  population  of  Thrace.  Ac- 
cording to  Greek  official  figures,  the 
total  population  of  204,000  included 
82,000  Turks,  76,000  Greeks  and  35,000 
Bulgars.  According  to  the  French  re- 
port there  were  86,000  Mussulmans,  of 
whom  74,000  were  Turks  and  12,000  Po- 
maks  or  Bulgar  converts  to  Islam;  56,000 
Greeks  and  54,000  Bulgars,  of  whom  sev- 
eral hundred  were  political  refugees. 

PALESTINE 

Several  events  showed  that  the  British 
Government  has  the  intention  de  facto  if 
not  de  jure,  as  the  mandatary  of  Pales- 
tine, to  carry  out  its  promise  made  in 
November,  1917,  in  favor  of  the  Holy 
Land  as  "  a  national  home  for  the  Jew- 
ish people."  About  the  middle  of  May 
Herbert  Louis  Samuel,  an  Oxford  honor 
man,  with  a  fine  record  for  administra- 
tive work  behind  him  as  Special  Com- 
missioner to  Belgium,  Home  Secretary, 
Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster, 
Postmaster  General  and  President  of  the 
Local  Government  Board,  reached  Lon- 
don after  a  tour  of  several  weeks'  in- 
vestigation in  Palestine  with  an  impor- 
tant report  for  Downing  Street.  His 
statement  on  the  conditions  there,  issued 
in  Cairo,  extracts  of  which  were  pub- 
lished in  these  columns  last  month, 
cleared  the  air  in  regard  to  the  mis- 
conceptions of  "  Zionism  "  entertained 
not  only  by  Moslems,  both  Arabs  and 
Turks,  but  by  many  interested  Christian 
church  communities  as  well. 

On  June  1  he  was  appointed  High 
Commissioner  of  Palestine  and  twelve 
days    later   he    was    knighted    by    King 


George,  and  made  preparations  for  his 
return  to  Palestine  with  his  new  rank 
and  office  on  June  20.  Meanwhile  he 
announced  the  purposes  of  the  British 
mandate  as  follows: 

Complete  religious  liberty  will  be  main- 
tained in  Palestine.  Places  sacred  to  the 
great  religions  will  remain  in  control  of 
the  adherents  of  those  religions.  Civilian 
administration  for  the  country  will  be 
established  immediately.  The  higher 
ranks  will  consist  of  British  officials  of 
ability  and  experience.  The  other  ranks 
will  be  open  to  the  local  population, 
irrespective  of  creed.  Order  will  be 
firmly  enforced.  The  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  country  will  be  actively  pro- 
moted. 

In  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the 
allied  and  associated  powers  measures 
will  be  adopted  to  reconstruct  the  Jew- 
ish National  Home  in  Palestine.  The 
yearnings  of  the  Jewish  people  for  2,000 
years,  of  which  the  modern  Zionist  move- 
ment is  the  latest  expression,  will  at 
last  be  realized.  The  steps  taken  to  this 
end  will  be  consistent  with  scrupulous 
respect  for  the  rights  of  the  present  non- 
Jewish  inhabitants. 

The  country  has  room  for  a  larger  pop- 
ulation than  it  now  contains,  and  Pales- 
tine, properly  provided  with  roads,  rail- 
ways, harbors,  and  electric  power,  with 
the  soil  more  highly  cultivated,  the  waste 
lands  reclaimed,  forests  planted  and  ma- 
laria extirpated,  with  town  and  village 
industries  encouraged,  can  maintain  a 
large  additional  population  not  only  with- 
out hurt,  but,  on  the  contrary,  with  much 
advantage  to  the  present  inhabitants. 

Immigration  of  the  character  that  is 
needed  will  be  admitted  into  the  country 
in  proportion  as  its  development  allows 
employment  to  be  found.  Above  all,  edu- 
cational and  .spiritual  influences  will  be 
fostered  in  the  hope  that  once  more  there 
may  radiate  from  the  Holy  Land  the 
moral  forces  of  service  to  mankind. 

On  the  eve  of  the  publication  of  Sir 
Herbert's  program  the  League  of  British 
Jews,  while  warning  "  hot-headed  Zion- 
ists," took  occasion  to  annotcte  as  fol- 
lows the  Government's  view  as  it  had  up 
to  that  time  been  declared — observations 
which  may  or  may  not  have  played  their 
part  in  shaping  Sir  Herbert's  program: 
The    declaration   of  his    Majesty's    Gov- 
ernment   does     not    mean     (1)     a    Jewish 
State,   unless  at  some  distant  future  the 
Jews    should    outnumber    the    other    ele- 
ments   in    the    population.       It    does    not 
mean  (2)  Jewish  ascendency,  unless  such 
were    to    come    by    superior    moral    and 
mental  qualities  on  the  part  of  the  Jews. 


630 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


It  only  involves  (3)  a  free  field  for  the 
people  of  many  lands  in  the  development 
of  the  country.  It  does  not  (4)  seek  to 
displace  the  Palestinian.  Recognizing  the 
excellent  work  done  by  the  agricultural 
colonies  of  Jews,  all  it  says  is  (5)  thai 
the  Jews  shall  be  free  to  continue  what 
they  have  so  well  begun.  "Wise  words, 
no  less  timely  than  the  accompanying 
warning  to  hot-headed  Zionists.  B  t  can 
this  interpretation  be  truly  regarded  as 
the  obvious  meaning  of  those  ill-chosen 
words,  "  A  national  home  for  the  Jewish 
people  ' '  ? 

Toward  the  end  of  May  in  London  the 
Zionist  Executive  Committee  was  mak- 
ing preparations  to  start  a  "  drive "  to 
secure  £25,000,000  to  enable  the  organi- 
zation to  start  the  work  in  Palestine  on 
a  large  scale,    x 

SMYRNA 

A  hundred  kilometers  from  the  coast 
of  Smyrna,  according  to  Sir  Philip  Gibbs, 
the  correspondent  of  The  New  York 
Times  at  the  City  of  Smyrna,  "  the 
Greek  Army  faces  Turkish  soldiers  en- 
rolled, armed  and  disciplined,  mostly 
against  their  will,  by  Mustapha  Kemal 
and  his  confederates  in  disobedience  to 
the  Sultan's  orders,  but  in  secret  alliance 
with  all  those  Turks  who  under  the  old 
regime  lived  by  the  system  of  political 
tyranny,  corruption,  and  plunder  which 
it  embodied." 

Sir  Philip's  dispatch,  dated  June  7,  con- 
firmed the  atrocities  to  which  the  Greek 
population  had  been  subjected  by  the 
Turks  during  the  last  six  years — their 
villages  destroyed,  their  beautiful  vine- 
yards leveled,  and  the  owners  either 
slain  or  scattered  through  the  cities  of 
the  Levant.  Sir  Philip  had  been  told 
that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  him  to  live 
in  Smyrna  or  the  neighborhood.  He  dis- 
covered nothing  but  peace,  tranquillity 
and  work,  and  added  this  in  regard  to 
the  Greek  administration: 

Under  the  wise  guidance  of  Venizelos 
the  Greeks  are  administering  their  Tur- 
kish territory  with  justice  and  mercy, 
and  with  even  a  generous  spirit,  to  the 
Turkish  population.  The  Prefect  of 
Smyrna  is  a  Turk,  Hadji  Bey,  and  all  the 
Turkish  officials  of  the  municipality  have 
remained  at  their  posts  with  authority 
over  the  civil  side  of  the  administration. 
I  took  coffee  with  Hadji  Bey  and  his 
assistants,  and  they  told  me  that  the 
Greek    rule    had    been     accepted    by    the 


Turks  in  Smyrna  with  resignation  and 
without    rebellion. 

The  problem  of  the  Greeks  is  difficult, 
and  the  courage  of  the  people  will  be 
tested  by  what  the  next  twelve  months 
holds  for  them.  With  Mustapha  Kemal 
raising  Turkish  levies  against  them,  they 
cannot  demobilize  their  army,  and  the 
daily  cost  of  maintaining  these  officers 
and  men  is  a  dreadful  drain  upon  the 
resources  of  the  State.  Unless  communi- 
cation is  established  between  the  coast 
and  the  interior  the  port  of  Smyrna  will 
be  idle  and  empty  and  many  Greek  mer- 
chants will  be  ruined.  The  line  held  by 
the  Kemalists  must  be  broken  by  force 
or  by  persuasion  or  the  Greek  hold  will 
be  hard  to  maintain.  If  Kemal's  line  is 
broken  by  force  there  may  be  guerrilla 
warfare  among  the  mountains,  which  will 
be  long-enduring  and  costly  to  both  sides. 

That  is  the  gloomy  side  of  the  picture 
for  the  Greeks,  but  I  find  them  full  of 
■hope  and  with  spirits  elated  by  the  great 
chance   which   fortune   offers   them. 

SYRIA 

With  the  raising  of  the  so-called  siege 
of  Aintab  by  a  French  column  and  the 
unconfirmed  report  that  the  besieging 
Turkish  Nationalists  had  surrendered, 
General  Gouraud  issued  a  statement  at 
Beirut  on  May  21  saying  that  normal 
conditions  had  been  restored  throughout 
the  hinterland. 

At  Cairo  on  May  19  General  Nuri 
Pasha,  who  represented  "  King  "  Feisal 
at  San  Remo,  made  a  statement  in  which 
he  denied  that  the  recent  attacks  on  the 
Jews  in  Jerusalem  and  by  Arab  bands  on 
French  outposts  had  the  encouragement 
of  official  Arabians  or  Syrians;  on  the 
contrary,  the  officials  were  using  all 
their  influence  to  prevent  such  actions, 
and  the  Arab  Government  would  wel- 
come an  investigation.  He  declared,  also, 
with  emphasis,  that  it  was  untrue  that 
Emir  Feisal  refused  to  go  to  Paris  un- 
less the  independence  of  Syria  and  his 
position  as  King  were  recognized.  The 
real  reason  was  that  he  felt  that  if  he 
left  Syria  serious  troubles  might  break 
out. 

PERSIA 

Last  month  the  subject  of  Persia  was 
left  with  both  the  British  and  the  Persian 
Governments  apprehensive  of  the  mili- 
tary situation  at  Teheran  as  influenced 
by  the  news  of  the  Bolshevist  victory  at 


TURKEY  AND   HER  FORMER   DOMINIONS 


631 


Baku,  whence  a  road  now  leads  to  the 
Persian  capital,  and  by  the  unrest  among 
a  Cossack  detachment  stationed  at  the 
latter  place  since  the  armistice.  When 
the  Bolshiviki  next  took  possession  of 
the  Caspian  seaport  of  Enzeli,  south  of 
Baku  and  only  seventy  miles  north  of 
Teheran,  the  event  started  a  false  re- 
port that  they  had  reached  the  Persian 
capital.  This  news,  on  June  3,  filled  the 
London  press,  with  consternation  until 
Prince  Firuz  Mirza,  the  Persian  Foreign 
Minister,  who  happened  to  be  in  London, 
showed  a  communication  sent  to  Teheran 
by  M.  Tchitcherin,  the  Bolshevist  Foreign 
Commissioner,  declaring  that  the  Soviet 
Government  had  no  intention  to  invade 
Persia   and   would   withdraw   its   troops 


from  Enzeli  as  soon  as  it  had  removed 
the  ships  and  munitions  stored  there  for 
the  aid  of  General  Denikin. 

Whatever  be  the  exact  truth  in  regard 
to  the  Bolshevist  invasion  of  Persia,  eith- 
er armed  or  diplomatic,  and  the  alleged 
loss  of  British  prestige  at  Teheran, 
through  the  agency  of  M.  Bravin,  the 
Soviet  Civil  Commissioner  for  the  Middle 
East,  Prince  Firuz,  put  the  matter 
squarely  up  to  the  British  Government 
and  to  the  League  of  Nations.  He  asked 
the  former  to  invoke  the  defensive  terms 
of  the  Anglo-Persian  Treaty,  and  the 
latter  to  apply  Article  XL  of  the  cove- 
nant. The  League  of  Nations  took  up 
the  matter  on  June  15. 


Complex  Situation  in  the  Caucasus 

The  Bolshevist  Coup   at  Baku 


GEORGIA 

ANEW  phase  in  the  mutual  relations 
of  the  Caucasus  republics  began 
with  the  establishment  of  a  Soviet 
Government  at  Baku,  the  capital  of 
Azerbaijan,  on  April  28-29.  Georgia  and 
Armenia,  both  actually  at  war  with  the 
Tartar  Republic,  were  placed  thereby  in 
a  difficult  position.  Severe  fighting  be- 
tween the  Georgians  and  Tartars  was 
temporarily  ended  by  the  conclusion  of 
an  armistice  on  May  19.  This  truce 
found  the  battlefront  within  twenty-five 
miles  of  Tiflis,  the  Georgian  capital, 
where  3,000  Georgian  wounded  had  ar- 
rived. Despite  the  fact  that  Georgia  had 
concluded  an  agreement  with  Moscow 
based  on  Soviet  recognition  of  its  inde- 
pendence and  of  its  right  to  the  posses- 
sion of  the  combined  with  a  pledge  that 
its  territory  should  not  be  invaded — 
British-administered  province  of  Batum 
— dispatches  from  this  region  dated  May 
29  indicated  that  in  the  fighting  on  the 
Azerbaijan  front  the  Georgians  had 
taken  Bolshevist  prisoners,  a  fact  which 
was  accepted  as  evidence  that  the  Geor- 
gians were  also  fighting  the  Bolsheviki 
on  this  front.  The  armistice  signed  at 
Baku  was  for  seven  days,  but  after  four 


days'  truce  hostilities  broke  out  afresh. 
A  defensive  alliance  between  Georgia 
and  Armenia  was  in  process  of  forma- 
tion. 

ARMENIA 

At  the  time  of  the  Baku  coup  Arme- 
nian and  Tartar  delegates  were  actually 
negotiating  at  Tiflis  the  question  of  sus- 
pending the  hostilities  which  had  arisen 
over  the  districts  of  Shusha  and  Zanze- 
gur,  where  an  Armenian  minority  re- 
sided. Armenia  was  abruptly  summoned 
by  the  Bolshevist  authorities  on  May  2, 
before  the  negotiations  were  concluded, 
to  evacuate  these  districts  forthwith. 
Other  demands  included  the  release  of 
Armenian  Communists  arrested  by  the 
Erivan  Government  and  refusal  to  grant 
asylum  to  deserters  from  the  anti-Bol- 
shevist Volunteer  Army. 

These  demands  were  at  first  rejected 
by  M.  Khatissian,  the  Premier-President 
of  Armenia,  but  the  powerful  Dashnak- 
zoutian  party  won  the  day  and  an  agree- 
ment with  the  Soviet  authorities  was 
concluded.  By  this  agreement,  as  well 
as  by  making  terms  with  the  Turkish 
Nationalist  leader,  Kiazim  Kara  Bekir, 
at  Erzerum,  Armenia  made  her  southern 
front  safe  from  attack  and  gained  hope 


632 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  forestalling  further  massacres  in 
Cilicia. 

This  defection  of  Armenia  to  Bolshe- 
vism was  regarded  both  by  the  Allies 
and  by  many  prominent  Armenians  with 
the  deepest  concern.  It  was  reported 
from  Canstantinople  on  May  12  that  the 
Khatissian  Government  had  been  over- 
thrown by  a  Bolshevist  uprising  at 
Erivan  and  that  an  Armenian  Maximalist 
had  assumed  power.  Advices  received  on 
May  25  by  the  Armenian  diplomatic  rep- 
resentative at  Tiflis,  however,  indicated 
that  the  loyal  Armenians  had  crushed 
this  new  regime  and  that  a  loyal  Arme- 
nian Army  was  in  control  of  Alexan- 
dropol. 

That  Armenia,  despite  the  forced 
agreement  with  the  Soviet  Government, 
did  not  intend  to  accept  invasion  of  her 
territory  with  equanimity  was  shown  by 
her  action  in  protesting  to  Moscow 
against  the  crossing  of  the  frontier  at 
Uzuncala  by  two  Bolshevist  cavalry  reg- 
iments on  May  21  and  in  dispatching 
troops  to  bar  their  way.  The  formal 
armistice  with  Armenia  remained  un- 
broken, but  great  uncertainty  prevailed 
regarding  the  future. 

AZERBAIJAN 

The    situation    of    the    Armenians    in 


Asia  Minor,  according  to  information  re- 
ceived by  Sir  Philip  Gibbs  in  Smyrna 
toward  the  beginning  of  June,  was  des- 
perate, the  Turkish  Nationalists  and 
Arabs  having  vowed  their  extermination. 
The  situation  at  Baku  underwent  little 
change.  The  members  of  the  Mussavet 
Government  had  fled  and  the  town  was 
quiet  by  May  6.  A  garrison  of  6,000 
Red  troops  with  a  small  local  force  was 
in  control.  Chief  Commissary  Nari- 
manov  presided  over  the  new  Soviet 
Government.  Some  twenty  British  citi- 
zens, arrested  at  the  time  of  the  coup, 
had  been  placed  under  surveillance.  It 
was  reported  from  Tiflis  on  May  30  that 
the  Soviet  Government  at  Baku  had  been 
removed  from  power  by  the  Bolshevist 
emissary,  Pankratov,  sent  from  Moscow. 
About  60,000  Bolshevist  troops  were  con- 
centrated in  the  region  of  Baku  at  the 
end  of  May.  These  forces  had  not  par- 
ticipated largely  in  the  fighting  against 
the  Georgians  and  the  Armenians. 
Through  the  capture  by  the  Bolsheviki 
of  the  Denikin  fleet  at  Enzeli — the  chief 
port  of  Persia — they  gained  domination 
of  the  Black  Sea.  Enzeli  itself  was  cap- 
tured by  the  Red  forces  on  May  18  and 
the  small  British  force  stationed  there 
was  driven  out.  [For  details  of  this 
capture  see  article  on  Persia.] 


Poland's  War  on  Moscow 

A    Month's    Heavy  Fighting 

\_For  map  of  Poland  see  Page  575] 


POLAND 

THE  anti-Bolshevist  campaign  of  the 
Poles,  supported  by  the  Ukrainians, 
on  a  wide-flung  line  reaching  down 
to  Kiev,  continued  during  the  month 
under  review  with  varying  success.  But 
the  Red  forces  struck  back  hard,  and  at 
times  claimed  more  or  less  important 
victories.  Moscow,  by  its  wireless  serv- 
ice, admitted  the  capture  of  Kiev  on 
May  6.  George  Renwick,  who  made  a 
special  trip  from  Warsaw  to  Kiev,  found 
this  formerly  bright  and  prosperous  city 
in  an  indescribable  condition  of  filth  and 
desolation  after  the  long  Bolshevist  oc- 
cupation.  Water  and  sanitation  were  be- 


ing re-established  toward  the  end  of 
May,  and  some  of  the  shops  were  being 
reopened. 

Meanwhile  the  Poles  concentrated  on 
the  front  south  of  Kiev  in  Podolia,  and 
were  heading  their  advance  toward 
Odessa,  their  ultimate  objective,  toward 
the  middle  of  May.  The  Soviet  Govern- 
ment, after  issuing  an  urgent  proclama- 
tion asking  nation-wide  support  against 
Poland,  bent  every  effort  to  dispatching 
strong  reinforcements  to  the  menaced 
front.  Such  auxiliary  forces  were  ar- 
riving between  the  Dnieper  and  Dniester 
on  May  17,  and  new  brigades  were  again 
attacking  Kiev.     The   reorganization  of 


POLAND'S  WAR  ON  MOSCOW 


633 


GENERAL  HAELER  AND  A  POLISH  FISHERMAN  OB'  ANCIENT  RACE  IN  A  HIS- 
TORIC CEREMONY  AT  PUTZIG,  ON  THE  SHORE  OF  THE  BALTIC,  SYMBOLIZING 
POLAND'S  REUNION  WITH  THE  SEA.  THE  COMMANDER  IN  CHIEF  IS  ABOUT 
TO  CAST  ON  THE  WATER  A  CIRCLET  MADE  OP  POLAND'S  SACRED  FOLIAGE 
(©    Western   Newspaper    Union) 


the  Ukrainian  Army  was  being  carried 
on  as  fast  as  possible,  in  order  to  re- 
lieve the  Polish  troops  when  Odessa  was 
reached.  The  Poles  were  leaving  the 
civil  administration  of  the  country  en- 
tirely to  the  Ukrainian  Government, 
provisionally  located  at  Vinnitsa,  and 
declared  their  intention  to  withdraw  as 
soon  as  their  military  objects  were  at- 
tained. Petlura,  after  a  tour  of  the 
captured  towns,  which  welcomed  their 
liberation  from  the  Bolsheviki  with  joy, 
sent  a  message  to  General  Pilsudski 
expressing  his  gratitude  to  Poland  for 
aiding  in  the  work  of  Ukrainian  inde- 
pendence. 

The  first  evidence  of  the  Bolshevist 
onslaught  in  the  northern  sector,  which 
later  assumed  considerable  proportions, 
occurred  on  May  18,  when  the  Bolshe- 
viki launched  an  attack  between  the 
River    Dvina    and    Borisov,    forcing   the 


Poles  to  give  ground.  During  the  next 
few  days  the  Reds  attacked  in  waves,  in 
an  effort  to  break  the  Polish  lines  and 
open  communication  with  East  Prussia 
via  Dvinsk.  The  fiercest  fighting  seen 
in  months  raged  along  a  front  ninety 
miles  in  length.  Sixteen  Red  divisions 
(about  96,000  men)  were  identified 
among  the  reinforcements  constantly  ar- 
riving. The  Soviet  forces  were  aided  by 
airplanes  and  armored  trains.  The  Poles 
were  fighting  strongly,  and  the  official 
communique  stated  that  the  Bolsheviki 
were  being  repulsed  at  almost  every 
point.  Red  troops  which  succeeded  in 
crossing  the  upper  Beresina  River, 
south  of  Borisov,  were  thrown  back 
across  the  river  with  heavy  losses,  and 
were  encircled  and  captured  by  hun- 
dreds. Fighting  continued  along  the 
whole  front,  where  the  Poles  encountered 
the  heaviest  forces   they  had  ever  had 


634 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


to  face.  Soviet  cavalry  was  being  used 
effectively  in  the  swampy  districts.  The 
two  hostile  armies  swayed  back  and 
forth,  territory  constantly  changing 
hands.  Polish  reinforcements  sent  by 
train  broke  the  impact  of  the  Red  of- 
fensive definitely,  and  it  became  the  turn 
of  the  Polish  forces  to  attack. 

The  Polish  counteroffensive  began  on 
June  2  and  gradually  swung  eastward 
over  the  ground  that  had  been  lost.  In 
this  forward  movement  the  Poles  drove 
eighteen  miles  into  the  Bolshevist  front, 
and  routed  the  Soviet  soldiers  eastward 
all  along  the  line.  The  heaviest  fighting 
occurred  north  of  Borisov,  where  the 
Bolsheviki  were  endeavoring  to  break 
the  Polish  Vilna  defense.  General  Pil- 
sudski  in  person  watched  the  progress 
of  the  Polish  offensive,  which  was  con- 
tinuing favorably  on  June  9.  The  Poles 
had  broken  the  desperate  resistance 
of  the  Russians  and  had  annihilated 
the  3d  and  12th  Soviet  Divisions. 
They  had  captured  several  towns,  and 
the  enemy's  morale  was  much  impaired. 
The  whole  Kovno-Vilna-Minsk  line, 
where  most  of  the  fighting  occurred,  is 
famous  in  history  as  the  scene  of  much 
of  the  tragedy  and  heroism  of  Napo- 
leon's  historic    retreat. 

In  the  south  the  fighting  was  on  a 
smaller  scale.  The  Red  forces  made 
strenuous  but  ineffectual  efforts  to  bat- 
ter in  the  Kiev  bridgehead  from  May  28 
on.  South  of  Kiev  the  Reds  concen- 
trated large  forces  in  a  drive  northwest 
to  compel  the  Poles  to  evacuate  the  city. 
At  this  point  the  Poles  launched  a 
counteroffensive,  which  drove  the  Red 
troops  back.  A  Bolshevist  flotilla  on 
the  Dnieper  which  was  trying  to  cut  the 
Polish  communications  to  Kiev  was 
routed  by  the  Kosciusko  aviators  with 
machine  guns  and  bombs;  one  monitor 
was  sunk.  Moscow  reported  heavy 
losses  suffered  by  the  Poles  fifty  miles 
southwest  of  Kiev  on  June  5.  The  Bol- 
shevist attacks  between  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Dniester  broke  down  completely,  de- 
spite the  bringing  up  of  an  infantry 
division  and  16,000  cavalry,  and  the  on- 
slaught on  the  Kiev  bridgehead  lines 
made  no  progress.  An  attack  on  the 
Red  forces  in  the  Crimea,  reinforced  by 


tanks,  armored  cars  and  trains,  met  with 
initial  success,  but  was  checked,  accord- 
ing to  Moscow  wireless,  around  June  9. 

While  obstinate  fighting  on  both  the 
northern  and  southern  fronts  was  pro- 
ceeding. General  Pilsudski  had  returned 
to  Warsaw, well  satisfied  with  the  results 
of  the  Polish  campaign,  as  placing  Po- 
land in  a  strong  position  for  the  making 
of  future  terms  of  peace  with  Moscow. 

But  suddenly  the  tables  were  turned 
on  the  Poles  by  an  unforeseen  stroke  of 
Russian  strategy.  The  conqueror  of 
Denikin,  General  Budenny,  who  com- 
mands the  Red  army  on  the  Ukrainian 
front  between  the  Dnieper  and  Dniester 
Rivers,  reported  to  Trotzky  his  despair 
of  retaking  Kiev.  Trotzky  at  once  sent 
him  strong  reinforcements  and  ordered 
him  to  begin  a  drive  on  a  date  when  his 
movements  would  coincide  with  impor- 
tant action  elsewhere  in  the  north.  On 
the  night  of  June  9,  with  5,000  of  his 
Red  cavalry,  General  Budenny  drove 
boldly  through  the  centre  of  the  Polish 
lines  west  of  Byelaya  Tsirko,  southwest 
of  Kiev.  After  going  a  few  miles  furth- 
er, he  divided  his  cavalry  into  three  de- 
tachments, one  moving  on  Berdichev, 
another  on  Fastova,  cutting  in  two 
places  the  southernmost  of  the  three 
railway  lines  to  Kiev,  while  the  centre 
detachment  rode  on  to  Jitomir,  entering 
it  June  12,  before  the  Polish  General 
Staff  was  aware  of  the  drive.  The  raid- 
ers spent  June  10  burning  farms,  ripping* 
up  railroad  tracks,  destroying  rolling 
stock  and  capturing  stores. 

Through  Jitomir  runs  the  central  of 
the  three  lines  of  communication  to  Kiev. 
This  line  was  saved  by  the  action  of  the 
Polish  infantry  posts  and  cavalry  patrols, 
just  as  the  Reds  were  about  to  isolate 
Kiev  and  jeopardize  50,000  Polish  troops. 
Pilsudski  dispatched  orders  to  General 
Rydzmigly,  the  Polish  commander  of 
Kiev,  not  to  make  a  stand  there,  but  to 
evacuate  the  city  at  once.  This  was  ac- 
complished in  good  order  by  June  13. 
Meanwhile,  on  June  11,  one  Polish  air- 
plane squadron  from  Korostyshev,  the 
Red  objective,  and  another  squadron 
from  Kiev  suddenly  routed  the  Budenny 
raiders  from  Jitomir  and  Fastova,  play- 
ing havoc  after  driving  them  to  cover 


POLAND'S  WAR  ON  MOSCOW 


635 


in  a  forest.  By  June  15  the  Poles  had 
established  a  strong  position  at  Jitomir 
and  were  consolidating  their  lines  from 
the  Dvina  southward  along  the  Beresina, 
after  having  won  a  battle  on  the  north- 
ern front  and  ousted  the  Reds  from  ter- 
ritory gained  in  the  recent  offensive. 
However,  the  whole  Polish  front  was  fac- 
ing constantly  greater  odds,  the  Reds 
having  concentrated  thirty-three  divi- 
sions against  them,  by  far  the  largest 
force  the  Poles  have  yet  had  to  cope 
with. 

Elections  to  the  new  Diet  were  held 
on  May  16.  The  results  were  as  follows: 
German  National  People's  Party,  34;  So- 
cial Democrats,  19;  Independents,  21; 
Centre  Party,  17;  German  Democratic 
Party,  10;  Free  Economic  Association 
Party,  12;  Polish  Party,  7. 

The  Minister  of  Public  Health  in  War- 
saw, in  a  letter  of  thanks  to  the  Ameri- 
can people,  stated  that  1,200,000  Polish 
children  and  Polish  mothers  were  receiv- 
ing their  daily  meal  from  American  food- 
stuffs. 


By  executive  decree  of  May  26,  Brazil 
recognized  the  Republic  of  Poland,  and 
the  first  Minister  of  Poland  to  Brazil 
presented  his  credentials  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  Brazil  accepted  the  principle 
of  the  independence  of  Poland  on  Aug. 
17,  1918,  while  the  war  was  still  in 
progress. 

The  situation  of  the  "  free  city  of  Dan- 
zig "  is  now  becoming  clarified.  The  city 
since  Feb.  9  has  been  under  interallied 
occupation.  A  Constitution  for  the  new 
republic  has  been  drawn  up  by  all  par- 
ties, inclusive  of  the  Independent  Social- 
ists and  the  Poles.  This  follows  the  lines 
of  the  Constitutions  of  the  Free  Towns 
of  Hamburg,  Lubeck  and  Bremen.  The 
name  chosen  was  "  the  Free  and  Hanse 
Town  of  Danzig."  The  official  language 
is  to  be  German.  The  People's  Diet  is  to 
consist  of  120  members.  The  electoral 
system  is  to  be  similar  to  that  now  ex- 
isting in  Germany.  The  Constitution 
was  placed  under  the  protection  of  the 
League  of  Nations. 


Soviet  Russia's  Trade  Negotiations 

The    War   With    Poland 


THE  outstanding  features  of  the  Rus- 
sian situation  during  the  month  un- 
der review  were  the  continuance  of 
the  Polish-Ukrainian  campaign  against 
the  Soviet  Government  and  Moscow's 
success  in  finally  bringing  about  nego- 
tiations with  her  representatives  in  Lon- 
don regarding  a  resumption  of  trade. 

One  aspect  of  the  Denikin  liquidation 
in  South  Russia  was  the  intervention  of 
Great  Britain  on  behalf  of  the  remnant 
of  Denikin's  army  commanded  by  Gen- 
eral Wrangel,  whom  the  Bolsheviki,  fol- 
f owing  their  successful  drive  against  the 
former,  cooped  up  in  the  Crimea.  Ac- 
cording to  a  statement  issued  by  Gen- 
eral Wrangel  on  April  24 — only  recently 
made  available  —  the  final  collapse  of 
Denikin  had  just  occurred  when  Great 
Britain,  on  April  4,  sent  a  note  to  Ad- 
miral de  Robeck,  the  British  High  Com- 
missioner   in    Constantinople,    declaring 


that  General  Denikin  must  accept  media- 
tion to  bring  the  civil  war  in  South  Rus- 
sia to  a  close,  and  that  if  he  declined  to 
do  so  all  British  aid  would  be  with- 
drawn from  him  and  the  British  Gov- 
ernment would  not  be  responsible  for 
the  consequences. 

General  Wrangel,  to  whom  the  British 
note  was  transmitted  in  Denikin's  stead, 
after  taking  counsel  with  his  staff,  sent 
de  Robeck  a  reply  admitting  that  it  was 
impossible  to  continue  the  struggle  with- 
out allied  aid,  and  accepting  the  British 
offer  of  mediation  on  the  strict  condition 
that  the  safety  of  the  Southern  Army 
be  secured.  On  April  19  General  Wran- 
gel received  from  Admiral  Seymour, 
commander  of  the  British  fleet  in  the 
Black  Sea,  a  copy  of  a  note  addressed 
by  the  British  Government  to  M.  Tchit- 
cherin,  Soviet  Commissary  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  calling  upon  the  Bolsheviki  to 


636 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


cease  hostilities  and  to  guarantee  the  in- 
violability of,  the  Crimea,  saying  that 
otherwise  the  British  naval  forces  M^ould 
be  ordered  to  take  measures  to  prevent 
the  occupation  of  the  Crimea  by  the  Bol- 
sheviki.  The  order  closed  with  an  ex- 
pression of  General  Wrangel's  determi- 
nation to  fight  for  every  foot  of  Russian 
territory,  and  to  make  strenuous  efforts 
to  snatch  victory  from  the  Bolsheviki 
pending  their  consent  to  cease  hostilities. 

Meanwhile  negotiations  with  the  Brit- 
ish continued,  and  Moscow  wireless  ad- 
vices of  May  8  reported  that  the  con- 
versations between  M.  Tchitcherin  and 
Earl  Curzon,  acting  for  Great  Britain, 
had  had  the  following  results:  Earl  Cur- 
zon had  proposed  direct  discussions  be- 
tween the  Soviet  Government  and  Gen- 
eral Wrangel,  in  which  British  officers 
should  take  part.  He  had  demanded, 
meanwhile,  a  guarantee  against  further 
attacks  of  General  Wrangel.  M.  Tchit- 
cherin states  that  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment was  prepared  to  meet  the  British 
desires  fully  in  these  respects,  and  was 
also  willing  to  take  British  interests  in 
the  Caucasus  into  consideration. 

Profiting  by  the  slackening  of  the  Bol- 
shevist attempt  to  reach  the  Crimea,  at- 
tributed by  military  observers  mainly  to 
the  effect  of  the  Polish  offensive.  Gen- 
eral Wrangel  in  the  month  under  review 
disbanded  the  volunteer  forces  and  or- 
ganized a  regular  army  under  the  strict- 
est discipline;  more  than  70,000  troops 
were  under  arms,  prepared  to  assume 
the  offensive. 

On  June  14  General  Wrangel's  forces 
were  reported  to  be  advancing  north- 
ward from  the  Crimea  and  the  Sea  of 
Azov  in  three  columns.  They  had  been 
phenomenally  successful  against  the 
Bolsheviki  and  had  established  a  front 
along  Kaskovka  on  the  Dnieper  east- 
ward through  Melitopol  to  Mariopol. 
They  had  captured  4,000  Bolshevist  pris- 
oners and  forty  big  guns  of  the  100  es- 
timated to  be  in  the  possession  of  the 
Bolsheviki.  General  Wrangel  had  lost 
only  800  men.  His  three  columns  had 
advanced  simultaneously  from  Perekop, 
Guenitz  and  Mariopol,  clearing  the  Bol- 
sheviki from  both  the  Crimean  Peninsula 
and  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Azov.     His 


army  was  equipped  with  airplanes  and 
armored  cars. 

The  joint  campaign  undertaken  by  the 
Poles  and  Ukrainians  on  April  24  along 
a  250-mile  front  between  the  Pripet  and 
the  Dniester  had  resulted  by  May  4  in 
the  penetration  of  the  Bolshevist- 
Ukrainian  front  to  a  depth  of  seventy 
miles,  with  a  maximum  advance  toward 
Kiev  of  100  miles.  Great  alarm  in  Soviet 
Russia  followed  the  capture  of  Kiev  on 
May  6.  Troops  from  the  Urals  and  the 
interior,  including  many  mercenary  Mon- 
golian units,  were  at  once  sent  to  the 
Polish  front.  It  was  reported  from  War- 
saw on  May  20  that  General  Alexei  A. 
Brusilof f,  former  Commander  in  Chief  of 
the  Russian  armies,  had  assumed  com- 
mand. The  tide  of  war  fluctuated  for 
several  days.  Red  troops  crossed  the 
Beresina  and  were  flung  back  about  May 
24.  [For  later  developments  see  article 
on  Poland.] 

The  Soviet  Government  on  May  25  ad- 
dressed a  wireless  message  to  the  Gov- 
ernments of  Great  Britain,  France,  Italy 
and  the  United  States,  declaring  that 
the  Soviet  Republics  of  Russia  and  the 
Ukraine  were  free  from  territorial  am- 
bitions, had  no  aggressive  designs  on 
other  countries,  and  were  devoting  them- 
selves only  to  economic  reconstruction 
when  Poland,  ignoring  all  Moscow's  ef- 
forts to  open  negotiations  with  Warsaw, 
launched  this  new  attack.  Charges  of 
barbarism  against  the  Polish  soldiers 
were  preferred.  M.  Tchitcherin  also  sent 
a  protest  to  M.  Millerand  against 
France's  rendering  military  service  to 
the  Poles  by  allowing  French  military 
instructors  to  train  the  Polish  Army. 

In  Siberia  the  situation  underwent  lit- 
tle change.  Japan  still  held  the  region 
around  Vladivostok  and  was  trying  to 
set  up  a  buffer  State  in  the  Transbaikal. 

In  a  series  of  articles  published  in  May 
the  special  correspondent  of  The  New 
York  Globe  and  Chicago  Daily  News  de- 
scribed the  regime  of  horror  and  atrocity 
instituted  in  Siberia  by  Cossack  forces 
and  by  their  leader,  Semenov,  before 
Kolchak's  fall.  According  to  this  writer, 
armored  trains  were  used  to  scour  the 
country  in  search  of  alleged  Bolsheviki; 
hundreds  of  men,  many  of  them  innocent, 


SOVIET  RUSSIA'S   TRADE  RELATIONS 


637 


were  tortured,  murdered,  mutilated, 
drowned  in  holes  cut  through  the  ice; 
women  were  ravished  indiscriminately. 
The  story  as  told  is  a  ghastly  one,  equal- 
ing, if  not  outrivaling,  any  of  the  tales 
of  horror  narrated  of  the  Bolsheviki 
themselves.  Lieutenant  Beliakovsky, 
who  was  commissioned  to  report  on 
these  crimes,  stated  that   Semenov  was 


GREGORY    KRASSIN 
Russian  Bolshevist  envoy  in  London,  negotiat- 
ing  for  resumiition   of   trade   relations 
(PliOto     Underwood    d    Underwood) 


drunk  most  of  the  time  and  that  many 
of  the  orders  producing  these  atrocities 
were  signed  by  him  when  he  was  in  that 
condition. 

As  a  result  of  their  representations  at 
the  San  Remo  conference  the  Soviet  au- 
thorities won  their  first  success  in  the 
direction  of  trade  resumption  when 
Gregory  Krassin,  head  of  the  Russian 
trade  delegation,  then  at  Copenhagen, 
was  informed  at  the  beginning  of  May 


that  allied  representatives  had  been  au- 
thorized to  negotiate  with  him  in  London. 
The  Russian  trade  delegates,  headed  by 
M.  Krassin,  a  member  of  the  Central 
Soviet  Committee,  reached  London  on 
May  26. 

In  some  sections  of  the  British  press 
the  Government  was  roundly  condemned 
for  agreeing  to  deal  with  a  Soviet  com- 
mission. The  French  Government,  on  its 
part,  decided  officially  to  oppose  any 
trade  arrangements  on  the  basis  of  a 
payment  in  gold  which,  in  its  opinion, 
should  be  applied  to  the  cancellation  of 
Russia's  debt  to  France,  and  to  make  it 
plain  that  it  would  not  subscribe  to  any 
negotiations  of  a  political  character  with 
the  Soviet  delegation.  M.  du  Halgouet, 
the  French  representative  on  the  Allied 
Economic  Council,  was  instructed  by  his 
Government  to  make  known  to  his  Eng- 
lish colleagues,  as  well  as  to  M.  Krassin 
himself,  these  two  decisions.  The  French 
contention  was  that,  as  the  Russian  Co- 
operative Union,  as  an  independent  body, 
had  been  practically  suppressed,  M. 
Krassin  represented  only  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, with  which  France — unofficial- 
ly the  backer  of  Poland — refused  to 
treat,  while  consenting,  more  or  less  re- 
luctantly, to  the  British  plan  of  an  ex- 
change of  commodities  not  based  upon  a 
gold  or  money  payment. 

M.  Krassin  and  his  colleagues,  who 
had  remained  secluded  ii^a  London  hotel 
since  their  arrival,  were  granted  their 
first  conference  in  Downing  Street  on 
May  31  and  negotiations  were  begun  be- 
tween Premier  Lloyd  George,  Bonar 
Law,  Lord  Curzon,  Sir  Robert  Home  and 
Mr.  Harmsworth,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
MM.  Krassin  and  Klisko,  on  the  other. 
These  discussions  continued  at  intervals 
throughout  the  next  fortnight,  but  little 
concerning  them  was  made  public. 

About  June  10  the  French  Govern- 
ment, acting  in  the  name  of  the  French 
holders  of  Russian  bonds,  formally  re- 
quested the  British  Government  to  se- 
questrate all  the  Soviet  gold  shipped 
from  Russia  to  London  and  to  guarantee 
that  this  gold  should  not  be  paid  over 
in  any  commercial  transactions  between 
British  subjects  and  Russia.  The  same 
request  was  made  to  the  Swedish  Gov- 


638 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


emment,  which  immediately  responded 
by  announcing  that  it  would  hold  in 
Swedish  banks  250,000,000  Swedish 
crowns  in  gold  which  had  been  sent  to 
Stockholm  by  the  Russian  Government. 
The  French  Government  intends  to  take 
similar  steps  toward  the  Government  of 
every  other  country  to  which  Eussian 
gold  will  be  sent. 

The  French  were  highly  satisfied  with 
the  Swedish  action  and  expressed  con- 
fidence that  Britain,  an  ally,  would  not 
refuse    the    friendly     action    taken    by 


neutral  Sweden.  They  voiced  the  hope 
that  this  turn  of  affairs  would  keep  the 
Krassin  mission  in  London  from  accom- 
plishing anything.  By  thus  blocking  the 
commercial  dealings  of  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, while  Wrangel  and  the  Poles 
were  bringing  military  pressure  to  bear, 
the  French  believed  they  had  done  a  great 
deal  toward  loosening  the  Bolshevist 
bonds  on  the  Russian  people.  The 
United  States  Government  was  sounded 
by  Britain  on  the  subject  of  Russian 
trade,  but  made  no  answer. 


Japan  and  the  Chinese  Consortium 

Favorable  Trend  in  Both  Countries 


JAPAN 

JAPAN'S  efforts  to  induce  China  to 
open  negotiations  over  Shantung 
still  failed  of  success  in  the  month 
under  review.  China's  official  reply  to 
the  Japanese  proposals  was  being  formu- 
lated early  in  May,  and  it  was  stated 
semi-officially  on  May  9  that  the  reply 
would  reiterate  China's  refusal  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  Japan  until  after 
the  Shantung  settlement  had  been  re- 
vised by  the  League  of  Nations. 

Interesting  details  of  the  mission  of 
Thomas  W.  Lamont  to  China,  and  of 
how  he  finally  won  success  in  bringing 
about  the  consortium  agreement — in 
which  Japan  became  a  participant  with 
England,  France  and  the  United  States 
— were  sent  from  Shanghai  on  May  18 
by  the  Chinese  correspondent  of  The 
New  York  Globe.  Mr.  Lamont  while ^in 
China  was  faced  with  the  haughty  aloof- 
ness of  intrenched  autocrats  on  the  one 
hand  and  by  threats  of  violence  from 
excitable  patriots  on  the  other.  In 
Peking,  Chinese  students  declared  their 
intention  to  stone  the  hotel  in  which  the 
Lamont  party  was  staying,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  report  that  the  mission  came 
to  China  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  the 
acceptance  of  a  loan  from  Japan.  Mr. 
Lamont  invited  the  malcontents  to  enter 
and  take  tea  with  him,  in  order  to  talk 
the  matter  over.  Tweny  boys  and  ten 
girls,  representing  the  students,  accepted 


the  invitation  and  bombarded  Mr.  Lamont 
with  questions  for  two  hours.  They  de- 
parted satisfied  that  the  consortium  plan 
would  be  beneficial  to  the  republic.  A 
bouquet  of  flowers  was  subsequently  sent 
in  lieu  of  the  threatened  shower  of 
stones. 

The  consortium  was  signed  at  a 
moment  when  many  feared  th.at  the 
mission  was  doomed  to  failure.  Its  suc- 
cess was  hailed  as  the  brightest  augury 
in  recent  years  for  China's  future.  By 
the  terms  agreed  upon  the  millions  in- 
volved are  to  be  used  for  China's  internal 
improvements,  chiefly  in  respect  to  rail- 
ways, currency,  and  general  development. 
Measures  were  taken  to  avoid  the  useless 
extravagance  seen  in  the  case  of  former 
loans. 

The  main  reasons  for  Japan's  entering 
the  consortium  without  reservations 
were  stated  as  follows: 

1.  A  desire  to  stabilize  China  by  put- 
ting the  national  finances  on  an  eco- 
nomical basis.  With  a  stable  and  friendly 
China,  Japan,  through  geographical 
proximity,  will  have  a  commercial  ad- 
vantage  over    any    other   nation. 

2.  Japan's  ambition  to  retain  her  place 
among  the   world's   great   powers. 

3.  The  necessity  of  continuing  on  cor- 
dial terms  with  the  same  powe  espe- 
cially America,  in  order  to  float  needed 
loans  for  her  own  national  improvements. 

Before  leaving  for  the  United  States 
Mr.  Lamont  expressed  his  conviction 
that  the  result  of  the  consortium  agree- 
ment would  be  to  stabilize  political  as 


JAPAN  AND  THE  CHINESE  CONSORTIUM 


639 


well  as  financial  conditions  in  China,  and 

1^  to  maintain  peace  in  the  Far  East. 
Wf  Energetic  measures  were  being  taken 
^^  by  the  Japanese  financial  circles  toward 
the  end  of  May  to  relieve  the  recent 
Stock  Exchange,  banking  and  industrial 
crisis.  Syndicate  banks,  acting  with  the 
Bank  of  Japan,  were  aiding  the  stock 
market,  and  the  disturbed  industrial 
situation,  caused  by  abnormal  war  condi- 
tions, overproduction,  and  post-war  de- 
pression, was  reported  to  be  well  in 
hand.  Two  banks  in  Yokohama  were 
forced  temporarily  to  suspend  as  the  re- 
sult of  being  heavily  involved  in  silk 
transactions.  That  the  crisis  was  still 
far  from  being  over  was  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  thousands  of  tons  of  im- 
ports, many  from  America,  were  lying- 
in  the  customs  warehouses  of  Japan,  the 
consignees  refusing  to  accept  the  goods 
contracted  for.  This  was  stated  to  be 
a  direct  result  of  the  great  economic  de- 
pression following  the  financial  crisis, 
itself  caused  in  considerable  part  by  the 
Chinese  boycott  of  Japanese  goods,  which 
was  still  continuing. 

The  Japanese  Cabinet  late  in  May  de- 
cided to  open  negotiations  for  renewal 
and  revision  of  the  Anglo-Japanese 
Alliance,  which  will  expire  on  July  13. 
Baron  Gonsuke  Hayshi,  the  new  Japa- 
nese Ambassador  to  Great  Britain,  had 
been  instructed  to  take  up  negotiations 
for  a  renewal  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  - 
London,  Articles  by  Japanese  publicists 
were  daily  advocating  renewal,  but  call- 
ing for  modifications.  The  Bolshevist 
menace  to  India  was  considered  a  strong 
reason  why  Great  Britain  should  desire 
renewal.  Pro-American  Japanese  groups 
declared,  however,  that  the  alliance  as 
now  framed  would  oblige  Japan  to  join 
Great  Britain  in  case  of  war  between 
the  latter  country  and  the  United  States, 
and  denounced  any  agreement  whereby 
Japan  might  be  drawn  into  conflict  with 
the  United  States,  with  whom  Japan's 
interests  demanded  permanent  peace. 

It  was  reported  from  Peking  on  June 
2  that  China  had  sent  a  message  to  Great 
Britain  protesting  against  a  renewal  of 
the  alliance  without  consultation  with 
China.  Such  a  renewal  was  being  sharply 
criticised  by  the  Australian  press  at  this 


time.  The  right  of  Australians  to  con- 
trol domestic  legislation  affecting  Japa- 
nese immigration  and  labor  was  insisted 
on,  and  it  was  advocated  that  the  terms 
of  the  renewed  alliance  should  contain  a 
proviso  which  would  prevent  Great 
Britain  from  being  drawn  into  a  possible 
war  between  Japan  and  China. 

CHINA 

China's  plans  for  the  recently  re- 
covered province  of  Mongolia  were  em- 
bodied in  an  elaborate  program  for  its 
civil  and  military  administration  drawn 
up  by  General  Hsu  Shu-chen,  the  Chinese 
Amban  (representative  of  Chinese 
suzerainty)  at  Urga,  toward  the  begin- 
ning of  June.  The  scheme  provided  for 
the  creation  of  a  separate  administra- 
tion, as  well  as  a  separate  tariff  for  this 
territory,  and  included  the  development 
of  Mongolia's  agricultural  resources  by 
the  employment  of  soldier  labor,  new  rail- 
way construction,  the  leavening  of  the 
old  criminal  code  with  new  provisions, 
and  a  new  educational  program.  Part  4 
of  the  memorandum  suggested  that  if 
adequate  protection  were  afforded  the 
Mongolians,  the  territory  which  has 
fallen  under  Russian  influence  would 
return  to  China. 

The  prospects  of  a  solution  of  the  long 
and  apparently  irreconcilable  conflict 
between  the  Government  of  Peking  and 
the  secessionist  Government  of  Canton, 
South  China,  were  considered  in  Shang- 
hai early  in  June  to  be  brighter.  Many 
of  the  strongest  leaders  were  deserting 
the  Canton  Government.  At  a  meeting 
sheld  in  Shanghai  on  June  3  the  seces- 
sion of  the  provinces  of  Yunnan, 
Kweichow,  Hunan,  Shensi,  Szechwan 
and  Hupeh  was  voted  by  the  following 
leaders:  Wu  Ting-fang,  former  Chinese 
Minister  to  the  United  States  and  a 
leader  in  the  recent  movement  for  unity; 
Sun  Yat-sen,  former  Provisional  Presi- 
dent of  China;  former  Premier  Tang- 
Shao-yi  and  General  Li  Lieh-chun,  who 
was  outlawed  for  his  part  in  the  re- 
bellion of  1913.  The  issued  manifesto 
declared  all  the  acts  of  the  Canton  Gov- 
ernment invalid.  It  was  stated  in 
Shanghai  that  Dr.  Wu  had  left  Canton, 
where  he  occupied  the  post  of  Finance 


640 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Minister  and  Chairman  of  the  Adminis- 
trative Council,  and  come  to  Shanghai, 
because  he  could  no  longer  trust  the  men 
he  had  had  to  work  with  there.  The 
Government  of  Canton,  he  declared,  was 
a  thing  of  the  past.  The  leaders  of  the 
southern  faction,  he  said,  now  intended 
to  help  organize  a  new  united  Parlia- 
ment, possibly  in  Shanghai,  to  draft  a 
Constitution  for  all  China,  and  to  formu- 
late a  policy  to  restore  internal  peace. 
Or.  Wu  was  followed  by  about  100  mem- 
bers of  the  former  Southern  Parliament; 
only  three  members  of  the  Canton  Ad- 
ministrative Council  were  expected  to  re- 
main outside  the  revolt.  Dr.  Sun  Yat- 
sen,  follov/ing  negotiations  with  Peking, 


announced  that  an  agreement  had  been 
leached  for  joint  action  by  representa- 
tives of  both  north  and  south. 

Charles  R.  Crane,  the  new  American 
Minister  to  China,  arrived  in  Peking  on 
May  27  and  assumed  his  duties  at  the 
United  States  Legation  on  June  10.  In 
response  to  diplomatic  exchangee,  China 
had  decided  to  recognize  Poland  as  an 
independent  State,  to  exchange  diplo- 
matic representatives  with  her,  and  to 
sanction  trade  relations.  It  was  stated 
from  Peking  on  April  8  that  the  Polish 
Government  had  appointed  the  Polish 
Special  Delegate  to  Siberia  as  its  repre- 
sentative to  China. 


Secretary  Polk  Succeeded  by  Norman  H.  Davis 


FRANK  L.  POLK  of  New  York  City, 
Under  Secretary  of  State,  on  June 
1  tendered  his  resignation  to  Presi- 
dent Wilson  on  the  score  of  ill  health. 
His  resignation  took  effect  on  June  15. 
Secretary  Lansing's  resignation  in  Feb- 
ruary, followed  by  the  appointment  of 
Bainbridge  Colby  as  Secretary  of  State, 
had  caused  Mr.  Polk  to  postpone  his  re- 
tirement, long  contemplated,  in  order 
that  the  incoming  Secretary  might  have 
the  benefit  of  the  Under  Secretary's 
close  familiarity  with  pending  interna- 
tional questions. 

Mr.  Polk  was  appointed  Counselor  of 
the  State  Department  on  Sept.  16,  1915. 
Later  he  became  Assistant  Secretary. 
He  was  made  Under  Secretary  upon  the 
establishment  of  that  office  by  special 
act  of  Congress  last  year.  After  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  and  Secretary  Lansing's 
return  from  the  Peace  Conference  Mr. 
Polk  conducted  all  negotiations  of  the 
American  delegation  until  the  close  of 
the  conference  last  December. 

Secretary  of  State  Colby  on  June  5 
announced  that  Norman  H.  Davis  of  New 
York,  one  of  the  financial  advisers  to 
the  President  at  Paris,  would  be  ap- 
pointed Under  Secretary  of  State  to  suc- 
ceed Mr.  Polk.  Mr.  Davis  is  42  years  old 
and  a  native  of  Tennessee.  He  assumed 
bis  new  duties  on  June  15. 


NORMAN   H.    DAVIS 

Who  succeeds  Mr.   Polk  as   Under  Secretary 

of    State 

(©    Harris  <&  Eicing) 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 

Wonderworking  Inventions  That  Make  Long-Distance  Oratory 
Possible   by  Wireless 


I 


THE  recent  feat  of  Secretary  Dan- 
iels in  addressing  a  speech  to  a 
vast  throng  in  Times  Square,  in 
the  heart  of  New  York  City,  while 
he  stood  on  the  battleship  Pennsylvania, 
at  anchor  in  the  Hudson  River,  was  ren- 
dered possible  by  a  combination  of  two 
wonderworking  wireless  inventions.  The 
distance,  it  is  true,  was  not  great.  The 
vacuum  tube,  whose  wonders  never  cease 
to  beggar  those  of  Aladdin's  lamp,  had 
enabled  the  Naval  Secretary  to  talk 
across  the  continent  and  across  the 
ocean.  But  the  amazing  thing  in  this 
case  was  that  he  could  make  his  words 
distinct,  not  to  one  operator,  but  to  a 
larger  audience  than  any  speaker  in  the 
open  air  could  reach  with  his  unaided 
voice. 

This  was  achieved  by  an  ingenious 
combination  of  the  vacuum  tube  with  a 
certain  loud-speaking  telephone  appa- 
ratus, which  had  made  a  remarkable  rec- 
ord during  the  war  in  various  other  ap- 
plications. Had  Mr.  Daniels  stood  on 
top  of  the  Times  Tower  he  could  hardly 
have  made  his  voice  audible  to  anybody 
in  the  street  below;  but  the  magic  of  the 
De     Forest    apparatus     installed    there 


transformed  the  ordinary  conversational 
tone  he  used  from  the  Pennsylvania  into 
a  voice  that  the  Slave  of  the  Lamp  might 
envy. 

Directional  wireless  telephony  and  the 
wireless  compass  so  important  in  naviga- 
tion nowadays  have  been  described  in  a 
former  issue  of  Current  History.  The 
directional  receiver  used  in  this  case  was 
a  loop  antenna  fourteen  feet  square. 
This  simple-seeming  device  of  wire 
wound  in  square  turns  around  a  wooden 
framework  has,  in  varying  sizes,  a  wide 
range  of  applications,  even  including  a 
portable  wireless  receiving  set.  Other 
parts  of  the  station  installed  on  the 
Times  Building  included  a  vacuum  tube 
outfit,  with  several  stages  of  amplifica- 
tion. The  electromagnetic  waves  bearing 
the  speaker's  voice  from  the  Pennsylva- 
nia were  intercepted  by  the  loop  antenna, 
transformed  through  the  amplifiers,  and 
the  current  from  the  final  amplifier  led 
into  the  loud-speaking  telephone,  whose 
large  horn-shaped  receiver  faced  the  au- 
dience. This  telephone  apparatus  is  an 
advanced  development  of  the  type  used 
in  Liberty  Loan  drives  during  the  war, 
being  more  unified  and  intensified  and 
easier  to  install. 


Hearing  the  Printed  Page 


The  optophone,  a  recent  invention  now 
being  manufactured  in  England,  opens 
up  the  world  of  written  thought  to  the 
blind  by  actually  making  ordinary  print 
audible.  That  all  the  essential  problems 
of  reading  print  by  ear  had  been  solved 
was  publicly  demonstrated  at  the  British 
Scientific  Products  Exhibition  of  1918. 
But  certain  defects  had  to  be  righted  to 
ease  the  prolonged  use  of  the  instrument 
by  a  necessarily  clumsy  operator.  The 
manufacture  was  undertaken  by  a  well- 
known  Glasgow  firm  of  makers  of  range- 


finders  and  apparatus  for  the  control  of 
gunfire  for  the  British  and  foreign 
navies.  That  the  defects  have  been  final- 
ly overcome  was  demonstrated  at  a  meet- 
ing on  March  24,  1920,  of  the  Royal 
Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow,  M-here 
a  thoroughly  sound,  compact  and  practi- 
cal instrument  was  shown. 

While  the  optophone  does  not  make 
reading  by  ear  as  rapid  as  reading  aloud 
by  a  person  with  eyesight,  it  spells  by 
sound  about  as  fast  as  music  is  played. 
In  its  present  form  it  gives  out  the  words 


642 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


musically  at  the  rate  of  about  twenty- 
five  words  a  minute.  Certainly  a  vast 
improvement  on  raised  letters! 

The  general  principle  transmutes 
light-waves  into  sound-waves  in  a  sort  of 
phonograph,  which  can  be  carried  about 


A  BLIXL*  MAN  HEADING  A  PRINTED  BOOK  BY 
MEANS  OF  THE  OPTOPHONE.  WHICH  ENABLES  HIM 
TO  "  HEAR  ••  EACH  LETTER  INSTEAD  OF  SEEING  IT 


like  a  typewriter  and  is  operated  with  a 
simple  reading  handle,  or  lever.  A  siren 
disk  is  revolved  at  about  thirty  turns  a 
second  by  means  of  a  small  magneto- 
electric  motor.  This  disk  contains  five 
circles  of  square  holes,  twenty-four  holes 
to  the  innermost  circle  and  forty-two  to 
the  outermost,  the  other  circles  being  in- 
termediate and  corresponding  to 
the  relative  wave-frequencies  of 
certain  notes  of  the  diatonic 
scale.  A  festoon  lamp  sheds  a 
beam  of  light  in  a  radial  direc- 
tion, and  the  image  of  the  fila- 
ment of  this  lamp  is  thrown 
upon  the  print  by  a  system  of 
three  lenses  on  the  other  side  of 
a  selenium  tablet.  This  optical 
system  casts  on  the  print  a  line 
of  numerous  dots,  every  dot 
having  a  different  musical  fre- 
quency. These  dots  of  light  are 
diffusely  reflected  upon  the 
selenium,  this  being  put  in  cir- 
cuit with  a  battery  and  a  high- 
resistance  telephone  receiver. 
While  those  dots  which  fall  on 


white  paper  produce  a  note  of  their  own 
musical  frequency,  those  which  fall  on 
black  are  extinguished.  Thus  is  obtained 
a  "  white-sounding  "  optophone,  in  which 
one  reads  the  black  letters  by  the  notes 
omitted  from  the  scale  rather  than  by 
the  notes  that  are  sounded.  A 
subsequent  modification  of  this 
principle  produced  a  "  black- 
sounding  "  optophone  through 
the  introduction  of  a  second 
selenium  preparation  in  the 
form  of  a  cylindrical  rod.  This 
rod  receives  the  light  reflected 
by  the  concave  surface  of  a 
meniscus  lens  which,  for  this 
purpose,  is  tilted  slightly  out  of 
the  axis  of  the  other  two  lenses. 
Thus  is  produced  a  real  image 
of  the  line  of  dots  on  a  gener- 
ator of  the  cylindrical  rod,  and 
by  turning  this  rod  about  its 
axis  one  can  make  the  image 
more  or  less  effective  at  will. 
By  balancing  the  effect  on  the 
selenium  rod  against  the  effect 
on  the  selenium  tablet,  when 
only  the  white  paper  is  ex- 
posed, there  comes  a  silence  in  the  tele- 
phone; so  the  passage  of  a  black  letter 
makes  a  sound  which  varies  in  accordance 
with  the  formation  of  the  letter. 

This  direct  sounding  of  the  black  let- 
ters facilitates  the  learning  of  the  al- 
phabet, though  the  operator  may  not  get 
greater  ultimate  speed  by  it  than  by  the 


THE  OPTOPHONE,  A  WONDERFUL  ELECTRIC  IN- 
VENTION WHICH  APPLIES  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE 
TELEPHONE  IN  SUCH  A  WAY  AS  TO  MAKE  AN 
ORDINARY  PRINTED  PAGE  READABLE  BY  EAR 
INSTEAD    OF    EYE 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


643 


"  white-sounding  "  instrument.  The  disk, 
lamp,  selenium  and  motor  are  all 
mounted  in  a  swinging  "  tracer,"  which 
can  be  brought  over  to  the  right  by 
means  of  the  reading  handle.  It  then 
returns  to  the  left  with  a  slow,  silent, 
steady  motion  regulated  by  a  worm- 
gearing,  which  drives  a  small  paddle. 
This  paddle  is  kept  inserted  in  a  viscous 
liquid  more  or  less  deeply  by  a  regulat- 
ing nut,  and  the  range  of  adjustment  is 
such  that  a  line  can  be  read  in  any  time 
from  five  seconds  to  five  minutes,  ac- 
cording to  the  reader's  proficiency.  As 
soon  as  a  line  is  read  the  next  line  is 
brought  into  focus  by  the  shift-bar.  This 
works  a  friction  clutch  inside  the  bar  on 
which  the  "  tracer  "  is  pivoted  and  can 
be  adjusted  for  any  desired  line  space  by 
means  of  a  screw  attached  to  the  shift- 
bar.  A  lever  attached  to  the  tracer  en- 
ables the  operator  to  reverse  this  motion 


or  to  release  the  .whole  "  tracer  "  from 
the  friction  gear,  so  that  it  may  be 
brought  quickly  to  the  top  of  a  page. 

Where  the  festoon  lamp  is  inserted  it 
is  held  by  a  spring  clip,  whence  even  a 
blind  operator  can  easily  remove  it  for 
renewal.  The  various  connections  and 
their  adapters  are  so  fitted  that  a  blind 
operator  can  make  no  mistake  in  insert- 
ing them.  There  is  an  important  special 
contrivance  in  the  "  tracer  "  for  adjust- 
ment to  different  sizes  of  type.  This  is 
regulated  by  means  of  a  nut  with  six 
nicks  across  its  rim,  which  enables  the 
blind  operator  to  count  the  number  of 
turns  of  the  nut  in  adjusting  for  a 
definite  size  of  type.  Practice  has 
proved  that  the  various  adjustments  for 
size  of  type,  length  of  line  and  line  inter- 
val are  easily  made  by  blind  persons,  so 
that  the  optophone  and  all  its  parts  can 
be  in  use  for  a  long  time  without  any- 
thing getting  out  of  order. 


Flightless  Hydroplanes 


To  utilize  the  picturesque  waterways 
of  France  for  a  new  kind  of  "  tourism," 
certain  French  inventors  have  perfected 
a  cheap  means  of  swift  river  transporta- 
tion with  all  the  pleasures  of  automobile 
riding.  This  craft  they  call  the  hydro- 
glisseur,  "  water-glider  "  ;  in  reality  it  is 
a  hydroplane  without  power  of  flight. 
Three  models  of  this  water-glider  were 
recently  exhibited  at  the  Salon  Aero- 
nautique,  in  Paris.  One  model  is  consid- 
ered as  the  classic  water-glider.  It  con- 
sists of  a  sliding  surface  supporting  the 
passenger  cabin,  the  under  sur- 
face being  so  shaped  as  to  re- 
lease the  plane  from  the  water, 
even  at  low  speed.  As  in  all 
these  hydroplanes,  the  propeller 
is  aerial. 

Another  model  is  of  more 
recent  design.  A  charming  auto- 
mobile coach  body  (carrosserie) 
contains  the  passengers,  and  is 
luxuriously  appointed.  The  prow 
forms  the  hood  and  shields  the 
motor.  This  motor  is  of  the 
type  used  for  automobiles, 
either  eight-ten  horse  power  or 


sixteen-twenty.  It  controls,  by  means  of 
a  shaft  and  two  sets  of  gearing,  an  aerial 
propeller  placed  upon  a  stand,  or  socle, 
behind  the  coach  body.  The  whole  is 
fixed  upon  two  cylindrical  floats  shaped 
like  whistles.  The  propeller  is  of  varia- 
ble rotation,  a  novelty  quite  interesting. 
The  rotations  are  controlled  from  within 
the  cabin  and  permit  getting  all  the  vari- 
ations of  speed,  including  progress  back- 
ward, without  touching  the  control  of 
the  motor. 

A  third  model  is  equally  new  in  design. 


FRENCH     AERIAL     WATER-GLIDER.     USED     FOR 
TOURIST    TRIPS    ON    SHALLOW    RIVERS 


G4.4 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE     AMPHIBIOUS     AUTOMOBILE,     AN    AIMERICAN    INVENTION,     WHICH     CAN    GO     SIXTY 
MILES   AN   HOUR   ON   LAND,   OR   TWENTY   ON   THE   WATER 


This  hydroplane  has  the  feature  of 
hydro-pneumatic  sustentation ;  that  is, 
it  is  supported  in  speed  by  the  double  re- 
action of  air  and  water.  The  air  rushes 
in  under  the  central  caisson,  the  curva- 
ture of  which  recalls  that  of  the  wings 
of  avions;  and  compressed  by  this  sur- 
face the  air  constitutes  a  veritable  elas- 
tic mattress  between  the  hull  and  the 
water. 

Upon  this  hull-shell  is  mounted  a 
spacious  and  comfortable  passenger 
cabin.  The  motor  placed  in  the  bow 
actuates  a  two-bladed  propeller  mounted 
on  a  stand.  The  steering  is  done  with  a 
large  rudder  placed  at  the  extremity  of 


the  fuselage.  The  whole  is  pleasing  to 
the  eye,  and  the  apparatus  seems  ca- 
pable of  rendering  great  service  on  all 
the  rivers  that  cannot  be  doubled  by  a 
railway. 

Amphibious  automobiles,  such  as  the 
one  recently  tried  in  the  ocean  off  At- 
lantic City,  are  much  more  costly  than 
the  French  water-glider,  and  shallow 
rivers  are  inaccessible  to  them.  This 
American  invention  is  a  fully  equipped 
motor  car  capable  of  sixty  miles  an  hour 
on  land  and  twenty  miles  in  water,  the 
clutch  readily  throwing  the  power  off 
the  wheels  on  to  the  propeller,  which  is 
at  the  rear  of  the  car. 


A  Stride  in  Wireless  Control 


While  science  has  been  girdling  the 
world  with  wireless  telegraphy  and  te- 
lephony, efforts  have  been  made  in  various 
countries  to  apply  the  principles  of  radio 
to  the  control  of  craft  and  vehicles;  and 
though  radio  control  is  still  far  from 
passing  the  experimental  stage,  it  is  be- 
ginning to  show  encouraging  marks  of 
progress.  Wireless  controlled  motor- 
boats  were  produced  in  this  country  dur- 
ing the  war.  Now  comes  a  little  crew- 
less  airship  so  controlled. 

What  made  wireless  telegraphy  and 
telephony  practical  for  long  distances 
was    the    sensitiveness    of    the    filings 


coherer.  The  inventor  of  this  wireless 
aircraft  has  discovered  a  surer  and  more 
sensitive  coherer  still,  the  secret  of 
which  he  guards.  It  may  be  the  means 
of  adding  crewless  bombing  planes  to 
"  the  nations  *  airy  navies  "  in  time  for 
the  next  war,  a  feature  unforetold  in 
Tennyson's  prophecy. 

The  new  radio  aircraft  weighs  185 
pounds,  and  under  proper  conditions  at- 
tains a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour,  while 
responding  instantly  and  surely  to  the 
signals  from  the  controlling  station. 
The  craft  is  driven  by  the  electric  motor 
it  carries,  mounted  on  a  pivoted  frame  in 
such     wise     that     its     weight     can     be 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


9U 


brought  to  bear  on  the  central  driving 
wheel.  The  craft  has  three  wheels  be- 
sides the  driving  wheel,  two  spinning  on 
a  fixed  axle  and  a  steering  wheel  in 
front.  The  current  for  the  motor  and 
other  purposes  is  furnished  by  storage 
batteries  on  board.  A  wireless  receiving 
set  is  also  carried. 

The    control    station    has    the    usual 
equipment  for  wireless  transmission.   By 


depressing  the  telegraph  key  one  sends  a 
train  of  signals  to  the  antenna  on  the 
craft.  There  the  detector  responds  and 
the  waves  operate  a  complex  electro- 
magnetic apparatus  controlling  the 
motor  and  steering-gear.  The  responses 
to  signals  are  flashed  from  a  small  green 
lamp  on  the  masthead,  so  the  operator 
can  keep  count  of  the  necessary  moves  he 
makes. 


A  Portable  Radiophone  Receiving  Set 


hile  we  are  still  marveling  at  the 
successes  of  wireless  telephony  in  com- 
municating over  vast  distances  with 
huge  and  ponderous  apparatus,  experi- 
ments in  the  radio  section  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Standards  at  Washing- 
ton have  brought  into  being  a  means  of 
making  it  portable,  so  that  one  can  in- 
stall and  use  it  locally  anywhere — so  far 
as  the  receiving  end  is  concerned. 

Apparatus  that  can  receive  wireless 
messages  over  fifteen  miles  has  been  de- 
vised and  tested  out.  It  is  an  ingenious 
combination  of  the  vacuum  tube  and  the 
loop-antenna.  The  loop-antenna  fur- 
nishes the  wireless  compass  needed  for 
determining  the  direction  whence  the  sig- 
nal comes.     Thence  the  signal-waves  arc 


communicated  to  the  vacuum-tube  detec- 
tor and  a  two-stage  amplifier,  all  oper- 
ated by  a  dry-cell  battery.  Next  the 
signals  pass  into  a  special  loud-speaking 
telephone,  with  a  large  horn,  which  re- 
inforces the  waves  so  that  the  sounds 
will  fill  a  small  room  or  a  very  large  one, 
depending  on  the  size  of  loop  used.  The 
whole  can  be  inclosed  in  a  carrying  case 
about  a  foot  square. 

With  such  an  apparatus  in  the  home 
the  whole  household  can  sit  by  and  hear 
the  latest  baseball  scores,  the  election  re- 
turns, or  even  get  the  morning  news 
while  at  breakfast.  Also  music  for  a 
dancing  party  can  be  communicated 
from  a  distance.  The  wave-length  is 
low,  equaling  that  allowed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment to  amateur  stations. 


Strange  Career  of  Ex-Empress  Eugenie 


•pX-EMPRESS  EUGENIE— called  Eu- 
-'— ^  rope's  Queen  of  Sorrows — on  May 
5,  1920,  observed  in  Seville,  Spain,  the 
94th  anniversary  of  her  birth.  A  white- 
haired  woman,  dim-eyed  and  lame,  the 
former  Empress  of  France,  widow  of 
Napoleon  III.,  lives  wrapped  in  the  mem- 
ories of  her  past,  with  its  royal  tinsel, 
tragedy  and  grief.  "  I  am  a  shadow  of 
the  past,"  she  says ;  "  it  is  a  dream  that 
is  vanishing.  Let  me  disappear  with  it." 
From  time  to  time  she  leaves  her  English 
home  at  Farnborough  and  takes  short 
trips  to  Paris,  to  Biarritz,  to  the  Riviera. 
A  few  months  ago,  a  sombre  figure  in 
black,  she  wandered  through  the  Tuiler- 
ies    Gardens   in   Paris,   where  her   home 


had  been  in  the  days  of  her  youth  and 
pride,  and  plucked  flowers  there  unre- 
proved.  In  Spain,  the  country  of  her 
birth,  she  spent  her  birthday  as  the 
Queen's  guest. 

The  mother  of  this  aged  ex-Empress 
was  the  daughter  of  a  Scotch  wineseller 
in  Malaga,  who  married  a  Spanish  noble- 
man. Count  of  Montojo.  Eugenie  was 
born  at  Granada  in  1826.  Sent  to  a  con- 
vent in  Paris,  she  grew  up  beautiful, 
alluring,  capricious,  delighting  in  public 
attention  and  "  shocking  the  bourgeois." 
At  the  French  Court  in  1852  she  aroused 
a  tempest  by  seeking  and  gaining  the 
attentions  of  the  Emperor,  Louis  Na- 
poleon, son  of  Bonaparte's  brother  and  of 


646 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


^^m  "•'" 

■■■^■lic^                ^9K'  "     ^^'  '^ 

If 

Hji^  -%  ^    %8"' 

■'■■'■■                                       ■                  '*■■    ■■■^%      ""    , 

1          y~»                                                 -^i      adH^IIStk 

THE  AGED  EX-EMPRESS   EUGENIE  OF  FRANCE  ON  HER  94TH  BIRTHDAY,  WITH 
QUEEN    VICTORIA    EUGENIA    OF    SPAIN.     WHOM    SHE    WAS    VISITING 


Hortense  Beauharnais.  The  new  Na- 
poleon married  her  whom  the  ladies  of 
his  Court  disdainfully  called  the  "  Span- 
ish adventuress "  on  Jan.  29,  1853. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  the  life  of 
Eugenie  was  marked  by  brilliance  and 
extravagance,  by  fetes  surpassing  many 
of  the  most  gorgeous  in  French  royal  his- 
tory. Her  influence  was  everywhere. 
The  disastrous  war  with  Mexico  was  said 
to  have  been  due  to  her  initiation.  Im- 
paired in  health,  Napoleon  III.  pro- 
tested weakly  against  the  war  with  Prus- 
sia in  1870,  which  cost  them  both  their 
crowns  and  plunged  France  into  a  long 
despair.  "  My  little  war,"  Eugenie  called 
it.  A  little  later  she  was  stealing  out 
of  Paris  in  the  carriage  of  a  celebrated 
American  dentist  to  find  exile  in  Eng- 


land. Her  husband  died  there  three 
years  later.  Eugenie  lived  on,  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  Third  Empire;  lived  to  see 
the  vanishing  of  her  last  hopes  when 
her  young  son  was  killed  with  a  British 
expedition  to  Zululand  in  1879.  At  a 
cost  of  over  $500,000  she  bought  Farn- 
borough  Hall  in  England  and  erected 
there  a  double  memorial — to  Napoleon 
III.  and  to  her  dead  son. 

She  was  in  Spain  when  the  European 
war  broke  out.  "  This  is  my  revenge !  " 
she  exclaimed.  "  Would  that  the  Emperor 
were  here  to  see  it!  "  She  turned  Farn- 
borough  Hall  into  a  hospital  for  wounded 
soldiers,  and  went  with  slow  step  from 
one  to  another,  holding  her  last  court. 
Her  constant  hope  to  see  Germany — 
destroyer  of  all  her  happiness — beaten 
by  the  allied  arms  was  fulfilled. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 

With  the  Best  Cartoons  of  the  Month 
From  Many  Nations 


[Period  Ended  June  12,  1920] 


French  Tax  on  Bachelors 
IHE  French  Senate  at  its  session  of 
May  26  was  the  scene  of  one  of  the 
stormiest  and  strangest  discussions  it 
has  even  known.  The  subject  of  debate 
was  the  proposed  tax  on  bachelors, 
spinsters  and  divorced  persons.  All 
speeches,  pro  and  con,  were  of  the  most 
heated  character.     The  usually  dignified 

[American  Cartoon] 


—San  Francisco  Chronicle 
THE  SCARECROW 

atmosphere  of  the  upper  house  was 
electrified  by  the  violence  with  which  the 
bill  was  opposed  by  two  Senators, 
Dominique  and  Jules  Delahaye,  brothers, 
and  both  members  of  the  extreme  clerical 
wing.  The  tempest  which  their  on- 
slaughts created  led  to  suspension  of  the 
sitting.  In  the  lobby,  before  the  session 
was  resumed,  Jules  Delahaye  and  Senator 
Hervey,  a  supporter  of  the  Government 
measure,  were  torn  apart  aitrrr  exohang- 


ing  blows  and  just  as  they  were  about 
to  exchange  cards  preliminary  to  a 
duel. 

The  impost  that  gave  rise  to  so  much 

[Polish  Cartoon] 


—Muclia,  Warsaic 

WHY   POLAND   MUST   FIGHT 

Lloyd  George  (to  Ebert  and  Lenin) :  "Do 
what  you  like.  I'm  not  supposed  to  let; 
you,  but  I  can  close  my  eyes  for  a  while  " 


tumult  added  a  25  per  cent,  increase  to 
the  income  tax  of  any  resident  of  France 
"  more  than  30  years  old,  single  or  di- 
"  vorced,  who  has  nobody  dependent  upon 
"  him  or  her  " ;  and  10  per  cent,  to  the  tax 
of  any  person  over  30,  who  has  been 
married  two  years  from  Jan.  1  of  the 
fiscal  year  and  has  neither  children  nor 
other  dependents. 

The  tempest  started  when  Senator 
Dominique  Delahaye,  in  advocating  an 
amendment  exempting  women  from  the 
provisions  of  the  bill,  shouted :  "  This 
"  bill  persecutes  unmarried  folk  simply 
"  because  there  is  a  hole  in  the  budget !  " 


648 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Senator  Hervey,  supported  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  refused  to  yield  the 
floor  to  the  clamors  of  the  Delahaye 
brothers,  and,  dominating  the  tumult,  ex- 
plained that  the  bill  was  not  meant  to 
force  bachelors  and  spinsters  to  wed,  but 
rather  to  oblige  those  whose  family  ex- 
penses were  less  than  those  of  married 
persons  to  contribute  in  larger  propor- 
tion to  the  State.  After  the  enforced 
suspension.  Senator  Courju,  in  an  at- 
tempt to  gain  exemption  for  women, 
brought  out  the  fact  that  women  are 
rarely  spinsters  from  choice,  the  reserved 
French  girl  of  good  family  waiting  to  be 
asked,  and  if  not  asked,  remaining  un- 


married, perhaps  with  a  broken  heart. 
The  Senator  seized  the  opportunity  to 
make  a  plea  for  equal  suffrage,  that 
"  the  fair  sex  might  be  man's  equal,  and 
"  not  merely  the  most  charming  and  most 
"  distinguished  of  his  servants."  Senator 
Dominique  Delahaye  took  up  the  defense 
of  bachelors,  and  compared  the  bill  to 
measures  passed  by  the  Romans  under 
Augustus,  under  decadent  moral  condi- 
tions. Christ,  he  said,  honored  true 
celibacy,  and  his  forerunner,  John  the 
Baptist,  paid  with  his  head  the  first  tax 
on  bachelors.  The  Senator  also  urged 
exemption  of  priests,  on  the  ground  that 
their  celibacy  was  due  to  church  laws. 


[American  Cartoon] 


Tacoma  New<s-Trihune 


TRYING  TO  LEAVE  IT  ON  OUR  DOORSTEP 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


Despite  all  arguments  and  the  violence 
of  the  opposition,  the  bill  finally  became 
law  by  a  large  majority. 

The   Filipinos  Again  Demand 
Independence 

THE  Philippine  Commission  of  Inde- 
pendence, whose  headquarters  are  in 
Washington,  sent  an  appeal  to  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  for  a  plank 
declaring  in  favor  of  the  immediate  in- 
dependence of  the  islands.  The  appeal 
cited   the   pledged   word   of   the   United 


States  as  expressecf  in  the  preamble  of 
the  Jones  law,  approved  Aug.  29,  1916, 
to  "  recognize  their  independence  as  soon 
as  a  stable  Government  can  be  estab- 
lished therein  "  ;  it  called  attention  to 
the  many  Filipino  attempts  to  secure 
fulfillment  of  this  promise,  deplored  the 
fact  that  no  Filipino  delegates  were  in- 
vited to  the  convention,  and  declared 
that  the  obligation  of  the  American  peo- 
ple was  a  solemn  one,  and  that  "  the 
great  parties  should  do  all  in  their  power 
to  redeem  the  promise."  The  document 
was  signed,  among  others,  by  Jaime  C. 


Cartoon] 


—MucJia,  Warsaw 

IN  DANZIG  AND  CONSTANTINOPLE 

England:     "  Let  the  hot-blooded  Poles  and  French  say  what  they  like. 
Europe  is  all  right — for  us,  who  hold  both  ends  of  it  " 


650 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


de  Veyra,  President  of  the  Filipino  In- 
dependence Commission  to  the  United 
States. 


Coast  Defenses  Impregnable 

TN  an  address  delivered  before  the 
-*-  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  at 
St.  Louis  on  May  25,  Lieut.  Col.  H.  W. 
Miller,  U.  S.  A.,  discussed  the  question 
whether  or  not  any  section  of  a  coast 
line  can  be  so  fortified  as  to  be  impreg- 
nable to  attack  from  the  sea,  except  at 


[American  Cartoon] 


—San  Francisco  Chronicle 
THE  CORE 


a  prohibitive  cost.  Up  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  European  war  this  question  had 
never  been  definitely  decided.  During  the 
war  there  were  three  such  fortified  coast 
sections  considered  to  be  virtually  im- 
pregnable. These  were  the  German  coast 
at  Kiel,  defended  by  mine  fields,  and  the 
fortifications  at  Heligoland;  the  Turkish 
centre  of  Constantinople,  protected  by 
the  fortification  of  the  Strait  of  Gal- 
lipoli,  and  the  Belgian  coast,  protected  by 
the  fortifications  of  the  only  two  landing 
points,  Ostend  and  Zeebrugge. 


The  allied  fiasco  at  Gallipoli  has  be- 
come a  matter  of  record.  The  Allies  did 
not  even  attempt  to  force  the  defenses 
of  Heligoland  and  Kiel,  and  ruled  out 
Ostend  on  the  score  that  the  loss  of  life 
and  material  involved  would  be  pro- 
hibitive. As  for  the  attempt  to  block  the 
harbors  of  Zeebrugge  and  Ostend  at  the 
end  of  April,  1918,  it  was  accomplished 
at  the  price  of  terrible  punishment  under 
the  fire  of  a  150-millimeter  German  gun 
at  ranges  from  200  to  500  yards  for  ap- 
proximately one  hour.  But  despite  the 
fact  that  a  majority  of  the 
German  batteries  were  lo- 
cated on  top  of  the  dunes  and 
in  plain  sight  of  the  sea, 
Lieut.  Col.  Miller  pointed  out 
that  there  was  no  evidence 
that  any  of  them  were  dam- 
aged by  the  shell  fire  from 
the  allied  monitors  or  from 
bombs  dropped  from  allied 
airplanes,  the  heavy  smoke- 
screens sent  up  by  the  Ger- 
mans while  under  fire  prov- 
ing highly  effective.  The  in- 
ference drawn  by  Lieut.  Col. 
Miller  from  the  experience 
of  the  war  was  that  sea- 
coast  fortifications  could  be 
made  virtually  impregnable 
to  attacks  from  the  sea. 
*  *  * 
Presbyterians  Declare 
Union 

BY  action  taken  at  the 
General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  and  the 
Welsh  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States,  these 
two  bodies  were  organically 
united  at  a  common  meeting 
held  in  Philadelphia  on  May  22.  A  dele- 
gation of  twenty-live  Welsh  Presbyte- 
rian clergymen  and  laymen  from  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  filed  upon  the  platform  and 
was  greeted  by  the  Commissioners  of  the 
General  Assembly,  who  stood  while  the 
Rev.  Dr.  S.  S.  Palmer  of  Columbus,  the 
Moderator,  read  the  declaration  merging 
the  two  bodies.  A  report  brought  in  at 
this  session  condemned  Sunday  moving- 
picture  shows,  Sunday  games  and  sports, 
and  Sunday  newspapers.  It  called  for 
10,000    sermons    on    Sunday   observance 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


60 1 


each  year,  with  "  one  million  Presby- 
terians helping  with  prayer,  example  and 
gifts."  The  committee  claimed  some  of 
the  credit  for  defeating  the  bill  in  the 
New  York  Legislature  which  would  have 
legalized  Sunday  business  when  con- 
ducted by  persons  whose  faith  prescribed 
some  other  day  than  Sunday  for  religious 
observance. 

Before  adjourning  the  As- 
sembly brought  in  a  plan  for 
complete  union  of  all  Pres- 
byterian religious  branches 
within  a  few  years.  Resolu- 
tions were  also  passed  de- 
manding that  the  United 
States  enter  the  League  of 
Nations  and  denouncing  the 
long  debate  in  the  United 
States  Congress  preventing 
this  action.  A  policy  of  non- 
interference with  Great  Brit- 
ain in  her  handling  of  the 
Irish  republic  question  was 
advocated  in  another  resolu- 
tion. The  Assembly  ad- 
journed on  May  28. 
*     *     * 

The  Unmarried  Mother 
rpHE  second  reading  of  Mr. 
•^  Neville  Chamberlain's  bill 
providing  for  the  unmarried 
mother  and  her  child  was 
carried  on  May  7  in  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  by  108  votes 
against  9,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  Home  Secretary,  Mr. 
Shortt,  was  emphatic  in  stating  the  Gov- 
ernment's hostility  to  the  measure  as 
drawn.  The  bill  set  forth  that  the  illegiti- 
mate births  in  the  United  Kingdom  aver- 
aged about  50,000  a  year.  The  death  rate 
of  illegitimate  children  was  double 
that  of  the  legitimate;  of  the  children 
born  under  the  social  ban  some  10,000 
perished  within  a  year.  The  Home  Secre- 
tary held  that  though  the  bill  sought  to 
secure  justice  for  the  mother  and  pro- 
tection for  the  child,  it  did  not  remove 
the  stigma  of  bastardy  if  the  parents 
married,  as  was  done  by  the  Scotch  law. 
The  Government  also  objected  to  the 
compulsory  registration  of  the  father, 
and  to  the  constant  regulation  of  the 
money  arrangement  by  the  court,  whose 


ward  the  illegitimate  child  would  become 
under  the  bill,  without  regard  to  the 
wishes  of  the  mother.  These  and  other 
objections  made  it  plain  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  introduce  its  own  measure, 
on  the  ground  that  the  bill  advocated 
was  incapable  of  satisfactory  amendment 
in  committee. 

[American  Cartoon] 


— New 

GO  AWAY!" 


York    World 


Conference  for  Advancement  of 
Colored  People 

JAMES  L.  KEY,  Mayor  of  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  on  May  30  welcomed  the  eleventh 
annual  conference  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People.  This  was  the  first  time  the 
association  had  held  a  meeting  in  the 
South.  The  opening  addresses  urged 
mutual  tolerance,  mutual  sympathy,  and 
mutual  respect  of  the  races.  "  We  have 
no  views  to  present,"  said  Captain 
Arthur  B.  Spingarn,  Vice  President, 
"  which  are  so  radical  that  they  cannot 
be  found  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
or  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States."  He  read  a  paper  from  Moor- 
field  Story,  the  eminent  Boston  lawyer. 


652 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


advocating  the  late  Henry  W.  Grady's 
program  of  justice  between  the  races, 
including  the  giving  of  the  ballot  to 
properly  qualified  negroes  and  the  offer- 
ing of  better  opportunities  for  their  in- 
dustrial and  educational  progress. 

The  sessions  of  June  1  were  devoted 
to  a  discussion  of  lynching  and  segrega- 
tion. Major  Joel  B.  Spingarn,the  author 
and  critic,  who  presided,  proposed  a  new 


plan  for  bringing  about  better  race  rela- 
tions by  means  of  permanent  commis- 
sions in  each  of  the  Southern  States. 
Each  commission  would  consist  of  five 
leaders  of  the  respective  races,  who 
should  be  chosen  by  the  Governor  on  a 
basis  of  leadership  and  not  of  politics. 
Their  duty  would  be  to  investigate  causes 
of  friction,  to  make  recommendations  for 
legislative  and  other  means  of  promoting 


[Austrian  Cartoon] 


i::-5^' 


—K%ker\:kx,  Yienna 

THE  TERRIBLE  VICTOR 
Marshal  Foch:     "Disarm  the  German  barbarians!" 
[A  biting  Austrian  comment  on  the  French  occupation  of  Frankfort  with  colored  troops] 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


653 


race  harmony,  and  to  have  all  matters  of 
race  relationship  submitted  to  them  by 
the  Governor  before  such  measures  re- 
ceived his  approval. 

Charles  Edward  Russell,  author  and 
publicist,  spoke  on  the  perils  of  illiteracy 
in  the  United  States,  urging  the  forma- 
tion of  a  bureau  of  education  under  a 
Cabinet  secretaryship.  He  said  that  60 
per  cent,  of  the  Southern  cotton  growers 
could  not  read  the  bulletins  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  He  said  that 
from  eight  to  ten  times  more  money  is 
spent  for  each  white  child  than  for  the 


negro  child.  A  telegram  from  ex-Presi- 
dent Eliot  of  Harvard  declared  that  it 
was  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that 
no  distinction  be  made  between  the  appli- 
cation of  money  to  white  schools  and  to 
negro  schools  throughout  the  South. 
William  Pickens,  a  negro  graduate  of 
Yale,  in  an  address  on  lynching  and 
segregation,  said: 

The  degredation  and  outlawing  of  the 
colored  race  has  produced  more  mulattoes 
in  a  single  year  than  the  equality  of  the 
negro  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  would  ^ver 
produce  in  a  century.  And  lynching  does 
not  prevent  the  crimes  which  attack  the 


[American   Cartoon] 


Years  aoo  TweevicTioM 
scene  always  looked 

LIKBTMIS. 


-Detroit  News 


THEN  AND  NOW 


654 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


integrity  of  tiie  races,  lynching  does  not 
even  touch  the  greatest  enemy  of  racial 
integrity,  and  that  is  the  moral  slavery 
forced  upon  the  submerged  colored 
woman. 

At  the  closing  session  on  June  2  the 
chief  address  was  made  by  Dr.  W.  E.  B. 
Dubois,  editor  of  The  Crisis  and  this 
year's  recipient  of  the  Spingari.  medal 
for  the  greatest  achievement  of  a  man 
of  African  descent.  He  urged  the  South 
to  give  the  ballot  to  every  adult  citizen, 
man  or  woman,  white  or  black.  When 
the  white  officials  and  colored  delegates 
left  for  the  North  the  Southern  Rail- 
way, contrary  to  its  usual  custom,  pro- 
vided special  Pullman  cars  and  did  not 
enforce  the  "  Jim  Crow  "  system. 
*     *     * 

Raising  Sunken  Treasure 

WHEN  a  German  submarine  sank  the 
British  steamship  Laurentic  early 
in  1917,  off  one  of  the  wildest  parts  of 

[German-Swiss  Cartoon] 


[American  Cartoon] 


— Nehelspdlter,  Zurich 

FRANCE  AND  THE  REICHSWEHR 

Rolando  Furaoso:  "  Help!  Help!  France 
is  in  danger  !  Germany  is  going  to  attack 
us !  The  Home  Guard  is  a  concealed 
mobilization  !  Save  us !  We  are  lost ! 
We  must  occupy  Berlin,  Munich,  Dresden, 
Vienna,  Warsaw,  Petrograd,  Peking, 
Zurich,   Bumpliz    *    *    *" 

German  Home  Guard:  "Don'tbe  alarmed. 
I   won't  hurt  you  " 


—BrooMyn.  Eagle 

FIFTY-FIFTY 

United     States:       "  AVhat     a     land     for 
mosquitos  !  " 
Mexico:    "What   a    country   for   flies!" 

the  North  Irish  coast,  it  caused,  besides 
the  loss  of  human  life,  the  submergence 
of  about  $15,000,000  worth  of  gold  ingots. 
There  the  treasure  has  lain  for  three 
years,  120  feet  below  the  surface,  though 
British  attempts  to  salvage  it  began  long 
before  the  armistice.  In  1919  the 
Admiralty  ship  Racer  made  a  serious 
effort  to  get  the  lost  bullion,  but  two 
years  of  constant  pounding  by  the  deep 
Atlantic  swells  had  caused  the  decks  of 
the  Laurentic  to  collapse  into  a  heap  of 
wreckage  barely  ten  feet  high,  and  it 
took  the  divers  two  months  to  locate  the 
gold.  High  explosives  were  used  to  cut 
through  the  successive  layers  of  steel 
plates.  The  strong  room,  formerly 
twelve  feet  high,  had  been  compressed 
into  a  compartment  only  a  few  inches  in 
height,  and  the  treasure  had  to  be  cut 
out,  bit  by  bit,  like  a  vein  of  rich  ore 
between  steel  walls.  When  it  had  been 
removed  from  one  section  it  was  neces- 
sary to  begin  cutting  another  hole  with 
explosives  to  reach  the  vein  of  ingots 
again.  This  slow  process  resulted  last 
year  in  the  recovery  of  about  $2,500,000, 
but  $12,500,000  remained  unsalvaged.  The 
Racer,    after    waiting    for    the    Winter 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


6oi 


[Austrian  Cartoon] 


—Wiener  Caricaturen,   Vienna, 

BEFORE   THE  JUDGE 

"  What  are  you?  " 
"  A  German-Austrian  " 
"  Then     you     can     go    free.         You    are 
punished    enough  " 

storms  to  pass,  was  again  at  its  task  in 
April,  and  the  methodical  quest  for 
sunken  treasure  is  still  going  on  twenty 
fathoms  below  the  surface  of  Lough 
Swilly  at  the  present  writing.  The 
salvage  ship  this  time  is  equipped  with 
a  powerful  pump  that  can  lift  800  tons 
of  water  every  hour;  not  only  water,  in 
fact,  but  also  coal,  mud  and  small  wreck- 
age. In  due  time  the  whole  treasure  will 
be  raised  from  a  depth  formerly  pro- 
hibitive for  such  difficult  operations. 
*     *     * 

Dr.  George  Morrison 

DR.  GEORGE  MORRISON,  political 
adviser  to  the  President  of  the 
Chinese  Republic  and  famous  as  the 
Peking  correspondent  of  The  London 
Times,  died  in  London  on  May  30.  An 
Australian  by  birth,  a  wanderer  by 
choice,  shipping  on  strange  ships  as  a 
common  sailor,  though  his  father  was 
President  of  an  Australian  college, 
nearly  killed  by  native  spears  in  New 
Guinea,  he  eventually  studied  medicine 
and  received  his  degree  in  Edinburgh. 
Further  extensive  travels  ended  finally 


in  Peking,  where  he  became  a  power  as 
adviser  to  the  President.  Dr.  Morrison 
was  one  of  the  most  impressive  figures 
at  the  Portsmouth  Peace  Conference. 

*     *     * 

Blame  for  Amritsar 

WITH  the  official  British  report  on 
the  Amritsar  disorders  in  India 
there  was  received  at  the  end  of  May  an 
independent  report  made  by  the  com- 
mission appointed  by  the  Indian  National 
Congress  last  December.  This  report, 
based  on  the  testimony  of  1,700  wit- 
nesses, strongly  condemned  the  adminis- 
tration of  Sir  Michael  O'Dwyer  in  the 
Punjab,  attributing  to  his  provocation 
the  rioting  in  which,  the  report  declared, 
"  at  least  1,200  persons  were  killed  and 
3,600  wounded."  No  evidence  of  organ- 
ized conspiracy  had  been  found  and  the 
passing  of  the  Rowlatt  bills  against 
anarchy  had  been  a  completely  unjusti- 
fied act  of  the  British  Government.  The 
report  ended  with  demands  for  the  re- 
peal of  these  laws,  for  the  dismissal  of 
Sir  Michael  O'Dwyer,  the  recall  of  the 

[English   Cartoon! 


— Daily   Express,   London 

THE  PEACE  OF  SAN  REMO 

And  blessings  on  the  falling  out 

That  all   the   more   endears, 
When    we    fall    out    with    those    we    love, 

And  kiss  again  with  tears !— Tennyson 


G50 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[English  Cartoon] 


-The   Star,   London 


THE  PEACEMAKER 

Sir  Hamar  :     "  Let  us  be  friends 


[Spanish  Cartoon] 


—Campana  de   Gracia,  Barcelona 

THE  CONFLAGRATION  IN  IRELAND 

Both  of  them  are  trying  to  extinguish  it  with  oil 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


—Don  Quixote,  Rio  de  Janeiro 

RUSSIA  OFFERS  PEACE  TO  EUROPE 


Viceroy,  and  the  refunding  of  all  fines  wife  of  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Mikailo- 

imposed.  vitch  and  sister  of  the  late   Czar,   now 

*     *     *  living  in   London,   swore  that  the  Czar 

The  Czar  Legally  Dead  died    July    16,    1918,    at    Ekaterinburg, 

IN   an  affidavit  filed  in  the  principal  intestate,  and  that  neither  his  wife  nor 

probate  registry  in   London  on   May  any  children  survived  him.     She  also  de- 

14,  Grand  Duchess  Xenia  Alexandrovna,  posed  that  under  Russian  law,   the  ex- 


[ American   Cartoon] 


^Chicago  Drovers  Journal 

THE  HUNT  FOR  PROFITEERS 


658 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Czar's  mother,  who  survived 
him,  had  no  interest  in  the 
estate  or  in  the  grant  of  let- 
ters of  administration,  v^hich 
interest  vests  in  the  two  sis- 
ters who  survive  him.  This 
last  deposition  was  confirmed 
by  an  affidavit  from  the 
Advocate  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  in  Petrograd.  On 
these  combined  affidavits,  a 
grant  of  letters  of  adminis- 
tration was  issued  to  Grand 
Duchess  Xenia  with  respect 
to  the  English  estate  of  the 
late  Czar.  The  wording  of 
this  grant  was  as  follows: 
Be  it  known  that  his  Im- 
'     perial       Majesty,        Nicholas 

Alexandrovitch,  Czar  of  Rus- 
sia,    of     Petrograd,     Russia, 

died  on  the  16th  day  of  July. 

1918,      at     Ekaterinburg,      in 

Russia     aforesaid,     domiciled 

in   Russia,    intestate,    leaving 

no   widow   or   child. 

Various  rumors  of  the  es- 
cape of  the  late  Czar  or  mem- 
bers of  his  immediate  family 
from  the  massacre  at  Eka- 
terinburg were  thus  officially 
denied  and  the  denial  was  legally  put 
on  record  by  a  member  of  the  Czar's 
own  family. 


[American  Cartoon] 


[Norwegian  Cartoon] 


— Hvepsen,  Christlania 
THE  WILLING  APPRENTICE 
Old  Nick   (to  financiers) :     "  Pardon,  gentlemen,  but 
would    you     mind    explaining    this    foreign     exchange 
trick  to  me?  " 


A  NGLO- A  M  ERIC  AN 


s 


Relations 
the 


^40W     I'LL    RON    YOJ    THROUGH    ^ 
ONCE    MORE,  FOR    THE    SOLPiERS 


—Dallas   Ncivs 

WRING  OUT  THE   OLD,  WRING 
IN  THE  NEW! 


IR  AUCKLAND  GEDDES,  tne  new 
British  Ambassador,  formally  pre- 
sented his  credentials  to  President  Wil- 
son at  the  White  House  on  May  26  and 
exchanged  with  him  assurances  of  good- 
will and  amity.  After  delivering  a  spe- 
cial message  from  King  George  convey- 
ing the  latter's  great  interest  in  the  pros- 
perity of  the  United  States,  his  great 
regret  over  Mr.  Wilson's  illness  and  hir> 
gratitude  at  the  heartiness  of  the  recep- 
tion accorded  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  this 
country,  the  new  Ambassador  expressed 
his  own  good  wishes  and  his  hope  that 
the  bonds  of  friendship  between  the  two 
countries  would  be  strengthened  and 
drawn  closer — an  object  to  which,  he  de- 
clared, he  would  dedicate  all  his  moct 
earnest  efforts.  President  Wilson  made 
a  cordial  reply,  in  which  he  said: 

Believing  in  the  reciprocal  friendship  of 
the  British  people  it  will  be  my  aim  in 
the  future,  as  it  has  been  my  endeavor 
in  the  past,  to  further  the  cordial  rela- 
tions and  close  ties  of  friendship  which 
unite    the    two    nations. 


miEF—WITH  CARTOONS 


659 


[American  Cartoon] 


^Dallas  Neics 


THE  OPTIMIST 

Shell-Shock   and  Crime 

STATEMENTS  made  by  Lord  Peel 
before  the  House  of  Lords  recently 
showed  that  343  death  sentences  had 
been  carried  out  upon  officers  and  men 
during  the  war  for  desertion,  cowardice, 
or  other  military  crimes.  But  death  sen- 
tences were  passed  in  a  far  larger  num- 
ber of  cases — namely,  3,076 — and  it  is 
now  revealed  that  the  great  majority  of 
these  sentences  were  never  executed.  The 
total  of  excutions  is  small  in  comparison 
with  the  immense  numbers  of  troops  en- 
gaged. In  commenting  on  these  figures 
Lord  Southborough  raised  the  point  that 
failure  of  duty  by  soldiers  had  often  been 
proved  due  to  shell-shock  or  some  other 
form  of  hysteria,  caused  by  prolonged 
strain,  and  that  apparent  cowardice  in 
the  case  of  men  who  had  proved  their 
bravery  was  in  reality  due  to  tempora- 
rily shattered  nerves. 

New   York's  Greatest  Tunnel 

AT  an  expense  of  $22,000,000  the 
Board  of  Water  Supply  of  the  City 
of  New  York  is  now  busy  putting 
through  a  gigantic  project  which  will 
nearly  double  the  flow  of  water  into  the 


great  reservoir  of  the  Asho- 
kan  Dam.  The  northward 
course  of  the  Schoharie  Creek 
is  to  be  reversed,  and  then, 
by  a  long,  rock-hewn  tunnel, 
the  stream  is  to  be  turned 
southward  to  a  point  where 
it  can  join  the  waters  of 
Esopus  Creek  and  speed 
thence  to  the  Ashokan  Reser- 
voir. Authorization  for  this 
work,  made  necessary  by  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  city's 
population,  was  given  four 
years  ago  and  active  prose- 
cution of  the  plan  is  now 
under  way.  The  proposed 
tunnel  will  be  the  longest  in 
the  world,  being  eighteen 
miles  from  intake  to  outlet; 
the  longest  European  tunnel, 
the  famous  Simplon,  through 
the  Alps,  is  twelve  and  a  half 
miles  between  portals.  The 
seriousness  of  the  undertak- 
ing will  be  realized  when  it  is 
explained  that  all  these  eighteen  miles  of 
tunnel  must  be  drilled  through  solid  rock. 
*     *     * 

Kipling   on    English    Character 
A  T   the   festival   dinner  of  the   Royal 
-^^  Society  of  St.  George,  held  in  Lon- 
don on  St.  George's  Day,  Rudyard  Kip- 

[ American  Cartoon] 


-Newspaper  E7iterpri.se  Association 
CAN'T  REACH  HIM 


660 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


ling  presided  and  of fiered  the  toast  of  the 
evening — "  England."  His  speech,  which 
culminated  with  this  toast,  was  a  pene- 
trating analysis  of  the  English  charac- 
ter. After  reciting  their  composite  origin 
and  the  many  political  vicissitudes  to 
which  the  English  were  subjected,  he  de- 
clared that  "the  Englishman,  like  a 
"  built-up  gun  barrel,  is  all  of  one  temper, 
"  though  welded  of  different  materials, 
"  and  he  has  strong  powers  of  resistance." 
Those  who  refused  to  accept  the  domestic 


situation  at  home  always  had  the  re- 
course of  going  to  sea,  "  to  seek  or  im- 
"  pose  the  peace  which  they  had  been  de- 
"  nied  at  home."  Thus  had  the  British 
Empire  been  born  and  the  tradition  of 
the  strength  of  the  breed  had  never  been 
abandoned  by  English  hearts. 

Herein  [said  Mr.  Kipling],  as  I  see  it, 
lies  the  strength  of  the  English— that  they 
have  behind  them  this  continuity  of  im- 
mensely varied  race  experience  and  race 
memory,  running-  through  every  class 
back  to, the  very  dawn  of  our  era,  which 


[German  Cartoon] 


—Kladdrradatsch ,  Berlin 

A  PLACE  IN  THE— CRESCENT 
John  Bull:    "Don't  you  agree,  my  dear  Marianne,  that  this  fits 
as  if  it  were  made  for  me?  " 

[Referring   to   the   British    control    of    Constantinople] 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


GOl 


II 


unconsciously  imposes  on  them,  even  while 
they  deride,  standards  of  avhievement 
and  comparison ;  hard  it  may  be,  and  a 
little  unsympathetic,  but  not  low,  and,  as 
all  earth  is  witness,  not  easily  lowered. 
*  *  *  These  standards  are  taken  for 
granted,  and  it  is  by  the  things  that  are 
taken  for  granted,  without  words  spoken, 
that  we  live. 

They  were  taken  for  granted  during 
the  war,  Mr.  Kipling  intimated.  The 
national  tradition  made  the  decision 
inevitable  when  the  crisis  came;  the  na- 
tional tradition  brought  it  to  success 
despite  all  lack  of  preparation.  England, 
he  said,  is  now  like  a  convalescent,  crip- 


pled by  the  loss  or  wastage  of  a  whole 
generation,  somewhat  prone,  through 
weakness,  to  hysteria,  with  the  good 
ballast  of  the  national  past  to  navigate 
all  present  and  future  brainstorms. 
Englishmen  must  stick  to  the  job,  must 
face  responsibility,  hard  work  and 
criticism,  sharing  with  France  the  burden 
of  the  whole  weight  of  the  world.  The 
sole  force  which  can  avail  is  character, 
and  again  character,  "  such  mere,  in- 
"  grained  common-sense,  hand-hammered 
"  loyal  strength  of  character  as  one  may 
"humbly  dare   to   hope   1,500   years   of 


[American  Cartoon] 


NEXT! 


-Dayton  Daily  News 


662 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Newspaper  Enterprise  Association 
SETTIN' 

"  equality  of  experience  have  given  to  us. 

"  If  this  hope  be  true,   as,  because  we 

"  know  the  breed,  we  feel  it  to  be  true, 

"  our    children's    children,    looking    back 

"  through  the  luminous  years 

"  to  where  we  here  stumble 

"  and  f  niter,  may  say,  *  Was 

"  it  possible  that  the  English 

"  of  that  age  did  not  know, 

"  could    not    see,    dared    not 

"  even  guess  to  what  height 

"  of  strength,  wisdom  and  en- 

"  during     honor     they     had 

"lifted  their  land?'" 


Amundsen's  Polar  Quest 

THE  first  message  received 
from  Captain  Roald 
Amundsen  since  he  left  Nor- 
way in  June,  1918,  to  try  a 
new  venture  in  the  Arctic, 
was  published  by  The  Lon- 
don Times  on  May  1.  Amund- 
sen, the  discoverer  of  the 
South  Pole,  planned  his 
present  expedition  with  the 
intention  of  completing  the 
feat  attempted  by  Nansen  in 
the  Fram,  that  is,  to  enter 
the  ice-pack,  and  to  trust  to 
the  Arctic  current  to  carry 
his  vessel  across  the  Polar 
Basin  to  open  water  between 


Greenland  and  Spitzbergen.  By  en- 
tering the  pack  further  east  than 
Nansen  had  done,  Amundsen  hoped  that 
his  ship  would  drift  over  the  North  Pole 
itself.  When  his  ship,  the  Maud,  left 
Christianla  in  1918,  it  was  stocked  with 
all  comforts  for  a  five  years'  absence. 
Framed  above  the  writing  table  in  Cap- 
tain Amundsen's  private  cabin  was  a 
little  English  poem  which  expressed  the 
spirit  of  all  on  board: 
The  stars  are  with  the  voyager  wherever  he 

may  sail, 
The    moon   is   constant   to  her   time,    the    sun 

will    never    fail, 
But    follow,     follow,     round    the    world,     the 

green  earth  and  the  sea. 
So   love   is   with   the   lover's   heart   wherever 

he   may   be. 

The  message  from  Amundsen  had 
been  transmitted  via  Anadyr  (Siberia) 
and  Nome  (Alaska).  He  had  Wintered 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Chelyuskin, 
the  most  northerly  point  of  the  mainland 
of  Asia,  and  he  intended  to  make  another 
attempt — the  first  had   failed — to  enter 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Dallas    Nru^ 

COUNTING  THE  SUFFRAGE  CHICKENS 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


663 


the  ice  pack  near  Wrangel   Island   and 
thence  drift  across  the  polar  sea. 

*     *     * 

Long  Journey  of  War  Prisoners  in 
Siberia 

PRISONERS  of  war  to  the  number  of 
200,000  still  remained  in  Siberia  at 
the  beginning  of  June,  according  to 
Swedish  Red  Cross  figures  cited  by  Dr. 
Fridtjof  Nansen.  In  addition,  said  Dr. 
Nansen,  there  were  about  200,000  Rus- 
sian prisoners  in  Germany  and  20,000  in 
France.  The  noted  explorer  had  been 
asked  by  the  Council  of  the  League  of 
Nations  to  investigate  the  repatriation  of 
prisoners,  and  had  found  that  the  prin- 
cipal obstacle,  at  least  in  Russia,  was 
lack  of  transportation.  Those  in  Siberia 
were  instructed  by  telegraph  to  try  to 
get  to  Moscow.  Accordingly  thousands 
of  Austrian  and  Hungarian  prisoners, 
dressed  in  the  tattered  remnants  of 
the  uniforms  they  wore  when  cap- 
tured by  the  Russians  in  1914,  and 
despairing      of      official      repatriation, 

[American  Cartoon] 


[American*  Cartoon] 


—Tacoma  Netcs-Tribune 

EMMA  SEEMS  TO  HAVE  HAD  A  CHANGE 
OF    HEART 


—Detroit  News 
THE  PORTIA  OF  POLITICS 

began  toward  the  middle  of  May  an 
attempt  to  reach  home  on  foot — a  4,000- 
mile  journey — from  the  Si- 
berian concentration  camps. 
No  provision  was  made  by 
the  Bolshevist  authorities  for 
feeding,  clothing  or  housing 
them.  American  relief  or- 
ganizations have  collected 
nearly  $1,000,000  in  a  drive 
for  thrice  that  amount  to 
supply  the  necessities  of  life 
for  these  unfortunate  men, 
and  for  the  tens  of  thousands 
of  others  still  scattered 
through  Siberia.  A  bitter 
protest  against  the  conditions 
prevailing  in  the  Russian 
concentration  camps,  and 
especially  against  the  year- 
long delay  of  the  allied  pow- 
ers in  securing  the  repatria- 
tion of  the  prisoners,  was 
published  in  the  name  of  a 
committee  in  an  April  issue 
of  the  Japan  Chronicle. 
Vienna  advices  of  May  28  re- 
ported that  ex-Premier  Hus- 
zar  of  Hungary  would  soon 
go  to  America  to  arrange  for 
the  transportation  of  the 
Hungarians     from      Siberia. 


(564 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Jo'hn  Bull,  London 

THE  MOUNTAIN  AND  THE  MOUSE 

Tho'  Germany  owes  us  a  mountain  of  debt, 
We've  got  to  be  thankful  for  what  we  can  get; 
We  may  expect  something  as  big  as  a  house, 
But  the  thing  that   arrives   is   the  size   of  a  mouse. 


Up  to  the  end  of  May  the  efforts  of  the 
American  Red  Cross  to  secure  transporta- 
tion for  the  $l,000-a-day  colony  of  chil- 
dren in  Vladivostok  had  proved  unsuc- 
cessful. 

Premier  Millerand's  Personality 

AT  San  Remo  all  eyes  turned  on  the 
French  Premier,"  says  Sisley  Hud- 
dleston  in  Everyman  (May  1).  "We 
knew  what  Mr.  Lloyd  George  was  think- 
ing. We  knew  what  Signer  Nitti  was 
saying.  We  did  not  know  M^hat  M.  Mil- 
lerand  would  do.  He  was,  to  all  appear- 
ances, stolid  and  fixed;  and  yet  it  was 
always  possible  that  he  would  give  way. 
His  personality  became  an  intensely  in- 
teresting one  for  us." 

That  personality,  as  defined  by  Mr. 
Huddleston,  is  that  of  a  peculiarly  heavy 
type  of  lawyer — "  the  solid,  four-square 
lawyer  who  specializes  in  commercial 
cases,"  devoid  of  fancy,  knowing  the 
law,  and  stubbornly  expounding  it,  hang- 
ing on  like  a  bulldog,  not  to  be  cajoled  or 
trapped — a  character,  in  short,  of  grim 


persistence.     As    a    statesman,    observes 
this    critic,    he    has    the    same    qualities 
and  the  same  defects  of  these  qualities. 
Once  he  fastens  on  an  idea  he  will  never 
let    go.     His    idea    is    that    Germany    is 
dangerous    and    that    France    must    dis- 
arm her  and  hold  her  down.     Whether 
Great  Britain  agrees  or  not,  even  if  it 
weaken  the  Entente,  the  mastery  of  Ger- 
many  must   be  attained   by   France.    It 
was  in  this  uncompromising  spirit  that 
M.    Millerand   faced   Mr.    Lloyd   George. 
Mr.   Huddleston   draws  the  picture  and 
defines  the  issue  keenly  and  clearly: 
The    drama   grew   intensely   interesting- : 
two    conceptions    clashed.       The    protago- 
nists  were   men    of   vastly   different   tem- 
peraments—on   the    one    hand    Mr.    Lloyd 
Georg-e,    volatile,    imag:inative,    lively— the 
typical    Frenchman.      On    the    other    hand 
M.     Millerand,     stony,     slow,     difficult    to 
move— the    typical    Englishman.      It    was 
otrange  to  find  the  roles  reversed,  to  find 
the    French    bludgeon     crossed    with    the 
British     rapier.      The     bulldog    was     Mil- 
lerand. 

In  reality,  however,  Mr.  Huddleston 
adds,  M.  Millerand  displays  fundamental 
French  qualities  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


665 


[Italian  Cartoon] 


—II   1^0,  Florence 

WAR  PERILS  AND  PEACE  PERILS 

There  was    a  rapacious   hand   that  wanted   the  earth — but   it  has   simply- 
been  replaced  by  another 


fundamental  British  qualities.  The  latter 
shows  the  British  instinct  of  letting  up 
on  the  under  dog;  the  former  typifies 
the  French  instinct  of  keeping  the  enemy 
down  until  his  capacity  for  mischief  is 
destroyed.  Though  the  French  policy 
may  seem  to  store  up  much  trouble  for 
the  future,  this  critic  admits  that  in  view 
of  the  industrial  and  financial  ruin 
wrought  by  Germany  in  France  it  is 
hard  for  the  special  victim  of  German 
ravage  to  be  magnanimous.  "  The 
Frenchman  has  been  molded  by  bitter 
experience  into  a  good  hater.  He  has  be- 
come pathetically  suspicious."  All  Lloyd 
George's  efforts  to  show  on  the  basis  of 
official  reports  that  Germany  is 
crushed,  half-starved,  a  paralytic  nation 
incapable  of  action,  merely  brings  Great 
Britain  within  the  range  of  this  suspicion 
of  a  German  plot  to  gain  undeserved  re- 
lief, and  excites  the  resentment  of  the 
two  chief  opposers  of  this  policy  of  miti- 
gation— Marshal  Foch  and  M.  Poincare. 
Clemenceau,  who  opposed  this  combina- 
tion, failed  of  the  Presidency;  M.  Mil- 
lerand  is  carrying  out  the  policy  of  these 
two  leaders  against  Germany  and  would 
fall,  thinks  Mr.  Huddleston,  if  he  were 
not  their  spokesman. 


Memorial  Day  at  Home  and  Abroad 

/^N  May  30 — Memorial  Day — Amer- 
^^  ica's  dead  received  their  tribute  both 
at  home  and  on  the  battlefields  of 
France,  Belgium  and  Italy.  The  cere- 
monies at  home  included  special  mes- 
sages sent  forth  from  Washington  by  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy.  In  New  York  City  the  day 
was  marked  by  parades  of  50,000  vet- 
erans, in  which  soldiers  of  three  wars 
participated.  Some  20,000  marched  in 
Manhattan  alone.  Surviving  heroes  of 
the  civil  war  and  of  the  war  with  Spain, 
followed  by  members  of  200  American 
Legion  Posts,  passed  in  review  before 
General  Miles  and  other  notables.  A 
great  outburst  greeted  the  arrival  of  the 
British,  French  and  Italian  veterans  pa- 
rading with  the  American  Legion,  rank 
after  rank  of  square-shouldered,  fast- 
stepping  men  representing  almost  every 
branch  of  the  service.  Another  parade 
of  10,000  men  took  place  in  the  Bronx. 
Memorial  services  were  held  in  many 
churches  and  all  cemeteries. 

America's  Memorial  Day  was  fittingly 
celebrated  in  the  British  Isles.  Services 
were    held    at    Glasgow,    Liverpool    and 


666 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Manchester,  and  the  graves  of  2,500 
American  soldiers  and  sailors  buried  in 
British  soil  were  adorned  with  wreaths 
and  American  flags.  Special  homage 
was  paid  at  St.  Margaret's  Church  in 
London,  the  official  church  of  the  Com- 
mons, where  Canon  Carnegie,  sub-dean 
of  Westminster  Abbey,  lauded  the  deeds 
of  the  American  hero-dead. 

Similar  honors  were  paid  to  America's 
dead  in  all  parts  of  France,  and  flags 
floated  over  the  resting  places  of  the 
70,000  who  had  fallen  there.  All  allied 
organizations  joined  with  the  Americans 
in  France  to  pay  this  homage,  while 
throughout  the  republic  detachments  of 
poilus  in  horizon  blue  acted  as  guards 
of  honor  at  the  cemeteries.  Marshal 
Foch  and  Marshal  Petain,  with  other 
men  of  prominence  from  the  French 
Army  and  Navy  and  from  civil  life, 
spoke  at  the  ceremonies.  Many  French- 
women in  various  localities  decorated 
the  American  graves  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. Special  ceremonies  occured  in^ 
Alsace,  a  children's  chorus  marching 
with  song  from  one  burying  place  to  an- 
other, while  their  mothers  and  sisters 
placed  wild  flowers  or  grass  wreaths 
on  the  graves  of  the  American  dead. 

Major  Gen.  Henry  T.  Allen  spoke  at  the 


[American  Cartoon] 


great  military  ceremony  in  Romange- 
Sous-Montfaucon,  where  more  than 
21,000  Americans  are  buried.  On  the 
slopes  of  Mt,  Valerien,  in  the  little  ceme- 
tery of  Suresnes,  Marshal  Petain  ex- 
pressed to  an  audience  of  10,000  France's 
gratitude  to  America.  In  an  eloquent 
address  the  American  Ambassador,  Hugh 
C.  Wallace,  declared  that  the  dead  sol- 
diers' task  would  not  be  completed  until 
world  peace  was  attained.  A  message 
from  General  Pershing  was  read  at  all 
the  ceremonies.  Acting  for  the  French 
Government,  Premier  Millerand  sent  a 
special  Memorial  Day  message  to  the 
American  people. 

Exercises  were  also  held  at  Genoa, 
Italy,  in  the  presence  of  the  entire 
American  colony,  headed  by  David  F. 
Wilbur,  our  Consul  General  there.  The 
graves  of  the  American  fallen  were  cov- 
ered with  flowers.  A  letter  from  Robert 
Underwood  Johnson,  American  Ambassa- 
dor to  Italy,  was  read,  in  which  a  plea 
was  made  for  mutual  understanding  and 
sympathy  between  Italy  and  the  United 
States  on  the  ground  of  a  common  love 
for  liberty. 

The  graves  of  two  American  privatcn 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Brooklyn  Eagle 
NAVAL  AMENITIES 


—Brooklyn  Eagle 

OLD  MOTHER  HUBBARD  WENT 
TO  THE  ICE  BOX— 


K 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


C67 


II 
I 


buried  at  Hasenheid,  in  the  outskirts  of 
Berlin,  Germany,  were  decorated  by  the 
American  Commissioner.  A  brief  ad- 
dress was  delivered  by  Ellis  Loring 
Dresel,  head  of  the  commission. 
*     *     * 

Egyptian  Agitation  Against  England 

HARASSED  upon  the  west  by  the 
ever-growing  Irish  disorders,  the 
Government  of  Great  Britain  for  some 
months  past  has  been  looking  with 
anxious  eyes  at  the  disquieting  situation 
in  the  Near  East.  In  the  Caucasus,  in 
Turkestan,  in  Turkey,  in  Mesopotamia, 
in  Afghanistan,  in  India,  wherever  she 
looks,  England  sees  the  sinister  hand  of 
Bolshevist  propaganda  working  on  the 
nationalist,  anti-foreign  sentiments  of 
the  native  populations  living  under  Brit- 
ish rule.  Above  all  she  is  troubled  over 
Egypt,  the  gateway  to  India.  Here, 
though  direct  uprisings  have  been  put 
down  under  martial  rule,  the  nationalist 
disaffection  continues,  and,  like  Banquo's 
ghost,  refuses  to  be  laid.  An  Italian 
publicist,  Signor  Pietro  Silva,  writing  in 
the  April  issue  of  La  Lettura  (the 
monthly  review  of  the  Corriere  della 
Sera,  Milan),  passes  in  review  the  origin 
and  the  development  of  this  agitation. 
The    very    benefits    which    thirty-five 


[American 


years  of  British  polfcy  in  Persia  brought 
to  Persia,  says  Signor  Silva,  the  devel- 
opment of  the  country  and  the  increase 
of  its  prosperity,  tended  to  awaken  the 
national  conscience  and  to  excite  na- 
tional opposition  to  the  foreign  benefac- 
tor. The  germ  of  this  opposition  existed 
already  when  the  war  broke  out.  With 
its  dclaration  a  situation  arose  which 
crystallized  the  hostility  of  the  Egyptian 
Nationalists.  Fearing  Turkish  action 
against  Persia,  and  distrusting  the  Khe- 
dive in  power  at  that  time,  England  at 
once  took  energetic  measures  to  secure 
herself  in  Persia,  the  gate  to  India.  The 
Khedive  was  ousted  as  a  Germanophile 
and  replaced  by  the  present  pro-British 
ruler,  and  the  English  protectorate  was 
declared  over  Egypt. 

This  action  stirred  Egyptian  national- 
ist feeling  strongly.  Repressed  by  the 
war  regime,  it  worked  like  a  leaven  un- 
derground and  secretly.  After  the 
ai-mistice  it  appeared  openly,  and  the 
principle  of  self-determination,  excluded 
by  the  Entente  during  the  war,  was  en- 
ergetically invoked.  But  the  demands 
of  the  Nationalists  that  an  Egyptian 
Commission  be  allowed  to  go  to  Paris  to 
present  the  national  claims  were  curtly 

[Swedish  Cartoon] 


—The  National  Republican 
AND  SO  DO  WE— LIKE  THIS 


—Nag gen,   Stockholm 

ON  THE  MERRY-GO-ROUND 

Higher     Prices      (to     Higher     Wages)  : 


"  Don't    fret     yourself, 
will  never  get  past  me 


my    friend ;     you 


668 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Dutch  Cartoon] 


-De  Amstcrdanivier,  Amsterdam 


THE  PARTITION  OF  TURKEY 

Armenia    remains    as    a    wallflower,    while    Lloyd    George, 
Venizelos  walk  off  with   all   the  rest 


Millerand    and 


rejected,  and  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment, including  the  popular  National 
leader,  Saad  Zaglul  Pasha,  were  arrested 
and  confined  to  Malta, 

This  measure  brought  Egyptian  exas- 
peration to  the  point  of  an  explosion,  al- 
ready threatening  in  consequence  of  the 
Government  action  in  instituting  forced 
conscription  and  drafting  1,000,000  men 
for  work  behind  the  lines  and  in  sanction- 
ing an  obligatory  subscription  to  the 
Eed  Cross,  the  very  name  and  symbol 
of  which  was  anathema  to  people  of  the 
Mohammedan  faith.  The  outbreak  came 
in  the  Spring  of  1919,  and  England's  re- 
ply was  to  send  General  Allenby,  in- 
vested with  full  powers  to  put  down  the 
revolt.  The  latter's  attempt  to  placate 
the  rebellious  Egyptians  by  liberating 
the  Nationalists  at  Malta  and  allowing 
them  to  proceed  to  Paris  was  counter- 
acted by  his  establishment  of  martial 
law  in  Egypt  itself. 

The  Nationalists  at  Paris  seized  the 
opportunity    to    conduct    a    tireless    and 


persistent  campaign  against  the  British 
rule  while  clamoring  vainly  for  a  hear- 
ing before  the  Peace  Conference.  Hand 
in  hand  with  these  agitators  the  Nation- 
alists worked  at  home  to  extend  the 
movement  and  to  intimidate  all  Egyp- 
tian statesmen  disposed  to  collaborate 
with  the  British  i-ulers.  England's  an- 
swer to  this  was  the  sending  of  the  Mil- 
ner  Commission. 

The  only  effect  of  this  concession  was 
to  arouse  new  and  violent  protests,  and 
to  provoke  a  new  crisis.  The  National- 
ists feared  that  acceptance  of  this  mis- 
sion would  be  equivalent  to  recognizing 
the  British  protectorate.  Under  this 
pressure  Mohammed  Said  Pasha,  the 
Egyptian  Prime  Minister,  was  forced  to 
resign. 

The  Nationalists  meanwhile  published 
a  manifesto  declaring  that  the  Milner 
Mission  was  "  contrary  to  the  will  of  tho 
Egyptian  people,  who  are  the  sole  mas- 
ters of  the  fate  of  Egypt,"  and  again  de- 
manding their  independence.     The  Brit- 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


GG9 


[American   Cartoon] 


THE  END  OF  AN 


—Nrw   Ym-k    r>'orld 

ADMINISTRATION 


ish  plans  have  undergone  no  modifica- 
tion, however,  and  the  Nationalists  re- 
main irreconcilable.  The  agitation  of 
the  malcontents  continues  unceasingly, 
and  the  Moslem  University  of  El  Azhar 
in  Cairo  is  a  hotbed  of  Egyptian  "  dis- 
sent." Meanwhile  the  Bolsheviki,  who 
are  working  assiduously  to  undermine 
England's  position  in  the  Near  East,  and 
to  unite  all  Moslem  sentiment  in  this  re- 
gion, continue  to  train  their  professional 
propagandists  in  all  Asiatic  tongues  at 
Tashkent,  and  under  their  highly  organ- 
ized direction  the  "  Union  for  Freeing 
the  East,"  an  organization  established 
and  controlled  from  Moscow,  grows  and 
flourishes.  Like  all  other  Near  East  na- 
tionalism, that  of  Egypt  looks  toward 
Bolshevist  Russia.  It  has  been  implied 
semi-officially  in  France  that  Mr.  Lloyd 
George's  reception  of  the  Bolshevist  en- 
voy, M.  Krassin,  in  London  recently,  war, 
to  be  attributed,  at  least  in  part,  to  the 
British  Premier's  realization  of  the  dan- 
ger of  this  Bolshevist-Nationalist  agita- 
tion in  Egypt  and  the  other  Moslem  re- 
gions involved. 


Bolshevism  in  China 

CAN  Bolshevism  gain  a  foothold  in 
China?  This  question  is  put  by  Pro- 
fessor Wilhelm  Schiiler  in  the  Deutsche 
Politik  in  an  article  translated  by  The 
Living  Age  in  its  issue  of  May  29.  This 
German  scholar,  at  the  time  he  wrote, 
did  not  know  the  exact  arguments  which 
the  Bolsheviki  would  use  in  attempting 
•to  convert  the  Chinese  to  Bolshevism. 
The  text  of  the  Soviet  offer  of  alliance 
with  China,  published  by  the  Shanghai 
Bureau  of  Information,  leaves  no 
doubt  of  the  Bolshevist  manner  of  ap- 
proach. The  appeal  is  addressed  almost 
exclusively  to  the  Chinese  people,  citing 
their  right  to  self-determination,  politi- 
cal independence,  liberty  from  foreign 
oppression  and  from  the  yoke  of  foreign 
capitalism,  including  annulment  of  con- 
cessions and  privileges  granted  to  for- 
eigners. Shrewdly  enough  Dr.  Schiiler 
deduces  all  these  planks  in  the  Bolshe- 
vist Far  East  platform  from  the  pro- 
gram of  the  Tashkent  Union  for  Freeing 
the  East.  Officially  China  has  not  re- 
plied to  this  skillfully  devised  appeal  to 


670 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ideas  and  sentiments  held  by  the  Asiatic 
races  in  general  and  by  China  in  partic- 
ular. But  Professor  Schiiler  points  out 
that  such  a  program  is  received  with 
willing  ears  in  China,  a  country  whose 
people  are  conscious  of  their  present 
powerlessness  and  their  hopeless  finan- 
cial situation  and  who  hold  the  capitalist 
avarice  of  other  countries  responsible  for 
these  evils.  What  is  considered  as  China's 
"  betrayal  "  by  the  Entente  in  the  Ver- 
sailles treaty  has  strengthened  the  pop- 
ular resentment.  Of  this,  as  well  as  of 
the  national  hatred  of  Japan,  shown  in 
the  universal  Chinese  boycott,  still  con- 
tinuing, the  Bolsheviki  have  taken  clever 
advantage,  this  writer  points  out,  in  ex- 
pressly condemning  not  only  European 
and  American  imperialism  but  also 
Japanese  imperialism. 

The  other  part  of  the  program  of  the 
Tashkent  Union,  faithfully  reproduced  in 


the  Soviet  appeal  of  alliance  with  the 
Peking  Government,  is  no  less  skillfully 
devised  to  appeal  to  China's  masses.  Its 
guiding  thought  is  the  absolute  author- 
ity of  the  people,  its  insistence  that  only 
the  laboring,  productive  classes — princi- 
pally peasants,  laborers  and  artisans- 
are  entitled  to  organize  a  national  Gov- 
ernment, the  ultimate  aim  being  to  unite 
all  Asia  into  a  federal  union  of  such  re- 
publics. This  part  of  the  Bolshevist  pro- 
gram gives  evidence  of  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  Chinese  popular  sentiment, 
extremely  democratic  in  instinct  and 
practice.  These  various  features  of  the 
internal  situation  of  China,  concludes 
Professor  Schiiler,  combined  with  the 
general  discontent  produced  by  the  pro- 
tracted civil  war  and  the  susceptibility 
of  the  Bolshevist  Chinese  mercenary 
troops,  whose  pay  is  always  in  arrears, 
to  the  Bolshevist  advocacy  of  the  expro- 


[ Dutch  Car^toon] 


-Xotenkrakcr,   Amsterdam- 


TURKEY'S  FATE 
Or,  the  man  in  the  moon 


671 


priation  of  all  private  wealth,  make  the 
ground  for  Bolshevism  in  China  extreme- 
ly favorable  to  the  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda, though  whether  China  will  take 
the  Soviet  road  or  not  still  remains  to  be 

seen. 

*     *     * 

Max  Harden's  Views  on  Germany 

TWO  interviews  with  the  redoubtable 
Max  Harden,  the  inveterate  foe  of 
the  former  Kaiser's  regime,  contain 
strong  meat  for  the  German  people  to 
feed  upon.  The  first  of  these  public  ex- 
pressions was  published  by  The  London 
Times  on  April  11 ;  the  second  was  given 
in  Copenhagen  during  a  visit  paid  the 
Danish  capital  by  Herr  Harden,  and  was 
published  in  The  New  York  Globe  on 
May  14.  In  The  Times  interview  the 
publicist  declared  that  the  German  peo- 
ple had  never  grasped  the  meaning  of 


the  word  liberty,  an'd  to  this  inability  he 
traced  the  von  Kapp  revolution  and  most 
of  Germany's  present  troubles. 

The  real  aim  of  von  Kapp  and  his  fol- 
lowers, declares  Herr  Harden,  was  to 
secure  power  to  tyrannize  over  the  rest 
of  Germany.  It  was  one  of  a  series  of 
blundering  attempts  made  with  the  de- 
clared intention  of  establishing  liberty, 
and  the  end  is  not  yet.  It  was  cleverly 
organized,  and,  in  Herr  Harden's  opin- 
ion, Ludendorff  was  the  chief  director 
of  it.  The  organizers  knew  well  how  to 
excite  the  admiration  which  Germans 
have  been  taught  to  display  for  any  dem- 
onstration of  effective  might.  The  in- 
itial brilliant  success  broke  down  only  as 
the  result  of  inefficient  handling.  The 
brief  period  of  Kapp's  Government,  how- 
ever, produced  no  little  rejoicing,  ex- 
pressed  in  the   singing  of  Deutschldnd 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Chicago  Drovers  Journal 

KILLING  THE  GOOSE  THAT  LAID  THE  GOLDEN  EGGS 

Will  he  come  to  his  senses  in  time? 


672 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


iiber  Alles  and  Die  Wacht  am  Rhein. 
"  That  was  in  accord  with  the  German 
character.  The  Siegeskranz  is  irresisti- 
ble to  them,  and  whenever  a  man  appears 
before  them  wearing  a  crown  or  any 
semblance  of  it,  accompanied  by  military 
bands,  he  will  be  welcomed  without  ques- 
tion as  to  his  intentions." 

In    the    Copenhagen    interview    Herr 


Harden  made  further  statements  about 
the  psychology  of  his  countrymen  which 
created  a  sensation  in  Germany.  The 
German  people,  he  said,  were  like  a 
stinging  nettle :  they  must  not  be  handled 
gingerly  but  with  an  iron  hand.  Only 
force  can  compel  them.  To  Entente  len- 
iency was  due  Germany's  complete  fail 
urs  to  observe  a  single  one  of  the  stipu- 


[Englisit  Cartoon] 


—The  Passing  ShoWj  London 

IRELAND'S  AGONY 

0  Peace,  Where  Is  Thy  Victory? 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


lations  of  the  Peace  Treaty.  The  Ger- 
mans gained  the  impression  from  the 
start  that  the  allied  nations,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  France,  "  were  soft-hearted, 
unpractical  fools,  who  did  not  for  a  mo- 
ment expect  them  to  live  up  to  their  sig- 
nature." France's  energetic 
measures  have  lately  caused 
i^them  to  change  their  minds 
a  certain  extent.  There 
will  be  no  more  trouble,  said 
Herr    Harden,    if    the    Allies 

continue    to    follow    France's 
|ead  and  exercise  unrelenting 

»ressure.    In  conclusion  Har- 
'den  said: 

We  understand  the  French. 
They  know  us  and  have 
learned  to  fear  us,  and  for 
this  reason  they  want  to  get 
us  down  so  low  that  we 
shall  never  be  able  to  think 
of  doing  harm.  But  we  shall 
never  understand  the  Eng- 
lish or  the  Americans,  who 
combine  the  application  of 
the  sternest  measures  under 
certain  conditions  affecting 
the  opulence  and  power  of 
their  own  empires  with  hu- 
manitarian ideas,  which  we 
put  down  as  mere  sentimen- 
tal slush  and  nonsense.  We 
think  ourselves  more  con- 
sistent, and  I  do  not  know 
that  we  are  not  right. 


books  and  flowers,  at  the  blue  waves  of 
the  warm  sea,  at  Vesuvius  wrapped  in  a 
golden  mist,  realizing  that  his  fame  was 
leaving  him,  and  embittered  as  he  wrote 
out  the  scenes  of  his  childhood  to  be- 
queath to   the  world   one   last  intimate 

[American  Cartoon] 


-Leavenworth  Post 

SPEAKING  OF  HIGH  HORSES 

We  know  a  man  who  would  like  to  come  down  off  of  his 


Maxim  Gorky,  Bolshevist 

IS  Maxim  Gorky  really  with  the  Bolshe- 
viki,  or  is  he  only  another  one  of 
those  "  counter-revolutionaries  "  who  are 
secretly  endeavoring  to  save  at  least  a 
little  of  the  former  Russian  culture? 
This  question  is  propounded  by  Eugene 
Liatsky,  a  well-known  Russian  literary 
critic  and  publicist,  in  an  interesting 
article  translated  and  published  by 
struggling  Russia  in  its  issue  of  May  29. 
This  writer,  after  due  consideration  of 
Gorky's  career  and  temperament,  decides 
that  his  present  relation  to  the  Bolshe- 
vist authorities  is  due  to  the  conservative 
motive  just  indicated. 

As  a  Russian  exile  on  the  island  of 
Capri,  Gorky  spent  years  in  a  kind  of 
idyllic  dream,  gazing  through  his  open 
window,  as  he  sat  at  a  table  loaded  with 


work.  All  this  time  he  never  relinquished 
his  dreams  of  a  social  revolution  in  Rus- 
sia, and  he  was  very  well  aware  that 
because  of  his  prominence  and  his  views 
he  was  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  the  Czar's 
Government.  Sullen  and  brooding  in 
1912,  as  moody  as  a  woman,  chafing  as 
he  watched  the  war  in  1914,  he  at  last 
secured  the  long-sought  privilege  of  re- 
turning to  Russia  after  the  revolution 
broke  out — the  long-desired  revolution, 
which  none  had  preached  more  ardently 
than  Gorky  himself. 

At  first  he  was  a  declared  enemy  of 
the  Bolsheviki,  but  he  yielded  to  Lenin 
at  last,  to  his  crafty  and  delicate  flat- 
tery: Gorky  was  called  upon,  as  the 
supreme  Russian  representative  of 
"bourgeois"  culture,  to  save  Russian 
literature   from  the  anarchic   conditions 


674 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  great  upheaval.  No  other  position 
was  more  suited  to  his  attainments  than 
that  of  State  Publisher  for  the  best 
works  of  the  world's  literature.  And  so, 
while  the  Bolsheviki  boast  that  the 
great  social  revolutionary  is  with  them, 
Gorky,  closing  his  eyes  to  the  atrocities 
around  him,  works  to  save  Russian  cul- 
ture, his  own  creative  talent  at  a  stand- 
still, his  soul  imprisoned  by  the  chains 
of  voluntary  servitude.     A  tragic  situa- 


tion for  Maxim  Gorky,  this  fine  artist 
and  fiery  worshipper  of  culture,  com- 
pelled to  publish  books  when  blood  is 
flowing  all  around  him,  and  to  follow 
submissively  the  Bolshevist  triumphal 
car.  M.  Liatsky  sees  only  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  Bolshevist  regime  a  possi- 
bility that  Gorky  will  came  again  into 
his  own,  and  unfold  his  talents  for  a 
disappointed  world  in  some  new  and  un- 
precedented splendor. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 

Current  History  undertakes  in  this  department  to  publish  such  open  letters  as  it  con- 
siders of  general  interest.  No  letter  will  be  used  without  the  name  and  address  of  the 
writer.  On  controversial  questions  it  will  be  the  aim  to  give  all  sides  an  equal  chance  at 
representation;  Current  History,  however,  aiming  to  record  events  as  nearly  as  possible 
without  comment  or  bias,  does  not  necessarily  indorse  opinions  contained  in  these  letters\. 


JOHN  BURROUGHS  ON  GERMANY'S 
EXCUSE  FOR  WAR 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

Professor  Paul  Rohrbach,  who  is  described 
as  a  German  publicist  and  lecturer,  has,  at 
the  request  of  the  editor,  contributed  to  the 
May  number  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  an  ar- 
ticle in  which  he  seeks  to  justify  Germany's 
conduct  during  the  great  war.  Something 
lilce  an  apology  might  have  had  a  certain 
interest,  but  this  attempt  at  a  wholesale  jus- 
tification is  intolerable.  He  uses  the  outworn 
excuse  that  Germany  was  attacked ;  that  she 
fought  only  a  defensive  war.  Let  us  grant 
that  this  is  true,  but  not  exactly  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  publicist  means:  She  was  at- 
tacked just  as  every  scoundrel  is  attacked  in 
spirit  and  implication  by  every  man  who 
lives  a  decent  and  honorable  life.  There  was 
a  natural  and  inevitable  antagonism  between 
the  genius  of  the  civilization  of  the  Entente 
and  that  of  German  Kultur.  The  Teutons 
felt  this  and  complained  that  they  were  in  the 
midst  of  a  ring  of  hostile  nations— hostile  to 
their  military  spirit  and  dreams  of  world  con- 
quest. 

Yes,  Germany  was  attacked.  She  had  been 
attacked  long  before  the  appeal  to  arms  was 
made  by  every  man  in  the  Entente  nations 
who  thought  a  free  thought  or  did  a  kind, 
disinterested  act  or  felt  bound  by  the  rules 
of  honor  or  justice  or  fair  dealing  or  yielded 
to  the  impulse  of  sympathy. 

For  more  than  ten  years,  says  Professor 
Rohrbach,  his  country  "had watched  a  ring  of 
hostile  nations  closing  round  it."  Yes,  hos- 
tile to  the  principles  of  international  moral- 
ity (or  rather  immorality)  and  national  com- 
ity which  its  political  teachers  and  military 
leaders— Nietzsche  and  Bernhardi— had  incul- 
cated. 


The  Entente  nations'  propaganda  against 
Germany  in  pre-war  days  was  well  founded, 
but  unfortunately  was  heeded  by  very  few. 
Lord  Roberts  knew  what  it  meant  and  what 
the  toast  "  Der  Tag  "  meant,  but  the  alarm 
was  not  general. 

Yes,  Germany  was  attacked.  She  was  at- 
tacked when  treaties  and  covenants  were  re- 
garded as  sacred— not  mere  scraps  of  paper; 
she  was  attacked  when  the  rights  of  weaker 
nations  were  insisted  upon ;  she  was  attacked 
when  the  word  "  honor  "  was  spoken,  when 
autocracy  was  condemned  and  democracy 
was  recognized ;  she  was  attacked  when  the 
citizen  was  held  more  sacred  than  the  State  ; 
she  was  attacked  by  all  forces  of  individual- 
ism ;  she  was  attacked  by  all  efforts  to  re- 
duce armaments  and  all  efforts  to  establish 
rules  for  civilized  warfare— that  is,  to  wage 
war  upon  the  armies  of  the  enemy  and  not 
upon  the  people.  The  devil  is  attacked  by 
every  kind  and  innocent  thought  or  act  and 
by  every  impulse  of  altruism  and  every  alle- 
viation of  sin  and  misery. 

The  Germans  were  in  very  truth  attacked. 
All  they  stand  for  in  world  politics  was  at- 
tacked —  their  selfishness,  swinishness  and 
greed.  There  is  a  natural  antagonism  be- 
tween Germanism  and  all  other  Western  civ- 
ilizations. Feeling  the  growth  and  force  of 
surrounding  conditions,  they  instinctively 
rushed  to  arms  to  defend  themselves,  and 
when  the  battle  went  against  them  threw  up 
their  hands  with  cries  of  "  Kamerad  !  "  Pro- 
fessor Rohrbach' s  appeal  takes  scant  account 
of  Germany's  guilt— would  have  us  forget  it 
as  a  tale  that  is  told— while  he  laments  and 
laments  that  we  did  not  lift  the  blockade 
when  the  armistice  was  signed,  so  that  the 
"  moral  recuperation  of  Germany  "  (  !)  could 
have  begun. 
It  was   a   principle   of   Germany's  military 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 


675 


teachers  not  only  to  wage  war  against  the 
military  power  of  her  enemy  and  seek  to  de- 
stroy and  capture  his  armies,  but  also  against 
the  people  themselves— women  and  children— 
and  against  the  homes,  the  industries— in- 
deed, against  the  very  life  of  the  nation— in 
short,  to  destroy  the  enemy  nations,  root  and 
branch. 

Did  the  Germans  not  aim  to  fulfill  this  dic- 
tum to  the  very  letter  with  France,  destroy- 
ing her  mines,  her  factories,  carrying  away 
"the  machinery  and  demolishing  that  which 
they  could  not  carry  away,  deporting  the 
population?  That  Paris  was  not  reduced  to 
ashes  and  London  laid  waste  was  no  fault 
of  theirs.  Can  one  doubt  for  a  moment  that 
if  they  could  have  torpedoed  the  British  Isles 
as  they  torpedoed  the  ships  they  would  have 
done  it?  They  figured  out  on  paper  that, 
with  ruthless  submarine  warfare,  they  could 
inevitably  starve  England  to  the  point  of 
submission.  And  at  one  time  it  looked  as  if 
they  might  succeed.  But  in  their  greed  and 
confidence  they  overreached  themselves  and 
drew  the  United  States  into  the  conflict. 
That  act  of  pigheadedness  sealed  their  fate. 

I  can  but  repeat:  In  the  same  way  that 
Satan  may  justly  feel  that  he  is  attacked  by 
every  moral  and  religious  precept  inculcated 
in  school  and  church,  Germany  was  attacked. 
His  Satanic  highness  may  look  upon  the 
Golden  Rule  itself  as  a  direct  assault  upon 
his  most  cherished  schemes,  a  damaging  evi- 
dence of  preparedness  and  even  of  mobiliza- 
tion. 

Germany's  war  gospel  as  preached  by 
Nietzsche  is  illustrated  by  their  whole  con- 
duct of  the  war.  What  was  that  gospel?  I 
have  never  read  it  and  never  intend  to,  but 
Dr.  Hibben  of  Princeton  has  made  a  study  of 
it,  and  here  are  some  of  the  principles  which 
he  finds: 

"  There  is  but  one  vice  and  that  is  weak- 
ness, and  but  one  virtue  and  that  is 
strength." 

"It  is  better  to  cheiish  and  develop  our 
brute  inheritance  than  to  be  steeped  in  the 
dreary  commonplaces  of  morality." 

"  Whatever  prospers  is  right,  whatever 
fails  is  wrong." 

"  The  supreme  duty  of  life  is  to  forget  that 
we  owe  any  duty  to  ourselves." 

"  There  is  no  standard  of  conduct  but  suc- 
cess." 

"  To  make  men  equal  is  to  reduce  them  to 
a  dead  level  of  mediocrity." 

Nietzsche  taught  that  the  worst  of  all  so- 
called  virtues  was  sympathy ;  that  sympathy 
always  has  been  and  always  will  be  an  ob- 
.structive  force  in  the  normal  development 
of  humanity.  "  Vigorous  eras,  noble  civiliza- 
tions see  something  contemptible  in  sympa- 
thy. Brotherly  love  is  a  lack  of  self-asser- 
tion and  self-reliance."  The  whole  sum  and 
substance  of  it  is  that  might  makes  right, 
and  that  survival  is  the  only  test.  The  prin- 
ciples of  German  Kultur  were  written  in  fire 
and   blood   on   the   fair  lands   of   France   and 


Belgium  during  the  great  war.  Judged  by 
her  own  standard,  Germany  was  wrong  be- 
cause she  failed.  Had  she  succeeded,  nothing 
but  the  Germanization  of  the  world  would 
have  satisfied  her  ambition. 

Yet  she  has  not  suffered  for  the  full  meas- 
ure of  her  guilt.  In  her  own  eyes  she  has 
never  been  guilty,  and  she  is  at  heart  as  de- 
fiant and  unrepentant  as  ever.  The  Junker 
and  the  military  gang  that  brought  on  the 
war  are  still  in  power.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  sign  so  far  that  they  regret  any- 
thing except  their  failure  to  destroy  France. 

We  are  not  through  with  the  Huns  yet. 
They  cannot  change,  and  do  not  want  to 
change.  There  are  still  over  70,000,000  of 
them,  and  they  are  very  prolific,  as  most  bad 
things  are.  There  will  be  100,000,000  of  them 
before  we  fairly  know  it.  They  are  the  one 
great  standing  peril  which  casts  its  black 
shadow  upon  the  world,  and  they  must  be 
watched  and  checked  in  all  possible  ways. 
JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

West  Park,  N.  Y.,  May  26,  1920. 

APPRECIATION  FROM  CANADA 

To  the  Editor  of  Curt-ent  History: 

I  wish  you  to  know  that,  as  a  Canadian 
reader,  I  appreciate  to  the  utmost  the  interest 
that  Current  History  is  taking  in  Canadian 
affairs.  I  believe  that  you  are  taking  a  step 
in  the  right  direction  by  publishing  such 
articles  as  have  been  appearing  lately  under 
the  name  of  William  Banks,  who  shows  a 
very  keen  insight  into  the  affairs  of  this 
country. 

While  in  the  United  States  last  Summer  I 
was  very  much  surprised  to  fini  so  many 
Americans  misinformed  or  unaware  of 
Canada's  war  efforts  and  post-war  condi- 
tions. Where  doubt  and  ignorance  exist  there 
is  no  room   for  friendship. 

I  trust  that  the  splendid  articles  by  Mr. 
Banks  will  do  much  to  give  Ameiicans  a 
better  understanding  of  their  northern  neigh- 
bor—an understanding  that  will  lead  to 
mutual     trust    and    good-will. 

BRUCE    B.    SHIER. 
859  Roslyn  Avenue,  Montreal,   Can.,   May  31, 
1920. 

WHY  POLAND  IS  FIGHTING 

To   the  Editor  of  Current  Hisvory: 

We  are  constant  readers  of  your  magazine, 
which  we  value  highly  as  perhaps  the  only 
reliable  source  of  exact  information  on  con- 
temporary history.  Trifling  errors  may  of 
course  occur  everywhere,  and  if  we  take  the 
liberty  of  calling  your  attention  to  a  few 
inexactitudes  in  your  June  issue  it  is  only 
because  in  Current  History  they  happen  so 
rarely   that   one   is  struck  by   them. 

I.  In  your  article,  "  Poland's  New  War  on 
Soviet  Russia,"  Page  4.')4,  you  quote  the 
statement  of  "  The  Polish  War  Minister, 
Major  Boufall."  The  Polish  War  Minister  is 
not   Major   Boufall,    but   General   Lesniewski. 


676 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


Major  Boufall  is  the  Polish  Charge  d' Affaires 
in   Latvia. 

II.  Your  title,  "  Toland's  New  War  on 
Soviet  Russia,"  may  lead  into  error  Amer- 
ican readers  who  do  not  know  that  it  is 
always  the  same  war,  the  war  begun  by 
the  Bolsheviki  in  January,  1919,  when  they 
invaded  Poland  without  any  reason  at  all 
and  which  has  continued  ever  since  without 
interruption.  The  last  Polish  offensive,  like 
those  which  preceded  it,  was  undertaken  in 
.-^elf-defense,  to  prevent  a  new  invasion,  for 
which  the  Bolsheviki  are  continually  making- 
preparations.  From  a  military  point  of  view 
such  offensives  are  indispensable  until  peace 
is  obtained— for  which  Poland  is  .always 
ready. 

III.  Your  map  contains  the  line  "  Poland 
as  defined  by  Treaty  of  Versailles,  1919." 
The  Treaty  of  Versailles  decided  only  the 
western  frontiers  of  Poland.  The  eastern 
frontiers  were  provisionally  fixed  by  the 
Peace  Conference  in  December,  1919,  with 
the  addition  that  further  rights  of  Poland  are 
expressly  reserved.  We  inclose  a  copy  of 
this  decision,  as  communicated  to  the  Polish 
delegation  in  Paris  on  Dec.  8,  1919,  by  Mr. 
Clemenceau. 

IV.  The  plebiscite  area  as  marked  on  your 
map  does  not  include  the  second  plebiscite 
area  between  Poland  and  Germany  in  Upper 
Silesia  and  the  plebiscite  area  of  Teschen, 
between  Poland  and  Czechoslovakia,  in 
Silesia  and  former  Northern  Hungary.  We 
are  sending  you  under  separate  cover  a  map 
where  these  areas  are  indicated,  but  where 
the  Polish  military  line  should  be  altered 
in  conformity  with  the  last  movements  of 
the    Polish    Army. 

T.   ZUK-SKARSZEVIKI. 
Director    Polish    Bureau    of    Information,    40 
West  40th  Street,  New  York,  June  3,  1020. 

AZERBAIJAN  AND  THE  KURDS 

To   the  Editor  of   Cuii-ent  History: 

May  I,  without  seeming  discourteous,  call 
your  attention  to  the  mistakes  contained  in 
the  Kurdistan  section  of  the  article  on  the 
*'  Dismembei-ment    of    the    Turkish    Empire  " 


in  your  June  number?  It  contains  the  fol- 
lowing phrases:  "Kurdistan  emerges  from 
the  Turkish  Treaty  better  than  does  Azer- 
baijan. Azerbaijan  is  only  incidentally  men- 
tioned. Geographically  one  is  siiperimposed 
upon  the  other.  So  the  blunder  the  Entente 
made  last  January  in  recognizing  the  inde- 
pendence of  Azerbaijan  is  now  wiped  out  in 
the  treaty.  *  *  *  Meanwhile  the  Tartar^ 
of  Azerbaijan,  starting  from  the  Persian 
province,  have  practically  ab,sorbed  that  part 
of  Turkish  Kurdistan  which  i.s  dealt  with  in 
the  treaty,  and  these  Tartars  are  now  fight- 
ing the  Armenians," 

These  statements  are  not  coriect,  owing 
to  a  very  frequent  and  natural  confusion  be- 
tween the  "  independent  "  Republic  of  Azer- 
baijan and  the  Persian  piovince  of  the  same 
name,  from  which  the  ancestors  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  present  republic  originally 
emigrated.  A  glance  at  the  map  on  Page 
nOO,  accompanying  my  article  on  Armenia  in 
the  same  issue,  will  show  that  all  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Republic  of  Azerbaijan  lies  to 
the  north  of  the  Russian-Turkish-Persian 
frontier,  entirely  on  the  territory  of  the 
former  Russian  Empire,  while  the  province 
of  Azerbaijan— as  your  reviewer  correctly 
states— lies  on  Persian  soil ;  but  the  republic 
has  at  no  time  since  its  existence  controlled 
any  part  of  the  Persian  province,  nor  has  it 
ever  made  any  serious  claims  to  any  part.'^ 
of  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Kurds  occup>- 
territory  only  in  the  Persian  prov'nce ;  there- 
fore Kurdistan  and  the  Republic  of  Azei- 
baijan  recognized  by  the  Entente  are  not 
"  geographically  superimposed  "  as  stated, 
and  the  "  blunder  "  of  the  Allies  (for  I  agret^ 
with  your  reviewer  that  it  was  a  seriou.-; 
one)  was  such  for  reasons  other  than  the 
geographical  one  stated  incorrectly.  Also, 
the  Tartars  who  are  attacking  the  Armenian.'^ 
did  not  start  from  the  Persion  province,  but 
are,  on  the  contrary,  "  Baku,"  that  is  to  .=<a> 
"  republican,"  Tartars,  so  that  they  cannot 
in  any  sense  be  said  to  have  absorbed  an> 
part  of  Kurdistan,  where  there  are  only 
I'ersian    Azerbaijanese. 

BENJAMIN  BURGES  MOORE. 

East  Islip,  L.  I.,  N.  Y.,  June  6,  1920. 


Venice  During  and  After  the  War 

How  the  City  of  the  Sea  Preserved  Its  Treasures  of  Art — A 
I  ft  World  Exposition  Planned 


"T"  TTOW   Venice  preserved  her  beauty 

I  ^K  r~l       ^^^  showed  her  patriotism  dur- 

I^Kl.  JL     ing-  the  war  was  told  in  interest- 

I^H  ing  detail  by  Gertrude  Slaugh- 

I^Ker  in  the  Unpartizan  Review  for  April. 

f       'Since    the    close    of    the    great    conflict 

Venice  has  been  gradually  coming  again 

I^Kinto  her  own  and  peculiar  heritage.    The 

l^^mmortal  canvases  of  the  Doges'  palace, 

P        of     all     the     Venetian     churches     and 

museums,  are  being  brought  back  from 

their  exile;  the  banked  up  and  fortified 

fagades    of    churches    and    palaces    are 

again    revealed;    the   scars   of   Austrian 

bombs    are    being,    as    far    as    possible, 

effaced,   and  Venice  is  preparing  for  a 

great  exposition  to  which  the  whole  world 

will  be  invited,  to  celebrate  Italy's  share 

in    the    victory    and    her    own    spiritual 

triumph  over  the  forces  of  barbarism. 

Long  before  Italy  entered  the  war 
Venice  was  under  no  illusion  as  to  what 
the  Austrians — the  inveterate  foes  of  all 
that  Italy  represented — would  attempt. 
For  the  Austrians,  like  their  allies,  the 
Germans,  in  the  case  of  Rheims,  knew 
very  well  that  no  blow  more  mortal  could 
be  delivered  to  their  enemy's  heart  than 
that  which  destroyed  the  national  herit- 
age of  hoary  tradition  and  immortal  art. 
Realizing  this  the  Venetians,  weeks  and 
months  before  Italy  took  the  fateful  de- 
cision, by  wise  and  concerted  action  re- 
moved the  most  precious  paintings  from 
their  frames,  rolled  them  on  wooden 
cylinders,  and  transported  them  beyond 
the  Appenines.  The  citizens  of  Venice 
raised  violent  protests  against  this 
"  sacrilege,"  the  confraternities  decreed 
that  their  Tintorettos  and  other  great 
masters  should  not  be  touched.  The 
grave  risk  of  damage  was  emphasized, 
the  confidence  in  the  national  defense 
was  invoked.  Venice  would  not  be  Venice 
if  this  were  continued.  To  dismember 
Venice  was  not  to  save  her.  Gertrude 
Slaughter  comments  as  follows: 

It   was    a   show   of   spirit   easily    to   be 
condoned    when    one    thinks    of    what   was 


Happening.  In  the  great  council  chamber 
of  the  Doges'  Palace,  which  had  glowed 
with  the  light  and  movement  of  historic 
victories— scenes  of  famous  audiences  of 
Emperors,  Popes  and  Doges,  tributes  to 
Venice  from  the  Occident  and  the  Orient, 
imperial  fleets  conquered  in  the  west  and 
infidel  armies  in  the  east,  the  proud 
Barbarossa  brought  to  his  knees  by  the 
intercession  of  the  Doge— Venice  in  his- 
tory and  Venice  in  symbolic  legend  de- 
picted by  the  Tintorettos  and  the  Bassanos 
and  Palma  the  Young  and  Paul  the 
Veronese— suddenly  the  splendor  has  dis- 
appeared. Nothing  is  left  but  bare  walls 
and    empty   frames— a   lifeless    body. 

Despite  the  precedents  of  Rheims, 
Louvain,  Ypres,  only  the  actual  rain  of 
"  Austrian  manna "  could  convince  the 
Venetians  of  the  grim  intentions  of  their 
enemy.  In  the  early  dawn  of  the  first 
day  of  the  war,  even  before  the  declara- 
tion had  been  published  in  Venice,  an 
Austrian  airplane  dropped  four  bombs 
into  the  heart  of  the  city.  On  the  same 
day  an  Austrian  squadron  off  Ancona 
turned  seven  large  calibre  guns  on  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Cyriacus,  a  twelfth- 
century  monument  of  ancient  Venice 
that  dominates  the  sea.  The  Austrian 
warships  plowed  the  Adriatic,  unaware 
that  a  time  would  come  when  they  would 
be  forced  by  a  tireless  Italian  fleet  to 
hide  in  the  deep  harbors  of  the  eastern 
shore.  The  danger,  already  a  reality, 
became  more  threatening  every  day.  The 
Venetians,  remembering  now  the  bom- 
bardment of  1849,  when  in  three  weeks 
20,000  shells  were  dropped  on  Venice,  set 
themselves  to  labor  and  endure.  Aerial 
defense  was  organized;  vast  plans  of 
protection  from  bombs  and  shrapnel  were 
carried  out  despite  the  special  difficul- 
ties of  the  sea-city's  construction,  which 
made  the  nicest  calculations  necessary, 
lest  the  weight  that  was  needed  to  sup- 
port and  strengthen  should  crush  the 
frail  foundation  of  the  walls. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  war  the  bronze 
horses  of  St.  Mark  were  removed.  Under 
a  clear  May  sky,  after  12  hours  of 
anxiety  and  labor,  they  were  let  down 


678 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


^CnStk 


^m 


,mmm' 


(©   Mirzaoff) 

ANNUAL    REGATTA    OF    VENETIAN    GONDOLAS    SWINGING    DOWN    THE    GRAND    CANAL 

FROM     THE     RIALTO     FOR     THE     FIRST     TIME     SINCE     THE     WAR 


with  ropes  and  derricks,  and  placed  in 
wooden  frames  for  transportation,  those 
proud  Greek  horses  whose  journeys  had 
chronicled  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires. 
The  careful  workers  had  no  clear  realiza- 
tion of  the  future,  did  not  know  that 
before  those  bronze  horses  should  make 
their  journey  back  from  Rome,  three 
powerful  Emperors  were  to  lose  their 
thrones. 

The  famous  Colleoni  statue  was  pro- 
tected by  sandbags  in  a  wooden  frame; 
later,  it  also  was  taken  down  and  re- 
moved to  Rome.  Brick  supports  were 
built  between  the  carved  columns  of  the 
Ducal  Palace;  the  facade  of  St.  Mark's 
and  the  Loggetta  were  hidden  behind 
dull  walls;  places  of  refuge  were  built 
of  sandLags  under  porticoes,  inside  court- 
yards, behind  stairways;  windowpanes 
were  pasted  with  strips  of  paper  that 
looked  like  prison  bars.  Piles  of  sand- 
bags were  pressed  against  arches, 
arcades,  tombs,  statues  and  doorways, 
marring  with  their  bulk  the  graceful 
lines,  and  contrasting  crudely  with  the 
patterns  of  the  stones  of  Venice.  "  And 
so,*'  says  this  writer,  "the  city  of  gold 


put  on  her  austere  mantle  of  war.     But 
the  greatest  test  was  yet  to  come." 

This  time  came  when  refugees  from 
the  north  were  pouring  in,  and  evacua- 
tion, partial  or  complete,  was  inevitable. 
"  This  is  a  story  of  hunger  and  thirst,  of 
tears  and  laughter,  of  hope  and  terror, 
of  threatened  panic  and  triumphant 
courage."  Any  one  who  worked  in  Venice, 
with  Venetians,  in  the  last  twelve  months 
of  their  resistance,  must  have  learned 
that  the  spirit  of  this  great  people  is  not 
dead.  A  poet  has  told  in  Venetian  dia- 
lect how,  when  from  the  north  a  mighty 
wind  of  madness  and  plunder  swept 
through  the  doors  of  Italy,  a  black  storm 
of  ancient  enemies — Turks,  Huns,  Bul- 
gars,  Hungarians,  Croats — till  the  earth 
trembled,  and  an  arch  of  fire  stretched 
from  the  mountains  to  the  lagoon,  the 
Italian  soldiers,  forced  to  retreat,  found 
themselves  at  last  with  their  backs 
against  Venice.  "  Venice !  Sacred,  beloved 
Venice,  bride  of  the  sea !  "  And  they 
turned — to  fight  for  Venice. 

The  barbarians  have  seen  their  prey 
shining-  in  the  lagoon,  and  they  rush  on 
shouting:     "  Attaclc  !    "We  are  on  them!  " 


VENICE  DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  WAR 


G79 


And  a  yell  replies,  "You  shall  not  pass!  " 
And  they  are  hurled  back  in  the  mud,  and 
the  mud  grows  red.  So  today,  tomorrow, 
and  forever,    "  You  shall  not  pass!  " 

So  Venice  rekindled  faith  in  the  sol- 
diers' hearts,  and  they  stood  firm  on 
the  Piave,  on  the  Sile,  on  the  Grappa. 
Through  the  Winter  and  Spring  the  line 
held  firm;  by  the  sound  of  guns  one 
could  trace  the  battle  front  from  far  up 
in  the  mountains,  over  Montello  and 
Montebelluna  and  the  Grappa  and  the 
heights  of  Asiago.  Then  came  the  Aus- 
trian offensive,  called  the  second  battle 
of  the  Piave;  called  also  the  battle  for 
Venice.  Life  in  the  Lagoon  City,  mean- 
while, is  described  by  the  writer  in  the 
Unpartizan  Review  as  follows: 

Venice,  50,000  of  whose  population  had 
remained  at  home— Venice,  whose  de- 
fenders we  knew  were  to  resist  at  any 
cost,  went  about  her  tasks  as  usual. 
There  was  a  certain  tension  in  the  air, 
as  the  guns  grew  louder  and  louder,  and 
crowds  pressed  clo.'-er  around  the  daily 
bulletin.  But  the  girls  in  the  workrooms 
for  .  unemployed  went  on  refashioning 
twelfth  century  designs  in  lace  and  linen, 


while  in  Government  shops  many  more 
were  making  uniforms,  or  sewing  in  Red 
Cross  ouvroirs  for  soldiers  and  their 
families.  The  small  children  were  gathered 
into  asili  under  the  care  of  sisters  whom 
the  Patriarch  had  wisely  ordered  to  re- 
main in  Venice.  These  children  sang  their 
songs  and  played  their  games,  some  of 
them  in  houses  partly  destroyed  by  bombs, 
and  not  one  of  them  but  learned  to  sing, 
before  the  day  of  the  armistice,  the  "Star- 
Spangled  Banner  "  translated  into  Italian. 
Women  and  old  men  standing  in  line 
before  the  soup  kitchens  were  no  less 
patient  and  smiling,  or  vociferous  and 
Goldonian,  than  before.  Most  of  the 
industries  had  been  removed.  But  on  the 
island  of  Burano,  between  Venice  and  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  the  lacemakers  of  the 
Queen's  School  "put  up  their  defense" 
by  working  on  without  a  break.  There 
were  no  interruptions  anywhere,  because 
Venice  had  long  been  ready,  knowing  the 
hour  would  come.  The  concerts  in  the 
Marcello  Palace,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  High  Command,  and  the  popular  band 
concerts  in  the  square  were  crowded  with 
attentive  hearers,  and  the  church  bells 
rang  out  across  the  water  as  if  to  defy 
the    guns. 

Under  that  first  Summer  moon  air  raids 
had  become  more  frequent.     There  was  an 


ST.    MARK'S    CATHEDRAL,    VENICE,    AS    IT    APPEARED    DURING    THE    WAR,    WHEN    THE 

WHOLE    BEAUTIFL^L    MOSAIC    AND    MARBLE    FACADE    WAS    PROTECTED    FROM    Al'STRIAN 

SHELLS    AND    BOMBS    BY    A    THICK    WALL    OF    SANDBAGS 


680 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


almost  constant  rumbling  overhead  and 
the  defense  guns  boomed  and  rattled,  and 
the  sky  flashed,  and  one  heard  a  bomb 
drop  somewhere  with  a  sullen  roar. 
Searchlights  of  marvelous  brilliance 
streamed  across  the  sky.  Sometimes  they 
focused  on  an  airplane,  and  one  saw  it 
suddenly,  a  gold  insect  caught  in  a  web 
of  light. 

The  broad  canals  were  lined  with  gray 
destroyers  and  torpedo  boats— all  of  them 
Italian ;    for    no    warships    of    the    Allies 
entered  the  lagoons  before  the  armistice. 
Night    and    morning    the    ships    moved    in 
and   out  with   perfect   regular- 
ity, an  equal  number  standing 
always    at    the    moorings,     an 
equal    number    putting    out    to 
sea.     Dreadnoughts  kept  guard 
at  the  eni/a.nce  of  the  port.  On 
moonlight  nights  the  swift  lit- 
tle motorboats,   topheavy  with 
their    huge    torpedoes,    slipped 
their  moorings  nei^^  the  door- 
step of  the  old  Giudecca  Palace 
where   we   lived   and'  sped   out 
to  keep  guard  in  open  sea.    In 
the    dark    of    the    moon    they 
were   bent   on   exploits.      Some 
of  these   adventure   boats   had 
gone,     never    to    return.      But 
this    time    they    returned    next 
day.        One      of      them,      com- 
manded   by    Rizzo,     had    sunk 
two  dreadnoughts  in  open  sea. 
He   was   hailed    in   the    Piazza 
and  feasted  and  feted.    *    *    * 
Meanwhile    the    Venice    hos- 
pitals were  filled  with  wound- 
ed,   brought   down    in   the   Red 
Cross     steamers     through     the 
lagoons.        Many     more     were 
brought    down    in    ambulances 
«by  the  straight  white  road  that 
led  to  the  battle  line  and  dis- 
tributed  in   camp   hospitals   on 
the  mainland.     When  we  went 
up    the    road    to    meet     them, 
carrying  them  food  and  drink 
as  gifts  from  America,  we  saw 
something    of    the    price    that 
was      being      paid,      and      we 
came    back    humbled    by    their 
patience    and    endurance.      We    saw    also 
the    racial    gentleness    toward    suffering, 
which    is    of    the    same    quality    as    their 
tenderness    for    children.      "  Shall    I    give 
your  coffee  to  these  Austrian  prisoners?  " 
asked    a    young    Italian     doctor.       "  But, 
yes,"     he     answered     his     own     question. 
"  They  are  wounded,  and  a  wounded  man 
is   never  an   enemy." 

We  were  standing  in  the  courtyard  of 
a  cream-colored  villa  shaded  by  eucalyptus 
trees.  From  the  hot,  white  road  the 
camions  were  driving  in  through  the  ave- 
nue under  cool  foliage  and  stopping  by 
the  garden  entrance  of  the  villa.  The 
pavement  of  the  broad  hall  that  ran  the 


length  of  the  house  was  crowded  with 
stietchers,  while  from  the  walls,  covered 
to  the  high  ceilings  with  replicas  of  Greek 
and  Roman  sculpture,  images  of  the  help- 
less gods  looked  down  upon  them.  All 
tlirough  the  villa  odors  of  blood  and 
antiseptics  hung  heavy  among  the  frescoes 
and   carved   arabesques. 

To  the  hungry  ears  of  the  Venetians 
on  the  camion  road  came  one  day  the 
news  that  the  two  wings  of  the  Italian 
army  had  joined,  hemming  in  the  Aus- 


THE  FAMOUS  GENERAL,  COLLEONI  AGAIN  MOUNTING 
HIS  BRONZE  HORSE  IN  VENICE  AFTER  HIS  YEARS  OF 
ABSENCE  IN  ROME.  THIS  IS  REGARDED  BY  MANY  AS 
THE      FINEST      EQUESTRIAN      STATUE     IN     THE     WORLD 


trians  and  forcing  them  back.  It  was 
the  culminating  stroke.  The  victory  was 
complete.  "  The  black,  two-faced  eagle 
would  never  rend  the  lion  of  St.  Mark, 
as  in  the  design  already  published  by  the 
Austrian  High  Command."  Now  the 
sound  of  guns  was  fainter,  and  there 
was  a  new  sense  of  security  in  Venice. 
Now  was  the  time  for  public  demonstra- 
tions, in  the  square,  in  the  cathedral,  in 
the  Municipal  Palace: 

And  when  the  five  domes  and  the  gold 
balls    and    pinnacles    of    St.    Mark's    rise 


VENICE  DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  WAR 


681 


THE   BRONZE   HORSES   BEING   HOISTED   BACK    INTO   THEIR   OLD   POSITION  OX 

ST.  MARK'S  CATHEDRAL  AT  VENICE  AFTER  THEIR  WARTIME 

RETIREMENT    IN    ROME 


behind  the  scene  above  the  Gothic  palace 
and  the  Sansovino  library  ;  when  the  sun 
strikes  the  flags  of  all  the  Allies  and  the 
Gonfalone  of  San  Marco,  and  turns  the 
ivory  of  the  palace  to  rose-tinted  pearl 
and  moves  across  the  waters  until  their 
pale  colors  join  the  rich  reds  of  San 
Giorgio' s  tower  reflected  in  the  Basin, 
there  is  magnificence  enough  for  any  hero 
of  land  or  sea  or  air.  Boats  and  hydro- 
planes were  always  in  swift  motion.  At  one 
celebration  the  whole  fleet  of  little 
motor  boats,  crowned  with  flowers,  cir- 
cled about  just  off  the  Piazzetta,  while 
gondolas  stood  on  end  in  the  high  waves. 
Launches  with  officers  in  blue  and  gold 
speeded  through  the  canals  without  pity 
for  gondolas  or  foundation  walls.  And 
every  one  smiled  approval,  for  the  whole 
city  was  at  war.  At  night  when  there 
was  no  moon,  the  Piazza  was  dead  black 
and  the  silence  of  the  streets  lent  weird- 
ness  to  the  cry  of  the  guard,  repeated 
like    an   echo   from    roof    to    roof. 

Suddenly,  after  breathless  days  of 
waiting  for  the  long-expected  Italian 
offensive,  which  was  to  wipe  out  forever 


the  national  shame  of  the  defeat  of 
Caporetto,  the  sound  of  the  guns 
changed,  turned  into  a  constant  stream 
of  firing.  It  was  the  barrage  to  cover 
the  Italian  crossing  of  the  Piave.  The 
national  enemy  was  defeated  and  Venice 
reopened  the  book  of  peace  held  in  the 
claw  of  the  winged  lion  of  St.  Mark, 
a  book  which,  according  to  the  tradition 
of  the  republic,  is  closed  in  time  of  war. 
It  was  opened  quietly,  without  shouts, 
exultation,  delirium.  A  procession  car- 
ried the  city's  banners  through  the 
streets,  wreaths  were  placed  on  the 
statues  of  Victor  Emmanuel  and  Gari- 
baldi and  Manin.  The  great  bell  pealed 
out  from  the  Campanile  once  more  and 
chimed  with  all  the  other  bells  of  the 
island;  the  Te  Deum  was  chanted  in 
St.  Mark's.  The  angel  on  the  peak 
of  the  Campanile,  divested  of  its  cloth 
covering,  blazed  like  a  golden  sun.     All 


682 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


were  smiling;  all  hearts  were  happy,  too 
happy  for  noisy  demonstration. 

So  the  war  ended  for  Venice,  which 
found  itself  bruised  but  not  destroyed. 
The  city  had  been  bombarded  many 
times  and  many  houses  had  been  shat- 
tered; churches  and  palaces  had  been  in- 
jured; the  foundation  walls  showed  huge 
breaches.  Scarcely  a  glass  window  had 
been  left  whole.  But  the  only  irreparable 
loss  the  city  had  sustained  was  the 
Tiepolo  fresco  in  the  Scalzi,  and  on  that 
memorable  night  when,  for  eight  hours, 
no  fewer  than  300  bombs  were  rained 
on  the  island  city,  only  one  human  life 
was  taken.     The  Venetians,  rejoicing  at 


their  good  fortune,  have  attributed  it  to 
the  intercession  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
have  vowed  to  her  a  temple  at  the  Lido. 
The  life  of  Venice  is  beginning  anew,  the 
life  of  busy  industry,  of  sweet,  sunlit 
idleness,  of  slowly  gliding  gondolas — 
those  gondolas  which  in  a  recent  contest 
showed  how  swiftly,  on  occasion,  they 
can  sweep  down  the  broad  canal.  The 
work  of  return  and  restoration  of  the 
priceless  art  treasures  is  busily  proceed- 
ing. Some  day,  not  far  distant,  Venice 
will  stand  forth  again,  arrayed  in  all 
her  glory,  the  Mecca  of  lovers  of  beauty 
the  world  over,  who  will  come  to  rejoice 
with  her  over  the  salvation  of  her  im- 
mortal heritage. 


Panamanian- American  Relations  in  Chiriqui 

By  ELBRIDGE  COLBY* 


UNDER  the  Hay-Varilla  Treaty  of 
1908  the  United  States  was  grant- 
ed the  right  to  use  its  land  and 
naval  forces  for  the  protection  of  the 
Panama  Canal  and  the  Canal  Zone,  and 
this  authority  has  been  by  tacit  assent 
extended  to  the  fortification  of  the  ap- 
proaches, and  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
considerable  military  establishment  com- 
prising all  arms  of  the  military  service. 
Under  the  same  treaty  the  United  States 
was  granted  the  right  to  the 

occupation  and  control  of  any  other  lands 
and  waters  outside  of  the  Canal  Zone 
which  may  be  necessary  and  convenient 
for  the  construction,  maintenance,  opera- 
tion, sanitation  and  protection  of  the 
said  canal  or  of  any  auxiliary  canals  or 
other  works  necessary  and  convenient  for 
the  construction,  maintenance,  operation, 
sanitation  and  protection  of  the  enter- 
prise. 

And  under  this  authority  the  United 
States  has  acquired  lands  for  plantations. 


*The  author  was  formerly  Assistant  De- 
partment Intelligrence  Officer  of  the  Panama 
Canal  Department,  United  States  Army.  He 
made  a  special  investigation  of  some  of  the 
difficulties  in  the  Province  of  Chiriqui  in 
1919,  and  has  first-hand  knowledge  of  the 
situation  discussed  in  this  article.  He  has 
been  a  student  of  American  foreign  policy  in 
Central  America,  and  has  contributed  to  the 
public  press  several  articles  on  Panamanian- 
American  relations. 


artillery  batteries  and  radio  stations  out- 
side of  the  precisely  defined  limits  of  the 
Canal  Zone.  In  this  way  it  has  come 
about  that  American  troops  have  fre- 
quently passed  across  the  boundary  into 
Panamanian  territory.  They  have  gone 
on  long  reconnoissance  trips  many  miles 
from  the  canal;  they  have  held  extended 
manoeuvres  at  remote  points;  they  have 
established  outposts  of  infantry  and  ar- 
tillery at  strategic  positions  along  the 
seacoast;  they  have  mapped  and  de- 
veloped for  defense  possible  landing 
places  for  both  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ene- 
mies. The  khaki  uniform  and  the  cam- 
paign hat  have  become  familiar  sights  in 
Panamanian  towns. 

In  addition  to  these  purely  military  ex- 
peditions, however,  there  have  been  other 
movements  of  troops  into  the  interior 
provinces  on  missions  that  were  not  mil- 
itary in  character.  The  United  States 
has  guaranteed  and  promised  to  main- 
tain the  independence  of  Panama,  and  is 
naturally  interested  in  maintaining  the 
stability  of  that  republic.  But  elections 
in  Latin  America  are  proverbially  stormy 
affairs,  and  may  end  in  bloodshed  or 
even  in  revolution.  Therefore,  when  both 
parties  asked  the  United  States  to  "  su- 
pervise "  their  balloting,   as  they  often 


PANAMANIAN-AMERICAN  RELATIONS  IN  CHIRIQUI 


683 


did,  the  Americans  were  only  too  glad  to 
assist  in  the  interest  of  law  and  order. 

Under  the  treaty  we  have  the  right  to 
maintain  law  and  order  in  the  Cities  of 
Panama  and  Colon  "  and  the  territories 
and  harbors  adjacent  thereto "  in  case 
we  do  not  think  the  Republic  of  Panama 
able  to  maintain  such  order;  but  the 
Panamanian  police  force  itself  is  ex- 
pressly "  charged  with  the  preservation 
of  public  order  outside  of  the  zone."  At 
election  times,  however,  the  Americans 
were  invited  to  assist  and  to  prevent 
trouble.  This  they  did;  sometimes  by 
sending  marines,  sometimes  by  arming 
civilian  employes  of  the  canal,  and  more 
recently  by  sending  details  of  troops. 
Without  any  real  legal  justification,  then, 
there  was  gradually  built  up  a  prece- 
dent of  American  intervention  at  elec- 
tion time  in  the  interests  of  law  and  or- 
der only,  for  the  Americans  did  not  con- 
duct the  elections,  merely  stood  by  to 
observe  and  to  put  down  disturbances. 
This  is  the  precedent,  now  well  accepted 
in  Panama  as  a  tradition  and  a  desira- 
ble custom. 

In  July,  1918,  in  accordance  with  this 
custom,  officers  and  enlisted  men  were 
dispatched  as  usual  to  the  remote  voting 
places.  Up  and  down  the  coast  they 
went,  to  Bocas-del-Torro,  Porto  Bello, 
Santiago,  Sona  and  one  detail  to  David, 
capital  of  the  distant  Province  of  Chiri- 
qui,  next  to  Costa  Rica  on  the  Pacific 
side.  The  elections  took  place,  and  they 
all  came  back  to  their  stations  again — 
all  except  the  detail  at  David,  which  re- 
mained. 

THE  CASE  OF  CHIRIQUI 

Chiriqui  Province,  at  the  capital  of 
which  they  remained,  is  a  rich  region, 
with  many  wealthy  land  owners,  fine  cof- 
fee plantations,  an  extensive  cattle  in- 
dustry and  a  greater  number  of  foreign 
residents  than  any  other  of  the  prov- 
inces not  on  the  line  of  the  canal.  Ir- 
regularities in  the  registering  of  land,  ir- 
regularities in  the  processes  of  law,  a 
general  increase  in  cattle  stealing,  in- 
ability of  the  police  to  bring  murderers 
of  two  American  citizens  to  justice,  and 
generally  flagrant  violations  of  law  had 
been   observed    for    some    time   past   by 


these  foreign  residents.  The  French  Con- 
sular Agent,  the  British  Consular  Agent 
and  two  large  American  land  owners, 
Mr.  Chase  and  Mr.  Watson,  made  rep- 
resentations of  the  situation  to  Panama 
City,  and  the  American  Minister,  Will- 
iam Jenning  Price,  and  General  Blatch- 
ford,  commander  of  the  zone,  decided  to 
have  these  American  troops  remain  until 
the  newly  appointed  Governor,  Perrigault, 
and  the  newly  appointed  police  chief, 
Juan  Grimaldo,  succeeded  in  establishing 
sufficient  quiet  to  insure  the  protection 
of  American  interests.  The  troops,  there- 
fore, moved  from  thefr  temporary  quar- 
ters in  the  centre  of  town,  and  estab- 
lished a  small  post  in  an  old  hospital 
building  on  the  line  of  the  railroad.  And 
after  a  year  and  a  half  they  were  still 
there. 

During  this  year  and  a  half  they  con- 
cerned themselves  with  investigating  all 
reports  of  judicial  injustice.  They  ini- 
tiated and  pressed  some  slight  reforms. 
They  assisted  the  police  in  locating  and 
capturing  many  of  the  worst  of  the  cat- 
tle thieves,  with  such  good  effect  on  the 
others  that  cattle  stealing  soon  declined. 
They  were  on  the  best  possible  terms  with 
the  natives,  with  a  few  exceptions,  and 
those  exceptions  were  the  men  who  were 
directly  interested  in  the  practices  which 
they  were  trying  to  stop.  The  officers 
of  the  detachment  were  well  received  in 
David  society;  they  belonged  to  the  Da- 
vid Club;  they  attended  the  social  func- 
tions; some  of  them  even  married  local- 
ly. And  there  was  an  enlisted  man  in 
the  detachment,  Sergeant  Abraham  Sol- 
omon by  name,  who  was  so  influential  in 
Chiriqui  affairs  that  he  was  familiarly 
called  "the  Mayor  of  David."  He  per- 
sonally captured  most  of  the  cattle 
thieves  apprehended,  and  turned  them 
over  to  the  Policia  Nacionale  for  Captain 
Grimaldo  to  take  the  credit. 

ANTI-AMERICAN  FEELING 

In  short,  affairs  progressed  finely.  The 
American  occupation  seemed  to  be  doing 
a  great  deal  of  good,  but  the  more  good 
it  did  the  less  need  there  was  for  it,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year  the  Pana- 
manians began  to  suggest  that  the  troops 
be  withdrawn,  referring  always  to  their 


f>84 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


presence  as  a  violation  of  Panamanian 
sovereignty.  They  said  the  troops  were 
not  there  for  the  protection  of  the  canal, 
which  was  400  miles  away,  and  that  they 
had  merely  overstayed  their  election-time 
invitation.  The  American  and  French 
and  British  interests,  however,  insisted 
that  they  remain.   And  remain  they  did. 

Considerable  anti-American  feeling 
had  been  stirred  up  in  Panama  City  and 
in  Colon  on  account  of  General  Blatch- 
ford's  much-discussed  General  Order  26, 
by  which  early  in  June,  1918,  he  tempo- 
rarily restricted  all  soldiers  from  going 
to  either  of  these  cities — which  are  the 
only  ones  available  for  recreation — and 
the  keeping  of  the  restriction  on  for  over 
a  year.  The  soldiers  were  really  restrict- 
ed to  camp  for  two  reasons — as  an  at- 
tempt to  boycott  the  Panamanians  into 
certain  concessions,  and  to  keep  the 
troops  away  from  the  red  light  districts 
of  those  towns.  The  Panamanians  re- 
sented the  loss  of  business,  and  they  very 
much  resented  General  Blatchford's  Ar- 
mistice Day  declaration  that  Panama 
City  and  Colon  were  modern  replicas  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  More  anti-Amer- 
ican feeling  was  also  stirred  up  by  at- 
tempts of  the  United  States  to  acquire 
for  military  purposes  the  Island  of  Ta- 
boga,  in  Panama  Bay,  a  charming  week- 
end resort.  These  three  factors,  then, 
tended  to  make  for  strained  relations — 
the  Chiriqui  intervention.  General  Order 
26  and  Taboga. 

In  July,  1919,  the  new  American  com- 
mander. Major  Gen.  Chase  W.  Ken- 
nedy, relieved  the  situation  somewhat  by 
a  very  friendly  attitude  toward  the  Pan- 
amanian" officials  and  Panamanian  soci- 
ety, in  which  Mrs.  Kennedy  soon  became 
a  conspicuous  figure.  He  rescinded  part 
of  the  obnoxious  boycott  order,  permitted 
soldiers  in  town,  permitted  them  to  drink 
4  per  cent,  beer  in  restaurants,  but  still 
kept  them  away  from  saloons  and  the 
red  light  district.  The  Taboga  and  the 
Chiriqui  controversies  were  still  open. 

SERIOUS  DISPUTE  OVER  LAND 

In  Chiriqui  the  situation  became  more 
and  more  acute  on  account  of  an  ap- 
proaching crisis  in  some  land  litigation 
in  which  an  American,  W.  G.  Chase,  was 


involved  with  a  prominent  Panamanian 
politician,  Santiago  y  Sagel  by  name. 
The  American  position  was  explained  in 
a  handbill  signed  by  Major  H.  E.  Pace, 
which  said  in  part: 

On  Jan.  19,  1920,  Jos§  ed  Santiago  of 
San  Felix  telegraphed  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral of  David,  giving  him  to  understand 
that  the  Americans  were  defending  their 
own  property  in  the  San  Juan  ranch. 
Mr.  Santiago  called  this  protection  of  the 
legitimate  owners  an  abuse  and  a  state  of 
war.  On  the  27th  of  the  same  month  he 
telegraphed  the  Governor  of  the  province, 
telling  him  that  the  Americans  continued 
protecting  their  property,  and  again  called 
chis  protection  an  abuse. 

The  whole  difficulty  is  based  on  the  fact 
that  the  culpable,  among  whom  are  the 
Sagel  and  Santiago  families,  have  been 
violating  the  property  rights  of  the  San 
Juan  ranch  owner  for  such  a  long  time 
that  they  believe  that  this  violation  is 
sanctioned  by  the  law.  *  *  •  a  com- 
mission went  to  San  Juan  and  other  places 
in  that  part  of  the  province  to  investi- 
gate the  matter  about  which  Mr.  Santia- 
go has  complained.  When  the  culprits 
saw  that  legal  authorities  were  deter- 
mined to  sustain  the  law  and  order,  one 
of  the  said  culprits  assassinated  the  chief 
officer  of  the  commission. 

Some  of  the  lands  in  the  San  Juan  ranch 
are  under  controversy  in  court.  The 
Americans  have  not  yet  entered  these 
lands,  because  they  are  awaiting  the  de- 
cision of  the  court,  which  they  will  obey, 
but  while  this  is  going  on  they  will  de- 
fend themselves  so  long  as  the  right  which 
they  have   requires   it.    *    *    * 

The  American  troops  will  remain  in  this 
province  until  Messers.  Sagel,  Santiago 
and  other  culprits  and  the  helps  and  ac- 
complices of  these  recognize  and  obey  the 
legal  and  constitutional  authorities,  be  it 
a  year  or  ten  years,  and,  if  more  than 
that,  permanently. 

PRESIDENT  LEFEVRE'S  TELEGRAM 

Upon  the  receipt  of  copies  of  Major 
Pace's  handbill  and  complaints  made  by 
the  David  residents,  President  Lefevre, 
head  of  the  Panama  Government,  sum- 
moned his  Cabinet  Ministers  to  confer- 
ence, and  dispatched  a  telegram  to  the 
Governor  of  Chiriqui  Province,  in  which 
he  said  that  Major  Pace  had  no  political 
standing  and  would  have  to  withdraw 
whenever  the  American  Government  oi- 
dered  him  to  go.  President  Lefevre 
added : 

The  Panama  Government  insists  that 
the  occupation  of  Chiriqui  by  American 
troops  is  not  authorized  either  by  acts  or 


'IONS  IN  CHIRIQUI 


685 


by  our  treaty  with  the  United  States,  by 
our  Constitution  or  by  international  law, 

■  and  continues  unceasingly  making  rep- 
resentations through  the  regular  chan- 
nels to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  against  this  abuse  that  has  been 
inflicted  on  the  sovereignty  of  a  weak 
country,  in  which  the  American  Nation, 
nevertheless,    has   its   best   friend.    *    *    * 

1^^   The  National  Government  exhorts  the  au- 
^^k-  thorities   and   public   of   Chjriqui    to   keep 
^^P  calm   and   await  quietly  the  hour  of  jus- 
tice, which  will  not  be  long  in  coming. 

FRIENDS     URGE    WITHDRAWAL 
The  Star  and  Herald,  a  daily  newspa- 

Rir  of  Panama  City,  usually  friendly  to 
e  United  States,  said  on  March  2: 
The  danger  of  armed  occupation  in  Chi- 
[qui    by    the    United    States    Government 
igain  raises  its  head. 

The  present  Administration,  previous 
Administrations  and  the  Hay-Bunau-Va- 
rilla  treaty,  with  the  Taft  convention  of 
1908,  safeguard  now  and  have  always 
.safeguarded  the  interests  of  Americans 
owning  property  in  the  republic.  In  fact, 
the  determination  of  the  Panama  Govern- 
ment to  show  itself  the  true  friend  of  the 
American  Nation  has  cost  one  prominent 
official  of  the  republic  his  life. 

Again,  the  Judge  whose  reported  dis- 
crimination against  Americans  and  for- 
eigners brought  about  the  sending  of 
troops  to  Chiriqui  has  been  removed  and 
the  Government  has  dispatched  one  of  its 
leading  legal  lights.  Judge  Pinilla,  to  Chi- 
riqui to  guarantee  that  Americans  shall 
be  justly  treated. 

The  telegraphic  reply  which  President 
Lefevre  and  his  Cabinet  Ministers  dis- 
patched   to    the    excited    David    residents 


yesterday  administered  a  just  rebuke  to 
Major  Pace  and  gave  further  strength  to 
the  representations  which  the  Government 
has  made  to  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment  through   diplomatic   channels. 

If  Americans  feel  they  cannot  trust  the 
courts  trying  the  land  cases  in  Chiriqui, 
and  give  ample  evidence  to  substantiate 
their  beliefs,  they  should  apply  to  Presi- 
dent Lefevre  or  to  Secretary  of  Govern- 
ment and  Justice  Alfaro.    *    *    * 

The  relations  between  Panama  and  the 
United  States  are  now  better  than  at  any 
time  in  the  country's  history.  In  Minister 
Price,  in  Governor  Harding  and  in  Gen- 
eral Kennedy  the  Panama  Government 
has  faith,  and  believes  they  have  faith 
in  it.  The  withdrawal  of  the  troops  from 
Chiriqui  should  take  place  at  once  as  a 
guarantee  that  the  United  States  has  con- 
fidence in  Panama,  the  only  true  friend 
the  American  Commonwealth  has  south  of 
the  Rio  Grande. 

When  General  Pershing  visited  the 
Panama  Canal  on  May  3  the  Panamani- 
ans turned  out  in  a  torchlight  parade  in 
large  numbers  to  protest  against  the  tak- 
ing of  Taboga  Island  by  the  United 
States  military  authorities;  they  halted 
the  automobile  in  which  the  General  was 
going  to  a  ball  in  his  honor  at  the  Union 
Club  and  forced  it  to  return  to  his  hotel. 
There  was  rioting  during  most  of  the 
evening.  Two  days  later  the  Panamanian 
officials  made  amends  for  the  demonstra- 
tion, and  also  General  Kennedy  removed 
the  last  of  the  restrictions  that  had  pre- 
vented American  officers  and  men  from 
mingling  with  Panamanians. 


Forced  Labor  in  Russia 

How  Military  Compulsion  in  Industry  Works  Out  in  Practice 
Under  the   Communist   System 


A  T  the  beginning  of  the  present  year 
/\  Lenin  and  Trotzky,  the  absolute 
1  \  rulers  of  Soviet  Russia,  trans- 
formed at  least  four  of  the  na- 
tion's fighting  armies  into  militarized 
armies  of  labor.  In  other  words,  they 
began  forcing  men  to  work,  just  as,  in 
wartimes,  men  in  other  countries  are 
forced  by  the  Government  to  fight  for 
the  national  defense.  This  was  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  world  that  the 
Communist  idea  of  compulsory  labor  for 
the  general  good  had  been  put  into  actual 
practice  on  anything  like  so  large  a 
scale. 

In  their  first  decrees  the  Bolshevist 
leaders  emphasized  the  importance  of 
building  up  Russia's  demoralized  eco- 
nomic structure — especially  in  respect  to 
transportation,  road  and  bridge  building 
and  agriculture — and  justified  the  con- 
version of  compulsory  soldiers  into  com- 
pulsory laborers  on  the  ground  of  patri- 
otic duty  to  the  State.  As  large  and 
strictly  disciplined  Red  armies  had  been 
necessary  to  overcome  the  Soviet  Re- 
public's enemies,  they  said,  so  now  there 
was  need  of  similar  armies  to  fight  the 
foe  of  economic  chaos.  The  idea  rapidly 
grew  in  favor — with  the  leaders.  Within 
three  months  they  had  extended  it  to 
include  forced  labor  of  the  whole  work- 
ing proletariat.  Experience  had  shown 
that  campaigns  of  persuasion,  under- 
taken through  the  labor  unions,  were 
useless;  men  out  of  work  simply  wan- 
dered helplessly  from  village  to  village 
in  search  of  food.  They  must  cease  to 
be  free  agents — they  must  be  confined  to 
one  place  and  be  made  to  do  the  task 
assigned  them  by  the   State. 

CURTAILMENT   OF    LIBERTIES 

According  to  the  Bolshevist  system, 
every  workman  must  be  registered  and 
must  have  his  workbook  always  with 
him;  he  must  do  the  work  allotted  to 
him  by  his  masters  and  go  where  they 


send  him;  becoming  but  a  unit  in  a  vast 
labor  army,  he  gives  up  the  right  to 
strike  or  to  organize  any  resistance  to 
the  powers  that  be  for  the  purpose  of 
bettering  his  own  condition. 

The  adoption  of  this  drastic  measure 
in  Russia  sent  a  rather  dubious  thrill 
through  labor  circles  in  other  countries, 
including  those  which  had  looked  with 
more  or  less  favor  upon  the  Soviet 
scheme  of  ".dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat." Even  in  Russia  the  change 
met  with  resistance  from  labor  organiza- 
tions. At  a  trade  union  congress  held  in 
Moscow  in  April,  however,  the  opposition 
was  voted  down,  and  the  co-operation  of 
the  labor  leaders,  at  least,  was  assured. 
What  these  leaders  will  be  able  to  ac- 
complish against  the  "  essential  laziness 
of  human  nature,"  of  which  Trotzky  so 
furiously  complains,  still  remains  to  be 
seen.  Walter  Duranty,  writing  from 
Russia,  reports  that  thus  far  the  un- 
wearying efforts  of  the  Bolshevist 
leaders  to  work  up  enthusiasm  for  hard 
work  have  come  up  against  a  dead  wall 
of  apathy.  Meanwhile  the  British  are 
enjoying  the  spectacle  of  Jerome  Lans- 
bury,  the  trade  union  leader  —  who 
recently  returned  from  Russia  a  convert 
to  the  essential  perfection  of  all  Soviet 
institutions — endeavoring  to  justify  this 
coercion  of  the  Russian  masses  to  large 
audiences  of  very  dubious  British  work- 
ingmen. 

THE  FIRST  LABOR  ARMY 

A  decree  signed  by  Lenin  on  Jan.  15, 
1920,  created  the  first  labor  army.  By 
its  provisions  the  Third  Red  Army  from 
the  Ural  front  was  converted  into  the 
First  Revolutionary  Labor  Army  with 
Leon  Trotzky  as  Commander  in  Chief. 
A  Soviet  of  the  Labor  Army  was  created 
and  all  economic  Soviets  were  made  sub- 
ject to  its  instructions.  The  decree  aimed 
especially  at  the  creation  of  administra- 
tive machinery.     The  scope  of  the  new 


FORCED  LABOR  IN  RUSSIA 


687 


institution  was  defined  in  an  official 
order  by  Trotzky,  which  was  published 
in  the  Krasnaya  Gazeta  (Red  Journal) 
of  Petrograd  on  Jan.  18,  and  which  ap- 
peared recently  in  The  Nation  translated 
as  follows: 

(1)  The  First  Army  has  finished  its  war 
task,  but  the  enemy  is  not  yet  completely 
dispersed.  The  greedy  imperialists  are 
still  menacing  Siberia  in  the  extreme  Far 
East,  where  the  mercenary  armies  of  the 
Entente  are  still  threatening  Soviet  Rus- 
sia. The  bands  of  the  White  Guards  are 
still  at  Archangel.  The  Caucasus  is  not 
yet  liberated.  For  these  reasons  the  First 
Russian  Army  has  not  as  yet  been  dis- 
banded, but  retains  its  inner  unity  and  its 
warlike  ardor  in  order  that  it  may  be 
ready  in  case  the  Socialist  Fatherland 
should  once  more  call  it  to  new  tasks. 

(2)  The  First  Russian  Army,  which  is, 
however,  desirous  of  doing  its  duty,  does 
not  wish  to  waste  any  time.  During  the 
coming  weeks  and  months  of  rest  it  will 
have  to  apply  its  strength  and  its  means 
toward  the  amelioration  of  the  agri- 
cultural  situation  in  the  country. 

(3)  The  Revolutionary  War  Council  of 
the  First  Army  will  come  to  an  agreement 
with  the  Labor  Council.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  agricultural  branches  of  the 
Soviet  Republic  will  work  side  by  side 
with  the  members  of  the  Revolutionary 
Council. 

(4)  Food  supplies  are  indispensable  to 
the  starving  workingmen  of  the  industrial 
centres.  The  First  Labor  Army  should 
make  it  its  prime  task  to  gather  syste- 
matically, in  the  regions  under  its  occupa- 
tion, such  food  supplies  as  are  found 
there,  as  well  as  to  make  an  exact  in- 
ventory of  what  has  been  obtained,  and 
rapidly  and  energetically  to  forward  them 
to  the  various  railway  stations  for  load- 
ing and  transportation. 

(.5)  Our  industries  require  wood.  It 
shall  be  the  important  task  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary Labor  Army  to  cut  and  to  saw 
the  wood,  and  to  transport  it  to  the 
factories  and  railway  stations. 

(6)  Spring  is  coming.  This  is  the  season 
of  agricultural  work.  As  the  productive 
labor  force  of  our  factories  has  fallen  off, 
the  amount  of  new  farm  machinery  which 
can  be  delivered  has  become  insufficient. 
The  peasants  have,  however,  a  fairly 
large  amount  of  old  machinery  which  is 
in  need  of  repair.  The  Revolutionary 
Labor  Army  will  employ  its  mechanics 
and  lend  its  workshops  for  the  repair  of 
such  tools  and  machinery  as  are  neces- 
sary. When  the  season  arrives  for  labor 
in  the  fields,  the  Red  cavalry  and  infantry 
will  prove  that  they  know  how  to  plow 
the    earth. 

(7)  All  members  of  the  army  should 
enter    into    fraternal    relations    with    the 


professional  unions  of  the  local  Soviets, 
remembering  that  such  organizations  are 
those  of  the  laboring  people.  All  work 
should  be  done  after  having  arrived  at 
an   agreement   with   them. 

(8)  Indefatigable  energy  should  be 
shown  in  the  performance  of  all  labor,  as 
much  as  if  it  were  an  engagement  or  a 
battle. 

(9)  The  necessary  labor  outlays  as  well 
as  the  results  obtained  should  be  care- 
fully calculated.  Every  pound  of  Soviet 
bread,  every  log  of  national  wood  should 
be  registered.  Everything  should  con- 
tribute to  the  foundation  of  socialist 
economy. 

(10)  The  commandants  and  commissars 
should  be  responsible  for  the  output  of 
their  men  while  work  is  going  on,  as  much 
as  if  it  were  a  fighting  engagement. 
Discipline  should  not  be  relaxed.  The 
Communist  societies  should  be  models  of 
perseverance  and  patience. 

(11)  The  revolutionary  tribunals  should 
punish  the  lazy,  the  parasites,  and  the 
thieves   of   national    property. 

(12)  Conscientious  soldiers,  workmen 
and  revolutionary  peasants  should  be  in 
the  first  rank.  Their  bravery  and  devo- 
tion should  serve  as  an  example  and  as 
an  inspiration  to  others. 

(13)  The  front  should  be  contracted  as 
much  as  possible.  Superfluous  soldiers 
should  be  sent  to  the  first  ranks  of  the 
workers. 

(14)  Start  and  finish  your  work  if  local 
conditions  permit  It  to  the  sound  of  revo- 
lutionary hymns  and  songs.  Your  tasks 
are  not  the  work  of  hired  laborers  but  a 
great  service  to  be  rendered  to  our 
Socialist  Fatherland. 

(15)  Soldiers  of  the  Third  Army,  you 
are  the  First  Revolutionary  Army  of 
Labor !  Let  your  example  prove  a  great 
one.  All  Russia  will  rise  to  your  call. 
The  radio  has  already  spread  throughout 
the  world  all  that  the  Third  Army  hopes 
to  do  as  the  First  Army  of  Labor.  Soldier 
Workmen,  do  not  lower  the  Red 
standard !     (Signed) 

The  President  of  the  War  Council  of  the 
Revolutionary    Republic, 

TROTZK^. 

A  second  proclamation,  issued  by 
Trotzky  in  the  official  Soviet  paper, 
Pravda,  on  March  16,  took  cognizance  of 
the  changed  conditions  arising  from  the 
continued  victories  of  the  Red  armies  in 
the  field  and  decreed  their  transforma- 
tion into  a  Red  militia,  this  transition  to 
be  effected  only  by  degrees.  This  new 
labor  militia,  composed  of  men  all 
trained  in  war,  was  subject  to  be  called 
to  arms  at  any  time  and  to  be  sent 
against  any  enemy.  Meantime  it  was  to 
be    spread    out    over    all    branches    of 


688 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


' 

^ 

'1  '^        ^ 

||Hh 

:Sp^               -*"^,sS^-i»!?^i»i^«          .  '  >^-M.^^tKK^M 

^Bl 

TYPICAL    REGIMENT    OF    THE    RED    INFANTRY    WHICH    THE    SOVIET    GOVERNMENT    HAS 

CHANGED    INTO    A    "  LABOR    ARMY,"     EACH    MAN    BEING    COMPELLED    TO    WORK    IN     A 

FACTORY,     ON     THE    RAILROADS,     OR    WHEREVER    HE     IS     SENT 

(Photo    Underwood    d    Vnderivood) 


industry  by  regiments,  brigades  and  divi- 
sions, the  organization  to  be  based  on 
the  principle  of  universal  labor  service. 
Three  grades  of  military  instruction  were 
provided  for. 

HOW  LENIN  JUSTIFIES  IT 

Lenin,  later  in  March,  acting  on  be- 
half of  the  whole  Central  Committee,  ad- 
dressed a  circular  letter  to  all  the 
branches  of  the  Communist  Party,  which 
aroused  considerable  attention.  The  pas- 
sages given  below  are  those  dealing 
directly  with  the  new  policy.  The  ad- 
mission of  trade-union  resistance  to 
labor-militarization  will  be  noted  in  the 
concluding  paragraph : 

Dear  Comrades— It  will  be  clear  to  you 
that  the  entire  agenda  we  recommend  for 
the  coming  conference*  has  been  dictated 
by  the  needs  of  the  present  moment.  All 
the  items  on  the  agenda,  whether  taken 
severally  or  as  a  body,  are  intended  to  put 
before  the  whole  party,  and  in  all  their 
magnitude,  the  problems  of  economic  life 
which  now  must  take  the  first  place  in 
our  work. 

Just  as  hitherto  the  position  taken  by  the 
party  was  mainly  determined  by  the  fact 
of  a  civil  war,  so  now  it  is  necessary  that 


*The  ninth  conference  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party,  held  in  Moscow  in  the  first 
week   of  April,   1920. 


the  position  of  the  whole  of  the  party, 
from  its  top  to  its  bottom,  should  be  de- 
termined by  the  fact  of  a  war  with  the 
economic  disorganization,  without  over- 
coming which  we  shall  be  able  to  make 
no  headway  at  all.  It  is  necessary  that 
all  the  members  of  the  paity  without  a 
single  exception  should  recognize  the  im- 
portance of  the  economic  problems;  which 
confront  us,  and,  like  one  man,  should 
set  themselves  to  the  work  on  which 
the  future  existence  and  fate  of  the 
Communist  system  in  Russia  will 
depend.    *    *    * 

Our  party  must  most  definitely  tell,  and 
most  convincingly  prove  to,  the  working 
class  and  the  laboring  peasantry  of  our 
country  that  without  iron  discipline,  with- 
out compulsion,  and  without  certain  self- 
imposed  limitations  we  shall  never  be  able 
to  master  the  economic  chaos.  Had  our 
Red  Army  retained  the  multiplicity  of 
command,  had  we  not  rejected  from  the 
beginning  elected  commanders,  regimental 
committees  and  exaggerated  coUegiality, 
had  we  failed  to  understand  the  necessity 
of  enlisting  the  services  of  military  ex- 
perts for  our  constructive  work— we 
should  not  have  been  able  to  defeat  our 
numerous  enemies,  or,  at  least,  we  should 
have  obtained  our  victory  at  a  much  later 
date  and  at  an  extra  cost  of  tens  or  even 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives.  The  same 
principle  must  be  adopted  on  the  other 
front— the  front  on  which  we  have  to  fight 
the  monster  of  economic  disorganization 
now  strangling  our  country.     *    *    * 

If  we  hesitate  for  a  single  moment  as  to 


FORCED  LABOR  IN  RUSSIA 


689 


the  necessity  of  establishing  labor  con- 
scription, and  of  militarizing-  labor  (in 
the  beginning,  at  least,  in  the  form  of 
labor  armies),  of  enlisting  the  experts, 
and  of  fighting  against  the  formless 
and  loose  organization  of  our  collegiate 
economic  organs,  the  cause  of  Com- 
munist reconstruction  will  be  gravely 
menaced.    *    *    * 

Our  party  conference  is  also  faced  with 
the  task  of  removing  the  ambiguities  of 
organization  and  the  multiplicity  of  au- 
thority which  can  be  observed  in  the 
sphere  of  economic  administration.  The 
rights  and  duties  of  works  committees 
should  be  strictly  defined.  The  conference 
should  confirm  and  strengthen  the  posi- 
tion which  was  taken  up  by  the  All- 
Russian  Central  Executive  Committee  at 
its  last  session  with  regard  to  the 
organization  of  railway  administration. 
The  management  of  industrial  undertak- 
ings should  be  reduced  to  the  smallest 
number  possible,  the  maximum  being 
three  persons.  The  workmen  should  be 
definitely  told  that  we  are  gradually 
coming  to  the  introduction  of  management 
by  a  single  person  with  a  workmen's 
commissary  attached  to  the  management, 
when  the  latter  is  in  the  hands  of  a  non- 
Communist.    *    *    * 

In  connection  with  the  creation  of  labor 
armies  opinions  are  being  voiced  among 
the  workers  in  the  trade-union  movement 
which  the  general  committee  of  the  party 
cannot  possibly  indorse.  The  objections 
to  militarization  of  labor,  the  references 
to  the  principle  of  "  freedom  of  labor," 
the  vague  opposition  to  the  growing  cen- 
tralization in  the  sphere  of  industrial 
management— all  these  are  points  which 
the  party  of  the  proletariat  cannot  recog- 
nize  as  valid. 

NINTH  COMMUNIST  CONGRESS 

At  the  Ninth  Congress  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party,  which  ended  in  Mos- 
cow on  April  6,  the  project  of  militariz- 
ing labor  was  the  main  theme  of  discus- 
sion. Lenin's  introductory  report,  after 
pointing  out  that  it  was  still  uncertain 
whether  there  would  be  peace  or  war,  be- 
cause their  enemies  themselves  did  not 
know  what  they  wanted,  continued: 

We  do  not  promise  immediately  a  coun- 
try free  from  hunger.  We  say  that  the 
struggle  will  be  more  difficult  than  on 
the  field  of  battle,  but  the  struggle  inter- 
ests us  more  closely,  for  it  is  a  nearer  ap- 
proach to  our  actual  fundamental  tasks. 

Karl  Radek's  report  on  the  Third  Inter- 
national outlined  the  problem  which  labor 
must  solve  in  the  first  period  in  order 
to  clear  the  ground  for  progress.  The 
second   period,   his   report   stated,  would 


be    devoted    to    building    machines    for 
further  improvements  in  transport  and 
in  getting  raw  material  and  provisions. 
The  third  period  would  be  that  of  build- 
ing   machinery    for    the    production    of 
articles  in  general  demand,  and  the  fourth 
period  would  be  that  of  the  production 
of  those  articles.     His  report  added: 
This  gradation  has  great  significance  in 
explanation   of   our  plans   to   the  working 
masses.     We  must  admit  to  ourselves  that 
no  industrial  mobilization  will  be  possible 
unless    we    capture    all    that    is    favorable 
and  thoughtful  in  the  peasant  and  indus- 
trial masses   in   explaining  our  plan. 

Marked  differences  of  opinion  were 
visible  among  the  trade  unionists  regard- 
ing the  role  of  the  unions.  Bucharin  on 
this  point  declared  that  no  immediate 
"  stratification  "  of  the  unions  was  con- 
sidered imperative  by  the  Central  Com- 
mittee, but  that  it  believed  the  whole  de- 
velopment of  the  trade  unions  was  in 
this  direction.  The  alternative  of  col- 
legiate, as  opposed  to  individual,  control 
aroused  bitter  discussion;  Lenin,  sup- 
ported by  others,  opposed  collegiate  con- 
trol on  the  ground  of  inefficiency;  ex- 
perience, he  said,  had  shown  that  good 
work  could  be  gained  only  by  individual 
administration.  Sapronov,  the  main 
speaker  on  the  other  side,  alienated  sym- 
pathy by  a  personal  attack,  and  found 
the  general  attitude  of  the  conference 
favorable  to  individual  control. 

TROTZKY'S  FRANK  DEFINITION 

Trotzky  defined  the  militarization  of 
labor  as  follows : 

[It  is]  a  regime  under  which  each  work- 
man will   feel   himself   a   soldier   of  labor 
who  cannot  freely  dispose  of  himself.     If 
an  order  is  given  him  to  move  to.  another 
position,   he  must  obey  it.     Labor  service 
means  that  the  skilled  workman,  when  he 
leaves  the  ranks  of  the  army,   must  take 
his  workbook   in  hand  and   go  where  his 
services  are  required.     If  he  disobeys,  he 
will  be  a  deserter  who  will  be  punished. 
The  masses  of  workmen  should  be  moved 
about,    ordered    and    sent    from    place    to 
place  like  soldiers.      Such   a   regime  must 
be  created  by  the  labor  unions.     That  is 
the  militarization  of  labor. 
Compulsion,     declared     Trotzky,     had 
always  existed  in  some  form  or  other; 
it  had  been  necessary,   "  man  being  by 
nature    a    rather   lazy    animal "  ;    under 
capitalistic  forms  of  government  he  had 
been    driven   by   the   blows    of   economic 


690 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


necessity  and  the  urge  of  hunger;  under 
the  Communistic  labor  regime  he  would 
simply  be  sent  from  factory  to  factory, 
not  by  his  own  will,  but  in  obedience  to 
a  single  economic  plan.  The  whole  suc- 
cess of  the  plan,  said  Trotzky,  depended 
on  the  ability  of  the  Soviet  leaders  and 
the  trades  union  heads  to  make  the  work- 
ers and  peasants  understand  it;  it  could 
not  be  based  on  force  from  above;  the 
workman  "  should  be  drawn  into  the 
process  of  labor  psychologically  from 
within,  and  not  compulsorily  from  with- 
out." 

Trotzky  defended  his  scheme  of  the 
substitution  of  a  military  labor  militia 
for  a  standing  army  at  the  session  of 
April  6.  Such  a  militia,  he  declared, 
would  combine  most  satisfactorily  na- 
tional defense  and  labor.  The  backbone 
of  this  militia  must  be  the  industrial 
working  class,  and  for  that  reason  the 
trade  unions  were  destined  to  play  a 
most  important  part  in  its  organization. 
For  this  organization  the  country  must 
be  divided  into  economic  districts,  the 
centre  of  each  of  which  should  be  an 
industrial  nucleus. 

TEXT  OF  RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED 

The  resolutions  formally  adopted  at 
the  close  of  this  Communist  Congress  did 
not  reach  the  American  public  until  May 
30,  when  they  were  obtained  officially 
from  an  intercepted  Moscow  wireless  and 
given  out  at  Washington  by  the  State 
Department.  The  text  of  the  most  im- 
portant passages  is  as  follows: 

Having-  approved  the  principles  laid 
down  by  the  Central  Committee  of  the 
Russian  Communist  Party  in  regard  to 
the  mobilization  of  the  industrial  pro- 
letariat, labor  conscription,  economic  mili- 
tarization and  the  utilization  of  troops  for 
economic  requirements,  the  Congress  de- 
cided the  following: 

The  organizations  of  the  party  must 
assist  in  every  way  the  trade  unions  and 
labor  departments  in  registering  skilled 
workers,  for  the  purpose  of  employing 
them  in  productive  labor,  on  the  same 
principles  and  with  the  same  severity  as 
are  adopted  with  regard  to  officers 
mobilized  for  the  reqviirements  of.  the 
army.  Every  skilled  worker  must  return 
to  his  special  work.  Skilled  workers  may 
remain  at  other  Soviet  posts  only  with 
the  permission  of  central  and  local  au- 
thorities. 
Mass  mobilization  for  labor  conscription 


must  from  the  very  beginning  be  placed 
on  a  correct  footing.  In  every  case  of 
mobilization  the  number  of  mobilized  per- 
sons must  be  in  accordance  with  the  num- 
ber of  implements  required,  the  amount  of 
work  to  be  done  and  the  place  of  concen- 
tration. 

It  is  also  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
labor  detachments  formed  of  mobilized 
persons  should  be  provided  with  techni- 
cally competent  and  politically  reliable  in- 
.'Jtructors.  Also,  every  labor  detachment 
must  include  a  nucleus  of  Communist 
workers,  mobilized  during  the  party 
mobilization.  In  other  words,  in  forming 
these  detachments  we  must  adopt  the 
same  policy  as  when  forming  the  Red 
army. 

One  of  the  most  important  tasks  of  the 
party  is  to  render  assistance  in  the  great- 
est possible  degree  to  the  union  of  i-ail- 
way  men,  as  the  transport  can  be  reorgan- 
ized only  by  means  of  their  efforts.  At 
the  same  time  it  is  necessary  to  adopt 
extraordinary  measures  toward  [words 
missed]  which  are  absolutely  indispen- 
sable owing  to  the  complete  ruin  of  the 
transport.  No  effort  should  be  spared  to 
arrest  the  process  of  disorganization  and 
thus  to  prevent  the  peril  of  'the  Soviet 
Republic. 

Therefore  the  congress  considers  that 
the  chief  political  department  attached  to 
the  railways  should  be  regardea  as  a 
temporary  organization  of  the  Communist 
Party  and  Soviet  authority,  and  sliould 
pursue    the   two   following   aims : 

1.  By  means  of  employing  experienced 
Communists  and  the  best  representatives 
of  the  working  classes  to  improve  trans- 
port immediately,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  strengthen  the  union  of  railway  men 
by  means  of  drawing  into  it  the  best 
workmen,  who  will  be  dispatched  by  the 
Chief  Political  Department  attached  to  the 
railway  to  various  railway  lines. 

2.  To  assist  the  trade  union  in  establish- 
ing severe  discipline  in  its  organization 
and  thus  enable  the  trade  union  of  rail- 
way men  to  work  independently  for  the 
improvement  of  railway  transport.  After 
the  completion  of  this  task  the  Chief 
Political  Department  and  its  district 
organizations  must  be  included  within  the 
shortest    time   possible.    *    *    * 

The  Third  All-Russian  Congress  of 
Trade  Unions  met  in  Moscow  only  two 
days  after  the  close  of  the  Communist 
Conference.  There  were  1,800  delegates 
representing  many  trades  and  crafts;  at 
least  1,000  of  these  were  Communists. 
The  whole  Congress  represented  ovei- 
4,000,000  organized  workers.  The  senti- 
ment animating  all  the  discussions  was 
that  just  as  the  trade  unions  had  backed 
the  Government  in  the  struggle  against 


FORCED  LABOR  IN  RUSSIA 


I 


Kolchak,  Yudenitch  and  Denikin  (it  was 
recalled  that  when  Yudenitch  was  at  the 
gates  of  Petrograd  the  members  of  the 
Trade  Unions  Council  went  to  work  with 
rifles  on  their  backs),  so  now  the  work- 
ers, once  they  were  made  to  understand 
that  economic  ruin  was  a  no  less  tangible 
and  terrible  foe,  would  rally  to  the 
workers'  Government  in  this  new  strug- 
gle. In  a  long  speech  Lenin  warned  his 
hearers  that  the  task  before  them  was 
not  one  that  could  be  quickly  accom- 
plished. "  To  create  new  forms  of  social 
systems,"  he  said,  "  that  is  work  for  tens 
of  years.  It  took  even  capitalism  thirty 
years  to  change  over  from  an  old  organi- 
zation to  a  new." 

A   DESPERATE  SITUATION 

The  seriousness  of  the  economic  crisis 
facing  Russia  is  realized  fully  by  the 
Bolshevist  leaders.  Despite  all  their 
efforts  to  prevent  the  delegates  sent 
to  Moscow  by  the  London  branch 
of  the  Russian  Co-operatives  from  ascer- 
taining the  true  state  of  affairs,  these 
delegates  were  able  to  glean  many  facts 
which,  as  set  forth  in  the  account  of 
their  trials  published  in  The  London 
Times  of  April  23,  paint  a  lamentable 
picture  of  the  Soviet  country's  economic 
distress.  All  industry  and  trade,  they 
found,  was  socialized  and  nationalized, 
and  was  under  the  control  of  special 
central  bodies  under  the  direction  of  the 
Supreme  Soviet  People's  Economic  Coun- 
cil. At  the  mills  and  factories  there  were 
no  raw  materials,  fuel,  or  organized 
labor.  The  majority  of  skilled  workmen 
were  engaged  in  Government  duties. 
Those  of  them  who  had  not  yet  broken 
their  connection  with  the  villages  had 
gone  back  there.  The  workmen  who  re- 
mained were  bound  by  an  iron  discipline 
and  every  breach  of  regulation,  even  of 
such  as  were  practically  impossible  of 
observance,  was  punished  by  fine  or 
arrest.  Strikes  occurring  on  these 
grounds,  or  because  of  food  conditions, 
were  pitilessly  suppressed.  The  output 
in  all  branches  of  national  industry  was 
continuously  declining. 

REPORT  OF  SOVIET  LEADERS 
Captured     Bolshevist     documents     re- 
ceived  in   Washington   shortly   prior   to 


May  9  gave  confimnation  of  these  state- 
ments. The  documents  included  reports 
on  economic  conditions  made  before  the 
Congress  of  Trade  Unions — referred  to 
above — by  Leon  Trotzky,  M.  Tomsky, 
Chairman  of  the  Central  Council  of 
Trade  Unions,  and  A.  Rykov,  Chairman 
of  the  Supreme  Council  of  National 
Economy.  The  reports  all  dealt  with  the 
steady  decline  of  industrial  productivity 
since  the  rise  of  Bolshevist  power  and 
on  the  phenomenon  of  a  labor  shortage 
in  industry  when  the  demand  for  labor 
was  at  a  low  mark.  All  these  documents, 
not  intended  for  the  outside  world,  came 
into  possession  of  Gregory  Alexinsky,  a 
former  Moderate  Socialist  member  of  the 
Russian  Duma,  a  well-known  writer  on 
Russia  under  the  Czar's  regime,  and  one 
of  the  foremost  Russian  opposers  of  the 
Bolshevist  rule  and  were  sent  by  him 
to  the  Washington  Government  from 
Helsingfors. 

The  report  of  Trotzky  put  the  number 
of  workers  employed  in  Bolshevist  na- 
tionalized industry  at  850,000,  as  opposed 
to  Rykov's  estimate  of  1,000,000.  The 
lack  of  skilled  labor  was  so  great, 
Trotzky  declared,  that  even  supplies  and 
equipment  for  the  Red  Army  could  not 
be  produced  in  adequate  quantities.  The 
industrial  crisis,  he  believed,  was  caused 
by  this  and  by  the  destruction  of  tech- 
nical equipment.  This  scarcity  of  skilled 
labor  he  attributed  to  what  he  termed 
the  "  dissipation  of  the  working  classes," 
which  he  commented  on  as  follows: 

Hunger,  the  unsettled  dwelling  problem, 
and  the  cold  are  driving  the  workers  from 
industrial  centres  to  the  country  and  not 
only  to  the  country  but  also  into  the 
ranks  of  profiteering,  into  the  ranks  of 
parasites. 

Tomsky  also  commented  sadly  on  this 
labor  shortage,  which  he  attributed  to 
intolerable  living  conditions  in  the  in- 
dustrial centres.  The  workmen  scattered 
to  labor  communes,  Soviet  farms,  pro- 
ducers' associations,  or  constantly  mi- 
grated from  place  to  place,  seeking  to 
better  their  condition  while  another  very 
considerable  part  served  in  the  army. 
Many  of  the  proletariat,  he  admitted  re- 
gretfully, also  leaked  away  to  join  the 
ranks  of  petty  profiteers  and  barter- 
traders — a  fact  which,  he  said,  there  was 


692 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


no    use    in    attempting    to    conceal    or 
deny. 

ALARMING  LABOR  SHORTAGE 

Rykov  characterized  this  labor  short- 
age as  one  of  the  most  dangerous  fea- 
tures of  Russian  economic  life.  "  It  has 
attained  such  proportions,"  he  declared, 
"  that  we  are  unable  to  utilize  certain 
establishments,  even  though  they  are 
provided  with  raw  material,  only  because 
of  the  lack  of  skilled  labor."  Only  3,000 
of  the  4,000  factories  nationalized  were 
working.  Manufacturing  industry  was 
declared  by  him  to  be  in  a  state  of  crisis. 
The  equipment  on  hand  could  not  be 
utilized  in  many  cases  because  of  the 
lack  of  operators.  Of  raw  material  sup- 
plied in  1919  to  metallurgical  factories 
representing  30  per  cent,  of  the  coun- 
try's requirements,  they  had  been  able 
to  utilize  only  15  per  cent.  Russia  was 
producing  only  from  30  to  40  per  cent, 
of  the  former  output  in  the  main 
branches  of  industry.  According  to 
Rykov,  Soviet  Russia  has  been  living  on 
the  supplies  left  over  from  pre-war  Rus- 
sia. "  But  these  supplies,"  he  adds,  "  are 
becoming  exhausted.  We  are  daily  and 
hourly  approaching  the  final  crisis  in 
these  branches  of  industry." 

HOW  THE  SYSTEM  WORKS 

The  alarming  food  scarcity,  to  which 
all  these  reports  attribute  the  industrial 
crisis,  was  explained  by  the  Moscow  cor- 
respondent of  the  Paris  paper,  Excelsior, 
shortly  prior  to  May  14,  as  due  to  the 
policy  of  Lenin  toward  the  peasants. 
When  Lenin  gave  the  peasants  land  he 
demanded  that  the  State  should  receive 
its  products.  The  peasants,  to  avoid  this, 
produced  only  enough  for  their  own  needs. 
No    plows    or    implements    can    be    pur- 


chased, even  by  those  who  wish  to  pro- 
duce, and  no  repairs  can  be  executed. 
Another  main  cause,  this  correspondent 
said,  was  the  obstinate  refusal  of  the 
Russian  proletariat  to  work,  despite  the 
frenzied  attempts  of  the  Bolshevist 
leaders  to  stimulate  an  enthusiasm  which 
does  not  exist.  .  Petrograd  placards  de- 
clared that  the  Moscow  workers  were 
laboring  day  and  night ;  Moscow  placards 
said  the  same  of  Petrograd,  and  appealed 
to  the  Moscowites  not  to  allow  themselves 
to  be  outdone.  The  examples  of  feverish 
energy  given  by  official  demonstration- 
ists in  factories,  railroads  and  shops 
throughout  the  country  were  watched 
with  mild  detachment  by  the  workers, 
who  returned  to  their  reposeful  ways 
after  the  demonstrationists'  departure. 
Voluntary  Sunday  morning  labor  was 
organized  in  Moscow  by  the  Intellectuals, 
including  the  Soviet  chiefs.  The  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Works  overdid  it,  injured 
himself  while  unloading  wagons,  and 
died.  The  Russian  workmen  merely 
murmured  "  Nitchevo  "  (what's  the  Use) 
and  worked  no  harder  than  before. 

Thus  far  the  drastic  cure  adopted  by 
the  Soviet  dictators  has  shown  no  marked 
results.  The  official  organ  of  the  Moscow 
Government  reports  an  estimated  deficit 
for  1920  on  the  operations  of  nationalized 
industries  of  23,756,700,000  rubles,  ac- 
cording to  a  Berlin  dispatch  of  May  31 
to  the  Exchange  Telegraph  Company. 
The  total  includes  5,650,000,000  rubles 
spent  on  official  salaries  and  on  organ- 
ization of  the  industries,  14,393,000,000 
rubles  lost  owing  to  production  cost  ex- 
ceeding sale  prices  and  1,210,000,000 
rubles  spent  on  political  measures  which 
were  found  necessary  to  keep  the  work- 
men quiet. 


British  Memorials  to  the  Fallen 


■ 
I 


AGREEMENT  was  reached  by  the 
House  of  Commons  on  May  4,  1920, 
regarding  the  recommendations  of  the 
War  Graves  Commission.  After  a  three 
hours'  debate  the  House  voted  £991,000 
for  carrying  out  the  work  on  the  graves 
of  the  fallen.  Opposition  to  a  uniform 
memorial  to  be  erected  by  the  commis- 
sion was  answered  by  Burdett  Coutts  in 
a  moving  appeal  for  recognition  of  the 
uniformity  of  sacrifice  by  a  similar  uni- 
formity of  memorial.  Lord  Robert  Cecil, 
who  was  among  the  opposers  of  this 
policy,  made  a  plea  for  diversity  of 
choice,  saying  that  each  memorial  should 
symbolize  the  dead  soldier's  faith.    Mr. 


Churchill,  in  this  atmosphere  of  con- 
trolled grief  and  proud  tributes  to  the 
dead,  stated  that  the  project  was  undei- 
consideration  by  the  Government. 

According  to  the  commission's  plans, 
laid  down  in  the  House  on  April  27,  each 
grave  will  have  its  enduring  headstone 
carved  with  the  symbol  of  the  dead  man's 
faith;  his  name,  rank  and  regimental 
badge,  and  whatever  text  or  inscription 
his  relatives  wish.  All  essential  data  will 
be  kept  in  an  official  register  in  the 
cemetery.  Each  cemetery  will  have  in  ad- 
dition a  large  Cross  of  Sacrifice  and  a 
stone  of  remembrance.     The  cross  con- 


Designs  to  he  iised  on  gravestones  in  1,000  cemetries  in  France  and  Belgium  where 
British  soldiers  rest.  Each  stone  bears  the  badge  of  the  soldier's  regiment,  his  name 
mid  rank,  the  insignia  of  his  faith,  and  an  inscription  chosen  by  his  relatives.  No 
difference    is    made    between    officers    and    men. 


Asquith  and  other  members,  speaking  in 
a  strain  of  repressed  sorrow  that  was 
shared  visibly  by  all  the  members  of  the 
House,  advocated  that  those  who  had 
paid  the  supreme  sacrifice,  alike  officers 
and  men  of  the  rank  and  file,  should 
have  their  names  and  their  services 
perpetuated  in  the  same  memorial.     Mr. 


tains  the  emblem  of  a  sword,  while  the 
stone  bears  the  inscription  (suggested  by 
Mr.  Kipling),  "Their  Name  Liveth 
Forevermore." 

The  number  of  properly  registered 
graves  in  France  and  Belgium  is  over 
850,000,  and  there  are  more  than  1,000 
British  cemeteries  in  those  countries. 


The  Socialist  International 

Many  Swinging  Away  From  Both  Second  and  Third  Organiza- 
tions and  Planning  a  New  One 


LABOR  union  and  Socialist  leaders  in 
all  countries  at  the  present  time 
I  are  giving  anxious  attention  to 
the  possibility  of  reconstructing  in 
some  form  the  Second  Socialist  Interna- 
tional, which  lapsed  during  the  war.  The 
last  six  years  have  brought  a  drift 
toward  radicalism  in  Socialist  circles,  and 
Russian  Communism  or  Bolshevism  has 
sought  to  gain  the  leadership  of  the 
movement  by  means  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national, created  by  Lenin  and  Trotzky 
in  1919,  with  headquarters  in  Moscow. 
Only  the  extremists  in  other  countries, 
however,  have  thus  far  voted  to  join  the 
Moscow  group,  which  stands  for  violent 
methods  and  a  "  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat." The  trend  of  the  labor  parties 
has  been  rather  toward  the  organization 
of  a  new  International  that  could  be 
modeled  on  the  moribund  Second,  but  be 
brought  abreast  of  the  new  conditions. 

The  First  International  was  founded 
by  Karl  Marx  and  his  followers  in  1862. 
Its  rallying  cry,  "  Workmen  of  all  coun- 
tries, unite!  "  is  now  the  slogan  of  the 
Moscow  group,  and  is  inscribed  on  the 
banners  of  the  Soviet  Republic.  Marx's 
organization  was  broken  up  and  finally 
destroyed  soon  after  the  Franco-Prussian 
war  by  irreconcilable  dissensions  over  its 
aims  and  functions.  In  all  present-day 
discussions  of  worldwide  co-operation  of 
labor  the  issue  has  been  sharply  drawn 
between  the  Second  and  Third  Interna- 
tionals, the  former  standing  for  revolu- 
tion by  constitutional  methods  the  latter 
for  revolution  by  armed  violence  if  neces- 
sary. 

The  Second  International  was  created 
in  1889,  and  though  the  World  War  split 
it  into  fragments  it  still  maintains  head- 
quarters at  Brussels.  The  bodies  affiliated 
with  it  found  themselves  riven  in  twain 
by  the  war,  divided  sharply  into  patriots 
and  anti-patriots;  thus  the  resolutions 
pledging  the  members  to  a  general  strike 
in  case  of  a  European  war  proved  to  be 


utterly  useless  when  the  war  came. 
Nationalism  triumphed  over  interna- 
tionalism. 

Among  the  more  important  naTfcnal 
groups  to  leave  the  Second  International 
were  the  Socialist  Parties  of  Italy, 
France,  Norway  and  the  United  States. 
The  Independent  Socialist  Party  of  Ger- 
many, which  was  organized  during  the 
World  War  by  Socialists  who  could  not 
endure  the  pro-Government  stand  of  the 
old  "  Majority"  Social  Democratic  Party, 
decided  at  its  Leipzig  convention,  held 
last  December,  to  negotiate  with  revolu- 
tionary Socialist  groups  of  Western 
Europe  for  the  purpose  of  lining  them 
up  for  a  conference  with  the  Third  Inter- 
national; it  still  hopes  to  organize  a  new 
International  that  will  embrace  the  best 
parts  of  both  the  Second  and  the  Third. 
If  this  plan  fails,  the  Independents  will 
join  the  Third  International  anyway. 

THE  MOSCOW  ORGANIZATION 

Before  the  Second  International  could 
be  reconstructed  by  the  more  moderate 
leaders — men  of  the  type  of  Arthur 
Henderson  and  Ramsay  Macdonald  in 
England,  of  Jean  Longuet  in  France,  of 
Karl  Kautsky  in  Germany — Lenin  and 
Trotzky  seized  the  opportunity  to  create 
an  International  of  their  own,  which 
they  formally  called  the  "  Third  Inter- 
national." This  organization,  established 
in  Moscow  in  March,  1919,  was  based 
definitely  on  the  principle  of  class 
warfare,  and  has  been  used  ever  since 
to  promote  Lenin's  scheme  of  worldwide 
Bolshevist  propaganda.  Affiliation  is 
strictly  limited  to  societies  which  accept 
the  "  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  "  and 
the  Soviet  form  of  government.  Socialist 
"  war  patriots,"  Socialists  who  advocate 
constitutional  methods,  or  who  represent 
"  bourgeois  ideology,"  are  resolutely  ex- 
cluded. The  executive  board  is  composed 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  Bolshevist  Govern- 


THE  SOCIALIST  INTERNATIONAL 


ment,  and  its  policy  is  decided  by  Lenin 
and  Trotzky. 

Nearly  every  country  in  the  world 
possesses  societies  officially  connected 
with  this  Moscow  International.  It  has 
been  joined  outright  by  the  Socialists  of 
Italy,  Norway,  Serbia,  Rumania,  as  well 
as  by  various  sections  in  Sweden,  Den- 


G.    ZINOVIEV 

President  of  Third  International  at  Moscow, 

organ  of  revolutionary  pro'paganda 

{Photo  Undericood  <£•  Underwood) 


mark,  Bulgaria,  Germany,  Holland, 
Hungary,  Jugoslavia,  Spain,  Switzerland, 
England  and  America. 

In  the  United  States  both  the  Com- 
munist Party  and  the  Communist  Labor 
Party  immediately  proclaimed  their 
allegiance  to  the  Moscow  International, 
and  the  Socialist  Party,  by  a  referendum 
vote,  the  result  of  which  was  made  public 
last  Winter  in  connection  with  the 
ejection  of  the  five  Socialist  Assembly- 
men from  the  New  York  Legislature,  de- 
cided three  to  one  to  support  it.  The 
Socialist  Party,  however,  expressly  stated 
in  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  referen- 
dum that  it  supported  Moscow  not  so 
much  on  account  of  its  tactics  as  because 
of  the  fact  that  it  was  really  doing 
something  to  destroy  worldwide  capital- 


ism and  therefore. should  be  backed  up. 
Socialist  Party  leaders  aver  that  when 
an  international  conference  of  the  Third 
International  becomes  possible,  the  Amer- 
ican Socialists  will  insist  upon  being 
allowed  to  use  their  own  judgment  as  to 
the  best  methods  of  establishing  a 
Socialist  regime  here.  This  stand  was 
definitely  affirmed  at  the  National  So- 
cialist Party  convention  held  in  New 
York  in  May. 

The  Third  International  is  the  instru- 
ment through  which  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda is  actively  carried  on  in  all  the 
"  capitalistic  "  countries.  According  to 
a  correspondent  of  The  London  Morning 
Post  it  has  established  at  least  six  offi- 
cial organizations  and  two  press  agencies 
in  Great  Britain  alone.*  The  great 
obstacle  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  old 
Second  International  has  been  the  steady 
drift  of  Laborites  and  Socialists  toward 
this  Bolshevist  organization. 

PLANNING  A  NEW  INTERNATIONAL 

The  French  Socialist  Congress  held  at 
Strasbourg,  Feb.  25-28,  1920,  decided  by 
a  vote  of  4,330  to  337  to  withdraw  from 
the  Second  International,  and  by  a  vote 
of  3,031  to  1,621  it  accepted  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  Centre  (led  by  Longuet  and 
Cachin),  to  create  a  new  organization,  at 
the  same  time  rejecting  the  proposal  to 
join  the  Bolshevist  International  of 
Moscow. 

The  Independent  Labor  Party  of  Great 
Britain,  at  a  conference  held  in  Glasgow 
on  April  6,  facing  the  alternative  of 
affiliating  with  the  Moscow  Interna- 
tional immediately  or  of  proceeding  by 
way  of  a  preliminary  inquiry  and  con- 
sultation, took  the  latter  course  by  472 
votes  to  206,  and  decided  to  invite  the 
Swiss  Socialists  to  collaborate  in  dis- 
cussing the  possibility  of  creating  a  new 
International  better  adapted  than  that 
of  Moscow  to  the  ideals  of  Socialists  in 
other  countries.  The  Swiss  Socialist 
Party,  at  a  congress  held  last  August, 
had  voted  to  join  the  Third  Interna- 
tional; but  in  a  referendum  held  in  Oc- 

*For  official  text  of  the  revolutionary 
program  of  the  Third  International  see 
Current  History  for  February,  1920,  Page 
308. 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


tober  it  decided  against  such  action  by 
a  vote  of  14,612  to  8,722.  On  April  17 
the  Central  Committee  of  the  Swiss 
Socialist  Party  voted  20  to  18  for  joining 
the  Third  International,  which  doubtless 
means  another  referendum  on  the  ques- 
tion. 

British  moderate  opinion  as  repre- 
sented by  Arthur  Henderson  (British 
Labor  Party)  and  by  Ramsay  Macdon- 
ald  (Independent  Labor  Party)  is  wholly 
opposed  to  joining  the  Moscow  Bolshe- 
viki.  Mr.  Henderson,  advocating  the 
creation  of  a  new  International  by  a 
general  congress,  declared  on  March  17 
that  the  British  Labor  Party  did  not 
desire  to  compromise  by  using  the  terms 
Soviet,  revolution,  dictatorship.  Mr. 
Macdonald,  in  a  published  article,  stated 
that  he  objected  to  the  domineering 
methods  of  the  Moscow  organization,  at 
least  three  of  whose  cardinal  doctrines  he 
rejected.  George  Lansbury,  however, 
representing  the  radical,  revolutionary 
element,  said  he  feared  no  violence  from 
the  Moscow  program  and  had  no  appre- 
hensions concerning  Soviets,  supreme 
councils,  or  "  the  disciplined  labor  armies 
now  being  established  in  Russia."  The 
British  Socialist  Party,  a  small  group  of 
theorists,  has  voiced  its  allegiance  to  the 
Moscow  International. 

THE  CONGRESS  AT  GENEVA 

In  what  may,  perhaps,  be  character- 
ized as  a  final  attempt  to  save  the  Second 
International  and  make  it  the  basis  of 
the  new  International,  likely,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  Socialist  publicists,  to 
be  born  out  of  the  present  strife,  Camille 
Huysmans,  secretary  of  the  Second  Inter- 
national, sent  out  an  invitation  from 
Brussels  on  April  10  to  the  Socialist  and 
Labor  parties,  or  organizations,  of  the 
world  to  be  represented  at  the  Tenth 
International  Socialist  and  Labor  Con- 
gress, which  is  to  meet  in  Geneva  on  July 
31,  1920.  In  order  to  bring  as  many 
delegates  as  possible  to  the  congress  and 
to  try  to  heal  the  breach  in  the  revolu- 
tionary ranks,  M.  Huysmans,  in  the  name 
of  the  Permanent  Commission  of  the 
Second  International,  invites  "  not  only 
the  affiliated  sections,  but  also  all  other 
organizations  animated  with  this  will  to 
unity."     The  non-affiliated  sections  may 


take  part  in  the  debate  in  a  consultative 
capacity,  if  they  so  desire,  thus  reserv- 
ing their  liberty  of  final  decision.  The 
only  prerequisite  for  sending  delegates 
is  subscription  to  the  following  program: 
1.  The  political  and  economic  organiza- 
tion   of    the    working    class    for    the    pur- 


JEAN   LONGUET 

Leader   of   Minority   Socialists   in  France 

(©    Vndericood   &    Underwood) 


pose  of  abolishing  the  capitalist  form  of 
society  and  achieving  complete  freedom 
for  humanity  through  the  conquest  of 
political  power  and  the  socialization  of 
the  means  of  production  and  exchange ; 
that  is  to  say,  by  the  transformation  of 
capitalist  society  into  a  collectivist,  or 
communist,    society. 

2.  The  international  union  and  action 
of  the  workers  in  the  struggle  against 
jingoism  and  imperialism  and  for  the 
simultaneous  suppression  of  militarism 
and  armaments,  with  the  object  of  bring- 
ing about  a  real  league  of  nations,  in- 
cluding all  peoples  master  of  their  own 
destiny,   and   maintaining  world  peace. 

3.  The  representation  and  defense  of  the 
interests  of  oppressed  peoples  and  subject 
races. 

VOTING   POWER   BY  COUNTRIES 

Although  at  present  about  the  only 
important  parties  left  in  the  Second 
International    are    the    Majority    Social 


THE  SOCIALIST  INTERNATIONAL 


it.  Democratic  Party  of  Germany,  the  Brit- 
ish Labor  Party,  the  Belgian  Labor 
Party,  the  Social  Democratic  Labor 
Party  of  Holland,  the  Austrian  Social 
Democratic  Party,  the  Majority  Socialist 
Parties  of  Sweden  and  Denmark,  the 
Polish   Socialist  Party,  and  the  Finnish 

.        Social  Democratic  Party,  M.  Huysmans 


ARTHUR    HENDERSON 
British   Labor   Leader 

(^Photo    by   P.    S.    Rogers) 

announces  that  the  voting  power  of  the 
various  countries  in  the  coming  congress 
will  be  as  follows: 

Germany,  United  States,  France,  Great 
Britain  and  Russia,  30  votes  each ;  Italy, 
24  votes ;  Australia,  Austria,  Belgium, 
Sweden,  Czechoslovakia  and  the  Ukraine, 
15  each ;  Argentina,  12 ;  Denmark,  Hol- 
land, Hungary,  Poland  and  Switzerland, 
10  each ;  Finland,  Norway  and  Jugoslavia, 
8  each ;  South  Africa,  Bulgaria  and  Spain, 
5  each;  Armenia,  Ca-nada  Georgia, 
Lithuania  and  Palestine,  4  each ;  Greece, 
3;  Bolivia,  Chile,  Esthonia,  Ireland, 
Latvia,  Peru,  Portugal  and  Rumania,  2 
each ;   Luxemburg,   1. 

On  May  7  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the    Austrian    Social    Democratic    Party 


sent  an  open  letter  .to  M.  Huysmans  re- 
fusing to  send  delegates  to  the  Geneva 
meeting  on  the  ground  that  the  present 
divisions  in  the  ranks  of  the  various 
Socialist  bodies  made  the  prospects  of 
fruitful  work  very  remote. 

On  May  20  the  German  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party  of  Czechoslovakia  also  voted 
to  send  delegates  to  the  German  confer- 
ence. 

The  agenda  of  the  July  congress  will 
include  questions  of  international  unity, 
the  matter  of  the  responsibility  for  the 
outbreak  of  the  World  War,  the  League 
of  Nations,  democracy  vs.  dictatorship, 
socialization,  political  system  of  social- 
ism, labor  legislation,  colonial  policy, 
emigration,  high  cost  of  living,  and  the 
organization  of  the  Socialist  and  Labor 
press. 

The  principal  moves  of  the  Second 
International  since  the  armistice  are 
summarized  by  M.  Huysmans  as  fol- 
lows: 

Following  upon  the  armistice  and  as 
soon  as  the  material  possibilities  of  re- 
union were  recovered,  the  parties  of  the 
International  which,  even  during  the  war, 
felt  the  need  of  reconstitution,  met  at 
Berne  (Feb.  2-10,  1919).  They  intrusted 
the  task  of  the  preparation  of  that  recon- 
stitution to  a  "  permanent  commission  " 
appointed  with  the  approval  of  all  the 
parties  represented  at  that  conference. 
The  commission  began  its  labors  with  a 
single-minded  desire  to  scve  the  interests 
of  the  international  labor  movement.  It 
has  endeavored  to  fulfill  the  obligations 
of  its  task  by  bringing  together  the  sec- 
tions in  two  conferences  which  were  held 
at  Amsterdam  (April  20-29,  1919)  and  at 
Lucerne  (Aug.  1-10,  1919).  At  Lucerne 
the  convocation  to  Geneva  of  a  general 
congress  was  decided  upon  with  the  con- 
se;  t  of  all  sections,  including  those  which 
have  since  detached  themselves  from  our 
organization.  The  congress  was  to  have 
been  held  in  February,  1920.  On  the 
suggestion  of  the  Austrian  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party  and  in  the  interests  of  the 
object  sought,  the  date  was  changed  to 
July  31.  This  date  was  definitely  ap- 
proved at  the  Rotterdam  meeting  of 
March    23,    1920. 

The  new  alignment  of  the  various 
groups  now  in  progress  has  a  direct 
bearing  upon  the  nature  of  the  revolu- 
tionary activities  of  international  social- 
ism in  the  immediate  future. 


1'- 

■■jgk:imsmu 

M 

--^^^^^:~^''^^  ^^^% 

mmr 

{■^■BSNb^iViai^^  ■■■1 

ELLIS    ISLAND,    NEW    YORK    HARBOR,    WHERE    80    PER    CENT.    OP    ALL    EUROPEAN    IMMI- 
GRANTS   FIRST    SET    FOOT   ON    AMERICAN    SOIL    AND    WHENCE    THE    DEPORTED    "  REDS  " 

ARE    SHIPPED    BACK    HOME 
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Dealing  With  "Red"  Agitators 

Why    the    Deportation    of  Alien  Revolutionists  Ceased  for  a  Time 
— A  More  Stringent  Law  Enacted 


THE  activities  of  revolutionary  agita- 
tors, mostly  Communists  of  alien 
birth,  have  given  the  Washington 
Government  a  rather  difficult  problem, 
which  it  decided  some  months  ago  to 
solve  by  deporting  the  chief  offenders  to 
their  own  countries.  The  nation-wide 
arrests  of  radicals  last  January  netted 
approximately  3,000  aliens,  of  whom 
fully  three-fourths  were  Russians,  and 
most  of  whom  became  "  perfect  cases  " 
for  deportation,  as  a  result  of  Secretary 
of  Labor  Wilson's  decision  that  the  Com- 
munist and  Communist  Labor  Parties 
were  revolutionary,  within  the  meaning 
of  the  deportation  law.  The  mere  fact 
of  membership  in  both  of  these  parties 
was  at  that  time  accepted  as  sufficient 
ground  for  deportation. 

The  Department  of  Labor  and  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  planned  that  the  de- 
portation of  convicted  radicals  should  be 
pushed  rapidly.  In  a  letter  sent  to 
Francis  Fisher  Kane,  attorney  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania, 
whose  resignation  on  Jan.  12  had  been 
accompanied  by  a  strong  condemnation 
of  the  drastic  methods  of  Attorney 
General  Palmer,  Mr.  Palmer  quoted  the 
official  manifesto  of  the  Communist 
Party     to     prove     that     its     members 


planned  the  overthrow  of  the  Govern- 
ment by  force,  that  they  were  in  alliance 
with  the  Moscow  International,  and 
sought  to  establish  proletariat  rule  by 
armed  power  in  the  United  States.  In 
answer  to  Mr.  Kane's  criticisms  of  the 
deportations  already  made*  and  those 
then  contemplated,  Mr.  Palmer  stated 
that  after  careful  study  he  had  failed  to 
discover  a  single  instance  where  injus- 
tice had  been  done  to  any  alien.  A  hear- 
ing had  been  given  in  every  case,  and 
the  accused  granted  every  opportunity  to 
justify  himself.  The  problem  of  the 
families  of  the  men  deported,  he  said, 
was  one  which  every  Judge  must  face 
when  confronted  with  transgression  of 
the  law. 

MANY  RADICALS  INDICTED 

In  accordance  with  the  Government 
view,  all  Communist  leaders  seized  were 
indicted  on  the  ground  of  anarchistic 
conspiracy.  W.  B.  Lloyd,  a  wealthy  rad- 
ical, and  thirty-seven  other  alleged 
members  of  the  Communist  Labor  Party, 


*The  Buford,  dubbed  the  "  Soviet  Ark,' 
sailed  from  New  York  to  Finland  at  the  end 
of  December.  1919.  It  carried  249  Red  de- 
portees, including  Emma  Goldman,  whose 
disillusionment  with  Bolshevist  Russia,  tlT" 
Red  Paradise,  has  since  become  a  matter  of 
record. 


DEALING  WITH  "RED'*  AGITATORS 


were  so  indicted  in  Chicago  on  Jan.  21. 
One  of  those  listed,  John  Reed,  had  es- 
caped to  Copenhagen  several  months 
previously  by  shipping  as  a  coal  passer. 
He  was  reciently  arrested  as  a  stowaway 
and  Bolshevist  messenger  by  the  authori- 
ties of  Finland  in  the  hold  of  a  ship 
about  to  sail  for  Soviet  Russia.  Many 
State  and  local  organizers  were  also 
listed. 

The  name  of  one  prominent  member 
of  the  Communist  Party — Rose  Pastor 
Stokes — led  a  list  of  eighty-five  major 
and  minor  leaders  of  the  organization 
against  whom  indictments  were  returned 
on  Jan.  23  by  the  Grand  Jury  of  the 
Cook  County  (Illinois)  Criminal  Court. 
Her  arrest  was  delayed  by  illness,  but 
on  Feb.  4  she  was  arrested  just  after 
testifying  in  the  case  of  Benjamin  Git- 
low,  a  fellow  Communist,  who  was  being 
tried  in  New  York  on  similar  charges. 
Mrs.  Stokes  had  already  been  sentenced, 
on  June  1,  1918,  to  serve  ten  years  in 
the  Missouri  State  Penitentiary  for  vio- 
lation of  the  Espionage  act  by  alleged 
disloyal  and  subversive  attacks  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  She 
had  been  released  on  $10,000  bail  pend- 
ing an  appeal  of  her  case.  At  the  hear- 
ing given  her  she  declined  to  answer 
questions  regarding  her  affiliation  with 
the  Left  Wing  of  the  Communist  Party, 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  tend  to  in- 
criminate her.  She  was  released  on 
$5,000  bail,  which  was  furnished  by  her 
husband,  J.  Phelps  Stokes.  The  United 
States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  on 
March  9  reversed  the  1918  verdict  on  the 
ground  that  the  charge  of  the  Judge  pre- 
siding at  this  trial  had  been  biased  and 
unduly  influenced  the  jury,  and  re- 
manded the  case  for  a  new  trial. 

BENJAMIN  GITLOW'S  CASE 

The  case  of  Gitlow,  on  whose  behalf 
Mrs.  Stokes  had  testified,  aroused  much 
public  interest.  Gitlow  is  a  native  Amer- 
ican and  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools.  He  resided  in  Brooklyn  and  at 
the  time  of  his  arrest  was  29  years  old. 
A  clothing  cutter  by  trade,  he  had  left  a 
salary  of  $41  weekly  to  become  business 
manager  of  a  radical  paper  called  The 
Revolutionary   Age   at   a   much    smaller 


wage.  An  active  member  of  the  Social- 
ist Party,  he  had  been  elected  to  the  As- 
sembly of  New  York  State  several  years 
previously.  In  1918  and  1919,  according 
to  the  indictment,  he  had  openly  asso- 
ciated himself  with  a  group  of  anarch- 
ists who  taught  by  spoken  and  written 
word  that  the  United  States  treated  its 
workmen  with  injustice  and  brutality, 
and  that  there  was  no  hope  for  bettering 
their  condition  by  constitutional  means. 
A  fluent  Socialist  orator,  he  had  spoken 
publicly  against  America's  entering  the 
war. 

Gitlow  was  convicted  of  conspiring  to 
publish  in  his  magazine  the  manifesto  of 
the  Communist  Party  advocating  over- 
throw of  the  Government,  He  was  the 
first  of  twenty-three  men  to  be  tried,  all 
of  whom  had  been  arrested  as  the  result 
of  investigations  and  raids  by  the  Lusk 
Committee.  At  his  trial  he  refused  to 
testify,  but  shortly  before  the  end  of  the 
case  he  addressed  a  long  speech  to  the 
jury  seeking  to  defend  publication  of  the 
Communist  manifesto.  He  was  convicted 
of  criminal  anarchy  in  the  Criminal 
Branch  of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court 
on  Feb.  6,  and  on  Feb.  11  received  from 
Justice  Weeks  the  maximum  sentence  of 
from  five  to  ten  years  on  the  ground  that 
no  extenuation  of  his  conduct  could  be 
found.  Gitlow  was  simultaneously  un- 
der indictment  in  Chicago  for  conspiracy 
to  overthrow  the  Government  of  the 
United  States;  the  New  York  sentence 
superseded  Federal  action. 

Many  penitentiary  and  jail  sentences 
were  imposed  in  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. In  Cincinnati  thirteen  Socialists 
convicted  of  conspiracy  to  defeat  the 
military  draft  received  sentences  of  from 
three  to  fifteen  months.  Seven  of  the 
ten  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World 
charged  with  the  murder  of  Warren  O. 
Grimm,  one  of  the  four  former  soldiers 
shot  down  during  an  Armistice  Day 
parade,  were  found  guilty  of  second  de- 
gree murder  at  Montesano,  Wash.,  on 
March  13.  These  men  were  sentenced  to 
from  twenty-five  to  forty  years  each  in 
the  State  Penitentiary  on  April  5. 

The  efforts  of  the  Government  to 
strengthen  the  sedition  laws  and  to  curb 
anti-governmental     activities     by    addi- 


700  THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


tional  legislation  met  with  sturdy  resist- 
ance on  the  part  of  Samuel  Gompers, 
who  appeared  before  the  House  Rules 
Committee  in  Washington  on  Jan.  22 
and  denounced  not  only  the  Graham  and 
Sterling  sedition  bills  but  also  the  less 
drastic  proposals  of  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral. Mr.  Gompers  objected  to  the  pro- 
posal to  inflict  the  death  penalty,  to  the 
attack  on  free  speech  and  individual 
rights  and,  above  all,  to  the  possible  use 
of  the  proposed  laws  for  placing  a  "  des- 
potic embargo  "  on  all  attempted  strikes. 
Other  prominent  people  also  voiced  pro- 
tests, and  the  pending  bills  were  de- 
nounced and  defended  by  members  of 
both  parties. 

Mr.  Palmer  appeared  before  the  House 
Judiciary  Committee  on  Feb.  4.  After 
asserting  his  belief  in  free  speech,  he 
declared  that  there  was  a  dead-line  be- 
yond which  the  Reds  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  go.  He  thought,  however,  that 
the  Graham  and  Sterling  bills  were  too 
drastic  and  would  defeat  their  own  pur- 
pose.    He  asked  for  simpler  legislation. 

DEPORTATIONS  HALTED 

The  great  anti-Red  activity  shown  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year  by  the  Depart- 
ments of  Labor,  Justice  and  Immigration 
gradually  died  down  for  reasons  which, 
at  first,  were  something  of  a  mystery. 
It  developed  later  that  among  the  mairx 
causes  for  this  slackening  of  energy  were 
the  decision  of  Secretary  Wilson  that 
membership  in  the  Communist  Labor 
Party  was  not  a  deportable  offense  and 
the  policy  adopted  by  Louis  F.  Post,  the 
Acting  Secretary,  in  canceling  deporta- 
tion orders  and  in  reducing  the  amount 
of  bail  from  $10,000  to  $1,000.  Secretary 
Wilson's  decision  on  Jan.  21  that  mem- 
bership in  the  Communist  Party  justified 
deportation  had  applied  likewise  to  the 
Communist  Labor  Party.  The  new  de- 
cision was  given  out  on  May  5,  just  in 
time  to  prevent  new  nation-wide  raids  by 
the  Federal  agents  under  Attorney  Gen- 
eral Palmer  on  members  of  this  party. 
Two  hundred  warrants  were  canceled. 

The  decision  was  vigorously  attacked 
by  Francis  P.  Garvan,  Assistant  Attor- 
ney General,  who  declared  that  all  Red 
radicals  would  now  be  able  to  join  the 


Communist  Labor  Party  without  re- 
nouncing a  single  one  of  their  principles, 
and  that  the  power  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  to  repress  the  radical  movement 
would  be  greatly  curtailed. 

The  ground  taken  by  Secretary  Wil- 
son was  that  the  official  utterances  of 
the  party,  though  advocating  a  revolu- 
tion, called  for  the  use  of  parliamentary 
rnechods,  in  which  respect  it  differed 
from  the  Communist  Party.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  there  were  some  50,000  to  60,- 
000  members  of  the  exempted  party. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  ATTACKED 

A  campaign  against  the  Department 
of  Labor,  and  especially  against  the  As- 
sistant Secretary,  was  initiated  late  in 
March  by  Senator  King  of  Utah,  who 
offered  a  resolution  asking  investigation 
of  the  administration  and  enforcement 
of  the  immigration  laws,  as  well  as  an 
inquiry  into  the  administration  of  Fred- 
eric C.  Howe,  former  Immigration  Com- 
missioner of  New  York.*  Mr.  King  gave 
out  a  list  of  eighty  aliens  whose  depor- 
tation had  been  shown  to  be  justified, 
but  who  had  been  kept  here  by  the  ruling 
of  the  Labor  Department  in  defiance  of 
the  recommendations  of  the  immigration 
heads.  At  the  beginning  of  April  evi- 
dence in  the  cases  of  a  number  of  aliens 
ordered  deported  and  subsequently  re- 
leased by  Mr.  Post  was  taken  from  the 
custody  of  Anthony  Caminetti,  Commis- 
sioner General  of  Immigration,  by  the 
House  Immigration  Committee  and  de- 
livered for  examination  to  a  sub-commit- 
tee. Mr.  Post  denied  that  similar  action 
had  been  taken  in  respect  to  his  own  of- 
fice, but  stated  that  he  had  offered  the 
committee  every  opportunity  for  investi- 
gation. A  general  inquiry  into  the  de- 
portation policy  of  th«  department  was 
urged,  with  Assistant  Secretary  Post  the 
main  object  of  attack. 

IMPEACHMENT  ASKED  FOR  POST 

The  strength  of  the  feeling  against 
Mr.   Post   was    seen   in   a   resolution   of- 


*Mr.  Howe  resigned  in  September,  1919. 
ostensibly  to  further  the  publicity  campaign 
of  the  Plumb  railway  plan.  He  had  been 
previously  the  target  of  much  criticism  for 
his  alleged  radical  sympathies  as  expressed 
in  both  his  private  and  his  official  acts. 


DEALING  WITH  "  RED  "  AGITATORS 


701 


red  in  the  House  on  April  15  by  Repre- 
sentative Hoich,  Republican,  of  Kansas, 
asking  the  Judiciary  Committee  to  in- 
vestigate the  charges  against  the  Assist- 
ant Secretary  made  by  Chairman  John- 
son, head  of  the  House  Immigration 
Committee,  and  many  others,  and  recom- 
mending that,  in  case  the  evidence  w^ar- 
ranted  it,  a  resolution  be  reported  im- 
peaching him  for  disloyal  favoring  of 
ilKie  Reds. 
^^  A  series  of  hearings  resulting  from 
Representative  Hoich's  resolution  was 
begun  on  April  27.  At  one  session  it 
was  stated  that  the  charges  were  made 
largely  on  the  basis  of  the  Immigra- 
tion Committee's  report.  Many  hundreds 
of  aliens  taken  under  the  law  for  de- 
portation had  been  released,  in  many 
cases  without  investigation  and  over  the 
head  of  the  Immigration  Commissioner. 
Representative  Rodenburg  of  Illinois 
blamed  Secretary  Wilson  severely  for 
not  removing  Mr.  Post  from  office.  At 
another  session  the  counsel  for  the 
Assistant  Secretary  countered  with  the 
charge  that  Mr.  Post  had  merely  exer- 
cised humanity,  while  the  "  justice  offi- 
cers used  worse  than  Russian  methods." 
Chairman  Johnson  testified  that  the 
action  of  Mr.  Post  had  greatly  ham- 
pered the  M^ork  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  and  had  brought  about  a  state 
of  indescribable  confusion,  by  which  only 
the  Red  agitators  would  be  the  gainers. 
It  was  stated  on  May  1  that  the  House 
Rules  Committee  would  abandon  the  im- 
peachment proceedings  and  would  sub- 
stitute a  resolution  condemning  Mr.  Post 
for  his  alleged  activities  in  behalf  of  the 
enemies  of  the  United  States. 

MR.  POST'S   TESTIMONY 

Both  Secretary  Wilson  and  Mr.  Post 
were  attacked  at  a  special  meeting  of 
the  Senate  Immigration  Committee  on 
May  6.  Mr.  Post  appeared  on  his 
own  behalf  on  May  7  and  8.  He  declared 
that  the  evidence  presented  against 
him  was  insufficient  to  prove  the  case. 
Statistics  presented  by  him  showed 
that,  exclusive  of  those  deported  on  the 
Buford,  only  twenty-two  aliens  had  been 
deported  since  Nov.  1,  1919.  From  Nov. 
1  to  April  24  some  6,350  warrants  had 


been  issued.  Approximately  5,000  had 
been  arrested;  3,000  of  these  had  been 
released  almost  immediately.  Deporta- 
tion orders  for  61  Russian  workers  and 
1,322  members  of  the  Communist  and 
Communist  Labor  Parties  had  been  can- 
celed by  himself.  Deportation  warrants 
had  been  issued  for  307  Russian  workers 
and  455  Communists;  some  263  had  been 
deported;  other  deportations  had  been  de- 
layed because  of  the  inaccessibility  of 
Russian  ports. 

Of  all  those  arrested  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice,  said  Mr.  Post,  he  had 
found  that  only  forty  or  fifty  actually 
favored  violence  against  the  United 
States.  He  had  supported,  however,  the 
ruling  of  Secretary  Wilson  that  mem- 
bership in  the  Communist  Party  justi- 
fied deportation.  On  the  following  day 
he  denied  sympathy  for  the  Reds,  and 
justified  the  receipt  of  a  letter  from 
Emma  Goldman  on  behalf  of  those  ac- 
cused— in  which  she  addressed  him  as 
"  our  friend  " — on  the  ground  that  she 
wrote  to  him  merely  as  a  constituent 
writing  to  a  Member  of  Congress.  His 
reduction  of  bail  to  $1,000,  he  declared, 
followed  the  constitutional  prohibition 
of  excessive  bond,  and  was  sufficient  to 
insure  the  appearance  of  the  accused 
without  keeping  him  locked  up. 

MR.   PALMER'S  REJOINDER 

The  Attorney  General  replied  to  Mr. 
Post's  criticism  of  his  department  in  tes- 
timony given  before  the  House  Rules 
Committee  on  June  1.  He  declared  that 
Mr.  Post  had  set  himself  above  Congress 
and  the  law  in  his  handling  of  the  de- 
portation cases.  The  labor  official  prac- 
tically encouraged  Red  activities,  he  as- 
serted ;  believing  that  the  deportation  law 
was  wrong,  he  deliberately  disregarded 
it  in  releasing  dangerous  radicals.  He 
named  a  dozen  cities  where  the  depart- 
ment raids  had  revealed  preparations 
to  employ  both  guns  and  bombs.  The 
charge  made  by  Mr.  Post  through  his 
counsel,  Jackson  P.  Ralston,  that  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  had  agents  provoca- 
teurs in  its  service  engaged  in  forming 
new  Communist  local  organizations 
against  which  raids  could  be  conducted, 
was  denounced  by  the  Attorney  General 


702 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


as  a  "  deliberate  and  unwarranted  false- 
hood." Some  of  these  agents,  he  said,  in 
order  to  get  inside  information,  had 
joined  some  of  the  outlaw  organizations, 
but  had  never  organized  or  helped  to  ex- 
ecute their  policies. 


LOUIS   F.    POST 
Assistant    Secretary    of    Labor 

Attack  on  the  policy  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice  was  not  confined  to  Mr. 
Post.  The  National  Popular  Government 
League  on  May  27  issued  a  manifesto  de- 
nouncing "  the  illegal  practices  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Justice." 
The  document  was  signed  by  twelve 
prominent  attorneys,  including  Zacha- 
riah  Chafee,  Jr.,  Roscoe  Pound  and  Felix 
Frankfurter  of  Cambridge,  and  Jackson 
P.  Ralston  of  Washington.  Charges  of 
cruelty  and  theft  were  supported  by 
hundreds  of  affidavits  and  other  exhib- 
its. The  treatment  of  radicals  in  the 
steel  and  coal  strikes  in  Hartford,  Buf- 
falo, Detroit  and  New  York  City  was 
declared  to  have  been  "  shocking "  and 
brutal.  The  raid  on  the  Russian  People's 
House  in  New  York  last  November  was 
denounced  at  length.  One  passage  read 
as  follows: 


American  institutions  have  not,  in  fact, 
been  protected  by  the  Attorney  General':!; 
ruthless  suppressions.  On  the  contrary, 
those  institutions  have  been  seriously  un- 
dermined and  revolutionary  unrest  vastly 
intensified.  No  organization  of  radicals 
acting  through  propaganda  over  the  last 
six  months  could  have  created  as  much 
revolutionary  sentiment  in  America  as 
has  been  created  by  the  acts  of  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  itself. 

The  American  Woman's  Committee  an- 
nounced on  May  31  that  it  would  send 
representatives  to  Washington  to  appeal 
for  a  Congressional  investigation  of  the 
Department  of  Justice.  The  committee 
criticised  particularly  the  separation  of 
the  arrested  aliens  from  their  wives  and 
children,  reiterated  the  charges  of  cruelty 
and  indorsed  the  attitude  of  the  Assistant 
Secretary. 

THE  MAY  DAY   PLOTS 

May  Day  passed  peacefully.  Accord- 
ing to  Attorney  General  Palmer,  the 
failure  of  a  widespread  anarchist  plot  to 
mature  on  this  day — a  plot  of  which  he 
said  he  had  documentary  evidence — was 
caused  only  by  the  nation-wide  pub- 
licity given  to  these  underground  con- 
spiracies by  the  Federal  authorities  and 
by  the  energetic  measures  taken  to  fore- 
stall their  execution.  He  had  seized  tons 
of  inflammatory  literature  advocating 
May  Day  disturbances  to  compel  peace 
with  Soviet  Russia,  to  protest  against 
the  arrests  of  radicals  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  to  emphasize  the  class  war.  A 
blacklist  on  which  many  prominent  offi- 
cials had  been  marked  for  death  had 
been  found.  Hundreds  of  suspects  had 
been  arrested.  Every  public  building  was 
strongly  guarded  by  Federal  agents  and 
police,  and  the  homes  of  the  officials 
whose  assassination  was  plotted  were 
given  full  protection.  Owing  to  these 
measures,  the  Department  of  Justice  de- 
clared, the  plottings  of  the  Red  agitators 
had  come  to  naught. 

Frederick  A.  Wallis,  Fourth  Deputy 
Police  Commissioner  of  New  York,  was 
nominated  by  President  Wilson  on  April 
29  to  be  Commissioner  of  Imiiiigration 
at  Ellis  Island  in  place  of  Frederic  C. 
Howe.  The  work  of  the  island,  since  the 
latter's  resignation,  had  been  carried  on 
by  Acting  Commissioner  Byron  H.  Uhl. 


DEALING  WITH  ''RED"  AGITATORS 


703 


Mr.  Uhl  stated  on  April  22  that  there 
were  130  radicals  awaiting  deportation 
from  Ellis  Island  and  between  200  and 
300  in  jails  in  other  cities.  No  ships  to 
transport  these  men  back  to  Russia  were 
available,  and  orders  for  transport  were 
being  awaited  from  the  Department  of 
^       Labor. 

I  STRINGENT    LAW    PASSED 

A  subcommittee  of  the  Republican  Na- 
tional Committee,  of  which  former  Sen- 
ator Albert  J.  Beveridge  of  Indiana  is 
Chairman,  brought  in  a  report  in  May 
which  set  forth  the  unwisdom  of  enact- 
ing further  legislation  against  sedition. 
The  ground  taken  was  that  the  present 
criminal  code  is  adequate  to  punish  all 
treasonable  acts  in  time  of  peace. 

The  Government  attitude,  however,  re- 
mained firm,  and  on  May  31  the  Senate 
Immigration  Committee,  in  ordering  the 
House  bill  favorably  reported,  made  cer- 
tain modifications  broadening  the  Gov- 
ernment's powers  to  deport  alien  anar- 
chists and  to  prevent  their  admission  to 
the  country.  As  amended  the  bill  was 
finally  passed  on  June  5  and  was  signed 
the  same  day  by  the  President. 

The  new  law,  which  embodies  the 
Sterling  and  Johnson  bills,  provides  for 
the  exclusion  or  deportation  of  all  aliens 
who  belong  to  organizations  that  advo- 
cate sabotage,  revolution,  or  destruction 
of  property.  This  means  that  all  foreign- 
ers who  are  members  of  the  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World,  the  Communist 
Party  and  the  Communist  Labor  Party 
are  subject  to  deportation  on  the  mere 
evidence  that  they  are  active  members 
of  such  organizations.  The  law  also  pro- 
vides that  no  persons  belonging  to  these 
revolutionary  parties  shall  be  allowed  to 
land  here  as  immigrants.  It  excludes 
likewise  all  aliens  who  write,  publish,  or 
distribute  any  written  or  printed  matter 
advocating  the  overthrow  of  the  United 
States  Government  by  violence,  the  as- 
saulting or  killing  of  officials,  the  injury 
of  property,  or  other  acts  of  sabotage. 

Representative   Johnson    of    Washing- 


ton, Chairman  of  the  House  Immigration 
Committee,  who  had  sponsored  the  bill 
in  the  House,  said  after  its  passage: 
The  act  means  that  these  foreign  revo- 
lutionists shall  not  preach  their  doctrines, 
circulate     their     literature     or     contribute 
their    money    for    these    purposes.      It   is 


FREDERICK  A.    WALLIS 
Commissione7'.  of  Immigration 

aimed  at  aliens  in  such  revolutionary 
organizations  as  the  I.  W.  W.,  the  Com- 
munist and  Communist  Labor  Parties. 
Deprive  these  organizations  of  their  aliens 
and  they  will  either  become  American  or 
fade  away.  The  United  States  is  not 
going  to  be  run  by  aliens  who  do  not 
vote,  and  if  officers  in  charge  of  the  de- 
portation of  these  aliens  will  not  carry 
out  the  intent  of  Congress,  expressed  in 
previous  laws,  perhaps  they  will  do  better 
under   more    explicit    legislation. 

Mr.  Wallis,  the  new  Commissioner  of 
Immigration  at  New  York,  stated  on 
June  6  that  he  would  be  glad  to  take 
up  the  task  of  arranging  for  the  sailing 
of  the  necessary  ships  to  get  rid  of  revo- 
lutionists. There  were  only  58  persons 
of  the  anarchist  class  at  Ellis  Island  at 
that  time,  he  said,  but  there  were  600  or 
800  in  Federal  prisons,  so  that  at  least 
two  ships  of  the  size  of  the  Buford  would 
be  required  for  their  deportation. 


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EXAMINING  THE  EYES  OF  INCOMING  STEERAGE  PASSENGERS  BEFORE.  ALLOWING  THEM 

TO    LAND    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

(©    International) 


The  New  Tide  of  Immigration 

Influx  of  Aliens  Again  on  the  Increase 


THE  great  annual  stream  of  immi- 
grants— mostly  of  the  alien  labor 
class — which  formerly  taxed  all  the 
resources  of  the  United  States  Immigra- 
tion Department  to  handle,  ceased  ab- 
ruptly with  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 
Figures  prepared  by  A.  Caminetti,  Com- 
missioner of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration, 
and  more  recent  statistics  given  by 
Byron  S.  Uhl,  Assistant  Commissioner, 
show  the  abnormal  conditions  created  by 
the  war  and  the  armistice  period,  and 
indicate  that  the  phenomenal  exodus  of 
aliens  from  this  country  during  the  past 
year  is  now  being  succeeded  by  a  rush 
of  new  immigration  which  bids  fair  to 
be  equally  phenomenal. 

The  situation  in  figures  may  be  briefly 
summed  up  as  follows:  Six  years  ago, 
five  times  as  many  aliens  arrived  in  the 
United  States  as  those  who  left.  During 
the  war  all  immigration  ceased.     In  the 


six  months'  period  beginning  in  July, 
]919,  and  ending  on  Jan.  1,  1920,  there 
was  a  net  loss  of  alien  population  of 
4,000,  the  figures  prepared  by  Mr. 
Caminetti  showing  an  influx  of  162,883 
as  against  the  departure  of  166,212. 
Figures  on  the  numbers  of  those  re- 
turning to  their  home  lands  since  Jan- 
uary have  not  yet  become  available,  but 
the  immigration  authorities  stated  that 
the  exodus,  an  alarming  one  from  the 
viewpoint  of  American  industries,  which 
found  themselves  crippled  by  labor  short- 
age, still  continued. 

The  reasons  assigned  for  this  exodus 
were  various.  Chief  among  them  was 
the  desire  of  the  aliens  to  return  to  the 
old  country  after  five  years  of  enforced 
expatriation  to  hunt  up  their  families 
and  renew  old  ties.  Another  cause  lay 
in  the  fact  that  the  immigrants  had 
saved  up  a  good  deal  of  money  from  the 


THE  NEW  TIDE  OF  IMMIGRATION 


A  GROUP  OF  METICULOUSLY  CLEAN  DUTCH  CHILDREN  ARRIVING  IN  NEW  YORK  FROM 
ROTTERDAM    WITH    THEIR    PARENTS,    BEING    PART    OF    ONE    SHIPLOAD    OF    1,000    IMMI- 
GRANTS   FROM    HOLLAND 
(©    Underwood  d   Underwood) 


high  wages  prevailing  during  the  war, 
totaling  in  many  cases  as  much  as 
$3,000,  and  undiminished  by  the  remit- 
tances which  in  normal  conditions  they 
would  have  sent  to  Europe;  finding 
the  rate  of  exchange  so  low  that  they 
could  exchange  their  American  dollars 
for  large  sums  of  their  home  currency, 
they  saw  their  opportunity  to  return 
home  with  greatly  improved  fortunes. 
Other  causes  assigned  were  the  abun- 
dance of  labor  to  be  found  in  Europe 
following  the  devastation  of  the  war,  the 
growing  cost  of  living  in  the  United 
States,  and  dissatisfaction  with  the  new 
edict  of  prohibition,  which  interfered 
with  the  habits  of  a  lifetime. 

Whichever  cause  predominated,  or 
whether  they  all  combined,  the  departure 
of  thousands  from  our  shores  was  an 
established  fact,  and  a  fact  which  the 
large  industrial  employers  of  alien  labor 
throughout  the  country  found  a  matter 
of  serious  concern.  Confronted  by  the 
desertion  of  hundreds  of  workmen,  these 
industries  were  compelled  to  expend 
thousands  of  dollars  for  advertisements 
in  foreign  papers  inviting  new  labor. 

It  was   not   until   nearly   the    end   of 


May  that  the  immigration  tide  turned 
definitely.  A  gradual  increase,  accord- 
ing to  figures  supplied  by  Mr.  Uhl,  had 
become  perceptible  since  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  and  the  advance  had  taken 
a  decided  jump  in  the  last  two  months 
listed.  According  to  these  figures  the 
progress  at  New  York  was  as  follows : 

January    25,051 

February    22,086 

March    29,098 

April     36,958 

*May    40,000 

♦These  figures  are  for  the  Port  of  New 
York,  which  represents  about  80  per  cent,  of 
the  total. 

These  figures  for  New  York  indicated 
a  total  of  about  180,000  immigrants  at 
all  ports.  Of  these  the  Italians  were  in  the 
majority,  being  estimated  at  about  50  per 
cent,  of  all  arrivals.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  newcomers  were  widows  and  chil- 
dren, and  the  bulk  of  the  others  Italian 
reservists  who  had  lived  in  the  United 
States  before  Italy  declared  war  on  the 
Central  Powers.  The  week  ending  May 
30  saw  an  influx  at  Ellis  Island,  which 
handles  about  80  per  cent  of  all  immi- 
gration to  this  country,  of  8,275  expa- 
riates,  and  large  numbers  were  scheduled 


706 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


A   TYPICAL.   SHIPLOAD  OF  NEW    IMMIGRANTS    FROM    EUROPE    PASSING   THE    STATUE   OF 
LIBERTY.     EACH    FACE    FULL    OF    ANIMATION    AND    HOPE    ON    THE    EVE    OF    LANDING 

AT    ELLIS    ISLAND 
(©    International) 


to  arrive  in  the  near  future  on  French, 
Swedish,  Dutch  and  Italian  steamships. 
The  immigration  authorities  were  hard 
pressed  to  handle  the  new  situation, 
which,  in  their  opinion,  would  be  much 
more  serious  were  it  not  for  the  still 
existing  lack  of  ships  to  bring  across 
the  throngs  in  Europe  awaiting  trans- 
portation. 

The  statistics  given  out  by  Ellis 
Island  called  forth  a  statement  from  the 
Inter-Racial  Council  which  showed  that 
the  new  influx  would  be  extremely  wel- 
come to  American  industry.  According 
to  estimates  made  after  a  thorough 
study  of  the  labor  situation  in  the  United 
States,  the  large  industries  are  short 
from  4,000,000  to  5,000,000  immigrant 
workers.  These  industries  had  reported 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  for  them 
to  get  men,  and  that  there  was  a  con- 
tinuous drop  in  production.  That  the 
situation  is  still  far  from  being  solved 
is  indicated,  according  to  this  statement, 
in  the  fact  that  a  considerable  propor- 


tion of  the  new  immigration  was  made 
up  of  women  and  children  who  could 
bring  no  industrial  aid  to  remedy  this 
condition  of  acute  labor  shortage. 

The  appointment  of  Frederick  A. 
Wallis  of  New  York  as  Commissioner  of 
Immigration  marked  the  beginning  of  a 
change  of  attitude  at  Ellis  Island.  (See 
Page  703).  As  a  guest  of  the  Woman's 
Democratic  League  on  May  24  Mr.  Wallis 
defined  his  contemplated  policy  as 
follows: 

When  I  enter  on  my  duties  as  Commis- 
sioner of  Immigration,  the  doors  of  Ellis 
Island  will  swing  both  in  and  out— in  for 
the  oppressed  of  other  lands  who  have 
come  here  with  the  firm  purpose  of  be- 
coming loyal  American  citizens,  and 
equally  out  and  impassable  for  the  Reds, 
anarchists  and  Bolsheviki.  What  the 
United  States  needs  is  more  immigration, 
and  immigration  of  the  right  kind. 

Mr.  Wallis  later  said  he  was  as  fully 
in  favor  of  the  deportation  of  alien  revo- 
lutionists as  he  was  of  welcoming  loyal 
immigrants  from  all  lands. 


Veto  of  the  Knox  Peace  Resolution 

President's  Message  Rejecting  the  Congressional  Plan  of  Peace 
With  Germany — Attempt  to  Repeal  War  Laws 


THE  House  of  Representatives  on 
May  21,  by  a  vote  of  228  to  139, 
adopted  the  Knox  resolution  declar- 
ing the  war  with  Germany  at  an  end 
— the  text  of  which  was  printed  in  the 
June  issue  of  Current  History.  Nineteen 
Democrats  supported  the  resolution,  and 
all  the  Republicans  except  two.  President 
Wilson  vetoed  the  measure  six  days  later, 
with  the  following  message: 
To  the  House  of  Representatives: 

I  return  hercwitli,  without  my  signature. 
House  Joint  Resolution  327,  intended  to 
repeal  the  Joint  Resolution  of  April  6, 
1917,  declaring-  a  state  of  war  to  exist  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Germany, 
and  the  Joint  Resolution  of  Dec.    7,   1917, 


declaring-  a  state  of  war  to  exist  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Austro-Hunga- 
rian  Government,  and  to  declare  a  state 
of  peace.  I  have  not  felt  at  liberty  to 
sign  this  resolution  because  I  cannot  bring: 
myself  to  become  party  to  an  action  which 
wovild  place  ineffaceable  stain  upon  the 
g-allantry  and  honor  of  the  United  States. 
The  resolution  seems  to  establish  peace 
with  the  German  Empire  without  exacting 
from  the  German  Government  any  action 
by  way  of  setting  right  the  infinite  wrongs 
which  it  did  to  the  peoples  whom  it  at- 
tacked and  whom  we  professed  it  our  pur- 
pose to  assist  when  we  entered  the  war. 
Have  we  sacrificed  the  lives  of  more  than 
100,000  Americans  and  ruined  the  lives  of 
thousands  of  others  anu  brought  upon 
thousands  of  American  families  an  unhap- 


[AjNiERicAN   Cartoon] 


THE  PORTRAIT  PAINTER 

Peace:     "Is  that  the  best  you  could  do  after  all  these  months?" 


708 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


piness  that  can  never  end  for  purposes 
which  we  do  not  now  care  to  state  or  take 
further  steps  to  attain? 

The  attainment  of  these  purposes  is  pro- 
vided for  in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  by 
terms  deemed  adequate  by  the  leading 
statesmen  and  experts  of  all  the  great 
peoples  who  were  associated  in  the  war 
against   Germany.      Do   we   now   not  care 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Dayton  Daily  News 

"  THE  MOUNTAIN  LABORED  AND 
BROUGHT  FORTH  A  MOUSE " 

to  join  in  the  effort  to  secure  them? 

We  entered  the  war  most  reluctantly. 
Our  people  were  profoundly  disinclined  to 
take  part  in  a  European  war,  and  at  last 
did  so  only  because  they  became  con- 
vinced that  it  could  not  in  truth  be  re- 
garded as  only  a  European  war,  but  must 
be  regarded  as  a  war  in  which  civilization 
itself  was  involved  and  human  rights  of 
every  kind  as  against  a  belligerent  Gov- 
ernment. Moreover,  when  we  entered  the 
war  we  set  forth  very  definitely  the  pur- 
poses for  which  we  entered,  partly  be- 
cause we  did  not  wish  to  be  considered  as 
merely  taking  part  in  a  European  contest. 
This  Joint  Resolution  which  I  return  does 
not  seek  to  accomplish  any  of  these  ob- 
jects, but  in  effect  makes  a  complete  sur- 
render of  the  rights  of  the  United  States 
SO  far  as  the  German  Government  is  con- 
cerned. 


A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Ver- 
sailles on  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  last 
which  did  seek  to  accomplis^h  the  objects 
which  we  had  declared  to  be  in  our  minds, 
because  all  the  great  Governments  and 
peoples  which  united  against  Germany 
had  adopted  our  declarations  of  purpose 
as-  their  own  and  had  in  solemn  form 
embodied  them  in  communications  to  the 
German  Government  preliminary  to  the 
armistice  of  Nov.  11,  1918.  But  the  treaty 
as  signed  at  Versailles  has  been  rejected 
by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  though 
it  has  been  ratified  by  Germany.  By  that 
rejection  and  by  its  methods  we  had  in 
effect  declared  that  Ave  wish  to  draw 
apart  and  pursue  objects  and  interests  of 


[American  Cartoon] 


— New    York   World 
SOMETHING  JUST  AS  GOOD!" 


our  own,  unhampered  by  any  connections 
of  interest  or  of  purpose  with  other  Gov- 
ernments and  peoples. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  upon  our 
entrance  into  the  war  we  professed  to  be 
seeking  to  assist  in  the  maintenance  of 
common  interests,  nothing  is  said  in  this 
resolution  about  the  freedom  of  naviga- 
tion upon  the  seas,  or  the  reduction  of 
armaments,  or  the  vindication  of  the 
rights  of  Belgium,  or  the  rectification  of 
wrongs  done  to  France,  or  the  release  of 
the  Christian  populations  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  from  the  intolerable  subjugation 
which  they  have  had  for  so  many  genera- 
tions to  endure,  or  the  establishment  of  an 
independent  Polish  State,  or  the  continued 
maintenance  of  any  kind  of  understanding 
among  the  great  powers  of  the  world 
which  would   be   calculated   to  prevent   in 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


709 


the  future  such  outrages  as  Germany  at- 
tempted and  in  part  consummated. 

We  have  now,  in  effect,  declared  that 
we  do  not  care  to  take  any  further  risks 
or  to  assume  any  further  responsibilities 
with  regard  to  the  freedom  of  nations  or 
the  sacredness  of  international  obligations 
or  the  safety  of  independent  peoples.  Such 
a  peace  with  Germany — a  peace  in  which 
none  of  the  essential  interests  which  we 
had  at  heart  when  we  entered  the  war  is 
safeguarded — is,  or  ought  to  be,  incon- 
ceivable, as  inconsistent  with  the  dignity 
of  the  United  States,  with  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  her  citizens,  and  with  the  very 
fundamental  conditions  of  civilization. 

J  hope  that  in  these  statements  I  have 
sufficiently  set  forth  the  reasons  why  I 
have  felt  it  incumbent  upon  me  to  with- 
hold  my   signature. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

The  White  House,  May  27,  1920. 

The  day  following  a  motion  to  override 
the  veto  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  219  yeas 
to  152  nays,  29  less  than  the  necessary 
two-thirds;  17  Democrats  voted  yea,  2 
Republicans  nay. 

This  action  definitely  ended  all  chances 
of  final  action  on  the  Peace  Treaty  and 
League  of  Nations  at  that  session  of 
Congress,  as  it  adjourned  sine  die  on 
June  5;  moreover  it  had  the  effect  of 
making  the  question  squarely  a  dominant 
political  issue  in  the  Presidential  cam- 
paign. 

RESOLUTION  INTENDED  TO  REPEAL 
WAR  LAWS 

In  consequence  of  the  deadlock  be- 
tween the  President  and  Congress  with 
respect  to  a  Peace  Treaty  with  Ger- 
many, the  House  of  Representatives  on 
June  3,  by  a  vote  of  343  to  3,  passed  a 


resolution  repealing  all  the  war  laws  ex- 
cepting the  Lever  Food  and  Fuel  Con- 
trol act  and  the  Trading  with  the 
Enemy  act.  The  resolution  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

That  in  the  interpretation  of  any  provi- 
sion relating  to  the  date  of  the  termina- 
tion of  the  present  war  or  of  the  present 
or  existing  emergency  in  any  acts  of 
Congress,  joint  resolutions  or  proclama- 
tions of  the  President  containing  provi- 
sions contingent  upon  the  date  of  the  ter- 
mination of  the  war  or  of  the  present  or 
existing  emergency,  or  of  the  existence 
of  a  state  of  war,  the  date  when  this 
resolution  becomes  effective  shall  be  con- 
strued and  treated  as  the  date  of  the 
termination  of  the  war  or  of  the  present  or 
existing  emergency,  notwithstanding  any 
provision  in  any  act  of  Congress  or  joint 
resolution  providing  any  other  mode  of 
determining  the  date  of  the  termination 
of  the  war  or  of  the  present  or  existing 
emergency. 

Excepting,  however,  from  the  opera- 
tion and  effect  of  this  resolution  the  fol- 
lowing acts  and  proclamations,  to  wit,  the 
act  entitled  "  An  act  to  provide  further 
for  the  national  security  and  defense  by 
encouraging  the  production,  conserving 
the  supply  and  controlling  the  distribu- 
tion of  food  products  and  fuel,-  approved 
Aug.  10,  1917,  the  amendment  thereto  en- 
titled "  The  Food  Control  and  District  of 
Columbia  Rents  act,"  approved  Oct.  22, 
1919,  and  the  act  known  as  the  "  Trading 
with  the  Enemy  act,"  approved  Oct.  6, 
1917 ;  also  the  proclamation  issued  under 
the  authority  conferred  by  the  acts  here- 
in excepted  from  the  effect  and  operation 
of  this   resolution. 

The  Senate  on  June  4  passed  the  reso- 
lution by  viva  voce  vote,  and  it  was 
sent  to  the  President,  but  he  failed  to 
attach  his  signature  and  the  resolution 
in  consequence  became  inoperative. 


No  American  Mandate  for  Armenia 

Text  of  the  President's  Request  and  Record  of  the  Vote  by  Which 

Congress  Rejected  It 


A  COLLATERAL  issue  on  the  contro- 
versy between  President  Wilson 
and  the  Congress  over  the  League 
of  Nations  covenant  arose  when  Presi- 
dent Wilson  sent  a  special  message  to 
Congress  on  May  24  urging  that  it 
grant  to  the  Executive  power  to  accept 
for  the  United  States  a  mandate  over 
Armenia. 

The  President's  message  follows: 
Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

On  the  14th  of  May  an  official  com- 
munication was  received  at  the  exec- 
utive office  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  conveying 
the  following  preamble  and  resolutions : 

"  Whereas,  The  testimony  adduced  at  the 
hearings  conducted  by  the  sub-committee  of 
the  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations 
has  clearly  established  the  truth  of  the  re- 
ported massacres  and  other  atrocities  from 
which  the  Armenian  people  have  suffered ;  and 
"  Whereas,  The  people  of  the  United  States 
are  deeply  impressed  by  the  deplorable  con- 
ditions of  insecurity,  starvation  and  misery 
now  prevalent  in  Armenia;  and 

"  Whereas,  The  independence  of  the  Republic 
of  Armenia  has  been  duly  recognized  by  the 
Supreme  Council  of  the  Peace  Conference  and 
by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  of 
America ;    therefore,   be   it 

''  Resolved,  Tha.t  the  sincere  congratulations 
of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  are  hereby 
extended  to  the  people  of  Armenia  on  the 
recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  Re- 
public of  Armenia,  without  prejudice  respect- 
ing the  territorial  boundaries  involved;  and 
be   it   further 

''  Resolved,  That  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  hereby  expresses  the  hope  that  a  stable 
Government,  proper  protection  of  individual  lib- 
erties and  rights,  and  the  full  realization  of 
nationalistic  aspirations  may  soon  be  at- 
tained by  the  Armenian  people;  and  be  it 
further 

"  Resolved,  That  in  order  to  afford  neces- 
sary protection  for  the  lives  and  property  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  at  the  port  of 
Batum  and  along  the  line  of  the  railroad  lead- 
ing to  Baku,  the  President  is  hereby  re- 
quested, if  not  incompatible  with  the  public 
interest,  to  cause  a  United  States  warship 
and  a  force  of  marines  to  be  dispatched  to 
such  port  with  instructions  to  such  marines 
to  disembark  and  to  protect  American  lives 
and  property." 

I  received  and  read  this  document 
with  great  interest  and  with  genuine 
gratification,  not  only  because  it  em- 
bodied   my    own    convictions    and    feelings 


with  regard  to  Armenia  and  its  people, 
but  also,  and  more  particularly,  because 
it  seemed  to  me  the  voice  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  expressing  their  genuine  con- 
victions and  deep  Christian  sympathies 
and  intimating  the  line  of  duty  which 
seemed  to  them  to  lie  clearly  before  us. 

I  cannot  but  regard  it  as  providential 
and  not  as  a  mere  casual  coincidence 
that  almost  at  the  same  time  I  received 
information  that  the  conference  of  states- 
men now  sitting  at  San  Remo  for  the 
purpose  of  working  out  the  details  of 
peace  with  the  Central  Powers,  which  it 
was  not  feasible  to  work  out  in  the  con- 
ference at  Paris,  had  formally  resolved 
to  address  a  definite  appeal  to  this  Gov- 
ernment to  accept  a  mandate  for  Ar- 
menia. 

They  were  at  pains  to  add  that  they 
did  this  "  not  for  the  smallest  desire  to 
evade  any  obligations  which  they  might 
be  expected  to  undertake,  but  because 
the  responsibilities  which  they  are  al- 
ready obliged  to  bear  in  connection  with 
the  disposition  of  the  former  Ottoman 
Empire  will  strain  their  capacities  to  the 
uttermost,  and  because  they  believe  that 
the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  a  power 
emancipated  from  the  prepossessions  of 
the  Old  World  will  inspire  a  wider  con- 
fidence and  afford  a  firmer  guarantee  for 
stability  in  the  future  than  would  the 
selection   of  any  European  power." 

Early  in  the  conference  at  Paris  it 
was  agreed  that  to  those  colonies  and  ter- 
ritories which,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
late  war,  have  ceased  to  be  under  the 
sovereignty  of  the  States  which  formerly 
governed  them,  and  which  are  inhabited 
by  peoples  not  yet  able  to  stand  by  them- 
selves under  the  strenuous  conditions  of 
the  modern  world,  there  should  be  applied 
the  principle  that  the  well-being  and  de- 
velopment of  such  peoples  form  a  sacred 
trust  of  civilization,  and  that  securities 
for  the  performance  of  this  trust  should 
be  afforded. 

It  was  recognized  that  certain  com- 
munities formerly  belonging  to  the  Turk- 
ish Empire  have  reached  a  stage  of  de- 
velopment where  their  existence  as  in- 
dependent nations  can  be  provisionally 
recognized,  subject  to  the  rendering  of 
administrative  advice  and  assistance  by 
a  mandatary  until  such  time  as  they  are 
able  to  stand  alone. 

It  is  in  pursuance  of  this  principle, 
and  with  a  desire  of  affording  Armenia 
such     advice     and     assistance,     that     the 


NO  AMERICAN  MANDATE  FOR  ARMENIA 


statesmen  conferring  at  San  Remo  have 
formally  requested  this  Government  to 
assume  the  duties  of  mandatary  in  Ar- 
menia. 

I  may  add,  for  the  information  of 
the  Congress,  that  at  the  same  sitting  it 
was  resolved  to  request  the  President  of 
the  United  States  to  undertake  to  arbi- 
trate the  difficult  question  of  the  bound- 
ary between  Turkey  and  Armenia  in  the 
vilayets  of  Erzerum,  Trebizond,  Van  and 
Bitlis,  and  it  was  agreed  to  accept  his  de- 
cision thereupon,  as  well  as  any  stipula- 
tion he  may  prescribe  as  to  access  to  the 
sea  for  the  independent  State  of  Armenia. 

In  pursuance  of  this  action  it  was  re- 
solved to  embody  in  the  treaty  with  Tur- 
key, now  under  final  consideration,  a  pro- 
vision that  "  Turkey  and  Armenia  and  the 
other  high  contracting  parties  agree  to 
refer  to  the  arbitration  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America  the 
question  of  the  boundary  between  Turkey 
and  Armenia  in  the  vilayets  of  Erzerum, 
Trebizond,  Van  and  Bitlis,  and  to  accept 
his  decision  thereupon,  as  well  as  any 
stipulations  he  may  prescribe  as  to  access 
to  the  sea  for  the  independent  State  of 
Armenia  "  ;  pending  that  decision,  the 
boundaries  of  Turkey  and  Armenia  to  re- 
main as  at  present. 

I  have  thought  it  my  duty  to  accept 
this  difficult  and  delicate  task. 

In  response  to  the  invitation  of  the 
Council  at  San  Remo,  I  urgently  advise 
and  request  that  the  Congress  grant  the 
executive  power  to  accept  for  the  United 
States  a  mandate  over  Armenia.  I  make 
this  suggestion  in  the  earnest  belief  that 
it  will  be  the  wish  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  that  this  should  be  done. 

The  sympathy  with  Armenia  has  pro- 
ceeded from  no  single  portion  of  our  peo- 
ple, but  has  come  with  extraordinary 
spontaneity  and  sincerity  from  the  whole 
of  the  great  body  of  Christian  men  and 
women  in  this  country,  by  whose  free- 
will offerings  Armenia  has  practically 
been  saved  at  the  most  critical  juncture 
of  its  existence.  At  their  hearts,  this 
great  and  generous  people  have  made  the 
cause  of  Armenia  their  own. 

It  is  to  this  people  and  to  their  Gov- 
ernment that  the  hopes  and  earnest  ex- 
pectations of  the  struggling  people  of 
Armenia  turn  as  they  now  emerge  from  a 
period  of  indescribable  suffering  and  peril, 
and  I  hope  that  the  Congress  will  think  it 
wise  to  meet  this  hope  and  expectation 
with  the  utmost  liberality.  I  know  from 
unmistakable  evidence,  given  by  responsi- 
ble representatives  of  many  peoples  strug- 
gling toward  independence  and  peaceful 
life  again,  that  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  is  looked  to  with  extraordi- 
nary trust  and  confidence,  and  I  believe 
that  it  would  do  nothing  less  than  arrest 
the  hopeful  processes  of  civilization  if  we 
were  to  refuse  the  request  to  become  the 


helpful  friends  and  advisers  of  such  of 
these  people  as  we  may  be  authoritatively 
and  formally  requested  to  guide  and 
assist. 

I  am  conscious  that  I  am  urging  upon 
the  Congress  a  very  critical  choice,  but  I 
make  the  suggestion  in  the  confidence 
that  I  am  speaking  in  the  spirit  and  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  great- 
est of  the  Christian  peoples.  The  sympa- 
thy for  Armenia  among  our  people  has 
sprung  from  untainted  consciences,  pure 
Christian  faith  and  an  earnest  desire  to 
see  Christian  people  everywhere  succored 
in  their  time  of  suffering  and  lifted  from 
their  abject  subjection  and  distress  and 
enabled  to  stand  upon  their  feet  and  take 
their  place  among  the  free  nations  of  the 
world.  Our  recognition  of  the  independ- 
ence of  Armenia  will  mean  genuine  lib- 
erty and  assured  happiness  for  her  peo- 
ple, if  we  fearlessly  undertake  the  duties 
of  guidance  and  assistance  involved  in 
the  functions  of  a  mandatary. 

It  is  therefore  with  the  most  earnest 
hopefulness  and  with  the  feeling  that  I 
amy  giving  advice  from  which  the  Con- 
gress will  not  willingly  turn  away  that  I 
urge  the  acceptance  of  the  invitation  now 
formally  and  solemnly  extended  to  us  by 
the  Council  at  San  Remo,  into  whose 
hands  has  passed  the  difficult  task  of 
composing  the  many  complexities  and  dif- 
ficulties of  government  in  the  one-time 
Ottoman  Empire,  and  the  maintenance  of 
order  and  tolerable  conditions  of  life  in 
those  portions  of  that  empire  which  it  is 
no  longer  possible  in  the  interest  of  civ- 
ilization to  leave  under  the  government 
of  the  Turkish  authorities   themselves. 

PROTEST  OF  ARMENIANS 

The  American  Committee  for  Arme- 
nian Independence,  following  the  publica- 
tion of  the  message,  issued  a  statement 
as  follows: 

President  Wilson,  in  his  message  to  Con- 
gress recommending  the  advisability  of 
America  assuming  a  mandate  for  Ar- 
menia, states  that  he  will  arbitrate  the 
question  of  the  boundaries  between  Tur- 
key and  Armenia  in  the  vilayets  of 
Erzerum,  Trebizond,  Van  and  Bitlis.  This 
means  that  Armenia  is  to  be  despoiled  of 
her  most  fertile  provinces  of  Harport, 
Diarbekr,    Sivas   and    Cilicia. 

Characterizing  Cilicia  as  the  Ai-me- 
nian  California,  able  alone  to  sustain 
15,000,000  people,  the  statement  asserted 
that  it  explained  why  "a  certain  power 
is  ready  to  sell  its  soul  to  the  devil  and 
the  Turk  in  order  to  get  possession  of 
the  richest  province,  not  only  of  Anne- 
nia,  but  of  the  entire  world."  The  state- 
ment continued: 


712 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Senator  Borah  is  right  in  saying  that 
the  Allies  should  restore  to  Armenia  the 
portions  they  have  allocated  to  themselves 
by  the  secret  Sykes-Picot  pact.  Armenia 
helped  win  the  war  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy.  It  is  not  democracy, 
however,  Great  Britain  and  France  want 
to  save  in  Armenia,  but  the  cotton  fields 
of  Cilicia  and  the  rich  wheat  lands,  the 
mineral  wealth,  gold,  silver,  copper,  iron, 
lead,  coal,  petroleum,  marble,  saltpetre, 
quicksilver,  sulphur  and  salt  of  Harpoot, 
Diarbekr  and  the  other  southwestern 
provinces. 

It  is  these  richest  provinces— really  the 
heart  and  backbone  of  Armenia— that  the 
Allies  are  hypocritically  representing  as 
poor    ana    barren    lands. 

If  the  full  rights  of  Armenia  are  not 
lecognized  an  American  mandate  will 
simply  mean  that  American  soldiers  will 
join  the  French  and  their  proteges,  the 
Turks,  the  British  and  their  proteges,  the 
Kurds,  to  prevent  Armenians  from  coming 
into   theh'    own   heritage. 

Let  it  be  known  also  that  the  Armenians 
can  defend  themselves  if  the  Turkish 
soldiery  is  compelled  to  evacuate  Armenia. 
The  recent  massacres  in  Cilicia  would  not 
have  occurred  had  not  the  Armenians 
been  disarmed  by  the  French.  The  most 
salient  proof  of  the  Armenian  national 
valor  is  that  General  Antranik  at  the  head 
of  his  Armenian  revolutionary  bands 
fought  against  the  Turks  and  the  Turkish 
Government  for  thirty  years  and  was 
never  vanquished;  it  was  the  British  who 
prevailed  upon  him  to  cease  fighting  after 
the   armistice. 

Whatever  money  America  advances  for 
the  rehabilitation  of  an  Armenia  that  in- 
cludes all  her  territories  can  and  will  be 
repaid  by  the  Armenians.  The  required 
expenditure  for  such  assistance  will  not 
amount  to  more  than  the  loss  which 
America  will  otherwise  sustain  on  account 
of  future  wars  that  will  certainly  happen 
if  Armenia  is  left  a  prey  to  Turkish  perse- 
cution and  allied  rapacity. 

SENATE  REJECTS  THE  MANDATE 

The    Senate   Foreign    Relations    Com- 
mittee on  May  27,  by  a  vote  of  11  to  4, 
voted    to    reject   the    President's    recom- 
mendation for  the  mandate  and  reported 
the  following  resolution  to  the  Senate: 
Resolved,  By  the   Senate   (the  House  of 
Representatives  concurring)  that  the  Con- 
gress hereby  respectfully  declines  to  grant 
to   the   Executive   the   power   to   accept  a 
mandate    over    Armenia    as    requested    in 
the  message   of  the  President  dated  May 
24,    1920. 

The  only  opposition  to  the  course 
adopted  was  voiced  by  Senator  Hitch- 
cock, who  did  not,  however,  counsel  ac- 


ceding to  the  Presidential  recommenda- 
tion. Mr.  Hitchcock  was  opposed  to  the 
acceptance  of  an  Armenian  mandate,  but 
he  did  not  wish  the  committee  to  adopt 
the  resolution  which  was  voted,  as  he 
thought  that  it  constituted  too  summary 
a  treatment  of  the  President's  proposal. 

The  resolution  was  acted  on  by  the 
Senate  on  May  31.  It  was  adopted  by  a 
vote  of  52  to  23.  Every  effort  to  modify 
the  resolution  was  defeated  by  a  decisive 
vote.  Several  Democrats  among  the 
twenty-three  who  voted  in  the  negative 
were  opposed  in  principle  to  the  mandate, 
but  voted  against  the  resolution  because 
they  objected  to  its  phraseology. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  the  debate  on  the 
resolution,  stated: 

I  do  not  desire  to  have  this  country  give 
the  world  the  impression  that  it  does  not 
sympathize  with  the  Armenian  people. 
They  are  a  gallant  people.  I  think  they 
deserve  aid,  but  there  are  many  ways 
to  give  them  aid  without  involving  the 
United    States, 

The  motion  to  amend  the  resolution  so 
that  the  President  would  be  authorized 
to  accept  the  mandate  was  made  by 
Senator  Brandegee,  Republican,  Connec- 
ticut, who  said  he  did  not  expect  to  vote 
for  it,  but  offered  it  merely  to  put  the 
Democrats  on  record  on  the  straight-out 
proposition  of  acceptance.  The  twelve 
who  voted  for  the  amendment  were 
Senators  Ashurst,  Beckham,  King,  Mc- 
Kellar,  Phelan,  Ransdell,  Robinson, 
Sheppard,  Simmons,  Smith  of  Arizona, 
Smith  of  South  Carolina,  and  Williams. 
Democratic  Leader  Undei-wood  was 
among  those  voting  in  the  negative. 

By  a  vote  of  28  to  46  the  Senate  re- 
jected a  substitute  resolution  by  Senator 
King,  Democrat,  Utah,  authorizing  in- 
ternational negotiations  with  a  view  to 
"  proper  protection  "  of  Armenia  by  the 
great  powers.  Another  substitute  by 
Senator  Pittman,  Democrat,  Nevada, 
empowering  the  President  to  give  "  Ad- 
ministrative advice  "  to  Armenia  with- 
out emplacement  of  armed  force  was 
voted  down  without  a  roll  call. 

ACTION   OF  THE  HOUSE 
The  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  a  de- 
cisive vote  recommended  the  adoption  of 
the  Senate  resolution  rejecting  the  Presi- 


*  dent's  request.  A  minority  report  was 
submitted,  signed  by  Representatives 
Flood  of  Virginia,  Linthicum  of  Mary- 
land and  Stedman  of  North  Carolina, 
urging  that  no  action  be  taken  until  the 
Peace  Treaty  had  been  disposed  of.  The 
report  defended  the  request  for  the 
mandate.  Attention  was  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  mandate  would  apply  to  a 
territory  of  56,000  square  miles  instead 
of  343,000  square  miles,  which  was  the 
original  designated  Armenian  territory 
as  reported  upon  by  General  Harbord, 
much  of  the  opposition  growing  out  of 
this  report.  It  was  published  in  full  in 
the  May  issue  of  this  magazine.  The 
General  estimated  the  cost  to  our 
Government  for  the  mandate  for  three 
years  at  $756,014,000,  which  would  in- 
clude an  American  army  of  59,000.  The 
minority  report  in  discussing  the  man- 
date for  the  restricted  Armenia  (20,000 


square  miles  in  Transcaucasia  and  36,000 
square  miles  in  the  four  vilayets  of  Van, 
Erzerum,  Bitlis  and  Trebizond)  explained 
that  the  estimated  population  was  3,000,- 
000  and  the  military  help  to  be  extended 
would  not  be  formidable,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  American  flag  there  would 
have  a  restraining  effect  on  hostile 
neighbors.  The  report  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  there  is  an  Armenian 
army  capable  of  defending  the  territory, 
that  the  adjacent  territory  would  be  de- 
militarized, that  the  maximum  Turkish 
army  under  the  treaty  would  be  50,000, 
and  that  as  the  United  States  would  con- 
trol the  Armenian  finances  it  would  be 
in  a  position  to  reimburse  itself  for  any 
sums  spent  by  it  under  the  rnandate. 

The  House  took  no  further  action,  the 
vote  in  the  Senate  having  determined  the 
matter  so  far  as  this  session  of  Congress 
was  concerned. 


The  Conspiracy  Against  Armenia 

How   the   Turkish    Nationalists    Plan    a  Pan-Turanian    Union  After 
Exterminating   the  Whole    Armenian  People 


THE  Ottoman  Empire  has  found,  and 
still  is  finding,  its  special  pleaders  in 
Great  Britain  and  France,  as  well 
as  in  other  countries  in  Europe,  who 
protest  against  stern  treatment  of 
Turkey  on  the  ground  that  the  atrocities 
described  by  Lord  Bryce's  Blue  Book,  as 
well  as  all  others,  since  1908  are  to  be 
blamed  alone  on  the  Young  Turkish  oli- 
garchic regime.  The  Turks,  a  kindly, 
good-hearted  people,  they  hold,  are  as 
little  responsible  for  the  crimes  of 
Talaat,  Enver  and  Djemal  as  for  those 
of  "  Red  "  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  II.  The 
true  spirit  of  the  Turkish  people, 
these  defenders  declare,  is  expressed  by 
Mustapha  Kemal  Pasha,  the  great 
patriot  who  has  raised  the  first  really 
national  standard  in  the  eastern  half  of 
Asiatic  Turkey.  It  is  through  him,  they 
say,  that  the  long-misunderstood  soul  of 
Turkey  has  at  last  become  articulate. 

This  theory  is  attacked  by  an  article 
which  appeared  in  The  New  Europe  on 
April    22.      Its    author — Andre    Mandel- 


stam,  for  many  years  dragoman  in  the 
Russian  Embassy  in  Constantinople  and 
an  expert  on  Turkish  affairs — traces  the 
development  of  the  "  old  Turk "  spirit 
from  1453  to  1908,  from  1908  to  1914, 
and  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  to 
the  present  time.  He  shows  how  the 
haughty  and  despotic  spirit  of  the  Turks 
toward  their  subject  populations  re- 
mained unchanged  through  the  long  cen- 
turies of  persecution  and  massacre:  how 
the  policy  of  the  great  powers,  affected 
by  the  doctrine  of  the  rights  of  man 
laid  down  by  the  French  Revolution,  led 
during  the  nineteenth  century  to  a  long 
series  of  interventions  on  behalf  of  the 
subject  peoples  whom  the  Turks  were 
exterminating,  none  of  which  produced 
any  effect  except  in  cases  such  as 
Greece,  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  where  a 
given  people  were  completely  emanci- 
pated from  the  Turkish  yoke. 

When  the  Young  Turk  revolution 
broke  out  in  1908  Europe  wondered 
whether  the  assertions  of  the  members 


714 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  this  party  were  not  true  and  whether 
the  crimes  of  Turkey  were  not  to 
be  attributed  mainly  to  the  despotic  rule 
of  the  Sultans.  So,  wondering  and 
doubting,  she  stood  off  and  gave  the 
Young  Turks  full  opportunity  of  proving 
their  superior  worth. 

What  was  the  record  that  these  Young 
Turks  made  from  1908  to  1914?  In  their 
home  affairs,  as  well  as  in  foreign 
policy,  says  Mr.  Mandelstam,  they  have 
most  certainly  surpassed  Abdul  Hamid 
in  evildoing  and  proved  themselves  to  be 
worse  fanatics,  chauvinists  and  despots 
than  the  Red  Sultan  himself.  They  intro- 
duced no  reforms;  they  aggravated  the 
Hamidian  reign  of  terror  in  the  non- 
Turkish  provinces,  allowed  Armenians  to 
be  massacred  at  Adana,  terrorized  Mace- 
donia, ravaged  Albania  with  fire  and 
sword,  devastated  the  coasts  of  Greek 
Asia  Minor.  Pan-Islamism  was  joined 
to  Pan-Tauranianism :  Constantinople 
finally  joined  hands  with  Berlin.  The 
results  are  well  known — more  than  a 
million  Armenians  and  Greeks  massa- 
cred, a  great  portion  of  the  Assyro- 
Chaldean  and  Lebanese  races  wiped  out, 
the  flower  of  Arab  patriotism  executed. 
The  state  of  anarchy,  misery  and  disease 
which  the  Young  Turks  brought  on  was 
unknown  even  in  the  chronicles  of  the 
Sultan's  empire. 

What  of  the  pure  Nationalist,  Musta- 
pha  Kemal?  At  the  Nationalist  Con- 
gresses held  in  August  and  September, 
1919,  at  Erzerum  and  Sivas,  the  new 
party  defined  its  program  as  one  of  com- 
plete territorial  unity  of  the  Turkish 
Empire  as  it  existed  before  the  war  and 
the  armistice.  The  Nationalists  also 
guaranteed  full  equality  of  rights  to  all 
citizens  of  the  empire,  without  distinction 
of  race  or  religion.  How  have  they  kept 
this  guarantee?  The  massacre  of  some 
15,000  Armenians  so  recently  perpe- 
trated in  Cilicia  with  the  tacit  consent 
of  Mustapha  Kemal  himself,  says  Mr. 
Manderstam,  proves  that  the  Turkish  Na- 
tionalist spirit  yields  nothing  in  cruelty 
to  the  Young  Turk  spirit,  but  surpasses 
it  in  cynicism  and  contempt  for  the  rest 
of  Europe. 

Meanwhile     Pan-Islamism     and     Pan- 


Turanianism  work  hand  in  hand  with 
Unionism,  supported  mainly  by  Bolshe- 
vist Russia  and  by  enfeebled  Germany's 
cautious  and  clandestine  collaboration. 
The  Turkish  Nationalists  are  members 
of  the  active  Moscow  League  for  the 
Liberation  of  Islam,  which  has  branches 
at  Sivas,  Tashkend  and  Berlin.  Turko- 
Bolshevist  propaganda  is  being  spread 
through  Central  Asia,  especially  in  Tur- 
kestan and  Afghanistan.  Future  military 
action  is  being  carefully  planned  and 
based  on  the  co-operation  of  Russian 
Mohammedan  elements  with  the  Turkish 
Nationalist  troops.  Enver  Pasha  and 
other  well-known  leaders  of  the  "  Party 
of  Union  and  Progress "  constantly 
gravitate  between  the  headquarters  of. 
Mustapha  Kemal  in  Asia  Minor,  the  now 
Bolshevized  Azerbaijan,  and  Turkestan, 
Djemal  Pasha  and  Talaat  Pasha  are 
working  feverishly  in  Europe,  above  all 
in  Germany,  for  a  great  Pan-Islamic 
agitation  directed  against  the  Allies,  and 
this  agitation  finds  much  concealed  Ger- 
man support.  A  whole  Pan-Islamic 
literature  is  arising  on  German  soil. 

All  these  observations,  says  Mr.  Man- 
delstam, spell  the  coming  extinction  of 
Armenia,  the  only  obstacle  to  Turanian 
union.  The  unfortunate  result  of  the 
armistice  concluded  by  Admiral  Cal- 
thorpe  on  Oct.  30,  1918,  has  been  to  make 
Turkish  Armenia,  which  had  lost  almost 
the  whole  of  its  Armenian  population  and 
was  under  the  control  of  the  Allies,  the 
very  spot  where  Turkish  nationalism  is 
thriving  today.  But  the  Armenian  re- 
public of  Erivan  has  been  constituted 
and  all  the  Pan-Turanian  hatred  is  con- 
centrated against  it.  At  the  Congress 
of  Berlin  in  December  it  was  denounced 
as  the  principal  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
Turanian  unity.  The  Azerbaijan  delega- 
tion to  Paris  wished  to  reduce  Armenia 
to  the  two  districts  of  Novo-Bajazet  and 
Alexandropol.  If  the  Turkish  National- 
ist, Pan-Islamic,  Pan-Turanian  move- 
ment even  partly  succeeds,  there  will 
be  neither  Armenia  nor  Armenians  left 
to  tell  the  story. 

The  Nationalist  offensive  then  con- 
templates the  seizure  of  Anatolia,  the 
linking  of  Persian  with  Russian  Azer- 
baijan,     the      occupation      of      Russian 


THE  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  ARMENIA 


Turkestan  and  the  establishment  of  di- 
rect contact  with  the  Arabs  and  with  the 
Mohammedan  populations  of  Afghanis- 
tan and  India.  Such  a  Pan-Islam  union, 
which  would  englobe  25,0  0,000  Tura- 
nians, united  by  strong  racial  and  re- 
ligious ties,  would  remain  a  permanent 
menace  to  the  peace  of  the  world.  But 
Armenia  would  no  longer  be  a  Turkish 
problem. 

Apart  from  the  possibilities  of  check- 
ing this  dangerous  growth  by  means  of 


the  Turkish  Treaty^  says  this  writer,  one 
may  fight  it  by  fighting  Bolshevism, 
which,  in  his  opinion,  is  doomed  to  fall. 
It  is  because  the  Bolsheviki  realize  this, 
he  says,  that  they  are  now  trying  to  pro- 
long their  life  by  blowing  up  the  Turkish 
embers  and  kindling  a  flame  in  the  world 
of  Islam.  By  killing  Bolshevism  Europe 
may  still  the  growth  of  the  Turkish 
spirit — "  that  torrid  breath  which  blows 
from  the  desert  and  attacks  the  very 
soul  of  all  our  civilization." 


An  American  Woman  Wins  High  Office 


MRS.  ANNETTE  ADAMS  of  San 
Francisco  was  nominated  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  on  May  29  to  be  an  Assistant 
Attorney  General  for  the  United  States, 
to  aid  Attorney  General  Palmer.  At  that 
time  Mrs.  Adams  was  the  United  States 
Attorney  for  the  northern  district  of 
California.  The  office  which  she  now 
fills  is  the  most  important  and  lucrative 
to  which  a  woman  has  ever  been  ap- 
pointed in  the  Federal  service.  Sixteen 
years  ago  Mrs.  Adams  was  Principal  of 
a  high  school  in  Plumas  County,  Cal. 
She  decided  to  study  law,  entered  the 
University  of  California  in  1904,  took 
her  bachelor's  degree,  and  in  1912  re- 
ceived her  degree  of  Doctor  of  Juris- 
prudence. She  was  appointed  Assistant 
United  States  Attorney — the  first  woman 
in  the  United  States  to  receive  such  an 
appointment — in  1913.  She  won  many 
laurels  in  her  prosecution  of  neutrality 
cases  during  the  war,  especially  in  the 
famous  case  of  Franz  Bopp,  former 
German  Consul  General  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  also  in  the  Hindu  conspiracy 
cases.  Her  indictments  won  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  "  demurrer-proof."  Her 
work  as  United  States  Attorney  won  the 
attention   of   Attorney    General    Palmer, 


MRS.   ANNETTE  ABBOTT  ADAMS 

Assistant  Attorney  General  of  the   United 

States 

(©    International) 

who  summoned  her  to  attend  a  Washing- 
ton conference  of  District  Attorneys  from 
all  over  the  country.  The  official  notice 
of  her  appointment  to  the  position  of 
Assistant  Attorney  General  came  to  her 
as  a  complete  surprise. 


TURKISH    PEACE    DELEGATION    AT    VERSAILLES:      THE   MAN    WITH    HIS    HANDS 

IN  FRONT  OF  HIM  IS  RECHID  PASHA.  MINISTER  OF  THE  INTERIOR.  NEXT  TO  THE 

RIGHT  IS  TEWFIK  PASHA,   PRESIDENT  OF  THE   SENATE.   AND  TO  THE  RIGHT  OF 

HIM    IS    M.    ROUMBBYOGHLEN,    MINISTER    OF'    PUBLIC     INSTRUCTION 

(Photo   Underwood   d   Underwood) 


The  Turkish  Peace  Treaty 

Complete  Summary  of  the  Document  That  Reduces  Turkey 
to  the  Status  of  a  Minor  Power 


r[E  Turkish  Peace  Treaty,  of  which 
an  official  summary  is  printed  be- 
low, was  handed  to  the  Turkish 
delegates  in  the  Clock  Room  of  the 
French  Foreign  Office  on  May  11,  1920, 
and  one  month  was  allowed  in  which  to 
formulate  an  answer.  It  compels  Tur- 
key to  cede  Thrace  to  Greece,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Sanjak  of  Chatalja  and 
the  water  supply  area  of  Constantinople; 
Greece  also  gets  Smyrna  and  a  consider- 
able region  around  it,  indicated  in  the 
map  on  Page  718.  Turkey  recognizes 
the  independence  of  Armenia,  Mesopota- 
mia, Syria  and  the  Hedjaz,  and  confers 
autonomy  upon  Kurdistan.  The  boun- 
dary between  Armenia  and  Turkey  is  to 


run  somewhere  through  the  vilayets  of 
Trebizond,  Van  and  Bitlis,  and  is  to  be 
fixed  in  detail  by  President  Wilson.  The 
Dardanelles  and  Bosporus  are  placed  un- 
der a  "  Commission  of  the  Straits," 
which  will  also  control  a  considerable 
zone  on  both  sides  of  the  water. 

The  treaty  sanctions  the  British  pro- 
tectorate in  Egypt  and  the  Sudan,  the 
French  protectorate  in  Tunis  and  French 
Morocco,  and  Italian  sovereignty  in 
Libya;  with  certain  reservations  it  pre- 
scribes the  rights  and  some  of  the  duties 
of  the  new  States  in  Asia  which  have 
arisen  from  the  dissolution  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire.  These  are  among  its  more 
direct    and    obvious    consequences;    in- 


CE  TREATY 


directly  it  must  exercise  a  potent  in- 
fluence extending  deep  into  the  remoter 
regions  of  the  Asiatic  Continent. 

PREAMBLE 


717 


THE   STRAITS 


I 


The  preamble  recites  shortly  the  origin  of 
the  war  and  enumerates  the  high  contracting 
parties,  represented  by  the  four  principal 
allied  powers,  the  British  Empire,  France, 
Italy  and  Japan,  and  the  other  allied  powers, 
Belgium,  Greece,  the  Hedjaz,  Armenia, 
Poland,  Portugal,  Rumania,  the  Serb-Croat- 
Slovene  State  and  Czechoslovakia  on  the  one 
hand  and  Turkey  on  the  other. 

PART  L— LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

Here  follows  the  text  of  the  covenant  as 
embodied  in  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Ger- 
many. 

PART  IL— THE  BOUNDARIES  OF 
TURKEY 

The  boundaries  of  Turkey  are  described 
in  two  articles,  one  dealing  with  Turkey  in 
Europe  and  the  other  with  Turkey  in  Asia. 
The  frontier  of  Turkey  in  Europe  is  ap- 
proximately that  of  the  Chatalja  lines,  the 
northern  half  of  these  lines  being,  however, 
advanced  in  a  northwesterly  direction  so  as 
to  include  within  the  boundaries  of  Turkey 
the  whole  area  of  Lake  Derkos,  which  is  a 
reservoir  for  the  supply  of  water  to  Con- 
f^tantinople. 

The  boundaries  of  Turkey  in  Asia  remain 
the  same  except  as  regards  the  southern 
frontier,  which  together  with  the  new  fron- 
tier in  Europe  and  the  boundary  of  the 
Greek  administrative  zone  around  Smyrna 
(see  section  dealing  with  Smyrna  below),  are 
shown  approximately  on  the  attached  map. 
The  above  boundaries  are  described  in  de- 
tail in  the  treaty  in  so  far  as  they  are  not 
to  be  settled  by  boundary  commissions  on 
the  spot.  Provision  is  also  made  in  the 
treaty  for  a  possible  modification  of  the 
present  frontier  between  Turkey  and  the  in- 
dependent State  of  Armenia— viz.,  the  for- 
mer Russo-Turkish  frontier  in  this  region— 
by  reference  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  regarding  a  new 
boundary  for  Armenia  in  the  vilayets  of 
Trebizond,    Erzerum,    Van    and    Bitlis. 

PART  III.— POLITICAL  CLAUSES 

CONSTANTINOPLE 
Subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  treaty,  the 
parties  agree  to  the  maintenance  of  Turkish 
sovereignty  over  Constantinople,  but  a  reser- 
vation is  made  that,  if  Turkey  fails  to  ob- 
serve the  provisions  of  the  treaty  or  of  sup- 
plementary treaties  or  conventions,  particu- 
larly as  regards  the  protection  of  minorities, 
the  allied  powers  may  modify  the  above 
provisions,  and  Turkey  agrees  to  accept  any 
dispositions  which  may  be  made  in  this  con- 
nection. 


The  navigation  of  the  Straits,  Including  the 
Dardanelles,  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  the 
Bosporus,  is  to  be  open  in  future  both  in 
peace  and  war  to  every  vessel  of  commerce 
or  of  war  and  to  military  and  commercial 
aircraft  without  distinction  of  flag.  These 
waters  are  not  to  be  subject  to  blockade,  and 
no  belligerent  right  is  to  be  exercised  nor  any 
act  of  hostility  committed  within  them  unless 
in  pursuance  of  a  decision  of  the  Council  of 
the  League  of  Nations. 

A  "  Commission  of  the  Straits  "  is  estab- 
lished with  control  over  these  waters,  to 
which  both  the  Turkish  and-  Greek  Govern- 
ments delegate  the  necessary  powers.  The 
commission  is  composed  of  representatives 
appointed  respectively  by  the  United  States 
of  America  (if  and  when  that  Government  is 
willing  to  participate),  the  British  Empire, 
France,  Italy,  Japan,  Russia  (if  and  when 
Russia  becomes  a  member  of  the  League  of 
Nations),  Greece,  Rumania  and  Bulgaria  (if 
and  when  Bulgaria  becomes  a  member  of 
the  League  of  Nations).  Each  power  is  to 
appoint  one  representative,  but  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States,  the  British  Em- 
pire, France,  Italy,  Japan  and  Russia  have 
two  votes  each,  and  the  representatives  "of 
the  other  three  powers  one  vote  each. 

The  commission  exercises  its  authority  in 
complete  independence  of  the  local  authority, 
with  its  own  flag,  budget  and  separate  or- 
ganization. The  commission  is  charged  with 
the  execution  of  any  works  necessary  for 
the  improvement  of  the  channels  or  the  ap- 
proaches to  harbors,  lighting  and  buoying, 
the  control  of  pilotage  and  towage,  the  con- 
trol of  anchorages,  the  control  necessary  to 
assure  the  execution  in  the  ports  of  Constan- 
tinople and  Haidar  Pasha  of  the  regime  laid 
down  in  that  part  of  the  treaty  relating  to 
ports,  waterways  and  railways  and  the  con- 
trol of  all  matters  relating  to  wrecks  and 
salvage  and  lighterage. 

In  the  case  of  threats  to  the  freedom  of 
passage  of  the  Straits,  special  provision  is 
made  for  appeal  by  the  commission  to  the 
representatives  at  Constantinople  of  Great 
Britain,  France  and  Italy,  which  powers, 
under  the  military  provisions  of  the  treaty, 
provide  forces  for  the  occupation  of  the  zone 
of  the  Straits.  These  representatives  will 
concert  with  the  naval  and  military  com- 
manders of  the  allied  forces  the  necessary 
measures,  whether  the  threat  comes  from 
within  or  without  the  zone  of  the  Straits. 

Provision  is  also  made  for  the  acquisition 
of  property  or  permanent  works  by  the  com- 
mission, the  raising  of  loans,  the  levying  of 
dues  on  shipping  in  the  Straits,  the  transfer 
to  the  commission  of  the  functions  exercised 
within  the  waters  of  the  Straits  by  the  Con- 
stantinople Superior  Council  of  Health,  the 
Turkish  Sanitary  Administration  and  the 
National  Life  Boat  Service  of  the  Bos- 
porus, and  the  relations  of  the  commission 
with  persons  or  companies  now  holding  con- 


718 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


CASPIAN 

S  E  A 


MAP  OF  ASIA  MINOR  SHOWING  THE  MAIN  RESULTS  OP  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY, 
SO  FAR  AS  THESE  ARE  DEFINITELY  DECIDED.  THE  SOUTHWESTERN  BOUNDARY  OP 
ARMENIA  IS  GIVEN  HERE  TENTATIVELY  ALONG  THE  GENERAL  LINES  WHICH  PRESI- 
DENT WILSON  IS  EXPECTED  TO  FOLLOW  AS  ARBITRATOR.  ALL  THAT  REMAINS  OP 
TURKEY    IN    EUROPE    IS    THE    LITTLE    CORNER    FROM    CONSTANTINOPLE    TO    CHATALJA 


cessions  relating  to  lighthouses,  docks, 
quays  or  similar  matters  are  laid  down. 

The  commission  is  empowered  to  raise  a 
special  police  force,  and  provision  is  made 
for  dealing  with  infringements  of  the  regu- 
lations and  by-laws  of  the  commission  by  the 
appropriate  local  courts,  whether  Consular, 
Turkish  or   Greek. 

A  special  article  lays  down  that  all  dues 
and  charges  imposed  by  the  commission  shall 
be  levied  without  any  discrimination  and  on 
a  footing  of  absolute  equality  between  all 
vessels,  whatever  their  port  of  origin  or  des- 
tination or  departure,  their  flag  or  owner- 
ship, or  the  nationality  or  the  ownership  of 
their  cargoes. 

Articles  analogous  to  the  relevant  pro- 
visions of  the  Suez  Canal  Convention  of  1888 
deal  with  the  transit  of  warships,  prizes, 
the  passage  of  belligerent  warships,  and 
their  stay  within  the  waters  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  commission  as  well  as  their  re- 
pair or  replenishment  with  supplies  or  the 
completion  of  their  crews,  but  the  freedom 
of  action  of  belligerents  acting  in  pursuance 
of  a  decision  of  the  Council  of  the  League  of 
Nations  is  specially  reserved.  Further  regru- 
lations  are  to  be  laid  down  by  the  League  of 
Nations  regarding  the  passage  of  war  mate- 
rial and  contraband  destined  for  the  ene- 
mies of  Turkey  and  other  kindred  matters. 

KURDISTAN 

Turkey  accepts  in  advance  a  scheme  of  lo- 
cal autonomy  for  the  predominantly  Kuidish 
areas  east  of  the  Euphrates,  south  of  the 
southern  frontier  of  Armenia,  as  eventually 
fixed,  and  north  of  the  southern  frontier  of 
Turkey,  to  be  drafted  by  a  commission  com- 


posed of  British,  French  and  Italian  repre- 
sentatives sitting  at  Constantinople.  This 
scheme  is  to  protect  the  rights  of  Assyro- 
Chaldeans  and  other  racial  or  religious  mi- 
norities within  the  above  area,  and  with  this 
object  provision  is  also  made  for  a  possible 
rectification  of  the  Turkish  frontier,  where 
that  frontier  coincides  with  that  of  Persia. 
*  Secondly,  the  treaty  provides  for  an  appeal 
for  complete  independence  within  a  stated 
time  to  the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations 
by  the  Kurdish  peoples  within  the  above 
area,  and  for  the  grant  of  such  independence 
by  Turkey,  if  recommended  by  the  council. 
In  that  event  the  Kurds  inhabiting  that  part 
of  Kurdistan  which  has  hitherto  been  includ- 
ed in  the  Mosul  vilayet  are  to  be  allowed,  if 
they  so  desire,  to  adhere  to  the  independent 
Kurdish  State. 

SMYRNA 

The  Turkish  Government  agrees  to  transfer 
to  the  Greek  Government  the  exercise  of  its 
rights  of  sovereignty  over  a  special  area 
around  the  City  of  Smyrna.  In  witness  of 
Turkish  sovereignty  the  Turkish  flag  is  to  be 
flown  on  one  of  the  forts  outside  Smyrna. 
The  Greek  Government  is  to  be  responsible 
for  the  administration  of  the  area,  may  keep 
troops  there  to  maintain  order,  may  include 
the  area  in  the  Greek  customs  system,  and 
is  to  establish  a  local  Paiiiament  on  the  basis 
of  a  scheme  of  proportional  representation  of 
minorities,  which  is  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Council  of  the  League  of  Nations,  and  only 
to  come  into  force  after  approval  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  council.  The  elections  may  be 
postponed  for  a  limited  period  to  allow  the 


THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


719 


leturn    of    inhabitants   banished    or   deported 
by  the  Turkish  authorities. 

Special  provisions  are  included  regarding 
the  protection  of  minorities,  the  nationality 
of  the  inhabitants  in  the  area  and  their  pro- 
tection abroad,  the  suspension  of  compulsory 
military  service,  freedom  of  commerce  and 
transit,  the  use  of  the  Port  of  Smyrna  by 
Turkey,  the  currency  of  the  area,  financial 
obligations  and  the  salt  mines  of  Phocoea. 

Finally,  after  five  years  the  local  Parlia- 
ment may  ask  the  Council  of  the  League  of 
Nations  for  the  incorporation  of  the  area  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Greece,  and  the  council  may 
impose  a  plebiscite,  but  if  such  incorporation 
is  granted  Turkey  agrees  in  advance  to  re- 
nounce all  her  rights  to  the  territory  in  favor 
of  Greece. 

GREECE 

Turkey  renounces  in  favor  of  Greece  her 
rights  and  titles  over  Turkish  territory  in 
Europe  outside  the  frontier  shown  on  the  at- 
tached map,  as  well  as  over  Imbros,  Tenedos, 
Lemnos,  Samothrace,  Mytilene,  Samos.  Ni- 
karia  and  Chios,  and  certain  other  islands  in 
the  Aegean.  In  the  zone  of  the  Straits  the 
Greek  Government  accepts  practically  the 
same  obligations  as  are  imposed  in  Turkey. 
Provision  is  made  for  a  separate  treaty  to 
be  signed  by  Greece,  protecting  racial,  lin- 
guistic and  religious  minorities  in  her  new 
territories,  particularly  at  Adrianople,  and 
safeguarding  freedom  of  transit  and  equita- 
ble treatment  of  the  commerce  of  other  na- 
tions. Greece  also  assumes  certain  financial 
obligations. 

ARMENIA 

Turkey  recognizes  Armenia  as  a  free  and 
independent  State,  and  agrees  to  accept  the 
arbitration  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America  upon  the  question  of  the 
frontier  between  Turkey  and  Armenia  in  the 
Vilayets  of  Erzerum,  Trebizond,  Van  and 
Bitlis,  and  upon  Armenia's  access  to  the  sea. 
Provision  is  made  for  the  obligations  and 
rights  which  may  pass  to  Armenia  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  award  of  the  President  giving 
former  Turkish  territory  to  her  for  the  event- 
ual delimitation  of  the  Armenian  frontiers 
in  Turkey  as  a  result  of  the  arbitration  and 
of  the  Armenian  frontiers  with  Georgia  and 
Azerbaijan,  failing  direct  agreemeni  on  the 
.'subject  by  the  three  States,  and  for  a  sep- 
arate treaty  to  be  signed  by  Armenia  pro- 
tecting racial,  linguistic  and  religious  minor- 
ities, and  safeguarding  freedom  of  transit 
and  equitable  treatment  for  the  commerce  of 
other  nations. 

SYRIA  AND  MESOPOTAMIA 

Syria  and  Mesopotamia  are  provisionally 
recognized  by  the  high  contracting  parties  as 
independent  States  in  accordance  with  Arti- 
cle 22  of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of 
Nations,  subject  to  the  tendering  of  admin- 
istrative advice  and  assistance  by  a  manda- 
tary until  they  are  able  to  stand  alone.     The 


boundaries  of  the  States  and  the  selection  of 
mandataries  will  be  fixed  by  the  principal 
allied  powers. 

PALESTINE 

By  the  application  of  the  provisions  of 
Article  22  of  the  covenant,  the  administra- 
tion of  Palestine  is  also  intrusted  to  a 
mandatary.  The  selection  of  the  mandatary 
and  the  determination  of  the  frontiers  of 
Palestine  will  be  made  by  the  principal 
allied  powers.  The  declaration  originally 
made  on  Nov.  2,  1917,  by  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, and  adopted  by  the  other  allied 
Governments,  in  favor  of  a  national  home 
for  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine,  is  reaf- 
firmed and  its  terms  cited  in  the  treaty. 
Provision  is  also  made  for  a  special  commis- 
sion, with  a  Chairman  appointed  by  the 
League  of  Nations,  to  study  and  regulate  all 
questions  and  claims  relating  to  the  different 
religious  communities  in  Palestine. 

The  terms  of  the  mandates  will  be  drafted 
by  the  principal  allied  powers  and  submitted 
to  the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  for 
approval. 

HEDJAZ 

Turkey,  in  accordance  with  the  action 
already  taken  by  the  allied  powers,  recog- 
nizes the  Hedjaz  as  a  free  and  independent 
State,  and  transfers  to  the  Hedjaz  her  sover- 
eign rights  over  territory  outside  the  boun- 
daries of  the  former  Turkish  Empire  and 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  Hedjaz  as  these 
shall    ultimately   be   fixed. 

In  view  of  the  sacred  character  of  the  cities 
and  Holy  Places  of.  Mecca  and  Medina  in 
the  eyes  of  all  Moslems,  the  King  of  the 
Hedjaz  undertakes  to  insure  free  and  easy 
access  thereto  of  Moslems  of  every  country, 
desiring  to  go  there  on  pilgrimages  and  for 
other  religious  objects,  and  respect  for  pious 
foundations.  Provision  is  also  made  for  com- 
plete commercial  equality  in  the  territory  of 
the  Hedjaz  as  regards  the  new  States  in  Tur- 
key and  all  States  members  of  the  League 
of  Nations. 

EGYPT,  SUDAN  AND  CYPRUS 

Turkey  renounces  all  rights  and  titles  over 
Egypt  as  from  Nov,  5,  1914,  and  recognizes 
the  protectorate  proclaimed  by  Great  Britain 
over  Egypt  on  Dec.  18,  1914.  Special  clauses 
provide  for  the  acquisition  of  Egyptian  na- 
tionality by  Turkish  subjects,  and  their  right 
to  opt  for  Turkish  nationality,  for  the  treat- 
ment of  Egypt  and  Egyptian  nationals,  their 
goods  and  vessels,  on  the  same  footing  as 
the  allied  powers  and  their  nationals,  for 
the  protection  of  Egyptian  nationals  abroad 
by  Great  Britain,  for  the  renunciation  in 
favor  of  Great  Britain  of  the  powers  con- 
ferred upon  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  by  the 
convention  signed  at  Constantinople  on  Oct. 
29,  1888,  regarding  the  Suez  Canal,  for  the 
treatment  of  property  belonging  to  the  Tur- 
kish Government  and  Turkish  nationals  in 
Egypt,  for  the  renunciation  by  Turkey  of  all 


720 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


claim  to  the  tribute  formerly  paid  by  Egypt, 
and  for  the  acceptance  by  Great  Britain  of 
Turkey's  liability  for  Turkish  loans  secured 
on  the  Egyptian  tribute. 

The  high  contracting  parties  take  note  of 
the  convention  between  the  British  and 
Egyptian  Governments  of  Jan.  19,  1899,  and 
the  supplementary  convention  of  July  10, 
1899,  regarding  the  status  and  administration 
of  the  Sudan. 

The  high  contracting  parties  also  recor,- 
nize  the  annexation  of  Cyprus  proclaimed 
by  the  British  Government  on  Nov.  5,  1014. 
Turkey  renounces  all  rights  over  the  island, 
including  the  right  to  tribute  formerly  paid 
by  that  Island  to  the  Sultan,  and  provision 
is  made  for  the  acquisition  of  British  na- 
tionality by  Turkish  nationals  boi'n  or  habit- 
ually resident  in  Cyprus. 

MOROCCO,  TUNIS 

Turkey  recognizes  the  French  protectorate 
in  Morocco  as  fiom  March  30,  1912,  and  the 
French  protectorate  over  Tunis  as  from  May 
12,  1881.  Moroccan  and  Tunisian  goods  en- 
tering Turkey  shall  be  subject  to  the  same 
treatment  as  French  goods. 

LIBYA,  AEGEAN  ISLANDS 

Turkey  renounces  all  rights  and  privileges 
left  to  the  Sultan  in  Libya  under  the  Treaty 
of  Lausanne  of  Oct.  12,  1912.  Turkey  also 
renounces  in  favor  of  Italy  all  rights  and 
titles  over  the  Dodecanese,  now  in  the  occu- 
pation of  Italy,  and  also  over  the  Island  of 
Castellorizzo. 

NATIONALITY 

Detailed  provisions  are  inserted  in  the 
treaty  for  regulating  the  status  of  Turkish 
subjects  habitually  resident  in  territory  de- 
tached by  the  treaty  from  Turkey.  Thes-^ 
follow  generally  the  lines  of  analogous  pro- 
visions inserted  in  the  treaty  with  Austria. 

GENERAL  PROVISION 

Under  this  heading  Turkey  recognizes  and 
accepts  all  other  treaties  and  supplementary 
conventions  with  other  enemy  States,  and 
with  States  now  existing  or  coming  into  ex- 
istence in  future  in  the  whole  or  part  of  the 
former  Russian  Empire,  as  well  as  th'3 
abrogation  of  the  Brest  -  Litovsk  Treaties, 
and  of  all  treaties,  conventions  and  agree- 
ments made  by  Turkey  with  the  Bolshevist 
Government  in  Russia.  Special  provision 
is  made  for  Turkey's  acceptance  of  a  scheme 
of  judicial  reform  (on  the  lines  either  of  a 
mixed  or  unified  system)  to  be  drafted  by 
the  principal  allied  powers  with  the  assist- 
ance of  technical  experts  of  the  other  capitu- 
latory powers,  allied  or  neutral.  This  scheme 
shall  replace  the  present  capitulatory  sys- 
tem in  judicial  matters  in  Turkey.  Clauses 
also  provide  for  an  amnesty  by  Turkey  to 
Turkish  subjects  assisting  the  Allies  during 
the  war,  and  for  the  renunciation  by  Turkey 
of    all    rights    of    suzerainty    or    jurisdiction 


over    Moslems   who   are    subject   to   the    sov- 
ereignty or  protectorate  of  any  other  State. 

PART  IV.— PROTECTION  OF  MINORI- 
TIES 

Turkey  is  to  assure  full  and  complete  pro- 
tection of  life  and  liberty  to  all  inhabitants 
of  Turkey  without  distinction  of  birth,  na- 
tionality, language,  race,  or  religion.  Spe- 
cial provision  is  made  for  the  annulment  of 
forcible  conversions  to  Islam  during  the  war 
and  for  the  search  and  delivery,  under  the 
aegis  of  mixed  commissions  appointed  by  the 
League  of  Nations,  of  all  persons  in  Turkey 
of  whatever  race  or  religion  carried  off,  in- 
terned, or  placed  in  captivity  during  the 
war,  and  for  future  agreements  with  Turkey 
and  other  States  regarding  reciprocal  or  vol- 
untary emigration  of  persons  belonging  to 
racial  minorities. 

The  law  of  abandoned  properties,  191"),  i.s 
to  be  repealed,  and  Turkey  agrees  to  certain 
measvires  of  restitution  and  reparation,  con- 
trolled by  mixed  arbitral  commissions  ap- 
pointed by  the  League  of  Nations,  in  favor 
of  subjects  of  non-Turkish  race  who  have 
suffered  during  the  war.  These  commissions 
will  have  power  generally  to  arrange  for  car- 
rying out  works  of  reconstruction,  the  re- 
moval of  undesirable  persons  from  different 
localities,  the  disposal  of  property  belonging 
to  members  of  a  community  who  have  died 
or  disappeared  during  the  war  without  leav- 
ing heirs,  and  for  the  cancellation  of  forced 
sales  of  property  during  the  war. 

This  chapter  further  safeguards  by  special 
provisions  the  civil  and  political  .rights  of 
minorities,  the  free  use  of  their  language, 
their  right  to  establish,  without  interference 
by  the  Turkish  authorities,  educational,  re- 
ligious, and  charitable  institutions,  and  their 
ecclesiastical  and  scholastic  autonomy.  The 
measures  necessary  to  guarantee  the  execu- 
tion of  this  chapter  of  the  treaty  are  to  be 
decided  upon  by  the  principal  allied  powers  in 
consultation  with  the  Council  of  the  League 
of  Nations,  and  Turkey  accepts  in  advance 
any  decisions  that  may  be  taken  on  the 
subject. 

PART  v.— MILITARY  CLAUSES 

In  order  to  render  possible  the  initiation  of 
a  general  limitation  of  the  armaments  of  all 
nations,  Turkey  undertakes  strictly  to  ob- 
serve the  military,  naval,  and  air  clauses 
which  follow. 

The  military  terms  provide  for  the  demo- 
bilization of  the  Turkish  armies  and  the  im- 
position of  other  military  restrictions  within 
three    months   of   the    signing    of    the    treaty. 

Recruiting  on  a  voluntary  and  non-racial, 
non-religious  basis  is  to  be  established,  pro- 
viding for  the  enlistment  of  non-commis- 
sioned officers  and  men  for  a  period  of  not 
less  than  twelve  consecutive  years,  and  stip- 
ulating that  officers  shall  serve  for  25  years, 
and  shall  not  be  retired  until  the  age  of  4."i. 
No   reserve    of   officers   with   war   service   i.s 


1^^  to  be  permitted,  and  the  annual  replacement 
of  either  officers  or  men  who  leave  before 
the  expiration  of  their  term  is  not  to  exceed 
5  per  cent,  of  the  total  effectives  of  commis- 
sioned and  other  ranks  respectively. 

Turkey  will  be  allowed  to  maintain  an 
armed  land  force  to  serve  the  following  pur- 
poses: The  maintenance  of  internal  order 
and  security ;  the  protection  of  minorities ; 
the  control  of  Turkish  frontiers. 
This  force  will   comprise : 

I-::  (1)  Gendarmerie,   35,000  men. 

^^K     (2)  Special  elements  intended  for  the  rein- 

^^■forcement  of  the  gendarmerie  in  case  of  seri- 

^^^  ous  trouble,  15,000  men. 

(3)  The  Sultan's  bodyguard,  700  men. 
The  gendarmerie  is  to  be  distributed  over 
Turkish  territory,  which  will  be  divided  for 
this  purpose  into  a  number  of  territorial 
areas  t»  be  delimited  by  the  interallied 
commission  which  will  be  responsible  for 
the  control  and  organization  of  the  Turkish 
armed  force.  In  each  territorial  area  there 
will  be  one  gendarmerie  legion,  the  maxi- 
mum strength  of  which  is  not  to  exceed  one- 
quarter  of  the  total  strength  of  the  gen- 
darmerie. Neither  artillery  nor  technical 
troops  will  be  included  in  the  gendarmerie 
legions.  Provision  is  made  for  the  collabo- 
ration of  officers  from  allied  and  neutral 
powers  in  the  command  and  training  of  the 
gendarmerie. 

The  .special  elements  referred  to  above  may 
include  mountain  artillery  and  technical  serv- 
ices, in  addition  to  infantry,  cavalry,  and 
general  administrative  services.  Not  more 
than  one-third  of  the  total  strength  of  the 
special  elements  may  be  allotted  to  any  one 
territorial  area. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  the 
total  number  of  Turkish  effectives— excluding 
the  Sultan's  bodyguard— is  fixed  at  50,000, 
which  figure  includes  not  more  than  2,500 
officers.  Any  increase  in  the  number  of  cus- 
toms and  forestry  officials  or  urban  police, 
or  the  military  training  of  these,  or  of  rail- 
way employes  is  prohibited,  and  no  forma- 
tions are  to  include  supplementary  cadres. 

Military  schools  are  to  be  reduced  to  one 
for  officers  and  one  per  territorial  area  for 
non-commissioned  officers. 

The  armament,  munitions  and  material  of 
war  at  the  disposal  of  Turkey  are  limited  to 
a  schedule  based  on  the  amount  considered 
necessary  for  the  new  armed  force.  No  re- 
serves may  be  formed,  and  all  existing 
armaments,  munitions  and  stores  in  excess 
of  the  limit  fixed  must  be  handed  to  the 
Allies  for  disposal.  No  flame  throwers, 
poison  gases,  tanks,  nor  armored  cars  are 
to  be  manufactured  or  imported.  The  manu- 
facture of  arms  and  war  material  of  any  sort 
shall  take  place  only  in  factories  authorized 
by  the  Interallied  Commission  of  Control. 
Turkey  is  prohibited  from  manufacturing 
armaments  and  munitions  for  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  from  importing  them  from  abroad. 


THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


721 


FORTIFICATIONS    '^O    BE    DISMANTLED 

For  the  purpose  of  guaranteeing  the  free- 
dom of  the  Straits  all  works,  fortifications 
and  batteries  are  to  be  demolished  within  a 
zone  extending  20  kilometers  inland  from  the 
coasts  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora  and  of  the 
Straits  and  comprising  the  islands  of  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  also  the  islands  of  Lemnos, 
Imbros,  Samothrace,  Tenedos  and  Mitylene. 

The  construction  of  similar  works  or  of 
roads  or  railways  suitable  for  the  rapid 
transport  of  mobile  batteries  is  forbidden ; 
France,  Great  Britain  and  Italy  have  the 
right  to  prepare  for  demolition  any  existing 
roads  and  railways  which  might  be  utilized 
to  this  end,  and  to  maintain  such  military 
forces  within  the  zone  as  they  may  considei- 
necessary ;  otherwise  the  zone  is  not  to  be 
used  for  military  purposes.  This  provision 
does  not  exclude  the  employment  of  forces 
of  Greek  and  Turkish  gendarmerie  which 
will  be  under  the  interallied  command  of 
the  forces  of  occupation,  nor  the  presence  of 
the  Sultan's  bodyguard. 

NAVAL    PROVISIONS 

The  naval  clauses  provide  for  the  surrender 
of  all  Turkish  warships  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  small  lightly  armed  vessels  which 
may  be  retained  for  police  and  fishery 
duties. 

Turkey  is  forbidden  to  construct  or  ac- 
quire any  surface  warships  other  than  those 
required  to  replace  the  units  allowed  for 
police  and  fishery  duties,  and  is  also  forbid- 
den to  construct  or  acquire  any  submarine, 
even  for  commercial  purposes.  Vessels  which 
have  been  in  use  as  transports  and  fleet 
auxiliaries  and  which  can  be  converted  to 
commercial  use  are  to  be  disarmed  and 
treated   as  other  merchant  vessels. 

Warships  under  construction,  including 
submarines,  are  to  be  broken  up,  except  such 
surface  warships  as  can  be  completed  for 
commercial  purposes,  and  the  material  ari.s- 
ing  from  the  breaking  up  is  only  to  be  used 
for  purely  industrial  purposes.  All  naval 
war  material  and  munitions,  except  such  as 
are  allowed  for  the  use  of  the  police  and 
fishery  vessels,  are  to  be  surrendered,  and 
their  manufacture  in  Turkish  territory  is 
forbidden. 

A  certain  number  of  the  officers  and  men 
from  the  late  Turkish  Navy  may  be  retained 
for  providing  the  personnel  of  the  police, 
fishery  and  signal  services ;  the  remainder 
is  to  be  demobilized,  and  no  other  naval 
forces  are  to  be  organized  in  Turkey. 

The  personnel  for  the  police  and  fishery 
services  is  to  be  recruited  on  a  voluntary  and 
long  service  basis. 

The  W/T  stations  in  the  zone  of  the  Straits 
are  to  be  surrendered,  and  neither  Turkey 
nor  Greece  will  be  permitted  to  build  W/T 
stations  in  the  zone. 

A  naval  commission,  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  principal  allied  powers,  will 
be  appointed  to  exercise  supervision  as  long 


722 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


as  may    be    necessary    to    insure    the  above 
conditions  being  complied  with. 
AIR  CLAUSES 

The  air  clauses  provide  that  no  military  or 
naval  air  forces  are  to  be  maintained  by 
Turkey ;  that  the  entire  Turkish  air  force 
personnel  is  to  be  demobilized  within  two 
months,  and  that  the  aircraft  of  the  allied 
powers  are  to  have  freedom  of  passage  over 
and  transit  and  landing  throughout  Turkish 
territory  until  the  complete  evacuation  of 
Turkey  by  the  Allies. 

The  manufacture,  importation  and  exporta- 
tion of  aircraft  or  their  component  parts  in 
Turkish  territory  during  six  months  follow- 
ing the  coming  into  force  of  the  treaty  is 
forbidden.  All  military  and  naval  aircraft 
(including  dirigibles)  either  complete  or  in 
process  of  manufacture,  assembling  or  re- 
pair, all  aeronautical  material,  armament, 
munitions  and  instruments  are  to  be  de- 
livered to  the  principal  allied  powers  within 
three  months  from  the  signing  of  the  treaty. 
The  air  navigation  clauses  follow  the  lines 
of  those  in  the  other  peace  treaties. 

INTERALLIED    COMMISSIONS 

These  clauses  provide  that  the  military, 
naval  and  air  clauses  of  the  treaty  are  to  be 
executed  under  the  control  of  military,  naval 
and  aeronautical  interallied  commissions,  of 
which  the  upkeep  and  expenditure  are  to  be 
borne  by  Turkey. 

With  the  exception  of  the  special  section  of 
the  Military  Interallied  Commission  of  Con- 
trol and  Organization,  which  is  to  supervise 
the  control,  organization  and  distribution  of 
the  new  Turkish  armed  force,  these  commis- 
sions will  cease  to  operate  when  their  work 
is  completed.  This  section  is  to  operate  for 
a  period  of  five  years  from  the  signing  of 
the  treaty.  At  the  end  of  this  period  the 
principal  allied  powers  are  to  decide  whether 
the  activities  of  the  commission  shall  con- 
tinue. 

Representatives  from  each  of  the  three 
commissions  will  be  appointed  to  control 
jointly  the  measures  to  be  taken  with  regard 
to  safeguarding  the  zone  of  the  Straits. 

GENERAL   ARTICLES 

General  articles  provide  for  certain  portions 
of  the  armistice  of  Oct.  30,  1018,  to  remain 
in  force. 

No  part  is  to  be  taken  by  Turkey,  nor  by 
any  individual  Turk,  in  the  military,  naval 
and  aeronautical  concerns  of  any  foreign  na- 
tion, and  the  allied  powers  vmdertake  that 
they  will  not  employ  any  Turkish  national 
in  this  connection.  A  special  provision  is 
made  allowing  France  the  right  to  recruit 
for  the  Foreign  Legion  in  accordance  with 
French  military  law. 

PART  VI.— PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

Turkish  prisoners  of  war  and  interned 
civilians  are  to  be  repatriated  without  delay 
at     the     cost     of     the     Turkish     Government. 


Those  under  sentence  for  offenses  against 
discipline  committed  before  Jan.  1,  1920,  are 
to  be  repatriated,  without  regard  to  their 
sentence,  but  this  provision  does  not  apply 
in  the  case  of  offenses  other  than  those 
against  discipline. 

The  Allies  have  the  right  to  deal  at  their 
own  discretion  with  Turkish  nationals  who 
do  not  desire  to  be  repatriated,  and  all  re- 
patriation is  conditional  upon  the  immediate 
release  of  any  allied  subjects  still  in  Turkey. 
The  Turkish  Government  is  to  afford  facili- 
ties to  commissions  of  inqviiry  in  collecting 
information  in  regard  to  missing  prisoners 
of  war,  in  imposing  penalties  on  Turkish  of- 
ficials who  have  concealed  allied  nationals, 
and  in  establishing  criminal  acts  committed 
by  Turks  against  allied  nationals.  The 
Turkish  Government  is  to  restore  all  prop- 
erty belonging  to  allied  prisoners. 

GRAVES 

These  clauses  provide  that  the  Turkish 
Government  is  to  transfer  to  the  British, 
French  and  Italian  Governments  respectively 
rights  of  ownership  over  the  ground  in  Tur- 
key in  which  are  situated  the  graves  of 
their  soldiers  and  sailors  and  over  the  land 
required  for  cemeteries,  or  for  providing  ac- 
cess to  cemeteries.  The  Greek  Government 
undertakes  to  fulfill  the  same  obligation  so 
far  as  concerns  the  portion  of  the  zone  of 
the  Straits  placed  under  its  sovereignty. 

Within  six  months  from  the  coming  into 
force  of  the  treaty  the  British,  French  and 
Italian  Governments  will  respectively  notify 
to  the  Turkish  and  Greek  Governments  the 
land  which  is  to  be  transferred  to  them.  The 
said  land  will  include,  in  particular,  certain 
areas  in  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula.  The  Gov- 
ernment in  whose  favor  the  transfer  is  made 
will  not  allow  the  land  to  be  employed  for 
any  purpose  other  than  that  to  which  it  is 
dedicated,  and  the  shore  is  not  to  be  em- 
ployed for  any  military,  marine  or  commer- 
cial purpose. 

If  compulsory  acquisition  of  the  land  is 
necessary  it  is  to  be  effected  by  and  at  tho 
cost  of  the  Turkish  or  Greek  Government, 
who  will  not  subject  the  land  to  any  form  of 
taxation.  They  will  undertake  to  maintain 
all  roads  leading  to  the  land,  give  free  ac- 
cess to  all  persons  desirous  of  visiting  the 
graves  and  afford  facilities  for  the  require- 
ments of  the  staff  engaged  in  duties  in  con- 
nection with  the  cemeteries.  The  provisions 
do  not  affect  the  Turkish  or  Greek  sover- 
eignty over  the  transferred  land,  and  these 
Governments  are  to  take  the  necessary 
measures  to  punish  any  act  of  desecration  of 
cemeteries  or  graves. 

The  Allies  and  the  Turkish  Government  are 
to  respect  and  maintain  the  graves  of  sol- 
diers and  sailors  buried  in  their  territory, 
and  to  recognize  and  assist  any  commissions 
appointed  by  the  Allies  in  connection  with 
them.  There  is  to  be  a  reciprocal  exchange 
of  information  as  to  dead  prisoners  and 
their  graves. 


THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


723 


I 
I 


PART    VII.— PENALTIES 

Military  tribunals  are  to  be  set  up  by  the 
Allies  to  try  persons  accused  of  acts  of 
violation  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  war^ 
and  the  Turkish  Government  is  to  hand  over 
all  persons  so  accused.  The  Governments  of 
States  to  which  former  Turkish  territory  is 
assigned  by  the  treaty  are  to  act  similarly 
in  the  case  of  persons  accused  of  acts 
against  the  laws  and  customs  of  war  who 
are  in  the  territory  or  at  the  disposal  of 
such  States.  The  accused  are  to  be  entitled 
to  name  their  own  counsel,  and  the  Turkish 
Government  is  to  undertake  to  furnish  all 
documents  and  information  the  production  of 
which  may  be  necessary. 

The  Turkish  Government  undertakes  to 
surrender  to  the  Allies  persons  responsible 
for  the  massacres  committed  during  the  war 
on  the  territory  of  the  former  Turkish  Em- 
pire, the  Allies  reserving  the  right  to  desig- 
nate the  tribunal  to  try  such  persons  or  to 
bring  the  accused  before  a  tribunal  of  the 
League  of  Nations  competent  to  deal  with 
the  said  massacres  if  such  a  tribunal  has 
been  created  by  the  League  in  sufficient 
time. 

PART  VIII.— FINANCIAL  CLAUSES 

This  part  of  the  treaty  begins  by  a  dec- 
laration reproduced  from  the  treaties  already 
signed  by  Germany,  Austria  and  Bulgaria. 
Turkey  thereby  recognizes  that  in  associat- 
ing in  the  war  of  aggression  waged  against 
the  allied  powers  she  has  caused  them  losses 
for  which  she  ought  to  make  complete  repa- 
ration ;  nevertheless  in  view  of  her  loss  of 
territory  the  powers  will  be  satisfied  with 
obtaining  payment  of  the  claims  enumerated 
later  in  the  chapter. 

All  the  resources  of  Turkey,  except  rev- 
enues ceded  or  hypothecated  to  the  service 
of  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt,  are  to  be  em- 
ployed as  need  arises  for  effecting  the  fol- 
lowing payments  set  forth  in  order  of 
priority : 

1.  Ordinary  expenses  of  the  allied  forces  of 
occupation  after  the  entry  into  force  of  the 
treaty. 

2.  Expenses  of  the  allied  forces  of  occupa- 
tion since  Oct.  30  in  the  territories  remaining 
Turkish  and  expenses  of  occupation  in  the 
territories  detached  from  Turkey  to  the  ad- 
vantage »of  a  power  other  than  that  which 
has  supported  such  expenses  of  occupation. 

The  expenses  covered  by  the  preceding 
paragraph  will  be  discharged  by  annuities 
calculated  in  a  manner  to  enable  Turkey 
to  meet  any  deficiency  that  may  arise  in 
the  sums  required  to  pay  that  part  of  the 
interest  on  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt  for 
which   Turkey  remains   responsible. 

3.  Indemnities  due  on  account  of  claims  of 
the  allied  powers  for  reparation  for  dam- 
ages  suffered   by   their   nationals. 

The  Turkish  Government  agrees  to  the 
financial  indemnification  of  all  the  losses  or 
damages  suffered  by  the  civilian  nationals  of 


the  allied  powers  during  the  war  and  up  to 
the  entry  into  force  of  the   treaty. 

The  powers  in  favor  of  whom  territories 
are  detached  from  Turkey  acquire  without 
payment  all  properties  and  possessions  sit- 
uated therein  and  registered  in  the  name  of 
the  Turkish  Empire  or  the  Sultan's  civil 
list. 

The  powers  in  favor  of  whom  territories 
are  detached  from  the  Turkish  Empire  shall 
participate  in  the  annual  charge  for  the 
service  of  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt. 

The  Governments  of  the  States  of  the  Bal- 
kan Peninsula  and  the  newly  created  States 
in  Asia  shall  give  adequate  guarantees  for 
the  payment  of  the  share  which  falls  to 
them.  The  distribution  of  these  annual 
charges  is  to  be  made  in  proportion  to  the 
average  revenue  of  the  transferred  territory 
in  relation  to  the  total  revenues  of  Turkey 
during  the  three  years  preceding  the  Balkan 
war. 

The  same  methods  are  to  be  applied  for 
the  calculation  of  the  charges  affected  to 
the  service  of  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt,  al- 
loted  to  the  powers  who  have  acquired  Tur- 
kish territory  as  a  result  of  the  Balkan  wars. 

FINANCIAL   CONTROL 

A  Financial  Commission  composed  of  a 
representative  of  each  of  the  interested  al- 
lied powers,  France,  Great  Britain  and 
Italy,  to  whom  is  added  a  Turkish  repre- 
sentative in  a  consultative  capacity,  is  cre- 
ated in  Turkey  with  a  view  to  take  such 
measures  as  the  commission  may  judge  most 
suitable  for  restoring  Turkish  finances.  Its 
pi"incipal  functions  are  the  following: 

Preliminary  examination  of  Turkish  bud- 
gets, which  may  not  be  applied  without  its 
approval ; 

Supervision  over  the-  execution  of  the 
budgets  and  financial  laws  and  regulations 
of  Turkey; 

The  termination  of  the  measures  to  be 
taken  with  a  view  to  improving  the  Turkish 
currency. 

Further,  the  Turkish  Government  may  not 
establish  any  new  form  of  taxation,  modify 
its  customs  system  or  contract  any  internal 
or  external  loan  without  the  consent  of  the 
Financial  Commission. 

The  consent  of  the  commission  is  equally 
required  for  the  grant  of  new  concessions  in 
Turkey  by  the  Turkish  Government. 

A  clause  provides  that  ultimately  the  Finan- 
cial Commission  may  be  substituted  for  the 
Council  of  Debt  as  regards  the  administra- 
tion of  the  conceded  revenues.  This  substi- 
tution shall  be  decided  by  the  Governments 
of  France,  Great  Britain  and  Italy  by  a  ma- 
jority and  after  consulting  the  bondholders, 
and  this  decision  shall  be  taken  at  least  six 
months  before  the  expiration  of  the  powers 
of  the  Council  of  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt. 

In  particular,  as  regards  the  execution  of 
the  present  treaty,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
Financial  Commission  to  fix  the  annuities 
to  be  paid  by  the  Turkish  Government  for  the 


724 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


reimbursement  of  the  expenses  of  occupation 
and  the  settlement  of  the  claims  for  repara- 
tion due  to  the  nationals  of  the  allied  pow- 
ers, to  determine  the  amount  of  the  annui- 
ties for  the  service  of  the  Ottoman  Public 
Debt  to  be  placed  to  the  charge  of  those  pow- 
ers in  whose  favor  territories  are  detached 
from  Turkey,  and  to  arrange  for  the  disposal 
of  the  sums  in  gold  transferred  by  Germany 
and  Austria  in  execution  of  Article  259  (1), 
(2),  (4),  (7)  of  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Ger- 
many and  of  Article  210  (1)  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  with  Austria. 

PART  IX.— ECONOMIC  CLAUSES 

Commercial  relations  between  the  Allies  and 
Turkey  will  be  regulated,  generally  speaking, 
by  the  capitulatory  regime,  which  is  re-es- 
tablished in  favor  of  the  Allies  who  enjoyed 
it  before  the  war  and  extended  to  the  other 
allies.  The  rate  of  customs  duty  is  to  be  that 
fixed  in  1907,  i.  e.,  11  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
Wide  powers  are,  however,  given  to  the  Fi- 
nancial Commission  get  up  under  the  treaty 
to  authorize  modifications  of  import  duties, 
the  imposition  of  consvimption  duties,  the  ap- 
plication to  allied  subjects  and  their  prop- 
erty of  taxes  imposed  on  Turkish  subjects 
and  their  property,  and  the  imposition  of 
prohibitions  on  importation  and  exportation. 
Such  action  can  only  be  taken  after  six 
months'  notice  in  each  case  to  all  the  Allies. 

The  provisions  with  regard  to  the  recogni- 
tion of  shipping  documents  and  of  the  flags 
of  new  States,  with  regard  to  unfair  trade 
competition,  and  with  regard  to  pre-war  mul- 
tilateral and  bilateral  treaties,  and  with  re- 
gard to  the  protection  of  industrial,  literary 
and  artistic  property,  follow  the  general  lines 
of  the  corresponding  articles  in  former  treat- 
ies of  peace. 

As  in  the  case  of  previous  treaties  of  peace 
the  Allies  reserve  the  right  to  liquidate  Tur- 
kish property  in  their  territories,  and  to  hold 
the  proceeds  as  a  pledge  for  the  payment  by 
Turkey  of  compensation  for  damage  to  allied 
property  in  Turkey  during  the  war  and  the 
settlement  of  pre-war  private  debts.  So  far 
as  the  claims  against  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment are  not  satisffed  from  this  source  they 
are  to  be  met  in  accordance  with  the  finan- 
cial clauses  from  any  surplus  available  of 
Turkish  revenues  from  time  to  time.  It 
should  be  mentioned  that  in  the  case  of  ter- 
ritory detached  from  Turkey  by  the  treaty 
the  right  to  liquidate  is  limited  to  the  prop- 
erty of  Turkish  companies,  and  does  not  ex- 
tend to  the  property  of  Turkish  individuals. 

The  treaty  contains  provisions  for  enabling 
the  Allies,  if  they  think  fit,  to  eliminate  Ger- 
man, Austrian,  Hungarian  or  Bulgarian  eco- 
nomic penetration  in  Turkey  by  requiring 
the  Turkish  Government  to  liquidate  the 
property  of  the  nationals  of  those  countries 
in  Turkish  territory  and  by  themselves  liqui- 
dating it  in  territory  detached  from  Turkey. 
In  both  cases  the  general  principle  is  that  the 
proceeds  of  the  liquidation  shall  be  paid  to 
the   owners,    except  where  the  property   was 


Government  property,  in  which  case  they  will 
be  paid  to  the  Reparation  Commissions  set 
up  under  former  treaties  of  peace. 

Special  provisions  are  included  in  order  to 
enable  the  acquisition  of  the  property  of  rail- 
way companies  under  German  control.  In  de- 
tached territories  the  disposal  of  such  prop- 
erty will  rest  with  the  Government  controll- 
ing such  territories.  In  Turkey  itself  the 
Financial  Commission  will  have  the  disposal 
of  it,  the  price  being  fixed  by  arbitration. 
In  both  cases  the  proceeds  of  sale  will  be  dis- 
tributed by  the  Financial  Commission  to  such 
neutrals  as  are  entitled  to  a  share  thereof, 
the  share  of  Germans,  Austrians,  &c.,  being 
paid  over  to  the  respective  Reparation  Com- 
missions. 

The  complicated  provisions  of  former  treat- 
ies for  the  settlement  of  pre-war  debts 
through  clearing  houses  have  not  been  re- 
peated, the  only  provision  with  regard  to  the 
settlement  of  such  debts  being  one  which 
fixes  the  pre-war  rate  of  exchange  for  the 
purpose  of  the  settlement  of  all  debts  be- 
tween Turkish  subjects  in  Turkey  and  allies 
not  resident  or  carrying  on  business  in  Tur- 
key. 

As  regards  pre-war  contracts  between  allies 
and  Turks  the  general  principle  i.s  to  main- 
tain or  dissolve  them,  and  to  decide  any  ques- 
tion relative  thereto  according  to  the  law  of 
the  particular  allied  country  concerned  in 
each  case.  The  detailed  provisions  relative  to 
particular  descriptions  of  contracts  follow 
those  in  the  preceding  treaties. 

Provisions  are  included  in  the  treaty  for 
safeguarding  the  interests  in  Turkey  of  allies 
who  hold  pre-war  concessions  from  the  Tur- 
kish Government.  Concessions  granted  by  the 
Turkish  Government  during  the  war  need 
not  be  recognized  by  the  Allies  in  detached 
territories,  while  other  provisions  enable  new 
States  placed  under  a  mandate  to  put  an  end 
to  pre-war  concessions  if  thought  desirable 
in  the  public  interest  on  payment  of  equita- 
ble compensation  to  be  fixed  by  arbitration. 
For  this  purpose  and  for  the  purpose  of  all 
other  economic  clauses  Turkish  companies 
which  were  actually  under  allied  control  be- 
fore the  war  are  treated  as  allied  nationals. 

PART  X.— AERIAL  NAVIGATION 

Turkey  agrees  to  accord  the  aircraft  of 
the  allied  powers  full  liberty  of  passage  and 
landing  over  and  in  the  territory  and  terri- 
torial waters  of  Turkey,  freedom  of  transit, 
the  use  of  all  aerodromes  in  Turkey  open 
to  national  public  traffic  and  equal  treat- 
ment generally  in  these  matters  with  Tur- 
kish aircraft  and  most-favored-nation  treat- 
ment as  regards  internal  commercial  air 
traffic.  Turkey  also  undertakes  to  establish 
aerodromes  in  localities  designated  by  the 
allied  powers,  and  the  Allies  reserve  the 
right  in  certain  eventualities  to  take  meas- 
ures to  insure  international  aerial  navigation 
over  the  territory  and  territorial  waters  of 
Turkey. 


THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


states  who  fought  on  Tuikey's  side  in  the 

late  war  are  debaired  from  these  privileges 

and  from  the  grant,   without  allied  consent, 

of    concessions    for    civil    aerial    riavig:ation, 

unless    and    until    they    become    members    of 

the   League    of  Nations   or   are   permitted   to 

adhere    to    the    Convention    of    Oct.    13,    1919, 

regarding-  aerial  navigation.      Turkey  agrees 

to    enforce    the    compliance    by    Tuikish    air- 

1^^  craft   with  the   rules   and   regulations   result- 

^^■big  from  the  latter  convention.     The  obliga- 

^^Btions    imposed    by    this    chapter    remain    in 

^^^Horce  until  Turkey  is  admitted  to  the  League 

^^Hof    Nations    or    permitted    to    adhere    to    the 

^^^pibove-mentioned  convention. 


PART  XL— PORTS,  WATERWAYS 
AND  RAILWAYS 


Turkey  is  requited  to  grant  freedom  of 
transit  and  national  treatment  to  persons, 
goods,  vessels,  rolling  stock,  &c.,  coming 
from  or  going  to  any  allied  State  and  passing 
in  transit  through  Turkish  territories.  Goods 
in  transit  are  to  be  free  of  all  customs  or 
other  similar  duties.  Rates  of  transport  are 
to  be  reasonable,  and  no  charges  or  facili- 
ties are  to  depend  directly  or  indirectly  on 
the  ownership  or  nationality  of  the  vessel 
or  other  means  of  transport.  Provision  is 
made  against  discrimination  by  control  of 
transmigrant  traffic  and  indirect  discrimi- 
nation of  any  kind  is  prohibited. 

International  transport  is  to  be  expedited, 
particularly  for  perishable  traffic.  Discrim- 
ination in  transport  charges  or  facilities 
against  allied  ports  is  prohibited. 

The  following  Eastern  ports  are  declared 
to  be  of  international  interest,  but,  subject 
to  any  provisions  to  the  contrary,  the  regime 
laid  down  does  not  prejudice  the  territorial 
sovereignty : 

Constantinople,  from  St.  Stefano  to  Dolma 
Bagtchi,  Haida-Pasha,  Smyrna,  Alexandret- 
ta,  Haifa,   Basra,   Trebizond  and  Batum. 

The  nationals,  goods  and  flags  of  all 
States  members  of  the  League  of  Nations 
are  to  enjoy  complete  freedom  in  the  use 
of  these  ports,  and  they  are  to  be  accorded 
absolute  equality  of  treatment,  rarticularly 
as  regards  all  charges  and  facilities. 

Provision  is  made  for  "  free  "  zones  in  the 
above-mentioned  ports,  and  adequate  facili- 
ties are  to  be  provided  for  trade  require- 
ments without  distinction  of  nationality. 
With  the  exception  of  a  small  statistical 
duty,  no  customs  duties  or  analogous 
charges  are  to  be  levied  in  the  "  free  "  zones. 

In  order  to  insure  to  Turkey  free  access 
to  the  Mediterranean  and  Aegean  Seas,  she 
is  accorded  freedom  of  transit  over  the  terri- 
tories and  in  the  ports  severed  from  the 
former  Ottoman  Empire.  Turkey  is  also 
granted  a  lease  in  perpetuity,  subject  to  de- 
termination by  the  League  of  Nations,  of  an 
area  in  the  Port  of  Smyrna,  which  is  to  be 
placed  under  the  general  regime  of  "  free  " 
zones. 

Free  access  to  the  Black  Sea  by  the  Port  of 


Batum  is  accorded  toi  Georgia,  Azeibaijan, 
Persia  and  Armenia ;  and  Armenia  is  granted 
similar  facilities  in  respect  of  the  Port  of 
Trebizond,  in  which  port  she  obtains  a 
lease  of  an  area  on  similar  conditions  to 
those  which  apply  to  Turkey  in  the  case 
of  Smyrna. 

RAILWAYS 

The  railway  clauses  provide  that,  subject 
to  the  rights  of  concessionaire  companies, 
goods  consigned  from  or  to  allied  States  to 
or  from  Turkey,  or  in  transit  through  Tur- 
key, are  entitled  generally  to  the  most  favor- 
able conditions  available. 

Certain  railway  tariff  questions  are  dealt 
with. 

When  a  new  Railway  Convention  has  re- 
placed the  Berne  Convention,  it  will  be 
binding  on  Turkey ;  in  the  meantime  she  is 
to  follow  the  Berne  Convention. 

Turkey  is  to  co-operate  in  the  establish- 
ment of  passenger  and  luggage  services,  with 
direct  booking  between  allied  States  over 
her  territory,  under  favorable  conditions,  as 
well  as  emigrant  train  services. 

Turkey  is  required  to  fit  her  rolling  stock 
with  apparatus  allowing  of  its  being  incor- 
porated in  allied  goods  trains,  and  vice 
versa,  without  interfering  with  the  brake 
system.  Provision  is  made  for  the  handing 
over  of  the  installations  of  lines  in  trans- 
ferred territory,  and  of  an  equitable  propor- 
tion of  rolling  stock  for  use  therein. 

As  regards  lines  the  administration  of 
which  will,  in  virtue  of  the  present  treaty, 
be  divided,  allocation  of  the  rolling  stock  is 
to  be  made  by  agreement  between  the  ad- 
ministrations taking  over  the  several  parts 
thereof.  Failing  agreement,  the  points  in 
dispute  are  to  be  settled  by  an  arbitrated" 
designated    by   the   League    of   Nations. 

A  standing  conference  of  technical  repre- 
sentatives nominated  by  the  Governments 
concerned  is  to  be  constituted  to  agree  upon 
the  necessary  joint  arrangements  for  through 
traffic  working,  wagon  exchange,  through 
rates  and  tariffs,  and  other  similar  matters 
affecting  railways  situated  on  territory  form- 
ing part  of  the  Turkish  Empire  on  Aug.  1, 
1914. 

As  a  temporary  arrangement  Turkey  is  to 
execute  instructions  given  in  the  name  of 
the  Allies  as  to  transport  of  troops,  material, 
munitions,  &c.,  transport  for  revictualing  of 
certain  regions,  and  re-establishment  of  nor- 
mal transport. 

Turkey  is  required  to  subscribe  to  any 
general  convention  regarding  the  interna- 
tional regime  of  transit,  waterways,  ports, 
or  railways,  which  may  be  concluded  with 
the  approval  of  the  League  of  Nations, 
within  five  years. 

TELEGRAPH  AND  TELEPHONE  LINES 
Turkey  is  to  grant  facilities  for  the  erec- 
tion and  maintenance  of  trunk  telegraph  and 
telephone  lines  across  her  territories,  and  is 
to  accord  freedom  of  transit  for  telegraphic 
correspondence     and     telephonic     communica- 


726 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


tions  coming  from  or  going  to  any  one  of  the 
allied  powers.  This  correspondence  and  these 
communications  are  to  enjoy  national  treat- 
ment in   every  respect. 

Turkey  is  to  transfer  the  landing  rights  at 
Constantinople  for  the  Constantinople-Con- 
stanza  cable  to  any  administration  or  com- 
pany designated  by  the  Allies,  and  renounces 
in  favor  of  the  principal  allied  powers  all  her 
1  ights  over  the  Jeddah-Suakin  and  Cyprus- 
Latakia  cables. 

GENERAL 

Differences  are  to  be  settled  by  the  League 
of  Nations.  Certain  specified  articles— e.  g., 
those  providing  for  equal  treatment  in  mat- 
ters of  transit  and  transport— are  subject  to 
revision  by  the  League  of  Nations  after  three 
years.  Failing  revision,  they  will  only  con- 
tinue in  force  in  relation  to  any  allied  State 
which  grants  reciprocal  treatment. 

It  is  provided  that,  unless  otherwise  ex- 
pressly laid  down  in  the  treaty,  nothing  shall 
prejudice  more  extensive  rights  conferred 
on  the  nationals  of  the  allied  States  by  the 
capitulations,  or  by  any  arrangements  which 
may  be  svibstituted  therefor. 

PART  XIL— LABOR  CONVENTION 

Here  follows  the  text  of  the  convention  as 
embodied  in  the  treaty  with   Germany. 

PART  XIIL— MISCELLANEOUS  PRO- 
VISIONS 

Turkey  recognizes  conventions  made  or  to 
be  made  by  the  Allies  as  to  the  traffic  in 
arms  and  in  spirituous  liquors  and  as  to 
other  subjects  dealt  with  in  the  general  acts 
of  Berlin  of  Feb.  26,  188."5,  and  of  Brussels  of 
July  2,  1890,  and  the  conventions  completing 
or  modifying  these. 

The  high  contracting  parties  take  note  of 
the  treaty  of  July,  1918,  between  France  and 
the  principality  of  Monaco. 

In  a  barrier  clause  Turkey  undertakes  not 
to  put  forward  any  pecuniary  claim  against 
any  allied  power  signing  the  present  treaty, 
based  on  events  previous  to  the  coming  into 
force   of   the  treaty. 

Turkey  accepts  all  decrees,  &c.,  as  to  Tur- 
kish ships  by  any  allied  prize  court,  and  the 
Allies  reserve  the  right  to  examine  all  de- 
cisions    of   -Turkish     prize     courts.       Turkey 


agrees  to  supply  the  Allies  with  all  necessary 
information  regarding  vessels  sunk  or  dam- 
aged by  Turkish  forces  during  the  war  and 
to  restore  trophies,  archives,  historical 
souvenirs  and  works  of  art  taken  from  the 
allied  Governments  and  their  nationals,  in- 
cluding  companies. 

Special  provisions  are  also  inserted  regard- 
ing a  reform  of  the  Turkish  law  of  antiqui- 
ties and  the  future  treatment  of  archaeolog- 
ical research  in  Turkey,  the  restoration  of 
all  objects  of  religious,  archaeological,  his- 
torical, or  artistic  interest  removed  by  Tur- 
key during  the  war  from  territories  detached 
from  her,  the  surrender  by  Turkey  of  all 
archives,  plans,  land  registers,  &c.,  belong- 
ing to  the  civil,  military,  financial,  judicial, 
or  other  forms  of  administration  in  ti"ans- 
ferred  territories,  the  grant  of  access  by 
Turkey,  subject  to  reciprocity,  to  documents, 
&c.,  relating  to  the  administration  of  wakfs 
in  which  the  Governments  of  transferred 
territories  are  interested,  the  recognition  by 
Turkey  of  allied  judicial  decisions  since  the 
date  of  the  armistice,  the  acceptance  by  Tur- 
key of  special  measures  to  be  formulated 
later  by  the  allied  powers,  acting,  if  neces- 
.sary,  with  third  powers,  regarding  the  sani- 
tary regime  in  Turkey  and  in  the  territories 
detached  from  Turkey  and  the  sanitary  con- 
trol of  the  Hedjaz  Pilgrimage,  the  enactment 
of  the  necessary  legislation  by  Turkey  to 
execute  the  treaty,  the  obligation  of  Turkey 
to  facilitate  any  investigation  which  the 
Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  may  con- 
sider necessary  in  any  matters  relating  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  to  the  application  of  the 
treaty  and  the  accession  of  Russia  to  the 
treaty  on  certain  conditions  after  she  ha.s 
become  a  member  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

The  treaty,  of  which  the  French  text  is 
authentic  except  as  regards  Parts  I.  and  XII., 
when  the  English  and  French  texts  are  of 
equal  force,  shall  be  ratified  and  the  deposit 
of  ratifications  made  at  Paris  as  soon  as  poig- 
sible.  Various  diplomatic  provisions  as  to 
ratification  follow.  The  treaty  is  to  enter  into 
force  as  soon  as  it  has  been  ratified  by 
Turkey  on  the  one  hand  and  by  three  of  tho 
principal  allied  powers  on  the  other,  so  far 
as  concerns  those  powers  who  have  then 
ratified  it. 


The  Constitution  of  Czechoslovakia 

Full  Text  of  the  Most  Modern  and  Complete 
Instrument    of    Democratic    Self-Government 


THE  first  election  of  Deputies'  and 
Senators  under  the  new  Constitu- 
tion of  Czechoslovakia  was  held  on 
April  18,  1920,  and  the  first  ses- 
sion of  the  newly  created  Parliament 
known  as  the  National  Assembly,  met  in 
Prague  on  May  29  and  elected  Thomas  C. 
Masaryk  as  Constitutional  President  by 
a  vote  of  284  to  61. 

The  Constitution  thus  put  into  opera- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  democratic  in  the 
world.  It  was  formally  adopted  by  the 
Constituent  Assembly  at  Prague  on  Feb. 
29,  1920,  and  was  approved  by  Provi- 
sional President  Masaryk  on  March  5. 
This  document — a  new  landmark  in  the 
history  of  free  government — is  herewith 
published  in  its  entirety  in  the  transla- 
tion given  by  the  Czechoslovak  Review, 
the  official  organ  of  the  Czechoslovak 
National  Council  of  America.  It  em- 
bodies the  efforts  of  some  of  the  most 
enlightened  men  in  Europe  to  choose  the 
best  features  of  all  the  earlier  republics, 
from  that  of  Athens  to  those  of  our  own 
time,  and  to  exclude  all  features  which 
experience  has  proved  to  be  undesir- 
able. 

Though  the  preamble  has  a  familiar 
sound  to  American  ears,  the  main  fea- 
.  tures  of  the  Czech  Constitution  follow 
more  closely  the  French  model.  The 
President  can  hold  office  through  two 
seven-year  terms,  no  more,  consecutively 
— with  the  exception  of  President 
Masaryk,  who  may  be  elected  for  a  third 
consecutive  term  if  he  lives  long  enough 
— but  a  majority  vote  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  can  at  any  time  overrule  the 
President's  veto.  The  two-chamber  sys- 
tem was  adopted  after  a  tough  struggle; 
the  legislative  body,  called  the  National 
Assembly,  consists  of  the  House  of  Depu- 
ties and  the  Senate,  but  the  latter's 
powers  are  very  limited ;  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  is  as  completely  predominant 
as  the  British  House  of  Commons,  and 
its  vote  of  lack  of  confidence  can  at  any 


time  overthrow  the  Ministry  and  compel 
the  President  to  take  the  necessary  steps 
to  organize  a  new  Government. 

A  restricted  form  of  the  referendum 
also  is  provided  for.  The  Constitution 
secures  to  minorities  all  their  rights,  but 
protects  the  National  Assembly  both 
from  a  coup  d'etat  of  any  official  group 
and  from  obstruction  by  any  minority. 
Every  man  and  woman  21  years  old  can 
vote — nay,  must  vote — in  the  elections 
for  the  Chamber  of  Deputies ;  thus,  when 
the  first  election  of  this  kind  was  held 
on  April  18  the  surprising  total  of  nearly 
8,000,000  voters  cast  their  ballots,  though 
the  total  population  of  Czechoslovakia  is 
not  quite  13,000,000,  of  whom  3,000,000 
are  Germans.  Persons  -who  vote  for 
Senators  must  be  26  years  old.  These 
and  many  other  novel  features  will  be 
found  in  the  following  remarkable  Con- 
stitution, which  is  well  worthy  of 
study : 

PREAMBLE 

We,  the  Czechoslovak  Nation,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union  of  the  nation, 
establish  justice  and  order  in  the  republic, 
insure  tranquil  development  of  the  Czecho- 
slovak homeland,  promote  the  general  wel- 
fare of  all  the  citizens  of  this  State  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  future 
generations,  have  adopted  in  our  National 
Assembly  on  the  29th  day  of  February, 
1920,  a  Constitution  for  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic,  the  text  of  which  follows.  On 
this  occasion,  we,  the  Czechoslovak  Nation, 
declare  that  we  shall  endeavor  to  have  this 
Constitution  and  all  laws  of  our  land  car- 
ried out  in  the  spirit  of  our  history  and 
also  in  the  spirit  of  modern  principles  con- 
tained in  the  word  self-determination ;  for 
we  desire  to  join  the  society  of  nations  as 
an  enlightened,  peaceful,  democratic  and 
progressive   member. 

ENABLING   PROVISIONS 

I.  Laws  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution, 
the  fundamental  laws  which  are  a  part  of 
it,  and  laws  which  may  supplement  or 
amend   it  are   void. 

The  Constitution  and  the  fundamental  laws 
which    are   a   part   of   it   may   be   changed   or 


728 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


supplemented    only    by    laws    designated    as 
constitutional  laws. 

II.  The  Constitutional  Court  decides 
whether  laws  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic 
and  laws  of  the  Diet  of  Carpathian  Russia 
comply   with   Article   I. 

III.  The  Constitutional  Court  consists  of 
seven  members.  The  Supreme  Administra- 
tive Court  and  the  Supreme  Court  each  des- 
ignate two  members.  The  remaining  two 
members,  together  with  the  President  of  the 
court,  are  appointed  by  the  President  of  the 
republic. 

Regulation  of  the  manner  in  '  which  the 
two  above-mentioned  courts  select  members 
of  the  Constitutional  Court,  its  functioning, 
rules  of  procedure  and  effects  of  its  judg- 
ments is  determined  by  law. 

IV.  The  existing  National  Assembly  shall 
remain  in  session  until  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  and  the  Senate  are  constituted. 

Laws  adopted  by  this  National  Assembly, 
but  not  proclaimed  on  the  day  when  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  and  the  Senate  are 
constituted,  may  not  go  into  effect  if  re- 
turned by  the  President  of  the  republic  to 
the  National  Assembly. 

As  to  the  term  set  by  the  Provisional 
Constitution  for  the  exercise  of  the  right  of 
the  President  of  the  republic  according  to 
Section  11  and  for  the  duty  to  proclaim  the 
adopted  law,  the  laws  passed  by  the  existing 
National  Assembly  shall  be  governed  by  the 
Provisional  Constitution. 

V.  The  present  President  remains  in  office 
until  a  new  election  has  taken  place.  From 
the  day  on  which  this  Constitution  goes  into 
effect  he  shall  possess  the  rights  herein 
granted. 

VI.  Until  there  is  elected  the  full  number 
of  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and 
the  Senate  provided  for  in  the  Constitution 
the  number  of  members  actually  elected  shall 
be  applied  to  determine  the  quorum  of 
Deputies  and  Senators  required  by  the  Con- 
.^titution. 

VII.  Provisions  of  Articles  I.,  II.  and  III. 
(Paragraph  1)  form  a  part  of  the  Constitu- 
tion in  accordance  with  Section  33  of  this 
instrument. 

Enabling  laws  referred  to  in  the  Constitu- 
tion are  not  a  part  of  this  instrument  within 
the  scope  of  Section  1  unless  otherwise  ex- 
pressly stated  by  the  Constitution. 

VIII.  The  Constitution  hereto  attached  goes 
into  effect  on  the  day  of  its  proclamation. 

Section  20  of  the  Constitution  does  not 
apply  to  members  of  the  existing  National 
Assembly. 

IX.  On  the  day  stated  in  Paragraph  1  of 
Section  S  all  ordinances  in  conflict  with 
the  Constitution  and  the  republican  form  of 
government,  as  well  as  all  former  constitu- 
tional laws,  even  though  some  of  their  pro- 
visions may  not  be  in  conflict  with  the 
fundamental  laws  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
r^blic,  become  void. 

X.  This  law  g'oes  into  effect  simultaneously 
with    the    Constitution,    and    the    Government 


is  charged  with  carrying  out  this  law  and  the 
Constitution. 

I.   GENERAL   PROVISIONS   OF   THE 
CONSTITUTION 

1.  The  people  are  the  only  source  of  all 
State  authority  in  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public. 

The  Constitution  determines  through  what 
organs  the  sovereign  people  adopt  laws, 
carry  them  out  and  find  justice.  The  Con- 
stitution also  sets  tl^e  limits  which  these 
organs  may  not  exceed,  so  that  the  constitu- 
tionally guaranteed  rights  of  citizens  may  be 
protected. 

2.  The  Czechoslovak  State  is  a  democratic 
republic,  at  the  head  of  which  is  an  elected 
President. 

3.  The  territory  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public forms  a  unitary  and  indivisible 
whole,  the  frontiers  of  which  may  be  chahged 
only  by   fundamental  law. 

An  indivisible  part  of  this  whole,  on  the 
basis  of  voluntary  union  in  accordance  with 
the  treaty  between  the  allied  and  associated 
powers  and  the  Czechoslovak  Republic  in 
Saint-Germain-en-Laye  Sept.  10,  1919.  is  the 
autonomous  territory  of  Carpathian  Russia, 
which  will  receive  the  widest  autonomy  com- 
patible with  the  unity  of  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic. 

Carpathian  Russia  has  its  own  Diet,  wiiich 
elects  its  own  officers. 

The  Diet  of  Carpathian  Russia  is  competent 
to  make  laws  in  matters  of  language,  in- 
struction, religion,  local  administration,  as 
well  as  in  other  matters  which  may  be 
assigned  to  it  by  the  laws  of  the  Czecho- 
.slovak  Republic.  Laws  adopted  by  the  Diet 
of  Carpathian  Russia  and  signed  by  the 
President  of  the  Republic  are  proclaimed  in 
a  separate  series  and  shall  also  be  signed  by 
the  Governor. 

Carpathian  Russia  shall  be  represente<?  in 
the  National  Assembly  of  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic  by  the  proper  number  of  Deputies 
and  Senators  in  accordance  with  Czecho- 
slovak  election  laws. 

At  the  head  of  Carpathian  Russia  standi 
a  Governor  appointed  by  the  President  of  the 
Czechoslovak  Republic  upon  nomination 
by  the  Government ;  he  shall  be  responsible 
also  to  the   Diet  of   Carpathian  Russia. 

Public  servants  of  Carpathian  Russia  shall 
as  far  as  possible  be  taken  from  its  own 
population. 

Details,  especially  the  right  to  vote  and 
to  be  elected  to  the  Diet,  are  regulated  by 
special   enactments. 

The  law  of  the  National  Assembly,  de- 
termining the  boundaries  of  Carpathian  Rus- 
sia, shall  form  a  part  of  the  Constitution. 

4.  Citizenship  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic 
is  one  and  unitary. 

Rules  governing  the  acquiring  of  citizen- 
ship, its  effects  and  its  loss  are  determined 
by  law. 

A  citizen  or  subject  of  a  foreign  State  may 


CONSTITUTION  OF  CZECHOSLOVAKIA 


729 


"^  ■    not   at    the    same    time    be   a   citizen    of   the 

Czechoslovak  Republic. 
^^H   n.    Prague    is    the    capital    of    the    Czecho- 
^^Hilovalc   Republic. 

^^H  The    colors    of   the   republic    are    white,    red 
^^Bind   blue. 

^^H  Coat   of  arms   and   flags  are  prescribed   by 
^^Hlaws. 


II.   LEGISLATIVE   AUTHORITY 


6.  Legislative  authority  for  the  entire  terri- 
ory    of    the    Czechoslovak    Republic    is    exer- 
ised  by   the   National  Assembly,   which  con- 
sists   of    two    houses :    Chamber    of    Deputies 
and    Senate. 

I    Both  houses  meet  regularly  in  Prague.     In 
pases    of    absolute    necessity     they     may     be 
palled    to    meet    temporarily    in    some    other 
biace    in    the   Czechoslovak    Republic. 
[  7.   Legislative  and  administrative  power  of 
land   Diets   is  abolished, 
f.   Unless    a    law    adopted    by    the    National 
fA.ssembly    provides    otherwise,    it    applies    to 
the  entire  territory  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public. 
8.    The    Chamber    of    Deputies    consists    of 
300   members,    elected   by   general,    equal,    di- 
rect and  secret  franchise  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  proportionate  representation. 
Elections  take  place  on  Sundays. 

9.  The  right  to  vote  for  members  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  belongs  to  all  citizens 
of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic  without  dis- 
tinction of  sex  who  are  21  years  of  age  an^l 
comply  with  other  requirements  of  the  funda- 
mental law  governing  elections  to  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies. 

10.  All  citizens  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public, without  distinction  of  sex,  who  are 
30  years  of  age  and  comply  with  other  re- 
quirements of  the  fundamental  law,  are 
eligible  to  election  to  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties. 

12.  Details  of  the  exercise  of  right  to  vote 
and  election  rules  are  contained  in  the  law 
governing  elections  to  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties. 

13.  The  Senate  consists  of  150  members, 
elected  by  general,  equal,  direct  and  secret 
franchise  in  accordance  with  the  principle 
of  proportionate  representation.  Elections 
take  place  on   Svmdays. 

14.  The  right  to  vote  for  members  of  the 
Senate  belongs  to  all  citizens  of  the  Czecho- 
slovak Republic  without  distinction  of  sex 
who  are  26  years  of  age  and  comply  with 
other  requirements  of  the  fundamental  law 
as  to  the  composition  and  jurisdiction  of  the 
Senate. 

in.  Eligible  are  those  citizens  of  the  Czecho- 
slovak Republic,  without  distinction  of  sex, 
who  have  reached  45  years  of  age  and  com- 
ply with  other  requirements  of  the  funda- 
mental law  as  to  the  composition  and  juri.«- 
diction  of  the  Senate. 

16.  The  term  for  which  Senators  are  elected 
is  eight  years. 

17.  Details  of  the  exercise  of  right  to  vote 
and   election   rules   are   contained    in    the   law 


as  to  the  composition  &.nd  jurisdiction  of  the 
Senate. 

18.  No  one  may  be  a  member  of  botii 
houses. 

19.  Contested  elections  to  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  and  the  Senate  are  passed  upon  by 
the  electoral  court.  Details  are  regulated 
by  law. 

20.  An  employe  of  the  State  who  is  elected 
to  the  National  Assembly  and  qualifies  as 
member  receives  a  leave  of  absence  for  the 
duration  of  his  term  and  is  entitled  to  his 
regular  salary,  not  including  therein  local  or 
active  supplement  of  the  same,  as  well  as 
to  seniority  promotion.  University  professors 
are  entitled  to  leave  of  absence;  if  they 
make  use  of  this  right,  the  same  provisions 
apply  to  them  as  to  other  State  servants. 

Other  public  servants  are  entitled  to  leave 
of  absence  while  they  are  members  of  the 
National   Assembly. 

Members  of  the  National  Assembly  may 
receive  a  salaried  State  appointment  only 
after  the  expiration  of  one  year  from  the 
time  they  cea.^ie  to  be  members  of  the  Na- 
tional Assembly. 

This  provision  does  not  apply  to  Ministers. 
The  time  limit  of  one  year,  contained  in  the 
previous  paragraph,  does  not  apply  to  Depu- 
ties and  Senators  who  were  in  the  service  of 
the  State  before  their  election  to  the  Na- 
tional Assembly,  if  they  remain  in  the  same 
department   of   service. 

Members  of  county  assemblies  and  county 
and  district  chiefs  may  not  be  members  of 
the  National  Assembly.  Judges  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Court  and  associate  Judges  of  the 
Electoral  Court  may  not  at  the  same  time 
sit  in  the  National  Assembly. 

21.  Members  of  either  house  may  resign 
at  any  time. 

22.  Members  of  the  National  Assembly 
carry  out  their  mandates  in  person ;  they 
may  not  receive  orders  from  any  one. 

They  may  not  intervene  with  public  au- 
thorities in  party  interests.  This  prohibition 
does  not  apply  to  members  of  the  National 
Assembly  in  so  far  as  intervention  with  au- 
thorities is  a  part  of  their  regular  duties. 

In  the  first  meeting  of  the  House  which 
they  attend  they  shall  make  the  following 
pledge:  "I  promise  that  I  will  be  faithful 
to  the  Czechoslovak  Republic,  that  I  will 
observe  the  laws  and  execute  my  trust  ac- 
cording to  my  best  knowledge  and  con- 
science." Refusal  of  the  pledge  or  pledge 
with  reservation  carries  with  it  automatic 
loss  of  mandate. 

23.  Members  of  the  National  Assembly  can- 
not be  molested  by  reason  of  their  vote  in 
the  House  or  committees.  For  anything  they 
may  say  in  the  exercise  of  their  mandate 
they  are  subject  only  to  the  disciplinary 
power   of   the   House. 

24.  Before  a  member  of  the  National  As- 
sembly may  be  prosecuted  or  disciplined  for 
other  acts  or  omissions,  the  consent  of  the 
proper  House  mvist  be  obtained.  If  the  House 
refuses  its  consent,  prosecution  is  dropped 
permanently. 


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THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


These  provisions  do  not  apply  to  criminal 
liability  which  a  member  of  the  National 
Assembly  may  incur  as  responsible  editor. 

25.  If  a  member  of  either  House  is  arrested 
in  the  commission  of  a  criminal  offense,  the 
court  or  other  proper  authority  shall  inform 
the  President  of  the  House  at  once  of  the 
arrest.  Unless  the  House,  or  during  the  ad- 
journment of  the  National  Assennbly  the 
commission  elected  in  accordance  with  Sec- 
tion 54,  signifies  within  fourteen  days  its  con- 
sent to  further  imprisonment,  imprisonment 
ceases.  Should  the  commission  give  its  con- 
sent, the  House  itself  shall  decide  the  ques- 
tion of  further  imprisonment  within  fourteen 
days    of   its   convening. 

26.  Members  of  both  houses  may  refuse  to 
testify  as  to  matters  which  were  confided  to 
them  as  members  of  the  House,  even  after 
they  have  ceased  to  be  members.  This  does 
not  apply  to  charges  of  seducing  a  member 
of  either  House  to  abuse  his  trust. 

27.  Members  of  both  houses  shall  receive 
compensation  provided  by   law. 

28.  The  President  of  the  republic  shall  call 
both  houses  into  two  regular  sessions  an- 
nually, in  Spring  and  Fall.  The  Spring  ses- 
sion commences  in  March,  the  Fall  session  in 
October. 

He  may  also  call  the  houses  into  special 
sessions  according  to  need.  If  a  majority 
of  either  House  makes  a  demand  for  special 
session  on  the  President  of  the  Government, 
stating  the  nature  of  special  business,  the 
President  shall  cause  the  houses  to  meet 
within  fourteen  days  from  the  date  of  de- 
mand. In  case  of  his  failure  to  act  the 
hovises  shall  convene  simultaneously  within 
the  following  fourteen  days  at  the  call  of 
their    Presidents. 

When  more  than  four  months  have  elapsed 
since  the  last  regular  session,  the  President 
of  the  republic  shall  at  the  request  of  at 
least  two-fifths  of  either  House  call  the 
houses  to  meet  within  fourteen  days  of  the 
date  of  the  request.  In  case  of  his  failure 
to  act  the  houses  shall  meet  within  the  fol- 
lowing fourteen  days  at  the  call  of  their 
Presidents. 

29.  Sessions  of  both  houses  open  and  close 
at  the  same  time. 

30.  The  President  of  the  republic  declares 
the   session   closed. 

He  may  prorogue  the  houses  for  no  longer 
than  one  month  and  not  oftener  than  once  a 
year. 

31.  The  President  of  the  republic  may  dis- 
solve the  houses.  He  may  not  exercise  this 
right  within  the  last  six  months  of  his  term 
of  office.  At  the  expiration  of  the  term  of 
cither  House  or  at  the  dissolution  of  either 
House  new  elections  shall  take  place  within 
sixty    days. 

Dissolution  of  the  Senate  does  not  stay 
criminal  proceedings  that  may  be  pending 
before  the  Senate  in  accordance  with  Sec- 
tions 67  and  79. 

32.  The  quorum  of  either  House,  except 
w^here  otherwise  provided  for  herein,   is  one- 


third  of  entire  membership ;  all  acts  to  be 
valid  must  receive  a  majority  vote  of  those 
present. 

33.  Declaration  of  war,  amendment  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  fundamental  laws  which 
are  a  part  thereof  may  be  done  only  by 
affirmative  vote  of  three-fifths  of  all  mem- 
bers  of  both   houses. 

34.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  may  impeach 
the  President  of  the  republic,  the  President 
of  the  Government  and  members  of  Govern- 
ment by  a  two-thirds  majority  in  the  pres- 
ence of  two-thirds  of  the  membership. 

Proceedings  before  the  Senate  as  a  high 
court  are  regulated  by  law. 

35.  Each  House  elects  its  own  President, 
officers   and   functionaries. 

36.  Sessions  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
and  the  Senate  are  public.  Executive  ses- 
sions may  be  held  only  in  cases  enumei-ated 
in  the  rules  of  proceeding. 

37.  The  fundamental  principles  of  the  rela- 
tions of  both  houses  to  each  other,  to  the 
Government  and  to  all  outside  them  are  regu- 
lated by  special  law  within  the  limits  set  by 
constitutional  provisions.  For  the  transac- 
tion of  its  business  each  House  adopts  its 
own  rules. 

Until  the  House  of  Deputies  and  the  Senate 
adopt  their  own  rules,  the  rules  of  the  exist- 
ing  National   Assembly   shall   apply. 

38.  When  both  houses  meet  as  National 
Assembly  the  rules  of  the  House  of  Deputies 
apply. 

Such  a  joint  session  is  called  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Government  and  presided  over  by 
the  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

His  alternate  is  President  of  the  Senate. 

39.  Ministers  may  participate  at  any  time 
in  the  meetings  of  either  House  and  of  all 
committees.  They  shall  be  given  the  floor 
whenever   they  desire   to  speak. 

40.  At  the  request  of  either  House  or  it.s 
committee  the  Minister  shall  attend  its  meet- 
ing. 

Otherwise  the  Minister  may  be  represented 
by    officials    of  his   department. 

41.  Bills  may  be  submitted  either  by  the 
Government    or   by    either    House. 

A  bill  submitted  by  members  of  either 
House  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  statement 
of  expenses  involved  in  the  bill  and  by  a 
recommendation  as  to  how  they  shall  be  de- 
frayed. 

Government  proposals  for  financial  and 
army  bills  shall  be  laid  first  before  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies. 

42.  Changes  in  fundamental  laws  shall  be 
concurred  in  by  both  houses.  This  applies 
also  to  other  laws,  except  as  otherwise  pro- 
vided  in    Sections  43,    44   and  48. 

43.  The  Senate  shall  take  action  on  a  bill 
passed  by  the  Hous'e  of  Deputies  within  six 
weeks ;  on  financial  and  army  bills  within 
one  month.  The  House  of  Deputies  shall 
take  action  on  bill  adopted  by  the  Senate 
within  three  months. 

These  time  limits  run  from  the  day  when 
the  printed  act  of  one  House   is  delivered  to 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  CZECHOSLOVAKIA 


731 


I 


the  other  House ;  by  consent  of  both  houses 
these  time  limits  may  be  extended  or  short- 
ened. The  limit  of  one  month  within  which 
the  Senate  shall  take  action  on  financial  and 
army   bills   cannot  be  extended. 

If  during  the  limit  the  term  of  the  House 
which  is  to  take  action  on  the  bill  of  the 
other  expires  or  the  House  is  dissolved,  pro- 
rogued or  its  session  closed,  the  limit  begins 
to  run  anew   from   its   next  meeting. 

If  the  second  House  takes  no  action  within 
the  above  time  limits,  the  failure  is  con- 
sidered equivalent  to  approval  of  the  decision 
of  the  first  House. 

44.  A  measure  passed  by  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  shall  become  law  in  spite  of  the 
dissent  of  the  Senate  if  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  by  a  vote  of  the  majority  of  the 
entire  membership  reaffirms  its  original  vote. 
If  the  Senate  rejects  by  a  three-fourths  ma- 
jority of  the  entire  membership  a  bill  which 
was  passed  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  the 
bill  becomes  law  only  if  repassed  by  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  by  a  majority  of  three- 
fifths  of  the  entire  membership. 

Proposals  of  the  Senate  are  submitted  to 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  If  the  latter  re- 
jects the  Senate  bill  and  the  Senate  reaf- 
firms its  original  vote  by  a  majority  vote 
of  the  entire  membership,  the  bill  is  submit- 
ted once  more  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
If  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  rejects  the  Senate 
bill  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  entire  member- 
ship the  bill  fails. 

Bills  which  thus  fail  cannot  be  resub- 
mitted in  either  House  before  the  expiration 
of  one   year. 

Amendment  of  a  bill  passed  by  one  House 
in  the  other  House  is  equivalent  to  rejec- 
tion. 

45.  If  either  House  has  to  consider  for  the 
second  time  a  bill  which  it  once  voted  or 
consider  again  a  bill  passed  by  the  other 
House,  and  should  the  House  be  dissolved 
or  its  term  expire  before  reconsideration,  the 
action  of  the  new  House  on  the  matter  shall 
be  considered  to  be  its  second  action  in  the 
sense  of  Section  44. 

46.  If  the  National  Assembly  rejects  a  Gov- 
ernment bill,  the  Government  may  order  a 
popular  vote  to  be  taken  on  the  question, 
whether  the  bill  shall  become  law.  Such  a 
decision  of  the  Government  must  be  unani- 
mous. 

The  right  of  vote  belongs  to  all  who  are 
entitled  to  vote  for  members  of  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies. 

Details  are  regulated  by  law. 

Popular  vote  does  not  apply  to  govern- 
mental proposals  changing  or  amending  the 
Constitution  and  the  fundamental  laws  which 
are  a  part   of   it. 

47.  The  President  of  the  republic  may  re- 
turn with  his  objections  a  law  passed  by  the 
National  Assembly  within  one  month  from 
the  day  on  which  it  was  delivered  to  the 
Government. 

48.  If  both  houses  in  a  roll  call  reaffirm 
their  vote  by  a  majority  of  the  entire  mem- 


bership,   the    measure    shall    be    proclaimed 
law. 

If  such  a  concurrent  majority  of  both 
houses  is  not  reached,  the  measure  will 
nevertheless  become  law,  if  in  a  new  roll 
call  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  votes  for  it  by 
three-fifths  of  the  entire  membei'ship. 

If  the  measure  in  question  is  one  which 
requires  the  larger  quorum  and  higher  ma- 
jority, the  returned  measure  must  be  adopted 
in  the  presence  of  this  quorum  by  the  speci- 
fied  majority. 

The  provisions  of  Section  45  apply  here 
also. 

49.  A  law  does  not  go  into  effect  until  it 
is  proclaimed  in  the  manner  prescribed  by 
law. 

Laws  are  proclaimed  by  this  clause:  "  The 
National  Assembly  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public  adopted   the   following  law." 

Laws  shall  be  proclaimed  within  eight 
days,  not  including  Sundays,  from  the  limit 
set  in  Section  47.  If  the  President  of  the 
republic  makes  use  of  his  rig'  there  re- 
ferred to,  the  law  shall  be  proclaimed  within 
eight  days,  not  including  Sundays,  from  the 
day  when  re-enactment  by  the  National  As- 
sembly is  communicated  to  the  Govern- 
ment. 

50.  Every  law  must  state  which  member 
of  the  Government  is  charged  with  its  exe- 
cution. 

51.  The  law  shall  be  signed  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  republic,  the  President  of  the 
Government  and  the  Minister  charged  to 
execute  the  law.  If  the  President  is  disabled 
or  ill  and  has  no  Deputy,  the  President  of 
the  Government  signs  on  his  behalf. 

The  President  of  the  Government  may  be 
represented  in  the  signing  of  laws  in  the 
manner  provided  for  in  Section  71. 

52.  Each  House  has  the  right  to  interpellate 
the  President  and  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment on  all  matters  within  their  jurisdiction, 
inquire  into  administrative  acts  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, appoint  committees  to  which  the 
Ministers  shall  submit  information,  adopt  ad- 
dresses  and  resolutions. 

The  President  and  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment shall  answer  the  interpellations^of  the 
members   of  the  houses. 

53.  The  manner  in  which  State  financial 
economy  and  State  debt  is  controlled  is  regu- 
lated by  law. 

54.  (1)  In  the  period  between  the  dissolu- 
tion of  either  House  or  the  expiration  of  its 
term  and  the  next  convening  of  both  houses, 
and  also  during  the  time  when  the  session 
of  the  two  houses  is  prorogued  or  closed,  a 
commission  of  twenty-four  members  may 
enact  urgent  measures  which  have  the  force 
of  law.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  elects 
sixteer  members  with  sixteen  alternates,  and 
the  Senate  elects  eight  members  and  eight 
alternates  for  the  term  of  one  year.  Each 
alternate  takes  the  place  of  a  definite 
member. 

(2)  First  elections  take  place  as  soon  as 
the    two    houses    are    organized.      Presidents 


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THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


and  Vice  Presidents  of  both  houses  take 
part  in  voting-.  When  a  new  House  has 
been  elected  it  selects  new  members  of  the 
commission,  even  though  the  one-year  term 
of  sitting  members  has  not  expired. 

(3)  The  principle  of  proportionate  repre- 
sentation shall  be  applied  in  these  elections. 
Parties  may  combine.  If  all  parties  agree, 
members  of  the  commission  may  be  selected 
from  the  body  of  the  House.  This  may  be 
done  if  objectors  do  not  exceed  twenty 
Deputies   or   ten   Senators. 

(4)  Members  of  the  commission  remain  in 
office  until  their  successors  are  elected. 
Alternates  take  the  place  of  members  who 
permanently  or  temporarily  are  unable  to 
perform  their  duties.  If  there  is  a  vacancy 
in  the  office  of  either  member  or  alternate, 
supplementary  election  is  had  for  the  balance 
of  the  term.  A  newly  elected  member  must 
belong-  to  the  same  group  as  the  former 
member  unless  the  group  in  question  should 
fail  to  nominate  a  candidate  or  refuse  to 
participate  in   electing. 

(.0)  A  member  of  the  Government  may  not 
be  member  of  commission  or  his  alternate. 

(6)  As  soon  as  the  commission  is  elected 
it  shall  organize  itself  by  electing  a  Presi- 
dent and  Second  Vice  President  out  of  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Deputies,  and  First 
Vice   President  out  of  Senate  members. 

(7)  Sections  23  to  27  of  the  Constitution 
apply   to   members   of  the  commission. 

(8)  The  commission  may  act  in  all  matters 
that  come  within  the  legislative  and  adminis- 
trative jurisdiction  of  the  National  Assembly, 
but    it    cannot 

(a)  elect  the  President  of  the  republic  or 
his   Deputy ; 

(b)  amend  fundamental  laws  or  change 
jurisdiction  of  public  authorities,  except  that 
it  may  add  new  duties  to  existing  authori- 
ties; 

(c)  impose  by  its  measures  upon  citizens 
new  and  lasting  financial  duties,  increase 
military  obligation,  burden  permanently  the 
State  finances  or  alienate  State  property ; 

(d)  give  its  consent  to  declaration  of  war. 

(9)  A  measure  which  is  to  have  the  effect 
of  law  or  which  authorizes  expenditures  not 
provided  for  in  the  budget  must  be  approved 
by  a  majority  of  the  entire  membership. 

(10)  In  all  other  cases  the  commission  may 
act  in  the  presence  of  one-half  of  its  member- 
ship by  a  majority  vote  of  those  present. 
The  President  votes  only  to  break  the  tie. 

(11)  Emergency  measures  which  are  in  the 
nature  of  law  may  be  adopted  only  upon 
recommendation  of  the  Government  approved 
by   the   President   of  the   republic. 

(12)  Acts  of  the  commission  referred  to  in 
the  preceding  section  have  temporarily  the 
effect  of  law ;  they  are  proclaimed,  with  a 
reference  to  Section  54,  in  the  series  of  laws 
and  ordinances,  and  they  are  signed  by  the 
President  of  the  republic,  President  of  the 
Government  or  his  Deputy,  and  at  least  one- 
half   of   the    Ministers.      Acts   which    are    not 


signed  by  the  President  of  the  republic  may 
not  be  proclaimed. 

(13)  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Constitutional 
Court  extends  to  measures  which  are  in  the 
nature  of  law ;  they  shall  be  submitted  to  the 
court  by  the  Government  at  the  time  of  their 
proclamation  in  the  series  of  laws  and 
ordinances.  The  Constitutional  Court  de- 
cides whether  measures  submitted  to  it  com- 
ply with  Paragraph  8  b. 

(14)  President  of  the  commission  and  Vice 
President  submit  a  report  of  the  actions  of 
the  commission  in  the  first  sessions  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  and  the  Senate,  even 
though  they  may  have  ceased  to  be  mem- 
bers. 

(15)  Measures  which  are  not  approved  by 
both  houses  within  two  months  of  their  con- 
vening are  thereafter  void. 

III.   GOVERNING  AND   EXECUTIVE 
POWER 

55.  Ordinances  may  be  issued  only  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  a  definite  law  and 
within  its  terms. 

56.  The  President  of  the  republic  is  elected 
by   the   National  Assembly. 

He  shall  be  a  citizen  of  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic,  qualified  to  be  member  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  and  35  years  of  age. 

57.  Election  is  held  in  the  presence  of  the 
majority  of  the  total  membership  of  both 
houses,  and  a  vote  of  three-fifths  of  those 
present  is  necessary. 

If  two  ballots  result  in  no  choice,  the  next 
balloting  is  limited  to  the  highest  candidates; 
he  who  receives  a  plurality  of  votes  is 
elected.  In  case  of  tie  the  decision  is  made 
by  lot. 

Details   are   governed   by   la-w. 

58.  The  term  of  office  commences  on  the 
day  when  the  newly  elected  President  makes 
the  promise,  as  provided  in  Section  65. 

The  term  of  office  is  seven  years. 

Election  is  held  within  the  last  four  weekc 
of  an  expiring  term. 

No  one  may  be  elected  for  more  than  two 
successive  terms.  A  person  who  has  served 
as  President  for  two  successive  terms  cannot 
be  elected  again  until  seven  years  shall  have 
elapsed  from  the  expiration  of  his  last  term. 
This  provision  does  not  apply  to  the  first 
President  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic. 

The  former  President  continues  in  office 
until   the   new   President   is   elected. 

59.  Should  the  President  die  or  resign 
during  his  term  of  office,  a  new  election  is 
held  in  accordance  with  provisions  of  Sec- 
tions 56  and  57  for  a  term  of  seven  years. 
The  National  Assembly  shall  be  convened  for 
that  purpose  within  fourteen  days. 

60.  Until  the  new  President  is  elected  (Sec- 
tion 59),  or  if  the  President  is  prevented  by 
ill-health  or  other  cause  from  performing  his 
office,  his  authority  is  exercised  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, which  may  entrust  definite  functions 
to  its  own  President. 

61.  If  the  President  is  incapacitated  or  ill 
for  more  than   six   months   (Section  fiO),    and 


rZECHOSLi 


i 


if  the  Government  so  decides  in  the  presence 
of  three-quarters  of  its  members,  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  will  elect  an  acting  Presi- 
lent  who  will  serve  as  such,  until  the  im- 
ediment  is  removed. 

During    the    period    for    which    a    person    is 
lOt    eligible    to    be    President    in    accordance 
ith    Section    58   he    cannot    be   acting   Presi- 
dent. 

62.  The  election  of  acting  President  is 
governed  by  rules  applying  to  the  election  of 
President. 

63.  The  President  of  the  republic  may  not 
be  at  the  same  time  member  of  the  National 
Assembly.  If  a  member  of  the  National  As- 
sembly is  elected  acting  President,  he  cannot 
execute  his  mandate  in  the  National  As- 
sembly while  he  is  exercising  the  office  of 
President. 

64.  The  President  of  the  republic : 

(1)  Represents  the  State  in  its  foreign  re- 
lations. He  negotiates  and  ratifies  interna- 
tional treaties,  commercial  treaties,  treaties 
which  impose  upon  the  State  or  the  citizens 
burdens  of  a  financial  or  personal  nature, 
especially  military,  and  treaties  which  change 
the  boundaries  of  the  State,  need  the  con- 
tent of  the  National  Assembly.  In  the  case 
of  changes  of  boundaries  the  consent  of  the 
National  Assembly  must  take  the  form  of  a 
constitutional  law  (Article  I.  of  the  enabling 
laws)  ; 

(2)  Receives  and  accredits  diplomatic  rep- 
resentatives ; 

(3)  Proclaims  state  of  war  to  exist,  de- 
clares war  after  first  obtaining  the  consent 
of  the  National  Assembly,  and  lays  before 
it  the  negotiated  treaty  of  peace  for  its  ap- 
proval ; 

(4)  Convenes,  prorogues  and  dissolves  the 
National  Assembly  (Sections  28  to  31)  and 
declares  the  session   of  the  houses  closed  ; 

(5)  May  return  bills  with  his  objections 
(Section  47)  and  signs  laws  of  the  National 
Assembly  (Section  51),  of  the  Diet  of  Car- 
pathian Russia  (Section  3),  and  ordinances 
of  the  commission    (Section  54)  ; 

(6)  Gives  to  the  National  Assembly  oral  or 
written  information  of  the  state  of  the  re- 
public and  recommends  to  their  consideration 
such  measures  as  he  may  deem  necessary 
and    expedient ; 

(7)  Appoints  and  dismisses  Ministers  and 
determines   their  number ; 

(8)  Appoints  all  professors  of  universities, 
and  all  Judges,  civil  officials  and  army  of- 
ficers  of  the   sixth   or  higher   rank  ; 

(9)  Grants  gifts  and  pensions  in  special 
cases  upon  motion  of  the  Government ; 

(10)  Is  Commander  in  Chief  of  all  armed 
forces ; 

(11)  Grants  pardons  in  ^.ccordance  with 
Section  103. 

All  governing  and  executive  power,  in  so 
far  as  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  Cze- 
choslovak Republic,  adopted  after  Nov.  15. 
1918,  do  not  expressly  reserve  it  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  republic,  shall  be  exercised  by 
the  Government    (Section  70). 

05.  The  President  of  the  republic  promises 


before  the  National  itesembly  (Section  58) 
upon  his  honor  and  conscience  that  he  will 
study  the  welfare  of  the  republic  and  the 
people  and  that  he  will  observe  constitutional 
and  other  laws. 

66.  The  President  of  the  republic  is  not 
responsible  for  the  execution  of  his  office. 
For  his  utterances,  connected  with  the  of- 
fice of  the  President,  the  Government  is  re- 
sponsible. 

67.  He  may  be  criminally  prosecuted  only 
for  high  treason  before  the  Senate  upon  im- 
peachment by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  (Sec- 
tion 34).  The  punishment  may  extend  only 
to  the  loss  of  his  office  and  disqualification 
ever  to  hold   it  again. 

Details  are  determined  by  law. 

68.  Every  act  of  the  President  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  governing  or  executive  power  is 
valid  only  when  countersigned  by  a  respon- 
sible  member   of  the   Government. 

69.  Provisions  applying  to  the  President  of 
the  republic  apply  also  to  the  acting  Presi- 
dent  (Section   61). 

70.  The  President  and  members  of  the 
Government  (Ministers)  are  appointed  and 
dismissed  by  the  President  of  the  republic. 

The  ordinary  seat  of  the  Government  is 
Prague  (Section  6). 

71.  The  Government  elects  from  its  mem- 
bership the  President's  Deputy,  who  may  take 
his  place.  If  the  Deputy  is  unable  to  act,  the 
oldest  member  of  the  Government  in  years 
acts  as  President. 

72.  The  President  of  the  republic  decides 
over  which  department  each  Minister  shall 
preside. 

73.  Mernbers  of  the  Government  'promise 
to  the  President  of  the  republic,  upon  their 
honor  and  conscience,  that  they  will  con- 
scientiously and  impartially  perform  their 
duties  and  observe  constitutional  '  and  other 
laws. 

74.  No  member  of  the  Government  may  sit 
on  the  Board  of  Directors  or  act  as  repre- 
sentative of  a  stock  company  or  a  firm  which 
is   engaged   in   business   for   profit. 

75.  The  Government  is  responsible  to  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  which  may  declare  its 
lack  of  confidence  in  the  Government.  This 
shall  be  done  in  the  presence  of  the  major- 
ity of  the  entire  membership  by  a  majority 
vote   upon  a   roll  call. 

76.  Motion  to  declare  lack  of  a  confidence 
shall  be  signed  by  at  least  one  hundred 
Deputies  and  shall  be  referred  to  committee 
which  will  submit  its  report  within  eight 
days. 

77.  The  Government  may  ask  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  to  vote  its  confidence.  This 
motion  shall  be  acted  upon  without  reference 
to    committee. 

78.  If  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  declares 
lack  of  confidence  in  the  Government  or  if  it 
rejects  the  motion  of  Government  for  a  vote 
of  confidence,  the  Government  shall  hand  its 
resignation  to  the  President  of  the  republic, 
who  will  select  the  persons  who  are  to  carry 
on  the  affairs  of  state  until  a  new  Govern- 
ment is  formed. 


r34 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


If  the  Government  resigns  at  a  time  when 
there  is  neither  President  nor  acting  Presi- 
dent, the  commission  provided  for  in  Section 
~A  accepts  the  resignation  and  talies  steps  to 
have  the  administration  carried  on. 

79.  If  the  President  or  members  of  the 
Government  violate  fundamental  or  other 
laws  by  their  official  acts  either  intentionally 
or  from  gross  negligence,  they  are  respon- 
sible criminally. 

Right  to  impeach  belongs  to  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  and  the  trial  is  held  before  the 
Senate. 

Details  are  regulated  by  law. 

80.  The  Government  acts  as  a  college  which 
is  competent  to  take  ajtion  only  in  the 
presence  of  the  President  or  acting  Presi- 
dent and  a  majority  of  the  Ministers. 

81.  The  Government  decides  corporatively 
in  particular : 

(a)  Government  measures  for  the  National 
Assembly,  Government  ordinances  (Section 
84)  and  recommendations  to  the  President 
of  the  republic  to  make  use  of  the  power 
given  him  by  Section  74 ; 

(b)  all  matters  of  a  political  nature ; 

(c)  appointment  of  Judges  and  civil  offi- 
cials of  the  eighth  and  higher  ranks,  as  far 
as  this  appertains  to  the  central  authorities, 
and  nominations  of  functionaries  who  are 
appointed  by  the  President  of  the  republic 
(Section   64,    Paragraph  8). 

82.  The  President  of  the  republic  may 
attend  and  preside  over  the  meetings  of  the 
Government;  he  may  require  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  members  written  opinion  of 
any  matter  relating  to  the  duties  of  their 
office.* 

83.  The  President  of  the  republic  may  invite 
the  Government  or  its  members  for  consulta- 
tion. 

84.  Every  Government  ordinance  shall  be 
signed  by  the  President  of  the  Government 
or  the  acting  President,  and  also  by  Ministers 
charged  with  its  execution  and  in  no  case 
less  than  half  the  Ministers. 

8r).  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministries  is 
regulated  by  law. 

86.  In  the  lower  State  administrative  offices 
the  citizen  element  shall  be.  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, represented,  and  the  protection  of  the 
rights  and  interests  of  the  citizens  (ad- 
ministrative judicature)  shall  be  effectively 
provided. 

87.  No  one  may  be  at  the.  same  time  an 
elected  member  of  an  inferior  administra- 
tive organ  and  also  of  an  organ  that  is  su- 
perior or  exercises  supervision  over  the 
former. 

Exceptions  may  be  made  by   law. 

88.  Judicial  protection  against  administra- 
tive organs  shall  be  provided  by  the  Supreme 
Administrative  Court,  composed  of  independ- 
ent Judges,  with  jurisdiction  over  the  terri- 
tory   of    the    entire    republic. 

Details  are  regulated  by  law. 

89.  The  nature  and  authority  of  the  in- 
ferior organs  of  State  administration  is  set- 
tled in  principle  by  law  which  may  leave 
details    to    Government    ordinances. 


90.  State  organs  which  are  entrusted  with 
economic  functions  only,  without  exeicising 
the  sovereign  authority  of  the  State,  are 
created   and   organized   by  ordinances. 

91.  The  nature  and  authority  of  the  auton- 
omous organ  are  regulated  by  special  law. 

92.  The  law  determines  to  what  extent  the 
State  shall  be  responsible  for  illegal  execu- 
tion   of    governmental    authority. 

93.  Public  employes  shall  in  their  official 
acts  observe  fundamental  and  other  laws. 
This  applies  also  to  citizen  members  of  ad- 
ministrative colleges. 

IV.  JUDICIAL  POWER 

94.  The  judicial  power  is  exercised  by  State 
courts ;  the  law  prescribes  their  organiza- 
tion, their  jurisdiction  and  their  procedure. 

No  one  may  be  sent  before  any  other  Judge 
but  the  one  who  has  jurisdiction  by  law. 

Only  in  criminal  matters  extraordinary 
courts  may  be  introduced,  and  then  in  cases 
prescribed  by  law  in  advance  and  for  a 
limited  period. 

95.  Judicial  power  in  civil  cases  belongs 
to  civil  courts,  either  regular  or  special  and 
arbitration  courts ;  judicial  power  in  crim- 
inal matters  belongs  to  regular  criminal 
courts,  in  so  far  as  it  is  not  assigned  to 
military  criminal  courts,  and  except  as  such 
matters  may,  in  accordance  with  general 
ordinances,  be  dealt  with  by  police  or  finan- 
cial  punitive  procedure. 

For  the  entire  territory  of  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic  there  shall  be  one  Supreme  Court. 

The  place  of  juries  in  judicial  procedure  is 
regulated  by  special  laws. 

Jury  trials  may  be  temporarily  suspended 
In  cases  provided  for  by  law. 

The  jurisdiction  of  court-martial  may  be 
extended  to  civil  population  in  accordance 
with  the  provisions  of  law  only  in  time  of 
war   and   for  acts  done  during  the  war. 

96.  Judicial  power  is  in  all  instances  sepa- 
rated  from   administration. 

Conflicts  of  jurisdiction  between  courts  and 
administrative  organs  are  regulated  by  law. 

97.  Qualifications  of  professional  Judges 
are  determined   by  law. 

Judges  shall  take  an  oath  of  office  that 
they  will  observe  the  laws. 

The  status  of  Judges  in  the  service  of  State 
is  regulated  by  special  law. 

98.  All  Judges  shall  execute  their  office 
independently  of  all  considerations  except 
only  the  law. 

99.  Professional  Judges  are  appointed  per- 
manently ;  they  may  not  be  transferred,  de- 
moted or  pensioned  against  their  will,  ex- 
cept should  there  be  a  new  organization  of 
courts  and  then  only  during  the  period  pro- 
vided for  by  the  law,  or  by  virtue  of  a  proper 
disciplinary  finding ;  they  may  be  pensioned 
also  by  a  proper  finding  when  they  reach  the 
legal  retirement  age.  Details  are  regulated 
by  law  which  also  prescribes,  under  what 
conditions  Judges  may  be  suspended  from 
office. 

Judicial  Senates  in  courts  of  first  and  sec- 


mSTlTUTION  OF  CZECHOSLOVAKIA 


ond    instance    are    in    session    all    year ;    ex- 
ceptions are  made  by  law. 

100.  Judgments  are  pronounced  in  the  name 
of  the  republic. 

Sessions  of  court  are  oral  and  public ;  judg- 
ments in  criminal  cases  are  declared  in 
public;  the  public  may  be  excluded  from 
court  sessions  only  in  cases  enumerated  by 
law. 

In  trials  of  criminal  cases  the  principle  of 
accusation  applies. 

101.  Professional  Judges  may  not  hold  any 
other  paid  position,  permanent  or  temporary, 
except  as  otherwise  provided  by  law. 

102.  Judges  in  passing  upon  a  legal  ques- 
tion rnay  examine  the  validity  of  an  ordi- 
nance ;  as  to  law  they  may  only  inquire, 
whether  it  was  properly  promulgated  (Sec- 
tion 51). 

103.  The  President  of  the  republic  shall 
have  power  to  declare  amnesty,  grant  par- 
dons or  commute  punishments,  restore  lost 
civil  rights,  in  particular  the  right  to  vote 
for  National  Assembly  and  other  elected 
bodies,  and  with  the  exception  of  criminal 
proceedings  where  an  individual  is  com- 
plainant, suspend  all  criminal  prosecution. 

This  power  of  the  President  of  the  republic 
does  not  apply  to  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment, impeached  or  condemned  in  accord- 
ance with   Section  79. 

104.  Liability  of  the  State  and  Judges  for 
damages  caused  by  illegal  execution  of  of- 
ficial authority  is  determined  by  law, 

105.  In  all  cases  in  which  an  administrative 
organ  in  accordance  with  particular  laws 
passes  upon  claims  for  compensation  the 
party  affected  may,  after  exhausting  his 
remedies  with  higher  authorities,  apply  for 
relief  to  courts. 

Details  are  regulated  by  law. 

V.    RIGHTS    AND    PRIVILEGES,    AS 
WELL  AS  DUTIES  OF  CITIZENS 

106.  Privileges  due  to  sex,  birth  and  calling 
are  not  recognized. 

All  inhabitants  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public enjoy,  equally  with  the  citizens  of  the 
republic,  in  its  tei-ritory  full  and  complete 
protection  of  race  or  religion.  Exceptions 
to  this  principle  are  admissible  only  as  far 
as  is  compatible  with  international  law. 

Titles  may  be  conferred  only  when  they 
refer  to  office  or  occupation ;  this  does  not 
apply    to   academic   degrees. 

107.  Personal  liberty  is  guaranteed.  De- 
tails are  regulated  by  a  law  which  is  a  part 
of  this   Constitution. 

Personal  liberty  may  be  restricted  or  taken 
away  only  in  conformity  with  law ;  likewise 
public  authorities  may  compel  a  citizen  to 
perform  personal  acts  only  In  conformity 
with  law. 

108.  Every  Czechoslovak  citizen  may  settle 
in  any  part  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic, 
acquire  real  property  there  and  engage  in  a 
gainful  occupation,  within  the  limits  of  gen- 
eral legal  provisions. 


This  right  may  be  restricted  only  in  the 
public  interest  by  law. 

109.  Private  ownership  may  only  be  re- 
stricted by  law. 

Expropriation  may  be  accomplished'  only 
in  compliance  with  law  and  compensation 
shall  be  paid,  except  where  the  law  specific- 
ally provides  that  compensation  shall  not  be 
paid. 

110.  The  right  to  emigrate  may  only  be 
limited    by    law. 

111.  Taxes  and  public  burdens  may  be  im- 
posed only  in  conformity  with  law. 

Likewise  threats  and  imposition  of  punish- 
ments shall  be  made  only  in  conformity  with 
law. 

112.  The  rights  of  home  shall  not  be 
violated. 

Details  are  regulated  by  a  law  which  is 
a  part  of  this   Constitution. 

113.  Liberty  of  press  and  the  right  to  as- 
semble peacefully  and  without  arms,  and  to 
form  associations  is  guaranteed.  It  is  there- 
fore illegal  as  a  matter  of  principle  to  sub- 
ject the  press  to  censoring  before  publication. 
The  manner  in  which  the  right  of  assembly 
and  association  shall  be  exercised  is  de- 
termined by  laws. 

An  association  may  be  dissolved  only  when 
its  activity  violates  the  criminal  law  or  pub- 
lic peace  and  order. 

The  law  may  impose  restrictions  upon 
assemblies  in  places  serving  public  traffic, 
upon  the  establishment  of  associations  for 
profit  and  upon  the  participation  of  foreign- 
ers in  political  societies.  In  the  same  man- 
ner restrictions  may  be  imposed  upon  the 
preceding  guarantees  in  time  of  war  or  of 
domestic  disorders  which  may  menace  sub- 
stantially the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  Constitution  or  public  peace  and 
order. 

114.  The  right  to  associate  for  the  protec- 
tion and  improvement  of  conditions  of  em- 
ployment and  economic  interests  is  guaran- 
teed. 

All  acts  of  individuals  or  associations  which 
seem  to  amount  to  intentional  violation  of 
this  right  are  prohibited. 

115.  The  right  of  petition  is  inherent ;  legal 
persons  and  associations  may  exercise  it  only 
within  their  scope  of  action. 

116.  Secrecy  of  mails  is  guaranteed. 
Details   are   regulated   by   law. 

117.  Every  person  may,  within  the  limits  of 
law,  express  his  opinions  by  word,  writing, 
press,   picture,   &c. 

This  applies  to  legal  persons  within  their 
scope  of  action. 

The  exercise  of  this  right  shall  not  prej- 
udice any  one  in  his  relations  as  employe  of 
another. 

118.  Scientific  investigation  and  publication 
of  its  results,  as  well  as  art,  is  untrammeled 
as  long  as  it  does  not  violate  criminal  law. 

119.  Public  instruction  shall  be  so  conducted 
as  not  to  be  in  conflict  with  the  results  of 
scientific  investigation. 

120.  Establishment  of  private  schools  is 
permitted  only  within  the  limits  of  laws. 


736 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


The  State  administration  shall  have  the 
supreme  conduct  and  oversight  of  all  instruc- 
tion and   education. 

121.  Liberty  of  conscience  and  profession  is 
guaranteed. 

122.  No  one  may  be  compelled  directly  or 
indirectly  to  participate  in  any  religious  act ; 
this  does  not  apply  to  the  authority  of  father 
or  guardian. 

All  inhabitants  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public have  equally  with  citizens  of  the  Cze- 
choslovak Republic  the  right  to  practice  in 
public  or  private  any  confession,  religion  or 
faith,  as  long  as  the  practice  is  not  in  con- 
flict with  public  order  or  good  morals. 

123.  All  religious  confessions  are  equal 
before   the  law. 

124.  The  performance  of  definite  religious 
acts  may  be  forbidden  if  they  violate  good 
order   or   public  morality. 

125.  The  marriage  relation,  family  and 
motherhood,  are  under  the  special  protection 
of  the  laws. 

126.  Every  physically  fit  citizen  of  the 
Czechoslovak  Republic  shall  submit  to  mili- 
tary training  and  obey  the  call  to  defend  the 
State. 

Details  are  regulated  by  law. 

VI.     PROTECTION     OF    NATIONAL, 

RELIGIOUS  AND  RACIAL 

MINORITIES 

127.  All  citizens  of  the  Czechoslovak  Re- 
public are  fully  equal  before  the  law  and 
enjoy  civil  and  political  rights,  regardless  of 
race,  language  or  religion. 

Difference  of  religion,  faith,  confession  and 
language  shall  not  be  a  handicap  to  any 
citizen  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic  within 
the  limits  of  general  laws,  in  particular  with 
reference  to  access  to  employment  by  the 
State,  to  offices  and  dignities,  or  the  pursuit 
of  any  occupation   or  profession. 

Citizens  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic  may, 
within  the  limits  of  general  laws,  freely  em- 
ploy any  language  in  private  or  commercial 


•relations,  in  matters  relating  to  religion,  ir 
press  or  any  publications,  or  in  public  as- 
semblies of  the  people. 

This  shall  not  affect  rights  which  belong 
to  the  organs  of  the  State  in  accordance  with 
any  present  or  future  laws  based  on  con- 
siderations of  public  order,  safety  of  the 
State  and  efficient  control. 

128.  The  right  to  use  a  definite  language  in 
public  offices  is  regulated  by  special  law 
which  forms  a  part  of  this  Constitution. 

129.  In  so  far  as  citizens  may,  in  com- 
pliance with  general  laws,  establish,  direct 
and  administer  at  their  own  expense  chari- 
table, religious  and  social  institutions,  schools 
and  educational  institutions,  all  citizens,  re- 
gardless of  nationality,  language,  religion 
and  race,  shall  be  equal  and  may  in  such 
institutions  freely  employ  their  own  lan- 
guage and  practice  their  religion. 

130.  In  cities  and  districts  in  which  there 
lives  a  considerable  fraction  of  Czechoslovak 
citizens  of  other  than  Czechoslovak  language, 
children  of  such  Czechoslovak  citizens  shall 
receive  in  public  schools,  within  the  limits  of 
the  general  law  governing  education,  suitable 
opportunity  to  be  taught  in  their  own  tongue ; 
but  instruction  in  the  Czechoslovak  language 
may  be   made   obligatory. 

131.  Wherever  in  cities  and  districts  in 
which  there  lives  a  considerable  fraction  of 
Czechoslovak  citizens,  belonging  to  religious, 
national  and  language  minorities,  definite 
sums  are  to  be  expended  on  education,  re- 
ligion or  charity  from  public  funds  on  the 
basis  of  State,  municipal  or  other  public 
budgets,  such  minorities  are  hereby  guaran- 
teed, within  the  limits  of  general  regulations 
applicable  to  public  administration,  a  propor- 
tionate share  in  the  expenditure  of  such 
funds. 

132.  Principles  set  forth  in  Sections  130  and 
131,  especially  the  definition  of  the  expres- 
sion "  considerable  fraction,"  shall  be  carried 
out  by  special  laws. 

133.  Every  form  of  forcible  denationaliza- 
tion is  forbidden.  Violation  of  this  principle 
may   be   declared   criminal   by  law. 


The  New  Rulers  of  the  Sarre  Basin 


WITH  the  progress  of  the  work  of  or- 
ganizing the  administration  of  the 
Sarre  Basin  for  the  next  fifteen  years 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Peace  Treaty 
the  division  of  labor  and  authority  among 
the  five  members  of  the  governing  com- 
mission appointed  to  represent  the 
League  of  Nations  has  been  apportioned 
as  follows : 

President  Rault  is  in  charge  of  inter- 
nal administration  and  political  affairs, 
foreign  affairs,  and  matters  concerning 
industry  and  commerce,  including  the 
head  mining  office  and  the  customs,  as 


well  as  labor  affairs;  Herr  von  Eoch 
looks  after  agriculture  and  welfare  and 
sanitation;  M.  Lambert  handles  public 
works  and  the  railroad,  postal,  telegraph 
and  telephone  systems;  Count  von 
Moltke-Huidfeld  attends  to  affairs  of  the 
courts,  instruction  and  cults,  while 
Mayor  Waugh  cares  for  finance  and  the 
forestry  sei"vice,  as  well  as  for  supplies. 
Herr  Hillenbrandt,  District  Secretary 
of  the  Christian  Trade  Unions,  has  been 
made  business  manager  of  the  Adminis- 
trative Council  of  the  Sarre  Basin  in 
place  of  Deputy  Kossmann. 


CURRENT    HISTORY 

A     MONTHLY     MAGAZINE     OF 
5it|p  Ni*m  ^atk  ulimpa 


PUBLISHED     BY 

The 

New 

YOKK 

Times    Company,    Times 

Square, 

New    Yopac. 

N. 

T. 

Vol. 

XIL, 

No. 

5 

AUGUST, 

1920 

S.'i   Cent.' 
$4.00  a 

,  a   Copy 

Tear 

II  II  II  II 

II  II  II  1 

11-11 

II  11  II 

II     II     II 

II  II  II  II  II  II  II 

II  II  II  II  II 

II   II   II   II 

II    II    II    II    II    II 

II    II 

II    11 

J= 

TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

PAGE 

RUSSIA'S    AGONY      .      .      By   a    Former   Member   of   Kolchak's    Staff  735 

BRITISH    LABOR'S    REPORT    ON    RUSSIA 746 

SOVIET  RUSSIA'S  FIGHT  FOR  TRADE     . 748 

POLAND'S    MILITARY    DISASTER     (Map) 753 

A    MONTH    IN-  THE    UNITED    STATES 758 

THE    THIRD    PARTY    CONVENTION 764 

THE  SPA  CONFERENCE:     SUMMARY  OF  ITS  RESULTS     ...  765 

HIGH    COURT    OF    INTERNATIONAL    JUSTICE 772 

GERMANY'S  CONSERVATIVE  REGIME 793 

RESTORING  LAW  AND   ORDER  IN  MEXICO 815 

AMONG  THE  NATIONS:     A  WORLDWIDE  SURVEY: 

Events  in  the  British  Empire 775 

The  Latin  Nations  of  Europe 781 

Belgium's  Close  Relations  With  France     .      .      .    ■ 789 

Developments    in    Scandinavian    Countries 790 

Hungary  and  Her  Neighbors 797 

States   of  the   Balkan   Peninsula 800 

Turkey  and  Her  Lost  Dominions 804 

Status  of  the  Shantung  Dispute 812 

Republics    of    Latin    America 818 

THE    DEMOCRATIC    CONVENTION 823 

Text  of  the  Democratic  Platform 829 

THE  HALL  OF  FAME  OF  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

By  Carson  C.  Hathaway  838 

Contents   Continued  on  Next  Page 

Copyright,    1920,    by    The    New    York    Times    Company.      All    Rights    Reserved. 
Entered    at    the    Post    Office    in    New    York    and    in    Canada    as    Second    Class    Matter. 


II  II  II  u  n  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  <i  11  II  n  11  ^l  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  n  II  11  I 


Table  of  Contents — Continued 

ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  NATIONS  TREATED: 


PAGE 

Albanu     800 

Argentina    819 

Australia    780 

Austria    798 

Belgium     789 

Bolivia    820 

Bulgaria    801 

Canada    778 

Chile    821 

China   813 

Czechoslovakia    799 

Denmark   792 

Eci-PT    781 

England     775 

France    785 

Germany    793 

Greece    802 

Guatemala    819 

Holland     790 

Hungary    797 

Ireland     776 

Italy    781 

Iceland   793 


page 

Japan     . . . , 812 

Jugoslavia     803 

Mexico    815 

Mesopotamia     810 

New  Zealand  781 

Nicaragua    819 

Norway     792 

Palestine    808 

Paraguay    821 

Perslv    811 

Peru    821 

Portugal    788 

Rumania    802 

Salvador    8l8 

Spain  and  Morocco   787 

Sweden     780 

Switzerland     789 

SVRLA    810 

Turkey     804 

United  States   758 

Uruguay    821 

The  Vatican   784 

West   Indies    822 


VOCATIONAL  TRAINING   FOR   MARINES 839 

FINANCIAL  RESOURCES  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES     ....  840 

CURRENT    HISTORY.    IN    BRIEF 843 

CARTOONS  OF  THE  MONTH  FROM  MANY  NATIONS     ....  843 

CONTRIBUTIONS    FROM    READERS 873 

TOWARD  A  NEW  WAR:    THE  HORTHY  REGIME  IN  HUNGARY 

By  Eugene  S.  Bagger  875 

INTERNATIONAL    LABOR    BOYCOTT    OF    HUNGARY     ....  881 

DENMARK'S   NEW   DUAL   ELECTION   SYSTEM 884 

ARMENIA     (Poem)      . By     Talbot     Mundy  886 

THE  MARCH  OF   SCIENCE: 


Motion   Pictures   in   Natural   Colors     • 

A  New  Marvel  in  Aircraft 

A  Fuel  That  Widens   Cruising  Radius 
Navigating  Ships  by  Sound  Waves 
Corncobs  Yield  a  Base  for  Dyes     . 
An  Instrument  for  Recording  Tree  Growth 


887 
891 
892 
892 
893 
894 


ANTI-TYPHOID  VACCINATION  IN  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY 

By  William  H.  Cole  895 

ITALY'S  GREATEST  VICTORY  IN  THE  WAR:     Battle  of  Vittorio 

Veneto.      (Official  Report,  With  Map) 902 

WHY  SARRAIL  DELAYED  SO  LONG    .    By  Captain  G.  Gordon-Smith  912 

THE   AMRITSAR   RIOTS   IN   INDIA:    Official   Report 914 


Be 


II  II  n  H  II  II  II  n  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II 


11  11  11  11  11  ii  II  li  II  11  11  II  II  II  II  li  II  II  II  n  II  II  II  ffl 


1^ 


I 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY  '  -Au  ^ ,  i  oj  i  o 

lyewitness   Narrative   of   the    Crisis  in  Which  Kolchak  Fell 
and  Bolshevism  Triumphed — Sufferings  in         i  i\^ 

the  Tragic  Flight  Eastward  ^     I  ^ ,  *^ 

BY  A  FORMER  MEMBER  OF  KOLCHAK'S  STAFF         ^ 

[First  Installment] 


This  is  the  first  of  three  remarkable  articles  revealing  the  inside  history  of 
the  events  attending  the  fall  of  the  Omsk  Government  and  the  retreat  that  ended 
in  the  tragic  death  of  Admiral  Kolchak,  last  hope  of  constitutional  Government  in 
Russia.  Current  History  has  obtained  these  articles  through  the  British  Legation 
at  Peking,  tvhither  the  writer  had  made  his  way  after  the  disaster.  Though  the 
author's  name,  for  obvious  reasons,  is  withheld,  the  authenticity  of  his  story  is  as 
unquestionable  as  its  extraordinary  interest.  The  illustrations  were  made  by  a 
Red  Cross  official,  an  eyewitness  of  the  horrors  of  the  "death  train,"  whose  hun- 
dreds of  typhus  victims  were  part  of  the  same  tragedy* 


WHEN  I  first  joined  the  newly 
formed  All-Russian  Govern- 
ment at  Omsk  in  March,  1919, 
we  had  the  highest  hopes  that 
this  regime  with  Kolchak  at  its  head 
was  to  prove  a  happy  solution  for  our 
country's  difficulties.  All  signs  then 
seemed  to  indicate  that  the  saner  ele- 
ments of  the  people  were  with  us.  Kol- 
chak himself  inspired  confidence.  None 
could  doubt  his  honesty,  devotion,  loyalty 
and  patriotism,  or  suspect  him  of  private 
ambitions.  Dominated  by  his  heroic  per- 
sonality, our  armies  were  successful  on 
the  front.  Won  over  by  his  sterling  qual- 
ities, a  man  like  Roland  Morris,  United 
States  Ambassador  in  Tokio,  who  went 
into  Siberia  quite  an  anti-Kolchak,  re- 
ported to  President  Wilson  after  careful 
investigation  that  the  "  All-Russian 
Government  should  be  recognized  at  once, 
also  supported  and  upheld  in  every  pos- 
sible manner." 

Though  our  prospects  were  rosy  we 
had  immense  difficulties  to  contend 
against.  The  position  in  Omsk  was  not 
easy  either  from  the  point  of  view  of 
personal  comfort  or  of  public  activity. 
Our  capital  was  nothing  but  a  big 
Siberian  village,  partly  encircled  by  the 
protecting  arm  of  the  River  Irtish  and 
situated  in  the  midst  of  an  endless 
brown,  wind-burned  plain,  empty  save 
for  occasional  horseshoe-shaped  clusters 


of  Tartar  yurts.  A  lonelier,  drearier 
stage  setting  for  empire  building  could 
scarcely  be  imagined,  cut  off  as  it  was 
from  civilization,  except  for  the  thin 
steel  ribbon  of  the  Trans-Siberian  Rail- 
way. Down  our  unpaved  streets  the 
primitive  Mongols — Children  of  the 
Steppe — galloped  their  shaggy  ponies. 
Their  long  caravans  of  led  camels 
heightened  the  impression  of  the  wilds. 
A  hard  climate,  too,  bitter  cold  in  Win- 
ter, with  freezing  winds  bearing  clouds 
of  suffocating  dust,  and  scorching  hot 
in  Summer,  when  torrential  rains  turned 
roads  into  morasses  and  brought  a  tor- 
turing plague  of  midges  and  mosquitos, 
increased  our  sense  of  isolation.  Such 
depressing  natural  conditions  could  not 
fail  to  affect  painfully  all  those  unac- 
customed to  them  from  childhood. 

LIVING   UNDER   DIFFICULTIES 

In  addition  to  these  trials  we  suffered 
all  the  discomforts  of  overcrowding  in- 
evitable in  a  place  whose  normal  popu- 
lation of  100,000  had  suddenly  swollen 
to  600,000.  Most  of  the  houses  were 
one-storied  wooden  shacks  like  the  log 
cabins  of  early  days  in  America — very 
small  and  wretched  from  a  civilized 
point  of  view,  without  a  single  modern 
convenience.  The  hotel  was  impossible, 
ill-kept,  full  of  vermin,  with  scanty 
broken  furniture  and  partitions  so  thin 


736 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


that  one  could,  as  Mark  Twain  said, 
"  hear  the  young  lady  next  door  change' 
her  mind." 

I  stayed  there  only  one  night  and  was 
thankful  the  following  day  to  get  lodg- 
ings with  a  private  family,  .where  I 
looked  forward  to  a  small  but  clean  room 
to  myself.  Unfortunately  I  reckoned 
without  the  Committee  for  Housing  Ar- 
rangements, who  had  a  right  to  demand 
accommodation  for  any  one  needing  it. 
One  evening  on  my  return  home  I  found 
an  officer  lying  asleep  on  my  bed.  When 
I  inquired  sternly  what  he  meant,  the 
man  showed  an  official  permit  and  re- 
marked: "I  have  been  ordered  to  stay 
with  you.  There  is  no  other  place."  It 
was  not  pleasant  to  have  a  stranger  set- 
tle down  into  closest  intimacy  with  me, 
especially  in  a  room  a  few  feet  square. 
But  complaints  were  useless,  since  every 
one  must  have  shelter.  Besides,  when 
whole  families  lived  in  a  space  no  bigger 
than  an  American  dress  closet,  and  when 
even  two  strangers  in  a  moderate-sized 
room  often  had  a  third  billeted  upon 
them,  I  had  nothing  to  say.  Kolchak 
himself  had  only  a  tiny  house,  where  he 
lived  quite  unpretentiously,  and  not  more 
than  two  or  three  of  the  most  important 
Ministers  of  State  boasted  the  luxury 
of  a  salon,  which  was  really  a  necessity 
in  their  cases,  as  they  were  obliged  to 
receive  visitors  on  political  business. 
Smaller  functionaries,  like  the  Minister 
of  Agriculture,  lived  in  the  office  where 
they  worked,  trunks  jostling  typewriters, 
and  the  bed  sometimes  serving  as  an 
impromptu  desk. 

AN  OBLIGING  SERVANT 

If  the  lack  of  privacy  was  trying,  the 
lack  of  a  bathroom  was  no  less  so.  True, 
the  ordinary  Turkish  baths  common  to 
all  Russian  villages  existed,  but  to  bathe 
at  home  was  practically  impossible,  and 
none  of  the  houses  had  ininning  water. 
When  I  insisted  once  on  having  a  tub 
prepared  for  me  in  my  room,  the  whole 
family  shook  their  heads  as  if  doubtful 
of  my  sanity.  I  overheard  the  mother 
whisper,  "  Poor  fellow,  the  constant 
work  and  worries  must  have  turned  his 


brain  a  little.  Why,  he  will  be  wanting 
a  window  open  next." 

My  request,  however,  put  our  single 
red-cheeked  servant  Anna  on  her  mettle. 
"  A  bath  you  want,"  she  exclaimed  in  a 
great  state  of  excitement;  "well,  a  bath 
you  shall  have!  "  And  she  set  about  pre- 
paring it  much  in  the  spirit  of  a  General 
who  stakes  his  reputation  on  carrying  a 
difficult  operation  through  successfully. 
I  am  bound  to  admit  that  she  won  a 
brilliant  victory  against  tremendous 
odds,  but  the  episode  taught  me  a  les- 
son. In  future  I  w^ashed  bit  by  bit  like 
a  mosaic  in  my  small  tin  basin  rather 
than  give  this  obliging  servant  extra 
trouble. 

What  a  good  soul  she  was,  a  veritable 
treasure  of  cheerfulness  and  willingness, 
as  Russian  servants  often  are,  and  a 
great  rarity  in  Siberia,  where  help  is  so 
difficult  to  get.  She  did  the  work  of  the 
whole  house,  waited  upon  ten  people, 
including  a  helpless  old  lady,  and  man- 
aged the  marketing  as  well — no  easy 
task  under  prevailing  conditions.  The 
peasants  simply  refused  to  bring  in  sup- 
plies. They  had  grown  weary  of  ex- 
changing their  produce  for  paper  money 
which  could  no  longer  buy  anything. 
Besides,  they  had  plenty  of  doubtful 
notes  already — were,  in  fact,  money 
poor,  if  one  may  use  the  expression,  in- 
stead of  land  poor.  And  they  had  grown 
to  dislike  and  avoid  the  towns.  "  All  the 
trouble  is  brewed  in  the  cities,"  I  have 
heard  them  argue.  "  So  let  the  cities 
starve.  We  don't  intend  to  carry  them 
our  corn,  or  even  to  harvest  more  than 
we  need  for  ourselves."  With  hunger 
rampant  in  the  world,  I  have  seldom 
seen  a  more  pathetic  sight  than  our 
crops  in  Soviet  Russia  left  to  rot  in  the 
fields  as  a  result  of  this  selfish  and  dan- 
gerous philosophy. 

HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

Anna  therefore  contrived  our  cooking 
with  scanty  materials.  On  Saturday 
nights  she  generally  put  her  best  foot 
forward  and  gave  us  the  dish  most  fa- 
vored by  the  majority — a  compound  of 
meat  cut  into  small  pieces  and  mixed 
with  dried  lentils,  which  she  named 
"  Every  One  Likes  It,"  or  else  a  "  pirog  " 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


TYPHUS    SUFFERERS    ON    THE    VERGE    OF    DEATH. 
{Photo   American    Red    Cross) 


WAITING    FOR    HELP 


or  pie  of  minced  meat.  These  were  just 
two  clever  disguises  for  the  inevitable 
beef.  With  forests  full  of  game  and 
rivers  full  of  fish,  neither  appeared  in 
the  Siberian  market;  and  vegetables,  ex- 
cept cabbage  for  the  savory  schi  soup, 
were  rare. 

Prices  were  very  high.  Sugar,  for  ex- 
ample, cost  35  rubles  (normally  $17.50) 
a  pound,  and  everything  else  was  in  pro- 
portion. For  a  single  dish  of  eggs  in  a 
shabby  restaurant  one  paid  60  rubles 
($30);  a  whole  dinner  might  easily  run 
to  1,000  rubles  ($'500),  and  the  isvoschik 
who  dro^e  one  out  to  eat  it  demanded 
100  rubles  for  his  fare.  As  for  clothing, 
I  know  of  a  lady  who  paid  12,000  rubles 
($6,000)  for  a  sweater — or  about  five 
times  as  much  as  in  Russia,  owing  to 
the  expense  of  transport  and  the  depre- 
ciation of  the  currency. 

The  fall  of  the  ruble  hit  us  Govern- 
ment officials  hard.  The  salary  of  the 
Cabinet  Minister,  my  direct  chief,  ex- 
pressed in  foreign  coinage,  was  exactly 
what  he  paid  his  cook  in  America.  The 
head   of   a   department   like   myself   got 


the  equivalent  of  $25.  Luckily  most  of 
us  worked  not  for  money  but  for  an  ideal 
— the  welfare  of  our  country — and  we 
certainly  worked  hard.  We  were  busy 
from  early  morning  till  afternoon,  when, 
after  an  interval  at  4  o'clock  for  dinner, 
the  Council  of  Ministers  would  often 
meet  again  and  discuss  till  2  or  3  A.  M. 
Let  no  man  who  has  not  tried  to  con- 
struct a  Government  for  a  huge  country 
like  Russia  criticise  our  efforts  too 
harshly.  Let  him  remember,  too,  that 
we  struggled  under  exceptionally  hard 
conditions,  having  no  archives  and  no 
precedents.  It  was  like  trying  to  build 
a  house  without  solid  material  for  the 
foundations. 

Inevitably,  as  in  all  small,  isolated 
communities,  where  people  are  forced  to 
endure  close  and  uninterrupted  inter- 
course, cliques,  quarrels  and  misrepre- 
sentations sometimes  grew  up  among  us. 
These  were  accentuated  by  our  great 
Russian  failing — a  love  of  discussion — in- 
ordinately developed  in  the  intelligentsia, 
as  represented  in  the  Government.  At 
the  State  councils  the  President  would 
generally  have  a  waiting  list  of  speakers 


738 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


as  long  as  your  arm.  ITie  pros  and  cons 
of  every  proposal  were  argued  back  and 
forth  till  the  point  at  issue  threatened  to 
be  forever  obscured  in  a  wordy  tangle. 
This  would  at  times  lead  to  loss  of  tem- 
per over  the  veriest  trifles.  It  thus  once 
happened  that  two  friends,  both  intelli- 
gent and  educated  men  of  mature  years, 
fell  out  with  one  another  literally  about 
dog  licensing.  The  strained  situation 
was  relieved,  as  usual,  by  my  friend 
M.,  himself  an  excellent  talker,  but  no 
less  distinguished  for  his  moderation  and 
good  sense;  he  leaned  across  the  table 
and  remarked  to  the  President  in  a  loud 
aside,  "  Mr.  President,  don't  you  think  it 
time  to  close  the  list?  "  The  President 
thereupon  took  his  advice  and  we  thank- 
fully looked  forward  to  some  much- 
needed  rest. 

BEGINNING   OF   REVERSES 

Though  we  worked  patiently  through 
the  heavy  strain  of  days  and  nights  try- 
ing to  devise  a  solution  for  each  new 
puzzle  that  came  up,  in  April  we  began 
to  be  discouraged  by  bad  news  from  the 
front.  Our  troops,  which  had  advanced 
to  Ufa  and  Viatka,  had  to  fall  back  on 
account  of  heavy  tactical  and  strategical 
mistakes.  To  tell  the  truth,  our  Gen- 
erals had  bitten  off  more  than  they  could 
chew.  Their  forces  were  not  strong 
enough  to  march  beyond  the  Urals  into 
the  very  heart  of  Russia.  Caution  dic- 
tated a  defensive  campaign,  but  caution 
was  forgotten  in  the  desire  for  a 
triumphal  entry  into  Moscow.  Moreover, 
our  High  Command  neglected  to  prepare 
sufficient  reserves  for  this  risky  enter- 
prise. The  advance  was  made  in  a  thin 
line  800  miles  long,  and  when  a  whole 
Ukrainian  division  went  over  to  the 
enemy  its  defection  left  a  huge  gap 
through  which  the  Reds  poured  their 
troops  without  encountering  any  resist- 
ance. To  save  a  rout,  the  whole  of 
Gaida's  Siberian  army  had  to  fall  back 
— and  from  that  fatal  moment  our  sol- 
diers seemed  to  lose  confidence  in  their 
chiefs. 

We  succeeded  in  checking  the  Reds  for 
about  two  months  on  the  Tobol  River, 
but  by  early  Autumn,  when  the  Bolshe- 
viki    received   reinforcements,   they  con- 


tinued their  advance  into  Siberia.  Their 
insidious  propaganda,  secretly  spread, 
now  began  to  affect  our  troops.  Hun- 
dreds, nay  thousands,  left  our  ranks. 
More  deadly  to  our  cause,  however,  than 
Bolshevist  ideas  or  Bolshevist  fire  were 
the  dreadful  sanitary  conditions  that 
killed  or  goaded  to  desertion  numbers 
of  our  soldiers.  Spotted  typhus  was 
rampant.  Despite  all  our  efforts  and  the 
noble  assistance  of  the  American  Red 
Cross,  we  could  not  check  the  epidemic. 
The  sick  lay  in  hundreds  at  small  sta- 
tions waiting  their  turn  to  be  evacuated 
to  Omsk  or  beyond.  The  dead  contami- 
nated the  living.  Whole  regiments  were 
decimated.  To  quote  one  instance,  the 
reserve  brigade  of  Kalashnikov,  hurried 
from  Central  Siberia  to  save  the  threat- 
ened position  on  our  right  wing,  dwindled 
down  after  a  fortnight  to  600  available 
fighting  men,  all  the  rest  being  laid 
low  by  illness.  In  fact  it  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  one  of  the  main  causes 
of  our  military  defeat  was  this  appalling 
sanitary  condition — a  condition  which  we 
had  no  adequate  means  of  remedying. 

THE  BRITISH  EVACUATION 

Until  September,  however,  thi;  Red  and 
White  forces  on  the  Omsk  front  were 
well  matched.  Kolchak  had  even  a  small 
superiority  of  numbers,  which  allowed 
him  to  continue  westward,  though  with 
increasing  difficulty.  But  about  Oct.  10 
we  received  the  bad  news  that  the  British 
intended  to  evacuate  Archangel,  leaving 
our  General  Miller  there  alone  with  4,000 
or  5,000  unreliable  troops.  The  Bolshe- 
viki,  who  had  three  divisions  on  this 
northern  front,  immediately  deflected  a 
part  of  them  against  our  lines,  using 
the  rest  against  Petrograd  to  stop  Yude- 
nich  at  the  moment  he  was  about  to  enter 
that  city.  They  likewise  threw  their 
whole  Second  Army,  which  was  operat- 
ing in  the  Don  region,  against  our  Third 
Army,  and  advanced  with  these  fresh 
troops.  Unfortunately  Kolchak  had  no 
reserves  with  which  to  oppose  them.  The 
limited  population  of  Siberia,  consisting 
as  it  does  of  only  15,000,000  men,  proved 
an  insufficient  recruiting  ground.  More- 
over, the  spirit  of  the  population  was 
already  so  tainted  by  Bolshevism  that  its 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


th 

i 


yalty   in   our   ranks   would   have   been 

oubtful.    Our  Generals  at  the  front  even 

egged    us    not    to    enlist    new    soldiers 

est   they   serve   no   useful   purpose   and 

only    contaminate    those    already    under 

their  command. 

After    Oct.    20    things    went    rapidly 

om   bad   to   worse.     Kolchak   admitted 

at   "  the   situation   was   very   serious  " 

t  a  meeting  of  the  Supreme  Council  on 

the   25th;    how   serious    we    could    guess 

when  we  noted  with  anxiety  how  ill  and 

worried  he  looked  and  how  strained  his 

nerves  were. 

PREPARING  TO  LEAVE  OMSK 

The  Reds  were  now  advancing  at  the 
rapid  rate  of  fifteen  miles  a  day.  This 
caused  an  increasing  unrest  in  the  town, 
though  a  week  before  the  Bolsheviki 
finally  entered  it  the  surface  life  ap- 
peared much  as  usual.  The  characteristic 
movement  in  the  streets — the  abnormal 
traffic  of  a  congested  city — continued. 
Then  suddenly  one  morning  (Tuesday, 
Oct.  28)  as  I  left  the  house  I  was  struck 
at  seeing  the  shops  closed,  windows  and 
doors  fast  shut,  no  cabs  and  hardly  any 
foot  passengers  in  the  streets — all  busi- 
ness at  a  standstill.  The  contrast  was 
painfully  significant.  A  little  later  I 
learned  that  the  evacuation  of  Omsk  had 
been  decided  upon,  as  Kolchak  saw 
tJiere  was  no  chance  of  defending  the 
city  successfully.  Rumor  said  that  three 
of  his  Ministers  bitterly  opposed  his 
decision,  but  their  opposition  was  finally 
overborne. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  the 
tragedy  of  the  evacuation  I  must  digress 
for  a  moment  to  describe  the  situation 
at  the  front.  Our  positions  were  now 
shaped  somewhat  like  a  fan,  with  two 
ribs  converging  toward  a  handle,  which 
was  represented  by  the  single  bridge 
across  the  Irtish.  The  Third  Army  oc- 
cupied the  southern  fork  of  the  railway 
line  (one  rib),  the  First  Army  the  north- 
em  fork  (the  other  rib),  both  of  which 
met  at  this  bridge,  while  the  Second 
Army  was  midway  between  the  other 
two. 

Now,  the  First  Army  was  notoriously 
unreliable.  The  difficulty  that  our  offi- 
cers   were   having   to   hold    its    swaying 


regiments  together  was  an  open  secret. 
Still  it  was  painful  if  not  unexpected 
news  when  the  commanders  were  forced 
to  draw  back  about  two-thirds  of  this 
army  in  order  to  reconstitute  it.  Seeing 
how  matters  stood,  the  leaders  of  the 
Second  Army  attempted  by  spreading 
out  their  forces  to  cover  this  retreat — 
alas,  unsuccessfully!  When  the  Bol- 
sheviki managed  to  turn  our  right  wing 
our  Generals  were  faced  with  the  prob- 
lem of  getting  the  three  armies  back  to 
Omsk  in  the  narrow  margin  of  ten  days, 
during  which  the  capital  had  also  to  be 
evacuated. 

FATAL  DELAY  IN  RETREAT 

Divided  counsels  among  our  military 
leaders  were  responsible  for  the  fatal 
delay  in  the  retreat.  The  Commander  in 
Chief,  Diedrichs,  was  for  leaving  Omsk 
without  giving  battle,  hoping  thus  to  re- 
tire in  order.  Other  commanders  had 
other  ideas.  Kolchak  himself  did  not 
want  to  abandon  the  town  and  only  gave 
way  at  the  last  moment  to  the  grave 
exigencies  of  a  hopeless  situation.  Then 
Diedrichs  resigned  just  before  the  final 
catastrophe. 

When  they  finally  agreed  to  leave  the 
doomed  city  our  officers  found  that  by 
a  stroke  of  ill-luck  the  river  had  not 
frozen  as  early  as  usual  because  of  the 
exceptionally  mild  weather.  This  meant 
that  the  long  procession  of  sullen  and 
discontented  troops,  the  guns,  the 
horses,  and  the  hundred  thousand  trans- 
port carts  must  be  hurried  as  fast  as 
possible  over  the  bridge  instead  of  being 
taken  across  on  solid  ice.  Men  prayed 
for  a  drop  in  the  thermometer,  but  Nov. 
7,  8  and  9  dawned  soft  and  warm,  and 
only  on  the  11th  came  the  .big  frost  so 
earnestly  desired.  That  day  some  of  our 
soldiers  did  manage  to  cross  the  river 
on  thin  ice,  not  without  danger  to  life. 
Meanwhile  the  Bolsheviki,  with  con- 
summate cunning,  made  a  detour  to  the 
north  and  crossed  more  easily  and  quick- 
ly where  the  Irtish  was  more  solidly 
frozen.  On  Nov.  14  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  they  sent  small  bodies  of  their 
troops  to  occupy  the  town  while  their 
main  armies  pushed  on  eastward,  cir- 
cling to  join  the  railway,  where  they  cut 


740 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


yUFFERERS    THROWN    OUT    OF    TRAIN    ON    THE    TRANS-SIBERIAN    RAILWAY 
(Photo  American  Bed  Cross) 


our  communications  and  captured  hun- 
dreds of  trains  between  Omsk  and 
Tatarskaya. 

OFFICE  BOYS  AS  MINISTERS 

Let  us  now  go  back  a  few  days  and 
see  what  was  happening  in  Omsk  itself. 
On  Saturday,  Nov.  8 — the  date  sticks  in 
my  mind — I  walked  down  to  the  Ministry, 
to  find  it  practically  empty.  Most  of 
the  staff  had  gone  out  to  make  prepara- 
tions for  the  calamity  which  was  so 
rapidly  overtaking  us.  Only  two  young 
office  boys  were  still  at  their  posts.  The 
harassed  Minister,  worried  by  panicky 
callers  and'  pestered  for  interviews  on  a 
dozen  different  subjects,  smiled  ironical- 
ly and  remarked  to  me,  "  I  have  put 
those  two  boys  in  charge  of  the  most 
important  departments."  "  In  other 
countries  under  happier  conditions,"  he 
told  me  afterward,  "  their  work  would 
have  been  done  by  Under  Secretaries  of 
State.  But  I  must  say  Mischa  and 
Grisha  acquitted  themselves  in  a  very 
creditable   manner." 

Next  morning  (Nov.  9)  I  happened  to 
be  in  another  Government  office.  While 
discussing  the  situation  with  a  friend 
there  we  heard  voices  in  the  street  and 
crossed  to  the  windows.  Men  in  little 
groups  were  straggling,  heavy-footed, 
along     the     main     street.      Some     had 


trousers  made  of  ticking,  some  remnants 
of  uniform  coats,  som.e  shawls  wrapped 
round  their  heads  or  blankets  over  their 
shoulders.  "  These  must  be  refugees," 
I  remarked  sadly.  "  Refugees!  "  he  ex- 
claimed; "look  at  their  rifles."  This 
motley  crew,  torn  and  tattered,  did  in- 
deed carry  guns;  yet  I  could  scarcely  be- 
lieve that  it  was  the  remnant  of  an 
army — our  army.  Step  was  not  kept  in 
those  ranks.  Little  was  there  of  martial 
aiTay  or  soldierlike  gait  and  attitude. 
In  discolored  flannel  and  torn  serge, 
mute  and  sullen,  these  remnants  of  our 
forces  tramped  by  to  make,  rumor  said, 
a  stand  on  the  hills  outside  the  town. 
Their  angry,  sullen  faces  boded  ill,. how- 
ever, for  an^  return  to  discipline,  and, 
as  we  feared,  they  drifted  gradually  over 
to  the  Bolsheviki. 

There  was  something  infinitely  pa- 
thetic about  this  vanguard  of  the  great 
retreat.  Yet  it  was  only  the  presage 
of  a  still  greater  disaster,  the  evacua- 
tion. 

PANIC  AND  CONFUSION 

With  heavy  hearts  we  heard  the  de- 
cision that  the  whole  Government  must 
leave  for  Irkutsk  on  the  10th,  the  next 
day.  Delay  might  prove  fatal  to  the 
official  hope  of  making  a  stand  further 
eastward.     But  in  our  hearts  we  knew 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


TYPHUS    VICTIM    RESCUED    BY    THE    RED    CROSS 
(Photo   American  Red  Cross) 


that  we  had  failed.  Whatever  we  might 
do  now,  whatever  threats  or  concessions 
our  Government  might  make,  we  pri- 
vately realized  at  that  bitter  moment 
that  nothing  could  stem  the  tide  of  Bol- 
shevism in  Siberia. 

The  first  and  most  pressing  problem 
was  to  get  the  required  trains.  Our 
allies,  the  Czechs,  had  seized  most  of  our 
rolling  stock  for  themselves,  so  it  was 
only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
enough  cars  were  found  for  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  Ministries,  let  alone  accom- 
modation for  the  unfortunate  townsfolk, 
who  were  like  a  frightened  flock  of 
sheep  at  the  approach  of  wolves.  On 
the  last  day  a  panic  began  and  spread 
until  confusion  reigned.  Even  in  the 
Government  offices  many  lost  their 
heads.  Some  departments  left  every- 
thing behind,  including  their  dispatches; 
in  others  everything,  down  to  the  last 
pencil,  was  safely  boxed  9.nd  got  away. 
All  depended  on  the  coolness  of  those  in 
charge. 

When  the  Council  of  Ministers  came 
to  embark,  the  cars  reserved  for  them 
could  not  be  found.     A  man  in  the  Min- 


istry of  Marine  volunteered  to  hunt  for 
them.  He  commandeered  an  engine  and 
after  two  days'  search  up  and  down  the 
line  burst  in  one  night  while  ws  were  at 
dinner,  exclaiming,  "  Well,  I  managed  to 
find  five  cars,  anyhow.  One  FuUman  is 
hopelessly  mislaid."  He  said  it  as  if  he 
were  speaking  of  a  book  or  other  small 
object.  He  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  loss  was  due  to  the  ill-feeling  against 
the  Cabinet.  One  of  his  aids,  while 
searching  the  station,  overheard  a  rail- 
way hand  say,  "  Let  the  small  fry  go  ; 
but  let  the  big  fish  remain  till  the  Bol- 
sheviki  come  in." 

DEPARTURE  FOR   IRKUTSK 

By  great  luck  the  Ministers  got  away 
just  in  time.  Practically  all  the  trains 
which  left  after  the  10th  were  caught 
and  surrounded  by  the  Bolsheviki  except 
the  third  train  of  the  Finance  Bureau, 
which,  starting  on  Nov.  13  (the  eve  of 
the  Bolshevist  entry),  had  a  narrow 
escape.  By  this  train  the  Government 
gold  reserve  of  $100,000,000  in  coin  and 
bullion  was  to  have  been  embarked;  Kol- 
chak,  who  thought  that  the  safest  place 


742 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


for  this  treasure  was  near  him,  in 
charge  of  his  own  reliable  bodyguard, 
had  yielded  his  opinion  and  permitted 
the  Treasury  to  be  evacuated  with  the 
other  Ministries.  The  gold,  in  fact,  had 
already  been  loaded  on  the  cars  when 
news  came  from  Irkutsk  and  Vladivostok 
that  revolution  in  both  towns  v/as  immi- 
nent— news  that  was  confirmed  when  the 
Gaida  revolt  broke  up  in  Vladivostok  five 
days  after  the  Government  left  Omsk, 
and  when  Irkutsk  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Social  Revolutionaries  six  weeks 
later.  In  these  circumstances  it  seemed 
risky  to  let  the  treasure  go,  so  Kolchak, 
who  never  shirked  responsibility,  decided 
to  keep  it  with  him,  relying-  on  the 
Czechs  and  his  own  bodyguard.  He  did 
not  guess  then  how  the  foi-mer  would 
betray  him. 

The  machines  for  printing  banknotes 
and  also  a  number  of  unsigned  notes 
were  on  this  train,  however,  and  if  it 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki  they  would  have  scored  an  important 
victory.  Now,  the  Czechs,  as  usual,  in- 
sisted that  their  trains  should  take  prece- 
dence. Luckily,  our  Russian  conductor 
was  a  man  of  resource  specially  chosen 
for  his  responsible  position.  He  argued 
with  the  Czech  military  authorities,  who 
finally  allowed  him  to  proceed,  after 
placing  soldiers  on  his  engine  to  see  that 
he  obeyed  orders  to  keep  behind  their 
troop  train.  But  the  times  were  stern, 
the  crisis  supreme.  In  the  dead  of  night, 
after  a  secret  conference  with  his  en- 
gineer and  fireman,  the  conductor  gave 
the  signal  "  full  speed  ahead  "  just  be- 
fore reaching  a  switch.  The  sleepy 
guards  were  seized  and  thrown  off  the 
train  before  they  could  defend  them- 
selves., while  the  Treasury  train  dashed 
ahead. 

TRAVELING  IN  BOX  CARS 

When  our  party  came  to  start,  we  saw 
with  horror  that  we  were  to  travel  in 
"  teplushkas,"  or  ordinary  closed  freight 
cars.  Except  the  few  "  sleepers  "  left 
for  the  Cabinet,  all  the  other  first  and 
second  class  cars  were  appropriated  by 
the  Czechs  for  their  own  use.  Even 
the  hospitals  were  unable  to  get  any- 
thing but  box   cars  for  their  wounded, 


owing  to  this  arbitrary  action  of  our 
allies.  No  wonder  people  complained 
bitterly  at  their  inhumanity,  though  com- 
plaints were  useless.  The  Czechs  had 
57,000  armed  men.  They  held  the  line. 
They  could  do  as  they  pleased.  We  poor 
Russians  had  to  accept  what  they  left  us. 
We  had  twenty-four  hoifi's  to  make  the 
"  teplushkas  "  habitable — that  is  to  say, 
to  accomplish  the  impossible.  We  had 
only  narrow  planks  to  sleep  on,  like  the 
bunks  in  the  fo'c'sle  of  a  sailing  ship. 
There  was  not  even  straw  to  lie  on.  The 
planks  served  as  .seats  and  tables  at  meal 
times.  A  rough  window  hewn  out  of  the 
side  of  the  car  with  an  axe  and  cov- 
ered with  a  woman's  petticoat  let  in  a 
little  light  by  day.  At  night  we  sat  with 
the  feeble  illumination  of  a  guttering 
candle.  A  rough  iron  stove  in  the  centre 
of  the  "  teplushka "  burned  those  who 
were  too  near  and  left  those  out  of  range 
to  freeze.  Of  course,  proper  ventilation 
under  these  conditions  was  impossible. 
Many  people  found  the  used-up  air  and 
foul  odors  very  trying,  but  to  open  the 
door  meant  letting  in  20  degrees  of  frost, 
and  any  such  attempt  was  met  by  strenu- 
ous vociferations  on  the  part  of  some  of 
our  fellow-passengers. 

INDESCRIBABLE  SUFFERINGS 

There  were  no  sanitary  arrangements 
of  any  kind.  A  small  tin  basin  was  an 
unusual  luxury  shared  by  the  whole  com- 
pany, but  water  for  washing  was  scarce. 
Yet  many  refugees  spent  thirty  days  i:i 
these  awful  conditions,  while  the  heavy 
trains  crawled  slowly  along — men,  wom- 
en and  children  crowded  together  pro- 
miscuously, sometimes  thirty  or  forty 
in  each  car.  Their  sufferings  were  in- 
describable, and  many  a  time  have  I 
heard  a  mother  with  a  sick  or  half- 
frozen  child  cursing  the  Czechs,  who,  our 
people  soon  believed,  were  the  source  of 
all  their  miseries.  "Those  vile  foreign- 
ers," she  would  cry,  "  they  came  as 
friends  pretending  to  help  us.  What  have 
they  done — stolen  our  cars,  stolen  even 
our  warm  clothes!  Look  at  their  uni- 
forms, new  and  cozy,  made  out  of  our 
last  supplies  of  Russian  cloth.  Now  they 
hold  up  our  trains  and  force  us  to  travel 
like  pigs.     Oh!  how  we  hate  them  for 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


74i 


HI^H^  ^^^^H  ^^^^^^^^^^H 

^■B 

v^^^^l 

FREED  FROM  VERMIN,   WASHED  AND  DRESSED  BY  THE  AMERICAN  RED  CROSS 
(Photo  Atnerican  Red   Cross) 


their  selfish  pretensions  and  their  bru- 
tality! We  shall  never  forget  their  in- 
humanity— never ! " 

Such  bitterness  is  scarcely  to  be  won- 
dered at  when  you  remember  that  the 
refugees  were  themselves  without  ade- 
quate clothing,  without  fuel  except  what 
they  could  gather  along  the  line  when 
they  jumped  out  at  stations  to  pick  up 
anything  that  would  burn,  such  as  old 
railroad  ties  or  broken  boards  from  carts 
or  houses,  and  without  sufficient  food. 
Practically  nothing  edible  could  be  ob- 
tained on  the  journey,  for  every  station 
buffet  had  been  long  ago  swept  as  clean 
as  if  a  flight  of  locusts  had  passed  over 
it.  Those  travelers  who,  like  ourselves, 
had  left  behind  their  dearest  possessions, 
such  as  valued  books  and  family  photo- 
graphs, to  make  room  for  foodstuffs, 
were  counted  fortunate. 

To  add  to  the  horrors  of  the  journey 
there  was  at  least  one  case  of  typhus  in 
every  "  teplushka."  As  I  said  before, 
Omsk  was  full  of  this  deadly  fever, 
spread  by  parasites  that  bred  rapidly 
among  people  with  few  changes  of  cloth- 
ing, and  flourished  in  the  heavy  woolen 


undergarments  necessitated  by  the  cli- 
mate. Even  the  cars  were  infested  with 
vermin. 

HELPLESS  AMONG  THE  DYING 

As  we  had  no  medicines,  once  a  case 
developed  we  could  only  ask  one  another 
in  a  whisper,  "  How  long  do  you  think 
the  suffering  will  last?  "  The  sick  per- 
son lay  on  the  bare  boards  while  life 
ebbed  away,  moaning  softly,  or  else 
emitting  violent  broken  shrieks  in  his 
delirium.  I  shall  never  forget  one  poor 
old  man,  who,  like  the  English  King, 
was  an  "  unconscionable  time  a-dying." 
His  wrinkled  face  would  tremble,  his  dry, 
thin  lips  would  stretch  out  and  move 
nervously,  displaying  black  broken  teeth, 
and  his  breathing  sounded  like  the 
squeaking  of  rusty  hinges.  It  was  too 
dreadful  not  to  have  some  means  of 
soothing  his  pain,  but  we  could  only 
make  him  as  comfortable  as  possible, 
and  hope  for  an  opportunity  to  transfer 
him  to  a  sanitS,ry  car.  Here,  of  course, 
a  patient  would  get  better  attention;  but 
experience  taught  us  that  this  advan- 
tage was  offset  by  the  change  of  tem- 


744 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


REMOVING    VICTIMS    FROM    THE    DEATH    TRAIN    ON    THE    SIBERIAN    RAILWAY 
(Photo    American    Red    Cross) 


perature.  The  move,  in  fact,  generally 
proved  fatal. 

How  many  tragic  hours  we  passed 
through,  when  brave  men  knelt  with  un- 
ashamed tears  at  the  bedside  of  some 
patient  in  despairing  helplessness! 
Wives  saw  their  husbands  die  before 
their  eyes,  mothers  their  children.  But 
suffering  seemed  to  develop  a  beautiful 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  Few  complained. 
Even  the  roughest  showed  tenderaess, 
and  it  was  extraordinary  how  calmly 
everybody  accepted  the  terrible  risk  of 
contagion.  Perhaps  this  was  due  to  the 
strong  streak  of  fatalism  in  our  Rus- 
sian natures.  Many  a  time  I  have  seen 
men  who  felt  themselves  bitten  by  a 
parasite  and  knew  they  were  doomed, 
calmly  cross  themselves,  saying,  "  God 
wills  it." 

The  dead  lay  in  the  car  among  the 
living  until  we  reached  a  station — some- 
times all  night.  Then,  hastily  and 
rudely,  a  grave  was  dug,  a  few  tears 
were  shed,  a  few  prayers  intoned,  and 
a  little  brown  tent  of  earth  was  piled 
up  on  the  desolate  steppe.  Perhaps  his 
nearest  and  dearest  would  never  know 


where  our  companion  was  buried,  never 
see  his  last  resting  place.  Perhaps  they 
were  with  us  and  assisted  at  the  last  sad 
rite.  "  Stop  crying,  mother.  Come, 
don't  be  weak,  brother,"  some  one  would 
say  with  rough  kindness,  and  lead  the 
poor  relatives  back  to  the  car,  hopeless 
and  helpless,  cut  off  from  their  past, 
traveling  toward  who  knows  what  un- 
happy future  ? 

TERRIBLE  WAYSIDE  SCENES 

But  miserable  as  were  the  people  in 
the  "  teplushkas,"  their  fate  was  happier 
than  that  of  the  poor  wretches  who,  un- 
able to  find  accommodation  on  the  rail- 
ways, and  overcome  with  terror  and 
panic,  at  the  last  packed  up  their  few 
valuables  and  fled  from  the  doomed  City 
of  Omsk  by  sledge.  Had  the  evacuation 
taken  place  a  month  later,  in  the  period 
of  greatest  cold,  I  doubt  if  any  of  them 
would  have  survived.  Even  as  it  was 
the  snow  lay  six  feet  deep  on  the  ground, 
and  their  experiences  were  one  dreadful 
miserere. 

Looking  out  through  the  little  square 
of  window  with   its   rough   edges   splin- 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


743 


tered  by  the  axe,  I  saw  the  long,  pa- 
thetic procession  of  fugitives  struggling 
♦.hrough  the  snow,  half  dazed,  with 
pinched,  sad  faces.  Whither  were  they 
bound?  If  you  asked  them  they  could 
not  tell.  Still  they  pushed  on,  trekking 
^blindly  eastward  with  what  they  had 
managed  to  save  piled  on  their  sledges. 
They  were  seeking  a  shelter  they  would 
not  find.  Many  already  had  frostbitten 
hands  or  feet.  More  than  one  had  aban- 
doned a  sledge.  I  remember  two  pitiful 
instances  that  haunt  me  still — one  a  man 
abandoned  by  his  comrade,  with  a  knife 
placed  beside  him  near  the  body  of  their 
dead  horse;  the  other  a  woman,  evidently 
sick  unto  death,  sitting  screaming  on  an 
overturned  sledge  while  her  husband, 
knowing  her  doomed  anyway,  had  cut 
the  traces  and  ridden  off  on  the  pony. 
Both  could  not  be  saved.  He  perhaps 
might  still  find  shelter.  There  were 
many  other  frightful  and  heartrending 
scenes.  To  leave  all  this  misery  behind 
us  and  push  on  to  safety  seemed  a 
crime.  Yet  what  could  we  do  to  help  ? 
It  was  doubly  pitiful  to  hear  these 
wretched  refugees  singing  as  they  toiled 
along.  Our  Russian  nature  craves  ex- 
pression in  song,  not  only  in  times  of 
joy  but  in  times  of  sadness,  too.  Con- 
victs sing,  workmen  sing.  So  even  these 
pathetic  sufferers  sang  a  song  called 
"  The  Charaban,"  which  appeared  sud- 
denly none  knew  whence  or  how.  Always 
the  same  song.  To  me  the  affecting 
strains  of  its  sweet,  sad  melody  will  ever 


call  up  that  scene  of  desolation.  At  first 
I  could  not  catch  the  words,  but  as  I 
heard  them  repeated  over  and  over, 
heard  them  as  the  fugitives  moved  in 
ghostly  procession  over  the  snow  in  the 
white  moonlight,  heard  them  in  the  still- 
ness of  the  dawn  and  the  sad  gray  twi- 
light, I  came  to  understand  that  that 
unfamiliar  word  "  charaban "  was  an 
adaptation  from  the  old  French  char-a- 
bancs,  used  here  to  describe  the  peasant's 
little  cart-sledge.    The  verses  ran  thus: 

My  wife  is   dead,   my  children  are  lost; 

All  that  remains  to  me  is  my  little  chara- 
ban. 

I  have  loaded  it  with  the  chair  on  wliich 
my   mother    sat, 

And  the  old  table  where  my  father 
toiled ; 

All  my  home  is  now  my  little  charaban. 

Away,   away,   out  into  the  limitless  plain, 

Seeking  a  new  shelter  in  a  strange  land, 

I   set  out  with  my  little   charaban. 

Like  a  leitmotif  of  our  tragedy,  it 
sounded  in  our  ears  day  and  night.  Be- 
gun by  the  refugees,  it  was  adopted  by 
the  soldiers.  I  heard  a  deserter  on  the 
platform  singing  it.  Then  I  heard  the 
trainmen  humming  the  refrain.  It  was 
on  the  lips  of  those  who  carried  ailing 
comrades.  It  was  the  lullaby  mothers 
sung  to  their  children.  It  had  become  the 
expression  of  a  people's  soul.  My  poor, 
harassed  fellow-countrymen!  How  many 
had,  indeed,  nothing  they  could  call  their 
own — nothing  but  their  little  charaban! 

[To   he   continued  in   the   September  CrRRENT 
History] 


EUGENIE 

By  WILLIAM  WALLACE  WHITLOCK 


Into  the  Present,  see  !  the  Past  has  reached. 

And  taken  back  its  own,  a  faded  flower. 
Its  one-time  lustre  gone,  its  beauties  bleache  1, 
An  Empress  long  since  shorn  of  youth  and 
power. 
A  thousand  mem'ries  cluster  round  her  pyre, 
For  one   short  hour  return   the    "  sparkling 
years," 
The  Tuileries,  like  phoenix  from  the  fire. 
Arise    with    all    their    wealth    of    laughter, 
tears, 
A    glitt'ring    throng    bend    knee    before    hei- 
throne. 


Whose   tottering   none   yet   see,    and   Europe 
waits. 

In     flattering     silence,     till     the     gods     makf 
known 
The  stern  decision  of  the  brooding  Fates. 
Again  the  pageant  gathers,  and  the  hosts 

Await     her     coming     decked     in     costumes 
brave. 

But    lo !    the    soldiers    and    the    throngs    are 
ghosts 

Who     come     to     bear     her     escort     to     the 
grave. 


British  Labor's  Report  on  Russia 

"An    Accepted    Dictatorship" 


THE  British  labor  unions  recently 
sent  a  delegation  to  Soviet  Russia 
to  get  at  the  truth  regarding  con- 
ditions there.  Two  members  of  the  dele- 
gation, Ben  Turner  and  Tom  Shaw,  M.  P., 
returned  to  England  and  made  a  pre- 
liminary report  on  June  9,  1920,  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Trades  Union  Congress 
Parliamentary  Committee.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  report  was  summed  up  by 
Mr.  Turner  in  an  interview.  Regarding 
the  press  statement  that  10,000  persons 
had  been  shot  by  the  Bolshevist"  authori- 
ties during  the  Red  Terror,  he  said  the 
official  figure  which  he  had  seen  was 
8,500.  He  had  been  told  by  the  Soviet 
officials  that  most  of  the  executions 
were  for  acts  of  treachery  behind  the 
lines  during  the  Denikin  and  Kolchak 
campaigns.  TheBolsheviki,he  said, did  not 
disguise  the  fact  that  there  had  been  a 
Red  Terror  following  each  White  Terror, 
but  they  insisted  that  the  White  Terror 
always  preceded.  Before  the  Polish  of- 
fensive began  they  had  abolished  capital 
punishment;  after  this  offensive  was 
launched  they  had  restored  capital  pun- 
ishment and  were  taking  action  against 
espionage. 

In  describing  the  scope  of  the  investi- 
gation Mr.  Turner  said  that  the  Soviet 
authorities  had  made  no  attempt  to  limit 
either  the  movements  or  the  inquiries  of 
the   delegation. 

I  do  not  mean  [he  continued]  that  they 
thrust  documents  at  us,  but  we  were 
allowed  to  see  everything  we  asked  for. 
They  were  brutally  frank  about  their 
sliortage  of  necessities  and  their  hard- 
ships and  their  intention  to  win  through, 
oven  though  that  means  the  employment 
of  considerable  force.  They  hid  nothing 
from  us,  even  though  it  told  against  them. 
The  physical  and  moral  condition  of  the 
country  is  so  bad  that  they  did  not 
attempt  to  hide  it.  There  is  great  lack 
of  food  and  clothing,  of  raw  materials 
and  of  transport.  They  have  had  a  tre- 
mendously fierce  battle  with  disease.  They 
have  had  a  million  cases  of  typhus  and 
scores    of    thousands    of    cases    of   malaria 


and    smallpox,     and    have    no    medicines. 
Neither   have   they   fats   or    oils. 

Speaking  of  food  conditions  especially 
Mr.  Turner  declared  that  acute  hunger 
prevailed  in  both  Petrograd  and  Moscow. 
He  added: 

I  should  say  that  there  are  50  per  cent, 
hungry,  although  every  one  gets  a 
minimum  allowance  of  food.  There  were 
scenes  of  desolation  in  Petrograd.  As  to 
the  state  of  the  countryside,  we  had  only 
limited  opportunities  of  judging,  as  we 
traveled  from  one  place  to  another. 

In  discussing  the  Bolshevist  Govern- 
ment Mr.  Turner  said: 

I  hold  that  every  adult  has  a  right  to 
vote,  but  the  Bolshevik!  have  limited  it, 
which  I  cannot  agree  with.  Judging  from 
their  foundation  principles,  their  system 
is  theoretically  well  arranged,  but  owing 
to  the  latest  attack  upon  them  they  have 
had  to  suspend  the  application  of  some 
of  these  principles.  They  frankly  said  so, 
and  added  the  hope  that  as  soon  as  peace 
is  restored  they  will  be  able  to  apply 
their  theory  in  its  completeness  to  the 
Government    of    the    country. 

The  Bolshevist  Government,  Mr. 
Turner  said,  was  making  strenuous  ef- 
forts to  induce  the  rural  districts  to  sup- 
ply the  towns  with  food  supplies,  which 
they  declined  to  do  because  of  the  inabil- 
ity of  the  latter  to  offer  other  commodi- 
ties in  barter,  according  to  the  pre- 
Bolshevist  system.  The  rural  popula- 
tion, as  he  put  it,  was  "  not  fully  in 
agreement  with  communism,"  The  ma- 
jority in  Petrograd  and  Moscow  sup- 
ported the  Bolshevist  regime.  This 
regime,  he  intimated,  was  "  not  exactly 
a  tyranny,  nor  a  despotism,  but  an  ac- 
cepted dictatorship."  As  to  its  ad- 
herents, Mr.  Turner  said: 

I  should  say  that  the  Bolshevist  Govern- 
ment has  the  acceptance  of  the  bulk  of 
the  people,  the  good-will  of  many  and 
the  fierce  opposition  of  the  Social  Demo- 
crats, who  say  that  individual  liberty  has 
been  destroyed.  But  even  the  Social 
Democrats  are  supporting  the  Government 
now  until  the  Polish  offensive  is  disposed 
of.  The  Governments  of  Europe  have 
made  a  great  mistake  in  assisting,  if  they 
have  assisted,  the  Polish  adventure.  They 


BRITISH  LABOR'S  REPORT  ON  RUSSIA 


747 


•have  united  the  people   of  Russia  so  that 

the       Social      Revolutionaries       and       the 

Mensheviks    have    determined    to    support 

•  the    Government   until    the    war    is   ended. 

?hat   is   very   definite.    *    *    * 

There  are  no  strikes,  because  the  Govern- 

"ment  won't  have  them.     There  is  not  the 

•freedom    on    the    industrial    side    that    we 

fhave   in   England.      Indeed,    some   of  their 

proposals    regarding    production    and    the 

[abolition     of     the     strike     would     gladden 

[some   employers  of  labor   in    our   country, 

Pand   they  do   not  suit  me   or  some  of  my 

fcolleagues. 

The  greatest  commercial  concern  in 
'etrograd,  the  famous  Putilov  works, 
v'hich  cover  an  immense  acreage  on  the 
lulf  of  Bothnia  and  have  shipbuilding 
lips  and  miles  of  workshops  for  build- 
ng  railway  cars  and  locomotives,  em- 
)loyed  about  40,000  persons  before  the 
'^ar ;  now  they  have  about  8,000  employes, 
ounting  men,  women  and  children;  yet 
rlr.  Turner  said  that  the  place  seemed 
o  have  more  employes  than  there  was 
v'ork  for.     He  continued: 

I  have  heard  many  stories  about  the 
destruction  of  ikons,  the  religious  emblems 
so  prized  by  the  Russians,  but  a  large 
number  of  ikons  were  in  evidence  in 
these  works.  Some  of  the  big  ones  were 
tasteful  works  of  art,  railed  off  and  well 
protected.  I  think  there  would  be  at 
least  one  in  each  shed,  and  one  of  our 
party  said  he  had  counted  fourteen.  Thus 
one  of  many  lies  is  dispose4  of,  and  I 
have  seen  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of 
ikons  in  many  villages  and  towns  and 
railway  stations,  besides  the  multitude  of 
them  that  is  in  the  vast  city  of  Mos- 
cow.*   *    * 

The  soldier  gets  better  and  more  food, 
his  wife  and  children  are  also  looked 
after,  and  things  are  better  for  the  man 
in  the  army  than  ever  in  the  days  of  the 
old  regime.  There  also  seems  a  genuine- 
ness in  the  desire  to  go  and  "  beat  the 
Poles,"  who  have  made  them  another 
war  when  they  are  hungry  and  want 
peace.  This  spirit  is  in  some  of  the 
workers  at  the  factories.  For  example, 
we  visited  the  First  Government  Clothing 
Factory,  employing  over  l.."00  people,  9.") 
per  cent,  of  them  females  and  young  per- 
sons. It  was  a  great  clothing  factory, 
turning  out  2,000  military  overcoats,  .^,000 
other  military  garments,  and  ijOO  civilian 
suits  for  men  and  lads  per  day.  It  began 
with  thirteen  employes  in  April,  1918. 
The  staff  now  works  on  two  shifts  per 
day,  600  work  on  the  forenoon  shift  of 
eight  hours  per  day  and  900  work  on  the 
evening  shift  of  seven  hours  per  day— 
the  shift  working  from  5:30  to  12:30  mid- 
night,   including    half-hour    for    meal.    In 


some  factories  or  "  enterprises  "  where 
they  work  three  shifts,  the  night  shift 
is  six  hours.  They  fix  the  hours  of  labor 
by  meeting  and  voting,  and  through  their 
trade  union,  and  also  grade  the  productiv- 
ity of  the  employes. 

One  reason  given  for  more  employes  on 
the  evening  shift  was  that  they  must 
overcome  illiteracy,  and  the  adult  women 
who  cannot  read  have  to  go  to  a  day 
school  each  forenoon  to  be  taught.  They 
say  education  is  good  for  all,  and  they 
then  provide  it  and  make  it  compulsory. 
The  factory  was  too  crowded  and  the 
pressing  room  too  hot,  and  they  had  not 
as  many  machines  as  in  a  good  factory. 

They  are  making  productivity  a  fetish— 
in  such  a  way  as  I  think  our  folks  at 
home  wouldn't  accept.  But  when  I  said 
this  they  retorted,  "We  shouldn't  do  it 
for  a  capitalist;  or  speculator,  but  we  will 
do  it  for  ourselves  because  we  are  the 
State."  In  all  the  factories  there  are 
shop  committees,  and  for  twelve  clothing 
and  other  factories  there  are  two  inspec- 
tors,  a  woman  and  a  man. 

The  question  of  whether  Communists  or 
Menshevists  were  predominant  in  the  fac- 
tories was  asked  by  some  of  us  every- 
where, for  we  could  see  that  the  ruling 
powers  were  the  Communists,  and  in 
practically  all  places  the  Communists 
were  in  a  minority;  but,  strange  to  say, 
in  a  majority  on  shop  committees  or  trade 
union  executives.  They  get  elected— per- 
haps they  are  more  forcible,  perhaps  they 
are  more  liked,  or  pitied,  for  nearly  every 
leader  we  saw  had  been  in  prison  or  in 
exile,    or   both,    for   his   political   views. 

Most  men  in  managerial  positions  in 
factories  were  not  Communists,  and  I 
think  many  of  them  would  like  to  return 
to  their  old  position  of  being  free  from 
the  State  and  under  private  management. 
However,  the  experiment  is  going  on  and 
politically  the  Government  is  very  stable. 
Lenin  and  his  people  are  very  able,  and 
economically  the  experiment  is  develop- 
ing, and  they  may  pull  through.  The  odds 
are  much  against  them,  for  the  people 
are  very  hungry,  and,  while  hunger 
makes  revolutions,  evolution  is  a  safer  plan 
for  democracy. 

Mr.  Shaw  and  Mr.  Turner  brought 
back  from  Moscow  a  letter  from  Nikolai 
Lenin,  the  Bolshevist  leader,  to  the  Brit- 
ish workingmen.  It  was  dated  May  30, 
1920,  and  was  written  by  Lenin,  not  in 
his  Governmental  capacity,  but  solely  as 
a  Communist. 

I  was  not  surprised  [he  wrote]  to  find 
that  the  viewpoint  of  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  your  delegation  does  not  coincide 
with  that  of  the  working  class,  but  coin- 
cides with  the  viewpoint  of  the  bour- 
geoisie,   the    class    of   exploiters.      This    is 


748 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


because  in  all  capitalistic  countries  the 
imperialist  war  has  again  exposed  the 
inveterate  abscess — namely,  the  desertion 
of  the  majority  of  parliamentary  and 
trade  union  leaders  of  the  workers  to 
the  camp  of  the  bourgeoisie.  Under  the 
oblique  pretense  of  the  "  defense  of  the 
country,"  actually  defending  the  spoliatory 
interests  of  one  of  the  two  groups  of  the 
world  bandits,  the  Anglo-French-Amer- 
ican or  the  German  group,  they  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  bourgeoisie 
against  the  revolutionary  struggle  of  the 
proletariat :  they  covered  up  this  treason 
with  sentimental  shopkeepers'  reformist 
and  pacifist  phrases  about  peaceful  evolu- 
tion, about  constitutional  measures,  about 
democracy,  &c.  This  was  the  case  in 
all  countries.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
this  very  tendency  existing  in  England 
has  found  expression  in  the  composition 
of  your  delegation, 

Shaw  and  Guest,  members  of  your  dele- 
gation, were  obviously  surprised  and  hurt 
by  my  statement  that  England,  not- 
withstanding our  peace  proposals,  not- 
withstanding the  declaration  of  her  Gov- 
ernment, continues  her  intervention,  is 
carrying  on  a  war  against  us,  helping 
Wrangel  in  the  Crimea  and  the  White 
Guards  in  Poland— and  they  asked  me 
whether  I  have  proofs  to  this  ■  effect, 
whether  I  can  state  how  many  trains 
with  munitions  were  delivered  by  Eng- 
land to  Poland,  &c.  I  replied  that  in 
order  to  get  access  to  the  secret  agree- 
ment of  the  British  Government  it  would 
be  necessary  to  overthrow  it  by  revolu- 
tionary means  and  to  lay  hold  of  all  docu- 


ments of  its  foreign  policy,   as  was  done 
by   us    in    1917. 

Charging  that  the  "  robber  Govern- 
ments "  of  the  Czar,  England,  France, 
the  United  States,  Italy,  Japan  and 
Poland  had  made  secret  treaties  for  the 
partition  of  booty  in  Constantinople, 
Galicia  Armenia,  Syria,  Mesopotamia 
and  Russia,  Lenin  declared  that  Bolshe- 
vist Russia  was  exposing  these  pacts  to 
the  entire  world.  As  for  England,  he 
pointed  out  that  on  May  26,  when  the 
Labor  delegation  was  received,  word 
arrived  that  Bonar  Law  had  admitted  in 
Parliament  that  military  aid  had  been 
rendered  to  Poland  in  October  "  for  de- 
fense against  Russia,"  but  that  at  this 
very  time  The  New  Statesman,  a  moder- 
ate middle-class  newspaper,  was  writing 
about  the  new  tanks  then  being  shipped 
from  England  to  Poland.  "  Is  it  pos- 
sible," he  asked,  "  not  to  laugh  at  those 
'  leaders '  of  the  British  workers  who, 
with  an  air  of  hurt  innocence,  are  asking 
what  *  proofs '  there  are  that  England 
is  making  war  on  Russia  and  is  helping 
Poland  and  the  White  Guards  in  the 
Crimea?  " 

Lenin  admits  that  no  real  Communist 
Party  exists  in  England.  The  creation 
of  such  a  party,  he  thinks,  would  edu- 
cate the  working  classes. 


Soviet  Russia's  Fight  for  Trade 

Preliminary  Agreement  Between  the  Allies  and  the  Moscow 
Government — The  Internal  Situation  in  Russia 

[Period  Ended  July  20,  1920] 


THE  Soviet  Government,  in  the 
month  under  review,  came  ap- 
preciably nearer  to  the  fulfillment 
of  its  desife  for  resumption  of 
trade  relations  with  the  Allied  Govern- 
ments. The  consent  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment to  enter  into  negotiations  with 
M.  Krassin,  the  Soviet  representative  at 
London,  aroused  considerable  commotion 
both  in  England  and  France.  The  Lib- 
eral British  press  attacked  the  Govern- 
ment for  officially  receiving  the  Soviet 
Mission,  and  declared  that  the  sole  ob- 


ject of  Krassin  was  to  establish  a  politi- 
cal rather  than  a  commercial  agreement. 
Replying  to  attacks  in  the  British  Par- 
liament on  June  3  and  7,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  admitted  that  M.  Krassin  was 
acting  in  an  official  capacity  for  the 
Soviet  Government  and  defended  the 
Government's  policy,  setting  forth  the 
necessity  which  compelled  the  Allies,  and 
especially  Great  Britain,  to  resume  com- 
mercial relations  with  Russia  and  depre- 
cating the  idea  that  the  undesirable 
character  of  the   Moscow  regime  made 


SOVIET  RUSSIA'S  FIGHT  FOR  TRADE 


749 


[such  a  resumption  impossible.  On  this 
[principle,  he  declared,  no  trade  relations 
'with  Czarist  Russia  or  Turkey  would 
[have  been  maintained. 

The  French  press  was  considerably 
■roused  by  the  British  Premier's  explana- 
[tions,  charging  that  the  policy  advocated 
was  a  purely  selfish,  national  one,  and 
intimating  that  France  also  must  look 
:out  for  her  own  interests.  The  Temps, 
fhowever,  pointed  out  that  the  London 
discussions  in  reality  were  the  outcome 
of  the  endangering  of  British  interests 
in  the  East  by  Bolshevist  propaganda 
and  were  not  to  be  interpreted  as  a  mat- 
ter of  purely  commercial  interest.  The 
French  opposition  to  the  negotiations 
with  Krassin  was  based  mainly  on  the 
contention  that  no  agreement  should  be 
reached  with  Moscow  until  that  Govern- 
ment consented  to  assume  responsibility 
for  the  debts  incurred  by  the  previous 
regime.  In  interviews  given  by  Krassin 
to  French  correspondents,  it  was  inti- 
mated that  this  possibility  was  not  ex- 
cluded. 

Pending  the  culmination  of  the  discus- 
sions, Krassin  and  his  colleagues  took 
large  and  well-appointed  offices  in  the 
centre  of  London's  downtown  district.  It 
developed  subscriuently  that  these  offices 
were  to  be  headquarters  for  the  "  All- 
Russian  Co-operative  Society,  Ltd.,"  a 
new  branch  representing  the  Russian 
co-operatives.  The  formation  of  this  so- 
ciety was  bitterly  denounced .  by  the 
members  of  the  London  branch  of  the 
old  co-operatives,  whose  efforts  to  re- 
establish trade  had  ended  in  failure,  and 
charges  of  treachery  were  passed.  The 
smallness  of  the  registered  capital — 
$75,000 — was  explained  as  due  to  fear 
of  confiscation  by  France,  perturbed  over 
the  payment  of  the  Russian  debt. 

RUSSIA    ACCEPTS '  CONDITIONS 

Krassin  returned  to  Moscow  on  Julj 
1  to  consult  his  Government.  He  in- 
formed the  Soviet  authorities  that  the 
negotiations  had  been  interrupted  until 
they  agreed  first  to  cease  further  anti- 
British  and  anti-allied  military  activi- 
ties in  Persia,  the  Caucasus  and  Turkey; 
second,  to  release  all  British  prisoners; 
third,  to  abandon  all  propaganda  in 
India  and  Asia,  and  fourth,  to  recognize 


the  Russian  debt.  When  confronted  with 
these  demands,  it  was  stated,  Krassin 
had  replied  that  he  had  no  power  to  deal 
with  them.  Direct  communication  was 
then  established  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
with  M.  Tchitcherin,  the  Bolshevist  For- 
eign Minister,  who  replied  on  July  8  that 
Moscow  accepted  these  conditions. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  communicated  this 
reply  to  M.  Millerand,  the  French  Pre- 
mier, on  July  9.  The  British  Premier  ac- 
ceded to  the  French  demand  that  the 
Bolshevist  Government  cease  its  hostili- 
ties against  Poland.  A  wireless  mes- 
sage was  sent  by  the  allied  Governments 
to  Moscow  proposing  an  immediate  ar- 
mistice between  Poland  and  Russia.  The 
trade  arrangements  remained  subordi- 
nate to  the  Soviet  reply  to  this  armistice 
proposal.  The  reply,  reecived  on  July 
20,  was  virtually  a  rejection;  its  details 
were  not  available  when  these  pages 
went  to  press. 

EFFORTS  IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES 

An  agreement  between  Russian  and 
Italian  Co-operatives  was  concluded  at 
Milan  on  April  11.  The  Swedish  Govern- 
ment, according  to  statements  made  by 
the  Swedish  Foreign  Minister  on  June  12, 
had  not  forbidden  the  depositing  of  So- 
viet gold  in  Swedish  banks  to  cover  com- 
mercial transactions  with  Swedish  citi- 
zens, but  had  made  it  a  point  to  see  that 
such  transactions  did  not  go  contrary  to 
the  decision  at  San  Remo,  when  the  pow- 
ers both  authorized  and  recommended 
the  resumption  of  trade  relations.  No 
g  lararitees,  however,  had  been  given  that 
such  deposits  of  gold  would  be  immune 
from  claims  of  Russia's  creditors.  The 
Soviet  Government  announced,  on  June 
29,  that  it  had  liberated  all  Swedish 
civil  prisoners,  and  that  Swedish  com- 
mercial delegates  would  be  allowed  to 
enter  Russia  to  balance  the  admission  by 
Sweden  of  an  equal  number  of  Russian 
delegates. 

A  more  definite  step  toward  trade  re- 
sumption took  place  in  Denmark.  The 
International  Clearing  House,  Limited, 
was  organized  on  June  19,  with  a  share 
capital  of  2,000,000  crowns,  principally 
held  by  Britons  and  Danes.  The  Chair- 
man was  Sir  Martin  Abrahamson.  It 
had  received  from  a  Russian  bank  about 


750 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


5,000,000  crowns  ($1,350,000  gold)  which 
had  been  deposited  in  the  Danish  Na- 
tional Bank.  This  gold,  however,  it  was 
stated,  was  purely  in  the  nature  of  a 
guarantee,  and  would  be  returned  to  the 
Russian  Co-operatives  as  soon  as  the 
transactions  were  completed;  the  inter- 
est of  French  or  other  bondholders  there- 
fore would  not  be  prejudiced. 

Another  country  to  favor  the  lifting  of 
the  trade  blockade  against  Moscow  was 
Belgium.  At  a  Cabinet  meeting,  held  in 
Bi-ussels  on  June  18,  and  presided  over 
by  King  Albert,  it  was  decided  unani- 
mously that  Belgium  should  favor  this 
policy  in  principle,  and  that  an  attempt 
should  be  made  to  resume  economic  rela- 
tions, with  resei-vations  only  regarding 
Belgian  rights  in  Russia.  By  this  de- 
cision the  Belgian  Government  commit- 
ted itself  to  the  British,  as  opposed  to 
the  French  point  of  view,  a  shift  in  pol- 
icy, explained  as  due  to  the  views  of  the 
Socialist  Ministers. 

CANADA  AND  UNITED  STATES 

On  this  side  of  the  ocean  also  the  Bol- 
shevist schemes  made  progress.  Ludwig 
C.  A.  K.  Martens,  the  still  unrecognized 
Ambassador  of  the  Soviet  Republic  in 
the  United  States,  declared,  on  June  23, 
that  preliminaries  to  trade  relations  be- 
tween his  Government  and  Canada  had 
been  completed  by  a  Soviet  mission, 
which  had  been  favorably  received  by 
manufacturers,  bankers  and  officials  of 
the  Dominion  Government.  Large  con- 
tracts would  soon  be  signed,  according 
to  Martens,  to  be  guaranteed  by  gold  de- 
posits. The  Ottawa  Government  stated 
on  the  same  date  that  no  restrictions 
would  be  placed  by  the  Dominion  Gov- 
ernment on  such  transactions,  but  that 
the  Government  would  assume  no  re- 
sponsibility. A  few  days  later  a  con- 
tract for  several  million  dollars'  worth  of 
Canadian  foodstuffs  and  machinery  was 
concluded  on  the  basis  of  special  bank- 
ing arrangements  made  in  Canada  and 
England. 

The  policy  of  the  United  States,  which 
M.  Tchitcherin  on  June  17  had  charac- 
terized as  "  provincial,"  was  changed  to 
a  certain  extent  on  July  7,  when  the 
State  Department  announced  that  all  re- 


strictions against  trade  with  Soviet  Rus- 
sia had  been  removed,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  ban  against  the  shipment  of 
war  materials.  Political  recognition  was 
explicitly  withheld,  and,  as  in  the  case 
of  Canada,  all  responsibility  for  transac- 
tions was  disclaimed.  The  passport  and 
postal  embargo  underwent  no  change. 
It  was  not  expected  by  the  department 
that  any  considerable  body  of  trade 
would  be  initiated,  but  the  lifting  of  the 
trade  restrictions,  even  in  a  modified 
form,  was  believed  to  be  one  of  the  most 
effective  weapons  against  the  charge 
spread  by  Bolsheviki  in  many  countries 
that  women  and  children  were  being 
starved  to  death  in  order  to  force  the 
establishment  of  a  different  form  of  Gov- 
ernment. 

GENERAL    WRANGEL'S    CAMPAIGN 

The  story  of  the  breakdown  of  the 
Polish-Ukrainian  campaign  against  Rus- 
sia will  be  found  in  the  article  on  Poland. 
In  the  southeast  comer  of  the  southern 
sector  formerly  held  by  General  Denikin, 
General  Wrangel,  his  successor,  kept  up 
the  fight  against  the  Bolsheviki.  In  an 
advance  made  on  June  11  General 
Wrangel  captured  Berdiansk,  on  the 
north  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Azov,  and  sub- 
sequently Melitopol.  On  June  25  Gen- 
eral Wrangel  announced  that  his  troops 
had  occupied  a  new  line.  His  booty  at 
that  time  was  stated  to  consist  of  10,000 
prisoners,  48  cannon,  250  machine  guns, 
3  armored  trains,  9  armored  automobiles, 
several  million  pounds  of  wheat  and 
much  rolling  stock.  One  of  Wrangel's 
main  objects,  as  stated  by  himself,  was 
to  gain  possession  of  the  cornfields  on 
the  Berdiansk-Kherson-Dnieper  line,  in 
order  to  obtain  means  to  feed  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Crimea,  swollen  by  the 
influx  of  millions  of  refugees.  Reports 
reecived  on  July  19  indicated  that  Gen- 
eral Wrangel's  campaign  was  developing 
favorably. 

The  allied  note  sent  to  the  Moscow 
Government  on  July  11,  proposing  an 
armistice  between  Soviet  Russia  and 
Poland,  contained  a  proposal  that  a 
similar  armistice  be  made  with  General 
Wrangel,  on  the  basis  that  the  anti-Bol- 
shevist General  retire  immediately  to  the 


SOVIET  RUSSIA'S  FIGHT  FOR  TRADE 


751 


Crimea,   and  that   during   the   armistice 
this  must  be  a  neutral  zone. 

THE  SITUATION  IN  SIBERIA 

At  the  end  of  June  the  Japanese  in- 
fluence was  spread  over  the  eastern  part 
of  Siberia,  extending  to  the  Transbaikal 
Province,  held  by  the  pro-Japanese  Gen- 
eral Semenov,  the  successor  of  Admiral 
Kolchak.    General  Horvath  was  still  ad- 
ministering the  operation  of  the  Chinese 
Eastern    Railway    and   had    received   an 
advisory  appointment  in  the  Chinese  De- 
partment of  Communications.   It  was  an- 
nounced  from   Harbin  on  June  28  that 
the    group    of    officers   who,    in   confer- 
ences with  Japanese  representatives,  had 
planned   the   creation   of   a   new   buffer 
State  under  Japanese  auspices,  with  the 
object  of  absorbing  the  Far  Eastern  re- 
public of  Verkhne-Udinsk,  favored  asking 
General  Horvath  to  head  their  movement. 
In  the  Amur  region  and  on  the  Kam- 
chatka Peninsula  the  whole  power  was 
in  the  hands  of  local  Soviets,  which  were 
independent  of  each  other  and  possessed 
their  own  laws  and  regulations.    Baron 
L.  Nolde,  American  representative  of  the 
Russian  Tanners'  Association,  stated  on 
his  return  from  Siberia  late  in  June  that 
the    situation    in    Western    Siberia    was 
desperate;   the   Bolsheviki,   according  to 
the  stories  of  refugees,  were  maintaining 
their  rule  by  terror;  uprisings,  neverthe- 
less, were  frequent.    The  population   in 
the  towns  was  starving.  All  industry  was 
nationalized,   trade   was   at   a    standstill 
and  the  currency  situation  was  chaotic. 

The  trial  of  the  former  Ministers  of 
the  Kolchak  Government  was  concluded 
on  June  16.  Four  of  the  Ministers  were 
condemned  to  death  and  the  remaining 
sixteen  to  terms  of  imprisonment  with 
hard  labor  for  five  to  ten  years.  All  the 
accused  appealed  to  Lenin  and  Trotzky, 
stating  that  they  had  always  tried  to 
prevent  the  adoption  of  reactionary 
measures  and  casting  the  blame  on  the 
military  authorities.  The  Omsk  Soviet 
postponed  the  executions,  pending  the 
decision  of  the  Moscow  authorities. 

Soviet  rule  had  been  thoroughly  estab- 
lished in  Irkutsk — Kolchak's  last  capital 
— by  the  end  of  June.  All  institutions 
had  been  nationalized.  All  the  stores  had 


been  closed  and  the  food  situation  was 
serious.  Chinese  mechants  dealt  in  black 
bread,  obtainable  only  through  the  use 
of  Government  cards,  to  the  tune  of  250 
rubles  per  pound.  This  city  was  the  scene 
of  the  tragic  end  of  Kolchak's  efforts  to 
establish  supreme  rulership  in  Siberia. 
He  was  executed  and  buried  there. 

IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA 

The  actual  conditions  in  Soviet  Russia 
still  remain  the  subject  of  discussion  and 
dispute.  The  report  brought  back  to  Eng- 
land by  Mr.  Lounsbury,  one  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  British   Trade  Union  Party,  has 
been  made  the  target  of  criticism  ever 
since  his  return,  and  the  challengers  of 
his    rose-colored    picture    in    the    public 
press  have   been   legion.    At    a    special 
meeting    held    in    London    on    June    12 
every  statement  that  Mr.  Lounsbury  had 
made  was  denounced  as  untruth — due  to 
ignorance — by  British  citizens  who  had 
just  returned  from  Moscow,  where  they 
had  been  imprisoned.    The  meeting  was 
directed  by  the  Rev.  F.  W.  North— Brit- 
ish chaplain  at  Moscow — whose  story  of 
persecution  and  imprisonment  in  Soviet 
Russia  while  caring  for  the  interests  of 
British  prisoners  had  attracted  much  at- 
tention in  the  English  press.    Mr.  North 
returned  from  a  nine-year  residence  in 
Russia     on     May    24.     Besides   personal 
losses  through  Bolshevist  thievery,  some 
225,000   rubles  belonging   to   his   church 
had  been  taken   from  him  by  the   Bol- 
shevist authorities.  In  a  series  of  articles 
published  in  The  London  Morning  Post, 
Mr.  North  painted  a  dark  picture  of  con- 
ditions   in    the    Soviet   country    and    de- 
scribed the  method  by  which  all  foreign 
visitors,  including  Mr.  Lounsbury,  were 
"  insulated  "  by  placing  them  under  the 
constant     supervision     of    a     Bolshevist 
commissary,  thus  preventing  them  from 
learning   anything   which   was   not   con- 
sidered desirable. 

One  striking  fact  for  which  Mr.  North 
vouched  is  that  the  power  really  in  con- 
trol in  Russia  is  an  inner  circle  of  the 
All-Russia  Extraordinary  Committee, 
under  the  notorious  Derjinsky.  "  He  and 
his  satellites,"  declared  Mr.  North,  "  can 
arrest  any  one,  condemn  any  one,  execute 
any  one  without  trial,  and  in  the  midst 


752 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  general  chaos  and  destitution  it  is 
this  power  which  governs." 

At  the  beginning  of  June  the  Bol- 
shevist official  organ  estimated  the 
deficit  of  the  operations  in  1920  of  the 
nationalized  industries  at  23,756,700,000 
rubles.  Some  fourteen  billions  had  been 
lost  by  sales  below  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion. Salaries  of  nearly  six  billions  to  or- 
ganizers were  reckoned  as  waste,  and 
more  than  a  billion  rubles  were  "  spent 
on  political  measures  which  were  found 
necessary  to  keep  the  workmen  quiet." 

Some  remarkable  revelations  of  the 
economic  disorganization  of  Russia  were 
contained  in  a  document  printed  by  The 
London  Times  on  June  3.  This  document 
was  a  memoir  from  a  member  of  the 
Commissariat  of  People's  Economy.  It 
confessed  that  at  the  time  of  writing 
(March,  1920)  the  Bolshevist  economic 
policy  had  proved  itself  a  failure,  and 
stated  that  the  situation  was  growing 
worse.  It  further  discussed  the  possi- 
bility of  trade  between  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Allies,  and  concluded 
that  in  the  present  state  of  Russia  it  is 
almost  impossible.  Means  of  transport 
were  falling  to  pieces,  production  was 
steadily  diminishing  and  the  chance  of 
export  of  wheat  was  at  that  time  in- 
finitesimal. 

SOCIAL  DEMOCRATS'  STATEMENT 

A  declaration  addressed  by  the  Social 
Democrats  of  Petrograd  to  the  Social 
Democrats  of  Esthonia,  received  and  pub- 
lished at  Reval  on  June  4,  read  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Russia  is  drenched  in  blood.  The 
Communist  Government  has  destroyed  all 
social    and    industrial    life,    tramples   per- 


sonality into  the  dust  and  has  already 
annihilated  the  best  intellectual  power  of 
the  land.  To  foreign  nations  the  Bolshe- 
viki  pretend  to  be  representatives  of  the 
workers  and  peasants,  but  they  trick  the 
masses  of  the  people  and  give  promises 
only  that  they  may  keep  themselves  in 
power.  Only  through  shameless  methods 
of  violence  do  they  remain  in  control, 
and  every  day  their  real  hatred  against 
the  laboring  men  becomes  more  apparent. 
Through  many  imprisonments  our  Social 
Democratic  organization  is  being  de- 
stroyed, and  the  methods  are  like  tho.?e 
of  the  Czar.  Spies  are  everywhere,  and 
many  Social  Democrats  are  continually 
brought  to  trial.  We,  the  workers  rep- 
resenting fourteen  factories  of  Petrograd 
and  the  Social  Democrats  of  Petrograd, 
protest  loudly  against  this  challenge  to 
the  whole  of  the  working  class  in  Russia. 
We  have  nothing  in  common  with  this 
Government  of  violence  and  murder,  and 
we  pledge  ourselves  to  use  every  means 
that  this  report  shall  reach  across  our 
frontiers  to  comrades  in  other  countries. 

In  the  course  of  a  speech  at  a  meeting 
of  river  transport  workers  at  Moscow, 
reported  by  the  Stockholm  Tidnin»gen  on 
June  4,  Lenin  declared  that  the  situation 
was  desperate.  Workmen,  he  said,  were 
starving  while  the  peasanis,  who  were 
without  manufactured  products,  were  un- 
willing to  deliver  corn  against  currency 
notes,  which  they  regarded  as  worthless, 
as  nothing  could  be  purchased  with  them. 
In  consequence  Lenin  emphasized  the 
necessity  of  establishing  commercial  re- 
lations with  foreign  countries  as  soon  as 
possible. 

The  middle  of  July  found  the  tenta- 
tive trade  agreements  with  England  and 
France  still  held  up  by  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment's refusal  to  halt  its  successful 
war  against  the  Poles.  An  important 
convention  of  the  Third  International 
was  in  session  at  the  Kremlin  in  Moscow. 


POLISH    JLANCKKti    OF    POZNANIA    SETTING    FORTH    TO    MEET    GENEKAE 
BUDENNY'S    INVADING    BOLSHEVIST    CAVALRY 


Poland^  s  Military  Disaster 

Pilsudski's   Armies   Driven  Back  by   Russian   Forces^ — Allies 
Intervene  to  Prevent  Invasion 

[Period   Ended  July  15,   1920] 


THE  outstanding  feature  in  Poland's 
fortunes  during  the  month  under 
review  was  the  serious  breakdown 
of  the  Polish  offensive  under- 
taken against  Soviet  Russia  on  the  east- 
ern and  Ukrainian  fronts,  and  the  im- 
minent menace  of  invasion  follov/ing  the 
crossing  of  the  Beresina  River  by  the  Red 
troops.  The  danger  to  the  new  republic 
was  fully  realized,  and  the  whole  nation 
rose  to  repel  the  Bolshevist  invaders. 
Appeals  made  to  the  Allied  Governments 
by  Poland  to  lend  aid  were  answered  by 
the  dispatch  of  a  telegraphic  note  to 
Moscow  calling  upon  the  Bolshevist  au- 
thorities to  agree  to  an  armistice  upon 
equitable  terms,  providing  for  the  halt- 
ing of  the  Soviet  Army  at  a  point  laid 
down,  and  for  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Polish  forces  within  confines  similarly 
defined. 


The  initial  successes  of  the  Polish- 
Ukrainian  campaign  greatly  elated  the 
Polish  nation,  but  the  triumphant  tone 
of  the  Polish  press  gradually  died  away, 
and  the  official  dispatches  showed  that 
the  Red  Army  was  countering  in  force. 
After  being  beaten  in  the  last  days  of 
April  south  of  the  Pripet  Marshes,  the 
Bolsheviki  established  strong  resistance 
between  the  frontier  of  Bessarabia  and 
the  Dnieper,  and  to  the  north  and  south 
of  Kiev.  They  then  hurled  a  powerful 
mass  offensive,  beginning  on  May  14, 
at  a  point  north  of  Pripet,  along  the 
whole  front  of  the  Beresina  River  and 
in  the  proximity  of  Polotsk,  It  was  said 
that  this  formidable  assault  was  planned 
and  led  by  the  former  Czarist  General, 
Brusiloff. 

Outnumbered  and  outfought,  the  Poles 
were  forced  to  retreat  to  their  lines  of 


ro4 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


defense  on  the  Dvina  and  Beresina 
Rivers.  The  Soviet  forces  advanced  and 
penetrated  the  Lake  Narotch  district  to 
a  distance  of  100  kilometers,  east  of 
Vilna,  threatening  both  that  town  and 
Minsk.  On  June  5  this  threat  was  so 
serious  that  the  Ruthenians  decided  to 
join  the  Poles  in  their  efforts  to  check 
the  Reds.  Polish  optimism  arising  from 
temporary  successes  proved  to  be  ill- 
founded.  The  assault  was  resumed  in 
force  by  the  Red  Army  on  June  18,  and 
this  time  proved  effective. 

BOLSHEVIK!  RECAPTURE  KIEV 

In  the  meantime,  the  Bolsheviki  had 
won  a  signal  success  in  the  South.  The 
much-disputed  city  of  Kiev,  which  had 
been  captured  by  the  Poles  early  in 
their  campaign,  was  retaken  by  the  So- 
viet troops  on  June  18,  following  a  Bol- 
shevist advance  from  the  north  and  an 
irruption  of  Budenny's  Soviet  Cavalry 
on  the  south.  According  to  Moscow 
wireless,  the  Poles,  before  evacuation, 
blew  up  the  Vladimir  Cathedral  (a  mod- 
ern church  built  between  1862  and  1896, 
which  contained  remarkable  mural  mo- 
saics), the  railway  stations,  the  electric 
power  station  and  the  aqueduct.  A  vivid 
account  of  the  evacuation  received  by  the 
Washington  Government  from  Colonel 
Gaskill  of  the  Polish  Railway  Mission 
and  Jay  P.  Moffat,  Secretary  of  the 
American  Legation  at  Warsaw,  describes 
the  Polish  commander — General  Rydz- 
migly — as  having  been  determined  to 
hold  the  city,  and  yielding  only  to  the 
explicit  orders  of  General  Pilsudski  that 
he  should  not  attempt  the  desperate  re- 
sistance planned.  According  to  this  ac- 
count, the  Polish  commander  rode  out 
of  Kiev,  already  set  in  flames  by  in- 
cendiary bombs  dropped  by  Soviet  air- 
planes, with  his  bride  of  six  weeks  on 
the  pommel  of  his  saddle.  The  American 
narrators  reported  that  many  atrocities 
had  been  committed  by  the  triumphant 
Bolsheviki.  The  American  Red  Cross 
units  were  the  last  to  leave  the  city. 
Their  convoy  of  trucks  and  ambulances 
was  surrounded  at  times  by  Bolshevist 
cavalry,  and  tv\ace  narrowly  escaped 
capture  before  reaching  Warsaw. 

Having  disposed  of  the  southern  sec- 


tor the  Bolsheviki  again  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  North.  By  June  18  a  new 
drive  of  fifty  Red  divisions  was  in  full 
swing  along  a  1,200  kilometer  front. 
The  Red  troops  were  concentrating  on 
the  Beresina  in  the  vicinity  of  Rezhitsa, 
west  of  which  point  the  Poles  were  hur- 
riedly retreating.  Desperate  resistance 
availed  nothing,  and  by  July  1  Mozyr 
and  other  Polish  towns  in  the  Pripet  sec- 
tor were  being  evacuated.  The  Warsaw 
Government  at  this  time  was  beginning 
to  feel  serious  alami,  and  supreme  power 
was  vested  in  a  National  Council  of  De- 
fence, created  by  the  Polish  Diet  and 
made  up  as  follows:  President  Pilsudski, 
Chairman;  General  Leszniewski,  Min- 
ister of  War;  General  Haller,  Chief  of 
Staff;  M.  Trompcynski,  President  of  the 
Diet;  Premier  Grabski,  three  members  of 
the  Cabinet  and  nine  leaders  of  the  Diet. 
The  Polish  retreat  continued,  however, 
and  a  Moscow  wireless  announced  on 
July  6  that  the  Polish  forces  were  being 
driven  back  along  the  entire  front  in  the 
Pripet-Beresina  sector.  On  July  7  the 
fortress  of  Rovno  fell,  one  of  the  famous 
triangle  of  fortresses  in  Volhynia,  and 
the  whole  Polish  front  was  thrown  back 
along  a  line  of  approximately  720  miles. 
Warsaw  admitted  withdrawal  in  the  face 
of  the  greatest  attack  ever  made  by  the 
Soviet  armies.  The  Red  forces  now  con- 
centrated on  the  Beresina  front,  and  th^ 
threat  of  an  invasion  of  Poland  wa 
clearly  defined. 

NATION  RUSHES  TO  ARMS 

The  whole  Polish  nation  rose  to  repel 
this  projected  invasion.  Women  and 
boys  responded  with  the  men  to  defend 
the  Fatherland  in  danger.  Floods  of 
money  poured  in.  Even  the  Socialist 
Party,  which  had  opposed  the  whole 
scheme  of  alliance  with  Ukrainia  in  an 
offensive  against  the  Bolsheviki,  now  ap- 
pealed to  the  Polish  soldiers  to  resist  the 
invading  hosts.  General  Haller  was 
charged  with  the  formation  of  the  new 
volunteer  anny. 

At  this  time  the  Bolsheviki  were  ad- 
vancing in  Volhynia,  and  after  several 
fruitless  attempts  had  succeeded  in 
crossing  the  Beresina  in  two  places 
about    fifty    miles    northeast    of    Minsk. 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  DISASTER 


755 


IPOL/SH  -  aeHMKN 
\  PLEBISCITE  AREn 


Of    POLAND 
ME   ALLIES 

(LINE  OF  EXTREME   POLISH  ADVANCE  MAY8'9J0 
»-LlNE  REACHED  BY  RUSSIANS    JULY  IS.IJZO 
—  PI?OVISORY  BOUNDARY   OF  LITHUANIA 
iwPOLISH   BOUNDARY  BEFORE  PARTITION  OF  I77Z 


MAP    OF    POLAND    AND    OF    THE    REGION    OF    RUSSIA    FOR    WHICH    THE    POLISH    ARMIES 
WERE    CONTENDING    WITH    THE    BOLSHEVIKI 


The  capture  of  Starokonstantinov,  about 
forty  miles  from  the  Galician  border, 
was  announced  on  July  8.  The  Russians 
ha  broken  through  the  Polish  lines 
south  of  the  Dvina  River  in  a  drive  ob- 
viously intended  to  ove"  run  Lithuania 
and  to  establish  contact  with  East  Prus- 
sia. The  Soviet  Army  was  using  infan- 
try, cavalr-  artillery,  airplanes  and 
tanks.  While  the  Po^  s  fought  desper- 
ately in  the  North,  General  Budenny, 
with  Rovno  in  his  possession,  was  ad- 
vancing in  the  direction  of  Lemberg, 
which  is  but  180  miles  from  Warsaw. 
Ukrainian  eff or  3  to  help  the  Poles 
proved  ineffectual.  Polish  official  com- 
muniquies  issued  on  July  12  reported 
that  the  Reds  were  still  progressing 
north  of  Pripet,  but  t^at  Budenny 's  cav- 
alry had  been  driven  back  on  Rovno. 
The  Letts  — -»  to  the  Poles'  assist- 

ance around  Dvinsk.     The  Poles,  never- 


theless, were  forced  to  evacuate  this  city 
and  to  retreat  South.  Towns  in  Lithu- 
anian territory  evacuated  by  the  Poles 
were  being  occupied  by  Lithuanian 
forces. 

Minsk  was  captured  by  the  Bolshevik! 
on  July  11.  The  Warsaw  Government 
had  ordered  Vilna  to  be  held  at  all  costs. 
Women  had  joined  the  city's  defenders. 

POLES  ASK  HELP  OF  ALLIES 

The  Polish  delegation  at  Spa,  pend- 
ing a  formal  appeal  from  Warsaw,  held 
a  conference  with  Marshal  Foch  on  July 
10  and  presented  Poland's  need  of  as- 
sistance.    The  note  of  the  Polish  Gov- 

nment  arrived  so  mutilated  that  its 
content  could  only  be  guessed.  That  thn 
case  of  Poland  was  extremely  serious 
was  admitted  by  Ladislav  Grabski,  the 
Polish  Premier,  at  Spa  the  following 
day.    Mr.  Grabski  said: 


75G 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


This  is  a  decisive  moment  for  Poland. 
Our  army  is  engaging  the  mobilized 
forces  of  Russia,  with  a  population  six 
times  our  own,  an  army  equipped  with 
all  the  most  perfected  Instruments  of 
war,  supplied  by  the  Allies  to  the  armies 
of  Denikin,  Kolchak  and  Tudenitch— ar- 
mored automobiles,  tanks,  machine  guns 
and  heavy  artillery.  The  Bolshevist 
Army  has  much  more  to  fight  with  than 
the  Polish  Army,  and  of  superior  quality, 
besides  masses  of  cavalry.  The  Bolshe- 
vist offens've  has  created  for  vis  a  serious 
situation,  but  not  a  desperate  one. 
*  *  *  But  besides  confidence  in  our- 
selves, we  call  and  rely  on  the  aid  of 
our  allies,  military  where  possible,  and 
the  moral  and  diplomatic  support  of  all. 

Subsequently,  M.  Grabski  said  that  the 
Allies  had  advised  the  Poles  to  ask  the 
Reds  for  an  armistice  with  a  view  to 
peace.  His  Government,  he  said,  had  no 
choice  but  to  agree.  It  was  stated  that 
the  Polish  Premier's  tone  was  subdued, 
and  that  he  seemed  to  realize  that  Po- 
land had  come  to  the  end  of  her  dreams 
of  military  expansion. 

The  Allied  Supreme  Council  issued  a 
statement  on  Jul^  11  at  Spa,  which  read 
as  follows: 

Poland  has  asked  allied  intervention, 
saying  that  unless  she  gets  assistance 
her  situation  will  become  very  serious. 
The  Allies  have  therefore  sent  to  Moscow 
a  proposal  to  the  Soviet  for  an  armistice 
between  Poland  and  Russia,  subject  to 
the  condition  that  the  Polish  troops  re- 
tire behind  Poland's  legitimate  boundaries, 
the  armistice  to  be  followed  by  a  meeting 
of  all  border  States  to  fix  boundaries. 
Should  the  Soviets  refuse  an  armistice 
and  attack  the  Poles  within  their  proper 
boundaries,  the  Allies  will  give  Poland 
full  assistance. 

ALLIED  ARMISTICE  NOTE 

The  note  of  the  Allied  Council  was 
read  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  July 
14.  This  message  took  cognizance  of 
Moscow's  acceptance  of  the  proposals  for 
trade  resumption  outlined  in  the  British 
memorandum  of  July  1,  and  agreed  to 
such  a  resumption  as  soon  as  the  Soviet 
delegation  returned  to  England.  It  then 
proposed  an  armistice  between  Russia 
and  Poland,  to  be  based  on  the  follow- 
ing arrangements: 

That  an  immediate  armistice  be  signed 
between  Poland  and  Soviet  Russia  under 
which  hostilities  shall  be  suspended.  That 
the    terms    of    this    armistice    provide,    on 


the  one  hand,  that  the  Polish  Army  shall 
immediately  withdraw  to  the  lines  pro- 
visionally laid  down  last  year  by  the 
Peace  Conference  as  to  the  eastern 
boundary  to  which  Poland  is  entitled  to 
establish  a  Polish   administration. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  armistice  should 
provide  that  the  army  of  Soviet  Russia 
should  stand  at  a  distance  of  fifty  kilo- 
meters east  of  this  line.  In  Eastern 
Galicia  each  army  will  stand  on  the  line 
it  occupies  at  the  date  of  the  signature 
of   the   armistice. 

That  as  soon  as  possible  thereafter  a 
conference,  sitting  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Peace  Conference,  shall  assemble  in 
London,  to  be  attended  by  representa- 
tives of  Soviet  Russia,  Poland,  Lithua- 
nia, Latvia  and  Finland,  with  -ae  object 
of  negotiating  a  final  peace  between  Rus- 
sia and  its  neighboring  States.  Repre- 
.  sentatives  of  Eastern  Galicia  also  would 
be  invited  to  London   to  state  their  case. 

For  the  purpose  of.  this  conference 
Great  Britain  will  place  no  restrictions 
on  the  representatives  which  Russia  may 
nominate,  provided  they  undertake  whilo 
in  Great  Britain  not  to  interfere  in  poli- 
tics or  the  internal  affairs  of  the  British 
Empire  or  in  propaganda.     *    *    * 

The  British  Government  has  bound  itself 
to  give  no  assistance  to  Poland  for  any 
purpose  hostile  to  Russia  and  to  take  no 
action  itself  hostile  to  Russia.  It  is, 
however,  bound  under  the  covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations  to  defend  the  integrity 
of  Poland  within  its  legitimate  ethno- 
graphical frontiers. 

If,  therefore,  Soviet  Russia,  despite  its 
repeated  declarations,  will  not  be  content 
Avith  the  withdrawal  of  the  Polish  Army 
on  the  condition  of  a  mutual  armistice, 
but  intends  to  take  action  hostile  to  Po- 
land in  Poland's  own  territory,  tlie  Brit- 
ish Government  and  its  allies  will  feel 
bound  to  assist  the  Polish  Nation  to  de- 
fend its  existence  with  all  means  at 
their  disposal. 

The  Polish  Government  has  declared  its 
willingness  to  make  a  peace  with  Soviet 
Russia  and  to  negotiate  for  an  armistice 
on  the  basis  set  out  above  directly  it  is 
informed  that  the  Soviet  Government  also 
agrees. 

The  British  Government  would  there- 
fore be  glad  to  receive  a  definite  reply 
within  a  week'  as  to  whether  Soviet  Rus- 
sia is  prepared  to  accept  the  British  Gov- 
ernment's proposals  to  put  an  end  to  fur- 
ther unnecessary  bloodshed  and  restore 
peace  to  Europe. 

Mr.  Bonar  Law,  replying  to  a  ques- 
tion, said  the  note  had  been  sent  with 
the  approval  of  the  Allies.  The  Soviei 
reply  arrived  too  late  for  inclusion  in 
this  issue  of  Current  History. 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  DISASTER 


757 


POLISH  WOMEN  OPERATING  A  MACHINE  GUN  DURING  THE  DE- 
FENSE OF  LVOV.  THE  HILL  IN  THE  BACKGROUND  IS  ARTIFICIAL. 
IT  WAS  RAISED  BY  THE  POLES  IN  COMMEMORATION  OP  THE 
UNION     OF    POLAND     WITH     LITHUANIA     AND     WHITE     RUTHENIA 


M.  Grabski,  the  Polish  Premier,  was 
due  to  arrive  in  Warsaw  on  July  13, 
bearing  allied  assurances  of  assistance 
in  arms  and  munitions  in  case  Moscow's 
reply  was  unfavorable. 

POLAND'S   INTERNAL  AFFAIRS 

A  Ministerial  crisis  was  brought  about 
on  June  9  by  the  resignation  of  M, 
Dombski,  one  of  the  Under  Secretaries 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  resulting 
resignations  of  the  Ministers  of  Agricul- 
ture and  Public  Works,  both  members  of 
the  Pec  pie's  Party,  to  which  M.  Dombski 
belonged.  M.  Skulski,  the  Premier,  then 
placed  the  resignation  of  the  whole  Cabi- 
net in  General  Pilsudski's  hands.  The 
Polish  Chief  of  State  asked  M.  Skulski 
to  form  a  new  Cabinet.  The  root  of  the 
trouble  was  the  opposition  of  the  Peo- 
ple's Party  to  the  Government's  scheme 
af  r  ;questrati:ig  the  peasants'  crops   at 


prices  considered  disadvantageous.  The 
political  crisis  was  preceded  and  accom- 
panied by  an  epidemic  of  strikes,  stated 
to  be  due  to  the  fluctuation  of  currency. 
M.  Skulski  having  found  himself  unable 
to  meet  the  request,  M.  Ladislav  Grab- 
ski,  former  Minister  of  Finance,  was  ap- 
pointed Premier,  and  formed  a  new  Cabi- 
net, composed  as  follows: 

Premier    and    Minister    of    Finance— M. 
Grabski. 
Minister    of    War— General    Leszniewski. 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs— Prince  Eu- 
gene Sapieha. 
Minister  of  Food— Stanislas  Slivinski. 
Minister   of   Railroads— M.    Bartel. 
Minister    of    Posts    and    Telegraphs— M. 
Tolloczko. 
Minister  of  Education— M.   Lopuszanski. 
Minister    of    Commerce    and    Industry- 
Antony  Olszewski. 
Minister  of  Public  Health— M.  Chodzko. 
Minister       of       Public       Works— Gabriel 
Naruzowicz. 


758 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


Minister    of    Agriculture— Professor    Bu- 
jak. 
Minister  of  the   Interior— M.  -  Kuczynski. 
Minister  of  Justice^ Jbhn  Morawski.'   '   • 

The  problem  of  the  coal  fields  of  Tes- 
chen  was  being  discussed  by  M. '  Patek, 
Foreign  Minister  under  the  Skulski  Cab- 
inet, with  M.  Benes,  acting  for  Czecho- 
slovakia, in  Paris  toward  the  middle  of 
June.  Th«  two  new  States  had  success- 
fully passed  through  a  crisis,  threaten- 
ing a  break  of  diplomatic  relations,  to- 
ward the  end  of  May,  charges  of  vio- 
lence and  excesses  in  the  plebiscite  area 
being  made  on  both  sides.  The  change 
of  Cabinet  brought  no  change  in  the  de- 
termined policy  of  conciliation. 

Charges  that  Sir  Reginald  Tower,  the 
British  High  Commissioner  for  Danzig, 
was  denying  Polish  rights  in  the  Free 
City,  discriminating  in  favor  of  the  Ger- 
man population,  and  seeking  to  obtain 
control  for  British  interests,  were  made 
by  the  Poles  in  June.  By  a  provisional 
economic  convention  between  Poland  and 


Danzig,  signed  on  April  22,  the  two  com- 
munities had  been  made  a  single  cus- 
toms territory. 

Dr.  Israel  Friedlaender,  professor  of 
Biblical  Literature  at  the  Jewish  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  New  York,  and  Ber- 
nard Cantor,  also  of  New  York,  both 
connected  with. the  Jewish  Relief  Work 
in  Poland,  were  slain  by  Bolshevist  sol- 
diers in  the  Ukraine  on  July  7.  Dr. 
Friedlaender  and  Dr.  Cantor  had  dis- 
tributed more  than  1,000,000  marks  for 
relief,  and  were  preparing  to  leave  the 
region  in  the  Ukraine  near  which  Gen- 
eral Budenny  was  operating  with  his 
Bolshevist  cavaliy. 

It  was  announced  by  the  American 
Polish  Chamber  of  Commerce  on  June 
CO  that  the  sale  of  $50,000,000  of  Polish 
bonds,  begun  at  a  mass  meeting  of  Poles 
in  New  York  City  on  June  13,  had  been 
completed.  The  Polish  Government,  it 
was  stated,  planned  to  use  this  loan  to 
buy  raw  materials  and  machinery  in  the 
United  States. 


A  Month  in  the  United  States 

Developments    in   the    Army    and    Navy — Convention    of   the 
Federation  of  Labor — War  Debt  Reduced 

[Period   Ended   July   15,   1920] 


THE  War  Department  on  June  19 
issued  an  order  by  which  twenty- 
three  officers  holding  the  emer- 
gency rank  of  Major  General 
were  reduced  to  Brigadiers  or  Colonels. 
The  order  also  reduced  sixteen  Brigadier 
Generals  to  ranks  ranging  from  Major 
to  Colonel.  Among  the  higher  officers 
thus  temporarily  reduced,  preliminary  to 
the  reorganization  of  the  United  States 
Army  under  the  new  law,  were  Major 
Gens.  Charles  R.  Edwards,  Henry  T. 
Allen,  Omar  Bundy,  Charles  T.  Menoher, 
with  others  who  were  prominent  on  the 
fighting  front  during  the  war;  also 
Major  Gen.  William  S.  Graves,  who  com- 
manded the  American  forces  in  Siberia. 
On  June  27  the  War  Department  an- 
nounced that  General  Peyton  C.  March, 
Lieut.    Gen.    Hunter   Liggett   and   Lieut. 


Gen.  Robert  L.  Bullard  would  surrender 
temporary  war  rank  and  revert  to  the 
permanent  rank  of  Major  General  in  the 
regular  establishment.  These  changes 
also  were  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  the  new  army  reorganization 
law. 

Secretary  Baker  announced  on  June 
27  that  President  Wilson  had  appointed 
four  of  eleven  new  permanent  Major 
Generals  authorized  by  the  army  reor- 
ganization law.  Those  so  appointed  are 
Major  Gen.  J.  M.  McAndrews,  President 
of  the  Army  and  War  College;  Major 
Gen.  John  L.  Hines,  in  command  of  the 
division  at  Camp  Dodge,  Des  Moines, 
Iowa;  Major  Gen.  Henry  T.  Allen,  in 
command  of  the  American  Army  of  Oc 
cupation  in  Germany;  Major  Gen.  David 
C.   Shanks,  in  command  of  the   Port  of 


A  MONTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


759 


I 


Embarkation  at  Hoboken.  The  former 
permanent  rank  of  these  officers  was 
that  of  Brigadier  General.  They  now 
become  permanent  Major  Generals. 
Seven  other  new  permanent  Major  Gen- 
erals are  to  be  appointed  by  the  Presi- 


MAJOR    GEN.    JOHN   A.    LeJBUNB 

New    Comviand\ant    of    the    United    States 

Marine  Corps, suecceding  General  Barnett 

(©    Harris  &  Ewing) 


dent.     There  are,  under  the  old  law,  ten 
permanent  Major  Generals. 

LEJEUNE     HEADS     MARINE     CORPS 

The  appointment  of  Major  Gen,  John 
A.  LeJeune  as  Major  General  com- 
manding the  Marine  Corps,  to  succeed 
Major  Gen.  George  Barnett,  was  an- 
nounced June  19.  General  LeJeune  com- 
manded the  famous  2d  Division  when  it 
broke  the  German  line  in  the  Meuse- 
Argonne  offensive  and  the  Secretary 
said  his  appointment  to  command  the 
Marine  Corps  was  in  line  with  the  policy 
of  the  department  to  reward  the  officers 


who  served  with  distinction  during  the 
war.  General  LeJeune  assumed  his  new 
duties  the  following  week. 

ARMY  RESERVE  ABOLISHED 

Secretary  Baker  announced  on  June  29 
that  in  accordance  with  Section  30  of  the 
new  Army  Reorganization  act  the  regu- 
lar army  reserve  had  been  ordered  abol- 
ished and  that  all  members  of  the  reserve 
would  be  discharged.  Department  com- 
manders were  ordered  to  take  immediate 
steps  to  discharge  all  enlisted  men  of 
this  reserve  whose  records  are  on  file 
at  their  headquarters,  except  those  who 
were  called  to  active  service  for  the 
World  War  and  who  are  not  shown  by 
the  records  to  have  been  demobilized. 

This  change  applies  only  to  men  who 
enlisted  prior  to  April  2,  1917,  when 
they  entered  the  army  either  for  four 
years  with  the  colors  and  three  years 
in  reserve  or  for  three  years  with  the 
colors  and  four  years  in  reserve.  Some 
have  not  completed  their  term  of  service 
with  the  colors,  and  by  the  new  law 
they  are  relieved  of  the  obligation  of 
serving  in  the  reserve  when  their  time 
with  the  colors  is  completed.  Any  of 
those  who  enlisted  prior  to  Nov.  1,  1916, 
however,  who  desire  to  serve  their  full 
enlistment,  that  is  to  serve  seven  years 
with  the  colors,  will  be  permitted  to  do 
so.  This  does  not  affect  the  Officers' 
Reserve  Corps. 

VICTORY  MEDAL 
The  new  Victory  Medal  for  United 
States  participants  in  the  World  War 
was  designed  by  James  Earl  Eraser. 
Over  5,000,000  of  these  medals  will  be 
distributed  to  soldiers,  sailors,  nurses 
and  others  who  were  in  the  military 
service.  One  side  shows  Liberty,  armed 
with  shield  and  sword.  On  the  other  are 
the  shield  of  the  United  States  and  the 
names  of  the  allied  nations.  Over  all 
is  the  inscription,  "  The  Great  War  for 
Civilization."  On  the  fob  that  goes  with 
the  medal  is  a  bar  on  which  is  inscribed 
the  name  of  the  country  or  countries 
where  the  recipient  saw  service. 

5,000  DRAFT  SENTENCES 

Figures  made  public  at  the  Depart- 
ment   of    Justice    July    10    showed    that 


760 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


5,000  draft  evaders  had  been  convicted 
in  Federal  courts  and  sentenced  to  prison 
for  from  thirty  days  to  one  year.  Thirty 
thousand  cases  remain  to  be  investigated, 
but  officials  assert  that  rapid  progress 

NEW  VICTORY   MEDAL 


OBVERSE  AND  REVERSE  OF  THE  MEDAL 
DESIGNED  BY  JAMES  EATIL,  ERASER. 
NEARLY  5,000,000  OF  THESE  ARE  BEING 
DISTRIBUTED  TO  SOLDIERS,  SAILORS, 
MARINES,  NURSES  AND  DOCTORS  WHO 
SERVED  IN  THE  WAR 
(Photo    Underwood   &    Underwood) 


is  being  made  in  rounding  up  the  de- 
linquents. The  figures  do  not  include 
cases  of  persons  who  were  called  in  the 
draft  and  deserted,  as  such  cases  are 
handled  by  the  military  authorities. 

So  far  approximately  275,000  cases 
of  delinquents — men  who  succeeded  in 
avoiding  actual  entrance  into  the  service 
— have  been  investigated  by  the  depart- 
ment out  of  a  total  of  318,314  reported. 
The  results  of  the  investigation  show 
about  10,000  cases  of  failure  to  register 
and  an  equal  number  of  false  question- 
naires. 

Several  thousand  German  and  Aus- 
trian alien  enemies  throughout  the 
United  States  were  released  from  parole 
July  15.  The  only  exceptions  made  were 
cases  in  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
District  Attorney,  it  would  be  unwise  to 
release  the  alien  enemy  from  his  parole 
or  to  terminate  his  bond. 


IV/r AJOR  GEN.  WILLIAM  C.  GORGAS, 
■*■"-»■  former  Surgeon  General  of  tho 
United  States  Army,  died  of  apoplexy  in 
London  on  July  4,  at  the  age  of  66  years. 
He  had  gone  to  London  preparatory  to 
a  mission  to  West  Africa  in  behalf  of 
the  British  Government  to  investigate 
sanitary  conditions.  General  Gorgas  was 
considered  one  of  the  greatest  sanitari- 
ans in  the  world.  He  was  bom  at  Mo- 
bile, Ala.,  in  1854,  of  a  distinguished 
Southern  family,  and  received  his  early 
education  at  the  University  of  the  South, 


at  Sewanee,  Tenn.,  of  which  his  father 
was  then  President.  After  subsequent 
training  at  the  Bellevue  Medical  College 
he  received  a  doctor's  commission  in  the 
army,  and  was  sent  to  Fort  Brown, 
Texas.  An  attack  of  yellow  fever  awoke 
in  him  a  special  interest  in  this  disease. 

It  was  during  the  Spanish  war  and  the 
years  immediately  following  it  that 
Gorgas  performed  the  work  that  brought 
him  public  attention.  He  accompanied 
the  army  in  the  Santiago  expedition,  and 
was  placed  in  charge  of  the  yellow  fever 
wards  of  the  Las  Animas  Hospital  in 
Havana.  While  serving  as  Health  Offi- 
cer of  the  city  he  seized  upon  the  con- 
temporary discovery  of  the  transmission 
of  yellow  fever  through  mosquitos,  and 
adapted  it  to  his  campaign  so  effective- 
ly that  he  succeeded  in  ridding  Havana 
of  this  affliction. 

With  this  record,  he  became  the  logical 
choice  of  the  United  States  Government 


A  MONTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


761 


;^hen  it  became  necessary  to  make 
lealthful  the  area  surrounding  what  is 
low  the  Panama  Canal.  In  contrast  with 
the  repeated  failure  of  the  French  canal 
milders   to    eradicate   this   tropical   dis- 


MAJOR   GEN.    WILLIAM   C.    GORGAS 
Late  S^lrgcon  General  of  the  United  States 
Army 
(©    Harris   S   Ewing) 


ease,  Colonel  Gorgas  removed  not  only 
this,  but  also  the  malaria  scourge  from 
the  Isthmus,  thus  making  possible  the 
great  engineering  exploits  of  General 
Goethals.  This  result  was  achieved  in 
great  part  by  means  of  crude  oil  spread 
over  vast  surfaces  of  stagnant  water, 
thus  killing  the  mosquito  larvae  which 
rose  to  the  surface  to  breathe.  Five 
years  of  scientific  care  by  Colonel  Gorgas 
reduced  the  annual  yellow  fever  death 
rate  of  the  Isthmus  from  8,000  to  just 
19.  Gorgas  prophesied  that  "  some  day, 
a  case  of  yellow  fever  will  be  regarded 
as  a  medical  curiosity." 

In  1913  Colonel  Gorgas  went  to  South 
Africa  at  the  request  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment to  investigate  conditions  in  the 
Rand  Mines,  where  thousands  of  Kaffirs 
were  dying  of  pneumonia.  In  1914  he 
was  promoted   by  his   own   Government 


to  be  Surgeon  General,  and  was  made 
a  Major  General  the  following  year.  He 
performed  signal  service  in  reducing  the 
mortality  of  the  American  Army  during 
the  war  to  six-tenths  of  1  per  cent. 

On  hearing  of  his  death  Secretary  of 
War  Baker  issued  an  official  statement 
of  regret  and  high  laudation  of  the  value 
of  his  services  to  the  Government.  The 
British  Government  showed  its  apprecia- 
tion of  his  work  for  humanity  by  taking 
official  charge  of  the  funeral  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  on  July  9,  when 
the  body  was  attended  by  a  large  mili- 
tary escort  and  the  services  were  super- 
vised by  the  Minister  of  Health,  Dr. 
Christopher  Addison.  The  King  was 
represented  by  Sir  John  Goodwin,  his 
surgeon. 

ENLISTMENT  OF  ALIENS 

Instructions  were  issued  by  Secretary 
Baker  on  June  24  that,  from  July  20, 
1920,  enlistments  would  be  authorized 
throughout  the  continental  limits  of  the 
United  States  to  illiterates  and  non-Eng- 
lish-speaking citizens  and  aliens  who  de- 
clare their  intention  to  become  citizens. 
These  enlistments  will  be  for  three  years 
only  for  the  present,  and  will  be  con- 
fined to  the  whites. 

The  illiterates  and  non-English-speak- 
ing recruits  will  be  distributed  to  re- 
cruiting educational  centres,  and  in  any 
case  where  enlistment  is  for  special  as- 
signment the  recruit,  as  soon  as  enlisted, 
will  be  sent  to  that  educational  centre 
nearest  to  the  organization  for  which  he 
entered. 

To  carry  out  this  policy  and  to  give 
these  men  a  course  in  elementary  Eng- 
lish in  connection  with  their  military  in- 
struction, recruit  educational  centres  will 
be  organized  at  Camps  Jackson,  Pike, 
Grant,  Travis  and  Lewis.  These  centres 
will  be  modeled  after  the  one  which  has 
been  in  successful  operation  for  some 
time  at  Camp  Upton,  New  York. 

WAR  DEBT  REDUCED 

The  quarterly  debt  statement  issued 
July  2  by  the  Treasury  Department 
showed  that  the  public  debt  decreased 
by  more  than  a  billion  dollars  during  the 
fiscal  year  of  1919,  just  ended,  and  by 


7G2 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


more  than  two  billion  dollars  since  last 
Aug.  31,  when  the  war  debt  was  at  its 
peak.  On  June  30  the  public  debt  was 
$24,299,321,467.07,  a  drop  of  $1,185,184,- 
692.98  from  the  June  30,  1919,  total  of 
$25,484,506,160.05,  and  a  decline  of  $2,- 
295,380,180.94  from  the  peak  figure  of 
$26,596,701,648.01  on  Aug.  31.  The  de- 
crease for  the  period  from  May  31  to 
June  30  was  $675,641,559.72. 

$17,000,000,000  TRADE  BALANCE 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  World  ^v  ar 
in  1914  the  United  States  has  rolled  up 
a  trade  balance  of  approximately  $17,- 
000,000,000  against  the  world.  This  ex- 
ceeds by  several  billions  the  total  bal- 
ance in  favor  of  the  United  States  from 
1875  to  1914. 

Department  of  Commerce  figures  June 
24  showed  that  the  trade  balance  made  in 
favor  of  the  United  States  in  the  fiscal 
year  ended  in  1914,  one  month  before  the 
war  began,  was  $470,000,000.  During  the 
first  year  of  the  war  it  was  $1,094,419,- 
600,  and  in  the  next  year,  ended  June  30, 
1916,  it  was  $2,135,599,375.  During  the 
succeeding  year  the  total  was  $3,530,- 
693,209. 

Meantime  the  United  States  had  en- 
tered the  struggle,  and  in  the  year  ended 
June  30,  1918— the  first  full  fiscal  year 
of  America's  participation — the  balance 
was  only  $2,974,055,973.  In  the  next 
year,  ended  last  June  30,  however,  it 
was  $4,136,562,618. 

During  the  first  eleven  months  of  the 
fiscal  year  1919-20  the  balance  was  only 
$2,788,451,602,  but  exports  were  larger 
in  those  eleven  months  than  in  any  other 
full  fiscal  year  in  the  nation's  history, 
totaling  $7,474,193,349,  as  against  the 
previous  twelve  months'  record  of  $7,- 
232,282,686,  made  during  the  last  fiscal 
year. 

At  the  same  time  that  America's  ex- 
port trade  began  to  advance  by  leaps  and 
bounds  the  import  trade  also  showed  an 
enormous  increase,  totaling  $2,917,883,- 
510  in  the  year  ended  June  30,  1916,  and 
advancing  steadily  each  year  to  a  new 
high  record  of  $4,685,741,747  during  the 
eleven  months  of  the  present  fiscal  year. 
The  previous  high  record  was  $3,095,- 
720,068  last  year. 


Most  of  the  favorable  trade  balance  of 
the  United  States  has  been  against  the 
allied  and  neutral  countries  of  Europe. 
Many  of  the  South  American  and  North 
American  countries  and  some  of  those 
of  the  Far  East  have  a  balance  against 
the  United  States. 

A.  F.  L.  CONVENTION 

The  fortieth  annual  convention  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  was  held 
at  Montreal  June  9-18.  It  expressed  its 
confidence  in  the  leadership  of  Samuel 
Gompers,  the  veteran  President,  when  it 
re-elected  him  on  June  18  for  the  thirty- 
ninth  time  and  returned  to  office  his  en- 
tire administrative  cabinet.  His  election 
was  virtually  unanimous.  The  delegates 
gave  the  elderly  labor  leader  a  tremen- 
dous ovation  when  he  declared :  "  I  ac- 
cept the  call  to  duty  and  I  will  obey." 

The  federation  on  June  16  reaffirmed 
its  stand  for  recognitioa  of  the  Irish  re- 
public amid  a  great  demonstration.  Res- 
olutions adopted  urged  that  the  "mili- 
tary forces  of  occupation  in  Ireland  be 
withdrawn,"  and  that  the  Irish  people 
be  accorded  the  "  right  of  self-determi- 
nation." 

The  federation  declared  war  on  the 
Kansas  Court  of  Industrial  Relations  by 
adopting  a  resolution  which  condemned 
such  legislation  as  "  confiscatory  of  the 
liberty  and  property  and  a  denial  of  the 
human  rights  of  organized  labor." 

The  federation  instructed  its  Execu- 
tive Council  to  take  such  steps  as  nec- 
essary to  support  organized  labor  in 
Kansas,  Nebraska  and  Colorado  in 
"  fighting  anti-strike  legislation  to  a 
finish."  The  non-partisan  political  policy 
of  President  Gompers  was  unanimously 
indorsed. 

Government  ownership  and  "  demo- 
cratic operation  "  of  United  States  rail- 
roads was  demanded  in  a  resolution 
passed  June  17.  The  language  of  the 
resolution  was  the  language  of  the 
Plumb  Plan  League,  although  the  league 
was  not  specifically  mentioned.  The 
vote  was  29,058  to  8,348.  It  came  at  the 
end  of  a  two  days'  battle.  The  result 
was  a  complete  defeat  of  Samuel  Gom- 
pers, veteran  President  of  the  federa- 
tion.   It  is  regarded  as  the  only  real  set- 


A  MONTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


763 


[A  Prophetic  Cartoon] 
COMPETITION  AMONG  OHIO  NEWSIES 

[This  cartoon,  published  by  The  Columbus  (Ohio)  Citizen  six  months  ag-o,  is 
the  one  referred  to  by  Senator  Harding  when  in  his  congratulatory  telegram  to 
Governor  Cox  he  said:  "I  recall  a  much-remarked  cartoon  which  portrayed 
you  and  me  as  newsboys  contending'  for  the  White  House  delivery.  It  seems 
to  have  been  prophetic."] 


-Columbus  Citizen,  Feb.  2lt,  1920 


back  Gompers  has  received  in  years. 
Cheers  shook  the  convention  hall  when 
the  vote  was  announced. 

DAMAGES  AGAINST  LABOR  UNION 

Justice  Rodenbeck  in  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Rochester,  June  19,  handed 
do'vn    a    decision    in    the    case    of    the 


Michaels-Stern  Clothing-  Company 
against  the  Amalgamated  Clothing 
Workers  of  America  for  a  permanent  in- 
junction and  $100,000  damages.  The  at- 
titude taken  by  Justice  Rodenbeck 
throughout  his  decision,  one  of  the  most 
momentous  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
industrial  world,  is  that  no  labor  union 


764 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


has  the  right  to  make  itself  into  a  labor 
monopoly  and  use  force  and  intimidation 
in  any  way  to  effect  its  end.  The  Jus- 
tice says: 

The  plaintiffs  were  required  to  win  their 
way  in  the  world  of  business  by  hard  and 
honest  competition  and  by  the  character 
and  quality  of  their  goods;  but  the 
Amalgramated  Clothing  Workers,  instead 
of  endeavoring  to  secure  recognition  by 
an  example  of  enlightened  and  reasonable 
administration  in  other  factories,  chose  to 
force  their  way  into  plaintiffs'  factory  by 
secrecy  and  by  a  strike  backed  by  its 
powerful  influence  and  supported  by  acts 
that  the  law  condemns.  Ultimate  success 
in  the  labor  movement  does  not  lie  along 
this  line,  but  in  the  direction  of  a  peace- 
ful exemplification  of  a  just  and  reason- 
able administration  of  affairs  of  the 
union,  with  advantages  not  only  to  em- 
ployers and  employes  but  to  the  public 
as  well. 

WHEAT  PRODUCTION  COST 

The  Department  of  Agriculture,  in 
making  public  on  June  20  the  results  of 
its  recent  cost  of  production  survey, 
which    covered    fourteen    representative 


districts,  announced  that  the  1919  wheat 
crop  was  produced  at  an  average  cost  to 
the  grower  of  $2.1-5  a  bushel.  The  de- 
partment stated  that  to  permit  a  profit 
on  80  per  cent,  of  the  wheat  produced  on 
the  farms  covered  by  the  survey  the 
price  would  have  to  be  about  $2.60.  The 
cost  of  producing  Winter  wheat  was 
much  lower  than  that  for  Spring  wheat, 
the  figures  being  $1.87  and  $2.65,  re- 
spectively. "  Dollar  wheat,"  once  the  as- 
piration of  wheat  growers,  would  have 
paid  the  cost  of  production  on  only  two 
of  the  481  farms  included  in  the  survey. 
Importers  of  dyestuffs  were  notified, 
June  22,  that  the  War  Trade  Board  sec- 
tion of  the  State  Department  was  now 
prepared  to  grant  allocation  certificates 
providing  for  the  importation  of  German 
dyes  in  amounts  sufficient  to  supply  the 
immediate  requirements  of  American 
consumers  for  six  months.  Licenses  to 
import  will  be  issued  only  in  event  the 
dyes  applied  for  are  not  obtainable  from 
domestic  sources  on  reasonable  terms  as 
to  price,  quality  and  delivery. 


The  Third  Party  Convention 

Platform    and    Nominees    of  the  Farmer-Labor  Party,  Representing 
Various  Radical  Groups  of  the  United  States 


TIE  radicals  and  extreme  Socialists, 
who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican  platforms, 
held  a  separate  convention  in  Chicago, 
beginning  July  10,  to  launch  a  third 
political  party  in  the  Presidential  cam- 
paign. The  original  call  was  issued  by 
dissentients  known  as  the  Committee  of 
Forty-eight,  so  named  because  it  con- 
sisted of  one  member  from  each  of  the 
States.  It  was  led  largely  by  intellec- 
tuals of  radical  views,  among  the  chief 
organizers  being  Amos  Pinchot,  who  was 
United  States  Chief  of  Forestry  under 
President  Roosevelt,  and  Dudley  Field 
Malone,  who  was  Commissioner  of  Im- 
migration at  the  Port  of  New  York 
under  President  Wilson. 

Various  other  groups  met  in  Chicago 
at    the    same    time,    chief    among    them 


being  the  extreme  labor  radicals,  who 
are  in  opposition  to  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor;  Single  Taxers, 
Grangers  and  others.  After  several  con- 
ferences it  was  agreed  finally  to  unite 
in  one  convention,  and  it  was  then  that 
the  labor  group  proved  to  be  in  the 
majority.  The  labor  radicals  dominated 
the  proceedings  and  forced  through  a 
radical  platform,  so  extreme  that  the 
group  of  Forty-eighters  bolted  the  con- 
vention, as  did  the  Single  Taxers;  the 
Non-Partisan  Farmers'  League  also  de- 
clined to  accept  the  platform. 

The  platform  favors  the  repeal  of  all 
laws  against  sedition,  espionage,  &c. ; 
the  election  of  Federal  Judges,  the  ini- 
tiative, referendum  and  recall;  the  com- 
plete withdrawal  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Treaty  of  Versailles ;  opposition 


THE   THIRD   PARTY   CONVENTION 


76^ 


to  the  League  of  Nations,  recognition  of 
the  Irish  Republic  and  of  Soviet  Russia; 
withdrawal  from  the  Philippines,  Ha- 
•waii,  Haiti,  Santo  Domingo,  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  Samoa,  Guam;  opposition  to  con- 
scription. It  favors  the  "  democratic 
control  of  industry,"  public  ownership 
and  operation  of  all  public  utilities, 
national  resources,  stock  yards,  abattoirs, 
grain  elevators,  water  powers,  cold  stor- 
age and  terminal  warehouses;  Govern- 
ment ownership  and  democratic  opera- 
tion of  railroads,  mines  and  such  natural 
resources  as  are  to  any  extent  bases  of 
control.  The  platform  favors  extension 
of  the  Federal  farm  loan  system,  op- 
poses consumption  taxes,  favors  in- 
creased income  taxes,  favors  a  soldier's 
bonus  and  adopts  in  full  a  bill  of  rights 
for  labor  pledging  the  following: 

(a)  The  unqualified  right  of  all  work- 
ers, including  civil  service  employes,  to 
organize  and  bargain  collectively  with 
employers  through  such  representatives 
of  their  unions  as  they   choose. 

(b)  Freedom  from  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion and  all  other,  attempts  to  coerce 
workers. 

(c)  A  maximum  standard  8-hour  day 
and  44 -hour   week. 

(d)  Old  age  and  unemployment  pay- 
ments and  workmen's  compensation  to 
insure  workers  and  their  dependents 
against  accident  and  disease. 

(e)  Establishment  and  operation 
through  periods  of  depression  of  Govern- 
mental work  in  housing,  rebuilding,  re- 
forestation, reclamation  of  cut-over  tim- 
ber,   desert    and    swamp    lands    and    de- 


velopment of  ports,  waterways  and  water- 
power  plants. 

(f)  Re-education  of  the  cripples  of  in- 
dustry  as   well    as    the   victims   of   war. 

(g)  Abolition  of  employment  of  chil- 
dren under  16  years  of  age. 

(h)  Complete  and  effective  protection 
for  women  in  industry,  with  equal  pay 
for  equal  work. 

(i)  Abolition  of  private  employment, 
detective  and  strike-breaking"  agencies 
and  extension  of  the  Federal  free  em- 
ployment service. 

(j)  Prevention  of  exploitation  of  immi- 
gration  and   immigrants  by  employers. 

(k)  Vigorous  enforcement  of  the  Sea- 
men's act  and  the  most  liberal  inter- 
pretation of  its  provisions.  The  present 
provisions  for  the  protection  of  seamen 
and  for  the  safety  of  the  traveling  pub- 
lic   must   not   be   minimized. 

(1)  Exclusion  from  interstate  commerce 
of  the  products   of  convict  labor. 

The  convention  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent Parley  P.  Christensen  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah;  for  Vice  President,  Max  S. 
Hayes  of  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Mr.  Christen- 
sen is  a  native  of  Ohio,  aged  51;  he  is  a 
lawyer  and  was  active  for  the  defense  at 
the  trial  of  the  I.  W.  W.  agitators;  he 
was  in  1915  a  member  of  the  Utah  Legis- 
lature, a  former  Principal  of  the  public 
schools  in  Utah.  In  1912  he  was  a  sup- 
porter of  President  Roosevelt.  Max  S. 
Hayes  was  the  nominee  of  the  Socialists 
for  Vice  President  in  1900.  He  has  been 
active  in  Socialist  circles  for  a  number 
of  years. 

The  nomination  for  President  was 
offered  to  Senator  LaFollette,  but  he  de- 
clined to  "run  on  the  platform  adopted. 


The  Spa  Conference 

Results  of  the  First  Direct  Verbal  Negotiations  Between  the 
Allies   and   Germany 


FOR  the  first  time  in  six  years  allied 
and  German  diplomats  met  on  a 
theoretically  even  footing  in  the 
historic  conference  that  opened  at 
Spa,  Belgium,  on  July  5.  According  to 
plans  laid  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  ulti- 
mately sanctioned  by  M.  Millerand,  this 
conference  was  to  be  the  first  of  a  series. 
It  was  the  opening  wedge  for  fulfillment 


of  the  German  desire  to  meet  the  victors 
face  to  face  in  oral  discussions  instead 
of  through  the  medium  of  notes  equiva- 
lent to  commands.  As  such  it  was  con- 
sidered by  the  allied  Premiers  in  the 
light  of  an  experiment,  which  would  be 
justified,  if  at  all,  by  the  results. 

These   results  were   attained,   but  not 
over  smooth  seas.    The  Allies  found  the 


766 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Germans  obstinate,  evasive  or  violent; 
the  Germans  found  the  allied  representa- 
tives severe  and  inflexible.  Despite  all 
obstacles,  Germany  was  finally  led  to 
agree  to  disarm,  to  proceed  with  the  trial 
of  war  criminals,  to  bind  herself  to  the 
regular  delivery  of  huge  quantities  of 
coal.  The  Allies,  on  their  part,  agreed  to 
lend  Germany  large  sums  of  money  with 
which  to  build  up  her  disorganized  in- 
dustries. Thus  from  her  new  defeat  she 
wrested  victory. 

The  conference  at  Spa,  which  ended 
on  July  16,  was  the  culmination  of  a 
number  of  prior  conferences  held  by  the 
allied  Ministers  at  San  Remo,  Italy;  at 
Hythe  and   Lympne,   England;   at  Bou- 


HUGO    STINNES 

German  caintalist  who  took  a  prominent 

part  in  the  Spa  Conference 

(©    International) 

logne,  France,  and  at  Brussels,  Belgium, 
At  all  these  meetings  the  Premiers  had 
discussed  the  demands  to  be  made  on 
Germany,  and  at  Brussels  the  reparations 
indemnity  was  finally  fixed  at  $30,000,- 
000,000;  but  the  method  of  distribution 
could  not  be  settled,  Italy  holding  out  for 
20  per  cent,  and  Rumania  demanding  a 


share,   which  the  Allies  were  unwilling 
to    grant. 

The  Germans,  on  their  side,  had  been 
exhaustively  drawing  up  their  own  pro- 
gram. Their  delegation,  headed  by  the 
Chancellor,  Herr  Fehrenbach,  and  in- 
cluding the  Ministers  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Finance,  Commerce,  Food  and  Recon- 
struction, twenty-five  high  Government 
officials  and  business  experts  and  a 
large  staff  of  secretaries,  left  for  Spa 
on  July  4. 

OPENING  OF  CONFERENCE 

The  first  meeting  of  the  allied  and 
German  diplomats  took  place  on  July  6, 
in  the  Villa  Fraineuse,  at  the  crest  of  the 
hill  back  of  Spa,  where  ex-Kaiser  Will- 
iam sojourned  from  time  to  time  in  1918 
when  German  hopes  were  already  on  the 
wane.  There  was  no  formality,  no  cere- 
mony, though  all  shook  hands  after  M. 
Delacroix,  the  Belgian  Premier,  who  pre- 
sided, had  introduced  the  delegates.  The 
meeting  lasted  only  twenty  minutes,  and 
started  and  ended  in  a  clash.  The  con- 
flict arose  over  the  question  of  disarma- 
ment, which  the  Allies  brought  up  im- 
mediately. Herr  Fehrenbach  said  he  had 
not  understood  that  the  disarmament 
provisions  of  the  treaty  were  to  be  dis- 
cussed, and  that  he  had  not  brought 
Herr  Gessler,  Minister  of  Defense,  to 
the  conference.  Premier  Lloyd  George 
insisted  that  it  was  impossible  to  discuss 
reparations  until  the  disarmament  ques- 
tion had  been  disposed  of.  The  Belgian 
Premier  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
three  allied  notes  on  disarmament  had 
been  sent  to  Berlin.  Herr  Fehrenbach's 
proposal  that  other  subjects  be  discussed 
pending  Gessler's  arrival  was  rejected  by 
the  allied  representatives,  and  the  meet- 
ing was  adjourned  to  the  following  day. 

A  DRAMATIC  MEETING 

The  meeting  of  July  6  had  a  dramatic 
quality,  the  Germans  reinforced  by 
Gessler  and  General  von  Seecht,  German 
Chief  of  Staff,  trying  to  compel  the 
Allies  to  withdraw  from  their  firm  stand 
on  disarmament,  and  the  Allies,  headed 
by  the  British  Premier,  meeting  their 
arguments  one  by  one  and  demolishing 
them  as  they  arose.     Tears  flowed  dov/D 


THE  SPA   CONFERENCE 


767 


the  cheeks  of  the  German  Chancellor, 
speaking  for  the  millions  of  defeated 
Germans,  as  he  declared  that  Germany 
held  no  desire  of  revenge  in  her  heart. 
At  the  opening  of  the  session  the  De- 
fense Minister  rose  and  made  a  plea 
against  reduction  of  the  German  Army 
from  200,000  to  100,000  men,  in  view  of 
the  serious  internal  troubles  that  had 
arisen   since   the   armistice,   which   made 


further  reduction  unwise.  Lloyd  George 
asked  directly:  "Is  this  a  declaration 
that  the  German  Government  does  not 
intend  to  fulfill  the  terms  of  the 
treaty?  "  The  Defense  Minister  replied 
that  Germany  was  only  asking  for  spe- 
cial consideration  for  the  conditions  re- 
ferred to.  Herr  von  Simons,  the  German 
Foreign  Minister,  added  that  Germany 
intended  eventually  to  reduce  the  army 


[American  Cartoon] 


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BRUSSELS    .IS 
^-.  FtNED      / 

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1920 


Neiu   York   Tribune 


OH,  DRY  THOSE  TEARS! 


7()8 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


because    of    its    expense,    but    that    she 
asked  for  time. 

Following  a  recess,  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
stated  that  Germany  did  not  seem  to 
realize  the  gap  between  the  treaty  terms 
and  the  execution  of  the  treaty.  The 
treaty,  he  said,  left  to  Germany  100,000 
men,  100,000  rifles  and  2,000  machine 
guns.  Germany  still  had  200,000  men, 
millions  of  rifles,  20,000  machine  guns 
and  12,000  cannon.  Germany  was  men- 
aced by  two  dangers,  both  from  the 
Right  and  the  Left,  and  outrages  were 
due  to  too  many  weapons  being  avail- 
able. The  purpose  of  the  Allies,  he  de- 
clared, was  to  prevent  these  arms  from 
being'  a  menace  to  Germany  and  the  rest 
of  Europe.  He  asked  the  German  Chan- 
cellor to  present  a  specific  plan  with 
dates  for  the  demanded  disarmament, 
and  thus  give  evidence  that  Germany 
really  desired  to  carry  out  the  treaty. 

GERMAN  CHANCELLOR'S  PLEA 

Herr  Fehrenbach,  in  reply,  again  cited 
jthe  special  difficulties  of  the  German 
Government.  Strike  had  followed  strike. 
The  rifles  had  been  taken  home  by  the 
soldiers,  and  it  was  impossible  to  recover 
them.  Germany  was  weary  of  war,  and 
did  not  seek  revenge.  The  Government 
must  have  means  of  combating  Com- 
munism, which  was  the  great  danger  in 
Germany  today.  The  movement  both  to 
Right  and  Left  in  the  recent  elections 
he  explained  as  due  to  the  fear  of  Com- 
munism. He  guaranteed  that  there  was 
no  longer  any  militarist  danger  from 
Germany.    With  great  emotion  he  added : 

We  will  hand  over  all  the  material  we 
can.  If  we  have  to  fulfill  the  require- 
ments as  to  rifles  we  must  have  more 
troops.  As  for  dates,  it  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  be  definite.  You  can  trust 
us,  for  our  future  depends  upon  the  Spa 
Conference.  I  am  an  old  man.  I  have 
always  been  an  honest  man.  I  hope  to 
appear  before  the  Great  Judge  as  an 
honest  man.  I  promised  the  Reichstag 
that  I  would  fulfill  the  treaty,  and  I 
promise    you    the    same    thing. 

In  response  Mr.  Lloyd  George  de- 
clared he  was  greatly  disappointed  at 
the  situation  created  by  the  Chancellor's 
failure  to  present  a  definite  plan,  with 
dates,  and  that  if  this  was  not  presented. 


the  conference  would  be  broken  off.  The 
next  sitting  was  fixed  for  the  following 
day  and  Germany  was  notified  that  she 
must  present  her  answer  at  that  session. 
Admitting  that  there  were  1,000,000 
armed  men  in  Germany,  and  2,000,000 
rifles  unaccounted  for,  the  German  rep- 
resentatives at  this  new  session  asked 
the  Allies  for  a  delay  of  fifteen  months  in 
fulfilling  the  disa>"-  ment  terms.  The 
Allies  refused  this  delay,  and  the  allied 
Premiers  subsequently  called  in  Marshal 
Foch  and  General  Wilson,  the  French  and 
British  commanders  in  chief,  to  formu- 
late c*  course  of  procedure  if  Germany 
refused  compliance  with  the  allied  de- 
mands. 

SETTLEMENT  ON  DISARMAMENT 

The  whole  question  of  disarmament 
was  finally  settled  at  the  session  of  July 
9.  The  Allies  called  on  Germany  at  the 
meeting  of  July  8  to  agree  to  fulfill  the 
disarmament  terms  within  six  months. 
The  terms  laid  down  were  as  follows: 

First  —  That  the  Germans  dissolve  the 
Sichereitswehr  and  Einivohnerstoehr. 

Second— That  concealed  arms  be  given 
up,  with  severe  penalties  in  case  of  fur- 
ther concealment. 

Third— That  a  law  be  passed  converting, 
the  Reichswehr  into  a  small  regular 
army,  as  provided  by  the  treaty. 

Fourth— That  all  other  military  and  avi- 
ation clauses  be  faithfully  executed. 

On  these  conditions,  the  Allies  agi-eed  to 
extend  imtil  Jan.  1  the  time  for  the  re- 
duction of  effectives,  but  demanded  that 
the  army  should  not  exceed  150,000  men 
on  Oct.  1.  The  Allies  further  agreed  to 
allow  Germany  to  keep  forces  in  the  neu- 
tral zone,  and  to  do  their  utmost  to  pre- 
vent arms  from  being  smuggled  in  from 
the  occupied  area. 

If  at  any  time  the  Allied  Commission  of 
Control  finds  that  Germany  is  evading 
the  fulfillment  of  the  bargain,  the  Allies 
will  proceed  to  further  occupation  of  Ger- 
man territory,  whether  in  the  Ruhr  or 
elsewhere,  and  will  continue  to  occupy  it 
until  the  terms  are  wholly  complied  with. 

To  these  terms,  which  represented  a 
considerable  concession,  both  in  respect 
to  condonation  of  the  German  failure  to 
disarm  to  date,  and  in  respect  to  the 
German  request  for  further  delay,  the 
Germans  replied  at  the  session  of  July 
9  by  signifying  their  consent  to  sign  the 
protocol  presented.  A  temporary  hitch 
caused  by  von  Simons,  who  stated  that 


THE  SPA  CONFERENCE 


769 


the  threat  of  occupation  of  the  Ruhr 
district  amounted  to  a  change  in  the 
treaty,  which  could  not  be  agreed  to 
without  reference  to  the  Reichstag,  was 
eliminated  by  the  British  Premier,  who 
pointed  out  that  the  Allies  had  reserved 
to  themselves  under  the  treaty  the  right 
to  take  such  action  in  the  event  of  non- 
fulfillment of  the  treaty  terms.  Chan- 
cellor Fehrenbach  and  von  Simons  then 
signed,  and  were  followed  by  the  allied 
diplomats.  Herr  von  Gessler  was  absent. 
;;^      Thus  one  of  the  most  important  phases 

If  the  Spa  Conference,  a  phase  of  para- 
lount  importance  to  France,  was  settled, 
nd  the  way  cleared  for  discussions  of 
ther  important  questions,  notably,  the 
lunishment  of  the  war  criminals,  the 
greement  on  indemnities  and  the  Ger- 
lan  deliveries  of  coal.* 

GERMAN  WAR  CRIMINALS 

After  the  signing  of  the  disarmament 
agreement  the  question  of  the  punish- 
ment by  Germany  of  the  war  criminals 
listed  by  the  Allies  was  taken  up.  Here, 
too,  difficulties  at  once  arose.  The  Ger- 
man Minister  of  Justice,  Karl  Heinze, 
when  a^ked  what  Germany  had  done 
toward  pushing  the  trial  of  those  ac- 
cused, admitted  that  she  had  done  noth- 
ing. The  Allies,  he  said,  had  given  Ger- 
many considerable  difficulty  by  mis- 
spelling the  names  of  those  charged  with 
war  crimes  and  by  presenting  insuffi- 
cient evidence,  which  the  Leipsic  Court 
Magistrates  did  not  find  adequate  for 
the  issuing  of  warrants.  Furthermore, 
many  of  the  men  accused  had  moved  and 
could  not  be  found.  The  British  Premier 
asked  severely  if  Germany  expected  the 
Allies  to  abide  by  the  expression  of  opin- 
ion of  the  German  Magistrates,  which  he 
declared  to  be  unwarranted.  Herr  von 
Simons  came  to  the  rescue  of  his  col- 
league. He  explained  that  Germany 
needed  the  help  of  the  Allies  in  the 
matter  in  gaining  further  evidence.  The 
Leipsic  court,  because  of  its  high  repu- 
tation, could  convict  only  upon  the  fullest 


♦Though  the  Germans  signed  the  main  pro- 
tocol on  disarmament,  they  refused  to  sign 
the  agi-eement  prohibiting  Germany  from 
building  airships  in  Germany,  and  they 
maintained  tliis  refusal  to  the  end. 


evidence,  and  though  a  considerable  time 
had  elapsed  since  the  commission  of  the 
crimes  charged  Germany  intended  to  do 
her  utmost  to  bring  to  trial  the  forty- 
five  men  accused  by  the  revised  allied 
list  if  she  could  gain  the  Allies'  co-op- 
eration in  the  matter  of  further  evidence. 
This  Lloyd  George  finally  agreed  to  fur- 
nish. A  decision  was  reached  by  the 
adoption  of  a  report  drawn  by  a  com- 
mittee consisting  of  Lord  Birkenhead, 
the  British  Lord  Chancellor;  Jules  Cam- 
bon  and  the  German  Minister  of  Justice. 
It  was  recommended  and  agreed  that  the 
prosecutor  of  the  Leipsic  court  would  be 
allowed  to  send  missions  to  France  and 
England,  where  they  would  receive  fa- 
cilities for  gathering  further  evidence. 

REPARATIONS    IN  COAL 

At  this  same  session  the  question  of 
reparations  was  finally  launched  by  the 
Allies  presenting  their  demands  on  Ger- 
many regarding  coal.  Herr  Bergmann, 
a  German  expert,  tried  to  explain  why 
there  had  been  a  shortage  in  coal  de- 
liveries by  Germany.  He  attributed  this 
to  the  internal  troubles  in  Germany  and 
to  strikes  in  Holland  and  Belgium,  and  to 
floods  on  the  Rhine.  Premier  Millerand 
replied  that  Germany  must  deliver  39,- 
000,000  tons  annually,  of  which  25,000,000 
were  allotted  to  France,  8,000,000  to  Bel- 
gium and  6,000,000  to  Italy.  The  Repara- 
tions Commission  had  reduced  this  to  29,- 
000,000  tons.  Germany,  he  said,  had  de- 
livered only  1,100,000  tons  in  May,  half 
of  her  proper  quota.  On  June  15,  the 
Germans  had  given  orders  to  reduce  the 
amount  to  France  by  10,000  tons  daily. 
Yet  Germany's  coal  position  was  better 
than  that  of  France,  and  France's  short- 
age was  due  to  German  destiniction  of 
her  mines.  Furthermore,  Germany,  while 
defaulting  in  her  coal  deliveries,  had  sold 
35,000  tons  of  coal  to  Switzerland,  and 
contracted  to  sell  Holland  80,000  tons 
monthly.  He  then  read  the  following 
proposal:  France  to  have  priority  up 
to  the  amount  fixed  by  the  Reparations 
Committee;  Germany  to  agree  to  the 
establishment  by  the  commission  of  a 
permanent  coal  committee  in  Berlin,  in 
control  of  all  the  coal  in  Germany.    The 


770 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Gei-man  answer  to  these  proposals  was 
defeired  until  the  following  session. 

This  session  was  held  on  June  11, 
and  proved  to  be  a  stormy  one.  Herr 
von  Simons  declared  that  Germany's 
failure  in  deliveries  was  due  not  to  bad 
faith  but  to  Germany's  own  imperative 
inner  needs.  He  urged  that  the  German 
experts  be  heard  before  a  definite  de- 
cision was  reached,  and  called  on  Herr 
Hugo  Stinnes  to  plead  Germany's  case. 

HERR  STINNES  DEFIANT 

Stinnes,  an  extraordinary  figure  in 
present-day  Germany,  a  multi-millionaire 
and  coal  baron,  owner  of  seventy  news- 
papers, and  said  to  be  the  greatest 
profiteer  of  the  war,  arose  at  once.  Pale, 
shabby  and  down  at  heel,  with  burning 
black  eyes  and  a  twisted  nose,  this  man 
whose  power  was  feared  even  by  the  ex- 
Kaiser  showed  at  once  by  his  belligerent 
attitude  that  he  had  come  to  Spa  in  no 
pacific  mood.  As  he  started  to  speak 
von  Simons  halted  him  and  warned  the 
Allies  that  Stinnes  and  Hue,  who  was 
to  follow  him,  were  not  members  of  the 
delegation,  and  that  the  German  Gov- 
ernment did  not  accept  responsibility  for 
what  they  might  say.  Stinnes,  the  big- 
gest coal  owner  in  Germany,  and  pro- 
ducer of  most  of  the  coal  which  the 
Allies  df'manded,  then  began,  saying: 
I  rise  because  I  want  to  look  you  in  the 
face.  M.  Millerand  said  yesterday  that 
the  Germans  are  here  by  courtesy.  I 
maintain  that  I  am  here  by  right.  Who- 
ever is  suffering  from  the  disease  of  vic- 
tory- 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  nodded  at  this  point 
to  M.  Delacroix,  who  interrupted 
Stinnes.  The  purpose  of  the  Spa  Con- 
ference, he  said,  was  to  come  to  an 
amicable  settlement,  and  he  insisted  that 
Stinnes  cease  from  provocative  remarks. 
Stinnes  then  went  on  to  say  that  Spa 
was  the  ear  through  which  Europe  would 
know  the  truth.  The  Allies  must  realize 
that  they  must  treat  with  Germany  on 
terms  of  absolute  equality  before  any 
agreement  could  be  reached.  He  con- 
tested M.  Millerand's  coal  figures  for 
Germany.  Though  he  admitted  that 
France  needed  coal,  because  of  the  Ger- 
man destruction  of  her  mines — which  he 
defended  as  due  to  military  necessity — 


he  declared  that  the  allied  demand  of 
29,000,000  tons  yearly  was  quite  impossi- 
jle.  The  millions  of  tons  monthly  now  sup- 
plied could  be  met  only  by  overwork. 
Jnderfeeding  of  the  German  miners  made 
any  greater  demands  on  them  impossible. 
He  recognized  that  the  Allies  might  oc- 
cupy the  Ruhr  mining  district,  where 
his  own  mines  were  operated,  but  de- 
clared in  loud  and  angry  tones  that  if 
the  Allies  did  that  with  their  black 
troops  as  the  instruments  of  their  au- 
thority, "  the  feelings  of  every  white  man 
would  recoil  " ;  the  coal  situation,  in  that 
event,  which  niight  otherwise  be  cleared 
up  within  three  years,  would  then  be 
hopeless.  He  declared  in  conclusion  that 
the  German  mine  owners  had  prepared 
a  scheme  which  they  considered  a  rea- 
sonable solution,  and  that  if  it  were  re- 
jected right  would  be  on  the  German 
side,  "  and  we  will  not  accept  your 
terms." 

Herr  Hue,  the  other  coal  expert,  spoke 
more  mildly,  pointing  out  the  fact  that 
the  German  miners  were  already  work- 
ing eight  hours  and  ten  minutes  daily, 
and  that  punitive  measures  would  prob- 
ably have  the  opposite  effect  to  that  in- 
tended. The  morning  session  was  then 
closed. 

The  afternoon  session  brought  an 
apology  from  the  German  Government 
for  the  words  and  behavior  of  Stinnes, 
which  elicited  from  M.  Millerand  a  con- 
ciliatory speech,  in  which  he  said  that 
the  Allies  did  not  wish  to  chastise  Ger- 
many but  to  make  her  a  useful  member 
of  world  society.  The  technical  result 
of  the  day's  session  was  a  concession  by 
the  Allies  that  the  coal  situation  be  re- 
viewed by  experts  of  both  sides  before  a 
final  decision.  Herr  von  Simons,  on  re- 
ceiving this  concession,  consented  to  sub- 
mit the  German  scheme  for  reparations, 
which,  as  the  Germans  had  previously 
explained,  depended  in  great  measure  on 
the  coal  decision  ultimately  reached. 

GERMAN  REPARATIONS  SCHEME 

The  German  program,  on  delivery,  was 
found  to  consist  of  three  parts,  the  first 
dealing  with  indemnity,  the  second  with 
the  rebuilding  of  devastated  France,  and 
the  third  with  the  delivery  of  materials 


THE  SPA  CONFERENCE 


771 


)r  the  restoration  of  the  territories  af- 
;ted.  The  Germans  proposed  that  a 
lefinite  sum  be  fixed,  after  the  payment 
)£,  which  Germany  should  be  completely 
free.  The  Allies  were  asked  to  draw  up 
a  schedule  of  annual  payments  reaching 
over  a  period  of  thirty  years,  these  pay- 
ments not  to  be  made  regular  in  charac- 
ter, inasmuch  as  the  economic  situation 
)i  Germany  during  the  period  in  ques- 

ion  could  not  be  gauged  in  advance.  To 
"enable  her  to  fulfill  her  obligations,  Ger- 
many asked  for  allied  aid  in  respect  to 
food,  fodder,  fertilizers  and  raw  ma- 
terials. Regarding  her  obligation  to  pay 
on  May  1,  1921,  the  sum  of  200,000,000,- 
000  marks  in  gold,  she  declared  that  she 
considered  she  had  more  than  paid 
this  amount  already  in  other  ways.  Part 
2  of  the  scheme  provided  for  the  estab- 
lishm.ent  of  an  international  syndicate  to 
rebuild  devastated  France,  the  cost  to  be 
paid  ultimately  by  Germany.  Part  3 
set  forth  Germany's  willingness  to  make 
such  deliveries  of  materials  as  she  found 
possible,  and  asked  that  these  deliveries 
be  credited   against  reparations. 

NEW   COAL  CRISIS 

This    scheme,    however,    was   pigeon- 
holed, and  a  new  coal  crisis  arose  on  July 

12,  when  the  Allies,  after  due  consulta- 
tion, decided  that  Germany  must  accept 
the  previous  demand  for  2,000,000  tons 
of  coal  monthly.  The  Germans  showing 
defiance,  the  Allies  summoned  their  mili- 
tary chiefs  to  enforce  compliance  on  July 

13,  and  declared  that  they  found  it  im- 
possible to  effect  a  peaceful  solution  with 
the  German  representatives,  as  they 
avoided  all  issues  and  clamored  that  their 
desires  in  the  matter  of  cr  '  be  fulfilled. 
In  respect  to  indemnity  also  the  Ger- 
mans refused  to  make  any  definite  -^^er 
and  sought  to  obtain  terms  amounting  to 
nullification  of  the  Versailles  Treaty.  At 
a  special  session  held  at  2  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  July  16  the  Germans  argued 
for  more  favorable  terms  in  respect  to 
coal  until  the  patience  of  both  the  British 
and  French  Premiers  was  exhausted  and 
they  refused  to  listen  further.  The  allied 
demands  must  be  met,  they  declared, 
without  further  expostulation  or  evasion. 
Faced  by  prospect  of  an  invasion  of  the 


Ruhr  district  by  six  divisions  of  allied 
troops  on  the  following  day  in  case  of 
non-compliance,  the  Germans  finally 
yielded  after  hours  of  stormy  discussion 
among  themselves,  and  at  11  o'clock  the 
same  night  notified  Lloyd  George  and 
M.  Millerand  that  they  would  accept  the 
allied  coal  demands.  The  coal*  protocol 
was  signed  forthwith — much  to  the  satis- 
faction of  France,  to  whom  the  question 
of  coal  deliveries  was  vital — and  the  Spa 
conference  was  brought  to  an  end. 

THE  COAL  PROTOCOL 

The  coal  terms  signed  by  Germany 
bound  her,  under  sanctions  of  a  definite 
nature,  to  carry  out  the  following  ar- 
rangements : 

Germany  pledged  herself  to  deliver 
2,000,000  tons  of  coal  monthly  to  the  Al- 
lies. This  is  less  by  1,259,000  tons  a 
month  than  the  Versailles  Treaty  provides 
for,  but  more  by  1,000,000  tons  a  month 
than  the  Germans  had  been  delivering. 
The  amount  delivered  was  to  be  credited 
against  reparations,  and  ."i  gold  marks  per 
ton  were  to  be  paid  by  the  Allies  for  the 
purchase  of  food  for  the  German  miners. 
The  conditions  of  food,  clothing  and  hous- 
ing for  the  miners  were  to  be  improved 
at  once  through  a  committee  at  Essen. 
The  distribution  of  coal  from  Upper  Sile- 
sia was  to  be  regulated  by  a  commission, 
on  which  Germany  was  to  be  represented. 
In  case  the  total  German  coal  deliveries 
for  August,  September  and  Oct  ber  should 
be  ascertained  by  Nov.  15,  1920,  to  have 
fallen  below  6,000,000  tons,  the  Allies  de- 
clared that  the  Ruhr  district,  or  some 
other  German  territory,  would  be  occu- 
pied. 

In  exchange  for  these  coal  deliveries 
the  Allies  agreed  to  make  advances  to 
Germany  equal  in  amount  to  the  differ- 
ence between  the  price  to  be  paid  accord- 
ing to  the  treaty  and  the  export  price  of 
coal  at  a  German  or  Englisii  port,  which- 
ever might  be  the  lower,  these  loans  to  be 
made  by  opening  foreign  credits  in  Ger- 
many's favor.  Concretely,  the  Germans, 
if  they  deliver  within  the  next  six 
months  12,000,000  tons  of  coal,  are  to 
obtain  credits  estimated  to  amount  to 
about  $100,000,000,  which  they  must  repay. 

Thus,  in  regard  to  the  two  momentous 
questions  of  German  disarmament  and 
coal  deliveries,  the  Spa  conference  ended 
distinctly  as  an  allied  victory.  The  Ger- 
mans went  home  in  an  evil  humor,  de- 
claring that  the  signing  of  the  protocols 
at  Spa  meant  the  end  of  their  Govern- 


772 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


merit,  and  predicted  disaster.  The 
French — distrustful  of  Germany's  good 
faith — were  skeptical  of  the  permanency 
of  the  agreements  reached.  One  optimist 
was  Lloyd  George,  pale  and  tired,  but  de- 


daring  that  the  road  from  Spa  was  the 
road  to  reality.  The  British  Premier  de- 
clared that  after  six  years  of  separation 
from  Germany  he  considered  the  results 
attained  represented  enormous  progress. 


High  Court  of  International  Justice 

Progress  of  League  of  Nations  Project  Now  in  Process 
of  Creation  at  The  Hague 


ONE  of  the  most  important  steps 
which  the  League  of  Nations  has 
taken  in  erecting  machinery  to 
overcome  the  scourge  of  international 
war  is  the  creation  of  a  Permanent  Court 
of  International  Justice.  The  decision 
to  establish  this  court  was  taken  by  the 
Council  of  the  League  at  its  meeting  in 
London  on  Feb.  13,  1920,  when  it  was 
resolved,  in  accordance  with  Article  14 
of  the  League  Covenant,  that  certain 
eminent  jurists  should  be  invited  to 
form  a  commission  to  prepare  plans  for 
the  organization  and  opening  of  a  high 
court  of  international  composition.  The 
Commission  of  Jurists  selected  comprised 
the  following  ten  men  of  international 
eminence : 

Lord    Phillmore     (England). 
■     Mr.    Elihu    Root    (United    States). 

Professor  Andr6  Weiss  (France). 

M.    Adatchi    (the    Japanese    Minister    at 
Brussels). 

Professor  Raphael  Altamira  (Spain). 

Baron    Descamps    (Belgian    Minister    of 
State). 

Professor    Ricci    Busatti    (Italy). 

Dr.  Hagerup  (Norway). 

Dr.  Loder  (Holland). 

M.    Raoul    Fernandez    (Brazil). 

M.  Anzilotti,  Under  Secretary  of  the 
League,  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the 
commission. 

This  International  Commission  of  Ju- 
rists opened  its  sessions  at  The  Hague 
Peace  Palace  in  the  afternoon  of  June 
16,  1920,  under  the  Presidency  of  Baron 
Descamps,  the  Belgian  Minister  of  State. 
The  opening  ceremony  was  impressive. 
It  was  attended  by  several  high  Dutch 
officials  and  members  of  the  Diplomatic 
Corps,  as  well  as  by  the  British  Ambas- 
sador.    Dr.  van  Karnebeek,  Minister  of 


Foreign  Affairs  for  Holland,  offered  a 
welcome  on  behalf  of  Queen  Wilhelmina, 
and  greeted  M.  Leon  Bourgeois  as  the 
President  of  the  League  of  Nations.  M. 
Bourgeois  delivered  an  address  of  wel- 
come to  the  international  jurists,  in 
which  he  referred  particularly  to  the 
presence  of  Elihu  Root,  representing 
America,  saying  that  his  presence  was 
proof  that  the  Old  and  the  New  Worlds, 
notwithstanding  passing  difficulties, 
would  not  be  separated  by  a  lasting  bar- 
rier. He  recalled  the  memorable  confer- 
ences at  The  Hague  in  1899  and  1907, 
and  drew  a  moral  from  the  horrors  of 
the  great  war  to  point  the  necessity  of 
establishing  universal  peace,  the  diffi- 
culties of  which  project,  he  warned,  must 
not  be  underestimated.  The  High  Court 
now  in  process  of  organization,  he  said, 
was  to  be  permanent,  not  a  mere  court 
of  arbitration,  and  there  would  be  no  ap- 
peal from  its  decisions.  This  would  re- 
quire a  strong  organization,  which  must 
comprise  judicial,  diplomatic,  economic 
and  if  necessary  military  powers.  Above 
all,  the  court  must  be  armed  with  high 
moral  force,  in  order  to  penetrate  as 
deeply  as  possible  into  the  lives  of  the 
nations. 

At  the  session  held  on  the  following 
day,  the  Commission  of  Jurists  adopted 
its  rules  of  procedure,  and  issued  a  reso- 
lution declaring  that  it  would  avail  itself 
of  all  agencies  and  organizations  in  order 
to  fulfill  the  object  for  which  the  con- 
ference had  been  summoned  by  the 
League.  The  real  labors  of  the  commis- 
sion started  on  June  17  with  an  exam- 
ination of  the  great  principles  of  law  on 
which  the  new  court  must  be  erected. 


HIGH  COURT  OF  INTERNATIONAL  JUSTICE 


773 


The  first  and  fundamental  question  to 
be  decided  was  the  method  of  election  of 
permanent  judges.  A  scheme  worked  out 
by  Elihu  Koot  and  Lord  Phillimore,  rep- 
resentative of  Great  Britain,  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  conference  at  the  session  of 
June  21.  This  plan  would  give  the  coun- 
cil of  the  League  of  Nations,  controlled 
by  the  Great  Powers,  the  right  to  name 
the  panel  from  which  the  assembly  of 
the  League,  in  which  all  nations  will  be 
represented,  would  choose  some  fifteen 
judges.  In  case  of  conflicting  opinions 
the  assembly  could  reject  the  panel  in 
whole  or  in  part  and  submit  a  panel  of 
its  own  nominees.  The  candidates  ap- 
pearing in  both  panels  would  then  be 
chosen  autohiatically,  and  the  others  by 
the  conference  committees  from  the 
council. 

This  plan  emphasized  the  view  long 
advocated  by  Mr.  Root,  that  only  by  a 
compromise  between  the  interests  of  the 
large  and  small  nations  could  working 
arrangements  for  .the  High  Court  be 
reached.  Baron  Descamps,  President  of 
the  commission,  favored  this  joint  plan 
as  the  first  real  working  basis  that  had 
been  submitted  and  as  meeting  the  main 
desire  of  the  jurists  to  separate  the  po- 
litical questions  which  must  preoccupy 
the  League  from  the  matters  of  abstract 
justice  with  which  the  High  Court  should 
be  solely  concerned. 

Lord  Phillimore  also  submitted  a  pro- 
posal that  the  conference  recognize  the 
existence  of  the  several  distinct  types  of 
world  law  prevailing  in  England,  Amer- 
ica, Spain,  Japan,  &c.,  and  suggested 
that  judges  be  selected  representing 
these  types,  the  selection  to  rest  with  the 
existing  court  of  Arbitration  at  The 
Hague. 

ROOT-PHILLIMORE    PLAN  ADOPTED 

Other  plans  were  proposed  for  the 
election  of  the  permanent  judges  and 
considered  at  several  sessions;  all,  how- 
ever, were  ultimately  rejected,  and  the 
Root-Phillimore  plan  was  adopted  on 
July  6.  The  suggestion  that  The  Hague 
Arbitration  Court  nominate  candidates 
from  which  the  council  and  assembly 
should  choose  the  judges  was  approved 
A  tentative  decision  was  reached  on 
July   8    that   the    court   should    be   com- 


posed of  eleven  judges  and  four  alter- 
nate judges,  to  serve  for  nine  years.  It 
was  decided  that  no  judge  should  sit 
on  a  case  in  which  his  country  was  one 
of  the  parties  in  appeal,  though  he 
would  be  igiven  the  right  of  presence 
and  consultation.  By  this  decision  the 
intention  to  have  The  Hague  Court  of 
Arbitration  co-exist  with  the  High 
Court  was  made  plain. 

Regarding  the  jurisdiction  ^f  the 
court  there  was  considerable  discussion. 
Although  no  vote  was  taken,  the  com- 
mission on  June  27  reached  an  agree- 
ment on  a  plan  submitted  by  neutrals, 
which  prescribed  five  types  of  cases  in 
which  resort  to  the  court  should  be  made 
compulsory.  These  types  were  as  fol- 
lows: Cases  involving  the  interpretation 
of  treaties;  those  regarding  the  break- 
ing of  international  agreements;  those 
relating  to  international  law;  those  in- 
volving reparation  due  after  breaking 
of  an  agreement,  and  those,  lastly,  in- 
volving interpretations  of  an  award  of 
the  court. 

COMPROMISE  ON  SYSTEM  OF  LAW 

One  of  the  most  difficult  problems 
was  the  question  as  to  whether  definite 
or  general  laws  should  be  applied  by  the 
court.  Mr.  Root  and  Lord  Phillimore 
spoke  for  the  precise  and  definite  sys- 
tem as  opposed  to  the  looser  and  more 
'eneral  Continental  type.  A  compromise 
was  finally  effected  at  the  session  of 
July  3.  The  court  chose  as  its  basis  for 
procedure  the  plan  laid  down  by  The 
Hague  Conference  of  May,  1907,  and  the 
plan  of  neutral  States  of  February, 
L920. 

One  of  the  last  questions  approached 
was  that  of  the  election  of  a  President 
ind  Vice  President  for  the  High  Court. 
It  was  decided  at  the  session  of  July  9 
that  the  Judges  should  select  these  offi- 
cers for  a  term  of  three  years,  after 
which  they  could  be  re-elected.  With 
this  decision  and  some  subsequent  dis- 
cussions the  first  part  of  the  labors  of 
the  conference  came  to  an  end  on  July 
14,  the  work  having  reached  a  stage 
where  the  principles  on  all  important 
subjects  had  been  agreed  upon.  To- 
ward the  middle  of  July  the  commission 


774 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


busied  itself  in  formulating  the  text  of 
its  decisions  in  a  tangible  form  for  pres- 
entation to  the  League.  Interviewed  at 
The  Hague  at  this  time,  Mr.  Root  de- 
clared that  the  work  of  organization  was 
proceeding  in  the  most  favorable  way. 
The  court  and  league,  he  said,  -when 
finally  organized,  would  be  supplementary 
to  the  League.  The  League  Council,  he 
stated,  will  be  a  conference  which  must 
meet  to  decide  urgent  political  questions 
immediately,  while  the  court  will  decide 
weighty  questions  of  law,  unconcerned 
with  politics  and  under  no  necessity  to 
hurry  its  decision. 

The  Dutch  Government  received  with 
great  gratification  the  commission's  de- 
cision to  make  The  Hague  the  permanent 
place  of  meeting  of  the  court,  which  was 
agreed  on  unanimously  at  the  session  of 
June  25. 

SIXTH  MEETING  OF  LEAGUE 

The  sixth  meeting  of  the  council  of 
the  League  of  Nations  was  held  on  June 
16,  in  the  Picture  Gallery  of  St.  James's 
Palace,  London.  Lord  Curzon,  represent- 
ing Great  Britain,  presided.  The  other 
members  present  were:  Baron  Mon- 
cheur  (Belgium),  Senhor  F.  de  Castello 
Branco  Clark  (Brazil),  M.  de  Fleuriau 
(France),  M.  D.  Caclamanos  (Greece), 
Commendatore  Catalini  (Italy),  Viscount 
Chinda  (Japan),  Marquis  de  Faura 
(Spain)  and  the  Secretary  General  of 
the  League,  Sir  Eric  Drummond.  The 
meeting  was  attended  by  the  Persian 
Foreign  Minister,  Prince  Firuz,  who 
came  prepared  to  hear  the  council's  de- 
cision regarding  Persia's  appeal  against 
the  Bolshevist  aggression  in  Persia.  Dr. 
Fridtjof  Nan  sen  was  also  present  to  re- 
port on  the  question  of  repatriating  war 
prisoners  from  Siberia. 

After  warmly  welcoming  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  other  powers,  Lord  Cur- 
zon expressed  regret  at  the  absence  of 
M.  Leon  Bourgois,  because  of  his  work 
at  The  Hague  with  the  Commission  of 
Jurists.  When  the  Persian  appeal  was 
about  to  be  discussed  he  invited  Prince 
Firuz  to  take  his  seat  as  a  member  of 
the  council.  He  then  read  a  resolution, 
passed  the  day  before,  in  which  the  coun- 
cil  decided   to   await   the   effect   of   the 


Soviet     promises    to    withdraw      before 
taking  further  action  in  behalf  of  Persia. 

Dr.  Nansen's  report  on  war  prisoners 
set  forth  the  enormous  difficulties  at- 
tending their  repatriation.  There  were 
still  some  250,000  war  prisoners  in 
Russia  whose  repatriation  *  Dr.  Nan- 
sen  recommended  by  way  of  Mos- 
cow and  the  Baltic  States,  instead 
of  the  long  and  difficult  way  by 
sea  transport  from  Vladivostok.  It  was 
evident,  he  said,  that  this  route  was 
possible  only  with  the  co-operation  of 
Soviet  Russia,  and  an  agreement  had 
been  concluded  by  the  International  Com- 
mittee of  the  Red  Cross  with  both  Ger- 
many and  Moscow  on  the  basis  of  ex- 
change of  prisoners  in  Russia  against 
Russian  prisoners  in  Germany.  Esthonia 
and  Finland  were  collaborating  loyally. 
Repatriated  prisoners  were  arriving 
rapidly  at  Narva,  and  Dr.  Nansen  was 
certain  that  with  the  obtaining  of  neces- 
sary shipping,  at  least  60,000  of  these 
prisoners  could  be  brought  home  from 
Russia  before  next  Winter.  Lord  Cur- 
zon, after  the  reading  of  this  report,  said 
that  a  letter  of  appreciation  and  thanks 
had  been  sent -to  the  Governments  of 
Esthonia  and  Finland  for  the  facilities 
offered  b  ythem.  The  question  of  the 
repatriation  of  Bulgarian  prisoners  in 
Greece  and  Serbia  was  referred  to  Dr. 
Nensen. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  held  on  June 
30  the  council  of  the  League  decided 
that  the  International  Financial  Confer- 
ence called  by  the  League  should  meet  at 
Brussels  on  July  23.  The  conference  was 
called  to  discuss  economic  conditions  of 
the  various  nations  and  give  suggestions 
for  working  out  the  reconstruction  prob- 
lems. The  United  States  was  to  be  rep- 
resented at  the  conference  unoffi:ially. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  League  Coun- 
cil was  set  for  July  27,  at  San  Sebastian; 
Spain. 

On  invitation  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions, President  Wilson  on  July  15  issued 
a  call  for  a  meeting  of  the  Assembly  of 
the  League  at  Geneva,  Switzerland,  on 
Nov.  15.  The  contemplated  agenda  called 
for  discussion  of  the  Far  and  Near  East 
situation,  and  of  the  methods  to  be 
adopted  in  financing  the  German  indem- 
nity. 


AMONG    THE    NATIONS 


Survey    of    Important    Developments    in    Half    a    Hundred 
Countries  of  Both  Hemispheres 

IFor  Alphabetical   Index   of   Countries   sec    Tabic   of   Contents'i 

[Period   Ended  July  15,   1920] 


Events  in  the  British  Empire 


ENGLAND 

THE  extraordinary  worldwide  hous- 
ing shortage  was  conspicuously 
emphasized  in  England  when  300 
delegates,  representing  more  than 
twenty  nationalities,  assembled  in  the 
Central  Hall,  Westminster,  for  a  seven 
days'  meeting,  under  the  title  of  the  In- 
terallied Housing  and  Town  Planning 
Congress.  Dr.  Addison,  Minister  of 
Health,  presided.  At  the  first  meeting 
a  resolution  was  carried  urging  legis- 
lative action  by  each  Government  in  the 
preparation  of  a  national  policy  of  suffi- 
cient scope  to  secure  within  the  limit  of 
twenty  years  the  proper  housing  of  every 
family.  In  supporting  the  resolution.  Dr. 
R.  S.  Copeland,  Health  Commissioner  of 
New  York  and  a  delegate  to  the  Con- 
gress, stated  that  he  had  made  a  survey 
of  over  30,000  tenement  houses  in  New 
York,  and  he  found  that  tenements  orig- 
inally intended  for  five  families  were 
now  housing  ten  families,  and  there  were 
hundreds  of  tenement  homes  in  New 
York  in  which  twelve  persons  were  liv- 
ing in  three  rooms,  and  where  four  per- 
sons slept  in  the  kitchen  every  night.  He 
added  that  in  view  of  such  serious  condi- 
tions legislative  assistance  was  hoped  for 
to  stimulate  house  building. 

The  War  Department  in  London 
recently  disclosed  the  daring  plans  which 
had  been  made  for  bombing  Berlin  from 
airplanes,  and  which  had  been  on  the 
point  of  being  carried  out  when  the 
armistice  was  signed.  Half  a  dozen 
secret  machines,  loaded  with  1,600-pound 
bombs   and   lighter  projectiles,   were   to 


start  from  a  point  on  the  east  coast, 
travel  over  the  North  Sea  and  on  to  Ber- 
lin, a  distance  of  approximately  500 
miles,  and  another  fifty  miles  return, 
with  no  stops.  It  was  intended  to  begin 
the  trip  in  the  early  afternoon  and  to 
reach  Berlin  just  after  dark.  This  proj- 
ect never  materialized,  but  in  the  month 
under  review  the  German  super-Zeppelin, 
L-71,  which  was  built  with  the  intention 
of  bombing  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of  the 
United  States,  was  on  its  way  for  de- 
livery to  Great  Britain  under  the  terms 
of  the  Peace  Treaty. 

The  first  general  strike  of  ship  wire- 
less men,  which  was  declared  on  June  15, 
and  caused  considerable  interference 
with  marine  traffic  at  the  Port  of  Liver- 
pool and  elsewhere,  was  called  off  on 
June  23. 

While  after-the-war  conditions  in  Lon- 
don were  steadily  improving,  the  process 
was  slow,  with  strikes  as  the  bane  of 
progress.  An  extra  million  of  population 
that  had  drifted  to  the  metropolis  during 
the  war  had  remained  to  make  prices 
range  high  for  visitors,  especially  Amer- 
icans, whom  a  part  of  the  population  re- 
garded as  traveling  banks.  The  emanci- 
pation of  Englishwomen  from  old-time 
restraint  was  said  to  be  responsible  for 
the  somewhat  curious  signs  on  golf  links 
and  in  hotels,  which  read:  "This  smok- 
ing room  is  reserved  for  gentlemen 
only."  On  June  15  the  bakers  were  in- 
structed not  to  make  any  more  white 
bread,  and  a  return  to  bread  cards  was 
thought  to  be  imminent.  All  food  was 
very   dear,   with   a   pronounced    scarcity 


(6 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  sugar  and  butter.  The  Defense  of  the 
Realm  act — commonly  called  "  Dora  "  for 
short — being  still  in  force,  many  articles 
could  not  be  purchased  after  8  P.  M 
Thus  there  was  the  anomaly  that  while  a 
fruiterer  could  sell  perishables  after  that 
hour,  his  sale  of  an  apple  would  bring 
down  a  fine  of  $100  (normal  exchange) 
if  reported. 

Owing  to  several  causes  a  set-back  in 
the  shipbuilding  and  engineering  indus- 
tries of  the  country  was  commented  upon, 
with  the  prospect  of  a  general  stoppage. 
So  unfavorable  had  the  outlook  recently 
become  that  a  number  of  shipowning 
firms  had  made  considerable  sacrifices 
to  cancel  orders  for  vessels  which  were 
placed  soon  after  the  armistice.  What 
with  falling  freights  and  the  cumulative 
effect  of  the  wages  movement  during 
the  past  eighteen  months,  added  to  the 
increased  cost  of  ships,  the  future  pre- 
sented a  too  uncertain  aspect.  An  ordi- 
nary tramp  steamer,  which  could  have 
been  bought  for  less  than  £50,000  seven 
years  ago,  now  costs  upward  of  £225,000. 

An  appeal  for  £50,000  was  issued  by 
the  authorities  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 
to  assist  in  repairing  that  edifice,  in 
danger  from  the  strain  to  the  founda- 
tions and  piers  caused  by  the  vibrations 
of  subways  and  other  modern  public  con- 
veniences. During  the"  war,  also,  two 
enemy  airplane  shells  pierced  the  fabric, 
causing  considerable  damage.  In  this 
both  sacred  temple  and  national  mau- 
soleum, where  rest  the  remains  of  Well- 
ington and  Nelson,  an  imposing  military 
tribute  was  paid  on  July  9  to  the  memory 
of  Major  Gen.  William  C.  Gorgas,  former 
Surgeon  General  of  the  United  States 
Army.  The  funeral  ceremonies  were  at- 
tended by  representatives  of  the  Royal 
Family,  the  Government,  the  medical 
profession  and  many  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  in  public  life. 

By  a  card  vote  -  of  2,760,000  against 
1,636,000  the  special  Trades  Union  Con- 
gress of  800  delegates  assembled  in  Lon- 
don decided  on  July  13  in  favor  of  a  gen- 
eral "  down-tools  "  policy  to  compel  the 
withdrawal  of  troops  from  Ireland.  The 
resolution  adopted  protested  a'gainst 
British  military  domination  of  Ireland 
and  also  demanded  the  cessation  of  the 


production  of  munitions  of  war  destined 
for  use  against  Ireland  and  Russia.  It 
was  pointed  out,  however,  that  the  vote 
signified  no  more  than  a  threat  of  direct 
action,  since,  should  the  Government  re- 
ject the  demands  of  the  resolution,  each 
union  would  act  according  to  its  consti- 
tution and  in  most  cases  a  ballot  would 
be  necessary. 

On  the  following  day  the  Irish  Sec- 
retary's Office  issued  a  reply.  It  stated 
that  the  resolution  of  the  Trades  Union 
Congress  was  probably  the  result  of 
a  misconception  of  the  actual  function 
of  the  troops,  which  were  not  in  Ireland 
for  purposes  of  military  occupation  but 
merely  to  assist  the  civil  power  and  the 
police  in  presei-ving  order.  While  point- 
ing out  that  martial  law  had  not  been 
proclaimed,  it  asserted  that  to  withdraw 
the  troops  would  leave  the  law-abiding 
populations  at  the  mercy  of  the  forces 
of  disorder. 

IRELAND 

Developments  of  the  critical  Irish  sit- 
uation comprised  chiefly  a  state  border- 
ing on  civil  war  in  Londonderry  for  some 
days,  and  extension  of  the  railway  strike 
in  protest  against  handling  British  mili- 
tary munitions  so  as  seriously  to  hamper 
both  passenger  and  freight  traffic.  The 
prevalence  of  disturbed  conditions 
throughout  the  country  was  indicated  by 
statistics  showing  that  since  Jan.  1,  1919, 
43  policemen  had  been  murdered,  there 
had  been  185  raids  in  the  last  six  months 
made  on  post  offices  for  money,  or  pri- 
vate residences  for  arms,  and  in  the 
month  of  April,  1920,  277  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary  barracks  and  huts  were  de- 
stroyed or  damaged.  In  addition,  trains 
and  mail  cars  had  been  held  up,  and  in- 
come tax  office  records  destroyed. 

From  June  20  to  June  26  the  historic 
city  of  Londonderry  became  the  scene  of 
violent  conflicts  between  the  Unionists 
and  Nationalists.  At  the  outset,  and,  in 
fact  during  the  greater  part  of  this 
period,  the  British  military  authorities 
were  loath  to  exercise  their  full  power 
to  subdue  the  outbreak,  apparently  wish- 
ing to  avoid  participation  in  what  was 
practically  civil  war.  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing of  the  21st  a  large  body  of  Unionists 
charged  down  Castle  Street,  firing  vol- 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


11\ 


ley  after  volley  toward  the  Sinn  Fein 
stronghold  in  Bridge  Street.  When  the 
fighting  at  this  point  was  broken  up  by 
•nilitary  armored  car,  it  was  shifted  to 
;her  places,  and  the  rioting  became  con- 
tinuous. Thereupon  all  business  was  sus- 
I ended,  the  schools  and  shops  were 
k)sed,  and  many  houses  barricaded. 
On  the  22d  the  fighting  spread  to  the 
^aterfront  district,  the  rival  parties  be 
ig  intrenched  and  barricaded  with  sand 
bags  in  Cross  Street  and  Broad  Street, 
respectively.  While  troops  strove  to  pro- 
tect some  of  the  streets  and  hold  the 
contending  factions  apart,  pitched  battles 
took  place  wherever  bodies  of  Unionists 
and  Sinn  Feiners  came  together,  and 
sniping  from  housetops  was  general. 
Channel  sailings  also  came  to  a  stand- 
still. In  the  face  of  ^  reign  of  terror, 
out  of  which  many  casualties  were  re- 
ported, numbers  of  citizens  fled,  some  of 
them  declaring  they  would  never  return. 
These  disorders  went  on  throughout 
the  23d,  and  into  a' night  of  fierce  firing, 
in  which  the  ominous  rattle  of  machine 
guns  told  that  the  troops  were  carrying 
out  their  latest  orders  to  drive  the  war- 
ring elements  off  the  streets  and  out  of 
their  strongholds.  Thus  by  dawn  of  the 
24th  the  bloody  conflict  was  practically 
over,  except  for  some  intermittent  snip- 
ing. On  the  25th,  as  the  result  of  a  con- 
ference between  the  military  and  Irish 
Government  officials,  a  Conciliation 
Committee,  representative  of  all  classes, 
was  appointed  to  restore  peace.  Accord- 
ing to  an  official  report,  the  total  casual- 
ties amounted  to  17  persons  killed  and  29 
wounded. 

Meanwhile  the  deadlock  on  the  rail- 
ways, due  to  the  munitions  controversy, 
increased.  On  June  18  Premier  Lloyd 
George  was  quoted  as  saying  that  if 
the  Irish  railway  strikers  persisted  in 
refusing  to  carry  troops  and  munitions 
the  Government  would  close  the  rail- 
ways. This  would  lead  to  a  very  serious 
situation.  This  threat^  however,  so  far 
failed  to  change  the  attitude  of  the 
strikers  that  by  the  29th  the  Great 
Northern  Railway,  hiherto  not  affected, 
became  involved  in  the  general  boycott, 
and  nearly  sixty  engine  drivers,  tguards, 
&c.,  had  been  suspended  by  various  com- 


panies. On  the  30th  the  railroad  ter-^ 
minus  in  Dublin  was  tied  up,  causing  a 
complete  stoppage  of  trains  for  the 
South.  This  resulted  from  the  refusal  of 
railway  men  to  move  trains  boarded  by 
police  or  soldiers. 

Thus  disorganization  of  the  railways 
went  on  until  by  July  8  no  trains  were 
running  out  of  Limerick  to  Waterford, 
Cork  and  Sligo,  and  there  had  been  no 
outbound  trains  from  Tipperary  for 
more  than  a  fortnight.  In  several  dis- 
tricts where  railway  communication  had 
ceased  motor  services  had  been  organ- 
ized to  deal  with  the  transport  of  food 
supplies,  becoming  alarmingly  scarce. 
On  July  16  the  situation  was  declared 
never  to  have  been  so  grave  from  the 
Government  viewpoint.  Workers  re- 
fused to  move  any  sort  of  war  material, 
and  Sinn  Feiners  had  resorted  to  the 
practice  of  kidnapping  men  who  took 
the  places  of  dismissed  employes. 

One  of  the  most  daring  and  well 
planned  Sinn  Fein  ventures  was  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  on  the  night  of  June 
27,  when  Brig.  Gen.  Lucas,  commanding 
the  Fermoy  military  area,  together  with 
Colonels  Danford  and  Tyrell,  his  com- 
panions on  a  fishing  trip,  were  ambushed 
by  a  large  party  of  armed  and  masked 
men,  who  intercepted  the  officers  when 
returning  to  a  hunting  lodge  some  miles 
from  Fermoy,  In  resisting  capture  Colo- 
nel Danford  received  a  dangerous  bullet 
wound  under  the  eyes.  He  was  left  by 
the  roadside  in  the  care  of  Colonel  Tyrell, 
but  General  Lucas  was  carried  off  to  an 
unknown  destination. 

The  kidnapping  of  the  British  General 
was  promptly  followed  up  by  the  send- 
ing out  of  search  parties  in  every  direc- 
tion. The  act  also  resulted  in  a  riotous 
counter  demonstration  by  soldiers  at 
Fermoy,  in  which  damage  estimated  at 
many  thousands  of  pounds  was  commit- 
ted. An  anonymous  letter  received  by 
the  authorities  at  Cork  stated  that  the 
arrest  of  General  Lucas  had  been  due  to 
the  discovery  of  Sinn  Fein  matters  in  his 
intercepted  correspondence,  and  that  al- 
though he  would  be  kept  in  secure  con- 
finement he  would  be  accorded  the  care 
and  respect  due  to  his  rank  while  a 
"  prisoner  of  war." 


778 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


The  Lord  Chief  Justice,  in  addressing 
the  Grand  Jury  at  the  King's  County 
Assizes  on  July  1,  remarked  that  al- 
though the  constabulary  had  reported 
over  100  cases  to  headquarters  there 
were  only  four  cases  before  the  court. 
"  There  is  absolute  immunity  for  the  re- 
maining ninety-six,"  commented  the 
Judge.  "  That  means  that  the  criminals 
have  a  free  hand  to  do  as  they  like.  As 
far  as  I  can  see  the  state  of  this  country 
is  very  sad.  There  is  no  law,  no  order, 
and  there  is  no  punishment  for  crime." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  "  Irish  Parlia- 
ment "  in  secret  session  passed  decrees 
authorizing  the  establishment  of  courts 
of  justice  and  equity,  and  courts  of 
criminal  jurisdiction.  Another  decree 
provided  for  the  protection  of  persons 
occupying  land  against  vexatious  claims, 
and  a  National  Land  Commission  was 
appointed.  The  extent  to  which  the  Sinn 
Fein  Courts  were  superseding  the  Crown 
tribunals  was  marked  on  July  9  in  the 
number  of  cases  withdrawn  from  the 
Crown  Supreme  Court,  owing  to  the 
popular  belief  that  the  British  Courts 
were  without  power  to  enforce  their  de- 
cisions. In  many  parts  of  the  provinces, 
too,  the  Sinn  Feiners  had  taken  over 
the  control  of  liquor  selling,  and  had 
issued  orders  to  saloons  regarding  the 
hours  of  closing. 

Bad  feeling  between  the  British  troops 
and  the  Irish  Constabulary  was  offered 
as  the  reason  for  police  revolts  in  County 
Kerry,  which  eventually  spread  to 
Dublin.  Hence,  presumably,  the  extraor- 
dinary military  measures  taken  in  and 
around  Dublin  on  July  9,  when  all  roads 
leading  to  the  city  were  closed  with 
barbed  wire  entanglements  and  strongly 
patrolled  day  and  night.  All  persons 
approaching  the  city  were  subjected  to 
rigorous  personal  search.  At  Fairview, 
on  the  east  of  Dublin,  there  was  to  be 
seen  a  formidable  barricade  of  sandbags, 
through  loopholes  in  which  bayonets 
glistened.  These  barricades  and  restric- 
tions were  removed  on  July  13  with  the 
unofficial  explanation  that  they  had  been 
intended  to  prevent  the  dispatch  of  arms 
to  Ulster  for  the  July  12  celebration. 

Predictions  that  this  anniversary  of 
the  Battle  of  the  Boyne  would  witness 


bitter  fighting  between  the  Unionists 
and  Sinn  Feiners  proved  without  founda- 
tion. No  counterdemonstration  was  made 
against  the  Orange  parade  in  Belfast, 
while  in  Londonderry  the  day  passed 
quietly.  A  threat  to  capture  Sir  Ed- 
ward Carson  and  send  him  to  join  Gen- 
eral Lucas  in  Sinn  Fein  captivity  im- 
pelled the  Government  to  take  special 
precautions  in  guarding  his  person.  But 
evidence  that  no  semblance  of  a  truce 
existed  was  provided  at  Lifford,  where, 
at  the  opening  of  the  County  Donegal 
Assizes,  on  July  13,  troops  occupied  the 
principal  thoroughfares,  and  the  roof  of 
the  Court  House  was  fortified  with  sand 
bags  and  machine  guns.  Also,  on  the 
following  day  at  Lurgan,  2,000  Sinn 
Feiners  and  Unionists  engaged  in  a  bat- 
tle, which  resulted  in  many  casualties 
before  troops  arrived  from  Belfast  and 
restored  order.  Fifty  ai-med  men  en- 
tered the  General  Post  Office,  Dublin,  on 
the  15th,  and,  after  covering  the  Super- 
intendent and  sorters  with  revolvers, 
went  through  the  official  mail.  Without 
interference  they  carried  off  all  letters 
directed  to  the  Viceregal  Lodge  and  Dub- 
lin Castle. 

CANADA 

Sir  Robert  Borden,  Prime  Minister  of 
Canada  since  the  famous  reciprocity 
election  of  1911,  resigned  on  July  10  and 
was  succeeded  by  Hon.  Arthur  Meighen, 
who  announced  his  Cabinet  on  the  13th. 
With  only  three'exceptions,  its  personnel 
was  the  same  as  that  from  which  Sir 
Robert  Borden  withdrew,  though  there 
was  some  rearrangement  of  portfolios. 
This  was  particularly  desirable  in  order 
to  avoid  by-elections,  which  would  be 
necessitated  by  the  admission  of  new 
members.  The  new  Cabinet  officers  are 
R.  W.  Wigmore,  Minister  of  Customs 
and  Internal  Revenue;  F.  B.  McCurdy, 
Minister  of  Public  Works,  and  E.  K. 
Spinney,  Minister  without  portfolio. 

Press  comments  generally  credit  the 
retiring  Premier  with  having  accom- 
plished a  great  work  for  Canada,  espe- 
cially during  the  war  period,  though 
newspapers  politically  opposed  to  him 
think  that  he  should  have  intrusted  the 
fortunes  of  the   Government  to  another 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


779 


pa 


general    election    after    the    treaty   with 
Germany  had  been  approved. 

Hon.  Mr.  Meighen,  who  was  sworn  in 
by  the  Governor-General  a  few  minutes 
fter  the  King's  representative  had  for- 
lly   accepted    the    resignation   of   Sir 


ARTHUR    MEIGHEN 

New   Premier   of   Canada,   tvho   had    been 

serving    as   Minister   of    the   Interior 

(©    Keystone    View    Co.) 

Robert,  is  in  his  forty-seventh  year.  The 
son  of  an  Ontario  farmer,  he  qualified 
for  the  practice  of  law  and  as  a  young 
man  went  to  Western  Canada  and  was 
returned  to  Parliament  for  the  first  time 
in  1908  as  member  for  Portage  la 
Prairie,  which  constituency  he  still  rep- 
resents. He  is  a  Conservative  and  has 
held  the  portfolios  of  Secretary  of  State, 
Minister  of  Mines  and  Minister  of  the 
Interior.  After  the  elections  of  1917, 
in  which  Sir  Robert  Borden,  up  to  then 
leader  of  a  Conservative  Government, 
went  to  the  country  as  the  head  of  a  re- 
oi^ganized  Cabinet,  including  a  number 
of  prominent  Liberals  under  the  name  of 


the  Unionist  Party,  Mr.  Meighen  became 
more  prominent  than  ever  in  the  discus- 
sions in  the  Commons.  He  is  a  keen  de- 
bater, skilled  in  analysis  and  fluent  in 
speech. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  of  late 
among  members  of  the  Unionist  Party 
to  return  to  the  traditional  party  lines, 
and  some  of  the  most  able  of  the  Lib- 
erals who  had  entered  the  Unionist  Cabi- 
net have  been  dropping  out  in  the  last 
year  or  so.  A  considerable  number  of 
Liberal  members  of  Parliament,  how- 
ever, still  support  the  Unionist  Govern- 
ment, and  with  their  aid  it  is  probable 
that  Premier  Meighen  will  be  able  to 
hold  office  until  the  next  general  elec- 
tion, legally  due  about  two  years  from 
now.  In  religion  Hon.  Mr.  Meighen  is  a 
Presbyterian. 

Sir  Lomer  Gouin,  the  French-Canadian 
Premier  of  the  Province  of  Quebec,  has 
also  resigned.  He  is  a  Liberal  and  had 
held  office  for  fifteen  years.  Often  re- 
ferred to  as  "  Gouin  the  silent,"  because 
of  his  ability  to  do  much  and  say  little, 
he  has  been  singularly  fortunate  in  his 
ability  to  retain  the  affection  of  his 
fellow-citizens  to  a  markedly  growing 
degree  with  the  passing  years.  The  Hon. 
L.  A.  Tachereau,  a  member  of  the  Quebec 
Cabinet  for  some  time,  succeeds  Sir 
Lomer.  The  Liberal  Party  has  a  big 
majority  in  Quebec  and  should,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  be  able  to  retain 
power  for  some  years.  Rumors  of  a  split 
in  the  party  were  revived  with  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  Premier's  resignation, 
but  there  are  no  surface  signs  of  serious 
trouble. 

Surprising  results  were  recorded  in  the 
Manitoba  provincial  elections  held  on 
June  29.  The  Liberal  government  of  Pre- 
mier T.  C.  Norris,  which  had  a  com- 
fortable majority  when  the  appeal  was 
taken  to  the  people,  is  now  the  largest  of 
several  groups,  but  cannot  carry  on 
unless  one  of  the  other  groups  gives  it 
support.  The  Conservative  Party,  which 
formerly  constituted  the  sole  opposition, 
was  almost  wiped  out.  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  farmer  members  elected  as  such 
and  so-called  independents,  as  well  as  a 
party  of  seven  or  eight  labor  representa- 
tives, including  one  woman.   A  labor  man 


780 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


headed  the  poll  in  the  City  of  Winnipeg, 
and  several  other  of  the  labor  men  elect- 
ed there  are  in  prison  serving  terms  on 
charges  arising  out  of  the  general  strike 
and  the  attendant  riots  of  a  year  ago. 
The  proportional  representation  system 
of  voting  was  followed  in  Winnipeg  for 
the  first  time  in  a  political  election  in 
Canada. 

It  is  reported  that  Premier  Norris  is 
certain  to  succeed  in  his  plans  to  form  a 
coalition  with  the  aid  of  the  independents 
and  farmer  groups.  The  elections  fol- 
lowing the  turnover  in  Ontario  recently 
are  taken  as  showing  that  the  political 
unrest  is  common  to  all  Canada,  and  will 
be  emphasized  in  future  provincial  and 
federal  elections. 

New  Brunswick  in  a  referendum  vote 
on  July  10  gave  large  majorities  for  the 
retention  of  the  Provincial  Prohibition 
act,  which  was  passed  by  the  Legislature 
as  a  war  measure  on  the  understanding 
that  a  public  expression  of  opinion  should 
be  sought  within  a  reasonable  time  after 
the  cessation  of  hostilities.  Not  only  was 
prohibition  approved,  but  a  large  ma- 
jority was  recorded  in  the  negative  on 
the  question  of  allowing  the  sale  of  light 
beer  and  wines.  Contrary  to  expecta- 
tions, the  cities  and  industrial  centres 
voted  dry,  as  did  also  the  French-Cana- 
dian sections.  The  figures  show:  For 
prohibition,  41,436;  against,  20,769;  for 
beer  and  wine,  23,713;  against,  38,375. 

AUSTRALIA 

Melbourne  in  a  few  years  is  destined 
to  lose  her  temporary  glory;  the  capital 
of  Australia  is  to  be  transferred  further 
north  from  Victoria  to  New  South  Wales. 
There  the  Seat  of  Government  act, 
passed  in  1908,  set  apart  a  Federal  dis- 
trict of  900  square  miles,  or  (thirteen 
times  the  size  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. It  was  decided  that  the  capital  city 
should  be  located  at  Canberra,  on  the 
Molonglo  River,  about  200  miles  south 
of  Sydney.  The  project  was  delayed, 
first  for  want  of  funds,  and  then  by  the 
great  war;  but  nearly  $10,000,000  has 
been  expended  in  the  last  ten  year^  on 
the  preliminary  work,  including  a  drain- 
age and  water  system  supply  by  damming 
the  rivers.  The  plans  were  drawn  up  by 
an   American  architect,   Walter   Griffin. 


On  the  summit  of  a  hill  dominating  a 
great  grassy  plateau,  surrounded  by 
mountains,  the  Prince  of  Wales  laid  the 
foundation  stone  of  the  Federal  capitol 
on  June  21,  returning  to  Sydney,  where 
his  26th  birthday  anniversary  was  cele- 
brated on  June  23.  In  accordance  with 
the  custom  all  over  the  world  of  confer- 
ring honorary  degrees  without  the  slight- 
est regard  for  the  attainments  of  the 
recipient,  the  University  of  Sydney  on 
the  same  day  awarded  the  Prince  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Laws  honoris  causa. 

From  Sydney  he  sailed  for  West  Aus- 
tralia, landing  at  Perth.  On  July  5  a 
train  in  which  he  was  traveling  was 
wrecked  near  Bridgetown  and  his  car 
was  overturned.  The  Prince  crawled  out 
of  a  window  none  the  worse  for  his  ex- 
perience. 

Henry  William,  first  Baron  Forster, 
was  appointed  Governor  General  of  Aus- 
tralia on  June  14,  succeeding  Sir  Ronald 
C.  Munro-Ferguson.  Baron  Forster  was 
Secretary  to  the  British  War  Office  from 
1915  to  1919. 

Australia  is  closely  following  Cali- 
fornia in  her  anti- Japanese  agitation.  A 
recent  law  was  passed  by  both  houses  of 
the  Australian  Parliament  imposing  a 
tax  of  $500  a  head  on  Asiatic  immigrants. 
It  was  sent  to  the  Governor  General  for 
signature,  but,  under  instructions  from 
the  British  Foreign  Office,  he  refused 
to  sign  it.  Meanwhile,  Australian  of- 
ficials attempted  to  collect  the  tax,  but 
the  Japanese,  backed  by  their  Consuls, 
have  refused  to  pay  it.  Anti-Japanese 
feeling  has  therefore  reached  a  danger- 
ous point,  especially  in  Queensland. 

The  Australian  Government  Pacific 
Islands  Commission,  which  has  been  in- 
vestigating the  status  of  German  New 
Guinea,  now  under  the  mandate  of  Aus- 
tralia, has  recommended  that  all  Ger- 
man companies  be  liquidated,  their  plan- 
tations sold  and  the  proceeds  turned  in 
to  the  allied  funds.  They  also  recom- 
^  mend  that  the  commonwealth  steamships 
extend  their  operations  to  New  Guinea. 

The  Overseas  Settlement  Committee  at 
Melbourne  has  received  30,000  applica- 
tions from  Great  Britain  for  intending 
colonists  in  Australia.-  Many  requests 
have  come  from  districts  in  France  and 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


781 


Jelgium,  where  Austrians  were  quar- 
tered during  the  war  and  representatives 
from  Italy,  Holland  and  Sweden  have 
visited  London  to  inquire  about  the 
facilities  for  settling  emigrants  in 
Australia. 


I 


NEW  ZEALAND 


There  is  no  rent  profiteering  in  New 
ealand.  On  the  contrary,  more  houses 
are  under  construction  than  ever  before 
in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  are 
eing  sold  at  cost  to  working  men  who 
an  pay  for  them  in  monthly  install- 
ments. This  is  in  spite  of  the  increased 
cost  of  construction.  A  house  that  could 
have  been  built  for  $3,000  before  the  war 
now  costs  $5,000. 

New  Zealand  farmers  who  for  years 
have  been  pestered  by  rabbits,  so  that 
laws  were  passed  compelling  property 
owners  to  destroy  them,  have  suddenly 
realized  that  they  have  a  fortune  un- 
awares in  their  skins  for  furs  and  their 


bodies  for  food.  Some  farmers  in  the 
South  Island  have  given  up  sheep  raising 
for  rabbit  killing,  and  trappers  with 
good  dogs  can  make  as  much  as  $40  a 
day.  According  to  statistics  just  issued, 
there  were  exported  14,153,982  rabbit 
skins,  valued  at  $3,734,289,  in  1919,  the 
quantity  having  doubled  and  the  value 
nearly  tripled  since  the  previous  year. 

EGYPT 

Fearing  renewed  nationalist  disturb- 
ances in  Egypt,  the  Government  of  the 
protectorate  is  adopting  very  stern 
measures.  On  July  3,  Abdel  Rahman, 
Secretary  of  the  local  committee  of  the 
Egyptian  delegation  headed  by  Zaglul 
Pasha,  which  is  now  in  London  nego- 
tiating with  Lord  Milner,  was  arrested 
on  secret  charges  and  lodged  in  the 
Kasre-el-Nil  barracks.  Ibrahim  Massoud, 
the  19-year-old  Egyptian  who  on  June 
12  attempted  to  assassinate  Tewfik  Nes- 
sim  Pasha,  the  Premier,  was  hanged  on 
July  8. 


The  Latin  Nations  of  Europe 

Effects    of   Giolitti's    Conciliatory    but    Firm   Policy   in  Italy—  The 
Month's  Events  in  France 


ITALY 

COUNT  SFORZA,  Italy's  new  Foreign 
Minister,  made  desperate  attempts 
at  the  Spa  conference  to  obtain  for 
Italy  a  share  of  the  German  indemnity 
com^mensurate  with  her  war  sacrifices. 
Aside  from  this  and  the  still  unsettled 
Fiume  question,  two  new  foreign  prob- 
lems were  added  to  the  burdens  of  Gio- 
vanni Giolitti,  the  new  President  of  the 
Council  and  Minister  of  the  Interior. 
These  were  (1)  the  rise  of  the  Albanians, 
who  captured  Selinitza  and  other  places, 
disputing  the  Italian  protectorate  estab- 
lished at  Avlona  and  Italy's  right  to 
that  place  as  one  of  the  keys  to  the 
Adriatic,  and  (2)  the  rise  of  a  native 
chief  in  Libya,  who  captured  a  number 
of  Italian  officers  and  would  release 
them  only  on  his  own  terms.     On  June 


22  news  reached  Professor  Luigi  Rossi, 
Minister  for  the  Colonies,  that  the  pris- 
oners had  been  released;  but  on  July  14 
Baron  Aliotti  returned  empty-handed 
from  treating  with  the  provisional  Al- 
banian Government  at  Tirana.  This 
Government,  just  before  the  rising,  had 
been  superseded  by  one  inimical  to  Ital- 
ian interests.  Baron  Aliotti  had  been 
expected  to  produce  great  things,  as  he 
had  been  the  Italian  Minister  at  Durazzo 
during  the  regime  of  William  of  Wied, 
Later  he  had  been  Minister  at  Peking. 

Before  Signor  Giolitti  had  sufficiently 
prepared  his  program  to  submit  it  to  a 
Chamber,  whose  leaders,  save  those  of 
the  Socialists,  had  received  portfolios  in 
his  Cabinet,  the  bad  effects  of  the  Nitti 
regime — lack  of  legislation  and  a  fluc- 
tuating administration  by  decrees — were 


782 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


made  manifest  in  various  ways.  The 
social  and  economic  situation  in  Italy 
probably  was  not  relatively  worse  than 
in  other  countries  in  contact  with  the 
great  war;  but  in  the  peninsula  there 
was  the  disappointment  over  the  war's 
awards,  the  long  period  of  an  unstable 
foreign  policy  and  the  unrest  and  volun- 
tary idleness  in  labor  circles  owing  to 
lack  of  raw  materials  and  of  a  foreign 


GIOVANNI    GIOLITTI 
Italy's  new  Premier 

market,  and  to  the  preachments  of  ex- 
treme socialism.  These  influences  made 
the  lower  classes  particularly  responsive 
to  any  sensational  movement  which 
came  along,  whether  in  the  form  of  an 
anarchist  demonstration  fomented  by 
the  agents  of  Enrico  Malatesta  or 
strikes  ordered  by  the  Socialist  leaders 
simply  to  display  their  power  or  egotism. 
The  Anarchist  Congress'  at  Bologna,  as 
well  as  the  Marine  Congress  at  Genoa, 
listened  to  speeches  which  called  not  only 


for  the  overthrow  of  the  Government  and 
dynasty  but  also  of  public  order  under 
any  form.  But  such  had  been  the  dan- 
gerous precedents  allowed  by  Nitti  that 
Giolitti  made  no  attempt  to  interfere 
until  overt  acts  actually  took  place. 

Such  acts  took  place  at  Venice,  An- 
cona,  Forli,  Leghorn,  Brescia,  Naples 
and  other  places.  All  showed  the  inter- 
vention of  anarchists  in  converting  a 
strike,  a  demonstration  or  a  meeting  into 
an  active  rabble  which  defied  the  police 
and  military  by  using  firearms  and  de- 
stroying property.  At  Venice  a  fatal 
collision  between  the  soldiers  and  the 
populace  was  avoided  by  some  dancing, 
smiling  Venetian  maidens  coming  be- 
tween them.  At  Ancona,  however,  the 
anarchists  induced  a  detachment  of  Ber- 
saglieri  to  mutiny,  imprison  their  offi- 
cers and  seize  the  barracks.  These  they 
held  for  twenty-four  hours,  until  in- 
duced to  surrender  by  the  persuasive 
influence  of  two  batteries  of  75s  under 
the  command  of  Major  Mariotti.  Ob- 
servers stated  that  these  and  similaV 
sporadic  revolts  were  rather  the  result 
of  temperament  than  of  calculation,  of 
psychological  spasms  rather  than  of 
deeply  rooted  plots. 

Scarcely  had  the  first  news  reached 
Rome  of  the  affair  at  Ancona  when 
Signor  Giolitti  dispatched  to  the  sixty- 
nine  provincial  prefects  the  following 
circular  telegram: 

We  hold  your  Excellency  personally 
responsible  for  the  immediate  re-estab- 
lishment of  order  whenever  there  are 
attempts   made   to   disturb   it. 

The  seriousness  of  the  situation  will 
indicate  to  your  Excellency  what  should 
be  your  first  duty.  This  duty  calls  for 
full  and  absolute  respect  for  the  laws 
and  their  intelligent  execution  and  for  the 
scrupulous  observance  of  the  orders  im- 
parted by  the  superior  authority,  without 
discussion,  without  hesitation  and  with  a 
serene  conscience  to  save  the  country 
from  the  greatest  calamities. 

The  strikes,  however,  continued  to 
break  out,  sometimes  with  curious  re- 
sults, as  with  the  tram  strike  in  Rome 
on  June  29,  when  the  Feast  of  St.  Peter 
was  utilized.  Executives  of  the  General 
Federation  of  Labor  and  the  Socialist 
Party  met   on   the   eve   of  the   feast  to 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


783 


sill 

f 


declare  a  general  strike,  but  when  the 
labor  executives  heard  its  cost  they  be- 
came opposed  to  it  and  left  the  hall. 
The  Socialists  then  declared  the  strike, 
but  few  obeyed  the  order.  In  other 
cases  strikes  were  ordered  which  waited 
upon  the  reply  of  the  Government  to  a 
manifesto.  If  the  reply  was  favorable 
no  strike  would  occur.  Thus  the  So- 
cialists and  the  labor  executives  demand- 
ed that  the  Italian  troops  at  Avlona 
should  not  be  reinforced.  Giolitti  prom- 
ised that  they  should  not  be  reinforced, 

ut  he  made  no  effort  to  stop  volunteer 
cruiting  for  an  Albanian  campaign,  and 
dies    of    volunteers,    who    had    been 

bliged  to  put  on  board  ship  their  own 
munitions  and  other  supplies  in  the  face 
of  angry  crowds,  set  sail  from  Taranto. 
After  a  fortnight's  recess  Parliament 
reopened  on  the  afternoon  of  June  24  to 
hear  Giolitti  expound  his  program. 
Among  all  leaders  but  the  Socialist  a 
tacit  agreement  had  been  reached  that 
no  vote  of  confidence  should  be  asked 
until  after  ten  days.  In  the  Chamber 
400  of  the  508  Deputies  were  present; 
the  galleries  were  crowded  and  vast 
crowds  remained  outside.  Great  excite- 
ment prevailed,  both  on  account  of  Si- 
gner Giolitti's  expected  speech  and  owing 
to  the  Socialist  Party's  having  held  the 
day  before  a  general  meeting  and  voted 
the  following  resolution: 

The  Socialist  Party  finds  that  the  new 
Giolitti  Ministry,  born  under  the  cloud 
of  proletarian  massacres,  is  also  a  coali- 
tion of  the  bourgeois  parties  against 
socialism,  and  reaffirms,  therefore,  its 
intention  to  offer  strong  Parliamentary 
opposition.  Owing  to  the  Libyan  and 
Albanian  guerrilla  wars  it  notifies  the 
Government  that  the  Socialists  will  resort 
to  every  means  to  prevent  the  country 
being  inveigled  into  further  war  ad- 
ventures. 

This  was  the  result  of  the  Govern- 
ment's having  shown  a  firm  front 
through  the  Prefects  against  the  recent 
disorders  in  various  cities,  and  a  demon- 
stration was  expected  against  Giolitti 
during  his  speech  from  the  Socialist 
benches.     None  occurred. 

After  communicating  the  composition 
of  the  new  Cabinet,  Signor  Giolitti  de- 
clared that  men  of  the  different  parties 


had  agreed  upon  an  exact  program.  This 
comprised  the  settlement  of  the  most 
urgent  questions  for  saving  the  credit 
and  the  existence  of  the  State.  While 
each  Minister  should  preserve  his  own 
political  individuality,  Signor  Giolitti  be- 
lieved that  the  program  they  had  agreed 
upon  would  deprive  no  Deputy  of  his 
liberty  of  action.  In  regard  to  the  for- 
eign policy  to  be  pursued  he  said: 

The  principal  object  of  our  foreign 
policy  is  to  insure  complete  and  definite 
peace  for  Italy  and  the  whole  of  Europe — 
an  essential  condition  for  a  solid  begin- 
ning of  the  work  of  reconstruction.  We 
must  maintain  the  most  intimate  and 
cordial  relations  with  the  peoples  who 
were  our  allies  and  associates  during  the 
war,  and  who  do  not  forget  the  enormous 
sacrifices  made  by  Italy  for  the  common 
cause.  In  order  to  achieve  this  complete 
peace  we  must,  without  delay,  establish 
fri.endly  relations  with  all  the  other  peo- 
ples and,  without  restrictions,  begin  nor- 
mal relations  even  with  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment. 

Signor  Giolitti  announced  the  intro- 
duction of  a  bill  modifying  Clause  5  of 
the  Constitution  by  making  declaration 
of  war  and  the  validity  of  international 
treaties  and  agreements  dependent  upon 
the  sanction  of  Parliament.  To  secure 
the  effective  control  of  Parliament  over 
foreign  policy  the  Government,  he  said, 
proposed  to  institute  permanent  commis- 
sions in  the  Chamber  and  Senate.  These 
would  be  kept  informed  of  the  course  of 
events  by  the  Government  and  would 
have  the  most  in  portant  documents  com- 
municated to  them,  a  beginning  being 
made  with  the  Adriatic  affair. 

Dealing  with  home  policy,  Signor 
Giolitti  declared  that  the  Government 
renounced  the  promulgation  of  adminis- 
trative decrees,  except  in  some  special 
cases,  and  said  it  would  be  made  impos- 
sible for  the  conditions  regulating  the 
status  of  'civil  servants  to  be  modified 
without  Parliament's  being  consulted. 
Civil  servants  would  be  free  to  form  as- 
sociations, but  on  condition  that  they 
kept  within  the  law.  It  would  be  ar- 
ranged that  when  workmen  employed  by 
the  State  desired  to  choose  representa- 
tives these  would  be  chosen  by  means  of 
a  system  of  proportional  representation 
in  such  a  way  that  all  schools  of  thought 
would  be  represented. 


784 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


The  Government,  he  added,  was  giv- 
ing anxious  attention  to  the  increased 
cost  of  living.  In  discussing  the  causes 
of  high  prices  he  said: 

Before  the  war  imports  surpassed  the 
value  of  exports  by  a  billion  lire,  yet  this 
unhealthy  trade  balance  was  remedied  by 
the  money  sent  home  by  emigrants  and 
that  spent  in  the  Peninsula  by  tourists. 
After  the  war  the  balance  had  increased 
to  a  ruinous  degree  and  little  money  came 
from  emigrants  and  none  from  tourists 
to  make  up  the  difference.  The  only 
remedy  was  increased  production  and  in- 
creased exportation,  which  would  soon  be 
possible  through  the  reception  of  the 
needed  raw  materials  from  the  Italian 
colonies  and  the  consequent  decrease  in 
the  cost  of  production  which  would  se- 
cure markets  abroad. 

Signor  Giolitti  then  forecast  the  fol- 
lowing legislation:  (1)  The  surrender 
to  the  State  of  war  profits,  it  being  im- 
moral and  unjust  that  the  war  should  be 
a  source  of  profit  to  any  one;  (2)  a  Par- 
liamentary inquiry  into  the  cost  of  the 
war  and  the  revision  of  war  contracts; 
(3)  an  increase  in  death  duties;  (4)  an 
increase  in  the  tax  on  private  automo- 
biles; (5)  the  imposition  of  a  tax  on  all 
financial  securities  and  bonds.  Ha  ex- 
plained that  these  securities,  which  rep- 
resented a  value  of  about  70,000,000,000 
lire,  at  present  escaped  taxation,  and 
this  constituted  an  injustice  to  the  less 
wealthy  classes. 

There  were  some  interruptions  to  the 
speech  from  extremists,  but  only  one  to 
which  the  Premier  paid  attention.  To 
the  question  "  \vhat  about  Albania?  "  he 
replied :  "  I  have  no  hesitation  in  declar- 
ing that  the  Government  is  not  in  favor 
of  a  protectorate  in  Albania,  but  wishes 
the  independence  of  that  country." 

At  the  sitting  of  the  Chamber  on  June 
27  Signor  Giolitti  enlarged  on  his  state- 
ment in  regard  to  Albania  in  .the  follow- 
ing manner: 

We  shall  send  no  military  expedition  to 
Albania.  The  Government  is  in  favor  of 
Albanian  independence,  as  provided  in  the 
old  agreement  with  Austria-Hungary.  In 
regard  to  Avlona,  however,  that  is  a 
strategic  point,  which,  if  occupied  by  a 
power  not  friendly  to  Italy  would  con- 
stitute a  grave  danger.  Albania  today  is 
quite  incapable  of  defending  Avlona 
against  a  power  with  any  sort  of  fleet. 
Italy,  in  occupying  Avlona,  guarantees 
Albania  against  the  permanent  occupation 


of  Avlona  by  any  one  else..  This  position 
has  been  approved  by  representative  Al- 
banians. 

Signor  Modigliani,  on  behalf  of  the 
Socialists,  exclaimed  that  the  statement 
of  the  Premier  was  unsatisfactory,  and 
added  that  Italy  would  have  an  exalted 
position  if  she  were  to  renounce —  "  If 
all  were  to  renounce,"  Signor  Giolitti  in- 
terrupted. Then  the  Socialist  continued: 
"  That  statement  shows  that  Signor 
Giolitti,  instead  of  being  a  forerunner,  is 
a  slave  of  ancient  prejudices.  The  dif- 
ference between  the  Government  and 
Socialists  is  irreconcilable." 

On  July  9  the  first  vote  of  confidence 
was  taken  in  the  Chamber.  It  gave  the 
Government  a  majority  of  119,  as  of  the 
411  Deputies  voting  265  were  in  favor 
and  146  against. 

On  July  11,  the  birthday  of  King  Peter 
of  Serbia,  a  conflict  arose  between  the 
officers  of  an  Italian  warship  stationed 
at  Spalato,  on  the  Dalmatian  coast,  and 
the  Slav  population  in  which  several 
lives  were  lost.  In  Trieste,  Istria,  there 
were  anti-Slav  demonstrations  on  July 
13,  in  which  much  property  was  de- 
stroyed in  the  Slavonic  quarter  of  the 
city. 

THE  VATICAN— M.  Colrat  made  an 
important  statement  before  the  French 
Foreign  Affairs  Committee  at  Paris  on 
June  28.  It  dealt  with  the  re-establish- 
ment of  diplomatic  relations  between  the 
French  Republic  and  the  Holy  See,  and 
was  to  this  effect:  An  agreement  hav- 
ing been  reached  on  the  questions  of  a 
foreign  policy,  steps  may  now  be  taken 
to  re-establish  the  French  Embassy  at 
the  Vatican.  The  internal  laws  of 
France  will  not  be  altered,  and  the  Holy 
See  will  not  intervene  with  regard  to 
such  matters  as  the  prohibition  of  mo- 
nastic societies. 

The  Corriere  d'ltalia,  semi-official 
organ  of  the  Vatican,  published  in  Rome, 
stated  on  July  8  that  a  rapprochement 
between  the  Vatican  and  Quirinal  might 
be  looked  for  in  the  selection  of  a  pro- 
tector of  the  holy  places  in  Palestine. 
As  England,  on  account  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  Sir  Herbert  Samuel  as  High 
Commissioner,  and  also  because  she  was 
officially  a  Protestant  nation,  could  not 


'HE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


785 


considered,  nor  France,  because  she 
tlready  had  her  hands  full  in  Syria,  it 
was  natural  that  Italy  should  receive  the 
jn^ndate,  provided  the  way  were  paved 
Vy  a  recognition  by  the  Italian  Govern- 
gient  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  the 
[oly  See  in  Italy. 

FRANCE 

The  constant  anxiety  of  France  in  re- 
gard  to   the   coal    situation   is   reflected 
)ntinually  in  the  French  press.     By  the 
irrangements  concluded  at  Spa,  France 
assured  of  the  regular  and  uninter- 
ipted  delivery  of  the  2,000,000  tons  of 
)al  which  Germany  had  pledged  herself 
send,    and    which    hitherto    she    has 
voided  sending.    French  discontent  with 
le    existing    situation    has    long    been 
[Toiced  by  some  of  her  leading  statesmen 
the  Senate,  notably  by  Andre  Tardieu 
ind  Aristide  Briand.     Though  these  men 
represent    one    phase    of    French    senti- 
lent — dissatisfaction  with  what  France, 
'as    compared    with    Great    Britain,    has 
gained  from  the  peace — yet  the  tendency 
has  been  to  insist  on  complete  fulfillment 
of  the  treaty  as  concluded  at  Versailles. 
This   policy   M.    Millerand,   the   Premier, 
has  kept  to. 

French  feeling  against  Great  Britain 
has  also  been  evidenced  in  regard  to  the 
negotiations  in  London  with  M.  Krassin, 
the  official  representative  of  the  Soviet 
Government.  The  determination  of 
France  that  her  representatives  at  this 
conference  should  not  countenance  any 
political  discussions  was  based  on  the 
policy  outlined  by  M.  Millerand  before 
the  French  Chamber  late  in  June.  The 
fundamental  ground  of  this  was  that 
no  political  recognition  of  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment should  be  given  so  long  as  it 
pursued  its  methods  of  anti-Govern- 
mental propaganda  while  seeking  peace, 
and  so  long  as  it  repudiated  the  legally 
contracted  debts  of  the  former  regime. 
From  the  announced  results  of  the  Lon- 
don Conference,  it  appears  that  in  tliis 
attitude  France  has  found  support.  In 
the  arrangements  tentatively  concluded 
with  Moscow,  no'  question  of  political 
recognition  was  involved.  With  regard 
to  the  resumption  of  trade,  Franco 
yielded  to  the  viewpoint  of  her  British 


ally,  and  provisionalFy  waived  her  ob- 
jection to  the  covering  of  Soviet  trans- 
actions by  gold  deposits  to  which  she 
considers  she  has  a  prior  claim  by  rea- 
son of  her  position  as  Russia's  principal 
creditor.  France  carried  her  point  in  in- 
sisting that  her  protege,  Poland,  should 
be  helped  by  the  Allies  to  recoup,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  military  disaster  which 
she  has  suffered  in  her  campaign  against 
the  Bolsheviki.  On  the  dispatch  of  a 
note  by  the  Allied  Supreme  Council  to 
Moscow,  demanding  an  armistice  for  Po- 
land, the  whole  question  of  trade  resump- 
tion has  been  made  by  Britain  and 
France,  acting  together,  to  depend. 

Internally  France  has  shown  equal 
energy  in  reaction  against  what  it  con- 
siders dangerous  and  disintegrating  ten- 
dencies. The  failure  of  the  strike  of  the 
Confederation  Generale  w^as  declared  by 
the  French  Premier,  speaking  before  the 
Fraternal  Union  of  Railway  Employes 
on  June  6,  to  be  due  mainly  to  French 
public  sentiment.  Weary  of  the  continu- 
ous succession  of  strikes,  averse  to  the 
employment  of  the  strike  as  a  political 
weapon,  the  public  opposed  the  new  form 
of  tyranny  which  the  radical  leaders  of 
the  trade  unions  had  sought  to  impose. 

The  Government  prosecution  of  the 
confederation,  begun  on  May  26,  contin- 
ued. Charges  of  plotting  against  the 
safety  of  the  State  during  the  strike  were 
formally  investigated.  Among  those  ac- 
cused was  one  Monatte,  editor  of  the 
Bolshevist  sheet.  La  Vie  Ouvriere.  Two 
letters  from  him  to  Tchitcherin,  Soviet 
Foreign  Minister — found  sewn  up  in 
the  shirt  of  Motte,  the  American 
who  was  shot  dead  by  a  Ger- 
man sentry  during  the  troubles  in 
the  Ruhr  district — gave  the  French  Gov- 
ernment its  first  clue  to  this  organized 
conspiracy.  One  of  those  questioned  at 
length  was  M.  Jouhaux,  General  Secre- 
tary of  the  confederation.  The  charge 
made  against  M.  Jouhaux  was  that  he 
had  attempted  to  substitute  the  General 
Confederation  for  Government  action 
(with  the  object  of  compelling  the  na- 
tionalization of  railways),  thereby  in- 
fringing the  law  of  1884  on  trade  unions. 
M.  Jouhaux,  on  June  6,  declined  to  offer 
explanations  in  this  regard  until  later. 


'86 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


He  defended  the  confederation's  opposi- 
tion to  hostilities  against  Russia  on  the 
ground  that,  as  France  was  not  formally 
at  war  with  the  Moscow  Government,  it 
was  unconstitutional  to  combat  it.  He 
furthermore  defended  the  legal  status 
of  the  confederation,  and  argued  against 
its  dissolution.  If  it  were  dissolved,  he 
asked,  by  whom  would  French  interests 
be  represented  at  the  International  Bu- 
reau of  Labor?  At  the  session  of  June 
80  M.  Jousselin,  the  examining  Magis- 
trate, cited  evidence  to  prove  that  the 
confederation,  by  the  articles  inscribed 
in  its  statutes  and  by  its  whole  attitude 
during  the  war,  had  followed  a  policy 
of  sedition  and  obstruction.  M.  Jouhaux 
took  exception  particularly  to  the  charge 
that  the  confederation  had  sought  to 
bring  about  a  general  strike  by  French, 
English  and  Italian  organizations,  and 
that  the  strike  order  of  July  21,  1919, 
was  international  in  character.  He  de- 
clared, first  of  all,  that  this  strike  had 
not  taken  place;  secondly,  that  the  Gov- 
ernment was  made  fully  aware  of  the 
confederation's  project,  which  he  defend- 
ed as  wholly  legitimate.  The  investiga- 
tion was  carried  over  to  later  sessions. 

The  question  of  what  final  disposition 
would  be  made  of  the  French  railways 
remained  uncertain.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
Union  of  Commerce  and  Industry,  held 
on  July  1,  M.  Peschaud,  Secretary  of  the 
Paris-Orleans  Railway  Company,  empha- 
sized the  large  deficits  under  which  the 
railroads  were  operating,  and  declared 
that  a  new  regime  must  be  inaugurated. 
Public  sentiment,  he  showed,  was  op- 
posed to  the  solution  of  nationalization 
proposed  by  the  Confederation  of  Labor, 
which  was  in  reality  that  of  the  Soviet. 
M.  Peschaud  also  pronounced  against  the 
project  proposed  by  M.  Loucheur  in  the 
Chamber,  which  envisaged  the  vesting 
of  all  railway  interests  in  the  hands  of  a 
single  exploiting  company  as  a  disguised 
form  of  nationalization.  The  Govern- 
ment proposal  to  maintain  the  estab- 
lished companies  but  to  institute  a  uni- 
fying and  stabilizing  system  of  central 
direction  was  discussed  by  him  in  detail, 
and  the  general  approval  of  the  railway 
operators  was  indicated. 

The  Journal  Officiel  on  June  28  pub- 


lished the  decree  passed  on  June  25  re- 
garding the  new  fiscal  taxes,  which  enu- 
merates the  so-called  "  luxury  articles  " 
subject  under  the  law  to  a  tax  of  10  per 
cent.  This  tax  was  prescribed  for  two 
listed  categories  of  merchandise,  and  ex- 
empted other  products  similarly  defined. 
The  new  tax  law  became  immediately  ap- 
plicable, except  in  certain  cases  where 
special  Governmental  action  was  re- 
served. 

The  urgent  need  of  economic  revival 
has  been  largely  met  by  France.  A  very 
optimistic  view  was  expressed  by  Jules 
Cambon,  the  French  Ambassador  at  Lon- 
don, on  May  27.  M.  Cambon  declared 
that  such  an  economic  revival  depended 
on  the  continuance  of  close  bonds  of 
friendship  between  his  country  and  Eng- 
land, and  was,  in  general,  a  problem  of 
interallied  interest.  France,  a  nation  pre- 
eminently of  peasants  and  small  holders, 
he  said,  had  already  taken  up  the  work 
interrupted  by  the  war.  The  demobilized 
soldiers — who  had  formed  at  least  75  per 
cent,  of  the  army — had  returned  to  culti- 
vate the  fields.  They  were  economizing 
and  buying  ground.  Through  this  loyal, 
hard-working  class  France  would  see  her 
financial  and  economic  situation  rapidly 
transformed.  A  great  revival,  he  said, 
had  already  come  from  the  reunited 
Province  of  Alsace-Lorraine.*  France's 
exports  in  the  three  preceding  months,  he 
stated,  had  been  more  than  double  those 
of  the  same  period  in  1919. 

Marvelous  achievements  in  reconstruc- 
tion in  the  devastated  areas  were  told 
of  by  the  Mayors  of  these  districts  at 
a  great  demonstration  held  at  the  Sor- 
bonne  on  June  19.  The  work  accom- 
plished may  be  summed  up  as  follows : 

Since  November,  1918,  the  population 
of  the  ten  devastated  departments  has 
been  increased  from  2,000,000  to  nearly 
4,000,000.  On  April  1  of  this  year  nearly 
2,000,000  people  had  returned  to  their 
former   homes   to   begin    the   work    of   re- 


*The  Patriotic  League  of  Alsace-Lorrainers 
held  a  reunion  celebration  in  London  on 
June  39,  which  was  attended  by  many  people 
of  prominence  in  Alsace-Lorraine  and  France. 
A  number  of  patriotic  addresses  were  de- 
livered, the  general  tone  of  which  was  grati- 
tude to  Great  Britain  and  France  for  their 
successful  efforts  in  delivering  the  two  prov- 
inces  from   the    German   yoke. 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


787 


construction.  Out  of  C,4()0  schools  at 
work  before  the  war  5,300  had  been  re- 
opened, either  in  the  repaired  buildings 
or  in  hutments. 
^  Out  of  nearly  9,000,000  acres  of  farm 
land  7,000,000  had  been  cleared  of  explo- 
sives on  May  1,  nearly  6,000,000  of  barbed 
wire,  and  over  4,000,000  had  been  culti- 
vated. One  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
thou.'^and  cubic  meters  of  old  trenches 
have  been  filled  in,  and  large  districts 
and  towns  have  been  entirely  cleared  of 
barbed  wire  and  the  accumulated  debris 
of  war.  Of  277,000  houses  partly  de- 
stroyed 18."), 000  have  been  repaired,  and, 
to  house  people  whose  homes  to  a  total 
of  297,000  have  been  wholly  destroyed, 
28, ,100  barracks  and  44,*000  temporary 
houses  have  been  built. 

In  the  great  manufacturing  districts  of 
the  nort^.  also,  there  were  in  all  3,500 
factories  destroyed,  of  which  2,600  have 
been  put  in  a  sufficient  state  of  repair 
to  begin  work.  On  May  1  they  were  em- 
ploying  over   300,000   workmen. 

In  this  work  of  restoration  more  than 
10.000,000,000  francs  have  been  spent,  and 
France  holds  that  this  enormous  expense 
should  be  covered  in  the  German  repara- 
tion payments  still  unsettled  by  the  con- 
ference at  Spa.  . 

At    the    Sorbonne    demonstration,    the 

:  national    determination    was    expressed 

that   Germany   should    not   escape   from 

payment  of  the  damage  which  her  armies 

Yiflicted. 

The  first  stone  was  laid  at  Verdun  on 
June  23  for  the  monument  to  be  erected 
in  honor  of  the  soldiers  who  fell  in  the 
victorious  defense  of  the  besieged  city. 
This  date  was  selected  as  being  the 
fourth  anniversary  of  the  farthest  ad- 
vance into  the  Verdun  region  made  by 
the  Germans — the  day  that  marked  the 
turning  point  in  the  great  struggle  for 
possession  of  this  strategic  point  in  the 
battleline.  The  ceremony  occurred  in 
the  presence  of  detachments  bearing  the 
colors  of  all  the  French  Array  Corps. 
Many  well-known  officers  and  civilians 
were  present,  including  former  President 
Poincare,  Marshal  Petain  and  Andre 
Lefevre,  the  Minister  of  War. 

Two  new  diplomatic  appointments  were 
made  by  the  French  Government  in 
June.  Charles  Laurent  was  named 
French  Ambassador  to  Germany  on  June 
24.  M.  Laurent  is  64  years  of  age,  and 
has  had  a  distinguished  career,  princi- 
pally in  the  Ministry  of  Finance.  He 
was  appointed  by  President   Carnot  in 


1889  to  organize  the  finances  of  Ton- 
king,  and  in  1895  became  Director  Gen- 
eral of  Public  Accounts.  Three  years 
later  he  was  named  Secretary  General  of 
the  Ministry  of  Finance.  In  1918  he  was 
appointed  financial  counselor  of  the 
Turkish  Government.  It  was  stated  in 
Paris  that  his  appointment  was  dictated 
by  the  need  of  France  to  secure  a  proper 
execution  of  the  financial  clauses  of  the 
Versailles  Treaty. 

It  was  announced  at  this  same  date 
that  Viscount  Louis  Dejean,  French  Min- 
ister to  Mexico,  had  been  appointed  Un- 
der Director  of  American  Affairs  to  suc- 
ceed E.  M.  L.  Lanel,  former  Minister  to 
Brazil. 

The  International  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce held  sessions  in  Paris  during  the 
period  from  June  23  to  July  1.  The 
gathering  was  representative  of  the 
commercial  interests  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  the  United  States,  Belgium  and 
Italy.  The  economic  situation  of  all  five 
countries  was  reviewed,  and  the  follow- 
ing subjects  were  discussed  and  fitting 
resolutions  passed:  Raw  materials  and 
general  economic  policy,  customs  and 
tariff  questions,  financial  policy,  includ- 
ing the  exchange  question,  transporta- 
tion, unfair  competition,  reconstruction 
of  the  devastated  regions  and  the  eco- 
nomic organization  of  new  States. 

SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

Military  operations  in  Morocco,  never 
popular  in  Spain,  were  handled  with  ex- 
treme care  by  the  Madrid  Goxernment, 
particularly  on  account  of  a  recent  de- 
feat of  the  Spanish  arms  suffered  there. 
Any  attempt  to  reinforce  the  Moroccan 
garrisons  would  be  followed  by  a  general 
strike,  it  was  threatened.  The  Govern- 
ment, therefore,  decided  to  adopt  a  cam- 
paign of  publicity  in  regard  to  military 
movements  in  place  of  the  old  sub  rosa 
policy,  and  for  that  reason,  on  July  1, 
dispatched  the  War  Minister  on  a  tour 
of  investigation  to  Melilla,  Ceuta,  Tetuan 
and  El  Araish. 

While  Spain  attempted  to  have  her 
authority  prevail  throughout  the  north- 
ern zone  by  force  of  arms,  she  was  also 
diplomatically  concerned  in  securing 
Tangier,  which,  although  geographically 


788 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


FRENCH  MAP   OF  MOROCCO   SHOWING   ZONE   AT   NORTH   WHERE   NATIVES   ARI 
FIGHTING    SPANISH    TROOPS 


a  part  of  that  zone,  has  been  placed  un- 
der an  international  regime  with  a 
French  Resident  General.  The  Tangier 
idea  has  the  support  of  the  Spanish  peo- 
ple— even  those  who  desire  no  more 
fighting. 

In  the  middle  of  June  the  Spanish 
troops  advanced  from  Alcazar  and 
Tetuan  and  took  possession  of  She- 
shouan,  in  the  mountain  districts  of  the 
northwest.  In  the  second  move,  which 
was  dual,  they  were  not  so  successful. 
In  the  last  week  in  June  they  advanced 
from  Tetuan  and  occupied  the  heights  of 
Beni  Hosmar  and  established  posts  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Dar  Ben  Karrich, 
six  to  eight  miles  from  Tetuan.  Simul- 
taneously Spanish  troops  with  native 
auxiliaries  from  Ergaia  attempted  to  oc- 
cupy Rehana,  between  the  Jebel  Habib 
and  the  Beni  Idir  tribe  lands. 

While  the  Tetuan  force  was  success- 
fully operating  to  the  east .  the  other 
force  was  ambushed  on  its  way  to 
Rehana  by  Ben  Haman  of  Wad  Ras  and 
Ben  Khazen  of  the  Anjera  tribe  and  lost 
a  large  number.  This  defeat  brought 
into  the  field  as  the  leader  of  the  native 
forces  the  famous  El  Raisuli,  who  has 
been  described  by  Senor  Merry  del  Val, 
the  Spanish  Ambassador  at  London,  as 
"  neither  a  brigand  nor  a  great  military 
chief,"  but  simply  "  a  political  a  la 
mauresque."  His  career  is  sketched  thus 
by  The  London  Times: 


Supported  by  the  Djebala  tribes,  he 
came  into  prominence  by  kidnapping  Kaid 
Maclean,  forced  the  Sultaa  of  Morocco 
to  appoint  him  Kaid  of  Tangier,  and  re- 
linquished the  post  only  to  become  Gov- 
ernor of  Arzila,  where  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities tried  to  make  him  useful  in  their 
policy  of  peaceful  penetration.  Soon  he 
began  to  intrigue  with  the  tribesmen,  and 
it  was  determined  to  have  done  with  him. 
Military  operations  began,  and  from  Feb- 
ruary to  June,  1919,  tribe  after  tribe  sub- 
mitted. On  July  12  Raisuli,  realizing  that 
he  was  being  cut  off  from  the  coast, 
attacked,  but  was  badly  defeated,  and 
further  submissions  proved  his  power  to 
be  waning.  Fighting  from  Sept.  30  to 
Oct.  6,  1919,  resulted  in  the  taking  of 
Raisuli's  principal  position.  El  Fondak  of 
Ain  Yedida,  columns  operating  simul- 
taneously fiom  Tetuan,  Ceuta  and  La- 
raiche.  This  broke  his  power,  but  the 
Autumn  rains  made  a  suspension  of  the 
advance  necessary. 

PORTUGAL 

Most  of  the  foreign  correspondent.*  in 
Lisbon  regarded  the  death  of  Antonio 
Maria  Bautista,  the  Portuguese  Premier 
and  Minister  of  the  Interior,  which  oc- 
curred June  6,  as  a  national  calamity. 
He  had  brought  some  sort  of  public  se- 
curity to  the  nation  out  of  the  chaos 
which  had  succeeded  the  murder  of 
President  Paes,  in  December,  1918,  Ac- 
cording to  the  correspondent  of  The 
Morning  Post  of  London :  "  His  sudden 
death  may  well  be  a  disaster  to  the 
country,  and  fresh  political  troubles  are 


THE  LATIN  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE 


789 


freely    prophesied."      The    same    writer 

continues : 

To  talk  of  Portugal  perishing  is  no 
enipty  phrase.  At  a  time  when  most 
Portuguese  and  all  friends  of  Portugal 
wish  to  get  to  practical  work  and  realize 
that  merely  political  questions  should  be 
relegatecf^to  a  second  place,  every  heart 
and  intellect  being  required  to  face  a  dif- 
ficult position,  many  a  useful  talent  is 
rusting  and  many  a  Portuguese  eating 
his  heart  out  in  prison  or  exile  or  in  nom- 
inal liberty  in  Portugal.  If  such  a  state 
of  affairs  be  allowed  to  continue  Portugal 
cannot  possibly  put  forth  those  energies 
wliich  will  alone  secure  the  possession  of 
her  colonies,  on  which  really  depends  her 
existence  as  a  nation.  In  the  present 
critical  conditions  any  one  who  objects  to 
or  opposes  the  republic  as  such  must  be 
shallow  to  the  verge  of  idiocy:  a  straight- 
forward, tolerant,  moderate  republic 
would  now  be  a  strong  republic,  because 
it  would  have  the.  support  of  the  nation. 

SWITZERLAND 

The  session  of  the  Federal  Parliament 
was  adjourned  to  Sept.  20.  Consideration 
of  the  bill  on  social  insurance,  regarded 
by  many  as  the  most  important  domestic 
measure  before  the  session,  had  to  be 
postponed  to  the  Fall  term. 

A  Federal  Labor  Bureau  has  been 
established  at  Berne  under  the  Depart- 
ment of  National  Economy.  The  Bureau 
will  have  jurisdiction  over  all  matters 
of  workers'  welfare,  conciliation,  &c.,  and 
will  draft  bills  regulating  relations  be- 
tween employer  and  employe.  The 
bureau  will  also  act  as  the  intermediary 
between  the  Swiss  Government  and  the 
labor  organs  of  the  League  of  Nations. 


The  Federal  Government  has  received 
a  note  from  the  French  Government  stat- 
Jng  that  rumors  concerning  a  change  in 
the  seat  of  the  League  of  Nations  are, 
as  far  as  the  intentions  of  France  are 
concerned,  wholly  unfounded. 

The  Federal  Council  ordered  the  troops 
guarding  the  northern  and  eastern  fron- 
tiers withdrawn.  Henceforth  these  fron- 
tiers (touching  on  Germany  and  Austria) 
will  be  guarded  by  Federal  and  Cantonal 
police  and  revenue  officers  only,  like  the 
French  frontier.  The  measure  is  hailed 
as  another  step  toward  normal  condi- 
tions. 

A  lively  discussion  continues  in  the 
press  on  the  matter  of  supervision  of 
aliens.  During  the  war  a  special  Fed- 
eral police  was  formed  to  supervise  the 
streams  of  foreigners  pouring  into  the 
country  from  all  directions.  The  de- 
velopments that  followed  the  Russian 
revolution  added  to  the  tasks  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  this  body.  The  demand 
is  now  raised,  especially  from  the  side 
of  hotel  interests,  that  the  activities  of 
this  police,  and  the  close  scrutiny  of 
visiting  aliens  in  general,  be  abolished, 
because  the  contingent  inconveniences 
hurt  the  most  important  of  Swiss  in- 
dustries, tourist  traffic.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  argued  that  considerations  of 
public  safety  and  social  order  demand 
that  the  restrictions  be  continued,  especi- 
ally as  Switzerland  has  no  adequate  Con- 
sular apparatus  abroad  to  insure  thor- 
ough examination  of  prospective  visitors. 


Belgium's  Close  Relations  With  France 

Fate  of  Eupen  and  Malmedy  Decided 


BELGIUM 

WOMEN  in  Belgium  can  be  elected  to 
Parliament  under  a  bill  adopted  by 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  June 
18  by  a  vote  of  142  to  10,  but,  with  the 
exception  of  widows  of  combatants,  do 
not  yet  have  the  vote  in  national  elec- 
tions. A  bill  granting  suffrage  to  wo- 
men was  defeated  in  the  Chamber  on 
July  1  by  a  vote  of  89  to  74. 


An  agreement  in  principle  on  a  de- 
fensive alliance  between  Belgium  and 
France  was  reached  in  June  in  a  confer- 
ence between  Marshal  Foch  and  General 
Waglinse.  The  duration  of  the  treaty 
will  be  from  five  to  fifteen  years.  Bel- 
gium agrees  to  maintain  a  larger  army 
than  before  the  war  and  to  restore  Ant- 
werp and  other  fortifications. 

Germany    on    July   11   witnessed  the 


790 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


second  ^oss  of  a  definite  strip  of  territory 
under  proceedings  provided  by  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles.  It  was  there  stated  tha^t 
for  six  months  after  the  treaty  went  into 
effect  the  people  of  Eupen  and  Malmedy 
should  be  permitted  to  record  in  writing 
a  desire  to  see  the  whole  or  part  of  the 
region  remain  under  German  sovereignty. 
During  the  six  m.onths  less  than  200  per- 
sons recorded  their  opposition  to  Belgian 
occupation  out  of  a  total  population  of 
about  60,000.  The  districts  in  question 
are  on  the  Rhine  province  frontier  north 
of  Luxemburg. 

After  109  years  the  Veronese  painting 
of  Juno  pourin;^-  out  treasures  upon  the 
City  of  Venice  is  being  returned  from 
the  Beaux  Arts  Museum  in  Brussels  to 
the  Doge's  Palace  in  the  Italian  city. 
When  the  Venetian  republic  was  sup- 
pressed the  painting  was  taken  by  the 
French  and  placed  in  the  Louvre  in  Paris. 
This  becoming  overcrowded,  the  Juno  in 
1811  was  sent  to  Brussels.  Its  return  has 
long  been  requested  by  Italy,  and  Bel- 
gium's acquiescence  shows  the  friendship 
of  the  two  countries. 


HOLLAND 

That  the  Kaiser  still  dreams  of  res 
toration  was  shown  by  a  remark  to  a 
visitor  at  Doom  who  was  discussing  the 
difficult  situation  created  by  the  elec- 
tions and  the  Spa  conference.  The  Kaiser 
listened  attentively  and  finally  exclaimed: 
"  And  they're  not  yet  thinking  of  calling 
me  back?  "  Perhaps  he  would  have  been 
disillusioned  could  he  have  learned  the 
Socialists'  protest  against  postponement 
of  the  debate  on  the  proposed  law  to 
regulate  Hohenzollern  property.  One  of 
the  Deputies  in  the  Reichstag  pointed 
out  that  "  the  tremendous  fortune  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Hohenzollerns  consti- 
tutes a  standing  danger  to  the  republic." 
At  the  same  time  the  Dutch  authorities 
have  decided  that  the  Kaiser  is  liable  to 
taxation.  A  mysterious  attack  on  the 
Kaiser  was  reported  to  have  taken  place 
on  June  16,  but  no  details  were  allowed 
to  become  public.  The  Kaiserin,  who 
suffers  from  heart  trouble,  had  a  severe 
attack  on  June  20.  The  suicide  of  Prince 
Joachim  at  Potsdam  on  July  17  was  a 
heavy  blow  to  both  his  parents. 


Developments  in  Scandinavian  Countries 

Aland :  A  Fiume  of  the  North 


SWEDEN 

THE  problem  of  the  future  sovereignty 
of  the  Aland  Islands,  which  has 
caused  bitter  contention  between 
Sweden  and  Finland  ever  since  the  war, 
was  the  first  question  submitted  to  the 
League  of  Nations  for  solution,  after 
Sweden  had  waited  anxiously,  but  in 
vain,  for  a  decision  on  the  matter  by  the 
Peace  Conference.  On  July  12  the 
Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  de- 
cided, at  a  meeting  in  St.  James's  Palace, 
London,  to  refer  the  Aland  question  to 
three  international  judges.  Pending  the 
finding  of  this  judicial  body  the  Swedish 
and  Finnish  representatives  pledged 
their  countries  to  take  no  other  action. 
Thus  the  tension  was  relieved  at  an  acute 
stage  of   the    situation,   which   contains 


the  potentialities  of  a  conflagration  in- 
volving Soviet  Russia. 

The  issue  is  whether  the  Aland 
Islands  shall  continue  to  belong  to  Fin- 
land or,  on  the  principle  of  self-determi- 
nation, pass  to  Sweden.  What  gives 
them  such  importance  as  an  interna- 
tional issue  is  the  strategic  advantage 
of  their  position.  Commanding  the  en- 
trance to  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  the  Gulf 
of  Finland  and  the  upper  end  of  the 
Baltic  Sea,  they  are.  almost  within  bom- 
barding range  of  both  Stockholm  and 
Helsingfors.  The  larger  islands  are  a 
little  nearer  to  the  Swedish  than  to  the 
Finnish  mainland;  and,  as  a  naval  base, 
they  would  be  within  easy  striking  dis- 
tance of  Petrograd.  From  these  larger 
islands  to  the  Finnish  mainland  extends 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  SCANDINAVIAN  COUNTRIES 


791 


so 

I 


a  belt  of  smaller  islands  and  islets,  form- 
ing what  the  Scandinavians  picturesquely 
call  a  "  skerry-garth,"  to  render  it 
(skaregaard)  by  a  Scotticism.  They 
mean  "  a  fortress-yard  of  rocky  islets." 

The  archipelago  comprises  about  a 
thousand  islands,  of  which  over  a  hun- 
dred are  inhabited  by  a  population  of 
some  34,000  Swedes  and  only  a  thousand 
inns.  They  are  farmers,  fishermen 
nd  sailors.     All  the  men  follow  the  sea 

ore  or  less.  From  their  rich  forests 
hey  build  a  curious,  old-fashioned  type 
of  sailing  vessels  known  as  Finn  boats. 
These  are  used  to  deliver  'wood,  which 
the  Alanders  largely  export  to  Stock- 
holm. The  young  people  are  very  capable 
in  seamanship  and  have  been  rendering 
adventurous  service  in  carrying  refugees 
over  to  the  Swedish  mainland  in  these 
small  boats,  since  the  Finnish  authorities 
have  garrisoned  the  Alands  and  for- 
bidden emigration.  Thus  the  Aland 
leader,  Johannes  Ericsson,  escaped 
arrest.  The  Finns  are  patrolling  the 
waters  of  the  archipelago  with  two 
cruisers,  and  400  Finnish-speaking  sol- 
diers have  been  quartered  in  Aland 
since  early  in  June.  Most  of  these  are 
encamped  on  Main  Aland  ("  Fasta 
Aland  "),  as  the  largest  island  is  called, 
whereon  stands  Mariehamn,  the  capital 
and  only  city  of  the  Alands,  a  town  of 
1,500  inhabitants.  This  island  is  about 
thirty-one  miles  long,  north  and  south. 

Ever  since  Finland  won  its  independ- 
ence, on  the  fall  of  the  empire  of  the 
Czars,  the  Alanders  have  made  resolute 
efforts  to  win  the  right  to  self-determi- 
nation, signifying  again  and  again  their 
desire  for  reunion  with  Sweden.  But 
the  Finns  have  declared  that  they  will 
never  give  up  the  islands;  lately,  how- 
ever, certain  Swedish  members  of  the 
Parliament  at  Helsingfors  have  peti- 
tioned the  Finnish  State  Council  to  sub- 
mit a  proposal  of  autonomy  for  the 
Swedish-speaking  provinces  of  Aland, 
Nyland  and  Nesterbotten.  The  sug- 
gestion was  accepted  by  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice Joederholm,  who  later  resigned,  and 
has  been  approved  by  his  successor, 
Granfelt.  Many  of  the  Finland  Swedes 
have  been  opposed  to  the  separation  of 
Aland    as    a    weakening    of    their    own 


faction  against  the  politically  dominant 
Finns.  Up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  World 
War  there  were  2,571,000  Finns  and 
339,000  Finland  Swedes.  The  latter  com- 
prise the  old  aristocracy  and  most  of  the 
middle  class.  They  are  settled  through- 
out the  country,  but  mostly  in  the  towns 
and  along  the  coast. 

What  occasioned  the  crisis  that  led  to 
the  interposition  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions was  the  arrest  by  the  Finnish  au- 
thorities, early  in  June,  of  the  two 
Aland  leaders,  Mr.  Sundblom,  an  editor, 
and  Mr.  Bjorkman,  a  district  chief,  on 
their  return  from  a  mission  to  Stockholm 
on  behalf  of  their  fellow-islanders.  The 
two  men  were  charged  with  high  treason, 
as  negotiating  with  a  foreign  power  for 
aid  in  secession  from  Finland.  At  their 
first  hearings,  concluded  June  10,  they 
denied  guilt  of  high  treason,  declaring 
that  they  acted  only  for  the  best  inter- 
ests of  Aland.  The  same  day  several 
Aland  communes  sent  an  indignant  pro- 
test to  the  Finnish  Government  against 
the  arrest  and  transportation  of  Finnish- 
speaking  troops  from  Aabo  and  Bjorne- 
borg.  Only  the  restraint  of  the  leaders 
prevented  the  Alanders  from  issuing  a 
proclamation  of  independence.  Messrs. 
Sundblom  and  Bjorkman  were  subjected 
to  indignities  and  allowed  neither  to  com- 
municate with  their  families  nor  to  see 
any  one. 

Sweden  also  sent  a  note  of  protest  to 
Helsingfors,  but  the  reply  of  the  Fin- 
nish Government  was  not  conciliatory; 
the  Finns  disagreed  with  the  Swedish 
view  that  the  Alanders  had  a  right  to 
withdraw  from  Finland  and  implied  that 
the  Swedish  Government  was  aiding  and 
abetting  the  islanders  in  high  treason. 
This  caused  much  indignation  in  the 
Swedish  capital.  Mr.  Westman,  the 
Swedish  Minister  to  Helsingfors,  was  re- 
called on  June  15  to  report  in  Stockholm, 
and  the  situation  was  regarded  as  very 
serious.  Premier  Hjalmar  Branting  ap- 
pealed to  the  League  of  Nations,  and  the 
Finnish  Government,  through  its  Minis- 
ter, Enckell,  in  Paris,  assented  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  by  the  League. 
On  July  13  Messrs.  Sundblom  and  Bjork- 
man were  released  pending  the  award 
of    the    three    international    judges,    to 


792 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


whom  the  League  Council  referred  the 
Aland  question. 

The  Swedish  contention  is  that  Aland 
should  have  been  reunited  with  Sweden 
after  Finland  and  Aland  gained  their 
independence  from  Russia,  inasmuch  as 
Aland  was  an  integral  part  of  Sweden 
until  1809,  when  Sweden  was  compelled 
to  cede  both  Finland  and  Aland  to  Rus- 
sia. The  situation  is  exceedingly  deli- 
cate, as  excitement  runs  high  in  both 
Sweden  and  Finland,  and  Sweden  hopes 
for  a  settlement  without  an  appeal  to 
arms,  such  as  might  involve  her  in  a  war 
with  Soviet  Russia.  Fear  of  such  a  war 
is  all  that  has  kept  Sweden  from  forcibly 
annexing  the  islands. 

DENMARK 

King  Christian  signed  the  law  incor- 
porating North  Slesvig  (the  First  Plebis- 
cite Zone)  into  the  Kingdom  of  Den- 
mark, on  July  9,  which  was  celebrated 
all  over  the  country  as  Reunion  Day. 
President  Wilson  sent  a  cablegram  felici- 
tating the  King  and  the  Danish  people 
on  the  restoration  of  that  portion  of  the 
ancient  Duchy  of  Slesvig  "  through  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  self- 
determination."  In  reply.  King  Christian 
expressed  his  heartfelt  thanks,  through 
the  American  Legation  at  Copenhagen, 
for  the  President's  message  and  the 
warm  gratitude  of  "the  entire  Danish 
Nation  toward  the  President  and  the 
American  Nation  for  the  liberation  of 
the  ancient  Danish  territory  of  North 
Slesvig." 

On  July  10  the  King  and  Queen,  with 
their  sons  and  several  other  members 
of  the  royal  family,  sailed  from  Copen- 
hagen to  Kolding  on  the  royal  yacht 
Dannebrog,  as  the  first  stage  of  their 
progress  into  North  Slesvig.  Thousands 
of  people  at  the  Kolding  dock  gave  them 
enthusiastic  greeting.  Thence  the  royal 
party  drove  south  in  motor  cars  to  within 
one  kilometer  north  of  the  old  frontier, 
where  the  King  went  through  the  his- 
toric ceremony  of  mounting  the  white 
charger.  As  he  rode  across  the  frontier 
his  sons  followed  on  horseback  and  the 
Queen  and  the  rest  of  the  royal  family 
and  suite  in  carriages.  In  reply  to  the 
warm  welcome  to  redeemed  Slesvig  ex- 


tended by  the  local  authorities.  King 
Christian  bade  them  welcome  home  to 
the  kingdom,  and  cheers  for  Denmark 
were  given  with  a  will.  Between  60,000 
and  80,000  people  were  gathered  at  the 
frontier,  lining  the  roads  and  cheering, 
while  young  girls  dressed  in  white 
strewed  red  roses  before  the  white 
charger,  as  the  royal  procession  con- 
tinued southward  toward  Cristiansfeld. 

The  following  day  there  was  a  great 
patriotic  demonstration  at  Dybboel, 
where  in  the  war  of  1864  the  Danish 
Army  fought  heroically  against  the  com- 
bined forces -of  Prussia  and  Austria. 

According  to  a  cablegram  to  the  Dan- 
ish Legation  at  Washington  on  July  7, 
the  new  election  to  the  Danish  Folkething 
(lower  house  of  the  Rigsdag),  held  on 
July  6,  resulted  as  follows:  The  Left 
Party  gained  3  mandates  (seats)  and 
elected  51  representatives.  The  Con- 
servatives lost  2  mandates  and  now  have 
26  representatives,  while  the  Radical 
Party  lost  1  mandate  and  elected  16 
members  to  the  Folkething.  The  Social- 
ists elected  42  representatives  and  the 
Tradesmen's  Party  (also  conservative) 
4,  the  same  number  as  in  the  election 
held  in  April. 

NORWAY 

The  new  Geo-Physical  Institute  at 
Bergen  is  unique  in  the  world  and  its 
reason  for  being  is  a  new  science  of 
characteristically  Norwegian  creation. 
In  reading  the  face  of  the  sea  and  its 
storms  in  the  Viking  Age,  the  Norsemen 
evolved  the  myth  of  Thor's  fishing  for 
the  Midgarth  Serpent,  to  account  for  the 
thunderstorm  in  conflict  with  the  raging 
seas.  But  from  that  time  forth  until 
Dr.  Fridtjof  Nansen  became  the  pioneer 
of  the  Norse  science  of  oceanography, 
the  nation  has  been  gathering  the  ma- 
terial for  the  new  courses  offered  this 
Summer  in  oceanography,  dynamical 
methology,  climatology  and  terrestrial 
magnetism.  The  Summer's  curriculum 
includes  a  special  course  for  investiga- 
tors from  other  lands.  This  comprises 
a  practical  investigation  of  sea  condi- 
tions, conducted  by  Professor  Bjorn 
Helland-Hansen,  whose  testing  ship 
cruises    along   the   fjords    of   the   Nor- 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  SCANDINAVIAN  COUNTRIES 


793 


i 


-wegian  coast,  even  to  Spitzbeigen  and 
Iceland.  Soundings  are  taken  at  various 
depths  and  specimens  of  sea  water  are 
gathered  in  metal  bottles  designed  for 
this  purpose  by  Dr.   Nansen. 

Professor  Helland-Hansen  and  Pro- 
fessor Vilhelm  Bjerknes  of  this  Bergen 
faculty,  are  world-famous  as  ocean- 
ographers  and  weather  forecasters.  Both 
have  gone  far  to  take  the  guess  out  of 
weather  forecasting.  "  We  are  really  in 
possession  of  all  the  theoretical  knowl- 
edge necessary  to  determine  future 
weather,"  stated  Professor  Bjerknes,  in 
a  recent  paper  in  the  United  States 
Monthly  Weather  Review.  "  It  resides 
in  the  equations  of  dynamics  and  thermo- 
dynamics, or,  as  more  generally  ex- 
pressed, in  the  equations  of  physics." 

Among  the  students  of  weather-fore- 
casting at  Bergen  this  Summer  is  Miss 
Anne  Louise  Beck,  M.  A.,  of  the  astro- 
nomical department  of  the  University  of 
California.  She  is  the  first  of  five 
American  students  who  will  be  sent  to 
Bergen  between  1920  and  1925,  with 
traveling-fellowship  stipends  of  $1,000 
each  granted  to  them  by  the  American- 
Scandinavian  Foundation,  which  con- 
ducts an  annual  exchange  of  forty  stu- 
dents   between    the    United    States    and 


Norway,    Sweden    and    Denmark.      Her 
successor  will  be  appointed  in  1921. 

ICELAND 

The  Icelandic  Republic,  which  resumed 
its  independence  in  December,  1918,  after 
an  interval  of  foreign  domination  dating 
back  to  A.  D.  1262,  is  in  the  throes  of 
raising  its  first  internal  State  loan.  Ac- 
cording to  a  June  issue  of  Morgonbladid, 
a  Reykjavik  daily  newspaper,  the  Gov- 
ernment had  requested  in  February  a 
loan  of  three  million  kroner,  to  run 
ninety-six  years  at  5V2  per  cent.  The 
public,  to  whose  patriotism  the  editor 
appealed,  had  been  rated  as  good  to 
raise  half  a  million  kroner.  Two  banks, 
Islands  Bank  and  Landsbanken,  had 
agreed  with  the  Government  to  raise  a 
million  kroner  each.  But  this  left  half 
a  million  still  lacking,  when  the  allow- 
ance of  time  to  raise  the  loan  was  nearly 
out.  The  editor  deemed  it  a  wonder  that 
not  more  than  half  a  million  kroner  had 
been  shown  among  the  public,  as  the  loan 
had  been  requested  under  good  conditions 
and  the  best  security;  he  ascribed  the 
backwardness  to  a  peculiarity  of  Ice- 
landic trade  conditions,  in  that  large 
capital  is  still  outstanding  abroad  in 
commodities. 


Germany's  Conservative  Regime 

Dominance    of    Leading    Capitalists    in    the  New    Ministry  —  Party 

Strength  in  Reichstag 


GERMANY 

THE  first  Reichstag  of  the  German 
Republic  was  opened  at  3  P.  M., 
June  24,  by  the  oldest  Deputy  pres- 
ent, Herr  Rieke,  77  years  old,  a  Majority 
Socialist  from  Brunswick.  When  the 
roll  was  called,  George  Ledebour  an- 
nounced the  absence  of  Deputy  Mitt- 
woch,  an  Independent  Socialist  editor 
from  Konigsberg.  Herr  Mittwoch  had 
just  been  sentenced  to  two  years'  im- 
prisonment in  a  fortress  by  the  Leipzig 
Supreme  Court  on  a  charge  of  treason. 
His  offense  was  the  publication  last  Oc- 
tober of  a  false  allegation  that  Chancel- 
lor Philip  Scheidemann,  Minister  of  De- 


fense Noske  and  other  high  officials,  at 
a  conference  held  in  the  Berlin  Foreign 
Office  the  preceding  June,  had  discussed 
the  possibility  of  an  offensive  against 
Poland,  and  a  consequent  defensive  ac- 
tion against  France.  The  next  day  the 
Reichstag  elected  as  its  President  Paul 
Loebe,  a  Majority  Socialist,  and  William 
Dittmann,  an  Independent  Socialist,  as 
First  Vice  President.  On  June  26  Presi- 
dent Ebert  asked  the  Reichstag  to  set 
the  day  for  the  election  of  a  new  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic. 

Konstantin  Fehrenbach,  in  his  maiden 
speech  as  Chancellor,  on  June  28,  told 
the  Reichstag  that  Germany  was  doing 


794 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


its  best  to  live  up  to  the  Versailles  Peace 
Treaty,  and  would  continue  to  do  this  in 
so  far  as  it  was  able.  He  called  for  the 
co-operation  of  all  classes  to  increase  in- 
dustrial efficiency,  promised  to  carry  out 
many  social  and  industrial  reforms,  and 
referred  with  deep  feeling  to  the  feeding 
of  German  children  by  foreign  diploma- 
tists. His  speech  was  well  received,  ex- 
cept that  the  Independent  Socialists  fre- 
quently interjected  sarcastic  remarks. 
Dr.  Gustave  Stresemann,  a  People's 
Party  leader,  was  chosen  President  of 
the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee  of  the 
Reichstag  on  June  30,  with  ex-Chancel- 
lor Muller  as  Vice  President.     ' 

Following  political  negotiations  for 
nearly  three  weeks  subsequent  to  the 
Reichstag  elections,  the  coalition  Cabinet 
headed  by  Hermann  Muller  was  re- 
placed by  a  Cabinet  dominated  by  the 
more  conservative  elements.  When  Karl 
Trimbom,  the  leader  of  the  Centre  Party 
(Catholic),  gave  up  the  task  of  trying 
to  carry  out  President  Ebert's  request 
to  construct  a  new  Cabinet,  it  was  taken 
over  by  Konstantin  Fehrenbach,  the  vet- 
eran Centrist  President  of  the  National 
Assembly.  He  induced  the  People's 
Party,  the  Centre  and  the  Democrats  to 
allow  their  men  to  enter  the  Govern- 
ment and  persuaded  the  majority  So- 
cialists and  the  Nationalists  to  adopt  a 
policy  of  watchful  waiting  and  to  do 
nothing  to  embarrass  the  ne  -  Cabinet 
at  the  start.  No  promises  were  obtained 
from  the  Independent  Socialists.  The 
personnel  of  the  Cabinet  was  announced 
June  25,  as  follows: 

Chancellor  —  Konstantin  Fehrenbach 
(Centrist). 

Minister  of  Justice  and  Vice  Chancellor 
—Dr.  Karl  Heinze  (German  People's 
Party). 

Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs— Dr.  Walter 
Simons    (party   affiliations   not  clear). 

Minister  of  Finance— Dr.  Wirth  (Cen- 
trist). 

Minister  of  the  Interior— Dr.  Erich  Koch 
(Democrat). 

Minister  of  Defense— Dr.  Gessler  (Dem- 
ocrat). 

Minister  of  Transport— General  Groener 
(non-political). 

Minister  of  Food  and  Agriculture— An- 
dres Hermes    (Centrist). 

Minister  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs— Jo- 
hann  Giesberts  (Centrist). 


Minister  of  Economics— Herr  Scholz 
(German  People's  Party). 

Minister  of  the  Treasury— Herr  von 
Raumer    (German    People's    Party). 

Minister  of  Labor— The  Rev.  Dr.  Hein- 
rich  Brauns  (Centrist). 

Dr.  Simons,  according  to  the  reports 
of  the  Spa  conference,  looms  up  as  one 
of  the  important  men  in  the  new  Cabi- 
net and  appears  to  have  made  effective 


KONSTANTIN    FEHRENBACH 
New  German  Chancellor,  who  signed  the  re- 
vised protocol   at   the   Spa    Conference 

(Wide    World    Vhotos) 

use  of  his  fifteen  years  in  Government 
service,  which  began  with  a  call  in  1905 
to  a  post  in  the  Imperial  Ministry  of 
Justice.  There  he  remained  until  1^11, 
when  he  was  taken  over  into  the  legal 
department  of  the  Foreign  Office.  Dr. 
Simons  was  made  Ministerial  Director  in 
the  Foreign  Office  on  Dec.  24,  1918, 
and  intrusted  later  with  preparing  for 
the  peace  negotiations.  He  was  Gen- 
eral Commissioner  of  the  German  dele- 
gation to  Versailles.  On  June  21,  1919, 
because  of  the  signing  of  the  Peace 
Treaty,  he  offered  his  resignation  as 
Director  of  the  Legal  Department  of  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  but  merely 


GERMANY'S  CONSERVATIVE  REGIME 


79.5 


ceived  a  leave  of  absence  from  Presi- 
ent  Ebert.  In  August,  1919,  with  the 
permission  of  Hermann  Miiller,  then 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Dr.  Simons 
took  over  the  management  of  the  Na- 

H^ional  Association  of  German  Industries. 

^H   While  the   parties   represented  in  the 

^  new  Cabinet  have  only  175  members  in 
the  Reichstag  out  of  a  total  of  466,  the 
divisions  among  the  other  parties  will 
probably  enable  the  Government  to  hold 
its  power  for  a  short  time  at  least,  as 

<;      was   shown   on   July   3,   when   a   motion 

Ijpresented  by  the  Independent  Socialists 
Expressing  a  lack  of  confidence  was 
-voted  down,  313  to  64.  As  a  general 
proposition,  the  21  votes  of  the  Bavarian 
People's  Party  and  the  Christian  Peo- 
ple's Party  (offshoots  of  the  Centre) 
may  be  counted  upon  to  support  the 
Cabinet.  Five  members  of  the  new 
Cabinet — Koch,  Wirth,  Giesberts,  Gess- 
ler  and  Hermes — occupied  the  same 
posts  in  the  preceding  Cabinet. 

Resumption  of  diplomatic  relations 
with  Germany  was  marked  by  the  pres- 
entation of  ciedentials  to  President 
Ebert  on  July  1  by  Charles  Laurent,  Am- 
bassador from  France,  and  on  July  4  by 
Lord  d'Abernon,  Ambassador  from  Great 
Britain.  On  June  30  Ebert  received  Mgr. 
Pacelli  as  the  first  Papal  Nuncio  to  the 
German  Government. 

On  the  same  day,  July  10,  that  the 
Judicial  Committee  of  the  Prussian  Diet 
rejected  a  motion  by  the  Independent 
Socialists  for  confiscation  of  the  Hohen- 
zollern  family  fortune,  estimated  at  from 
300,000,000  to  1,000,000,000  marks,  a  re- 
port came  from  Slesvig-Holstein  that  a 
gang  of  farm  laborers  had  invaded  the 
country  seat  of  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia 
at  Hemmelmark  and  had  forced  the  ex- 
Kaiser's  brother  to  run  the  gantlet,  sub- 
jecting him  to  kicks  and  curses  in  the 
process.  Other  junkers  in  the  vicinity 
were  said  to  have  received  the  same 
treatment.  The  Diet  will  take  up  the 
question  of  the  Hohenzollern  property  at 
its  Fall  session. 

Prince  Joachim,  the  sixth  and  youngest 
son  of  ex-Kaiser  Wilhelm,  committed 
suicide  at  Potsdam  on  July  17  by  shoot- 
ing himself.  An  official  report  ascribed 
the  act  to  "  a  fit  of  excessive  dementia." 


Field  Marshal  von  Hindenburg's  villa 
at  Hanover  was  entered  on  the  night  of 
July  12  by  a  burglar,  who  was  encoun- 
tered by  the  old  officer  and  worsted  in  a 
fight,  despite  his  use  of  a  revolver  in  a 
vain  attempt  to  shoot  the  master  of  the 
house. 

Germany's  total  debt  was  put  at  265,- 
000,000,000  marks  (about  $63,000,000,- 
000  at  normal  exchange)  by  Minister 
Wirth  in  a  statement  to  the  Budget  Com- 
mittee of  the  Reichstag  on  June  30.  Sta- 
tistics published  in  June  reported  520,000 
war  widows  in  Germany,  1,130,000  war 
orphans  and  500,000  maimed  or  con- 
sumptive veterans.  The  war  dead  were 
put  at  1,350,000. 

Publication  of  the  official  figures  on 
the  Reichstag  election  of  June  6  showed 
that  26,017,590  votes  had  been  cast  and 
466  Deputies  elected,  including  the  40 
carried  over  from  the  plebiscite  districts 
where  there  was  no  election.  The  definite 
results  were  given  as  follows: 

Popular 
Parties.  Deputies.         Vote. 

Majority    Socialists 112  r),614,4r)6 

Independent    Socialists 81  4,895,317 

Centrists 68  3.540,830 

German    Nationalists 66  3,736,778 

German   People's   Partjr. ..  62  3,606,316 

Democrats     45  2,202.334 

Bavarian  People's  Party  1     ^^  1,171.722 

Christian  People's  Party,)     "  65,219 

Communists    2  441,995 

Bavarian  Peasant's  Party.     4  218.884 

German-Hanoverians     ....     5  319,100 

In  addition  to  the  ten  parties  which 
elected  Deputies,  there  were  ten  other 
would-be  parties  and  groups  which  cast 
their  ballots,  as  follows:  German  Middle 
Class  Party,  11,970;  German  Economic 
and  Labor  Party,  43;  National  Demo- 
cratic People's  Party,  3,993;  German 
Economic  League  for  City  and  Country, 
88,652;  German  Socialist  Party,  7,216; 
Lusatian  People's  Party,  8,052;  Polish 
Party,  76,497;  Reform  Group,  6,814; 
Christian  Social  People's  Party,  1,228; 
Non-Partisan  Party,  169. 

The  revised  figures  brought  the  num- 
ber of  women  Deputies  up  to  thirty,  as 
against  thirty-eight  in  the  former  As- 
sembly. 

On  June  6  and  on  the  immediately  suc- 
ceeding Sundays  State  Legislatures  were 
elected  in  several  of  the  seventeen  politi- 


796 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


cal  entities  now  making  up  the  German 
nation.  The  results,  so  far  as  ascer- 
tained up  to  July  15,  show  that  the  ten- 
dency to  run  to  the  political  extremes 
displayed  in  the  Reichstag  elections  held 
good  in  the  contests  for  the  minor  par- 
liaments. In  nearly  every  instance  the 
Nationalists  and  the  People's  Party  and 
the  Independent  Socialists  gained  at  the 
expense  of  the  Majority  Socialists  and 
the  Democrats. 

The  new  Bavarian  Diet  is  made  up  of 
64  Bavarian  People's  Party  Deputies,  25 
Majority  Socialists,  21  Nationalists  and 
People's  Party  combined,  20  Independent 
Socialists,  11  Democrats,  11  Agrarians 
and  2  Communists.  In  Wiirttemberg 
the  Centrists  won  23  seats,  the  Majority 
Socialists  17,  the  Democrats  15,  the  In- 
dependent Socialists  14,  the  Agrarians 
18,  the  Citizens'  Party  10  and  the  Peo- 
ple's Party  4.  The  Anhalt  Majority  So- 
cialists elected  13  Deputies,  the  Inde- 
pendent Socialists  6,  the  Nationalists  6, 
the  People's  Party  5  and  the  Democrats 
6.  In  Oldenburg  the  People's  Party  won 
13  seats,  the  Majority  Socialists  10,  the 
Democrats  7,  the  Independent  Socialists 
5,  the  Centrists  11,  the  Land  League  2 
and  the  Nationalists  1.  The  iviecklen- 
burg  result  differed  from  the  others  in 
that  the  Majority  Socialists  there  in- 
creased their  vote  8,650  over  that  cast 
in  the  Eeichstag  election  and  won  26 
seats;  the  Independent  Socialists  won  5, 
the  Democrats  4,  the  People's  Party  10, 
the  Nationalists  14  and  the  Economic 
Association  5.  In  the  newly  organized 
State  of  Thuringia  the  four  Democralts 
in  the  Diet  hold  the  balance  of  power 
between  the  23  People's  Party  men.  Land 
Leaguers  and  Nationalists,  and  the  15 
Independent  Socialists  and  11  Majority 
Socialists.  In  Brunswick  the  parties  of 
the  Right  united  in  the  Provincial  Elec- 
tors' League,  but  the  Majority  Socialists, 
Independent  Socialists  and  Democrats 
managed  to  retain  their  majority  in  the 
Landtag, 


The  first  municipal  election,  on  June 
20,  in  the  enlai*ged  Greater  Berlin,  which 
now  embraces  877  square  kilometers  and 
has  a  population  of  about  3,900,000,  re- 
sulted in  the  two  Socialist  parties  re- 
taining control.  The  membership  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  is  limited  to  225,  ap- 
portioned according  to  the  vote  cast. 
The  Independent  Socialists  elected  88, 
the  Majority  Socialists  38,  the  People's 
Party  40,  the  Nationalists  25,  the  Demo- 
crats 16,  the  Centrists  8  and  the  Eco- 
nomic League  9. 

Numerous  food  riots  spread  through 
North  Germany,  the  Rhine  district, 
Frankfort  and  Wiirttemberg  in  conse- 
quence of  high  prices,  poor  crop  reports, 
profiteering  by  retailers  ana  general  de- 
pression. In  Berlin  a  column  of  enraged 
housewives  marched  to  the  Chancellery, 
vainly  seeking  an  intei-view  with  Chan- 
cellor Fehrenbach  to  protest  against  the 
failure  of  the  Government  to  try  to  curb 
the  profiteers  and  increase  the  food  sup- 
ply. In  Hamburg  five  persons  were 
killed,  and  several  other  cities  reported 
serious  clashes  between  the  police  and 
Federal  troops  and  the  indignant  popu- 
lace, which  was  taking  matters  into  its 
own  hands  and  forcing  shopkeepers  to 
sell  at  prices  fixed  by  the  crowds. 

The  two  extreme  elements  of  German 
political  life,  the  Junker-Big  Business 
reactionaries,  and  the  Communist-Inde- 
pendent Socialist  revolutionaries,  tried  to 
make  capital  for  propaganda  out  of  the 
food  riots  and  the  general  anxiety  over 
the  Spa  negotiations.  They  filled  their 
press  with  wild  rumors  of  revolutionaiy 
and  counter-revolutionary  plans,  and  al- 
most every  day  the  Government  was  be- 
ing saved  by  the  "  timely  discovery  "  and 
frustration  of  these  plots.  Nothing  se- 
rious happened,  although  competent  ob- 
sei-vers  agreed  that  there  was  indeed 
much  dissatisfaction,  and  that  a  genuine 
political  crisis  might  be  worked  up  un- 
less the  new  Government  showed  suffi- 
cient strength  to  impress  both  extremes. 


Hungary  and  Her  Neighbors 

Labor  Blockade  and  White  Terror 


ISee  articles  on  Pages  875-883} 


HUNGARY 

[E  announcement  of  the  international 
labor   blockade  and  the  publication 
of  the  Wedgwood  report,  submitted 
to  the  British  Labor  Party  conference  by 
;^the  Committee  of  Inquiry  that  investi- 
gated the  charges   concerning  a  White 
["error  in  Hungary,  precipitated  a  crisis 
le  solution  of  which  is  not  yet  in  sight. 
The  existence   of   a   White   Terror  is 
low  admitted  by  members  and  spokes- 
len  of  the  Government  and  is  denounced 
open  session  of  the  National  Assembly, 
le  Government,  however,  disclaims  re- 
sponsibility for  the  excesses  and  empha- 
sizes that  the  atrocities  are  committed 
)y  "  irresponsible   elements."    This  was 
controverted  by  the  Conservative  leader, 
Count  Apponyi  himself,  who  declared  in 
the  National  Assembly  that  the  horrors 
"  are   perpetrated   not   by   civilians   dis- 
guised as  officers,  but  by  real  officers 
who  are  unworthy  of  the  name.   Officers' 
gangs  commit  one  revolting,  bestial  mur- 
der after   another.     This    sort   of  thing 
must  be  stopped  and  law  and  order  must 
be  restored  or  else  nothing  can  prevent 
disaster." 

A  plot  of  officers,  belonging  to  the  so- 
called  Hejjas  and  Ostenburg  detach- 
ment, was  revealed  in  the  National  As- 
sembly by  Deputy  Hencz.  He  said  that 
the  overthrow  of  the  Assembly  by  armed 
raid  and  the  establishment  of  military 
dictatorship  were  planned.  Deputies  de- 
manded strict  punishment  of  the  guilty, 
but  skepticism  as  to  their  apprehension 
was  expressed. 

For  several  days  the  Assembly  and 
the  capital  were  in  turmoil,  and  the  resig- 
nation of  the  Simonyi-Semadam  Cabinet 
was  repeatedly  rumored.  The  Cabinet 
council  was  discussing  measures  to  stop 
the  terror,  and  it  was  announced  that  the 
Regent,  Admiral  Horthy,  is  in  accord 
with  the  Ministers'  attitude. 

The  decree  promulgated  by  General 
Soos,   the   Minister   of   Defense,    as   the 


outcome  of  these  discussions  was,  how- 
ever, generally  regarded  as  unsatisfac- 
tory and  beside  the  point.  In  substance 
this  decree  provided  that  all  "officers' 
detachments"  and  other  extraordinary 
military  formations  were  to  be  incor- 
porated in  the  regular  army;  that  their 
jurisdiction  over  civilians  must  cease, 
except  in  cases  of  offense  committed 
against  the  army,  and  that  transgressors 
must  be  arrested.  Under  the  severe 
censorship  the  comment  of  the  Budapest 
newspapers  was  rather  indifferent,  but 
the  Vienna  newspapers  pointed  out  that 
under  this  order  everything  would  re- 
main unchanged,  as  the  most  notorious 
detachments  had  been  incorporated  in 
the  National  Army  previously,  and  as 
every  provision  could  be  stretched  by  the 
officers  to  suit  their  own  purposes  and 
the  prosecution  of  offenders  against  the 
regulations  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
brother  officers. 

Despite  the  state  of  siege  which  had 
been  declared  at  Budapest  after  the 
pogroms  in  the  first  week  of  June,  Jew- 
baiting,  nightly  murders  and  other  ex- 
cesses continued.  The  reactionary  ele- 
ment, especially  the  terrorist  officers  and 
the  Awakening  Hungarians,  emboldened 
by  the  vacillation  of  the  Government, 
assumed  the  offensive,  and  both  in 
the  extreme  clerical  and  jingo  press  and 
on  the  floor  of  the  Assembly  attacks 
were  delivered  against  the  Premier  for 
his  "  deference  to  Jewish  demands  "  and 
his  "  weakness  "  in  face  of  the  boycott. 

The  crisis  reached  its  temporary  climax 
when  Lieutenant  Hejjas,  the  perpetrator 
of  the  Kecskemet  massacre  and  head  of 
the  most  notorious  of  detachments,  served 
a  formal  ultimatum  on  the  Government 
urging  it  to  clear  out  and  yield  its  place 
to  strong  and  capable  men,  uncompromis- 
ing upholders  of  the  "  Christian  course." 
The  ultimatum  was  printed  in  leaflet 
form  and  distributed  in  a  million  copies. 
It  threatened  with  reprisal  those  "  trai- 


798 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


tors  of  the  national  idea  "  who  attempted 
to  revive  the  old  liberal  (i.  e.  non- 
anti-Semitic)  policy. 

Simultaneously  it  was  rumored  that 
Hejjas  was  organizing  a  private  army 
and  preparing  to  seize  Budapest.  It  was 
feared  that  a  coup  of  this  order  would 
result  not  only  in  setting  up  an  outright 
military  dictatorship,  but  also  in  a  gen- 
eral massacre  of  the  Jewish  population. 

AUSTRIA 

The  protracted  struggle,  within  the 
Governmental  coalition,  of  Social  Demo- 
crats and  Christian  Socialists  reached 
its  climax  on  June  11,  when  Chancellor 
Renner,  together  with  his  Social  Demo- 
cratic colleagues,  resigned  from  the  Cab- 
inet. The  immediate  occasion  of  the 
crisis  was  the  attack  in  the  National 
Assembly  on  the  Minister  of  War,  Herr 
Deutsch,  whose  new  army  decree  was 
bitterly  denounced  by  the  Pan  Germans 
and  Christian  Socialists  because  of  a 
provision  rendering  the  Soldiers'  Coun- 
cils of  the  new  army  immune  from  super- 
vision by  officers.  Acting  conjointly,  the 
Pan  Germans  and  Christian  Socialists 
charged  that  the  measure  was  calculated 
to  destroy  discipline  and  Bolshevize  the 
army.  The  Christian  Socialists  threat- 
ened to  withdraw  from  the  Cabinet,  but 
their  action  was  anticipated  by  the  Social 
Democrats. 

The  underlying  causes  of  the  upheaval 
were  the  fundamental  divergences  be- 
tween the  programs  of  the  two  groups 
making  up  the  coalition.  Above  all,  the 
Social  Democrats  favored  a  constitu- 
tional settlement  along  centralistic  lines, 
while  the  Christian  Socialists  demanded 
federalization  with  substantial  autonomy 
for  the  several  provinces.  Moreover,  the 
Social  Democrats  are  strong  adherents 
of  the  ultimate  union  with  Germany, 
whereas  the  Christian  Socialists  oppose 
such  union.  A  faction  of  the  latter  ad- 
vocates more  or  less  openly  the  formation 
of  a  new  Austro-Bavarian  monarchy, 
with  a  Wittelsbach  or  a  Hapsburg  for 
King.  This  plan  was  originally  launched 
by  Dr.  Heim,  leader  of  the  Bavarian 
Catholic  peasant  party  and  at  present 
virtual  dictator  of  Bavaria.  This  scheme 
is  especially  favored  among  the  agricul- 


tural population  of  Tyrol  and  Salzburg. 
Another  disagreement  exists  in  the 
question  of  the  capital  levy,  which,  in  a 
thoroughgoing  form,  is  favored  by  the 
Social  Democrats  and  opposed  by  the 
Christian  Socialists.  The  Social  Demo- 
crats charge  that  the  Christian  Social- 
ists deliberately  block  the  working  of 
the  National  Assembly  and  plan  the  over- 
throw of  the  republic  with  the  aid  of 
Hungarian  and  Bavarian  reactionaries. 

The  split  was  precipitated  also  by  the 
announcement  of  the  international  labor 
boycott  against  Hungary.  The  blockade 
is  enthusiastically  supported  by  the  So- 
cial Democrats,  but  is  opposed  by  the 
Christian  Socialists. 

As  a  solution  of  the  crisis  it  was  pro- 
posed that  a  bourgeois  block  be  formed 
in  which  the  Christian  Socialists  would 
co-operate  with  the  Pan  Germans  and 
other  minor  anti-Socialist  factions.  This 
outcome  would  have  been  welcomed  by 
the  Social  Democrats,  who  figured  that 
the  bourgeois  coalition  would  soon  reach 
an  impasse  and  leave  the  field  open  for 
a  straight  working  class  Government.  It 
was  also  suggested  that  the  Assembly  be 
dissolved  and  new  general  elections  be 
held.  In  the  meantime,  negotiations  be- 
tween the  Social  Democrats  and  Chris- 
tian Socialists  were  resumed  through  the 
mediation  of  the  President  of  the  repub- 
lic, Herr  Seitz.  These  negotiations 
ended  on  July  4  in  a  compromise  pro- 
viding for  a  concentration  Cabinet  t) 
which  all  parties  were  to  be  represented 
in  proportion  to  their  strength  in  the 
Assembly.  Each  party  named  its  own 
Ministers.  Chancellor  Renner  was  in- 
duced to  retain  his  post,  in  addition  to 
which  he  assumed  the  portfolio  of  For- 
eign Affairs. 

The  international  labor  blockade  of 
Hungary,  decreed  by  the  Trade  Union 
Congress  at  Amsterdam,  went  into 
effect,  as  scheduled,  on  June  20.  The 
Christian  Socialists  attempted  to  break 
the  embargo  by  dispatching  a  freight 
train  manned  by  their  adherents.  This 
led  to  a  clash  between  Christian  Social- 
ists and  Social  Democratic  workingmen. 
The  railwaymen's  union  retaliated  by  de- 
claring a  general  embargo  on  all  traffic. 
Later  this  embargo  was  withdrawn,  but 


HUNGARY  AND  HER  NEIGHBORS 


799 


no   passenger  trains   were   permitted   to 
leave  for  the  Hungarian  frontier. 

The    counter-boycott    ordered    by    the 
Hungarian   Government  by  way  of  re- 
prisal went  into  effect  on  June  23.    All 
food  shipments  intended  for  Vienna  were 
stopped,  and  no  passengers  except  En- 
tente or  neutral  subjects  were  allowed  to 
cross  the  border.    The  Christian  Socialist 
press  of  Vienna  charges  that  the  Social 
Democrats,  by  enforcing  the  Hungarian 
blockade,     expose     the     population     of 
Vienna  to  starvation,  as  the  Hungarian 
)vernment  cannot  be  expected  to  send 
)od  to  the  Austrians  if  the  latter  par- 
^cipate  in  the  attack  on  Hungary,     The 
Jhristian  Socialists  denounce  the  block- 
ie    as    an    international    Jewish    con- 
)iracy   against    the    Christian    Govern- 
lent  of  Hungary. 

A  meeting  of  the  Teachers'  Federation 
Lower  Austria  was  addressed  by  the 
^resident  of  the  republic,  Herr  Seitz, 
rho  himself  started  on  his  career 
a  teacher.  The  President  declared 
lat  the  mission  of  Austrian  teachers 
ras  to  keep  alive  German  culture  and 
•aditions,  looking  forward  to  the  day 
rhen  the  Austrian  Republic  will  be 
lited  with  the  great  German  Nation. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

The  trade  unions  of  the  Czechoslovak 
Republic  declared  their  adherence  to  the 
itemational  labor  blockade  of  Hun- 
gary, and  on  June  20  the  measures  to 
enforce  the  boycott  were  put  into  effect 
alon»g  the  entire  frontier.  Especially  in 
Slovakia  the  blockade  was  welcomed 
with  great  enthusiasm.  Mass  meetings 
of  Magyar  workers  in  f:^iies  like  Brati- 
slava (Pressburg)  and  Kosice  (Kaschau) 
expressed  their  gratitude  to  the  Czecho- 
slovak fellow-workers  for  taking  up  the 
struggle  against  the  Hungarian  regime 
of  Admiral  Horthy. 

The  revelation  of  a  Hungarian  plot 
to  assassinate  Dr.  Srobar,  the  Governor 
of  Slovakia,  aroused  general  indignation. 
The  conspiracy  was  disclosed  when  a 
Majgyar  student,  Alexander  Filler,  made 
an  affidavit  at  Losons  to  the  effect  that 
he  had  been  hired  at  the  Budapest  head- 
quarters of  the  Hungarian  Defense 
Union,   the   semi-official   irredentist   or- 


ganization of  army  officers,  to  kill  Sro- 
bar by  poison  and  to  blow  up  several 
important  military  buildings  in  Slovakia. 

The  Teschen  question  continues  to 
occupy  the  centre  of  interest.  With  the 
approach  of  the  plebiscite,  indignation 
against  the  violent  methods  of  the  Polish 
authorities  grows.  The  newspapers  hold 
that,  although  the  plebiscite  arrange- 
ment in  itself  was  an  insult  to  the 
Czechoslovak  nation,  inasmuch  as 
Teschen  always  formed  part  of  the  lands 
of  the  Bohemian  crown,  it  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  settlement  by  arbitration,  as 
suggested  from  the  Polish  side.  This 
suggestion,  it  is  argued,  shows  that  the 
Poles  are  aware  of  their  own  weakness 
and  of  the  overwhelming  sentiment  in 
the  Ostrau-Karwin  district,  the  centre  of 
the  coal  area,  in  favor  of  Czechoslovakia. 
The  Committee  on  Foreiign  Affairs  of 
the  National  Assembly  adopted  a  reso- 
lution demanding  the  unconditional  and 
impartial  execution  of  the  plebiscite  and 
rejecting  the  arbitration  proposal.  The 
press  points  with  satisfaction  to  the  cir- 
cumstance that  in  the  Teschen  question 
the  German  population  unanimously 
sides  with  the  Czechs  against  the  Poles. 

The  working  schedule  of  the  Tusar 
Government  has  been  adopted  by  both 
Chambers  of  the  Assembly.  In  the  Sen- 
ate the  Socialist  majority  for  the  Gov- 
ernment was  71  votes,  against  the  58 
of  the  German  parties  the  conservative 
Kramarz  group  and  the  Catholic  Peo- 
ple's Party,  A  similar  lineup  occurred 
on  the  issue  of  the  war  loan,  when  the 
Government's  proposal  for  a  redemption 
on  a  75  per  cent,  basis  was  adopted. 

As  a  counterweight  to  the  establish- 
ment of  an  independent  Czech  Church, 
embodying  Hussite  tendencies,  the  Papal 
See  has  authorized  the  use  of  the  Slovak 
language  in  the  Catholic  churches  of 
Slovakia.  Accordingly  several  features 
of  the  service  will  be  conducted  in  Czech 
instead  of  Latin.  At  funerals  the  Czech 
language  will  be  exclusively  used,  and 
on  the  days  of  the  national  saints— 
Cyrill,  Method,  Wenceslaus,  Ludmila^ 
Prokop  and  John  Nepomuk — even  the 
mass  may  be  said  in  Czech.  The  decree 
stipulates  that  translations  b^  submitted 
to  the  Vatican. 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 


Albania's  Armed  Clash  With  Italians — Bulgaria's  Law  of 
Compulsory  Labor  and  Education 


ALBANIA 

ONE  of  the  most  complex  little  wars 
that  came  as  the  aftermath  of  the 
great  one  is  that  which  has  been 
fought  around  Avlona  between  the 
Italian  Arditi  and  Alpini  on  one  side, 
numbering  about  3,000,  and  the  Albanian 
insurgents,  mostly  Moslems,  numbering 
about  4,000,  on  the  other,  with  both  the 
contending  forces  sadly  lacking  muni- 
tions. 

As  Italy,  in  the  notes  which  were  ex- 
changed between  her  and  France,  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  last  Win- 
ter, seemed  ready  to  gain  Fiume  by  al- 
lowing Jugoslavia  to  have  the  northern 
part  of  Albania  and  Greece  the  southern 
part,  certain  Mirdite  Albanian  tribes 
naturally  believed  that  Italy  had  be- 
trayed them. 

During  the  regime  of  General  Gian- 
cinto  Ferrero  and  his  16th  Army  Corps 
Albania  had  prospered.  Roads  had  been 
built,  schools  established  and  a  civil  ad- 
ministration organized  in  the  Italian 
zone  while  waiting  for  the  war  to  come 
that  way.  Then  came  Colonel  Castoldi, 
as  the  Italian  Commissioner,  and  sud- 
denly there  was  no  work  for  either  the 
soldiers  or  the  peasants,  and  the  feeling 
gradually  augmented  among  the  latter 
that  Italy,  in  spite  of  her  protectorate 
declared  by  General  Ferrero  three  years 
ago,  would  turn  Avlona  into  a  barracks 
and  Sasseno,  the  island  at  the  mouth  of 
Avlona  Bay,  into  a  fort,  and  leave  the 
country  to  shift  for  itself,  a  prey  to 
either  Slav  or  Greek,  or  both.  At  any 
rate,  the  economic  regime  instituted  by 
Castoldi,  under  orders  from  the  Nitti 
Government  in  Rome,  seemed  to  confirm 
the  belief  in  the  betrayal  and  the  fear 
that  worse  things  were  at  hand. 

So  the  clans  began  to  gather  under  the 
leadership  of  a  former  Governor  of  Av- 
lona, Osman  Effendi,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed Prefect  by  the  Italians,  and  his 
lieutenant,  Major  Cocoshi  Kiazim.    They 


first  changed  the  Provisional  Government 
at  Tirana  to  their  liking,  and  then  began 
raids  upon  the  Italian  outposts,  princi- 
pally defended  by  dispirited  men  with 
small  stores  of  ammunition.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  surrender  of  Tepeleni  and 
its  garrison  of  200  and  the  capture  of 
Chisbardha,  overlooking  Avlona,  on 
June  28,  and  the  actual  invasion  of  the 
city  in  the  week  following,  which  gave 
rise  to  the  report  from  Belgrade  that 
the  Albanians  had  occupied  Avlona.  The 
Albanians  were  driven  out,  however,  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Numerous 
sorties  drove  them  still  further  back,  and 
there  they  were  kept  by  the  diverted 
guns  of  Fort  Kanina  and  the  warships 
in  the  bay.  Meanwhile  the  Albanians 
captured  an  immense  stock  of  supplies, 
but  little  ammunition.  On  a  smaller 
scale  it  was  practically  the  same  story 
at  Dulcigno,  Antivari  and  San  Giovanni 
di  Medua. 

Toward  the  end  of  June  Rome  sent 
Baron  Carlo  Aliotti  to  treat  with  the 
new  Albanian  Government,  whose  seat  is 
the  little  town  of  Tirana,  situated  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  Kroai  Plain, 
inhabited  by  about  12,000  Mirdite  Al- 
banians. The  basis  of  Aliotti's  negotia- 
tions was  supposed  to  be  as  follows : 

Acknowledg-ment  by  the  Italian  Govern- 
rront  of  the  Albanian  Government  at 
Tirana. 

A  promise  that  Albania  shall  admin- 
ister her  provinces  without  foreign  in- 
fluence. 

Evacuation  by  Italian  troops  of  the 
whole  of  Albania. 

Liberty  for  the  Albanian  Nation  to  arm 
itself  In  order  to  defend  its  national  in- 
tegrity. 

Permission  conceded  Italy  to  construct 
works  for  naval  defense  and  a  wireless 
station  on  Saseno  Island,  opposite  Avlona, 
which  is  to  be  occupied  by  Italian  troops. 

Reimbursement  of  Italy  for  expenses  in- 
curred in  Albania  for  civil  organization. 

Reports  in  the  Italian  papers  state 
that  Serbian  officers  were  found  among 
the     Albanians     taken     prisoner.     This 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


801 


may  be  so,  but  both  the  Belgrade  and 
Athens  Governments,  early  in  the  up- 
rising, informed  the  Rome  Government 
that,  as  a  state  of  anarchy  prevailed  in 
Albania,  they  v^^ould  be  obliged  to  inter- 
vene the  moment  their  interests  seemed 
placed  in  jeopardy.    Both  later  asked  the 


ANCIENT  •■  TiniOF  STONE"  IN  THE  CITY 
OP  TIRANA,  ALBANIA.  ON  THE  SQUARE 
STONE  BLOCK  BETWEEN  THE  CYPRESS 
TREES  THE  BODY  OF  A  THIEF  IS  LAID 
OUT  AFTER  EXECUTION  FOR  THE  IN- 
SPECTION OF  ALL  WHO  MIGHT  BE 
TEMPTED      TO      FOLLOW      HIS      EXAMPLE 

{Photo   American   Red   Cross) 

consent  of  the  Italian  Government  to  in- 
tervene. This  is  what  complicated  the 
mission  of  Baron  Carlo  Aliotti  and  pos- 
sibly accounts  for  its  futility  and  his 
withdrawal  on  July  10.    (See  Italy.) 

BULGARIA 

The  Sofia  press,  apropos  of  the  Greek 
occupation  of  Thrace,  was  busily  engaged 
in  denying  the  statements  made  in  the 
Hellenic  papers  of  Constantinople  and  in 
approving  the  statements  made  in  the 
Turkish  papers  printed  there.  The 
Cronos  of  Constantinople,  for  example, 
had  printed  the  story  of  how  King  Boris 
had  received  a  Bulgar  Thracian  delega- 


tion headed  by  Stanislav  Popoff,  who  had 
saluted  the  King  as  "  citizen  of  Adriano- 
ple  in  the  name  of  all  Thrace."  This  the 
Sofia  papers  denied,  saying  that  Popoff 
Had  merely  arrived  with  a  crowd  of  refu- 
gees driven  from  their  Thracian  homes 
by  the  Greeks.  There  were  plenty  of 
refugees,  however,  whom  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  transported  to  homes  on 
the  Black  Sea  littoral  as  fast  as  they 
arrived. 

The  press  of  Sofia  printed  columns  of 
eulogy  apropos  of  the  departure  of  the 
commander  of  the  French  troops  in  Bul- 
garia, General  Gondrecourt,  who  re- 
turned to  France,  via  Varna  and  Con- 
stantinople, the  middle  of  June. 

Both  articles  and  advertisements  in  the 
Sofia  papers  show  that  the  Bulgars  are 
working  hard  to  rehabilitate  the  country 
and  long  for  the  aid  of  foreign  machin- 
ery and  farm  implements.  A  new  law 
for  education  was  drawn  up  by  the  Min- 
ister of  Education,  with  a  report  show- 
ing the  advancement  made  in  that  de- 
partment since  the  war,  particularly  in 
higher  education  and  teachers'  colleges. 
A  new  "  law  of  work,"  recently  passed 
by  the  Sobranje,  was  promulgated.  Each 
Province  will  be  required  to  maintain  a 
certain  number  of  schools  of  the  primary 
and  grammar  grades  and  at  least  two 
high  schools  for  both  sexes.  The  law  of 
work  makes  labor  of  some  sort  obligatory 
for  all.     Article  I.  reads: 

AH  Bulgar  subjects  of  both  sexes,  the 
males  having-  reached  the  age  of  20  and 
the  females  16.  are  liable  to  enforced 
work.  But  work  is  not  obligatory  with 
Moslem  girls.  Work  may  be  voluntary 
with  males  between  the  ages  of  17  and 
20  and  with  females  between  12  and  16. 

Article  II.  describes  the  aims  of  this 
enforced  labor — "  the  better  organization 
of  social  forces,"  "  the  useful  education 
of  citizens  independent  of  their  social 
standing,"  "  the  stimulating  of  mental 
and  moral  faculties,"  "  the  advancement 
of  public  morals  and  economy,"  &c. 

The  only  disquieting  signs  on  the  Bul- 
garian political  and  industrial  horizon 
appeared  to  be  the  Communists,  who  had 
just  finished  their  annual  Congress  at 
Sofia  with  an  increased  membership  due 
to  what  were   deemed   drastic  measures 


802 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  Government  to  make  the  people 
intelligent  and  industrious. 

GREECE 

The  Government,  on  June  18,  issued 
the  following  communique  on  the  Al- 
banian situation: 

Greece  is  desirous  of  maintaining 
fiiendly  and  neighborly  relations  with  Al- 
bania, but  cannot  abandon  her  rights  in 
Northern  Epirus,  already  recognized  by 
the  Peace  Conference.  Nor  will  Greece 
ever  approve  the  anti-Italian  policy  now 
being  followed  by  the  Albanian  revolu- 
tionaries. Greco-Italian  friendship  is  dic- 
tated by  old  tradition,  and  present  inter- 
ests cannot  be  endangered  for  Albania's 
sake. 

Greece's  advice  to  the  Albanians  /ould 
be  that  they  cannot  seriously  hope  to 
form  a  stable  and  prosperous  State 
without  the  friendship  of  the  great  power 
holding  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Adri- 
atic, for  whom  Avlona  means  what 
Gibraltar  means   for  Britain. 

As  there  is  a  rigid  censorship,  practi- 
cally nothing  was  printed  at  Athens  in 
regard  to  the  progress  of  the  war  in 
Asia  Minor,  but  much  space  was  given 
to  the  work  of  the  Hellenic  delegation 
under  Messrs.  Negropontes  and  Theodor- 
opoulos  at  the  Seventh  Woman's  Suf- 
frage Congress  at  Geneva,  and  to.  King 
Alexander  and  his  romantic  marriage 
with  a  Greek  commoner,  whose  honey- 
moon, nearly  a  year  after  his  marriage, 
was  spent  in  Paris.  On  this  subject  the 
Journal  of  the  Hellenes  observes  that  it 
regrets  to  hear  that  neither  the  Greek 
Government  nor  the  people  have  yet 
reached  the  advanced  stage  when  they 
will  regard  monarchs  like  other  individ- 
uals, capable  of  making  their  own  choice, 
and  it  continues: 

That  course  seems  the  best  both  from 
the  point  of  view  of  human  feeling  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  eugenics.  If 
there  is  one  thing  certain  it  is  that  as 
long  as  monarchs  are  allowed  to  marry 
within  a  fdw  restricted  families  the  doom 
of  the  whole  monarchic  idea  is  as  cer- 
tain as  any  other  forecast  of  modern 
science.     *     *     * 

The  Greek  people  and  Government 
should  rejoice  over  this  marriage  of  their 
young  King— should  rejoice  that  he  has 
married  a  Greek  lady  and  that  he  has 
been  happy  enough  to  attain  to  a  mar- 
riage of  love.  This,  also,  would  probably 
be  the  best  reply  to  the  Constantine  in- 
trigue. For  it  is  clearly  the  hope  of 
Constantine     and     his     faction     that     the 


young  King  will  be  disabled  from  ruling 
by  this  marriage,  and  they  believe  that 
he  is  already  cut  off  from  any  prospects 
of  union  with  any  of  the  other  European 
royal  houses.  They  also  believe  that  the 
marriage  will  create  a  subject  of  strife 
for  Greece  and  will  split  up  the  Veni- 
zelist  party.  For  the  Constantinists  are 
a  desperate  faction,  ready  even  for  that 
fearful  prospect  of  civil  war  from  which 
M.  Venizelos  so  rightly  shrinks.  Th.y 
have  played  a  big  cai-d  by  publishing  the 
facts  of  this  marriage. 

RUMANIA 

Rumania  had  another  change  of  Gov- 
ernment, followed  by  a  general  election. 


TAKE   JONESCU 

Noted   Rumanian   pro-ally    leader,    xclio  has 

become  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 

(Photo   Central  Neivs) 

On  June  18  a  new  Ministry  was  formed 
as  follows: 

Premier  and  Minister  Without  portfolio 
—General  Avarescu. 

Foreign  Affairs— M.  Take  Jonescu. 

Interior— M,   Argetoyanu. 

War— General  Rasosnu. 

Public  Instruction— M.  Negulescu.- 

Fine  Arts— M.  Octavian  Goga. 

Communications— General  Valcnu. 

Public  Works— M.   Greoeanu. 

Finance— M.   Titulescu. 

Agriculture — M,   Cudaleu. 


STATES  OF  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA 


803 


Labor— M.  Trancou  Jasi. 

Justice— M.   Cantacuzene. 

Industry    and    Commerce— M.     Octavian 
Taslavanu. 
^^     Under  Secretary  for  Reconstruction  and 
^^■FcjOd  Supply— M.  Arnastasiu. 
^^K    Bukovina — Baron  Stai'cea. 
^^K-    Transylvania— M.   Moscony, 
^^H    Bessarabia— M.  Sergeie. 
^^B    Minister   of   State   and   President  of  the 
^^KJoard  of  Agriculture— M.  Garoflid. 

I 

^-  aera 


The  results  of  the  election  for  both 
ouse  and  Senate,  held  in  the  last  fort- 
ght  of  June,  gave  the  People's  Party, 
aded  by  the  Premier,  215  Deputies, 
against  117  divided  among  eight  other 
parties,  and  86  Senators  against  13.  The 
Socialists  increased  the  number  of  their 
Deputies  from  13  to  19,  and  for  the  first 
time  elected  a  Senator. 

At  a  preliminary  meeting  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Parliamentary  majori- 
ties it  was  decided  to  put  forward  Dulin 
Zamfirescu,  formerly  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs,  for  the  Presidency  of  the 
Chamber,  and  General  Coanda  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  Senate. 

Some  excitement  was  caused  in  politi- 
cal circles  by  a  rumor  that  the  object 
of  the  mission  of  the  French  General 
Payot  was  to  endeavor  to  induce  the  Ru- 
manians to  lend  armed  assistance  to  the 
Poles  against  the  Bolsheviki.  This  caused 
a  Government  denial  and  an  explanation : 
General  Payot,  it  was  stated,  had  come 
from  Paris  to  ascertain  what  supplies  of 
Rumanian  oil  could  be  secured  for 
France. 

Popular  opposition  was  aroused 
against  the  Government  decree  author- 
izing the  formation  of  the  Rumanian  Oil 
Company  with  a  monopoly  of  the  distri- 
bution of  oil  in  Rumania.  Some  of  the 
newspapers  of  Bucharest  attacked  the 
Government,  not  for  creating  a  monop- 
oly of  the  oil  trade,  but  for  favoring  cer- 
tain companies  to  the  exclusion  of  oth- 
ers. The  Government  promised  to  mod- 
ify the  decree. 

JUGOSLAVIA 

The  seventy-sixth  birthday  of  King 
Peter  was  celebrated  throughout  Serbia, 
and  received  honorable  mention,  as  it 
were,  in  other  parts  of  the  monarchy  of 
the  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes,  on  June 
29    (July   12).     The  demonstrations   did 


much  to  revive  the  popularity  of  the 
Black-George  dynasty,  which  was  rapidly 
losing  prestige  through  the  Prince  Re- 
gent's habit  of  spending  so  much  time 
in  Paris  and  Monte  Carlo  rather  than 
in  Belgrade.  Also  the  new  Government 
organized  under  M.  Vesnitch  the  month 
before,  owing  to  its  Croatian  and  Slo- 
vene representation,  did  much  to  im- 
prove the  cohesion  of  the  Belgrade  ad- 
ministration; meetings  in  Croatia  and 
Slavonia  still  continued  to  demand  a 
republic,  but  lacked  any  executive  head 
under  which  to  turn  their  words  into  ac- 
tion. One  cause  for  complaint  in  these 
regions,  formerly  under  Austrian  rule, 
was  that  in  the  contracts  made  for 
American  machinery  and  farm  imple- 
ments the  Belgrade  Government  had  dis- 
criminated in  favor  of  Bosnia  and  Her- 
zegovina. 

The  Roussagen  Agency  of  Belgrade  an- 
nounced that  M.  Drinkovitch,  the  Croa- 
tian Minister  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs, 
had  instituted  a  scheme  for  automobile 
communication  between  all  points  in 
Jugoslavia  not  reached  by  rail.  At  the 
beginning,  ten  passenger  automobiles 
and  twenty  former  army  tractors  were 
used  over  a  route  of  2,000  kilometers. 
From  Stolatz  to  Voditze  the  country  was 
divided  into  districts,  each  of  ./hich  will 
be  held .  responsible  for  the  upkeep  of 
the  roads  running  through  them. 

The  withdrawal  of  Italian  troops  from 
Montenegrin  ports  caused  the  Opposi- 
tion press  of  Belgrade  to  demand  that 
the  Government  assert  its  rights,  in  ac- 
cordance with  President  Wilson's  dictum, 
on  the  Croatian  littoral  and  the  islands 
in  the  Adriatic.  One  paper,  forgetting 
that  Italian  troops  still  occupy  the  armi- 
stice territories  of  the  quondam  Aus- 
trian Empire,  went  so  far  as  to  state 
that  the  present  Serbian  situation  for 
settling  accounts  with  Italy  was  more 
favorable  than  it  might  be  later,  and 
that  therefore  the  situation  should  be 
cleared  up.  In  regard  to  the  Albanian 
insurgents,  the  sentiment  of  all  parties 
was  that,  if  Italy  found  herself  unable 
to  maintain  her  protectorate  over  the 
country,  Serbian  interests  demanded  in- 
tervention on  behalf  of  the  monarchy  of 
the  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes. 


804 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


A  new  propaganda  on  behalf  of  Mon- 
tenegro, which,  however,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  attempted  rehabilitation  of 
the  dethroned   King   Nicholas,  has  been 
circulating  for  some  time  in  Paris  and 
London  official  circles.     Its  object  is  to 
annoy    the    Belgrade    Government    with 
the    fear    that    the    League    of    Nations 
might  investigate   the   means   employed 
by  Serbia  in  gaining  possession  of  the 
land  of  the  "  Black  Mountain."     French 
and  British  relief  expeditions  in  Monte- 
negro were  stopped  by  the  Serbian  mili- 
tary authorities.     As  to  the  British  Mis- 
sion,   Alexander    Devine    forwarded    to 
Downing  Street  a  report  in  which  he  de- 
scribed the  conditions  in  Montenegro  as 
"  absolutely    heartrending    and,    for    the 
most  part,  unnecessary."     He  continued: 
The    shops    are    empty,    the    town    mar- 
kets   are    deserted.      The    peasants,    who 
may   not    travel   from    one    village    to   an- 
other without  a  Serbian   "  permit,"   bring 
in    daily    from    the    mountains    anything 
they    have    to    sell,     but    what    they    can 
scrape   together   for   sale   is   pitiable,    and 
there   are   many  poor   wretches   who   can- 
not  even   get   to  the   markets   simply   be- 
cause   they    are    naked,     simply    walking 
about    in    sacking.      The    majority    of    the 
children  are  clothed  only  in  a  sack.     The 


Scottish  Women's  Hospital,  which  has 
been  working  since  the  outbreak  of  war 
in  Montenegro,  has  been  disbanded.  Four 
of  the  nurses  passed  through  Antivari  on 
their  way  to  England,  and  their  reports 
confirm  these  statements.  The  poor  peo- 
ple have  no  money  and  have  nothing  to 
eat ;  they  are  said  to  be  living  on  an 
herb  of  some  sort  that  grows  wild  in 
the   mountains. 

The  British  Prime  Minister  also  re- 
ceived from  Lord  Sydenham  a  resolution, 
signed  by  some  fifty  prominent  members 
of  the  British  Parliament,  including  Vis- 
counts Bryce,  Gladstone  and  Curzon. 
This  read: 

Having  regard  to  the  most  gallant  serv- 
ices rendered  by  Montenegro,  the  smallest 
of  our  Allies,  and  to  the  heavy  cost  she 
has  sustained,  her  people  have  the  clear 
right  to  determine  their  future  form  of 
government ;  it  is,  therefore,  necessary 
that  a  Parliament  should  be  elected  under 
the  Montenegrin  Constitution  to  decide 
this  question,  free  voting  being  secured  by 
the  withdrawal  of  all  the  Serbian  troops 
and  officials  at  present  occupying  the 
country  ;  and  only  by  these  means  can  the 
definite  pledges  made  by  the  Great  Pow- 
ers be  redeemed,  and  the  principles  for 
which  the  Allies  fought  "he  vindicated  in 
the  case  of  the  Sovereign  State  of  Monte- 
negro. 


Turkey  and  Her  Lost  Dominions 

Counterproposals  Submitted  by  the  Turks  on  Many  Articles  of  the 
Treaty — Affairs  in  Palestine. 


TURKEY 

THE  publication  of  the  Turkish  Treaty 
of  Peace  merely  accentuated  both 
the  political  and  military  aspects  in 
what  was  called  the  Turkish  Empire 
before  the  great  war.  In  Constantinople 
itself,  even  more  incomprehensible  be- 
came the  strength  of  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Latin  civilizations  and  the  Hellenic  tra- 
ditions to  be  revived,  as  these  were  re- 
flected in  the  native  press  and  in  inter- 
views wi(th  C^toman  subjects,  both  Mos- 
lems and  non-Moslems.  New  ideas — So- 
cialism, the  League  of  Nations — simply 
did  not  interest  them.  British  hostility 
they  lamented;  the  Greek  advance 
through  Anatolia  they  looked  upon  as 


something  to  be  dismissed  with  a  few 
words — and  a  few  companies  of  Turkish 
infantry.  The  misunderstandings  with 
the  Arabs  in  Palestine  and  the  south, 
with  the  French  in  Syria,  with  the  Brit- 
ish in  Mesopotamia — these  were  merely 
diplomatic  disturbances  which  would 
soon  pass  away.  That  the  guns  of  Brit- 
ish warships  in  the  Bosporus  and  the  Sea 
of  Marmora  shook  the  houses  in  Stam- 
bul  meant  nothing  to  them;  nothing  the 
arrival  of  hundreds  of  refugees  from  the 
southern  littoral  of  the  Straits.  The 
trivial  modifications  in  the  terms  of  the 
treaty  handed  to  the  Turkish  delegates 
at  Paris,  on  July  17,  were  regarded  as  a 
diplomatic  victory  which  would  be  fol- 


TURKEY  AND  HER  LOST  DOMINIONS 


805 


red  by  others  until  very  nearly  the 
^d  order  would  be  restored. 

But  the  reply  of  the  Allies  to  the 
Turkish  delegates  contained  something 
drastic  also.  If  at  the  end  of  ten  days 
Turkey  did  not  sign  the  treaty: 

If  the  Turkish  Government  refuses  to 
ign  the  peace— still  more,  if  it  finds  it- 
elf   unable    to    re-establish    its    authority 


I 


MUSTAPHA   KEMAL 

Leader   of   the    Nationalist    and   anti-ally 

revolt   in    Turkey 

(Photo   Keystone   Vicio   Co.) 

in  Anatolia  or  give  effect  to  the  treaty— 
the  Allies,  in  accordance  with  the  terms 
of  the  treaty,  may  be  driven  to  recon- 
sider this  arrangement  by  ejecting  the 
Turks  from  Europe  once  and  for  all.  The 
Allies  are  clear  that  the  time  has  come 
when  it  is  necessary  to  put  an  end  once 


and    for    all   to    the    empire    of    the    Turks 
over    other   nations. 

The  optimistic  fatalism  of  the  Turks 
and  their  utter  indifference  to  the  re- 
sults of  the  war  outside  of  Turkey  itself 
were  illustrated  by  the  Turkish  counter- 
proposals, as  dictated  from  Constanti- 
nople and  presented  at  Paris: 

The  Turkish  Government  agrees  to 
recognize  the  new  States  of  Poland,  Ju- 
goslavia and  Czechoslovakia,  the  inde- 
pendence of  Armenia  and  the  Hedjaz, 
and  the  Protectorate  of  France  over  Tu- 
nis and  Morocco.  It  renounces  all  claims 
over  Libya,  Egypt  and  the  islands  of  the 
Aegean.  It  recognizes  the  independence 
of  Syria,  Mesopotamia  and  Palestine, 
and  the  rights  of  Great  Britain  over  the 
Suez  Canal  and  the  Sudan.  It  also  rati- 
fies the  British  right  to  dispose  of 
Cyprus. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Turkish  Gov- 
ernment protests  against  the  composition 
of  the  Straits  Commission,  on  the  ground 
that  certain  States  only  are  represented, 
while  the  State  actually  situated  on  the 
Straits  (Turkey)  is  excluded.  The  clauses 
calling  for  the  demolition  of  fortifica- 
tions and  the  occupation  of  their  sites  by 
British,  French  and  Italian  military 
forces  are  declared  to  be  an  impairment 
of  Turkey's  sovereign  rights  and  the 
security  of  the  Ottoman  State.  The  Gov- 
ernment agrees  to  the  free  navigation  of 
the  Straits,  but  insists  that  it  shall  have 
representation  on  the  Straits  Commis- 
sion, and  that  they  shall  be  operated  as 
the  Suez  Canal  has  been  operated,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Treaty  of  Constanti- 
nople of  Oct.  29,  1888. 

The  articles  which  deal  with  the  sur- 
render of  Thrace,  Smyrna  and  Syria  the 
Turkish  Government  rejects.  The  first 
because  the  northern  frontier  would  be 
brought  too  near  the  Golden  Horn,  the 
second  because  it  suspects  the  justice  of 
a  future  plebiscite,  and  the  third  for  the 
following  reason: 

Turkey  cannot  give  its  approval  to  a 
solution  which  would  do  the  gravest  in- 
jury to  the  imprescriptible  rights  of  an 
important  fraction  of  the  population,  and 
the  national  sentiment  of  Turkey,  which 
has  already  demonstrated  its  resistance, 
will  not  accept  this  annexation  and  will 
only  yield   if  compelled   to   do   so. 


80G 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Finally,  the  Turkish  Government 
agrees  to  the  reduction  of  the  army  and 
navy  and  to  the  appointment  of  a  Finan- 
cial Commission,  on  the  latter  of  which, 
however,  it  shall  have  representation. 

On  June  30  Djemal  Pasha  and  Rechid 
Bey  arrived  in  Paris  with  a  supple- 
ment to  the  foregoing  counterproposals. 
Fear  lest  the  Greeks  might  turn  over 
certain  of  the  Aegean  Islands  to  some 
third  Power — to  England,  for  example, 
in  exchange  for  Cyprus — it  was  said, 
had  inspired  the  Porte  to  ask  that  the 
islands  Lemnos,  Imbros  and  Tenedos, 
situated  at  the  entrance  to  the  Darda- 
nelles, be  included  in  the  same  zone  as 
the  Straits  and  so  remain  Ottoman  terri- 
tory under  allied  occupation.  The  sup- 
plement also  protested  against  including 
the  port  of  Alexandretta  in  the  French 
mandate  for  Syria,  and  offered  the  fol- 
lowing by  way  of  solution: 

A  line  starting  from  the  Mediterranean 
coast  at  Ras-el-Basit  [between  Latakia 
and  Alexandretta,  and  over  120  miles 
south  of  the  latter]  and  ending-  at  Khani- 
kan  [on  the  Persian  frontier],  passing 
north  of  Aleppo  [left  to  Syria],  south  of 
Nisibin  [the  present  terminus  of  the  Bag- 
dad Railway],  and  north  of  Mosul  [left 
to  Mesopotamia]. 


The  supplement  further  qualified  the 
Ottoman  Government's  acceptance  of  an 
independent  Armenia  in  this  way: 

There  is  no  ground  for  extending  Arme- 
nian territory  beyond  the  old  Russo-Turk- 
ish  frontier.  The  Ottoman  Government 
admits  in  principle  the  demilitarization 
of  Turkish  territory  near  the  Armenian 
frontier,  provided  this  demilitarization  be 
reciprocal. 

The  military  operations  since  the 
middle  of  June  had  their  initiative,  ac- 
cording to  the  Turkish  press,  in  an  at- 
tempt of  the  Entente  to  carry  out  pre- 
maturely the  terms  of  the  treaty:  The 
Greeks  to  take  possession  of  Thrace  and 
Smyrna  with  their  hinterland,  and  the 
British,  with  their  warships,  to  establish 
the  international  zone  at  the  Straits.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  forces  of  the  Entente 
were  everywhere  placed  on  the  defensive 
by  the  advance  of  the  Turkish  Nation- 
alists, inspired  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
troops  of  the  Sultan. 

The  Nationalist,  or  Kemalist,  attack 
began  in  raids  against  the  Entente  lines 
south  of  the  Straits  and  the  capture  and 
e-'^'-  -tion  of  Turkish  loyalists,  and  was 
concentrated  against  the  British  here  and 
the     Greeks    at    the    Smyrna   outposts. 


1^^^^^  <-A '  '••'  iiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiili 

mummm^k 

._ -._-...„,..  _.^.^ 

^^Si'P'M-'x^-  ' '  "^Bf 

ifimimp 

11 

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K^^^f^^^Sl^^t^i^  ^i  i^i^-^^^li^B^A 

1 

^^K^-r' 

THE   BOSPORUS   AS    SKEN    FROM   THE   TERRACE   OP  ROBERT   COLLEGE,    CONSTANTIXOPLE. 

THE    TOWERS    ARE    THOSE    OF    RUMELLI-HISSAR.      AT    THE    EXTREME    LEFT    IS    BEICOS 

BAY,     FROM     WHICH     BRITISH     WARSHIPS     RECENTLY     BOMBARDED     THE     NATIONALIST 

FORCES    OF    MUSTAPHA    KEMAL    IN    THE    HILLS 


TURKEY  AND  HER  LOST  DOMINIONS 


Attle  attention  was  paid  to  General  Gou- 
raud  in  Syria,  who  had  fallen  back 
to  tthe  Mersina-Aintab  line,  or  to  the 
Italians  around  Ephesus,  who  later  de- 
cli^ied  to  allow  the  Greeks  to  pursue  the 
fleeing  Nationalists  within  their  zone. 
The  Entente  counteroffensive,  when  it 
came,  was  the  execution  of  the  matured 
plan  arranged  between  the  Greek  Com- 
mander   in    Chief,    General    Paraskevo- 


THE  GREEK  ADVANCE  ALONG  THE  AKHIS- 
SAR-SOMA-PAXDERMA  LINE  WAS  INTENDED 
TO  CUT  OFF  THE  NATIONALISTS  TO  THE 
WEST  NEAR  MOUNT  IliA.  THE  GREEKS 
ENTERED   BRUSA   ON  JULY   S 

poulos,  and  Lieut.  Gen.  Sir  George  Milne, 
commander  of  the  allied  troops  in  West- 
ern Asia.  It  was  agreed  that  offensive 
operations  in  the  field  should  be  taken 
by  the  Greek  troops  alone. 

Fighting  between  the  Nationalists  and 
the  British,  the  latter  acting  on  the  de- 
fensive, assumed  a  formidable  aspect  on 
June  16  at  the  Ismid  trenches,  east  of 
the  bay  of  that  name,  which  is  an  arm 
of  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  A  raid,  in  which 
Turkish  loyalists  were  alone  molested, 
was  also  made  by  200  Nationalists  on 
Guebza,  on  the  AnatoMan  Railway,  about 
halfway  between  Skutari,  opposite  Con- 
stantinople, and  Ismid.  British  war- 
ships then  entered  the  bay  and  began  to 
shell  the  Nationalist  lines.  Meanwhile, 
the  British  High  Commissioner,  Admiral 
de  Robeck,  went  to  Ismid  and  protested 


to  an  envoy  of  Mustepha  Kemal  Pasha 
against  the  unprovoked  attack.  No  at- 
tention was  paid  to  this  protest.  On 
June  21  the  British  landed  engineers  at 
all  the  Turkish  fortifications  on  the 
southern  side  of  the  Straits,  and  began 
to  blow  up  the  guns  there.  The  few 
Turkish  soldiers  guarding  the  fortifica- 
tions made  no  resistance.  By  June  26 
it  was  reported  that  the  British  casual- 
ties were  under  100,  while  the  National- 
ists, principally  at  Ismid,  had  lost  1,000 
by  British  gunfire.  The  British  forces 
were  reinforced  from  Malta  by  2,000 
English  and  Indian  troops,  and  by  a  flo- 
tilla of  small  naval  craft. 

What  may  be  considered  as  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Greek  offensive  occurred 
on  June  22,  when  the  Hellenic  forces, 
with  their  base  at  the  city  of  Smyrna, 
advanced  north  and  occupied  Akhissar 
and  attacked  Salihli.  The  former  is  on 
the  railway  fifty-five  miles  northeast  of 
Smyrna,  while  Salihli  is  about  the  same 
distance  east.  Simultaneously,  opera- 
tions were  begun  in  Eastern  Thrace  to 
disperse  the  bands  of  Tjafer  Tayar,  the 
Nationalist  Military  Governor  of  Adria- 
nople.  These  operations  were  under  the 
command  of  General  Leonardopoulos, 
with  his  headquarters  at  Ourli.  As  he 
proceeded  toward  Adrianople  -he  met 
with  little  or  no  resistance;  most  of  the 
towns,  whence  the  Turks  had  fled,  re- 
ceived him  with  music  and  flowers.  On 
his  official  entrance  into  Karagatch -over 
100  deserters  from  the  newly  recruited 
army  of  Tayar  joined  him.  General 
Leonardopoulos,  who  received  his  mili- 
tary education  in  France,  is  considered 
one  of  the  ablest  Greek  Generals,  and 
the  division  he  commanded — the  famous 
Ninth — composed  entirely  of  men  from 
Epirus,  was  said  to  have  a  high  sense  of 
discipline  and  esprit  de  corps. 

Aside  from  General  Leonardopoulos's 
army  of  occupation,  the  distribution  of 
the  Greek  troops  and  the  strength  of  the 
enemy  arrayed  against  them,  both  in 
Thrace  and  Smyrna,  were  as  follows: 

In  Southern  Thrace,  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Maritza,  between  Adrianople  and 
the  Adrean  Sea,  were  the  equivalent  of 
three  divisions,  supported  in  the  rear  in 
the  direction  of  Saloniki  by  one  division 


808 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


and  by  the  advancing  Ninth  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Bulgarian  frontier. 
Tjafer  Tayar's  army  included  10,000 
Turkish  regulars  and  20,000  Greek  and 
Bulgar  Moslem  recruits  of  the  region. 
By  June  25  the  Greeks  had  crossed  the 
Maritza  and  had  moved  east  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Constantinople,  resting  upon  the 
railway  between  Demotika  and  Constan- 
tinople, which  they  were  using  for  their 
supplies. 

In  the  region  of  Smyrna  was  the 
equivalent  of  five  divisions,  or  200,000 
men.  Waiting  for  their  advance  and 
distributed  at  strategic  points  widely 
separated,  on  an  irregular  line  extending 
from  Mount  Ida,  on  the  west,  to  An- 
gora, on  the  northeast,  were  40,000  Na- 
tionalists recently  mobilized  by  Mus- 
tapha  Kemal.  Here  the  Greeks  bdgan 
their  advance  along  three  railways,  lead- 
ing respectively  toward  Lake  Egerdir 
and  Afiun-Karahissar  (an  important 
junction  on  the  Greek  railway  to  Bag- 
dad in  one  direction,  and  to  Panderma, 
a  port  on  the  south  side  of  the  Sea  of 
Marmora,  in  the  other.) 

By  June  28  the  Greek  advance  pre- 
sented a  line  beyond  Soma-Akhissar- 
Alashehr  ( Philadelphia  )-Kelles,  which 
had  cost  the  Turks  2,000  killed  in  the 
valley  of  the  River  Hermus  (Gedis  Chai). 
Consolidating  their  lines  until  June  30, 
the  Greeks  on  that  day  landed  2,000  men 
on  the  south  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora, twenty  miles  west  of  Panderma, 
and  simultaneously  began  their  advance 
on  that  place  with  three  columns  from 
Soma.  Their  idea  was  to  isolate  the 
enemy  in  the  Mount  Ida  region  from  his 
main  forces  east  of  the  Anatolian-Bag- 
dad railway.  Another  landing,  this  on 
the  Dardanelles  littoral,  was  made  at 
Hamidieh  Fort,  the  guns  of  which  had 
been  destroyed  by  British  engineers  a 
few  days  before. 

On  July  2  the  Greek  cavalry  reached 
Balikesri,  100  miles  northeast  of  Smyrna 
and  fifty  south  of  Panderma,  capturing 
1,200  prisoners,  54  heavy  guns  and  a 
score  of  field  pieces.  Simultaneously 
Kemal  Pasha  sent  a  message  to  Con- 
stantinople sayin*g  that  he  had  the  Greek 
advance  well  in  hand.  The  Greeks,  mov- 
ing north  from  Soma  and  south  from  the 


Sea  of  Marmora,  next  effected  a  junc- 
ture, and  the  Nationalists  at  Mount  Ida 
were  thus  isolated.  The  two  Greek  col- 
umns then  (July  10)  advanced  on  and 
occupied  Brusa,  75  miles  southwest  of 
Ismid,  and  prepared  to  raise  the  siege 
of  the  British  lines  at  the  latter  place. 

PALESTINE 

As  Sir  Herbert  Samuel,  British  Higli 
Commissioner  in  Palestine,  began  his  ad- 
ministration at  Jerusalem  a  long  fer- 
menting movement  against  his  appoint- 
ment in  particular,  and  against  the 
British  Government's  espousal  of  the 
cause  of  Zionism  in  general,  broke  loose 


MAX    NORDAU 

Noted  author,  ivho  is  taking  an  active  part 

in   the   Zionist   movement 

in  Parliament  and  in  a  certain  section  of 
the  daily  and  weekly  press  of  London, 
led,  respectively,  by  The  Morning  Post 
and  The  Spectator.  Meanwhile,  the  Jew- 
ish Correspondence  Bureau,  taking  its 
position  from  the  unofficial  report  (see 
June  Current  History)  of  Sir  Herbert 
on  the  Jerusalem  riots,  stated: 


TURKEY  AND  HER  LOST  DOMINIONS 


809 


Sir  Herbert  Samuel  will  signalize  his 
entry  into  office  as  High  Commissioner 
of  Palestine  by  proclaiming  an  amnesty 
for  those  who  have  been  sentenced  in  con- 
nection with  the  riots  in  Jerusalem,  the 
amnesty  to  be  applied  to  Arabs,  Chris- 
tian^ and  Jews.  Among  those  who  will 
thus  be  released  is  Vladimir  Jabotinsliy, 
who  was  sentenced  by  court-martial  for 
organizing  a  Jewish   self-defense   corps. 

In  the  House  of  Lords  on  June  29, 
Earl  Curzon,  in  reply  to  an  interpellation 
of  the  Government  by  Lord  Sydenham, 
said  that,  while  Sir  Herbert's  report  had 
not  been  intended  for  publication,  that  of 
Lord  Allenby  on  the  subject  of  the  Jeru- 
salem riots  had  referred  to  a  matter 
which  was  still  sub  judice.  In  the  House 
of  Commons,  on  the  same  day,  Brig.  Gen. 
Colvin  interpellated  the  Government  on 
the  subject  of  Jabotinsky  and  was  told 
by  Mr.  Churchill  that  both  Lord  Allenby 
and  a  British  tribunal  had  found  Ja- 
botinsky's  acts  unjustifiable. 

The  Spectator,  after  praising  the  atti- 
tude taken  by  The  Morning  Post  in  de- 
nouncing the  appointment  of  Sir  Herbert 
"  to  be  the  chief  -  administrator  and 
virtually  autocrat  of  Palestine,"  con- 
tinued : 


The  British  Govcrnme|it  has,  of  course, 
assured  the  people  of  Palestine  that  they 
had  nothing  to  fear,  and  things  were  be- 
ginning to  settle  down.  Suddenly,  how- 
ever, the  Moslem  and  Christian  popula- 
tion see  named  as  administrator  and  auto- 
crat of  Palestine  not  only  a  Jew  but 
actually  a  Zionist.  Can  we  wonder  that 
the  appointment  has  been  received  with 
consternation  by  all  who  know  the  Mid- 
dle East,  and  with  something  like  fury 
by  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
new    State? 

An  international  Zionist  conference, 
the  first  in  seven  years,  met  in  London  on 
July  7  and  elected  as  its  President  Louis 
D.  Brandeis,  Associate  Justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  The  object 
of  the  gathering  was  to  formulate  a  pro- 
gram for  Palestine.  Dr.  Max  Nordau  ol: 
London  was  chosen  Honorary  President. 

Professor  Chayim  Weizmann,  the  noted 
Zionist,  in  his  address  to  the  confer- 
ence made  an  eloquent  appeal  to  Jews 
throughout  the  world  to  co-operate  with 
the  Zionists  in  the  re-establishment  of 
Palestine.  Professor  Weizmann  stated 
that  a  Jewish  colonization  organization 
already  had  bee  a  formed,  open  to  private 
initiative,  from  which  much  might  be 
expected.    He  emphasized  the  fact  that 


NOTED  AMERICAN  DELEGATES  TO  THE  ZIONIST  CONFERENCE  IN  LONDON.  LEFT  TO 
RICxHT:  NATHAN  STRAUS,  MERCHANT,  AND  LOUIS  D.  BRANDEIS  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  SUPREME  COURT,  WHO  IS  HONORARY  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ZIONIST  ORGANIZA- 
TION.     THE    THIRD    IS   RABBI   WISE,    WHO    WAS    SEEING    HIS    FRIENDS    OFF   WHEN    THEY 

SAILED    FROM    NEW    YORK 


(@    Underwood    &    Underioood) 


810 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


all  work  in  Palestine  would  be  effected 
in  strict  co-operation  with  the  Arabs. 
The  professor  declared  that  at  least  50,- 
000  Jewish  immigrants  would  be  settled 
in  Palestine  during  the  next  twelve 
months.  In  accordance  with  a  suggestion 
made  by  Dr.  Weizmann  the  conference 
appointed  a  Policy  Committee  of  twenty- 
one  members  to  formulate  a  program  for 
observance  in  Palestine, 

SYRIA 

The  armistice  established  between  the 
French  and  the  Nationalists  broke  down 
in  Cilicia  on  June  14,  when  the  Nation- 
alists renewed  their  attacks  upon  Ar- 
menian villages  and  occupied  the  Eregli 
coal  fields,  levying  heavy  taxes  on  the 
owners  and  ordering  the  French  conces- 
sionnaires  off  the  property.  So  the  fight- 
ing between  Senegalese  troops  and  the 
Nationalists  began  again,  and  on  June 
16  a  French  garrison  at  Bozano  was 
forced  to  surrender  to  superior  force. 

In  view  of  these  events  and  the  war 
between  Greece  and  the  Turkish  Nation- 
alists in  Asia  Minor,  on  June  27  the 
battleship  Jean  Bart  and  the  destroyers 
Bisson,  Mangini  and  Capitaine  Mehl  were 
ordered  to  Constantinople.  Nevertheless, 
the  policy  of  the  French  Government,  as 
outlined  by  M.  Millerand  the  same  day, 
had  undergone  no  change: 

Before  France  received  the  mandate 
for  Syria  the  message  of  the  Government 
sent  on  Feb.  10  to  our  High  Commissary 
outlined  our  policy,  which  was  more  dip- 
lomatic than  military.  The  mandate  we 
have  in  Syria  is  an  issue  of  Article  XXII. 
of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions. France  Is  tied  to  Syria  by  so 
many  memories  and  traditions,  and  has 
not  the  right  to  leave  that  country  if  she 
does  not  wish  to  compromise  irreparably 
her  position  as  a  great  Mediteri^anean 
and  Mussulman  power.  We  are  in  Syria, 
and  there  we  shall  remain,  to  conduct 
the  policy  defined  by  the  Covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations  and  to  defend  the 
Syrian  population,  which  asks  us  to  col- 
laborate with  Turkey  in  Cilicia  to  bring 
about  peace  and  economic  prosperity. 

According  to  Jerusalem  dispatches  re- 
ceived by  The  London  Times  on  July  17 
and  18,  General  Gouraud,  the  commander 
of  the  French  forces,  had  dispatched  to 
Prince  Feisal,  the  so-called  King  of 
Syria,  an  ultimatum  on  July  16  demand- 
ing that  he,   within   twenty-four   hours, 


acknowledge  the  French  mandate,  adopt 
French  as  the  official  language,  and 
French  currency  as  the  official  currency. 
Feisal  thereupon  ordered  a  general 
mobilization  and  the  French  prepared  to 
occupy  Aleppo  and  advance  on  Damascus 
with  eighty  battalions  of  French  and 
Senegales,  including  the  proper  quotas 
of  artillery,   airplanes  and  tanks. 

It  was  reported  from  Beirut  that 
Prince  Feisal  had  been  forced  to  adopt 
the  course  he  did  by  the  extremists 
among  the  Syrians  and  not  by  his  own 
Arab  faction.  The  Syrians  were  said 
to  have  resented  the  armistice  which 
Gouraud  had  formed  with  the  Nationalist 
Turks  in  the  north,  in  Cilicia,  as 
strengthening  the  Pan-Islamic  move- 
ment. It  was  also  pointed  out  that  Feisal 
was  finding  it  much  more  difficult  to 
hold  a  middle  course,  on  account  of  the 
economic  conditions.  It  was  practically 
impossible  to  get  any  goods  through 
from  Beirut  or  the  other  ports  of  French 
occupation  to  Damascus  and  the  interior 
towns.  Commercial  confidence  had  also 
been  hit  hard  by  the  substitution  of 
French  paper  money  for  the  Syrian. 

MESOPOTAMIA 

On  June  20  Major  Gen.  Sir  Percy  Cox, 
who  had  been  the  British  Resident  at 
Teheran,  Persia,  was  appointed  to  rep- 
resent Great  Britain  in  Mesopotamia. 
News  came  from  Bagdad  that  his  in- 
structions included  the  inception  of  the 
task  of  preparing  the  country  for  home 
rule,  and  that  for  this  purpose  he  would 
be  authori  to  call  into  being  provi- 
sional bodies,  a  Council  of  State,  under 
an  Arab  President,  and  a  General  Elec- 
tive Assembly,  freely  elected  by  the  pop- 
ulation. A  debate  ensued  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  on  June  23,  due  to  an 
attack  on  the  Government's  policy,  which 
kept  "  70,000  troops  employed  at  a  year- 
ly expenditure  of  £21,000,000."  The 
Prime  Minister  said  in  substance: 

He  repudiated  entirely  the  suggestion 
that  the  League  of  Nations  was  to  deter- 
mine Avho  should  be  the  mandatary  of 
those  countries.  The  whole  cost  in  money 
and  blood  of  emancipating  Mesopotamia 
and  Palestine  fell  on  the  British,  and 
Great  Britain  had  the  best  moral  or  legal 
claim  to  be  the  mandatary  there.  There 
would   be   an  Arab   Government  in   Meso- 


'URKEY  AND  HER  LOST  DOMINIOl 


811 


potamia    in    time,    but    until    it    was    able 
to  walk  firmly  Great  Britain  must  guide 

1^^^  tottering  footsteps. 
^■ilr.  Churchill,  for  the  Government,  ad- 
flS;ted  that  fighting  had  been  renewed 
between  the  Arabs  and  the  Turks  and 
the  British  in  the  Mosul  region,  but  with- 
out any  loss  to  British  prestige.  In  the 
House  of  Lords,  Lord  Curzon  admitted 
that  an  invitation  had  been  addressed  by 
Mesopotamian  notables  to  Emir  Abdulla, 
third  son  of  the  King  of  the  Hedjas,  to 
become  King  of  the  Mosul  region  of 
Irak;  but  he  observed  that  the  invitation 
had  been  sent  without  the  Emir's  knowl- 
edge. He  added  that  the  British  mandate 
over  Mesopotamia  was  in  process  of 
being  submitted  to  the  League  of  Na- 
tions for  investigation  and  criticism. 

Meanwhile,  in  Paris,  the  Anglophobic 
press  lent  fuel  to  the  Asquith  opposition 
flame  by  trying  to  prove  that  M.  Clem- 
enceau  had  betrayed  France  when  he 
consented  to  the  British  mandate  over 
Mesopotamia,  as  the  rich  French  oil  in- 
terests in  Mosul  should  have  caused  that 
*  region  to  be  joined  tc  the  French  man- 
datory of  Syria. 

PERSIA 

As  the  month  covered  by  the  July 
Current  History  closed,  the  Persian 
Foreign  Minister,  Prince  Firuz  Mirza, 
who  happened  to  be  in  London,  was  ap- 
pealing both  to  the  British  Government 
and  to  the  League  of  Nations  to  save  his 
country  from  a  Bolshevist  invasion  via 
Baku  and  Enzeli.  On  June  16  it  was  re- 
ported that  the  Persian  province  of 
Ghilan,  of  which  Resht  is  the  capital,  had 
revolted  and  formed  a  Soviet  republic. 
As  neither  the  British  Government  nor 
the  League  of  Nations  made  replies  out- 
lining a  definite  policy,  Viscount  Grey 
of  Fallodon  attacked  the  Government's 
entire  Persian  policy  in  a  speech  at  Strat- 
ford, and  Prince  Firuz  issued  a  state- 
ment to  the  press. 

Lord  Grey  said  that  the  An<glo-Persian 
agreement,  brought  into  existence  by  the 
British  Government  just  before  the 
Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  was 
created,  should  be  superseded  by  the 
League.  The  League,  if  backed  by  the 
sympathy  of  the  world,  should  be  better 
fitted  to  maintain   the   independence   of 


Persia  against  aggressfon.  Britain,  he 
said,  desires  no  such  obligations,  though 
the  agreement  has  been  widely  miscon- 
strued as  an  effort  on  Britain's  part  to 
further  her  own  selfish  interests. 

The  decidedly  informing  statement  of 
Prince  Firuz  reads,  in  part,  as  follows: 

I  need  not  repeat  the  facts  In  detail: 
the  bomba^-dment  and  occupation,  without 
any  provocation  on  our  part,  of  the  neu- 
tral Persian  port  of  Enzeli,  on  the  Caspian 
Sea,  by  the  naval  forces  of  the  Moscow 
Government,  and  the  landing  of  Red  troops 
at  several  points  in  our  territory.  In 
such  an  emergency  the  Persian  Govern- 
ment hastened,  among  other  measures, 
to  lodge  a  protest  with  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, and,  in  accordance  with  its  duty 
as  a  member  of  the  League  of  Nations, 
to  appeal  to  that  august  body  through 
the  Secretary  General.    *    *    * 

I  am  hopeful  that  the  League  of  Na- 
tions will  seriously  take  up  the  subject 
of  our  request.  I  believe  this  is  the  first 
time  that  an  appeal  of  this  nature  has 
been  made   to  the  League.    *    *    * 

I  need  not  say  that  unrest  in  Persia 
as  a  result  of  extreme  propaganda  would 
certainly  disturb  the  peace  of  the  whole 
of  the  Middle  East,  and  produce  an  up- 
heaval the  consequences  of  which  would 
be  incalculable.  The  whole  civilized 
world,  and  especially  the  British  Govern- 
ment, could  not  possibly  regard  with 
equanimity  such  sinister  developments. 
Although,  as  Mr.  Bonar  Law  stated  in 
the  House  of  Commons  when  referring  to 
the  Anglo-Persian  agreement,  the  British 
Government  is  under  no  written  obliga- 
tion to  come  to  the  assistance  of  Per.s?a 
in  such  an  emergency,  and  as  I  myself, 
in  a  statement  made  to  the  press  in  Paris, 
clearly  emphasized,  the  agreement  con- 
tained no  engagement  on  the  part  of 
Persia  and  no  obligation  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain,  outside  of  the  well-elcfined 
limits  of  the  text.  But,  leaving  aside  the 
question  of  any  formal  or  implied  en- 
gagement, we  must  not  forget  that  the 
vital  interests  of  Persia,  as  well  as  of 
Great  Britain,  are  now  involved.  Those 
interests  are  indeed  so  closely  interwoven 
that  the  British  Government  and  people 
cannot  adopt  an  attitude  of  aloofness. 

At  this  moment,  released  from  the  op- 
pressive influence  of  the  olel  Czarist  re- 
gime, Persia— alive  to  the  important  duties 
imposed  upon  her  by  her  geographical  po- 
sition and  as  a  member  of  the  League  of 
Nations,  is  endeavoring  to  strengtlien  her 
organization  and  to  develop  her  resources 
in  order  to  contribute  effectively  to  the 
maintenance  of  peace  and  tranquillity  in 
the  Middle  East,  and  to  the  extension  of 
the  benefits  of  civilization  in  that  part 
of  the   world. 


Status  of  the  Shantung  Dispute 

Japan's  Universal  Suffrage  Crisis 


JAPAN 

THE  Shantung  controversy  made  no 
visible  progress  toward  settlement. 
The  Japanese  Government*  on  June 
14  sent  China  an  official  note  urging  the 
opening  of  negotiations,  and  issued  a 
long  official  stjitement  on  June  16  re- 
viewing all  the  correspondence  between 
the  two  Governments  since  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  Versailles  Treaty.  In  the 
light  of  this  correspondence,  the  Shan- 
tung dispute  may  be  said  to  stand  as 
follows : 

On  ratification  of  tlae  treaty  in  Janu- 
ary, the  Japanese  Government,  through 
its  Minister  at  Peking,  informed  China 
of  its  desire  to  open  negotiations  devised 
to  lead  to  the  restoration  of  Kiao-Chau 
in  Shantung,  declared  its  intention  of 
withdrawing  its  troops,  but  stated  that 
it  must  keep  them  there  temporarily  to 
guard  the  railway,  in  the  absence  of  any 
competent  force  to  assume  this  duty  after 
the  contemplated  evacuation.  Japan 
hoped  that  China  would  organize  a  po- 
lice force  for  this  purpose,  even  before 
an  evacuation  agreement  was  reached, 
and  was  fully  prepared  to  carry  through 
the  proposed  negotiations. 

China,  however,  did  not  reply  for  near- 
ly three  months,  and  thus  a  question  of 
importance  to  enduring  peace  remained 
unsettled.  Finally,  on  April  26,  the  Japa- 
nese Minister  at  Peking  was  instructed  to 
urge  upon  China  the  importance  of  tak- 
ing the  necessary  steps  to  open  negotia- 
tions. China  did  not  reply  until  May  22, 
and  her  reply  amounted  to  a  request  for 
delay.  Though  appreciating  the  Japanese 
pledge  to  withdraw  her  troops,  she  stated 
that  as  she  had  not  signed  the  treaty 
she  was  not  in  a  position  to  negotiate 
directly  with  Japan  on  Kiao-Chau ;  for 
this  reason,  and  also  because  of  the  "  in- 
dignantly antagonistic  "  attitude  of  the 
people  of  China,  she  regretted  that  she 
found  herself  at  that  time  unable  to  make 
any    definite   reply. 

China,  however,  pointed  out  that  as  the 
state  of  war  with  Germany  had  ceased, 
the  further  presence  of  Japanese  troops 
in  Kiao-Chau  was  xinnecessary,  and  urged 
Japan  to  issue  an  order  for  evacuation  at 
once,  stating  that  China  planned  to  effect 
a  proper  organization  to  replace  these 
forces. 

The  Imperial  Government  then  trans- 
mitted its  note  of  June  14.  This  note 
took    cognizance    of    the    Chinese    position 


as  stated,  but  pointed  ovit  that  a  "  funda- 
mental agreement  "  existed  between 
China  and  Japan  regarding  Kiao-Chau. 
It  tlien  reiterated  Japan's  desire  of  ef- 
fecting a  fair  and  just  settlement  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  declared  that  it  would 
accept  a  proposal  for. negotiations  at  any 
time  the  Chinese  Government  saw  fit  to 
make  it.  Japan  made  the  witlidrawal  of 
troops  depend  wholly  on  the  formation  of 
a  Chinese  police  force  competent  to  take 
over  the  responsibilities  of  guarding  mu- 
tual interests.  The  question  of  military 
equipment  in  and  around  Kiao-Chau,  the 
note  said,  furnished  additional  ground 
for  negotiations.  These,  and  all  other 
minor  questions,  it  added,  would  be  solved 
simultaneously  with  the  opening  of  nego- 
tiations. The  note  ended  with  a  reitera- 
tion of  Japan's  desire  to  effect  a  fair  set- 
tlement as  soon  as  possible.  China  had 
made  no  reply  when  these  pages  went  to 
press. 

Negotiations  for  a  prolongation  of  the 
alliance  between  Great  B]-itain  and 
Japan  continued  through  June  and  the 
first  half  of  July,  and  were  finally 
brought  to  a  successful  conclusion.  Con- 
siderable opposition  to  the  continuation 
of  the  alliance  had  been  expressed  by 
■>e  Australian  press  and  a  strong  feel- 
ing of  hostility  to  a  renewal  developed 
in  China.  The  hines  "  '^rnment  pro- 
tested officially  against  such  a  renewal 
without  consultation  of  China.  Despite 
this  opposition,  an  agreement  was 
reached,  and  Great  Britain  and  Japan 
notified  the  L  ue  of  Nations  on  July 
13  that  they  had  prolonged  the  treaty 
of  alliance  for  one  year.  They  pointed 
out  that  th'  terms  of  the  treaty  had 
been  revised  and  that  they  were  now  in 
accord  with  the  principles  of  the  League. 
The  insertion  of  an  article  relieving 
either  of  the  high  con^  -cting  parties 
from  the  necessity  of  going  to  war  with 
any  Power  concluding  a  treaty  of  arbi- 
tration with  the  other  contracting  party 
was  considered  important  in  Washing- 
ton in  view  of  the  fact  that  Great  Brit- 
ain and  the  United  ""tates  had  contracted 
such  a  treaty  of  arbitration  on  Septem- 
ber 15,  1914.  The  motive  of  the  prolon- 
gation for  a  single  year  was  stated  to 
be  the  desire  of  Great  Britain  to  gain 


Untung  dispute 


818 


time  to  consult  with  the  Dominion  Gov- 
ernments regarding-  a  revision  of  the 
treaty,  necessitated  by  the  elimination  of 
German  influence  in  the  Far  East. 

Thp.  treaty  thus  prolonged  had  orig- 
inally been  signed  in  London  on  July  13, 
1911,  by  T.  Kato,  the  Japanese  Ambas- 
sador; Lord  Grey,  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs. 

The  long  dispute  over  universal  suf- 
frage in  Japan  was  settled,  temporarily, 
at  least,  when  the  Diet  rejected  the  pro- 
posal on  July  12.  The  issue  had  aroused 
great  excitement  among  the  people,  as 
well  as  in  the  Diet.  On  July  3  the  former 
Minister  of  Agriculture  attacked  the 
Government  policy,  declaring  that  the 
Cabinet  should  respect  the  Diet's  decision 
to  grant  universal  suffrage  without  a 
referendum  to  the  nation.  Premier  Hara 
replied  that  it  was  improper  to  adopt 
universal  suffrage  without  giving  a  trial 
to  the  amended  election  law,  which  ex- 
tends the  right  of  voting,  and  declared 
the  Government  justified  in  appealing  to 
the  people.  The  session  of  July  9 
was  extremely  turbulent,  the  Opposition 
Party  making  a  fierce  attack  upon  the 
Government,  both  in  regard  to  the  action 
of  the  Militarists  in  Siberia  and  in  regard 
to  suffrage.  The  Premier  admitted 
that  extension  of  the  suffrage  was  neces- 
sary, but  declared  that  he  was  unable  to 
ee  why  the  whole  social  organization 
should  be  destroyed.  At  the  session  of 
the  following  day,  however,  the  House 
defeated  a  resolution  of  want  of  confi- 
dence in  the  Government  by  283  votes  as 
against  145.  The  Diet  was  guarded  by 
5,000  police  reserves,  in  view  of  the  great 
mass  meeting  held  in  Tokio,  as  well  as 
in  the  provinces,  to  voice  the  popular 
demand  for  universal  suffrage.  Speeches 
of  a  violent  character  were  made  at  these 
gatherings,  and  paraders  carrying  ban- 
ners clashed  with  the  police,  who  made 
many  arrests. 

At  the  session  of  July  12  the  proposal 
of  universal  suffrage  was  defeated  in 
the  lower  house  when  an  Opposition  reso- 
lution was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  283  as 
against  150.  While  the  measure  was 
being  debated  immense  crowds  held  pro- 
suffrage  demonstrations  in  nearby  parks. 
The  police  kept  all  demonstrating  crowds 
away  from  the  House  of  Parliament  and 


broke  up  an  indoor  meeting  of  students 
who  were  attempting  to  pass  resolutions 
censuring  the  Cabinet  for  "  hinderingthe 
development  of  the  nation." 

The  following  diplomatic  appointments 
were  announced  on  June  5: 

Baron  Gonsuke  Hayashi,  formerly  Gov- 
ernor of  the  leased  territory  of  Kwan- 
tung-,  Manchuria,  to  be  Japanese  Ambas- 
sador at  London,  succeeding  Viscount 
Chinda.  Viscount  Kikujiro  Ishii,  for- 
merly Ambassador  at  Washington,  to  be 
Japanese  Ambassador  at  Paris,  succeed- 
ing M.  Matsui.  Mr.  Isaaburo  Yamagata, 
formerly  attached  to  the  office  of  the 
Governor  General  of  Korea,  to  be  Gov- 
ernor General  of  the  Kwantung  leased 
territory,   succeeding  Baron  Hayashi. 

In  a  letter  addressed  by  William  D. 
Stephens,  Governor  of  California,  to  Sec- 
retary of  State  Colby  on  June  21,  it  was 
stated  that  the  influx  of  Japanese  into 
California  had  brought  about  "  alarming 
conditions,"  which  made  it  necessary  to 
protect  the  sovereignty  of  the  State 
against  this  "  growing  menace  "  through 
diplomatic  negotiation  or  a  strict  ex- 
clusion act.  A  proposed  initiative  in 
State  legislation  designed  to  prevent 
Japanese  from  owning  or  leasing  land 
within  California,  it  was  stated,  would 
be  submitted  to  the  voters  of  the  State 
in  the  coming  November  elections. 
Meanwhile  informal  conversations  were 
entered  upon  between  the  American  and 
Japanese  Governments  relative  to  the 
situation  precipitated  by  this  proposal. 
Speaking  on  the  California  problem  in 
Tokio  on  June  18,  Viscount  Kentaro 
Kaneko,  member  of  the  Privy  Council 
of  the  Empire,  condemned  the  proposed 
law,  which  he  declared  was  purely  anti- 
Japanese  in  its  design,  and  asserted  that 
the  Japanese  limit  of  endurance  had 
nearly  been  reached. 

CHINA 

The  unsettlement  of  China  owing  to 
the  civil  war  continued,  with  fighting 
between  the  opposing  forces  throughout 
June.  Meanwhile  negotiations  at  Shang- 
hai between  representatives  of  the 
Northern  Government  and  leading  fig- 
ures of  the  Canton  Government,  who  had 
revolted  against  the  Southern  Military 
Party,  were  reaching  their  end  by  June 
26.      The    Southern    secessionists    were 


814 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


headed  by  Wu  Ting-fang,  former  Min- 
ister to  America;  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen,  First 
Provisional  President  of  China;  Tang- 
Shao-li,  former  Premier,  and  General  Li 
Lieh-chun,  who  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  establishment  of  the  republic.  These 
leaders,  it  was  stated,  had  agreed  on  the 
secession  of  all  the  Southern  provinces 
except  Kwang-si  and  Kwan-tung — the 
strongholds  of  the  Southern  militarists — 
whose  arbitrary  distribution  of  tax 
revenues  had  precipitated  the  secession, 
and  on  their  reunion  with  North  China. 

Though  these  negotiations  were  con- 
sidered to  be  making  for  a  speedy  peace 
between  the  north  and  the  south,  fresh 
trouble  developed  in  North  China 
through  action  taken  by  the  Northern 
Eeform  Party  early  in  July,  in  securing 
the  dismissal  of  General  Hsu  Chu-cheng, 
Resident  Commissioner  of  Inner  Mon- 
golia and  Commander  on  the  northwest- 
ern frontier.  This  dismissal  was  said  to 
be  due  to  bad  feeling  between  the  Re- 
form Party,  headed  by  General  Chang 
Tso-ling  and  the  Anfu  Party,  of  which 
General  Hsu  Chu-cheng  was  a  member. 

The  Anfu  Generals,  Wu  Pei-fu  and 
Tsao-kun,  of  Chi-li  refused  to  give  their 
sanction  to  Hsu  Chi-cheng'  dismissal, 
and  on  July  11  threatened  an  advance  on 
Peking,  as  a  result  of  which  the  city  was 
thrown  into  a  panic.  The  veteran  Gen- 
eral Chang  Kuei-ti  had  gone  to  Chi-li  to 
attempt  to  reconcile  the  opposing  fac- 
tions, and  the  Chinese  President,  Hsu 
Shih-chang,  issued  a  mandate  ordering 
the  troops  of  the  contending  sides  back 
to  their  original  posts  to  preserve  the 
people  from  the  threat  of  a  new  civil 
war.  Meantime,  Marshal  Tuan  Chi-jui, 
himself  a  member  of  the  Anfu  Party, 
assumed  control,  and  set  out  to  force  the 
Anfu  Generals  into  submission.  He  was 
opposed  by  a  number  of  the  military 
Governors,  and  also  by  General  Chang 
Tso-ling,  who  served  notice  from  his 
post  in  Manchuria  that  in  view  of  his 
having  received  evidence  that  Tuan  Chi- 
jui  had  reciniited  brigands  in  Manchuria 
to  oppose  Tsao-kun  and  Wu  Pei-fu,  he 
intended  to  organize  an  expedition  to  oc- 
cupy Peking  and  hold  it  until  Tuan  Chi- 
jui  was  punished.  This  project,  how- 
ever,   he    abandoned.      Meanwhile    Tuan 


Chi-jui,  surprised  south  of  Nanyuan  by 
Wu  Pei-fu's  troops,  retreated  toward 
Peking.  The  diplomatic  corps  on  July 
10  served  notice  on  the  Government  that 
no  fighting  must  take  place  in  Peking, 
and  that  the  city  must  not  be  subjected 
to  bombardment. 

Severe  fighting  followed,  July  15-18, 
with  the  advantage  in  favor  of  General 
Wu  Pei-fu.  On  the  18th  it  was  reported 
that  General  Tuan  Chi-jui,  head  of  the 
Anfu  Party,  had  suffered  a  severe  de- 
feat, and  that  his  disorganized  troops 
were  retiring  toward  Peking.  The  capital 
was  still  in  a  state  of  semi-panic  over 
the  situation  when  these  pages  went  to 
press. 

The  Cabinet  crisis  precipitated  by  the 
resignation  of  the  Premier,  Chin  Yun- 
peng,  early  in  May  was  virtually  solved 
on  June  30  by  the  selection  of  Chou  Shu- 
mu,  a  member  of  the  Reform  Party  and 
a  friend  of  the  President,  to  take  the 
Premiership.  Chin  Yun-peng  retained 
the  post  of  Minister  of  War.  Three  im- 
portant posts  in  the  Cabinet  were  taken 
from  adherents  of  the  Anfu  Party  and 
replaced  by  civil  appointees  supporting 
the  President.  Tuan  Chi-ju^  one  of  the 
leadin*g  supporters  of  the  Anfu  pro- 
gram, had  given,  nevertheless,  his  con- 
sent to'  these  changes.  The  name  of 
Chou  Shu-mu  was  submitted  by  the 
President  to  Parliament  on  July  3  for 
approval. 

An  offer  to  pay  the  sum  of  $45,000 
for  the  murder  of  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Rei- 
mert,  an  American  missionary  of  the 
Yochow  Reformed  Church,  and  a  native 
of  ^-^nniylvania,  was  rejected  by  the 
American  Legation  on  June  27,  the 
Legation  insisting  that  the  Peking  Gov- 
ernment hold  the  Military  Governor  of 
Hunan  Province,  where  the  murder  was 
committed,  personally  responsible  for 
failure  to  provide  protection.  The  Gov- 
ernment had  "harged  the  Governor  with 
incompetence  and  inefficiency  and  had 
divested  him  of  all  titles  and  honors  fol- 
lowing the  loss  of  Chang-shp.  to  the 
Southern  revolutionaries,  but  had  then 
pardoned  him.  The  missionary  was 
killed  by  the  retreatin'g  Northern  sol- 
diers following  the  occupation  of  Chang- 
sha  on  June  14,  and  the  mission  church 
which  he  directed  was  looted. 


Restoring  Law  and  Order  in  Mexico 

Status  of  the  Oil  Controversy 


MEXICO 

iRESIDENT  de  la  Huerta  addressed 
the  Mexican  Congress  in  person 
at  the  opening  of  the  extra- 
ordinary session  on  June  21,  its  first 
jneeting  since  the  revolution  that  ended 
the  overthrow  and  tragic  death 
Carranza.  Restoration  of  constitu- 
tional government  in  the  revolutionary 
States,  reforms  of  the  electoral  law  and 
of  the  common  law  judicial  system,  modi- 
fications of  the  labor  law  to  protect  the 
rights  of  capitalists  and  workers  equally, 
and  improvements  of  the  educational 
system  were  among  the  President's 
recommendations. 

Among  the  subjects  of  vital  interest 
to  be  considered  in  the  brief  session  are 
revenue,  shipping,  sanitation,  banking, 
coinage,  customs,  foreign  commerce,  the 
external  debt,  and,  most  important  of 
all,  the  controversy  over  the  ownership 
and  taxation  of  oil  lands.  Under  the 
Diaz  regime,  through  bribery  and  graft, 
foreign  companies  were  allowed  to  ac- 
quire monopoly  of  vast  tracts  of  valuable 
oil  lands;  but  with  the  fall  of  the  dic- 
tator their  absolute  domi:"ance  began  to 
weaken.  Then  came  minor  revolutions, 
and  in  many  cases  foreign  companies 
were  severely  mulcted  by  various  Gener- 
als under  the  plea  of  special  taxation 
and  protection  from  bandits,  with  the 
alternative  threat  of  closing  or  destroy- 
ing the  wells. 

The  Federal  Government  determined 
to  end  this  anarchy,  and  in  a  new  Con- 
stitution, adopted  on  Feb.  5,  1917,  incor- 
porated as  Article  27  the  provision  that 
subsoil  products,  meaning  particularly 
oil,  should  be  the  property  of  the  Mexi- 
can Government,  to  be  disposed  of  by 
law  or  decree.  There  was  no  interpreta- 
tion as  to  whether  this  applied  to  public 
lands  or  to  private  property,  or  whether 
it  was  retroactive  or  confiscatory  in 
future.  Interventionists  saw  in  it  an 
opportunity  to  embroil  the  United  States 
with  Mexico. 

The  previous  situation  had  threatened 
President  Wilson's  friendly  policy,  out- 


lined in  a  statement  given  out  at  the 
White  House  on  March  25,  1916,  which 
said :  "  Convinced  that  powerful  in- 
fluences are  at  work  to  force  an  inter- 


DON  FERNANDO  IGLESIAS  CALDERON 
Special  High   Commissioner  sent   to   Wash- 
ington by  the  new  Mexican  Government 
(©    Harris  d  Evnng) 

vention  in  Mexico,  Administration  offi- 
cials were  today  considering  just  what 
steps  will  be  taken  to  bring  the  agitation 
to  an  end."  On  the  other  hand  the  rights 
acquired  by  American  citizens  deserved 
protection.  Presidant  Wilson  two  years 
ago  in  a  note  to  Carranza  declared: 
"The  iJnited  States  cannot  acquiesce  in 
any  procedure  ostensibly  or  nominally 
in  the  form  of  taxation  or  the  exercise 
of  eminent  domain,  but  really  resulting  in 
the  confiscation  of  private  property  and 
arbitrary  deprivation  of  vested  rights." 

Carranza  was  inclined  to  interpret,  the 
constitutional  clause  rigorously  to  the 
disadvantage  of  foreigners,  and  on 
March  12  signed  a  decree  governing  tem- 
porary oil  concessions  pending  passage 
of  legislation  by  Congress.  This  decree 
stated  that  concessions  were  to  be  granted 


810 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


only  to  native  or  naturalized  Mexicans 
or  to  companies  organized  under  Mexi- 
can laws.  To  prevent  monopolists  from 
buying  up  oil  lands  and  holding  them 
out  of  use  it  was  provided  that  drilling 
must  begin  within  five  years  of  the  date 
of  concession  and  taxes  on  daily  produc- 
tion were  fixed  in  the  case  of  large  pro- 
ducers as  high  as  20  per  cent. 

Although  this  is  less  than  some  excess 
profits  taxes  in  the  United  States,  those 
who  were  urging  American  intervention 
raised  the  cry  of  confiscation.  In  the 
case  of  the  Tampico  oil  wells  there  was 
some  justification  for  this,  as  the  taxes 
were  paid  to  General  Manuel  Pelaez  and 
never  reached  the  General  Government. 
They  were  pay  for  "  protection  "  and  the 
oil  companies  submitted  to  them  without 
question,  knowing  their  properties  would 
be  destroyed  if  they  objected.  Pelaez, 
after  the  fall  of  Carranza,  made  his 
peace  with  the  new  Mexican  Govern- 
ment and  President  de  la  Hi.erta  invited 
Americal  oil  men  co  go  to  Mexico  to  dis- 
cuss the  question,  at  the  same  time 
promising  that  laws  based  on  Article  27 
should  not  have  a  retroactive  effect. 

General  Jacinto  B.  Trevino,  Minister 
of  Commerce  and  Labor  in  the  new  Gov- 
ernment, conferred  with  repiesentatives 
of  more  than  twenty  foreign  oil  com- 
panies and  assured  them  that  all  would 
receive  equal  treatment;  but  the  laws 
of  Mexico  nationalizing  petroleum  terri- 
tory would  be  carried  out.  They  then 
interviewed  President  de  la  Huerta,  who 
refused  t'>  intervene  in  the  negotiations 
with  General  Trevino.  The  impression 
gained  was  that  representatives  of  the 
American  oil  interests  could  not  make 
headway  with  the  Government  owing  to 
their  reputation  as  ardent  intervention- 
ists, but  that  the  Government  was  will- 
ing to  treat  with  unprejudiced  represen- 
tatives of  experience  and  authority. 

Senor  V.  R.  Garcias,  for  years  in 
char  :e  of  the  oil  engineering  department 
of  Stanford  University,  and  now  a  con- 
sulting engineer  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Mines,  was  appointed  a  Spe- 
cial Commissioner  by  President  de  la 
Huerta  to  study  the  oil  situation  and 
report  on  new  regulations  that  may  be 
necessary.     On  July  1  it  was  announced 


that  the  Department  would  name  a  com- 
mission to  confer  with  one  represent- 
ing American  interests,  and  their  recom- 
mendations, it  was  believed,  would  pro- 
vide a  basis  for  an  amicable  solution. 
Meanwhile  nature  may  settle  the  con- 
troversy, for  a  leading  well  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  State  of  Vera  Cruz, 
which  had  been  producing  60,000  barrels 
of  oil  daily,  is  now  yielding  only  salt 
water,  and  other  producers  are  in  a  state 
of  apprehension  regarding  a  possibly 
similar  fate  for  their  properties. 

All  Mexican  traditions  were  broken  on 
June  19  when,  for  tlje  first  time  in  the 
history  of  Mexico,  foreigners  who  were 
not  Ambassadors  were  dined  by  a  Presi- 
dent. American  newspaper  correspond- 
ents were  thus  entertained,  and  for  three 
hours  President  de  la  Huerta  frankly 
answered  questions  put  by  his  guests. 
He  stated  that  the  Constitution  of  1917 
would  prevail,  as  it  was  the  legal  Con- 
stitution, but  present  holders  of  property 
would  have  an  opportunity  to  improve 
their  holdings  and  would  have  prefer- 
ence. "  We  will  go  half  way,"  he  said, 
"  and  I  am  sure  that  the  American  busi- 
ness interests  will  come  the  other  half." 

As  a  further  evidence  of  Mexico's  de- 
sire for  friendly  relations  with  the 
United  States  Don  Fernando  Iglesias 
Calderon  was  sent  by  President  de  la 
Huerta  to  Washington  as  High  Commis- 
sioner for  Mexico  with  the  rank  of  Am- 
bassador. Don  Fernando,  who  arrived  in 
Washington  on  June  28,  is  the  recognized 
leader  of  the  Liberal  Party  in  Mexico 
and  one  of  the  principal  supporters  of 
General  Obregon  for  President.  He  has 
made  an  excellent  impression  on  officials 
of  the  Administration,  convincing  them 
of  Mexico's  desire  for  full  protection  of 
life  and  property  in  Mexico,  natives  and 
foreigners  alike,  and  of  her  anxiety  to 
be  on  friendly  terms  with  this  country. 
There  was  a  growing  belief  that  recogni- 
tion of  the  new  Mexican  Government  was 
not  far  off. 

Another  sign  of  Mexico's  more  friend- 
ly attitude  is  the  decline  of  the  German 
influence  exercised  during  the  Carranza 
regime.  All  the  members  of  the  special 
missions  sent  to  the  United  States  and 
Europe  are  composed  of  men  known  as 


RESTORING  LAW  AND  ORDER  IN  MEXICO 


ro-ally.  Miguel  Covarrubias,  who  has 
been  named  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
was  well  known  for  his  sympathy  for  the 
allied  cause,  and  Cuthbert  Hidalgo,  one 
of  the  few  pro-ally  Senators,  was  made 
his  assistant.  President  de  la  Huerta 
nt  to  President  Wilson  a  very  friendly 
essage  on  Independence  Day,  expres- 
sing wishes  for  a  "  cordial  union  between 
the  peoples  of  Mexico  and  the  United 
States,"  and  Mexico  City  newspapers 
published  special  Fourth  of  July  editions 
praising  the  peace  institutions,  women's 
rogress,  traditions  and  national  heroes 
the  United  States. 

All  the  political   parties  have   agreed 
the  Presidential  candidacy  of  General 
Ivaro  Obregon,  and  he  will  probably  be 
ilected  unopposed  on  Sept.  5.    He  favors 
e    closest    possible    friendly    relations 
ith  the  United  States  and  is  advising 
la   Huerta   in   his   administration   as 
rovisional  President.     General  Salvador 
Ivarado,  the  Minister  of  the  Treasuiy, 
as  intrusted  with  making  a  special  visit 
Washington,  New  York  and  the  Euro- 
ean  capitals   to   discuss   resumption   of 
ayments  on  Mexico's  foreign  debt,  in- 
rest  on  which  has  been  suspended  for 
veral  years.    Alberto  M.  Gonzalez,  Jus- 
ce  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  also  com- 
issioned  to  visit  the  United  States  to 
udy  the  American  judicial  system  and 
plain  proposed  Mexican  legislation  rel- 
ive to  petroleum. 

Minor  revolts  against  the  new  regime 
ave  been  crushed  with  a  firm  hand.     A 
evolt  occurred  in  the  State  of  Chiapas, 
n  the  Guatemalan  border,  which  lasted 
nly  one  day  and  was  crushed  by  Gov- 
mment    forces,     its    leaders.     Colonels 
lamado  and  Lotomayor,  being  executed. 
eneral  Carlos  Osuna  began  operations 
th  1,200  men  in  the  State  of  Tamau- 
pas,    but   within   a   week   was    fleeing, 
ounded,    with    only    eighty    followers. 
Francisco    Gonzalez,   formerly   Governor 
of  the  State,  suspected  of  aiding  Osuna, 
was  captured  and  his  execution  was  or- 
dered on  July  1  by  General  Elias  Calles, 
Secretary    of    War.      General    Guajardo 
began     an     insurrection    at     Bermejillo, 
Durango,  in  June,  but  on  July  2  was  re- 
ported in  flight. 


General  Pablo  Gorkealez,  who  was  one 
of  the  candidates  for  the  Presidency, 
started  a  revolt  on  July  14,  General 
Villareal,  one  of  his  commanders,  attack- 
ing Monterey.  The  Obregon  troops  and 
customs  guards  easily  repulsed  the 
rebels,  and  General  Gonzalez  himself, 
with  two  of  his  subordinate  officers,  was 
captured  near  that  city,  and  it  was  an- 
nounced that  he  would  be  tried  on  a 
charge  of  treason. 

With  this  exception,  Villa  was  the  sole 
important  rebel  holding  out  after  the 
first  week  in  July.  Juan  A.  Delgado, 
one  of  his  Generals,  was  reported  on 
July  2  killed  near  Torreon,  in  Durango. 
Villa  is  strongest  further  north  in  Chi- 
huahua, where  he  cut  the  railroad  be- 
tween Jiminez  and  Parral  and  occupied 
the  town  of  Villa  Ahumada,  making  it 
his  headquarters.  An  armistice  was  con- 
cluded early  in  July,  in  which  Villa 
promised  to  cease  military  operations 
until  July  15.  He  offered  to  make  peace 
if  he  were  given  the  rank  of  General  and 
a  force  of  500  men.  In  return  he  prom- 
ised to  make  Chihuahua  the  safest  State 
in  Mexico.  On  July  14  it  was  announced 
that  Villa  had  demanded  the  immediate 
resignation  of  General  Calles  as  Minis- 
ter of  War  and  the  withdrawal  of  all 
Federal  officers  from  the  Obregonista 
army  in  Chihuahua,  threatening  to  re- 
open hostilities  and  begin  a  new  reign  of 
terror  in  case  his  terms  were  refused. 

General  Murguia,  Colonel  Barragan, 
General  Montes  and  General  Urquizo 
were  under  indictment  on  the  charge  of 
being  responsible  for  the  death  of  Car- 
ranza,  because  it  is  alleged  they  aban- 
doned him  when  attacked.  Generala 
Mariel  and  Berlanga  were  indicted  on 
the  charge  of  connection  \\'ith  the  disap- 
pearance of  Federal  funds.  Of  the  for- 
mer Colonel  Barragan  escaped  from 
custody  on  June  15  and  the  three  others 
appealed  from  the  decree  ordering  their 
detention.  General  Montes,  who  is  a 
Deputy,  was  released  by  the  President 
on  June  29,  at  the  request  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  in  order  that  he  might 
take  his  seat. 

Murguia  is  also  charged  with  frauds 
amounting  to  2,000,000  pesos  by  military 
invoices  alleged  to  have  contained  items 


818 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


such  as  silk  stockings,  perfumes,  bon- 
bons and  other  feminine  articles.  The 
Mexican  Treasury,  according  to  official 
figures,  had  enough  money  on  hand  to 
wipe  out  a  book  deficit  of  2,500,000  pesos 
and  have  a  balance  of  about  5,500,000 
pesos.  This  is  almost  wholly  due  to  the 
recovery  from  the  Carranza  Presidential 
trains  of  3,733,604  pesos  in  gold,  1,000,- 
935  pesos  in  silver  and  bronze,  127,290 
from  safety  boxes,  and  15,330  from  wo- 
men vrho  accompanied  the  President's 
party  in  his  flight  from  Mexico  City. 

An  important  movement  on  the  Texas 
border  about  the  end  of  June  was  the 
direct  result  of  the  fall  of  Carranza. 
While  hundreds  of  Mexicans  of  the  bet- 
ter class,  exiled  or  in  fear  of  confisca- 
tion, were  returning  home  from  Dallas 
and  other  cities  thousands  of  Mexican 
families  were  surreptitiously  crossing 
the  Rio  Grande  to  aid  the  fanners  of  the 
Southwest,  lured  by  the  prospect  of  high 
wages.  This  emigration,  which  began 
as  early  as  last  Christmas,  had  reached 
such  an  enormous  expansion  that  Mexi- 
can immigration  officials  were  ordered 
to  forbid  Mexican  laborers  crossing  into 
the  United  States  to  accept  work. 

The  outbreak  of  bubonic  plague  at 
Vera  Cruz,  noted  in  last  month's  Cur- 
rent History,  was  reported  to  be  under 


control  by  the  end  of  June,  gradually 
dying  out  thereafter.  European  and 
American  navigation  companies  resumed 
their  services  to  the  port. 

Mexico  is  restoring  to  its  owners,  na- 
tive and  foreign,  property  seized  by  the 
late  Government.  On  June  18  the  Mex- 
ican Hallway  was  turned  over  to  its  Brit- 
ish owners,  of  whom  Queen  Mary  is  the 
principal  stockholder.  President  de  la 
Huerta  ordered  all  churches  and  their 
annexes  to  be  restored  to  their  respec- 
tive congregations.  Individuals  were 
asked  on  June  20  to  prove  ownership  ot 
any  confiscated  property  and  renounce 
damage  claims  in  order  to  obtain  its 
return.  The  only  exceptions  specified 
were  those  of  Victorian©  Huerta  and  his 
immediate  family,  Felix  Diaz,  Francisco 
Villa,  J.  W.  Mayortena  and  Eugenic 
Paredes. 

A  parallel  to  the  allied  demand  of  Gei  ■ 
many  in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  for  the 
return  of  the  skull  of  the  Sultan  Mkwawa 
of  East  Africa  is  the  request  by  Mexico 
of  the  State  of  Illinois  for  the  wooden 
leg  of  General  Santa  Ana,  lost  in  the 
battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  on  April  18,  1847, 
and  taken  home  by  soldiers  of  the  Fourth 
Illinois  Infantry,  which  was  later  sent 
to  the  State  Historical  Library  at 
Springfield. 


Republics  of  Latin  America 

Conference  in  San  Salvador^ — Revolution  in  Bolivia — ^Bitter 
Campaign  in  Chile 


CENTRAL  AMERICA 

DELEGATES  from  Salvador,  Hondu- 
ras, Costa  Rica,  Guatemala  and 
Nicaragua  have  been  called  to 
meet  in  San  Salvador  on  Sept.  15  to  dis- 
cuss the  basis  of  a  union  of  Central 
America.  Invitations  to  the  conference 
were  issued  by  the  Salvador  Government 
on  June  21,  and  met  with  a  unanimous 
response,  Honduras  being  especially  cor- 
dial in  her  reply. 

Dr.  Paredes,  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs of  Salvador,  enumerates  among  the 
problems  to  be  discussed  the  unification 


of  the  different  Constitutions,  codifica- 
tion of  fundamental  laws,  equalization  oi" 
tariff  duties,  free  trade  between  the 
States,  and  the  adoption  of  a  uniform 
monetary  standard.  With  the  full  ap- 
probation of  the  President,  the  Cabinet 
and  the  people,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  undertake  the  preliminary 
work  in  Salvador,  Dr.  Manuel  Delgado 
being  named  President  and  Dr.  Victor 
Jerez  Secretary. 

SALVADOR— Although  the  smallest 
of  the  Central  American  republics,  Sal- 
vador is  becoming  prominent  in  world  af- 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


irs  and  efforts  for  the  good  of  human- 
.    She  early  ratified  the  Peace  Treaty, 
and  on  July  4  President  Melendez  decid- 
ed to  instruct  Dr.  Arturo  Ramon  Avila, 
Ivadorean   Charge  d'Affaires  in  Lon- 
lon,  to  deposit  Salvador's  ratification  of 
membership   in  the  League  of   Nations, 
he   promptly   notified   countries    signa- 
ry  to  the  sanitary  convention  at  Wash- 
gton  of  the  outbreak  of  yellow  fever  in 
e  City  of  Sonsonate  and  gratefully  ac- 
pted  efforts  of  the  Rockefeller  Foun- 
tion  to  prevent  its  spread.     Dr.  Bailey 
ported  on  July  7  that  the  disease  had 
en  eradicated;   the  quarantine  against 
e  city  was  lifted,  and  a  decree  was  is- 
ed    permitting    steamers    to    call    at 
cajutla,  the  port  of  Sonsonate. 
A    moratorium    which    had    been    in 
peration    in    Salvador    since    the    great 
ar   began,   and   which   had   profoundly 
fected    the   commerce   and   finance   of 
e  republic,  was  terminated  on  June  28 
iy  executive  decree. 

GUATEMALA— The  new  Government 
Guatemala  was  recognized  by  the 
Inited  States  on  June  24  "  as  the  con- 

itutional  successor  of  the  Government 
\i  Estrada  Cabrera  "  in  an  official  proc- 
imation  issued  by  the  State  Depart- 
lent  at  Washington. 

Guatemala  on  June  25  signed  a  con- 
ract  to  liquidate  the  Government's  in- 
lebtedness  to  the  International  Railroad 
Guatemala — amounting  to  nearly  $1,- 
)0,000 — paying    one-third    immediately 

id   the   remaining   two-thirds   in   three 

mual  installments.  Capital  from  the 
Jnited  States  is  largely  interested. 

HONDURAS— Honduras  has  prohib- 
ted  the  landing  of  all  colored  British 
ibjects  without  a  special  permit.  The 
:tion  was  taken  to  prevent  an  influx  of 
igroes  from  Jamaica. 

NICARAGUA  —  Jose  Esteban  Gon- 
ilez  of  Diriamba  was  nominated  for  the 
•residency  of  Nicaragua  by  the  coali- 
laon  party  on  July  14.  He  is  a  promi- 
lent  coffee  planter  and  exporter,  well 
mown  in  business  circles  in  New  York 
and  San  Francisco. 

PANAMA — A  special  service  squadron 
of  nine  vessels,  of  which  the  Dolphin  is 


expected  to  be  the  flagship,  will  visit 
Panama  waters  about  Oct.  1,  according 
to  an  announcement  by  Rear  Admiral 
Coontz. 

Reappearance  of  German  ships  in  the 
Panama  Canal  is  noted  in  the  last  month- 
ly report  to  Secretary  Baker,  showing 
that  four  German  vessels,  aggregating 
25,000  tons,  passed  through  the  canal  in 
April,  paying  $20,872  in  tolls. 

Since  the  installation  of  seismographs 
at  the  Panama  Canal  eleven  years  ago 
429  earthquakes  had  been  recorded  up  to 
June  23,  an  average  of  thirty-nine  a 
year.  Of  these,  186  had  their  centres  of 
disturbance  from  11  to  200  miles  from 
the  observation  station,  but  none  caused 
injury  to  the  canal,  though  many  were 
plainly  felt  by  the  people  of  the  Canal 
Zone  and  Panama. 

SOUTH   AMERICA 

An  effort  is  being  made  to  spread  pro- 
hibition in  South  America,  especially  in 
Brazil,  Paraguay,  Chile,  Uruguay  and 
Argentina.  At  Punta  Arenas  the  labor 
men  refused  to  unload  alcoholic  liquors 
from  ships.  President  Irigoyen  caused 
to  be  inserted  in  the  commercial  travel- 
ers' treaty  recently  negotiated  with 
Washington  a  clause  excluding  from  its 
benefits  "  salesmen  from  the  United 
States  trafficking  in  alcoholic  beverages 
in  Argentina."  On  the  other  hand,  when 
a  prohibition  bill  was  introduced  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  it  was  announced 
that  President  Irigoyen's  Administration 
would  not  support  it. 

ARGENTINA— On  July  9  Argentina 
celebrated  the  104th  anniversary  of  her 
independence,  the  day  being  marked  by 
a  parade  of  sailors  from  British,  Bra- 
zilian and  Uruguayan  warships  in  the 
harbor  of  Buenos  Aires.  It  was  an- 
nounced that  a  statue  of  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus, by  Arnoldo  Zocchi,  was  being 
shipped  from  Rome  to  be  set  up  in 
Buenos  Aires,  carved  from  the  largest 
block  of  marble  used  for  many  centuries, 
being  twenty-one  feet  high  and  weighing 
forty-five  tons. 

Treaties  between  Argentina  and  Ecua- 
dor, Venezuela  and  Colombia,  providing 
for  compulsory  arbitration  of  matters  at 
issue   between   them,   v/ere   approved   in 


S20 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  July  6.  A 
Government  bill  calculates  the  expenses 
of  the  republic  for  the  next  fiscal  year 
at  $521,000,000,  the  appropriation  for  the 
War  Department  being  $24,500,000  more 
than  last  year. 

Arrangements  have  been  made  by 
Great  Britain  to  pay  its  debt  of  $100,- 
000,000  to  Argentina  by  meeting  periodi- 
cally the  interest  on  Argentina's  debt 
held  in  London.  Half  the  debt  was 
liquidated  by  paying  obligations  which 
Argentina    owed    to    American    bankers. 

The  all-American  railway  between  the 
United  States  and  Argentina  is  still  far 
off,  but  the  intervening  gap  will  soon  be 
lessened  by  the  construction  of  150  miles 
of  new  railway  in  the  heart  of  the  Andes, 
bringing  Arica,  in  the  north  of  Chile,  into 
direct  all-rail  connection  with  Buenos 
Aires.  Meanwhile  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  is  establishing  direct 
communication  between  Chicago  and 
Buenos  Aires,  with  an  eye,  no  doubt,  to 
the  wheat  pit.  After  Argentina  had  put 
a  heavy  super-tax  on  wheat  exports  it 
was  found  that  England,  France  and 
Italy  had  already  bought  up  most  of  the 
visible  supply.  As  a  result  the  Gov- 
ernment on  July  8  prohibited  exports  in 
excess  of  500,000  tons. 

BOLIVIA — By  a  successful  revolution 
which  took  place  in  La  Paz  on  the  night 
of  Sunday,  July  11,  the  Government  of 
Gutierrez  Guerra,  President  of  Bolivia, 
was  overthrown,  and  he  took  refuge  in 
the  United  States  Legation.  The  revolt 
^vas  accomplished  by  Republican  Party 
adherents  led  by  Bautista  Savedra,  the 
well-known  historian.  The  cause  of  the 
uprising  was  the  pro-Chilean  policy  pur- 
sued by  the  Guerra  administration.  In 
Current  History  for  May  (Page  263)  it 
was  noted  as  peculiar  that  in  the  tri- 
angular controversy  for  a  seaport  the 
port  which  Bolivia  wanted  was  not  her 
former  town  of  Antofagasta,  but  the 
former  Peruvian  town  of  Arica.  "  In- 
stead of  asking  for  her  own,"  it  was 
stated,  "  Bolivia  is  seeking  what  belonged 
to  her  former  ally  in  the  war  against 
Chile  in  1880." 

That  is  the  cause  of  the  revolution, 
tersely  expressed.  The  Guerra  Govern- 
ment   sought    a    Pacific    outlet    through 


Arica,  the  title  to  which  is  in  dispute 
between  Chile  and  Peru.  The  Republi- 
can Party  held  that  the  outlet  should  be 
through  Antofagasta.  The  former  policy 
naturally  would  have  weakened  Peru, 
Chile's  northern  rival.  Dr.  Jose  Maria 
Escalier,  chief  of  the  Republican  Party 
of  Bolivia,  who  was  in  Buenos  Aires  at 
the  time  of  the  revolution  in  La  Paz 
and  who  will  probably  be  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  Bolivia  at  the  next  election, 
stated  that  Bolivia's  claim  for  the  Arica 
outlet,  which  had  been  presented  to  the 
League  of  Nations,  would  be  withdrawn 
and  a  claim  to  Antofagasta  substituted. 
On  July  14,  in  a  special  train  under 
strong  guard,  ex-President  Guerra  was 
deported  from  Bolivia,  together  with  the 
former  Vice  President,  Ismael  Vasquez, 
and  several  of  their  supporters.  They 
were  taken  to  Arica.  As  a  precautionary 
measure  Chile,  on  the  same  day,  called  to 
the  colors  the  military  classes  of  1915  to 
1919,  inclusive,  of  the  four  northern 
provinces,  the  mobilization  involving 
about  10,000  men,  the  call  being  effective 
on  July  20  and  intended  to  continue 
thirty  days.  A  dispatch  received  by  the 
State  Department  on  July  15  said  that 
the  American  Consul  at  La  Paz  and 
other  representatives  of  the  Diplomatic 
and  Consular  Corps  accompanied  the  de- 
ported President  out  of  the  country.  On 
learning  of  the  revolution  Ignacio  Cal- 
deron,  Bolivian  Minister  to  the  United 
States,  resigned  his  position  at  Washing- 
ton, where  he  had  represented  his  coun- 
try since  May  27,  1904. 

BRAZIL— Delfin  Moreira,  Vice  Presi- 
dent of  Brazil,  who  was  President  from 
the  death  of  Senhor  Alves  in  January, 
1919,  to  the  inauguration  of  Dr.  Pessoa 
in  July,  died  in  Rio  Janeiro  on  June  30. 
An  election  to  choose  his  successor  has 
been  ordered  to  take  place  on  Sept.  5. 

A  bill  passed  by  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties revoked  the  decree  of  1889  banishing 
the  former  imperial  family  from  Brazil 
and  authorizes  the  Government  to  nego- 
tiate with  Portugal  for  the  return  to 
Brazil  of  the  bodies  of  the  Emperor, 
Dom  Pedro,  and  his  consort. 

Brazil  has  made  a  generous  gift  to 
France  of  the  great  hospital  which  Bra- 
zilians  installed   in    the   Jesuit  Fathers' 


REPUBLICS  OF  LATIN  AMERICA 


821 


building  in  the  Rue  Vaugirard,  Paris,  at 
a  cost  of  ten  million  francs.  The  French 
Faculty  of  Medicine  has  accepted  the  gift 
and  will  use  part  of  the  hospital  for 
teachipg  practical  surgery  to  Brazilian 
medical  students  in  Paris. 

CHILE— The  most  bitter  Presidential 
campaign  ever  waged  in  Chile  came  to 
an  end  in  the  balloting  on  June  25,  as  a 
result  of  which  Arturo  Alessandri  ob- 
tained 179  electoral  votes  and  Luis  Bor- 
gono  175.  The  electors  were  scheduled 
to  meet  on  July  25  and  both  houses  of 
Congress  will  convene  on  Aug.  30  to  re- 
ceive the  result.  Congress  has  the  power 
to  declare  vitiated  and  nullified  any  num- 
bed of  electoral  votes  and  may  leave 
both  candidates  without  the  required  ma- 
jority, in  which  case  Congress  must  elect 
one  of  the  two  as  President. 

Alessandri  was  nominated  by  a  com- 
bination of  radical  and  democratic  par- 
ties, Borgono  by  the  Liberal,  National  and 
Liberal  Democratic  parties,  three  mod- 
erate groups,  and  later  received  the  sup- 
port of  the  Conservatives,  the  business 
men  and  the  land  owners.  Alessandri 
received  strong  popular  support  from  the 
first,  the  people  seeing  in  his  candidacy 
hope  for  the  improvement  of  the  work- 
ers. An  attempt  to  assassinate  him 
while  speaking  from  the  balcony  of  his 
house  was  made  on  June  13,  but  the  bul- 
lets went  wild. 

Provincial  officials  were  charged  with 
not  maintaining  order  during  the  cam- 
paign and  were  removed  during  its 
progress.  Therefore  the  Liberal  Alliance 
demanded  the  resignation  of  three  mem- 
bers of  the  party  in  the  Coalition 
Cabinet.  They  complied  and  the  Cabinet 
fell  on  June  11.  Another,  formed  on 
June  16,  resigned  without  even  present- 
ing itself  to  the  Chamber.  Another 
Cabinet  was  sworn  in  on  July  3,  its  head 
being  Pedro  G.  de  la  Huerta,  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  who,  with  five  other 
Ministers,  belongs  to  the  moderate  par- 
ties or  Liberal  Alliance.  Borgono  car- 
ried Valparaiso  for  the  Liberal  Union- 
ists, while  Alessandri  won  in  the  capital, 
Santiago.  The  Unionists  have  a  major- 
ity in  the  Senate,  while  the  Liberal  Al- 
liance is  the  dominant  power  in  the 
Chamber. 


Celebration  of  the  Fjaurth  of  July  at 
the  American  Embassy  was  honored  by 
the  attendance  of  President  Sanfuentes 
and  the  new  Cabinet,  with  members  of 
the  Diplomatic  Corps.  Chile  has  sent 
eight  army  officers  to  the  United  States 
to  complete  their  training. 

PARAGUAY— Manuel  Gondra,  Para- 
guayan Minister  to  the  United  States, 
it  was  announced  on  June  28,  had  been 
elected  President  of  Paraguay,  and  Felix 
Paiva,  former  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
Vice  President.  Senor  Gondra  at  the 
time  was  on  the  ocean  on  his  way  from 
Buenos  Aires  to  New  York,  arriving  on 
July  2  to  resume  his  post  at  Washington, 
where  he  has  represented  Paraguay  for 
nearly  three  years.  He  went  at  once 
to  Washington,  where  he  met  his  wife 
and  children  and  saw  for  the  first  time 
his  baby  son,  bom  a  few  days  before 
his  arrival.  A  luncheon  was  given  in 
his  honor  on  July  9  by  Norman  H.  Davis, 
Acting  Secretary  of  State,  a  farewell 
function,  as  Senor  Gondra  was  about  to 
leave  for  Paraguay,  where  his  inaugura- 
tion as  President  will  take  place  on 
Aug.   15. 

PERU— For  the  first  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  Peru  the  President  personally 
called  on  the  representative  of  a  foreign 
country,  July  5,  during  the  celebration 
of  Independence  Day  at  the  American 
Embassy  in  Lima.  The  date  coincided 
with  the  first  anniversary  of  President 
Leguia's  inauguration.  Hundreds  of 
school  children,  headed  by  some  from 
Tacna  and  Arica,  marched  to  the  Amer- 
ican Embassy  to  present  a  petition  to 
William  E.  Gonzales,  the  Ambassador, 
requesting  the  aid  of  the  United  Stater, 
in  obtaining  the  return  of  the  two  prov- 
inces taken  from  Peru  by  Chile. 

President  Leguia  in  an  address  on  the 
same  day  referred  feelingly  to  Peru's 
loss  in  the  death  in  London  of  Major 
General  Gorgas,  who  had  recently  signed 
a  five-year  contract  to  direct  sanitary 
measures  in  Peru. 

URUGUAY— The  Anglo-South  Amer- 
ican Bank  in  Montevideo  on  July  2  de- 
livered a  check  for  $10,000,000,  the  larg- 
est ever  drawn  in  Uruguay,  to  the  Bank 


822 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


of  the  Republic  as  payment  by  the 
British  Government  of  the  first  install- 
ment for  credits  given  Great  Britain  by 
Uruguay  for  the  purchase  of  products 
of  the  country. 

WEST  INDIES 

One  of  the  results  of  the  recent 
Canada-West  Indies  conference  has  been 
a  plan,  announced  in  London  by  Lord 
Milner,  to  transfer  matters  relating  to 
the  Dominions  from  the  Colonial  Secre- 
tary to  a  new  department.  The  matter 
will  be  submitted  to  the  Liiperial  Con- 
ference next  year.  On  this  The  Jamaica 
Gleaner  says :  "  We  shall  in  future  have 
some  personal  attention  from  a  member 
of  the  Government  in  reality,  whereas 
now  we  have  it  but  in  name."  The  tariff 
proposal  agreed  upon  at  the  conference 
with  Canada  provides  for  three  scales 
of  preference,  ranging  from  a  moderate 
reduction  on  certain  articles  to  a  free 
list  of  others,  the  latter  including  a  num- 
ber of  foodstuffs  native  to  one  or  other 
of  the  countries.  A  substantial  prefer- 
ence is  proposed  for  West  Indian  sugar. 

JAMAICA — To  prevent  the  sending  of 
immature  bananas  to  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  the  Jamaica  Govern- 
ment has  initiated  legislation  providing 
a  heavy  fine  for  such  shipments.  The 
crop  is  very  short  as  a  result  of  dry 
weather,  and  it  was  stated  that  Jamaica 
would  be  obliged  to  import  more  food 
this  year  than  in  any  year  since  1916. 

CUBA — Official  trade  relations  have 
been  established  between  Cuba  and 
Canada,  owing  to  the  recent  enormoun 
development  of  commerce,  and  Cuba  har, 
named  as  her  first  Consul  General  to 
Canada  Major  Nicholas  Perez  Stable. 

Riotous  scenes  occurred  in  the  Cuban 
House  of  Representatives  on  June  21, 
when  the  sitting  v/as  suspended  because 
of  disorder.  There  had  been  a  legislative 
strike  for  several  weeks  previously  on 
the  part  of  the  Liberal  members,  who 
had  remained  away,  leaving  the  House 
without  a  quorum,  as  a  protest  against 
the  passage  at  the  last  session  of  r, 
conservative  measure  amending  the 
Crowder  electoral  law  so  that  coalitionr. 
of  national  political  parties  would  be 
permitted.     A  session  was  held  on  June 


14  which  the  Liberals  declared  illegal, 
and  when  its  minutes  were  approved  on 
June  21  there  were  violent  protests. 

A  crowd  had  gathered  outside  the 
building  in  anticipation  of  action  regu- 
lating the  rapacity  of  landlords  in  in- 
creasing house  rents.  When  the  sitting 
broke  up  without  action  on  this  measure 
there  were  hostile  demonstrations  against 
the  Deputies  and  several  shots  were  fired, 
but  the  police  finally  restored  order. 

The  National  Liberal  Convention  held 
in  Havana  on  July  11  unanimously  nomi- 
nated former  President  Jose  Miguel 
Gomez  as  its  candidate  for  President, 
and  on  the  following  day  nominated 
Miguel  Arango,  manager  of  the  Cuban 
Cane  Sugar  Corporation,  for  Vice  Presi- 
dent. The  platform  calls  for  legislation 
to  lovv^er  the  cost  of  living,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  women  workers,  repeal  of  the 
war  stamp  tax  and  tariff  reform. 

HAITI — Bandits  recently  raided  Port- 
au-Prince,  the  capital  of  Haiti,  but 
United  States  marines  restored  order 
after  killing  the  leaders  of  the  raid.  A 
secret  effort  to  overthrow  the  Govern- 
ment, directed  from  abroad,  is  said  to 
exist,  - 

Congressional  medals  of  honor  v/ere 
conferred  July  1  on  Lieutenant  Herman 
H.  Hanneken  and  Corporal  William  R. 
Button  of  the  Marine  Corps,  for  leading 
the  force  which  killed  the  Haitian  bandit 
chief,  Charlemagne  Peralte,  near  Grande 
Riviere  last  October.  They  disguised 
themselves  as  natives  and  at  night  led 
a  detachment  against  the  chief's  head- 
quarters, driving  off  a  counterattack  of 
several  hundred  of  Peralte's  followers. 
Next  morning  the  bandit  leader  and  nine 
of  his  bodyguard   were   found   dead. 

There  has  been  such  an  increase  of 
banditry  in  Haiti  since  the  armistice 
that  the  Compagnie  Nationale  des  Che- 
mins  de  Fer  d'Haiti  was  forced  into  a 
receivership  on  June  23.  A  large  amount 
of  the  company's  property  had  been  de- 
stroyed and  operation  had  been  pre- 
vented after  108  miles  had  been  com- 
pleted of  the  215  projected.  The  great 
war  stopped  the  work  and  revolutions 
and  bandits  made  the  company  insolvent, 
although  its  concessions  are  said  to  be 
of  great  value. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION 


II 


Story  of  the  San  Francisco  Gathering  That  Nominated 
Cox  and  Roosevelt — Mr.  Cummings's  Keynote  Speech 


THE  Democratic  National  Conven- 
tion met  at  San  Francisco  June 
28,  1920.  The  body  was  called  to 
order  by  Vice  Chairman  Kremer 
of  the  National  Committee.  The  Na- 
tional Chairman,  Eomer  S.  Cummings, 
was  chosen  as  temporary  presiding  offi- 
cer, and  his  keynote  speech  was  one  of 
the  notable  episodes  of  the  convention. 
The  speech  was  prepared  after  he  had 
obtained  President  Wilson's  views,  and  it 
was  acknowledged  that  it  reflected  the 
President's  position  on  public  questions. 
He  confined  himself  chiefly  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  League  of  Nations,  very 
strongly  supporting  the  Versailles  Treaty 
and  bitterly  denouncing  the  Republican 
opposition  to  the  President's  attitude, 
and  especially  criticising  Senator  Lodge 
and  the  other  Republican  Senators  for 
having  failed  to  ratify  the  treaty. 

Referring  to  the  Republican  National 
platform  Mr.  Cummings  said: 

"The  Republican  platform,  reactionary 
and  provincial,  is  the  very  apotheosis  of 
political  expediency.  Filled  with  premed- 
itated slanders  and  vague  promises,  it 
will  be  searched  in  vain  for  one  construc- 
tive suggestion  for  the  reformation  of  the 
conditions  which  it  criticises  and  deplores. 
The  oppressed  peoples  of  the  earth  will 
look  to  it  in  vain.  It  contains  no  mes- 
sage of  hope  for  Ireland ;  no  word  of 
mercy  for  Armenia,  and  it  conceals  a 
sword  for  Mexico.  It  is  the  work  of  men 
concerned  more  with  material  things  than 
with  human  rights.  It  contains  '  no 
thought,  no  purpose  which  can  give  im- 
pulse or  thrill  to  those  who  love  liberty 
and  hope  to  make  the  world  a  safer  and 
happier  place  for  the  average  man. 

DEMOCRATIC    ACHIEVEMENTS 

Mr.  Cummings  reviewed  at  length  the 
Democratic  achievements  since  1912, 
summarizing  as  the  outstanding  legisla- 
tive acts  for  which  the  Democrats  are 
entitled  to  credit,  the  following:  The 
income  tax,  the  establishment  of  a  non- 
partisan Tariff  Commission,  the  open- 
ing up  of  Alaska  to  commerce,  the  de- 


struction of  dollar  diplomacy,  driving 
out  a  corrupt  lobby  from  the  Capitol,  an 
effective  Seaman's  act,  the  creation  of 
the  Federal  Trade  Commission,  enact- 
ment of  child  labor  legislation,  devel- 
opment of  parcel  post  and  rural  free  de- 
livery, the  Good  Roads  bill,  the  Rural 
Credits  act,  making  the  Secretary  of 
Labor  a  Cabinet  officer,  adoption  of  the 
eight-hour  laws,  the  Clayton  amendment 
to  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  act,  adoption 
of  a  Corrupt  Practices  act,  creation  of 
Federal  Employment  Bureaus,  establish- 
ment of  Farm  Loan  Banks,  Postal  Sav- 
ings Banks,  and  the  Federal  Reserve 
System. 

He  praised  the  Democratic  Party  for 
the  Federal  Reserve  act,  stating  that  if 
it  had  accomplished  nothing  more  than 
that  "  it  would  be  entitled  to  the  endur- 
ing gratitude  of  the  nation."  He  re- 
viewed our  achievements  in  the  war  and 
refei-red  to  the  war  legislation  which  the 
Democrats  had  enacted,  especially  prais- 
ing the  selective  draft,  which,  he  stated, 
"  assured  equal  service,  equal  danger, 
and  equal  opportunity." 

Mr.  Cummings  asserted  that  partisan- 
ship was  put  aside  in  the  selection  of 
General  Pershing,  who  was  given  a 
free  hand.  There  was  no  politics  in  se- 
lecting officers.  He  praised  the  Admin- 
istration for  the  promptness  with  which 
American  soldiers  were  landed  in  France 
and  ascribed  the  great  success  of  our 
troops  to  the  "  inspired  and  incompar- 
able leadership  of  Woodrow  Wilson." 

DEFENSE  OF  WAR  POLICY 

The  Republicans  were  denounced  by 
Mr.  Cummings  for  their  policy  of  carp- 
ing criticism  and  bootless  investigation. 
"  Although  over  eighty  investigations 
have  been  made,"  he  said,  "  and  over  two 
million  dollars  have  been  wasted,  the  one 
result  has  been  to  prove  that  it  was  the 
cleanest  war  ever  fought  in  the  history 
of  civilization.     Through  the  hands  of  a 


824 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


JAMES  M.   COX 

Democratic  nominee  for 
President 

James  M.  Cox,  Governor  of 
Ohio  and  Democratic  nominee 
for  the  Presidency,  was  born  at 
Jacksonburg,  Ohio,  on  March  31. 
1870.  He  was  reared  on  a  farm 
and  received  his  early  educa- 
tion in  the  public  and  high 
schools.  He  began  his  career 
as  a  newsboy  and  later  as  a 
printer's  devil.  In  early  man- 
hood he  was  a  school  teacher. 
Eventually  he  became  a  reporter 
in  Middleton,  Ohio,  where  his 
ability  won  him  a  place  on  The 
Cincinnati  Enquirer,  of  which  he 
became  the  railroad  editor.  Mr. 
Cox  then  became  secretary  to 
Congressman  Sorg  at  Washing- 
ton until  1898,  when  he  re-entered 
the  newspaper  field  as  publisher 
and  part  owner  of  The  Dayton 
News.  Five  years  later  he  ac- 
quired The  Press  Republic  of 
Springfield,  Ohio,  and  changed 
its  name  to  The  Daily  News.  He 
was  nominated  for  the  Sixty-first 
Congress  from  the  Third  Dis- 
trict of  Ohio  in  1909,  and  served 
also  in  the  Sixty-second  Con- 
gress until  the  expiration  of  his 
term  in  1913.  He  was  elected 
Governor  of  Ohio  in  1913,  and 
re-elected  in  1917.  Governor  Cox 
was  divorced  from  his  first  wife, 
and  remarried  in  1917.  His 
record  as  Governor  has  been 
marked  by  numerous  reform 
measures. 

(©    Harris  d  Ewing) 


Democratic  Administration  there  have 
passed  mote  than  forty  billions  of  dollars 
and  the  finger  of  scom  does  not  point  to 
one  single  Democratic  official  in  all 
America." 

He  defended  the  cost  of  the  war,  say- 
ing that  "  we  bought  with  it  the  freedom 
and  the  safety  of  the  civilization  of  the 
world."  He  answered  the  charge  of  non- 
preparation  by  asserting  that  democra- 
cies are  never  prepared  for  war,  and  af- 
firmed that  the  Democratic  legislation 
prior  to  the  period  of  hostilities  had  pre- 
pared the  country  for  the  record  that  it 
made  during  the  war.  He  criticised  the 
Republicans  for  failing  to  pass  recon- 
struction measures  and  for  failing  to  set- 
tle foreign  and  domestic  questions.     He 


asserted  that  the  opposition  to  the  Ver- 
sailles Treaty  was  instigated  by  personal 
animosity,  inexplicable  jealousy,  political 
malice. 

PRESIDENT  WILSON  DEFENDED 

Ascribing  the  illness  of  the  President 
to  his  superhuman  labors,  Mr.  Cummings 
continued: 

As  he  lay  .stricken  in  the  White  House 
the  relentless  hand  of  malice  beat  upon 
the  door  of  the  sick  chamber.  The  ene- 
mies of  the  President  upon  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  repeated  every  slander  that 
envy  could  invent,  and  they'  could  scarcely 
control  the  open  manifestation  of  their 
glee  when  the  great  man  was  stricken  at 
last. 

The  Congress  was  in  session  for  months 
while    the    President    lay    in    the    White 


F 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION 


825 


FRANKLIN  DELANO 

ROOSEVELT 

Democratic  nominee  for  Vice 

President 

Franklin     D.      Roosevelt,     As- 
sistant   Secretary    of    the    Navy 
ind     Democratic     nominee     for 
rice     President,     was     born     in 
iyde    Park,    Dutchess    County, 
Y.,  on  Jan.  30.  1S82.     He  re- 
vived   his    early     education     in 
jroton  School.     He  was  gradu- 
ated from  Harvard  in  1904     and 
rom    the    Columbia    University 
iw    school    in    19C7,     when    he 
tas  admitted  to  the  New  York 
ftate  Bar.     Until  1910  he  prac- 
iced    law,    first    with    the    firm 
Carter,      Ledyard      &      Mil- 
)urn,     and    then    with     Marvin, 
Hooker    &    Roosevelt,    of    which 
he   was   a  member.      His   career 
in     several     respects     has     par- 
alleled     that     of     his      famous 
cousin,   Theodore  Roosevelt.     In 
1910  he  was  elected  to  the  New 
York   State  Senate  and   gained   a 
reputation  as  an  anti-Tammany 
Democrat.       Despite      Tammany 
opposition,   he  was  re-elected  to 
the    State    Senate    in'  1912,      He 
resigned   in  March,   1913.   to  ac- 
cept an   appointment  as  Assist- 
ant    Secretary     of     the     Navy. 
During  the  war,  in  the  absence 
of    Secretary    Daniels,     he    was 
several     times     called     upon     to 
take    charge    of    the    Navy    De- 
partment. He  is  married  and  has 
three    children. 

(©    Harris  <C-  Exoing) 


House,  struggling  with  a  terrifying  illness 
and,  at  times,  close  to  the  point  of  death. 
He  had  been  physically  wounded  just  as 
surely  as  were  Garfield  and  McKinley 
and  Lincoln,  for  it  is  but  a  difference  of 
degree  between  fanatics  and  partisans. 
The  Congress,  during  all  this  period, 
when  the  whole  heart  of  America  ought 
to  have  been  flowing  out  in  love  and  sym- 
pathy, did  not  find  time,  amid  their  bick- 
erings, to  pass  one  resolution  of  generous 
import  or  extend  one  kindly  inquiry  as  to 
the  fate  of  the  President  of  their  own 
country. 

And  what  was  his  offense?  Merely  this 
—that  he  strove  to  redeem  the  word  that 
America  had  given  to  the  world ;  that  he 
sought  to   save  a  future   generation   from 


the  agony  through  which  this  generation 
had  passed ;  that  he  had  taken  seriously 
the  promises  that  all  nations  had  made 
that  they  would  vmite  at  the  end  of  the 
war  in  a  compact  to  preserve  the  peace  of 
the  world,  and  that  he  relied  upon  the 
good  faith  of  his  own  people. 

In  one  sense  it  is  quite  immaterial  what 
people  say  about  the  President.  Nothing 
we  can  say  can  add  or  detract  from  the 
fame  that  will  flow  down  the  unending 
channels  of  history.  Generations  yet  un- 
born will  look  back  to  this  era  and  pay 
their  tribute  of  honor  to  the  man  who  led 
a  people  through  troublous  ways  out  of 
the  valleys  of  selfishness  up  to  the  moun- 
tain tops  of  achievement  and  honor,  and 
there  showed  them  the  promised  land  of 
freedom      and      safety      and      fraternity. 


826 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


Whether  history  records  that  they  entered 
in  or  turned  their  backs  upon  the  vision, 
it  is  all  one  with  him— he  is  immortal. 

There  are  men  who  seem  to  be  annoyed 
when  we  suggest  that  American  honor  is 
bovmd  up  in  this  contest,  and  that  good 
faith  requires  that  we  should  enter  the 
League  of  Nations.  The  whole  Republi- 
can case  is  based  upon  the  theory  that 
we  may.  with  honor,  do  as  we  please 
about  this  rhatter,  and  that  we  have  made 
no  promises  which  it  is  our  duty  to  re- 
deem.    Let  us  turn  again  to  the  record. 

RECORD  OF  LEAGUE  PROJECT 

The  speaker  reviewed  the  record  lead- 
ing up  to  the  creation  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  He  stated  that  both  the  Repub- 
lican and  Democratic  Parties  had  de- 
clared in  1916  *'  for  the  pacific  settle- 
ment of  international  disputes "  ;  that 
"the  President  on  Dec.  18,  1916,  pro- 
posed the  creation  of  a  League  of  Na- 
tions in  a  note  addressed  to  the  nations 
at  war.  The  Central  powers  answered 
this  note  evasively,  but  the  Allies  on  Jan. 
10,  1917,  declared  their  whole-hearted 
agreement  with  the  proposal."  He 
quoted  from  the  President's  Senate 
speech  of  Jan.  22,  1917,  defending  a 
"  definite  concert  of  power,  which  will 
make  it  fairly  impossible  that  any  such 
catastrophe  should  ever  overwhelm  us 
again."  From  the  President's  war  mes- 
sage of  April  2,  1917,  he  quoted  the 
phrase  "  a  war  against  wiar "  and  "  a 
universal  dominion  of  right  by  such  a 
concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring 
peace  and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make 
the  world  itself  at  last  free." 

Mr.  Cummings  next  cited  the  Presi- 
dent's address  before  Congress  on  Jan.  8, 
1918,  setting  forth  the  famous  Fourteen 
Points,  the  last  of  which,  he  said,  "is 
practically  identical  in  language  with 
provisions  of  Article  X.  of  the  League 
covenant,  providing  that  a  general  asso- 
ciation of  nations  must  be  formed  under 
specific  covenants  for  the  purpose  of 
conferring  mutual  guarantees  of  politi- 
cal independence  and  territorial  integrity 
to  great  and  small  States  alike." 

HOW  OUR  HONOR  IS  INVOLVED 

He  asserted  that  on  Nov.  11,  1918, 
when  the  armistice  was  agreed  to,  it  was 
concluded  upon  the  basis  of  the  Fourteen 
Points,  and  that  when  the  armistice  was 


signed  all  the  nations  renewed  the  pledge 
as  set  forth  therein.     He  added: 

Practically  all  of  the  civilized  nations 
of  tne  earth  have  now  united  in  a  cove- 
nant which  constitutes  the  redemption  of 
that  pledge.  We  alone  have  thus  far 
failed  to  keep  our  word.  Others  may 
break  faith ;  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  may  break  faith ;  the  Republican 
Party  may  break  faith ;  but  neither 
President  "Wilson  nor  the  Democratic 
Party  will  break  faith. 

In  this  hemisphere  the  mere  declara- 
tion of  our  young  republic  that  the  at- 
tempt of  any  foreign  power  to  set  foot 
on  American  soil  would  be  considered  an 
unfriendly  act  has  served  to  preserve 
"  the  territorial  integrity  and  the  politi- 
cal independence  "  of  the  nations  of 
Central  and  South  America.  The  treaty 
pledges  all  of  the  signatories  to  make  this 
doctrine  effective  everywhere.  It  is  the 
Monroe    Ddctrine    of   the   world. 

The  purpose  of  the  League  is  to  give 
notice  that  if  any  nation  raises  its  menac- 
ing hand  and  seeks  to  cross  the  line  into 
any  other  country,  the  forces  of  civiliza- 
tion will  be  aroused  to  suppress  the  com- 
mon enemy  of  peace.  Therein  lies  the 
security  of  small  nations  and  the  safety 
of  the  world. 

OBJECTIONS   ANSWERED 

Mr.  Cummings  challenged  the  objec- 
tion that  the  League  of  Nations  would 
involve  our  country  in  foreign  wars.  He 
replied  that  we  had  already  become  in- 
volved in  foreign  wars  through  a  terri- 
torial controversy  between  Serbia  and 
Austria,  and  that  this  occurred  before 
there  was  a  League  of  Nations.  If,  in 
the  midst  of  battle,  a  league  of  friend- 
ship under  unified  command  enabled  us 
to  win  the  war,  he  asked,  why  should  not 
the  association  be  continued  in  a  more 
definite  and  binding  form? 

What  plausible  reason  [he  continued] 
can  be  suggested  for  wasting  the  one 
great  asset  which  has  come  out  of  the 
war?  How  else  shall  we  provide  for  in- 
ternational arbitration?  How  else  shall 
we  provide  for  open  diplomacy?  how 
else  shall  A^e  provide  safety  from  external 
aggression?  How  else  shall  we  provide 
for   progressive   disarmament? 

How  else  shall  we  check  the  spread  of 
Bolshevism?  How  else  shall  industry  be 
made  safe  and  the  basis  of  reconstruc- 
tion established?  How  else  shall  society 
be  steadied  so  that  the  processes  of  heal- 
ing may  serve  their  beneficent  purpose? 
Until  the  critics  of  the  League  offer  a 
better  method  of  preserving  the  peace  of 
the    world    they    are    not    entitled    to    one 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION 


527 


loment's  consideration  in  the  forum  cf 
Jthe  conscience  of  mankind. 

Not  only  does  the  covenant  guarantee 
justice  for  the  future  but  it  holds  the  one 
remedy  for  the   evils  of  the   past.     As   it 

Istanr's  today,  war  is  the  one  way  in 
which  America  can  express  its  sympathy 
for  the  oppressed  of  the  world.  The 
t-eague  of  Nations  removes  the  conven- 
tional shackles  of  diplomacy.  Under  the 
],  covenant  it  is  our  friendly  right  to  pro- 
test against  tyranny  and  to  act  as  coun- 
sel for  the  weak  nations  now  without  an 
effective   champion. 

The  speaker  criticised  the  Republican 
platform  for  containing  a  "  vague  prom- 
ise to  establish  another  or  a  different 
form  of  association  among  nations  of  a 
tenuous  and  shadowy  character,"  and 
added: 

There  is  no  mental  dishonesty  more 
transparent  than  that  which  expresses 
fealty  to  a  League  of  Nations  while  op- 
posing the  only  League  of  Nations  that 
exists  or  is  ever  apt  to  exist.  Why  close 
our  eyes  to  actual  world  conditions?  A 
League  of  Nations  already  exists.  It  is 
not  a  project,  it  is  a  fact.  We  must 
either  enter  it  or  remain  out  of  it. 

He  named  the  states  that  actually- 
signed  and  ratified  the  treaty  and  as- 
serted that  the  only  eligible  nations  of 
the  world  standing  outside  were  "  revolu- 
tionary Mexico,  Bolshevist  Russia,  un- 
speakable Turkey  and  the  United  States 
of  America." 

THE  "  SIX  VOTES  "  CHARGE 

He  replied  to  the  charge  that  the  Brit- 
ish Empire  has  six  votes  and  the  United 
States  one  by  calling  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  Executive  Council  and  not  the 
Assembly  is  the  governing  body,  and  that 
the  United  States  is  one  of  five  coun- 
tries having  permanent  membership  in 
the  council,  stating  that  no  formative 
action  can  be  taken  in  any  essential  mat- 
ter without  a  uniform  vote  of  all  mem- 
bers of  the  council.   He  added : 

Moreover,  the  United  States  insisted  that 
Cuba,  Haiti,  Liberia,  Panama,  Nicaragua, 
Honduras  and  Guatemala  should  each 
be  given  a  vote,  as  well  as  the  nations  of 
South  America,  great  and  small.  In- 
cluding the  nations  which  .are  bound  by 
vital  interests  to  the  United  States,  or, 
indeed,  directly  under  our  tutelage,  we 
have  more  votes  in  the  League  of  Nations 
than  any  other  nation.  How  could  we, 
in  good  faith,  urge  that  these  nations 
be  given  a  voice  and  deny  a  voice  to  such 


self-governing  nations  as  Canada,  New 
Zealand  and  the  rest,*  which,  relatively 
speaking,  made  far  more  sacrifices  in  the 
war  than  our  own  country?  It  is  desir- 
able that  all  countries  should  have  an 
opportunity  to  be  heard  in  the  League, 
and  the  safety  of  each  nation  resides  in 
the  fact  that  no  action  can  be  taken  with- 
out the  consent  of  all. 

He  then  bitterly  assailed  Senator 
Lodge  and  other  Republican  Senators, 
charging  them  with  the  defeat  of  the 
treaty,  stating  that  they  were  prompted 
in  this  action  because  it  had  been  nego- 
tiated by  a  Democratic  President. 

He  asserted  that  the  treaty  was  re- 
ferred to  a  committee  studiously  pre- 
pared for  its  hostile  reception.  Had  the 
President  assented  to  any  changes  made 
by  this  committee  that  would  have  al- 
tered its  nature,  said  the  speaker,  it 
would  have  been  a  breach  of  faith  with 
the  President's  associates  in  the  Peace 
Conference  and  a  violation  of  the  Amer- 
ican pledges. 

He  denied  that  the  President  was  op- 
posed to  interpretative  reservations  not 
incompatible  with  America's  honor  and 
interest.  When  the  President  came  back 
from  Paris,  Feb.  19,  1919,  bringing  the 
first  tentative  draft  of  the  covenant,  he 
invited  criticism  and  received  four  amend- 
ments from  former  President  Taft,  six 
from  Senator  Elihu  Root  and  seven  from 
former  Supreme  Court  Justice  Hughes. 
These  amendments,  said  Mr.  Cummings, 
were  taken  back  by  the  President  to 
Paris  and  their  substance  was  "  actually 
incorporated  in  the  revised  draft  of  the 
league."  Senator  Lodge  had  refused  to 
offer  a  constructive  amendment.  The 
speaker  denounced  the  Republican  Sen- 
ators for  defeating  the  treaty,  declaring 
that  "  the  Old  Guard  sold  the  honor  of 
America  for  the  privilege  of  nominating 
a  reactionary  for  President."  He  closed 
with  an  eloquent  peroration,  reasserting 
the  ideals  of  peace  as  set  forth  in  the 
covenant  of  nations. 

DEBATING  THE  PLATFORM 

The  convention  was  permanently  or- 
ganized by  the  selection  of  Senator  Jo- 
seph T.  Robinson  of  Arkansas  as  Chair- 
man. There  was  a  spirited  contest  be- 
fore the  Resolutions  Committee  over  cer- 
tain   features    of    the    platform,    chiefly 


828 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


over  the  planks  relating  to  prohibition, 
the  League  of  Nations  and  the  Irish 
question.  These  issues  were  discussed 
at  all-night  sessions  and  the  committee 
was  in  session  for  three  days.  It  finally- 
reached  a  decision  in  the  early  hours  of 
July  2.  The  original  draft  of  the  plat- 
form was  slightly  amended  by  adding 
the  words,  "  we  advocate  prompt  ratifi- 
cation of  the  treaty  without  reserva- 
tions which  would  imperil  its  essential 
integrity,  but  we  do  not  oppose  reserva- 
tions which  would  make  more  clear  and 
specific  our  obligations  to  the  associated 
nations." 

The  platform  was  reported  to  the  con- 
vention on  Friday,  July  2,  and  was  de- 
bated for  several  hours.  The  chief 
amendments  were  offered  by  William  J. 
Bryan.  He  proposed  a  straight  prohibi- 
tion plank,  which  was  defeated  by  a 
vote  of  929 1^  to  155 1^.  W.  Bourke  Cock- 
ran,  acting  for  Tammany  and  the  "lib- 
eral intereslts,"  offered  a  resolution  ap- 
proving a  plank  favoring  light  wines, 
beer  and  cider,  which  was  defeated  by 
a  vote  of  726 1^  to  356.  A  proposed 
amendment  declaring  for  the  recognition 
of  the  Irish  Republic  was  defeated  by  a 
vote  of  402  yeas  to  676  nays. 

NOMINATION  OF  CANDIDATES 

The  nomination  of  candidates  had  pre- 
ceded the  report;  of  the  Resolutions  Com- 
mittee, The  following  were  placed  in 
nomination : 

Senator  ROBERT  L.  OWEN  of  Oklahoma. 

Ex-Ambassador  JAMES  W.  GERARD  of 
New  York. 

HOMER  S.    CUMMINGS   of   Connecticut. 

Senator  GILBERT  M.  HITCHCOCK  of 
Nebraska. 

Attorney  General  MITCHELL.  PALMER  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Secretary  of  Agriculture  EDWIN  T. 
MEREDITH   of  Iowa. 

Governor   JAMES    M.    COX   of   Ohio. 

Governor  ALFRED  E.  SMITH  of  New 
York. 

Ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury  WILLIAM 
G.    McADOO    of   New   York. 

Governor  EDWARD  I.  EDWARDS  of 
New  Jersey. 

Senator  F.  M.  SIMMONS  of  North  Caro- 
lina. 

Senator   CARTER   GLASS    of  Virginia. 

Ambassador  JOHN  W.  DAVIS  of  West 
Virginia. 

FRANCIS  BURTON  HARRISON,  Gover- 
nor  General  of  the   Philippines. 


Balloting  for  candidates  began  Friday 
afternoon,  July  2,  and  'two  ballots  were 
taken  before  adjournment.  The  first  re- 
sulted as  follows  for  the  chief  candi- 
dates : 


McAdoo   266 

Cox    134 

Palmer   256 

Cummings  ...*.  25 

Davis    32 

Edwards    42 

Gerard   21 


Glass  26V. 

Hitchcock   18 

Meredith    72 

Owen    33 

Smith    109 

Vice     President 

Marshall    35 


On  the  second  ballot  the  McAdoo  vote 
increased  23,  Cox  lost  25,  Palmer  in- 
creased 8. 

The  convention  was  in  session  all  day 
Saturday,  from  noon  until  midnight,  and 
cast  twenty  ballots  without  materially 
changing  the  results.  At  the  twenty- 
second  ballot,  when  the  convention  ad- 
journed, the  McAdoo  vote  had  increased 
to  372 1^,  the  Cox  vote  to  430;  the 
Palmer  vote  had  fallen  to  166 1/^,  Ambas- 
sador Davis  had  increased  to  52,  and  the 
rest  of  the  votes  were  scattered. 

The  convention  adjourned  at  midnight 
Saturday  until  the  following  Monday. 
The  sessions  were  then  continued  the 
entire  day,  with  short  recesses,  and  the 
result  was  not  reached  until  1:39  A.  M., 
July  6,  San  Francisco  time,  when  Gov- 
ernor James  M.  Cox  of  Ohio  was  nomi- 
nated on  the  forty-fourth  ballot.  There 
had  been  great  uncertainty  throughout 
the  session,  and  the  hopes  of  the  various 
candidates  had  fluctuated  as  the  bal- 
loting proceeded.  On  the  thirty-eighth 
ballot  Attorney  General  Palmer  released 
his  delegates  and  in  the  succeeding  bal- 
lots Governor  Cox  gained  steadily  until, 
in  the  course  of  the  forty-fourth,  he  had 
690  votes.  It  was  apparent  before  the 
ballot  was  completed  that  he  would  ob- 
tain the  729  votes  to  make  the  two-thirds 
majority  required  to  nominate  him,  and 
the  nomination  was  made  unanimous. 
The  forty-fourth  ballot,  as  far  as  record- 
ed, stood  as  follows:  Cox  732 1/^  votes, 
McAdoo  267,  Palmer  1,  Davis  52,  Cum- 
mings 1,  Owen  34,  Glass  1^/^. 

The  convention  reassembled  at  noon 
Tuesday,  July  7,  when  nominations  for 
Vice  President  were  made  and  the  fol- 
lowing were  placed  in  nomination: 
DAVID  R.  FRANCIS  of  Missouri,  ex-Am- 
bassador to  Russia. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION 


829 


[MAJOR  GEN.  L.   D.  TYSON  of  Tennessee. 
GOVERNOR     SAMUEL.     D.     STEWART     of 

Montana. 
EX-GOVERNOR    JAMES    H.    HAWLEY    of 

Idaho. 
JOSEPH  S.   DAVIES  of  Wisconsin. 
T.  T    VAUGHAN  of  Oregon. 
EDWARD  L.   DOHENY  of  California. 

It  was  apparent  at  the  conclusion  of 


the  nominating  speeches  that  the  drift 
of  the  convention  was  overwhelmingly 
for  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  of  New  York, 
and  before  a  ballot  was  taken  the  other 
nominees  withdrew  and  the  selection  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt  was  made  unanimous, 
whereupon  the  convention  adjourned. 


Text  of  the  Democratic  Platform 


THE  full  text  of  the  platform  adopted 
by    the    Democratic    Convention    at 
San  Francisco  on  July  2,  1920,  is  as 
follows: 

The  Democratic  Party,  in  its  national  con- 
vention now  assembled,  sends  greetings  to 
he  President  of  the  United  States,  Woodrow 
ilson,  and  hails  with  patriotic  pride  the 
great  achievements  for  the  country  and  the 
world  wi^ought  by  a  Democratic  Administra- 
tion under  his  leadership. 

It  salutes  the  mighty  people  of  this  great 
Republic,  emerging  with  imperishable  honor 
from  the  severe  tests  and  grievous  strains 
of  the  most  tragic  war  in  history,  having 
earned  the  plaudits  and  the  gratitude  of  all 
free    nations. 

It  declares  its  adherence  to  the  funda- 
mental progressive  principles  of  social,  eco- 
nomic and  industrial  justice  and  advance, 
and  purposes  to  resume  the  great  work  of 
translating  these  principles  into  effective 
laws,  begun  and  carried  far  by  the  Demo- 
cratic Administration  and  interrupted  only 
when  the  war  claimed  all  the  national 
energies  for  the  single  task  of  victory. 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  Democratic  Party  favors  the  League 
of  Nations  as  the  surest,  if  not  the  only, 
practicable  means  of  maintaining  the  perma- 
nent peace  of  the  world  and  terminating  the 
insufferable  burden  of  great  military  and 
naval  establishments.  It  was  for  this  that 
America  broke  away  from  traditional  isola- 
tion and  spent  her  blood  and  treasvire  to 
crush  a  colossal  scheme  of  conquest.  It  was 
upon  this  basis  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  in  prearrangement  with  our 
allies,  consented  to  a  suspension  of  hos- 
tilities against  the  Imperial  German  Govern- 
ment; the  armistice  was  granted  and  a 
treaty  of  peace  negotiated  upon  the  definite 
assurance  to  Germany,  as  well  as  to  the 
powers  pitted  against  Germany,  that  "  a 
general  association  of  nations  must  be 
formed,  under  specific  covenants,  for  the 
purpose  of  affording  mutual  guarantees  of 
political  independence  and  territorial  integ- 
rity to  great  and  small  States  alike."  Hence, 
we   not   only   congratulate    the    President   on 


the  vision  manifested  and  the  vigor  ex- 
hibited in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  but  we 
felicitate  him  and  his  associates  on  the  ex- 
ceptional achievements  at  Paris  involved  in 
the  adoption  of  a  league  and  treaty  so  near 
akin  to  previously  expressed  American  ideals 
and  so  intimately  related  to  the  aspirations 
of  civilized  peoples  everywhere. 

We  commend  the  President  for  his  courage 
and  his  high  conception  of  good  faith  in 
steadfastly  standing  for  the  covenant  agreed 
to  by  all  the  associated  and  allied  nations 
at  war  with  Germany,  and  we  condemn  the 
Republican  Senate  for  its  refusal  to  ratify 
the  treaty  merely  because  it  was  the  product 
of  Democratic  statesmanship,  thus  interpos- 
ing partisan  envy  and  personal  hatred  in  the 
way  of  the  peace  ind  renewed  prosperity  o£ 
the  world. 

By  every  accepted  standard  of  interna- 
tional morality  the  President  is  justified  in 
asserting  that  the  honor  of  the  country  is  in- 
volved in  this  business;  and  we  point  to  the 
accusing  fact  that  before  it  was  determined 
to  initiate  political  antagonism  to  the  treaty, 
the  new  Republican  Chairman  of  the  Senate 
Foreign  Relations  Committee  himself  pub- 
licly proclaimed  that  any  proposition  for  a 
separate  peace  with  Germany,  such  as  he  and 
his  painty  associates  thereafter  reported  to 
the  Senate,  would  make  us  "  guilty  of  the 
blackest  crime." 

On  May  15,  last,  the  Knox  substitute  for 
the  Versailles  Treaty  was  passed  by  the  Re- 
publican Senate;  and  this  convention  can 
contrive  no  more  fitting  characterization  of 
its  obloquy  than  that  made  in  the  Forum 
Magazine  of  December,  1918,  by  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge,  when  he  said : 

"  If  we  sent  our  armies  and  young  men 
abroad  to  be  killed  and  wounded  in  Northern 
France  and  Flanders  with  no  result  but  this, 
our  entrance  into  war  with  such  an  inten- 
tion was  a  crime  which  nothing  can  justify." 

The  intent  of  Congress  and  the  intent  of 
the  President  was  that  there  could  be  no 
peace  until  we  could  create  a  situation  where 
no  such  war  as  this  could  recur.  We  can- 
not make  peace  except  in  company  with  our 
allies.  It  would  brand  us  with  everlasting 
dishonor  and  bring  ruin  to  us  also  if  we 
undertook  to  make  separate  peace. 


830 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Thus,  to  that  which  Mr.  Lodge,  in  saner 
moments,  considered  "  the  blackest  crime  " 
lie  and  his  par-ty  in  madness  sought  to  give 
the  sanctity  of  law;  that  which  eighteen 
months  ago  was  of  "  everlasting  dishonor  " 
the  Republican  Party  and  its  candidates  to- 
day accept  as  the  essence  of  faith. 

We  indorse  the  President's  view  of  our 
international  obligations  and  his  firm  stand 
against  reservations  designed  to  cut  to  pieces 
the  vital  provisions  of  the  Versailles  Treaty, 
and  we  commend  the  Democrats  in  Congress 
for  voting  against  resolutions  for-  separate 
peace  which  would  disgrace  the  nation.  We 
advocate  the  immediate  ratification  of  the 
treaty  without  reservations  which  would  im- 
pair its  essential  integrity,  but  do  not 
oppose  the  acceptance  of  any  reservations 
making  clearer  or  more  specific  the  obliga- 
tions of  the  United  States  to  the  League 
associates. 

Only  by  doing  this  may  we  retrieve  the 
reputation  of  this  nation  among  the  powers 
of  the  earth  and  recover  the  moral  leader- 
ship which  President  'Wilson  won  and  which 
Republican  politicians  at  Washington  sacri- 
ficed. Only  by  doing  this  may  we  hope  to 
aid  effectively  in  the  restoration  of  order 
throughout  the  world  and  to  take  the  place 
which  we  should  assume  in  the  front  rank 
of  spiritual,  commercial  and  industrial  ad- 
vancement. 

We  reject  as  utterly  vain,  if  not  viciovis, 
the  Republican  assumption  that  ratification 
of  the  treaty  and  membership  in  the  League 
of  Nations  would  in  any  way  impair  the 
integrity  or  independence  of  our  country. 
The  fact  that  the  covenant  has  been  entered 
into  by  twenty-nine  nations,  all  as  jealous 
of  their  independence  as  we  are  of  ours,  is  a 
sufficient  refutation  of  such  , charge.  The 
President  repeatedly  has  declared,  and  this 
convention  reaffirms,  that  all  our  duties  and 
obligations  as  a  member  of  the  League  must 
be  fulfilled  in  strict  conformity  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  embodied 
in  which  is  the  fundamental  requirement  of 
declaratory  action  by  the  Congress  before 
this  nation  may  become  a  participant  in  any 
war. 

THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR 

During  the  war  President  Wilson  exhibited 
the  very  broadest  conception  of  liberal 
Americanism.  In  his  conduct  of  the  war, 
as  in  the  general  administration  of  his  high 
office,  there  was  no  semblance  of  partisan 
bias.  He  invited  to  Washington  as  his  coun- 
cilors and  coadjutors  hvmdreds  of  the  most 
prominent  and  pronounced  Republicans  in 
the  country.  To  these  he  committed  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  gravest  import  and  most 
confidential  nature.  Many  of  them  had 
charge  of  vital  activities  of  the  Government. 

And  yet,  with  the  war  successfully  prose- 
cuted and  gloriously  ended,  the  Republican 
Party  in  Congress,  far  from  applauding  the 
masterly  leadership  of  the  President  and 
felicitating     the     country     on     the     amazing 


achievements  of  the  American  Government, 
has  meanly  requited  the  considerate  course 
of  the  Chief  Magistrate  by  savagely  defam- 
ing the  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  and  by  assailing  nearly  every 
public  officer  of  every  branch  of  the  service 
intimately  concerned  in  winning  the  war 
abroad  and  preserving  the  security  of  the 
Government  at  home. 

We  express  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors  and 
marines  of  America  the  admiration  of  their 
fellow-countrymen.  Guided  by  the  genius 
oC  cuch  a,  ccn-.-iander  as  General  John  J. 
I^crc".:iing,  the  armed  force  of  America  con- 
stituted a  decisive  factor  in  the  victory  and 
brought  new  lustre  to  the  flag. 

We  commend  the  patriotic  men  and  women 
who  sustained  the  efforts  of  their  Govern- 
ment in  crucial  hours  of  the  war  and  con- 
tributed, to  the  brilliant  administrative  suc- 
cess achieved  under  the  broad  leadership  of 
the  President. 

ACHIEVEMENTS  IN  FINANCE 

A  review  of  the  record  of  the  Democratic 
Party  during  the  Administration  of  Wood- 
row  Wilson  presents  a  chapter  of  substantial 
achievements  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of 
the  Republic.  For  fifty  years  before  the  ad- 
vent of  this  Administration  periodical  con- 
vulsions had  impeded  the  industrial  prog- 
ress of  the  American  people  and  caused  in- 
estimable loss  and  distress.  By  the  enact- 
ment of  the  Federal  Reserve  act  the  old 
system,  which  bred  panics,  was  replaced  by 
a  new  system  which  insured  confidence.  It 
was  an  indispensable  factor  in  winning  the 
war  and  today  it  is  the  hope  and  inspira- 
tion of  business.  Indeed,  one  vital  danger 
against  which  the  American  people  should 
keep  constantly  on  guard  is  the  commit- 
ment of  this  system  to  the  partisan  enemies 
who  struggled  against  its  adoption  and  vain- 
ly attempted  to  retain  in  the  hands  of  specu- 
lative bankers  a  monopoly  of  the  currency 
and  credits  of  the  nation.  Already  there 
are  well-defined  indications  of  an  assault 
upon  the  vital  principles  of  the  system  in 
the  event  of  Republican  success  in  the  elec- 
tions in  November. 

Under  Democratic  leadership  the  American 
people  successfully  financed  their  stupendous 
part  in  the  greatest  war  of  all  time.  The 
Treasury  wisely  insisted  during  the  war  upon 
meeting  an  adequate  portion  of  the  war  ex- 
penditure from  current  taxes  and  the  bulk 
of  the  balance  from  popular  loans,  during 
the  first  full  fiscal  year  after  fighting 
stopped,  upon  meeting  current  expenditures 
from  current  receipts  notwithstanding  the 
new  and  unnecessary  burdens  thrown  upon 
the  Treasury  by  the  delay,  obstruction  and 
extravagance  of  a  Republican  Congress. 

The  non-partisan  Federal  Reserve  authori- 
ties have  been  wholly  free  of  political  inter- 
ference or  motive;  and,  in  their  own  time 
and  their  own  way,  have  used  courageously, 
though  cautiously,  the  instruments  at  their 
disposal  to  prevent  undue  expansion  of  credit 


TEXT   OF   THE   DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM 


831 


,  LctJ 


in  the  country.     As  a  result  of  these  sound 
reasury   and    Federal    Reserve   policies,    the 

vitable  war  inflation  has  been  held  down 

a  minimum  and  the  cost  of  living-  has  been 
evented    from    increasing    here    in    propor- 

n     to     the     increase     in     other     belligerent 

lUntries,     and    in    neutral    countries    which 

n   close   contact   with   the   world's   com- 

rce   and   exchanges. 

fter    a    year    and    a    half    of    fighting    in 

rope  and  despite  another  year  and  a  half 
ot  Republican  obstruction  at  home,  the 
credit  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  stands  unimpaired ;  the  Federal  Re- 
serve note  is  the  unit  of  value  throughout 
all  the  world,  and  the  United  States  is  the 
one  great  country  in  the  world  which  main- 
tains a  free  gold  market. 
We  condemn  the  attempt  of  the  Republi- 
n    Party    to    deprive    the    American    people 

their  legitimate  pride  in  the  financing  of 
the  war— an  achievement  without  parallel  in 
the  financial  history  of  this  or  any  other 
country,  in  this  or  any  other  War.  And  in 
particular  we  condemn  the  pernicious  at- 
tempt of  the  Republican  Party  to  create  dis- 
content among  the  holders  of  the  bonds  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  drag  our  public  finance  and  "our  banking 
and  currency  system  back  into  the  arena 
3f   party    politics. 

REVISION  OF  TAXATION 

We  condemn  the  failure  of  the  present 
Congress  to  respond  to  the  oft-repeated  de- 
mand of  the  President  and  the  Secretaries 
of  the  Treasury  to  revise  the  existing  tax 
laws.  The  continuance  in  force  in  peace 
times  of  taxes  devised  under  pressure  of 
imperative  necessity  to  pr-oduce  a  revenue 
for  war  purposes  is  indefensible  and  can 
only  result  in  lasting  injury  to  the  people. 
Tlie  Republican  Congress  persistently  failed, 
through  sheer  political  cowardice,  to  make 
a  single  move  toward  a  readjustment  of  tax 
laws,  which  it  denounced  before  the  last 
election  and  was  afraid  to  revise  before  the 
next  election. 

We  advocate  tax  reform  and  a  earching 
revision  of  tlie  war  revenue  acts  to  fit  peace 
conditions,  so  that  the  wealth  of  the  nation 
may  not  be  withdrawn  from  productive  en- 
terprise and  diverted  to  wasteful  or  non- 
productive expenditure. 

We  demand  prompt  action  by  the  next 
Congress  for  a  complete  survey  of  existing 
taxes  and  their  modification  and  simplifica- 
tion, with  a  view  to  secure  greater  equity 
and  justice  in  tax  burden  and  improvement 
in    administration. 

PUBLIC  ECONOMY  RESULTS 

Claiming  to  have  effected  great  economies 
in  Government  expenditures,  the  Republi- 
can Party  cannot  show  the  reduction  of  one 
dollar  in  taxation  as  a  corollary  of  this 
false  pretense.  In  contrast,  the  last  Demo- 
cratic Congress  enacted  legislation  reducing 
taxes     from     !?8,000,000,000,     designed     to     be 


raised,  to  ?(5, 000, 000,000  for  the  first  year 
after  the  armistice  arvi  to  $4,000,000,000 
thereafter ;  and  there  the  total  is  left  vm- 
diminished  by  our  political  adversaries. 
Two  years  after  armistice  day  a  Republi- 
can Congress  provides  for  expending  the 
stupendous    sum    of   $5,403,390,327.30. 

Affecting  great  paper  economies  by  reduc- 
ing departmental  estimates  of  sums  which 
would  not  have  been  spent  in  any  event,  and 
by  reducing  formal  appropriations,  the  Re- 
publican statement  of  expenditures  omits  the 
pregnant  fact  that  Congress  authorized  the 
use  of  .$1,500,000,000  in  the  hands  of  various 
departments  and  bureaus,  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  converted  into  the  Treas- 
ury, and  which  should  be  added  to  the  Re- 
publican  total    of   expenditures. 

HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

The  high  cost  of  living  and  the  deprecia- 
tion of  bond  values  in  this  country  are 
primarily  due  to  war  itself,  to  the  neces- 
sary Governmental  expenditures  for  the  de- 
structive purposes  of  war,  to  private  ex- 
travagance, to  the  world  shortage  of  capi- 
tal, to  the  inflation  of  foreign  currencies 
and  credits  and,  in  large  degree,  to  con- 
scienceless   profiteering. 

The  Republican  Party  is  responsible  for 
the  failure  to  restore  peace  and  peace  con- 
ditions in  Europe,  which  is  a  principal  cause 
of  post-armistice  inflation  the  world  over. 
It  has  denied  the  demand  of  the  President 
for  necessary  legislation  to  deal  wijth  sec- 
ondary and  local  causes.  The  sound  poli- 
cies pursued  by  the  Treasury  and  the  Fed- 
eral Reserve  System  have  limited  in  this 
country,  though  they  could  not  prevent,  the 
inflation  which  was  worldwide.  Elected 
upon  specific  promises  to  curtail  public  ex- 
penditures and  to  bring  the  country  back 
to  a  status  of  effective  economy,  the  Re- 
publican Party  in  Congress  wasted  time  and 
energy  for  more  than .  a  year  in  vain  and 
extravagant  investigations,  costing  the  tax- 
payers great  sums  of  money,  while  revealing 
nothing  beyond  the  incapacity  of  Republi- 
can politicians  to  cope  with  the  problems. 
Demanding  that  the  President,  from  his 
place  at  the  peace  table,  call  the  Congi-ess 
into  extraordinary  session  for  imperative 
purposes  of  readjustment,  the  Congress 
when  convened  spent  thirteen  months  in  par- 
tisan pursuits,  failing  to  repeal  a  single 
war  statute  which  harassed  business,  or 
to  initiate  a  single  constructive  measure  to 
help  business.  It  busied  itself  making  a 
pre-election  record  of  pretended  thrift,  hav- 
ing not  one  particle  of  substantial  exist- 
ence in  fact.  It  raged  against  profiteers 
and  the  high  cost  of  living  without  enacting 
a  single  statute  to  make  the  former  afraid 
or  doing  a  single  act  to  bring  the  latter 
within   limitations. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  the  high  cost  of 
living  can  only  be  remedied  by  increased 
production,    strict       Governmental     economy 


832 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


and  a  relentless  pursuit  of  those  who  take 
advantage  of  post-war  conditions  and  are 
demanding:  and  receiving  outrageous  profits. 
We  pledge  the  Democratic  Party  to  a  pol- 
icy of  strict  economy  in  Government  ex- 
penditures and  to  the  enactment  and  en- 
forcement of  such  legislation  as  may  be  re- 
quired to  bring  profiteers  before  the  bar  of 
criminal  justice. 

THE  TARIFF 

We  re-affirm  the  traditional  policy  of  the 
Democratic  Party  in  favor  of  a  tariff  for 
revenue  only  and  to  confirm  the  policy  of 
basing  tariff  revisions  upon  the  intelligent 
research  of  a  non-partisan  commission, 
rather  than  upon  the  demands  of  selfish  in- 
terest,   temporarily   held    in   abeyance. 

BUDGET 

In  the  interest  of  economy  and  good  ad- 
ministration, we  favor  the  creation  of  an  ef- 
fective budget  system  that  will  function  in 
accord  with  the  principles  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  reform  should  reach  both  the 
executive  and  legislative  aspects  of  the 
question.  The  supervision  and  preparation 
of  the  budget  should  be  vested  in  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  President. 

The  budget,  as  such,  should  not  be  in- 
creased by  the  Congress,  except  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote,  each  house,  however,  being  free 
to  exercise  its  constitutional  privilege  of 
making  appropriations  through  independent 
bills.  The  appropriation  bills  should  be  con- 
sidered by  single  committees  of  the  House 
and  Senate.  The  audit  system  should  be 
consolidated  and  its  powers  expanded  so  as 
to  pass  vipon  the  wisdom  of,  as  well  as  the 
authority  for,   expenditures. 

A  budget  bill  was  passed  in  the  closing 
days  of  the  second  session  of  the  Sixty-sixth 
Congress  which,  invalidated  by  plain  consti- 
tutional defects  and  defaced  by  considera- 
tions of  patronage,  the  President  was  obliged 
to  veto.  The  House  .  amended  the  bill  to 
meet  the  Executive  objection.  We  condemn 
the  Republican  Senate  for  adjourning  with- 
out passing  the  amended  measure,  when  by 
devoting  an  hour  or  two  more  to  this  urgent 
public  business  a  budget  system  could  have 
been  provided. 

SENATE  RULES 

We  favor  such  alteration  of  the  rules 
of  procedure  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  as  will  permit  the  prompt  transaction 
of  the  nation's  legislative  business. 

AGRICULTURAL   INTERESTS 

To  the  great  agricultural  interests  of  the 
country  the  Democratic  Party  does  not  find 
it  necessary  to  make  promises.  It  already 
is  rich  in  its  record  of  things  actually  ac- 
complished. For  nearly  half  a  century  of 
Republican  rule  not  a  sentence  was  written 
into     the     Federal     statutes     affording     one 


dollar  of  bank  credits  to  the  farming  inter- 
ests of  America.  In  the  fii'st  term  of  thi.s 
Democratic  Administration  the  National 
Bank  act  was  so  altered  as  to  authorize 
loans  of  five  years'  maturity  on  improved 
farm  lands.  Later  was  established  a  system 
of  farm  loan  banks  from  which  the  borrow- 
ing already  exceeds  $300,000,000  and  under 
which  the  interest  rate  to  farmers  has  been 
so  materially  reduced  as  to  drive  out  of 
business  the  farm  loan  sharks  who  formerly 
subsisted  by  extortion  upon  the  great  agri- 
cultural  interests   of  the  country. 

Thus  it  was  a  Democratic  Congress  in  the 
Administration  of  a  Democratic  President 
which  enabled  the  farmers  of  America  for 
the  first  time  to  obtain  credit  upon  reason- 
able terms  and  insured  their  opportunity 
for  the  future  development  of  the  nation's 
agricultural  resources.  Tied  up  in  Supreme 
Court  proceedings,  in  a  suit  by  hostile  in- 
terests, the  Federal  Farm  Loan  System,  orig- 
inally opposed  by  the  Republican  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  appealed  in  vain  to  a 
Republican  Congress  for  adequate  financial 
assistance  to  tide  over  the  interim  between 
the  beginning  and  the  ending  of  the  current 
year,  awaiting  a  final  decision  of  tlie  highest 
court  on  the'  validity  of  the  contested  act. 
We  pledge  prompt  and  consistent  support  of 
sound  and  effective  measures  to  sustain, 
amplify  and  perfect  the  rural  credits  statutes, 
and  thus  to  check  and  reduce  the  growth 
and  course  of  farm  tenancy. 

Not  only  did  the  Democratic  Party  put 
into  effect  a  great  farm  loan  system  of 
land  mortgage  banks,  but  it  passed  the 
Smith-Lever  Agricultural  Extension  act, 
carrying  to  every  farmer  in  every  section  of 
the  country,  through  the  medium  of  trained 
experts  and  by  demonstration  farms,  the 
practical  knowledge  acquired  by  the  Federal 
Agricultural  Department  in  all  tilings  re- 
lating to  agriculture,  horticulture  and  animal 
life;  it  established  the  Bureau  of  Markets, 
the  Bureau  of  Farm  Management,  and 
passed  the  Cotton  Futures  act,  the  Grain 
Grades  bill,  the  Co-operative  Farm  Admin- 
istration act  and  the  Federal  Warehouse  act. 

The  Democratic  Party  has  vastly  improved 
the  rural  mail  system  and  has  built  up  the 
parcel  post  system  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
render  its  activitiQ^  and  its  practical  service 
indispensable  to  the  farming  community.  It 
was  this  wise  encouragement  and  tliis  effec- 
tive concern  of  the  Democratic  Paity  for 
the  farmers  of  the  United  States  that  en- 
abled this  great  interest  to  render  such 
essential  service  in  feeding  the  armies  of 
America  and  the  allied  nations  of  the  war 
and  succoring  starving  populations  since 
armistice  day. 

Meanwhile  the  Republican  leaders  at 
Washington  have  failed  utterly  to  propose 
one  single  measure  to  make  rural  life  more 
tolerable.  They  have  signalized  their  fifteen 
months  of  Congressional  power  by  urging 
schemes  which  would  strip  the  farms  of 
labor;    by    assailing    the    principles    of    the 


^f  farm  loan 


TEXT   OF    THE    DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM 


833 


Ik 


I 


farm  loan  system  and  seeking  to  impair  its 
efficiency;  by  covertly  attempting  to  destroy 
the  great  nitrogen  plant  at  Muscle  Shoals, 
upon  which  the  Government  has  expended 
$70,000,000  to  supply  American  farmers  with 
fertilizers  at  reasonable  cost;  by  ruthlessly 
crippling  nearly  every  branch  of  agricultural 
endeavor,  literally  crippling  the  productive 
mediums  through  which  the  people  must  be 
fed. 

"We  favor  such  legislation  as  will  confirm 
to  the  primary  producers  of  the  nation  the 
right  of  collective  bargaining  and  the  right 
of  co-operative  handling  and  marketing  of 
the  products  of  the  workshops  and  the  farm, 
and  such  legislation  as  will  facilitate  the 
exportation  Of  our  farm  products. 

We  favor  comprehensive  studies  of  farm 
production  costs  and  the  uncensored  publi- 
cation of  facts  found  in  such  studies. 

LABOR  AND  INDUSTRY 

The  Democratic  Party  is  now,  as  ever, 
the  firm  friend  of  honest  labor  and  the 
promoter  of  progressive  industry.  It  estab- 
lished the  Department  of  Labor  at  Washing- 
ton and  a  Democratic  President  called  to 
his  official  council  board  the  first  practical 
workingman  who  ever  held  a  Cabinet  port- 
folio. Under  this  Administration  have  been 
established  employment  bureaus  to  bring  the 
men  and  the  job  together ;  have  been  peace- 
ably determined  many  bitter  disputes  be- 
tween capital  and  labor ;  were  passed  the 
Child  Labor  act,  the  Workingman's  Compen- 
sation act  (the  extension  of  which  we  advo- 
cate so  as  to  include  laborers  engaged  in 
loading  and  unloading  ships  and  in  inter- 
state commerce),  the  eight-hour  law,  the  act 
for  vocational  training,  and  a  code  of  other 
wholesome  laws  affecting  the  liberties  and 
bettering  the  conditions  of  the  laboring 
classes.  In  the  Department  of  Labor  the 
Democratic  Administration  established  a 
Woman's  Bureau,  which  a  Republican  Con- 
gress destroyed  by  withholding  appropria- 
tions. 

Labor  is  not  a  commodity;  it  is  human. 
Those  who  labor  have  rights,  and  the  na- 
tional security  and  safety  depend  upon  a 
just  recognition  of  those  rights  and  the  con- 
servation of  the  strength  of  the  workers  and 
their  families  in  the  interest  of  sound- 
hearted  and  sound-headed  men,  women  and 
children.  Laws  regulating  hours  of  labor 
and  conditions  under  which  labor  is  per- 
formed, when  passed  in  recognition  of  the 
conditions  under  which  life  must  be  lived  to 
attain  the  highest  development  and  happi- 
ness, are  just  assertions  of  the  national  in- 
terest  in   the   welfare   of   the   people. 

At  the  same  time  the  nation  depends  upon 
the  products  of  labor;  a  cessation  of  pro- 
duction means  loss  and,  if  long  continued, 
disaster.  The  whole  people,  therefore,  have 
a  right  to  insist  that  justice  shall  be  done 
to  those   who  work,    and  in   turn   that   those 


whose  labor  creates  the  necessities  upon 
which  the  life  of  the*  nation  depends  must 
recognize  the  reciprocal  obligation  between 
the  worker  and  the  State.  They  should  par- 
ticipate in  the  formulation  of  sound  laws 
and  regulations  governing  the  conditions 
under  which  labor  is  performed,  recognize 
and  obey  the  laws  so  formulated,  and  seek 
their  amendment  when  necessary  by  the 
processes  ordinarily  addressed  to  the  laws 
and  regulations  affecting  the  other  relations 
of   life. 

Labor,  as  well  as  capital,  is  entitled  to 
adequate  compensation.  Each  has  the  in- 
defeasible right  of  organization,  of  collec- 
tive bargaining,  and  of  speaking  through 
representatives  of  their  own  selection, 
i- either  class,  however,  should  at  any  time 
nor  in  any  circumstances  take  action  that 
will  put  in  jeopardy  the  public  welfare.  Re- 
sort to  strikes  and  lockouts  which  endanger 
the  health  or  lives  of  the  people  is  an  un- 
satisfactory device  for  determining  disputes, 
and  the  Democratic  Party  pledges  itself  to 
contrive,  if  possible,  and  put  into  effective 
operation  a  fair  and  comprehensive  method 
of  composing  differences  of  this  nature.  In 
private  industrial  disputes  we  are  opposed 
to  compulsory  arbitration  as  a  method 
plausible  in  theory  but  a  failure  in  fact. 
With  respect  to  Government  service,  we  hold 
distinctly  that  the  rights  of  the  people  are 
paramount  to  the  right  to  strike.  However, 
we  profess  scrupulous  regard  for  the  con- 
ditions of  public  employment  and  pledge 
the  Democratic  Party  to  instant  inquiry  into 
the  pay  of  Government  employes  and  equally 
speedy  regulations  designed  to  bring  sal- 
aries to   a  just  and   proper   level. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 

We  indorse  the  proposed  Nineteenth 
Amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  granting  equal  suffrage  to 
women.  We  congratulate  the  Legislatures 
of  thirty-five  States  which  have  already  rati- 
fied said  amendment,  and  we  urge  the 
Democratic  Governors  and  Legislatures  of 
Tennessee,  North  Carolina  and  Florida  and 
such  States  as  have  not  yet  ratified  the 
Federal  suffrage  amendment  to  unite  in  an 
effort  to  complete  the  process  of  ratifica- 
tion and  secure  the  thirty-sixth  State  in 
time  for  all  the  women  of  the  United  States 
to  participate  in  the  Fall  election.  We  com- 
mend the  effective  advocacy  of  the  measure 
by   President   Wilson. 

WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 

We  urge  co-operation  with  the  States  for 
the  protection  of  child  life  through  infancy 
and  maternity  care,  in  the  prohibition  of 
child  labor  and  by  adequate  appropriations 
for  the  Children's  Bureau  and  the  Woman's 
Bureau  in  the  Department  of  Labor.  Co- 
operative Federal  assistance  to  the  States 
is  immediately  required  for  the  removal  of 
illiteracy,    for  the   increase   of  teachers'    sal- 


834 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


aries  and  instruction  in  citizenship  for  both 
native  and  foreign  born;  increased  appro- 
priation for  vocational  training  in  home 
economics ;  re-establishment  of  joint  Fed- 
eral and  State  employment  service,  with 
women's  departments  under  the  direction  of 
technically  qualified  women.  We  advocate 
full  representation  of  women  on  all  com- 
missions dealing  with  women's  work  or 
women's  interests  and  a  reclassification  of 
the  Federal  civil  service,  free  from  discrimi- 
nation on  the  ground  of  sex;  a  continuance 
of  appropriations  for  education  in  sex 
hygiene ;  Federal  legislation  which  shall  in- 
sure that  American  "women  resident  in  the 
United  States  but  married  to  aliens  shall 
retain  their  American  citizenship,  and  that 
the  same  process  of  naturalization  shall  be 
required    for    women    as    for    men. 

DISABLED  SOLDIERS 

The  Federal  Government  should  treat  with 
the  utmost  consideration  every  disabled  sol- 
dier, sailor  and  marine  of  the  World  War, 
whether  his  disability  be  due  to  wounds 
received  in  line  of  action  or  to  health  im- 
paired in  service;  and  for  the  dependents 
of  the  brave  men  who  died  in  line  of  duty 
the  Government's  tenderest  concern  and 
richest  bounty  should  be  their  requital.  The 
fine  patriotism  exhibited,  the  heroic  con- 
duct displayed,  by  American  soldiers,  sai- 
lors and  marines  at  home  and  abroad  con- 
stitute a  sacred  heritage  of  posterity,  the 
worth  of  which  can  never  be  recompensed 
from  the  Treasury  and  the  glory  of  which 
must  not  be  diminished. 

The  Democratic  Administration  wisely  es- 
tablished a  War  Risk  Insurance  Bureau, 
giving  four  and  a  half  millionti  of  enlisted 
men  insurance  at  unprecedentedly  low  rates, 
and  through  the  medium  of  which  compen- 
sation of  men  and  women  injured  in  service 
is  readily  adjusted,  and  hospital  facilities 
for  those  whose  health  is  impaired  are 
abundantly  afforded. 

The  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Educa- 
tion should  be  made  a  part  of  the  War  Risk 
Insurance  Bureau  in  order  that  the  task  may 
be  treated  as  a  whole,  and  this  machinery 
of  protection  and  assistance  must  receive 
every  aid  of  law  and  appropriation  neces- 
sary to  full  and  effective  operation. 

We  believe  that  no  higher  or  more  valued 
privilege  can  be  afforded  to  an  American 
citizen  than  to  become  a  freeholder  in  the 
soil  of  the  United  States,  and  to  that  end  we 
pledge  our  party  to  the  enactment  of  sol- 
dier settlements  and  home  aid  legislation 
which  will  afford  to  the  men  who  fought 
for  America  the  opportunity  to  become  land 
and  home  owners  under  conditions  affording 
genuine  Government  assistance  unincum- 
bered by  needless  difficulties  or  red  tape  or 
advance   financial   investment. 

THE  RAILROADS 

The    railroads    were    subjected    to    Federal 


control  as  a  war  measure  without  other  idea 
than  the  swift  transport  of  troops,  muni- 
tions and  supplies.  When  human  life  and 
national  hopes  were  at  stake  profits  could 
not  be  considered,  and  were  not.  Federal 
operation,  however,  was  marked  by  an  in- 
telligence and  efficiency  that  minimized  loss 
and  resulted  in  many  and  marked  reforms. 
The  equipment  taken  over  was  not  only 
grossly  inadequate,  but  shamefully  outworn. 
Unification  practices  overcame  these  initial 
handicaps  and  provided  additions,  better- 
ments and  improvements.  Economies  en- 
abled operation  without  the  rate  raises  that 
private  control  would  have  found  necessary, 
and  labor  was  treated  with  an  exact  jus- 
tice that  secured  the  enthvx.'jiastic  co-opera- 
tion that  victory  demanded.  The  funda- 
mental purpose  of  Federal  control  was 
achieved  fully  and  splendidly,  and  at  far  less 
cost  to  the  taxpayer  than  would  have  been 
the  case  under  private  operation.  Invest- 
ments in  railroad  properties  were  not  only 
saved  by  Government  operation,  but  Govern- 
ment management  returned  tliese  properties 
vastly  improved  in  every  physical  and  execu- 
tive detail.  A  great  ta.sk  was  greatly  dis- 
charged. 

The  President's  recommendation  of  return 
to  private  ownership  gave  tlie  Republican 
majority  a  full  year  in  which  to  enact  the 
necessary  legislation.  The  House  took  six 
months  to  formulate  its  ideas  and  another 
six  months  was  consumed  by  the  RepubU- 
can  Senate  in  equally  vague  debate.  As  a 
consequence  the  Esch-Cummins  bill  went  to 
the  President  in  the  closing  hours  of  Con- 
gress, and  he  was  forced  to  a  choice  be- 
tween the  chaos  of  a  veto  and  acquiescence 
in  the  measure  submitted,  however  grave 
may  have  been  his  objections   to  it. 

There  should  be  a  fair  and  complete  test 
of  the  law  until  careful  and  mature  action 
by  Congress  may  cvire  its  defects  and  in- 
sure a  thoroughly  effective  transportation 
system  under  private  ownership,  without 
Government  subsidy  at  the  expense  of  the 
taxpayers  of  the  country. 

IMPROVED  HIGHWAYS 

Improved  roads  are  of  vital  importance, 
not  only  to  commerce  and  industry  but  also 
to  agriculture  and  rural  life.  The  Federal 
Road  act  of  191(5,  enacted  by  a  Democratic 
Congress,  represented  the  first  systematic 
effort  of  the  Government  to  insure  the 
building  of  an  adequate  system  of  roads  in 
this  country.  The  act,  as  amended,  has  re- 
sulted in  placing  the  movement  for  im- 
proved highways  on  a  progressive  and  sub- 
stantial basis  in  every  State  in  the  Union 
and  in  bringing  under  actual  construction 
more  than  13,000  miles  of  roads  suited  to 
the  traffic  needs  of  the  communities  in 
which  they  are  located. 

We  favor  a  continuance  of  the  present 
Federal  aid  plan  under  existing  Federal  and 
State    agencies,    amended   so   as   to   include, 


TEXT   OF    THE   DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM 


835 


as  one  of  the  elements  in  determining  the 
ratio  in  which  the  several  States  shall  be 
entitled  to  share  in  the  fund,  the  area  of 
any  public  lands   therein. 

Inasmuch  as  the  postal  service  has  been 
extended  by  the  Democratic  Party  to  the 
door  of  practically  every  producer  and 
every  consumer  in  the  country  (rural  free 
delivery  alone  having  been  provided  for 
6,000,000  additional  patrons  w^ithin  the  past 
eight  years  without  material  added  cost), 
we  declare  that  this  instrumentality  can  and 
will  be  used  to  the  maximum  of  its  ca- 
pacity to  improve  the  efficiency  of  distribu- 
tion and  reduce  the  cost  of  living  to  con- 
sumers, while  increasing  the  profitable  oper- 
ations of   producers. 

We  strongly  favor  the  increased  use  of  the 
motor  vehicle  in  the  transportation  of  the 
mails,  and  urge  the  removal  of  the  restric- 
tions imposed  by  the  Republican  Congress 
on  the  use  of  motor  devices  in  mail  trans- 
portation in  rural  territories. 

MERCHANT  MARINE 

We  desire  to  congratulate  the  American 
people  upon  the  rebirth  of  our  merchant  ma- 
rine, which  once  more  maintains  its  former 
place  in  the  world.  It  was  under  a  Demo- 
cratic Administration  that  this  was  accom- 
plished after  seventy  years  of  indifference 
and  neglect,  thirteen  million  tons  having 
been  constructed  singe  the  act  was  passed 
in  191G.  We  pledge  the  policy  of  our  party 
to  the  continued  growth  of  our  merchant 
marine  under  proper  legislation,  so  that 
American  products  will  be  carried  to  all 
ports  of  the  world  by  vessels  built  in  Amer- 
ican yards,  flying  the  Ameiican  flag. 

PORT  FACILITIES 

The  urgent  demands  of  the  war  for  ade- 
quate transportation  of  war  materials,  as 
well  as  for  domestic  need,  revealed  the  fact 
that  our  port  facilities  and  rate  adjustment 
were  such  as  to  seriously  affect  the  whole 
country  in  times  of  peace  as  well  as  war. 

We  pledged  our  party  to  stand  for  equality 
of  rates,  both  import  and  export,  for  the 
ports  of  the  country,  to  the  end  that  there 
might  be  adequate  and  fair  facilities  and 
rates  for  the  mobilization  of  the  products 
of  the  country  offered  for  shipment. 

INLAND  WATERWAYS 

We  call  attention  to  the  failure  of  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  to  recognize 
in  any  way  the  rapid  development  of  barge 
transportation  on  our  inland  waterways, 
which  development  is  the  result  of  the  con- 
structive policies  of  the  Democratic  Admin- 
istration. And  we  pledge  ourselves  to  the 
further  development  of  adequate  transporta- 
tion facilities  on  our  rivers,  and  to  the 
further  improvement  of  our  inland  water- 
ways, and  we  recognize  the  importance  of 
connecting  the  Great  Lakes  with  the  sea 
by   way    of    the    Mississippi    River    and    its 


tributaries,  as  well  as  by  the  St.  Lawrence 
River.  We  favor  an  'enterprising  foreign 
trade  policy  with  all  nations,  and  in  this 
connection  we  favor  the  full  utilization  of 
all  Atlantic,  Gulf  and  Pacific  ports,  and  an 
equitable  distribution  of  shipping  facilities 
between  the  various  ports. 

Transportation  remains  an  increasingly 
vital  problem  in  the  continued  development 
and    prosperity    of    the    nation. 

Our  present  facilities  for  distribution  by 
rail  are  inadequate  and  the  promotion  of 
transportation  by  water  is  imperative. 

We  therefore  favor  a  liberal  and  compre- 
hensive policy  for  the  development  and 
utilization  of  our  harbors  and  interior  water- 
ways. 

FLOOD  CONTROL 

We  commend  the  Democratic  Congress  for 
the  redemption  of  the  pledge  contained  in 
our  last  platform  by  the  passage  of  the 
Flood  Control  act  of  March  1,  1917,  and 
point  to  the  successful  control  of  the  floods 
of  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Sacramento 
River,  California,  under  the  policy  of  that 
law,  for  its  complete  justification.  We  favor 
the  extension  of  this  policy  to  other  flood 
control  problems  wherever  the  Federal  in- 
terest involved  justifies  the  expenditure 
required, 

RECLAMATION  OF  ARID  LANDS 

By  wise  legislation  and  progressive  ad- 
ministration we  have  transformed  the  Gov- 
ernment reclamation  projects,  representing 
an  investment  of  $100,000,000,  from  a  condi- 
tion of  impending  failure  and  loss  of  confi- 
dence in  the  ability  of  the  Government  to 
carry  through  such  large  enterprises  to  a 
condition  of  demonstrated  success,  whereby 
formerly  arid  and  wholly  unproductive  lands 
now  sustain  40,000  prosperous  families  and 
have  an  annual  crop  production  of  over 
$70,000,000,  not  including  the  crops  grown  on 
a  million  acres  outside  the  projects  supplied 
with  storage  water  from  Government  works. 

We  favor  ample  appropriations  for  the 
continuation  and  extension  of  this  great 
work  of  home  building  and  internal  improve- 
ment along  the  same  general  lines,  to  the 
end  that  all  practical  projects  shall  be  built, 
and  waters  now  running  to  waste  shall  be 
made  to  provide  homes  and  add  to  the  food 
supply,  power  resources  and  taxable  prop- 
erty, with  the  Government  ultimately  reim- 
bursed for  the  entire  outlay. 

THE  TRADE  COMMISSION 

The  Democratic  Party  heartily  indorses 
the  creation  and  work  of  the  Federal  Trade 
Commission  in  establishing  a  fair  field  for 
competitive  business,  free  from  restraints 
of  trade  and  monopoly,  and  recommends 
amplification  of  the  statutes  governing  its 
activities  so  as  to  grant  it  authority  to 
prevent  the  unfair  use  of  patents  in  restraint 
of  trade. 


836 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


LIVESTOCK  MARKETS 

For  the  purpose  of  insuring  just  and  fair 
treatment  in  the  great  interstate  livestock 
market,  and  thus  instilling  confidence  in 
growers  through  which  production  will  be 
stimulated  and  the  price  of  meats  to  con- 
sumers be  ultimately  reduced,  we  favor  the 
enactment  of  legislation  for  the  supervision 
of  such  markets  by  the  National  Government. 

MEXICO 

The  United  States  is  the  neighbor  and 
friend  of  the  nations  of  the  three  Americas, 
In  a  very  special  sense  our  international 
relations  in  this  hemisphere  should  be  char- 
acterized by  good-will  and  free  from  any 
possible  suspicion  as  to  our  national  purpose. 

The  Administration,  remembering  always 
that  Mexico  is  an  independent  nation  and 
that  permanent  stability  in  her  Government 
and  her  institutions  could  come  only  from 
the  consent  of  her  own  people  to  a  Govern- 
ment of  their  own  making,  has  been  unwill- 
ing either  to  profit  by  the  misfortunes  of 
the  people  of  Mexico  or  to  enfeeble  their 
future  by  imposing  from  the  outside  a  rule 
upon  their  temporarily  distracted  councils. 
As  a  consequence,  order  is  gradually  re- 
appearing in  Mexico;  at  no  time  in  many 
years  have  American  lives  and  interests  been 
so  safe  as  they  now  are ;  peace  reigns  along 
the  border   and   industry   is   resuming. 

When  the  new  Government  of  Mexico  shall 
have  been  given  ample  proof  of  its  ability 
permanently  to  maintain  law  and  order, 
signified  its  willingness  to  meet  its  interna- 
tional obligations  and  written  upon  its  sta- 
tute books  just  laws  under  vhich  foreign 
investors  shall  have  rights  as  well  as  du- 
ties, that  Government  should  receive  our 
recognition  and  systematic  assistance.  Until 
these  proper  expectations  have  been  met, 
Mexico  must  realize  the  propriety  of  a  policy 
that  asserts  the  right  of  the  United  States 
to  demand  full  protection  for  its  citizens. 

PETROLEUM 

The  Democratic  Party  recognizes  the  im- 
portance of  the  acquisition  by  Americans  of 
•additional  sources  of  supply  of  petroleum 
and  other  minerals,  and  declares  that  such 
acquisition,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  should 
be  fostered  and  encouraged.  We  urge  such 
action,  legislative  and  executive,  as  may 
secure  to  American  citizens  the  same  rights 
in  the  acquirement  of  mining  rights  in  for- 
eign countries  as  are  enjoyed  by  the  citizens 
or  subjects  of  any  other  nation. 

NEW  NATIONS 

The  Democratic  Party  expresses  its  active 
sympathy  with  the  people  of  China,  Czecho- 
slovakia, Finland,  Poland,  Persia  and  others 
who  have  recently  established  representa- 
tive government,  and  who  are  striving  to 
develop  the  institutions  of  true  democracy. 


IRELAND 

The  great  principle  of  national  self-deter- 
mination has  received  constant  reiteration 
as  one  of  the  chief  objectives  for  which  this 
country  entered  the  war,  and  victory  es- 
tablished  this  principle. 

Within  the  limitations  of  international 
comity  and  usage,  this  convention  repeals 
the  several  previous  expressions  of  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  Democratic  Party  of  the  United 
States  for  the  aspirations  of  Ireland  for  self- 
government. 

ARMENIA 

We  express  our  deep  and  earnest  sympathy 
for  the  unfortunate  people  of  Armenia,  and 
we  believe  that  our  Government,  consistent 
with  its  Constitution  and  principles,  should 
render  every  possible  and  proper  aid  to  them 
in  their  efforts  to  establish  and  maintain  a 
Government  of  their  own. 

THE  PHILIPPINES 

We  favor  the  granting  of  independence 
without  unnecessary  delay  to  the  10,500,000 
inhabitants   of   the    Philippine    Islands. 

HAWAII 

We  favor  a  liberal  policy  of  homesteading 
public  lands  in  Hawaii  to  promote  a  large 
middle-class  citizen  population,  with  equal 
rights  to  all  citizens. 

The  importance  of  Hawaii  as  an  outpost 
on  the  western  frontier  of  the  United  States 
demands  adequate  appropriations  by  Con- 
gress for  the  development  of  our  harbors 
and  highways  ■  there. 

PORTO  RICO 

We  favor  granting  to  the  people  of  Porto 
Rico  the  traditional  Territorial  form  of  gov- 
ernment, with  a  view  to  ultimate  Statehood, 
accorded  to  all  Territories  of  the  United 
States  since  the  beginning  of  our  Govern- 
ment, and  we  believe  that  the  officials  ap- 
pointed to  administer  the  Government  of 
such  Territories  should  be  qualified  by  pre- 
vious bona-fide  residence  therein. 

ALASKA 

We  commend  the  Democratic  Administra- 
tion for  inaugurating  a  new  policy  as  to 
Alaska,  as  evidenced  by  the  construction  of 
the  Alaska  Railroad  and  opening  of  the  coal 
and  oil  fields. 

We  declare  for  the  modification  of  the 
existing  coal  land  law  to  promote  develop- 
ment without  disturbing  the  features  in- 
tended to  prevent  monopoly. 

For  such  changes  in  the  policy  of  forestry 
control  as  will. permit  the  immediate  initia- 
tion of   the  paper  pulp  industry. 

For  relieving  the  Territory  from  the  evils 
of  long-distance  government  by  arbitrary 
and  interlocking  bureaucratic  regulation 
and  to  that  end  we  urge  the  speedy  passage 


THXT   01^   TIIJ   DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORU 


837 


of  a  law  containing-  the  ccrential  i-:^r"nrc3 
of  the  Lane-Curry  bill  now  pendinr,-,  co- 
ordinating and  consolidating  all  Feder.l 
control  of  natural  resources  under  one  d^- 
partment,  to  be  r.aministcrec;  by  a,  non-parti- 
san board  permanently  resident  in  the  ter- 
ritory. 

For  the  fullest  measure  of  territorial  self- 
government  with  the  view  of  ultimate  State- 
hood, with  jurisdiction  over  all  matter  not 
of  purely  Federal  concern,  including  fish- 
eries and  game,  and  for  an  intelligent  ad- 
ministration of  Federal  control  we  believe 
that  all  officials  appointed  should  be  quali- 
fied by  previous  bona-fide  residence  in  the 
Territory. 

For  a  comprehensive  system  of  road  con- 
struction, with  increased  appropriations  and 
the  full  extension  of  the  Federal  Road  act 
to   Alaska. 

For  extension  to  Alaska  of  the  Federal 
Farm    Loan    act. 

ASIATIC  IMMIGRANTS 

The  policy  of  the  United  States  with  ref- 
erence to  the  non-admission  of  Asiatic  im- 
migrants is  a  true  expression  of  the  judg- 
ment of  our  people,  and  to  the  several  States 
whose  geographical  situation  or  internal 
conditions  make  this  policy  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws  enacted  pursuant  thereto 
of  particular  concern,  we  pledge  our  sup- 
port. 

THE  POSTAL  SERVICE 

The  efficiency  of  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment has  been  vindicated  against  a  mali- 
cious and  designing  assault  by  the  efficiency 
of  its  operation.  Its  record  refutes  its  as- 
sailants. Their  voices  are  silenced  and  their 
charges   have    collapsed. 

We  commmend  the  work  of  the  joint  com- 
mission on  the  reclassification  of  salaries 
of  postal  employes,  recently  concluded, 
which  commission  was  created  by  a  Demo- 
cratic Administration.  The  Democratic 
Party  has  always  favored  and  will  continue 
to  favor  the  fair  and  just  treatment  of  all 
Government  employes. 

FREE   SPEECH   AND   PRESS 

We  resent  the  unfounded  reproaches 
directed  against  the  Democratic  Adminis- 
tration    for     alleged    interference    with     the 


freedom  of  the  pi'cj  and  freedom  of  speech. 
i\o  u-'.crance  ficm  ^ny  quarter  has  been 
c-csa.^cd,  and  no  publication  has  been  re- 
pressed which  has  not  been  animated  by 
treasonable;  purpose  and  directed  against  the 
nation's  peace,  order  and  security  in  time 
of  war. 

We  reaffirm  our  respect  for  the  great 
principles  of  free  speech  and  a  free  press, 
but  assert  as  an  indisputable  proposition 
tnat  they  afford  no  toleration  of  enemy 
propaganda  or  the  advocacy  of  the  over- 
JAVo-f  c_  the  Government  of  the  State  or 
-ia— on    by    force   or   violence. 

REPUBLICAN  CORRUPTION 

The  shocking  disclosure  of  the  lavish  use 
of  money  by  aspirants  for  the  Republican 
nomination  for  the  highest  office  in  the  gift 
of  the  people  has  created  a  painful  impres- 
sion throughout  the  country.  Viewed  in 
connection  with  the  recent  conviction  of  a 
Republican  Senator  from  the  State  of  Michi- 
gan for  the  criminal  transgression  of  the 
law  limiting  expenditures  on  behalf  of  a 
candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate,  it 
indicates  the  re-entry,  under  Republican 
auspices,  of  money  as  an  influential  factor 
in  elections,  thus  nullifying  the  letter  and 
flaunting  the  spirit  of  numerous  laws 
enacted  by  the  people  to  protect  the  ballot 
from  the  contamination  of  corrupt  practices. 
We  deplore  those  delinquencies  and  invoke 
their  stern  popular  rebuke,  pledging  our  ear- 
nest efforts  to  a  strengthening  of  the  pres- 
ent statutes  against  corrupt  practices  and 
their    rigorous    enforcement. 

We  remind  the  people  that  it  was  only  by 
the  return  of  a  Republican  Senator  in  Michi- 
gan, who  is  now  under  conviction  and  sen- 
tence for  the  criminal  misuse  of  money  in 
his  election,  that  the  present  organization 
of  the  Senate  with  a  Republican  majority 
was   made   possible. 

CONCLUSION 

Believing  that  we  have  kept  the  Demo- 
cratic faith,  and  resting  our  claims  to  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  not  upon  grandiose 
promise  but  upon  the  solid  performances  ot 
our  party,  we  submit  our  record  to  the  na- 
tion's consideration,  and  ask  that  the 
pledges  of  this  platform  be  appraised  in  the 
light  of  that  record. 


The  Hall  of  Fame  of  New  York  University 

By   CARSON   C.   HATHAWAY 


RECENT  metropolitan  newspapers 
contained  the  announcement  that 
"  the  names  of  Mark  Twain,  Grover 
Cleveland  and  Edward  Everett  Hale 
were  included  in  the  first  list  of 
nominees  for  the  Hall  of  Fame  at  New 
York  University.  The  building  thus  re- 
ferred to  is  dedicated  to  the  memory  of 
the  men  and  women  who  have  made  this 
nation  great. 

At  about  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century  a  gift  of  one-quarter  of  a  million 
dollars  was  accepted  for  the  purpose  of 
erecting  and  maintaining  a  colonnade  to 
be  known  as  "  The  Hall  of  Fame  for 
Great  Americans."  It  was  provided  that 
a  statue,  bust  or  portrait  of  any  indivi- 
dual elected  under  certain  named  con- 
ditions might  be  placed  in  the  colonnade. 
The  general  public  is  first  asked  to  sub- 
mit nominations,  and  the  names  of 
famous  Americans  thus  obtained  are 
voted  upon  by  members  of  the  Univer- 
sity Senate  and  also  by  100  famous 
living  Americans.  The  person  elected 
must  have  lived  in  what  is  now  the 
United  States.  No  person  can  be  elected 
until  at  least  ten  years  after  his  death. 
Fifteen  classes  of  citizens  are  included 
in  the  list,  according  to  the  field  of 
activity  in  which  the  achievement  was 
made. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  following 
men  have  been  chosen  as  worthy  of  a 
place  among  the  great  men  of  the  na- 
tion. Under  the  rules  of  the  election 
"  famous  "  is  taken  to  mean  "  the  con- 
dition of  being  much  talked  about, 
chiefly  in  a  good  sense;  or  reputation 
from  great  achievements  "  : 

Class  One,  Authors— HalpM  Waldo  Emer- 
son, Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow, 
Washington  Irving,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
James  Russell  Lowell.  John  Greenleaf 
WTiittier,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Edgar 
Allan  Poe,  James  Fenimore  Cooper, 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  George  Bancroft, 
John  Lothrop  Motley,  Francis  Parkman. 

Class  Two,  Educators— Horace  Mann, 
Mark   Hopkins. 

Class  Three ,  Preachers  and  Theologians— 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
William  Ellery  Channing,  Phillips  Brooks. 


Class  Four,  Philanthropists  and  Reform- 
ers—George Peabody,    Peter   Cooper. 

Class  Five,  Scientists— J ohn  James  Audu- 
bon, Asa  Gray,  Louis  Agassiz,  Joseph 
Henry. 

Class  Six,  Engineers,  Architects— None. 

Class  Seven,  Physicians,  Surgeons— 
None. 

Class  Eight,  Inventors— TLohert  Fulton, 
Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  Eli  Whitney,  Elias 
Howe. 

Class  Nine,  Missionaries  and  Explor- 
ers—Daniel    Boone. 

Class  Ten,  Soldiers  and  Sailors— Vlyssea 
Simpson  Grant,  David  Glasgow  Farragut, 
Robert  E.  Lee,  William  Tecumseh  Sher- 
man. 

Class  Eleven,  Lawyers,  Jiidges-John 
Marshall,  James  Kent,  Joseph  Story, 
Rufus    Choate. 

Class  Twelve,  Rulers  and  Statesmen- 
George  Washington,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
Daniel  Webster,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Henry  Clay,  John 
Adams,  John  Quincy  Adams,  James  Madi- 
son, Andrew  Jackson,  Alexander  Hamil- 
tor. 

Class  Thirteen,  Btosiness  Men^— None. 

Class  Fourteen,  Musicians,  Painters, 
8 ciolptors— Charles   Gilbert   Stuart. 

Class  Fifteen,  Eminent  Men  Outside  the 
Above    Classes — None. 

In  response  to  popular  demand,  pro- 
vision has  been  made  for  a  separate 
"  Hall  of  Fame  for  American  Women," 
and  the  following  individuals  have  al- 
ready been  selected: 

Class  One,  Authors— Harriet  Beecher 
•Stowe. 

Class  Two,  Educators,  Missionaries — 
Mary   Lyon,    Emma   Willard. 

Class  Four,   Home   or  Social   Workers- 
Frances   E.    Willard. 
Class  Five,  Scientists— Maria  Mitchell. 
Class     Fourteen,     Musicians,     Painters, 
Sculptors— Charlotte  ■  S.    Cushman. 

The  classes  for  women  correspond  as 
closely  as  possible  with  those  of  the  men. 
It  may  be  that  in  the  years  to  come 
women  will  achieve  fame  as  lawyers  and 
Judges  and  take  their  place  in  Class 
Eleven.  If  they  should  ever  be  chosen 
for  Class  Twelve,  we  may  have  to  coin 
a  new  word  and  call  them  "  States- 
women." 

The  list  of  those  who  compose  the 
board  of  electors  for  the  year  1920  in- 
cludes    many    of    the    most    prominent 


HALL  OF  FAME  OF  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 


839 


HALL    OF    FARIE,    NEW    YORK    UNIVERSITY 
(©    Undcrivood    d-    Underwood) 


names  in  our  present  national  life.  Presi- 
dent Hadley  of  Yale,  John  Burroughs, 
Henry  Watterson,  Elbert  H.  Gary,  John 
E.  Mott,  John  Wanamaker,  Elihu  Root, 
William  Howard  Taft,  Henry  van  Dyke 
and  General  Leonard  Wood  are  some  of 
the  prominent  members. 

No  name  is  selected  for  the  Hall  of 
Fame  unless  it  is  chosen  by  a  majority 
of  the  one  hundred  electors.  In  the  vot- 
ing in  recent  years  Washington  heads 
the  list  with  a  total  of  97  votes;  Lincoln 


and  Daniel  Webster  each  received  96 
votes,  Grant  93  and  John  Marshall  91. 
Emerson  heads  the  list  of  authors  with  a 
total  of  87  votes.  In  the  voting  for 
women,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  leads 
with  a  total  of  74  votes. 

The  list  prepared  for  1920  includes 
the  names  of  100  men  and  23  women. 
It  has  already  been  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  electors  and  the  announcement  of 
their  decision  will  be  made  public  about 
Nov.    1,    1920. 


Vocational  Training  for  Marines 

The  School  at  Quantico 


AT  the  beginning  of  the  present  year 
J7\_  a  vocational  and  educational  train- 
ing school  was.  instituted  at  the 
Marine  Barracks  in  Quantico,  Va.,  under 
the  name  of  the  Marine  Corps  Institute. 
The  instructors  were  all  members  of  the 
Marine  Corps,  either  officers  or  pri- 
vates; graduates  of  well-known  univer- 
sities, or  former  industrial  executives. 
Twenty-two  courses  were  offered  on  the 
following  subjects:  Stenography,  Span- 
ish, elementary  and  advanced  English 
grammar,  elementary  arithmetic,  ad- 
vanced mathematics,  bookkeeping,  cook- 


ery, French,  administration,  general  law, 
stationary  fireman,  forestry,  band  music, 
draftsman,  typewriting,  shoe  and  leather 
trade,  live  stock,  building  foreman,  auto- 
mobile driving,  electric  lighting  and 
short  plumbing. 

Captain  George  K.  Schuler  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  school.  More  than  400 
students  applied  for  enrollment  on  Jan. 
10,  out  of  about  800  men  stationed  at 
the  post.  All  those  enrolling  are  allowed 
to  complete  their  drill  and  military 
duties  in  the  morning,  thus  leaving  the 
afternoon  free  for  class  work  and  study. 


840 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


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A   CLASS   OF   UNITED   STATES   MARINES   AT   WORK    IN    THE   MACHINE   SHOP   AT   QUANTICO 


Students  are  required  to  attend  classes 
every  afternoon  except  Saturday  and 
Sunday.-  All  proper  textbooks  are  pro- 
vided, and  frequent  examinations  are 
held.  On  completion  of  the  course 
chosen,  the  student  is  given  a  certificate 
or  diploma. 

Many  of  the  classes  have  been  crowded 
from  the  start  to  full  capacity.  The 
automobile  course,  limited  because  of 
shop  space  to  100  members,  proved  so 
popular  as  to  require  the  construction 
of  additional  shops.  Stenography,  Eng- 
lish   grammar,    elementary    mathematics 


and    forei2:n    lanr^uageo    have    attracted 
many. 

Since  the  school  was  founded,  life  at 
Quantico  has  undergone  a  great  change. 
Idleness  and  discontent  have  given  way 
to  industry,  and  offenses  against  ordei- 
and  discipline  have  almost  disappeared. 
It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  authorities  to 
put  the  post  on  the  school  basis  and  to 
treat  the  men  as  much  as  possible  like 
the  undergraduates  of  a  college  rather 
than  as  soldiers  in  a  camp,  and  the 
effect  is  seen  in  the  morale  of  the  whole 
soldier-student  community. 


Financial  Resources  of  the  United  States 


A  Total  of  Five  Hundred  Billions 


[Summary   Presented    by   Ernest   R. 


ACKERMAN     OF     NEW     JERSEY      IN     THE     RECENT     SESSION 

OF  Congress] 


ACCORDING  to  the  Census  Bureau 
J\  the  wealth  of  the  United  States 
increased  from  $107,000,000,000  in 
1904  to  $287,000,000,000  in  1912.  If  we 
use  the  same  percentage  of  increase  as 
was  shown  in  1912  over  1904,  which  was 
practically  80  per  cent.,  upon  the  period 
cf  3  912  to  1920,  eight  years,  it  would 
produce  a  total  of  $327,000,000,000  based 


on  the  same  monetary  standards  of  the 
earlier  date. 

Moreover,  in  a  letter  recently  received 
by  me  from  the  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue,  he  states  that  in  his  opinion 
the  value  of  the  property  in  the  United 
States  at  the  present  time  is  $350,000,- 
000,000.  Accepting  i;  as  a  fact,  this  is 
over   $100,000,000,000   in   excess   of  any 


FINANCIAL  RESOURCES   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 


841 


previous  estimate,  and  this  excess  alone 
is  over  four  times  the  amount  of  our 
national  debt,  without  taking  into  ac- 
count the  $10,000,000,000  which  Europe 
TF  bound  under  the  agreement  to  return 
to  us  with  interest. 

The  products  of  the  farm  in  1904  were 
valued  at  $6,000,000,000,  or  a  little  over 
6  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  all  property; 
in  1912,  at  $9,000,000,000,  or  5  per  cent, 
of  the  value  of  all  property.  If  in  1919, 
seven  years  later  and  when  daylight  sav- 
ing prevailed,  the  reported  value  of  farm 
products  were  $24,000,000,000,  reasoning 
by  analogy,  as  farm  products  consistently 
averaged  5  per  cent,  of  all  products,  the 
value  of  all  property  should  be  $500,000,- 
000,000. 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  from  another 
angle.  Taking  into  account  the  rise  in 
value  on  which  the  1920  calculation 
should  be  based,  it  would  be  safe  to 
assume  that  a  50  per  cent,  increase  over 
the  result  of  $327,000,000,000  previously 
mentioned  would  not  be  far  afield,  and 
therefore  the  present  market  value  of  all 
property  in  flie  United  States  today, 
based  on  current  standards,  would  total 
nearly  $500,000,000,000. 

For  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  proper 
perspective  we  turn  back  the  pages  of 
history  and  review  the  financial  increase 
that  has  taken  place  since  1850  and  suc- 
ceeding years  as  tabulated  by  the  Census 
Bureau,  discarding  fractional  parts  less 
than  billions,  and  visualize  it  as  fol- 
lows: 

When   the    population   was   23,000,000  -in 

1850  the  wealth  was  $7,000,000,000,  or  $300 

per    individual. 
When    the    population    was    31,000,000    in 

1860  the  wealth  was  $16,000,000,000,  or  $516 

per  individual. 
When    the    population    was    38,000,000   in 

1870  the  wealth  was  $24,000,000,000,  or  $630 

per  individual. 
"^Vhen   the   population   was   50,000,000   in 

1880    the    wealth    was    $43,000,000,000.     or 

$860  per  individual. 
When   the    population   was    62,000,000   in 

1890    the    wealth    was    $65,000,000,000.     or 

$1,050   per    individual. 
When   the   population    was   76,000,000   in 

1900    the    wealth    was    $88,000,000,000,     or 

$1,160   per   individual. 
When    the   population   was   81,000,000   in 

1904    the    wealth    was    $107,000,000,000.    or 

$1,320  per  individual. 
When   the   population   was   95,000,000   in 


1912    the    wealth    was    $187,000,000,000,    or 
$1,990    per    individual. 

When  the  population  was  110,000,000  in 
1920  the  wealth  probably  is  $500,000,000,- 
000,  or  $4,540  per  individual. 

In  1917,  the  latest  obtainable  date, 
3,472,890  returns  of  income  taxes,  as 
compiled  by  the  Treasury  Department, 
indicated  an  expressed  income  of  $13,- 
652,883,207.  This  three  and  a  half 
millions  of  returns  equals  3  per  cent,  of 
the  population  of  the  country.  Would  it 
not  be  most  liberal  to  suppose  that  the 
remaining  one  hundred  and  six  and  a 
half  millions  of  persons  living  here  from 
whom  no  income  tax  was  collected  pos- 
sessed in  the  aggregate  at  least  an  equal 
amount  of  wealth?  Very  probably  they 
had  very  much  more,  but  suppose  for 
the  sake  of  argument  that  they  did  not, 
but  had  only  the  same  total  which  would 
be  the  incredibly  small  sum  of  $130  in- 
come apiece,  their  aggregate  income 
would  be  $13,845,000,000,  which,  added 
to  the  $13,652,000,000  previously  men- 
tioned, would  exceed  twenty-seven  billions 
of  income,  or,  capitalized  on  only  a  5 
per  cent,  basis,  would  indicate  $500,000,- 
000,000  of  basic  wealth.  They  probably 
had  several  times  that  income  each, 
which  would  in  all  probability  allow  the 
capitalization  to  be  made  even  on  a  10 
per  cent,  basis.     Why  not?     *     *     * 

In  1910,  wealth  being  less  than  $187,- 
000,000,000,  the  income  of  the  people  was 
conceded  to  be  $30,500,000,000.  That  is 
from  recorded  facts.  In  1918,  income 
being  conceded  to  be  $73,400,000,000,  by 
the  same  arithmetical  calculation,  na- 
tional 'vealth  might  not  be  far  from 
$448,800,000,000.  Therefore  the  approxi- 
mate wealth  of  the  country  based  on  duly 
ascertained  facts,  which  no  doubt  are 
fundamentally  correct  and  determined  by 
the  illustrations  mentioned,  must  be  close 
to  $500,000,000,000. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  World  War 
in  1914  it  was  accepted  as  a  fact  that 
only  400,000  persons  in  continental 
United  States  owned  a  bond  for  the  pur- 
poses of  investment.  Today,  according 
to  figures  furnished  by  the  Treasury 
Department,  the  number  of  subscribers 
to  various  Liberty  and  Victory  loans 
was  as  follows:  First  loan  4,000,000 
subscribers,    second    loan    9,400,000    sub- 


842 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


scribers,  third  loan  18,308,325  sub- 
scribers, fourth  loan  22,777,680  sub- 
scribers, Victory  loan  11,803,895  sub- 
scribers, making  a  grand  total  of  66,289,- 
900  subscribers. 

This  is  a  healthy  sign  of  interest  in 
the  country's  welfare,  for,  excluding 
duplications,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
one  bondholder  for  three  original  sub- 
scribers still  exists,  therefore,  22,000,000 
stockholders  in  the  corporation  of  the 
United  States,  if  we  be  permitted  to 
describe  it  as  such,  or  one  bondholder  for 
every  five  of  our  population,  exists  at 
the  present  time. 

A  contributor  to  Commerce  and 
Finance  declares  that  the  money  in  cir- 
culation is  now  $56.16  per  capita,  or 
about  $6,000,000,000.  According  to  a 
prominent  bank  President  there  are 
about  27,000  banks  in  the  country  and 
their  average  vault  holdings  of  cash  are 
not  more  than"  $20,000,  or  a  total  of 
$540,000,000.  This  sum,  plus  the  $1,934,- 
000,000  of  gold  held  by  the  Federal  Re- 
serve Banks,  accounts,  he  maintains,  for 
less  than  half  of  the  $6,000,000,000  in 
circulation.  It  is  thus  clear,  he  asserts, 
that  nearly  three  and  one-half  billions  is 
in  the  pockets  of  the  people  or  the  tills  of 
the  merchants.  Upon  the  assumption  that 
there  are  about  50,000,000  adults  in  the 
United  States,  this  means  that  each  of 
them  is  keeping  about  $70  of  money  out 
of  the  banks.  This,  he  claims,  is  un- 
necessary and  provocative  of  extrava- 
gance, and  he  urges  that  the  banks  of 
the  country  should  join  in  an  effort  to 
exploit  the  benefits  of  a  checking  ac- 
count, thereby  reducing  the  amount  of 
money  in  circulation  and  making  the 
gold  now  held  against  the  outstanding 
Federal  Reserve  notes  available  as  a 
basis  for  increased  loans. 

According  to  that  eminent  investigator 
and  economist  Professor  Irving  Fisher 
of  Yale  College,  the  amount  of  money 
that  is  in  actual  circulation  outside  of 
banks  and  the  United  States  Treasury 
is  about  two  and  one-half  billions  of 
dollars,  and  according  to  his  estimates 
this  volume  changes  hands  thirty  times 


a  year,  thus  making  seventy-five  billions 
of  exchange.  The  volume  of  deposits 
subject  to  check  was  twelve  and  one-half 
billions,  and  changes  hands,  he  computes, 
exceeding  slightly  ninety-five  times  per 
year,  thus  effecting  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  ninety-five  billions  of  ex- 
change. Adding  the  two  together  we 
have  seventy-five  plus  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  ninety-five,  or  a  total  of 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy 
billions. 

According  to  the  professor,  this  paid 
for  a  volume  of  trade  of  641,000,000,000 
units  (a  unit  of  trade  being  that  amount 
of  goods  which  in  the  base  year  of  1909 
represents  $1)  at  prices  98  per  cent, 
higher  than  the  prices  of  said  base  year, 
so  that  six  hundred  and  forty-one  times 
198  per  cent,  is  also  1,270  plus,  thus 
proving  the.  correctness  of  the  proposi- 
tion. 

[The  speaker  gave  the  following 
figures  respecting  the  national  debts  of 
other  countries:] 

Estimated  Na-  Present  Na- 
tional Wealtti.  tional  Debt.  P.C. 
Gr.  Britain. $90,000,000, 000  $40,000,000,000  44.4 
France     .  . .   65,000,000,000  35,000,000,000  44.4 

Russia    40,000,000.000  25,400,000,000  63.5 

Italy    ......   25,000,000,000  15,000,000,000  eoio 

Japan   28,000,000,000  1,300,000,000  4.6 

Germany   ..   80,000,000,000  50,000,000,000  62.5 

Austria    ...   23,500.000,000  17,000,000,000  72.3 

Hungary. .  .    16,500.000,000  9,000,000,000  54.5 


Total .  . .  $368,000,000,000  $192,900,000,000     .... 

If  these  figures  are  only  approximate- 
ly, correct,  the  total  material  wealth  of 
our  country  exceeds  at  the  lowest  esti- 
mate by  over  thirty-two  billions,  and  per- 
haps by  one  hundred  and  thirty- two 
billions,  the  wealth  of  all  these  countries. 
In  addition  to  that,  even  with  a  peak 
load  as  of  Aug.  31,  1919,  $26,596,701,648, 
our  entire  national  obligation  is  but  the 
comparatively  smaller  sum  of  one-eighth 
of  the  amount  that  these  eight  nations 
have  obligated  themselves  to  pay.  Our 
national  debt,  according  to  the  latest 
Treasury  statement,  had  been  reduced 
on  June  30,  1920,  to  a  total  of  $24,299,- 
321,467. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN. BRIEF 

With  the  Best  Cartoons  of  the  Month 
From  Many  Nations 


[Period  Ended  July  15,  1920] 


The  Greek  King's  Romance 


THE  list  of  morganatic  marriages  by 
Crown  Princes  or  reigning  Kings  of 
I^^Europe  has  been  increased  by  the  unof- 
^^Eicial  marriage  ceremony  between  young 
King  Alexander  of  Greece  and  Mile. 
Manos,  recently  brought  to  public  notice 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Louisville  Courier 
THE  OSTRICH 
by  the  arrival  of  the  King  to  see  Mile. 
Manos  in  Paris.  This  marriage  was  per- 
formed on  Nov.  5,  1919,  at  the  house  of 
Mme.  Zaloeosta,  sister  of  Mile.  Manos, 
by  an  orthodox  priest,  but  without  the 
Metropolitan's  license  or  the  other  due 
legal  formalities  required  for  royal  wed- 
dings. The  marriage,  therefore,  was 
morganatic,  and  not  recognized  by  the 
Greek  Constitution:  more  than  that,  it 
was  considered  nullified  in  civil  law  by 
the  absence  of  the  Metropolitan's  license. 
Mile.  Manos,  however,  took  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent view,  and  during  the  absence  of 


the  young  King  at  Saloniki,  she  estab- 
lished herself  at  the  Royal  Palace.  On 
his  return,  she  insisted  on  her  right  to 
live  with  her  husband.  The  Government, 
however,  compelled  her  to  leave  Greece 
with  her  sister,  and  to  settle  in  Paris. 
The  King  visited  her  there  late  in  May. 
Concerning  this  visit  an  interpellation 
occurred  in  the  Greek  Parliament  on  May 
25.  It  was  asked  why  the  King  had 
taken  this  journey  unaccompanied  by  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  or  the  Prime 
Minister.  M.  Venizelos,  the  Premier,  re- 
plied that  the  King's  journey  was  made 
with  ho  political  object  whatever,  "  as 
the  time  was  past  in  Greece  when  the 
King  represented  official  state  policy 
owing  to  his  supposed  relations  with 
God."  M.  Venizelos  added: 

Our  present  King,  I  am  glad  to  declare, 
has  an  accurate  constitutional  conception 
of  his  duties.    When  the  King  was  obliged 

[English  Cartoon] 


—Daily  Express,  London 
I  won't  rule  meself,   and,   begorra  !   I'll  see 
that  no   one  else  does ! 


844 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  part  with  his  parents  in  the  national 
interests,  he  promptly  accepted  the  sacri- 
fice, and  therefore  we  are  grateful.  He 
is  now  entitled  to  a  pleasure  trip  just  as 
much  as  any  other  free  citizen  after 
three  years   of  continuous  Work. 

Meanwhile,  recent  issues  of  illustrated 
Paris  periodicals  show  the  Greek  King 
strolling  down  the  wide  boulevards  with 
Mile.  Manos  radiating  happiness  and  the 
observed  of  all  observers.  The  romance 
of  the  Greek  King  has  proved,  thus  far, 
more    auspicious    than    that    of    Prince 


of  leaving  the  United  States,  unless  the 
Secretary  of  State  ruled  otherwise.  The 
order  laid  down  the  regulations  to  be  ob- 
served as  follows:  "  Such  persons  will 
be  permitted  to  depart  upon  presentation 
of  passports  issued,  renewed  or  vised  by 
representatives  of  their  respective  Gov- 
ernments within  one  year  prior  to  the 
proposed  date  of  departure,  accompanied 
by  certificates  of  compliance  with  the  in- 
come tax  law."  Neither  passports  nor 
permits  would  be  required  "  of  persons 


[Austrian  Cartoon] 


MlW-eitBNC 


UU-CrEopoe       6EU5iEr4        bERSieW 


—Kikeriki,  Vienna 

GERMANY  AT  THE  SPA  CONFERENCE 

Entente:     "  We  can  admit  you  to  the  game,  Fritz.     The  entrance  fee  will 
be  280  billions  in  gold.    You  may  win  half  of  it  back  " 


Carol  of  Rumania,  who  was  compelled 
by  his  Government  to  renounce  his  mor- 
ganatic wife  after  considerable  tribula- 
tion. The  Greek  royal  family  is  very 
much  in  the  public  eye  of  Europe  today. 
Prince  Christopher  created  a  considerable 
sensation  by  marrying  Mrs.  William  B. 
Leeds,  widow  of  an  American  multi- 
millionaire. The  late  King  Constantine 
is  exiled  in  Switzerland. 
*     *     * 

Aliens  Free  to  Leave  the  United 
States 
PRESIDENT     WILSON     on     July     1 
-*-        issued    an    executive    order   to    the 
effect  that  permits  and  passports  would 
no  longer  be  required  by  aliens  desirous 


traveling  between  points  in  the  conti- 
nental United  States  and  points  in  New 
foundland  and  Pierre  de  Miquelon  Isl* 
ands;  provided  that  the  above  exception 
has  no  application  to  persons  traveling 
en  route  through  the  countries  named  to 
or  from  the  United  States." 

Rockefeller  Donation  to  England 

SIX  or  seven  months  ago  John  D.  Rock- 
efeller visited  University  College, 
London,  and  displayed  much  interest  in 
this  branch  of  London  University,  as  well 
as  in  the  unit  system  of  training  in  medi- 
cine which  had  recently  been  introduced 
in  the  Medical  School  of  University  Col- 
lege Hospital.     The  fruits  of  this  visit 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


845 


are  now  evidenced  by  a  statement  issued 
on  June  12,  announcing  that  £1,200,000 
is  to  be  placed,  under  certain  conditions, 
at  the  disposal  of  these  two  institutions, 
the  greater  part  of  the  sum  falling  to 
the  hospital  medical  school.  Among 
other  provisions,  a  new  obstetric  unit  is 
to  be  set  up,  a  bio-chemical  laboratory  is 
to  be  created,  a  hospital  wing  and  other 
buildings  are  to  be  reconstructed,  and  an 
institute  of  anatomy  is  to  be  attached  to 
University  College.  The  English  press 
published  many  appreciative  comments 
on  this  donation,  which  was  declared  by 
The  London  Times  "to  transcend  the 
limits  of  nationality  and  to  find  its  im- 
pulse and  its  sanction  in  that  deep  sym- 
pathy with  human  suffering  which  binds 
the  civilized  peoples  of  the  world  to- 
gether." 


ish  Navy,"  presented  the  ship  to  the  Brit- 
ish Government  wijth  an  impressive  cere- 
mony or  April  26.  The  announcement 
that  the  ship  would  be  sold  aroused  great 
commotion  in  Belgium  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
land. All  the  Belgian  papers  expressed 
astonishment  at  the  decision.  The  Soir 
of  Brussels  said  on  June  14: 

Belgium,  following  her  Latin  inspira- 
tion, said  that  the  Brussels,  the  glorious 
wreck  sunk  by  the  Germans  and  former- 
ly commanded  by  the  brave  Captain 
Fryatt,  must  be  returned  to  England.  No 
discordant  voice  was  raised  to  hinder  the 
project.  But  we  forgot  one  thing,  and 
that  was  that  the  Brussels  might  -be 
turned  into  money,  like  the  armchair  of 
a  Hindenburg  or  the  penholder  of  a  Lu- 
dendorff.  England  has  just  put  the  Brus- 
sels up  for  auction.  We  suppose  that 
Belgium  might  have  done  the  same,  but 
decidedly  v"^  have  not  the  same  way  of 
envisaging   things,    even    glorious    things. 


[Dutch  Cartoon] 


(2-->.v:5t>-.^i..'v.-e>*^ 


-De  Notenkraker,  Amsterdam 

THE  FANATICAL  PEACE  MAKERS 


Captain  Fryatt' s  Ship 
rpHE  power  of  public  opinion  has  again 
-■-  been  emphasized  in  the  case  of  Cap- 
tain Fryatt's  ship,  the  Brussels,  which, 
according  to  an  official  announcement 
of  June  2,  was  to  be  offered  for  sale  at 
auction  on  the  Baltic  Exchange  on  June 
23.  After  the  Brussels  was  captured  by 
the  Germans  she  was  sunk  by  them  at 
Zeebrugge.  Refloated  by  the  British  Ad- 
miralty, she  was  adjudged  a  Belgian 
prize.  Belgium,  however,  "  as  a  mark  of 
its  recognition  of  the  heroism  of  the  Brit- 


ColonelL.  Wilson,  British  Ministry  of 
Shipping,  defended  the  decision  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  June  14.  The 
Brussels,  he  said,  had  been  stripped  of 
all  her  fittings,  and  was  so  damaged 
that  there  was  nothing  remaining  to  her 
of  any  general  interest:  she  was  of  no 
value  for  exhibition  purposes,  nor  would 
she  be  suitable  as  a  training  ship,  and 
if  not  sold  to  private  persons  would  be- 
come a  public  charge.  In  taking  this 
decision,  he  explained,  the  Government 
had  not  the  slightest  intention  of  depre- 


8-4  G 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


elating  the  heroic  action  of  her  com- 
mander, whose  name  would  always  be 
associated  with  the  ship. 

Following  this  official  explanation, 
however,  the  British  Government,  heed- 
ful of  the  force  of  public  sentiment,  re- 
voked the  decision  to  sell  the  ship,  and 
the  marine  auctioneers  in  the  last  week 
in  June  received  from  the  Ministry  of 
Shipping    a    cancellation    of    the    order. 


held  the  Russians  in  check  on  the  Car- 
pathian front.  As  Commander  in  Chief 
of  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  against 
Italy  he  successfully  fought  twelve  bat- 
tles on  the  Isonzo,  thus  preventing  the 
invasion  of  Austria  by  the  Italians.  He 
led  the  Austrian  advance  on  the  Piave, 
which  ended  so  disastrously.  He  then 
went  to  Klagenfurt,  where,  according  to 
a  letter  written  by  him  to  a  friend  and 


[Dutch  Cartoon] 


-De  Amsterdammer,  Amsterdam 

FIXING  THE  GERMAN  INDEMNITY 


Lloyd  George  and  Millerand: 
marks  out  of  him  " 


We  never  can  get  more  than  120  billion 


Meanwhile  the  historic  vessel  lies  in 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  stripped  and  de- 
spoiled by  the  Germans,  and  covered  with 
barnacles  from  her  long  submersion  at 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  no  official  in- 
timation as  to  her  future  disposition  has 
yet  been  forthcoming. 

♦     *     * 

Field  Marshal  Boroevic  Dies  in  Poverty 

THE  death  of  Baron  Boroevic,  formerly 
Field  Marshal  in  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian Army,  at  Klagenfurt,  Austria, 
was  announced  in  Vienna  on  June  17.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  war  Marshal  Boroe- 
vic was  in  command  of  the  forces  which 


later  published  in  Vienna  papers,  he  un- 
derwent great  humiliation,  and  lived  m 
abject  poverty.  He  was  prohibited  from 
entering  Jugoslavia,  the  place  of  his 
birth,  except  on  condition  that  he  take 
the  oath  of  loyalty  to  that  country  and 
renounce  his  allegiance  to  the  Austrian 
Emperor,  which  he  refused  to  do. 

Boy  Scouts  Sail  for  Europe 

THREE  HUNDRED  Boy  Scouts  from 
the  pick  of  American  boyhood  set 
sail  on  July  6  on  the  United  States  trans- 
port Pocahontas  to  attend  great  national 
contests  and  demonstrations  of  scouting 


F 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


847 


[American  Cartoon] 


RENEWED  HIS  LEASE! 


-Chicago  DaAly  News 


in  England,  and  to  visit  Belgium  and 
France  as  those  nations'  guests.  The 
three  hundred  boys  were  chosen  by  a 
rigid  competition  from  the  nearly  400,000 
Boy  Scouts  of  America.  The  American 
delegation  mobilized  in  Fort  Hamilton, 
New  York  Harbor,  on  the  morning  of 
July  3,  where  they  were  all  provided 
with  new  uniforms  and  full  equipment 
for  the  trip.  They  departed  under  a 
supervisory  committee  of  the  highest 
grade  of  men  leaders.  Thirty-four  na- 
tions, of  which  the  United  States  is  one, 
have  sent  delegations  to  this  First  In- 
ternational Convention  of  the  Boy  Scouts 
Organization,  held  from  July  30  to  Aug 
7  at  the  Stadium  in  Olympia,  near  Lon- 
don. The  party  disembarked  at  South- 
ampton-and  went  immediately  into  train- 
ing for  the  big  international  event.  Op- 
portunity to  visit  London  and  to  see 
many  of  the  sights  of  the  British  Isles 
was  to  be  given  at  convenient  periods. 
After  the  "meet"  at  Olympia,  the  300 
American  delegates  will  go  in  a  body  to 
France,  where  they  will  visit  famous 
cities  and  some  of  the  principal  battle- 
fields. Then,  as  guests  of  the  Belgian 
Government,  they  will  tour  the  historic 


points  of  interest  in  that  country,  and 
will  sail  from  Antwerp  on  Aug.  17  for 
the  return  trip  to  New  York. 

*     *     * 

Restoration  of  Alien  Property 
A  LIEN  property  estimated  at  $150,- 
-^^  000,000,  seized  during  the  war,  ac- 
cording to  an  official  announcement 
made  by  Francis  P.  Garvan,  Alien  Prop- 
erty Custodian,  on  June  5,  will  be  re- 
turned on  formal  application  by  owners 
entitled  to  recovery  under  the  amend- 
ment to  the  Trading  with  the  Enemy  act 
passed  by  Congress  on  the  same  date. 
Among  those  thus  qualified,  according 
to  this  amendment,  fall  the  following 
classes:  American  women  who  married 
alien  enemies,  enemy  diplomats,  interned 
aliens,  citizens  of  new  nations  created 
from  enemy  territory  by  the  Versailles 
Treaty,  women  of  allied  or  neutral  coun- 
tries who  married  enemy  subjects,  and 
Americans  who  were  forced  to  remain  in 
Germany  during  the  war.  The  amend- 
ment also  authorizes  the  return  of  prop- 
erty mistakenly  seized  and  allows  Amer- 
ican creditors  to  bring  claims  against 
enemy  debtors  whose  property  was 
seized. 


848 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Dean  Inge  on   State   Socialism 

DEAN  INGE  ("the  gloomy  Dean") 
on  June  14  delivered  the  annual  ad- 
dress to  the  members  of  the  Victoria 
Institute  at  the  Central  Hall,  West- 
minster. Speaking  on  "  Freedom  and 
Discipline,"  he  said  that  the  German  de- 
scription of  the  war  as  a  trial  of  strength 
between  discipline  and  liberalism  was 
perhaps  the  truest  statement  of  the  issue 
that  had  yet  been  made.  He  contrasted 
the  tyranny  of  the  elaborate  scientific 
organization  of  Germany  with  the  demo- 
cratic  principle   of    England,    which,    he 


declared,  was  there  exemplified  in  both 
its  strength  and  its  weakness.  Weak, 
slovenly,  cumbrous  and  slow-moving, 
vacillating  and  inconsistent,  hampered 
by  the  necessity  of  consulting  public 
opinion  and  sectional  interests,  the  sys- 
tem, as  revealed  by  the  war,  he  said,  at 
least  discouraged  the  commission  of 
great  national  crimes  and  hostile  ag- 
gressions. Dean  Inge  admitted  that  the 
recent  developments  of  democracy  in 
England,  France  and  America  had  dis- 
illusioned him,  though  he  insisted  that 
he   was   "  no   more    a   pro-German   than 


[German  Cartoon] 
THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC'S  FIGHTING  METHODS 


Combating  the  white  dragon'  (the  royalists) 


—Kladdcrada tsch,    Berlin 
Combating  the  red  dragon   (Bolshevism) 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


849 


[American  Cartoon] 


— ©   Chicago  Tribune 

ARMENIA 

There  was  a  time  when  the  whole  human  race  was  interested  in  Armenia — 
But  now  the  human  race  is  interested  elsewhere! 


Plato  was  a  pro-Spartan."  Turning  his 
attention  specifically  to  the  growth  of 
socialism,  he  said : 

There  can  be  no  greater  mistake,  in  my 
opinion,  than  to  suppose  that  the  trend  of 
our  age  before  the  war  and  in  Britain 
was  toward  State  socialism.  State  social- 
ism is  the  apotheosis  of  discipline  and  the 
negation  of  freedom.  It  is  the  hardest  of 
all  hard  forms  of  g-overnment.  It  ruth- 
lessly suppresses  the  inclinations  of  the 
individual,  subordinating  him  entirely  to 
the  interests  of  the  State.  It  regulates 
every  detail  of  his  life— if  it  ever  estab- 
lishes itself  it  will  certainly  be  obliged 
to  regulate  marriage  and  the  number  of 
births.  It  will  crush  all  revolts,  whether 
of    individuals    or    of    classes,    by    simply 


condemning  the  rebels  to  exclusion  from 
its  organization— that  is  to  say,  to  banish- 
ment or  starvation.  It  would  be  a  tre- 
mendous tyranny,  but  it  might  be  a  mag- 
nificently ordered  scientific  State.  Now 
this  ideal  does  not  appeal  to  our  con- 
temporaries for  its  own  sake.  To  the 
masses  it  is  abhorrent,  not  only  in  Eng- 
land but  to  a  less  extent  even  in  Ger- 
many.   *    *    * 

The  aspirations  of  our  age  in  Great 
Britain  have  been  for  a  fuller  and  freer 
life  for  the  individual.  Nationalism  is, 
for  the  revolution,  the  real  enemy ;  and 
it  is  the  enemy  because  it  logically  leads 
to  a  hierarchical  State  socialism,  in  which 
the  individual  is  sacrificed  to  the  State, 
the  form  of  government  which  above  all 
he   dreads.      I    will    not    attempt    to   judge 


850 


THE   NEW    YORK    TiMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


between  these  rival  tendencies.  Person- 
ally, I  would  rather  be  governed  by  a 
ptrong  bureaucracy — honest,  economical 
and  efficient— than  be  a  prey  to  the  sec- 
tional fanaticisms  of  trade  unionists, 
syndicalists  and  what  not.  But  I  believe 
that  an  omnipotent  Socialist  Government 
would  soon  throttle  all  the  life  out  of  the 
people.    *    *    * 

An  Arab  Prince  in  Cairo 

THE  Emir  Abdullah,  brother  of  the 
Emir  Faisal  (would-be  King  of 
Syria),  reached  Jeddah  on  May  15  on 
his  return  from  a  visit  to  Cairo  as  the 
guest  of  the  British  Government.  The 
Emir  found  that  British  authority  in 
Egypt  had  greatly  increased  and  that 
it  was  recognized  by  the  great  majority. 
The  broad  streets  of  the  European  quar- 
ters he  greatly  admired,  but  the  narrow 
ianes  and  malodorousness  of  the  native 
sections  of  Cairo  led  him  to  remark  that 


Mecca  and  Jeddah  had  not  so  much  to 
learn  in  sanitation  as  the  metropolis  of 
Egypt.  The  wealth  of  water,  the  numer- 
ous gardens,  the  profusion  of  flowers, 
delighted  him,  and  his  Bedouin  escort 
was  moved  to  incredulous  envy  by  the 
broad  fields  of  wheat,  barley  and  clover 
stretching  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see 
on  each  side  of  the  railway  line.  These 
Bedouins  (derived  from  the  Arabic  Badi, 
those  who  live  in  a  desert  or  wild  coun- 
try) cried  out  bitterly  to  know  what  was 
their  offense  that  their  lot  should  fall 
amid  the  sandy  deserts  and  bare  and 
rugged  hills  of  their  native  land,  instead 
of  in  such  an  earthly  paradise  as  Egypt 
seemed  to  their  astonished  eyes. 

The  Egyptian  Army  made  a  very 
favorable  impression  upon  the  Emir,  but 
he  could  find  only  words  of  stern  sever- 
ity for  the  immodesty  of  the  Egyptian 
women,  the  transparency  of  whose  face- 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Evennig  NewSj 

THE  STRAP  HANGER 


London 


^Heils  made 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


[]5l 


;ils  made  them  useless.  The  clothes  of 
"the  European  women  of  Cairo  he  found 
nothing  short  of  indecent.  The  great  in- 
crease of  motor  traffic  surprised  and 
bewildered  him:  the  streets,  he  said, 
were  never  still,  and  he  wondered  how 
people  could  endure  the  continuous-  noise 
and  movement.  In  the  luxury  and  in- 
creased cost  of  living  the  Emir  saw  no 
sign  of  the  state  of  world  bankruptcy 
which  he  had  been  told  was  one  of  the 
results  of  the  war. 


[German-Swiss  Cartoon] 


iO 


—Nehelspalter,  Zurich 

IN  GERMANY,  THE  LAND  OF  UNLIMITED 
TAXES 

"  What  is  the  cost  of  this  bas?  " 

"  The  luxury  tax  is  200  maiks.  turnover  tax  300  marks, 
exchange    value    allowance    400    marks,    and,    allowing 
marks  for  the  bag   itself,    you   can  have   it  " 


Turkish  Jew  Honored  by  England 

A  YOUNG  Jewish  officer,  a  Turkish 
subject — Captain  Alex  Aaronsohn 
— was  invested  on  June  6  by  King 
George  with  the  Distinguished  Service 
Order.  It  is  said  that  Captain  Aaron- 
sohn is  the  only  enemy  subject  to  receive 
a  British  distinction.  Born  in  Palestine, 
he  was   enrolled   in   the   Turkish   Army, 


but  escaped  on  an  American  steamer 
from  Beyrout  in  19 16  and  joined  the 
British  Intelligence  Service.  It  was  in 
this  capacity  that  he  performed  work 
of  the  most  brilliant  and  valuable  kind. 
A  remarkable  network  of  espionage  was 
organized  by  himself  and  his  sister 
throughout  Palestine  from  the  time  of 
the  entry  of  the  Turks  into  the  war  in 
1915  to  the  close  of  operations  in  1918. 
Several  times  he  crossed  the  lines  per- 
sonally, on  one  occasion  disguised  as  a 
German  soldier.  Through 
the  devoted  work  of  Aaron- 
sohn and  his  sister  General 
Allenby  v/as  kept  fully  in- 
formed of  the  movements  of 
the  Turkish  Army,  and  it 
was  largely  due  to  their  ef- 
forts that  the  British  offen- 
sive of  October,  1918,  proved 
so  successful.  On  the  battle- 
field General  Allenby,  as  he 
conferred  on  him  the  order, 
said :  "  You  have  helped  me 
to  conquer  this  country." 

Captain  ,  Aaronsohn's  sis- 
ter, who  at  the  age  of  24 
was  in  full  charge  of  the 
whole  spy  system  in  Pales- 
tine, was  captured,  together 
with  her  father  and  brother, 
in  September,  1917,  and  was 
tortured  by  the  Turks,  who 
beat  the  soles  of  her  feet  and 
placed  hot  bricks  under  her 
arms  in  an  attempt  to  force 
information  from  her.  She 
refused  to  speak  and  saved 
herself  from  further  atrocity 
by  committing  suicide.  Cap- 
tain Aaronsohn  stated  that 
the  British  Government  was 
intending  to  erect  a  monu- 
ment in  memory  of  his  mar- 
tyred sister  and  to  rebuild 
the  house  used  as  her  headquarters  at 
Heiffa. 

Captain  Aaronsohn's  brother,  Aaron, 
was  killed  in  a  storm  while  flying 
from  London  to  Paris  last  year  with 
documents  urgently  needed  at  the  Peace 
Conference. 


852 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


British  War  Museum 

THE  Crystal  Palace  in  London  was  re- 
opened on  June  9  as  a  War  Museum 
commemorating  all  phases  of  the  great 
struggle.      In   the   presence    of   a   great 
assembly  of  people  a  notable  speech  was 
delivered   by    the    King.      Rarely   in   its 
long  history  has  the  Crystal  Palace  been 
decked  so  magnificently.     In  new  paint 
of  blue  and  white,  panoplied  with  flags 
of  every  hue  of  the  rainbow,  its  many 
panes   gleaming   like   white 
diamonds,    the    great    glass 
house  became  for  the  occa- 
sion one  vast  focus  of  light 
and    color.      In    tier    above 
tier,  rising  to  the  organ,  sat 
the  diplomatists  and  naval 
and    military    attaches    of 
the    allied    and    associated 
powers,      forming      another 
mosaic  of  color  harmonies, 
contrasting  with  the  white 
and  vari-colored  dresses  of 
their  wives  and  daughters. 
It     was     a      distinguished 
throng   that   had   gathered. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury's    lawn     and     scarlet 
stood      out      conspicuously. 
Among  others  present  were 
M.       Paul       Cambon,      the 
French     Ambassador;     Mr. 
Davis,    the    American    Am- 
bassador,      and       Viscount 
Chinda,   the  Japanese  Am- 
bassador.      Various     mem- 
bers   of    the    Cabinet    were 
recognized,     including     Mr. 
Churchill,  who  arrived  just 
before  the  King  and  Queen 
and  the  royal  party.  Indian 
officers,  tall  and  impassive, 
uniformed  and  turbaned  in  khaki,   and 
High     Commissioners     from     the     Do- 
minions, had  their  part  in  the  brilliant 
and  historic  scene. 

The  address  of  presentation  was  read 
by  Sir  Alfred  Mond,  who  said,  in  part: 
The  collection  here  assembled  comprises 
upward  of  100,000  exhibits,  illustrating 
the  naval,  military,  aerial  and  civil  labors 
of  men  and  women  throughout  the  em- 
pire during  the  period  of  the  war.  It  is 
hoped  to  make  it  so  complete  that  every 
individual— man,    woman,    sailor,     soldier. 


airman  or  civilian — who  contributed,  how- 
ever obscurely,  to  the  final  result,  may 
be  able  to  find  in  these  galleries  an  ex- 
ample or  illustration  of  the  sacrifice  he 
made  or  the  work  he  did,  and  in  the 
archives  some  record  of  it.  *  *  *  In 
the  choice  of  war  material,  the  endeavor 
has  been  made  to  select  among  suitable 
examples  those  to  which  a  definite,  hon- 
orable history  can  be  attached,  thus  mak- 
ing them  also  serve  as  memorials  of 
the  heroic  men  who  served  them  on  the 
field  of  battle  and  too  often  laid  down 
their  lives  beside  them. 


[American  Cartoon] 


—San  Francisco  Cin'onicle 
REACHING  OUT 

After  expressing  the  gratitude  of  the 
nation  to  the  conceivers  of  the  plan,  and 
their  coadjutors,  the  King  said,  in  his 
answering  speech: 

We  cannot  tell  with  what  eyes  future 
generations  will  regard  this  museum,  nor 
what  ideas  it  will  arouse  in  their  minds. 
We  hope  and  pray  that,  realizing  all  we 
have  done  and  suffered,  they  will  look 
back  upon  war,  its  instruments,  and  its 
organization,  as  belonging  to  a  dead  past. 
But  to  us  it  stands,  not  for  a  group  of 
trophies   won   from  a  beaten  enemy,  not 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


853 


for  a  symbol  of  the  pride  of  victory,  but 
as    an     embodiment    and    a    lasting    me- 
morial   of    common    effort    and    common 
sacrifice,    which,    under    the    guidance    of 
Divine  Providence,  vindicated  liberty  and 
right  to  the  peoples  of  the  world. 
A  fanfare  of  trumpets  was  blown  by 
Guardsmen  in  the  galleries,  and  the  cere- 
mony was   completed.     The   day  had   a 
double   significance   in  inaugurating  the 
reopening  of  the  Crystal  Palace  for  pub- 
lic use,  after  four  years  of  war,  "  as  a 
place  for  education  and  recreation,  and 
the    promotion    of    industry,    commerce 
and  art." 

[English   Cartoon] 


—The  People,  London 

THE  CONQUEROR— FOR  HOW  LONG? 

Julius  Caesar:     "  Then  I,  and  you,  and  all  of  us  fell 
down,   whilst  bloody   treason   flourished  over  us  " 


New  French  Immortals 

THREE  new  members  of  the  French 
Academy — Robert  de  Flers,  Joseph 
Bedier  and  Andre  Chevrillon — were 
elected  on  June  2  to  fill  the  vacant  chairs 
of  the  Marquis  de  Segur,  Edmond  Ros- 
tand and  Etienne  Lamy.  M.  de  Flers, 
formerly  editor  on  the  Figaro,  and  now 
writing  for  the  Gaulois,  is  a  litterateur 
and  journalist.  His  plays  in  collabora- 
tion with  M.  Caillavet  have  enjoyed  wide 


success.  M.  Bedier  is  noted  as  a  student 
of  the  French  language  and  literature, 
of  which  subjects  he  has  been  for  many 
years  Professor  in  the  College  de  France. 
His  work,  "  Les  Legendes  Epiques,"  made 
him  famous  as  a  student  of  research  and 
philology.  M.  Chevrillon,  a  nephew  of 
Taine,  is  known  as  a  traveler  and  scholar. 


Autonomy  for  Malta 
A  N  episode  of  historical  importance 
-^^  occurred  at  Malta  on  June 
14,  when  the  British  Governor,  Lord 
Plumer,  read  to  the  Maltese 
Council  the  draft  of  the  new 
Maltese  Constitution.  The 
feeling  that  Malta  was  mere- 
ly an  outpost  of  imperial  de- 
fense for  Britain,  coupled 
with  discontent  at  the  high 
cost  of  living  and  unemploy 
ment,  led  a  year  ago  to  rioi 
and  pillage  in  the  usually 
peaceful  island.  These  dis- 
orders were  repressed,  but 
the  core  of  the  trouble,  which 
lay  in  the  Maltese  desire  to 
deal  with  their  own  problems 
of  education,  language,  tax- 
ation and  general  local  gov- 
ernment, was  cut  away  by 
the  Imperial  Government  in 
the  new  Constitution  which 
it  is  now  proposed  to  apply. 
This  Constitution  as  drafted 
gives  Malta,  with  certain 
necessary  modifications,  the 
same  measure  of  autonomy 
as  that  enjoyed  by  the  Brit- 
ish Dominions.  It  provides 
for  the  creation  of  a  two- 
chamber  representative  Gov- 
ernment, elected  on  a  pro- 
basis.      Though     Malta     will 


portional 

not  be  allowed  to  dictate  the  part  she 
shall  play  in  imperial  plans,  she  will  thus 
secure  freedom  to  conduct  her  domestic 
affairs  virtually  without  outside  inter- 
ference. 

*     *     * 

Ammunition  Sold  to  France 

IT  was  officially  announced  toward  the 
end  of  June   that   the   sale   of   th? 
whole  of  the  remaining  surplus  British 


854 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


ammunition  in  France  had  been  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Disposals  Board  at  a  price 
of  £2,000,000.  The  purchasers  were 
Messrs.  F.  N.  Pickett  &  Son,  engineers, 
at  Wimereux,  who  had  already  entered 
into  similar  transactions  with  the  French 
and  Belgian  Governments.  With  the 
huge  ammunition  dumps,  containing 
some  50,000  British  shells  which  must  be 
broken  down,  the  purchasers 
also  took  over  buildings,  ma- 
chinery, railways,  locomo- 
tives, trucks,  &c.  It  was  ex- 
pected that  the  dangerous 
work  of  removing  the  ex- 
plosives from  the  shells  in 
the  vast  dumps  acquired 
would  take  two  years. 
*     *     * 

National  Museum  War 
Exhibit 

THE  National  Museum  at 
Washington  opened  to- 
ward the  end  of  June  a  per- 
manent exhibit  of  war  pic- 
tures telling  the  story  of  the 
American  Expeditionary 
Force.  The  artists  who  made 
the  pictures  all  held  the  rank 
of  Captain.  They  included 
Wallace  Morgan,  Ernest 
Peixotto,  Julius  Andre  Smith, 
Harry  E.  Townsend,  Harvey 
Dunn,  Walter  J.  Duncan,  all 
of  New  York  City;  William 
J.  Aylward,  Fairport,  N.  Y., 
and  George  M.  Harding, 
Wynnewood,  Pa.,  all  com- 
missioned and  sent  to  the 
front  for  this  purpose. 
Drawn  from  life  in  paint, 
pen  and  ink,  or  pencil,  this 
collection  of  nearly  500 
studies  shows  almost  every 
phase  of  the  army  life  over- 
seas. The  pictures  are  spread  over  the 
walls  of  half  a  dozen  large,  well-lighted 
rooms.  They  disclose  a  tale  of  striking 
action  and  epic  tragedy. 

Ruined  French  villages  are  depicted, 
consecrated  by  American  bloodshed  to 
tear  them  from  German  hands.  Grim 
reminders  of  the  great  drama  are  seen 
in  groups  of  huddled  dead  in  wrecked 
enemy  trenches,  over  which  the  tide  of 


victory  has  poured.  In  a  hospital  a 
twisted  soldier  writhing  in  agony  from 
under  the  tumbled  blanket,  while  a 
steady-eyed  surgeon  or  an  army  nurse 
looks  down  on  him  with  compassion,  has 
caught  the  artist's  imagination.  Other 
pictures  show  the  homely,  appealing 
scehes  behind  the  lines — Pershing's 
young   soldiers  mixing  with  the  people 

[German  Cartoon] 


"  See, 
noose   can 


—Kladderadatsch,  Berlin 
PEACE  CONDITIONS 

Fritz,   only  by  quietly  putting  your  head  in  the 
you   be   assured   of  a  peaceful   future  " 

of  France.  These  same  soldiers  may  be 
seen,  half  glimpsed  through  a  downpour 
of  rain,  moving  onward  through  a  sea 
of  mud  as  the  artist's  eye  caught  them, 
dreaming,  perchance,  of  the  comfortable 
billets  they  have  left  behind.  A  slash 
of  light  from  an  open  door  shows  anoti.er 
column  passing  in  the  night  on  its  way 
to  battle:  just  a  hint,  just  a  young  face 
or  two  in  the  line,  weary,  dirty,  but  with 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


855 


firm-set,  resolute  jaws.  Here  an  endless 
line  of  weary  gun  teams  drags  forward 
the  batteries  to  blast  the  road  to  triumph. 
In  adjoining  rooms  is  an  exhibit  of 
guiiij,  bombs,  uniforms,  allied  and  Ger- 
man; captured  weapons  and  German 
wargear  of  different  kinds — a  fit  setting 
for  the  war  epic  narrated  by  the  artists 
on  paper  and  canvas. 

A  New  French  Sculptor 

F:OM  shepherd  boy  to  famous  sculptor 
sums  up  briefly  the  life  career  of 
Paul  Darde,  who  leaped  suddenlj'  into 
fame  on  June  15,  1920,  by  winning  the 


much  coveted  national  prize  for  sculpture 
conferred  on  him  for  two  works  exhibited 
in  the  Salon.  The  story  of  Darde  reads 
like  a  romance  of  old  Vasari,  or  like  a 
chapter  from  the  famous  biographies  of 
Samuel  Smiles.  Darde  is  now  28  years 
old.  He  may  be  said  to  have  begun  his 
artistic  career  at  the  age  of  12.  An  art 
professor  taking  a  holiday  in  the 
Cevennes  some  sixteen  years  ago  en- 
countered the  boy,  then  tending  sheep, 
and  noticed  the  extraordinary  skill  with 
which  he  cut  animals  and  figures  with 
an  old  jackknife  out  of  wood  and  soft 
stone.     On    being    questioned,    the    boy 


[Polish  Cartoon] 


—Mucha,  Warsaio 

GOING  A  LITTLE   TOO   FAR 

Entente  Commission:    "  Those  three  are  all  right,  but  not  this  fourth. 
That  word  is  too  unpopular  among  the  Poles!  " 


856 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


stated  that  the  only  books  he  had  read 
were  Dante,  Shakespeare,  the  Bible  and 
Tolstoy — a  remarkable  selection  for  a 
simple  shepherd  boy.  Apart  from  this 
reading,  however,  he  was  completely 
ignorant  and  knew  nothing  of  the  outside 
world. 

He  was  brought  to  Paris  and  entered 
the  National  School  of  Art.  He  soon 
found  that  he  had  learned  there  all  that 


this  school  could  teach  him  and  departed 
for  Italy  to  study  for  himself  the  mar- 
vels of  Michelangelo  and  Donatello.  On 
his  return  to  France  he  worked  for  a 
time  in  the  studio  of  the  great  Rodin. 
Then  came  the  war.  Dardc  was  de- 
mobilized last  year.  He  went  back  to 
his  native  hills  in  the  Cevennes  and  there 
cut  the  two  works  which  were  placed  on 
exhibition  at  the  Salon  and  which  have 


[German-Swiss  Cartoon] 


—Nehclspaltrr^  Zurich 

KING  MAMMON  AND  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

"  Now,  my  lad,  don't  get  false  ideas  into  your  head  about  your  future. 
The  world  will  continue  to  be  ruled,  as  in  the  past,  by  ME  " 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


857 


won  him  his  present  honor.  The  first 
is  a  fawn,  crouching  and  meditative, 
strange  and  powerful,  like  a  Caliban 
with  the  soul  of  Ariel.  The  other  is  a 
mighty  Medusa,  the  beautiful  head  of 
a  fainting  woman  tormented  with  the 
shame  of  a  hundred  serpents.  This  he 
calls  "  Eternal  Grief."  It  is  said  to  have 
been  inspired  by  an  episode  in  his  early 
life.  It  is  believed  in  French  artistic 
circles  that  the  author  of  these  two 
works,  which  are  pronounced  to  be  crea- 
tions of  genius,  will  go  far. 
*     *     * 

Emma   Goldman   Disillusioned 

A  CORRESPONDENT  of  The  Chicago 
Tribune,  writing  from  Paris  on 
June  17,  described  an  interview  which 
he  had  recently  with  Emma  Goldman, 
the  deported  American  anarchist,  in 
Petrograd.  After  expressing  love  for 
America,    whose    Government    she    had 


spent  most  of  her  life  in  trying  to  over- 
throw, she  is  repo];ted  to  have  expressed 
her    disillusionment    regarding    the    Bol- 
shevist Government  in  these  terms: 
It  is  what  we  should  have  expected.    We 
always  knew  the  Marxian  theory  was  im- 
possible, a  breeder  of  tyranny.  We  blinded 
ourselves    to    its    faults    in    America    be- 
cause   we    believed    it    might    accomplish 
something.      I've   been    here    four   months 
now  and   I've   seen   what  it   has   accomp- 
lished.    There   is  no  health  in  it.     It  has 
taken  away   even   the   little   freedom    that 
one   has    under    individual   capitalism   and 
has    made    men    entirely    subject    to    the 
whims    of    a    bureaucracy    which    excuses 
its   tyranny    on    the   ground   that   it   is   all 
for  the  welfare   of  the  workers. 

Only  one  or  two  of  the  deportees  who 
entered  Soviet  Russia  with  Emma  Gold- 
man have  embraced  the  doctrines  of 
Communism.  Miss  Goldman,  Berkman 
and  Novikov,  ^the  leaders  of  the  group, 
have  refused  to  work  with  the  Govern- 
ment in  any  way  except  in  performing 


[English  Cartoon] 
THE  EVERLASTING  STAIRS 


— Jo 7in  Bull,  London 


"I  keep   climbing  up,  but  I  never   seem    any  forrader! 
With    higher    wages    things    get    all    the    *  horroder '  I " 


858 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Italian  Cartoon] 
THE   PEOPLE   AND   THE   PROFITEER 


Profiteer   (to  the  people) :     "  Give  up  your  last  cent! 


—II   .'f20,    Florence 
People  (to  the  profiteer) :     "  Now  render  to  Caesar  that  which  is  Caesar's ! 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


859 


purely  humanitarian  tasks.  Meanwhile 
they  are  conducting  an  independent  in- 
vestigation of  their  own.  Miss  Goldman 
sai4: 

TVe  have  investigated  factories,  liomes 
and  institutions  as  a  newspapei"  man  can 
be  permitted  to  investigate  them,  and  we 
have  found  them  bad.  *  *  *  We  want 
to  make  a  trip  through  the  country  dis- 
tricts and  tallc  with  the  peasants.  The/« 
we  will  be  ready  to  speak.     We  probably 

[German  Cartoon] 


—Kladderadatsch,   Berlin 

EUROPE  AT  THE  AMERICAN  DENTIST'S 

Dr.  Jonathan:  "The  bad  tooth  (Germany)  has  a 
broken  crown,  but  the  root  is  sound.  Perhaps  a  gold 
filling  would  be  worth  while  " 


will   go  to  jail  when  we  start  criticising, 
but   that  doesn't   matter.      We've   been    in 
jail    before.      We    cannot    be   true    to    our 
principles   and   not    speak. 
*      *      * 

British  Mandate  for  Nauru 
rpHE  Island  of  Nauru  bill  produced  a 
-*-  lively  discussion  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  June  16.  The  second  read- 
ing was  moved  by  Colonel  Leslie  Wilson 
(Secretary,    Ministry  of   Shipping).     In 


substance  the  bill  confirmed  an  agree- 
ment among  the  British,  Australian 
and  New  Zealand  Governments  regard- 
ing the  administration  of  Nauru  and  the 
mining  of  its  phosphate  deposits. 

The  Island  of  Nauru  is  about  eight 
miles  square  and  lies  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  south  of  the  Marshall  Islands, 
one  degree  south  of  the  equator.  It  was 
annexed  by  Germany  in  1880  and  on 
Sept.  7,  1914,  was  surren- 
dered unconditionally  to  the 
commander  of  a  British  war- 
ship. At  the  request  of  Aus- 
tralia the  administration  of 
the  island  was  taken  over  by 
the  High  Commissioner  for 
the  Western  Pacific.  Its  1,700 
inhabitants  were  said  to  have 
expressed  their  desire  for  the 
continuance  of  British  rule. 
It  had  been  pointed  out  dur- 
ing the  war,  said  the  mover 
of  the  resolution,  how  de- 
pendent the  British  Empire 
was  on  foreign  supplies  of 
phosphates.  Discussions  by 
the  Supreme  Council  in 
Paris,  he  explained,  had  led 
to  the  proposal  that  the  ad- 
ministration of  Nauru  should 
be  placed  under  the  joint  con- 
trol of  the  three  British 
countries  named  above,  and 
that  the  phosphate  rights 
should  be  purchased  from  the 
Pacific  Phosphate  Company, 
the  English  company  which 
had  acquired  the  holdings  of 
the  original  German  owners. 
The  purchase  price  had  been 
fixed  at  £3,500,000,  to  be  dis- 
tributed as  follows:  United 
Kingdom,  42  per  cent.;  Aus- 
tralia, 42  per  cent.;  New 
Zealand,  16  per  cent.,  in  ratio  to  the 
proportions  of  phosphate  which  each 
would  receive.  The  deposits  were  esti- 
mated at  216,000,000  tons,  probably  the 
largest  in  the  world,  with  an  annual  pro- 
duction of  approximately  500,000  tons. 
In  the  debate  that  followed  Mr. 
Asquith,  Lord  Robert  Cecil  and  Sir  D. 
Maclean  opposed  the  bill  as  a  violation 
of   the   League    covenant.     The    ground 


860 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


taken  by  the  opposition  was  summed  up 
in  the  amendment  moved  by  Major 
Ormsby-Gore : 

That  this  House  declines  to  proceed 
further  with  a  bill  which  is  in  direct  con- 
flict with  the  articles  of  the  covenant  of 
the  League  of  Nations  as  agreed  by  the 
Allies  in  the  Treaty  of  "Versailles  regard- 
ing the  open  door  and  the  principle  of 
trusteeship  to  be  imposed  upon  powers 
undertaking  a  mandate  on  behalf  of  the 
League. 

This  amendment  was  defeated.  Ar^- 
ments  were  made  by  Mr.  Asquith 
against  acceptance  of  the  bill  on  the 
ground  that  it  created  a  position  of 
preference,  in  contradiction  to  Para- 
graph  5   of    Article    22    of    the    League 


covenant.  Similar  arguments  were  made 
by  Sir  Robert  Cecil  and  Sir  D.  Maclean. 
Bonar  Law  replied  for  the  Government. 
Emphasizing  the  vital  necessity  of  the 
phosphate  supplies  of  Nauru  to  the  Brit- 
ish Empire,  Mr.  Law  defended  the  action 
of  the  Supreme  Council  in  giving  the 
mandate  to  Great  Britain  as  a  whole 
and  in  leaving  to  the  mandatary  the  de- 
cision as  to  the  best  method  of  dealing 
with  it.  Charges  of  selfishness  and  im- 
morality he  deprecated  strongly.  If  the 
proposed  bill  were  objectionable,  he  con- 
cluded, it  would  be  perfectly  possible 
for  the  League  of  Nations  to  refuse  to 
confirm  it.  A  motion  for  rejection  taken 
at  the  close  of  the  debate  was  defeated 


[Norwegian  Cartoon] 
IF  THEY  HAD  LIVED  TODAY 


Columbus:  "What?  Eggs  a  dime  apiece 
I'll  not  perform  my  famous  experirnent  " 


Diogenes:  "What?  Five  dollars  for  that 
old  tub !  The  housing  question  has  even 
affected  me  " 


Achilles:  "  What?  Two  dollars  to  mend 
that  heel !  I'd  rather  run  the  risk  of 
getting   wounded  " 


—Karaldturen,   Christiania 
Lot:     "Turn   and    look   back,   wife;   as  a 
pillar    of   salt   you    will   be    more    valuable 
than   ever  " 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


861 


by  a  vote  of  217  to  77.  For  the  financial 
resolution  on  which  to  base  the  bill  the 
vote  stood  as  follows:  For,  206;  against, 
62.  The  passage  of  the  bill  was  thus 
assured. 

Death  of  Mme.  Re  jane 

MME.  REJANE,  the  famous  actress, 
died  at  her  residence  in  Paris  on 
June  14  of  influenza.  Mme.  Rejane, 
whose  real  name  was  Gabrielle  Charlotte 
Reju,  was  born  in  Paris  on  June  6,  1857, 
and  had  a  long  and  brilliant  career.    The 


daughter  of  an  actor,  she  won  her  way 
up  to  success  despite  many  vicissitudes 
and  discouragements,  and  in  1875  made 
her  debut  at  the  Vaudeville.  Her  power 
to  create  character  soon  won  her  name 
and  fame.  She  gained  many  triumphs 
at  the  Odeon,  notably  as  Catherine  in 
Sardou's  and  Moreau's  well-known  play, 
"  Mme.  Sans-Gene,"  and  reduplicated 
this  success  in  London  and  elsewhere. 
After  her  first  season  in  London,  Mme. 
Rejane  came  to  America,  where  she 
made  her  first  appearance  at  the  Abbey 


[English  Cartoon] 


-Passing  Show,  London 


THE  WORKER 


862 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Theatre,  New  York,  in  "  Mme.  Sans- 
Gene."  She  made  many  foreign  tours 
from  this  time  on,  including  a  notable 
visit  to  South  America  in  1909.  She 
opened  her  own  theatre  in  Paris  in  1905 : 
an  attempt  to  open  a  French  repertory 

[American  Cartoon] 


— Neivspapcr    Enterprise    Association 

NOTHIN'   DOIN' 

theatre  in  London  the  following  year 
proved  unsuccessful.  During  the  war 
she  devoted  all  her  talents  to  aiding  the 
allied  cause,  and  appeared  in  war  plays 
in  London.  Her  nomination  as  Chevalier 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor  was  celebrated 
in  February  of  the  present  year  by  a 
luncheon  at  the  Theatre  de  Paris,  at 
which  M.  Deschanel,  the  President-elect, 
was  present. 


Bringing 


Back    the    American 
From  Islay 


Dead 


THE  exhumation  of  the  bodies  of  489 
American  soldiers  which  were 
washed  upon  the  rocky  shores  of  the 
Island  of  Islay,  off  the  Scottish  coast, 
after  the  sinking  of  the  transports 
Tuscania  and  Otranto  in  1918,  began  on 
July  1.  The  Scottish  clan  which  inhabits 
this  lonely  spot  had  taken  the  utmost 
care  of  the  graves.  The  Chief  of  the 
clan  pleaded  that  the  bodies  be  left  on 
the  island,  but  the  relatives  of  many  of 
the  dead  wished  to  have  them  brought  to 


the  United  States,  and  it  was  decided  by 
the  Graves  Registration  Service  to  re- 
move them  all.  The  coast  of  Islay  is  so 
steep  and  rocky  that  the  coffins  had  to 
be  carried  down  trails  cut  in  the  rocks, 
or  lowered  by  rope  and  tackle  to  a  wait- 
ing barge,  which  conveyed  them  to  a 
transport  off  shore. 

*     *     * 

The  "Oossacks"  of  New  York 

npHE  New  York  State  Police,  a  mounted 
-L  constabulary  of  recent  creation,  has 
been  accused  of  playing  the  part  of 
"  Cossacks "  in  suppressing  strike  dis- 
orders; but  facts  have  furnished  little 
or  no  substance  for  any  such  unfriendly 
epithet,  and  the  work  of  these  men  who 
guard  the  Croton  aqueduct  and  perform 
similar  service  throughout  New  York 
State  has  met  with  general  commenda- 
tion. The  annual  report  of  Major 
Chandler,  Superintendent  of  the  force, 
contains  an  addendum  of  laudatory  opin- 

[American  Cartoon] 


-Baltimore  American 


"  GETTING  BLIMED  MONOTO- 
NOUS! " 

John  Bull's  efforts  to  solve  the  Irish  home 
rule  problem 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


863 


ions  from  various  State  officials,  de- 
claring that  the  force  has  acted  with 
discretion  and  efficiency  and  has  given 
the  rural  sections  much-needed  protec- 
tion, saving  the  State  far  more  than  it 
cost.  While  the  mounted  police  are  oc- 
casionally called  upon  to  preserve  ordey 
where  a  strike  is  in  progress,  they  have 
never  given  evidence  of  being  enemies  of 
labor.  The  report  states  that  the  jealous 
dislike  at  first  shown  toward  them  by 
country  Constables  and  Sheriffs  is  now 
passing  away,  and  it  is  coming  to  be 
realized  that  the  State  Police  co-operate 
with  the  local  authorities,  but  do  not 
L,eek  to  supplant  them. 
*     *     * 

Kossovo  Day 

SUNDAY,  June  27,  was  Kossovo  Day. 
It  was  observed  by  all  Serbs  at  home 
or  abroad.  The  battle  of  Kossovo,  one 
of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, took  place  on  June  15  (according 
to  the  old  calendar),  1389.  It  was  fought 
to  decide  whether  or  not  the  Turks 
should    be    driven    back    into    Asia.      It 

[American  Cartoon] 


ended  in  Serb  defeat,  and  for  more  than 
500  years  the  Serbs  bore  the  yoke  of 
Turkish  oppression  imposed  at  Kossovo. 
In  the  last  Balkan  war  "  Kossovo  "  was 
their  battle  cry,  and  with  victory  Kossovo 
Day  was  changed  from  a  day  of  mourn- 

[American  Cartoon] 


—George  Matthew  Adams  Service 
THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DRAMA! 


— Cincinnati  Post 
HOPE  SPRINGS  ETERNAL 

ing  to  one  of  rejoicing.  Even  more  sig- 
nificant has  the  day  become  now  that 
the  triumph  of  the  allied  arms  in  the 
great  World  War  has  reduced  the  Tur- 
kish power  in  Europe  to  a  shadow.  It 
finds  the  Serbs  united  with  their  Slavic 
brethren  in  the  triple  kingdom  of  Jugo- 
slavia. Rejoicing  in  their  changed  for- 
tunes, the  Serbs  asked  all  the  Christian 
churches  of  the  world  to  join  with  them 
in  their  celebration  of  this  531st  anni- 
versary of  the  memorable  battle  whose 
object  has  now  been  virtually  attained. 
*     *     * 

British  Battlefield  Memorials 
T  N  addition  to  the  war  memorials  to 
•^  be  erected  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment over  the  graves  of  its  dead  in 
France,  it  is  planned  to  erect  battlefield 
memorials  in  honor  of  different  units 
whose  exploits  m^ade  them  deserving  of 
special  commemoration.  Many  such 
units  are  now  being  considered  by  the 
special  committee  appointed  by  the  Brit- 
ish Army   Council.     The  claims  of  two 


864 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


corps,  thirty-three  divisions,  six  brigades 
and  forty-two  lesser  formations  have 
been  submitted.  The  Australians  and 
Canadians  have  already  erected  their 
memorials,  or  are  about  to  have  them 
erected,  at  the  following  places: 

AUSTRALIANS 


Pozi^res, 

Mont  St.  Quentin, 

Sailly-le-Sec, 


Bellenglise, 
Polygon   Wood,  and 
Villers  Ontreux. 


CANADIANS 

Passchendaele,  Vimy    (Hill   145), 

Observatory   Ridge,       Caix-le-Quensnel, 
Courcelette,  Dury,    and 

Bourlon. 

Sites  required  by  several  British  divi- 
sions and  other  formations  are  at  the 
following   places: 


Thiepval, 

Pozi^res, 

Bois  des  Buttes, 

Vendresse    k    Troy- 
en, 

Mont  Noir, 

Neuve  Chapelle, 

Beaumont   Hamel, 
and 

Villers    Bretonneux. 


Vieille  Chapelle, 

Fricourt, 

Bellenglise, 

La  Boiselle, 

Etreux, 

Bailleul, 

Givenchy, 

Fayet, 

Lag-nicourt, 

Graincourt, 

In   other   theatres   of  war  units   have 


registered    preliminary    claims    for    me- 
morials to  be  erected  at: 
Pepedapoli      Island       Nevoljen(Saloniki). 


(Italy), 
Gallipoli, 
Gaza, 

Doidzeli,    and 
Dolran  Front, 


the 


Aleppo,  Kantara 
(Palestine  and 
Suez),  and  Tan- 
ga   (East  Africa). 


Baden-Baden  After  the  War 
rpHE  gay  life  of  Baden-Baden,  Ger- 
J-  many's  famous  watering  place,  is 
beginning  again.  The  war  has  left  the 
city  practically  unchanged.  Though  the 
airplanes  of  the  Allies  dropped  bombs 
on  Mannheim  and  Karlsruhe  and  in  the 
surrounding  Black  Forest,  not  one  fell 
in  the  streets  of  the  famous  health  re- 
sort. Gay  crowds  are  again  thronging 
to  Baden's  capital  to  promenade  on  the 
spacious  lawns  before  the  Kurhaus,  to 
listen  to  the  concerts  held  within,  and  to 
drink  the  waters  of  the  great  Trinkhalle. 
Gambling  has  been  prohibited  by  the 
Government  on  the  ground  that  it  might 
have  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  peo- 
ple so  soon  after  the  war.  It  is  planned, 
however,  to  resume  the  horse  races  this 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Sunday  Chronicle,  Manchester 

HOPEFUL  DAVID  AND  HIS  STEED 

Gome  on,  my  bonnie  Black  Bess.    Only  another  thousand  miles  to  Cork!  " 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


8G5 


Summer.  One  result  of  the  war  is  evi- 
dent in  the  changed  character  of  the 
sojourners.  Baden-Baden,  before  the 
war,  was  the  favorite  resort  of  the 
crowned  heads,  Princes,  Dukes,  Earls 
and  other  titled  members  of  the  aristoc- 

[American  Cartoon] 


—New  York  World 
THE  SHIP  OF  THE  DESERT 

racy  of  many  lands.  From  the  eight- 
eenth century  the  Court  functions  of  the" 
Grand  Dukes  were  kept  up  in  state  and 
the  etiquette  was  said  to  be  stricter  than 
at  any  other  Court  in  Europe.  Toward 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Baden-Baden  became  a  favorite  resort 
of  wealthy  Americans,  of  whom  Com- 
modore Cornelius  Vanderbilt  was  one  of 
the  pioneers.  Since  the  war  all  the  titled 
flock  ha 3  flown  and  the  majority  of  the 
visitors  are  now  of  the  class  of  the  so- 
called  war  millionaires.  The  residents 
bemoan  the  absence  of  the  distinguished 
foreign  guests  whom  they  saw  arrive 
year  after  year  up  to  August,  1914;  only 
the  hotel  proprietors  and  shopkeepers 
are  content  as  they  rake  in  the  golden 
harvests  sown  by  the  new  generation  of 
spenders. 

Salvation  Army  as  Detectwe  Agency 
rpHE  Salvation  Army  conducts  one  of 
-"-  the  most  extensive  and  successful 
detective  agencies  in  existence.  Its 
specialty  is  seeking  for  missing  persons. 
The  work  is  conducted  through  a  system 


of  branch  offices  that  reaches  around 
the  world  and  extends  even  to  the  leper 
colonies  in  Java  and  the  criminal  tribes 
of  India.  In  sixty-six  countries  and 
colonies,  and  in  7,000  cities,  towns  and 
villages  throughout  the  world,  it  has 
trained  workers  seeking  those  who  have 
disappeared.  In  the  United  States  alone 
some  1,900  inquiries  for  missing  persons 
were  received  by  the  Salvation  Army 
last  year.  Out  of  this  number  the  organi- 
zation was  successful  in  restoring  over 
50  per  cent.,  or  nearly  1,000  persons  re- 
ported as  delinquent  or  lost,  to  their 
homes  and  families.  Some  have  been 
found  only  after  years  of  patient  search- 
ing. 

*     *     * 

Motor  Cycles  Instead  of  Street  Cars 

IN  Ceylon 
TNADEQUACY  of  street  railway  facili- 
-L  ties,  so  marked  since  the  war  in  hun- 
dreds of  American  cities,  is  also  being 
felt  in  far-off  Ceylon.  A  great  shortage 
of  rolling  stock  exists,  according  to  Gov- 
ernment reports  reecived  at  Washing- 
ton; there  is  an  almost  total  lack  of  new 
equipment  and  a  serious  scarcity  of  labor 
of  sufficient  skill  to  repair  roads  and 
equipment  run  down  during  the  war. 
Railroad    connections    are    quite    inade- 

[American  Cartoon] 


—Brooklyn    Eagle 
I  AM  THE  LAW 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


quate.  These  conditions,  and  the  high 
cost  of  upkeep  for  automobiles,  have 
forced  many  Ceylonese  to  adopt  the 
motor  cycle.  The  popularity  of  these 
vehicles  has  increased  to  such  an  extent 
that  Ceylon  now  has  about  1,200,  about 

[American  Cartoon] 


ANOTHER   BATTLE   FOR  WORLD 
DOMINATION 

half  of  which  are  equipped  with  side 
cars.  Although  the  roads  in  Ceylon  are 
in  splendid  condition  the  heavy  grade  in 
the  mountainous  interior  requires  ma- 
chines rated  from  four  horse  power  up- 
ward. Recent  importations  have  in- 
cluded motor  cycles  up  to  sixteen  horse 
power. 

Spanish  Dramatist  Awarded  the 
Nobel  Prize 

JACINTO  BENEVENTE,  the  Spanish 
playwright,  has  been  awarded  the 
Nobel  Prize  for  Literature  and  the  Royal 
Spanish  Academy  has  been  requested  to 
prepare  a  memorial  in  honor  of  the  event. 
The  winner  of  the  prize  is  a  prolific  and 
successful  dramatist,  with  more  than 
eighty  plays  to  his  credit,  some  of  which 


have  been  published  and  produced  in 
translation  in  the  United  States.  Seiior 
Benevente  is  a  member  of  the  Cortes, 
Director  of  the  National  Theatre  (Teatro 
Espahol),  and  Director  of  the  National 
Conservatory  of  Acting.  He  is  himself 
a  noted  actor  and  is  taking  a  leading 
part  in  the  motion-picture  industry  in 
Spain.  One  of  his  plays,  "  La  Malquer- 
ida  " — translated  as  "  The  Passion 
Flower " — was  produced  in  New  York 
recently  by  Nance  O'Neil. 
*     *     * 

Death  of  Lord  Fisher 

THE  death  of  John  Arbuthnot  Fisher, 
Admiral  of  the  British  Fleet, 
former  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
occurred  in  London  on  July  9.  In  Lord 
Fisher  the  British  Navy  lost  one  of  its 
most  picturesque  and  original  figures. 
His  career  was  a  continuous  tale  of 
service.  Born  on  the  Island  of  Ceylon 
on  Jan.  25,  1841,  the  son  of  Captain  Will- 
iam Fisher  of  the  78th  Highlanders,  he 
entered  the  navy  in  1854.  Six  years 
later  he  had  reached  the  rank  of  Lieu- 

[ American  Cartoon] 


—Wasliington  Star 
ONE  POINT  OF  AGREEMENT 

[Neither  party  platform  mentions  prohibi- 
tion] 

tenant.     The  main  features  of  his  career 
may  be  summed  up  as  follows: 

He  took  part  in  the  capture  of  Canton 
and  Pieho  and  served  in  the  Crimean 
War  of  1855,  the  China  War  of  1859-60 
and  the  Egyptian  War  of  1882,  as  com- 
mander of  the  Inflexible  in  the  bombard- 
ment of  Alexandria.     He  was  Director  of 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


867 


Naval  Ordnance  from  1886  till  1891,  and 
was  made  Rear  Admiral  in  1890.  He  was 
Admiral  Superintendent  of  Portsmouth 
Dockyard  in  1891,  and  then  became  Con- 
troller of  the  Navy.  He  served  as  Lord 
ol*  the  Admiralty  from  1892  till  1897,  and 
then  spent  two  years  at  sea  as  Command- 
er  in   Chief   of   the   North   American   and 


— De  Notenkraker,  Amsterdam 
THE  INTERNATIONAL  SCARECROW 

Reactionary    Stetesman  :     "Look    out,    good    people,    or 
this   goblin   will   get   you  " 


West  Indies  Station.     He  was  delegate  to 
the    Peace    Conference    at    The    Hague    in 
1899,  and  then  commanded  the  Mediterra- 
nean Fleet  for  two  years.     Then  his  two 
years'  shore  duty  found  him  first  as  Sec- 
ond Sea  Lord  and  then  as  Commander  in 
Chief  at  Portsmouth.  When  the  war  came 
he  had  served  one  term  as  First  Sea  Lord, 
from  1904  till  1910,  and  was  in  retirement. 
During  this  long  term   of   service  on 
sea   and   land,   Lord   Fisher  had   distin- 
guished himself  as  an  administrator  of 
the  highest  type,  and  as  a  man  of  great 
initiative    and    inventive    genius.      The 
dreadnought  as  a  super-fighting  machine 
was    due    to    Lord    Fisher.      During   his 
first     term     as     First     Sea     Lord     he 
"  scrapped  "  no  fewer  than  162  warships 
as     obsolete.       The     "  Father     of     the 


Dreadnought  "  also  became  the  "  Father 
of  the  Battle  Cruise'r,"  a  war  vessel  of 
the  speed  pf  a  light  cruiser  and  the 
armament  of  the  dreadnought.  Lord 
Fisher  also  revolutionized  the  old  strat- 
egy completely.  Among  his  many 
achievements  —  all  of  the 
greatest  value  in  the  develop- 
ment  of  the  British  Navy,  to 
whose  interests  he  remained 
devoted  throughout  his  whole 
career — may  be  mentioned 
the  following:  The  adoption 
of  the  water-tube  boiler, 
which  reduced  the  time  of 
getting  up  steam  from  seven 
or  eight  hours  to  twenty 
minutes;  the  adoption  of  the 
Parsons  turbine  in  the  teeth 
of  the  bitterest  opposition, 
with  the  result  that  80  per 
cent,  of  the  horse  power  on 
the  seas  today  is  turbine; 
the  introduction  of  oil  as  fuel 
against  an  equally  bitter  op- 
position, so  bitter  that  it  led 
to  his  retirement  from  the 
post  of  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty. 

When  the  war  began  in 
1914,  Prince  Louis  of  Batten- 
berg  was  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty.  After  having  or- 
ganized the  important  mobil- 
ization of  the  British  Fleet 
in  the  North  Sea  (in  which 
he  but  carried  into  effect 
a  previous  plan  of  Lord 
Fisher),  Prince  Louis,  in  answer  to 
attacks  because  of  his  German  birth, 
retired  from  office.  Admiral  Lord 
Charles  Beresford  was  a  popular  candi- 
date for  the  position,  but  Lord  Fisher 
was  even  more  popular,  and  as  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty  he  directed 
Britain's  naval  warfare  against  Ger- 
many until  May,  1915,  when  he  was 
again  compelled  to  withdraw,  largely  be- 
cause of  his  hostile  attitude  to  the  Gallip- 
oli  expedition.  During  his  tenure  he 
destroyed  the  fleet  of  von  Spee  off  the 
Falkland  Islands,  and  completed  plans 
for  destroying  the  German  submarines 
which  proved  to  be  highly  effective. 
In    the    early    Winter    of    1916    there 


868 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


was  a  popular  movement  to  have  him  re- 
called, but  the  violent  opposition  of  the 
Northcliffe  press  prevented  this.  Be- 
fore the  movement  subsided,  however,  it 
brought  to  public  notice  the  great  ac- 
complishments of  Lord  Fisher,  which 
had  long  been  hidden  in  the  archives  of 
the  Admiralty.  For  these  accomplish- 
ments the  two  volumes  of  memoirs,  which 
he  began  publishing  last  year,  furnished 
a  popular  background.  They  were 
undertaken  as  a  means  of  lulling  his 
grief  over  the  death  of  his  wife.  These 
memoirs  proved  him  to  be  a  writer  of 
great  wit  and  distinction. 
*     *     * 

Secret  Documents  on  the  War 

THE  publication  of  alleged  "  secret 
documents "  and  other  retroactive 
data  bearing  on  the  war  continues,  espe- 
cially in  France.  In  line  with  M.  Briand's 
attacks  on  the  policy  pursued  by  M.  Clem- 
enceau  while  in  office,  the  Matin  on  June 
17  printed  material  to  show  that  the 
former  Premier's  Balkan  policy  had  led 
to  the  favoring  of  England  at  the  cost 


of  France.  In  the  course  of  an  inter- 
view, M.  Benazet,  who  was  "  reporter  " 
of  the  budget  of  the  Ministry  of  War 
during  the  whole  duration  of  the  strug- 
gle, and  who  is  now  Vice  President  of 
the  Army  Commission  of  the  Chamber, 
was  asked  whether  if,  in  October,  1918, 
General  Franchet  d'Esperey  (Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  the  Army  of  the 
East)  had  continued  to  advance  on 
Austria  and  Hungary  the  conditions  of 
the  treaty  would  not  have  been  very  dif- 
ferent and  France's  situation  with  re- 
gard to  England  much  improved.  He  re- 
plied as  follows: 

Tes,  France's  present  situation  would 
have  been  magnificent  if  we  had  marched 
on  Vienna.  *  *  *  It  was  the  solution  of 
genius.  *  *  *  Tou  must  know  that  the 
whole  plan  of  campaign  and  all  General 
Franchet  d'Esperey' s  orders  were  drawn 
up  in  view  of  an  uninterrupted  march 
on  Budapest  and  Vienna.  His  left  wing, 
consisting  of  Italians,  was  even  to  ad- 
vance finally  as  far  as  Munich.  But 
suddenly,  at  the  beginning  of  October, 
in  tne  full  tide  of  victory,  his  plan  was 
completely  overthrown.      On   Oct.  -8,   1918, 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Sioux   City    Tribune 

'AND  THE  OLD  CAT  DIED  " 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


869 


[English  Cartoon] 


—Westminster  Gazette,  London 

SLOW  PROGRESS 

Shade  of  Henry  II.:  "Sending  troops  to  Ireland,  are  you?  That's 
what  I  began  to  do  750  years  ago!  You  don't  seem  to  have  got  much 
*  for'ader  '   since    I   left!" 


a  month  before  the  aimistice.  General 
Franchet  d'Esperey  received  from  Paris 
formal  orders  to  devote  the  British  divi- 
sion forming  the  right  wing  to  marching 
upon  Constantinople  under  the  command 
of   a    British    General. 

The  Matin  also  reproduces  a  letter 
from  M.  Clemenceau  to  General  Franchet 
d'Esperey,  dated  Oct.  27,  1918,  proposing 
for  his  army  a  plan  of  campaign  in 
Southern  Russia  with  which  both  the 
Italian  and  French  Governments  were 
said  to  be  in  agreement.  The  Matin's 
comment  implies  that  this  step  was 
wholly  in  the  interests  of  England,  and 
seeks  to  draw  a  contrast  between  the 
alleged  political  blindness  cf  M.  Clemen- 
ceau and  the  political  perspicacity  of  M. 
Poincare,  the  former  French  Presi- 
dent. 

The  Paris  Eclair  on  the  same  date 
published  what  purported  to  be  a  secret 
letter  addressed  by  General  Ludendorff, 
a  week  or  two  after  the  armistice  was 


signed,  to  General  Hoffmann,  Chief  of 
Staff  to  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria,  who 
commanded  the  German  Armies  of  Occu- 
pation in  Russia.  The  letter  reveals  the 
design  of  the  German  General  Staff  to 
use  the  Red  Armies  of  Bolshevist  Russia 
as  a  weapon  of  revenge.  It  reads  in  part 
as  follows: 

The  experience  of  past  months  has 
shown  that  we  can  hardly  reckon  on  the 
victory  of  the  anti-Bolshevist  elements. 
Our  Astrakhan  Army,  which  we  formed 
in  the  Kiev  region,  and  our  armies  on  the 
north  and  south  and  in  the  region  of 
Pskov  have  not  justified  our  hopes.  It 
can  be  confidently  affirmed  that  the 
future  belongs  to  the  Bolsheviki,  or  in 
any  case  to  the  monarchical  elements 
which  are  in  the  service  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki—that  is  to  say,  to  the  Red  Armies, 
which  perhaps,  at  a  given  moment,  will 
seize  power.  That  is  why,  having  as  a 
future  aim  an  alliance  in  Russia— because 
it  is  only  by  means  of  this  alliance  that 
it  will  be  possible  to  destroy  the  conse- 
quences of  our   defeat  and   realize    in   the 


870 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[English  Cartoon] 


^^^^f^\^^ 


—John  Bull,  London 

RICHES  HAVE  WINGS 
John  Bull:     "  But  you  promised  me  a  bird  in  the  hand!  " 
Bird  Catcher  David:     "Did  I?  Well,  never  mind;  you  can  have  two 
in  the  bush   instead!  " 


[American  Cartoon] 


—Neiv  Yo7-k  Times 

THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  PUBLIC    . 

What  if  these  things  do  belong  to  him!     Let's  not  have  him  butt  in" 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


871 


[near   future   the   idea   of   revenge   by   ad- 
Ivancing    the    Red    Armies    themselves    to- 
ward the  Rhine — t  think  it  necessary  now 
take  the  following  measures.    *    *    * 

Seven  different  means  of  organizing 
propaganda  for  encouraging  such  an 
alliance  are  enumerated  under  this  head. 
The  principal  aim,  it  is  stated  in  the 
concluding  part  of  the  letter,  "  is  to  at- 
tract the  sympathies  of  the  leading  Rus- 
sian classes."    No  limitation  is  placed  on 


[American  CartoonJ 


—New    York 
FRISKING  FRITZ;    OR,   THE    STORY 
SPA  CONFERENCE 

expense,  and  Prince  Leopold  is  asked  to 
begin  the  work  at  once.  A  reference  to 
the  "  German  Soviets  working  in  good 
condition  at  Moscow "  shows  that  the 
plan  must  have  been  conceived  before  the 
armistice. 

*     *     * 

Britain's  Taxes  Heaviest  of  All 

A  TABULATED  statement  of  per 
"^^  capita  taxation  levied  by  the  prin- 
cipal allied  nations  for  the  present  fiscal 
year  was  given  out  in  June  by  Austen 
Chamberlain,   British  Chancellor  of  the 


Exchequer.     It  shows  that  of  the  four 

nations    listed    Great-  Britain    has    the 

heaviest  per  capita  taxation.     The  table 

follows :  ^ 

Present 

Exchange. 

Great    Britain    £22  £22 

United    States    $49.41  £12     7s. 

France     400  francs      £9  lis. 

Italy    (1919)     134  lire  £2     2s. 

Germany     444  marks      £3     Is. 

In  addition  to  this  heavy  rate  of  taxa- 
tion each  individual  in  Great 
Britain  bears  the  burden  of 
an  increase  of  about  150  per 
cent,  in  the  average  retail 
price  of  food,  clothing,  fuel, 
light  and  rent,  above  the 
level  of  July,  1914,  as  indi- 
cated in  statistics  prepared 
by  the  Ministry  of  Labor. 
For  food  alone  the  average 
increase  is  155  per  cent.  Life 
for  the  average  British  citi- 
zen is  not  a  bed  of  thornless 
roses  when  he  undertakes  to 
strike  a  balance  between  in- 
come and  outgo. 
*     *     * 

Death   of  Ex-Empress 

Eugenie 
N  the  July  issue  of  Cur- 
rent History  appeared  a 
sketch  of  the  romantic 
career  of  ex-Empress 
Eugenie,  famous  consort  of 
Emperor  Louis  Napoleon, 
the  only  great  survivor  of 
a  dead  epoch.  The  present 
issue  must  chronicle  her 
death,  which  occurred  in 
Spain — the  country  of  her 
birth  and  early  girlhood  days 
— on  July  11.  The  venerable  woman, 
whose  wit  and  beauty  were  once  the 
marvel  of  France  and  of  the  world, 
whose  influence  over  European  destinies 
lasted  through  three  generations,  passed 
away  quietly  in  the  presence  only  of 
her  lady-in-waiting.  Her  nephew,  the 
Duke  of  Alba,  at  whose  home  she  died, 
was  in  France,  and  the  other  members 
of  the  family  were  absent  at  the  time. 
Before  her  death  she  showed  happiness 
at  the  consciousness  that  she  was  dying 
in  her  native  land. 

So  the  last  link  between  the  stirring 


I 


World 

OF  THE 


872 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


era  of  the  Third  Empire  and  the  present 
was  broken.  Hers  had  been  a  career 
full  of  years,  honors,  hopes,  despairs 
and,  above  all,  patience  to  endure.  Ex- 
Empress  Eugenie  was  a  woman  who 
had  lost  everything  she  held  dearest: 
her  throne,  her  husband,  her  only  son; 
she  lived  on,  a  white-haired,  tragic  fig- 
ure, moving  about  bent  and  wrinkled, 
like  a  somnambulist,  plunged  in  her 
inner  world  of  memories  and  regrets. 
Her  recent  return,  when  94  years  of 
age  and  nearly  blind,  from  England — 
the   home   of  her   maternal   ancestors — 


to    Spain — the    land    of   her    birth — was 
greeted  even  in  war-stricken  Europe  and 
reported  as  if  it  had  been  the  triumphal 
progress  of  a  reigning  Empress. 
*     *     * 

Rent  Problem   Solved  in   Spain 

RENT  profiteering  has  been  forbidden 
in  Spain.  All  arbitrary  increases  in 
rents  were  prohibited  by  a  decree  signed 
by  King  Alfonso  shortly  before  June  21, 
controlling  rents  in  all  the  towns  and 
cities  of  the  country.  Normal  increases,  by 
the  terms  of  this  decree,  are  to  be  con- 
fined within  certain  specified  limits. 


[American  Cartoon] 


— ©    Neio   York  TriMine 

OH,  NOT  AT  ALL,  NOT  AT  ALL.  DONT  MENTION  IT 

The  G.  0.   P.   returning  the  compliment   after   eight  years  of  sub- 
sistence on  the  scraps  from  the  Democratic  Party  table 


CONTRIBUTIONS    FROM    READERS 


'current  History  undertakes  in  this  department  to  publish  such  open  letters  as  it  con' 
siders  of  general  interest.  No  letter  will  be  used  without  the  name  and  address  of  the 
'■irite',.     On  controversial  questions  it  vnll  be  the  aim  to  give  all  sides  an  equal  chance  at 

f  ^presentation;   Current  History,    however,   aiming   to   record   events   as  nearly    as   possible 
ithout  comment  or  bias,  does  not  necessarily  indorse  oijinions  coittained  in  these  letters. 


PREDOMINANCE  OF  ANTI-GREEK 

SENTIMENT   IN    THRACE 


To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

I  presume  that  the  object  of  Current  His- 
tory, as  its  name  shows,  is  to  serve  as  a 
record  of  what  is  really  happening  in  the 
world,  not  of  misrepresentations  of  events. 
To  the  July  number,  N.  J.  Cassavetes,  Di- 
rector of  the  National  Pan-Epirotic  Union 
in  America,  has  contributed  an  article  on 
"  Thrace  and  Greece,"  which  is  anything 
but  a  contribution  to  current  history  or  a 
truthful  representation  of  events. 

Pretending  that  Turkish  and  Bulgarian  re- 
ports by  misrepresentations  have  tried  to 
show  that  the  occupation  of  Western  Thrace 
by  the  Greeks  was  unwelcome  to  the  inhabi- 
tants. Cassavetes  cites  a  cable  of  May  30 
sent  from  Xanthi  to  the  League  of  Friends 
of  Greece  and  the  Pan-Epirotic  Union  in 
America  by  a  certain  W.  A.  Lloyd,  corre- 
spondent of  The  Liverpool  Courier,  who  ac- 
companied the  Greek  troops  upon  their  ad- 
vance into  Western  Thrace.  In  this  cable 
the  correspondent  says  that  the  Greek  Army 
was  received  with  popular  rejoicing,  that 
triumphal  arches  were  erected  to  greet  its 
coming,  and  that  the  Turks  openly  express 
their  preference  for  Greek  to  Bulgarian  rule. 
Additional  information  since  May  30,  ac- 
cording to  Cassavetes,  says  that  Bulgarian 
irregulars  have  attempted  to  cross  the  fron- 
tiers from  Bulgaria,  but  were  repulsed  with 
heavy  casualties:  that  the  Turks  are  elated 
over  the  new  Greek  administration,  and  that 
Turkish  communities  from  Eastern  Thrace 
are  sending  delegations  to  ask  the  Greek 
troops  to  advance  and  occupy  their  districts. 

Having  stated  the  case  of  the  Greek  occu- 
pation of  Western  Thrace  as  represented  by 
Cassavetes,  let  us  now  turn  to  the  real  facts, 
which  will  show  how  much  truth  there  is  in 
his  statements. 

Premier  Stambolisky  of  Bulgaria  has  de- 
clared officially  to  the  foreign  representa- 
tives at  Sofia,  and  reiterated  emphatically 
his  declaration  in  the  National  Parliament 
of  Bulgaria,  that  the  Bulgarian  Government 
will  not  allow  the  formation  of  any  irregu- 
lar bands  in  Bulgaria  to  take  p-art  in  op- 
posing the  Greek  occupation  of  Thrace.  He 
stated  that  he  had  addressed  a  note  to  the 
commander  of  the  allied  forces  that  were  in 
occupation  of  the  province,  by  which,  in  the 
name  of  the  Bulgarian  Government,  he  had 
protested  against  the  iniquitous  decision  of 
the     San     Remo     Conference     to     hand     over 


Thrace  to  the  Greeks ;  but  beyond  that  he 
did  not  propose  to  go.  The  assertion  that 
Bulgarian  irregulars  have  attempted  to  cross 
the  frontiers  from  Bulgaria  is  not,  there- 
fore, true,  for  no  such  attempt  has  been 
made. 

Since  the  Autumn  of  1918  when  Bulgaria 
concluded  an  .armistice  with  the  Allies  and 
went  out  of  the  war.  Western  Thrace  has 
been  occupied  by  allied  troops,  the  larger 
part  of  which  were  French,  and  the  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  which  was  a  French 
General.  The  administration  of  the  province 
was  practically  in  French  hands,  and  ac- 
cording to  all  accounts  this  administration 
gained  the  sympathy,  confidence  and  respect 
of  all  the  population  except  the  Greeks,  by 
its  fairness  and  justice.  The  Greeks  were 
not  pleased  with  it,  because,  soon  after  hav- 
ing occupied  the  province,  the  French  found 
out  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
population  was  not  Greek,  as  Venizelos  and 
his  associates  had  claimed  in  their  memo- 
randa and  statistics.  Under  the  freedom 
which  the  people  of  Thrace  enjoyed  under 
the  French  administration,  they  held  impos- 
ing public  meetings  and  drew  up  petitions 
to  the  French  authorities  in  the  province  and 
the  Peace  Conference  at  Paris,  protesting 
against  Thrace  being  given  to  Greece  and 
demanding  autonomy  for  the  province.  Out 
of  the  ninety  communes  which  constitute 
Western  Thrace,  eighty-four  presented  such 
petitions,  insisting  upon  the  principle  of  self- 
determination.  The  Turks  appointed  even 
a  delegation  to  proceed  to  Paris  and  plead 
their  cause ;  but,  thanks  to  the  intrigues  and 
influence  of  Venizelos  with  the  Supreme 
Council,  the  delegation  did  not  go  beyond 
Rome.  The  council  refused  to  listen  to  their 
demands. 

Last  March  the  French  military  authorities 
in  Western  Thrace  took  a  census  of  the 
population,  which  showed  a  total  population 
of  204,000  (of  whom  12,000  were  Pomaks, 
i.  e.,  Mohammedan  Bulgarians),  Greeks 
56,000,  Bulgarians  54,000,  Armenians  and 
Jews  8,000.  This  census,  taken  by  French 
authorities,  which  cannot  be  accused  of  any 
bias  for  Turks  and  Bulgarians,  and  after 
all  the  Greek  refugees  from  the  province 
had  regained  their  homes,  is  the  best  proof 
of  the  falsity  of  the  Greek  claims  that 
Western  Thrace  is  predominantly  Greek. 
Were  a  similar  census  to  be  taken  in  East- 
ern   Thrace,    the    result    is    sure    to    be    the 


On  May  15   of   this   year   the   Turkish   and 


874 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES  CURRENT   HISTORY 


Bulgarian  population  of  Gumuldjina  pre- 
sented a  petition  to  the  French  General 
Charpy,  Governor  of  Western  Thrace,  in 
which  they  declared  that  Greek  domination 
is  "  execrable  "  to  them  and  they  will  never 
submit  to  it.  In  a  letter  dated  April  27.  and 
addressed  to  the  Greco-French  paper  Opinion 
of  Saloniki,  Husein  Husni,  President  of  the 
Mussulman  Community  of  Western  Thrace, 
makes  the  following  statement:  "  In  what 
concerns  the  Mohammedans  of  Thrace,  it  is 
well  to  declare  that,  without  being  partisans 
of  the  Bulgarian  regime,  they  are  avowed 
enemies  of  the  Greek  occupation.  *  *  * 
The  inhabitants  of  Thrace  feel  toward  Greek 
administration  an  unbounded  contempt,  and 
they  are  unanimous  in  their  firm  determina- 
tion never  to  submit  to  Greek  domination." 
Notwithstanding  the  assertion  of  Cassavetes 
and  W.  A.  Lloyd  to  the  contrary,  what 
really  happened  at  Xanthi,  when  the  Greek 
troops  entered  the  town,  was  this :  the  Turks 
and  Bulgarians  hung  out  black  flags  on  their 
houses  as  a  sign  of  mourning,  and  took  no 
part  in  the  demonstration  of  rejoicing, 
staged  by  the  Greek  minority  of  the  town 
population.  The  general  exodus  of  both 
Turks  and  Bulgarians  from  Western  Thrace 
is  another  proof  of  the  "  elation  "  with 
which  the  Greek  occupation  has  been  re- 
ceived. 

Cassavetes  charges  the  Turkish  and  Bul- 
garian reports  about  Thrace  Vith  attempting 
to  confuse  public  opinion  by  misrepresenta- 
tions. The  following  incident  shows  plainly 
who  is  guilty  of  such  a  charge. 

One  of  the  principal  Paris  newspapers,  the 
Journal  des  Debats,  which  all  along  has 
manifested  no  tender  feelings  for  either 
Turks  or  Bulgarians,  sent  last  Spring  its 
correspondent.  Count  Begouen,  to  study  con- 
ditions in  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  During 
his  travels  in  Western  Thrace  the  corre- 
spondent visited  the  town  of  Gumuldjina, 
and  had  an  interview  with  Vamvacas,  the 
official  Greek  representative  in  Thrace.  The 
Greek  paper.  Phos,  of  Saloniki,  in  giving  an 
account  of  the  interview,  stated  that  Count 
Begouen  had  expressed  himself  to  Vamvacas 
in  favor  of  Greek  domination  of  Thrace.  In 
a  letter  of  April  28,  addressed  to  the  Greek 
paper,  Count  Begouen  flatly  denies  the 
statement,  because,  he  says,  "  I  cannot 
favor  a  project  of  annexation  contrary  to 
the  two  principles  currently  admitted  in 
France :  the  principle  of  nationalities  and  the 
right  of  people  to  self-determination."*  Then, 
referring  to  the  census  taken  by  the  French 
authorities,  which  shows  that  the  Greeks 
constitute  one-fourth  of  the  population  of 
Western  Thrace,  he  affirms  that  the  re- 
maining three-fourths  have  unmistakably 
pronounced  themselves  against  Greek  rule 
in  Thrace.  THEODORE  VLADIMIROFF. 
Roosevelt  Boulevard,  Frankford,  Philadel- 
phia, July  8,  1920. 


THE  FARMERS'  PARTY  OF  BUL- 
GARIA 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

The  Farmers'  Political  Party  is  now  the 
ruling  element  in  Bulgaria.  Mr.  Stambolis- 
ki,  the  Prime  Minister,  a  man  of  strong  per- 
sonality, won  the  fight  over  the  Socialist 
Party.  The  Moderate  Socialists  proclaimed 
a  general  strike  at  the  end  of  last  Decem- 
ber, in  which  railroad,  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone unions,  also  teachers  and  the  clerks 
in  almost  all  offices,  were  included.  The 
Government,  however,  stood  firm  and  did 
not  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  Socialists. 
Last  February  the  strike  was  settled,  and 
each  striker  signed  an  application  for  read- 
mission  to  Government  service,  forfeiting  his 
salary  for  the  time  he  had  been  on  strike. 

At  that  time  some  American  papers  print- 
ed dispatches  from  Belgrade  (Serbia)  say- 
ing that  Bulgaria  was  in  revolution.  We 
wrote  at  once  to  a  professor,  a  Moderate  So- 
cialist himself,  in  Bulgaria,  asking  him 
about  the  real  conditions,  and  sending  him 
some  American  newspaper  clippings.  He  an- 
swered in  substance  as  follows : 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  clippings,  from  which 
I  understand  you  are  very  wrongly  infoi-med 
over  there  about  our  condition.  There  is  no 
revolution  here  at  all— only  an  incidental 
strike  of  railroad  and  telegraph  men,  which 
has  affected  some  other  State  officials.  The 
strike  is  almost  at  its  end ;  the  Government 
is  strong,  and  will  become  stronger  in  the 
future  elections." 

And  in  the  last  election,  March  28,  1920, 
the  Stamboliski  Government  actually  became 
stronger  by  gaining  twelve  members  in  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

If  the  Farmers'  Party  is  strong  politically, 
it  is  even  stronger  economically.  It  is  or- 
ganized economically  into,  a  large  co-opera- 
tive association  known  as  Naroden  Magazin, 
which  means  People's  Warehouse.  It  has  a 
central  warehouse  and  office  in  Sofia,  with 
branches  throughout  the  country,  and  be- 
longing to  this  association  are  thousands,  of 
members.  The  organization  deals  mostly  in 
farm  machinery  and  implements,  but  also 
supplies  almost  everything  the  farmer  con- 
sumes, such  as  sugar,  coffee,  tea.  leather, 
shoes,  rice,  cotton,  yarns,  soda  caustic, 
spokes,  wire  nails,  galvanized  sheets,  &c. 

At  the  party's  congress  last  June  it  was 
decided  to  establish  a  co-operative  bank, 
which  opened  formally  on  Jan.  1  of  this 
year.  The  Co-operative  Association,  Naro- 
den Magazin,  has  sent  its  own  representa- 
tive to  this  country,  who  has  located  in  New 
York    City.  '  EM.    ANASTASSOFF, 

505  World   Building,   New  Tork  City,   June 
28,   1920. 


Joward    a    New    War:    The 
I  Regime  in  Hungary 


Horthy 


By  EUGENE  S.  BAGGER 


ON  June  4  the  Treaty  of  Peace  was 
signed  at  Versailles  by  representa- 
tives of  the  allied  and  associated 
powers,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
delegation  of  the  Hungarian  Govern- 
ment on  the  other.  Formally,  at  least, 
the  last  of  the  major  partners  of  the 
Teutonic  Alliance  has  thus  submitted  to 
the  will  of  the  victorious  western  nations. 
Yet  only  those  utterly  ignorant  of  the 
situation  in  Southeastern  Europe  would 
assume  that  the  signing  of  the  treaty 
actually  means  the  restoration  of  peace 
in  that  section  of  the  world. 

For  Hungary  is  still  ruled  by  the  unre- 
generate  junker  class,  which,  more  than 
any  other  group  in  Europe,  was  immedi- 
ately responsible  for  the  attack  on  Serbia 
in  July,  1914,  and  thus  for  the  outbreak 
of  the  World  War  at  that  particular  mo- 
ment; and  today  Hungary  is  the  danger 
point  of  Central  Europe,  where  chauvin- 
istic reaction  works  overtime  in  plotting 
the  next  war  of  nations. 

It  is  one  of  the  tragic  ironies  of  fate 
that  of  all  the  countries  of  the  former 
Teutonic  Alliance,  Hungary  alone  should 
witness  the  return,  in  an  aggravated 
form  and  with  an  enhanced  prestige,  of 
the  old  regime,  and  must  pay  a  heavier 
price  than  any  of  her  erstwhile  com- 
rades-at-arms  for  the  folly  of  her  rulers. 
Yet  the  fact  is  there,  incontestable,  and 
the  peril  for  the  peace  of  Europe  and 
the  world  lies  in  the  lack  of  realization, 
on  the  part  of  the  major  Allies,  of  the 
aims  and  implications  of  the  Horthy  dic- 
tatorship. Those  aims  can  be  summar- 
ized as  the  three  R's  of  Magyar  jingo- 
ism: Restoration,  Revenge,  Reconquest. 
Such  realization  is  not  absent  in  the 
countries  most  directly  concerned  with 
the  developments  in  the  Magyar  State. 
They  know  that  it  is  impossible  to  settle 
down  to  the  task  of  reconstruction  as 
long  as  the  revanche-mad  militarists  at 
Budapest  are  left  in  the  position  to  up- 


set, at  a  moment's  notice,  the  new  bal- 
ance created  by  the  liberation  of  the 
races  oppressed  under  the  late  unla- 
mented  Hapsburg  monarchy.  The  con- 
clusion of  a  Czech-Jugoslav-Rumanian 
entente  last  February  and  the  subsequent 
signing  of  a  defensive-offensive  alliance 
between  the  Republics  of  Czechoslovakia 
and  Austria  indicate  that  the  new  de- 
mocracies are  losing  no  time  in  meeting 
the  menace  of  Magyar  imperialism.  But 
the  new  States  need  and  are  entitled  to 
protection  from  their  senior  associates; 
therefore  an  understanding  of  the  Hun- 
garian situation  is  an  international  ne- 
cessity. 

THE  MAGYAR  PROGRAM 

Like  the  Bourbons,  the  Magyar  aris- 
tocracy and  gentry,  now  restored  to  pow- 
er at  Budapest,  have  learned  nothing  and 
forgotten  nothing.  As  far  as  interna- 
tional policy  is  concerned,  their  one,  ob- 
session is  what  they  call  the  integrity  of 
ancient  Hungary.  They  emphasize,  in 
propaganda  scattered  broadcast  in  all 
idioms  of  the  globe,  that  the  Treaty  of 
Neuilly  sentences  the  Magyar  State  to 
death  by  depriving  it  of  about  three- 
quarters  of  its  territory  and  two-thirds 
of  its  population,  of  most  of  its  forests, 
practically  all  its  mines,  and  a  considera- 
ble portion  of  other  resources  and  eco- 
nomic facilities.  They  invoke  considera- 
tions of  history,  geography,  political 
economy  and  ethnology  to  support  their 
stand  against  the  dismemberment  of  the 
country. 

Any  unbiased  student  of  the  Hunga- 
rian problem  will  agree  that  the  Treaty 
of  Neuilly  inflicts  a  series  of  grave  in- 
justices and  needless  penalties  on  the 
Magyar  people.  Similarly,  it  may  be 
argued — as  the  New  Statesman  pointed 
out  recently — that  if  the  Czechoslovaks 
and  other  claimants  of  historically  Hun- 
garian territory  are  so  sure  of  popular 


876 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


sentiment  in  the  contested  areas  as  they 
pretend  to  be,  they  might  just  as  well 
accept  the  Magyar  suggestion  for  a  plebi- 
scite under  international  supervision. 

The  tragedy  is  that  the  present  Gov- 
ernment at  Budapest,  imbued  as  it  is 
with  an  obsolete  spirit  of  romantic  na- 
tionalism, unable  to  face  in  a  realistic 
mood  the  bitter  exigencies  of  defeat, 
regards  the  act  of  signing  the  treaty 
much  in  the  light  of  a  "  military  neces- 
sity," as  a  measure  to  gain  time  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  Hungarian  Army. 
Bowing  before  the  "  vis  major,"  the 
Magyar  Government  has  signed  the 
Treaty  of  Neuilly,  but  it  has  done  so 
with  the  mental  reservation  that  the  pro- 
visions will  not  be  adhered  to,  and  that 
the  injustices  imposed  upon  Hungary 
must  be  righted  by  force  of  arms  at  the 
first  opportunity. 

This  is  no  guess  or  surmise;  the  Re- 
gent of  Hungary,  Admiral  Horthy,  has 
said  as  much  in  so  many  words.  The 
Neue  Ziircher  Zeitung  of  Jan.  31  quotes' 
his  declaration  that  "  Hungary  will  sign 
whatever  terms  of  peace  are  submitted 
to  her,  because  it  is  only  in  this  way 
that  time  can  be  gained  for  the  reor- 
ganization of  the  Hungarian  Army." 

PROFESSOR  JASZrS  PLAN 

Yet  there  is  another  way  out  for  Hun- 
gary and  the  Magyars:  the  expedient 
of  peace  and  progress.  Professor  Oscar 
.faszi,  leader  of  the  Magyar  radicals 
and  member  of./ the  Karolyi  revolution- 
ary Government,  who  has  a  lifelong 
record  as  a  champion  of  the  oppressed 
nationalities  and  of  a  genuine  Hun- 
garian democracy,  writes  from  his 
Viennese  exile  and  states  in  the  New 
Europe  for  Feb.  26,  1920,  the  program 
of  Magyar  democracy  as  follows: 

In  the  field  of  foreign  relations  the  spirit 
of  international  solidarity  must  be  evoked. 
The  cry  for  revanche,  so  eagerly  fanned 
by  the  counter-revolutionary  forces  (the 
Horthy  Government),  must  be  replaced  by 
the  hope  in  international  justice.  Not  re- 
newed war,  not  the  blind  hatred  of  the 
nations,  will  correct  the  great  injustices  of 
the  peace  treaty,  but  a  reconstructed 
Europe  which  accepts  the  principles  of  a 
friendly  confederation  between  indepen- 
dent States.  The  new  States  which  have 
arisen  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Hapsburg 
monarchy  would,  if  economically  isolated. 


racially  hostile  and  morally  suspicious  of 
one  another,  become  a  permanent  source 
of  disintegration  and  warlike  complica- 
tions. But  linked  together  by  free  trade 
principles,     nationally    appeased     by    the 


ADMIRAL  NICHOLAS  HORTHY 
Regent   of   Hungary 

mutual  guarantee  of  full  autonomy  for 
each  national  minority,  and  partaking  in 
a  common  effort  toward  economic,  so- 
cial and  scientific  progress,  they  might 
substitute  for  the  old  feudal  and  clerical 
monarchy  a  beneficent  co-operation  of 
free  and  independent  States,  among  whom 
racial  and  religious  antipathies  and  dis- 
putes might  soon  become  as  much  an 
anachronism  as  between  the  States  of  the 
American    Union. 

These  are  the  words  of  reason  and 
equity.  Unfortunately  for  Hungary  and 
the  peace  of  Europe,  the  Magyar 
statesmen  and  publicists  who  subscribe 
to  this  platform  are  today  either  refu- 


TOWARD  A  NEW  WAR:  THE  HORTHY  REGIME 


877 


gees  in  foreign  lands,  like  Jaszi  him- 
self, or  else  rotting  in  the  prisons  and 
internment  camps  of  the  Hungarian 
Government  of  the  late  imperial  naval 
aid.  Admiral  Nicholas  Horthy  of  the 
Austrian  Navy,  who  promises  to  obtain 
justice  for  his  people,  not  through  con- 
ciliation and  mutual  aid,  but  via 
another  European  war. 

^       RESTORING  THE  MONARCHY 

I^H  Commenting  on  Horthy's  election  as 
il^Regent,  the  Prager  Tageblatt,  a  usually 
well-infonned  and  conservative  organ 
of  German-Bohemian  opinion — in  other 
words,  a  newspaper  hardly  accusable  of 
Czech  chauvinistic  or  alarmist  ten- 
dencies— wrote  early  in  March: 

In  Hungary  *  *  *  a  piece  of  the 
Middle  Ages  has  suddenly  established  it- 
self in  the  midst  of  a  Europe  given  over 
to  revolutions.  *  *  *  Horthy' s  very 
title  (Reichsverweser),  quaint  and  remi- 
niscent of  the  days  of  chivalry,  reminds 
us  what  a  remarkable  specialty  this  new 
Hungary  forms  among  the  States  of  the 
new  Europe.  While  everywhere  else  the 
class  to  which  the  authors  of  the  war  be- 
longed has  been  deprived  of  the  possibility 
of  deciding  the  fate  of  the  people,  the  new 
Magyar  State  penitently  turns  back  to  its 
officers  and  nobles.  *  *  *  That  Hun- 
gary is  going  to  have  a  King  seems  cer- 
tain. *  *  *  Horthy  does  not  trouble  to 
conceal  that  he  stands  for  the  re-erection 
of  the  old  Hungarian  Kingdom  within  its 
historic  frontiers.  This  program,  if  car- 
ried out,  would  lead  to  conflict  with  all 
Hungary's  neighbors. 

Since  this — an  obvious  understate- 
ment of  the  situation — was  written,  two 
important  events  have  transpired  quiet- 
ly in  Hungary  which  go  far  to  validate 
the  apprehensions  of  the  Prague  news- 
paper. One  was  the  formal  restoration 
of  the  Hungarian  monarchy;  the  other, 
the  taking  of  the  oath  of  allegiance  by 
the  Hungarian  Army.  How  little  Hun- 
garian developments  are  appreciated  in 
America  is  proved  by  the  scant  notice 
attracted  by  the  restoration  of  the 
monarchical  foiTn  of  government  by  the 
National  Assembly. 

MOVEMENT  TO  RESTORE 
CHARLES   IV. 

On  March  25  that  body  enacted  a  bill 
replacing  the  word  "  royal  "  in  the  names 
of  all  Governmental  institutions  and  the 


titles  of  all  public  officials.  Accordingly, 
the  new  Premier,  Dr.  Alexander  Simonyi- 
Semadam,  is  head  of  the  Royal  Hun- 
garian Ministry;  the  mails  are  again 
Royal  Hungarian  Mails,  and  sentences 
are  proclaimed  in  the  name  of  his  Majes- 
ty the  King. 

Here  a  question  is  raised.  What  would 
be  the  allied  attitude  toward  the  "  fait 
accompli  "  of  a  Hapsburg  restoration  ? 
To  be  sure,  the  Supreme  Council  has  re- 
peatedly vetoed  such  restoration.  But 
the  Magyar  imperialists  are  playing  a 
desperate  game  advisedly  and  with  gusto. 
They  gamble  on  the  distance  between 
Paris  and  Budapest,  on  the  reluctance  of 
the  allied  peoples  toward  new  military 
enterprises,  even  on  possible  disunion 
within  the  Entente,  on  the  chance  of 
playing  off  one  ally  against  the  other. 
"  Suppose  we  bring  Charles  back  from 
Switzerland,  what  are  the  Allies  going  to 
do  about  it  ?  "  is  a  question  fairly  ex- 
pressive of  the  state  of  mind  prevalent 
in  Hungarian  royalist  circles. 

GERMAN  SUPPORT 

But  the  main  hope  of  the  Magyar 
Tories  is,  of  course,  Germany.  The  ex- 
ultation at  Budapest  over  the  Kapp  ex- 
pedition is  instructive  in  this  connection. 
One  of  the  royalist  leaders  was  quoted 
by  The  Associated  Press  as  saying: 

The  news  demonstrates  that  the  Allies 
are  going  on  the  wrong  track  in  suppress- 
ing the  natural  inclination  of  peoples. 
*  *  *  Sooner  or  later  the  German  peo- 
ple doubtless  will  restore  the  dynasty  to 
the  place  where  it  legally  belongs.. 

This  statement  opens  up  a  long  vista 
of  possibilities.  It  is  obvious  that  a  mili- 
tarist, revancheist  Hungary  cannot  stand 
alone.  Her  natural  ally  would  be  a  mili- 
tarist, revancheist  Germany.  The  Mag- 
yar royalists  are  well  aware  of  this;  so 
are  their  Prussian  brethren.  The  com- 
bination would  work  both  ways.  The 
Hungarians  are  politically  a  much  more 
alert  and  determined  people  than  tht 
Germans.  East  Prussia  or  the  land  of 
the  Pomeranian  squires  may  be  yet  the 
nucleus  of  a  monarchist  revival  in  Ger- 
many; Hungary  may  be  another.  Herein 
lies  one — but  not  the  only — danger  of  a 
Magyar  restoration. 

At  a  reception  given  by  the  Hungarian 


878 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Prime  Minister  on  Feb.  19  [reports  the 
Nemzeti  Ujsag  of  Budapest]  among  the 
distinguished  foreign  guests  one  Mr.  I. 
T.  T.  Lincoln  made  himself  conspicuous. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  the 
Hungarian  Jew  who,  after  a  highly  di- 
versified career  as  Protestant  clergyman, 
jewelry  thief  and  British  member  of  Par- 
liament, created  a  sensation  in  New  York 
by  revealing  himself  as  a  spy  in  the  Im- 
perial German  service  who  disguised  his 
activities  by  ostensibly  doing  yeoman 
work  for  the  British  military  intelli- 
gence. That  was  in  May,  1915.  Later 
he  was  extradited  to  England  and  sen- 
tenced for  forgery  to  three  years'  im- 
prisonment. Last  Fall  he  suddenly 
bobbed  up  at  Amerongen  as  emissary  of 
Prussian  monarchists. 

Within  three  weeks  from  his  visit  at 
the  Hungarian  capital,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
known  also  as  Herr  Trebitsch,  swept 
British  and  American  correspondents  in 
Berlin  off  their  feet  by  appearing  on  the 
scene  as  chief  censor  and  boss  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information  for  the 
Kapp  "  Government."  Of  course  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  attach  too  much 
importance  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  movements. 
He  should  be  regarded  as  a  symptom 
rather  than  a  cause.  But  even  he  has  his 
use  as  an  indicator  of  the  wind's  direc- 
tion. 

That  a  certain  co-ordination  between 
the  monarchists  in  Germany  and  Hun- 
gary exists  is  hinted,  also,  by  the  Geneva 
correspondent  of  The  New  York  Times, 
who  reported  on  April  2  that  King 
Charles  was  receiving,  in  his  exile  at 
Prangin  Castle,  urgent  appeals  to  re- 
turn to  Budapest,  but  that  he  is  "  await- 
ing future  events,  especially  in  Berlin." 

The  victory  of  the  German  nationalist 
parties  in  the  general  elections  gave  an- 
other boost  to  the  agitation  of  the  Mag- 
yar reactionaries.  And  in  the  middle  of 
June  we  find  General  Liittwitz,  comman- 
der in  chief  of  the  Kapp  forces,  with  his 
faithful  aids,  Colonel  Bauer  (Luden- 
dorff's  confidant)  and  Captain  Ehr- 
hardt,  at  Budapest  establishing,  in  co- 
operation with  Mr.  Friedrich,  the  former 
Hungarian  Premier  and  noisiest  of  chau- 
vinist fire  eaters,  the  Committee  of  the 
Downtrodden    Nations.     Another   distin- 


guished visitor  in  the  Magyar  capital  in 
June  was  Dr.  Heim,  leader  of  the  Bava- 
rian clerical  peasants,  whose  plans  in- 
clude the  arming  of  the  royalist  Catholic 
peasantry  of  South  Germany,  Austria 
and  Hungary,  a  hunger  blockade  of  the 
large  cities  with  their  republican  and 
Socialist  population,  and  the  setting  up 
of  a  militaristic  Austro-Bavarian-Hun- 
garian  monarchy,  with  a  Wittelsbach  or 
Hapsburg  for  King.  Dr.  Heim  is  urging 
this  "  Green  International "  of  the  Cath- 
olic peasants  to  take  vengeance  on  the 
workers  of  Germany,  Austria,  Czecho- 
slovakia and  Jugoslavia  for  their  trade 
union  boycott  against  White  Hungary. 

ALLEGIANCE  TO  THE  REGENT 

Another  important  event  in  Hungary, 
one  that  means  a  good  deal  more  than 
would  appear  on  the  surface,  was  the 
taking  of  the  oath  of  allegiance  by  the 
troops  of  the  national  army  in  the  mid- 
dle of  April.*  Loyalty  was  pledged  to 
the  Kingdom  of  Hungary  and  to  the  Re- 
gent, Admiral  Horthy. 

Now  from  the  legitimist  point  of  view 
such  an  oath  is  an  anomaly.  The  legiti- 
mist, above  all  the  legitimist  soldier,  re- 
gards his  oath  to  King  Charles  as  still 
binding.  In  fact,  a  considerable  number 
of  officers  objected,  in  the  beginning,  to 
rendering  the  oath  to  Horthy,  but  the 
difficulty  was  surmounted. 

Horthy's  insistence  on  the  oath  would 
invest  with  probability  the  rumor  for 
some  time  current  among  the  Magyar 
liberal  and  Socialist  lefugees  in  Vienna, 
to  wit,  that  the  Regent,  once  having 
tasted  supreme  power,  likes  the  flavor 
only  too  well  and  is  contemplating  a 
slight  deviation  from  hii  legitimist  pro- 
gram. In  other  words,  Horthy,  whose 
person  has  been  declared  sacrosanct,  and 
who  resides  in  the  wonderful  Royal  Pal- 
ace overlooking  the  Danube,  is  suspected 
of  himself  aspiring  to  the  Hungarian 
crown.  There  is  nothing  inherently  im- 
possible in  the  surmise.    The  Regent  has 


*The  Prager  Tagblatt  quotes  the  oath 
which  Hungarian  recruits  must  take,  as  fol- 
[ows:  "I  swear  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
V^irgin  Mary  that  I  will  fight  against  Czech- 
oslovakia and  Rumania  for  the  liberation 
and  reunion  of  the  occupied  territories  with 
the  mother  country,  and  I  will  fight  for  the 
suppression  of  every  socialistic  movement." 


TOWARD  A  NEW  WAR:  THE  HORTHY  REGIME 


879 


the  unlimited  backing  of  the  officers' 
army,  which  is  largely  his  own  creation. 
He  may  count  upon  the  age-long  aver- 
sion of  the  Magyar  peasantry  to  the 
Hapsburg  name  and  the  ancient  Magyar 
aspiration  to  have  a  King  of  pure  Mag- 
yar blood;  also,  he  might  capitalize  the 
Entente  protest  against  selecting  Charles 
or  the  Archduke  Joseph,  or  the  possible 
third  choice,  a  Bulgarian  Coburg. 

The  fact  of  crucial  importance,  in  any 
event,  is  that — as  Hungarian  royalist 
leaders  take  pains  to  ernphasize  on  all 
occasions — a  restoration  of  the  Hun- 
garian Kingdom  can  only  mean  a  restora- 
tion within  the  old  frontiers,  that  no 
King  is  acceptable  to  the  Hungarian 
people — or  rather  to  the  officers'  army 
— who  will  not  undertake  to  re-establish 
the  integrity  of  millennary  Hungary — in 
a  word,  that  monarchy  and  war  mean 
one  and  the  same  thing  in  Hungary. 

PLOT   FOR   ALLIES'   SUPPORT 

Startling  revelations  as  to  the  men- 
tality of  the  Horthy  regime  were  made 
in  The  London  Times  of  Feb.  23,  when 
the  Vienna  correspondent  of  that  paper 
disclosed  a  plot,  engineered  by  Admiral 
Horthy  himself,  to  wage  war  on  Hun- 
gary's neighbors  with  the  aid  of  one  of 
the  major  allies!  The  correspondent 
wrote: 

Last  month  Admiral  Horthy,  the  Hun- 
garian Commander  in  Chief,  made  a  con- 
fidential report  to  the  Hungarian  Cab- 
inet upon  negotiation's  which  he  carried 
on  with  an  allied  representative.  It  is 
not  known  whether  the  negotiations  were 
conducted  seriously  by  the  representa- 
tive in  question,  or  whether  they  were 
merely  engaged  in  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
covering the  plans  of  the  Hungarian  Gov- 
ernment. *  *  *  The  proposals  made  by 
Admiral  Horthy  to  the  allied  power  were 
that  Hungary  should  be  given  a  kind  of 
mandate  to  destroy  Bolshevism  with  the 
help  of  Poland,  or  eventually  Rumania; 
that  Hungary  should  raise  an  army  of 
100,000  men  as  an  expeditionary  force, 
this  force  to  be  completely  equipped  and 
armed  by  the  allied  power ;  that,  inas- 
much as  the  Polish  Army  was  not  dis- 
ciplined, the  command  of  the  an ti -Bol- 
shevist force  and  also  of  the  Polish  or 
Rumanian  Army  should  be  given  to  Hun- 
gary under  the  general  supervision  of 
allied  officers. 

It  was  proposed  that  the  allied  power 
should,     in    return,     lend    its    support    to 


Magyar  claims  for  a  plebiscite  in  the 
territories  allotted  by  the  Peace  Treaty 
to  Rumania,  Jugoslavia  and  Czechoslo- 
vakia, or,  if  this  wei'e  impossible,  that 
the  allied  power  should,  at  least,  do  its 
utmost  to  obtain  for  Hungary  the  cities 
of  Pressburg,  Kom^rom,  Kassa.  Nagy- 
varad,  Temesvar  and  Sopron,  together 
with  the  salt  mines  formerly  belonging 
to  Hungary;  that  the  allied  power  should 
persuade  its  other  allies  to  give  moral 
support  to  the  present  Hungarian  Gov- 
ernment, should  not  oppose  the  restoration 
of  a  Magyar  monarchy,  should  construct 
a  great  Danubian  port  at  Budapest  and 
make  it  the  centre  of  Danubian  naviga- 
tion, should  give  Hungary  a  big  loan, 
and  should  furnish  raw  material  for  Hun- 
garian  industry.    *    *    * 

Admiral  Horthy  expressed  his  convic- 
tion that  the  allied  power  in  question 
might  already  be  regarded  as  an  ally  of 
Hungary.  Naturally,  he  continued,  these 
things  must  not  be  mentioned  in  public, 
but  all  preparations  must  be  made,  be- 
ginning with  propaganda,  to  show  that 
Hungary  must  be  ready  to  fight  Bolshe- 
vism, even  outside  her  own  frontiers. 
The  argument  should  be  that  Bolshevism 
must  be  crushed  in  order  that  it  might 
not  return  to  Hungary.  At  the  same 
time  he  asked  the  Minister  of  War,  M. 
Berzeviczy,  for  authority  to  call  up  the 
classes  of  recruits  born  in  '86,  '87  and  '88 
for  two  months'  training. 

It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  keep  up 
the  warlike  spirit  in  the  country,  so  that 
Hungary  might  possess  a  well-trained 
army  when  the  moment  came  to  strike. 
The  Hungarian  propaganda  organizations, 
working  in  the  territory  formerly  Hun- 
garian but  now  allotted  to  neighboring 
peoples,  had  already  done  excellent  work, 
and  in  a  very  short  time  all  would  be 
ready.     *     *     * 

The  correspondent  then  adds  Ihe  fol- 
lowing comment: 

This  Information  confirms  the  belief 
held  in  well-informed  quarters  that  the 
Magyar  authorities  are  using  the  pro- 
posal to  organize,  or  to  join  in,  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  Bolsheviki  merely 
as  a  pretext  for  creating  and  arming,  at 
the  expense  of  the  Allies,  if  possible,  a 
considerable  Magyar  force  ready  to  at- 
tack and  to  attempt  to  reconquer  the 
Slovak,  Rumane  and  Jugoslav  territories 
which  the  Peace  Treaty  has  assigned  to 
Czechoslovakia,  Rumania  and  Jugoslavia.  ' 
The  Magyar  propagandist  organizations, 
which  have  been  very  active  in  those 
territories  since  the  armistice,  are  pre- 
pared to  create  disturbances  at  the  right 
moment  in  order  to  give  the  Magyar  mili- 
tary authorities  a  pretext  for  intervention. 

On  March  4  The  New  Europe,  in  an 
editorial  article  entitled  "  A  Magyar  Plot 


880 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


and  Its  Abettors,"  exposed  the  mission 
to  England  of  Felix  Valyi,  editor  of 
the  Swiss  Revue  Internationale,  a 
Magyar-Prussian  propaganda  organ,  and 
confidante  of  Count  Julius  Andrassy. 
The  London  weekly  quoted  the  Viennese 
newspaper  Der  Abend  to  the  effect  that 
Mr.  Valyi  was  "  engaged  in  trying  to  se- 
cure munitions  in  London  for  the  Hun- 
garian White  Army,  and  that  the  bribe 
offered  by  Admiral  Horthy  is  the  control 
of  the  Hungarian  State  Railways  by  a 
British  syndicate." 

The  New  Europe  then  gives  a  sum- 
mary of  The  Times  revelations,  and 
proceeds: 

It  is  high  time  that  this  whole  matter 
was  taken  up  in  Parliament,  for  we  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  "  Allied 
Power,"  which  The  Times  discreetly  re- 
frained from  naming,  was  no  other  than 
Great  Britain.  It  is  fortunately  quite  true 
that  the  initiative  did  not  come  from  Lon- 
don, and  that  the  scheme  in  no  way  repre- 
sents the  views  and  policy  of  the  British 
Government.  But  the  fact  that  certain 
influential  Englishmen  h —  been  taken 
in  by  the  misstatements  of  the  beaten  but 
still  arrogant  Magyar  jingoes,  and  that 
prominent  members  of  the  British  Mili- 
tary Mission  in  Budapest  and  of  the  Dan- 
ubian  Commission  are  said  to  have  been 
actively  concerned  in  this  affair,  makes 
it  necessary  that  London  should  tighten 
the  reins  and  restore  discipline  among  its 
subordinate  agents.     *     *     * 

It  would  appear  that  the  early  suc- 
cesses of  the  Polish  offensive  against  the 
Bolsheviki  have  raised  new  hopes  in  the 
breasts  of  the  Magyar  militarists.  On 
May  12  The  London  Telegraph  reported 
that  Regent  Horthy  had  proposed  to 
the  Magyar  army  that  it  should  serve  as 
a  reserve  to  the  Polish  forces.  Acceptance 
of  this  offer.  The  Telegraph  pointed  out, 
would  postpone  the  reduction  of  the  Hun- 


garian Army  to  35,000  men  (the  number 
prescribed  by  the  treaty)  from  thrice 
that  number.  "  But  the  Magyar  *  reserve ' 
to  the  Poles,"  The  Telegraph  continued, 
"  might  easily  be  converted  into  a  menace 
to  the  Czechoslovaks,  Jugoslavs  and  Ru- 
manians, when  these  three  peoples  en- 
deavored to  carry  out  the  clauses  con- 
cerning their  own  interests  in  the  Hun- 
garian  Treaty." 

In  this  connection  it  might  be  men- 
tioned that  Rzach  i  Wojsko,  an  in- 
fluential military  review  at  Warsaw, 
advocates  in  a  recent  editorial  close 
military  co-operation  with  Hungary,  not 
only  against  Bolshevist  Russia,  but  also 
against  Czechoslovakia,  the  "  common 
enemy  "  of  both  Poles  and  Magyars. 

These  disclosures  testify  clearly  as  to 
the  dangers  which  menace  Europe  on  the 
part  of  the  militarist  plungers  of  Buda- 
pest. The  hope  of  the  Magyar  people  as 
well  as  of  other  nations  lies  in  the  res- 
toration in  Hungary  of  a  genuinely  lib- 
eral and  democratic  regime,  such  as  the 
Karolyist  republic  of  October,  1918, 
aspired  to  be.  Shattered  by  war,  by 
two  revolutions  and  the  sufferings  of 
six  years'  blockade,  the  Magyar  people 
today  lies  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the 
army  of  100,000  depraved  and  blood- 
thirsty adventurers,  led  by  a  small  group 
of  militarists  and  feudal  landowners. 
Yet  the  salvation  of  Hungary  must  come 
from  within,  even  though  the  nation  in 
its  present  condition  must  expect  a  help- 
ing hand  from  its  neighbors  and  the 
great  nations  of  the  West.  That  such 
help  should  not  be  forthcoming  is  incon- 
ceivable; for  Europe  cannot  settle  down 
to  a  peace  basis  with  the  torch  of  war 
still  aflame  on  the  Middle  Danube. 


International  Labor  Boycott  of  Hungary 

Blow  Aimed  at  the  "White  Terror" 


THE  severe  measures  adopted  by 
the  Horthy  Government  in  Hun- 
gary against  Communists  and 
the  "  Red  Terror  "  that  prevailed  under 
the  Bela  Kun  regime,  coupled  with  many 
lawless  acts  of  reactionary  groups  of 
ex-soldiers,  have  created  a  situation  in 
Hungary  which  is  said  by  many  observ- 
ers to  amount  to  a  "  White  Terror." 
Against  the  Horthy  regime  and  its 
methods  the  organized  labor  of  neigh- 
boring countries  has  raised  a  vehement 
protest.  The  British  labor  unions  sent 
a  delegation  to  Hungary  to  investigate, 
and  one  of  these  delegates,  F.  W.  Jowett, 
addressing  the  Labor  Party  Congress  at 
Scarborough  on  June  23,  said  they  had 
satisfied  themselves  that  there  had  been 
murder,  atrocities,  imprisonments,  and 
every  other  form  of  terror. 

Against  this  state  of  affairs  the  In- 
ternational Federation  of  Trade  Unions 
finally  declared  a  boycott,  beginning 
June  20,  intended  to  cut  off  Hungary 
from  all  communication  with  the  world 
until  the  Government  should  have 
changed  its  policy  of  repression.  All 
labor  organizations  of  Austria,  Rumania, 
Jugoslavia,  Czechoslovakia,  Poland  and 
Italy  were  ordered  to  participate,  and 
the  boycott  was  planned  to  include  rail- 
ways, post,  telegraph,  telephones,  and 
transport  by  water  as  well  as  land.  The 
passenger  traffic  alone  was  to  be  allowed 
to  continue,  but  passengers  were  to  be 
permitted  to  carry  only-  a  limited  amount 
of  luggage. 

APPEAL  FOR  THE  BOYCOTT 

The  text  of  the  appeal  through  which 
the  federation  dealt  this  blow  is  as  fol- 
lows: 
To  the  workers  of  all  countries: 

The  International  Federation  of  Trade 
Unions  has  decided  to  boycott  Hungary 
and  to  stop  all  communication  with  that 
country   beginning  June   20,   1920. 

Nearly  a  year  ago  the  so-called  friends 
of  order  seized  power  in  Hungary.  From 
that  day  the  labor  movement  has  been  the 
target  for  oppression  and  persecution  un- 
exampled in  the  annals  of  the  labor  move- 
ment, far  surpassing  the  atrocities  of 
Czarism   in  Russia. 


One  need  only  be  a  member  of  a  non- 
religious  trade  union  to  be  thrown  into 
prison,  and  an  anonymous  denunciation 
is  sufficient  to  have  one  seized  and  im- 
prisoned   in   prison    camps. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  year  there  were 
in  the  concentration  camps:  at  Hajmasker, 
9,000  men  and  women ;  at  Csepel,  4,000 ; 
at  Zalavgorszog,  2,400 ;  at  Eger,  2,000 ;  at 
Coglod,  3,000,  and  at  Homaron  Sandborg, 
2,000  men  and  women.  In  all,  50,000  men 
and  women  were  imprisoned.  The  city 
jails  are  overflowing.  The  prisoners  are 
victims  of  the  most  atrocious  and  subtle 
tortures. 

Five  thousand  workers  had  been  "  ex- 
ecuted "  by  the  beginning  'of  the  year. 
Thousands  had  been  assassinated  by 
bands  of  officers  without  formal  trial. 
Thousands  more  are  dying  slowly  of 
hunger,  of  under-nourishment  and  of 
sickness.  Detachments  of  reactionary  of- 
ficers hold  supreme  power ;  whoever  falls 
into  their  hands  is  lost;  their  victims  are 
tortured  and  beaten.  There  are  cases, 
affirmed  under  oath  by  witnesses,  where 
people  have  been  scalped  alive,  where 
their  arms  and  legs  have  been  crushed, 
where  men  have  been  crushed  or  had  their 
genital  organs  crushed  between  stones, 
where  they  have  been  forced  to  eat  their 
own  excrement,  or  human  flesh.  Fathers 
have  been  killed  before  the  eyes  of  their 
wives  and  children,  and  young  girls  vio- 
lated in  sight  of  their  husbands  or  fathers. 
Every  day  men  and  women  belonging  to 
the  militant  working  class  disappear,  later 
to  be  discovered  as  corpses,  clubbed  to 
death,  drowned,  and  often  horribly  mu- 
tilated. 

The  International  Federation  of  Trade 
Unions  has  protested  to  the  Hungarian 
Government  and  to  the  Supreme  Council 
of  the  League  of  Nations  against  these 
atrocities,  and  has  demanded  that  steps 
be  taken  to  end  them.  All  in  vain.  The 
White  Terror  reigns  absolute  in  Hungary. 
It  is  plain  that  the  Supreme  Council  of 
the  League  of  Nations  either  will  not  or 
can  not  exercise  the  necessary  pressure 
upon  the  Hungarian  Government.  That 
Government  either  can  not  or  will  not 
stop  the  atrocities  in  its  domain ;  it  closes 
its  eyes  or  encourages  them. 

Official  documents  of  the  Hungarian 
Government  which  are  in  the  possession 
of  the  International  Federation  of  Trade 
Unions  prove  that  it  instructed  its  judges 
to  condemn  prisoners  even  in  cases  where 
the  proof  of  what  it  calls  "  culpability  " 
is  not  clear,  and  that  it  pays  rewards 
varying  from  20,000  to  250,000  crowns  for 
making  labor  leaders  who  have  sought 
refuge   abroad   incapable   of  injury— which 


882 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


means  assassinating  them.  These  facts 
are  known  and  proved.  The  Governments 
which  know  them  have  refused  to  inter- 
vene, and  probably  rejoice  that  the  labor 
movement  is  reduced  to  impotence  and 
overwhelmed    in   Hungary. 

The  International  Federation  of  Trade 
Unions  will  assume  the  task  of  the  Gov- 
ernments, and  it  appeals  to  the  workers 
of  all  countries  to  refuse,  beginning  June 
20,  1920,  to  do  any  work  which  might  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  benefit  the  Hungary 
of  the  White  Terror. 

Beginning  June  20,  1920,  no  train  shall 
cross  the  Hungarian  frontier,  no  ship 
shall  enter  Hungary,  and  no  letter  or  tele- 
gram shall  enter  or  leave  Hungary. 

All  traffic  should  be  stopped.  No  coal, 
no  raw  material,  no  foodstuffs,  nothing 
shall  enter  the  country.  The  ruling  class 
fought  its  adversaries  during  the  war  by 
means  of  the  economic  boycott.  After  the 
war  it  used  the  same  method,  and  is  still 
attempting  to  use  it  to  crush  the  Russian 
labor  movement. 

The  International  Federation  of  Trade 
Unions  appeals  to  the  working  class  of  all 
countries  to  have  recourse  to  the  same  in- 
strument when  it  is  a  question  of  ending 
the  bloody  regime  of  the  Hungarian 
Government  and  of  saving  the  life  and 
liberty  of  thousands   of  comrades. 

Comrades,  transport  workers,  sailors, 
railwaymen,  postmen,  telegraphers  and 
telephonists,  workers  of  all  trades  with- 
out exception,  reply  as  one  man  to  the 
appeal  of  the  International  Federation  of 
Trade  Unions. 

No  more  work  for  Hungary,  beginning 
Sunday,    June   20,    1920. 

Against  the  White  Terror,  the  boycott 
of  the  working  class  ! 

Long  live  international  solidarity  ! 
The    International     Federation     of    Trade 

Unions : 
W.  A.  Appleton,  President, 
L.  JouHAUX,  C.  Mertens,  Vice  Presidents, 
EDO  FiMMEN,  J.    OuDEGEESTj  Secretaries. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  BOYCOTT 

The  boycott  to  a  considerable  extent 
became  effective  at  midnight  of  the  20th. 
Postal  and  telegraphic  communication 
between  Austria  and  Hungary  was  almost 
completely  suspended.  At  Austrian  rail- 
way terminals  the  workmen  sidetracked 
all  cars  destined  for  Hungarian  cities, 
and  the  sidings  w^ere  soon  filled  with  this 
interrupted  traffic.  Similar  action  was 
taken  in  Jugoslavia  and  Poland.  The 
Czechs  to  some  degree  ignored  the  boy- 
cott because  of  unfriendliness  for  Aus- 
tria, so  that  mail  and  telegraph  com- 
munications between  Vienna  and  Buda- 
pest continued  to  be  carried  on  through 


Prague.  The  other  countries,  however, 
including  even  the  labor  unions  of  Great 
Britain,  joined  vigorously  in  the  boycott, 
and  within  a  few  days  it  was  apparent 
that  Hungary  was  feeling  its  effects  to  a 
more  serious  extent  than  the  Govern- 
ment admitted. 

Hungary  almost  immediately  began  an 
energetic  counterboycott  against  Austria, 
whose  workmen  had  taken  an  aggressive 
part  in  the  movement.  By  June  23 
Hungary  was  stopping  all  railway  and 
river  communication  with  Austria,  and 
food  barges  on  the  way  up  the  Danube 
from  countries  to  the  east  were  halted 
in  Hungarian  waters.  The  Austrian  Gov- 
ernment sought  to  end  the  economic  war 
by  ordering  that  railway  men  refusing 
to  transport  goods  to  Hungary  be  dis- 
charged and  replaced  with  men  willing  to 
do  so.  The  conflict  took  on  a  political 
aspect,  and  the  Social  Democrats  called 
a  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  stopping 
even  the  passenger  traffic  with  Hungary. 
Meanwhile  Hungary  was  making  re- 
prisals by  stopping  the  shipment  of  fruit 
and  fresh  vesetables  and  of  coal  from  the 
Zellingdorf  mines. 

At  the  middle  of  July,  when  this  article 
went  to  press,  the  boycott  was  still  tight- 
ening its  grip  on  Hungary,  but  the  ces- 
sation of  mail  communication,  coupled 
with  the  significant  silence  of  the  Horthy 
Government,  prevented  the  receipt  of 
fuller  details  on  the  subject. 

REPORT  ON  WHITE  TERROR 

The  British  Joint  Labor  Delegation  to 
Hungary,  consisting  of  Colonel  Wedg- 
wood and  Messrs.  Jowett,  Harris,  Bun- 
ning  and  Williams,  issued  a  report  that 
was  summarized  by  The  London  Tele- 
graph of  June  7.  It  stated  that  execu- 
tions for  political  offenses  had  been  car- 
ried out  by  the  military,  that  men  and 
women  had  been  tortured  and  ill-treated 
in  prison,  that  large  numbers  of  persons 
had  been  imprisoned  and  detained  for 
long  periods  without  trial,  and  that  trade 
unions  had  been  suppressed  and  their 
members  denied  the  right  to  strike.  Spe- 
cific instances  of  torture  were  cited — for 
which  military  officers  are  alleged  to 
have  been  responsible — of  a  peculiarly 
revolting  character.   It  is  against  a  force 


INTERNATIONAL  LABOR  BOYCOTT  OF  HUNGARY 


^■led  the  gendanne  reserve,  which  is 
^^y  generally  known  as  the  Brachial- 
Gewalt,  that  the  most  specific  and  de- 
tailed charges  of  atrocity  are  made. 

The   following   is   a   summary   of  the 
evidence    on   which,    in    addition    to   the 
specific  cases  given,  the  delegates  have 
formed  the  opinion  that  a  state  of  terror 
^£xists: 
I^^The  Hungarian  Government  admits  that 
I^^Kgre    is    a   rigorous    censorship    of    news- 
"^   papers. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  trade  unions 
formed  under  the  Karolyi  Government 
have  been  suppressed,  and  that  for  the 
present  the  right  of  workmen  to  strike 
has  been  taken  away. 

It  is  admitted  that  over  27,000  informa- 
tions have  been  laid  against  alleged  Com- 
munists, and  that  over  6,000  persons  are 
imprisoned.  This  latter  total  does  not  in- 
clude those  interned  or  in  military  prisons. 
Our  own  estimate  of  the  total  is  that, 
taking  the  three  classes  together,  there 
are  at  least  12,000  persons  detained  or  im- 
prisoned. It  is  admitted  that  many  of 
them  have  been  in  prison  for  months 
awaiting  trial,  and  the  overcrowding  of 
the  prisons  may  be  judged  from  the  in- 
stance of  Szolnok.  We  were  informed  by 
the  Governor,  in  response  to  our  com- 
ments on  the  overcrowding,  that  he  was 
helpless,  as  he  had  350  prisoners  in  a 
prison  intended  for  only  fifty.  We  were 
later  informed  at  the  Ministry  of  Justice 
that  the  actual  number  of  prisoners  at 
Szolnok  was  535.  Detailed  allegations 
were  made  to  us  that  the  total  number  of 
persons  arrested  and  detained  of  all  three 
classes  was  over  25,000. 

It  is  admitted  that  there  are,  and  indeed 
we  met,  a  large  number  of  exiles  in 
Vienna,  some  of  whom  are  not  Commu- 
nists, and  that  thirty-nine  Communists 
have  been  executed  under  the  authority 
of  the  civil  power  since  December  last. 

It  is  admitted  that  on  April  28  nineteen 
men  were  taken  by  the  military  from  the 
prison  at  Szolnok  and  killed  at  Abonyi. 
It  is  significant  that,  despite  the  official 
admission,  two  persons  to  whom  we  were 
directed  as  having  knowledge  of  the 
affair  simply  declined  to  speak.  It  was 
suggested  that  we  should  visit  Hajmask- 
er,  the  internment  camp,  but  we  were 
informed  that  after  the  Italia.  3  visited 
the  camp  prisoners  who  ventured  to  com- 
plain to  them  were  most  brutally  beaten. 
As  a  consequence  we  did  not  feel  justified 
in  visiting  Hajmasker. 

In  view  of  the  evidence  supplied  to 
them  the  delegates  believe  that  there  is  a 
"  Terror "    in    Hungary,    that    the    Hun- 


883 


garian  Government  is  unable  to  control 
it,  and  that  many  of  its  .own  acts  are  of 
so  rigorous  a  character  as  to  merit  the 
name  of  "  terror." 

CRIMES  OF  THE  COMMUNISTS 
The   other   side   of  the   question   was 
presented   by   a   writer   in   The   London 
Morning  Post  of  June  23  in  these  words : 

The  Labor  Party,  so  sensitive  when  a 
Communist  is  punished,  even  for  murder, 
never  protested  at  the  atrocities  com- 
mitted under  Kun's  regime.  Documents 
of  undoiibted  trustworthiness  give  the 
names  and  standing  of  prominent  men 
who  were  slowly  tortured  to  death  in  the 
cellars  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament  in 
Budapest.  In  the  district  beyond  ths 
River  Tisza,  where  Kun's  bloodhound, 
Szamuely,  held  his  sway,  900  persons  were 
murdered.  Two  thousand  persons  are 
known  to  hav-  been  slain  by  the  "  Reds  " 
in  suppressing  the  first  anti-revolutionary 
movement ;  the  names  of  those  still  miss- 
ing brings  the  number  up  to  3,000.  *  *  * 
And  recently,  when  the  bed  of  the  Dan- 
ube was  dredged  at  Budapest,  the  depths 
told  the  tale  of  the  massacre  of  children. 
Red  Cross  nurses  and  other  women,  as 
well   as  of  aged   people. 

The  Labor  Party  made  no  outcry 
against  the  "  Red  Terror  "  that  was  do- 
ing these  and  other  unspeakable  things, 
but  now  that  the  populace,  stung  to  fury 
by  such  cruelties,  here  and  there  takes 
the  law  into  its  own  hands,  there  is  a  cry 
of   "  White  Terror." 

The  proved  facts  are  that  since  the 
first  Government  was  formed  after  the 
"  Red  "  r^ime  26  persons  were  executed 
as  common  criminals  for  offenses  that 
would  have  involved  the  death  penalty 
in  any  circumstances,  while  198  were 
court-martialed  and  their  execution  was 
demanded  by  the  irresistible  will,  not  of  a 
privileged  class  or  clique,  but  of  the 
whole  people  that  had  been  shaken  to  its 
depths  by  indignation  and  wrath  at  the 
sight  of  unspeakable  horrors  done  to 
members  of  their  families  and  to  the  best 
of  their  public   men. 

Since  the  overthrow  of  the  Kun  regime 
5,569  have  been  tried.  Most  of  them  have 
already  been  set  free;  1,617  are  still  un- 
der trial.  They  are  all  at  the  Hajmasker 
internment  camp,  the  management  of 
which  has  been  declared  excellent  by  for- 
eign authorities. 

Meanwhile,  whether  Red  radicalism  or 
White  reaction  be  most  to  blame,  the 
labor  boycott  aimed  at "  the  life  of  the 
Horthy  Government  is  making  existence 
harder  for  all  classes  of  people  in 
Central  Europe. 


Denmark's  New  Dual  Election  System 

A   Landmark  in   Political   Progress 


THE  election,  held  April  26,  1920,  of 
members  of  the  Danish  Folkething, 
the  lower  house  of  the  Rigsdag, 
which  wrought  so  overwhelming  a 
defeat  to  the  Red  radical  elements, 
was  doubly  momentous  in  the  political 
history  of  Denmark.  To  a  republic  like 
the  United  States  this  election  had  spe- 
cial interest  as  testing  out  a  revolution- 
ary piece  of  electoral  legislation.  This 
election  settled  normally  the  constitu- 
tional crisis  that  had  been  precipitated 
by  the  King's  dismissal  of  the  Zahle 
Ministry;  at  the  same  time  it  proved  tKe 
adequacy  of  the  election  law,  passed 
April  11,  1920,  to  secure  fair  representa- 
tion in  a  small  country  of  many  political 
parties. 

The  old  Danish  electoral  law  was 
based  on  the  absolute  majority  principle 
and  the  single-member-district  method, 
the  same  as  that  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  amended  Danish  Constitution  of 
May,  1915,  another  electoral  law  was  in- 
corporated in  which  the  single-member 
districts  were  retained,  but  twenty-three 
supplementary  mandates  (seats)  were 
added  for  distribution  among  the  parties 
which  did  not  obtain  a  representation  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  votes  cast 
for  them.  Also  the  principle  of  election 
by  proportional  representation  was  intro- 
duced in  the  district  of  Copenhagen,  with 
the  object  of  obtaining  adequate  repre- 
sentation of  minorities.  It  was  on  this 
altered  basis  that  the  Folkething  elec- 
tion of  1918  was  held. 

Under  the  new  Danish  electoral  law 
the  principle  of  proportional  representa- 
tion was  carried  beyond  the  Copenhagen 
district  and  extended  throughout  the 
realm,  so  as  to  bring  the  electoral  sys- 
tem of  the  capital  into  conformity  with 
the  rest  of  the  country.  Copenhagen,  in- 
stead of  remaining  one  election  district, 
with  twenty-four  representatives  elected 
by  the  list  ballot,  was  divided  into  three 
constituencies,  each  of  which  elects  six 
members  by  the  proportional  representa- 
tion method.     To  the  eighteen  members 


thus  elected  were  added  six  supple- 
mentary mandates  (seats)  distributed  to 
the  parties  which  may  not  have  obtained 
a  representation  in  proportion  to  the 
total  number  of  votes  cast  for  them  in 
the  capital. 

The  country  outside  Copenhagen  was 
divided  into  twenty  constituencies,  which 
elect  ninety-three  representatives  by  the 
proportional  election  system,  correspond- 
ing to  the  number  of  the  old  single-mem- 
ber districts;  in  addition  there  are  twen- 
ty-three supplementary  mandatea 
(seats),  thirteen  of  which  go  to  Jutland 
and  ten  to  the  Islands  of  Seeland,  Funen, 
Lolland-Falster,  &c.,  for  distribution  to 
the  parties  which  may  not  have  obtained 
a  just  proportional  representation. 

By  the  new  law  all  the  single-member 
districts  were  replaced  by  large  constit- 
uencies which  elected  members  by  the 
list  ballot  (scrutin  de  liste)  method  ac- 
cording to  the  proportional  election  sys- 
tem. To  make  the  representation  of  the 
different  parties  conform  absolutely  to 
their  voting  strength,  the  supplementary 
mandate  system  was  retained  with  cer- 
tain modifications.  The  close  personal 
relation  between  the  representative  and 
his  constituents  was  to  some  degree  con- 
sei-ved  by  the  retention  of  the  single- 
member  districts  as  nomination  areas,  as 
nobody  can  offer  himself  for  election 
without  having  been  nominated  for  a 
nomination  area  by  at  least  twenty-five 
voters. 

In  conformity  with  the  amended  Dan- 
ish Constitution  of  1915  the  number  of 
members  of  the  Folkething  was  fixed  at 
140.  Of  these,  24  are  elected  in  the  cap- 
ital and  116  in  the  country  outside  of 
Copenhagen. 

Election  committees  are  appointed  for 
the  election  districts  and  the  nomination 
areas.  If  a  nomination  area  consists  of 
several  co-x.munes,  a  polling  booth  is  set 
up  in  each  of  them.  The  election  com- 
mittee in  each  area  makes  all  prepara- 
tions and  receives  tha  names  of  all  the 


DENMARK'S  NEW  DUAL  ELECTION  SYSTEM 


885 


ididates.  The  election  committees  re- 
ceive the  lists  of  the  parties  indicating 
the  order  in  which  they  desire  the  candi- 
dates to  be  entered.  The  lists  and  the 
candidates  nominated  in  the  nomination 
areas,  together  with  their  party  designa; 
tions,  are  noted  on  the  ballots  distributed 
to  the  voters,  and  the  voter  may  indi- 
cate, by  means  of,  a  cross,  either  the  can- 
didate or  the  party  he  desires  to  vote  for. 
When  the  election  is  over  and  the  elec- 
tion committee  in  the  nomination  area 
has  collected  and  counted  the  votes,  the 
results  are  forwarded  to  the  Ministry  of 
the  Interior,  where  the  number  of  man- 
dates (seats)  to  be  apportioned  to  the 
respective  parties  is  calculated;  there- 
upon the  election  committee  of  the  elec- 
tion district  decides  which  candidates  on 
the  lists  shall  be  regarded  as  elected. 
Finally  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  de- 
temines  the  distribution  of  the  supple- 
mentary mandates. 

Automatically  the  law  takes  the  dis- 
tribution of  seats  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
political  parties.  As  soon  as  the  district 
election  returns  arc  in,  if  a  party  is 
given,  say,  six  of  the  supplementary 
mandates,  this  party's  candidates  are  de- 
clared elected  in  the  six  districts  where 
it  has  the  largest  unrepresented  minori- 
ties. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  new 
Danish  electoral  law  works  in  practice 
compared  with  the  old  electoral  laws. 
At  the  election  in  Denmark,  April  26, 
1920,  the  votes  were  cast  as  follows 
(the  election  on  the  Faroe  Islands,  which 
elect  one  representative  to  the  Folke- 
thing,  has  not  yet  taken  place) : 

Tradesmen's  Party 29,765 

Conservatives    201,918 

Radicals    122,122 

Socialists   300,394 

Left  Party  350,437 

Free  Socialists  7,257 

Centrum 9,059 

Left  Socialists   3,859 

Total 1,024,811 

As  there  were  1,024,811  votes  cast  and 
139  mandates  (the  Faroe  Islands  man- 
date not  being  included  here  or  later), 
7,373  votes  should  elect  one  representa- 
tive. The  following  figures  show  the 
mandates    the    different    parties    should 


have  obtained  according  to  the  strictest 
mathematical  justice,  and  the  mandates 
they  actually  obtained  as  a  result  of  the 
new  electoral  law: 

, Mandates — — ^ 

Should      Actually 
Have  Had.  Obtained. 

Tradesmen's  Party 4.0  4 

Conservatives    27.4  28 

Radicals    16.6  17 

Socialists    40.8  42 

Left  Party 4/. 5  48 

Free  Socialists 1.00  0 

Centrum    1.2  0 

Left  Socialists  0.5  0 

Total 139.0  139 

The  foregoing  figures  are  proof  that 
the  new  Danish  electoral  law  works  with 
almost  mathematical  accuracy.  The  two 
small  parties,  Centrum  and  Free  Social- 
ists, were  each  entitled  to  one  mandate, 
but  did  not  obtain  them  because  they 
failed  to  poll  a  minimum  of  between 
7,000  and  8,000  votes  inside  one  of  the 
large  constituencies,  Copenhagen,  the 
islands  and  Jutland,  which  would  have 
given  them  supplementary  mandates. 
The  2.7  mandates  lost  by  the  three  small- 
est parties  were  divided  among  the 
larger  parties  and  benefited  especially 
the  Socialists  and  the  Conservatives. 
The  supplementary  mandates  were  dis- 
tributed as  follows; 

Members  Supple- 
Elected   mentary 
in  Constit-  Man- 
uencies.    dates.    Total. 

Tradesmen's  Party 0                4  4 

Conservatives    18              10  28 

Radicals    8                9  17 

Socialists   36                6  42 

Left  Party    48                0  48 

Free  Socialists   0                0  0 

Centrum    0                0  0 

Left  Socialists 0               0  0 

Total 110  29  139 

In  the  old  Danish  electoral  law,  before 
1915,  nothing  was  known  of  the  propor- 
tional representation  method,  nor  did  it 
provide  for  supplementary  mandates.  If 
that  old  law  had  been  in  force  the  recent 
election  would  have  resulted  as  follows: 

Mandates. 

Tradesmen's  Party  0 

Conservatives    9 

Radicals    5 

Socialists   36 


886 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Mandates. 

Left  Party   60 

Free  Socialists  0 

Centrum    0 

Left  Socialists   0 

Total 110 

Thus,  with  only  one-third  of  the  total 
vote,  the  Left  Party  would  have  had  more 
than  a  majority  of  the  mandates,  60  out 
of  110,  although  entitled  to  only  38; 
while  the  Conservatives,  with  one-fifth 
of  the  total  vote,  would  have  had  9  in- 
stead of  22  mandates,  the  Radicals  5  in- 
stead of  13  and  the  Tradesmen's  Party 
none  at  all,  although  they  would  have 
been  entitled  to  3.  The  Socialists  would 
have  had  36  mandates,  but  would  have 
been  entitled  only  to  32.  Mutual  inter- 
party  sympathies,  however,  would  prob- 
ably have  rectified  this  situation  to  some 
extent. 

The  new  Danish  electoral  law  is  con- 
sidered a  great  improvement  on  the  elec- 
toral law  of  1915,  which  introduced  the 
supplementary  mandate  system,  but  not 


the  proportional   representation  method 
in  large  constituencies  (except  in  Copen- 
hagen).   It  left  Copenhagen  in  the  posi- 
tion of  a  gerrymander.     If  the  law  of 
1915  had  been  in  force  in  the  April  elec- 
tion   the    mandates    would    have    been 
divided  among  the  parties  as  follows: 
Members  Supple- 
Elected   mentary 
in  Single     Man- 
Districts,  dates.    Total. 

Tradesmen's  Party 12  3 

Conservatives    11  12  23 

Radicals    7  7  14 

Socialists   36  2  38 

Left  Party   61  0  «jl 

Free  Socialists   0  0  0 

Centrum    0  0  0 

Left  Socialists    0  0  0 

Total 116  23  i;]9 

The  Left  Party  would  thus  have  ob- 
tained thirteen  members  more  than  they 
were  entitled  to,  while  the  Conversatives 
would  have  lost  five,  the  Socialists  four, 
the  Radicals  three  and  the  Tradesmen's 
Party  1. 


ARMENIA 


(From    Talbot   Mundy's   "The   Eye    of   Zeitoun  ") 


First  of  the  Christian  nations;  the  first  of  us  all  to  feel 

The  fire  of  infidel  hatred,  the  weight  of  the  pagan  heel; 

Faithful  lest  down  the  ages  tending  the  light  that  burned. 

Tortured  and  trodden  therefore,  spat  on  and  slain  and  spurned; 

Branded  for  others'  vices,  robbed  of  your  rightful  fame, 

Clinging  to  Truth  in  a  truthless  land  in  the  name  of  the  ancient  Name; 

Generous,  courteous,  gentle,  patient  under  the  yoke. 

Decent  (hemmed  in  a  harem  land  ye  were  ever  a  one-wife  folk) ; 

Royal  and  brave  and  ancient — haply  an  hour  has  struck 

When  the  new  fad-fangled  peoples  shall  weary  of  raking  muck. 

And  turning  from  coward  counsels  and  loathing  the  parish  lies. 

In  shame  and  sackcloth  offer  up  the  only  sacrifice. 

Then  thou  who  hast  been  neglected,  who  hast  called  o'er  a  world  in  vain 

To  the  deaf  deceitful  traders'  ears  in  tune  to  the  voice  of  gain. 

Thou  Cinderella  nation,  starved  that  our  faults  might  live, 

When  we  come  with  a  hand  outstretched  at  last — accept  it,  and  forgive! 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


[otion  Pictures   Produced  in  Natural  Colors,   Accompanied 
by  the  Actor's  Voice 


FOR  giving  motion-picture  plays  a 
"  speaking  "  likeness  to  real  life, 
two  French  scientists  have  partly 
perfected  each  a  radically  dif- 
ferent process.  M.  Gaumont  recently 
made  practical  for  everyday  exhibition 
in  Paris  a  wonderful  three-color  process 
for  showing  the  moving  pictures  in  their 
natural  colors  and  has  gone  on  to  take 
the  final  step  in  the  reconstitution  of 
real  life  by  adding  the  attraction  of 
speech  and  song.  For  this  purpose  he 
synchronizes  the  action  of  his  tri- 
chromic  cinematograph  and  that  of  his 
"  chronophone  "  (a  sort  of  phonograph). 
Both  function  exactly  together  while  the 
play  or  opera  is  being  enacted,  and  this 
assures'  automatically  the  seeing  of  the 
picture  simultaneously  with  the  hearing 
of  the  speeches  or  songs. 

Another  French  scientist,  Professor 
Edouard  Branly,  an  expert  in  wireless 
telephony,  has  an  invention  that  not  only 
reproduces  the  voice  along  with  the  mov- 
ing picture,  but  also  projects  the  voice 
as  far  as  the  marvelous  resources  of 
wireless  telephony  will  carry  it.  One  of 
his  first  triumphs  was  Mme.  Melba's 
recent  concert,  sung  at  Chelmsford,  Eng- 
land, to  all  the  wireless  telephone  listen- 
ers in  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Rome  and 
Christiania.  With  this  apparatus  any 
person  having  the  right  radiophone 
instrument  soon  can  stay  at  home  and 
hear  any  concert  he  chooses.  Likewise, 
one  orchestra  and  one  troupe  of  actors 
can  play  and  speak  for  large  groups  of 
moving-picture  theatres,  which  will 
throw  the  same  film  on  the  screen  at  the 
same  instant.  By  watching  the  film  at 
one  theatre,  the  actors  can  read  their 
roles  into  wireless  telephone  instruments, 
suiting  their  words  to  the  action  in  the 
movements  shown  on  many  screens;  at 
least  so  long  as  there  are  no  breaks  in 
any  of  the  films. 

This  projection  of  the  spoken  word  is 
merely  one  of  the  many  new  applications 


of  wireless  telephony,  whose  workings 
have  been  described  in  recent  issues  of 
Current  History,  especially  in  May.  The 
present  article  is  more  concerned  with 
the  Gaumont  process  of  producing  mov- 
ing pictures  in  the  natural  colors,  a  fea- 
ture which  has  become  a  prominent  form 
of  entertainment  in  Paris. 

The  principle  of  the  ordinary  system 
of  producing  moving  pictures  "  in  black 
and  white "  consists  in  recording  on  a 
negative  original  film  an  unlimited 
series  of  little  stereotype  plates  (18x24 
millimeters),  each  corresponding  to  a 
position  of  the  subject.  These  little 
stereotypes  are  recorded  as  the  film  un- 
rolls itself  from  a  reel  and  passes  behind 
the  object-glass  of  a  special  photographic 
apparatus  for  taking  views.  One  takes 
at  least  fifteen  stereotype  plates  a 
second,  and  even  many  more;  a  certain 
electric-preparatory  principle  permits 
the  taking  of  20,000  images  a  second, 
when  it  is  a  question  of  films  for  the 
study  of  ultra-rapid  movements,  such  as 
the  flight  of  insects,  projectiles,  ex- 
plosions, &c.  To  get  perfectly  clear 
images  the  movement  of  the  film  is  inter- 
mittent, and  "  conjugated  "  with  that  of 
the  shutter  of  the  object-glass.  In  other 
words,  the  film  quickly  leaves  its  place 
as  far  as  the  height  of  an  image  (18 
millimeters)  while  the  shutter  is  closed; 
then  stops  while  the  shutter  is  open. 
A  crank  turned  by  the  operator  gives  a 
principal  axis  a  nearly  uniform  move- 
ment in  rotation,  which  movement  a 
simple  mechanism  transforms  into  an 
intermittent  movement  of  the  film.  Some- 
times, instead  of  a  crank,  an  electro- 
motor is  used. 

The  exposed  film,  usually  120  meters 
long  by  the  reel,  is  developed  in  great, 
open  photographic  bath  troughs  and  in 
other  troughs  containing  intensifiers, 
reinforcers  and  fixers;  then  it  is 
washed  in  pure  water.  During  all  these 
operations    the    film    is    rolled    up    on 


888 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


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MOVEMENT 


THE   CAMERA   THAT   TAKES    MOVING   PIC- 
TURES   IN    NATURAL,    COLORS 

wooden  fi^ames,  which  cause  the  whole 
emulsioned  face  of  the  film  to  be  bathed 
freely.  The  workshops  which  do  this 
work  permanently  on  a  large  scale  have 
highly  perfected  installations  to  manipu- 
late simultaneously  miles  and  miles  of 
films,  either  in  clear  halls  or  in  halls 
lighted  only  by  lamps  with  inactinic 
light. 

The    sensitized    emulsion    is    disposed 


r 


UNCXPOSEO      FILM 


EXPOSED    FJUM 


DIAGRAM  SHOWING  PRINCIPLE   ON  WHICH 

THE   THREE  COLOR-SCREEN   LENSES  WORK 

IN    MAKING    THE    BLUE,    RED    AND    GREEN 

NEGATIVES    ALL   AT    THE    SAME    TIME 


over  a  single  face  of  the  film  of  celluloid 
or  an  acetate  of  cellulose,  in  studios 
similar  to  those  of  manufacturers  of 
photographic  plates  and  films.  The 
gi-eatest  care  is  taken  to  avoid  pinholes 
and  streaks  of  the  emulsion;  for  in  the 
projection  the  enlargement  of  the  images 
is  practically  in  the  proportion  of  100  to 
400  times  in  length,  or  10,000  to  160,000 
in  surface,  and  the  least  pinhole  imper- 


COLOR   CINEMATOGRAPH   FILM,    SHOWING 

TRIPLE  REPRODUCTION  OF  THE  SUBJECT 

IN    THREE    COLOR    GROUPS 

ceptible  on  the  film  seriously  mars  the 
projected  picture  on  the  screen. 

The  celluloid  film  has  the  grave  de- 
fect of  being  very  inflammable.  As 
every  image  that  passes  before  the 
object-glass  is  lighted  as  strongly  as  pos- 
sible by  an  electric  arc,  the  film  takes 
fire  as  soon  as  its  unrolling  is  inter- 
rupted by  any  cause  whatsoever.  In  the 
beginning  this  danger  caused  some  ter- 
rible   accidents.      A   trough   of  water  is 


589 


APPARATUS    FOR    PROJECTING    MOTION    PICTURES    ON    THE    SCREEN    IN    THEIR 

NATURAL    COLORS 


now  interposed  between  the  electric  arc 
and  the  optical  condenser,  to  absorb  the 
greater  part  of  the  heat  rays;  a  safety- 
shutter,  kept  open  by  centrifugal  force, 
also  comes  between  the  light  and  the 
film  during  the  halts  of  the  film.  Besides, 
there  are  "  extinguishers,"  little  metallic 
strainers,  very  much  flattened,  in  which 
the  film  slides  without  rubbing,  at  the 
issue  from  the  "  debit  "  reel  and  at  the 
entrance  to  the  "  receiving "  reel,  so  as 
to  prevent  an  accidental  spark  on  the 
free  part  of  the  film  from  getting  to  the 
reels. 

Since  1913  this  danger  has  been 
avoided  by  using  a  film  made  of  acetate 
of  cellulose,  which  is  non-inflammable. 
Unfortunately,  films  of  this  material  are 
less  duraole  than  those  of  celluloid.     It 


remains  for  chemists  to  invent  a  durable, 
fireproof  film. 

So  much  for  the  ordinary  film  process, 
which  gives  a  monochrome  projection. 
Scientists  have  long  sought  to  enliven 
this  with  colors.  The  obvious  plan  of 
painting  the  images  on  the  film  was 
costly,  slow  and  unsatisfactory.  The  use 
of  autochrome  plates  was  found  equally 
unavoidable  for  moving  pictures,  owing 
to  limitations  which  need  not  be  detailed 
here.  Success  has  been  attained,  how- 
ever, by  using  the  three-color  process, 
which  was  given  to  the  world  in  1868 
by  Charles  Cros  and  Ducos  de  Hauron, 
and  which  is  universally  employed  today 
in  printing  pictures  in  colors.  This 
process  is  based  on  the  fact  that  all 
tints   are  variations  or  combinations  of 


890 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


the  three  primary  colors — yellow,  blue 
and  red.  The  object  is  photographed 
three  times,  through  three  transparent 
selector  screens,  each  made  so  as  to  kill 
the  other  two  colors  and  reproduce  the 
third  alone.  In  book  making  the  final 
effect  is  obtained  by  printing  the  three 
plates  with  yellow,  blue  and  red  ink  on 
the  same  sheet  of  paper — on  top  of  each 
other.  In  motion-picture  work  it  is  done 
by  tinting  the  three  film  negatives  with 
the  corresponding  colors  and  laying  them 
on  top  of  each  other  in  strict  coincidence. 
Thus,  if  the  coloring  has  been  rightly 
done,  one  looks  through  the  triple  film 
and  sees  the  picture  in  its  real  colors; 
and  when  it  is  projected  on  the  screen 
the  colors  are  there  as  well. 

Only  after  several  years  of  study  and 
struggle  have  scientists  at  last  overcome 
the  difficulties  that  lay  in  the  way  of 
applying  this  simple  principle  to  the 
motion  picture  with  commercial  success. 
One  serious  difficulty  lay  in  the  manu- 
facture of  a  "  panchromatic  "  emulsion 
for  films — an  emulsion  that  would  take 
the  deepest  reds  without  being  too  sensi- 
tive to  the  blues  and  violets.  To  photo- 
graph in  a  studio,  without  sunlight,  sub- 
jects in  which  red  predominates,  there 
is  needed  an  emulsion  of  a  sensitiveness 
hitherto  unknown.  Having  overcome  this 
difficulty  with  a  secret  process,  the  Gau- 
mont  Company  chose,  as  the  next  step, 
the  simultaneous  recording  of  the  three 
images  upon  the  screen  by  three  super- 
posed object  glasses,  each  provided  with 
its  tint-selecting  screen.  But  this  taking 
of  three  images  at  a  time  entailed  some 
mechanical  and  optical  difficulties — 
which  have  also  been  solved. 

It  was  necessary  to  adapt  the  appara- 
tus, both  in  taking  views  and  in  project- 
ing them  on  the  screen,  for  the  intermit- 
tent drawing  along  of  the  film  through 
three  image  lengths  at  a  time.  From 
this  resulted  a  jerky  movement  of  the 
film.     That  trouble  was  overcome  by  re- 


ducing the  height  of  images  from  18  to 
14  millimeters  on  the  film  "  in  black." 
This  smoothed  and  steadied  the  move- 
ment by  reducing  each  displacement  of 
the  film  from  54  to  42  millimeters. 

For  taking  views  it  was  necessary  to 
place  one  above  another  three  little 
object  glasses  fixed  at  focal  distances 
strictly  equal,  each  provided  with  its 
selector  screen,  or  "  color  filter,"  and  to 
have  all  three  covered  or  uncovered  at 
once  by  the  same  shutter.  For  the  pro- 
jection apparatus  the  arrangement  is  a 
little  more  complex.  The  three  object 
glasses,  equally  provided  with  color 
filters  of  the  same  shades  as  those  of 
the  apparatus  for  taking  views,  form  a 
system  susceptible  of  several  adjust- 
ments. This  faculty  of  adjustment,  which 
makes  all  the  commercial  value  of  the 
process,  is  realized  by  means  of  an  in- 
genious corrective  apparatus.  In  these 
conditions  every  experienced  operator 
can  obtain  a  very  good  projection  with 
the  positive  film  delivered  to  him  by  the 
manufacturer.  Without  this  regulative 
adjustment,  the  least  variations  of  con- 
texture in  each  film  would  infallibly  pro- 
duce defects  in  superposition  of  the 
images,  with  fringes  colored  with  red 
and  green  edging  the  subject  and  annull- 
ing the  whole  aesthetic  effect.  Such  varia- 
tions result  from  the  play  which  the 
parts  of  the  projection  lantern  always 
make  when  subjected  to  incessant  tre- 
mors, and  when  carried  at  a  temperature 
that  varies  according  as  the  source  of 
illumination  is  lighted  or  not.  Precision 
is  here  essentially  de  rigueur,  on  ac- 
count of  the  magnification  of  the  images 
10,000  times  or  more. 

The  union  of  wireless  telephony  with 
the  epochal  invention  just  explained  will 
unite  the  stage  actor's  trained  voice  with 
the  excellencies  of  dumb  show  and  by- 
play, in  which  the  film  players  begin 
where  the  stage  actors  leave  off.  In 
such  union  lies  a  great  enhancement  of 
the  message  of  the  film. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


891 


LARSEX'S  ALL-METAL  MOXOPLA.NL,   WHICH  SET  A  XEW  RECORD   FOR  SUSTAINED  FLIGHT 


A  New  Marvel  in  Aircraft 


The  Larsen  all-metal  monoplane,  JL-6, 
which  flew  from  Omaha  to  Pine  Valley, 
N.  J.,  on  June  26,  in  sixteen  hours, 
breaking  the  non-stop  flight  record  in 
this  country,  is  declared  by  the  highest 
authorities  to  represent  the  greatest 
stride  forward  in  the  manufacture  of 
heavier-than-air  types  and  a  new  era  in 
aeronautics.  In  simplicity  and  durabil- 
ity of  structure  and  in  all-around  econ- 
omy this  aircraft  presents  striking  ad- 
vantages over  the  best  biplanes  of  wood 
and  fabric,  also  in  speed  and  dirigibility 
in  high  winds.  The  metal  used  in  the 
wings  and  body  is  an  aluminium  compo- 
sition which  is  a  secret  of  the  manufac- 
turer; but  it  makes  the  new  monoplane 
both  fireproof  and  weatherproof. 

This  metal  construction  dispenses  with 
the  need  of  a  hangar,  which  represents 
so  great  an  expense  in  the  upkeep  of  the 
familiar  type  of  airplane.  Sun  and  rain 
play  havoc  with  the  wooden  fuselages 
and  fabric  wings  of  ordinary  airplanes, 
but  no  amount  of  exposure  to  weather 
has  any  effect  on  the  JL-6  so  long  as  a 
canvas  is  drawn  over  the  cockpit.  The 
expense  of  a  hangar  adds  $4,000  to 
.$6,000  to  the  cost  of  an  ordinary  air- 
plane, exclusive  of  the  cement  floor  and 
other  necessities  in  the  housing.  So 
strong  is  the  48-foot  spread  of  metal 
wing  that  eighty-five  men  are  reported 
to  have  stood  on  it  at  a  time  without 
causing  any  ill  effects. 

The  fuselage,  or  body,  rests  on  the 
single  plane,  without  the  need  of  struts 
or    wire    bracing.       In    a    biplane    the 


fuselage  rests  between  the  upper  and  the 
lower  plane,  and  the  bracing  and  wiring 
are  necessitated.  Metal  wmgs  not  only 
obviate  these  braces,  but  also  carry  the 
gasoline  tanks,  which  hold  enough  fuel 
to  keep  a  monoplane  in  the  air  over  ten 
hours.  The  consumption  of  gasoline  for 
the  JL-6  is  very  low.  It  requires  only 
five  gallons  to  fly  100  miles.  Its  motive 
power  is  furnished  by  a  160  horse  power 
Mercedes  engine,  giving  it  an  average 
speed  of  over  115  miles  an  hour.  As 
against  this,  one  of  the  leading  types 
of  non-metal  airplanes  requires  the  pro- 
pulsion of  two  400  horse  power  Liberty 
motors,  which  use  up  forty-six  gallons 
of  gasoline  to  fly  100  miles. 

For  Mr.  Larsen's  sixteen-hour  flight 
from  Omaha  to  Pine  Valley,  N.  J.,  he 
removed  two  seats  from  the  tonneau  and 
installed  emergency  gasoline  tanks.  Thus 
he  carried  140  gallons  of  gasoline.  He 
had  not  intended  to  stop  that  day  short 
of  his  landing  field  at  Central  Park, 
L.  L,  but  he  had  made  so  much  leeway 
in  high  side-winds  that  darkness  over- 
took him  too  soon.  Three  passengers 
made  the  trip,  John  M.  Larsen,  the  de- 
signer and  owner ;  Bert  Acosta,  the  pilot, 
and  Walter  Bugh,  the  mechanician, 
whereas  ordinarily  the  plane  carries  six 
passengers  besides  two  pilots.  An  aver- 
age height  of  a  mile  was  maintained  and 
much  of  the  time  a  speed  of  185  miles 
an  hour.  The  tonneau  is  inclosed  in 
glass  and  luxuriously  upholstered.  The 
passengers  can  raise  and  lower  the  insin- 
glass  windows,  change  seats,  write  let- 


892 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ters  and  eat  meals.  On  each  side  of  the 
cabin  there  is  a  door,  and  behind  the 
cabin  there  is  a  baggage  compartment. 

The  JL-6  makes  all  other  airplanes 
seem  so  frail  in  comparison  that  experts 
declare  that  aircraft  builders  throughout 
the  world  will  have  to  change  their  ideas 
to  meet  this  new  departure  in  construc- 


tion. Army  officials  consider  it  ideal 
for  an  inspection  plane.  Its  capability 
of  development  to  much  larger  size  and 
carrying  capacity  makes  it  important  to 
both  military  and  commercial  aviation. 
Though  German  inventors  are  develop- 
ing an  all-metal  plane,  the  JL-6  type  is 
Mr.  Larsen's  own  creation. 


A  Fuel  That  Widens   Cruising  Radius 


A  composite  of  oil  and  pulverized  coal 
has  been  made  to  produce  a  colloidal  fuel 
of  greater  steam-raising  power  than 
either  coal  or  oil,  as  described  by  its 
inventor,  Lindon  W.  Bates,  at  the  recent 
Exposition  of  the  National  Marine 
League  of  the  United  States,  and  by 
speakers  before  the  American  Chemical 
Society.  It  can  be  used  on  ships  equipped 
to  burn  oil  and  can  compete  in  price 
with  straight  oil  when  oil  costs  more 
than  2  cents  a  gallon  and  coal  is  at  its 
usual  price.  It  utilizes  the  sizes  of  coal 
too   small   for  use   in  grates,    including 


earth-crushed  anthracite  and  river  wash- 
ings, and  saves  25  to  35  per  cent,  of  the 
oil,  now  so  scarce  and  expensive.  It  is 
described  as  the  most  compact  fuel 
known.  It  sinks  in  water  and  can  be 
kept  in  fireproof  storage  under  water 
seal.  Without  adding  a  pound  of  weight 
to  the  vessel,  it  can  be  congealed  in  cer- 
tain tanks  on  battleships  into  an  asphalt- 
like underwater  armor  plating  twenty 
feet  thick.  This  armor  can  be  trans- 
muted into  fuel  as  needed.  Colloidal  fuel 
increases  both  the  coal  and  oil  re- 
sources of  any  country. 


Navigating  Ships  by  Sound  Waves 


Means  of  preventing  such  disaster  as 
that  of  the  Titantic  have  resulted  from 
the  study  of  sound  for  practical  pur- 
poses, which  was  first  necessitated  by 
the  submarine  menace.  Before  the  war 
no  important  effort  was  made  to  utilize 
the  fact  that  the  length  and  form  of 
waves  producing  the  sensation  of  sound 
depend  on  the  nature  of  the  transmitting 
medium.  Whether  the  sound  medium  be 
air,  water,  the  ground,  wood,  or  metal, 
each  bears  an  important  relation  to  the 
intensity  of  the  sound  and  to  the  cer- 
tainty and  speed  of  transmission.  As 
none  of  the  senses  could  be  directly 
brought  to  bear  in  accurately  locating 
the  presence  of  the  U-boats,  every  pos- 
sible line  of  research  was  followed  out 
that  seemed  likely  to  afford  a  solution. 

The  investigations  brought  to  light  the 
fact  that  all  bodies  moving  through 
water  give  forth  a  tone  characteristic  of 
their  composition  and  means  of  propul- 
sion.   A  steamer  with  paddlewheels  was 


found  to  give  forth  a  tone  different 
from  that  of  a  vessel  driven  by  a  screw 
propeller.  So  does  the  tone  of  twin 
screw  propellers  differ  from  that  of  a 
single  screw.  Again,  a  ship  with  recip- 
rocating engines  produces  a  sound  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  a  turbine  ship  or 
one  having  internal-combustion  engines. 
To  detect  these  various  sounds  the  ex- 
perimental principle  of  the  tuning  fork 
bringing  response  from  others  of  like 
pitch  was  practically  applied. 

How  powerful  a  medium  is  water  for 
the  transmission  of  sound  is  fully  appre- 
ciated by  many  who  recall  experiences 
of  their  youth  when  diving  at  "  the  old 
swimmin'  hole "  and  being  nearly 
stunned  when  some  mischievous  compan- 
ion held  two  stones  under  water  and 
struck  them  together. 

In  fitting  a  vessel  to  receive  the  vibra- 
tory waves  transmitted  through  the  sea, 
steel  diaphragms  (sounding  drums)  are 
set  in  the  ship's  plating  well  below  the 
water   line,   in   contact  with   the  water. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


893 


These  disk-shaped  diaphragms  are  care- 
fully insulated  from  all  internal  vibra- 
tion by  means  of  rubber  sheeting,  and 
are  tuned  to  respond  to  a  certain  pitch. 
At  the  back  of  each  diaphragm  is  a 
microphone  made  like  that  used  in  the 
ordinary      telephone      transmitter      and 

I  ^^  packed  with  carbon  granules.  It  is  in- 
^H  serted  into  the  circuit  of  an  electric 
!^^  battery  and  head  telephones.  So  any 
sound  waves  from  the  water  which  strike 
the  surface  of  the  diaphragm  produce 
,        corresponding  vibratory  electric  currents 

I  in  the  microphone,  which  are  heard  at 
the  telephone  receivers  as  a  musical 
tone. 
Not  only  do  sound  waves  transmitted 
through  water  surpass  those  through  air 
in  speed  and  intensity,  but  also  they 
have  a  highly  directional  character.  This 
enables  the  hearer  to  locate  the  source 
of  the  sound  within  two  or  three  degrees 
by  the  use  of  two  diaphragms.  One 
diaphragm  is  fitted  on  either  side  of  the 
vessel  and  so  arranged  with  switches 
that  they  can  be  used  alternately.  By 
swinging  the  ship  and  listening  first 
through  one  diaphragm  and  then  the 
other  until  the  sound  received  by  both 
is  of  equal  intensity,  the  listener  ascer- 
tains that  the  source  of  the  vibration  is 
right  ahead. 

But  more  important  than  this  receiv- 
ing system  of  hydrophony  is  the  Fessen- 
den  method  of  sound  telegraphy  on  ship- 
board, for  both  transmission  and  receiv- 
ing, invented  in  America  and  highly  de- 
veloped both  during  the  war  and  since. 
Instead  of  the  listening  diaphragms,  the 
ship  is  fitted  on  each  side  with  sound- 


producing  oscillators.  The  diaphragms 
of  these  oscillators  are  larger  and  rel- 
atively thicker  than  the  hydrophones 
and  require  no  insulation  with  rubber. 
They  are  riveted  directly  to  the  hull, 
the  surface  of  the  disk  being  flush  with 
the  plating,  so  as  to  preclude  water 
noises.  The  disks  are  vibrated  electri- 
cally, and  by  means  of  a  Morse  key  mes- 
sages can  be  communicteed  100  miles  at 
a  rate  of  over  twenty  words  a  minute. 
The  same  instrument  can  both  transmit 
and  receive  signals,  and  for  receiving 
head  telephones  are  used  as  in  the  case 
of  hydrophones. 

When  German  submarine  flotillas  were 
going  over  to  England  to  surrender,  the 
crews  were  astonished  at  being  thus  led 
safely  through  an  intricate  channel  to 
an  east  coast  naval  base  at  full  speed 
in  a  dense  fog. 

The  presence  of  icebergs  is  detected 
with  this  invention  by  applying  the  prin- 
ciple of  reflection  and  defraction  of 
sound  waves.  This  is  known  as  the 
"  echo  effect."  Questing  signals  sent  out 
from  a  ship  in  the  danger  zone  are 
caught  when  reflected  or  refracted  from 
the  sides  of  the  iceberg,  which  is  thus 
located. 

This  sound  telegraphy  is  free  from  the 
atmospheric  disturbances  encountered  in 
wireless  signaling  and  from  the  zones  of 
silence  which  interfere  with  communica- 
tion by  means  of  the  steam  whistle.  The 
highly  directional  character  of  sound 
waves  in  water  renders  the  use  of  sound 
telegraphy  more  effective  in  fog  than 
that  of  either  wireless  or  steam  whistles. 


Corncobs  Yield  a  Base  for  Dyes 


Getting  cheaply  from  corncobs  so  im- 
portant a  basic  intermediary  for  dyer, 
as  furfural  marks  a  great  stride  in  the 
progress  of  the  chemistry  of  commerce. 
Heretofore  furfural  has  been  so  rare 
as  to  be  regarded  as  a  laboratory  curios- 
ity. Distilled  with  difficulty  from  wood 
at  a  cost  of  $17  a  pound,  it  has  been 
sold  only  in  small  quantities,  chiefly  for 
scientific  purposes.  Now  a  series  of  ex- 
periments made  by  the  Bureau  of  Chem- 
istry of  the   United   States   Department 


of  Agriculture  has  resulted  in  the  discov- 
ery of  a  process  by  which  furfural  can 
be  produced  from  corncobs  at  a  cost  of 
from  15  to  20  cents  a  pound. 

Furfural  is  an  adjectival  noun  made 
from  furfur,  the  Latin  word  for  bran. 
The  previous  scarcity  and  high  price  of 
furfural  have  limited  the  knowledge  of 
what  uses  it  can  be  put  to.  Its  greatest 
value  is  as  a  base  for  dyes,  including 
vivid  greens,  and  the  difficult  brown  and 
blue  vat  dyes  for  men's  shirts.    By  inter- 


894 


THE    NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


action  with  various  coal-tar  products,  a 
,  whole  series  of  dyes  can  be  prepared 
from  furfural,  the  bureau  having  already 
made  and  tested  over  a  dozen  shades  for 
cloth.  It  is  highly  useful  also  in  the 
manufacture  of  many  paints  and 
lacquers  and  in  the  making  of  bakolite, 
the  hard  resin  used  in  pipestems  and 
similar  articles.  That  furfural  has  a 
great  future  as  an  insecticide  is  indi- 
cated by  the  fact  that  a  considerable 
number  of  people  have  paid  $20  a  pound 
for  it  for  this  purpose. 

By  the  new  process  corncobs  yield 
thirty  pounds  of  furfural  to  the  ton. 
Still  further  experiments  have  shown 
that  even  much  greater  quantities  of 
furfural  can  be  obtained  by  comparative- 
ly simple  chemical  treatment  of  the  ad- 
hesive recovered  •  from  corncobs  as  a 
by-product.    Two  grades  of  adhesive  are 


recovered  from  corncobs  by  these  Gov- 
ernment processes.  The  more  valuable 
amounts  to  about  45  per  cent,  of  the 
weight  of  the  cobs. 

Of  the  2,500,000,000  to  3,000,000,000 
bushels  of  corn  produced  every  year  in 
the  United  States,  18,000,000  to  20,000,- 
000  tons  of  cobs  have  been  going  to 
waste,  except  in  so  far  as  the  cobs  were 
used  as  fuel  and  for  making  cob  pipes. 
Within  less  than  two  months  after  pub- 
lication of  the  foregoing  discovery,  com- 
mercial plants  are  being  equipped  to 
bring  the  wealth  of  the  cob  to  bear  on 
the  solution  of  the  dye  question  and  to 
manufacture  all  its  products.  One  plant 
in  the  Ohio  Valley,  to  manufcture  fur- 
fural, adhesive,  acetate  of  lime  and  cellu- 
lose, is  to  have  a  capacity  for  handling 
100  tons  of  cobs  a  day. 


An  Instrument  for  Recording  Tree  Growth 


One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of 
forestry  has  been  to  find  accurate  means 
of  ascertaining  the  yearly  rate  of  the 
growth  of  species  of  trees  in  different 
regions  and  localities  and  at  different 
stages  of  their  life  history.  Such  data 
are  essential  for  determining  which  are 
the  best  regions  for  the  growth  of  cer- 
tain valuable  species  so  as  to  know 
where  to  favor  them  in  reforestation  and 
afforestation. 

The  dendrograph  is  an  apparatus  for 
giving  a  continuous  record  of  all  the 
changes  in  the  diameter  of  a  tree  trunk. 
It  records  these  changes  with  extreme 
accuracy.  The  machine  is  the  invention 
of  Dr.  D.  T.  MacDougal,  Director  of  the 
Botanical  Research  Department  of  the 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington  and 
former  Director  of  the  Laboratories  of 
the  New  York  Botanical  Garden  in 
Bronx  Park.  One  of  these  instruments 
was  installed  recently  in  the  New  York 
Botanical  Garden  on  a  young  sugar 
maple  about  a  foot  in  diameter  at  breast 
height  (four  feet  and  a  half  from  the 
ground).  Others  have  been  installed  in 
various  parts  of  the  United  States  to 
get  comparative  data. 

This    instrument    consists    essentially 


of  a  belt  of  blocks  to  be  clasped  around 
the  trunk  of  a  tree  in  such  a  way  that 
it  is  believed  that  no  modification  of 
the  growth  action  of  the  tree  is  caused 
except  where  the  blocks  actually  touch 
the  tree.  This  belt  of  blocks  serves  as  a 
stable  support  for  the  recorder  and  other 
parts  of  the  apparatus.  An  essential 
feature  of  the  apparatus  is  a  yoke  made 
up  of  slotted  bars  of  bario,  an  alloy  with 
a  very  low  temperature  coefficient.  Up- 
right "  fingers  "  of  brass  wire  hold  the 
yoke  in  place.  Then  there  is  a  recording 
drum  for  holding  a  sheet  of  paper,  and 
on  this  a  recording  red  automatically 
marks  the  growth  of  the  tree.  The  record 
thus  traced  shows  the  changes  between 
the  contact  screw  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  tree  and  the  arm  of  the  bearing 
lever,  these  changes  in  distance  being 
the  increase  of  the  trunk's  diameter  from 
hour  to  hour  and  from  day  to  day 
throughout  the  growing  season.  A  small 
tin  shelter  is  supported  on  a  bracket 
over  the  recording  drum  to  protect  it 
from  the  weather.  There  is  clockwork 
in  the  apparatus,  which  has  to  be  wound 
up  once  a  week,  when  a  new  record  sheet 
is  placed  on  the  cylinder.  No  other  at- 
tention is  necessary,  once  the  dendro- 
graph is  properly  installed. 


Anti-Typhoid  Vaccination  in  the 
American  Army 

By  WILLIAM  H.  COLE* 


I 


m 


0' 


NE  of  the  many  important 
achievements  of  the  Medical  De- 
partment of  the  United  States 
Army  during  the  World  War 
was  the  confinement  of  certain  diseases 
within  unusually  narrow  limits,  con- 
trasted with  the  spread  of  a  few  other 
iseases  almost  beyond  control.  Typhoid 
ever  was  practically  absent  from  the 
merican  Army  during  the  war,  as  it 
as  been  since  1911.  In  all  previous 
ars  this  disease  took  nearly  as  many 
lives  as  the  cannon  and  rifle.  During 
the  Franco-Prussian  war  there  were 
73,896  cases  of  typhoid,  causing  8,789 
deaths  in  the  German  Army,  which  was 
60  per  cent,  of  that  army's  total  mor- 
tality. In  the  civil  war  on  the  Northern 
side  there  were  over  80,000  cases  of  ty- 
phoid fever.  During  the  Spanish- 
American  war  there  were  20,738  cases 
of  typhoid  out  of  107,973  American  of- 
ficers and  men,  or  a  case  incidence  of 
192.65  per  1,000  men — approximately  20 
per  cent.  The  loss  from  this  disease  was 
1,580  deaths,  or  a  mortality  rate  of  14.63 
per  1,000. 

Today  the  Medical  Department  of  the 
United  States  Army  has  as  complete 
control  over  typhoid  fever  as  human 
beings  may  ever  expect.  During  the  re- 
cent war,  among  the  4,000,000  men  in 
the  American  Army,  from  April  6,  1917, 
to  Nov.  11,  1918,  there  were  only  1,065 
cases  of  typhoid,  or  0.26  per  1,000.  The 
total  deaths  were  156,  or  0.039  per 
l,OOO.t  Table  1  shows  the  number  of 
cases  and  deaths  that  would  have  oc- 
curred in  the  American  Army  from  Sept. 
1,  1917,  to  May  2,  1919,  if  the  rates  in 

♦For  twenty-two  months  ended  Aug.  16, 
1919,  the  writer  was  stationed  at  the  Army 
Medical  School,  Washington,  D.  C,  engaged 
in  the  manufacture   of   typhoid  vaccine. 

tThese  figures  are  quoted  from  Colonel 
Russell's  article  in  the  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  Dec.  20,  1919, 
Vol.    73,    No.    25,    Page    1S03. 


the  civil  war  and  the  Spanish-American 
war  had  obtained. 

This  remarkable  control  over  one  of 
the  most  infectious  diseases  known  to 
man  has  been  attained  by  the  use  of 
anti-typhoid  vaccine.  How  this  has  been 
accomplished,  and  who  is  responsible, 
must  be  of  deep  interest  to  all  Ameri- 
cans. Interesting,  also,  must  be  an  ac- 
count of  the  work  of  the  few  men  who 
produced  the  vaccine  during  the  war. 

Table  1— Relation  of  Mortality  in  the  World 
War  to  That  of  Previous  Wars 

Number   of   deaths   in   World   War,    Sept.    1, 

1917,    to    May   2,    1919.      Average    strength, 

approximately  2,121,396. 

Typhoid    213 

Malaria   13 

Dysentery    42 

Number  of  deaths  that  would  have  occurred 

if  the  civil  war  rate  had  obtained: 

Typhoid   51,133 

Malaria    tl3.951 

Dysentery    $63,898 

Number  of  deaths  that  would  have  occurred 

if     the     Spanish-American     war     rate     had 

obtained : 

Typhoid    68,164 

Malaria    11,317 

Dysentery    J6,382 

tincludes  malaria,  remittent  and  congestive 
fevers. 

tincludes   dysentery  and   diarrhoea. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  con- 
trol of  typhoid  fever  belongs  to  preven- 
tive medicine.  The  disease  is  prevented 
by  introducing  into  the  system  an  anti- 
typhoid vaccine  or  a  suspension  of  killed 
typhoid  bacilli  in  some  fluid,  a  process 
called  anti-typhoid  vaccination  or  ty- 
phoid prophylaxis.  It  has  been  found  that 
the  introduction  of  a  foreign  protein  into 
the  blood  stream  of  an  animal  causes 
the  formation  of  a  substance  in  the 
blood  which  destroys  that  protein  or 
neutralizes  its  harmful  effects.  This 
phenomenon  furnishes  the  basis  for  the 
production  of  artificial  immunity  from 
bacterial  diseases. 

The  foreign  protein  thus   introduced. 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


whether  it  be  a  bacterial  extract  or  a 
live  or  killed  suspension  of  the  bacteria, 
is  called  an  "  antigen,"  and  the  substance 
produced  in  the  blood  is  an  "  antibody." 
The  formation  and  distribution  of  the 
antibodies  in  the  blood  stream  render 
the  animal  immune  to  the  disease  caused 
by  the  corresponding  bacteria.  If  at  any 
time  the  system  is  infected  by  the  bac- 
teria the  antibodies  destroy  them,  or  neu- 
tralize their  poison,  and  the  disease  is 
prevented. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY 

In  1896  Pfeiffer  and  Roller,*  bacteri- 
ologists in  Germany,  announced  their 
discovery  that  the  introduction  of  a  sus- 
pension of  killed  typhoid  bacilli  into 
human  beings  conferred  on  them  an  im- 
munity to  typhoid  fever.  As  far  as  could 
be  determined,  this  acquired  immunity 
was  the  same  as  that  resulting  from  an 
attack  of  the  disease.  A  few  months 
later  Wright,§  an  English  bacteriologist, 
announced  an  identical  discovery.  After 
he  had  inoculated  seventeen  persons  with 
a  suspension  of  killed  typhoid  bacilli  he 
found  that  their  blood  reacted  to  tests  in 
the  same  way  as  the  blood  of  those  who 
had  previously  had  the  disease.  He 
therefore  suggested  that  this  was  a 
means  of  preventing  typhoid  fever  and 
expressed  his  confidence  in  the  method. 

Following  these  discoveries,  experi- 
ments with  the  use  of  such  a  vaccine 
were  successfully  performed  by  several 
English  and  German  scientists.  During 
the  Boer  war  the  British  Government 
authorized  the  vaccination  of  all  men 
willing  to  submit  to  it.  Sir  William 
Leishman  assisted  Wright  in  supplying 
the  vaccine,  and  later  conducted  experi- 
ments which  contributed  valuable  infor- 
mation to  the  subject.  Approximately 
100,000  men  received  at  least  one  dose 
of  this  vaccine.  From  the  results 
Wright  concluded  that  the  number  of 
cases  of  typhoid  fever  had  -been  reduced 
one-half  and  the  death  rate  more  than 
one-half.  His  conclusions  were  not  gen- 
erally accepted,  however,  because  of  in- 
complete data  and  false  reports  that 
the  inoculation  made  the  men  more  sus- 

♦Deutsch.  med.  Woch..  1896,  Bd.  22,  S.  735. 
§Brit.   Med.   Journal,  Jan.  30,  1897,  P.  16. 


ceptible  to  the  disease.  It  was  left  to 
Leishman  to  establish  beyond  a  doubt 
that  typhoid  prophylaxis  was  practicable. 
His  experiments  at  Aldershot,  during 
which  nearly  20,000  men  were  vacci- 
nated, gave  convincing  proof.  In  1909 
he  made  a  full  report  to  his  Government, 
showing  that  inoculation  against  typhoid 
reduced  the  case  incidence  per  1,000  men 
about  600  per  cent,  and  the  mortality 
about  1,200  per  cent. 

Between  1904  and  1907  the  Germans 
used  a  typhoid  vaccine  in  their  colonial 
army  in  Southwest  Africa.  The  re- 
sults were  entirely  favorable,  and  the 
use  of  the  vaccine  was  authorized  by  the 
War  Office.  Their  partial  success  was 
due  to  the  work  of  such  men  as  Wasser- 
mann,  Kock,  Gaffky,  Heisser-Shiga  and 
Kolle,  who  were  members  of  the  staff 
of  the  Institute  for  Infectious  Diseases. 
The  German  vaccine  differed  consider- 
ably from  the  English.  The  latter  was 
a  suspension  of  the  killed  typhoid  bacilli 
in  nutrient  broth,  while  the  former  was 
a  suspension  in  salt  solution,  the  bacilli 
having  been  grown  on  agar-agar.  A 
summary  of  this  early  German  vaccina- 
tion shows  that  the  case  incidence  per 
thousand  men  was  reduced  one-half,  and 
the  mortality  considerably  more  than 
one-half.  These  results  compare  favor- 
ably with  the  English. 

ADOPTED    BY   OUR   ARMY 

In  1908  the  Medical  Department  of  the 
United  States  Army  recognized  the 
value  of  typhoid  prophylaxis  arid  decided 
to  investigate  the  method,  with  the  in- 
tention of  applying  it  to  our  troops. 
Colonel  F.  F.  Russell  was  sent  to  Lon- 
don to  learn  from  Leishman  the  Eng- 
lish method  of  preparing  the  vaccine. 
After  he  had  learned  the  technique,  he 
proceeded  to  Berlin,  where,  at  the  Insti- 
tute for  Infectious  Diseases,  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  German  methods  of 
preparation  and  use  of  their  vaccine. 
Colonel  Russell,  upon  his  return  to  this 
country,  began  the  preparation  of  a 
typhoid  vaccine,  introducing  several  im- 
provements in  the  technique.  Associated 
with  him  were  Lieut.  Cols.  H.  J.  Nichols 
and  C.  F.  Craig,  and  to  these  three  men 
belongs  the  credit  for  first  establishing 


ANTI-TYPHOID  VACCINATION  IN  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY        897 


on  a  firm  basis  the  practice  of  typhoid 
prophylaxis  in  our  army. 

Here  is  a  technical  account  of  Colonel 
Eussell's  method  of  producing  the  vac- 
cine, which  may  be  skipped  by  the  lay 
reader: 

The  American  vaccine  as  perfected  by  Colo- 
nel Russeliy  was  made  from  a  single  strain 
(Rawlings)  of  the  typhoid  bacillus,  grown  on 
agar-agar  in  Kolle  flasks  for  eighteen  hours. 
The  culture  used  for  the  vaccine  was  trans- 
ferred from  plates  to  agar  slants  and  Rus- 
sell's double  sugar  medium.  These  transfers 
were  tested  for  purity  by  macroscopic  agglu- 
tination and  by  Gram's  stain.  If  no  con- 
tamination occurred,  the  growth  on  the  agar 
slants  was  suspended  in  broth  to  be  used  for 
inoculation.  The  Kolle  flasks  were  then  in- 
oculated with  this  suspension  and  incubated 
eighteen  hours.  If  no  contaminations  ap- 
peared, the  growth  was  washed  off  with  salt 
solution,  and  after  a  sample  had  been  re- 
moved for  counting  the  collect  d  suspen- 
sions were  heated  in  a  water  bath  for  one 
hour  at  53°  C.  to  54°  C.  This  vaccine  was 
then  diluted  with  salt  solution  to  the  desired 
strength,  1,000,000,000  bacilli  to  the  cubic 
centimeter.  To  prevent  subsequent  contami- 
nation 0.25  per  cent,  trikresol  was  added,  and 
the  product  stored  in  large  bottles  until 
ready  for  ampuling.  The  finished  vaccine 
was  inoculated  into  mice  and  guineapigs  to 
determine  the  absence  of  tetanus  spores,  and 
into  rabbits  to  determine  its  immunizing 
power.  Careful  tests  and  controls  were  made 
at  each  step  in  the  process  in  order  to  avoid 
mU  danger  of  contamination,  and  no  vaccine 
was  released  for  shipment  unless  every  test 
liad  been  satisfactory.  Because  of  his  de- 
velopment of  this  technique,  which  has  made 
tlie  American  typhoid  vaccine  so  successful. 
Colonel  Russell  has  been  called  "  the  father 
of  typhoid  vaccine." 

In  1909  voluntary  vaccination  against 
typhoid  fever  was  authorized  by  the 
Surgeon  General's  office.  The  labora- 
tory force  volunteered,  as  well  as  the 
medical  officers  stationed  in  and  around 
"Washington,  and  their  families  and 
friends.  Later  members  of  the  hospital 
corps  received  the  vaccine,  and  by  the 
end  of  1909  1,887  persons  had  been  vac- 
cinated. During  1910  16,073  more  per- 
sons volunteered,  and  in  1911  so  many 
men  from  the  various  camps  of  the 
country  had  offered  themselves  that  the 
practice  became  well  known  to  all  the 
officers  and  enlisted  men.  The  results 
proved  beyond  doubt  that  the  treatment 
was  practicable  and  actually  preventive. 

IIF.  F.  Russell,  Jour.  Med.  Research,  Bos- 
ton,  1911,   23,   217. 


In  March,  1911,  all  the  men  engaged 
in  manoeuvres  in  Texas  were  compelled 
to  be  vaccinated  against  typhoid.  From 
among  the  several  camps  along  the  bor- 
der at  that  time,  the  one  at  San  Antonio 
presents  typical  figures.  During  the 
four  months  of  the  encampment  12,801 
troops  were  located  there,  and  among 
this  number  there  were  only  two  cases 
of  typhoid,  and  no  deaths.  In  the  nearby 
City  of  San  Antonio  among  the  civilian 
population  there  were  reported  forty- 
nine  cases  of  typhoid,  with  nineteen 
deaths,  during  the  same  period.  The 
medical  officers  correctly  concluded  that 
the  absence  of  typhoid  among  the  troops 
was  not  due  to  lack  of  exposure,  but  to 
the  preventive  measure  of  vaccination. 

This  success  led  to  an  order  from  the 
War  Department  on  June  9,  1911,  that 
all  recruits  must  be  vaccinated  against 
typhoid,  and  another  on  Sept.  30,  1911, 
that  all  persons  in  the  service  under  45 
years  of  age  must  be  protected  against 
typhoid.  By  the  1st  of  January,  1912, 
this  last  order  had  been  executed 
throughout  the  United  States. 

A  comparison  of  the  data  on  the  num- 
ber of  cases  of  typhoid  fever  and  the 
deaths  resulting,  for  the  years  previous 
to  1911,  and  those  since  then,  shows 
clearly  the  value  of  compulsory  vac- 
cination. Table  2,  quoted  from  Colonel 
Russell's  article,  presents  these  figures: 
Table  2— Rate  of  T^thoid  Fever  in  the 
Army  for  the  Past  Eighteen  Years 

Ratio  Ratio 

No.  of        Per       No.  of       Per 

Tear.  Cases.      1,000.    Deaths.    1,000. 

1900     .531  5.75  60  0.43 

1901     594  9.43  78  0.64 

1902     565  8.58  69  0.86 

1903     348  5.82  30  0.28 

1904     247  5.62  12  0.27 

1905     193  3.57  17  0.30 

1906     347  5.66  15  0.28 

1907     208  3.53  16  0.19 

1908     215  2.94  21  0.23 

*1909    173  3.03  16  0.28 

1910     142  2.32  10  0.16 

tl911     44  0.85  6  0.09 

1912     18  0.31  3  0.04 

1913     4  0.04  0  0.00 

1914    7  0.07  3  0.03 

1915     8  0.08  0  0.00 

1916     25  0.23  3  0.03 

1917    297  0.44  23  0.03 

1918     768  0.30  133  0.05 

*Voluntary  vaccination  against  typhoid. 
tCompulsory  vaccination. 


898 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT    HISTORY 


Making  "stock  plates''  for  anti-typhoid  vaccine.  The  bacilli  are  suspended  in  a  tube 
of  brotth,  and  the  sitspen-sion  is  then  diluted  by  transferring  one  loopful  of  it  to  a  tube  of 
melted  agar,  another  from  that  to  a  second  tube,  and  so  on.  After  incubation  for  forty-eight 
hours,  the  typhoid  colonies  which  then  appear  are  transferred  to  agar  slants  and  Russell's 
double  sugar  medium.    On  the  right  is  Lieut.  Col.-  Snow,  on  the  left  Lieutenant  Paxton. 


These  figures  show  that  typhoid  fever 
has  been  brought  under  control  to  a  re- 
markable degree.  The  slight  increase  in 
the  ratio  per  thousand  for  1917  and  1918 
has  been  determined  to  be  due  to  cases 
of  typhoid  which  were  in  the  incubation 
stage  at  the  time  of  the  patient's  vacci- 
nation, and  which,  therefore,  could  not 
have  been  prevented  by  the  vaccine;  or 
to  exposure  to  overwhelming  doses  of 
infectious  material  which  could  not  possi- 
bly be  overcome  by  the  action  of  the 
vaccine.  Including  these  cases,  there 
was  only  one  death  from  typhoid  out  of 
every  group  of  25,641  men.  This  is 
truly  a  remarkable  record,  in  view  of  the 
hurried  mobilization  of  the  troops  in  1917 
and  1918,  and  of  the  vaccination  of  these 
men  by  officers  not  particularly  trained 
in  this  work.  During  the  Spanish- Amer- 
ican war  there  was  one  death  from  ty- 
phoid in  each  group  of  seventy-one  men, 
and  in  civil  life  one  death  in  each  group 
of  4,255  persons. 


After  the  technique  of  making  the 
vaccine  had  been  perfected  by  Colonel 
Russell  in  1911,  it  became  a  routine  at 
the  typhoid  vaccine  laboratories  in  the 
Army  Medical  School  at  Washington, 
D.  C.  Our  army  at  that  time  was  small 
and  the  task  of  manufacturing  the  vac- 
cine was  not  large,  even  though  it  was 
very  important. 

At  the  approach  of  our  entrance  into 
the  World  War,  early  in  1917,  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  amount  of  typhoid  vaccine 
soon  to  be  required  would  greatly  exceed 
that  of  foiTner  years.  In  those  early 
months  of  preparation.  Colonel  E.  R. 
Whitmore  and  Lieut.  Cols.  Nichols  and 
Reasoner  devoted  unstinted  labor  that 
the  army  vaccine  should  go  forth  in 
any  amount  required  with  the  high  stan- 
dard unchanged.  When  the  necessity 
that  these  men  should  be  engaged  in 
other  work  came,  Lieut.  Col.  Snow  took 
charge  of  the  vaccine  laboratories.  Dur- 
ing those  strenuous  days  the  assistance 


ANTI-TYPHOID  VACCINATION  IN  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY 


Inoculating  ("  planting  ")  the  Kolle  flanks.  A  cotton  swaib,  after  immersion  in  the 
inocuTiating  suspension  of  typhoid  bacilli,  is  used  to  cover  the  surface  of  the  agar  in  the 
Kolle  flasks.     The  flasks  are  then  incubated  for  twenty-four  hours. 


rendered  by  Second  Lieutenants  Paxton, 
Byrne  and  Carroll  should  not  be  left  un- 
mentioned.  It  was  due  to  the  untiring 
efforts  of  these  four  officers  and  a  small 
group  of  enlisted  men  that  the  unprece- 
dented amount  of  typhoid  vaccine  was 
successfully  prepared  during  1917. 

The  fourth  floor  of  the  Army  Medical 
School  was  turned  over  to  the  vaccine 
laboratories  and  the  work  divided  into 
three  departments — preparation,  bac- 
teriological and  shipping — all  under  one 
head,  Lieut.  Col.  Snow. 

The  preparation  department  was  in 
charge  of  the  veteran  Master  Hospital 
Sergeant,  A.  Tracy.  All  the  material 
used  in  the  production  of  the  vaccine  was 
assembled  and  put  in  the  proper  con- 
dition by  his  men.  The  medium  used  for 
typhoid  was  ordinary  nutrient  agar 
made  with  beef  extract  and  peptone,  the 
reaction  being  adjusted  to  about  1  per 
cent.  acid.  After  the  medium  was  pre- 
pared it  was  placed  in  Kolle  flasks  and 
sterilized.  The  salt  solution  was  made 
from    chemically    pure    sodium    chloride 


and  distilled  water,  its  strength  being 
0.85  per  cent.  This  was  then  sterilized 
in  the  autoclave.  Following  an  incuba- 
tion period  of  twenty-four  hours,  the 
Kolle  flasks  containing  the  agar  were 
ready  for  inoculation  with  the  typhoid 
suspensions  prepared  in  the  bacteriolog- 
ical department. 

The  vaccine  used  was  a  triple  vaccine 
containing  one  typhoid  strain — the  one 
obtained  from  England  in  1911 — and  two 
strains  each  of  paratyphoid  "  A "  and 
"  B."  All  were  selected  because  of  their 
particular  properties  valuable  in  making 
an  effective  vaccine,  and  were  mixed  in 
the  proper  proportions. 

ENLARGING  THE  LABORATORY 

When  the  amount  of  vaccine  needed 
was  so  greatly  increased  in  1917,  runs  of 
from  2,000  to  3,000  flasks  were  made  in- 
stead of  the  former  100  or  200  flasks, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  construct  a 
larger,  completely  insulated  room,  8  by 
19  by  12  feet,  heated  by  fourteen  electric 
stoves  controlled  by  a  thermostat  and  a 


900 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


The  Incubator:    Interior  view  of  the  incubator  room,  which  is  heated  by  electric  stoves, 
maintaining  a  temperature  of  37.5   degrees  Centigrade.     Its   capacity   is  8,000  Kolle  flasks. 


solenoid.  A  second  vaccine  room  was 
also  arranged  to  accommodate  the 
twelve  men  necessary  to  handle  that 
number  of  flasks.  Each  of  these  rooms 
opened  directly  into  the  incubator.  Be- 
cause of  the  facts  that  the  best  growth 
on  the  flasks  was  obtained  after  a  mini- 
mum incubation  of  twenty-four  hours 
and  that  the  washing  stage  required 
about  fourteen  hours,  it  was  necessary  to 
begin  the  inoculating  of  the  flasks  not 
later  than  4  o'clock  in  the  morning.  This 
meant  that  the  men  must  report  for  work 
at  3  o'clock  in  order  to  make  the  neces- 
sary preparations. 

The  3,000  Kolle  flasks  were  inoculated 
by  the  twelve  men  under  as  complete 
asepsis  as  possible.  Fifty  flasks  were 
stacked  in  a  rack,  making  sixty  racks  in 
all,  or  five  for  each  inoculator.  The  men 
were  clothed  in  sterile  cap,  gown  and 
rubber  gloves,  and  the  rooms  kept  tight- 
ly closed  during  the  operation  to  prevent 
the  entrance  of  any  air-borne  contami- 
nating organisms.  Since  about  five 
hours  were  required  for  the  process,  the 
temperature  of  the  rooms  often  rose  to 


100  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Due  to  the  use 
of  Bunsen  burners  and  to  the  lack  of 
ventilation,  the  atmosphere  of  these 
rooms  became  heavy  with  carbon  dioxide, 
occasionally  causing  a  man's  collapse. 

When  all  the  flasks  had  been  inocu- 
lated, the  racks  were  placed  in  the  in- 
cubator, which  was  kept  at  a  tempera- 
ture of  98.6  degrees  Fahrenheit  for 
twenty-four  hours.  At  the  end  of  the  in- 
cubation period  the  flasks  were 
"washed,"  or  freed  from  their  bacterial 
growi;hs. 
STANDARDIZING  AND  SHIPPING 
While  the  suspensions  were  being 
heated  in  the  water  bath,  standardization 
was  performed  in  another  room,  accord- 
ing to  Wright's  method.  This  involved  a 
mixture  of  equal  parts  of  the  suspension 
to  be  tested  and  fresh  human  blood.  This 
mixture  was  smeared  on  to  a  glass  slide 
and  stained.  The  ratio  between  the  num- 
ber of  bacilli  to  red  blood  corpuscles  was 
then  obtained  through  the  microscope. 
Since  the  number  of  red  blood  cells  per 
cubic  centimeter  in  humans  is  a  constant 
in  normal  individuals,  the  strength  of  the 


ANTI-TYPHOID  VACCINATION  IN  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY        901 


suspension,  or  the  number  of  bacilli  per 
cubic  centimeter,  was  easily  determined. 
When  the  heating  and  standardization 
of  the  sixty  suspensions  had  been  com- 
pleted, each  one  was  cultured  in  the  vac- 
cine rooms  to  test  its  purity.  They  were 
then  ready  for  diluting  to  the  proper 
strengths. 

The  ampuling  and  shipping  depart- 
ment observed  the  same  rules  and  care 
for  making  all  the  operations  aseptic  as 
in  the  bacteriological  department.  The 
vaccine  was  put  into  small  glass  ampuls 
of  from  one  to  twenty-five  cubic  centi- 
meters' capacity  and  the  end  of  each  was 
sealed  off  in  a  blast  flame.  The  ampuls 
representing  each  bottle  of  the  mixed 
stock  vaccine  were  packed  in  separate 
containers  to  facilitate  the  tracing  back 
of  any  error. 

Although  typhoid  vaccine  made  in  this 
way  is  supposed  to  retain  its  immunizing 
power  for  one  year,  it  was  ruled  by  the 
army  that  none  of  its  vaccine  over  four 
months  old  should  be  used.  This  avoid- 
ed all  possibility  of  deterioration.  The 
time  limit  of  the  vaccine  was  plainly 
marked  on  each  package  of  ampuls. 

As  orders  for  the  triple  vaccine  came 
in  from  all  over  the  world  (the  navy  and 
Marine  Corps  also  used  this  army  vac- 
cine, it  having  been  made  compulsory 
in  January,  1912)  the  ampuls  were 
packed  and  prepared  for  shipment  with- 
in twenty-four  hours  after  the  receipt 
of  the  order.  At  no  time  did  the  supply 
of  typhoid  vaccine  at  the  Army  Medical 
School  fall  below  the  demand  for  it,  a 
remarkable  record  for  those  few  men 
who  were  responsible  for  its  preparation. 
During  the  year  1917  15,400  liters  of 
triple  typhoid  vaccine,  or  18,000,000 
doses,  were  produced,  representing  a 
commercial  cost  of  $4,500,000.  The  ac- 
tual cost  to  the  Government,  however, 
was  determined  to  be  only  $900,000,  or 
a  saving  of  $3,600,000.  The  amount  pro- 
duced during  1918  was  still  greater,  ap- 
proaching 25,000,000  doses.  The  actual 
figures  for  1918  have  not  yet  been  made 
public. 

In  the  Spring  of  1918  the  force  of  as- 
sistants was  augmented  to  about  twenty- 
five.     These  men,  instead  of  the  former 


three  runs  a  week,  produced  six  runs  of 
3,000  Kolle  flasks  a  week,  or  just  twice 
as  much  as  in  1917.  And,  further,  they 
maintained  the  record  of  supplying  the 
demand  at  all  times. 

AN  IMPROVED  VACCINE 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  experi- 
mental production  of  an  improved  vac- 
cine was  begun,  which  meant  much  ad- 
ditional work.  This  new  vaccine  was  an 
oil  suspension,  a  form  of  cottonseed  oil 
taking  the  place  of  the  salt  solution;  it 
required  many  new  processes  and  an  al- 
most entirely  new  technique.  For  its 
development  credit  should  be  given  to 
Colonel  Whitmore,  Major  Fennel,  Lieu- 
tenant Petersen  and  the  enlisted  men 
employed  in  the  vaccine  laboratories. 
Its  preparation  allowed  the  use  of  sev- 
eral mechanical  aids.  The  dried  bacilli, 
for  instance,  were  placed  in  specially  de- 
signed grinding  jars  containing  steel 
balls.  The  jars  were  fastened  to  a  grind- 
ing machine  and  allowed  to  revolve  for 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  hours.  At 
the  end  of  this  time,  when  the  bacilli 
had  been  ground  into  a  flour,  the  jars 
were  removed  from  the  machine,  and 
after  further  treatment  and  more  grind- 
ing the  proper  amount  of  cottonseed  oil 
was  added. 

Successful  experiments  led  to  the  tem- 
porary adoption  in  October,  1918,  of  the 
oil,  or  "  lipovaccine,"  in  place  of  the  sa- 
line. In  March,  1919,  however,  the  use 
of  the  latter  was  restored  to  allow  fur- 
ther experimentation  with  the  oil 
product.  The  outstanding  advantages  of 
the  lipovaccine  are,  first,  that  it  may  be 
inoculated  in  a  single  dose,  instead  of  in 
three  doses ;  and,  second,  the  slow  rate  of 
absorption  of  the  lipovaccine  renders  the 
reaction  of  the  individual  to  it  much 
less  severe  than  that  of  the  saline.  In  a 
military  sense  the  first  advantage  saves 
much  time  in  preparing  troops  for  duty, 
and  it  was  for  this  reason  that  the  lipo- 
vaccine was  temporarily  adopted.  It  is 
gratifying  to  know  that  Colonel  Rus- 
sell, the  pioneer  in  American  typhoid  pro- 
phylaxis, is  again  in  charge  of  the 
typhoid  vaccine  laboratories  at  Washing- 
ton, and  will  supervise  the  further  ex- 
periments with  lipovaccine. 


902 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Out  of  the  twenty-five  men  who  act- 
ually performed  the  work  of  making  the 
vaccine  in  1918  only  two  were  commis- 
sioned officers,  these  being"  Second  Lieu- 
tenants in  the  Sanitary  Corps.  Except- 
ing one  Sergeant  and  one  Corporal,  the 
others  were  privates.  Twenty-three  of 
them  were  college-trained  men  holding 
a  Bachelor's  degree.  Two  of  these  had 
pursued  graduate  work  and  had  attained 
their  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 
Four  others  had  nearly  completed  their 
work  for  a  doctor's  degree,  while  the 
remaining  seventeen  were  graduate 
students  working  for  advanced  degrees, 
or  medical  students  who  had  temporarily 
abandoned  their  studies  to  serve  their 
country.  They  were  selected  by  the  au- 
thorities to  do  that  work  and  performed 
their  arduous  tasks  without  receiving  any 
publicity,  suitable  promotion  or  reward, 
except  that  which  comes  from  a  knowl- 
edge of  duty  well  done.  To  their  efforts 
was  due  the  fact  that  the  families  and 


friends  of  the  men  in  service  during  the 
war  could  feel  sure  that  their  boys  would 
be  adequately  protected  from  the  in- 
fectious disease  of  typhoid  fever.  Of  all 
the  men  who  wore  the  white  chevron, 
they  certainly  deserved  the  praise  and 
commendation  of  the  American  people. 

The  Medico-Military  Review,  issued  by 
the  Surgeon  General's  office  Dec.  15, 
1919,  summed  up  the  whole  matter  in 
these   words: 

Those  who  have  first-hand  knowledge  of 
sanitary  conditions  in  the  combat  and  bil- 
leting areas  occupied  by  our  troops  in 
France,  of  the  general  pollution  of  water 
supplies,  and  of  the  frequently  continuous 
exposure  to  infectious  material,  can  fully 
realize  the  role  played  by  prophylactic 
vaccination,  chlorination  of  water  sup- 
plies, and  other  preventive  measures  in 
the  control  of  typhoid.  Had  such  pre- 
ventive measures  not  been  in  force,  and 
more  particularly  prophylactic  vaccina- 
tion, without  doubt  the  case  incidence  of 
typhoid  between  June,  1918,  and  June, 
1919,  would  have  been  greatly  in  excess  of 
100,000    cases. 


Italy's  Greatest  Victory  in  the  War 

Authorized  Summary  of  Official  Report  of  the 
Battle  of  Vittorio  Veneto 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Italian  Military  Attache  at  Washington — Marquis 
Vittorio  Asinari  di  Bernezzo,  Colonel  in  the  General  Staff  of  the  Royal  Italian  Army 
-—Current  History  is  able  to  present  the  official  story  of  Italy's  last  and  greatest 
victory  over  the  Austro- Hungarian  Armies  in  the  World  War.  It  was  translated 
from  the  official  report  of  the  Italian  Supreme  Command  by  Captain  Carlo  Hunting- 
tony  Marquis  di  Bernezzo's  assistant,  and  is  now  made  available  to  the  general  public 
for  the  first  time  in  the  English  language. 

preparation  for  a  decisive  Austrian  of- 
fensive in  June;  also  because  our  allies 
were  hard  pressed  on  the  western  front 
and  could  not  spare  any  troops  to  rein- 
force our  front.  The  Austrian  offensive, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  the  decisive 
one  of  the  war,  was  launched,  and  failed, 
being  met  and  foreseen  by  our  counter- 
preparation  and  by  our  men,  who  were 
ready  for  attacking,  and  with  high  of- 
fensive spirit.  Thus  the  Austrian  fail- 
ure was  the  turn  of  the  tide  in  the 
World  War. 


THE  main  idea  of  the  Comando 
Supremo  had  always  been  that 
the  decision  of  the  world  conflict 
would  be  brought  about  more 
rapidly  by  putting  the  Austrian  Army 
hors  de  combat,  so  as  to  isolate  Ger- 
many and  force  her  to  surrender.  After 
the  retreat  of  Caporetto  and  the  mar- 
velous stand  on  the  Piave,  all  energies 
were  directed  to  the  preparing  of  the 
morale  of  the  troops  and  to  obtaining  a 
moral  ascendency  on  the  enemy,  who  was 
in  the  Spring  of  1918  in  great  numerical 
superiority  and  excellently  prepared.  A 
first  offensive  of  ours,  which  was  to  be 
carried  out  at  the  end  of  May,  was  put 
off,    because    we    heard    of    the    intense 


PART  I.    PREPARATION 

After   the    failure    of   June    the    state 
of  the  enemy  was  such  that  an  offensive 


ITALY'S  GREATEST  VICTORY  IN  THE  WAR 


903 


m 

fli( 

m 


on  our  side  would  have  brought  about 
a  decisive  victory.  But  we  had  suffered 
losses  of  90,000  men  in  the  June  battle, 
and  our  allies  could  not  send  any  aid, 
having  their  hands  full  on  the  western 
front..  To  pursue  more  extensive  opera- 
tions, it  was  necessary  to  prepare  men 
d  means  afresh.  Meanwhile  the  bril- 
nt.  French  counteroffensive  of  the 
arne  opened  a  new  phase  of  the  con- 
flict. The  Germans,  having  lost  all  hope 
r  victory  on  the  western  front,  might 
w  attempt  a  final  effort  by  concen- 
ating  all  their  energies  against  the 
numerically  weaker  of  the  Allies,  that 
is,  Italy.  And  a  rapid  concentration  of 
the  German  forces  on  our  front,  which 
could  be  carried  out  twice  as  fast  as  the 
allied  movements,  was  a  possibility  which 
we  had  to  consider,  more  so  as  we  re- 
ceived much  information  to  that  effect. 
So  while  preparing  for  an  offensive  we 
also  never  lost  sight  of  the  defensive. 

The  plan  for  the  offensive  had  to  aim 
in  assisting  the  general  efforts  of  the 
Allies  to  the  utmost  according  to  two 
different  solutions:  To  drive  the  attack 
home  with  all  possible  forces,  throwing 
the  last  available  man  into  the  scale,  so 
as  to  gain  a  decision  at  one  blow,  or 
else  to  make  a  preparatory  attack  as  a 
first  phase  of  a  more  complex  effort  if 
the  enemy  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
new  solid  defensive  front  on  all  the  thea- 
tres of  war. 

We  found  ourselves  in  a  delicate  situa- 
tion regarding  drafts,  having  little  more 
than  was  strictly  necessary  to  make  good 
the  normal  losses  of  units.  This  is  not 
surprising,  considering  the  effort  which 
we  had  already  sustained,  the  fresh  units 
which  had  to  be  formed  after  October, 
1917,  the  contingents  in  Albania  (about 
100,000  men),  in  Macedonia  (55,000 
men),  in  France  (eleven  corps,  48,000 
men),  and  also  the  fact  that  there  re- 
mained in  France  70,000  men  of  the 
Italian  Labor  Corps,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  forces  in  the  colonies,  in  Russia  and 
even  in  Palestine.  To  organize  reserves 
we  combed  out  every  available  man  in 
the  country  who  had  been  used  for  the 
lines  of  communication,  for  ammunition 
factories,  &c.,  and  completed  their  in- 
struction. 


In  the  early  days  of  July  a  plan  of 
operations  for  an  attack  on  the  Asiago 
Plateau,  which  would  *have  relieved  the 
pressure  on  our  front  and  which  had 
been  agreed  upon  with  the  Allies,  was 
prepared.  But  at  the  same  time  as  this 
plan  of  operations,  of  limited  extent, 
another  and  bigger  scheme,  intrusted  to 
a  few  men  and  guarded  with  the  strict- 
est secrecy,  was  being  matured  in  the 
interior  of  the  Comando  Supremo. 

This  was  held  in  readiness  in  case  a 
change  in  the  general  situation  should 
render  it  possible  to  risk  all  for  all  in  a 


GENERAL   ARMANDO   DIAZ 

Commander   in   Chief   of   the   Italian   armies 

at  the  time  of  the  final  victory 

(©    Western   Newspaper    Union) 

supreme  thrust  in  a  direction  vital  to 
the  enemy,  even  at  the  cost  of  serious 
losses,  so  as  to  overwhelm  him  in  a 
definite  rout.  Troops  and  commands 
were  in  the  meantime  intensely  trained 
and  prepared  for  open  warfare. 

During  August  the  general  military 
situation,  though  better,  did  not  show 
any  such  improvement  as  to  justify  the 
carrying  out  of  this  plan,  so  the  prepara- 


ITALY'S  GREATEST  VICTORY  IN  THE  WAR 


905 


tions    for    the    attack    on    the    Asiag-o 
Plateau  were  continued. 

But  in  September  fresh  events  de- 
veloped. The  allied  attack  in  Macedonia 
brought  about  the  collapse  of  the  Bul- 
garian '  resistance,  opening  a  break  on 
the  Austrian  flank,  and  this  gave  us 
the  hope  of  creating  the  favorable  situa- 
tion, long  prayed  for,  which  would  allow 
us  to  launch  our  forces  in  a  dangerous 
but  decisive  direction  and  so  end  the 
war.  On  Sept.  25,  four  days  before  the 
conclusion  of  the  Bulgarian  armistice, 
orders  were  given  for  the  concentration 
of  forces  on  the  Middle  Piave  instead  of 
the  plateau,  this  being  the  sector  chosen 
for  attack. 
STRATEGIC  PLAN  OF  THE  BATTLE 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  action 
planned  by  the  Comando  Supremo  was 
to  separate  the  Austrian  mass  in  the 
Trentino  from  that  on  the  Piave  by  a 
decisive  break  through,  and  then,  by  an 
enveloping  action,  to  cause  the  fall  of 
the  whole  mountain  front,  which  would 
necessarily  bring  about  the  yielding  of 
the  enemy  front  on  the  plain. 

For  this  plan  we  bore  in  mind  that 
the  Sixth  Austrian  Army,  the  northern 
one  of  the  two  deployed  between  the 
mountains  and  the  sea,  had  its  line 
of  communication  running:  Vittorio- 
Conegliano-Sacile.  To  reach  Vittorio 
meant  to  sever  this  vital  artery,  to  stop 
all  supplies  of  food  and  ammunition  and 
so  place  the  Sixth  Army  completely  at 
our  mercy. 

After  reaching  Vittorio  the  Comando 
Supremo  proposed  to  concentrate  its  ef- 
fort against  the  heights,  with  the  two- 
fold object  of:  1.  Advancing  on  Feltre 
in  the  rear  of  the  Grappa,  bringing  about 
the  fall  of  this  imposing  bastion.  2.  By 
reaching  the  Eelluno  Valley,  advancing 
from  there  up  the  Cadore  and  Agordino, 
while  the  troops  which  had  caused  the 
fall  of  Grappa  advanced  up  the  Val 
Sugana,  thus  creating  a  threat  of  irrep- 
arable disaster  to  the  whole  Austrian 
organization  on  the  Trentino  front. 

The  success  of  this  manoeuvre  was 
based  essentially  on  surprise  and  on 
rapidity  of  action.  On  the  rapidity  of 
action  we  could  count  because  of  the 
Icrrr  and  careful  training  of  the  troops 


and  because  every  man,  from  the  last 
soldier  up,  was  convinced  that  a  de- 
termined break  in  the  enemy  front  would 
give  us  definite  victory.  The  surprise 
was  assured  by  the  character  of  the  in- 
tended action,  which  differed  from  all 
others  which  had  been  carried  out  in  the 
war,  and  by  the  care  that  was  taken  to 
keep  the  enemy  absolutely  in  the  dark 
as  to  our  proposed  action. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Comando  Su- 
premo had  not  failed  to  take  all  neces- 
sary measures  in  consideration  that  the 
passage  of  a  river  subjected  to  floods  in 
the  rainy  season  is  subject  to  many  un- 
foreseen circumstances.  The  presence  of 
a  river  can,  under  certain  circumstances, 
be  of  enormous  help  to  the  defender. 
Therefore  all  kinds  of  supplies  and  a 
mass  of  artillery  capable  of  guarantee- 
ing the  holding  of  bridgeheads  were  pre- 
arranged. To  increase  the  elasticity  of 
the  manoeuvre  two  fresh  armies  were 
formed  at  the  last  moment  (to  insure 
secrecy).  These  were  the  Tenth,  under 
General  the  Earl  of  Cavan  (G.  O.  C.  B. 
E.  F.),  and  the  Twelfth,  under  General 
Graziani,  Commander  French  Forces. 
These  were  inserted  between  the  armies 
holding  our  line  between  the  Brenta  and 
the  sea  (Fourth,  Eighth,  Third),  the 
Twelfth  between  the  Fourth  and  Eighth, 
from  Monte  Tomba  to  Pederobba,  which 
was  to  operate  astride  the  Piave  after 
capturing  the  Alano  Basin  and  the 
Valdobbiadene  heights;  the  Tenth,  be- 
tween the  Eighth  and  Third,  was  to  cross 
the  Piave  opposite  the  Grave  of  Pappa- 
dopoli  and  advance  on  the  Livenza, 
covering  the  right  flank  of  the  Eighth 
Army  and  attracting  the  enemy  reserves, 
which  were  assembled  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  plains. 

The  formation  of  these  two  armies 
came  into  effect  on  Oct.  14. 

THE  ARRANGEMENTS  MADE 
The  orders  to  concentrate  troops  and 
supplies  for  the  battle  were  issued  on 
Sept.  25.  Between  then  and  Oct.  10,  in 
fifteen  days,  1,600  guns  of  all  calibres 
and  500  trench  mortars  were  transferred 
to  the  new  front,  coming  from  our  gen- 
eral reserve,  but  in  great  part  from  dis- 
tant mountain  fronts;  positions  were 
selected     and    occupied,    and    fire    was 


906 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


registered.  At  the  same  time  there  were 
collected  2,400,000  rounds  of  ammuni- 
tion. Fully  twenty-one  divisions  were 
concentrated  on  the  new  front  in  the 
same  period,  coming  from  the  rear  or 
from  other  sectors  by  night  marches. 
All  this  under  torrential  and  continuous 
rain.  All  movements  were  completed  by 
the  10th  and  we  could  have  begun  our 
action  on  the  16th,  as  planned,  if  the 
weather  had  not  become  even  worse,  and 
the  rise  in  the  Piave  obliged  us  to  post- 
pone for  at  least  a  week. 

As  the  general  military  situation  now 
was  such  that  an  effort  of  ours,  well 
executed,  would  bring  about  a  decision 
in  the  war,  we  thought  it  necessary  to 
stake  all  for  all,  and  so  in  the  extra  time 
we  denuded  every  possible  sector  of  our 
front  of  reserves  and  another  400  guns 
were  brought  to  reinforce  the  sector  of 
the  Fourth  Army,  which  was  now 
ordered  to  push  its  attack  home  instead 
of  only  co-operating  with  the  main 
action,  so  as  to  precede  and  prepare  for 
the  main  offensive  and  draw  the  enemy 
reserves  of  the  Feltre  region. 

By  the  evening  of  the  23d  the  attack 
was  ready  to  be  launched  also  on  the 
Grappa. 

To  allow  us  all  possible  means  of 
crossing  the  river,  and  also  of  repairing 
the  losses  sure  to  be  caused  by  floods 
and  bombardments,  extraordinary  prepa- 
rations, most  carefully  thought  out,  had 
to  be  made.  When  they  were  ready  we 
had  twenty  regular  pontoon  bridging 
equipments,  5,000  yards  of  tubular  foot- 
bridging  of  a  special  type  on  boats  built 
for  the  purpose,  and  another  5,000  yards 
of  regulation  bridging.  Hundreds  of 
boats  and  barges  had  been  built  or 
requisitioned  in  upper  Italy,  and  anchors 
were  provided  for  thousands  of  boats,  as 
it  was  reckoned  that  the  violence  of  the 
current  required  using  two  for  each 
boat.  At  the  same  time  700,000  cubic 
feet  of  timber  was  prepared  for  the  re- 
pairing of  the  permanent  bridges  on  the 
Piave  and  the  other  streams,  together 
with  the  necessary  iron  work  and  acces- 
sories. 

THE  OPPOSING  FORCES 
The    enemy   held    the    front   from   the 
Stelvio  to  the  sea  with  63  ^^  divisions,  of 


which  at  the  beginning  of  the  battle  39  V^ 
were  in  the  front  line,  13^/^  in  second 
line  and  10^/^  in  reserve.  In  the  sector 
chosen  for  attack  there  were  deployed 
23  divisions,  as  follows:  Eleven  from 
Brenta  to  Pederobba,  9  from  Pederobba 
to  Ponte  della  Priula,  and  3  from  Ponte 
della  Priula  to  Ponte  di  Piave.  In  the 
back  areas  he  had  10^/^  divisions  of  re- 
serves. All  these  divisions  were  among 
the  best  of  the  Austrian  Army. 

The  enemy  defensive  system  was 
formidable.  He  had  the  advantage  of 
dominating  positions  on  the  Grappa,  in 
successive  lines.  On  the  plain  he  had 
constructed  "  battle-belts,"  grouped  in 
two  successive  positions,  the  "  Kaiser- 
stellung "  and  the  "  Konigstellung." 
Powerful  masses  of  artillery  (about  2,000 
guns)  were  concentrated  on  the  flanks 
and  rear  of  the  sectors,  so  as  to  deliver 
the  most  effectual  front  and  enfilade 
fire.  The  area  north  of  Grappa  was  de- 
fended by  1,200  guns,  to  which  we  op- 
posed about  1,800  guns.  Opposite  our 
sector,  Pederobba  to  Palazzon,  were 
grouped  about  500  guns,  to  which  we 
opposed  an  imposing  mass  of  about  2,150 
guns,  as  this  was  the  principal  front  to 
be  broken  through.  The  enemy  could 
use  about  350  guns  on  the  Grave  di 
Pappadopoli  front,  to  which  we  opposed 
about  800  guns. 

Altogether  on  our  side  over  4,750 
weapons  of  all  calibres,  including  about 
600  heavy  trench  mortars,  could  con- 
centrate their  fire  on  the  front  of 
attack;  5,700,000  rounds  of  ammunition 
were  accumulated  near  the  front  for 
action    (eight  days*  supply). 

The  front  was  held  by  us,  altogether, 
with  fifty-one  Italian,  three  British,  two 
French  and  one  Czechoslovak  divisions, 
and  the  332d  American  Regiment. 

The  mass  intended  to  break  through 
the  enemy  front  line  and  follow  up  the 
success  was  composed  of  twenty-two 
infantry  divisions  in  front  line,  of  which 
two  were  British  and  one  French.  The 
armies  were:  Fourth,  General  Giardino; 
Twelfth,  General  Graziani;  Eighth,  Gen- 
eral Caviglia;    Tenth,   General  Cavan. 

Nineteen  Italian  divisions  (fifteen 
infantry  and  four  cavalry)  and  the 
Czechoslovak  division  were  in  second  line 


ITALY'S  GREATEST  VICTORY  IN  THE  WAR 


907 


reserve  or  as  powerful  striking  force. 
Of  these  the  Ninth  Army,  General  Mor- 
rone,  and  the  Cavalry  Corps,  General 
Count  of  Turin,  were  under  direct  orders 
of  General  Headquarters. 

PART   11.    THE   BATTLE 

I^H  was  decided  that  the  battle  should 
^Simence  at  dawn  on  Oct.  24  by  an 
attack  of  the  Fourth  Arrriy  in  the 
Grappa  area,  carried  out  in  co-operation 
with  the  left  wing  of  the  Twelfth  Army 
and  with  the  support  of  artillery  of  the 
Sixth  Army  (Asiago  Plateau).  The 
Tenth  Army  was  to  take  possession  of 
the  Grave  di  Pappadopoli,  thus  crossing, 
as  a  preliminary  action,  the  main  stream 
of  the  river. 

Between  Brenta  and  Piave  our  artil- 
lery fire  began  at  5  A.  M.  on  the  24th. 
The  infantry  moved  to  the  attack  at  7 :  15 
A.  M.  A  dense  fog,  changing  later  into 
pouring  rain,  came  on,  limiting  the  artil- 
lery effectiveness  on  both  sides,  but  it 
did  not  hinder  the  infantry  struggle, 
which  in  this  area  soon  became  of  a 
most  desperate  character.  The  Asolone 
was  taken  in  a  rush,  but  had  to  be 
abandoned  under  violent  fire  and  desper- 
ate counterattacks.  The  Pertica  and 
Prassolan  were  taken  and  had  also  to 
be  abandoned  under  the  terrific  fire  of 
artillery  and  machine  guns.  The  sum- 
mit of  Solarolo  and  the  Valderoa  were 
captured,  after  violent  struggle,  and 
held.  The  left  wing  of  the  Twelfth 
Army,  supporting  this  action,  descended 
from  M.  Tomba  and  Mofenera  and  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  itself  on  the 
north  banks  of  the  Ornic  stream  in  the 
Alano  Basin.  In  these  sanguinary 
actions  1,300  prisoners  and  numerous 
machine  guns  were  taken. 

At  the  same  time  assault  detachments 
of  the  Sixth  Army,  on  the  Asiago 
Plateau,  had  raided  and  occupied  enemy 
trenches,  thus  causing  alarm  in  the 
Austrian  lines,  and  taking  prisoners. 

The  desperate  resistance  met  with  on 
the  Grappa  caused  no  change  in  the  gen- 
eral plan,  but  the  attacks  were  to  be 
continued,  so  as  to  wear  down  the  enemy 
and  force  him  to  use  his  reserves. 

On  the  Piave  the  British  and  Italian 
troops  of  the  Tenth  Army  had  occupied 
in  the  morning  of  the  24th  the  islands 


of  the  Grave,  but  the  crossing  of  the 
river  had  to  be  put  off  for  that  night, 
owing  to  heavy  rain,  "which  came  on 
suddenly,  making  the  river  rise,  so  that 
in  the  area  chosen  for  bridging,  even  at 
the  fords,  the  river  reached  a  height  of 
five  feet  two  inches,  and  in  many  places 
the  speed  of  the  current  exceeded  three 
yards  a  second.  The  crossing  was  put 
off  to  the  evening  of  the  26th. 

On  Oct.  25  the  Fourth  Army  renewed 
its  attacks  with  the  utmost  vigor,  captur- 
ing, with  heavy  losses,  M.  Pertica  and 
Forcelletta  and  trying  again  for  the 
Solarolo,  which  was  swept  by  the  most 
terrific  fire.  During  this  day  1,400 
prisoners  were  captured  and  such  heavy 
losses  inflicted  on  the  enemy  that  he  was 
shaken  and  used  his  reserves  for  the 
defense  of  the  Grappa  sector,  bringing 
up  also  those  which  he  was  keeping 
around  Feltre  and  Biluno.  Thus  he  used 
the  very  reserves  we  wished  to  have 
neutralized,  so  as  not  to  be  used  against 
the  Eighth  Army. 

During  the  day  of  the  26th  the  battle 
on  the  Grappa  continued  to  be  desperate 
and  close;  1,200  prisoners  were  cap- 
tured. The  enemy  had  now  nine  divisions 
in  the  line  against  our  attacking  seven, 
who  continued  to  fight  and  wear  him 
out. 

BREAKING  OF  THE  ENEMY'S  FRONT 
When  the  weather  conditions  improved 
on  the  evening  of  the  26th,  the  task  of 
throwing  bridges  across  the  Piave  was 
commenced.  One  was  thrown  in  front 
of  the  Twelfth  Army  at  Molinetto 
(Pederobba),  seven  on  the  front  of  the 
Eighth  Army  and  three  in  front  of  the 
Tenth  Army  at  the  Grave  di  Poppado- 
poli.  Of  these,  owing  to  the  strong  cur- 
rent and  the  accurate  enemy  fire,  only 
six  could  be  completed,  the  one  at 
Molinetto,  two  in  front  of  the  Eighth 
Army  and  the  third  on  the  Grave.  Cross- 
ing the  bridges  and  using  ferries  and 
boats,  the  first  detachments  gained  the 
left  bank  of  the  river  and,  assisted  by 
the  effective  fire  of  our  artillery,  rushed 
the  enemy's  lines  and  captured  them. 

At  daylight  the  troops  which  had 
crossed  the  river  formed  three  bridge- 
heads. 

The    first,    near    Valdobbiadene,    was 


908 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


held  by  troops  of  the  Twelfth  Army 
(three  battalions  of  French  and  three 
battalions  of  Alpini,  with  a  regiment  of 
the  Eighth  Army,  which  had  used  that 
bridge).  At  evening  these  troops  had 
reached  the  line  Osteria  Nuova-Madonna 
di  Caravaggio-Funer-Ca'  Settolo. 

The  second  bridgehead,  in  the  Ser- 
naglia  Plain,  was  held  by  troops  of  the 
Eighth  Army.  On  the  left  elements  of 
the  27th  Corps,  which  had  not  been  able 
to  establish  its  own  bridges,  in  the  cen- 
tre the  57th  Division,  on  the  right  the 
1st  Assault  Division  and  part  of  the  22d 
Corps,  with  three  mountain  batteries. 
To  the  right  of  the  22d  Corps  the  8th 
Corps  had  failed  to  establish  any  cross- 
ing, owing  to  the  current  and  the 
accurate  fire  of  the  enemy  artillery, 
which  continually  cut  the  bridges. 

While  the  troops  of  the  Eighth  Army, 
en  the  far  side  of  the  river,  struggled 
gallantly  and  carried  one  enemy  posi- 
tion after  the  other,  all  the  bridges  were 
destroyed  behind  them.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  precarious  situation,  they  fought 
gallantly  and  repulsed  many  counterat- 
tacks, delivered  in  some  cases  by  forces 
three  times  as  numerous. 

The  third  bridgehead  was  formed  by 
the  Tenth  Army,  which  had  taken  the 
enemy  defenses  and  extended  in  the  plain 
of  Cima  d'Olmo.  The  11th  Italian  Corps 
(right  wing)  encountered  serious  re- 
sistance, was  counterattacked  and  had 
to  retire  slightly  in  the  evening.  The 
14th  British  Corps  (left  wing)  had 
strenuous  fighting  around  Borgo  Mala- 
notte,  which  was  captured,  lost  and  re- 
taken; 5,600  prisoners  and  24  guns  were 
taken. 

Night  27th-28th— The  work  of  repair- 
ing bridges  continued  feverishly,  not- 
withstanding the  difficulty  caused  by  the 
rain  and  by  the  enemy,  who  was  intensi- 
fying his  fire  with  H.  E.  and  mustard- 
gas  shells.  The  8th  Corps  was  unable 
to  complete  any  bridge  on  its  front  be- 
tween Falze  and  Nervesa.  A  wide  gap 
was  thus  left  on  the  far  side  of  the 
Piave  between  the  Eighth  and  Tenth 
Armies.  To  fill  this  gap  the  reserve 
corps  of  the  Eighth  Army,  the  18th, 
was  ordered  to  cross  the  Piave  on  the 
bridges  of  the  Tenth  Army  and  operate 


the  next  day  from  the  south,  in  order  to 
relieve  the  front  of  the  8th  Corps. 

Oct.  28— The  18th  Corps  began  to 
cross  on  the  bridges  of  the  Tenth  Army, 
which  had  been  destroyed  during  the 
night  and  hastily  repaired;  at  the  same 
time  fresh  troops  of  the  Eighth  Army 
were  able  to  cross  between  Pederobba 
and  Falze. 

The  Twelfth  Army  attacked  astride 
the  Piave  in  a  northerly  direction,  storm- 
ing Alano  and  the  heights  of  Valdob- 
biadene  and  capturing  several  thousand 
prisoners. 

The  bridges  of  the  Eighth  Army  were 
again  destroyed,  but  our  troops,  com- 
pletely isolated,  resisted  all  counter- 
attacks. They  were  supplied  with  food, 
ammunition  and  blankets  by  airplane. 

The  18th  Corps,  who  had  been  able 
to  cross  part  of  its  troops  on  the  Tenth 
Army  bridges,  attacked,  moving  up  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  river,  and  by  the 
evening  had  passed  beyond  the  Susegana 
Railway,  thus  clearing  the  way  for  the 
8th  Corps. 

Further  south  the  Tenth  Army  (11th 
Italian  and  14th  British)  had  widened 
the  breach  opened  in  the  Kaiserstellung 
and  reached  the  Monticano. 

By  this  time  the  enemy  formation  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Piave  was  broken 
into  two  large  masses  and  the  Eighth 
Army  regained  its  liberty  of  action. 

SUCCESS  IN  SIGHT 

During  the  early  hours  of  the  29th 
the  8th  Corps,  having  at  last  bridged 
the  river,  advanced  in  its  turn  to  the 
attack.  It  carried  the  enemy  lines  at 
Marcateili,  took  possession  of  Susegana, 
and  while  the  18th  Corps  occupied  Con- 
egliano  it  pushed  forward  a  flying 
column  (Florence  Lancers  and  Bersa- 
glieri  Cyclists)  to  occupy  Vittorio,  which 
was  reached  in  the  evening. 

At  the  same  time  the  Twelfth  Army, 
particularly  thfe  52d  Alpini  Division, 
took  the  most  important  position  of  M. 
Cesen;  they  occupied  Segusino  and 
reached  Quero.  Later,  columns  of  the 
Eighth  Army  passed  beyond  Follina. 
The  Tenth  Army  crossed  the  Monticano 
on  a  wide  front.     Altogether  over  8,000 


ITALY'S  GREATEST  VICTORY  IN  THE  WAR 


909 


m 


prisoners   and    100   guns   were   captured 
up  to  Oct.  31. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  front  of  the  Fourth 
Army,  becoming  more  and  more  com- 
mitted in  the  battle,  the  enemy  had  on 
the  '27th  passed  to  the  counterof  f ensive ; 
he  launched  attack  after  attack  against 
the  i^ertica  and  Valderoa,  with  tre- 
mendous losses,  but  in  vain.  On  the  28th 
and  29th  we  attacked  again  on  the  Col 
della  Berretta,  on  the  Solarolo  and 
rassolan,  meeting  desperate  resistance 
nd  untiring  counterattacks.  The  enemy 
threw  his  last  reserves  into  the  fray, 
bringing  up  the  number  of  divisions  to 

even. 

Thus  the  Fourth  Army,  though  it  did 
ot    immediately    obtain    its     objective, 

at  is,   the   interruption   of   the   enemy 

mmunications  between  hills  and  plains, 

ucceeded  by  its  tenacity  in  the  imme- 

iate  co-operation,  by  exhausting  the  re-  - 

erves,  which  were  in  the  Feltre  Basin, 

j-endering    impossible    to    transfer    them 

to  the  plain  to  fill  the  gap  opened  by  the 

Eighth,   Tenth  and  Twelfth  Armies. 

The  enemy's  defeat  was  precipitated 
on  the  30th.  His  new  front,  hastily  pre- 
pared on  rear  positions,  was  again 
broken  at  several  points.  The  Eighth 
Army  brilliantly  carried  out  the  task 
assigned  to  it,  swung  to  the  left,  occu- 
pied the  Fadalto  Gorge  and  advanced 
toward  Belluno.  The  1st  Cavalry  Divi- 
sion was  pushed  forward  between  the 
Eighth  and  Tenth  Armies,  toward  the 
Livenza  and  further  the  Tagliamento. 

Now  the  Comando  Supremo  thought 
the  right  moment  had  come  to  bring  into 
action  the  Third  Army.  This  army, 
which  had  been  anxiously  awaiting  the 
moment,  forced  the  passages  at  Ponte 
di  Piave,  Salgareda,  Romanziol  and  S. 
Dona  under  desperate  odds  and  ad- 
vanced boldly  in  the  plains,  though  meet- 
ing strong  opposition.  Over  3,000  prison-  . 
ers  were  taken  on  this  day.  The  Twelfth 
Army  had  forced  the  Quero  Gorge.  The 
Tenth  and  Third  Armies  advanced  to- 
ward the  Livenza. 

Thus  the  Austrian  command  had  been 
deceived  by  our  two  thrusts  on  the  Grap- 
pa and  at  the  Grave.  It  had  allowed  its 
reserves  at  Feltre  to  be  drawn  toward 
the  Grappa  front  and  the  greater  part 


of  its  reserves  in  the  plain  toward  the 
Tenth  Army,  whose  duty  was  to  form  a 
defense  flank  for  tfte  Eighth.  Every 
effort  to  check  our  advance  toward  the 
valley  junction  at  Belluno  came  thus  too 
late. 

COLLAPSE  OF  GRAPPA  FRONT 

The  threat  of  the  Twelfth  Army  in 
the  direction  of  Feltre  brought  the  deci- 
sive moment  for  the  Grappa. 

During  the  night  of  the  30th-31st  the 
main  body  of  the  enemy  forces,  under 
cover  of  the  darkness,  commenced  its  re- 
tirement on  the  Fonzaso-Feltre  front. 
The  Fourth  Army,  who  became  aware  of 
this  movement,  ordered  the  advance ;  not- 
withstanding strong  defense  of  the 
enemy  rear  guards  and  numerous  artil- 
lery, which  had  to  cover  the  withdrawal 
of  the  enormous  amount  of  guns  and 
material  in  this  sector,  the  advancing 
columns  overpowered  them  and  advanced 
down  the  Seren  Valley. 

The  Ancona  Brigade  of  the  Sixth 
Army,  advancing  rapidly  in  the  Brenta 
Valley,  occupied  Cismon,  capturing  1,000 
men  and  nine  6-inch  guns,  which  had 
been  firing  on  Bassano. 

At  5:30  P.  M.  the  Lombardia  Brigade 
and  Alpini  of  Exilles  and  Pieve  di  C adore 
battalions  entered  Feltre,  capturing  over 
2,000  prisoners  and  preventing  the  blow- 
ing up  of  the  bridges.  A  group  of  cavalry 
squadrons  was  sent  on  the  morning  of 
the  following  day  (Nov.  1)  in  pursuit 
toward  Belluno. 

THE    LIVENZA    REACHED 
On  that  same  day  (31st)   the  Twelfth 
Army  continued  its  advance  and  reached 
the  Piave  between  Lentiai  and  Miel. 

The  Eighth  Army  had  some  hard 
fighting  at  the  S.  Boldo  Pass.  It  took 
the  Fadalto  defile  and  threw  out  ad- 
vanced columns  to  Ponte  nelle  Alpi  and 
the  Cansiglio. 

The  cavalry  corps,  which  had  received 
orders  to  try  to  anticipate  the  enemy  at 
the  crossings  of  the  Tagliamento  from 
Pinzano  to  the  sea  and  prevent  the  de- 
struction of  bridges,  debouched  into  the 
plain  beyond  the  Tenth  Army.  The  1st 
Cavalry  Division  surprised  the  enemy 
near  Fiaschetti  and  crossed  the  Livenza. 
The   3d    Cavalry   Division   followed   and 


910 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


advanced  rapidly  on  Polcenigo,  taking 
the  defile  and  sending  patrols  toward  the 
Tagiiamento. 

The  Tenth  Army  reached  the  Livenza 
from  Sacile  to  Motta  and  the  advanced 
guards  of  the  Third  Army  from  Motta 
to  the  sea. 

ON  THE  ASIAGO  PLATEAU 

With  the  occupation  of  the  Feltre 
Basin  the  energy  oector  on  the  Asiago 
Plateau  began  to  waver.  On  the  28th 
the  enemy  began  to  withdraw  to  a  posi- 
tion a  little  in  the  rear,  prepared  long 
ago,  disturbed  and  attacked  continually 
in  daring  raids  by  the  Sixth  Army,  in 
which  co-operated  a  French  and  a  Brit- 
ish division.  On  Oct.  30  it  was  decided 
to  launch  also  the  Sixth  Army  in  an  at- 
tack on  M.  Mosciag-Portecche.  This 
action  began  on  the  morning  of  the  31st, 
having  as  further  objective  the  advance 
on  Levico  and  Caldonazzo,  so  as  to  cut 
off  the  enemy's  retreat  up  the  Val- 
sugana. 

THE  PURSUIT 

The  definite  collapse  of  the  whole 
front  was  clearly  to  be  foreseen  on  the 
31st,  and  the  enemy  was  evidently  try- 
ing to  save  all  the  troops  he  could  in  the 
Trentino.  The  victory  was  decisive  and, 
to  exploit  it,  it  was  necessary  that  the 
whole  Italian  forces,  from  the  Stelvio  to 
the  sea,  should  advance  like  an  avalanche. 
The  orders  were  issued  on  the  morning 
of  Nov.  1. 

The  First  Army  was  to  advance  on 
Trento. 

The  Sixth  Army  was  to  continue  to- 
ward the  Egna-Trento  front. 

The  Fourth  Army  was  to  continue  to 
Egna-Bolzano. 

The  Eighth  Army  was  to  advance  up 
the  Cadore  and  Agordo  road  to  Bruneck 
and  Bolzano. 

The  Seventh  to  push  down  to  Mezolom- 
bardo-Bolzano. 

All  these  forces  were  to  cut  off  the 
enemy  lines  of  communication,  so  as  to 
render  the  disaster  irreparable. 

The  Twelfth  Army,  which  had  accom- 
plished its  task,  concentrated  in  the 
Feltre  Basin.  The  Tenth  and  Third 
Armies  were  ordered  to  advance  on  the 
Tagiiamento,  while  the  cavalry  corps 
was  to  push  forward  to  the  Isonzo. 


At  11  A.  M.  on  this  day  (Nov.  1)  the 
253d  Regiment  of  the  Eighth  Army 
entered  Belluno  among  wild  rejoicing  of 
the  population  and  another  column  from 
Ponte  nelle  Alpi  marched  toward  Pieve 
di  Cadore. 

Troops  of  the  Fourth  Army  had 
advanced  up  the  Brenta  Valley  and  had 
passed  Grigno. 

RECAPTURE  OF  THE  PLATEAUS 

On  that  same  day  the  troops  of  the 
Sixth  Army  had  gained  important  re- 
sults on  the  Asiago  Plateau.  On  the 
eastern  edge,  after  overcoming  strenuous 
resistance,  the  Italian  troops  had  occu- 
pied M.  Lisser.  In  the  centre  the  13th 
Corps,  with  a  French  division,  had 
opened  an  enormous  gap  in  the  enemy 
defenses  by  reaching  M.  Nos.  On  the 
western  edge  the  48th  British  and  the 
20th  Italian  Division,  after  some  very 
tough  fighting,  had  managed  to  enter 
the  Val  d'Assa,  .  after  capturing  M. 
Mosciag,  and  were  pushing  on  toward 
Levico,  headquarters  of  the  Austrian 
Eleventh  Army. 

Some  tens  of  thousands  of  prisoners 
and  all  the  artillery  of  the  plateau  had 
been  the  booty  of  the  Sixth  Army  in  its 
first  day  of  advance. 

In  the  plains  the  3d  and  4th  Cavalry 
Divisions  had  occupied  Pordenone  and 
were  advancing  to  the  Tagiiamento. 

OCCUPATION  OF  TRENTO 

The  First  Army  was  ready  to  carry 
out  its  manoeuvre  on  the  1st.  It  first 
attacked  in  the  Astico  valley  in  the 
night  from  1st  to  2d,  so  as  to  threaten 
the  flank  of  the  enemy  and  advance  up 
the  valley.  Then  on  the  2d,  at  3  P.  M., 
arditi  and  alpini  rushed  the  defenses 
at  Serravalle  (Mori),  took  one  enemy 
line  after  the  other,  and  at  8:45  P.  M. 
entered  Rovereto,  cutting  off  the  retreat 
of  the  enemy  in  the  Vallaj-sa.  Light 
cavalry  was  dispatched  toward  Trento, 
which  was  entered  at  3:15  P.  M.  on  the 
3d.  Amid  wild  enthusiasm  of  the 
population  and  before  a  huge  mob  of 
Austrian  soldiers  surprised  in  the  town, 
the  Italian  tricolor  was  hoisted  over  the 
Castle  of  Buon  Consiglio. 

In  the  Valsugana  the  enemy  tried  to 
cover  his  retreat  by  energetic  rearguard 


-actions  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  troops, 
but  these  were  overcome,  and  on  the  eve- 
ning of  the  3d  the  Fourth  Army  had  occu- 
pied Borgo.  A  column  sent  over  the 
mountains  from  the  Cismon  Valley  to 
Fiera  di  Primiero  captured,  on  the  morn- 
ing ot  the  4th,  10,000  prisoners  and  sixty 
guns. 

The  Sixth  Army,  after  some  of  the 
hardest  fighting  and  marching  over  the 
mountains,  had  arrived  on  the  evening 
of  the  3d  at  Levico  and  Caldonazzo. 

The  Seventh  Army,  which  had  started 
fighting  on  the  2d,  rushed  enemy  posi- 
tions and  poured  from  the  Tonale  and 
the  Giudicarie  toward  Mezzolombardo 
and  Bolzano,  reaching  the  first-men- 
tioned place  on  the  morning  of  the  4th, 
completely  cutting  off  the  retreat  up  the 
Adige  Valley. 

In  the  plain,  too,  hard  pressed  by  the 
Third  and  Tenth  Armies,  the  enemy  was 
beating  a  hasty  retreat,  leaving  immense 
quantities  of  booty  and  prisoners  in  our 
hands.  He  was  pursued  untiringly  by 
our  cavalry,  who,  after  having  fought 
in  all  manners,  on  foot,  as  artillery,  as 
trench-mortar  men,  &c.,  had  now  at  last 
the  chance  of  carrying  out  the  pursuit 
of  the  enemy. 

THE  LANDING  AT  TRIESTE 

On  Nov.  3,  according  to  a  plan  which 
had  been  thought  out  by  our  Comando 
Supremo  and  the  navy,  a  force  concen- 
trated at  Venice  left  on  a  convoy  of 
Italian  vessels,  and  at  4  P.  M.  landed  at 
Trieste,  the  goal  of  all  Italian  hearts, 
welcomed  with  enthusiasm  by  all  citi- 
zens. 

The  cavalry  corps  had  received  orders 
to  pursue  the  enemy  according  to  the 
following  lines: 

The  1st  Division  to  push  toward  Pon- 
tebba  and  Tolmezzo. 

The  3d  to  push  toward  Udine  and 
Cividale. 

The  4th  toward  Gorizia. 

The  2d  toward  Palmanova  and  Mon- 
falcone. 

All  these  points  were  reached   before 


3  P.  M.  on  Nov.  4,  after  gallant  charges 
and  brilliant  raids,  advancing,  between 
Oct.  29  and  Nov.  4,  distances  of  from  125 
to  168  miles,  often  without  food  or 
forage,  and  capturing  innumerable  guns 
and  prisoners. 

THE  ARMISTICE 

At  3  P.  M.  on  Nov.  4  hostilities  were 
suspended  on  the  whole  front,  according 
to  the  terms  of  the  armistice  signed  the 
night  before  at  Villa  Giusti.  The  line 
reached  is  shown  on  the  sketch. 

The  Austrian  Army  was  annihilated. 
While  the  last  remnants  of  what  had 
been  one  of  the  most  powerful  armies 
in  the  world  were  scattering  in  disorder, 
leaving  in  our  hands  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  prisoners  and  booty  worth 
millions,  the  Italian  troops  were  making 
ready  for  the  fight  against  the  only 
enemy  left  in  the  field — Germany.  But 
this  country,  forced  by  the  precipitous 
course  of  events  on  the  western  and  on 
the  Italian  front,  was  also  obliged  to 
ask  for  an  armistice. 

One  year  before,  after  the  retreat  on 
the  Piave,  the  Austrian  General  Staff 
had  been  able  to  entertain  the  delusion 
that  that  was  the  sign  of  irreparable  de- 
feat of  the  Italian  Army.  It  published 
in  its  report  of  Oct.  31,  1917,  these 
words : 

"the  demonstration  of  strength  which 
the  Central  Powers  gave  to  their  people 
during  those  days  (24th  to  31st  of  Oc- 
tober) shows  that  the  Central  Powers  are 
militarily    invincible. 

A  hasty  judgment  of  one  who  knew 
not  the  Italian  spirit.  Our  army  had 
been  able  to  establish  a  wonderful  de- 
fense on  the  Piive.  It  had  reassembled 
and  reorganized;  it  had  broken  the  pride 
of  the  enemy  in  his  vain  attack  of  June; 
and  one  year  later  it  vindicated  itself 
in  shining  glory,  and  that  proud  and 
powerful  army,  which  had  descended  into 
the  Italian  plains  full  of  haughtiness, 
was  forced  to  flee  back  in  the  utmost 
disorder  over  those  same  mountains,  com- 
pletely scattered  and  broken  by  the  Ital- 
ian people  and  their  spirit. 


Why  Sarrail  Delayed  So  Long 

By  CAPTAIN  G.  GORDON-SMITH 


[Royal   Sehbian   Armv] 


DURING  the  next  few  years  the 
historians  of  the  great  World 
War  of  1914-18  are  going  to  en- 
gage in  lively  polemics  as  to  the 
role  played  by  the  various  fronts  and 
their  influence  on  the  issue  of  the  con- 
flict. Up  to  the  present,  the  western 
front  has  exercised  an  influence  that  re- 
sembles hypnotism,  the  standing  order 
for  three  long  years  being,  "  The  French 
front  and  that  alone."  Throughout  the 
conflict  the  warnings  and  counsels  of 
those  who  could  take  a  larger  view  went 
unheeded  or  were  censored  off  the  face 
of  the  earth.  Any  man  who  raised  even 
a  doubt  that  it  was  in  France  and 
Flanders  alone  that  the  war  would  be  de- 
cided was  regarded  as  something  like  a 
traitor  to  the  allied  cause. 

But  in  September,  1918,  came  the  justi- 
fication of  the  "  easterners."  The  Ser- 
bian Second  Army  forced  the  Bulgarian 
key-position  on  the  Dobra-Polie  (where 
it  had  been  facing  the  enemy  for  two 
long  years,  powerless  to  undertake  an 
offensive  because  the  British  General 
Staff  refused  it  the  necessary  reinforce- 
ments) and  the  whole  Army  of  the  Orient 
poured  through  the  breach.  In  five  days 
the  Bulgarian  Army  was  out  of  business. 
Then  Turkey  collapsed,  the  Dardanelles 
were  reopened,  and  the  Allies'  fleets 
entered  the  Black  Sea.  Next  Austria 
threw  up  her  hands,  and  the  combined 
Army  of  the  Orient  and  the  Italian  Army 
prepared  to  attack  Germany  by  the  back 
door  and  invade  Silesia.  This  it  was, 
more  than  the  successes  of  the  Allies  on 
the  western  front,  that  forced  Germany 
to  sue  for  an  armistice. 

But  not  even  this  object  lesson  has 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  incorrigible 
"  westerners."  Even  General  Pershing 
seems  to  have  failed  to  grasp  the  sig- 
nificance of  events  in  the  Balkans  and 
continues  to  attribute  undue  importance 
to  the  operations  on  the  western  front. 
In  his  official  report  (see  Current  His- 


tory   for    January,    1920,    Page    67)    he 

says: 

We  had  cut  the  enemy's  main  line  of 
communications.  Recognizing  that  noth- 
ing but  a  cessation  of  hostilities  could 
save  his  armies  from  complete  disaster  he 
appealed  for  an  armistice  on  Nov.  6. 

This  is  an  error  on  General  Pershing's 
part.  The  threatened  disaster  to  their 
armies  only  caused  the  Germans  to 
hasten  a  resolution  they  had  arrived  at 
a  full  month  before.  The  truth  is  that 
the  Causa  causans  of  the  German  col- 
lapse was  the  Balkan  disaster.  As  soon 
as  General  Ludendorff  received  news  of 
the  Bulgarian  disaster  he  sent  Major 
Busche  to  Berlin  to  inform  the  Govern- 
ment that  the  game  was  up  and  to  tell  it 
that  an  immediate  armistice  was  abso- 
lutely necessary.  This  armistice  was 
asked  for  by  the  German  Government  on 
Oct.  6,  just  one  month  before  the  date 
given  by   General  Pershing. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the 
actual  facts  preceding  and  leading  up  to 
the  armistice  should  be  placed  on  record, 
otherwise  a  false  legend  is  created,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  difficult  to  kill 
than  a  historic  legend  once  it  has  a  good 
start. 

But  it  was  not  only  from  the  point  of 
view  of  grand  strategy  that  the  Allies 
failed  to  realize  the  importance  of  the 
eastern  theatre  of  war;  the  tactical  con- 
duct of  operations  was  hampered  by 
almost  incredible  obstacles  placed  in  the 
way  of  the  Commander  in  Chief,  General 
Sarrail. 

I  was  with  the  Army  of  the  Orient 
from  the  landing  of  the  Serbian  Army 
in  June,  1916,  until  January,  1917,  two 
months  after  the  capture  of  Monastir. 
During  that  time  there  was,  in  certain 
circles,  a  considerable  amount  of  criticism 
of  General  Sarrail.  In  justice  to  him, 
however,  one  must  remember  the  diffi- 
culties with  which  he  had  to  contend. 
He  landed  his  army  in  a  country  where 
means    of    communication    were    almost 


WHY  SARRAIL  DELAYED   SO   LONG 


913 


non-existent,  and  where  it  had  to  work 
with  pick  and  spade  for  long,  weary 
months  before  it  could  undertake  mili- 
tary operations  on  a  large  scale.  The 
Ibroops  and  war  material  sent  out  to  him 
p-ere  far  from  being  of  good  quality. 
Anything  that  could  not  be  used  on  the 
western  front  was  considered  good 
enough  for  the  Army  of  the  Orient. 

Then  he  had  the  extraordinary  politi- 
cal situation  in  Greece  to  contend  with. 
It    was    common    knowledge    that    King 
Constantino    was    an    out-and-out    pro- 
lerman  and  that  he  was  in  daily  com- 
lunication  with  his  imperial  brother-in- 
iw,  the  Emperor  William.    If  any  disas 
jr  had   happened  to  the   Army  of  the 

:ient   it   is   notorious    that   King    Con- 
fcantine  would  have  ordered  the  Greek 

:my  to  fall  on  its  flank  and  rear.    Gen- 

:al  Sarrail  had  to  execute  all  his  opera- 
!;ions  under  this  standing  menace.  That 
it  was  a  very  real  one  is  proved  by  the 
surrender  to  Bulgaria,  by  the  King's 
command,  of  the  Fort  of  Rupel  (the  key 
to  the  Struma  valley)  and  the  city  and 
fortress  of  Kavalla  where  he  allowed  the 
whole  3d  Greek  Army  Corps  to  be  taken 
off  and  interned  at  Gorlitz  in  Ger- 
many. 

But  General  Sarrail's  greatest  diffi- 
culty was  the  heterogeneous  composition 
of  the  army  under  his  command.  This 
consisted  of  French,  British,  Serbian, 
Italian,  Russian  and,  later,  Greek  con- 
tingents. Each  of  these  forces  was 
autonomous,  with  its  own  commander 
and  its  General  Staff.  All  Sarrail's 
orders  were  examined  by  the  commanders 
of  the  various  contingents  and  sometimes 
referred  by  them  to  their  Governments. 
The  only  contingents  on  which  the  Com- 
mander in  Chief  could  rely  for  implicit 
obedience  were  the  Serbian  and  the  Rus- 
sian ones.  Even  the  latter,  after  the 
Russian  revolution,  became  permeated 
with  the  Soviet  spirit  and  ceased  to  be 
dependable. 

But  the  extraordinary  example  of 
"  how  not  to  run  a  campaign "  was 
furnished  by  the  relations  of  the  com- 
mander of  the  British  contingent  and  the 
Commander  in  Chief, 

This  state  of  affairs  has  been  revealed 
in  a  declaration  made  by  General  Sarrail 
(apropos   of   the   publication   of   a   book 


entitled  "  Joffre,"  with  the  sub-title, 
"First  Crisis  in  the  High  Command"). 
As  the  greater  part  of  this  declaration 
was  made  under  oath,  we  may  unhesi- 
tatingly accept  it  as  a  true  statement  of 
the  situation.     It  proves  that,  whatever 


GENERAL   SARRAIL 
Commander  in  Chief,  Army  of  the  Orient 

may  have  been  the  military  situation,  the 
political  situation  was  simply  chaotic.  It 
runs  as  follows: 

A  legend  is  growing  that  the  Army  of 
the  Orient  remained  for  a  long  time  in 
1916  in  a  state  of  inaction.  A  recent  book, 
of  which  the  sub-title  is  "  First  Crisis 
in  the  High  Command,"  affirms  that 
General  Joffre  gave  me  an  order  to  at- 
tack on  Aug.  10  and  that  I  did  not 
execute  it.  This  is  a  complete  error.  I 
am  ignorant  of  what  was  taking  place 
between  the  various  European  chanceller- 
ies ;  I  do  not  know  if  the  instructions 
given  by  the  French  Government  to  Gen- 
eral Joffre  were  exactly  interpreted  in 
the  order  which  I  reecived,  but,  as  I  have 
already  declared  under  oath  in  a  recent 
court-martial,  this  is  exactly  what  took 
place : 

On  April  30  I  was  asked  to  submit  a 
plan  of  operations  responding  to  the  fol- 
lowing directive:  "The  Army  of  the 
Orient  will  attack  with  its  united  forces 
at  the  moment  I  judge  opportune. 
Joffre." 


914 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


On  June  6/  General  Milne,  commanding- 
the  British  forces,  informed  me  that,  by 
order  of  his  Government,  he  could  not 
take  part  in  this  offensive,  as  the  Balkan 
policy  was  not  regarded  in  the  same  light 
in   Paris   and   in   London. 

I  reported  this  to  Paris,  but  added  that 
this  contretemps  would  not  prevent  my 
attacking  with  the  Serbian  and  French 
forces    alone. 

On  June  12  a  reply  was  received.  I 
had  declared  I  was  attacking.  The  in- 
structions received  could  be  summarized 
as  follows:  "No  offensive  action,  a 
simple  concentration  on  the  frontier  to 
threaten  the  enemy."  I  do  not  insist  on 
the  series  of  modifications  of  this  orienta- 
tion which  were  sent  me  successively ;  it 
was  easy  to  understand  that  each  of  them 
was  being  adapted  to  diplomatic  contingen- 
cies. Finally  I  was  warned  on  July  17 
that  the  Allies'  armies  would  probably 
engage  about  Aug.  1.  On  July  23  I  re- 
ceived approbation  of  a  new  general  plan 
of  offensive  which  I  had  drawn  up  and 
a  fresh  notice  to  hold  myself  ready  to 
engage  the  Bulgarian  forces  at  a  date 
which  would  be  communicated  to  me  later, 
but  which  would   probably   be   Aug.    1. 

On  July  29  a  fresh  telegram  postponed 
the  probable  date  of  operations  to 
Aug.  4. 

On  Aug.  3,  when  everything  was  ready, 
a  counterorder  arrived.  The  date  of  the 
operations  could  not  be  given  precisely, 
but  I  would  be  informed  of  it  without 
delay. 

On  Aug.  6  I  was  informed  by  the  Gen- 
eral commanding  the  British  forces  that 
Rumania  would  not  declare  war  on  Bul- 
garia, and  that  this  would  prevent  any 
British  participation  in  any  offensive 
whatever.  A  telegram  from  G.  H.  Q. 
confirmed  this  situation.  "  In  conse- 
quence,"   it    added,    '•  your    sole   mission 


consists  in  harassing  the  enemy  forces 
on   the  frontier." 

I  had  made  everybody  make  repeated 
efforts  to  be  ready  to  attack,  and  it  was 
now  no  longer  a  question  of  a  general 
attack,  but  simply  of  a  few  local  actions 
to  be  undertaken  by  the  French  troops 
alone. 

Under  these  conditions,  and  on  my  own 
responsibility,  I  decided  to  begin  at  least 
one  serious  operation  in  order  that  those 
undertaking  it  would  feel  that  they  had 
not  worked  in  vain,  and  which,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  permit  me  to  feel  out 
the  enemy  and  see  his  game.  I  reserved 
my  future  action.  In  the  general  plan 
which  had  been  approved,  the  decisive  ef- 
fort was  to  have  been  made  against  the 
enemy's  centre,  with  a  secondary  effort 
against  Doiran.  On  Aug  10  I  undertook 
a  diversion  toward  Doiran.  The  attack 
was  carried  out  during  the  following  days 
and  had  a  lively  reactive  effect  on  the 
enemy. 

In  the  midst  of  these  operations  I  at 
last  received  a  final  directive:  "Attack 
three  days  after  the  signature  of  the  ac- 
cord with  Rumania."  This  accord  was 
signed  on  Aug.  17.  I  was,  therefore,  by 
order  of  G.  H.  Q.,  to  wait  until  Aug.  20 
before  taking  a  general  offensive.  But  on 
the  17th,  three  days  before  General  Joffre 
allowed  me  to  take  the  offensive,  the  Bul- 
garians  attacked   my   two   flanks. 

This  simple  enumeration  of  the  orders 
received  suffices,  without  comment,  to 
prove  that  the  book  entitled  "  Joffre  " 
contains  an  inexactitude,  whether  de- 
liberate or  not,  when  it  affirms  that  I  did 
not  obey  an  order  to  attack  on  Aug.  10. 
It  proves,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
famous  inaction  of  the  Army  of  the 
Orient,  the  favorite  theme  of  a  series  of 
newspaper  articles,  was,  up  to  Aug.  20, 
desired  and  ordered  by  the  French  G.  H. 
Q,   itself, 


The  Amritsar  Riots  in  India 

Official  Report  Censuring  the  British   General  Who   Killed 
Hundreds  by  Firing  Into   an  Excited  Crowd 


INDIA  was  the  scene  of  serious  riots 
in  March  and  April,  1919,  culminat- 
ing in  the  killing  at  Amritsar,  in 
the  Punjab,  of  379  natives  and  the 
wounding  of  about  1,100  by  Indian  Gov- 
ernment forces  under  General  Dyer.  The 
Amritsar  episode  caused  intense  excite- 
ment throughout  India.  The  Indian  Gov- 
ernment, deeply  stirred  by  the  dangerous 


situation,  asked  and  received  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India,  Mr.  Montagu,  to  appoint  a  Gov- 
ernment commission  to  investigate  the 
occurrences.  This  commission  was  ap- 
pointed in  the  middle  of  October,  1919. 
It  was  made  up  of  five  British  and  three 
Indian  members,  with  Lord  Hunter  as 
President. 


m 

"After    mve; 


THE  AMRITSAR  RIOTS  IN  INDIA 


915 


ifter  investigations  covering  many 
months  in  the  regions  where  the  dis- 
turbances occurred,  the  Hunter  commis- 
sion finished  its  report  and  the  docu- 
ment was  published  in  England  on  May 
26,  1920,  in  the  form  of  a  Blue  Book. 
It  was  made  up  of  the  following  State 
papers:  A  majority  report  presented  by 
the  British  members  of  the  commission; 
a  minority  report,  presented  by  the 
Indian  members;  a  dispatch  from  the 
Government  of  India  to  the  India  Office 
indorsing  the  majority  report,  and  a  dis- 
patch from  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India,  inclining  to  the  views  expressed 
by  the  minority  report. 

The  majority  report  deals  with  the 
outbreaks  at  Delhi  and  in  the  Punjab. 
It  is  signed  by  four  of  the  British  mem- 
bers of  the  commission:  Justice  Rankin, 
W.  F.  Rice,  Major  Gen.  Sir  George  Bar- 
row and  Thomas  Smith.  It  reviews  the 
first  outbreak  in  Delhi  on  March  30, 
1919,  when  a  hartal  (shutting  of  shops) 
took  place  as  part  of  the  movement  of 
satyagraha  (passive  resistance)  organ- 
ized by  the  Indian  Nationalist,  Mr. 
Gandhi,  against  the  terms  of  the  Row- 
latt  law.  The  report  states  that  the 
crowds  became  intractable,  that  bricks 
were  throwr  at  the  police  and  military, 
that  firing  .took  place  then  and  subse- 
quently, as  a  result  of  which  several 
men  were  killed  and  wounded.  These 
disturbances,  the  report  concedes,  never 
took  the  form  of  an  organized  conspiracy 
against  the  Government.  The  outbreaks 
are  explained  as  due  to  a  general  feeling 
of  dissatisfaction  following  the  war,  and, 
among  the  poorer  classes,  a  feeling  of 
disappointment  that  prices  had  not 
fallen  after  the  armistice  to  their  pre- 
war level.  Firing,  it  is  stated,  was  not 
resorted  to  until  all  other  methods  had 
failed  and  lasted  no  longer  than  neces- 
sary to  rest^^re  order  and  prevent  a 
disastrous  outbreak.  For  all  casualties 
incurred  the  rioters  alone  are  held  re- 
sponsible. The  report  praises  the  troops 
for  their  restraint  under  trying  circum- 
stances and  declares  that  the  orders 
issued  were  not  excessive.  The  belief 
that  all  groups  of  more  than  ten  men 
would  "be  fired  on  without  warning  did 
much,  it  states,  to  restore  order.     As  a 


matter  of  fact,  it  adds,  this  instruction 
was  never  literally  carried  out. 

Other  outbreaks  reviewed  by  the  re- 
port occurred  at  Ahmedabad,  the  capital 
of  Gujerat,  and  at  Viramgam.  In 
Ahmedabad  40,000  workmen  employed  in 
seventy-eight  mills  began  rioting  on  re- 
ceipt of  false  reports  of  the  arrest  of 
the  Indian  Nationalist,  Mr.  Gandhi. 
In  actual  fact,  Mr.  Gandhi  had 
been  refused  entrance  to  Ahmeda- 
bad, his  native  city,  owing  to  his 
organization  and  fostering  of  the  "  pas- 
sive resistance "  movement.  One  con- 
stable and  a  military  Sergeant  were 
killed  by  the  rioters.  Of  the  latter,  28 
were  killed  and  123  wounded.  Consider- 
able property  was  destroyed.  At  Viram- 
gam a  traffic  inspector  was  beaten 
senseless  with  sticks  and  his  life  was 
saved  only  by  smuggling  him  away  on 
an  engine  down  the  line.  Mr.  Madhavial, 
a  Government  Magistrate,  was  mur- 
dered. Four  out  of  twenty-two  other 
wounded  persons  died.  The  total  casual- 
ties among  the  rioters  were  six  killed 
and  eighteen  wounded  during  six  hours' 
of  fierce  rioting  in  which  the  armed 
police  guard  behaved  with  great  spirit. 
Fifty  men  were  tried  for  offenses  con- 
nected with  the  rioting.  Of  these  twenty- 
seven  were  convicted  and  the  rest  ac- 
quitted. 

THE  PUNJAB  RIOTS 

These  various  outbreaks,  which  were 
easily  suppressed,  were  cast  into  insig- 
nificance by  the  riots  which  began  at 
Amritsar,  in  the  Punjab,  on  April  10, 
1919.  Two  hartals  occurred  without 
disorder.  Then  a  poster  was  exhibited 
calling  on  the  people  to  "  kill  and  die." 
The  Deputy  Commissioner,  Miles  Irving, 
pressed  urgently  for  an  increase  of  the 
military  forces,  declaring  that  otherwise 
nine-tenths  of  the  city  would  have  to  be 
abandoned  if  rioting  began.  The  Punjab 
Government  replied  by  ordering  the  de- 
portation of  two  troublesome  local  politi- 
cians— Dr.  Satyapal  and  Dr.  Kitchlew — 
and  by  agreeing  to  the  strengthening  of 
the  garrison.  News  of  the  deportations 
spread  through  the  city  and  an  angry 
crowd  assembled  before  the  Deputy  Com- 
missioner's house.  The  report  declares 
that     the     Deputy     Commissioner     was 


916 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


wholly   within   his   rights   in  preventing 
the  crowd  from  entering  the  civil  lines. 
Great  destruction   of  property  occurred 
and    the    crowd    continued    to    grow,    in 
spite    of   occasional   firing.      The   crowd 
showed  a  "  murderous  antipathy  "  to  all 
Europeans.      A     Government     Sergeant 
was   murdered.      A   missionary   received 
brutal  treatment,  described  as  follows: 
Miss  Sherwood,  a  lady  missionary,  was 
pursued   by    a   mob    when    bicycling    in   a 
narrow   street  on  her  way   to   one   of  her 
schools.    *    *    *    She  was   intercepted  and 
overtaken,  knocked  down  by  blows  on  the 
head,   beaten  while   on   the  ground ;   when 
she  got  up  to  run  she  was  knocked  down 
again  more  than  once ;  a  door  which  she 
tried  to  enter  was   slammed   in  her  face ; 
in    the    end    she    was    left    on    the    street 
because  she  was  thought  to  be  dead.     We 
should  not  omit  to  point  out  that  she  was 
afterward  picked  up  by  some  Hindus,  by 
Avhose  action  she  was  enabled   to  receive 
medical   attention   in   time,    as  we   under- 
stand, to  save  her  life. 

The  perpetrators  of  these  crimes  were 
shown  by  the  trial  records  to  have  been, 
not  reputable  citizens  of  Amritsar,  but 
hooligans.  The  total  number  killed  on 
April  10  was  ten.  Two  days  later  a 
strong  column  under  General  Dyer 
marched  round  the  city  and  many  of  the 
inhabitants  spat  on  the  ground  as  the 
troops  passed. 

GENERAL  DYER'S  DRASTIC  ACTION 

General  Dyer  began  his  repressive 
measures  by  a  severe  proclamation 
against  violence.  This  was  character- 
ized by  the  natives  as  "bluff,"  and  it 
was  believed  that  he  would  not  fulfill 
his  threat  of  firing  in  case  disorders 
began.  On  April  18  General  Dyer  heard 
,hat  a  throng,  estimated  at  20,000,  were 
holding  a  meeting  in  defiance  of  the 
proclamation.  He  went  there  at  once, 
accompanied  by  a  number  of  pickets,  a 
special  force  of  twenty-five  Gurkhas  and 
twenty-five  Baluchis  armed  with  rifles, 
forty  Gurkhas  armed  with  kukris,  and 
two  armored  cars,  which  he  left  outside 
the  placjp  of  meeting.  Without  giving 
the  crowd  any  warning  to  disperse,  he 
ordered  his  troops  to  fire  and  the  firing 
was  continued  for  about  ten  minutes. 
In  all  some  1,650  rounds  were  fired. 
Approximately  379  people  were  killed, 
of  whom  87  were  strangers.  The  number 


of  the  wounded  was  probably  nearly 
1,100.  The  report  criticises  the  General 
both  for  opening  fire  without  warning 
and  for  continuing  it  after  the  crowd 
had  begun  to  disperse. 

In  continuing  firing  as  long  as  he  did 
[says  the  report]  it  is  evident  that  Gen- 
eral Dyer  had  in  view  not  merely  the 
dispersal  of  the  crowd  that  had  assembled 
contrary  to  his  orders  but  the  desire  to 
produce  a  moral  effect  on  the  Punjab. 
In  his  report  he  says:  "I  fired  and  con- 
tinued to  fire  until  the  crowd  dispersed, 
and  I  consider  this  is  the  least  amount 
of  firing  which  would  produce  the  neces- 
sary moral  and  widespread  effect  it  was 
my  duty  to  produce  if  I  was  to  justify 
my  action.  If  more  troops  had  been  at 
hand  the  casualties  would  have  been 
greater  in  proportion.  It  was  no  longer  a 
question  of  merely  dispersing  the  crowd, 
but  one  of  producing  a  sufficient  moral 
effect  from  a  military  point  of  view,  not 
only  on  those  who  were  present  but  more 
especially  throughout  the  Punjab.  There 
could  be  no  question  of  undue  severity." 

In  our  view,  this  was  unfortunately  a 
mistaken  conception  of  his  duty.  If  neces- 
sary, a  crowd  that  has  assembled  con- 
trary to  a  proclamation  issued  to  prevent 
or  terminate  disorder  may  have  to  be 
fired  upon ;  but  continued  firing  upon  that 
crowd  cannot  be  justified,  because  of  the 
effect  such  firing  may  have  upon  people 
in  other  places.  The  employment  of  ex- 
cessive measures  is  as  likely  as  not  to 
produce  the  opposite  result  to  that  de- 
sired. 

In  contrast  with  this  finding  by  the 
commission  the  report  shows  that  Sir 
Michael  O'Dwyer,  the  Lieutenant  Gover- 
nor at  Lahore,  approved  of  General 
Dyer's  action.  In  his  report  Sir  Michael, 
after  stating  that  General  Dyer's  report 
was  telegraphed  to  him  the  morning 
after  the  rioting  by  General  Beynon,  ex- 
pressed this  approval  as  follows: 

I  approved  of  General  Dyer's  action  in 
dispersing  by  force  the  rebellious  gather- 
ing and  thus  preventing  further  rebellious 
acts.  It  was  not  for  me  to  say  that  he 
had  gone  too  far  when  I  was  told  by  his 
superior  officer  (General  Beynon)  that  he 
fully  approved  General  Dyer's  action. 
Speaking  with  perhaps  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  then  situation  than 
any  one  else,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing that  General  Dyer's  action  that  day 
v/as  the  decisive  factor  in  cru.«hing  the 
rebellion,  the  seriousness  of  which  is  only 
now    being    generally    realized. 

The  majority  report  comments  on  this 
as  follows: 

The   action   taken  by    General   Dyer  has 


THE  AMRITSAR  RIOTS  IN  INDIA 


917 


also  been  described  by  others  as  having 
saved  tne  situation  in  the  Punjab  and 
having  averted  a  rebellion  on  a  scale 
similar  to  the  mutiny.  It  does  not,  how- 
ever, appear  to  us  possible  to  draw  this 
conclusion,  particularly  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  not  proved  that  a  con- 
spiracy to  overthrow  British  power  had 
been   formed   prior   to    the    outbreaks. 

The  whole  situation,  declares  this  part 
of  the  report,  was  such  as  to  make  the 
declaration  of  de  facto  martial  law 
inevitable;  but  General  Dyer's  action  in 
continuing  to  fire  so  long  after  the  peo- 
ple began  to  disperse  is  characterized  as 
a  "  grave  error." 


m 


THE  CRAWLING  ORDER 


eneral  Dyer's  other  action  in  issuing 
what  has  come  to  be  known  as  the 
"  crawling  order  "  was  made  the  object 
of  especially  severe  condemnation  by  the 
report.  According  to  this  order,  no 
Indians  were  to  pass  the  point  at  which 
Miss  Sherwood  had  been  assaulted  ex- 
cept on  all  fours.  Altogether  about  fifty 
people  were  made  to  crawl,  including 
six  men,  who  were  flogged  for  a  breach 
of  fort  discipline  and  afterward  con- 
victed of  the  offense  against  Miss  Sher- 
wood.    The  report  says: 

The  order  is  certainly  open  to  the  ob- 
jection that  it  caused  unnecessary  incon- 
venience to  a  number  of  people  and  that 
it  unnecessarily  punished  innocent  as  well 
as  guilty.  Above  all,  from  an  administra- 
tive point  of  view,  in  subjecting  the 
Indian  population  to  an  act  of  humilia- 
tion, it  has  continued  to  be  a  cause  of 
bitterness  and  racial  ill-feeling  long  after 
it   was   recalled. 

Other  chapters  of  the  majority  report 
dealt  with  disturbances  of  a  minor 
character  in  the  town  and  district  of 
Lahore  and  at  Gujranwala,  about  thirty- 
six  miles  from  Lahore.  Several  posters 
of  a  seditious  and  inflammatory  charac- 
ter were  noteworthy  for  the  bitter  hatred 
expressed  against  the  English.  One  read 
in  part  as  follows: 

We  are  the  Indian  Nation,  whose 
bravery  and  honor  have  been  acknowl- 
edged by  all  the  Kings  of  the  world.  The 
English  are  the  orst  lot  and  are  like  mon- 
keys (sic),  whose  deceit  and  cunning  are 
obvious  to  all,  high  and  low.  Have  these 
monkeys  forgotten  their  original  condi- 
tions? Now  these  faithless  people  have 
forgotten  the  loyalty  of  Indians,  are  bent 
upon     exercising     limitless     tyranny.       O 


brethren,  gird  up  your  loins  and  fight. 
Kill  and  be  killed.  Do  not  lose  courage 
and  try  your  utmost  to  J^urn  those  mean 
monkeys  from  your  holy  country. 

Serious  disorders  in  Gujranwala  were 
suppressed  only  by  the  use  of  bomb- 
carrying  airplanes,  whose  employment 
the  majority  report  upheld  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  all  communications  had 
been  cut  by  the  rioters  and  the  situation 
for  the  Government  forces  was  desper- 
ate. 

THE  MINORITY  REPORT 

The  minority  report  was  signed  by  the 
following  Indians:  Pandit  Jagat  Nara- 
yan,  member  of  the  Legislative  Council 
of  the  United  Provinces;  Sir  Chimanlal 
Harilal  Setalvad,  Advocate  of  the  High 
Court,  Bombay,  and  Sardar  Sahizzada 
Sultan  Ahmed  Khan,  Barrister,  member 
for  Appeals,  Gwalior  State.  These  were 
the  three  native  members  of  the  Hunter 
commission.  The  minority  report  which 
they  brought  in  showed  a  clear-cut  di- 
vergency from  the  majority  report  on 
racial  lines.  It  agrees  with  the  majority 
report  that  firing  was  necessary  to  sup- 
press disorder  in  the  five  districts  of 
the  Punjab,  but  takes  exception  to  the 
bombing  from  airplanes  and  some  of  the 
firing  from  armed  trains.  It  rejects  the 
idea  of  an  organized  rebellion  and  dis- 
credits the  report  that  attempts  were 
made  to  seduce  soldiers  and  police  from 
their  loyalty.  In  a  chapter  called  "  The 
Real  Nature  of  the  Disorder "  it  cites 
as  an  important  source ,  of  unrest  the 
following : 

The  Imperial  Government  had  made  a 
declaration  of  policy  by  which  the  at- 
tainment by  India  of  responsible  gov- 
ernment by  successive  stages  was  put 
forward  as  the  goal,  and  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  India  and  the  Viceroy,  hav- 
ing gone  round  the  country  and  ascer- 
tained the  views  of  the  public  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  that  policy  was  to  be 
given  effect  to,  had  published  the 
Montagu-Chelmsford  scheme.  Great  ex- 
pectations were  thereby  raised,  and  when 
it  was  said  that  the  Government  of  India 
were  likely  to  suggest  modifications 
therein  of  a  somewhat  illiberal  charac- 
ter, that  news  had  caused  considerable 
irritation. 

This  irritation  was  felt  particularly 
in  the  Punjab,  the  minority  report  states, 
where  Sir  Michael  O'Dwyer  had  "come 


918 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  be  regarded  by  the  educated  and 
politically-minded  classes  as  opposed  to 
their  aspirations."  The  Rowlatt  act  had 
caused  further  discontent.  ""It  ascribes 
the  anti-British  demonstrations  of  the 
mob  in  Amritsar  and  other  places,  not  to 
an  organized  rebellion,  but  to  a  sudden 
development,  "  the  result  of  a  frenzy  with 
which  the  people  became  seized  at  the 
moment."  It  declares,  on  the  basis  of 
a  long  legal  argument,  that  the  estab- 
lishment and  the  continuance  of  martial 
law  were  unjustified.  Charges  of  a  pre- 
pared revolution  made  by  Mrs.  Annie 
Besant  in  a  letter  to  The  Times  of  India 
of  April  18,  1919,  are  discredited  as  due 
to  insufficient  knowledge.  Regarding 
the  shooting  at  Amritsar  the  minority 
report  expresses  the  strongest  condemna- 
tion of  General  Dyer: 

He  fired  on  this  meeting  and  killed 
about  400  people  and  wounded  about 
1,200 ;  because,  in  his  view,  they  were 
rebels,  and  he  was  "  g-oing  to  give  them 
a  lesson,"  and  "  punish  them  "  and 
"  make  a  wide  impression  "  and  "  strike 
terror  throughout  the  Punjab,"  and  he 
"  wanted  to  reduce  the  morale  of  the 
rebels."  That  was  why  he  began  to  fire 
without  warning  and  without  calling  upon 
them  to  disperse.  He  continued  firing 
even  when  the  people  began  to  run  away 
and  went  on  firing  till  his  ammunition 
was  nearly  exhausted.  Now  because  cer- 
tain people,  on  April  10,  had  committed 
certain  outrages  at  Amritsar,  to  treat 
the  whole  population  of  Amritsar  as 
rebels  was  unjustifiable ;  it  was  still  more 
unjustifiable  to  fire  at  the  meeting,  which 
was  not  engaged  in  doing  any  violence, 
in  order  to  give  them  a  lesson  and  to 
punish  them,  because  they  had  disobeyed 
his  orders  prohibiting  meetings.  It  is 
clear  that  there  must  have  been  a  con- 
siderable number  of  people  who  were  per- 
fectly innocent  and  who  had  never  in  all 
probability   heard    of   the   proclamation. 

INDIAN  GOVERNMENT'S  VIEW 

The  Government  of  India,  in  forward- 
ing the  report,  expressed  satisfaction  at 
its  unanimity  in  respect  to  matters  of 
fact  seen  in  both  the  majority  and  the 
minority  report.  It  weighed  carefully  all 
the  extenuating  circumstances  of  Gen- 
eral Dyer's  action,  including  the  high 
character  of  his  military  record,  and  ex- 
pressed its  opinion  as  follows: 


v7e  can  arrive  at  no  other  conclusion 
tisan  that  *  *  *  General  Dyer  acted  be- 
yond the  necessity  of  the  case,  beyond 
what  any  reasonable  man  could  have 
thought  to  be  necessary,  and  that  he  did 
not  act  with  as  much  humanity  as  the 
case   permitted. 

In  a  long  dispatch  from  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  India  to  the  Governor  Gen- 
eral of  India  the  whole  case  of  General 
Dyer  is  reviewed  and  he  is  severely 
blamed  for  action  considered  unjusti- 
fiable, unwise  and  contrary  to  the  policy 
of  the  British  Government.  The  Secre- 
tary adds  that  "  it  is  impossible  to  re- 
gard him  as  fitted  to  remain  intrusted 
with  the  responsibilities  which  his  rank 
and  position  impose  upon  him.  You  have 
reported  to  me  that  the  Commander  in 
Chief  has  directed  Brig.  Gen.  R.  E.  H. 
Dyer  to  resign  his  appointment  as  Bri- 
gade Commander,  has  informed  him  that 
he  would  receive  no  further  employment 
in  India,  and  that  you  have  concurred. 
I  approve  this  decision  and  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  have  been  referred 
to  the  Army  Council." 

The  National  Congress  Committee, 
which  was  sitting  in  camera  at  Benares 
at  the  beginning  of  June,  condemned  the 
majority  report  of  the  Hunter  Commis- 
sion on  the  ground  of  racial  bias,  and 
as  emphasizing  the  tendency  to  regard 
Indian  life  and  honor  as  of  little  conse- 
quence. The  satyagraha  (passive  re- 
sistance movement)  is  held  to  be  justi- 
fied, as  tending  to  restrain  violence.  In 
contrast  with  this  the  Civil  and  Military 
Gazette  of  Lahore  on  June  2  upheld  the 
findings  of  the  .  majority  report  and 
maintained  that  the  Government  of  India 
is  correct  in  declaring  that  General 
Dyer's  action  probably  saved  the  Punjab. 

The  Army  Council  on  July  7  upheld 
the  action  of  the  Commander  in  Chief 
and  cet  its  final  approval  on  the  sentence 
which  removes  General  Dyer  from  his 
position  as  commander  and  forbids  his 
holding  any  further  army  position  in 
India.  In  making  this  announcement 
Winston  Spencer  Churchill,  Secretary 
for  War,  said :  "  Dyer  cannot  be  ac- 
quitted on  an  error  of  judgment." 


CURRENT    HISTORY 

A     MONTHLY     MAGAZINE     OF 
®Ijf  N^ut  ^ork  ©imps 

Published   by   The   New   York   Times    Company.    Times    Square,    New   York.    N.    T. 


Vol.  XII.,  No.  6  SEPTEMBER,  1920 


35  Cents  a  Copy 
$4.00  a  Year 


II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II 


31 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

POLAND'S   MILITARY   CRISIS     (Map) 919 

SOVIET  RUSSIA  AND  THE  UNITED   STATES 925 

THE    THIRD    INTERNATIONAL By  John    Spargo  932 

ENGLAND'S  REAL  ATTITUDE   ON  IRELAND 

By  Viscount  James  Bryce  939 

INCREASED  STRENGTH  OF  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  SEA 

By  Thomas  G.  Frothingham  943 

AMERICAN  CONTROL  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES     .     By  Elbridge  Colby  953 

CANADA'S  NAVAL  POLICY By  D.  M.  Le  Bourdais  960 

ORIGINAL    TERMS    OF    THE    PEACE    TREATY:      GERMANY'S 

LOST  OPPORTUNITY 964 

THE  BOLSHEVIKI  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  TRADE  UNIONS     .     .  966 

RESCUING  SERBIA  FROM  THE  TYPHUS  SCOURGE     ....  974 

RUSSIA'S  AGONY.     By  a  former  member  of  Kolchak's  staff.     (II.)  975 

SIBERIA    AND    THE    JAPANESE    ARMY 983 

JAPAN'S   POSITION   IN   SIBERIA     .      .      .      .     By   Leo   Pasvolsky  987 

WHAT   THE    CHINESE    REPUBLIC   IS   DOING     (Map) 

By  Tingfu  F.  Tsiang  992 

THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE: 

White  Coal  for  Black:     Electricity  From  Water  Power     .     .     .  1001 

Scientific  Progress  in  Other  Lines 1003 

THE  AMERICA'S  CUP  REMAINS  AT  HOME 1006 

SENTIMENT  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 1006 

CURRENT   HISTORY   IN   BRIEF .  1007 

BEST  CARTOONS  OF  THE  MONTH  FROM  MANY  NATIONS     .     .  1007 
Contents  Continued  on  Next  Page 

Copyright,    1920,    by    The    New    York    Times    Company.      All    Rights    Reserved. 
Entered   at    the    Post   Office    in    New    York    and   in    Canada    as    Second    Class    Matter. 


II    II    II    II    II    II    II    II 


Ill  II  II  II  n  II  II  II  II  11  II  II  II 


II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  II  H  II  II  II  ii  II  II  11  II  II  II  II  II  n  II  II 


Table  of  Contents — Continued 

CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 

ITALY'S  MOST  SOCIALISTIC  CITY 

IRELAND'S   REIGN   OF   TERROR— AND   WHY 

By  John  W.   Harding 

IRELAND'S  INDEPENDENCE By  Michael  O'Reilly 

SIGNING  OF  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 

JAPAN'S    OCCUPATION    OF    SAGHALIN 

AMONG  THE  NATIONS:     A  WORLDWIDE   SURVEY: 

Events   in   the   British   Empire 

Developments  in  France  and  Italy 

Belgium's  Alliance  With  France 

Germany  in  a  Mood  for  Treaty  Fulfillment 

Hungary    and    Her    Neighbors 

Progress    in    Scandinavian    Countries 

The   Caucasus   Republics 

States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 

Mexico's  Progress  Toward  Law  and  Order 

Other    Latin- American    Republics 

THE  LEAGUE  COUNCIL  AT   SAN  SEBASTIAN 

A  MONTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

THE    RAILWAY    LABOR    BOARD'S    AWARD 

ALPHABETICAL  LIST   OF   NATIONS  TREATED: 


PAGE 

Albania   1085 

Argentina 1092 

Armenia    1075 

Australia 1056 

Austria    1068 

Azerbaijan   1072 

Belgium    1063 

BoLivu     1092 

Brazil    1093 

Bulgaria    1085 

Canada   1055 

Chile   1093 

China    1088 

Costa  Rica   1094 

Czechoslovakia   1069 

Denmark    1069 

England 1053 

France 1057 

Georgia    1073 

Germany    1064 

Greece    1085 

Guatemala    1094 

Holland    1063 

Hungary    1067 

Ireland    1050 


Italy  

Japan    

Jugoslavia    . . . 

Mexico    

Mesopotamia    . 
New  Zealand 

Nicaragua   

Norway    

Palestine    

Panama    

Persia    

Peru  

Poland   

Portugal   

Russu    

Salvador    

Sweden    

Switzerland    . 

Syria   

Thrace  

Turkey    

United  States 

Uruguay    

"West  Indies    . 


page 
1035 

1038 


1039 
1046 
1077 
1086 

1050 
1057 
1063 
1064 
1067 
1069 
1072 
1085 
1089 
1092 

1096 
1098 
1101 


page 
1060 
1086 
1085 
1089 
1084 
1057 
1094 
1071 
1082 
1094 
1084 
1093 

919 
1062 

975 
1094 
1071 
1062 
1079 
1078 
1077 
1098 
1093 
1094 


II   II   11    II   IT 


1'   II    II   II   II    II 


II    II   II    I'   II   II    II   II    N    II    II I    II    II    II    II   II    II    II   II   II   II    II   II   II 


H 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  CRISIS 

desperate  Struggle  of  the  New  Republic's  Armies  to  Repel  the 
Russian  Drive  on  Warsaw 

[Period  Ended  Aug.  18,  1920] 


NEW  European  crisis,  declared  by 
the  allied  statesmen  to  equal  in 
seriousness  that  precipitated  in 
1914  by  Germany,  was  brought 
during  the  month  under   review  by 
le  collapse  of  the  Polish  armies  and  by 
le  Soviet  determination  to  take  Warsaw 
jfore    beginning    negotiations    for    an 
listice.    The  danger  of  the  spread  of 
)lshevism   to    Western    Europe   across 
krmany  could  not  be  minimized.  Despite 
le  difficulties  of  the  situation,  the  allied 
lowers  strove  to  aid  Poland,  dispatching 
jiarge  supplies  of  arms  and  munitions  via 
>anzig    and    the    Baltic    ports,    sending 
Lmbassadors  and  missions  to  Warsaw  to 
^ear    encouragement,    and    contributing 
merals  and  military  advisers  to  help 
tern   the   onrushing   Bolshevist   torrent, 
delations  between  the  Allies  and  Moscow 
peached  the  breaking  point  on  Aug.  8, 
following    the    receipt    of    a    refusal    to 
iccede  to  the  allied  demand  for  an  im- 
lediate  armistice  of  ten  days,  and  the 
British    and    French    Premiers,    then   in 
jession     at     Hythe,     England,    drew   up 
irastic  plans  to  compel  the  Soviet  Gov- 
jmment  to  stop  the  Red  armies'  advance 
id  to  make  peace  with  Poland  on  terms 
rhich  did  not  threaten  her  independence 
and  territorial  integrity.     At  that  time 
the  Soviet  armies  were  rapidly  envelop- 
ing the  Polish  capital.    After  the  middle 
of  August,  however,  the  Polish  defense 
grew   stronger,    and   on    Aug.    18,   when 
these    pages    went    to    press,    the    Red 
armies  were  being  driven  back  all  along 
the  line  around  Warse.w. 

SOVIET    CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND 

The  Polish  military  defeats  in  their 
campaign  against  the  Bolsheviki,  al- 
ready serious  toward  the  end  of  last 
month,  became  decisive  during  the  lat- 
ter half  of  July  and  the  first  weeks  in 
August.  The  Poles  were  compelled  to 
abandon   Minsk   on  July   9.      Bolshevist 


agents  openly  preached  sedition,  dis- 
tributed propaganda  in  carts  and  start- 
ed incendiary  fires  before  the  Poles  left. 
Shops  were  sacked,  private  dwellings 
broken  into  and  looted.  Vilna  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  Red  soldiers  on  July  14, 
despite  the  heroic  resistance  of  a  bat- 
talion of  1,000  Polish  women,  who  held 
an  eight-mile  front  of  the  line  defending 
the  city.  Hand-to-hand  fighting  oc- 
curred in  the  streets.  Some  60,000  per- 
sons evacuated  the  city,  using  all  kinds 
of  vehicles.  Further  progress  was  made 
by  the  Reds  south  and  southeast  of 
Vilna.  The  Bolshevist  sweep  across 
Lithuania  gave  the  Russians  possession 
of  large  grain  supplies. 

The  capture  of  Grodno  was  announced 
on  July  22.  In  three  weeks  the  Poles 
had  retreated  from  the  Beresina  to  the 
Niemen  River,  150  miles  from  Warsaw. 
A  southward  advance  of  the  Bolsheviki 
was  checked  by  a  new  Polish  army,  and 
the  Red  forces  were  driven  back  to  the 
edge  of  the  province  of  Grodno.  Heavy 
fighting  along  the  Bug  River  continued. 
Despite  occasional  checks,  however,  the 
Bolshevist  advance  on  Warsaw  continued 
both  from  the  north  and  from  the  south, 
where  Budenny's  cavalry,  often  appear- 
ing behind  the  Polish  lines,  harassed  and 
disconcerted  the  Polish  forces. 

Warsaw  was  at  fever  heat;  munitions 
unloaded  at  Danzig  by  the  British  were 
being  rushed  to  the  front,  and  prepara- 
tions to  defend  the  Polish  capital  were 
being  T-  '  ed.  Fresh  drafts  of  conscripts 
and  many  volunteers,  including  women 
and  boys  of  14  or  15  years  of  age,  were 
moving  to  the  battle  V  e.  The  Govern- 
ment, in  its  extremity,  called  to  the  col- 
ors the  classes  of  1890  and  1895  for  the 
defense  of  the  Vistula  and  San  districts. 
French  officers  were  arriving  daily  to 
act  as  technical  advisers  at  Polish  Gen- 
eral Headquarters  in  the  preparations 
for  Warsaw's  final  stand.     The  British, 


920 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


M^^w  WESTERN  BOUNDARr  OF  POLANP  AS 
FJXED  BY   PEACE   CONFERENCE 

^^^  EASTERN    BOUNDARY    OF   POLAND 

AS    PROPOSED   BY   THE  ALLIES  \^  ^ 

LINE  OF  EXTREME   POLISH  ADVANCE  MAYS. I920I      <0  ^' 


=  TERF<ITORY    TAKEN    IN     RUSSIAN 
:AOVANCE    UP  TO   AUGUST  IS    1320 

•  POLISH    BOUNDARY  BEFORE  PARTITION  OF  17721 


%\ 


AREA   FOUGHT  OVER   DURING  THE    CONFLICT  BETWEEN   POLAND   AND    SOVIET   RUSSIA. 
HORIZONTAL   SHADING   INDICATES   EXTENT  OF   POLISH   RETREAT   ON  AUG.    15,    1920 


French  and  Italian  Missions  joined  in 
conferences  with  the  leaders  of  the  Pol- 
ish State.  The  Bolshevist  invasion,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  stayed. 

RUSSIAN    ADVANCE   CONTINUES 

Reports  of  Red  Cross  workers  painted 
a  dramatic  picture  of  the  flight  of  thou- 
sands of  refugees  from  the  Soviet  army's 
inexorable  advance.  Fresh  graves  of 
children  and  aged  people  lined  the  road- 
sides. The  smoke  of  burning  fields  and 
farms  marked  the  progress  of  the  Rus- 
sian forces.  Much  in  the  situation  re- 
sembled the  conditions  in  Northern 
France  in  1914.  Weak  and  hungry,  but 
struggling,  panic-stricken,  to  outstrip  the 
Bolshevist  pursuers,  the  refugees  plodded 
onward  in  a  constant  tide  which,  from  a 
distance,  looked  like  a  black  river  in 
ceaseless  flow. 


Flushed  with  victory,  the  Red  army 
disregarded  orders  sent  by  Moscow  on 
July  26  to  stay  its  advance  in  view  of  the 
negotiations  for  an  armistice.  The  Rus- 
sian leader,  Tuchachevsky,  replied  that 
his  command  refused  to  obey  the  order 
and  declared  that  it  was  the  rule  of  good 
commanders  to  fight  until  an  armistice 
was  actually  in  effect.  The  triumphant 
march  continued.  The  Polish  border  was 
crossed  on  the  north.  Another  drive 
headed  southwest  brought  the  Red  troops 
within  fifty  miles  of  Warsaw  by  July  30. 

At  this  time  the  northern  wing  of  the 
Polish  Army  was  in  indescribable  con- 
fusion; all  roads  were  blocked  and  the 
troops  were  suffering  from  a  hopeless 
lack  of  ammunition.  Disorganized  divi- 
sions crossed  and  recrossed  each  other 
aimlessly.  Brest-Litovsk  was  reached  by 
the  Reds  on  July  31.  The  turn  in  the  tide 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  CRISIS 


921 


li 


expected  from  the  transfer  of  command 
to  General  Haller — former  head  of  the 
Polish  division  in  France — did  not  ma- 
terialize. The  Polish  defense,  however, 
j^tiffened  somewhat,  and  the  Poles  de- 
clared that  they  would  fight  to  the 
death.  On  Aug.  3  both  of  the  two  armies 
charged  with  the  defense  of  Warsaw 
were  in  steady  retreat  between  the 
Narew  and  Bug  Rivers  and  in  the  region 
of  Brest-Litovsk — the  first  of  the  great 
chain  of  fortresses  defending  the  ap- 
proach to  Warsaw — which  the  Bolsheviki 
had  captured. 

By  the  subsequent  capture  of  Lomza, 
the  Bolsheviki  completed  the  line  run- 
ning north  from  Brest-Litovsk  through 
Bialystok,  and  thus  threatened  to  cut  the 
Danzig  "  corridor  "  and  deprive  the  Poles 
of  the  supplies  of  arms  and  munitions 
arriving  daily  on  French  and  British 
ships.  They  then  massed  heavy  attacks 
upon  Lemberg,  the  second  great  barrier 
upon  the  south. 

ENVELOPMENT  OF  WARSAW 

The  Poles  had  thrown  up  defenses  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Bug,  preparing  for 
the  last  stand.  Reports  that  the  Polish 
Government  would  move  to  a  place  near 
the  Silesian  frontier  were  denied  by 
Premier  Wittos  on  Aug.  8,  though  at 
this  time  the  case  for  Warsaw  looked 
desperate;  the  Bolsheviki  were  massing 
troops  in  the  region  of  Mlawa,  north  of 
the  capital,  for  a  combined  drive.  They 
were  within  thirty-six  miles  of  Warsaw 
on  the  northeast,  and  the  outer  forts  of 
the  city  were  being  bombarded.  Great 
throngs  had  crowded  the  railway  stations 
for  days,  flying  before  the  storm,  un- 
mindful of  the  bitter  criticism  of  the 
press,  which  declared  that  they  should 
not  be  allowed  to  return.  Warsaw  was 
a. beehive  of  activity,  with  artillery,  cav- 
alry and  infantry  constantly  passing 
through  the  streets.  Thousands  of 
men  were  working  on  the  defenses  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  Vistula.  A  Com- 
munist plot  to  blow  up  the  General  Head- 
quarters was  foiled  at  the  last  moment, 
and  many  persons  were  arrested.  With 
their  backs  to  the  wall,  the  Polish  forces 
awaited  the  final  onslaught  of  the  vic- 
torious  Bolshevist   hordes.     The   Soviet 


troops  were  only  twenty  miles  from  War- 
saw on  Aug.  13,  and  were  encircling  the 
city  from  three  directions.  General  Hal- 
ler's  army  was  being  relentlessly  pushed 
back  upon  the  capital. 

ARMISTICE  NEGOTIATIONS 

During  this  uninterrupted  advance  of 
the  Red  armies  the  Moscow  authorities 
had  ostensibly  declared  their  willingness 
to  conclude  an  armistice  with  the  Polish 
Government;  but,  on  one  pretext  or 
another,  the  beginning  of  negotiations 
was  delayed  while  Trotzky's  armies 
swept  on  to  capture  Warsaw.  After 
promising  an  immediate  armistice  on 
July  22  the  Bolsheviki  postponed  the  de- 
liberations until  the  26th,  then  to  the 
31st.  The  Polish  delegation  presented 
its  credentials  to  the  Bolshevist  repre- 
sentatives at  Baranovitchi  on  Aug.  1,  but 
the  latter  declared  that  no  armistice 
negotiations  could  be  begun  until  the 
Poles  received  a  mandate  from  Warsaw 
to  sign  the  full  terms  of  peace.  The 
Poles  declared  that  they  must  return  to 
Poland  and  submit  the  question  personal- 
ly. They  left  on  Aug.  2.  After  further 
delays  Poland  offered  to  send  its  dele- 
gates to  Minsk  for  the  conclusion  of  an 
armistice  and  the  adoption  of  peace  pre- 
liminaries. Moscow  replied  to  the  Polish 
note  within  a  few  hours  and  announced 
that  Russian  delegates  would  arrive  at 
Minsk  on  Aug.  11. 

Other  delays  followed,  but  the  negotia- 
tions at  last  got  under  way,  as  noted  at 
the  end  of  this  article. 

CLASH   WITH  THE  ALLIES 
Great  Britain's  note  of  July  11,  pro- 
posing    an     immediate     armistice    with 
Poland  through  the  agency  of  the  Allies, 
was  rejected  by  the  Moscow  note  of  July 
20,   in  which   the   Bolshevist  authorities 
declared   that   they   must   treat   directly 
with  Poland,     Through  its  wireless  sta- 
tions the  Moscow  Government  circulated 
the  text  of  an  official  explanation  and 
justification  of  its  action,  addressed  to 
"  the    workers    and    peasants    of    Soviet 
Russia  and  Soviet  Ukraine,"  in  which  it 
.gave  the  substance  of  its  reply  to  Lon- 
don, and  expressed  itself  as  follows: 
The    British    Government    addressed    a 
proposal  to  us  on  July  11  to  stop  the  war 
against  Poland,  and  to  begin  peace  nego- 


922 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


tiations  with  Poland  and  other  border 
States,  promising  that  the  Polish  troops, 
in  the  case  of  an  armistice  being  con- 
cluded, would  retreat  to  the  frontier 
marked  out  last  year  by  the  Peace  Con- 
ference. In  the  same  note  it  is  declared 
that  Wrangel  and  his  Crimean  "  shelter  " 
should  not  be  touched.  To  all  this,  we, 
the  Council  of  People's  Commissaries, 
answered  by  a  refusal.  In  regard  to  our 
action,  we  are  giving  an  account  to  the 


GENERAL  LESNIEWSKI 
Polish  Mmister  of  War 


Russian  and  Ukrainian  peoples,  express- 
ing our  firm  assurance  that  our  words 
will  reach  the  people  of  Poland.    *    *    * 

If  England  had  not  desired  war,  she 
would  have  stopped  supplying  Poland  with 
munitions  and  money.  England  is  car- 
rying on  negotiations  with  us  as  a  con- 
cession to  her  working  masses.  Lord 
Curzon  bases  himself  upon  the  League  of 
Nations,  in  whose  name  he  is  making 
these  proposals,  but  Poland  enters  into 
the  composition  of  this  league— Poland, 
who  commenced  a  robber  war  against  us. 
All  the  members  of  the  league,  especially 
France,  England  and  America,  are  bound 
hand-in-hand  in  this  provocative  war  of 
Poland  against  Russia  and  the  Ukraine. 
We  appealed  in  March  to  the  Poles  to  hold 
back  the  threatening  blow  and  the  raised 
hand,  but  they  did  not  answer  us.  Now 
that  the  Red  army  has  dealt  a  cruel  blow 
to  the  Polish  White  Guard  troops,  Eng- 
land proposes  to  us  her  mediation  for  an 
armistice  with  Poland.    *    *    * 

Its  refusal  to  accept  "hostile  media- 


tion," the  Moscow  Government  explained, 
did  not  mean  that  its  policy  of  making 
peace  with  small  nations  and  recognizing 
their  national  rights  had  undergone 
change.  This  was  proved,  it  declared,  by 
its  action  in  making  peace  with  Esthonia, 
Georgia  and  Lithuania,  and  its  then- 
continuing  negotiations  with  Finland,  via 
Latvia  and  Armenia.  It  was  ready  to  do 
the  same  with  Poland,  and  to  give  the 
Poles  an  even  more  favorable  frontier 
than  that  laid  down  by  the  allied  powers. 
But  the  Poles  themselves  must  ask  for 
peace. 

ALLIED  GOVERNMENTS  STIRRED 
The  Poles,  acting  on  the  advice  of 
the  allied  Governments,  then  applied  di- 
rectly to  the  Lenin  Government  for  an 
armistice,  and  the  Bolshevist  authorities 
granted  this  and  set  the  successive  dates 
mentioned  above.  The  failure  of  Moscow 
to  open  these  negotiations,  combined  with 
the  terrific  onslaughts  against  the  Polish 
capital,  stirred  both  France  and  England 
deeply.  Premier  Lloyd  George,  address- 
ing the  House  of  Commons  on  July  21, 
declared  that  Great  Britain  and  France 
would  take  joint  action  to  aiTn  Poland's 
300,000  volunteers,  assailed  the  policy  of 
the  Moscow  Soviet,  and  warned  of  a  new 
German  peril  if  the  Bolsheviki  should 
succeed  in  crushing  Poland. 

A  special  allied  mission,  headed  by 
Ambassadors  Jusserand  and  d'Abemon, 
was  also  sent  to  bring  the  Poles  assur- 
ance of  allied  backing.  Great  satisfac- 
tion was  expressed  in  Paris  over  the 
British  Premier's  statement  in  Parlia- 
ment. France's  determination  to  stand 
by  the  Poles  was  strongly  expressed  by 
Premier  Millerand  before  the  French 
Senate  on  July  24,  following  the  receipt 
of  news  that  Moscow  had  granted  Po- 
land's request  for^  armistice  negotiations. 

CONFLICT  WITH  MOSCOW 

The  conference  of  the  British  and 
French  Premiers  at  Boulogne  followed, 
July  27,  as  the  result  of  which  a  new 
note  was  sent  to  Moscow.  The  new  note 
insisted  on  the  original  plan  and  on  the 
subordination  of  all  discussion  to  the 
Polish  question,  at  the  same  time  asking 
Moscow  to  explain  its  formulation  of  a 
different   plan.    It    was    officially    an- 


Vk)unced  on 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  CRISIS 


923 


)unced  on  July  30  that  the  allied  Pre- 
miers had  also  dispatched  a  note  to  the 
JV^arsaw  Government,  in  which  they  de- 
Beared   that   Poland   would   not  be   per- 
^Kit/^ed  to  accept  possible  Soviet  armistice 
demands    involving    the  four  following 
principles: 

1.  Whole  or  partial  disarmament  of 
Poland. 

2.  A  change  in  the  Polish  system  of 
government  dictated  or  brought  about  by 
the  Soviets, 

;,.-        3.  Acceptance  by  Poland  of  a  boundary 
iline    less    favorable    than    that    originally 

Irawn   by  the   Peace  Conference. 
4.  The  use  of  Poland  as  a  "  bridge  "  in 

any  sense  between  Russia  and  Germany. 

Meanwhile  the  allied  Governments 
poured  great  supplies  of  munitions  into 
Warsaw  from  Danzig — where  the  British 
High  Commissioner  compelled  recalci- 
trant dock  laborers  to  do  the  necessary 
unloading — ^by  way  of  the  Baltic,  and 
through  Russia  and  Czechoslovakia. 
Other  supplies  were  dispatched  from 
England  and  France.  Overtures  to  aid 
Poland  and  support  the  Allies  were  re- 
ceived from  Finland,  Latvia,  Rumania 
and  especially  Hungary,  whose  Govern- 
ment offered  to  put  a  large  army  in  the 
field  against  the  Russians.  The  Allies 
reserved  this  proffered  aid  as  a  last 
card.  Large  numbers  of  allied  officers 
arrived  in  Poland  to  organize  the  Polish 
defense.  It  later  developed  that  the 
Poles  failed  to  accept  the  military  advice 
offered  by  the  allied  counselors,  insist- 
ing on  keeping  a  large  force  in  Galicia 
to  prevent  its  seizure  by  the  Reds  and 
declining  for  a  time  to  allow  General 
Weygand,  the  French  General,  to  take 
over  the  direction  of  military  operations. 

TRUCE  REJECTION   BY  MOSCOW 
BRINGS  CRISIS 

Kamenev  and  Krassin,  who  had  arrived 
in  London  toward  the  beginning  of 
August,  held  a  five-hour  conference  with 
Lloyd  George  and  Bonar  Law  on  Aug. 
6.  They  transmitted  a  note  from  Mos- 
cow, which,  though  conciliatory  in  tone, 
cast  the  blame  for  the  delay  in  opening 
armistice  negotiations  upon  the  Poles, 
insisted  on  direct  dealings  with  Poland 
and  on  the  London  Conference  being 
composed  only  of  Soviet  and  allied  rep- 
resentatives.     Through    Kamenev     and 


Krassin,  Lloyd  George  sent  word  to  the 
Moscow  authorities  tha't  they  must  agree 
to  a  ten-day  truce  with  Poland,  and 
asked  for  an  immediate  reply  which 
could  be  considered  by  Lloyd  George  and 
M.  Millerand  at  a  meeting  arranged  to 
occur   at   Hythe,    England,   on   Aug.   8. 


GENERAL  JOSEPH  PILSUDSKI 
Provisional  President  of  Poland  and  com- 
mander Of  Poland's  armies 


The  gravity  of  the  situation  was  so  im- 
pressed on  the  Soviet  delegates  that  they 
advised  their  Government  to  accede  to 
the  original  allied  demands.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  on  Aug.  6  the  British 
Premier  declared  the  allied  Governments 
would  bring  force  to  bear  if  all  other 
measures  failed.  Everything,  he  said, 
depended  on  the  reply  of  the  Moscow 
Government. 

Moscow's  reply,  when  it  came,  refused 
the  ten  days'  truce.  This  was  a 
severe  blow  to  Lloyd  George's  peace 
efforts,  and  resulted  in  the  conference 
assuming  a  warlike  aspect.  The  re- 
ceipt of  two  new  notes  from  Moscow,  one 
consenting  to  withdraw  the  Soviet  troops 
from  the  Polish  boundary  line  laid  down 
by  the  Supreme  Council  in  1919,  con- 
tingent on  Poland's  acceptance  of  the 
armistice  terms,  as  well  as  to  reduce  the 


924 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


1 

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TOWN  HALL  AT   WARSAW,   THE   POLISH   CAPITAL,    THREATENED   BY   RUSSIAN 

INVASION 
(©    American    Press    Association) 


number  of  troops  on  this  line,  and  the 
other  giving  the  status  of  the  armistice 
negotiations  and  Poland's  consent  to 
send  her  delegates  to  Minsk,  did  not  im- 
pair the  seriousness  of  the  crisis. 

The  action  of  the  French  Government 
in  recognizing  the  de  facto  Govern- 
ment of  Wrangel  came  to  the  British 
Premier  as  a  complete  surprise.  For  this 
recognition,  which  was  decided  on  in- 
dependently of  <jrreat  Britain,  and  in  con- 
travention of  the  agreement  at  Hythe 
that  no  definite  action  against  Russia 
should  be  taken  until  the  result  of  the 
Minsk  conference  was  learned,  see  the 
article  on  Eussia  on  Page  925  of  this 
issue. 

PERIL  OF  WARSAW 
In  Warsaw,  disaster  hovered.  Accord- 
ing to  Major  Gen.  Henry  T.  Allen,  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  the  American  Army 
of  Occupation  in  Germany,  who  had  been 
kept  in  close  touch  with  Warsaw,  the 
Poles  had  only  100,000  men  to  oppose 
to  165,000  Bolshevist  troops,  and  their 
situation  was  desperate.  Too  tardily  the 
Poles  asked  General  Weygand,  the 
French  commander,  to  assume  command 
of  their  armies,  and  the  capture  of  the 
Polish  capital  was  considered  a  matter 


of  but  a  short  time.  Nearly  100,000  men, 
women  and  children,  headed  by  Bishops 
and  priests  bearing  church  banners  and 
relics,  marched  through  the  main  streets 
singing  hymns.  Onlookers  bared  their 
heads  as  they  passed,  while  detachments 
of  soldiers  headed  for  the  fronit  marched 
grimly  by.  The  citizens  declared  that 
they  would  fight  to  a  man  to  prevent  the 
city's  capture. 

Then,  unexpectedly,  the  tide  of  battle 
turned  about  Aug.  15.  The  Poles  massed 
their  forces  around  Warsaw  and  organ- 
ized counterattacks  on  both  the  left  and 
right  wings.  The  offensive  on  the  left 
wing  was  led  by  the  French  Generals, 
Henry  and  Billotte.  By  Aug.  18  it  had 
placed  the  Poles  again  in  possession  of 
the  key  to  the  Warsaw  defenses — the 
fork  between  the  Narew  and  Bug  Rivers. 
Other  forces  marching  toward  Mlawa  at 
this  time  made  considerable  headway 
toward  reopening  the  direct  railway  line 
to  Danzig  and  drove  the  Bolsheviki  east- 
ward from  the  Fortress  of  Thorn.  Mean- 
time the  offensive  on  the  right  wing, 
between  the  Vistula  and  the  Bug, 
threatened  the  communications  of  the 
main  Bolshevist  forces.  This  movement 
gained    rapid   headway    and   drove   the 


POLAND'S  MILITARY  CRISIS 


925 


i 

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POLISH  WOMEN   SOLDIERS  GUARDING  A   PUBLIC   BUILDING  IN  VILNA.      EACH 

DISTRICT  IN  THE  MILITARY  ZONES  OF  POLAND  HAS  ITS  WOMAN'S  BATTALION 

(©    Keystone    View    Co.) 


Bolsheviki  back  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty  miles  all  along  the  line.  These  suc- 
cesses relieved  the  strain  in  Warsaw,  and 
the  Council  of  Ministers  posted  up  a 
proclamation  describing  Poland's  latest 
achievement  in  eloquent  terms. 

At  the  same  time  the  Moscow  Govern- 
ment was  claiming  successes  at  various 
points.  It  announced  the  continuance 
of  fierce  fighting  northeast  of  Novo 
Georgievsk  and  of  Warsaw.  Trotsky,  in 
a  public  address  at  Moscow,  declared  on 
the  18th  that  the  reverses  of  the  Red 
armies  before  the  Polish  capital  in 
no  way  altered  the  state  of  affairs, 
all  the  more  as  the  front  was  now 
"divided  into  two  parts — military  and 
diplomatic." 

While  the  Polish  armies  were  winning 
on  the  military  front,  peace  negotiations 


were  under  way  at  Minsk.  The  Soviet 
terms  were  read  to  the  Polish  delegates 
at  the  first  session  on  Aug.  17.  M. 
Danishevsky,  the  Bolshevist  Chairman, 
emphasized  Russia's  respect  for  Poland's 
independence  and  for  her  right  to  de- 
termine her  own  form  of  government, 
and  declared  that  Russia  accorded 
Poland  even  more  territory  than  the 
Entente,  but  insisted  that  Russia  must 
demand  from  the  landlords  of  Poland 
substantial  guarantees  against  renewed 
attacks.  The  Polish  delegates  received 
the  peace  terms  and  proposed  to  hold  the 
next  sitting  on  Aug.  19,  but  the  Rus- 
sians insisted  that  it  be  held  on  Aug.  18, 
to  which  the  Poles  finally  agreed.  M. 
Danishevsky  stated  later  that  all  pro- 
ceedings would  be  open — there  would  be 
no  secret  diplomacy. 


Soviet  Russia  and  the  United  States 

Secretary    Colby's  Note    Refusing   to  Recognize  the  Bolshevist 
Government — The  Month  in  Russia 


THE  most  important  event  of  the 
month  in  relation  to  Russia — apart 
from  the  war  with  Poland,  which 
is  treated  in  the  first  pages  of  this  maga- 
zine— was  the  act  of  the  United  States 
Government  in  issuing  a  clear  and  defi- 
nite   statement    of    its    decision   not   to 


recognize  the  present  Soviet  Government 
of  Russia,  while  reiterating  a  similarly 
firm  resolve  not  to  sanction  any  attempt 
to  impair  the  territorial  integrity  of  Rus- 
sia itself,  and  expressing  the  strongest 
confidence  in  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the 
Russian  people. 


926 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


This  statement  which  aroused  a  con- 
siderable sensation,  both  in  this  country 
and  abroad,  was  embodied  in  a  note  sent 
'xm  Aug.  10  by  Mr.  Colby,  Secretary  of 
State,  to  Baron  Camillo  Romano  Avez- 
zana,  the  Italian  Ambassador  to  the 
United  States,  in  response  to  an  intima- 
tion from  him  that  the  Italian  Govern- 
m^t  would  welcome  a  statement  of  the 
views  of  the  United  States  "  on  the 
situation  presented  by  the  Russian  ad- 
vance into  Poland."  The  note  was 
brought  before  the  French  Cabinet  short- 
ly before  its  equally  unexpected  recogni- 
tioh  of  the  de  facto  Government  of  Gen- 
eral Wrangel,  the  anti-Bolshevist  com- 
mander in  South  Russia,  and  was 
answered  by  France  shortly  afterward 
in  a  note  of  warm  commendation  of  the 
American  policy,  which  was  declared 
identical  ^th  that  pursued  by  France. 
The  full  text  of  Secretary  Colby's  note 
is  given  at  the  end  of  the  present  article. 

This  note  came  at  a  time  when  the 
prospect  of  renewing  trade  relations  be- 
tween the  allied  nations  and  Soviet  Rus- 
sia was  already  becoming  remote,  owing 
to  the  insistence  of  Moscow  that  it  deal 
with  defeated  Poland  directly.  The  note 
of  the  allied  Premiers  sent  from  Bou- 
logne had  declared  that  the  proposed 
conference  in  London  must  include 
representatives  of  the  Polish  Govern- 
ment, as  well  as  of  the  other  States  bor- 
dering on  Russia,  and  that  the  whole 
Polish  question  must  be  settled  there  be- 
fore any  others  were  discussed.  M. 
Tchitcherin,  the  Bolshevist  Foreign  Min- 
ister, in  an  answer  to  Great  Britain  on 
July  8,  had  accepted  this  proposal. 

This  agreement,  however,  was  left 
hanging  in  the  air,  owing  to  the  develop- 
ments in  the  Polish  situation.  Mean- 
while the  Moscow  Government,  proceed- 
ing on  the  basis  of  the  tentative  agree- 
ment reached,  dispatched  a  trade  and 
peace  delegation  to  Reval  (Estb'-'i) 
preparatory  to  its  departure  to  London 
to  begin  the  negotiations  proposed.  This 
delegation  was  composed  of  Leo  Kame- 
nov,  President  of  the  Moscow.  Soviet  and 
head  of  the  delegation;  JLeonid  Krassin, 
who  had  conducted  the  trade  discussions 
in  London  leading  to  the  tentative  agree- 
ment, and  M.   Milutin.    While  this  new 


delegation  was  waiting  notification  to 
continue  its  journey,  however,  the  British 
Government  on  July  22  sent  word  that  it 
could  not  be  received  unless  the  Soviet 
Government  accepted  the  proposals  of  an 
armistice  with  Poland.  The  delegation 
therefore  left  Reval.  Maxim  Litvinov^ 
Assistant  Commissioner  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs for  Russia,  was  very  indignant  and 
expressed  himself  as  follows: 

Poland  was  not  mentioned  when  Lloyd 
George  formulated  the  conditions  for  re- 
sumption of  trade,  and  when  the  coming 
debacle  in  Poland  was  less  .evident ;  this 
making-  of  new  conditions  flouts  all  inter- 
national laws,  and  throws  a  revealing 
light  on  the  partiality  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment in  the  Russo-Polish  controversy. 

In  their  note  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment (July  26)  announcing  that  they 
would  agree  to  the  armistice  with  Po- 
land, the  Moscow  leaders  expressed  their 
astonishment  at  Great  Britain's  action 
in  interrupting  the  discussion  of  trade 
relations.  This  note,  by  insisting  that 
the  London  Conference  should  be  solely 
between  Soviet  and  allied  representa- 
tives, excluding  participation  by  Poland 
and  the  border  States,  as  proposed  by 
the  Allies,  stirred  up  fresh  trouble.  At 
a  conference  of  the  allied  Premiers  held 
in  Boulogne  the  decision  was  taken  to 
insist  on  the  original  plan  proposed.  The 
text  of  the  allied  note  sent  from  Bou- 
logne was  read  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  Lloyd  George  on  July  29.  It 
declared  that  the  Allies  would  discuss 
terms  of  peace  with  Soviet  Russia  only 
after  the  questions  outstanding  between 
Moscow  and  Poland,  as  well  as  between 
Moscow  and  the  border  States,  had  been 
settled.  Later  notes  exchanged  brought 
no  decision,  owing  to  Moscow's  insist- 
ence on  settling  the  Polish  and  border 
States  problems  by  direct  negotiation, 
and  to  its  repetition  of  the  demand  that 
the  London  Conference  be  held  solely 
with  the  Allies.  The  prospects  of  con- 
cluding peace  between  Russia  and  the 
Entente  nations,  therefore,  became  con- 
siderably more  remote. 

Kamenov  and  Krassin  arrived  in  Lon- 
don toward  the  beginning  of  August, 
and  played  a  prominent  part  as  inter- 
mediaries between  Lloyd  George  and 
Lenin.     Despite   the   crisis   precipitated 


SOVIET  RUSSIA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 


927 


the   Soviet  Government's  refusal  to 
grant  a  ten  days*  truce  to  Poland,  Lloyd 
_George  stated  that  he  had  no  intention 
asking  the  Bolshevist  emissaries  to 
j^ve  England  for  the  present. 
A  bombshell  was  exploded  in  London 
the  announcement  made  on  Aug.  11 
^y  the  French  Government  that  it  reo- 
rganized as  a  de  fkcto  Government  the 
Jouth    Russian    administration   of    Gen- 
ral  Wrangel.     It  was  stated  that  this 
cognition  was  a  direct  answer  to  the 
Soviet's  demand  that  the  Allies  secure 
le  surrender  of  General  Wrangel  under 
larantee  of  personal  safety.     This  ac- 
ion  was  taken  independently  of  Great 
Britain,    and   created    consternation    in 
Jnglaiid.    Lloyd  George  at  first  was  un- 
able to  believe  it. 
The    decision    to    recognize    General 
'rangel  was  taken  by  the  French  Cab- 
let following  the  receipt  and  considera- 
tion of  the  note  sent  by  Mr.  Colby  to  the 
[talian   Ambassador.     In  its   answering 
lote   to    Washii^ton    the    French    Gov- 
ernment expressed  its  entire  agreement 
rith   the   policy   of  the   United   States, 
?hich   declared   resolutely    against    any 
iognition   of   the    Soviet   Government. 
it  the  date  mentioned,  the  French  Gov- 
jmment  announced  that  it  had  ordered 
its    representative    on    the    Allied    Eco- 
nomic Council  to  have  no  further  deal- 
ings with  Krassin  and  Kamenev. 

In  contrast  with  the  attitude  of  France 
and  the  United  States,  a  strong  plea  was 
made  on  Aug.  6  by  Count  Sforza,  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs  for  Italy,  in  the 
Italian  chamber,  in  favor  of  allowing 
Russia  to  develop  her  Government  along 
her  own  lines  without  foreign  interfer- 
ence. This,  he  declared,  had  beer  the 
basis  of  Italian  policy  in  admitting  a 
Russian  representative  to  Italy  and  the 
sending  of  an  Italian  emissary  to  Russia. 
The  course  of  events  in  Siberia  re- 
mained obscure.  For  an  account  of  Jap- 
anese activities  in  Siberia,  and  the  Jap- 
anese occupation  of  Saghalin,  see  the 
articles  on  Japan  elsewhere  in  this  issue. 
BRITISH  LABOR  REPORT 
The  usual  tales  of  famine,  disease  and 
disintegration  continued  to  ccme  out  of 
Russia.  Conditions  in  Soviet  Russia  and 
the  dire  effects  of  the  allied  blockade 


were  described  by  the  British  Labor 
Commission  in  its  final  report,  published 
on  July  8,  which  read  as  follows: 

During  their  stay  of  about  six  weeks  in 
Russia  the  delegation  visited  Petrograd, 
Moscow,  Smolenslc  and  the  Polish  front 
and  numerous  towns  and  villages  on  the 


MME.    BALABOVNA 

An    able    and    implacable    leader    in    the 

Councils  of  the  Red  Autocrats  of  Russia 

{Keystone    View    Co.) 


Volga  from  Nijni-Novgorod  to  Astrakhan. 
The  marks  of  the  cruel  blockade  and  of 
war  were  visible  everywhere.  In  the  vil- 
lages, while  food  was  fairly  satisfactory, 
there  was  a  great  lack  of  clothes,  coats, 
household  utensils,  agricultural  imple- 
ments and  machinery.  In  the  towns  food 
was  dangerously  scarce  and  the  power  of 
work  of  :\.iany  workers  in  the  industrial 
regions  was  greatly  reduced,  owing  to 
their  obviously  miserable  physical  con- 
dition. The  transport  which  should  have 
been  bringing  food  from  the  country  to 
the  towns  was  taking  food,  munitions  and 
men  to  the  front.  The  locomotives  which 
might  have  been  working  stood  idle  on 
the  rails  for  want  of  spare  parts  for  their 
repair,  which  the  blockade  had  not  al- 
lowed to  enter  Russia.  The  workshops 
which  should  have  been  making  tools, 
agricultural  machinery  and  productive 
machinery  were  making  guns,  bombs  and 
tanks. 

In  1918-19  there  were  over  a  million 
cases  bf  typhus  fever  and  no  town  or 
village- in  Russia  or  Siberia  escaped  in- 


928 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


PrKDtErAftlER  AUER    LANDER,   vir^JN^^T    CUCH ' 

PftOLeTAlHLS    »E    TOUS    LfS    PAY'S      U«!<5'^f/     V-. 


i» 


nOAAE/lHA 

PACHETHNX     3HA«OB 

np£  C/iFAVF.TCR 

no    3AHOHy 

PftOttTAR)    Dt    TUTTH    PACSJ.    UNiTevi 
WORKCRS    pF    THE    WORUD,    UNITE! 


A  l.OOO-RUBLE  NOTE  WITH  THE  BOLSHEVIST  SLOGAN,  "  PROLETARIANS  OF 
ALL  COUNTRIES,  UNITE,"  PRINTED  ON  IT  IN  SEVEN  LANGUAGES— RUSSIAN, 
GERMAN,  ITALIAN,  FRENCH,  ENGLISH,  CHINESE  AND  ARABIC.  THE  l.OOO- 
RUBLE  NOTE,  WHICH  WAS  WORTH  $500  BEFORE  THE  WAR,  NOW  WILL 
SCARCELY     PURCHASE    A    POUND    OF    BUTTER    OR    TEA 


fection.  In  addition  there  have  been  epi- 
demics of  cholera,  of  Spanish  influenza 
and  of  smallpox.  The  soap,  the  disinfec- 
tants and  the  medicines  needed  for  the 
treatment  of  these  diseases  have  been 
kept  out  of  Russia  by  the  blockade.  Two 
or  three  hundred  thousands  of  Russians 
died  of  typhus  alone.  One-half  of  the 
doctors  combating  typhus  died  at  their 
posts. 

Ringed  round  from  the  world  by  a  block- 
ade of  all  the  powerful  nations  of  the 
earth,  attacked  by  enemies  from  without 
and  menaced  by  the  fear  of  counter-revo- 
lution from  within,  is  it  wonderful  that  the 
revolutionary  Government,  which  has 
maintained  any  kind  of  order  and  disci- 
pline among  its  peoples  in  such  a  pe- 
riod, has  rallied  to  its  support  practi- 
cally the  whole  Russian  nation?  Russian 
national  patriotism  is  now  a  burning 
sentiment  which  animates  alike  the  hearts 
of  revolutionary  industrial  workers,  of- 
ficers of  the  old  regime  and  of  members 
of  Socialist  parties  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
methods  and  policy  of  the  Bolsheviki. 
The  motto  of  Russia  is  becoming  rapidly 
"  No  hand,  no  voice,  must  be  raised 
against  our  country  in  her  extremity."  It 
is  on  this  sentiment  that  the  power  of  the 
Bolsheviki  rests.  It  is  on  this  sentiment 
that  they  have  built  up  a  great  army. 

Members  of  the  delegation  have  been 
present  at  great  naval  and  military  pa- 
rades in  Moscow  and  Petrograd  and 
have    seen    displays    of    the    pr^-military 


preparation  of  young  people— many  thou- 
sands from  16  to  18.  They  have  seen, 
too,  the  military  preparation,  as  girl 
guides  and  boy  scouts,  of  the  school  chil- 
dren of  14  to  16.  The  organization  of  the 
army  at  the  front  and  in  the  areas  of 
training  in  the  rear  has  been  studied  by 
the  delegation,  and  they  are  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  greatness  of  the  effort 
which  Russia  has  successfully  made  in 
the  face  of  great  obstacles  and  by  the 
danger  which  this  militarization  of  Rus- 
sia may  mean  for  Western  Europe,  un- 
less we  hold  ovit  now  the  real  hand  of 
friendship  and  make  real  peace.  Peace  is 
needed  not  only  for  Russia  but  for  all 
Europe.  There  is  only  one  kind  of  mili- 
tarism in  all  the  world,  and  that  is  a 
danger  to  all  civilization.  The  blockade 
and  intervention  are  turning  a  naturally 
friendly  people  into  bitter  enemies. 

Peace  now  and  at  once— that  Is  the  great 
need  of  Russia  and  of  the  world,  and  in 
the  name  of  the  humanity  of  the  world 
we  call  upon  our  nation  to  insist  that 
peace  be  made  now  and  Europe  be  al- 
lowed to  turn  from  the  terrible  spectres  of 
war,  famine  and  disease  to  a  rebuilding 
of  its  homes  and  a  reshaping  of  its  shat- 
tered civilization. 

Russia  can  give  much  to  us  from  her 
natural  resources  and  Russia  needs  much 
from  us.  To  pursue  a  policy  of  blockade 
and  intervention  is  madness  and  criminal 
folly,  which  can  only  end  in  European 
disaster. 


SOVIET  RUSSIA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 


P 

^P  Though  the  note  on  American  policy 
^^  sent  by  Secretary  Colby  contained  no  in- 
timation that  the  United  States  would 
pursue  such  "  a  policy  of  blockade  and 
intei-vention  "  as  that  which  the  British 
Labor  report  condemned,  it  was  an  ex- 
pression of  inflexible  will  not  to  recog- 
nize the  Soviet  Government,  on  the 
ground  of  its  untrustworthy  and  danger- 
ous character.  The  first  clear  and  defi- 
nite expression  of  America's  policy 
toward  the  present  Russian  Government, 
it  showed  the  United  States  allied  with 
France  in  severe  condemnation  of  the 
Soviet  Republic's  system  of  subversive 
propaganda  abroad.  The  text  of  Secre- 
tary Colby's  letter  is  given  herewith: 
Department  of  State, 
Washington,  Aug.  10,  1920. 
Excellency: 

The  agreeable  intimation  which  you  have 
conveyed  to  the  State  Department,  that  the 
Italian  Government  would  welcome  a  state- 
ment of  the  views  df  this  Government  on  the 
situation  presented  by  the  Russian  advance 
jnto  Poland,  deserves  a  prompt  response,  and 
I  will  attempt  without  delay  a  definition  of 
this  Government's  position,  not  only  as  to  the 
situation  arising  from  Russian  military  pres- 
sure upon  Poland  but  also  as  to  certain  cog- 
nate and  inseparable  phases  of  the  Russian 
question  viewed  more  broadly. 

This  Government  believes  in  a  united,  free 
and  autonomous  Polish  State,  and  the  people 
of  the  United  States  are  earnestly  solicitous 
for  the  maintenance  of  Poland's  political  in- 
dependence and  territorial  integrity.  From 
this  attitude  we  will  not  depart,  and  the  pol- 
icy of  this  Government  will  be  directed  to 
the  employment  of  all  available  means  to 
render  it  effectual. 

The  Government,  therefore,  takes  no  excep- 
tion to  the  effort  apparently  being  made  in 
some  quarters  to  arrange  an  armistice  be- 
tween Poland  and  Russia,  but  it  would  not, 
at  least  for  the  present,  participate  in  any 
plan  for  the  expansion  of  the  armistice  ne- 
gotiations into  a  general  European  confer- 
ence, which  would  in  all  probability  involve 
two  results,  from  both  of  which  this  country 
strongly  recoils,  viz.,  the  recognition  of  the 
Bolshevist  regime  and  a  settlement  of  the 
Russian  problem  almost  inevitably  upon  the 
basis  of  a  dismemberment  of  Russia. 

SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIAN  PEOPLE 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion, in  March,  1917,  to  the  present  moment 
the  Government  and  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  followed  its  development  with 
friendly  solicitude  and  with  profound  sym- 
pathy for  the  efforts  of  the  Russian  people 
to   reconstruct  their   national   life   upon   the 


929 


THE  AMERICAN'  NOTE 


li 


broad  basis  of  popular  self-government.  The 
Government  of  the  Uftited  States,  reflecting 
the  spirit  of  its  people,  has  at  all  times  de- 
sired to  help  the  Russian  people.  In  that 
spirit  all  its  relations  with  Russia  and  with 
other  nations  in  matters  affecting  the  latter' s 
interests  have  been  conceived  and  governed. 


M.    DJERJINSKY 

Head   of   the   "  Extraordmary   Govn.'mission 

Against  Counter-revolution/'  who  wields 

the  power  of  life  and  death  in 

Soviet  Russia 

(©    Keystone    View   Co.) 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  was 
the  first  Government  to  acknowledge  the 
validity  of  the  revolution  and  to  give  recogni- 
tion of  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia, 
Almost  immediately  thereafter  it  became 
necessary  for  the  United  States  to  enter  the 
war  against  Germany,  and  in  that  undertak- 
ing to  become  closely  associated  with  the 
allied  nations,  including,  of  course,  Rusisia. 
The  war  weariness  of  the  masses  of  the 
Russian  people  was  fully  known  to  this  Gov- 
ernment and  sympathetically  comprehended. 
Prudence,  self-interest  and  loyalty  to  our  as- 
sociates made  it  desirable  that  we  should 
give  moral  and  material  support  to  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  which  was  struggling 
to  accomplish  a  twofold  task— to  carry  on  the 
war  with  vigor  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
reorganize  the  life  of  the  nation  and*  estab- 
lish a  stable  government  based  on  popular 
sovereignty. 


930 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Quite  independent  of  these  motives,  how- 
ever, was  the  sincere  friendship  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
for  the  great  Russian  Nation.  The  friend- 
ship manifested  by  Russia  toward  this  na- 
tion in  a  time  of  trial  and  distress  has  left 
with  us  an  imperishable  sense  of  gratitude. 
It  was  as  a  grateful  friend  that  we  sent  to 
Russia  an  expert  commission  to  aid  in  bring- 
ing about  such  a  reorganization  of  the  rail- 
road transportation  system  of  the  country  as 
would  reinvigorate  the  whole  of  its  economic 
life  and  so  add  to  the  well-being  of  the  Rus- 
sian people. 

While  deeply  regretting  the  withdrawal  of 
Russia  from  the  ^ar  at  a  critical  time,  and 
the  disastrous  surrender  at  Brest-Litovsk, 
the  United  States  has  fully  understood  that 
the  people  of  Russia  were  in  nowise  respon- 
sible. 

FAITH  IN  OVERCOMING  ANARCHY 

The  United"  States  maintains  unimpaired 
its  faith  in  the  Russian  people,  in  their  high 
character  and  their  future.  That  they  will 
overcome  the  existing  anarchy,  suffering  and 
destitution  we  do  not  entertain  the  slightest 
doubt.  The  distressing  character  of  Russia's 
transition  has  many  historical  parallels,  and 
the  United  States  is  confident  that  restored, 
free  and  united  Russia  will  again  take  a 
leading  place  in  the  world,  joining  with  the 
other  free  nations  in  upholding  peace  and 
orderly  justice. 

Until  that  time  shall  arrive  the  United 
States  feels  that  friendship  and  honor  require 
that  Russia's  interests  must  be  generously 
protected,  and  that,  as  far  as  possible,  all  de- 
cisions of  vital  importance  to  it,  and  espe- 
cially those  concerning  its  sovereignty  over 
the  territory  of  the  former  Russian  Empire, 
be  held  in  abeyance.  By  this  feeling  of 
friendship  and  honorable  obligation  to  the 
great  nation  whose  brave  and  heroic  self- 
sacrifice  contributed  so  much  to  the  success- 
ful termination  of  the  war  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  was  guided  in  its  reply 
to  the  Lithuanian  National  Council,  on  Oct. 
15,  1919,  and  in  its  persistent  refusal  to  rec- 
ognize the  Baltic  States  as  separate  nations 
independent  of  Russia.  The  same  spirit  was 
manifested  in  the  note  of  this  Government  of 
March  24,  1920,  in  which  it  was  stated,  with 
reference  to  certain  proposed  settlements  in 
the  Near  East,  that  "  no  final  decision  should 
or  can  be  made  without  the  consent  of  Rus- 
sia." 

In  line  with  these  important  declarations  of 
policy  the  United  States  withheld  its  ap- 
proval from  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Council  at  Paris  recognizing  the  independence 
of  the  so-called  Republics  of  Georgia  and 
Azerbaijan,  and  so  instructed  its  representa- 
tive in  Southern  Russia,  Rear  Admiral  New- 
ton  A.    McCuUy. 

RUSSIAN   BACKING  FOR  ARMENIA 

Finally,  while  gladly  giving  recognition  to 


the  independence  of  Armenia,  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  has  taken  the  po- 
sition that  final  determination  of  its  bounda- 
ries must  not  be  made  without  Russia's  co- 
operation and  agreement.  Not  only  is  Rus- 
sia concerned  because  a  considerable  part  of 
the  territory  of  the  new  State  of  Armenia, 
when  it  shall  be  defined,  formerly  belonged 
to  the  Russian  Empire;  equally  important  is 
the  fact  that  Armenia  must  have  the  good 
will  and  protective  friendship  of  Russia  if 
it  is  to  remain  independent  and  free. 

These  illustrations  show  with  what  con- 
sistency the  Government  of  the  United  States 
has  been  guided  in  its  foreign  policy  by  a 
loyal  friendship  for  Russia,  We  are  unwill- 
ing that  while  it  is  helpless  in  the  grip  of 
a  non-representative  Government,  whose  only 
sanction  is  brutal  force,  Russia  shall  be 
weakened  still  further  by  a  policy  of  dis- 
memberment conceived  in  other  than  Russian 
interests. 

With  the  desire  of  the  allied  powers  to 
bring  about  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  exist- 
ing difficulties  in  Europe  this  Government  is, 
of  course,  in  hearty  accord,  and  will  sup- 
port any  justifiable  steps  to  that  end.  It  is 
unable  to  perceive,  however,  that  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  Soviet  regime  would  promote, 
much  less  accomplish,  this  object,  and  it  is 
therefore  averse  to  any  dealings  with  the  So- 
viet regime  beyond  the  most  narrow  bound- 
aries to  which  a  discussion  of  an  armistice 
can  be  confined. 

That  the  present  rulers  of  Russia  do  not 
rule  by  the  will  or  the  consent  of  any  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  Russian  people 
is  an  incontestable  fact.  Although  nearly 
two  and  a  half  years  have  passed  since  they 
seized  the  machinery  of  government,  prom- 
ising to  protect  the  Constituent  Assembly 
against  alleged  conspiracies  against  it,  they 
have  not  yet  permitted  anything  in  the 
nature  of  a  popular  election.  At  the  moment 
when  the  work  of  creating  a  popular  repre- 
sentative government,  based  upon  universal 
suffrage,  was  nearing  completion,  the  Bol- 
sheviki,  although  in  number  an  inconsider- 
able minority  of  the  people,  by  force  and 
cunning  seized  the  powers  and  machinery 
of  government,  and  have  continued  to  use 
them  with  savage  oppression  to  maintain 
themselves    in    power. 

Without  any  desire  to  interfere  in  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  Russian  people  or  to 
suggest  what  kind  of  government  they  should 
have,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  ■ 
does  express  the  hope  that  they  will  soon 
find  a  way  to  set  up  a  government  repre- 
senting their  free  will  and  pui-pose.  When 
that  time  comes  the  United  States  will  con- 
sider the  measures  of  practical  assistance 
which  can  be  taken  to  promote  the  restora- 
tion of  Russia,  provided  Russia  has  not 
taken  itself  wholly  out  of  the  pale  of  the 
friendly  interest  of  other  nations  by  the 
pillage  and  oppression  of  the  Poles. 

It   is   not   possible   for   the   Government   of 


SOVIET  RUSSIA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 


931 


the  United  States  to  recognize  the  present 
rulers  of  Russia  as  a  Government  with  which 
the  relations  common  to  friendly  Govern- 
ments can  be  maintained.  This  conviction 
has  nothing  to  do  with  any  particular  politi- 
cal or  social  structure  which  the  Russian 
people  themselves  may  see  fit  to  embrace. 
It  rests  upon  a  wholly  different  set  of  facts. 
These  facts,  which  none  disputes,  have  con- 
vinced the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
against  its  will,  that  the  existing  regime  in 
Russia  is  based  upon  the  negation  of  every 
principle  of  honor  and  good  faith  and  every 
usage  and  convention  underlying  the  whole 
structure  of  international  law— the  negation, 
in  short,  of  every  principle  upon  which  it  Is 
possible  to  base  harmonious  and  trustful  re- 
lations, whether  of  nations  or  of  individuals. 

The  responsible  leaders  of  the  regime  have 
frequently  and  openly  boasted  that  they  are 
willing  to  sign  agreements  and  undertakings 
with  foreign  powers  while  not  having  the 
slightest  intention  of  observing  such  under- 
takings or  carrying  out  such  agreements. 
This  attitude  of  disregard  of  obligations  vol- 
untarily entered  into  they  base  upon  the 
theory  that  no  compact  or  agreement  made 
with  a  non-Bolshevist  Government  can  have 
any  moral  force  for  them.  They  have  not 
only  avowed  this  as  a  doctrine,  but  have  ex- 
emplified it  in  practice. 

Indeed,  upon  numerous  occasions  the  re- 
sponsible spokesmen  of  this  power  and  its 
official  agencies  have  declared  that  it  is 
their  understanding  that  the  very  existence 
of  Bolshevism  in  Russia,  the  maintenance 
of  their  own  rule,  depends,  and  must  con- 
tinue to  depend,  upon  the  occurrence  of 
revolutions  in  all  other  great  civilized  na- 
tions, including  the  United  States,  which 
will  overthrow  and  destroy  their  Govern- 
ments and  set  up  Bolshevist  rule  in  their 
stead.  They  have  made  it  quite  plain  that 
they  intend  to  use  every  means,  including, 
of  course,  diplomatic  agencies,  to  promote 
such  revolutionary  movements  in  other 
countries. 

It  is  true  that  they  have  in  various  ways 
expressed  their  willingness  to  give  "  assur- 
ances "  and  "  guarantees  "  that  they  will  not 
abuse  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  dip- 
lomatic agencies  by  using  them  for  this  pur- 
pose. In  view  of  their  own  declarations, 
already  referred  to,  such  assurances  and 
guarantees  cannot  be  very  seriously  re- 
garded. 

THREATS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

Moreover,  it  is  within  the  knowledge  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  that  the 
Bolshevist  Government  is  itself  subject  to 
the  control  of  a  political  faction  with  ex- 
tensive international  ramifications  through 
the  Third  International,  and  that  this  body, 
which  is  heavily  subsidized  by  the  Bolshevist 
Government  from  the  public  revenues  of 
Russia,  has  for  its  openly  avowed  aim  the 
promotion  of  Bolshevist  revolutions  through- 


out the  world.  The  leaders  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki  have  boasted  that  their  promises  of  non- 
interference with  other  nations  would  in  no 
wise  bind  the  agents  of  this  body. 

There  is  no  room  for  reasonable  doubt  that 
such  agents  would  receive  the  support  and 
protection  of  any  diplomatic  agencies  the 
Bolsheviki  might  have  in  other  countries.  In- 
evitably, therefore,  the  diplomatic  service  of 
the  Bolshevist  Government  would  become  a 
channel  for  intrigues  and  the  propaganda  of 
revolt  against  the  institutions  and  laws  of 
countries  with  which  it  was  at  peace,  which 
would  be  an  abuse  of  friendship  to  which 
enlightened  Governments  cannot  subject 
themselves. 

In  the  view  of  this  Government  there  can- 
not be  any  common  ground  upon  which  it 
can  stand  with  a  power  whose  conceptions 
of  international  relations  are  so  entirely 
alien  to  its  own,  so  utterly  repugnant  to  its 
moral  sense.  There  can  be  no  mutual  con- 
fidence or  trust,  no  respect  even,  if  pledges 
are  to  be  given  and  agreements  made  with 
a  cynical  repudiation  of  their  obligations  al- 
ready in  the  mind  of  one  of  the  parties.  We 
cannot  recognize,  hold  official  relations  with, 
or  give  friendly  reception  to  the  agents  of  a 
Government  which  is  determined  and  bound 
to  conspire  against  our  institutions ;  whose 
diplomats  will  be  the  agitators  of  dangerous 
revolt;  whose  spokesmen  say  that  they  sign 
agreements  with  no  intention  of  keeping 
them. 

OPPOSES  INVASION  OF  RUSSIA 

To  summarize  the  position  of  this  Govern- 
ment, I  would  say,  therefore,  in  response  to 
your  Excellency's  inquiry,  that  it  would  re- 
gard with  satisfaction  a  declaration  by  the 
allied  and  associated  powers  that  the  terri- 
torial integrity  and  true  boundaries  of  Russia 
shall  be  respected.  These  boundaries  should 
properly  include  the  whole  of  the  former 
Russian  Empire,  with  the  exception  of  Fin- 
land proper,  ethnic  Poland,  and  such  terri- 
tory as  may  by  agreement  form  a  part  of 
the  Armenian  State. 

The  aspirations  of  these  nations  for  inde- 
pendence are  legitimate.  Each  was  forcibly 
annexed,  and  their  liberation  from  oppressive 
alien  rule  involves  no  aggressions  against 
Russia's  territorial  rights,  and  has  received 
the  sanction  of  the  public  opinion  of  all  free 
peoples.  Such  a  declaration  presupposes  the 
withdrawal  of  all  foreign  troops  from  the 
territory  embraced  by  these  boundaries,  and 
in  the  opinion  of  this  Government  should  be 
accompanied  by  the  announcement  that  no 
transgression  by  Poland,  Finland,  or  any 
other  power,  of  the  line  so  drawn  and  pro- 
claimed will  be  permitted. 

Thus  only  can  the  Bolshevist  regime  be 
deprived  of  its  false  but  effective  appeal  to 
Russian  nationalism  and  compelled  to  meet 
the  inevitable  challenge  of  reason  and  self- 
respect  which  the  Russian  people,  secure 
from  invasion   and  territorial  violation,   are 


932 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


sure  to  address  to  a  social  philosophy  that 
degrades  them  and  a  tyranny  that  oppresses 
them. 

The   policy   herein    outlined   will   command 
the  support  of  this  Government. 


Accept,  Excellency,   the  renewed  assurance 
of  my  highest  consideration. 

BAINBRIDGE  COLBY. 
His    Excellency,    Baron    Cammillo    Romano 
Avezzana,  Ambassador  of  Italy. 


The  Third  International 


By  JOHN  SPARGO 


OWING,  doubtless,  to  the  sensational 
developments  of  the  war  between 
Soviet  Russia  and  Poland,  and 
the  critical  negotiations  between 
representatives  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment and  the  Bolshevist  envoys,  not 
much  detailed  information  concerning 
the  Second  Congress  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national, which  opened  at  Moscow  on 
July  15,  has  yet  reached  this  country. 
Not  until  the  mails  from  European  coun- 
tries bring  full  reports  will  it  be  possible 
to  give  anything  like  a  comprehensive 
resume  of  the  discussions  and  resolu- 
tions of  the  Congress. 

The  Third  or  Communist  International 
was  founded  in  1919  in  opposition  to  the 
existing  Socialist  International — the  so- 
called  Second  International — which 
functions  through  the  International  So- 
cialist Bureau  at  Brussels.  The  invita- 
tion to  establish  a  new  international  or- 
ganization of  revolutionary  Socialists 
and  Communists  was  sent  out  by  the 
Russian  Communist  Party  on  Jan.  9, 
1919,  just  when  the  Peace  Conference  at 
Paris  was  beginning.  The  Russian  Com- 
munist Party,  which  is  the  official  des- 
ignation of  the  Bolshevist  political  ma- 
chine, was  supported  in  issuing  the  in- 
vitation by  the  Communist  parties  and 
groups  of  Poland,  Hungary,  German 
Austria,  Latvia  and  Finland,  and  by 
the  Revolutionary  Social  Democratic 
Federation  of  the  Balkans.  The  name 
of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  of  the 
United  States  was  also  attached 
to  the  invitation,  but  this  meant  no  more 
than  that  Boris  Reinstein,  a  Bolshevist 
Commissar,  formerly  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
and  a  prominent  member  of  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party,  signed  the  document  with- 
out any  authorization. 

Article  XII.  of  the  invitation  gave  a 
list  of  parties   and  groups  which  were 


said  to  accept  the  point  of 'view  of  revo- 
luctionary  Communism.  As  published  in 
Humanite  of  Paris,  Article  XII.  read  as 
follows : 

Practically,  we  propose  that  representa- 
tives of  the  following-  parties,  groups  and 
tendencies  will  take  part  in  the  Third  In- 
ternational with  full  rights.  These  are 
parties  which  accept  its  point  of  view  in 
its  entirety : 

1— Spartacist  Union  of  Germany. 
2— Communist  (Bolshevik)  Party  of  Rus- 
sia. 
3— Communist  Party  of  German  Austria. 
4— Communist  Party  of  Hungary. 
5— Communist  Party  of  Poland. 
6— Communist  Party  of  Finland. 
7— Communist  Party  of  Esthonia. 
8— Communist  Party  of  Lettland. 
9— Communist  Party  of  Lithuania. 
10— Communist  Party  of  White  Russia. 
11— Communist  Party  of  Ukraine. 
12— The     revolutionary     elements     in     the 

Czech  Social  Democracy. 
13— The      Bulgarian      Social      Democratic 

Party  ("Narrow"  faction.) 
14— The  Rumanian  Social  Democratic  Par- 
ty. 
15— The  Serbian  Social  Democratic  Party 

(the  "  Left  Wing-.") 
16— The   Left   Swedish   Social   Democratic 

Party. 
17— The     Norwegian     Social     Democratic 

Party. 
18— The  "  Class  Struggle  "  Group  of  Den- 
mark. 
19— The  Communist  Party  of  Holland. 
20— The     revolutionary    elements     in    the 

Belgian   Labor  Party. 
21— Groups  of  French  Socialists  agreeing 

with  Loriot. 
22— Groups    of    French    Syndicalists    and 
Trades  Unionists  agreeing  with  Loriot. 
23— The  Left  Social  Democrats  of  Switzer- 
land. 
24— The  Italian  Socialist  Party. 
25— Left    Wing    elements    in    the    Spanish 

Socialist  Party. 
26— Left  Wing  element  in  the  Portuguese 

Socialist  Party. 
27— The  British  Socialist  Party  (especially 
the  tendency  represented  by  McLean.) 
28— The  Socialist  Labor  Party  of  England. 
29-The  I.  W.  W.  of  England. 


THE  THIRD  INTERNATIONAL 


933 


30— The  I.  W.  of  Great  Britain. 

31— The  revolutionary  elements  of  the 
Shop  Stewards'  movement  in  England. 

32— The    revolutionary     elements    of    the 

Irish  labor  organizations. 
'33— The  Socialist  Labor  Party  of  America. 

§4— The  Left  Wing  elements  of  the  Social- 
ist Party  of  America  (in  particular 
the  tendency  represented  by  Debs,  as 
well  as  the  tendency  i-epresented  by 
the  Socialist  Propaganda  League.) 

55—1.   W.  W.  of  America. 

36—1.  W.  W.  of  Australia. 

37— The  Workers'   International  Union  of 

^    America. 

38— The  Socialist  groups  of  Tokio  and  Yo- 
kohama represented  by  Comrade  Sen 
Katayama. 

39— The  Young  Socialists'  International 
x-epresented  by  Comrade  Muntzenberg. 

FIRST  CONGRESS  AT  MOSCOW 
The  first  congress  of  the  new  organ- 
nation  was  held  at  Moscow,  March  2-9, 
1919,  and  on  March  10  there  was  pub- 
lished the  Manifesto  of  the  Communist 
International,  which  bore  the  signatures 
)f  Rakovsky,  of  the  Revolutionary  Social 
^Democratic  Federation  of  the  Balkans, 
:N.  Lenin,  G.  Zinoviev  and  Leon  Trotzky 
)f  the   Russian   Communist  Party,   and 
Fritz   Flatten,   a   Swiss    Socialist.     The 
5  manifesto,  which  was  modeled  after  the 
famous  Communist  Manifesto  written  by 
Karl    Marx    and    Friedrich    Engels    in 
1847,  was  principally  the  work  of  Lenin. 
Perhaps  the  future  historian  will  regard 
those  portions  of  this  document  which 
deal  with  the  theories  of  Sovietism  and 
the   "Dictatorship   of   the   Proletariat,"' 
and  even  the  working  program,  as  less 
significant  than  its  strong  bias  against 
the  Entente  Allies  and  the  United  States 
— particularly    against    Great    Britain. 
Far  too  little  attention  has  hitherto  been 
paid  to  this  feature  of  the  now  historic 
document.      The    following    paragraphs 
are  typical  and  need  no  elucidation: 
Up  to  the  very  outbreak  of  war  British 
diplomacy  preserved  a  mysterious  secrecy. 
Civil  authorities  were  careful  not  to  have 
it  known  that  they  intended  to  take  part 
in   the   war   on  the   side   of   the  Entente, 
doubtless  so  as  not  to  alarm  the  Berlin 
Government  and  put  off  the  war.    London 
wanted  war;  hence  their  action  to  make 
Berlin   and   Vienna  build   their   hopes   on 
English  neutrality,  while  Paris  and  Petro- 
grad  were  sure  of  England's  intervention. 
The     war,     which     had     been     prepared 
for  decades,  broke  out  through  direct  and 
conscious   provocation   hy    Great  Britain. 


The  British  Government  reckoned  on  giv- 
ing support  to  Francfe  and  Russia  until 
they  were  exhausted  and  had  at  the  same 
time  crushed  Germany,  their  mortal  ene- 
my. But  the  strength  of  the  German 
military  machine  proved  too  formidable 
and  forced  a  real  and  not  merely  an  ap- 
parent intervention  in  the  war  by  Eng- 
land. The  military  superiority  of  Ger- 
many also  caused  the  Washington  Gov- 
ernment to  give  up  its  apparent  neutral- 
ity. The  United  States  assumed,  in  re- 
gard to  Europe,  the  same  part  that  Eng- 
land had  played  in  former  wars,  and  has 
tried  to  play  in  the  last,  i.  e.,  the  plan 
of  weakening  one  side  by  the  help  of  the 
other  by  joining  in  military  operations 
with  the  sole  aim  of  securing  for  them- 
selves all  the  advantages  of  the  situation. 
Wilson's  stake,  on  the  American  tombola 
method,  was  not  high,  but  it  was  the  last, 
and  he  won. 

CALL  TO  REVOLT 

Whereas  Marx  and  his  immediate  dis- 
ciples appealed  exclusively  to  the  prole- 
tariat in  the  industrially  advanced  coun- 
tries, the  Third  International  made  a 
special  appeal  to  the  workers  of  the  in- 
dustrially backward  and  undeveloped 
countries.  At  the  first  congress  there 
were  in  attendance  delegates  from 
Turkey,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  India, 
Turkestan,  Korea  and  China.  The 
manifesto  issued  contained  a  special  ap- 
peal to  the  "  Colonial  slaves  of  Africa 
and  Asia": 

The  last  war,  after  all  a  war  to  gain 
colonies,  was  at  the  same  time  a  war  with 
the  aid  of  the  colonies.  To  an  unprece- 
dented extent  the  population  of  the  col- 
onies was  drawn  into  the  European  war. 
Indians,  Arabs,  Madagascans  battled  on 
the  European  Continent— what  for?— for 
the  right  to  remain  slaves  of  England  or 
France?  Never  did  capitalist  rule  show 
itself  more  shameless,  never  was  the 
truth  of  colonial  slavery  brought  into  such 
sharp  relief.  As  a  consequence  we  wit- 
nessed a  series  of  open  rebellions  and 
-  revolutionary  ferment  in  all  colonies.  In 
Europe  itself  it  was  Ireland  which  re- 
minded us  in  bloody  street  battles  that 
it  is  still  an  enslaved  country  and  feels 
itself  as  such.  In  Madagascar,  in  Annam, 
and  in  other  countries,  the  troops  of  the 
bourgeois  republic  have  had  more  than 
one  insurrection  of  the  colonial  slaves  to 
suppress  during  the  war.  In  India  the 
revolutionary  movement  has  not  been  at 
a  standstill  for  one  day,  and  lately  we 
have  witnessed  in  Bombay  the  greatest 
labor  strike  in  Asia,  to  which  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Great  Britain  answered  with 
armored  cars. 


934 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


In  this  manner  the  colonial  question 
in  its  entirety  became  the  order  of  the 
day,  not  alone  on  the  green  table  of  the 
diplomatic  conferences  at  Paris,  but  also 
in  the  colonies  themselves.  The  Wilson 
program t  at  the  very  best,  calls  only  for 
a  change  in  the  firm  name  of  the  colonial 
enslavement.  *  *  *  The  workers  and 
peasants  not  only  of  Annam,  Algeria, 
Bengal,  but  also  of  Paris  and  Armenia, 
can  gain  independent  existence  only  after 
the  workers  of  England  and  France  have 
overthrown  Lloyd  George  and  Clemenceau 
and  taken  the  power  into  their  own 
hands.  *  *  *  Capitalist  Europe  has 
drawn  the  backward  countries  by  force 
into  the  capitalist  whirlpool,  and  Social- 
ist Europe  will  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
libel^ated  colonies  with  its  technique,  its 
organization,  its  spiritual  influence,  in 
order  to  facilitate  their  transition  into 
the  orderly  system  of  social  economy. 

As  early  as  December,  1917,  Lenin 
had  issued  an  appeal  to  the  Moslem 
peoples,  which  made  it  quite  clear  that 
he  was  ready  to  exploit  the  Pan-Islam 
propaganda  and  turn  it  to  the  advantage 
of  Bolshevism.  This  unnatural  alliance 
has  been  very  carefully  fostered  since 
then.  The  so-called  Bolshevist  revolt  in 
Azerbaijan  a  little  while  ago  was,  it  is 
now  definitely  known,  in  reality  a  Mos- 
lem revolt  supported  by  Bolshevist  mili- 
tary forces.  Enver  Pasha  is  a  Bolshe- 
vist army  officer.  Moslem  leaders  of 
the  Pan-Islamic  movement  were  active 
in  the  preliminary  conferences  held 
prior  to  the  Second  Congress  of  the 
Third  International.  In  the  resolutions 
of  the  congress  thus  far  published  this 
influence  is  apparent. 

THE  POSITION  OF  ITALY 

Lenin  and  the  other  Bolshevist  lead- 
ers have  had  rather  poor  success  in  their 
attempts  to  enlist  the  support  of  the 
larger  Socialist  parties.  The  most  im- 
portant European  Socialist  party  to  ad- 
here definitely  to  the  Moscow  Interna- 
tional is  that  of  Italy.  This  action  was 
taken  by  the  party  executive,  the  vote 
being  ten  in  favor  of  affiliation  to  three 
against.  The  small  Reforr^-^''  Socialist 
Party  of  Italy  remains  affiliated  with 
the  Second  International.  It  is  now  be- 
lieved that  the  Italian  Socialist  Party 
will  withdraw  in  view  of  the  discourag- 
ing and  condemnatory  report  made  by 
the   members   of   the   party  mission  on 


their  return  from  Soviet  Russia.  The 
fact  that  Signor  Dugoni,  the  well-known 
Socialist  Deputy,  reported  that  "  Lenin's 
experiment  is  a  complete  failure,"  and 
that  the  radical  Serati,  editor  of  Avanti, 
confirmed  this  report  in  a  leading  ar- 
ticle full  of  scathing  criticism  of  the 
Bolshevist  Utopia,  warrants  this  belief. 
It  confirms  the  report  recently  made  to 
the  present  writer  that  the  directors  of 
the  Italian  Socialist  Party,  actin*g  under 
the  advice  of  Bombacci,  were  planning 
a  campaign  against  Bolshevism  among 
their  members,  having  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  socialism  has  more  to  fear 
from  it  than  from  any  other  foe. 

SWITZERLAND,  FRANCE,  SPAIN 
The  congress  of  the  Swiss  Social 
Democratic  Party  decided  upon  affilia- 
tion with  the  Third  International,  subject 
to  a  referendum  vote  of  the  party  mem- 
bership. This  referendum,  however,  re- 
versed the  action  of  the  party  congress, 
the  vote  being  14,384  against  affiliation 
to  8,599  in  favor.  The  French  Socialist 
Party,  which  is  reported  in  the  press  as 
having  been  "  represented  "  at  the  recent 
congress  in  Moscow  by  MM.  Cachin  and 
Frossard,  had  already  definitely,  by  an 
overwhelming  vote,  decided  against 
affiliation  with  the  Third  International 
unless  the  latter  should  be  entirely  re- 
constructed. ^  More  recently,  on  July  23, 
the  party  decided  to  send  delegates  to  the 
Geneva  Congress  of  the  Second  Inter- 
national positively  instructed  to  oppose 
Bolshevism.  MM.  Cachin  and  Frossard 
were  in  attendance  at  the  Moscow  Con- 
gress, but  not  as  accredited  delegates. 
They  were  already  in  Soviet  Russia  on 
a  mission  of  inspection  and  investiga- 
tion, and  asked  for  permission  to  remain 
for  the  congress  of  the  Third  Interna- 
tional, which  they  attended  as  observers, 
not  as  delegates.  The  Spanish  Socialist 
Party,  by  a  vote  of  8,269  to  5,016,  de- 
cided against  affiliation  with  the  Third 
International  except  upon  terms  which 
the  leaders  of  the  latter  have  declared 
impossible  and  unacceptable  when  they 
were  put  forward  by  the  French  Social- 
ist Party  and  the  Independent  Socialists 
of  Germany.  This  statement  of  the  po- 
sition of  the  Spanish  Socialists  is  taken 
from  their  official  organ,  El  Socialista. 


r 

■       HOLI 


THE  THIRD  INTERNATIONAL 


935 


HOLLAND'S  ATTITUDE 

In  June  of  last  year  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party  of  Holland,  led  by  Wyn- 
koop,  Rutgers  and  Hoist,  joined  the 
Third  International,  changing  the  party 
name  at  the  same  time  to  Communist 
Party.  This  decision  did  not  have  the 
approval  of  the  entire  party,  however, 
and  a  considerable  element  remained 
loyal  to  the  old  name  and  the  old  asso- 
ciation with  the  Second  International. 

The  Third  International — ^with  funds 
supplied  by  the  Bolshevist  Government 
of  Russia — set  up  a  bureau  in  Amster- 
dam for  the  propaganda  in  Europe  of 
the  principles  of  the  Third  International. 
Recently,  however,  differences  arose  be- 
tween the  Moscow  leaders  and  those  in 
Amsterdam,  with  the  result  that  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Amsterdam  bureau  was 
ordered.  According  to  accounts  of  the 
dispute  which  have  appeared  in  the 
Dutch  Socialist  organ,  Het  Volk,  and  to 
wireless  messages  from  Moscow  dated 
May  25  and  June  3,  1920,  the  difficulties 
between  the  Russian  dictators  and  the 
Dutch  Communists  are  similar  to  those 
which  had  already  led  to  the  breach  be- 
tween the  former  and  the  German  Com- 
munist Labor  Party,  which  has  been  de- 
nied membership  in  the  Third  Interna- 
tional. With  the  repudiation  of  the 
principal  Dutch  Communists,  as  "na- 
tionalistic counter-revolutionary  ele- 
ments," the  only  representatives  of  Hol- 
land at  the  recent  Moscow  Congress 
must  have  been  of  some  faction  of  the 
Communist  Party. 

GERMANY'S  OPPOSITION 

Very  similar  is  the  position  of  the 
German  Socialist  and  Communist  Parties 
toward  the  Third  International.  None 
of  them  accept  the  dictatorship  of  Mos- 
cow. The  Majority  Socialists,  of  course, 
repudiate  and  are  equally  repudiated  by 
Lenin  and  his  associates.  They  remain 
affiliated  with  the  Second  International, 
and  are  earnestly  strivfng  to  restore  its 
lost  prestige.  The  Independent  Social- 
ists, on  the  other  hand,  have  adopted  a 
position  almost  identical  with  that  of  the 
French  and  Spanish  Socialists  in  that 
they  have  offered  to  join  the  Third  In- 
ternational subject  to  certain  conditions 


which  Lenin  and  his  followers  cannot 
accept.  They  want  a  broadening  of  the 
rules,  looking  to  a  reunion  of  practically 
all  the  Socialist  bodies.  The  Third  Inter- 
national would  thus  become,  as  Zinoviev 
has  remarked,  virtually  the  old  Second 
International  reorganized.  The  Moscow 
leaders  have  laid  down  conditions  which 
the  leaders  of  the  Independent  Social- 
ists of  Germany  declare  to  be  utterly 
impossible.  Of  considerable  interest  is 
this  statement  by  Zinoviev: 

When  we  hear  that  Crispien  and  Hil- 
ferding  in  Germany  and  Hillquit  and 
similarly  minded  men  in  America  begin 
to  express  sympathy  for  the  Third  Inter- 
national, and  are  not  disinclined  to  join 
it  under  certain  conditions,  we  say  that 
the  door  to  the  Communist  International 
must  be  bolted  securely.  Such  men  as 
Kautsky,  too,  excite  the  utmost  mistrust, 
and  are  not  worthy  to  be  admitted  to  the 
Communist  International,  which  is  the  in- 
ternational of  action.  We  welcome  work- 
men who  belong  to  the  Independent  So- 
cialist Party,  but  we  say  to  them,  first 
get  rid  of  your  ballast  and  turn  out  those 
so-called  leaders  who  are  in  reality 
agents  of  the  bourgeoisie  in  your  midst. 

The  Communist  Labor  Party  of  Ger- 
many has  been  found  to  be  quite  as  un- 
worthy as  the  two  larger  Socialist  Par- 
ties. It  has  been  practically  expelled. 
A  wireless  message  from  Moscow,  dated 
June  3,  1920,  dealing  with  the  conflict 
between  this  party  and  the  Moscow  lead- 
ers says: 

As  regards  the  Communist  Labor  Party 
in  Germany,  its  point  of  view  is  op- 
posed to  that  of  the  Communist  Interna- 
tional in  all  questions  of  tactics.  Its  re- 
quest to  be  received  Into  the  Communist 
International  was  answered  by  the  Ex- 
ecutive in  this  sense,  that  it  would  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  congress  of  the  Communist 
International  if  it  consented  to  give  an  un- 
dertaking that  it  would  submit  to  all  the 
decisions  taken  by  the  congress,  and  if  it 
also  consented  to  exclude,  before  the  hold- 
ing of  the  congress,  all  nationalistic, 
counter-revolutionary  elements.  The  Ex- 
ecutive is  publishing  in  the  near  future  an 
open  letter  to  the  workmen  belonging  to 
the  Communist  Labor  Party,  in  which  it 
defines  its  attitude  toward  all  the  dis- 
puted points  of  the  German  movements. 

THE  UNITED  STATES 
It  is  at  once  interesting  and  significant 
that  the  principal  representative  from 
the  United  States  was  John  Reed,  the 
journalist,  who  is  under  indictment  for 
violations  of  the  espionage  and  sedition 


936 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


laws  of  this  country  and  is  a  fugitive 
from  justice.  Reed  represents  the  Com- 
munist Labor  Party,  many  leaders  of 
which  have  been  subjected  to  prosecution 
by  the  United  States  Government.  A 
reliable  report  from  Riga,  dated  July  13, 
said  that  Reed  had  been  chosen  as  one 
of  the  Presidents  of  the  congress.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  Socialist  Party 
of  America,  by  a  referendum  vote,  de- 
cided to  apply  for  affiliation  with  the 
Third  International,  the  vote  being  3,475 
to  1,444.  In  view  of  the  terms  of  the 
resolution,  however,  and  the  hostility  of 
Reed  and  other  influential  Communists 
to  the  Socialist  Party,  the  rejection  of 
the  application  by  the  Third  Interna- 
tional may  be  rather  confidently  pre- 
dicted. 

GREAT  BRITAIN 

The  British  Labor  Party  conference  at 
Scarborough  on  June  25,  1920,  dealt  a 
severe  blow  to  Lenin's  hopes  and  to  the 
Third  International  when  it  decided  by  a 
"  card  "  vote  of  2,940,000  against  225,000 
against  affiliation  with  the  Moscow  In- 
ternational, and  by  a  vote  of  1,010,000 
against  516,000  against  secession  from 
the  Second  International.  As  Lenin  him- 
self has  had  to  confess  in  a  recent  letter, 
"  Even  a  small  Communist  Party  does 
not  exist  in  England."  The  groups  af- 
filiated with  the  Moscow  International  do 
not  number,  all  told,  10,000  persons. 
They  are  the  Workers'  Socialist  Federa- 
tion, which  is  simply  little  more  than 
another  name  for  Miss  Sylvia  Pankhurst; 
the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  a  tiny  faction 
which  is  itself  split  into  a  "  Right "  and 
"  Left "  wing,  and  the  British  Socialist 
Party,  which  is  composed  of  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  extreme  Marxists.  Of  course,  there 
are  elements  in  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  favorable  to  the  Third  Inter- 
national and  to  Bolshevism,  but  they  are 
not  numerous.  The  Independent  Labor 
Party  (which  is  part  and  parcel  of  the 
Labor  Party)  has  refused  to  affiliate 
with  Moscow. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen 
that,  so  far  as  the  Western  nations  are 
concerned,  the  Third  International  does 
not  yet  embrace  the  major  Socialist  par- 
ties. 


THE  RECENT  CONGRESS 

The  first  session  of  the  recent  con- 
gress was  held  in  Petrograd,  the  later 
sessions  being  held  in  Moscow.  There 
were  about  400  delegates  in  attendance, 
including  representatives  of  various  par- 
ties or  groups  in  Germany,  France, 
Hungary,  Holland,  Great  Britain, 
Switzerland,  United  States,  Cuba,  Tur- 
key, China,  Japan,  Korea,  India,  Persia, 
Afghanistan. 

The  correspondents  of  the  Swedish 
newspapers  devoted  a  large  part  of 
their  reports  to  descriptions  of  the 
lavish  expenditures  of  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment to  provide  luxurious  enter- 
tainments for  the  visitors.  "  Although 
Russia  is  supposed  to  be  starving,  unbe- 
lievable stores  of  wines  and  vodka  load- 
ed the  tables,  while  the  choicest  viands 
convinced  the  foreign  delegates  that  So- 
vietism  is  not  disastrous,  at  least  to 
those  high  in  its  councils,"  says  one  ac- 
count. Several  correspondents  told  of 
many  millions  of  leaflets  and  pamphlets 
in  all  languages,  containing  inflamma- 
tory manifestoes  designed,  according 
to  Pravda,  the  official  Bolshevist  or- 
gan, "  to  cross  the  borders  with  the  re- 
turning delegates  and  give  a  deathblow 
to  the  world's  bourgeoisie." 

While  some  of  the  sessions  were  open 
meetings  at  which  problems  of  socialism 
and  communism  were  discussed,  there 
were  more  secret  sessions,  not  open  to 
the  public  or  the  press  and  not  reported. 
This  is  a  most  unusual  procedure  for 
Socialist  congresses,  and  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing to  find  it  suggested  in  many  quarters 
that  at  these  secret  gatherings  military 
affairs  and  measures  for  strengthening 
the  Soviet  regime  in  Russia  by  means  of 
uprisings  in  other  countries  were  dis- 
cussed. In  this  connection  European  ob- 
servers have  attached  great  importance 
to  the  fact  that  the  Turkish  delegates, 
Bedri  Bey  and  Behaeddin  Chakim  Bey, 
were  known  to  be  the  representatives  of 
Talaat  Pasha.  Of  the  resolutions  adopted 
the  one  most  commented  upon  in  the 
European  press  had  a  direct  bearing 
upon  the  military  situation.  Notwith- 
standing the  propaganda  of  protest 
against  the  blockade  policy  as  applied  to 
Soviet    Russia,   the    congress   passed   a 


THE  THIRD  INTERNATIONAL 


937 


; resolution  calling  for  a  blockade  of 
Poland  and  pledging  all  the  parties  and 
groups  represented  to  work  for  it  in  their 
respective  countries. 

WORLD  REVOLUTION  ADVOCATED 

Another  resolution  approved  an  ap- 
peal to  the  peoples  of  India,  Syria, 
Turkey  and  Arabia,  to  be  issued  in  the 
name  of  the  Third  International,  calling 
upon  them  to  rise  against  the  Allies  and 
America  and  "  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
which  the  Allies  are  trying  to  impose 
upon  them."  This  appeal  is  significant 
as  part  of  the  growing  bond  of  union 
between  Bolshevism  and  Pan-Islamism. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  recently  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  Moslem  world  with 
the  treatment  meted  out  to  Turkey  by 
the  victorious  Allies  has  been  most  con- 
sistently and  vigorously  expressed  by  the 
Bolsheviki.  Many  keen  political  observers 
have  pointed  to  this  fact  as  indicating 
that  a  rival  to  the  League  of  Nations  vs 
thus  being  developed — a  league  of  the 
Oriental  nations  and  Russia  against  the 
league  representing  Western  civilization. 

Openinfe  the  principal  sessions  of  the 
congress  at  Moscow,  Lenin,  the  Soviet 
Premier,  in  a  notable  address  declared 
that  the  Third  International  aimed  to 
consolidate  and  organize  worldwide 
revolution.  Contributing  to  that  end, 
though  unconsciously,  were  two  great 
factors — the  world's  economic  crisis  and 
the  dissensions  in  the  League  of  Nations 
and  its  inability  to  protect  the  small  na- 
tionalities. 

Lenin  pointed  out  that,  even  in  those 
countries  where  conditions  were  most 
favorable,  such  as  England,  Japan  and 
the  United  States  of  America,  the  cost 
of  living  had  risen  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  advance  in  wages,  that  conse- 
quently the  masses  were  poorer,  only  an 
infinitesimal  part  of  the  population  in 
any  of  these  countries  having  derived 
any  benefit.  The  collapse  of  the  entire 
capitalistic  system  is  threatened  for  this 
reason,  and  owing  to  the  impossibility 
of  settling  the  debts  of  the  war  without 
involving  many  countries  in  economic 
ruin.  Lenin  spoke  of  what  he  termed 
"the  hopelessness  of  reconstruction  un- 
der  the   capitalist   regime,"    and   dwelt 


upon  the  fact  that  the  English  writer, 
Keynes,  ^ad  advanced  the  idea  that  an- 
nulment of  war  debts  was  necessary  in 
order  to  establish  international  credit. 

LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  DECLARED  A 
FAILURE 

Speaking  at  some  length  on  the 
League  of  Nations,  Lenin  said  that  it 
had  fallen  prey  to  internal  dissension. 
It  had  not  furnished  any  protection  of 
help  to  the  smaller  nationalities,  and  the 
imperialistic  Governments  dominating 
the  League,  in  pursuanr-e  of  their  own 
selfish  interests,  were  placing  the  de- 
feated nations  in  the  position  of  colonies 
and  dependencies.  Thus  the  failure  of 
the  League  of  Nations  had  contributed 
to  the  Third  International.  As  an  illus- 
tration of  this  he  pointed  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  fate  of  Turkey  had  brought 
to  the  Communist  International  numer- 
ous elements  of  strength.  For  the  first 
time  "  colonists,  dependencies  and  op- 
pressed nations "  were  represented  in 
the  International,  declared  the  Soviet 
Premier,  not  quite  accurately,  however, 
as  a  reference  to  the  records  of  the  con- 
gresses of  the  First  International,  found- 
ed by  Marx,  and  its  successor,  the  Sec- 
ond International,  will  readily  show. 
Accuracy  of  statement  is  not  one  of 
Lenin's  strong  points,  it  must  be  noted. 

Lenin  paid  his  respects  to  the  United 
States  in  particular  when  he  denounced 
the  deportation  of  Communists  from  this 
country.  The  deportation  of  500  Com- 
munists— or  any  number,  for  that  mat- 
ter— ^from  the  United  States  would  not 
help  the  capitalist  regime  while  poverty 
and  need  increased  among  the  working 
classes,  at  the  same  time  that  the  capi- 
talists were  enriching  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  the  workers.  He  declared 
that  the  working  classes  throughout  the 
world  were  ripe  for  a  broad  revolution- 
ary movement,  for  world  revolution,  in 
fact. 

LENIN  DENOUNCES  OPPONENTS 
As  usual,  Lenin  was  very  bitter  in  de- 
nouncing those  Socialists  in  Russia  who 
continue  to  withhold  their  support  from 
the  Bolsheviki  and  even  to  oppose  them 
wherever  and  whenever  possible.  He  de- 
nounced most  bitterly  the  Social  Demo- 


938 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


crats,  his  former  colleagues,  for  being 
"  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  'the  de- 
velopment of  revolutionary  power  as  a 
means  of  service  to  all  countries."  It 
had  been  shown,  he  said,  that  they  "  were 
the  enemies  of  the  working  class  and  the 
defenders  of  the  bourgeoisie."  It  would 
be  an  easier  task  to  unify  the  left  wing 
of  the  Socialist  movement  and  rectify 
mistakes  in  the  campaign  of  the  pro- 
letariat by  the  adoption  of  a  campaign 
of  united  action. 

In  connection  with  Lenin's  attack  upon 
the  Social  Democrats  it  is  interesting  to 
read  the  following  declaration  by  the 
Social  Democrats  of  Petrograd,  issued 
shortly  before  the  Second  Congress  of 
the  Communist  International,  and  se- 
cretly circulated  among  the  delegates  to 
that  body — much  to  the  annoyance  of  the 
Bolsheviki: 

Russia  is  drenched  in  blood.  The  Com- 
munist Government  has  destroyed  all  so- 
cial and  industrial  life,  trampled  per- 
sonality into  the  dust,  and  has  already 
annihilated  the  best  intellectual  power  of 
the  laiTd.  To  foreign  nations  the  Bolshe- 
viki pretend  to  be  representatives  of  the 
workers  and  peasants,  but  they  trick  the 
masses  of  the  people  and  give  promises 
only  that  they  may  keep  themselves  in 
power.  Only  through  shameless  methods 
of  violence  do  they  remain  in  control, 
and  every  day  their  real  hatred  against 
the  laboring  men  becomes  more  apparent. 
Through  many  imprisonments  our  Social 
Democratic  organization  is  being  de- 
stroyed, and  the  methods  are  like  those 
of  the  Czar.  Spies  are  everywhere,  and 
many  Social  Democrats  are  continually 
brought  to  trial.  We,  the  workers,  repre- 
senting fourteen  factories  of  Petrograd, 
and  the  Social  Democrats  of  Petrograd, 
protest  loudly  against  this  challenge  to 
the  whole  of  the  working  class  in  Russia. 
We  have  nothing  in  common  with  this 
Government  of  violence  and  murder,  and 
we  pledge  ourselves  to  use  every  means 
that  this  report  shall  reach  across  our 
frontiers  to  comrades  in  other  countries. 

RUSSIAN  ANTI-BOLSHEVISTS 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  this 
simply  evidences  a  factional  fight  among 
rival  Socialist  bodies.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  trade  unions, 
the  co-operatives  and  even  that  section 
of  the  Mensheviki  which  has  adapted 
itself  to  Bolshevist  rule  more  or  less,  all 
share  the  views  of  the  Social  Democrats 


of  Petrograd.  During  the  visit  of  the 
British  Labor  Party  Mission  to  Petro- 
grad and  Moscow,  at  public  meetings  ar- 
ranged in  honor  of  the  mission  and  at 
some  of  the  meetings  of  trade  unions 
they  were  privileged  to  visit,  responsible 
leaders  of  the  Mensheviki  and  the  unions, 
taking  their  lives  in  their  hands,  as  it 
were,  spoke  up  with  remarkable  direct- 
ness. They  warned  the  British  delegates 
not  to  be  deceived  by  their  Bolshevist 
guides  and  told  them  frankly  that  they 
were  in  a  land  harshly  governed  by  a 
brutal  and  corrupt  bureaucracy.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Moscow  Printers'  Union 
the  horrors  of  the  Soviet  regime  were 
exposed  to  the  British  visitors.  Even 
Pravda  admitted  that  "  it  was  with 
thunders  of  applause "  that  Chernov's 
attack  was  greeted.  Subsequently,  after 
the  departure  of  the  British,  the  Moscow 
Printers'  Union  was  dissolved  and  a  new 
campaign  of  repression  against  the  Men- 
sheviki was  inaugurated.  The  revulsion 
of  feeling  on  the  part  of  such  strong 
partisans  of  the  Bolsheviki  as  Bertrand 
Russell  and  Mrs.  Philip  Snowden  is  easy 
to  understand  in  the  light  of  these  facts. 
A  report  which  the  writer  has  received 
from  Helsingfors,  from  a  most  credible 
source,  but  which  has  not  yet  been  veri- 
fied, states  that  at  the  recent  congress 
of  the  Communist  International  Lenin 
was  faced  by  opposition  veiy  much  more 
dangerous  to  his  rule  than  that  of  the 
Social  Democrats  and  other  non-Bolshe- 
vist elements.  The  report  states  that  in 
the  secret  sessions  of  the  congress,  al- 
ready referred  to,  Bucharin,  the -editor 
of  Pravda,  and  Dzersjinsky,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Extraordinary  Commission 
for  Combating  Counter  Revolution,  bit- 
terly assailed  Lenin,  and  were  supported 
in  their  attitude  by  a  number  of  dele- 
gates from  other  countries.  This,  it  is 
alleged,  is  only  a  manifestation  of  a 
schism  which  sharply  divides  the  Bol- 
sheviki into  warring  factions.  Bucharin 
and  Dzersjinsky  and  their  followers  op- 
pose all  peace  settlements  with  Poland 
and  the  Entente  Powers,  and  all  nego- 
tiations, especially  the  Kamenev-Krassin 
Mission.  Lenin  had  to  defend  himself 
against  the  charge  that  he  is  compromis- 
ing the  revolution. 


England's  Real  Attitude  on  Ireland 

By  VISCOUNT  BRYCE 

[Former  British  Ambassador  to  the  United  States] 
%e  following  statement  of  the  British  Government's  policy  in  Ireland,  which 
appeared  in  The  London  Times  of  July  3  under  the  title,  *'  What  America  Ought 
to  Know,"  was  written,  Lord  Bryce  explains,  with  the  object  of  correcting  "  the 
incorrect  impressions  which  largely  prevail  in  America  regarding  the  present  mind 
and  purpose  of  the  English  people  toward  Ireland/'  and  from  the  viewpoint  that 
it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  peoples  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  should  understand  each  other's  intents  and  purposes. 

[For  Other  Articles  on   Ireland   See  Pages   1039-55] 


I  SHALL  not  attempt  to  discuss  tlie 
Irish  question  generally,  nor  the  con- 
duct of  recent  British  Governments, 
nor  the  Sinn  Fein  movement.  My  sole 
object  is  to  set  forth  shortly  and  clearly 
some  material  facts  which,  though  patent 
to  those  who  have  followed  the  course 
of  events  during  the  last  forty  years,  do 
not  seem  to  be  known  to  or  duly  appre- 
ciated by  the  mass  of  the  American 
people. 

What  is  the  general  belief  in  America 
regarding  the  relations  of  the  people  of 
Great  Britain  to  the  peoj)le  of  Ireland, 
and  how  far  is  that  belief  correct? 

England  is  constantly  represented  to 
the  American  people  as  the  cppressor  of 
Ireland.  They  are  told  to  think  of  the 
English  as  a  harsh  and  selfish  nation, 
unfaithful  to  its  own  traditions  of  free- 
dom, treating  unhappy  Ireland,  of  whose 
miseries  it  was  the  cause,  with  a  cruelty 
such  as  Russia  showed  to  Poland  and 
Austria  used  to  show  to  Italy.  The  Irish 
people  are  represented  as  a  practically 
united  nation  differing  in  race  and  re- 
ligion from  the  English,  cherishing 
memories  of  former  greatness,  and  de- 
manding with  a  single  voice  to  be  de- 
livered from  an  alien  yoke. 

These  two  pictures  never  were  true. 
Ireland,  doubtless,  did  receive  in  former 
days  much  hard  treatment  from  Eng- 
land, as  indeed  every  country  was  in 
times  past  ill-treated  by  those  who  had 
conquered  it.  But  for  the  last  seven 
centuries  Ireland  has  never  been  a  united 
country  as  against  England,  for  there 
has  been  in  Ireland  a  pro-English  sec- 
tion, larger  or  smaller  from  time  to  time, 
but  always  important.  The  time  when 
Ireland  came  nearest  to  speaking  with 


one  voice  was  in  1780 — the  time  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  when  the  Protestant 
and  Anglo-Irish  section  of  the  nation — 
then  as  now  a  minority-^received  the 
sympathy  of  the  then  unenfranchised 
Roman  Catholics  in  their  successful  de- 
mand for  the  abolition  of  an  English 
authority  in  which  Ireland  was  not  rep- 
resented. 

It  is  nevertheless  true  that,  although 
the  Irish  people  were  never  united  in 
antagonism  to  England,  the  English 
people  as  a  whole  did  for  more  than 
sixty  years  after  the  union  of  the  king- 
doms in  1800  reject  the  demands  put 
forward  on  behalf  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  by  Daniel  O'Connell  and  other 
Irish  leaders  down  to  Parnell  for  a 
measure  of  wide  self-government.  During 
those  years  the  English  insisted  on  treat- 
ing Ireland  as  part  of  the  United  King- 
dom, saying  that  as  the  Irish  people, 
Protestants  and  Catholics  (after  1829) 
alike,  were  represented  in  the  British 
Parliament  with  an  equal  suffrage  and 
a  representation  (in  later  years)  in  ex- 
cess of  the  proportion  of  the  population, 
they  ought  to  be  contented  therewith. 
In  this  sense,  then,  although  the  Irish 
people  were  not  united  in  their  demand 
for  self-government,  there  was  an  an- 
tagonism between  the  two  islands,  not 
merely  because  there  were  unredressed 
grievances  (down  to  1869  regarding  the 
Church,  and  to  1881  regarding  the  land), 
but  also  because  the  English  were  prac- 
tically united  in  their  refusal  to  Ireland 
of  the  special  treatment  which  many  of 
her  spokesmen  demanded,  and  which 
most  of  us  now  think  ought  to  have  been 
given. 

That   state  of  things   ended   in   1886. 


940 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


That  year  was  a  turning  point  of  vital 
significance  in  the  relations  of  the  two 
islands,  and  it  is  this  significance  which 
does  not  appear  to  be  understood  in 
America. 

In  1886  Mr.  Gladstone,  convinced  that 
the  claim  for  home  rule,  which  had  at 
the  election  of  1885  received  the  support 
of  a  large  majority  of  Irish  voters,  was 
a  just  claim  and  ought  to  be  granted, 
induced  his  party  to  adopt  the  policy  of 
home  rule.  Believing  that  both  countries 
would  fare  better  if  self-government 
were  granted  to  Ireland,  because  peace 
and  good-will  would  grow  up  between 
them,  he  brought  in  a  home-rule  bill, 
which,  however,  failed  to  pass.  In  1898 
he  brought  in  a  second  bill,  which  passed 
the  House  of  Commons  but  was  rejected 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  His  party  con- 
tinued to  proclaim  home  rule  as  their 
deliberate  and  settled  policy,  and  it  was 
one  of  his  greatest  services  to  both  coun- 
tries that  by  that  policy  the  opposition 
between  the  two  peoples  was  brought  to 
an  end,  because  at  least  half  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  and  much  more  than  half  of 
the  Scottish  people  had  taken  their  stand 
beside  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people  in 
the  demand  for  home  rule. 

In  1914  the  then  Liberal  Prime  Minis- 
ter [Mr.  Asquith]  succeeded  in  passing 
a  home-rule  bill,  which  is  now  on  the 
statute  book.  Its  operation  was  post- 
poned because  at  the  very  moment  of  its 
passing  the  war  broke  out,  and  it  ap- 
peared impossible  during  the  war  to 
introduce  some  amendments  which  the 
bill  was  felt  to  require.  However,  the 
fact  remains  that  in  1914  a  decision, 
never  since  reversed,  was  given  by  the 
British  Parliament  in  favor  of  home 
rule.  If  the  act  has  not  yet  taken  ef- 
fect, it  is  for  a  reason  which  I  must 
now  explain. 

ONE-FOURTH  OF  IRELAND  AGAINST 
HOME   RULE 

A  section  of  the  Irish  people,  which 
is  roughly  estimated  at  one-fourth,  has 
steadily  objected  to  home  rule,  and  that 
part  of  this  section  which  dwells  in  the 
northeastern  counties  has  declared  that 
if  home  rule  were  imposed  upon  them 
they  would  resist  it  by  force  of  arms. 
This  section  is  mainly  but  not  entirely 


Protestant — for  in  Ireland  the  dividing 
line  between  the  advocates  and  opponents 
of  home  rule  does  not  altogether  corre- 
spond with  distinctions  either  of  race 
or  of  religion.  There  are  plenty  of  home- 
rule  Protestants  of  English  stock,  and 
some  anti-Home  Rulers  who  are  Catholic 
and  of  Celtic  stock.  Now,  it  is  the  re- 
sistance of  this  one-fourth  that  has  de- 
layed the  settlement  of  the  home-rule 
question.  How  far  they  are  justified 
in  their  opposition,  how  far  the  British 
Government  was  justified  in  allowing 
itself  to  be  alarmed  by  their  threats  of 
forcible  resistance — upon  these  points,  as 
upon  the  conduct  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment generally,-  I  say  nothing  here, 
though  I  have  often  expressed  my  opin- 
ion in  Parliament.  It  is  always  a  dif- 
ficult question  to  say  (as  America  has 
found  more  than  once)  how  far  majori- 
ties have  a  right  to  coerce  minorities, 
and  to  discuss  that  question  much  space 
would  be  needed. 

The  really  important  thing  is  that 
Americans  should  understand  that  the 
question  of  self-government  for  Ireland, 
whatever  form  it  may  take,  is  no  longer 
a  question  between  the  two  islands,  as 
it  was  fifty  years  ago,  but  a  question 
between  two  sections  of  the  Irish  people 
— one  much  larger  than  the  other,  but 
each  embittered  by  the  strife  of  the 
thirty-four  years  that  have  passed  since 
1886. 

In  England  and  Scotland  bitterness 
over  home  rule  has  now  quite  disap- 
peared, for  the  large  majority,  even  of 
those  who  formerly  opposed  it  as  preju- 
dicial to  English  interests,  have  now 
come  to  see  that  home  rule  is  inevitable 
and  ought  to  be  conceded,  since  it  is 
the  only  path  to  peace.  There  are  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  as  to  what  form 
home  rule  should  take,  just  as  there  are 
differences  of  opinion  among  the  Irish 
majority,  some  of  whom  prefer  a  quali- 
fied measure  of  autonomy,  while  others 
go  further  and  desire  the  complete  inde- 
pendence of  Ireland.  The  essential  thing 
is  that  Americans  should  now  realize 
that  the  English  people,  taken  as  a 
whole,  desires  and  intends  to  go  as  far 
as  it  can  (short  of  an  absolute  separa- 
tion of  the.  two  islands,  and  subject  to 
whatever   safeguards   a   regard   for  the 


ENGLAND'S  REAL  ATTITUDE  ON  IRELAND 


941 


IRISH    REPUBLICAN     SYMPATHIZERS     PLACING     WREATHS    ON    THE     GRAVE     OF    WOLFE 

TONE,    IN   MEMORY   OF  HIS    FIGHT   FOR    "  IRELAND   A    NATION  " 

(©    Central   News    Service) 


minority  may  seem  to  require)  to  meet 
the  wishes  of  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
people. 

BRITISH   DESIRE   FOR  SETTLEMENT 

The  English  have  given  ample  proof 
of  their  good-will  toward  Ireland  by  the 
sums  of  money  which  Parliament  has 
voted  for  Irish  purposes  during  the  last 
thirty  years  and  by  the  large  extent  to 
which  it  has  pledged  its  national  credit 
in  guaranteeing  loans.  The  results  of 
these  grants  and  loans  have  been  to 
make  Ireland  more  prosperous  and  the 
people  better  off  than  they  have  been 
for  many  centuries.  Under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Land  Purchase  acts  more 
than  half  of  the  tenant  farmers  have 
become,  or  are  now  becoming,  owners  of 
the  land  they  occupy  and  cultivate,  as 
the  rest  of  these  farmers  will  be  when 
the  process  is  complete.  Those  who,  like 
myself,  remember  the  state  of  the  peas- 
antry along  the  western  and  southern 
coasts   sixty-five  years   ago,   are   struck 


by  the  contrast  between  the  wretchedness 
of  those  days  and  the  standard  of  com- 
fort and  health  attained  today. 

Unfortunately,  this  change  in  Eng- 
lish sentiment  has  not  yet  produced  in 
Ireland  the  impression  that  might  be 
desired.  This  Is  partly  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  performance  of  the  promise  of 
home  rule  has  been,  from  various  causes, 
so  long  delayed.  I  cannot  here  explain 
those  causes,  nor  discuss  how  far  they 
have  justified  postponement.  All  I  wish 
to  explain  is  that  they  are  not  due  to 
any  faltering  in  the  purpose  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  to  fulfill  their  promise  em- 
bodied in  the  Act  of  1914.  But  there  is 
also  another  reason.  Long  as  they  have 
dwelt  side  by  side,  the  two  peoples  do 
not  yet  understand  one  another.  The  Eng- 
lish, very  few  of  whom  know  anything 
about  Irish  history,  cannot  see  why  the 
present  generation  of  Irishmen  should 
still  bitterly  resent  the  injuries  inflicted 
on  their  forefathers,  and  should  show  such 
a  passionate  enthusiasm  for  the  idea  of  a 


942 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


LiKSKRVE    SOLDlKliy    OX    EMERGENCY    DUTY    IN    IRELAND 
(©    International) 


separate  Irish  nationality.  Why  not, 
they  say,  forget  the  past  and  let  us 
shake  hands  and  make  a  new  departure? 
We  are  not  the  English  of  100  years  ago, 
we  do  not  oppress  you,  and  do  not  want 
to  oppress  you.  We  want  to  live  as 
friends  and  partners, 

WHERE   THE   TROUBLE   LIES 

But  the  present  Irish  generation,  still 
brooding  over  the  wrongs  of  the  past, 
does  not  realize  that  the  English  people 
have  undergone  a  complete  change  of 
heart,  and  are  now  not  only  seeking  to 
cure  the  practical  evils  brought  to  their 
knowledge,  but  heartily  desire  that  com- 
plete reconcilement  which  the  grant  of 
autonomy,  or  some  kind  of  home  rule,  is 
needed  to  produce.  In  the  Ireland  of  to- 
day, and  in  both  sections  of  that  Ireland, 
the  memories  of  distant  days  of  strife — 
memories  of  Augrim  and  Limerick,  of 
the  Battle  of  the  Boyne  and  the  Siege 
of  Derry,  and  the  insurrection  of  1798 — 
still  so  possess  and  obsess  men's  minds 
that  Nationalists  and  Sinn  Feiners  con- 
tinue to  think  of  England  not  as  she  is 
now,  but  as  if  she  were  still  the  oligar- 
chical Government  which  ruled  a  century 
ago  in  times  which  the  English  of  today 
have  quite  forgotten. 

It  is  these  memories  of  ancient  strife 
that   still   embitter   the  two  hostile   sec- 


tions of  Ireland's  inhabitants.  If  too 
little  of  Irish  history  is  known  or  re- 
membered in  England,  too  much  is 
known  and  remembered  in  Ireland. 
People  there  are  still  filled  with  recol- 
lections of  wrongs  done  or  suffered,  and 
refuse  to  drink  of  the  waters  of  forget- 
fulness,  sometimes  a  healthful  and  neces- 
sary potion.  It  is  not  in  Ireland  only 
that  such  recollections  are  too  vivid.  All 
over  Europe  the  passion  of  nationality  is 
keeping  alive  angry  memories  which  a 
wiser  patriotism  might  allow  to  die. 

Here  is  the  great  difficulty  with  which 
England  has  to  deal.  Here  is  the  cause 
which  might  produce  that  sanguinary 
civil  war  between  the  two  hostile  sections 
in  Ireland  which  the  English  people  seek 
to  avert.  If  only  a  way  could  be  found 
— as  some  day  it  must  be  found — of 
reconciling  these  hostile  elements,  a  wide 
scheme  of  autonomy  would  be  soon  se- 
cured. The  way  seemed  on  the  verge 
of  being  found  not  many  months  ago, 
and  many  of  us  believe  it  can  and  will 
be  found.  Anyhow,  let  me  repeat  once 
more  that  it  is  in  the  divisions  within 
Ireland  itself,  not  in  any  want  of  good- 
will on  England's  part,  that  there  lies 
the  obstacle — and  practically  the  only 
obstacle — which  still  delays  that  peace- 
ful settlement  which  the  British  de- 
mocracy sincerely  desire. 


The  Increased  Strength  of  the  United 
States  on  the  Sea 


By  THOMAS  G.  FROTHINGHAM 

[Captain  U.   S.   R.] 


FOLLOWING  the  proceedings  of  the 
Naval  Committee  of  Congress,  and 
especially  in  consequence  of  a 
statement  by  Mr.  Britten  of  that 
committee,  the  attention  of  the  British 
public  has  been  drawn  to  the  strength 
of  the  United  States  Navy,  and  there  has 
been  much  discussion  in  Great  Britain 
concerning  the  changed  situation  on  the 
sea.  It  has  suddenly  become  apparent 
that  our  naval-building  program  has 
been  steadily  increasing  the  strength  of 
our  fleet  of  battleships,  and  that  the  Uni- 
ted States  Navy  is  at  the  point  of  sur- 
passing the  British  Navy  in  this  most 
important  element  of  sea  power.  At  the 
same  time  the  British  have  realized  the 
great  increase  of  our  merchant  marine 
in  comparison  with  Great  Britain's. 

These  revelations  have  been  something 
of  a  shock  to  the  British  public,  and 
many  articles  have  been  published  com- 
menting on  the  growth  of  our  navy  and 
merchant  marine.  Among  these  is  a  no- 
table contribution  by  Archibald  Hurd  in 
the  Fortnightly  Review  for  June. 

For  many  reasons,  a  statement  of  the 
situation  from  an  American  point  of 
view  is  needed  at  this  time.  In  the  first 
place,  one  prevailing  tendency  in  the 
British  comments  should  be  set  right. 
Many  of  their  writers,  as  is  perhaps  nat- 
ural in  the  surprised  realization  of  the 
change  in  Great  Britain's  position  on 
the  sea,  reflect  a  feeling  that  the  for- 
ward stride  of  the  United  States  indi- 
cates hostility  on  our  part  and  a  deter- 
mination to  win  dominion  of  the  seas. 
Comparisons  are  made  with  the  system- 
atic campaign  undertaken  by  Germany 
to  gain  the  commerce  of  the  world,  which 
had  so  much  to  do  with  bringing  on  the 
World  War.  Mr.  Hurd  even  sees  "a 
menace  to  the  peace  of  the  world,  and 
especially  the  peace  of  the  English-speak- 
ing peoples." 


Many  British  writers  now  appear  to 
believe  that  America  has  recently 
changed  her  attitude  and  become  hostile 
to  the  nations  of  Europe.  The  position 
of  the  United  States  in  delaying  ratifi- 
cation of  the  Peace  Treaty  is  interpreted 
as  meaning  that  America  has  withdrawn 
from  association  with  Europe,  and  that 
this  is  to  be  followed  by  a  national  pol- 
icy of  aggrandizement,  "  a  demand  for 
nationalization,"  as  Mr.  Hurd  expresses 
it. 

THE  TRUE  EXPLANATION 

This  is  far  from  describing  the  actual 
situation  in  the  United  States.  Our 
country,  in  common  with  other  nations, 
has  often  been  misunderstood.  To  state 
the  real  case  in  simplest  terms,  we  have 
fewer  schemes  and  more  sentiment  than 
has  been  believed.  After  we  entered  the 
^  World  War,  in  spite  of  German  mis- 
^  representations,  Europe  grew  to  realize 
that  America's  part  was  unselfish.  In 
fact,  the  great  united  movement  in  our 
country  came  from  the  appeal  to  our 
ideals.  This  was  the  mainspring  of  our 
participation  in  the  war — and  this  im- 
pulse remained  strong  in  the  United 
States   after  the  armistice. 

Unfortunately,  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence, the  production  of  the  secret 
treaties,  and  the  consequent  wrangling 
for  months  over  the  claims  of  the  dif- 
ferent nations,  made  it  apparent  that  the 
long  discussions  were  being  devoted  to 
national  interests  and  not  to  efforts  for 
constituting  a  concord  of  the  peoples  of 
Europe.  This  unexpected  revelation  of 
European  post-war  policies  was  a  set- 
back to  public  opinion  in  America,  and 
it  was  by  taking  advantage  of  the  re- 
action that  the  opponents  of  the  treaty 
were  able  to  delay  ratification. 

This   should  be  understood  by  Euro- 


944 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


peans,  for  it  is  the  true  explanation  of 
what  has  happened  in  America.  The 
British,  above  all,  should  cease  to  think 
that  there  has  been  a  change  in  the  at- 
titude of  the  United  States  that  means 
hostility  to  any  European  nation.  It 
should  also  be  believed  that  neither  are 
there  any  influences  at  work,  nor  are 
there  any  schenies  on  foot  in  this  coun- 
try for  national  aggrandizement.  The 
United  States  is  not  planning  its  future 
on  the  lines  of  Germany's  ambitions.  It 
is  sound,  practical  advice  to  say  that 
the  growth  of  American  sea  power 
should  not  be  interpreted  according  to 
European  formulas,  for  these  do  not  ap- 
ply to  our  national  traits. 

It  is  true  that  the  present  position  of 
the  United  States  on  the  sea  was 
brought  about  by  conditions  created  by 
the  World  War,  but  these  were  straight- 
forward, natural  conditions  that  made  an 
appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  our 
people.  We  saw  the  need  of  a  larger 
navy  for  defense,  and  we  were  also  sud- 
denly obliged  to  build  a  great  tonnage 
of  carrying  ships  in  the  emergency 
caused  by  the  shortage  of  the  world's 
shipping  at  the  time  of  Germany's  U- 
boat  campaign.  These  were  the  reasons 
for  our  naval  and  maritime  activities. 
There  were  no  underlying  motives  that 
influenced  the  United  States. 

OUR  NAVAL  PROGRAM 

The  circumstances  of  the  naval  in- 
crease should  first  be  explained;  it  will 
then  be  evident  that  our  present  program 
for  building  warships  is  not  the  product 
of  any  recent  change  of  policy.  Our  in- 
crease was  determined  in  1916,  through 
the  most  natural  causes,  as  will  be  seen 
when  the  course  of  events  is  traced  lead- 
ing up  to  the  adoption  of  our  naval- 
building  program. 

The  following  is  the  history  of  our 
naval  increase:  In  the  period  of  dawn- 
ing suspicion  and  hostility  which  pre- 
ceded the  World  War  there  was  a  sud- 
den keen  competition  for  naval  superi- 
ority between  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many. This  began  in  1906,  and  each 
nation  entered  upon  an  enlarged  pro- 
gram of  building  battleships.  This  naval 
activity  was  stimulated  by  the  unusual 
condition  that  the  capital  unit  of  battle 


fleets  had  changed  in  that  year  to  a  new 
type,  following  the  British  design  of  the 
dreadnought,  which  became  the  name  of 
the  new  all-big-gun  battleship. 

The  adoption  of  this  new  fighting  unit 
gave  Germany  an  unexpected  opportu- 
nity to  threaten  the  supremacy  of  the 
British  Navy,  a  development  that  would 
have  been  out  of  the  question  if  the  two 
navies  had  kept  on  in  the  even  course  of 
adding  battleships  of  the  old  type.  In 
1907  Germany  laid  down  four  dread- 
noughts, in  1908  four,  in  1909-1910  five, 
in  1911  four.  In  these  years  Great  Brit- 
ain was  perforce  obliged  to  respond  with 
a  corresponding  increase  that  would 
maintain  the  existing  British  superi- 
ority— and  this  pace  was  continued  un- 
til the  outbreak  of  the  war. 

In  1906,  when  this  great  increase  of 
building  warships  began,  the  United 
States  held  second  place  among  the 
navies  of  the  world;  but,  through  all 
these  years  of  activity,  until  the  catas- 
trophe of  1914,  our  successive  Adminis- 
trations adhered  to  the  policy  of  restrict- 
ing the  building  program  of  the  United 
States  Navy  to  two  capital  ships  per 
year.  The  inevitable  result  was  to  put 
our  navy  in  the  third  place,  far  behind 
the  German  Navy  in  number  of  capital 
ships. 

Then  came  the  World  War,  and  the 
United  States  woke  to  the  fact  that  it 
was  comparatively  weak  in  the  most  es- 
sential element  for  its  defense,  a  battle 
fleet.  So  evident  was  this,  that  public 
opinion  asserted  itself,  and  in  1916  Con- 
gress authorized  the  present  building 
program. 

PURELY  DEFENSIVE  MOVE 

It  should  be  strongly  emphasized  that 
this  act  of  the  people  and  Congress  in 
1916  fixed  the  terms  of  our  building 
program,  which  is  now  suddenly  causing 
so  much  comment  in  Great  Britain.  It 
involved  no  change  or  threat.  Our  pro- 
gram is  only  the  result  of  a  timely  reali- 
zation among  our  people  that  our  neces- 
sary defense  must  be  a  strong  navy. 
There  was,  at  the  time,  no  definite 
thought  in  the  public  mind  of  using  this  I 
naval  force  against  any  particular  na-  i 
tion,  although  naturally  the  unbridled 
ambitions  of  Germany  showed  our  need 


INCREASED  STRENGTH  OF  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  SEA       945 


of  defense.  But  defense  alone  was  the 
object  of  the  increase— and  defense 
alone  is  the  reason  for  its  continuance, 
impersonal  and  not  directed  against  any 
power.* 

This  instinct  for  defense  on  the  seas 
has  been  most  fortunately  aroused  in 
our  nation.  Our  country  is  bounded  by 
two  great  oceans,  and  the  only  real  de- 
fense of  our  boundaries  is  the  far-flung 
use  of  our  battle  fleet  upon  these  wide 
stretches  of  sea.  For  the  United  States 
Navy,  more  than  for  any  other,  the  ul- 
timate service  is  a  battle  of  fleets.  In 
all  human  calculation,  our  country  is 
safe  from  attack  as  long  as  we  main- 
tain a  battle  fleet  that  is  able  to  defend 
our  sea  approaches  in  a  naval  action. 

Consequently,  for  the  United  States, 
a  battle  fleet  that  can  hold  its  own  in  an 
action  of  fleets  is  a  necessity — and  the 
possession  of  such  a  fleet  has  been  in- 
sured by  the  building  program  of  1916. 
That  is  the  whole  story — and  in  this 
wise  policy,  which  our  country  adopted 
four  years  ago,  there  is  no  trace  of  new 
influences  at  work  "  for  fanning  into 
flame  the  instinctive  national  jealousies 
of  the  two  nations " — to  quote  again 
from  Mr.  Hurd.  Any  American  knows 
that  our  country  is  barren  ground  for 
jealousy  of  any  other  nation. 

BASIS  OF  NAVAL  STRENGTH 

The  details  of  the  building  program  of 
1916  are  given  on  Page  946,  and  it  will  be 
seen  at  a  glance  that  provision  has  been 
made  for  a  powerful  fleet  of  battleships. 
Before  discussing  this  program,  it  should 
be  stated  that  it  is  wrong  to  consider  the 
relative  strength  of  navies  merely  in 
terms  of  ships  and  guns.  There  has  al- 
ways been  too  much  of  this  "  on  paper  " 
classification.  Men  and  methods  are  all- 
important,  but  in  modern  navies  ma- 
terial must  be  provided  in  advance,  or 
the  best  personnel  would  be  helpless. 
Modern  battleships  cannot  be  improvised. 
Consequently  the  construction  of  war- 
ships of  the  right  type  gives  to  a  nation 
a  definite  basis  of  naval  strength  that 
cannot     be     suddenly     overturned.     The 

*In  fact,  included  in  the  act  creating-  the 
building  program  of  1916  there  is  a  provision 
for  stopping  construction,  if  this  is  made 
possible  by  an  adequate  tribunal  for  arbitra- 
tion. 


United  States  now  possesses  this  basis 
of  naval  strength,  as  a  result  of  our 
policy  of  battleship   construction. 

It  is  not  alone  the  increased  building 
program  that  has  produced  this  result, 
but  it  is  also  due  to  the  existing  condi- 
tion that  the  increase  has  followed  the 
lines  of  a  sound  policy,  consistently  : de- 
veloped by  the  United  States,  of  building 
battleships  in  which  the  gun  has  been 
the  main  thing.  It  is  the  gun  alone  that 
wins  results  in  action,  and  the  United 
States  Navy  has  never  been  turned 
aside  from  this  central  idea  by  prevail- 
ing fashions  in  naval  construction.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  British  Navy  had  not 
adhered  to  this  policy,  and  herein  was 
contained  the  double  reason  for  the  slip- 
ping back  of  Great  Britain  as  a  naval 
power.  The  British  have  fallen  behind, 
not  only  because  their  building  program 
has  been  stopped,  but  also  because  Brit- 
ish naval  construction  of  the  last  ten 
years  had  been  increasingly  influenced 
by  the  battle  cruiser  craze,  and  their  re- 
cent construction  has  not  resulted  in  a 
compensating  strengthening  of  the  Brit- 
ish fighting  fleet. 

This  last  is  really  the  chief  reason  for 
America's  forging  ahead,  and  the  fact  is 
very  little  understood.  Mr.  Hurd  does 
not  seem  to  appreciate  it  fully.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  study  the  details  of  this 
shifting  of  comparative  values  in  naval 
material. 

FAITH  IN  HEAVY  GUNS. 

From  its  infancy  the  United  States 
Navy  has  led  in  the  development  of  the 
heavy  gun  in  naval  warfare.  In  its  early 
days,  placing  the  24-pounders  on  U.  S.  S. 
Constitution  was  considered  impracti- 
cable, but  it  was  a  long  stride  toward  the 
mobile  big-gun  platform  of  fleet  speed,  in 
contrast  to  the  floating-battery  idea. 
The  11-inch  guns  on  the  frigates  of  the 
fifties  led  naturally  to  the  big-gun  iron- 
clads of  the  civil  war,  and  we  developed 
the  successive  designs  of  mounting 
heavy  guns  in  turrets  aligned  over  the 
keel,  from  which  we  have  never  swerved, 
and  which  foreign  navies  finally  adopted, 
after  even  building  dreadnoughts  with 
various  other  clumsy  arrangements  of 
turrets. 


946 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


LIST  OF  SHIPS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  NAVY  CARRYING  12-INCH  45 
CALIBRE   GUNS,  OR  MORE   POWERFUL  GUNS 


Com- 
pleted. 
1906 
1906 
1907 
1907 
1907 
1908 


BATTLESHIPS    (PRE-DREADNOUGHT    TYPE)* 


Dis- 
Name.  placement. 

Connecticut     16,000 

Louisiana 16,000 

Minnesota    16.000 

Vermont    16,000 

Kansas     16,000 

New  Hampshire    16,000 


Main  Armament 


Four    12-inch   45    cal. 
(and    eight  8-inch). 


Speed 
Knots. 

-18.78 
18.82 
18.8.1 
18.33 
18.09 
18.16 


BATTLESHIPS 


1910 
1910 
1910 
1910 
1911 
1911 
1912 
1912 
1913 
1914 
1915 
1915 
1916 
1917 
1917 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1920 


Michigan     

South  Carolina 

Delaware    

Nortii   Dakota    , 

Florida 

Utah     

Arkansas    

Wyoming    , 

Texas   

New   York    .... 

Nevada    

Oklahoma     

Pennsylvania    . 

Arizona     

Mississippi  . . . . 
New  Mexico  . . , 
Idaho    

Calif  orniat     

Tennessee     


TTPE)** 
Eight  12-inch  45  cal 


Ten  12-inch  45  cal. 


Ten  12-inch  45  cal. 


Twelve   12-inch  50   cal, 


(DREADNOUGHT 
16,000 
16,000 
20,000 
20,000 
21,825 
21,825 
26,000 
26,000 
27,000 
27,000 
27,. ^00 ) 
27,500  \ 
31,400 
31,400  . 
32,0001 

32,000  {-Twelve   14-inch 
32,000j 
32,300 
32,300 


Ten  14-inch  45  cal. 


Ten  14-inch  45  cal. 


Twelve   14-inch  45   cal, 


50   cal, 


Twelve  14-inch  50   cal. 


jl8 
il8 
J  21 
i21 
{22 
^21 
.21, 
1 21 
(21, 
121 
(20, 
i20, 
c21 
I  21 

r2i. 

,^21, 
[21 

P^ 
■21 


BATTLESHIPS    (DREADNOUGHT   TYPE)t    OF   THE   BUILDING    PROGRAM    OF  1916 


No. 
45 
46 
47 
48 
49 
50 
51 
52 
53 
54 


[  Uight 


16-inch  45  cal. 


Percentage  of  Dis- 

Completion.        Name,  placement.     Main  Armament. 

51.1  Colorado    32,600] 

76.0  Maryland     32,600 

47.0  Washington    32, ( 

30.5  West    Virginia 32,600j 

12.5  South    Dakota 43,200^ 

10.1  Indiana    43,200 

10.9  Montana    43,200 

12:5  North    Carolina 43,200 

4.5  Iowa    43,200 

Massachusetts     43,200j 

BATTLE    CRUISERS    OF    THE    BUILDING    PROGRAM    OF    1916tt 


^Twelve  16-inch  50  cal. 


Speed 

Knots. 

r21.00 

J  21.00 

i  21.00 

[21.00 

-23.00 

23.00 

23.00 

23.00 

23.00 

23.00 


0.6 
0.6 
0.7 
0.6 
1.0 
1.0 


Lexington 35,300" 

Constellation    35,300 

Saratoga    35,300 

Ranger    35,300 

Constitution    35,300 

United   States 35,300 


Eight  16-inch  50  cal. 


33.25 
33.25 
33.25 
33.25 
33.25 
33.25 

♦Only  pre-dreadnoughts  with  12-inch  45  calibre  guns  are  included.  Bight  more  are 
carried   on   navy   list,   armed  with  less  powerful   12-inch  guns. 

•♦Including   superdreadnoughts. 

tCalifornia  to  be  completed  by  Dec.   31,   1920. 

JAll  superdreadnoughts  to  be  completed  in  1922  and  1923.  Percentage  of  completion 
July   1,    1920. 

ttAll  re-designed  in  1919-1920.     Percentage  of  completion  July  1,  1920. 


INCREASED  STRENGTH  OF  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  SEA       947 


>]  3T  OF  SHIPS  RETAINED  BY  THE  BRITISH  ADMIRALTY  FOR  THE  POST- 

(WAR  BRITISH   FLEET* 
BATTLESHIPS     (DREADNOUGHT    TYPE)** 


C(.m-  Dis- 

pl»  ted.  Name.  placement.     Main  Armament. 

1)09  Temeraire     IS.COO    Ten    J2-inch    45   cal. 

l')10  St.  Vincent   19,250^ 

mo  Collingwood     19,250 

1911  Neptune    19,900  [-Ten  12-inch  50  cal. 

1911  Colossus    20,000 

1911  Hercules    20,000^ 

1912  Orion    22,500 

1912  Conqueror    22,500 

1912  Monarch 22,500 

1912  Thunderer    22,500 

1912  King  George  V 23,000 

1913  Centurion    23,000  J-Ten  13.5-inch  45  cal, 

1913  Ajax    23,000 

1914  Iron  Duke    25,000 

1914  Marlborough    25,000 

1914  Emperor    of    India 25,000 

1914  Benbow     25,000^ 

1914  Erin    23,000   Ten  13.5-inch  45  cal . . 

1915  Canada    28,000  Ten  14-inch  45  cal 

1915  Queen  Elizabeth   27,500^ 

1915  Warspite     27,500  j 

1915  Barham     27,500  j-Eight  15-inch  42  cal. . 

1916  Valiant    27,500  j 

1916  Malaya    27.500j 

1916  Royal   Sovereign   25,700^ 

1916  Royal  Oak  25,700  | 

1916  Resolution    25,700  j-Eight    15-inch   42    cal. 

1916  Revenge    25,700  j 

1917  Ramilles    25,700j 


Speed 
Knots, 

22.00 
r21.90 
I  21.50 
^  21.80 
J  21.50 
[21.50 

22.00 

23.10 

21.80 

20.80 

21.00 

21.00 

21.00 

22.00 

22.00 

22.00 

22.00 

"21.00. 

22.75 

(-25.00 

I  25.00 

^  25.00 

j  25.00 

[25.00 

(-22.00 

I  22.00 

^'  22.00 

j  22.00 

22.00 


BRITISH    BATTLE    CRUISERSf 

1911  Lion    26,3501 

1912  Princess   Royal    26,350  [.Eight  13.5-inch  45  cal, 

1914      Tiger    28,50oJ 


f28.00 
^  28.00 
[30.00 


SUBSEQUENT    BRITISH    CONSTRUCTION     (BATTLE    CRUISERS) 


Six  1,5-inch  42  cal. 


1916       Renown   26,500 

1916       Repulse     26,500  . 

1919       Hoodt     41,200    Eight  15-inch  45  cal. 


31.50 
31.50 
31.50 


*No  pre-dreadnought  battleships  are  given,  as  there  has  been  a  drastic  Admiralty  policy 
of  discarding  them  from  the  British   fleet. 

**This  list  includes  superdreadnoughts.  Four  ships,  hitherto  included,  are  now  dropped 
(Dreadnought,  Superb,  Bellerophon,  Agincourt),  as  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  has 
reported  these  battleships  not  to  be  retained  in  the  post-war  fleet.  It  is  said  that  all  battle- 
ships before  the  Orion  class  are  to  be  discarded,  but  they  should  be  listed  at  present.  All 
these  dreadnoughts  antedating  the  Orion  class  have  the  disadvantage  of  echelon  and  cross 
arrangement  of  turrets. 

tinflexible  and  Indomitable  have  been  discarded  and  are  now  on  sale  list,  Australia 
and   New    Zealand    (eight   12-inch    each)    also    not    included. 

JThree  other  ships  of  the  Hood  class  were  laid  down  (Anson,  Howe,  Rodney),  but 
abandoned    and    scrapped. 


948 


TH^  NEW   YORK  TIMES   CURRENT  HISTORY 


' 

> 

^^^mmnj 

lb 

— 

'^^^ 

mStf^ 

wm 

^ttm 

W^ 

■MIBS 

^^^^..^ 

''     w  ^ 

JS^^S 

NEW     DREADNOUGHT     CALIFORNIA,     TYPICAL     UNIT     OF     THE     GREAT     SEA     FIGHTERS 

NOW     BUILDING     FOR     THE     UNITED     STATES     NAVY.       THIS     VESSEL     WAS     RECENTLY 

LAUNCHED    AT   MARE    ISLAND   NAVY   YARD,    SAN   FRANCISCO.      WHEN   FULLY    EQUIPPED 

IT  WILL  BE  THE   "  LAST  WORD  "   IN  AMERICAN  NAVAL   CONSTRUCTION 

(©    Underwood  £   Underwood) 


With  this  consistent  devotion  to  the 
gun  as  the  main  feature  of  the  battle- 
ship, the  United  States  Navy  has  natur- 
ally fostered  advanced  ideas  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  heavy  naval  gun.  This  has 
resulted  in  a  gun  with  an  increased 
length  in  proportion  to  its  calibre,  and  a 
high  muzzle^  velocity.  Our  navy's  12- 
inch  gun,  increased  from  45  calibre  to  50 
calibre,  with  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,950 
f.  s.,  has  been  the  most  powerful  naval 
gun  of  its  type.  Our  increase  to  14-inch 
45  calibre  and  50  calibre  guns  was  a  de- 
velopment of  the  same  ideas,  and  this 
has  been  followed  by  the  increase  to  16- 
inch  45  calibre  and  50  calibre  guns. 

The  British  naval  12-inch  guns  were 
similar,  though  not  so  powerful  as  our 
guns.  But  their  next  increase  was  to 
13.5-inch  guns;  and  they  did  not  go  be- 
yond 45  calibre  with  their  13.5-inch  guns, 
nor  in  the  following  increase  to  15-inch 
guns.  On  the  contrary,  the  British  react- 
ed to  42  calibre  for  the  15-inch  guns. 
The  weight  of  the  shot  was  greatly  in- 
creased (1,920-1,950  lbs.),  with  a  de- 
creased muzzle  velocity  (2,500  f.  s.).  The 
result  was  that  these  15-inch  42  calibre 
guns  are  not  of  as  powerful  a  type*  as 


*At  the  Battle  of  Jutland  six  of  the  British 
battleships  engaged  carried  these  15-inch  42 
calibre  guns,  and  there  was  nothing  larger 
than  a  12-inch'  gun  in  the  German  fleet.  But 
the  British  guns  cannot  be  said  to  have 
dominated  the  lighter  but  more  powerful 
German  guns. 


our  14-inch  45  calibre  and  50  calibre 
guns,  and  of  course  they  are  outclassed 
by  our  16-inch  45  calibre  and  60  calibre 
guns.  This  British  15-inch  gun  has  only 
been  increased  to  45  calibre  for  one  ship, 
the  latest  battle  cruiser.  Hood. 

On  Page  946  will  be  found  a  list  of  all 
United  States  battleships,  built  and 
building,  with  12-inch  45  calibre  or  more 
powerful  guns.  All  these  are  given  be- 
cause the  lesson  of  the  battle  of  Jutland 
has  shown  that  a  battleship  armed  with 
any  of  these  guns  might  be  a  possible 
factor  in  a  battle  of  fleets  for  some 
years  to  come.  This  list  comprises  six 
pre-dreadnought  battleships,  nineteen 
completed*  battleships  of  dreadnought 
type,  and  ten  uncompleted  battleships  of 
the  1916  building  program. 

First  of  all,  it  should  be  realized  that 
all  these  battleships  represent  a  gradual 
increase  in  heavy  batteries  and  a  result- 
ant increase  in  the  size  of  the  hull  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  these  heavy  bat- 
teries. It  should  also  be  noted  that,  al- 
though extending  over  such  a  period  of 
years,  they  are  very  consistent  in  speed 
— and  they  are  also  heavily  armored. 

This  sums  up  the  reasons  for  the 
power  of  the  fighting  fleet  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  which  is  only  now  being 
discovered  abroad,  but  is  not  even  yet 


^  •  U.  S.  S  California  to  be  completed  by  Dec. 
31,  1920. 


INCREASED  STRENGTH  OF  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  SEA       949 


H.  M.  S.  HOOD,  NEWEST  DREADNOUGHT  OF  THE  BRITISH  NAVY  AND  l^ARGEST  SEA- 
FIGHTING    UNIT    EVER    CONSTRUCTED 
Untemational) 


fully  appreciated,  especially  in  one  very 
important  element.  For  it  is  not  real- 
ized that  these  consistent,  all-big-gun 
heavily  armored  ships  are  not  becoming 
obsolescent  to  a  degree  that  corresponds 
with  the  accepted  ratio  of  age  to  useful- 
ness. If  we  can  believe  the  naval  experi- 
ence of  the  World  War,  our  battleship 
construction  has  been  sound,  and  this 
has  given  its  product  a  longer  life  of  use- 
fulness. 

STRENGTH  OF   BRITISH  FLEET 

On  Page  947  is  a  list  giving  the  actual 
strength  of  the  British  fleet,  for  com- 
parison with  the  list  given  of  the  United 
States  Navy.  Of  these  ships  the  Erin 
and  Canada  were  not  originally  designed 
for  the  British  Navy,  but  were  taken 
over  from  Turkey  and  Chile  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war.  A  comparative 
study  of  these  American  and  British 
programs  of  construction  will  be  inter- 
esting, and  will  show  that  the  situation 
is  as  described. 

It  will  be  noted  that  British  construc- 
tion of  battleships  moved  along  on  some- 
what the  lines  of  our  own  construction 
until  the  sudden  change  to  gain  speed  in 
the  Queen  Elizabeth  class.  In  contrast 
with  our  natural  progress  to  ten  14-inch 
guns  and  the  heavily  armored  21-knot 
ships   of   the   contemporary  Texas   and 


Nevada  classes,  there  was  the  sudden 
leap  to  a  25-knot  speed  for  ^  this  class  of 
British  battleships.  This  change  re- 
flected the  prevailing  fashion  for  battle 
cruisers,  which  had  the  strongest  in- 
fluence on  the  British  Navy  at  the  time. 

The  Royal  Sovereign  class  of  battle- 
ships was  designed  with  the  moderate 
speed  of  22  knots,  but  in  the  following 
years  the  battle  cruiser  element  in  the 
royal  navy  dominated  British  construc- 
tion, and  all  else  became  secondary  to 
the  desire  to  mount  15-inch  guns  on  bat- 
tle cruisers  of  great  speed.  The  Renown 
and  Repulse  followed,  carrying  six  15- 
inch  guns  each,  but  with  armor  shaved 
down  to  the  danger  point  (side  armor 
6-inch,  barbette  armor  7-inch).  The 
next  step  was  the  decision  to  gain  speed, 
and  also  the  ability  to  carry  eight  15- 
inch  guns,  by  designing  battle  cruisers 
with  greatly  increased  hulls.  The  four 
battle  cruisers  of  the  Hood  class  were 
consequently  designed  to  be  of  36,300 
tons,  with  light  armor,  and  the  four 
ships*  were  under  construction  in  1916. 

Suddenly  came  the  battle  of  Jutland, 
and  the  revelation  as  to  the  weakness  of 
battle  cruisers  was  unmistakable.  The 
construction  of  the  Hood  was  changed 
by   adding   5,000   tons   of   armor.     This 

*Anson,  Hood,  Howe,  Rodney. 


950 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


resulted  in  a  vast  hull  of  41,300  tons, 
yet  only  carrying-  eight  15-inch  guns* 
— at  a  cost  of  £6,025,000.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  '  other  three  ships  of  this  class 
were  scrapped. 

As  a  result  of  this  policy  of  recent 
years  British  naval  construction  did  not 
add  to  Great  Britain's  battleship 
strength,  at  the  time  when  the  United 
States  Navy  was  steadily  gaining  in 
this  respect. 

THE  TWO  FLEETS  COMPARED 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  two  fleets 
of  battleships,  of  dreadnought  type  as 
given,  be  equal  in  numbers  in  1923, 

but  the  United  States  Navy  will  have 
the  more  powerful  material.  The  fig- 
ures given  by  Mr.  Britten  and  quoted 
by  Mr.  Hurd  are  true,  but  a  more  strik- 
ing comparison  can  be  made  by  stating 
figures  on  a  basis  of  the  classification 
given  by  Mr.  Hurd  himself. 

Mr.  Hurd  calls  the  battleships  with 
15-inch  guns  and  over  "  First-Class  Bat- 
tleships," giving  the  following  parallel 
list: 

British    (15-inch  American    (16-inch 

guns)  Class.  guns)  Class. 

Royal    Sovereign..  5    Indiana    6 

Queen    Elizabeth..  5    Washington    4 

Total    10       Total    10 

The  American  battleships  with  14-inch 
guns  and  the  British  battleships  with 
13.5-inch  guns  he  calls  "  Second-Class 
Battleships." 

To  show  how  entirely  wrong  it  will 
be  to  place  in  the  same  class  the  ten 
British  15-inch  gun  battleships  and  the 
ten  American  16-inch  gun  battleships,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  state  the  fact  thaft 
the  ten  British  battleships  have  a  broad- 
side of  153,600  pounds,  whereas  these 
ten  American  ships  will  possess  the  over- 
whelming broadside  of  208,000  pounds. 

To  emphasize  the  mistake  in  making 
this  high  classification  of  the  ten  British 
15-inch  gun  battleships,  the  fact  should 


♦On  the  first  increase  of  the  hull  of  the 
United  States  battleship  (Indiana  class)  to 
over  40.000  tons,  the  ship  carries  twelve  16- 
inch  ."iO-calibre  guns,  with  a  broadside  of 
24,000  pounds,  in  contrast  to  the  Hood's  eight 
15-inch  45  calibre  guns,  with  a  broadside  of 
15,600  pounds.  United  States  steamship 
Pennsylvania  has  a  hull  of  almost  10,000 
tons  less  displacement,  and  yet  the  ship  has 
a  broadside  of  16.800  pounds,  which  is  1.200 
pounds  heavier  than  that  carried  on  the 
vast  hull  of  the  Hood. 


also  be  stated  that  the  corresponding  ten 
American  battleships  with  14-inch  guns, 
called  by  Mr.  Hurd  "  second  class,"  have 
a  superior  broadside  of  159,600  pounds. 
This  superiority  of  weight  of  metal  is 
augmented  by  the  added  power  of  the 
American  45  calibre  and  50  calibre  guns 
in  contrast  with  the  British  42  calibre 
guns. 

INFLUENCE  OF  JUTLAND   BATTLE 

These  figures  will  be  enough  to  show 
the  reader  that  our  consistent  program 
of  building  battleships  has  given  us  bet- 
ter results  than  have  been  attained  by  the 
recent  British  program.  Comparisons  of 
the  other  features  of  the  two  lists  will 
tell  the  same  story.  These  facts  have 
been  given  without  the  slightest  feeling 
that  there  will  ever  be  a  break  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
Such  an  event  is  inconceivable.  But  the 
lists  merely  show  that,  measured  by  the 
standard  of  the  greatest  fleet  in  the 
world,  the  United  States  Navy  will  be 
able  to  maintain  its  fleet  upon  the  seas. 

Although  the  fashion  for  battle 
cruisers  did  not  divert  us  from  our  pro- 
gram of  building  battleships,  yet  there 
was  enough  influence  of  the  partisans  of 
this  type  to  secure  an  additional  author- 
ization of  the  six  battle  cruisers  which 
appear  on  the  list  of  the  program  of 
1916.  Here  again  we  were  more  for- 
tunate, and  work  had  not  been  started 
upon  these  ships  at  the  time  of  the  bat- 
tle of  Jutland.  It  was  obvious  that  their 
hulls  would  be  vulnerable,  the  double 
decks  of  boilers  being  especially  danger- 
ous. Consequently  they  have  been  en- 
tirely redesigned,  the  weak  features  hav- 
ing been  eliminated,  tending  to  make 
them  into  fast  battleships.*  As  can  be 
seen  from  the  percentage  of  completion, 
work  has  only  recently  been  started  on 
them,  and  there  was  no  construction  to 
be  changed,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Hood. 

In  the  main  essentials  of  material, 
which  must  be  provided  in  advance  to 
maintain  a  fighting  fleet,  the  United 
States  may  be  thus  considered  in  a  strong 
position.    The  only  other  navy  carrying 


•  These  ships  are  to  have  an  armored  water- 
line  belt,  eight  feet  of  depth  to  be  below  wa- 
terline,  with  elaborate  structural  protection 
against  torpedoes. 


INCREASED  STRENGTH  OF  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  SEA       951 


forward  a  definite  building  program  is 
the  Japanese  Navy,  and  we  have  so  great 
a  superiority  that  it  does  not  seem  hu- 
manly possible  that  they  can  approach 


LARGE  PERSONNEL  NECESSARY 


Turning  from  naval  material  to  naval 
personnel,  a  problem  is  presented  in 
which  the  navy  needs  every  assistance 
from  the  country,  although  the  real  prob- 
lem is  not  as  Mr.  Hurd  sees  it.  With  the 
enormous  scale  of  numbers  that  has  been 
fixed  by  the  requirements  of  modern  war- 
fare it  is  no  longer  considered  possible 
for  the  peacetime  establishment  to  resem- 
ble the  numbers  that  would  be  required 
in  war.  How  many  of  us  realize  that  the 
United  States  Navy  in  the  World  War 
at  the  time  of  the  armistice  was  520,000 
strong?  The  unprecedented  tasks  in 
transporting  troops  and  material,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  usual  demands  of  naval  op- 
erations, made  these  great  numbers  nec- 
essary, and  the  country  was  able  to  pro- 
vide them.  What  this  meant  can  be  best 
shown  by  stating  that,  at  the  same  time, 
the  British  Navy  had  a  total  personnel 
of  415,000. 

These  figures  show  that  it  is  no  longer 
possible  to  think  of  peacetime  estab- 
lishments in  terms  approaching  the  de- 
mands of  the  ultimate  service  in  war. 
This  is  where  Mr.  Hurd  does  not  grasp 
our  problem.  The  peace  function  of  our 
navy  as  regards  personnel  is  to  maintain 
numbers  sufficient  to  operate  and  care 
for  the  naval  material,  and  to  form  a 
skilled  nucleus  for  a  wartime  increase. 
For  some  years  we  shall  not  need  to  fear 
any  lack  of  men  at  the  call  of  war.  The 
present  need  is  to  prevent  too  great  a 
shortage  in  the  enlisted  personnel  nec- 
essary for  the  maintenance  of  naval  ma- 
terial. 

The  full  complement  for  the  Atlantic 
fleet,  the  Pacific  fleet  and  all  other  sea 
duty  is  125,913.  The  allowance  is  95,267. 
Of  this  allowance  about  66,000  are  on 
board.  On  shore  there  are  about  35,000. 
After  approaching  changes  in  expira- 
tions of  enlistments,  &c.,  the  navy  will 


♦Japanese  Navy— Dreadnoughts,  built,  5 ; 
building,  8;  battle  cruisers,  built,  4;  build- 
ing,   8. 


be  left  with  "  about  100,000  men,  of  whom 
75,000  will  be  first-enlistment  men."  *  To 
aid  in  relieving  this  shortage,  the  recent 
Naval  Appropriation  bill  authorizes  one 
year's  service  for  20,000  Naval  Reserve 
enlisted  men.  A  liberal  increase  in  pay 
has  also  been  given  to  the  navy  by  this 
bill. 

Mr.  Hurd  and  other  British  writers  do 
not  realize  in  making  comparisons  with 
Great  Britain  that  our  navy  also  has 
large  numbers  of  men  of  kindred  occu- 
pations to  draw  upon  in  our  merchant 
marine.  They  forget  that  in  1914  our 
tonnage  engaged  in  foreign  trade  was 
only  20  per  cent,  of  our  total  shipping. 
The  wise  policy  of  restricting  our  inter- 
state commerce  to  American  shipping 
had  fostered  a  merchant  marine  coast- 
wise and  upon  our  waterways. 

MERCHANT  MARINE  A   FACTOR 

The  unprecedented  numbers  in  our 
navy  comprised:  Regulars — Officers, 
10,489;  enlisted  men,  217,276.  Reserves- 
Officers,  20,705;  enlisted  men,  271,571.t 
This  great  increase  of  the  navy  as  an  ef- 
ficient force  was  possible  only  through 
the  co-operation  of  the  American  mer- 
chant marine  and  through  the  intel- 
ligence of  its  personnel.  The  recent 
notable  increase  in  our  shipping  has 
brought  about  a  corresponding  increase 
of  this  valuable  element  in  man  power 
as  a  reserve  for  our  navy.  The  intimate 
relation  between  our  navy  and  our 
merchant  marine  has  been  a  result  of 
the  war.  It  has  been  tried  out  on  a  large 
scale,  and  it  has  been  found  a  valuable 
asset  for  the  future. 

The  increase  of  our  shipping  has  been 
as  free  from  any  change  to  hostility  as 
was  the  naval  increase.  As  has  been 
stated,  our  nation  was  compelled  to  make 
a  great  effort  to  replace  the  losses  of  al- 
lied shipping  in  the  war.  These  allied 
losses  have  been  given  as  over  18,000,000 
tons.  The  one  way  to  win  the  war  was 
by  transporting  our  troops  and  supplies 
to  Europe,  and  this  could  only  be  accom- 
plished by  providing  ships  for  overseas 
transportation. 

This  was  the  spur  that  urged  America 


♦Chief  of  Bureau  of  Navigation. 
tThe  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 


952 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  the  greatest  effort  of  all  time.*  The 
program  of  construction  of  the  United 
States  Shipping  Board  comprised  1,946 
vessels,  representing  11,720,352  tons. 
When  the  United  States  entered  the  war 
there  were  in  the  country  61  shipyards 
with  234  ways.  At  the  time  of  the  armi- 
stice we  had  223  yards  with  1,099  ways. 
In  the  year  1918  we  actually  launched 
812  ships  of  4,244,126  tons.  The  record 
output  of  the  whole  world  the  year  be- 
fore the  war  had  been  3,333,000  tons. 

This  effort  of  the  United  States  made 
it  possible  to  win  the  war,  and,  as  a  re- 
sult of  this  Shipping  Board  building  pro- 
gram, our  tonnage  of  shipping  is  over 
15,800,000.  In  1914  it  was  less  than 
5,400,000. 

NO  ATTEMPT  AT  SUPREMACY 

This  is  the  true  story  of  the  expansion 
of  our  merchant  marine.  There  has  been 
no  scheme  for  commercial  dominion,  no 
attempt  to  hasten  into  existence  a  mer- 
chant fleet  that  would  be  greater  than 
that  of  Great  Britain.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  this  building  program  is  being 
completed.  The  world  evidently  needed 
more  shipping;  and,  with  a  scarcity  of 
ships,  the  outlook  for  our  revived  foreign 
commerce  would  have  been  poor  indeed. 
There  was  an  economic  need  for  com- 
pleting these  ships,  but  there  has  been  no 
hysterical  competition  with  Great 
Britain.  The  fact  is  that  there  has  been 
no  effort  made  in  America  to  outbuild 
the  British,  and  it  will  be  found  at  the 
end  of  the  year  that  Great  Britain  has 
built  a  greater  tonnage  in  1920  than  has  j 
the  United  States.  ^.   ^ 

On  the  contrary,  the  problem  in  our 
country  is  now  recognized  to  be  to  find 
the  best  use  of  our  shipping  as  an  eco- 
nomic factor — in  accord  with  the  devel- 
opment of  our  industries.  We  see  that  it 
is  no  longer  common  sense  to  have  92  per 
cent,  of  our  foreign  trade  dependent  on 
foreign  shipping,  as  was  the  case  before 
the  war.    In  those  years  the  expense  of 


*No  program  comparable  to  it  has  ever 
been  attempted  by  our  own  or  by  any  other 
nation.  It  is  one  of  the  many  great  achieve- 
ments growing-  out  of  and  inspired  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  World  War.— The  Secretary 
of  Commerce. 


running  American  ships  was  almost  pro- 
hibitive when  it  was  a  matter  of  compe- 
tition with  foreign  shipping.  In  many 
ways  this  phase  of  the  situation  has  been 
improved.  The  rate  of  wages  is  no 
longer  as  serious  a  handicap  as  before, 
owing  to  the  new  provisions  in  the  Sea- 
man's act,  and  there  is  not  so  great  a 
discrepancy  against  the  American  owner. 

Foreign  shipping  has  always  received 
direct  or  indirect  help  from  the  Govern- 
ments. In  recently  enacted  legislation 
Congress  has  for  the  first  time  given 
tariff  preferences  to  cargoes  shipped  on 
American  vessels.  Altogether  the  out- 
look is  favorable  for  the  increased  mer- 
chant marine.  But  it  is  to  be  made  a 
matter  of  adapting  it  to  legitimate  com- 
mercial conditions,  not  a  means  for  dom- 
inating the  world,  as  has  been  intimated 
by  British  writers. 

To  show  the  reasonable  way  in  which^ 
this  problem  is  being  considered,  it  is 
sufficient  to  quote  from  recent  state- 
ments of  Rear  Admiral  W.  S.  Benson, 
U.  S.  N.,  Chairman  of  the  United  States 
Shipping  Board,  and  the  Hon.  J.  W. 
Alexander,  Secretary  of  Commerce.  Ad- 
miral Benson  says: 

The  United  States  Shipping  Board  is 
using  every  endeavor  to  build  up  this 
vast  fleet  into  a  profitable  enterprise.  It 
is  succeeding  with  the  aid  of  a  growing 
body  of  splendid  private  ship  operators 
who  are  acting  as  managing  agents  of 
the  ships.  It  i^  no  easy  task  which  we 
have  before  us.  The  solution  of  many 
questions  now  before  us  requires  time, 
study,  thought  and  considerable  energy 
before  our  merchant  marine  shall  be  an 
accomplished  fact  and  a  permanent  thing. 
We  need  the  co-operation  of  every  Amer- 
ican. We  need  particularly  the  honest, 
wholesome  advice  and  helpful  aid  of 
every  commercial  American  organization. 

Mr.  Alexander's  statement  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

There  are  many  perplexing  questions  to 
be  solved  before  we  can  make  sure  of  a 
great  merchant  marine  under  the  Amer- 
ican flag.  How  is  the  great  fleet  of  mer- 
chant ships  built  under  the  stress  of  war 
to  be  profitably  employed  under  normal 
conditions?  That  question  is  giving  the 
Shipping  Board  and  private  ship  owners 
and  all  others  who  are  thinking  of  engag- 
ing in  the  shipping  business  deep  concern. 


American  Control  in  the  West  Indies 


■  ^^  By  ELBRIDGE  COLBY 

I^B    [Former  Assistant   Intelligence   Officer,    Panama  Canal   Department,    United   States   Army] 


A  Survey  Showing  Exactly  What  Degree  of  In- 
fluence the  United  States  Has  in  Certain  Islands 


AT  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
/\  century,  as  a  result  of  our  ob- 
1  V  taining  possessions  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  from  Spain,  as 
a  result  of  an  approaching  critical  period 
in  the  Isthmian  Canal  discussion,  and  as 
a  result  of  our  increasing  production, 
trade  development  and  financial  expan- 
sion, a  spirit  of  imperialism  became 
manifest  in  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  This  spirit,  however,  was  com- 
bated to  some  extent  by  the  very  cir- 
cumstances under  which  we  acquired  a 
tangible  interest  in  the  largest  of  the 
territories  which  came  into  our  hands 
at  that  time.  For,  even  at  the  moment 
of  entering  on  that  war  of  extra-terri- 
torial conquest,  we  had  committed  our- 
selves* in  theory  to  the  idea  that  "  the 
people  of  the  Island  of  Cuba  are,  and  of 
right  ought  to  be,  free  and  indepen- 
dent,"t  thus  using  the  very  words  with 
which,  in  our  own  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, we  had,  as  colonies  ourselves, 
created  a  separate  State  out  of  what 
might  readily  have  become  the  most  im- 
portant possession  of  British  imperial- 
ism. Indeed,  this  commitment  was  made 
in  much  more  than  merely  general 
terms;  it  was  applied  directly  to  the 
first  of  our  potentially  imperialistic  con- 
quests in  the  following  words: 

The  United  States  disclaims  any  dis- 
position or  intention  to  exercise  sover- 
eignty, jurisdiction,  or  control  over  said 
island  except  for  the  pacification  there- 
of, and  asserts  its  determination,  when 
that  is  accomplished,  to  leave  the  gov- 
ernment and  control  of  the  island  to  its 
people,  t 


*This  was,  of  course,  not  the  intention  of 
the  war,  which  was  really  for  "  the  abate- 
ment of  a  nuisance  "  clearly  becoming  "  in- 
jurious to  the  United  States  as  a  neighbor- 
ing nation."  (Moore,  "  Principles  of  Ameri- 
can   Diplomacy,"    p.    208). 

tJoint  Resolution  of  April  20,  1898,  "  United 
States  Statutes  at  Large,"  Vol.  20,  p.  738. 

tibid. 


Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  due  to  our  terri- 
torial acquisitions  in  the  Spanish  war, 
our  policy  of  Americanizing  rather  than 
internationalizing  the  Panama  Canal, 
and  our  necessity  of  reasserting  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  on  several  occasions,§ 
the  American  Government  has,  in  the 
first  twenty  years  of  the  twentieth 
century,  clearly  embarked  upon  what — 
though  it  cannot  in  any  sense  of  truth 
be  called  an  imperialistic  policy^is  un- 
doubtedly a  protective  and  stabilizing 
policy  aiming  to  increase  amid  the  un- 
certain politics  of  Caribbean  republics  an 
American  influence  for  law  and  order. 

In  other  words,  under  our  guiding  eye 
— and  strong  hand  when  necessary — ^we 
have  been  attempting  to  extend  the 
"  frontier  of  freedom "  to  include  the 
Caribbean  and  to  guarantee  decent,  re- 
sponsible government  among  the  lands 
to  the  south  of  us.§§  Whether  this  de- 
sire and  these  attempts  originate  in  a 
"  lust  for  power,"  or  whether  they 
spring  from  a  fear  of  European  infiltra- 
tion, is  quite  beside  the  point.  The  fact 
is  that  we  have  extended  our  influence; 
and  the  manner  of  its  extension  is  quite 
conveniently  demonstrated  by  a  con- 
sideration of  the  methods  by  which  we 
have,  on  sound  lines,  secured  a  legal 
basis  for  our  influence  in  Cuba,  Porto 
Rico,  San  Domingo,  Haiti  and  the  Virgin 
Islands. 

THE  VIRGIN  ISLANDS 

We  acquired  title  to  the  Virgin  Isl- 
ands, including  St.  Thomas,  "  the  Gibral- 
tar of  the  Caribbean  ",  through  purchase 


§The  Monroe  Doctrine  itself,  though 
founded  on  a  policy  of  protecting  ourselves 
(cf.  Krans,  q.  Charlemagne  Tower,  pp.  34-3."i) 
does  not  even  imply  national  expansion  or 
protection  of  such  expansion.  (Root,  "In- 
ternational   Addresses,"    p.    123). 

§§This  is  a  modern  manifestation  of  an 
old  habit.  Cf.  Greene,  "  American  Interest 
in  Popular  Government  Abroad." 


954 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


FAMOUS    BATTERY   OF    THE    "  TWELVE   APOSTLES  "    ON    THE    WALLS    OF   THE    CABANAS 

FORTRESS,    GUARDING    THE    ENTRANCE    TO    HAVANA    HARBOR 

(©    Brown    &    Dawson) 


by  treaty  from  Denmark  in  1917.  Our 
title  is  clear,  and  our  jurisdiction  abso- 
lute. We  who  have  protested  against 
the  transfer  of  Caribbean  territory  from 
one  European  power  to  another  thus 
went  on  record  as  being  perfectly  will- 
ing to  acquire  Caribbean  territory  for 
ourselves:  but,  strangely  enough,  we  had 
to  get  France's  consent  to  the  purchase, 
on  account  of  an  old  Franco-Danish 
treaty.  The  motive  in  this  purchase  is 
interesting:  the  securing  of  a  naval 
base,  which  is  all  the  Virgin  Islands 
have  to  offer,  except  bay  rum.  The 
very  words,  "  naval  base,"  imply  im- 
perialism and  protection  of  commerce. 

PORTO  RICO 

Our  title  to  Porto  Rico  is  equally  un- 
questioned, since  that  island  was  def- 
initely ceded  to  us  by  Spain  in  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  of  1898  with  no  further 
stipulation  than  that  Congress,  the  su- 
preme law-making  body  of  the  United 
States,  should  determine  the  civil  rights 
and  political  status  of  the  people  of  that 


island*.  Yet  political  jurisdiction  does 
not  necessarily  mean  a  real  and  useful 
influence.  The  United  States  promptly 
set  about  gaining  the  friendship  of  the 
Porto  Ricans  and  strengthening  the  nor- 
mal ties  that  bind  one  country  to  an- 
other. In  less  than  two  years,  by  the 
Act  of  April  12,  1900t,  Congress  rec- 
ognized the  "  citizens  of  Porto  Rico  "  as 
"  a  body  politic "  under  the  term  "  the 
people  of  Porto  Rico,"$  provided  for 
gradual  retirement  of  American  repre- 
sentatives, established  a  legislative  body 
in  the  island,  and  transferred  to  the  local 
government  all  property  rights  in  public 
buildings,  works,  and  laiids.§  By  these 
measures  the  American  principle  of  the 


♦Article  II.,  "  United  States  Statutes  at 
Large,"  Vol.  30,  p.  1754. 

t"  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,"  Vol. 
31,  p.  77  ff. 

Jlbid.,  Sec.  7. 

§Ibid.,  Sec.  13.  Some  few  were,  however, 
retained.  Cf.  Act  of  July  1.  1902,  "  United 
States  Statutes  at  Large,"  Vol.  32,  p.  731. 
In  order  to  discourage  European  capital,  the 
United  States  likewise  retained  the  privilege 
of  approving  railway,  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone franchises.  Cf.  "  United  States 
Statutes  at  Large,"  Vol.  31,  p.  716.  Joint 
Resolution  of  May  I,   1900. 


AMERICAN  CONTROL  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES 


955 


VIEW    OF    THE    ENTRANCE    TO    HAVANA    HARBOR    DURING    THE    RECENT    VISIT    OP    THE 
CRUISER    ALFONSO    XIII.,    THE    FIRST    SPANISH    WARSHIP    TO    ENTER    CUBAN    WATERS 

IN    TWENTY-ONE    YEARS 


self-government  of  peoples  by  legisla- 
tion was  amply  vindicated  in  the  minds 
of  the  Porto  Ricans,  and  all  slight  sus- 
picions of  imperialistic  exploitation  were 
allayed  in  the  face  of  such  obvious 
friendliness. 

By  further  measures  a  more  direct 
American  influence  was  exerted.  Eng- 
lish books  printed  in  the  United  States 
were  admitted  free  of  duty.j|  It  was 
provided  that  shipments  between  the 
United  States  and  Porto  Rico  should  be 
subject  to  only  15  per  cent,  of  the  regu- 
lar import  duties  in  each  direction,** 
and  that  after  March  1,  1902,  no  duty  at 
all  should  be  imposed  on  such  trade.ff 
By  such  measures,  in  a  commercial  way, 
Porto  Rico  was  allied  to  the  United 
States  and  encouraged  in  American 
trade;  nor  should  we  forget  that  trade  is 
one  of  the  most  compelling  factors  in 
diplomacy,  if  not  in  national  prejudices. 

To  these  factors  we  should  add  the 
creation  of  a  Porto  Rican  regiment  of  in- 
fantry under  the  American  flag,  sta- 
tioned in  Porto  Rico,  in  which  commis- 
sions were  open  to  Porto  Ricans.  Dur- 
ing the  German  war  of  1917-18,  Porto 
Rico  was  appealed  to  and  rallied  splen- 


II Act  of  April  12,  1900,  Sec.  1.  Spanish 
books  were  Himilaily  admitted  for  a  ten-year 
period. 

**Ibid.    Sec.  3. 

ttlbid.     Sec.  3. 


didly  to  the  support  of  the  United  States 
in  many  respects,  thus  showing  how 
widespread  our  influence  had  been  and 
how  effective,  too.$$ 

RELATIONS  WITH  CUBA 

Although  our  direct  jurisdiction  over 
Cuba  was  soon  terminated  at  the  end  of 
the  military  Government,  which  General 
Wood  declared  was  "  military  in  name 
only,"  and  which,  on  account  of  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  civil  courts  and  the  holding 
of  public  office  by  Cubans,  was  "  as  near 
as  possible  to  government  by  the  peo- 
ple,"§§  our  influence  has  persisted  as  a 
factor  demanding  law  and  order.  By  the 
terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  Dec.  10, 
1898,  jl  II  when  Spain  relinquished  all 
claim  of  sovereignty  to  Cuba,  it  was  pro- 
vided that  Cuba  be  occupied  by  the  Uni- 
ted States,  and  that  as  long  as  such  occu- 
pation should  last  the  United  States 
should  assume  and  discharge  all  Cuban 
duties  under  international  law;  and  it 
was  further  provided  that  the  United 
States  should  assume  such  obligations 
only  during  the  occupation,  and  that 
when  such  occupation  should  cease,  the 
United  States  should  advise  the  Cuban 


tt  Cf.  article  in  La  Revista  del  Mondo, 
September,     1919. 

§§  Cf.  Annals  Amer.  Acad,  Pol.  Science, 
Vol.    21,   p.   153ff. 

II  II  "United  Stated  Statutes  at  Large," 
Vol.  30,  p.   1,704.  Sec.   1  and  Sec.   16. 


^ 


956 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


PORT    AU    PRINCE,    CAPITAL    OP   THE    REPUBLIC    OF    HAITI.    WHERE    THE 

UNITED      STATES      GOVERNMENT,      UNDER      A     TREATY,      COLLECTS      THE 

HAITIAN  CUSTOMS  AND  ADMINISTERS  THE  REVENUES  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

(©   Brovm   &   Dawson) 


Government  to  assume  such  obligations 
itself. 

Now,  the  word  "  advise  *'  in  diplomatic 
language  is  stronger  than  in  ordinary 
parlance,  but  it  is  not  so  strong  as  "  re- 
quire." When  the  occupation  finally  did 
cease,  the  United  States  signed  a  treaty 
with  Cuba,  on  May  22,  1903,  by  which 
Cuba  was  given  her  independence  with 
certain  limitations.  These  limitations 
may  have  been  prompted  by  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  or  they  may  have  been 
prompted  by  an  imperialistic  desire  to 
keep  a  finger  on  Cuba.  Yet  the  limita- 
tions are  obviously  present,  and  these 
form  the  legal  basis  for  our  influence  in 
a  country  which  we  declared  in  1898, 
and  have  since  declared,  to  be  "  free  and 
independent." 

First  we  have  the  negative  provisions 
— obviously  designed  to  prevent  en- 
croachments on  the  Monroe  Doctrine — 
that  the  Government  of  Cuba  should  not 
make  any  treaty  or  compact  with  any 
foreign  power  which  would  impair  her 
independence,  permit  colonization  upon 
her  territory,  or  admit  of  military  or 
naval  control,  or  contract  any  public 
debt  above  the  conservative  limitations 
provided  by  sound  finance  with  respect 


a  sinking  fund.*  These  negative  pro- 
visions are  obviously  based  on  a  desire  to 
prevent  difficulties  with  European  pow- 
ers and  to  uphold  the  principles  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  before  the  fact,  so  to 
speak.  The  real  legal  basis  of  our  power 
to  interfere  in  a  physical  way,  as  we 
actually  did  on  one  occasion  in  1906  and 
threatened  to  do  in  1911,  and  therefore 
of  our  ultimate  interest  in  Cuba,  lies  not 
in  these  negative  provisions,  however. 
It  lies  in  the  statement  that 

the  United  States  may  exercise  the  right 
to  intervene  for  the  preservation  of  Cuban 
independence,  the  maintenance  of  a  Gov- 
ernment adequate  for  the  protection  of 
life,  property  and  individual  liberty,  and 
for  discharging  the  obligations  with  re- 
spect to  Cuba  imposed  on  the  United 
States  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  now  to  be 
assumed  and  undertaken  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  Cuba  [and  that]  to  enable  the 
United  States  to  maintain  the  indepen- 
dence of  Cuba,  and  to  protect  the  people 
thereof,  as  well  as  for  its  own  defense, 
the  Government  of  Cuba  will  sell  or  lease 
to  the  United  States  lands  necessary  for 
coaling  or  naval  stations  at  certain  speci- 
fied points  to  be  agrreed  upon  with  the 
President  of  the  United  States. t 

In  these  provisions,  under  which  the 


*"  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,' 
1  and  2. 
tibid.    Sec.   3. 


Sees. 


AMERICAN  CONTROL  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES 


957 


n 
I 


site  of  the  coaling  station  at  Guanta- 
namo  was  leased,  there  is  nothing  to  be- 
tray an  imperialistic  attitude  except  the 
one  phrase,  "  as  well  as  for  its  own  de- 
fense." |So,  though  we  have  withdrawn 
from  the  Island  of  Cuba,  our  influence — 
general  and  diplomatic  rather  than  par- 
ticular and  political — has  been  never- 
theless felt  and  will  probably  continue  to 
be  felt,  largely  because  we  have  proved 
that  we  not  only  truly  believe  in  the  self- 
detei-mination  of  peoples,  but  can  be 
trusted  to  keep  our  word  even  at  the  cost 
of  abandoning  apparently  desirable  im- 
perialistic ideas.  Cuba  has  become  our 
friend,  not  our  subject ;  and  as  our 
friend  she  is  subject  to  our  influence. 

SAN  DOMINGO 

The  basis  of  our  influence  in  San  Do- 
mingo is  closely  allied  to  our  American 
conception  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.§  So 
long  as  London  and  Paris  were  the  cen- 
tres of  world  finance,  so  long  as  Latin- 
American  Governments  borrowed  money 
in  Europe  and  were  either  dilatory  or 
untrustworthy  as  regards  payments,  and 
so  long  as  the  European  Governments 
were  inclined  to  press  the  matter  of  un- 
settled debts  both  by  diplomatic  meas- 
ures and  by  demonstrations  of  naval 
power,  the  success  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine was  imperiled. 

Therefore,  in  order  to  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  European  influence,  the 
United  States  was  obliged  to  intrude 
and  to  settle  the  differences.  We  inter- 
ested ourselves  in  San  Domingo  at  a 
time  when  that  republic  was  threatened 
by  debts  and  claims  amounting  to  about 
$30,000,000,  which  had  originated  "dur- 
ing disturbed  conditions  of  the  Domini- 
can Republic,  some  by  regular  and  some 
by  revolutionary  Governments,  many  of 
doubtful  validity  in  whole  or  in  part." 
On  account  of  the  uncertain  character  of 
these  obligations  and  the  insistence  of 
the  creditors,  the  United  States,  by  a 
convention  with  San  Domingo  of  Feb. 
8,  1907,§§  arranged  to  step  in,  to  see  all 


^Vessels  owned  by  Cubans  were  admitted 
to  the  same  rights  and  privileges  as  the  ves- 
sels of  the  most  favored  nation,  by  act  of 
Congrress.  Feb.  10,  1900,  United  States  Stat- 
utes   at  Large,   Vol.    31,    p.    27. 

§Cf.  Roosevelt,  q.  in  Moore,  "  Principles," 
&c.,    p.    263. 


debts  and  claims  settled  for  about  $15,- 
000,000,  and  practically  to  guarantee 
payment.  It  was  clearly  stated  that  the 
same  conditions  had  "disturbed  peace- 
able and  continuous  collection  and  appli- 
cation of  the  national  revenues  for  the 
payment  of  interest  on  such  debts  and 
for  the  liquidation  and  settlement  of 
such  claims,"  and  that  the  whole  plan 
was  "  conditioned  attd  dependent  upon 
the  assistance  of  the  United  States  in 
the  collection  of  customs  revenues  of  the 
Dominican  Republic." 

Under  authority  of  this  convention  of 
1907,  the  United  States  appointed  a 
"  general  receiver  to  collect  all  customs 
duties,"  and  extraordinary  progress  has 
been  made  in  improving  the  financial 
status  of  San  Domingo.  But  it  will  par- 
ticularly be  noticed  that  the  American 
authority  is  admitted,  in  the  strict  legal 
interpretation  of  the  convention,  only  to 
"  the  several  Custom  Houses."  So  we 
can  almost  say  that  our  influence  ex- 
tends actually,  in  a  material  sense,  only 
to  the  frontiers,  though  it  must,  of 
course,  be  admitted  that,  for  rehabilitat- 
ing finances  and  for  increasing  interna- 
tional respect,  San  Domingo  is  immensely 
obligated  in  a  moral  sense  to  the  United 
States.  Yet  it  is  only  in  this  indefinite 
way,  and  by  recognizing  that  finance  is 
fundamental  to  government,  that  we  can 
attribute  to  the  United  States  any  "  in- 
fluence "  in  the  interior  of  San  Domingo. 

CONTROL  IN  HAITI 

American  influence  in  Haiti  is  con- 
ditioned upon  and  grew  out  of  almost 
identical  diplomatic  and  financial  cir- 
cumstances. "  To  confirm  and  strength- 
en the  amity  by  the  most  cordial  co-op- 
eration in  measures  for  their  common 
advantage  "  the  United  States  and  Haiti 
on  Sept.  16,  1915,  signed  a  Treaty  of 
Amity,*  by  which  we  were  to  aid  that 
negro  Government  "in  the  proper  and 
efficient  development  of  its  agricultural, 
mineral  and  commercial  resources  and 
in  the  establishment  of  the  finances  of 
Haiti  on  a  firm  and  solid  basis."  As  in 
San  Domingo,  a  Receiver  of  Customs  was 


§§"  United   States  Statutes  at  Large."  Vol. 
135,    p.    1,880. 

*"  United    States    Statutes   at  ■* 
39,    p.    1,654. 


.ive 


958 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


appointed;  but  in  this  case  it  was  done 
by  the  Haitian  President  "  upon  nomina- 
tion by  the  President  of  the  United 
States  " ;  still  more  different,  a  finan- 
cial adviser  was  attached  to  the  Haitian 
Ministry  of  Finance  and  was  enjoined 
to  give  him  aid;  there  was  also  a  super- 
vising engineer  for  the  "  sanitation  and 
public  improvement  of  the  republic,  "f 

Nor  are  these  the  only  items  indicating 
a  greater  "  influence  "  in  Haiti  than  in 
San  Domingo.  There  were  placed  in  the 
Treaty  of  Amity  definite  restrictions  on 
the  Haitian  power  to  contract  public 
debts;  there  was  another  restriction  to 
the  effect  that  Haiti  should  "  not  by  sale 
or  lease  grant  jurisdiction  to  any  foreign 
Government  or  power  or  enter  into  any 
treaties  with  foreign  Governments  or 
powers  that  would  tend  to  impair  the  in- 
dependence of  Haiti  "t — ^both  of  these 
provisions  obviously  motivated  by  a  de- 
sire to  enforce  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in 
its  proper  sense  as  anti-European,  and, 
as  Roosevelt  pointed  out  in  his  1906  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  not  as  "  an  assumption 
of  superiority  and  of  a  right  to  exercise 
some  kind  of  a  protectorate." 

American  influence  was  just  as  cate- 
gorically recognized  in  a  provision  that 
only  with  the  approval  of  the  United 
States  could  the  duties  be  revised  down- 
ward; in  a  provision  that  an  efficient 
constabulary  should  be  created,  "organ- 
ized and  officered  by  Americans,"  in 
which  the  future  commissioning  of  Hai- 
tians was  contemplated;  and,  finally,  in 
a  provision  that,  "  should  the  necessity 
occur,  the  United  States  will  lend  an 
efficient  aid  for  the  preservation  of  Hai- 
tian independence  " — which  is  an  interna- 
tional matter  related  to  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine— "and  the  maintenance  of  a  Gov- 
ernmeut  adequate  for  the  protection  of 
life,  property  and  individual  liberty" — 
which  is  a  distinctly  internal  matter  re- 
lated to  American  "influence,"  and,  in 
fact,  the  real  basis  of  the  numerous  ac- 
tivities of  United  States  marines  amid 
the  jungles  and  among  the  negroes  of 
that  tropical  and  unstable  republic.  The 
only  check  on  American  power  in  the 
phrasing  of  the  agreement  is  in  the  time 


tibid.     Sec.   13. 
tibid.    Se^.  9. 


limit — ten  years,  with  a  possible  further 
ten-year  extension. 

POSSIBILITIES     OF      INCREASING 
AMERICAN    INFLUENCE 

The  Virgin  Islands — Our  jurisdiction 
in  the  Virgin  Islands  is  already  so  clear 
and  our  influence  so  obvious  that  there 
is  neither  need  ror  possibility  of  increas- 
ing it  in  the  future. 

Porto  Rico — Our  jurisdiction  in  Porto 
Rico  is  also  so  complete  and  our  treat- 
ment of  the  Porto  Ricans  has  been  so  suc- 
cessful in  creating  friendship  that  now 
no  further  legrJ  measures  need  be  taken 
toward  increasing  our  influence,  unless 
we  consider  the  logical  final  measure  of 
eventually  admitting  'the  territory  of 
Porto  Rico  into  the  Union  as  a  State. 

Cuba — With  Cuba  our  opportunity  has 
come  and  gone.  We  have  so  well  accom- 
plished our  task  of  creating  a  good  Gov- 
ernment th  and  of  establishing  the 
independence  of  that  island  that  we  can 
scarcely,  in  the  days  to  come,  find  a  pre- 
text for  increasing  our  "  influence  "  un- 
der international  law  without  violating 
our  pledged  word.  If  trade  brings  the 
two  countries  closer  together — though 
the  Eighteenth  Amendment  does  at  pres- 
ent separate  them  distinctly — we  might 
abandon  the  doubtful  bond  of  a  mere  de- 
fensive alliance  for  the  firmer  bond 
which  annexation  of  Cuba  as  a  State  of 
the  Union  would  create,  though  it  is  ex- 
tremely probable  that  the  linguistic  dif- 
ferences in  elementary  education  would 
militate  strongly  against  such  an  event. 
Cuba  would  still  be  more  in  need  of 
"Americanization"  than  Porto  Rico; 
and  Porto  Rico  is  as  yet  far  from  eligi- 
bility to  Statehood.  And  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  if  such  annexation  would  be 
worth  while;  reciprocity  in  trade  and  a 
continuation  of  the  present  benevolent 
influences  would  be  as  valuable  as  an- 
nexation and  would  not  entail  Pan- 
American  fear  of  American  aggression 
even  m  the  face  of  the  "  self-denying  or- 
dinance." 

San  Domingo — Our  influence  in  San 
Domingo  is  less  than  in  any  other  of  the 
areas  here  under  discussion.  We  have 
no  jurisdiction  in  San  Domingo,  as  in 
the  Virgin  Islands  and  in  Porto  Rico.  We 
never  have  penetrated  peacefully  or  oth- 


AMERICAN  CONTROL  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES 


959 


erwise  into  San  Domingo,  as  we  have, 
both  peacefully  and  otherwise,  into  Cuba. 
And,  as  has  alieady  been  pointed  out, 
our  legal  jurisdiction  in  San  Domingo 
stops  at  the  frontier  Custom  Houses  and 
does  not  involve  financial  advisers,  sani- 
tary engineers,  Americanized  constabu- 
lary, or  a  promise  of  future  intervention, 
as  in  Haiti.  The  first  steps  toward  in- 
creasing our  influence,  therefore,  must 
be  toward  revising  or  supplementing  the 
convention  of  1907  so  as  'to  provide  for 
these  things.  Perhaps,  though,  we  have 
already,  by  an  unlucky  thirteen  years, 
permitted  our  opportunity  to  slip  by. 
The  very  success  of  our  entry  under  the 
convention  has  tended  to  remove  further 
and  fuilther  from  the  realm  of  probabil- 
ity a  future  recuirence  of  the  conditions 
which  made  even  that  slight  intervention 
possible  and  justifiable.  Granting  for  a 
moment,  however,  that  such  an  oppor- 
tunity should  recur,  if  the  United  States 
does  create  provisions  for  financial  ad- 
visers, sanitary  engineers,  Americanized 
constabulary,  and  for  future  interven- 
tion, San  Domingo  would  assume  the 
same  status  as  Haiti,  a-'d  the  two  cases 
would  then  be  considered  together,  for 
their  populations,  their  locations,  their 
products,  their  circumstances,  are  not 
very  widely  different. 

Haiti — American  interests  in  Haiti  are 
increasingly  great.  Port  au  Prince  is  a 
convenient  port  of  call  on  the  route  from 
the  Canal  Zone  to  New  York.  Panama 
railroad  steamers  stop  there  and  handle 
a  great  deal  of  produce  in  both  direc- 
tions. Our  interests  in  Haiti  are  well 
protected  by  the  navy  and  the  marines. 
Our  political  influence  is  now  as  great 
as  it  can  reasonably  become  without 
actual  annexation  or  the  establishment 
of  a  formal  protectorate,  both  of  which 
are  quite  inconsistent  with  present  Amer- 
ican policy.    It  is  likewise  as  great  as 


will  be  tolerated  by*the  Haitians  in  their 
present  attitude  toward  Americans. 

Strange  as  the  statement  may  seem, 
the  real  obstacle  to  American  friendship 
and  attendant  American  influence  in 
Haiti  is  not  so  much  the  way  we  act 
abroad  in  an  official  capacity  as  the 
way  our  citizens  act  at  home  in  their 
individual,  personal  opinions  and  preju- 
dices. Haiti  is  a  negro  republic  and  the 
United  States  is  a  white  republic.  The 
difference  is  as  great  as  that  between 
black  and  white.  As  far  as  the  negroes 
are  concerned,  we  do,  of  course,  in  most 
of  our  States,  have  democracy  in  politics 
irrespective  of  color ;  but  we  do  not  have, 
in  the  same  matter,  democracy  in  social 
relations  or  democracy  in  labor.  The 
Booker  T.  Washington-Roosevelt  dinner 
in  the  White  House  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, the  Haitian  negroes — and 
all  the  negroes  of  the  West  Indies  for 
that  matter* — feel  that  the  American 
people  are  too  insistent  about  the  "  color 
line."  This  is  the  major  impediment  to 
an  extension  of  our  "  influence  "  in  Haiti 
and  in  San  Domingo.  They  will  trade 
with  us;  they  will  admit  our  assistance 
in  their  political  and  financial  tangles; 
they  will  allow  us  to  increase  their  cus- 
toms receipts  and  to  sit  on  the  lid  of 
their  revolutions;  but  they  will  not  feel 
with  us  or  think  with  us.  They  remain 
suspicious  and  unfriendly  toward  us  at 
heart,  and  hostile  to  our  advances  and 
our  influence;  like  Shylock,  they  will  do 
business  with  us — to  their  own  ad- 
vantage— they  will  walk  with  us  and 
talk  with  us,  but  they  will  not  dine  with 
us.  The  first  and  fundamental  step 
toward  increasing  our  "  influence  "  must 
be  real  progress  in  decreasing  our  preju- 
dices. 


•See  my  article  in  The  Pianeer  Press,  Nov. 
.   1919. 


Canada's  Naval  Policy 

By  D.  M.  LE  BOURDAIS 

[Editor  The  Canadun  Nation,   Ottawa] 


IN  the  days  when  Canadians  were 
content  to  consider  themselves  co- 
lonials the  British  Government  main- 
tained two  naval  squadrons  in  Ca- 
nadian waters — one  stationed  at  Halifax, 
on  the  Atlantic,  and  the  other  at  Esqui- 
malt,  on  Vancouver  Island,  in  the  Pacific. 
Then  came  the  increasing  power  of  Ger- 
many as  a  naval  factor,  and  the  policy 
of  Admiral  Fisher  began  to  concentrate 
the  British  naval  forces  in  the  North 
Sea.  The  squadrons  were  withdrawn 
from  Canadian  waters,  throwing  for 
the  first  time  upon  the  Canadian  people 
the  necessity  for  a  consideration  of 
steps  to  be  taken  for  the  defense  of  their 
own  coasts. 

The  German  war  scare  of  1909  brought 
the  question  into  the  realm  of  practical 
politics.  There  was  a  great  diversity  of 
opinion  in  Canada  at  that  time  in  re- 
gard to  the  steps  necessary  to  a  satis- 
factory solution  of  the  matter.  The 
political  party  forming  the  Government 
of  the  day  had  been  in  office  since  1896 
under  the  leadership  of  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier,  who  had  long  been  known  as  a 
vigorous  champion  of  the  greatest  de- 
gree of  Canadian  autonomy  consistent 
with  British  connection;  the  Opposition 
was  led  by  Mr.  Robert  L.  Borden,  leader 
of  the  Conservative  Party,  which  was 
much  more  imperialistic  in  tendency  and 
inclined  to  look  upon  Canadian  autono- 
mists as  of  doubtful  loyalty  to  the 
British  Empire,  to  say  the  least. 

Another  point  of  view,  which,  although 
not  numerically  strong,  as  regards  rep- 
resentation in  the  House  of  Commons, 
yet  exercised  a  powerful  influence  in 
the  Province  of  Quebec,  was  the  Na- 
tionalist group,  which  derived  its  princi- 
pal inspiration  from  Mr.  Henri  Bourassa. 
They  were  opposed  to  anything  that 
would  in  any  way  commit  Canada  to  a 
course  of  action  over  which  the  Cana- 
dian Parliament  should  have  no  control. 
They  stood  for  the  greatest  possible  de- 
gree of  Canadian  independence. 


On  Jan.  12,  1910,  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier 
presented  his  naval  proposals  to  Parlia- 
ment. The  bill  provided  for  the  creation 
of  a  Canadian  navy  to  be  manned  by 
Canadians  and  controlled  by  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Canada.  The  ships  were  to 
be  built,  as  far  as  possible,  in  Canada. 

Mr.  Borden  was,  in  a  general  way,  in 
favor  of  a  Canadian  navy,  but  he  criti- 
cised the  proposals  of  the  Government 
on  the  ground  that  the  creation  of  a 
Canadian  naval  service  would  take  a 
considerable  length  of  time  and  that  such 
a  course  would  not  meet  the  needs  of 
the  moment,  which,  he  urged,  were  press- 
ing; he  also  disagreed  with  the  retention 
by  the  Canadian  Parliament  of  control 
over  the  movements  of  the  navy,  claim- 
ing such  control  to  be  equivalent  to 
"  the  absolute  and  complete  independence 
of  Canada  from  the  British  Empire," 
He  advocated  an  immediate  cash  con- 
tribution equivalent  to  the  value  of 
three  dreadnoughts. 

On  entirely  different  grounds  was  the 
opposition  of  F.  D.  Monk,  the  principal 
spokesman  for  the  Nationalists  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  following  ex- 
tract from  one  of  his  speeches  sums  up 
the  position  taken  by  him  and  his  follow- 
ers: 

What  is  proposed  today  is  to  invite  us 
to  become  responsible  for  the  policy,  for 
the  diplomacy,  for  the  treaties,  for  the 
alliances  of  which  we  know  nothing,  over 
which  we  have  no  control,  made  by  men, 
excellent  men  no  doubt,  but  men  who  are 
not  responsible  to  us.  And  the  proposal 
is  to  ask  us  to  assume  all  these  respon- 
sibilities without  our  enjoying-  the  priv- 
ileges of  representation. 

Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  found  himself  be- 
tween two  fires — the  Nationalists  were 
all  French  Canadians  and  criticised  him 
for  his  alleged  imperialistic  tendencies, 
while  the  Conservatives  accused  him  of 
doubtful  loyalty  to  the  empire.  He  ex- 
plained his  position  as  follows: 

I  do  not  pretend  to  be  an  imperialist. 
Neither  do  I  pretend  to  be  an  anti-im- 
perialist.   I  am  a  Canadian  first,  last  and 


CANADA*S  NAVAL  POLICY 


961 


all  the  time.  I  am  a  British  subject  by- 
birth,  by  tradition,  by  conviction— by  the 
conviction  that,  under  British  institu- 
tions, my  native  land  has  found  a  meas- 
ure of  security  and  freedom  which  it 
could  not  have  found  under  any  other 
regime. 

Discussing  the  proposal  put  forward 
by  the  Conservatives  he  said: 

I  have  to  submit  that  this  idea  of  con- 
tribution seems  to  me  repugnant  to  the 
genius  of  our  British  institutions;  it 
smacks  too  much  of  tribute  to  be  accept- 
able by  British  communities.  That  is  not 
the  conception,  the  true  conception,  of  the 
British  Empire,  the  conception  of  new, 
growing,  strong  and  wealthy  nations,  each 
one  developing  itself  on  the  line  of  its 
own  needs  and  conditions,  but  all  join- 
ing in  the  case  of  a  common  danger,  and 
from  all  points  of  the  earth  rushing  upon 
a  common  enemy. 

PASSED  BY  THE  HOUSE 

The  debate  was  long  and  acrimonious, 
continuing  with  short  interruptions  until 
April  20,  when  the  Naval  Service  act 
passed  the  House  of  Commons. 

During  the  course  of  the  Summer  of 
1910  the  opposition  to  the  naval  policy 
of  the  Government  increased  in  the  Prov- 
ince of  Quebec  under  the  influence  of 
Nationalist  propaganda;  in  other  parts 
of  Canada  the  Government  was  attacked 
from  a  point  diametrically  opposite — the 
imperialists  were  waging  a  campaign 
for  immediate  contribution  and  dispar- 
aging in  every  way  the  idea  of  a  Cana- 
dian navy.  It  was  contended  that  ships 
could  not  possibly  be  built  in  Canada; 
that,  even  if  such  were  possible,  it  would 
cost  too  much  and  take  too  long.  Can- 
ada's navy  was  referred  to  contemptu- 
ously as  a  "  tin-pot "  navy. 

Encouraged  by  the  progress  which  the 
Nationalists  were  making  in  Quebec 
against  the  common  enemy,  Laurier,  the 
Conservatives  now  commenced  an  agita- 
tion for  submission  of  the  whole  matter 
to  the  people  by  a  referendum. 

In  the  meantime  an  electoral  district 
became  vacant  in  Quebec — the  constitu- 
ency represented  at  a  former  time  by 
Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  himself,  and  in 
which  he  still  maintained  a  residence — 
the  district  of  Drummond-Athabaska. 
Practically  the  only  issue  during  the  re- 
sultant by-election  was  the  naval  policy 
of  the  Government.    Both  sides  strained 


every  resource  to  win,  as  the  outcome 
might  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the 
attitude  of  the  electorate  toward  that 
particular  question.  The  imperialistic 
Conservative  Party  gave  every  support 
and  assistance  to  the  anti-imperialistic 
Nationalist  candidate,  who,  to  the  sur- 
prise of  the  Government,  was  elected. 

BEGINNING  A  CANADIAN  NAVY 

In  the  meantime  the  Government  had 
proceeded  with  the  organization  of  the 
Canadian  naval  service.  Rear  Admiral 
Sir  Charles  Kingsmill  was  appointed 
Director  of  Naval  Service;  two  cruisers, 
the  Niobe  and  the  Rainbow,  were  pur- 
chased, and  arrangements  were  made 
for  the  construction  of  two  large  dry- 
docks,  one  at  Levis,  Quebec,  and  the 
other  at  St.  John,  N.  B.  It  was  an- 
nounced that  tenders  would  be  called  for 
the  construction  of  the  other  ships,  the 
proposal  being  that  the  unit  should  be 
composed  of  eleven  ships — four  of  the 
Bristol  type,  one  of  the  Boadicea  type 
and  six  destroyers. 

The  reciprocity  agreement  with  the 
United  States,  introduced  by  the  Gov- 
ernment the  next  Spring,  met  with  such 
opposition  from  the  Conservatives  that 
the  Laurier  Government  decided  to  go 
to  the  country  for  re-election  in  the  Fall 
of  1911.  In  Quebec  the  Nationalists 
continued  their  fight  on  the  naval  ques- 
tion. In  that  part  of  Canada  west  of 
the  Ottawa  River  the  fight  raged  around 
the  cry  of  "  annexation  "  raised  by  the 
opponents  of  the  Government.  Reciproc- 
ity with  the  United  States  would  surely 
result  in  the  disruption  of  the  British 
Empire,  cried  the  Conservatives.  Can- 
ada's sons  would  be  conscripted  for  serv- 
ice in  British  cruisers,  declared  the  Na- 
tionalists. Fighting  the  extremists  on 
both  sides,  the  Government  was  defeated 
and  Mr.  Borden  was  called  upon  to  form 
a  Government.  In  recognition  of  the 
part  which  they  had  played  in  the  de- 
feat of  Sir  Wilfrid,  four  members  of 
the  Nationalist  Party  were  given  port- 
folios in  the  new  Cabinet. 

NO   PROGRESS   UND' 

Mr.   Borden  now  fou/  m  a^m 

delicate  position.     He  /  aeal  w^^sive 


962 


THE  NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  naval  question,  not  with  the  Na- 
tionalists as  opponents,  as  had  Sir  Wil- 
frid Laurier,  but  as  allies.  He  must 
please  his  imperialistic  followers  and  at 
the  same  time  not  displease  his  anti- 
imperialistic  supporters.  The  Canadian 
navy  was  allowed  to  languish,  and  for 
the  moment  nothing  was  done. 

In  the  Summer  of  1912  Mr.  Borden, 
accompanied  by  several  members  of  his 
Cabinet,  sailed  for  England  and  spent 
two  months  in  consultation  with  the  im- 
perial authorities  and  in  a  round  of  ban- 
quets and  functions. 

The  second  session  of  Canada's 
Twelfth  Parliament  opened  on  Nov.  21, 
1912.  The  principal  item  in  the  speech 
from  the  throne  was  the  announcement 
of  the  Government's  naval  policy,  in 
which  it  was  declared  that  steps  would 
be  taken  to  strengthen  the  naval  forces 
of  the  empire  without  delay. 

In  introducing  his  bill  Mr.  Borden 
presented  a  lengthy  memorandum  which 
he  had  received  from  the  British  Ad- 
miralty, and  which  ended  as  follows: 

The  Prime  Minister  of  the  Dominion 
having  inquired  in  what  form  any  imme- 
diate aid  that  Canada  might  give  would 
be  most  effective,  we  have  no  hesitation 
in  answering,  after  a  prolonged  consid- 
eration of  all  the  circumstances,  that  it 
is  desirable  that  such  aid  should  include 
the  provision  of  a  certain  number  of  the 
largest  and  strongest  ships  of  war  which 
science  can  build  or  money  supply. 

It  was  proposed  to  contribute  the  equiv- 
alent of  three  dreadnoughts,  which  was 
estimated  at  approximately  $35,000,000. 
Mr.  Borden  deprecated  the  idea  of  a  Ca- 
nadian navy;  stated  that  the  cost  of 
building  three  ships  in  Canada  would  be 
at  least  $12,000,000  greater  than  if  they 
were  built  in  England,  and  asked: 

Is  there  really  any  need  that  we  should 
undertake   this  hazardous   and   costly  ex- 
periment of  building   up   a  naval   organi- 
zation   especially    restricted    to    this    Do- 
minion  when   upon   just  and   self-respect- 
ing terms  we   can   take   such  part   as  we 
desire   in   naval   defense   through   the   ex- 
isting naval  organization  of  the  empire? 
F.  D.  Monk,  who  had  become  Minister 
of  Public  Works  in  the  Borden  Cabinet 
in  recognition  of  the  support  which  the 
Consei-vatives  had  received  from  the  Na- 
^'onalists  in  the  defeat  of   Sir  Wilfrid 


Laurier,  resigned  his  office  as  a  protest 
against  the  action  of  his  leader. 

PERIOD  OF   BITTER  DEBATE 

The  debate  in  the  House  ranged  over 
much  of  the  ground  previously  covered 
in  the  famous  debate  of  1910,  but  it  ex- 
ceeded in  bitterness  even  that  historic  de- 
bate. The  discussion  raged  day  and  night 
without  a  stop,  excepting  for  Sundays, 
and  finally,  by  means  of  the  closure,  for 
the  first  time  adopted  in  the  Canadian 
Parliament,  the  bill  succeeded  in  passing 
the  House  of  Commons  May  15,  1913. 

In  order  to  become  law  a  bill  must  also 
be  ratified  by  the  Senate.  The  members 
of  the  Canadian  Senate  are  appointed, 
whenever  vacancies  occur,  by  the  politi- 
cal party  in  power  and  are  appointed  for 
life.  Thus  they  nearly  always  hold  the 
same  views  as  the  party  in  office.  The 
Liberal  Party  had  been  in  power  for  fif- 
teen years  previous  to  1911,  and  in  that 
time  the  Senate  had  come  to  have  a  Lib- 
eral majority  of  twenty- two  members. 

When  the  bill  reached  the  Senate  an 
amendment   was   moved   by    Sir    George 
Ross,  Liberal  leader  in  the  Senate,  that 
this  House   is  not   justified   in   giving   its 
assent  to  this  bill  until  it  is  submitted  to 
the  judgment  of  the  country. 

The  amendment  carried,  and  the  bill, 
thus  amended,  was  sent  back  to  the  Com- 
mons. The  amendment  was  not  accepta- 
ble to  the  Government,  of  course,  and 
the  proposal  was  thereby  killed. 

Nothing  further  was  done  in  regard 
to  naval  matters  in  Canada.  In  August 
of  the  next  year  the  energies  of  the  Ca- 
nadian people  were  directed  into  other 
channels  in  the  effort  to  equip  and  main- 
tain as  large  an  expeditionary  force  in 
France  and  Flanders  as  is  possible  with 
a  population  of  not  more  than  8,000,000 
people. 

The  time  came  when  Canada  had  four 
divisions  under  the  command  of  a  Cana- 
dian General.  As  the  war  continued,  the 
sentiment  in  Canada  grew  more  and 
more  in  favor  of  Canadian  control  over 
Canadian  men  and  money  as  far  as  such 
was  compatible  with  the  supreme  com- 
mand of  Marshal  Foch.  At  the  Peace 
Conference  Canadian  delegates  were 
heard  claiming  for  Canada  a  place  at  the 
peace  table  equal  to  that  of  other  bel- 


CANADA'S  NAVAL  POLICY 


963 


fligerents,  and  such  advocacy  was  backed 
;up  by  the  majority  of  the  Canadian 
.people. 

LORD  JELLICOE'S  REPORT 

In  November  and  December,  1919, 
Lord  Jellicoe  visited  Canada  as  part  of 
a  tour  of  the  British  dominions  under- 
taken at  the  suggestion  of  the  Govern- 
ments of  the  various  dominions  with  a 
view  to  securing  his  opinion  as  to  the 
most  desirable  means  of  providing  for 
the  protection  of  the  dominions  individ- 
ually and  of  the  empire  as  a  whole.  His 
report,  recently  presented  to  Parliament 
by  the  Minister  of  Naval  Affairs,  advises 
the  establishment  and  development  of  a 
Canadian  naval  service.  He  says  in 
part: 

The  question  of  the  naval  forces  re- 
quired by  Canada  may  be  viewed  in  two 
ways :  first,  in  the  light  of  Canada's  own 
requirements,  and,  secondly,  in  the 
broader  light  of  the  security  and  safety 
of  the  empire  as  a  whole. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  however,  that 
both  the  consideration  as  regards  local 
defense  and  the  "  broader  question  "  of 
co-operation  in  imperial  defense  are 
promised  upon  a  force  maintained  and 
controlled  by  the  Government  of  Can- 
ada. The  difference  between  the  two  is 
confined  more  to  the  question  of  cost 
than  anything  else.  Lord  Jellicoe  does 
lay  stress  upon  the  necessity  for  a 
great  degree  of  co-ordination  between 
the  royal  navy  and  the  Canadian  Navy, 
and  it  may  be  inferred  also  that  certain 
of  his  views  relative  to  the  desirability 
of  Canadian  control  are  more  the  result 
of  his  observations  in  the  realm  of  Ca- 
nadian public  opinion  than  they  a.e  an 
indication  of  his  personal  inclinations. 
In  regard  to  the  force  suggested  as  ad- 
visable he  says: 

The  naval  force  suggested  as  adequate 
purely  for  the  protection  of  Canada's 
trade  and  Canada's  ports  under  the  con- 
ditions assumed  comprises  three  light 
cruisers,  one  flotilla  leader,  twelve  tor- 
pedo   craft,    eight    submarines,    with    one 


parent   ship,   and   certain   auxiliary  craft 
for   training  purposes,    &c. 

Such  a  force,  he  says,  can  be  provided 
**  on  the  basis  of  working  up  to  annual 
estimates"  of  between  $5,000,000  and 
$10,000,000,  an  expenditure  which  will 
provide  for  "  local  defense  and  defense 
of  trade  in  the  vicinity  of  the  coast." 

Referring  to  the  question  of  Canadian 
co-operation  in  imperial  defence  he  says: 
If  the  question  of  the  co-operation  of 
Canada  is  looked  upon  in  the  wider  sense 
of  participating  with  the  United  Kingdom 
and  the  other  dominions  in  the  naval  de- 
fense of  the  whole  empire  it  naturally  as- 
sumes much  larger  proportions. 

The  annual  appropriation  required  in 
the  latter  instance  is  given  by  Lord  Jel- 
licoe as  running  from  $17,500,000  to  $25,- 
000,000,  but  still  under  Canadian  control. 
Following  the  presentation  of  the  report 
to  Parliament  the  Minister  of  Naval  Af- 
fairs, the  Hon.  Mr.  Ballantyne,  informed 
the  House  that  no  action  would  be  taken 
in  connection  with  the  report  at  the  pres- 
ent time. 

The  question  resolves  back  to  the  con- 
siderations underlying  all  Canadian 
problems  at  the  present  moment — Cana- 
da's status  in  the  empire  and  as  a  na- 
tion among  the  other  nations  of  the 
world.  This  matter  will  be  discussed  at 
an  imperial  conference  which  was  to 
have  been  held  in  London  in  1920,  but 
which  now  cannot  be  held  until  1921. 
Until  this  conference  takes  place  noth- 
ing will  be  done  regarding  naval  defense 
in  Canada.  Meanwhile,  the  struggle  goes 
on,  mostly  under  cover,  between  the  im- 
perialists and  the  Canadian  autonomists, 
the  naval  question  being  only  one  of 
many. 

[Mr.  Ballantyne,  Minister  of  Marine,  an- 
nounced in  the  Canadian  House  of  Commons 
on  June  14  that  it  had  been  decided  to  accept 
England's  generous  offer  of  one  modern 
cruiser  with  a  total  complement  of  400  men, 
two  modern  destroyers.  Patrol  and  Patrician, 
and  two  submarines,  H-4  and  H-15,  These 
vessels,  he  sai(f  would  be  manned  exclusive- 
ly by  Canadians,  except  the  senior  officers.— 
Editorial  Note.] 


Original  Terms  of  the  Peace  Treaty 

Germany's  Lost  Opportunity 


JUST  before  the  German  elections  took 
place,  on  June  6,  1920,  material  for 
election  propaganda  and  election 
cries  began  to  run  rather  dry;  the  lurid 
stories  of  alleged  conspiracies,  alleged 
secret  armies,  both  White  and  Red,  and 
alleged  schemes  for  almost  daily  coups 
d'etat  had  been  so  overdone  that  the  pub- 
lic became  indifferent  to  them.  In  these 
circumstances  the  parties  of  the  Right, 
the  National  and  co-called  People's  Par- 
ties were  fortunate  in  being  able  to  pro- 
duce an  original  and  entirely  fresh  alle- 
gation calculated  to  damage  their  oppo- 
nents. It  was  categorically  stated — orig- 
inally by  Helfferich  at  an  election  meet- 
ing— that  the  ruinous  terms  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles  need  not  have  been 
accepted;  that  a  much  more  merciful 
treaty  had  been  prepared,  and  was,  so 
to  say,  up  the  sleeve  of  the  Entente 
should  the  Germans  refuse  to  accept  what 
was  first  presented  to  them,  and  that  it 
had  been  entirely  the  fault  of  the  cow- 
ardly and  stupid  Socialists  that  the  Ger- 
man Nation  had  pledged  itself  to  accept 
the  treaty  as  first  presented  instead  ot 
holding  out  and  getting  the  modified  and 
better  version. 

The  accusation  did  not  have  a  very 
great  effect  on  the  elections,  because  it 
was  started  rather  late  and  because  it 
was  unsupported  by  any  evidence.  After 
the  elections  had  been  held,  however,  rev- 
elations were  made  in  another  country 
for  quite  other  motives.  These  revela- 
tions do  not  really  confirm  the  account 
given  by  Helfferich,  but  they  show  how 
such  a  rumor  might  easily  have  arisen. 
There  was,  indeed,  another  set  of  treaty 
terms,  and  they  were  more  merciful  to 
Germany,  but  where  Helfferich  was 
wrong  was  in  saying  that  they  had  been 
held  in  reserve;  on  the  contrary,  they 
had  been  definitely  discarded  before  the 
terms,  as  we  know  them,  had  been  pub- 
lished. 

These  revelations  were  made  by  M. 
Tardieu  in  the  French  Chamber  on  June 
25.   Nor  would  they  have  been  made  ex- 


cept for  a  special  set  of  circumstiances. 
Important  diplomatic  revelations  are  al- 
most invariably  made  in  answer  to  some 
virulent  attack  on  a  diplomatist,  who, 
driven  into  a  corner  and  very  often  con- 
scious of  having  acted  with  great  diffi- 
culty and  with  the  sincerest  intentions,  is 
tempted  to  defend  himself  against  unjust 
attacks  by  quoting  a  single  outstanding 
document  which  will  disprove  his  oppo- 
nents' position.  This  is  exactly  what  has 
now  happened.  M.  Clemenceau  is  the 
statesman  against  whom  in  his  own  coun- 
try a  most  virulent  and  determined  at- 
tack is  being  launched.  Into  the  motives 
of  this  attack  we  need  not  enter ;  they  are 
various.  But  we  may  briefly  note  the 
different  points  from  which  the  attack 
has  been  engineered.  In  general,  the  at- 
tack takes  the  form  of  alleging  that  dur- 
ing the  war,  and  even  more  obviously  as 
regards  the  making  of  peace,  M.  Clemen- 
ceau unwittingly  (but  very  stupidly) 
betrayed  his  country  by  undue  sub- 
mission to  perfectly  unjustifiable  claims 
on  the  part  of  England,  and  occa- 
sionally on  the  part  of  America.  As  M. 
Clemenceau  himself  said  very  bitterly  as 
far  back  as  September,  1919 :  "  I  have 
waited  my  whole  life  for  this  victory. 
Now  we  have  got  it  and  I  am  in  power,  it 
appears  I  am  a  traitor.  No,  not  even  a 
traitor;  I  am  too  much  of  a  fool  to  be  a 
traitor." 

There  was  first  of  all  the  question  of 
the  Mosul  oil.  Here  M.  Briand  had  orig- 
inally made  "a  very  good  kind  of  a 
treaty,"  namely,  the  secret  Sykes-Picot 
compact  of  1916.  But  M.  Clemenceau, 
succeeding  him  in  power,  threw  away  all 
the  advantages  so  carefully  obtained  by 
M.  Briand,  all  for  the  sake  of  a  few  fair 
words  from  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  He  start- 
ed a  fresh  complementary  set  of  nego- 
tiations, negotiations  "  which,  we  are 
told,"  says  M.  Tardieu  in  his  defense  of 
Clemenceau,  "  were  the  height  of  ab- 
surdity; we  are  said  to  have  let  all  kinds 
of  places  slip  without  knowing  what 
they  were  or  where  they  were,  or  what 


ORIGINAL  TERMS  OF  THE  PEACE  TREATY 


965 


they  were  worth."  Thus  did  M.  Clemen- 
ceau's  Government  (according  to  its  crit- 
ics) undo  all  the  good  work  of  the 
Briand  Government  on  the  great  oil 
question. 

Secondly,  there  is  the  heated  contro- 
versy about  what  happened  exactly  on 
the  eve  of  the  German  armistice.  The 
attacking  side  asserts  that  the  allied  ar- 
mies could  easily  have  marched  in  tri- 
umph to  Vienna  and  Munich;  it  would 
practically  have  been  a  march  past, 
"and  the  terms  might  have  been  dictated 
to  the  enemy  in  one  of  his  own  capitals." 
Again  M.  Clemenceau  is  accused  of  hav- 
ing thrown  away  this  tremendous  posi- 
tion of  advantage.  Once  more  he  gave 
way  to  the  inexplicable  suggestions  of 
England,  that  the  Southeastern  Army 
should  be  "  broken  up  "  and  the  English 
half  of  it  deflected  for  useless  operations 
in  South  Russia,  thus  altogether  spoiling 
the  magnificent  and  fruitful  project  of 
the  march  on  Vienna. 

Both  of  these  accusations  are  new 
points  in  the  attack  on  M.  Clemenceau, 
but  they  only  reinforce  a  much  older  ac- 
cusation, one  that  goes  back  at  least 
twelve  months.  This  older  and  more  per- 
manent accusation  is  as  follows:  M.  Cle- 
menceau is  asserted  to  have  given  far 
too  good  terms  to  Germany,  and  to  have 
done  so  in  deference  to  President  Wilson 
and  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  At  this  point  the 
French  politician  is  accustomed  to  de- 
velop a  dramatic  contrast  between  the 
respective  positions  of  England  and 
America  on  the  one  hand  and  France  on 
the  other.  America  is  so  obviously  with- 
drawn from  any  chance  of  attack  or 
damage  by  any  European  country  that 
her  policy  (in  the  eyes  of  a  Frenchman) 
must  necessarily  be  distorted  by  her  pe- 
culiar position  of  safety.  But  even  Eng- 
land is  comparatively  safe,  placed  as  she 
is  on  the  further  side  of  the  North  Sea 
and  the  Channel,  and  she,  too,  views  the 
European  position  far  too  much  from  the 
lofty  and  indifferent  standpoint  of  her 
own  security.  But  France,  poor  France, 
is  only  too  much  exposed,  exposed  to 
every  attempt  at  revanche  on  the  part  of 
Germany;  she  alone,  therefore,  can  take 
the   right    "  European "   point   of   view, 


and,  in  defending  herself,  defend  the 
peace  of  all  the  other  European  coun- 
tries. But  here  the  Treaty  of  Versailles 
is  most  inadequate  in  the  eyes  of  that 
section  of  the  French  public  which  has 
recently  forced  its  way  to  the  front  and 
seems  to  live  on  nerves  and  fear  of  the 
next  war;  and  again  M.  Clemenceau  is 
the  culprit. 

As  long  as  he  was  still  in  power,  M. 
Clemenceau,  by  his  great  eloquence,  by 
his  biting  wit,  by  his  merciless  satire, 
was  able  to  hold  his  own,  and  the  attacks 
against  him  were  tentative  and  spas- 
modic. But  now  that  he  has  been  forced 
to  retire  to  private  life,  his  enemies  have 
the  field  to  themselves  and  lose  no  op- 
portunity of  flinging  themselves  on  his 
work  and  on  those  men,  namely,  the  un- 
fortunate present  Government,  who  have 
succeeded  to  his  policy;  "some  people's 
courage,"  as  M.  Tardieu  said  sarcastical- 
ly in  his  speech,  "  is  very  late  in  ripen- 
ing." M.  Tardieu,  in  this  speech  of  June 
25,  made  a  very  spirited  defense  of  the 
man  "  without  whom  the  sacrifices  of  the 
trenches  would  have  been  of  no  avail." 
He  dealt  with  the  Mosul  oil,  he  dealt 
with  the  alleged  break  up  of  the  South- 
eastern Army ;  but  he  reserved,  as  a  kind 
of  bonne  bouche  at  the  end,  his  very 
startling  defense  of  the  terms  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles. 

He  declared,  in  effect,  that,  bad  as  they 
were  (i.  e.,  bad  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  Frenchman),  they  yet  might  have 
been  ten  thousand  times  worse;  that  an- 
other set  of  terms  was  brought  to  the 
conference  by  the  English  and  Ameri- 
cans, terms  against  which,  as  he  says 
with  perfect  frankness,  M.  Clemenceau 
struggled  "  with  patient  firmness "  for 
six  months.  "  These  terms,"  he  con- 
tinued, "have  never  been  heard  in  this 
House,  and  they  should  be  heard,"  and 
he  proceeded  to  give  a  few  "  chapter 
headings,"  as  he  called  them,  as  follows: 

ORIGINAL,  TERMS  OF  PEACE  BROUGHT 
BY  THE  ENGLISH  AND  AMERICANS 
TO  THE  VERSAILLES  CONFERENCE. 
Immediate  admission  of  Germany  to  the 

Leagrue  of  Nations. 
No    interallied    occupation    of    the    left         ^ 

bank  of  the  Rhine. 
No    French     occupation     unless    for    a^om 

period  of  eighteen  months.  essive 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Payment  by  France  to  Germany  on  ac- 
count of  public  property  taken  over  in 
Alsace-Lorraine. 

No  cession  to  France  of  the  Sarre 
mines. 

No  special  administration  system  for 
the  Sarre  population ;  no  punitive  in- 
demnities, so  that  France  would  have 
been  able  to  claim  only  40  per  cent,  of  her 
damages  and  war  pensions  from  Ger- 
many. 

Germany  to  be  freed  of  her  indemnity 
at  the  end  of  thirty  years,  whatever  the 
sum  she  might  have  payed  up  to  then. 

Half  the  indemnity  to  be  accepted  in 
paper  money. 

Distribution  of  merchant  tonnage  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  of  war  prizes 
held. 

Perfect  liberty  for  Austria  to  join  Ger- 
many at  once  if  she  wished  to  do  so. 

These  terms  were  read  to  the  French 
Chamber,  which  received  them  with  the 
greatest  excitement  and  indignation.    M. 


Tardieu  was  forced  into  naming  by  name 
both  the  English  and  American  nations 
as  authors  of  these  terms ;  "  it  was  some- 
times the  one,"  he  said,  "  and  sometimes 
the  other,  sometimes  the  English,  and 
sometimes  the  Americans,  and  we  had  a 
mighty  struggle,  first  to  get  the  text  of 
the  treaty  as  it  was  actually  sent  to  Ger- 
many on  May  7,  and,  second,  having  got 
this  text,  to  maintain  it  intact  to  the 
end."  On  the  whole  M.  Tardieu  has 
not  been  guilty  of  any  very  great  inac- 
curacies, although  a  certain  amount  of 
caution  must  necessarily  be  observed  in 
accepting  statements  so  obviously  made 
for  the  sake  of  proving  a  defense. 

NOTE— The  terms  as  given  above  are 
translated  from  the  version  of  M.  Tardieu's 
speech  given  in  the  official  proceedings  of 
the  French  Chamber,  Journal  Officiel,  June 
26,  1920,  p.  2446. 


The  Bolsheviki  and  the  Russian 
Trade  Unions 

[TRANSLATEaO    FOR    CURRENT    HISTORY    BY    DR.     SaVRONSKY,    KeRENSKY^S     PRrVATE    SECRETARY,    AND 

Interpreted  by  John  Spargo] 


UPON  no   phase  of  the  Bolshevist 
regime    in    Russia   has    it   been 
more  difficult  to  obtain  compre- 
hensive and  precise  information 
than  upon  the  status  of  the  trade  unions. 
Numerous  and  conflicting  reports  have 
been  published  upon  this  subject :  we  have 
been  assured,  on  the  one  hand,  that  trade 
unions    have    been    suppressed,    and,    on 
the  other  hand,  that  they  virtually  con- 
trol the  Government.    At  last  we  are  in 
a  position  to   base  our  judgment  upon 
full     and     authentic     information.      On 
Feb.  29  of  this  year   Pravda,   the  offi- 
cial   organ    of   the    Russian    Communist 
Party,  published  a  long  report,  a  series 
of  sixteen  "  theses,"  entitled  "  Economic 
Organizing  and   Propagandist  Tasks  of 
Comm     ist  Party  and  the  Industrial 
"        which  the  entire  subject  is 
le   author   of  the    report   is 
lairman    of    the    Executive 
V  >f   the    Third    International, 

\  the  Petrograd  Soviet,  and  a 


member  of  the  Central  Soviet  Govern- 
ment. He  is  also  Chairman  of  the  Petro- 
grad section  of  the  Russian  Communist 
Party. 

In  the  first  three  theses  Zinoviev  ex- 
plains that  the  Bolsheviki  are  committed 
to  the  theory  of  "  industrial  unionism  " 
as  against  "  craft  unionism."  They  seem 
on  general  principles  to  favor  such  in- 
dustrial unionism  as  we  have  exemplified 
in  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America 
(which  embraces  all  who  work  in  and 
around  the  mines)  rather  than  the  idea 
of  "  one  big  union,"  but  this  is  more  or 
less  an  academic  question  now,  Zinoviev 
explains.  The  trade  unions  in  the  Soviet 
State  are  no  longer  militant  bodies;  they 
are  a  part  of  the  industrial  organization. 
They  are,  however,  subject  to  control  by 
the  Soviet  Government  and  by  the  Com- 
munist Party.  Following  is  a  practically 
complete  translation  of  this  important 
document : 


THE  BOLSHEVIKI  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  TRADE  UNIONS 


967 


THESIS  I. 

What  Is  a  Trade  Union? 

In  order  to  clarify  the  question  of  the  mu- 
tual relations  between  the  party  and  the 
trade  unions,  it  is  first  necessary  to  give  a 
precise  definition  of  "  trade  union." 

From  the  point  of  view  of  revolutionary 
Marxism,  a  trade  union  is  by  no  means  mere- 
ly an  organization  of  workers  "  with  the 
aim  of  maintaining  and  increasing  their 
wages  "  (the  definition  given  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Webb),  or  a  society  of  workers  "  aim- 
ing to  give  assistance  to  its  members  during 
unemployment  and  to  defend  their  interests 
when  entering  into  a  contract  with  the  em- 
ployer "  (the  definition  given  by  Brentano 
and  Sombart).  Bolshevism  has  never  agreed 
with  the  formula  of  the  Second  International 
defining  the  trade  union  as  a  "  permanent 
union  of  hired  labor  of  a  certain  occupation 
in  order  to  improve  the  conditions  of  labor 
and  to  fight  against  their  aggravation  under 
the  capitalistic  system  "  (the  definition  of 
Adolf  Braun,  which  has  been  supported  by 
Legien  and  even  by  Bebel). 

As  early  as  1913  Bolshevism,  in  its  polemics 
against  the  Mensheviki,  formulated  its  defi- 
nition as  follows : 

"  The  trade  union  is  a  permanent  organ- 
ization of  workmen  of  a  certain  branch  of  in- 
dustry (and  not  only  of  a  certain  ocupation), 
for  the  special  purpose  of  directing  the  eco- 
nomic struggle  of  labor,  and  to  participate, 
together  with  the  political  party  of  the  prole- 
tariat, in  the  emancipating  struggle  of  the 
working  class  for  the  abolition  of  hired  serf- 
dom and  for  the  conquest  of  socialism."  (See 
our  articles  In  the  Pravda  of  that  time,  col- 
lected in  the  pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Labor 
Party  and  the  Trade  Unions,"  published  by 
the  Petrograd  Soviet  in  1918.) 

It  is  now  necessary  to  develop  this  for- 
mula. Since  1913  very  considerable  changes 
have  occurred.  The  power  has  passed  over 
to  the  working  class.  The  bourgeoisie  has 
been  expropriated.  In  connection  with  this 
change,  the  tasks  of  the  trade  unions  in 
Russia  have  been,  of  course,  considerably 
altered.  The  first  All-Russian  Conference  of 
Trade  Unions,  which  took  place  at  the  be- 
ginning of  1918,  passed  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

"  The  October  revolution,  which  trans- 
mitted the  power  to  the  working  class  and 
the  poorest  peasantry,  has  created  quite  new 
conditions  for  the  activity  of  all  labor  or- 
ganizations generally  and  also  for  the  trade 
unions." 

First  of  all,  the  trade  unions  at  the  pres- 
ent time  do  not  have  to  consider  themselves 
as  the  defenders  of  the  workers  when  selling 
their  labor.  There  are  no  more  entrepreneurs 
in  the  former  sense,  who  were  powers  of 
labor  energy.  The  struggle  against  the  ex- 
ploitation by  the  middle  and  small  employers 
and  contractors,  &c.,  is  being  carried  on  not 
only  by  the  trade  unions,  but  also  by  the 
whole  Soviet  State  machinery.  The  trade 
unions  under  the  present  conditions  have  no 


necessity  to  accumulate  strike  funds,  to  or- 
ganize strikes,  &c. 

What  are  the  actual  tasks  of  the  trade 
unions  in  Russia  at  this  moment?  The  an^ 
swer  has  been  given  by  the  resolution  of  the 
first  All-Russian  Conference  of  the  trade 
unions,  which  was  supported  on  behalf  of 
our  party:  "The  point  of  intensity  in  the 
activity  of  the  trade  unions  must  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  be  transferred  into  the  sphere 
of  organizing  the  economic  system." 

The  question.  What  is  now  a  trade  union  in 
Russia?  may  be  answered: 

"  The  industrial  union  in  Russia  at  the 
present  period  is  a  permanent  organization 
of  all  workers  of  a  certain  branch  of  pro- 
duction forming  one  of  the  principal  eco- 
nomic organized  bases  of  the  proletarian 
dictatorship." 

The  "  industrial  union,"  striving  to  take  an 
energetic  participation  under  the  direction  of 
the  Communist  Party  in  the  whole  struggle 
of  the  proletariat  for  the  reconstruction  of 
society  on  Communist  principles  and  the 
abolition  of  classes,  is  transferring  the  in- 
tensity of  its  work  into  the  sphere  of  the 
economic   organization,   namely : 

1.  To  participate  in  the  organization  of 
production  on  Communist  principles  through 
the  respective  sections  of  the  Councils  of 
National  Economy   ("  Sovnarchos  "),  &c. 

2.  To  participate  in  the  reconstruction  of 
the  productive  forces  of  the  country,  which 
have  been  destroyed  during  the  war  and  the 
present  economic  crisis. 

3.  To  prepare  statistics  concerning  labor 
and  its  distribution  over  the  whole  country. 

4.  To  participate  through  the  distribution 
committees  in  the  organization  of  exchange 
of  goods  between  the  towns  and  villages. 

5.  The  same  participation  in  the  sphere  of 
the  accomplishment  of  general  labor  con- 
scription. 

6.  To  help  the  food  organs  of  the  State,  the 
food  committees  ("  Komprod  ")  and  the  con- 
sumers'  communes. 

7.  The  same  in  the  solution  of  the  transport 
and  fuel  crisis. 

8.  To  support  the  work  of  building  up  the 
Red  Army. 

9.  Full,  complete  and  devoted  support  of 
the  Labor  Army. 

10.  In  addition,  likewise,  the  due  protection 
of  labor  (according  to  the  Labor  Code)  to 
fight  against  the  narrow-minded,  egotistical 
tendencies  of  the  workmen,  who,  owing  to 
their  backwardness,  are  looking  on  the  pro- 
letarian State  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
usual  entrepreneur. 

These,  for  instance,  must  be  the  functions 
of  our  unions. 

The  industrial  unions,  being  practically 
communistic  schools  for  large  numbers  of  the 
proletariat  and  semi-proletariat,  are  becom- 
ing one  of  the  organs  of  the  proletariair 
State  machinery,  while  being  subjected  to 
the  Soviets,  as  the  present  historical  form  of 
the  proletarian   dictatorship. 

The  party  must  in  the  most  resolute  man- 
ner oppose  all  attempts  to  diminish  the  power 


^ressive 


968 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


of  the  industrial  unions,  not  to  say  to  abol- 
ish them  as  outlived  organizations ;  our  plat- 
form has  truly  pointed  out  that  "  the  ma- 
chinery of  nationalized  industry  has  to  rely  , 
first  on  the  industrial  unions  (trade  unions)." 
However,  our  program  indicates  that  the 
unions  "  must  be  liberated  from  the  guild 
narrow  mind  "  in  order  to  be  able  to  fulfill 
the  above-mentioned  task.  The  attention  of 
the  party  must  be  called  to  this  point:  Only 
by  means  of  determined  educational  work 
inside  the  unions  will  the  party  help  the 
unions  to  overcome  the  narrow  spirit  of 
guilds  and  the  other  negative  sides  of  the 
movement. 

THESIS  11. 

The    Organization    of     Unions     on    an 

Occupational  Basis  or  According  to 

the   Branches   of   Production 

Two  tendencies  have  been  fighting  in  the 
international  labor  movement,   namely: 

1.  For  the  organization  of  trade  unions  on 
the  basis  of  occupation. 

2.  For  the  organization  of  trade  unions  on 
the  basis  of  branches  of  production. 

The  second  principle,  that  of  the  industrial 
unions,  is  of  more  usefulness  for  the  prole- 
tariat, even  in  the  capitalistic  system,  as  it 
gives  immense  advantages  during  a  strike 
struggle;  the  industrial  union  has  in  its 
hands  not  only  one  occupation  but  the  whole 
branch  of  production,  and  if  it  contains  the 
greater  part  of  a  certain  industry  the  trade 
union  may  more  easily  sfop  production 
entirely  and  compel  the  employer  and  the 
capitalist   State   to  make  concessions. 

Revolutionary  Marxists  have  defended  or- 
ganization according  to  the  second  principle 
because  the  industrial  unions  may  better 
prepare  for  the  future  task  of  organizing 
production  on  communistic  principles.  The 
industrial  union  is  in  a  better  position  to 
review  the  whole  machinery  of  production, 
which  is  impossible  with  division  according  to 
occupation. 

In  Soviet  Russia,  where  economic  re- 
construction on  communistic  principles  has 
already  begun,  it  is  especially  necessary  to 
organize  the  unions  on  the  industrial  prin- 
ciple. This  principle  has  already  been 
adopted  by  the  Russian  movement,  and  it  is 
consequently  only  necessary  to  carry  it  to  its 
conclusion.  There  are  now  thirty-four  All- 
Russian  unions.  The  task  of  our  movement 
is  to  integrate  and  to  reduce  the  number  of 
unions  to  a  minimum  of  about  twenty,  for 
instance. 

Similarly  it  is  radically  necessary  to 
change  the  name  of  the  trade  unions  and  to 
call  them  industrial  imions. 

THESIS  III. 

Centralization  or  Decentralization 

There  is  also  an  old  controversy  in  the 
international  trade  union  movement  on  the 
question  of  centralization.     The  opportunists 


all  over  the  world  have  been  defending  the 
small  "  independent  "  unions,  which  are  not 
co-ordinated  at  one  centre  and  are  therefore 
unable  to  fulfill  the  tasks  of  the  struggle 
against  the  capitalists.  The  revolutinary 
Marxists  are,  on  the  contrary,  always  defend- 
ing the  necessity  of  utmost  centralization. 

If  the  utmost  centralization  of  the  indus- 
trial unions  in  the  capitalist  countries  is 
indispensable  for  the  successful  struggle 
against  the  employers  and  their  capitalist 
Government,  the  utmost  maximum  centrali- 
zation is  not  less  necessary  in  Soviet  Russia, 
in  order  to  enable  the  industrial  unions  to 
participate  in  the  most  able  manner  in  the 
organization  of  the  national  economy  on  the 
All-Russian  scale. 

The  process  of  the  integral  centralization 
of  the  industrial  unions  on  the  All-Russian 
scale  has  already  begun.  It  is  necessary  to 
pay  more  attention  to  this  problem  than 
before. 

Theses  IV.  and  V.  deal  with  the  trans- 
formation of  the  trade  unions  into 
State  organs.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  membership  in  the  unions  is  to  be 
made  legally  compulsory  for  all  persons 
engaged  in  industry,  though  this  is  not 
being  hurried.  In  the  meantime,  the 
unions  have  a  power  over  their  mem- 
bers never  exercised,  or  even  claimed, 
by  the  unions  in  any  other  country. 
They  mobilize  their  members  for  mili- 
tary service,  compel  workers  to  go 
where  wanted,  and  so  on.  This  they  can 
do  because  they  are  no  longer  trade 
unions  in  the  sense  in  which  we  under- 
stand the  term,  but  "  organs  of  the 
State  power."  Where  scientific  and 
technical  experts  are  attached  to  an  in- 
dustry they  must  be  brought  into  the 
unions   as  members. 

THESIS  IV. 
Nationalization  of  the  Trade   Unions 

As  early  as  the  All-Russian  Congress  of 
the  Trade  Unions,  which  took  place  in  Janu- 
ary, 1918,  it  was  stated: 

"  The  Congress  is  convinced  that  the  proc- 
ess which  has  now  commenced  will  result  in- 
evitably in  transforming  the  trade  unions 
into  organs  of  the  Socialist  State,  and  par- 
ticipation therein  would  be  compulsory  on 
behalf  of  the  State  (by  law)  for  all  persons 
engaged  in  a  certain  branch  of  production 
(occupation)." 

This  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  Con- 
gress has  proved  true.  The  trade  unions  are 
taking  up  successively,  one  by  one,  the  tasks 
or  duties  of  State  organs.  When  trade  unions 
aa'e  mobilising  their  m'^mhers,  when  they  are 
fastening  workmen  to  a  certain  totem,  when 
they  are  sending  labor  forces  from,  one  point 


THE  BOLSHEVIKI  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  TRADE  UNIONS  969 


o/  Russia  to  (mother,  when  they  are  ex- 
pressing their  decisive  opinion  in  matters  of 
tariffs,  &c.— when  they  are  decisively  influ- 
encing the  action  of  the  Sovnarchos  (Coun- 
cils of  National  Economy)— they  are  speaking 
and  acting  as  organs  of  the  State  power. 

But  even  because  the  process  of  national- 
ization of  the  trade  unions  has  been  develop- 
ing progressively  and  quite  normally,  there 
is  no  necessity  to  accelerate  this  process  by 
force  and  proclaim  formally  and  immediate- 
ly their  nationalization.  The  Communists 
who  are  acting  in  the  trade  union  movement 
may  fully  associate  with  the  resolutions  of 
the  first  and  second  All-Russian  Congress  of 
Trade  Unions  on  this  issue,  approaclhing 
slowly  their  inevital)le  full  nationalisation. 

THESIS  V. 

Party  Trade  Unions  and  Attraction  of 
Experts 

The  proletarian  party  must  conceive  the 
reasons  for  that  conscious  attitude  on  the 
question  of  inviting  experts  to  personal  ad- 
ministration (of  industry),  which  may  be 
found  in  some  labor  circles  that  are  anxious 
lest  imperceptibly  the  power  of  a  hostile 
social  class  might  be  strengthened.  The 
proletarian  party  has  to  consider  how  to 
provide  serious  guarantees  in  the  organiza- 
tion in  order  that  this  may  not  occur  while 
utilizing  scientific  and  technical  experts. 
For  this  purpose  it  is  necessary  to  introduce 
the  system  of  Labor  Commissioners  attached 
to  the  experts  (on  railways,  &c.). 

In  this  sphere  definite  problems  are  await- 
ing the  trade  unions.  One  of  the  first  im- 
portant problems  to  be  solved  by  the  indus- 
trial unions  will  be  to  realize  the  aims  of  our 
program,  which  prescribes  the  utilization  of 
"  the  scientific  and  technical  experts  "  left 
to  us  by  inheritance  from  the  capitalistic 
State,  in  order  that  the  workmen  may  go 
through  a  long  training  by  working  by  the 
side  of  these  experts  in  conditions  of  com- 
mon  comradeship. 

To  this  end  the  experts  are  admitted  as 
viembers  into  the  industrial  unions  according 
to  their  profession.  As  the  case  may  be,  in 
the  industrial  unions  must  be  formed  special 
sections  and  sub-sections  for  the  experts, 
and  by  and  by,  according  as  the  experts 
make  themselves  acquainted  with  the  work- 
men and  act  in  agreement  with  them,  all 
restrictions  of  their  rights  which  were  due 
to  the  transition  period  shall  be  abolished. 

In  case  any  opposition  should  arise  to  the 
use  of  experts  in  the  reconstruction  and  ad- 
ministration of  industry,  the  party  should 
oppose  the  utmost  resistance  to  such  ten- 
dencies as  are  in  contradiction  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Communist  construction  at  this 
period,  and  are  not  in  conformity  with  the 
party  program.  The  party  is  striving  to  put 
into  the  service  of  Soviet  Russia  all  the 
scientific-technical  energies  of  the  country, 
under    the    strong    control    of    the    working 


class,  as  has  been  the  case  in  the  sphere  of 
the  Red  army. 

In  addition,  the  party  must  keep  in  mind 
that,  for  the  purpose  of  direction  and  ad- 
ministration of  economic  work,  it  would  be 
easier  than  in  the  military  sphere  to  prepare, 
by  and  by,  proletarians  selected  from  among 
the  m,ass  of  members  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party  who  would  he  able  to  take  the 
matter  into  their  own  hands.  The  party  has 
to  promote  the  creation  of  a  network  of 
technical  schools  and  lectures,  in  order  to 
enable  the  most  intelligent  workmen  and 
peasants  to  get  the  necessary  training  for 
holding  the  offices  of  technical  administra- 
tors and  directors  of  factories,  mines  and  of 
the  Soviet  economic  organization  generally. 
As  we  were  able  to  create  for  the  army 
hundreds  of  courses,  we  must  now  cover  the 
whole  country  by  a  network  of  courses  where 
Red  technicals.  Red  engineers.  Red  experts 
and  the  Red  administrative  staff  generally 
are  to  be  prepared  for  the  direction  of  in- 
dustry and  economic  organization.  The  most 
important  aim  of  the  party  organization  and 
of  the  industrial  unions  must  be  to  pay  care- 
ful attention  to  every  workman  or  peasant 
who  manifests  talents  or  abilities  in  the  eco- 
nomic sphere  and  to  support  and  encourage 
organizers  coming  from  the  people. 

Finally,  it  is  necessary  that  the  transmis- 
sion of  the  State  control  (inspection  of  the 
workers  and  of  the  peasants)  into  the  hands 
of  the  workers  must  be  accomplished  ener- 
getically and  as  quickly  as  possible. 

Theses  VI.,  VII.  and  VIII.  are  especial- 
ly interesting  because  of  their  insistence 
that  both  the  Soviets  and  the  trade 
unions  must  be  entirely  subordinated  to 
the  Communist  Party.  Neither  political 
neutrality  nor  independence  is  permis- 
sible for  the  unions.  (Theses  IX.  and  X. 
are  omitted  as  being  of  only  local  and 
transient  interest.  The  first  deals  with 
the  regulation  of  political  factions  in  the 
unions  and  the  Communist  Party,  the 
second  with  organization  of  the  agricirl- 
tural  proletariat). 

THESIS  VI. 
Party    and   Soviets 

The  trade  unions  are  acting  by  the  side  of 
the  party  and  Soviets.  In  order  to  conceive 
the  mutual  relations  between  the  unions  and 
the  proletarian  party,  it  is  necessary  to 
keep  in  mind  that  in  present-day  Russia 
the  Soviets  are  still  more  mass  organiza- 
tions than  the  trade  unions,  and  their  func- 
tions are  interlacing  with  some  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  trade  unions. 

The     eighth     Conference     of     the     Russian 
Communist    Party    has    given    the    following     -^ 
definition :  ^ur- 

"  The  Soviets  are   the   State   (Governmer  from 
organizations    of   the    working   class    aru^gggj^g 


970 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  poorest  peasantry,  which  are  carrying 
on  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  during 
the  interval  until  the  State  has  died  out. 
The  Soviets  are  uniting  in  their  organiza- 
tions tens  of  millions  of  workers  and  have 
to  aim  at  uniting  in  their  ranks  the  whole 
of  the  working  class  and  the  poorest  peas- 
antry. The  Communist  Party  is  the  or- 
ganization which  joins  in  its  ranks  only  the 
vanguard  of  the  proletariat  and  the  poorest 
peasantry,  that  is,  that  part  of  these  classes 
which  is  consciously  aiming  at  realization 
of  the  Communist  program.  The  Communist 
.  Party  has  set  before  it  the  task  of  attaining 
the  decisive  influence  and  full  leadership  in 
all  labor  organizations,  namely,  trade 
unions,  co-operatives,  rural  commissions, 
&c.  The  Communist  Party  is  especially 
striving  to  carry  out  its  program  and  its 
full  control  in  the  present  State  organization 
by    the    Soviets." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  future  all 
the  various  kinds  of  labor  organizations  will 
be  combined  in  one  body.  But  it  would  be 
useless  to  discuss  no^  the  question  which  of 
the  present  forms  (of  labor  organizations) 
will  be  of  tlie  longest  standing. 

THESIS  VII. 
The  Theory  of  Equal  Rights 

In  the  Second  International,  even  in  the 
best  part  of  it,  the  dominating  opinion  has 
been  that  the  party  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
trade  unions  on  the  other  are  organizations 
(of  the  working  class  movement)  with  equal 
rights  and  of  the  same  value,  which  are 
functioning  in  the  capacity  of  contracting 
parties  when  big  questions  arise, 

The  party  has  to  carry  on  the  political 
leadership,  while  the  trade  unions  maintain 
the  economic  leadership.  For  instance,  the 
German  Social  Democracy,  with  the  sanc- 
tion of  August  Bebel,  accepted  a  resolution 
that  in  the  event  of  its  being  necessary  to 
use  the  general  strike  this  could  only  be  re- 
.solved  by  an  agreement  between  the  cen- 
tral committee  of  the  party  and  the  general 
council  of  the  trade  union. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  Communism, 
this  opinion  cannot  be  admitted  as  true. 
The  adherents  of  revolutionary  Marxism 
have  always  declined  this  view.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  revolutionary  Marxism, 
the  party  represents  the  highest  synthesis 
of  all  parts  in  the  struggle  of  the  working 
class  for  its  lihei^ation  from  capitalistic 
serfdom.  The  Communistic  Party  is  con- 
necting the  political  struggle  dissoluMy 
loith  the  economical;  it  is  guiding  and  di- 
recting both  the  economical  and  the  political 
struggle.  The  party  is  the  vanguard  of  the 
whole  proletariat.  The  party  is,  by  the 
theory  of  Communism,  lighting  all  the  wind- 
ings of  the  way.  The  party  is  representing 
the  brains  of  the  working  class.  Therefore, 
'he  work  which  the  trade  unions  are  per- 
'^  -ming  forms  only  a  part  of  the  whole 
\  of   the    Communist    Party.      There    can 


be  no  more  talk  of  any  concessions  to  the 
theory  of  equal  rights  in  the  present  period 
of  dictatorship.  The  slightest  deviation  in 
this  direction  must  be  strongly  and  relent- 
lessly opposed  by  the  party. 

THESIS  VIII. 

On  the  Neutrality  of  the  Trade  Unions 
The  contemporary  trade  unions  are  not 
formally  subjected  to  the  Communist  Party. 
All  workmen  and  workwomen,  without  dis- 
tinction of  party  and  confessed  convictions, 
are  accepted  by  the  trade  unions.  Neutral 
workmen  can  enter  into  our  trade  unions. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  the  Communist  col- 
laborating in  the  trade  unions  should  on  no 
account  ignore  the  conservative  character  of 
such  neutrality.  The  Communists  and  the 
Communistic  fractions  in  the  trade  unions 
must  frankly  propagate  Communism.  The 
ti'ade  vmions  must  regard  themselves  as 
schools  of  Communism.  All  leaders  of  the 
trade  unions  should  incessantly  point  out  to 
the  workers  that  the  enemies  of  Communism, 
in  insisting  on  the  neutrality  of  thei  unions, 
are  defrauding  the  workers  and  should  ex- 
plain to  them  why  the  formerly  neutral  trade 
unions  are  supporting  the  Communist  Party, 
recognizing  the  proletarian  dictatorship,  the 
Soviet  power  and  the  world  revolution.  Th'? 
Communist  Party  is  conquering  its  influence 
in  the  trade  unions  exclusively  by  its  prac- 
tical detail  and  self-denying  work  inside  the 
unions  and  by  delegating  its  most  loyal  ird 
steady  members,  for  all  leading  posts  in  the 
unions.  Only  such  an  influence,  conquered 
in  the  course  of  long  years  and  practical 
work,  can  be  strong  and  steady. 

Thesis  XI.  deals  primarily  with  the 
factory  committees,  but  throws  little 
light  upon  their  present  status.  The 
factory  committees,  or  Soviets,  during 
the  first  period  of  the  Bolshevist  regime, 
undertook  the  management  and  direction 
of  industry.  Their  complete  and  dis- 
astrous failure  led  to  "  the  introduction 
of  the  individual  administration  of  indus- 
trial undertakings,"  and  it  was  necessary 
either  to  abolish  the  factory  committees 
or  to  give  them  a  totally  different  func- 
tion as  consultative  bodies.  While  fac- 
tory committees  have  been  nominally  re- 
tained they  have  been  shorn  of  all  pow- 
ers and  count  for  far  less  than  many  of 
the  factory  committees  to  be  found  in 
this  country. 

THESIS  XI. 
Factory  Committees  and  Trade   Unions 

The  factory  committees  have  made  a  large 
evolution  during  the  last  few  years.  The 
part  of  these  committees,  acting  in  the  ca- 
pacity   of    big   political    concentration    points 


THE  BOLSHEVIKI  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  TRADE  UNIONS  971 


ZINOVIEV.  FIERY  ORATOR  OF  BOLSHEVISM  AND  AUTHOR  OF  THE  DOCU- 
MENT LIMITING  THE  RIGHTS  OF  LABOR  UNIONS  IN  RUSSIA,  IS  THE 
CENTRAL  FIGURE  IN  THIS  GROUP.  ON  THE  LEFT  IS  BUHARIN.  ACTIVE 
IN  SUPPRESSING  FREEDOM  OP  THE  PRESS,  AND  ON  THE  RIGHT  IS 
KAMENOV,  WHO  HAS  BEEN  INFLUENTIAL  IN  SHAPING  THE  EDICTS 
OF    THE    LENIN    GOVERNMENT 


before  the  February  revolution,  is  known  to 
all.  In  the  interval  between  February  and 
October  revolutions  the  factory  committees 
were  the  first  organizations  which  actually 
began  to  exercise  control  over  production. 
After  the  October  revolution  they  served  £.s 
the  basis  for  organizing  and  carrying  out  the 
nationalization  of  industry.  A  large  number 
of  the  best  workmen  who  entered  into  the 
administration  of  the  nationalized  unicrtak- 
ings  and  our  headquarters  came  out  from 
these  committees. 

After  the  All-Russian  Union  of  Factory 
Committees  was  abolished  the  role  of  the 
committees  radically  changed.  The  commit-* 
tees  became  cells  of  the  trade  unions  and 
remained  in  this  role  until  now. 

The  factory  committees  ("  fabcom  ")  may 
participate  in  the  organization  of  production 
in  the  same  proportion  and  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  trade  unions.  Like  the  trade 
unions,  which  do  not  replace  the  Council  of 
National  Economy,  but  only  delegate  a  num- 
ber of  their  members  into  the  representative 
sections  of  the  Council,  of  National  Economy 


("  Sovnarchos  "),  so  the  factory  committees 
should  not  replace  the  administration  of  the 
undertakings,  but  only  serve  as  a  basis  for 
the  administration. 

The  factory  committee  has  another  big  im- 
portance. Our  party  suffers  from  the  lack 
of  an  organization  machinery  which  would 
automatically  draw  out  from  the  ranks  cf 
the  common  members  new  workers  for  re- 
sponsible offices.  At  the  present  time  the 
party  has  at  its  disposal  about  1,000  mem-* 
bers  all  over  Russia,  whereas,  now,  when 
the  struggle  with  the  economic  destruction 
becomes  the  principal  task  of  our  party,  a 
large  number  of  organizers  had  to  be  taken 
from  among  the  common  members  of  the 
party.  The  factory  committee  appears  to  be 
that  cell  which,  in  addition  to  the  "  col- 
lective," may  form  the  machinery  to  supply 
thousands  of  workmen  from  the  factories  to 
fulfill  various  functions  of  economic  or- 
ganizing. 

For  this  reason  the  party  is  resolutely  for 
retaining  the  factory  committees  under  the 
condition  that  their  functions  may  te  once 


•ipressive 


972 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


more  precisely  determined  by  a  special  decree. 
The  beginning  of  the  introduction  of  indi- 
vidual administration  in  industrial  under- 
takings would  not  make  the  factory  commit-' 
tees  useless,  but,  on  the  contrary,  this  neces- 
sary reform  would  make  the  retaining  of  the 
committees  more  useful. 

It  is  necessary  not  only  that  the  trade 
unions  should  regard  the  factory  committees 
formally  as  their  cells,  but  that  they  should 
organically  grow  together  with  them  and 
control  their  regular  renewal  and  their  work. 

Thesis  XII.  throws  further  light  upon 
the  power  of  the  unions  over  their  mem- 
bers under  the  Soviet  regime  and  clearly 
indicates  the  opposition  that  has  de- 
veloped in  the  unions  to  the  compulsory 
labor  system.  There  is  much  signifi- 
cance in  the  fact  that  opposition  to 
labor  conscription  and  the  demand  for 
"  the  freedom  of  labor "  are  identified 
by  Ziriopviev  as  trade  unionism.  Theses 
XIII., '  XiV.  and  XV.  are  interesting 
criticisms,  from  the  Bolshevist  stand- 
point, of  the  trade  union  policies,  and 
bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  criti- 
cisms of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  by  our  own  radicals.  Thesis  XVI. 
discusses  the  relation  of  the  Russian 
trade  unions  to  the  Third  International. 

THESIS  XII. 

Trade    Unions    and    Cornpulsory    Labor 
Duty 

The  transition  to  compulsory  labor  places 
new  problems  before  our  trade  unions. 

During  the  civil  war  and  dictatorship  the 
trade  unions  were  frequently  compelled  to 
force  their  members.  The  trade  unions  pro- 
ceeded to  obligatory  m,obilization  of  their 
members  to  the  front,  to  the  food  detach- 
ments, &c.  The  trade  unions  assigned  their 
members  to  a  definite  place  of  work,  and  did 
not  permit  free  movement,  &c.  All  that  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  win  the  victory  over 
the  worst  enemies  of  the  working  class.  Now, 
beginning  the  resolute  struggle  against  eco- 
nomic destruction,  the  trade  unions  will  be 
obliged,  more  than  ever  before,  to  use  con- 
straint, in  order  to  save  the  country  from 
famine  and  cold. 

The  party  must  resist  in  the  most  resolute 
way  all  kinds  of  hesitation  upon  this  ques- 
tion by  the  trade  union  movement,  which  has 
been  marked,  since  the  slightest  hesitation  in 
this  sphere  may  bring  the  ruin  of  the  pro- 
letarian revolution. 

The  creation  of  the  labor  army  is  the  first 
serious  step  on  the  way  to  the  introduction 
of  general  compulsory  labor  duty,  the  first 
step  beginning  by  the  militarization  of  labor. 
In    connection    with   the    transition   to   labor 


armies,  a  return  to  '*  trade  unionism  "  has 
been  marked. 

This  "  trade  unionism  "  may  appear  in 
various  shapes.  "  Trade  unionism  "  finds  its 
expression  in  the  support  of  liberal  "  labor  " 
politics  in  the  Parliaments ;  in  the  ignoring 
of  the  unskilled  laborer  and  the  cultivation 
of  a  labor  aristocracy ;  in  very  high  member- 
ship dues,  preventing  the  unskilled  laborer 
from  entering  the  trade  unions ;  in  the  propa- 
gation of  illusions,  such  as  the  idea  that  the 
trade  unionist  struggle— without  revolution- 
ary conquest  of  power  by  the  proletariat- 
may  result '  in  a  gradual  growing  into  so- 
cialism. 

All  this  characterizes  the  traditional  ex- 
pressions of  trade  unionist  mieschanstvo 
(low-lifeness).  The  propaganda  for  "  free- 
dom of  labor  "  in  Russia  today  may  also  be 
characterized  as  "  trade  unionism."  Similar 
trade  unionist  shortsightedness  would  be  un- 
willingness on  the  part  of  the  unions  to  col- 
laborate in  carrying  through  energetically 
("  with  a  rod  of  iron  ")  the  labor  conscrip- 
tion, since  it  is  impossible  without  this  to 
overcome  the  present  destruction  and  build 
up    Communism. 

The  Russian  Communist  Party  is  deeply 
convinced  that  these  hesitations  are  of  a 
short-lived  character,  on  the  turning  point 
to  the  new  period  and  the  new  aims  of  the 
proletarian  dictatorship.  But  where  these 
hesitations  have  not  been  overcome,  the 
party  must  immediately  use  its  influence  in 
this  direction. 

THESIS  XIII. 

Principal  Defects  in  the  Present  Trade 
Union  Movement 

The  present  trade  unions  are  carrying  on  a 
colossal  work  and  are  facilitating  in  the 
largest  measure  the  struggle  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  in  the  Soviet  power  for  so- 
cialism. But,  at  the  same  time,  there  are  in 
the  present  transitory  period  many  important 
defects  in  the  activity  of  some  trade  unions. 
When,  for  instance,  some  leaders  of  the 
transport  unions  on  the  Volga  are  defending 
the  narrow-minded,  egotistic  demands  of 
their  members  with  regard  to  wages  and  are 
not  helping  the  Soviet  power  to  fight  against 
exorbitant  pillage,  they  are  showing  their 
backwardness  and  inability  to  rise  above 
their  narrow  group  interests.  When  some 
trade  unions  of  officials  are  forcing  upon  the 
Soviet  institutions  people  who  are  unable  to 
perform  their  work ;  when  these  unions  de-* 
fend  every  demand  of  their  members,  for- 
getting that  they  have  now  before  them  not 
the  former  private  enterprise,  but  the  pro- 
letarian State,  they  are  manifesting  their 
narrowness.  When  the  unions  of  printers' 
are  reviving  the  worst  aspects  of  "  trade 
vmionism  "  they  are  directly  accomplishing 
counter-revolutionary  work. 

The  struggle  against  these  negative  sides 
of  the  trade  union  movement  must  be  one  of 


THE  BOLSHEVIKI  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  TRADE  UNIONS 


973 


the  most  important  tasks  of  the  Communists 
participating  in  the  trade  unions. 

In  addition,  too,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out 
that  there  exists  a  danger  of  the  trade  unions 
becoming  bureaucratic  orpr^-'zations. 

The  general  meetings  are  attended  only  by 
a  small  percentage  of  members.  A  compara- 
tively small  number  take  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  the  union.  The  directors  of  the 
unions  have  not  always  a  sufficient  living 
contact  with  the  mass  of  their  members,  and 
economic  conflicts  are  often  occurring  with- 
out the  activity  of  the  unions. 

There  are  frequent  cases  in  --hich  the 
(wage)  tariffs  of  individual  groups  of  un- 
skilled laborers  are  very  low  and  in  which 
the  unions  do  not  take  care  to  improve  their 
situation,  since  they  have  no  close  con- 
nection with  the  respective  groups. 

Admitting  that  to  a  large  extent  these 
defects  could  be  explained  hitherto  by  the 
extraordinarily  difficult  external  conditions 
(permanent  mobilization  of  the  trade  union 
workers  at  the  front,  &c.),  the  Congress 
charges  the  Communists  who  are  collabo- 
rating in  the  trade  unions  to  fight  syste- 
matically against  the  indicated  decline. 

THESIS  XIV. 
Concessions  to  Syndicalism 

The  Syndicalist  61ite  of  pre-war  time  (the 
leaders  of  the  French  Confederation  Gen^rale 
du  Travail)  had,  in  1914,  infamously  betrayed 
the  interests  of  the  workers,  as  the  Social- 
Chauvinists,  Johaux  and  Company,  were  dis- 
closed as  ordinary  reformists  of  the  petty 
bourgeoisie. 

The  Left  Wing  of  the  Syndicalists  is  now 
making  considerable  progress  toward  com- 
munism. 

Whereas  the  best  elements  of  French  syn- 
dicalism are  abandoning  their  former  faults 
and  are  placing  themselves  on  the  ground  of 
communism  in  proclaiming  the  demand,  "  All 
power  to  the  Soviets,"  individual  groups  in 
Russia  are  trying  to  regenerate  the  worst 
features  of  syndicalism.  The  well-known 
party  of  the  Left  Socialist-Revolutionists  has 
recently,  at  its  conference,  determined  its 
demands  with  regard  to  labor  policy  as  fol- 
lows:  "The  transmission  of  the  administra- 
tion of  industry  and  of  transport  to  the  trade 
union  movement,  namely,  to  the  All-Russian 
Central  Council  of  the  Trade  Unions,"  and 
"  to  enter,  on  federative  principles,  into  a 
union  of  all  trade  unions  throughout  the 
world,  in  order  to  attain  during  the  process 
of  the  present  world  revolution  to  the  posi- 
tion of  the  administration  of  industry  and 
transport  all  over  the  world   by  the  Syndi- 

nerica  and  England  a  new  de- 
X  power  to  the  unions,"  is  uttered, 
.1  new  plans  for  One  Big  Union,  the 
Alliance,  are  propagated  in  opposition 
iC   old   trade  unions  and   to  the   official 
cial    Democratic    Party,    this   must   be    re- 
garded as  a  step  forward,  compared  with  the 


opportunist  point  of  view  of  the  Interna- 
tional. But  when  in  Russia,  where  for  two 
and  a  half  years  the  power  has  been  held 
by  the  Soviets  of  the  Workers  and  Peasants' 
Deputies,  and  where  experience  has  clearly 
proved  that  only  an  "iron  dictatorship"  in 
the  Soviet  form  and  on  a  national  scale  is 
able  to  hold  the  power,  to  repel  all  attacks, 
and  to  save  the  country  from  ruin ;  when  in 
Russia  plans  are  beginning  to  be  revived  to 
give  the  railways  to  the  railway  unions,  the 
metallurgical  industry  to  the  metal  workers' 
unions,  &c.,  this  means  a  big  step  backward. 
The  tasks  of  the  industrial  unions  in  Soviet 
Russia  at  the  present  time  are  duly  charac- 
terized in  the  platform  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party,  which  holds  that  the  unions 
are  called  upon  to  secure  "the  indissoluble 
connection  between  the  Central  State  Admin- 
istration, national  economy,  and  the  large 
masses  of  the  workers,"  in  order  to  obtain, 
as  the  result  of  a  progressive,  slow  evolution 
-after  the  full  victory  of  communism-the 
complete  administrative  power  in  the  sphere 
of  national  economy  by  the  unions. 

The  Communists  who  are  working  In  the 
trade  unions  are  obliged  to  fight  in  the  most 
resolute  manner  against  Syndicalist  tenden- 
cies and  not  to  permit  any  concessions. 

THESIS  XV. 
The  So-Called  "Industrialism" 
In  the  same  way  it  is  necessary  to  oppose 
the  tendencies  of  so-called  "  industrialism," 
which  is  being  defended  by  some  leaders  of 
the  Russian  trade  union  movement.  These 
"  industrialists  "  wish  to  build  our  structure 
on  the  basis  of  the  industrially  skilled  labor, 
and  are  treating  in  an  offhand  manner  the 
mass  of  the  unskilled  proletariat.  The  war 
and  the  revolution  involved,  undoubtedly, 
considerable  changes  in  the  social  composi- 
tion of  the  Russian  proletariat.  This  Is 
true.  The  actual  industrial  skilled  workers 
are  undoubtedly  the  most  developed  part  of 
the  proletariat,  but  the  Communists  in  the 
trade  union  movement  can,  on  no  account, 
pursue  the  method  of  supporting  and  inclos- 
ing in  a  special  group  the  minority  of  the 
working  class  consisting  of  the  skilled  work- 
ers. The  idea  of  communism  has  nothing  in 
common  with  the  policy  of  forming  a  labor 
aristocracy.  The  Communists  of  the  trade 
union  movement  must  aim,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  progressive  part  of  the  industrial 
workmen,  to  organize  the  proletariat  mass, 
including  the  unskilled  laborers,  and  to  at- 
tract them  to  the  building  of  the  State. 

THESIS  XVI. 
The   International    and^the    Trade 

Unions   arrived'  tm    o^i»^    ^, 

Germany's  experience  b  "^  ^"  flames  and  some 
number  of  trade  union,  ne  first  massacre  mur- 
extraordinarily    increasjto  official  advices  from 

^ZnTZ:TJlf"  -  J-«  24,  impressive 


974 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


sian  example  has  clearly  shown  how  the 
unions  are  successfully  completing  the  So- 
viets, serving  as  one  of  the  most  important 
bases  of  organization  for  reconstructing 
economic  life  on  Communist  principles.-  The 
portion  of  the  German  Communists  who  are 
in  opposition  to  their  own  party  just  on  the 
question  of  the  unions  (the  demand  of  these 
Communists  is  to  leave  the  unions  by 
masses  and  refuse  to  fight  for  their  influ- 
ence in  the  unions,  thus  proclaiming  the 
unions  unnecessary)  are  making  a  mistake 
and  departing  from  the  mass  organization 
of  the  proletariat. 

In  view  of  the  particular  development  of 
the  labor  movement  in  Western  Europe, 
there  are  many  prejudices  against  the  trade 
unions  among  the  Communists  of  Germany 
and  other  countries.  Our  party  is  of  the 
opinion  that  it  is  impossible  to  leave  the 
trade   unions.     In  the  process  of  the  prole- 


tarian revolution  the  unions  will  divide  in 
the  same  manner  as  did  the  old  Social  Dem- 
ocratic Party.  The  experience  of  the  Ger- 
man trade  unions  has  shown  that  the  unions 
in  Berlin  have  already  been  liberated  from 
the  injurious  influence  of  the  "  Scheidemann 
Social  Democracy.  ••  The  Russian  trade 
union  movement  must  take  the  initiative, 
uniting  the  Red  International  of  the  trade 
unions  as  did  the  Russian  Communist  Party 
in  the  creation  of  the  Third   International. 

In  the  congresses  of  the  Communist  Inter- 
national should  participate  not  only  the  po- 
litical organizations,  but  also  the  trade 
unions  which  have  shown  by  their  work 
that  they  are  standing  on  the  basis  of  the 
proletariat  dictatorship  and  Soviet  power. 
In  addition,  it  is  necessary  to  begin  now 
with  the  organization  of  the  international 
unification  of  the  individual  trade  unions 
which  are  standing  on  thg  platform  of  the 
Ccmmunist   International. 


Rescuing  Serbia  From  the  Typhus  Scourge 


A  T  the  Congress  of  the  British  Medical 
•'■^  Association,  which  met  in  Cam- 
bridge, England,  on  June  30,  many  feat- 
ures of  medical  and  surgical  practice 
during  the  war  were  discussed.  In  a 
lantern  lecture  Dr.  William  Hunter  de- 
scribed the  rescue  of  Serbia  from  the 
scourge  of  typhus  in  1915,  the  first  great 
outbreak  of  typhus  in  Europe  since  the 
epidemics  in  England  in  the  sixties.  When 
Dr.  Hunter  arrived  in  Serbia,  every  build- 
ing was  filled  to  overflowing  with  typhus 
victims,  who  lay  without  care,  without 
blankets  or  sanitary  arrangements.  The 
mortality  was  tremendous;  over  120,000 
died  within  three  months. 

As  it  was  impossible  to  create  sanitary 
conditions,  it  was  decided  by  Dr.  Hunter 
and  his  mission  to  develop  methods  of 
disinfection.     All    movements    of   troops 
were  stopped,  as  well  as  all  internal  traf- 
fic,  so   far   as   that  was   possible,   and 
every  man,  woman   and   child  was  mo- 
bilized in  a  nation-wide  campaign.    The 
simple    barrel    disinfector    was    adopted 
evervwb'-         and    subsequently    railway 
seHous'^Ttep""^  ^^^^  introduced.   With- 
of  general  coithe  number  of  cases  be- 
step  beginning  ^nd  in  eight  weeks  had 

/     In   connection   w 


declined  almost  to  zero.  Quarantine  and 
disinfecting  stations  checked  new  out- 
breaks following  the  resumption  of  troop 
movements.  The  whole  epidemic  was  thus 
virtually  conquered  in  a  few  months,  es- 
tablishing a  record  in  medical  history. 

Another  important  subject  discussed 
at  the  congress  was  the  cure  of  the  Afri- 
can and  Egyptian  disease  called  bilhar- 
zia,  to  which  is  attributed  the  apathy 
and  torpor  of  the  Egyptians  ravaged  by 
the  parasitic  worms  which  generate  the 
malady.  Dr.  J.  B.  Christopherson,  late 
Director  of  the  Civil  Hospitals  at  Khar- 
tum and  Omdurman,  explained  how  the 
disease  was  contracted  by  bathing  in 
water  inhabited  by  certain  fresh-water 
snails  found  in  abundance  in  the  Nile. 
Of  the  Egyptian  fellaheen,  no  fewer 
than  80  per  cent.,  he  said,  were  infected, 
and  traces  of  the  disease  had  been  found 
in  mummies  5,000  years  old.  So  seriously 
did  the  military  authorities  regard  it 
that  warnings  were  read  every  month  to 
the  Egyptian  Expeditionary  Force.  The 
speaker  gave  instances  of  successful 
treatment  by  intravenous  injections  of 
antimony  tartrate. 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


^ijT 


Eyewitness  Narrative  of  the  Crisis  in  Which  Kolchak 

Fell  and  Bolshevism  Triumphed> — The  Author's 

Exciting  Escape  From  Capture 


By  A  FORMER  MEMBER  OF  KOLCHAK^S  STAFF 
[Second  Installment] 


^0 


This  is  the  second  of  three  articles  revealing  the  inside  history  of  the  fall  of 
the  Omsk  Government  and  the  retreat  that  ended  in  Kolchak's  tragic  death.  Last 
month's  installment  told  of  the  flight  from  Omsk  to  Irkutsk,  the  sufferings  of  the 
people  packed  in  freight  trains,  the  typhus  scourge,  the  perishing  of  hundreds 
who  tried  to  escape  from  tJie  Bolsheviki  on  sledges  over  the  snow.  In  this  issue 
the  author  tells  of  his  remarkable  escape,  thanks  to  kind  Americans,  from  the 
fate  of  his  chief.  Current  History  has  obtained  these  articles  through  the  British 
Legation  at  Peking,  whither  the  writer  made  his  way  after  the  disaster  thqt  ended 
the  hopes  of  constitutional  Government  in  Russia. 


WE  were  lucky  to  reach  Irkutsk 
in  eighteen  days,  which  in  those 
times  was  a  comparatively 
quick  journey  from  Omsk. 
Some  trains  took  three  or  four  weeks; 
some  never  arrived  at  all,  because  they 
were  either  caught  by  the  Bolsheviki  or 
held  up  by  the  Czechs,  who  used  the  loco- 
motives to  draw  their  own  cars  toward 
Vladivostok,  their  port  of  embarkation. 
The  Cabinet  train  did  a  record  trip  in 
only  eight  days,  arriving  on  the  night  of 
Nov.  18,  but  naturally  it  had  the  right 
of  way. 

Scarcely  had  the  Ministers  stepped  out 
on  the  platform  and  reviewed  the  guard 
of  honor  when  they  heard  that  a  revo- 
lution in  the  town  was  imminent,  as  the 
Czechs  had  made  an  agreement  with  the 
Social  Revolutionaries,  who  were  simply 
a  different  shade  of  Bolsheviki.  Our 
quondam  allies  even  carried  their  ani- 
mosity toward  us  so  far  as  to  issue  a 
public  manifesto,  in  which  they  accused 
the  Kolchak  Government  of  being  an 
enemy  of  the  Russian  people.  In  spite  of 
all  their  talk  about  how  they  felt  obliged 
for  conscientious  reasons,  &c.,  to  throw 
in  their  lot  with  the  Democratic  or  So- 
cial Revolutionary  Party,  the  change  of 
coat  was  purely  due  to  self-interest — as 


we  guessed  at  the  time.  Afterward  it 
was  proved  that  when  the  Czechs  thought 
our  game  was  up  and  they  no  longer  had 
any  chance  of  getting  back  to  their  own 
country  across  Siberia  and  Russia,  they 
determined  at  any  cost — even  honor — to 
facilitate  their  plans  for  a  retreat  east- 
ward by  currying  favor  with  the  rising 
power. 

Unfortunately,  when  they  decided  to 
throw  aside  the  mask  and  openly  stand 
against  us,  these  foreigners  had  all  the 
advantag  on  their  side.  They  were 
better  equipped  and  stronger  than  we. 
They  were  also,  as  I  said  before,  masters 
of  the  railway — and  on  the  railway 
everything  depended.  The  Cabinet, 
therefore,  very  i  obly  decided  to  sacrifice 
itself.  All  the  Ministers  who  had  worked 
so  hard  tc  build  up  an  administration  re- 
signed in  a  body,  asking  Kolchak  to  form 
a  new  Cabinet,  which  would  perhaps  be 
more  agreeable  to  the  Czechs  and  better 
able  to  deal  with  them. 

THE  PEPELAIEV  GOVERNMENT 

lis '  -*•'    *^  ^  f 

Kolchak,  who  understoodioc^i"^ived  on  ..  .xie  3 
of  affairs,  accepted,  not  wVs.  ^  i"  flames  and  som< 
grief,  the  resignation  o:fie;fle  first  massacre  mur 
vants,  who  had  so  long  pto  official  advices  fron 
the  expense  of  their  ov       >,  on  June  24,  impressiv. 


976 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


and  discomfort.  He  took  their  last  ad- 
vice, which  was  to  allow  one  man  to 
form  his  new  Government,  and  chose  as 
that  man  Pepelalev,  a  former  member  of 
the  Duma,  reputed  strong,  honest  and 
fairly  popular,  who  had  had  good  train- 
ing in  the  old  Siberian  Zemstvo  and  was 
sincerely  devoted  to  the  Supreme  Ruler. 
Many  said  he  was  not  the  man  for  the 
place ;  but  there  was  no  one  else  in  sight. 

Pepelaiev  formed  the  nev/  Cabinet  on 
the  night  of  Dec.  1,  not  without  diffi- 
culty. A  few  of  the  former  Ministers 
were  asked  to  continue  holding  their 
portfolios — ^some  temporarily.  Several 
accepted.  Others,  like  my  own  direct 
chief,  persisted  in  resigning,  and  dis- 
associated themselves  entirely  from  the 
Government,  a  wise  move,  as  subsequent 
events  proved.  So  deeply  flowed  the  tide 
of  revolution  that  those  who  attempted 
to  stem  it  now  risked  their  reputations 
and  their  lives  uselessly. 

The  program  of  the  new  Cabinet  was 
the  logical  outcome  of  circumstances — 
that  is  to  say,  a  desperate  attempt  to 
get  the  more  democratic  elements  to  join 
in  a  compromise  which  they  only 
spurned.  A  new  effort,  equally  unsuc- 
cessful, was  made  to  co-operate  with  the 
Czechs,  while  at  the  same  time  the  hand 
of  fellowship  was  held  out  to  Atamans 
like  Semenov,  who  had  been  on  very  bad 
terms  with  the  old  Cabinet.  The  an- 
tagonism of  the  latter  was  fatal.  Their 
power  began  ten  miles  from  Irkutsk; 
they  controlled  everything  from  the 
Baikal  to  the  Pacific  except  the  little 
zone,  like  an  island,  of  the  Chinese  East- 
ern Railway,  therefore  they  could  at  any 
time  cut  off  our  retreat  from  the  sea. 
One  cannot  afford  to  quarrel  with  a  man 
in  a  position  to  stick  a  knife  in  one's 
back.  Thus  we  were  obliged,  owing  to 
the  geographical  and  strategical  situa- 
tion, to  try  and  bring  these  hostile  ele- 
ments to  a  compromise. 

CHAOS  OF  OPPOSING  FACTIONS 

N^^    the  ideals  of  the  Atamans  and 
^le  creat        ^emocrats  can  no  more  mix 

'^erious  step  ^^  V   ^^^^^       ^^^  ^^^^^ 

of  g-eneral   coipne  .        .,  ,  ,  , 

step  beginning  ^nd^   ^^    ^^^   most   cruel   and 
In  connection  w       he  latter — as  seen  in  Si- 
ne  and   practically   un- 
communism.     Besides, 


the  time  had  passed — ^if  it  ever  existed — 
for  a  successful  fusing  of  such  diametri- 
cally opposed  elements  embittered  by  a 
long  struggle.  It  was  scarcely  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  if  a  few  weeks  later  the 
artificial  arrangement  fell  through. 

Still  the  unhappy  officials  of  the  Kol- 
chak  Government  continued  their  efforts 
to  unravel  the  many  knotty  problems 
clamoring  for  solution.  They  made  little 
or  no  headway  and  could  not  even  see 
ahead.  As  one  of  the  Ministers  said  to 
me  with  a  tragic  look  in  his  eyes,  "  I 
think  our  revolution  should  be  called  the 
Russian  revelation,  for  it  has  revealed 
to  us  Russians  that  we  are  not  practical 
enough.  We  have  been  dreamers,  critics 
of  life.  The  old  regime  got  us  into  the 
habit  of  blaming  all  ills  on  the  Govern- 
ment. Now,  when  we  ourselves  are  the 
Government,  most  of  us  don't  know  even 
how  to  begin.  Yet  we  must  just  keep  on 
working  for  our  forlorn  hope,  upheld  by 
a  single  thought — duty." 

BELATED  CONCESSIONS 

No  sooner  had  Pepelaiev  formed  his 
Cabinet  than  he  started  off  for  the  front 
to  see  Kolchak,  and  get  a  series  of  con- 
cessions from  him.  Among  the  reforms 
which  the  country  then  required  were 
two  of  paramount  importance — two 
without  which  all  other  remedies  must 
have  proved  unavailing — ^the  subordina- 
tion of  the  military  to  the  civil  power 
and  the  immediate  convocation  of  a  pop- 
ular assembly  on  absolutely  democratic 
lines.  Kolchak  promised  both,  realizing 
his  former  mistake,  so  natural  in  a  sol- 
dier, of  having  given  too  much  promi- 
nence to  the  military. 

Unfortunately,  the  concessions  came 
too  late.  The  people  had  lost  faith  in 
Kolchak  by  this  time  and  loud  complaints 
were  heard  about  the  abuses  of  his  sys- 
tem. If  only  the  country  had  been  a 
little  more  patient  in  waiting  for  the 
promised  reconstruction  and  given  us 
time  and  toleration  for  the  development 
of  our  plans,  all  might  have  been  well. 

From  his  mission,  poor  Pepelaiev  was 
destined  never  to  return.  Whatever  his 
faults,  he  expiated  them  all  when  he  was 
stood  up  beside  his  friend  and  leader, 
Kolchak,  against  a  prison  wall  and  shot 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


977 


by  the  Bolsheviki  without  a  trial,  know- 
ing nothing  of  the  crimes  of  which  he 
was  accused,  and  having  no  chance  to 
defend  himself.  The  man  he  left  in 
charge  at  Irkutsk  was  Tretiakov,  whose 
name  is  well  known  for  its  connection 
with  the  famous  art  gallery  in  Moscow, 
an  institution  to  which  Tretiakov  often 
referred  as  "  my  grandfather."  A  hand- 
some, accomplished  fellow  of  about  30, 
he  turned  out  to  be  a  mere  cipher,  and 
when  he  saw  the  position  was  desperate 
gave  up  without  a  struggle,  and  left, 
passing  on  the  responsibility  to  the  next 
man,  Charven-Vodali,  newly  arrived  in 
Siberia  and  prominent  only  for  work  in 
the  Zemstvos  of  South  Russia. 

TRAPPED  IN  IRKUTSK 
More  clearly  each  day  we  saw  the  end 
approaching.  On  Dec.  21  we  waked  to 
learn  that  the  pontoon  bridge  between 
the  town  of  Irkutsk  and  its  railway  sta- 
tion, the  only  communication  connecting 
us  with  the  outer  world,  was  broken. 
Report  said  that  this  single  connecting 
link  had  been  carried  away  by  ice  from 
the  Baikal,  but  it  was  soon  an  open  se- 
cret that  the  bridge  had  been  loosed  de- 
liberately by  the  Social  Revolutionaries 
to  cut  us  off  from  the  Trans-Siberian 
Railway.  Now  we  were  trapped  and 
they  could  develop  their  plans  more 
easily. 

A  general  mass  meeting  was  called  for 
the  23d.  It  was  dispersed  by  our  loyal 
forces.  Nevertheless,  we  realized  our 
peril.  We  lay  down  that  night  knowing 
that  our  enemies  in  every  house  were 
discussing  the  exact  time  and  manner  of 
our  arresit — perhaps  our  murder — and 
that  our  own  ^  .diers  were  on  the  point 
of  rebellion.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
very  next  day,  Dec.  24  (Christmas  Eve), 
the  53d  Regiment — one  of  our  best, 
drilled  by  British  officers — mutinined, 
and  the  men,  v/alking  out  of  their  bar- 
racks on  the  left  bank  of  the  Angara, 
where  the  station  was,  seized  the  yards, 
thereby  assisting  the  aim  of  the  Social 
Revolutionaries  to  cut  us  off  from  Ir- 
kutsk. With  the  bridge  gone  we  could 
send  no  troops  to  fight  the  mutineers,  so 
their  prearranged  plan  succeeded  per- 
fectly. 

By  a  stroke  of  ill-luck  I  happened  to 


be  in  the  statioa  the  day  it  was  captured. 
Our  leaders  had  decided  a  week  before, 
when  they  saw  the  tragedy  coming,  to 
evacuate  the  vital  working  staffs  of  va- 
rious Ministries  to  Vladivostok,  where 
allied  forces  were  keeping  order.  In  ac- 
cordance with  instructions  I  had  already 
sent  several  members  of  my  department 
on  ahead  and  war.  waiting  for  a  suitable 
opportunity  to  jrin  them.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  the  brid,3e  had  gone,  I  said  to  my- 
self, "  It's  now  or  never."  My  friend 
W.  of  the  Foreign  Office  and  I  spent  sev- 
eral restless  hours  planning  how  to  get 
away.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  23d  we 
managed  to  procure  a  pass  to*  cross  the 
river  through  the  Allies,  and  W.  sent  his 
soldier  servant  to  find  a  boat.  This  he 
succeeded  in  do:*ng  by  paying  20Q  rubles 
— probably  a  record  price  for  a  ferry. 
We  waited  till  nightfall,  and  then  got 
across  without  arousing  suspicion.  It 
was  anything  but  a  pleasant  trip,  as  we 
dodged  between  pieces  of  floating  ice, 
which  occasionally  crashed  against  the 
frail  sides  of  our  little  craft. 

When  we  reached  the  railway  yards  we 
had  a  long  and  trying  hunt  for  the  spe- 
cial car  allotted  to  us.  Up  and  down, 
up  and  down  the  wilderness  of  tracks  we 
wandered,  stalking  our  quarry.  I  doubt 
if  ever  a  big-game  hunter  had  a  more 
exciting  chase  or  ran  greater  risks  than 
we  as  we  dodged  in  and  out  between 
trains. 

At  last  we  found  our  carriage. 

FLEEING  FOR  LIFE 

Finding  ourselves  unmolested,  I  sent 
my  soldier  servant  out  at  dawn  in  plain 
clothes  to  get  the  news.     Here  I  must 
add  that  the  devotion  of  our  orderlies 
was  touching.     Originally  I  had  two  to 
serve  me,  but  a  few  days   earlier  the 
second  man  had  begged  me  for  a  pass 
across  the  river  to  fetch  his  things.     He 
bade  me  good-bye  with  tears  in  his  eyes. 
Astonished  at  such  a  show  of  emotion, 
I    asked    the    other    soldier    what    was 
troubling  Sasha.    "  H  -•  M  had  bad  news, 
perhaps,   from   his -^'^^    to    the -^,i^   ^u 
other  orderly  shof^^'^ived    on    Jun^    3, 
has  no  bad  news.  ^  i"  flames  and  some 
is  obliged  to  le:'^^  ^^^^*  massacre  mur- 
come  back,"     F*^  official  advices  from 
/,  on  June  24,  impressive 


978 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


blame  him.  Even  to  remain  so  long  in 
my  service  had  meant  running  a  great 
personal  risk. 

Our  messenger  brought  back  varied, 
exciting,  and  sometimes  contradictory 
reports.  But  one  point  was  hideously 
clear — we  might  expect  to  be  arrested  in 
half  an  hour.  Hastily  struggling  into 
our  clothes,  my  friend  and  I  therefore 
started  out  to  seek  an  asylum.  Our  only 
hope  lay  in  the  Allies,  and  each  of  us 
decided  to  go  to  the  train  of  a  friendly 
power  and  beg  for  sanctuary. 

It  was  agreed  that  I  should  go  first 
to  the  Japanese.  They  received  me  most 
kindly  and  courteously,  but,  though  the 
Colonel  in  charge  was  profuse  in  his  as- 
surances that  his  people  meant  to  pro- 
tect us,  he  regretted  that  he  could  take 
no  steps  to  do  so  until  the  allied  High 
Council  had  finished  its  deliberations, 
which  were  to  begin  at  2  P.  M. 

"  But  we  expect  to  be  arrested  in  half 
an  hour,"  I  gasped. 

"  Very  sorry,"  he  answered,  drawing 
in  his  breath ;  "  I  can  only  assure  you 
our  Ambassador  intends  to  do  everything 
to  protect  you."  I  thought  bitterly  of 
the  place  that  is  paved  with  good  in- 
tentions, thanked  him,  and  moved  on. 
Let  me  add  that  the  allied  deliberations 
lasted  two  days  and  reached  no  definite 
conclusions.  Had  we  waited  for  them  to 
end  there  would  have  been  nothing  left 
of  us  to  protect. 

SENSATIONS  OF  A  FUGITIVE 
The  sensations  of  a  fugitive  and  a  beg- 
gar are  the  reverse  of  pleasant;  nor  is 
the  prospect  of  being  seized  and  tor- 
tured or  stood  up  without  trial  before 
a  firing  squad  an  agreeable  one.  The 
disdainful  remark  of  a  reporter  in  Omsk, 
that  "  the  civilian  Ministers  and  their 
staffs  were  in  a  real  panic  over  their  dan- 
ger," flashed  across  my  mind.  With  what 
satisfaction  would  I  have  seen  that  man 
now  in  my  place  doomed  to  wander  in 
the  dim  light  over  a  wilderness  of  tracks, 
hiding  in  every  shadow  like  a  criminal 
and  startinfr^i^s^l^Jie  sound  of  his  ovoi 
^ots^^jlt^^eat  '^  crunched  on  the  thin 
^M?erious  step  "^  ^  Such  an  experience 
of  general  coithe     realize  that  to  die 

compared  to  the 


horrors  of  being  hunted  as  we  were  like 
rats  with  no  chance  to  defend  ourselves. 

It  was  doubly  tantalizing  to  see  all 
the  waiting  trains,  with  their  allied  flags 
and  red  crosses,  some  with  their  engines 
smoking.  If  only  one  would  pull  out,  I 
might  ride  to  safety  on  a  brake  box,  as 
many  an  outcast  has  done  before.  But 
the  last  express  to  leave  that  station 
had  gone  twenty-four  hours  ago.  We 
had  been  just  too  late  to  catch  it,  though 
some  of  our  people  were  more  lucky,  in- 
cluding, I  am  thankful  to  say,  most  of 
our  ladies.  An  order  appeared  imme- 
diately afterward  that  no  more  trains 
should  be  permitted  to  leave,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  this  one  in  question  was 
specially  allowed  through  by  the  Social 
Revolutionaries  only  because  the  Czechs 
insisted;  the  latter  had  some  of  their 
own  officers  and  their  wives  on  board. 

My  friend  was  already  there  waiting 
impatiently  when  I  reached  our  car 
again.  He  could  read  in  my  face  that  I 
had  failed.  Yet  he  laughed  softly. 
"  Never  mind ;  don't  be  uneasy,"  he  said ; 
"  the  Americans  will  take  us  in."  The 
Americans,  God  bless  them!  My  relief 
was  so  great  that  I  staggered,  scarcely 
able  to  believe  my  ears.  Was  it  pos- 
sible that  good  sense  and  kind  hearts 
had  triumphed  over  red  tape?  "  We  must 
hurry,"  he  added;  "there  is  no  time  to 
lose.  Let  us  go  over  to  their  train." 
So  once  more,  but  with  very  different 
feelings,  we  dodged  again  across  the 
tracks. 

WELCOMED  BY  AMERICANS 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  welcome  of 
those  kindly  Americans.  Never  can  I 
thank  sufficiently  the  officer  in  charge 
who  greeted  so  heartily  the  little  group 
of  wretched  fugitives,  some  of  whom 
were  but  yesterday  Cabinet  Ministers. 
Several  of  the  Red  Cross  nurses  volun- 
teered to  double  up  and  thus  leave  a 
spare  compartment  for  us.  It  was  only 
one  more  proof  of  the  way  the  American 
Red  Cross  personnel  always  acted.  In 
the  midst  of  jealousies  and  enmities,  they 
won  everybody's  love  and  gratitude. 
Among  our  unfortunate  Russians,  wheth- 
er sick,  wounded  or  simply  refugees,  they 
had  the  reputation  of  ministering  angels 
— sustaining  life,  creating  hope.     Admi- 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


979 


ration  for  the  doctors  and  nurses  was 
universal  in  Siberia,  and  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  add  my  small  mite  to  the  swelling 
total. 

The  relief  of  sitting  down  in  a  cozy 
compartment  to  rest  just  once  without  a 
thought  of  danger  was  simply  delicious. 
It  seemed  like  heaven  to  find  a  hot 
luncheon  prepared  for  us,  and  this  was 
but  one  of  many  little  attentions  devised 
for  our  comfort  by  hosts  who  could  not 
do  enough  for  their  unfortunate  guests. 

We  had  come  to  our  allies  for  shelter 
— none  too  soon — with  nothing  but  the 
clothes  on  our  backs.  My  soldier  servant 
was  instructed  to  try  and  bring  our  mea- 
gre baggage  later  to  the  American  train. 
We  warned  him,  of  course,  to  do  it  as 
quieltly  as  possible,  and  on  no  account  to 
attract  attention.  While  he  was  waiting 
for  a  favorable  opportunity  to  carry  out 
our  orders,  the  Social  Revolutionaries 
came  to  search  our  car.  Vania,  the  or- 
derly, was  carefully  questioned,  but  he 
had  been  well  coached  beforehand.  "  My 
master,"  he  declared  stoutly,  "  is  an  offi- 
cial of  the  Chinese  Railway."  "  A  civil- 
ian? "  "  Certainly."  "  Are  you  sure  he 
is  not  a  General?  "  "  Have  I  not  already 
said  so?  "  "  Then  where  is  he?  "  "  Where 
would  he  be  but  across  the  river  in  Ir- 
kutsk? "  More  questions  followed  about 
what  the  person  concerned  was  doing,  all 
of  which  Vania  answered  very  smartly. 

NOT  OUT  OF  DANGER 

The  Social  Revolutionaries  were  still 
suspicious,  however,  and  insisted  upon 
searching  the  car.  They  found  it  empty 
except  for  a  lady,  wife  of  one  of  the  aides 
de  camp,  who  was  waiting  to  join  her 
husband.  With  admirable  self-control 
she  kept  her  head.  Instead  of  screaming 
or  fainting,  as  a  foolish  woman  might 
have  done,  she  calmly  went  on  polishing 
her  nails  and  looked  so  innocent  about  it 
that  the  men  did  not  question  her,  but 
simply  walked  out  to  arrest  one  of  our 
unfortunate  Colonels,  who  happened  to 
be  hiding  in  the  train  opposite.  De- 
scribing the  scene  afterward  Vania  ex- 
claimed :  "  Oh,  she  was  a  keen  one,  that 
woman — so  cool  in  the  face  of  all  those 
specialists !  "  Unfamiliar  words  were 
rather   a   stumbling   block   to   him,    and 


"  Socialist  "  was  always  "  specialist  "  in 
his  vocabulary. 

Greatly  relieved  though  we  were  to 
have  found  shelter  and  to  get  the  com- 
fort of  a  few  personal  belongings  again, 
we  were  still  by  no  means  free  from  anx- 
iety. It  was  not  only  uncertainty  about 
our  own  fate  that  worked  on  our  spirits. 
We  were  terribly  distressed  about  the 
many  friends  who  were  still  in  Irkutsk. 

The  consciousness  that  we  might  be  an 
involuntary  cause  of  trouble  to  our  kind 
hosts,  officially  committed  to  the  non-in- 
terference policy,  was  scarcely  less  dis- 
turbing. The  simple  excuse  of  common 
humanity  and  charity  for  protecting  us 
would  have  availed  them  nothing  in  in- 
ternational relations.  We  therefore  de- 
cided, in  order  to  make  things  easier,  to 
attach  our  own  car  to  the  American 
train.  Then  if  our  allies  were  asked 
whether  they  were  giving  us  sanctuary 
they  could  honestly  answer  "  No,"  for 
we  should  be  in  our  own  carriage.  After 
a  whole  day's  manoeuvring  we  managed 
to  carry  out  our  plan.  Either  the  Social 
Revolutionaries  did  not  notice  the  shunt- 
ing or  else  they  thought  it  was  some  pri- 
vate arrangement  of  the  Americans. 

WEARY  DAYS   OF   WAITING 

Our  next  desire  was  to  see  the  train 
start,  for  so  long  as  we  remained  in  the 
station  we  and  our  hosts  were  in  grave 
danger  of  discovery.     But  days  dragged 
by,  weary  days  of  waiting  and  hoping  to 
get  off.     At  last  on  Dec.  31,  New  Year's 
Eve,  which  is  always  a  great  and  happy 
festival  for  us  Russians,  we  were  cheered 
by  the  news  that  our  train  might  start 
any  time  now — perhaps  that  very  day. 
We  had  arranged  a  little  celebration  in 
honor  of  the  festival,  and  the  cook  had 
promised  us  extra  dainties,  when  in  the 
midst  of  our  preparations  there  was  a 
sharp  burst  of  rifle  firing  in  the  rail- 
way yards  between  the  station  and  the 
group     of     trains.      We     'Aajgcted,     of     - 
course,  some  new  attaq^ent    to  ^Sl|P<si^Vcue 
Revolutionaries.   Not^"' arrived    on    June    3, 
ly  filtered  through  town  in  flames  and  some 
from   a  body  of   ff  the  first  massacre  mur- 
General    Skipetrong  to  official  advices  from 
from  a  point  a,kio,  on  June  24,  impressive 
(from  the  next 


980 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


fact,  where  they  had  their  headquarters 
in  armored  cars,)  in  an  attempt  to  re- 
take the  Irkutsk  Station.  Desirous  as 
we  were  to  see  them  oust  the  Social  Rev- 
olutionaries, we  regretted  that  our 
would-be  deliverers  were  obliged  to  fight 
their  battle  over  our  heads,  as  it  were. 
Bullets  from  rifles  and  machine  guns 
whistled  across  the  yards,  and  pattered 
like  rain  on  the  roof  of  the  cars.  Two 
pierced  the  walls  of  our  compartment. 

The  station  was  actually  taken  and  re- 
taken twice,  before,  to  our  bitter  disap- 
pointment, Skipetrov's  troops  were  de- 
feated by  force  of  numbers.  Among 
graver  consequences,  his  failure  con- 
demned us  to  more  weary  days  of  wait- 
ing. 

VENTURING  OUT  IN  DISGUISE 

When  we  grew  desperate  from  the  con- 
finement, some  of  us  would  venture  out 
in  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  disguise  provided  by  our 
American  friends.  I  sometimes  walked 
up  and  down  the  platform  for  hours  to- 
gether till  I  was  tired  out,  keeping  care- 
fully in  the  shadow  of  the  cars,  lest  the 
passing  soldiers  might  recognize  my  face 
even  under  a  cap  well  pulled  down.  Some 
of  our  people  who  likewise  got  out  to 
stretch  their  legs  were  actually  stopped 
by  these  soldiers  and  asked  the  way  or 
the  time.  But  as  agreed,  the  refugees 
all  replied  in  broken  Russian,  so  they 
were  not  molested.  Though  the  soldiers 
appeared  friendly  enough,  they  did  not 
attempt  to  fraternize  further,  perhaps 
because,  for  some  reason,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
people  were  not  popular  with  any  party. 

On  Jan.  3,  to  our  intense  joy,  we  were 
itold  that  five  trains,  including  ours, 
would  start  within  twenty-four  hours. 
They  were  scheduled  to  leave  in  the  fol- 
lowing order:  No.  l",  Czech  train;  2, 
American  High  '^ nmissioner's  train;  3, 
Czech  train;  o^  ^  ^;s  No.  4.  We  were 
naturally  in  r^'  ^  state  of  excitement. 
How  eap-'^r^,    '-^  ©    ^j-gd  through  the  win- 

"ot,Vi''^'"^*'i\'?%.  1  pull  out,  then  2, 
"ts<^,e  creat  « ^^^  y^^^,     g^  ^^  ^^^^ 


'serious  step 


Su 


of  general  coithe     re.*"^^^*  ^S^^^'     "  ^^ 
step  beginning  .andN:+.'Jter  all,"  our  engi- 


In    connection    w 


^.ita:: 
co' 


lired  about  the  de- 
s  took  the  wrong 
'?k.» 


It  was  only  ten  hours  later  that  we 
heard  the  welcome  grinding  of  our 
wheels  as  we  slowly  began  fto  move  out 
of  the  station  yard.  Sweeter  music  never 
sounded  in  my  ears.    Off  at  last! 

THE  JOURNEY  TO  HARBIN 

The  long  journey  to  Harbin,  which  in 
normal  times  is  a  matter  of  two  days, 
took  us  eighteen.  All  the  way  our  kind 
friends  the  Americans  appeared  only  to 
think  of  how  (to  please  and  console  us. 
One  would  bring  books  to  distract  our 
minds  and  relieve  the  tedium.  Another 
would  concoct  a  new  dish  to  vary  the 
monotony  of  a  menu  chiefly  drawn  from 
cans.  I  remember  particularly  the  ef- 
forts of  one  kindly  Red  Cross  nurse,  of 
whom  we  had  several  on  board.  She  was 
an  adept  at  telling  fortunes  with  cards, 
and  would  come  to  our  compartment 
every  evening  to  lay  out  the  cards  for  us. 
There  was  a  certain  irony  in  seeing 
whether  our  fate  was  to  be  shot  on  the 
morrow  or  not.  I  must  say  the  cards 
generally  foretold  the  greatest  horrors. 
When  we  protested,  the  nurse  always  an- 
swered seriously,  "  Well,  you  see,  if  I 
were  to  tell  you  good  things  you  would 
know  they  weren't  true,  so  I  have  to  read 
what  I  see  in  order  to  convince  you."  The 
list  of  tortures  and  summary  executions 
in  store  for  us  always  ended  by  raising 
a  laugh — so  our  kind  friend  managed  to 
give  us  a  cheerful  good  night  after  all,  in 
her  own  way. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  were  often  in 
grave  danger  still.  At  any  station  we 
were  likely  to  be  taken  off  by  Semenov's 
men,  and  we  were  under  no  illusions  as 
to  what  that  meant.  There  had  long  been 
friction  between  the  Ataman  and  the 
Kolchak  Government.  Moreover,  at  this 
moment  we  were  unpopular  with  all  par- 
ties, so  that  almost  any  one,  whatever  his 
politics,  would  have  shot  us  with  pleas- 
ure. 

Our  trip  to  Chita  went  off  without 
any  noteworthy  incident.  As  we  neared 
this  station,  which  was  Semenov's  head- 
quarters and  popularly  known  as  "the 
Ogre's  lair,"  the  Americans  warned  us 
to  make  ourselves  as  inconspicnpus  as 
possible.  We  did  so.  But  there  was  no 
attempt  to  molest  us  in  any  way,  though 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


981 


we  were  extremely  anxious  till  we  got 
clear  of  the  town. 

Oiie  dangerous  stop  was  at  Dauria, 
where  for  two  years  Semenov  had  estab- 
lished his  peculiar  intelligence  depart- 
ment. It  was  a  place  men  spoke  of  with 
a  shudder.  Ghastly  events  reminding 
one  of  the  Middle  Ages  happened  in  this 
lonely  spot  twenty  miles  from  the  Man- 
churian  border — events  which  shocked 
and  staggered  even  those  familiar  with 
the  Ataman's  ferocity.  Knowing  that 
the  train  was  likely  to  be  searched  here, 
we  thought  it  best  to  slip  into  the  diner, 
leaving  our  own  car  empty.  I  found  a 
corner  near  the  kitchen  stove,  which  had 
the  double  advantage  of  giving  me  physi- 
cal warmth  and  moral  comfort.  The 
Red  Cross  nurses,  who  took  a  keen  inter- 
est in  our  safety,  all  managed  to  cluster 
around  and  hide  us,  without  appearing 
to  do  so.  One  of  them  spread  out  her 
wide  skirt,  on  the  pretext  of  arranging 
it,  to  screen  W.  from  the  prying  eyes  of 
passersby. 

ESCAPING  SEMENOV'S  CLUTCHES 

Meanwhile  we  could  distinctly  hear 
Semenov's  officers  just  outside  the  win- 
dow asking  for  us.  They  had  been  told 
we  were  on  board.  To  refuse  their  re- 
quest to  search  the  train  would  have 
looked  suspicious.  It  was  therefore 
granted,  and  one  officer  did  actually 
enter  our  car,  though  not  till  we  were 
safely  in  the  kitchen.  It  never  occurred 
to  him  that  a  Government  official  would 
be  busy,  as  I  was,  examining  coals  be- 
hind the  range. 

Our  American  hosts,  like  ourselves, 
breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  when  we  finally 
got  away  from  that  ill-famed  station. 
All  of  us  had  heard  dreadful  stories  of 
the  shocking  crimes  committed  there. 
When  a  man  suddenly  disappeared,  if 
some  one  happened  to  ask  for  him,  the 
answer  would  be  simply,  "Oh,  So  and 
So!  He  has  gone  to  the  debit  of  Seme- 
nov's account."  That  simply  meant  that 
he  had  been  shot  down  ruthlessly  and  his 
body  thrown  out  on  the  steppe  to  rot.  I 
gathered  that  Semenov's  soldiers  were 
simply  picturesque  savages,  many  being 
Tartars,  strikingly  handsome  in  their 
gaudy  uniforms,  but  cruel  and  repulsive 


looking  on  'account  of  their  high  cheek 
bones  and  slanting  eyes. 

Some  versts  beyond  Dauria  we  reached 
Manchuria  station,  where  we  were  to 
cross  the  frontier  into  Chinese  territory 
— and  safety.  A  bit  of  luck  helped  us 
here.  Two  of  Semenov's  officers  here 
happened  to  be  very  friendly  with  the 
local  American  engineer.  When  they 
saw  our  train  arriving  they  said :  "  We 
know  So  and  So  (naming  us)  are  on 
board."  The  AnV  *^jx  calmly  denied  it. 
"  Well,"  said  th/  ,  "  we  have  in- 

formation   of   /  ct    from    reliable 

sources,   but  i/         .   say  *  No '  we  will 
ask  no  more  /    ^stions." 

We  looked  forward  with  impatience 
now  to  arriving  in  Harbin,  where  we 
hoped  to  meet  friends  who  could  give  us 
news  of  what  had  happened  at  Irkutsk 
since  our  departure.  Gradually,  from  one 
source  or  another,  we  learned  of  all  the 
sad  events  that  had  taken  place  after  we 
left. 

It  appeared  that  after  the  mutiny  of 
our  troops  on  Dec.  4  and  the  taking  of 
the  station  the  Social  Revolutionaries 
made  a  first  attempt  to  get  into  the  town 
itself  four  days  later.  They  managed  to 
capture  the  telegraph  station,  but  after 
a  whole  day's  battle  on  the  28th  with  the 
troops  that  still  remained  loyal  they  were 
repulsed  to  the  suburbs. 

On  the  29th  and  30th  hope   revived. 
Our    success    heartened    the    townsfolk. 
Theatres  reopened,  life  became  once  more 
nearly  normal.    Proclamations  posted  in 
the    streets    announced    that    Semenov's 
troops   were   coming   to   rescue   Irkutsk 
from    the    Social    Revolutionaries.     This 
cheerful  atmosphere  was  rudely  dispelled 
on  the  31st,  however,  when  news  filtered 
into  the  town  that  after  a  pitched  bat- 
tle   at    the    station — the   very    fight 
which  we  had  unwittingly  taken  pr" 
Semenov's  troops  had  been  repu^"  \    . 
many  made  prisoners.     foVces'^^Jd    re"^ 
FUTILE   NEG*ad  begun  a  reign 

Our  Ministers  t>  'ggnt  to  the  rescue 
mg  left  to  do  bj;  arrived  on  June  3, 
lers  with  the^own  in  flames  and  some 
since  we  coul^f  the  first  massacre  mur- 
"^^^^t^^^^^.'^^ng  to  official  advices  from 
lo^^        4^.'okio,  on  June  24,  impressive 


982 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


intermediaries,  but  suggested  thait  the 
respective  delegates  of  both  parties 
should  meet  on  neutral  ground,  e.  g.,  one 
of  their  trains.  That  meeting  was  little 
better  than  a  farce. 

At  the  appointed  time  the  Social  Revo- 
lutionary delegates  arrived  and  were 
greeted  by  the  Allies,  who  acted  as  hosts 
to  both  sides  for  the  occasion.  Though 
not  prepared  to  show  political  partiality, 
they  had  a  very  gracious  manner  of  of- 
fering whisky  and  soda  to  everybody.  An 
hour  was  spent  in  social  chat  while  they 
waited  for  our  delegates.  A  second  hour 
passed  before  the  three  Kolchak  Minis- 
ters, with  a  nonchalance  typically  Rus- 
sian, were  seen  slowly  proceeding  in  the 
direction  of  the  conference  along  the 
shores  of  the  frozen  Angara,  which  was 
really  a  beautiful  sight  with  its  banks 
fringed  with  icicles.  On  this  lovely  Win- 
ter morning  these  gentlemen  were  ad- 
miring the  fairy  view,  oblivious  of  the 
passage  of  time  and  totally  forgetful,  in 
their  appreciation  of  nature,  of  the  des- 
perate political  crisis.  Could  such  a 
thing  happen  in  any  other  country? 

A  few  apologies,  more  whisky  and 
soda  for  our  side,  and  the  Allies  retired, 
leaving  the  Russians  to  fight  things  out 
among  themselves.  The  Social  Revolu- 
tionaries produced  a  list  of  twelve  condi- 
tions, and  the  Kolchak  delegates  asked 
permission  to  go  home  (via  the  charming 
ice  scene  again)  to  deliberate  upon  them. 
An  armistice  of  twenty-four  hours,  after- 
ward extended  for  twelve  hours  more, 
was  arranged. 

On  the  night  of  Jan.  4,  just  before  the 
expiry  of  this  armistice,  our  Council  of 
Ministers  met  for  the  last  time  to  discuss 
what  could  be  done.  I  have  referred  else- 
where to  our  Russian  love  of  talk.     It 

as  never  better  exemplified  than  on 
occasion.  Each  person  present  at 
.  .^ting  had  a  different  idea.     One 

Cz^'ech  trah?^^^'  ^^^*^^^  *^  ^'^^^'  ^ 
naturally  in  7^*^"-     The  meeting 


How  eap- 


^^hen,  all  present  be- 


^^^   !„,,  ''%'i^,'^'^''thtv  ^ed,  they  retired  to 
^^ts^-'viie  creat         ^}  -  'ded  anything. 
'serious  step  ^^  ^^  Su    concerted  Con- 
or g-eneral   coipne      -^p.  ,    ,  , 

^      stepbe^nning.andO'^^    ^^^^"^    ^^ 
'      In    connPPtinr,    t»>         ^^^  ."^iTn  ?+'»>'  and 


In    connection    w 


and 

\  took  t^'    ^ 
'$k." 


vague  but  amiable  quantity,  who  had  too 
long  left  those  under  him  to  do  as  they 
pleased,  left  with  a  few  others  on  foot 
toward  Baikal.  Before  morning  this 
strange  little  party  had  managed  to  walk 
twenty  miles.  Later  they  joined  up  with 
Semenov's  guards. 

On  the  5th,  when  the  armistice  ex- 
pired, the  Social  Revolutionaries,  without 
waiting  any  longer  for  the  answer  that 
our  Cabinet  could  not  agree  upon,  quietly 
entered  Irkutsk.  Alas,  in  the  confusion 
our  people  had  neglected  to  warn  the 
cadets  in  time.  Many  were  therefore 
still  in  the  colleges  on  the  morning  of 
the  5th,  and  when  the  Social  Revolution- 
aries entered,  these  poor  boys  had  no 
chance  to  escape. 

THE  FATE  OF  KOLCHAK 

On  learning  all  these  details  we  felt 
the  deepest  anxiety  for  Kolchak  himself. 
We  were  safe  at  last,  but  he  was  still  at 
Verdjni-Udinsk,  beyond  Omsk,  under 
guard  of  the  Czechs.  It  was  horrible  to 
feel  that  we  could  do  nothing  to  help 
him  any  more — only  hope  and  pray  that 
he  would  not  stop  long  in  that  danger- 
ous spot,  but  be  allowed  to  get  out  of 
Russia  under  allied  safe  conduct. 

Imagine  our  consternation  when  we 
learned  that,  despite  the  fact  that  he 
was  under  the  guardianship  of  the  High 
Command  of  the  allied  forces  in  Siberia, 
he  had  been  handed  over  to  the  Social 
Revolutionaries!  There  had  been  long 
pourparlers  by  direct  wire  before  this 
decision,  between  Syrovoi,  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Czech  forces,  and  General 
Janin,  who  was  then  near  Baikal,  the  re- 
sults of  which  Kolchak  and  his  staff 
awaited  in  profound  agony.  With  a 
soldier's  pride  our  Supreme  Commander 
had  been  unwilling  to  leave  the  front — 
till  too  late.  The  time  came  when  he  had 
to  trust  to  the  faith  and  the  humanity 
of  the  Czechs.  Did  he  suspect  that  this 
was  a  desperate  venture?  Perhaps;  yet 
that  way  there  might  lie  a  chance  for  the 
safety  of  his  staff  and  the  treasure  he 
had  in  charge. 

When  he  found  his  friends  had  played 
him  false  and  delivered  him  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies  he  realized  that  all 
was  over,  and  with  one  bitter  cry,  "  The 


RUSSIA'S  AGONY 


983 


foreigners  have  betrayed  me!"  he  went 
with  dignity  and  courage  to  that  prison 
from  which  he  knew  he  would  never 
come  out  alive. 

His  loyal  supporters  still  clung  to  the 
forlorn  hope  tiiat  he  might  be  given  a 
just  trial,  but  this  hope  was  dashed  when 
about  Feb.  10  authentic  news  appeared 
that  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  the  Chief 
of  our  Government,  who,  whatever  his 


mistakes  and  human  faults,  was  still  a 
brave  and  patriotic  son  of  Russia,  had 
been  ignominiously  murdered  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  prison,  where  he  had 
spent  three  weeks  of  perhaps  the  great- 
est moral  suffering  ever  endured  by  any 
political  or  military  leader,  even  in  these 
troubled  times. 

ITo  be  concluded  next  month  with  a  docu- 
mented account  of  Kolchak's  career  and 
death.} 


Siberia  and  the  Japanese  Army 

Facts  Bearing  on  the  Charge  That  Japan's  Motive  Is 
Imperialism  Rather  Than  Self -Defense 


Japan's  real  purpose  in  keeping 
her  armed  forces  in  Siberia  after 
the  departure  of  the  Americans 
and  Allies  is  still  something  of 
a  puzzle.  The  Japanese  themselves 
say  that  their  object  in  continuing 
to  occupy  Vladivostok  and  the  Mari- 
time Province,  in  seizing  virtual  con- 
trol of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway,  the 
vital  artery  of  North  Manchuria,  and 
in  maintaining  a  military  grip  on  the 
whole  region  is  purely  one  of  self- 
defense.  Marquis  Okuma,  Japan's 
veteran  statesman,  in  an  interview  on 
May  20,  1920,  said: 

If  Europe  and  America  understand 
Japan's  motives  and  give  moral  support, 
Japan  will  be  ready  to  disarm  in  Siberia, 
try  to  improve  conditions,  and  open  the 
continent  to  commerce.  If  they  are  unable 
to  reach  an  understanding,  Japan  will 
withdraw,  but  the  world  must  face  the 
consequences.    *    *    * 

It  is  necessary  for  Japan  and  England 
to  do  something,  and  they  would  welcome 
the  co-operation  of  the  United  Sti^tes. 
Japan  would  like  to  withdraw  her .  army 
from  Siberia.  It  already  has  cost  $300,- 
000,000  and  many  lives. 

Japan  offers  the  world  an  open  door  in 
Siberia  and  does  not  intend  to  monopolize 
the  country's  commerce.  She  wants  her 
purposes  made  clear  in  order  that  the 
other  powers  will  not  suspect  that  she  has 
other  motives.  If  the  other  powers  are 
suspicious,  no  other  course  is  left  open 
to  Japan  except  to  leave  and  disclaim 
responsibility  for  the  consequences.  If 
Bolshevism  enters  China  Japan  will  be 
obliged  to  help  her.  *  *  * 
Other  nations,  however,  are  charging 


Japan  with  a  deliberate  purpose  of  hold- 
ing Eastern  Siberia  permanently.  The 
Japan  Chronicle,  a  British  publication 
at  Kobe,  Japan,  has  long  been  making 
this  charge  and  devoting  much  space  to 
the  subject. 

In  the  Summer  of  1918  it  was  agreed 
that  Great  Britain,  the  United  States  and 
Japan  should  send  each  7,000  men  into 
Siberia  to  preserve  order.  Japan  immedi-    o 
ately  sent  100,000,  the  extra  93,000  being 
dispatched  via  Korea  and  Manchuria  invas 
order  to  fulfill  the  terms  of  the  Sin?ani- 
Japanese     military     agreement,     uncdele- 
which   Japan   undertook  to   protect  -0  and 
Chinese    frontier.      "  Incidentally,"  ^mbly." 
marks  The  Chronicle  editor,  "  this   Zemstvo 
ment  was  forced  on  China  agai^unced  his 
will,    and    Mr.    Chen    Lu    has   ^s  assembly 
American  Charge  d'Affaires  ttions   except 
will  on  no  account  co-operate -vo    character. 
in  making  war  on  the  Russif  d  immediately. 

FFFFrTS   OF    IMTF'       "^^^^    grounds 

EFFECTS  OF  INTF^nnexation  of  the 
Since  the  departure^h alien  was  the  mas- 
and  allied  troops  the^nese  at  Nikolaevsk  in 
into  active  conflict  fe  Red  forces  had  re- 
and  have  encountrthey  had  begun  a  reign 
ity  on  every  han^, 

view   of   the  ^J^^^^ces    sent   to   the   rescue 
these  words  :/*o^^jrs    arrived    on    June    3, 
We  have, ,  /  ^.e  town  in  flames  and  some 
some,    poiir4     of  the  first  massacre  mur- 
clelter%%^'''^  to  official  advices  from 
their  ^^-^okio,  on  June  24,  impressive 

solut 


984 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


and  procedure  of  intervention  has  been  a 
disaster.  From  the  Czarist  and  from  the 
Bolshevist  points  of  view,  and  from  every 
intermediate  point  of  view  as  well,  the 
Japanese  intervention  has  been  nothing 
but  destructive. 

Frequent  battles  with  the  Bolshevist 
forces  occurred  in  March  and  April  in 
the  Maritime  Province,  at  Nikolsk,  at 
Khabarovsk  and  other  points,  and  along 
the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway  on  both 
sides  of  Harbin.  Forced  to  withdraw 
from  Khabarovsk  and  other  parts  of  the 
Amur  Province,  and  to  give  protection 
to  hundreds  of  Japanese  refugees  from 
this  district,  the  Japanese  troops  were 
confronted  everywhere  with  intense  hos- 
tility from  all  classes. 

SUDDEN  ATTACK  BY  JAPANESE 
On  the  pretext  that  the  Russians  had 
been  sniping  them,  the  Japanese  forces 
suddenly  surrounded  and  disarmed  the 
Russian  forces  throughout  the  Maritime 
Province,  treating  their  prisoners,  it  is 
alleged,   with   great   indignity.     Bloody 
scenes   occurred  at  Nikolsk,   where  the 
Russians,  expecting  no  attack,  were  over- 
whelmed by  superior  numbers.     Vladi- 
vostok was  taken  on  April  5  after  eight 
hours  of  fighting;  Russian  and  Korean 
prisoners    were    marched    through    the 
streets  with  their  hands  and  arms  tied 
vith   ropes.    Eyewitnesses   declare   that 
xe  Japanese  attack  was  unprovoked,  and 
f'bunt    acts    of    great  brutality  com- 
ted  by  the  Japanese  soldiery.  Signs  of 
ul  prearrangement  are  seen  by  The 
Chronicle  in  the  fact    that    the 
46  losses  in  most  cases  were  only 
wo,  as  compared  with  hundreds 
s  slain,  though  in  some  places 
^e  losses  were  greater;   the 
^  the  great  bridge  over  the 
'habarovsk,  for  no  better 
alleged  report  that  the 
-ning   on  an   armored 
to    indicate,  in  the 
ity,  that  the  Japan- 
.  ectly  co-ordinated, 
nment  at  Vladi- 
t  to  Japanese 
lected  on  the 
assumed  no 
"'^e  Rus- 
ir    own 
A  with 


the  international  diplomatic  corps.  The 
demand  for  the  release  of  the  Russians 
arrested  and  for  the  evacuation  of  the 
looted  Government  buildings  was  granted 
by  the  Japanese  only  in  part.  The  Pro- 
visional Government  also  made  a  strong 
demand  that  the  Japanese  cease  inter- 
ference in  Russian  affairs,  that  they 
tender  an  apology,  and  that  they  return 
all  the  arms  and  munitions  they  had 
seized.  Tokio  was  considering  these  de- 
mands toward  the  middle  of  April  while 
awaiting  the  report  of  the  Director  of 
Political  Affairs,  who  arrived  at  Vladi- 
vostok on  April  13.  Russian  feeling  at 
Vladivostok  was  running  high;  the 
trades  unions  were  threatening  a  general 
strike,  and  the  extremists  were  organiz- 
ing an  anti-Japanese  press  campaign, 
combined  with  terrorism.  General  Bul- 
suilev.  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  forces  of  Vladivostok, 
after  one  unsuccessful  attempt,  finally 
began  negotiations  with  the  Japanese  on 
April  15  as  representative  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government.  A  military  agree- 
ment signed  on  April  28  proved  inde- 
cisive. Further  negotiations  lagged,  but 
hostilities  between  the  Russians  and 
Japanese  finally  ceased  on  May  25. 

THE  FAR  EASTERN  REPUBLIC 
Meantime  there  came  into  being  at 
Verkhne-Udinsk,  in  Transbaikalia,  on 
the  Selenga  River,  a  new  Government 
formed  by  Siberian  Russians  under  the 
name  of  the  "  Far  Eastern  Republic," 
which  the  Peking  correspondent  of  The 
London  Times  called  "  pink  in  appear- 
ance, but  red  at  heart."  It  is  composed 
of  "  nonpartisan  peasants,  workers  and 
members  of  the  Intelligentsia."  Its  For- 
eign Minister  and  dominating  person- 
ality is  A.  S.  Krasnochekov.  The  career 
of  this  man,  whose  real  name  is  Tobel- 
son,  is  of  considerable  interest.  Tobelson, 
up  to  July,  1918,  was  a  Chicago  lawyer, 
a  Communist  by  conviction,  who  claimed 
American  citizenship.  He  arrived  in 
Vladivostok  in  1918  and  went  to  Kha- 
barovsk. Here  he  headed  the  Far  East- 
em  Soviet.  He  was  driven  out  when  the 
allied  nations  began  their  intervention  in 
August,  1918.  He  then  wandered  west- 
ward, and  was  finally  thrown  into  prison 
under  his  assumed  name  in  Irkutsk.   He 


SIBERIA  AND  THE  JAPANESE  ARMY 


985 


was  freed  in  January,  1920,  when  the 
local  Social  Revolutionaries  ended  the  rule 
of  Kolchak  at  that  place.  At  Verkhne- 
Udinsk,  surrounded  by  other  Russian 
revolutionists  who  had  been  in  hiding  or 
in  prison  since  the  advent  of  Kolchak,  he 
conducted  his  own  publicity  bureau,  send- 
ing out  broadcast  news  of  the  new-bom 
Far  Eastern  Republic,  proclaimed  as  the 
long  desired  "  buffer  State "  between 
Soviet  Russia  and  Japan. 

The  claims  of  this  new  State,  as  set 
forth  in  a  note  addressed  to  all  the 
powers,  included  the  formation  of  an 
independent  republic  of  the  eastern  prov- 
inces of  Transbaikalia,  the  Maritime 
Provinces,  Saghalien,  Kamchatka  and 
the  rights  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Rail- 
way now  vested  in  China.  The  object  set 
forth  was  the  free  election  of  a  demo- 
cratic Government  and  the  appointment 
of  a  Provisional  Government  represent- 
ing all  parties,  which  would  continue  to 
fight  reaction  and  would  summon  a  con- 
stituent assembly  to  decide  on  the  future 
of  the  new  State. 

This  new  buffer  republic  was  recog- 
nized by  the  Moscow  Government  on 
May  17.  Jacob  David  Janson,  the  Bol- 
shevist Chief  for  Foreign  Affairs  in 
Siberia,  stated  subsequently  that  the  full 
independence  of  the  new  Government 
was  recognized,  and  that  Moscow  would 
take  no  hand  in  resolving  for  the  Far 
Eastern  Republic  the  problem  confront- 
ing it  in  the  attitude  of  the  reactionaries 
under  General  Semenov,  backed  by  the 
Japanese  militarists,  unless  the  Japa- 
nese invaded  Bolshevist  territory  beyond 
the  Selenga  River.  If  the  new  republic 
asked  for  aid  the  Bolshevist  Government, 
however,  he  stated,  would  send  an  army 
to  assist  it.  "  All  we  want  now,"  said 
M.  Janson,  "  is  the  evacuation  of  the 
Japanese  and  that  the  Russians  be  left 
alone  to  work  out  international  prob- 
lems." At  this  time  the  most  easterly 
division  of  the  Soviet  Army  was  at 
Verkhne-Udinsk.  At  and  around  Chita 
were  remnants  of  the  Kolchak  army  and 
the  forces  of  General  Semenov  support- 
ing the  Japanese  in  their  operations 
against  the  Bolsheviki. 

A  statement  was  issued  by  Krasno- 
chekov  on  June  2,  addressed  particularly 


to  the  Japanese.  Conciliatory  in  its 
nature,  it  recalled  the  declaration  of  the 
Japanese  High  Commissioner  in  Siberia 
to  the  effect  that  Japan  would  recognize 
the  Far  Eastern  Republic  as  soon  as  it 
was  politically,  militarily  and  economical- 
ly independent  of  Soviet  Russia.  He  then 
set  forth  the  fact  that  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment had  recognized  this  independ- 
ence. 

ORGANIZING  THE  NEW  REPUBLIC 

The  Russo-Japanese  Armistice  Com- 
mission appointed  to  effect  an  under- 
standing was  made  up  of  representatives 
of  the  Far  Eastern  Republic  and  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Japanese  Military  Mission. 
This  commission  arrived  at  Khabarovsk 
on  May  26.  Discussions  begun  soon  after 
at  Gongota  Station,  midway  between  the 
Japanese-Semenov  and  Russian  fronts, 
were  temporarily  broken  off  on  June  2. 
A  Moscow  wireless  of  June  23  stated  that 
Japan  had  agreed  to  recognize  the  Far 
Eastern  Republic  on  condition  that  it 
should  maintain  complete  political  and 
economic  independence  of  Soviet  Russia, 
and  that  it  should  guarantee  a  demo- 
cratic form  of  Government.  M.  Krasno- 
chekov,  the  Foreign  Minister,  it  was 
added,  had  declared  these  conditions  to 
be  acceptable. 

During  this  time  the  new  republic  was 
working  actively  to  complete  its  organi- 
zation. One  hundred  and  thirteen  dele- 
gates met  at  Vladivostok  on  June  20  and 
formed  a  "  Far  East  People's  Assembly." 
M.  Medvediev,  President  of  the  Zemstvo 
Provisional  Government,  announced  his 
willingness  to  transfer  to  this  assembly 
all  the  Government  functions  except 
those  of  a  purely  Zemstvo  character. 
Elections  were  t     be  held  immediately. 

The  event  that  gave  Japan  grounds 
for  her  subsequent  annexation  of  the 
northern  half  of  Saghalien  was  the  mas- 
sacre of  700  Japanese  at  Nikolaevsk  in 
April.  After  the  Red  forces  had  re- 
entered the  city  they  had  begun  a  reign 
of  terror. 

Japanese  forces  sent  to  the  rescue 
of  the  survivors  arrived  on  June  3, 
only  to  find  the  town  in  flames  and  some 
120  survivors  of  the  first  massacre  mur- 
dered, according  to  official  advices  from 
Tokio.   In  Tokio,  on  June  24,  impressive 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY, 


memorial  services  were  held  for  the 
victims  of  this  double  slaughter.  These 
services  were  arranged,  it  was  stated,  to 
show  the  importance  attached  by  the 
Japanese  Nation  to  these  murders.  Princes 
of  the  royal  family,  members  of  the 
Ministry  and  of  the  Diet  were  present, 
and  a  great  crowd  of  civilians  thronged 
the  Diet  building,  wh«re  the  ceremony 
was  held.  Prince  lyesato  Tokugawa, 
President  of  the  House  of  Peers,  de- 
clared the  massacre  "  extremely  regret- 
table," adding  that  "it  concerns  the  entire 
world  as  well  as  Japan,  for  it  was  a 
gross  outrage  upon  humanity."  Premier 
Hara  declared  it  the  Government's  in- 
tenticn  '*  to  maintain  national  prestige  to 
the  utmost." 

A  JAPANESE  BUFFER  STATE 

In  the  whole  procedure  of  the  Japanese 
in  Siberia,  which  one  section  even  of  the 
Japanese  press  criticises  severely,  the 
Japan  Chronicle  and  other  anti-Japanese 
critics  see  a  deliberate  purpose  of  the 
militarists  at  Tokio  to  keep  hold  of 
Siberia  permanently  and  to  annex  Trans- 
baikalia under  the  pretext  of  creating 
an  independent  buffer  State,  but  a  State 
which  will  really  be  under  Japanese 
control. 

The  plan  of  a  buffer  State,  which 
has  been  much  discussed  in  Japan,  was 
originally  conceived  by  the  Bolsheviki, 
according  to  the  Chronicle,  in  order  to 
avert  conflict  with  the  Japanese.  The 
idea  emanated  first  from  the  large  num- 
ber of  Communists  in  the  Irkutsk  region 
who  had  joined  the  Red  forces.  The 
original  proposal  was  to  incorporate  in 
such  a  State  the  Chita  district  up  to  the 
Selenga  River,  the  Primorsk,  including 
Vladivostok  and  Nikolaievsk,  and  the 
Priamur,  including  Harbin  and  Blago- 
veshchensk, all  to  be  administered,  not 
by  Soviet  rule,  but  by  the  local  Zemstvos. 
A  Mr.  Krasnorkov,  a  Soviet  commissary, 
the  Chronicle  says,  was  empowered  by 
Moscow  to  form  such  a  buffer  State. 

The  Japanese  took  up  this  idea,  which 
they  interpreted  in  their  own  interests. 
Proposals  made  by  the  Moscow  and 
Irkutsk     Bolshevist     authorities  —  that 


neither  the  Bolsheviki  nor  the  Japanese 
should  make  any  further  advance  from 
the  positions  held  by  the  opposing 
factions  in  May — ^were  answered  by  a 
declaration  by  General  Oi,  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  Japanese  troops,  on  May 
10,  explaining  the  Japanese  policy,  con- 
senting to  the  proposals  made,  and  de- 
claring plainly  for  the  creation  of  such 
a  buffer  State.  M.  Vilensky,  the  Soviet 
representative  at  Vladivostok,  was  stated 
by  the  Asahi  to  have  hailed  this  declara- 
tion as  the  first  step  in  the  establish- 
ment of  an  understanding  between  the 
two  nations.  It  appears,  however,  ac- 
cording to  the  Chronicle,  that  the  Japa- 
nese by  no  means  accept  the  Verkhne- 
Udinsk  Republic  in  this  light,  but  are 
planning  to  create  such  a  State  under 
the  Hetman  Semenov,  whose  forces  had 
been  co-operating  with  the  Japanese 
against  the  Bolsheviki. 
The  Chronicle  adds: 

Meanwhile  we  have  the  military  occu- 
pation of  a  friendly  country,  the  dis- 
armament of  its  forces,  the  destruction 
of  its  communications,  the  killing  of 
those  who  resist,  the  imprisonment  of 
those  who  surrender,  and  the  hoisting-  of 
foreign  flags  on  its  buildings.  This  is 
the  result  of  an  intervention  undertaken 
for  purely  pacific  purposes  and  without 
the  slightest  intention  of  interfering  with 
the   self-government   of   the   country.* 

The  whole  policy  of  allied  intervention. 
The  Chronicle  declares,  was  a  mistaken 
one,  and  the  chief  result  has  been  to 
open  the  way  for  Japanese  imperialism 
in  Siberia. 

[For  recent  developments,  including  the 
A.merican  note  regarding  Saghalien,  see 
"  Japan."] 


♦The  last-mentioned  assertion  is  based  in 
part  on  the  announcement  of  the  Japanese 
Government  which  was  issued  toward  the 
end  of  March,  under  the  joint  signatures  of 
all  the  Ministers  and  which  set  forth  Japan's 
inability  to  withdraw  her  forces  until  cer- 
tain necessary  objects  are  attained.  This 
announcement  reads  in  part:  "  Japan  is  not 
prompted  by  any  political  ambition  whatever 
toward  Russia.  The  Japanese  Government 
hereby  declares  in  good  faith  that  it  will 
withdraw  its  troops  as  quickly  as  possible 
after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Czechoslovaks 
from  Siberia,  provided  that  the  political 
situation  in  the  regions  contiguous  to  the 
Japanese  territory  is  settled,  the  danger  to 
Korea  and  Manchuria  removed,  the  lives  and 
property  of  Japanese  residents  protected, 
and  the  freedom  of  communications  safe- 
guarded." 


Japan's  Position  in  Siberia 

Seen  From  the  Russian  Viewpoint      S  t^  i 
By  LEO  PASVOLSKY  l^  1  O 


EVER  since  the  Japanese  made 
their  first  moves  in  Siberia,  some 
months  after  the  overthrow  of 
the  Kerensky  Government,  the 
Russian  groups  both  in  Siberia  and  else- 
where have  been  watching  Japan's  poli- 
cies and  activities  with  anxiety  and  ap- 
prehension. There  was  no  lack  of  foreign 
troops  in  Siberia;  almost  every  allied 
country  was  represented  there  and  the 
United  States  had  its  troops  in  the 
field.  But  none  of  these  foreign  con- 
tingents occupied  the  same  position  as 
the  Japanese,  either  in  the  approach  to 
the  problems  that  arose  in  Siberia  or  in 
the  feelings  of  the  people  there.  And 
today,  when  the  rest  of  the  Allies  are 
practically  out  of  Siberia,  or  at  least 
have  ceased  to  play  an  appreciable  part 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Russian  Far  East, 
the  Japanese  are  not  only  staying  over, 
but,  because  of  the  events  of  the  past 
three  months,  have  come  to  occupy  an 
unprecedentedly  commanding  position, 
fraught  with  difficulties,  dangers  and 
possibilities. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  the 
Japanese  activities  in  Siberia  since  the 
beginning  of  1918,  in  the  opinion  of  prac- 
tically every  Russian  group  in  Siberia, 
has  been  their  persistence  in  not  lending 
a  full-fledged  support  to  any  important 
group  or  movement,  but  rather  staking 
on  individual  leaders  and  playing  them 
against  each  other.  An  excellent  illus- 
tration of  this  is  offered  by  the  fact 
that  the  Japanese  were  most  of  the  time 
courteously  cool  toward  Kolchak  and  the 
movement  which  was  represented  by  the 
Omsk  Government,  while  it  was  an  open 
secret  that  they  supported  Semenov  and 
other  "  atamans  "  who  persistently  defied 
Kolchak  and  Omsk.  The  Japanese  were 
not  the  only  ones  among  the  Allies  who, 
by  their  policy,  helped  Kolchak  and  his 
whole  movement  toward  a  fatal  end,  but 
they  certainly  have  to  shoulder  a  part 
of  the  blame. 


Much  of  the  present-day  hostility 
toward  the  Japanese  which  exists  in 
many  parts  of  Siberia,  and  particularly 
in  the  Far  East,  is  attributable  to  the 
policy  which  Japan  pursued  during  the 
existence  of  the  Omsk  Government.  The 
hostility  is  now  openly  expressed  and 
openly  exhibited.  It  has  already  led  to 
bloody  encounters.  And,  unfortunately, 
the  policies  which  Japan  pursues  today 
are  not  making  for  the  elimination  of 
this  hostility;  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
paving  the  way  for  anything  but  the 
amicable  neighborly  relations  which  it 
is  most  important  both  for  Japan  and  for 
Russia  to  establish  in  the  near  future. 

It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  Japan 
occupies  a  peculiar  position  in  the  af- 
fairs of  Siberia,  and  that  her  interests 
which  are  involved  in  the  adjustments 
made  there  are  of  vital  importance  to 
her.  Moreover,  it^-  a  matter  of  para- 
mount concern  to  her  that  the  Soviet 
forces,  after  their  victory  over  the  anti- 
Bolshevist  movement,  may  be  able  to 
reach  the  Pacific;  and  it  is  only  natural 
for  Japan  to  feel  that  too  close  a  proxim- 
ity of  a  communist  regime  cannot  be  a 
very  healthy  factor  so  far  as  her  internal 
situation  is  concerned.  But  at  the  same 
time  all  possible  attention  must  be  paid 
to  the  feelings  and  the  reactions  of  the 
Russians,  since  the  feelings  and  the  in- 
actions of  today  are  the  foundation  for 
the  sympathies  and  the  orientations  of 
the  near  or  the  distant  future.  All  the 
Japanese  statements,  official  and  other- 
wise, concerning  the  Siberian  situation 
invariably  emphasize  these  two  points, 
viz.,  that  Japan  is  trying  to  protect  her 
interests  at  home  and  on  the  Continent, 
and  that  she  is  seeking  to  prepare  the 
way  for  future  friendly  relations  be- 
tween herself  and  Russia.  Here,  then, 
we  have  the  two  tests  by  which  the  poli- 
cies and  the  activities  of  Japan  in  Si- 
beria should  be  judged.    Let  us  examine 


988 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the    events    of   the    last   months    in    the 
light  of  these  two  tests. 

EVENTS  AT  VLADIVOSTOK 

The  part  of  Siberia  which  is  of  special 
concern  to  Japan  is  the  territory  lying 
between  the  seaboard  and  Lake  Baikal. 
The  key  to  this  part  of  Siberia  is  the 
Port  of  Vladivostok.  During  the  existence 
of  the  Omsk  Government  almost  this 
whole  territority  was  only  under  a 
nominal  control  of  the  Government.  Dif- 
ferent parts  of  it  were  held  by  leaders 
of  armed  bands,  some  of  them  command- 
ing rather  large  forces  and  enjoying 
outside  assistance.  The  most  important 
of  these  were  the  "  atamans  "  Semenov 
and  Kalmykov,  and  General  Rosanov. 
The  latter  was  stationed  in  Vladivostok. 
While  nominally  under  orders  from 
Omsk,  he  acted,  in  reality,  in  an  entirely 
independent  manner,  and  his  actions 
were  offensive  to  all  democratic  elements. 
Many  attempts  were  made  at  Omsk  to 
have  Rosanov  removed,  and  finally  on 
Oct.  25,  1919,  Admiral  Kolchak  ordered 
Rosanov  to  give  up  his  command  and 
come  to  Omsk.  But  Rosanov  appealed 
to  Semenov  and  Kalmykov  for  assistance, 
and  having  been  assured  of  their  support 
and — so  the  Vladivostok  version  runs — 
of  the  good-will  of  the  Japanese,  he  re- 
fused to  obey  the  order  from  Omsk. 

The  Omsk  Government  could  not  en- 
force its  authority,  and  Rosanov  re- 
mained the  virtual  master  of  the  situa- 
tion. His  rule  in  Vladivostok  lasted 
until  Jan.  31,  1920,  by  which  time 
his  authority  had  degenerated  entirely 
and  its  remnants  were  easily  overthrown 
by  the  partisan  forces  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Vladivistok  Zemstvo,  which  then 
set  up  a  Provisional  Government. 

The  next  important  event  in  the  Rus- 
sian Far  East  occurred  on  April  4-5, 
when  a  series  of  armed  clashes  took 
place  between  the  Russian  and  Japan- 
ese troops.  During  the  two  months 
which  preceded  the  clash  the  relations 
between  the  Japanese  and  the  Russians 
in  Vladivostok  and  the  adjacent  territory 
were  becoming  more  and  more  strained. 
The  allied  troops  were  being  evacuated, 
but  the  Japanese  made  no  preparations 
for  leaving.  The  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, headed  by  the  President  of  the 


Zemstvo,  A.  S.  Medvyedev,  maintained 
cordial  relations  with  the  political  mis- 
sion at  Vladivostok,  although  its  rela- 
tions with  the  military  command  were 
strained.  The  Provisional  Government 
made  it  its  object  to  end  the  civil  war 
and  to  come  to  some  understanding  with 
Moscow,  and  its  chief  objection  against 
the  Japanese  was  that  they  were  not  in 
favor  of  such  a  program.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Japanese  objected  most  strenu- 
ously to  the  manner  in  which  Medvye- 
dev's  Government  attempted  to  hasten 
the  evacuation  of  the  Japanese  troops. 

THE  JAPANESE  ULTIMATUM 
There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the 
hostility  against  the  Japanese  was  some- 
thing that  the  Provisional  Government 
could  not  control,  even  if  it  desired  to 
do  so.  It  was  growing  all  the  time  and 
expressed  itself  more  and  more  in  open 
clashes.  The  departure  of  the  Amer- 
ican troops  left  the  Japanese  alone  in 
the  field,  and  they  apparently  decided 
to  take  effective  measures.  On  April 
2  an  ultimatum  was  presented  to  the 
Provisional  Government.  The  substance 
of  the  ultimatum  was  that  there  should 
be  no  interference  with  the  actions  of 
the  Japanese  military  authorities,  so  far 
as  those  actions  concerned  military  af- 
fairs; that  all  activities  of  secret  groups 
or  societies  considered  harmful  for  the 
Japanese  troops  or  for  Manchuria  and 
Korea  should  be  forbidden;  that  all  pub- 
lications directed  against  the  Japanese 
Empire,  its  existence  or  its  army,  should 
be  suppressed.  This  ultimatum  was  ac- 
cepted in  its  entirety  by  the  Provisional 
Government  on  April  4. 

But  on  the  night  of  April  4  an  un- 
fortunate incident  took  place  at  Vladi- 
vostok; Japanese  patrols  were  fired 
upon  in  some  parts  of  the  city.  On  the 
following  morning  General  Oi,  command- 
ing the  troops  at  Vladivostok,  ordered  all 
Russian  troops  disarmed.  This  order 
was  carried  out  with  considerable  blood- 
shed, both  in  Vladivostok  and  in  Nikolsk 
and  Khabarovsk. 

The  Provisional  Government  dis- 
claimed responsibility  for  the  attacks 
on  the  Japanese  patrols  and  entered  into 
negotiations  with  the  Japanese  military 
command    for    the    adjustment    of    the 


JAPAN'S  POSITION  IN  SIBERIA 


989 


situation.  An  agreement  was  finally- 
signed  in  Vladivostok  on  April  29.  By 
virtue  of  this  agreement  no  Russian 
troops  are  permitted  to  be  present  within 
thirty  kilometers  of  the  Ussuriysk  and 
the  Suchansk  railroad  lines  and  of  the 
China-Korea  border.  The  only  exception 
is  made  in  the  case  of  militia  on  police 
duty,  but  its  numbers  can  be  determined 
only  by  agreement  with  the  Japanese 
command. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  AGREEMENT 

Thus  the  Japanese  military  command 
holds  in  its  absolute  control  all  the 
y^  ansof  transportation  and  the  Suchansk 
coal  mines.  The  Provisional  Government 
is  not  forbidden  to  have  troops  of  its 
own,  but  it  is  cut  off  from  all  sources 
of  military  supplies.  And  what  is  even 
more  important,  practically  all  cities 
and  towns  of  importance,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  or  three  small  ones,  come 
under  the  military  control  of  the  Japa- 
nese, for  they  are  all  situated  on  or  near 
the  railroad  lines. 

No  wonder  that  the  chief  representa- 
tive of  the  Russian  command  said :  "  It 
is  with  a  heavy  feeling  that  we,  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Russian  military 
command,   sign  this  agreement." 

It  is  clear,  of  course,  that  an  arrange- 
ment of  the  kind  contemplated  in  this 
agreement  cannot  last  long  and  lead  to 
anything  like  satisfactory  results.  While 
the  Japanese  diplomatic  representatives 
in  Siberia  insist  that  the  attitude  of 
Japan  has  not  undergone  any  recent 
change,  the  Russians  i.re  just  as  insistent 
that  a  radical  change  has  taken  place. 
They  consider  that  while  before  April 
4-5  it  was  possible  to  explain  the 
presence  of  the  Japanese  troops  in 
Siberia  as  a  part  of  the  interallied  pro- 
gram of  intervention  there,  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  Japanese  are  now 
acting  in  Siberia  can  be  described  only 
as  those  of  occupation. 

PLAN  OF  A  BUFFER  STATE 

There  is  an  element  in  the  situation 
which  is  often  seized  upon  as  a  possible 
line  of  adjustment.  It  is  the  buffer 
State  idea.  This  idea  came  up  prominent- 
ly in  Irkutsk  soon  after  the  overthrow 
of    the    Kolchak    Government.      It    was 


then  contemplated  to  organize  a  buffer 
State  with  its  capital  at  Irkutsk.  The 
chief  reason  for  this,  advanced  at  that 
time,  was  that  such  a  political  formation 
in  the  east  would  render  unnecessary  or 
impossible  the  movement  of  the  regular 
Soviet  troops  beyond  Lake  Baikal  and 
would  prevent  a  clash  between  them  and 
the  Japanese.  It  was  expected  that  in 
this  way  the  possibility  of  a  Japanese 
occupation  of  the  Far  East  and  the 
Transbaikal  territory  would  be  avoided 
and  a  connection  would  be  established 
between  Eastern  Siberia  and  Soviet-con- 
trolled Russia. 

This  plan,  however,  was  not  carried 
out.  At  present  the  situation  seems  as 
follows:  Irkutsk  and  the  territory  ad- 
joining it  are  controlled  from  Moscow. 
East  of  this  is  the  territory  with 
Verkhne-Udinsk  as  its  centre,  self-de- 
termined into  a  State.  Then  comes  the 
territory  still  controlled  by  Semenov. 
And  beyond  that,  the  maritime  buffer 
State,  with  its  capital  at  Vladivostok. 

According  to  the  latest  information 
from  Siberia,  the  territorial  extension 
of  the  buffer  State  is  expected  to  in- 
clude both  the  Vladivostok  and  the 
Verkhne-Udinsk  territories,  as  soon  as 
contact  can  be  established  between  them, 
with  the  elimination  of  the  Semenov  bar- 
rier. So  far,  despite  extensive  diplo- 
matic negotiations  on  the  subject,  the 
Japanese  are  still  inclined  to  lend  sup- 
port to  Semenov.  A  recent  interview  of 
a  representative  of  the  Central  Informa- 
tion Bureau  of  Vladivostok  with  General 
Takayanaga  sheds  an  interesting  light 
on  this  subject: 

The  General  considers  that  the  territory 
controlled  by  Semenov  must  be  considered 
as  a  separate  political  entity  in  the  nego- 
tiations for  the  unification  of  the  Far 
Eastern  formations.  According  to  Seme- 
nov's  claims,  his  authority  is  supported 
by  at  least  75  per  cent,  of  the  population, 
by  the  Cossacks,  the  Buryats  and  a  part 
of  the  Zemstvo.  The  liquidation  of  the 
barrier  is  desirable,  but  it  must  be  done 
without  violence,  through  agreement  on 
the  part  of  the  political  groups  and  a 
free  expression  of  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  Japanese  have  troops  in  the  ter- 
ritory occupied  by  Semenov,  and,  judging 
by  this  interview,  they  will  probably  re- 
sist    any     attempts     to     liquidate     the 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


Semenov  movement  by  force.  Inciden- 
tally, by  agreement  between  Vladivostok 
and  Verkhne-Udinsk,  this  task  devolves 
on  the  Government  of  the  latter. 

MOSCOW'S  ATTITUDE 

The  Soviet  Government  stands  ready 
to  give  its  entire  support  to  the  buffer 
State  idea.  For  it  the  project  contains 
obvious  advantages,  provided  certain 
conditions  can  be  met.  The  creation  of 
the  buffer  State  would  remove  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  military  encounter  with 
Japan.  This  is  very  important  for  Mos- 
cow, for  it  wants  peace  very  badly  just 
now  and  will  want  peace  still  more  badly 
after  the  war  with  Poland  is  over.  As 
a  special  inducement  to  Japan  for  co- 
operation in  this  project,  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment is  willing  to  permit  the  buffer 
to  work  out  its  political  forms  in  a  dif- 
ferent way  from  the  general  Soviet  prac- 
tice. In  his  conversation  with  the  head 
of  the  Japanese  diplomatic  mission  in 
the  Far  East,  the  Soviet  representative, 
V.  D.  Vilensky,  made  it  quite  clear  that 
the  Soviet  Government  would  be  willing 
to  permit  the  creation  of  a  buffer  State, 
"  in  which  the  capitalistic  activities  of 
the  foreigners,  particularly  the  Japanese, 
would  be  able  to  develop  in  conditions  to 
which  they  would  be  more  accustomed 
than  if  Soviet  forms  were  introduced." 

Thus,  for  the  Moscow  Government  the 
Far  Eastern  buffer  State  is  a  bone, 
which  it  is  willing  to  throw  to  the  Japa- 
nese capitalists  in  order  to  achieve  peace 
at  any  cost.  But  that  is  not  all,  of 
course.  To  the  Bolsheviki  a  buffer  is 
a  point  of  contact  with  the  outside  capi- 
talistic world,  particularly  the  starting 
point  of  propaganda  and  agitation.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Moscow  diplo- 
mats, and  particularly  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Third  International,  have 
already  a  definite  purpose  in  view  for 
the  Far  Eastern  buffer.  The  Soviet 
Government  has  good  reasons  for  desir- 
ing the  creal;ion  of  the  buffer  State. 

ATTITUDE  OF  VARIOUS  GROUPS 

To  the  extent  to  which  there  is  a  dan- 
ger that  the  buffer  may  become  the  base 
of  supplies  for  communist  activities  in 
the  Far  East,  the  Japanase  have  grounds 
for  apprehension.    But  obviously  the  key 


to  the  situation,  at  least  the  immediate 
situation,  lies  in  the  attitude  of  the 
various  groups  in  the  territory  of  the 
buffer.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
groups  now  in  power  both  in  Vladivostok 
and  in  Verkhne-Udinsk  would  make  the 
buffer  merely  a  subservient  tool  for  the 
purposes  of  the  Soviet  Government. 
Every  statement  that  they  make  Indi- 
cates this  beyond  any  doubt. 

But  there  are  other  elements,  particu- 
larly among  the  Socialist-Revolutionists, 
who  have  a  different  idea  of  the  func- 
tion of  the  buffer  State.  They  believe 
that  Russia's  salvation  lies  in  the  crea- 
tion along  its  borders  of  small  States, 
independent  of  the  communistic  centre 
and  looking  toward  a  reunion  with 
nationally  recreated  Russia.  These  ele- 
ments are  in  favor  of  the  creation  of  a 
real  buffer  State,  and  not  merely  a 
camouflaged  portion  of  Soviet-controlled 
Russia.  But  events  put  these  elements 
between  two  fires.  They  were  put  face 
to  face  with  a  choice  between  military 
occupation  by  the  Japanese  and  semi- 
dependence  upon  the  Soviet  Government. 
They  have  chosen  the  latter.  An  Inter- 
Party  Conference,  recently  held  in  Vladi- 
vostok, gave  proof  of  this  fact. 

RESULTS  OF  JAPAN'S  POLICY 

How,  then,  have  the  activities  of  the 
Japanese  in  the  Far  East  squared 
against  the  two  tests  laid  down  by  their 
own  responsible  leaders? 

In  the  face  of  growing  hostility  on  the. 
part  of  the  local  population,  they  have\ 
grasped  in  a  military  vise  the  essential  ^ 
points  in  the  Far  East.  They  have  re- 
duced the  Government  existing  there  to 
the  status  of  a  talking  machine,  having 
deprived  it  of  the  means  to  enforce  its 
authority.  They  have  extended  their  oc- 
cupation to  the  northern  half  of  Sakhalin, 
and  are  only  waiting  for  favorable 
weather  conditions  to  extend  it  still 
more,  along  the  Amur.  How  long  will 
they  be  able  to  hold  all  this?  And  what 
military  effort  will  be  required  for  this 
purpose,  which  is  not  by  any  means 
slight? 

The  Japanese  have  set  out  to  provide 
against  the  possibility  of  communistic 
propaganda  in  Japan  and  still  more  par- 
ticularly in  China  and  Korea.     But  the 


JAPAN'S  POSITION  IN  SIBERIA 


991 


methods  they  have  employed  in  doing 
this  have  actually  driven  the  anti- 
Soviet  elements  in  the  Russian  territories 
immediately  adjoining  China  and  Korea 
into  the  arms  of  the  pro-Soviet  elements. 
Instead  of  having  to  deal  with  hostility 
on  the  part  of  only  the  communist  ele- 
ments, the  Japanese  now  face  a  solid 
front  of  antagonism.  The  longer  the 
military  occupation  continues  the  more 
bitterness  will  result  from  it.  And  a 
buffer  State  bitterly  antagonistic  to  the 
Japanese,  and,  by  contrast,  sympathetic 
toward  the  Soviets,  is,  indeed,  a  poor 
protection  against  the  infiltration  of  Red 
propaganda. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  by  virtue 
of  sheer  force  the  Japanese  may  be  able 
to  obtain  economic  concessions  in  the 
territory  which  they  occupy.  But,  in  the 
first  place,  such  advantages  can  never 
be  fully  satisfactory,  and,  in  the  second 
place,  the  Russian  resentment  will  not 
easily  die  away.  It  may  result  in  conse- 
quences which  will  scarcely  secure  the 
advantages  obtained. 

The  activities  of  the  Japanese  military 
command  in  Siberia  bear  every  earmark 
of  hot-headedness  and  haste.  Japan's 
military  representatives  have  gone  after 
the  problem  of  the  adjustments  in  the 
Far  East  in  a  military  fashion,  which 
seldom  takes  into  account  the  numberless 
other  factors  constituting  the  complex  of 
relations  between  two  peoples.  It  is  now 
for  the  Japanese  diplomacy  to  correct 
the  mistakes  made  so  far,  if  such  cor- 
rection is  still  possible. 

The  immediate  situation  is  of  vital 
concern,  of  course;  but  it  is  by  no  means 
the  determining  factor  in  the  whole 
varied  gamut  of  relations  and  difficulties 
which  Japan  faces  in  the  Far  East. 

AS  SEEN  BY  RUSSIANS 

Seen  from  the  larger  Russian  point  of 
view,  the  situation  seems  to  present  two 


important  and  salient  features.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  inconceivable  that  the 
Far  Eastern  seaboard  can  be  detached 
from  Russia  when  that  country  is  re- 
constructed as  a  national  State.  And, 
secondly,  it  is  just  as  inconceivable  that 
Japan  can  hold  this  territory  in  military 
occupation  until  the  Russian  State  is 
reconstructed,  or  even  for  any  consider- 
able time. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 
Russia  will  rise  again  as  a  great,  re- 
united, national  State.  She  will  not  give 
up  her  vital  interests  in  the  Far  East. 
She  will  still  retain  her  advantages  in 
Manchuria  and  China,  no  matter  what 
attempts  are  made  today  to  abrogate 
her  treaty  rights  there,  either  in  favor 
of  another  power  or  through  a  one-sided 
renunciation  on  the  part  of  China.  A 
feeling  of  national  resurgence  is  already 
growing  in  Russia,  below  the  Bolshevist 
exterior  and  in  spite  of  the  Soviet  forms. 
It  is  this  rising  tide  of  nationalism  that 
inspires  the  Russian  armies  battling  on 
the  Polish  front.  When  this  tide  rises 
high  enough  the  whole  Soviet  regime 
will  become  merely  a  toy,  tossed  about 
on  its  mighty  waves.  The  time  will  come 
when  the  Russian  people  will  shake  off 
the  shackles  of  communism  and  inter- 
nationalism and  will  again  come  into  its 
own.  Russia  will  again  come  to  rest 
upon  the  Pacific  coast  as  Russia,  not  as 
Soviet  Russia  or  the  Far  Eastern 
buffer. 

It  is  most  important  both  for  Russia 
and  for  Japan  that  friendly  relations 
should  exist  between  them.  Eventually 
the  Japanese  will  come  into  Eastern 
Siberia  as  traders  and  economic  conces- 
sionaries ;  and  when  they  come  as  traders 
they  will  certainly  find  a  different  re- 
ception from  that  which  has  greeted 
them  as  military  governors — unless  the 
Russians'  experience  with  them  as  mili- 
tary governors  shall  have  embittered 
them  for  too  long  a  cime. 


What  the  Chinese  Repubhc  Is  Doing 

A  Sketch  of  Its  Present  Political  Turmoil,  Its  Chief  Leaders, 
and  Its  Rapid  Cultural  Progress  <^  <^^ 


By  TINGFU  F.  TSIANG 


\^ 


SINCE  Oct.  10,  1911,  the  Chinese 
Republic  has  had  a  checkered  ca- 
reer. It  has  had  five  Presidents, 
three  constitutions,  three  civil  wars 
and  one  foreign  war,  besides  various 
diplomatic  struggles.  Despite  that,  the 
time  has  not  come  to  judge  whether  the 
experiment  of  republican  government  in 
China  is  a  success  or  a  failure.  All  one 
can  do,  all  that  is  attempted  here,  is  a 
picture  of  present-day  China,  of  its  po- 
litical currents,  its  governmental  ma- 
chinery, its  commercial  and  industrial 
status,  and  its  social  and  intellectual 
movements — a  picture  to  be  drawn  as 
truthfully  as  the  writer  knows  how.  To 
make  it  understandable  a  brief  account 
of  the  immediate  past  is  necessary. 

One  thread  of  the  history  of  the  Chi- 
nese Republic  is  the  line  of  Presidential 
succession.  As  soon  as  the  provisional 
civil  republican  government  was  organ- 
ized in  Nanking,  in  January,  1912,  Dr. 
Sun  Yat-sen,  father  of  the  revolution, 
was  elected  the  first  Provisional  Presi- 
dent. After  the  Manchus  had  abdicated 
and  the  Republican  Government  was 
recognized  as  de  jure.  Dr.  Sun  resigned 
and  Yuan  Shih-kai  was  elected  second 
Provisional  President,  assuming  his  of- 
fice on  Feb.  14,  1912.  In  October,  1913, 
Yuan  was  elected  the  first  (regular) 
President  by  a  joint  session  of  the  two 
Houses  for  the  constitutional  term  of 
five  years.  He  died  in  June,  1916,  and 
Vice  President  Li  Yuan-hung  was  pro- 
moted President.  President  Li  resigned 
a  year  later  in  favor  of  his  Vice  Presi- 
dent, General  Feng  Kuo-chang.  General 
Feng  finished  the  term  of  Yuan  Shih- 
kai  in  October,  1918,  when  Hsu  Shih- 
chang  was  elected  the  second  (regular) 
President  of  the  republic.  His  term  will 
run  to  the  Fall  of  1923. 

STORY  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 
The    story    of    the    succession    of   the 


Presidents  is  closely  interwoven  with 
the  story  of  the  constitution,  which  is 
the  second  thread  of  the  history  of  the 
republic.  The  Nanking  Assembly  passed 
the  provisional  constitution  in  January, 
1912.  It  was  modeled  more  after  the 
French  than  after  the  American  Consti- 
tution. It  provided  a  Cabinet  respon- 
sible to  the  Legislature,  a  President  who 
"neither  reigns  nor  rules,"  and  legisla- 
tive control  of  finance. 

This  model  was  chosen  mainly  because 
the  Assemblymen  knew  the  character  of 
Yuan  Shih-kai,  who  was  an  autocrat  by 
temperament  and  a  monarchist  by  con- 
viction. President  Yuan  lived  up  to  the 
suspicions  of  his  political  opponents. 
After  he  was  made  regular  President  he 
instituted  a  Nominative  Council,  which, 
at  his  dictation,  drew  up  a  Constitu- 
tional Compact.  The  notable  feature  of 
that  instrument  was  the  regulation  of 
Presidential  succession;  it  fixed  the 
term  at  ten  years  with  right  of  a  sec- 
ond term,  and  it  made  the  President  the 
agent  to  nominate  three  candidates,  of 
whom  the  Legislature  must  choose  one. 

When  President  Yuan  died,  the  Nan- 
king provisional  constitution  was  re- 
stored, and  the  Parliament  then  sitting 
started  immediately  to  draft  the  perma- 
nent constitution.  The  draft  was  fin- 
ished in  June,  1917,  and  was  about  to 
be  adopted  when  President  Li,  compelled 
by  Premier  Tuan  Chih-jui,  dissolved 
Parliament.  Today,  strictly  speaking, 
the  supreme  law  of  the  republic  is  the 
Nanking  Provisional  Constitution  of 
1912. 

The  constitution  has  been  the  bone  of 
contention;  the  contenders  are,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  military — which  dominated 
the  Executive — and  on  the  other  the 
Kuo-ming-ton,  which  dominated  the 
Parliament.  And  the  fate  of  the  Par- 
liament constitutes  the  third  and  chief 


WHAT  THE  CHINESE  REPUBLIC  IS  DOING 


993 


thread  of  the  history  of  the  Chinese  Re- 
public. 

The  Nanking  Assembly  was  composed 
of  three  representatives  from  each  of 
the  fourteen  provinces  which  had  joined 
the  revolutionary  party.  The  pro- 
visional constitution  it  drew  up  provided 
a  national  one-chamber  council,  to  be 
composed  of  five  members  from  each 
province.  The  Council  sat  in  Peking 
during  the  greater  part  of  1912  and 
drew  up  laws  governing  the  election  of 
two  Houses,  which  were  to  constitute 
the  regular  Parliament  of  the  republic. 
The  new  Parliament  met  in  April,  1913. 
It  was  dominated  by  the  Kuo-ming-ton, 
or  People's  Party,  the  original  revolu- 
tionary organization.  It  was  very  jeal- 
ous of  its  constitutional  rights,  es- 
pecially the  control  of  the  Cabinet  and 
the  Treasury.  President  Yuan  wanted 
to  use  his  personal  friends  in  the  Cabi- 
net, and  he  contracted  a  loan  without 
the  authorization  of  Parliament — two 
causes  of  the  second  revolution  or  the 
first  civil  war  of  1913. 

ARBITRARY  ACTS  OF  PRESIDENT 
President  Yuan,  possessing  a  supe- 
riority of  force,  had  no  trouble  in 
crushing  the  insurgents.  His  victory 
made  him  bolder  than  ever.  He  purged 
Parliament  of  Kuo-ming-ton  members, 
whom  he  called,  rebels.  Later,  he  dis- 
solved the  rump  Parliament  and  insti- 
tuted the  subservient  Nominative  Coun- 
cil, already  mentioned.  He  sent  his  mili- 
tary followers  to  the  provinces  to  be- 
come military  Governors,  or  Tuchuns, 
who  were  to  carry  out  his  orders 
throughout  the  country.  At  bottom,  the 
Tuchunate  is  the  inevitable  fruit  of  per- 
sonal, as  opposed  to  leigal,  government. 
The  evil  results  of  the  system  are  ram- 
pant throughout   China  today. 

But  President  Yuan  had  not  yet 
played  his  trump  card.  In  1915  tfiere 
came  into  existence  the  Ch'ou  An  Huie, 
or  Peace-Seeking  Society.  It  agitated 
for  two  thingF*  a  cons'^Hutional  mon- 
archy— and  President  Yuan  as  the  new 
monarch.  President  Yuan,  the  bene- 
ficiary of  the  scheme,  said  he  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  Ch'ou  An  Huie,  that 
he  did  not  want  to  do  anything  con- 
trary to  popular  will.    That  will,  accord- 


ing to  him,  was  manifested  by  the  tele- 
grams received  from  the  Tuchuns, 
urging  him  to  call  a  new  constituent  as- 
sembly to  decide  the  grave  question  of 
the  form  of  government.  This  manifes- 
tation of  popular  will  was,  again  ac- 
cording to  President  Yuan  himself,  con- 
firmed by  the  votes  of  the  Assembly, 
whose  thousand  members  were  almost 
unanimous  for  a  monarchy  with  him  as 
the  monarch.  He  was  ready  to  be 
crowned.  Revolt  broke  out  in  South- 
western China,  this  time  so  seriously 
that  President  Yuan  decided  to  restore 
the  republic  in  spite  of  the  people's  will, 
previously  manifested.  The  republicans 
wanted  to  make  sure  of  thei^:  work;  to 
do  this,  they  demanded  the  resi<gnation 
of  President  Yuan.  He  did  not  resign, 
but  he  died. 

GENERAL  TUAN  QUELLS  REVOLT 

When  Li  Yuan-hung  became  President 
he  restored  the  Parliament  of  April, 
1913.  The  struggle  between  the  Legis- 
lature and  the  Executive  was  resumed 
with  Premier  Tuan  Chih-jui  in  the  shoes 
of  the  deceased  Yuan  Shih-kai.  Pre- 
mier Tuan  had  been  a  General  u  ier 
Yuan  Shih-kai  and  was  always  loyj  .  to 
him.  Although  he  wanted  to  be*  Pre- 
mier, he  did  not  have  the  confidence  of 
Parliament.  In  1917  he  was  convinced 
that  China  should  declare  war  on  Ger- 
many. As  far  as  that  matter  was  con- 
cerned, the  Parliament  agreed  with  him, 
but  it  would  not  authorize  the  declara- 
tion of  war  until  the  Cabinet  was  recon- 
structed, for  it  feared  that  the  army, 
raised  to  fight  Germany,  might 
strengthen  Tuan's  hands  in  his  fight 
with  the  Kuo-ming-ton.  In  face  of  such 
a  situation.  President  Li  could  only  do 
one  thing:  dismiss  Tuan  and  construct  a 
new  Cabinet  acceptable  to  a  majority  in 
Parliament.  The  Tuchuns  immediately 
rose  in  revolt,  set  up  a  separate  govern- 
ment in  Tientsin,  and  demanded  the  re- 
instatement of  Tuan  and  the  dissolution 
of  Parliament.  PresideT^^  Li  asked  Gen- 
eral Chan«g  Hsun  to  negotiate  peace  be- 
tween him  and  the  Tuchuns.  General 
Chang  Hsun  used  his  opportunity  to  re- 
store the  Manchus  to  the  throne. 

That    changed    the    course    of    events 


994 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


unexpectedly:  President  Li  resigned, 
Feng  Kuo-chang  was  made  his  successor, 
and  General  Tuan  was  made  head  of  the 
expeditionary  force  against  Chang 
Hsun,  General  Tuan  was  successful  and 
became  the  savior  of  the  republic.  Al- 
though the  People's  Party  did  not  have 
to  fight  the  Manchus,  it  had  to  face  the 
strengthened  power  of  Tuan,  who  be- 
came again  Premier. 

THE  PRESENT  CIVIL  WAR 

The  southwestern  provinces  again  rose 
in  revolt  for  the  cause  of  constitutional 
government.  The  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, driven  from  Peking,  assembled  in 
Canton.  Thus,  in  1917,  began  the  third 
civil  war,  dividing  the  country  into  two 
sections  and  causing  the  people  untold 
suffering.  And  this  brings  us  to  the 
present  political  situation  in  China. 

Nominally,  the  war  is  a  civil  war  be- 
tween north  and  south.  Really,  one  does 
not  know  what  it  is.  Instead  of  two 
parties  facing  each  other,  there  are  ac- 
tually four  factions  checkmating  each 
other  in  a  fashion  that  reminds  us 
strongly  of  Machiavelli.  The  four  fac- 
tions are:  The  Anfu  Club,  the  Chih-li 
group,  the  Kuo-ming-ton  and  the  Kwei 
group. 

Why  did  the  north  split  into  the  Anfu 
and  Chih-li  groups?  In  the  matter  of 
political  principle,  there  are  two  differ- 
ences between  them:  the  Anfu  Club  pur- 
sues a  pro-Japanese  policy  and  desires 
to  suppress  the  south  by  force  of  arms — 
two  things  which  the  Chih-li  group  can- 
not accept.  How  sincere  the  two  fac- 
tions are  in  their  belief  of  these  prin- 
ciples one  should  not  judge  too  off- 
handedly; one  does  know  that  personal 
motives  have  contributed  largely  to  the 
split  of  the  north.  The  Anfu  Club  is 
composed  mostly  of  men  from  the  prov- 
ince of  Ankwei,  with  General  Tuan  as 
their  leader.  When  President  Yuan 
Shih-kai  died,  the  leadership  of  the  north 
fell  to  General  Tuan.  It  is  said  that  he 
favored  Anhwei  men  in  his  appoint- 
ments, a  partiality  'greatly  resented  by 
the  Chih-li  men,  who  had  also  served 
valiantly  under  President  Yuan. 

Among  the  Chih-li  men  was  President 
Feng  Kuo-chang,  who  became  naturally 


their  leader.  President  Feng  and  Pre- 
mier Tuan  intrigued  against  each  other 
in  all  possible  ways.  When  Premier 
Tuan  ordered  troops  to  fight  the  south. 


HSU   SHIH-GHANG 

President  of  the   Chmese  Republic 
(Keystone   View   Company) 


the  three  provinces  of  Kiangsu,  Kiangsi 
and  Hupeh,  all  occupying  strategic  po- 
sitions along  the  Yangtze  and  controlled 
by  the  President's  followers,  not  only 
would  not  help,  but  even  made  their 
neutrality  friendly  to  the  south.  But 
the  two  factions  never  came  to  an  open 
fight  till  July  of  this  year,  under  Presi- 
dent Hsu  Shih-chanfe. 

President  Hsu  has  never  openly  iden- 
tified himself  with  any  faction.  He  is, 
however,  in  favor  of  peace  with  the 
south,  and  is  opposed  in  that  by  the 
Anfu  Club.  He  has  favored  Chih-li  men 
in  both  Cabinet  and  Tuchun  appoint- 
ments. The  recent  fighting  around 
Peking  illustrates  clearly  how  the  two 
factions  intrigue  against  each  other. 

Next  to  General  Tuan  in  control  of 
the  Anfu  Club  is  General  Hsu  Shu-tseng, 


WHAT  THE  CHINESE  REPUBLIC  IS  DOING 


995 


commonly  called  "little  Hsu."  He  was 
the  Commissioner  in  Mongolia,  and  had 
under  his  command  an  enormous  army. 
To  the  east  of  his  post  is  Manchuria, 
controlled  by  General  Chang  Tso-lin,  a 
Chih-li  man,   and   to   the   south  is   the 


GENERAL  TUAN  CHIH-JUI 

Former   Premier    of    China,    recent    leader 

of   Anfu  forces 

(Photo   Bain   News    Service) 

province  of  Chih-li,  controlled  by  Tsao 
Kun,  also  a  Chih-li  man.  These  two 
men  had  three  grievances  against  Anfu: 
They  alleged  that  "little  Hsu"  wanted 
to  replace  them,  thus  bringing  the  solid 
North  under  Anfu;  they  also  charged 
that  the  Minister  of  Finance,  an  Anfu 
man,  supplied  funds  to  Anfu  troops  reg- 
ularly, but  not  to  their  (Chih-li)  troops; 
furthermore,  they  said  that  the  resigna- 
tion of  Premier  Ching  Yun-pen  was 
caused  by  the  pressure  of  Anfu.  Presi- 
dent Hsu  dismissed  "little  Hsu"  from 
his  post  in  Mongolia;  "  little  Hsu  "  open- 
ly defied  Presidential  orders.  Chang 
Tso-lin  and  Tsao  Kun  embraced  the 
cause  of  the  President  and  started  to 
punish  "  little  Hsu." 

THE  ANTU  CLUB'S  REVERSE 

General   Tuan  took  up   the  cause   of 


"  little  Hsu "  and  was  badly  beaten. 
With  the  defeat  of  General  Tuan  and 
General  Hsu,  the  Anfu  Club  steps  back 
to  a  secondary  position  in  the  politics  of 
the  North.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the 
day  of  Anfu  is  already  over.  How  far 
President  Hsu  can  con  rol  his  friends, 
the  Chih-li  Tuchuns,  is  the  anxious  ques- 
tion before  al'  who  sympathize  with  the 
President.  If  he  can  control  them,  he 
will  have  brought  the  country  much 
nearer  to  ordered  government.  The 
Chih-li  Tuchuns  profess  to  be  in  favor 
of  the  rule  of  civilians:  we  must  wait 
before  we  can  tell  what  they  really  wish 
to  do. 

For  the  moment,  the  country  rejoices 
at  the  defeat  of  Anfu.  For  Anfu  has 
committed  the  sin,  unpardonable  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Chinese  people,  of  favoring 
direct  negotiations  with  Japan  in  regard 
to  Shantung,  and  of  having  used  Jap- 
anese money  and  arms  to  fight  Chinese. 

FACTIONS  OF  THE  SOUTH 
The  dissension  among  leaders  of  the 
South  is  still  more  disap  ointing.  Here, 
as  in  the  North,  personal  motives  count 
for  a  *great  deal.  The  southern  govern- 
ment originally  consisted  of  a  part  of 
the  old  Parliament  and  of  an  adminis- 
tration directorate  of  seven  men,  includ- 
ing Sun  Yat-sen,  Wu  Ting-fang,  Tang 
Shao-yi,  Chen  Chun-hsien  and  Lu  Yun- 
ting.  At  present  the  two  factions.  Sun 
Wu-Tang  and  Chen-Lu,  are  the  nuclei 
for  two  opposing  Governments. 

The  reasons  for  starting  the  new  Gov- 
ernment were  stated  concisely  in  Dr. 
Wu's  manifesto:  (1)  Chen  and  his  fol- 
lowers often  disregarded  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  the  Directorate;  (2)  Chen 
misapplied  funds  set  aside  for  the  pay- 
ment of  members  of  Parliament  for  pay- 
ing his  own  troops;  (3)  Chen  and  his 
Kuangsi  supporters  intrigued  to  oust 
General  Tang  Chi-yao,  a  Sun  Wu-Tan*g 
follower,  and  to  put  in  his  place  General 
Li  Kuan-yuan;  (4)  Chen  con  ucted  se- 
cret negotiations  with  the  Chih-li  group. 
The  Chen-Lu  faction,  on  the  other  hand, 
retaliated  by  charging  the  Sun- Wu-Tang 
with  secret  negotiations  with  the  Anfu 
Club.  At  present  the  Chen-Lu  holds  au- 
thority in  Canton,  while  the  Sun- Wu- 
Tang    and    its    Parliamentary   followers 


996 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


threaten  to   start  a  new  Constitutional 
Government  in  Yunnan. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  PROVINCES 

The  provinces  of  China  are  distributed 
among  the  four  factions  as  follows: 
I.  Provinces  controlled  by  the   "North": 

(a)  Provinces  controlled  by  the  Chih-li 
Group  of  the  North  are:  Manchu- 
ria, Chih-li,  Shantung,  Koangsu, 
Hupeh,  Kiangsi. 

(b)  Provinces  controlled  by  the  Anfu 
Club  of  the  North  are:  Fukien  (in 
part),  Chekiang,  Anhwei  and  Shensi. 

(c)  Provinces  controlled  by  the  North, 
but  independent  of  both  Chih-li  and 
Anfu,   are:     Shansi  and  Kansu. 

II.  Provinces  controlled   by   the   "  South  "  : 

(a)  Provinces  controlled  by  the  Chen-Lu 
Group  of  the  South  are:  Kwang- 
tung,   Kwangsi  and   Hunan. 

(b)  Provinces  controlled  by  the  Sun-Wu- 
Tang  Group  of  the  South  are :  Tun- 
nan,  Kwelchow,  Szechuan  and  Fu- 
kien   (in   part). 

In  government  the  four  groups  are 
more  or  less  cohesive.  Each  province 
with  its  Tuchun  is  quite  independent  of 
the  others.  Between  the  groups  the  re- 
lation is  not  definite.  There  are  con- 
stant public  telegraphic  consultations  of 
one  with  the  other.  Nominally,  they  are 
at  war  with  each  othe  •  actually  they 
guard  their  own  borders  and  fi^ght  only 
rarely.  Besides  the  Tuchun  or  military 
Governor,  each  province  has  a  civil  Gov- 
ernor, who  is  overshadowed  in  many 
places  by  his  military  colleague  and  a 
provincial  assembly.  Each  province  at- 
tends to  its  own  education  and  has  its 
own  troops. 

The  Cent  al  Govemmi  nt  at  Peking  is 
the  only  one  recognized  by  foreign  na- 
tions. It  has  a  President,  a  Cabinet,  a 
Parliament  of  two  Houses  and  a  Su- 
preme Court.  Although  it  will  be  long 
before  these  various  organs  will  function 
properly,  each  in  its  own  defined  sphere, 
the  general  framework  of  Government 
will  stay.  The  Supreme  Court  has  done 
good  work.  Chief  Justice  Yao  Tseng 
has  compiled  a  volume  of  decisions  ren- 
dered by  the  court,  which  will  serve  as 
law  in  future  cases.  A  Law  Codification 
Commission  has  been  at  work  systema- 
tizing the  laws  of  the  land.  Thus  the 
country  is  gradually  emerging  from 
custom  law  into  positive  written  law. 
Prison  reform  is  also  being  pushed,  with 


a    number    of    model    prisons    scattered 
over  the  country. 

The  Government  expends  annually 
$600,000,000  Mexican  and  gets  a  total 
revenue  of  $500,000,000.  This  deficit 
would  not  occur  if  military  expenditure 
were  not  so  heavy  as  it  is.  Fully  one- 
third  of  the  total  expenditure  is  for  an 
army  which  not  only  does  not  protect 
the  country  from  internal  disturbance 
and  foreign  aggression,  but  brings  fear 
and  suffering  to  the  people  wherever  it 
goes.  The  deficit  has  been  made  up  by 
internal  and  foreign  loans.  The  main 
sources  of  nue  are  the  land  tax,  cus- 
toms revenue,  salt  revenue  and  likin. 
Although  proper  accounting  and  audit- 
in»g  are  things  still  to  be  achieved  in 
the  work  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance, 
the  budget  is  a  recognized  part  of  ad- 
ministration and  will  receive  more  and 
more  emphasis  from  all  reformers. 

THE  NEW  CONSORTIUM 

The  new  consortium  has  not  been  as 
popular  with  the  Chinese  people  as  its 
promoters  expected.  The  reasons  are 
obvious.  Finance  is  the  most  convenient 
channel  of  peaceful  penetration,  leading 
to  military  and  political  occupation  of  a 
country,  as  in  Egypt.  Secondly,  the 
popular  cause  against  the  Government 
has  always  labored  under  heavy  difficul- 
ties because  the  Government  has  been 
able  to  borrow  from  foreign  countries; 
it  was  so  when  the  revolutionists  tried 
to  overthrow  the  Manchus;  it  has  been 
so  during  the  present  struggle  of  the 
South  with  the  North. 

Mr.  Lamont,  the  American  representa- 
tive in  the  consortium,  has  repeatedly 
assured  the  Chinese  people  that  it  will 
strive  to  follow  their  will.  The  hard- 
headed  Chinese  public  men  want  to  know 
from  whom  the  consortium  will  take  the 
indication  of  the  popular  will.  However, 
the  consortium  has  new  features  that 
make  it  a  case  by  itself;  if,  in  its  first 
activities,  it  shows  itself  true  to  its 
professions,  the  Chinese  people  will  not 
fail  to  appreciate  its  services. 

China  has  figured  largely  in  interna- 
tional finance;  the  impression  is  abroad 
that  the  country  is  financially  unsound. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  country's  wealth 


WHAT  THE  CHINESE  REPUBLIC  IS  DOING 


997 


is  by  no  means  meagre,  as  shown  by  the 
deposits  in  treaty-port  banks.  Under 
the  Manchus  the  Government  failed 
again  and  again  to  live  up  to  its  financial 
obligations  to  its  citizens,  but  the  Repub- 
lican Government  has  changed  all  that, 
and  the  result  is  that  all  internal  loans 
are  fully  subscribed  by  the  citizens. 

SIGNS  OF  ECONOMIC  PROGRESS 

In  industry,  commerce  and  education 
the  country  has  made  progress.  The 
only  question  is,  Is  the  progress  so  far 
fast  enough?  We  can  take  the  few 
available  statistics  as  indices.  The 
American-Chinese  trade  is  a  good  in- 
stance. The  volume  of  that  trade  in- 
creased 93  per  cent,  from  1914  to  1918. 
In  1914  China  bought  from  the  United 
States  $600,000  worth  of  machinery;  in 
1918  she  bought  $1,700,000  worth.  Right 
at  this  moment  there  is  a  number  of  big 
Chinese  buyers  in  America,  seeking  ma- 
chinery and  placing  orders  that  can  only 
be  delivered  in  two  or  three  years. 
Again,  in  1914  China  bought  $3,000,000 
worth  of  cotton  goods  from  America,  but 
in  1918  she  bought  only  $400,000  worth. 
This  shows  that  China  is  beginning  to  do 
her  own  manufacturing.  Native  indus- 
tries of  all  kinds  are  reviving.  Many 
projects  are  afoot  aiming  to  improve 
them.  But  Chinese  industry  is  probably 
as  far  advanced  as  England  was  at  the 
year  1800.  America  has  an  industrial 
army  of  8,000,000  workers,  while  China 
has  only  100,000  persons  in  her  factories. 
In  America  the  laborer  works  from  eight 
to  ten  hours  a  day,  earning  from  $6  to 
$12;  in  China  the  laborer  works  from 
two  to  twelve  hours  a  day,  earning  from 
40  cents  to  $1. 

But  there  are  two  factors  which  will 
tend  to  make  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  the  country  rapid:  the  abun- 
dance of  natural  resources  and  of  labor 
and  the  ability  of  China's  industrial  lead- 
ers. The  latter  are  both  public  spirited 
and  enterprising.  A  Chinese  buyer  was 
recently  offered  some  second-hand  ma- 
chinery by  an  American  dealer  at  very 
reasonable  rates.  His  reply  was  that 
he,  too,  would  like  to  scrap  his  plant  in 
China — that  he  himself  had  some  second- 
hand machinery  to  sell;  what  he  wanted 


was  American  machinery  of  the  latest 
model. 

The  total  foreign  trade  of  China  in 
1919  was,  in  round  numbers,  $1,300,000,- 
000,  an  increase  of  150  per  cent,  over 
that  of  1913. 

American-Chinese  co-operation  in  busi- 
ness is  increasing  every  day.  Many 
joint  enterprises  are  securing  charters 
from  American  State  Governments  and 
from  the  Chinese  Ministry  of  Commerce. 
The  opportunities  for  this  are  excellent. 
Although  the  Central  Government  in 
China  is  unstable,  business  interests  in- 
volving foreign  capital  are  always  and 
everywhere  well  protected  by  the  pro- 
vincial Governments.  In  dealing  with 
Chinese  merchants  Americans  run  very 
little  risk.  Most  Chinese  merchants  of 
any  standing  belong  to  co-operative  so- 
cieties which  help  them  to  tide  over 
stringencies  if  they  are  able,  and  to  peti- 
tion the  Government  for  help  if  they  are 
not.  Furthermore,  Chinese  business  is 
surefooted.    There  is  little  speculation. 

PROGRESS  IN  EDUCATION 

In  education  China  has  made  advances 
that  are  large  in  themselves,  but  small 
in  relation  to  the  needs  of  the  country. 
In  1913  there  were  altogether  2,933,387 
students  in  Chinese  schools;  in  1916  (the 
latest  Governmental  figures  obtainable 
in  America)  that  number  had  almost 
doubled,  reaching  4,294,251.  At  present 
the  emphasis  is  naturally  on  normal 
schools;  of  a  total  educational  expendi- 
ture of  $40,000,000,  one-tenth  is  spent  in 
training  teachers. 

Compared  with  American  figures,  the 
inadequacy  of  Chinese  education  stands 
out  clearly.  America,  with  a  population 
of  100,000,000,  has  20,000,000  in  her 
schools;  China,  with  a  population  of 
400,000,000,  has  only  4,000,000  in  her 
schools.  In  America,  one  out  of  every 
five  of  her  population  is  in  school;  in 
China,  it  is  one  out  of  eveiy  hundred. 

But  education  is  receiving  great  atten- 
tion from  the  Government  as  well  as 
from  the  public.  The  National  Educa- 
tional Conference  of  1919  made  fifteen 
recommendations  to  the  Ministry  of  Edu- 
cation, the  first  of  which  was  to  cut  down 
military    expenditures    in    order    to    in- 


998 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


crease  funds  for  education.  One  can  see 
the  wisdom  of  that  recommendation  when 
one  remembers  that  China  spends  on  her 
army  five  times  as  much  as  on  education. 
What  is  done  in  the  Province  of  Shansi 
represents  the  general  aspirations  of  the 
country.  The  Governor  first  ordered  a 
census  to  find  out  how  many  were  in 
school  and  how  many  should  be.  He  then 
drew  up  a  program,  aiming  to  bring 
about  universal  education  in  his  province 
in  1923.  Each  year  he  knows  how  much 
progress  he  must  make,  and  he  sees  to  it 
that  the  province  is  no\  falling  behind 
his  program.  Among  his  administrative 
measures  are  the  repair  of  roads,  the  in- 
stallation of  telephone  lines  all  over  the 
province  and  the  requirement  of  all  dis- 
trict Magistrates  to  ride  on  bicycles.  By 
these  means  he  secures  quick  execution 
of  his  orders.  Men  from  all  parts  of 
China  have  visited  Shansi  to  see  how 
Tuchun  Yen  has  reformed  his  province. 

NEW  INTELLECTUAL  IDEALS 

But  the  greatest  progress  that  the 
Chinese  people  have  made  under  the  re- 
public, it  seems  to  me,  is  the  introduction 
of  new  social  and  intellectual  ideals. 
The  Chinese  mind  is,  for  the  first  time 
since  the  Tang  Dynasty  (600-900  A.  D.), 
adopting  a  frankly  scientific  and  prag- 
matic attitude  toward  all  problems.  In 
fact,  there  is  stirring  in  China  a  new 
cultural  movement  of  far-reaching  sig- 
nificance. It  has  manifested  itself  in  the 
literary  revolution,  the  language  revolu- 
tion, political  liberalism  and  social  jus- 
tice, especially  between  the  sexes. 

Chinese  literature  has  been  in  style 
very  classic,  so  much  so  that  the  literary 
language  is  entirely  different  from  the 
spoken  language.  The  situation  was 
very  much  like  that  in  Europe  when  all 
literature  was  in  Latin  and  the  spoken 
language  was  considered  vulgar,  crude, 
unfit  for  literary  use.  Professors  Chen 
and  Hu  of  Peking  University  have  boldly 
broken  away  from  that  tradition  and 
written  in  the  vernacular;  they  exposed 
the  falsity  of  the  old  literary  philosophy, 
and  in  the  brief  interval  of  five  years 
have  succeeded  in  getting  fully  one-third 
of  the  magazines  in  the  country  to  print 
either  all  or  some  articles  in  vernacular. 


Even  the  more  conservative,  who  refuse 
to  use  the  vernacular  outright,  have 
ceased,  to  crowd  their  writings  with  ob- 
scene allusions,  worn-out  metaphors  and 
strained  parallelisms.  Scholars  like  the 
two  professors  mentioned  and  Liang  Chi- 
chao  have  shown  how  good  prose  and 
good  poetry  can  be  written  in  the  speech 
of  the  people.  Much  work  remains  to  be 
done  in  overcoming  the  prejudices  of  the 
old  scholars,  who  have  a  kind  of  vested 
interest  in  the  old  literary  language,  but 
the  divergence  between  the  spoken  and 
written  languages  will  be  diminished 
more  and  more  from  now  on. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  literary  revolu- 
tion is  the  language  revolution.  The 
Chinese  language  has  never  reached  the 
alphabetic  stage;  it  consists  of  a  great 
number  of  independent  symbols  and  their 
derivations.  It  is  extremely  hard  to 
learn;  it  makes  all  indexing  difficult.  A 
number  of  educators  studied  phonetics 
and  evolved  an  alphabet  of  thirty-nine 
letters.  The  Ministry  of  Education  has 
adopted  officially  the  new  phonetic 
alphabet  and  is  teaching  it  in  all  normal 
schools.  The  intention  is  not  to  get  rid 
of  the  old  language,  but  to  supplement 
it  with  a  phonetic  spelling,  which  shows 
how  a  word  should  be  pronounced.  This 
will  make  the  acquisition  of  the  language 
easier;  it  will  also  solve  the  problem  of 
indices;  above  all,  it  will  help  in  stand- 
ardizing the  dialects  of  the  country. 

EFFECTS  OF  NEW  MOVEMENT 

In  politics  the  new  movement  is  for 
popular  government.  But  it  is  not  meta- 
physical; it  does  not  dwell  on  abstract 
liberty,  equality  and  fraternity.  It 
plainly  recognizes  that  Chinese  condi- 
tions are  different  from  European  and 
American  conditions;  it  has  learned  from 
bitter  experience  that  revolutions  do  not 
revolutionize.  As  Liang  Chi-chao  has 
expressed  it  in  his  memoirs,  China  has 
not  been  a  true  republic  because  there 
are  no  republicans;  the  few  educated  in 
foreign  countries  have  tried  to  utilize  the 
old  officials  to  form  a  republic;  they 
have  found  out  their  mistake  and  realize 
now  that  they  must  work  from  the  bot- 
tom, carrying  with  them  as  they  pro- 


WHAT  THE  CHINESE  REPUBLIC  IS  DOING 


CONTROULED     BY 
CHIHLI     CjROUP 
I, ,|)  CONTROLLED     BY 
miiiM.I  lANFU     CLUB 

\  CONTROLLED    BV 
JCH 


M  O  N   G  O  L  I 


MAP    OF    CHINA    SHOWING    HOW    THE    VARIOUS    PROVINCES    ARE    DIVIDED    AMONG    THE 
FOUR  POLITICAL  FACTIONS  THAT  ARE  KEEPING  THE  COUNTRY  IN  CONSTANT  CIVIL  WAR 


gress  the  entire  Chinese  people.  Our  in- 
stitutions, when  they  take  their  defini- 
tive form,  will  be  different  from  those  in 
America  and  Europe,  but  they  will  be 
very  democratic. 

Men  of  this  movement  have  made  sig- 
nificant efforts  to  solve  this  Chinese- 
Japanese  problem  by  a  union  of  the  lib- 
erals of  the  two  countries.  Students  of 
the  two  countries  have  exchanged  dele- 
gations. Literary  fratemalizing  occurs 
every  day  in  Chinese  and  Japanese 
magazines.  On  both  sides  it  is  realized 
that  neither  the  Chinese  people  nor  the 
Japanese  will  gain  anything  from  Chino- 
Japanese  animosity.  In  this  undertaking 
both  the  Chinese  and  the  Japanese  lib- 
erals will  have  to  meet  the  stubborn  op- 


position of  militarists  in  both  countries. 
I  venture  to  suggest  that  a  liberal  Chino- 
Japanese  union  is  the  ideal  solution  of 
the  Far  Eastern  problem — maybe  too 
ideal  for  this  world. 

In  social  politics  the  movement  tries 
to  save  China  from  the  horrors  that  the 
early  years  of  the  industrial  revolution 
inflicted  upon  the  laboring  classes.  So- 
cialism is  widely  discussed,  but  the 
thoughtful  are  concerned  more  about 
wages  and  hours  than  about  any  class 
struggle.  The  fact  is,  the  leaders  of  the 
movement  think  that  the  West  is  suffer- 
ing from  the  class  struggle,  and  that 
China  must  take  measures  to  forestall 
any  such  possibility. 

Secondly,  the  movement  is  interested 


1000 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


in  the  emancipation  of  women.  This  will 
come,  according  to  the  leaders,  from  edu- 
cation and  from  self-determination  in 
marriage,  as  opposed  to  parental  author- 
ity. Last  year  the  Peking  Government 
University  took  the  revolutionary  step  of 
admitting  women.  That  example  has 
been  followed  by  the  Nanking  Teachers* 
College.  All  over  the  land  women  are 
demanding  equal  educational  opportuni- 
ties. The  Chinese  suffrage  movement 
began  in  the  first  year  of  the  republic. 


At  the  International  Suffrage  Confer- 
ence held  recently  in  England,  Chinese 
women  had  three  representatives.  The 
awakening  of  Chinese  womanhood  is  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  events  in  the 
history  of  the  republic. 

"  What  progress  we  have  made  has 
been  made  despite  our  politics  rather 
than  because  of  it."  So  a  leading  Amer- 
ican journal  commented  on  the  turn  of 
affairs  in  America.  If  that  is  true  here, 
it  is  ten  times  truer  in  the  republic  on 
the  other  shore  of  the  Pacific. 


ELECTRIC  TRAIN  OF  EIGHTY-TWO   CARS  IN   SILVER   BOW  CANYON.   PASSING  THROUGH 
THE     SECTION     THAT     FURNISHES     70     PER     CENT.     OF     THE     WATER     POWER     OF     THE 

UNITED    STATES 
(Courtesy  of  the   Chicago,  Milwaukee   &   St,   Paul  Railway) 


The  March  of  Science 

White   Coal  for   Black:     American   Achievements   in    Water- 
Power  Electricity 


FROM  the  droning  water  mill  that 
ground  the  grists  or  sawed  the 
lumber  of  a  Colonial  countryside 
to  the  castlelike  power  house 
which  now  makes  a  thundering  water- 
fall in  the  Rockies  drive  trains 
over  hundreds  of  miles  of  rail- 
road by  electrical  power — such  is  the 
historic  span  of  American  industrial 
progress.  A  purling  brook  afforded  as 
much  mechanical  power  as  the  pioneers 


knew  how  to  utilize.  Gradually  rivers 
were  applied  to  larger  mills.  The  per- 
sistent demand  for  higher  and  higher 
power,  as  for  metal  working  on  a  large 
scale,  and  for  power  that  could  move 
things  from  place  to  place,  as  for  driving 
ships  and  locomotives,  brought  in  the 
age  of  coal  and  oil  and  steam  power. 

Now,  however,  the  world  has  passed 
the  peak  of  its  oil  production,  and  na- 
tional powers  are  plotting  to  get  control 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


1001 


GREAT  FALLS,  MONTANA,  ONE  OF  THE  MANY  *'  WHITE  COAL  MINES  "  OF 

THE    NORTHWEST    FROM    WHICH    THE    NATION    IS    DRAWING    ELECTRICAL 

POWER    FOR    TRANSPORTATION    AND    MANUFACTURING    PURPOSES 


of  the  oil  fields  that  are  left.  Coal,  too, 
though  still  existent  in  large  reserves 
here  between  the  oceans,  must  now  evi- 
dently be  relieved  of  the  drain  it  has  ^ 
stood*  for  over  a  century.  Science  as  yet 
foresees  no  means  of  doing  without  coat 
to  put  power  on  shipping  after  the  oil 
supply  is  used  up.  The  stupendous  in- 
crease in  shipping  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war  has  made  it  imperative  to  con- 
serve coal  especially  for  this  purpose.  So 
must  oil  be  saved  for  aviation  and  motor- 
ing. Moreover,  the  increasing  difficulty 
and  expense  of  producing  coal  are  raising 
its  price  well  toward  the  prohibitive  point. 

Other  power  is  needed,  power  that  can 
be  transmitted  great  distances  to 
cheapen  the  mining  and  distribution  of 
coal  itself,  namely,  electricity.  The  re- 
cent electrification  of  the  Norfolk  & 
Western  Railroad  in  West  Virginia  was 
made  possible  by  linking  together  three 
large  central  electric  stations,  which  pro- 
duce the  requisite  electricity  solely  by 
means  of  coal -made  steam.  This  is  the 
most  modem  achievement  of  the  age  of 
coal.  But,  though  this  railroad  is  thus 
enabled  to  operate  more  cheaply  and 
efficiently  than  otherwise,  the  rising 
price  of  coal  still  makes  the  process  too 
dear. 

Far  more  according  to  the  need  and 
spirit  of  the  times  is  the  recent  electrifi- 


cation of  the  Pacific  Coast  Division  of 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Rail- 
road through  Washington,  Idaho  and  into 
Montana.  This  gave  to  the  United 
States  the  longest  electrified  railroad  in 
the  world  without  the  aid  of  a  pound  of 
coal,  and  marked  the  crowning  achieve- 
ment of  the  first  decade  of  the  new  age 
of  the  long-neglected  water  power.  Lit- 
tle millbrooks  are  often  made  to  generate 
electric  power;  but  all  the  electric  cur- 
rent used  to  operate  this  vast  transpor- 
tation system,  860  miles  long,  between 
Harlowton,  Mon.,  and  the  Pacific  Coast, 
by  way  of  Othello,  Tacoma  and  Seattle, 
is  generated  from  a  chain  of  waterfall 
plants,  including  one  where  the  magnifi- 
cent Snoqualmie  Falls  thunder  from  a 
height  of  270  feet. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains the  Puget  Sound  Traction,  Light 
and  Power  Company  has  three  hydro- 
electric plants,  one  on  the  Snoqualmie 
River  and  two  that  utilize  the  waters  of 
the  White  River  and  the  Puyallup  River. 
These  three  plants,  being  interconnected, 
have  a  combined  generating  capacity  of 
114,533  horse  power,  besides  45,000  horse 
power  available  from  an  auxiliary  steam 
plant.  This  system  is  in  turn  connected 
with  a  like  system  of  equal  capacity  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Cascades,  including 
the  Long  Lake  plant  of  the  Washington 


1002 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


THE   MOST    POWERFUL    LOCOMOTIVE    IN    THE    WORLD,    WHICH    IS    RUN   BY 

ELECTRICITY,  AND  WHICH   HAULS   TEN-CAR  PASSENGER  TRAINS   UNAIDED 

OVER    ROCKY    MOUNTAIN    RIDGES    U.OOO    FEET    HIGH 


Water  Power  Company  on  the  Spokane 
River.  Thus  some  1,500  miles  of  trans- 
mission lines  are  united  in  one  system. 

The  newest  section  of  the  division,  207 
miles  of  track  from  Othello,  in  Central 
Washington,  to  Tacoma,  receives  its 
power  from  the  Snoqualmie  and  Long 
Lake  plants.  The  current  is  delivered  to 
the  railroad's  transmission  lines  along 
its  right  of  way  at  100,000  volts,  and 
stepped  down  at  eight  sub- stations  be- 
tween Othello  and  Tacoma  to  3,000  volts 
direct  current.  This  is  carried  over  the 
rails  by  overhead  trolley  wires.  About 
200  miles  of  track  between  Othello  and 
Avery,  Idaho,  are  not  yet  fully  electrified. 

POWER  COSTS  REDUCED 

The  90  locomotives  used  on  the  electri- 
fied division,  including  passenger,  freight 
and  switching  types,  have  released  for 
service  elsewhere  about  250  steam  loco- 
motives. This  railroad  now  hauls  its 
total  tonnage  by  electric  power  for  ap- 
proximately one-third  the  cost  of  the 
same  work  when  steam  engines  are  used. 
Its  electric  operation  has  reduced  the 
average  time  per  train  22,5  per  cent. 
Nearly  30  per  cent,  more  tonnage  can  be 
handled  in  80  per  cent,  of  the  time  it 
formerly  took  to  handle  less  tonnage  by 
steam  engines,  thus  increasing  the  road's 
capacity  50  per  cent.  One  of  the  3,000- 
volt  direct-current  gearless  locomotives 
recently  astonished  the  railroad  world  by 
winning  a  tug  of  war  with  two  steam 
engines  at  Erie,  Pa. 


One  of  these  electric  locomotives,  the 
most  powerful  passenger  locomotive 
known,  takes  the  steepest  grades  on  the 
line  over  the  Rockies  and  Cascades, 
drawing  a  ten-car  passenger  train  with- 
out a  helper.  On  level  stretches  it  draws 
such  a  train  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an 
hour,  and  on  a  twenty-mile  stretch  of 
track,  where  a  2  per  cent,  grade  means 
a  steady  upward  pull  of  105  feet  to  the 
mile,  the  same  locomotive  keeps  up  a 
speed  of  twenty  miles  an  hour.  The 
highest  point  on  the  road  is  6,322  feet 
above  sea  level. 

In  the  vital  matter  of  fuel  saving,  fig- 
ures taken  on  this  railroad's  electrified 
zone  during  1918  and  figures  from  steam 
operation  during  the  same  period  show 
such  gains  from  electrification  as  to  in- 
dicate that  if  all  the  railroads  in  the 
United  States  had  been  electrified  by 
water  power  in  1918  approximately  122,- 
500,000  tons  of  coal  would  have  been 
saved — ^more  than  two-thirds  of  the  coal 
now  burned  in  the  63,000  steam  loco- 
motives used  in  this  country.  One  may 
furthermore  conclude  that,  with  no 
change  in  the  present  operating  expenses 
or  track  congestion,  the  railroads,  so 
electrified,  could  carry  one-fifth  more 
revenue-paying  freight  than  they  do 
now. 

NEW  WATER-POWER  LAW 

When,  on  June  18,  President  Wilson 
put  his  signature  to  the  Water  Power 
bill  passed  by  Congress  in  the  closing 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


1003 


"""'KHgf-* 


iiiiaim. 


HYDROELECTRIC    5LANT    AT    GREAT    FALLS,     MON.,    WHICH    FURNISHES 
MOST    OF    THE    POWER    FOR    A    RAILWAY    LINE    STRETCHING    FROM    MON- 
TANA   TO    THE    PACIFIC    COAST 
(Photo   courtesy   of   the    Chicago,   Milwaukee    &    St.    Paul    Railway} 


days  of  its  last  session,  he  awarded  vic- 
tory to  the  efforts  of  those  who  during 
the  last  ten  years  have  struggled  to  open 
the  way  to  a  vast  increase  in  the  coun- 
try's industrial  energy.  This  new  law 
places  all  power  sites  over  which  the 
United  States  has  jurisdiction  under  the 
control  of  the  Water  Power  Commission, 
composed  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  In- 
terior, War  and  Agriculture.  Avoiding 
duplication,  they  will  co-ordinate  their 
efforts  in  a  common  policy  to  further  a 
constructive  program  of  intelligent,  eco- 
nomical utilization  of  our  water  power 
resources. 

Under  this  new  system  the  exploita- 
tion of  water  power  by  private  enter- 
prise will  be  encouraged  and  fostered  in 
every  way,  while  safeguarding  the  public 
domain.  The  first  effects  expected  of 
the  new  law  will  be  the  further  electrifi- 
cation of  railroads,  the  development  of 
new  water  power  plants  and  the  trans- 
mission of  power  over  long  distances. 
Vast  projects  are  under  way,  as  fast  as 


the  work  can  be  financed,  to  connect  the 
great  hydroelectric  system  of  the  eleven 
Pacific  and  Mountain  States  and  form  a 
stupendous  linking  together  of  networks 
to  carry  on  the  industries  of  the  region, 
to  supply  light,  heat  and  power  to  the 
home  and  factory,  to  railways,  to  mines 
and  irrigation  areas. 

All  this  is  necessary  for  industrial 
expansion  in  the  West.  Owing  to  the 
topography  of  that  region  it  contains 
nearly  70  per  cent,  of  the  total  potential 
water  power  of  the  United  States,  which 
is  estimated  by  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey  at  63,490,000  horse  power. 
The  Western  States  have  already 
achieved  remarkable  results  in  develop- 
ing hydroelectric  power.  Though  the 
water  power  of  the  Eastern  and  Central 
States  can  never  be  expected  to  meet 
more  than  a  minor  part  of  the  horse 
power  required  in  these  States,  the  ten- 
dency of  wages  and  of  transportation 
conditions  demands  the  co-ordinated  de- 
velopment and  application  of  hydroelec- 
tric power  wherever  available. 


Scientific  Progress  in  Other  Lines 


NEW  SAFETY  LAMPS  FOR  MINES 

— Condemnation  of  the  wonderful  lamp 
invented  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  for  safety  in  coal  mines 
in  favor  of  a  type  more  suited  to  Ameri- 
can mining  conditions  has  resulted  from 


recent  tests  carried  out  by  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Mines.  Not  that  the 
bureau  has  discredited  the  great  work  of 
Davy,  or  even  belittled  it,  for  the  pro- 
tective principles  advocated  by  him  are 
used  in  almost  all  the  modern  types  of 


1004 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


safety  lamps.  But  as  a  safety  device  his 
single-gauze,  unbonneted  flame  lamp, 
which  has  been  used  in  coal  mines  for  a 
century,  is  finally  outclassed  by  the  dou- 
ble-gauze bonneted  lamp.  Of  the  several 
types  tested  the  Davy  type  proved  to  be 
the  least  safe  in  the  presence  of  danger- 
ous accumulations  of  the  explosive  coal- 
mine gas  known  as  methane. 

Illumination  is  not  the  sole  purpose  of 
flame  safety  lamps.  They  are  used  also 
as  detectors  of  the  presence  of  dangerous 
percentages  of  methane  mixed  in  the  air 
of  the  mine.  The  safety  of  the  lamp 
depends  mainly  on  the  cooling  qualities 
of  the  wire  gauze  used  to  permit  the  free 
circulation  of  air  through  the  lamp.  If 
the  air  is  mixed  with  methane  and  the 
gas  ignited  by  the  wick,  a  swift  air  cur- 
rent in  the  mine  may  drive  the  burning 
gases  through  the  gauze.  The  gauze,  if 
it  is  of  proper  design  and  material,  will 
cool  the  gases  so  as  not  to  ignite  them. 
In  proving  the  effectiveness  of  each  lamp 
the  tests  were  made  in  moving  explosive 
mixtures  of  air  and  methane  to  simulate 
mine  conditions. 

Gauzes  of  steel,  brass  and  copper  were 
tested.  Steel  proved  superior  to  either 
brass  or  copper  for  conditions  of  high 
temperature.  For  low  temperatures  the 
three  metals  were  about  equally  good. 
A  high  standard  of  safety  in  mines  is 
expected  to  result  from  the  requirement 
of  the  double-gauze  bonneted  lamp. 


AMERICA  TO  LEAD  IN  BIG 
LENSES — Wartime  experiments  in  the 
production  of  large  telescope  lenses,  un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  Geophysical 
Laboratory  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  in 
Washington,  h^ve  solved  the  problem  of 
making  lenses  in  this  country  even  larger 
than  those  produced  elsewhere  and  of 
equal  quality.  Plans  for  turning  them 
out  on  a  large  scale  in  the  United  States 
are  under  way,  according  to  Dr.  George 
W.  Morey,  a  member  of  the  American 
Chemical  Society. 

When  the  United  States  entered  the 
war  all  the  lenses  in  the  field  glasses, 
range  finders,  telescopes  and  other  in- 
struments of  precision  used  in  the  Amer- 
ican army  and  navy  had  been  "made  in 


Germany."  Many  opera  glasses  and 
binoculars  also  were  lent  by  private  citi- 
zens to  equip  the  fighting  forces.  But 
the  Carnegie  Institute  experiments  de- 
veloped proper  preparation  and  handling 
of  ingredients  for  making  pure  and  flaw- 
less glass,  especially  evolving  a  novel 
method  of  cooling  the  new  glass  so  that 
the  disks  would  not  crack  in  the  anneal- 
ing. 

American  lens  manufacturers,  after 
considerable  experiment,  succeeded  in 
Feb.  15,  1920,  in  bringing  forth  the  first 
perfect  12-inch  lens,  and  now  a  large 
optical  glass  company  lists  this  size  for 
delivery  at  short  notice. 

However,  difficulties  increase  in  this 
industry  with  the  size  of  diameters,  and 
the  American  makers  found  their  prob- 
lem especially  complex  when  they  at- 
tempted a  20-inch  lens.  They  turned  out 
several  flawless  ones,  but  these  cracked 
in  the  annealing.  Experiments  at  the 
Geophysical  Laboratory  continued  until 
concentrated  ingenuity  discovered  just 
how  slowly  the  temperature  of  the  disk 
must  be  lowered.  The  scientists  made 
out  a  cooling  schedule  to  be  implicity  fol- 
lowed. The  cold  weather  of  last  March 
interfered,  and  one  disk  strained  and 
broke  just  before  they  got  it  ready  to 
take  from  the  oven.  Then  the  equip- 
ment in  use  was  discarded,  and  experts 
of  an  electric  company  designed  a  special 
electric  furnace  provided  with  an  auto- 
matic device  for  holding  the  temperature 
to  a  fraction  of  a  degree  while  the  glass 
is  undergoing  treatment  to  remove 
strain  and  for  lowering  the  temperature 
a  few  degrees  a  week.  The  recent  com- 
pletion of  this  apparatus  is  believed  to 
remove  the  last  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
American  production  of  the  largest 
lenses. 


VULCANIZING   COLD   RUBBER— A 

revolutionary  process  of  vulcanizing  rub- 
ber has  been  evolved  by  experiments  at 
the  College  of  Technology,  Manchester, 
England.  Authentic  reports  sent  to 
Washington  state  that  the  process  sets 
two  gases,  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and 
sulphur  dioxide,  to  react  on  each  other 
and  thus  produce  water  and  free  sulphur. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE 


1005 


Treating  crude  rubber  with  these  gases 
during  this  reaction  vulcanizes  the  rub- 
ber, whether  the  rubber  be  in  solid  form 
or  in  solution.  Furthermore,  a  variety 
of  useful  purposes  are  served  if  the  rub- 
ber is  mixed  with  sawdust,  scraps  of 
leather  or  paper,  or  certain  other  waste 
and  the  mixture  vulcanized.  This  vul- 
canizing process  also  does  away  with  the 
present  necessity  of  vulcanizing  the  rub- 
ber at  a  temperature  of  138  degrees 
Centigrade,  which  precludes  the  possibil- 
ity of  combining  rubber  with  such  rein- 
forcements. The  new  process  of  vulcan- 
izing the  rubber  cold  makes  it  possible  to 
manufacture  stitchless  one-piece  boots, 
linoleum  floor  coverings,  artificial 
leather,  wallpapers  and  even  motor  tires. 


all  of   greater  durability   and,   at  will, 
more  delicate  colors. 


A  USEFUL  CHINESE  SCERET— A 

Chinese  art  craft  has  recently  been 
found  so  valuable  as  to  be  adopted  in  the 
repair  departments  of  certain  great 
American  stores.  This  is  a  fine  cement 
which  will  mend  broken  porcelain,  earth- 
enware and  glass  so  that  the  ware  will 
not  break  again  in  the  same  places. 
Flint  glass  is  ground  to  an  impalpable 
powder  on  a  painter's  stone,  mixed  with 
the  white  of  an  egg  and  beaten  to  a 
froth  and  laid  on  the  broken  edges.  The 
pieces  are  then  matched  and  bound  firm- 
ly in  place  and  allowed  to  harden  and  set 
for  a  month. 


The  America's  Cup  Remains  at  Home 


SIR  THOMAS  LIPTON,  in  failing  to 
win  the  America's  Cup,  was  again 
disappointed  as  the  result  of  the 
series  of  yacht  races  run  off  Sandy 
Hook  by  the  Shamrock  IV.  and  the 
Resolute,  from  July  15  to  27.  For  the 
first  time  in  thirty  years  he  glimpsed  a 
real  chance  of  carrying  the  cup  back  to 
England — its  original  home — when  his 
new  Shamrock  took  two  races  out  of  five. 
The  Resolute,  however,  accomplished  the 
unprecedented  in  winning  all  three  of  the 
last  races,  and  the  fond  hopes  of  the 
Irish  Baronet  were  dashed  to  the 
ground. 

A    summary   of   the    1920    races   fol- 
lows : 

First  race,  won  by  Shamrock  IV.  Thurs- 
day, July  15,  fifteen  miles  to  windward 
and  return,  in  light  southwest  wind.  The 
Resolute' s  throat  halyards  parted,  drop- 
ping her  gaff  and  letting  her  mainsail 
down,  as  she  was  about  to  round  the 
fifteen-mile  turn  a  mile  ahead  of  the 
Shamrock.  The  Resolute  withdrew,  the 
Shamrock  fmishing  in  4 :25 :12,  elapsed 
time. 

Second  race,  called  off  Saturday,  July 
17,  after  yachts  failed  to  cover  a  thirty- 
mile  triangle  in  very  light  wind  within 
the  six-hour  time  limit.  The  Resolute 
was  a  half  hour  ahead  when  the  race  was 
called  off. 

Second  race  resailed  Tuesday,  July  20, 
won  by  the  Shamrock.  Thirty-mile  tri- 
angular course.  Shamrock  won  by  9 
pninutes  27  seconds   elapsed   time,   2  min- 


utes 26  seconds  corrected  time.  At  this 
time  the  Shamrock  needed  to  win  only 
one  race  more  to  regain  the  cup. 

Third  race,  Wednesday,  July  21,  won 
by  the  Resolute  over  windward  and  lee- 
ward course  in  light  southwest  wind.  Had 
there  been  no  time  allowance  the  con- 
testants would  have  sailed  a  tie.  Each 
took  4  hours  3  minutes  and  6  seconds  to 


SIR    THOMAS    LIPTON 


1006 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


cover  the  course.  The  Resolute  won  by 
her  time  allowance,  7  minutes  1  second. 

Fourth  race,  Friday,  July  23,  won  by 
the  Resolute,  boat  for  boat,  over  thirty- 
mile  triangular  course  in  squally  weather. 
The  Resolute,  leading  from  the  start,  won 
by  3  minutes  18  seconds  elapsed  time,  9 
minutes  58  seconds  corrected  time. 

Fifth  race,  postponed  Saturday,  July 
24,  because  of  twenty-five-mile  south- 
wester. 

Fifth  race,  called  off  Monday,  July  26, 
after  yachts  failed  to  cover  thirty-mile 
windward  and  leeward  course  within  six- 
hour  time  limit. 

Fifth  race,  Tuesday,  July  27,  won  by 
the  Resolute  over  a  windward  and  lee- 
ward course  in  light  southwest  wind. 
Resolute  won  by  13  minutes  5  seconds 
elapsed  time,  19  minutes  45  seconds  cor- 
rected  time. 

Thus  failed  Sir  Thomas  Lipton's 
fourth  attempt  since  1899  to  realize  a 
cherished  ambition  and  to  return  to  the 
Royal    Ulster   Yacht   Club   the   precious 


cup  which  four  successive  Sham.rocks 
have  been  unable  to  regain.  But  never 
before  had  the  Irish  yachtsman  been  so 
near  success.  The  clever  handling  of 
the  Resolute  by  her  skipper,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  proved  a  prominent  fac- 
tor in  the  American  victory.  Following 
the  last  race  of  the  series  Sir  Thomas 
said:  "I  am  very  sorry,  but  the  best 
boat  won."  He  added:  "We  have  all 
done  our  best — skipper,  designer  and 
crew — and  we  have  been  beaten  fair  and 
square.  I  have  been  treated  throughout 
with  the  greatest  fairness  and  sports- 
manship by  the  Americans,  and  I  am 
taking  home  the  very  best  memories  of 
this  contest." 

Sir  Thomas  announced  that  he  was 
not  discouraged  and  that  a  new  chal- 
lenger— the  Shamrock  V. — would  again 
seek  to  win  back  the  famous  cup  in  1922. 


Sentiment  in  the  Philippines 


A  BILL  pending  in  Congress  under- 
•^•^  takes  to  place  the  Philippine  Islands 
under  the  new  coastwise  shipping  law — 
at  the  discretion  of  the  President.  This 
measure  has  aroused  strong  opposition 
in  the  Pacific  dependency.  Fidel  A. 
Reyes,  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Com- 
merce and  Industry  of  the  Philippine 
Government,  in  a  statement  published  in 
New  York  on  July  30,  admitted  that  the 
extension  of  this  coastwise  law  to  the 
islands  was  strongly  opposed  both  by  the 
Philippine  Government  and  by  the  Fil- 
ipino people.  "  Their  attitude,"  said  Mr. 
Reyes,  "  is  prompted  by  the  conscious- 
ness that  the  operation  of  these  laws 
would  be  a  terrible  blow  not  only  to 
the  material  interest  of  the  Filipinos 
but  also  to  their  political  ideals."  The 
feeling  on  the  subject  was  manifesting 
itself  in  mass  meetings  of  popular  pro- 
test, but  without  any  idea  of  forcible  re- 
sistance; he  denounced  the  statement  of 
a  correspondent  that  Manuel  Quezon, 
President  of  the  Philippine  Senate,  was 
heading  a  movement  for  war  on  the 
United  States.  Sehor  Quezon  himself 
had  explicitly  denied  any  such  intention. 


Declarations  in  favor  of  independence 
for  the  Philippines  were  made  on  Aug. 
2  by  Congressmen  S.  G.  Porter,  Chair- 
man of  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee; 
U.  A.  Frear  of  Wisconsin,  and  John  H. 
Small  of  North  Carolina,  at  a  banquet 
given  in  Manila  by  the  Philippine  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  to  the  Congressional 
party  touring  the  Far  East.  Mr.  Por- 
ter told  the  Filipinos  that  their  Govern- 
ment was  more  developed  than  was  the 
Government  of  Cuba  when  it  was  recog- 
nized by  the  United  States.  Mr.  Frear 
declared  that  the  United  States  would 
fulfill  its  promise  to  grant  independence 
as  soon  as  a  stable  Government  was  or- 
ganized. 

The  earnestness  of  public  sentiment 
regarding  independence  was  evidenced  at 
this  date  by  a  strike  of  Filipino  printers 
and  editors,  who  refused  to  continue 
work  on  three  local  American  newspa- 
pers that  had  contained  the  assertion 
that  the  Filipinos  were  not  ready  for  in- 
dependence. The  papers  were  forced  to 
suspend  temporarily.  The  strikers  re- 
turned five  days  later  without  conces- 
sions. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF 

With  the  Best  Cartoons  of  the  Month 
From  Many  Nations 

[Period  Ended  Aug.  15,  1920] 


The  Pilgrim   Tercentenary 

AS  the  first  feature  of  the  Mayflower 
tercentenary,  which  is  to  be  honored 
by  various  ceremonies  in  England,  Hol- 
land and  the  United  States  this  Fall,  the 
citizens  of  Southampton,  England,  on 
July  25  enacted  a  pageant  called  "  John 
Alden's  Choice."  This  play,  which  was 
written  by  Miss  Myra  Lovett,  daughter 
of  Canon  Lovett,  was  staged  on  the  old 
Southampton  quay,  the  very  spot  from 
which  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  started  300 
years  ago  on  their  great  adventure.  The 
players  were  all  local  amateurs  who  had 
been  rehearsing  for  months. 

The  principal  figure  of  the  pageant 
was  John  Alden,  the  only  one  of  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  who  came  from  Southamp- 
ton. According  to  tradition,  Alden  was 
a  New  Forest  gypsy.  It  is  certain  that 
he  was  a  cooper's  apprentice,  and  that 
he  was  not  a  Puritan,  but  joined  the  Pil- 
grims through  love  of  Priscilla  Mullen 
and  a  desire  for  adventure.  John  Car- 
ver, William  Brewster,  Edward  Winslow, 
Isaac  Allerton,  Miles  Standish  and  Will- 
iam Bradford  all  appeared  in  the  play, 
which  reproduced  in  John  Alden's  dream 
of  the-  future  the  inauguration  of  Wash- 
ington, the  Boston  Tea  Party,  civil  war 
scenes,  and  America  coming  to  the  aid 
of  Great  Britain  in  the  war  against  Ger- 
many. The  final  scene  was  the  embarka- 
tion of  the  Pilgrims,  while  hundreds  of 
assembled  townspeople  watched  the  de- 
parture from  the  same  spot  where  their 
ancestors  had  watched  the  original  Pil- 
grims sail  away  300  years  before.  All 
sang  the  hymn,  "  O  God  of  Jacob,  by 
Whose  Hand."  Above  the  scene  stood 
the  Pilgrims'  Memorial,  and  a  few  yards 
away,  beside  the  old  walls  of  Southamp- 
ton, was  the  old  Huguenot  Church  where 
the  Pilgrims  worshipped  long  ago.  The 
pageant  was  opened  by  Lord  Birkenhead, 


Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  and  a  num- 
ber of  distinguished  Englishmen  and 
Americans  were  present. 

Similar    pageants    are    to   be   held    in 
Plymouth,  the  final  port  of  departure, 

[American  Cartoon] 

And  the  More  He  Eats  the 
Thinner  He  Gets 


— ©    New    York    Tribune 


where  the  Mayflower  and  the  Speedwell 
put  in.  The  300th  anniversary  of  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  on  Dec.  21,  1620,  will  be  cele- 
brated by  nation-wide  observances  in  the 
United  States,  in  accordance  with  a  proc- 
lamation to  that  effect  issued  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  on  Aug.  4. 


1008 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


New   Assistant  War   Secretary 

BENEDICT  CROWELL'S  resignation 
as  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  !to 
take  effect  on  June  30,  was  announced 
by  Secretary  Baker  on  June  25.  The 
War  Secretary's  announce- 
ment said  in  part: 

Mr,  Crowell  came  into  the 
service  as  a  Major  of  Ord- 
nance during  the  war  and 
devoted  his  time  and  talents 
as  an  engineer  to  the  crea- 
tion of  facilities  for  the  pro- 
duction of  cannon  and  other 
arms.  Later,  as  Assistant 
Secretary  of  War,  he  took 
charge  of  the  munitions  pro- 
gram, and  since  the  armistice 
has  supervised  the  industrial 
demobilization  of  munitions 
making  enterprises  and  the 
settlement  of  war  contracts 
and  claims.  His  work  has 
been  of  the  highest  value  to 
the  Government,  and  he  gen- 
erously resisted  the  pressure 
of  his  private  affairs  until 
his  war  work,  with  its  con- 
sequences of  intricate  and 
varied  contracts  and  claims, 
was  practically  cleaned  up. 

William  R.  Williams  of 
Richmond,  Va.,  was  appoint- 
ed on  July  29  to  take  Mr. 
CrowelPs  place.  Mr.  Williams 
took  the  oath  of  office  on 
the  following  day.  The  new 
Assistant  Secretary  was  for 
many  years  associated  with 
the  American  Locomotive 
Company,  and  at  the  time  of 
his  appointment  was  con- 
nected with  the  Richmond  Forging  Com- 
pany. 

Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  the  Democratic 
Vice  Presidential  candidate,  handed  in 
his  resignation  as  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  on  July  24,  to  take  effect 
on  Aug.  9,  the  day  on  which  Mr.  Roose- 
velt was  formally  notified  of  his  nomi- 
nation at  his  home  in  Hyde  Park,  N.  Y. 
*     *     * 

3,374  Strikes  in  1919 

A  RE  PORT  issued  by  the  Department 
of  Labor  on  July  7  showed  that 
strikes  and  lockouts  in  the  United  States 
in  1919  totaled  3,374  and  affected  more 
than  4,000,000  workers.  Approximately 
one-half  of  these  strikes  occurred  in  five 


States — New  York,  Massachusetts,  Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio  and  Illinois.  Thirty-seven 
more  labor  conflicts  were  reported  than 
for  the  previous  year,  but  the  total  for 
1919  was  materially  under  that  for  1916 


[American  Cartoon] 

THEY  RE     OFF  ! 


r~Central  Press  Association,  Cleveland 


and  1917.  On  the  other  hand,  no  less 
than  nine  walkouts  involved  the  labor 
of  more  than  60,000  men  in  1919,  while 
in  the  previous  year  no  such  number  was 
at  any  time  involved. 
*     *     * 

The  Race  for  the  White  House 

/^NE  peculiar  feature  of  the  Presiden- 
^^  tial  race  between  Governor  Cox  and 
Senator  Harding  is  the  fact  that  both 
candidates  started  their  careers  as  edi- 
tors and  publishers  of  newspapers  in 
Ohio.  A  cartoon  which  appeared  only  a 
few  months  before  the  nominations, 
showing  the  owners  of  The  Marion  Star 
(Harding)  and  The  Dayton  News  (Cox) 
disputing  as  newsboys  for  the  right  to 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1009 


[American   Cartoon]  • 

THIS  WOULD   TICKLE   BEN  FRANKLIN 
TO  DEATH 


-From    The   Providence   Journal 


deliver  their  respective  papers  to  the 
White  House,  proverl  prophetic.  Apart 
from  these  biographical  similarities, 
however,  a  sharp  line  of  cleavage  exists 
beitween  the  two  candidates  in  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  each  on  the  League  of  Na- 
tions, Governor  Cox  favoring  America's 
entering  the  League,  as  desired  by  Presi- 
dent "Vv  ilson,  and  Senator  Harding  oppos- 
ing it  on  the  ground  that  it  would  impair 
the  principles  of  independence  and  lib- 
erty by  which  America  has  hitherto  been 
guided.  While  this  issr-  is  inspiring 
thousands  of  partisan  cartoons,  the  fact 
that  both  candidates  are  Ohioans  and 
newspaper  men  is  productive  also  of 
many  cartoons  in  a  larger  spirit,  several 
of  which  are  reproduced  in  these  pages. 


Marshal   Foch   on   the   French    War 
Effort 

A  T  a  great  national  manifestation  or- 
■^"^  ganized  by  the  Union  des  Granges 
Associations  Frangaises  (devoted  to  the 
reconstruction  of  the  devastated  areas) 
and  held  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris  on 
June  20,  Marshal  Foch,  as  one  of  a  list 
of  eminent  speakers,  took  occasion  to  re- 
view France's  total  war  effort.  His  au- 
dience included  M.  Poincare,  the  former 
President;  the  Presidents  of  the  Senate 
and  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  the  Min- 
isters of  Public  Instruction  and  the  May- 
ors and  other  representatives  of  towns 
within  the  devastated  districts. 
On  the  eve  of  mobilization,  said  Mar- 


1010 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


shal  Foch,  the  French  Army- 
was  composed  of  817,000 
men,  exclusive  of  native 
troops.  The  mobilization  of 
Aug.  15,  1914,  brought  this 
effective  army  up  to  2,287,- 
000.  By  Oct.  1,  1918,  after 
the  calling  to  the  colors  of 
all  classes,  including  250,- 
000  native  troops  from 
North  Africa  and  215,000 
from  other  French  colonies, 
France  was  able  to  oppose 
to  the  German  advance  a 
formidable  fighting  force  of 
some  8,307,000  men,  of 
whom  90,000  had  been 
mobilized  as  officers  in 
1914.  The  development  of 
artillery  and  aviation  power 
was  no  less  remarkable. 
Ordinary  field  artillery 
pieces  rose  from  3,840  to 
5,000  by  1918;  heavy  artil- 
lery from  308  to  5^550; 
shock  artillery,  non-existent 
at  the  time  of  mobilization, 
numbered  2,600  cannon  at 
the  time  of  the  armistice. 
The  increase  of  shells  and 
other  munitions  was  equally 
great.  Airplanes  in  1914 
totaled    only   200;    in    1918 


[American  Cartoon] 

SLOW  BUT  SURE 


[American  Cartv)On] 

NOT    ROOM    FOR    BOTH 


r-ilcivspaper  Enterprise  Associgt.tion,  Clevel&nd 


— From  The  San  Francisco  Chronicle 

some    3,174    planes    were    actively    em- 
ployed at  the  front. 

Thus  organized  and  equipped  the 
French  armies  from  1914  to  1918  held — 
out  of  a  total  front  of  680  kilometers,  ex- 
tending from  the  North  Sea  to  Switzer- 
land— a  line  varying  from  650  to  671 
kilometers,  and  constantly  changing  with 
the  flux  of  battle.  "It  will  be,"  said 
Marshal  Foch,  "  one  of  the  amazements 
of  history  that  our  soldiers  should  have 
been  able  for  fifty-two  months  to  con- 
tinue an  unceasing  battle,  ending  with  a 
redoubling  of  activity  and  energy  on 
their  part."  The  losses,  he  admitted,  had 
been  grievous.  Some  1,357,000  had  been 
killed  or  listed  as  missing  (including  71,- 
000  native  troops) ;  377,000  had  been  mu- 
tilated. In  the  aggregate  the  nation  had 
lost  the  man  power  of  1,760,000,  or  about 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1011 


[American    Cartoon] 

SLEEPING  SICKNESS 


-lioiii,    J  he    Moatf>omery    Advertiser 


A  Statue  of  Lincoln  in 
London 

rpHE  bronze  replica  of  the 
-■-  Saint-Gaudens  statue  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  —  "  The 
Liberator  " — the  original  of 
which  stands  in  Lincoln 
Park,  Chicago,  was  unveiled 
by  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
in  Canning  Square,  London, 
just  opposite  Westminster 
Abbey,  on  July  28.  The 
ceremony  took  place  in  a 
pouring  rain  in  the  presence 
of  thousands  who  had  stood 
for  hours  to  witness  the  un- 
veiling. The  speech  of 
presentation  to  England  was 
made  by  Elihu  Root,  whom 
Lord  Bryce  introduced.  Mr. 
Root  recounted  Lincoln's 
life  struggles  and  his  ideals, 
and  declared  that  the  con- 
ceptions of  justice  and  lib- 
erty which  Lincoln  em- 
bodied were  shared  in  com- 
mon by  America  and  Great 
Britain.  In  developing-  this 
thought,  he  said: 

It  is  the   identical  funda-  _ 

mental  conceptions   in  both. 

countries     which     make     it 


one  man  out  of  every  five  mobilized. 
Considering  this  enormous  effort  and 
its  results.  Marshal  Foch  emphasized  the 
necessity  of  full  and  complete  compensa- 
tions by  Germany.  In  this  regard  he 
said: 

If  the  peaceful  France  of  1914  may  to- 
day gaze  with  legitimate  and  sorrowful 
pride  on  the  victory  which  her  armies 
gained,  she  also  has  the  right  to  insist 
upon  reparations  for  the  injuries  caused 
her  by  the  most  iniquitous  of  aggressions. 
Moreover,  after  having  suffered  the  cruel 
losses  enumerated  and  undergone  far- 
reaching  devastations  wrought,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  systematically  and 
without  military  necessity;  after  having 
seen  her  people  inflicted  with  the  most 
barbarous  treatment,  it  is  her  duty,  in 
order  to  live  and  to  heal  her  wounds,  to 
assume  without  delay  these  heavy  obli- 
gations. She  cannot  bear  vip  beneath  them 
unless  the  pledges  signed  by  the  enemy 
be  fulfilled  completely. 


[American  Cartoon] 

THE  BUCKEYE  BABY 


-Cincinnati   Post 


1012 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


impossible  that  in 
any  great  world 
emergency  Great 
Britain  and  Amer- 
ica can  be  on  op- 
posing sides.  Those 
conceptions  of  jus- 
tice and  liberty 
are  the  breath  of 
life  for  both.  While 
they  prevail  both 
nations  will  endure; 
if  they  perish,  both 
nations  will  die. 
These  were  Lin- 
coln's     inheritance, 

*  *  *  Wemay 
disregard  all  life's 
prejudices 
and  quarrels  that 
result  from  casual 
friction  and  pin- 
pricks, and  from 
outside  misrepre- 
sentation and  de- 
traction, and  rest 
upon  Lincoln's  un- 
erring judgment  of 
his  countrymen  and 
his  race.  We  may 
be      assured      that 

*  *  *  t  h  e  peace 
and  friendship  be- 
tween  Great 
Britain  and  Amer- 
ica will  prove  to  be 
as  Lincoln  desired 
to  make  them,  per- 
petual. 

Accepting  the 
statue  on  behalf  of 
the  British  Nation, 
Lloyd  George,  the 
British  Premier,  de- 
clared that  men  like 
Lincoln  were  needed 
now  more  than  ever 
in  the  settlement  of 
world  affairs.  Lin- 
coln, he  said,  was 
no  longer  merely  a 
great  American,  he 
was  one  of  those 
giant  figures  who 
lost  their  national- 
ity in  death,  for  he 
belonged  to  the 
whole  of  mankind. 
The  nation  which 
produced  such  men, 
he  added,  must  be 
sound  to  the  core. 
In  conclusion,  he  de- 


[ Dutch  Cartoon] 

IN    HUNGARY 


The  Crucified  Proleturiat        -De  Notenkraker,   Amsterdam 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1013 


[German    Cartoon] 

POLAND   AND   RED    RUSSIA 


—Fiom   UIK  Berlin 
Will  it  collapse* 

[English   Cartoon] 

CONFOUND     THOSE     CATS  ! 


-Westrnmster   Gazette,    London 


clared,  amid  enthusiastic 
applause:  "This  torn  and 
bleeding  earth  is  calling  to- 
day for  the  help  of  the 
America  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln." 

*  *     * 

Fisheries  Treaty  With 
Canada 
n^HE  conclusion  of  a  treaty 
■^  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada  for  the 
protection  and  conservation 
of  the  great  salmon  fisher- 
ies of  the  Fraser  River  and 
Puget  Sound  was  an- 
nounced by  the  State  De- 
partment at  Washington  on 
July  26.  The  necessity  for 
such  a  treaty  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  the  output  of  these 
fisheries  had  dwindled  from 
2,300,000  cases  of  canned 
salmon  in  1913  to  about  65,- 
000  cases  in  1918,  and  has 
now  reached  an  even  lower 
figure.  The  treaty  will 
come  before  the  Senate  at 
its  next  session  for  ratifi- 
cation. The  whaling  in- 
dustry is  also  the  subject  of 
consideration  by  the  two 
Governments,  and  a  world- 
wide conference  is  proposed, 
with  the  object  of  saving 
the  remnants  of  the  once 
mighty  herds  that  roamed 
the  seas  in  the  great  days 
of  the  whaling  industry. 
These  facts  were  disclosed 
by  publication  of  the  report 
of  the  International  Com- 
mission, which  in  1918  as- 
sembled to  study  the  out- 
standing fisheries  questions 
of  the  United  States  and 
Canada. 

*  *     * 

Surrender  of  a  Super- 
Zeppelin 
FROM  Alhorn,  Germany, 
on  Wednesday  evening, 
June  30,  a  gigantic  flying 
ship,  painted  grimly  black, 
rose  in  the  air  and  beat 


1014 


THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[American    Cartoon] 

THE    OPEN    SEASON    FOR    FAIMILY 
SKELETONS  NOW  ON! 


-From    The    Tacoma    Neics-Tribune 


across  the  North  Sea  against  a 
twenty-mile  wind.  On  board  was  a 
crew  consisting  of  twenty-one  Germans, 
two  German  officers  and  three  British 
officers.  Their  departure  was  unherald- 
ed, and  their  arrival  over  Pulham,  Eng- 
land, in  the  early  morning  of  July  1  was 
unexpected.  The  great  ship,  finding  no 
landing  party  there,  made  off  and  hov- 
ered long  over  Norwich,  whose  inhabi- 
tants gazed  upward  at  the  great  black 
hull  with  strange   feelings   compounded 


of  reminiscence  and  relief  from  fear.  For 
the  big  airship  was  the  super-Zeppelin 
L-71,  and  in  the  dark  days  of  the  war 
with  Germany  she  had  hung  over  Nor- 
wich before  and  dropped  devastating 
bombs  all  around  the  city.  In  those  anx- 
ious days  the  citizens  of  Norwich  had 
been  forbidden  by  the  authorities  even 
to  light  a  match  in  the  darkness.  Under 
the  terms  of  the  Versailles  Treaty  Ger- 
many pledged  herself  to  surrender  to 
Great    Britain    this    identical    Zeppelin. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1015 


[American   Cartoon] 

A  FULL  HOUSE 


— From    The    Cincinnati    Post 


After  considerable  manoeuvring  the  L-71 
finally  returned  to  Pulham,  gracefully 
settled  down  on  British  soil,  and  was 
berthed  by  the  efforts  of  300  soldiers  in 
the  Pulham  aerodrome,  where  the  R-34 
had  been  berthed  after  her  epoch-making 
transatlantic  cruise.  The  L-71  was  for- 
mally surrendered  in  the  Pulham  aero- 
drome on  the  morning  of  July  22,  and  so 
another  of  the  many  pledges  which  Ger- 
many was  forced  to  give  at  Versailles 
was  fulfilled. 

Another  of  Germany's  great  airships,  the 
L-72,  was  surrendered  to  France  at  the 
ber^inning  of  August,   and  after  a  sen- 


sational flight  over  Paris  was  assigned 

for    active    use    in    the    Mediterranean 

region  in  the  service  of  the  French  Navy. 

*     *     * 

Charges  of  Terrorism  in  Hungary 

THE  Horthy  Government  in  Hungary, 
by  its  measures  of  repression  against 
the  Communists  of  the  Bela  Kun  type, 
has  brought  about  a  situation  which  a 
delegation  of  the  British  labor  unionists, 
sent  specially  to  investigate  charges  of 
atrocities  and  persecution  of  the  laboring 
classes,  has  declared  to  amount  to  a 
White  Terror.     In  view  of  this  state  of 


1016 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


[Dutch    Cartoon] 


THE  LABOR  BOYCOTT  AND  THE  WHITE  TERROR 

IN  HUNGARY 


(W*^^, 


-From  De  Notenkraker,  Amsterdam, 


affairs  the  International  Federation  of 
Trade  Unions,  in  convention  at  Amster- 
dam, declared  a  boycott  of  all  Hungary's 
means  of  communication  by  sea  and  by 
land,  in  which  all  the  labor  organiza- 
tions of  Austria,  Rumania,  Jugoslavia, 
Czechoslovakia,  Poland  and  Italy  were 
summoned  to  participate.  This  boycott, 
which  began  June  20,  was  to  go  on  until 


the  Hungarian  Government's  methods 
were  reformed.  In  its  declaration  of  the 
boycott,  the  International  Federation 
stated  that  51,000  Hungarian  workers 
had  been  executed  before  the  beginning 
of  the  present  year,  and  that  thousands 
of  others  had  been  assassinated  by  bands 
of  officers  without  trial.  Details  of  the 
tortures  to  which  many  had   been  put 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1017 


[Dutch   Cartoon] 

POLAND  AND  THE  RISING  TIDE  OF  BOLSHEVISM 


— From   De   Amsterdammer,   Amsterdam 

Poland:    "Help  me,  boys,  or  I  can't  hold  the  fort" 


[Italian    Cartoon] 

THE    WAR    PROFITEERS 


Here  are  two  who  don't  intend  to  disgorge 


-From  II   Travaso,  Rome 


1018 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


were  revolting.  Protests  to  the  Hun- 
garian Government  and  to  the  League  of 
Nations  having  proved  unavailing,  the 
federation  organized  its  boycott,  which 
virtually  cut  off  Hungary  from  the  rest 
of  the  world  for  two  months.  The 
agitation  of  the  subject  by  the  trade 
union  delegates  in  Amsterdam  produced 
the  two  terrible  cartoons  herewith  repro- 
duced from  De  Notenkraker  of  Amster- 
dam. 

*     *     * 

Germany  Gives  Up  Masterpieces 

ONE  of  Germany's  reparation  pledges 
was  fulfilled  early  in  July  when  the 
German  Government  delivered  to  Bel- 
gium the  wings  of  the  great  "  Adoration 
of  the  Lamb,"  painted  by  Hubert  and 
Jan  van  Eyck  for  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
Bavon  at  Ghent,  and  the  wings  of  the 
polyptych,  "The  Last  Supper,"  by  Die- 

[  German  Cartoon] 

THE  MOLOCH 


—From  WaJire  Jacob,  Stuttgart 
IThe    German   artist    represents    Austria    and    Germany 
as  about  to  throw  their  starved  and  naked  children  into  the 
fire  under  compulsion  of  tlve  peace  terms,  while  the  Gallic 
coclCj  representing  France,  crows  hcstily'i 


rich  Bouts,  of  which  the  central  panel, 
painted  for  the  Church  of  St.  Pierre  at 
Louvain  in  1467,  survived  in  some  mys- 
terious way  the  destruction  brought  on 
the  peaceful  university  city  by  the  Ger- 
mans at  the  time  of  their  invasion.  In 
justice  to  Germany  it  should  be  said  that 
the  restored  masterpieces  were  not  war 
booty,  but  were  purchased  by  the  Ger- 
man Government  through  intermediaries 
from  the  French  Museum,  where  they 
had  been  stored  since  the  French  Repub- 
licans brought  them  from  Belgium  in 
1794.  Twelve  panels  in  all  were  ceded  by 
the  Kaiser  Friedrich  Museum  of  Berlin. 
"  The  Adoration  of  the  Lamb "  was 
counted  among  the  choicest  art  treasures 
of  Prussia.  "  The  Last  Supper  "  of  Bouts 
is  a  striking  example  of  grim  Flemish 
realism.  M.  Paul  Lambotte,  Director  of 
the  Beaux  Arts  of  Brussels,  has  an- 
nounced that  an  epoch- 
making  exhibition  will  soon 
be  held,  of  which  the  re- 
stored and  united  paintings 
will  be  the  centre.  The  Ger- 
man Government,  on  July 
25,  also  delivered  to  the 
City  of  Louvain  the  first 
consignment  of  10,000  books 
from  Germany  for  the 
library  of  Louvain  Univer- 
sity, in  accordance  with  the 
terms  of  the  Peace  Treaty. 
*     *     * 

British  Officer's  Ad- 
ventures IN  AsiiO 

A  DETAILED  account  of 
the  amazing  adven- 
tures of  Major  F.  M.  Bailey 
of  the  British  Indian  Army 
in  Bolshevist  Asia  was  re- 
ceived in  London  toward 
the  end  of  June.  Major 
Bailey,  after  a  period  of 
prolonged  silence  in  Central 
Asia,  recently  appeared  on 
the  Persian  frontier.  The 
story  he  told  rivals  that  of 
Richard  Burton's  adven- 
tures in  Mecca  a  generation 
ago.  Sent  on  a  political  mis- 
sion to  Tashkent,  in  Turk- 
estan, he  was  suspected  of 
anti-Red  propaganda  by  the 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1019 


Bolshevist  authorities  and  detained  under 
surveillance  pending  the  receiplt  of  orders 
from  Moscow.  The  British  Major  disap- 
peared, and  finally  left  the  city  disguised 
as  a  carter.  Finding  it  impossible  to 
leave  Turkestan,  he  finally  returned  to 
Tashkent  after  a  counter-revolutionary 
outbreak  which  the  Bolshev'  i  suppressed 
and  punished  by  the  execution  of  some 
4,000  victims.  There  he  remained  for  a 
time  in  hiding,  hoping  for  an  advance  of 
the  British  forces,  which  did  not  mate- 
rialize. 

Despairing  of  escape  by  any  other 
means.  Major  Bailey  decided  on  a  bold 
stroke,  and  in  the  guise  of  an  Austrian 
officer  who  spoke  English 
actually  succeeded  in  ob^ 
taining  a  position  on  the 
Bolshevist  Espionage  Staff. 
Dressed  in  full  Russian  uni- 
form, the  adventurous  offi- 
cer finally  reached  Bok- 
hara, where  he  again  dis- 
appeared for  two  months. 
He  then  secretly  left  the 
city  with  other  refugees, 
and  after  many  vicissitudes 
reached  Meshed,  on  the  Per- 
sian frontier,  in  safety.  An 
amusing  feature  of  his 
career  as  Bolshevist  Intel- 
ligence Officer  was  the  re- 
ceipt by  him  while  on  his 
way  to  Bokhara  of  a  dis- 
patch from  Moscow  asking 
him  to  report  on  the  where- 
abouts "  of  Major  Bailey." 
His  reply,  needless  to  say, 
was  far  from  a  model  of 
exactness. 


Great  Britain's  Troubles 


FACED  with  enemies  and 
dangers  on  all  sides. 
Great  Britain  has  had  little 
rest  since  the  ending  of  the 
war.  Haunted  by  the  spectre 
of  Indian  insurrection, 
which  the  Indian  Moham- 
medans threatened  to  ma- 
terialize unless  the  Sultan 
were  allowed  to  stay  in  Con- 


stantinople, confronted  by  similar  threats 
from  the  Bolsheviki  unless  peace  were 
made  with  Soviet  Russia,  and  by  like 
implications  from  China  in  case  the 
Anglo-Japanese  alliance  was  renewed, 
the  British  Government  has  also  been 
troubled  by  the  separatist  tendency  in 
South  Africa  and  by  the  secessionist 
activities  of  Sinn  Fein  in  Ireland.  It 
has  shaped  its  foreign  policy  according- 
ly. The  Sultan  was  left  in  Constanti- 
nople; peace  negotiations  have  been  ini- 
tiated with  Soviet  Russia  on  the  explicit 
understanding  that  anti-British  propa- 
ganda in  the  Near  and  Far  East  should 
cease.  In  the  case  of  the  Anglo-Japanese 
alliance  England  has  preferred  to  face 


[American  Cartoon] 

BETWEEN  TWO   FIRES 


-From    The  Daytan   News 


1020 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Dutch   Cartoon] 

ENGLAND'S     NIGHTMARE 


—From    De    Amsterdammer,    Amsterdami 

Saul  (John  Bull)  to  David  (Lloyd  George) :    "  Play!  Play  on!    Only  your 
music  can  banish  these  dreadful  visions!  '* 


the  threat  of  China,  rather  than  that  of 
Japan.  South  Africa  is  the  least  of  her 
troubles  and  Ireland  is  the  greatest. 
Lloyd  George,  the  Premier,  whose  skill 
and  resolution  are  acknowledged  by  the 
whole  nation,  continues  with  unimpaired 
power  to  pilot  the  British  ship  of  state 
chrough  perilous  seas. 

*     *     * 

Divorce  in  Japan 

ONE  result  of  the  financial  strain  of 
the  war  in  Turkey  was  the  reduction 
in  the  number  of  wives  kept  in  the  ha- 
rems. A  somewhat  similar  effect,  ac- 
cording to  the  Tokio  correspondent  of 
The  London  Morning  Post,  has  been  the 
marked  increase  in  divorces  in  Japan, 
especially  since  the  recent  financial  panic 
which  upset  the  country,  and  which  Jap- 
anese financial  experts  a/ttribute  directly 
to  conditions  growing  out  of  the  war. 
This  unprecedented  increase  of  divorces 
was  announced  by  the  Japanese  Police 


Headquarters.  The  Japanese  law  vests 
the  power  of  divorce — as  well  as  of  mar- 
riage— in  the  police,  instead  of  in  the 
courts,  a  qualification  which  gives  the 
Japanese  police  a  far  greater  degree  of 
importance  than  the  police  of  any  other 
country.  The  marriage  ceremony  con- 
sists in  merely  bringing  the  woman  to 
the  police  station  and  having  her  regis- 
tered as  a  member  of  the  household. 
Only  one  woman  may  be  thus  legally 
registered,  though  polygamy  is  allowed 
without  necessity  of  registration.  Divorce 
is  obtained  by  merely  having  the  wo- 
man's name  erased  from  the  police  regis- 
try. If  a  woman  objects  to  such  sum- 
mary divorce,  she  may  appeal  to  the  law 
courts,  but  such  appeals  are  very  rare, 
and  the  thousands  of  divorces  now  being 
put  through  are  effected  solely  by  the 
police.  The  woman,  for  reasons  of  econ- 
omy, is  simply  turned  out  to  shift  for 
herself,  and  she  solves  her  new  problems 
by  obtaining  work  or  by  entering  into  a 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1021 


[English  Opposition  Cartoon] 

PICTURE  PUZZLE— FIND  GERMANY 


-From   The  Stai-,  London  " 


The   Allied  Pecksniffs    (to   Russia) :     "  How   can   you   expect   decent 

people  to  associate  with  you  when  you  follow  this  policy  of  revenge? 

When  will  you  learn  to  love  your  enemies  as — ahem! — we  do?  " 


new  marriage,  as  the  case  may  be.  A 
number  of  Japanese  girls  are  now  adver- 
tising for  husbands.  The  much-discussed 
system  of  marriage  and  divorce  now  be- 
ing practiced  in  Soviet  Russia,  where 
these  ceremonies  are  a  mere  matter  of 
registration  with  the  civic  authorities, 
has  long  been  practiced  in  Japan. 
*     *     * 

The  Battle  of  the  Hundred  Days 

IN  "  The  Story  of  the  Fourth  Army  in 
the  Battle  of  the  Hundred  Days"  (Aug. 
1  to  Nov.  11,  1918),  by  Major  Gen.  Sir 
Archibald  Montgomery,  a  book  which  re- 
cently appeared  in  England,  is  given  the 
first  detailed  story  of  the  famous  bat- 
tles of  the  Hundred  Days,  which  proved 
decisive  in  the  war  against  Germany. 
General  Montgomery,  as  the  Chief  of 
Staff  of  the  Fourth  Army,  gives  an  au- 
thoritative account  of  the  storming  of 
the  formidable  Hindenburg  line  by  the 


three  British  armies  in  co-operation, 
bringing  into  strong  relief  the  brilliant 
part  played  by  the  Fourth  Army  in 
crossing  the  St.  Quentin  Canal.  From 
this  point  onward  the  story  is  one  of 
steady  pursuit,  occasionally  and  only  mo- 
mentarily checked  by  the  despairing  re- 
sistance of  a  beaten  foe,  whose  ratio  of 
retreat  was  conditioned  only  by  the  allied 
capacity  of  supply. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features 
of  the  work  is  a  preface  by  Major  Gen. 
Lord  Rawlinson,  who  commanded  one  of 
the  British  Armies  that  participated  in 
this  fighting.  Lord  Rawlinson  disputes 
the  view  that  the  armistice  was  prema- 
ture, and  denies  the  presumption  that 
if  operations  had  continued  for  a  few 
weeks  the  Germans  would  have  been 
compelled  to  surrender  unconditionally. 
Owing  to  the  systematic  manner  in  which 
the  Germans  were  destroying  the  com- 


1022 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


munications  behind  them, 
Lord  Rawlinson  declares, 
the  British  Armies  would 
have  been  starved  had  they 
tried  to  continue  their  ad- 
vance rapidly  and  in  full 
strength. 

*     *     * 

Holding  Germany  to  the 
Treaty 

THE  main  conflict  at  the 
Spa  Conference,  apart 
from  the  question  of  coal 
deliveries  to  France,  was 
over  the  question  of  dis- 
armament; to  this  the 
Allies  subordinated  all  other 
points.  It  was  only  after 
considerable  resistance  that 
Germany  agreed  once  more 
to  the  disarmament  condi- 
tions of  the  Versailles 
Treaty;  at  the  beginning  of 
the  conference  she  declared, 
in  view  of  the  internal 
situation,  that  they  were 
impossible.  While  the  Spa 
Conference  was  still  in  ses- 
sion j  a  new  danger  present- 
ed itself  with  the  collapse 
of  the  Polish  campaign 
against  Bolshevist  Russia : 
The  Soviet  forces  might  join  hands 
with  the  Germans  of  East  Prus- 
sia if  their  victorious  advance  against 
Poland  were  allowed  to  continue. 
An  allied  note  to  Moscow  asking  for 
an  armistice  on  behalf  of  Poland 
was  rejected.  Poland  was  then  told  by 
the  allied  Governments  to  apply  for  such 
an  armistice  herself.  This  was  done,  and 
Moscow  gave  its  consent  to  negotiations 
for  a  truce. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  Soviet  Army 
pushed  on  toward  Warsaw.  The 
allied  Governments  hurried  munitions 
and  supplies  to  Poland  in  case  the 
Russians  attempted  to  infringe  the  boun- 
daries originally  laid  down  for  Poland 
by  the  Supreme  Council.  The  opposition 
press  in  England  has  been  unwearying 
in  its  gibes  at  the  allied  policy  pursued 
in  respect  to  both  Poland  and  Germany. 
This  attitude  is  reflected  in  the  accom- 
panying cartoon  from  The  London  Star. 


[Canadian  Cartoon] 

SO    PATHETIC  ! 


—From   The  Montreal  Star 

Convicted  Assassin:    "  Oh,  please,  Mr,  Judge,  let  we 
Tceep  these  harmless  things.    J  love  them  so!  " 


The  Montreal   Star's  cartoon  is  in  the 
nature  of  t*  retort. 


German  Prize   Ships   Reach   America 

FIVE  vessels  that  had  once  been  Ger- 
man fighting  ships  crawled  into  New 
York  Harbor  on  Aug.  8,  four  of  them  in 
tow,  and  all  manned  by  American  sailors 
and  flying  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  They 
were  the  sole  trophies  accepted  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  in  the 
distribution  following  the  victory  of  the 
allied  arms.  Under  the  terms  of  the 
award  they  must  be  destroyed  within  one 
year.  After  the  American  public  has 
been  given  ample  opportunity  to  view 
them  at  their  moorings  in  the  Hudson 
they  are  to  be  towed  out  to  sea  and  to 
be  shot  by  the  guns  of  the  American 
Navy  into  battered  piles  of  junk  and  sent 
to  the  bottom,  l-here  was  a  dramatic 
element  in  this  ignominious  end  of  ships. 


'URRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1023 


[American   Cartoon] 

Nine  Lives?    It  Must  Have  Ninety! 


-From   The   Cincinimti  Post 


four  of  which  had  shared  in  the  battle  of 
Jutland. 

*     *     * 

New  World  Society  Created 

A  NEW  world  society  was  launched  on 
-^  July  5  in  London  under  the  name 
of  the  British  Institute  of  International 
Affairs.  Many  distinguished  people 
were  present,  and  addresses  were  deliv- 
ered by  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  Mr,  Balfour 
and  Mr.  Clynes,  the  British  labor  leader. 
In  his  resolution  for  the  creation  of  this 
new  society,  Viscount  Grey  explained  its 
object  and  scope.  The  institute  would 
devote  itself,  he  said,  to  the  study  of 
international  affairs,  and  would  attempt 
to  teach  knowledge,  comprehension  and 
perspective.  It  would  make  no  attempt 
to  formulate  foreign  policy  or  distribute 
propaganda,  but  would  seek  only  to  en- 
lighten public  opinion  and  to  increase  the 
store  of  national  wisdom,  and  to  help  the 
nation  to  think,  not  nationally,  but  inter- 


nationally. He  hoped,  he 
said,  that  similar  institutes 
would  be  established  in  the 
United  States  and  other 
parts  of  the  world,  and  that 
they  would  act  together. 
Mr.  Balfour  stressed  the 
service  which  the  new  insti- 
tute could  render  in  supply- 
ing men  of  trained  ability 
for  the  public  service,  and 
in  cultivating  mutual  com- 
prehension between  differ- 
ent nations.  Mr.  Clynes 
spoke  on  the  advantages  of 
such  an  institute  from  the 
viewpoint  of  labor,  and 
lauded  its  foundation  as  a 
solid  basis  of  the  new  ideal 
of  internationalism.  Lord 
Cecil,  Mr.  Balfour  and  Mr. 
Clynes  were  elected  Presi- 
dents of  the  new  institute. 
*     *     * 

French  Monument  to 
Wright  Brothers 

WHILE  airplanes  were 
flying  overhead,  promi- 
nent Frenchmen  and  Amer- 
icans, on  July  17,  dedicated 
the  monument  erected  at  Le 
Mans,  France,  in  honor  of  Wilbur 
Wright,  commemorating  his  first  pub- 
lic flight  at  Le  Mans  and  the 
pioneer  work  of  both  the  Wright 
brothers  in  developing  the  flying  ma- 
chine. The  American  Ambassador  to 
France  and  the  Aero  Club  of  America 
were  represented  among  the  American 
speakers.  The  monument  was  the  gift 
of  Commodore  Beaumont,  who  was  also 
present.  It  was  erected  on  a  founda- 
tion presented  through  French  subscrip- 
tions. It  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  city, 
beside  the  cathedral.  It  is  of  granite 
and  is  about  forty  feet  high.  The  shaft 
is  surmounted  by  the  figure  of  a  man 
striving  to  fly  through  space  without 
wings.  The  statue  is  the  work  of  Paul 
Landowski. 

*     *     * 

The  Esperanto  Congress 
rpHE    Thirteenth   Annual    Congress   of 
-■-    the  Esperanto  Association  of  North 
America  opened  on  July  22  in  the  Bahai 


1024 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Gkrman-Swiss   Cartoon] 

EUROPE'S  JOURNEY  BACK  TO  PEACE 


—Prom  Ncbelsimltcr,  Zurich 

Europe  (bowed  under  burden  of  war  spirit) :     "  And  this  is  what  men 
call  *  Recovery  '  /  " 


Library  in  New  York.  Edward  S.  Pay- 
son  of  Boston  presided,  and  the  address 
of  welcome  was  delivered  by  Miss  Cora 
L.  Butler,  President  of  the  New  York 
Esperanto  Association.  The  annual  re- 
port stated  that  the  new  universal  lan- 


guage had  been  made  compulsory  in  the 
schools  of  Russia,  and  either  compulsory 
or  optional  in  the  schools  of  Hungary, 
Jugoslavia,  Czechoslovakia,  Saxony,  Ser- 
bia and  in  many  foreign  cities,  including 
Barcelona,     Amsterdam,     Grenoble     and 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1025 


[English    Cartoon] 

GOD    SAVE    IRELAND  ! 

(Since  the  Government  will  not) 


—From  The  People,  London 

We  need  strong  men — we  get  weaklings! 

We  need  actions — we  get  words! 

We  need  Martial  Law — We  get  the  Curfew! 


Lille.     The  congress  closed  its  sessions 
on  July  24. 

About  400  delegates,  representing 
many  countries,  including  the  United 
States,  attended  the  International  Es- 
peranto Conference  at  The  Hague  on 
Aug.  9.     Speeches  were  made  in  Esper- 


anto by  the  delegates  of  nearly  every 
country.  The  Hague  Burgomaster, 
Patyn,  welcomed  the  congress,  and  in 
lauding  the  advantages  of  Esperanto 
referred  to  the  difficulty  which  Presi- 
dent Wilson  and  Premier  Orlando  of 
Italy  had  in  understanding  one  another 


1026 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[American   Cartoon] 

SOMEBODY  IS  GOING  TO  GET  BUMPED 


-From,  The  San  Francisco  Chronicle 


at  the  Peace  Conference.  The  speech 
of  the  Italian  delegate  was  received  with 
great  applause.  The  President  of  the 
congress  read  a  telegram  in  Esperanto 
from  Sir  Eric  Drummond,  expressing 
his  regret  at  being  unable  to  represent 
the  League  of  Nations  at  the  conference, 
owing  to  the  meeting  of  the  League  at 
San   Sebastian. 

*     *     * 

The  Central  Pacific  Islands 

rpHE  problems  arising  from  the  redis- 
-^  tribution  of  the  Central  Pacific 
Islands  formerly  owned  by  Germany 
have  not  proved  easy  of  solution  for  any 
of  the  new  owners,  whether  British, 
French,  Australians,  New  Zealanders,  or 
Japanese.  These  hundreds  of  tiny 
islands  belonging  to  various  groups,  and 


occupying  a  central  position  between 
Australia,  America  and  Japan,  are  now 
coming  into  their  own  with  the  recog- 
nition of  their  great  naval  value  and 
the  richness  of  their  phosphate  deposits 
and  characteristic  products. 

According  to  a  decision  made  by  the 
Council  of  Three  (Clemenceau,  Wilson, 
Lloyd  George)  at  the  Peace  Conference 
on  May  6,  1919,  all  former  German 
colonies  were  to  be  ruled  under  mandates 
from  the  League  of  Nations.  The  Ger- 
man islands  in  the  Pacific  were  divided 
into  two  main  groups.  Japan  got  the 
mandate  for  all  the  islands  north  of  the 
equator,  while  most  of  those  south  of  the 
equator  were  divided  between  Australia 
and  New  Zealand.  Thus  German  New 
Guinea  came  under  the  rule  of  Australia, 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1027 


[Polish    Cartoon] 

AT  THE  GRAVE  OF  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 


—From   Mucha,    Warsaiv 

"  And  what  about  Wilson's  Fourteen 


Germania  (to  John  Bull) : 
Points?" 

John  Bull :   "  We  will  bury  them.   Poland  can  mourn  them 
'pointment  is  nothing  to  her.    She  is  u^ed  to  it" 


Disap- 


along  with  the  Bismarck  Archipelago 
and  the  Solomon  Islands. 

The  Gilbert  and  Ellice  colony  has  al- 
ways been  owned  by  the  British.  They 
have  now  taken  over  the  island  of  Nauru 
under  a  mandate  issued  by  the  League, 
and  have  begun  to  cope  with  the  vital 
questions  of  administration  in  their  usual 
energetic  way,  while  far  to  the  east  the 
French  are  struggling  with  their  own 
problems  in  trying  to  rule  over  the 
remnants  of  the  Tahitians  and  Paumo- 
tuans  and  Marquesans. 

New  Zealand  has  exercised  control  over 
the  Cook  Islands  since  1901.  This  group 
consists  of  about  a  dozen  islands,  scat- 
tered over  a  radius  of  more  than  100 
miles,    and    inhabited    by    about    12,000 


people  of  the  Polynesian  type.  To  these 
possessions  New  Zealand  has  now  added 
the  Samoan  Islands,  for  which  she  re- 
ceived a  mandate  under  the  League  of 
Nations.  The  difficulties  of  the  task  of 
administering  Samoa  have  already  be- 
come apparent  to  the  New  Zealand  Gov- 
ernment. The  objections  to  securing 
labor  for  plantation  work  through  the 
importation  of  Chinese  indentured  work- 
ers have  been  recopnized,  and  in  this,  as 
in  matters  of  religion,  education,  sanita- 
tion and  otherwise,  the  New  Zealand 
Government  has  sought  to  further  the 
interests  of  the  Samoan  people  and  to 
prove  Its  fitness  to  exercise  the  mandate 
under  the  League. 

As  for  the  Japanese,  though  they  also 


1028 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[American    Cartoon] 

THE     OLIVE    BRANCH 


— From    The   New   York   Times 

Allies:    **  Wonder  if  it's  poison  ivy?" 


have  tried  to  impress  upon  the  natives 
of  the  Marshall  Islands,  which  they 
occupied  shortly  after  the  war  began,  the 
kindliness  of  their  intentions,  they  have 
not  succeeded  in  making  their  rule  popu- 
lar. The  natives,  who  had  been  harshly 
treated  under  German  rule  prior  to  1914, 
and  who  had  hoped  after  the  close  of  the 
war  to  pass  under  either  British  or 
American  administration,  were  grievous- 
ly disappointed  when  the  mandate  was 
given  to  the  Japanese.  The  action  of  the 
Japanese  in  closing  the  American  Mis- 
sion schools,  and  in  opening  in  their 
stead  other  schools  taught  by  Japanese 


schoolmasters  in  the  Japanese  language, 
was  not  received  with  satisfaction. 
Though  the  Japanese  have  founded  hos- 
pitals and  introduced  sanitation,  their 
administrative  order  calling  on  the 
natives  to  plant  cocoanut  trees  in  all 
waste  and  hurricane-swept  portions  of 
the  group — with  the  object  of  tripling 
the  copra  product  within  a  few  years — 
has  impressed  the  natives,  already  work- 
ing under  strict  regulations,  with  the 
idea  that  they  are  being  forced  to  work 
very  hard  for  the  prosperity  of  the 
Japanese  and  very  little  for  their  own 
emolument. 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1029 


[German    Cartoon] 

AT    SPA 


—From    Ulk,    Berlin 

Admitting  Germania  to  the  peace  negotiations  at  Spa 


Death  of  Accuser  of  Serbia 

THE  death  of  Dr.  Heinrich  Friedjung, 
the  Austrian  historian,  was  reported 
from  Vienna  on  July  14.  Dr.  Friedjung 
gained  great  notoriety  in  1909  by  an  at- 
tack on  the  Serbo-Croatian  leaders  in 
Austria-Hungary  and  on  the  Serbian 
Government.  Early  in  that  year,  when 
war  with  Serbia  was  believed  to  be  im- 
minent, a  selection  of  so-called  "  proofs  " 
of  Serbian  machinations  against  Austria 
was  placed  in  Dr.  Friedjung's  hands.  On 
these  he  based  a  series  of  violent  ar- 
ticles published  in  the  Vienna  press,  in 
which  he  accused  M.  Supilo,  the  Serbo- 
Croatian  leader,  and  several  other  prom- 
inent Serbs  and  Croatians  in  Austria- 
Hungary  of  corrupt  and  treasonable  in- 


tercourse with  the  Serbian  Government. 
For  these  public  attacks  he  was  prose- 
cuted in  December  of  the  same  year.  At 
the  trial  it  was  proved  that  his  so-called 
"  proofs  "  were  clumsy  forgeries.  Dr. 
Masaryk  in  1910  showed  that  they  were 
the  work  of  a  man  named  Vasitch,  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose  by  a  member  of 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Legation  at  Bel- 
grade. Friedjung's  articles  were  then 
hastily  disavowed  by  Count  Aehrenthal, 
the  Austrian  Foreign  Minister,  who  had 
furnished  the  "  proofs  "  in  question,  and 
it  was  clearly  shown  that  Friedjung  had 
been  the  Foreign  Minister's  unsuspect- 
ing tool.  This  unfortunate  excursion 
into  politics  is  the  one  blot  on  a  long 
and  scholarly  career,  for  Dr.  Friedjung 


1030 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Dutch   Cartoon] 

THE    SPA    CURE 


— From    De    Atnsterdammer,    Amsterdam 

Bathing  Master  (to  Fritz):    "First  you  go  under  the  douche  before  you 

get  into  the  bath  " 


ranks  with  the  leading  Austrian  histo- 
rians of  Pan-German  tendency;  one 
work  particularly — "  Der  Kampf  um  die 
Herrschaft  in  Deutschland,"  ("The 
Struggle  for  Power  in  Germany  ") — had 
given  him  a  prominent  position  among 
German  writers  in  this  field. 

The  Heart  of  Gambetta 

rpHE  heart  of  that  great  Frenchman, 
-*-  Gambetta,  is  to  be  transferred  to  the 
Pantheon  in  September,  according  to  an 
official  announcement  made  by  the 
French  Government  on  July  8.  On  Sept. 
4,  commemorating  the  half  century  of 
the  French  Republic,  the  heart  of  the 
man  who  was  the  incarnation  of  France's 
patriotic  faith  and  whose  stirring 
speeches  comforted  the  French  people 
after  the  national  humiliation  of  1870 
will  be  taken  from  Les  Jardies  and 
brought  to  the  Pantheon,  where  France's 


greatest  lie.  The  heart,  inclosed  in  an 
um  made  from  a  spruce  tree  taken  from 
the  Vosges,  has  been  at  Les  Jardies  since 
Gambetta's  death;  his  remains  still  lie 
at  Nice.  The  ceremony  of  transferring 
the  heart  of  the  leader  who,  like  Aeneas, 
never  despaired,  and  in  the  darkest 
hours  exhorted  his  people  to  "  keep 
themselves  for  better  things,"  will  be 
characterized  by  great  solemnity,  as  sym- 
bolizing the  definite  victory  of  democ- 
racy and  the  triumph  of  the  armies  of 
the  republic.  M.  Honnorat,  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction,  will  draw  up  the  pro- 
gram of  the  ceremony.  It  has  been 
planned  to  convey  Gambetta's  heart  to 
the  Arc  de  Triomphe  on  Sept.  3,  where 
it  will  be  guarded  by  the  veterans  who 
fought  in  the  war  of  1870,  and  who  will 
accompany  the  um  to  the  Pantheon  on 
the  following  day.  A  delegation  of 
Mayors   of   France   will   attend.      Victo- 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1031 


[English    Cartoon] 

THE  PERIPATETIC  ANGELS  OF  PEACE 


—From   The   Star,   London 


rious  poilus  will  march  between  the  lines 
of  the  1870  veterans  on  the  Place  de  la 
Nation,  and  illuminations  and  public  re- 
joicings will  end  this  national  festivity. 
*     *     * 

Anglo-French    Oil   Agreement 

AN  agreement  signed  by  Great  Britain 
and  France  at  San  Remo  on  April 

24  for  co-operation  and  reciprocity  with 
regard  to  Anglo-French  oil  interests  in 
Rumania,  Asia  Minor,  Russia,  Galicia 
and  the  French  and  British  colonies  was 
presented  textually  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment on  July  23.  An  equal  division  of  in- 
terests and  exploitation  in  Rumania  was 
provided  for.  For  Mesopotamia  Great 
Britain  grants  France  25  per  cent,  of 
the  net  output  of  crude  oil  at  current 
market  rates,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  pri- 
vate company,  a  25  per  cent,  share  of  the 
capital.  On  the  other  hand,  Great  Brit- 
ain agrees  to  support  France  in  getting 

25  per  cent,  of  the  Anglo-Persian  Com- 
pany's oil  piped  from  Persia  to  the  Med- 
iterranean     through      territory      under 


French  mandate.  France,  in  exchange, 
agrees  to  construct  two  special  pipe  lines 
and  branch  railways  for  the  transport  of 
oil  from  Mesopotamia  and  Persia  through 
French  spheres  of  influence  to  the  East- 
ern Mediterranean.  The  Mesopotamian 
provisions  are  in  recognition  of  French 
oil  interests  in  Mosul.  This  question  not 
so  long  ago  was  heatedly  discussed  in  the 
French  Senate,  and  the  necessity  of  safe- 
guarding French  oil  interests  in  the  Mo- 
sul region  against  British  claims  was  en- 
ergetically set  forth. 

*     *     * 

Red  Radicalism  in  the  United  States 
rpHE  trial  of  William  Bross  Lloyd, 
-■-  millionaire  Socialist  of  Chicago,  on 
charges  of  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  ended 
on  Aug.  2,  after  having  lasted  eighty- 
five  days.  The  defendant  was  found 
guilty  and  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine 
of  $3,000  and  to  be  imprisoned  in  the 
State  Penitentiary  at  Joliet  from  one  to 
five  years.     At  the  same  time  nineteen 


1032 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


[Dutch    Cartoon] 

DIVIDING  THE  TURKISH  CRESCENT 

My 


—From    De    Notenkraker,    Amsterdam 

Millerand  of  France:  "  We  should  share  alike.  You  only  gave  me  an  eighth!^* 
Lloyd  George  of  England:    "  Well,  do  you  want  the  moon?  " 


other  members  of  the  Communist  Labor 
Party  were  found  guilty  on  the  same 
count,  fined  and  sentenced  to  varying 
terms  of  imprisonment.  The  adoption 
of  the  Bolshevist  program  to  overthrow 
capitalistic  Governments  was  proved  by 
the  State. 

Lloyd,  a  Harvard  graduate,  who  in- 
herited wealth  from  his  father,  the  late 
Henry  D.  Lloyd,  a  Boston  philanthropist, 
was  put  on  trial,  together  with  thirty- 
seven  other  officers  of  the  Communist 
Labor  Party,  on  May  10.  He  was  in- 
dicted with  John  Reed,  also  a  graduate 
of  Harvard.  Among  the  other  men  in- 
dicted were  prominent  radicals,  whose 
movement    was    alleged    to    have    been 


fostered  by  Lloyd  as  one  of  several  per- 
sons of  inherited  wealth  and  no  occupa- 
tion. Several  of  those  indicted  fled  to 
Mexico.  Reed  went  to  Russia,  and  was 
subsequently  arrested  in  Finland  on  a 
charge  of  smuggling. 

In  his  opening  argument  the  Assistant 
State's  Attorney  charged  that  it  was 
the  intention  of  the  defendants  to  tear 
down  the  Stars  and  Stripes  and  to  sub- 
stitute the  red  flag  as  a  national  em- 
blem; to  annihilate  the  American  Gov- 
ernment and  establish  a  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat.  Laboring  men,  he 
charged,  were  urged  to  dynamite  the 
banks  and  arsenals  to  get  money  and 
arms  with  which  to  carry  on  the  fight 


CURRENT  HISTORY  IN  BRIEF— WITH  CARTOONS 


1033 


[German-Swiss  Cartoon] 

EBERT    THE    FORSAKEN 


—From  Nebelspalter,  Zurich 

Alone  in  the  German  internal  political  desert 


for  a  Soviet  system  of  government.    All 
the  convicted  men  were  allowed  bail,  and 
were  planning  to  appeal  for  a  new  trial. 
The    disposition    of    other    anarchistic 
Communists  remained  a  problem  for  the 
Government,    because    of    the    lack    of 
transportation.      Toward   the   middle   of 
July   some   500   aliens   ordered   deported 
during  the  first  six  months  of  the  year 
by   the    Department    of    Labor    still    re- 
mained   in    the    country    through    this 
cause.     About  100  were  awaiting  depor- 
tation at  Ellis  Island  at  the  end  of  July. 
Frederick   A.   Wallis,   the  new   Commis- 
sioner of  Immigration,  said  at  that  time: 
When   a  man  has  had  a  chance  to  help 
build   up  this   country,   and   fails   to  help, 
turning  his  energies  toward  pulling  down. 


our  institutions,  he  is  not  only  an  ingrate, 
but  a  betrayer  of  the  nation's  confidence. 
The  best  way  to  get  rid  of  him,  after  a 
fair  trial  in  court,  is  the  quickest  way.  I 
intend  to  make  short  work  of  these  Bol- 
shevist deportees. 

Hearings  to  determine  whether  Lud- 
wig  C.  A.  K.  Martens,  the  unrecognized 
Ambassador  of  the  Soviet  Republic, 
should  also  be  deported,  were  continu- 
ing at  Ellis  Island  at  the  end  of  July. 
Before  the  hearing  of  July  29  Martens 
declared  that  he  would  continue  to  re- 
fuse to  answer  questions  put  by  Govern- 
ment officials,  on  the  ground  of  his  al- 
leged diplomatic  status,  which,  he  as- 
serted, made  him*immune  to  deporta- 
tion. 


1034 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


[German -Swiss  Cartoon] 

THE    WORLD    SITUATION 


Europe  dances  madly,  at  leisure,  for  the  In    Asia    everytiiing    goes    according-    to 

grave;  is  already  dug.  plan.     This  little  fellow  is  steadily  develop- 

ing into  the  real  yellow  peril. 


@wr 

Mf^^ 

< 

h|! 

■VT?) 

//~^        vT"^ 

J^. 

^^^         ^S^ 

America  is  scarcely  recognizable.  Hoarded 
food  and  money  have  made  him  so  fat  that 
he  is  near  the  bursting  point.  Let's  hope 
he  will  soon  burst ;  we  may  then  stand  a 
chance  of  getting  food  and  money. 


— Ncbelspalter,     Zurich 

In   Africa   things   are   fine.      The   negroes, 

having  become  rich  through  their  salvation 

of  freedom,  justice  and  morality,   are  now 

able   to   engage   white   servants. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 

Current  History  undertakes  in  thi^  department  to  publish  such  open  letters  as  it  con- 
siders of  general  interest.  No  letter  will  be  used  without  the  tvame  and  address  of  the 
writer.  On  conti^oversial  questions  it  will  be  the  aim  to  give  all  sides  an  equai  chanoe  at 
representation;  Current  History,  however,  aiming  to  record  events  as  nearly  as  possible 
Without  comment  or  bias,  does  not  necessarily  indorse  opinions  contained  in  these  letters 


A  REPLY  TO  MR.  BURROUGHS 

To  the  Editm-  of  Cur-rent  History: 

In  Current  History  for  July  John  Bur- 
roughs pays  his  respects  to  Professor  Paul 
Rohrbach  in  no  uncertain  terms.  He  pro- 
longs the  note  of  international  discord  and 
continues  to  sing  that  song  of  hate  that 
should  be  consigned  to  oblivion.  It  strikes 
the  casual  reader,  however,  that  had  Mr. 
Burroughs  been  less  vindictive  and  more 
judicious,  more  historical  and  philosophical, 
he  might  have  gained  a  more  patient  hear- 
ing. 

The  war  is  over  and  the  time  is  past  for 
the  uttering  of  spleneticisms  against  Ger- 
many or  any  other  country.  What  the  intel- 
ligent world  now  demands— and  the  demand 
is  just— is  judicial  investigation,  historical 
fairness,  an  honest  balancing  of  accounts,  an 
unbiased  presentation  of  the  real  facts  so 
far  as  they  have  been  discovered,  and  reason- 
able conclusions  drawn  therefrom.  A  verbal 
exhibition  of  acerbity  of  soul  convinces  no 
one ;  the  language  of  hate  is  not  argument, 
it  is  always  discordant,  seldom  historical, 
never  judicial.  When  private  or  public  neces- 
sity demands  that  we  inflict  wounds  upon 
the  person  or  heart  of  an  enemy,  the  com- 
monest kind  of  altruism  and  Christian  char- 
ity demands,  the  necessity  having  ceased  to 
exist,  that  we  assist  in  healing  those 
wounds. 

The  amount  of  blame,  if  any,  ti,at  attaches 
to  each  nation  for  its  part  in  causing  the 
war  cannot  be  adequately  discussed  in  a 
communication  necessarily  so  limited ;  but 
it  is  now  certain  from  well  attested  facts  of 
history  that  no  one  of  the  great  nations  of 
Europe  can  prove  a  complete  alibi ;  all  have 
left  fingerprints  on  European  diplomacy 
which  will  condemn  them  long  after  their 
war  camouflage  and  soi.gs  of  hate  have 
been  consigned  to  oblivion,  and  the  world,  let 
us   hope,    has   become   more,  altruistic. 

The  vindictive  misrepresentation  of  Ger- 
many has,  perhaps,  been  nowhev^  more  ap- 
parent than  in  many  rhetorical  flourishes  in 
denunciation  of  German  Kultur,  almost 
without  exception  leaving  the  impression  that 
Kultur  is  not  far  removed  from  barbarism. 
The  Standard  Dictionary  informs  us  that 
Kultur  means  progress,  achievement,  effi- 
ciency in  all  phases,  practical  or  theoretical, 
of  social,  scientific,  political,  economic  or 
artistic  life.  It  includes  the  processes  in- 
volved and  the  material  and  mental  results 
obtained.  The  word  Kultur,  therefore, 
means  all,  or  practically  all,  the  human 
mind    occupies    itself   with.      This   word   has 


no  synonym  in  the  English  language,  and 
our  word  culture  suggests  but  a  very  small 
fraction  of  the  meaning  suggested  by  the 
German  word.  It  has  been  the  fashion  in 
America  to  denounce  this  German  Kultur 
in  the  most  bitter  terms  as  the  mainspring 
of  all  the  moral,  social,  religious  and  political 
debauchery  that  has  characterized  Europe 
for  many  decades.  That  this  picture,  or 
caricature,  of  Kultur  has  been  extravagantly 
overdrawn  is  proved  by  the  testimony  of 
such  an  unimpeachable  witness  as  Lloyd 
George.  In  a  speech  on  Jan.  28,  1916,  he 
said: 

"  I  think  that  America  and  all  of  us  should 
realize  that  there  were  two  Germanys  before 
the  war.  On  one  hand,  there  was  the  in- 
dustrial, commercial  and  intellectual  Ger- 
many, and  in  a  most  remarkable  way  she 
had  blended  the  three  elements.  Now,  that 
Germany  was  rendering  a  great  service  to 
civilization.  It  was  conquering  the  world  by 
the  success  of  its  methods  and  example. 
That  conquest  would  have  proved  a  very 
genuine  blessing;  it  would  have  been  the 
means  of  saving  some  of  the  terrible  waste 
from  which  most  of  the  social  evils  of  hu- 
manity are  spreading.  As  an  ardent  social 
reformer  I  freely  confess  I  was  learning  a 
good  deal  from  that  side  of  Germany,  par- 
ticularly in  the  direction  of  municipal  and 
national  organization.  *  *  *  The  Germany 
of  quiet,  pacific  development,  the  Germany 
that  was  concerning  herself  with  the  im- 
provement of  the  condition  of  her  people, 
the  Germany  that  was  increasing  her  demo- 
crats by  the  million  at  each  successive  elec- 
tion, would  vanish  from  the  sight  of  this 
generation  "  [if  the  militarists  should  win 
in    this    war]. 

That  industrial,  commercial  and  intellectual 
Germany,  that  Germany  of  peaceful,  quiet 
development— probably  not  less  than  80  per 
cent,  of  the  German  people— represented  Ger- 
man Kultur,  and  Lloyd  George  spoke  with  an 
open  mind  and  heart  in  just  praise  of  it. 
That  was  the  Kultur  which  the  German  Em- 
peror in  1894,  I  believe  it  was,  said  was 
destined  to  conquer  the  world,  and  which 
Lloyd  George  said  in  1916  was  conquering 
the  world  before  the  war,  at  least. 

Mr.  Burroughs  says:  "  We  are  not  through 
with  the  Huns  yet.  They  cannot  change  and 
do  not  want  to  change."  I  quite  agree.  That 
Kultur  of  which  Lloyd  George  speaks  so 
highly  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  German's 
nature;  he  can  no  more  divest  himself  of 
the  desire  to  be  thorough,  efficient  and  ef- 
fective  in   everything  he   does   than   he   can 


1036 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


divest  himself  of  the  desire  for  food.  As  a 
result  of  this  psychological  attribute,  if  the 
German  must  have  a  machine  it  must  be  the 
best  producible ;  if  he  must  have  an  organiza- 
tion it  must  be  efficient;  if  he  must  have 
an  army  and  a  navy  they  must  be  better 
than  others.  It  is  puerile  to  attribute  the 
German  desire  for  efficiency  to  a  barbarous 
desire   to   kill   and   to   conquer. 

Whether  or  not  Germany  was  actually  sur- 
rounded by  a  cordon  of  hostile  nations,  one 
thing-  is  certain— the  utterances  of  the  British 
press  and  statesmen  for  many  years  before 
tlie  war  tended  strongly  to  convince  Germany 
that  that  was  the  real  object  of  British 
diplomacy.  For  instance,  William  T.  Stead, 
then  England's  greatest  editor,  said:  "  While 
Great  Britain  continues  to  rule  the  seas  the 
German  head  is  in  the  British  lion's  mouth." 
Germany  and  all  the  rest  of  Europe  believed 
that  Mr.  Stead  spoke  the  truth.  Later,  when 
Lord  Haldane  visited  Germany  and  demand- 
ed of  the  Emperor  and  his  Chancellor  that 
they  promise  him  that  Germany  would  build 
no  more  warships,  and  they  refused,  he  said: 
"  If  Germany  builds  more  warships,  England 
will  build  two  to  her  one."  Germany  must 
then  have  understood  that  the  purpose  of 
Great  Britain  was  to  keep  the  German  head 
in,  the  British  lion's  mouth.  The  situation 
for.^jG^ermany  must  have  been  intolerable. 

^;  J.    W.    LOCKHART. 

St-   John,  Wash.,  July  16,   1920. 


THE  GREEKS  IN  ASIA  MINOR 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

Less  than  a  week  ago  in  Smyrna  a  friend 
said  to  me,  "  The  Greek  Army  is  standing 
with  one  foot  off  the  ground,  ready  to  move 
forward."  Today  the  big  map  of  Asia  Minor 
on  my  office  wall  has  small  Greek  flags 
marking  many  cities  far  in  advance  of  the 
Greek  frontier  of  last  week.  For  many 
months  the  Greeks  had  faced  a  most  peculiar 
situation.  They  had  occupied  a  territory  with 
a  large  army,  with  all  necessary  force,  and 
yet  were  held  in  leash  by  a  small  body  of 
representatives  who  were  waiting  in  San 
Remo  for  the  Turkish  Government,  whatever 
that  is,  to  ajree  to  formal  terms  of  peace. 

In  the  meantime  in  S-^yrna  the  Turks  had 
their  own  telegraph  office ;  their  flags  were 
being  used  promiscuously  over  buildings  and 
ship<^  During  the  great  religious  festival 
about  the  middle  of  June  the  Turks  were 
allowed  freedom  in  discharging  cannon,  in 
marching  about  the  cities  and  giving  patri- 
otic demonstrations.  A  prominent  Greek  Gen- 
eral said  to  i-.e  that  the  Greeks  did  not 
wish  to  interfere  with  any  religious  cere- 
monies of  the  Turks.  Perhaps  the  most 
tantalizing  position  in  which  the  Greek  was 
thrown  was  when  he  had  to  hold  his  sta- 
tions at  the  front  and  see  bands  of  Turkish 
brigands  massing  their  forces,  bringing  up 
munitions  and  supplies  in  preparation  to 
attack  him,  yet  was  powerless  to  attempt  an 
earlier  countermovement. 


A  few  days  ago  a  Turkish  ammunition 
train  was  captured  near  Kinik  because  it 
was  passing  over  allied  territory.  Skirmishes 
have  been  taking  place  for  months  along  the 
front. 

The  foot  which  has  been  off  the  ground 
has  taken  a  forward  step.  The  large  cannon 
which  have  stood  loaded  and  ready  are  being 
rolled  across  the  bridges  recently  reinforced 
for  this  purpose.  The  big  trucks  which  I 
have  recently  seen  standing  in  line  loaded 
with  provisions  and  ammunition,  with  the 
chauffeurs  at  the  wheels,  are  today  carrying 
these  supplies  to  the  rapidly  advancing 
Greek  troops.  The  large  camps  which  for 
months  have  been  teeming  with  the  restless 
Greek  soldiers  are  today  left  deserted.  Again 
the  race  which  once  followed  Miltiades  to 
Marathon  and  Alexander  the  Great  to  Baby- 
lon are  marching  across  the  mountains  and 
valleys  of  Asia  Minor.  After  500  years  of 
slavery  the  Greek  is  bursting  his  shackles, 
literally,  because  the  army  of  occupation  is 
largely  composed  of  the  Greeks  of  Asia 
Minor,  who  have  endured  untold  sufferings 
at  the  hands  of  their  Turkish  masters.  It 
looks  now  as  if  the  question  of  the  Balkans 
and  Asia  Minor  would  be  settled,  and  in  the 
only  way  which  the  peoples  of  this  country 
understand. 

Turmoil  and  unrest,  massacres  and  priva- 
tions ran  riot  in  this  country  while  the 
great  nations  discussed  self-determination 
and  benevolent  mandates.  The  American 
people  have  said  much,  but  acted  not  at  all; 
the  English  have  contented  themselves  with 
holding  the  much-coveted  Constantinople  ;  the 
French  have  woefully  fallen  down  in  Cilicia, 
and  no  wonder,  with  all  the  irons  they  had  in 
the  fire ;  the  Italians  seem  tired  of  the  part 
they  were  to  play,  and  have  apparently  lost 
much  of  their  interest.  The  peoples  of  the 
Balkan  States  have  reverted  to  their  natural 
way  of  settling  such  difficulties,  except  that 
there  is  very  marked  evidence  of  a  humane 
standard  being  set  up  and  a  strong  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  Greek  directors,  both 
military  and  civil,  to  administer  these  occu- 
pied territories  in  a  most  benevolent  manner. 

M.     A.     HENDERSON, 
General  Director  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  with 
Greek     Army,     44     Metropolitan     Street, 
Athens,    Greece,    June   30,    1920. 


CORRECTION  FROM  DEMETRA  VAKA 

To  the  Editm-  of  Current  History: 

In  your  number  of  Julv,  1920,  on  Page  621, 
you  have  a  map  of  Greece.  Under  that  map 
you  write:  "  The  Dodecanese  Islands,  marked 
'  to  Italy  '  on  the  map,  were  at  once  handed 
over  to  Greece  by  the  Italians."  Now,  this 
is  a  misstatement.  First  of  all  they  were 
not  handed  at  once.  They  were  the  cause 
of  a  great  deal  of  bargaining,  and  at  the 
end  Italy  kept  Rhodes,  which  is  practically 
the  only  island  that  counts.  Italy  assertJ 
that  she  will  hand  it  over  to  Greece  only 
when  Great  Britain  hands  over  Cyprus!    We 


CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  READERS 


1037 


look  to  your  magazine  for  accuracy.  The 
fact  that  in  your  accompanying  article  you 
correct — more  or  less — the  statement  quoted 
above  does  not  excuse  you  for  having  said 
what  you  did  under  the  map.  We  must  have 
faith  in  you,  and  not  be  left  to  wonder, 
when  we  read  you,  whether  you  are  well 
informed  or  not. 

DEMETRA  KENNETH-BROWN 
(DEMETRA  VAKA), 
The  Arundel,   Kennebunkport,  Me.,  July  16, 
1920. 


THE  ANTI-AMERICAN  FEELING  IN 
PANAMA 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

In  a  recent  issue  of  your  magazine  there 
appeared  an  article  entitled  "  Panamanian- 
American  Relations  in  Chirique,"  by 
Elbridge  Colby.  Most  of  the  gentleman's 
statements  were  correct.  The  Hay-Varilla 
treaty  is  an  iron  one,  and  though  the  iron 
enter  our  souls  we  must  grin  and  bear  it, 
for  there  is  no  use  kicking  against  the  pricks. 
The  anti-American  feeling  in  the  republic 
was  fostered  by  the  Americans  themselves 
when  they  came ;  we  opened  our  arms  to 
receive  them,  but  they  shrunk  away  within 
themselves  and,  looking  down  from  the 
heights  of  their  "  superiority,"  termed  us 
"  an  inferior  people,"  nicknaming  us  "  Spig- 
gotys,"  or  "  Spigs."  Such  action  on  their 
part  could  hardly  create  a  pro-American 
feeling  among  a  sensitive  people. 

It  is  on  account  of  patriotic  prompting 
that  I  pen  these  lines,  in  the  hope  that  I 
may  correct  an  error  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Colby.  He  states  that,  "  when  General  Persh- 
ing visited  the  Panama  Canal  on  May  3, 
the  Panamanians  turned  out  in  a  torch- 
light parade  in  large  numbers  to  protest 
against  the  taking  of  the  Island  of  Taboga 
by  the  United  States  military  authorities. 
They  halted  the  automobile,  in  which  the 
General  was  going  to  the  ball  given  in  his 
honor  at  the  Union  Club,  and  forced  it  to 
return  to  Ms  hotel."  Why  did  General 
Pershing  return  to  his  hotel?  Was  it  be- 
cause the  great  hero  of  the  European  war 
was  afraid  of  a  handful  of  unarmed  Panama 
civilians,  who  did  not  wish  to  cause  a  riot, 
and  who  were  only  seizing  the  opportunity 
to  voice  their  protest  in  the  presence  of  a 
man  whom  they  knew  America  held  in  high 
esteem?  It  seems  hardly  possible.  A  riot 
was  impossible,  as  there  were  doubtless  hun- 
dreds of  United  States  soldiers  in  the  city, 
come  to  see  the  hero;  they  would  soon  have 
knocked  the  few  "  Spigs "  silly  for  that 
hero's  sake!  On  the  other  hand,  did  the 
General  allow  the  cold  reception  of  an  "  in- 
ferior people  "  to  annoy  him  so  much  that 
he  returned  to  his  hotel?  I  think  this  latter 
reason  is  the  true  one,  and  that  Mr.  Colby 
had  an  erroneous  conception  of  the  facts. 
He  looked  at  the  question  through  prejudiced 
American  eyes. 
Taboga  is  dear  to  the  poor  people  who  live 


there.  If  the  Americans  take  the  place  the 
islanders  will  be  turned  out  of  their  homes 
and  they  are  afraid  that  the  remuneration 
they  will  receive  will  be  about  a  quarter  of 
its  meagre  value,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
landowners  at  Mount  Hope  when  the  Gov- 
ernment took  over  the  land.  But  God  is  in 
His  heaven,  and  the  Mount  Mope  people  have 
seen  swift  retribution  fall  on  the  man  who 
was  instrumental  in  undervaluing  their 
land. 

Oh,  when  will  the  North  American  cease 
to  show  up  only  the  despicable  side  of  Latin 
America? 

SANTIAGO  CECELIO  RODRIGUEZ. 

Panama,  July  14,  1920. 


REFORMS  IN  BULGARIA 

To  the  Editor  of  Current  History: 

The  following  news  item  in  the  American 
paper.  The  Orient,  published  in  Constanti- 
nople, on  June  19,  1920,  has  been  read  with 
great  satisfaction  by  Bulgarians  in  the 
United  States: 

"  Bulgaria  is  embarking  on  a  new  and 
most  interesting  program,  which  deserves  our 
attention.  A  bill,  fostered  by  the  Premier, 
Alexander  Stambolisky,  and  his  agrarian 
party,  is  before  the  Parliament  and  will 
probably  pass.  It  embodies  some  progressive 
social  experiments  which,  if  put  into  opera- 
tion, should  very  soon  make  Bulgaria  one  of 
the  most  prosperous  of  the  Balkan  States. 
The  bill  involves  the  drafting  of  the  young 
men  of  what  we  have  been  accustomed-  to 
term  military  age  for  service  as  laborers  in- 
stead of  as  soldiers;  they  are  then  to  be 
grouped  according  to  choice  or  ability  and 
set  at  various  tasks  under  the  direction  of 
experts.  Some  will  carry  out  irrigation 
schemes  in  arid  districts;  some  will  reforest 
denuded  mountain  sides ;  some  will  build 
roads  and  railways,  or  schoolhouses  and 
public  buildings ;  some  will  w^ork  the  Govern- 
ment mines  and  others  communal  tracts  of 
land.  During  such  service  the  young  men 
will  have  the  advantage  of  lectures,  evening 
classes    and    other    means    of    improvement. 

"  In  place  of  maintaining  a  standing  army, 
which  destroys  millions  of  pounds  of  ammu- 
nition in  target  practice  yearly  and  can  per- 
form no  productive  labor,  the  country  will 
be  supporting  an  equal  standing  army  which 
is  receiving  the  best  sort  of  training  in  agri- 
culture and  public  works  and  is  producing 
results  that  will  enrich  the  country  by  de- 
veloping its  resources. 

"  Such  a  progressive  step  shows  the  truly 
peaceful  aspirations  of  Bulgaria  and  is  a 
guarantee  in  itself  for  the  future  peace  of 
the  Balkans.  Instead  of  nourishing  revenge 
in  their  hearts  because  of  the  lopping  off  of 
regions  they  consider  as  purely  Bulgarian 
in  population;  instead  of  preparing  an  army 
for  future  retaliation,  or  for  '  redemption  ' 
of  their  '  enslaved  '  brethren,  the  Bulgarians 
are  doing  their  very  best  for  the  commercial 
and  economic  prosperity  of  what  is  left  to 
them.     Bravo,  Bulgaria !     We  hope  we  may 


1038 


THE   NEW   YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


soon  hear  that  this  compulsory  labor  bill  has 
passed  and  is  being  put  in  operation;  and  we 
confidently  look  for  an  era  of  unprecedented 
prosperity  for  this  progressive  and  much- mis- 
represented nation." 


This  bill  has  since  been  passed  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  is  now  a  law. 
EM.  ANASTASSOFF. 

505  World  Building.,  New  York  City,  Aug. 
5,  1920. 


Italy's  Most  Socialistic  City 


T  N  an  article  published  by  the  Vossische 
■*■  Zeitung  and  reproduced  in  translation 
by  The  Living  Age  in  its  issue  of  July 
31  Mario  Passarge  describes  present-day 
Bologna,  which  he  calls  the  Red  City  of 
Italy.    He  explains: 

Bologna  is  the  Red  City  of  Italy,  the 
centre  of  Socialist  power  and  agitation; 
its  people  and  those  of  the  surrounding 
country  are  overwhelmingly  Socialist.  Its 
Mayor  is  a  Socialist,  its  Aldermen  are 
Socialists,  and  even  its  middle-class  citi- 
zens, though  they  belong  nominally  to 
other  parties,  are  more  or  less  touched 
with  the  spirit  of  Socialism. 

By  a  curious  contrast,  Bologna,  seat  of 

a  famous  old  university,  has  become 

a  hive  of  business,  full  of  people  inspired 
with  the  joy  of  living  and  the  passions  of 
the  day.  They  have  gone  as  far  with 
socialization  as  it  is  possible  to  go  under  a 
non-Socialist  Government.  None  the  less, 
the  shops  invite  the  customers  with  richer 
and  more  attractive  show-window  displays 
than  in  any  other  great  city  of  Italy. 
Graceful  automobiles  glide  by;  the  thea- 
tres are  going  full  blast;  wealth  displays 
itself  everywhere;  poverty  keeps  out  of 
sight.  *  *  *  No  one  denies  that  Bologna 
has  the  best  municipal  administration  in 
Italy.  One  street  has  been  christened 
Spartacus  Street.  *  *  *  The  People's 
Theatre  plays  for  the  proletariat. 

Public  restaurants  dispense  food  at  a 
lower  rate  than  in  any  other  city,  this 
writer  observes.  The  town's  atmosphere 
of  contentment  is  a  relief  after  the  de- 
pressing aspects  of  other  Italian  cities. 
And  yet  the  Socialist  leaders  are  serious- 
ly alarmed  by  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try as  a  whole,  and  the  eventual  ex- 
plosion is  feared  by  them  as  much  if  not 


more  than  it  is  desired.  Signor  Passarge 
says: 

The  country  is  in  a  ferment  and  the  con- 
troversies between  the  peasants  and  the 
land  owners  are  so  bitter  that  there  is  lit- 
tle hope  of  compromise.  First  the  peas- 
ants organized,  then  the  landlords  imi- 
tated their  example.  But  the  organized 
peasants  refused  to  deal  with  the  organized 
proprietors.  They  realize  their  power, 
and  are  determined  to  break  up  the  as- 
sociation formed  by  their  opponents. 
Crops  are  not  harvested  and  cattle  are 
dying.  I  discussed  this  serious  situation 
with  one  of  the  Socialist  leaders.  He  was 
seriously  concerned.  The  Socialists  had 
organized  this  powerful  society  of  men  of 
the  plow  and  sickle,  but  found  it  difficult 
to  guide  that  society's  policy.  The  peas- 
ants are  to  own  the  land.  That  is  univer- 
sally agreed.  But  the  idea  that  the  peas- 
ant is  to  work  for  the  community  under 
Socialist  regime,  just  as  the  factory  opera- 
tive has  to  work  for  the  community,  pre- 
sents itself  to  these  humble  countrymen  as 
a  return  to  compulsory  feudal  sei'vice.  So 
there  is  plenty  of  tinder  to  start  a  big 
blaze. 

I  am  told  that  no  one  wants  an  explosion. 
People  here  do  not  confound  the  colors 
of  flame  and  blood  with  the  colors  of  roses. 
The  leaders  keep  telling  me:  "  These  men 
of  the  masses  do  not  know  what  they  want 
to  do,  and  they  do  not  know  what  they  are 
doing."  Claudius  Treves,  the  Socialist 
delegate  to  Parliament,  whose  name  is  so 
identified  with  this  city,  recently  said  in  an 
address  before  that  body:  "  You  bour- 
geoisie are  no  longer  competent  to  run  the 
Government;  we  Socialists  know  that  our 
rank  and  file  are  not  yet  competent  to  take 
the  task  from  your  hands.  That  is  the 
tragedy. ' ' 

Meanwhile  Bologna  continues  to  be  a 
city  of  industrious  men  who  work  hard 
and  live  well;  therein,  says  Signor  Pas- 
sarge, lies  the  best  guarantee  of  the 
future. 


Ireland's  Reign  of  Terror— and  .Why 

By  JOHN  W.  HARDING 

[American  Correspondent  op  London  Chronicle] 

**  While  in  the  act  of  crossing  himself,  having  dipped  his  fingers  in  the  holy 
water  font,  Police  Sergeant  Mulhern,  Chief  of  the  Intelligence  Department  of 
West  Cork,  was  shot  dead  in  a  church  at  Bandon  by  two  masked  m.en  hiding 
on  the  porch  who  fired  several  revolver  shots  at  him  and  then  escaped." — Neivs  Item. 


IF  the  foregoing  has  attracted  the 
passing  attention  of  the  newspaper 
reader  it  is  because  of  the  unusually 
dramatic  features  of  the  crime. 
Yet  it  is  merely  an  incident  in  a  shock- 
ing and  prolonged  reign  of  terror  in 
Ireland  that  has  failed  to  arouse  so 
much  as  an  apathetic  interest  in  the 
American  public,  and  until  the  last  few 
weeks  even  in  the  public  of  Great 
Britain,  whom  it  affects  nearly  and 
vitally. 

The  reason  for  this  is,  of  course,  that 
the  public  mind  in  both  countries  is 
blase — "  fed  up,"  as  our  cousins  across 
the  Atlantic  would  say — with  the  hor- 
rors of  the  World  War  and  of  the  Bol- 
shevist terror  in  Russia,  which  is  an 
outcome  of  it. 

Belgium  under  the  heel  of  the  Kaiser 
and  Petrograd  under  the  yoke  of  Lenin 
and  Trotzky  have,  in  fact,  furnished  a 
hardly  less  terrible  spectacle  of  cow- 
ardly ferocity  than  does  Southern  Ire- 
land under  the  rule  of  the  Sinn  Fein. 
For  under  the  rule  of  that  revolution- 
ary organization  it  unquestionably  is. 
The  power  for  the  time  being  has 
passed  from  Dublin  Castle  to  the 
leaders  of  the  republican  movement. 
South  of  the  division  of  Ulster  nearly 
all  the  County  and  District  Councils 
have  proclaimed  allegiance  to  the  Dail 
Eireann,  or  Irish  Parliament.  Three 
grades  of  courts  for  civil  and  criminal 
cases  have  been  set  up.  Military  areas 
have  been  established  in  which  by 
proclamation  of  the  "  Irish  Republic " 
it  is  decreed  that: 

Every  person  in  the  pay  of  England 
(Magistrates,  jurors,  &c.)  wiio  lielps  Eng- 
land to  rule  this  country  or  who  assists 
in  any  way  the  upholders  of  the  foreign 
Government  will  be  deemed  to  have  for- 
feited his  life. 
Civilians   who    give    information    to    the 


police  or  soldiery,  especially  such  informa- 
tion as  is  of  a  serious  character,  if  con- 
victed, will  be  executed;  i.  e.,  shot  or 
hanged. 

Police,  doctors  or  prison  officials  who 
assist  at,  or  who  countenance,  or  who  are 
responsible  for,  or  who  are  in  any  way 
connected  with,  the  drugging  of  an  Irish 
citizen  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  infor- 
mation will  be  deemed  to  have  forfeited 
their  lives  and  may  be  hanged  or  drowned 
or  shot  at  sight,   as  common  outlaws. 

TYPICAL  OUTRAGES 

A  British  Government  White  Paper, 
issued  in  April,  recorded  1,089  outrages 
during  the  first  three  months  of  the 
year,  including  36  cases  of  murder.  Since 
then  these  crimes  have  steadily  increased 
in  number  and  audacity,  until  recent  un- 
official figures  placed  them  at  3,000,  in- 
cluding 70  murders.  To  cite  a  few  of  the 
most  sensational  and  cold-blooded: 

There  was  the  doing  to  death  in  March 
of  Alan  Bell,  a  70-year-old  Magistrate, 
who,  because  he  presided  over  an  in- 
quiry into  the  dealings  of  the  Sinn  Fein 
with  Irish  banks,  was  dragged  from  a 
street  car,  where  he  had-  been  reading  a 
newspaper,  and  riddled  with  revolver  bul- 
lets by  a  small  group  of  men.  There 
was  the  assassination  of  Colonel  Smyth, 
a  gallant  war  veteran,  decorated  with  the 
Victoria  Cross,  who  had  been  appointed 
Divisional  Commissioner  for  Munster  of 
the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary.  He  was 
shot  dead  while  sitting  chatting  with 
friends  in  the  Cork  Country  Club  by  in- 
truders, who  burst  in  suddenly.  Recently 
Frank  Brooke,  Chairman  of  the  Dublin 
&  Southeastern  Railway  Company  and 
Deputy  Lieutenant  for  County  Wicklow, 
was  murdered  in  his  office  at  the  com- 
pany's headquarters  in  Dublin.  And  less 
tragic  in  its  first  effects,  which  were  in- 
deed not  without  humor,  was  the  capture 
on  June  27  of  General  Lucas,  who  was 


1040 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


peaceably  fishing  at  the  time,  and  who 
escaped  a  month  later,  the  escape  being 
attended  by  the  killing  of  two  soldiers 
and  the  wounding  of  three  others  during 
an  attempt  to  recapture  him. 

The  list  of  crimes  that  have  terrorized 
more  especially  the  Counties  of  Leinster, 
Connaught,  Cork,  Kerry  and  Munster 
runs  very  nearly  the  whole  gamut.  It 
includes,  in  addition  to  murders,  the 
burning  of  Court  Houses  and  tax  offices, 
with  their  records,  all  over  South  Ireland, 
attacks  with  bombs  and  firearms  on  po- 
lice stations,  robberies  of  mail  trains, 
firing  into  houses,  burning  of  private 
residences,  seizing  of  land  and  farms, 
driving  off  of  cattle,  boycotting  and  raids 
for  arms,  in  which  old  men,  women  and 
children  are  pulled  from  their  beds  and 
made  to  face  the  wall  while  revolvers  are 
pressed  against  their  heads,  and  they 
are  threatened  with  death  if  they  look 
around  or  give  information.  To  such  an 
extent  has  this  terrorism  been  practiced 
that  Magistrates  and  members  of  the 
Constabulary  have  resigned  in  large 
numbers  in  the  absence  of  adequate  pro- 
tection, and  few  recruits  have  been  in- 
duced to  replace  the  vacancies  in  the  po- 
lice ranks. 

AMERICAN   SENTIMENT 

"  Why,"  the  writer  was  asked  the  other 
day  by  an  American  business  man, 
"  does  the  British  Government  allow  this 
state  of  things  to  continue  ?  Why  doesn't 
it  give  Ireland  home  rule — real  home 
rule  of  the  Dominion  kind — and  have 
done  with  it?  What  is  the  matter  with 
the  British  anyway  ?  " 

Like  many  another  busy  reader  of 
newspapers,  the  questioner's  knowledge 
of  the  problem  was  superficial.  The 
sympathies  of  the  average  American 
have,  on  general  principles,  always  been 
with  the  aspirations  of  the  Irish  for  self- 
government.  He  has  from  boyhood  heard 
about  the  terrible  oppression  their  "  dis- 
tressful country  "  is  groaning  under.  He 
has  heard  the  "  Wearing  of  the  Green  " 
wheezed  or  rattled  out  by  every  hurdy- 
gurdy,  ancient  and  modern.  He  has  had 
the  misrepresentations  of  the  profes- 
sional Irish  "  patriots, '  who  for  genera- 
tions have  made  a  fat  living  here  by  agi- 
tation, dinned  into  his  ears.     But  he  has 


never  taken  the  trouble — simply  because, 
as  has  been  said,  he  has  lacked  the  nec- 
essary interest — to  find  out  for  himself 
whether  or  to  what  extent  these  charges 
against  England  have  been  justified. 
Knowing  the  geographical  relation  of 
Ireland  to  Great  Britain,  however,  his 
concept  of  self -government  for  the  Emer- 
ald Isle  has  rarely  gone  beyond  that  of 
the  freedom  of  managing  its  own  af- 
fairs enjoyed  by  the  several  States  un- 
der our  own  Constitution. 

BRITISH    PUBLICS    ATTITUDE 

The  attitude  of  the  average  Briton  is 
an  equally  tolerant  one  at  bottom.  To 
him  the  periodical  recrudescence  of  the 
Irish  question  is  an  affliction  as  un- 
escapable  as  death.  He  always  asso- 
ciates it  with  agitators  in  Ireland,  and 
especially  in  the  United  States,  who  find 
it  to  their  interest  to  keep  the  fires  of 
revolt  smoldering,  and  at  intervals  to 
fan  them  into  a  conflagration.  He  is 
justly  proud  of  the  great  national  em- 
pire system,  and  satisfied  with  the  form 
of  government  he  lives  under,  which  he 
conceives  to  be  the  best  in  the  world. 
He  knows  that  every  Irishman  shares, 
or  can  share  if  he  wants  to,  in  equal  de- 
gree his  own  rights  and  privileges,  and 
he  grumblingly  asks  himself  why  the 
people  of  the  South  cannot  find  happi- 
ness under  the  common  system. 

Aside  from  agitation  and  propaganda 
he  ascribes  their  discontent  to  the  tra- 
ditional restlessness  and  combativeness 
of  the  Irish  nature.  He  frankly  admits 
— ^how  could  he  do  otherwise? — that  Ire- 
land of  the  distant  past  was  the  object 
of  dreadful  tyranny  and  suppression  by 
England.  And  to  this  extent  he  deems 
that  the  rebellious,  vengeful  spirit  of 
those  ancient  times  was  a  good  deal  more 
than  justified.  He  cannot,  by  any  proc- 
ess of  reasoning,  comprehend  its  sur- 
vival to  this  day.  The  undoubted  hatred 
of  the  Southern  Irishman  for  him  is  not 
reciprocated — not  in  the  faintest  degree. 
It  puzzles  and  worries  him.  For  condi- 
tions long  since  have  changed  to  a  point 
where  he  sometimes  asks  himself 
whether  Ireland  is  not  being  pampered 
at  the  expense  of  other  sections  of  the 
United  Kingdom  in  the  desire  to  con- 
ciliate and  make  amends — the  plain,  un- 


IRELAND'S  REIGN  OF  TERROR— AND  WHY 


1041 


varnished  truth  is  that  it  is — and  he  is 
a  little  impatient  of  this  insistence  on 
time-moldered  wrongs. 

The  process  of  evolution  in  which  he 
has  become  resigned  to  the  home  rule 
idea  has  been  a  lengthy  one,  to  be  sure — 
far  too  lengthy,  as  he  now  is  disposed  to 
admit — but  it  is  complete.  As  far  as  he 
himself  is  concerned  he  is  willing  to 
hand  to  Ireland  on  a  silver  platter  the 
broadest  measure  of  self-government 
short  of  actual  independence  that  can 
be  drafted.  Beyond  that  he  will  never 
go,  nor  can  he  be  expected  to.  A  hostile 
Pacific  Coast  State  might  just  as  rea- 
sonably demand  separation  from  our 
Union.  If  Ireland  were  a  thousand  miles 
from  England's  shores  the  case  would  be 
different.  It  is  unlikely  that  he  would 
raise  any  objection  if  such  a  turbulent 
member  insisted  on  breaking  away  from 
the  family  circle.  As  it  is,  he  is  pre- 
pared to  make  any  concession  consistent 
with  what  he  judges  is  Great  Britain's 
self-preservation;  failing  this,  he  will, 
though  reluctantly  and  with  a  sad  heart, 
in  sheer  desperation,  assent  to  any  meas- 
ures of  main  force  that  may  be  neces- 
sary to  keep  Ireland  within  the  kingdom 
and  secure  from  possible  domination  by 
a  foreign  foe. 

This,  then,  is  the  mental  attitude  of 
the  average  Briton  toward  the  Irish  prob- 
lem. He  is  more  than  willing  to  do  his 
part.  He  wishes  the  Irish  factions  would 
help  along  the  desideratum  of  an  era  of 
definite  tranquillity  and  co-operation  by 
doing  theirs — that  is,  by  getting  together 
and  conducting  their  affairs  through  one 
local  Parliament  functioning  with  the 
loyal  support  of  all  the  people,  both  of 
the  Protestant  North  and  the  Catholic 
South. 

EFFORTS  FOR  HOME  RULE 

This  also  is  the  solution  desired  by  the 
British  Government,  which  has  done 
everything  possible  to  bring  it  about. 
In  1914,  forty-four  years  after  the  home 
rule  agitation  was  first  begun,  Mr.  As- 
quith,  then  Premier,  put  through  Parlia- 
ment a  bill  which  is  still  on  the  statutes, 
and  which  would  establish  an  Irish  Par- 
liament, leaving  the  six  counties  of 
Ulster  outside  its  jurisdiction  for  six 
years.  It  was  hoped  that  in  that  period 
Ulster  would  become  reconciled  to  the 


situation  and  rally  voluntarily  to  the 
Parliamentary  regime,  the  latter  having 
demonstrated  its  entire  competency  and 
its  good  faith  toward  the  North,  which 
lives  its  own  life  quite  apart.  In  any 
case,  the  six  counties  would,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  the  delay  fixed,  become  sub- 
ordinate to  the  Parliament. 

No  attempt  ever  has  been  made  to  put 
this  law  into  effect  for  the  reason  that 
Ulster  would  have  none  of  it.  It  result- 
ed in  a  provisional  government  being 
formed  at  Belfast  "to  hold  the  province 
in  trust  for  the  United  Kingdom,"  as  Sir 
Edward  Carson,  leader  of  the  insurrec- 
tion, proclaimed;  in  a  volunteer  army 
raised  and  every  preparation  made  to 
resist  to  the  last.  That  Ulster  was  in 
deadly  earnest  was  made  very  plain  to 
Westminster. 

DISLOYALTY   OF   THE  SOUTH 

But  then  came  the  World  War  and 
the  Lloyd  George  Government.  Having 
received  assurances  that  the  Home  Rule 
act  would  not  be  promulgated,  the  North 
"did  its  bit,"  and  Sir  Edward  Carson 
became  a  member  of  the  War  Cabinet. 
But  what  did  the  South  do?  It  seized 
the  opportunity  to  show  its  disloyalty 
by  intriguing  and  co-operating  with  the 
enemies  of  civilization  and  aidin<g  them 
by  resisting  the  conscription  law,  so  that 
it  would  have  meant  diverting  large 
forces  to  apply  it  at  the  time  the  En- 
tente armies  were  the  most  desperately 
in  need  of  men,  and  by  attempting  an 
uprising  in  1916  at  Dublin.  The  fact 
that  the  United  States,  from  which  the 
Home  Rule  Party  had  always  drawn  its 
sinews  of  war,  entered  the  conflict, 
thereby  proving  beyond  possibility  of 
doubt  that  the  cause  of  the  Allies  was 
just  and  Germany  a  universal  danger, 
made  no  difference.  For  the  sake  of  the 
record  it  must  be  recalled  that  while 
the  United  States  was  pouring  out  un- 
stintingly  its  blood  and  treasure,  while 
American  boys  were  dying  for  liberty  in 
Flanders  and  Argonne,  and  American 
sailors  were  risking  their  lives  every 
minute  to  overcome  the  terrible  menace 
of  the  submarine,  these  same  sailors 
were  insulted  and  assaulted  as  enemies 
by  South  of  Ireland  men. 

After  the  part  taken  by  Ulster  in  the 


1042 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


war  it  naturally  seemed  to  Lloyd  George 
that  it  would  be  the  extreme  of  ingrati- 
tude to  force  the  Home  Rule  act  on  Ul- 
ster, whose  determination  to  resist  it, 
arms  in  hand,  remained  unshaken.  He 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  convention  at 
which  delegates  from  the  North  and 
the  South  should  assemble  with  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Government  to  try  to 
reach  a  mutual  understanding.  This 
was  in  1917.  It  was  not  without  mis- 
giving that  Ulster  went  into  it.  "We 
agreed  to  it,"  said  Sir  Edward  Carson, 
"  because  his  Majesty's  Government  told 
us  that  it  was  in  the  interest  of  the  em- 
pire and  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war 
and  was  a  factor  in  bringing  America 
into  the  conflict." 

THE  IRISH  CONVENTION 

For  the  first  time  the  destiny  of  Ire- 
land had  been  remitted  for  settlement  to 
a  purely  Irish  body  with  the  certainty 
that  no  plan  on  which  they  agreed  would 
be  opposed  by  Great  Britain.  It  was  an 
offer  of  "  self-determination "  in  the 
fullest  sense.  Hopes  therefore  ran  high 
throughout  the  empire  and — outside  of 
Sinn  Fein  circles — in  the  United  States. 
But  no  means  to  safeguard  Ulster  that 
were  satisfactory  to  the  rest  of  Ireland 
could  be  devised.  The  aversion  of  Irish 
Unionists  ^generally — for  they  are  not 
all  in  Ulster — to  any  scheme  of  self- 
government  could  not  be  overcome.  The 
conference  therefore  failed.  It  had  one 
good  result,  however;  it  proved  that  the 
Irish  problem  was  not  one  of  British  op- 
pression or  even  of  interference,  but  of 
Irish  disunion.  Many  persons  in  the 
United  States  seem  to  have  forgotten 
this  fact.  It  is  true  that  the  country 
has  had  other  and,  to  it,  more  important 
and  momentous  things  to  think  of  si  ace 
the  happenings  of  the  convention. 

With  the  failure  of  the  convention  the 
Home  Rule  Party  in  Ireland  demanded 
the  application  of  the  self-government 
law  passed  by  Parliament,  and  raised 
loud  cries  that  Ireland  was  being  be- 
trayed. Asquith  opposition  backed  their 
demand,  as  also  did  radical  labor  in 
England.  But  this  involved  forcin??  the 
law  down  the  throats  of  the  North  with 
British  bayonets  and  indefinite  occupa- 


tion of  that  area  by  a  large  army. 
Therefore  Lloyd  George  resisted  this 
pressure.  He  said  that  what  was  want- 
ed was  union  Avith  Ireland,  not  grap- 
pling-hook  methods  applied  either  to  the 
North  or  the  South.  And  the  great  Pre- 
mier who  had  overcome  all  difficulties 
and  "  impossibilities  "  in  the  war  and  in 
the  peace  settlements  devised  yet  an- 
other scheme,  the  Home  Rule  bill  now 
under  discussion  in  the  Commons. 

THE  HOME  RULE  BILL 

Broadly,  it  contemplates  two  Parlia- 
ments, one  for  the  North  and  one  for  the 
South,  with  a  National  Council  com- 
posed of  twenty  members  cf  each  Legis- 
lature under  a  President  appointed  by 
the  Crown,  and  a  separate  judiciary  in 
each  area,  with  a  high  court  of  appeal 
for  the  whole  of  Ireland. 

It  was  the  thought  of  the  Premier 
that  the  Council  would  eventually,  by  a 
natural  process  of  evolution,  be  trans- 
formed into  a  single  national  Parlia- 
ment, since  wide  powers  are  to  be  vested 
in  it.  It  will  have  the  authority  of  pri- 
vate legislation  and  to  make  laws  with 
respect  to  railways.  It  may  consider 
any  questions  bearing  on  the  welfare  of 
the  country  as  a  whole  and  make  sug- 
gestions by  resolution.  The  two  Parlia- 
ments may  delegate  to  the  Council  any 
of  their  powers  and  are  empowered  to 
establish  by  identical  acts  a  national 
Legislature  to  supersede  the  Council. 
Complete  fiscal  autonomy — control  of 
customs  and  excise — is  then  to  be  be- 
stowed, with  control  of  the  Royal  Con- 
stabulary. 

A  free  gift  of  £1,000,000  ($5,000,000) 
IS  to  be  made  to  each  Government  to 
;over  the  initial  expenditure  of  setting 
up  the  new  machinery.  The  land  an- 
nuities, amounting  to  £3,000,000  a  year, 
will  be  handed  to  the  Governments  as  a 
free  gift.  Ireland  is  to  make  a  contribu- 
tion to  imperial  expenses  of  £18,000,000 
a  year,  of  which  56  per  cent,  is  appor- 
tioned to  Southern  Ireland  and  44  per 
cent  to  the  North,  a  joint  Exchequer 
Board  to  settle  a  fair  contribution  for 
the  future  at  the  end  of  two  years.  And 
Ireland  is  to  be  represented  in  the  Im- 


IRELAND'S  REIGN  OF  TERROR— AND  WHY 


104a 


hi 

§#^r 

■f 

'  T'«l-  J'^ 

"  ""'  /^'f '1 

^^^^^^1 

HBliK^^^ 

UNIONIST   WOMEN    CHEERING    THE    ARRIVAL.   OF    BRITISH    TROOPS    IN    LONDONDERRY 

(©    Central   News    Service) 


perial  Parliament  by  forty-two  mem- 
bers instead  of  105  as  at  present. 

The  following  powers  are  reserved  to 
the  Imperial  Parliament:  The  Crown, 
peace  and  war,  the  fighting  forces, 
treaties  and  relations  with  foreign 
States  and  with  other  foreign  parts  of 
the  empire,  titles  of  honor,  treason  and 
nationalization,  trade  outside  the  area 
of  each  Irish  Parliament,  submarine 
cables,  wireless  telegraphy,  aerial  navi- 
gation, lighthouses,  coinage,  trade- 
marks, copyrights  and  patent  rights. 

The  measure,  however,  pleases  no 
party  or  faction  outside  the  coalition 
Unionists.  Ulster  in  recognition  of  the 
Premier's  efforts  at  harmony  has  given 
reluctant  assent,  but  Mr.  Asquith  has 
denounced  it  as  "  the  most  fantastic  and 
impracticable  scheme  of  the  greatest 
travesty  and  mockery  of  real  self-gov- 
ernment that  was  ever  offered  to  a 
nation."  He  adheres  to  his  own  home 
rule  plan.  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  however, 
has  announced  that  he  will  not  be  de- 
viated from  his  purpose,  and  that  the 
plan  will  be  enforced  with  all  the  power 
at  the  Government's  command.  If  the 
South  refuses  the  Parliament  offered  to 
it,  then  it  will  be  administered  by  an 
Imperial  Commission  while  the  North 
governs   itself. 


EFFORTS    TO   PRESERVE   ORDER 

'In  the  meantime  the  Government  has 
endeavored  to  preserve  order  in  Ireland 
with  the  minimum  of  interference  fol- 
lowing the  fiasco  of  its  early  attempts 
to  put  an  end  to  the  revolution  by  whole- 
sale arrests  of  Sinn  Fein  leaders.  The 
prisoners,  it  will  be  remembered,  went 
on  a  hunger  strike,  and  rather  than 
furnish  such  a  torch  as  this  form  of 
suicide  would  have  been  for  the  Irish 
agitators  here,  with  wh'  'l  to  fire  Amer- 
ican public  opinion,  the  British  authori- 
ties decided  to  release  them.  Since  then 
things  have  gone  from  bad  to  worse,  as 
the  introduction  to  this  article  shows. 
General  Sir  N.  Macready,  Commissioner 
of  the  London  police,  was  appointed  re- 
«ently  to  co-ordinate  the  efforts  of  the 
constabulary  and  of  the  more  than  60,000 
troops  drafted  to  the  island.  But  all  his 
efforts  have  been  in  vain.  Exactly  what 
is  to  be  done  to  save  the  country  from 
complete  anarchy  has  not  been  deter- 
mined at  the  time  of  writing  this  article. 

Thus  far  the  efforts  of  the  army  had 
been  directed  principally  to  preventing 
the  general  civil  strife  that  was  appre- 
hended, bloody  outbreaks  of  which  have 
occurred  in  Londonderry  and  other  cities. 
That  it  had  not  been  engaged  very  ac- 


1044 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


tively  in  suppressing  the  revolutionists 
was  evidenced  by  the  frequency  with 
which  patrols  and  small  guard  posts 
were  raided  by  Sinn  Fein  desperadoes 
and  the  soldiers  relieved  of  their  rifles 
and  cartridges.  As  to  the  Sinn  Fein 
courts,  their  activities  had  been  treated 
in  civil  matters  as  arbitrations  with 
which  the  Government  had  no  concern. 
In  criminal  matters  it  was  different.  The 
findings  were  regarded  as  illegal  and 
persons  punished  by  them  were  entitled 
to  police  protection.  The  policy  of  the 
Government  seemingly  was  to  let  affairs 
drift  as  much  as  this  could  be  done  pend- 
ing the  establishment  of  the  Parliaments. 

JOHN  REDMOND'S  STATEMENT 
Now  just  what  is  the  measure  of  lib- 
erty enjoyed  by  Irishmen  in  normal  con- 
ditions? To  just  what  extent  are  they 
"oppressed"  by  England?  Let  no  less 
a  person  than  John  Redmond,  head  of 
the  Irish  Home  Rule  Party,  tell  in  his 
own  words.  In  the  Summer  of  1915  a 
delegation  of  Australian  ecclesiastics 
visited  Ireland  and  were  duly  banqueted 
by  the  City  of  Dublin.  This  was  on 
July  1.  Mr.  Redmond  addressed  the 
visitors,  and  in  his  speech,  as  reported 
in  the  Freeman's  Journal  of  July  2,  he 
said,  dwelling  on  conditions  of  life  in 
Ireland : 

Today  the  people,  broadly  speaking,  own 
the  soil.  Today  the  laborers  live  in  decent 
houses.  Today  there  is  absolute  freedom 
in  the  local  government  and  local  taxation 
of  the  country.  Today  we  have  the  widest 
Parliamentary  and  municipal  franchise. 
Today  we  know  that  the  evicted  tenants 
have  been  restored  to  their  homes.  We 
know  that  the  congested  districts  have 
been  transformed,  that  the  farms  have 
been  enlarged,  and  a  new  spirit  of  hope 
and  independence  is  today  among  the 
people.  We  know  that  in  the  towns 
legislation  has  been  passed  facilitating 
the  working  classes  so  far  as  town 
tenants  are  concerned. 

We  have  this  consolation,  that  we  have 
had  an  act  passed  for  Ireland  whereby 
they  are  protected  against  arbitrary 
eviction  and  given  compensation,  not  only 
for  disturbance  from  their  homes,  but  for 
the  good-will  of  the  business  that  they 
have  created— a  piece  of  legislation  FAR 
IN  ADVANCE  OF  ANYTHING  OB- 
TAINED FOR  THE  TOWN  TENANTS 
OF   ENGLAND. 

We  know  that  at  last  we  have  won 
educational  freedom  in  university  educa- 


tion for  most  of  the  youth  of  Ireland. 
Today  we  have  a  system  of  old-age  pen- 
sions in  Ireland  whereby  every  old  man 
and  woman  over  70  is  safe  from  the 
workhouse  and  free  to  spend  his  or  her 
last  days  in  comparative  comfort.  Today 
we  have  a  system  of  national  industrial 
insurance  which  provides  for  the  health  of 
the  people  and  makes  it  impossible  for  a 
poor,  hard-working  man  or  woman,  when 
sickness  comes  to  the  door,  to  be  carried 
away  to  the  workhouse  hospital,  and 
makes  it  certain  that  they  will  receive 
decent  Christian  treatment  during  their 
illness. 

Do  the  people  of  any  State  in  our 
American  Union  enjoy  greater  individ- 
ual or  collective  freedom  than  this,  or 
a  larger  measure  of  social  well-being? 
There  remains  only  to  add  that  Ireland 
with  one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the 
United  Kingdom  has  one-sixth  of  the 
representation  in  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment at  Westminster. 

PROSPERITY    OF    IRISH    PEOPLE 

To  the  illusion  that  Ireland  is  down- 
trodden the  uninformed  American 
couples  another — that  Ireland  is  mis- 
erably poor,  whereas  it  is  one  of  the 
most  prosperous  countries  in  the  world. 
With  an  area  only  a  little  over  two- 
thirds  that  of  the  State  of  New  York— 
32,605  square  miles — and  a  population 
one  and  a  half  millions  less  than  that 
of  New  York  City— 4,390,129  according 
to  the  last  census,  taken  in  1911 — the 
latest  available  statistics,  for  the  year 
1917,  when  the  world  war  was  at  its 
height,  reveal  the  following: 

Tonnage  at  Irish  ports:  Imports, 
120,621,682;   exports,   134,562,448. 

Exports  of  livestock:  Horses,  5,602; 
cattle,  888,866;  sheep,  763,111;  pigs, 
199,331. 

The  fisheries  produced  28,547  tons  (ex- 
clusive of  salmon),  valued  at  $2,836,880. 
Land  under  cultivation  was:  Cereal 
crops,  1,305,881  acres;  green  crops,  987,456 
acres;  flax,  91,454  acres;  fruit,  15,567 
acres. 

The  deposits  and  cash  balances  in  joint- 
stock  banks  for  this  same  year  of  1917 
totaled  $456,805,000.  The  balance  in  the 
Post  Office  savings  banks  on  Dec.  31 
was  $56,320,000  and  in  trustee  savings 
banks  $12,265,000. 

In  the  fiscal  year  1918-19  the  revenues 
not  only  met  expenditures  but  left  a  con- 
siderable surplus.  The  total  revenue  as 
contributed  amounted  to  $155,740,000  and 
local  expenditures  to  $110,807,500,   leaving 


IRELAND'S  REIGN  OF  TERROR— AND  WHY 


1045 


a  balance  available  for  imperial  expendi- 
tures of  $44,932,500. 

Tempting  pickings  there,  indeed! 
CHIEF  ISSUES  AT  STAKE 

It  was  mainly  on  the  rock  of  fiscal 
autonomy  that  the  convention  of  1917- 
18  was  wrecked.  Under  no  circum- 
stances would  Ulster  consent  that  the 
control  of  the  island's  finances  should 
pass  from  the  Imperial  Government  to 
a  Parliament  in  which  it  was  feared  the 
North  would  soon  be  hopelessly  out- 
voted and  overruled. 

On  the  part  of  the  revolutionary 
agricultural  South  there  is  no  disposi- 
tion to  consider  any  natural  prejudices 
of  the  industrial  North,  alien  to  it  in 
both  its  political  and  religious  view- 
points. It  is  not  willing  to  attempt  to 
bring  about  probable  unity  by  accept- 
ing the  plan  of  the  two  Parliaments, 
bridged  by  a  joint  Council,  and  by 
adopting  toward  the  Ulsterites  a  policy 
of  patience,  conciliation  and  good  faith. 
And  it  is  no  part  of  the  game  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  leaders  in  Ireland  and  else- 
where that  the  South  should.  For  where 
would  they  come  in?  They  are  for  a 
short  cut  to  supreme  control  by  them- 
selves of  the  island  and  all  its  resources 
through  severance  of  the  tie  of  empire 
and  the  roughshod  subjugation  of  the 
North. 

In  this  they  are  aided  and  abetted  by 
the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood.  Or  are 
they  aiding  and  abetting  the  latter? 
For  it  is  by  the  disloyal  clergy  that  the 
Church-ridden  South  has  during  the 
last  century  been  kept  in  more  or  less 
active  revolutionary  ferment,  through 
misrepresentation  and  the  exploitation 
of  its  religious  susceptibilities,  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  Protestant  North  and 
of  Protestant  Britain.  It  will  not  take 
any  student  of  Irish  conditions  long  to 
realize  that.  Much  could  be  written 
under  this  head,  but  it  suffices  for  the 
purposes  of  the  present  review  to  touch 
upon  it  in  passing. 

AGITATION  IN  AMERICA 

Who  hears  but  one  bell  hears  only 
one  sound,  as  the  French  say.  And  the 
Gaelic  "  patriots "  have  been,  and  are, 
more  than  ever,  clanging  that  bell  ever- 


lastingly, and  deaf eningly  in  the  ears  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  For 
long  years  these  vociferous  disruption- 
ists,  who  cannot  even  agree  among 
themselves,  have  been  operating  behind 
the  safe  shield  of  Columbia.  Now,  seiz- 
ing the  opportunity  of  the  world  in 
turmoil,  they  have  become  emboldened 
to  the  point  of  ordering  the  conventions 
of  the  great  American  parties  to 
espouse  their  cause  in  uncompromising, 
warlike  planks  in  their  platforms,  under 
threat  of  the  millions  of  votes  they  as- 
sert they  can  swing,  and  of  bringing 
similar  pressure  to  bear  on  Congress 
and  individual  Congressmen,  and  to  at- 
tempt to  float  a  "  loan  " — in  reality  to 
raise  a  subscription — of  $10,000,000 
among  the  people. 

To  what  extent  this  "  loan  "  has  been 
successful,  or  unsuccessful,  its  pro- 
moters alone  know.  They  assert,  but 
adduce  no  proof,  that  it  has  been  over- 
subscribed. However  this  may  be,  one 
of  the  purposes  for  which  the  money  is 
needed  is  to  carry  on  intensive  propa- 
ganda having  for  its  object  to  incite 
the  people  of  the  United  States  through 
their  representatives  in  Congress  to 
recognize  the  Irish  Republic  and  to  back 
this  recognition  if  necessary  by  employ- 
ing the  army  and  navy  to  compel  Great 
Britain  to  let  Ireland  go,  as  they  forced 
Spain  to  relinquish  Cuba.  They  well 
know  that  a  declaration  of  recognition 
would  of  itself  be  the  likely  equivalent 
of  an  act  of  war,  since  the  great  British 
Empire  would  certainly  resent  it  as  un- 
justifiable interference  with  its  internal 
affairs,  not  to  be  tolerated  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

Thus  to  serve  their  own  selfish  ends 
these  American-Irish,  Irish-American 
and  alien-Irish  conspirators,  befrocked 
and  frockless,  who  exhausted  all  means 
to  prevent  this  country  from  saving  the 
liberty  of  the  world  by  drawing  the 
sword  against  Germany,  would  without 
hesitation  exultantly  drive  us  into  frat- 
ricidal strife  with  friendly,  allied — and 
mighty — England,  a  calamity  from 
which  reeling  civilization  would  collapse 
utterly. 

Subjoined  is  one  of  the  forms  this 
propaganda  is  taking.    It  is  the  copy  of 


1046 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


a  handbill  that  was  distributed  on  July- 
Si  to  passengers  on  the  White  Star 
liner  Olympic  and  among  the  crowds 
attracted  to  the  vessel's  pier  by  the  anti- 
British  demonstration  organized  when 
Archbishop  Mannix  from  Australia 
sailed  away. 

NINE  THINGS   YOU  DO 
WHEN  YOU  TRADE  WITH  ENGLAND: 

(1)  You  give  preference  to  the  greatest 
militaristic  nation  of  the  world. 

(2)  You  support  a  nation  whose  ag- 
gressive foreign  policy  has  hurt  America 
in  every  country  in  the  world. 

(3)  You  strengthen  America's  competitor 
to  grab  the  world's  market. 

(4)  You  enable  her  to  maintain  armies 
of  occupation  in  countries  that  are 
America's  prospective  customers. 

(5)  You  help  to  kill  off  and  keep  in 
economic  subjection  the  population  of 
countries  that  are  friendly  to  this  country 
and  whose  trade  would  be  an  asset. 

(6)  Every  ounce  of  English  goods  repre- 
sents a  murdered  national  of  one  of  the 
subject  nations. 

(7)  Every  dollar  spent  in  England  is  a 
dollar    spent    to    maintain    political    and 


economic  slavery  in  three-quarters  of  the 
world. 

(8)  Every  dollar  spent  in  England 
strengthens  America's  rival  and  weakens 
America's  friends. 

(9)  Every  dollar  spent  in  England  is  a 
dollar  spent  to  retard  the  progress  of 
civilization  and  further  the  progress  of 
imperialism. 

DON'T  TRADE  WITH  ENGLAND. 

DON'T  LET  AMERICAN  MONEY 
MURDER  IRISH,  HINDUS  AND  EGYP- 
TIANS. 

DON'T  TRADE  WITH  A  BANKRUPT 
WHO  CANNOT  PAY  INTEREST  ON 
WHAT  SHE   OWES  ALREADY, 

CALL  THE  LOAN  AND  REFUSE  TO 
TRADE  WITH  THE  LAST  DECLINING 
RELIC  OF  EUROPEAN  AUTOCRACY. 
Women's  Irish  Education  League. 

And  it  is  with  such  frantic,  mendacious 
nonsense  as  this  that  it  is  hoped  to  de- 
throne the  reason  of  the  United  States! 
Can  any  American  wonder  that,  faced  by 
the  sinister  plotters  who  stand  fo^  ^his 
sort  of  thing,  the  North  of  Ireland  men, 
at  present  free,  should  rally  to  defend 
their  rights  to  the  last  trench,  as  they 
have  sworn  to  do? 


Ireland's  Independence 

A  Statement  of  the  Rights  of  Ireland  as  Seen  from  the  Sinn  Fein 

Viewpoint 

By  MICHAEL  O'REILLY 

[Of  the  Editorial  Staff  of  The   Gaelic  American^  a  Leading  Sinn  Fein  Supporter] 


There  is  no  such  record  of  failure  in  human 
affairs,  go  where  you  will  seek  it;  there  is 
no  such  record  of  failure,  as  in  the  treatment 
of  Ireland  by  England  for  700  years,  during 
which  time  I  may  say  there  has  not  been  100 
days—certaimly  not  100  weeks— of  content  and 
satisfaction.  Every  horror  and  ever-y  shame 
that  couM  disgrace  the  relations  between  a 
strong  country  ond  a  weak  one  is  written 
upon  almost  every  page  of  the  history  of  our 
dealing  ivitJi  Ireland.— GLADSTONE,  1887. 

THIRTY-THREE  years  have  elapsed 
since  Gladstone  made  the  fore- 
going declaration,  and  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  countries 
are  today  more  strained  than  at  any 
period  since  the  Norman  conqueror  first 
set  foot  in  Ireland.  The  new  Coercion 
act  for  Ireland,  which  became  law  on 
Aug.   9  last,   deprives   the   Irish   people 


of  every  semblance  of  liberty.  It  is 
doubtful  if  any  despotic  monarchy  in 
ancient  or  modem  times  ever  enacted 
such  a  drastic  and  comprehensive  meas- 
ure of  oppression. 

To  create  an  atmosphere  favorable  to 
this  liberty-stifling  measure,  Ireland  has 
been  represented  on  the  highways  of  the 
world  as  reeking  with  crime  and  law- 
lessness. Every  triviality,  such  as  a 
threatening  letter  or  notice,  has 
been  magnified  a  hundredfold.  Judges 
are  creatures  of  the  Government 
and  in  times  of  political  turmoil  their 
pronouncements  favor  the  official  side 
of  the  controversy.  Like  every  other 
civilized  country,  Ireland  is  not  free  from 
crime,  but  it  is  if  England's  record  in 
this  respect  is  as  good  as  that  of  "  John 


IRELAND'S  INDEPENDENCE 


1047 


Bull's  other  island."  In  Ireland  the  peo- 
ple are  subjected  to  greater  provocation, 
meetings  are  proclaimed,  sports  are 
stopped,  concerts  are  prohibited  and  the 
military  police  insult  and  browbeat  every- 
body without  regard  to  rank  or  sex. 
Peaceful  meetings  are  dispersed  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  men  are  arrested 
and  thrown  into  jail  without  charge  or 
trial.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  provocation, 
it  is  doubtful  if  Ireland  has  proportion- 
ately as  much  crime  as  England,  which  is 
seething  with  lawlessness  of  all  kinds, 
murders,  bank  robberies,  burglaries,  hold- 
ups and  Post  Office  raids. 

CRIME  IN  ENGLAND 
During  the  month  of  February  thirty- 
one  murders  were  committed  in  England, 
the  majority  of  the  victims  being  women. 
The  New  York  Times  of  Jan.  22  de- 
scribes as  follows  this  wave  of  crime  in 
England: 

LONDON,  Jan.  21.— The  outbreak  of 
crime  in  England  continues,  and  is  caus- 
ing the  police  and  the  public  much  uneasi- 
ness. Three  new  outrages  were  committed 
yesterday,  the  murder  of  an  old  man  by  a 
burglar  at  Bolton,  and  two  Post  Office 
raids,  one  hold-up  by  armed  men  and  the 
other  a  safe  robbery  in  which  the  thieves 
escaped  in  an  automobile.  No  clue  was 
left  by  the  thieves,  who  stole  £10,000 
worth  of  jewels  from  Lady  Loughborough 
at  Duke  Street,  Grosvenor  Square,  nor 
is  any  progress  reported  in  the  tasks  of 
tracing  the  murderers  of  Miss  Shore,  who 
was  killed  in  a  train,  and  Mrs.  Francis 
Burton,  who  was  killed  in  her  inn  at 
Chelsea.  *  *  *  Figures  issued  by  Scot- 
land Yard  show  that  during  the  two 
months  ended  on  Jan.  15  there  were  in  the 
London  district  26  arrests  for  burglary, 
48  for  housebreaking,  150  for  shopbreak- 
ing, 19  for  robbery  and  25  for  serious 
larceny. 

The  London  Times,  discussing  the 
causes  of  this  carnival  of  lawlessness, 
stated : 

The  probability  of  a  wave  of  crime  after 
the  war  had  been  foreseen  and  foretold  by 
students  of  social  problems,  and  some  of 
its  causes,  at  all  events,  are  obvioug. 
They  include  the  release  from  the  army 
and  return  to  their  old  life  of  a  large 
number  of  professional  criminals.  The 
failure  and  disinclination  of  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  soldiers  to  obtain  work,  de- 
creased regard  for  the  sacredness  of  life 
caused  by  familiarity  with  bloodshed,  and 
the  unhealthy  Influence,  especially  upon 
youths,  of  the  violence  of  war  are  prom- 
inent features. 


The  English  moralize  on  crime  in  Eng- 
land; they  pass  repressive  legislation  for 
crime  in  Ireland.  Is  the  life  of  an  Irish 
policeman  more  sacred  than  that  of  an 
English  woman?  The  shooting  of  an 
Irish  policeman  is  cabled  to  the  ends  of 
the  globe,  a  short  paragraph  in  the 
English  press  is  considered  sufficient  for 
the  murder  of  an  English  girl,  and 
English  crimes  are  very  rarely  featured 
in  any  papers  outside  of  England. 

IRELAND'S    RIGHT    TO   INDE- 
PENDENCE 

English  politicians  and  publicists  are 
very  insistent  on  comparing  the  relation 
between  Ireland  and  England  with  that 
which  exists  between  one  of  the  Amer- 
ican States  and  the  United  States.  No 
more  fallacious  comparison  could  be 
made.  Nature  has  placed  an  angry  sea 
between  Ireland  and  England,  and  it  re- 
quires no  parallels  of  latitude  or  meri- 
dians of  longitude  to  define  her  boun- 
daries. Ireland  has  all  the  characteris- 
tics of  a  nation — racial,  linguistic  and 
historical.  Unlike  one  of  our  States,  she 
has  never  consented  to  partnership  in  the 
British  Empire.  For  700  years  she  has 
been  held  in  subjection  by  force.  Unlike 
the  Governor  of  an  American  State,  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  is  appointed 
by  the  King,  not  elected  by  the  people, 
and  he  is  invariably  not  a  native  of  Ire- 
land. The  States  of  the  Union  came  in 
voluntarily.  Ireland  has  steadfastly  re- 
fused to  acquiesce  in  English  domina- 
tion. 

England's  spokesmen  are  very  per- 
sistent in  stating  that  Ireland's  griev- 
ances are  historical,  that  they  belong  to 
the  past,  and  they  are  willing  to  admit 
that  in  the  past  Ireland  was  grievously 
wronged  and  oppressed.  But  while  they 
are  willing  to  admit  that  their  ancestors 
were  guilty  of  cruel  wrongs,  they  are 
unwilling  to  admit  that  England  is  wrong 
today.  In  fact,  every  act  of  England 
today  is  right  if  their  word  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted without  question.  Is  not  the  new 
Coercion  act  of  today  wrong?  Is  the 
indiscriminate  shooting  of  men  and  wo- 
men and  children,  which  is  taking  place 
daily  in  Ireland,  to  be  condoned?  There 
are  hundreds  of  "  Boston  massacres " 
taking  place  in  Ireland.    English  soldiers 


1048 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


to  the  number  of  200,000  are  quarter  d 
in  Ireland  and  their  upkeep  charged  to 
the  Irish  people. 

LAND    PURCHASE   AND    PENSIONS 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  the  Irish  ?  " 
exclaims  the  English  propagandist. 
"  We  have  purchased  their  holdings  for 
the  farmers  and  we  have  given  them 
old-age  pensions.  What  more  do  they  ex- 
pect us  to  do  ?  " 

The  money  expended  on  land  purchase 
has  come  from  Irish  taxation  and  the 
Irish  farmer  has  to  pay  every  cent  of 
the  money  loaned  for  the  purchase  of  his 
farm.  Until  that  is  finally  paid  the 
County  Council  is  held  responsible  for 
the  purchase  money  and  any  default  in 
the  payment  of  the  annual  annuities  is 
charged  to  the  local  rates.  England  has 
no  responsibility  in  regard  to  the  money 
advances  and  it  is  simply  a  stock  ex- 
change transaction.  With  regard  to  old- 
age  pensions,  the  money  is  also  paid  by 
the  Irish  people  themselves.  For  the 
fiscal  year  1919  Ireland  had  a  surplus  of 
$75,590,  after  paying  for  Irish  services, 
and  this  surplus  was  retained  by  the 
English  Treasury.  Ireland  is  treated  to 
her  own  money.  Is  the  generosity  on  the 
part  of  Great  Britain? 

Perhaps  the  most  prevalent  miscon- 
ception is  that  the  Irish  cannot  agree 
among  themselves  and  that  poor 
John  Bull  is  worried  to  death  by  the 
quarrels  between  the  opposing  Irish  fac- 
tions. That  Ulster  is  opposed  to  the 
rest  of  Ireland,  or  to  put  it  in  the  words 
used  by  Lloyd  George,  the  North  is 
opposed  to  the  South.  The  East  and  the 
West  are  ignored.  Let  it  not  be  for- 
gotten that  four  only  of  the  nine  counties 
of  Ulster  are  opposed  to  an  Irish  repub- 
lic and  in  these  counties  there  is  a  con- 
siderable minority  of  Sinn  Feiners.  The 
counties  supporting  the  Irish  Republic 
are  Donegal,  Fermanagh,  Tyrone,  Mon- 
aghan  and  Cavan.  At  the  local  elections 
held  last  June  for  members  of  the  County 
Councils  the  Sinn  Feiners  won  five  and 
the  Unionists  four  of  the  Ulster  counties. 
In  all  Ireland  there  are  thirty-three 
County  Councils,  and  of  this  number  the 
Irish  Republicans  won  twenty-nine,  the 
Unionists  four.  Is  there  in  any  country 
in  the  world  a  greater  spectacle  of  unity 


than  this?  If  majority  rule  counts  for 
anything,  why  should  it  not  prevail  in 
Ireland  ?  The  Unionists  are  in  a  minority 
in  Ulster  and  it  is  erroneous  to  say  that 
Ulster  is  against  the  rest  of  Ireland.  In 
face  of  the  local  elections  the  fallacy 
still  persists  that  Ulster  is  against  the 
Irish  Republic. 

MAJORITY  RULE  MUST  PREVAIL 

There  can  be  no  democracy  where  ma- 
jority rule  does  not  prevail.  Lincoln  in 
his  first  inaugural  address  states: 

A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitu- 
tional checks  and  limitations,  and  always 
changing  easily  with  deliberate  changes  of 
popular  opinions  and  sentiments,  is  the 
only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  necessity,  fly 
to  anarchy  or  despotism.  Unanimity  is 
impossible;  the  rule  of  a  minority,  as  a 
permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly  inad- 
missible ;  so  that  rejecting  the  majority 
principle,  anarchy  or  despotism  in  some 
form  is  all  that  is  left. 

If  England  had  been  sincere  in  her 
professions  toward  Ireland  she  would 
pay  no  heed  to  the  protests  of  a  small 
minority,  pampered  hj  Government 
paternalism.  The  planters  in  Ulster  had 
special  land  laws  which  did  not  prevail 
in  the  rest  of  Ireland.  Every  position  of 
trust  in  the  gift  of  the  Government  went 
to  the  minority.  Small  wonder  that  the 
favorites  were  loyal — loyal  to  their  pock- 
ets. In  the  four  northern  counties  the 
number  of  those  opposed  to  the  Irish  Re- 
public is  growing  daily  less.  The  Ulster 
bogey  is  dying  and  in  a  short  time  the 
English  Government  will  have  to  manu- 
facture some  other  shibboleth  to  smoke- 
screen the  Irish  question. 

The  much-discussed  Lloyd  George  con- 
vention was  not  in  any  sense  of  the  word 
a  representative  body.  It  was  hand- 
picked,  and  elements  were  brought  to- 
gether that  could  not  coalesce.  In  fact, 
the. purpose  of  the  Premier  could  have 
been  nothing  else  than  to  make  unani- 
mous agreement  impossible,  for  the.  pur- 
pose of  giving  him  an  opportunity  to  say 
that  the  Irish  people  could  not  agree 
among  themselves  and  that  England  was 
willing  to  carry  out  any  agreement 
unanimously  arrived  at.  In  the  words  of. 
Lincoln,  "unanimity  is  impossible,"  and 
has  never  been  attained  in  any  country  in 


IRELAND'S  INDEPENDENCE 


1049 


the  world.  The  purpose  of  this  scheme 
was  divined  by  the  Sinn  Feiners,  who 
were  accorded  two  seats  in  the  conven- 
tion, but  they  refused  to  enter  the 
spider's  web.  The  allotment  of  only  two 
seats  to  the  Sinn  Feiners  seems  absurd 
in  face  of  the  fact  that  they  carried 
three-fourths  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary 
seats  and  who  recently  captured  twenty- 
nine  out  of  the  thirty-three  County  Coun- 
cils. The  Lloyd  George  convention  aimed 
at  shelving,  not  settling,  the  Irish  ques- 
tion. 

NO  RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE 
The  old  bogy  that  the  Irish  are  priest- 
ridden  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  The 
priests  are  naturally  like  their  congre- 
gations, mindful  of  their  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities to  their  country.  In  the 
present  temper  of  the  Irish  people  they 
would  brook  no  interference  from  any 
outside  source  in  regard  to  their  political 
duties.  Contrary  to  the  widely  circulated 
fallacy  that  the  Irish  Catholics  are  in- 
tolerant, there  are  no  more  tolerant  peo- 
ple in  the  world.  Over  the  West  and 
South  of  Ireland  there  are  small  Protes- 
tant congregations  and  they  have  never 
been  molested  by  their  Catholic  neigh- 
bors. They  fraternize,  visit  each  others* 
homes  and  mingle  at  fairs  and  markets 
and  sports.  This  toleration  is  borne  out 
by  the  testimony  of  reputable  Protes- 
tants. At  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  held 
recently  in  Hull,  Ernest  Mercier,  a 
member  of  the  deputation  from  the  Irish 
Methodist  Conference,  in  an  impassioned 
speech,  said: 

As  far  as  I  know,  in  a  country  place  in 
Ireland,  there  has  never  been  any  inter- 
ference, good,  bad  or  indifferent,  with  the 
worship  of  Methodists.  The  courtesy  and 
kindness  shown  to  your  representatives  in 
Ireland  is  more  than  tongue  can  tell.  I 
am  as  hopeful  of  Ireland  as  ever  a  man 
could  be.  I  have  never  heard  in  this  con- 
ference a  word  of  praise  for  my  beloved 
country. 

Religious  strife  in  Ulster  is  fomented 
for  political  purposes,  and  if  outside  in- 
fluences were  withdrawn  there  would  be 


no  ill-feeling  between  Catholics  and 
Protestants.  And  for  more  than  eleven 
months  in  the  year  Ulster  Protestants 
and  Catholics  keep  on  good  terms ;  Ulster 
Volunteers  and  Irish  Volunteers  salute 
each  other  and  fraternize  at  sports  and 
other  public  functions.  This  harmoniz- 
ing is  not,  however,  agreeable  to  the 
politicians  and  the  Orange  drum  has  to 
be  sounded  at  least  once  a  year  so  that 
the  English  politicians  can  say  that 
Ulster  is  against  Ireland. 

FREEDOM  OR  SUBJECTION 

That  Ireland  is  able  to  pay  her  own 
way  when  the  English  connection  is 
finally  dissolved  is  proved  by  the  follow- 
ing figures,  which  have  been  compiled  by 
the  Irish  Republicans: 

IRELAND     HAS     MORE3     PEOPLE     THAN 
MANY  OTHER  SMALL  NATIONS. 

NORWAY  has  a  population  of 2,396,782 

DENMARK  has  a  population  of 2.940,990 

SWITZERLAND  has  a  population  of.3, 888,500 
IRELiAND  has  a  population  of ..... .4,390,219 

IRELAND  IS  BIGGER  THAN  MANY 
OTHER  SMALL  NATIONS. 

Sq.  Miles. 

BELGIUM  has  an  area  of 11,373 

HOLLAND  has  an  area  of 12,582 

DENMARK  has  an  area  of 15,042 

SWITZERLAND  has  an  area  of 15,976 

IREL.AND  has  an  area  of 32,581 

GOVERNMENTAL  COST   (1913.) 

SERBIA   $26,250,000 

GREECE    27,000,000 

SWITZERLAND    35,000,000 

BULGARIA    35.000,000 

NORWAY   36,200,000 

DENMARK    47,500,000 

IREIiAND     65,000,000 

while    in    1919    England    spent    $65,000,000    in 

Ireland,  but  collected  from 
IREI.AND     $170,000,000 

All  the  small  powers  mentioned  have  main- 
tained their  own  Governments,  their  own 
armies,  and  three  of  them  have  fleets  as  well. 
IT  IS  CHEAPER  TO  BE  FREE  THAN  IN 
SLAVERY. 

Liberty  has  cost  only  $6  per  capita  per 
annum,  in  Greece  and  Serbia,  $7.50  in  Bul- 
garia, $9  in  Switzerland,  $13  in  Sweden,  $14 
in  Portugal.  $15  in  Norway— while  in 
IRELAND  British  militarism  costs  about  $40 
per  capita,  per  annum. 


AMONG   THE    NATIONS 

Survey    of    Important    Developments    in    Half    a    Hundred 
Countries  of  Both  Hemispheres 

iFor  Alphabetical  Index  of  Countries  see  Table  of  Contents'^ 

[Period  Ended  Aug.  15,  1920] 

Events  in  the  British  Empire 


IRELAND 

CONDITIONS    of    actual    civil   war 
continued    to    prevail    in    Ireland 
throughout  the  month,  with  riots, 
shootings    and    open    defiance    of 
British  law  practically   everywhere   ex- 
cept in  a  section  of  Ulster. 

On  July  17  fourteen  armed  men  forced 
their  way  into  the  Country  Club  at  Cork 
and  shot  to  death  Commissioner  Smyth 
of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary.  Com- 
missioner Smyth  had  just  returned  from 
London,  whither  he  had  been  summoned 
to  explain  an  order  given  at  Listowel 
"  not  to  be  afraid  to  shoot  with  effect." 
His  murder  was  presumably  Irish  ven- 
geance for  that  order. 

Closely  upon  this  incident  followed  the 
bayoneting  of  a  former  soldier  by  the 
military,  thus  precipitating  a  night  of 
terror  in  Cork  on  the  18t'-.  Fighting  be- 
tween patrols  of  soldiers  and  bodies  of 
Sinn  Feiners  extended  to  all  parts  of 
the  city,  sending  frightened  women  and 
children  hurrying  into  side  streets  and 
knocking  frantically  at  numerous  houses 
for  admission.  By  early  morning  quiet 
was  restored  at  the  cost  of  100  casual- 
ties. 

A  graphic  description  of  the  "perfect 
hell "  to  which  the  peaceful  cathedral 
town  of  Tuam  was  reduced  by  the  police 
after  two  of  their  comrades  had  been 
shot  and  killed  from  ambush  was  given 
by  a  correspondent  of  the  London  Daily 
News,  who  wrote: 

As  I  entered  the  town  this  morning  it 
recalled  nothing  so  much  as  some  of  the 
ruined  Belgian  and  French  towns  and 
bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  wrecked 
Albert.  "  Mind  you  are  not  shot,  the 
police   barracks    are    up    there!"    shouted 


a  volunteer  in  derision  to  the  sullen  crowd 
that  walked  down  Vicar  Street.  Tension 
had  reached  a  dangerous  level  and  busi- 
ness was  suspended.  Hastily  constructed 
wooden  shutters  marked  the  wreck  of  the 
plate  glass  that  lay  strewn  about  the 
streets,  and  gray  smoke  still  went  up  from 
the  ruins  of  the  Town  Hall  and  a  big 
drapery  house. 

An  outbreak  of  disturbances  in  Bel- 
fast on  July  21  led  eventually  to  a  repe- 
tition of  scenes  in  Londonderry  the  pre- 
vious month,  if  possible  on  a  more  seri- 
ous scale.  The  origin  of  these  disturb- 
ances was  said  to  have  been  due  to  the 
ill  feeling  existing  between  the  Unionist 
and  Sinn  Fein  employes  of  two  commer- 
cial houses.  ^\.t  a  meeting  of  5,000 
Unionist  workers  a  resolution  was 
passed  to  boycott  and  refuse  to  work 
with  Sinn  Feiners.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  notify  the  Sinn  Feiners  and 
advise  them  to  leave  at  once.  There- 
upon fighting  began,  and  quickly  spread 
through  the  city,  taking  on  the  color  of 
religious  partisanship.  In  a  drive  of  the 
Orangemen  to  oust  the  Catholic  work- 
men from  the  shipyards,  many  of  the 
latter,  hopelessly  outnumbered,  were 
compelled  to  attempt  escape  by  swimming 
the  channel.  These,  however,  were  met 
on  the  further  side  by  another  body  of 
Orangemen  and  driven  back. 

By  the  22d  Belfast  was  given  over  to 
desperate  riots.  Though  the  soldiers 
came  to  aid  the  police,  the  Sinn  Feiners 
retaliated  in  three  districts.  Women  dug 
up  pavements,  raining  cobbles  on  the 
soldiers*  helmets.  A  notable  incident  of 
the  day  was  the  sniping  and  killing  of 
Brother  Michael  Morgan  while  standing 
at  a  window  in  Clonard  Monastery. 
Over  a  scattered  front,  one  of  the  fierc- 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


051 


est  sectors  was  the  Kashmir  Road, 
where,  as  night  advanced,  firing  was 
practically  continuous,  and  armored  cars 
mounting  Lewis  guns  were  brought  into 
action  by  the  military. 

On  the  23d  rioting  broke  out  at  Bally- 
macarret,  where  a  mob  attacked  the 
Catholic  Chapel  of  St.  Matthew.  Sol- 
diers fired  on  the  crowd  after  an  un- 
heeded warning  to  disperse.  Indiscrimi- 
nate looting  went  on  for  days,  as  shown 
later  by  evidence  produced  in  court  cases. 
The  casualty  list  for  the  three  days' 
fighting  was  given  at  fourteen  dead  and 
100  wounded,  but  these  figures  repre- 
sented only  cases  actually  treated  at  the 
hospitals,  which,  at  one  period  of  the 
fighting  resembled  clearing  stations  at  a 
battle  front. 

Steady  reinforcements  of  the  military, 
aided  by  a  continued  downpour  of  rain, 
finally  succeeded  in  bringing  a  semblance 
of  order  to  the  city  and  surrounding  dis- 
tricts. The  authorities,  however,  in- 
creased their  precautionary  measures.  By 
the  26th  it  was  announced  that  a  few 
Catholic  workmen  had  returned  to  the 
shipyards  and  factories  from  which  they 
had  been  driven;  the  police  were  finally 
making  efforts  to  prevent  the  looting  of 
Catholic  shops  in  Orange  districts,  and 
for  the  time  being  a  truce  prevailed  be- 
tween the  Unionist  and  Sinn  Fein  fac- 
tions. 

Brigadier  General  Lucas,  who  had 
been  captured  by  the  Sinn  Feiners  in 
County  Cork  more  than  a  month  before, 
managed  to  effect  his  escape  on  July  31. 
The  last  act  in  his  curious  adventure 
was  as  dramatic  as  the  first.  After 
wandering  over  the  countryside  for  some 
hours  in  the  early  morning,  he  was 
picked  up  by  a  military  lorry.  Almost 
immediately  this  was  attacked  by  a 
large  number  of  armed  Sinn  Feiners. 
After  a  desperate  fight  a  second  lorry 
came  up  and  drove  off  the  attackers. 
While  two  soldiers  were  killed  and  three 
wounded,  the  General  was  brought  into 
Tipperary  unhurt. 

Three  armed  men  on  July  30  entered 
the  private  office  of  Frank  Brooke, 
Chairman  of  the  Dublin  and  Southwest- 
em  Railway,  while  a  fourth  waited  out- 
side.    Without  warning  the  three  men 


fired  simultaneously  at  Mr.  Brooke,  kill- 
ing him  instantly.  The  men  were  not 
disguised,  and  after  the  killing  walked 
calmly  away.  Apart  from  Mr.  Brooke's 
professional  standing,  he  was  Deputy 
Lieutenant  for  County  Wicklow,  a 
prominent  figure  in  Irish  racing  circles 
and  a  close  friend  of  the  Viceroy,  Lord 
French. 

Vice  Chairman  Hennesy  of  the 
Queenstown  Urban  Council  made  a 
statement  on  August  3  that  the  Dail 
Eireann  ("Irish  Republican  Parlia- 
ment") would  shortly  issue  a  decree  pro- 
hibiting emigration  from  Ireland  with- 
out written  authority  from  the  "  Home 
Secretary  of  the  Irish  Republic."  Ad- 
vices of  the  same  date  repeated  a  pub- 
lished story  that  during  the  last  three 
weeks  of  July  132  magistrates  had  re- 
signed their  British  commissions.  The 
resignations  in  some  cases  were  ascribed 
to  dislike  of  the  present  methods  of  Bril- 
ish  administration,  but  most  of  them, 
it  was  asserted,  were  due  to  Sinn  Fein 
terrorism. 

Toward  the  middle  of  August  there 
were  indications  that  the  Sinn  Feiners 
were  preparing  to  inaugurate  a  "  war  " 
against  the  "  British  invaders  "  upon  a 
much  larger  scale  during  the  next  three 
months.  To  this  end  recruiting  for  the 
"  Republican  Brotherhood,"  regarded  as 
the  brains  of  the  Sinn  Fein  ai-my,  was 
being  carried  on  with  increased  vigor. 
The  railways  were  still  unable  to  trans- 
port troops,  and  the  authorities  were 
using  lorries  and  torpedo  boat  destroy- 
ers for  the  movement  of  armed  men  and 
munitions. 

Premier  Lloyd  George,  on  Aug.  16,  just 
before  Parliament  adjourned  until  Oct. 
19,  set  at  rest  rumors  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  decided  to  grant  dominion  rule 
to  all  of  Ireland,  with  Ulster's  assent, 
by  announcing  that  the  necessary  condi- 
tions precedent  to  any  further  parley 
between  the  Government  and  Irish  fac- 
tions were:  (1)  That  the  six  counties  of 
Ulster  must  be  treated  separately;  (2) 
that  there  must  be  no  secession  of  any 
part  of  Ireland  from  the  United  King- 
dom; (3)  that  nothing  would  be  agreed 
to  that  would  "  detract  from  the  security 


1052 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


or  safety  of  the  islands  of  the  United 
Kingdom  in  case  of  war." 

IRISH  CRIMES  BILL— The  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  of  the  Trades  Union 
Congress  on  July  24  presented  to  Pre- 
mier Lloyd  George  its  scheme  for  the 
pacification  of  Ireland,  based  on  with- 


BRIG.    GEN.    LUCAS 

Who  was  kidnapped  by  the  Sinn  Feiners 

and  Escaped 

(Wide    World   Photos) 


drawal  of  the  present  Home  Rule  bill 
and  the  substitution  of  Dominion  Home 
Rule,  with  provisions  whereby  the  Ulster 
Council  would  have  an  option  on  accept- 
ance. In  reply  the  Premier  said  that  he 
was  willing  to  discuss  the  propositions 
with  any  one  having  authority  to  nego- 
tiate, but  the  Trades  Union  Congress  was 
not  in  that  position.  "  There  is  only  one 
body  of  opinion,"  he  asserted,  "  that  can 
make  an  arrangement,  and  that  is  the 
organized  opinion  of  the  Irish  people." 

Government  plans  for  co-ordinating 
the  activities  of  the  police  and  the  mili- 
tary to  stamp  out  terrorism  in  Ireland 
were  made  public  on  the  29th.  These 
plans  included  the  enlistment  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  ex-officers  with  dis- 


tinguished war  records,  to  be  attached 
to  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  as  in- 
structors with  the  rank  of  cadets.  Re- 
cruiting had  been  opened  for  two  weeks, 
and  more  than  1,000  applications  filed. 

The  terms  of  the  new  measure,  popu- 
larly known  as  the  Crimes  bill,  were 
made  public  on  Aug.  3.  The  bill  pro- 
posed to  turn  over  the  duties  of  Crown 
tribunals  in  Ireland  to  courts-martial, 
even  to  the  extent  of  settling  civil  dis- 
putes, infliction  of  fines,  and  the  binding 
of  accused  persons  to  keep  the  peace. 
Provision,  however,  was  made  for  ex- 
cluding Ulster  from  operation  of  the 
law.  An  influential  deputation  of  Irish 
business  men  from  Dublin  and  Cork, 
representative  among  Unionists  and  Na- 
tionalists, Catholics  and  Protestants, 
called  on  Premier  Lloyd  George  on  Aug. 
4  and  expressed  unanimous  denunciation 
of  the  pending  bill. 

After  exciting  scenes  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  night  of  Aug.  5  the 
second  reading  of  the  Restoration  of 
Order  in  Ireland  bill  (Crimes  bill)  was 
carried  amid  boisterous  cheers  by  239 
to  71.  Mr.  Asquith,  in  attacking  the 
Government,  charged  it  with  responsi- 
bility for  the  present  state  of  things, 
and  pleaded  for  some  generous  scheme 
of  self-government  on  Dominion  lines. 
In  a  counter  attack,  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
challenged  Mr.  Asquith  to  give  authority 
for  his  belief  that  Dominion  home  nile 
would  be  accepted  in  Ireland.  In  a 
vigorous  speech  the  Premier  declared 
that  there  was  no  proposal  which  the 
British  Government  could  bring  forward 
which  would  be  acceptable  to  any  party 
that  could  speak  with  authority  in  Ire- 
land; until  such  time  as  a  satisfactory 
measure  of  conciliation  could  be  found 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
protect  life  and  property,  and  to  main- 
tain authority;  but  the  Sinn  Fein  de- 
mand for  a  republic,  which  no  Britisher 
could  concede,  he  added,  must  be  em- 
phatically rejected. 

When  the  Crimes  bill  came  up  for 
final  passage  on  Aug.  6,  Joseph  Dev- 
lin, Nationalist  member  for  Belfast,  be- 
came the  centre  of  a  stormy  scene. 
After  taunting   Premier   Lloyd   George, 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


1053 


Mr.  Asquith  and  Bonar  Law  with  not 
being  present  to  share  responsibility  for 
"  one  of  the  most  infamous  transactions 
of,  which  any  Government  had  been 
guilty,"  he  defied  the  chair  and  was 
suspended.  As  he  left  the  Chamber  he 
was  followed  by  the  Irish  Nationalists 
together  with  the  majority  of  the  Labor 
members.  An  amendment  to  the  bill, 
offered  by  Sir  Donald  MacLean  to  limit 
its  operation  to  one  year,  was  rejected 
by  a  large  majority  on  the  understand- 
ing, given  by  Sir  Hamar  Greenwood, 
Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  that  the 
Government  would  consider  the  repeal 
of  the  act  at  the  earliest  possible  time 
after  order  had  been  restored.  The  bill 
was  adopted  under  closure  by  a  vote  of 
206  to  18. 

An  extraordinary  incident  marked  the 
passage  of  this  Coercion  bill  through 
the  House  of  Lords  on  Aug.  9.  After  the 
Lord  Chancellor  had  briefly  moved  the 
second  reading  of  this  "  drastic  but  very 
necessary  bill,"  the  Right  Hon.  Alexan- 
der M.  Carlisle,  an  Irish  Privy  Councilor 
and  prominent  Belfast  shipbuilder,  called 
out  from  the  steps  of  the  throne  where  he 
was  privileged  to  stand  by  virtue  of  his 
office :  "  My  Lords,  if  you  pass  this  bill 
you  may  kill  England,  but  you  will  not 
kill  Ireland."  The  Lord  Chancellor  at 
once  rose  and  motioned  the  Sergeant  at 
Arms,  but  before  a  challenge  could  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  intruder  Mr.  Carlisle  had 
disappeared.  Subsequently  the  bill 
passed  the  House  of  Lords  without  a 
division,  and  became  law  with  the  giving 
of  the  royal  assent.  Carlisle  on  Aug.  16 
was  debarred  from  the  House  of  Lords. 

ENGLAND 

In  England  a  political  and  journalistic 
sensation  was  caused  by  the  publication 
of  an  article  by  Winston  Churchill, 
Secretary  of  State  for  War,  advocating 
an  invitation  to  Germany  to  join  with 
the  Allies  in  resisting  the  advance  of 
Bolshevist  Russia.  In  spite  of  an  adroit 
defense  of  the  War  Secretary's  action  by 
Premier  Lloyd  George  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  Independent  Labor  Party 
took  the  remarkable  course  of  deciding 
to  submit  to  the  forthcoming  conference 
of  the  Scottish  Labor  Party  in  Glasgow, 


Sept.  25,  a  motion  demanding  that  the 
Government  arrest  and  impeach  Winston 
Churchill  at  the  Bar  of  Parliament  "  for 
violating  the  Constitution  by  using  Brit- 
ish military  resources  to  assist  reaction- 
ary elements  in  Europe  to  make  war 
against  Soviet  Russia  without  the  con- 


BRIG.    GEN.    R.    E.    H.    DYER 

Whose  action  in  firing  an  a  mob  in  India 

is   hotly   debated  in   England 

(Illustrated    London    News) 


sent  of  the  British  Parliament  or  people." 
The  case  of  Brig.  Gen.  R.  E.  H.  Dyer, 
C.  B.,  who  was  held  responsible  by  the 
Hunter  Committee  for  a  wholesale  shoot- 
ing of  natives  at  Amritsar,  India,  in 
April,  1919,  and  whose  subsequent  re- 
moval from  further  employment  in  In- 
dia by  the  Commander  in  Chief  was  ap- 
proved by  the  Army  Council,  became  a 
subject  of  lively  debate  in  both  houses 
of  Parliament.  While  General  Dyer  de- 
clared that  he  had  not  received  a  fair 
hearing,  and  brought  forward  facts  with 
the  object  of  proving  that  what  he  had 
to  deal  with  at  Amritsar  was  an  organ- 
ized  rebellion,   his   critics   charged   him 


V 


1054 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


not  only  with  an  error  of  judgment,  but 
with  positive  inhumanity  in  ruthlessly 
firing  upon  the  crowd.  The  London 
Morning  Post  came  out  as  a  champion  of 
General  Dyer's  cause,  proclaimed  him 
"  The  Man  who  Saved  India,"  and  opened 
its  columns  to  a  public  subscription  on 
his  behalf.  The  response  was  immediate 
from  many  quarters,  rising  rapidly  to 
£20,000,  or  nearly  $100,000  (normal  ex- 
change). 

Dr.  Daniel  Mannix,  Archbishop  of  Mel- 
bourne, whose  visit  to  the  United  States 
en  route  from  Australia  to  Europe  was 
punctuated  by  denunciatory  speeches 
against  British  rule  in  Ireland — and  by 
Irish-American  demonstrations  approv- 
ing his  speeches — sailed  from  New  York 
on  the  Baltic  on  July  30  in  spite  of  Pre- 
mier Lloyd  George's  official  warning 
that  he  would  not  be  permitted  to  land 
in  Ireland.  Extensive  preparations  to 
welcome  him  were  made  at  Liverpool, 
Cork  and  elsewhere.  As  the  Baltic  ap- 
proached Queenstown,  however,  the  ves- 
sel was  met  by  two  torpedo  destroyers, 
one  of  which,  through  an  officer  sent 
aboard  the  liner,  placed  the  Archbishop 
under  technical  arrest  and  set  him  ashore 
at  Penzance,  in  a  remote  corner  of  Eng- 
land. Archbishop  Mannix  arrived  unex- 
pectedly in  London  on  Aug.  10  to  take 
up  a  temporary  residence  at  St.  Mary's 
Training  College,  Hammersmith.  He  said 
on  Aug.  12 :  "  I  intend  to  stay  here  until 
I  go  to  Ireland.  I  mean  to  see  this  busi- 
ness through  to  the  end." 

A  White  Paper  of  recent  issue  con- 
tained a  statement  of  expenditure  by  the 
British  Government  on  naval  and  mili- 
tary operations  in  Russia  from  the  date 
of  the  armistice  to  March  31  last.  Of 
a  total  expenditure  of  just  under  £56,- 
000,000  all  but  some  £3,400,000  went  in 
cash  or  marketable  stores. 

A  huge  loss  in  operation  of  the  rail- 
roads was  reported  by  the  Minister  of 
Transport  to  the  Rates  Advisory  Com- 
mittee since  the  issue  of  his  directions 
on  Dec.  20-23,  1919.  It  was  estimated 
that  the  financial  result  of  working 
British  railways  (including  Ireland) 
would  show  a  deficit  as  from  April  1, 
1920,  at  the  rate  of  £54,000,000  per  an- 
num; this  included  increases  in  salaries 


and  wages  of  £4,400,000,  which  came 
into  force  July  1  under  the  provisions  of 
the  sliding  scale. 

At  the  Miners'  Federation  Conference 
it  was  decided  to  demand  of  the  Govern- 
ment a  reduction  in  the  price  of  domes-* 
tic  coal  by  14s.  2d.  per  ton  (the  amount 
of  the  increase  imposed  last  May),  and 


ARCHBISHOP    DANIEL    MANNIX 

Irish-Australia7i    prelate    who   was   not 

allowed  to  land  in  Ireland 

{Keystone   View   Co.) 


advances  of  wages  ranging  from  2s.  per 
day  for  adults  to  9d.  for  workers  under 
16  years  old.  Critics  pointed  out  that  the 
two  proposals  were  mutually  destructive 
of  each  other.  The  flat  rate  advance  of 
2s.  per  adult's  day  meant  an  addition  of 
£30,000,000  a  year  to  the  wage  bill  of 
the  industry,  and  added  something  like 
3s.  per  ton  to  the  cost  of  production. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  lowering  of  the 
price  of  domestic  coal  by  14s.  2d.  per  ton 
was  estimated  by  the  miners'  President 
to  mean  a  loss  of  £36,000,000  per  annum 
in  the  income  of  the  industry.  Thus  the 
cost  in  higher  wages  and  lessened  in- 
come in  conceding  these  demands  would 
be  £66,000,000,  or  the  actual  amount  at 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


1055 


n?  m  1313. 0?  m^  k^^nmi  a^P> 


BRONZE  TABLET   COMMEMORATING  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  NC-4  AT  PLYMOUTH, 

ENGLAND,   MAY  31,    1919;   TO  BE   PLACED   NEAR  THE  MAYFLOWER   STONE 

(©    International) 


which  the  miners  estimated  the  surplus 
income  of  the  industry. 

For  the  first  time  women  jurors  were 
impaneled  in  England  when,  on  July 
28,  six  women  formed  a  part  of  the  jury 
in  the  British  Quarter  Sessions.  At  the 
outset  the  prosecuting  attorney  roused  a 
murmur  throughout  the  court  when,  in- 
stead of  addressing  the  jury  by  the  time- 
worn  phrase  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury," 
he  said,  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the 
jury."  He  proceeded  to  congratulate  the 
women  jurors  for  "at  last  taking  their 
proper  place  in  the  administration  of 
justice  in  England,"  and  added  that  the 
cause  of  justice  was  also  to  be  congratu- 
lated. The  women  jurors  sat  throughout 
the  day  and  heard  six  cases,  but  at  the 
close  two  women,  mothers,  asked  to  be 
excused  from  further  service  owing  to 
the  claim  upon  them  by  their  children. 
The  Judge  granted  their  request,  where- 
upon two  other  women  immediately  vol- 
unteered and  were  accepted. 

CANADA 

Political  experts  are  exercised  over 
the    results    of    the    provincial    general 


elections  held  in  Nova  Scotia  July  27^ 
The  return  of  the  Liberal  Government, 
headed  by  the  Hon.  George  H.  Murray, 
who  has  been  Premier  for  thirty-four 
consecutive  years,  was  expected,  and  the 
result  furnished  no  surprise  in  that  re- 
gard. Significance  lies  in  the  oblitera- 
tion of  the  Conservative  Party,  which 
elected  only  one  member,  compared  with 
the  thirteen  it  had  in  the  last  Legisla- 
ture, and  the  success  of  the  Labor  and 
Farmer  Parties.  Labor  elected  six  out 
of  thirteen  candidates,  and  the  Farmers 
seven  out  of  fifteen.  The  standing  of 
the  parties  in  the  new  Legislature  will 
be:  Liberal  (Government)  29,  Farmers  7, 
Labor  6,  Conservatives  (formerly  the 
only  Opposition)   1. 

Nova  Scotia  is  traditionally  slow  to 
change  politically,  and  the  fact  that  the 
Labor  and  Farmer  Parties  made  so  good 
a  showing  in  their  first  organized  battle 
on  a  pretentious  scale  is  held  to  point 
to  still  greater  changes  when  the  Fed- 
eral elections  are  held.  In  the  interim 
there  will  be  a  Federal  by-election  in  Col- 
chester, where  the  Hon.  F.  B.  McCurdy, 
who  has  been  appointed  Minister  of  Pub- 


105b 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


lie  Works  in  the  Federal — or  Dominion 
— Government,  must  seek  the  confidence 
of  the  electorate.  This  constituency, 
usually  Conservative,  elected  two 
Farmer  candidates  in  the  provincial  con- 
test. It  is  represented  in  the  Federal 
Parliament  by  Mr.  McCurdy,  who  it  was 
at  first  thought  would  not  be  opposed 
on  his  elevation  to  Cabinet  rank  in  the 
Dominion  Government.  There  is  no 
such  intention  now,  and  Mr.  McCurdy 
will  probably  have  a  hard  fight  against 
a  Farmer-Labor  and  probably  Liberal 
combination. 

A  bitter  fight  is  being  waged  against 
illicit  liquor  trading  along  the  Ontario- 
Michigan  frontier.  Stung  by  the  impu- 
dent daring  of  Canadian-American 
gangs  of  bootleggers  and  smugglers,  the 
Ontario  Government  has  sought  the  aid 
of  the  Michigan  and  United  States  Fed- 
eral authorities  to  put  a  stop  to  condi- 
tions that  have  outraged  all  the  decen- 
cies. It  has  increased  the  provincial  po- 
lice and  liquor  license  enforcement  forces 
at  strategic  points  along  the  frontier 
and  obtained  from  the  Dominion  Govern- 
ment the  promise  of  detachments  of  the 
Royal  Canadian  Mounted  Police — for- 
merly the  Royal  Northwest  Mounted  Po- 
lice— famed  for  the  manner  in  which 
they  have  upheld  the  law  in  the  Far 
West  and  the  Arctic  North.  One  of  the 
recent  appointments  as  License  Inspector 
is  that  of  the  Rev.  J.O.  Spracklin  of  Sand- 
wich, Ontario,  "  a  fighting  parson  "  in 
every  sense  of  the  term,  who  has  accused 
some  of  the  police  officials  of  dereliction 
of  duty.  He  has  already  made  two  ar- 
rests of  alleged  bootleggers,  having  to 
fire  upon  them  before  they  surrendered. 

The  British  and  overseas  delegates  to 
the  Imperial  Press  Conference  after 
three  days  business  sessions  at  Ottawa 
are  now  finishing  one  of  the  most  pre- 
tentious tours  of  Canada  that  any  large 
body  has  ever  made.  Special  trains  fur- 
nished by  the  Canadian  National  Rail- 
ways (the  Government  system)  and  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  are  convey- 
ing the  visitors  all  over  the  country.  In 
the  course  of  their  formal  sessions  the 
delegates  passed  many  resolutions  hav- 
ing regard  principally  to  improving 
communications    between     Britain     and 


the  overseas  sections  of  the  empire. 
The  hope  was  expressed  that  eventually 
a  cable  rate  of  1  penny  (2  cents) 
a  word  would  be  possible,  and  that  ar- 
rangements for  a  systematic  supplying 
of  British  Empire  news  would  be  es- 
tablished on  a  satisfactory  basis.  The 
subject  of  newsprint  supply  furnished 
material  for  a  discussion  that  was  ii 
many  respects  the  most  interesting  of 
the  meeting.  A  standing  committee  was 
appointed,  charged  with  the  duty  of  at- 
tempting to  secure  adequate  supplies 
throughout  the  empire. 

Three-fourths  of  the  capital  in  the 
Canadian  pulp  and  paper  industry,  one 
speaker  said,  had  come  from  the  United 
States.  Other  things  being  equal,  pro- 
duction naturally  favored  the  source  of 
capital.  Until  British  capital  interested 
itself  more  extensively  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  pulp  and  paper  industry, 
trade  with  the  old  land  would  never  reach 
the  extent  it  ought  to.  In  an  address  of 
welcome  by  the  Hon.  Arthur  Meighen, 
Premier  of  Canada,  and  more  formal 
statements  to  Canadian  newspaper  men, 
Canada's  status  as  a  self-governing  na- 
tion within  the  empire,  loyal  to  the  em- 
pire and  the  Crown,  was  emphasized. 

AUSTRALIA 

The  long  drought  in  Australia,  lasting 
many  months,  was  broken  in  July,  and 
crop  prospects  were  considered  excellent. 
It  was  expected  that  Australia  would 
have  an  exportable  surplus  of  wheat  this 
year.  In  this  connection  a  plan  to  solve 
the  problem  of  railway  transportation 
has  been  evolved  by  Under  Treasurer 
Minogue  of  Victoria.  This  problem  has 
been  vexing  Australians  for  a  generation. 
Almost  all  the  railways  are  the  property 
of  the  State  Governments,  and  there  are 
three  different  railway  gauges  used,  so 
that  on  the  line  linking  all  the  capitals 
freight  and  passengers  had  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  other  trains.  Mr.  Minogue  pro- 
poses to  obviate  the  necessity  of  chang- 
ing trains  at  five  different  points  on  the 
transcontinental  journey  by  a  double  sys- 
tem of  rails  at  a  cost  of  $25,000,000  as 
compared  with  the  $465,000,000  that 
would  be  involved  by  the  establishment 


EVENTS  IN  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


1057 


of  a  uniform  gauge  under  the  previous 
plan. 

American  shipping  interests  are 
warned  of  an  acute  fuel  oil  shortage  in 
Australia,  and  the  United  States  Consul 
at  Sydney  suggested  the  advisability  of 
diverting  oil-burning  ships  from  the  Aus- 
tralian trade  altogether.  Two  American 
steamers  were  forced  to  lay  up  at  Syd- 
ney to  have  coal-burning  equipment  sub- 
stituted for  oil  burning,  because  they 
were  unable  to  obtain  sufficient  oil  to 
take  them  to  the  next  port. 

As  a  substitute  for  the  Arbitration 
Court,  which  Prime  Minister  Hughes 
pronounces  totally  unfitted  for  solving 
certain  problems  connected  with  coal  and 
other  industries,  the  Government  pro- 
poses the  establishment  of  mixed  tribu- 
nals of  employers  and  employes,  with 
jurisdiction  over  special  industries. 

Australians  have  been  taking  great 
interest  in  the  trip  of  Archbishop  Man- 
nix  through  the  United  States  on  his  way 
to  Europe.  His  utterances  were  de- 
nounced at  a  big  mass  meeting  held  in 
Sydney  on  July  19,  and  Premier  Hughes, 
in  a  speech  at  Bendigo  on  July  25,  de- 
clared that  Australia  repudiated  him. 
Strong  remonstrances  were  sent  to  the 
Vatican  stating  that  the  prelate's  views 
did  not  represent  the  feeling  prevalent 
in  Australia.  On  the  other  hand,  Arch- 
bishop Mannix,  in  an  interview  in  New 
York,  characterized  the  Australian  Pre- 


mier as  a  "  renegade  and  a  British  im- 
perialist of  the  worst  type." 

Perhaps  to  offset  Archbishop  Mannix's 
activities  Mgr.  Cattaneo^  Apostolic  Del- 
egate to  Australia,  and  Archbishop  Du- 
hig  of  Queensland  visited  the  Prince  of 
Wales  at  Brisbane  on  July  29,  and  for- 
mally presented  their  homage  to  the 
Throne,  assuring  the  Crown  Prince  of 
the  loyalty  of  the  whole  Roman  Catholic 
community  of  Australia.  The  Prince  had 
just  arrived  after  a  brief  visit  to  Tas- 
mania. He  has  ended  his  Australian 
tour  and  is  homeward  bound,  intending 
to  visit  Jamaica  on  Sept.  15. 

NEW  ZEALAND 

Often  spoken  of  as  the  "  Switzerland 
of  the  Antipodes,"  New  Zealand  is  plan- 
ning to  put  her  numerous  watercourses 
to  some  practical  use.  The  Government 
is  about  to  expend  $22,000,000  in  the  de- 
velopment of  a  large  hydroelectric  sta- 
tion south  of  Auckland,  which  will  fur- 
nish 160,000  horse  power  to  the  city.  A 
dam  is  to  be  constructed  forming  an  ar- 
tificial lake  eighteen  miles  in  length  to 
run  the  necessary  machinery.  Extensive 
harbor  improvements  for  Wellington  and 
Lyttleton  are  under  way,  and  a  good 
roads  campaign  is  being  backed  in  all 
sections  of  the  country.  A  royal  commis- 
sion has  been  appointed  to  report  upon 
an  important  arterial  road  in  the  North 
Island,  extending  from  Helensville  to 
Hamilton,  about  120  miles. 


Developments  in  France  and  Italy 

French  Criticism  of  the  Spa  Terms 


FRANCE 

THE  crisis  with  Germany  over  the 
question  of  coal  deliveries  was  set- 
tled by  M.  Millerand  at  Spa,  but 
with  a  condition  attached  to  it  which 
was  by  no  means  a'greeable  to  the  na- 
tion as  a  whole,  namely,  the  one  provid- 
ing that  France  should  make  cash  ad- 
vances to  Germany  to  facilitate  her  in- 
dustrial task  and  to  help  her  make  the 
coal  deliveries  agreed  upon.  Having  re- 
ported  the   arrangement   made    and   re- 


ceived a  preliminary  vote  of  confidence, 
M.  Millerand  awaited  the  report  of  the 
Commission  on  Finance.  This  report 
was  unfavorable.  The  debate  in  the 
Chamber  on  July  30  showed  that  opposi- 
tion existed,  but  the  French  Premier 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  favorable  vote 
of  356  against  169,  and  the  recommenda- 
tion of  a  200,000,000  franc  monthly  ad- 
vance to  Gei-many  was  approved.  In 
speaking  for  the  bill,  Premier  Millerand 
said: 


1058 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


Coal  is  the  question  of  the  hour.  The 
Spa  agreement  gives  us  80  per  cent,  of 
our  needs  at  a  price  one-fifth  less  than 
now.  If  there  were  no  opposition  party, 
this  arrangenj^nt  would  be  approved 
unanimously. 

The  Premier  explained  how  Germany 
would  be  interested  in  deliveries  through 
the  five  marks  gold  per  ton  payment  for 
feeding  the  miners  and  through  the  ad- 
vances   agreed   upon   on   condition   that 
full  deliveries  were  made.     Warning  of 
the  consequences  of  rejection,  he  said: 
If  you  refuse  to  pass  this  bill,  then  our 
obligation   to   make   advances   ceases,    but 
at    the    same    time    there    disappears    the 
coal  protocol  for  2,000,000  tons  monthly  to 
the    Allies,    the    control    commission    van- 
ishes, and  finally  there  vanishes  the  pro- 
vision for  occupation  of  the  Ruhr  if  Ger- 
many does  not  deliver  6,000,000  tons  at  the 
date  fixed.    You  take  also  from   our  Bel- 
gian and  Italian  friends  the  coal  Germany 
promised  to  deliver.    *    *    *    Let  me  con- 
front you  with  your  responsibilities.  There 
will  be  not  only  responsibility  for  a  coal 
shortage  just  before  Winter,  but  a  higher 
and    more    serious    one.    *    *    *    There    is 
needed  the  close,  intimate,  confident  union 
of  all  the  Allies  and  of  the  Allies  alone. 

M.  Marsal,  the  Minister  of  Finance, 
demanded  an  immediate  discussion  of 
the  bill.  Deputy  Bokanowski,  speaking 
for  the  Commission  of  Finance,  which 
had  reported  adversely,  said: 

The  Chamber  of  Deputies  and  the  Sen- 
ate, in  voting  the  heaviest  tax  burden  a 
nation  ever  consented  to  bear,  have 
reached  the  extreme  limit  of  the  French 
taxpayers.  It  is  impossible  for  France  to 
assume  any  part  of  the  obligations  on 
Germany  through  the  Versailles  treaty. 
To  go  further  would  be  to  compromise 
France's  financial  situation. 

M.  Bokanowski  then  read  the  report 
opposin*g  the  Govemme^^  amid  a  dead 
silence.  The  report  recalled  the  vote  of 
confidence  given  M  Millerand  on  his  re- 
turn from  Spa,  but  added: 

It  was  apparent  that  the  Spa  agreement 
constituted  not  a  simple  interpretation, 
but  a  real  alteration  of  one  of  the  most 
essential  provisions  of  the  treaty.  At  the 
moment  when  the  Allies  ought  to  compel 
those  responsible  for  the  destruction  of 
our  mines  to  execute  their  engagements, 
it  is  not  relief  that  they  bring  to  France, 
but  an  increase  of  hef  burdens.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  the  first  concern  of  the  Allies 
should  be  to  strengthen  the  activity  of 
German  industries.  Germany  alone  will 
benefit    by    the    international    loan    con- 


templated at  Boulogne ;  once  again  France 
makes  herself  Germany's  banker. 

While  the  Commission  of  Finance  thus 
repudiated  the  Spa  agreements,  the  For- 
eign Affairs  Commission  approved  the 
measure  as  the  only  thing  to  be  done, 
though  deploring  the  bitterness  of 
France's  fate.  M.  Rollin,  speaking  for 
this  commission,  recalled  that  the  Spa 
agreement  assured  France  80  per  cent. 
of  her  coal  requirements.  He  declared, 
however,  that  "  the  extreme  limit  of  con- 
cessions from  France  has  been  reached." 
The  taking  of  the  vote  closed  the  debate. 
The  result  was  a  personal  triumph  for 
Millerand,  356  voting  for  and  only  169 
against  the  bill. 

New  difficulties  for  the  Government 
arose  with  the  defeat  of  the  Polish  ar- 
mies by  the  Bolsheviki,  and  the  refusal 
of  the  Moscow  Government  to  open  ar- 
mistice negotiations  with  France's  pro- 
tege, Poland.  The  decisions  taken  by 
France  and  Great  Britain  both  at  Bou- 
logne and  at  Hythe,  as  well  as  the  bomb- 
shell exploded  by  France  with  her  inde- 
pendent recognition  of  the  de  facto  Gov- 
ernment of  General  Wrangel  in  South 
Russia,  are  treated  in  the  articles  on 
Poland  and  Russia  elsewhere  in  these 
pages. 

Another  important  phase  of  France's 
foreign  policy — the  French  campaign 
against  the  Emir  Feisal  in  Syria — was 
discussed  at  the  session  of  the  Chamber 
held  at  the  end  of  July.  In  these  de- 
bates France's  intention  to  maintain  her 
supremacy  in  Syria  was  emphasized. 
The  culminating  discussion  took  place  on 
July  30,  when  M.  Millerand  announced 
the  occupation  of  Damascus  by  the 
French  troops  under  General  Gouraud 
(See  article  on  Syria),  the  overthrow  of 
the  recalcitrant  and  aggressive  Emir, 
and  the  formation  of  a  new  power  which 
declared  its  willingness  to  collaborate 
with  France.  In  the  Senate  a  vote 
of  205  against  84  in  favor  of  the 
financial  credits  proposed  for  .  Syria 
showed  that  the  Senate  supported  the 
Government's  policy  in  this  region. 

The  navy  budget  was  voted  on  July 
26;  its  passing  was  preceded  by  a  dis- 
cussion which  emphasized  France's  need 
of  a  strong  navy. 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  FRANCE  AND  ITALY 


1059 


The  Finance  Commission  at  the  ses- 
sion of  July  23  voted  the  credits  neces- 
sary for  the  re-establishment  of  the 
French  Einbassy  to  the  Vatican,  after 
previously  declaring-  that  the  question 
must  be  deferred.  At  this  session  M. 
Millerand  was  personally  present,  and 
disclosed  to  the  commission  the  reasons 
why  an  adjournment  was  unwise.  He 
also  defended  the  Government's  project 
as  drawn  against  numerous  objections, 
including  a  counter  project  to  accredit  a 
diplomatic  representative  of  rank  in- 
ferior to  an  Ambassador.  With  the 
credits  voted  and  the  Government 
project  sanctioned,  the  whole  subject  of 
execution  of  the  mandate  was  scheduled 
to  come  up  at  the  Fall  session  of  the 
Senate,  and  no  steps  were  to  be  taken 
toward  a  resumption  of  official  relations 
during  the  Summer. 

In  matters  of  internal  policy  the 
course  followed  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment was  one  of  conciliation  toward 
political  prisoners,  and  of  protective 
legislation  for  the  nation's  health  and 
general  welfare.  The  general  discussion 
of  the  project  of  amnesty  was  closed  in 
the  chamber  at  the  session  of  July  21. 
The  Government  put  through  its  bill  for 
amnesty,  excluding  the  mutineers  of  the 
Black  Sea  and  those  of  the  Chemin  des 
Dames  in  1917.  All  attempts  to  extend 
the  amnesty  to  the  leaders  of  the  agita- 
tion by  which  the  French  sailors  and  sol- 
diers had  been  misled  were  defeated,  as 
were  all  counterprojects.  An  amend- 
ment to  differentia/te  between  these  lead- 
ers and  their  victims,  though  not  ad- 
mitting of  full  pardon,  was  supported. 
Amnesty  did  not  extend  to  the  rioters  of 
May  Day,  to  the  men  responsible  for  the 
second  strike  of  the  railway  men,  or  to 
the  Frenchmen  who  had  stayed  in  Amer- 
ica disregarding  France's  call,  even 
though  they  had  fought  in  France  under 
the  American  flag. 

The  general  budget  for  1921  was  dis- 
cussed in  the  Senate  at  the  end  of  July. 
M.  Thoumyre,  Under  Secretary  of  Staite 
for  Food  Supplies,  on  July  26  replied  to 
observations  regarding  the  state  of 
irritation  through  most  of  the  depart- 
ments by  the  continuance  of  State  con- 
trol. He  stated  that  the  Government  was 
striving  to  restore  complete  commercial 


liberty.  Only  the  control  of  wheat  and 
other  cereal  staples  would  be  maintained 
for  reasons  of  national  welfare.  The 
Government  bill  retaining  this  control, 
which  had  already  passed  the  Chamber, 
was  voted  by  the  Senate  at  the  session  of 
July  27,  after  a  discussion  which  showed 
strong  feeling  against  the  continuance  of 
State  control  and  of  the  heavy  taxation, 
which  weighed  on  the  agriculturists. 

The  extraordinary  budget  of  750,000,- 
000  francs  for  the  administration  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  was  voted  at  the 
session  of  July  27,  with  the  intimation 
that  it  would  be  the  last  extraordinary 
budget  for  these  provinces,  and  that 
henceforth  Alsace  and  Lorraine  would 
be  brought  within  the  frame  of  purely 
French  legislation,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions. Germany,  it  was  declared,  should 
be  given  no  opportunity  to  proclaim  the 
existence  of  a  separatist  policy  regarding 
the  two  former  German  ^territories. 

A  bill  for  3,500,000  francs  was  brought 
before  the  Chamber  on  July  26  to  cover 
the  costs  of  the  elaborate  ceremonies 
planned  by  the  Government  to  com- 
memorate the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
republic,  Sept.  4,  now  a  national  holiday. 
A  second  bill  provided  for  the  transfer- 
ence of  the  heart  of  Gambetta  to  the 
Pantheon,  to  occur  upon  this  day. 

The  high  tax  on  cafes  and  music  halls 
— 50  per  cent,  of  the  receipts — has  led 
in  many  cases  to  the  dismissal  of  mu- 
sicians. Montmartre  lost  thereby  much 
of  its  gayety.  The  new  finance  law  voted 
by  the  Senate  on  the  night  of  July  31- 
Aug.  1  suppressed  the  favorite  Casino 
of  Enghien,  as  well  as  all  other  roulette 
sanctums  within  100  kilometers  of  Paris. 

Statements  by  the  Government  toward 
the  end  of  July  indicated  that  the  plan  to 
suppress  the  immoral  posters  exhibited 
through  Paris,  and  to  wage  a  war  against 
immoral  spectacles  and  propaganda,  was 
being  executed  vigorously.  All  indecent 
posters  had  been  torn  down  and  de- 
stroyed, and  cabaret  owners  were  being 
prosecuted  wherever  guilty  of  infringe- 
ment of  the  new  law.  The  Govern- 
ment's desire  to  secure  the  well-being 
of  the  nation  was  also  shown  in  the  pass- 
ing of  a  bill  by  the  Senate  shortly  be- 
fore July  12  making  physical  education 
compulsory  for  boys  and  girls.    Plans  to 


1060 


THE-  NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


acquire  lands  and  buildings  for  this  train- 
ing were  being  considered  during  July. 
Two  bills  introduced  in  the  Senate  on 
July  24  sought  to  modify  the  stringency 
of  the  present  marriage  code,  which  for- 
bids marriage  without  the  consent  of 
both  parents  and  grandparents.  The  re- 
form was  opposed  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  lead  to  a  slackening  of  family  ties. 
Another  bill,  proposing  that  the  word 
"  obey "  should  be  eliminated  from  the 
woman's  part  of  the  marriage  contract, 
was  severely  commented  on  by  the  press; 
the  feminist  papers  were  especially 
hostile  to  it,  declaring  that  it  would  lead 
to  anarchy  in  the  home. 

ITALY 

The  events  of  the  month  revealed  that 
Italy,  in  spite  of  many  troublesome  ob- 
stacles— political,  industrial  and  social — 
was  slowly  putting  her  house  in  order, 
even  though  the  obstacles  have  been 
magnified  abroad  by  prejudiced  corre- 
spondents. She  settled  the  difference 
with  Greece  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
latter  did  not  withhold  her  signature 
from  the  Treaty  of  Sevres;  she  reached 
a  protocol  with  Albania;  debates  in  the 
Chamber  promised  thorough  investiga- 
tion of  war  profiteering  and  a  more 
emphatic  attitude  on  the  part  of  the 
Deputies  to  support  the  Government  in 
its  measures  to  promote  public  order,  and 
debates  in  the  Senate  threw  a  flood  of 
light  upon  diplomatic  relations  with 
England  and  France  which  had  too  long 
been  hidden.  And  toward  the  end  of  the 
period  covered  by  this  review  there 
occurred  two  events  which,  it  is  believed, 
will  have  a  measurable  effect  in 
'strengthening  the  prestige  of  the  Gio- 
litti  Government  both  at  home  and 
abroad — the  publication  of  the  report 
for  the  fiscal  year  1919-20  and  tha  issu- 
ance of  the  note  addressed  by  the  Amer- 
ican Secretary  of  State  to  the  Italian 
Ambassador  at  Washington. 

The  first  of  these  two  subjects  may 
be  dismissed  in  one  sentence:  For  the 
fiscal  year  just  ended  the  Italians  paid 
7,250,000,000  lire  in  taxes,  surpassing  by 
2,500,000,000  the  amount  expected  and 
by  nearly  2,000,000,000  the  payments  of 
1918-19.     This  shows  that  labor  and  in- 


dustry, although  still  measurably  handi- 
capped by  the  lack  of  raw  material, 
strikes  and  social  unrest,  were  rapidly 
gaining  ground. 

When  the  iiote  of  Secretary  of  State 
Colby  was  issued  on  the  same  day  that 
the  Turkish  Treaty  was  signed  at  Sevres 
the  Giolitti  Government,  under  pressure 
from  the  extreme  Socialists,  was  about 
to  re-establish  diplomatic  relations  with 
Soviet  Russia.  Indeed,  Ambassadors 
had  already  crossed  each  other  on  the 
way  to  their  respective  posts.  It  was 
expected  that  their  exequaturs  would 
now  be  changed  to  those  of  commercial 
agents,  and  that  Italy  would  stand  with 
the  United  States  and  France  in  declin- 
ing to  recognize  the  Moscow  Government 
diplomatically,  although  she  will  not  go 
as  far  as  France  by  giving  material  aid 
to  the  enemies  of  Bolshevism — that  is, 
not  publicly,  although  the  Vatican  has 
aroused  an  intense  enthusiasm  among 
the  Catholic,  or  Popular,  Party  for  the 
cause  of  Poland.  At  any  rate,  the  Colby 
note  will  measurably  strengthen  the 
hand  of  the  Government  in  dealing  with 
Bolshevism  in  the  Peninsula. 

The  Italian  Embassy  explained  the 
Italo-Greek  difference  as  follows : 

With  the  idea  of  elucidating  the  recent 
negotiations  which  took  place  between 
Greece  and  Italy  in  regard  to  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Islands  of  the  Dodecanese  re- 
maining in  Italian  possession  since  the 
war  with  Turkey  of  1911-12  as  a  pawn 
for  the  execution  of  the  Treaty  of  Lau- 
sanne, it  is  necess.ary  to  make  known 
that  the  convention  witn  Greece,  conclud- 
ed by  their  Excellencies  Tittoni  and  Veni- 
zelos,  in  the  Summer  of  1919,  made  no 
assignment  of  territory— that  would  have 
been  contrary  to  the  terms  of  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles— but  designated  a  line  of 
conduct  to  be  maintained  at  the  Peace 
Conference  in  order  to  readjust  their  re* 
spective  aspirations  in  the  Orient  and  the 
Balkans.  This  convention  was  denounced 
by  the  Italian  Government  on  July  22  last 
on  the  basis  of  Article  7.  That  article, 
inserted  at  the  request  of  Greece,  de- 
clared that  if  Greece  did  not  realize  her 
aspirations  in  Thrace  or  Italy  the  man- 
date for  the  Valley  of  Meandro  and  in 
Adalia,  in  Asia  Minor,  the  convention 
would  be  considered  null  and  void,  and 
each  of  the  two  Governments  would  re- 
cover its  liberty  of  action. 

On  July  29  an  Italo-Greek  Commission 
adjusted  the  Adalia  matter  as  follows: 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  FRANCE  AND  ITALY 


1861 


Greece  recognized  that  her  troops  had 
acted  wrongly  in  crossing  the  Italian 
lines,  and  expressed  disapprobation  of 
this  act.  All  Greek  troops  were  to  be 
withdrawn  within  their  own  lines  pend- 
ing the  demarkation  of  the  limits  be- 
tween Greek  and  Italian  territory,  and 
the  Greek  Government  undertook  that 
no  military  consideration  should  justify 
an  advance  of  its  troops  beyond  this 
boundary.  The  boundary  was  to  be  de- 
limited by  a  joint  commission  of  Italian 
and  Greek  officers.  Italy  then  entered 
into  another  agreement  with  Greece  sim- 
ilar to  the  Tittoni-Venizelos  convention, 
which  designated  the  Dodecanese  as 
Greek,  except  Castellorizzo  and  Rhodes, 
the  fate  of  the  latter  to  be  decided  by 
plebiscitum  after  fifteen  years.  Greece 
then  withdrew  her  objection  to  signing 
the  Turkish  Treaty  of  Peace. 

Baron  Carlo  Aliotti,  having  failed  in 
his  negotiations  with  the  Albanian  Gov- 
ernment at  Tirana,  was  recalled  and  re- 
placed by  Count  Manzoni,  who  succeed- 
ed in  reaching  the  following  protocol: 
Italy  is  to  recognize  complete  Albanian 
independence,  to  surrender  Avlona  but 
retain  and  fortify  the  Island  of  Saseno 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Bay  of  Avlona, 
also  Punta  Linguetta  on  the  mainland, 
while  military  and  commercial  under- 
standings are  to  be  entered  into  between 
Rome  and  Tirana;  Italian  troops  are  to 
be  withdrawn  from  Avlona  and  other 
Albanian  ports  as  soon  as  the  public 
order  permits. 

In  Italy  the  war  profiteers  are  called 
pescecani,  not  "  dogfish,"  as  the  word 
seems  to  mean,  but  "  sharks,"  and  both 
individuals  and  corporations  were  asked 
by  debates  in  the  Chamber  to  account 
for  their  alleged  ill-gotten  gains  and  the 
Government  to  broaden  the  scope  of  tax- 
able securities,  and  to  see  how  far  the 
pescecani  were  responsible  for  the  or- 
ganized unrest.  Premier  Giolitti  de- 
clared in  the  Chamber  on  July  24: 

We  are  no  respecter  of  persons.  If  any- 
body imagines  he  can  influence  the  politi- 
cal life  of  the  country  with  ill-gotten 
millions  this  person  will  soon  discover  his 
foolish  mistake. 

In  the  Senate,  on  July  15,  Signor 
Scialoja,   who   accompanied   Signor  Tit- 


toni,  the  head  of  the  second  Italian  peace 
delegation  to   Paris  a  year  ago,  stated 
that  the  "  first  greeting  "  to  Tittoni  and 
himself  was  a  note  signed  by  M.  Clem- 
c-.ceau  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  which  de- 
clared that  the  Treaty  of  London  and 
subsequent    conventions   "  could   not   be 
any  longer  considered  as  treaties  having 
a  juridical  value,  but  as  precedent  acts 
which  would  serve  as  a  basis      r  discus- 
sion."  Signor  Scialoja  and  his  colleague 
protested  until  the  status  of  the  treaty 
was  restored.    Howe^r  — ,  he  continued: 
President  Wilson  was  an  immovable  ob- 
stacle.   This  is  shown  by  the  correspond- 
ence published  in  the  British  White  Book, 
and  by  a  declaration  made  me  by  the  new 
American  Ambassador.    The  position  was 
therefore  exceedingly  difficult.    Italy,  like 
the  rest  of  Europe,  was  largely  dependent 
upon  America.     There  were  grave  draw- 
backs to  the  Treaty  of  London,  but  graver 
drawbacks  to  the  solution  proposed  in  the 
allied  memorandum  of  December.    My  own 
reply  to  that  memorandum  persuaded  the 
Allies  to  reconsider  the  question  and  make 
further  concessions.    With  these,  however, 
Mr.  Wilson  did  not  agree. 

The  Clemenceau-Lloyd  George  note 
bears  date  of  June  28,  1919;  that  of  the 
Tittoni  reply  is  July  7. 

THE  VATICAN— The  slight  injury 
which  Pope  Benedict  sustained  by  a  fall 
in  his  library  on  Aug.  13  came  at  the 
end  of  a  particularly  long  period  of  pri- 
vate audiences  and  confined  work.  As 
early  as  July  20  he  received  Miss  Wini- 
fred Holt,  President  of  an  Italian-Amer- 
ican Committee  for  the  Protection  of  the 
Blind,  and  held  a  relatively  long  conver- 
sation with  her,  as  he  was  much  inter- 
ested in  her  work,  particularly  in  regard 
to  that  among  war  victims.  On  July  26 
he  was  busy  with  a  large  budget  of  docu- 
ments from  Australian  Catholics,  both 
lay  and  clerical,  objecting  to  the  utter- 
ances made  by  Archbishop  Daniel  J. 
Mannix  of  Melbourne  while  in  the  United 
States.  These  he  examined  with  the 
Papal  Secretary  of  State,  Cardinal  Gas- 
parl. 

On  July  29  he  received  Mohammed  AH, 
head  of  the  Indian  Moslem  delegation, 
and  patiently  listened  to  him  while  he 
expounded  the  status  of  the  Calif-Sultan 
and  the  spirit  of  tolerance  always  shown 
by  Indian  Moslems  toward  other  re- 
ligions.   On  July  31  the  Holy  Father  is- 


1062 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


sued  a  circular  letter  to  the  church  in 
honor  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
decree  by  which  St.  Joseph  was  named 
patron  of  the  Universal  Church.  The 
letter  said,  among  other  things: 

When  the  end  of  the  war  came,  the 
minds  of  men,  led  astray  by  militarist 
passion,  were  exasperated  by  the  length 
and  bitterness  of  the  conflict,  and  aggra- 
vated by  famine  on  one  side  and  accumu- 
lated riches  in  the  hands  of  a  few  on  the 
other.  The  war  brought  about  two  other 
evils— the  diminution  of  conjugal  fidelity 
and  the  diminution  of  respect  for  con- 
stituted authority.  Licentious  habits  fol- 
lowed, even  among  young  women,  and 
there  arose  the  fatal  doctrine  of  Com- 
munism, with  the  absolute  destruction 
of  dutiful  relations  between  nations  and 
between  fathers  and  children.  Terrible 
consequences  ensuing  have  already  been 
experienced.  Against  all  this  should  be 
observed  the  efficacy  of  the  patronage  of 
St.  Joseph,  since  the  society  of  mankind 
is  founded  on  the  family,  and  anything 
strengthening  Christian  domestic  organi- 
zation also  strengthens  human  society. 

By  Aug.  6  the  remonstrances  against 
Archbishop  Mannix  had  become  so  for- 
midable    that     the     Holy     Father     felt 
obliged    to    make    a    statement    through 
Cardinal   Gaspari.     The  latter  declared 
that  the  Vatican  had  not  placed  and  did 
not  intend  to  place  any  impediment  in 
the  way  of  the  Australian  Archbishop's 
indulging  in  the  struggle  of  Ireland  with 
entire  independence  of  action.     On  the 
occasion  of  the  mass  for  the  relief  of 
Poland    celebrated    at    the    Church    of 
Jesus,  Rome,  the  Pope  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  Cardinal  Vicar  which  read  in  part : 
The    profound    interest    always    shown 
Poland   by  the   Holy   See  is  well   known, 
because    the    Holy    See    has    many    times 
had     occasion     in     the     past     to     protest 
against  the  dismemberment  of  Poland  and 
against  the  oppression  of  the  Poles.    To- 
day Poland   does  not  merely  face  a  seri- 
ous  peril   which   threatens   her   existence, 
but  all  Europe   is   threatened  by   a  new 
war. 

Hence  not  only  for  the  sake  of  Poland, 
but  for  the  sake  of  all  Europe,  does  the 
Holy  Father  desire  that  all  people  shall 
unite  in  imploring  God  to  spare  Poland 
a  new  calamity  and  to  rescue  Europe, 
already  exhausted,  from  a  new  exter- 
mination. 


PORTUGAL 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  Portugal 
is  off  the  beaten  track  of  news  and  has 
a  population  smaller  than  that  of  New 
York  City,  much  happens  there  the  story 
of  which  does  not  always  reach  the  outer 
world.  The  sudden  death  of  Antonio 
Maria  Bautista,  Prime  Minister  and 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  took  place  on 
June  6,  and  was  duly  reported  with  some 
observations  on  his  '  'blic  serv"  -^ 

the  fact  that  for  over  a  month  Portugal 
then  had  a  sort  of  Gubernatorial  inter- 
regnum was  not.  Then  the  news  came 
that  Senhor  Antonio  Granja  had  con- 
stituted a  Cabinet;  which  was  approved 
by  the  President  on  July  19.  Its  compo- 
sition was  as  follows : 

Antonio  Granja  (Liberal),   Prime  Minis- 
ter and  Agriculture. 

Mello  Baretto   (Reconstituent),  Foreign. 

Innocencio  Camacho   (Liberal),  Finance. 

Helder  Ribeiro   (Democrat),  War. 

Paes  Gomes   (Reconstituent),   Marine. 

Ferreira  da  Rocha  (Liberal),  Colonies. 

Velhinho    Correia       (Democrat),       Com- 
merce. 

Lima  Duque  (Liberal),  Labor. 

Lopes  Cardoso  (Reconstituent),  Justice. 

Barbosa  Magalhaes,   Instruction. 

SWITZERLAND 

The  Federal  Parliament  approved  the 
proposal  of  the  Government  that 
Switzerland  should  contribute  her  share 
toward  the  international  credit  raised 
to  assist  the  destitute  countries  of  Cen- 
tral Europe.  It  has  been  decided  that 
Switzerland  should  grant  a  credit  of 
goods  to  the  value  of  twenty-five  mil- 
lion francs  to  German-Austria.  Most  of 
this  will  cover  shipments  of  condensed 
milk.  The  sum  includes  the  fourteen 
millions  already  lent  to  the  German- 
Austrian  republic. 

An  agreement  has  been  concluded  with 
Germany  regarding  the  shipment  of 
German  coal.  The  agreement,  fixed  for 
six  months,  provides  for  a  monthly  de- 
livery of  15,000  to  20,000  metric  tons  of 
Euhr  coal,  chiefly  in  the  foi-m  of  cokes, 
and  15,000  tons  of  lignite. 


Belgium's  Alliance  With  France 

Soldiers'   Bonus    Riot — Olympic  Games 


BELGIUM 

MILITARY  support  of  France  by 
Belgium  in  future  armed  con- 
flicts is  pledged  in  the  defen- 
sive alliance  entered  into  between 
the  two  countries  upon  the  condition 
that  France  prove  not  to  have  been 
the  aggressor.  Belgium  also  reserves 
the  right  to  remain  neutral  in  all 
disputes  between  the  interests  of  France 
and  other  nations  in  France's  colonial 
possessions.  Before  official  promulga- 
tion, the  terms  of  the  treaty  were  to  be 
submitted  to  the  League  of  Nations  for 
approval. 

Hundreds  of  soldiers  invaded  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  in  Brussels  on  July 
29  in  protest  at  what  they  called  the 
Government's  neglect  of  men  who  served 
in  the  war  and  demanding  that  a  lump 
sum  be  paid  them  as  bonus.  After  break- 
ing doors  and  windows,  they  marched 
through  the  chamber  with  banners  while 
the  astonished  Deputies  sat  powerless  to 
quell  the  tumult.  Two  Deputies  who  had 
seen  service  promised  that  the  Chamber 
would  consider  the  claims  of  the  soldiers, 
who  then  left  in  groups  after  an  appeal 
for  order  by  Burgomaster  Max.  About 
150  demonstrators  were  arrested  but 
were  released  on  the  intervention  of  the 
Speaker. 

On  the  previous  day  the  Chamber  had 
passed  a  bill  to  revise  Article  47  of  the 
Constitution,  accepting  the  principle  that 
any  future  Parliament  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  may  vote  suffrage  to  women 
without  necessitating  a  new  revision  of 
the  Constitution. 

Final  selections  for  the  American  com- 
petitors in  the  Olympic  games  at  Ant- 
werp were  made  at  Boston  on  July  18. 
They  include  132  track  and  field  stars 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  of 
whom  twenty-one  are  from  New  York, 
fourteen  being  from  the  New  York  Ath- 
letic Club.  Altogether  230  persons,  in- 
cluding fourteen  women,  sailed  on  the 
Princess  Matoika,  a  United  States  trans- 


port, on  July  27,  for  Antwerp,  arriving 
on  Aug.  6.  One  American  team,  already 
on  the  ground,  won  the  final  of  the 
Olympic  trap-shooting  competition  on 
July  23.  An  unpleasant  incident  in  con- 
nection with  the  games  was  the  refusal 
of  the  Executive  Committee  to  allow  Ire- 
land to  participate  as  a  separate  nation. 
The  Irish  athletes  refused  to  compete 
under  the  British  flag.  As  Ireland  had 
not  been  included  in  the  list  of  nations 
represented  on  the  International  Olympic 
Committee,  the  Belgian  Executive  Com- 
mittee sought  to  gain  Great  Britain's 
consent,   but  failed. 

The  games  were  opened  officially  at 
the  Olympic  Stadium  in  presence  of 
King  Albert,  before  whom  3,000  athletes 
of  twenty-seven  different  nations  took 
the  sportsmen's  oath  to  participate  in  the 
games  in  a  chivalrous  spirit  for  the 
honor  of  their  countries.  The  national 
flags  were  dipped  after  the  King  had 
declared  the  games  open  and  Cardinal 
Mercier  had  pronounced  a  benediction. 

The  first  winning  flag  to  be  hoisted 
in  the  regular  events  was  that  of  Fin- 
land, whose  team  beat  all  records  on 
Aug.  15  in  throwing  the  javelin.  One 
Finnish  contestant,  Myrra,  reached  the 
new  record  distance  of  65.78  meters.  A 
new  world's  record  in  hurdles  was  made 
on  Aug.  16  by  an  American,  Frank 
Loomis,  who  set  a  mark  of  54  seconds 
in  a  400-meter  race.  The  American  team 
took  all  three  places. 

HOLLAND 

Purchase  of  the  house  at  Doom  and 
its  improvements  have  been  a  heavy 
drain  on  the  Kaiser's  private  fortune  in 
Holland,  which  it  is  said  now  amounts 
to  less  than  $350,000.  The  sum  has  been 
placed  in  a  Dutch  bank  in  the  name  of 
the  Kaiser's  Hofmarshal,  von  Gothard, 
who  has  absolute  authority  in  the 
Kaiser's  household.  The  former  Em- 
peror has  been  unable  to  obtain  any 
funds  from  his  German  properties. 


Germany  in  a  Mood  for  Treaty  Fulfillment 

Results  of  Prussian  Plebiscites 


GERMANY 

DESPITE  the  German  delegates'  dire 
predictions  of  impending  over- 
throw on  account  of  the  alleged 
severity  of  the  terms  of  treaty  fulfill- 
ment agreed  upon  at  the  Spa  conference, 
the  makeshift  German  Government  man- 
aged to  live  through  the  month  without 
any  particular  difficulty,  and  even 
scored  several  victories  in  the  Reichstag. 
The  miners  of  the  Euhr  district 
started  no  riots  over  the  compulsion  of 
Germany  to  agree  to  furnish  2,000,000 
tons  of  coal  a  month  in  return  for  special 
food  credits  and  allowances  by  the  En- 
tente. The  men  even  decided,  at  a  con- 
ference held  on  July  26,  to  increase  the 
output  in  recognition  of  promises  of 
more  food,  better  housing  and  improved 
living  conditions.  At  the  same  time  they 
urged  the  nationalization  of  the  mines  as 
soon  as  possible.  The  National  Economic 
Council  declared  its  intention  of  doing 
its  best  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  the 
agreement.  The  heads  of  the  various 
German  States,  gathered  at  Berlin  on 
July  22,  also  unanimously  decided  to 
help  in  the  work.  It  was  reported  that 
the  miners*  organizations  had  agreed 
with  the  Government  to  increase  the 
working  day  to  ten  hours  and  a  half, 
and  to  work  two  Sundays  each  month. 
The  Reichstag,  by  a  large  majority, 
voted  approval  of  the  Spa  agreement  on 
July  28,  the  only  opposition  coming  from 
the  reactionary  Nationalist  Party  and 
the  Independent  Socialists. 

In  connection  with  this  vote  Foreign 
Minister  Simons  delivered  what  the  Ger- 
man press  characterized  as  the  most 
outspoken  acknowledgment  of  the  Ger- 
man defeat  and  responsibility  that  any 
high  German  official  had  made.  Dr. 
Simons  pointed  out  that  Germany  might 
as  well  make  up  its  mind  to  accept  the 
consequences  of  the  war  and  do  its  best 
to  live  up  to  its  agreements.  Also  he 
attacked  the  conduct  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Reichswehr  (regular  army)  in  turn- 
ing the  salute  to  the  French  flag  into 


an  outburst  of  defiance  to  the  Entente. 
In  this  he  had  reference,  among  other 
matters,  to  the  action  of  a  German  fa- 
natic in  hauling  down  the  French  colors 
from  the  Embassy  Building  on  July  14. 
Dr.  Simons  somewhat  modified  his  state- 
ments on  the  Reichswehr  the  next  day. 

In  his  speech  he  took  occasion  to  point 
out  that  there  was  no  use  continuing 
to  treat  the  Soviet  Government  of  Russia 
as  a  pariah  among  the  nations;  that  it 
was  not  as  bad  as  it  had  been  painted, 
and  that  he  had  faith  in  its  promises  not 
to  attack  Germany,  as  such  action  would 
not  be  to  its  interest.  Dr.  Simons's 
words  stirred  up  a  storm  of  protest  on 
the  part  of  the  Junker  element,  but  he 
was  supported  by  the  Majority  Socialists 
and  the  moderates  in  general.  Even  the 
Independent  organ,  Freiheit,  praised  his 
honesty  and  desire  to  be  just  to  all.  His 
subsequent  modifications  detracted  some- 
what from  the  original  good  effect  of  the 
speech. 

Another  step  toward  carrying  out  the 
provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles 
was  taken  on  July  31,  when  the  Reichs- 
tag passed  a  bill  abolishing  compulsory 
military  service.  The  bill  passed  amid 
great  excitement  caused  by  a  defense  of 
the  old  Junker  system  by  General  von 
Gallwitz  and  the  heaping  of  curses  upon 
his  head  by  Deputies  Ledebour  and 
Adolf  Hoffmann,  Independent  Socialists. 
Opposition  by  the  Extreme  Left  held  up 
the  passage  of  a  bill  calling  for  the  dis- 
arming of  the  civilian  population.  The 
Cabinet  approved  this  bill,  but  the  In- 
dependent Socialists  and  the  Communists 
insisted  it  was  merely  designed  to  make 
the  working  people  helpless  in  case  of 
another  reactionary  coup  d'etat,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  serious  effort  made  to 
enforce  it  so  far  as  the  Junkers  were 
concerned.  The  trade  unions  lined  up 
with  the  Extreme  Left  against  the  bill. 

On  Aug.  2  a  bill  granting  amnesty  to 
all  persons  mixed  up  in  the  Kapp  re- 
actionary revolt  of  last  March,  with  the 
exception  of  some  leaders  and  ordinary 


GERMANY  IN  A  MOOD  FOR  TREATY  FULFILLMENT  1065 


VILLA    LA    FRAINEUSE,    WHERE    THE    SPA    CONFERENCE    WAS    HELD 


criminals,  was  put  through  the  Reichstag 
after  a  lively  debate. 

Dr.  Hans  Dorten,  the  separatist 
leader  in  the  Rhineland,  was  seized  by- 
three  armed  men  while  standing  in  front 
of  his  house  in  Wiesbaden,  in  occupied 
Germany,  on  July  23,  and  taken  in  an 
automobile  to  Leipsic  on  a  warrant  is- 
sued by  the  German  Supreme  Court 
charging  him  with  a  political  offense. 
Following  a  prompt  protest  by  the  Allies 
at  this  violation  of  the  Rhineland  agree- 
ment, Dr.  Dorten  was  released  on 
July  26. 

Agents  of  the  French  Government 
charged  on  Aug.  8  that  a  general  strike 
in  the  Sarre  Basin,  which  tied  up  coal 
deliveries  to  France,  had  been  instigated 
by  the  German  Government  to  hamper 
the  League  of  Nations  in  its  administra- 
tion of  the  district.  Herr  Olmert,  a  for- 
mer Deputy  arrested  at  Strasbourg,  was 
said  to  have  been  in  possession  of  evi- 
dence proving  the  French  charges.  On 
Aug.  10  Paris  cheered  the  flight  over  the 
city  of  Zeppelin  L-72,  turned  over  to 
France  by  Germany  in  execution  of  the 
Peace  Treaty.  On  the  same  day  Dr. 
Goepert,  head  of  the  German  delegation 
in  Paris,  started  for  home  following  the 
dissolution  of  that  body.     On  July  22 


the  L-64,  a  huge  German  airship,  was 
delivered  to  Great  Britain. 

The  food  situation  did  not  appear  to 
be  quite  so  difficult  as  during  the  pre- 
vious period,  as  there  were  but  few  re- 
ports of  demonstrations  or  outbreaks. 
The  delivery  of  grain  by  the  agrarians 
was  accelerated  by  the  National  Food 
Ministry's  adoption  of  a  scale  of  prices 
running  about  150  per  cent,  above  those 
of  last  year.  The  basic  price  for  rye  to 
the  farmer  was  fixed  at  1,400  marks  per 
metric  ton  (about  $1  a  bushel  at  present 
exchange  rates) ;  1,540  for  wheat  and 
1,350  for  barley  and  oats.  Premiums 
for  speedy  deliveries  add  a  few  hundred 
more  marks  to  the  ton. 

Dr.  Simons  declared  in  the  Reichstag 
on  Aug.  4  that  East  Prussia  was  filled 
with  reactionary  troops  ready  at  any 
moment  to  take  advantage  of  any  op- 
portunity to  attempt  re-establishment  of 
the  Junkertum,  but  up  to  Aug.  15  noth- 
ing happened. 

The  repercussion  of  the  Soviet  Russian 
drive  on  Warsaw  made  itself  manifest  in 
Germany  in  numerous  ways.  Both  the 
reactionary  press  and  the  social  revolu- 
tionists insisted  upon  observance  of 
strict  neutrality  by  Germany.  This  de- 
sire was  repeatedly  emphasized  by  Dr. 
Simons,  particularly  on  Aug.  5,  when  he 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


stated  in  the  Reichstag  that  Germany 
would  resist,  by  force  if  necessary,  at- 
tempts by  the  Entente  to  send  troops  or 
munitions  to  Poland  across  German  ter- 
ritory. On  Aug.  8  this  declaration  was 
backed  up  by  a  call  issued  by  the  four 
leading  Socialist  organizations,  i.  e.,  the 
General  Federation  of  Labor,  the  Ma- 
jority Socialist  Party,  the  Independent 
Socialists  and  the  Spartacus  League, 
urging  the  German  workers  to  refuse  to 
transport  military  supplies  to  Poland. 
The  exception  to  the  general  stand  for 
neutrality  was  furnished  by  General 
Ludendorff,  who  issued  several  long 
warnings  as  to  the  terrible  fate  men- 
acing the  whole  civilized  world  if  the 
Bolsheviki  should  destroy  Poland,  and 
practically  offered  to  take  charge  of 
building  a  dam  against  the  spread  of  the 
Red  flood,  part  of  such  dam  to  be  com- 
posed of  German  soldiers.  Up  to  Aug. 
15  no  one  had  accepted  Ludendorff's 
offer. 

On  July  25  a  Polish  supply  train,  evi- 
dently sent  out  from  the  American  zone 
of  the  occupied  German  territory  through 
a  misunderstanding,  was  held  up  by 
German  police  and  civilians  at  Marburg, 
sixty  miles  east  of  Coblenz,  and  looted. 
The  Polish  escort  was  forced  to  return  to 
Coblenz.  When  the  Bolshevist  forces  got 
close  to  the  frontier  of  Germany  in  their 
pursuit  of  the  Poles  late  in  July  the 
German  Government  asked  permission 
from  the  Allies  to  rush  extra  troops  to 
the  eastern  border  to  enforce  neutrality. 
Receiving  no  answer  up  to  Aug.  2,  on 
that  date  the  German  Government  noti- 
fied Premier  Millerand  that,  owing  to 
the  arrival  of  Russian  troops  on  the 
border  near  Allenstein,  it  had  decided  to 
send  reinforcements  to  that  district.  The 
frontier  there  was  unprotected  owing  to 
the  withdrawal  of  Italian  troops  after 
the  plebiscite.  Victor  Kopp,  the  Soviet 
envoy  in  Berlin,  repeatedly  assured  the 
Germans  that  the  Soviet  forces  would 
not  be  allowed  to  cross  the  border,  but 
Dr.  Simons  evidently  was  not  taking 
chances. 

It  was  asserted  in  connection  with  the 
publication  of  the  results  of  the  July 
plebiscite  in  the  East  and  West  Prussian 


districts,  surrounding  Allenstein  and 
Marienwerder,  that  the  advance  of  the 
Soviet  forces  helped  to  dampen  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  supporters  of  Poland 
and  to  roll  up  the  huge  majorities  in 
favor  of  remaining  with  Germany.    The 


DR.    WALTER   SIMONS 

New    Germcun   Foreign    Minister 

(Times    Wide    World    Photos) 

vote  in  West  Prussia  was  96,889  for 
Germany  and  7,271  for  Poland;  in  East 
Prussia  it  was  353,655  for  Germany  and 
7,408  for  Poland.  This  result  was  large- 
ly due  also  to  the  wholesale  return  to  the 
plebiscite  districts  of  Germans  entitled 
to  vote.  Their  number  was  put  at  about 
150,000  by  the  German  Protective 
League. 

In  sharp  contrast  with  the  German 
spirit  of  six  years  before  was  a  demon- 
stration by  25,000  persons  in  the  Lust- 
garten  in  Berlin  on  Aug.  1.  The  anni- 
versary of  the  declaration  of  war  on 
Russia  was  there  observed  by  pacifist 
speeches  and  vows  of  "never  again." 
Hundreds  of  war  cripples  took  part  in 
the  pacifist  demonstration. 


Hungary  and  Her  Neighbors 

Austria's   Makeshift  Laws 


HUNGARY 

r[E  Governmental  crisis  precipitated 
by  the  announcement  of  the  inter- 
national labor  blockade  lasted 
throughout  June  and  July.  Unable  to 
cope  with  the  terrorism  of  the  White  of- 
ficers, the  Simonyi-Semadam  Cabinet 
resigned  on  June  9,  then  withdrew  its 
resignation,  but  resigned  again.  Regent 
Horthy  negotiated  with  several  leaders 
of  the  Christian  National  Union  and  the 
Small  Landholders'  Party,  the  two  lead- 
ing groups  of  the  National  Assembly. 
¥ov  a  while  it  seemed  that  Count 
Stephen  Bethlen,  a  Transylvanian  noble- 
man known  for  his  reactionary  sym- 
pathies, would  be  named  Premier. 

At  last,  on  July  20,  another  Transyl- 
vanian magnate,  the  former  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Count  Paul  Teleki,  was 
appointed  Premier.  The  new  Govern- 
ment assumed  office  with  the  indorse- 
ment of  both  the  Christian  Nationalists 
and  the  Small  Landholders,  as  well  as 
the  so-called  "  dissident "  group.  Al- 
though the  Small  Landholders'  Party 
has  a  plurality  in  the  Assembly,  the  pol- 
icy of  the  new  administration  is  likely 
to  be  colored  by  the  general  attitude  of 
the  Christian  Nationalists. 

The  most  important  problem  facing 
the  new  administration  is  the  curbing  of 
the  White  Terror.  Count  Teleki's  prede- 
cessor failed  because  he  proved  weak  in 
the  face  of  the  mafia  led  by  Lieutenant 
Hejjas,  Major  Pronay,  Captain  Osten- 
burg  and  the  rest  of  the  military  lead- 
ers. It  is  pointed  out,  however,  in  the 
Vienna  press  that  Count  Teleki,  instead 
of  tackling  the  dissolution  of  the  terror- 
ist gangs  first,  engaged  in  an  adven- 
turous foreign  policy  by  uttering  high- 
sounding  promises  to  help  the  Allies, 
above  all  France,  against  Red  Russia. 
The  Premier's  purpose,  it  is  said,  is  to 
keep  the  National  Army  intact  and  to 
strengthen  it,  if  possible,  although  the 
country's  most  crying  need  is  to  get  rid 
of  what  the  emigre  press  of  Vienna  calls 
the  "vampire  army,"  the  oversize  mili- 


tary establishment  that  is  sucking  the 
lifeblood  of  the  nation. 

The  real  aims  of  the  officers'  junta 
are  revealed  by  reports  published  in  the 
Vienna  newspapers  concerning  a  meet- 
ing held  in  the  War  Office  at  Budapest. 
The  meeting  was  attended  by  the  Minis- 
ter of  War,  General  Soos,  the  Generals 
Berzeviczy  and  Dani,  the  Aide  de  Camp 
to  the  Regent,  Magashazy;  further,  a 
number  of  staff  officers,  and  by  the 
commanders  of  the  notorious  terror  de- 
tachments. Baron  Pronay,  Count  Osten- 
burg.  Lieutenant  Hejjas  and  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Defense  Union,  Captain 
Gombos.  A  resolution,  submitted  by 
Count  Ostenburg,  called  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  military  dictatorship,  and 
recommended,  as  preliminary  measures, 
the  seizure  of  the  railroad  terminals, 
post  and  telegraph  offices  and  telephone 
exchanges,  disarmament  of  the  police, 
confiscation  of  all  property  owned  by 
Jews,  destruction  of  the  plants  of  liberal 
and  Jew-owned  newspapers,  and  general 
massacre  of  all  radicals,  socialists  and 
Jews.  The  comment  of  the  Vienna  news- 
papers is  to  the  effect  that  the  terrorist 
officers  feel  the  days  of  their  rule  are 
numbered  and  are  attempting  to  antici- 
pate events. 

The  labor  blockade  imposed  by  the 
International  Trade  Union  Congress 
continues  in  force,  as  negotiations  be- 
tween the  Hungarian  Government  and 
the  labor  executive  did  not  lead  to  satis- 
factory results.  Strangely  enough,  one 
of  the  first  effects  of  the  blockade  felt 
by  the  Hungarian  city  populations  was 
a  considerable  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
living.  As  a  consequence  of  the  em- 
bargo the  farmers  of  the  great  Magyar 
plain  were  prevented  from  exporting 
their  wheat,  fruit,  vegetables,  milk  and 
meat  to  the  neighboring  countries,  and 
were  forced  to  sell  in  the  home  market 
at  reduced  prices.  Now,  in  so  far  as  the 
terrorist  officers  could  at  all  reckon  on 
popular  support,  it  was  to  come  from 
the   wealthy   peasants   opposed  to   both 


> 


1068 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  Karolyi  land  reform  and  the  social- 
ization attempted  by  the  Bolsheviki. 
These  peasants  now  see  their  fruit  and 
vegetables  rotting  on  their  hands  on  ac- 
count of  the  blockade.  The  net  result 
is  a  very  marked  turn  in  their  political 
outlook. 

Although  the  new  Government  of 
Count  Paul  Teleki  promises  to  bridle 
the  excesses  of  the  White  Terror,  its 
program  continues  to  be  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  anti-Semitism,  of  racial  and 
class  intolerance  which  marks  counter- 
revolutionary Hungary. 

AUSTRIA 

The  appointment  of  the  new  Cabinet, 
supplanting  that  of  the  first  Chancellor 
of  the  Austrian  Republic,  Dr.  Renner, 
marks  a  novel  departure  in  the  history 
of  parliamentary  governments,  inas- 
much as  the  Ministers  are  not  named 
by  the  Chief  of  State,  President  Seitz, 
but  elected  by  their  respective  parties  on 
the  basis  of  proportional  representation. 
The  Cabinet  is  headed  by  a  Tyrolese 
professor,  the  Christian  Socialist,  Dr. 
Mayr,  who,  however,  does  not  assume 
the  title  of  Chancellor.  He  retains  the 
portfolio  of  Constitutional  Reform.  Fol- 
lowing is  the  list  of  Secretaries  of  State: 
Interior  —  Walter      Kreisky,      Christian 

Socialist. 
Commerce  —  Deputy       Heinl,       Christian 

Socialist. 
Agriculture  —  Deputy     Hausis,     Christian 

Socialist. 
Religion— Deputy  Miklas,  Christian  Social- 
ist. 
Foreign       Affairs— Dr.       Renner,       Social 

Democrat. 
National    Defense  —  Dr.    Deutsch,    Social 

Democrat. 
Social    Affairs— Deputy    Hanusch,    Social 

Democrat. 
Education— Deputy  Glockel,  Social  Demo- 
crat. 
Chairman   of  Committe  for  Socialization, 

Dr.  Ellenbogen,  Social  Democrat. 
Justice— Dr.  Roller,   Pan-Germanist. 
Finance— Dr.  Reisch  (old.) 
Food— Lowenfeld-Russ   (old.) 

Another  novelty  about  the  new  Gov- 
ernment is  a  provision  of  the  inter- 
party  agreement,  on  the  basis  of  which 
the  Cabinet  was  formed,  to  the  effect 
that  each  Minister  holds  his  portfolio  on 
the  strength  of  the  confidence  of  his  own 


party  only.  In  other  words,  each  of  the 
three  parties  represented  in  the  coali- 
tion— the  Christian  Socialists,  Social 
Democrats  and  Pan-Germans — is  a  Gov- 
ernmental party  as  far  as  its  own  mem- 
bers in  the  Cabinet  are  concerned,  but 
each  is  at  the  same  time  in  the  opposi- 
tion, too,  so  far  as  Ministers  chosen 
from  the  other  two  parties  are  con- 
cerned. 

This  arrangement  is  ridiculed  in  the 
Berlin  press  as  a  typically  Austrian 
makeshift,  devised  to  evade  a  difficulty 
rather  than  solve  it.  Considering  the 
fundamental  differences  separating  the 
platforms  and  general  outlook  of  the 
three  parties,  the  Berlin  newspapers 
say,  the  practical  impossibility  of  the 
compromise  will  soon  be  apparent. 

The  Berlin  newspapers  also  deplore 
the  retention  of  the  foreign  portfolio  by 
Chancellor  Renner,  whom  they  scorn  as 
the  tool  and  dupe  of  French  influence. 

One  of  the  most  important  measures 
discussed  in  the  Austrian  Parliament, 
the  bill  for  a  capital  levy,  was  passed 
after  it  underwent  various  amendments 
to  conform  to  the  attitude  of  the  Chris- 
tian Socialists,  opponents  of  the  bill  in 
its  original  form.  The  bill  provides  for 
an  exemption  from  the  tax  of  all  per- 
sonal property  up  to  30,000  kronen.  The 
tax  on  real  estate  is  to  be  paid  in 
twenty-two  annual  installments,  the  first 
two  totaling  20  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
tax.  The  remaining  80  per  cent,  will  be 
spread  over  twenty  years.  Factories 
and  buildings  will  be  assessed  at  their 
original  cost  and  not  at  their  present 
value,  as  demanded  at  first  by  the  So- 
cial Democrats.  The  latter  claim  that 
the  alleviations  introduced  by  the  Chris- 
tian Socialists  will  mean  a  loss  of  25  to 
80  per  cent,  to  the  Treasury. 

The  Interallied  Reparation  Commis- 
sion notified  the  Austrian  Government 
that  it  insists  on  the  priority  of  its 
claims  on  the  proceeds  of  the  capital 
levy. 

A  treaty  has  been  concluded  between 
the  Republic  of  German  Austria  and  So- 
viet Russia.  The  document  pledges 
Austria  to  neutrality  in  all  wars  against 
Russia.  It  provides  for  the  exchan'ge  of 
prisoners  of  war.     Under  this  provision 


HUNGARY  AND  HER  NEIGHBORS 


1069 


the  Austrian  Government  ordered  Bela 
Kun,  the  Hungarian  Communist  leader, 
and  his  associates,  interned  at  Karlstein 
since  last  September,  be  transported  to 
Russia  via  Stettin. 

A  force  of  800  Hungarian  soldiers, 
fully  armed  and  uniformed,  crossed  the 
Austrian  frontier  on  July  30  and  raided 
the  arsenal  of  Fiirstenfeld.  Two  thou- 
sand rifles,  as  many  uniforms,  and 
twenty- one  machine  guns  were  carried 
away  by  the  looters.  Other  reports  in- 
sist that  the  Hungarians  obtained  4,000 
rifles.  The  Austrian  Government  pro- 
tested against  this  outrage  both  to  the 
Hungarian  Government  and  the  Entente 
missions. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

After  a  delay  of  almost  a  year  and  a 
half  the  boundary  question  of  Teschen, 
which  in  several  instances  threatened  to 
cause  war  between  Czechoslovakia  and 
Poland,  has  been  settled  by  the  Council 
of  Ambassadors  at  Paris.  The  original 
proposal  to  submit  the  decision  to  a  ple- 
biscite was  abandoned  by  mutual  con- 
sent. The  arrangement  practically  di- 
vides the  Duchy  of  Teschen  in  two. 
The  western  section,  containing  the 
Karwin  district,  most  of  the  coveted 
coal  mines  and  the  important  railroads, 
goes  to  Czechoslovakia,  while  the  city  of 


Teschen  with  Surroundings  is  awarded 
to  Poland.  Private  property  rights  of 
both  nationalities  are  guaranteed  in 
either  section.  The  Poles  are  also  <guar- 
anteed  to  receive  a  yearly  allotment  of 
the  coal  output. 

Interviewed  by  the  correspondent  of 
Ungvari  Kozlony,  a  Magyar  newspaper 
published  in  Slovakia,  President  Masa- 
ryk  of  the  Czechoslovak  Republic  de- 
clared that  Czechoslovakia  wishes  to  live 
in  peace  with  all  the  world,  including 
Soviet  Russia.  Negotiations  for  a  final 
peace  treaty  with  Moscow  will  soon  be- 
gin, the  President  said,  and  continued: 
"  In  our  country  one  cannot  speak  of 
the  danger  of  Bolshevism.  The  premises 
of  establishing  a  Soviet  regime  are  ab- 
sent. The  best  method  of  fighting  the 
spread  of  Bolshevism  is  through  social 
reforms  and  through  a  real  democracy 
that  allows  the  proletariat  the  fullness 
of  political  rights.  *  *  *  r^^ie  victory 
of  Bolshevism  would  destroy  all  that 
which  we  have  acquired  through  long 
and  patient  toil." 

The  President  also  declared  that 
Czechoslovakia  wished  to  reach  an  agree- 
ment with  Hungary  and  to  co-operate 
peaceably  with  that  State,  but  that  this 
could  not  be  until  the  Magyar  Gov- 
ernment stops  its  irredentist  propaganda 
in  Slovakia  and  withdraws  its  agents 
fomenting  Bolshevism  there. 


Progress  in  Scandinavian  Countries 


DENMARK 

DANISH  educators  are  planning  to 
open  this  Fall  a  novel  institution  to 
be  known  as  the  International 
People's  College,  or  Folk  High  School 
( M  ellemf  olkelig  Folkehoiskole ) .  With  the 
Danes  the  term  "  high  school  "  includes 
not  only  the  usual  high  school  grades, 
but  also  approximately  the  first  two 
years  of  college  in  America,  and  even 
some  courses  still  more  advanced.  The 
curriculum  is  so  different  from  ours  that 
it  is  impossible  to  make  a  comparison 
by  grades.  The  trainin^g  is  not  only  in- 
tellectual and  technical,  but  also  com- 
prises ethical  culture.    Like  the  Univer- 


sity of  Paris  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
new  institution  is  international,  but,  un- 
like the  mediaeval  one  at  Paris,  its  pur- 
pose is  to  educate  the  agricultural  and 
other  working  classes  rather  than  the 
sons  of  the  nobility. 

The  students  are  to  be  housed  on  a 
farm  in  the  neighborhood  of  Copen- 
hagen until  they  can  build  suitable 
school  structures  with  their  own  hands. 
The  soil  they  will  use  for  agriculture 
and  horticulture,  both  as  a  means  of 
agricultural  training  and  to  raise  vege- 
tables, fruit,  poultry  and  other  produce 
to  supply  their  commons.  Thus  far  the 
institution  has  two  buildings  and  an  en- 


1070 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


SHADED  PORTION 
INDICATES 

HRISTIANFELD  ^'^•NI^M 


MAP    SHOWING    OFFICIAL    BOUNDARIES    OF    NORTH    SLESVIG.    WHICH    IS    HENCEFORTH 
UNDER    DANISH    SOVEREIGNTY 


dowment  fund  of  over  50,000  kroner 
(normally  about  $10,000),  and  can  ac- 
commodate fifty  students  at  the  begin- 
ning. For  special  agricultural  instruc- 
tion it  has  the  co-operation  of  the  State 
Experiment  Station  at  Lyn>gby,  near 
Copenhagen,  and  the  Agricultural  High 
School  at  the  same  place.  About  600,000 
kroner  ($120,000)  is  needed  to  erect 
the  school,  besides  a  reserve  endowment 
fund  of  $100,000. 

As  soon  as  possible  living  for  the 
students  will  be  arranged  by  the  house 
system,  twenty  students  to  a  house,  un- 
der the  direction  of  a  housemaster.  Part 
of  their  time  will  be  required  for  pro- 
ductive work,  mostly  agricultural,  to- 
ward the  maintenance  of  themselves 
and  the  institution.  The  school  year  is 
to  be  ten  months  long,  and  the  board, 
lodging  and  tuition  of  each  student  are  to 
be  about  $250  a  year.  The  student  body 
is  to  comprise  members  from  as  many 
countries  as  possible,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote international  understanding  and 
good  feeling.  To  the  Danish  Faculty  an 
English  and  a  German  teacher  have  been 
added.  Dr.  Peter  Manniche,  a  member 
of  the  School  Committee,  after  traveling 
through  Germany,  France,  the  United 
States  and  other  countries  in  behalf  of 


the  institution,  is  quoted  to  the  effect 
that  English  may  become  the  principal 
language  of  instruction. 

The  idea  is  an  evolution  from  the  folk 
high  schools  of  Denmark,  which  were 
founded  for  training  in  good  citizenship 
soon  after  the  war  with  Prussia,  some 
fifty  years  ago.  These  folk  high  schools 
have  taught  a  system  of  co-operative 
farming  which  has  made  Denmark  the 
"  larder  of  Europe,"  and  enabled  her  to 
export  much-needed  butter  and  potatoes 
to  England  and  America.  The  fanners 
continue  to  make  their  homes  on  their 
small  freeholds,  but  band  together  to 
their  common  advantage  in  carrying  on 
intensified  agriculture.  The  butter  and 
bacon  industries,  two  of  the  largest  in 
Denmark,  are  thus  co-operative.  With 
such  economic  advantage  there  has  de- 
veloped an  interesting  social  life,  which 
largely  solves  the  problem  of  "  keeping 
the  boys  and  girls  on  the  farm." 

The  Danish  explorer,  Lauge  Koch,  left 
Copenhagen  in  the  middle  of  July  at  the 
head  of  a  Government  expedition  to  map 
the  northern  quarter  of  Greenland,  no 
map  having  yet  been  made  of  that  por- 
tion of  Danish  America,  and  little  of  it 
explored;  though  all  the  rest  of  Green- 
land has  been  explored.   Mr.  Koch  stated 


PROGRESS  IN  SCANDINAVIAN  COUNTRIES 


1071 


KING    CHRISTIAN    X.     OF    DENMARK 

AT    THE    PATRIOTIC    CELEBRATION    IN    DYBBOEL,    NORTH    SLESVIG,     JULT?     10,     1920,     TO 

COMMEMORATE   THE   REUNION   OF  THAT  PROVINCE   WITH   THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY.     THE 

KING    IS    SHAKING    HANDS    WITH    A    VETERAN    OP    THE    WAR    OP    1864,    IN    WHICH    THE 

GERMANS    TOOK    SLESVIG    FROM    DENMARK 

(©    International) 


before  his  departure  that  this  enterprise 
is  in  the  nature  of  a  jubilee  expedition  in 
honor  of  the  200th  anniversary  of  the 
arrival  in  Greenland  of  the  Danish  mis- 
sionary, Hans  Egedes.  He  added  that  it 
was  necessary  to  put  Northern  Green- 
land on  the  map,  so  that  Denmark  would 
not  have  to  apply  sovereignty  to  regions 
that  white  men  have  not  yet  beheld. 

He  has  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of 
American  and  British  scientists  the  ex- 
istence of  a  mountain  range  in  Northern 
Greenland  as  extensive  as  the  Caucasus 
and  2,000  feet  high.  He  goes  directly  to 
Inglefield  Gold,  whence  he  will  pene- 
trate the  interior  of  Pearyland,  crossing 
the  inland  ice  on  a  motor  tractor.  Ex- 
periments in  the  last  few  months  have 
demonstrated  that  such  a  tractor  can 
make  as  much  speed  as  a  dogsled,  about 
four  miles  an  hour.  He  will  establish  a 
depot  at  Warmingland  and,  besides  mak- 
ing his  map,  he  expects  to  br^-g  back  a 
very  interesting  geological  collection. 
The  expedition  will  be  gone  three  years. 

NORWAY 

A  viking  ship  was  discovered  in  July,  in 


the  Bay  of  South  Alesund,  Romsdal 
Province,  Norway,  which  experts  de- 
clare to  be  as  valuable  as  the  "  iceberg 
ship  "  or  the  more  famous  Gokstad  ship. 
Some  Iceland  fishermen  found  the  for- 
mer some  years  ago  imbedded  in  ice  off 
the  Greenland  coast.  The  latter  was 
found  in  1880  in  a  burial  mound  at  Gok- 
stad, Norway.  A  model  of  this  was 
built  in  Norway  and  navigated  across 
the  Atlantic,  and,  by  way  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  River  and  the  Great  Lakes,  to 
the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  to  demon- 
strate the  feasibiliiy  and  credibility  of 
the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Norse- 
men 500  years  before  Columbus. 

SWEDEN 

Although  Sweden  took  no  part  in  the 
World  War,  the  Swedish  Nation  is  very 
proud  of  a  heroine,  Miss  Elso  Braend- 
stroem,  daughter  of  General  Braend- 
stroem,  the  former  Swedish  Minister  to 
Petrograd,  who  cared  for  prisoners  in 
Siberia  throughout  the  war  as  a  Red 
Cross  nurse.  Her  nation  was  up  in  arms 
during  the  first  fortnight  of  July  and 
threatening  reprisals  because  of  the  re- 


1072 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


port  that  she  had  been  arrested  by  the 
Bolsheviki.  Her  return  to  Stockholm  in 
July,  after  making  her  escape  from  Si- 


beria by  her  own  efforts,  was  made  an 
occasion  of  great  public  rejoicirig  and 
ceremony  in  her  honor. 


The  Caucasus  Republics 

Soviet  Russia's  Seizure  of  Azerbaijan,  Georgia  and  Armenia 


AZERBAIJAN 

DETAILS  of  the  Bolshevist  coup  at 
Baku  (April  28),  which  have  now 
come  to  hand,*  show  that  the  fall 
of  the  Mussavat  Cabinet  was  due  in  part 
to  the  hard  economic  situation  and  in 
part  to  the  Azerbaijan  Government's 
weak  policy  following  the  Armenian- 
Tartar  clashes  in  the  border  region  of 
Karabagh  and  Zenghezur,  and  in  the 
Armenian  Republic  of  Erivan.  It  was 
officially  alleged  by  the  Azerbaijani 
that  thousands  of  the  Mussulman  in-' 
habitants  and  soldiery  of  these  districts 
were  massacred  by  the  Armenians. 

The  Azerbaijan  Government's  hesita- 
tion in  sending  reinforcements  to  Kara- 
bagh gave  the  Bolshevist  extremists  an 
opportunity  to  attack  the  Cabinet  on  the 
ground  of  subservience  to  the  Allies.  At 
the  same  time  the  Erivan  troops  began 
to  concentrate  on  the  Azerbaijan  fron- 
tier, compelling  the  Azerbaijan  Govern- 
ment to  send  its  armed  forces  to  Kara- 
bagh and  Kosakh.  Baku  was  thus  left 
practically  defenseless.  The  Bolsheviki 
of  Petrovsk,  who  had  seized  the  Caspian 
ships  formerly  belonging  to  Denikin, 
availed  themselves  of  this  weakness  to 
send  an  ultimatum  to  the  Baku  Govern- 
ment. The  Cabinet,  deprived  of  troops 
and  unsuccessful  in  its  appeal  to 
Georgia  for  aid,  encountered  further 
difficulties  in  a  skillful  pro-Bolshevist 
propaganda  conducted  through  the 
Turkish  Nationalists;  faced  also  with  a 
violent  agitation  begun  by  the  Bolshe- 
vist workmen  in  the  Baku  oil  fields,  the 
Cabinet  was  finally  compelled  to  with- 
draw on  April  28  in  favor  of  a  Revo- 


*This  article  is  based  in  part  on  articles 
which  apeared  in  two  Tiflis  papers— the  Geor- 
gian Mail  of  April  21,  May  5,  12  and  19,  and 
the  R6publique  Georgienne  of  April  25,  May 
2  and  May  16,  1920. 


lutionary  Committee.  The  Ministers  left 
the  city  hurriedly;  their  apartments 
were  confiscated  by  the  Reds  the  next 
morning,  and  a  decree  of  arrest  was 
issued  against  them. 

The  Revolutionary  Committee,  which 
was  made  up  largely  of  Mussulmans,  at 
once  established  its  power  and  accepted 
the  terms  of  the  Russian  ultimatum. 
This  step  was  not  taken,  however,  be- 
fore receiving  assurance  from  Moscow 
that  Soviet  Russia  would  recognize 
Azerbaijan's  independence.  The  mili- 
tary Governor  of  Baku,  the  former 
Prefect,  several  eminent  persons,  with 
the  British  Consul  and  other  members 
of  British  missions,  were  thrown  into 
prison.  The  Red  forces  occupied  the  city 
the  following  day.  But  great  was  the 
surprise  and  disillusion  of  the  new 
Baku  Government  when,  instead  of  the 
Mussulman  Bolsheviki  who  had  prom- 
ised to  "  aid  their  Mussulman  brothers," 
there  entered  forces  made  up  wholly  of 
Russians,  who  declared  that  "they  had 
come  in  order  to  restore  Great  Russia." 
They  were  accompanied  by  Armenian 
Bolsheviki  and  others  who  had  been  ex- 
pelled by  the  former  Government.  Their 
first  step  was  to  arrest  all  the  foreign 
missions,  with  the  exception  of  the  Per- 
sian and  Italian  missions.  The  British 
Consul  and  a  British  Major  were  cast 
into  dark  cells  and  subjected  to  brutal 
treatment.  Subsequently  other  Bolshe- 
vist troops  arrived  and  began  to  plun- 
der. Large  quantities  of  food  were 
loaded  on  railway  trucks  and  sent  north 
on  trains  bearing  inscriptions  such  as 
"Gift  of  the  Tartar  Proletariat,"  "A 
Present  for  Comrade  Lenin,"  &c.  The 
Azerbaijan  militia  was  disbanded,  and 
replaced  by  Russian  workmen.  Profit- 
ing by  the  incessant  attacks  of  the  Ar- 
menians on  the  Azerbaijan  frontier,  the 
Reds    sent    armed    units    to    seize    other 


THE  CAUCASUS  REPUBLICS 


1073 


parts  of  the  country.  The  Extraordi- 
nary Commission  began  to  work. 

Meanwhile  at  Elizabetpol  (Ganja) 
troubles  began  through  the  Bolshevist 
attempt  to  disarm  the  local  police. 
Fighting  ensued,  and  the  Red  troops 
were  driven  out.  Levandosky,  the  com- 
mander of  the  Red  troops,  thereupon 
recalled  two  divisions  engaged  in  flight- 
ing against  the  Georgians,  subjected  the 
town  to  a  heavy  bombardment,  and 
forced  an  entrance.  A  carnival  of  mur- 
der, rape,  plunder  and  incendiarism  fol- 
lowed. It  was  said  that  thousands  of 
Moslems  were  slain.  As  a  result  of  this 
the  Tartars  in  many  places  rose  against 
the  Reds.  The  leaders  of  the  opposition, 
were  arrested  and  delivered  over  to  the 
Extraordinary  Commission.  These  bru- 
tal and  high-handed  actions,  as  well  as 
the  ousting  of  Tartar  elements  from  the 
new  Government,  stirred  Azerbaijan 
sentiment  deeply,  and  this  resentment 
has  steadily  grown. 

Reports  of  June  20  stated  that  the 
Bolsheviki  had  nationalized  and  requisi- 
tioned eveiything,  had  evicted  the 
"  bourgeois  "  from  their  houses,  and  had 
dispatched  great  quantities  of  oil  to  Rus- 
sia from  the  Baku  oil  fields  without  pay- 
ment to  the  producers.  The  British,  in- 
cluding civilians,  were  being  kept  in 
strict  confinement  on  an  island  in  the 
Caspian  Sea.  British  officers  were 
forced  to  sweep  the  streets.  Certain  re- 
sponsible Tartar  elements  were  trying 
to  organize  resistance  to  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment. Advices  received  by  the 
French  Foreign  Office  on  July  22  stated 
that  the  Mussulmans  of  the  Caucasus 
region  turned  against  the  Bolsheviki  and 
had  reached  an  agreement  with  the  Cos- 
sacks to  drive  out  the  Bolsheviki. 

The  hostilities  of  the*  former  Baku 
Government  against  the  Armenians, 
whose  forces  were  attacking  on  the  bor- 
der, in  the  provinces  of  Karabagh  and 
Zangezur,  as  well  as  against  the  Geor- 
gians, were  taken  over  by  the  Russians 
after  their  occupation  of  Baku.  An  ul- 
timatum was  sent  to  Armenia  summon- 
ing her  to  evacuate  Karabagh.  At  the 
same  time  Russian  units  were  sent  to 
the  Georgian  frontier.  Both  Karabaigh 
and   Zangezur,   according  to   reports  re- 


ceived on  July  29,  established  a  Soviet 
form  of  Government  on  July  20,  on  lines 
similar  to  those  of  the  Baku  Govern- 
ment. 

GEORGIA 

Events  in  Georgia  during  the  period 
under  consideration  show  a  curve  of  re- 
action following  the  Bolshevist  coup  at 
Baku  ranging  from  apprehension  to  de- 
termination to  resist  Bolshevist  inroads 
into  Georgia  from  Baku.  Bolshevist  in- 
trigue and  underground  propaganda  had 
already  been  going  on  in  Georgia  for 
some  time  before  the  occupation  of 
Baku,  but  the  Government  had  constant- 
ly given  evidence  of  its  intention  to 
maintain  the  independence  of  the  coun- 
try at  all  costs.  Bolshevist  spies  had 
been  arrested  in  Tiflis,  and  all  incrimi- 
nating documents  showing  Bolshevist 
designs  to  Sovietize  Georgia  were  seized. 
With  regard  to  the  incessant  activities 
of  the  Reds  at  Batum,  the  Georgian 
Government,  owing  to  the  Entente  oc- 
cupation, could  do  nothing;  but  it  looked 
upon  these  activities  with  extreme  dis- 
favor, awaiting  an  opportuni;y  to  take 
effective  action  when  its  claim  to  Batum 
was  recognized,  and  when  this  important 
oil  city  on  the  Black  Sea  was  handed 
over  to  Georgia. 

The  news  of  the  Bolshevist  occupation 
of  Baku  on  the  Caspian — one  of  the  most 
important  oil  reservoirs  of  the  world — 
created  intense  excitement  in  the  coun- 
tries adjacent  to  Azerbaijan,  and  espe- 
cially in  Georgia.  The  appeal  of  the 
Mussavat  Government  before  its  fall  did 
not  fall  on  deaf  ears,  but  the  Georgian 
leaders  of  State,  after  full  consideration, 
decided  that  such  aid  as  was  requested 
did  not  fall  within  the  bounds  of  the 
treaty  concluded  between  the  two  Gov- 
ernments, binding  each  to  defend  the 
other  from  military  aggression  from 
without.  In  the  note  dispatched  to  the 
Mussavat  Government  on  April  27,  the 
Georgian  Foreign  Minister  stated  that 
inasmuch  as  it  was  clear  that  the  Azer- 
baijani themselves  were  permitting  the 
Bolshevist  penetration  within  their  bor- 
ders, Georgia  had  no  obligation  under 
the  treaty  to  lend  military  assistance. 
The  Mussavat  Ministry  fell.  The  imme- 
diate effect  on  Georgia  was  to  strengthen 


1074 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


the  national  resolution  to  maintain 
Georgia's  steadfast  opposition  to  Bol- 
shevist penetration.  This  was  set  forth 
in  an  eloquent  speech  made  by  M.  Jor- 
dani,  President  of  the  Georgian  Repub- 
lic, before  the  Assembly  on  April  30. 
"  A  glorious  death,"  he  declared,  "  is 
preferable  to  a  shameful  life."  A  proc- 
lamation was  issued,  calling  for  imme- 
diate mobilization,  a  measure  justified 
by  subsequent  attacks  made  by  the  Tar- 
tar-Bolshevist forces  on  Georgian  soil. 
A  Council  of  Defense  was  created,  and 
martial  law  proclaimed. 

Despite  these  warlike  steps,  correspon- 
dence between  the  Georgian  Government 
and  Moscow  continued,  and  Georgia's 
policy  of  maintaining  her  full  military 
and  political  rights  while  protesting 
against  repeated  instances  of  Soviet  ag- 
gression and  reiterating  her  readiness 
to  make  peace  with  Moscow  as  an  inde- 
pendent and  autonomous  State,  was  va- 
riously expressed  in  notes  of  April 
14,  21  and  29.  In  the  last-men- 
tioned note  Georgia  laid  down  the  boun- 
daries on  which  she  would  insist,  and 
pledged  herself  to  prevent  her  territory 
from  being  used  as  a  base  for  anti-Bol- 
shevist attacks.  In  an  answer  sent  by 
Moscow,  on  May  3,  the  demands  of 
Georgia  were  fully  granted,  and  the  way 
to  a  signing  of  peace  was  paved. 

This  peace  was  signed  by  the  Georgian 
representatives  at  Moscow  in  the  night 
of  May  7-8,  and  ratified  on  June  12. 
The  main  terms  were  as  follows:  The 
independence  and  sovereignty  of  Georgia 
were  unconditionally  recognized.  Eussia 
renounced  all  interference  in  the  inner 
affairs  of  Batum,  and  admitted  that  the 
Batum  region  fell  within  the  national 
boundaries  of  Georgia.  Further  frontier 
questions  were  settled  favorably  to 
Georgia.  Each  nation  bound  itself  to 
strict  neutrality  in  cases  where  the  other 
was  threatened,  and  pledged  itself  not  to 
allow  its  territory  to  be  used  for  the  or- 
ganization of  attacks.  The  principles  of 
a  renewal  of  economic  and  commercial 
relations  were  laid  down. 

M.  Jordani,  as  President  of  the 
Georgian  Government,  sent  to  M.  Ura- 
tadze,  the  Georgian  representative  at 
Moscow,   a   telegram   of  congratulation 


and  good  augury  for  the  future.  Tiflis 
was  decorated  with  national  flags,  and 
salvoes  were  fired  from  the  arsenal.  A 
jubilant  speech  was  made  by  M.  Gegetch- 
kori,  the  Foreign  Minister,  before  the 
Constituent  Assembly,  in  which  the  So- 
viet recognition  of  Georgia's  indepen- 
dence and  her  claims  to  Batum  were 
stressed.  M.  Gegetchkori,  however,  made 
no  bones  of  declaring  Georgia's  resolve 
to  see  that  the  Soviet  words  should  be 
translated  into  deeds,  and  said: 

We  know  the  value  of  treaties ;  good  as 
this  one  is,  it  may  be  transformed  into  a 
scrap  of  paper  if  a  watchful  guard  is  not 
kept  over  it  with  arms  in  hand,  ready  at 
every  moment  to  secure  the  rights  which 
we  have  gained  by  this  treaty.  All  our 
policy  must  be  directed  to  this.  Tou  are 
well  aware  that  with  a  weak  party  no 
agreement  is  concluded.  Regarding  it, 
they  act  as  they  have  acted  regarding 
Azerbaijan.  And  if  we  do  not  wish  in 
future  to  share  the  fate  of  Azerbaijan  we 
must  increase  our  energy  and  reinforce 
the  inner  and  outer  front. 

The  premonitions  of  future  Red  ag- 
gression expressed  in  this  speech  were 
soon  fulfilled.  The  Georgians  on  June 
7  were  reported  to  be  much  disappointed 
by  the  meagre  results  of  the  treaty. 
Though  peace  was  restored  in  theory, 
Bolshevist  troops,  mostly  Russians,  con- 
tinued to  threaten  the  Georgian  borders. 
Parts  of  two  Azerbaijan  divisions  were 
identified  on  the  border  front.  The  Bol- 
shevist pressure  continued  through  July, 
and  Georgia  maintained  her  position  by 
force  of  arms  and  otherwise.  The  large 
Bolshevist  mission  under  Kirov  which 
arrived  in  Tiflis  toward  the  middle  of 
July  was  forced  to  depart  owing  to  the 
discovery  that,  in  spite  of  the  official 
assurances  of  Moscow,  they  had  already 
begun  subversive  propaganda. 

In  Batum,  also,  the  Azerbaijani  were 
at  last  given  a  free  hand  to  check  Bol- 
shevist activities.  After  long  delay  the 
Georgian  claim  to  this  district  was  final- 
ly allowed  by  the  Entente,  and  the  evacu- 
ation of  the  Entente  troops  was  com- 
pleted. Despite  the  protests  of  the  Brit- 
ish High  Commissioner,  the  Georgian 
forces  had  occupied  part  of  this  district, 
and  rested  on  their  arms  pending  the 
anticipated  evacuation.  This  had  been 
decided   by   the  allied   Premiers  at  the 


THE  CAUCASUS  REPUBLICS 


1075 


San  Remo  conference,  but  subsequently 
deferred.  At  last,  however,  the  aspira- 
tions of  Georgia  were  fully  recognized, 
and  on  July  8  the  British  and  French 
turned  the  city  and  province  of  Batum 
over  to  the  Georgian  Republic,  com- 
pletely surrendering  possession.  All  the 
British  and  French  warships  saluted  the 
Georgian  flag.  The  day  was  celebrated 
in  Batum  as  a  great  holiday,  and  the 
streets  were  gayly  decorated  for  the  oc- 
casion. Batum  was  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  Georgian  troops,  who  had  entered 
the  city  several  days  before.  It  was 
stated  on  July  17  that  the  Georgians 
had  arrested  a  number  of  pro-Turks  and 
Bolsheviki.  Georgia's  relations  with  the 
Armenians  at  this  date  were  improving. 

ARMENIA 

The  Armenian  Republic  of  the  Cau- 
casus, meantime,  had  its  own  troubles 
with  the  Russian  Reds.  Through  the 
Georgian  peace  representative  at  Moscow 
the  Bolshevist  Government  invited  an 
Armenian  peace  mission  to  come  to 
Vladikavkaz.  Its  members  were  there 
directed  to  proceed  to  Moscow.  On  its 
arrival  the  whole  mission  was  impris- 
oned on  the  ground  of  hostile  Armenian 
action  against  the  Bolsheviki.  Up  to  the 
middle  of  June  they  had  not  been  re- 
leased. Armenia,  as  well  as  Georgia,  was 
greatly  upset  by  the  occupation  of  Baku. 
The  great  need  of  munitions  and  arms 
was  considered  a  serious  danger.  The 
Armenian  Government,  strongly  repre- 
sentative Labor  and  anti-Bolshevist  in 
tendency,  maintained  its  popularity,  and 
its  efforts  to  suppress  Bolshevism  were 
unremitting.  Armenia  refused  to  obey 
the  Soviet  ultimatum  dispatched  after 
the  fall  of  Baku,  and  the  Russian  troops 
subsequently  advanced  and  occupied  the 
province  of  Karabagh.  A  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment was  ultimately  established  in 
Karabagh  and  Zangezur. 

Armenia,  nevertheless,  like  Georgia, 
continued  to  seek  peace.  The  peace  mis- 
sion in  Moscow,  apparently  released 
early  in  July,  was  for  a  time  thought 
to  be  close  to  an  agreement;  Bolshevist 
representatives    also    had   been    sent   to 


Erivan,  whence  the  British  mission  had 
departed  on  June  29.  A  Constantinople 
dispatch  of  Aug.  4,  however,  stated  that 
the  relations  between  the  Moscow  and 
Erivan  Governments  were  near  the 
breaking  point,  and  that  an  Armenian 
delegation  which  had  been  on  its  way  to 
Moscow  to  sign  the  treaty  was  return- 
ing to  Erivan.  Foreign  Minister  Khatis- 
sian  was  quoted  as  declaring :  "  The 
Bolsheviki  apparently  are  planning  to 
walk  over  Armenia's  dead  body  to  join 
Mustapha  Kemal."  Meanwhile  General 
Dro  was  still  standing  guard  in  the 
mountains  between  Armenia  and  Azer- 
baijan. 

The  Armenians  across  the  old  Russian 
boundary,  in  former  Turkish  territory, 
are  still  fighting  for  possession  of  that 
portion  of  their  proposed  State.  The 
Armenian  Bureau  in  London  stated  on 
July  20  that  the  town  of  Olti,  about 
fifty  miles  northeast  of  Erzerum,  had 
been  captured  by  an  Armenian  detach- 
ment, driving  back  the  Turkish  force  of 
6,000  toward  Erzerum  in  great  disorder. 
On  th^  same  authority  it  was  stated 
that  the  Turkish  commander  at  that 
point,  Kiazim  Karabekir  Pasha,  had 
ambitions  of  his  own  and  had  recently 
disobeyed  Mustapha  Kemal's  order  to 
throw  his  forces  against  the  Greek 
army. 

General  Antranik,  Armenia's  most 
famous  soldier,  who  came  to  the  United 
States  some  months  ago  as  a  member 
of  the  Armenian  Military  Mission,  with 
the  object  of  enlisting  the  support  of 
our  Government  on  behalf  of  Armenia, 
sailed  for  England  on  June  25.  On 
leaving  he  said: 

Armenia  is  very  grateful  for  America's 
disinterested  solicitude  for  her  welfare 
and  independence.  I  hope  that  with  its 
moral  and  idealistic  leadership  the  United 
States  will  assist  the  associated  powers 
10  supply  the  needs  of  the  Armenian 
forces  now  battling  the  Turks  in  Cilicia 
and  in  the  other  parts  of  Armenia.  We 
do  not  request  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment to  send  an  American  army  of  occu- 
pation to  Armenia.  The  Armenians  can 
raise  a  fighting  force  of  100,000  men  pro- 
vided the  American  and  English  Govern^ 
ments  are  willing  to  supply  the  Armenians 
with  munitions.  Peace  cannot  be  estab- 
lished until  Armenia  is  free. 


Signing  of  the  Turkish  Peace  Treaty 

Greek    Conquest    of  Eastern    Thrace 


TURKEY 

TURKEY,  the  last  of  the  enemy  na- 
tions to  remain  at  war,  signed  the 
treaty  of  peace  on  Aug.  10  in  the 
famous  French  national  china  factory 
at  Sevres.  The  Turks  found  little  en- 
couragement in  the  fact  that  Serbia 
and  Hedjaz  declined  to  sign,  the  for- 
mer on  account  of  her  being  obliged 
to  pay  a  quota  of  the  Turkish  debt 
pertaining  to  the  territory  which  was 
given  her  not  by  the  Turkish  Treaty, 
but  by  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  in 
1913,  and  the  latter  on  account  of  the 
development  of  the  French  mandate  over 
Syria.  Nor  were  the  Turks  able  to  make 
political  capital  over  the  hesitation  of 
the  Greeks  to  put  their  signature  to  the 
treaty  until  they  had  received  guaran- 
tees from  Italy  that  the  Dodecanese  Isl- 
ands, which  the  treaty,  in  conformity 
with  the  Treaty  of  London  of  April  26, 
1915  (under  the  terms  of  which  Italy 
entered  the  war),  should  with  certain 
reservations  be  assigned  to  the  Athens 
Government.    (See  Italy.) 

Public  conveyances  and  the  press  of 
Constantinople  observed  Aug.  12  as  a 
day  of  mourning  on  account  of  the  un- 
favorable character  of  the  Peace  Treaty. 
The  press  censorship  was  strict,  but  the 
journals  were  allowed  to  state  their  dis- 
satisfaction without  detailing  the  rea- 
sons. 

The  Turkish  objections  to  the  treaty 
had  led  the  Allies  to  give  a  drastic  reply 
to  the  Turkish  delegates  on  July  17.  This 
caused  the  Government  in  Constantino- 
ple hastily  to  reconstruct  both  the  Cab- 
inet and  the  Peace  Delegation  in  a 
manner  to  meet,  at  least  technically,  the 
demands  of  the  ultimatum  of  the  Allies. 
The  treaty,  however,  was  not  signed 
without  a  strong  protest  on  the  part  of 
the  Nationalists,  which  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, but  also  on  the  part  of  the  new 
delegates  themselves. 

The  delivery  of  the  ultimatum  instant- 
ly brought  about  the  resignation  of  Dje- 
mal  Pasha,   Minister  of  Public  Works, 


and  of  Fahreddine  Bey,  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation, both  members  of  the  Peace  Dele- 
gation; also  of  Durri  Zada  Abdullah  Ef- 
fendi,  the  Sheik-ul-Islam,  or  Minister  of 
Religion.  By  July  31  the  Cabinet,  still 
under  Damad  Ferid  Pasha  as  Grand  Vi- 
zier, had  been  reconstructed  as  follows : 

Durri  Zada  Abdullah,  Sheik-ul-Islam. 

Sai'd  Molla,  Justice. 

Muhatar  Bey,  Public  Works. 

Muntaz  Pasha,  Interior. 

Ehen  All  Bey,  Finance. 

All  were  known  for  their  British  pro- 
clivities. Said  Molla  was  head  of  the 
Friends  of  England  Society.  Meanwhile 
the  decision  to  sign  had  been  reached  on 
July  21  by  the  Dynastic  Council  attended 
by  the  Sultan  and  many  imperial  Princes, 
so  it  only  became  necessary  to  have  a 
Cabinet  which  should  select  a  delegation 
that  would  attach  the  signature.  This 
delegation,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Chairman,  Rechid  Bey,  former  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  who  was  already  in 
Paris,  was  dispatched  immediately  after 
the  meeting  of  the  Dynastic  Council,  and 
consisted  of  Reza  Tewfik  Bey,  formerly 
Minister  of  Education ;  Hadi  Pasha,  Min- 
ister of  Agriculture,  and  Rechad  Halias 
Bey,  the  Minister  to  Switzerland. 

When  the  news  of  the  decision  of  the 
Dynastic  Council  reached  Angora,  the 
headquarters  of  the  Nationalists  and  the 
Government  of  Mustapha  Kemal  Pasha, 
the  Nationalist  Congress  there  adopted 
a  resolution  on  July  25  denouncing  the 
peace  terms,  and  declaring  that  the  Na- 
tionalists would  oppose  them  by  military 
force  to  the  bitter  end.  This  and  the 
fact  that  the  Soviet  General  Kuropatkin, 
at  the  head  of  the  Bolshevist  Army  in- 
vading Persia,  had  issued  a  proclama- 
tion to  Moslems  demonstrating  the  ad- 
vantages of  Soviet  administration,  caused 
the  Grand  Vizier  on  Aug.  7  to  issue  a 
proclamation  to  the  Nationalist  rebels 
pointing  out  that  Moslems  could  not  co- 
operate with  the  Bolsheviki  without 
abandoning  their  religion.  While  offer- 
ing amnesty  to  all  Nationalists  except 
the  leaders  if  they  ceased  fighting  im- 


SIGNING  OF  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


1077 


mediately  the  proclamation  stated  that 
continued  resistance  by  them  might  force 
a  further  dismemberment  of  the  empire. 

The  attitude  of  the  new  Turkish  Gov- 
ernment in  regard  to  the  Peace  Treaty 
is  reflected  by  a  statement  made  by  Re- 
chid  Bey,  Chairman  of  the  delegation, 
just  before  the  signing: 

What  has  to  be  remembered  above  all 
about  the  present  Government  in  Turkey 
is  that  it  was  not  responsible  for  making 
war.  On  the  contrary,  I  myself  and  cer- 
tain of  my  colleagues  were  actually  un- 
der sentence  of  death  from  the  old  regime. 
We  have  today  been  called  into  power  to 
save  what  we  can  of  the  wreck.  There 
is  nothing  that  we  would  prefer  more 
than  a  close  agreement  between  England 
and  Turkey.  To  secure  British  support 
we  recognize  fully  that  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  us  to  give  guarantees,  and  this 
we  are  prepared  to  do  in  full  measure. 
As  a  Government  we  find  ourselves  in  a 
position  of  extreme  difficulty.  It  is  not 
possible  for  us  to  be  responsible  for  peace 
that  destroys  the  very  existence  of  Tur- 
key. Supposing  we  were  to  go  out  of  pow- 
er, as  we  shall  be  forced  to  do  rather  than 
sign  the  treaty  as  submitted  to  us,  and 
that  a  Government  of  similar  complexion  to 
our  own  does  not  come  into  power,  there 
is  only  one  alternative  that  I  can  foresee 
—namely,  the  establishment  of  a  Bolshe- 
vist Government  that  will  refuse  to  give 
any  guarantees. 

The  so-called  National  Party  argues  that 
the  proper  policy  is  to  continue  stirring 
up  local  revolts  and  rebellions.  The  an- 
swer of  the  Allies  to  our  policy  has  been 
Greece.  That  fact  is  being  exploited  by 
the  Nationalists,  who  are  chiefly  in  the 
hands  of  Russian  Bolshevists.  It  will  be 
the  Greek  peril  that  will  force  Anatolia 
to  go  Nationalist.  The  handing  over  of 
Smyrna  to  Greece  was  the  beginning  of  all 
the  trouble. 

From  the  juridical  standpoint  the  treaty 
is  an  attempt  to  throw  responsibility  on 
Turkey  without  leaving  to  her  any  liberty 
of  action.  If  the  treaty  really  means  a 
death  sentence  it  seems  illogical  to  ask 
the  representatives  of  the  nation  that  is 
condemned  to  death  to  sign  it.  We  admit 
the  principles  on  which  the  treaty  is 
based,  principles  such  as  self-  ermina- 
tion,  and  have  not  a  word  to  say  against 
the  removal  of  Mesopotamia  and  other 
non-Turkish  areas.  We  accept,  for  in- 
.stance,  Kurd  and  Armenian  independence, 
but  we  do  plead  for  the  same  "principle 
to  be  applied  to  Turkey  proper.  Turkey 
is  a  proud  country,  and  will  never  perma- 
nently consent  to  be  under  the  yoke  of 
Greeks.  Such  a  fate  will  inevitably  turn 
Anatolia  into  a  focus  of  anarchy  and  dis- 
affection. 


Meanwiiile,  throughout  the  month  the 
Greek  forces  in  Thrace  and  in  Anatolia 
continued  successful  operations,  aided  by 
British  warships  along  the  Marmora  lit- 
toral. On  Aug.  7  Kemal  Pasha  an- 
nounced from  Angora  that  he  had  com- 
pleted the  reorganization  of  Jiis  forces 
into  two  primary  units  called  the  Brusa 
and  Ruyanti  armies,  with  general  head- 
quarters at  Eskishehr,  where  his  staff 
would  henceforth  direct  operations  in 
conjunction  with  the  Bolsheviki. 

EASTERN  THRACE 

The  Greek  armies  in  Thrace,  accord- 
ing to  the  distribution  indicated  in  the 
August  Current  History,  were  taken 
over  by  General  Zimbrakakis,  and,  on 
July  20,  began  an  active  campaign 
against  Tjafer  Tayar  in  order  to  clear 
the  country  of  the  enemy  between  the 


SCENE  OF  THE  FIVE  DAYS'  CAMPAIGN 

WHICH  GAVE  EASTERN  THRACE  TO  THE 

GREEKS 


Aegean  and  Black  Seas,  east  and  west, 
and  the  Bulgarian  frontier  and  the 
Tchatalja  line  of  Constantinople,  north 
and  south.  King  Alexander,  meanwhile, 
had  landed  at  Rodosto,  Sea  of  Marmora, 
and  followed  the  southern  victorious 
army  on  its  way  to  Adrianople.  The 
campaign  in  its  intensified  form  lasted 
five  days. 

On  the  19th  the  Turks  destroyed  the 
bridge  over  the  Maritza  River,  near  the 
junction  of  the  Constantinople  line  with 
the  Saloniki  railway  and  intrenched 
themselves  along  the  former  between  the 
Maritza  and  Tchatalja.  The  civil  popu- 
lation began  to  evacuate  Adrianople, 
fleeing  to  Kirk  Kilisse  or  into  Bulgaria. 
The  Turkish  batteries  at  Sultankeus  and 


1078 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Eregli  opened  fire  on  the  Greek  and 
British  warships  which,  after  a  few 
rounds,  put  them  hors  de  combat.  The 
next  day  Greek  troops  landed,  and,  ad- 
vancing northward  from  Rodosto  and 
other  Marmora  ports,  occupied  Chorlu 
and  Muradli  on  the  21st.  They  then 
turned  eastward  along  the  Constanti- 
nople Railway  to  Cherkisskey,  while 
their  artillery  prevented  the  enemy  from 
destroying  the  bridges  at  Lule  Burgas. 
The  Turks  attempted  to  bombard  Kara- 
gach,  which  was  still  occupied  by  a 
French  force.  Here  the  enemy's  artil- 
lery was  silenced  by  heavy  Greek  guns. 
Meanwhile,  the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier 
had  sent  a  message  to  Tjafer  Tayar  ask- 
ing him  to  surrender  and  so  prevent 
further  bloodshed.  On  July  24  the 
Greeks  occupied  the  line  Cherepolis- 
Airobol-Babaeski  and  prepared  to  take 
Adrianople  by  assault. 

It  was  not  necessary.  On  July  25  the 
city  surrendered,  to  the  great  relief  of 
the  civil  population.  Tjafer  Tayar  had 
decamped  the  day  before  for  Kirk 
Kilisse  with  5,000  followers,  half  of 
whom  were  said  to  have  been  Bulgar 
irregulars.  His  main  forces  marched 
north  and  surrendered  their  arms -to  the 
Bulgarian  authorities  and  were  interned 
by  them.  The  number  of  men  thus  sur- 
rendering numbered  15,000.  On  July  26 
King  Alexander  entered  Adrianople  amid 
a  great  demonstration  indulged  in  by 
Greeks  and  Turks  alike. 

Adrianople,  the  capital  of  the  former 
Turkish  vilayet  of  the  same  name,  is  137 
miles,  by  rail,  northwest  of  Constanti- 
nople, with  a  population  of  100,000,  half 
of  whom  were  Turks  and  the  other  half 
Jews,  Greeks,  Bulgars  and  Armenians. 
Its  social  life  is  almost  entirely  Greek. 
Formerly  known  as  Uskadama,  it  was 
renamed  after  the  Roman  Emperor 
Hadrian.  It  was  the  residence  of  the 
Turkish  Sultans  from  their  occupation 
of  Thrace  in  1361  until  the  capture  of 
Constantinople  in  1453,  when  the  latter 
became  the  capital  of  the  Ottomans.  It 
was  occupied  by  the  Goths  in  378,  and  by 
the  Russians  in  1829  and  1878,  but  is 
chiefly  noted  in  modern  times  for  the 
long  siege  it  withstood  from  the  Bulgars 
during  the  first  Balkan  war  of  1912-13. 

Tjafer  Tayar  was  captured  July  28  by 


being  betrayed  by  a  farmer  at  Halsa, 
five  miles  southwest  of  Adrianople.  He 
was  at  once  taken  to  the  latter  place, 
where,  after  being  entertained  by  Gen- 
eral Zimbrakakis  on  Aug.  4,  he  was 
sent  a  prisoner  to  Athens. 

SMYRNA  AND  BEYOND 

By  the  third  week  in  July  the  Greek 
advance  in  Anatolia  had  reached  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  isolating  the  National- 
ist forces  in  the  vicinity  of  Mount  Ida, 
and  covering  a  line  nearly  300  miles 
long,  extending  from  the  Mendere  River 
to  Ismid,  where  the  British  had  cut  the 
railway  extending  southeast  from 
Skutari,  opposite  Constantinople,  to  its 
junction  with  the  Bagdad  Railway.  On 
July  28  the  Greek  Commander  in  Chief, 
General  Paraskevopoulos,  having  over- 
seen the  completion  of  the  successful 
campaign  carried  on  in  Eastern  Thrace, 
reached  Smyrna  from  Panderma  and 
was  brilliantly  received  by  the  High 
Commissioner,  M.  Steriades;  the  Mili- 
tary Commander,  General  Vlahopoulos, 
the  Archbishop  and  other  Greek 
notables. 

At  that  time  Kemal  Pasha  was  en- 
deavoring by  an  energetic  propaganda 
to  rally  the  Anatolian  population,  to 
whom  he  promised  early  Bolshevist  aid 
and  an  equally  early  breakdown  of  the 
Entente's  Turkish  policy  in  consequence 
of  differences  of  opinion  between  France 
and  Italy  on  the  one  hand  and  Great 
Britain  on  the  other.  False  stories  of 
Hellenic  atrocities  at  Panderma  and  of 
oppression  of  Moslems  elsewhere  were 
retailed  in  order  to  arouse  religious 
fanaticism. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  City  of 
Smyrna  the  anti-Nationalist  movement 
was  reported  to  have  gained  ground. 
At  Yozgad,  between  Angora  and  Sivas, 
a  local  notable,  Iban  Zade  Arif  Bey,  fol- 
lowed by  a  mounted  force  2,000  strong, 
drove  the  Nationalists  from  the  neigh- 
borhood and  established  an  anti-National- 
ist Government  in  the  town.  At  Tchorum, 
further  north,  the  Nationalist  military 
commander  was  hanged  by  order  of  Arif 
Bey  in  retaliation  for  various  executions 
perpetrated  by  the  Nationalists  with  a 
view  to  intimidating  the  peasantry.     It 


SIGNING  OF  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


1079 


was  reported  that  these  anti-Nationalist 
forces  at  Yozgad  and  Tchorum  were  pre- 
paring to  march  on  Sivas,  in  the  east, 
and  on  Angora,  in  the  west. 

An  order  was  given  by  Kemal  Pasha 
to  his  Lieutenant,  Kiazim  Karabekir,  in 
command  at  Erzerum,  to  march  on  Ar- 
menia, but  it  is  said  that  he  paid  no 
attention  to  it,  as  he  lacked  transpor- 
tation for  supplies,  and  the  country  had 
been  bled  white. 

Ever  since  the  Greeks  took  the  field, 
from  Smyrna  there  had  been  a  general 
exodus  of  the  Turkish  civilians  to  the 
coast.  The  refugees  were  principally 
farmers,  who  fled  on  account  of  the 
tales  circulated  of  Greek  atrocities,  and 
left  their  crops  to  spoil.  A  British  mis- 
sion was  sent  and  succeeded  in  inducing 
many  to  return  home  and  go  to  work 
on  the  promise  that  their  product  would 
be  well  paid  for. 

Save  for  an  attempted  counteroffen- 
sive  by  Kemal  Pasha  northeast  of  Brusa, 
which  gave  him  Demerdji  on  Aug.  5 
only  to  deprive  him  of  it  two  days  later, 
there  was  little  movement  along  the  en- 
tire Greek  front,  the  Greeks  awaiting 
the  effect  of  their  campaign  in  Eastern 
Thrace  and  the  signing  of  the  Turkish 
Treaty  at  Sevres.  On  July  26  General 
Paraskevopoulos,  the  Greek  Commander 
in  Chief,  sent  the  following  history .  of 
the  campaign  in  Asia  Minor,  which  be- 
gan June  22,  to  Athens: 

Mustapha  Kemal' s  ambitious  plan  for 
driving-  out  the  Allies  has  now  been  in 
operation  for  a  year.  He  planted  bat- 
teries, sealed  the  Dardanelles,  and  at- 
tacked the  British  at  Ismid,  at  first  suc- 
ceeding there.  He  then  attempted  to 
bombard  Constantinople. 

Mustapha  Kemal  planned,  if  successful 
against  the  British,  to  drive  the  Greeks 
from  Smyrna  later.  It  was  at  this  crit- 
ical moment  that  Premier  Venlzelos 
asked  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Allies 
that  the  Greeks  be  permitted  to  take 
charge  of  the  military  operations  against 
Mustapha  Kemal,  promising  to  destroy 
his  forces  in  fifteen  days.  The  success 
of  the  Greeks  was  due  partly  to  their 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  territory  and 
partly  to  the  strategy  they  carried  out 
rapidly. 

First  the  Greeks  cut  the  Turkish  forces 
in  twain.  Then  a  Greek  column  marched 
swiftly  to  Philadelphia  (Alashehr,  eighty- 
five    miles    east    of   Smyrna),    surrounded 


the  Turkish  headquarters,  and  took  3,000 
prisoners  by  a  cavalry  action.  With  the 
Greek  successes  the  morale  of  our  troops 
increased  and  that  of  the  Turks  dimin- 
ished. 

In  the  second  place,  our  troops  went 
north  on  the  line  Sema-Panderma  and 
attacked  the  Turks  at  Balikesri.  Other 
Greek  troops  debarking  at  Panderma 
caught  the  Turks  between  two  fires. 

The  march  to  Brusa  was  not  on  our 
program,  but  in  view  of  the  weakening 
of  the  Turks  and  also  the  excited  con- 
dition of  our  men,  we  pushed  there  with 
cavalry,  which  took  the  city  (See  Cur- 
rent History  for  August)  almost  with- 
out resistance.  In  two  days,  on  a  front 
of  413  kilometers,  we  inflicted  irreparable 
losses  on  Mustapha  Kemal,  many  of  his 
divisions  falling   into    our  hands. 

SYRIA 

The  terms  of  the  ultimatum  which 
General  Gouraud  sent  "  King  "  Feisal  at 
Damascus  on  July  15  became  known  in 
detail.     They  were  as  follows: 

1.  French  control  of  the  railway  from 
Risk  to  Aleppo. 

2.  French  occupation  of  the  Homs  and 
Hama  Railway  stations  and  the  town 
of  Aleppo. 

3.  The  acceptance  of  French  and  Syrian 
currency. 

4.  The  acceptance  of  the  French  man- 
date over  Syria. 

5.  The  punishment  of  revolutionary 
criminals. 

6.  The  acceptance  of  the  foregoing  con- 
ditions within  four  days,  otherwise  they 
will  be  enforced  by  military  measures. 

As  no  reply  was  received  by  the 
French  Commander  in  Chief  within  the 
specified  time,  although  later  Feisal  ex- 
plained that  he  had  sent  one,  military 
operations  began,  which  had  interesting 
repercussions  in  Paris  and  London  and 
in  Hedjaz,  the  kingdom  of  Feisal's  father. 

Justification  for  the  ultimatum  was 
imparted  by  General  Gouraud  to  his  Gov- 
ernment, with  the  following  specifica- 
tions : 

1.  Marks   of   official  hostility. 

2.  Co-operation  with  the  Turkish  Na- 
tionalists. 

3.  Aggressions  and  offenses. 

4.  Preparations  for  war. 

As  to  the  first,  it  was  pointed  out  that 
Djaffar  Pasha,  the  moderate  Governor 
of  Aleppo,  had  been  brusquely  replaced 
by  General  Buchidi  Bey,  who  in  January 
closed  the  railway  necessary  to  France 
for  the  transport  of  military  reinforce- 


1080 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


ments  to  the  north  (Cilicia).  In  the 
second  category  it  was  declared  that 
Sherifian  agents  had  since  January  last 
worked  in  concert  with  the  Turkish  Na- 
tionalists, and  the  complaint  was  made 
that  the  Syrian  authorities  had  continu- 
ally sought  to  prevent  the  French  from 
sending  reinforcements  and  provisions 
to  Cilicia.  As  to  "  aggressions  and  of- 
fenses," there  were  enumerated  the  at- 
tack on  a  French  post  at  El  Rammam 
by  a  band  commanded  by  Sherifian  of- 
ficers and  the  attacks  on  Barim  and 
Antioch  by  Arab  bands  in  March.  More- 
over, in  regard  to  "  preparations  for 
war,"  it  was  recalled  that  Emir  Feisal 
had  instituted  conscription  from  Dec.  21 
last,  had  increased  his  army  and  arma- 
ments, incorporated  into  the  army  popu- 
lations which  had  refused  to  serve  in  it, 
and  had  broken  off  economic  and  finan- 
cial relations  with  the  French  zone  of 
the  littoral,  thus  aggravating  the  diffi- 
culties of  feeding  Syria. 

There  were  in  the  troubled  area  eighty 
battalions  of  French  troops — ^white,  Mo- 
roccan and  Senegalese — or  about  60,000 
men.  General  Gouraud  did  not  at  first 
intend  to  occupy  Damascus  and  thus  in- 
vite further  political  complications  and 
possibly  more  extended  military  action. 
But  he  wished  to  make  the  railways  run- 
ning north,  via  Damascus  and  Aleppo, 
which  fed  the  French  troops  in  Cilicia 
from  the  French  base  at  Beirut,  open  be- 
yond dispute,  by  concentrating  at 
Aleppo,  Hama,  Homs,  and  Ryak.  Cir- 
cumstances, however,  forced  him  to  oc- 
cupy Damascus. 

The  circumstances  were  these:  When 
he  had  been  three  days  on  the  march 
Feisal's  message  accepting  the  terms  of 
the  ultimatum  reached  him  on  the  Zahle 
Road.  In  it  Feisal  declared  that  the  re- 
ply had  been  sent  in  good  time,  but  had 
been  delayed  by  an  accident;  he  there- 
fore asked  the  French  commander  to 
stop  his  advance  on  Damascus.  This 
was  acceded  to,  when  on  that  very  day 
a  small  column  guarding  the  pass  be- 
tween Homs  and  Tripolis,  a  little  east 
of  the  post  of  Tel  Kalah,  was  attacked 
by  Sherifian  regulars.  In  consequence 
of  this  aggression  and  in  order  to  pre- 
vent another  attack  which  was  threat- 


ened on  the  Damascus-Beirut  road,  the 
French  southern  column,  commanded  by 
General  Goybet,  which  was  covering  the 
occupation  of  the  railway  against  attack 
from  the  direction  of  Damascus,  drove 
out   the    Sherifian   forces,   whose   head- 


^^l^ 

•^^Sw^ 

^^ff^SMb 

'^M 

GENERAL    GOURAUD 

Commander   of   French   forces   in   control 

of    Syria 

{Wide    World    Photos) 


quarters  were  at  Khan  Meizelun,  in  the 
mountain  region  separating  the  plain  of 
Bekka  from  that  of  Damasc  ^-^^'^r  a 

prolonged  fight  the  Sherifians  wexv.  ^ 
to  flight,  leaving  nine  field  pieces  and 
twenty-five  machine  guns  on  the  field. 

Thereupon  the  Syrian  authorities  of 
Damascus  sent  messages  to  the  French, 
declaring  that  if  they  came  no  resistance 
would  be  offered,  and  that  the  town 
would  provision  the  column  until  the 
railway,  which  had  been  cut  by  the  She- 
rifians, could  be  restored. 

So  on  July  25  Gouraud's  troops  entered 
Damascus,  and  General  Goybet  issued  a 
proclamation  dethroning  "  King  "  Feisal. 
The  Congress,  declining  to  support  Fei- 


SIGNING  OF  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


1081 


.,  "EL  LAOAM  RIJAT 


COUNTRIES  OF  THE  LEVANT,  INCLUDING  REGION  BETWEEN  THE 
FRENCH  AND  THE  ARABS 


sal,  had  already  reorganized  the  Syrian 
Ministry  as  follows: 

Aladdin   Droubi,    Prime  Minister. 

Abdur  Raham  Yusuf,  President  of  the 
State   Council. 

Gamil  Elsiii,   Minister   of  War. 

Atta   Alayyoubi,    Interior. 

Paris  Khuri,   Finance. 

Badi  Moyyad,  Instruction. 

Jallal,   Justice. 

Yusuf  Halckim,   Public  Works. 

General  Goybet  received  the  new  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  the  name  of  General 
Gouraud  made  the  following  declaration, 
the  demands  of  which  were  accepted 
by  it: 

The  Emir  Feisal,  who  has  brought  the 
country  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  has  ceased  to 
reign.  A  war  contribution  of  ten  millions 
as  reparation  for  the  damage  caused 
by  the  guerrilla  warfare  in  the  western 
zone  will  be  exacted.  General  disarma- 
ment will  commence  immediately.  The 
army,  transformed  into  a  police  force, 
will  be  reduced.  War  material  will  be 
handed  over  to  the  French.  The  prin- 
cipal guilty  parties  will  be  brought  before 
military    tribunals. 

Meanv/hile,  Feisal,  just  before  he  had 
left  Damascus  for  his  father's  kingdom, 
had  addressed  a  dispatch  to  the  allied 
powers  to  this  effect: 


Although  we  have  accepted  the  condi- 
tions imposed  by  General  Gouraud,  have 
withdrawn  our  troops  from  the  frontiers, 
have  demobilized  the  remainder  of  our 
forces  which  were  at  Damascus,  and  have 
exerted  a  strong  pressure  on  the  people 
who  were  led  to  rebel  against  the  Gov- 
ernment, General  Gouraud  has  acted  con- 
trary to  the  engagements  entered  into  by 
his  Government,  and  also  contrary  to  the 
personal  agreements  made  by  him.  He 
has  crossed  the  frontier  and  marched 
against  Damascus,  although  the  entire 
Arab  Nation  was  becoming  tranquilized 
in  recognition  of  a  formal  and  reasonable 
promise.  By  that  act  he  has  committed 
a  crime  and  a  grave  betrayal,  which  must 
lead  to  the  death  of  innocent  persons  and 
the  useless  shedding  of  blood.  I  therefore 
appeal  to  the  civilized  world,  demanding 
justice,  protection  and  succor  for  a  peo- 
ple so  unjustly   betrayed. 

On  the  night  of  July  19,  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  the  Government  was 
severely  arraigned  for  permitting  France 
to  take  such  a  "  high-handed  "  course  in 
Syria  and  thus  jeopardize  the  friendly 
relations  betv/een  Great  Britain  and 
Hedjaz,  to  which  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  given  solemn  promises  for  its 
political  and  territorial  integrity.  Bonar 
Law  replied  for  the  Government  as  fol- 
lows: 


1082 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


The  real  question  before  the  House  was 
whether  or  not  the  French  ultimatum 
was  so  outrageous  that  we  had  a  right 
to  interfere  with  a  nation  which  had 
been  duly  appointed  as  mandatary  for 
the  territory  in  question.  It  had  been 
suggested  that  the  case  of  the  Emir 
Feisal  was  not  properly  placed  before 
the  Supreme  Council.  No  mistake  could 
be  greater.  There  were  endless  nego- 
tiations with  the  Emir  in  Paris,  both  by 
M.  Clemenceau  and  by  Lloyd  George. 
Did  the  House  realize  what  had  hap- 
pened? He  submitted  an  analagous 
case.  British  troops  were  in  occupation 
of  these  territories.  The  British  Govern- 
ment came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was 
not  fair  to  expect  us  to  bear  the  burden 
of  countries  in  which  we  should  have  no 
ultimate  interest.  So  the  Supreme  Coun- 
cil gave  the  mandate  definitely  to  the 
French,  and  he  thought  he  was  right  in 
saying  that  the  Emir  while  in  Paris  defi- 
nitely accepted  it.    *    *    * 

Just  as  we  should  resent  interference 
from  France,  so  we  ought  not  to  inter- 
fere with  France,  for  her  action  was  no 
business  of  ours,  unless  we  thought  It 
contravened  the  purpose  of  the  League 
of    Nations. 

The  Government  had  been  in  communi- 
cation with  the  French  Government,  and 
a  reply  had  been  received  to  the  effect 
that  the  French  Government  had  no  in- 
tention of  permanent  military  occupa- 
tion. As  soon  as  the  mandate  had  been 
accepted  and  order  had  been  restored 
the  troops  would  be  withdrawn.  *  *  * 
To  reflect  on  the  action  of  the  French 
Government  in  this  matter  was  a  serious 
thing,  and  a  serious  danger  for  the 
future. 

The  French  press  showed  an  inclina- 
tion to  resent  even  this  degree  of  Brit- 
ish discussion  of  the  subject. 

On  July  28,  King  Hussein  of  the  Hed- 
jaz  recalled  his  representative  at  the 
Peace  Conference  in  Paris,  Rusten  Bey 
Haidar,  in  consequence  of  the  develop- 
ments in  Syria,  and  at  the  same  time 
addressed  to  Lloyd  George,  the  Brit- 
ish Prime  Minister,  a  protest  against 
the  action  of  General  Gouraud,  for  it 
was  with  King  Hussein  that  the  British 
Government,  acting  through  Sir  Henry 
McMahon,  then  High  Commissioner  in 
Egypt,  came  to  an  understanding  re- 
garding the  independence  of  the  Arab 
provinces  in  the  event  of  the  Arabs  join- 
ing the  Entente  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  Turks  in  the  World  War. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  King 
Hussein,    in   his    capacity    as    Sherif   of 


Mecca  and  rival  of  the  Turkish  Sultan 
for  the  title  of  Caliph  of  Islam,  holds  a 
position  of  unusual  sanctity,  not  only 
among  the  Arabs  of  Syria,  but  also 
among  those  under  British  rule  in  Pales- 
tine, Egypt  and  Mesopotamia. 

In  French  official  quarters  it  was  be- 
lieved that  the  action  of  General  Gou- 
raud came  none  too  soon,  for  by  July 
27  the  Turkish  Nationals,  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  obstructions  placed  to  the 
movements  of  the  French  along  the 
coastal  railway,  had  completely  isolated 
the  City  of  Adana,  Cilicia,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  70,000  Christians  and  10,000 
Moslems,  in  an  attempt  to  starve  it  out. 
It  was  later  relieved  by  a  French  con- 
voy. The  situation  in  Cilicia  and  the 
effect  of  military  action  in  Syria  to  the 
south  was  thus  explained  by  the  French 
Foreign  Office  on  Aug.  3: 

The  situation  in  Cilicia  is  much  better. 
French  troops  moving  from  Adana  have 
won  a  victory  at  Yenidje  over  large  Ke- 
malist  forces.  The  Turks,  who  were 
stirred  up  by  the  Pasha,  possessed  can- 
non and  machine  guns  and  fought  stub- 
bornly. The  French  battalion  made  six 
baiyonet  attacks.  The  enemy  left  on  the 
field  more  than  400  dead,  800  rifles,  4 
machine  guns  and  250  prisoners,  one  of 
whom  was  a  German  officer.  The  column 
of  Gracy  arrived  at  Mersina  July  31. 

The  situation  is  excellent  in  Syria. 
After  Aleppo,  where  they  were  received 
with  great  joy  by  the  population,  the 
French  troops  have  occupied  Homs  and 
Hamaha.  All  of  the  railroad  is,  there- 
fore, in  our  favor.  Calm  reigns  at  Da- 
mascus. From  all  sides  native  leaders 
ask  the  privilege  of  surrendering. 

ZIONISTS  IN  PALESTINE 

Sir  Herbert  Samuel,  the  British  High 
Commissioner  of  Palestine,  announced  on 
July  21  the  abolition  of  the  censorship, 
which  had  remained  unrelaxed  since  the 
Jerusalem  riots  last  April.  He  also  re- 
formed the  postal  service.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  Holy  Land  the 
postage  stamps  issued  bore  an  impri  it 
in  English,  Hebrew  and  Arabic  as  sym- 
bolical of  the  three  races  most  interested 
in  the  development  of  the  country. 

In  London  the  World  Zionist  Confer- 
ence, which  opened  July  5,  came  to  an 
end  on  July  23.  It  concluded  with  the 
election  of  United  States  Supreme  Court 
Justice  Louis  D.  Brandeis  as  Honorary 


SIGNING  OF  THE  TURKISH  PEACE  TREATY 


1083 


President,  Professor  Chayim  Weizmann, 
President,  and  Nahum  Sokolow,  Chair- 
man of  the  Executive  Committee.  These 
three  will  form  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee, which  will  have  charge  of  the  ap- 
pointments of  the  various  heads  of  de- 
partments with  the  approval  of  the 
Greater  Actions  Committee,  which  has  no 
fewer  than  eighty-eight  members,  includ- 
ing such  well-known  Jewish  leaders  as 
Dr.  Max  Nordau,  Nathan  Straus,  Judge 
Julian  M.  Mack,  Professor  Felix  Frank- 
furter and  Sir  Stuart  Samuel,  who 
recently  made  a  report  on  the  ill-treat- 
ment of  Jews  in  Poland  for  the  British 
Government — a  report  that  was  submit- 
ted to  the  League  of  Nations.  Other 
members,  Jacob  De  Haas,  Louis  Lipsky 
and  Bernard  Rosenbatt,  will  be  connected 
with  the  Zionist  administration  in  Amer- 
ica. 

Socialist  members  forced  the  confer- 
ence on  July  20  to  adopt  an  amendment 
to  the  report  of  the  Colonization  Com- 
mission declaring  that  all  settlers  in  Pal- 
estine, with  or  without  capital,  must 
cultivate  their  lands  themselves.  With 
this  amendment  the  report  adopted  was 
as  follows: 

1.  Land  Policy— 1.  The  fundamental 
principle  of  Zionist  land  policy  is  that 
all  land  on  which  Jewish  colonization 
takes  place  should  eventually  become  the 
common  property  of  the  Jewish  people. 
The  Executive  is  called  upon  to  do  all  in 
its  power  to  carry  this  principle  into  ef- 
fect. 

2.  The  organ  for  carrying  out  Jewish 
land  policy  in  town  and  country  is  the 
Jewish  National  Fund.  The  objects  of 
this  body  are :  To  expend  the  voluntary 
contributions  received  from  the  Jewish 
people  in  making  the  land  of  Palestine 
the  common  property  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple ;  to  give  out  the  land  exclusively  on 
hereditary  leasehold  and  copyhold ;  to  as- 
sist the  settlement  on  their  own  farms  of 
Jewish  agricultural  workers  without 
means;  to  see  that  the  ground  is  worked, 
and  to  combat  speculation  to  safeguard 
Jewish  labor. 

3.  The  credit  resources  of  the  Zionist 
Organization  are  to  be  placed  in  the  first 
instance  at  the  service  of  such  settlers 
as  undertake  to  comply  with  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Jewish  National  Fund. 

4.  In  order  to  give  the  J.  N.  F.  a  dom- 
inating position  in  the  purchase  of  land, 
adequate  means  must  always  be  placed 
at  its  disposal. 

In  order  to  enlarge  its  sphere  of  opera- 
tion   the    J.    N.    F.    shall    raise    loans    of 


which  the  interest  and  sinking  fund  are 
to  be  paid  off  through  its  leasehold 
rentals.  The  J.  N.  F.  shall  be  entitled, 
even  in  disregard  of  the  obligation  it  has 
hitherto  been  under  to  set  aside  certain 
sums  for  reserve,  to  invest  the  whole  of 
its  funds,  without  any  restrictions,  in 
Palestine. 

The  land  policy  of  the  J.  N.  F.  must  be 
encouraged  by  means  of  credit  institutes 
for  agricultural  and  urban  property. 

5.  Land  purchase  in  Palestine  shall  be 
centralized  in  the  hands  of  an  officially 
recognized  institution  under  the  control 
of   the    Zionist    Organization. 

6.  In  order  to  bring  large  portions  of 
the  land  of  Palestine  into  Jewish  pos- 
session as  rapidly  as  possible,  the  J.  N. 
F.  shall  devise  means  by  which,  along- 
side of  the  capital  of  the  J.  N.  F.  itself, 
private  capital  can  also  be  utilized  for 
the  purchase  of  land,  under  conditions 
which  will  assure  the  subsequent  trans- 
ference of  land  so  bought  into  the  na- 
tional  possession. 

II.  Colonization— 1.  The  aim  of  national 
colonization  is  the  settlement  of  Jewish 
workers. 

2.  Only  workers  who  have  been  success- 
fully tested  by  long  experience,  and  Jews 
who  were  working  farmers  in  the  Galuth, 
should  be  assisted  to  settle.  Workers 
who  have  acquired  agricultural  knowl- 
edge in  the  Galuth  should  gain  adequate 
working  experience  in  the  country  before 
they  are  assisted  to  settle. 

Special  attention  should  be  given  to  the 
wife's  suitability  for  settlement. 

3.  For  the  purpose  of  settlements  and 
the  preparation  of  settlements,  large  con- 
tiguous areas  should,  as  far  as  possible, 
be  secured  by  the  Zionist  Organization, 
even  if  improvement  and  sanitation  are 
required. 

4.  The  settlement  of  candidates  possess- 
ing capital  of  their  own  is  of  great  im- 
portance and  should  be  emphatically  en- 
couraged, in  so  far  as  these  settlers  ac- 
cept the  principles  of  national  coloniza- 
tion. 

5.  In  view  of  the  importance  of  proceed- 
ing quickly  to  the  intensive  exploitation 
of  the  country,  some  settlements  should 
be  established  with  all  possible  speed, 
both  on  irrigated  and  non-irrigated  soil, 
according  to  the  methods  of  the  most  in- 
tensive utilization  of  the  soil.  The  nec- 
essary means  for  this  purpose  must  be 
placed  at  our  disposal,  and  a  commission 
of  experts  is  to  be  intrusted  with  the 
preparation  of  these  settlements  as  well 
as  the  training  of  the  workers  required. 

6.  Public  works  may  not  be  carried  out 
by  the  Zionist  Organization  except  with 
a  view  to  public  utility  and  national 
benefit. 

On  the  eve  of  adjournment  the  confer- 
ence  decided  to   convene   another  world 


1084 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Jewish  congress  "  constituted  on  a  dem- 
ocratic basis."  To  this  an  amendment 
was  added  providing  that  "  in  order  that 
all  representatives  may  co-operate  fruit- 
fully, the  impending  congress  is  only  to 
consider  questions  of  a  non-controversial 
nature."  The  purpose  of  this  amendment 
was  to  have  the  future  congress  eschew 
all  questions  of  politics  and  religion  and 
have  it  concentrate  on  the  reconstnic- 
tion  of,  Palestine  as  a  Jewish  homeland. 

MESOPOTAMIA 

Soon  after  the  armistice  France  and 
Great  Britain  began  negotiations  in  re- 
gard to  their  mutual  oil  interests  in 
various  countries  affected  by  the  war. 
These  negotiations,  pertaining  to  Ru- 
mania, Anatolia,  Galicia  and  Mesopo- 
tamia, were  concluded  in  April  last,  and 
the  resul;ts  incorporated  in  a  White 
Paper  published  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment on  July  23.  The  greatest  interest, 
on  account  of  recent  disturbing  ex- 
changes between  the  Londpn  and  Paris 
press,  lay  in  the  Mesopotamian  clauses, 
which  provided  for  -the  participation  of 
the  native  Government  of  Mesopotamia 
on  a  basi§  of  one-fifth  shar^, '  while 
France  and  Great  Britain  had  shares  of 
18  per  cent,  and  62  per  cent.,  respective- 
ly. The  Mesopotamian  share  was  the  re- 
sult of  the  voluntary  surrender,  by  the 
other  two  partners,  of  a  proportion  of 
the  rights  enjoyed  by  them  under  the 
original  Turkish  concessions. 

The  British  lines  of  communication 
between  Bagdad  and  Basra  were  several 
times  threatened  by  Arab  tribesmen,  in 
spite  of  the  elaborate  system  of  patrols, 
employing  cavalry,  camel  infantry  and 
aviators.  Although  the  Tigris  routes 
were  made  comparatively  safe,  those  on 
the  Euphrates  were  less  secure,  and 
after  Rumeitha  had  been  relieved  the 
garrison  withdrew  on  July  21.  On  July 
25  a  column  sent  against  the  fortified 
town  of  Kifi  (the  railway  between  which 
and  Hilla  had  been  cut  by  raiders)  was 
obliged  to  retreat  to  Hilla,  as  it  encoun- 
tered superior  force.  In  the  first  week 
in  August  it  made  another  attempt,  was 
surrounded,  but  managed  to  cut  its  way 
through  with  the  loss  of  300  men,  one 
gun,  and  twelve  machine  guns. 


In  the  Mesopotamian  region  the  British 
had  80,000  white  and  Indian  troops,  who 
were  kept  busy  merely  doing  police  duty, 
following  up  raids,  and  attacking  distant 
Arab  strongholds  to  which  the  raiders 
had  retired. 

PERSIA 

Concerning  the  advance  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki  under  General  Kuropatkin  from 
Baku  on  Tabriz  and  Teheran,  no  advices 
arrived  later  than  the  dispatch  from  the 
American  Minister  to  Persia,  John  L. 
Caldwell,  which  Washington  made  public 
on  Aug.  6.  Mr.  Caldwell  spoke  of  the 
official  confidence  in  the  British  and 
French  forces  sent  to  oppose  them,  but 
said  that  there  was  no  popular  confidence 
in  them,  and  that  the  Shah's  Government 
and  the  foreign  legations  were  contem- 
plating a  movement  southward.  Kuro- 
patkin's  reply  to  a  Persian  message  ask- 
ing him  to  leave  the  country  was  said  tc 
have  been:  "  Russia  will  quit  Persia 
when  the  British  do,  and  not  before." 

The  Bolsheviki  distributed  tracts  which 
contained  what  purported  to  be  seven 
secret  clauses  in  the  Anglo-Persian 
treaty  signed  a  year  ago — clauses  alleged 
to  illustrate  England's  actual  dominance 
over  Persia,  unknown  to  the  League  of 
Nations.  On  July  19  Mushaver-el-Mame- 
lik,  Persian  Ambassador  at  Constanti- 
nople, who  was  formerly  Charge  d'Af- 
faires  at  Petrograd  and  speaks  Russian, 
was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Moscow.  He 
was  said  never  to  have  forgiven  the  fact 
that,  although  he  was  Foreign  Minister, 
the  Anglo-Persian  treaty  was  negotiated 
behind  his  back.  The  treaty  has  not 
yet  been  ratified  by  the  Meiliss,  or  Par- 
liament. 

The  defenses  prepared  for  Teheran 
were  as  follows:  A  British  force  of  2,000 
at  Kasvin,  ready  to  attack  Resht  and 
Enzeli,  and  the  Cossack  anti-Bolshevijt 
division  of  Colonel  Starosselsky  at  Ma- 
zandaran.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  re- 
ported on  July  27  to  the  British  War 
Office  that  the  enemy  deployed  between 
Resht  and  Meshed-Isar,  a  distance  of  180 
miles,  consisted  of  only  400  Muscovites, 
the  same  number  of  Tartars  and  Persia  is 
from  Baku  and  about  400  Persian  Jag- 
alis. 


States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 

Bulgarian   Peace  Treaty   Ratified 


ALBANIA— On  Aug.  11  Spiro  Kolexa, 
the  new  Albanian  Minister  at  Rome,  ar- 
rived at  Avlona  to  arrange  for  the  de- 
tails of  the  evacuation  of  Albania  by  Ital- 
ian troops  in  accordance  with  the  proto- 
col.   (See  Italy.) 

BULGARIA— The  Peace  Treaty  with 
Bulgaria  was  made  formally  effective 
on  Aug.  9  by  the  exchange  of  ratifica- 
tions among  the  signatories.  This  is  the 
Treaty  of  Neuilly,  signed  Nov.  27,  1919, 
and  ratified  by  the  Bulgarian  Sobranje 
Jan.  12,  1920.  The  requisite  number  of 
ratifications  on  the  part  of  the  Allies 
was  achieved  by  the  ratification  of  the 
French  Senate  on  July  31. 

It  is  expected  that  a  port  on  the  Ae- 
gean will  at  once  be  assigned  by  the 
Council  of  the  Peace  Conference  to  Bul- 
garia. Lacking  this  port  she  has  since 
the  armistice  been  obliged  to  use  the 
Danubian  ports.  Thus  handicapped  she 
is  said  to  have  performed  wonders,  par- 
ticularly in  the  production  and  export 
of  cereals.  The  official  statistics  show 
that  the  yield  of  cereals  in  1919  for  the 
whole  of  Bulgaria  was  2,527,614  tons,  of 
which  1,800,000  tons  were  required  for 
consumption  and  for  sowing,  leaving 
727,614  tons  free  for  export.  Of  the  total 
yield  wheat  provided  926,112  tons,  rye 
164,860,  barley  228,809,  oats  107,226  and 
maize  985,296.  Information  furnished  by 
the  Director  General  of  the  Bulgarian 
statistics  and  b>  the  Mini  ;try  of  Agricul- 
ture indicates  an  increase  of  at  least  20 
per  cent,  on  the  above  figures  for  the 
1920  yield. 

The  export  of  cereals  is  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  a  consortium  composed  of  State 
banks,  who  are  under  the  close  super- 
vision of  the  Government  through  the 
National  Bank  of  Bulgaria,  Sofia.  This 
consortium  has  organizations  and  depots 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  no  one 
else  can  buy  cereals  either  for  interior 
consumption  or  for  export. 

GREECE — The  return  of  King  Alex- 
ander to  Athens  with  Mme.  Aspasie  Ma- 
no,  whom  he  legally  but  secretly  married 


a  year  ago,  gave  rise  to  much  curiosity 
as  to  the  future  developments  of  the 
royal  romance.  The  popular  press  cast 
aside  prejudice,  and  was  asking  the  Gov- 


MILENKO   R.    VESNITCH 

Premier   of   Jugoslavia   cond  former   head 

of   Serbian  Peace   Mission 

(©    Harris   &   Eiving) 


ernment  to  recognize  the  woman  as  the 
consort  of  the  King  and  their  possible 
children  as  royal  Princes  with  all  due 
prerogatives.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
press,  which  reflects  the  military  spirit, 
was  determined  not  to  recognize  her.  The 
National  Assembly  will  presently  be 
asked  to  define  her  status.  (See  Thrace 
and  Smyrna.) 

JUGOSLAVIA— On  July  20  the  Ves- 
nitch  Cabinet  resigned,  owing  to  a  dif- 
ference on  the  school  question,  and  on 
July  28  the  former  Premier,  Dr.  Milenko 
Vesnitch,  was  asked  to  reconstruct  his 
old  Ministry.  For  the  future  Constituent 
Assembly,  which  will  determine  the  Con- 


1086 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


stitution  of  Jugoslavia,  the  members  will 
number  414  thus  distributed:  Serbia, 
157;  Montenegro,  8;  Batchka,  25;  Bosnia 


and  Herzegovina,  63;  Dalmatia,  11; 
Croatia  and  Slavonia,  92,  and  Slovenia, 
38. 


Japanese  Occupation  of  Saghalin 

Protest  of  United  States 


JAPAN 

THE  Japanese  occupation  of  Vladi- 
vostok and  the  Maritime  Provinces 
continued  during  the  month  under 
review,  and  was  extended  to  the  Russian 
portion  of  the  Island  of  Saghalin.  Early 
in  July  Tokio  announced  officially  that 
the  Japanese  forces  would  be  withdrawn 
from  the  Trans-Baikal  region,  as  the 
necessity  for  maintaining  order  there 
and  protecting  the  Czechoslovaks  had 
ended  with  the  Czechs'  repatriation.  The 
decision  to  maintain  the  occupation  of 
the  Maritime  Provinces  was  explained  in 
this  statement: 

The  situation  in  the  Maritime  Provinces 
is  different.  Here,  recently,  the  Japanese 
Consul  and  about  700  Japanese  subjects 
were  slaughtered  by  the  Reds,  who  are 
also  menacing  all  points  in  the  Maritime 
Provinces  from  Vladivostok,  Khabarovsk, 
Nikolsk  and  Nikolaevsk  (Saghalin),  where 
there  are  a  number  of  Japanese  residents. 
The  Japanese  Government  desires  to  with- 
draw all  its  troops,  but  at  present  there  is 
no  Government  established  with  which  the 
Japanese  Government  may  negotiate,  or 
upon  which  it  can  depend,  while  the  situa- 
tion along  the  northern  border  of  Korea 
constitutes  a  serious  menace.  For  these 
reasons  the  Japanese  garrisons  must  be 
maintained  at  strategic  points,  pending  the 
establishment  of  a  Russian  Government  in 
Siberia. 

The  inference  from  this  statement  that 
Japan  did  not  view  the  newly  created 
Far  Eastern  Republic  established  at  Ver- 
khne-Udinsk  as  a  responsible  and  repre- 
sentative Government  was  confirmed  by 
Viscount  Uchida,  the  Japanese  Foreign 
Minister,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the 
Diet  on  July  7.  Viscount  Uchida  de- 
clared that  the  Government  had  no  pres- 
ent intention  of  securing  the  establish- 
ment of  a  "  buffer  State  "  by  negotiating 
either  with  the  Vladivostok  or  the  Ver- 
khne-Udinsk  Government.  This  meant 
a  change  in  Japanese  policy  in  Siberia, 


inasmuch  as  the  creation  of  a  "  buffer 
State "  had  been  a  favorite  Japanese 
idea. 

Peace  negotiations  with  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  Verkhne-Udinsk  Govern- 
ment had  been  resumed  after  being 
broken  off  in  June  without  an  agree- 
ment, and  a  suspension  of  hostilities  was 
signed  on  July  15  by  the  Japanese  Arm- 
istice Committee  and  representatives  of 
the  Verkhne-Udinsk  Government.  Fur- 
ther discussions  by  the  Russo-Japanese 
committees  were  continuing  at  that  time. 
The  Japanese  were  not  attempting  to 
oppose  the  new  republic,  but  were  striv- 
ing to  establish  boundary  lines  which 
would  prevent  clashes  between  the  two 
peoples. 

The  Japanese  Government  decided,  on 
July  4,  to  occupy  such  parts  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Saghalin  as  it  deemed  necessary, 
pending  the  establishment  of  a  legitimate 
Government  and  a  satisfactory  settle- 
ment for  the  massacres  of  Nikolaevsk. 

The  occupation  of  the  Russian  half  of 
Saghalin  Island  followed.  Government 
appropriations  sufficient  for  a  military 
and  naval  administration  of  six  months 
were  passed  by  the  Diet.  The  Japanese 
Government,  on  July  28,  received  from 
the  United  States  an  inquiry  regarding 
this  occupation.  The  Foreign  Minister 
submitted  the  inquiry  to  the  Cabinet, 
which  went  into  special  session  with  the 
Diplomatic  Advisory  Council  to  discuss 
the  subject.  It  later  developed  that  the 
American  Government  had  sent  this  note 
of  inquiry  after  a  conference  of  Mr. 
Colby,  Secretary  of  State,  with  Sir  Auck- 
land Geddes,  the  British  Ambassador  at 
Washington;  Sir  Beilby  Alston,  British 
Minister  to  China,  who  was  returning  to 
London  on  leave,  and  Roland  Morris, 
American  Ambassador  to  Tokio,  likewise 
on  leave  of  absence.     The  substance  of 


JANANESE  OCCUPATION  OF  SAGHALIN 


1087 


the  note  was  withheld  by  Tokio,  as  well 
as  by  the  Washington  Government,  but 
it  was  understood  in  Japan  that  the 
note  was  in  the  nature  of  a  protest 
against  the  permanent  occupation  of 
Saghalin,  as  well  as  of  the  district  of 
Khabarovsk,  facing  the  island. 

Pending  Japan's  reply,  the  Govern- 
ment's action  in  respect  to  Saghalin  was 
challenged  in  the  Diet.  An  interpellation 
was  made  at  a  session  late  in  July  by 
Ichizo  Hattori,  former  Governor  of 
Hyogo  Province.  He  asked  whether 
Japan  intended  to  occupy  Saghalin  per- 
manently in  case  of  failure  to  obtain 
satisfaction  for  the  Nikolaevsk  mas- 
sacres from  such  a  Government  as  might 
eventually  be  established  in  Russia.  Hat- 
tori  declared  that  nothing  caused  deeper 
and  more  sustained  resentment  than  the 
occupation  of  part  of  a  nation's  territory 
by  another  nation.  Russia,  he  said,  in 
its  present  confusion,  might  prove  easy 
to  deal  with,  but  the  fact  should  not  be 
lost  sight  of  that  Russia  is  a  country 
of  great  possibilities.  Her  strong  latent 
power  in  Siberia,  he  pointed  out,  offered 
a  field  for  peaceful  and  economic  ex- 
pansion by  the  Japanese,  whose  migra- 
tion there  was  a  possible  solution  of 
Japan's  over-populated  condition;  but 
this,  he  asserted,  would  meet  with  a 
serious  check  if  bad  blood  existed  be- 
tween the  Russians  and  the  Japanese. 

Premier  Hara,  in  replying,  said  it 
would  be  detrimental  to  Japan's  interests 
to  disclose  what  the  Government  pro- 
posed to  do  if  no  satisfactory  settlement 
of  the  Nikolaevsk  massacres  was  found. 
He  shared,  he  admitted,  Hattori's  fear 
of  arousing  a  permanent  resentment  by 
the  occupation,  but  declared  that  it  was 
impossible  for  Japan  to  obtain  satisfac- 
tion for  an  atrocious  massacre  of  hun- 
dreds of  Japanese  subjects. 

Japanese  sentiment,  as  reflected  in  the 
Japanese  press,  indicated  that  the 
American  note  had  come  as  a  somewhat 
disagreeable  surprise.  One  section  of 
the  press  commented  hostilely;  another 
lamented  the  fact  that  foreign  Govern- 
ments were  unable  to  trust  Japanese 
policy,  and  blamed  the  actions  of  the 
Japanese  militarists  for  this.  A  third 
foresaw  many  complications. 


Marquis  Okuma,  former  Japanese  Pre- 
mier, declared  on  July  30  that  Japan 
must  prepare  to  receive  more  protests 
from  Washington,  but,  in  his  opinion, 
they  would  be  only  paper  ones.  In 
Washington,  however,  it  was  stated 
semi-officially  that  not  only  the  United 
States,  but  Great  Britain  also,  was  im- 
pressed by  the  growing  power  of  the 
Japanese  military  party,  and  was  deter- 
mined to  press  a  settlement  of  the  ques- 
tions growing  out  of  Japanese  expan- 
sion, the  United  States  particularly  be- 
ing opposed  to  any  permanent  occupa- 
tion of  Russian  territory.  America's  in- 
sistence on  this  point  was  made  clear  by 
the  note  sent,  toward  the  middle  of 
August,  by  Secretary  Colby  to  the  Ital- 
ian Ambassador. 

An  abstract  of  the  American  note  was 
published  in  Tokio  on  Aug.  3,  to  the  fol- 
lowing effect: 

1.  America  approves  Japan's  decision  to 
evacuate   Transbaikalia ; 

2.  As  regards  continued  occupation  of 
the  Vladivostok  region,  she  reserves  ex- 
pression of  her  view  owing  to  the  ab- 
sence of  sufficient  information  on  con-- 
ditions  there  upon  which  to  form  an 
opinion ; 

3.  America  fails  to  understand  the  rea- 
son for  Japan's  occupation  of  Saghalin, 
which  has  no  connection  whatever  witn 
the  Siberian  mainland  or  incidents  like 
the  Nikolaevsk  massacre  occurring  there. 

Following  this  publication,  the  in- 
creased nervousness  of  Japanese  senti- 
ment became  apparent,  especially  in  view 
of  the  reported  conferences  in  Washing- 
ton between  the  American  and  British 
diplomats.  The  press,  on  the  whole,  de- 
manded a  resolute  Government  policy,  re- 
gardless of  protests,  and  charged  that 
much  trouble  was  caused  for  Japan  by 
her  timid  and  vacillating  foreign  policy. 
A  note  of  reply  by  Japan  to  the  Ameri- 
can protest — for  thus  the  Japanese  inter- 
preted it — was  in  preparation  on  Aug.  7. 
Two  Tokio  papers  published  ad/ance 
summaries  of  'this  reply,  according-  to 
which  Japan  explained  why  she  con- 
sidered the  occupation  of  Saghalin  neces- 
sary, and  reaffirmed  her  intention  of 
holding  it  until  the  establishment  in  Rus- 
sia of  a  responsible  Government  from 
which  to  gain  satisfaction.  The  occupa- 
tion of  Vladivostok  and  Khabarovsk  was 
also  explained;   in  the  first  case,  some 


1088 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT    HISTORY 


7,000  Chinese  residents  must  be  protected 
from  Bolshevist  inroads;  in  the  second, 
Khabarovsk  is  a  strategic  point  on  the 
route  to  Nikolaevsk. 

The  Japanese  Foreign  Office  on  July 
23  published  the  text  of  a  joint  communi- 
cation by  Japan  and  Great  Britain 
notifying  the  League  of  Nations  that 
they  would  recognize  the  principle  of  the 
covenant  of  the  League  in  connection 
with  the  Anglo-Japanese  alliance,  re- 
cently renewed  for  one  year,  if  it  is  per- 
maner'V  renewed  in  1921.  Though  this 
alliance  is  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of 
the  League,  +he  note  stated,  it  is  not  so 
strictly  in  letter,  but  would  be  made  so 
in  case  of  renewal  for  another  ten-year 
period. 

A  delegation  representing  Japanese  or- 
ganizations on  the  Pacific  Coast  v/as  in 
Tokio  at  the  end  of  July  consulting  offi- 
cials regarding  the  Californian  situa- 
tion. M.  Ikeda,  President  of  the  Jap- 
anese Association  of  America,  said  at 
this  date  that  the  agitation  would  prob- 
ably pass  with  the  excitement  of  the 
Presidential  campaign,  and  urged  the 
Japanese  to  act  with  moderation.  Such 
also  was  the  opinion  of  Count  Okuma. 

A  Congressional  committee  was  still 
in  California  in  August  investigating  the 
charges  that  the  Japanese  are  gradually 
getting  control  of  great  areas  of  land 
and  are  undesirable  residents.  The  Cali- 
fornian situation  was  described  at  the 
time  of  the  Washington  conference  as 
acute,  and  it  was  stated  that  the  refer- 
endum to  be  taken  in  California  in  the 
Fall  would  probably  lead  to  bitter  feeling 
in  Japan,  and  to  strained  relations  be- 
tween the  Japanese  and  United  States 
Governments. 

CHINA 

[See  Article  on  China,  Page  992] 
The  main  events  of  the  month  in 
China  turned  on  the  civil  war  precipi- 
tated by  the  Chinese  President's  dis- 
missal of  General  Hsu  Shu-tseng,  com- 
mander of  the  frontier  defense  troops. 
This  war  between  the  protagonists  of 
the  two  military  parties  of  North  China, 
the  so-called  Chih-li  Party  and  the  An- 
fuites,  was  of  considerable  proportions. 
The  cause  of  this  dismissal  was  the 
strong  attitude  taken  against  the  cor- 


ruption of  Hsu  Shu  and  other  prominent 
Anfu  party  representatives  by  General 
Chang  Tso-ling,  once  a  successful  ban- 
dit leader  in  Manchuria,  but  now  Gover- 
nor General  of  the  three  Manchurian 
provinces.  Chang  Tso-ling  was  support- 
ed against  Tuan  Chih-jui,  the  Anfu  lead- 
er, by  General  Wu  Pei-fu,  who  had 
left  the  southern  frontier  against  orders 
to  support  the  Northern  Tuchuns  (Gov- 
ernors) in  their  war  against  Anfuism, 
and  by  General  Tsao-kun,  Governor  of 
Chih-li  province. 

The  defeat  of  Tuan  Chih-jui  at  a  point 
not  far  from  Peking  threw  the  Chinese 
capital  into  a  state  of  panic  (July  18): 
the  gates  were  closed,  and  only  such 
traffic  allowed  as  was  necessary  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  city's  life.  The  city 
was  quiet  on  July  22,  though  facing 
great  scarcity  of  food  supplies.  The 
gates  still  remained  closed  against 
Tuan's  defeated  soldiers,  who  were 
forced  to  camp  in  the  fields  outside  the 
city.  The  casualties  in  the  fighting  were 
estimated  at  6,000,  chiefly  among  the 
frontier  defense  troops.  Tuan  Chih-jui 
offered  his  resignation  on  July  22,  and 
two  days  later  the  debacle  of  the  Anfu 
forces  was  said  to  be  complete. 

Fighting  had  ceased  on  all  fronts  in 
obedience  to  the  President's  order.  The 
Peking  population  was  regaining  confi- 
dence, but  the  gates  were  still  kept 
closed.  The  troops  of  Chang  Tso-ling 
were  surrounding  Peking  with  the  in- 
tention of  enforcing  the  proposed  terms 
of  surrender.  A  compromise  and  agree- 
ment between  the  two  factions  was  hoped 
for  from  the  arrival  of  a  peace  mission 
at  Tientsin  on  July  25.  The  President 
of  the  republic  issued  a  mandate  on  July 
27  restoring  their  ranks  and  honors  to 
General  Tsao-kun  and  Wu  Pei-fu.  The 
Anfu  Ministers  had  resigned  and  taken 
flight. 

In  an  interview  General  Chang  Tso- 
ling  declared  that  he  was  forced  to  take 
arms  against  the  Anfuites  because  of 
their  misdeeds  and  corruption,  and  de- 
nied all  personal  aims.  He  reiterated  his 
intention  that  Tuan  Chih-jui  should  go 
permanently  into  retirement  and  that 
the  other  Anfu  leaders  should  be  severely 


JANANESE  OCCUPATION  OF  SAGHALIN 


1089 


punished.  Ten  members  of  the  Anfu 
Club  were  arrested  subsequently  for  cor- 
ruption and  for  bringing  on  the  crisis. 

Plans  for  the  organization  of  the  Con- 
sortium project  were  developing  at  the 
time  these  pages  went  to  press.  The  ap- 
pointment of  F.  W.  Stevens,  formerly 
legal  adviser  to  J,  P.  Morgan  &  Co.,  who 
has  traveled  much  in  the  East,  to  repre- 
sent the  American  group  in  China  was 
announced  on  Aug.  8. 

Announcing  that  the  difficult  task  of 
forming  a  new  Cabinet  had  at  last  been 
accomplished,  the  Government  issued  on 
Aug.  11  the  names  of  the  men  who  had 
been  chosen  to  face  the  many  perplexing 
problems,  alike  political  and  economical, 
which  China  must  solve  in  the  future. 
It  was  clear  from  this  list  that  the  new 
Cabinet  was  of  the  nature  of  a  coalition 
Government.    The  War  and  Interior  De- 


partments had  been  given  to  the  North- 
ern Military  Party,  the  Departments  of 
Justice  and  Education  to  the  Progressive 
Party,  the  portfolios  of  Communications 
and  Finance  to  the  old  Cabinet  group, 
and  those  of  Navy  and  Foreign  Affairs 
to  men  of  no  party  affiliations.  The 
personnel  of  the  new  Cabinet  was  listed 
as  follows: 

Premier  and  Minister  of  War— General 
CHIN   YUN-PENG. 

Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs— Dr.  W.  W. 
YEN. 

Minister  of  the  Navy— Admiral  SAH 
CHENG-PING. 

Minister  of  Communications  —  YEH 
KUNG-CHAO. 

Minister  of  the  Interior— CHANG  CHI- 
TANG. 

Minister  of  Finance— CHOW  TSZCHI. 

Minister  of  Education— FAN  YUAN- 
LIEN. 

Minister  of  Justice— TUNG  KANG. 


Mexico's  Progress  Toward  Law  and  Order 

Francisco  Villa  Surrenders  to  the  New  Government — Cantu's  Revolt 

in  Lower  California 


MEXICO 

SUCCESSFUL  revolutions  can  afford 
to  be  generous,  it  is  said,  and  such 
is  the  interpretation  put  on  the  re- 
lease of  General  Pablo  Gonzalez,  Obre- 
gon's  chief  rival  in  Mexico,  after  his  ar- 
rest for  treason.  He  was  present,  it  will 
be  recalled,  at  the  inauguration  of  Presi- 
dent de  la  Huerta  on  June  1,  occupying  a 
seat  beside  General  Obregon  in  the  gal- 
lery of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  in  full 
view  of  the  public,  and  apparently  en- 
gaged in  friendly  conversation.  Later 
he  was  offered  a  diplomatic  mission 
abroad,  which  he  declined,  stating  that 
he  was  going  to  Europe,  but  preferred  to 
go  as  a  private  citizen.  Instead  of  doing 
so,  he  went  north,  and,  with  a  few  fol- 
lowers, started  a  revolt  in  Nuevo  Leon, 
attacking  Monterey,  near  which  city  he 
was  captured,  as  related  in  CURRENT 
History  for  August. 

He  was  immediately  held  for  trial  in 
Monterey  by  a  court  martial  on  a  charge 
of  inciting  to  rebellion,  but  the  court  de- 
cided  it  had  no   jurisdiction.     This   de- 


cision was  communicated  to  General 
Calles,  Minister  of  War,  who  ordered 
Gonzalez's  release,  "  since  the  Govern- 
ment has  absolutely  no  fear  that  General 
Gonzalez  will  continue  to  be  a  menace  to 
the  stability  of  its  administration."  On 
July  21  Gonzalez  crossed  the  border  into 
the  United  States,  taking  with  him  Ri- 
cardo  Gonzalez,  a  nephew,  who  had  tried 
to  co-operate  with  him  by  attacking 
Nuevo  Laredo. 

General  J.  M.  Guajardo,  who  was  act- 
ing under  Gonzalez's  orders  when  cap- 
tured at  Monterey,  on  July  17,  fared 
worse.  He  was  executed  the  next  morn- 
ing after  a  summary  court-martial.  With 
2,000  men  he  had  revolted  against  the  de 
la  Huerta  Government  in  June,  near  Tor- 
reon,  after  taking  part  in  the  attack  on 
Carranza,  when  the  late  President  fled 
from  Mexico  City.  Guajardo  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  deaths  of  eighty  wo- 
meh  and  children,  when  his  troops 
wrecked  one  of  the  last  trains  of  the  Car- 
ranza party.  Two  years  ago  he  killed 
General  Zapata. 


1090 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


Felix  Diaz,  r  phew  of  President  Por- 
firio  Diaz,  who  was  concerned  in  a  re- 
volt in  the  State  of  Vera  Cruz,  was  re- 
ported, on  July  24,  to  be  on  his  way  to 
Europe.  Most  of  his  forces  were  dis- 
banded, and  the  remainder  were  paid  off 
under  the  War  Department's  supervision. 
Colonel  Juan  Barragan,  Carranza's  Chief 
of  Staff,  who  escaped  from  prison,  was 
also  said  to  be  leaving  the  United  States 
for  Europe  to  avoid  becoming  involved 
in  plots  forming  in  New  York  against 
the  de  la  Huerta  Government.  General 
Leon  Martinez,  rebel  leader  in  San  Luis 
Potosi,  surrendered  unconditionally  on 
July  31. 

Francisco  Villa,  the  notorious  bandit, 
whose  tentative  offer  to  surrender  was 
recorded  last  month,  finally  laid  down 
his  arms  after  dickering  for  two  weeks 
to  obtain  the  best  terms  possible.  Close- 
ly pressed  by  Government  troops,  on  the 
morning  of  July  26,  he  entered  Sabinas, 
where  there  is  a  telegraph  station,  and 
wired  to  President  de  la  Huerta  for  per- 
mission to  surrender.  The  War  Minis- 
ter replied  that  the  surrender  must  be 
unconditional.  To  this  Villa  agreed,  and 
was  told  to  report  to  General  Eugenio 
Martinez,  chief  of  the  campaign  in  Chi- 
huahua. The  latter  arrived  in  Sabinas 
on  July  27  to  receive  Villa's  surrender 
and  disarm  his  600  followers  there. 

The  Government,  it  was  stated,  con- 
sidered it  cheaper  to  accept  Villa's  sur- 
render than  to  continue  pursuit,  as  the 
pursuing  army  was  costing  more  than 
40,000  pesos  daily.  It  was  finally  agreed 
that  the  bandit  chief  should  retire  to 
private  life  in  some  district  designated 
by  the  Government.  After  signing  an 
agreement,  on  July  28,  he  left  Sabinas 
for  Torreon,  where  he  disbanded  his 
troops.  Villa  received  financial  guaran- 
tees, and  the  men  to  be  mustered  out, 
numbering  about  800,  were  each  to  be 
allotted  a  tract  of  land  for  farming.  One 
of  Villa's  last  acts  before  his  surrender 
was  to  seize  an  American  citizen,  Carl 
Haeglin,  President  of  the  Sabinas  Brew- 
ing Company,  and  hold  him  for  ransom. 
He  was  released  on  Villa's  capitulation. 

There  was  some  question  in  Washing- 
ton whether  Villa's  extradition  might 
not  be   demanded,  in  view  of  the  fact 


that  he  is  under  indictment  in  New 
Mexico  for  first  degree  murder,  a,s 
one  of  the  principals  in  the  raid  on 
the  town  of  Columbus,  on  March  9,  1916. 
His  men  murdered  seventeen  Americans 
there  and  burned  a  large  part  of  the 
town. 

It  was  considered  doubtful,  however, 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Extradition 
Treaty,  whether  Mexico  would  consent 
to  deliver  Villa. 

Government  officials  have  decided  to 
appropriate  the  Hacienda  de  Canutillo,  a 
huge  estate  in  Durango,  as  a  home  for 
Villa.  He  will  be  allowed  to  keep  fifty 
of  his  most  trusted  followers,  who  will 
be  paid  by  the  Mexican  Government. 
Villa's  surrender,  it  was  estimated,  would 
finally  cost  the  Mexican  Government 
$2,000,000  in  gold. 

Esteban  Cantu,  Governor  of  the  north- 
em  district  of  Lower  California,  on  July 
28  declared  a  revolt  against  the  Federal 
Government.  The  territory,  which  pro- 
jects from  the  border  of  California  into 
the  waters  of  the  Pacific  for  800  miles 
in  a  southeasterly  direction,  is  an  isolated 
region  that  long  remained  unorganized, 
a  resort  for  bandits.  Soon  after  the 
Madero  revolution  General  Cantu  was 
sent  there  to  keep  order,  and  was 
made  Governor  of  the  northern  dis- 
trict. There  he  has  remained  for  eight 
years,  undisturbed  by  changes  in  the 
far-away  Mexican  Government,  watching 
the  country  grow,  collecting  taxes  with- 
out accounting,  and  growing  rich  as  a 
practical  dictator. 

Soon  after  Adolfo  de  la  Huerta  was 
inaugurated  President  of  Mexico,  Gen- 
eral Cantu  was  politely  requested  to  go 
to  the  capital  to  give  an  accounting  of 
his  administration  in  Lower  California, 
and  Baldomero  Almada  was  named  Gov- 
ernor in  his  place.  Cantu  refused  to  go, 
and  Mexican  troops  were  sent  against 
Ensenada,  a  Pacific  Coast  town,  about 
forty  miles  south  of  the  American  bor- 
der, where  he  made  his  headquarters.  In 
return  Cantu  called  for  volunteers  to  re- 
sist the  invaders,  and  telegraphed  to 
President  de  la  Huerta: 

It  is  my  duty  to  call  your  attention,  re- 
spectfully but  energ-etically,  to  the  fatal 
consequences  that  may  result  from  the 
proceeding  you  have  adopted,  especially  to 


MEXICO'S  PROGRESS  TOWARD  LAW  AND  ORDER 


1091 


the  serious  international  conflict  which 
might  come  on  account  of  the  foreign  in- 
terests  established  here. 

General  Cantu  was  said  to  have  plenty 
of  ammunition  and  three  military  air- 
planes, though  a  request  to  Washington 
late  in  July  for  permission  to  import  war 
supplies  had  been  refused.  Preparations 
for  the  expected  attack  were  made  and 
recruiting  offices  opened  at  Mexicali. 
General  Cantu  posted  500  of  his  new 
recruits  at  San  Luis  on  the  Sonora  side 
of  the  Colorado  River  to  resist  any 
Federal  forces  coming  from  that  di- 
rection. 

Orders  stopping  all  official  communi- 
cation with  the  Federal  Government  were 
issued  by  General  Cantu  on  July  30. 
Francisco  Fernandez,  cashier  of  the  Tia 
Juana  Custom  House,  at  once  left  for 
San  Diego,  Cal.,  only  thirteen  miles  north 
of  the  border,  taking  with  him  $100,000 
in  American  gold  and  an  equal  amount 
in  commercial  paper,  which  he  turned 
over  to  Ives  G.  Lelevier,  Mexican  Fed- 
eral Consular  agent  in  San  Diego,  for 
safekeeping.  All  the  documents  of  the 
Custom  House  at  Tia  Juana,  which  is 
on  the  international  line,  were  also 
brought  there  and  locked  up. 

First  blood  was  shed  in  the  new  civil 
war  on  the  night  of  Aug.  3,  when  the 
Mexican  patrol  ship  Tecate  entered  the 
harbor  of  Ensenada.  Word  of  the  re- 
bellion had  not  reached  the  patrol  boat. 
Taking  advantage  of  this,  three  Cantu 
officials  invited  Captain  Zepeda  of  the 
Tecate  to  come  ashore  and  dine  with 
them.  When  he  landed  they  seized  him 
and  riddled  his  body  with  bullets.  Next 
day  the  crew  of  the  Tecate  was  missing, 
and  Cantu  soldiers  were  in  possession  of 
the  boat.  David  Zarate,  former  Mayor 
of  Ensenada,  fearing  arrest,  hid  in  a 
water  tank  aboard  an  American  power 
schooner  and  escaped  to  San  Diego,  Cal. 

The  Mexican  gunboat  Guerrero  sank 
in  a  hurricane  on  Aug.  5,  just  as  it  was 
starting  to  attack  Ensenada.  Officers 
and  sailors  escaped,  but  arms  and  food- 
stuffs were  lost.  A  state  of  blockade 
was  proclaimed  against  Lower  California 
on  Aug.  6.  Three  thousand  Yaqui  In- 
dians left  Mazatlan  by  water  on  Aug.  10, 
intending  to  disembark  at  Puerto  Isabel 
and  proceed  from  that  city  by  land  along 


the  Colorado  River  to  attack  Cantu's 
forces.  The  Mexican  Embassy  at  Wash- 
ington announced,  on  Aug.  12,  that  the 
Mexican  Government  was  sending  5,000 
soldiers  into  Lower  California  to  subdue 
Governor  Cantu,  adding  that  3,000  of 
these  soldiers  had  already  sailed  from 
Mazatlan  for  Guaymas  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Abelardo  Rodriguez. 
On  the  same  day  the  Cantu  Government 
gave  out  that  its  men,  munitions  and 
transport  service  were  ready  to  repel 
any  invasion  by  troops  of  the  Provisional 
Government  of  Mexico.  The  fate  of  the 
attempted  revolution  remained  undecided 
when  these  pages  went  to  press. 

The  Mexican  Embassy  at  Washington 
gave  out,  Aug.  13,  that  Adolfo  de  la 
Huerta  would  not  be  a  candidate  for  per- 
manent President  against  General  Obre- 
gon,  and  that  he  would  not  postpone  the 
election,  which  is  to  be  held  the  first 
Sunday  in   September. 

Congressional  elections  were  held  on 
Aug.  1  in  all  the  Mexican  States.  Four 
parties  were  represented:  the  Liberal 
Constitutionalist,  or  Government,  Party; 
the  National  Co-operative,  the  Mexican 
Labor  and  the  National  Republican 
Party. 

The  latter  represents  the  re-entry  of 
Catholics  into  Mexican  politics,  and  is 
particularly  opposed  to  Article  XXVII. 
of  the  Constitution  of  1917,  which  vests 
the  soil  of  Mexico  forever  in  the  hands  of 
the  people  of  Mexico,  as  against  private 
monopolies  of  all  kinds  secretly  striving 
for  ownership  of  the  land  in  order  to 
control  the  labor  of  those  who  must  live 
and  work  upon  it.  By  its  opposition  to 
this  article  the  Catholic  Party  has  gained 
the  approval  of  the  vast  oil  and  mining 
interests,  and  of  foreigners  generally, 
who  have  invested  money  in  Mexico,  as 
well  as  the  Clericals,  who  would  go  back 
to  the  antiquated  Constitution  of  1857. 

The  National  Republican  Party  held  a 
convention  in  Mexico  City  and,  on  July 
20,  nominated  Alfredo  Robles  Dominguez 
for  President  by  a  vote  of  210  to  31.  He 
was  at  one  time  Carranza's  personal  rep- 
resentative in  the  United  States.  Carlos 
B,  Zetina,  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Knights  of  Columbus  in  Mexico,  and 
Dominguez  himself  made  bitter  attacks 


1092 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


upon  Article  XXVII.  during  the  Carranza 
regime!  The  party  was  formed  by  Emi- 
lio  Pimentel,  who  was  Governor  of  Oa- 
xaca  under  Diaz.  The  revival  of  the  Cath- 
olic movement  dates  from  the  visit  to 
Mexico  of  an  American  priest,  who  rec- 
onciled the  different  church  factions. 

Regarding  restrictions  on  the  oil  in- 
dustry, President  de  la  Huerta,  on  Aug. 
1,  issued  a  statement  that  Article  XXVII. 
of  the  Constitution,  dealing  with  oil  prop- 
erties, as  well  as  all  statutes  emanating 
from  it,  would  be  upheld,  despite  the  ef- 
forts of  "  some  outside  interests  to  the 
contrary."  General  Trevino,  Secretary 
of  Industry,  had  previously  told  the  oil 


men  plainly  that  there  would  be  no  modi- 
fication of  the  law.  The  Supreme  Court 
had  passed  on  the  question  by  denying 
twenty-nine  petitions  for  appeal  by  the 
petroleum  operators,  and  Congress  had 
approved  the  Carranza  decrees.  This 
was  in  reply  to  an  offer  of  the  petroleum 
companies  to  pay  to  the  Government  20,- 
000,000  pesos  if  the  decrees  were  an- 
nulled. They  afterward  paid  into  the 
Treasury  more  than  3,000,000  pesos  as 
export  taxes  for  May  and  June,  a  pay- 
ment which  had  been  delayed  because  the 
oil  had  been  appraised  too  high.  Presi- 
dent de  la  Huerta  agreed  to  accept  a 
price  basis  fixed  on  the  New  York  quo- 
tation. 


Other  Latin-American  Republics 

Vast    Railway    Scheme    for    South    America— President     Acosta    of 

Costa  Rica  Recognized 


SOUTH  AMERICA 

AVAST  system  of  railway  expansion 
for  South  America  is  proposed  by 
Senor  Briano,  an  engineer  of 
Argentina.  Senor  Briano  proposes  to 
strike  directly  for  the  interior,  crossing 
Colombia  diagonally  in  a  southeasterly 
direction  to  the  port  of  Tabatinga  on  the 
Amazon,  thence  to  San  Antonio  on  the 
Madeira  River,  thence  due  south  to 
Matto  Grosso  and  on  to  Teray  on  the 
Parana  River,  which  it  skirts,  afterward 
following  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  to  Buenos 
Aires.  A  branch  line  would  run  from  a 
junction  in  Bolivia  to  Asuncion.  Thus  the 
Brazilian,  Paraguayan,  Uruguayan  and 
Argentine  systems  would  be  connected 
with  those  of  the  west  coast.  Obviously 
the  scheme  is  one  that  will  take  many 
years  to  work  out,  but  the  announcement 
calls  attention  to  vast  undeveloped  re- 
sources of  South  America  that  are  cry- 
ing to  be  opened  up  for  the  benefit  of 
the  world. 

ARGENTINA— A  severe  storm  has 
shaken  Argentine  finances  owing  to  a 
not  unfamiliar  desire  to  have  one's  cake 
and  eat  it,  too.  Having  procured  enact- 
ment of  the  law  imposing  a  supertax  on 
wheat  exports  in  order  to  obtain  funds 


with  which  to  purchase  wheat,  the  Argen- 
tine Government  was  confronted  with 
difficulty  in  obtaining  wheat.  Most  of 
the  home  supply  had  been  contracted  for 
by  Great  Britain,  France  and  Italy.  The 
Senate  failing  to  ratify  negotiations  for 
the  cereal  loan.  President  Irigoyen  with- 
drew the  measure  on  July  20,  and  on 
Aug.  2  a  decree  prohibiting  the  exporta- 
tion of  wheat  and  sugar  went  into  effect. 
Release  of  Argentine  gold  deposits  in 
the  United  States  was  suspended,  and 
exchange  rapidly  rose  against  Argentina 
until  Buenos  Aires  was  paying  more 
than  12  per  cent,  for  drafts  on  New 
York,  completely  reversing  her  position 
of  a  year  ago. 

Bolshevist  agitators  in  Argentina 
meanwhile  are  seeking  pledges  in  sup- 
port of  a  general  strike  from  the  vari- 
ous labor  groups,  and  many  citizens  are 
laying  in  supplies  of  food  against  an 
emergency.  The  basis  for  their  propa- 
ganda is  the  growing  discontent  over 
recent  sharp  increases  in  -the  cost  of 
necessities  and  rents. 

BOLIVIA — Following  the  successful 
revolution  in  Bolivia  which  deposed  and 
deported  President  Gutierrez  Guerra,  Dr. 
Jose  Maria  Escalier,  chief  of  the  Repub- 


OTHER  LATIN-AMERICAN  REPUBLICS 


1093 


lican  Party,  which  brougrht  about  the 
overthrow,  left  Buenos  Aires  on  July  23 
for  La  Paz,  where  he  was  appointed 
Minister  of  Foreign  Relations  at  the 
head  of  a  governing  board.  Bautista 
Savedra,  who  was  nominally  head  of  the 
revolt,  was  made  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior, and  J.  M.  Ramrez  named  Minister 
of  War.  Orders  were  sent  to  all  Bolivian 
Ministers  abroad  to  surrender  their 
archives  to  the  Secretaries  of  Legation, 
and  a  decree  was  issued  calling  for  a  gen- 
eral election  in  December.  A  registra- 
tion of  voters  was  begun  and  Dr.  Carlos 
Victor  Aramayo  was  named  confidential 
agent  of  Bolivia  to  the  United  States. 
Peru  recognized  the  new  Bolivian  Gov- 
ernment on  July  17  and  Mexico  the  next 
day,  but  the  United  States  did  not  seem 
disposed  to  recognize  it,  owing  to  our 
general  principle  of  opposition  to  Gov- 
ernments established  by  force.  That  com- 
plications with  Chile  may  still  occur  is 
shown  by  a  declaration  by  Jose  Escalier 
on  July  18,  saying  that  Bolivia,  having 
ceded  Antofagasta  under  the  treaty  of 
1905,  the  Republican  Party  hopes  the 
closing  of  Bolivia  from  the  Pacific  Coast 
by  the  treaty  cannot  be  definite  "  because 
international  pacts  embodying  injustices 
must  necessarily  suffer  equitable  modifi- 
cations in  consulting  justice  and  the  per- 
manent interests  of  peoples."  The  de- 
posed President,  Gutierrez  Guerra,  was 
reported  on  Aug.  7  aboard  a  British 
steamer  bound  for  New  York. 

BRAZIL — The  most  complete  census 
ever  taken  in  Brazil  is  now  in  progress. 
Official  statistics  estimate  the  total 
population  at  23,000,000,  and  Rio  de 
Janeiro  is  credited  with  900,000,  but  the 
Director  of  Statistics  says  these  figures 
are  too  low.  There  were  1,015,883  immi- 
grants to  Brazil  during  the  twelve  years 
ended  Dec.  31,  1919.  Of  these  only  2,062 
came  from  North  America.  The  greatest 
number  came  from  Southern  Europe, 
Portugal  leading  with  386,686;  Spain 
second,  212,732,  and  Italy  third,  65,709. 
Russia  was  fourth  with  50,632;  Germany 
sent  34,246  and  there  were  28,293 
Japanese. 

CHILE— A  joint  session  of  the  Chilean 
Congress  was  called  for  Aug.  30  to  count 
the    electoral   vote   in   the    Presidential 


campaign.  Arturo  Alessandri,  nomineee 
of  the  Liberal  Alliance,  had  a  majority 
of  two  votes  in  the  electoral  college  over 
Luis  Borgono,  Liberal  Unionist. 

Chile  is  about  to  convert  Juan  Fer- 
nandez, Robinson  Crusoe's  island,  into  £i 
national  park  and  tourist  resort.  Modem 
hotels  and  other  attractions  are  to  be 
erected,  according  to  plans  under  con^ 
sideration. 

PERU — Decided  satisfaction  with  ttie 
result  of  the  overturn  in  Bolivia  was  e^ 
pressed  by  President  Leguia.  He  charged 
Chile  with  attempting  to  utilize  Bolivia 
as  a  tool  to  accomplish  designs  against 
Peru,  his  country,  he  said,  must  be  pre^ 
pared  to  meet  attacks  until  international 
opinion  forces  a  just  settlement. 

Peru  denied  through  her  envoys  abroad 
that  any  mobilization  of  troops  was 
being  taken  in  view  of  the  events  in 
Bolivia.  A  significant  incident  of  the 
Peruvian  national  holidays,  early  in 
August,  was  a  parade  of  10,000  persons 
in  favor  of  the  country's  attitude  regard- 
ing the  Chilean  provinces  of  Tacna  and 
Arica,  which  formerly  belonged  to  Peru 
and  which  have  been  called  the  American 
Alsace  and  Lorraine.  Officers  of  the 
American  cruiser  Tacoma  and  the  British 
cruisers  Weymouth  and  Yarmouth  were 
entertained  by  President  Leguia  on  Aug. 
3.  During  the  holidays  three  American 
airplanes  flew  daily  about  Lima. 

Refugees  arriving  at  Callao  report  that 
sixty  Peruvian  residences  and  business 
houses  were  looted  and  destroyed  in  Val- 
paraiso, Chile,  on  the  night  of  July  20, 
and  that  one  Peruvian  was  killed;  260 
Peruvian  refugees  from  Chilean  ports 
landed  at  Callao  on  Aug.  9. 

URUGUAY  —  The  Uruguayan  Con- 
gress on  Aug.  5  passed  a  bill  suppressing 
penalties  against  dueling;  in  other  words, 
dueling  is  to  be  permitted  on  condition 
that  the  seconds  submit  previously  to  a 
court  of  honor  consisting  of  three  mem- 
bers the  question  of  whether  an  offense 
justifying  the  duel  exists,  and,  if  so,  who 
is  the  offended  party.  This  action  is  one 
of  the  results  of  a  duel  in  which  an  ex- 
President  of  Uruguay — now  leader  of  a 
radical  party — Seiior  Battle  y  Ordonez, 
recently  shot  and  killed  Washington 
Beltran,  an  editor  and  opposition  leader. 


1094 


THE   NEW    YORK   TIMES   CURRENT   HISTORY 


CENTRAL  AMERICA 

COSTA  RICA — Recognition  of  the 
Government  of  Costa  Rica  by  the  United 
States  was  announced  by  the  State  De- 
partment on  Aug.  2.  When  the  Constitu- 
tional Government  was  overthrown  by 
Federico  Tinoco  on  Jan.  27,  1917,  and  the 
Constitutional  President,  Alfredo  Gon- 
zales, was  forced  to  leave  the  country 
President  Wilson  issued  a  proclamation 
declaring  that  the  United  States  would 
not  recognize  Governments  established 
by  force  or  fraud.  Tinoco  was  refused 
recognition  on  the  ground  that  his  Gov- 
ernment did  not  represent  the  will  of  the 
people.  He  left  the  country  in  August, 
1919,  and  his  Government  fell  in  Sep- 
tember. Julio  Acosta  was  elected  Presi- 
dent on  Dec.  7,  to  serve  for  four  years 
from  May  8,  1920,  and  his  administration 
is  now  recognized  as  resting  upon  the 
freely  expressed  will  of  the  people. 

GUATEMALA— Carlos  Herrera,  who 
succeeded  Estrada  Cabrera,  the  deposed 
President  of  Guatemala,  as  Provisional 
President,  having  been  duly  elected,  took 
the  oath  of  office  on  July  25.  Both  the 
Democrats  and  Unionists  united  to  elect 
him.  He  is  pledged  to  endeavor  to  effect 
a  union  of  the  Central  American  States 
and  favors  reduction  of  the  Presidential 
term  to  four  years  with  no  re-election, 
"  in  order  that  never  again  may  one  man 
remain  in  power  indefinitely." 

NICARAGUA— As  a  result  of  diplo- 
matic aid  extended  by  the  United  States, 
Nicaragua  has  paid  since  July  1  the  last 
of  its  wartime  and  current  obligations, 
leaving  no  indebtedness  except  that 
which  is  bonded.  There  was  a  surplus  in 
the  national  treasury  on  July  15  of 
$750,000,  most  of  which  it  was  intended 
to  spend  on  good  roads. 

The  Government  has  decided  on  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  Monkey 
Point  on  the  Caribbean  to  San  Miguelito 
on  Lake  Nicaragua.  It  will  be  118  miles 
long  and  will  be  operated  in  connection 
with  the  present  line  from  Granada  to 
Corinto. 

SALVADOR— The  invitation  of  Salva- 
dor asking  the  other  Central  American 
republics  to  send  delegates  to  her  capi- 
tal to  devise  a  scheme  for  the  unification 


of  the  five  States  has  been  accepted  by 
Costa  Rica  and  Honduras.  Guatemala 
and  Nicaragua  also  approve  the  project, 
but  Nicaragua  makes  the  condition  that 
Salvador  announce  a  discontinuance  of 
the  Central  American  Peace  Treaty 
signed  in  Washington  in  1907.  To  this 
Salvador  has  replied  that  the  treaty 
lapsed  with  the  termination  of  the  Cen- 
tral American  Court  of  Justice  in  March, 
1913.  Delegates  from  all  the  republics 
are  expected  to  meet  in  San  Salvador  on 
Sept.  15.  Guatemala  has  been  intrusted 
with  the  task  of  planning  the  program 
for  the  conference. 

Dr.  Noguchi's  discovery  of  the  yellow 
fever  germ  at  Guayaquil  last  year  was 
confirmed  in  July  by  Dr.  Peralta  Lagos, 
a  prominent  Salvadorean  bacteriologist, 
who  announced  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
isolating  the  micro-organism  of  the 
disease. 

PANAMA — Dr.  Belesario  Porras,  can- 
didate of  the  Liberal  Conservative  Party, 
was  chosen  President  of  the  Republic  of 
Panama  in  an  election  held  on  Aug.  1. 
He  recently  held  that  office,  but  resigned 
early  this  year  in  order  to  enter  the 
campaign  for  re-election,  the  Constitu- 
tion providing  that  no  one  elected  Presi- 
dent may  succeed  himself.  Dr.  Giro  Ur- 
riola  was  his  opponent.  The  latter's  par- 
tisans late  in  July  filed  a  protest  with 
the  State  Department  at  Washington  as- 
serting that  Dr.  Porras  was  ineligible,  as 
his  resignation  six  months  before  elec- 
tion was  merely  a  subterfuge  to  evade 
the  evident  intent  of  the  Constitution. 

Panama  took  a  census  this  year,  which 
shows  a  total  population  of  401,428,  not 
including  Indians,  an  increase  of  33  per 
cent,  over  1910. 

WEST  INDIES 

American  firms  have  been  warned  by 
the  United  States  Consul  at  Trinidad 
that,  in  drawing  drafts  on  customers  in 
the  British  West  Indies,  they  should  take 
precautions  to  insure  collection  in  terms 
of  American  dollar  and  not  of  the  local 
West  Indian  dollar  currency.  Until  the 
recent  slump  in  exchange  the  two  cur- 
rencies were  practically  at  par,  but  the 
difference  later  rose  as  much  as  40  per 
cent,  in  favor  of  the  American  dollar. 


OTHER  LATIN-AMERICAN  REPUBLICS 


1095 


BERMUDA — On  Aug.  1  Bermuda  cele- 
brated the  three  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  Colonial  Parliament,  which  held  its 
first  session  on  that  date  in  1620,  a  year 
after  the  first  General  Assembly  for 
Virginia  met  on  the  mainland.  The  Ber- 
muda Parliament  consists  of  thirty-six 
members  elected  by  the  people,  forming 
the  House  of  Assembly,  and  a  legislative 
council  of  nine  members  appointed  by 
the  Crown.  Any  man,  white  or  colored, 
may  be  elected  to  the  Assembly  if  he 
possesses  a  freehold  valued  at  $1,200, 
and  there  is  also  a  property  qualification 
for  voters.  Women  can  neither  vote  nor 
be  elected  to  office. 

BARBADOS — A  dispute  regarding 
cable  rights  caused  President  Wilson  to 
order  five  destroyers  to  patrol  the  en- 
trance to  the  harbor  of  Miami,  Fla.,  early 
in  August  to  prevent  by  force,  if  neces- 
sary, the  landing  of  a  cable  from  Bar- 
bados, where  work  had  been  begun  on 
the  shore  end  there  by  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company.  A  British 
concern,  the  Western  Cable  Company, 
now  has  a  monopoly  of  cable  rights  in 
Brazilian  waters  and  owns  a  line  from 
Brazil  to  Barbados.  An  American  com- 
pany desires  to  construct  a  direct  cable 
line  from  the  United  States  to  Brazil. 
The  Western  Union  Company  intended 
to  connect  with  this  line  and  thus  get  an 
outlet  to  Brazil.  The  position  taken  by 
the  United  States  was  that  the  cable 
would  not  be  allowed  to  land  at  Miami 
if  such  an  arrangement  added  to  the 
British  company's  monopoly,  as  such  ad- 
dition would  be  in  violation  of  American 
law. 

JAMAICA — Following  the  example  of 
British  Guiana,  Jamaica  is  about  to  send 
a  delegation  to  England  to  urge  that  the 
government  be  changed  from  that  of  a 
Crown  colony  to  one  under  a  representa- 
tive system.  The  island  had  representa- 
tive government  from  1682  to  1865,  when 
the  negroes  rose  at  Morant  Bay  and  mur- 
dered most  of  the  white  inhabitants.  The 
Assembly  proclaimed  martial  law,  and 
the    Legislature,    after    abrogating    the 


Constitution,  passed  out  of  existence. 
Now  the  people  want  the  Constitution 
restored. 

The  growing  of  sugar  cane  and  bananas 
and  the  breeding  of  cattle  have  so  en- 
croached upon  the  production  of  cereals 
that  Jamaica  was  threatened  with  a  food 
famine  this  year  only  to  be  relieved  by 
the  importation  of  cereals.  It  was  an- 
nounced on  July  23  that  the  Government 
would  in  future  make  it  compulsory  for 
big  growers  and  breeders  to  set  apart  a 
certain  area  of  their  lands  for  food  crops 
for  home  consumption. 

CUBA — Never  before  has  Cuba  been 
as  prosperous  as  this  year.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  the  sugar  crop  has  produced 
a  value  of  $400  for  every  human  being 
who  lives  on  the  island,  with  consequent 
gayety  and  lavish  expenditure  in  all  the 
large  towns.  Havana  Harbor  has  become 
so  congested  with  outgoing  and  incoming 
freight  that  an  American  commission 
was  sent  there,  arriving  July  31,  to  co- 
operate with  Cuban  officials  in  arranging 
plans  for  relieving  traffic  conditions. 
Owing  to  the  panic  in  Japan  and  the 
slump  in  the  rice  market,  shipments  of 
rice  valued  at  more  than  $20,000,000  were 
held  up  at  Havana,  the  Cuban  importers 
declining  to  accept  it,  although  Amer- 
ican exporters  stated  that  the  rice  was 
shipped  under  contract. 

A  touching  tribute  to  the  late  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt  was  the  presentation  of  a 
check  for  $100,000,  contributed  in  small 
amounts  by  the  people  of  Cuba  to  the 
Roosevelt  Memorial  Fund.  Colonel  Au- 
relio  Hevia,  who  was  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  under  American  administration 
of  the  island,  made  the  presentation  and 
informed  his  hearers  that  among  other 
things  done  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
Colonel  Roosevelt  is  the  custom  of  read- 
ing every  day  in  every  schoolroom  in 
Cuba  some  passage  from  one  of  Roose- 
velt's works. 

President  Dolz  of  the  Cuban  Senate  on 
July  19  was  nominated  by  the  Cuban 
Conservative  Party  for  the  Vice  Presi- 
dency of  Cuba. 


The  League  Council  at  San  Sebastian 

High  Court   at  The  Hague 


AN  important  session  of  the  League 
J\^  of  Nations  Council  was  held  at  San 
Sebastian,  Spain,  from  July  30  to 
Aug.  5,  1920.  Various  matters  were  dis- 
cussed, including  the  plan  for  a  world 
tribunal  elaborated  by  the  Jurists'  Con- 
ference at  The  Hague. 

The  conference  had  ended  on  July  24. 
The  international  jurists,  assembled  at 
the  Dutch  capital,  by  a  final  vote  on 
July  22  agreed  unanimously  to  the  entire 
project  of  the  High  Court  of  Interna- 
tional Justice  on  the  lines  proposed  by 
Mr.  Elihu  Root — a  signal  tribute  to  the 
American  representative.  Among  the 
speakers  were  Mr.  Root  and  M.  Adachi, 
the  Japanese  delegate,  who  congratu- 
lated the  conference  on  the  "  magnificent 
result "  of  its  work.  A  recommendation 
that  the  League  of  Nations  call  a  series 
of  similar  conferences  on  international 
law,  to  which  the  Central  Powers  would 
also  be  invited  to  send  delegates,  was 
made  by  Mr.  Root,  and  adopted  in  prin- 
ciple by  the  conference.   " 

The  farewell  ceremony  of  the  confer- 
ence on  July  24  was  attended  by  the 
whole  Diplomatic  Corps,  all  the  important 
Dutch  Ministers  and  the  official  world. 
M.  Descamps,  President  of  the  confer- 
ence, delivered  the  farewell  address,  re- 
viewing the  work  accomplished.  The 
final  project,  signed  and  sealed,  he 
stated,  would  be  delivered  by  the  Secre- 
tariat to  the  Council  of  the  League  at 
San  Sebastian.  Jonkheer  van  Karnekeek, 
the  Dutch  Foreign  Minister,  replied,  ex- 
pressing pleasure  over  the  honor  con- 
ferred on  Holland  by  the  decision  to  have 
the  seat  of  the  permanent  court  at  The 
Hague.  With  this  decision,  it  may  be 
said.  The  Hague  is  destined  to  become 
an  important  centre  of  international 
justice,  for  besides  the  permanent  court, 
The  Hague  Tribunal  will  continue  to 
function,  and  the  Academy  of  Interna- 
tional Law,  established  in  1913,  is  to  be- 
gin its  sessions  immediately  for  students. 

The  eighth  meeting  of  the  League 
Council  opened  in  San  Sebastian  on  July 


30.  The  place  of  meeting  was  the  Pal- 
acio  de  la  Diputacion,  in  the  centre  of 
the  old  town,  overlooking  the  Plaza  de 
la  Constitucion,  a  former  bullfight 
arena. 

MEETING  OF  LEAGUE  AT  SAN 

SEBASTIAN 

The  delegates  arrived  by  special  train 
from  Paris  on  the  morning  of  the  29th, 
and  were  met  by  Sefior  Dato,  the  Spanish 
Premier,  and  by  the  Marquis  de  Lema, 
the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
delegates  after  arrival  held  informal  con- 
ferences. The  opening  session  of  the 
council  was  held  at  4  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  following  day.  This  first 
meeting  was  presided  over  by  Count 
Quinones  de  Leon,  the  Spanish  Am- 
bassador to  France. 

Measures  to  make  all  Europe  safe. for 
travelers  were  debated,  following  con- 
sideration of  a  report  from  the  Council 
of  Ambassadors,  which  cited  many  com- 
plaints, including  extortionate  prices, 
passport  difficulties,  confiscation  of  per- 
sonal property,  detention  and  even  arrest 
of  travelers.  It  was  decided  to  summon 
representatives  of  all  countries  to  a  con- 
ference at  the  end  of  October,  at  which 
the  different  States  would  be  asked  to 
harmonize  their  regulations. 

The  payment  of  the  expenses  of  the 
Sarre  Basin  Boundary  Commission  was 
discussed.  It  was  subsequently  decided 
that  the  League  had  no  power  to  deter- 
mine whether  Great  Britain  and  France 
should  be  asked  to  share  the  heavy  ex- 
penses of  the  commission,  instead  of  the 
people  of  the  district;  the  League  con- 
fined itself  to  repealing  the  former  reso- 
lution, which  had  been  interpreted  as  de- 
claring for  the  latter. 

The  report  of  Dr.  Fridtjof  Nansen  on 
the  repatriation  of  Russian  prisoners  was 
read.  From  this  it  appeared  that  the 
whole  project  had  been  blocked  by  the 
Soviet  Government,  which  refused  to 
guarantee    that    Russian    prisoners    re- 


THE  LEAGUE  COUNCIL  AT  SAN  SEBASTIAN 


1097 


patriated  to  Vladivostok  would  be  al- 
lowed to  return  to  their  homes. 

A  report  was  presented  by  Mr.  A.  J. 
Balfour  on  the  relations  between  the 
council  and  the  assembly  of  the  League, 
upon  which  was  to  be  based  a  report  to 
the  assembly  at  its  Geneva  meeting  in 
November. 

At  its  session  of  Aug.  2  the  council 
adopted  in  its  entirety  the  plan  of  the 
Advisory  Jurists'  Commission  for  the  In- 
ternational Court  of  Justice.  It  was  sub- 
sequently stated  that  final  acceptance 
would  be  confirmed  only  after  reference 
to  the  League  Assembly.  At  this  session 
the  question  of  establishing  an  economic 
blockade,  in  case  of  violation  of  the  cov- 
enant of  the  League  by  member  or  non- 
member  nations,  was  discussed  in  detail. 
Signor  Tittoni  of  Italy  urged  co-ordina- 
tion and  mutual  support  in  the  declaring 
and  execution  of  this  blockade.  It  was 
decided  to  recommend  to  the  Geneva 
meeting  that  an  International  Blockade 
Commission  be  appointed  to  organize  the 
method  of  application  of  the  blockade. 

Plans  for  forming  a  permanent  inter- 
national hygenic  organization  were  also 
laid,  following  the  reading  of  a  report  by 
Dr.  Gaston  de  Cunha,  the  Brazilian  repre- 
sentative, on  the  organization  of  an  In- 
ternational Hygienic  Bureau.  It  was  re- 
solved to  ask  the  United  States  to  par- 
ticipate in  this  International  Health  Of- 
fice. It  was  also  decided  to  ask  the 
United  States  to  participate  in  the  inter- 
national conference  on  the  freedom  of 
transit  to  be  held  in  Barcelona  early  in 
1921,  the  object  of  which  was  to  prevent 
any  country  from  profiting  by  its  geo- 
graphical situation  to  hinder  the  free 
movement  of  international  traffic. 

The  date  of  the  International  Financial 
Conference,  which  failed  to  meet  in  Brus- 
sels after  the  Spa  Conference,  was  set 
for  Sept.  24.  A  permanent  advisory  com- 
mittee on  military,  naval  and  aerial 
affairs  was  created  to  study  and  report 
on   questions   of   military   character   on 


which  the  council  may  be  called  to  act, 
but  only  within  the  scope  of  the  League 
covenant.  M.  Bourgeois,  representing 
France,  defined  the  task  of  this  com- 
mittee as  in  accordance  with  the  provi- 
sions of  the  covenant  to  regulate  the 
armament  of  the  forces  of  new  States 
admitted  to  the  League,  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  armaments. 

A  permanent  commission  was  named 
to  receive  and  examine  the  annual  report 
of  the  mandatory  powers  on  the  adminis- 
tration of  territories  confided  to  them. 
The  council  had  declined  an  appeal  from 
the  King  of  Hedjaz  to  obtain  the  release 
of  deputies  in  Lebanon  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  have  no  function  until  peace 
with  Turkey  was  finally  signed.  The 
question  of  budget  had  been  discussed, 
and  it  had  been  decided  to  ask  the  mem- 
ber nations  to  contribute  £500,000  to 
meet  the  growing  expenses  of  the  League 
with  all  its  commissions,  including  the 
estimated  outlay  of  the  International 
Labor  Bureau  and  the  cost  of  the  assem- 
bly meeting  at  Geneva.  Member  nations 
would  contribute  according  to  seven  cate- 
gories. 

With  these  decisions  reached,  the  San 
Sebastian  Conference  came  to  an  end. 
No  fewer  than  thirty-nine  nations  were 
expected  to  be  represented  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  assembly  at  Geneva,  called 
by  President  Wilson  for  Nov.  15.  Mean- 
while the  new  office  for  the  registratioa 
and  publication  of  treaties,  approved  by 
the  council  in  Rome  in  May,  and  the  In- 
ternational Labor  Bureau  have  begun 
their  functions.  A  number  of  important 
speeches  in  favor  of  the  League  were 
made  in  Great  Britain  in  July,  including 
two  by  Lord  Birkenhead,  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. A  debate  on  the  League  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  which  occurred  in  the 
last  week  in  July,  called  forth  a  full  dis- 
cussion of  Great  Britain's  relation  to  the 
League,  its  inability  to  intervene  between 
Soviet  Russia  and  Poland  and  the  pros- 
pects of  its  finally  taking  over  the  func- 
tions of  the  Supreme  Council. 


A  Month  in  the  United  States 


Governmental  Activities,   Political   Developments,   Economic 
and  Industrial  Problems 

[Period  Ended  Aug.  15,  1920] 


IT  was  announced  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment on  Aug.  6  that  an  order  had 
been  prepared  abolishing  the  six 
army  departments  now  existing  and 
establishing  nine  corps  areas  as  provided 
in  the  Army  Reorganization  act.  The 
geographical  boundaries  of  these  areas 
had  not  been  definitely  arranged.  Each 
area  would  be  under  a  Major  Gen- 
eral, as  are  the  present  departments,  and 
four  divisions  would  be  located  in  each. 
Two  of  these  would  be  reserve  organiza- 
tions, which  would  exist  largely  on  paper 
and  be  called  only  in  case  of  national 
emergency. 

The  Bureau  of  War  Risk  Insurance 
stated  on  Aug.  2  that  ex-service  men  dis- 
abled by  reason  of  wounds,  injuries  or 
disease  incurred  in  the  World  War  and 
in  need  of  hospital  treatment  were  to  be 
gathered  into  hospitals  owned  and  con- 
trolled by  the  Government  within  the 
next  year.  This  transfer  of  patients 
from  private  hospitals  constitutes  part 
of  a  general  plan  of  the  bureau,  so  au- 
thorized to  act  by  recent  legislation,  to 
concentrate  the  convalescent  veterans  in 
institutions  in  which  the  Government 
will  be  able  to  give  them  better  and  more 
specialized  treatment. 

There  are  17,981  disabled  ex-service 
men  and  women  being  cared  for  in  more 
than  1,000  hospitals  scattered  through- 
out the  United  States  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  War  Risk  Bureau.  Of  this 
number  8,123  are  in  hospitals  owned  or 
operated  by  the  Government  and  9,858 
are  in  private  hospitals,  including  State 
and  county  institutions. 

Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
Roosevelt  announced,  July  23,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  special  board  to  consider 
readjustment  of  the  wages  of  75,000 
navy  yard  employes  and  to  submit  rec- 
ommendations for  a  new  schedule  on  or 
before  Aug.  20.     Practically  all  classes 


of  employes,  including  the  supervisory 
and  clerical  forces,  it  was  said,  would  be 
affected  by  the  readjustment,  the  first 
revision  of  a  navy  yard  scale  since  Octo- 
ber, 1918.  In  announcing  the  forthcom- 
ing readjustment  Mr.  Roosevelt  said  that 
inasmuch  as  the  Government's  shipbuild- 
ing program  would  probably  be  com- 
pleted within  three  months,  Chairman 
Benson  of  the  Shipping  Board  had  de- 
cided that  the  new  wage  schedule  would 
not  be  applied  to  shipyards  engaged 
on  it. 

TRANSCX>NTINENTAL  AIR  MAIL 

A  new  era  in  American  aviation 
dawned  July  29,  when  three  JL-6  all- 
metal  monoplanes  left  Central  Park,  L. 
I.,  bound  for  San  Francisco  and  carrying 
with  them  the  first  transcontinental 
United  States  mail  ever  to  be  carried 
from  coast  to  coast  through  the  air.  The 
trip  was  preliminary  to  inauguration  in 
September  of  a  regular  daily  trans- 
continental air  mail  service.  Mapping 
cameras,  still  cameras,  moving-picture 
machines  arid  aeronautic  instruments 
were  carried.  New  landing  fields  and 
mountain  passes  in  the  Rockies  were  to 
be  photographed,  emergency  fields  and 
supply  stations  located  and  the  whole  air 
route  "  blue-booked  "  like  an  automobile 
highway.  At  Omaha  one  of  the  planes 
crashed  into  an  unoccupied  house,  for- 
tunately without  serious  injury  to  the 
aviators,  though  the  plane  was  so  dam- 
aged that  it  could  not  continue  the  jour- 
ney. The  other  two  reached  Oakland, 
Cal.,  safely  on  Aug.  8  and  delivered  their 
New  York  mail  to  the  Postmaster.  The 
actual  flying  time  was  about  twenty- 
seven  hours. 

ARMY  FLIGHT  TO  NOME 
The    four    army    air    service    planes 
which  left  Mitchel  Field,  Mineola,  N.  Y., 
July  15,  bound  for  Nome,  Alaska,  landed 


A  MONTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


1099 


on  the  flats  of  the  Stikine  River,  seven 
miles  from  the  town  of  Wrangel,  Alaska, 
at  4:30  o'clock,  Aug.  15.  After  reaching 
Prince  George  on  Aug.  10  they  had  been 
delayed  to  await  new  parts  that  had  been 
shipped  from  San  Francisco. 

The  whole  distance  to  be  covered  to 
Nome  and  back  is  8,690  miles.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  trip  was  to  establish  an 
aerial  route  to  the  northwest  corner  of 
the  American  Continent  so  that  in  case 
of  military  requirement  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  move  the  army  air-service  units 
to  Asia  by  direct  flight.  It  was  also  pro- 
posed to  photograph  an  important  area 
in  Alaska — south  of  the  Tanana  River — 
which  is  comparatively  inaccessible  and 
never  has  been  surveyed.  These  were 
the  first  heavier-than-air  planes  to  land 
in  Alaska  from  outside.  The  four  army 
De  Havilands  made  a  successful  landing 
in  highly  favorable  weather. 

PRESIDENTIAL  NOTIFICATIONS 

Senator  Harding  was  notified  of  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  by  the 
Republican  Party  at  his  home  town, 
Marion,  Ohio,  July  22.  Senator  Lodge  of 
Massachusetts  made  the  speech  of  noti- 
fication and  Senator  Harding  accepted 
the  nomination  in  a  speech  of  over  an 
hour's  duration.  Perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant and  interesting  part  of  his  ad- 
dress to  the  great  throng  that  heard  it 
was  that  in  which  he  declared  against 
the  League  of  Nations  covenant  as 
drafted  and  advocated  in  its  stead  a 
"  free  association  of  nations,"  which  he 
declared  he  would  do  all  in  his  power  to 
secure  if  he  should  be  elected  Presi- 
dent. 

Governor  Calvin  Coolidge,  the  Repub- 
lican nominee  for  Vice  President,  was 
notified  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  July  27. 
The  address  of  notification  was  delivered 
by  Governor  Morrow  of  Kentucky.  Gov- 
ernor Coolidge,  in  accepting  the  nomina- 
tion, indorsed  Senator  Harding's  position 
on  the  League  of  Nations,  and  declared 
that  the  Republican  Party  was  not  nar- 
row enough  to  limit  itself  to  one  idea  in 
peace  keeping. 

Governor  James  M.  Cox  was  notified 
of  his  nomination  by  the  Democratic 
Party    for    the    Presidency    at    Dayton, 


Ohio,  Aug.  7.  In*  his  speech  of  accept- 
ance, which  he  read  from  manuscript,  he 
attacked  the  United  States  Senators  who 
had  stood  in  opposition  to  the  ratification 
of  the  Versailles  Treaty  without  modifi- 
cation. He  was  unexpectedly  clear  and 
definite  in  indorsing  the  League  of 
Nations  covenant,  and  seemed  to  be  in 
substantial  agreement  with  President 
Wilson  on  that  question.  He  attacked 
the  profiteers,  and  promised  that  if  he 
were  made  President  they  would  find 
themselves  in  the  grip  of  the  criminal 
Taw. 

Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  the  Democratic 
nominee  for  Vice  President,  received  his 
notification  on  Aug.  9  at  his  home  in 
Hyde  Park,  N.  Y.  Chairman  George 
White  of  the  Democratic  National  Com- 
mittee made  the  speech  of  notification. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  in  his  response  paid  a  trib- 
ute to  Governor  Cox,  and  indorsed  the 
League  of  Nations,  which,  he  declared, 
was  a  practical  solution  of  a  practical 
question.  Through  it,  he  asserted,  we 
may  with  nearly  every  other  duly  con- 
stituted Government  in  the  whole  world 
throw  our  moral  force  and  our  potential 
power  in  the  scale  of  peace. 

PROHIBITION  CONVENTION 

The  Prohibition  Party,  assembled  in 
convention  at  Lincoln,  Neb.,  on  July  21, 
nominated  William  Jennings  Bryan  by 
acclamation  for  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States.  This  was  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Bryan  had  stated  in  ad- 
vance that  he  could  not  accept  the  nom- 
ination. The  following  day,  when  Mr. 
Bryan,  who  was  on  a  fishing  trip  in  Mon- 
tana, learned  of  the  action  of  the  con- 
vention, he  sent  a  telegram  of  declina- 
tion, in  which  he  stated  that,  while  he 
shared  the  disappointment  of  the  conven- 
tion at  the  stand  of  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  Parties  regarding  the  pro- 
hibition amendment  and  the  Volstead 
law,  he  still  expected  to  continue  as  a 
member  of  the  Democratic  Party  and 
serve  his  country  through  it.  Upon  re- 
ceipt of  the  telegram  the  convention  nom- 
inated Aaron  S.  Watkins  of  Germantown, 
Ohio,  as  its  candidate  for  President.  Mr. 
Watkins  was  chosen  on  the  second  ballot. 
The    platform    demanded    vigorous    en- 


1100 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


forcement  of  the  Volstead  law,  favored 
the  League  of  Nations,  though  express- 
ing no  opposition  to  interpretative  reser- 
vations, promised  aid  to  farmers  in 
equalizing  prices,  and  demanded  indus- 
trial courts  to  end  industrial  warfare. 

DENVER  STRIKE  RIOTS 

Serious  rioting  took  place  in  Denver, 
Col.,  Aug.  5-7.  Five  persons  were  killed 
and  thirty-four  injured.  The  rioting  was 
the  outcome  of  a  strike  for  higher  pay 
by  the  street  car  employes.  An  injunc- 
tion had  been  sought  and  secured  by  the 
city  to  prevent  the  men  from  striking, 
and  also  to  prevent  the  street  car  com- 
panies from  lowering  wages  while  nego- 
tiations for  settlement  were  pending. 
Agitators  instigated  the  strikers  to  deeds 
of  violence.  Street  cars  were  overturned, 
and  men  dragged  from  them  and  beaten. 
The  civil  authorities  were  powerless  to 
cope  with  the  disorders,  and  a  call  was 
sent  for  Federal  troops.  Five  hundred 
of  the  latter  were  ordered  to  the  city 
from  Camp  Funston,  Kansas.  Besides 
their  rifles  they  were  furnished  with 
armored  motor  cars  equipped  with  ma- 
chine guns.  Other  machine  guns  were 
mounted  on  tops  of  buildings  near  the 
centres  of  disturbance.  After  three  days 
of  rioting  order  was  restored,  and  nego- 
tiations resumed  for  a  settlement  of  the 
strike. 

COAL  STRIKE  CALLED  OFF 

As  a  result  of  the  coal  strike  in  the 
central  competitive  field,  90  per  cent,  of 
the  coal  mines  in  Illinois  were  closed  by 
July  24  and  almost  an  equal  percentage 
of  the  Indiana  mines.  The  situation  be- 
came so  serious  that  on  July  30  Presi- 
dent Wilson  intervened.  In  a  telegram 
to  John  L.  Lewis,  President  of  the  Uni- 
ted Mine  Workers  of  America,  the  Pres- 
ident declared  that  if  the  coal  miners  on 
strike  in  Illinois  and  Indiana  would  re- 
turn to  work  at  once  he  would  call  a 
joint  conference  of  the  Scale  Committees 
of  the  operators  and  the  miners  to  ad- 
just any  inequalities  in  the  present 
scale.     He  asserted  that  the  action  of 


the  strikers  undermined  not  only  the 
basis  of  their  own  and  the  community's 
prosperity,  but,  by  violating  their  sol- 
emn obligation,  destroyed  their  own  good 
name.  "  No  Government,  no  employer, 
no  person  having  any  reputation  to  pro- 
tect," he  added,  "  can  afford  to  enter 
into  contractual  relations  with  an  or- 
ganization that  repeatedly  or  systemati- 
cally violates  its  contracts." 

The  President's  appeal  met  with  a 
prompt  response,  and  Mr.  Lewis  sent  tel- 
egrams to  the  local  unions  of  the  miners 
ordering  a  resumption  of  work  at  once. 
In  the  main  his  orders  were  obeyed, 
though  they  met  with  a  flat  defiance 
from  Howat,  the  mine  leader  in  the  Kan- 
sas field.  President  Wilson  on  Aug.  4 
sent  a  telegram  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Lewis 
for  his  quick  action,  and  on  Aug.  10 
a-^-^'  the  Scale  Committees  of  the  bi- 
tuminous coal  operators  and  miners  in 
the  central  competitive  field  to  meet  in 
Cleveland,  Aug.  13,  to  try  to  compose 
their  differences.  Both  sides  acquiesced 
on  the  same  day  that  the  request  was 
made. 

HUGE  PROFIT-SHARING  PLAN 
An  event  that,  as  regards  size  and 
scope,  is  unique  in  the  annals  of  Ameri- 
can business  was  the  voting  by  the  stock- 
holders of  the  International  Hai-vester 
Company,  July  30,  to  set  aside  $60,000,- 
000  stock  to  be  divided  amon^  employes, 
under  an  extra  compensation  and  stock 
ownership  plan,  open  to  all  workers  for 
the  company  in  this  co.  try  and  Canada. 
The  program  provides  for  special  dis- 
bursements of  stock  and  cash  each  year, 
beginning  Jan.  1,  1921.  It  is  planned  to 
divide  annually  an  amount  equal  to  60 
per  cent,  of  the  company's  net  profits  in 
excess  of  7  per  cent,  upon  the  corpora- 
tion's invested  capital.  On  the  basis  of 
the  1919  income,  the  amount  available 
for  distribution  under  the  new  plan 
would  be  approximately  $4,675,000.  The 
company  has  about  40,000  workers.  The 
funds  will  be  distributed  in  proportion 
to  the  actual  earnings  of  each  employe 
for  the  year. 


Railway  Labor  Board's  Award 

Wages   of   All  Railroad    Workers   Raised — Corresponding   Increase 
of  Passenger  and  Freight  Rates  Ordered 


THE  long-awaited  wage  decision  of  the 
Railway  Labor  Board  was  made  pub- 
lic July  20.  The  board  granted  the 
2,000,000  railroad  workers  of  the  country 
wage  increases  of  20  to  27  per  cent.,  ag- 
gregating approximately  $600,000,000. 
The  increases  were  retroactive  to  May  1. 
They  were  divided  among  the  classes  of 
employes  as  follows: 

Amount 
Class.  of  Increase.  P.Ct. 

Railway  clerks  and  freight 

handlers     $103,900,000    25 

Maintenance   of  way  em- 
ployes      160.298,000    25 

Engine   and   train   men...  157,000,000    23 

Railway    shopmen 139,237,000    19% 

Station    employes 21,282,000    23% 

Yardmen  and  dispatchers      4,767,350   23 

Marine    employes 250,000      t 

tNot  given. 

The  wage  award  adds  a  little  more 
than  $300  to  the  present  average  annual 
compensation  of  all  railroad  employes, 
which,  on  the  basis  of  the  payroll  for 
January,  1920,  was  $1,587,  The  award 
places  the  figure  in  the  neighborhood  of 
$1,900,  an  increase  of  about  117  per  cent, 
over  the  average  wage  of  $830  for  1915 
and  90  per  cent  over  $1,004  f      1917. 

The  announcement  of  the  award  was 
received  with  guarded  comment  by  the 
leaders  of  the  railway  unions  and  broth- 
erhoods, although  there  was  a  general 
agreement  that  the  amount  was  too 
small.  After  spending  three  days  and 
the  greater  part  of  two  nir '  ts  in  a  fruit- 
less attempt  to  get  unanimous  action,  the 
Grand  Council,  composed  of  the  sixteen 
chiefs  of  the  unions,  voted  July  22  to  ac- 
cept the  award  under  protest.  The 
Brotherhood  of  Railway  ""elegraphers 
alone  refused  to  join  in  the  action  of  the 
other  fifteen  and  decided  to  refer  the 
proposition  to  its  membership  with  a 
proposal  for  a  strike. 

Samuel  Gompers,  President  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  declared 
on  July  22  that  the  award  was  only  "  a 
sop  "  to  the  individual  railway  workers 


and  was  grossly  inadequate.  He  asserted 
that  the  public  should  not  be  deluded, 
through  the  huge  figures,  into  believing 
that  the  employes  under  the  award  re- 
ceived a  suitable  living  scale.  He  pointed 
out  that  the  average  wage  of  an  engi- 
neer, the  highest  paid  employe,  would  be 
less  than  5R70  a  week,  while  the  section 
worker,  the  lowest  paid,  would  receive 
less  than  $25  a  week.  The  weekly  wage 
of  machinists  would  be  less  than  $45,  of 
carpenters  less  than  $39,  of  telegraphers 
less  than  $40.  This  wage,  Mr.  Gompers 
contended,  was  inadequate,  considered  in 
relation  to  cost  of  living  figures  recently 
issued  by  the  Department  of  Labor,  which 
showed  that  the  index  number  for  twen- 
ty-two listed  basic  commodities  was  to- 
day 269  in  comparison  with  100  in  1913. 

On  July  31  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  granted  increases  of  rates  to 
the  railroads  that,  it  was  calculated, 
would  bring  in  between  $1,400,000,000 
and  $1,500,000,000  additional  annual  reve- 
nue. Under  the  commission's  ruling  the 
Eastern  group  of  railroads  was  granted 
a  40  per  cent,  increase  in  freight  rates, 
the  Southern  group  25  per  cent.,  the 
Western  group  35  per  cent,  and  the 
mountain  Pacific  group  25  per  cent.  In 
addition  to  the  freight  rates  the  commis- 
sion granted  a  passenger  fare  increase 
of  20  per  cent.,  and  a  50  per  cent,  sur- 
charge upon  sleeping  and  parlor  car 
rates.  On  excess  baggage  rates  and  milk 
tariffs  a  20  per  cent,  advance  was  per- 
mitted. 

The  commission  placed  a  valuation  of 
$18,900,000,000  upon  railroad  properties, 
against  a  book  value  of  $20,040,572,611 
submitted  by  the  roads.  A  return  of  6 
per  cent,  upou  their  property  investment 
was  allowed  the  railroads.  This  per  cent, 
upon  the  valuation  fixed  by  the  com- 
mission would  mean  a  flat  figure  of 
$1,134,000,000. 

Railway  executives  decided  on  Aug.  3 


1102 


THE   NEW    YORK    TIMES    CURRENT   HISTORY 


that  the  new  passenger  and  freight  rates 
should  be  put  into  effect  Aug.  26.  Every 
effort  was  being  made  to  have  the  new 
rates  in  effect  before  Sept.  1,  the  day 
upon  which  the  Government  guarantee 
to  the  railroads  would  expire.  It  was 
stated  by  Alfred  P.  Thom,  general  coun- 
sel for  the  Association  of  Railway  Ex- 
ecutives, that  advances  of  intrastate 
rates,  freight,  passenger  and  Pullman,  to 
correspond  with  the  interstate  increases 
authorized  by  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  would  be  asked  of  the  vari- 
ous State  Railway  Commissions  by  the 
carriers. 

Differing  opinions  were  expressed  as 
to  the  effect  the  increase  in  rates  would 
have  upon  the  cost  of  living.  Walker  D. 
Hines,  former  Director  General  of  Rail- 
roads, had  previously  stated  that  an  in- 
crease for  the  railroads  would  mean  an 
increase  in  cost  to  the  public  of  four  or 
five  times  as  much,  since  the  manufact- 
urer, wholesaler  and  retailer  would  each 
try  to  add  a  new  burden.  W.  Jett  Lauck, 
the  economist  who  represented  the  rail- 
way employes  in  their  application  for  i 
wage  increase,  declared  on  the  o^^er 
hand  that  by  no  possible  computation 
could  the  increased  freight  rates  be  mada 
to  justify  an  increase  of  1  cent  per  pound 
in  the  price  of  meat  to  the  consumer,  f 
5  cents  per  pair  in  the  price  of  shoes,  of 
10  cents  in  the  price  of  a  suit  of  clo+hes 
or  of  one-fourth  of  1  cent  in  the  price  of 
a  loaf  of  bread.  Daniel  Willard,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad, 
stated  as  his  belief  that  the  rate  advance, 
instead  of  increasing  the  cost  of  living, 
would  have  direatly  the  opposite  effect, 
as  it  would  result  in  an  enlarged  volume 
of  business,  which  would  mean  a  greater 
supply  to  the  markets  and  a  consequent 
lowering  of  prices. 

It  was  stated  by  officials  of  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  in  Washington  that 
there  was  sufficient  law  to  deal  with  any 
added  price  placed  on  a  commodity  in 


excess  of  the  freight  rate  increases,  and 
that  the  law  would  be  rigidly  enforced. 

Almost  coincident  with  the  announce- 
ment of  the  wage  increase  was  the  action 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  July  19,  in 
arranging  for  the  dismissal  of  approxi- 
mately 12,000  men,  or  about  one-tenth  of 
its  personnel.  The  object  alleged  was  to 
curtail  expenses  and  bring  about  im- 
proved efficiency  in  the  operating  forces. 
It  was  estimated  that  the  payroll  saving 
would  be  $15,000,000  annually. 

Increases  in  pay  aggregating  $30,000,- 
000  were  granted,  Aug.  10,  by  the  United 
States  Railway  Labor  Board  to  the  75,- 
000  railway  express  workers  of  the  coun- 
try. The  average  flat  increase  to  the 
men  involved  is  16  cents  an  hour.  The 
increase  was  awarded  according  to  the 
monthly  earnings  of  two  classes  of  em- 
ployes. The  actual  average  rise  for  ex- 
press workers  on  trains,  numbering  10,- 
000,  is  $38.40  a  month.  For  the  65,000 
other  employes,  including  chauffeurs, 
clerks,  &c.,  the  actual  average  rise  is 
$32.64  a  month.  The  award  dates  back 
to  May  1,  at  the  rate  of  pay  the  men 
were  getting  March  1.  All  express  em- 
ployes who  did  not  benefit  by  the  rail- 
road wage  award  were  included  in  the 
increase  except  the  big  executives. 
Among  the  beneficiaries  are  30,000 
chauffeurs,  helpers,  conductors  and 
drivers,  at  present  receiving  wages  rang- 
ing from  $85  to  $125  a  month;  20,000 
depot  men,  truckers,  sorters,  callers, 
billers  and  foremen,  at  present  receiving 
from  $100  to  $125  a  month;  15,000  of- 
fice clerks  with  wages  of  from  $95  to 
$150  a  month,  and  10,000  messengers  and 
road  men  getting  $80  to  $145  a  month. 

Officials  of  the  express  unions  de- 
clared themselves  satisfied  with  the 
award,  and  it  was  practically  assured 
that  the  companies  would  abide  by  the 
decision  and  use  it  as  an  argument  to 
obtain  permission  for  higher  express 
rates  from  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission. 


V    ^^  M^  M.  ^  JLCfiUVr 


CimRESfl 


THE  CLIMAX  OF 

DEMOCRACY'S  ADVANCE 


{FULL     TEXT) 


REPUBLICAN  NATIONAL  CONVENTION 


POLAND'S 
STRUGGLE 


FORCED  LABOR 
IN  RUSSIA 


THE  NEW 
GREECE 


I.  XII. 
.4 


50  NATIONS  IN 
REVIEW 

Be  of  "-'-"-~^'—     ^^ —  ¥«rlrJi 


35 


$4  a 
(Canada, 


Ce 
Co 
Y( 

$4 


Fifth  Avenue,  37th  and  38th  Sts.,  New  York 

For  a  limited  time  will  make 
to  Individual  Order  in  their 
Fifth  Avenue  Workrooms 
a    limited    number    only    of 

WOMEN'S  Hudson  Seal 

{dyed  muskrat) 

Coat-Wraps  or  Coats 

IN  FASHIONS  PRE-DATED  1921 
AT  PRICES  ANTE-DATED  1919 

S  550.00 

len'S       650.00 

THE  customer  is  assured  of 
the  finest  selected  skins,  the 
highest  type  of  workmanship, 
style  that  accords  with  next 
winter's  fashions  and  lining  of 
her  own  preference.    Sizes  34  to  44 

Fur  coats  purchased  now  will  be  stored  free  of  charge  until  Fall 


HISTORI 


Agooy 


Tragic   CoMapse  of  the 
War    AgaEflnst 


yewitoess  Tale  of  Horror 


e   aed   Asm   a. 
eetlhieg:  CaMroim 


Cooveintioin 


ol.  XII 

lo.  5  _ 

ERED    AS  SECOND   CLASS   MATTER    FEB.    12.    I&I6.   AT  THE   POST  OFFtCE  AT  NEW  YORK.  N.  Y.,  UNDER  THE  ACT  OF   MARCH 


35  ( 

a  ( 

(Canada,  : 


THE 

INDIVIDUAL 

SHOPS 

First  to  adjimst  tbemniselveg 

to  the  simddee   chaege 
imi   prodiUKstioo   comiditnoes. 


ne'w  iraslninoos 
of  simmirinier  apparel  amd 


for 

EVERYTHING 


Jfranklin  Simon  a  Co. 

FIFTH    AVENUE 
37th  and  38th  Sts.,  New  York 


^»i.   »*  ..•  .    ,   "**; 


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