Under the twinkling skies, Where every shining tree Quick! Marybud, and share Is dazzling shining eyes.

The silver and the blue: This morn the world's so fair That love's most happy self is lo lier too;

Up the rainbow's span of splend
trips my happy heart to you
Haste, Fay-o'-dreams! the bees
Pillage the foxglove bells;
With diamonded knees

From floral citadels
They shake the wet sun-sheen

To mimic mists and showers.
Oh, dazzling is the green,

And dazzling to the dancing eye flowers;

But oh! the dazzling beauty of a that shall be ours!

Marybud, the big bee's drum

Sounds among the lupin spires. Hark! the elves' processions come; List! the tanging elfin lyres Hum: Columbines all tip-toe stare; Magic, magic fills the air! Marybud, oh, come and share Come!

DOUBT NO MORE THAT OBERON

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLA

DOUBT no more that Oberon
Never doubt that Pan

Lived, and played a reed, and ra
After nymphs in a dark forest,
In the merry, credulous days,—
Lived, and led a fairy band
Over the indulgent land!
Ah, for in this dourest, sorest
Age man's eye has looked upon,
Death to fauns and death to fay
Still the dog-wood dares to raise
Healthy tree, with trunk and root
Ivory bowls that bear no fruit,
And the starlings and jays,-
Birds that cannot even sing-
Dare to come again in spring!

POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN SIBERIA

THE Peking correspondent of the London Times states that only the presence of the Japanese government prevents all Siberia from being Bolshevist. According to this informant:

The position in the Far East is now extremely interesting, for the whole Russian area, except the Vladivostok corner, may be regarded as being practically as much under soviet rule as any region in Russia proper. Apparently Europe is thought to be about to establish relations with the soviet government, and if recognition of the Far Eastern republic does not follow that government will at least be de facto, and will be entitled to invite Japan to name the date of the evacuation of Russian territory.

Japan has spent over 600,000,000 yen [approximately £90,000,000] on her intervention in Siberia besides losing many lives and highly trying the endurance of her troops in an impossible climate. Large sums of Japanese capital have been invested in property and enterprise, all of which will be jeopardized if Japan retires to give place to a Bolshevist régime. Naturally the Japanese are greatly exercised by the situation which has arisen and by the prospect of having to cut their losses.

Meantime, China has received the soviet ambassador, Yourin, and is conferring with him regarding the Far East situation.

Seminoff's downfall came as a shock to public opinion in Japan, which had staked its hope of a successful counteroffensive against Bolshevism in the Far Copyright, 1921, by

East largely upon that leader. Commenting on this event, the Osaka Manichi says: "The tragic end of all the anti-Bolshevist leaders is eloquent proof of the fact that Russian affairs can only be settled by the Russians themselves. The Japanese general staff backed the wrong horse.' According to allusions in the Japan Advertiser, it appears that the final withdrawal of Japanese troops from Siberia has already begun, although a definite statement of the government's policy there is not yet forthcoming.

EUROPEAN PROPAGANDA IN SOUTH AMERICA

SECRETARY COLBY's visit to South America was only one of a series of similar calls upon the governments of that continent by foreign statesmen and rulers. The King of Belgium has just returned from Brazil. Ex-Premier Viviani delivered a series of brilliant addresses in Argentina and Chile last summer, explaining French policy during the war and subsequently. A Spanish official mission is now in Chile, and, more recently still, Ex-Premier Orlando of Italy has arrived in Buenos Aires. Articles by Ex-President Poincaré, and by Ex-Premier Nitti, rather divergent in their interpretation of The Living Age Co.

present European conditions, are being syndicated in the South American press. It can hardly be said, however, that the drift of public sentiment in Latin America is toward greater sympathy with the Entente.

A reader gathers from the German papers that official circles in that country are quite content with the afterwar developments of public opinion in Latin America. A prominent Brazilian diplomat observes in Le Revue de Genève that minor points of friction, such as the dispute between France and Brazil over the ownership of vessels sequestered by the latter country when it entered the war, have chilled the enthusiasm for France which previously existed. Brazilians recently welcomed a distinguished German surgeon, Theodor Krauss, who made a special trip to Rio Janeiro to perform a very delicate operation, with extraordinary enthusiasm, which was increased by several 'eloquent addresses' which he delivered during his sojourn in the country.

ROUMANIAN UNCERTAINTIES

WE lately referred to the critical political situation in Roumania, which had caused martial law to be proclaimed throughout the country. The recent bomb explosion in the Senate killed Archbishop Radu, Minister of Justice, General Coanda, president of the Senate, General Valeanu, Minister of Public Works, and several senators. Last October, the Social Democratic Party attempted to call a general strike, whereupon General Averescu proclaimed martial law and censorship of the press, and took prompt measures to prevent by arms the proposed action of the Radicals. While the strike itself did not prove serious, the government measures provoked by the strike have, apparently, created a perilous situation. Several Radical leaders have

been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, on the charge of conspiring with Moscow to overthrow the government. During the trial, unpleasant disclosures were made, involving political intrigues between prominent Conservative politicians and the extreme Radicals. Indeed, General Averescu himself seems at one time to have plotted a revolution. A correspondent of Kölnische Zeitung observes that 'the domestic situation in Roumania is much more serious and critical than the government has permitted to be known.'

SOME RUSSIAN TRADE FIGURES

REPORTS from Bolshevist Russia's trade outlets on the Baltic indicate that the principal exports from that country are birch veneers, a few carloads of which pass through Narva and Reval almost daily. Occasionally, large shipments of gold are noted. For instance, on November 18, 3000 poods, or between 60,000,000 and 65,000,000 rubles, passed through Esthonia in the charge of special couriers for Sweden. On November 6, it was estimated that the Moscow government still had 300,000,000 rubles in gold in its treasury and that between 500,000,000,000 and 600,000,000,000 rubles of paper currency were in circulation. The printing of Tsar rubles which had been continued by the Moscow government because this currency was at a premium over soviet rubles, is rumored to have ceased last January on account of increasing technical obstacles to their production.

Imports include a great variety of articles, ranging from provisions to locomotives, and include potatoes, flour, milk, medicines, agricultural machinery, horseshoes and horseshoe nails, percussion caps, and chemicals for the manufacture of poison gases. The

Krasnaya Gazeta of October 10, reporting an agreement made in England for the immediate shipment to Russia of cloth to the value of 2,000,000 pounds sterling, contains the following comment:

Up to October 1, we have received, for example, about 350,000 poods of various agricultural implements. Taking into account the kind of implements received (scythes, rakes, and such) which are not large or heavy, we see that the quantity has been very large. We should note also that our agricultural workers needed these very implements.

Of exceptional importance for our lumber mills were the steel saws received from abroad, of which about 60,000 arrived up to October 1. Of course, this is not such a large number according to peace time reckoning; but inasmuch as our most important industrial centre - Petrograd prepares not more than 10,000 saws per half year, the saws that arrive from abroad will help the production of lumber, which, by the way, is needed to ship abroad in exchange for goods received.

Our leather factories have been relieved greatly by the arrival from abroad of 'dubilny' extract (about 68,000 poods). Many factories in soviet Russia, which were on the eve of closing down because they did not have this extract, can now increase their output.

Paper also occupies a prominent place among the goods imported. More than 200,000 poods had arrived by October 1, which represents approximately three fourths of the monthly production of all the paper factories of the entire Petrograd district.

There has also been received from abroad sole leather to the amount of 70,000 poods, which our shoe factories needed very badly. Some factories were closed for want of sole leather, though they had large reserves of uppers. Great importance attaches also to the arrival from abroad of 10 carloads of electric lamps (about 800,000 pieces). It is necessary to take into account that, at the present moment, there are only two factories in soviet Russia that manufacture these electric lamps which put out not more than 35,000 lamps per month.

The export of goods from Russia has been very inconsiderable to date. We have imported, to October 1, about 2,000,000 poods of various goods, but we have exported only about 170 carloads of flax and 84 carloads of veneer wood (the shipment of the latter began only in September and is to London). To date we have paid for the goods secured abroad for the most part in gold.

MORE ALLIES OF MOSCOW THE recent decision of the French Socialist Party to ally itself with the Moscow International must not be accepted as the policy of organized labor in France. Trade unions and political parties are distinct in that country, as in most parts of Europe, and their policies do not necessarily run parallel. However, the Trade Union Alliance of the department of the Seine has gone over to Moscow, and has dismissed many of its veteran officials because they opposed that action. Commenting upon the French situation, a wellinformed correspondent of Journal de Genève says, 'the extremist movement is the more interesting and possibly will eventually be the more dangerous because it combines such diverse elements. Among the French Bolsheviki are self-seeking adventurers and men of dubious character. But there are also among them people inspired with a sort of mystical madness.' Humanité, in mentioning the recent death at sea of three delegates of the French Socialists to Moscow observes, 'they went there as the three magi went to the Divine Manger.' Henri Barbusse, whose appeal to French Socialists we recently printed, publishes in Avanti another article of much the same tenor, exhorting the Italian Socialists to ally themselves with Moscow at their coming National Congress.

Meantime, the Radical movement in Spain-partly, it is true, in response to the methods of repression adopted by the government has degenerated into an orgy of murder and assassination. This is vividly brought to our attention by the following notice from a leading Barcelona paper, La Publicidad:

Only a few weeks ago, three employees of La Publicidad fell victims of a Star Pistol. Two were killed outright and one wounded. We might have hoped that the secret conspirators

who rule our city would thereupon consider their account with us settled. Unhappily we are all too soon reminded that this is not their opinion. Another member of our staff has been murdered. There are three deaths now on the account. The employees of our daily seem to be an especial object of the secret government's enmity, although working conditions in our establishment are equal to those of others in Barcelona.

'ALLERLEI' FROM GERMANY

ACCORDING to Deutsche Politik, a liberal nationalist weekly published in Berlin, it is generally known that the German Crown Prince was weary of the war and eagerly desirous of a real peace as early as the summer of 1917. He was even ready to discuss restoring Alsace-Lorraine to France. The German military leaders succeeded in stifling these aspirations. Ludendorff himself said to Czernin, when the latter was in Berlin: 'What have you done to our Crown Prince? He has lost his nerve. But we have braced him up again.' This remark, which rests largely upon Czernin's own testimony, has now been confirmed by the publication of a memorandum written by the Crown Prince in the summer of 1917 to an officer confidant, which has just been published in the MilitärPolitische Wochenschau. In this document the former Crown Prince declared that Germany and its Allies were 'now the losing parties,' and that their situation would continue to grow worse. He recommended the adoption of exclusively defensive tactics on land, while pressing the submarine campaign to the utmost. If submarines prove ineffective, Germany should appeal for peace. However, the Crown Prince does not reveal himself in this memorandum as quite so much a pacifist as Czernin would have made him. He would consent only to a peace on the basis of the status quo before the war. The memorandum contains the prophetic sentence: 'If our enemies

dictate the peace, our signatures will record the last word in Hohenzollern, Prussian, and German history.'

AMERICAN newspapers have recently contained allusions to the smuggling of securities and other property out of Germany by members of the Hohenzollern family. The incident has developed into a public scandal and has been welcomed by the radicals for two reasons: the Prussian State Parliament is still debating its financial settlement with the Hohenzollern family, and the evidence tends to relieve the Social Democrats of the charge, urged by their Junker opponents, that the coming into power of the working classes has lowered public morals. The matter was brought to a crisis through an interpellation in the National Parliament by the former Social Democrat Chancellor Hermann Müller, in the following words:

Is it true that a large amount of wealth has been smuggled out of Germany, and that in Berlin an investigation has been made of the Grusser bank, which led to the seizure of its books and documents? Is it true that evidence was obtained to prove that there was an extensive conspiracy to smuggle capital out of the country and that many members of noble and princely houses, among them members of the Hohenzollern family, were implicated? What measures does the national government propose to take against the guilty, and what has the minister of finance done to guarantee the return of the property to this country?

The defence of the conservatives was most inadequate, although the monarchist members spoke as though they were in the old Imperial Parliament, objecting to the indignity done to members of the princely houses by such a charge. Count Westarp, the conservative leader, observed: 'Representative Müller has not only dragged the person of the Kaiser into the debate, but he has attacked and insulted him,' referring haughtily to 'His