LORD GREY ON INTERNATIONAL

AFFAIRS

AT a recent dinner given by the National Liberal Club in Manchester, Lord Grey discussed the League and Great Britain's relations with America. Speaking of the origin of the war and the purpose of the League, he said:

I believe that Germany, or Prussian militarism, which had control of the machinery of government, made the war inevitable. I am anxious that Germany should have a start in the world again. But she must make it clear that her new government is one which is free from the taint of those particular men they are all at the moment gone from power in Germany who did make war inevitable.

But we must go a little deeper than that. The war was made possible simply because of the state of public opinion in different countries. War is made by men, and it is in their power, if they choose, to prevent it. Why did they not choose in 1914? The German people had had within living memory three wars, made admittedly by Prince Bismarck, which had all been short and successful. In 1914, the desire of England was for peace. Even extreme pacifists in this country were thinking, not so much how war could be prevented, as how we could keep out of it.

Referring, later, to the relations between the two great English speaking Commonwealths, Lord Grey observed, ‘There would be little pleasure or interest in living in this world, if Copyright, 1921, by

there were war between England and the United States.' Continuing upon this theme, he added:

I do not believe there will be real cordiality between this country and the United States so long as the Irish question remains as it is. It is really idle to discuss British-American relations without having that fact in our minds and also recognizing it.

Neither do we dispose of the question of war between this country and the United States by merely calling it 'unthinkable and inconceivable.' I would much rather that people, especially in the United States where they have been discussing this question as 'unthinkable and inconceivable,' would bring out the plain fact that we have a Peace Treaty with the United States which, if observed, makes war practically impossible.

We have a treaty under which, if the two governments can not agree, they resort to a Commission, to investigate and report and recommend a settlement, and at least a year's time must elapse for reflection before a breach of the peace can take place. I do not believe that these two great democracies can ever go to war if they observe this treaty.

'FOREIGN' SENTIMENT IN

SMYRNA

A SPECIAL correspondent of the Manchester Guardian writing from Smyrna says that the Smyrniot French and English colonies bitterly resent the occupation of the city by the Greeks. Western Europeans have The Living Age Co.

been residing in this ancient city for many generations, and have built up fortunes there during the past two and three centuries, long before the Greeks were an important element in the population. The trade of the Turkish hinterland was shared between these 'Franks' of French, English, and Dutch descent, and the Spanish Jews. During the past century or more, however, Greek merchants and vessel owners, coming over from the islands, captured an increasing share of the trade, and peasants of that nationality have settled along the coast as farmers. These people have incurred the enmity which befalls all newcomers, even though they be newcomers of two or three generations residence. Now, the extension of Greek political suzerainty to this territory, accompanied as it has been by many restrictions upon the former freedom of commerce favorable to the Greeks, has created a sentiment of very bitter antagonism to the latter. It is rather noticeable that many Europeans and Americans who have been in Asia Minor since the war, have come back pro-Turk rather than pro-Greek.

THE OVERSTOCK OF WOOL

AUSTRALIA proposes to form a Central Wool Committee to hold the wool clip of the Commonwealth and to keep up prices. This committee would take over from the British government all the Australian wool which it has purchased and which is still unsold. That stock is said still to exceed 2,000,000 bales. British manufacturers will hardly consent to their government's entering into an agreement which would remove all this wool from the market until the new clip is disposed of. If the scheme goes through, each grower who pools his wool with the Central Committee will be a share holder in the proposed

association. His stock certificates will be negotiable. He can thus raise money immediately upon his wool, if necessary. A second feature provides for a blanket loan of $50,000,000 or more upon the wool, to be used for advancing money to growers upon the wool they pool. The situation is replete with difficulties, however, because outside of Great Britain, the only prospective purchasers would be France and Germany, who would have to buy on credit; and Australia, itself a borrowing country, is hardly in a position to make what would virtually be public loans to Europe.

Furthermore, Australia does not control the wool market. There are immense surplus stocks in South America. Uruguay is interested in a scheme to make Antwerp a centre for unloading and distributing its surplus in Belgium, Eastern France, Italy, Czecho-Slovakia, and other countries. The Montevideo government will vote large grants for that purpose.

SPAIN'S SCHOLARSHIPS FOR
SPANISH-AMERICANS

THE Spanish government has recently provided twenty-five scholarships, each amounting to 4,000 pesetas annually, to university students from Spanish-America taking courses in engineering, architecture, fine arts, and higher pedagogy at Spanish universities. These scholarships are allotted as follows: three each to the Argentine and to Mexico, two each to Colombia, Chile, and Peru, and one to each of the other South and Central American countries including Santo Domingo. The candidates are to be appointed by their respective governments.

FIUME TO-DAY

A CORRESPONDENT writing to the Frankfurter Zeitung from Fiume, the

first of February, says that since its liberation from the d'Annunzio dictatorship and the Italian blockade, the city is having a hard struggle to restore normal relations with the rest of the world. 'The harbor is deserted; the dockyards and the hotels are empty and silent; the gigantic ways of the Danube Yards stand idle, towering like skeletons in the air. The long avenues of workingmen's cottages are vacant and dead.' Abbazia, likewise, is as quiet as the grave, and the throngs of tourists who used to haunt Fiume from its palatial hotels have vanished. The number of unemployed is appalling.... In the midst of this economic decay, political intrigue and discord are more active and virulent than at any other point in Italy (sic). The people of Fiume, although mostly of Italian descent, have a strong intermixture of Hungarian, German, and Serb blood. Almost every resident of the town speaks four, or at least three languages. The people have become a distinct race. Only a fraction of them really wish to identify themselves with Italy. Another section of the community is favorable at times violently favorable to Yugoslavia. But the bulk of the people wished to be independent. These three parties are naturally in bitter conflict. They conduct their campaigns with protests and resolutions, with election posters and mass meetings, but also with deadlier physical weapons. . . . The city which for more than a year was called 'd'Annunzio's town,' forgot him the day he left, and his name is never mentioned. Magnificently worded ordinances are still to be seen on the bulletin boards, signed Gabriele d'Annunzio.

But one seldom sees an Evviva scribbled by his name; although insulting remarks and allusions are very

common.

SCHISMATICS IN BOHEMIA

THE Czech press is giving much attention to the importance of the new census of the country, as likely to determine its relations with the Roman Catholic Church. The latter has been greatly weakened by the recent schism. The National Socialist Czesko-Slovo, representing what is the MilitantNationalist Party in spite of its socialist name, is a vigorous advocate of complete separation from Rome. Its editor observes: 'The extent of the movement away from the Roman Catholic Church has made this an historical event, much more serious than any previous religious dissension in Czecho-Slovakia. In the city of Rokykany (5,000-6,000 population), less than 500 people have remained Catholics. In the city of Dobrovice (2,000 population), the number is only 5. There are cases where the only Catholics remaining in a parish are the priest, the sexton, and the rectory servants.

President Maseryk's principal organ, the Czas, which is also vigorously antiVatican, asserts that in Pilsen, hitherto a stronghold of Catholicism, 25,000 people have left the church, and that in Prague more than 80,000 people have formally separated from the Catholic communion. In the country districts, whole parishes have seceded. The movement continues to make headway. The National Democratic Narodni Listy emphasizes the fact that the withdrawal from the Catholic Church is not a religious movement, but a political movement. It is due, primarily, to the fact that Catholicism in Czecho-Slovakia has been discredited by its centuries of service to the Hapsburgs. Quite in accord with this general movement, is the proposal to separate completely Church and State, and to abolish religious instruction in the public schools.

RIVALRY IN THE CONGO BELGIAN colonial officials and commercial men are concerned over the large share of the Congo trade which has fallen into the hands of citizens of other countries. On June 30, 1917, of the 671 trading firms in the Congo country, only 79 were Belgian. The Berlin agreement, which controls Belgium's rights over the Congo, provides for complete freedom of commerce; but it is argued in the Belgian press that this does not prevent Belgium's requiring foreign merchants to take out licenses, and demanding a high fee for this privilege. An annual tax of 5,000 francs is indirectly suggested. It is urged that the foreign traders take no interest whatever in the permanent welfare of the country, and 'they buy their goods from foreign firms, either in the Congo or elsewhere.'

SPANISH TRADE CRISIS

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A CORRESPONDENT of La Prensa of Buenos Aires, writing from Spain late in 1920, criticizes, apparently with ample and accurate information, the policy of manufacturers and bankers since the war, which has tributed largely to accentuate the economic crisis now prevailing. The war enabled the industrialists of Spain, and particularly its textile manufacturers, to make unexampled profits. One little weaving company, starting with a capital of $6,000, distributed among its share holders in a period of two years $600,000 in profits (sic). But these enormous earnings were seldom invested to a sufficient extent in plant improvements, and consequently, Spanish manufacturers were not in a position to compete with those of other countries in foreign markets when the war was over. Instead of preparing for this future competition, the suddenly enriched promoters preferred to gamble with

their new won wealth in the stock market, and particularly in foreign exchange. They lavished money on automobiles and jewelry. As this critic, himself a Catalan, says, 'Spain's prosperity went up in gasoline smoke.' Now, foreign orders have ceased, prices are falling, people have suddenly curtailed consumption, factory owners and wholesalers have resisted the fall of prices by accumulating stocks which they are holding with borrowed money; and as a natural result, bank credit has been strained to the utmost, and serious failures have already occurred and others are impending.

MINOR NOTES

An exhaustive report upon agricultural conditions in Soviet Russia presented at the All-Russia Congress in Moscow last December indicates that there has been a reduction in the area under cultivation, in all the provinces. 'Generally speaking, there is a marked tendency to render home production solely self-supporting by growing a certain minimum of staple food crops, and avoiding any surplus. The number of small homesteads of from three to five acres has increased, but the number of larger farms has declined. The Russian peasants are returning to a primitive form of cultivation. A larger proportion of them than before own a horse, but fewer own teams of horses. On the whole, the report indicates a leveling down of the peasants' economic status.

RECENTLY, Señor Unamuno, a very famous Spanish author, and professor of Greek at Salamanca University, whose essays, novels, and critical works have been translated into many languages, has been sentenced to sixteen years penal servitude for having written articles claimed to have been insulting to King Alphonso.