MORE than nine months have now passed since the fighting on the Western Front came to an end, and the Peace Conference has nearly concluded its work, but the position in Russia remains substantially unchanged. There have been fluctuations in the fighting, but no solution of Russia's many problems is as yet in sight. Eastern Europe still remains outside the influence of the Peace Conference and unaffected by the League of Nations. Is the Peace Conference to break up with the eastern half of Europe in a state of anarchy, and without any definite plan for bringing it under some form of control that would again open Russia to the civilized world?

The Allies have formed many plans for the redemption of Russia, but in acting upon them they have suffered from divided counsels. Decisions once taken have afterwards been modified to fit in with a public opinion that hardly knows its own mind, that is more ready to offer criticism than practical advice. If a similar policy had been followed in the conduct of the war against Germany we should be no nearer a settlement now with our former enemies than we are with the Bolsheviki. During the war with Germany we refused to let her agents sow dissension among us and commit sabotage against our united efforts, but the Bolsheviki have been able to conduct their campaign of lies and distortions of facts with ever-increasing success, and no Allied statesman has yet had the courage to state the case against them in all its bearings. Thus

the campaign has already dragged on for many months so that our own people are growing weary of the Russian question and are evincing an ever stronger desire to clear out quickly and have done with it.

So long as Russia is considered as a side show where we must do something but cannot do much, there is little prospect of our meeting with any real success. Our statesmen may themselves recognize that a proper settlement of Russia is the key to a proper settlement of Europe, but this must also be impressed upon public opinion before it will be induced to follow their lead in a strong and consistent policy. The policy of the Allies to support those Russian armies in the field against the Bolsheviki was adopted after careful examination of every alternative plan and after several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate for a cessation of the civil war; and it is surely unthinkable that there should be any change in that policy merely because it has not been crowned with rapid success. Yet many people in this country are already showing signs of wavering and there are some who would prefer the settlement of Russia to be left to Germany.

It is well, therefore, that we should clearly face the present position in Russia. Kolchak has had a serious reverse in the field which cannot fail to weaken the prestige of his government behind the front. It would be idle to expect a turn of the tide which would put him in a position to renew his advance and threaten the Bolshevist

armies in Russia. Set against this are the very striking successes of Denikin's armies in the south of Russia. Not only has practically the whole of the Black Sea littoral been recovered, but the volunteer army has occupied a large stretch of the Ukraine, including important towns like Poltava and Kremenchug, a thrust has been made in the north toward the centre of Russia, and a considerable portion of the Volga has been set free. There is no sign of any setback, and it is reasonable to hope that there may be a further advance before the summer is over. The volunteer army has been welcomed by the inhabitants in the liberated districts and recruits have flowed in so that there is no longer any lack of men for the army. British material help has been an important factor and our prestige stands very high in the south of Russia.

In the north and the northwest the position is less clearly defined. The British forces at Archangel are to be withdrawn before the winter, and the advance against Petrograd that promised so well last June has been checked. There is still no sign of a determined move against Petrograd, and yet the taking of Petrograd is the key to the whole position. If Petrograd were taken this autumn, Russia might be freed from the horrors of another win-. ter under the Bolshevist régime. Not only would the effect on Moscow be instantaneous, but it would give enormous prestige and encouragement to the volunteer army in the south.

The failure of Kolchak, therefore, does not by any means make the position of the anti-Bolshevist forces hopeless. Provided we continue to support our friends during the next few months, we may yet see Bolshevism collapse before the winter as quickly as Bela Kun and his small group collapsed before the handful of Roumanian troops

who occupied Budapest. Bolshevism is no more popular in Russia than it was in Hungary. Events in Hungary have shown that by themselves the anti-Bolshevist forces could not overthrow the tyranny imposed upon their country without outside assistance. Once this assistance was given, Bolshevism collapsed like a house of cards. In Russia the problem is not so easy, owing to the immense size of the country and the military difficulties to be overcome, but the fall of Bolshevism is in the end equally certain. Provided we maintain our faith in the cause we have espoused, we shall succeed, more quickly perhaps than we imagine, in solving the one great problem that still remains unsolved and bringing Russia into the fabric of that new Europe which the Peace Conference cannot build without her.

Our desire to see Europe speedily restored to peace should, indeed, be a sufficient inducement to put Russia on her feet again. But if this reason be not enough, there is another consideration we cannot ignore. Russia in her present state cannot stand alone in Eastern Europe. If her future is not of vital importance to Western Europe, it certainly is to Germany. We have imposed on Germany a peace which she has accepted on the ground that she is powerless to resist, but which she denounces as unjust. Germany does not want another war, as she is worn out and exhausted, but she is determined by some means or other to recover her position in Europe, from which the combination of her enemies has ousted her. In Western Europe she is powerless, and in her overseas trade she cannot hope to compete with Britain and America. In Russia, however, she suffers from no such disadvantage. The Bolsheviki whom she helped to power have successfully ousted all Allied subjects from Russia

and the field is open to German enterprise. Germany cannot fail to realize the opportunity thus offered of controlling in Russia the greatest natural wealth of Europe.

We have already remarked that there is a tendency in some quarters to wash our hands of Russia and leave it to Germany to settle. If we were to do so what would be the result? It is difficult to say definitely what is the policy of the present German Government toward Bolshevist Russia. We know that the agents of the old Imperial Government are still at work both in Russia and Finland, and that whatever their ultimate intentions may be, they are at present aiding the Bolsheviki against all movements in those countries which are friendly to the Allies. Among the Bolshevist commissaries, two at least, Krassin, Commissary of Trade and Commerce, formerly a manager of Siemens, Schückert, and the notorious FürstenbergGanetski, are merely paid agents of the German Schwerindustrie. Their immediate object is to assist in overthrowing the pro-Ally forces of Denikin and Kolchak so that the field may be cleared for further German action in Russia. When the first stage has been accomplished further plans will be developed. Bolshevism will then, no doubt, be forced to give way to some anti-Bolshevist movement financed

The New Europe

and controlled by Germany. This would probably be a gradual process of peaceful penetration so as to attract as little as possible the attention of the Allies; but it would continue steadily until sufficient control had been obtained of the banks and the principal industries to make the final coup d'état a comparatively simple matter.

There is no desire in this country to exclude German commerce from its proper sphere in Russia. Germany is in many respects the most natural and convenient market for Russia, and it is necessary that in the future there should be close economic connections between the two countries. What we do wish to avoid, however, is the resumption of the political control that Germany was fastening upon Russia before the war, both through the banks and through other economic channels. If Germany is given a free hand by the Allies, and if the latter shirk their present responsibilities toward Russia, they may find that, exhausted by the war and by Bolshevism, Russia will become a mere colony of Germany, exploited by her, not for Russian, but for German, ends. And who could say whether under such conditions the old German dreams which we have fought this war to overthrow might not again revive? New combinations of powers might again arise, and what place would then be left for the League of Nations?

THE BOUNDER: AN ESSAY ON A TYPE

BY EDEN PHILLPOTTS

THIS expressive term is now in our dictionaries, and the new Webster defines a bounder as 'an apparently prosperous and inherently vulgar person of obtrusive manners.' But these words hardly cover all the ground; the bounder is not always apparently prosperous, nor need he be inherently vulgar. One meets many bounders with a taste in art, a just feeling for furniture, a love of music, an enthusiasm for humanity. A bounder may have a heart of gold; he may be generous, good-natured, sagacious. But he comes into the world with the bounder diathesis, and no culture, no training, can ever eliminate the trouble; a bounder is, in fact, born, not made. The boy bounder, though he goes to Eton and Oxford, must inevitably develop into the adult bounder; while that more fortunate youth who contains not the virus, even should he proceed from a charity school to the plough-tail, or begin his days in the workhouse, can never be a bounder.

It is a defect of temperament, and birth, or education, has nothing to do with it. Even success will not create bounderism if the germ be not latent. It owes nothing to heredity and nurture fails to modify it. Royal princes have been very great bounders — indeed, the blue-blooded bounder is an object within the experience of most people; a genius may also be a bounder, and often is; while eminent philosophers have also swelled the ranks. Indeed, the qualities of great mental distinction and the endowment of strong character often accompany the bounder and cause him to be loved, or feared, independently of the dreadful addition for which he can only be pitied.

The cleverest bounder never knows that he is one seldom even suspects that he could be. Such a personal disaster is entirely concealed from its victim; and while it does not prevent success in the highest walks of life, it absolutely precludes hope of entry into some essential callings. A bishop, for example, may be a bounder, but a butler cannot be, and not even a bounder could suffer another bounder as valet.

Of the learned professions he is most often to be found in the law, least often in the navy; indeed the sea repels him, and he is seldom found pursuing the business of life upon deep waters.

Probably the chief defect of the bounder's outlook is a certain social insensibility. He is usually an egotist, and seeks to impose his personality and opinions upon others with complete disregard for their own. His lack of tact is so egregious that in rare cases he causes an actual physical irritation, akin to that produced by nameless insects; but tougher subjects find him entertaining, though they must possess a sound sense of humor to do so. Psychologically he is wholly unconscious of the wounds that he inflicts. He takes himself too seriously and other people not seriously enough. If he is cultured, his culture is the only brand to be considered; if he is not cultured, then all art and æsthetics are foolery.

The creative bounder is not uncommon; but he seldom concedes correctness of vision to others, and invariably fails to grant that different conceptions of beauty may lie on a plane as lofty as his own. Men are often bounders in compartments. Thus, one thinks of eminent writers whose views on literature and art are of the highest distinction, while their attitude to women reveals the hopeless cad. There is the bounder who kisses

and tells, and the variety who tells but does not kiss.

The female bounder is, happily, rare, for a more fearful wild fowl shall hardly be found; but she is sparingly distributed: you may pass years without meeting an example of her. Like gout, bounderitis is a disturbance from which the male chiefly suffers.

Ethnographically the bounder is spread pretty evenly through civilization, but would seem far more a western than an eastern product. In Oriental countries he increases rapidly with the assimilation of Occidental ideas. Thus the Jew, who has longest been in touch with European culture, offers a larger proportion of these sufferers than India, China, or Japan; the last-named nation, however, appears to be catching up. Germany has always suffered most from this disability, for scratch a pre-war German of either sex and you found a bounder in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Nietzsche was first to proclaim the fact, and the rest of the world has proved it sufficiently. The war may do some good in this respect if Prussia's force in cultural affairs suffers adequate diminution.

Science can offer no antidote as yet to this affliction, and we are not sufficiently skilled in the mysteries of heredity to guard against it. A bounder often begets modest and unaffected offspring; while the most courteous and considerate man, the mildest-mannered woman, will, to their grief and amazement, produce the bounder amid normal brothers and sisters. Cases of twin bounders are very occasionally recorded.

Like the poor, we have him always with us; but his very qualities prevent him from becoming a lasting torture, because they are patent from afar. Unless by evil chance he be a member of our own family circle, none as a rule

is easier to escape. His spirit diffuses an aura, and we become conscious of his misfortune at once. We can, therefore, evade him without difficulty if, as is generally the case, we feel that life is too short and precious a thing to spare any of it upon him. But should his other qualities render him a man worthy of acquaintance- perhaps even a privilege and honor to know then only the hypersensitive will decide against him. It is a matter for individual judgment.

The good bounder may prove worth while, if he is good enough; but the bad bounder must be a disaster at all times: he outrages earth and smells to heaven. Such a man is unspeakably sinister and dangerous; for, unlike the others, he may show no outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual disgrace. He is a bounder in his soul and, once discovered, must be avoided at any cost. To-day

IN PROTESTANT FRANCE

BY J. M. HONE

AMONG the nearer hills there is one at the valley's edge, a little higher than the others, and at its summit, above the olive terraces, a view extends from the Cévennes to the Mediterranean, and from the Mediterranean, northward, to the Alpilles, which rise out of the eastern plain of Provence. Beyond the further line of low hills runs the straight road from Nîmes to Montpellier, and beyond that road is the commencement of the marshes and lagoons that envelop Aigues-Mortes, the perfect mediæval city, scene of an early League of Nations, whence St. Louis led English, Venetians, and his own people to the most genuine of the Crusades.

This country may be called by many