he cultivates and cultivates wellsome fifty acres of land, upon which he raises nine different kinds of crops and supports three horses and eleven milch cows, besides hogs and other live stock. He protests that this does not make him a bourgeois or a profiteer, and that the country will go to the dogs if the vote is taken away from the men who are doing most for agricultural progress.

A wave of critical skepticism regarding the League swept over Europe when the Council failed to intervene directly in the ItaloSerb crisis over Albania.

Albania and the League

The British press, while showing no marked sympathies for either party, refuses to regard the dispute as more than quiescent. The Saturday Review accuses the Great Powers of having decided that the League must not intervene lest Mussolini be offended, and of dodging the issue themselves lest they get into trouble with either disputant. The Outlook declares: "Two reputations have suffered during this crisis that of Paris and that of Geneva. The former has proved to any potential allies that she is a bruised reed . . . while the League has been as dumb as the proverbial ox.' According to the former journal: "There can be very little doubt that the whole incident has been carefully engineered by Rome to see how far the Italians could go in their intervention in Albania under the Tirana Treaty.' France is accused of keeping the case away from the League lest it add to the prestige of Germany, since Mr. Stresemann is at the moment President of the Council. She preferred an inquiry by military attachés, because the Versailles Treaty forbids Germany to accredit such officers to any foreign country.

Liberal L'Europe Nouvelle thus bemoans the new atmosphere at Geneva

since Germany was admitted to the League: 'However skillfully Herr Stresemann endeavors to adapt himself to the situation, and however conciliating his professions, his very presence distorts perspectives, deranges proportions, and causes the spirit of intrigue to prevail over the spirit of internationalism. One might say that hereafter the League of Nations will spend most of its time in securing for Germany satisfactions, reparations, and compensations, and in freeing her from her obligations under the Versailles Treaty. German interests have suddenly assumed disproportionate importance, and have thrown into the background problems of more general interest. The sessions of the Council have become a sort of duel or tourney between France and Germany, and this tempts certain other Powers to take sides, or to offer their good services in the hope of remuneration.'

Greece

Some months ago the chiefs of the five principal Parties in Greece decided, in the interests of national Groping harmony, to call a brief halt on political warfare and to establish a coalition government. The aim of this stop-gap group was to devote a few weeks to fixing up such trifling matters as the national Constitution, the currency, the Saloniki question, and the Army and Navy before keeping alive the older principles of Balkan politics, which consist of flying at your opponent's throat. But even the five best Party chiefs in Greece could not solve all these problems in a few weeks; in fact, several months went by and nothing was done to relieve any of the difficulties whose solution was so confidently awaited. Luckily their inability has its compensations. The Coolidge method of letting nature take its course seems to work in Greece too, and the political truce may well turn into a peace that

passeth understanding. Royalists and Republicans are fraternizing outrageously, and, as their spirits cool, the larger Powers, whose money Greece sorely needs, will look upon them with a friendly and even a generous eye. The country is settling down, and the future looks bright at the moment. The only jarring note is the recent tradesmen's strike, in which some young Communists tried to break through a cordon of police. Undaunted by a counterattack in the form of water from a fire house, they continued to advance, until excited soldiers were told to fire blank over the heads of the crowds, but instead shot bullets into several demonstrators, killing three and wounding fifteen.

Lord Birkenhead has recently declared that the inquiry into the workings of the Indian ConstituIndia tion due in 1929 might, under certain circumstances, be initiated earlier. The recent Report upon the Moral and Material Progress of India for the year 1925-26 is an optimistic document. The Bengal revolutionists are quiescent, the Noncoöperation movement is dying, the Northwestern Frontier is more peaceful than for many years, slavery is being abolished in Burma, military appropriations have been reduced, extensive irrigation projects are in the way of completion, and the Diarchy is working more smoothly than heretofore. An Indian Sandhurst Committee, named after Great Britain's West Point and designated two years ago to study the question of supplying native officers for the Indian Army, has made its report. Although its recommendations may not be adopted in toto, they will probably be substantially followed. They propose that by 1952 one half of the officers in the Indian Army shall be natives, that the number of Indians admitted to the Royal Military

Academies at Sandhurst and at Woolwich, and to the Aviation School at Cranwell, shall be increased immediately, and that not later than 1933 a military college for training Indian officers shall be established in India.

We must suspend judgment on China for the moment, but out of the China

medley of conflicting evi

dence as to the forces at work behind the Cantonese lines a statement of a seemingly unbiased and dispassionate candor occasionally emerges. A refugee from Hangchow, after describing the almost insane excesses of the excited students, who took possession of hospitals and other Christian institutions, nevertheless concludes with this glimpse of another side of the picture: 'Last Sunday there was a gigantic open-air gathering to greet General Ho Ying-ching. He gave a fine address to the populace. He warned them that it was quite possible to retard and undo the present victorious march of the National Army through indiscreet actions, however well-intentioned, by students and other bodies. He exhorted all to be circumspect in their attitude, especially toward foreigners and the Church. . . No matter how one may dislike certain phases of the present Nationalist movement, there is one outstanding fact- the people in general seem to have entered into a realm of freedom and safety never before enjoyed. On every hand there is to be seen a harmony and a clubbing together which never were dreamed of under the recent Northern régime. Shopkeepers are no longer afraid, and women and girls not only venture out after dark, but go unattended.'

More seems to lie behind the dismissal of Sir Francis Aglen, for many years British Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, than appears on the surface. For it uncovers a

silent and smiling struggle between Great Britain and Japan for the control of the Customs Administration. The history of this service goes back to 1853, in the days of the Taiping Rebellion, when Shanghai was captured by the rebels and, during the disorder that followed, the collection of duties fell into the hands of a board of foreign inspectors under the supervision of the British, American, and French Consuls. At that time Japan played no part in international diplomacy, and had relatively little trade with China. For several years now, however, her commerce with that country has equaled, if it has not exceeded, that of Great Britain, and she has coveted an influence in the Customs Administration commensurate with her business interests in the country. Upon Sir Francis Aglen's dismissal by the Peking Cabinet of February 1, because he refused to collect taxes not authorized by treaty, his secretary, an Englishman, was promoted to the post thus vacated, but the secretary's place was taken by Hirokichi Kishimoto, previously Controller of Customs at Dairen. To quote the China Weekly Review: 'First, the Japanese succeeded in inducing the Chinese to negotiate a new treaty with Japan, which provides for a reciprocal tariff agreement under which Japanese products will be protected against arbitrary increases in the Chinese tariff; and second, Japan succeeded in breaking down the longestablished British control of the Chinese Customs Administration. A great deal has happened in this connection which has not been made public and may never be made public, but the facts in the situation are that Japan has taken advantage of present conditions in China to obtain something which she might well have been forced otherwise to wait several years to secure.' To this the same journal adds:

'Japan has two important grudges against Great Britain, one being Great Britain's cancellation of the AngloJapanese alliance, and the other being Britain's decision to construct a naval base at Singapore.' The question arises whether Japan's alienation from her former ally will induce her to come to terms with that ally's hereditary rival in Asia, Russia. She has managed to compromise with Moscow in respect to her conflicting interests in Mongolia and Manchuria, and some shrewd observers in the Far East predict that one likely outcome of the present crisis may be the formation of a triangular alliance between Japan, China, and Russia.

At the recent state elections in three Australian states the Labor Party received Dominion a setback. In South Australia, where it Topics has recently been in power, it won only twenty of the forty-six seats in the Legislature; in West Australia, where it previously had a majority of four in a Legislature likewise of forty-six members, it is now tied with its opponents. Victoria, whose returns are still lacking, has been the only state without a Labor ministry.

An interesting issue has been raised in Canada by the definition of Dominon status adopted by the last Imperial Conference. It turns out that while other Dominion parliaments are vested with complete control of their constitutions, Canada can amend hers only through an act of the British Parliament. Technically her Constitution is embodied in what is known as the British North America Act, which, among other things, defines the relative powers of the provincial and Federal governments. Now certain progressive elements in the Dominion, especially the Labor people, want to have the Act amended, or at least to place the power of amendment

exclusively in the hands of the Ottawa Parliament. London has no objection to this, but Quebec and French-Canadians in general oppose any change in the present arrangement, because the British North America Act contains guaranties in regard to language, laws, schools, and religious worship which they are not willing to sacrifice.

Conjecture is busy both at Geneva and Rio de Janeiro with the probable attitude that Brazil's new President, Dr. Washington Luiz Pereira de Souza, will take toward her withdrawal from the League. During the campaign he carefully refrained from mentioning the issue. The local press, which has shown considerable hostility to exPresident Bernardes since he yielded office to his successor, partly out of resentment for the censorship he enforced after the attempted revolution

at São Paulo, is inclined to advocate retaining membership in the League, and is strengthened in this attitude by the growing unpopularity of the United States since the Nicaraguan episode.

The Chilean dictatorship is tightening the screws all around. President Figueroa Larrain, himself reputed a Conservative, who succeeded the more radical President Alessandri not long ago, has been given a leave of absence, while Colonel Ibañez rules with a high hand. More than three hundred political suspects are said to have been jailed in Valparaiso alone. Even Dr. Augustin Edwards, one of the wealthiest bankers and newspaper owners of the country, who represented Chile in the Tacna-Arica business, was detained at Antofagasta not long ago on a journey to England until he had made certain explanations to his Government.

[WE match here certain sensational American accounts of happenings in Communist Russia by an equally amusing, and seriously intended, Soviet picture of the treatment accorded two celebrated radicals in America.]

ON one of the terracelike streets of Charleston, a port in South Carolina, is a building which boasts a peculiar room. It has no windows, and light penetrates only through invisible apertures just below the mouldings around the ceiling. Deep shadows linger near the floor, but a flood of bright, tantalizing light illumines the upper walls. These are carefully upholstered with a thick dark-red fabric, without a single tack visible. A heavy soft carpet covers the floor, to which it is firmly cemented. The high ceiling alone is hard. It is made of mirrors; but these mirrors are so cleverly placed-perhaps it is the effect of the special mouldings that direct the light they do not reflect either the walls or the floor.

that

Charleston is a bustling, busy town. Factory chimneys surround it on three sides, and seem to crowd it down into the wide Atlantic harbor. Behind these factories stretch warm gray fields, their soil somewhat impoverished by the Yankee's eagerness for wealth, but still producing in abundance tall cotton plants with their yellow blossoms that remind one of hollyhocks. Morning is the most beautiful time

1 From Pravda (Moscow Communist Party official daily), March 18

of the day in Charleston. When the chimneys begin to smear their gray over the brilliant southern sky, a rosy haze still lingers over the streets. Toward eight o'clock this melts away, and the dark-green and silver expanse of the ocean becomes visible. Close to the shore glows the furnace of a great foundry, casting huge orange reflections upon the water and the sky. The city becomes all life and movement.

In the room upholstered in dark red, night noiselessly gives way to day, but only the ceiling reflects the changes of the awakening sky- the stained clouds of sunrise, the silvery light of the morning, the even, intense blue of midday. If clouds pass over the city, a formless white mass looks down from the ceiling.

...