The large amount of damage that they were expected to do would no longer have affected the course of the war. Destruction for its own sake had never been permitted.' We are grateful to General Ludendorff for his humanity—even if the following remark does seem to take a little of the gilt off the gingerbread: 'Count Hertling, too, had requested General Headquarters not to use these new incendiary bombs on account of the reprisals on our towns that would follow.' But it is well to be able to add Ludendorff's final words: 'My views of the general military situation, however, were the real ground for the decision.' The incident will not escape the attention of those who are wondering what the next war will be like.

To the Editor of the Times:

SIR: Your kind remarks about the film version of my romance, Allan Quatermain, which I have just read, prompt me to ask a question. Cannot better arrangements be made as to the 'release' of films? Is it really necessary that these should be kept in cold storage for a solid year, as, I understand, will happen in the case of Allan Quatermain? (King Solomon's Mines which was shown privately months ago, has not yet appeared.)

If, as I have heard, the cause of the block is that the cinema theatres are filled up with cheap 'lines' of dumped American films, some of them of a most unennobling character, I would ask further if there are no companies who are willing to give a preference to the British-born author and producer? We hear much talk of English ventures with enormous capital indeed, one is advertised to-day. But so far as my experience goes at present, the real offers to handle work come from America, South Africa, and Italy. In England those concerned seem to fear the necessary costs of production, especially if these involve the payment of a royalty. I submit that the cinema business in this country is capable of improvement in many directions. For example, there should be firms, directed by highly educated men, to which an author could take his work as he does to a publisher of repute, knowing that it will receive adequate consideration and, if agreements

result, that they will be respected in every particular.

Further, I do not think that the importance of the cinema and its influence on the masses is as yet at all understood, at any rate here, and I do think that in some directions the censorship might be stricter than it is. I need not particularize, but, putting aside mere vulgarity, of which there is so much, representations of hideous crimes, and of certain horrors, should not be exhibited broadcast for the edification of the young, even, as I hold, if they are supposed to typify incidents in the late war. In every town the doors of the cinema halls stand open, and through them by thousands flock the children! All the pathos, wonders, and beauties, all the history, all the romance of the world lie to the producer's hand. Cannot the rest, or much of it, be left alone? Books on some subjects are not distributed in board schools. Your obedient servant,

H. Rider Haggard. North Lodge, St. Leonards-on-Sea, Nov. 3.

THE following quatrain has met with success in London.

Dear Mr. Bullitt: London thinks it strange That such a year has wrought so little

change.

The same dull roofs against the same gray sky:

And Mr. George has told another lie.

STILL no change! Every day there are complaints in the daily papers that the public is suffering from the want of silver, but there is still no change. Everything goes as it can. Tout finit par des chansons is as true to-day in Paris as before the war, and nightly, at some revue or other on the boulevards or in Montmartre, allusions are made to the troubles of the Parisians, and everybody laughs. What an easy-going people! 'What matters? Nothing.' three words this is the philosophy of the moment. Money seems to have no raison d'être, and we are gradually returning to the old days of exchange in goods. We have already arrived at cutlets for stamps, and herrings for metro tickets, and are still laughing over the proposition of a candidate for a seat in the coming Parliament,

In

who offers to retire if his opponent will find him an unfurnished flat. But how will all this end? In many circles the problem is being discussed unofficially, and with a shrug of the shoulders the refrain is: Everything comes right in time; things were worse during the war.

In the meantime the restaurants, the theatres, and the streets are full of pleasureseekers. But who are the people we meet on Sunday mornings in the fashionable Avenue du Bois? There is scarcely room to turn in the wide thoroughfare, yet an habitué fails to recognize a friend. The smart, intelligent Parisian crowd has disappeared, and in its place we have men and women of all nationalities whom nobody seems to know. There are no doubt many French, but the expressions are not the same: they are not yet Parisians, and have neither acquired the right manner of dressing nor the way of walking that denote the habit of mixing with what is called society people, as, we say, les gens du monde. Paris is seeing the effect of the passing of wealth from those who have been accustomed to possess it to those who have newly obtained it.

How to describe the license on the Paris stage! We are not easily shocked, we are not averse to seeing as much as we can of a beautiful woman. But there was recently a revue at one of the popular playhouses (no, I will not give the name), where the fashion of semi-nudity was carried further than ever before. But nobody made a remark on the subject at this theatre. It is the fashion to talk of everything but what is before us. In the entr'actes the theatre empties, and the occupants of stalls and boxes alike meet in the passages outside the foyer, and talk of what they saw yesterday; of the pity a certain scene referring to Americans was not omitted in a revue; of the scandalous behavior of the man who arranged a woman's hair in the balcony of a theatre; of the lady covered in furs who drives a spirited bay in the Bois; of the charm of Mlle. Dorziat in the revival of Les Sentiers de la Vertu; of the price of laundry; of M. Clemenceau; of M. Klotz; of everything except the play they have come to see. Such is the 'snobbishness' of the moment.

EVER since the Berlin revolution last November, Herr Carl Kautsky, the well-known German Socialist writer, has been examining these documents at the Wilhelmstrasse with a view to establishing personal and political responsibilities for the war. He has now definitely ascertained the effect of the fateful Potsdam 'Council' on July 5, 1914, when the Kaiser, after receiving an autograph appeal from the Emperor Francis Joseph, committed Germany to the unconditional support of Austria-Hungary in her Balkan adventure and in her challenge to Russia. Herr Kautsky's critical analysis of the documents that he has collated is illuminated by textual quotations, many of which bear striking annotations in the Kaiser's own hand. The Times has published a numerous series of extracts from Herr Kautsky's work, completed and emphasized by the disclosures of the Austrian Red Books, and we are indebted to the courtesy of the editor of that journal for permission to reprint a selection.

It was during the spring of 1914 that, there is little doubt, the Kaiser and the Archduke Francis Ferdinand had come to a complete understanding with regard to their aims in the Balkans, and the murder of the Archduke at Sarajevo on June 28 was skillfully used by

the Austrians to confirm the Kaiser in the project to eliminate Serbia. In his dispatch to the Chancellor in Berlin, Herr von Tschirschky, the German Ambassador in Vienna, wrote:

I have repeatedly heard expressed here, even among serious people, the view that there must some day be a thorough reckoning with the Serbs. [The Kaiser's note: 'Now or never!'] It is urged that a series of demands ought first of all to be presented to the Serbs, and that if these are not accepted energetic action ought to be taken. I seize every such occasion in order quietly, but very firmly and seriously, to warn against any hasty steps. [The Kaiser's note: 'Who has authorized him to do this? This is very stupid! It is no business of his: it is purely Austria's affair to consider what she ought to do in consequence. If afterwards things go wrong, we shall be told that Germany was not willing! Tschirschky will, please, stop this nonsense! A clearance must be made of the Serbs, and that soon!']

On the receipt, on July 5, of the Emperor Francis Joseph's letter and memorandum dealing with the situation created by the murder of the Archduke, the Kaiser expressed the opinion that any action against Serbia ought to be taken without delay. Russia would certainly be hostile, but he had years ago expected this possibility, and if it should come to war between Austria and Russia, Germany

would loyally take her stand beside the monarchy. The Chancellor added that immediate action against Serbia was the best and most radical solution of Austria's Balkan difficulties. Three days later Von Tschirschky reported to Berlin that 'Count Berchtold intimated that if his Emperor assented to the presentation to begin with of demands to Serbia, he would advise him to formulate these demands in such a way that their acceptance should seem out of the question,' and in a letter to Francis Joseph, Count Tisza urged the expediency of proceeding against Serbia in a manner that would permit, in particular, England to restrain Russia.

On July 10, Von Tschirschky reported to Berlin that Francis Joseph concurred in 'our view' that a decision ought to be taken at once, and that Count Berchtold, the Austrian Foreign Secretary, contemplated fixing a time limit of forty-eight hours, in order that Belgrade might not be able to consult Petersburg. The Kaiser marked the dispatch, showing that he expected the presentation of 'quite unambiguous' terms to Serbia, and to the statement that the Ballplatz was trying to discover a really unacceptable formula he appended the note: "The Sandjak to be evacuated! Then there will be a row at once! It is imperative that Austria should get this back again, in order to prevent both the union of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbian access to the sea.' (The Sandjak of Novi Bazar is a district divided between Serbia and Montenegro after the Balkan War of 1912.)

Count Tisza, the Hungarian Premier, who had counseled prudence, made up his mind to advocate war, and on hearing of his conversion the Kaiser noted on the dispatch: "There now a man for all that'; and on learning that the Austrian note to Serbia was to be delayed till after President Poin

caré's departure from Petersburg, he commented, 'What a pity.' Naturally it was desired, if possible, to localize the conflict between Austria and Serbia, and to avoid alarming other countries the North German Gazette was to publish comments couched in a purposely mild tone, but Von Tschirschky was instructed to explain to Vienna that this must not be construed as a German retirement, and the Bavarian Legation reported to Munich that the Berlin Government would point to the absence of the Kaiser (who was cruising in the Hohenzollern) and other personages, and would profess to have been surprised by the Austrian action as much as other Powers.

In a further dispatch Prince Lichnowsky, German Ambassador in London, adumbrated Sir Edward Grey's probable attitude toward the Austrian demands. Herr von Jagow transmitted this dispatch to the Kaiser with an endorsement to the effect that the German Ambassador in London was being instructed to declare that 'we did not know the Austrian demands, but that we regarded them as an internal Austro-Hungarian question upon which we were not competent to exert influence.' Upon this the Kaiser commented:

Quite right! But Grey must be told this very seriously and plainly, so that he may see that I won't stand any nonsense. Grey makes the mistake of putting Serbia on the same level as Austria and other great Powers! This is unheard of! Serbia is a pack of brigands, who must be brought to book for their crimes! I shall not interfere in anything which the Emperor (Francis Joseph) alone is competent to decide. I ex

pected this dispatch and it does not sur prise me! A typical example of British mentality and of the lordly British way of ordering people about, and I want to have it repudiated.

Events in Belgrade after the presentation of the Austrian ultimatum were