the Riffi, and was told that the latter did not want the organization's aid, or, in any case, had not applied for it. During a journey of two months through the country, however, he learned that such assistance was not only urgently needed, but was eagerly sought. Only two doctors one a Norwegian masseur from Tangier, subsequently disabled by illness, and the other a Negro who had been a doctor's assistant in Algiers were in medical attendance upon the Riffi. Both of the two small field hospitals organized by the tribesmen had been bombarded and destroyed by Spanish airmen, and medical supplies were practically exhausted. Spanish aviators have made a point of bombarding Riffian towns and market places, which are, 'unfortunately, particularly good targets owing to the varied colors of the women's clothes,' with the result that the casualties among civilians are unusually high. "The Spaniards, -never the French,

especially of late, have frequently employed incendiary bombs and gas bombs, the victims of which urgently require competent medical assistance. I have come across people who suffered from the results of both kinds of bombs.'

This writer then adds that apart from these facts 'there is another aspect of the exclusion of the Red Cross from the Riffi which lays upon Spain and France a very concrete responsibility toward their own people. Those who are in the very direst need of medical assistance among the Riffi and who suffer most owing to the absence of it are not the Riffian fighters themselves, nor their civil population, but the French and, above all, the Spanish prisoners.' Here the writer pauses to refute tales to the effect that the Riffi are mistreating their prisoners. 'I have ascertained most unmistakably from captured officers that they are treated

as prisoners of war and that all tales of atrocities and other violence toward them are inventions.' Nevertheless, the hardships of these prisoners, who number well toward a thousand, are severe. They have 'the same food as the Riffian soldiers, but, whereas the latter thrive well on coarse bread and oil, Europeans readily contract chronic digestive trouble, decline, and die.'

The Red Cross organizations of several neutral countries - Great Britain, Sweden, and Holland - and the Turkish Red Crescent, a Mohammedan society of a similar character, have applied for permission to send medical aid to these people. "The reply of the Spanish Government was that the Riffi could not be regarded as belligerents but only as rebels, and that no international intervention, "même purement charitable," would be permitted. France, in spite of direct applications, -among others, privately to M. Steeg (the Resident-General of Morocco) and M. Painlevé, - has preferred to maintain diplomatic silence.'

ABYSSINIA IN THE LIMELIGHT

We have already referred to Italy's alleged designs on Abyssinia and Britain's also alleged - benevolent attitude toward them. After all, Abyssinia borders on the Sudan, from whose torrid plains its plateaus afford a cool and convenient refuge, so that a slice of her territories might make a desirable economic appanage, at least, to the new cotton empire England is creating on the Upper Nile. Of course, Abyssinia is a full-fledged member of the League of Nations, and, even if she should fall under the effective jurisdiction of an Italo-British entente, she might be permitted to keep a sort of conscience-saving ghost of self-rule. She owes the preservation of her

independence amid Europe's scramble for spoils in Africa to two facts - the fighting qualities of her mountaineers, which enabled her practically to wipe out Italy's invading forces at Adua thirty years ago, and the fact that she has been nominally a Christian country ever since the third century A.D., and consequently has not invited the presence of European missionaries whose wrongs might furnish a convenient excuse for annexation.

The present situation, however, is not a new one. Twenty years ago France, Italy, and England concluded an agreement 'to maintain intact the integrity of Ethiopia,' and the diplomatic world recognizes, of course, that an accord with such a preamble sometimes prefaces the benevolent assimilation of the territory or government whose integrity is thus guaranteed. What it is proposed to do now, apparently, is to let Italy connect her barren colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland, which border Abyssinia on the northeast and southeast, by a railroad crossing the latter country's territory. Since airplanes and poison gas have become the recognized weapons of civilization, the Abyssinians themselves are hardly in a position to resist, and, since no signs of petroleum have been discovered in this region, it is not thought that America, either officially or through allpowerful financial agencies, will take a hand in defending the rights of the Government at Addis Abeba. France has interests there. Her people control the only railway to the capital. She has made it quite plain, since the present discussion came up, that she intends to uphold the sanctity of treaties, particularly as Abyssinia is her special protégé in the League.

But

Our readers may recall that sensational accounts appeared in the British press some time ago describing alleged slave-raids starting from Abyssinia as

their base, and the persistence of at least a modified form of slavery in that country. Now the question arises whether this indignation, well justified as it was in a certain sense, did not perhaps have some ulterior motive. The upper waters of the Blue Nile, along whose lower course Britain is investing large sums in irrigation works, flow through Northern Abyssinia, and a great irrigation scheme, plans for which are resting in the files of the British Foreign Office, is said to have been worked out in connection with Lake Tana in that region.

MINOR NOTES

ACCORDING to figures compiled by two Swiss physicians, MM. Hercod and Keller, from the official statistics of seven European Governments, the people of France consume the most, and the people of Germany the least, alcohol per capita in those countries. The figures, computed in litres of 100degree alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages, are as follows: France, 17.51; Spain, 15.81; Italy, 13.78; Switzerland, 11.82; Belgium, 8.99; Great Britain, 6.23; and Germany, 2.71. The absolute consumption of alcohol is highest among the winedrinking nations. The amount consumed in the form of distilled liquors is largest in Switzerland, where it amounts to 3.79 litres, and is next largest in Spain, where it amounts to 2.97 litres. France ranks third in the consumption of spirits with 2.32 litres. Apparently, therefore, high wine-consumption and high spirits-consumption go together. Belgium imbibes more alcohol in its beer than any other country, or 7.23 litres, while Great Britain ranks second with 4.88. Germany apparently belies her bibulous reputation as the land of Gambrinus partly on

FOR twenty years Japan was a protégé of Great Britain, a pupil who sat at her feet and learned the rules of the international game of politics as it was then played. She was an apt scholar, a worthy disciple of a great master. For twenty years Japan's naval policies and international political programme were dictated by Great Britain. Japanese diplomacy and outlook on world affairs conformed rigidly to principles laid down by Downing Street. During all these years not one attack was made by British writers upon the good faith and probity of their 'honorable ally.' On the contrary, Japan was extolled in words of exaggerated praise for her lofty conception of loyalty, her wonderful fighting spirit, and the unexcelled patriotism of her people. British writers at that time took no chances that world opinion might be antagonistic to an ally whose loyal coöperation might at any moment become essential for the further preservation of their Empire. These glowing tributes to the sterling qualities of the Japanese people and the dignity and constancy of their rulers were endorsed on every appropriate occasion by official spokesmen for the British Government. Repeated assurances have been given to the world by the highest British authorities that Japan faithfully carried out every provision of the Alliance,

1 From the Far Eastern Review (Shanghai commercial and engineering monthly), March

and as cheerfully contributed her full share toward winning the war for the Allies. In effect, while the AngloJapanese Alliance was in force the world heard nothing about Japan's alleged political immoralities from the pens of British writers.

When the time arrived, however, and it seemed good politics to throw overboard a faithful partner in order to conciliate and win the friendship of a more powerful and desirable ally, British writers were smitten by an epidemic of amnesia. With some

notable exceptions, British experts on Far Eastern questions ignored all that had gone before. In their haste to discredit Japan they overlooked that her highly magnified and distorted international sins were traceable in large part to twenty years of intimate association with the policies of their own Government, disregarding the obvious conclusion that, if Japan had changed overnight from a bosom friend and bedfellow into an enemy to world peace, they themselves stood self-accused before the world of having concealed and condoned her alleged political shortcomings when their own interests were in jeopardy.

The intensity of this skillfully directed, utterly misleading and one-sided anti-Japanese propaganda was successful in destroying British confidence in Japan, and worked the Americans up

to such a high pitch of emotion that hostilities seemed inevitable. Japan was held up to world scorn and reprobation, branded as another Germany, in order that when the conflict came she should stand alone, friendless, and bereft of sympathy, aid, or consolation from neutrals.

The acknowledged leader of the British war propaganda visited the Far East at that time collecting ammunition for the new Anglo-American crusade, and after consulting with the anti-Japanese leaders determined to lend his powerful aid to the campaign then in full swing. The first step in the drama that would permit Great Britain to remain neutral when America called for a 'show-down' in the Pacific was the cancellation of her alliance with Japan. In order to create a sentiment in support of this move, it became necessary to discredit Japan, tarnish her good name, and accuse her of disloyalty to British interests in China occasion for which was found in one of the Twenty-one Demands on China in which Japan desired certain railway concessions in the Yangtze Valley, at that time held by the British as their own special preserve, despite the fact that they had previously shared their interests with the French, Germans, Belgians, and Americans, and that Japan had advanced over thirty million yen to the Hanyehping Corporation and obtained a first mortgage on its valuable coal and iron mines and steel plant situated in the very heart of the Yangtze region. The exigencies of the post-war international situation and the demand for a closer alliance between the two great white Powers called for a complete revulsion of British sentiment toward a faithful ally, the disavowal of previous eulogies, and a withdrawal of moral support. This task Lord Northcliffe evidently set out to accomplish when

he transformed the Times from the apologist and champion of Japan into her most biased critic.

But with all this concentration of heavy journalistic artillery on the heads of the Japanese, the propaganda to provoke hostilities in the Pacific succeeded only in part. Thanks to American common sense and the high order of American and Japanese diplomacy which which characterized the Washington Conference, the main objective of the campaign was made impossible of realization for ten years, and a rapid change for the better in the relations between Japan and America has since effectively destroyed any possibility that a similar campaign can be successfully renewed. The campaign was effective only in so far as it prevented a renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Instead of isolating Japan in advance of the 'show-down' with America, the British swapped an alliance with teeth in it, which very adequately protected their vital imperial interests, for a four-Power substitute whose molars were scientifically and painlessly extracted by a skilled American dentist.

The real losers in this game of diplomatic and journalistic wits were the British merchants and manufacturers who saw their former splendid trade with Japan handed over to American competitors without acquiring compensating advantages in China, where, owing to Japanese activity, their hold on the cotton-goods market is being rapidly undermined. Instead of demonstrating practical appreciation for the British attitude in canceling an alliance which they and their British sympathizers had vehemently declared was responsible for all their political woes, the Chinese lost no time in turning on their friends the tactics so successfully employed in penalizing Japan through boycotts.