measures to assure its complete liberty to move about, communicate and investigate; and to guarantee the absolute immunity and dignity of its members and the inviolability of their correspondence, archives and belongings. The commission will enter on its functions immediately these facilities and rights are formally assured it by the Soviet authorities. Directly an affirmative reply has been received the composition of the commission will be notified with as little delay as possible.

Up to the time when these pages went to press no reply to this telegram had been received by the League. A statement made by Foreign Minister Tchitcherin, reported on April 14, indicated that the Soviet authorities were averse to the sending of such a mission. M. Tchitcherin was reported as saying:

I cannot permit these gentlemen to come into Russia to act for such a purpose. The Government of the Soviets cannot wait upon their judgment like a schoolboy. For the defense of our interests we must control the movements of the foreign army officers who will be part of the commission. The inquiry ought to be made in a manner compatible with the dignity of the Soviet State.

On Mr. Balfour's suggestion at the Paris meeting of the Executive Council, a resolution was passed calling for the immediate creation of a permanent consulting committee on hygiene, to meet in London toward the end of April, in order to take urgent measures to fight the typhus epidemic in Poland. This resolution approved the appeal sent by Mr. Balfour on Feb. 24 to the International League of Red Cross Societies to help the populations to combat typhus and cholera.

THE MANDATE FOR ARMENIA

A mandate for Armenia was offered the League toward the end of March by the Allied Council of Ministers. Under the arrangement proposed, all Armenian territories would be included, with the exception of Cilicia, which would be left under French protection, and an outlet to the Black Sea would be provided.

The proposal was publicly discussed by the Executive Council at its fourth session, held in the Luxembourg Palace on April 11. Private discussions had occurred on April 9 and 10. The public session was attended by about fifty at

tachés of the various Diplomatic Corps. Herbert A. L. Fisher, Minister of Education of Great Britain, presented the Armenian situation. He expressed the sympathy of the League with the idea of a mandate, but asked: "What nation is likely to accept the responsibility?" The necessity of taking military measures, as well as financial problems, were asserted to be the chief obstacles to acceptance of a mandate, the League possessing neither military nor financial resources to carry out such an undertaking. The decision to reject a mandate was therefore reached.

[For text of decision see Turkish article, Pages 328 to 330.]

The council decided that the assumption of guardianship of the racial minorities in Turkey was within its province, but deferred discussion of ways and means until the Turkish Treaty should be finally drafted. Baron de Gaiffier d'Hestroy, the Belgian Ambassador, expressed the League's sympathy for the plight of the 2,000,000 non-Moslems whose lives were at stake, and stated that the League would co-operate closely in the allied policy to prevent further massacres pending the Turkish settlement at San Remo.

Count Donin-Longare, the Italian Ambassador, reported on the question of prisoners of war in Siberia. He stated that there were between 120,000 and 200,000 prisoners of many nations in Siberia, and that they were in desperate straits. It was decided to name a commission to study means for their repatriation. The decision of the Allied Council of Ministers to repatriate German prisoners from Siberia is referred to elsewhere in these pages.

Consideration of the status of Danzig resulted in the sending of a telegram to Sir Reginald Tower, High Commissioner for Danzig, approving his plan for the coming elections in the district of the free city.

NEW MEMBERS OF LEAGUE

The League Council on Jan. 25 announced that Persia, in response to an invitation to join the League, had sent in its adhesion. Holland's accession was passed on Feb. 20, Copenhagen and

Sweden voted in favor of membership on March 4, Norway on March 5. The decision of the Scandinavian countries to join the League had been much delayed by fear that membership would presuppose a military obligation. Lord Robert Cecil, the British representative of the League, in reply to an inquiry by the President of the Norwegian Storthing, replied as follows: "Undoubtedly it was never meant to put on any member of the League the burden and duty to keep up military forces."

Switzerland, whose special position as a neutral had been recognized in the League pact, voted in favor of membership on March 5. The so-called "American clause by which Switzerland's entry into the League would depend on similar action by the United States was eliminated from the resolution, which deferred a definite decision until after the taking of a plebiscite to be held on May 16, in which the Swiss people would voice their desires.

All the neutral countries of South and Central America had joined the League by April 6, including Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Salvador and Venezuela.

LEAGUE UNION'S APPEAL

An appeal was issued in England by the League of Nations Union on April 6 for a national fund of $5,000,000 to support the League. This appeal was signed by Lord Grey, Mr. Lloyd George, Earl Beatty, former Premier Asquith, Lord Robert Cecil and J. R. Clynes. It read in part as follows:

In the long and bitter years of the war which we fought for truth and honorable dealing, millions sacrificed themselves in order that the world might be cleaner and freer and that there might be no more war. Do not let us in these early days of peace already forget our ideals and their sacrifices. If the world should be allowed to relapse into the antago nisms and ambitions which led up to and culminated in the war it would be the greatest triumph of evil in all ages. * #

Our primary object is to keep fresh in the minds of the people of this country the spirit and ideals which underly the covenant of the League. To do this the union must undertake a very extensive educational campaign. * * * To do the work effectively we need something in the neighborhood of a million pounds, and that necessitates a national campaign for funds. The sum named sounds like a large one, but it is indeed the bare cost of four hours of the late war.

Viewed in this way it is not a great

League Council, declared that the League had proved its usefulness, and could no longer be characterized by its opponents as a "splendid Utopia." M. Bourgeois said:

The work of its Executive Council is already sufficient proof that the League is a practical body. The Governments and peoples who want a difference settled or wish to make a complaint have already been coming to the council, with the certainty that they are appealing to a powerful and moral authority which will be capable of having its decisions respected. * * * All the delegates are inspired with deep feelings of humanity and strict justice. Enormous progress has been made in the direction of world peace. People believe in the League of

national finances. The United States had declined to participate in this, as well as in other League activities, in view of the failure of the Senate to ratify the Peace Treaty with Germany.

RULING THE SARRE REGION

Steps toward reconciling the German inhabitants of the Sarre Mining district, which for fifteen years is to help pay France for the damage done to her industrial regions, were taken by the Governing Commission, which assumed control at the close of February under a mandate from the League of Nations. At the official reception following the

formal entry of the Governing Commission, President V. Rault assured those present that in future there would be no more officials subject to the Prussian, Bavarian or German Governments, but only officials of a free country under the supervision of the League of Nations." These officials would be chosen from among the Sarre population as far as possible. Especially was the administration of justice to be left to natives, and the courts would be unhampered. President Rault emphasized the maintenance of religious freedom and also the intention of the Governing Commission to look after the material well-being of the inhabitants. Mayor A. Klein of Saarbrücken pointed out the menace to the welfare of the Sarre district caused by the tariff wall on the eastern border and the fall of exchange in the west, and President Rault assured him that the commission would do everything in its power to relieve the situation.

In the afternoon of March 11, immediately upon his return from Paris, President Rault received a delegation representing the Social Democratic, Independent Socialist, Democratic and Clerical parties of the Sarre, and spent four hours discussing the wishes of the in

habitants, this discussion revealing what the correspondent of the Kölnische Zeitung called a happy unity of purpose among the parties." Herr von Boch, the Sarreland member of the Governing Commission, took a leading part in the discussion, in the course of which President Rault declared his intention of acceeding to the wishes of the people, and laid down a program including the following points:

Immediate ending of military rule, the troops only to stay a while longer as police until the civil administration could be set up and a body of Sarreland police created. Quick action toward insuring the food supply, including a possible fourteen-day lifting of the duties on necessities and permanent free trade in Sarre products adapted for exchange for German foodstuffs. The passport system to be dropped within the Sarre district and general travel across the border to be made easier. No more Sarrelanders to be deported, and those already deported to be readmitted upon examination of each case. Censorship on letters to be stopped and freedom of the press to be restored shortly. Freedom of assemblage and organization to be granted as soon as the commission was convinced there would be no abuse of such liberty. Local election within three months.

This program embraced practically all the demands voiced by the people at five large mass meetings.

the national scheme initiated

UNDER in September, 1919, some 12,000

British employers of labor have given undertakings to employ men disabled in the war. To encourage this patriotic movement a King's National Roll was compiled, containing the names, addresses and trade descriptions of these employers, and a first edition issued in March. The book, some 300 pages long, includes all employers to whom certificates of membership on the National Roll had been issued up to the end of 1919. The number enrolled was 9,524, employing 1,486,225 workpeople, among whom had been included 89,619 disabled ex-service

had increased to 10,867, representing 1,755,431 workpeople and 102,011 disabled men. The number of employers registered was constantly growing, and the total in March was more than 12,000. The National Roll was being distributed to all employment exchanges, free libraries, and other public buildings. It was hoped through this scheme to find openings for the 31,000 disabled men still unemployed, as well as for those not yet discharged from the hospitals. The project has received much encouragement from the announcement made by many of the employers registered that they had not found these disabled men at all difficult to utilize.