AUSTRALIA

Australia is rejoicing in a peace exhibition at Adelaide, which will remain open till May 22, but there has been internal war over a strike of marine engineers lasting for ten weeks, which seriously affected interstate trade. Two hundred and fifty thousand tons of shipping were idle and 25,000 workers were idle on the land. On the other hand, the

WILLIAM M. HUGHES Australian Premier (Harris & Ewing)

shipping ring was refusing accommodation to firms who patronized the Commonwealth Government steamers, and was clamoring for the sale of the latter to private owners. This Premier Hughes refused on the ground that the shipping ring would advance freights if the Commonwealth fleet were sold. The strike was finally settled on Feb. 23.

The cost of living was rapidly rising in the chief Australian cities. The farm

ers at an interstate conference at Melbourne in February unanimously supported a proposal to form a compulsory wheat pool controlled by representatives of the producers, but Premier Hughes refused to sanction it. The State of Victoria on its own account then bought 9,000,000 bushels of Victorian wheat at 7s. 8d. to meet the State's requirements. In Western Australia the Government is running State butter factories.

England is now selling at a great profit her surplus stock of wool bought during the war from Australia. The understanding at the time of the purchase was that profits from resale, if any, should be divided equally between the home Government and Australia. The Australians are now urging immediate division, and the wool growers are demanding that they be paid at a rate corresponding to the huge profits received in England. There was also a housing crisis in the cities, the building trade employes deciding to restrict work to forty hours a week. State-controlled hotels in Western Australia, showed a large excess of receipts.

It

To overawe and cripple the strikers in all branches the Federal Government forbade the banks " or any one else" to give money or goods to the strikers or to do anything to prolong the strikes. This drastic regulation proved abortive. was taken up politically by the Nationalists, who were preparing concerted action to resist its enforcement on the ground that it is a blow at the liberty of the citizen. Premier Holman of New Zealand, which was also torn by strikes, condemned the regulation as autocratic, saying Australia would be no fit place for British citizens to live in if such a misuse of power should pass without condemnation.

The new Commonwealth Parliament met on Feb. 26. The Nationalists, under Mr. Hughes, have 39 seats in the lower house, the Labor Party 26, and the "Country Party" (anti-labor) 10. The Laborites are furious at the collapse of the strike, which they attribute to Premier Hughes's use of war powers to prohibit the banks from giving money to the Industrial and immigration ques

men.

tions are the principal topics before the Parliament.

New Zealand, in spite of its labor troubles, is inviting immigrants, offering bonuses in money, besides the price of their passage, to farm laborers and their wives, domestic servants and other workers, and guarantees employment to former soldiers who are now assisted by Great Britain.

CANADA

Canadians, with their Parliament in session, are discussing a number of matters economic and political that are of international interest. These include Admiral Viscount Jellicoe's report on a proposed naval policy for the country, made at the request of the Government; the report of Dr. J. G. Rutherford on race tracks and race track betting in the country; the introduction of a new. Federal franchise bill giving the suffrage to all qualified persons irrespective of sex at the age of 21 years and over, and the request of prohibition organizations for legislation that will make it possible for any province to be "bone dry."

Admiral Jellicoe's report presents four building programs from which Canada might make a choice for the beginning of a navy. These are based on annual outlays of $5,000,000, $10,000,000, $17,500,000, and $25,000,000 respectively. They are so arranged that the country could start with the smaller and build up to the larger plan if desired. The fullest possible amount of local control is outlined with training and ships so COrelated to those of the British Navy or the whole naval force of the empire that the Canadian force could at once join with it in time of war and not be a misfit. At first there would necessarily be a preponderance of British officers in the higher commands. Steps toward the training of Canadians to fit them for these positions are outlined, and it is also suggested that the Canadian ships should join the British fleet every year for the annual manoeuvres.

The $10,000,000 program seems to be favored by Jellicoe as the one that Canada should begin with. It would enable her to protect her own coasts or to do a good deal toward that. This plan calls

for three light cruisers, one flotilla leader, eight submarines, one submarine parent ship, eight "P" boats for patrol, and four trawler mine sweepers. The Government has not committed itself to any plan at the time of writing. Admiral Jellicoe intimates that the initial outlay on ships would be lightened by the gift of several vessels which the British Admiralty could spare, since it has greatly reduced its fleet strength compared with that of the war period.

A projected Canadian navy has been the subject of bitter controversies at various intervals in the past twenty years, and any plan now presented will be warmly debated in Parliament and throughout the Dominion. The Toronto

Star holds that any policy committing the country to heavy expenditures and a given course of action for years to come should be submitted to the people in a general election.

With the ratification of peace early in the year the Canadian order in council which prohibited betting on race tracks, and which had been in force since 1918, automatically ceased. As a result of the order, horse racing had been suspended. Racing interests are now vigorously at work and are looking forward to a successful season. They have awaited the report on the inquiry by Dr. Rutherford with some eagerness, anticipating that the Government would use it as a basis for legislation. He makes no recommendations, but emphasizes certain facts brought out as the result of his investigation from coast to coast. Under present conditions it is possible, he says, to hold 238 days of racing in Canada. Long-continued meets with betting as a public adjunct "are likely in the communities in which they are held to exert a bad influence on young and inexperienced men and others lacking in self-control and moral stamina." He dwells upon multiplication of tracks in and around the larger cities and trafficking in race track charters made possible through lack of provision for adequate provincial or Federal control.

The introduction by the Government of a new franchise bill is in keeping with a promise in the speech from the

throne. It is best described in the words of its sponsor, the Hon. Hugh Guthrie, Solicitor General: "The franchise, according to the terms of the bill, has been established upon very broad principles. The only requirements will be those of British citizenship, residence in Canada for one year and in the particular constituency for two months, and the attainment of the age of 21 years; and these requirements will apply in the case of male and female voters alike." British citizenship is to be construed as by birth or naturalization.

EGYPT AND SOMALILAND

In Egypt little progress has been made by the Milner Mission in its attempt to reach a peaceful understanding with the Nationalist leaders, who demand the abolition of the protectorate and absolute separation from the British Empire. Rushdi Pasha, formerly Prime Minister, plainly told the mission that no solution was possible without the participation of the Egyptian Nationalist delegation, headed by Zaglul Pasha. The latter remained in Paris ready to present a plea to the League of Nations while the mission began its inquiries in Alexandria and Cairo, being generally boycotted.

The unprecedented event of a woman, said to be an American, addressing the Moslems in the sacred precincts of the Mosque of El Azhar helped to swell the sentiment for independence, while a Cairo lawyer, Abu Shadi, caused trouble in the Delta by his inflammatory speeches at Tantah. A British Corporal was killed and two soldiers wounded in the ensuing riots. Attempts at assissination continue. Soon after the conviction of the Coptic student who threw a bomb at Wahba Pasha, formerly Prime Minister, on Jan. 28, another youth, who escaped, hurled a similar missile at Sirri Pasha, Minister of Public Works, and on Feb. 22 a bomb was thrown at Shafik Pasha, Minister of Agriculture. In the latter case two arrests were made. General Allenby returned to Cairo on Feb. 16 from a tour of the Sudan Provinces, and was met with Nationalist demonstrations at the principal railway stations from Assouan to Cairo.

The Milner Mission, it should be remembered, is merely a Committee of Inquiry. Real negotiations with the Egyptians are likely to be concluded in London. One reform practically determined upon is the abolition of the capitulations of consular courts by which foreign Consuls try cases that may arise between their nationals and natives. These, depending upon treaties, can only be abolished with the consent of the Governments concerned, which, however, it is believed will be easily obtained. This is the precedent followed when France proclaimed a protectorate over Tunis.

Of greater importance to the prosperity of Egypt is the vast AngloEgyptian irrigation project to regulate the waters of the Nile. Very complimentary to the United States was the selection of an American to be the third member of the Committee of Inquiry which is to draw up plans for the scheme, in order to avail itself of the wide knowledge in this country on questions of irrigation and water supply. It is also proposed to extend the Egyptian Railway from Suakim to Tokar, fifty miles further south. In this connection the death of Colonel M. E. Sowerby, Under Secretary of Communications, who died in Cairo on Jan. 28, is a great loss to the country. It was he who completed and administered the railway to Palestine during General Allenby's advance. Another upbuilder of Africa, Kaid Sir Harry Maclean, died on Feb. 4 in Tangier. He was instructor to the Moorish Army under the late Sultan and was instrumental in clearing Morocco of bandits, being captured by Raisuli on one of his expeditions and held for seven months, the British Government paying $100,000 to obtain his release.

There appears to be the same profiteering by landlords in Cairo as there is in London, New York and other large cities. To meet the situation a law has been passed in Egypt forbidding house rents to exceed by 50 per cent. the amount paid on Aug. 1, 1914.

A very important event for the safety of Somaliland and of all East Africa was the defeat in February of Mohammed Abdullah, the "Mad Mullah" who for

nearly twenty years has been ravaging the interior, preventing settlement and arousing the native rites against foreigners. Millions have been expended in the attempt to curb his activities. An expedition was sent against him in 1901, another in 1902 and a third in 1903, in which the Abyssinian Army co-operated; 200 Sikhs were outnumbered and beaten. In 1904 the Mad Mullah was severely defeated and made peace in 1905. Three years later he began his attacks again and has continued his ravages sporadically ever since. Now his forces have been scattered and he, himself, is a refugee in Italian Somaliland after a campaign of three weeks.

Concentrating at Berbera, on the coast, a force of 180 men of the British Air Force started out in a fleet of bombing airplanes on Jan. 20, attacked the Mad Mullah's headquarters at Medishi, 200 miles east of Berbera, the next day, and, flying low, inflicted heavy casualties on the fleeing dervishes. The Mad Mullah himself had a narrow escape, his uncle being killed by his side and his own clothes being singed. For three days attacks continued until the dervish force was scattered among the hills. Then a land force joined in the pursuit, occupying Jidballi Fort on Jan. 28. The Mad Mullah was reported making for Tale, I which was bombed on Feb. 1 and occupied by the land force on Feb. 11. The Mad Mullah, with only seventy horsemen, fled toward the frontier of Italian Somaliland. The Italians from their base at Obbia on the Indian Ocean, sent a force toward Gagab, in Abyssinia, to head him off.

SOUTH AFRICA

Grave political and economic troubles have recently arisen in the Union of South Africa, where there have been serious mine strikes and an agitation to separate the Union from the British Empire. The irreconcilable Boer element chose a delegation headed by General Hertzog and planned a journey to Paris to demand independence from the Peace Conference, but the seamen and firemen of the steamer on which they were to sail refused to put to sea with

the Nationalists aboard. Then Admiral Fitzherbert offered to give passage to General Hertzog's delegation aboard the British warship Minerva. The Nationalists, covered with ridicule, declined, but continued their agitation for the reestablishment of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. They put up candidates in 97 of the 134 constituencies of the South African Parliament, but failed to carry a majority of the seats in the elections, which took place on March 10.

Jan Christian Smuts, the Premier, won an overwhelming victory in Pretoria West, receiving 1,720 votes against 473 Nationalist and 303 Labor votes. The Labor Party, however, gained many seats in the House of Assembly, and it was evident that there would be some difficulty in forming the new Ministry.

General Smuts made a tour of the country in which he blamed the Nationalists for causing the mine strikes among the natives, involving 30,000 blacks in the Witwatersrand gold fields alone. The color line is drawn tightly by the trade unions and white workers. The latter are generally foremen and overseers, the proportion in the mines being one white to every hundred blacks. The blacks are picketing the mines and doing things which General Smuts thought them incapable of doing. Several hundred of them attacked white miners on Feb. 25 near Johannesburg and a pitched battle ensued, four natives being killed, thirtyfive injured and six wounded. A dispatch from Johannesburg dated March 3 announced that the strike had been settled.

INDIA

Desultory fighting continued on the northwest frontier of India, and official opinion gradually swerved from blaming Soviet agents, as cause of the revolt of the Afghan tribes, to the more rational belief in the duplicity of agents of the Turkish Nationals.

The opposition to Delhi as the capital of British India was brought to a head by a resolution moved in the Imperial Legislative Council at Delhi proposing that the Government of India should be situated in one place throughout the year. The resolution was rejected.

ALBANIA

The political status of Albania continued to be anomalous. Its independence of Turkey was proclaimed at Valona, Nov. 28, 1912. This was confirmed by the London Ambassadorial Conference a month later with the proviso that a European Prince should reign there. He came in the person of the German Kaiser's kinsman, Prince William of Wied, and departed with the war. The country has now a native Provisional Government which the United States has not recognized, and an Italian mandate which it has recognized. The Anglo-FrancoAmerican Adriatic memorandum of Dec. 9, 1919, cut off Epirus, or the southern part, and gave it to Greece; the AngloFranco-Italian proposals of a month later would have given the northern part as far south as the Drin to Serbia, had President Wilson permitted.

Meanwhile, Constantine A. Chekrezi, a graduate of Harvard, was appointed on Feb. 19 the Albanian representative at Washington. The State Department was so informed by Louis Bumchi, Bishop of Alessio, head of the Albanian delegation at Paris, but the Harvard man cannot, it is said, be received by the State Department until his exequatur shall have the visé of Italy.

GREECE

The decision of the Supreme Council in regard to Turkey had some immediate results in the Balkans. M. Venizelos, the Greek Premier, offered the Council 100,000 troops to maintain order on the Cilician-Syrian frontier on account of the opposition with which the French troops were meeting at the outposts north of Aleppo from the Turkish Nationals, Syrian volunteers and Arab bands. There was general satisfaction that the Council had decided to place Eastern Thrace under Greek authority. The Bulgarian Government, however, issued a remonstrance, which, though dated Sofia, Feb. 20, had been drafted in ignorance of the ultimate disposition made of Eastern Thrace by

the Supreme Council five days before. It read:

Political circles and public opinion in Bulgaria are closely following the course of the deliberations in London. The reports received here regarding the decisions arrived at, or to be arrived at, have aroused considerable excitement by reason of the close connection between the fate of the Ottoman Empire and that of the former Bulgarian littoral in the Aegean Sea.

This excitement is increased by the news that M. Venizelos was admitted to plead before the Supreme Council for the allocation of Thrace to Greece, and the possibility of such an allocation has everywhere called forth loud protests.

In view of this eventuality, the Prime Minister, M. Stamboliisky, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Madjaroff, called upon representatives of the Entente the day before yesterday (Feb 18) and declared to them that the Bulgarian people, who had resigned themselves to giving up Western Thrace on the assurance that it would enjoy international admisistration, would never tolerate the presence of Greece at the outlet of its natural ways between the Black Sea and the Aegean, and that if, contrary to all expectation, the conference in London were to commit this act of injustice, the Government would no longer be responsible for the consequences of the decision.

In connection with this M. Stamboliisky declares that he would never have signed the Peace Treaty had he known that Thrace, which the Allies were detaching from Bulgaria, would be handed over to the Greeks.

M. Venizelos made several notable speeches in the Athens Chamber in the middle of February in exposition of the policy of the Liberal Party. He dealt with the Agrarian and Labor bills, then under discussion, and with the Royalist plot for the restoration of King Constantine. In anticipation of the successful passage of the Agrarian bill, the Government had already partly carried out the expropriations on a large scale of big landed estates and their resale to small farmers. The Labor bill provided for the regulation of strikes and the exclusion from labor unions of all persons not genuine native workingmen. Under the bill strikes are unlawful unless preceded by due notice and recourse to Gov