-at the rate of 1,000 a month; it latterly arranged to supply fertilizers for farmers and food-stuffs for cattle; it discovered a formula to replace German lenses and other high-power glasses. A Materials Economy Committee watched over designs and the best use of materials; rationing was adopted for a number of metals, so as to make stocks go farther; an organization for collecting scrap metal was set up. As to trade it continued to expand from $6,110,000,000 in 1914 to $6,675,000,000 in 1915 and from $7,765,000,000 in 1916 to $7,343,000,000 in 11 months of 1917. British exports actually grew from 2,150 million dollars in 1914 to 2,530 millions in 1916.

The economic changes in Britain at this time were enormous. Despite huge taxation, profits were still great; high prices were accompanied by high wages, bigger incomes, better salaries; determination to "carry on" and prosecute the War to an end did not prevent extravagance in private life and public methods; the unprecedented cost of the War and expenses of $30,000,000 a day did not create any appearance of financial distress or general poverty; despite the work of the War Savings Committee and urgent appeals from every source of authority, the need for economy was not understood by the great mass of a people earning unaccustomed wages or, in the middle class, finding sudden affluence in place of moderate incomes. In this respect Britain was behind Germany where the blockade had long since compelled economy and thrift; in another vital respect it was away ahead of Germany-the payment of a substantial proportion of war costs out of yearly revenue. In other directions the State control of national supplies and distribution had almost eliminated the middleman; producers and consumers were brought together in a most remarkable way; the merchant class were actually fighting for life with independent trade eliminated for them in more than 20 leading products. So pronounced was this condition as to constitute an economic revolution if made permanent after the War; meantime, it weakened one of the most important classes in the community. They had been, indirectly, the home market for the manufacturer; they complained in these years, with a degree of truth, that Food Service Control officials were inefficient, untrained and ignorant in a business way and that they helped high prices and food scarcity rather than the reverse; they claimed also that the merchants of the City of London and other centres were trained in their business through many generations and should have been more considered. Food officials, however, had no easy task and in dealing with a people so accustomed to individual liberty as the British no policy-born in heaven or on earth-could have been popular. From the downfall of the Asquith Government had come a Food Controller in the person of Lord Devonport, once a dock labourer and grocer's clerk, now a millionaire in the business represented in Canada by Sir Joseph Flavelle. He warned the nation, the Submarine alarmed the people, and he put them, early in 1917, on voluntary rations; prices at once rose, the food profiteer and hoarder came to the front, a Director of Food Economy -Kennedy Jones-tried to evolve order out of a chaotic public

opinion. He covered the country with advertisements and Food conservation became a great issue. Then came Lord Rhondda as Controller-a coal king, Director in countless corporations, a shrewd and determined man. Consumption grew less, production grew greater, "back to the land" became a fashionable call, tenniscourts were turned into potato patches and life in Britain became subject, also, to Controllers of Drink, Coal, Shipping, Railways and Tobacco. Thrift was in 1917 a great fact, though by no means universal; national savings increased by about $1,000,000,000 over what they were before the War.

Details in this development included Lord Devonport's fixing of definite maximum prices for tea, coffee, butter, cheese and lard in March-after the Premier's announcement of restricted imports; the claim that voluntary rationing up to this time had saved 10% of the country's meat consumption; the fixing in April of maximum prices for wheat, barley and oats and the enforcement of meatless and potatoless days and restaurant rations for meat, bread and sugar; the passage in May of the Corn Production Bill, under which the British farmer was guaranteed a minimum price of 60s. per quarter of eight bushels for wheat grown this year, 55s. for the harvests of 1918 and 1919, and 45s. for the following three years, with provision of minimum wages for agricultural labourers and regulation of rents; the immense powers given to Lord Rhondda on his appointment (June 15) included the right to take over the food supplies of the country and to adopt strong measures to check all speculation in the necessaries of life; the statement of the new Controller that his sympathies were with the consumer and that his first efforts would be to reduce the price of bread.

On July 26 he stated that he would press for the imprisonment of food profiteers and would fix prices of articles of prime necessity on a basis of pre-war profits; all flour mills were taken over by the Government and the flour sold at a uniform rate to bakers with a maximum retail price for bread; on Sept. 3 an Order regulating meat prices came into force with a general fall of 2 pence a pound; during these latter months of the year attempts to sell at prices higher than those authorized were severely punished; toward the close of the year Sir Arthur Yapp, the new Director of Food Economy, had added all cereals other than bread and butter, margarine, lard, oils and fats to the voluntary rations; in December sugar was issued under the card system, potatoes were authorized to be used in the making of bread, the killing of calves and heifers and sale of veal or lamb forbidden, the sale of ice cream and water-ices prohibited.

Akin to war-economy in money and food was the work of women. They proved in these years as efficient and patriotic as men, they were in everything and did everything that physical powers would permit and sometimes more; in the first months of the War 200,000 were engaged at munitions, in May, 1917, there were over 1,000,000; in the Hospital world, through the organization of the British Red Cross Society, and the Order of St. John, the nucleus of trained women was early supplemented by a steady stream of part-trained

or untrained girls and over $30,000,000 raised by voluntary contribution; the organization of Hospital supplies was entirely managed by women-thousands of whom gave a certain number of hours weekly; they were, during 1917 in particular, called to help in all kinds of farm work and grappled successfully with the engineering trades; they helped in tramways and motor-buses, in Government offices and hotels, in theatres and banks, in stores, offices and industries; to a total of 1,071,000 they replaced men and were added to the 3,272,000 women workers employed in July, 1914. The net result of all these combined economic influences was the saving of England in the Submarine issue up to the end of 1917; not, however, the provision of all that she really needed or enough for her Allies abroad. Incidents of the year included expressions of indignation in various quarters as to the continued existence, influence and partial operation of German banks in London, the holding of a protest meeting late in March, and demands made by Resolution that the Government should (1) annul all licenses to alien enemy banks and withdraw all instructions for the continuation of business; (2) close these banks forthwith, leaving the Official Liquidator to deal with any outstanding balances; (3) appoint forthwith a Commission of business men with full powers to examine, analyze and report upon the affairs of the banks for the three years immediately preceding the War. Then came the plot to kill the Premier by means of poisoned darts and the conviction on Mar. 10 of two women and a man with severe sentences of penal servitude; the purchase in January of the Pall Mall Gazette by Sir Henry Dalziel, proprietor of Reynold's Newspaper and leader of the "Ginger group" of politicians; the organization of a new National Party in England with the purpose of promoting war victory, social reform, industrial union, national defence and Empire unity, with Lord Ampthill, Brig. Gen. Page Croft, M.P., Lord Duncannon, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, amongst the leaders; a vigorous appeal by Viscount Grey for Proportional Representation and a general growth in the movement; proposals of sweeping reform in Educational policy by Mr. Hayes Fisher, President of the Board of Education, and inclusion of some of them in legislation.

The principle of Women Suffrage was adopted in the Commons on June 19 by 387 to 57 votes, and a notable Franchise Bill which included this reform and also the Proportional principle-the latter being struck out, however, in Committee-one-day Elections, and other important changes, passed through Parliament but did not become law until 1918; this Act increased the electorate from 8,000,000 to almost 16,500,000 and of these latter 6,000,000 were women; the political recrudescence of Lord Haldane was attempted and the Manchester Guardian published his Peace negotiations with Germany prior to the War; Sir Arthur Lee gave to the nation. his splendid historic seat of Chequers as an official residence for the Prime Minister; a tremendous tightening in Britain's blockade of Germany was involved in the proclamation of Oct. 2 prohibiting the exportation to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands of all articles except printed matter and personal effects accompanied

by their owners; War Savings Committees were created everywhere and by May, 1917, there were over 35,000 working Associations devoted to this object with over 3,000,000 members-all organized under a National Committee; the fact was important that Great Britain in 1917 not only lent her Allies a total of $5,000,000,000 but placed at their disposal a merchant shipping of 2,000,000 tons and provided large coal and steel supplies for France, Russia and Italy.

The British
Army and

Navy in the
War: Sub-
marines and
Aeroplanes.

The British Army was a great one in 1917; it had need to be in its friendly rivalry with that of France, in its bitter conflict with that of Germany. It numbered, according to Lord Northcliffe, 2,200,000 on the Western front at midsummer; it totalled a little later, according to the Prime Minister (Commons, Oct. 29) 3,000,000 on all fronts; it had casualties of 500,000 in 1916 and not less than that in 1917; it was represented at Salonika by, probably, 200,000 men, in Mesopotamia by 300,000, and in Palestine by 200,000 more; it took, in the War up to July, 1917 (according to General Maurice) 739 German field-guns and lost 96; a Parliamentary statement of Dec. 5 showed prisoners of war in British hands totalling 127,102 Germans, 2092 Austrians and Bulgarians and 43,105 Turks; British prisoners in German hands totalled 44,475 at the close of the year; on March 7 an official statement showed 518,741 persons on the British Pension list.

British Forces held about 125 miles of the 450 miles on the Western front and included in March, 1917, five armies which may be described as follows: 1st Army in the Sector around Ypres commanded by Gen. Sir Herbert Plumer; 2nd Army, facing La Bassée commanded by Gen. Sir Henry Horne; 3rd Army, in the Sector around Arras commanded by Gen. Sir E. H. H. Allenby; 4th Army, north-east of Albert and along the Ancre under Gen. Sir Hubert Gough; 5th Army, before Péronne and across the Somme commanded by Gen. Sir Henry Rawlinson. Later on Gen. Sir Julian Byng took charge of the 3rd Army and Gen. Allenby succeeded Sir A. Murray in Egypt and Palestine, while Sir H. Plumer went to Italy and Lieut.-Gen. Sir W. R. Marshall replaced the late Gen. Maude in Mesopotamia. The Chief of the General Staff was Lieut.-Gen. Sir L. E. Kiggell and the Adjutant-General Lieut.-Gen. Sir G. H. Fowke. The policy of F.-M. Sir Douglas Haig as Commanderin-Chief was, in this year, a succession of offensives, which may be listed as follows:

Apr. 9-Attack and capture at Vimy Ridge on a 12-mile front.

June 7-Attack and capture of Wytschaete Ridge on a 10-mile front, and capture, also, of Messines, Zonnebeke and Pilken Ridges.

July 31-Attack on both sides of Ypres on an 18-mile front.

Aug. 16-Renewed attack north-east of Ypres on an 8-mile front and at Hill 70 on a 3-mile front.

Sept. 20-Attack on 8-mile front east of Ypres-Frezenberg and Veldhoek also being captured.

Sept. 26-Advance resumed and Zonnebeke and Polygon Wood captured. Oct. 4-Advance along the 8-mile front between Langemarck and Hollebeke.

Nov. 21-Advance on front of 32 miles to within three miles of Cambrai, with the capture of many villages and the breaking of the German 1st and 2nd linesfollowed by a surprise defeat and the holding of only a part of the gains. The vital point or result of the battles in the earlier offensives of 1917, variously called by the names of positions on the long line of conflict such as Arras, the Ancre, Vimy Ridge and Messines, was to deprive the Germans of the advantages of ground gained as the result of their initial aggression in 1914; to precipitate, in cooperation with the French, and compel, a German retreat in the Valleys of the Oise and Aisne and in the Somme region during which Roye, Bapaume and Péronne were re-occupied with 300 other towns and villages and 850 square miles of territory; to dominate from higher ground, though not yet to conquer, such centres as Laon, Lens and St. Quentin. From the ridges conquered in these battles or acquired later in the year, British troops were in most cases able to look down upon the fields of Flanders or valleys of Northern France; the central fact of the struggles was the overwhelming and awful force of the British artillery; the conflicts around Ypres in July-October gave the British possession of many famous battle-points of recent years -St. Julien, Langemarck, Hill 60, Hooge, Westhoek, Hollebeke, Sanctuary Wood, Inverness Copse, Glencorse Wood, Polygon Wood, etc.; Tanks and aeroplanes were effective elements in success and, in Sir Julian Byng's victory and defeat at Cambrai the former played an important part in success which was afterwards more than neutralized by the German capture of 100 or more. Had Gen. Byng been supported with sufficient reserves, and if the accident or surprise or whatever it was, had not happened, his initial success would have appeared a stroke of genius and the results might have included the forced evacuation of much of Northern France.

British victories on the Western front, however, were inconclusive. The advances attained certain valuable points but did not go as far as was hoped-the pivotal mining region still remained in German hands. Elsewhere it was different. In Mesopotamia, which Prince Von Bülow once described as a land of "boundless prospects" and which the Bagdad Railway and the War were intended to make a German possession, the army movement of 1917 was carefully conducted with Basra as its sea-base; river transport up the Tigris was made efficient, food and other supplies were poured into the country; port and harbour facilities were created, roads built, gardens planted and improvements effected; motor cars and artillery and more men were brought in. Finally, General Sir Stanley Maude carried the British forces from victory to victory. Beginning in February he captured Kut-el-Amara and redeemed the previous British defeat, crossed the Tigris, marched on and drove the Turks steadily before him and captured Bagdad. To the mind of the East this was a great conquest. Bagdad was one of the most famous of Oriental cities, the centre of the largest and richest province of the Turkish empire with a population of 150,000, the base of Turkish supplies and operations in Mesopotamia and Western Persia, the historic seat of Oriental empires for a thousand