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more or less Bolshevized element of the French political world, accuse him of being reactionary and unable to comprehend the new aspirations of humanity. He fought for these same aspirations fifty years ago, and it is safe to say that no one in the whole world is more desirous than M. Clemenceau to see the birth of a League of Nations which shall put into practice the ideas that have dominated all his policy. But nothing can induce him to accept any settlement of Europe which does not give to France full security against aggression.

M. PICHON-Stephen Pichon, who was born in 1857, has been a friend of M. Clemenceau since 1878, and has been associated with him in most of his journalistic enterprises. As a diplomatist he has had a wide experience, which started at Port au Prince and led him through South America to Peking, where he was French Minister during the siege of

the legations. As Foreign Minister-a portfolio which he has held in many different Ministries-he has accompanied the Chief of the State to Petrograd and London, where he has made several official visits. He is not now very definitely associated with any political party, but he was one of those who always supported the Radical element in the days before and during the "Bloc."

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portunity in journalism, when he became foreign editor of the Temps, whose Bulletins du Jour," dealing with foreign affairs, are read throughout the world.

M. Tardieu entered politics in the general election which preceded the outbreak of war, and has yet to show the extent of his Parliamentary ability. In August, 1914, he became the Chief Censor, a post which he soon left for active servi in the field. A severe attack of pneumonia, due to exposure in the trenches, made his further service at the front impossible, and he was appointed

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to represent France in the United States, and empowered to deal there with the many Franco-American questions connected with the war. He returned to France shortly after the formation of the Clemenceau Ministry, and, but for a brief but important visit to America, has since remained in Paris as High Commissioner for all matters concerning France and the United States.

M. KLOTZ-Louis Lucien Klotz, Minister of Finance, born at Paris in 1868, left a rapidly growing practice at the Bar to enter politics as a rising young man, and with an earnestness of purpose rarely found among French politicians he devoted himself to the study of the more arid business of national life. He specialized in customs matters and in big contractual relations between the State and the railways of France, and gradually he qualified as an authority on larger questions of finance. He has been Minister of Finance in seven Governments. For many years there were only two alternative holders of this portfolio-M. Caillaux and M. Klotz.

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M. CAMBON-Jules Cambon has, with his

brother Paul, the French Ambassador in London, for many years formed the keystone of French diplomacy. His early experience was gained in South America, and his last post was at the head of the embassy in Berlin. There, for many years, he watched growing up around him the huge machine of war which Germany set in motion in August, 1914. He not only watched-he reported; and seldom in the world's history have the published dispatches of an Ambassador more clearly shown the purpose of the Court and people to which he was accredited.

It was not until the reconstruction of M. Briand's first War Cabinet that M. Cambon's services were again officially called upon. He was then appointed General Secretary to the Foreign Office. Since then he has been charged with many important tasks. He has been the adviser of the French Foreign Office on questions concerning FrancoAmerican relations, as well as on matters dealing with Alsace-Lorraine. M. Cambon is the only prominent diplomatist among the French delegates.

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M. BOURGEOIS-Léon Bourgeois, one of the elder statesmen of France, was born in Paris in 1851. He is a barrister by profession and a Radical by conviction. conciliatory disposition, no less than the bent of his mind, has led him to become a specialist in all questions of international or inter-party arbitration or compromise. He entered political life in 1888, defeating Boulanger by an enormous majority, and since that time until a few years he has always been one of the men to whom Presidents in search of a Cabinet turned in moments of crisis. In the grave situation which arose after the attempt on President Loubet's life he used his polittcal prestige and his powers of managing men, and succeeded in forming a Ministry when all others had failed.

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His greatest claim to represent France on the committee appointed to deal with the problem of the League of Nations is to be found in his long service in connection with the building up of the now rusty machinery of The Hague. M. Bourgeois was placed by the French Government many months ago at the head of a Foreign Office Committee to deal with the League of Nations. His experience at The Hague should stand him in good stead, but perhaps an even more important qualification which he possesses is his intimate knowledge of social conditions both in France and abroad.

GREAT BRITAIN

GEORGE-There is no

DAVID LLOYD more dramatic chapter in our political annals than the career of the "little Welsh attorney who became Prime Minister at the height of the greatest storm which ever broke over the British Empire.

Strife seemed to be woven into the very stuff of his being. He was only 27 years old when in 1890 he fought

a fierce by-election at Carnarvon Boroughs. It was at that time a Conservative seat, but the young Liberal succeeded in capturing it by the narrow margin of 18 votes. In the House of Commons he found his natural

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more than a fearless debater, a destructive critic, and an impassioned orator. But at the end of that year Sir Henry CampbellBannerman, summoned to form a Government, gave him his first chance of constructive statesmanship by appointing him President of the Board of Trade, without the customary period of apprenticeship in one of the minor offices of State. He brilliantly justified the choice of his chief, and when Mr. Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908 Mr. Lloyd George succeeded him as Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the enthusiastic approval of his party. He revived the waning fortunes of the Liberals by a budget based on such novel principles of taxation that the House of Lords rejected it. The general election which immediately followed was a triumph primarily for Mr. Lloyd George, and he made his budget secure. His next big essay, the National Insurance act, was not so popular.

Mr. Lloyd George had been Chancellor of the Exchequer over six years when the European war cloud suddenly burst. By general consent, the prompt measures which he took at the Treasury enabled the fabric of British credit to stand the unexpected shock successfully. When early in 1915 it was found that the supply of munitions was utterly inadequate, he threw all his energies into the task of retrieving the position. Next year, when his pioneer work as Minister of Munitions had been accomplished, he succeeded Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War.

At the end of 1916, however, he became so dissatisfied with the conduct of the war that he sent in his resignation. Mr. Asquith left office, and Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister at the darkest hour of England's fortunes. He infused new vigor into the gigantic effort of the empire, and established that unity of command which contributed as much as any factor to the final triumph of allied arms. And when hostilities ceased and a general election was held the statesman who had weathered the storm was confirmed in power by the most overwhelming vote of confidence in British history.

MR. BARNES-Labor has had no more fearless and hardworking servant than Mr. Barnes. He first came into prominence as General Secretary of the A. S. E. during the stormy days of the great lockout in 1897. He entered Parliament for Glasgow in 1906 by defeating Mr. Bonar Law, his present colleague in the War Cabinet. He soon won the respect of the House of Commons by his unmistakable integrity and its interest by his wide knowledge of labor conditions and his native shrewdness in speech and counsel. In successive Parliaments he was one of the acknowledged leaders of the Labor Party, and there was some surprise when he was not included among the Labor Ministers who joined the first Coalition Government in 1915.

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His support of the national cause had been whole-hearted from the beginning, and Mr. Lloyd George appointed him first Minister of Pensions when he formed the second Coalition Government with an increased representation of labor. Upon Mr. Henderson's engaging in the Stockholm affair, Mr. Barnes took his place as member of the War Cabinet without portfolio. For nearly two years he has represented labor in the highest council of the State. The emphatic indorsement of his attitude by a great workingclass constituency in Glasgow at the general election has afforded him the opportunity of completing his task at the Peace Conference.

Mr. Barnes is in his seventieth year.

ANDREW J. BALFOUR-For over a quarter of a century Mr. Balfour has been one of the most distinguished figures in English public life. In 1878 he went to the Congress of Berlin as private Secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury. Today he is representing his country as Foreign Secretary, at the age of 70 years, at the even more momentous Conference in Paris.

He entered the House of Commons in 1874, and his great chance came in 1887, when he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland when the passions excited by the rejection of the first Home Rule bill were at their height. Mr. Balfour was responsible for four years of resolute Government, which have never been forgotten.

In 1891 Mr. Balfour became leader of the House of Commons, and, after a short interval in Opposition, he was again called to the chief place on the Treasury Bench. For ten stormy years, which included the period of the South African war, his personal ascendency over the House was unquestioned. When he was called to the Premiership on the retirement of Lord Salisbury in 1902 troubles began to thicken around him. It required all his management and skill to keep his party together during the tariff reform agitation, but he held on his course for over three years before cutting the knot by resignation.

During the long period of Liberal rule which followed, Mr. Balfour acted for a time as leader of the Opposition, but eventually handed over the reins to Mr. Bonar Law. His active political career seemed to have But in the unexampled come to an end. emergency created by the war he returned to office as First Lord of the Admiralty in Mr. Asquith's Coalition Government, and exercised a steadying influence over one of the

most vital of the War Departments at a very critical period. On the formation of the second Coalition Government, Mr. Balfour became Foreign Secretary. His mission to America and his speeches and dispatches on the many difficult and delicate problems which arose for solution during the closing phases of the war have earned for him a distinguished place among the masters of the diplomatic art.

ANDREW BONAR LAW-It was only in

1900 that Mr. Bonar Law was first elected to Parliament, and he is essentially a political product of the twentieth century. He is the business man in politics.

No man in our time has obtained a commanding position in the State so rapidly as Mr. Bonar Law. Within eleven years of his entering Parliament he became leader of the Opposition, and at the end of another five years he was leader of the House. Born in Canada sixty years ago, he became a successful iron merchant in Glasgow, and it was his firsthand knowledge of modern commerce that enabled him to gain the ear of the House when, soon after his election, the tariff reform controversy arose.

During the period of Unionist Opposition which began in 1906, Mr. Bonar Law was one of the few good debaters under Mr. Balfour's leadership. Still, few were prepared for his elevation to the leadership of the party in the House of Commons upon Mr. Balfour's retirement.

When the war came he proclaimed a party truce, to which he and his followers scrupulously adhered. When the truce was replaced by a formal Coalition Mr. Bonar Law became Colonial Secretary, and was probably the least-criticised Minister in that combination.

Finally, at the end of 1916, he joined Mr. the threefold Lloyd George's Ministry in capacity of member of the War Cabinet, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader of the House of Commons. The two largest budgets in England's financial history stand to his credit, and their incidence was generally regarded as so fair and wellbalanced that he secured the passing of both through the House of Commons without the slightest difficulty. He proved, too, a successful leader of a rather restless and Since suspicious House. the general election Mr. Bonar Law has ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and has taken the sinecure office of Lord Privy Seal.

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SOUTH AFRICA

GENERAL BOTHA-General Louis Botha, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, was born at Vryheid, South Africa, and was a member of the first Volksraad of the South African Republic. During the Boer war General Botha succeeded General Joubert as Commander in Chief of the Boer forces. When responsible Government was granted to the Trans

vaal in 1907 General Botha became the first Prime Minister, a position which he held until the Transvaal became part of the Union, in 1910, when he was chosen as the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

When war broke out General Botha threw the whole force of his Government into the scale in the cause of Great Britain. He at once undertook to reduce the German colony of Southwest Africa, an undertaking which he carried out in person as Commander in Chief of the forces which overran the German colony. First, however, General Botha had to subdue a rebellion within the Union. This he did with conspicuous ability and efficiency.

General Botha has represented first, the Transvaal, and then the Union of South Africa, at Imperial Conferences.

GENERAL SMUTS-General Jan Smuts is a South African by birth, and he received his early education at Stellenbosch, in the Cape Province. Though when the Boer war broke out he was still a very young man, he had already a great reputation among the South African Dutch, and this was confirmed and extended by his conspicuous services to their

cause during the war. Among them was a brilliant raid into Cape Colony during the latter part of the campaign, so that when peace was made in 1902 General Smuts was established with General Botha as one of the two recognized leaders of the Transvaal Dutch. This combination has continued ever since, and General Smuts has been the right hand of General Botha in office-brilliant in intellect, untiring in work, remorselessly efficient in administration.

In the campaign in German Southwest Africa General Smuts commanded the columns invading the colony from the south, taking risks which were brilliantly justified by results. In 1916 he took command of the

British forces operating in German East Africa and organized the campaign which annihilated the German power and reduced von Lettow Vorbeck to the condition of a fugitive, from which he never recovered, though he avoided capture to the end. Then General Smuts went to England to represent South Africa at the Imperial War Cabinet of 1917, and remained as a permanent member of it till after the recent general election.

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AUSTRALIA

MR. HUGHES-William Morris Hughes,

Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth, was born in London, the son of Welsh parents. He entered State politics as a member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in 1894, and retained his seat till 1901, when he was elected to the first House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia. The leader of the Australian Labor Party at that time was Andrew Fisher, and Mr. Hughes speedily established himself as Mr. Fisher's right-hand man in Parliament. Meanwhile Mr. Hughes had been called to the Bar, and it was as Attorney General in Mr. Fisher's Cabinets that he finally established his claim to the succession. Thus, when Mr. Fisher resigned in 1915 Mr. Hughes succeeded him as Prime Minister. Mr. Hughes has had a difficult course to steer. Twice he submitted the question of conscription to a referendum, and twice he was defeated. After a breach with the extreme section of his own party he formed a Coalition with the Liberals, led by Mr., now Sir Joseph, Cook. Mr. Hughes went to England to represent the Commonwealth at the Imperial War Cabinet in 1918, and has remained there since.

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placed the Australian squadron at the disposal of the British Admiralty. Sir Joseph Cook was defeated by the Labor Party under Mr. Fisher at the general election held in September, 1914. After the defeat of conscription at the first referendum,. he joined Mr. Hughes in a Coalition Ministry, and has been unswervingly loyal to the political compact then made.

NEW ZEALAND

MR. MASSEY-William Ferguson Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand, an Ulsterman by birth, who has achieved success as a farmer in New Zealand, led the Conservative Party before the war, and was in office as Prime Minister when the war broke. out, an event which he anticipated by the offer of a division to the Imperial Government. New Zealand,

too, was represented at the outbreak of war by the warship New Zealand, which she had presented to the British fleet. Mr. Massey had taken office as Prime Minister in 1912, but in 1915 it became clear that a coalition with the Liberal Party, led by Sir Joseph Ward, was desirable. It was formed-both parties showing a disposition to make personal sacrifices in the national cause. It has subsisted ever since, and the Ministry which presides over it is called the National Ministry. Mr. Massey went to England to attend the Imperial War Cabinets of 1917 and of 1918, and had barely returned from the latter when he was summoned again to represent his Dominion at the Peace Conference.

SIR JOSEPH WARD-Sir Joseph Ward has had a long and distinguished career in New Zealand politics. He is leader of the Liberal Party, he has been Prime Minister, and he represented New Zealand at the Imperial Conferences of 1907 and 1911. In 1909 he was a member of the Conference of Imperial and Dominion representatives on naval and military defense. At that conference the Australian policy of establishing an Australian naval unit took shape, but Sir Joseph Ward, on behalf of New Zealand, would have none of it for his Dominion, and insisted on the maintenance of the policy of contribution to the British Navy. In 1915 Sir Joseph Ward Joined Mr. Massey as the joint head of the

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CANADA

SIR ROBERT BORDEN-Sir Robert Laird

Borden, Prime Minister of Canada and Secretary of State for External Affairs, is a barrister, who practiced in Halifax, took silk in 1900, and was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1896. There he led the Opposition from 1901 to 1911, when he defeated Sir Wilfrid Laurier at the general election, which turned on the issue of reciprocity with the United States. Sir Robert Borden has borne the chief share of the burden of directing Canadian affairs throughout the war. He has shown conspicuous ability and courage, combined with the power of weighing a question well before coming to a decision on it. His political wisdom and moderation were shown by his persistent efforts, in the face of every kind of discouragement, to bring about a coalition with the pro-conscription Liberals. Sir Robert Borden has been a convinced believer in the value of the Imperial War Cabinet, and has frequently stated his view that it is the nucleus of future imperial developments.

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