powering the Government to issue in Belgium and abroad loans not exceeding $700,000,000. On the same day the announcement was made that a law had been promulgated authorizing the Government to guarantee against loss banking groups formed through the National Bank of Belgium with a view to obtaining credits abroad in favor of manufacturers and business men for the purchase of necessary raw material, tools, machinery, and other commodities necessary for the economic reconstruction of the country. The maximum of this guarantee is $140,000,000.

And when the raw material and the tools and machines arrive the manufactured product will have to compete with the finished articles which are arriving from abroad in great quantities.

To help in the task of reconstruction the Allies have established a special organization, called the Interallied Commission for the Industrial and Agricultural Reconstruction of Belgium, familiarly noticed in the press from its initial letters as Ciriab." It has been constituted by the British, French, American, and Italian Government, with headquarters in London, and has opened a small office in Brussels. Here there is one official in charge, an Englishman, with piles of literature on foreign manufactured articles of all sorts.

Apropos of M. Hymans's appeal before the Paris League Commission on April 11, that Brussels should become the permanent seat of the League because it was necessary to have the League offices located in the devastated area in order that the hatreds engendered by the war should not be forgotten; and President Wilson's reply thereto, that the League was intended to eradicate hatreds, it may be noted that the civilian men and women of Belgium who were imprisoned by the Germans have formed themselves into an association whose constitution embraces the following points:

To prevent any revival of German influence in Belgium; to honor the memory of the Belgians who had been shot, with or without a trial, and to give assistance to people who have been thrown into dis

tress owing to their activities or those of their breadwinners.

The association is said to possess a membership of 90,000, 2,000 of whom are residents of Antwerp, where German influence was strongest before the war.

ALBANIA

Essad Pasha, who is now in Saloniki, still claims the Provisional Presidency of Albania on the ground of his recognition by Italy in 1917, notwithstanding that Italy has since set up another Provisional Government at Durazzo, whose Vice President, Prenk Bib Doda, the chief of the Mirdite clan, was assassinated on March 25 while on his way from Durazzo to Medua. Essad Pasha says in a statement issued to the foreign press:

The delegations, respectively presided over by Turkhan Pasha and Halit Pasha, which have now arrived in Paris, are far from interpreting the sentiments of the Albanian people. It is my conviction that the allied Governments will ask them what they and their colleagues did in the critical days of the world war and how and when the Albanian people intrusted them with their mandate. If the Entente sincerely desires to settle the Albanian question on a basis of justice, which alone can guarantee peace in the Balkans, it will recognize my Government as alone representing the Albanian people. It would be an injustice to the Albanian people to regard the delegations of Turkhan Pasha and Halit Pasha voicing the aspirations of the Albanian people.

EGYPT

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On the night of March 14-15 riots broke out in Cairo, Alexandria, and other Egyptian cities, while some formidable revolts took place at the towns up the Nile, where rail and telegraphic communication was broken. Much private and public property was destroyed. Investigation showed that the disturbances were due to the Egyptian Nationalist, or Independent, leaders acting on the instigation of agents of the Committee of Union and Progress, whose headquarters had been dispersed at Constantinople through the efforts of the Interallied Commission there. Many of these leaders were arrested, but not until several lives had been lost.

In the absence of the British High

Commissioner, Sir Reginald Wingate, General Sir Edmund Allenby, the conqueror of Syria, was appointed Special High Commissioner, and hastened from Paris to fill that post.

On his arrival in Cairo, on March 28, General Allenby issued a proclamation, and released the Nationalist leaders from jail. In the two-day demonstration taken to celebrate that event other riots broke out, costing more lives. A curious phase of the revolt was the murder of Indian, British, and Egyptian soldiers when off duty, either in places of amusement or in the street. Meanwhile, manifestoes and petitions were addressed to the Sultan of Egypt and to the foreign Consulates demanding the restoration of the country's independence. It was reported that in one of the demonstrations before the Sultan's palace and the foreign Consulate, where the agitators called loudly for the independence of Egypt, "the procession took place with the assistance of the authorities, the police commandant actually riding in a car with a sheik.”

The troops, both British and Indian, are said to have shown great forbearance, meeting attacks upon their lives with mere attempts to disperse crowds without bloodshed and to arrest the agitators. A new and stronger Ministry was formed by the Sultan after the arrival of General Allenby. The second series of demonstrations caused by the release of the Egyptian Nationalists was incidentally directed against Armenian residents, many of whom were murdered and their shops and dwellings plundered. Up to the second week in April about 100 persons had been killed and 300 wounded. [Further details regarding the Egyptian insurrection appear on Page 257.]

FRANCE

According to a communiqué made by M. A. F. Lebrun of the Reparation Commission, German devastation in the occupied regions of Northern France left nearly 7,000,000 acres of land unproductive. Some 4,750 acres, which formed the zone behind the lines, was in a condition for immediate cultivation, provided the necessary labor, tools, horses, and seed could be secured.

Temporary huts were provided where the houses were destroyed and the essential furniture and cooking utensils were furnished for the former farmers who are slowly returning. At the present rate of return it is purposed to employ soldiers who are no longer required for garrison duty on the Rhine, as well as German prisoners.

The purification of the wells and the reconstruction of the main roads were already well under way when the communiqué was issued on March 21. Central depots had then been established for the repair of agricultural machines, to serve until those which the Germans ought to have delivered at the end of February are received.

A number of munition factories are now making agricultural implements in order to remedy the serious lack of all such implements. The demobilization of horses had been begun, and the districts affected by the war were given a prior right to army horses.

The British Army, which had in France more than 400,000 horses, handed over 250,000 of them to the republic on condition that they were to be well fed and humanely treated.

M. Lebrun promised the farmers of the devastated regions several hundred steam tractors. The communiqué adds: "It is hardly possible that the year will see a harvest in the devastated regions."

During a debate in the French Chamber on April 3 concerned with the Electoral Reform bill two woman suffrage amendments were submitted and rejected. The first, presented by Henry Roulleaux-Dugage, providing that Deputies might be elected without distinction of sex, was defeated by a vote of 302 to 187. The second, submitted by Louis Andrieux, giving the head of a family the right to vote without distinction of sex, was defeated by a vote of 335 to 134.

As it is intended that the next election shall be held under the new law, which, besides reforms, shall admit the participation of Alsace-Lorraine, the event will depend, first, on the acceptance of the Treaty of Peace by the present Chamber and Senate, convoked as a National As

sembly, and, second, on the passage of the Reform bill itself.

In a statement made by M. Clemenceau to the Executive Committee of the Radical Socialist Party at the Ministry of War, the Premier expressed himself as strongly upholding the rights of the present Chamber, "which has borne the heat and burden of the day, to vote on the Peace Treaty." In regard to the various problems to be solved he said that the following must be taken into consideration:

The four years' duration of the war has prevented, first, in 1915, the renewal of one-third of the Senate; secondly, in 1916, the entire renewal of the Municipal Councils and half the Conseils Généraux and the Conseils d'Arrondissements; thirdly, in 1918, the renewal of the second third of the Senate and the complete renewal of the Chamber of Deputies.

During these four years there has been no actual revision of the voting lists. These various operations must be effected in 1919. The renewal of Parliament must be terminated before the end of 1919, in view of the election for the President of the Republic, which must take place on Jan. 17, 1920.

Therefore, in the present year 225 Senators, 602 Deputies, 1,500 Conseillers Généraux, 2,000 Conseillers d'Arrondissement, 600,000 Municipal Councillors, and the Mayors and Deputy Mayors of 36,000 communes of France will have to be elected.

GREECE

A royal decree was published in Athens on March 25 announcing that Prince Christopher had renounced Greek nationality in order to become a Danish subject. He was born in 1888, and is an uncle of the present King and youngest son of the late King George, who was a son of Christian IX., King of Denmark.

The Athens press throughout the month expressed a settled opinion that the Peace Conference would award the Hellenic populated islands of the Aegean to Greece, so most of the propaganda was put forth in support of the claims to the coast of Asia Minor-the littoral from Aivali to Cos, including Symrna and its hinterland. On March 27 the Athens press published a communication from M. Venizelos in Paris to the effect that the Council of Ten had authorized

him to dispatch troops to the Smyrna region to the number of 50,000.

Greek agents were already on the ground attempting to organize a plebiscitum in favor of union with Greece. On the other hand, the British Chamber of Commerce at Smyrna had sent an appeal to Paris denying the Greek claims, even though based on the principle of "self-determination." An extract from this document reads:

The town of Smyrna owes its development nearly entirely to British and French enterprise. Railways, quays, tramways, and harbor are all in their hands. The export trade from the time of the Levant Company to the present day has been largely in the hands of the British-the import trade is about equally divided ahong different nationalities. The shipping, with the exception of Pantaleon's Company, a small Greek coasting line, is British, French, or Italian; the mines, carpet industry, licorice trade, are entirely in the hands of the British, American, and Italian firms.

HOLLAND

When the Council of the five great powers at Paris decided March 7, on the petition of the Commission of Belgian Affairs, that the three treaties of 1839, establishing the status of Belgium and Holland, be revised, the Council shortly after dispatched an invitation to The Hague to send a delegation to Paris to discuss the matter.

As late as April 12 no reply had been made to the invitation, and it is said by the Dutch press that none will be made until The Hague Government has formulated its case denouncing any surrender of territory to Belgium, for the treaties of 1839, aside from establishing the political status of the two States, also demarked their frontiers.

Meanwhile an attempt is being made by the Dutch Government to confirm the adhesion of Limburg, Zeeland, and a part of Staats Vlaanderen claimed by Belgium by means of the inhabitants asserting their desire to remain Dutch through petitions.

The fact that Queen Wilhelmina had received an address of loyalty signed by more than 170,000 inhabitants of Limburg-almost the entire adult population of the province-was made the sub

ject of a message to the Dutch legations abroad on April 14. The message added:

While expressing her gratitude her Majesty declared this imposing manifestation would not fail to establish far beyond the Dutch frontiers the conviction of the unbreakable unity of the people and the territory of the Netherlands.

ITALY

While the cost of foodstuffs was showing a downward tendency and rents were still rising, on March 27, the streetcar strike in Rome ended by the employes winning through an appeal to the Arbitration Commission. After May 2 an eight-hour day will be in force, and the daily wage will be advanced from $1.62 to $1.95.

As Rome was already overcrowded before the war, and as there was no building during the war, the housing question has become a grave problem there. Many projects are on foot to relieve the congestion. One of them is to utilize the vast Campagna, which, in ancient days, was covered with towns and villages, until the population was dispersed by malaria. There has been no malaria since 1905, and Rome is now, second to London, the healthiest city in the world, but the prejudice against the Campagna has survived and has hitherto discouraged all attempts to revive its life.

Signor Luigi Einudi, the financial expert, in the Corriere della Sera of March 25, has an article on the fall of the purchasing power of the lira abroad, and blames the National Institute of Exchanges. He declares that the industrial life of the country is being sacrificed to the fetich of keeping the exchange at a favorable rate by artificial means, and adds:

I believe that it may be well to prohibit the importation of certain luxuries, but unless free commerce be permitted in everything else reconstruction will be impossible. Many activities are at a standstill owing to the lack of essential material.

The maintenance of the present arrangements for exchange, which are based on the establishment of credits from allied Governments, is simply imposing a burden for the future which will have to be met sooner or later. But it is impossible to meet commitments unless production

increases, and production cannot increase unless imports are freed from the present trammels.

The high prices obtaining at present practically prevent industrial concerns from exporting at a profit, and it would actually be an advantage in many cases if the value of the lira were lower. The present artificial conditions favor the importer, but are all against the exporter, and the rehabilitation of Italy's financial position depends on the power of increasing production and selling abroad.

On April 1 the new freight schedule between Italy and the United States went into effect, the rates being lowered from $120 to $16 per ton. At the new rate Il Secolo points out Italy can receive the two sorely needed products, coal and iron, from the United States much cheaper than she can from England.

During the month there have been many messages sent out from Italy that the country was on the eve of an industrial and political upheaval-the first due to the lack of food and of raw material for factories, and the second due to the delay in settling peace and to Bolshevist propaganda.

A general strike in the Province of Rome took place on April 9 in honor of Lenine's birthday. There was also a demonstration in Turin and other industrial centres. The strike was for twentyfour hours, but before that time had elapsed the demonstrations in both Rome and Turin had become vociferous antiBolshevist exhibitions.

KOREA

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Ever since the phrase "self-determination of nationalities " has been used in connection with the negotiations which ended hostilities in Western Europe and with the subsequent search for a peace formula, Korean societies have been petitioning not only the Government at Tokio but also Chancelleries abroad that the principle of self-determination" should be applied to the "Hermit Kingdom," which was practically annexed to Japan in 1910, after a series of treaties between Seoul and Tokio, which gradually deprived Korea of its soverign rights, but not of its internal autonomy under Japanese resident direction.

In the middle of March a series of re

volts and uprisings took place similar to those in Egypt-mob violence reigned in the cities and railway and telegraphic communication was cut. There were murders of soldiers, policemen, and public officials. Japan at once increased the residential garrisons by four battalions of troops, but, by the first week in April, authoritative reports from Tokio showed that the insurrection had become a serious rebellion which threatened the life and property of the entire peninsula.

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From Shanghai, which has always been a hotbed of intrigue of Japanphobia, have come reports that the Japanese are putting down the rebellion in a manner which permits the word " sacre" to be used when designating the reprisals. Korean societies in this country received advices to the same effect. One cablegram from Shanghai to the Korean National Association in San Francisco, filed March 31 and received April 12, read:

Japan began massacring in Korea. Over 1,000 unarmed people killed in Seoul during three hours' demonstration on 28th. Japanese troops, fire brigades, and civilians are shooting and beating people mercilessly throughout Korea. Killed several thousand since 27th. Churches, schools, homes of leaders destroyed. Women made naked and beaten before crowds, especially leaders' families, the imprisoned being severely tortured. Doctors are forbidden caring for wounded. Foreign Red Cross urgently needed.

The Japanese official explanation of the affair is that the mobs, taking advantage of the lenient attitude of the Government, increased their activities until open rebellion was more or less evident throughout the peninsula, and for this foreign propagandists, some of them missionaries, were to blame.

MEXICO

Late in March Roberto Gayon, secretary of General Blanquet, some time Minister of War under the late President Huerta, announced a new revolutionary movement against President Carranza. Mr. Gayon, whose propaganda bureau is in New York City, sent a long statement to both the Government at Washington and to the press describing the alleged movement.

According to this statement the movement which had been organized by the friends of General Diaz had for its aim the overthrow of the Carranza Government, the re-establishment of the Constitution of 1857, and the revocation of the recent confiscation decrees. General Blanquet, it was reported, had on March 18 landed near Vera Cruz with a dozen other officers who had journeyed thither from New York via Havana. In the vicinity of Vera Cruz the army of Diaz was said to have been mobilized to the number of 7,500. Forty thousand troops of Diaz were also said to be in movement in fifteen of the twenty-seven States.

The mandate given Dr. Trumbitch, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and head of the Serbian delegation at Paris, to represent all "Jugoslavia " has caused at least two members of the old Montenegrin Government to denounce this mandate. Secretary Lansing cabled a message to Dr. Trumbitch on Feb. 17, saying that the United States had decided to recognize "the Union of the Serb, Croat, and Slovene peoples."

Thus on the following day Dr. Trumbitch appeared before the Council of Ten and presented the Adriatic claims of all the Southern Slavs in the name of the new union just recognized by the United States. The fact that Dr. Trumbitch spoke only of Montenegro as a part of Serbia has been resented by the former Montengrin Deputy, Yovo Popovitch, and John Plamenatz, the regularly elected President of the Montenegrin Government before the Serbian occupation, and their resentment expressed in pamphlets addressed to the Conference at Paris is a matter of historic record.

The statement of M. Plamenatz tells how the Serbians occupied Montenegro