THE

HE Walloons of Prussia sent a dispatch to M. Clemenceau, Chairman of the Peace Conference, April 25, requesting that their annexation to Prussia be canceled. The message to M. Clemenceau follows:

The Walloons of Prussia, feeling great anxiety on account of the news lately published in the press, earnestly request you to decide for the pure and simple disannexation of all the Walloon districts in Prussia.

The inhabitants of cantons not Walloon, but indispensable to Belgium, might be consulted by means of a referendum, as will be the case with the population of the Sarre Basin.

EDITH

DITH CAVELL, the English nurse who was executed by the Germans Oct. 12, 1915, was paid a notable tribute on May 15, 1919, when her body, en route from Brussels to her native City of Norwich, was taken to Westminster Abbey for an impressive memorial service. The streets of London through which the cortége moved were congested with crowds, and every inch of standing room in the neighborhood of the Abbey was occupied by a densely massed multitude which was eager to do reverent homage to "that brave woman," as the Bishop of London described her, "who deserves a great deal from the British Empire."

The congregation at the Abbey inIcluded high officials of the Government, representatives of foreign countries, and men prominent in many walks of life. King George was represented by the

At Norwich it was placed on a gun carriage and was taken to Norwich Cathedral. The service, which was officially designated "For the funeral of Edith Cavell, a nurse who gave her life for her countrymen," followed. As the coffin was taken into the Cathedral the hymn " Now the Laborer's Task Is O'er" was sung. It was followed by the reading of the lesson, First Peter, ii., 19, by Canon Dechair. Then came the anthem, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," and Chopin's Funeral March. While the hymn, "Brief Life Is Here Our Portion," was being sung the procession formed for the march to the graveside. There the latter portion of the burial service was conducted by the Bishop, and the hymn "Abide with Me," which Miss Cavell repeated shortly before her execution by the Germans, was sung. The Benediction then pronounced and the bugle sounded the Last Post.

was

The body had been exhumed at Brussels on March 17 and placed in a double coffin of zinc and oak and conveyed to the Tir National. It was found clothed in a black dress under a blue cloak, and

there was a black hat beside it. The body was well preserved and the features were perfectly recognizable.

It is understood that the examination following the exhumation revealed that the nurse's death was instantaneous. She was struck by four bullets, two of which entered the right side and two the left, one of them piercing the heart.

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GERMAN WHO SANK THE SUSSEX A PRISONER IN THE TOWER

CAPTA

APTAIN KAISERVETTER, who was in command of the U-boat which torpedoed the English Channel steamer Sussex on March 24, 1916, was brought from Spain, where he had been interned, and confined in the Tower of London on May 9, 1919. The attack on the Sussex without warning gave rise to a series of notes between Washington and Berlin which are interesting for two particulars on the latter side; first the denial of the act until it was conclusively proved, and second a promise to refrain from similar acts in the future until this was repudiated on Jan. 31, 1917, by Germany's note announcing her intention of ruthless use of the submarine. The Sussex carried 380 passengers, including twenty-five Americans. Eighty passengers, including no Americans, were killed or drowned. The shattered vessel was towed into Boulogne.

THE BRITISH BUDGET

HE British Budget for 1919-20, which

THE

was submitted May 1, 1919, provides for a total expenditure of $7,174,550,000; the estimated revenue is $6,005,500,000, leaving $1,169,050,000 deficit to be covered by bonds, against an expenditure of $12,396,505,000 in 1918-19, and a deficit of $8,451,400,000. The estimates provide for a preferential duty of one-sixth reduction on goods from the Colonies and Dominions on tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, dried fruits, tobacco, gasoline, and a reduction of one-third on films, clocks and watches, motor cars and cycles, musical instruments. Duties on spirits are increased from $7.50 to $12.50 a gallon; beer duty is raised from $12.50 to $17.50 per barrel; income taxes are unchanged; excess profits duty is reduced from 80 to 40 per cent.; motor gasoline license duty is abolished; benzol is exempted; the duties on retail goods (luxury taxes) are repealed. Pensions for wounds and disability, also gratuities to army and navy, are relieved of income tax liability. The national debt on March 31, 1919, was $36,175,000,000, compared to $3,225,000,000 at the outbreak of the war. The national assets included $8,695,000,000 due from the Allies and Dominions; Russia alone owed $2,840,000,000. From April 1, 1918, to Nov. 10, the daily expenditures were $37,215,000, and since November have averaged $33,380,000 a day.

SITUATION IN IRELAND

tional Health Conference of Insurance Organizations and Social Workers, gave a summary of the work England had done in the training of disabled soldiers. He said that up to May 10, 1919, more than 12,000 temporary or permanent pensions had been granted to disabled officers and nearly 600,000 to disabled men. At the time of the armistice there were 550,000 men in hospitals at home and abroad, and today this number has been reduced to about 200,000. He estimated that there would be at least 700,000 temporary pensioners, an unknown number of whom would become entitled to permanent pensions.

gravated in May by demonstrations over the visit of three American delegates who had been sent to the Peace Conference by American Irish societies with the purpose of laying before the British Premier Ireland's claims for independence. The delegates-Frank P. Walsh, Edward F. Dunne, and Michael F. Ryan-were received by President Wilson, and it was announced that they would be received by Mr. Lloyd George. Their tour of Ireland, however, caused demonstrations of hostility to the Government, and the speeches of the delegates intensified the feeling. An unpleasant impression resulted throughout

England, and the British Premier announced on May 12 that he would not receive the delegation. There were disturbances in various Irish cities throughout the month, and rigid disciplinary measures were taken.

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NEW ZEALAND DEFEATS PROHIBITION

THE votes of 15,000 New Zealand sol

diers in France, Egypt, and at sea defeated prohibition in that country. The vote without these stood 265 for prohibition; in New Zealand there were 238,116 votes for and 225,921 against; soldiers in England voted 3,950 for, 15,880 against. The total majority against was approximately 10,000. It was proposed to compensate license holders in a sum limited to $22,500,000. In Canada the Province of Quebec in April defeated prohibition by a majority exceeding 100,000.

SENATOR HUMBERT ACQUITTED ENATOR CHARLES HUMBERT, on

SENA

trial by court-martial on a charge of having had dealings with the enemy, was acquitted May 8 at Paris. Captain Georges Ladoux, former Chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of War, a co-defendant with Humbert, was acquitted. Pierre Lenoir, still another of the co-defendants, was sentenced to death; the sentence was appealed. Guillaume Desouches was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

With the settling by the Paris courtmartial of the cases of Senator Humbert and his three co-defendants, there only remains the trial of former Premier Caillaux before a Senatorial high court to conclude the whole of the famous Bonnet Rouge defeatist conspiracy, which threatened to destroy the military efficiency of France in 1915-17 and force a separate peace with Germany.

The acknowledged popular mandate of M. Clemenceau in assuming the Presidency of the Council on Nov. 16, 1917, was that he should remorselessly prosecute the "defeatists," no matter what

trial of Senator Humbert began, on March 31, in the large hall of the Paris Assize Court. With him were arraigned Pierre Lenoir, Guillaume Desouches, and Captain Ladoux. Humbert was charged with "trading" with the enemy, Lenoir and Desouches with "intelligence" with the enemy, and Ladoux with conscious complicity in both offenses. Nearly 300 witnesses were heard.

The capital charge was made against Humbert in order that he might be forced to reveal his knowledge of the guilt of Lenoir and Desouches. Even the prosecution did not believe in his conscious guilt. As to Ladoux, who had been head of the Intelligence Department when M. Malvy, the chief henchman of Caillaux, had been Minister of the Interior under the dominance of the defeatist propaganda, his testimony at the Bolo, Duval, and Malvy trials had plainly shown him to be a tool rather than a principal; so his acquittal was regarded as a foregone conclusion.

The charges against Humbert, Lenoir, and Desouches grew out of the purchase of Le Journal with enemy money for the purpose of conducting a defeatist propaganda. Humbert was Vice President of the Army Commission, Director of Le Journal, and a vigorous writer both before and during the war on preparedness. He was arrested Feb. 19, 1918, five days after the conviction of Bolo Pacha.

It had long been his ambition to control the paper personally. It was alleged that on two occasions he had received large sums from the Germans; once, $1,875,000 through Lenoir and Desouches, and once, $1,150,000 through Bolo Pacha.

At the Bolo Pacha trial he asserted that he did not know the source of the last sum; it only remained for him to confirm this and to prove his innocence in regard to the first. His defense was to establish his belief in the legitimate origin of the $1,875,000, which was done.

A MINISTER OF JEWISH AFFAIRS

fifteen had been sent to prison and two executed, (Bolo Pacha, April 17, 1918, and Duval, July 17, 1918,) when the

to a Cabinet portfolio in the Ukraine Government in April to be known as Minister of Jewish Affairs,

being the first man in history to hold such an office. He stated that the Jews would take part in the political and social life of the Ukraine under conditions of equality with those of the rest of the population, but in affairs appertaining to the Jewish community they would govern themselves. The range of this inner government would extend over education, special taxes for certain needs exclusively Jewish, and emigration.

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TWENTY-FOUR EX-SOVEREIGNS

THE armistice, which brought the over

throw of so many German monarchs, made all the long established institutions of Central Europe uncertain. The German editor of the 66 Almanach de Gotha" for 1919 says in his preface that twenty-two republics have replaced the kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, and free cities of the old empire; but in the chapter treating of these new States the word "republic" is never used, and their Governments are prudently qualified as "provisional." The same uncertainty is visible in the matter of abdications. It is made evident that all the sovereigns of Germany and Austria have renounced their thrones, but

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Twenty-four sovereigns dethroned, written in on the balance sheet of the war!

Only two monarchs survived the storm, those of Turkey and Bulgaria, and this owing to the recent date of their ascent to the throne; the first was crowned in July, 1918, the second in October of the same year.

In this new edition of the well-known German reference work of crowned heads and pedigrees the former Kaiser is given all his titles: "Doctor of Laws of the Universities of Berlin, Pennsylvania, and Oxford; Doctor of Medicine of the University of Prague; Doctor of Sciences of the University of Clausenburg; Doctor of Engineering of the Upper Polytechnic Institutes of Germany; Field Marshal General of Prussia, Bavaria, and Austria; Grand Admiral of the Austrian Navy; Field Marshal General of the Turkish Army; General and Flag Admiral of Sweden; Honorary Danish Admiral; Honorary Captain General of the Spanish Army; Honorary Admiral of the Greek Navy," &c.

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BELGIAN INDEMNITY

All these abdications were initiated by the Prince of Wied, who mounted the throne of Albania on March 13, 1914, and abdicated the following September. But the record for short reigns was established by the young Duke of Anhalt, whose reign began on Sept. 13, 1918, and ended on Nov. 12 of the same year.

Among the ex-monarchs figure two emperors, those of Germany and Austria; six kings, those of Prussia, Hungary, Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, and King Constantine of Greece; two Czars, those of Russia and Bulgaria; six princes, those of Albania, Lippe, Reuss, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Waldeck et Pyrmont; five granddukes, Baden, Hessia, MecklenburgSchwerin, Oldenburg, Saxe-WeimarEisenach; and five ordinary dukes, the dukes of Anhalt, of Saxe-Meiningen, Hildburghausen, Saxe-Altenburg, and

almost threatened to withdraw from the Peace Conference. The main dissatisfaction was over the question of ultimate indemnity. By the terms agreed on Belgium was to receive $500,000,000 as a part of the $5,000,000,000 which Germany must pay by the end of next year as part of the total reparation. The Belgian delegates refused to accept this arrangement without consulting their Government, and it was said that the Government had decided on taking extremely strong measures. On May 5, however, Premier Delacroix issued a statement that said in part:

The negotiations had arrived at a deadlock, but the powers granted us very great concessions, releasing us from loans contracted during the war amounting to 6,000,000,000 francs, while we shall have priority in receiving 2,500,000,000 francs, payable in gold and destined to cover interprovincial bonds we were obliged to issue during the war. We shall have no financial charges resulting from the war, while we shall have a billion francs coming to us on various accounts.

A

AFGHANISTAN

FTER the murder of Siraj-ul-Millat-Wad-din, the Emir of Afghanistan, on Feb. 20, the Afghan Mission left for Moscow to establish relations between the Soviet Government and Afghanistan. On May 8 the India Office, London, was informed that Afghan tribesmen, aided by Afghan regular troops, had occupied threatening positions on the northwest frontier of India, where General A. A. Barrett was in command, and that Barrett had addressed a vigorous note to the new Emir, while his aircraft had made a not altogether peaceful demonstration over the Afghan positions on the near side of the frontier.

It had been supposed that the antiBritish demonstrations in Afghanistan which followed the murder of the Emir had been caused by his brother, Nasrullah Khan, who the next day had himself proclaimed Emir at Jellalabad. Nasrullah, who was at the head of the priestly caste, worked to have his country join the war on the side of Turkey, and was only kept in check by his brother.

The latest news from Kabul, via Simla, dated April 30, proved, however, that the heir apparent, the eldest son of the late Emir, had come into his own and had put his uncle in jail. Little is known of the new Emir, except that he is a well-educated man of 30, who made a spectacular visit to Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, at Calcutta, in 1904. His name is Amanullah Khan, or Inayatullah Khan.

But the new Emir not only put his uncle in jail, but in the last fortnight of April convened a public durbar at Kabul, which found Nasrullah guilty of instigating the murder of the late Emir and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. A Colonel convicted of actually

committing the crime was executed, and a Court page convicted of complicity was sentenced to life imprisonment. The durbar also administered justice in another direction: The powerful Musahiban family, including the late Commander in Chief, who were ignominiously arrested by the Jellalabad soldiery when the latter withdrew their allegiance from Nasrullah, were honorably acquitted.

The details of the murder of the Emir Habibullah Khan are given in the Calcutta newspaper, The Englishman. It appears that his Majesty had proceeded twenty-seven miles beyond Khalat-ulSeraj, near Jellalabad, and from Feb. 17 to 20 was camping at a little place known as Kollagosh. He slept in a large tent well guarded by soldiers drawn from a number of regiments, and within were just his Majesty in one section, while in the other were four or five page boys, who took it in turn to watch. At about 3 in the morning a pistol shot was heard, and on the Emir's brother and eldest son rushing into the tent they found Habibullah Khan lying dead in his bed, shot through the ear, the bullet having passed out of the side of his head.

A body of Afghan tribesmen invaded India in the vicinity of Khyber Pass, but were driven out by British troops and suffered some loss in men and material.

ALBANIA

Albania, the Botany Bay of ancient Rome, which the Concert of Powers, on Dec. 20, 1912, caused to be governed by a German Prince, Prince William of Wied, from March 7, 1914, until the war and Essad Pasha's revolutionists drove him home, has been showering the Paris Conference with petitions.

Five months before Italy entered the war her marines occupied Valona, (Avlona,) which later became her base for military operations against the