eggs, ducks and green farms when Holland is mentioned, and it is in many respects one of the most highly developed commercial countries in the world. The country manufactures many articles of world-wide distribution, including chocolate, linens, fine damasks, pottery, chemical and pharmaceutical products, and Amsterdam is a center of diamond-cutting.

It has a large mercantile marine and was at one time a termendous maritime power, doing an immense trading business in many waters. It still has rich and extensive colonies, including the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, comprising the Sunda Islands, except a portion of Borneo and Eastern Timor, and New Guinea. Java and Madura are two of the richest of the group and have a population of more than 30,000,000. There are also possessions in the West Indies and in South America.

A SMALL BUT EFFICIENT ARMY.

The Dutch army has approximately 40,000 officers and men and is regarded as one of the most efficient armies in the world of its size. There is also a colonial army in the East Indies with 1300 officers and 35,183 men. Its navy has 4000 officers and men and has about 200 vessels of all sorts, none of them of the modern dreadnought or super-dreadnought type.

The history of the rich little country is one of the most interesting in literature. It was originally part of the Empire of Charlemagne. Subsequently, it became divided into a number of petty principalities, and by heritage became a possession of the Austrian monarchy. In the long struggle against the Spanish power it became one of the Seven United Provinces. The country made rapid progress, and during the 17th century withstood the power of Louis the XIV of France, but later was overrun by the French, and finally in 1806 was made a kingdom by Napoleon, in favor of his brother Louis. Under the Treaty of Paris Belgium and Holland were united to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and this arrange

ment remained until 1830, when Belgium broke away. Holland attempted to reduce the revolting province by force, but the powers intervened and an adjustment was made. The last King was William, III, who died in 1890, leaving his daughter Wilhelmina, then but 10 years old, Queen.

Of the neutral countries none endured more than heroic Norway. With a long coast line practically undefended and with the full force of the German navy anchored but a few hours away, and a none too friendly country on her land border, possessing an army greater than her own, Norway's position was extremely difficult.

Had she flung herself into the war with the Allies when the breach came she would have been of little help to them, for she would have placed them in the position of being called upon to help defend her long coast line. It is probable also that a break with Germany would have let loose the Swedish army on the side of the Teutons.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES.

The little country was between two fires, and she suffered great strain. In the first place, while Norway attempted to maintain her export trade and her shipping, the Allies inspected her import invoices and subjected her to much annoyance, while Germany, without provocation, ruthlessly attacked her merchant ships and sent many of them to the bottom of the ocean.

There were intimations that Germany's real intent was to precipitate a rupture which would justify her attack on the little country, which she would be able to subdue with ease and seize the rugged coast and ports of vantage. But Norway remained neutral, and was not at all pleased with the embargo placed upon shipments by the United States, though it developed that the restrictions would not prevent the country from getting its share of grain and other supplies from America.

Norway is the western portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, and has an area of about 125,000 square miles. Its northern coast is washed by the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, and against the northeast is Lapland, while Sweden bounds it on the east and the famed North Sea on the south and the broad Atlantic on the west.

The rugged country is separated from Sweden by the Kiolen, or the Great Scandinavian chain of mountains, and in the hills and mountains are found the wonderful Norway spruce and fir trees familiar in commerce. Its fisheries and shipbuilding industry are also of great importance in the world of business.

DEMOCRACY OF NORWAY,

The constitution of Norway is one of the most Democratic in all Europe. Although a monarchy, its executive and legislative power is vested in the parliament, called the Storthing, and the King has merely a nominal command over the army and navy, with power to appoint the governor-general only. The latter has a limited right to veto acts of the parliament. Hereditary nobility was abolished in 1821.

Under the treaty of Vienna in 1814, and following the defeat of Napoleon, it was arranged that Denmark must give up Norway, and the two countries were united under the Swedish Crown. Norway demanded a separate consular service in 1905, and the Storthing declared the union with Sweden at an end. Prince Charles of Denmark then became King, reigning as Haakon VII.

The country has a population of 2,340,000, and her full military force mobilized for war is only 110,000 men.

Sweden, Norway's next-door neighbor on the Scandinavian peninsula, in contradistinction to the latter, is a constitutional monarchy, with extraordinary powers vested in the King, who is assisted in the administration of affairs by a council of ministers. The Diet, or legislature, consists of two chambers, or estates, both elected by the people.

Like Norway, the country is very rugged. Lapland and Finland are at the northeast, and on the east is the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic, and on the south the Baltic, the Sound and the Cattegat. It joins Norway on the west. Its area is 172,875 square miles, and its coast line is more than 1400 miles long.

Sweden, while it does not have a first-class navy, possesses a score of armored vessels of small displacement, besides torpedo boats, destroyers, etc., and has an army of 40,000 at peace strength. The country is particularly rich in minerals, and some of the finest iron ore in the world comes from its mines. Nickel, lead, cobalt, alum and sulphur are also produced in large quantities; while it gives to the world, too, immense quantities of lumber and larger quantities of hemp, flax and hops.

The reigning monarch is King Gustavus V, who succeeded his father, Oscar II, who died in 1907. The population of the country is about 5,000,000.

Of these neutrals, both Holland and Switzerland did a great deal for the suffering Belgians when Germany pounded through the country of King Albert, sending money for the relief of the sufferers and offering refugees shelter.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

FROM BOSNIA TO FLANDERS-MARNE THE TURNING POINT OF THE CONFLICT THE CONQUESTS OF SERVIA AND RUMANIA-THE FALL OF BAGDAD-RUSSIA'S WOMEN SOLDIERS-AMERICA'S CONSCRIPTS.

'HE end of August, 1917, found twenty-one nations in a

TH

state of war and five in what might be termed a condition of modified neutrality, with nearly 40,000,000 summoned to arms and 5,000,000 killed in bitter warfare.

This was the fiery reflection of the shots which caused the death of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, of Austria, in the quiet little town of Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in June, 1914. And so, with their backs to the wall, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria faced Servia, Russia, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Montenegro, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Rumania, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Greece, Siam, China and little Liberia, while Guatemala, Panama, Haiti, Uruguay and Bolivia stood by in a position of neutrality, but for the most part indicating a willingness to help the Allies.

And in those elapsed three years after the Bosnia tragedy an Emperor of Austria had died; a Czar had stepped from his throne, and a King had been compelled to toss aside his crown. Prime Ministers and Ministers of War in all of the principal countries, who held the confidence of their peoples when the war started, were no more.

Cabinets had been dissolved and new ones set up, statesmen brushed aside and commanders of the war forces compelled to step out that others might carry on the battles.

Though it was Austria's ultimatum to Servia which precipitated the world-wide struggle, it was Germany that took the first step and crossed the French frontier with its armed forces. After Servia refused to accede to all of the demands