THE

CONDUCT OF ENEMY ALIENS HE conduct of the millions of Germans in the United States after the declaration of a state of war with their Fatherland, which was regarded with apprehension by many, proved a gratifying relief during the first six weeks after the war resolution was adopted. All Government officials were highly pleased over the success of the policy toward aliens which the President advocated in his war message to Congress, in which he declared that the generous spirit with which America entered the war, and the absence of vindictiveness on the part of the American people, could best be displayed by their kindly attitude toward Germans living in this country. According to a statement issued by the Department of Justice, it had been found necessary to arrest only 125 alien enemies under the President's proclamation. Attorney General Gregory said on May 7:

The foreign-born citizens of America as a class deserve the highest commendation and praise for the manner in which they have conducted themselves since the declaration of war against Germany. As regards law and order, they have in almost all instances stood with the Government, and have vindicated the President's oft-repeated assertion that he had no misgivings as to how foreignborn Americans would measure up to their responsibilities and duties in the event of a national crisis.

The number of arrests which the Government has been forced to make has been gratifyingly small. Agents of the Department of Justice have arrested only 125 alien enemies under the President's proclamation. About one-half of these are being held because it was decided that they would be dangerous to the Government if permitted to remain at large. The remainder of the alien enemies arrested since the declaration of war were taken into custody on charges of espionage or attempts to foment disloyalty or disorders.

tente Powers. Other Latin-American countries, taken alphabetically, stand as follows: Argentina-which has between two and three million citizens of Italian origin and a quarter million French, while the British and German colonies are about equal, some 70,000 each-is still formally neutral, having presented an ultimatum to Germany and received an apology. The next submarine outrage may lead to severed relations or In Buenos Aires, the capital, there have been enthusiastic war parades, numbering 100,000 men. Bolivia was the first South American country to indorse the protest of the United States; the army is "German trained, but French equipped and strongly pro-ally." Bolivia, which has no merchant marine, protested on principle.

war.

Brazil, where a strong German element is balanced by a much larger but less closely organized Italian colony, has severed relations with Germany, but is not yet at war, although the new Foreign Minister, Senhor Milo Pecanha, who succeeded Lauro Muller, is strongly pro-ally and is said to be pledged to go to war. In Rio de Janeiro the German Club and the Grande Hotel Schmidt have been burned to ashes, German newspapers have stopped publication, and German flags have been hauled down. In Chile, it is stated, 70 per cent. of the population is strongly pro-ally; it is reported that the Chilean Minister to Germany has demanded his passports.

Guatemala has broken with Germany and has offered the use of her ports and railroads to the United States for war purposes. A German wireless plant has been dismantled. Dr. Lehmann, German Minister to Guatemala, was one of the leading figures in the futile plot to stir up revolutions in Central America to embarrass the United States. Nicaragua and Salvador have offered their harbors to the United States, while Panama has declared war, and, like Cuba, is now the ally of the United States and the En

tente. Mexico's final decision is still uncertain.

LORD CECIL AND GERMAN COLONIES

LORD ROBERT CECIL, speaking as

Acting Foreign Secretary, in the absence of Arthur James Balfour, concerning the application of the non-annexation theory to Germany's former colonies in Africa, said that, while it was true that England had not taken these colonies in order to rescue the natives from German rule, but as a part of the war operations, nevertheless England, having rescued them, could hardly contemplate handing them over again to the tender mercies of their German tyrants. He then read an account of the shocking treatment suffered by the natives in both German East Africa and German West Africa, and said that if the Entente Powers won any measure of success in the war he would regard with horror the idea of returning natives who had been set free from a Government of that kind.

Corroboration of all that Lord Robert Cecil said comes from several independent sources-from the officers of the French armies which co-operated with the English in the capture of the Cameroon region; from the Belgian expedi

many, from the outset, employed negro troops to fight against the French and English.

GR

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BRITAIN'S VAST WAR EXPENSES REAT Britain's war budget for the fiscal year, as introduced May 2 by Andrew Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried estimates of $11,451,905,000 for expenditures. Mr. Law laid emphasis on the statement that Great Britain was paying a greater share of her war expenses from her income than were the other belligerents, the amount paid out of the revenue being 26 per cent. of the whole war expenditure. He said the total of Treasury bills outstanding was about two billion dollars-in exact figures, £463,000,000. He estimated the daily expenses of the war to Great Britain at $31,175,000. The excess profits tax was raised from 60 to 80 per cent. Discussing the expenditures of the last year, Mr. Bonar Law said they had been £372,000,000 higher than the estimate. The increase was largely due to expenditures on munitions and advances to the Allies and dominions. The estimate for the Allies and dominions had been exceeded by £100,000,000.

East Africa in the direction of the Great Lakes, and from the Portuguese contingent, which has entered the same region from the south.

All evidence indicates that Germany has tried to rule her African colonies by the means which she applied in Belgium, in Poland, and in occupied France-enslavement, terrorism, and brutality. To pass over the habitual abuse of women of the native African races, who were treated as chattel slaves, there have been well-substantiated reports, published in detail in l'Illustration, of the wholesale murder and mutilation of natives suspected of being favorable to France and England-or, rather, to the French and English armies that were approaching to liberate them-as well as the customary terrorism to compel natives to fight in Germany's African armies; for Ger

steamship Mongolia, which arrived at Liverpool April 25, reported that the first gun of the war fired from an American ship was fired from the Mongolia April 19 at the periscope of a German submarine. He believed that the shell went true to the mark and sank the hostile craft. The periscope was sighted dead ahead on the last afternoon of the voyage. The Captain gave the order for full speed ahead with the intention of ramming the submarine. The periscope disappeared, and a few minutes later reappeared on the ship's broadside. The gunners fired at 1,000 yards. The submarine immediately disappeared and oil was seen on the water when it submerged. It was later reported that the periscope had been smashed and the commander killed, but the submarine was not sunk.

PORTUGUESE SOLDIERS IN FRANCE

A LARGE detachment of soldiers from

Portugal are serving with the Entente Allies in France. These troops were landed at Brest early in March, 1917, and went at once to the front. They consist of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and occupy an independent sector under the command of General Tamagnani. Portugal also has an army in East Africa which, in co-operation with the English and Belgian forces, has practically occupied all the German territory there. Conquest was not the purpose of the Portuguese Government; traditional friendship with England and the natural sympathy of a Latin country with Italy and France led her to antagonize the Teutons. The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Señor Soares, recently issued a statement which leaves the impression that Portugal would not have declared war, on its part, but would have maintained the attitude it took in the seizure of German ships in its harbors, if Germany had not chosen to force Fifty thousand belligerency upon it.

Portuguese troops were reported in France in May.

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SOCIALIST PARTIES IN THE DUMA

WITH

the Socialists participating more fully in the provisional Russian Government, it is important to distinguish between the different Socialist parties. Kerensky has been incorrectly described

as the Socialist

Duma. Kerensky was their leader, and his important position is due to the fact that the radical peasant movement is much greater than its Parliamentary representation indicates. In the reconstructed Cabinet the Group of Toil, or Social Populists, as they are also called, have three Ministers, including Kerensky. The second Socialist party is the Social Revolutionary Party, which has been more anarchistic in its aims and methods, and most closely connected with the terrorists and nihilists. The third party, the Social Democratic Labor Party, is the most representative of the industrial working class population and the counterpart of the real Socialist movement in other countries, for it is based upon the Marxian Socialist philosophy. All three Russian Socialist parties, however, have been recognized by the international gresses; and, though there are wide differences between the Social Democrats and the Group of Toil, and many minor differences within each party, they are united in their opposition to the propertyowning and commercial classes.

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con

THE PERSONAL WEALTH OF NICHOLAS ROMANOFF

H1 IGHLY picturesque and irreconcilably divergent accounts of the wealth of the former Emperor of Russia have been going the rounds of the press since the Russian revolution on the Ides of March. They should all be regarded with skepticism, for the reason that the vast Crown demesne of Russia has always been regarded as the personal property of the Emperors; it has never been included in the general fiscal statistics of Russia, and no items concerning it have ever appeared in the Russian budget. It has been managed by a separate minister, under the immediate supervision of the ruler, and has been treated as a family estate.

Here are a few facts, which seem to be quite authentic: The Crown demesne of the Romanoffs includes over a million square miles-that is, over 640,000,000 acres— of rich arable land, pasture, and forest, besides many mines of gold, platinum, copper, iron, and so forth. The area of

the Russian Crown demesne, thus stated by the Statesman's Year Book, is, therefore, larger than the combined areas of Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria; larger than the area of the United States

east of the Mississippi. The Encyclopaedia Britannica makes itself responsible for the following details: In European Russia, the Crown demesne contains 400,000,000 acres, or 35 per cent. of the cultivated land, while 446,000,000 acres, or 38 per cent. is owned by peasants, the remainder being held by landowners and towns. In Poland, the Crown demesne includes 1,800,000 acres, much of it made up of confiscated estates.

These enormous Crown holdings become more intelligible, if we remember that the old Russia was, in fact, a patriarchal family, of which the Emperor was the patriarchal head, the source of

killed in the 1,000 days of war will not fall far short of 1,500,000, or 1,500 a day, about one in every minute of the twenty-four hours of each day in the thousand.

*

THE United States Shipping Board on May 13 awarded to the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company a contract to build eight steel ships of 8,000 tons each, to cost $10,771,200. It is the first of momentous steps to rush ahead operations in all yards on a fulltime basis. Other contracts already drafted and ready to be signed are to be awarded within a short time. The Shipping Board intends to build fully 1,000 such ships in the quickest time possible. For this purpose a fund of $750,000,000 was provided by Congress.

TURKEY BREAKS RELATIONS

Crown lands paid for the maintenance of the numberless palaces, in Petrograd, Moscow, Tsarskoe-Selo, Gatchina, and elsewhere; for the expenses of the Emperor and his Court; for the numerous imperial family, of sixty or seventy members; and, further, large lots of land were given, in lieu of pensions, as a reward for services to the State. Between 1871 and 1881, 1,300,000 acres were thus distributed.

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ONE THOUSAND DAYS OF WAR

APRIL

30, 1917, was the thousandth day of the European war. Two days later Herr Joseph Freidrich Naumann, a former Conservative member of the German Reichstag, was reported in an Amsterdam dispatch to have made in a lecture the following statement:

"Until now the war has caused us a loss of 1,300,000 dead. This, together with the decrease in birth, gives a reduction of 3,800,000. The surplus of females has increased from 800,000 to far as never since the Thirty Years' War." more than 2,000,000. The nation has bled

It is stated that this estimate did not include the losses in the offensive begun April 1, 1917, which, it is estimated, will exceed in April alone 200,000. If such is the case the total number of Germans

officially informed the American Embassy that diplomatic relations with the United States had been broken off. Abram I. Elkus, the American Ambassador, was ill with typhus fever at the time, and was compelled to remain at Constantinople for some weeks afterward; his staff remained with him. Armenian interests in Turkey were confided to the Swedish Minister. The American State Department on April 23 gave passports to Abdul Hak Hussein Bey, First Secretary and Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy, and other members of the staff. The Turkish Ambassador, A. Rustem Bey, was recalled by the Government early in the war on account of injudicious criticisms of the President. Robert College and the Bible House and its branches were closed, and Americans left the Turkish capital. On April 27 the Swedish Minister cabled that the American colleges at Constantinople would be permitted to continue their activities.

in the battles of the Marne and the Yser, succeeds General Pétain as Chief of Staff of the Ministry of War.

The transfers were approved on the recommendation of the Ministry of War. General Nivelle some time ago succeeded General Joffre in chief command along the western front. Recently a new military office was created, that of Chief of the General Staff, to which General Pétain was assigned, with authority to act as the principal adviser to the Minister of War upon all military movements. This made General Pétain the chief consultative authority at the Ministry of War in formulating movements, but without actual command of troops in the field, for which his experience appeared to qualify him.

General Pétain, in a statement on the day of his appointment, urged America to send as many men as possible as soon as they can be transported to France, to be put into immediate training under French commanders, but to maintain their autonomy as American units.

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STRIKES IN GERMANY

URING the last days of April and

DURING

early in May a serious strike situation arose in Germany, but the news censorship was so strict that only meagre reports could be obtained, and the facts were not fully authenticated. On April 23 it was stated that the military authorities had taken control of the German weapon and munition factory at Berlin, and the workmen were ordered to return to work immediately; otherwise they would be mobilized as soldiers and compelled to work at soldiers' wages. This ended that strike.

Strikes were reported all over the empire, and included the great Krupp works and other great industrial plants. Field Marshal Hindenburg sent a message to General Groener, head of the munitions department, urging the striking workingmen to resume their labors, in order that the military forces of the empire, especially on the western front, should not be seriously hampered. He said he recognized that the population had been hit hard by the reduction of the bread ration, but that undoubtedly the increase in meat

and the regular delivery of potatoes would compensate therefor. He added: "Every strike, however small, may be the means of an unjustifiable weakening of our defensive forces and is an inexcusable crime against the fighting forces, especially the men in the trenches, who bleed in consequence."

In reply to this the German Labor Federation issued an address stating that the fairer distribution of food would allay the discontent, but added

The chief causes for the prevailing spirit of unrest are the inadequacy of the food policy and a desire to obtain measures for providing for the complete requisition and just distribution of all available foodstuffs. Workers are aware, and the fact is undeniable, that large quantities of foodstuffs are still obtainable outside the rationing system, but at prices prohibitive to the workers. These foodstuffs are consumed mainly by people who are not compelled to place their full working capacities and service at the defense of the country. The desire to bring about a more equal distribution of foodstuffs has been the fundamental cause of these strikes.

The situation at one time grew menacing, according to all reports, but the firmness of the Government and the assurance of better food supplies finally quieted the workers, and the trouble subsided.

WHILE

Russia appears to have passed, for the moment, some of her more acute troubles, there is evidence that, for a long time to come, critical problems lie ahead of her. The recent establishment, for a few hours, of

an independent, autonomous republic" by the garrison of the military post at Schluesselburg may be merely laughable, the revolt of the Buriats was more more serious, because the Buriats are only one among scores of smaller and alien nationalities over which swept the vast, perpetually expanding Russian Empire, until it covered a fifth of the land surface of the world.

In European Russia there are many of these smaller nations, of whom the Poles, the Finns, the Lithuanians are the most conspicuous; in the Caucasus, a dozen more, like the Armenians and Georgians and Circassians; in Turkestan,