Sun, this will mean nothing more than a peaceful situation where Japan gets everything she wants in the trade and development of the East, and the rest of the world the fragments that remain, and where China will enjoy her national life and development under Japanese leading-strings.

The publisher's advertisement of this volume conveys a wrong impression of its purpose and contents. This is inexcusable, and in the long run will not help the sale of their books. "It presents," they claim, "an unbiassed analysis of the financial and political activities of the six leading Powers in China during the last twenty years." But the author begins his work with the statement that he is concerned only with the financial side of recent Chinese development. And he keeps strictly to his program, except that he lays more stress on railway development than on financial or economic progress, and that he says nothing about the developments of the last six years. Again, the publishers state that the book "emphasizes the need of international co-operation." It does so in a few sentences; but one is not impressed with the case as presented. Nor does the author suggest any feasible plan by means of which this can be brought about or the Chinese Government set on its feet-financially, economically and politically. Further, the publishers state that the aim of this volume is a contribution toward international conciliation, by assisting the Powers to readjust their specific national interests and viewpoints on the basis of mutual respect for the needs and aspirations of all, including those of China." It is doubtful if the diplomats of any state will be greatly impressed by a book that tells only part of the story and fails to give an adequate picture of the terrible plighteconomic, financial and political-in which China stands today, and to prove the hopelessness of her outlook without some form of international intervention.

NORMAN DWIGHT HARRIS.

El Perú y la Gran Guerra. By Juan Bautista de Lavalle. Lima: Imprenta Americana, 1919. pp. xv, 439.

Students of the Great War will not overlook or underestimate the assistance to the desired end which was rendered by so many of the Latin-American nations. In the volume before us we find an ex

cellent account of the events leading up and subsequent to the breaking off of relations between Peru and Germany. The history, fully documented, of the destruction of the Lorton (a Peruvian vessel), is set forth, as well as the exchange of correspondence between the representatives of Peru and of Germany with relation thereto. The work deserves, therefore, as indicated, the careful attention of the student and historian.

From another point this volume can, to advantage, be studied by those who are interested in Latin-American forms of courtesy, and who wish to submit themselves to them. Such a one will note the exchange of compliments or courtesies passing between Peru and other South, as well as Central, American countries, as well as between their cities, upon the breaking of relations and afterward upon the signing of the armistice. The emphasis placed upon the exchange of courtesies on these occasions between the various members of the diplomatic corps and the public officials of Lima will not be unnoticed. All of these matters suggest an attitude of mind with which we are relatively unfamiliar, but which is to be penetrated and understood if we are to meet our friends of the South upon their own ground.

JACKSON H. RALSTON.

Mein Kriegs-Tagebuch. Vol. I. Das erste Kriegsjahr. By Alfred H. Fried. Zurich: Max Rascher Verlag. 1918. pp. xxiv, 472. The author informs us that in August, 1914, he was in the midst of the preparatory labors for the Twenty-First World Peace Congress, which was to have convened in his home city, Vienna, one month later. The outbreak of war was to him, as to so many others, a bolt out of a clear sky. Although long familiar with the conditions making a European conflagration imminent, he could not bring himself to a belief in the actuality. He thus found himself unfit for other work and sought solace in this diary of his daily impressions.

The present volume takes us only through the first year of the war. The author recalls the warnings published in prior years in his peace organ, the Friedens-Warte, and frankly admits that he overrated the elements making for peace. His first analysis of causes leads him to the question of Alsace-Lorraine, and he even ventures a possible solution. He had long maintained that a good understanding

between France and Germany was the key to peace in Europe. Later, when the exchange of correspondence between the capitals of Europe begins to appear in the daily press, he alters his opinions on the causes of the war and reaches the conclusion that the Central Empires saw a favorable moment for establishing a technical superiority in arms and at the same time found the Russian military party only too willing to play the game. While these premises are reasonable enough, we fail to understand how they lead him to the conclusion that it is thus a "preventive war."

Even in the first month, he correctly foresees the intervention of the United States if the war is to continue for any great length of time. He never gives up the hope of a settlement through American mediation, and proposes to the late Edwin Mead, whom he sees in Leipsic, that the nations of North and South America should jointly offer mediation through the instrumentality of the Pan-American Union.

Although parts of the diary seem to have been published in Berlin shortly after they were written, he adopts from the beginning a distinctly critical tone in discussing the attempted justifications of the German and Austrian press. He does not hesitate to point out crucial omissions in the documentary evidence produced relating to Belgium. He condemns unqualifiedly the sinking of the Lusitania. On the other hand, he criticizes, upon legal and moral grounds, the assumption by Great Britain of the right to treat captured submarine crews other than as prisoners of war.

By the Spring of 1915, after removing to Switzerland, he has become convinced of the utter hypocrisy of the governments of the Central Powers. The results of his observations lead him to advocate the elimination of the traditions of feudalism in international relations, the democratization of government, "the internationalization of disputes," and such changes in the policies of all states as shall harmonize with the needs of international organization.

The material with which he deals is often journalistic, yet he maintains a philosophic point of view. No one will fail to respect the author's impartiality, nor his reverent yearning for the coming of a better day. He is truly a Jeremiah, lamenting the false ideals by which his people have been led to their doom.

ARTHUR K. KUHN.

The Conflict of Laws Relating to Bills and Notes. By Ernest H. Lorenzen, Professor of Roman Law and Comparative Jurispru dence in the School of Law, Yale University, New Haven: Yale University Press. 1919. pp. 337. $5.00.

The author has rendered a valuable service in collating and sharply contrasting many of the important differences existing under the various judicial systems relating to bills and notes. The three principles of these systems he designates as the French, the German, and the Anglo-American.

The "French" group comprises the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hayti, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Serbia, Turkey, Uruguay.

The "German" group comprises Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela.

So inconvenient have these discrepancies proved in international intercourse that the matter has been deemed worthy of international legislation, and a Uniform Law of Bills and Notes was adopted in 1912 by a conference held at The Hague, which, however, has never been actually ratified even by the Powers signatory thereto.

This proposed Uniform Law our author contrasts with the English Bills of Exchange Act and the American Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act.

If the book contained no more than its excellent presentation of the many sharp contrasts between the Hague Law and the AngloAmerican Laws, it would make a valuable contribution. But this part of the work is merely preliminary to a painstaking analysis and discussion of the differences of opinion prevalent among the various groups before mentioned upon the particular topic of the Conflict of Laws as applied to bills and notes, with pertinent suggestions as to how and to what extent these differences may and ought to be reconciled in the interests of uniformity and the convenience of international commerce.

The book is not light reading, nor intended to be. It is a careful study of a concrete condition which, if not thoroughly worked out, might seriously obstruct international trade. Mr. Lorenzen is to be

congratulated on a constructive bit of work which should be of distinct value in helping us to reach sound conclusions upon many of the problems he has discussed.

RALEIGH C. MINOR.

War Book of the University of Wisconsin. By Members of the Faculty. Madison: University of Wisconsin. 1918. pp. 266. Price, 50 cents.

During the academic year 1917-18 the faculty of the University of Wisconsin prepared a series of articles on the war which were published separately by the University and widely circulated. These articles did much at the time to unite public opinion in Wisconsin and elsewhere in support of the war; and as there has been a continued demand since their first publication, a committee of the faculty has collected the original issues and arranged them in a single volume. In its present form the book traces the steps by which the United States was transformed in less than three years from a peaceful nation to a democracy in arms fighting for its very existence. It is divided. into five parts, dealing with the following questions: (1) responsibility for the war; (2) Germany's methods of warfare; (3) the nature and causes of the German militaristic spirit; (4) America's entrance into the war, and finally (5) the fundamental issues of the war.

Since the original articles were published as war pamphlets to influence public opinion in favor of the war, the book in its present form should be judged in the light of its original purpose. The reader, therefore, will regard it not as a presentation of both sides of a great issue, but rather as the plea of advocates who justly felt that their own countrymen had been deceived by foreign propagandists and were not fully alive to the real issues involved. This does not mean that the chapters comprising the volume are not, in general, presented in a fair, painstaking and critical spirit. In fact, the great majority of the papers bear evidence of careful study, a comprehensive grasp of the issues raised, and they are generally well written. As war documents go, it would be difficult to find a clearer or juster statement of our cause. But, as with all war publications, its value is limited by its purpose; and since that purpose is to state the case