Do you believe in the Polish cause, as I do? Are you going to set up Poland, immature, inexperienced, as yet unorganized, and leave her with a circle of armies around her? Do you believe in the aspiration of the Czechoslovaks and the Jugoslavs, as I do? Do you know how many powers would be quick to pounce upon them if there were not the guarantees of the world behind their liberty?

Have you thought of the sufferings of Armenia? You poured out your money to help succor the Armenians after they suffered; now set your strength so that they shall never suffer again.

The arrangements of the present peace cannot stand a generation unless they are guaranteed by the united forces of the civilized world. And, if we do not guarantee them, can you not see the picture? Your hearts have instructed you where the burden of this war fell. It did not fall upon the national treasuries, it did not fall upon the instruments of administration, it did not fall upon the resources of the nation. It fell upon the victims' homes everywhere-where women were toiling in the hope that their men would come back.

When I think of the homes upon which dull despair would settle were this great hope disappointed, I should wish for my part never to have had America play any part whatever in this attempt to emancipate the world. But I talk as if there were any question. I have no more doubt of the verdict of America in this matter than I have doubt of the blood that is in me.

And so, my fellow-citizens, I have come back to report progress, and I do not believe that the progress is going to stop short of the goal. The nations of the world have set their heads now to do a great thing and they are not going to slacken their purpose. And when I speak of the nations of the world I do not speak of the governments of the world. I speak of the peoples who constitute the nations of the world. They are in the saddle and they are going to see to it that, if their present governments do not do their will, some other governments shall. And the secret is out and the present governments know it.

SENATORIAL OPPOSITION TO LEAGUE PLAN.-Just at the close of Congress, on March 4, 37 Republican senators signed a round robin declaring opposition to the League of Nations covenant as prepared by the Paris Committee. This opposition was based on various grounds-such as fear of conflict with the Monroe Doctrine; fear lest we should be forced against our will into disputes in all parts of the world; weakening of our sovereignty in matters of strictly national concern, such as the size of armaments, exclusion of foreigners, etc.; and a feeling expressed by many that, while a League was desirable, it should not be incorporated in the peace treaty or accepted in its present form. While hostility to the League plan was expressed by at least two Democratic senators, Reed of Missouri and Fall of New Mexico, the Republican manifesto was regarded as in part at least a political move designed to embarrass the Administration.

A resolution, introduced by Senator Lodge but not voted on, read as follows:

Whereas, Owing to the victory of the arms of the United States and of the nations with whom it is associated, a Peace Conference was convened and is now in session at Paris for the purpose of settling the terms of peace; and,

Whereas, A committee of the conference has proposed a constitution for a League of Nations, and the proposal is now before the Peace Conference for its consideration;

Now, therefore, be it resolved, by the Senate of the United States in the discharge of its constitutional duty of advice in regard to treaties, that it is the sense of the Senate that while it is the sincere desire that the nations of the world should unite to promote peace and general disarmament, the constitution of the League of Nations in the form now proposed to the Peace Conference should not be accepted by the United States.

THE PRESIDENT'S NEW YORK SPEECH.-On March 4, on the eve of his return to France, President Wilson spoke at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Without entering into a detailed defence of the League Covenant, the President declared that he was amazed at the ignorance regarding the state of the world displayed by its opponents.

"I have heard," he said, no constructive suggestion, I have heard nothing except will it not be dangerous to us to help the world?' It would be fatal to us not to help it." He added that, far from involving us in entangling alliances, the League is "an arrangement which will disentangle all the alliances in the world." The President declared his confidence that the sentiment of the country was behind him.

EX-PRESIDENT TAFT SUPPORTS LEAGUE.-The speech of President Wilson in New York was preceded by an address by ex-President Taft, in which he met in detail the arguments against American support of the League. Mr. Taft declared that our danger from foreign combinations would be greater without the League than with it; that the League covenant contained no provision preventing a country from resisting invasion, such as a border raid from Mexico; that the furnishing of military force to support League decisions would be voluntary rather than compulsory; that the covenant created no super-sovereignty; and that a treaty agreement limiting the power of Congress to make war or to increase armaments was constitutional, as shown by many precedents, such as the agreement with Great Britain not to fortify the Canadian frontier.

Mr. Taft, suggested that there should be some provision in the League plan for withdrawal from the League after reasonable notice. Appropriate words he thought might also be added to show that troubles in any continent would be the primary concern of nations of that continent, or hemisphere. This he considered clearly implied, but its explicit statement would relieve anxiety about European or Asiatic interference in America.

GERMANY

BAVARIAN PREMIER MURDERED.-Kurt Eisner, the Independent Socialist Premier of Bavaria, was shot on the streets of Munich on February 21. The assassin was Count Arco Valley, a Bavarian aristocrat and former officer. The murder was reported to be due to Eisner's exposure of the war guilt of the German military authorities and their inhuman treatment of prisoners of war, made at the Berne Socialist Congress, together with his later statement in Munich that he had documentary evidence to prove that the German general staff continued, even then, to carry on secret dealings with the Russian Reds.

According to the statement of a Geneva correspondent of the N. Y. Times, on February 25, ex-Crown Prince Rupprect of Bavaria returned from Switzerland to Bavaria on the day after this declaration by Eisner, and his return was probably connected with the event that followed. On the night preceding the assassination, several officers of the Bavarian Light Guards, in which Valley served, met and tossed dice to decide which should murder the Premier.

The murder was at once utilized by Bavarian Sparticides. When Herr Auer, Minister of the Interior, arose in the Diet to announce the murder of Eisner, a volley was fired from the gallery, seriously wounding the Minister and one of the deputies on the floor of the House. The Munich Central Council of Workmen and Soldiers took control, however, and on February 24 elected a provisional ministry including a majority of Moderate members-four Majority Socialists, three Independent Socialists, one member of the Peasant party and one Bourgeois. The Sparticides were thus barred out, and the government undertook concentration of troops to suppress their activities. On March 8 it was announced that the Diet would be convoked, in the expectation that it would confirm the new Socialist ministry.

BERLIN RIOTS.-On March 3 a general strike was declared in Berlin. All traffic stopped, and the city for a time was without water, electricity or gas. The strike was the result of a resolution passed on March 2 by the Workers' Council of Berlin by a bare majority over the Moderate members. Various armed bands, such as the "People's Republican Guard" and "Marine Guard" were organized by the Sparticides to carry out a reign. of terror.

Government troops at once closed in on the rebel forces, besieged their strongholds, and by the end of the week controlled the city, with the exception of certain suburbs. On March 8 the Majority Socialists of the Berlin Workmen's Council bolted and declared the strike off.

The later fighting during the week March 9-15 was marked by increasing savagery on both sides. As a result of Sparticide atrocities, Herr Noske, Secretary of Military Affairs, on March 10 declared no quarter to rebels captured with arms. An estimate of March 17 placed the number killed on both sides at over 1000, and the damage at over 40,000,000 marks.

RUSSIA

BALTIC PORTS TAKEN FROM REDS.-The ports of Libau and Windau, in Courland on the Baltic Sea, which were taken by the Bolsheviki on January 31, have been recaptured.

Windau was retaken by the Germans by a simultaneous land and sea attack after a violent battle, according to a Berlin dispatch.-N. Y. Times, 27/2.

WORK OF BOLSHEVIKI FORCES.-The Moscow general staff claims that in January and February the Red army reoccupied territory as large as France, with 1055 miles of railway. The Red army, adds the communique, will reach Archangel May 1.-Washington Post, 15/3.

POLAND RECOGNIZED BY ALLIES.-On February 21 formal announcement was made by the Supreme Council in Paris that the Allies would extend recognition to the Polish Government headed by M. Paderewski. On March 5 an Interallied Commission left Paris to arrange new armistice terms between the Germans and Poles. At a meeting of the Polish National Assembly on February 20 General Joseph Pilsudski was again made Chief of State, subject, however, to the will of the Assembly.

FAR EAST

KOREAN INDEPENDENCE AGITATION.-Independence demonstrations verging on revolt occurred in Korea during the first week of March. Thousands of demonstrators were arrested, and the Japanese soon had the movement under control. According to a Shanghai dispatch of March 14, upwards of 100 persons were killed in rioting.

President Wilson, according to a Washington dispatch of March 16, was asked by the Korean National Association to initiate action at the Peace Conference looking toward the independence of Korea, under a mandatory issued by the League of Nations.

JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.-Japan has no moral right to possession of the South Sea Islands taken from Germany and now under Japanese occupation, nor is any other nation entitled to ownership of this territory, according to Professor Sakuzo Yoshino, of the Tokyo Imperial University. who, in The Japan Advertiser of that city, suggests a plan for control of the islands that is practically the same as President Wilson's, namely, that they should be placed in charge of a League of Nations or an Interallied commission responsible for the education of the natives until they become civilized and competent to settle for themselves all questions of their future. If Japan should be this guardian, it is predicted, the islands might eventually be annexed to Japan. An official outline of Japan's intentions is given in Paris cables by Baron Nobuaki Makino, senior Japanese delegate to the Peace Conference, who says of the Marshall and Caroline groups of islands, peopled by wild and practically savage tribes, that Japan claims the right to occupy these islands for purposes of peaceful development." Japan contends, and will continue to contend, that she shall control the islands north of the equator, and it is her conviction that "the handing over of the supervision of these islands would be a just recognition of what services we rendered in maintaining the commerce of the Pacific and assisting our allies in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.” An official statement of Australia's views is given in Paris also by Premier William M. Hughes, who maintains that of the former German island possessions Australia claims full control of all lying below the equator, except Samoa, which should go to New Zealand, and that part of New Guinea which is in Dutch possession. What Australia wants is a settlement of the Pacific island question by the Peace Conference, the Premier is further quoted as saying, "such as she is entitled to have, one that will insure her national safety and guarantee her industrial, social, and racial policies." Australia prefers not to accept the mandate principle, but if compelled to do so "it is imperative that we must make the same laws and have over the new territories the same powers as we exercise over Australia.

Professor Yoshino foresees a competition in colonial policies among the Powers entirely different from that of the past. The fundamental feature in this competition will be the education of the people in the colonies so that they become competent to manage their own affairs. Formerly, we

are reminded, rivalry among the Powers in the development of colonies was based on the building up of commerce and industry. Under the new order of things, he points out that

"If Japan be able to educate the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands rightly, giving them such civilization as to make them self-governing, when the time comes that other Powers recognize the ability of the inhabitants to determine their own future they declare that they are desirous of becoming part of Japan, to which they owe their civilization and prosperity, Japan will properly be able to say that she made a great success. I am thinking always that the colonial policy of Japan, as well as that of all other Powers, should be changed as the result of the war, and in this respect I am confident that the questions arising regarding the settlement of the German colonies will prove helpful in bringing the Powers over to a new method and a new principle in their colonial policies."-Literary Digest, 22/2.

THE INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS OF JAPAN

An article in Engineering (London, February 21) gives an extended and highly interesting account of Japanese railroad and industrial development in the present century, during which she has grown into a great industrial nation, competing with western powers for the markets of the east. The latter part of the essay, dealing with Japan's advance into China, is as follows:

That Japan would eventually reach a state of industrial independence was without doubt to be expected, but her industrial domination of China was not; and yet it is possible, for the Japanese Government is doing everything it can to secure it. Thus Finance Minister Shoda in May, 1918, in an address to a general meeting to the bankers of Western Japan, emphasized the need for independent sources of supply for necessaries and expressed dissatisfaction at the amount of Japanese money invested in China although this amounted to 9,800,000l. in the year 1917 alone, not quite as much as Japan's total investment in the country previous to the war. He also said that for the encouragement of investment abroad, the government had decided to guarantee principal and interest to the amount. of 10,000,000l. in the Industrial Bank of Japan. This is sufficient indication of the government attitude, and the further increase of Japanese power in China is to be feared for the following reasons, which give very little hope of the maintenance of the Open-Door policy under a dominant Japan.

Thus in the leased territory in Manchuria and in her colonies Japan has always stifled all competition either by high preference rates or by methods more questionable, as in Manchuria, where Chinese banks are compelled to cash a full face value note depreciated to the amount of 40 per cent or over, if presented by Japanese nationals.

Methods like these, coupled with the notorious partiality of Japanese law courts, whether consular or otherwise, effectually discourage competition even without the fear that any competing business would not be killed immediately by transport difficulties on Japanese-controlled railways. Further no selection has been enforced by the government in the matter of emigrants, with the consequence that the name of Japan is continually being discredited in China by undesirables who seem to form the bulk of Japanese emigrants, judging from the disreputable trades engaged in and the low standard of their trade morality.

In addition, the government itself has at least laid itself open to the suspicion of fostering the continuance of the disastrous and wasteful war between North and South China, which has been going on since 1916, for she has lent money wholesale to North China, well knowing that there