'Finally, in the Baltic and the North Sea a flotilla of mine sweepers has been formed, under the command of the Admiralty, which has undertaken the dangerous task of clearing away the mine fields. The task of these men is being accomplished in silence, but with energy and decision. May they to some slight extent obliterate the blot on the escutcheon of our poor navy, although our shield will, unfortunately, never again regain its former lustre; the Social Democrats have taken good care of that!'

LOVERS of England would surely regret to miss so lovely a picture as Professor Santayana's Grisaille which appears in a current Athenæum.

'England is preeminently a land of atmosphere. A luminous haze permeates everywhere, softening distances, magnifying perspectives, transfiguring familiar objects, harmonizing the accidental, making beautiful things magical and ugly things picturesque. Road and pavement become wet mirrors, in which the fragments of this gross world are shattered, inverted, and transmuted into jewels, more appealing than precious stones to the poet, because they are insubstantial and must be loved without being possessed. Mists prolong the most sentimental and soothing of hours, the twilight, through the long summer evenings and the whole winter's day. In these countrysides so full of habitations and these towns so full of verdure, lamplight and twilight cross their rays; and the passers-by, mercifully

wrapped alike in one crepuscular mantle, are reduced to unison and simplicity, as if sketched at one stroke by the hand of a master.

'English landscape, if we think only of the land and the works of man upon it, is seldom on the grand scale. Charming, clement, and eminently habitable, it is almost too domestic, as if only home passions and caged souls could live there. But lift the eyes for a moment above the line of roofs or of tree-tops, and there the grandeur you miss on the earth is spread gloriously before you. The spirit of the atmosphere is not compelled, like the god of pantheism, to descend in order to exist, and wholly to diffuse itself among earthly objects. It exists absolutely in its own person as well, and enjoys in the sky, like a true deity, its separate life and being. There the veil of Maya, the heavenly Penelope, is being woven and rent perpetually, and the winds of destiny are always charmingly defeating their apparent intentions. Here is the playground of those early nebulous gods that had the bodies of giants and the minds of children.

'In England the classic spectacle of thunderbolts and rainbows appears but seldom; such contrasts are too violent and definite for these tender skies. Here the conflict between light and darkness, like all other conflicts, ends in a compromise; cataclysms are rare, but revolution is perpetual. Everything lingers on and is modified; all is luminous and all is gray. 'G. Santayana.'

Prince Lichnowsky was the last Ambassador of the German Empire to Great Britain. His reputation is that of a liberal statesman.

Sir George Buchanan, on the other hand, was the last British Ambassador to the Russian Imperial Court, and is better fitted than any other man living to deal with the subject which he has presented in his paper.

J. Hessen is a prominent journalist now attached to the Dagens Nyheter. The article here reprinted forms one of a series now appearing in that journal.

Franz Behrens is a member of the National Assembly and President of the Central Association of German Foresters, Agricultural Laborers, and Vineyard Workers.

BY LOUIS GOLDING

Poor trussed-up lad, what piteous guise

Cloaks the late splendor of your eyes,
Stiffens the fleetness of your face
Into a mask of suave disgrace,
And makes a sleek caricature

Of
your taut body's swift and sure
Poise like a proud bird waiting one
Moment ere he taunt the sun;
Your body that stood foolish-wise
Against the treacheries of the skies,
That star-like hung deliberate
Above the dubieties of Fate,
But with an April gesture chose
Unutterable and certain woes?

And now you stand with discreet charm,

Dropping a napkin round your arm,
Anticipate your tip while you
Hear the commercial grocers chew;
You shuffle with their soups and beers
Who held at heel the howling fears:
You whose young limbs were proud to

dare

Challenge the black hosts of Despair.

The New Witness

purple hills

Ran down in beauty to the water's

edge.

And all the air was loud with singing rills

With pools o' rain under the fuchsia hedge.

There's some that do be dying of the heat:

The children here are faint as withered flowers

I'd like to see them paddling with bare feet

In the wet grass when Leenane's drenched in showers.

Leenane, I'll not forget you night or day.

You trouble me all day and in my dreams

I do be traveling home to Killery Bay And sweet Leenane and all its singing streams.

The New Witness

YOUR FACE TO ME

BY IRIS TREE

Your face to me is like a beautiful city Dreaming forever by the rough wild

sea,

And I the ship upon a wilderness of

waves

Heavily laden with memories. . . .
I roam all over the earth

Making rhymes of you, and singing

songs,

Because your face will never let me rest,

Because I cannot frame it in a star Surrounded with my cloudy reveries, Because I may not pluck it like a flower

To breathe the incense of its perfumed soul

Your face is like the carved hilt of a

sword

Whose sheath is in my breast!

The Nation

IN Germany, as in so many places, there is a struggle going on between the old ideas of political democracy and the idea of the Soviet or industrial democratic system which is connected with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The strikes and bloodshed which took place in Germany during the week March 1-8, subsequent events, and the proposals for the 'socialization of industry,' can only be properly understood in the light of this conflict.

The revolution in Germany brought into existence two groups of bodies claiming authority:

(1) Political Democratic Bodies of the old type. The most important

of these is the Central Government for the whole Empire of Germany, with Ebert as President, and Scheidemann as Premier. It derives its authority from the National Assembly, elected by universal equal suffrage. It is supported by the various States' Governments, e.g., Prussia and Saxony.

(2) Industrial or Soviet Bodies. Workers' Councils or Soviets were formed all over Germany in the early days of the revolution, in imitation of

VOL. 14-NO. 721

the Bolshevik system. These Soviets are grouped in a National, Central, or Pan-German Congress of Soviets. The Soviets of Berlin are grouped in a special Congress of their own, which has assumed a more than local authority.

The struggle between the political government and the Soviets began very early. Attempts were made to play off the Congress of Soviets against the National Assembly. They collapsed at the Congress held on December 16th, when the majority voted for the holding of a National Assembly, and an Executive Committee, consisting of Majority Socialists, was elected to work with the government. But the conflict was over. The 'Spartacists,' or, as they are more properly called, the Communists, continued to demand the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' and a 'Soviet Republic.'

not

The course of the struggle has been a gradual weakening of the Central Government and the Majority Socialists before the violent tactics of the Spartacists. At first the Majority relegated the Soviets to purely 'social tasks,' and denied them any political