Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

Air that has to come by cable

Is n't hot,

And it loses, round a table,

Quite a lot;

Out of date the code of Morse is We must mobilize our forces And assemble our resources

On the spot.

Are the Bolshies in Esthonia Now astir?

Is it strikes in Caledonia

That occur?

Commandeer all Handley-Pages Pay the pilots double wages, And bring in the Empire's sages To confer.

'ALUMNI CANTABRIGIENSES' THE first volume of Alumni Cantabrigienses, the monumental biographical list of all known students, graduates, and holders of offices at Cambridge University, will probably be issued next autumn. This volume, the first of the four which comprise the first part of the enormous collection, will comprise 20,000 names. All the names that can be recovered of the early members of the university from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries are to be inserted.

Two discoveries have been made. The poet John Collop, of whom almost no biographical details are known, entered Pembroke in 1641, and a student named Shakespere was at Christ's in 1544. The American careers of over a hundred settlers in New England, who were Cambridge men, are included.

THE MEMORIAL OF THE DRAGOON
GUARDS

A PORTABLE brass plaque, bearing the names of the regiment's dead in the war, is to be carried with the Dragoon Guards, one of the most famous organizations in the British Army, wherever it may be stationed. The plaque will be in charge of the regi

mental guard, and the names of the dead will be saluted daily with full military honors as the old guard goes off duty and the new guard comes on, at guard-mount.

M. PAUL POIRET'S PRIVATE THEATF

Nor content with his triumphs as designer of gowns, M. Paul Poiret has ventured into the world of theatrical producers, though only in a private theatre, situated in the gardens behind his house on Avenue Victor-Emmanuel, in Paris. His programmes manifest M. Poiret's fondness for parodies. An opera of Debussy and Maeterlinck has been mercilessly ridiculed. 'Footit,' a famous clown, has taken off the classical dancers, and M. Poiret is reported to have more distinguished names on his list of future victims, among them Mme. Yvette Guilbert. All seats are priced at thirty francs, so that the theatre is not so very private, after all, though it proudly claims to be the most expensive in Paris.

A SCOTCH KING'S RANSOM

SCOTLAND still owes England the last installments of the ransom of Robert II, of Scotland, who was captured by the English at Neville's Cross, in 1357. This is the statement of Professor Robert Rait, of Glasgow University, who in a recent lecture at the Royal Institution, London, said: 'It is perfectly clear that Scotland still owes England a considerable amount of money for that ransom. The last installments were never paid, and at compound interest the amount outstanding to-day would be a very large figure. As a Scotsman is now Chancellor of the Exchequer I have the less hesitation in drawing attention to the fact.

[graphic]

THE LIVING AGE

NUMBER 4021

JULY 30, 1921

A WEEK OF THE WORLD

CONDITIONS IN ANATOLIA

GENERAL LIMAN VON SANDERS, who was in charge of the German military mission in Turkey during the war, contributes a short article to Vossische Zeitung upon the present situation in the former Ottoman Empire. He says that the Nationalist movement in Turkey was not foreseen at the time of the Peace Conference, and is not appreciated at its true importance even to-day. Mustapha Kemal and his associates have demonstrated exceptional ability as organizers. They have proved their capacity, not only in the military field, but also in other directions, such as the improvement of Angora itself, described in our present issue. They are actually extending their railway system, in spite of the existing unsettled conditions and the war with Greece. General von Sanders describes in some detail new rail lines under construction, new auto-truck lines, and new electric-power developments. He estimates that Mustapha Kemal's army numbers about one hundred thousand men, and that it is growing stronger daily; in particular, the artillery has been strengthened materially by the receipt of modern French guns, captured from the armies of Denikin and Wrangel, sent by the Soviet authorities. The Turks have even

succeeded in abstracting some heavy artillery from the Constantinople arsenal under the very eyes of the Entente commanders. He says that the Nationalists have very ambitious plansa Pan-Islam league to embrace all the Mohammedan countries from India to Morocco, with the Osman government at the head. The alliance with the Bolsheviki is merely an opportunist device, from which both parties receive material advantage for the time being. At heart, however, the Bolsheviki and the Turkish Nationalists are diametrically opposite and antagonistic. Mustapha Kemal has a foreign legion consisting largely of anti-Bolshevist and Russian refugees from the armies of Denikin and Wrangel. Von Sanders thinks that England will deal cautiously with Angora, in order not to antagonize its own Mohammedan subjects. Italy is laying the basis for a flourishing trade in the old Turkish dominions by its conciliatory policy toward the present Turkish leaders. Asia Minor is well provisioned; more than forty million kilogrammes of wheat, twenty million kilogrammes of barley, and large supplies of wool, hides, and tobacco, are in storage in Anatolia.

Colonel Feyler, a special correspondent of the Journal de Genève on the Greco-Turkish front, describes the military situation there last June as

Copyright 1921, by The Living Age Co.

follows: The Greek army in Anatolia formed two mobile groups, operating on the north and south, when the recent campaign opened. The Kemalists attempted to make a drive between these groups, which the Greeks eventually checked. While the campaign has so far resulted in a stalemate, the Greek army is stronger than at the beginning of the campaign and its morale is excellent. Meanwhile, however, the Turks have also strengthened their own forces, which number between 80,000 and 90,000 regulars, in addition to auxiliaries. While the Greeks are the more numerous, the character of the country in which they are operating and their extended front make this numerical superiority a minor advantage to them. The extremities of the Greek front resting on the sea are 180 miles apart, a distance equal to the entire French front in August, 1914. Moreover, the Greek lines bend inward to a point more than 200 miles from the coast. The ability of the Greeks to hold this great area is due entirely to the existence of a large friendly population of their own nationality within these territories.

Reports of slightly earlier date from Angora represent the Turks as tremendously set up by their recent victories over the Greeks. One of the members of the National Assembly described his nation as the 'historical rampart of Islam' which had cut to pieces for the second time 'the most contemptible of its enemies, the Greeks.' At In-Eunu, Islam had been saved by the valiant Ottoman cavalry, 'whose very cemeteries formerly froze with fright the Christian knights at Nikopolis.' Hakimet-I-Mille (National Justice), the principal newspaper of Angora, satirizes the recent friendly overtures of France, which it calls by the Turkish equivalent of 'molasses to catch flies.' It says: "The Tartuffes of Paris are

pursuing their old tricky games in seeking an agreement regarding Cilicia'; and it threatens that country with a Turkish peril as well as a German peril. It is equally savage in its attack upon Italy, in spite of the latter's concilatory policy. It accuses the Italians of being Machiavellians and cheats, 'who try to get by sinuous diplomacy what they have not the strength to take by force.' It characterizes England as 'the plague of humanity,' and tells its readers that the world will never have peace so long as an English government exists.' The only country which finds grace in Moslem eyes is Soviet Russia. The recent treaty between the two countries allots Batum to Georgia, and Kars and Ardahan to Turkey, and provides for the freedom of the Dardanelles.

-

Talaat Pasha, recently assassinated at Berlin by a young Armenian, in revenge for his leading part in the Armenian massacres, a guilt so clearly proved that the German courts acquitted the assassin, is thus eulogized by Yeni Gun (The New Day), which is the official organ of the Angora government: 'Talaat is a martyr for his country. That is beyond question. We bow with reverence at his grave, and bow lower yet to kiss his eyes. Talaat was a political giant. He was a genius. History will do him justice. Talaat was a man of the law.'

The same journal thus describes his funeral at Berlin: "The funeral services in Berlin were of indescribable grandeur, attended by an enormous throng of many thousands. Every military, literary, political, and artistic celebrity in Germany followed the great patriot to his grave.'

THE SOUTH SLAV CONSTITUTION

THE main provisions of the new South Slav Constitution, recently adopted by a vote of 227 to 93 are summarized

« VorigeDoorgaan »