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Segre, appeared in Vienna with a large staff of high officers. For a long time he was chief of the Armistice Commission and supreme representative of all Allied powers in Austria. This power he wielded in the most arbitrary way for exacting whatever he pleased from helpless Austria. She was compelled to deliver a great part of her rolling-stock, goods of all kinds, and a great many art treasures to which Italy had no claim whatever. When Austria protested against these rapacious proceedings, the general threatened that he would stop all food-trains for Vienna and leave the town to complete starvation. At the same time the Italian officers were busy carrying on a most flourishing business in everything, and particularly illicit trade. Whoever wanted to smuggle his fortune out of the country, or to contravene import restrictions, etc., had only to apply to these helpers. Moreover, they embarked upon the most doubtful financial transactions on a gigantic scale. A great part of Austria's wealth passed into their hands, among it also the famous oremountain in Styria, Austria's greatest ironore mine, with the biggest iron works. When the Government tried to intervene and to buy the shares itself, General Segrè forced the Government to deliver the company to the Italian capitalists. The leader of the Italian group was another Mr. Segrè, who became one of the directors of the company!

Now the news comes from Italy that General Segrè and thirteen colonels, majors, and other officers of his staff have been arrested, being charged with having abused their official power in Austria for their own advantage and to the detriment of the state. The Italian Socialist press has long been urging that Mr. Segrè should be arrested. Among other charges, he is also accused of having allowed food destined for relief to be

sold to illicit traders. It is reported that the

loss of the Italian fiscus amounts to about

half a milliard lire. After the occupation of Austria's southern provinces, the Italians seized several hundred million kronen, which were to be converted into lire. This transaction also gave opportunity for great abuses. The Italian officers did also a very profitable illicit trade with the Hungarian Communist Government of Bela Kun. They

sold motor-cars to this government, for which they received three million kronen in gold and twenty-four millions in paper. This money seems to have disappeared altogether. At the same time General Segrè, in the name of the Allies, forced the Austrian Government to close the frontier against Hungary; and when Austria protested, she was threatened with a renewal of the blockade!

THE REICHSTAG GROWS RAMPAGEOUS

THE old German Reichstag was one of the most decorous legislative assemblies in Europe, partly because Germany did not have a true parliamentary government and the life and fortunes of ministries did not depend upon the outcome of debates. In this respect that body has changed for the worse under the Republic, though hitherto disorderly conduct on the floor has been confined to the interchange of such verbal courtesies as 'liar,' 'scoundrel,' and still stronger expressions, which it is not desirable to translate. Recently, fisticuffs between a Nationalist and a Communist member, who became enraged during a debate upon the assassination of Gareis, the Socialist member from Munich, whose murder we referred to in our issue of July 23, were prevented only by the courageous intervention of two lady members, one a Nationalist and the other an Independent Socialist. They seized their masculine colleagues by the coattails and refused to be shaken off. The Socialist lady's hair came down in the struggle, but she hung on dauntlessly, and eventually led her party colleague meekly back to his place.

EMPIRES OF STEEL

THE London Outlook publishes an interesting rumor, apropos of the recent conference between Messrs. Loucheur and Rathenau, the French

and German Ministers of Reconstruction, at Wiesbaden, to the effect that powerful financial groups in France and Germany have made overtures to an important banking family- the Warburgs, of New York and Hamburgfor a triple alliance in the iron-and-steel industry. This, of course, would leave Great Britain out in the cold. Having once fairly started in the direction of industrial recovery, French ambitions seem to have been diverted from military to economic channels. Walter Duranty, writing to this journal from Paris, refers to an article by Otto Kahn, the American banker, in Le Matin, in which he lays down two conditions which France must fulfill before it can hope for financial aid from America: It must do away with the spirit and atmosphere of war, and it must assume anew the ways and mentality of peace. These words 'sank home, for they came at a psychological moment.'

SOUTH AMERICA AND THE LEAGUE

A WELL-INFORMED writer reviews, in a series of articles published by L'Indépendance Belge, the sentiment of South America toward the League of Nations. He suggests that the coolness of Argentina toward the League is due partly to jealousy of Brazil, which stands high in the good graces of the Allies and is treated by them, to some extent, as the spokesman for Latin America. O Pais, an important Brazilian journal, asserts that Argentina's neutrality during the war was of a doubtful quality which deprived it of moral strength. El Dia, of Montevideo, also believes that the preponderance of Brazil in the League assembly was one of the reasons for Argentina's withdrawal. The author of these articles, who shares the repugnance which all Belgians feel to the admission of Germany to the League, emphasizes the fact that, although Peru

and Bolivia failed to secure from the League the consideration of their claims against Chile for the fulfillment of the Treaty of Ançon, they still remained loyal to that organization.

LAND REFORM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

THE new land law enacted at Prague provides for the compulsory sale and subdivision of all estates in excess of one hundred and fifty hectares of cultivated land, or two hundred and fifty hectares including forest and waste land. land. Owners are compensated at what, in their opinion, is a very low price the appraised valuation of the land before the war. No compensation is given to the former royal family. The great estate of the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, where Kaiser Wilhelm visited, has been confiscated by the government. The purpose of the law is political as well as social. It is designed to destroy the influence of the conservative nobles. Only cottagers and other rural laborers are allowed to purchase the subdivided estates, and their allotments are limited to what one family can cultivate without hired help. Critics of the law assert that it will give a set-back to scientific farming, by breaking up many model estates and discouraging the use of steam ploughs, threshing machines, and other power machinery. Sugarmills and distilleries for making potato alcohol are also likely to be affected. Consequently, the government is proceeding cautiously, and has so far alienated only three hundred thousand hectares, or about seven hundred and fifty thousand acres, of the large estates. A programme providing for the alienation of four hundred and ninetytwo thousand hectares additional within the next three years has just been adopted.

MINOR NOTES

ACCORDING to the London Outlook 'something of a struggle' is proceeding in Paris between the Morgan group and Kuhn, Loeb & Co., for the privilege of underwriting German indemnity bonds in New York. The Morgan firm has already suggested that half a billion dollars might be placed in the United States at 95, if bearing five or five and a half per cent interest and guaranteed by France as well as Germany.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Manchester Guardian has been investigating the old legend, that the great Japanese banks are forced to employ Chinese clerks in positions of trust because Japanese clerks are untrustworthy. His report covers the seventeen largest native banks of Japan, and shows that of the 9486 employees of these institutions, 9473 are Japanese, 12 are Korean, and one 'foreign.' These institutions do not have a single Chinese employee. Conditions are somewhat different in foreign banks having a branch in Japan. The two principal British banking corporations in the Orient the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and the Chartered Bank of Australia, India, and China - frequently transfer Chinese clerks from their older and larger China houses to their Japan branches. They have 467 employees in Japan, of whom 134 are Americans, British, or other Europeans, 118 Chinese, and 215 Japanese.

AMONG the other hardships afflicting German university students in the present meagre times is the general curtailment of retail credits, which falls heavier, perhaps, upon this class than any other. Before the war, students almost invariably ran up longtime bills against tailors and other purveyors to their most essential needs.

So well recognized was this custom that in 1822, Leipzig University passed a statute prescribing the maximum debts which a student might incur. Some of these limits were: $12 for books, $1 for stationery, $30 to tailors, $12 to shoemakers, $1 for beer, $2 for wine, $1 for what we call soft drinks, $1 for billard-room and bowling-alley fees, and $4 for livery hire.

THE Manchester Guardian, in welcoming to that city the Second World's Cotton Conference, extends a special greeting to 'our American friends, who naturally form the larger number of the delegates.' In spite of the efforts of the Empire to extend its own cotton-growing areas, there is, in the opinion of this journal, ‘grave danger that the world's need of cotton will before long seriously outstrip the supply.' It comments that Lancashire is as powerless as the American planters to increase prices arbitrarily to a point that will make cotton-growing remunerative in our Southern states. That will have to come as a result of a betterment in the cotton industry throughout the world.

A MOVEMENT has started in South America in favor of a tariff union between Argentina and Chile. In discussing this proposal, La Prensa argues that it is absurd for these two countries to spend vast sums building railways through the Andes, and then to erect a tariff barrier to prevent traffic over them. It appeals to the example of the United States, where more than 100,000,000 people enjoy free trade among themselves, as an argument in favor of a similar policy in South America.

VISCOUNT KATO, in a recent party address at Osaka, put himself and his party on record in favor of a reduction of naval armaments by international agreement.

BY J. O. P. BLAND

From The Observer, June 19, 26 (MIDDLE-GROUND LIBERAL SUNDAY PAPER)

Of all the questions which await the deliberations and decisions of the Peace Cabinet of the Empire, there is none more important and none more complex than that of the future of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Broadly speaking, public opinion in the Dominions and in India appears to favor a renewal of the Alliance, upon terms, and a similar disposition has been clearly manifested in the press and in the utterances of public men in Japan. At the same time, it appears to be generally understood that the terms of the present treaty will require modification and closer definition under certain headings if the pact is to serve as a useful and permanent instrument, adaptable to the changed and changing conditions in the Far East. So many and so great, indeed, are the changes which have taken place on both sides of the Pacific since the treaty was renewed, for the second time, on July 13, 1911; so few remain of the causes which led to the signature of the original agreement in January, 1902, that at first sight the necessity, and even the utility, of a new Treaty of Alliance may not be apparent.

Some of those who question or oppose it have invoked the Covenant of the League of Nations as a fundamental change in world-politics, to which both Great Britain and Japan have subscribed, which should, as a matter of course, render all offensive and defensive alliances superfluous, not to say inexpedient. Others point to the fact that the danger of Russian aggression against India and Eastern Asia, the first

cause of the Alliance, having ceased to exist, no good purpose, essential to the preservation of peace, will be served by its renewal. But the elimination of Russia's military activities in the Far East is only one of many dramatic changes which have taken place in that region during the past ten years. The passing of the German fleet; the rapid increase of Japan's wealth and commerce, resultant from the war in Europe; the definite adoption by the United States of a policy aiming at naval supremacy; the opening of the Panama Canal; the collapse of constituted authority in China; the movements toward independence of Mongolia and Tibet; these, and the increasing severity of economic pressure in all parts of the globe, have combined to transfer the centre of the world's immediate problems, political and economic, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

And it is because of this transference, and of the elements of strife latent in the new situation thus created, that it is to-day more than ever desirable that Great Britain and Japan should renew their Alliance, under conditions calculated to prevent the Far East from becoming once more the arena of conflicting interests; that, pending the general sanction of the League of Nations as an effective international authority, they should unite and agree in a common policy of good-will and reciprocity, based on a community of legitimate commercial interests.

In discussing the conditions under which the Alliance should be renewed,

no good purpose will be served by shutting our eyes to accomplished facts, unpleasant though they may be. Let us not try to solve difficult questions with catchwords, or to dodge realities with formulæ. The fundamental realities which confront us to-day in the Far East, taken in the order of their importance, are: first, the military weakness, financial chaos, and political disorganization of China; second, the economic and political ascendancy of Japan in that country and her policy of 'peaceful penetration' in Manchuria and Mongolia; and third, the increasing recognition by the commercial powers, notably the United States, of the future importance of China as a market and a potential factor in world-economics.

The extent and results of the ascendancy which Japan has established in China in the course of the past ten years will be discussed in due course. For the present, I deal only with the actual situation in the eighteen provinces of China, desiring at the outset to emphasize the fact, which every impartial observer must admit, that the immediate future offers no hope of the establishment of a stable central government at Peking or of permanent financial equilibrium. And this being so, no renewal of the Alliance can serve to promote the cause of peace in the Far East, or to reconcile the respective interests of the commercial powers, unless it reasserts in all sincerity that article of the existing treaty which provides for the preservation of the common interests of all powers in China by insuring independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all nations in China.'

Now, the history of what has happened in Korea and the failure of the Treaty of Portsmouth to protect China's sovereign rights in Manchuria since 1905, afford sufficient proof, if

proof be needed, that Conventions of this kind can never be relied upon to serve their avowed, benevolent ends, unless inspired by permanent community of interest or by mutual recognition of restraining forces in the background. Therefore, if the renewal of the Alliance is to be of real benefit to China, and, through her, to the cause of peace and international commerce, those who negotiate it must begin by defining clearly the nature and scope of this community of interest, and thereafter proceed to reconcile it with the accomplished facts of the situation, on broad lines of policy, wherever this can be done without violation of fundamental principles of justice and right. A step toward full and frank discussion of the actual position of affairs in China has recently been taken in the negotiations of the FourPowers Consortium, and in the conclusion of their international agreement to render financial assistance to China under conditions which, in the words of the American State Department, shall 'supplant the intense spirit of competition by a spirit of mutuality and coöperation.' But more remains to be done, and certain things to be undone, before the community of interest, or, in other words, the principle of equal opportunities, can be regarded as satisfactorily established and safeguarded for the future.

The salient and incontestable fact that emerges from the recent history of China is that the political factions that have misruled the country since the Revolution not only have proved themselves incapable of preserving its independence and integrity, but that many of their actions have tended directly to jeopardize that independence and to undermine that integrity. This aspect of the Chinese question must be faced. Public opinion in England and in America is vaguely conscious of the fact that the 'forward' policy adopted by Japan

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