"the open door and equal opportunity" has been continued with success. An admirable policy, and admirably urged. But it seems to have struck a snag in the Turk. The Turk has slammed the door tight. "Equal opportunity," yes; but in the sense that there will be no opportunity for anybody unless he be a Moslem, or, maybe, a Bolshevik. What success the Allies may have in extricating our chestnuts, remains to be seen.

The most famous achievement of the Washington Conference -the agreement as to capital ships-was a formal recognition by the Powers of the fact that the capital ship is obsolescent, that money spent on capital ships is so much good coin thrown away, representing a huge economic loss. The world was rightly astonished-one is still bewildered-by such an exhibition of international common sense. But far more significant, though less dramatic, was the decision of the Conference that "it is not at present practicable to impose effective limitations upon the number and characteristics of aircraft, either commercial or military.” Our acceptance of the status quo as to fortifications and naval bases in the Philippines and Guam, which seemed to some a sublime act of faith, should be considered in the light of the above. Fortifications, naval bases, ships, all are vulnerable to attack by aircraft. The future of war is in the air. “And what prophylactic measures shall we adopt, we, who are sincerely desirous to pacify the world?" said the conferees to one another. "None," was the answer, "for none would be effective."

There seems to be a general opinion that the Conference did little for China. On the contrary, I think the Conference did all that it behooved it to do for China; the China, that is, of the Eighteen Provinces. As to Manchuria, that is another story, too complicated for consideration here; and so is Mongolia, the protégé of Moscow. The conferees concurred, I think sincerely, in a policy contemplating ultimate complete emancipation of the Eighteen Provinces, to be accomplished by discreet stages, and they set on foot certain admirable practical arrangements pursuant thereto. Complete emancipation of China presupposes a Government competent to exercise full sovereignty; a Government not yet in sight. It should be remembered, when consider

ing what the Conference did for China, that the Shantung negotiation, though nominally apart from the Conference, was really part and parcel thereof.

"Well, then, the Conference broke down on Siberia," a doubting Thomas will say. "The Japanese walked right over us Americans." It did look like that. But it was announced the other day that the Japanese had completely evacuated the Siberian mainland. The Japanese were allowed to "save face" at the Conference; and then they did what we wanted them to do. And, again, the Japanese, without any commitment thereto, have evacuated their principal garrison in China-the Hankow garrison. These be indirect results of the Washington Conference, not less important than some direct results.

The outstanding matter of the twelvemonth in the British Empire was the Irish settlement. To be sure, the settlement is not yet complete, but the leaders of all the British parties are pledged to ratification of the Constitution of the Free State and other necessary consummating legislation. On the day when the Irish Free State acquires full legal status as a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the whole world will say, "Godspeed!" except, of course, de Valera and his "irregulars", who continue to carry on a guerrilla warfare against their countrymen, marked by infamous cruelty and wanton destruction.

By the grace of Allah and the British Parliament, Egypt has become a kingdom; but the British gift is not to be considered consummated until enactment of an Egyptian Constitution which shall contain clauses accepting and sanctioning the reservation of certain rights to the British, and until certain indemnity and other arrangements (chiefly for the relief of discharged British officials) have been carried out. Among the rights which Britain stipulates to retain are the right to take such measures as may be necessary to protect the property and personal rights of foreigners in Egypt, and the right to maintain in Egypt the garrisons necessary to safeguard the imperial communications through the Suez Canal and into the Sudan; the latter area to remain under British rule. When the British Government provisionally renounced the Protectorate, it was not thought neces

sary to set down in writing the well-understood condition that the Egyptian Government must demonstrate the disposition and the capacity to protect foreign lives and property pending fulfillment of the conditions named. About the first of August, Field Marshal Lord Allenby, Lord High Commissioner of Great Britain in Egypt, handed the Egyptian Premier a note from the British Government to the effect that, unless the Egyptian Government should at once take order effectively to protect foreign lives and property, the British Government would resume its former degree of control in the land of the Nile. The news from Egypt since the delivery of that note has been most meagre. Between Lord Allenby, on the one hand, who insists that the conditions of the gift of his royal honors shall be fulfilled, and the Levantine scum of Cairo, on the other, who insist that they shall not, King Fuad is hard put to it. "Tis a pity he should be unking'd, for never did a king so enjoy kinging it; but, since he assumed the crown, the great British riverine works have been neglected, the desert has begun to encroach upon the sown, and in Upper Egypt the bandits hold full sway. So much for Self Determination, which in Egypt means the turning over of the fellaheen to the tender mercies of the most rapacious and cruel set of landlords and officials in the world, and the renunciation of that unexampled material prosperity which has been built up since 1882 under British direction.

In India the experiment of the "Dyarchy", that is, of a largely increased measure of self-government, is passing through its first critical stage. The joint Hindu-Mohammedan agitation reached its height in the spring. In March, the Viceroy of India, Lord Reading, apparently in a blue funk, sent his famous Delhi telegram to Mr. Montagu, British Secretary of State for India, urging on behalf of the Indian Moslems "evacuation of Constantinople, sovereignty of the Sultan over the Holy Places, and restoration of the Turk in Thrace and Smyrna". Note, please, that the telegram demanded more for the Turk than Mustapha Kemal Pasha himself had demanded up to that time. The final sentence of the telegram requested authority from Mr. Montagu for its publication. Mr. Montagu cabled the authority without consulting the British Premier, and thereby of course lost his

official head. The result was happy for the British Raj. Mr. Montagu's successor, Lord Peel, being in the right line of British imperial tradition, instructed Lord Reading to deal firmly with sedition, of whatever religious or racial complexion. Lord Reading obeyed, and clapped into quod the most important agitators, including Mahatma Gandhi, St. Gandhi, the leader of the Hindu "non-violent non-coöperation" movement. Now the Hindu masses expected some manifestation of divine displeasure when Gandhi was incarcerated; none such appearing, Gandhi has lost "kudos", and his Hindu movement has subsided. The Mohammedans likewise reacted, as was to be expected, to firm treatment. The British Raj is more secure than it was a year ago, thanks largely to the Delhi telegram. It is to be remarked that the Moslem leaders of India were not particularly concerned about the Caliph. Their objective was Indian and national-to destroy the British Raj and establish a Mohammedan State in India (involving the subjection of 220,000,000 Indians to 60,000,000 Mohammedans). They were using the Turkish question for propaganda purposes, arousing the wrath of the Mohammedan masses against the British by the charge that the latter had desecrated the Holy Places and contemplated the destruction of Islam; and St. Gandhi was their tool. Now they have no logical leg to stand on, but doubtless will continue to agitate upon their stumps. If you have an Empire and propose to keep it, you must be imperial-minded and act imperiously.

Lack of space compels me to omit discussion of many important matters, such as: the internal political situation in Britain, culminating in the disruption of the Coalition, the fall of Lloyd George, and the dissolution of Parliament; the formal establishment of British mandate rule in Palestine; and the developments of British policy with reference to Mesopotamia or the Kingdom of Irak, which policy has received definition in a recent treaty, and the prospect of which kingdom is clouded by the fact that the Turkish National Pact lays claim to the Mosul oil regions.

The statement made by a British publicist in August that "certainly one-fifth and possibly one-quarter of the British people are economically not only unproductive, but a first charge

and heavy burden on the industry of the remainder," is still very nearly true. There is steady improvement, but very, very gradual. Yet, marvel of marvels, the sovereign is almost back to the equivalent of $4.84.

Italy has had a year of political vicissitudes, culminating in the most remarkable of revolutions; practically bloodless, for not more than fifty lives were lost in connection therewith. Towards the end of October Mussolini, the Fascista leader, demanded that control of the Government be given to the Fascisti. Armed Fascista detachments marched on Rome and encamped just without the city. Premier Facta submitted to the King a decree proclaiming a state of siege throughout the kingdom. The king refused to sign, and sent for Mussolini. Mussolini formed a Government, giving the chief portfolios to Fascisti, himself taking Foreign Affairs and the Interior.

The Fascismo movement was started to rid Italy of the Communist menace. It has grown to represent the will of the Italian middle class, tired of shuffling and inefficiency in Government. But irregular methods of justice are apt to corrupt the justicers; and power achieved by extra-legal means is held by a dubious tenure. It is highly flattering to the genius of the Italian people that one inclines to expect happy consequences from the revolution. The Chamber reconvened on November 16. Much depends on its temper. If it refuses to coöperate in carrying through the Fascismo programme of domestic reforms, including important changes in the electoral law, it is possible that further extra-legal measures will be required to consummate the revolution.

The world is watching for the unfolding of Mussolini's foreign policy; Jugoslavia, at least, not without a certain trepidation. But whereas the other day, being in opposition, the Fascista leaders talked in 'Ercles' vein, already, being in power, they talk of "dignity and expansion within the limits of our possibilities, and of equilibrium"; which is another sort of speech.

A review of the year which omits detailed consideration of events in France, Germany and Russia, is, to put it mildly, incomplete; but such omission is necessary. The most important