66 INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 66 66 MR. HENRY S. L. POLAK—an idealistic and imaginative British-Hebrew who has spent several years in helping to improve the lot of Indians in South Africa-writes in the Indian Review (Madras) that the adjustment of irritating questions relating to the rights of Indians in that Dominion practically synchronised with the outbreak of the war." This settlement, he states, went far to make it possible for India to take her part in the war without heart-burning or heart-searching." The repeal of the hated £3 tax upon the freedom and honour of ex-indentured Natal Indians" and the recognition of "the bulk of Indian marriages that had never previously received the sanction of South African law removed grievances that were agitating the Indian community. He points out that, so far as legal theory goes, "Indian immigration into the Union is as free to enter as Europeans," but in actual practice only "a certain number of persons (of Indian descent), qualified by education or other special attainment, may, by administrative arrangement under the law, enter each year." Many grievances remain to be removed: but Indians have patriotically vowed to refrain from agitation for the duration of the war. Indians in South Africa have sent two double companies of stretcher-bearers to East Africa, and have liberally contributed to relief funds. Mr. Polak writes that their patriotism, coupled with Indian participation in the struggle, have led to the improvement of relations between the South African Government and the Indian community. He adds that Indian leaders are consulted, and their views considered" by Government, and that the Union Minister of the Interior assured him that the Government "have no wish whatever to do anything to disturb " the existing relations. He goes on to say that the spirit of hostility has not altogether disappeared. On the contrary 66 the European retail traders, in some parts of the Union, appear to have forgotten that a great war is progressing, in which both India and South Africa are taking a not unimportant part. Their horizon, as ever, is bounded by the lining of their pockets, and they cannot see that, though they themselves may not profit so much, others— the consumers may gain from Indian competition. JAPAN'S NEW FACTORY An editorial article in Commercial Nagoya (Nagoya, Japan) frankly acknowledges that the Japanese press and public are divided in their opinion as to the advisability of putting the new factory law into effect from June last. Advocates of this piece of legislation "declare that the inauguration of the law is a blessing to the working-class, and that it marks an era in our socio-economic life." The official view is that the law will greatly improve "the working conditions of labourers, and particularly those of juvenile workers." The factory owners consider that it was wrong to curtail the work-day to twelve hours-for that includes mealtime and morning and afternoon recess, and they are agitating for a fourteen-hour workday. The Government deputed Mr. M. Oka, "Chief of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry in the Department of Agriculture," to make a tour of the land to explain the aims and objects of the law, and to create opinion in favour of it. We quote the summary of his address: The application of this new factory law might be termed a primary step toward solving the question of female employment, affording better treatment for labourers, and providing for them a means of improving their moral surroundings and physical conditions. Roughly speaking, the industries of Japan consist largely of fibre industries—that is, the majority of the factories were engaged in one way or another in making or supplying materials for clothes, such as cotton yarn factories, spinning mills, and companies of a similar nature which necessitated juvenile labour. The treatment of this class, however, has been far from satisfactory; in some instances, it has been little better than prison life. Some factory owners, employing a dozen or so girl labourers in country districts, have been known to ill-treat their employees for the alleged unsatisfactory results of their work. The new factory law would lead to an improvement in this deplorable state of affairs. In large factories alone in Japan there are 800,000 work girls employed, and if those in smaller factories are included the figures would reach about 2,000,000. The welfare of so many workers, occupying so important a position in Japanese industrial life, can not be long left ignored. With regard to the twelve-hour day, there are, he said, certain conditions peculiar to the country which make the application of any radical measures inadvisable, and even this twelve-hour limit must be considered a giant's stride in bettering the labour conditions in general. WILL JAPAN AND CHINA BECOME ALLIES? WRITING in the January Japan Magazine on "A Sino-Japanese Economic Alliance," T. Yamato says that Japan considers the present as the most opportune time for entering on a solution of all her problems concerning China. The general conviction in Japan is that if this chance is allowed to pass it will not occur again in a thousand years. The writer gives reasons :— Since the outbreak of the great conflict in Europe the attention of Occidental nations has been almost wholly absorbed in the outcome of the struggle, and in a corresponding measure withdrawn from China. This weakening of attention and competition Japan has not been slow to take advantage of. In another way, too, the war will help Japan's policy; for the countries formerly most interested in China have been reduced in population and financial strength, while Japan has, on the other hand, been greatly strengthened. It will probably take the warring nations some time to recover from their vast outlays of men and money, as well as from the increased cost of living and heavy burdens of taxation. Japan thinks, therefore, that they are not likely to be so anxious to interfere in the affairs of East Asia as they were before the war. They will be too busy with the colossal task of rehabilitation to bother much over the fate of China. At the same time it is recognised that Great Britain has always entertained ambitious aims in China, and can scarcely be expected to forsake a field so promising in trade expansion; and Japan will not be surprised to find, after the war, the British people renewing commercial activity in China. T. Yamato adds: The United States, too, which has amassed an enormous reserve of gold through sales of war munitions, will, in Japan's opinion, be disposed to invest a considerable portion of it in enhancing her trade interests in China. The general opinion seems to be that while England will aim at the markets of the world, America will concentrate on China. Consequently these two countries, but more especially America, are expected to come most into competition with Japan's interest in China. The present quiescence Japan must regard as but temporary. She feels bound to adopt some very positive measures for her protection from outside influence before her natural rivals return to the fray. This being so, one of the most important tasks before Japan in the pursuance of her policy in China is to secure the friendship of that country. It is to Japan's benefit to cultivate an economic alliance with China, and therefore she must refrain from territorial aggression and also do all in her power to restrain all disposed to violate this principle. In bringing about an economic alliance with China, says the writer, Japan believes she will have done what will most tend to preserve the peace of the Far East. Butas yet the friendship she desires with China has not been realised, and therefore the economic alliance is as yet only an ambition of the Japanese mind. In fact, to all advances from Japan China persistently turns the cold shoulder. And it is not too much to say that there is no love lost between them; for Japan in her heart despises China. Either the two nations completely misunderstand one another or they understand one another only too well. But economic interests are powerful in healing mental and racial differences; and if Japan can but induce China to see that her economic interests lie across the Japan Sea, the approach of the two countries will be easier and more expeditious. With her present enormous accumulation of specie as a result of the war Japan can afford to finance China in a large measure; for no country can afford to despise money, and China least of all. T Yamato says that Japan already commands over 20 per cent. of the foreign trade in China. Her only rivals are Great Britain and the United States. He concludes: If England and America will but allow Japan to pursue peacefully her economic and commercial policy in China she will be satisfied. But she insists that the ambitions of no other Power in China shall exceed the policy of Japan herself. They must not seek from China concessions that would give them prestige over Japan, who must be supreme among her equals in China. BARK FIBRE FOR WOOL. If we go short of wool, resort might be had to the bark fibre of West and East Africa, which is said to be an admirable material for mixing with wool, a mixture of 50 per cent. preserving fully the wool character of the yarn. The fibre is pliable and soft and could be spun at any rate in mixture with other fibres; it has screw ends-an important quality. It would be very cheap. When there is plenty of cotton and shoddy, these materials would probably be preferred by manufacturers, but that is not the case now. Bark cloth has long been used by natives.The Colonial Journal. MORESNET. THE War is teaching us geography. We all know where to find Przemysl on the map, even if we shy at pronouncing it, and the mysteries of Kragujevatz and Kilimanjaro are not hid from us; but even the most learned may, we think, be excused if the name of Moresnet strikes no responsive chord. Yet it is an autonomous European State whose neutrality was guaranteed by Prussia amongst other Powers long before the neutrality of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was guaranteed; and its neutrality was the first "scrap of paper to be torn up by Germany at the beginning of the War, for it was violated on August 1st, before Luxembourg and Belgium were entered by the Kaiser's hordes. It has an interesting history, this tiny scrap of neutral territory-it is only 860 acres in area, and in 1906 supported 3,434 souls-which lies on the Belgian and German frontier, at the boundary of the Province of Liége and Rhenish Prussia; and for the student of historical curiosities the Ch. Flor O'Squara tells its story in the February number of the Contemporary Review. Neutral Moresnet owes its unique position to a contradiction between Articles 25 and 66 of the Treaty for the partition of Europe, which was the result of the Congress of Vienna in 1814. By the joint effect of these Articles this tiny triangle of Europe was left without nationality, without administration, without flag and without protection. Napoleon escaped from Elba and threw things into the melting pot once more, and in the general confusion the rectification of the error was left over for subsequent settlement by the sovereigns of Prussia and the Low Countries, who alone were concerned in the matter: After long preliminaries the King of Prussia and the King of the Netherlands met solemnly at Aix-la-Chapelle to put their signatures to a treaty called the Boundary Treaty, which finally sanctioned the neutrality of Moresnet. This treaty is dated June 26th, 1816. It was still in full force on August 1st, 1914. It stipulated that part of Moresnet should, beyond all possible dispute, be joined to Prussian territory, and that another part be assigned to the Netherlands. As for the third portion (the triangle of 860 acres) it was to be thenceforward governed by a common administration." The high contracting parties anticipated the intervention of 66 an international commission for the final division of Neutral Moresnet between Prussia and Holland, but that commission never met, nor were its members ever appointed. On the 1st August, 1914, the Emperor William tore up the Treaty of Boundaries, and carried off 200 Belgian inhabitants of Moresnet as prisoners of war. This also should be remembered in the day of reckoning. CAPE BRETON. MR. FRANCIS W. GRAY writes a most interesting article in Khaki, in which he furnishes a deal of information regarding Cape Breton, the Atlantic outpost of the Dominion of Canada. He says: Cape Breton was ceded to England in 1763, and for reasons that are somewhat obscure, but possibly connected with the modest petition of the Duke of Richmond for a grant of the entire island, the settlement of the country was discouraged by the authorities at home. This short-sighted policy caused Cape Breton to lose fifty years in development, and its effects are still felt. In 1784 Cape Breton was created a separate province, and under the administration of Lord Sydney as Secretary of State for the Colonies, the island was opened up for settlement. The first grant was made in 1786 of a piece of land at Sydney, then and now the capital of the island, and named after Lord Sydney. At the present time the allied steel and coal industries in Cape Breton employ about 20,000 persons. The island produces over 5,000,000 tons of coal yearly. The population of the island is a little over 122,000 persons. What Cape Breton has done towards the Empire's call for men and material in the hour of trial is thus described : Up to the end of September about 4,200 men had left for service overseas. The Seventeenth Field Battery was the first unit to leave the island in August, 1914, and for some time it has been bravely doing its part at the front in Flanders. Some of Cape Breton's finest sons gave their lives for the Empire between Ypres and St. Julien, and since the memorable fight at Langemarcke hardly a week has passed but some Cape Bretoner has been killed in action. Cape Breton coal is being used on the warships on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic patrol, and the great fleet of transports that plies between Canada and Great Britain, carrying men, munitions, wheat, and other supplies, is propelled by Cape Breton coal. The steel companies are making shell-steel, shells, wire for entanglements, and from the coke-oven plants, toluol, the base of high explosives, is being manufactured in large quantities. PHILIP GIBBS-WAR CORRESPONDENT. WRITING in The Millgate Monthly for January, Mr. William E. Pittuck pays a deserved compliment to Mr. Philip Gibbs for his work as war correspondent during the present gigantic struggle, in the course of which he has had longer experience than any other English correspondent. For many years Mr. Gibbs has been associated with The Daily Chronicle, and acted as war correspondent for that paper in the Balkan War. Mr. Pittuck supplies the following interesting information: Mr. Gibbs is not merely a newspaper reporter, he is an experienced and gifted man of letters. At twenty-one years of age he was one of the editors of Cassell & Co.; editor of Tillotson's Literary Syndicate in 1901, and entered journalism in 1902. Previous to his special work on The Daily Chronicle he had acted as literary editor on The Daily Mail, The Daily Chronicle, and The Tribune. For a young man, and one who has gone through the rough and tumble of Fleet Street, which street, by the way, he calls "The Street of Adventure," he has many fine novels to his credit, and novels that are an 66 example of literary style. The Individualist, The Spirit of Revolt, The Street of Adventure, Intellectual Mansions, S.W., Oliver's Kind Women, Helen of Lancaster Gate, A Master of Life, The Custody of the Child, are all novels that have sprung from his pen. In the realms of history he has also produced many striking pieces of writing: Founders of the Empire, The Romance of Empire, Men and Women of the French Revolution, George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, and King's Favourite. In collaboration with his brother, Mr. Cosmo Hamilton, he produced "Menders of Nets," at the Duke of York's Theatre and the Court Theatre. But it is my humble opinion that Philip Gibbs has eclipsed all his previous works in The Soul of the War. "Mr. Gibbs is a true artist," says Mr. Pittuck, and goes on to remark that it is an ordinary thing to see four or five columns from his pen written at great haste and under extraordinary circumstances, but with a polish that shows the true artist and writer. In those anxious days of the Retreat, when the Allies had to step back, mile after mile, he was the only correspondent who kept his head and showed us the real value of such a retreat.' 66 SOME IMPRESSIONS OF SALONIKA. In an interesting article, under the above title, contributed to the January St. Martin'sle-Grand, Mr. J. R. Chambers describes Salonika as a town of most ancient and fish-like smells'—' Sal Unique' in all truth, for it is scarcely likely that any other city of its size can exhibit such a choice collection of dirt and odours." Despite its squalor, however, the city is picturesque. Mr. Chambers, who writes from personal observations on the spot, goes on to say : Within quite a short distance from the town the inhabitants are quite primitive, and follow customs and habits probably centuries old. One instance I will cite, which to my mind links them up with their classic forebears. It is their practice when drinking their native wine to leave a residue in the glass. Then, facing high Olympus, which rears itself in snowy splendour far away to the south, they throw the dregs to the ground -pouring out, as did their remote ancestors, a libation to the gods!" 66 For the student of ethnology Salonika must prove vastly interesting. It is a model Babel of races, of tongues, of beliefs and of costumes— varied fragments of humanity that have been thrown into the metropolis of the Balkans. A patois of Spanish is the language of the populace in general, descendants as they are of Iberian Jews who left their country in the fifteenth century in order to escape the rigours of the Inquisition; French is the language used in the higher business circles, the better shops and the cafés chics; petty business affairs are carried through in Bulgar, in Turkish, and in Greek; whilst around the docks one encounters Italian, Spanish and good ripe Billingsgate. The language of the neighbouring countryside is a sort of Esperanto, imposed upon the inhabitants owing to the variety of peoples; and in the town, if the Turkish tram-conductor, the garçon at the Greek Café, the Tsigane boot-seller, or what not, has any doubts regarding your nationality, it is in the language of Cervantes that he addresses you. The The military, although birds of passage, have already set their mark upon the town. Roads, water system, and sanitation are all being overhauled by the energetic engineers of the Allied Forces, and despite its predilection for dirt, Salonika may yet be a healthy town. greatest disease-carrier is the mosquito, which breeds with great rapidity in the marshes which abut on the city, but even against that enemy the official "sträfe" has gone forth from the Military Headquarters. WONDERS OF WAR SURGERY. THE chief article in the February number of the World's Work, is an account by Mr. Lewis R. Freeman of some of the wonders of War Surgery, notably the amazing advance in the sterilisation and healing of wounds, which the discovery by the French Doctor Carrel of his "Méthode d'Irrigation Intermittente," has made possible. At the beginning of the war, Dr. Carrel was told that the crying need of army surgeons was better sterilisation of wounds, and he set to work to solve the problem. At the outset he conceived the idea that, just as one washes a sponge by repeated saturations and wringings, so should a wound be washed by some sort of a "flushing" system that would send an antiseptic solution to every part of the wound, allow it to pick up the germs of infection, and then carry them away. The prime desiderata of a system of this character were, first, a proper solution, and second, a proper apparatus for applying or distributing it. The problem of the solution was solved by the great English chemist, Mr. Henry D. Dakin, who, after experimenting with over 200 mixtures, decided upon a one-half of one per-cent. solution of hypochlorate of soda, with a small amount of boric acid added; Dr. Carrel himself evolved the required apparatus : In experimenting with the apparatus, the first tests were made by allowing the liquid to fall upon the surface of the wound from above, and then drawing it into the wound and carrying it away through the action of a suction pump working on a number of perforated rubber tubes buried in the flesh. Ultimately this plan gave way to practically its reverse-that of carrying the solution to the wound in perforated tubes buried in the flesh and allowing it to drain away by gravity. By the system as finally perfected, and as at present in use, the solution is carried in a receptacle at the head, or the foot, of the bed, and once every two hours, by opening a pinch-cock on the main rubber tube leading down to the wound, the latter is thoroughly flushed with the liquid under a four or five-foot pressure. From this practice of periodic flushing the system took its name "La Méthode d'Irrigation Intermittente Carrel." No sooner was the system put into proper operation than striking evidences of its efficacy were apparent. The bacteria of infection in wounds under treatment vanish in a way never known before, and in consequence, the wounds heal far quicker than has hitherto been found possible. In fact, says the writer, Dr. Carrel has discovered something very near to a perfect treatment for wounds of the flesh. CITRIC ACID IN SURGERY. FROM a chemical point of view the toxins of microbes are albuminous alkaloids; hence natural acids act as antiseptics by neutralising their action chemically. One of the best agents of this class, says Por Esos Mundos (Madrid), is phenol; but it must be used with great discretion, especially for children, so as not to irritate the skin. However, the irritant quality is greatly ameliorated when it is used in a pure form and mixed with neutral glycerine. Specialists on ear troubles employ it as a local application in inflammatory affections of the middle ear. The writer suggests a simpler remedy in the shape of a mixture of wine and lemon juice for minor affections requiring surgical dressing, such as small abscesses, etc. :— Equal parts of aromatic wine and physiologic serum are mixed, and a few drops of lemon juice are added at the time of using, or the contents of a squeezed lemon in more serious cases. Aromatic wine by itself is excellent for cicatrising ulcers, because of the tannin, the alcohol, and, above all, the essences which enter into its composition. The addition of lemon juice complements it by an acid, and we have a rosy liquid of agreeable fragrance and non-irritant to the skin. Lemon juice was formerly held in repute as a specific for scurvy. THE March number of The Woman at Home is an excellent one. Lady Mary contributes an interesting article on Lady Bonham Carter, which is illustrated with some excellent photographs. Mrs. Annie S. Swan continues her "Letters to a War Bride," to whom they should prove most helpful; and it is to be hoped that these letters will be republished in book form, so that future brides may have benefit thereby. |