"WHY NEED WE

IN an article with the above arresting title which appears in the January Contemporary Mrs. Drew returns to her plea for a sane and healthy vegetarian diet. Man is the only animal that lives on cooked food, yet man seems to be the only animal that suffers from persistent disease; indeed, Professor Ray Lankester tells us that animals, unless interfered with by man, are practically free from disease. There must be some correlation between these facts, says the writer, and the fact that every standard work that has been written by dietetic experts has summed up against the use of dead animals as food proves that there is. Mrs. Drew cites the experience of Dr. Robert Bell, the great cancer specialist, in support of her case :

The attention of Dr. Bell was first called to the vital importance of diet by an event that took place in his native town about thirty years ago— the smash of a Glasgow bank resulting in the imprisonment of the directors. Some among these men were known to Dr. Bell, and having "done themselves," as it is called, "exceedingly well," he felt it likely that their health would be seriously damaged by the very frugal prison fare. They came out of prison like giants refreshed, in renewed health and vigour. This acted on Dr. Bell as a revelation. For seventeen years he had been operating for He had studied in the Royal Infirmary at Glasgow under the great Dr. Lister. Gradually the truth dawned upon him that his operations were useless; more and more did the large fees received for them by medical men seem like a premium on death. Except in the very earliest stages (when the malignant character of the disease could scarcely be proved) in no case did he find the operation bring recovery; it might postpone, it could not cure. Finally, he determined to give up both operations and fees for cancer, and the experience won from the imprisonment of the Bank directors set his feet on a new path.

cancer.

Dr. Bell now prescribes a purely vegetarian diet in all cases of malignant disease, and although he has suffered from the persecution which the medical profession seems to reserve for those of its members who venture to leave the beaten track, he persists in his heresy and has achieved some wonderful results without recourse to the knife, a few of which are given by Mrs. Drew. She herself has been cured of chronic arthritis by vegetarianism, and although she is no fanatic she urges, very reasonably, that the subject

BE POISONED?"

should be investigated, if possible by a Public Department, with more careful thought and less prejudice than it has hitherto received.

CLOTHING THE LEADING LADY.

To clothe the leading lady of revue is a very expensive business. She has, perhaps, six changes-possibly seven or eight. Her gowns and frocks must be ultra-fashionableif not, indeed, anticipatory of fashion. They must come from one of the leading London houses, and they will cost anything from 25 to 50 guineas apiece. Suppose one says she has six dresses averaging 35 guineas each -that is two hundred and ten guineas on the cost of production on her account alone. And even then only her frocks have been accounted for, remember. There are eight or nine other "principals " to be dressed several times from top to toe. To put down the outlay on dresses in a "medium-priced " revue, which usually costs from five thousand to six thousand pounds to produce, at about two thousand five hundred pounds is, therefore, by no means an extravagant estimate.Pearson's Magazine.

RECONSTRUCTION IN
ART CIRCLES.

THE time has come for a reconstruction of the government of the National Gallery, says Mr. Francis Howard in the January number of the English Review. The recently abandoned Bill was an unwitting confession of this, a mere palliative for a hopeless malady. It is no use, says the writer in effect, tinkering with the branches of a decayed tree; the present scheme of government is bad at the roots, and must be wholly plucked out. The existing Board of Trustees of peer politicians and other magnates should be almost entirely reconstituted or at the very least effectively leavened with those whose chief and life-long occupation has been the technical study of art. Had such been its constitution in the past, ways and means would have been found long since to secure the works desired and augment our national collection in many minor ways. The writer gives a pathetic list of opportunities lost in the past few years to secure coveted bargains and to reduce the the lengthy "unrepresented" catalogue, and in particular urges that the British School Section must be carefully reconsidered. There are, he says, only two British painters prior to Turner properly represented-Crome and Hogarth; there is only one Gainsborough in such condition as he would tolerate, and some of the most interesting phases of Reynolds are missing. After making various minor recommendations, Mr. Howard finally insists upon a Committee of Inquiry into methods of restoration and conservation, and adopts the suggestion recently put forward by Mr. Wilson Steer :

A restriction on the sale (except to the National Gallery) or export during the war and for two years after of pictures earmarked by the Board of the National Gallery, and, with a view to purchasing these and augmenting National Gallery funds, a permanent export duty of 25 per cent. to be levied on all pictures not produced within fifty years or brought into the country within ten years. Pending the passage of the Bill an Order in Council forbidding the sale or export of the earmarked works would protect them and meet the danger resulting from any necessary publication or discussion of the list. Such a measure will obviate the necessity of sales-“ redundant" and unnecessary works can be disposed of on loan and exchange loan as effectively as if sold-and of breaking faith with donors and devisors.

IN System (Chicago edition) Mr. David Morantz explains how, some time ago, on the receipt of a letter from a business concern which sold encyclopædias, he was impressed with the manner in which the communication closed. Instead of " Yours truly," or " Very truly yours," the letter ended thus: "Perpetually yours for the Perfect Reference System." Since then he has taken particular pains to notice how other men closed their letters. He inventoried five hundred letters, and classified them, with the following results:

;

135, or 27%, closed with " Yours very truly"; 60, or 12%, closed with "Sincerely yours"; 54, or 11%, closed with " Yours truly "; 54, or 11%, closed with "Cordially yours"; 54, or 11%, closed with "Very truly yours ; 26, or 5%. closed with "Yours respectfully"; 21, or 4%, closed with "Respectfully yours 21, or 4%, closed with "Yours sincerely"; 5, or 1%, closed with “ Your sincere friend”; 5, or 1%, closed with " Very truly "; 5, or 1%, closed with "Very sincerely yours." This meant that of the 500 letters 440 (or 88 per cent.) used stock phrases. Only 12 per cent. utilised the opportunity of closing their communications with interesting phrases, of which the following are samples:

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THE ROUND TABLE. THE first article in the December number, entitled "The Making of Peace," was, of course, written and printed before Germany came out into the open with her Peace-kite, but the writer's clearly reasoned arguments are strengthened and confirmed by recent events. The time for peacemaking has not come yet. We shall be false to the principle on which we entered the war, and the cause for which we fight, if we show the slightest willingness even to discuss peace until the Germans have agreed that the free nations which have been wantonly assailed are to be liberated and indemnified, and that the treaties which Germany set out wantonly to overthrow, and which were the guardians of right and liberty in Europe, are to be its guardians still. Also, the Dominions must be consulted when the time arrives for negotiations, and in this connection the writer anticipates the decision of the new Government in advocating the early convention of an Imperial Conference. The Round Table's South African correspondent gives some interesting particulars of the assistance which South Africa has been able to afford the Allied cause by providing coloured and native labour corps to work in the harbours of France :

Already a coloured labour contingent, 1,000 strong, has been despatched to France for this purpose, and now 10,000 Kaffirs are to be recruited and organised as a military force under European officers, and despatched to France for the same purpose. Since the outbreak of the war the contribution of the natives towards the campaigns in Africa has not by any means been a small one. In the German West campaign 40,000 were employed in building military railways and other works. There are over 10,000 natives from the Union at the present time in German East. In addition to these a coloured battalion has for some months been a combatant unit in German East, and this battalion has recently been increased by the addition of two companies. In this way the coloured and native populations are afforded an opportunity of serving, whereas the proposal several times mooted in the House of Commons that they should be trained for combatant service in Europe would, if adopted by the

Imperial authorities, raise a storm of opposition within the Union.

Industrial and financial questions receive much attention in the number under notice, for, in addition to the article on “ Labour and Reconstruction" referred to elsewhere there are excellent sections on the higher direction of British industry, the German and English banking systems in relation to trade, and the financing of industry after the war. It is pretty clear that the efficiency of our wealthproduction, on which the economic health of the whole community depends, will require some more effective co-operation of finance and industry than we have had in the past ; the problem is to discover whether we can secure the undoubted merits of the German co-ordination through its banking system without running the risks which inevitably follow the concentration in one class of bank of every banking and financial function. A detailed notice of an exceptionally interesting paper on the Native States of India will be found in another column, and articles on The Growing Necessity for Constitutional Reform" and Ireland since the Rebellion," with the customary well-informed letters on Dominion affairs, complete a representative number of this valuable review.

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THE FORTNIGHTLY
REVIEW.

In an article in the January number, written before the recent change of Ministry in England and the French victory at Verdun, Dr. E. J. Dillon says that although the progress achieved by the Allies during 1916 almost transcends belief, there remains a vast deal to be done :

For of all the promises hitherto lavished on the peoples of the Entente by their responsible chiefs the only one of decisive importance that has not yet ended in disappointment is that of final victory. And for the realisation of that it behoves us to hope on and to strive against any odds.

The writer calls for a closer unity of policy and purpose between the Allied Governments,

the lack of which even now has received its latest exemplification in Roumania, and warns us that the German Empire is by no means done for, and that 1917 may hold some very unpleasant surprises in store for us, particularly in the realm of submarine warfare. "Politicus," discussing "Mr. Lloyd George's Task," says that two and a half years of war have proved the failure of democracy in action, and frankly plumps for a Dictatorship. War is a one-man business, and history shows that wars have never been won by debating societies:

Mr. Lloyd George should not only introduce a dictatorship in this country, but urge England's Allies also to organise themselves for war in accordance with the experience of all time Only when a single man is able to control all the forces in each of the various democratic countries can we hope for swift agreement and combined military, naval, and economic action. Possibly we must imitate Germany's action even farther. General von Hindenburg directs and controls absolutely not only the animate and inanimate resources of Germany, but those of Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria as well Eventually the direction of the united strength of the Allies may also have to be placed into a single hand, although it may seem distasteful to a nation to have its army and navy, its diplomatic affairs, its finances and its whole economic life controlled and directed by a man of another nationality. The appointment of such an international dictator, and even that of a national dictator, may be very galling to many democrats. It is no doubt a very undemocratic proceeding. Still, it is better that the democracies of the world should be saved by undemocratic means than that they should perish altogether.

In a striking paper entitled "Man-Power and Sea-Power: Our Greatest Peril," Mr. Archibald Hurd discusses the serious position in which for various reasons, of which the submarine menace is not the most important, the mercantile marine at present stands, and urges the necessity for the adoption of a carefully co-ordinated and energetic policy for the strengthening, utilisation and defence of the merchant fleet, which in his view should include: the release of much more labour for the shipyards and engine shops, the taking over by the State of all shipbuilding establishments, and State control of all vessels when built, the arming of all merchantmen, and the increase of dockside labour. Mr. E. Lip-on has some practical suggestions to make for the development along right lines of British agriculture after

THE CONTEMPORARY
REVIEW.

THE January number opens with a study, from the pen of Sir Joseph Compton-Rickett, of "The Change of Ministry," in which the writer defends the Coalition Ministry and the late Prime Minister, and views with very modified rapture their displacement by Mr. Lloyd George. The succeeding article, "A Parallel in Statesmanship: Lincoln and Asquith," as its title implies, is a bold attempt by Mr. Harry Elmore to establish remarkable similarities in the statesmanlike qualities of Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Asquith," among which the writer reckons : ability to see a problem whole, and steadfastness in dealing with it; a great deliberation in action; unlimited patience; continuous capacity to rise to great occasions; readiness to accept responsibility; and the rare qualities of loyalty to colleagues and supreme capacity in the management of men. We hope we shall not be accused of" intrigue nor of hitting a man when he is down if we say that in our view the comparison is wholly flattering to the late Premier. "The Agony of Belgium," Dr. Demetrius Boulger says that the German procedure in Belgium has moved on fixed lines. The first step was to terrorise the people; the next, to exploit the wealth and resources of Belgium for the benefit of Germany; then followed the deliberate and determined attempt, culminating-at present-in the recent slave raids, to destroy the whole nation by sapping its life-blood and wiping out its manhood. And the worst is not yet. The final step, according to the original programme of Drs. Rathenau and Ganghofer, drawn up in the spring of 1915 with the approval of the Emperor, is to be the expulsion of the people of Belgium from their own land :

In

The persons who had no value as workersviz., "the women, children under fourteen, and

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men over sixty years of age, were to be driven out of Belgium at the point of the bayonet into France." The first part of the programme is being carried out by the deportation of ablebodied males to Germany. The still greater horror remains to be perpetrated, but do not let anyone nurse the vain hope that even Germans will shrink from that last infamy. It figures openly in the programme that has, with that one exception, been literally executed, and no argument but that of victorious force will make them stay their hand. They are, in their favourite phrase, "bleeding Belgium white "; in little over two years they have destroyed the prosperity and happiness of one of the most admirable communities in Europe; they have scattered its men far and wide; they vow that before they have done they will leave Belgium as a solitude under the light of Heaven.

Two other articles in the current number are noticed in another column, and a full list of the contents will be found elsewhere in this issue.

THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.

THE Nineteenth Centu y begins the new year and a new volume with an admirably varied number, which, however, comes to hand so late that we are unable to notice more than two or three of its sixteen articles. The first place is given to a paper by Dr. Arthur Shadwell, entitled "Ordeal by Fire," in which, while recognising that Germany's wail for peace is full of good omens for the Allied cause, he warns us that its certain rejection means that the last stage of the war will be sterner and more embittered than anything that has gone before :—

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What we have to expect is the continuation of the war with increased intensity. The German Note contains that threat, and the German newspapers have dotted the 'i's.' Nor is it to be dismissed as bluff. We must expect the use of every resource they possessand they still possess great resources-without regard to any rules or customs of warfare, without scruple or concern for anything whatever but their own success. For the rulers of Germany will now be fighting for their very existence, and they will give all the forces of frightfulness a free hand. There is no outrage we may not expect, from sinking every ship at sight to systematically starving the conquered peoples and the wholesale massacre of prisoners. There is no atrocity of which they are not capable. It is truly a frightful prospect, and we must be prepared to take a full share in it, even here in these sheltered islands. We must be

prepared for real privation and far more effort and sacrifice than have yet been even conceived by very many people. We shall need all our strength and fortitude and endurance for this ordeal. There will be great changes before it is done, and people will not be living as they have been.

Mr. W. G. FitzGerald ("Ignatius Phayre") writes rather savagely on " President Wilson's Dream-and his Dilemma." In "Germany and South America" Señor Edgardo de Magalhães gives some striking particulars from German and other sources of Teutonic designs, overt and veiled, for the conquest of South America, the vast scope of which, he says, is even now only being found out by degrees, with the result that in Brazil at any rate, of which the writer chiefly speaks, public opinion is becoming more strongly pro-Ally every day. Sir John Macdonell, the Senior Master of the Supreme Court, in "The Lawyer's Place in the Modern State," defends the legal profession from the charges of undue predominance in politics, of which, especially in recent years, it has been the subject. Countess Zanardi Landi contributes a friendly article on the new Emperor and Empress of Austria, but says that the only hope for themselves and their country lies in abdication; and other notable papers are those by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott on "The Problem of the Commonwealth" and the concluding portion of Lord Sydenham's Danger in India," in which he indicates the true paths of reform.

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WITH one or two exceptions the articles in the January Cornhill relate to divers sections of the war. The Battlefields of the Ourcq" describe the villages in the Ile de France, Charny, where Péguy fell; Baron, the scene of the German murder of the musician Alberic Magnard; and others. "The Old Contemptibles" tells in unforgettable fashion the experience in miseries of a wagon-driver of the A.S.C., a specimen of how such men spent the Christmas of 1914. "The War in Perspective," in pointing out the megalomania of the Germans, gives some remarkable illustrations of the statistics of war. For instance, the number of men killed at Trafalgar was 449! Compare that with the loss on Sir David Beatty's two battle-cruisers. The area of the Waterloo fight was but three miles by two. The article teems with such instances.