tury, and probably will find for one or two more, sufficient occupation for her troops on her eastern frontier, and not even a Spanish General can believe that Spain is in danger of invasion by Portugal. Spaniards sometimes talk bravely of invading Portugal, but the army is certainly not maintained for that purpose. So far as Europe is concerned, Spain could safely demobilize the whole of her army, abolish conscription, and entrust the maintenance of internal law and order to her excellent and decorative police force, the Guardia Civil.

"The only use of the Spanish army is to fight an unending war in Morocco, and to garrison the deserts of the Rio de Oro. Such are the purposes for which Madrid and modern civilization tax the peasant and conscript him. Two men from this Andalusian village have just returned, having completed their term of service. They spent it in a small fort in the Rio de Oro, a fort which was surrounded by desert and which they were never allowed to leave because the inhabitants would have attacked them. They were lucky, for they might have been sent to Morocco and have found their graves there with the thousands of other peasants who perished in the recent disaster.

"The whole of Spain - except a few politicians, the military Juntas, who are still the real rulers of Spain, and apparently the King is opposed to the war in Morocco. There is nothing of any possible value for Spain to be got out of Morocco or the Rio de Oro, but the peasant is still taken for months or years from his fields to be slaughtered in the one or to be interned in a fort in the other. And the reason is simply this that, although there are no politics in Spain, there are politics in Madrid.'

--

THE CHESTER CONCESSION

THE Chester concession, by which an American company acquires the right to construct several thousand miles of railway, harbor works, and even towns and cities in Turkey, and the protests this grant called forth from prior French and British claimants to the privilege of exploiting Turkey, have already been discussed in the American press. But some of our readers may be less familiar with the interesting reaction produced by these protests in Turkey itself. The Angora Government has steadfastly refused to recognize concessions and contracts made by the Sultan's Government before the war; and this refusal constitutes a point of controversy at the Lausanne Conference. When the Chester concession was granted, the French saw fit to lodge a formal protest against it through their Near Eastern representative, General Pelle. While the Turkish press had hitherto been critical or lukewarm toward the concession, the action of France immediately solidified public opinion in its favor. A prominent Constantinople daily, Tevhed-i-Efktar, commented:

No foreign Power must be permitted to interfere in our domestic affairs.

. . That

...

explains why we now, after General Pelle's protest, vigorously endorse the Chester project, the hasty acceptance of which we have hitherto criticized; for, after the protest, the question ceases to be a domestic matter it becomes an international issue.

BRITISH AND FRENCH AIR DEFENSE

WHILE British naval experts, as well as those of other countries, are not yet willing to yield the battleship's place as the backbone of the navy either to the airplane or the submarine, the compla

the present situation of the armed forces of Europe. It was disagreeable but inevitable that France should possess incomparably the most powerful army in the world, while that of Great Britain has been reduced to a skeleton; for after all the British navy still ruled the seas, so far at least as Europe was concerned. But now the British Air Minister, Colonel Sir Samuel Hoare, has caused the nation to sit up and rub its eyes in surprised anxiety by his report on the air-defense situation, which shows an alarming disparity between the combatant air-fleets of the two nations. The fact that France is an ally does not wholly reconcile the British to the unblinkable fact that she is supreme in the air.

--

Sir Samuel stated that at the end of the World War the British royal airforce was composed of 30,122 officers, 263,410 men, and 3300 service airplanes. To-day it is composed of 3071 officers, 27,499 airmen, and 371 first-line airplanes that is, excluding reserve and training machines a total personnel of 30,000 against nearly 300,000 at the end of the war. In the case of France, Sir Samuel stated that it would be misleading to make a comparison of personnel, as so large a part of it is provided in France from purely military personnel; and hence the only accurate comparison is one of machines.

When the Armistice was signed, France had 3600 service machines, while to-day she has approximately one third of that number, 1260. England to-day has only about one tenth of its war air-service. Not less than two thirds of the British service-machines are overseas, while three fourths of the French machines are in France. Of the 34 British service-squadrons, 18 are in Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, six in India, four allotted to naval work at home, and one to army work at home, leaving only five service

squadrons in Great Britain for home defense one attack-squadron and four bombardment-squadrons. France now has 32 fighting squadrons and a like number of bombardment squadrons. The French air-programme for 1925 contemplates a total of 2180 service machines, while the British Government, even with the addition of the 15 additional regular squadrons recently authorized, will have but 575 service airplanes.

The Air Minister is quite as pessimistic in regard to the question of civil aviation. Subsidies are not likely to be granted; but a private company, with a capital of £1,000,000, is likely to be floated, the Government allocating a similar sum by way of grants over the ensuing ten years. Sir Samuel is of the opinion that it will be easier to develop an Imperial air-route to India and Australia by means of airships than by means of airplanes.

Sir Samuel Hoare's report and the resultant discussions in Parliament and in the British press have partly amused and partly irritated the French. The Journal des Débats remarks that England should not forget that France has no naval aviation at all, while England already possesses five cruiser-carriers completely equipped, as well as an imposing number of powerful aviation bases, advantageously distributed. 'Our allies need have no anxiety. We are proceeding carefully along the line of progress, but we have no slightest intention of exploiting against them our successes, while we shall cordially rejoice in theirs.'

ITALIAN POLITICS

IT has been the tactics of the Fascisti Party to assimilate and absorb the other parties and factions in Italy and to draft an overwhelming majority of the voters into a silent, disciplined, and

obedient civic army. This policy has been wrecked by the vigorous resistance, not of the Communists and extreme Radicals, as might have been expected, but of the Popular or Catholic Party, led by Don Sturzo. It will be recalled that the Partito Popolare is an outgrowth of the war, and therefore a new organization with the vigor and aggressiveness that usually characterize youth. It has settled its own internal dissensions, which threatened at one time to split it into an extreme radical and a conservative faction, and is now under the control of its more moderate leaders. At the Turin Convention last April the Party adopted an autonomous programme that logically led to the resignation of its members in the Mussolini Cabinet, though not necessarily to the formation of a Clerical opposition to the present Government.

Meanwhile Mussolini is reorganizing his own forces. The Fascisti are receiving no new recruits, but are limiting their present membership, thus following the path taken by the Communists in Russia. Other changes in their constitution look to the enforcement of even stricter discipline than has hitherto been demanded of the members. The chiefs of Fascismo are forbidden to make, without Signor Mussolini's consent, written or verbal statements involving his Cabinet or the Party, thus reducing the rank and file to a 'militia of silent workmen.'

NAVAL GRUMBLINGS

DEFENDERS of navies point out that a navy is primarily a defensive, not an offensive, arm, which may be admitted as a general axiom. But, in spite of the Washington Conference, the nations of the world do not seem to be regarding each other with broad smiles. In fact, something like a look of anxiety, if not a frown, has flitted across the counte

nance of several Powers, and in a few instances has become a fixed expression. The Washington big-gun misunderstanding has not been entirely cleared up, though unlikely to have any untoward results. Great Britain's nervousness in regard to her alleged aviation vulnerability is referred to above. In South America there can be no doubt that the sending to Brazil of the American Naval Commission has resulted in serious anxiety on the part of several Powers. It is all very well to explain that, if the United States had refused Brazil's invitation, Great Britain would have accepted it, with the result that a very respectable amount of shipbuilding would have been done on the Tyne or at Belfast instead of in the United States. Unfortunately this explanation, while easily understood, does not allay the suspicion aroused by the increase in naval power of the potentially greatest South American nation.

The Japan Advertiser, in its issue of April 15, records the strange fact that, although the flagship of the American Pacific Fleet, with Admiral Anderson on board, had been in the near-by port of Yokohama for over a week, exchanging courtesies and entertainments with the authorities and the inhabitants, the Japanese press 'had seen fit to ignore alike the presence of a distinguished visitor and the friendship for Japan that prompted his visit,' no mention of it or of Admiral Anderson having been made. The Advertiser stamps this as 'a conspiracy of silence,' and fears for the consequences to Japanese-American friendship.

Another and less serious episode was the debate in the British House of Commons concerning the completion of the naval base at Singapore, the opposition speakers fearing that the strengthening of the Singapore fortifications would be regarded as a flouting of the

Washington Conference. However, the vote on the motion stood 253 to 94, showing little support for the theory that the spirit of the naval treaty was violated. It was, as a matter of fact, quite understood by both Americans and Japanese at Washington that Singapore was included in the reference: 'except those localities adjacent to the coast of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia and its territories, and New Zealand.' Commander Bellairs, reputed as an expert, seemed to please the House when he declared that, in the event of an unfortunate difference with Japan, a Singapore naval base would be invaluable, and that, if the United States were called upon to defend the Philippines, Singapore might be useful to that country.

AUSTRIAN MONARCHISTS

On the anniversary of the death of the ex-Emperor Charles, a few hundred Austrians had enough of the courage of their convictions to attend masses celebrated in many of the great churches of Vienna and the provinces. The Austrian Monarchists are both Legitimists and Carlists; that is, they insist upon the continued legality of the Pragmatic Sanction and recognize the ex-Emperor's eldest son as their Kaiser. But they vary greatly among themselves in regard to the best means of restoring the monarchy.

One group, with the grandiloquent name of State Party, is led by a somewhat childlike Oberleutnant by the name of Hoynigg, who carries on an export and import business in the morning and spends his afternoons 'manifesting' and raising money for the publication of his paper, Die Monarchie. It is reported that, upon gathering his loyal followers about him, he was able to count sixty heads. But, by dint of making a great deal of noise, Hoynigg

one of

has attracted more attention than the more serious Imperial groups which, called the Black-Yellow Legitimists, is said to have boasted at one time of nearly 40,000 followers. This organization has its own organ, Die Staatswehr, and is led by a former colonel called Wolff, who is not too proud to accept a pension from the present Government, and who, by his grotesque assumption of a kind of Hapsburg dictatorship, has disgruntled a large number of the Black-Yellow partisans.

The only Monarchists in Austria who are taken at all seriously belong to the third group, the Austrian Monarchist Party, which counts among its members former ministers, diplomats, officers, and functionaries, as well as many students, and naturally numerous persons of all classes who are out of jobs. Altogether there may be some 200,000 of this faction, whose leaders are the former diplomat, Wense, and a former chief-of-bureau Schager, who bears the very recently created title of Baron von Eckartsau- both of them clever politicians who reckon with conditions and facts as well as theories. They apotheosize the monarchy, detest the revolution, and embarrass the Republic in every possible way. Their one hope is the economic breakdown of Austria, and they affect to despise the excellent constructive work of Seipel and his colleagues. To the Monarchist Party belong such men as Hussarek, Seidler, Count Clam-Martinic, Homman, Engel, Schwartzenau, Bonhans, the former diplomats Count Czernin, Prince Fürstenberg, Wiesner, Forgach, and Flotow, as well as many aristocrats, such as Generals Conrad von Hötzendorff, Auffenberg, Kövess, and Arz.

In order not to offend the powerful anti-Semitic Swastika organization, the party calls itself Christian-National,

and sounds the Pan-German trumpet loudly. It is worthy of notice that General von Ludendorff found a hearty welcome among the Monarchists, on the occasion of his late visit to Vienna, and that he reciprocated cordially the sentiments expressed, which should arouse no surprise, since the restoration of the Hohenzollerns will meet with no opposition from this quarter.

The Monarchists are well supplied with money, and have announced their entrance into the arena of practical politics. They hope to win several seats in the Assembly, though only one, the Croatian Burgenland mandate, seems certain now.

On Easter Sunday the Monarchists massed in the Karlskirche to hear the requiem mass, and afterward gathered on the steps of the church and sang the old Hapsburg national hymn, Gott erhalte! But nobody seemed to pay much attention to the scene. A policeman grumbled; that was all. The Monarchists do not seem as yet to threaten the safety of the Republic.

SPANISH ELECTIONS

THE general elections in Spain, held the last Sunday in April, resulted in a victory for the Government. Inasmuch, however, as the Government always wins in a parliamentary election, the result indicates little as to the real public opinion of the country. Consequently the attention of the press is concentrated upon the outcome in Madrid and Barcelona, the two princi

pal urban centres where the true voice of the voter is supposed to be heard. In Madrid the Socialists won a decided victory, as much to their own surprise as that of their rivals. In Barcelona the 'Regionalists,' or Catalonian secessionists, swept the polls.

The Madrid results do not signify that the majority of the voters are Socialists, since Liberals of all complexions were inclined to vote for that party as a rebuke to the Government. The outcome in Barcelona was of course a foregone conclusion. So far as can be gathered from the comment of the press, which is itself in a conjectural frame of mind, the results suggest that the monarchists and the professional politicians are losing their hold upon the people.

MINOR NOTES

ONE hundred and thirty-five thousand people would tax the capacity of any stadium in America, but at the final match in the Wembley Stadium near London for the 'soccer' football championship of Britain, which was won by the Lancashire Bolton Wanderers over West Ham, no fewer than 135,000 to 150,000 spectators were crowded into the building. Unfortunately some 20,000 more desperate persons who were refused admission actually stormed the stadium, and, pouring down in a mass over and through the seated spectators, not only prevented the starting of the game, but caused numerous and serious injuries. A squad of mounted police had to be called to clear the field.