naval base, following as it does almost immediately upon the signature of the Kellogg treaty, seems a little cynical. But governments, after all, deal with the realities of the international situation; and British interests demand that Great Britain shall at all times be able to exert her full naval strength in the Pacific. At present she cannot do so because there are no British dockyards in Pacific waters capable of receiving such giants of her fleet as the battleships of the Nelson, Royal Sovereign, or Queen Elizabeth class, cruisers of the Renown

and Hood type, or aircraft carriers like the Eagle. The new drydock now being installed at a cost of a million pounds sterling will be large enough to accommodate anything afloat.

But in time of war such a drydock would merely become a convenience to any enemy strong enough to hold it after capture; and the Singapore base will therefore require adequate land defenses. These will include three eighteen-inch guns, recently shipped from England. Each is some sixty feet long, weighs about 150 tons, and fires a shell weighing nearly a ton and a half. As no existing battleship mounts a gun of more than sixteen-inch calibre, these are supposed to be able to sink any attacking fleet before it is near enough to the fortifications to use its own guns probably, indeed, before it has even appeared over the horizon. Their fire will be directed by aircraft which will be concentrated in force at the base after the new 600-acre flying field has been completed. But as the strongest land fortifications are helpless if taken in the rear or on the flank, the British naval authorities will have to provide a garrison adequate to prevent some future enemy from landing in force just out of range of their guns and marching calmly in from behind. To a large degree, no doubt, Singapore will be defended by the fleet based upon it, since no hostile transports will be able to land troops anythere in the vicinity while. that fleet is able to sally forth and sink them.

It would be tactless to speculate on the probable identity of the enemy against whom all these elaborate precautions are directed. The British have, of course, always insisted that no particular future foe was in view. They have particularly emphasized their friendship

for their late ally, Japan, and have pointed out that the base involves no threat to the Japanese, since Singapore is at least as far from Tokio as Gibraltar is from Boston. No one, they insist, could possibly regard Gibraltar as a threat to the United States!

This is, however, not quite so convincing as it sounds. For between Gibraltar and Boston stretches the islandless Atlantic, while between Tokio and Singapore are innumerable islands which might conceivably serve as 'advanced bases,' especially for aircraft. The main

purpose of Singapore, however, is certainly defensive. While the great base is intact with a powerful fleet based on it, intact with a powerful fleet based on it, no harm can befall Austrialia, New Zealand, the Federated Malay States, nor the Dutch East Indies, which depend on British sea power for their defense far more than they do on the tiny, though efficient, Dutch Navy. At best, the Dutch expect their own little vessels to delay any power trying to seize their fertile islands, until the British can come to their aid.

THE BRITISH INDIAN COMMISSION

cussed the career of Sir John Simon,

LSEWHERE in this issue is dis

head of the British Statutory Commission appointed by Parliament to gather information for a reorganization of the government of India. This commission, it will be remembered, spent last spring in India making preparations for its investigations; but little more than preparation was then possible because of the hostile attitude of Indian opinion, a hostility which resulted in boycotting and riots. When the Commission requested the appointment of a native committee to assist in the work a committee to be appointed partly by the Council of State and partly by the Legislative Assembly the latter refused by a small majority to coöperate in any way, and Sir John Simon was obliged to request the British Viceroy to appoint the Assembly's portion of the Committee from such Assembly members as had voted for cooperation. This was done, but the whole procedure wasted so much time. that the Simon Commission accomplished practically nothing except the appointment of a sub-committee under Sir Philip Hartog to investigate the present condition of Indian Education and report this autumn.

A few months in which to think things over have persuaded most of the Indian leaders to take a more conciliatory course while the Simon Commission is in India this fall and winter. The Swarajists, or extreme home rulers, were defeated in the Bengal Legislative Council this July, and in August the 'All Parties' Conference went so far as to submit a tentative constitution for the consideration of the Statutory Commission. When Sir John Simon and his fellow Commissioners again left England on September 27, eight out of the nine pro

vincial councils had agreed to cooperate and the ninth was on the eve of doing so. This change in Indian opinion has largely been due to the tact and obvious sincerity of Sir John Simon.

The plans of the Commission are roughly as follows: to the five hundred odd memorials already received from various Indian sources and printed as contributory data, will be added the findings of the Hartog Committee on education and the information supplied the Commission itself, sitting with the general Indian Committee and the various coöperating provincial committees in each of the nine provincial capitals. These sittings will take up the greater part of the fall and winter. As we go to press, the first sitting, at Poona, capital of the Deccan, is just coming to a close. When all of this purely informatory material has been collected, the Statutory Commission will make recommendations based on its findings. To these may be added additional or differing recommendations by the Indian Committee. In April 1929, Sir John Simon expects to sail for London, and the whole report will be laid before Parliament some time after the general elections in the Spring.

ABYSSINIA'S NEW KING

'King of Kings of Ethiopia, the Conquering Lion of Judah, and the Elect of God' is the modest title assumed by Ras Tafari, nephew of the Empress Zauditu of Abyssinia, who has hitherto represented his aunt as Regent but will in the future share the throne with her.

His formal assumption of royal dignity is a further step in Abyssinia's struggle to protect itself against the encroachments of Italy, France, and Great Britain, whose colonial territories in North Africa surround it on every side. The crown which Ras Tafari will wear, goes back, according to legend, to the time when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and bore that monarch an Abyssinian heir. The country which he will govern has been Christian since the middle of the fourth century, defiantly maintaining its national Abyssinian Church while the territory on every side either became Mohammedan or remained pagan.

Ras Tafari has resorted to every possible device to maintain his country's independence. He secured the admission of Abyssinia to the League of Nations in 1923, and used that membership to prevent Great Britain and Italy from dividing Abyssinian territory into spheres of influence, in derogation of Abyssinian sovereignty. Later, his scheme to dam Lake Tsana, at the head of the Blue Nile, thoroughly disturbed the British, who feared that Egypt's water supply might be interfered with, and they forced him to abandon the project.

THE PROBLEM General Moncada, the Liberal OF NICARAGUA candidate, has been chosen President of Nicaragua in an election held under the closest kind of supervision by American marines. The question now in the mind of all Latin America and of many people in the United States, to judge by manifestations which have preceded and followed the elections is whether the American Government will continue to maintain, and the Nicaraguan people continue willingly to permit, armed forces of the United States within the Central American republic.

Only a few hours before the polls opened in Nicaragua, Don Alejandro César, Minister to Washington appointed by the Conservative Government, announced categorically that reports that American marines would remain in Nicaragua indefinitely 'have been received by the Nicaraguan Government with feelings of deep satisfaction.' He saw fit to add that 'the presence of American marines in Nicaragua has always greatly benefited our country.'

Now that a Liberal president has been elected, however, if the attitude of the Liberals before the Stimson agreement silenced them means anything, these words of a Conservative minister mean far less than they otherwise would. There is therefore some doubt that, supposing the United States wishes to continue to shoulder the responsibility of keeping American forces on foreign soil, the present situation of passive acquiescence can be maintained. And it is only too likely that this responsibility will be cheerfully accepted, for there is no reason to believe that President-Elect Hoover, when he steps into the presidential chair next spring, will see fit to modify the policy of the Coolidge administration toward intervention in the affairs of our Latin American neighbors.

THE GRAF It is typical of the post-war world ZEPPELIN that an airship built in Germany

by distinctively German genius for no one seeks to rob Count Zeppelin of the honor of bringing dirigibles to the point where they became practical means of passenger transport should have chosen the United States as the goal of its first overseas voyage, and should be destined to enter a passenger service between Seville and Buenos Aires that is expected to do much toward stimulating close relations between Spain and Argentina.

Only sentimentalists will argue that aircraft developed in time of peace will not find their use in time of war; but at the same time it is interesting to reflect that the peoples who construct such monsters of the air are not jealous of their product, and are quite willing to let them be used to promote good feeling among the nations.

The Graf Zeppelin has come from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst and returned. The next step is to fit her for the regular South Atlantic passenger service for which the Spanish company that has leased her from her German makers has made all preparations. The fact that it took the new dirigible five days and four nights to cover the distance from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst has been greeted with shrugs by the American press. It does not disturb either Spaniards or Argentinians, who explain it by the weather conditions encountered. Commander Eckener took the smaller Los Angeles over the same route in 1924 in threequarters that length of time; and those backing the Spanish project believe that the newer and bigger Graf Zeppelin will soon be covering the passenger route from Seville to Buenos Aires (about the distance from Friedrichshafen to Chicago) in little more than sixty hours.

application of inheritance taxes and the revision of other methods of direct taxation; the suppression of indirect taxation; insurance against unemployment; the development of state insurance for all. The parties of the Right Conservatives, Liberals, and the Peasant Party - each oppose different features of this programme, and have never been able to group themselves in a general opposition bloc. This time, however, the Socialists felt less certain of their opponents; and their desire to make sure of gaining the eleven seats they needed persuaded them to make an alliance with the Communists. Immediately the spectre of Bolshevism arose; the hitherto differing parties of the Right united in opposition to everything that smacked of Socialism; and when the election returns were in, the Socialists had lost fifteen seats and the Conservatives had gained eighteen.

This does not mean that any important change in Swedish domestic policies will ensue. Carl Ekman, the stubborn ex-stonemason who has ruled for over two years as Sweden's prime minister, has resigned; but the Socialist party retains ninety seats to the Conservatives' seventy-three, and Admiral Lindman, the new Conservative prime minister, holds his power only by virtue of the support of a right bloc which can count upon a hundred votes to the ninety-eight controlled by Socialists and Communists together.

The importance of the election to the rest of the world lies in the fact that the Socialists have been smartly rebuked for believing that the Swedish people would support a left bloc that included Communists. The Swedish people have given one more proof that the great movement of social reform which has swept the Scandinavian countries will have nothing whatever to do with the Russia of Trotsky and Lenin.

V

AFRICA

ISITORS in Mombasa recently had the rare pleasure of witnessing an eighteen-hole golf match between two princes of the bloodWales and the Duke of Gloucester. THE LIVING AGE was given the score but promised not to reveal it. The weather was especially hot, and the afternoon sun ablaze; otherwise these two British sportsmen would have had lower scores and would not have doffed their coats even on East African links-something never, never done in Britain, however high the thermometer. Flannel trousers and tennis shoes, too, were in the picture, instead of orthodox knickers and hobnails. The golf featured the last day of the royal visit, and night saw the streets and chief buildings brilliantly illuminated, and festive scenes until the gray of dawn. Perhaps the sight which made Mombasa crowds open their eyes widest was that of three heavily veiled and amply skirted women, riding pillion on motorcycles an extraordinary combination,' as one correspondent expressed it, 'of ancient tradition and modern transport.'

CHINA

HOUGH the clouds of grasshoppers in the Tientsin-Peking section of China this year have added to the shortage of certain foods by devastating fields and devouring crops, they have themselves supplied many tables, the natives, rich and poor alike, esteeming them a great delicacy. The insects have been so numerous, indeed, that, in spite of the higher prices for most food-stuffs, grasshoppers have been cheaper in the markets this season than for many years. At times they have actually been

procurable for six coppers a catty, so that in the grasshopper sections of China the H. C. L. could not have been so bad. Furthermore, these were the shy and elusive variety, - rather more

flyers than hoppers,

for to move about they depend upon wings rather than legs.

As they are differently prepared for the table in different parts of the Empire, the tourist may have them to suit any taste or preference. Anciently, according to the Apostle Mark, John the Baptist took his with wild honey. In the south of China, the natives usually eat them boiled whole. In Tientsin, the bodies are stripped of legs and wings and are then fried, and when placed upon a platter, look for all the world like a heaped and inviting portion of hot potato chips. But the insect is more palatable than the vegetable or so we are informed.

GERMANY

FOR OR those who, enjoying joviality, recall the gaiety of pre-war Berlin, and have compared it sorrowfully with the gloom of the immediate post-war period, a visit to the Berlin of the present is recommended. True, Berlin is still a poor city, statistically speaking, with low workmen's wages and high prices for food and clothing. But who cares for statistics, when luxuries abound everywhere for anyone willing to pay the price, and choice wines and epicurean fare seem not only within the reach of most restaurant patrons, but actually are enjoyed by many of Teutonic tongue and countenance, whose bank accounts must be ample to make possible such expenditure? Perhaps the Germans have changed their point of view, and now believe that the joys of the moment are of more importance than hoardings for a time when pleasure will be restrained by the limitation of old age. At all events, Berlin's cafés are now filled, her movies and theatres are well patronized, and a spirit of optimism and cheer is all-pervading. New places of amusement, some of them elaborate, are being constantly added. Even the

servant girls are bobbing their hair, a fashion somehow connected with levity of spirit, and silk stockings, worn by trim, comely, and smiling domestics, are in evidence on holidays. Berlin is noticeably 'perking up,' and, though a housing shortage is complained of in the newspapers, the visitor in any one of a number of excellent hotels is altogether unconscious of the lack of dwellings for the bourgeoisie, and, for variety of entertainment and opportunities for money spending, need not envy the sojourners in any other capital of Europe.

INDIA

TOURISTS in Lahore and throughout the Punjab are advised to keep their eyes open for a Pir, or Mohammedan spiritual guide, who doesn't look quite natural, in the possibility that they may discover, so disguised, Lawrence, of Arabian fame. This picturesque adventurer and explorer is rumored to be masquerading in native costume somewhere in the Five Rivers country, upon a secret political mission, the precise nature of which has not been disclosed. If he should be discovered, it would be cruel to reveal his identity, as his errand is probably a dangerous yet useful one.

No

ITALY

TO SIGHTSEER saw it, but Roman natives and visitors alike were lately thrilled at the report that Pope Pius had climbed the dome of St. Peter's to look at a crack in the wall. Energetic tourists, of course, have made the ascent many times, and have observed the ancient cracks there, which have existed for many centuries without impairing the safety of the dome. But recently a new crack appeared, and it was this crack that Pope Pius wanted to see, and did. Engineers, too, have seen the new crack and studied it, and they still say that the dome is safe. Pope Pius, though somewhat stouter than in his mountaineering days, made the ascent without

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great difficulty or loss of breath. In fact, he said it was fine exercise, and that he would do it again. Sightseers may see the new crack almost any time, but they may not see Pope Pius seeing it.

RUSSIA

To HOUGH Moscow is a Communist city, the foreign visitor with kopecks to spare will find in elaborate display in the State shops rare

delicacies, vintage wines, costly jewelry, and all the luxuries of life not usually associated with Soviet rule. Just where the demand which justifies this display comes from is not clear. Certainly, few of Moscow's proletarian citizens can afford such luxuries, and those of the official classes who have amassed means are probably too cautious for such indulgences, however much inclined they may be to them. For the State shops are said to be staffed with agents of the Secret Police, and some have even suggested that the elaborate displays described are mere camouflage intended to impress foreign visitors with the wealth and culture of the Soviet State. One report has it that more than one ambitious and prosperous Communist who has flaunted his wealth in these luxury shops has been summarily arrested, and, failing satisfactorily to explain his resources, has had time to repent for his ostentation behind the stout bars of a Bolshevist prison.

Of course tourists need have no such misgivings, and if the markets of Moscow tempt expenditures for jewelry, lingerie, tapestries, hothouse grapes, or caviare, no restraint save the size of one's letter of credit need be considered.

Α

By L. M.'

HE grew older, the Emperor Francis Joseph clung tenaciously to old customs. Whether this was because he could not change with the times, or whether it was because he simply would not, his suspicion of innovations was unmistakable. Everyone knows the story of his obstinate refusal to enter an automobile, and how the young Emperor William finally got him into one by a trick.

Surprising as it may seem, even in 1870, long after call bells had come into general use elsewhere, the Austrian Emperor's writing table was still equipped underneath with a projecting board, which was connected with a bellpull in the adjutant's room. When the Emperor stepped on this board, a bell sounded to summon the adjutant who happened to be on duty. Finally Baron Braun, the Councilor of State, succeeded in obtaining the Emperor's permission for the installation of an electric table-bell. On the morning after the new device had been put in, the Emperor entered his study, sat down at his writing table and tried to summon the adjutant as usual by stepping on the accustomed board. Amazed to find it missing, he burst furiously into the adjutant's room. To the officer, who sprang up in dismay, he exclaimed angrily: 'Who has presumed to have the board under my writing table removed?' It took the poor

the latter enjoyed the novelty and could not resist pushing the remarkable button so that he could see whether this extraordinary new discovery was really of any practical use.

FRANCIS JOSEPH

to get the Emperor's permission to replace the chair by a new one, or at least to have the old one repaired, came to naught. When the Councilor made one final attempt to persuade him by saying

adjutant some little time to recover his voice, as the full cup of the Emperor's wrath was already being poured upon his unoffending head.

His first words in explanation, 'But, Your Majesty, the electric table-bell ...' made clear the true situation. That day the adjutant was called to the Emperor about every other minute, because

had many struggles with the Emperor, who was rather niggardly in regard to his own personal expenses. For instance, the Emperor had, in front of his writing table in the imperial palace, an easy-chair which had become shabby easy-chair which had become shabby with daily usage through the years. Various attempts made by Baron Braun

that such a shabby chair was unfit for the monarch's use, the Emperor asked how much the repair work would cost. The reply that eighty gulden would be enough failed to impress the Emperor, and feeling that the sum was too high, he refused to consider the matter. A short time afterward it became necessary to renovate one of the royal villas for the expected visit of a potentate. Without a word of protest, the Emperor approved the estimate laid before him for the work by Baron Braun, though it was in the neighborhood of eighty thousand gulden. He looked somewhat reproachful when the Councilor informed him with a bow, after the estimate had been counter-signed: 'In this sum of eighty thousand gulden, Your Majesty, is inIcluded the cost of a new easy-chair for your writing desk!'

THE

HE Emperor had no adequate idea of the worth of various kinds of money a defect which was shared by the Archduke Albert, who once considered a bank-note of a thousand gulden, the largest note in Austrian currency (the equivalent of about four hundred dollars), an appropriate birthday

gift for his only daughter. The ignorance of the Emperor in economic matters once had very embarrassing consequences. During a chamois hunt, the hard-pressed animals clustered together in an inaccessible place and could not be urged into the open. The only way of bringing them within range of the Emperor's gun was to separate the herd by having a beater