never does the best work he can do. He does the best work his people will allow him to. And since the days of Aristides, the Greeks have been notoriously fickle. Will Greece stand behind her great leader long enough to let him succeed? That is the one great question.

SPAIN IS BORED

PAIN'S 'three months' Dictator

anniversary as we go to press, and it cannot be said that Spanish joy is unconfined. Primo de Rivera answered his King's call to power on September 13, 1923, proclaiming that he would require at most ninety days to apply his blunt soldier's remedy to Spanish ills and restore his country to health again. He has remained five years, and lately intimated that he plans to stay for five years more. The yoke of dictatorship, never so irking in Spain as it has proved in countries farther to the East, perhaps sits no more awkwardly on Spanish shoulders to-day than it did five years ago; but Spaniards are wearying of a régime whose task, though admittedly temporary, seems never to get done, and are growing impatient with a Dictator who always breaks his promise to resign.

At the beginning of the summer, it was whispered throughout the country that Primo's relinquishment of power was close at hand. The Dictator, a widower weary of a soldier's life, was about to take to wife a Spanish countess, Señorita Mercedes de Castellanos. He was thought to be afflicted with a grave stomach ailment - some said diabetes-that caused him great suffering and required the strictest diet. He badly needed rest from five years' strain. Consequently, when a Bilbao newspaper supposedly close to the government printed a positive statement that immediately after his marriage the Dictator would resign, the news was accepted as authoritative. Even those journals most favorable to the Dictatorship, such as El Debate, at the same time that they lauded Primo's achievements, were ungracefully fervent in their approval of the plan.

Then, as quickly as a conjurer turns a card, the face of the situation was completely reversed. Primo from a sickbed broke his engagement, charging his fiancée with gambling on the stock exchange at the expense of his own prestige; affirmed his intention to remain at his post; and denounced his political opponents anew. A few weeks later, reports of a fresh revolutionary plot trickled out of Spain to give point to the Dictator's denunciation a plot in which a thousand preventive' arrests were reported to have been made and the King's life

threatened by a bomb. The hopeful days of the early summer were over, and the Dictatorship was back in the same position it had occupied for half a decade past.

'As far as I personally am concerned,' said Primo at this time, 'I could leave my office to-day covered with glory, and retaining at least a part of my health. If I stay at the head of the government five years more, I risk that glory and I definitely compromise my health. When I see the decadence which shamed Spain in the past ready to spring up again, however, I am ready to make this new sacrifice for my country.'

His enemies say that in thus using the necessity of beating down a new wave of opposition to justify his retention of power, Primo admits the failure of his five years' rule. Most European observers, however, consider his position to be as strong as it has ever been. He felt quite safe, for instance, in allowing the Spanish Socialist Party to meet openly at Hendaye, close to the French border, late this summer. The Socialists seized the opportunity to fulminate and call him bad names, characterizing his régime as 'the most unscrupulous ever known in Spain!' but nothing happened. The hope that the King might be counted upon to cast down the Dictator he had called to power seems also vanished. For Alfonso, on the occasion of the official opening of the new trans-Pyrenean railway between France and Spain a few months ago, backed his Prime Minister in words that rang with sincerity. The King's speech was hailed as especially significant because, although in the past he has invariably used French in such international ceremonies, this time he chose to speak in Spanish, as though to emphasize the fact that he was weighing his words carefully and wished them to reach his own people without being garbled by translators.

It seems clear that the weakness of the Spanish Dictatorship lies not in any doubt of its ability to maintain itself, doubt of its ability to maintain itself, but in the fact that it does not constitute, as Fascism does in Italy, a constructive political system, or for that matter pretend to be a political system at all. The two dictatorial régimes are as different as the two men who head them. Primo de Rivera has neither the brains nor the aggressive personality of Mussolini, who means to set up a new system of government for the years to come. He has only good humor, good will, a politically passive people to deal with; and his régime, far from laying the foundations of the future, is merely acting as a stopgap for the present. The Duce's chance for lasting glory, if he has one, lies in the

possibility that he may establish a system of government that will outstay his own life. Primo's rule, on the other hand, is admittedly only a transition period between the anarchy of 1923 and the setting up of a new constitutional order. It is Spain's tragedy that the new order is no nearer to-day than it seemed five years ago, and that the transition is an interlude that leads to nothing.

Even the most politically passive of peoples tires some day of being led nowhere. Even the most complacent of governments cannot mark time forever. As His Excellency, Don Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, Marquis of Estrella, President of the Council of State, Grandee of Spain, and Lieutenant of the Armies enters his sixth year of power, l'Espagne, to modify a famous Frenchman's phrase, s'ennuie. If trouble comes to Miguel, it will be a revolt against boredom rather than an uprising against oppression.

PADIS

BACK TO KABUL

ADISHAH AMANULLAH, King of Afghanistan, has ended his European tour and with Queen Suraya has gone back to his palace at Kabul. The Queen, contrary to expectations, may prove to have been the more important figure of the pair.

For five months this spring and summer the nations of Europe paid court to the Afghan royal couple. As they swept triumphantly from capital to capital - Amanullah, spruce in his uniform, Suraya, chic in her Paris gowns factories opened their doors, banquet halls overflowed, troops marched and countermarched impressively, and the finest shops displayed their wares to let the monarchs choose. European attention naturally centred on Amanullah himself and on his checkbook; for here was the enlightened ruler of a Mohammedan Kingdom of Central Asia that was soon to emerge from century-old seclusion into the full glare of modernity, and would undoubtedly need European manufactured goods for the purpose. But Afghan eyes were fixed on Queen Suraya and her Paris gowns; for to those reared in the Mohammedan views of womanhood, the fact that the Queen had left the seclusion of the harem, had doffed her long gown and veil for the short skirts and revealing lines of Paris, meant the possibility of a tremendous change in Afghan life and social customs.

The apprehension of Afghan husbands was great enough while Queen Suraya was toddling quietly along behind her royal husband across the continent of Europe. It grew to fever heat as the homing couple neared Teheran, the

THE PEACEFUL DIPLOMACY of France, capital of neighboring Persia. For only a few days earlier, the wife of the Persian Shah had been driven from a mosque in the Holy City of Kum by the priests - simply because, while she wore the traditional schador covering her body from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, she had adjusted her veil in such a way that a glimpse of her face might be caught. The Shah had immediately avenged this insult to his wife by having the priests horsewhipped; but feeling was still strong, and the whole question of women's dress was in the air.

All Persia, all Afghanistan, most of Islam were waiting anxiously to see how Queen Suraya would be arrayed when she arrived in troubled Teheran. Thousands of Persian ladies, long hopeless of breaking down old traditions, had taken heart when they had read of Queen Suraya's appearance on the continent in European attire and had heard nothing of Her Afghan Majesty's being excommunicated for it by the descendants of the Prophet. Should she now appear in public in Teheran without the long schador, it might mean that the garment would disappear immediately from Persia, never to return.

Suraya arrived at the station elegantly garbed in European fashion and wearing a veil that was admittedly improper, in that it consisted of a thin strip of silk covering only the lower portion of her face. But before more than a few could see her, a closed automobile rushed her at a furious pace to the Shah's palace, where she stayed with the Shah's wife in the harem and refused to appear in public at all. She was thus cannily noncommittal; and though she set a certain example, it is not reported that any Persian women have had the courage to follow.

Arrived in Kabul, she has been equally reticent; but it is certain that sooner or later she will be the centre of a definite

England, and America drives out Mars with pens made from the olive branch of peace.

effort to bring Afghan women out of their
seclusion and give them a share in the
life of the country comparable to that
which their Queen knows European
women enjoy. Mustapha Kemal has
been able to do it for Mohammedan
women in Turkey, largely because he has
broken the Caliphate and eliminated the
reactionary power of the clergy. In
Afghanistan, however, the influence of
the Mohammedan holy men still hangs
like a dark cloud over the country, and
any attempt to introduce new customs
in the capital is invariably met by a petty
insurrection inspired by them in the wild
outlying regions. It will take months,
perhaps years, to overcome such opposi-
tion and to let the Queen's abandon-
ment of traditional dress during her
European
European tour have its full effect.
Meanwhile, as Amanullah busily gives
his country factories and roads and
schools, Suraya bides her time.

IT

RATIFYING THE PEACE TREATY

T is a temptation for the friends of peace and who does not gladly count himself among their number? to hail the signing of the Kellogg treaty as the end of a long road. At first glance it seems as if war has at last been 'outlawed' by the principal powers of the modern world. The lesser powers in considerable number - though not originally parties to it, and in spite of pique in some quarters at not being 'asked to first table' officially indicated their intention of 'adhering' to the treaty almost as soon as it had been signed; and there is no reason for doubting that practically every civilized state will eventually adhere.

But at the present moment the Kellogg treaty, by its own terms, is, of course, merely so much paper. According to the text, the treaty does not come into force until the signatory powers have deposited 'all their several instruments

of ratification' at Washington. It is worth italicizing the word all; for if language means anything, this clause means that the failure of a single power to ratify makes the treaty invalid. And of the fifteen states who signed the treaty last August, five must under their constitutions submit it to their legislative bodies before it becomes binding.

The question assumes greatest importance in the United States. Foreign diplomatic tradition usually gives plenipotentiaries the right to bind by their signatures the powers they represent. The procedure of subsequently submitting treaties to parliaments is a relatively recent innovation, partly based on American precedent, but still so little understood that Europe was thunderstruck in 1920 to discover that the Senate of the United States could refuse to approve an agreement made by the President, in spite of the fact that the Senate had in the past often exercised this power.

The question whether the Senate of the United States will ratify the Kellogg treaty is crucial. A failure to ratify would affect the entire future of American diplomacy, because the Kellogg treaty, in spite of M. Briand's original initiative, is essentially America's handiwork. It was America that urged it on the rest of the world and by slow degrees overcame the objections of other powers. If now, for the second time in a decade, the Senate refuses to ratify a treaty on which the whole world is agreed, it will be difficult indeed for American diplomats to secure for their overtures and agreements serious consideration in the future. In fact, several signatories have already announced that they will withhold their own ratifications until the United States Senate has acted.

It seems on the whole highly probable that the Senate will ratify the treaty, partly because the personal animosities which contributed to the rejection of the

85

From the New Leader, London

A PESSIMISTIC VIEW OF THE KELLOGG TREATIES THE DIPLOMATS GATHERING in Paris are pictured as so many ravens, bringing not peace but forebodings of disaster.

Versailles Treaty no longer affect senatorial relations with the Executive; partly because the Senators will not care to stand against public opinion, which obviously favors the treaty or any other means that holds out the remotest hope of lessening the probability of war.

We hesitate to suggest the thought.

but it may be that it would facilitate the approval of the Kellogg Treaty by the United States Senate at its forthcoming session if the naval and preparedness program of the Coolidge Administration should be first considered by Congress and disposed of. Perhaps Mr. Hoover, when in his acceptance speech he stressed adequate preparedness in the same breath with which he approved the treaty outlawing war, thought to do his bit at this time to smooth the way for Senatorial ratification in December. But as President-elect, should he become such in November, Mr. Hoover's voice will be powerful in the councils of the ratificationists. Of that we may be sure.

The treaty's chief value is that it establishes a state of mind unfavorable to war. Its real test will come when the

powers begin to discuss practical ways of reducing in number the three million. men now under arms in the military and naval services of allegedly peaceable nations.

PROTECTING JAPANESE MONARCHY

THE Japanese movement for the

United States would now undoubtedly be suppressed on the ground that it offended against the Mikado's peace. So nervous have Japan's rulers become on the question of republicanism that they avoid even mentioning the word in the new amendment. So carefully has it been drafted that such phrases as 'abolition of the monarchy' are avoided, apparently on the ground that such a crime is too dreadful to be mentioned, even in a law designed to prevent it! Several million yen have been set aside. for an espionage service to help root out dissatisfaction with the existing government among all Japanese subjects. As Japanese revolutionaries frequently have to take refuge abroad, the espionage system will be very wide spread. The news that it will have a London branch leads the Manchester Guardian to the indignant observation that 'it will be highly desirable to deny the hospitality of our shores to any Japanese subjects who are active on behalf of this organization, just as it will be desirable to offer hospitality to any who are fugitives from the political terror. Japan is a great nation, and she too may have her Mazzini, Garibaldi, Salvemini, Kossuth, and Karl Marx. The right of asylum should be theirs, according to the ancient English custom.'

The new amendment is the climax of the recent movement against 'dangerous thoughts,' as the conservative Japanese term modernistic or radical ideas. Not only have there been many political arrests but every effort has been made to clear the universities of ideas that might be regarded as subversive to the existing order. The educational authorities have agreed that no young man who has shown any interest in in dangerous thoughts' will even be permitted to

enter.

The measure is defended on the ground that it is necessary for the protection of the Emperor. It has been received by the Japanese press and the Japanese people with every evidence of complete submission.

ernment dared not lay it before the Diet but waited until after adjournment and then brought the measure into force by means of an imperial ordinance.

The amendment provides a death penalty for all who join any society whose object is a change in the form of the state. It thus becomes a capital offense not only to preach bolshevism, but even to preach republicanism; and a society for the study of so inoffensive a document as the Constitution of the

THE CROWN OF AHMET ZOGU

transformation of Ahmet Zogu

esque career is treated elsewhere in this issue issue from a theoretically democratic President into a royal personage represents something more than a mere addition to the crowned heads of Europe. It is important because it creates one more link between the Fascist government and its Albanian dependencyfor that is what, in spite of her nominal independence, Albania really is. Ahmet, whose retention of power depends wholly

houses; when the old régime fell, they were able to save from the wreck many valuable presents given them by their masters. These they have been selling one by one, until to-day little is left, and the old women are living close to poverty.

a

The black eunuchs from the Yemen, the Sudan, and Abyssinia, who once guarded the harems, have fared somewhat better. They have formed union - the Eunuch's Friendly Society - which helps them to obtain work. Some are in government employ. Others are acting as guardians for the museum in the old harem of the Sultan's Palace, where they open for staring tourists the 'Gate of Felicity' which it. was once their duty to guard with their lives against all intruders. One- and this indicates the high degree of education which they sometimes reachedhas been appointed teacher of literature in a girls' school in Constantinople; one is in full control of a fleet of newsboys on a thriving Turkish daily.

that, if it took fire, the flame would be due to a miracle which no pious Hindu would wish to resist.

Some one seems to have taken chemical precautions to make sure that the miracle would occur. The girl's toilet was supervised by the priests. She was led to the pyre, ascended it, seated herself according to the ancient ritual with her husband's head in her lap. At this moment flames burst from her clothing.

The pain proved so intense that the young widow's courage failed her. She leaped from the pyre and rushed into the Ganges, which is in Hindu eyes a sacred river. Thereupon the husband's corpse was also flung into the river and the priests shouted to the widow to drown priests shouted to the widow to drown herself. At this point the police intervened and after some difficulty got the girl out of the stream, badly burned. In spite of her injuries, no physician was allowed to approach her, the priests regarding it as undesirable that she should survive the 'miracle' which had taken place. When at length a magistrate arrived with a larger force of armed police, it was too late to save her life, and she died soon afterwards.

Those who persuaded the young widow to undergo the rite of suttee have now been convicted by the High Court, partly on the ground that they persuaded her to risk her life and partly on the ground that they denied her aid after she had fled from the fire. But it is significant of the state of opinion in India - where even to-day few orthodox Hindus will go so far as specifically to condemn the practice of suttee - that some of the jurymen had grave doubts whether the flames might not really have been miraculous; and whether, in have been miraculous; and whether, in that case, the defendants were not entirely innocent.

THE

GERMAN ATHLETICS

HE athletic movement in Germany has taken the place of the compulsory military training which was general before the war, and it is claimed that the present system has resulted in noticeable improvement in the physique and morale of young Germany. Under the older system, the German youth early in his career became familiar with all the vices of garrison life. To-day the strenuous training necessary for modern sports is helping to eliminate the drinking habit with its attendant late hours and carouses. An impartial observer of the recent festival at Cologne, in which nearly two hundred thousand German youths participated, declared that the German youth of to-day is physically fitter than the youth of most European countries. Nor are the young German athletes permitted to forget patriotic sentiment during these gatherings. On the recent occasion, the Oberburgermeister, Dr. Adenauer, reminded the assemblage and their guests that Germany was still suffering from the burden of occupation by foreign powers although its strength and spirit had not been broken. Herr Siebel, President of the German Athletic Association, also took occasion to condemn in vigorous terms the continued occupation of German territory by the Allies. A branch of the German Athletes' Association at Hirschberg, in Silesia, only recently erected a monument to 'der Alte Kaiser,' William I, and to the memory of Germany's 'glorious past.' In addition to the participants living in Germany, the following countries were represented at the Festival at Cologne: Agentine, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, England, Holland, Italy, Japan, Lettland, Austria, United States, Switzerland, and South West Africa.