THE LIVING AGE Founded by E.LITTELL in 1844 FEBRUARY 19, 1921 A WEEK OF THE WORLD PÉTAIN AND PERSHING JEAN DE PIERREFEU, discussing in 'G.Q.G.' the personal traits of General Pétain, says that officer's relations with the Americans were very cordial, adding: General Pershing pleased General Pétain greatly. He was the only man who succeeded in causing him a real surprise. General Pershing's originality and whimsicality did, indeed, possess a certain quality of surprise. He never would conform with the conventional manners and customs of other people. He would make an appointment to dine with Pétain at six o'clock and turn up calmly as if nothing had happened at midnight, after telephoning him not to lose patience. I am told that he arrived one day to meet a very high personage a sovereign. When Pershing's train was drawing into the railway station, in front of which the interview was to occur, and where the august personage was already waiting, the General was observed standing near a window, in his shirt sleeves, shaving. The station master, in dismay, had the train immediately backed out of the station and delayed its official entry until the General's toilet was finished. the president. As they were about to enter their auto, Poincaré opened the door, and stepping aside said to the premier: 'Please get in.' The latter replied: 'I will do nothing of the kind.' 'Please do,' insisted the president again, whereupon Clemenceau, as sprightly as a youth, with two springs was on the side of the machine and climbing in the opposite door, while the president, astonished at his sudden disappearance, looked around for him. Clemenceau shouted with laughter, delighted at his joke. LLOYD GEORGE SENESCENS A LITTLE book entitled The Mirror of Downing Street, by an anonymous author, has aroused exceptional interest in England on account of its trenchant description of Lloyd George. His career is traced from the time when he arrived in London, so poor that he shared not only his room but his bed at Gray's Inn with a Welsh compatriot, whose income was no larger than his own, but whose expenses were less, because the future Premier was already a member of parliament an honor to which, as our readers will recall, no salary was attached. This early roommate, who later became the private secretary of Copyright, 1921, by The Living Age Co. Among the anecdotes in this book is an account of a very formal military ceremony where President Poincaré made an address, and Clemenceau was in attendance. The latter completely won the heart of the officers by his vivacity and boundless flow of humor. He left the Court of Honor, wearing his little round hat, in company with one of the Premier's colleagues, insists that the future statesman's most eloquent orations were never delivered in parliament or before the public, but were the outpourings of his soul indicting the world's injustice, in that modest lodging, during the days when both were so straitened as actually at times to feel the pangs of hunger. To-day, this author says, the premier's early love of the parliamentary tribune has disappeared. His joy of combat revives after he has actually entered the lists; but it is now difficult to induce him to take up the gage of battle. He is a wearied man; not only physically, but mentally. Had he been capable of sustaining the pace- and the ideals with which he set out in his youth, he might have been the greatest man in British history. 'But his love of ease and cynicism have conquered him. To recline in the deepest of easy chairs, smoking a cigar, with Miss Megan Lloyd George and some witty public man for company, suits him better today than to discuss seriously the most inspiring ideals or the most urgent problems facing the Great Empire.' Naturally this book has been received with unusual interest in France. A BEETHOVEN EXHIBITION THE one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Beethoven's birth was celebrated in Vienna by an exhibition in the halls of the City Museum, at which some five hundred of his musical manuscripts and various personal mementoes were displayed. Among the latter was an hitherto unfamiliar miniature dating from 1802, and a programme of his first concert in Vienna, bearing the title: A New Concert on the Piano Forte, played by Master Ludwig von Beethoven, and consisting of his own compositions. Newspapers in Germany as well as Austria have published many articles apropos of the occasion; but none which has come to our notice has the personal interest of the French description of the great composer which we print in this issue. PALESTINE A CORRESPONDENT writing from Joffa to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung late in November, says that conditions in Palestine are in marked contrast with those north of the boundary in Syria, where the French authorities have incurred the bitter hatred of the natives, and outbreaks, unrest, and disaffection are universal. An Arab who, in course of conversation in a Tyre coffee house, mentioned the possibility that the city might be annexed to Palestine, was immediately arrested and jailed. The French authorities are said to be strongly anti-Semite and to have suppressed the Hebrew-Arabic newspaper at Damascus. On the other hand, Sir Herbert Samuels' labors in Palestine are highly commended. His three great tasks have been to organize a reliable body of police and reëstablish order throughout the interior, to improve roads and other means of communication, and to provide a system of public schools. The first task has been practically accomplished. Means of communication have been improved and there is already direct telephone connection via the Suez Canal with Egypt. Palestine has one hundred and ten thousand children of school age, of whom ninety per cent have never received instruction of any kind. The government has undertaken to establish a public school in every village, and to make attendance compulsory. One great difficulty is to overcome Mohammedan objections to the education of girls. This sentiment is so strong that it is considered expedient to confine the first educational work to boys. LITHUANIAN OPINION A LETTER from a correspondent in Kovno to the Journal de Genève confirms the account of conditions and sentiment in the part of Lithuania occupied by Zeligowsky which we publish this week. This informant says: In general, after what I have seen and heard during the last fifteen months in Lithuania, traveling through the whole country from east to west and north to south, by rail, by auto, on horseback, and on foot, conversing in Lithuanian and Polish with the people, I am profoundly convinced that a plebiscite will not solve the difficulty. There is not a Lithuanian in the country who will tolerate the idea of surrendering his capital. There is not one who does not feel outraged at the simple suggestion of submitting to a popular vote the destiny of a city which he venerates as the centre of his nation. I have met in the vast forests of this land simple peasants who never saw Vilna; who could not read or write, and yet they spoke with enthusiasm of that city as an embodiment of their national ideals. By holding a plebiscite we are violating the sacred rights and profoundest sentiment of this nation. If it loses Vilna, we shall inevitably have chaos, revolution, and war. I should add that not only Lithuanians who talk that language, but the people who speak Polish, are equally opposed to having Vilna annexed to Poland. Many and many a Polish speaking citizen has told me that in spite of his language he felt himself a son of Lithuania. Vilna is the religious centre of Lithuania, as much as Lourdes is of France, or Einsiedeln of Switzerland. Incorporated in Poland, Vilna will be a miserable provincial frontier town. Left in Lithuania, it will be the magnificent capital of the border nation between Oriental and Occidental Europe. BERLIN'S NEW CITY TAX AMONG the new taxes contemplated by the Berlin Municipal Council is a graduated house and tenement tax upon rooms in excess of the number 'normally required' by the persons belonging to the establishment of the occupier. There is no tax on one room beyond 'normal need'; for two rooms, the tax is 500 marks, with 500 marks additional for every room up to four above the normal. For five surplus rooms, the tax is 5000 marks; for six surplus rooms 10,000, with 5000 marks additional for each room in excess of that number. If one household occupies several houses, the total number of rooms will be added together in assessing the tax. A tax similar in principle will be levied upon the employment of domestic servants, graduated up to a maximum of 2000 marks for the employment of a fourth servant, and for each additional servant above that number. A NEW AUSTRALIAN STRIKE LAW AUSTRALIA has passed an 'Industrial Peace Act' which is reported practically to have superseded the Federal Arbitration Law. It seems, however, to have brought additional trouble to the Commonwealth. One of the first tribunals appointed under it, was charged with fixing the wages of coal miners. It granted increases to the employees not only of the New South Wales collieries, but of the lignite mines of Victoria, which are open-cut workings above ground. The State government of Victoria contests the right of the Federal tribunal to give a decision in this instance. As a result, not only have the Victoria coal workers struck, but the miners in New South Wales have refused to mine coal intended for consumption in Victoria. The situation is complicated by the fact that the pay of miners in Victoria is fixed by a State Minimum Wage Board. PROSPERITY IN SAXONY A CORRESPONDENT of the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, writing from Dresden early in December, emphasizes two facts: the great suffering among the students, some of whom are obliged to take shelter at night in railway stations, where on several occasions they have fainted from lack of food, and the revival of industrial activity after the late depression. Referring to this brighter side of the picture the correspondent says: The business situation here must be char acterized as favorable. Wherever I have been, I have seen evidences of a revival. I frequently hear confident and optimistic prophecies, and the people have the feeling: 'In spite of everything we are getting ahead.' The number of unemployed has declined rapidly. Hundreds of thousands are back at work, especially in textile factories, which have orders enough to keep them busy until next spring. These are not foreign commissions likely to be imperilled by a sudden fall in the mark, but orders for home consumers. The coal mines are in active operation, and the supply of potatoes, which fell off disastrously when Posen was separated from Germany, is now guaranteed by increased acreage at home. There is still a keenly felt shortage of meat and fats. BELGIAN FRENCH RELATIONS AN irritating incident has disturbed the good relations between France and Belgium, due to the rather officious adIvice which the French ambassador ventured to give to the latter country during a recent public address. Last year the two governments concluded a military convention, the terms of which, it may be recalled, they refused to communicate to the League of Nations, as their obligation under the League Covenant was supposed to require them to do. The agreement itself was a very natural precaution on Belgium's part, because that country, unlike Switzerland, had surrendered the neutrality which was supposed to have been guaranteed it before the war. Belgium signed this convention, however, with the tacit understanding that a commercial convention should accompany it. France has neglected to conclude the latter, and has enacted laws which the Belgian government believes discriminates against its commerce. For instance, France levies a surtax on imports reaching France via foreign countries, in order apparently to favor Strasbourg against Antwerp. This question and other subjects of friction were alluded to during a reception at the French Embassy in Brussels. The ambassador made an impromptu speech, in which he ventured to give Belgium advice regarding its domestic affairs, and especially regarding the size of its army, which he considered too small. This has been much resented in that country. MINOR NOTES IN 1920, the commercial air routes in regular use in France covered about 2700 miles, over which 6750 passengers, 5210 kilograms of mail matter, and 103,330 kilograms of express were transported. There was one accident for every 100,000 kilometres traversed. OSAKA Mainichi refers to Stoddard's 'Rising Tide of Color' with a statement that its editor does not propose to comment on the views expressed in the book, but that they are worthy of attention. 'No one can readily subscribe to the future of the whites in Asia pictured by Mr. Stoddard, and it is also doubtful whether the growth of colored races will be proportionate to the decline of the whites.' WE are indebted to L'Opinion for the following anecdote apropos of the visit of the Crown Prince of Roumania to the United States. A group of reporters asked his opinion of American newspapers, expecting, of course, a flattering reply. The Prince's comment was: 'I think the American papers very poor affairs. For instance, this morning they devoted two columns to the funeral of a baseball player, and only fifteen lines to the Bolshevist defeat before Warsaw.' THE advances made by the French government for reconstructing its devastated departments, which amount al |