BRITISH ELECTORAL REFORM: VOTES FOR

THE

WOMEN

HE Representation of the People bill, introduced in the House of Conimons by Mr. Long, is in its way more radical even than the first great Reform bill of 1832, which brought about the downfall of the Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, who violently opposed it; much greater than the Reform bill of 1867, which enfranchised the artisan class and added over 3,000,000 to the voters of the nation; greater by far than the Reform bill of 1885, which was, in the main, a redistribution bill, reapportioning the seats in Parliament in accordance with the population.

The effect of the new Reform bill may be summarized as follows: There were in 1915 8,357,000 male voters on the registers; the present bill will add over 2,000,000 male voters to this number; but far more striking is the addition of over 6,000,000 women voters, in accordance with the following clauses of the bill:

1. A woman shall be entitled to be registered as a Parliamentary elector for a constituency, (other than a university constituency,) if she has attained the age of 30 years, and is entitled to be registered as a Local Government elector in respect of land or premises in that constituency, or is the wife of a husband entitled to be so registered.

2. A woman shall be entitled to be registered as a Parliamentary elector for a university constituency if she has attained the age of 30 years, and would be entitled to be so registered if she were a man.

3. A woman shall be entitled to be registered as a Local Government elector for any Local Government electoral area where she would be entitled to be so registered if she were a man; provided that a husband and wife shall not both be qualified as Local Government electors in respect of the same property.

The age limit was adopted because the bill could not have been passed without it. The reason for the apparent discrimination against women in the matter of age seems to be that, with the destruction of male voters now going on at the front, the women would vastly preponderate at

the polls if they, like the men, were allowed to vote at the age of 21, and it was thought safer to give time for the equalization of the sexes numerically.

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CONSTANTINE AND HIS DYNASTY

ONSTANTINE of Greece, who has

CONST

lost his throne, reversed the policy of his father, George I., King of the Hellenes, who was strongly pro-English, and who succeeded Otho of Bavaria when the Greeks drove him out of the country in 1862. The Greek Nation thereupon, by a plebiscite, elected, as King, Prince Alfred, son of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Edinburgh; and, when he refused the throne, requested Great Britain to nominate a candidate. The British Government chose Prince Christian William Ferdinand Adolphus of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, who was recognized by the powers on June 6, 1863, and for whom the Conference of London, in August, 1863, created the style, King of the Hellenes, at the same time making Greece a present of the Ionian Islands, which contain about onetenth of the population of Greece.

Just before his nomination the new Greek King's sister, Princess Alexandra, had married the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII., and it has been repeatedly affirmed and denied, in the House of Commons, that Queen Alexandra's protection kept her nephew Constantine on the throne long after his policy had become an open danger to the Allies at Saloniki.

Shortly after George of Denmark became King of the Hellenes, his father succeeded to the crown of Denmark, while another sister, Princess Dagmar, married the future Czar Alexander III. of Russia; she, also, as Dowager Empress Marie of Russia, was supposed to uphold Constantine, who is further allied with several of the Russian Grand Ducal families, his mother having been the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine, his

sister having married the Grand Duke George Mikhailovitch, while his brother Nicholas married the Grand Duchess Helena Vladimirovna. From each of the three powers which guarantee the constitutional Government of Greece, King George received a personal allowance of $20,000 yearly.

VISITING COMMISSIONS

LORD NORTHCLIFFE, proprietor of

The London Times, The London Mail, and other publications, arrived at New York June 12 to take up the duties of head of the British Commission to the United States, which post had been tendered him by Premier Lloyd George. His duties are to co-ordinate the work of the various British organizations already engaged in the task of supplying British war and other needs. His appointment is not a diplomatic position. Each of the allied Governments has numerous commissions engaged in various duties of assembling and procuring supplies in this country. The head of the French Commission is André Tardieu. Baron Moncheur, former Belgian Minister to the United States, arrived at New York with a Belgian Commission June 16. A commission of Russians consisting of forty members, headed by Boris A. Bakmetieff, arrived at Seattle June 13; this commission was appointed prior to the fall of the Milukoff Cabinet.

THE

THE IRISH CONVENTION

HE Irish convention which will deliberate during the Summer to endeavor to reach an agreement on a form of home rule will consist of 101 members. The British Government, seeking to secure for this convention representatives of the everyday life of Ireland, invited the Chairmen of every County Council and county borough, while, in addition, invitations had been extended to the Chairmen of small towns and urban districts in each of the four provinces to appoint two members to the convention.

The convention will also include four Roman Catholic Bishops, together with the Primate, Dr. Crosier, and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Bernard, representing the Protestant Church of Ireland,

and Dr. John Irwin, Moderator of the Irish Presbyterian Assembly. Commerce will be represented by the Chairmen of Chambers of Commerce in Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, while five representatives of labor will be sent by the trade councils of Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, and trade unions.

Political parties will be represented as follows: Five Nationalists, five Ulster Unionists, two O'Brienites, two Irish representative peers, five Southern Unionists, and five Sinn Feiners or Separatists. As to Sinn Feiners, the spokesmen of the Separatists' bodies had stated they would not enter the convention, but the Government reserved five places for them. Fifteen additional members will be nominated by the Government from among leading Irishmen of all sections.

THE

SOCIALIST EFFORTS FOR PEACE HE International Socialist Conference, which was summoned to meet at Stockholm in May, but which was delayed because delegates from important countries would not attend or were not permitted by their Governments to go to Stockholm, has taken on a more important aspect since the Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates assumed the responsibility for summoning the assembly. The Russian Provisional Government has indorsed the invitation. The British and French Governments have granted passports to Socialist delegates, including so ardent a pacifist as Ramsay MacDonald, evidently because the Socialists of the allied countries command a majority of the votes in the conference and for them not to attend would give the delegates from the central countries a chance to dominate the gathering. The Dutch-Scandinavian Socialist Committee at Stockholm has been holding a series of preliminary consultations and informal discussions with Socialists from the different belligerent countries, and has succeeded in eliciting from the German majority Socialists, who, under Scheidemann's leadership, are supporting their Government, a statement of their peace terms. This statement has been condemned by prominent antiGovernment leaders among German

Socialists, on the ground that it merely represents German imperialism. At the conference, which has been called for July 8, Germany has twenty votes, but they are divided equally between the Scheidemann group and the minority, which includes Kautsky, Haase, and Bernstein. The United States Government refused to issue passports to Morris Hillquit, Algernon Lee, and Victor L. Berger, the delegates chosen by the Socialist Party of America.

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CHAOS GROWING IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

OUNT MORITZ ESTERHAZY has

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completed the formation of a new Hungarian Cabinet, in which all parties opposed to the policies of Count Tisza are represented, Count Albert Apponyi being Minister of Education, while Count Karolyi has so far refused to take office. Hungarian feeling both against Germany and against the German dominance of Austria is reported as steadily growing; but the rock in the channel is the Slav question. More than half the population of Hungary is either Slav or Rumanian, and is held in political helotry by the dominant Magyars. Without the help of Germany and of the Austrians in Germany the Magyars would inevitably be submerged in the rising flood of Slavdom.

The difficulties of the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy-which, since 1866, has been the weaker half-are also rapidly growing. The Southern Slavs, agitation among whom was one of the causes of the war, are restive under the Germanizing pressure of the Vienna Government, while the Northern Slavs-the Czechs of Bohemia, the Moravians, and Slovaks are practically in open rebellion, and these two Slav groups far outnumber the German factions in Austria, as the non-Magyars outnumber the Magyars in Hungary.

German and Magyar domination has only been maintained by franchise laws, and now, as in Prussia, there is strong pressure for the establishment of a widely extended franchise. If this were done, the domination of both Magyars and German-Austrians would come to an end. Even now, in the Reichsrat, 233 Germans

-who are divided into mutually antagonistic parties-are faced by 263 Slavs and Italians, the Slavs including 108 Czechs, some 80 Galician Poles, and a certain number of Ruthenians, Slovenes, Dalmatians, Croatians, and Italians. On June 19 the Poles in the Austrian Parliament refused to vote for the war budget and forced the Austrian Premier, Count Clam-Martinic, to resign; the Poles are seeking independence.

THE

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Two GERMAN REFORMS

THE German Federal Council has decided upon the repeal of two of the main features of "exceptional legislation" in Germany, the Jesuit act and the language paragraph, the first of which forbade members of the Society of Jesus to establish themselves in Germany, while the second forbade the use in public meetings of any language but German, except in the case of international congresses and election meetings. This decision is final, and will not be referred to the Reichstag, as that body is formally regarded as having already given its consent, having voted in favor of the abolition of the Jesuit act in 1894, and again in 1899, and in favor of the repeal of the language paragraph in 1908. On all three occasions, however, the Federal Council refused to ratify the decision of the House, whose vote has, therefore, been overruled until now.

The language paragraph was directed against the Polish and Danish subjects of the empire and the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine, and was considered necessary, in view of the German custom of arranging for a State official to be present at any public meeting, so as to intervene in the event of any inadmissible utterance.

The Jesuit act dated from 1872 and marked the beginning of the famous Kulturkampf. The aggressive policy of the Vatican at that time had aroused Protestant opinion, and its claim as to the precedence of ecclesiastical over secular jurisdiction had given rise to the conviction that, as Herr Rudolf Delbrück, the then Secretary of State, stated in the Reichstag at the time, the young German

Empire must be protected from the disintegrating effect of international influences on the imperial consciousness being evolved in its midst. The Society of Jesus and its kindred organizations were, therefore, forbidden to establish themselves in Germany, their existing settlements were ordered to be broken up within six months, and Jesuits of nonGerman nationality were permitted to reside only in certain districts, and were liable to banishment at any time.

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OUR GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SHIPS

Gatun Lake, in order that the fresh water might kill the barnacles accumulated on their hulls.

Rush repairs were immediately begun on all the ships except those at Honolulu, H. T., and the Vaterland at New York, the latter being too large for any American dry dock. By a unanimous Senate resolution, no suit for compensation may begin until one year after peace is made.

CANADA'S CONSCRIPTION BILL

about 100 and representing a gross tonnage of about 600,000 were taken under the control of the United States Government on April 6, the German crews being removed and turned over to the immigration authorities. Customs officials took over the ships at Porto Rico and Hawaii, while the War Department had earlier taken possession of German merchant ships in the Canal Zone, the Navy Department taking control of the German raiders at Philadelphia. It is estimated that, while the German ships now controlled by the United States Government cost more than $50,000,000, they now represent, even in their present damaged condition, considerably over $100,000,000; and while practically every ship was more or less damaged, by orders emanating from the German Embassy, the injuries, except in one or two cases, were much less serious than had been feared. The Kronprinzessin Cecilie was probably the most seriously damaged, while the Liebenfels, sunk in Charleston Harbor, was almost intact, except for the opening of the seacocks.

Fourteen Austrian ships, of a gross tonnage of 67,807, were also taken over, the largest being the Martha Washington, 8,312 tons; the Dora, 7,037 tons; the Lucia, 6,744 tons, and the Ermy, 6,515 tons. The first two were in New York, the third at Pensacola, and the fourth at Boston. Of these fourteen Austrian ships, eight belonged to the Union Austriaca di Navigazione. The four Hamburg-American liners seized at Colonthe Grünewald, Sachsenwald, Savoja, and Prinz Sigismund-were first moved to

nadian Parliament providing for compulsory military service for men between the ages of 20 and 45. According to the bill, drafts shall be called out by the Governor in council in precedence of youth and lack of home entanglements. Ten classes are provided in which age and dependents (confined to wives and children) are given the prefer

THE FIJI ISLANDERS IN THE WAR

THE Fijians, whose archipelago became

British territory in 1874, have actively entered the world war, a group of sturdy Fijians recently disembarking at Vancouver and passing through Canada on their way to France, where they will act, however, not as belligerents, but as stevedores on the wharfs of France. But a larger contingent may follow, trained for war. Many of the Polynesian races, to which the Fijians belong, are splendidly built. At the Columbian World's Fair the prize for physical perfection was awarded to a South Sea Islander, and the average among some of these races is the highest in the world both for stature and for all-round physical development.

These Fijians are, however, not the first group of Polynesians to take an active part in the war; a strong force of fully trained Maoris, who are also of the Polynesian race, accompanied the "Anzac "-Australian and New Zealand Army Corps-to Gallipoli and served with great gallantry. And the entry of the United States into the war has made belligerents of the large Polynesian population of Hawaii. All over the vast South Sea archipelagos the Polynesian race is singularly uniform, except in certain regions, where there is an infusion of Malay or Melanesian blood; the group of languages which covers this area, while they have been separated by vast spaces of ocean for unnumbered centuries or millenniums, are nevertheless quite evidently very closely related.

THE

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NEVER HEARD OF THE WAR

HE Japan Chronicle notes the fact that recently a Japanese girl came to Kobe to work in the house of an English lady. A portrait of a young man in khaki stood on the mantelpiece of one room, and as the mistress speaks Japanese fluently, the girl asked about him and his uniform. On being told that he was fighting in the great war in Europe, she asked, "What war?" Further inquiry showed that this young woman, though quite intelligent, had never heard of the war. She herself had lost her father in the Russo-Japanese War when she was about 7 or 8 years old, and her mother had had a terrible struggle to maintain the family. But she had not heard of any war being waged at present, nor had she heard any one talk of the war or refer to it in any way.

of 147.7 per cent. in the number of aliens. The total number of aliens admitted in 1916 was only 298,826, and 129,765 departed.

In 1910 the percentage of foreign-born males over 21 years of age in the United States who had been naturalized was distributed as follows: Ireland, 67.8; Canada, 51; Russia, 26.1; Italy, 17.7; England, 59.4; Germany, 69.5; Sweden, 62.8, and Scotland, 56.5.

Figures just compiled by the Bureau of the Census show the total number of alien inhabitants in the United States of the nationalities with which this country is at war or which are allied with Germany, to be 4,662,000, constituting 42 per cent. of the total number of inhabitants. The distribution is as follows, and contains all men, women, and children born in the countries named:

DIFFICULTIES BEFORE THE NEW SPANISH

EDU

MINISTRY

DUARDO DATO heads the new Ministry, pledged to preserve the neutrality of Spain. His immediate predecessor, Marquis Manuel Garcia Prieto, held office only since April 19, when Count de Romanones resigned, declaring that acquiescence in Germany's ruthless submarine campaign was endangering the very life of the Spanish Nation and that Spain should forthwith join the En