The March Reviews
The Round Table gives prominence to articles on the prime need for a settlement of our War debt to the United States and on the great opportunity offered by the forthcoming Anglo-American conference at Washington for giving a lead to a distracted world. The main issues are clearly defined, and in a somewhat optimistic spirit. An American correspondent reviews the economic position in the United States somewhat hopefully—but he wrote a month ago before the new banking troubles began. An article by a correspondent in Japan tries to explain the average Japanese view of the Manchurian problem, which he likens to that of an average Englishman thirty years ago at the outset of the South African War, when Imperialism was in the ascendant. The difficulties yet to be surmounted in India are explained in an article on the present stage of the reform discussions ; after all the conferences, most of the vital matters have still to be settled by the British Government. The quarterly reports from the Dominions are, as usual, of great interest, especially the Canadian letter with its suggestion that the Ottawa agreements may check the Americanization of Canada.
Blackwood's has an outspoken article by Mr. E. F. Fripp on The Emigrant's Return "—from British Columbia—and his delight in coming home after a dozen years. Mr. Fripp declares that many more emigrants would return if they had money to pay their passage. It is an ironic comment on the new Bill, read a second time last Friday, to encourage the training of would-be emigrants to the Dominions, but new settlers may well be depressed in these hard times. Colonel R. H. Elliot contributes another notable article on poisonous snakes ; he declares that snake-charmers do not enjoy immunity, as has often been supposed, but die, like other • people, if they are bitten by a cobra.
Sir William Beveridge prints in the Contemporary the outspoken address on The London School of Economics as a School of Humanities," which caused some stir at the last Headmasters' Conference. He does not touch on politics, but he contends that his kind of " humanities "—economics and sociology—are of greater value than the " humanities " in vogue at the older universities, though he does not mention
t he Modern Greats School, now so popular at Oxford. Lord Olivier has an impressive article on Native Poverty in South Africa," especially in the Union. Mr. Geoffrey Minder, writing on The Political Situation," tries to find evidence of a coming Liberal revival, and Professor H. A. Smith has a challenging note on " The Future of Neutrality," which he, for one, would uphold.
Major-General Sir W. Malleson tells in the Fortnightly the story, hitherto unknown to English readers, of " The Twenty-six Commissars " sent by Lenin to Transcaspia in 1918, and shot by their political opponents. Sir W. Malleson, who, with a small British force, was then at Mesper, tried to get in touch with the Memsheviks who had captured the Commissars, so that they might be handed over to him. But he failed, and the men were executed somewhere near Exasnovodok. It seems that the Bolsheviks quite un- reasonably held him responsible for the shooting, and made this a grievance against Great Britain. Mr. G. R. Stirling Taylor discusses " National or Party Government," with a strong preference for a National system, though he has to go back to Elizabethan times to find a very doubtful parallel. M. Andre Siegfried continues his lively "Letters from South America," dealing with Chile and Argentina.
Lord FitzAlan, in the Empire Review, writes on " House of Lords Reform," commending in general the proposals of the Joint Committee which were published last autumn. Mr. A. C. Willis takes a very favourable view of " The Outlook for Australia," especially from the industrial stand- point ; she will, he thinks, manufacture more and more of the goods that she needs, contrary to the belief of some politicians at home.
The Nineteenth Century gives prominence to an article on Gold or Sterling ? " by Sir J. Wardlaw-Milne, who is a very resolute opponent of any return to the gold standard and a vigorous critic of City orthodoxy in this matter. commander Kenworthy deals carefully with " American Economic Policy " in view of the forthcoming Economic Conference. " Very considerable concessions to the American point of view and to American policy must be granted," he thinks, if the Conference is to have any success. Mr. W. Horsfall Carter, writing on " The Tripod of Peace," regards the inability of the Disarmament Conference to produce results as due to our failure to take the French plan seriously and endow the League with an armed force. Mr. G. J. V. Weigall's discussion of " Body-line Bowling " is clear and sensible ; this kind of bowling is to be deprecated, he says, because it would make cricket dangerous and dull.
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