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his work at the same point at which it was interrupted.

He used the phrase “Equal rights and participation for all in the work of the State." This is construed to foreshadow a complete reformation in the German electoral system, and equal suffrage. It has been hinted that the speech was a result of the great events that were occurring in Russia and in anticipation of a possible Social Democratic uprising in Germany. The German Socialist organ commented on the speech with some skepticism and warned the Chancellor that he must keep faith.

THE

NEW CABINET IN FRANCE

THE Briand Cabinet resigned March 17 on account of criticisms in the Chamber, Minister of War Lyautey having previously resigned because he was heckled while addressing the Chamber. Alexandre Ribot, the former Finance Minister, formed the new Cabinet, of which he becomes Premier and Foreign Minister; Rene Viviani, former Premier, Minister of Justice; Paul Painlevé, former Minister of Public Instruction, is the new Minister of War; Albert Thomas remains Minister of Munitions; Admiral Lacaze, Minister of Marine; Joseph Thierry is Minister of Finance; Etienne Clementhal, former Minister of Agriculture, is Minister of Commerce. This is the fourth Cabinet since the outbreak of the war.

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THE BRITISH IN BAGDAD

BAGDAD the great is fallen," cap

tured by the advance guard of General Maude on March 11; the British power is now dominant up the whole of the hot Mesopotamian Valley from the Persian Gulf, and General Townshend's disastrous surrender at Kut-el-Amara on April 13, 1916, after a siege lasting from Dec. 5, 1915, is wiped out by victory.

Bagdad dates back far beyond the days of Nebuchadnezzar and the captivity of the Jews; as the capital of the Caliphs, it was the most splendid city in the world, giving to universal literature one of the greatest books that ever came

out of the purple East-"The Arabian Nights: The Stories of a Thousand Nights and a Night." This great period of Bagdad's history began in the year 762, before Charlemagne was crowned, and about the time of Afred the Great of England, when the Western world was just emerging from barbarism. General Maude's campaign has been extraordinarily rapid, evidencing admirable preparation. On Feb. 26, 1917, he captured Kut-el-Amara, with many thousand Turkish prisoners, and within two weeks his patrols pushed forward a hundred miles, to within a few miles of Bagdad. The great city, which lies in an open, sun-burnt plain, was apparently almost undefended, and on March 11 the British and Indian forces were within the walls.

This striking victory gives to Great Britain a practically continuous territory, beginning on the east at the frontier of Siam, including Burma and India, Baluchistan and Southern Persia, which has been recognized as under British influence since the Anglo-Russian pact of 1907, and now the whole of the southern section of Asiatic Turkey, with a protectorate over the new kingdom of Arabia, behind Aden, thus bringing the effective influence of England to Egypt and as far as the border of Italian Tripoli. All Southern Asia is thus dominated by Britain.

BY

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PRACTICAL FAILURE OF THE SUBMARINE Y the first week in March it was evident that there was a marked falling off in the amount of tonnage sunk by submarines operating in the "forbidden" zones about the British Isles and in the Mediterranean, and a probable explanation of this was furnished by reports from England that large numbers of German submarines had been captured or sunk. It was said that of 100 U-boats which began the campaign of ruthlessness on Feb. 1 no less than 48 had been sunk or taken by Feb. 25; and while this is probably in excess of the real figures, nevertheless all evidence tends in the same direction: that, as a means of bringing famine to England, and thus "forcing England to her knees," the submarine has small chance of success.

It is now said in Germany that the real object of the submarine warfare was not to reduce England to submission by famine, but to compel her to withdraw tonnage she had lent to Russia and Italy, thus isolating these two countries, as a step toward compelling them to make a separate peace. But this explanation is really an admission of failure, so far as England is concerned. It was so widely announced in Germany that unrestricted submarining was Germany's last weapon, which was to bring her rapid victory, that it is difficult to see how the new aspect of the situation can long be withheld from the German people.

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APPAM CASE DECIDED

HE United States Supreme Court on

creed restoration to her English owners of the liner Appam and cargo, brought into Hampton Roads more than a year ago by a prize crew from the German raider Möwe. The ship and cargo, valued at between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000, must be delivered by April 6, 1917.

The decision upholds the original ruling by Secretary Lansing that prizes coming into American ports unaccompanied by captor warships have the right

to remain only long enough to make themselves seaworthy.

American neutrality was violated in bringing the Appam into Hampton Roads, the court said, and neither the ancient treaties relied upon by Lieutenant Berg, the German prize commander, The Hague Conventions, nor the Declaration of London entitled any belligerents to make American ports a place for deposit of prizes as spoils of war under such circumstances.

"The principles of international law," the opinion adds, "leaving the treaty aside, will not permit the ports of the United States to be thus used by the belligerents. If such use were permitted it would constitute the ports of a neutral nation harbors of safety into which prizes might be safely brought and indefinitely kept.

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FIFTEEN BILLIONS OF FOREIGN TRADE

THE HE foreign trade of the United States, imports and exports combined, since the outbreak of the war in Europe at the end of July, 1914, to Feb. 11, 1917, amounted to the sum of $15,622,785,853. Exports during this period were a little more than double the imports, and the balance of trade in favor of this country resulting from these thirty months of trade was $5,501,568,835. This table shows how this trade has accumulated and the huge movement of gold which resulted from it:

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COLOMBIAN TREATY DEFEATED

THE treaty with Colombia was debated

in the United States Senate on March 13 and 14, having been reported for passage by the Foreign Relations Committee; but it was withdrawn on the 16th, it being clear that it would fail to receive the necessary two-thirds vote. The objections to the treaty are: (1) That $25,000,000 is an excessive amount to pay Colombia for the Panama strip, being $15,000,000 more than Panama received; (2) that there is a clause in the treaty giving Colombia preference in the canal, which is deemed perilous; (3) that the urgency for its passage at this time savors of a threat by Colombia that it is her price for refusing an alliance with Germany; (4) that the treaty implies that President Roosevelt committed a wrong with respect to the Panama revolution, which resulted in the loss of the

cause he did not voice his known dislike of the proposed operation. When, because of this dislike, he threatened to resign, a minority report says, Lord Kitchener took Lord Fisher aside and prevailed upon him to return to his seat in the Council. The report makes it clear that the Dardanelles attack was made in part in response to an appeal from Russia on Jan. 2, 1915, Russia being then hard pressed by the threatened Turkish invasion of the Caucasus. It is evident, from this report, that Britain's naval advisers were convinced at the outset that the purely naval attack must fail, but failed to press their view. As a defense of Egypt and of the Russian Caucasus, however, the Gallipoli attack was completely successful.

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IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA

canal strip by Colombia. It is reported IN the last four or five months very

that the treaty when reintroduced will be reconstructed. Senator Knox, Republican from Pennsylvania, who was Secretary of State in the Roosevelt Adminstration, surprised his Republican colleagues by strongly advocating the treaty as presented.

EA

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THE GALLIPOLI REPORT

ARLY in March the Commission on the British Failure at Gallipoli reported that the question of attacking the Dardanelles was, on the initiative of Winston Churchill, brought under the consideration of the War Council on Nov. 25, 1914, as the ideal method of defending Egypt. The Commissioners hold that the possibility of making a surprise land and water attack offered such great military and political advantages that it was mistaken and ill-advised to sacrifice this possibility by deciding to undertake a purely naval attack, which, from its nature, could not obtain completely the objects set out in the terms of the decision. A part of the blame is laid upon Lord Kitchener, who, says the report, was the sole mouthpiece of War Office opinion in the War Council. He was never overruled by the Cabinet in any matter, great or small. Lord Fisher is criticised be

decided progress has been made by the British in German East Africa, the last of Germany's colonial possessions. In September last the struggle there entered a new phase; the Germans, driven from the northern part of their protectorate, and divided into three isolated bodies, were fighting only to detain in Africa troops which the Allies might otherwise employ in the European war theatres or in Mesopotamia.

On Sept. 11 the Belgian field force drove out of Tabora the contingent of the Prussian General, Wahle, of at least 4,000 seasoned native troops and over 500 Europeans. The Belgians found in Tabora over a hundred British subjects, men and women, who had been subjected to many indignities, with the deliberate intention of degrading them in the eyes of the natives. General Wahle at first retreated along the railroad in the direction of Kilima-tinde, with the Belgians in pursuit and an English force under General Crewe on his flank. On Oct. 22 there began a series of encounters between General Wahle and General Northey, which lasted until the end of November. On Nov. 26 one division of Wahle's force, numbering 500, and including fifty-four Europeans, was compelled to surrender. By Jan. 6 Wahle's

force, reduced by one-half, had retreated to Mahange, on which, at the end of January, General Northey was converging three columns.

On Jan. 1 General Smuts began a new offensive against Colonel von LettowVorbeck's German force in the Rufiji Valley; hard pressed, these troops endeavored to reach Mahange, to form a junction with the remnants of General Wahle's force. British and Belgian forces, from all sides, are now converging on Mahange, where the struggle is likely to come to an end.

IT

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GERMAN INFLUENCE IN MEXICO

was announced on March 14 that confidential diplomatic reports from Mexico indicated that the German Bank in Mexico City and the German Legation there are guiding virtually the entire financial and diplomatic activities of Mexico. According to these reports the recent Mexican peace note was inspired by the German Legation, while the German Bank is said to have come into full control of the Mexican financial situation, having accepted quantities of the paper money issued by the Mexican Government. A very large influx of German money from the United States is also recorded.

Two further facts point in the same direction-the exodus of German reservists, who have crossed the Rio Grande in large numbers since the diplomatic break with Germany, bearing passes issued by the Mexican Consulate here, and who are reported to be drilling Mexican soldiers and initiating them into the methods of modern warfare; and the announcement that there are several large Germanowned radio stations on Mexican soil, one being in Southern California, capable of communicating directly with Germany. These stations can easily make connections with the internal telegraph systems of the United States, and could thus with practical impunity gather all details of military preparations and movements throughout the United States and send them the same day to Berlin.

There are similar reports of the existence of strong radio stations in Colombia,

a few miles from the Panama Canal Zone, likewise owned and operated by Germans, and in communication with the stations in Mexico and, through these, with Berlin. This wireless network over Central and South America rivals the great system of radio stations in Africa, by means of which German Southwest Africa could communicate with Berlin through a single link in the Cameroons. There were equally powerful radio stations in Germany's Pacific possessions.

COUNT ZEPPELIN IS DEAD

COUNT

OUNT ZEPPELIN shares with the late General Shrapnel the distinction of having given his name to a new instrument of war; but, while the English officer died long before the shells called after him had reached the height of their fame, Count Zeppelin lived long enough to see his very vulnerable airships tested in a great war-and pretty well discredited as weapons of offense. Born nearly eighty years ago, he came to the United States as a military observer during the civil war, serving on the staff of General Carl Schurz and narrowly escaping capture at Fredericksburg. He was decorated in the Franco-Prussian war and later represented the Kingdom of Württemberg at Berlin in the Federal Council of the Empire.

In 1891 he devoted all his time and a great part of his large fortune to the construction of lighter-than-air flying machines. Seven years later, after much ridicule and many hairbreadth escapes, he gained his first great triumph by ascending from Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, and remaining aloft for thirty-seven hours, in the fifth of his airships, and sailing in a straight course for more than eight hundred miles. The Kaiser and all Germany hailed him as the conqueror of the air. But this ship also was soon wrecked, representing a loss of $500,000. It is interesting to remember that it was in the United States that Count Zeppelin made his first ascent, going up in a captive balloon belonging to the Union Army.

While his great airships have proved a failure as a means of "bringing England

to her knees" by terrorism from the clouds, and while admittedly the Zeppelins proved to be England's best recruiting sergeant, it is only fair to say that Count Zeppelin did in fact completely succeed in his main purpose-to make a dirigible balloon with great speed and carrying power and with an immense

were relieved at the German frontier; they were practically in rags and complain that they had insufficient food. They were cared for by Americans in Switzerland and will be sent home via Spain.

flying radius, a really fine achievement. ACCORDING to English official lists,

Count Zeppelin died on March 8.

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FIFTY

THE YARROWDALE PRISONERS IFTY-NINE Americans taken from vessels sunk by the German raider in the South Atlantic and borne to Swinemünde, Germany, on Jan. 1, on board the captured British steamer Yarrowdale, were released from quarantine March 9, and left at 4 P. M. for the Swiss frontier. The route over which they departed was the one chosen for their return by the United States Government.

Much irritation was felt over the delay in the release of the men, and the explanation of the German authorities that they were held on account of quarantine was questioned, but later it was officially confirmed by the Spanish Embassy doctor that typhus fever had appeared at the camp on Feb. 20, and the quarantine was not lifted until March 7. The men

German casualties in January were 77,534, and for February 60,471; of the latter 21,105 were killed or missing, 12,451 severely wounded. It is computed from unofficial reports that the total German casualties up to March 1, 1917, are 4,148,163, exclusive of those in the navy and colonies.

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