OCT

THE MONTH'S CHIEF DEVELOPMENTS CTOBER, 1917, witnessed a series of furious British drives in Flanders almost without a parallel in history. The result was a gain of a sector on the more elevated land lying east of Ypres. This gave the allied troops a strategic advantage in the disposition of their forces, which will be of great value in further thrusts; these are clearly in contemplation throughout the Winter. The French gave important assistance on the left flank, where they hold a small sector. There was almost continuous fighting along the Meuse, in the Verdun sector, without any material change in the lines. On the Austro-Italian front in the Julian Alps the gains made by the Italians on the Bainsizza Plateau were held; toward the end of October it was reported that forty new divisions of Germans and Austrians were being moved from the Russian front to resist the Italians. The Russians suffered a severe disaster by the loss of important islands in the Baltic, which gave the Germans control of that sea, to the imminent peril of the naval bases of Reval, Viborg, and Kronstadt, and with a serious possibility of a naval offensive against Petrograd itself. was announced on Oct. 19 that on account of the imminence of German control of the Gulf of Riga the Russian Government was preparing to transfer the capital from Petrograd to Moscow. The British scored an important success in Mesopotamia by the capture of a small Turkish army northwest of Bagdad, making secure their occupation of that city.

It

The political situation developed important phases during the month. Exposures of the treachery of German

fuel, which was becoming more acute on account of the rigid embargo on all cargoes to European neutrals.

The war preparations in the United States proceeded with almost feverish speed, on a scale of magnitude heretofore unknown in history; it was reported toward the end of October that over 100,000 American troops were already in France and that fully 500,000 would be there by Spring. The Second Liberty Loan campaign was vigorously prosecuted, and two billions had been subscribed by Oct. 20.

THE

*

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE FOR SOLDIERS HE Soldiers Insurance bill, as finally adopted, makes all officers and men and women in both branches of the service eligible; the policies range from $1,000 to $10,000, and the age limit is 15 to 65. The premium is based on age: a man of 30 on a $1,000 policy pays 69 cents a month, &c. The policy is payable in monthly installments to the insured, if wholly disabled, and to the heirs at his death. The premiums are payable monthly and will be deducted from pay unless instructed to contrary; failure to pay within 31 days after a premium is due forfeits the policy, but insured may be reinstated within 6 months. The following persons may be named as beneficiaries: Husband, wife, child, both legitimate and illegitimate; adopted child, grandchild, father, mother, grandparents, step-parents, brother, sister, of the half as well as whole blood.

* *

A HISTORIC SESSION OF CONGRESS

The

Argentina brought several Latin-American States to the side of the Allies. internal situation in Germany was profoundly disturbed by a growing opposition to the new Chancellor, the disclosure of a mutinous feeling in the German Navy, and the grave shortage in food and

of the United States Congress was that which ended on Oct. 6, 1917. This, the first session of the Sixty-fifth Congress, began by special call on April 2, and the same evening heard President Wilson's address recommending a declaration of war. More legislation of the

of the British Empire. I know of no previous war in which this country has been engaged where on the whole the people have supported right and left, thick and thin, the vigorous prosecution of the struggle. On all previous occasions, as, indeed, now, there were parties-there have been peace parties-but never before in our history has the voice of faction been so little heard as in the great struggle in which we now are engaged.

*

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL AID TO THE ALLIES

THE

HE announcement that the Russian Provisional Government had obtained a credit of 66,667,000 yen (about $33,333,500) in Japan through the sale of that amount of treasury bills to the Japanese Government was made in a cablegram received on Oct. 8 by Akira Den, financial commissioner of the Japanese Government in New York. The issue bears interest at 6 per cent. and runs for one year. Japan took the Russian securities at par. The proceeds will be used by Russia in paying for munitions of war bought in Japan. The willingness of Japan to grant this loan arose partly from confidence in the new régime in Russia and partly as a consequence of the United States embargo on gold exports. Japan had recently been a heavy importer of gold, much of it being used to meet Russian obligations in Japan. When the gold embargo became effective, Japan found it advantageous to grant new credits to Russia. According to official figures, Japan has loaned the allied Governments approximately 500,000,000 yen (about $250,000,000) since the war began. A total of 221,667,000 yen in Russian Treasury bills has been sold in Japan. The British Government has sold 100,000,000 yen of Exchequer bonds to the Japanese, and a total of 76,000,000 yen of French Treasury bills has also been sold in Japan. Of these loans the British Exchequer bonds, amounting to 100,000,000 yen, were paid in American money.

SOME INSTANCES OF INTERNATIONAL TREACHERY

THE THE questionable activities of Bernstorff and Luxburg have had their historic parallels. Bethmann Hollweg's

was not the first "scrap of paper." A noteworthy instance is that which Bismarck brazenly related of himself, in telling how he tricked Napoleon III. into war in 1870. There was a question of putting a Hohenzollern on the throne of Spain. France protested. The French envoy at Ems had an interview with the King of Prussia, afterward Kaiser Wilhelm I. of Germany. The King's secretary telegraphed an account of the interview to Bismarck, his Prime Minister, on July 13, 1870. Moltke was with Bismarck, deeply despondent; Bismarck, talking of the German sense of honor, deliberately altered the telegram, turning it, as Moltke said, from a parley into a challenge, and gave it to the press. It instantly aroused France and brought on the war. Bismarck explains his motives: "It is important that we should be the ones attacked!" The story is told at length, with the telegram as sent, and as falsified, in "Bismarck the Man and Statesman."

A notable act of treachery was committed by Austria, one among many, at the time of the Crimean war, 1854. Nicholas I. of Russia, in part through sympathy for the oppressed Slavs in Hungary, sent an army, in 1849, to crush Kossuth's Magyar republic and save the power of the Hapsburgs. Five years later, when Russia was in danger, Austria cynically refused to help her and secretly aided Russia's enemies.

The violation of the Pragmatic Sanction is a historic case of perfidy. Prussia had consented, by that agreement, to support the succession of an Austrian Princess, Maria Theresa. But no sooner did she come to the throne, on the death of her father, Emperor Charles VI., than Frederick II. of Prussia, "Old Fritz in the Elysian Fields," as his successor recently called him, broke his oath and seized the Austrian province of Silesia, thus plunging the world into war. the matter of the Danish Duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, Bismarck was guilty of signal treachery toward both Denmark and Austria, for, while both Austria and Denmark had certain claims to the Duchies, Prussia, which seized them after two predatory wars, had no real rights there.

In