and allied armies.-In South Australia the ministry headed by Mr. Peake resigned in March, and a Labor ministry, with Mr. Crawford Vaughan as premier, was chosen.-In New Zealand, too, the exportation of wool, except to Great Britain and her allies, was forbidden in November. The general elections, held in December, resulted in the retention of the government in power, and in the defeat of the national referendum proposing total prohibition of the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages.

OTHER POSSESSIONS.—The pro-German revolt in South Africa, led by Generals DeWet and Beyers (see last RECORD, p. 753), was suppressed in December, General DeWet being captured and General Beyers killed. Reports that Colonel Maritz, who had escaped to German Southwest Africa, was planning an invasion, led to an official announcement that a conscription order would be issued; but by the end of April this measure had not been taken. Upon the annexation of Cyprus as a crown colony (see supra, p. 366), a memorial was presented to the governor, purporting to represent the sentiments of the Greek population, urging that the assumption of control by Great Britain be considered as but preliminary to the restoration of the island to Greece. A memorial of representatives of the Moslem population, however, vigorously opposed this suggestion.-Revolts of natives in Somaliland and Nyasaland were readily suppressed.

V. CONTINENTAL EUROPE.

FRANCE.—On December 6 the French government began its return to Paris, a step which was taken as indicating a complete confidence on the part of the Allies that the capital was safe from the danger of another German forward movement in the near future. The Parliament opened its sessions at Paris on December 22. Following the announcement by Premier Viviani of the government's intention to pursue the war to the end, a budget of $1,700,000,000 was voted. To meet its current expenditure, the government secured in the first three months of the new year the extension of the limit upon the issue of defensive bonds to $900,000,000, and the authorization of an additional loan of $200,000,000. By a decree appropriating $60,000,000 for indemnity to individuals for damage to property caused by the German occupation, the French government apparently committed itself to the policy of public responsibility for losses of this character. A bill prohibiting the sale of absinthe, enacted in January, was followed in February by the adoption of more stringent regulation governing the sale of all alcoholic liquors.

RUSSIA.—A temporary order, issued in September, for the prohibition of the sale of vodka, was on November 15 enacted as a permanent decree and extended to cover all alcoholic beverages. —An internal loan of $250, 000,000, ordered in November, was floated without difficulty. On February 11, only one day after its assembly for the first time since August, when it had ratified the action of the government in entering the war, the Duma enacted the budget, calling for the expenditure of over $1,500,000,

The

ooo. Of this sum less than $75,000,000 was to be met by loans. decrease in revenue from the government monopoly of alcoholic products (a decrease, it was estimated, from over 25 per cent to less than 5 per cent of the total ordinary revenue) was to be met chiefly by increases in all forms of indirect tax. Reports, emanating chiefly from Austro-German publications, but supported, apparently, by portions of the Russian press itself, described the economic situation, resulting largely from the stoppage of indispensable German imports, as acute. Strikes in Petrograd, Moscow and Odessa, extending even to the Putiloff armament works, and the widespread employment of military terrorism, were reported.—The closing of the Dardanelles, moreover, made impossible the exportation of the major part of the spring wheat crop. The resulting derangement of Russian economic life was alleged to have caused the Allies to attempt the forcing of the Dardanelles, (see supra, p. 346) earlier than they might otherwise have done.—In March was reported, with apparent authenticity, the suspension of all special rights of local self-government in Finland. The dispatches hinted at the probability of the imposition upon Finland of the Russian conscription law, from which she had hitherto been exempt. Almost simultaneously was reported the promulgation by the Czar of a decree conferring upon Poland local self-government, on the limited scale obtaining in Russia, and permitting the use of the Polish language in the local zemstvos thus established. The material situation however of virtually all that part of Poland which had been the scene of operations, i. e., the area west of Warsaw, was reported to be one of almost complete ruin, and it was alleged that the Jewish population particularly had suffered fully as much from the passage of the Russian as from the invasion of the German forces. In January the government decided to widen the gauge of the Archangel railway and to change its route to bring it across to the eastern shore of the Dwina somewhat nearer the port, and also to construct new lines from Archangel to Kotlas and Ukta.

GERMANY.-At the opening of the second war session of the Reichstag on December 2, a war credit of $1,250,000,000 was voted, Karl Liebknecht, a leading Social-Democrat, alone voting against it. Budget estimates adopted in February by the Bundesrath called for the expenditure during 1915-16 of over $800,000,000 for ordinary expenditures and over $2,500,000,000 for war expenditures, the latter to be raised entirely by war loans. On March 20 the budget was adopted and a further war credit of $2,500,000,000 authorized, Liebknecht again alone dissenting. The subscriptions to the war loan, authorized in December, were said to have totaled $2,500,000,000, double the amount asked for. Preliminary measures for the conservation of the food supply, prescribing maximum prices on potatoes and other products, and making mandatory the use of rye and potato flour in the baking of all bread, were followed by a decree of the Bundesrath, on February 1, declaring all private stocks of corn, wheat and flour confiscated at a fixed price, and ordering all municipalities

to lay up stores of preserved meats. A limited bread ration, applicable to the entire population of the empire, was also fixed. Simultaneously all stocks of copper, tin, aluminum, lead, antimony and nickel were ordered reserved for military use. On April 1, regulations designed to prohibit any further rise in the price of fodder were promulgated. The conservation of the supply of petroleum was also provided for.-The continued support of the government by the great majority of the Social-Democrats was evidenced by the abstention of only 14 of the 110 Social-Democratic members of the Reichstag from the vote on the war credits on December 2, and the public opposition of only one member, Liebknecht. The resignation in February, however, of the prominent Berlin deputy, Ledebour, from the executive committee of the party, and the heavy vote polled by the anti-government candidate for the Social-Democratic nomination in a Social-Democratic constituency in Hamburg, were pointed to as evidence that the opposition in the party was growing; while several of the leading party papers grew increasingly hostile in tone.-In Berlin, the city government decided upon the municipal ownership and operation of the electric power plant.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.-Peculiar interest attached to the progress of the internal loan of $670,000,000, opened for subscription in November, both because of the extraordinary measures which were alleged to have been taken by the government to ensure its success, and because of the persistent reports of popular disaffection. The official announcement, in January, that the entire loan had been subscribed, seemed, when compared with the heavy over-subscription of the far greater loans of Germany and Great Britain, to give support to unfavorable inferences.-On January 13 Foreign Minister von Berchtold resigned and was immediately succeeded by Baron Stephen Burian, a Hungarian. Despite the official announcement that the change was due merely to personal reasons of Count von Berchtold, opinion was general that it represented an attempt on the part of the Emperor to appease Hungarian dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war.-Reports of anti-war demonstrations in Hungary were frequent, especially during December and January, during the first Russian advances in forces upon Hungarian borders (see supra, p. 345). There were reports also of friction between the Austrian and Hungarian governments regarding the participation of Austria in the use of the Hungarian grain crops.-Following the promulgation of a new mobilization order, late in January, outbreaks were reported in several parts of the empire, but particularly among the Slavs in the south. It was announced in March that reservists between the ages of 28 and 42, who had been rejected as unfit, would be summoned to the colors and reëxamined.-The steady rise in the price of foodstuffs, due in large measure to the stoppage of imports, compelled the government to follow the course previously adopted by Germany. On February 26, the seizure of all grain and flour in the empire was decreed, and in March a system of per-capita distribution was inaugurated in large cities.

ITALY.—Following an overwhelming vote of confidence passed by the Chamber upon its convocation in December, the government continued to push its military preparations with the greatest vigor. A loan of $200, 000,000 for military expenses was authorized and was promptly subscribed. -The garrisons on the Ægean Islands held by Italy were heavily reinforced and it was reported that the islands were being fortified. The mobilization order, on January 28, was extended to include even the so-called “third category, "' consisting of men exempt from service in times of peace, but now summoned for training as a territorial-defense force. It was reported in February, though apparently with some exaggeration, that the men under arms and in training numbered 2,000,000. At a brief session in March, the Parliament enacted drastic "defense measures," which, among other things, gave to the government the right to appropriate for military purposes inventions made by Italians, and forbade newspaper publishers, under severe penalties, from publishing any information relative to military preparations. Upon the resignation of Finance Minister Rubini because of his opposition to the cabinet's policy of meeting the expenditures for military preparation by loans rather than by taxation, his portfolio was assumed, on November 5, by Paolo Carcano. At the same time the foreign portfolio, left vacant by the death of Marquis di San Giuliano, was given to Baron Sidney Sonnino, an ardent advocate of territorial expansion. -Despite the continuance of mobilization, and the transference of the volunteer army to Tripoli, unemployment continued to be severe and occasioned numerous demonstrations in December. The return to Italy of enormous numbers of Italians formerly employed in the belligerent countries, and the stoppage of the normal influx of tourists were believed to be the important causes of unemployment. Moreover, despite the prohibition of the export of major foodstuffs, the abolition of grain duties and the reduction of freight rates on foodstuffs on the state railroads and the subsidized steamship lines, the cost of foodstuffs remained abnormally high, and bread riots were reported from several cities in the winter.-On January 13 and 14 in the whole of central Italy, and particularly in the region about Avezzano, there were violent earthquakes, resulting in the loss of almost 30,000 lives and $60,000,000 worth of property, 16 towns being completely destroyed. The government appropriated $1,000,000 for relief work and announced that the help of other nations would not be accepted.—Early in November attacks were made by Bedouin tribesmen, alleged to have been acting under Turkish influence, upon Italian settlements in the Cyrenaica region of Tripoli. Energetic military measures taken by the government at Rome resulted in the speedy suppression of their outbreaks.

BALKAN STATES.—Shortly after the abdication of Mpret William of Albania (see last RECORD, p. 757), Essad Pasha, the exiled war minister, set himself up as provisional president, with headquarters at Tirana, and for some weeks maintained his authority over the interior of northern Albania. Disaffection among the Moslem tribes, however, said to have been incited

by Austro-Turkish emissaries with a view to using the Albanian population to harass the Serbian and Montenegrin frontiers, set in late in December and great disorder again prevailed, culminating in an attack in force on Durazzo on March 25, which was repulsed with great difficulty. The disordered state of the country occasioned the complete military occupation of Avlona, and the landing of forces at Durazzo, by Italy (see supra, p. 350). The re-occupation of Epirus by Greek forces, at about the same time, though declared by the Greek government to be merely for the purpose of restoring order, was generally regarded as permanent. A great scarcity of food, owing partly to internal disorders and partly to the isolation of the country by the war in neighboring countries, intensified the misery of the situation.-On March 6 Prime Minister Venezelos of Greece announced the resignation of himself and his cabinet because of the disapproval by the king of their foreign policy, which strongly favored the immediate entrance of Greece into the war on the side of the Allies. A new cabinet was formed by Demetrios Ghounaris. The resignation of the Venezelos cabinet was variously interpreted as a weakening of the war party due to the repulse of the Allied fleet at the Dardanelles (see supra p. 346), and as a clever device for delaying Greece's entry into the war until Bulga ria's intentions should become more clear. Inasmuch as the Venezelos cabinet still retained the support of the Chamber, the King on March 11 prorogued Parliament until after the general elections. The support of great numbers of Greek refugees from Thrace and Asia Minor imposed a burden upon the national treasury.—An epidemic of typhus and typhoid, extending over the whole of Serbia, was reported during February and March. No accurate information regarding the number of deaths resulting was obtainable, but conditions were described as extremely desperate.— In Rumania mobilization continued without interruption, and in February the Parliament empowered the government to declare, at any time it considered desirable, a stage of siege.

OTHER EUROPEAN STATES.—The resources of the government of Holland were heavily strained to meet the cost not merely of the continued mobilization, but of supporting the enormous number of Belgian refugees. In December, accordingly, a loan of $110,000,000 was authorized. The government announced that if the loan were not promptly taken up, a forced loan, on much less advantageous terms, would be resorted to. The loan was successfully floated, however, without apparent difficulty. In order to stimulate the fishing industry the government in February opened a number of fish shops in Amsterdam.-Because of the continued rise in the price of wheat, the government of Denmark, in January, took over all flour then in the country, thus in effect prohibiting its further export. As had been anticipated (see last RECORD, p. 758) the new Danish Diet approved, in April, the constitutional amendments proposed by the government, conferring upon women the right of suffrage and of sitting in the Diet, and abolishing the special property qualifications for membership in