defend their persecuted compatriots, attacked on a twelve-mile front, and occupied most of the district. They seized the Tartar Governor, Dr. Sultanov, and brought him to Erivan as a hostage. Fighting ensued and lasted up to the middle of April, when an armistice was arranged. The Azerbaijan Government sent an ultimatum to Armenia on May 1 demanding that the latter withdraw from disputed frontier territory, failing which armed forces would be sent into Armenia. Armenia refused to comply with this ultimatum. The hostile relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan was another aspect of the whole Armenian problem which the allied Premiers at San Remo found it impossible at that time to solve.

AZERBAIJAN

The pro-Turk attitude of the Azerbaijan Government has long been evident. The Tartar republic, since its inception, has been looked upon as a protégé by the Young Turk and Pan-Turanian extremists, who see here a means of establishing communication with Turkestan and getting a foothold on the Caspian. The immense value of the oil fields around Baku has made the political control of this State additionally desirable. The British did their best to hold Baku, but were compelled, for military reasons, to withdraw their forces. Whether or not the report that a defensive and offensive alliance between the Tartar Government and the Nationalists of Mustapha Kemal was signed at Constantinople in October, 1919, be true, the Turks have never hidden their belief that they had rights over this republic. Since December, 1919, when the Allies recognized the republic, it has assumed more and more a pro-Turkish character.

As a consequence of this affiliation with the Turkish Nationalist and Young Turk parties, a pro-Bolshevist tendency has manifested itself more and more strongly, and the eyes of the Azerbaijani have been turned across the Caucasus to Soviet Russia, cut off from its logical partisans in Transcaucasia by this great natural barrier. The official Mussavat" Government, however, through reasons of expediency, did not desire to take

this plunge into Bolshevism. Consequently it was overthrown. Moscow wireless advices of May 1 stated that a revolution had taken place, and that the Mussavat Government had been expelled from power. The Azerbaijan Provisional Military Revolutionary Committee had taken over control. Baku was in its hands. The committee had appealed to Moscow for assistance against the Allies and all other enemies. This appeal ended with the following words:

Not having sufficient strength of its own to resist the pressure of the Allies, the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee proposes to the Russian Soviet Republic a brotherly alliance for joint action against the world imperialists, and asks for immediate and real assistance by the dispatch of Red Army detachments.

In consequence of this appeal Russian Bolshevist forces occupied Baku on April 28. All parties met the day before and agreed to place the authority in the hands of the Soviet administration. The Azerbaijan republic was thereupon recognized by the Bolsheviki and the entry of the Red troops, it was declared, brought no abrogation of this agreement. By the occupation of Baku the Bolsheviki obtained control of enormous supplies of oil, which they needed for their industries, and which they planned to convey by means of their fleet on the Volga, via the riverways and canal systems, to the Russian capital.

Its

The situation in Georgia in the month under review showed much obscurity. The Government long retained control over the strong Bolshevist factions, and officially refused alliance with Soviet Russia, proclaiming its fixed policy of maintaining its neutral status. claim to Batum has not been recognized by the Allies. A strong unofficial army, called the "People's Guard," estimated to consist of 20,000 men and commanded by one Jugeli, a former student of the Moscow University, was said to be the strongest organized force in the country, outrivaling by far the official Georgian Army. Jugeli's ambition was to conquer Batum for Georgia, and it was said that he desired to have Georgia ally herself with Soviet Russia. His attitude,

as well as his power, proved a source of embarrassment to the present Georgian Government.

On May 9 it was reported by Moscow wireless that the Georgian Government,

yielding to Bolshevist pressure, had concluded an alliance with the Moscow Government. Up to the time when these pages went to press this report had not been officially confirmed.

JAPAN

N addition to her suffrage troubles,*

In addition to her troublpril

faced new difficulties in respect to finances. An era of feverish speculation by the public led eventually to the closing of three Exchanges. The crash was precipitated by the fall of operators on margins. The stock market was swamped by securities. Tokio Exchange stock dropped 210 points. Baron Takahashi, Minister of Finance, issued a statement on April 16 which cautioned the people against speculation and promised the help of the Bank of Japan to concerns or banks deserving it. Contributing causes of the crash were the tightening of the money market, the loss of gold and the adverse balance of trade. The excess of imports during the first three months of 1920 was $130,000,000, equal to nearly 50 per cent. of total exports. The Chinese boycott played an important part in the unfavorable trade balance.

This boycott was resolutely continued by the Chinese throughout the month under review. The Chinese Government at Peking, though controlled by the proJapanese militarist party, has found itself unable to go counter to the intense national feeling aroused in China by the cession of Shantung Peninsula to the Japanese. In a document drawn up at the request of Premier Chin Yung Peng last March, but killed by the militarist group before it could be presented to the foreign legations in Peking, the exact motives of the present Chinese policy of refusing to negotiate over Shantung are explained. This document sums up

*See Current History for May.

China's condition of negotiation as follows:

The Chinese Government insists that before entering upon negotiations with the Japanese Government, the latter, now at peace with both China and Germany, should cease to occupy the concession of Tsingtao, the Kiaochow leased territory, and the Tsingtao-Tsinan railway and should make unconditional restoration of these concessions and properties to China. If Japan's occupation of Chinese territories and properties were abandoned China would be ready at once to enter into a convention with the powers interested in trade in Shantung, with a view to the internationalization of the port of Tsingtao and of the port's public utilities, the complete control of the customs of the port by the Chinese Inspectorate of Customs, and the flotation of an international loan to repurchase the German shares in the Tsingtao-Tsinan railway, after which it could be incorporated in the Chinese Government railways and its management placed under international supervision. * ** **

Having frankly stated its present attitude toward the Shantung question, which the Japanese Government is now desirous of settling through direct negotiations, the Chinese Government expresses an earnest desire that an opportunity may be afforded to bring the whole question before an international tribunal to be judged according to international law and equity. This attitude of China, voicing completely the sentiment of the people, the Japanese have found themselves thus far utterly unable to shake. Repeated overtures have encountered only passive resistance, delay and a clear intention not to negotiate. That the Japanese are equally determined that the Chinese Government shall negotiate is obvious. Late in April the Japanese Foreign Office instructed Minister Obata again to make official overtures for discussion of the return of Shantung to China direct. Foreign Minister Uchida explained to

the Cabinet on April 23 that the period of three months after the signing of the Versailles Treaty prescribed for the vesting of Germany's former rights in Japan had elapsed on April 9. The representations of the Japanese Ambassador, like all other previous attempts to bring about discussion, met with failure, and the tide of popular feeling against Japan, expressed particularly by the boycott, ran high in China through April and May. This feeling has even spread to the Chinese residents in other lands--in San Francisco, on May 8, a huge bonfire was lighted in the Chinese quarter and fed with thousands of dollars' worth of Japanese imported goods, including silks and other fineries.

CHINA

Thomas W. Lamont of the American group of financiers negotiating, in concert with British, French and Japanese representatives, with the Peking Government for a loan of $50,000,000 or more to China, stated on May 1 as he left for Tokio that China's repudiation of the German issues of the Hukuan Railway bond coupons was a serious obstacle to further loans being made to China and that he had so warned the Chinese Government. The development of the Hukuan Railway on a large scale was among the main considerations of the consortium, Mr. Lamont pointed out. Japan, he intimated, was ready to withdraw its reservations with regard to Manchuria and Mongolia, which had long been a stumbling block in the way of the proposed consortium.

This withdrawal was officially announced in Tokio on May 7. A two years' effort by the United States Government to provide for the financing of China by representative groups of bankers in each of the four countries mentioned above was thus crowned with success. Japan had long contended that Manchuria and Mongolia should be excluded from the operation of the consortium because of her special rights and concessions in these provinces. The United States had refused to consent to

this exclusion. By the terms of the agreement concluded, Japan will have the right to object to loans for any work which she feels will jeopardize her national life or vitally affect her sovereignty. Under this head would fall the construction of railroads in certain sections of China, particularly Manchuria. All loans made by the banking groups, which in the United States include thirty-seven banks in all parts of the country, must be approved by the State Department. The same procedure will be followed in the other countries. After full discussion in Japan, Mr. Lamont stated that the Japanese understanding of the project had been much clarified.

China, like Japan, is having her internal troubles, but far more serious and long standing. The lawlessness of the Tuchuns and of their unpaid armies, the inability of the Southern and Northern Government to reach a settlement of the civil war that has so long kept the country in a state of anarchy, with dissensions in the Governments of both sections, have conspired to destroy inward peace. Wu Ting-fang, former Minister of Finance in the Canton Government, was restrained through an injunction issued on April 15 by the British Court of Shanghai from collecting a large sum in Government moneys deposited in his own name at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. Fierce factional fighting occurred toward the end of April in the Anhai district of South China. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the soldiers were raiding the country, while the people fled from their homes. New conflicts were preparing. In Northern China students' demonstrations and the anti-Japanese boycotting activities of the students' and merchants' associations continued.

As stated elsewhere in this issue, the Chinese official Government made no reply to the Russian Soviet Government's proposals of an alliance, and its attitude, as between the Japanese and Bolshevist forces in Siberia, has been professedly one of neutrality.

SIR

LORD KITCHENER'S DEATH

IR GEORGE ARTHUR'S "Life of Lord Kitchener," which recently appeared in London, gives a full and interesting account of the career of one of England's greatest soldiers. The dominating position which Kitchener of Khartum occupied in the military and political counsels of his country, his long and memorable service abroad, in Palestine, Cyprus, Egypt, South Africa and India;

[POLISH CARTOON]

-Mucha, Warsaw

SENTENCED FOR ETERNITY

WILHELM (to the Entente): "I will never become your prisoner "

SATAN (to Wilhelm): "Nor will you ever cease to be mine "

1

the important part he played in the early stages of the World War as War Secretary-all lent to his tragic death off the Scottish coast in 1917 the aspect of a national disaster. In Sir George Arthur's work the events leading up to that tragedy are made available.

Things were going badly in Russia in the Spring of 1917 and the Czar had sent word in May that he would like to have Lord Kitchener visit his country to see conditions for himself. Kitchener consented and it was decided that he should embark at Scapa Flow-a place now doubly historic -for Archangel on June 5. After lunching with Lord Jellicoe in Scapa Flow, he went on board the Hampshire-the ship which was to carry him to Archangel. The subsequent course of events is recounted by Kitchener's biographer as follows:

The wind at Scapa that day had been northeasterly and the Admiral, with intent to make the passage to the northward as easy as possible, directed that the Hampshire should proceed on what, with that wind, would be the lecside of the Orkneys and Shetlands. By an unhappy error of judgment an unswept channel was chosen for the passage of the cruiser, and Kitchener-the secret of whose journey had been betrayed-was to fall into the machinations of England's enen...es and die swiftly at their hands.

At 5 o'clock the Hampshire steamed from the Grand Fleet to her doom. She sped forward so fast and under such stress of weather that the destroyers who formed her titular escort turned about, leaving the vessel to her fate. When the crash came-the death-knell of all but some thirteen souls on board-Kitchener was resting, reading in his cabin. He was summoned thence by the Captain and was seen standing on the deck looking outward, Fitzgerald faithful at his side.

Nothing is known of what then happened to him-little, indeed, comes within just surmise. One thing is certain-that