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obligations, either by injunctions or by other provisions, unless these apply to neutrals.

Article Seven-The provisions of the Sixth Hague Convention relative to the treatment of enemy merchant ships at the outbreak of hostilities shall apply to the merchant vessels of either party and their cargo. The aforesaid ships may not be forced to leave port unless at the time they be given a pass recognized as binding by all the enemy sea powers to a home port or a port of an allied country or to another port of the country in which the ship happens to be.

Article Eight-The regulations of Chapter 3 of the Eleventh Hague Convention relative to certain restrictions in the exercise of the right of capture in maritime war shall apply to the Captains, officers, and members of the crews of merchant ships specified in Article 7 and of such merchant ships as may be captured in the course of a possible war. Article Nine-This agreement shall apply also to the colonies and other foreign possessions of either party.

Text of American Reply

The note in which the United States rejected the foregoing proposition was handed to the Swiss Minister at Washington on March 20, and is printed below in full. It places the refusal on the ground of Germany's own "flagrant violations" of the original treaty, and raises the question whether all the immunities granted by that treaty have not in effect been abrogated by the German sinkings of American merchant ships: The Secretary of State to the Minister of Switzerland in charge of German interests in America.

Department of State, Washington, March 20, 1917. Sir: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note of Feb. 10 presenting the proposals of the German Government for an interpretative and supplementary agreement to Article 23 of the Treaty of 1799.

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After due consideration, I have to inform you that the Government of the United States is not disposed to look with favor upon the proposed agreement to alter or supplement the meaning of Article 23 of this treaty.

It

The position of the Government of the United States, which might under other conditions be different, is due to the repeated violations by Germany of the Treaty of 1828, and the articles of the Treaties of 1785 and 1799 revised by the Treaty of 1828. is not necessary to narrate in detail these violations, for the attention of the German Government has been called to the circumstances of each instance of violation, but I may here refer to certain of them briefly and in general terms.

Since the sinking of the American ship William P. Frye for the carriage of contraband, there have been perpetrated by the

German naval forces similar unwarranted attacks upon and destruction of numerous American vessels for the reason, as alleged, that they were engaged in transportation of articles of contraband, notwithstanding and in disregard of Article 13 of the Treaty of 1799 that "no such articles (of contraband) carried in the vessels or by the subjects or citizens of either party to the enemies of the other shall be deemed contraband so as to induce confiscation or condemnation and a loss of property to individuals." And that in the case of a vessel stopped for articles of contraband, if the master of the vessel stopped will deliver out the goods supposed to be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not in that case be carried into any port or further detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.

In addition to the sinking of American vessels, foreign merchant vessels carrying American citizens and American property have been sunk by German submarines without warning and without any adequate security for the safety of the persons on board or compensation for the destruction of the property by such action, notwithstanding the solemn engagements of Article 15 of the Treaty of 1799, that "all persons belonging to any vessels of war, public or private, who shall molest or insult in any manner whatever the people, vessel, or effects of the other party, shall be responsible in their persons and property for damages and interests, sufficient security for which shall be given by all commanders of private armed vessels before they are commissioned," and notwithstanding the further stipulation of Article 12 of the Treaty of 1785 that the free intercourse and commerce of the subjects or citizens of the party remaining neutral with the belligerent powers shall not be interrupted."

Disregarding these obligations, the German Government has proclaimed certain zones of the high seas in which it declared without reservation that all ships, including those of neutrals, will be sunk, and in those zones German submarines have in fact, in accordance with this declaration, ruthlessly sunk merchant vessels and jeopardized or destroyed the lives of American citizens on board.

Moreover, since the severance of relations between the United States and Germany certain American citizens in Germany have been prevented from removing from the country. While this is not a violation of the terms of the treaties mentioned, it is a disregard of the reciprocal liberty of intercourse between the two countries in times of peace and cannot be taken otherwise than as an indication of the purpose on the part of the German Government to disregard, in the event of war, the similar liberty of action provided for in Article 23 of the Treaty of 1799-the very article which it is now proposed to interpret and supplement almost wholly in the interests of the large

number of German subjects residing in the United States and enjoying in their persons or property the protection of the United States Government.

This article provides in effect that merchants of either country residing in the other shall be allowed a stated time in which to remain to settle all their affairs and to "depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance," and women and children, artisans and certain others may continue their respective employments and shall not be molested in their persons or property. It is now proposed by the Imperial Government to enlarge the scope of this article so as to grant to German subjects and German property remaining in the United States in time of war the same treatment in many respects as that enjoyed by neutral subjects and neutral property in the United States.

. In view of the clear violations by the German authorities of the plain terms of the treaties in question, solemnly concluded on the mutual understanding that the obligations thereunder would be faithfully kept; in view further of the disregard of the canons of international courtesy and the comity of

nations in the treatment of innocent American citizens in Germany, the Government of the United States cannot perceive any advantage which would flow from further engagements, even though they were merely declaratory of international law, entered into with the Imperial German Government in regard to the meaning of any articles of these treaties or as supplementary to them. In these circumstances, therefore, the Government of the United States declines to enter into the special protocol proposed by the Imperial Government.

This Government is seriously considering whether or not the Treaty of 1828 and the revised articles of the Treaties of 1785 and 1799 have not been in effect abrogated by the German Government's flagrant violations of their provisions, for it would be manifestly unjust and inequitable to require one party to an agreement to observe its stipulations and to permit the other party to disregard them.

It would appear that the mutuality of the undertaking has been destroyed by the conduct of the German authorities. Accept, &c.,

Your Flag and My Flag

By WILBUR D. NESBIT

ROBERT LANSING.

[A new national anthem that sprang into favor all over the country in the weeks preceding the declaration of war.]

Your flag and my flag!
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world away!
Rose-red and blood-red

The stripes forever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white-

The good forefathers' dream;

Sky-blue and true blue, with stars to gleam aright-
The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter through the night.

Your flag and my flag!

To every and star and stripe
The drums beat as hearts beat
And fifers shrilly pipe!
Your flag and my flag-
A blessing in the sky;
Your hope and my hope-

It never hid a lie!

Home land and far land and half the world around,
Old Glory hears our glad salute and ripples to the sound!

Your flag and my flag!

And oh, how much it holds

Your land and my land-
Secure within its folds!

Your heart and my heart
Beat quicker at the sight;
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed-
Red and blue and white.

The one flag-the great flag-the flag for me and you-
Glorified all else beside the red and white and blue!

THE

[PERIOD ENDED APRIL 20, 1917]

WAR COUNCIL AT WASHINGTON HE heads of the French and British missions to the United States, Arthur James Balfour and René Viviani, are distinguished among the statesmen of their countries by the fact that both have been Prime Ministers. M. Viviani was Premier of France when the war broke out, and was later Minister of Justice under M. Briand. He was also a member of the joint Anglo-French mission to Russia in the weeks before the Russian revolution. Mr. Balfour was Prime Minister after the death of his distinguished uncle, the Marquis of Salisbury, in 1902. He has held office in the coalition War Ministries of Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George, as First Lord of the Admiralty, and later as Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Balfour is completely familiar with the two most vital Entente problems, the international question and the submarine question.

The hero of the joint mission is Marshal Joffre, the victor of the Marne, but for whose splendid work at the War Ministry France would have had no adequate army to oppose the German invasion; but for whose consummate strategy General von Kluck would in all likelihood have captured Paris and changed the history of the war. Marshal Joffre has been a great traveler, serving in Tonking, hard by the Philippines; in Western Africa, where he built a section of the railroad which joins the Senegal River to the Upper Niger; in the Sahara, where he first made a name by capturing Timbuktu; in Madagascar, where, under the late General Gallieni, he fortified a great harbor; but this is his first visit to the New World.

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of bonds to the amount of $5,000,000,000, of which $3,000,000,000 will be loaned to the nations comprising the Entente Alliance; also the issuance of Treasury certificates for $2,000,000,000 ultimately to be met by increased taxation.

The proposed bond issue is the largest in the history of the world. Both the bonds and the certificates are to bear 31⁄2 per cent. interest. Bonds heretofore authorized, but not sold, for the acquisition of the Danish West Indies, the construction of an armor plate and nitrate plant, the Panama Canal, the speeding up of the naval program, the Alaskan Railroad, and the Mexican mobilization, authorized at an interest rate of 3 per cent., are convertible into 3% per cent. bonds.

Under the terms of the bill the President and the Secretary of the Treasury are unhampered in making a loan of $3,000,000,000 to the Allies. The securities which the President shall purchase are not stipulated. The President is only to acquire "the obligations of foreign Governments" in an amount not to exceed $3,000,000,000. The obligations of the foreign countries are to be taken at par. Payment of the Treasury certificates will be provided for by new stamp and increased income taxes; also by increased taxes on profits and new customs duties on imports now on the free list.

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First call, eligible men between the ages of 21 and 25; second call, 26 to 32; third call, 33 to 40.

On April 17 it was announced that army enlistments were averaging 1,434 men a day, and that the naval enlisted strength had reached 71,696 of the authorized strength of 87,500.

* * *

THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

N March 31 the transfer of the

ON

Danish West Indies to the United States was finally completed after half a century of effort. The Danish Minister, Mr. Brun, received a Treasury warrant on that day for $25,000,000 and wireless messages were sent to the Danish and American authorities in the islands to lower the Danish flag and raise the Stars and Stripes. "By giving you this warrant," Secretary Lansing is reported to have said, "I will save you the trouble of transporting forty-eight tons of gold."

The area of the islands is 138 square miles; the population in 1911 was 27,086, of whom large numbers are free negroes engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane. The name, the Virgin Islands, of which St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John are the chief, is neither new nor altogether distinctive, since a group of contiguous islets, of which Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anagada, and Jest-Van-Dykes are the chief, have long borne, and still bear, the title of the British Virgin Islands, while Crab Island, one of the same group, already belongs to the United States. Rear Admiral James H. Oliver, Chief of Naval Intelligence at the Navy Department, assumed the duties of Governor at St. Thomas, having been appointed by Secretary Daniels. He will serve until a permanent Government has been determined upon by Congress, and in the meantime local laws will be administered.

It is noted as an interesting coincidence that Alaska was purchased by the United States from Russia just fifty years and one day before the final transfer of the Danish West Indies, the purchase price having been $7,200,000, or less than a third of what has now been paid for the

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UND

NDER the imperial rule, with the exception of restraints laid on the Jews, all religions might be freely professed within the Russian Empire, which includes 14,000,000 Mohammedans, about 450,000 Buddhists, and about 300,000 Pagans, largely in Northern Siberia. There are also 11,500,000 Roman Catholics, largely in Poland, and 3,500,000 Lutherans, in the Baltic Provinces. All these confessions have hitherto enjoyed freedom of profession and worship. On two sections of the population restrictions have borne heavily: on the Jews, numbering 5,200,000, and on Dissenters from the Orthodox Church, who, it is estimated, number more than 12,000,000. The restrictions on the Jews were largely a survival of the time when they were subject to Poland; laws were passed confining them to the regions they then occupied, and restricting the numbers who might inhabit Russian towns, study at Russian universities, practice professions, and so forth. All these restrictions have been removed.

A further measure of liberation applies to the Orthodox Church, which was formerly subject to the control of the Emperor. The Emperor, through the Procurator of the Synod, appointed all Archbishops and Bishops, though the Bishops had the privilege of proposing candidates. The new Government will leave the appointment of all Church officials in the hands of the Church, which, as a body, gave its formal adherence to the new order in the opening days of the revolution.

Those who will now enjoy greatly increased religious liberty in Russia are, therefore, in order of numbers, first the Orthodox Church, which wins selfgovernment; next, the Dissenters from the Orthodox Church; and, thirdly, the Jews, to whom all positions and professions in the State are now open on equal terms with all other Russians.

NEW FIGURES IN RUSSIAN LIFE

THE

HE first step in the Russian revolution was taken in 1905, when, on Aug. 6, an elective body of representatives of the people was created, with the name of the State's Duma. On Oct. 17 the Duma was given wider legislative powers; inviolability of the person, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and association were guaranteed, and the Council of the Empire, transformed into a Legislative Council, was associated with the Duma as an upper house of the Legislature. The First and Second Dumas sat for only a few weeks each; the Third Duma completed its term of five years; the Fourth Duma was elected in November, 1912. In the Third and Fourth Dumas the men who accomplished the Russian revolution gained their administrative training and at the same time won the confidence of the Russian people.

M. V. Rodzianko, now President of the Duma, has attained high distinction as a leader in the liberal movement. Paul

ends which the revolution accomplished. Among these exiles, Catharine Breshkovskaya, who has spent the greater part of a long life in exile, and who has recently been enthusiastically fêted at the capital, is, perhaps, the most picturesque figure. Vera Zassulitch, whose activities date back to the days of the Terrorists who assassinated Alexander II. on the eve of his granting Russia a Constitution in 1881, is also universally known, in part from the writings of "Stepniak," the historian of the earlier revolutionists, a close friend of William Morris and of Prince Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin also has returned to Russia after a long exile, passed for the most part in England, but including visits to the United States and France; as a philosophical biologist he gained universal recognition, laying particular stress on the principle of co-operation throughout

nature.

* ** *

DIFFICULTIES IN RUSSIA'S PATH

Milukoff, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, THAT serious obstacles lie in the path

is the parliamentary leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, which has fifty-five representatives in the Fourth Duma. He is widely known in the United States. Gutchkoff, the new Minister of War, and Kerensky, the Minister of Justice, are also tested parliamentarians. Prince Lvoff, the new Premier, was already widely known before the revolution as the head of the National Union of Zemstvos, which bear some resemblance to American State Legislatures, and which had formed a close organization among themselves to provide food, clothing and, to a large degree, munitions, for the active army. In this way the whole machinery of the new Russia was already in existence, first in the Duma and then in the Union of Zemstvos.

* *

RELEASE OF THE SIBERIAN EXILES

THE return of thousands of political

exiles from Siberia was one of the most dramatic aspects of the Russian revolution. This great act of liberation restored to Russia many of her ablest and most devoted men and women, who had worked, in their own way, for the

of the new Government in Russia was indicated by the imprisonment of the editor of the Socialist newspaper Pravda, "Truth," for lending himself to proGerman intrigue, counseling the soldiers to throw down their arms, to make peace without delay, and to enter on the "social revolution," which would bring them unimagined prosperity. The new intrigue set on foot in April by Germany, of which the German Socialist Deputy Scheidemann is the instrument, to involve Russian Socialists in peace negotiations at Copenhagen, further shows that the agents of the Kaiser, the instant that they saw that intrigue through the Russian Court was blocked by the revolution, turned their attention to the Russian Socialists. It is a second revelation of the same danger of which the Provisional Government is acutely conscious. Peasant risings in Samara, demanding immediate division of all land, are symptoms of a similar menace. A partial satisfaction of this demand will be reached by the distribution of the imperial domain, consisting of more than a million square miles, an area equal to the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Holland,

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