Mar. 26.
shows how far most of us have travelled from the spirit, that when the Allies ints|formed the German Government in January that Great Britain' would not evacuate the Ruhr on the projected date, because of Germany's non-fulfilment of the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, the announcement caused very little sensation. The last number of the "Review of Reviews," arriving this week, contains evidence of the actual seriousness of the case, which it interesting to quote.
To go back a little, in the October number of the "Quarterly General J. H. Morgan, who was formerly Deputy-Adjutant-General on the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control in Germany, wrote an article on the extent of her secret armament, which raised a howl of execration from the German Nationwt alist Press, 'This article and the Allies' refusal to evacuate Cologne induced the German Professor Foerster, a Prussian by th, Liberal by Conviction and a scholar of international repute, to write to General Morgan asking him to state the case. It is the correspondence between them which the "Review of Reviews" now publishes. Professor Foerster is quite ready to believe that the Allies' attitude is justified, his own information, he says, all tends that way; but he thinks that they' made a fatal error in not publishing the report on which they acted; for without such proof, he adds, the Germans will not admit that there is any basis for Allied charges.
In his reply General Morgan puts "a few plain questions." Why does the German War Office refuse to disclose its recruiting returns, na it has consistently refused to do for five years past? Why also does it refuse to show "these registers of armament production which were snatched way from under our very noses at Spandau?" Why does the vast network of military establishments, munition and supply depots etc, which served the! old army still exist? The Gov ernment does nothing with it, but it is available for the mobilization of a vast army at any time. Similar questions at incited by the number of officers in the Ministry and the estab li: ment of Feldwebels and Unteroffiziere sufficient for an army every time a store of hidden arms in a factory is revealed to the Commission by. a pacifist workman, the workman, if discovered, is immedi ately arrested and sentenced to 8 Tong term of penal servitude. There Thave been scores of such cases. If these concealments of arms are not approved by the German Government, why are the workmen who disclose them ruthlessly punished and the factory owners who conceal them allowed to go free?
General Morgan then goes on to, deal with the numbers of, factories which during the war, were devoted entirely to turning: out guns and shells and he: shows that they remain practiically as they were, the Commission having been moved to allow it, "subject to a pledge which has never been kept," against their own convictions, on plea of the necessities of German industrial recovery. The rest of the letter is a refutation of the attacks by the German. Nationalist Press on himself, of which it is enough to say that: so far from being hostile to, Germany, he is the author of a book "The Present State of Germany" in which he "pleaded for the evacuation of the Rubi the liquidation of reparations, the mutual forgiveness, by the Allies on the one part and the: Germans on the other, of all the! wrongs they may have inflicted on one another,"
There are serious disclosures, to which M. Herriot, the French Premier, has recently given point in the French Chamber, by quoting facts and figures!
Germany's concealed war strength of an alarming nature We do not think for a moment that such statements will be misconstrued by al Professor Foerster, keenly to destroy the old Pru: sian war spirit, is representative of a large body of German feeling; and it is noteworthy that Berlin comic paper the Lachen Links" publishes toon of " British Tommy, ing guard over Cologne cathedral, with the inscription, "The Postponed Evacuation: People of Cologne, you have those who voted Nationalist on December 7, to thank for this." But those elections placed what is practically Nationalist Government in power in Germany; and furthermore when ideas of patriot ism are uppermost, Liberal and Socialist and Labour thought takes on a very different hue. If we try to put ourselves in Germany's place, we must confess that it is hard to blame her for doing her utmost to rebuild her military strength. A high-spirited and vigorous people of sixty millions cannot be kept in leading strings indefinitely and repression increases their explosiveness. On the other hand, we do not suppose that th? masses of the German people, intelligentsia, bourgeoisie and workmen, have any more wish for further fighting than their
sible that the best way fellows abroad; and it is pos-strengthen their position ai those whose ascendancy has depended on war, would be Diplomatic Body sent a note to the Waichiaopu sayi that they could not advise their Governments. to recognize the Trademark Law and that any complaints made by their nationals in respect of infringement of trademarks would have to be dealt with in accordance with treaty rights.
Yet it is also known that a few weeks lof this note being delivered, merchants were being informed that the Legation could not advise them one way or the other jas to registering their marks or not registering.
In subsequent months the number of merchants who have registered is sufficient indication that they at least had no hope of any protection from the April note, which for all practical purposes is another serap of paper.
The obvious explanation is that certain Powers (as happened in respect of the Lincheng Note) having signed the April note, subsequently, in the euphemisms of diplomatic language, "reconsidered their position," thus leaving their ce-signatories high and dry. But if there is any more particular reason for dissatisfaction, then we would strongly judge that the Chamber will not fail to bring it to the attention fof the proper authorities. For the whole episode of the trademark controversy is a very serious one and if the responsibility can be fixed, the general Interest demands that it should Turning to the rest of the speech, we would un-Jderline what Mr. Sheppard said jof the time wasted by the Cui toms employees cation of-goods-tHeulating in China, ind the desirability of foreign merchants being given "an opportunity of expressing their views on the projected revision before the conference meet:
In this connexion we: recently been written in these column: first, that the Native Customs collected und the Inspectorate-General are as much a hindrance to trade as the conventional likin; and secondly that the scope of the Tariff Revision Conference, if it is to be of any service to China, must be far wider than suggested at Washington, and include nothing lo: than a complete revision of China's fiscal system Two points are so obvious as to need no demonstration: first, that while an increase of the Customs tariff we specifically designed in the Washington Treaty to compensate for and be conditional-on the abolition of likin, likin pill never be abolished in return for the small increase mention-eds secondly, that if internal taxation were indeed abolished, goods might circulate freely after payment of one impost on the coast, the trade of China could and would submit to a much higher import duty than even twelve per cent.
Whether it is possi lo to bring. Peking and the provinces to this point of view is a very doubtful
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.