Judging by what has taken place recently, it would seem that very soon Colonel John Ward will be) known in the House of Commons as "the member for Hongkong. He has been quite often of late prominently identified with questions relating to that Colony, and he, according to a brief telegram veeeived from Reuter's Agency, no later than last Wednesday; called the attention of the House to another matter relating to the Colony's welfare. In fact, it fell to him to present a petition "from the British inhabitants of the Colony" for the' substitution of popular_ election for Government nomination of non-Chinese mem-hers of the Council, It must seem somewhat singular that to Colonel Ward should be delegated such duties, as it is well known that his connexion with the Colony was extremely limited, consisting in fact of a comparatively brief period during the War, when he was in command of a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment stationed at Hongkong. No doubt Colonel Ward will do his utmost for tha benefit of those residents of the Colony who entrust him with their affairs, but one cannot but think, ooking at the matter from a pure-impartial point of view, that others at Home an@ in the House of Commons are much more qualified to attend to the duties in question.
America and Europe interesting Reuter telegram from Washington points to a desire that some new machinery is needed for communication between America, and Europe. It says:
The growing realization of America's anomalous position vis—vis of European affairs has inspired the Senate leaders to intimate to the President that the present indirect method of dealing with the Allies should be ended.
It is now announced that President Harding is considering the appointment of an American member on the Reparations Commission.
This feeling has been shared by a good many people outside America, The failure of the United States Senate to ratify the Versailles Treaty has put America apparently outside the combination of Powers in which she is in fact vitally interested. And the same fact has from time to time put her in a seemingly unfriendly and certainly undesirable light. Take the case of the European debt to America and, recently, the episode of the U. S. Rhine troops' pay. Now the American Government knows better than anybody that payment of these debts, unless managed with the utmost care, would dislocate the American financial market beyond endurance and neither the Government nor Americans generally want to appear in the light of Shylocks towards Europe. Yet as matters siond it is always open to opponents of the Administration, who want to annoy. to get up in Con-
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