Nobody can live abroad for many years without coming to realize the essential falsity of the conventional cliches with which the wont to plaster each other—Frenchmen volatile and frivolous, Germans. dull and domineering," Britons ferustacean and insular. Volumes. might be written to show the absurdity of these descriptions. For! the moment, with the two books! mentioned above before us, we are only concerned with the third. We. know of nothing in any other country quite like the British Royal Institute of International Affairs. By continual lectures on international subjects, by frequent brochures on special topics of interest and by these comprehensive annual reviews, it keeps its members in touch with everything of importance that goes on among the nations, and there is very little that escapes its widely roving eye. Moreover, its members are not just a little coterie of the intelligentsia but are seattered all over the British Isles; and it is a fact that in any English so-now which lays claim to some degree of culture, international affairs are followed and discussed with gather astonishing interest. All this the reverse of insularity.
The year 1925 was exceptionally rich in international events. It was. to begin with, the Locarno year. Then there was a whole series of boundary disputes and settlements /in Latin America Important commercial treaties were concluded between Germany and other countries. Treaties which seem destined to have far-reaching consequent ces were signed between France ind Poland and France and Czecho-
Slovakia. And there were some rather stimulating wrangles and agreements over big waterways like the Danube, Oder.and Vistula. Last but not least it was the year in which Soviet Russia thought that} its grip on China was at last strong enough for the commencement of operations fresh in every memory. -Natarally it is impossible to deal in detail with so comprehensive a work. The charm and value of it consists in the coldly judicial character of its reports. Comment is eschewed, except such, as is indispensable to a clear understanding, set out with admirable lucidity.
The chapters on the Far East are naturally of particular interest to. local readers. The mere recitation of facts as they stand is quite enough to convince any impartial reader of the gross injustice done to Great Britain throughout that memorable year and onwards, This is more than borne out by the admirable account of the abortive Customs Conference. Here it very clearly shown, not only that, Great Britain alone took an early and consistent stand against the Customs surtaxes being used for the security of China's unsecured Toans, but that she expressly' announced, when. the Conference petered out, that she should not regard the fact of its having been suspended as invalidating the conclusions already reached. As a mat of fact, one questions the practical wisdom of this policy. The Conference was a very lame duck clusive atmosphere of polities without a thought for practical aspects; and no experts on tariff and cus toms questions were ever so much 'a8 asked for their opinion. If China is to get a practical tariff of real benefit to herself, the whole questiin ought to be started de nov Meanwhile the contrast between the Indicrous accusations against Great: Britain of "imperialism" and. aggression, and the hard facts here' recorded of her consistent efforts to meet Chinese wishes and -avoi the slightest appearance of taking' advantage of China's troubles, is worth noting.
The chronology of events and treaties from 1920 to the end of 1925 ig the work of Mus V. Boulter and very greatly is be complimented on the way she has done it, As a comprehensive
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.