Review of the Month

AUGUST began with a reminder that warfare was still in progress in the world, in that the Greeks, still at war with Turkey, threatened Constantinople in spite of the small British and French forces of occupation and opened a vista of international dangers. There was in this, moreover, a recollection that religious questions in India had prevented the British from permitting a real settlement of the Turkish question, wherein the absence of Russia as a great power is missed. Civil warfare also continued in Ireland and China. Even in the military way the world is far from being at peace. Bloody fighting between the Fascisti (anti-communists) and the com-munists in Italy led to several provinces being put under martial law, but after a while these disturbances were quelled. In the latter part of the month the assassination of Michael Collins in Ireland produced a great shock. From China, however, there came rather favorable news, indicating the early reintegration of that country, which sooner or later ought to play an important part in world affairs. Economically, instead of there being any improve-ment, there grew a clearer perception of how bad things really are. Italian politics were in chaos through inability to find anyone to accept the premiership and assume the all but hopeless task of averting national bankruptcy. The French, too, began to see their own position in true colors, and especially to see how in reconstruction they had incurred debts on the strength of what they hoped to collect from Germany, with at last the understanding that the Germans could not pay and that France herself was thereby put in a desper-ate economic position. As for the Germans, them-selves their Reichsbank defaulted on ordinary bills early in August. As the month wore on the value of marks fell more and more and at the end it appeared that Germany was on the verge of economic collapse. On Aug. 7, another international conference (with America again absent) was assembled in London, this being the thirteenth since the war, and there was a general feeling that it would be the last. The prime question was what is to be done about the German reparations, but underlying was the whole subject of the entente. The conference opened like a meeting of importunate creditors, doubtful whether the debtor had any tangible assets. On Aug. 14 this conference broke up without coming to any useful conclusion. Indeed, the acrimony among the premiers was so sharp that even the entente between Great Britain and France was endangered. The international situation was saved only by the Reparations Commission excusing the Germans from the payment of 50,000,000 gold marks that come due on Aug. 15 But although the entente was nominally preserved there is no longer any illusion about the interests of Great Britain and France being different and that henceforth they will play their own hands. The London conference was really an effort to maintain the partnership, and it failed.