ing to develop respect on each side for e opinions of the other side, and a eat deal to create on both sides the sire for peaceable relations between ngland and Ireland.

What danger there is of failure is om pride, sentiment, prejudice, the roantic glamour of an unattainable ideal. he proposals agreed upon are sound in inciple. They establish self-governent in as full form as exists anywhere the group of free peoples making up e Empire. Beyond that no Prime inister could go without a direct mante from Parliament after a general ection-nor would such a mandate be en given.

The text of the Irish treaty with Great ritain is admirably drawn to satisfy ish aspirations and susceptibilities. ake the first article, for instance:

ARTICLE I. Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the community of nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for peace and order and good government in Ireland, and an execu- · tive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.

And so with following articles; over nd over it is proclaimed that Ireland's anding shall be that of Canada. To put this manner of approach is beyond eason. Only such dreamers as De alera, who cannot lay aside the chiera of instant and absolute indepen

dence, can refuse to enter the brotherhood of British free states on equal terms. So with the vote of allegiance; it offers fealty to the Irish Free State and the King "in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations."

The treaty's solution of the Ulster difficulty is as simple as Columbus's egg. Take your choice, says the treaty in effect. Come in now, or stay out. If you stay out, Ulster's boundaries with South Ireland must be determined justly, and Ulster will govern itself under the revised Home Rule Act, and in its outer relations will be subject to the British Parliament. The indications are, as we write, that Ulster will stay out. As to the Ulster problem, there ought to be full recognition of the fact that the solution would not have been possible if Griffith and Collins and George Gavan Duffy (Duffy's Irish signature to the treaty, by the way, is Seorsa Ghabgain Ui Dhubhthaigh) had not waived the Sinn Fein demand of an all-Ireland state. or none. De Valera laid more stress on this than on anything else; his colleagues saw the wisdom of compromise.

If the Irish Free State comes into being, the event will not only end the hundreds of years of bitterness and bloodshed; it will open an era of prosperity. The agricultural possibilities under cooperation are especially great. The movement was progressing finely when the recent troubles gave it a terrible

blow. Sir Horace Plunkett, in an article in the "Survey," says that the problem was "how to make a people who are not farmers prosper in a country dependent upon farming." He adds: "It is, however, safe to say that the co-operative principle and plan are so firmly established in the minds of rural Ireland that it is only a question of time before the entire farming industry will be developed upon co-operative lines." This same special Irish issue of the "Survey" contains, we may add, an extremely interesting group of articles, admirably illustrated, on phases of the question "What Would the Irish Do With Ireland?"

The Irish conference has lasted for five months. At times it seemed impossible that an agreement should be reached. The signing of the memorable agreement of December 6, be the outcome what it may, was a triumph for conciliation, concession, the substitution of a sincere effort to come together, in place of hatred and prejudice. Lloyd George said that the day of signing was the happiest of his life. It was a political accomplishment of. import for him, a striking example of his patience and persistence. Warm praise is due also to those Irish members of the conference who put the true interest of their country above rancor and historical hostility.

It is not too much to say that the signing of the Irish agreement may well mark a new advance in the world's civilization.

T

THE

HE outstanding feature of the
Canadian general elections held

on December 6 was the overhelming defeat of the Meighen Governent. Mr. Meighen himself and nine embers of his Cabinet failed of reection. Of the 120 seats formerly held y Conservatives, only 49 were retained. ut of nine provinces, five will be enrely without Conservative representaon in the next Parliament. In Prince dward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, with a otal of 113 seats, the Conservatives did ot elect a single member. In British olumbia they got 7 out of 13; in Alerta, 1 out of 13 (and then only by the lim majority of 6 votes in a threeornered contest); and in New Brunsvick, 5 out of 11 seats. Thus in that reat territory stretching from the Great akes to the Pacific Ocean the former Government carried only 4 constituenies, while in the almost equally extensive area east of the Ottawa River they were successful in only 5 electoral dis

International

THE HON. MACKENZIE KING

tricts. In Ontario, which has always been considered a Tory stronghold, the Conservatives were able to hold only 36 out of 62 seats held previous to the elections.

The second notable feature was the resurrection of the Liberal party. Torn asunder in 1917 by the schism on the conscription issue and the secession of an influential section of its following to the standard of Sir Robert Borden in the Union Government, together with its practical decimation in the general elections of that year, the Liberal party had been generally considered as out of the political reckoning for many years to come. Yet the Liberals have carried a majority of the seats throughout the Dominion; and to them falls the task of forming the next Government.

In three provinces-Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Quebec-the Liberals carried every seat, while in Ontario they increased their representation from 9 to 22. In the west, however, the Liberals fared little better than their

Conservative opponents, securing but 6 seats in the four provinces west of Lake Superior.

The provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta voted practically solidly for the Agrarian party, or National Progressives, as they are called; they carried 38 out of the 43 seats. In Ontario they won in 24 constituencies. But in the Maritime Provinces and in Quebec, where they had little or no organization, the National Progressives succeeded in electing only 1 candidate, while in British Columbia they carried 3 seats, bringing their total for the Dominion up to 65, an increase of 51 over their pre-election representation.

The National Progressives also succeeded in electing, for the first time in the history of Canada, a woman to the federal House in the person of Miss Agnes McPhail, member-elect for Southeast Grey, Ontario.

The Independent Labor party nominated candidates in the larger cities, but only two were successful. One, William Irvine, elected in Calgary, was also indorsed by the National Progressives and is really a member of that party; the other, the Rev. J. S. Woodsworth, a noted sociologist, lecturer, and publicist, who was elected in Winnipeg, attained considerable notoriety during the Winnipeg strike of 1919 by his support of the strikers and by his subsequent indictment for sedition, upon which charge he was, however, acquitted.

A general election is supposed to express the will of the electorate in as concrete a manner as possible. The first and most unmistakable inference to be drawn from the recent election is that the vast majority of the people of Canada were determined to turn out the Meighen Ministry; policies, though important, were of secondary consideration.

The late Government sought to make of the tariff the paramount issue during the campaign; and upon this they were met by the National Progressives, who advocated sweeping tariff reductions, increased preferential trade with Great Britain, and reciprocity with the United States. The Liberal platform also contains lower tariff planks as well as the British preference and United States reciprocity clauses; but the Liberals stressed the point that they would not lay violent hands upon the tariff if elected.

It

The crushing defeat of the Government might ordinarily be taken as a repudiation of their policy of protection, and to a certain extent this is true. is true in the fullest sense of the word so far as the people of the prairie provinces are concerned. While they were as fully determined as the people in other portions of the Dominion to effect a change of Government, the western farmers were actuated primarily by motives of economic policy. This is not so true of the eastern provinces; in Quebec the people were still bitter with memories of 1917. They were not all Liberals who piled up four and five

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figure majorities for Liberal candidates -a great many were former Conservatives; but they resented equally the insults which had been hurled at their province during the elections of 1917. For the first time in the history of Canada the whole of Quebec's 65 seats have gone to one political party. Even in 1917 Sir Wilfrid Laurier succeeded in carrying only 62 of them. It will take the Conservative party a long time to wipe out Quebec's memory of that contest.

The Maritime Provinces, normally, are

preponderantly Liberal; but the recent election returns reflect much more than the natural Liberalism of those regions While they have not the same reason for wreaking vengeance upon the Union Government and its successors, they re sent many of the things that were done by the Borden and Meighen Governments under the guise of war-time neces sity; and this was their first opportunity to give vent to their feelings.

By their success in securing a clear majority of the House of Commons the Liberals have set at rest the fears which were felt by political observers before the elections that none of the three groups would have a sufficiently strong following to form a Government. While the Liberals have but a bare majority, those opposed to them in the House com. prise two groups whose policies are quite irreconcilable; and there is little danger that the Conservatives and National Progressives will combine to defeat the Liberals.

Because of the phenomenal develop ment of the agrarian movement in western Canada and its political successes in various parts of the Dominion the late Government evidently believed that the National Progressives were their most formidable opponents; their argument on the hustings, on billboards, and in newspaper advertisements was as follows: "Our policy is Protection; King's policy no one knows; the Farmers' is Free Trade, which will destroy Canada's industries and bring disaster upon the country." It had its effect. The people would not vote for Meighen; they were taught to fear the agrarians. King seemed to them to be the safest of the three.

The new Premier, the Hon. William Lyon Mackenzie King, is a grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader in Upper Canada of the Rebellion of 1837. Mr. King was Minister of Labor in the Laurier administration prior to 1911. Defeated in the Reciprocity election, and also in 1917, he was employed for some time by the Rockefeller Foundation as a special investigator in the study of problems affecting the relations of capital and labor. He was elected leader of the Liberal party, after the death of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, at a national convention held in 1919. He is in his forty-seventh year and is unmarried.

As regards relations between Canada and the United States, it is more than probable that the success of the Liberal party will result in a resumption of negotiations leading up to some measure of reciprocal trade; for among the victors is Mr. W. S. Fielding, one of the negotiators of the pact of 1911, who has not yet recanted the views he then held. At any rate, there is every likelihood that the tendency upon the part of Canadian officialdom of late years to regard the United States as a menace to Canada's commercial or political independence will undergo a decided change for the better.

Ottawa, December 10, 1921.

The United States of America, the British Empire, France, and Japan,

With a view to the preservation of the general peace and the maintenance of their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean,

Have determined to conclude a treaty to this effect and have appointed as their plenipotentiaries

The President of the United States of America,

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India

And for the Dominion of Canada, For the Commonwealth of Australia, For the Dominion of New Zealand, For India,

The President of the French Republic, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, [NOTE.-The names of the plenipotentiaries will be inserted after they are ap

pointed respectively by the heads of States above named.-E. H. A.]

Who, having communicated their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows:

I. The high contracting parties agree as between themselves to respect their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean.

If there should develop between any of the high contracting parties a controversy arising out of any Pacific question and involving their said rights which is not satisfactorily settled by diplomacy and is likely to affect the harmonious accord now happily subsisting between them, they shall invite the other high contracting parties to a joint conference to which the whole subject will be referred for consideration and adjustment.

II. If the said rights are threatened by the aggressive action of any other

Power, the high contracting parties shall communicate with one another fully and frankly in order to arrive at an understanding as to the most efficient measures to be taken, jointly or separately, to meet the exigencies of the particular situation.

III. This agreement shall remain in force for ten years from the time it shall take effect, and after the expiration of said period it shall continue to be in force subject to the right of any of the high contracting parties to terminate it upon twelve months' notice.

IV. This agreement shall be ratified as soon as possible in accordance with the constitutional methods of the high contracting parties and shall take effect on the deposit of ratifications, which shall take place at Washington, and thereupon the agreement between Great Britain and Japan, which was concluded at London on July 13, 1911, shall terminate.

A

THE

T about half-past two in the afternoon of Saturday, December 10, a correspondent strolled into the ress headquarters in the New Navy Building and inquired whether there was any prospect of a plenary session. "Why, man," was the reply, "where ave you been?"

He explained that he had spent the ight in a suburb of Washington, had ome to the city in the morning, and, vithout looking at a paper, had spent he intervening time at work in his ffice. It was evident that he was not oking. Then the truth was broken to im:

"The plenary session you are inquirng about adjourned an hour ago."

It was the most important session of he Armament Conference, with the posible exception of the first; and he had nissed it. And not he only. So sudlenly had the call for it come that no otice of it was definitely posted at the orrespondents' headquarters till eight 'clock the night before. And thereby angs a tale.

For over two weeks the delegates had een working hard at the four chief ubjects of the Conference: Naval Armament, Land Armament, Far Eastrn Affairs, and the Problems of the Pacific. They might have called an pen session and made some speeches o satisfy public curiosity and the imortunate demands of the press; but hey preferred to get work done. The nature of that work does not differ adically from the work involved in arge business transactions or in framng and drafting important and involved egislative measures. It requires deiberation, informal discussion, technical

study; and those who are engaged in it must be free from distractions. It cannot be done, and that sort of work never is done, at public meetings in the presence of a gallery. Much of it is of no interest to the public because it is technical or detailed; much of it, if it is to be done at all, involves the interchange of tentative personal opinions which if made in confidence commits nobody to anything, but if made publicly would invariably lead to misunderstandings. For example; one reason why the American proposal for the limitation of armaments has proved acceptable in its main structure not only to the Governments involved but also to the American people is that its terms were not divulged until everything that was merely tentative and ultimately proved unacceptable was by careful and undisturbed examination eliminated. This was not secret diplomacy, and it is misleading and confusing to call it so. Secret diplomacy commits a nation to a policy without giving the nation a chance to know what the policy is to which it is committed or to understand the ends which that policy is designed to serve. But secrecy, if you wish to call it that, is often absolutely essential to the proper preparation of measures of a public character and destined to be subjected to public discussion. It was inevitable, therefore, that during the time since the last open session the Conference should seem to halt. In fact, it was making very rapid progress. And it was by no means being conducted in secret. The nature of the work done by the various committees was made known by official communications and by unofficial but frank explanations made from day to

day to correspondents of the press. Those who suspected intrigues and se cret purposes were simply unwilling to believe repeated assurances to the contrary. Not only were the conclusions of each committee announced as soon as they were reached, but in some cases detailed reports of the discussions were given out and published. For example, a very full report was made of the discussion which led to the adoption of the resolution which was added to the fourfold declaration of the eight Powers concerning China. I dare say that most newspaper readers do not even now know that this fifth paragraph was added, and of course know nothing about the discussion; but it was all given out and printed immediately after the discussion took place. What the public wanted to know about was the big decisions; and the big decisions had not been reached. It is true that to any one who recognized the logic of events the acceptance of America's proposal to stop the naval race was a foregone conclusion. It is also true that any decision as to land armaments was by the nature of the Conference confined to recommendations concerning matters incidental to land warfare-such as poison gas-and could not extend to the subject of a general limitation of land forces. It is true, moreover, that under the subject of the Far East important decisions-any one of which would have been regarded as of extraordinary importance if it had been announced apart from such a Conference as this-had been reached. It is true that Shantung, which had not only been a source of violent irritation between China and Japan, but had greatly disturbed the Paris Peace Conference

and, left unsettled there, had aroused a good deal of feeling in America, was at last, through the good offices of Mr. Hughes and Mr. Balfour, under friendly discussion by the Chinese and Japanese delegates. In all conscience this seemed enough to account for several weeks of study and discussion; but public opinion exerted through the press was daily, hourly, seeking for the big decisions.

Then came rumors that there was to be some kind of agreement between three or four of the principal Powers. Even with the best of intentions to observe good faith, there is no way of preventing eager seekers for news from drawing fairly correct inferences from answers to questions or from mere refusals to answer. Then the President said in a public address that the success of the Conference was going to exceed "our fondest hopes," The rumors became more definite, but until Friday night remained rumors. The American

delegation, it should be said, observed good faith not only conscientiously but skillfully; but as soon as the decision was reached, without waiting for even important details to be arranged, and without the usual notice, the Chairman of the Conference, who is also the head of the American delegation, announced the open session.

Each of the plenary sessions has had its own character and atmosphere. The first, following the impressive service at Arlington, had at the beginning the air of a ceremonial occasion, but was shaken into a mood of astonishment by the American proposal and ended almost in the atmosphere of a political meeting. The second, at which, it was announced, Mr. Balfour would record Britain's acceptance of the plan for ending the naval race, was greeted with a mood of curiosity aroused by the inauguration of a new kind of diplomacy which removed these formal gatherings from the cate

gory of dress parades and made of them a genuine part of the diplomatic campaign. The third session was marked by a flutter of excitement at the prospect of hearing a masterpiece of French oratory. And now came the fourth session, which, lacking all of the novelty and most of the dramatic elements of the other sessions, was greeted nevertheless with an expectancy which was later justified by its record of definite and conclusive achievement.

This achievement related wholly to Far Eastern and Pacific affairs. It is worth noting that the Conference rendered its first decisions not on the means but on the causes of war, not on armament but on national policies. This was inevitable. Although the first subject introduced into the Conference was that of the limitation of naval armament, it was not the first subject on which the Conference reached a conclusive decision. As I pointed out in correspondence written before the Conference began, the fundamental question at Washington was not what arms the nations should bear, but what attitude they should have towards one another. On Saturday, December 10, the assembled delegates recorded by solemn agreement their deliberate purpose and intent to follow a policy of mutual consultation and confidence.

This policy was adopted first with regard to specific questions in the Far East and then with reference to the Pacific Ocean.

With regard to questions in the Far East Mr. Hughes read the reports so far adopted by the committees of the Conference. It should be explained that all the delegates of all nine Powers sit as a committee of the whole to consider the affairs of the Pacific and of the Far East, and then assemble in plenary meetings of the Conference to adopt finally their own recommendations. In one sense,

therefore, their action at this session was purely formal; but in another sense it was vital because it brought together four separate resolutions and trans formed them into solemn international agreements. The first of these was the statement of the four principles which I have already reported as the eight Power agreement, by which the Powe which have interests in China have framed a charter giving assurance t China of protection against future in fringements upon her independence and sovereignty and recorded a mutual pledge to observe in matters relating to China the principle of free and equal opportunity. Special significance is given to the action of the Conference in this case, because, whereas originally to the resolution was adopted by the eigh ic Powers, in the final action by the Co ference there was recorded China's a sent. The second of these reports. adopted as an international agreement. provided for the creation of an interna tional commission to inquire into the practice of extraterritoriality (that is. the use of foreign law in Chinese terri tory) and to submit a report upon it with their recommendations within fil teen months. To this China likewise assented with satisfaction. The third action recorded the recognition by the eight Powers of China's rights as a neutral in any future war to which she is not a party; and in this China also joined. The fourth of these actions was the adoption of a resolution of the Com mittee declaring it to be the intention of the Powers not to enter into any treaties or any kind of understanding that would infringe or impair the prin ciples they had adopted as a charter for the independence of China and equality among themselves.

By these four actions the nations rep resented at Washington record a revolu tion that is of more significance to China than that which replaced the Manchu Dynasty with the outward semblance of a republic. They commit themselves to the abandonment of the old scramble for privilege. They do something more than profess good will to China; they set in motion machinery which will manufacture good will into practical aid. To the fulfillment of their intention they pledge not their arms but their credit. They recognize the re quirements of their own enlightened self-interest, and thus practice what among nations is the only enlightened altruism.

Unprecedented as these actions are, they have nevertheless been obscured by the public interest in the announcement that was made by Senator Lodge of an agreement by America, Britain, France, and Japan. This agreement is in the form of a treaty. It is so brief that its general purport can scarcely be ade quately stated in fewer words than are used in its text. Senator Lodge, however, in his speech presenting the treaty paraphrased it as follows:

To put it in a few words, the treaty provides that the four signatory Pow