95° 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



December 1, 1913. 



Mucha.:\ THE EASTERN PARIS. [Warsaw. 



To whom will Japan give the apple (China) — 

 to England, Germany, or Russia? 



British capitalists of supporting 

 Huerta, possibly to justify the Stan- 

 dard Oil in helping the Constitu- 

 tionalists. 



Yuan Shih-Kai, Dictator. 



The new President of China has 

 speedily proved Sun Yat-Sen and the 

 revolutionists right. They asserted that 

 Yuan would make himself dictator, and 

 destroy that self-government to secure 

 which the whole movement, result- 

 ing in the overthrow of the Emperor 

 had been planned. One of his first 

 acts as President was to deprive 300 

 members of Parliament of their seats, 

 thus wiping out the Opposition alto- 

 gether. Not content with this, a few 

 days later he suspended Parliament en- 

 tirely. Ultimately it is to be reorgan- 

 ised — says Yuan ! Until it is he has 

 formed an administrative conference, 

 composed of some 70 members, dele- 

 gates from the provinces, and his own 

 nominees. Naturally the advanced party 

 are not represented, but the wily Yuan 

 has nominated many officials of the old 

 regime. Japan expresses herself as 

 greatly dissatisfied at his action. Sun 



Yat-Sen is in the Mikado's kingdom, 

 and evidently Japanese statesmen con- 

 sider it advantageous to support him. 

 For favours to come? 



The New Hebrides. 



The fate of the New Hebrides is 

 hanging in the balance. Mr. F. H. L. 

 Paton asserts that he has private infor- 

 mation from an absolutely reliable 

 source that the British Government con- 

 templates making an arrangement with 

 France which will give the French en- 

 tire control over the islands. It is em- 

 phatically denied that any negotiations 

 at all have yet been entered into over 

 the New Hebrides. That is no doubt 

 true, but does not prove Mr. Paton's 

 informant incorrect. Unless Australia 

 shows herself really anxious to take 

 over the control of the islands, 

 the temptation to settle a constant 

 source of worry by clearing out 

 altogether will naturally be strong 

 at home. From the Australian 

 point of view, they have considerable 

 strategic importance, but from the 

 British they are neither of commercial 

 nor imperial value. It is to be hoped 

 that in any negotiations between the two 

 countries Australia will be represented. 

 It is of no avail asking Great Britain to 

 arrange with France to give up her co»- 

 trol unless we are prepared to make con- 

 siderable financial sacrifices ourselves. 



The Territorials. 



Many have been the changes in the 

 voluntary forces of Great Britain. The 

 volunteers were succeeded by the Terri- 

 torials, and these in turn have been often 

 reorganised. At present they have an 

 actual strength of 270,000. It is now 

 proposed to reconstruct them into a 

 Second Line Army with a much lower 

 war establishment. This army will con- 

 sist of some 150,000 men, and there will 

 be in addition garrison or coast fortress 

 troops 50,000 strong. On the whole, de- 



