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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS British Stand Checks the Funding of Debts to U. S. Germany's Elections. By EDWARD W. P1CKARD NEGOTIATIONS for the funding of war debts owed the United States by foreign nations may be checked entirely en-tirely by the position taken last week by Great Britain as represented by Winston Churchill, chancellor of the exchequer. Discussions between Secretary Sec-retary of the Treasury Mellon and Ambassador Am-bassador Jusserand relative to funding fund-ing the French debt aroused the fear In England that France would be granted more favorable terms than were given to Great Britain. Mr. Churchill, explaining his government's position to the house of commons, said Britain would Insist on equal treatment treat-ment with any other nation in this matter.and he added : "It is essential that any payment by our debtors in Europe to the United States should be accompanied by a simultaneous and "proportionate payment to us." Speaking for the Liberals, Sir John Simon called England's position "Intolerable" "In-tolerable" and said : "Our allies owe us some 3,000,000,000, involving a yeariy interest on the debt of 130,-000,000. 130,-000,000. We are paying our debt to America, but none of our allies dreams of paying us anything." Washington fflcliils declared positively that there was no reason to expect a reopening of the funding agreement with Great Britain, a request for an understanding understand-ing to that end having already been flatly refused. Another controversy arose when Austen Chamberlain, British foreign secretary, notified Secretary Hughes that, In the view of his government, govern-ment, the United States was not entitled to collect war damage claims against Germany out of what the reparations repa-rations commission receives from Germany Ger-many through the Dawes plan. France, Italy and Belgium have agreed to support sup-port the American claim to the right to share in the reparations. Great Britain Brit-ain holds that America has no such right at all, having made a separate sep-arate treaty with Germany. The point is made that the United States should follow the example of the allies by using the sequestered German Ger-man property within Its borders to meet the claims of its citizens citi-zens against Germany. Washington forwarded an answer to England which, while expressing the belief that the matter could lie settled amicably, firmly rejected the British position and Insisted on America's right to receive re-ceive payment for war damages out of the reparations funds. Unless the question Is settled previously, it will come up when the allied finance ministers min-isters meet In Paris next month to decide de-cide upon the distribution of German payments. GERMANY'S continued support of the Dawes plan was fairly well assured by the result of the reichstag elections. The three republican parting par-ting Social Democrats, Catholics and Democrats have 230 seats, which Is just a few short of a majority. The three monarchist parties have 170 seats. The balance of power Is thus held by hitherto weak groups, like the Bavarian Peoples' and Peasants' par-tics. par-tics. Doctor Dernhorg Is quoted as saying the elections show (hat "a majority ma-jority of t ho Germans are for the honest hon-est carrying out of the pledges of the Dawes plan. and. moreover, for honest co-operation In the International affairs loading to peace and reconciliation. Germany at present Is negotiating for entry to the League of Nations and other International relations. The elections show that the people favor this program and oppose the extremists' extrem-ists' efforts to break It. "I K'lieve a coalition of the middle parties will result. The Democrats nre ready to quit co-operating with the People's party, which stands with the reactionaries. The three republican parties will he able, with the aid of two of the small parties, to form a republican government. Once this is begun It Is possible that the People's party will be eager to join, becuuse the People's party wants a place in the government, no matter what its political complexion." For the present the People's party has refused to go into a coalition which would include the Socialists, so, according to dispatches from Berlin, the cabinet headed by Chancellor Chan-cellor Marx has decided to resign. The outcome may be the formation of a bourgeois ministry to Include the Nationalists, Na-tionalists, whose opponents wish to maneuver them into an impossible situation. Baron Ago yon Maltzan, secretary of state of the German foreign oflice, has been appointed ambassador to Washington to succeed Herr Wied-feldt, Wied-feldt, who has resigned. Baron Maltzan Malt-zan is credited with possessing great diplomatic ability. He was chiefly responsible re-sponsible for the treaty of Eapallo between be-tween Germany and Russia which caused such a sensation during the Genoa conference of the great powers. pow-ers. THE League of Nations council opened in Rome what might have been an important meeting had it not been found necessary or advisable to yield to the demands of the British. Austen Chamberlain told the council the Baldwin cabinet needed more time to examine the security and arbitration arbitra-tion protocol and insisted that consideration consid-eration of it be postponed until March, which was agreed to. A delegation from Egypt urged that the council take cognizance of the protest of the Egj-ptian parliament against the recent re-cent "wanton British attack," but here again British influence prevailed and the league secretariat announced It could not recognize the protest because be-cause it did not come from the Egyptian Egyp-tian government Mr. Chamberlain had long conversations conver-sations with Premiers Herrlot and Mussolini, and afterward intimated that great progress had been made toward to-ward a complete accord of Great Britain, Brit-ain, France and Italy on vital questions. ques-tions. Among other things, It was agreed that Britain should remain in the Rhineland, retiring from the Cologne Co-logne bridgehead in January but occupying oc-cupying some other region, probably that of Coblenz which was held by the Americans after the armistice. They also discussed the problem of North Africa, with what result is not known. FRANCE, as well as some other central cen-tral European countries, has been making a campaign against the Reds within her borders because of their attempts at-tempts to incite revolution and murder, mur-der, and many of them have been ar-rested ar-rested and deported. Premier Her-riot Her-riot was subjected to bitter attacks for his course, but defended himself skillfully and won a vote of confidence of 300 to 29 In the chamber of deputies. depu-ties. Over here In the United States the communists received a jolt when the Michigan Supreme court upheld the conviction of Charles E. Ruthenberg for violation of the state syndicalism law. It is presumed that as a result W. Z. Foster, in whose case the jury disagreed, will be retried and that Benjamin Ben-jamin Gltlow, Rose Pastor Stokes and others who were Indicted will be brought to trial. MUSCLE SHOALS was by agreement agree-ment the subject before the senate sen-ate until disposed of, and it gave rise to some lively debates. The Underwood Under-wood bill was up for action, and despite de-spite warm opposition it appeared likely to pass. Senator McKellar of Tennessee declared it was drawn in the mterat of the Alabama Power rompuny and that Its terms would be oven loss favorable to the government than a hid made by that concern. The Republican steering committee of the senate- agreed that controversial measures meas-ures such as the world court membership member-ship inoposal and repeal of the income tax publicity clause shall be omitted from the legislative program for the presi :u session. The senate on Thursday passed the cruis r and 'battleship rehabilitation bill which the house passed last session. ses-sion. It carries about S140.000.000 for const ruction and alteration and, al-thoi'.uh al-thoi'.uh there Is no provision for gun elevation. It will bring the navy almost up t" the 5-5-3 ratio, according to Rep-resen Rep-resen atlve Britten. The house was busy with the annual supply hills and quickly disposed of the appropriation measure for the Interior In-terior department, which carries a to tal of $238,000,000. Western Republicans Repub-licans and Southern Democrats prevented pre-vented the elimination of an amendment amend-ment for continuance of 39 land offices in Western and Southern states. The agricultural appropriation bill was then taken up and seemed to meet with little opposition In any of Its parts. Among Its Items is one of $80,-000,000 $80,-000,000 for road construction. SUPPLEMENTING the gloomy re- ports of the secretaries of war and the navy Is the annual report of the advisory committee for aeronautics which President Coolidge transmitted to congress. It gives a startling picture pic-ture of what might happen to this country in time of war because of our deficiency in aircraft. Here is an extract ex-tract : "No one can foretell at this time what the use of aircraft will be in future wars, not even In the next war. It Is safe to say that there will be individual in-dividual and group fighting In the air; there will be aircraft attacking troops on the ground both with bombs dropped from great heights and with machine guns mounted on low-flying aircraft protected by armor from ordinary ordi-nary rifle bullets ; there will be bombing bomb-ing of large centers, and routes of communication and transportation. "And it has been proposed that aircraft air-craft be used to drop poisonous gases, not only on the enemy troops, but also behind the lines and in the centers cen-ters of population, to the same extent that long-distance bombing will be carried car-ried on. The bombs carried may not be limited to explosives and poisonous gases, but may possibly be loaded with germs to spread disease and pestilence. pesti-lence. "Without limitations on the uses of aircraft in warfare, a nation fighting with its back to the wall cannot be expected ex-pected to omit to use desperate means to stave off defeat." TWO Immense gifts to the American public for educational and charitable chari-table purposes were announced last week. James B. Duke, tobacco and power magnate, created a trust fund embracing properties worth at least $40,000,000, to be increased later to $80,000,000, for education, church andj hospital work in North and South Carolina. The trustees are Instructed to spend part of this In creating a university uni-versity to be known as Duke university, univer-sity, provided Trinity college at Durham Dur-ham will not consent to change its name to Duke, which it probably will not do. The other benefactor is George Eastman, East-man, head of the Eastman Kodak company com-pany of Rochester, N. T. He announces an-nounces new gifts of $12,500,000 to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Hampton institute in-stitute and Tuskegee Institute. This brings Mr. Eastman's known benefactions benefac-tions up to $58,602,900, of which nearly near-ly $24,000,000 has been given to the University of Rochester. Explaining the donations of $1,000,000 each to Hampton and Tuskegee, he says: "Almost the entire attention of educators edu-cators has been devoted thus far to the white race, but we have more than 10 per cent negro population In the United States, most of whom are densely ignorant. The only hope of the negro race and the settlement of the negro problem is through proper education of the Hampton-Tuskegee type." SAMUEL GOMPERS, who went to Mexico City for the Pan-American Federation of Labor convention and was elected Its president, was taken seriously 111 there and was placed on a train and hurried homeward. At the time this was written there was small hope for his recovery. lie had been in very poor health for some time, and it was believed the altitude of Mexico City affected his heart. August Belmont, known throughout the world as a financier and a sportsman, sports-man, died rather suddenly In his New York residence at the age of ssventy-one ssventy-one years. Mr. Belmont financed the j first New York subway and was the chief figure In the building of the Ca-pe Old canal. For a great many years he was one of the leaders In American thoroughbred racing. Another notable man who passed away during the week was Mahlon Pitney, Pit-ney, former associate Justice of ths United States Supreme court. About eighteen months ago he was forced to retire by two strokes of paralyls, and he never recovered from them. |