at

Europe are largely responsible for the war. It is noteworthy that the Slavic peoples far overlap the Political boundaries, even in eastern Germany. A look this map will show that the Slavic peoples are the predominant factor in Europe so far as numbers and territory are concerned. Industrially and commercially they are not so advanced as the Germanic peoples. But success in commerce and industry depend on political power over markets, on a large merchant fleet and on free outlets to the open ice-free ocean. It is superfluous to add that the possession of capital and technological knowledge is essentially necessary. The greatest Slavic power is Russia. But hitherto the political and industrial power of Germany has prevented Russia from realizing her territorial and commercial dreams. Neither in Europe nor in Asia does she possess sufficient outlets to the ocean entirely at her command.

If Germany be crushed, no one will be able to stand in the way of the fulfilment of her desires. What her territorial ambition in Europe is will be clear from another map reproduced from the World's Work. It is to gain access to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean unembarrassed by a blocking enemy, and to absorb all the Slavic peoples. That she wants to annex Sweden and Norway is wellknown. Her ambition in this direction led Sweden to increase her army a year ago. If Sweden and Norway became parts of the Russian Empire, Great Britain would have the nearness of a powerful neighbour to take into consideration. The passing of Turkish sovereignty from Europe would give power to Russia in the Mediterranean which she does not possess at present. This would be a thing for Great Britain to consider. In Asia the ambition of Russia is wellknown. The whole of northern Asia

If at the end of the war, Russia comes out victorious, she would undoubtedly become very powerful in Europe and Asia. Her empire both in Europe and Asia would be more contiguous to the British Empire and its sea-routes than now. Owing to Russia's proximity to India, through Persia, through Tibet and through China, the Indian Empire would require to be strengthened. The way to do it is to make Indians feel that they are partners in the Empire. They should be given all civic rights which Englishmen and colonists enjoy. The people of every province should be entitled to become volunteers, soldiers should be recruited from all provinces, and the Army Act should be repealed. A determined attempt should be made to banish malaria and the plague and give education to all boys and girls. If ever there be a great war in Asia with India as the bone of contention, India in possession of in possession of greater civic rights would be even greater source of strength to the Empire than now. A country can be best defended when its inhabitants are both able and enthusiastically willing to repel agression. Ability would be increased by better and more ordinary and military education, by better sanitation and by ensuring better feeding by improved agriculture and industrial progress. Enthusiasm and willingness would grow from more to more with the extension of civic freedom.

a

It is not probable that Germany would be victorious. But should she be triumphant, the British Empire would be menaced at various points. Germany has her own dream of a "March to the East." By this pan-German dream Germany and Austria would like to gain an Austrianowned path to Constantinople and a German-controlled commercial highway highway through German influence in Asia Minor. This dream is made manifest in the map reproduced from the World Work. Everybody understand what the goal of Germany's projected "March to the East" is. It is India. So India must be strengthened. Sectional representation in legislative assemblies and the conflict of races have made Austria-Hungary weak. In India the Government should minimise these weakening factors. India united, civically free, well fed and well educated can defy any European or other powers to cut off its moorings from the British Empire. We speak of "other powers," as, to all but the

And strike, if he could, were it but with his cheating] yardwand, home."

War rouses men from thoughts of personal worldly loss and gain, ease and pleasure-loving, luxury and sensuality. But as there are higher things than war, for example, the pursuit of spiritual ends and knowledge, which act in the same way, war is not indispensably necessary for the elevation of the human race.

When a country is invaded or threatened with invasion, the inhabitants have to choose between mere existence and all that make life worth living. They feel, as the Belgians have felt, that mere life is not the highest good, nor death the greatest evil. Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium's greatest poet, along with his less known fellow-citizens, would gladly have risked. his life for his country; but as he is past fifty, soldiering is now beyond his reach. So with women and children and old men he is helping his country in the only way

he

can: he is reaping and gathering the harvest. Sir Henry Roscoe, the famous English scientist, being now an octogenarian, cannot join the army. So he has offered to work as the substitute of any assistant at a chemical factory or chemist's shop who may be willing to go to the front. In many other ways is the war stimulating altruism and public spirit. Men are contributing to the war relief fund, rich men are offering their mansions for use as hospitals, medical men and women are going to the seat of war to work in the ambulance corps and Red Cross hospitals. But scientific research, geographical exploration, the philanthropist's fight with epidemics of plague and other diseases, the anti-slavery movement, resistance to religious persecution, have in their annals at least as much

devotion to duty, scorn of the easy life, self-sacrifice, fearlessness, endurance, energy and resource, and love of fellowmen to show as the annals of war. It need not then be apprehended that with the disappearance of war would vanish from the earth courage and faith and endurance and charity and all the other high virtues which ennoble the human race.

There is another good result which war has produced. It is the spread of civilization and exchange of civilized thoughts and ideas. When Alexander of Macedon marched through Southern Asia to the borders of India, Greek learning and arts and strategy spread in the lands he conquered, and Asia also gave to Europe what she had to give. When the Musalmans of Arabia aud Central Asia penetrated into India, they brought their culture and civilization with them and were in their turn influenced by the Hindus. But war has killed civilizations, as it has been the unintentional and indirect means of spreading civilization; and its real object has never been the spread of civilization. In America the civilizations of Peru and Mexico have been blotted out of existence. The ancient civilization of Persia was destroyed. The ancient civilization of Egypt was swept away. And all by war.

*

It should be remembered that civilization has spread also and mainly by peaceful means. Arab traders have carried Islamic

civilization to lands which they never conquered. Germany has not conquered the United States of America, Brazil or Japan. Yet all these countries owe a great deal to German culture and civilization. England has never fought any battles in Japanese territory or conquered Japan. But the Japanese have learned much from the British. The Americans have never directed their arms against Turkey or Bulgaria. But they have done much to modernise both these states. The American institution of Robert College on the Bosporus rendered an invaluable service to the newly created state of Bulgaria by providing it with a number of welleducated young men fitted for positions of responsibility. In Turkey, too, much educational work has been done by American colleges, especially in the northern provinces of Asia Minor, in conjunction

The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the East, o. Newnes, Ltd.

with Robert College (Constantinople). In ancient times the civilization of India spread to Central Asia, Tibet, China and Japan. But it was not Indian soldiers but Indian monks and other teachers and perhaps Indian traders who carried religion, arts, science aud literature of their country to these distant lands.

So for the spread of civilization and the interchange of thought war is not an indispensable agency.

The last claim that is put forward on behalf of war is that it brings about a contact and conflict between vigorous and decadent, youthful and effete races, with the result that either the decadent and effete races disappear and cease to cumber the earth or they are rejuvenated and revitalised. The former result can scarcely be characterized as good for the people who become extinct. The latter is no doubt beneficial, though it is not the primary aim of conquest but an indirect consequence, the primary object being exactly the opposite. But surely, whatever may have been the case in previous centuries, the world. has made sufficient progress to be able now to devise a more humane method of infusing youth and vitality into old and decadent peoples than that of killing vast numbers of them and subjecting the remainder to the humiliation and emasculation of subordination. Educational missions and commercial and industrial enter

prise and rivalry ought to be able to do in these days what in times past was an unintended by-product of war and quest.

The Promotion of Peace.

con

"I cannot tell you how it hurts me to see some of the things said and written by Christian people about our enemies and about German residents amongst us. Surely they need all the sympathy and kindliness possible, just as our own fellowcountrymen and women at present in Germany need special sympathy and kindliness, and from the accounts I have

read of those who came back last week from Berlin. have received them-we must do to them as we should wish them to do to us.

"We must all deplore and utterly detest and con

demn the terrible outrages which I fear have been only too truly committed, but even so we need not and ought not to believe every horrible story published in the press. Many of them have been proved to be without foundation.

"We must also remember that similar stories are told in Germany about the Allied troops.

"Let us not be tempted to forget the Master's command 'If ye love them that love you what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans do the same. But I say unto you love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you."

"It has been said, We can pray for those we hate. We cannot hate those we pray for."

"There may be some here whose dear ones have given themselves to the service of their country and joined the colours or perhaps even have already fallen.

"Our hearts bleed for them and we long to be able to comfort them and lighten their burdens if we only could. But how little we can do.

"While we grieve with them and mourn with them can we not give some sympathy to the bleeding hearts and desolated homes in Germany as well as in our own and our Allies' countries, and can we not try to realise how many who are against us had as little to do with the causes of the now fighting war, as we had and entered into it as unwillingly.

"For there has been one encouraging thing about this war that I suppose there never was a war into which the peoples of the countries engaged, entered with so little passion, and so unwillingly. That is surely an indication that the cause of peace, is making

progress."

Indian Privates

Even after making due allowance for exaggeration, one can safely believe that Indian Sepoys are displaying both courage and skill and resource in the war. Their achievements inevitably lead one to ask when Indians are going to have commissions in the Army.

Brahman soldiers in Europe.

In going through the list of casualties among the Indian non-commissioned officers one comes across names like Sidhnath Misra, Ganga Charan Dikshit, plainly showing that their bearers are Brahmans. This is the first time that Hindu soldiers have fought on European soil, but not the first accasion on which they have crossed the ocean to meet their enemies. Yet it is certain that no Brahman soldier has been driven out of his caste for having performed a seavoyage. In this matter the "uneducated" villager is superior to the "educated" Indian who strives his best to buttress up every dying superstition.

The world's supply of Good will. The Christian Register does the timely thing to observe:

To add to the world's supply of good will is the highest task of every man to-day. When the forces of ill will are developed to the utmost, with such fearful results in misery and death, it is palpably the duty of every one who has not been submerged and hurled under by their tidal force to exert to the maximum degree his force of good will. It is in his power to become a dynamic centre of influence for the counteraction of the ill will that so largely prevails. It is fatal and of world loss for him to permit the slightest diminution of his output of love for any reason whatsover. Rather should he strive the more to add to the fraternal and sympathetic forces whch will ultimately bring peace out of strife and universal good will out of the chaos of antagonisms at present existent. Here at last may be found one way in which to-day. every one may add his quota to the good of mankind

Decentrlization in Sind.

A new Bill, the Bombay Decentralization Bill, will soon be on the legislative anvil of the Bombay Council. In accordance with its provisions, the administration of certain sections of ten Bombay Acts and one Government of India Act, is intended to be delegated to the Divisional Commissioners. Provision will also be made for the delegation of certain minor executive powers to the lower ranks of Government officials. The underlying principle of all decentralization of executive functions of Government is that the nearness of the final governing authority to the people governed enables it to know and take into consideration, the opinions, wishes and prejudices of the people concerned. It would be fatal if this fundamental principle were lost sight of in any scheme of decentralization. So far as the experience of a Bombay division, which has for long enjoyed the sort of decentralized control that is intended to be provided by this new Bill, permits us to form a lization, judgment of the effect of such decentrawe are bound to say that the tendency of the change would be undoubtedly in the direction of autocracy. has more than The public of Sind

once expressed itself, in no unmistakable terms, as by no means enamoured of a system of administration under which the Commissioner in Sind can, without fear of interference from obove and in disregard of the opinion of the people, deal with administrative questions as suits his individual wishes. Government must never forget that every step in the direction of decentralization, i. e., delegation of powers to local authorities which outruns the growth of the freedom and influence of public opinion in the provinces concerned