CORK ON FIRE

N the night of December 11 five

DECEMBER 22. 1920

were laid waste by incendiary fires, which destroyed about three hundred houses. This statement is striking, as the buildings in Cork are of stone or brick. The disaster was more appalling than was that of Dublin in 1916-and that disaster, eye-witnesses tell us, represented more apparent damage than the German airplanes did in London or Paris. According to the despatches of December 14, Cork was "like a city with its heart cut out."

The authorities believe the Cork incendiarists were Sinn Feiners, angered by the arrival during the day of a large number of special constables and auxiliaries whose firearms were only too evident. The Sinn Feiners, on the other hand, blame the police and the soldiers. The fires were chiefly in the business quarter of retail shops, where the most loot might be obtained. Among the public buildings destroyed were the Carnegie Library, the Corn Exchange, the City Hall, and other municipal structures. There was no loss of life

except that of a person shot while looting.

The destruction will be visualized by the many Americans who have entered or left Europe by way of Queenstown, which lies on Cork Harbor a harbor large and deep enough to float all the British navy. It is the estuary of the river Lee. Eleven miles up the river lies Cork, mainly built on a very large, low-lying island in the Lee and doubtless once a swamp, as is indicated by its name, a corruption of the Gaelic Corruch. To the middle of the nineteenth century Cork was the second city in Ireland; it is now the third; Belfast is the second. Nine-tenths of the population of Cork is Roman Catholie.

Sir Hamar Greenwood, Chief Secretary for Ireland, promises an immediate investigation. We hope that the British Government will appoint an investigating commission that will command the respect and confidence of the whole world, headed, for instance, by such a man as Lord Bryce.

RELIEF FOR SERBIA

Na recent address Madame Grouitch, an American, wife of the Minister at Washington from Jugoslavia, called

in 1915, the Serb army and Government had to withdraw to the Adriatic coast, where they were rescued by French and British transports. During

(C) Underwood & Underwood

MAJOR CEDRIC FAUNTLEROY, OF THE
AMERICAN AVIATORS IN POLAND

that retreat the refugees died by tens of thousands from hunger and cold.

The children of school age were taken to France, England, and Switzerland, where Madame Grouitch or ganized committees to care for them. The greater part were sent to French schools. About three hundred were received at Oxford and Cambridge, and some four hundred (including especially those suffering from tuberculosis and other illness contracted on the retreat) were ordered to Switzerland. The Ser

bian Aid Fund (1 Madison Avenue, New York City) has still many pensioners in foreign universities who look to it for regular monthly allowances. But this is not all. In Serbia there are at least ten thousand families who require assistance to send their children to school over and above what the Government can do for them. Madame Grouitch has already received enough money for two thousand Serbian schoolchildren, at the rate of a frane a day,

Here is a chance, we think, for a real Christmas gift. For every child that can be kept alive and every student that can be educated there should be a greater intellectual and moral advance in Jugoslavia.

RELIEF FOR POLAND

L

CEDRIC

IEUTENANT-COLONEL FAUNTLEROY, commander of the Polish air forces on the southern front, has appealed for aid to Poland. He is now in this country recruiting pilots and endeavoring to obtain equipment. Speaking of Polish needs the other day, he said in an address:

Two things are needed-bread and aircraft. The Reds implant their doctrines successfully where there is famine, and Poland is starving.

The confirmation of the above is seen in Mr. Hoover's just-published statement concerning children who receive charitable assistance from the American Relief Administration. We read that there are 200,000 under its care in Serbia and 1,400,000 in Poland. Many depend for existence upon the one daily meal provided for them by the American Relief Administration. The offices of the Administration are at 42 Broadway, New York City. Nothing could be more practical than its system, perfected by Mr. Hoover after six years' experience in the same kind of work. Only the most concentrated food is used-flour, rice, cocoa, beans, condensed milk, and lard.

As to Poland's second need, according to Colonel Fauntleroy, namely, aircraft, we are told by him that the Polish Air Service is credited with

having stopped the Bolshevist advance in southern Poland, where, he says, if the Red advance in the north had been

duplicated it would have meant the fall of the Polish Republic. He adds:

Poland can defeat Bolshevism in battle only in the air. In other respects we are outnumbered ten to The Air Service, officered mainly by Americans, stands between freedom in Central Europe and domination by the Reds.

one.

The story of what Americans did in the Air Service in France before our entry into the war and the continuation by those men of service for Poland

THE NEW ALBANIA

FOR

OR some months the Albanian Government, established at Tirana, the capital, has enjoyed apparently undisturbed power. Albania was once a synonym for lawlessness and anarchy. The turbulent tribal elements that then continually preyed upon the country's tranquillity have now been run down by the Government's organized forces; the leaders of unrest have been courtmartialed and have received punishment.

In 1912-13 the London Conference -called to determine the issues of the Balkan War-marked the boundaries of Albania and established its practical independence. But the secret Treaty of London (1915) between England, France, and Russia on the one side, and Italy on the other, gave Albania to Italy, Serbia, and Greece, and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 (and especially its expression of January 14, 1920, in the subsequent so-called Supreme Council) agreed to apply the provisions of that Treaty. President Wilson's notes notes regarding Adriatic issues opposed such disposal of Albania; through his exertion the plan of partition was definitely discarded. The French military authorities turned over to the Albanian Government the provinces they had been holding with the purpose of transferring them, respectively, to Serbia and Greece. But Italy did not give up until the Albanians by armed force had driven her from the country. She then abandoned her claims to Albania which the Paris Conference had acknowledged.

Having thus vindicated itself, the

country. It opened schools and asks us to establish an American university on the plan of Robert College, at Constantinople. It began to develop the country's great mineral resources-iron, copper, oil, asphalt, coal-and its splendid water-power possibilities. In all this a first essential is the building of roads and railways.

Japan has protested against being excluded from the possessions in the south. The Japanese say that under the application of the Australian exclusion law their position in those islands will be worse than it was when the islands were under the Germans; and, despite her treaty with Great Britain, Japan serves notice on that Power that she is at the same time in business for herself.

She also serves notice on another Power-America. This concerns the disposal of the former German cables in the Pacific. Japan holds that, because of the mandate granted for the German-owned islands to her, she has the right to do what she pleases with the island of Yap. This island is of great importance, because it is a center. of cable communication. There is a Yap-Guam cable to America, and a Yap-Shanghai cable to Japan, and a Yap-Dutch Indies cable to Holland. Japan claims the right to control all cable landings in Yap. But the American Government maintains that in the

case of Yap, as in the case of Mesopotamia, the holding of a mandate gives to the mandatory no exclusive powers or rights of exploitation. The question is under discussion by the International Communications Conference, now in session in Washington.

Japan has also served notice on another Power, and this Power is the League of Nations itelf-if it can be called a Power. In the Assembly of the League at Geneva Viscount Ishii, the head of the Japanese delegation, declared, during a discussion of the question of disarmament, that it was useless to try to get Japan to reduce her military or naval forces so long as the United States was increasing hers, and America was not bound by the League. The Assembly has been deliberating on this question for more than three weeks. As it is not considered possible to reduce armaments at the present time, the programme before the Assembly is to proceed in three stages. The first would involve an agreement among the Powers to make no further increase in armaments; the

second would provide for a gradual reduction; and the third would provide for complete disarmament when it may be found that the situation permits it. That, in the opinion of some readers of history and observers of mankind, will probably be the day after doomsday.

THE NATIONAL PARKS

Tour great National Parks as THE

HE establishment and maintenance of

"noble and beautiful examples of natural marvels" constitute one of the finest achievements of modern democracy. These parks ought not to be curtailed nor ought their character to be modified except under the very greatest pressure of the general social welfare. A very powerful attempt is now being made to use them as reservoirs for the development of water power and of irrigation projects. The claim is made, no doubt sincerely, that water power and irrigation are social necessities and that natural beauties and recreation, while highly desirable, ought not to stand in the way of social necessity. The defenders of the National Parks reply that the needs of the people of the United States for power and irrigation can be satisfactorily met without injuring the National Parks. This is a very brief but, we believe, comprehensive statement of the controversy. To meet the situation Senator Jones, of Washington, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, has introduced into the Senate a bill known as S4554,

which amends the Federal Water Power Act as follows:

That hereafter no permit, license, lease, or authorization for dams, conduits, reservoirs, power houses, transmission lines, or other works for storage or carriage of water, or for the development, transmission, or utilization of power, within the limits of any National park or National monument shall be granted or made without specific authority of Congress.

Mr. Esch, of Wisconsin, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce in the House, has introduced a parallel bill in the House of Representatives. These two bills should be supported by every public-spirited citizen in the United States and should be passed. They do not forbid the necessary developments of water power or irrigation reservoirs, but they do put the burden of proof upon the promoters of water power and irrigation, and that is where it justly belongs.

No great National policy like that which has led to the creation of our National Parks should be modified or interfered with unless the modification is carefully considered, publicly adopted, and approved by Congress. Congress made the parks. It has the right to decide what should be done with them. The solution of this question which is proposed by Senator Jones and Representative Esch is on the face of it just, equitable, and reasonable.

PROHIBITION SENSE AND NONSENSE

THE

66

con

HE Acting Attorney-General of the United States recently declared that American ships are structive territory of the United States wherever they happen to be located." The bearing of this formidable-sounding legal opinion upon the future of the American merchant marine is apparent. If our ships are constructive territory of the United States," obviously they come within the restrictions of the Eighteenth Amendment. Shipping men fear that the restriction npon the sale of liquor upon American ships will destroy the hope of building up an American-owned passenger service upon the seas.

If this is the result of the enforcement of the Volstead Act, the United States should face the issue with good grace. The United States adopted prohibition voluntarily. The time for considering the effect of the Eighteenth Amendment upon our merchant marine passed with the passage of that Amendment. It would be humiliating and hypocritical for the United States to

permit the sale of liquor in part of its territory for commercial reasons while it prohibits it throughout the rest of its territory on moral and economic grounds.

There is another question involved in the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment which is a horse of quite a different color. It has been suggested that our ambassadors be prohibited from attending dinners at which wines are served. To attempt to carry into effect such a proposal would serve no good purpose and would cause annoyance to many foreign hosts and humiliation to our representatives in foreign lands. When it becomes proper for guests to dictate to their hosts what they shall serve on their tables, it will be time enough for America to insist that its ambassadors shall refrain from attending dinners where wine is served. attending dinners where wine is served. And not until then!

THE HARVARD GLEE CLUB

a when orchestral concerts

A time work have lost vitality and lowered their standards, and when the cause of music has suffered by the discontinuance of the concerts of the Musical Art Society, it is refreshing to

an impressionistic piece by the French composer Henri Du Parc; three choral love songs by Brahms, and a Hallelujah Chorus for men's voices by Handel.

Much more important than the tone quality, which was admirable, and the technical ability in attack and in expression, which was very high, was the intelligence and musicianly apprehension of the nature of the music which the chorus displayed. In technical performance the concert would have done honor to a body of professional singers, but in the inner musical quality there was evident the spirit that professionals often miss.

Great credit for the creation of the new Harvard Glee Club is due to Dr. Archibald T. Davison, conductor, but a great share also is due to the Harvard undergraduates-not only those who are members, but all those who by their contribution to the public opinion of the undergraduate body, whether by joining in the competition for membership or otherwise, have made it pos

sible for the club to attain its present

mature musical stature.

MASTER OF BILLIARD

HE world of sport has many heroes

advance in musical taste in this country. For about a year the Harvard Glee Club has been developing into one of the finest choral organizations in America. Its recent concert in New York gives it the right to be judged by the same standards which are applicable to choirs of international reputation.

Like the glee clubs of other colleges in the past, that of Harvard confined itself to the singing of American college songs and simple part songs. Its concerts were social functions rather than musical occasions. When a glee club concert was over, it was certain that "a good time was had by all." The American college glee club, however, has never until now represented in the sphere of music that level of taste which is ordinarily associated, and certainly ought to be associated, with a college or university. Now the Harvard Glee Club is distinctly worthy of the best in American university life.

In its concert in New York its programme consisted of ecclesiastical music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, represented by works of Pales. trina, Allegri, Lotti, and Bach; an Irish folk song; an English song by Thomas Morley of the sixteenth century; a group of three choruses by Anton Rubenstein; a dramatic part song by the English Negro Coleridge-Taylor:

of none as pre-eminent in a particular field as William Hoppe. For sixteen years he has held unquestioned supremacy at the game of 18.2 balk-line billiards, a game which in its perfection requires all the delicacy of touch which distinguishes the art of a great violinist, the judgment of a chess player, and the mental self-control and nerve of a golfer called upon to hole an eighteen-foot putt for a national championship. When Hoppe enters a tournament, it is practically a foregone conclusion that, no matter how strong the opposition, he will carry away the title in a series of straight victories. There are promising players in the world of professional billiards, but the only crown for which they can contend is the crown of second place.

The recent National championship held at the Astor Hotel, in New York City, was just another chapter in the familiar story, but it was a chapter worth reading by those who like to see any sport or any art supremely well done.

A National billiard tournament has none of the accompaniments which one is accustomed to imagine as part of every professionalized sport. In the ballroom of the Astor a brass rail surrounds the inclosure wherein the green cloth of the table affords a pleasant