sented unexampled difficulties. At the request of His Excellency, my friend Dr. Page, Mr. Hoover undertook the work and formed under the auspices of the American and Spanish diplomatic representatives what is now known as the Neutral Commission for Relief in Belgium. A noble friend and colleague of mine, Lord Curzon, has described Mr. Hoover's work as "a miracle of scientific organization." That, I believe, is not an over-statement. With the people in northern France which is occupied by Germany added to those in Belgium, Mr. Hoover and those associated with him have had to provide and are providing every day, food for over nine million persons, five million of whom are practically destitute.

MY LORD MAYOR:-The enormous volume of shipping and food supplies rendered necessary naturally brings the operations of the Neutral Commission under the closest supervision of the Admiralty and the War Office. I am glad to be in a position to say on behalf of those departments of His Majesty's government, that we are convinced that the relief food reaches the Belgians and the French and reaches them alone.

I am desired to express on behalf of the government our deep gratitude to Mr. Hoover and to those American citizens who have so nobly given up their time and their occupations without recompense, and to a large extent without recognition, to this work of purchasing, shipping and distributing the supplies which alone enables the population of Belgium to keep body and soul together. It is one of the finest achievements in the history of humane and philanthropic organization.

Prisoner of War Problem.-In contrast to the problem of Belgian relief the inspection of the prisoners of war in Germany entrusted to the care of the United States developed into a complex social service problem in an entirely different direction. At first this appeared to be purely a military inspection of large prison camps with a capacity of from 5,000 to 35,000 men each. While this represented a sufficiently large problem in itself when over 1,000,000 of these prisoners were sent to working camps and hired either to farmers, farmer contractors or large manufacturing concerns to work against their will, at the point of the bayonet, and where the housing, feeding etc., were left in the hands of the corporations whose interests were solely in the direction of securing productive results, the

problem became an intensely complicated one. The problem specifically was that of a survey of the industrial conditions employing over 1,000,000 men with a consideration of:

A. Nature of work. B. The place of work. C. The housing. D. Hygiene. E. Food. F. Health and morale of the men. G. The discipline and associated legal problems involved in the problem of work, refusal to work, conspiracy, etc.

Inasmuch as most of these matters were theoretically governed by the first Hague Conference, as far as the British were concerned, and by the second Hague Conference, as far as the other prisoners were concerned, a problem of international law was presented and an associated diplomatic problem in the correction of existing errors in any or all of the above directions as they were met with at the time of the survey. The problem was so large and the time of survey a matter of months that the problem of correction was applied simultaneously with the survey work. Without going into the situation in detail, on account of the time at my disposal, it may be said that in relation to the type of work, place of work, hours of work, compensation, etc., diplomatic problems were presented that added greatly to the complexity of the problem. This was also true in relation to the food supplied by the German government and also food packages sent in from England and Canada.

A problem of international law was presented in the settlement of questions where the German military law conflicted with the sense of justice of the prisoners of war in maintaining discipline, in enforcing the work, etc.

The problem of the correction of housing conditions, the health of the prisoner, his adaptation for unusual work, while a relatively simple matter of correction on the part of the military authorities, at times became a matter of diplomatic protest.

After the survey was completed eight attaches of the embassy were assigned in groups of two to the four most congested districts, with local headquarters at the seat of the army corps commander of the district working under a scheme of inspection of full records, the follow-up plan of reinspection

to cover adverse conditions and systematic periods of inspection at other times. It is quite impossible to go into the detail of this work except to call attention to the fact that it was based upon a complete systematic survey where all the problems were studied, and where the most effective remedy for each specific fault was worked out.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN ANCIENT

TIMES

BY ALBERT J. CARNOY

Research Professor of Greek

The great concern of a democratic nation is to imbue her citizens with the conviction that they are all dependent upon one another. This feeling of solidarity is at the basis of all the civic virtues. But while this is recognized by everybody, one easily overlooks the fact that, no less than with our contemporaries, we are in unbroken connection with the men that lived before us. The present political and economic situations, productive as they are of war or peace, sufferings or prosperity, the various ideals that inspire the men of our times, direct their efforts, as well as the present dissemination of man on earth and the characters of the races are the products of past conditions, of ancient evolutions and revolutions. It is therefore impossible to understand anything of the present world, unless one is acquainted with the development through the past ages of man in general and the present civilized nations in particular. There is no real knowledge, unless it be a knowledge of the causes. Moreover, since man is man and remains a man throughout the vicissitudes of the nations, the past events are interesting not only as a preparation to our present conditions, but also as being representative of what is likely to occur over and over again where there are men and communities of men. We men have a free will, but we use it generally to take the same decisions in the same circumstances.

All this applies to the history of Greece more than to any other. In that small country, during a short period of two centuries, we find a microcosm of civilization as well as a concentration of all the pursuits and all the struggles of civilized people in all times. In that memorable period was born what we might call the modern spirit, though we should rather call