has been in sympathy with our cause, but some of the nobility sympathize with the Hohenzollerns. Mr. Van der Veer writes:

"Much as I regret that it was a Dutch nobleman who offered the fallen Hohenzollern his castle as a refuge, I am not surprized. Part of our nobility has always felt more in common with Prussian Junkers than with our thoroughly democratic people. Early in the war the press published the names of Dutch Junkers who were fighting as officers in the very German Army which would have overrun Holland as it did Belgium if it had suited the purpose of the ex-Kaiser and his accomplices.

"The presence of the ex-Kaiser in Holland is an eyesore to the overwhelming mass of our people, who from the beginning to the end of the war remained wholeheartedly in sympathy with the Allies. Our people will not forget that the very man who fled for safety to our country, and is to-day sharing our scanty food-supplies, not only ordered his hordes to slaughter our Belgian neighbors, but also sent hundreds of our sailors and fishermen to death through the destruction of a large part of our mercantile fleet by the pirates of his Navy."

GERMANY'S DEBT TO BELGIUM-The Westminster Gazette has received from an official source some of the items that will figure on Germany's bill in Belgium. They run:

"Local contributions and fines levied by Germany on Belgium in 1914, $40,000,000.

"War-contributions extorted from November, 1914, to October, 1916, $192,000,000. From November, 1916, to May, 1917, $70,000,000. From June, 1917, to June, 1918, $144,000,000. From June, 1918, to October, 1918, $75,000,000.

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Raw material and machinery, taken by the Germans up to January, 1915, were estimated by them at $400,000,000.

"Damage up to December, 1914, estimated by the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung at $1,000,000,000.

"This does not include materials, destructions, or requisitions since January, 1915, and this item alone must be reckoned at several hundred millions.

"In addition, during the winter of 1916-1917, 150,000 workmen were deported to Germany, the whole of whose production is totally lost to their country."

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GERMANY NOT STARVING

HE PATHETIC WAILS from Germany-that the "good German people" is starving-are merely for stage effect. A chorus of testimony has gone up from every Allied correspondent in the occupied parts of Germany, and all are agreed that in Dr. Solf's "starving Germany" food is far more plentiful than in parts of France and Belgium. The whole thing is, we are told, a stage play to induce the sentimentalists in the Allied countries to press for the lifting of the blockade. Germany herself admits the truth of this. The French Government has collected the evidence on this point, and it runs:

"During 1917 Germany was revictualed from a crop inferior to the average, but the last harvest was abundant. Before the armistice the Germans declared their food-sufficiency, and their effort since the signing of the armistice to make it appear that the nation faces starvation was undertaken to move the universe to pity.'

"The Imperial Chancellor declared before the signing of the armistice that Germany was able to overcome food-difficulties and to defeat the attempts of the Entente and America to starve her into submission. On September 20 the Kölnische Zeitung declared: 'The situation shows itself more favorable than it was at this time last year.'

"The Munich Abend Zeitung said on October 12: The crop of barley and oats is estimated to be 12,000,000 tons, at least, which will allow the daily bread ration to be increased to 500 grams, which is more than the average per head consumption.' "The Kölnische Zeitung stated on November 16: 'The sugar output, 1,800,000 tons, greatly exceeds the needs of peace times, 1,200,000 tons. There are plenty of potatoes. At the end of September, Herr von Waldow spoke of raising the weekly ration to nine pounds.'

"The Chemnitzer Volkszeitung wrote on September 27: 'Some cities have enough to last them until April 1, 1919.""

The Westminster Gazette, commenting on Dr. Solf's repeated pleas that Germany starves, remarks:

Hungary (that is to say, that Belgrade and Agram should be partners on equal terms), and (b) a special commission for foreign affairs to sit in the West until the treaty of peace is signed, likewise constituted in equal proportions from the two JugoSlav branches, and coordinated by the Foreign Minister. It would be an auspicious act on the part of the Prince Regent if he were to place himself at the head of this movement, for the personal policy of Mr. Pašić is in a fair way to compromising the dynasty, and only prompt action can hope to save the situation.

"Another complication in the already delicate situation of the Jugo-Slavs has been gratuitously added by the terms of the Austrian armistice. Those terms prescribe, almost word for word, the iniquitous frontier-line of the Treaty of London. It is hard to understand this totally uncalled-for provocation toward the Jugo-Slavs. It is not as if it were demanded by any military exigency, for we need, and can obtain, guaranties far further afield-in particular as far as the railways to Vienna and Krakow. It is impossible in the terms of this armistice to avoid seeing again the effect of Baron Sonnino's reactionary policy. If this policy is allowed to prosper unchecked, if its attempt to lay hands on as many pawns as possible is not frustrated, there is a definite danger of permanent armed conflict between the two shores of the Adriatic, and such a conflict would have the immediate effect of weakening the Agram Government, and most likely of opening the flood-gates of Bolshevism."

RUMANIA

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cedented in its horror have not been enough for the Allied statesmen to evolve a consistent and adequate policy, and it is not impossible that the Germans, meeting our representatives at the conference-table before we are agreed among ourselves, may be presented with an irresistible opportunity of dividing us during the negotiations. The new states, for instance, which will arise from the ashes of the old autocracies will need every help they can get in their first tentative experiments. No time should be lost in getting into touch with their accredited leaders and concerting with then any measures which may be necessary for helping them on to their legs."

Turning now to the Servian side, The New Europe writes:

"The recognition of Jugo-Slavia by the Allies has been hitherto withheld. Such a recognition is a matter of urgent and vital necessity. The only reason why this step has not yet been found practicable is that, most unfortunately for the Jugo-Slavs and for ourselves, there is a state of disunion between the reactionary Servian Premier, Mr. Pašić, on the one hand, and the progressive and democratic Jugo-Slav Committee on the other. Mr. Pašić's leanings toward the rôle of an oriental Sultan are alone responsible for the cloud which at present hangs over the fair future of Jugo-Slavia. The urgent need of the moment is for an instant concentration of purpose on the basis of absolute equality between the two main branches of the Jugo-Slav race. With this end in view there should be immediately constituted (a) a responsible government, formed equally of Servians from Servia and Jugo-Slavs from what was Austria

The Manchester Guardian urges that prompt recog nition of Jugo-Slavia by the Powers is a matter of elementary justice:

"The actual reason why the Southern Slavs are not yet recognized while even the Letts are is no doubt that Italy objects. If Italy objects, it is not on the ground of any principle-none can be alleged-but because she has certain territorial claims which can be satisfied only at the expense of the Southern Slavs. If the Southern Slavs are denied recognition by the Allies, are excluded from the conferences of the Allies in which the peace settlement is in large measure determined, they will not be able to defend their cause. But how can this be defended? How can it encourage people to believe that the victorious governments are sincere in their professions that they mean to reconstitute the world by the light of justice?"

ENGLAND RULED BY FOREIGNERS-A corre spondent in the London New Witness recently pointed out that "England is suffering from foreign domination." He wrote: "We are governed by the Welsh, prayed at by the Scots, and preyed upon by the Irish." From a note in the London Evening Standard the genuine native-born Englishman does not seem to have much to say nowadays. It writes:

"The Versailles Conference is considering decisions which may affect the fate of Great Britain for generations. "A correspondent points out that on this conference our country is represented by:

One Welshman (Mr. Lloyd George).

One Scottish Canadian (Mr. Bonar Law).

One Jew (Lord Reading).

Four Scotsmen (Mr. Balfour, Sir Eric Geddes, Marshal
Haig, and Admiral Wemyss).
One Englishman (Lord Milner).

"Is this not,' he asks, ‘a humiliating position for the country south of the Tweed-the so-called predominant partner"? England proper is said to contribute seventy to eighty per cent. of the men in the British Army, ninety per cent. in the British Navy, and about ninety per cent. of the British war-expenditure. Yet she has only one Englishman to make her voice heard at this crisis in her history."

Oddly enough—tho The Evening Standard omits to mention it -the one Englishman cited, Lord Milner, was actually born in Germany and his father before him, since his grandfather, a physician, settled there, without losing touch with England or acquiring German citizenship.

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IRELESS TELEGRAPHY has been held down and hampered, ever since its invention, by what the operators call "static"-the presence of free electricity

in the air, which often interfered with the working of the apparatus so as to make it practically useless. During the last year of the war, we are now told, the Allied nations have not had to deal with this obstacle. It has been removed for them by an improvement discovered by the chief engineer of the Marconi Company, which, after fifteen years of research, was about to be made public when the United States entered the war. Placed at government disposal, this invention has been a military secret until now, when its existence is announced by Edward J. Nally, general manager of the company. As he does not go so far as to describe and explain the device, its results and their far-reaching importance must be accepted on his word; but the electrical papers treat his announcement as authoritative. Says The Electrical World (New York, November 23), quoting Mr. Nally:

"Ever since the genius of Marconi made wireless telegraphy a fact, the only limitations of this method of communication was the deadly phenomena of 'static conditions.' It was 'static'-the presence of a large amount of uncontrolled electricity in the air-that at the beginning of the war often entirely prostrated the wireless service even between the most powerful stations erected in Europe and America. Static conditions were responsible for abnormal delays and for the mutilation of words in wireless messages.

Copyrighted by Paul Thompson.

"Altho patent applications had been made and the claims allowed by the United States Patent Office, the Weagant system was immediately placed at the disposal of the American Government, and every precaution was taken to keep the invention secret until the discovery could be safely announced. With the spirit of research that has made the Navy such a magnificent

"It was the one great obstacle to continuous communication by means of electromagnetic waves in the air. So baffling was the problem that Marconi issued a personal appeal to every wireless operator in the world to record his observations and to collect data on the subject. Some of the leading scientific minds in the universe struggled to overcome the effects of the static disturbances. World-wide researches were instituted and large sums of money expended, but the end sought was not obtained.

"It remained for an American radio expert, Roy A. Weagant, chief engineer of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, to discover the solution of the static problem. Weagant practically had devoted his life to a study of this perplexing phenomenon, and the result of fifteen years of experimental work was about to be published to the world when the United States entered the Great War.

arm of our military service, officials of the Navy Department assigned naval experts to cooperate with the inventor in installing experimental stations in various parts of the country. These stations are now receiving messages from all the high-power wireless stations of the world.

"With the consent of the Marconi Company, the United States Navy Department disclosed the Weagant invention to our Allies, and special representatives of the French and British Governments were sent here to study the system.

"Among the revolutionary changes that the new system effects in wireless installations will be the immediate disappearance of the huge steel towers heretofore built at great height to catch the incoming wireless waves. Equipped with the Weagant invention, the wireless receiving antennæ stretched merely a few feet above the ground.

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"Heretofore, also, the increasing number of highpower stations that were being erected in every part of the world raised the difficult question of 'interference.' Crossing wireless messages that shot through the ether sometimes made the wireless signals so indistinct that they could not be understood or drowned the weaker transmission entirely. The Weagant system, based on a unique selective principle, eliminates interference and permits absolutely clear communication, regardless of the operation of other

stations even in the immediate vicinity." Commenting editorially on this announcement, The Electrical World says:

"Clearly, these are highly important and most beneficent improvements that Mr. Weagant has bestowed on radio service. In fact, he has given it such an impetus as to make it a most formidable rival to submarine cable service. Its improved value in communicating with and between vessels at sea and thereby helping to reduce the loss of life from possible shipwrecks is alone a gift of outstanding benefit to humanity.

"The disclosure of Mr. Weagant's invention, which was developed as the result of Edisonian perseverance, is but the first announcement of a series of almost marvelous developments that have resulted from the intensified scientific research undertaken to insure and hasten successful termination of the war."

"To the jellyfish this structureless mass is what its hump is to the camel-a store of food-material laid up against evil days to come. When natural food runs short owing, perhaps, to the coming of colder weather, and the consequent disappearance or migration to deeper waters of the small fry of the ocean, the jellyfish is compelled to fall back upon its own reserves of food. Its, vitality is now derived in part from the absorption of its own jelly. A jellyfish from which all food was

kept continued to live for at least fortytwo days, but at what cost! It gradually shrank in size till but a ghost of its former self remained, for the jelly disappeared as energy; at the beginning of the experiment it weighed just one hundred times more that it weighed at the end.

"Whether this self-sustenance is a normal phase in the yearly round of jellyfishes, or is an exceptional response to peculiar conditions of starvation, has yet to be discovered."

A

WHALE-STEAKS

MERICANS ARE LEARNING to like whale meat. Other nations have always liked it, but we are slow to adopt what we consider foreign foods, altho there is nothing particularly foreign about the whale. The Food Administration is responsible for our early attempts at eating whale, but, according to a writer in The Scientific American (New York, November 16), our liking bids fair to grow and spread after the emergency that gave rise to it has passed. During the war the production of whale meat has enabled us to keep the usual supply of domestic animals nearly normal and has released ample meats of other types for the maintenance of our military and naval forces. Plants for preparing whale meat, storage-houses for keeping it, and vessels for its distribution, are now scattered along the North Pacific coast. Seven stations have thus disposed of about one thousand whales this season -all of which we have eaten. Readers who have never knowingly consumed whale are invited to reflect on the fact that it tastes remarkably like beef. The original owner of that luscious steak you ate last night may possibly have swum the North Pacific instead of galloping about on the grassy plains of Texas. We read:

The Scotsman. A 99 per cent. reduction in weight is an impossibility to any vertebrate, because his skeleton is unaffected by fasting. A man's bones weigh as much when he is lean as when he is fat. But the jellyfish has no bones and consists largely of structureless tissue that plays the practical part of a storage-reservoir of food-material. Starve the creature and it simply shrinks to almost nothing, while retaining life and identity, a very useful ability in times of food shortage such as we have been having. Says the paper named above:

"Jellyfishes are carnivorous and live upon nothing else than their fellow dwellers in the ocean, and these, as every one knows, they capture by means of poisoned threads shot from manyarmed batteries. Many feed almost entirely upon smaller jellyfishes of other sorts, some cannibalistic forms engulf their own kind, other large species catch fishes, but most prefer the lesser organisms, especially small crustacea and fish eggs, which form a rich population in all the seas.

"As this floating population is in quantity, so the jellyfishes wax in size and strength. In our temperate seas and in the colder northern ocean minute floating life is more rich in numbers than it is in the tropic oceans; and in the cold northern oceans the largest jellyfish are found. Recent discoveries have shown that the jellyfish puts its surplus stores of food to good As it feeds it increases in size, and a great proportion of its new growth is due to the increase of the solid mass of jelly which lies between the outer surfaces of the bell or 'umbrella.'

use.

"The meat of the whale extends in great masses from the base of the skull to the tail fin and downward to the middle line, or completely over the rib section. This meat, all of it of the same quality, amounts to ten tons for each fifty feet of length and each fifty tons gross weight of the whale. Above these dimensions there may be fifteen tons of solid whale flesh of best eating quality. In other words, one-fifth of a whale is meat, without computing the other parts, such as the heart, etc., that are edible. The steer, being also a mammal, with nearly identical skeletonic structure, represents almost precisely the same proportions. That is to say, a steer weighing 1,000 pounds has 200 pounds of beef, but only a proportion of its meat of the first class such as characterizes nearly the whole whale flesh. A 50-foot, 50-ton whale, then, represents in bulk a herd of 100 steers of one-half ton weight each. He represents as much meat also as the herd. He is also equal to 500 sheep of 200 pounds each or to 300 hogs of 350 pounds each. "Of course, steers range up to a ton of weight, with a corre sponding increase of weight of flesh. But a whale also weighs up to 75 tons, representing a herd of 150 steers of a half-ton