by all means to get them to distinguish the issues. The British Columbia issue has nothing whatever to do in any respect with the California one, even if some of the California and Seattle agitators want to drag British Columbia into it, and to drag Great Britain in. Keep your eye on them; that is what they did before in 1906, and with some success. We have nothing to do with the California matter, and do not let them mix it up. Another thing, try to get them to remember that when they are dealing with Japan it has nothing whatever to do with the Chinese question or with the question commonly called the Hindoo question -although I do not think there is a Hindoo in it-the question of India and the Sikhs from there. The question of India is a domestic matter for the British Empire only. The Chinese question stands altogether by itself, and must be dealt with individually until there is a government in Pekin that people can deal with. The Japanese government is recognised everywhere as a government that another nation can deal with, and a government that never yet has broken any of its treaties, and therefore one that must be dealt with as they would deal with the government of France or any other country. Keep the issues on this side separate, and keep the governments on the other side separate, and then we shall not have any difficulty. It is too big a question to go into at all closely; but I ask that this should not be allowed to bias anybody's judgment in regard to Japan's action; it is no proof at all that she has any grasping ideas. People say, Isn't she proving it now? She is trying to grab a piece of China. Now what has the Japanese government done? They have said from the beginning if Germany would not relinquish what she got from China, Japan would take it from her. She did that, and included with it the whole of Kiao Chow Bay and the railway concessions depending on it. That is what the trouble is about, whether it included the railway concessions or not, and now China seems to have yielded. Japan will not give that back till the war is over. They have no confidence at all in the President of China, and I do not think anybody has much reason to have confidence in him. Outside of China he is not trusted. In that case it would not be safe to hand that territory back, because it might be sold to another country to-morrow, might be sold to Germany again, or Russia, or the United States, and Japan does not intend that anything like that shall happen until the war is over; and then with the full agreement of her ally Great Britain, and the other allies; what is fair will be done you may be sure. All I shall say in conclusion is that it is the wisdom of Canadians, as well as their high privilege, to make friends, real friends, with our neighbours to the west of us, the island Empire of the East, which resembles in so many respects our own mother country. It is our wisdom to make real friends because when one gets underneath the outer crust of customs, and so on, which are a little different from our own, and when one lives among them, it is astonishing how very much like ourselves they all become. If we make friends with them we shall not then have misunderstandings, and if we make friends with them and a misunderstanding comes up, through a mischief-maker or in some other way, it can be easily settled because we shall know them. Let us make every effort to know one another. A vote of thanks was tendered to the speaker on motion of Mr. Akira Yamauchi, Councillor of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce of Japan, seconded by Mr. S. Ubakata, of Toronto. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA AT THE AN ADDRESS BY NORMAN SOMMERVILLE, M.A. MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,-When you find a lawyer in jail you find him in what many people think is his proper place, and that must have been Stanley Brent's idea when he told you, in introducing me, that I had been in jail in Austria, because he has known of my erring ways from boyhood. When the chairman asked me to speak to you of my experiences in Austria and Germany after the outbreak of war, I thought that by this time it was an old story, that it would be bringing back to you some things that had been told you so often, and that you had read so frequently, that it reminded me of Booker Washington's position on one occasion, when a darky preacher who lived near the Tuskeegee Institute took him down to his congregation to smooth over a difficulty that existed between the pastor and the congregation. Booker Washington says that when he got there he found the trouble was that the pastor was not getting his salary. 'So," he says, "I proceeded to argue with them that the servant was worthy of his hire, that the work must be continued and must be paid for, and I used every argument I could possibly think of, but every argument was met by one of the darkies in the back of the hall saying, ' We ain't gwine ter pay no more salary this year.' Finally, in exasperation I said, 'Tell me, brother, why you won't pay any more salary this year? 'Well,' he said, 'we done gone paid for them same sermons last year." Although the subject may not be new, I trust I may be able to introduce a few sidelights, some things that are commonplaces, but that have been brought forcibly home to me at least enough to interest you in some of the conditions that existed in those countries. Last year was to have been Germany's great year, it was the year of years in which Germany was on exhibition, whether in the field of art, industry, or of commerce. The great exhibition of Cologne was but a sample of the progress and development of Germany along industrial lines; the great exhibition of Leipsic, of the progress in the industrial world of book-binding and printing. The development of this science, and the way in which it had been brought to such a prominent position in Germany, by the work of the masters throughout the ages, just perfected in these recent years, was being shown to an astonished world at Leipsic, one of the grandest exhibitions that had been held on the Continent. In the field of music, at Bayreuth and Munich there were being celebrated and performed the great masterpieces of German musicians. In all the fields of art and science, of industry and commerce, German exhibitions last year attracted more tourists than any previous exhibitions have in any part of the Old World. If one could but get a glimpse within the doors of some of those exhibitions, one could observe the remarkable development that has taken place in Germany during these years. During the last forty years, the development along commercial and industrial lines has been the study of the whole world; it has been the most remarkable development that old Europe has ever seen; and this was exemplified particularly in the field of industrial art at Cologne. In that exhibition, brought to the highest perfection, were the works of the best industrial establishments of Germany. One might take the textile industry and go into the building devoted to silks, and one could find a revelation there as to the great advance that had been made by that country that was so soon to wreck it all and throw it into the melting-pot, for the sake of the ambitions of the ruling classes. In this one building, in one case, one would find a wild canary with its beautiful colourings of yellow and black, and beside it you would find the whole effect of that wild canary carried out in the most gorgeous webs of silk, produced in imitation of the design of the Almighty Himself as seen in the canary. In another case one would find a shell from the South Sea Islands, with its beautiful interlinings of mother-of-pearl, colours of grey and purple and blue making an almost impossible colour to copy, and yet reproduced so perfectly by the imitative art of the German artisan carrying out the colour and effect of that shell, that one almost thought that the shell was lined with the work of the looms. From all parts of the world there had been gathered the works of nature and reproduced by striking imitation in the works of man on the looms of Germany. From the forests of Brazil the most magnificent butterflies, reproduced in colour and design in the most gorgeous silk. The same high development would be found among the workers in gold and silver and bronze, and among the marbles you would find the masterpieces of the past brought from the museums and reproduced in the most perfect way, as a result of the modern development of Germany. When one went throughout the land, one found a prosperity such as Germany had never known. Commercially she never had so much business in all her life. Her overseas trade reached 10,000,000 dollars a day every day of the year. That tremendous overseas trade was reflected in the prosperity, in the splendid position, and in the happiness and comfort of the people, that one saw on all hands. There were no evidences of great poverty, though it existed years ago; no evidences of conditions that existed in Germany not more than fifteen years ago, but everywhere happiness, contentment, peace, and prosperity, so that the materialist might say, Here, indeed, have we reached a position that should continue for all time and nothing should be allowed to interrupt it. But not merely on the one hand was there the magnificent prosperity and development of Germany, but alongside of these peaceful pursuits by which Germany had made such a conquest in the commercial world, there had grown up a cankerworm in the system of the German democracy. As one went from those buildings, one thought, Surely these must be the products of a magnificent type of refined people. What a sad sight it was to go into the streets and find K |