Chapter VII: Preface: To the Seventh Volume (6)

The character of the Servian monarchy, and the value to the
nation of its king-made Constitution, may be judged from the
following report, May 12, 1903, to the State Department of the
United States Government, by its Minister at Athens, who has
the care of American interests at Belgrade: "The Servian
constitution now in force is that which was granted the
country by King Alexander on April 6-19, 1901. Under this
constitution the influence of the radical party had gradually
increased to such an extent that the King thought it was
dangerous to the welfare of the country. For some time there
were rumors to the effect that a new constitution was in
contemplation and would probably be put into force on the
anniversary of its predecessor. More or less excitement was
caused by these reports, and in consequence the King
determined to act at once.

"On the afternoon of March 24—April 6 last [1903] a royal
proclamation was issued to the Servian people, explaining the
King’s views of the situation, suspending the constitution
referred to above, annulling the ukase of April 6, 1901, and
all subsequent ukases relating to the election of senators,
retiring all the members of the council of state, dissolving
the Skupshtina (national chamber of deputies), annulling the
election of all senators chosen for the period 1901-1906,
annulling various laws relating to the liberty of the press,
the election of deputies, etc., and putting into force certain
laws which had previously been repealed.

"The next morning a second proclamation was issued, putting
the same constitution in force again, and directing the life
senators to elaborate a provisional law for the election of
senators and deputies, who should hold office, respectively,
until September, 1909, and May, 1907.

"The date for the elections has been fixed for the first part
of June. It is considered probable that the Radical members of
the Government (four ministers, I believe) will soon withdraw
from the cabinet."

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1903.
The murder of King Alexander, Queen Draga, her brothers,
and two ministers of state.
The military plot.

King Alexander, who received the Servian crown, as a mere boy,
by the abdication of his father, the erratic King Milan, in
1889, began his reign autocratically, but attempted twelve
years later, to propitiate popular favor by the grant of a
liberal constitution, in 1901.

See, in Volume I. of this work,
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1879-1889.

This failed, however, to win the good will of his subjects,
and he annulled it in April, 1903, with much of the
legislation it had produced. This intensified public feeling
against him, and against his unpopular Queen,—the former
lady-in-waiting at his mother’s court, Madame Draga Maschin.
This marriage in 1900 is related in:

See in Volume VI. of this work
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: SERVIA.

There were fears of an intention to force recognition of Queen
Draga's brother as heir apparent to the crown, and feeling in
the army became especially bitter against both king and queen.
The outcome was an awful tragedy of murder on the night of
June 11, 1903, when a party of officers broke into the palace
and slew, with barbaric ferocity, the King, the Queen, the
Queen’s brothers, the Prime Minister, and the Minister for
War. The following account of the horrible tragedy appeared in
the next issue of _The Contemporary Review:_

"All traces of the midnight carnage in the palace of Belgrade
have been cleared away. The Pretender for whose benefit it was
perpetrated comes in. First proclaimed in the midst of the
still warm corpses, the title of military acclamation has been
ratified by a National Assembly, convened by the Pretorians
almost simultaneously with the massacre to meet three days
after that event, and in the palace where Colonel Maschine and
his lieutenants, acting in the names of outraged national
dignity and social purity, put to shame human nature,
Karageorgevich, whose career as a Pretender in some points
resembles that of Louis Napoleon, accepts the proffered crown.
The telegraphic agencies have informed us that order reigns at
Belgrade, and that Peter I. has entered his capital amid
demonstrations of public joy. The representatives of the Press
of Europe, numbering about a hundred, were, through the
civility of a palace official who witnessed the nocturnal
invasion, taken through the theatre of one of the most
revolting crimes of modern history. They were minutely
informed of the circumstances connected with it, saw the
smashed doors and floors where dynamite tubes had exploded,
the pistol shots in walls and ceilings; the timepieces shaken
by the explosion had stopped at five minutes past one on the
morning of the 12th June. The palace official took them into
the little wardrobe room in which the King and Queen had
hidden themselves, and, when found, met their doom, unshriven,
offering no resistance. …

{45}

"Officers who had studied in the Zurich Polytechnic school
knew how to use dynamite without injury to themselves when
they wanted to break in doors massive as those of a church.
Those who had been told off to cut the electric wires
communicating with lamps had indiarubber gloves. They searched
by the light of composite candles they had brought in their
pockets for the hiding-place of the King and Queen. When they
discovered the fugitives, some of the officers held high the
candles for their comrades to lay on and not spare the
unfortunate pair. There was no attempt to resist. All
Alexander wanted was ‘to die with Draga,’ and this elevated
him into the region of romance. It may hereafter furnish a
theme to Servian bards. Another modern circumstance makes
one’s flesh creep. The bodies, flung out of a window, lay on a
garden walk until dawn, when a soldier received an order to
wash them there with a fireman’s hydrant, and when they had
been cleansed to lay them on the tables of the palace kitchen
for dissection. The surgeons had been requisitioned to come
there at five o’clock. …

"At the post-mortem in the palace kitchen at Belgrade, the
surgeons counted in the body of Alexander six revolver wounds,
each deadly, and forty-two sword wounds. Draga received two
pistol balls and sixty-two sword cuts and slashes. She had
been cut to pieces, but they left her face unmutilated.
And—still more frightful—her corpse bore black and blue marks
that testified to a merciless pounding with strong fists. The
regicides gave so many conflicting accounts of their adventure
that one did not know what to believe. It is now certain that
the King and Queen were defenceless, that they at once on
being aroused by the dynamite took refuge in her wardrobe
room, and that they never sought to escape by the roof, and
did not run through a long suite of rooms, slamming the doors
after them. They had not a moment’s time to utter a prayer.

"Draga’s brothers received a five minutes’ respite to make
their souls. Nicodemus, the eldest, for whom Mademoiselle Pach
mourns in Brussels, asked for cigars and for leave to embrace
his brother. He and Nicholas faced unflinchingly a firing
party, casting away the cigar ends as they stood before a
wall. …

"Colonel Maschine, who figures as the ringleader in the
conspiracy, had been in the inner circle of King Milan, who
thought him a valuable officer. Milan, a man with considerable
ability and without his match in playing an intricate and
difficult diplomatic game, had been educated in his mother’s
fast set in Vienna, and at a Paris lycée. … Military force as
a means of government recommended itself to his barbarous
mind. It may be that he saw in Maschine a man suitable for
_coup d’état_ work. An ostensible reason for taking him
into favour was Maschine’s bravery in the campaign against
Bulgaria and his personal fidelity to Milan, as twice evinced
in saving his life. The partiality of the King buoyed up
Maschine’s hopes of a brilliant military career. Death
overtook Milan, who so often had escaped poison and assassin’s
bullets, on his way to Belgrade, where he was to have set
Alexander aside and remounted the throne. His unexpected
decease blighted the colonel’s prospects, inasmuch as Draga
gained thereby uncontrolled influence over the King. She and
the Maschines had long kept up a bitter feud. Barbarians like
to brood over their grievances, real or imaginary. Colonel
Maschine could not forget or forgive, and his pride prevented
him from trying to propitiate her when she let him know that
he thought her more intractable than she really was. He had
set about the slander that she poisoned her first husband, and
then made believe he committed suicide. This story had been
told by the Colonel to Milan. Alexander, when his father
repeated it to him, called it a ‘machination,’ the name he
ever after gave to slanders and libels that came to his
knowledge about Draga. He refused to hear calumnious tales,
but could not prevent anonymous letters passing into the hands
of his secretary, and spoke of the Court of Russia as being
stupidly turned against his wife by ‘machinations.’ One can
understand from this why Colonel Maschine became the soul of
the horrible conspiracy, and bent his whole mind to carry out
a plan which has succeeded, through his perfect generalship as
to _ensemble_, the minutest attention to details, the
widest prescience, the coolest head and an utter
unscrupulousness."

_Ivanovich,
The Servian Massacre
(Contemporary Review, July, 1903)._

In the same issue of _The Contemporary_, Dr. Dillon
wrote: "A graphic version of one scene of the tragedy, which
was given to me by one of the murderers, Adjutant N., is as
follows:

‘We were wild with passion, trembling with excitement,
incapable of receiving any impressions from the things and
people around us. Hence we cannot say who shot the King in the
head, who in the heart. But I have a vivid recollection of
some things. I remember turning out the electric light and
going to fetch candles to light my comrades on the way. That
done I remained together with them to the end. I remember our
breaking into the King’s bedroom, finding it empty, and then
looking into the Queen’s wardrobe room, where we found the
pair. Who fired first? I don’t know; nobody knows. At first we
did not fire at all. We drew our sabres and cut off the
fingers of the King and Queen; four fingers were hewn from the
King’s hand. Then we fired.’"

_E. J. Dillon,
Servia and the Rival Dynasties
(Contemporary Review, July, 1903)._

The hideous crime which ended the reign of King Alexander
excited horror everywhere except in Servia. There it seemed to
be approved and rejoiced over universally, even the head of
the national Servian Church, the Metropolitan of Belgrade,
officiating at a thanksgiving service and commending the army
for what it had done. Senators and Deputies of the Skupstchina
filled the vacant throne by the election of Prince Peter
Karageorgievitch, descendant of Kara Georg (Black George), the
primary hero of the later struggle of the Servians with the
Turk. King Alexander had been of the house of Milosh
Obrenovitch, founder of the Obrenovitch dynasty, which
supplanted that of Kara Georg.

See in Volume I. of this work,
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
14TH-19TH CENTURIES: SERVIA.

Prince Peter, then in exile at Geneva, accepted the
blood-stained crown, and was welcomed at Belgrade on the 24th
of June. Foreign governments, except those of Russia and
Austria-Hungary, gave no recognition to the new sovereign for
some time; but, said a writer in _The Fortnightly Review_
of the next month, "no thrill of horror has been manifested by
the ‘dear brothers ’ and ‘cousins’ of the royal victims; on
the very day of the holocaust, when the mangled corpses of a
King and Queen were being exposed to the outrages of frenzied
fiends, there was never a pause in the pomp and circumstance
and revelry of European Courts.
{46}
But the ghastly details of the deed have appealed to the
melodramatic instincts of the vulgar, arousing a morbid
indignation throughout every land. What honest person could
fail to be stirred by the story of the conspirators, sitting
over their wine under the verandah of the Srbski Kruna,
uproariously urging the gipsy band to play Queen Draga’s March
before they sallied forth to hack her to pieces with their
swords; by the airy apologies of the baffled murderers when
they roused a citizen for axes and candles, wherewith to track
down their victims in the sleeping palace; by the thought of
the ill-starred young Sovereigns lying in their own gardens,
riddled with bullets, sighing through the small hours for the
long-delayed relief of death? In the pages of ancient or
mediaeval history, even in sensational fiction, such hellish
horrors could not fail to arouse intense emotion; in the cold
glare of the twentieth century they are brought home so
vividly that we are almost eye-witnesses."

_Herbert Vivian,
A ‘Glorious Revolution’ in Servia
(Fortnightly Review, July, 1903)._

A general election in September gave the Radicals a decisive
majority in the Skupstchina, and a Radical Ministry under
General Gruiteh was formed.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1904.
Coronation of King Peter.

King Peter was anointed and crowned with due ceremony, at
Zicha, on the 9th of October, 1904. Representatives of all the
Powers in Europe except Great Britain did honor to the
occasion by their presence; thus condoning the foul crime
which smeared the new King’s crown with blood. The officers
who committed the crime had been dismissed from their palace
posts, but rewarded by military promotion.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.
Attitude toward Austria on the annexation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1908-1909 (OCTOBER-MARCH).

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.
The alleged "Greater Servia Conspiracy."
The Agram Trials.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1908-1909.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1909.
Renunciation of the crown by the Crown Prince.

The following note was addressed to the Prime Minister of
Servia by the Crown Prince, George, on the 25th of March,
1909: "Driven by unjustified insinuations based on an
unfortunate occurrence, I beg in defence of my honour, as well
as of my conscience, to declare that I renounce all claims to
the Throne, as well as any other privileges to which I am
entitled. I beg you to take note of this, and to take the
necessary steps that this action may receive the necessary
sanction. I place my services as a soldier and citizen at the
disposal of my King and Fatherland, ready to give my life for
them.
—George."

The "unfortunate occurrence" alluded to was the death of one
of the Prince’s servants from injuries which the Prince was
believed by the public to have inflicted, as he was reputed to
have a brutal temper.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Servia and Bulgaria: A.D. 1905.
Customs Union Convention.

See above:
BULGARIA AND SERVIA.

----------BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: End--------

BALLINGER, Richard A.:
Secretary of the Interior, United States.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909 (MARCH).

BALLINGER, Richard A.:
Action against Water Power Monopoly.

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.

BALLOONS, Dirigible.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT.

BALTIC FLEET, The Russian:
Its voyage and destruction.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (OCTOBER-MAY).

BALTIC PROVINCES:
Peasant insurrection.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).

BALTIMORE: A. D. 1904.
Destructive fire.

Next to that at Chicago in 1871, the most destructive fire
among the many that have devastated the cities of the United
States occurred at Baltimore on February 7th and 8th, 1904. It
burned for thirty hours, in the heart of the city, the center
of its business, destroying some 2600 buildings and consuming
property to the estimated value of $75,000,000.

BAMBAATA.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: NATAL: A. D. 1906-1907.

BANNARD, Otto T.:

See (in this Volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909.

BARCELONA: A. D. 1902.
General strike and battle with soldiery.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: SPAIN.

BARCELONA: A. D. 1909.
Revolutionary outbreak.
Trial and execution of Professor Ferrer.

See (in this Volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1907-1909.

BARCELONA: A. D. 1909.
Riotous hostility to war in Morocco.

See MOROCCO: A. D. 1909.

BARGE (ERIE) CANAL, The.

See (in this Volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1898-1909.

BARNATO, Harry.
Bequest for cancer research.

See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.

BARRETT, Charles Simon:
President of the National Farmers’ Union.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1909.

BARRETT, John.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS, INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF.

BARRETT, John.
Delegate to Second International Conference of
American Republics.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

BARTHOLDT, Richard.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1904-1909, and 1907.

BARTON, Sir Edmund:
Premier of Australia.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1903-1904.

BAST, The taking of.

See (in this Volume)
PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.

BASUTOLAND:

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1904, and 1909.

BAVARIA: A. D. 1906.
Introduction of direct voting.

See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.

BEATIFICATION OF JOAN OF ARC.

See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1909 (APRIL).

BECHUANALAND: A. D. 1904.
Census.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1904, and 1909.

BECK, Baron.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1905-1906.

BECQUEREL, Henri.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: RADIUM;
also, NOBEL PRIZES.

"BEEF TRUST," The: Investigations and prosecutions by the U. S. Government.

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES:
A. D. 1901-1906; 1903-1906; and 1910.

{47}

BEERNAERT, M.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES

BEHRING, Emil Adolf von.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

BEIRUT:
Joy over the restored constitution of Turkey.

See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D). 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).

----------BELGIUM: Start--------

BELGIUM: A. D. 1870-1905.
Increase of population compared with other European countries.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1870-1905.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1900-1904.
Municipal systems of insurance against unemployment.

See (in this Volume)
POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF: UNEMPLOYMENT.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1902.
Popular opposition to the plural vote.
Demand for constitutional revision defeated.
General strike in the country.

Substantially universal but not equal suffrage is given to the
male citizens of Belgium by the Constitution of the kingdom as
revised in 1893.

See in Volume I. of this work,
CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM.

All have one vote, but certain classes of persons, qualified
by property ownership, tax-payments, education, office-holding
or professional dignity, are given one or two supplementary
votes. Opposition to this political inequality had been
growing from the first, until it united the Socialist and
Liberal parties in a demand for the revision of the
Constitution, not only to abolish the plural suffrage, but to
introduce proportional representation and compulsory
education. The agitation attending this demand brought about,
in April, a general strike throughout the country of workmen
in all departments of industry, to the extent of 350,000. The
Government resisted the demand, maintaining that the system of
plural voting had not been sufficiently tried, and the bill
for constitutional revision was defeated in the Chamber of
Representatives, after a bitter debate, by 84 votes to 64.

The situation was described as follows by Mr. Townsend, the
American Minister to Belgium, in a despatch of April 19:

"The struggle between labor and capital in Belgium has become
extremely acute in the past few years. A large industrial
population, confined to a small superficial area, with long
hours of labor and small wages, have combined to produce a
feeling of discontent among the working classes, who, perhaps
unjustly, blame the existing Government for a condition of
affairs which may be due to economic conditions rather than
political. This is a factor which may be largely responsible
for the rapid growth of Socialism in Belgium during the past
few years. Liberals and Socialists have combined to fight for
universal suffrage, and have raised the cry ‘one man one vote’
as a panacea for the existing ills.

"The Clericals maintain that the existing system of plural
voting meets the present requirements of the country; that it
places a premium on education, and acts as a check to the
power of the ignorant, who are prone to resort to violence and
disorder. The more moderate Liberals in the House of
Representatives expressed a willingness to accept a compromise
in the shape of a total abolition of the triple vote, granting
one vote at 25 years and a second vote to married men of 35 or
40 years, with legitimate issue. The Clericals, however, would
not consider a compromise and opposed revision in any form.

"During the past fortnight, while the debates on the subject
of revision were being held in the House of Representatives,
the socialists and workingmen have held nightly meetings at
the Maison du Peuple, and have frequently paraded the streets
shouting for universal suffrage and ‘one man one vote.’ The
Liberal members, as well as some of the socialist leaders in
the House, have cautioned the paraders to be calm, to avoid
violence and disorder. But the ranks of the paraders have been
swelled by the addition of the representatives of the very
lowest and criminal classes of the population, the result
being a conflict with the police followed by the breaking of
windows and other damages to property. Shots were exchanged
between the gendarmes and rioters, several of the latter being
killed and wounded. Similar scenes were at the same time
enacted in other towns in Belgium, consequently the Government
called out the troops. Order has been restored, but the
streets of Brussels, as well as the large towns, are lined
with soldiers. A general strike has taken place in all the
industrial centers of Belgium, with the avowed object of
forcing the Government to grant universal suffrage, but
without success. The feeling of unrest is very general all
over the country."

_Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of
the United States, 1902, page 85._

BELGIUM: A. D. 1903.
Enactment to compensate workmen for injurious accidents.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: BELGIUM: A. D. 1903.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1903.
Agreement for settlement of claims against Venezuela.

See (in this Volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1902-1904.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1903-1905.
King Leopold’s administration of the Congo State.

See (in this Volume)
CONGO STATE: A. D. 1903-1905.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1904.
Liberal gains in the elections, at the expense of the
Catholics and Socialists.

Belgian elections, in May, reduced the majority by which the
Clericals still retained control of the Government, and took
six seats in the representative chamber from the Socialists,
adding in all nine to the representation of the Liberal party.
The latter continued, with no success, its demand for a
revision of the Constitution, especially for the abolition of
the plural vote, which gives the Church party its majority in
Parliament, while its voters are an actual minority of the
nation.

Belgian feeling on the subject of the charges of brutal
oppression in the Congo Free State was deeply stirred, and its
current ran strongly against the accusers of the King. The
public in general appears to have been fully persuaded that
interested motives were actuating the whole criticism of Congo
administration, and that the stories of inhumanity to the
natives were wholly false.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1906.
At the Algeciras Conference on the Morocco question.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1908.
North Sea and Baltic agreements.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1908.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1908 (October).
Annexation of the Congo State.

See (in this Volume)
CONGO STATE: A. D. 1906-1909.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1909.
New military law.
Compulsory service with no substitution.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: BELGIAN.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1909 (October).
The Government’s programme of reforms in the Congo State.

See CONGO STATE: A. D. 1909 (OCTOBER).

{47}

BELGIUM: A. D. 1909 (December).
Death of King Leopold.
Accession of King Albert.

On the 17th of December, 1909, King Leopold died. He was
succeeded on the throne by Prince Albert, son of his brother,
the Count of Flanders. Of the new King, who was born in 1875,
it was said by The Times, of London: "The happiest
expectations are cherished in Belgium for the new King’s
reign. He has shown, together with his gracious Consort, that
desire to identify himself with the interests of the humblest
of his subjects which we are accustomed to admire among the
characteristic merits of our own Royal Family. He was
naturally precluded by his position from taking any part in
the controversies connected with the Congo, but it may
reasonably be thought that if his uncle’s life had been less
prolonged the constitutional difficulties raised by the ‘Congo
question’ would have been avoided. He is known to have been
painfully impressed by the need of reform during his recent
visit to the colony."

----------BELGIUM: End--------

BELL, Richard:
Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1909.

BENEDICTINES: Forbidden to teach in France.

See (in this Volume)
France: A. D. 1908.

BENGAL: A. D. 1905.
Partition of the Province.

See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1905-1909.

BEQUESTS.

See GIFTS.

BERESFORD, Admiral Lord Charles:
On the "Dreadnought."

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: DREADNOUGHT ERA.

BERKELEY, California:
Perfect example of the "Commission Plan" of Government.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: CALIFORNIA.

BERLIN: A. D. 1903.
Sweeping victory of Socialists in Imperial election.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1903.

BERLIN: A. D. 1905.
Strike in electrical industries.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: GERMANY.

BERLIN TREATY OF 1878, Violations of the.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1908-1909 (OCTOBER-MARCH).

BETHMANN-HOLLWEG, Dr. von:
Appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1908-1909, AND 1909 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

"BIG SIX," The.

See (in this Volume)
Combinations, Industrial: United States: A. D. 1903-1906.
The "Beef Trust."

BIRRELL, Augustine,
President of the Board of Education.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905 (DECEMBER), and 1905-1906.

BIRRELL, Augustine,
Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Proposed Councils Bill for Ireland.

See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1907 (MAY).

BISWAS, Ashutosh, Assassination of.

See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1907-1908.

BITUMINOUS COAL STRIKES.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES.

BJORNSON, Bjornstjerne.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

BLACK HAND, The.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

BLERIOT, Louis.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.

BLIND, Karl:
On the "Young Turks."

See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).

"BLOC," Chancellor Bülow’s:
Incongruous coalition in the German Reichstag.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.

Its break.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1908-1909.

"BLOODY SUNDAY."

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.

BOARDS OF CONCILIATION.

See Labor Organization:
GERMANY: A. D. 1905-1906.

BOBRIKOFF, Governor-General of Finland:
His assassination.

See (in this Volume)
FINLAND: A. D. 1904.

BOER-BRITISH WAR, Last year of the.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.

BOERS, The:
Repatriation and resettlement.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1903.

BOERS, The:
Active in movement for South African Union.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1908-1909.

BOGOLIEPOFF, M.,
Assassination of.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.

BOLIVIA: A. D. 1901-1906.
Participation in Second and Third International Conferences
of American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro.

See (in this Volume)
American Republics.

BOLIVIA: A. D. 1901.
Broad Treaty of Arbitration with Peru.

See (in this Volume)
ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL: A. D. 1902 (NOVEMBER).

BOLIVIA: A. D. 1903-1909.
Boundary disputes in the Acre region with Brazil and Peru.

See (in this Volume)
ACRE DISPUTES.

BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, The Bubonic Plague in.

See (in this Volume)
Public Health: Bubonic Plague.

BONAPARTE, Charles J.:
Secretary of the Navy and Attorney-General.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1909.

BOND, Sir Robert: Premier of Newfoundland.
Negotiation of the Hay-Bond Reciprocity Treaty.

See (in this Volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1902-1905.

BOND, Sir Robert:
At the Imperial Conference of 1907.

See (in this Volume)
British Empire: A. D. 1907.

BOND, Sir Robert:
Resignation and defeat at election.

See (in this Volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.

BONHAM, Captain W. F.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1903.

BONILLA, General Manuel:
Revolutionary President of Honduras.

See (in this Volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1903, and 1907.

BONUS SYSTEM, The.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION: THE BONUS SYSTEM.

"BOODLERS," so called, in municipal government.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

BORSTAL SYSTEM, The.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PREVENTIVE DETENTION.

BOSHIN CLUB.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1909.

BOSNIA.

See (in this Volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

BOSTON: A. D. 1904.
International Peace Congress.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1904.

BOSTON: A. D. 1909.
New plan of city government chosen by popular vote.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

{49}

BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
In the closing year of the Boer-British War.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.

BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
Premier of the Transvaal.
At the Imperial Conference of 1907.

See BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.

BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
Leader in movement for South African Union.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1908-1909.

BOURGEOIS, Leon:
President of the French Chamber of Deputies.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1902. (APRIL-OCTOBER).

BOURGEOIS, Leon:
President of Chamber of Deputies.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1903.

BOURGEOIS, Leon:
Minister of Foreign Affairs.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1906.

BOURSE LAW, German:
Revision of it.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1908.

BOURSES DU TRAVAIL.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: France: A. D.1884-1909.

BOXER OUTBREAK, The:
Penalty paid by China for it.

See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901-1908.

BOXER OUTBREAK, The:
Recurrence of.

See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1902.

BOYCOTTING: In China:
The boycotting of the United States in 1905.

See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.

BOYCOTTING: In India.

See INDIA: A. D. 1905-1906.

BOYCOTTING: In Ireland:
The recent practice.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1902-1908.

BOYCOTTING: In Turkey, of Austrian commodities.

See EUROPE: A. D. 1908-1909 (OCTOBER-MARCH).

BOYCOTTING: In the United States:
By Trade Unions.
Decisions of courts.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.

BRADDON SECTION, The.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1910.

BRANCO, Baron do Rio.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.

BRAUN, Ferdinand.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1901-1902.
Participation in Second International Conference of
American Republics.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1902.
Inauguration of President Alves.

Dr. Rodriguez Alves was inducted in office as President of the
United States of Brazil on the 15th of November, 1902,
succeeding Dr. Campos Salles.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1903.
Settlement of boundary dispute with Bolivia.

See (in this Volume)
ACRE DISPUTES.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1904.
An impromptu Revolt that became a comedy of errors.

"To the American who is under the impression that all South
America is continually in the throes of one or another
revolution it will come as a surprise to learn that this vast
district, comprising one half the territory and almost two
thirds the population of the whole continent, has known no
revolution since the founding of the Republic. The revolts of
1893, 1897, and 1904, menacing in varying degree, were
outbursts fostered by a centralization of national vitality
which inspired the belief in each insurrectionist that it was
but necessary to strike the head,—the body would lie dormant.
The justification of this belief lay in the historical fact
that the vast majority of successful revolts throughout South
America have consisted merely in _coups d'état_. The
masses _have_ lain dormant, and the fighting, if any, has
generally come after the somersault.

"The revolt of November of last year in Brazil was so typical
of South American revolutions, and so elementary, that it
affords a lucid illustration. Owing to the prompt and
efficient measures taken by the government to suppress true
reports of the disturbance, and owing, too, to its signal
failure, this revolt was scarcely mentioned by the American
press. Nevertheless, it missed by little causing international
commotion. …

"A great epidemic of smallpox led the government to require of
Congress a law making vaccination compulsory. Long and heated
debate on the constitutionality of the measure went on, while
the epidemic assumed alarming proportions. The Executive’s
patience being worn out, arbitrary pressure was brought to
bear, and the law passed. This intervention brought down the
general censure of the press, and the opposition seized the
handle with disproportionate avidity. On the eleventh of
November a mass meeting was held in one of the central squares
of Rio Janeiro. … The mounted police broke up the meeting with
the flat of the sword: no lives were lost. On the following
day the scene was duplicated, several people injured, and a
life lost. By night riots had broken out in various parts of
the city.

"Up to the fourteenth of November, revolution was not even
rumored. … Toward evening city and government were genuinely
surprised by the news that General Travassos, who was to have
commanded a battalion in the review, immediately upon the
announcement of its postponement had proceeded to the Military
Academy on the outskirts of the city, and, before the student
body, had demanded of the officer in charge transfer of his
command. Frightened by the attitude of the cadets, the
commanding officer made a puerile protest, and surrendered. He
and his staff were allowed to withdraw, and carried the news
of the revolt to the city. It was soon confirmed: the cadets
were advancing on the President’s palace, under the leadership
of General Travassos. …

"The shortest line of march was along the bay front, and to
repulse the attack were sent by land a battalion of the line
reinforced by police, and by sea two gunboats under the play
of searchlights from an armored cruiser. The cadets marched
under the assurance that no soldier of the line would fire on
them, as the army was back of the movement. … They were met by
an armed force, indistinguishable owing to the destruction of
all the lamps by rioters. The force was the advancing
battalion, and it is generally believed that it fired on the
cadets, mistaking them for the returning body of police which
had followed the water front. Brisk fighting ensued, when
suddenly the cry arose among the cadets that they had been
betrayed, and were attacked by soldiers of the line. They
broke and made a disorderly retreat to the Academy. Almost
simultaneously the soldiers learned their mistake, and that
they had opposed a commanding officer; and they turned in
precipitous flight. General Travassos was mortally wounded in
the engagement. …

{50}

"Meanwhile the detachment of police dispatched from the city
had advanced along the bay front to the stone quarry, where
they awaited the rebels. Drawn up at this spot under close
formation, they were mistaken by the gunboats for the cadets,
and were made the target of a disastrous hail of bullets from
quick-firing guns. Their retreat also was precipitous.

"Such was the comedy of errors which will be known as the
Revolt of 1904. Its net results were a rude but salutary
recall of the government to watchfulness; added prestige
abroad for the government, vouched by a rise in its bonds;
and, most significant of all, spontaneous and immediate
support of the Chief Executive from neighboring states. And
yet the credit was not due to the government, which avowedly
had been caught napping, but to the Goddess of Chance, the
arbiter of every _coup d'état._"

_G. A. Chamberlain,
The Cause of South American Revolutions
(Atlantic Monthly, June, 1905)._

BRAZIL: A. D. 1904.
Settlement of boundary between Brazil and British Guiana.

By the decision of the King of Italy, to whom the boundary
question in dispute between Brazil and British Guiana had been
referred, the line separating the territories of the two
states was defined, as drawn by Nature, along the watershed,
starting from Mount Yakontipu and running easterly to the
source of the river Mahu, thence down that river to the Tacuta
and up the latter to its source, where it touches the boundary
already determined. Both countries to have free navigation of
the rivers in question.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
Presidential Election.

The quadrennial presidential election occurring in Brazil in
the spring of 1906 raised Dr. Alfonso Moreira Penna from the
Vice-Presidency to the Presidency of the Republic, with no
disturbance of its quiet.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
German Colonies.

"Already 500,000 Germans, emigrants and their offspring, are
resident in Brazil. The great majority of them, it is true,
have embraced Brazilian citizenship, but their ideals and ties
are essentially and inviolably German. In the south, where
they are thickest, they have become the ruling element. German
factories, warehouses, shops, farms, schools and churches dot
the country everywhere. German has superseded Portuguese, the
official language of Brazil, in scores of communities. Twenty
million pounds of vested interests—banking, street railroads,
electric works, mines, coffee-plantations, and a great variety
of business undertakings—claim the protection of the Kaiser’s
flag. A cross-country railway and a still more extensive
projected system are in the hands of German capitalists. The
country’s vast ocean traffic, the Amazon river shipping, and
much of the coasting trade are dominated by Germans.

"Over and above this purely commercial conquest, however,
looms a factor of more vital importance to North American
susceptibilities—namely, the creation of a nation of Germans
in Brazil. That is the avowed purpose of three German
colonising concerns, which have become lords and masters over
8,000 square miles of Brazilian territory, an area
considerably larger than the kingdom of Saxony, and capable of
dwarfing half-a-dozen German Grand Duchies. It is the object
of these territorial syndicates to people their lands with
immigrants willing to be ‘kept German’—a race of transplanted
men and women who will find themselves amid conditions
deliberately designed to perpetuate ‘Deutschthum,’ which means
the German language, German customs, and unyielding loyalty to
German economic hopes."

_F. W. Wile,
German Colonisation in Brazil
(Fortnightly Review, January, 1906)._

"The talk about German exploitation of Brazil for colonization
purposes is pure buncombe. The writer has visited the southern
Brazilian provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, and
Parana, where most of the Germans reside, and he has seen no
more reason for Brazil to fear ulterior purposes on the part
of Germany than has the United States because Germans form a
large percentage of the population of New York, Chicago, and
Milwaukee. The Germans make excellent Brazilian citizens,
while loving the Fatherland from association and respecting
the Emperor for his great personality."

_John Barrett,
The United States and Latin America
(North American Review, September 21, 1906)._

See (in this Volume), also,
GERMANY: A. D. 1904.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
Third International Conference of American Republics
at Rio de Janeiro.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1907.
Adoption of obligatory military service.

By a law enacted in 1907 military service was made obligatory.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1908.
Dreadnought building.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1908-1909.
Increasing immigration.

See (in this Volume)
IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1909.
Frontier agreements and demarcations.

The Message of President Penna to Congress, May 3, 1909,
contained the following announcements:

"On September 15 last, a treaty between Brazil and Holland was
finally approved at The Hague, to determine the limits of our
frontier with the Colony of Surinam or Dutch Guiana. The
demarcation of the new frontier line between Brazil and
Bolivia in Matto Grosso is now completed, and awaits only the
approval of the two Governments interested. The same mixed
commission to which was intrusted this survey will now proceed
to reconnoitre the head-waters of the Rio Verde. The
Government of the French Republic proposes the appointment of
a mixed commission for the demarcation of the common boundary
established on December 1, 1900, by arbitration of the Swiss
Federal Council. An agreement will shortly be arrived at with
Great Britain to determine the frontier of Brazil with British
Guiana."

BRAZIL: A. D. 1909.
Death of President Penna.
Accession of the Vice-President.

Dr. Alfonso Penna, President of Brazil, died suddenly on the
14th of June, 1909, and was succeeded in the office by the
Vice-President, Señor Nilo Pecanha, who will fill out the
presidential term, ending November 15, 1910. Meantime an
active canvass of candidates for the succeeding term has been
in progress, the names most discussed being those of General
Hermes de Fonseca, Baron Rio Branco, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and Señor Ruy Barbosa, a prominent advocate.

----------BRAZIL: End--------

BRENNAN MONO-RAIL SYSTEM.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION: RAILWAYS.

BRIAND, Aristide:
in the Ministry of France as Minister of Public
Instruction and Public Worship.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1906.

{51}

BRIAND, Aristide:
Prime Minister of France.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (JULY).

BRIAND, Aristide:
On the French secular or neutral schools and the clerical
attack on them.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1909.

BRENT, Bishop:
Service on International Opium Commission and on
Philippine Committee.

See (in this Volume)
Opium Problem.

BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA:
Its parts suitable for European Settlement.

See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.

BRITISH COLUMBIA: A. D. 1901-1902.
Census.
Increased representation in Parliament.

See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.

BRITISH EAST AFRICA:
Its habitability by whites.

See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.

----------THE BRITISH EMPIRE: Start--------

THE BRITISH EMPIRE:
A Census of the Empire.

In March, 1906, a "Census of the British Empire"—the first
ever undertaken—was published as a Parliamentary Blue Book.
Its preparation had been proposed by Mr. Chamberlain, who
suggested, while Colonial Secretary, that the figures of the
census of the United Kingdom in 1901 should be collated with
those of other portions of the empire, to be analyzed,
tabulated, and published as a whole. A full realization of the
plan of collation had been found impracticable, owing to the
wide differences of circumstance and of the forms of
census-taking in different parts of the Empire; but many
summings up of highly interesting and important facts were
obtained.

The territory covered by the British Empire was shown to be
11,908,378 square miles, being an increase of 40 per cent.
since 1861, and embracing more than a fifth of the land
surface of the globe. This exceeds the area of the Russian
Empire (European and Asiatic) by more than three millions of
square miles. It is nearly three times the area of the Chinese
Empire, and more than three times that of the United States
and their exterior possessions. An exact count of population
in all regions of the Empire was impossible, but the estimated
total is 400,000,000, of which 300,000,000 is assigned to Asia
and 43,000,000 to Africa. The United Kingdom contains
41,500,000, British America 7,500,000, Australasia, 5,000,000,
the Mediterranean possessions 500,000, and there are 150,000
in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Classified by
religion, there 208,000,000 Hindus, 94,000,000 Mohammedans,
58,000,000 Christians, 12,000,000 Buddhists, and 23,000,000 of
other religions—Parsees, Confucians, Jews, Sikhs, and Jains,
over whom Edward VII. of England reigns as Emperor or King.
His Asiatic subjects alone are three-fourths as many as the
Emperor of China is supposed to rule, and considerable more
than twice the number that live within the whole sweep of the
scepter of the Tsar.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1902.
Conference at London with the Prime Ministers
of the self-governing Colonies.
Address of the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain.
Results of the Conference.

Taking advantage of the presence in London of the Prime
Ministers of the various self-governing colonies of Britain,
on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII., a
Conference with them, touching questions of general interest,
was arranged by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr.
Chamberlain, in meetings which extended from June to August,
1902. The proceedings were confidential, and no report of
discussions made public; but the resulting resolutions,
together with the opening address of the Colonial Secretary,
and certain statements on subjects considered, are printed in
a Parliamentary paper (Cd. 1299) from which the following
account of the Conference is derived:

Mr. Chamberlain in his address argued strongly and with
feeling for a political federation of the Empire. He said: "I
may be considered, perhaps, to be a dreamer, or too
enthusiastic, but I do not hesitate to say that, in my
opinion, the political federation of the Empire is within the
limits of possibility. I recognize as fully as any one can do
the difficulties which would attend such a great change in
our constitutional system. I recognise the variety of
interests that are concerned: the immense disproportion in
wealth and the population of the different members of the
Empire, and above all, the distances which still separate
them, and the lack of sufficient communication. These are
difficulties which at one time appeared to be, and indeed
were, insurmountable. But now I cannot but recollect that
similar difficulties almost, if not quite as great, have been
surmounted in the case of the United States of America. And
difficulties, perhaps not quite so great, but still very
considerable, have been surmounted in the federation of the
Dominion of Canada. … We have no right to put by our action
any limit to the Imperial patriotism of the future; and it is
my opinion that, as time goes on, there will be a continually
growing sense of the common interests which unite us, and
also, perhaps, which is equally important, of the common
dangers which threaten us. At the same time I would be the
last to suggest that we should do anything which could by any
possibility be considered premature. We have had, within the
last few years, a most splendid evidence of the results of a
voluntary union without any formal obligations, in the great
crisis of the war through which we have now happily passed.
The action of the self-governing Colonies in the time of
danger of the motherland has produced here a deep and a
lasting impression. … I feel, therefore, in view of this it
would be a fatal mistake to transform the spontaneous
enthusiasm which has been so readily shown throughout the
Empire into anything in the nature of an obligation which
might be at this time unwillingly assumed or only formally
accepted. The link which unites us, almost invisible as it is
sentimental in its character, is one which we would gladly
strengthen, but at the same time it has proved itself to be so
strong that certainly we would not wish to substitute for it a
chain which might be galling in its incidence. And, therefore,
upon this point of the political relations between the
Colonies and ourselves. His Majesty’s Government, while they
would welcome any approach which might be made to a more
definite and a closer union, feel that it is not for them to
press this upon you. The demand, if it comes, and when it
comes, must come from the Colonies. If it comes it will be
enthusiastically received in this country.

{52}

"And in this connection I would venture to refer to an
expression in an eloquent speech of my right honorable friend,
the Premier of the Dominion of Canada—an expression which has
called forth much appreciation in this country, although I
believe that Sir Wilfrid Laurier has himself in subsequent
speeches explained that it was not quite correctly understood.
But the expression was, ‘If you want our aid call us to your
councils.’ Gentlemen, we do want your aid. We do require your
assistance in the administration of the vast Empire, which is
yours as well as ours. The weary Titan staggers under the too
vast orb of its fate. We have borne the burden for many years.
We think it is time our children should assist us to support
it, and whenever you make the request to us, be very sure that
we shall hasten gladly to call you to our councils. If you are
prepared at any time to take any share, any proportionate
share, in the burdens of the Empire, we are prepared to meet
you with any proposal for giving to you a corresponding voice
in the policy of the Empire. And the object, if I may point
out to you, may be achieved in various ways. Suggestions have
been made that representation should be given to the Colonies
in either, or in both, Houses of Parliament. There is no
objection in principle to any such proposal. If it comes to
us, it is a proposal which His Majesty’s Government would
certainly feel justified in favourably considering, but I have
always felt myself that the most practical form in which we
could achieve our object would be the establishment or the
creation of a real council of the Empire, to which all
questions of Imperial interest might be referred, and if it
were desired to proceed gradually, as probably would be our
course—we are all accustomed to the slow ways in which our
Constitutions have been worked out—if it be desired to
proceed gradually, the Council might in the first instance be
merely an advisory council. But, although that would be a
preliminary step, it is clear that the object would not be
completely secured until there had been conferred upon such a
Council executive functions, and perhaps also legislative
powers, and it is for you to say, gentlemen, whether you think
the time has come when any progress whatever can be made in
this direction."

Turning naturally from this to the subject of imperial
defence, Mr. Chamberlain gave the substance of a paper which
would be submitted to the Conference, exhibiting comparatively
the naval and military expenditure of the United Kingdom and
of the different self-governing colonies. The cost of the
armaments of the United Kingdom had increased enormously since
1897, and "that increase," he said, "is not entirely due to
our initiative, but it is forced upon us by the action of
other Powers who have made great advances, especially in
connection with the Navy, which we have found it to be our
duty and necessity to equal. But the net result is
extraordinary. At the present moment the estimates for the
present year for naval and military expenditure in the United
Kingdom—not including the extraordinary war expenses, but the
normal estimates—involve an expenditure per head of the
population of the United Kingdom of 29s. 3d. per annum. In
Canada the same items involve an expenditure of only 2s. per
head of the population, about one-fifteenth of that incurred
by the United Kingdom. In New South Wales—I have not the
figures for the Commonwealth as a whole, but I am giving those
as illustrations—and I find that in New South Wales the
expenditure is 3s. 5d.; in Victoria, 3s. 3d.; in New Zealand,
3s. 4d.; and in the Cape and Natal, I think it is between 2s.
and 3s. Now, no one, I think, will pretend that that is a fair
distribution of the burdens of Empire. No one will believe
that the United Kingdom can, for all time, make this
inordinate sacrifice. … I think, therefore, you will agree
with me that it is not unreasonable for us to call your
serious attention to a state of things which cannot be
permanent. We hope that we are not likely to make upon you any
demand that would seem to you to be excessive. We know
perfectly well your difficulties, as you probably are
acquainted with ours."

The speaker passed next to the question of commercial
relations between the mother land and its colonies. "Two
salient facts" he set with emphasis before his colonial
audience. "The first is this. That if we chose—that is to say,
if those whom we represent chose—the Empire might be
self-sustaining. It is so wide; its products are so various;
its climates so different, that there is absolutely nothing
which is necessary to our existence, hardly anything which is
desirable as a luxury, which can not be produced within the
borders of the Empire itself. And the second salient fact is
that the Empire at the present time, and especially the United
Kingdom—which is the great market of the world—derives the
greater part of its necessaries from foreign countries, and
that it exports the largest part of its available produce
—surplus produce—also to foreign countries. This trade might
be the trade, the inter-imperial trade, of the Empire. It is
at the present time, as I say, a trade largely between the
Empire and foreign countries. Now, I confess, that to my mind
that is not a satisfactory state of things, and I hope that
you will agree with me that everything which can possibly tend
to increase the interchange of products between the different
parts of the Empire is deserving of our cordial encouragement.
What we desire, what His Majesty’s Government has publicly
stated to be the object for which they would most gladly
strive, is a free interchange. If you are unable to accept
that as a principle, then I ask you how far can you approach
to it? If a free interchange between the different parts of
the Empire could be secured it would then be a matter for
separate consideration altogether what should be the attitude
of the Empire as a whole or of its several parts towards
foreign nations? …