Review of the Month

DURING the month of March there was some lifting of the veil, revealing somewhat of the maelstrom in the economics and politics of the world. Great Britain was in throes of political controversy, with threats of resignation by Lloyd George and a general election to ensue. Ireland was uneasy with internecine squabbles. The leaders of the opposing sides have been summoned to London for a conference which Parlia-ment believes offers the only hope of a solution of the present difficulties. France, awakening more and more to grim realities, learned of a budget for 1922 calling for more than 50 billion francs, or nearly one-third of the estimated national production, with the prospect that after this deduction is made there will be nothing left over what is required for the immediate support of the, people, and that on a reduced scale. Germany, although hard at work, found itself coming closer and closer to financial collapse and repeated its intimations that it would be unable to keep up with the provisional payments of 31 million gold marks to the Reparations Commission every 10 days as arranged at Cannes. Russia suffered more acutely from the famine and there were evidences of political insubordination among the Ukrainians. Egypt was in trouble arising from determination to win independence. About the middle of March the complete independence of Egypt was established and that country passed into somewhat the same relation-ship toward Great Britain that Panama has to the United States. At the head of the Adriatic, Fiume came into notice again with disorders threatening to produce conflict between Italy and Jugoslavia. In the Near East there were forebodings of trouble through resumption this spring. of the war between Greece and Turkey.