The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05
DIPLOMATIC SKY
 OF EUROPE CLEAR All the Powers Are Enjoy ing Blessed Peace TROUBLE IN SCHOOLS High School Students Striking for Privileges-Protestants and
 Catholics Are Again
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Berlin, March 4-fSpecial. )-Europe
 is still enjoying all the blessings of a clear diplomatic sky. Peace is reiging everywhere between the powers, the lamb is slumbering peacefully next to the lion and the outlook for the future has never been brighter. Even from Greece no disturbing news is coming, and what we hear about the rising of the Arabs in. Yemen against Turkey is evidently vividly colored by. news thirsty correspondents.
 | Italy is preparing to celebrate her 1 jubilee as a nation and to receive as l her guests most of the crowned heads of Europe during the summer in spite of the protests of the Vatican, which are, however, daily growing weaker, and the pope may even decide to close 1 his eyes to the visits of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and kaiser Wilhelm, whose presence in Rome as representatives of countries most close ly politically allied with Italy, is par ticularly wished for.
 In Portugal, events are evolving mde peacefully than for many weeks, and 1t appears that the young republic has safely passed the danger point and the
 people are beginning to realize that the government must have time to carry
 out the important reforms it has pledged itself to.
 Most important of these is undoubt-
 edly the separation of church and state, and here the republican government is | rtl1 wisdom The minister of foreign affairs, who has drafted the government bill, has as
 sured the people that all creeds will be allowed absolute freedom and will be permitted to maintain special schools in which religion will be taught, sub
 ject to very lenient restrictions by the authorities. The minister promises to give back to the proper owners all property belonging to foreign corpora
 tions coniscated at the time of the revolution or pay full indemnity The council is still considering the election laws which are to contain the following main principle: The full right of suff-
 rage is to be granted to every adult person, able to read and write, and among the illiterate to all heads of
 families and all persons able to prove
 that they make their own living so
 that the right of suffrage will be prac-
 tically universal.
 The ferment in the high schools
 throughout the empire is waxing in | tense The students make two de-
 mands: First, the return of their com rades, of whom some are imprisoned 1 others expelled, and others rusticated | for having taken an active part in 6ls- turbances; secondly. the annulment of | the decree forbidding meetings within Il university precincts. The rector, vice.
 rector and adjoint-rector of Moscow university have rendered their resigna- l tions. The university council have re- auested the government to close the es-
 tablishment until the autumn.
 l Some of the professors at Moscow were obliged yesterday to deliver their l lectures under the protection of the | police; others refused to do so, and left l the university, and few read the lectures under the protection of the door keepers. In many cases the stud
 ents stopped the lectures altogether
 and dispersed professors and listeners
 by filling the apartments with stiflins
 fumes The strikers sometimes entered
 the back door of the lecture hall. IT other cases they smashed the iron 
 doors
 The students of the woman's univer' sity having decreed to strike wer' warned by the rector and professor: that persistence in their resolutio. would entail the closure of the estab lishment for three or four years. Th' professors besought them to revers' decision. and for this purpose organized g. referendum which resulted. at a lat hour last night. in an enormous ma jority for strike. Presumably. th' woman's university will now disap pear for a considerable time.
 This agitation is dlsapproved by tn, conservatives as mutinous, by liberals l as inopportune.
 The storm that threatened to troubl, the relations between Protestantisn i and Catholism in Germany regarding the Modernist oath imposed by the pop has blown over. It was chiefly due t' political intrigue in this country though in part to the pope's devotion
 to tradition The great aim of the DO liticians who are "agin the govern ment' is to break down the conserva tive centrist majority, which at presen enables government to be carried on and consequently any pretext is goo( enough for an attempt to alieniate th centrists. The modernist oath was ei excellent one. for it seriously infringet on the lflpeTldl secular dulnOTlty, dnt the speech of the Prussian minister t the vatican, as reported, seemed t supply the politicians with splendid fue for the flame. The report it now turn out. was not an exact one-the officia explanation is that 1t referred to tn
 past not to the present or future-ant the papal organs have explained ava, ] the Pope's letter to Cardinal Fischer which hinted that the German profes sors would be towards if they did no
 take the oath For the moment, there
 fore, religious Germany is at peac
 again.
 German musicians are much inter ested in the announcement from St Petersburg that the Tsar has commits stoned the composer Ipolitoff-Ivanof and the poet dramatist Kologrgowa
 both of Moscow. to create "jubile
 opera" in commemoration of the forth
 coming 300th anniversary of the founda
 ton of the Roumanoff dynasty. Tn | work is to be an allegorical apothesis O
 the Russian reigning house, based upol
 actual events in the lives and times O its representatives The opera will b
 staged with the lavishness for whici
 the St. Petersburg Imperial oper
 house Is famed. and will be represente
 on the first day of the jubilee cere
 monies. Other Russian cities. notabl
 Moscow, Warsaw. Riga and Odessa wil | ha nermitted to produce the work i'm