New Britain herald., 1919-03-25
EUROPEAN CHANCES
 MANY AND FREQUENT
So Much So That Official Guide
 Is Worthless
Paris. Feb 20 (CorrespOndence

Paris, Feb 20 Correspondence Of the Associated Press. )-The swift march of history which has reduced to waste paper value most of the eN- isting works of reference about Euro 1 pean state affairs, has heen too rapid for the old Almanach de Gotha. In peace times, this compendium of statistical data concerning princes and potentates and their dominions went to press about the end of October, l when it's information was supposed to ] hold good for another year, and It | generally did, barring some coup d'etat or other in South America.
 Now, however. it's issue for 1912, which went to the printers in Decem- Der, is affected in several important respects by sudden developm ments in- VOlving many of the former ruling houses of Europe.
 Amusing to students of Germany's eastern border policy is the naive pre- fatory remark that ''the editors gret that after having prepared three new articles on Finland, Poland and the Ukraine, they were obliged to cancel all three owing to the change in the course of events
 In other words, Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, brother-in-laW of the former German emperor, will never seat himself upon the throne of Finland, and there is to be no Prus- sian predominance in Poland and the Ukraine.
 The downfall of the houses of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg has not caused the compilers Of the Alma mach much racking of brains. The prefix 'ex is apparently held to be sufficient to define the present status of William II. and Charles l., al though the former is still credited win his full 53 titles and the latter is still styled among otherthings King of Jerusalem. Prince of the Trentino and Lord of Trieste
 Much the same treatment is given to the score of German princes and princeings who abdicated. They ap- pear in the almanac as they were but for the "ex."
 Democratic inf1ltration in Germany has set in from the top instead of from the bottom. For although the administrative branches of the Ger man government are filled with the usual array of excellencies, profes- sors and councillors, yet at the head of the government stand the names of Ebert. Scheidemann, Dittmann. Landsberg and Earth. Nobody is supposed to care about their Chris i tian names:
 The German national coIors are still given black, white and red i and the war flag still hlazons the 1 Prussian eagle.
 This year provisional govern ments abound. There is Poland, de- scribed in the almanac as "an an cient kingdom" whose "chief' is ! Gen. Pilsduski. Finland, formerly grand duchy," has no president, but Gen. Mannerheim is the present Ire gent
 The Ukraine is described as "a con- stltutlonal monarchy on a republican basis, with Gen. Skoropadski as Het- man. A. footnote, however, explains that "according to news received De- i cember 15, 1918, the Hetman was ab- dicated and the power is in the hands of a directorate consisting of Win nititshe1ko,. Petliura, Schwetz and Andreievka."
 Russia. or, to give it it's modern 1 name, the "Federativc Socialistic Re 1 public Of Russian Soviets," at whose head Lenine (VIadimir Oulianoff) and i Trotzky Ueon D. Bronst,sin) figure, is | in chaotic state as far as It's inter 1 nal administration is concerned. The ! Almanach enumerates the eleven more or less independent states into | which the enap pire has fallen, as fol- 1. lows Poland, I1thuania, Baltic states (Courland, LiVonia, Esthonia); Fin 1 land, Ukraine, Bessa rabia (occuped by Rumania): Georgia, Northern Cau- 1 casus, territory of the Don and terri { tory of Astrakhan, Turkestan, Si- 1 beria.
 Vanished is the pomp and panoply of the sonorous sounding names of the Russian aristocra,cy that once { filled the higher administrative posts in the old empire. The seven mem bers of the "Council of Commissaries of the People" are imm edia tely fol- ! lowed by the dignitares of the Greek Catholic church. If there are any excellencies or other functionaries or | officials in present day Russia, the ! Almanach does not give them.
 As for the diplomatic corps at Petrograd, all the ambassadors and ministers, except one from Spain, are significa ntly designated as absent"
 One curiosity Is that Albania shares with San Marine the distinction of having a government indicated by blanks