The Holly chieftain., 1923-05-31

also because they feared his Russian
policy would lead to war. So Curzon,
prevented from realizing his greatest
ambition, was compelled to step aside
and Baldwin was offered and accepted
the position.
This, 1t would appear, was fortunate
for Great Britain and gratifying to the
world at large. for Baldwin gives
promise of being more accomplished
and skillful statesman than the AFRO
giant Lord Curzon He Is fairly ac-
ceptable to the Labor party in Eng
land, and certainly his appointment is
pleasing to France, which blames Cur
zon for much of the trouble she has
had in the Ruhr occupation and for the
threatened break with Belgium over
the methods to be pursued there. In
Washington Mr.. Baldwin created de
cidedly favorable Impression by the
way in which he conducted the nego-
tiatlons for the funding of the British
war debt to America. He is pre-
eminently a business man with a
knowledge of finances that was dis
played best by the budget which, as
chancellor of the exchequer, he sub
mitted to parliament not long ago. At
this writing Baldwin has not completed
his cabinet, but 1t is said there will be
few changes. Curzon will remain as
secretary for foreign affairs. Lord
Robert Cecil, protagonlst for the
League Of Nations, will probably be
given a portfolio as chancellor OF the
duchy Of Lancaster.
a S WAS predicted week ago, the
danger of rupture Of relations
between Great Britain and Russia is
fading away. Leonid Krassin presented
to Lord Curzon last Wednesday a note
in which the Soviet government yields
to nearly all the British demands and
says 1t thus yields, not because 1t
thinks 1t was in the wrong, but be-
cause break between the two cOun-
tries would endanger the general peace
by creating basis for 'the aggressive
aims of the militarist elements In most
countries. even independently of the
will of the British government" Prime
Minister Baldwin, 1t may be said, does
not regard the soviets SO unfavorably
as does Lord Curzon.
DOSSIBLY directed by Russian
= agents, the communists in the
Ruhr decided last week that the time
for direct action had come. In Gelsen-
kirchen, after bloody fights with the
police, they seized the police headquar-
ters and hoisted the red flag, and in
Dortmund there was another desperate
conflict. A general strike, nominally
against the cost of food, is in effect in
the Ruhr and is spreading rapidly. In
some towns commissions of control
forced the dealers to reduce prices
Communist leaders say men of all
parties have Joined In the strike. 1t
was asserted by the German press
that these disturbances We're fostered
by the French. To this the French
retorted that their officials at Dussel-
dOrf had knowledge that Moscow had
sent more than 20.000.0OO Swiss francs
to the Ruhr to further the scheme to
create a Soviet republic, and that the
Russians had also sent two shipoads
of wheat for the use of the communists.
The mobs We're organized in units of
100 and were capably commanded. The
French troops refused to interfere in
the fights. Il
FOURTEEN foreigners, Including
six Americans, are still held by the
Chinese bandits of Suchow, and neither
the Peking government nor the for
eign powers seem able to devise a
means for their safe release. Concert
ed action by the latter in the way Of
| direct negotiations with thefoutlaws is
urged. The Chinese troops have been
Withdrawn some miles from the lair Of
the bandits in response to their de-
mands, but the latter are suspicious
and insist that the powers guarantee
that all the pledges Of the government
will be carried out. Majors Pinger
and Allen of the American. army and
Lee Solomon are confined on the sum
NIT of a mountain.
q ENTERTAINING, though really of
- no vast Importance, is the fight
against liberalism that William Jen-
Mngs Bryan and his fellow funda-
mentalists have been putting up In the
Presbyterian general assembly in In
dianapolis. Bryan failed of election
as moderator but was exceedingly
active In the debates. He brought up
his pet bugbear, the Darwinian theory
Of evolution, and offered resoluticS