"It was, I think, most unfortunate, from the point of view at least of winning the seat, that the Labour candidate allowed his opponents to select the issue upon which the contest was to be fought. The challenge thrown out by the Liberal candidate and his supporters was eagerly taken up. Socialism versus Anti-Socialism became the rallying cry of the two main parties to the contest. As a Socialist myself I do not regret that this was so, even although I recognise, as I do, that it led to the defeat of the Labour candidate" (p. 64).

Here, again, I think, it is not unjust to say that Mr. Keir Hardie might have been more coherent. How could, or can, a Socialist candidate refuse to accept the challenge of Anti-Socialism? The one alternative-to " "run away and "live to fight another day "-is not likely to find acceptance with Mr. Keir Hardie, at any rate. He was ever a fighter. Then, what can be his meaning? Was Mr. Russell Williams, a confessed Socialist, who had put out an address which was Socialism summarised, to follow the ignominious example of Mr. Foster Fraser in reference to "Tariff Reform," and to declare that he was a Socialist in principle but would not advocate Socialism in this Parliament? Presumably, as Mr. Keir Hardie designates Mr. Williams "the Labour candidate," and differentiates himself as "a Socialist myself," he would have had the Socialism of Mr. Williams discreetly kept in the background. "Tactics, tactics!" It is passing strange to find the Labour leader adopting the perilous rôle which brought Mr. Balfour and the Unionist party to political ruin. After this, it is a mere verbal trifle to ask Mr. Keir Hardie to reconcile his "I do not regret it" with his earlier description of the Labour defeat as "most unfortunate" most unfortunate"; or to select which "moral" he would have us accept as his when he says, within the compass of a single page, that the challenge thrown out by the Liberal candidate-in its "most unfortunate" acceptance by the Huddersfield Socialists, which he "did not regret "-"led to the defeat of the Labour candidate," and then again :

"The moral of Huddersfield is that Liberalism, with all the advantages enumerated above, was not able to hold its own against a Labour candidate who fought practically on a Socialist ticket" (p. 64).

It is, assuredly, a "moral" of Huddersfield which every Liberal and Radical should lay to heart, that, on the showing of Mr. Keir Hardie himself, the advocacy of "Social progress along the lines of Liberal principles, rather than along the revolutionary lines of State Socialism,” won for Mr. Sherwell a victory which must otherwise have gone to the Socialist candidate. It were an easy matter to prove conclusively that Mr. Keir Hardie was perfectly accurate in this single particular, though it shatters all the rest of his elaborate explanation of the Socialist defeat. Public confidence in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and in his readiness and determination to constitute the great democratic majority in this Parliament an instrument of many far-reaching social reforms, was reflected in the Huddersfield result. It says much for the political sagacity of Mr. Arthur Sherwell that he was the first Liberal candidate to legitimately exploit this remarkable measure of national confidence in the Prime Minister and to spike the guns of the Socialists in the effective fashion to which Mr. Keir Hardie has authoritatively testified. A "moral" indeed for the Liberal party at this critical stage in the history of the unexampled majority!

A sentence will suffice to point the third outstanding "moral" of this highly instructive bye-election. The hollowness and hopelessness of "Tariff Reform” had memorable demonstration in the discretionary surrender of the Protectionist candidate to the Free Trade Unionists, with a pledge to banish his fiscal heresies from his obliging mind during the present Parliament "if elected." It says something for party morality that the chagrin with which the Conservative candidate publicly acknowledged his second condign defeat appeared to afford men of all denominations a considerable amount of quiet satisfaction.

HUGH W. STRONG

O

A COMMON OCCURRENCE

NE of the results of the Macedonian reform scheme is that the Turkish army officers are considerably smartened up. Their uniforms are no longer in holes, their horses are admirably groomed, and their swords and accoutrements glitter with polish. As a consequence they are held in greater respect by their men, and the friendly and informal relations which used to exist between them are significantly altered. The captain of the large military escort now obligatory for travellers in Macedonia rides alone in front of his company, while the soldiers follow two and two in regular order. But (as I found when riding through Macedonia last autumn) out of earshot of the Yuz-bashi in front, the stragglers at the back of the company are only too glad, like the genial Turks they are, to exchange ideas and relieve the monotony of the road. It is not wonderful that Europe has little sympathy to spare for the Turkish soldier himself. He is too much connected with the Sultan's Government, and too often the ignorant instrument of that Government. But if he is the Sultan's instrument, he is also his victim, and by no means the victim least to be pitied. Here, at Salonika or Kavalla, for the last four years, are landed week by week some hundreds of troops from Anatolia or Syria. Not knowing for what purpose they are sent, they must garrison a country they dread as unknown and despise as foreign, be quartered among an alien and a hostile race which regards each one of them as its natural enemy, and die, in all probability, for an unknown cause. If they do not die by disease or the sword, they may look forward to no return home, and the love of the Turk for his home and his mother are the strongest virtues in him. In some respects indeed their condition is

improved. Starvation and robbery are not now the sole alternatives before them. They are paid a regular wage of I medjid I cherek (about 4s. 1d.) a month, but recent history shows that 45. id. a month does not quite destroy the pleasures of looting.

pass

"Where

What is your work here?" I ask them, one after the other. "To hunt the komitadji," is the answer. are they?" "In the mountains." "Have you killed many yourself?" "Yes," with pride, "but not in the mountains. Every Christian is a komit. I killed two in that village yonder last month." "And I, four in the before us,' breaks in another, eager to tell his exploits. Why must they be killed?" "They are rebels.' "But then is your devlet (government) good? Perhaps they cannot help being rebels. They shrug their shoulders at that, and smile slyly at each other. "Do you meet the big bands and destroy them?” "No, none know where the big bands are. They are in the forests or the mountains, and they move by night." They do not care much for this subject; they prefer to talk about home. Till the last few years, they tell me, if a man was an only son and his mother a widow depending on him, he would be spared foreign service. Now, so great is the demand for men, all are treated alike. Hassan and Mehmet, fine lads from Broussa in Asia Minor, are in this case. "I came here four years back," complains poor Hassan, "and Allah knows if I shall ever see my mother's face again." "Can you write to her?" "Yes, but she cannot write to me. She never learnt." The thought of Broussa and its glories fills them with rapture. Had I ever seen it, its rushing waters, its roses, its fruittrees? Their Their eyes rest on the barren limestone hills above us. "Ah! Broussa, Broussa! Janem çyqillir (my soul is troubled)," and their voices grow tender and caressing. It is time to change the subject. Why are there so many firenge officers here?" I ask briskly to turn their thoughts. "Allah knows," is the answer with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders. Another, more intelligent, replies, "It is said that they have come to learn." That they have come for any other purpose is evidently not apparent. All foreigners are strange, unaccountable beings, especially the travellers who come to

see this terrible land of Macedonia. A few words of Turkish went a long way towards modifying this idea in my case, and I was flattered, on one occasion when I had ridden ahead of the rest of the party who were dawdling in a village, to hear the officer call out to me "not to leave him alone among these barbarians!"

Perched on the summit of the mountain chain that bounds the great plain of Monastir, and commanding an ample view of river and hill, stands Krushevo, till three years ago the principal health-resort of Macedonia. It is still one of the most picturesque towns in Turkey. The houses with their white-washed walls set off by black beams and projecting upper-storeys, are large and substantially built, and the black forests that rise behind the town supply the touch of romance so often lacking in a limestone country. A closer view, however, reveals the fact that most of the big houses are quite newly built, while others are still in building. The greater number are crumbling away in picturesque ruins, and the gaunt bare walls, with the paper still peeling off them, are riddled with shot or splashed with bulletmarks. It is a chaos of fallen stones and charred wood, and the newly built houses only serve to show off the sea of ruin around them. Three years ago Krushevo had to be pacified." Its finest houses were burnt to the ground, its defenceless walls bombarded by Turkish artillery. The prosperous and peaceable Vlachs whose labour and money had slowly built up the beautiful town, were ruined at one fell blow. Two hundred of the finest remaining houses now stand empty.

But, it will be asked with not unnatural impatience, why hark back to the troubles of 1903? Is not Krushevo being rebuilt, even if the work is slow ? Has not Europe reformed Macedonia ? Is not our trade even now hampered by a three per cent. increase in the customs' duties for the very purpose of financing these reforms? Is not Salonika full of European officers and commissioners and agents and inspectors, all maintained on the spot to see the reforms carried out? A very short journey through the interior of the country, and a stay of a few days in each of the largest towns, provided ample answer to these questions.