Evening Star Newspaper, January 5, 1930, Page 29

ICELAND VISITORS TO SEE LAND REBORN IN 25.YEARS Millennium Celebration This Year to Note Emergence From Middle Ages Into Modern Day. BY EARL HANSON. CELAND'S celebration this year, to which the United State: delegates, will not only mark the thousandth anniversary of the es~ tablithment of Iceland’s Parliament, but it will also punctuate the amazing physical and economic progress that the kingdom has made in the last 25 | years. It will constitute a sort of chronological monument to & small na- tion’s emergencey from the middle ages into our modern day. It is & curious fact that, although the Icelanders never once in their history were out of touch with the intellectual | status and achievements of the rest of the world, they fell so far behind in other ways that 25 years ago they | could still be considered slumbering in the middle ages so far as living condi- tions and physical appointments were concerned. I have before me a newspaper article that was published throughout the United States in 1885—written by my | father while on a walking trip through the island of the sagas. It gives in part a description of “a typical - Icelandic kitchen, just such as will be found in houses, good and poor over all the land, a few exceptions being the better ones in the towns and the main difference ‘being one of cleanliness.” “Upon low walls of alternate layers of stones and sod rested the irregular roof, | constructed of driftwood, lumber, whales’ | ribs, flat stones—anything in fact which | would serve to support the thick outer covering of growing turf. The floor of earth was brought out in rude mosaic by the fish bones and other substances which had been trodden into it, and from various other signs it was evident that the apartment was never swept. In a small alcove a slow fire of peat burned upon a heap of stones and the kettle suspended over it probably con- tained mutton and turnips, this being the seazon in Iceland when such things are ripe. Hole Supplies Ventilation. “All light was admitted by a small window at each end of the room and ventilation was secured by a hole in the roof, through which some of the smoke was actually crowded out. Upon a shelf stood a large collection of the curiously carved wooden bowls with covers from which the Icelander eats his porridge of soup, while in the corners and along the sides of the room ‘was a promiscuous accumulation of ar- ticles such as bits of iron, rags, sticks, pieces of board and scraps of leather. These things all came in handy in the | course of the year and it would be poor economy to throw them away. Upon all convenient ledges or projections | Tested the brown flat cakes which are left to accumulate solidity and flavor b-fore being toasted and eaten.” In 1927 1 visited the same farm that my father described and that had been exactly as he described it for centuries. Instead of walking to it, however, as he did, over miles of narrow bridle paths —or riding to it, as he might have done | if he hadn’'t been “a crazy American” ; who preferred to travel on foot in n, country where horses were supreme among methods of locomotion and where ‘walking was hardly considered genteel, I rode in a truck that carried farm procuce and mail over a modern auto- mobile road. ‘The old sod and stone farmhouse that he described—crowded, dirty, badly ven- tilated—had been torn down and in its place stood a modern two-story con- | crete houre that was less picturesque | than its predecessor. but certainly far more roomy and hygienic. After the customary greetings were oves d all the numerous questions had been asked with which the visiting trav- eler is always plied—questions about the size of houses in America, the manu- | facture of nails, the price of fish in Spain—about everything under the sun ~—my host showed me his radio set. Receives Weather Reports. | ‘What did_he get over it? Music? | Sales talks? “Education? No. The Ice- lanciic farmer is about as self-sufficient as anybody in the world so far as amusements lr]el eo;lcemed.‘hfie has ?& radio_principally for weather repo that help him to conduct his business, allow him to plan seed time and har- vest. This particular man and his friends were interested at the time of my visit, in the distance the Arctic ice ‘was away from the north coast. Eight- een miles. 20 miles, 22 miles—they had been listening to daily reports and fol- lowing them as breathlessly as we fol- low base ball scores. There was no disorder in the we]l’ scrubbed kitchen and the cooking was | done with imported coal, burned in an | American stove. Except for its new- | ness and the absence of any signs of distinctive architectural style (Icelandic building _traditions were developed through the use of native materials and are hardly applicable to a new medium like cement), the house bore a strong blance to the better class of farm Touses throughout the Western World— | in_America, Germany, Scandanavia. | What happened on that particular farm has happened, and is happening, on hundreds of farms throughout the 1and. The old, picturesque, typically Ice- landic form of homestead is disap- aring. p’floln‘n and living conditions have a | Fabit of changing everywhere, but sel- dom have we seen such a remarkable revolution as is taking place in Iceland today. For the changes in farmhouses zimply form one item in a long list—one phenomenon in an endless number of changes that are doing away with the physical Iceland that my father knew and introducing the modern Iceland that this year will celebrate the mil- lennium of its Parliament. Control Own Affairs. The Icelanders have at last obtaihed econtrol of their own affairs, and they | are energetically setting about to rem- edy the conditions that 150 years ago aimost brought about their extermina- tion. A century and a half ago they were subjects of Denms d their country was held in the grip of a viclous trade monopoly that practically strangled all | foreign commerce. they were thrown on their own re- sources, and these were pitifully few in number. They had no timber, no coa!, no metals of their own. They could fish and raise horses, sheep and cows, but their vegetable products consisted of turnips and hay, to which later were added potatoes. | Except in_the towns, where houses were often built of imported lumber, their building materials consisted of sod and stone, whalebone and driftwood. with an occasional precious plank or two that had been packed for miles on pony back. The lack of fuel made for crowding and bad ventilation. Whole families, servants and all, slept in one small room, every opening to which was chinked to prevent the escape of pre- cious heat. And with these conditions of isolation and supply, the Icelanders were wide open to all forms of natural calamities. Epidemics and famine raked them time and aga‘n. Earthquakes lald wasie their houses and flelds, and the lack of roads prevented the sending of relief from one district to another. Through a century and a half of struggle, the Icelanders succeeded first in having the trade monopoly lifted. then in achieving home rule, and lastly, in 1918. in getting complete independ- ence. Their country today is a sover- e'gn kingdom, entirely independent of the Danish state and joined to Den- mark only in the person of a common King, who reeeives two salaries for be- qing King of Denmark and Iceland, just as many Americans recelve separate Tacking imports, | NOthIng unusual in Ainding an old sod salaries for being presidents of various independent companies. . ' ‘The Icelanders today, only 100,000 in number, are faced with the problem of building a modern nation out of an old run-down colony that for centuries had lain in the North Atlantic; away from | the trade lanes of the world, often hardly able to survive, clinging to fis literary traditions with a fierce love that almost amounted to desperation and dreaming tgms(ll’“ly of the Viking | | days of its past glory. : The many hundreds of tourists who will flock to this year's celebration will still be able to see much that is “quaint” and out of date—substanitally as it was two or three centuries ago-—but they will see far more that is new, modern, product of the energetic work of a re- awakened people. From Reykjavik, a modern capital with office buildings, moving picture houses and cosmopolitan cafes, they will be able to telegraph or telephone fo al- most any farm on the island—a thing that was impossible before 1906. They will be able to drive in an automobile almost half way around the country where a few years ago they would have been forced to walk or spend weeks in the saddle. They will be able to fly to any point on the island in one of th two planes operated by the Icelandic Aviation Co. in conjunction with the German Lufthansa. They will see har- | bors teeming with ships from various European ports and Icelandic trawl steaming to the fishing grounds whers 20 vears ago they would have seen few small sailboats and many open row- | boats. They will receive news from America and Europe by radio and see farmers in century-old houses ana- | chronistically listening to broadcast mu- | sic, weather reports, political arguments, | the latest developments in the scheme for harnessing the country’s water power and furnishing electric light and heat | to every farmer in the land. And they will see almost as many con- | crete buildings in the rural districts as sod and stone houses—perhaps more, for | tourists have a habit of sticking to the beaten track. ! In few places in the world can we see such a splendid example of the end- less chain of improvements that a few automobiles and a few miles of road bring about. Luxuries Become Necessities. ‘When Icelandic farmers found roads replacing the old pony trails that had served them for centuries they discov- ered that they could get a number of things that had been out of their reach before. Cement,, lumber and coal not only could be bought, they also could be transported. Foreign clothes to replace the old-fashioned hom!s?un could be obtained at not too prohibitive a cost. Fruit, canned goods and foreign f were available. And with the avail- ability of these things the farmer’'s de- sire for them grew. The imported objects that at first were Juxuries soon became necessities— with that relentless habit that luxuries have. The farmer obtained them in ex- change for his produce, and as his needs grew the output of his farm was forced to grow. Aided by the country’s numberless farmers’ co-operative societies no less than by the newly established govern- ment agricultural stations, he began to improve his working methods. He intro- duced foreign fertilizers and machinery, He began to experiment with exotic vegetables—tomatoes, lettuce, :elmch— thirgs that no power on earth could have rammed down his own gullet but that were appreciated in the towns and by those queer travelers whose food prejudices were less restrictive than his own. A friend who visited Iceland recently found that several farmers had very successfully grown a number of 'vege- tables from seeds a German traveler had given them the year before—vege- tables that had previously been consid- ered absolutely unsuited to the Ice- landic climate and soil. My friend and his wife had to demonstrate not only how these foods should be prepared, but how they should be eaten and relished as well, ‘The latter demonstration proved an absolute failure s0 far as any effect on the audience was concerned. Living up to Stefansson’s principle that the readiness with which people take to strange foods is in direct proportion to the variety of foods they are already accustomed to, the rural Icelanders, with their limited diet. looked with hor- rified suspicion on any innovation. Farmers Export Food. Not only are the farmers importing | food, they are exporting it as well. The fertile lands of southwestern Ice- | land are today beginning to export splendid butter and cheese to England. This course of events, in a varying degree, took place wherever the auto- mobile roads reached—and to some ex- tent in the isolated districts as well. | And it had a marked influence on the other activities of the country. By stimulating foreign trade, which today is higher per inhabitant in Iceland | than in any other country in the world, it had its contributory effect on ship- ping and harbor works, the construc- tion of lighthouses, the nation’s foreign policy. Iceland’s policy toward her foreign trade, like that of every other coun- try, must be concerned principally with the maintenance of a favorable balance of trade through the increase of ex- ports or the decrease of imports, or both. For years the Icelanders have been convinced that they had to im- port the majority of fhings needed to sustain civilized life. On the whole they seemed to be right, but lately they have discovered that there are items in the 1ist of imports that can be cut down to_a great degree. Take coal as an example. Most of the coal used in the world is burned for the purpose of heating water. Only lately have the Icelanders realized the full significance of the fact that Na- ture, ile neglecting to furnish them with adequate fuel. did give them un- limited amounts of hot water. A number of public buildings throughout the land are today heated by the simple method of piping hot springs into radiators, and there is or stone farm house heated by the most modern means—with the additional ad- vantage to the farmer that he has no fuel bills and no ashes to bother with. And irrigation with the water from hot sorings—irrigation for warmth rather than moisture—is more than doubling the size of the potato crop for many a farmer. The hot springs laundry outside of | Revkjavik snd the warm water munici- pal swimming pool are old sights to tourists, but few are aware of the scheme, now being discussed, of heating that whole city of 22,000 inhabitants with natural hot water. When the scheme was first proposed it was con- sidered hair-brained and visionary, be- cause the nearest adequate springs were 25 miles away. objection has been overcome. Through water as we drill for oil, enough of it was found in the immediate outskirts of Reykjavik to fill the radiators of a | city more than double its size. Blessed With Water Power. If nature was bountiful with volcanic | heat in Iceland, she was doubly bounti- ful with water power. Ufwnd of 4,000,- 00 horsepower is easily and cheaply available in the island, and its dis- Lately, however, this | . the simple process of drilling for hot | oo THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 35, 1930—PART TWO. Industry’s Dramatic Decade Amazing Developments in Science and Communication Lend Drama to Business BY DR. JULIUS KLEIN, Assistant Secretary of Commerce. HE 10-year period which came to close on Tuesday night might be called the “Dynamic Decade of Business History.” It was all of that—and a good deal more! ‘To continue the alliteration, one might also describe it as truly dramatic. It was conspicuous for the startling, fan- tastic succession of striking episodes with almost theatrical “suspense inter- est” throughout business, both geo- graphically and by commodities and pursuits. As we reach another decade milestone it might be well to look back over the highway which the economic world has traversed since it emerged from the dark abyss of the post-war currency and unemployment debacle. It has been a journey of sudden turns, unex- BY HENRY W. BUNN, HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended January 4: THE BRITISH EMPIRE.—On December, 31, at Lahore, the Indian Na- tional Congress passed, only 6 of the 2,000 delegates dissenting, a resolution demanding the immediate concession by Great Britain to India of complete in- dependence and vesting the executive committee of the congress (numbering about 300) with authority “to launch” (I use the language of the Associated Press dispatch), “whenever it thinks the time ripe, a program. of civil disobedi- ence, including non-payment of taxes and similar resistance to British rule.” Further, it call on Nationalist members of the Central and Provincial Legis- latures to resign, and proclaims a boy- cott of those bodies. And it states that “no good purpose could be served” by Indian participation in the proposed round-table conference -in London to discuss constitutional reforms for India. Though the situation created by the Indian Nationalists is serious enough, | obviously it is not as serious as some | alarmists have given out. The pro-| gram of civil disobedience is not ordered into effect, but only threatened, and it | is to be observed that the Nationalists represent only a part of Indian senti- ment; how large a part it remains to see. The resolution does not declare the connection with Great Britain sev- ered does not call for establishment of a parallel government. The same day the Indian National Liberal Pederation, meeting at Madras, resolved that the true rallying cry for uniting all interests of India was do- minion status, not as a distant goal or ideal, but “to be achieved within the shortest possible time.” “Believing that the British Labor government and Vice- roy Lord Irwin are earnestly seeking an acceptable solution to the constitutional problem, we should be guilty of utter shortsightedness and lack of statesman- ship if we falled to seize this oppor- tunity.” As on the one hand we should not be too much alarmed by the Nationalist moves, 50 on the other the compa tive moderation of th= Liberals should not be allowed to arouse false hopes. Apparently the Liberals are for forcing matters more rapidly than Britain will allow or than would be for the best interests of India. The -military forces in India com- pris> 45,000 British and 120,000 Indian troops, most of them on the northwest frontier. It may scarcely be doubted that the 40 Nationalist members of the Central Legislature at Delhl will resign in obedience to the Lahore decree, but a good deal of doubt is felt as to similar compliance by Natlonalist members of the sundry provincial legislatures, ‘The population of India is about 320,- 000,000. The British authorities are apt’ to figure that about 170,000,000 of these may be considered unsusceptible to the Nationalist propaganda; includ- ing -the 70,000,000 Mohammedans, the 30,000,000 “untouchables,” the 70,000,~ 000 inhabitants of the states ruled by Indian princes, and the 3,000,000 Sikhs. Of the remaining 150,000,000 or so only about 5 per cent are literate. But let us assume (a very large assumption) them all, illiterate, as well as literate, to be interested in the issues, to obey the orders either of the Nationalist or of beral Hindu leaders. How many, are Nationalists? How many There seems to be little doubt that the proposed round-table conference, to include representatives of Great Brit- ain, representatives of British India and representatives of the states ruled by Indian princes, will be held in Lon- don within the next few months, even though the vepresentation from British India should not include Hindu Na- tionalists. The very important report of the position is hotly discussed at every ses- sion of the Parliament. Perhaps this enormous power will soon he put to di- rect use for industry—for converting ni- trates into fertilizers, or evein for mak- ing flour out of the Canadian whest Afries (Contiaued on Sixth #Fage. ‘engaged Simon commission will be submitted to the Westminster Parliament shortly after its reconvening late in January. ‘The Prince of Wales left England fi | planation may be forthcoming.) It 3 in such & trip about & year IN pected situations and extremes of vari- ation. Indeed, no similar period of recorded economic history can show quite such abruptly profound alterations of the course of significant evenis and phases. These are the days when droning swarms of soporific statistics swoop out upon our defenseless citizenry from the ?r‘e'eu of every daily paper. The care- prophet is having his innings. He can “speak freely” because nobody has been in those realms of tomorrow which he describes with such nonchalant as- surance. But instead of peering darkly into the mysterious future it might be helpful if we look back upon the obsta- cles that have just been overcome, which is sometimes a good way to pre- pare for those that lie ahead. Suppose we level our glanges, not through the restricted, albeit precise, devices of the statisticlan “surveyor,” but rather at a , he was summoned home because ;fot.he dangerous illness of the King. * ok % % FRANCE.—For France, economically, the year 1920 was “roses, roses, all the way.” Or almost. Production in almost every category notably increased. Home trade boomed, unemployment was prac- tically non-existent, revenues greatly exceeded estimates and previous years’ records. The Bank of France continued almost uncannily to improve its posi- tion. ‘When I said “almost” I was thinking of the foreign trade, and a little of the marked decline in the total spent by American tourists. The visible foreign trade balances of the first six months were 50 greatly adverse as to cause some uneasiness, but this faded before analysis. The large increase ?r imports was explained by increase of demand for raw materials of manufacture in satisfaction of the home market, and the slight decrease of export was sim. flarly explainable by the domestic vo- raciousness, and from July to October, inclusive, the balances improved pro- gressively, the October balance being adverse by the merest trifie. (The No- vember balance, just reported, shows some recession, but a satisfactory ex- To be sure, the improvement is attributable not to permanent causes, but to na- ture’s whimsical bounty. The wheat harvest was magnificent, suspending wheat importation for a twelvemonth. Economically, it was a splendid year, with the omens favorable. The year saw consummation of the agreements providing for funding the war debts of the Prench to the British and the United States governments, and it saw (or let us so hope) an end to the political chapter of German reparations (assuming formal consum- mation of the Young plan at The Hague within a few days). Terrible as is the THE WHIRLING KALEIDOSCOPIC ALTERATIONS OF ECONOMI}-‘N[};{{'S‘;&%CTS HAVE BROUGHT NEtW OPPORTUNITY, NEW ADVENTURE A ~Drawn for The Sunday Star by 8. Delevante. few of the broader, sweeping straotches of this economic landscape. ‘This, then, is the keynote of these recent eventful years—the swift altera. tion of direction and purpose of eco. nomic effort. Those who have been able to keep up with that vastly acceler- ated tempo have prospered prodigiously. And those who for various reasons rave been unable to maintain the pace have suffered accordingly, for it has not been a decade of universal, dazzling and ever mounting opulence by any means. Dif- ficulties have been evident in greater or less degree throughout civilized lands and they have been, by and large, the difficuities of readjustment. ‘The ranks of the unemployed often have been unpleasantly numerous, es- pecially in the Old World, with its greater rigidity of social and economic organizations and consequent greater difficulty of quick readjustment to The Story the Week Has Told | French sacrifice in respect of reim- bursement for outlay on reconstruction of the devastated area, the Young plan probably represents the limit of Ger- man voluntary acquiescence; probably no more satisfactory arrangement was achievable. Despite the disillusion- ment, “finis” to the uncertainty sounds almost as pleasantly in French as in German ears. and the way seems open o a Reneral Franco-German rapproche- ment. ‘The year saw a serious crisis in do- mestic politics, happily ended by the “arrival” of Andre Tardieu. His con- | duct as premier justifies the highest | hopes for his future career; the mantle of Poincare seems to ha: fallen on a younger man of equal ability and perhaps in closer' sympathy with the spirit_of the changing age. The year saw the retirement, probably permanent, | from public office of that xurerb Poincare, than whom few, if any, have rendered more valuable service to the | state. And it saw the passing of the two_chief figures of the World War— Foch and Clemenceau. The French delegates to the five- power naval conference will be Premier | Tardleu, Foreign Minister Briand, ;Gmrgrs Leygues, minister of marine, |and Francois Pietri, minister of colonies, | * ok ok % SPAIN.—One s a little nervous about !Primo de Rivera. He seems to change his mind every few days. Perhaps he |1s just “projickin’.” "But the more obvious explanation is that he's wab- bling, has lost his poise or his nerve. Now when a dictator has lost his nerve or has a case of extreme frazzlement of nerves he should quit; his usefulness in that role is over. One cannot imagine the marques losing his nerve, but one could not be surprised to learn that his nerves were a-frazzle. He is old, and he has had a very, very hard year of it. At any rate, here he is (according to an Associated Press dispatch) writ- Sitting BY BRUCE CHARLES M. SHEL- DON wrote “In His the book that hundred million D 1 about the greatest sermon he had ever heard. “l don't know that | can name sked nhlm once to tell me but | can tell you about ting. “It was in London. The preacher had won a great following by the unusual character of his mind and the directness of his speech. “On this particular morning he startled the congregation with a text which most of them did not know is in the Bible. In the year that King Uzziah “I wondered what in the world anybody could find in that text to hang a sermon on. | did not have long to wait. “The preacher proceeded In vigorous ton ‘I direct your particular attention to the word The great King, sion in Heaven. Angels would be rushing around asking, “What is going to happen?” “What d Behold the utterly unfius- Lord sitting upen a throne, BARTO! high and lifted up. ® * * | want to preach about the eternal pa tience and tranquillity of Go: always stuck in to think of the little kingdoms of turmoil, while the Lord sits quietly upon the thron: knowing that time will qu the turmoil and that the cri will pass. If you ever have occasion to aying power. 1 know & man who has grown rich beyond any of h h t brilliant of the lot. But he had great patience and stick- and sold their stock, he just sat tight. And time and the growth of the country have carried him high. | read about all the men who thought they were smarter than Lincoln—Seward and Stanton and Chase—and maybe some of them were. But Lincoln had & great philosophy. When things were at their wogst, he would say, “This, too, will pass.” Every tough thing p most every problem beco: hard under the softening influ- ence of time. And when the tur- kest, the wise man great high throne and calmly and quietly sits, (Copyright 1990, AT C S in b a ey patriot, | | that he has no intention of resigning. capitalize New World conditions. The development of improved industrial technique has set too fast a pace for many older industrial communities that have not been favored as we have with lastic industrial fabric capable of rearrangement and redirection with less strain than in the more rigid social order across the Atlantic. In the latter the migration of labor and capital from stagnant industries to active ones is difficult. And the world-wide displace- ment of older crafts by new ones, therefore, has wrought special hard- ship in the thickly populated manufac- turing communities of the Old World. ‘The same, of course, has been true in certain instances in this country, espe- clally with regard to the trials of many older industries, such as textiles and leather, where long-standing practices (Continued on Sixth Page.) ing in a Madrid newspaper, in stark contradtion to a statement bg himself a few days agone, to the effect that “his dictatorship begins to show signs of decay and that it will be necessary during 1930 to replace it by some other regime which would act as a connect- ing link between the dictatorship and the future government.” “‘The new regime (i. e, presumably, the ‘future government') must be radically different from the dictatorship.” King Alfonso was DondeflnLthe matter and his de- cisfon would made public shortly. A day of two later the marques an- nounces a plan, approved by the King, to cover developments up to the com- ing midyear, contemplating: Reor- ganization of the political union, elec- tions for partial renewal of the munici- pal councils and the provincial legis- latures and continuous deliberations of the constituent assembly. “Then,” says he (i. e., about the 1st of July next), “when it is possible to estimate the situation of the country, the government will submit to the King another plan, calling for either con- tinuation of the assembly or creation of another organism suitable to the conditions.” He adds that there is no crisis and that there will be no changes of personnel for the present; that is, * ok ok % ITALY.—1920 witnessed substantial economic improvement in Italy: not so great as in France, but greater than in Great Britain, perhaps greater than in Germany. Production and home trade notably increased, the fiscal con- dition was flourishing, the adverseness of the foreign trade balance was les- sened. To be sure, the improvement of the foreign trade balance was, as in France, largely owing to nature's gen- erosity by way of a bumper wheat crop, but, despite the expansion of the home market, there was some increase of ex-. port, and the export outlook seems favorable. The year saw the convening of the first, Parliament, new model, the career of which the world will be well advised to watch with close attention. In the politico-religious sphere there was a | development of the very first impor- tance, to wit, the Lateran accords, rej ulating the relations between the Ital- ian state and the Vatican and re-es- tablishing the temporal power of the papacy. However small its area, a Vatican City state was created. For good or for evil, a considerable part of the work of Cavour was done. * ok % % CHINA—The Russian government announces that all Russian troops on Manchurian soil will shortly be evacu- ated therefrom. The Barga district is the northwest corner of Manchuria, bounded by the Khingan Mountains on the, east, Siberia on the northwest and by Mongolia to west and south with Khailar as capital. Rumor invites us to expect that, when the Russians are gone and the Chinese authorities essay to re-establish themselves in the Barga district, they will find established and smartly organized there a Barga Soviet republic, recognized by Moscow and in treaty with the latter. Wicked rumor, to ask us to believe such things of Moscow, whom we had been invited to pity as an innocent victim of Chi- nese !-wnm(. ¢ . e government Wwas nof blufing, or not altogether. On January 1 it issued the threatened mandate de- claring extraterritoriality ended in China. The response of the British ernment was astute and amusing. t accepted abolition “in principle,” buf for practice proposed expedition of ne gotlations looking to & definite program of gradual abolition. Nanking is con- tent to regard the British note as redo- lent of the required “save face,” and seems to accept the solution. Pre- sumably the other powers affected by {hedmnndlu will follow Great Britain's ead. * ok ko Notes—There's a good deal of pessi. mism as to the prospect of a short !l’r;\:u sweet. 'lull»n of T;he !r‘eennven!d e _conference. e Hungarians threaten to play the deuce. They refuse to come to reasonabls with their W | beneath an le_compositior? There’ mmu s MACEDONIA “BANDIT KING” BATTLES TO FREE NATION |Ivan Michailoff, With Price Upon His Head, Roams Mountains, Wielding Enormous Power. BY STOYAN CHRISTOWE. HEN the door of the moun= tain hut was opened, stand- ing in the middle of the room, which was illumined by a petrol lamp hangin icon of the Blesse Mother, was a clean-shaven yom man some thirty-odd years 4 He was of medium stature, wear- ing a greenish-brown military blouse and dun-colored trousers. A gri cap with a long leather peak was pulled over his eyes. Gaiters of natural undyed wool were strapped arpund his calves. Revolvers, cartridges, leather pouches and other cumbersome comi- tadji equipment hung from straps and belts which criss-crossed his body. He was Ivan Michalloff, chief of the comitadjis, dictator of the invisible Macedonian state. He is the master gunman of the Balkans, the most d: gerous political conspirator living today. Michailoff is not robust, but the rugged mountain life and the clear air which he breathes have tempered him. Thin, bony, with hollow but ruddy cheeks, with a square chin, compressed lips and sculptural rigidity to his face, he looks earnest, determined. Five years ago he was unknown; today he is & hero to a million people and a despot, a murderer, to thousands of others. Several attempts have been made to assassinate him, but he scents the plots long before they have ma- tured and makes them rebound back to their sources. Death Plot Turns Boomerang. 8o ingerious is Michailoff that the last scheme against his life resulted not | In his own death but in that of the perpetrator of the plot. This man, George Bazhdaroff, formerly was for- eign representative for Michailoff. Later he was leader of a faction that seceded from the ranks of the revolu- tionary organization and is now bat- tling desperately to wrest the authority from Michailoft’s hold. Bazhdaroff had gone to Varna, on the Black Sea, to put the finishing touches to an intrigue designed to do away with his former chief. Three different plans were per- fected and were to be put into execu- tion simultaneously. But Michailoff, securely hidden in the mountains hundreds of miles away, knew all that was happening—and even what was going to happen. Wi Bazhdaroff was on his way to the tlon to return to Sofla and report to his colleagues that all was ready, ter- rorists from the punitive section of Michalloft’s forces sent bullets through is body. What did Bazhdaroff’s supporters do to avenge his death? Unable to wHip the horse—as the Balkan proverb goes —they struck on the packsaddle. On the evening of October 16 last 20 shots were fired against Vassil Vassileff, who is not a comitadji, but secretary of the Macedonian national committee in Sofla, not to be confused with the central _revolutionary committee of which Michalloff is & member. By these shots the strife was transferred from the revolutionary to the legal Macedonian ranks—that is, to the im- migrant organizations in Bulgaria. Planned Special Convention. To consider the grave situation which resulted, the two organizations sched- uled a special convention for Novem- ber 24. On the eve of this meeting the news was flashed through the world that the Macedonian comitadjis—which the press persists in calling bandits Jespite repeated explanations—had made an attempt to blow up the Sim- plon express, the crack international train from Paris to Constantinople. ‘The authenticity of this news was never established, and it finally turned out that it was a ghost train, not a real one, that was threatened with disaster. The motive of this manufactured news is_difficult to determine. But I am told the whole affair was hatched out in Belgrade to create new complica- tions between Jugoslavia and Bulgaria, so that the latter country might for- bid the Macedonians to proceqd with their convention. \ The comitadjis are responsible for the critical conditions and conflicting aftitudes and views in the various Macedonian groups—these illégal war- riors that compose the Interior Mace- donian Revolutionary Organization, or Imro, as it is briefly and conveniently called. And it is Ivan Michailoff, this harmless-looking, genial, solicitous young man, who directs the manifold activities of the huge machine, the secret. terroristic soclety which in many respects is an actual state—for it sends to foreign capitals secret envoys which no government would recognize; col- lects taxes: maintains courts of jus- tice—whatever justice it is that revo- lutionaries mete out—and runs its own postal service with its own postage | stamps. The independence of Macedonia! That is the battle-cry of this rebel so- clety. Michailoff himself is ready to hang if by doing so he will bring this a foot closer to realization. He's Terror, Yet Modest. Yet he is modest, this terrar of the Balkans. You find it hard to believe that he is “Vantcha"—the infamous ‘Vantcha—as he is called by the Serb- ians, who are ready to pay 1,000,000 dinars to any one that will bring his head along. Harmless and powerless he looks as he sits before me. But from this bare hut, his headquarters for the moment, he can issue orders for operations and moves that would bring political com- plications in London and in.Paris and in Rome. On foot, by auto and on the back of & mule, I had traveled to find him in this mountain hut. It was night. The car rumbled through a narrow road hedged on one side by scrambling oak trees and on the other by a splashing stream. Dim forms of mountains loomed before us. A hundred paces ahead was the fig- ure of & man, barely discernible in the dark. The guide in front of me shout- ed a secret word. The man replied in its counterpart. The two men then approached one another and gripped hands. And here we left the auto- mobile. A mule with & wooden pack- saddle was brought to me. I bestrode the beast and started from this point with one sentry leading the way and another following in the rear. Pro- ceeding in this fashion for several hours, we at last came to Michailof’s temporary quarters. For eight years Michailoff has crept over these mountains, first as adjutant to Todor Alexandroff and afterward as his_successor. I expected to see a to be done to the trust deed of the Bank for International Settlements. ‘We, with our insistence on direct deal-| ing with the Germans, have intro- duced a complication. This and that. “Confound it,” as his lordship re- marked, “why can’t everybody be quiet?” Herr Moldenhauer, best of German tennis players and one of the world's best, was killed in an automobile acci- dent the other day. 7 Albert Einsteln once more amazes the world by a theory “bringing the flelds of physical mechanics and elec- :rlclty within the compass on a single ) The Greek Refugees' Settlement Com- mission, a League of Nations body cre- ated in 1923, whereof the chairman has always been an American, will go out of existence in the course of this vear, resumably the work conceived for it Froderice M. Botkers of Kentucky has ick M. of Kentucl been designated by the t as our new Ambassador to & business man of | man m‘led. coarse and cruel. devoid of polish from long mountain abode and continual plotting of terroristic acts. f Michailoff was born in Shtip, now in Serblan Macedonia. Todor Alexandroff was born there also. Shtip has given more men to the comitadji organization than any other Macedonian city. The breath and life of the present organiza- tion are men of Shtip. After studying at the local school Michailoff entered the Bulgarian Gym- nasia in Saloniki. But when, in 1912, the Greeks occupied that city and closed ths Bulgarian schools he moved on to Skoplje and there entered the Serblan Gymnasia, from which he was graduated. He speaks Serbian fluently all the principal Serbian and newspapers, as he does those of Bulgaria and other countries. In 1918 young Michailoff went to Sofla and there etered the Bulgarian State University to study for the bar. Soon afterward, however, when Todor Alexangroff sent his call for the re- vival of the Imro, which had been disbanded during the World -~ War, Michailoff was among the first to leave the university and answer the call of the veteran leader. Idealism to Be Admired. You may not agree with Michalloff. You may think him a fanatic, an im- | passioned chauvinist, whose judgment and reason have been dimmed by his hatred of the Serbians and by his flam- ing desire for Macedonian freedom. But you cannot help admiring his ex- alted idealism, his readiness to sacrifice his own life and those of a thousand others if that will help the cause of his country. He will stop at nothing, Is it -any wonder, then, that this scholarly-looking revolutionist is blow- ing up bridges and buildings, is always hatching out new plots for the assas- sination of generals and statesmen, the destruction of foreign property in Mace- donia—all designed, of course, to keep the Macedonian question burning and to force the world one day to recognize its independence? This is the kind of insurrectionary activity young Michail- off advocates and practices. The mere existence of a revolutionary organiza- tion is not alone sufficient to keep the Macedonian question open. Through its terroristic acts it must show the world that the Macedonian masses are de- termined to get free or die. In Turkish days a state of disorder could be maintained permanently in Macedonia by the network of comitadji bands which spans the entire revolu- tionary realm. Every district, every county, had its own band and.voyvod. ‘They made assaults on tyrannical beys and pashas, skirmished with bashiba- zouks and regular detachments of sol- dlery and otherwise created riot over | the country. Situation Has Changed. But now the situation has altered. Comitadjis cannot rove through the mountains as safely as they could in Turkish days and the question of whether there should be any illegal ac- tivity at all—and if so, what—has bee: the cardinal subject of the post-war Mro. There have been those who have advocated the discontinuance of all ter- roristic methods and the undertaking of an intensive legll:rolltlu.l campaign of propaganda abroad. ~Yet fi:wmhm‘ e revolutionary organ! n should not be disbanded. As it happens, however, -one of the basic principles which the Imro cherishes most and which gives it its power and prestige is that of the interior. The or- ganization exists on Macedonian terri- tory and jealously guards its revolution- ary domain, forbidding the co-existence in it of any other society, legal or other- Wwise, that is not subject to its authority. The Imro, therefore, must act inside, it must show life inside, it must create un- rest on Macedonian territory so that the world will know that the Macedonians living in Macedonia are not content with the treaties decreeing their fate. Furthermore, since the Imro is in every respect & government, the invisible government of the geographically de- fined, but politically non-existent Mace- donian state, over which Michailoff claims to hold an invisible occupation, it is also independent. Guard Against Becoming Dupe. These two corner stones of the revolu- tionary organization, then—the basic principle of the interior and the prin- ciple of independence—have been its source of strength and life and of its greatest trouble. While secret agents are sent to foreign capitals to advance the Macedonian cause and to lay before influential statesmen and the press re- ports on conditions in the homeland, the Imro must keep its eyes open lest it 1s duped into becoming & tool in the hands of some European power. What- ever arm is extended for political power in the Balkans, one of the first objects which it invariably encounters is the Macedonian organization. At no time did the hand extended for influence in the Balkans find the Imro readier to clasp it than after the peace treaties (the Macedonians say there are no peace treatles; they say there are only treaties for peace) when all hope seemed lost and the fate of Macedonia sealed. The agents of Mos- cow, alert for an opportunity to com- munize the Balkans, were not slow in making their tantalizing offer. The solution of the Macedonian problem would be a Yoregone conclusion if it were merged with and absorbed by the broader and nobler one of the federali- zation of the peninsula. Macedonia would take her place as a rfll!lcll un, in a Balkan federation of Soviet publics. That Voice of Gold. This voice, reinforced with gold, was one that the group of Macedonian patriots then at the head of the Imro could not well afford to leave unheeded. In 1924 the Macedonian revolutionary committee temporarily removed fts headquarters to Vienna, and there, after protracted conferences with repre- sentatives from Moscow, signed a mani- festo pledging the organization to the cause of Bolshevism. The three men who then composed the supreme committee and signed the rlr\xrnua:lm wemflr Alexnndr:fl, Gen. lexander eroff and ' Peter Tchauleff. By putting his signature to the fatal document mlkln{ the i- zation an instrument in the hands of imunism every one of these thre: men sealed his own death sentence. None of them is alive today. By this Vienna manifesto the organi- zation was transferred from fts own Tevolutionary territory to foreign soil The traditional prirciple of the interior was spat upon. It sold itself to a foreign power and turned its back on another of its raain props, the principle of independence. First to See Fallacy. Alexandroff, who had himself revived the dormant Imro after the World War and had breathed new life into the drooped spirits of the Macedonians, was the first of the trio to see the fallaoy of what had been done. No sooner hac he returned to Macedonia than he re-. pudiated his signature and disavowed the document. ~Gen. Protogueroff, the second member, followed suit, but the third, Tchauleff, buttressed by some in- ternationally minded Macedonians, re- fused to do so and denounced his two colleagues as traitors. The result wasa conspiracy in which Communists, Ser- bians and comitadjis took part. A few months after the Vienna affair, while on his to attend the revoluti it Pirin,