up the question unless the Daily Telegraph backed me.

The Etoile Belge had an article about me this morning: nothing very indiscreet in it.

Major R. Van Overstraeten, the King's orderly officer, sent me his very valuable book on Belgium in the war, profusely illustrated. Colonel Gallet, whom I visited to-day at the École Militaire, which he commands, told me that it was at present the authoritative book on the war and the textbook for schools and colleges. I told M. Forthomme to-day that I was grieved to find that Belgium had erected no monument to Émile Banning, who was the man who had always seen most clearly fourteen years before the war and had foreseen events that had occurred. M. Forthomme and M. Henri Jaspar, whom I visited later in the day, both acknowledged their debt to Banning and said that they were ashamed of the oblivion. Happily, in Van Overstraeten's book there is a photo of him, and a just acknowledgment of his merits. Forthomme, however, said that there was still no monument to Leopold II, and that it was only little men who needed monuments. He told me that the Belgians had scrapped all their fortresses, and had replaced them by prepared field positions, a course which I approved.

Went off to see M. Jaspar, at 93, Avenue de la Toison d'Or, by appointment, after leaving M. Forthomme. M. Henri Jaspar has won a world reputation by his conduct of Belgian foreign policy during the last two years, but I have never come across him before. A very attractive figure and a man of enthusiasm, intelligence, and imagination. If anything, a little too passionate and deadly in earnest for modern diplomacy. The best man in Belgium, so far as I can read political

character. I told him of my visit here and in Paris, and of my conclusions. He told me that he was absolutely in accord with me, and proceeded to express his own views of the past and to give his opinion of the future. He told me of all the negotiations at Cannes and in London, and of their failure. He said that the English were too slow to comprehend the French. You must reckon France as a woman, he said, who has a great capacity for love, hate, and jealousies. I said that this was an old idea of mine and that I had frequently stated it when in charge of the French section of the Intelligence Department. One must think of Marianne, and bring flowers and sweetmeats. In fact I would always choose a lover any lover for negotiating with France. We treated her as if she were a president of the Board of Trade, and that was quite useless. All the beatific F. O. dispatches scoring off France were a luxury which we could only afford ourselves if we did not want to settle with her. That is Jaspar's point of view also.

The question, I said, if we were agreed as to the principle, was how to proceed. I thought the time had come for action and not for words. We had very little time, and if we did nothing and came into the Disarmament Conference unprepared, we should all quarrel and wreck the Protocol. Jaspar thought that our Laborites were primitives and visionaries. They had made a bad mess and we had to pull them out of it. First the accord, then all the rest would follow. A formula for disarmament was unattainable. Every country must be left mistress of its own destiny. Things would drag on forever if we attempted to scale down the armies. We all wanted lasting peace, but the present plan would not achieve it. The world did not care a hang for the opinion of a pack of

little states, but cared immensely for the acts of the Great Powers, and their views would prevail and set the

He quite agreed with me that we should stick to Article 8 of the League Convention. But time was running on and we should soon reach November and have to settle the preparations for the Conference. It would be best to postpone the preparatory November meeting till we had put things in order. He declaimed against history, pointed to his bookshelves, and asked how we could teach youth all this humbug. He had been concerned in many conferences of which some alluring accounts had been written. They were all lies, he thought. He had been in the batterie de cuisine and had even prepared some of the sauce. He knew how utterly realities differed from the fictions told. He was writing on the subject in the reviews, one of which is the Nineteenth Century for December, and he will send me copies. I said I noticed that at St. Gilles he had advised Belgium not to ratify the Protocol unless Germany signed it.

Jaspar did not consider the Belgians either militarists or military. No, I said, they are the most pacific people in Europe. He said they were all commercials, the Army was nothing in the State, and he had had the utmost difficulty in getting the title of count or baron accorded to the leading soldiers who had done best. Jaspar indeed hoped for the day when Belgium could disarm altogether, but that time had not come. Jaspar told me of the terrible time they had passed through during the war, and of how my articles were smuggled through, read with avidity, and passed from hand to hand secretly.

I have just received from him the Revue Belge for November 1. It contains an excellent article by him on 'Paix et Sécurité.'

VOL. 142-NO. 1

Sunday, October 26. Returned to Paris. Read in the train a good deal of Van Overstraeten's book. Deeply interesting and places all the Belgian operations in a new light. It is rather appalling that all the things which the French H. Q. did not know about the great turning movement of the Germans in August 1914 were known to the Belgians long before, from the reports of their intelligent and patriotic people. Moral: trust the local population when it is friendly, rather than preconceived ideas, and also arrange an interallied intelligence service, to begin work on the first day of mobilization, if not earlier. By the way, I found General Maglinse disturbed about the evacuation of Wesel. He would now add Düsseldorf to the three Napoleonic brides du Rhin. I think, also, that the Belgians will not be secure until some arrangement is come to with Holland. If the Boche ever comes that way and the Mynheers go back to their water line at Utrecht, the Belgian Left may be turned again. I believe that we pay as little attention to the Low Countries as we did before 1914, and we ought to square this matter up and have a good firm Staff and F. O. decision about it. Is our Navy prepared, and has it the right type of ships to operate successfully on this bit of coast?

Tuesday, October 28.- Saw Marshal Pétain at his office, 4 bis, Boulevard des Invalides, at 10.15 A.M. He was looking uncommonly fit and well after his stay in the country, and is still the best brain in the Army and the safest guide. But, alas, he declares that he will not stay beyond the end of next year, when he will be sixty-nine. It is true that marshals have no age limit, but he says that age counts all the same and he will not wait to be asked to go. We discussed my tour and impressions. On the political side I

can add nothing to the views expressed by others, as he fully shares them. Then we fell to talking army matters. He was not at all pleased with the proposed new army law which would take some four years to work out. I said, 'Will not the Army be worse and more costly?' He said, 'Yes, it will be.' He had made estimates of the additional cost, which will be from one and one-half to two milliards of francs. France had to supply the covering force, the troops in the Colonies, mobilization, and training. It could just be done with the eighteen months' service, but not with the one year's service. If the Army is to be a militia, as it now will be, it must be strengthened by a large number of officers and reengaged men, and the garrison fatigue duties must be found by a civil personnel paid at current rates of wages.

I asked about the moral and material situation of the Army. The officers, he said, were very discontented, and did not like to see the improved scale of pay for functionaries while nothing was done for them. A printed paper, which he showed to me, had been circulated, calling on officers to meet at the Cercle Militaire to discuss grievances. It was unsigned, and the meeting would not take place. He had nothing to do with it, but it had been useful to him and had alarmed the Government. There was a paragraph in the Matin to-day to say that something was being done. Syndicalism was not going to be restricted to the working people, said Pétain. He said that the Germans in the Reichswehr and the Schupo had the cadres of their future national army and they could get their war material by camouflage. The spirit of revenge was still strong.

I asked him if he counted on the Belgians. 'Very little,' he replied; and the railways were bad. The Nord Line complained much of the ineffi

ciency of the Belgian railways. If we ever came in again in a war with Germany, we, the English, should have to use the Belgian lines, for our place was marked, as before, on the left of the line which had proved to be the right place in the last war. He said that our mobilization was terribly slow. He did not think that the Dutch would do anything, but agreed that we should make sure of the Dutch attitude. The German attack would come on the front Wesel-Bonn, not only because there were five lines of rail to facilitate concentration, but because the Germans had to cover the Ruhr. He did not know whether we could do anything from the sea on the German right. The project had been examined in the past and the landing, etc., had been found useless. It might be examined afresh, for circumstances have much changed. An evacuation of the Cologne and other bridgeheads was highly unfavorable to the Allied position. He told me that General Nudant, who has just taken up the Temps military criticism, was a good officer who had commanded an army corps in the war. He was now in the reserve, but had been considered for the Conseil Supérieur.

We discussed a French monument to the British dead in London. He would like to come over to inaugurate it. He had been much pleased by his last reception in London. He gave me some information for myself alone. We parted on the best of terms. I asked the Marshal not to mention that I had brought the matter of the French monument to his notice. He had told the Government that, rather than leave the Army cadres discontented, he would prefer to reduce the programme of rearmament. I asked him whether, in fact, the armée de métier was not likely to be the type of the future army in Europe. He thought it possible.

I don't think that Pétain, from other things that he said to me and showed me, has got very much further than laying down the first principles of the new army law. I feel sure he is not going to leave, with the law on his conscience, without a very clear exposition of the hurt that will be done to French defense by it. It is his way to express his feelings very straightforwardly. If a political decision is involved he will of course submit to it, but he will not dim his military renown by calling a bad thing good.

Saw General Desticker, one of Foch's men, at 8, Boulevard des Invalides in the afternoon. He had nothing new to tell me. I was not much impressed by him, but Clive says he has a European mind. He is very thin and has a careworn face. There came in Colonel Requin. I was glad to make his acquaintance. A short, thickset, fair man with a good and cheerful face. He has talent and I like him. He is well known for his work on the League of Nations. We all had a talk round the situation, but no fresh light was thrown on it. Ended my last day with a talk at the Embassy with Sir C. Mendl, and McClure, just come from Rome. Two very capable men. McClure thought that Mussolini was

holding his own and that he had learned a lesson from Corfu. There will be no more rampaging, McClure thinks, but agrees that an outlet must be found somewhere some day for the surplus Italian population. Mendl's account of how the French press is fed by publicity advertisements does not materially differ from Georges Mandel's. He spoke of a Greek who wanted to insert an article in some French paper. He was recommended a certain paper, but refused it because the Turks had bought it. But that does not matter, said his friend there are still two days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for sale!

Mendl does not go bail for the absolute authenticity of this story, but is sure that one can publish almost any article by paying three thousand francs for it. Mendl does not like Pertinax's general political outlook, but likes Pertinax himself. Mendl doubts whether Herriot will survive the budget next March.

Wednesday, October 29.- General election in England. Crossed with the Agha Khan. We talked India, racing, the war, etc., all the way. The Agha Khan agrees with my views on the Indian Frontier.

IT has long been fashionable to bewail the burdensome nature of college entrance requirements, and many persons do this without attempting to distinguish between the prescription of studies to be pursued in preparation for college and the prescription of examinations by which the student's attainment is to be tested. In many instances both of these prescriptions have been shown to impose undeserved hardship upon meritorious students, and it is easy to lose sight of countless other instances in which they have been immensely helpful to students who, by force of circumstances, have been compelled to pick up their secondary education in fragments, partly from one school, partly from another, partly by the arduous method of digging the material out of unfamiliar books without the help of a teacher. It is, of course, quite unreasonable to impose upon students who have had the good fortune to work systematically through a carefully planned and administered course of study the same dry formula which may be not only helpful but indispensable to the less fortunate student. It is the purpose of this article to show that it is quite unnecessary to do so.

Not long ago I was present at a meeting of a group of teachers who were discussing the relation of secondary to higher education, with particular reference to the way in which the school should present that relation to its students and their parents. There was substantial agreement upon the

adoption of this statement: 'Higher education should represent an extension of secondary education; it is the progressive expansion of an essentially similar process. Admission to college is an institutional transfer within a homogeneous development.'

From that meeting I was called almost directly to advise a student who, with his father, was going about from one college office to another seeking guidance as to how he might best se cure admission to some good college in September of this year. He had attended two excellent schools and had done faithful and effective work in both, and moreover he had already passed a number of college admission examinations; yet the state of his mind, after what should have been a very broadening educational experience, might best be represented by the following formula: Algebra [2], Plane Geometry [1], Latin [2], Ancient History [1], French [3], English [3], American History [1], Chemistry [1]. In each of his two schools this candidate had ranked somewhat above the middle of his class. No one could talk over his situation with him without becoming convinced that he had made good use of his opportunities. He had not failed in any course, or in any one of the examinations he had taken. What, then, was his quandary? Simply this: that the figures in brackets, as represented in this summary of his examination records and prospects, could not be added up to make fifteen, and he had been told by several sympathetic but