Kirkcaldy, Buckie, St Andrews, Coupar Angus, Cupar Fife, Greenock, and Scottish Universities Students. Additional hostels are in course of development for Thurso and other places. Thus, even when they cannot play the role of host directly, Scottish people are intimately associating themselves with the care of the refugees.

In all this good work that is being done throughout the kingdom on behalf of expatriated Belgians the best side of our national character has been brought out. And may we not say the same of the Belgians? At different times we have heard public criticisms of their character which have been formed on hasty judgments. We have also, many of us probably, had brought to our knowledge isolated incidents which have not redounded to their credit. But, when the worst has been said that can be said, it only amounts to this-that amongst a huge miscellaneous body of people, drawn a good many of them from the working-class districts of the cosmopolitan seaports of Antwerp and Ostend, some have proved of low moral character and others have not shown that strength of purpose and industry that could be wished. After all, we may ask ourselves, whether any similar portion of our own population, suddenly transplanted to foreign soil and subjected to all the mischievous influences that are proverbially lying in wait for idle hands, would have acted better or even so well? However that may be, I have no hesitation in declaring that the refugees in the main have shown themselves worthy of their country in their exile.

While on this question of Belgian character I cannot refrain from paying a tribute to the admirable work that is done at Edmonton in connexion with what I may, perhaps, describe as refugee misfits. At this Greater London centre there are two establishments-one exclusively for men and the other for families and women— to which are drafted, from all parts of the country, refugees who, in one way or another, have not managed to get on well with their local hosts, or for whom no suitable opening under private auspices could be found. The institutions are under the general control of the Metropolitan Asylums Board-a body which has in many ways rendered great service to the cause; they are managed by two experienced officials of the Board, Mr

and Mrs Pallin; and ever since they were opened, they have been continuously occupied, the numbers varying with the ebb and flow of refugees at the central receiving depôts. Usually about 300 inmates are accommodated at the principal institution, and rather less than that number at the family home-Millfield House.

At the outset Mr Pallin had some difficulty in persuading the inmates under his control that some return in the shape of labour must be made for their keep, but by the exercise of rare tact and a judicious use of simple arguments, based on the moral obligation of the refugee to do some work for his living, all the inmates submitted to the rule of work for all.' Some were employed in cultivating the land about the institution, or in superior horticultural operations in a long range of glass-houses in the grounds; others were engaged in workshops in repairing boots and making clothes for the refugees; others, again, had allotted to them what proved to be the congenial task of cleaning and decorating the interior of the building. The whole of the domestic work of the establishment is done by refugees. At Millfield House the same strict rule of discipline tempered by tact is applied with great advantage; and the place affords a delightful spectacle of an ordered and happy community. Well may it be said that, if these Edmonton institutions show the worst side of the refugees, the best must indeed be good.

How is the position of the refugees in this country likely to affect the future? The first thought that arises is, will the presence of this large body of Belgians, widely dispersed as it is amongst our population, have any permanent influence on our life? At the outset, a strong belief prevailed that history would repeat itself, and that we should see reproduced in a different form the experience of the 17th century, when the Huguenot immigrants gave a notable impetus to our industry by bringing their looms across the sea and setting up here silk and woollen industries. But there is really no parallel between the present immigration and that of two centuries ago. Unlike the Huguenot and the earlier Flemish colonists who were permanently alienated from their homes, our Belgian friends are only sojourners amongst us; and all arrangements in regard to them are made

with this end in view. In such circumstances there can be no question of the establishment here by the refugees of new industries on an extensive scale. In regard to intensive culture some lasting effects may be produced; and in a small way, as for example in the case of the rabbit-skin pulling industry on the south coast, new enterprises of a minor kind may be developed, but these represent about the full limit of what may be looked for in a material sense.

The real good that will be done will consist in broadening the outlook of our people, and bringing home to them in a salutary way the fact that our interests and those of adjacent nations on the continent are intermingled, and that our old happy insular way of looking at things must be abandoned, with a good many other cherished but mistaken habits. On the part of the Belgians, too, the contact they will have had with our countrymen will do good in inculcating sound knowledge of our customs and ways of looking at things, and in strengthening friendly ties which in late years had become somewhat relaxed owing to international controversies that had arisen. It must, however, always be borne in mind that the sentiments of the Belgians as well as the final verdict of history will largely be influenced by the manner in which we meet our obligations to them in the days yet to come. A half-hearted policy, cavilling here at a small concession asked, grudging there an insignificant contribution required, and ruling everything with a pedantic regularity, will inevitably chill and ultimately alienate our friends. On the other hand, a free and generous recognition of our responsibilities, in harmony with our traditions and in accordance, I am sure, with the wishes of the nation, will establish this exile of the Belgians in the United Kingdom as one of the most agreeable experiences of the bitter period of their martyrdom.

ERNEST HATCH.

Art. 12.-THE COURSE OF THE WAR.

ABOUT the middle of September reports emanating from various neutral sources intimated that movements of hostile troops were being effected in Germany and AustriaHungary. The transit of letters and newspapers from Austria-Hungary to neutral countries was said to have been interrupted. The Dutch-Belgian frontier was closed; passenger traffic between Holland and Germany was restricted and closely scrutinised; and similar measures were in operation to prevent the leakage of news from Germany to Switzerland. Such information admitted of various interpretations, and on some previous occasions had proved misleading. Statements of a less authentic nature referred to the passage of trooptrains through Aix la Chapelle towards France, and to a concentration of troops on the northern frontier of Serbia.

As had previously happened in similar circumstances, there were rumours of a withdrawal of German and Austrian troops from the eastern front, which, in the absence of any official corroboration, were clearly conjectural. Although there were signs that the enemy's offensive campaign in Russia was coming to an end, it seemed unlikely that the hostile armies would be materially weakened until a defensive line were secured which would give some promise of being held successfully by reduced forces against the growing strength of Russia, while the offensive was being pursued in another theatre of war. The chief requirements of such a line, under present-day conditions, would be fulfilled by insurmountable obstacles on either flank, and a lateral railway at a safe and convenient distance behind the front, to facilitate the distribution of supplies and the movement of reinforcements from point to point. It was apparent that the Germans, after they had failed to inflict a decisive defeat on the Russian armies, had set their minds on gaining possession of Rovno and the railway leading thence across the Pinsk Marshes, and through Baranowischi and Wilna, to Dwinsk. The acquisition of the line of the Dwina between Dwinsk and Riga would then enable them to establish their left flank securely on the sea, while their right flank would rest on the neutral frontier of Roumania,

The enemy were still far from having attained these objects. The lateral railway was in their possession between Baranowischi and the neighbourhood of Dwinsk; and on this portion of the front they were constructing strong entrenchments, and laying field railways to facilitate the local distribution of supplies. But the Russians were successfully defending the line of the Dwina, and in Wolhynia and Galicia they were holding the AustroGerman armies at bay on the Styr and the Strypa. The Russians, in fact, had the best of the situation on the most important sections of the front; those, namely, where they may take the offensive under the most favourable conditions, strategically, when the weather and their increasing resources admit of the resumption of operations on a large scale.

To obviate reverting to the Russian theatre of war, it may be recorded in this place that the position remains practically unchanged. The Russians have defeated all attempts to capture Dwinsk, and are in firm possession of the line of the Dwina. They have improved their positions by driving the Germans back in the coast region to within a few miles of Tukkum, where they are threatening the Windau-Mitau railway and the left flank of the hostile forces encircling Riga. No material change is anticipated on this portion of the front until the spring; for, although the freezing of the rivers and marshes might be expected, in a normal season, to admit of a resumption of activity, an exceptionally heavy fall of snow about the beginning of December is said to have made the movement of large forces impracticable. In Wolhynia our Allies remain in possession of the Styr, and in Galicia they continue to hold Bothmer's AustroGerman army behind the Strypa. It would seem that the enemy feel their position in these regions insecure; for it was reported early last month that they were engaged in removing their magazines from Lemberg, and in fortifying the line of the San.

Although the enemy's operations on the eastern front were in an unfinished state, and the general situation was unfavourable, there were no doubt cogent reasons which made the German General Staff decide to withdraw a number of troops from that front for employment partly in the western theatre, and partly in