Search

The article presents information on various social and political developments around the world. British multinationals had apparently opted to join Europe in some form of monetary union, hoping that London would be its financial center. With the power of the labor unions broken, low-wage Britain was to be a bridgehead for foreign, mainly Japanese, investors. For the moment what mattered was to beat inflation and prop up the pound, damning the consequences for output and employment. Moreover, it is reported that, for all their recent celebrations of Clinton's victory as a favorable precedent, Labor politicians are well aware that, after their 1992 disaster, what their party needs is not a coat of paint but an overhaul. The first problem concerns the party's relation with the labor unions.

This article focuses on the unification of Western Europe. There is no doubt about it that Western Europe is "unified" only by the Atlantic Pact and anti-communism. If there was no united Western Europe, it was the fault of the British Labor Party, which was the most powerful "Third Force" party in Europe and could have taken the lead. Instead, it did nothing about Europe and was concerned only about two things: the success of its economic experiment within Great Britain and its relations with the U.S. Everything now suggests that, far from supporting the Third Force, the U.S. is supporting the right. Yet at least until recently the Labor Party persisted in believing in some invisible leftward trend in the U.S., and thought that real Social Democracy would materialize much sooner in the U.S. than, say, in Italy.

The article throws light on the book "Birds of the World, for Young People," by Charles R. Knight and Ella Hardcastle. It presents a brief description of such birds of the world as are usually to be seen in zoological collections and in museums." In fact, almost any museum which really deserves the name will contain many specimens not described in this text. And though the expressed purpose "to give special attention to birds of the U.S., to corresponding species and allied forms found in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe and to certain of the more remarkable and interesting birds of other continents" is a pretty difficult undertaking, especially within limits of the present volume.

With the conquest of Greece, the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler has achieved three objectives. He has ousted Great Britain from its last toehold on the mainland of Europe, excluding Gibralter; he has rescued his Italian partner from an extremely embarrassing situation; and he has considerably improved the strategic position of the Axis in relation to the vital British base in Egypt. There are, of course, several major obstacles 'to be overcome' before the Germans can strike at Suez with any assurance of success. Between Greece and Alexandria there is a wide stretch of water where the British navy remains dominant, even though its advanced base in Crete is now exposed to bombing attacks.

The article presents recent developments around the world related to various issues. The U.S. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall recently made a statement in which he challenged all who cling to a policy of drift in the face of Europe's economic crisis. The survival of Spain's dictator, Francisco Franco and his Fascist regime two years after the war's end is an arrogant challenge to the United Nations Assembly which convenes this week. The communal riots in India continue to engage the attention of the governments of India and Pakistan. The latest British by-election, in the edge Hill district of Liverpool, England, it has been said that this was real test of the Labor government's hold and popular support and that the Labor Party had a hard fight on his hands.

This article focuses on the ideological crisis faced by Western Europe, and the threatened disappearance of the so-called Third Force. The "Third Force" has been much discussed as an ideological, a political, and a military concept. There was a time-about three or four years ago when one frequently heard it said that Western Europe, under the inspiration of the Labor Party of Great Britain, would develop a social and ideological system of its own which would be different from both American capitalism and Soviet communism. The military, or geographical, Third Force was the brain-child of French political thinkers. But, long before the signing of the Atlantic Pact, which finally turned Western Europe into part of the American military sphere, this concept of the Third Force went up in smoke.

This article focuses on prevailing political conditions in the U.S. and around the world, as of April 22, 1897. The protests against the Dingley bill by European countries are based upon the idea that the U.S. is abandoning the policy of non-discrimination in foreign tariff, notwithstanding its treaties, and that the way to meet this action on the part of the U.S. is for the various European Governments to lay their duties so as to keep out American products whenever possible. Another development focuses on the teaching methods of English language in the schools of the U.S. and Great Britain.

This article focuses on political conditions around the world during the second world war. The French army, broken into four fragments, is still fighting. The dictators' immediate concern is to get France completely out of the war in order to concentrate all their forces for a rapid conquest of Great Britain. That achieved, they can revise their conditions without interference. In an effort to save some children at least, from the Nazi juggernaut an organization known as "Save Europe's Children" was formed in Washington last week under the leadership of Secretary Harold Ickes.

In 1942 civil war could have been avoided. It was still possible to reorient Allied policy so as to secure a democratic victory without obliging the left to launch a new kind of war against fascism as soon as the military war should have ended. The Western Allies did not want it that way. They did not want a victory of the people. So far as the British government was concerned, its attitude was, deliberately counter-revolutionary. On the part of the people of the U.S. it was, rather, a lack of understanding of Europe and a still greater determination to ignore the true character of fascism.

Rushing across Europe, the comet-like Harry Hopkins left a glittering wake of speculation before he vanished behind the overcast of censorship which hides the deliberations of the Big Three, that is, Soviet Union, Great Britain and the U.S. Reports arriving from these three countries suggests a new and firmer American policy in Europe. It is hoped that the U.S. Senate Military Affairs Committee will not let itself be stampeded into passing the May-Bailey work-or-fight bill without full hearings, and it is hoped that the committee will amend the bill to increase the powers of the War Manpower Commission and the Office of War Mobilization.

The article presents information on the book "Reconstruction," by S.D. Whelpley. Whelpley dwells upon the vast mountain of public debt under which the Allied powers are struggling and thinks that, with the exception of Great Britain, the only escape is in abandoning the pretense of paying these great sums and in reducing the cost of government establishments. In spite of the physical recovery of Europe the trade of the world is less than in 1914, due to the lessened purchasing power of millions of people and to an increased industrial nationalism.

Queen Victoria, when some jesting at her table touched on the things sacred to Victorianism, produced the crushing comeback, "We are not amused." The British people are no longer Victorian; it would not be possible today to name the things they hold sacred or to say definitely that there are any such things. Yet people are still capable of being shocked. When the full meaning of an Admiral's appointment, and the consequences likely to occur in Italy and the rest of Europe, became clear to the British people, they were — to use the old Victorian word — flabbergasted. And very little in the way of visible reaction to this appointment has become obvious.

This article focuses on the political developments in Great Britain. The British Labor Party will hold its annual conference in December, and until then there will be continuous discussion as to the policy the party should adopt. This is a question which affects not only the British but progressive elements everywhere, for the entire democratic future of Europe may be determined by the stand British Labor takes. It is the only force in Great Britain capable of opposing the reactionary - tendencies of the English Conservatives.

The National Municipal League has the honor of having called the first national conference on the subject of reconstruction. To some of those who spoke at Rochester reconstruction meant mainly the repairing of war damage in Europe. To others it signified the immediate business of effecting the transition to a peace footing, but to most it implied a much wider programme. The first evening was given to representatives of Great Britain, France, Belgium and Italy who spoke, in the main, of needs of their respective countries in the task of making good the ruin wrought by the war.

At the outbreak of the war the U.S. President called upon every U.S. citizen, in the interest of keeping this country at peace and out of the European disaster, to be neutral in thought and deed. Most patriotic citizens endeavored to live up to that Presidential counsel. Many besides members of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. did not. Like the Morgans they were on the side of England by tradition, inheritance, taste, and business and other associations. Mr. J.P. Morgan owned a great deal of property there, and his banking house in London was, and is, a most influential British institution.

The article presents information on the book "Avenues of History," by L.B. Namier. The author of this book, college teacher of modern history at the University of Manchester, has a record of profound research in several historical fields. He is also a scholar who understands that what matters in history is the great outline and the significant detail: what must be avoided is the deadly morass of irrelevant narrative. In an age of specialization Namier has developed broad interests ranging from the British Parliament in the eighteenth century through European nationalism in the nineteenth century to the diplomatic history of our own times and Zionism.

The article says that it was a shock to read the latest issue of the quarterly Bulletin of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe that the rate of industrial production declined in most European countries during the third quarter of 1949. Only in Socialist Britain was wholly satisfactory progress registered. In France there was a reversal of the upward trend noted earlier in the year and in Belgium both light and heavy industry suffered a setback. Western Germany and Italy, the report adds, made little or no progress. The increase in industrial production in Great Britain was due only to a slight extent to the employment of larger numbers, for Britain has had practically full employment for the last three years and its working population is growing very slowly.

One of the few encouraging facts about the war situation is that here in England one finds universal recognition of the fact that if the Allies win there must be a new order and collective security in Europe if the Continent's civilization is to survive. Here there continues to be a great deal of favorable discussion of Clarence Streit's plan for the federalization of Europe. It is admitted that the League of Nations is dead save for its Labor Office and its humanitarian activities. So the solution is rightly sought in a new machinery which will avoid the errors of the League, foredoomed to failure as it was by being tied up to that body of death, the treaty of Versailles.