frontier was, he said, given in the first instance by Lord Curzon at Lausanne, and again by Mr. MacDonald at the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne a year later, and it was renewed by Lord Parmoor at Geneva in September, 1924. Nor did it stand by itself as a particular policy adopted for this dispute; it was only one instance of the principle of using the League of Nations as an instrument for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Referring to the statement frequently made in a part of the Conservative Press that Britain was pledged to evacuate Iraq by 1928, he pointed out that the existing Protocol provided for the conclusion, at its expiry, of a fresh agreement which might prolong the mandate. It was, he said, too late to ask themselves whether, in the first place, they were wise to accept the mandate. Once that was done, no mandatory was entitled simply to throw up his mandate and leave chaos in its place. He denied that the obligations to which the extension of the mandate would commit them were either new, or costly, or dangerous. Finally, he repeated the desire expressed by the Foreign Secretary at Geneva for a friendly settlement with Turkey, and stated that in order to give effect to this desire he was inviting the Turkish Ambassador to meet him the next day-a statement which drew loud applause from the House.

A debate followed, in which a number of Conservative members warmly supported the Government policy, while the Conservative opposition, so vociferous in the Press, was reduced to a whisper. Mr. Amery painted an encouraging picture of the progress of Iraq under British tutelage, and expressed himself as hopeful that long before twenty-five years had passed the country would be qualified to enter the League of Nations. He thought that there was no common ground for compromise with Turkey so long as that country was claiming territory which belonged of right to Iraq, and that recognition of such right must be the basis of negotiations. Some Liberals challenged a division on the motion, and four voted against it, while 239 members supported it.

Before adjourning, the House of Commons, on December 18, reviewed the housing situation. In view of the marked progress which had been made during the year in supplying the housing needs of the population, Labour members for once forbore from importing any note of bitterness into their discussion of the subject. The Minister of Health stated that no new legislation was now required to get new houses, as they were already being built on a scale which made it possible to overtake arrears at a considerable rate. The number erected in 1925 was over 159,000, against 116,370 in the "peak" period of 1904. In view of this activity, the failure of the "demonstration" houses, Weir and other, due to the refusal of the workmen to co-operate, was a matter of indifference. In regard to slum clearances also progress was being made; in the period 1919-25, 71 local authorities had

put forward 92 schemes, of which 83 had been confirmed. In order, however, that progress might be quickened, he admitted that some new plan of enabling local authorities to improve conditions seemed to be necessary. Scottish members pointed out that the improvement in housing conditions was confined to England, and that in Scotland they were going from bad to worse. The Prime Minister confirmed this pessimistic view from his own observations during a visit to Glasgow some three months previously. He had, on that occasion, offered a Government subsidy for 4,000 steel houses, but applications had been put in for less than a quarter of that number, and he now felt bound to withdraw the offer. Sir J. Gilmour, the Secretary for Scotland (whose office had shortly before been made into a Secretaryship of State), announced that the Government intended itself to take in hand the building of 2,000 houses by alternative methods in Scotland through the agency of the Scottish National Housing Company, and he called on the workers to co-operate-an appeal to which those concerned turned a deaf ear, as Lord Weir was still offering rates of pay which they considered unsatisfactory.

The prorogation took place on December 22, having been delayed for two sittings, first by the demand of the House for a debate on Mosul, and then by the obstruction of Labour members before that debate. At its final sitting the House of Commons accepted an amendment inserted by the Lords in the Administration of Justice Bill, that persons convicted of drunkenness when in charge of a motor vehicle should have their licences suspended for twelve months, and should be liable to imprisonment. A similar clause had been rejected by the Commons in the Report stage of the Bill on November 17. On that occasion there had been an animated discussion in which the Home Secretary had carried his point of allowing the number of the jury in criminal cases to be reduced from twelve to ten when jurors fell ill during the trial, but his proposal to abolish Grand Juries was defeated by a small majority. Of his own accord also he withdrew a clause allowing search warrants to be issued on mere suspicion, in view of the serious opposition which was manifested towards this encroachment on the liberty of the subject. Other important bills passed during the session were the Tithe Bill and the Indian Civil Service Bill (v. p. 36).

England, during 1925, saw itself drifting towards an economic impasse. The export trade, which had been the basis of its prosperity for so many years, was no longer maintaining itself at a level commensurate with the country's scale of living, both public and private. A collapse of some kind seemed to be impending unless the export trade could be revived, or the scale of expenditure could be reduced, or a new economic basis could be found. The Government made spasmodic efforts in all three

directions, but without vision or determination, and with no appreciable success; and when the year closed there was a general expectation that a critical situation would arise in the following spring, when the Coal Commission made its report.

Mr. Baldwin, during the year, faithfully upheld the principles of the "New Conservatism" which he professed, and his conciliatory methods did much to mitigate the bitterness of class and party feeling engendered by the economic situation. His tenderness for the working classes severely tried the patience of a large section of his own party, whom he further incensed by his Mosul policy. Rumours were occasionally heard of plots to depose him, but up to the end of the year party discipline had remained intact, and his leadership had not been seriously threatened.

During the year the cleavage between Socialist and antiSocialist elements in the State began to assume a greater political significance than it had hitherto possessed, and tended more and more to take the place of the old party divisions. There was in practice, if not nominally, a reversion to the two-party. system. The Liberal Party failed to evolve a positive policy which could give it cohesion or driving force. In the House of Commons its representatives were little more than a group of Independents who made excellent contributions to debate, but scarcely counted in the division lobby. Its internal disunion was strikingly shown in the Mosul division, when of the handful of its members present about a third voted for the Government and a third against, while the rest abstained. This was typical of its attitude towards many important questions, including Mr. Lloyd George's land policy, the effects of which, up to the end of the year, had been the reverse of what its author anticipated, both for his own fortunes and for those of his party.

FOREIGN AND IMPERIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

DURING 1925, the prestige and influence of the League of Nations increased even more than it had done in 1924. An excellent gauge of the relative importance with which the nations of the world regard the League is to be found in the number of Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers which each year attend the Assembly of the League. In 1925, there were no fewer than six Prime Ministers and sixteen Foreign Secretaries actually in Geneva, while Sir Austen Chamberlain has apparently established the precedent that the British Foreign Minister invariably represents Great Britain at meetings of the Council. The friendship which has rapidly grown between the regular representatives on the Council is one of the most striking examples of the indirect way in which the League creates a harmonious atmosphere.

During the year the political work of the League, important though it was, naturally was somewhat overshadowed by the negotiations conducted at Locarno and the Treaties resulting therefrom. It appeared to many people that the one major advance in world comity was effected outside the League, and that, therefore, the League was either superfluous or ineffectual. It certainly appeared in the early part of the year when the British Government rejected the Geneva Protocol that the work of the League had suffered a set-back, and that the Great Powers, having failed to find a formula to cover a general agreement for security, were proposing to fall back upon the old and muchcriticised plan of negotiating regional agreements. Fortunately, those who had viewed with misgiving the conclusion of the first great regional agreement, namely, that of Locarno, found that for the most part their fears were ill-grounded. The main Treaty of Locarno proved to be built upon the foundations of the League; all the Locarno Treaties 1 are "within the framework of the Covenant; "they are "in conformity with the Covenant and shall not be interpreted as restricting the duty of the League to take whatever action may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of the world"; except in the case of a flagrant

1 For the text of the Treaties see under "Public Documents."

aggression, the Council of the League is to decide whether the Treaties have been violated, and, if so, by whom; the Treaties remain in force until the League itself ensures sufficient protection for the nations concerned; the Treaties do not enter into force until Germany has become a member of the League. It is not too much to say, therefore, that without the League there could never have been a Locarno. It is also of vital importance to the whole principle of general security at which the League has been aiming that Sir Austen Chamberlain has repeatedly said that the Treaties of Locarno are only a beginning. It would be fatal if the Great Powers, having secured peace among themselves upon the Rhine, were then to stand by and allow the rest of Europe to sink into a chaos of armaments and distrust. The only justification for the regional pact is that ultimately the whole world. should be covered with regional pacts which would then be linked up under the Council of the League into a general system of world security.

The most important political questions before the League during the year were: (1) the delimitation of the frontier between Turkey and Iraq known as the Mosul dispute; (2) the GrecoBulgarian incident; and (3) the reduction of armaments.

The case of Mosul had been referred, in September, 1924, to the Council by the Treaty of Lausanne, and in that year a provisional frontier was traced between Turkey and Iraq and a Commission of Enquiry despatched to present a report to the Council on the various aspects of the case. When the Commission's report was received, in July, 1925, the Council set up a special committee to study the material furnished by the Commission. The Turkish delegates then raised the question of the competence and functions of the Council, stating that the Turkish delegation at Lausanne had been led to believe by Lord Curzon that the Council would only be asked to mediate and not to issue an arbitral award. The Council asked for an advisory opinion on the interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne from the Permanent Court of International Justice, which replied that the Council was competent to issue an arbitral award and that the decision of the Council must be unanimous, excluding the votes of the interested parties. Turkey refused to accept this interpretation but, in spite of this refusal, the Council issued an arbitral award in which the frontier between Turkey and Iraq is drawn along the provisional line traced in 1924. This decision gives the Mosul province to Iraq, but is subject to the prolongation for twenty-five years of the British Mandate for Iraq unless Iraq becomes a member of the League at an earlier date. This decision was accepted by the British Government.

On October 19, 1925, a shooting affray took place on the frontier between Greece and Bulgaria in which a Greek officer was killed. Greek troops were set in motion, part of Bulgaria was