three years, with eligibility for re-election at the end of that period.

Poland's relations with her neighbours underwent little or no change either for the better or the worse during the year. Efforts made to bring about a more friendly feeling with Germany had led to little result by the end of the year, while nothing of consequence was done to relieve the tension between Poland and both Lithuania and Soviet Russia. Apprehensions were roused in Poland by the conclusion of the Soviet-Lithuanian agreement, but these were dispelled by the Lithuanian coup which took place later in the year. On the other hand, Poland in the summer renewed her alliance with Rumania and concluded a treaty of amity with Yugoslavia.

While nearly all parties were agreed on the main features of foreign policy, acute differences prevailed on matters of internal policy, and these were from the beginning of the year reflected in the Cabinet itself, which consisted of a coalition of most of the parties, from Conservatives to Socialists. The former desired a relaxation of the eight-hour day law, in order to increase production, and also an increase in indirect taxation, but the Socialists objected strongly to both measures. With the Government thus drifting to an impasse, Marshal Pilsudski judged the moment opportune for re-entering public life after a prolonged retirement. Early in the year he allowed his name to be put forward as a candidate for the post of General Inspector of the Army. He had a strong supporter in the Minister of War, General Zeligowski. who removed from their posts a number of officers supposed to be unfriendly to the Marshal. His candidature was favoured by the Left Wing of the Cabinet but opposed by the Right. At the end of April the Socialist financial proposals were rejected in Parliament, and the Socialist Ministers resigned. The rest of the Cabinet, being unable to carry on government without them, soon followed suit. On May 10 a new Cabinet was formed by M. Witos, a former Prime Minister and leader of the Peasants' Party. Marshal Pilsudski immediately gave an interview to several Warsaw papers in which he sharply criticised the new Government. Before another day had passed the Marshal and the Premier were in open conflict, and the populace and the army took sides. The Marshal put himself at the head of a number of regiments and surrounded Warsaw, finally entering the city on May 12. Street fighting took place in which over 300 persons were killed and over a thousand wounded. M. Witos was besieged in the President's Palace, and after a short time the President of the Republic, M. Woichiechowski, resigned, leaving Marshal Pilsudski master of the situation.

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The Marshal's first step was to form a new provisional Cabinet with M. Bartel as Premier and himself as Minister of War. May 24 M. Rataj, the Marshal of the Diet and acting President,

summoned the National Assembly to meet on May 31 to elect a new President. There were two candidates, Marshal Pilsudski and Count Bninski, a Posen landowner. The election duly took place on May 31, and Marshal Pilsudski was elected by 292 votes to 193. To the general surprise he refused to accept office on the ground that under the Constitution the President had not enough work to do. A new election was thereupon held on the following day, and the choice of the Assembly fell on M. Mosciecki, a professor of engineering and a supporter of Marshal Pilsudski, who was sworn in with great ceremony at Warsaw Castle on June 4.

After being re-formed on a more permanent basis, the Cabinet of M. Bartels drafted a number of amendments to the Constitution, the most significant of which was that during the recess the President could issue decrees having the force of law which should subsequently be presented to the Diet for approval. After these measures had been passed, the country returned to a more settled condition. Parliament continued to function during the rest of the year, but all real power was in the hands of Marshal Pilsudski, who in October, on the defeat of the Bartel Ministry, himself assumed the office of Premier. As time went on he drifted perceptibly away from the Socialists and nearer to the parties of the Right, but he remained on the whole the most popular figure in the country

The economic situation of Poland continued to be serious throughout the year, the amount of unemployment being considerable. Some relief was afforded in the latter half of the year by the stoppage of coal mining in Great Britain, which gave a stimulus to the demand for Silesian coal, enabling Poland to show a favourable trade balance at the end of the year.

Danzig.-On March 3 the new League of Nations Commissioner, Dr. Van Hamel, arrived in Danzig to take up his duties. In September, Danzig applied to the League to sanction a loan of 60,000,000 gulden, but the League only consented to authorise half this sum, and insisted on a postponement of the issue of the loan until certain conditions had been fulfilled, one of the chief of which was a reduction of the bureaucracy. The economic situation was unfavourable during the year, chiefly owing to the conditions in Poland and the depreciation of the zloty. In January the Vatican decided to make Danzig a separate and independent diocese, subject only to the Holy See. Mgr. O'Rourke, who had been Apostolic Delegate since 1922, was appointed first Bishop of the Free City.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA.

M. Švehla's new Government, consisting of a National Coalition, which took office in December, 1925, adopted in all essentials

the programme of the previous Government, but it became increasingly difficult to carry out the details of this programme, not only because of the divergencies among the Parliamentary Opposition, but also because the Coalition was composed of parties with very diverse programmes. The elections of November, 1925, had strengthened the bourgeois parties and weakened the Socialists, whose influence in the Cabinet naturally declined in consequence. Compromise on many questions was inevitable, and this policy made legislation difficult. The new adjustment of the salary scales and terms of employment for civil servants, which formed a necessary supplement to the legal enactments of 1924, did not advance beyond the preparatory stage. Other legal measures which had been promised for several years and on which, to a certain extent, the economic life of the Republic depended (e.g., grants for the promotion of building, the taxation Bill, and the Bill to regulate the length of military service), likewise made little progress. The only measure to the credit of the Government was the regulation of the language question in which the language rights of the racial minorities were finally adjusted.

The greatest obstacle to the harmonious working of the Coalition was the renewed endeavour of the Agrarians to extend the system of protective tariffs to agriculture. The Agrarians demanded a flat rate tariff, a scheme which the Socialists could not accept. Consequently, when M. Švehla resigned the Premiership on account of ill-health, the Socialists left the Coalition Cabinet and brought about the resignation of the whole Government (March 17).

As the Czech parties which were left after the withdrawal of the Socialists had no Parliamentary majority, and other parties had hitherto shown no readiness to enter the Government, it was decided to appoint a Cabinet of officials, the members of which, with the exception of Dr. Beneš, the Foreign Minister, who was a member of Parliament, were recruited from the ranks of administrative civil servants. The new Government consisted of thirteen members; the head of the Government was Dr. Jan Cerny, who was appointed on March 19, and who had already acted in the same capacity during a similar crisis in 1920 and 1921. The two most important ministerial posts, Foreign Affairs and Finance respectively, continued to be held by members of M. Švehla's last Government.

M. Černy's Cabinet, aware of its provisional character, restricted its activity mainly to dealing with State administrative affairs and pressing questions, such as the imposition of flat-rate Agrarian tariffs and the adjustment of priests' stipends. It was enabled to do this through the support of the majority parties, the Agrarians and Clericals, comprising all the non-Socialist and more or less Conservative Czech elements, together with the Slovak followers of Hlinka (the most Conservative Party in the Czechoslovak

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Parliament), the German-Magyar Agrarians, the German Traders, and the German Christian Socialist groups.

The break-up of the National Coalition was but evidence of a profound crisis in the political life of Czechoslovakia. The Fascist movement, hitherto weak and without competent leadership, attempted to win over the masses by means of violent agitation and extreme nationalist demagogy. The campaign was carried on even against the President of the Republic and the Foreign Minister, who were regarded as the main representatives of the Czechoslovak democratic idea. The contest was intensified by the Gajda affair. M. Gajda, the deputy-chief of the Czechoslovak General Staff and the former Commander, first of the Czechoslovak troops in Siberia and then of Koltchak's army, was charged with very serious political offences. As a result of an inquiry Gajda was retired and subsequently degraded in rank; whereupon the Fascists selected him as their leader. The progress of Fascism was a disturbing fact to the Right Wing of the NationalDemocratic Party, despite its anxiety to exploit Fascism in its quarrel with President Masaryk and Dr. Beneš, no less than to the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, where disagreements induced Dr. Beneš to resign his mandate in July, and finally led to the removal of Deputy Stribrny (in September), who had been to all intents and purposes the leader of the party. In contrast to the chaotic conditions of the political parties was the success of the eighth Sokol Congress, which was held at Prague in the early part of July. The Fascist agitators had counted upon securing the Sokol movement for their policy, but the Congress proved to be a great manifestation in support of President Masaryk and of the common-sense nationalism for which he stood.

The unsatisfactory political situation underwent a change for the better when M. Svehla, the former Prime Minister, who had returned from abroad restored to health, formed a Government (Oct. 12), which was backed by a majority in the Assembly, including even the National-Democrats and the Slovak Clericals. The most significant feature of this Government was the active participation of the two German Parties (the Agrarians and the Christian Socialists), who hold the majority of German mandates; two Cabinet posts were assigned to them, that of Public Works (Dr. Spina, an Agrarian), and of Justice (Dr. Mayr-Harting, a Christian Socialist). The acquiescence of the German public in Czechoslovakia in regard to the inclusion of two German deputies in the Cabinet indicated the change of orientation among the greater part of German politicians, while abroad this event was rightly interpreted as a sign of the increasing consolidation of the Czechoslovak State. The new Government, consisting of fourteen members, comprises also four prominent experts who are not members of Parliament, but who hold important Cabinet posts

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(Dr. Beneš, Foreign Affairs; Dr. Engliš, Finance; Černy, the Interior; and Peroutka, Trade).

No great changes can be recorded in the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia during 1926. The relations with Hungary remained unchanged; the political and economic obstacles to a permanent rapprochement continued to operate. The case of the bank-note forgeries in Hungary, owing to its profound political implications and the method of its settlement by the Magyar authorities, was not conducive to an improvement of the relations between the two countries. In a Parliamentary statement on February 16, Dr. Beneš justified the interest of Czechoslovakia in the investigation of the case and the punishment of the culprits. He showed that there was an obvious connexion between this case and the forgeries of the Czechoslovak bank-notes in 1919-21, by which Czechoslovakia incurred material damage. While emphasising the political aspect of the affair, Dr. Beneš nevertheless expressed his willingness to conclude a Central European Locarno with Hungary at any time. This suggestion met with no response from Hungary. But the punishment of the culprits and the assurance that measures would be taken to prevent the recurrence of the crime eased the situation sufficiently to make possible the continuance of further discussions for a Commercial Treaty with Hungary. Although no definite agreement was reached, a provisional Convention on the subject of commercial relations was concluded on August 26.

The political relations with the neighbouring Republic of Austria remained friendly. The arbitration agreement with Austria which was reached on March 5, during the visit of Dr. Beneš to Vienna, is in its essentials only a detailed elaboration of the principles already contained in the Lany Agreement of 1922. The Austrian Chancellor, Dr. Seipel, returned the compliment to Dr. Beneš by visiting Prague on March 30. The revision of the commercial agreement between the two countries formed the question of outstanding interest, especially when, on November 6, the Austrian Government gave notice of its intention to terminate the existing agreement.

With Poland likewise relations were friendly; the agreements made in 1925 were ratified on April 13 when the Polish Foreign Minister visited Prague. The Little Entente continued to be for Czechoslovakia, in co-operation with Yugoslavia and Rumania, the pivot of Central European policy. A number of questions which had arisen in European politics during the previous year (the bank-note forgeries in Hungary, the international salvaging of Austria and Hungary, the crisis in connexion with the Council of the League of Nations and the question of its membership) showed the efficacy of this regional political grouping, and formed the subject of Conferences between statesmen representing the Little Entente countries (at Timisvar in February, at Bled in