the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice for another five years; further, the modification of the Pact of the League of Nations voted by the Assembly in 1925, the Convention with twenty-seven other States for the establishment at Paris of an international office for contagious cattle-plagues, and six draft Treaties concluded at Geneva concerning Labour regulations. The Labour Minister, on the other hand, informed the Second Chamber, that for the present he objected to the ratification of the Convention of Washington because this would place the Netherlands in an unfavourable position in respect to competition with countries which had not joined the Convention, and because experience had shown that countries which had joined the Convention did not always give the same interpretation to its various clauses.

The Treaty for control of the trade in arms, ammunition, and war-material concluded at Geneva on June 17, 1925, and the Convention on Slavery sanctioned by the seventh Assembly of the League of Nations were signed by the Dutch Government. The renewal of the Arbitration Treaty with Great Britain, provisional aerial navigation Treaties with Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland, a commercial agreement with Austria and commercial Treaties with Hungary, Siam, and Germany were ratified by Parliament, the latter not without sharp opposition in the country and in both Chambers. Provisional commercial agreements were made with Portugal, Mexico, and Turkey. Treaties with Abyssinia, with Greece, and with Haiti were signed, as also a telegraphic Convention with Belgium.

SWITZERLAND.

In 1926 a trade agreement with the most-favoured-nation clause was concluded with Germany, to take effect on January 1, 1927. The tendency of the agreement on both sides was to reduce duties as much as possible. The provisional arrangement made with France on October 30, 1924, regarding the free zones near Geneva (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1924, p. 232), was ratified in the autumn by the French Chamber, but not by the Senate. This delay caused great disappointment in Switzerland, especially as the French Customs officers continued to make arrangements for establishing themselves permanently in the illegally occupied zones (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1925, p. 220), as if the arbitral award had already been made in favour of France. The imposition of a duty on goods imported from the disputed zones was contemplated as a counter-measure, but was not carried through.

Relations with Italy were for a time unsatisfactory, but improved in the course of the year, as Italo-French relations became more strained. Unpleasant incidents arose out of the struggle in

Switzerland between the Fascist organisations with the consuls at their head and the non-Fascist Italians. A state of tension, which for some days contained elements of danger, arose out of a disturbance created by the Geneva Fascists at a memorial service in honour of Matteotti in Geneva Plainpalais when a fight took place leading to the arrest of the Fascists and one Anarchist. As soon as the Matteotti celebration was announced, the Italian Ambassador had requested M. Motta, the head of the Political Department (i.e., the Foreign Minister) to prohibit it. For this, however, there was no legal ground. The Ambassador thereupon gave notice that the Geneva Fascists would intervene. M. Motta begged him to prevent them; but although the discipline that prevails among the Fascisti would have made this perfectly easy, they were allowed to carry out their design. Thus a group of foreigners in Switzerland assumed powers which belong of right to the civil authorities, and to make matters worse, Signor Mussolini congratulated the Fascio on its action. What gave particular offence to the Swiss was the fact that among those who attempted to wreck the ceremony were certain Italians who, as officials of the League of Nations, enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

The Italian Press published violent articles against Switzerland, demanding that public addresses in Geneva should be confined to cantonal and federal matters, and threatening to have the seat of the League of Nations removed to another town. This campaign was, for a time, accompanied by a Press outcry against the alleged Germanising ("intedescamento ") of the Canton of Tessin, which, even if it was a fact, was a domestic concern of Switzerland. It seemed as if the whole question of the Tessin (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1923, p. 237; 1924, p. 232; and 1925, p. 220) was to be reopened, and Italian papers already began to speak of the frontier between the two countries as a mere customs boundary which could be easily altered. Suddenly, however, Signor Mussolini imposed silence on the Italian Press, and assured Switzerland of his friendship. Calm was restored, but it was again interrupted for a short time when it became known that the great military and motor road from Domodossola through the Antigorio and Formazzo valley to the pass of San Giacomo (6,720 feet above sea level), i.e., to the frontier, was nearly completed. This road leads into the very heart of the central natural fortress of Switzerland, the Gothard. When Switzerland was called upon-though not officially-to transform the bridlepath from San Giacomo to Airolo, the southern exit of the Gothard tunnel (about 8 miles), into a motor road, one part of the Press repudiated the demand very emphatically, while another took no notice of it.

Since the murder of the chief Russian delegate to the second part of the Lausanne Peace Conference, Vorovski, and the acquittal of his murderer by the Vaud jury (vide ANNUAL REGISTER,

1923, p. 238), Soviet Russia had refused to send delegates to Switzerland, on the ground that their security was not guaranteed. In order to deprive the Soviet Government of any excuse for not taking part in the Disarmament Conference and its preliminary labours in Geneva, the Federal Council had officially informed the Secretary-General of the League of Nations that no obstacles would be placed in the way of the Soviet delegation's coming to Geneva, and that full diplomatic protection and privileges would be accorded to it (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1925, p. 220). Moscow still refused to send a delegation to Geneva, the Federal Council accepted an offer of the French Government to use its good offices. Discussions took place in January and the first half of February. The Soviet Government laid down two alternative conditions for its sending a delegation to the Preliminary Disarmament Conference: either that the Federal Council should express its condemnation of the murder of Vorovski, and should offer to give pecuniary compensation to his daughter, or that diplomatic relations should be resumed between Berne and Moscow, in which case the Vorovski affair would become the subject of diplomatic negotiations. The Federal Council declined to consider the resumption of diplomatic relations. Discussions then took place on the Vorovski affair through the mediation of the French Government. The French Government finally proposed that the Federal Council should accept a formula in which it "condemned and regretted, as it had always done, the assassination of M. Vorovski, as also the attempt made at the same time on Mm. Divilkovsky and Ahrens. In order to restore good feeling, it was prepared to grant to the daughter of M. Vorovski material compensation, the exact nature of which would only be discussed when the Government of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and that of the Swiss Confederation should negotiate directly on the questions outstanding between the two countries" (i.e., the plundering of the Swiss Embassy in St. Petersburg in 1918, the murder of an official of the Embassy, the robbery of Swiss subjects in Russia, etc.). The Federal Council, at one of its own sittings, had determined to accept this formula, and only deferred the formal announcement of this till the Soviet Government should have accepted it. M. Tehitcherin, however, would not accept the formula; he declared that French mediation had failed, and refused to send a delegation to the Preliminary Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The boycott of Switzerland by the Soviet Government remained in force, as also the prohibition of subjects of the Soviet Union from visiting Switzerland. Throughout the negotiations the bourgeois Press, particularly in the Canton Vaud, strongly urged the Bundesrat not to make concessions, chiefly because it assumed, though without good reason, that France wanted to induce Switzerland to recognise the Soviet Government.

[233 In internal affairs almost the whole year was taken up with struggles over the corn monopoly of the State. The law creating this monopoly was adopted by the Legislature in 1925 (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1925, p. 222), but, as it involved a change in the Constitution, it required to be laid before the people and the cantons for approval. The food difficulties during the war had shown the necessity of making Switzerland less dependent on foreign countries for her corn supply. The best means of effecting this were considered to be the fostering of cereal cultivation in the country by the State guarantee of a purchase of cereals at a figure above world market price; the grant of a milling premium to those who produced for their own consumption; and finally the maintenance of larger stocks of corn; all to be carried out through the Monopoly Committee. On this point there was no difference of opinion; but there was a difference on the question whether the money required should or should not be raised by a corn monopoly, as stipulated in the law. The Federalists, who did not desire to see any increase in the powers of the Central Government, the advocates of Free Trade, and all who were averse to the State's taking any further steps in the direction of nationalisation and who feared the consequences of giving the State the control of the price of corn-and with it of bread-opposed the monopoly proposal, and moved for an Initiative advocating an antimonopolistic solution of the question. For this they secured the requisite number of signatures, and it will probably be voted on in 1927. The monopoly plan was supported by the Communists and Social-Democrats on principle, by a large part of the rural population, and by the Left Wing of the bourgeois Radicals. The voting on the monopoly law took place on December 8, and resulted in its rejection by roughly 371,000 to 367,000 in the popular vote, and 14 to 8 in the canton vote. Thousands of farmers and working men voted against the monopoly.

The Swiss Social-Democratic Party, at its Conference on November 7, resolved to join the Second International. Its leader, Robert Grimm (Berne), had been chosen Vice-President of the National Council, which meant that in the normal course of things he would succeed to the Presidentship. A strong movement arose against this, particularly in French Switzerland, directed not so much against the election of a Socialist to the Presidentship of the National Council as against Grimm personally. Grimm had headed the revolutionary general strike in November, 1918, which, had it not been quickly suppressed by the military, would almost certainly have led to armed intervention by the Allied and Associated Powers. As the National Council is free to choose its own President, the pressure exercised by the public on its representatives was, strictly speaking, illegal, but after some resistance the bourgeois majority complied with the popular wish. At the same time, however, it disregarded

the will of the people as constitutionally expressed in the rejection of the corn monopoly, by attempting to prolong indefinitely the existing corn monopoly, which had been created during the war by a Federal Council invested with extraordinary powers, and had since lost its legal basis. This attempt, however, was frustrated by the opposition of the Ständerat. The bourgeois majority first chose, on December 6, another Social-Democrat, and on his refusing to take office, the bourgeois Radical, Maillefer, (Vaud), as President of the National Council. To prevent any mob interference with the election, elaborate police precautions were taken a new thing in Switzerland. No disturbances, however, took place.

The deliberations on the military penal code, which were now in their sixth year, approached their termination in both Chambers. The National Council passed a Civil Service Act which prohibited civil servants from striking, but on the other hand fixed the salaries of the lower officials at a figure which, in the opinion of the Federal Council, was higher than the Federal railways and posts could stand. The Bill has still to be submitted to the Ständerat. A Federal law was passed dealing with the regulation of motor vehicles, which hitherto had been in the hands of the Cantons. As it involves a change in the Constitution, it will be submitted to a referendum in 1927. The required number of signatures were collected for an Initiative directed against the prohibition of gaming halls. The popular vote on this matter will probably be taken in 1927. The Chambers sanctioned a provisional tariff which will be the basis of trade negotiations till the general tariff is fixed. Finally may be mentioned the rejection by the Chambers, on the recommendation of the Bundesrat, of a proposal to create a Parliamentary committee for foreign affairs.

In the middle of December Switzerland was visited by an influenza epidemic which, though not on the whole serious, was very widespread, so that in some of the larger towns the schools had to be closed.

As President of Switzerland for 1927 the Federal Assembly (National-Ständerat) chose, by rotation, Bundesrat Motta (Foreign Affairs), who thus fills this office for the third time. Bundesrat Schulthess (National Economy) was chosen as Vice-President.

At the League of Nations meeting in March, the Swiss delegation supported the admission of Germany, but opposed any extension of the Council by the creation of permanent or nonpermanent seats. In a debate which took place in the Federal Council on April 13, M. Motta stated that it was the Swiss view that permanent Council seats should be granted only to universally acknowledged Great Powers, namely, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States. It was understood that M. Motta would uphold this view in the Com