BELGIUM

the eastern frontier of belgium was rectified in 1919 and 1920; under the treaty of versailles ger- many ceded to her neutral moresnet and part of prussian mores- net; cantons of eupen and malmedy were provisionally ceded to belgium by the same treaty, and the clecision was confirmed by the league of nations. the area of belgium was hereby in- creased to 11,792 sq. miles. the estimated population (1923) is 7,066,055. on dec. 17 1909 king leopold died at the chateau of laeken. in 1908 the congo, of which the king was the personal sovereign, belgium had been ceded by him to belgium. the death of the king was followed under the belgian constitution by a regency, of which m. schollacrt was president. on dec. 23 1909 the king’s nephew, albert of belgium, took the oath to the belgian con- stitution and became king of the belgians as albert i. i. political history belgian political problems before the war arose from the con- stant increase of the highly industrialised population and the con~ sequent need of economic development. the great urban centres of population were developing with prodigious rapidity, while emigration was practically non-existent. in ro1o the belgian industrial population amounted to 1,710,161 out ofa total popula- tion of 7,423,784; 120,000 persons were organised in the trade unions. this enormous importance of industry, as of commerce, largely determined belgian policy. belgium throughout main- tained practical free trade. in 1900, customs dues only repre- sented 2-3% of the value of imports, in 1913 1°4 per cent. yet, important as commerce and industry are, agriculture repre- sents an economic wealth not inferior to them. it is highly developed and its products constitute one of the principal branches of export. these two poles of the economic strength of the country, industry and agriculture, also determine the strength of the political parties. political parties —industry, with its enormous man power, has furnished recruits for the socialist party, while the agricultural population forms the basis of the catholic party, and especially of its democratic wing, the christian democratic party. both the socialist and the christian democratic parties are parties of social organisation. socialism has created enormous workmen’s co-operative organisations, as the vooruit at ghent, the afaison du peuple at brussels and the travail of jolimont; in rg10 the socialist party had organised 3,000,c0o0 members in its co-opera- tive undertakings, which had a turnover of more than 100,000,- ooo francs annually. similarly, the christian democratic party created a number of trade unions and social organisations, often directed by the priests. the most important of these are the boerenbonden, peasants’ associations for co-operative purchase and sale through societies formed on the raiffeisen system, which are organised in all the great rural districts in the flemish dis- tricts. this vast federation of peasants’ associations has its centre in louvain, where it has established an important bank. these two groups of democratic organisations, which constitute two powerful and disciplined masses of electors and are backed by great material resources, exercise a decisive influence on politics, the trend of which is towards social and economic control. the socialist trade unions were to try their strength in the cam- paign which they undertook in 1912 in favour of unlimited univer- sal suffrage. this campaign coincided with the violent educational struggle which now opened between the parties of the left (lib- erals and socialists) and the catholic parties. the latter, who had a majority in the chamber, brought forward a bill in 1912 to place the free schools and the public schools on an absolute equality. education, especially primary education, is largely in the hands of religious establishments, whose schools are recog- nised and subsidised by the state, and are in many parishes the only ones. for these religious schools the government proposed a treatment similar to that accorded by the state to public educa- tion. the liberals and socialists united against the right. nevertheless, in the elections of 1912 the catholic party retained a majority in parliament. in order to prevent this education bill from becoming law, and to force the introduction of universal suffrage, the socialist party organised a general strike in april 1913. several hundred thousand workmen went on strike. the educational law was passed, but the government agreed to intro- duce compulsory education as a concession to the liberal party, and the laws of may 19 and june 15 1914 make attendance at schools compulsory between the ages of six and fourteen. important, too, were the linguistic and military questions. belgium had enjoyed uninterrupted peace since 1830, and had interested herself little in military problems. in 1912, however, the threatening international situation obliged the prime ao minister, m. de broqueville, to introduce legislation instituting the principle of compulsory military service. in rg13 the army was completely reorganised; the general staff received the most extensive powers, 4 superior council of national defence was instituted, and schools of artillery, cavalry and engineers were created. the ecole de guerre and ecole militaire were re- organised, and armament was brought up to date. these re- forms were to be complete in five years. the war, 7974-8.—the international) crisis which came to a head in july 1914 found belgium unprepared for war, in spite of her recent military laws. the neutrality of belgium, and luxembourg had been guaranteed by the five great powers (great britain, france, prussia, russia and austria) in the treaties of 1839, which bound the guaranteeing powers to intervene if either party to a war violated that neutrality. on july 30, following the precedent in 1870, sir edward grey addressed a message to the french and german governments, drawing their attention to this point and asking for an assurance that belgian neutrality would be respected. the german govt. declared itself unable to answer this question; and on aug. 2 invaded luxembourg and sent belgium an ultimatum calling on her to allow the german troops free passage across belgian territory. if the request was refused, germany would treat belgium as an enemy. to this note belgium, who had mobilised 15 classes of militia on july 31, replied by a formal refusal on aug. 3. parliament accepted war unanimously, and the socialist party assured the government of its unreserved support. the leaders of the liberal and social- ist parties, mm. goblet d’aviella and hymans and m. vander- velde, joined the government as ministers without portfolio. tue war perrop the invasion.—in the night of aug. 3-4 the german army in- vaded the country. liege fell on aug. 7 and namur on aug. 23. the province of namur was ravaged, the towns of andenne, tam- ise and dinant were pillaged, and it is estimated that in the prov- ince of namur 1,949 persons were killed and 3,000 houses de- stroyed. after their entry into louvain the germans set fire to the centre of the city, when the cathedral of st. pierre, the famous library and 1,120 houses were destroyed. seventy-nine of the inhabitants were shot. the town of aerschot was almost destroyed. the germans entered brussels on aug. 20. in the course of the occupation of brabant 594 inhabitants were shot and in the antwerp and hainault provinces 665 persons. ant- werp was evacuated by the belgians on oct. 6, and with the with- drawal of the belgian army to the yser the whole country, with the exception of the southwestern districts of flanders, was under german occupation. (see world war.) the german occupation.—germany sent general von der goltz, baron von bissing, and general von falkenhausen as successive governors-general. the governor-general, assisted by a central staff, exercised executive power. he legislated by promulgation of orders, except in the two flanders, hainault and south cux- embourg, where all power rested with the highest local military authorities. provinces and districts were administered by ger- man officials, with military commandants of cantons. the powers of the belgian provincial councils were finally sup- pressed on july 6 1918. many belgian burgomasters were de- ported. the occupied territories paid a tribute, amounting finally to 60,000,000 fr. per month, for the maintenance of the german army in belgium. the legislative measures instituted by the german military tribunals were numerous and repressive (see legislation et udministration allemande en belgique de 1914 4 1918, j. pirenne et m. vauthier, carnegie endowment). von bissing also instituted, feb. 5 t915, a new judicial system, with two courts of instance, that of the provincial governors and of the heads of arrondissements and of commandants. the execu- tive and judicial power were not separated. on april 3 1917 the governors were empowered to pronounce total or partial confisca- tion of property. the belgian judicial powers were suppressed by decree of april 7 1918. german kaiserliche bezirksgerichte re- placed the belgian tribunaux repressifs. the family was pto- nounced responsible for faults committed by a single member of 352 it. a sentence pronounced on an absentee could be served by a third person; general confiscation of all property, forbidden by the hague convention and the belgian constitution, was intro- duced, as was deportation for refusal to work for the german authorities, or even for simple “ undesirability.”” on april 7 1918 german tribunals of first instance and appeal (in brussels and namur) replaced all civil belgian jurisdiction. the belgian magistrates, bench of judges and court of appeal mace frequent protests. three presidents of the last-named were deported in 1918 in consequence of a conflict arising out of the arrest of cer- tain ‘‘ activistes ”’ leaders. in order to disorganise the country, germany sought to exploit the linguistic differences between belgium’s northern and south- ern provinces with the help of the so-called parti activiste. from 1916 on, various decrees abolished the french language in the previous bilingual administration of flanders. on march 21 1917 a decree was issued dividing belgium into two distinct linguistic regions, with administrative centres at brussels and namur. all ministries were doubled, the flemish remaining in brussels, the walloon moving to namur. french became the only official language in the walloon district, flemish in the west. the use of german and flemish was, however, authorised in walloon territory. the activistes attempted to organise a new independent flemish state under german protection. on feb. ii 1918 an enormous demonstration was held in brussels against separation. german troops dispersed the crowds, but, in face of the unanimous protests of the belgian authorities, germany did not dare recognise a legislative authority for the raad van viaand- eren. with ceaseless energy, however, she continued her efforts to foster linguistic differences, notably by flemicising the uni- versity of ghent. industry suffered severely from the occupation. raw ma- terials were requisitioned, foreign enterprises put under se- quester on feb. 17 1915, together with all industrial concerns which might be useful or dangerous to germany, especially great metallurgical businesses, quarries, mines, electricity works, etc. in 1915 central offices were set up for the coal, oil and grease, water, gas and electrical industries. the government thus con- trolled all the essentials of industry. the stoppage of overseas exports ruined belgian industry. un- employment increased enormously, reaching 650,000 in 1916. germany desired to recruit these workmen for her own use, but met with obstinate refusals. on aug. 14 and 15 1915 appeared the first decrees ordering severe penalties for persons who re- fused to work for germany. at the same time, commissions were sent from germany to take out of the belgian workshops every- thing which could be used beyond the rhine, and to destroy systematically all machinery which could not be transported to germany. by june 30 1918, 167 factories had been completely destroyed, and 161 were on a list of the governor-general’s for immediate destruction. of the 57 blast furnaces, 26 had been rased to the ground, 20 put completely out of action. only the mines necessary for germany were spared. when the germans retired, in 1918, they ordered these mines to be flooded, but the order was not carried out. the process of destruction was hindered by the protests of the neutral powers, who threatened germany with economic reprisals. on feb. 18 and july 21 1917 work was forbidden in all factories and workshops except by special permission; the whole belgian working population was thus thrown out of work. at this mo- ment germany ordered the stoppage of all public works under- taken by the provinces and communes for the relief of unem- ployment. these steps were preliminary to the plan of deporting the belgian working population. in nov. the military authori- ties requisitioned able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 60 throughout the whole country. inhabitants on the lines of com- munication were mostly sent to the yser or north french fronts, to construct railways, prepare routes and dig trenches, often within the range of artillery. the other workmen were concentrated in great camps in germany, whence they were dispatched to german factories or labour battalions; 57,718 weretransported to germany, 57,541 to the front; 2,531 died in consequence of ill-treatment. belgium foodstuffs began to grow short in nov. 1914. immediately on occupation, the german govt. had repealed all measures taken by the belgian govt. to insure rationing. public authority had now no further power to intervene, and private initiative stepped in. committees sprang up everywhere. a central committee was founded at brussels under the title “‘ comite central de secours et d'alimentation,” under m. ernest solvay. the com- mittee desired to import foodstuffs from england, but the british govt. refused. finally, von der goltz having promised to exempt all imported foodstufis from requisitioning, the british govt. con- sented to allow their import under the supervision of the em- bassies of spain and the united states. the ‘‘ commission for relief in belgium ” was set up to organise the supervision (see relief). the activity of the comite central acquired enormous importance, and extended throughout the country. it then changed its name to ‘‘ comite national de secours et d’alimenta- tion.” by dec. 31 1918 it had distributed foodstuffs to pro- vincial committees to the value of over 33 milliard francs (23 milliards for belgium, 1 milliard for france). the profit made on the sale of foodstuffs was used to organise charitable works at an expenditure of 1,300,000 francs. after america’s entry into the war mr. hoover resigned his post as president of the com- mission for relief in belgium, and a spanish-dutch committee took over the work. the belgian government during the war-—the german occu- pation forced the government to retire, first to antwerp, then to ostend, then to havre. at the same time, over 1,000,000 belgians left the country, 200,000 fleeing to france, 100,000 to england and 700,000 to holland. the government in havre immediately set about reorganising the army, which had never left the front. on march 1 1915, after having reorganised the necessary centres of instruction, the government called to the colours all belgians from 18 to 25. numerous volunteers joined the forces. thanks to the establishment of officers’ schools, centres of instruction, munitions factories, gun foundries and hospitals, the govern- ment managed to maintain an army in the field with a mean ef- fective strength of 150,000. peace and reconstruction the peace-—belgium was represented by mm. hymans, vandervelde, and van den heuvel at the peace conference, but was not admitted to the deliberations of the council of ten. at the second plenary session of the peace conference the belgian, canadian and certain other delegates protested against the con- trol assumed by the “ big five; ” and from that time more scope was given to the representatives of nations other than the prin- cipal allied and associated powers. m. hymans played an im- portant part in drafting the covenant and m. vandervelde in framing the constitution of the international labour office. the treaty of versailles did not restore to belgium the grand duchy of luxembourg and dutch limburg which had been alienated from her by the treaties of 1839. but at versailles, she re- ceived again her own sovereignty and part of the prussian moresnet; while germany renounced in her favour her rights over the walloon cantons of eupen and malmedy. belgium was confirmed in the possession of these two cantons by the league of nations. the grand duchy of luxembourg (q.v.), by a plebiscite held in oct. 1919, voted for a customs union with france by 60,135 votes against 22,242 votes cast for belgium. in 1920, however, france renounced her claim in favour of bel- gium; and on july 25 1921 luxembourg entered into a customs, railway and consular union with belgium. in africa, belgium received the mandate for the urundi and the ruanda, repre- senting part of the territories conquered by the belgian army, which was operating with the forces of the british empire dur- ing the war. after the war the problem of belgium’s international status took on a new form. belgium was anxious to free herself of the restrictions on her right as a sovereign state to form defensive alliances, especially as the guarantee of neutrality which had been substituted for this right had proved ineffectual. the treaties of versailles, saint-germain and neuilly accordingly contained belgium the provision that germany, austriaand hungary recognised that the treaties of 1839 nolonger conformed to the requirements of the situation, consented to their abrogation! and accepted in advance whatever arrangements might be made to replace these treaties by the principal allied and associated powers, or by any of them tn concert with the governments of belgium and of the netherlands. the logical consequence of the new position was a military convention concluded in aug. 1920 between belgium and france, after full consultation between the respective general staffs. in nov. 1920 the two governments informed the league of nations that the military alliance had been concluded, and that it was of purcly defensive character, but no details were disclosed. it only comes into force in case of unjustified aggression on the part of germany; and stipulates formally that each of the signa- tory governments shall decide finally in each case whether it is to be applied. belgium offered to conclude a similar agreement with creat britain; indeed, her ardent hope was to sce a belgo-i'ranco- british entente established. this could not be achieved; but belgian foreign policy had a clear mission to maintain the traditions of the entente and to reconcile the british and i'rench points of view. her representatives at the various international congresses, mm. paul ilymans, jaspar, theunis and vandcr- velde, did important work in this direction. belgium’s policy has naturally been mainly influenced by the two problems of sc- curity and reparations (see the articles under those headings). under the influence of the latter problem she joined the french in their occupation of the ruhr (see rumer). on every occasion she has shown hersclf as conciliatory as possible, while insisting on the necessity of receiving due reparation. in order to arrive at a practicable settlement of the reparations question, belgium repeatedly sacrificed her rights of priority for the benefit of her allies (e.g., july 1920, aug. ro2r, july 1922). belgium became a non-permanent membcr of the council of the league of na- tions on its formation. m. paul hymans was elected the first president of the league. the treaty of versailles guaranteed belgium priority for the sum of 2,000,000 gold marks on reparations account. in addition her allies declared themsclves ready to transfer belgium’s war debt (5,600,000,000 fr.) to the german reparations account. in 1925 the united states required from belgium recognition of her war debt, although the remission of this debt had been foreseen by the treaty. an arrangement was concluded with america regarding this debt on aug. 18 1925 (see section on national finance). the question of the schelde was not solved by the treaty of versailles. belgium attempted to reach a modus vivendi on this subject with holland; but no arrangement could be reached, as holland laid claim not only to the sovereignty of the waters of the schelde, but also to the sovercignty of the wiclingen channel which would have made possible the complete isolation of bel- gium from the sea. on april 3 1925 a new treaty was signed settling the relationship between the two countries. reconstruction.—after the conclusion of peace the govern- ment was chiefly occupied with the problem of feeding the coun- try, which necessitated various measures prohibiting export and authorising the requisitioning of home-grown foodstuffs. in consequence of the destruction of industry, there were 500,000 unemployed in the country and 2,400,000 persons, or one-third of the population, were dependent on public assistance. the state was obliged to create relicf works immediately. the number of persons organised in trade unions rose from 200,000 in 1914 to 600,000 in 1919. by the end of 1919 the 2,000 km. of railway which had been destroyed were reconstructed. thanks to the recovery of the 24,000 belgian machines brought back from germany and to the huge orders for material placed in england and america (which were made possible by the credits granted to industry by the banks, these having enlarged thcir capital considerably for this purpose), industry recovered rapidly. 1in the locarno pact oct. 16 1925 germany, belgium, france, great britain and italy took note of the adoption of the treaties for the neutralisation of belgium. a treaty signed in paris may 22 1926, by great br tain, france and belgium confirmed the abrogation of these treaties. germany, austria, the netherlands and soviet russia were to be asked to give their adhesion. 353 the economic and social problems were rendered much more complex by reason of the difficulties which faced the government; the reconstruction of the devastated regions, valued at over 35 milliard francs, called for very great sums; military pensions, indemnities for damage caused by war, unemployment doles swelled the budget disproportionately. in 1919 the public debt had risen from 4 milliard francs before the war to 13 milliards, and passed 30 milliards in 1921. at the same time the fall of the exchange continually increased the cost of living. in 1925 the belgian francs seemed stabilised at 106 francs to the £ and the index cost of living at 500. this rise of prices naturally necessi- tated a great increase of salaries and readjustment of wages. at the same time the demand for social legislation increased greatly. on june 1 1919 the working day was reduced to 83 hours, and on dec. 1 toeight hours. this great victory of democracy brought a scrics of industrial crises. to prevent or diminish conflicts, na- tional councils, formed by delegates of the masters and the work- men in equal numbers, with an official as president, were set up after the armistice. the action, although devoid of any legisla- tive backing, was often successful. similarly in the mining indus- try, especially in the basins of the centre and borinage, a whole system of arbitration was set up, freely organised by the masters and workmen. the financial measures of the government were also democratic in tendency, including income tax, super-tax and an increase in succession duties. the fall of the exchange impoverished the middle classes, holders of state papers and mortgages and small house owners. this was further accentuated by the housing law, permitting tenants to continue to occupy thcir dwellings, limiting the rent to a sum not exceeding 125% of the pre-war rents, while build- ing costs had increased by 700%. on the other hand, the quick recovery of industry, speculation on the exchange and in shares, and the great orders necessitated by reconstruction contributed to enrich the industrial and commercial classes. the high price of living also improved the conditions of the peasants, who spent enormous sums on acquiring land. thus the middle classes were in a difficult situation between the rich capitalists on one side and the workmen and peasants on the other. the activity of the banks drained out all the free money in the country, and gave real power to the great financial establishments. the considerable improvement in the condition of the working classes increased the power of the trades unions. the socialist party formed the bangue belge du travail, while the increased wealth of the peasants gave the banque des boerenbonden very great financial and political power. the political result was the weakening of the liberal party, which was recruited from the middle classes, an access of strength for the socialist and cath- olic parties, and an increase of the democratic element. the passing of a law which re-established the legal personality of associations not aiming at profits (june 27 1921) also deserves mention. this law met a real demand, and the country is now covered everywhere with charitable, scientific or social associa- tions. the religious establishments are all under this form. the intellectual life of the country revived. the association internationale des academies chose brussels as the centre of its activity. on aug. 19 1920 an academie de la langue fran- caise was formed at brussels. the status of legal personality benefited the free universitics of louvain and brussels and the universilies of ghent and liege. the profits realised by the com- mission for relicf in belgium went to constitute a university fund, with a capital of 80,000,000 [r., for the development of the sciences in belgium. each university was further endowed with a capital of 20,000,000 francs. a war archives department was established to collect all documents bearing on the history of the war between 1914 and 1918. the period of restoration was blessed with a truce in the political struggle, unlimited universal suffrage from the age of 21 was introduced at the demand of the socialist party; female suffrage, which was claimed by the catho- lic party, was granted for communal elections. the elections of nov. 16 1919, under the new franchise, re- sulted in the catholic party’s losing the majority which it had held since 1884. at first the country was under a “ concentration ”’ 354 government, presided over by m. delacroix, and later by m. carton de wiart; afterwards by a coalition between catholics and liberals under m. theunis; then, after the elec- tions of april 1925, in which socialists balloted 818,852 votes, catholics 751,011 and liberals 305,032, by a democratic cath- olic-socialist coalition under mm.poullet and vandervelde. in may m. henri jaspar, as prime minister of the interior, assumed office with the support of all parties in the chamber and the senate, except a handful of extremists. but the most acute political question in belgium became the language question. official statistics in 1910 showed that of belgians over 15 years of age 2,198,296 spoke french only, 2,136,022 flemish only, while 805,012 were bilingual. from the linguistic point of view the country may be divided into three zones: (a) the walloon districts of liege, namur, luxem- bourg, hainault and south brabant, with a minority in roto of 23,531 speaking only flemish, (c) the flemish districts of east and west flanders, the province of antwerp, limbourg and the northern districts of south brabant, with a minority in 1910 of 56,232 speaking french only; (6) the arrondissement of brussels, situated between the flemish and walloon zones, in which the languages are fairly evenly balanced. an inquiry made in the city of brussels in 1920 gave 15% flemish-speaking, 33% french-speaking and 50% bilingual inhabitants. defence—according to the military law of 1923, the belgian army is partly conscript, partly volunteer. compulsory service with the colours is 12 months in the infantry, fortress artillery and engineers; 13 months in the cavalry, horse field artillery and horse transport corps. military service lasts for 15 years in the regular army and reserve, 10 years in the territorials. reserves are only called out in case of.danger of war. the strength of the army with the colours in dec. 1924 was 5,410 officers, 10,849 n.c.o.’s 63,181 men and 6,303 gendarmerie, total 85,743. the ficld army consists of 4 regular and 2 reserve corps, besides a heavy artillery brigade, air and miscellancous units at the dis- posal of the grand general staff. the navy is small, consisting of the ex-british sloop “ zinnia,” 14 ex-german torpedo boats and 22 motor launches. bibliography—colonies.—exposition internationale de gand, 1913, zrotsteme congres international colonial .. . compie rendu. 2 tom. (ghent, 1922); congo, revue generale de la colonie belge, etc. annual (1923 etc.); p. daye, l’empire colonial belge (brussels- paris, 1923). : | constitution.—la constitution belge du 7 fevrier 1937, etc., avec les modifications (brussels, 1922); t. h. reed, government and polttics of belgium (new government handbooks, new york, 1924). history.—clauses 31 to 39 of the treaty of versailles; e. cam- maerts, belgium from the roman invasion to the present day (1921); f. de perier, la neutralite de la belgique (paris, 1921); a. roussel le roy, l’abrogation de la neutralite de la belgique, ses causes et ses effefs, etc. (paris, 1923); j. destree, wallons et fiamands, la querelle linguistigue en belgique (paris, 1923); a. d’alia, la belgique in- tellectuelle, economique, politique (brussels, 1923); g. w. t. omond, belgium and luxembourg. nations of today series (1924). g. rency, j. cuvelier, tasnier, r. van overstraeten and a. de riololer, la belgique et la guerre (brussels, 1920-2); a. henry, le ravitailiement de la belgique pendant l’occupation allemande (carnegie endowment, paris, 1924). | | | law.—j. berta and e. vandervelde, codes des lois politiques et administratives co-ordonnees avec des annotations (brussels, 1922), etc. ' topography.—a_ manual of belgium and the adjoining territories, admiralty, naval intelligence dept., geographical section (london, 1922). (ei) il. the flemish movement the flemish movement took clear shape as early as 1830. in the nincties the extension of the suffrage strengthened the move- ment, and the law of 1808 proclaimed the flemish language officially on an equality with the french. the progress of democ- racy, the growing riches of a very fertile literature, the rise of a flemish upper class side by side with a i’rench-speaking upper class, were destined from now on to multiply the causes of con- flict and to necessitate many readjustments. the census of 1910 established the numerical strength of the linguistic groups: the northern half of belgium is flemish; the southern half is walloon, while the population of brusscls at the present time is mixed. the flemish minority in the walloon belgium districts is composed of peasants and unskilled workmen, whilst the french-speaking minority in the flemish district forms a great part of professional, financial, industrial and commercial circles, and has, therefore, 2a much higher social co- cficient. in the capital, where the population is mixed, french is predominant. the flemish movement is, therefore, faced with two obstacles: on its own territory, a large fraction of the bour- geoisie, numerically small but socially important; in parliament, a coalition composed of most of the walloon deputics, a majority of the brussels deputies and certain flemish deputies, this coali- tion being usually in the majority. the flemish point of view is that the extension of culture in flanders is only possible if the free development of the popular language is assured. a certain number of citizens maintain that it is impossible to carry this process too far without endangering the unity of belgium. the walloon case is briefly this: if the walloon is to know both languages in order to gain a public posi- tion in the central administration or a rank in the army, he is at an immediate disadvantage, since the flemish have a much greater general interest in learning a widespread language, whereas the walloon finds it difficult to learn flemish in a prac- tical fashion; besides which the walloons are disquieted by the fact that the flemish birth rate is something like three times as high as their own. in the years before the war, the struggle centred chiefly round the university of ghent. ‘there are four universities in belgium:- two state-maintained at ghent and liege, and two independent, at brussels and louvain. a bill was brought forward in 1911 by repre- sentatives of the three great political parties for the progressive flemicisation of the university of ghent. the question had not been settled when war broke out. on the other hand, parliament in 1913 voted a law demanding from army officers a sufficient knowl- edge of the two languages; it was unfortunately too late for this arrangement to take effect during the world war. the education act of i914 provided that the language habitually spoken by the child should be the vchicle of instruction. in the course of these years, the separatist idea began to strike root especially among the walloons and chietly for political reasons: annoyance at sceing a catholic government, which rested mainly on the flemish rural masses, remaining in power since 1884. during the war the german authorities tried to exploit the lia- guistic question to destroy national unity. their efforts were helped by some walloons and by larger groups of flemish ‘‘activistes,”’ some of whom believed in a german victory, while others expected a peace by agreement which would leave the measures taken by the occupying authorities untouched in-a free belgium. they had no support from the population, and the recognised leaders of the flemish movement opposed activism resolutely. in 1916 the ger- mans flemicised the university of ghent; in 1917 they decreed administrative separation. at the same time a flemish parliament, or “‘ raad van viaanderen ”’ constituted itself, and proclaimed the autonomy of flanders in dec. 1917. nothing of this survived the armistice. after the war, the linguistic problem was more urgent than ever. a jaw of 1921 established equality between the two languages in internal administration. the plan of flemicising the university of ghent, first broached in 1911, passed the chamber of representa- tives in 1922 by a very small majority, but was thrown out by the senate. a compromise was necessary, and in 1923, a fresh bill estab- lished a bi-lingual regime in the university eechent one-third of the courses was given in french; one-third in flemish, and the stu- dent might choose for the last third between a flemish and a french section. this compromise satisfied no one. dpro-flemish students saw in it the official consecration of a principle which they refused to admit, that is, the equality of the two languages in flemish districts, and therefore boycotted the flemish section. extremist ideas gained much ground; they are represented in the first instance by the “ party of the front ” which was originally composed of soldiers of the yser, but which ended by incorporating the whole flemish nationalist movement. thcir aim is autonomy of flanders under the federal regime, and they are the most vigorous advocates of the manifesto in favour of, the condemned ‘‘ activistes.”” the great majority of flemings, however, remain neutral in the traditional political parties, and refuse to acknowledge any separatist aims, especially in view of belgium's international situation. brntiograariy.—f, daumont, le mouvement flamand (1911); f. passclecq, belgian unity and the flemish movement (1917); a. schicks, la question flamande (1918); f. passelecgq, la onestion flamande et l’ allemagne (1917); baron beyens, questions beiges, la neutralite de la belgique, la question flamande, la restauration econo- migue (19t1); c. jacquart, par deld les frontieres linguistiques: etude statistique des langues parlees en belgique (louvain, 1923). ci) belgium hi. national finance pre-war situation —the belgian budget in the pre-war years presented the following results:— e.xtraordinary expenditure fr. balance ordinary expenditure fr, ordinary receipts fr, 156,502,000 121,760,000 146,517,000 142,947,000 682,487,000 695,252,000 755,463,000 788,614,000 672,954,000 689,186,000 749,254,000 787,385,000 9,533,000 6,066,000 6,209,000 1,229,000 to appreciate these results, it must be remembered that the receipts and expenditure of the railways are included in the state accounts. of the extraordinary expenditure which was financed by loans, about one-half was allocated for the railways. the remainder was used for productive purposes. public debt.—the public debt was apparently high (five mil- liard gold francs on the eve of the war), but it had been largely contracted for railways, telegraphs and telephones. directly productive state property was worth at least 3} milliard fr.; it yielded about 120,000,0c0 fr. in 1912, when the public debt absorbed only 160,000,000 francs. the provision for the public debt moreover included a sinking fund. in 1913, the sum of 20,000,000 fr. was devoted to its reduction. this provision for the extinction of the debt, together with the surpluses of the ordinary budget, compensated for the abuses of the extraordinary budget; belgian finance may therefore be said to have been healthy. taxpayers were not heavily bur- dened. the total national income was estimated at 6} milliard fr., and in 1913 the yield of the taxes amounted to 345,000,000 fr.; that is to say, they only absorbed 5% of the national income, as against 11% in france. post-war situation.—war expenditure was incurred without any legislature control, and no account had been drawn up by the end of 1925. during the occupation, the germans levied war contributions on belgium amounting to 2,620,000,000 gold fr.; in addition, they exacted 68,000,000 fr. from the communcs. belgian indebtedness to the allies amountcd to 5,600,000,000 gold marks. this was placed to german account by the treaty of versailles, but the united states were not signatorics of the treaty. the treaty of versailles further allotted to belgium a priority of 2 milliard gold marks on reparation account. upon the german evacuation, the belgian govt. decided to redeem the marks in circulation on the basis of 1-25 fr., as german currency had been imposed on the people. a sum of 7,392,000,000 fr. was required to effect this redemption, and this was the beginning of belgian inilation, the government never printed notes to cover the budget deficit; it even repaid 600,000,000 fr. of the advances received from the national bank for the exchange of marks. the allies did not agree to place to german account the cost incurred for the redemption of german marks circulated during the occupation, but belgium did not lose all hope of, at any rate, a partial indemnification for the losses she had sustained during the struggle. in 1919 the fiscal system, which had been in force for a cen- tury, was recast. the previous direct taxes were replaced by an income-tax modelled on the english income-tax. it comprises three direct taxes—the tax on land, the tax on investments and the tax on salarics and earnings—togcther with a supertax. financial situation.—the financial situation of belgium was very serious for years, so serious that the public debt increased by 40 milliard francs. this state of things was duc to the german invasion and to the cost of the reconstruction of devastated areas, completed in 1924-5. by june 30 1924 belgium had advanced on german account 20,719,000,000 fr., excluding the cost of the redemption ot the mark. but the crisis was passed in 1923. compensation for war losses was nearly completed in 1926; after this the payments made under the dawes plan could be devoted entircly to the reduction of the public debt, the normal reduction of which still continued. this was calculated to absorb 300,000,000 fr. in 1926. in view of the incompleteness of the public accounts, the best means of judging belgian finance since the armistice is to follow the 350 progress of the public debt, external debt being calculated at the same rate of exchange. the figures for the financial years, beginning in sept. of each year, are as follows:— 1919-20 increase of 5-5 milliard fr. 1920-1 increase of 6-0 milliard fr. 192%-2 increase of 2-5 milliard fr. 1922-3 increase of 1-0 milliard fr. 1923-4 increase of 0:2 milliard fr. 1924-5 increase of 1-0 milliard fr. these figures exclude the american debt, reinstated in the belgian national debt in accordance with the agreement of 1925. the in- crease of one milliard registered in 1925 1s compensated by balances accumulated at new york to meet the fluctuations of the exchange. summary.—since 1923 the belgian debt remained stationary, in spite of expenditure in two years of 600,000,000 fr. for railway con- struction, and still more considerable sums for public works, such as the port of antwerp and the devastated areas. the budget of 1925, ae which the accounts of the state monopolies are excluded, is as ollows:— . receipts expenditure r. fr, 4,526,390,000 611,711,000 928,345,000 6,066,446,000 4,268,007 ,000 115,821,000 976,707,000 §, 360,535,000 ordinary extraordinary reparations total the deficit of 706,000,000 fr. is explained by the important works undertaken by the state, and the indemnification for war losses. ordinary expenditure includes the whole service of the debt, even that incurred in reparation account. the estimates for 1926 foresaw a deficit of not more than 200,000,000 fr., more than covered by receipts from arrears of taxation and the reduction of debt. on sept. 30 1925 the position of the public debt was as follows: consolidated, 28,770 millions of francs; floating, 16,120 millions of francs; total 44,890 millions of francs. of this, 13,925,000,000 fr. were external debt, the dollar being reckoned at 22-50 francs. on aug. 18 1925 belgium concluded with the united states an agreement on the debt. this is to be repaid by the year 1987, by means of annuities reaching the sum of $12,700,000 from 1936 on- wards. the war debt is not subject to interest, while the debt in- curred since the war bears a rate of interest calculated at 1°35% up to 1934, and at 3} % in subsequent years. by an agreement made with great britain, dec. 31 1925, the total debt of belgium and of the belgian congo to that country (£12,600,000) is to be paid with- in 30 years, the interest being 5%. at the end of 1925, belgium was preparing a currency reconstruction, on the basis of the stabilisa- tion of the franc at roo fr. to one pound sterling or slightly more.’ binliography.—anglo-belgian trade journal (london, 1921, etc.); o. j. a. collet, la question financiere en belgique. etude sur la stabilisation et conversion du franc beige (brussels, 1923). (f. ba.) iv. economic history belgium is more highly industrialised than any country on the continent of europe, with the exception of saxony. in the second half of the roth century, 7 e., between the two great cen- suses of 1846 and 10900, the industry of the country underwent a fundamental change through the immense increases which took place in the numbers of the working class, and, more espe- cially, in the amount of motive power employed. leaving the transport industries out of account, the total steam power in- creased more than tenfold in this period, namely, from 40,000 h.p. to 430,000 h.p. in the period 1911-25 belgian industry continued to progress in the same direction, in spite of the world war and the mili- tary occupation. since the war, the amount of available en- ergy has been increased by means of various improvements, so that comparison is difficult; but it is probably not an over-state- ment to put the increase in the aggregate motive power of indus- try at not less than 50%, the most noteworthy additions being in the coal mining, metallurgical, glass-making and textile in- dustries, and in the power-producing industries themselves. the increase in the power used in, and produced for certain industries is as {cllows:— ! for six months (oct. 1925 to march 1926), the belgian currency remained steady but a hitch in the foreign loan negotiations and internal difficulties has caused a breakdown, the new three-party government proposed drastic measures and the stabilisation of the franc at a higher rate. 350 power in kilowatts industry barner omer eae p en a es a igio 1923 coal-mining : ; 208,200 351,929 metallurgical industries ; ; 146,941 158,873 glass, glassware and plate glass industries ; 18,225 28,548 textile . ‘ . 107,196 113,726 special electricity works 91,815 250,380 9725377 903,456 afining.—in the southern coal-fields, which have been worked for a long time, production tends to decrease, as the following figures show:— year thousands of tons year thousands of tons iqil . 23,054 1923 22,115 1913 22,842 1924 22,243 1919 18,343 the exploitation of the northern coal-field, the campine dis- trict, is, on the contrary, of very recent date, and this area has a great future before it. in 1872, just after the trial borings in dutch limburg, the belgian geologists, lambert and andre dumont, asserted the existence of coal in belgian limburg. a first partial investigation was under- taken by j. urban, who made borings at lanaeken in 1897. his venture was unsuccessful, as was that of a. dumont at the end of jan. 1899; but in aug. igor two further attempts by dumont established the existence of coal in this region. it is now known that the campine coal-field occupies an area of more than 100,000 hectares, and the coal content is estimated at 8,000 million tons. the beds consist chiefly of excellent gas- and coking-coal, 7.e., the very kind which is becoming exhausted in the southern coal-feld, and, failing fresh supplies, would eventually have had to be brought in from abroad. the campine beds he at a great depth, the distance from the surface varying from 475 to 620 metres for different kinds of coal, the earliest concessions in the area, and the first companies formed to exploit them, date from the first decade of the present century. up to the end of 1923 the total costs of production in the campine district had amounted to 550,000,000 francs. extraction only began in 1917, but in that year 11,640 tons were raised and the subsequent increase has been very rapid; in 1919 the amount had risen to 140,000 tons and in i924 to 1,116,670 tons. in all the belgian mines machinery is being increasingly em- ployed. in 1923, 49:2° of the coal in the southern coal-field was mechanically hewn and 59% in the northern. the yield from the metal mines, which had greatly diminished since the middle of the roth century, showed in 1926 signs of increasing vitality. several factors have been responsible for this new development, which, however, is still in the preliminary stage. quarrying —the comparative positions are indicated by the following figures:— ain cat a a aia a cns (er: ca i9tt 1923 no. of quarries at work ; ; 1,558 89! value of the production (in gold francs) : 64,700,000 83,000,000 number of workmen employed 35,809 28,427 \ the output of the industry is mainly in squared porphyry and sandstone, but includes also lime and the raw material of the cement industry, which has considerably increased its equip- ment since the war. iron and steel were greatly injured by the destruction due to the war, but, like many other industries, it is actually in a better position than before, owing to the replacing of the equip- ment destroyed by new and improved kinds. i9gii blast furnaces in operation ; aq 5. pig-iron production (thousands of | tons) ; . ; ; ; 2,046 2,808 average no. of workers employed in iron and steel works (blast furnaces, steel works, and rolling mills) : ' ; 32,935 35,086(1923) production of rough steel (thou- sands of tons) ’ 2,128 2,780 production of finished steel (thou- sands of tons) 1,655 2,379 belgium similarly, in the metal construction and machinery industries —although here, again, precise statistics are lacking—it is evi- dent that resources have been considerably developed, and va- rious kinds of work are now done in belgium for which recourse had formerly to be had to foreign countries. the development of the electro-technical industry is especially remarkable. zinc and lead.—new mineral industries have arisen, namely, tin, cobalt, electrolytic copper and radium production. these are all comparatively new in belgium; the raw materials are obtained from belgian congo, the mineral wealth of which led english consul to say that katanga would prove another rand, as far as copper was concerned; the supply of uranium discovered in the same province of katanga has given belgium a decisive preponderance in radium production. the drop in prices which followed the opening of the oolen works (campine district), which deal with the katanga minerals, has led to the closing of a number of foreign undertakings of a similar kind. glass making—the use of mechanical methods is being rap- idly developed, the processes employed being those invented respectively by the americans, libby and owens and the belgian fourcault. the present production of glass is over 41,000,000 sq. metres, or very nearly that of the pre-war period; 26% of this is made by machinery which the industry formerly did not possess. owing to especially favourable conditions the plate glass industry has been exceedingly prosperous since the war. plant has been greatly extended and many foreign factories are now under belgian control (in germany, czechoslovakia and poland). textile industries -—in this group the number of working- class factories grew very greatly after 1910. the “‘ filatures et tissages ’’ of the celebrated co-operative organisation “ voor- uit *’ is the largest business of the kind in belgium. the cotton industry possessed 1,492,000 spindles in 1914, and 1,764,500 at the beginning of 1925. the pre-war production of yarn was 51,000 tons; in 1924 the production was 49,264 tons, classified according to the place of origin of the raw material. the amounts of raw cotton consumed are: america, 25,213 tons; east inclies, 22,065 tons; egypt, 1,220 tons; miscellaneous, 766 tons. here again, efforts are being made by belgian industry in conjunction with certain colonial undertakings, the colonial government, and belgian finan- cial interests to secure that as much of the raw material as possible is drawn from belgian congo. the linen industry, which drew its supplies very largely from the baltic provinces of russia, suffered in an especial degree from the scarcity of raw material. these difficulties are now less acute; the industry has been able to establish relations with latvia and esthonia and is making a rapid recovery. relgium’s artificial silk industry was the most important in the world before the war. it has now been outdistanced by those of the united states, england, italy and germany, but still occupies an important place in the world’s markets. the industrial equipment has increased by approximately 75%. moreover, belgium, through her factories at home and abroad (in the united states, poland and hungary), has a practical monopoly of the chardonnet process (collodion silk), diamond cutting —the specifically belgian industry of diamond-cutting 1s carried on in antwerp, which in 1926 was the leading city of the world in this respect, having outstripped amsterdam and the german, french and american centres of the industry. antwerp handles a very large part of the output of the diamond mines of the congo and of portuguese angola. summary.—to sum up, the chief features in the development of belgian industry, regarded as a whole, are as follows:— 1. concentration and integration, especially in the iron and steel, machine construction, quarrying, cement, ceramic (tile-making), chemical, sugar and cotton industries; 2. development of mechanical processes in the coal, iron and steel, ceramic and glass industries; 3. the belgianisation of certain undertakings—iron and _stecl, zinc, metallurgy and chemical products—through the liguidation of the foreign, and especially the german, interests; the introduction of new kinds of manufacture machinery, chemical products, artificial silk (acetate process), radium, etc.; 5. a considerable increase in the interest of the banque belge in the national industries, and, as a result of its influence, a tendency towards concentration and combination, both vertical and_ hori- zontal; 6. an extended use of electrical motive power. electricity supply.—the following table indicates the advance made in the supply of clectricity by private undertakings in belgium, invasion of belgium (communal undertakings are not included), as shown by the generating capacity of the central station, the capital employed, the number of units sold and the development of main and secondary systems. py 1922 4,146,000! 383,749 410,039 389,401 7,376 4,631 population served generating capacity (kilowatts) 1,476,000 791375 71,117 85,170 1,938 500 cg apital invested (thousands of fr.). kay. hr. sold (thousands) secondary systems (kilometres) main systems (kilometres) 1 more than 6,100,000, if the large public undertakings are in- cluded. various schemes are in existence for the electrification of bel- gian railways, but the immense amount of capital required and political considerations have deferred them. labour. —beforethe world war, belgium was essentially the land of low wages. after the war the standard of livingof the working classes changed very greatly. the eight-hour day became the general rule, in spite of various legalised exceptions and modifi- cations. wages rose, owing to the power now possessed by the trade unions. albert thomas, director of the international labour office, stated in 1925 that belgium was probably the country where working-class status had been most conspicuously raised since the war. the result of this is that the owners of industrial undertakings can no longer make up for inferior equip- ment by low wages; and this is one of the most important factors of the technical progress indicated by the facts and figures set out in this article. sce the monthly bulletin of belgian chamber of commerce in london, continued as the anglo-belgian trade journal. (e. va.) belgium, invasion of.—the military redle of belgium in ro14 was determined by two considerations of fundamental im- portance: the geographical situation of the country, which, seated astride the direct road from berlin to paris and calais, had become the cockpit of europe, ancl her international polit- ical situation as defined by the guarantee of perpetual neutrality. the strategical situation in article 7, of the treaty with holland of 1839 it is laid down that ‘‘ belgium, within its territorial limits, shall form an inde- pendent and permanently neutral state, and is required to ob- serve this same neutrality with regard to all other states.” of this treaty “all articles are drawn up under the guarantee of austria, france, great britain, prussia and russia.’? this neu- trality clearly implied that belgium was under an obligation to use her military forces, not to repulse an aggressor at all costs— a task beyond her means andl one for which there could be no justification—but in such a manner as to prevent that aggressor from obtaining any anticipated advantage in his operations against a third party, 7.e., to suspend for an adequate period free passage along the great international strategic highway of which the axis is defined by the meuse, the sambre and the oise. the mission of the belgian army was essentially to gain time for itself and cause the enemy delay. to this end the foremost and best position to occupy, suppos- ing the enemy to come from the east, was the meuse, its steep scarped slopes and its two road and railway junctions, namur and liege. these two towns had been encircled by a ring of armoured and concreted forts by brialmont in leopold ii.’s reign. the forts lay beyond the firing range of the area built over, and acted both as bridgcheads andas “ points d’appui ” of fortified positions, from which, with the support of their guns, the fieldarmy could casily hold up enemy forces of equal strength. it might be that the enemy would bring up very supcrior forces in front of the meuse. in this case the belgian army would avoid being engaged in a battle which it was foredoomed to lose. it would retire fighting, step by step, on antwerp—its hase of operations and the national citadel—holding itself in readiness to move out again for the counter-offensive in co-operation with any relief force the powers guarantecing belgium’s neutrality should send to its assistance. | constituted a menace to itself. 357 such was the plan of campaign drawn up by king albert; but unfortunately belgium was in the throes of military reorganisa- tion when the world war broke out. the country had been slow in realising that the rivalry between its powerful neighbours in 1913 parliament had voted a compulsory military service system which was to produce 340,000 men in ro years’ time. actually, on mobilisation, only 117,000 men were available for the field army and 60,000 for the fortress troops. the field army, grouped in six army divisions and one cavalry division, was without any reserve drafts what- ever; the fortress troops, composed of men aged 28-35 years, were weak in cadres and poor in quality. the plan of concentra- tion had been revised, but there had not been time to make out the time-table for rail transport. belgian preparations—on the evening of july 31 mobilisa- tion was ordered. on aug. 2 it became known that the germans had invaded the grand duchy of luxembourg, and at 7 p.s. the ultimatum was presented to the belgian minister of foreign affairs by the german ambassador in brussels: ‘if belgium beh:ves in a hostile manner to german troops, and particularly if she impedes their march forward by resistance on the part of the meuse fortifications, or by the destruction of roads, railways, tunnels or other works, then germany will be compelled to re- gard belzium as an enemy.”’ belgium’s reply to this injunction was the categorical refusal which her sense of honour and of her duties toward europe demanded. since it was definitely from the east that danger threatened, and since france had officially declared that she would respect the integrity of belgian soil, the place of concentration indicated for the army was on the meuse between maastricht and namur. but, as has been said, transport arrangements were still incom- plete and a modification had to be adopted. the king ordered that the 3rd and 4th divs., mobilised at liege and namur, should remain in those fortresses with instructions to defend them to the last man. the remaining four divisions and the cavalry divi- sion were to make their way—the former by rail, the latter by road—toward the zone tirlemont-perwez-louvain, whence they were to proceed together toward the meuse with all possible speed. the attack on liege as already stated, liege and namur were not designed to withstand a regular siege, but consisted of a ring of forts (12 at liege, 9 at namur) which controlled the free use of the meuse bridges and marked a favourable line of battle. constructed about 1890, these forts, of triangular or rectangular design, had vaulted casemates of 2 m. 50-cm. concrete and were armed with two 15-cm. guns in cupolas, two 12-cm. guns and two 21-cm. how- itzers, besides some pompoms tn “‘ eclipse ”’ cupolas. the attack on | /. li [ege english’ miles kilometres 5 ite) aia ratlways fdvance of connie: cos belgian counter attach (} loncigus. oger gee oy a lagen ot ip a eo 1 xg. flemalle 4,4 lroe oa 79 ee 82 brigade cav. cu valry div. omivision rar regiment 358 strength of liege-—with the help of the 3rd div. the liege garrison was brought up to about 30,000 men. gen. leman was in command. while he hastened to have trenches dug between the forts, his main concern after aug. 3 was to blow up the rail- way tunnels and barricade the roads leading from germany. it was well that he did so, for on the 4th, at 8 a.m, six german columns crossed the frontier on the line aix-la-chapelle-st. vith, and at noon gun and rifle fire were heard at vise. the importance of the fortress lay in the fact that it controlled the lines of march of the german i. and ii. armies. now the success of the plan of campaign conceived by the general staff in berlin depended upon the rapid crossing of the belgian plains by these armies, and gen. von moltke, to avoid being held up in any way by liege, had planned to carry the position during the concentration period (while troops were being carried up by rail) with a special army composed of six brigades at peace strength and the three divisions of gen. von der marwitz2’s cav- alry corps. accordingly, gen. von emmich, with his ‘ army of the meuse "’ (consisting of 25,000 riflemen, 10,000 cavalrymen and 124 guns) was ordered to carry the place by a handstroke. the forts were to be masked by a few companies and their artil- lery neutralised by his batteries while six brigade columns would penetrate the intervals. this assault was to take place by night, and the columns were to make their way independently toward the town and storm this at daybreak. the aim of the whole enterprise was to secure the bridges before they could be de- stroyed. as regards the temerity of this scheme, it is only fair to say that von moltke expected to find merely the normal garrison of 6,000 men in liege. | german advance-—on the morning of aug. 4 the 4th div., followed by cyclists and chasseurs conveyed by motors, made its way rapidly along the dutch frontiers to vise. the roads had been barricaded with felled trees and it was noon before the cavalry reached the meuse, only to find the bridge submerged and the opposite bank lined with riflemen. on aug. 5 a coup de main aimed at fort barchon was severely punished by the short- range fire from the fortress guns. at to p.m. the various brigades, having completed their reconnaissances and the installation of their batteries, proceeded concentrically to the attack. the onsct of the battle was marked by great tension on either side and heavy thunder showers accompanied it. of the five brigades which attacked on the right bank, four were completely repulsed. in the south the 38th and 43rd in particular suffered severe losses round about sart tilman; they retreated over five miles the next day. the 34th bde., which attacked alone on the left bank after crossing the meuse near to the dutch frontier, was held up for several hours on the outskirts of herstal by street fighting and left 400 prisoners in the hands of the belgians, as well as a colour of the 87th mecklenburg regiment. by a strange chance a hali-company of jiigers, detached as a flank guard, made their way quite unopposed into the town, reaching the rue sainte foi about 7 a.m., where the garrison headquarters were situated. an aide-de-camp of leman and the captain of the company killed each other on the spot, and the escort, snatching up their rifles, put the jigers to flight. this extraordinary incident jed the commander of the defence to be- lieve that the encmy had brought over considerable forces to the left bank. fearing that the troops defending the right bank might be cut off, he at once sent them an order to recross the river, a decision by which the last of the german brigades was to benefit considerably. this brigade, the 14th, marching from east to west, was entrusted with the attack between forts fleron and evegnee, but had been stopped short by rifle and gun fire in the intervening village, its advanced guard being decimated, its general and one colonel killed. it would probably have come to 2 definite standstill but for the arrival at this critical moment, by another stroke of fortune, of gen. ludendorff, who was watch- ing the operations on behalf of the german il. army and was the very author of the plan of attack. attack under ludendorf—taking over the command he ordered a renewal of the attack and, as leman had sent all his reserves to sart tilman, succeeded in pushing back the three belgium, invasion of weak battalions opposed to him in an all-night street battle. toward 10 a. m. he arrived on the heights over liege with his brigade reduced by half and almost without munitions, uneasy rather than proud of his success, for there was no sign of the other attacking troops. a few small columns were visible in the distance turning westward; these were the victorious belgian troops, recalled to the other bank by the order to retreat. they were, however, so exhausted that once they had left the trenches they were incapable of engaging in a fresh battle. leman, acting on belief that the whole of the german vii. and x. corps were against him, gave orders to the 3rd div. to rejoin the field army. the himself would continue to hold off the enemy with forts alone. thus ludendorff was able to enter the town of liege without further opposition on the morning of aug. 8 most of the bridges had been destroyed. the forts, all of which were still intact, kept watching roads and railways, their guns making the use of either impossible. urged by ludendorff’s energetic repre- sentations, the german general staff now formed a new siege army, under gen, von einem, which comprised, in addition to von emmich’s group, all the troops of the vii., ix. and x. corps—taken as they detrained—and some powerful heavy ar- tillery, including several battalions of 21-cm. mortars and four 42-cm. howitzers. a new mode of attack was tried. one by one the forts were isolated, closely invested and bombarded with concentrated fire, which blew them to pieces and at the same time threatened to asphyxiate the garrisons. fall of the forts.——the defenders came through their ordeal with honour, and would certainly have held out longer but for the irresistible effect of the 42-cm. shells. pontisse, fleron and chaudfontaine only gave in when they had reached the limit of human endurance. on aug. 15, at 5 p.m., the fort of loncin sprang into the air, lifted by the explosion of a powder magazine hit by a 42-cm. shell, 350 men being buried under the debris. by a stroke of luck leman was picked up, unconscious, on the rim of this enormous crater by the germans, who were them- selves horrified by the spectacle. the last of the forts surren- dered on the 16th, leaving the way clear, at last, for the germans to whom the passage meant so much. while these events were taking place at liege the rst, 2nd, ard and 6th divs. and the cav. div. were assembling in the re- gion ‘tirlemont-perwez-louvain. the plan of marching towards the meuse was perforce abandoned on the information that the liege position was broken and the 3grd div. in retreat. consequences of the fall or liege belgian position outlined—on the morning of aug. 4, when the crossing of the frontier by german troops had become an established fact, king albert had sent a note to the british, french and russian governments announcing the violation of belgian neutrality, and proposing “a concerted and common action by the guaranteeing powers in order to resist germany.”’ in reply gen. joffre sent one of his staff officers to say that the french troops, amounting to four army corps, could not reach the region of namur before about the 15th. help from england would necessarily take still longer to come. under these condi- tions the king decided that the army should remain im its posi- tions, which were: (1) the forts of liege, acting as isolated works, under leman; (2) the fortress of namur, reinforced by the 4th liv; (3) the entrenched camp of antwerp, guarded by about 40,000 fortress troops; and (4) the field army, 90,000 strong, entrenched behind the river gette, forming a link between ant- werp and namur, covering brussels and excellent railway lines which could be used by any french or british troops that came to the rescue. unfortunately, the allies were not to profit by these arrange- ments. the french would not think of anything except their attack in lorraine and the ardennes; the british did not arrive at mons before aug. 22. as fast as the liege forts fell to the superguns the germans commenced to push their troops across the meuse without intermittence. as early as aug. 10 mfar- witz’s cavalry corps had thrown itself on the belgian front at tirlemont. on the 12th he tried to turn that front through belgrade—bell, c. f. m. haelen near diest. here he met the small belgian cavalry divi- sion, supported by four battalions and was completely routed, leaving 500 killed and wounded and 1,000 horses on the field. on the evening of aug. 17, the german i. and ih. armies having reached the front hasselt—st. trond-huy, the kaiser ordered the general advance. the next day, at 9 o’clock, gen. von kluck attacked the belgians on the gette between tirlemont and diest with seven divisions of the ix., iv., iii. and h. corps, while one division of the ii. corps and the 2nd cav. div. turned the left flank on the north to cut off the retreat on antwerp. retreat to antwerp.—this attack was no surprise to the king. for several days reports had been coming through that greatly superior forces of at least 200,000 men were approaching. gen. lanrezac’s french troops had got only as far as tphilippe- ville and the british expeditionary force as far as le cateau. to avoid useless and complete destruction, the belgian army began to retire slowly on antwerp, fighting rearguard actions at tirlemont on the 18th and at aerschot on the roth, and taking up its position on the line of the antwerp forts on the zoth. on this day, the germans entered brussels. tine siege of namur the belgium 4th div. remained at namur. the moment it lost touch with the bulk of the belgian army, it became part of the fighting system of the franco-british forces. german plan of altack——on the morning of aug. 18 joffre issued a succession of orders in which it was laid down that the french iii. and iv. armies should advance into the ardennes and the french v. army and the british expeditionary corps take the offensive west of the meuse in the direction of gembloux- nivelles. the two last-named armies were not in a position to execute this order; it was not until aug. 23 that they assembled on the line mons-charleroi-namur. meanwhile, the ger- mans having discovered—through the reconnaissances of their airmen—the french columns marching northwards between maubeuge and dinant, gave von biilow—already in command of the j]. and ii. armies—authority over the iii. army, which was to strike the meuse between namur and givet, and made up their mind to overwhelm the allied left by a converging attack delivered by 15 corps. it was essential to the scheme that the fortress of namur should be carried with the least possible delay. the task was entrusted to a special army detachment under von gallwitz. it included the guards res. corps, the xi. corps, three pioneer regiments, five battalions of 21-cm. howitzers, two battalions of heavy guns, one battery of 42-cm. howitzers and four of 30-5 austrian howitzers. these troops came into position northeast of the fortress. to complete the investment the iii. army detached the 24th res. div. north of dinant and the ii. army the 14th res. div. south of gembloux. ‘thus during the two days of the battle of charleroi the 30,000 men of the namur garrison drew upon themselves six enemy divisions and 500 guns. bombardment of namur.—the attack on namur was quite different from that on liege. there was no longer any question of a surprise. von gallwitz, who in peace time was inspector- general of artillery, aimed at an artillery preparation so devas- tating as to render the defence incapable of resistance to the assault. all his batteries concentrated their fire upon three forts, maizeret, marchovelette and cognelee, and on the interval between the two last named, where he intended to make a breach. the bombardment commenced at to a.m. on aug. 21, continued throughout the night and the whole of the following day, and reached its height on the morning of the 23rd. the trenches and the wire—at that time very slight—had disappeared. the forts were reduced to shapeless ruins; all their cupolas were put out of action. surrender of namur.—three french battalions had arrived in the fortress. a counter-attack, half belgian, half french, attempted to repulse the enemy artillery, but failed. the de- fending troops suffered steady extermination without being able to fire a shot. finally, at rr a.m. the german infantry masses made a sudden onrush—three divisions of them to a front of 43 km., held by what remained of nine battalions of 7oo men. 359 the defenders were swept off their feet. at many points, al- though enveloped, they put up a desperate resistance; and as a result it was not until evening that the assailant reached the outskirts of the town. gen. michel, commanding the fortress, had disposed a brigade facing northwest to co-operate in the french offensive which he was impatiently expecting. at about 1.30 p.m. he heard, how- ever, on the one hand that the french on his left had been driven back southward instead of advancing to the north; on the other that the germans, far behind his right, had crossed the mcuse between namur and dinant. with their front broken the gar- rison ran the risk of being enveloped and surrounded. michel therefore expedited the order for an immediate retreat toward the southeast. by dint of 48 hours of forced marches—coming after a three days’ battle—the greater part of the garrison succeeded in rejoin- ing the french troops and a fortnight later in reinforcing the belgian army at antwerp. five or six thousand men of the rear- guard were trapped between the flank corps of the german ii. and iii. armies, and after several skirmishes were forced to sur- render. the six forts which were still active at namur were able to hold up von gallwitz’s forces two days longer. suarlee and andoy only surrendered on the evening of aug. 25 after having offered a memorable resistance to the enemy’s mortars, which bombarded them simultaneously from all sides. see also antt- werp, siege of; frontiers, battles of the. brnliograriuy.—p. hamelius, the siege of lrege (1914); p. northomb, la belgigue martyre (1915); g. h. perris, the campaign in france and belgium (1915); c. sarolea, j7ow belgium saved exrope (1915); 1. van der essen, l’tuvaston allemande en belgique (1917); marschall von bieberstein, littich-namur (1918). see also worrld war: bibliography. (r. van qo.) belgrade (see 3.681d) had a population of 111,740 in 1921. the town is rapidly losing what remains of its oriental appear- ance, though the side streets are still cobbled and muddy, with small single-story dwellings and shops, as the serbs are building extensively to cope with the acute shortage of houses. ‘the tropi- cal diseases research laboratory has been amassing data as to the danger threatened by malaria in the district. the national bank was enlarged in 1925, and a new high road completed to cattaro. the city is connected by rail with the adriatic ports of spalato and sebenico. belgrade suffered two severe bombardments and changed hands four times early in the war. the world war began with the bombardment of belgrade by the austrians on july 29 1914. in 1914 it was taken by the austro-germans, but the serbs made a brilliant return, and in dec. king peter made a trium- phant entry into his capital. large numbers of prisoners were taken, but both they and their captors fell victims to a terri- ble plague of typhus. in sept. 1915 a general attack was made by austrians and germans on the river frontier. continu- ous bombardment for more than a fortnight made belgrade untenable and it was partly evacuated by the serbs. there was bitter fighting in the streets, but on oct. 9 the town fell. it re- mained in the enemy’s hands until the end of the war, and when the serbs returned to belgrade, the austrian empire had fallen and the kingdom of yugoslavia was already in existence. bell, alexander graham (1847-1922), american in- ventor (see 3.684), died aug. 2 1922 at his summer home near baddeck, nova scotia. bell, charles frederick moberly (1847-1911), british journalist, was born in alexandria, egypt, april 2 1847. educated privately in england, he returned to egypt in 186s, and there took up journalistic work, becoming the 71mes cor- respondent and founding the legypitun gasetie. in 1890 he returned to london as assistant manager of the tinics and to the end his great energies were devoted to the service of that paper. although in some ways rather out of touch with techni- cal developments, his strong will, indomitable courage and tre- mendous industry were instrumental in keeping zhe times alive during some very difficult years. this was the time when he was associated with mr. h. e. hooper in publishing and sell- ing the encyclopedia britannica and founding the times book 360 club. this dominating personality again asserted itself in 1908, when, in spite of much opposition, he brought about the sale of the times to lord northcliffe. he then became managing editor, a post he retained until his death in his office chair on apnil 5 1911. while in egypt, bell wrote several books, including khedives and pashas (1884); egyptian finance (1887); from pharaoh te fellah (1889). see f. harcourt kitchen, afober/y bell and his times (1925). belleau woods, a tract of forest land, in area less than a sq. m., 5 m. northwest of chateau-thierry, and 42 m. east of paris, where a fiercely contested battle took place between the united states and german forces in june and july 1918. when the third german offensive was launched on the aisne front, the and div. of the american expeditionary force under gen. bundy was rushed to the assistance of the vi. french army and deployed across the paris-chaiteau-thierry road west of the latter town. on its front lay belleau woods and the villages of torcy, bouresches and vaux, all occupied by the enemy. the germans had been halted at chateau-thierry but were con- solidating themselves at vaux and in belleau woods in prepara- tion for a renewed advance west of chdteau-thierry. the task of dislodging them was entrusted to the marine corps brigade under gen. harbord. the attack was made on june 6, and the woods were pene- trated but could not be held. the ground was extremely difficult, almost impenetrable underbrush covering a rugged outcrop of rock. three days later the attack was renewed. the fighting was bitter, but, after a struggle lasting over a fortnight, the woods were finally taken by the marines; bouresches and vaux were also captured and the german advance was effectively blocked. in this engagement the germans lost 24 guns ancl 1,654 prisoners, but the united states losses were severe, amounting to 285 officers and 7,585 men killed, wounded and missing. the battle- ground was in 1923 dedicated as a permanent memorial to the united states officers and men who lost their lives there, and the french govt. ordered the name to be changed to that of bois de la brigade de marine. (see german offensive.) belloc, joseph hilaire pierre (:870- }, british author, was born at la celle, st. cloud, france, july 27 1870, the son of a french barrister, louis swanton belloc. his mother, bessie rayner parkes (1829-1925), was prominent in the early days of the woman suffrage movement. belloc was educated at the oratory school, edgbaston, then, as a french citizen, served with the artillery at toul, afterwards entering balliol college, oxford, in 1893. he was naturalised in 1902. he was elected m.p. for salford from 1906 to rgto, first as a liberal then as an independent. verses and soitcts (1896) launched belloc on a varied, not to say tempestuous, literary voyage. historical studies of dunton (1899) and robespierre (1901) first proved his lively historical sense and compelling prose style. his independence of mind in politics showed itself at oxford, later as a staunch “ pro-boer,”’ and again in the circumstances of his retirement from parlia- mentary politics; it was shown too, in his association with cecil chesterton in conducting the eye witness, and in writing the party system (1911), and the servile state (1912). books of nonsense rhymes, such as the bad child’s book of beasts (1896); the path to rome (1902); satires such as afr. clutterbuck’s elec- tion (1908) and the afercy of anuh (1922); numerous volumes of essays and travel sketches; collected poems (1924); military and topographical studies; and the critise of the nona (1925)—these are samples of a great versatility of talent. as an upholder of nationalism and the catholic tradition, belloc has summed up his attitude best in two of his works, the jews (1922), andl europe aud the faith (1920). bellows, george wesley (1882-1925), amcrican artist, was born in columbus, o., aug. 12 1882. educated at ohio state university, he moved in 1904 to new york, where he stud- ied art under robert henri. in ro10, 1918 and to19 he was an instructor at the art students’ league in new york city, and in 1919 taught also at the chicago art institute. his work is distinguished by dignity of composition, vitality and intense belleau woods—benckendorff interest in life. his drawings and lithographs include many notabie illustrations of sporting subjects, and his painting showed at first a preference for sable shades. later, however, he added to the distinction of his drawing a rich, vibrant use of colour. among his paintings may be mentioned “ jean and anna,” in the albright art gallery, buffalo, n. y.; ‘‘ emma and her children,” in the boston museum of fine arts; “ portrait of my mother,” in the chicago art institute; “‘ polo game,” in the columbus gallery of fine arts; “ stag at sharkeys,’’ in the cleveland museum; “‘ men of the docks,” owned by randolph macon woman’s college, lynchburg, va.; “ up the hudson,” in the metropolitan museum, new york city; and ‘ north river,” in the pennsylvania academy of fine arts, philadelphia. he died in new york city jan. 8 1925. belmont, august (1853-1924), american banker and financier (see 3.710), died in new york city dec. 10 1924. benavente y martinez, jacinto (1866- _—+), spanish playwright and critic, was born in madrid aug. 12 1866, the son of a physician. he entered the law faculty of the university there, but, preferring literature, left without taking a degree. hfis first critical work was letters of women (1893) which he followed up with the comedy el nide ajeno (1894). he came under the influence of the french theatre for a brief time but soon distinguished himself by originality, imagination and classic purity of style. his light and elegant comedies were at first criticised as deficient in action, merely satirical dialogues aimed against society and its most sacred traditions. but he soon re- ceived encouragement from both the public and the critics and his various experiments in theatrical production never once resulted in serious failure. when his first comedy was produced the spanish stage was monopolised by the basque, jose eche- garay (see 8.870), but benavente soon proved his superiority and took his place. his dialogue is always brilliant, his characters true to life and the action never flags. several of benavente’s plays have been translated into various foreign languages and produced in remote parts of the world. he himself travelled through the united states and spanish america superintending the execution of his plays by a company formed under his own eye. in 1922 he received the nobel prize for literature. among his most notable plays are invested interests (1907), saturday night (1903), brute force (1908), the vulgar (1901), the mistress of the house (1901) and the rose of autumn (1905). benckendorff, alexander, count (1849-1917), rus- sian diplomat, was born in 1849. he entered the diplomatic serv- ice in 1869 and began his career as an attache in florence, pro- ceeding thence to rome. in 1897 he was appointed minister in copenhagen, and remained there until 1903. the copenhagen post gave him an exceptional opportunity for watching the principal moving powers of european politics from a point of vantage, as the matrimonial alliances of the danish royal yamily occasionally brought together in a friendly family circle the widow of alexander iit., nicholas ii. and the prince of wales, who was to become king edward vii. in this way count benckendorff received his initiation into the spirit of an anglo- russian rapprochement even before it actually resulted in an entente. when he was promoted, in 1903, ambassador to the court of st. james, the atmosphere seemed anything but favour- able to an anglo-russian rapprochement. the rivalry of the two powers in the east was growing more and more acute. but when the storm had discharged itself in the japanese war, count benckendorff had an important share in bringing about a change for the better. on the conclusion of the secret convention at bj6erke (1905) between wilhelm ii. and nicholas it., which was likely to disrupt the franco-russian alliance and so involve russia in a continental league against england, count bencken- dorff was invited to copenhagen and served as a confidential intermediary between russia and great britain. the bjerk6 intrigue evaporated without leaving any tangible result, and the historic rapprochement between great britain, france and russia took its course. benckendorff made his home in london where he died jan. rr 1gr7. benedict xv.—benes benedict xv. (1854-1922), pope, was born at pegli, in the diocese of genoa, nov. 21 1854, his name being giacomo della chiesa. in contrast to his immediate predecessor pius x., who was of humble origin and whose ministerial experience was mainly pastoral, benedict xv. was descended from one of the oldest families of italy, and his work had been chiefly in the official or diplomatic service of the holy see. his ancestors in the middle ages were enrolled in the patricians of genoa, while other branches of his family followed the popes to avignon in the 14th century. giacomo della chiesa was educated in the seminary and at the university of genoa, where he took his degree as doctor of law in 1875. afterwards he went to rome and studied for the priesthood in the collegio capranica, from which he passed to the accademia dei nobili ecclesiastici, the usual training school for those who devote themselves to the carriera, or diplomatic service, of the vatican. here he became the friend of cardinal rampolla, who, on being sent in 1883 as papal nuncio, to madrid, took chiesa with him as his private secretary. le remained in spain four years, and in 1887, when leo nii. recalled rampolla to make him his secretary of state, chiesa also returned to rome and was made minutante in his department. his work was the summarising and inditing of the official letters and dispatches of the holy see, combined with the functions of confidential secretary. as he discharged these duties for 13 years, he was able to acquire a unique knowledge of the international relations of the church throughout the world. in 1903, when cardinal merry del val succeeded rampolla as secretary of state, chiesa was retained in his post. on dec. 16 1907 pius x. appointed him archbishop of bologna, and on may 25 1914 raised him to the dignity of cardinal. the out- break of the world war in aug. of that year, and the death of pius x. a few weeks later, found him in the midst of the pastoral duties of his great diocese. at this time, as cardinal- archbishop of bologna, he delivered a remarkable address on the attitude and duty of the church during the war, and strongly emphasised the paramount importance of the holy see observing strict neutrality, while leaving nothing undone to restore peace and goodwill and to mitigate suflering. the address caused a deep impression, and was no doubt much in the minds of the cardinals when they assembled in conclave for the election of a new pope on aug. 31 1914. on sept. 3, after ro scrutinics, or votings, cardinal della chiesa was elected by a large ma- jority, and was proclaimed from the balcony of st. peter’s as benedict xv. during the war he preserved an attitude of strict neutrality, and made several attempts to effect peace. official relations be- tween france and the vatican were resumed, and a british representative was accredited to the papal court for the first time since the 17th century. he died jan. 22 1922. sce papacy. benes, edward (7884- ), czechoslovak statesman, was born may 28 1884 in the village of kozlany, czechoslovakia. his parents were poor peasants, but the boy was educated in the faculty of philosophy at prague university, where fees are small and are wholly remitted in the case of poor students. he con- tinued his education at the sorbonne and the ecole de science politique in paris, then at dijon, where he graduated as doctor of laws (1908). in 1909 he was appointed professor of economics at the prague academy of commerce; in 1912 lecturer, and in 1922 professor in sociology at the university of prague. when the world war broke out he was still a young man of 30, but was already one of the leaders of the czechoslovak nationalist movement, and soon became dr. masaryk’s right-hand man in the work of intensive nationalist propaganda which was pre- cipitated by the world war. in 1915 he went to paris to work as a journalist and diplomat in the cause of czechoslovak liber- ation from the habsburg yoke. there he collaborated with dr. t. g. masaryk and gen. stefanik in support of the allied cause. in that same year he was made general secretary in the czecho- : slovak national council, the executive body of the national movement, which in 1918 was recognised by the alhes as the czechoslovak provisional government, 3261 place in european politics —dr. bene’ became foreign min- ister in the newly formed government, and himself formed one government (1921-2). he was the head of the czechoslovak delegation to the paris peace conference (1919-20), and a sig- natory of the peace treaties. he was appointed czechoslovak representative at the league of nations in 1920; was elected a member of the league council in 1923, and re-elected in 1925. ile was co-founder of the little entente in aug. 1920, part-author and keen advocate of the geneva protocol of 1924, and repre- sented czechoslovakia at the many diplomatic conferences to which she was a party after the war. on behalf of his country he initialled the locarno treaties on oct. 16 1925, and signed them in london, on dee. 1 1925. the outstanding personality of benes in the post-war years was, not unnaturally, the cause of controversy among students of affairs in western europe, especially in great britain. british opinion of the left criticised him on the occasion of several franco-british diplomatic crises between 1920 and 10924, espe- cially those created by the genoa conference and the geneva protocol, on the ground that his orientation was toward paris rather than toward london. others criticised him on the alleged ground of “ interference ” between paris and london; and yet again, that his policy was that of an opportunist. the view, however, that is supported by the evidence of dr. bene&’ public statements and by his record of action, appears to be that he regarded czechoslovak political independence, in the first in- stance, as due largely to the franco-british entente and was therefore anxious to preserve the continuance of that entente. franco-british diplomatic quarrels caused him anxiety, both for the particular interests of czechoslovak security and for the general interests of european stability. at the same time, he showed himself to be an unsentimental realist, holding the view that a negative attitude in diplomacy was a blunder, irrespec- tive of the merits of the case. his object was the political and economic consolidation of czechoslovakia, to be effected through the regional method of the little entente and through a general european stabilisation. he adopted a most progressive policy toward russia, czecho- slovakia being the first country in europe to restart trade with that country. in common with the statesmen of most of the small nations in europe, dr. benes wished to see the principle of universal compulsory arbitration enshrined in international law. he partly evolved and subsequently advocated the geneva protocol of 1924. to dr. benes the main attraction of the pro- tocol was that it would, in his view, safeguard the interests of the small states, and best serve the interests of europe. it was not till the eve of the locarno conference in 1925, that he abandoned his public appeals on behalf of the principles of the protocol (even though the protocol itself was a dead letter by then); and he made it clear, when the locarno treaties were initialed, that he regarded them as an instalment of the proto- col idea. dr. benes never concealed that in his view and in that of his yugoslav and rumanian colleagues it was an important function of the little entente to prevent any hungarian or habsburg coup against the 191g settlement. it was largely due to his influence that the two attempts of april and oct. 1921, to restore the habsburg regime at budapest, failed. dr. benes has shown himself to be progressive in policy, and exceptionally well informed. his unbroken period of office, his work for the league of nations and the close touch he has maintained with european affairs during seven years make him one of the most influential of post-war statesmen in europe. after the locarno treaties were negotiated he at once began laying the diplomatic foundations for a “‘ locarno ”’ treaty for the east of icurope, to which hungary should be a party on the analogy of germany’s participation in the western pact. iie is the author of some 12 vol. on political and sociological subjects. his published works are mainly concerned with political economy and social condi- tions in central europe (see little entente). binliograpnhy.— periodic pamphlets, reproducing his public statements, issued by orbis (prague, 1920-5); e. benes, five years of csechoslovuk foreign policy (1924). (g. gu.) 362 benn, william wedgwood (1877- __-), british politician, was born may 10 1877 in london. he entered parliament in 1906 as liberal member for st. george’s, tower hamlets, which he represented until 1918. he was a lord of the treasury from toro to 1915, being an efficient and popular junior whip, and was acting chairman of the national insurance commission. a pro- moter of the national relief fund, he was chairman of the execu- tive committee when it was reorganised in 1914. he volunteered for service in the world war and had a distinguished record, re- ceiving the d.s.o. for his services in the r.n.a.s. his liaison work with the french and italian forces earned him the croix de guerre and the italian bronze valour medal and war cross. after the war, capt. benn returned to politics, being elected for leith as an independent liberal in 1918 and re-elected at subse- quent elections. he was one of the small radical group formed within the liberal party after the general election of 1924 and, as such, was an extremely active member of the opposition. bennett, charles edwin (1858-1921), american classical scholar (see 3.740), died may 2 1921 at ithaca, new york. his later publications include syntax of early latin, 2 vol. (1910, 1914); new latin composition (1912) andan english translation of horace’s odes and epodes (19t4) in the loeb classical library. bennett, enoch arnold (1367- ), british author, was born in the district of shelton, northeast of hanley, one of the “five towns” in staffordshire, may 27 1867, was educated there, and entered the offices of a local solicitor. in 1893 he abandoned law, and came to london, where he successfully practised journalism. his first novel of any distinction was anna of the five towns (1902). by the old wives’ tale (1908) he definitely established his reputation as the french realists’ most eminent and faithful disciple who, moreover, could draw on rich memories of the manners of the middle classes in the english midlands and who could exercise an inimitable humour. meanwhile this humour found other vents than through his more ambitious work. anna of the five towns is contemporary with the wild extravaganza, the grand babylon hotel, and he interrupted the composition of the old wives’ tale to write buried alive, a gay trifle not properly appreciated until it was dramatised. if the card (1911), followed by the regent (1913), devoted to the career of the adventurous denry, best illustrated mr. bennett’s humour, it is in the clayfanger series that his im- agination reaches the highest point. clayhanger itself was pub- lished in 1910, and its sequel hilda lessways in torr. in these novels mr. bennett not only created characters of unusual vitality and implicated them in an absorbing plot, but he also interpreted to the world the life of the pottery towns, the 19th century to the zoth. a well-known cartoon by max beerbohm expresses the impatience of the public at the delay in the appear- ance of the third volume of the trilogy. but these twain (1916) was disappointing. thereafter it seemed that the novelist, having exhausted his memories of the five towns, had also exhausted his talents. such books as the pretty lady (1918), and afr. prohack (1922) are vivid, expert, but seem intended rather to express the vulgar delight of a provincial in metropolitan luxury than to reflect the genius of a great artist. but riceyman steps (1923), the study of a miser and his loyal servant, although the scene is set in london and not in the five towns, again displays the psycholog- ical subtlety, the grim humour and the honest pathos of the earlier bennett. | as a playwright mr. bennett has been content to exercise his lighter talents. afiiestones (1912), in which he collaborated with edward knoblock, remains his most notable work, though what the public wants (1909), a comedy of the modern news- paper, the great adventure (1913), the dramatic version of buried alive, and the title (1918) have been deservedly praised. his sense of the theatre has proved too strong to enable him to put forward there original ideas, or to confuse the audience by new devices. similarly, in the short story, mr. bennett seems primarily to have ensued technical efficiency. the volume of stories called the grim smile of the five towns (1907) belongs to the best benn—benz period of mr. bennett’s earlier manner, but contains nothing of enduring merit, and elsie and the child (1924), apart from its title story, a sequel to riceyman steps, is little more than good journalism. mention must also be made of the works of popular philosophy. in them common sense is more conspicuous than profundity of thought or literary elegance. nor should the descriptive sketches, of which paris nights is an early example, be forgotten. rough and at times garrulous, they nevertheless show gusto. in a fantasy of mr. wells, the following notes from an unde- livered address appear: “‘ arnold bennett as an aborted great man, would have made a great victorian and had a crowd of satellite helpers. now no one will treasure his old hats and pipes.”’ if indeed mr. bennett’s hats and pipes are not collected by posterity, the spirit of the times will be principally to blame. like dickens, mr. bennett is an unsophisticated and occasionally exasperating novelist, but like dickens he has learnt how to command at once the applause of the few and the favour of the many. the few find in his serious work the fruits of a memory and observation even more precious than an exuberant fancy, a sanity and humaneness eminent in contemporary fiction, and a striking intelligence. (iia ba bennett, james gordon (1841-1918), american news- paper proprietor (see 3.740), died mav 14 1918 in paris, whence he had long directed the policies of the new york herald. in his will he provided for the establishment of the james gordon ben- nett memorial home for new york journalists in memory of his father, the founder of the new york herald. benson, arthur christopher (1862-1925), british man of letters (see 3.745), died at cambridge june 17 1925. after 1910 he published several books, mostly essays and sketches of people he had known; and in 1926 a posthumous novel, the canon, appeared. his best work, however, was probably done in biography, but the true force of his personality was never fully preserved in his writings; it was given to eton, his college, and his friends. his brother, robert huch benson (1871-1914), died at salford, lancs., oct. 19 1914. benson, frank weston (1862- ), american artist (see 3-745), in addition to his reputation as a painter, achieved marked success with his etchings and wash drawings of wild fowl, a field in which his talent is especially spontancous and happy. as in his painting, his work combines manliness and delicacy and is pervaded with a sense of gaiety. he has few equals in the reproduction of flying birds and waterfowl. benson, william shepherd (1855- ), american naval officer, was born at macon, ga., sept. 25 1855. he graduated from the u.s. naval academy in 1877, and after various promo- tions became captain in 1909 and rear-admiral in 1915. he had been commandant of the philadelphia navy yard for two years when, in 1915, he was appointed chief of naval operations. he was a member of the commission appointed to confer with the allied powers in 1917, and was appointed naval representative for preparing the terms of the armistice (1918), and naval ad- viser to the american peace commission. he was retired auto- matically in 1919 with the rank of rear-admiral. in 1920 he was appointed chairman of the u.s. shipping board and was made a permanent admiral for life. benz, karl (1844- ), german engineer, was born at karlsruhe nov. 26 1844. he studied under redtenbacher and grashof at the karlsruhe polytechnic and after working in various workshops on locomotive and bridge construction set up independently at mannheim in 1871. from his earliest youth he had aimed at “ putting the locomotive on the street,” having no knowledge of the english and french road locomotives of the 1820's and 1830’s, his interest in gas engines was awakened by lenoir’s gas machine. he constructed a two-stroke engine model of his own, and founded an engine factory. as, however, the group financing him would only deal with fixed engines, he left it. ife founded the firm benz and co., rheinische gasmotoren- fabrik, and began to construct fixed engines; then developed a light high speed four-stroke engine (300 revolutions, 2/3 h.p.) berchtold—bergson he discovered the differential, special electrical battery ignition with spark induction, surface carburetter. he completed his first car in 1885, speed 10-16 km. per hour, and took out the patent in 1886 (d.r.p. 37435). he sold the first car to the frenchman, roger, and then joined the firm of panhard and levassor. in england he encountered difficulties owing to the locomotives act (not abolished till 1896); and in 1893 he took out a patent for stecring gear with triple axle and steering rods tangential to the wheels. later, he took up his residence in mannheim. berchtold von und zu ungarschitz, leopold, count (1863- ), austro-hungarian statesman, was born april 18 1863, and entered the austro-hungarian foreign office in 1893. in 1903 he went as councillor of legation to petrograd and in dec. 1906 was appointed ambassador there. with the russian court and the aristocratic society of petrograd he maintained the best relations, but failed entirely in his eflorts to accommodate the obviously increasing differences between russian and austro-hungarian policy. he took a leading part in the negotiations preceding the crisis caused by the annexa- tion of basnia-iercegovina, which aimed at securing common action of the two powers in the balkan question. it was at his chateau of buchlov, in moravia, that the fateful conference took place between izvolsky and aehrenthal (sept. 15 1908). in march 1911 count berchtold was recalled from russia, and on feb. 17 1912 he was, against his own will, appointed aehren- thal’s successor as foreign minister. his efforts were directed toward securing the position of aus- tria-hungary in the balkan peninsula. at this time he consid- ered possible a peaceful solution of the balkan question by agrce- ment with russia and the western powers. but the obvious efforts of russian statesmen to weaken the influence of austria- hungary in the balkans, the aggressive activities of the serbs and the ambiguous behaviour of bulgaria forced him to change his attitude, especially as he failed to receive from the western powers the support which he had sought. during the three balkan wars, oct. 1912 to aug. 1913, berch- told’s attitude was characterised by weakness and indecision. he repeatedly took steps toward active intervention, but drew back when the entente powers used threats, and the other mem- bers of the triple alliance intervened with counsels of modera- tion in vienna. his efforts at the close of the third balkan war to secure a revision of the treaty of bucharest (aug. 10 1913), which was unfavourable to bulgaria, were as unsuccessful as his attempt to secure an accommodation between bulgaria and her rivals by way of direct negotiation. the prestige of austria- hungary in the balkans noticeably declined. serbia’s endeav- ours to extend her power to the adriatic and to win recruits for the ideal of great serbia among the kindred slav races of aus- tria-iiungary became more and more evident. tor these reasons, at the conferences at the ballplatz which followed the murder of the heir to the throne, the archduke francis ferdinand, on june 28 1914, berchtold maintained the view that a definitive settlement with serbia was essential, even at the risk of war with russia and france. after the outbreak of the world war he directed his efforts to inducing italy and rumania to carry out their obligations and to securing new allics for the central powers. these efforts were, for the most part, unsuccessful. turkey alone joined the central powers. rumania and italy declared their neutrality; even bulgaria dragged out the negotiations, though berchtold offered great concessions in return for her active intervention on the side of austria-hungary and germany. italy’s demands for compen- sation were acknowledged in principle by berchtold, under pres- sure from germany, but he embarked on the negotiations with hesitation, and to the day of his resignation (jan. 13 1915) he refused to listen to any proposal for the cession of austrian ter- ritory. in march 1916 berchtold was appointed obersthof- meister (lord high steward) to the heir to the throne, charles francis joseph, whom he subsequently served as oberstkiim- merer (lord high chamberlain). after the fall of the dynasty he took no further part in politics. (see austria.) (a. f. pr.) 363 berenger, rene (1830-1915), french politician (see 3.769), died aug. 29 1915. beresford, charles william de la poer beresford, ist baron (1846~1919), british sailor (see 3.770), long known as lord charles beresford, was made a peer in 1916 and died sept. 6 rorg, when the title became extinct. bergen, norway (see 3.772), had a population in 1920 of 91,443. the central part of the town was burnt down in rg16, but is being carefully replanned and rebuilt. a new road has been made from the old german quay to the street above, and the old warehouses, with their dark courts and alleys, are dis- appearing. a garden suburb has been laid out at finbergaasen by the municipality. the public library was removed to new buildings in 1917, and a post-office built behind the exchange. the rasmus meyer collection of norwegian paintings, old in- teriors and furniture, presented to the town, has been placed in the art gallery. the port has extensive quays and three large, and several smaller, engineering works, with shipbuilding yards attached. there are six patent slips and three dry docks. bergius, friedrich (1884- ), german chemist, was born nov. 11 1884 at goldschmieden near breslau. he studied at the untversities of breslau, leipzig and berlin and at the technical schools in karlsrubeand hanover. later he founded a private technical research laboratory in hanover, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of the influence of high pressure on chemical actions. this is described in his book the use of high pressure in chemical actions (1913). these studies led up to his work in connection with the conversion of coal into liquid prod- ucts. through the action of hydrogen under high pressure and at high tempcrature, he succecded in converting a high percent- age of coal-dust into oil, direct, without first obtaining inter- mediate products. the oil is equivalent in value to crude mineral oil. anexperimentalplant was erectedat rheinau near mannheim, bergson, henri (1850- ), french philosopher, was born oct. 18 1859 in paris, of anglo-jewish parents. after a brilliant career at the lycee condorcet, he hesitated for some time be- tween literature and science, being equally gifted in both di- rections, and then decided for the former. he became naturalised as a frenchman, and entered the ecole normale supericur where he was the contemporary of jaures. he taught philosophy first at the lycees of angers and clermont, and then in paris at the lycee henri iv., the ecole normale superieur and the college de france. in 1918, he succeeded emile ollivier at the academie frangaise. from that time he gave up teaching and devoted himsclf to politics and to international affairs, as head of a mission to america, and after the world war, as president of the committee of intellectual co-operation. bergson’s philosophy.—tthis account of the appointments held by him is, however, of small importance as compared with the history of the development of his mind, revealed in the books which have gained him a world reputation. he is the most highly esteemed of contemporary students of philosophy. bergson the philosopher is not, like hegel, schopenhauer and spencer, the creator of a great system, conceived as a whole in youth, and gradually expressed in later life. there is, nevertheless, in his philosophy one outstanding idea which is said to have come to him during a walk at clermont-ferrand, when he was 25 years old. since plato, philosophy hac consisted in eliminating dura- lion, in regarding time as an illusion, and finite being and eternity as one, and bergson asked himself whether, on the con- trary, the being, of which the philosopher took cognisance by re- flection, might not be one which endured, might not be time it- self. for the phrase of descartes, “‘ je suis une chose qui pense,” he substituted “ je suis une chose qui dure,” and for the sd specie acterni of spinoza, a sub specie durationis. just as he substituted durational for non-temporal values, so for static values, he substituted values of motion and change. this was the true bergsonian revolution, which may be related to the german and english historical and evolutional philosophies characteristic of the roth century. all bergson’s work is thus concerned with duration and move- ment. he does not proceed by general speculation. each of his 364 books is a study of one particular question, and this illustrates his second characteristic, originality of method. in his opinion, philosophy, like science, can only progress by disregarding gen- eral theories and universal systems, and devoting attention to particular problems, each of which demands its own point of view. the solution of any one of these does not necessarily in- volve an analogous solution of the others. bergsonism implies continued striving after a precise adaptation to reality. the aim of each of his works is the elucidation of a detailed problem, though each is also part of a general philosophy, the philosophy of duration and change. those who discover in bergsonism an apotheosis of intuition and of mystical values and a depreciation of intelligence are mistaken as to the true substance of his theories. the essai sur les donnees immediates de la conscience (1880), which was bergson’s thesis for the doctorate, is primarily an attempt to establish durational values, where the necessary illusions of the mind situate the appearances of space, and thence to proceed towards an original solution of the problem of free- will which was at that time the prihcipal occupation of french philosophers. matiere et memoire (1896) contains a detailed con- sideration of the problem of aphasia leading to a profound study of the means, namely the memory, by which existence is made continuous. in l’evolution creatrice (1907), he attacks the whole problem of existence. whilst spencer merely supported evolu- tion by evidence derived from fragments of the evolved, bergson takes as his material the essential motion of the being changing, or rather of the being which is itself both change and movement. this is his most famous and influential work, and that which has most fully expressed his ideas as to the secret of the universe. an important part of bergson’s philosophy is to be found in his minor works, such as the essay le rire (1900), his lectures at oxford entitled la perception du changement (1911) and the volume duree et simultaneite (1922), in which he discusses ein- stein’s theories. except for the articles which have been collect- ed under the title l’energie spirituelle (1919), he has published nothing of late years, though he has been engaged in the study of moral and religious problems. we must, in conclusion, refer to his position as a teacher and a writer. [fis lectures at the college de france were models of clear- ness and grace of expression and enjoyed great popularity. it was, however, probably as a master at the lycee henri iv. that his influence was most strongly felt. his style is modelled on that of the great philosophers, restrained and concise, like that of condillac and at the same time full of colour and imagery, like that of plato and bacon. (see ph1losopuy.) (a. th.) beri-beri: see vitamines; also 3.774. berlage, hendrik petrus (1856- ), dutch architect, received his technical training at amsterdam and ziirich and eventually settled at the hague. as his career progressed he broke away from the renaissance and gothic styles which he had originally followed and finally succeeded in expressing the con- ception of beauty prevailing in his own time. under the influence of these new ideas architecture in holland reached an important stage of development. the chief characteristics of berlage’s style are simplicity of form, severity of line and a preference for brick as a material. in later years he was actively concerned with urban extension, and in this connection became architectural adviser to amsterdam, the hague and rotterdam. berlin (see 3.785) is the capital of the german reich. the population of greater berlin (area 332 sq.m.) was 3,803,770 in rgig. the birth-rate in 1921 was 14-6 per 1,000, and the death- rate 12:8, making an excess of births over deaths of 1-8. it is now the second largest city in europe, the population being estimated at 4,042,000 in may 1025. the birth-rate in 1925 was 11-6 per 1,000 and the death-rate 11-2, making an excess of births over deaths of 0-4 per 1,000. berlin has undergone a very considerable development in respect of the form of its municipal organisation. the rapid growth of the suburbs, which were independent communities, necessitated the adoption of certain main lines of procedure, applicable both to them and to berlin, in order to prevent con- flicting action on the part of the authorities on one side and the beri-beri—berlin other. this led, in rorz, to the creation of greater berlin, as, in the first instance, an association of the city with the more important outlying districts for special objects. it embraced the city of berlin and the towns of charlottenburg, scheneberg, neukielln, wilmersdorf, lichtenberg and the administrative circles of teltow and niederbarnim. its objects were to insti- tute a common control of streets, roadways and the elevated railway, also of building and street alignment plans, the uniform co-ordination of police regulations and the acquisition of large tracts of forest and of land for building. this special union came into force on april 1 1912. it soon became manifest, however, that beyond co-operation for special purposes, a further co- ordination of the administrations of these places was requisite. it was only in the year 1920 that it was possible, after long nego- tiations, to form a new municipality of berlin, embracing all the suburbs under a single united administration. a law to this effect was carried through the prussian constituent assem- bly on april 27 1920, and was put into force on oct. 1 of the same year. this law effected the centralisation of berlin and all its suburbs into one uniform municipal region (stadtbezirk), but nevertheless left large powers of local self-adminbtration to the individual communes (gemeinden). varied developments —on may 15 1912 the former secretary of state for the treasury, wermuth, was elected chief burgo- master of berlin in place of kirschner, who had resigned. under his administration, which lasted till nov. 25 1920, the city expe- rienced notable developments. the first municipal crematorium was opened in 1912. in june 1914 the ship canal uniting berlin with stettin was inaugurated. in the same year the city ac- quired the estate of lanke, thus securing extremely valuable land for settlement purposes. in oct. 1915 the city purchased the berlin electrical works. the years of the world war neces- sitated the vigorous intervention of the municipal administra- tion in order to keep the population supplied with food and other necessaries of life. a special commission for food supplies was appointed as early as 1914. in 1915 the supply of meat, vegetables, milk, etc., by the municipality was instituted. the management of all these supplies necessitated the appointment of a host of officials. the establishment of the war departments of the empire and of prussia as well as of the city thus entailed an accession of population which by 1917 had caused a great dearth of house accommodation, a scarcity which constantly in- creased up to 1921, so that special offices for enabling the public to obtain dwellings had to be established under municipal super- vision. even in 1921 it was almost impossible to find a flat. the general necessities arising out of the world war demanded vast expenditure on the part of the city. the revolution.—the city of berlin suffered severely from the effects of the revolution of nov. 9 1918. the revolution itself was practically bloodless, so far as berlin was concerned, al- though the stormy sittings of the workmen’s and soldiers’ councils, held in the reichstag building, occasionally led to minor collisions. it was not till christmas 1918 that serious fighting took place, when the independent socialist party, sup- ported by the sailors’ division, tried to seize power. after sev- eral days of sanguinary combats in the neighbourhood of the castle and the royal stables, where the sailors had established themselves, the division was ultimately compelled to surrender. early in march ro1g the spartacist insurrection broke out; it began in the suburb of lichtenberg and spread over the whole centre of the city. the number of those who were killed in the street fighting was 1,175. the last victims of the revolution met their death on jan. 13 1920 when a mass of people, incited by spartacist propaganda in connection with the parliamentary debates on the industrial councils bill (beiriebsviifegesets), attempted to storm the reichstag building. there were 42 killed and ros wounded. the kapp pufsch in march of the same year was likewise attended by some casualties, but the decisive episode was a general strike imposed by the socialist parties and the working-class leaders in order to put an end to kapp’s usurpation of power. since the revolution of 1918 the police force has been recruited berlin—bertolini from the army, housed in barracks and clothed in military uni- form, in spite of many protests from the allies. it reverts to a military footing at once in times of disorder, as when a fresh communist outbreak was feared owing to the inflation col- lapse and the high cost of living in 1923, when a minor state of siege was put into force. during 1921-3 there were frequent strikes in the municipal services, with demands for higher wages, and food riots, with looting of shops. the population were nervous and exasperated, but the prevalent discontent was allayed with the fall of the government and the coming into power of stresemann. the prussian state library, opposite the palace of the em- peror william i., was finished in 1914, and two north wings of the frederick wilhelm university, in kaiser franz-josef platz, were built between t913 and ro19. in the latter year a new branch of the national gallery was installed, with a collection of modern pictures, in the palace of the crown prince in the zeughaus platz, and a portrait gallery in the academy of archi- tecture in the schinkel platz. the schloss museum was opened in the schloss in 1921 with exhibits of pottery, silver, furniture, etc. the important pergamon sculptures are housed in the neues museum, but a new museum is being built to the west of it to take the pergamon antiquities and those from western asia, and as a german museum. the hohenzollern museum, containing personal possessions of the prussian rulers, in schloss montbijou, is at present (1926) closed. a second large exhibi- tion hall was built on the kaiserdamm for the motor show of 1924, to obviate the overcrowding which previously existed. the north-south (n.s.) tube, begun before the world war, was opened in jan. 1923, and a new harbour, called the ‘“ west harbour,” in sept. 1923. it is situated in the northwest of berlin, between the ring stations of putlitzstrasse and brussel- strasse. for some distance it is contiguous with the permanent way of the hamburg-lehrter railway. the northern basin of the harbour is 655 metres long, 55 metres wide; the southern basin is 448 metres long and 55 metres wide. the two basins together have quays about 2,500 metres long, at which 68 large elbe ships of 600 tons can be dumped down and loaded simul- taneously. the harbour has the most modern arrangements for loading and unloading. berlin, irving: see baline, israel. bernhardi, friedrich von (1849- }, german soldier and writer, was born in petrograd nov. 22 1849, and he entered the german army in time to take part in the franco-prussian war. from 1891 to 1894 he was german military attache at berne and later he took charge of the military history depart- ment of the general staff in berlin. in 1907 he was given com- mand of the vii. army corps, but he retired in r909 and turned his whole attention to writing on military subjects. following treitschke, bernhardi held that war must come, that germany must conquer or fall and that she is entitled therefore to secure victory at any cost. ilis gospel of force, thus proclaimed outside his own country, was a factor (possibly exaggerated at the time) in creating a belief that germany was in an aggressive mood. his chief book was deutschland und der ndchste krieg (1912), the translation of which into english caused a great sensation. [a 1914, bernhardi commanded an army on the western front. bernhardt, sara (1845-1923), french actress (see 3.801), in 190g played jeanne d’arc in paris. in rgro she toured in america. in 1913 she was given the cross of the legion of honour. though lame as the result of an operation, she appeared in nov. 1920 in paris in a new play, danicl, by louis verneuil, and repeated this performance in london in april 1921. she died march 26 1923. bernstein, eduard (18s50- ), german politician and writer, was born in berlin jan. 6 1850. in 1872 he joined the social democrats and from 1881-90 edited, with bebel the soziuldemokrat in zurich and later in london, where he lived in exile until roo01. it was during this latter period that he became intimate with friedrich engels and karl marx. in roo2 he entered the reichstag as deputy for breslau. he led the revision- ist or right wing section of the social democrat party, but when 305 the split in the party occurred in march 1916, his pacificist convictions forced him to associate with the independents or extreme left wing. he rejoined the majority socialists, however, in tg1g. bernstein is, however, better known as a writer than as an active politician. his works include: die voraussetzungen des sozialismus und die aufgaben der sozialdemokratie (first pub. 1899, latest ed., 1920); zur geschichte und theorie des sozialis- mus (1901, 1904); sosialismus und demokratie in den grossen en- glischen revolution (1922); evinunerungen etnes sostalisten (1918); die deutsche revolution, ihre entstehung, thr verlauf und thr werk (1921). bernstorff, johann heinrich, count von (1862- ); german diplomatist, was born in london nov. 14 1862, the son of the prussian diplomatist, count albrecht von bernstorff, who was prussian minister and german ambassador in london, 1854-61 and 1862-73, he entered the diplomatic service in 1899, was secretary of legation successively at belgrade, dresden, st. petersburgand munich, and (1902-6) councillor of the embassy in london. he then went as consul-general to cairo, whence he proceeded as german ambassador in 1908 to washington, and remained there until america’s declaration of war against ger- many, in april 1917. he made great efforts to facilitate media- tion by president wilson, but he did not receive the support he expected from authoritative quarters in berlin. on the american declaration of war he returned to germany and was sent as am- bassador to constantinople, where he was employed until 1918. in various publications and in his reminiscences on his term of office as ambassador in washington, he endeavoured to prove that germany, if she had followed the proper policy, could have avoided war with america. this statement of his views excited much controversy in his own country. when the revolution broke out in 1918 bernstorff left the diplomatic service, but later took an active part in parliamentary politics as a member of the democratic party in the reichstag, and also maintained a close connection with the international press, and with pacific post- war propaganda, especially with league of nation matters and as chairman of the german league of nations union. berthelot, philippe (1866-— ), french diplomat, son of the eminent chemist, marcellin berthelot (see 3.811), was born oct. 9 1866 at sevres. entering the diplomatic service in 1889, he went, in 1904, to the foreign office, where he remained throughout his career. in 1913 he became assistant in the politi- cal and commercial department. in this position, during the absence of his chief, who had accompanied mm. poincare and viviani to st. petersburg, he did much useful work during the early days of the international crisis of july 1914. head of the political department tn rgro, he became, in 1g20, secretary to the ministry of foreign affairs with the rank of ambassador. in 1922, on the advent to power of m. poincare, he was sus- pended because of his intervention in favour of the industrial bank of china, controlled by his brother. in 1925 he was restored to the secretaryship. exceptionally cultured, experi- enced and possessing a most retentive memory, m. berthelot has played a most important part in the direction of french foreign affairs. particularly during the war, the peace conference andl ensuing vears. bertillon, alphonse (18s3-rg914), french anthropome- trist (see 3.812), died in paris feb, 13 1974. bertolini, pietro (:s50-1920), italian politician, was born at montebelluna july 24 1859. he began his career as a bar- rister and entcred parliament in 1891 as member for his native town, eventually becoming under-secretary at the ministry of the interior in the pelloux cabinet (1898-1000). later, after the fall of gen. pelloux he went over to giolitti, who appointed him minister of public works in the cabinet of 1907, and he proved a capable administrator. in the autumn of rgr2 sig. giolitti, who had returned to power in 1911, entrusted him with the new ministry of the colonies. he was rapporteur for the extended suffrage bill which came into force in 1913 and must be given credit for the ingenious machinery which he devised for enabling illiterates to vote and for avoiding electoral corrup- tion. throughout the world war he remained in retirement as 366 a confirmed neutralist. sig. nitti appointed him senator and president of the italian delegation on the reparations commis- sion. he died at turin nov. 28 1920. berzeviczy, albert de (1853- ), hungarian politi- cian and writer, was born june 7 1853. after studying law and politics at budapest university, he travelled extensively in europe. he was professor of law in the university of eperjes and in 1881 was returned to the hungarian parliament by the same town. he became minister of education in 1903, having held various posts in the department since 1884. from rg1o~2 he was president of the house of deputics. he is chiefly known for his works on history, art and politics. berzeviczy published numcrous historical and other works, among which may be men- tioned a bsolutism in mungary, vol. rt (1925); landscape painting in the r7th century (1910). in 1904 he was elected a member and im 1905 president of the hungarian academy of sciences, over whose centenary celebrations he presided in rg2s5. besant, annie (1847- ), british theosophist, was born in london oct. 1 1847, the daughter of william page wood. she married in 1867 the rev. frank besant (d. 1917), afterwards vicar of sibsey, lincs., but obtained a separation from her husband in 1873. she had become an ardent freethinker, and from 1874 to 1888 she worked in close association with charles bradlaugh, both in politics and in freethought propaganda, as a lecturer and a writer of pamphlets over the signature of “ ajax.”’ her increasing tendency towards socialism of the more revolu- tionary type occasioned a divergence between them after 188s, which was completed in 1889 by her adhesion to the theosophical society. she became a devoted pupil of mme. blavatsky (sce 4.48), and threw in her lot very largely with india. she founded the central hindu college at benares, and was elected president of the theosophical society in 1907; she established the indian home rule league, and became its president in 1916, and in 19017 she was president of the indian national congress, but later dissociated herself from the extreme wing of the nationalist party. it was her marked gifts of oratory and organisation which carried her to the position, unique for an englishwoman, of jeader in a hindu political movement. in addition to hernumerous freethought pamphlets and works on theosophy, she published an autobiography (1893); and the religious problem in india (1902). bessarabia (see 3.821), a province of rumania lying be- tween the prut, the dnicster and the black sea. its area is 17,350 sq. m. and the population in 1919 was 2,625,000. political history.—in 1912 russia celebrated the completion of a century since her annexation of bessarabia. the loss of that province, however, had always remained a sore point with rumanians, and the russian celebrations served to arouse rumanian national sentiment. meetings held in bucharest were attended by representatives of all the rumanian cultural societies and of bessarabian emigrants settled in rumania. among the most vehement critics who denounced the imperialis- tic tendencies of the tsarist govt. was dr. g. c. rakovsky, who at that time was a rumanian subject and the leader of the rumanian socialist party. in spite of the radical measures adopted by the russian govt. for the denationalisation of the moldavian (rumanian) element in bessarabia, such as the suppression of the rumanian language in schools and churches, etc., the province had not become russified nor altogether submissive to the rule of the tsar, and certain liberal-minded elements there, as in other parts of the empire, gravitated toward the democratic zemsizvos. to these popular organisations may be traced the origins of a powerful liberal movement amongst the rumanian population which set in at the outbreak of the russian revolution in 1905. this move- ment, however, was ruthlessly suppressed. when in ro17 the russian revolution proclaimed the right of peoples to decide their own fate, bessarabia declared herself autonomous (on nov. 3 1917) and a national council (sfatnd tsarei) was elected. on dec. 2 1917 the “ sfatul tsarei ’’ pro- claimed bessarabia a ‘“ moldavian democratic republic,’’ forming part of the federation of soviet republics, equal rights and liberties being granted to all its citizens. berzeviczy=—bethglen on the collapse of the russian front, the sfatul tsarei made an appeal to the rumanian govt. at jassy for rumanian army detachments to guard the railways and keep order in the province. on jan. 24 1918 bessarabia, following the example of the ukraine, declared herself the “‘ independent moldavian national republic,” thus detaching herself from the federation of sovict republics, and on march 27 of the same year the sfatul tsarei formally and unconditionally voted for political union with rumania subject to certain conditions for local autonomy, and the proposal was accepted by the rumanian gov- ernment. the union of bessarabia with rumania was not acknowledged by russia, nor at that period even by the allied powers. on nov. 27 1018 the sfatul tsarci accepted a new motion under which bessarabia was incorporated unconditionally in rumania. in the following year elections on the basis of universal suffrage were held, and for the first time bessarabia sent representatives to the parliament in bucharest. the union of bessarabia with rumania was recognised by the supreme council of the allies on march 3 1920, and formally and explicitly by the treaty of paris (oct. 28 1920) signed by england, france, italy and japan. england and france ratified the treaty, but italy and japan delayed its ratification. the united states stood aside from the treaty signed at paris on the ground that there was at that time no russian govt. to state the russian side of the case. rumanian treaties with yugoslavia and czechoslovakia do not involve these countries in the defence of bessarabia, but the treaty between poland and rumania signed at bucharest on march 3 1921 declares that the two states should come to one another’s assistance in the event of an unprovoked attack on their castern frontier. the union is still a matter of controversy between russia and rumania, and the e . . e « negotiations between russian and rumanian delegates which took place at genoa in 1922 and at vienna in 1924 led to no settlement. administration.—on assuming the charge of the administration of bessarabia the rumanian govt. took steps to ensure public order which had been disturbed by armed bands of bolshevists. pickets of troops were posied all along the dniester in order to exclude red bands and bolshevist agents. by the agrarian reform law passed by the parliament in bucharest all private estates over 100 hectares were expropriated and turned over to the peasants. thus, more than 340,000 peasant families became the owners of over 1,000,000 hectares of land. the administrative system of the province was chaaged by replacing the zemsteos (district councils) and volosti (sub-district councils) by prefects and sub-prefects appointed from bucharest. for administrative purposes bessarabia was divided into nine districts, each district being in charge of a prefect. population.—in 1919 the population was estimated at 2,625,000 inhabitants, of which the rumanians numbered 1,585,000, the rest being composed of russians (45,000), ukrainians (225,000), jews (138,000), germans (72,000), etc. owing to bolshevist agitation and a large influx of refugees and bolshevist agents who continuously try to cross into bessarabia, the province has been in a state of siege ever since the war. the commander of the army corps at chisinau (nishinev) is virtually the military governor of bessarabia. economic development.—the disorganisation of the ways of com- munication, which even in normal times were very restricted in the province, the parcelling out of large estates and the adoption of a new currency have hindered the normal economic development of bessarabia. rumania being herself an agricultural country, she can- not provide a market for the products of bessarabia (cereals, fruit and wine). under the russian rule odessa was her natural outlet, and her fruit and wine found a ready market in russia. the export trade of bessarabia can only develop when her railways have been reorganised as part of the rumanian system and converge toward the rumanian ports of galatz and braila. (see rumania.) see british white paper cmd. 1747 of 1922; les quatre decrets du gouvernement roumain en bessarubie (paris, 1919); the rouma- nian occupation in bessarabia, documents (paris, 1919). (g. bo.) bethlen, stephen bethlen de, cotnt (1874- ys ilungarian statesman, was born on oct. 8 1874 at cornesti (gernyeszcg), transylvania. his father, count stephen bethlen, was a member of the famous family that gave gabriel bethlen, prince of transylvania, to hungarian history. his mother was countess helen teleki. the son went to school at the theresianium in vienna, then studied law at the univer- sity of budapest and also obtained the diploma of the academy of agriculture at magyarevar. after finishing his studies he bethmann hollweg travelled in europe and the united states. on his return home he took charge of the management of his large estates—estates which were sequestrated after the treaty of peace by the ru- manian government. he soon began to take an active interest in clomestic politics, and in tgor was elected to parliament as a member of the liberal opposition. his speeches always attracted attention and particularly impressed that famous statesman count tisza, who, when in power prior to the world war, offered count bethlen a portfolio in the cabinet, an honour which count bethlen declined. the emperor francis joseph appointed him a privy councillor and this, with the exception of the degree of doctor of laws conferred, in t922 by the university of cluj (kolozsvar), now removed to szeged, was the only distinction count bethlen ever accepted. until he became prime minister in 1921 he had never held office. by the end of t925 he had been longer continuously in power than any other european prime minister of that day. the 20 years that elapsed between the day count rethlen entered political life and the day he became prime minister although not marked by cabinet responsibility, were full of activity in relation to domestic affairs and of service to the state. after the hungarian revolution of nov. 1918, and during the ensuing regime of count michael karolyi, count bethlen took a leading part in creating the counter-revolutionary organi- sation which, when the bolshevists came into power, took shape as the emergency govt. of szeged. (see huncary.) as the chief representative in vienna of this anti-communist govt. count bethlen did much to keep up the courage and the hopes of his fellow-countrymen and to create throughout the rest of europe the determination to end the excesses of soviet rule as enforced in budapest by bela kun. when the hungarian peace delegation went to paris count bethlen was one of the principal delegates, and it was under his personal direction that the hungarian memorandum in rela- tion to transylvania was drafted. ten months after the treaty of trianon had been signed, and a few days after king charles had made his first fruitless effort to regain the throne of i{ungary, count bethlen accepted the invitation of the regent, admiral ilorthy, to form a cabinet in consequence of the resignation of count paul telcki. as prime minister.—on april 14 1921 count bethlen be- came prime minister. few men in the political history of europe had so often and for so long refused high office: few hac ever taken it under such thankless and discouraging conditions. the succession states, with overwhelming armies, threatened the occupation of hungary on the ground that the recent attempt of king charles to regain the throne endangered the peace settlement. the great allied powers were in much the same mood. on the other hand the hungarian people were seething with indignation over what they considered to be the injustice and humiliation of the dictated ‘treaty of peace. in this crisis, with no cabinet experience, relatively ignorant of official procedure, bitterly opposed both by royalist and so- cialist extremists, count bethlen dared to lead his country. he succeeded at home because of his unquestioned patriotism, moderate views and political sagacity: abroad his powers of reasoning, fairness and flair for negotiation received quick recognition. by oct. of his first year as prime minister he had achieved a notable diplomatic success in concluding at the conference of venice an amicable agreement with the austrian chancellor regarding western hungary (burgenland). for months austria and hungary had been on the verge of hostilities over the owner- ship of this territory which under the peace treaty had been allotted to austria. in consequence of the venice conference the important town of sopron and its environs, after a plebiscite, were ceded back to hungary. in the s: count bethlen had to face another national crisis when king charles for the second time, but on this occasion with armed forces, endeavoured to regain his throne. the firmness shown by count bethlen in concert with the regent, after all avenues 367 of negotiation with charles had been exhausted, undoubtedly saved hungary from national extinction. the elections rendered necessary by the expiration of the mandates of the existing parlidment returned count bethlen to power in june 1922. this enabled him to substitute for his previous coalition govt. a new cabinet supported by a united ‘* government party.’ this second govt. of count bethlen can scarcely fail to be one of the most important, if not the most important, in hungarian history. by the end of 1925 it had completed the scheme of land reform, created a new basis of suffrage, approved radically new standing orders for parlia- ment, ratified agreements settling outstanding political and economic difhculties with neighbouring states and last but most important of all had achieved the financial and economic salva- tion of hungary. the courage of count bethlen in accepting office in his country’s darkest days had been rewarded. there were several occasions between 1921 and 1925 when it appeared impossible for him to weather the political storm and when his defeat seemed only a matter of days or even hours. that he survived, and not only succeeded, but obtained ascendancy was due to his unswerving devotion to the principle of national consolidation and his skilful policy of the ‘ golden mean.” the economic salvation and reconstruction of hungary became possible almost solely owing to count bethlen’s per- sonality and to his individual efforts. in the spring of 1923 he appealed in paris to the reparation commission so to suspend the reparation sword of damocles as to permit hungary to remain alive. at that time the state was faced with bank- ruptcy and the people with ruin. count bethlen took his politi- cal fortune in his hand and pledged his proud countrymen to accept the financial control of the league of nations. most of his opponents and many of his supporters thought that would be his political death. the reparation commission, by the casling vote of france, refused count bethlen’s request. he went on a desperate pilgrimage to london, paris and rome to get that decision reconsidered. he was a stranger to practically all the allied ministers, yet thanks to his transparent integrity and reasonableness he succeeded. within 18 months the repara- tion commission had suspended the reparation charges, the league of nations had arranged all the intricate details of a plan of reconstruction, the hungarian parliament had agreed to all the league’s demands of control, and a loan of about £11,000,000 was floated successfully on the money markets of the world— principally in london and mainly through british support. that would never have been achieved if count bethlen had been a man of less patience or less determination. by the end of 1925, thanks to the self-sacrifice of the hun- garian people and their willingness to follow the lead of their prime minister, the reconstruction scheme was assured of a success far beyond the anticipation of the league or of the out- side world. ‘the hungarian budget showed a surplus instead of a deficit, the currency was stabilised, and instead of £11,000,000 only £3,000,000 had been required to meet deficits in the earlier stages. it was not surprising that the chairman of the financial committee of the league said that body were ‘“‘ glad to convey their very sincere congratulations to you, count bethlen, who have directed the fortunes of your country through so many difficult years and are still guiding it through the present effort of reconstruction.” count bethlen married countess margit bethlen, a talented poetess. the belongs, like his ancestors who raised armies for calvinism, to the reformed (calvinist) church. (w. go.*) bethmann hollweg, theobald von (1856-1921), german statesman, was born nov. 29 1856 at hohenfinow, near berlin (see 11.898). ye was descended from the frankfort banking family of bethmann, which attained great prosperity in the 18th century, and a branch of which was founded by his great-grandfather johann jakob hollweg, who had married a daughter of the house. ilaving risen through the regular legal and official stages of promotion, in 1905 he was appointed prussian minister of the interior and in 1907 secretary of state for the impcrial home 368 office and vice-president of the prussian ministry. at the time of bethmann hollweg’s appointment to the chancellorship in 1909, internal affairs, under his predecessor, prince biilow, had reached a deadlock in the reichstag owing to the revolt of a section of the liberal-conservative bloc against the proposal to establish death dutics as part of the reform of the finances of the empire. it was not until the general elections of 1912 had transformed the situation by bringing a great accession to the strength of the moderate national liberals and the left, espe- cially the social democrats, that the government was able to reckon upon a more amenable majority. in the interval bethmann hollweg endeavoured to conciliate the catholic centre by a policy of compromise in matters which had threatencd to lead to a renewal of the aulturkampf, such as the denunciation of the reformation in the papal encyclical of roro and the catholic demand for the modification of the jesuit law. he secured the final abrogation of this jaw under stress of war conditions in april 1917. bethmann ifollweg was like- wise the sponsor of the new constitution for alsace-lorraine (g.v.) which in 1911 established the government of that territory of the empire upon the basis of popular representation in a territorial assembly and admission, though without full state rights, to the federal council. he was less successful with the vexed question of the prussian franchise, which, in 1910, he attempted to solve by proposing a direct system of election while retaining in a modified form the local division of the electorate according to income-tax assessment into three classes. his bill was ultimately rejected by the reactionary chamber of deputies. he was equally unsuccessful in dealing with an outbreak of militarism in nov. 1913 at zabern in alsace where the popula- tion, exasperated by the truculence of a young officer, was sub- jected to the arbitrary exercise of martial law by the colonel in command of the garrison. bethmann hollweg’s treatment of the incident satisfied neither the reactionarics nor the advanced parties, and, for the first time in the history of the reichstag, a vote of censure was passed upon the chancellor. in 1914 bethmann hollweg became famous by his remark to sir edward goschen, british ambassador in berlin, that the belgian guarantee was “a scrap of paper.’’ over unrestricted submarine warfare he divested himself of responsibility, having declared in jan. r917, “‘i can give your majesty neither my assent to the unrestricted submarine warfare nor my refusal.”’ by the middle of july 1917, bethmann hollweg had lost all support in the reichstag. the conservatives and national liberals were alicnated by his prussian franchise policy and his conflicts with the higher command. the left and the catholic centre in which erzberger with his so-called peace resolution (adopted by the reichstag on july 19) had acquired the upper hand were convinced that the allied and associated powers would place no confidence in the overtures of men with the past of bethmann hollweg and zimmermann. finally, on the mor- row of the publication of the second prussian franchise edict, on july 14 1917, hindenburg and ludendorff came to berlin in order to hold conferences with the chiefs of political parties re- garding the terms of the “ peace resolution.” the chancellor could not tolerate this military interference with his own depart- ment, and the emperor, confronted with an ultimatum from his two indispensable military leaders, accepted the chancellor’s res- ignation. bethmann hollweg retired to hohenfinow and took no further part in politics beyond writing his reflectzons on the world war (vol. 1, 1919). he died at hohenfinow on jan. 1 1921, after a bricf illness. bibliography.—c. oman, the outbreak of the war of ror4-8 (1919); a. von tirpitz, lrinnerungen (1919); viscount haldane, before the war (1920); p. scheidemann, der zusammenbruch (1921). betting tax.— in some countries revenue is raised by a tax on betting. this is so in the six states of australia, in ontario, the union of south africa and new zealand, as far as the brit- ish empire is concerned, and in france, germany, italy, austria and belgium. the method adopted is to put an ad valorem tax on the amount staked. to collect the money machines known betting tax—biblical criticism as the totalizator and the pari mutuel are used. the totalizator is a machine operated by electric power, which, working on almost the same principle as a cash register, registers every bet made with it and shows publicly the amount of money staked on each horse in the particular race and the total amount staked on all the horses in the race. the pari mutuel system, used in france and elsewhere, is practically the same as the totalizator, but is worked in the main by human instead of mechanical agency. in 1923, in view of the demand that betting should be taxed in great britain, the [louse of commons appointed a committee to report upon the subject. a majority of the committee re- ported in favour of such a tax and made various suggestions for levying and collecting it. bookmakers and their premises were to be licensed or registered and betting in the street was to be made illegal. the duty proposed was 23° on the amount staked and it was estimated that from it, £5,000,0o00 would be obtained each year. for small bets books of tickets would be issued to bookmakers, whose books would be cxamined by the officials of the board of customs and excise. in the budget of 1926, the chancellor of the exchequer (mr. winston churchill), proposed to impose a tax on all legalised betting and suggested that this should be at the rate of 5% of the amount staked. in the same year a tax on betting was imposed by the irish free state. (a. w. h.*) beyers, christian frederick (1869-10914), south afri- can soldier, was born in the cape colony, but went in early life to the transvaal. he took a prominent part in the south african war, reaching the rank of gencral. on the grant of responsible government to the transvaal in 1906, beyers was elected speaker of the house of assembly, and commended himself to the opposition by his tolerance and impartial conduct in the chair. on the establishment of union, in 1910, he was appointed com- mandant-gencral of the south african defence force and in that capacity visited england in 1912, on the outbreak of the world war, he showed determined opposition to the loyal policy of botha and smuts, especially in regard to the campaign in ger- man southwest africa. his ultra-patriotic views and strong religious feelings gave him much influence with the backveld bocrs and helped to foment the rebellion. after conducting an acrimonious correspondence with smuts, he resigned his post and shortly afterwards went openly into revolt. after various vicissitudes his forces were harried and broken, and beyers him- self, in trying to escape across the vaal river, was drowned dec. 81914. at first some doubts were entertained as to the manner of his death, but on dec. 10 these were dispelled by the finding of his body. (h. gu.) bhopal, begum of.—nawab sultan jahan (1858- ) was the fourth woman in succession to rule bhopal, a state of about 7,coo sq. m. in central india. sprung from an ancient stock of afghan invaders, she was married in 1874 to a member of her own family, and had three sons. she succeeded her mother in rgor1. of an energetic, warm-hearted and industrious dis- position, she also was renowned among the indian princes as a | just and progressive ruler and as a sage and scholarly personality. she took particular interest in the education and medical care of the women of her state, and encouraged agricultural improve- ment and industrial development. she visited europe in 1911, and again in 1925 went to london where she secured the nomi- nation of her son as her successor. she maintained a regiment of imperial service cavalry, and was entitled to a salute of a1 guns within, and rg outside, her own territory. on may 18 1926 it was announced that the viceroy had approved her decision to abdicate in favour of her son. biblical criticism.—during the period 1910-25 biblical criticism has made notable advances marked by new orientations and the reopening of many subjects believed to be closed. historical back ground.—a gencration ago little could be said with security regarding human history before 1600 b.c.; now we have in the cambridge ancient history, vol. 1 (1923), 600 packed pages of detailed information, while another such volume is required to carry on the record to roo0 b.c. thus the dark story of hebrew origins is read to-day not merely by the aid of biblical criticism analogies from ancient arabia, but in the new light shed by the advanced contemporary civilisations of babylonia, egypt, crete and the hittites (see archaeology); and whatever influence that civilisation may have had on the characteristic religious ideas of the hebrews, it drives us to consiler afresh our views on the possible antiquity of their history and their documents. an obscure period in later jewish life (5th century b.c.) has been illumined by the discovery of the elephantine papyri (ed. a. e. cowley, 1923). as regards the new testament, instead of construing chris- tianity merely in contradistinction to a legalistic judaism or a bankrupt paganism we now recognise the various strands of thought and aspiration to be traced in pre-christian judaism and the eager gropings after life and light expressed in the heathen mystery-cults, while by the help of innumerable ostraka, papyri and inscriptions the terminology of the new testament is studied in relation to the “ common greek ” of the time. “ new light ” may bewilder as well as illumine; but as useful correc- tives we may note the increasing attention paid (a) to religious psychology: a passionate faith, whether in communities or in individuals, is something far subtler than a synthesis of derived religious ideas, and allowance must be made for the influence of a dominating and original personality like moses, jesus or paul; (6) to the jewish background of the new testament; it is folly to trace to heathen sources anything that can be equally well explained from jewish antecedents. i. the orp testament the hexateuch—despite reactionary tendencies (cf. m. kegel’s away from wellhausen, eng. trans., 1924) the general critical position regarding the literary sources j e d p! of the hexatcuch has been consolidated. the line of advance depends upon our reconstruction of israel’s religious history. stressing the influence of the prophets, s. a. cook (camb. anc. hist., vol. 3, 1925) dates even j and e, as well as d, in the 6th century b.c., whereas sellin carries back j and (in its primary form) e to the time of david and solomon, and traces the book of the covenant (exodus xx. 23-xxili. 19) and even, in a simple form, the decalogue, to moses himself. as regards d, r. hl. kenneth (deuicronomy and the decalogue, 1920) and g. helscher see in it a purely idealistic reconstruction dating from the exile, while a. welch (the code of deuteronomy, 1924) denying that it demands a centralised worship, and stressing the primitive character of many of its enactments, dates it near the rise of the monarchy. we may doubt if either of these suggestive theories will displace the established view connecting deuteronomy with the book found in the temple (2. kings xxii. 8) in 621 b.c. p was probably never a continuous document, and much of its material may be pre-exilic in origin. the prophets —while the criticism of a generation ago redis- covered the sublime figures of the old testament prophets, we must not forget that they were seers rather than teachers; they had links with the earlier nebiim, and their function in part was to discern iz advance yahweh’s forthcoming judgments, even though their essential value lay, not in their predictions, often falsified by events, but in their spiritual insight into eternal principles. did they too, like the nebi’im, receive their message mainly in ecstasy? g. hilscher and t. if. robinson assert this even of the greatest prophets, but in many of their “ visions ” some part was surcly played by deep sober reilection on the facts of experience. we may, however, with advocates of the ecstatic theory, agree that the prophetical books consist not of long co- herent harangues but of short unconnected utterances (there seem to be five such in isaiah i.) set side by side with indifferent editorial skill. perhaps in the case of most of the prophets much anonymous matter has been mixed up with their genuine utter- ances, which become more fully intelligible when it is removeil. 1 j, the earliest source, is marked ¢zter alia by the almost exclusive use of the name jafzeh, preferably written yahweh (jehovah); in e, the second source, we find the name e/okim,; d is the basis of our deuteronomy; and p stands for a priestly source compiled after the destruction of the temple. the pentateuch in its present form may be taken as the work of ezra and his associates, 369 a vital problem is the interpretation of their thought in rela- tion to the religious history of the nation. many critics regard their vigorous denunciations of sacrifice as denying any valid place whatsoever to it in the true worship of yahweh. in his sublime conception of ‘‘ the suffering servant ”’ (chs. liii., etc.) has the * great unknown ” whom we call deutero-isaiah been influenced by the sufferings of jeremiah, perhaps even (as sellin thinks) by the tradition of the martyrdom of moses in shittim? the “ writings,” and the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha.— recent work on the later books of the old testament and on the wisdom and apocalyptic literature of the period between the testaments has made possible a more credible account of the rise both of talmudic judaism and of christianity. we see how conceptions such as predestination and free will, and the suffering of the righteous, begin to find expression as dogmas. il. the new testament text.—as regards the text, much more value is now attached than by hort to the so-called ‘‘ western ”’ authorities. the text of von soden’s monumental edition appeared in 1913, but his critical theories, like his notation, have not commanded accept- ance. b. h. streeter has advanced considerably the work of regrouping texts according to local centres. of special interest among new discoveries are a ‘‘ western’? gospel book (codex w, ed. by h. a. sanders, 1912), of date not later than the sth century; and a coptic version of st. john’s gospel (c. 400 a.d., see expositor, 1924, p. 203). the discovery of the gallio inscrip- tion (see a. deissmann, st. paul, eng. trans. ror2, appendix r) enables us to date paul’s arrival in corinth in so or §1 a.d. the synoptic gospels.—the gospels are primarily collections of reminiscences current in the christian communities because of their value for edification, missionary-preaching and apologetic, and arranged on a plan which is not wholly chronological. luke’s framework has been shown by streeter to be a special source (edited by luke himself?) into which excerpts from mark are interpolated. one of matthew’s sources was a collection of anti-jewish proof-texts (“ testimonia’”’) from the old testa- ment, traces of which are found throughout the new testament and frequently in early christian literature (see j. rendel harris, testimonies 1916 and 1920). the johannine literature.-—c. f. burney’s arresting work on the aramaic origin of the fourth gospel (1922), the attempt to link up the logos-doctrine with the memra of the jewish tar- gums (so now even ed. meyer), or with the wisdom literature (so j. rendel harris, the origin of the prologue to st. john’s gospel, 1917), the recognition of affinities with jewish apocryphal literature, the greatly increased value placed (notably by jewish scholars) on the historical value of much both in the narratives and in the discourses, all point to the conclusion that the back- ground of the fourth gospel is jewish, and probably pales- tinian, rather than hellenic. the question of authorship is secondary to that of atmosphere, and dogmatism here is folly. behind the gospel looms the figure of a jerusalemite of priestly stock, whom some would identify with the son of zebedee, a few (including burney) with the seer of the apocalypse, though the weight of critical opinion, distinguishing him from both of these, connects him with “ john the presbyter,” possibly a disciple of john the apostle. the epistles —working to-day in a freer atmosphere, criticism is questioning many of the accepted views regarding the origin of the new testament epistles. dictation to a (shorthand?) scribe may explain some of their peculiarities of vocabulary and style (cf. g. milligan, new testament documents, 1913). before the epistles were formally collected, fragments of genuine cor- respondence may casily have been combined into one letter—is this true of 2 corinthians, of romans (as regards ch. xvi.), of philippians? galatians, now generally accepted (though lietz- mann demurs), as addressed to the south galatian churches, is dated by many (as it was by calvin) before the jerusalem council—the earliest of paul’s letters. romans may in that case have been originally composed as a treatise in the same contro- versial period, and adapted later to serve as a circular letter. 370 the arresting thesis that some, if not all, of the ephesians- colossians-philemon-philippians group were written during one or more imprisonments at ephesus not recorded in acts xix. (date ¢.52~5) is supported by a. deissmann (see his contribu- tion, with bibliography, to clnatolian studies presented to sir w. m. ramsay, 1923). as regards the letters to timothy and titus, p. n. harrison’s argument (the text of the pauline epts- tiles, 1921) that their vocabulary is un-pauline and has close affinities with that of second-century writers, will appear to many conclusive; but undoubtedly genuine pauline fragments are embedded in them, and on any view of their authorship difficulties of historical setting would be greatly relieved if 2 tim. iv. 9-20 were transferred to 1 tim. (of acts xx.). hebrews has generally been interpreted as an appeal to jewish-christian reactionaries, but its significance is greatly enhanced if with many recent editors (e.g., h. windisch, j. moffatt; cf. ee. f. scott, the epistle to the hebrews, 1922) we discount its title as a misnomer and read it as demonstrating the finality of a religion that knows neither jew nor gentile. acts of the apostles ——the main critical battle of the future is to range round acts. loisy argues that about the year 130 luke’s careful narrative was falsified beyond recognition in the interest of church theory, but with him the apologetic colouring of history is almost an obsession. in chapters i—xv. the atmos- phere is largely that of the primitive community; c. c. torrey (harvard theological studies, i, 1916) has made a good case for their close, even literal, dependence on an aramaic document. the date of acts is generally placed after 75; but there is force in the contention (accepted by a. warnack, the acts of the a posiles, tori), that the book’s abrupt conclusion implies a date before the issue of paul’s trial (¢.62), and plooij holds that luke’s purpose in writing was to assist paul’s defence by showing the claim of christianity to be a religio licita within the empire. this date if accepted simpliciter would imply a still earlier date for the gospels of mark and luke. two marn issuges the two main problems (and they are ultimately one) to which all new testament criticism leads are the personality of jesus, and the rise and development of the church. the personality of jesus—it is now recognised that the gospels are in no sense “‘ lives ” of jesus, and do not provide the material for a ‘‘ life.” there is material, however, for a portrait; and even the rationalist press (f. c. conybeare, the historical christ, 1914) has ably refuted the fantastic attempts of a. drews, p. jensen, j. m. robertson and w. b. smith to deny that jesus ever lived. (cf. m. goguel, jesus de nazareth, mythe ou his- toire?, 1925.) but that portrait is not to be obtained merely by adding psychological finishing-touches to mark’s bare outline, and the fourth gospel must be drawn on for many important features. instead of interpreting jesus as pre-eminently a teacher with a “ sane and well-poised mind ” criticism now tends to be- lieve that he shared in some measure the apocalyptic conceptions of his time, seeing the present age in the light of an imminent new world-order which it was his divine mission to inaugurate; but the validity of his religious and ethical message is inde- pendent of the apocalyptic form in which it 1s expressed, securely based as it is on the son’s revelation of the father. beginnings of the church.—the centre of gravity in criticism is shifting from the gospel-story to the origin and development of the christian society. liberal critics, recognising the chasm that separates their so-called “ historical jesus ’’ from the ‘‘ son of god ” of the early faith, have interpreted paul as a daring inno- vator who, indifferent to the truth about the galilean prophet (so wrede), adulterated the simple gospel of divine father- hood with jewish messianic conceptions and rites and doctrines of the mystery-cults. but a more intimate study of the soul of paul shows rather that he loyally adhered to the traditions of the faith, that in countless ways he refiects as in a mirror the mind and spirit of his master, and that his doctrine of the church, far from being a conscious transference to christianity of the conception of a cult-fellowship based on magical rites, biblical criticism follows naturally from his essentially religious conception of the relation of the son of god to the individual believer and to the fellowship which he founded, and may even go back to a mystical strain in the teaching of jesus himself. studies like w. scott’s zermetica (1924, 1925) remind us further how slender are many of the alleged aitinities between christianity and the heathen cults. thus more and more the storm-centre of criticism is found in the religion of the primitive communities. while there is truth in the contention that even the gospels are evidence primarily for the church’s conception of jesus and only secondarily for the historical truth about him, the converse is no less true, that conceptions and practices which criticism reveals as essential elements of the primitive faith (e.¢., the lord’s supper, and the recognition of jesus as awrivs, lord) are most likely to have their roots in the life and teaching of jesus himself. the war robbed biblical study of many of its foremost repre- sentatives on both sides of the conilict, but stirred many others to appreciate as never before that surging religious life of which the scriptures are the literary deposit. ‘‘ when i personally,” a. deissmann has written (review of the churches, jan. 1925), ‘compare my understanding of the gospel to-day with the understanding of it i thought i had ten years ago, i can only speak of a real inner growth. the task of the present generation is to add to all the latest philological and historical investigation a truer and deeper spiritual appreciation of the vital forces of the new testament.” bibliography.—rbesides the books mentioned ahove, we may note: ‘‘commentaries” in internat. crit., cumbridge bible, cambridge n.t., century and westnituster series; in german for a.t.: nowack’'s itandkommentar, marti’s izandkommentar, sellin’s kommentar and die schriften des a.t. in auswahl; for n.t.: meyer’s kommentar, zahn’s kommentar, \v.ictzmann’s tiandbuch. a. s. peake’s one volume commentary on the bible (1919) has useful general surveys. radical commentaries by a. loisy, e.g., les actes (1920); le qua- trieme evangile, 2nd ed. (1921). o.t. criticism. the two contro- versial brochures by c. e. cornill and e. sellin, each called zur finleitung in d. a.t. (1912); s. r. driver's standard introduction, gth ed. (1913); e. sellin, einlettung (critical but independent; urges early dating of sources), eng. trans. (1923) with bibliography for eng. readers; kittel, die alttest. wissenschaft in thren wichtigsten eergebnissen, 4th ed. (1921), eng. trans. the scientific study of the o.t. (1910). for the religion of isracl: g. helscher’s great ge- schichte (1922);smaller works by a. welch (1912), g. a. barton (1918). on the hexateuch: j. skinner, divine names in genesis (1914); o. eissfeldt, [exateuch-synopse (1922); d. c. simpson, penta- teuchal criticism (1924). noteworthy are g. b. gray’s forms of hebrew poetry ots) and his posthumous sacrifice in the o.t. (1925). on the prophets: works by g. h6lscher (1914), m. butlenwieser (1914), t. h. robinson (1923); j. skinner’s illuminating prophecy and religion (1922) is based on studies of jeremiah. j. p. peters, the psalms as liturgies (paddock lectures for 1920) and s. mowin- ckel psalmenstudien (1921-4) stress the connection of the psalms with the temple worship. for the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, see r. h. charles standard edition (1913), and the s.p.c.k. series of translations of eariy documents. note, too, the schweich lectures (british academy). n.t. criticism. infroductions, by p. feine 3rd ed. (1923), j. moffatt, ard ed. (1918), m. goguel (tomes 1-4), 1922 ff.; c. h. turner, the study of the n.t., 1883 and 1920, 2nd ed. (1924), surveys progress of criticism.—on the jewish background: i. abrahams, studies in pharisaism and the gospels (1917, 1924); h. l. strack and p. biller- beck, kommentar zum n.t. aus talmud u. midrasch (1922, 1924).— for the gospels: oxford studies in ithe synoptic prablem, ed. w. sanday (1911); r. bultmann, die geschichte der synoptischen tradi- tion, (1921); b. h. streeter, the four gospels (1924) (most important of all recent contributions).—on the fourth gospel: p. gardner, the ephesian gospel (1915) exaggerates greek influences; latimer jackson, the probiem of the fourth gospel (1918) (useful summary of critical views, from advanced standpoint); v. h. stanton, the gospels as ifistorical documents, part 3 (1920).—k. late’s earlier epistles of st. paul is invaluable on the critical side. d. plooij’s fresh contribution (in dutch) to the study of the pauline chronology is described by m. jones in expositor (1919).—on language, test, etc.: a. deissmann, light from the ancient east (1910) (a new trans. from the 4th, extensively revised, gcerman ed. is eagerly awaited); 5 parts have appeared of g, milligan's vocabulary of the greek n.t. (illustrated from papyri, etc.); editions of the greck text of the n.t. by a. souter (revisers' text, 1910) and ii. t. vogels, 2nd ed., 1921. on the rcligious ideas of the n.t.: p. feine, theologie des n.t., 3rd ed. (1919), 4th (curtatled) ed. (1922); h. weinel, bzb. theologie des n.t. (1921).— on the apocalyptic element: a. schweitzer, the quest of the iiistorical jesus, from the german (1910), 2nd ed., 1922 bigelow—bilharziasis (brilliant criticism of attempts to portray the historical jesus with extreme insistence on the eschatological outlook); c. kmmet, 7he eschat. question in the gospels (1911) (against schweitzer); e. f. scott, the kingdom and the messtah (igtt); a. s. peake, the messiah and the son of man, with bibliography, in bulletin of john rylands library, manchester (jan. 1924).—on the early develop- ment. of christianity: f. baumgarten, f. poland and r. wagner, die hellenistische-remische kultur (1912) cginvaluable for historical background); j. weiss, das urchristentum (1914) (of great value); f. j. jackson and k. lake, beginnings of christianity (1920, 1922) (a monumental work, but lacking balance; the second volume deals with acts}; ed. meyer, ursprungu. anfenge des christeniums (1921 ff).—h. a, a. kennedy, st. pan! and the mystery religions (1913); r. reitzenstein, alyslerien-religionen, 2nd cd. (1920); a. loisy, les mysteres paiens et le mystere chretien, 2nded. (1921); s._ angus, the mystery religions and christianity (1925) (best work in english, with bibliography). | gencral:—/he people and the book, ed. a. s. peake (1926) (illu- minating essays on o. t. subjects, with bibliography); m. jones, the n.t. in the 20th century (1914) (terse surveys of main critical prob- lems}. new english versions of the scriptures, in whole or in part, by j. moffatt, j. e. mcfadyen and others. a useful scripture bibliography (for teachers) has been tssued by nisbet & co. (london, 1925). (g. s$. du.) bigelow, john (1817-1911), american diplomatist and journalist (see 3.922), dicd in new york dec. 19 1911. in 1909 he published three volumes of retrospections of an active life, covering his career to 1866. two additional volumes, ending with 1879, were issued by his son (1913). bikaner, sir ganga singh, maharaja of (1880- ); indian soldier and statesman, was born oct. 3 1880, and suc- ceeded by adoption his elder brother, dungar singh, in 1887 as 21st ruler of the state, being invested with full powers in 1898. the first of his many visits to england was made in 1902, when he attended king edward's coronation, and became a.d.c. to the prince of wales, an appointment continued by king george. in the world war the maharaja served in france as a staff officer and in rgr5 he took part in the fighting to withstand the turkish invasion of egypt. in 1917 he was made a member of the imperial war conference and assisted the secretary for india at the imperial war cabinet. he represented the indian states at the peace conference, 1919, and the indian princes at the league of nations assembly, geneva, 1924. it was largely duc to his personal influence that the constitution of the chamber of princes, as a deliberative, consultative and advisory body, was secured under royal proclamation in 1921. his appoint- ment as chancellor was indicative of the intellectual prominence he had acquired in the deliberations of the rulers. (1. h. b.*) bilharziasis or schistosomiasis.—a disease caused by the fluke parasite schistosoma. distribution—one of the widest spread endemic diseases of the world, schistosomiasis is endemic throughout africa, has spread to south america and the west indies, china, japan, the philippines, formosa and burma. one european country only, south portugal, is known to be infected by schistosomiasis (1925). indigenous cases have been reported in india and western australia. cases have been recorded of persons in- fected in england, and there is probably there a species of mollusc capable of serving as intermediary host if climatic con- ditions and the hygienic standard of great britain were less rigorous. iistory.—the disease is one of great antiquity. armand ruffer found calcified bilharzia ova in mummies of the 20th dynasty (1250- 1000 b.c.). it is probably of equal antiquity in china. in 1799-1801 many cases were noted in napolcon’s army in egypt—and in more recent times expeditionary armies have suffered considerably from “egyptian haematuria.” causation,—schistosomiasis 1s caused by certain metazoal parasites of the family schistosomidae looss-1899 (type genus schistosoma weinland 1858) belonging to the trematode class of the phylum platy-helminthes. in the schistosomidue the sexes are separate, and the alimentary canal is united posteriorly into a single tube. in the known human spccies the egg is furnished with a characteristic spine (point) or knob. a ventral (gynae- cological) canal for carrying the cylindrical female worm is formed by the infolding lateral margins of the leaf-shaped male. there are three known human species: 371 schistosoma haematobium, the chief african species and the most commonly known, infects principally the bladder. schistosoma mansont, also found in africa, the only species infecting the new world, affects the large intestine. schistosoma japonicum, the asiatic species, affects the large intestine and liver and spleen. the adult worms inhabit the portal venous system, reach maturity in the liver and pass in the portal tributaries to the pelvic veins in the bladder and large intestine to lay their eggs, which reach the ex- terior world in the urine and faeces. in fresh water with favourable conditions of climate and environ- ment, the cvum hatches the ciliated embryo (miracidium) which fic. 1.—native boy of nyasaland, with (intestinal) bilharzia. (after photo, w. it. dye.) fic, 2.—ova of human bilharzia: (a) with terminal spine (vesical); (6) with lateral spine (intestinal); (c) smaller than (a) or (4), with blunt lateral nob (asiatic). ‘ ane 3.—t ree swimming miracidium hatched from the ovum (after ooss). fic. 4.—intermediate hosts of bilharzia: (a4) isidora (bullinus) genus; (b) oncomelania genus; (¢) planorbis genus. fic. 5.—cercaria from snail; free swimming ciliated larva, which, piercing the skin, passes to the liver and becomes the adult worm. fic. 6.—mature male and female worm of schist. japonica (after faust and meleney). escapes. if during its short active life it approaches an appropriate water-snail, it is attracted to it, penetrates and bores its way to the pancreatico-hepatic gland and encysts. the gland is tunnelled and converted into a mass of ramifications. bifid larvae (cercariae) develop within the daughter cysts and escape when the snail ruptures. the parasite again becomes free swimming. cercariae survive not longer than 36 hours. they are attracted by and penetrate human skin and mucous membranes immersed in the water. they discard the tail and are carried by the blood and lymph to the lungs and from thence to the liver where they mature. definite symptoms of schistosomiasis may be expected two months or later from the time of contact with infected water. in 1851 theodor bilharz discovered the worm in the portal vein. in 1913 miyairi and suzuki in japan traced the life cycle of schistosoma japonicum through the snail katayama nosophora. in 1915 r. t. leiper discovered the intermediate host of the two egyptian species and proved their separate entities. treatment.—in 1917 j. b. christopherson in khartoum found that antimony tartrate administered intravenously was an in- fallible parasiticide for both species of egyptian schistosomiasis, and worked out the method of treatment by antimony which has since been adopted. later cawston, tootell, faust and others found that antimony tartrate was an equally trustworthy parasiticide for asiatic schistosomiasis. the potential longevity of schistosoma haematobium in the human body is longer than 28 years (christopherson). schistosoma mansoni has a recorded duration of 15 years in man. the longevity of schistosoma japonicum is unknown. 372 clinical notes.—clinically schistosomiasis is divided into three stages :— ‘ the period during which the parasite reaches maturity in the ody. (2) the period when symptoms are due to the deposition of the eggs in the organs (bladder and intestine). (3) the period of structural change and permanent damage of the tissues. recovery is the rule provided re-infection is obviated. death takes place from toxaemia due to a heavy infection, from intercurrent disease, from impairment of liver function, from complications caused by the damaged organs and cancer. preventive measures.—theorctically schistosomiasis can be stamped out of a locality by: (1) curing all the cases. (2) killing the intermediary hosts (water snails). (3) preventing the mollusc infecting man, and man the mollusc. : this is effected by the intravenous injection of antimony tartrate (pot. or sod.) daily for five days, afterwards three times a week until the necessary total (adult) amount—25-30 grains— is reached. antimony is contraindicated in cardiac and renal disease and when the liver is extensively disorganised. emetin is given when antimony tartrate is not tolerated. extermination of the snails is accomplished by chemicals which kill the mollusc but are beneficial to or do not interfere with the fertility of the soil, as slaked lime (cao), calcium cyanamide (can, ch.). ‘calcium phos- phate (ca; (po,)2 and ammonium sulphate (nh,) 2so,. chlorinated lime (cacl ocl) and copper sulphate (cu so,) though efficacious are detrimental to the crops. sulphate of copper sssdoos dilution kills cercariae. in egypt, where irrigation is under government control, leiper recommended the periodical drying up in rotation of irrigation canals for 15 days. the natural enemies of the snail (ducks) are to be encouraged. water contaminated by bilharzia, if kept for - two days, is innocuous for domestic purposes. educational measures (lectures, cinematograph demonstrations and systematic instruction in schools) are of the greatest impor- tance. the prophylaxis of schistosomiasis is largely a matter of national character and social conditions which vary according to racial and political history in each infected area. education in hygiene and mass (universal) treatment by anti- mony tartrate are the best general means of eliminating schistoso- miasis. see parasitology. bibliography.—-th. bilharz, see prof. c. th. von liebold, zeitsch. f. wiss. zool., vol. 4, etc. (1853); f._h. h. guillemard, endemic haematuria of hot climates (1882); a. looss, mem. insttt. egypt. z. (1891); archi f. mikr. anat. (1895); a. ruffer, brit. med. jour. (jan. 1 1910); r. t. leiper, jour. r.a. m.c., vol. 25, parts 1, 2 and 3 with a bibliography (1915); j. b. christopherson, lancet, vol. 2 (1918); jour. of trop. mfed. and itygiene, vol. 22 (1919); w. w. cort, univ. cal. pub. (zool.) no. 18 (1919); a. lutz, memorias do instituto oswaldo cruz (brazil, 1919); f. g. cawston, jour. of trop. med. and hygiene, vol. 24 (1921); c. franca, trans. roy. soc. trop. med. and hygiene (dec. 1921); g. t. tootill, chin. med. jour. (1923); faust and meleney, amer. jour. of iyg., no. 4 (1924); p. manson-bahr, manson's tropical diseases, 8th edition (1925). see also a. fujinami, works published in jour. kyoto med. assoc. f. katsuzada, works published in japanese; k. miyairi, centra/bi. bahi. parasit. and in japanese medical publications; kk. miyairi and e. suzuki, med. jour. in japanese. 6); boc