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to escape deportation and forced labour behind the front? Why, above all, consider the manifesto of these students “more tactful” than the protests of patriots, when over 30,000 young men have succeeded in escaping from Belgium and have joined the army on the Yser?

When “O. de L.” speaks of the administrative separation, he casually mentions that the protest of the officials transferred from Brussels to Namur remained without effect. If the author had glanced through a recent article by Mr. Davignon in the Contemporary Review (April 1918) he would have noticed that the resignation of these officials, Flemings and Walloons alike, were not accepted, and that they were consequently deported to Germany, their posts being filled by Activists in Flanders and by Germans talking French in the Walloon parts of the country. He would also have heard of the movement of protest which spread at that moment all over the country, and of which no mention is made in his article. He would, finally, have realised that the action of the Brussels Court of Appeal—which is by no means “a stronghold of Walloon influence”, as it has never taken any part in such discussions—was merely prompted by the desire to maintain the law. Again, “O. de L.” forgets to mention the deportations of the two presidents of the Court of Appeal, which followed their intervention.

I hope that your contributor will excuse these few remarks; but it is most important, when hundreds of people are paying with their liberty, and some with their lives, for their resistance to the Activist agitation, to show clearly that their efforts are entirely successful, and that the Belgian nation has never been more united than it is at present against the intrigues of our common enemies.

The Dual Monarchy is to-day in the throes of a grave political and economic crisis, in which Slav resistance to arbitrary authority plays an important and increasing part. In order fully to understand the significance of the present situation, we must give a brief sketch of the development of the movement for the last twelve months. Stimulated by the Allies’ Note to President Wilson, the Poles, Czecho-Slovaks, and Jugoslavs boldly declared their programme of national unity and independence in the Reichsrat on 30 May, 1917. These declarations were followed by revelations by Czech, Polish, and Jugoslav deputies of the ruthless Austrian persecutions during the past three years of war. In July the imprisoned Slav leaders were released and the movement gained fresh impetus. Unmoved by this act of the young Emperor Charles “the Sudden,” intended no doubt to appease them, the Slavs continued in their opposition. The released Young Czech leader, Dr. Kramář, entered Prague like a triumphant sovereign, hailed as the leader of the whole nation. In October the leadership of the Czech Socialist Party was transferred from the Opportunist Šmeral to Deputy Habermann. During peace negotiations with Russia