professional man in England who desires to enter the Russian Dominions; and how it was that Sir Edward Grey assured a Jewish correspondent (Mr. E. Rosenfeld) that, so far as he was aware, the Russian Consular visa was not granted to persons of the Jewish faith, of whatever nationality, save in very exceptional circumstances.

Finally, I come to that part of Baron Heyking's argument wherein he implies that Jewish persecution, so far as it exists, is deserved and necessary. He complains that the Jews are not found except in inconsiderable numbers among the peasantry. The candour of this statement may be gauged from the fact that Jews are not allowed to buy land outside the cities and market towns, and are forcibly herded in the urban areas. Next comes the stock complaint that the Jews evade military service as far as possible. Yet the proportion of Jewish soldiers in the Army actually exceeds the proportion of the Jews to the total population. If we take the Russian peace effective as 1,100,000 (the figure given in the Russian Year Book), and the Jewish contingent as 50,000,1 we arrive at the result that the Jews give to the colours some 4 per cent. of the total peace strength, although they form only 42 per cent. of the population. That, too, in spite of the many Jews who are absent through emigration (brought about by poverty, which is, in turn, largely induced by persecution). It has, in fact, been contended in the Duma that the Jewish contingent in the Army is proportionately larger than that of any other nationality in the Empire; and certainly, in Warsaw, last year, 665 Jews were enrolled as soldiers, as against only 536 non-Jews, although the percentage of Jews to the total population was only 35'8. In other words, although the Jews formed only a little more than a third of the population, they contributed well over half of the number of recruits. During the war with Japan it is calculated that 30,000 Jews were sent to the front, many of whom won glowing eulogies from their commanders for the valour they displayed. An examination of the casualty lists in that campaign by a famous non-Jewish journalist (M. Usov) resulted in the collection of 3,000 distinctive Jewish names, and as many semi-Jewish names (which M. Usov felt sure were not those of Russians). Of 73,301 prisoners in Japan, only 1,739 were Jews. Yet, when the war was over, wounded Jewish soldiers were discharged from the Moscow Military Hospital and exiled to the Pale.

If, says Baron Heyking, Russia were to give to the Jews all the rights which are enjoyed by her other subjects, she would expose

(1) The Jews enrolled, in the three years 1908-10, numbered 18,131, 17,889, and 18.997 respectively.

the millions of good-natured, easy-going, unsuspecting and hardworking peasants to a merciless exploitation and subjugation by the Jews. Is it not a strange thing, then, that nobody has pleaded more strongly for the abolition of the Pale than the aged peasant deputy, M. Zacharov, and his famous peasant colleague in the Duma, M. Gulkin?

The truth is that it is precisely where the Jews are allowed to live that the peasants prosper most. If trustworthy figures were available, it would be found that the land of the peasantry in the Pale is worth more than that of the peasants elsewhere; and that their arrears of taxation are smaller, while it has also been contended that the interest which they pay on advances is likewise less. At all events, no body of men has begged more explicitly that Jews should be retained in villages than men of the peasant class-the alleged victims of Jewish exploitation.

The Jews, says Baron Heyking, feel themselves to be foreigners among the population of the land in which they dwell. The ardour with which they have fought for Russia and the love which they never cease to retain for it in the lands of exile, give the lie to this imputation. But if they did feel as foreigners in Russia, could they be blamed for it, in face of a system which deliberately brands them as such? Surely the best way to fill a community with patriotism is to throw open to it the schools where the spirit of the nation manifests itself in its most essential form. But the Russian authorities plot and plan to exclude the Jews so far as they can from the educational institutions, expending sleepless energy in devising plans for restricting the proportion of Jews that may enter them. As the brilliant orator, Roditcheff, told the Duma last March, "Our Ministry does not spread education, but is occupied in calculating Jewish percentages!" Some months ago a paper at Poltava published a curious advertisement from a Jew, who offered to pay the fees at the local gymnasium of three Christian children. The reason for the strange offer was that, by the admission of the three Christian children, an extra place under the percentage norm would be provided for a Jew, and the advertiser hoped by this desperate means to secure the admission of his son. "The only possible solution of the so-called Jewish question in Russia," says Baron Heyking, "is that the Jews should make, whole-heartedly, common cause with the rest of the population of the Empire. If they do this, the last trace of the restrictions on their rights as compared with those of Christians is bound to disappear automatically." I believe that the Jews are already, and have always been, at one with the rest of the . nation. But if Baron Heyking believes that they are not, the best way to induce them to make common cause is surely to create

common rights. It is thirty years since the Pahlen Commission reported that the Jewish question could only be solved by complete Jewish emancipation. Yet to-day there are said to be lawyers in Russia whose whole business consists in giving opinions as to what a Jew may or may not do. "My connection with Poland," wrote the present Governor-General of Poland (M. Skalon), recently, "has converted me from a Jew-baiter into a friend of the Jews. The latter possess good qualities and noble feelings. They are a merciful, charitable, and non-extravagant people, by no means unfriendly to the Christians. The day when the Jew will be emancipated will be the happiest day in my life, because it will also bring advantages and prosperity to the Russian nation."

If the Russian authorities who profess to fear the Jewish element will only shake off this foolish nightmare, release the millions of Jews now immured in the Pale, and grant them equal rights with the rest of the subjects of the Tsar, then these people, containing among them some of the finest civic material in the world, will, instead of remaining a solid, and to the Consul-General 'appalling," mass, become lost in the remaining 96 per cent. of the population, while communicating to it an invigorating and quickening influence. This, I am certain, is the view which would be taken by justice and liberty-loving Englishmen. It is the view which will be endorsed by the Russian nation-for whom the Jews, distinguishing between people and Government, entertain a warm regard-on the day that it comes into its rightful political inheritance.

In addition to the operations which Major-General Bower, C.B., is conducting against the Abors, missions of friendship have been sent to the Mirri tribes, whose country lies to the west, and to the Mishmis, who occupy the areas to the east of the present theatre of war and serve as a buffer between the territories of China and India in North-Eastern Asia. These missions, though differing in character from the Abor expedition, stand really in the closest political and strategical relations to it; and, in view of the grave consequences which would attend any further encroachment of the Mishmi border by Chinese troops, it is a moot point whether the Mishmi venture is not the most important of the three.

The Mishmi Mission is under the guidance of Mr. W. C. M. Dundas, "a frontier officer of valuable experience, in whose tact and skill the Government of India feel absolute reliance." Although but little more than thirty, Mr. W. C. M. Dundas is an unrivalled expert on the languages and tribes of the NorthEastern border of India, and deservedly holds a very high position in his service. A recognised successor to the men whose names have been handed down to posterity in the annals of the Indian frontier, he is destined assuredly to wear the laurels of a great career. With him, as the lawyers say, is Major Charles Bliss, 1st Battalion 2nd Gurkhas, a keen-hearted soldier whose experiences of frontier work on the Assam border have taken him on active service every year since 1905. The other officers of the Mission comprise a body of peculiarly capable and distinguished men who have been specially selected and are admirably fitted for the parts they have to fill. The military strength of the Mission is seven hundred and fifty troops. It is made up of three hundred and fifty Naga Hills Military Police with Captain Hardcastle and under Major Bliss; one hundred and fifty Dacca Military Police with Captain Robertson and under Captain Bally; two hundred Sappers and Miners with Lieutenant Chesney, R.E., Lieutenant Gray, R.E., Lieutenant Martin, R.E., and under Lieutenant Le Bretton, R.E.; fifty Survey with Lieutenant Morshead, R.E., and under Captain Gunter, R.E. Captain Jefferey, 69th Carnatic Infantry, who knows more Chinese dialects than any other officer in the British Army, is acting as Chinese interpreter, while Captain F. M. Bailey, of the Indian Political Department, who recently made a venturesome journey

from China into India, traversing the Chino-Tibetan border and the heart of the Mishmi country in doing so, is Intelligence Officer. Captain MacDonald, I.M.S., with four Indian hospital assistants, has charge of the medical arrangements, while Conductor Lyttle, of the Indian Supply and Transport Corps, is responsible for the supply train, and the direction of the twelve hundred Naga Coolies who act as its porters.

The route which the Mission is following threads the course of the Lohit Valley, which is, it must be remembered, a region that never before has been entered by any large party of Europeans. Indeed, if it had not been for the conspicuous efforts of Mr. Needham, a former political officer at Sadiya, who approached so close to Rima that he was able to fix its position relatively to Sadiya, and one or two others, the whole of the Mishmi district could be described as a veritable terra incognita. Mr. Dundas and his gallant colleagues, therefore, may be considered in the light of pioneers, while the progress of their hazardous march must be followed with sympathetic interest. Up to the present it is reassuring to know that there have been no disasters to report, and that the difficulties of the undertaking have not been beyond the resources of the force. In a measure this was expected, as Mr. Dundas and Major Bliss, before the start of the Mission took place, saw to it that the preparations should be lacking in nothing that would add to the convenience and future comfort of the troops at any moment on any part of the march.

1

The distance from Sadiya, from where the expedition set out, to Rima, the real limit of Chinese authority on the Tibeto-Mishmi border, is one hundred and ninety-eight miles. Unless Mr. Dundas was invited by the Chinese to visit Rima, however, the Mission had been ordered not to advance beyond Walong, where, in a village of three dilapidated houses, some form of Chinese post had been set up. From Sadiya to Walong the distance is one hundred and sixty-five miles, and as neither supplies nor villages would be forthcoming on the route of the march, Mr. Dundas proposed to establish along the course of the Lohit Valley a string of posts which could serve as the main supply depots of the column. They were to be placed at intervals of fifty miles; and, between them, there were to be the small stockades which were intended to form the sectional camps, and indicated the limits of the day's march. Even in this one detail it will be seen how elaborate was the character of the preliminary work which had to be put in hand. As a matter of fact, however, almost every part of the preparations entailed equal labour, for,