PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 1 March 1921, Page 55

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

EUROPE IN THE MELTING POT. ] “Europe’s New Map” is the name of one * of the special articles in the “Daily Mail 1 Yearly Book” for 1921. 1 But before I write about “Europe in I the Melting Pot” let me write a word 1 about the prices of books. I have been getting the “Daily Mail Year Book” from the first in 1901, I think, when it was published at sixpence, but the recent issue (practically no larger, and with paper cover) cost 2s ! \V hat should be the rise in wages to cojfrespond? Nelson’s historical series has gone up in about like pro- ' portions, and 1 have a set, too. Books mean money, but it is not always possible to change books into money. I have two or three dictionaries I mean to keep as curiosities to make comparisons with, and also an up-to-date pre-war atlas for the same purpose. By all means get a dictionary—a cheap one will do until new editions come out; but do not get an atlas, any old one will do for a year to come, at any rate. Perhaps our editor can manage to get ih a map occasionally to keep you I up-to-date. The part that will count much in the immediate future in Central Europe, the Balkans and Russia, for these contain the area mostly changed by war, though goodness knows when these will settle down. How would this do for a geographical syllabus of a political character? “As the map of Europe is in a state of topsyturvydom, it is hereby enacted that no political geography will be required until further notice is given!” Tlxat would suit, wouldn’t it? I am afraid, though, that that would lead to ignorant Bolshe- . vism, and I am against that, so we must be willing to go ahead. Read as widely as you can, for never before has it been so necessary to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. 1 Supposing we write a geography of disturbed areas? I don’t think that many - teachers can write a much better one, for so few take geography as a serious subject, more’s the pity. C’z&cho-Slovakia, made up largely of the major portion of Austria (60,000 s(p miles), is over half as large as New Zealand ; population, 11,000,000; capital, Prague. An independent Republic was proclaimed October 18, 1918, Dr Masaryk being the first President. A new constitution was drafted in January, 1920. The amalgamation in May, 1920, made for an increased unity. This contains the old Bohemian province, and is a great industrial centre (coal, iron, beet-sugar, rolling stock). Fifty per cent, of the land is under cultivation. The country has no port. , Austria contains 50,000 sq. miles, and is a little larger than Otago, which is just over 25,000 sq. miles, and has a population of about 6,000,000. Under the Austrian Treaty of July 16, 1920, the district of Trentluo went to Italy. Independence was declared November 12, 1918. Vienna (Danube) is the capital, but it is only a shadow of its former greatness. Austria now has no port. Hungary contains 45.000 sq. miles, and has a population of 8,000,000. Its capital is Buda-Pest which has shrunk to one-third of its size before the World War of 1914 18, when it ceded large areas to the Republic of Czeeho-Slovakia in the north, in the east to Rumania, and in the south to Jugo-Slavia. Hungary has lost over a-half of her arable land and over two-thirds of her railways. Hungary at present is governed by a Regent, Admiral Horthy. Poland, 120,000 sq. miles, is about the size of New Zealand, and is restored to her former greatness of the times before the Napoleonic Wars. Her population is 21,000,000, and her capital, Warsaw. Teschen contains valuable anthracite mines. Danzic is a free port for Poland under the protection of the League of Nations; hut there is a proposal to construct a new harbour at Tszew. Poland has great natural resources, cereals, timber, oil, iron, naptha, and salt. Lithuania has 45,000 sq. miles, so is nearly twice the size of Otago and the same size as Hungary, and has a population of 1,900,000; capital, Kovno. Latvia., cr Lettland, has 40,000 sq. miles, and a population of 1,800,000; the capital is Riga. Esthonia, 25,000 sq. miles, about the same size as Otago, and has Reval as its capital. Finland has about 125,000 sq. miles, so it is a little larger than New Zealand ; capital, Helsingfors; population, about 3,300,000. These four republics are known as the Baltic Provinces. They possess vast forests, and export timber, woodpulp (for paper making), textiles, and leather. So far they have resisted Bolshevism from without and within. Russia. Of Russia little can be said, for the conflicting rumours are so diametrically opposed that nothing said is reliable. We know that St. Petersburg (now known as Kronstadt) and Moscow are the same places, hut to any enquiries all we can answer is “I don’t know,” and the same for Ukraine, extending indefinitely from the centre to the Black Sea, with perhaps the great port exporting the wheat of the apparently inexhaustible “black lands” of South Russia ; Odessa is its capital. Don, Touride, Kuban, Terek, Georgia, Armenia, and Turkestan Azerbaijan in the south-east are republics of which we know practically nothing. Jugo-Slavia (75,000 square miles) is the triune kingdom of the Serbs, Groats, and Slovenes, with Belgrade as the capital. The population is about 10,000,000. Roughly, it takes in Bosnia, Herzgovina, and possibly Montenegro, with the land on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, formerly belonging to Austria. The stages of unity have been marked by (1) the Declaration of Corfn (July, 1917); (2) the Pact of Rome (April, 1918) ; (3) the declaration of Union (December, 1918). Jugo-Slavia with Bulgaria (size not known) ; capital, Tirnova ; Greece (capital,

Athens), but area not known, though it has been unified by territorial extensions at the expense of Turkey, and Bulgaria now take® in the Aegean Sea littoral. Rumania, now about 100,000 square miles, and nearly the size of New Zealand, has 13,000,000 of a population, and since the World War has included Transylvania (the east of Hungary), Bukovina (the southern nortion of Galicia), half of Banat (the portion of Hungary lying north of the Danube and ending with the Iron Gates), and Bessarabia between the Dneister and Moldavia. Turkey in Europe is now reduced to Constantinople “and a small adjacent territory,” so practically disappears from the map of Europe. “The Dardanelles, the Sea of Azor, and the Bosphorus, and- a strip of line on either side are controlled by a League of Nations Commission with very wide powers. Thus the map of Europe has changed.” CONTINUAL CHANGES. Many of my readers cannot understand the changes that take place in the areas and populations of countries. India is India, Afghanistan is Afghanistan, Turkey is Turkey, France is France, and so on, but when you want to give certain defined data for definite dates research becomes a weariness to the flesh. I tried to work out areas and populations for 1913 and 1920; but even in such a short time figures vary so much. So after some hours in my browsing style I gave up. I wish I had by me some of the anti-militarists who said there will be no more wars, and could pin them down to facts. No one hates war more than I do, but flabbiness in facing facts leads to war. Work out the percentages in my Chat to-day, and tell me what percentages of monarchies and republics were in existence in 1913. The world is simply seething with rebellion. In the “Daily Mail Annual,” just out a few days, “Labour’s Lawful Aspirations,” by Wiiliam Graham, M.A., LL.B., says: “Until, therefore, a revolutionary element, so obviously wrong, is thrust out of the Labour Movement, and allowed to stand upon its own shaky legs, Labour will continue to speak with many voices instead of one.” Perhaps. In any case, the man is a fool who says wars have ended.