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Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16800, 2 April 1919, Page 7

The official language of-the Peace Conference is French. The unofficial language, in, o n o notable respect, is American. Constant 'references by tlw correspondents to tho "Big Throe" Mid the "Big Four," as designations for the leading Powers, ' have their AS'long as tho 'eighties the "Big . Miroe" was the popular name for, tho ~ - t : three universities; of Harvard, .Yale, tfnd Princeton,, by whose' teams the final contest* in football, baseball,' and most other athletic competitions were usually fought out. The name, after beaming for a time the 'Big Four," to, include Pennsylvania, lapsea for many years, during which the supreni- . acy of these teams was disputed by three or four' others. "When America entered the way, important athletic. < fixtures were soon limited to the univer-

. aities; in these the J'Big Three" wore again preeminent, and the name was •*.>■ revived, to -indicate,, them. • Tn the '. Ifttegi'application 1 the Germans may see another ■ instance of how the astound'ing 'Anglo-Saxon „race'"' carrion the i frivolity of Its field sports into the most ,'i ■ important business. ,

• 'An Englishman who was in Hungary ' ''during the whole period of ths war,'| and only left a week before Christmas, describes conditions in that country in ;, „'Tho Times'." Hungary was the'best of nil enemy countries for' Englishmen I to be out off in. Very few 0 f them were even prevented from following ■ their usual business., Misled "by official news, most Hungarians believed that they were ginning the war almost till , the last day, and, when the crash came, the joy of, being free from the hated ' Austrian yoke, made it seem more a , '.victory than defeat Flags and flowers, ~., firojhumed .a' national festival!' 'Food was not desperately - short, though it became so when the Serbs, and Roumanians, advancing their bound- , . dries, began to eeiee supplies. But the people were so. tired that, as soon as . peace oame, no work could bo got from anyone. .' N

Bolshevism had begun before this' writer left, but it was very mild. Tho peasants' Were resolved , to have tho land, and no-one was, likely to oppose them. In Buda-Pest attempts at looting factories were resisted by tho workers after they had taken over the Iworks, often paying the former owners to become managers for them. The Hungarian peasants, apparently, .will require not a little practice and education before they can become democratic self-rulers. According to this observer, they have no conception of political issues, Tho new National Assembly sent out agents to convert them to Republicanism. One of thorn described how he spent.the best port of an evening talking to the village elders on the advantages of the Republic. "When he had ended, an old man, after whispered consultation with his friend*, thanked him for his explanation; but there s wns one thing 'they would like to know. Could he toll them who was going to be King ,of tho new Republic? Tn Hungary education is well diffused. Ono enn gather fr&m this story what tho political ideas are likoly to be of the masses of Egyptians, Hindus, nnd ether dark-skinned races, imagined-by some theorists to he always impatient for self-government