The attitude of the British Government towards the Act of Annexation was shown in a Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 4396). On November 1 Sir Edward Grey pressed the right of the British Government to obtain assurances as to the future before assenting to annexation. As the territories of the State touch those of his Majesty's Government at many points it could not be a matter of indifference to Great Britain how these territories are governed; maladministration in one State re-acted upon another, especially in Africa. The Government of the Congo State had notoriously been different from that of contiguous regions and had for many years caused great anxiety to his Majesty's Government, lest kindred tribes in British territory should be injuriously affected. The Government were therefore justified in taking every precaution against the new administration repeating the errors of the old, and in requiring a specific undertaking that grievances long complained of shall be redressed within a reasonable time. Besides their right to secure peace on their own borders, his Majesty's Government held most strongly that the terms of the Declarations of 1884 entitled them to satisfy themselves that the transfer would result in a system of Government more closely corresponding with the intentions of the signatories of those Declarations and fulfilling the conditions under which his Majesty's Government originally recognised the creation of the Congo State. Sir Edward Grey pressed for more definite assurances than had been given by Belgium in July, especially with regard to native rights and commercial rights. As to the first the Government did not wish to press the Belgian Government unduly; but they were unable to engage to recognise the transfer of the Independent State to Belgium until they were assured that these native questions would be settled in a manner satisfactory to them and to public opinion in England. As to the second, they required a formal assurance that Belgium would not refuse to refer to arbitration any disputed question of commercial obligations by the State to other Powers, or interpretation of the Declarations. In reply (Nov. 16) Belgium, while recognising the friendly spirit of the despatch, asked for time in which to prepare an answer, owing to the "still incomplete organisation of the Ministry for the Colonies"; and that was the diplomatic position at the close of the year.

From the Congo itself the news of the year resolves itself into a record of native troubles, though not on a great scale, and of complaints against the system of administration, which does not appear to have undergone any substantial improvement, notwithstanding the reform scheme promulgated by King Leopold (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1906, p. 428). On the other hand the news reaching England during the year was too fragmentary to afford a clear picture of the condition of the region. The effect of such testimony as is available was discouraging, and it is not unfair to say that the exploitation of the Congolese has continued unchecked, reforms waiting upon the institution of

the new régime. It would be useless to give details either of military activity by the administration or of complaints made on behalf of the Congolese. A minor fact worth record, however, is the completion of the work of the Anglo-Congolese Commission entrusted with the duty of surveying the 200 miles of frontier from the German border south-east of Lake Albert Edward to the southern limits of the Lado enclave, now evacuated by the Belgians. The British Commissioner was Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. T. Bright, and on his return home in July it was reported that about 14,000 square miles had been mapped, including the whole of the Ruwenzori. One result of the survey was to reveal an error in the maps on which the Convention of 1894 was concluded, the frontier, on the 30th meridian, being placed twenty miles out of its true position, the effect being to place in the Congo a strip of territory 120 miles long by thirty broad, which should have been British. This strip, if held to be part of the Congo State, would bar British access to Lake Albert Edward, and is meanwhile being treated as a neutral zone. The Commissioners reported that a severe famine was raging in Busoga Province. One of the latest travellers to pass through the Congo from the East is Mr. A. R. F. Wollaston, the naturalist. His book, issued in the autumn of 1908, From Ruwenzori to the Congo (John Murray), is on the whole favourable to the administration.

The record of French West Africa is chiefly that of minor military operations, especially in the Protectorate of Mauretania to the north of the Lower Senegal River, where it became necessary to organise a primitive expedition against raiding Moorish tribes from the hill region near the Spanish possession of Rio de Oro. The expedition was completely successful. There was some fighting at various times in the neighbourhood of Lake Chad, and the policy of military penetration of the remoter parts of the Soudan has been steadily continued with varying fortunes, but, on the whole, with success. The AngloFrench frontier from the Niger to Lake Chad-a distance of 1,000 miles-is now completely furnished with a line of stone pyramids or other permanent marks. The work was done in accordance with the Convention of 1906, and the British boundary commissioners reported that they had had no trouble with the Tuareg. The French had the country on their side of the boundary so well under control that the robber bands can now cause but little trouble. Lake Chad they found shallower than ever, and it seems to be fast drying up.

In the Gambia there is an increase of revenue and the year was without notable incident. The revenue for 1907 was 65,8921. and expenditure 57,7291. The imports were of the value of 445,3591. and exports 428,6781. Sierra Leone has no history of note, but has raised the duty on spirits from 4s. to 5s. per gallon. In Togoland and the Kameruns the Germans have colonies of promise. The former now needs no Imperial sub

sidy and the trade of the Kameruns in 1907 amounted to about 1,700,000l.

The situation in Malta is unchanged and unimproved, the population continuing to increase, and the labour supply being largely in excess of the demand. The economic pressure is not, however, yet so acute as to force emigration, the only remedy for the congestion on the island. The revenue for 1907-8 was 438,3481., and the expenditure 454,0691. The imports were of the value of 6,983,5891., a decrease of 113,211.; and the exports 5,913,5381., a decrease of 337,2491. The population is now 209,974 and the birth rate is unchecked, being 39.57 per 1,000 in 1907-8. The average birth rate for the past ten years was 38-69. A political change has to be noted, a general election (all the eight candidates being unopposed) having taken place in April. The elected representatives had taken no part in the work of the Council of Government since June, 1903 (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1903, p. 419). The new Council met in May for formal business and again in November. Lieutenant-General H. F. Grant, C.B., has succeeded Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke as Governor, and Malta also falls within the newly created High Commissionership of the Mediterranean held by the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

CHAPTER VIII.

AMERICA.

I. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES.

IN the United States the principal event of 1908 was the Presidential election. In the early part of the year there was considerable doubt in the public mind whether Mr. Roosevelt would not again be a candidate, but he reaffirmed the declaration made on the night of election four years earlier that under no circumstances would he again be a candidate. He let it be known that he hoped to see Mr. William H. Taft, then Secretary of War, nominated, and when the Republican Convention met in Chicago on June 16 it was apparent to every one that Mr. Taft would be the choice of his party. There was some slight opposition to his nomination, but it collapsed before the balloting began, and Mr. Taft was nominated on the first ballot. Mr. James S. Sherman, a Representative in Congress from New York, received the nomination for the Vice-Presidency. It was equally obvious that Mr. Bryan would encounter little opposition from his party, and when the Democratic Convention met in Denver on July 7, he was nominated on the first ballot. Mr. John W. Kern, of Indiana, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency.

Candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency were also nominated by the People's party, the Socialist party, the Socialist

Labour party, the Prohibition party, and the Independence party, but none of them polled a vote of any consequence.

In accordance with custom all the parties adopted lengthy declarations of principles, commonly known as "platforms.' Space will permit only a brief summary of the platforms of the two leading parties, the Republican and the Democratic.

After eulogising the Administration of President Roosevelt "as an epoch in American history," the Republican platform declared that "in no other period since national sovereignty was won under Washington or preserved under Lincoln has there been such mighty progress in those ideals of government which make for justice, equality and fair dealing among men. . . Under the guidance of Republican principles the American people have become the richest nation in the world. Our wealth to-day exceeds that of England and all her Colonies, and that of France and Germany combined. When the Republican party was born the total wealth of the country was $16,000,000,000. It has leaped to $110,000,000,000 in a generation, while Great Britain has gathered but $60,000,000,000 in 500 years. The United States now owns one-fourth of the world's wealth and makes one-third of all modern manufactured products. In the greatness of civilisation, such as coal, the motive power of all activity; iron, the chief basis of all industry; cotton, the staple foundation of all fabrics; wheat, corn, and all the agricultural products that feed mankind, America's supremacy is undisputed. And yet her great natural wealth has been scarcely touched. . . . With gratitude for God's bounty, with pride in the splendid productiveness of the past, and with confidence in the plenty and prosperity of the future, the Republican party declares for the principle that in the development and enjoyment of wealth so great and blessings so benign there shall be equal opportunities for all."

On the tariff the platform declared unequivocally for a revision by a special session of Congress immediately following the inauguration. "In all tariff legislation the true principle of Protection is best maintained by the imposition of such duties as will equal the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad, together with a reasonable profit to American industries. We favour the establishment of maximum and minimum rates to be administered by the President under limitations fixed in the law, the maximum to be available to meet discrimination by foreign countries against American goods entering their markets, and the minimum to represent the normal measure of Protection at home; the aim and the purpose of the Republican policy being not only to preserve, without excessive duties, the security against foreign competition to which American manufacturers, farmers and producers are entitled, but also to maintain the high standard of living of the wageearners of this country, who are the most direct beneficiaries of the Protective system. Between the United States and

the Philippines we believe in a free interchange of products, with such limitations as to sugar and tobacco as will afford adequate protection to domestic interests."

The party prided itself on having passed laws to regulate the trusts and the railways and to prevent discrimination, and favoured the establishment of postal savings banks. Maintaining its determination to uphold the power and authority of the Courts, it recommended a modification of the issuance of the writ of injunction in labour disputes.

The Democratic platform opened with a declaration reaffirming the belief of the Convention in the principles of the party, and pledging itself to their loyal support. It continued: "We rejoice at the increasing signs of an awakening throughout the country. The various investigations have traced graft and political corruption to the representatives of predatory wealth, and laid bare the unscrupulous methods by which they have debauched elections and preyed upon a defenceless public through the subservient officials whom they have raised to place and power. The conscience of the nation is now aroused to free the Government from the grip of those who have made it a business asset of the favour-seeking corporations; it must become again a people's Government, and be administered in all its departments according to the Jeffersonian maxim of Equal rights to all and special privileges to none." The platform censured the Republicans for their extravagance and for having during the past six years created 90,219 new offices at a cost of nearly $70,000,000. It denounced this growing increase in the number of office-holders as not only unnecessary and wasteful, but also as clearly indicating a deliberate purpose on the part of the Administration to keep the Republican party in power at public expense. The Republicans were charged with having created a deficit of $60,000,000. "This heedless waste of the people's money" was denounced "as a shameful violation of all prudent conditions of government, and as no less a crime against the millions of working women and men from whose earnings the great proportion of these colossal sums must be extorted through excessive tariff exactions and other indirect methods." The tariff plank welcomed the belated promise of Tariff Reform now offered by the Republican party, but declared that the people could not safely entrust its execution to a party under such obligations to the highly Protected interests as the Republican party. It pointed out that the promised relief had been postponed until after the coming election, for success in which the Republican party must be supported as usual by the beneficiaries of the high Protective tariff, and that during years of uninterrupted power the Republican Congress had made no attempt to correct the admittedly existing tariff iniquities. The platform favoured immediate tariff revision by the reduction of import duties. Articles entering into competition with trustcontrolled products should be placed upon the free list and

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