ear delight
That went so well with jam or cheese;
No turn of mine shall wear the white
Flour of a shameless life of ease;
Others may pass one loaf in three,
Some rather more than that, and some less,
But I--the only course for me--
Go absolutely crumbless.

So, when I quit this mortal strife,
Men on my grave these lines shall score:--
"Much as he loved the Staff of Life
He loved his country even more;
He needed no compelling ban;
England, in fact, had but to ask it,
And he surrendered, like a man,
The claims of his bread-basket."

O.S.

* * * * *

DIPLOMATIC NOTES.

The Latin-American situation remains obscure. According to advices
from Archangel, Paraguay intends to act, though curiously enough a
strange cloud of silence hangs over recent (and coming) events in
Ecuador. Bolivia has decided to construct a fleet, despite the fact
that the absence of a seaboard is being made a reason for sinister
opposition in pro-German circles. Patagonia has mobilised both her
soldiers, but her gun is still under repair.

Panagua has declared war on Germany. It is hard to over-estimate the
value of this new adhesion to the Allied cause. The standing army is
well over six hundred strong, and there is a small but modern fleet,
consisting of two revenue cutters, one super skiff, eight canoes
(mounted with two pairs of six-inch oars) and one raft (Benamuckee
class). The President, in a moving address to the Panaguan Senate,
declared, "The world is watching Panagua; it does not watch in vain."
Senora Hysterica, the first woman senator, cast the only vote against
war. "I cannot," she sobbed.

Things are moving in Mexico. General CARRANZA has summoned a
mass-meeting of ex-Presidents to consider the situation, and a
counter-demonstration by the Brigands' Trade Union Congress is feared.
Even as far north as Greenland the repercussion may be felt. Here,
owing to the new regime of blubber-cards, Eskimo opinion is in a
very nervous state. Indeed, according to an inspired semi-official
utterance by Prince Bowo, the Siamese Deputy Vice-Consul at Fez, it
is not too much to say that almost anything may, or may not, happen in
this Arctic quarter.

The outlook in Palestine is dark. Strict-silence is enforced in all
public places, and even whispering is forbidden at street corners.
More than two-thirds of the population are spies. Relatives are
only al