no telling what might have happened had not Mr. Briand interposed
to say that any transfer of the Philippines must be regarded as a
signal for a twenty per cent increase in the Boy Scouts of France.
As a tactful conclusion to the matter President Harding raised Mr.
Balfour to the peerage.

As things are, disarmament coming along with the Irish settlement,
leaves English politics in a bad way. The general outlook is too
peaceful altogether. One looks round almost in vain for any of those
"strained relations" which used to be the very basis of English
foreign policy. In only one direction do I see light for English
politics, and that is over towards Czecho-Slovakia. It appears that
Czecho-Slovakia owes the British Exchequer fifty million sterling. I
cannot quote the exact figure, but it is either fifty million or
fifty billion. In either case Czecho-Slovakia is unable to pay. The
announcement has just been made by M. Sgitzch, the new treasurer,
that the country is bankrupt or at least that he sees his way to make
it so in a week.

It has been at once reported in City circles that there are "strained
relations" between Great Britain and Czecho-Slovakia. Now what I
advise is, that if the relations are strained, keep them so. England
has lost nearly all the strained relations she ever had; let her
cherish the few that she still has. I know that there are other
opinions. The suggestion has been at once made for a "round table
conference," at which the whole thing can be freely discussed without
formal protocols and something like a "gentleman's agreement"
reached. I say, don't do it. England is being ruined by these round
table conferences. They are sitting round in Cairo and Calcutta and
Capetown, filling all the best hotels and eating out the substance of