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Among the unlikely things in the lap of future time that is most unlikely. At least, it is unlikely that England would turn its back on its own past. Many monuments imply a certain permanence of national life. It is probably a mistake to put up statues in countries greatly subject to revolution. In Mexico almost every statue of the great Diaz has been removed. And in these new countries of Europe, when they begin to people their public places with stone figures placed upon bases formerly occupied by bygone heroes of another race, one can but feel they are putting up effigies to have them knocked down again.

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THE Southern and eastern frontiers of Lithuania are closed to travellers. Kovno, the capital, now called Kaunas, is therefore in a cul-de-sac. In order to go to Poland from Lithuania one must get a transit visa from the Letts or the Germans and go through their territory. The frontier is also closed to goods. Lithuania, being selfsupporting in food, is perhaps indifferent to the commercial aspect of this mutual blockade. But Poles and Lithuanians are much at odds. Since Poland seized Vilna and the north-eastern corridor the Polish language, and indeed everything Polish,

is taboo. While many business people in Kovno speak Polish excellently, they find it better to speak Russian or Yiddish. Of all the languages of this mixed country Russian gains most by this Polish enmity.

The Lithuanians, however, are less tolerant than Letts and Esthonians. In Kovno no other language but theirs is allowed to be used for public notices or advertisements. So in hotels, restaurants, shops, etc., the foreigner is much in the dark. For Lithuanian, while akin to Lettish, is unlike the rest of European languages, and few learn it nowadays. Many Lithuanians had themselves been at pains to forget it. It is one of the oldest languages in the world, perhaps the mothertongue of aboriginal Europe. But it had lapsed from the literary domain and become largely the tongue of the primitive peasant. It has been raised from that to the level of European culture, and it grows rapidly. Professors sit in Kovno systematising it and inventing new words.

The clash with the Poles has intensified Lithuanian national feeling. After the freer atmosphere of Latvia one feels an unusual tenseness. This is perhaps comprehensible when one sees how little of civilisation and comfort Lithuania had. Poland, by eliminating the beautiful city of Vilna, not only

deprived her of her "historical capital", but drove her into the fields and the forests. As a set-off against this and some small comfort, Lithuania is able to congratulate herself at the expense of Germany in having cut out a little window on to the Baltic at Memel, which she now calls Klaipeda, and she hopes also to hold for good and all Tilsit and the mouth of the Niemen River. These in the long run might be more useful to her commercially than Vilna, which contains no Lithuanians, and a slice of White Russia which Russia will inevitably attempt to recover from the Poles.

Cobbled Kovno is, I suppose, the worst-looking capital in Europe, but it rises before the eyes into something new. It was formerly a quiet fortress town. The height of houses was regulated in accordance with military requirements and was very low. Its long Nevsky Prospect had the undistinguished lineaments of the Russian provinces. The houses were without water, gas, or electricity; modern drainage had not been inaugurated. Now the Nevsky Prospect has lost its borrowed name; the sky-line is broken by new buildings; large shops exhibit the fashions; luridly lighted theatres compete for the public; there are cafés with newspapers on racks. In the cafés new cutlery, new cups, new chairs and tables, and elaborately new

stencilled walls. In the Hotel Versailles, where I stayed, what a scene of disruption and repair! Water is going to be laid on, canalisation started ; there is abundant electricity. In the book-shops the booksellers try to spread out sufficient pamphlets in the Lithuanian language to fill out their windows. There is elegant youth on the boulevard. In the public gardens the band plays till two in the morning, and gigantic cinema pictures are thrown upon an open-air screen while lovers walking arm-in-arm along the gravel paths cast glances now and then at the gestures of German cinema queens.

The taxes of Lithuania are now spent in Kovno and not at Petrograd. There is money about. Life is even expensive. This must be said for the Lithuanians: they seem to have effectively stabilised their currency. It is a successful little country, exporting more than it imports and balancing its budget. The goods in the shop windows are marked at double the price that would obtain in Latvia, and considerably higher than in England. Indeed, the standard of prices is nearest to that of America. The influence of America begins to be considerably felt owing to the numbers of visiting LithuanianAmericans. These boast greatly about America

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