r provocation of any kind. And the date also happened to be just after
the Persian cabinet had definitely informed the Russian Legation that
all the demands of Russia's ultimatum were accepted--a condition which
the British Government had publicly assured the Persians would be
followed by the withdrawal of the Russian invading forces, and which
the Russian Government had officially confirmed, "_unless fresh
incidents should arise_ in the mean time to make the retention of the
troops advisable."

I would suggest that the Powers--England and Russia--may _think_ that
they thus escape all responsibility for what goes on in Persia, but the
world has long since grown familiar with such methods. Mere cant,
however seriously put forth in official statements, no longer blinds
educated public opinion as to the facts in these acts of international
brigandage. The truth is that England and Russia are still playing a
hand in the game of medieval diplomacy.

The puerility of talking of Persia having affronted Russian consular
officers or of Persia's Treasurer-General having appointed a British
subject to be a tax collector at Tabriz, as the reasons for Russia's
aggressive and brutal policy in Persia, is only too apparent. Volumes
would not contain the bare record of the acts of aggression, deceit,
and cruelty which Russian agents have committed against Persian
sovereignty and the constitutional government since the deposition of
Muhammad Ali in 1909.

DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH POLE A.D. 1911

ROALD AMUNDSEN

On December 16, 1911, a Norwegian exploring party headed by Captain
Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. The discovery thus followed with
surprising closeness after Peary's triumph in reaching the North Pole
in 1909.

Antarctic exploration had never attracted so much attention as that of
the far north; partly because an almost impossible ice barrier a
hundred feet high was known to extend across the southern ocean at
about the parallel of the Antarctic Circle. In 1908, however, an
English expedition under Lieutenant Shackleton managed to penetrate
beyond this barrier in the region south of New Zealand and reached to
within less than two hundred miles of the pole. They established the
fact that in contrast to the deep waters which flow above the northern
Pole, the southern Pole is raised upon an Antarctic mountain continent
many thousand feet in height. Shackleton's success led to several other
expeditions, and in 191