Arturo Alessandri, whose inauguration as president of Chile took place on December 23, entered upon his five-year term as the victor in a political campaign which attracted attention beyond his own country. He is the first member of the Radical party, and the first representative of the middle class, to attain the Chilean presidency. His friends assert, too, that he is the first and only “dry” South American president.

The following brief survey notes a few of the more important and more interesting articles on foreign governments and constitutions which have appeared during the past year or two in leading European journals. It includes discussions of governmental organization, structure, process and procedure only, omitting as far as possible what has been written concerning political issues, party fortunes, or questions of public policy.

Most of the material noted is from British publications and deals with the United Kingdom or its dependencies. Of the discussions dealing with Great Britain one of the most able is an article by J. A. R. Marriott on “Parliament and Finance” in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1920, analyzing the reports of the parliamentary select committee on national expenditure.

Since the referendum on the League of Nations of May 16, 1920, the most important question to be dealt with by the Swiss people was the initiative on treaties, accepted January 30 of this year. The initiative was presented in the form of an amendment to Article 89 of the federal constitution (the referendum article), and may be translated as follows:

“Treaties with foreign powers which are concluded without limit of time or for a period of more than fifteen years shall also be submitted to the people for acceptance or rejection upon demand of 30,000 Swiss citizens qualified to vote, or of eight cantons.”