Notes

The Republic of Costa Rica, for no known reason, gave the prescribed two-year notice of its intention to resign from the League. This is the first resignation that the League has received. It was presumed that the cause for this action was that the Republic was severely criticized last fall for failing to pay regularly its dues. A check for $18,677 was sent to pay for four years' back dues (about $5,000 a year).

Walter D. Hines of Manhattan accepted from the League the directorship of the Commission for Investigation into the conditions of the Danube* and the Rhine./- The Commission is to report on the means of relieving the stagnation of river trade which has been caused by difficulties arising from the creation of new frontiers along the Danube's banks. Major Brehan B. Somervell, U. S. A., was granted five months' leave of absence to accompany Mr. Hines as his principal engineering advisor.

*Two mountain streams trickle through the Black Forest, unite at Donaueschingen, about 20 miles from the Swiss border and 40 miles from the French frontier, and the Danube (German, Donau) begins its 1725-mile flow through Wiirttemberg, Bavaria, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, Yugo-Slavia, Bulgaria and Rumania to empty itself into the Black Sea.

In volume, the Danube is the most important river in Europe, although it is 675 miles shorter than the Volga. It is the 23rd longest river in the world. Others before it: Amazon (4,000). Nile (3,600), Yangtse (3,400), Yenisei (3,300), Mississippi (3,160), Missouri (3,000), Lena (3,000), Congo (3,000), Niger (3,000), Obi (2,700), Hoangho (2,600), Amur (2,500), Parana (2,450), Volga (2,400), Mackenzie (2,300), La Plata (2,300), Yukon (2,000), Madeira (2,000), Arkansas (2,000), Rio del Norte (1,800), St. Lawrence (1,800), Sao Francisco (1,800).

/-There is a project in hand to cut a canal between the Rhine and the Danube in Bavaria, called the Ludwigs Kanal. It is expected to be completed in 1932 and will open a navigable watercourse of over 2,500 miles from Rotterdam in Holland to Sulina in Rumania--from the North to the Black Seas.