In a great financial emergency nearly every country has, at one time or another, been tempted to confuse the monetary with the fiscal functions of the Treasury.  To borrow by the issue of money seems to have a seductive charm hard to resist.  Lloyd George established a new precedent for Great Britain by issuing nearly $200,000,000 of Government currency notes, but this was done to provide notes for the public instead of coin (L1 and 10s.) and made unnecessary any emergency issues by the Bank of England, and a large gold fund has been accumulated behind them so that they are convertible.  In Germany it does not seem likely that the Treasury notes will be largely used (having increased from $16,500,000 to about $200,000,000) as a means of borrowing, since the new loans are being issued in terms of longer maturities.

J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN.

LETTERS FROM WIVES

[By Cable to The New York Tribune.]

London, March 8.—­Edward Page Gaston, an American business man long resident in London, has just returned from Belgium, and brought with him many sad and touching relics of the battlefields in that distressful country, chiefly from the neighborhood of Mons. These pathetic memorials include letters from wives, sweethearts, and friends at home and letters written by soldiers now dead and never posted.

Turning these letters over, one comes across such an expression as this:  “I congratulate you on your promotion.  It seems too good to be true.  Good-bye and God bless you, dear.  God keep you in health and bring you safely back.”

Alas! the soldier who got that letter came back no way at all to his sweetheart or his friends.

“If you don’t come back, what shall I do?” is the cry that comes from another woman’s heart, and he did not come back.

Mr. Gaston is going to put himself into communication with the War Office with regard to the fate of the relics, and as far as possible, they will be sent to the rightful owners.

“WAR CHILDREN.”

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

Paris, Feb. 24.—­Professor Pinard of the Academy of Medicine contributes an article to the Matin showing that “war children” are stronger and healthier than their predecessors, and that France is rapidly repairing her battle losses.

An analysis of the Paris statistics for the last six months reveals a diminution of the death rate among mothers and children and a decrease in the number of children born dead.

Dr. Pinard further asserts that an extensive comparison of living children with those born earlier shows that the average weight of “war babies” is considerably higher than it used to be.  This he considers due to the giving of natural instead of artificial nourishment by the mothers in consequence of the more serious attitude they take to their duty to the State.

This, says the professor, is one more instance of the spirit of regeneration animating France.