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928 should be appointed to place marks along that line where natural boundaries were not sufficient and to make such minor reciprocal compensations of territory as might be necessary to fix the boundary exactly. That commission began the delimitation of the Colombian-Ecuadorian frontier line about a year later, and it completed the task by July 1919.

The World War.—On Aug. 17 1914, the Ecuadorian Government issued a decree announcing that it would observe the strictest neutrality in the World War and stating that it would adhere to the Hague Convention of 1917 and to the general principles of international law. Soon afterwards France and England complained that Ecuador had permitted violations of neutrality, allowing German war vessels to use the Galápagos Is. as a naval base. On Nov. 21 1914, Minister Elizalde issued a justificatory circular to American chancelleries about the neutrality of his Government. Seven days later President Plaza G. issued a decree containing certain regulations that were to be observed by all neutral vessels reaching Ecuador. In Oct. 1917, when the ex-German minister to Peru, von Perl, who was also representative of his Government to Ecuador, expressed his intention to proceed from Lima to Quito, he was informed by the Ecuadorian minister at Lima that his reception by Ecuador would be incompatible with the principles of American solidarity. On Dec. 8 following, the Minister of Foreign Relations sent cablegrams to Ecuadorian legations stating that Ecuador had severed relations with Germany. As a party to the Treaty of Peace with Germany, Ecuador had the opportunity of becoming a member of the League of Nations. At the instance of its committee on foreign relations, on Nov. 1 1920 the Ecuadorian Senate postponed action upon the League until the next meeting of Congress.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (see ).—By the passage of the Edinburgh Boundaries Extension Act of 1920 Edinburgh has become, as far as area is concerned, the second largest city in the United Kingdom, through an amalgamation with Leith, and the absorption of the suburban districts of Liberton, Colinton, Corstorphine, and Cramond. The municipal area was increased from 10,597 to 32,402 acres.

The number of municipal wards has been increased from 16 to 23 and the number of members of the town council from 50 to 71—three representatives of each ward in addition to the two ex officio members, the dean of guild and the convener of the trades. The four Leith wards form the parliamentary division of Leith, and the four new suburban wards are in the northern division of Midlothian and Peebles. The powers of the board of trustees under the Edinburgh Waterworks Acts of 1869, 1874, and 1896 and of the Edinburgh and Leith corporations gas commissioners are now exercised by the town council. The total valuation, as extended, is £4,696,504.

The pop. of Edinburgh by the 1911 census was 320,315, of Leith 80,488, of Liberton 8,360, of Colinton 6,664, of Corstorphine 3,870, and of Cramond 3,763—a total of 423,460 for the extended city. The estimated pop. in 1920 was 450,000. In 1917, the corporation agreed to purchase the plant of the Edinburgh Tramway Co., for £50,000, and the transfer took place in July 1919, at the expiry of the company's lease. The work of replacing the system of cable cars was begun in 1910. A tramway extension to South Queensferry and Port Edgar was sanctioned by the town council in 1917. The most important addition to the public parks was the establishment by the Zoölogical Society of Scotland, in conjunction with the town council, of a zoölogical park at Corstorphine hill, which was opened in July 1913. The site, which extends to 74 ac., was purchased by the town council and feued to the society. About 27 ac. have been laid out in a manner designed to give expression to the latest ideas about the acclimatization and exhibition of wild animals, and to show the inmates living under conditions which invite them to display their normal instincts and habits The park contains a large and varied collection, and when completed will rival the London "Zoo." Large corporation markets and slaughter-houses were opened in 1910, and in March 1914 the Usher hall, bequeathed to the city in 1898 by Mr. Andrew Usher, was completed and opened.

Additions to the large number of public memorials in the city include a Black Watch memorial (1910), a statue of Dr. Guthrie (1910), a life-size statue of Thomas Carlyle (by Boehm) presented to the National gallery by Lord Rosebery in 1916. and a Gladstone memorial (1917). In 1913, Lord Rosebery presented to the city the historic house in the Lawnmarket known as Lady Stair's house; and in 1920. the birthplace of Robert Louis Stevenson. 8. Howard Place, was purchased as a memorial by the R. L. Stevenson club. In 1911, the King and Queen dedicated the new chapel of the Order of the Thistle, in St. Giles' cathedral. The new Freemasons' hall was opened in the same year. The western spires of St. Mary's cathedral (carrying out the original plan of Sir Gilbert Scott) were completed and dedicated in 1915 and 1917. Reconstructions of the national museum of antiquities and of the national portrait gallery were in progress in 1920. and a scheme for a national war memorial provided for the utilization for this purpose of Edinburgh castle, which was to be disused as barracks.

Royal residence at Holyrood had emphasized the social position of Edinburgh as the capital of Scotland, and its importance as an administrative centre tended rather to increase than to diminish, as new government departments were established. Its commercial importance depends upon its being the headquarters of many of the Scottish banks and insurance companies and of the North British Railway Co., upon the continuance of its traditional position as the chief centre for the administration of Scottish landed estates and upon its preeminence in the legal world. Apart from the business of the high courts, Edinburgh firms of writers and chartered accountants are entrusted with a large proportion of Scottish legal and administrative work.

During the World War the proximity of Edinburgh to Queensferry and Port Edgar and the great battle cruiser and destroyer base in the Firth of Forth gave it strategic importance in the naval operations, and its position as the headquarters of the Scottish command made it a centre of military organization. Preparations for defence against an invasion by sea were made in its vicinity as in other coastal districts, but no serious anti-aircraft protection was given until after a Zeppelin raid, on April 2 1916, in which ten people were killed and eleven seriously injured and damage was done to warehouses, private houses, and public buildings including Donaldson's hospital. In the later stages of the war Edinburgh became a favourite leave centre for colonial and American troops.

EDISON, THOMAS ALVA (1847–), American inventor (see ), made great progress after 1910 in perfecting a battery of large storage capacity for propelling vehicles. This proved of great service, for example, in moving baggage trucks at railway stations. He hoped to produce, with Henry Ford, an automobile so propelled. He was specially interested in the cinema, and early in 1913 displayed the first talking pictures, produced by synchronizing the motion-picture and the phonograph. Although as yet unperfected, the inventor believed that such pictures were destined largely to replace text-books in the schools. On the outbreak of the World War he urged "potential preparedness" through mobilizing facilities for research in America, on the ground that "future soldiers will be machinists." In 1915 he was awarded a Nobel prize for physics and the same year was made president of the Naval Consulting Board. After America's entrance into the World War he was in charge of several plants manufacturing chemicals used in warfare. In 1916 he announced a portable searchlight, fed by a storage battery, far more powerful than the acetylene lamp, for use amid smoke in mine rescues, train wrecks, etc.

EDMONTON, the capital of the province of Alberta, Canada (see ), first established as a trading post by the Hudson Bay Co. in 1795, remained little more than a village until 1901. Since then its growth has been rapid, and in 1920 it had a pop. of 67,000. Edmonton has 5 railways with 13 radiating lines, and is the terminus of the Calgary and Edmonton branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The city council consists of a mayor and 10 aldermen elected from the city at large—the mayor for one year and aldermen for two—and the mayor and two commissioners act as a board for administration. There is also an elected board of six public school trustees, and another elected board of trustees for the separate (Roman Catholic) schools. The Supreme Court sits at Edmonton several times a year. Edmonton