The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-01 00:00:00

GERMAN OPINION.

A remarkable letter in the Pall Mall Gazette, froth its
correspondent at Dresden,remarks that there is a very stotg
feeling against Russia among the German people.
from antipathies of race, which are more bitter between,
Germans and Russians than even between Germans Anna.
French, Germany as a nation feels that now she is a gen"
Power she will, sooner or later, have to try ber
.
strength with her huge neighbour on the elf
after having asserted her superiority on the Wel'
There are larger and richer German territories, still seps.
rated from Germany, in Austria ; but it is hoped te
recover these gradually and without a war. With Russia;
on the other hand, there can be no compromise. She will
certainly not give up her Baltic provinces without fighting'
and she grows stronger every day. Germany is already
over-populated; her resources are utilized to their full extant;
and she will probably in twenty or thirty years be neither
more populous nor more wealthy than she is now. Ilnasilb
on the other hand, has an almost boundless
ritory, with a population which is increasing wiw
tremendous rapidity ; her army is improving, her mine'
ral and agricultural resources are only now being
opened up, and her roads and railways are multiplying
on all sides. If Germany does not fight Russia within the
next few years, she will have permanently lodged on ber
frontier a huge aggressive Power with a wealth and pope"
lation so much greater than her own that she will again be
reduced to the humiliating position of a vassal of the Czar
as before 1866."
The Hamburg Correspondent is the first German paPer
which has considered the Eastern Question, in connection
with the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine. It insin.
tains that even as France claimed a compensation after
the battle of Sadowa, so Russia demands one after the
battle of Sedan. Prussia is expected to pay for the
silence of Russia respecting the project of annexing Alsace,
and Lorraine. The Hamburg journal thinks that though
Prussia may for the moment hold herself aloof, she win,
infallibly be drawn into the struggle before long. Should
give her moral support to Russia, England an
a
Austaia will be driven into the French camp. The
Cabinets of London and Vienna look upon the annex*"
tion project as the counterpart in Western Europe of that
Eastern policy which would take possession of the
Black Sea. England and Austria will therefore
sympathise with France in her efforts to prevent the dig"
memberment of her territory, and may possibly come
forward in her support ; on the other hand, if the policy of
Prussia should prove displeasing to Russia, it is possible
that a hundred thousand Russians may come on the
Eastern frontier of Germany to oppose its execution
in the western direction. Germany may Ye!
have to defend in the East the fruits. °I
her victories of this year in France. The nearest
danger is that of a collision with Russia, but the greatest
peril, and that which would entail the most lasting
disasters, would be a war with the defenders of Turkel'
If the Russian difficulty cannot be put off for six months
the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine will necessitate $
campaign not on the Rhine but on the Black Sea.