Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-09-16
KINGDOMS
FEAR FOR SAFETY

Sydney Brooks in the London Chronicle
This is a war of giants. but not OF
giants only. In one sense. indeed, he
smaller states fringing the North sea
and the Baltic stand to lose more by 1t
than any of the great powers. What
ever happens and whichever side is
victorious none of the major combat
ants will cease to be national and in
dependent entities. But for their lesser
neighbors standing on the brink. or
caught in the cleft of the titanic strug-
sic. for Belgium. Holland, Denmark,
and possibly Switzerland. there are but
two prospects. one is to renain as
they are now. free aud governing
states; the other is TO he blotted from
the maj ana to suffer the final catas-
trophe of annexation by an alien and
hated power.
Why Dutch Are Ready.
That is the terror which for years
has haunted the minds and guided the
policies of statesmen from Copenhagen
to Brussels. And that is the reason
why the Dutch at this moment are
ready TO open the dykes and hood the
country rather than submit to being
turned into u German province: why
the Danes are standing TO arms vigil
liant and grim. and why the Belgians
With splendid hardilood have flung
themselves across the path of the Ger
man invaders.
The Germans have many great
qualities, but they nave not the gift OF
inspiring either trust or affections: and
nowhere are they so bitterly hated and
their designs SO fierceiy suspected as
in the little Kingdoms that border on
their frontiers.
The map shows the whole position
more clearly than any words. There is
Germany such as we know it to be-a
patient, virile, finely organized nation,
filled With the consciousness of being
on the crest of the rising wave, IN
gering for an empire overseas but
aware that no empire can be founded
nowadays in the old, easy, effortless
fashion, cut off from the full freedom
of the Baltic and the North sea, from
the Mediterranean and the Adriatic,
and with the short and difficult coast
line w Holland and Denmark
forming almost the only effective
channel for it's expanding
Little Nations in Way.
And the nations that in this way
cramp Germany's development are In
all cases weaker than itself. 1t is
walled off by puny, insignificant states
from everything it most vitality needs
TOR the protection of its security and
the full utilization of it's strength.
Ports. territory, opportunities, lie just
beyond it's Observation-Disclosures, re-
member. that are artificial, not perma-
nent, drawn by d~iplomatists, not by ma
sure-and their occupation would pro-
vide for generation an adequate outlet
Tor it's surplus population, its maritime
ambitions. and it's Industrial enter
prise, an outlet more than ever desir-
able now that Germany, with it's rap
idly growing numbers and a conse-
quent increase of the social PRESSURE.
has changed from a mainly agricultural
to a mainly industrial state.
Therefore for three decades at least
Holland, Belgium and Denmark have
been the objects of the Pan-German
propaganda. The Dutch have been
plainly told that it is AN insuiferable
monstrosity that the mouth of the
Rhine, the German Tiber, should be in
the hands of strangers and that a
small coast people should set astride
of Germany's busiest river. They nave
been warned that Germany must adj
vance to it's "natural' confines. and
that while Holland remains detached.
Germany is in the position of a man
who is denied u key to his own front
door.
The advantages of a commercial
union. the danger to the Dutch col
onies from the predatory ambition of
Great Britain and the United States,
the chronological, linguistic and spirit
ual affinity between the two peoples,
have been dwelt upon with allul'ing
iteration.
1t has all been to little purpose.
There are a few Dutch papers that in
the past nave favored both Il customs
union and a military alliance with
Germany. But the masses of the peo-
pie have stood resolutely against any
scheme that threatened to compromise
their independence. They forsee tina
an economic union forcshadoWs an ul-
innate political subserviency; they in
tensely dislike the German militarist
and bureaucratic spirit.
If they are forced to enter the pres
ent struggle, it will be to fight as their
forefdt1ers fought against Spain. We
can all see now that it would have
been better if the long discussed pro-
ject of an alliance between Holland
and Belgium had taken effect. The
fate OF the two countries is inscparable.
A German triumph means for each ex-
tinction. 1T means that the whole lit
toral from Ostend to Copenhagen
passes into German hands. The Dutch
will go any lengths to ward off such
a destiny.
The position of Denmark is equally
difficult. 1t is washed both by the
North sea and the Baltic and it con-
trolls the passage between them. The
British fleet, for instance. can only
gain entrance to the Baltic by steam
ing through the narrow and hazard
ous straits of he Great Belt or the
Sound, both of which may be opened
or closed at the will of Denmark, and
the seizure of which may therefore
present itself either to Great Britain
sity.
The Danes Have Fears.
The Danes have never relished the
disquieting perils and responsibilities
of their situation. AT the time OF the
first Hague conference 800, O00 of King
Christians subjects petitioned him to
obtain from the conference a solemn
recognition of Danish neutrality. The
problems of defense are their constant
preOccupation. The have strength