Evening star., 1916-08-27

the outset of the war boldly affirmed
her purpose to annex the Briey iron
districts.
This was merely an extension of old
German policy. In 1915. at the second
congress of Vienna. after Napoleon had
been defeated and sent to ST. Helena,
she took the coal district on the Saar.
about the town of Saarbrucken. which
had been left to France in the frs,
Vienna agreement In 1870 she took
the iron districts then known: in 1914
she proclaimed her purpose to take the
Briey iron region. which she has seized
and now holds.
Now it is the settled purpose of the
French to reclaim. not alone the Briey
districts, theirs in 1914. but the Lorraine
districts, taken from them in 1871, and
the Saar coal regions, taken in 1915
France Is badly provided with coal In
taking her best coal deposits in 1876 Ger
many pushed France out of the race for
industrial supremacy in the great years
of development that came in the nine
teenth century. France means, after the
war, to restore the situation, and no
French statesman will now consider a
peace which does not restore the lost
lands-the Lorraine iron districts, the
Saar coal districts, and also the remarka-
Bile deposits of phosphate along the foot
of the Nosges between Belfort and Null
hansen.
But Germany will not surrender these
until she has been overwhelmingly de-
feated, for this surrender means the loss
of a portion. at least. of the foundation
of her great industrial prosperity. A year
ago most Frenchmen would have been
willing to make peace on the basis of the
reacQuisition of Alsace- Lorraine. but to-
day the Saar district is also a fixed idea
OF the French mind.
The Silesian Mines.
Turning east, now, similar situation
confronts US. In the southeast corner of
Silesia, where Germany. Austria and
Russia join, is great iron, zinc and lead
region, one of the most highly Industrial
lied in Europe. The population Of the
German districts is practically entirely
Slav. This is an old province Of Poland,
which was won away from the Slavs far
back in history. conquered for Prussia
by Frederick the Great and become one
OF the most prosperous portions Of the
new industrial Germany.
But the settled policy of Russia is to
rescue from German hands the Slav popu-
lations with Germany holds on eastern
i frontiers. Moreover. Germany has de-
| stroyed all the great industrial plants of
Poland. Wherefore Russian policy and
purpose look forward to Incorporating the
Silesian districts in their new Poland,
which is to be made out of their old Polish
provinces and German and Austrian Pol
I i
her iron and coal districts on the Alsace-
Lorraine frontier and all those on her
Russian frontier. she would be very
gravely weakened as an industrial nation
She would only consent to such sacrifices
when there was no longer any hope of re-
sistance, and not while her armies were
standing outside German soil at the Wis.,
tula and the Meuse.
Damage to British Shipping.
A third detail may be mentioned BY
her submarine war Germany has inflicted
great damage upon allied shipping, par
ticularly British. II peace came now
British shipping would not have the same
relative advantage over German that it
had before the war. Just as Germany has
destroyed much of the industrial system
of her continental rivals she has gained
ground In the race with British for ship
ping supremacy by keeping her CONNER
cial fleets in home or neutral ports and
sending her submarines out to prey on
British shipping.
Now, it is settled article of British
faith that at the end of the war Germany
will have to make good out of German
shipping the losses inflicted upon her enc
mics by submarine. But this is not the
concession that Germany would be willing
to make while she was still able to hold
back allied armies from her own from
tiers. Again. she has by her war tactics
prepared a great advantage for herself If
peace should come on any basis save that
which would be created by her complete
downfall.
Germany's Advantage Today.
To put it badly: In two years of war
Germany has wrecked the factory and
industrial machinery and plants of
France and Belgium and of Russian
Poland: she has very seriously crippled
the shipping resources of her only con-