Evening star., 1917-12-30

volved Germany. through the subma-
rine campaign. with the United States
whole commercial machine OF Germany
outside OF the fatherland has been
wrecked. in South America as well as
Asia If the war were to end today on
the basis OF the war map. no one could
deny that, as Tirpttz truthfully said re-
Gently, Great Britain had won and Ger
many lost and that for the future
q crippled Germany would face a
strengthened British commercial rival.
No Hope for Annexations.
+ Further than this, Germany had hoped
to annex Belgium and much OF north
ern France. including Calais and Bou-
logne. No rational German now expects
such q result. Whatever else remains to
be settled. ii 10 clear that Belgium will
remain Independent and closely united in
ent allies, while France is equally sure
to emerge from the war territorially
intact. On the west the sole questions
that may be debated today are whether
Germany will keep or lose Alsace-Lor-
raine. and whether she can be compelled
to indemnity Belgium and France for
wanton destruction. while SO far as
and with the various other nations. The
Britain Is concerned. Germany has to
face the possibility of final loss to the
i We may say quite accurately, then,
that the last year has served to make
patent the fact that all OF Germany's
western hopes have been destroyed.
France will survive the war strong and
bound in frm alliance with British
empire now prepared for war and pos
sessing an army which. Joined to the
French, will make a repetition OF the
events Of 1914 impossible, in our own
generation at least. And Belgian fnde-
<>l~x fafr 6oN rrE q
unless Germany agrees to this she viii
have to fight the United States. Britain
and France for an indefinite time.
But by contrast we are bound to per-
ceive that many Of the eastern plans OF
the allies seem to have come to an end.
Assaiied by Germany. the western
powers at the outset were moved by
the conviction that one consequence OF
an unsought war would be the liberia
tion of those subject races whose suf-
ferings had been a constant reproach
to nineteenth century humanity On
the morrow of the Marine. when the
allies first realized that they would not
be conquered by a sudden thrust. they
began to frame q program which look
ed to the liberation of the Poles OF
Austria and Of Germany, to the re-
creation of a free Poland: they began
to design q new map OF Europe wnicn
should see the southern Slavs rescued
from
lemancfpated, the Balkans remade, the
Rumanians delivered from Hungarian
chains In Turkey. too. the Armenians
and the Syrians were to be freed ana
the Turk was to be elected from Con-
stantinople. which was to fall to the
czar, and thus end a problem three
centuries old.
The collapse of Russia has, tenn
porarily at least, endangered some OF
these grandiose schemes which did not
represent selfish ambitions, as did the
German program, but rather were
founded upon a liberal and democratic
spirit without Russia the allies can
not hope to erect q Poland which shall
include Posen and Danzig as well as
Warsaw and Lodx: in fact. unless the
war is protracted for years it must be
a question whether they can prevent
Germany and Austria from arranging
their eastern frontiers as they choose,
and. temporarily, at least. remaining
masters Of the Polish state which must
now be established.
Plan Must Be Laid Aside.
Equally clear is the fact that the op-
portunity for the liberation OF the Aus
trfan Slavs and Rumanians has we'll
nigh disappeared since the great cham
pion of the small Slav states relapsed
into anarchy and fell under the spell
of those who are more concerned with
"a division OF the lands within Russia
than a reapportionment OF those In the
Hapsburg monarchy or the Balkan
peninsula. One will not venture to
prophesy even now. but there is at the
least good reason to suspect that Aus
trfa has vet once more escaped the
doom that has always seemed to be
imminent and that all the idealistic
and humanitarian dreams of liberating
her subject races will have to be laid
aside.
Italian ambitions belong to differ
ent order of ideas. In addition to the
liberation of her Italian speaking
brethren in the Trentino and in
Trieste. Italy cherished the dream OF
restoring the Venetian tradition along
the eastern shores of the Adriatic and
bania were in part or in totality to fan
to the Italians. who were likewise to
take a foothold upon the mainland of
Rsfa Minor. But such ambitions were
only to be realized as detail In the
extinction Of Austria-Hungary and the
destruction Of Turkey. Hence Tor italy
there remains today only the reason
able hope that, thanks to the support
of her allies. she may yet gain the
Trentin6 and Trieste. More she can
hardly expect, now that German and
Austrian guns are almost within range
of Venice and her own satety Is IN
danger.
II Germany has failed in the west. as
seems indubitable. il ashe has failed in
her war with Britain, as cannot be
questioned, she has nevertheless
brought to dust and ashes almost all of
the allied purposes In the east and
within the territories Of her own en-
pire and those Of her Hapsburg ally.
Unless Russia shall ind new organiza-
tion and new leadership, the chances
now unmistakably point to the dfsposi-
ton of the states and peoples which lie
along German and Austrian eastern
marches BY the Germans and the Aus
trians. This peril can be averted II the
allies pursue the western war to the
point where Germany fails either by
arms or by exhaustion: certainly the
debate on this question is not closed
and cannot be during the war. yet New
Year, 1918, finds this field in q far
different condition than that which ex-
listed at the opening of. say. 1916.
There. remains the problem of the
Balkans Unless Serbia be restored
Germany's program for Mitteleuropa
viii be close to realization Her con-
troll OF the Balkans will be perpetuated.
her mastery Of the Turkish empire and
her domipation Of tho DaHdanetles win
~ rnuffn1aad foRff8ad r. aArhfa Ia -.