Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-05-29

Ject of converting it permanently into
a French river, his despotie act would
have constituted a prolific source for
war with more nations than Germany.
die .Wacht am Rhein" means, if 1t
means aything at ALL that Germany
will never relinquish the provinces
and tn elast obstacle in the way OF
converting the Danube into German
river was removed
Napoleon aimed at the control by
France of the greater part of the river
Rhine. Had he succeeded in his OBJ
river without the ordeal Of the sword;
while the watchword "Qui vive?" on
the statue of the Place de la Concorde
has for years constituted O dedication
Of France to the recovery Of the lost
provinces and free access to the great
stream. But to give up Alsace-Lor-
raine would imply for Germany the
abandonment of decade long policies
which, if unchecked, may end in the
political annexation of Holland, the
Now, the supposititious history Of the
Rhine is the momentaFy history Of the
Danube. BY the stern logic OF facts,
it has admittedly become a German
river, from it's source in the Black
Forest of Baden to the Black Sea, for
Austria's control is but that of an ODE
dent vassal whilst the subjugation
of Serbia and Rumania, through which
it flows is complete.
1t is well to pause and consider the
full significance Of this conquest Of
Central Europes greatest river the
navigation of which, by the treaty Of
Paris in 1885, was declared free to all
nations. The river is 1850 miles long.
and Is the main artery for the enor-
nous commerce represented by the
MittelEuropa scheme of the Central
Powers. Before the war the stream
war, for Germany comparatively use
less, But the conquest of the Bal
kans undoubtedly opened up fresh
yistas of unlimited economic and po-
litiCal power. Already communication
between the Danube and the Rhine
was possibly by means Of the Ludwig
Canal in Bavaria, which connected the
Altmuhl with the Rengnitz, a con-
fluent of the River Main To the Ger
mans this canal meant that an unre-
stricted commerce by river could be
carried on all the way from the Rhine
to the Black Sea. But this possibly
represents merely one of the details of
Germany's 'Drang mach Osten" policy.
To-day she is aiming at converting the
Black Sea into a German lake, and the
permanent occupation of Odessa, Ba-
tum, and other Black Sea ports, in
order to control the grain trade of the
Ukraine and the oil fields Of the Cas-
plan. Dominating Central Europe
and the Near East, Germany would
thus hold the strings of a huge com
mercial monopoly, operating on inland
waterways and quite secure against
hostile interruption from her present
enemies. She would command eXclu-
sively the shortest water route from
east to west, and be at the head of an
economic empire the possibilities of
which the imagination can now scarce
ly grasp.
A German Danube is the key to a
German Asia, and, with Turkey an
obedient slave, the river is the high
way to a German controlled Mediter-
ranean, Thus the need to defeat the
forces aligned on the side of "Schreck-
lichkeit." to champion successfully the
cause c 4 enslaved nationalities, to res
tify fl tiers and vindieate the right
of nations to self determination, be-
comes more and more insistent as the
war proceeds and the multifarious
qualifications of Pan-German policy
are revealed The vital and serious
problem Of the Rhine and the Danube
win then solve itself.