New-York tribune., 1918-01-27
President Proposes
to Cut Territory
in Two i'm the
Middle
Rv FRANK H. SIMONDS
Author of "The World War;" ''They Shall
Not Pass

after the war. They are non-territorial,
,hsy represent details in the general
scheme Of q league of nations and the in
snran,e against future conflicts. Of them
Ishall no. speak in this article, not because
they are of less Importance than the re-
naming eight, but because they afford no
,apgibe and definite basis for discussion
at this time, or until it becomes clear
what sort of relations are to exist between
the two groups of nations now at war
when peace is restored.
Turning directly to those of the Presi-
dents conditions which deal with terri
torial adjustments, 1 desire first of all to
discuss briefly the combined effect of all of
these conditions upon the grandiose Ger
man conception of a Mitteleuropa under
Germany's direction and then rapidly to
survey each Of the conditions separately.
If you will look at the map which ac-
companies this article you will see that
the Presidents plan in restoring Serbia
and Rumania and giving Serbia a sea-
coast interposes a solid barrier stretching
from the Black to the Adriatic Sea be-
tween the northern and southern groups
of nations which together form the Cen
.ral Alliance. Mitteleuropa, as the Pan
Germans have conceived it, as Naumann
wrote about it, was to be a solid block of
territory extending from the Baltic to the
Persian Gulf. Hamburg, on the Elbe, and
Basra. above the mouths of the combined
foods of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
were to be its seagates, while through
Mesopotamia the great state was to touch
Persia and through Palestine approach
suez.
The Dream Of Conquest
This solid block Of territory, in area
more than half as large as the United
States. with a population of more than
lo5,000.000 was to be bound by canals
and railroads, beyond the reach Of sea
power. 1t contained vast undeveloped re-
sions in Asia Minor, and it was conceived
TO be but the central core Of still vaster ex-
pansons which should cross the Suez
Canal and sweep up Egypt and North
Africa, following the pathway of Arabian
conqueSts, and push eastward along the
route Of Alexander the Great, now fol-
lowed in part by the Bagdad Railroad to
the frontiers of India.
This dream had existed before the pres
ent war; the Bagdad Railroad as detail
Ill the plan had been the cause of endless
International pickering; but the war itself,
bringing as it did the demonstration of
the meaning of sea power, strengthened
the determination of the Germans to build
an empire which, unlike their colonial
possessions in Africa, should not be swept
up as a mere incident of British activity
Seeing their colonies go, as those of France
mad gone in the eighteenth century, the
Germans, with new energy, turned to the
conquest and construction of domain be-
yond the baleful influence of dominant
maritime power.
In the scheme of Mitteeuropa the &C
tual control was to rest in the hands Of the
Germans. OF the 1876, 100000 inhabitants
dwelling in lands included in the plan only
100000 were actually German by race
and tongue. But this minority, this 40 per
cent since they were Germans, and thus
members of superior" race, we're to
control. With the Germans were allied two
other races, which were to have full and
approximately equal rights; these were the
Magyar and the Bulgar. The former num-
oers 10000 OOO the latter less than 5,000,-
VoV, and with these added to the German
population we have, then, 90O00000 of
three ruling races which were to dominate
an empire in which their collective popula-
llon was less than half.
VI the "inferior races" as the German
feckons, not less than 15,0O0,OOO were
Slavs-24 900 900 Austrian Savs. 10000
VVo Savs of the conquered Russian dis
'flcts and 5000. 900 Serbs of that Serbian
state which was to be cxtinguishcd. In
addition, 10000, 600 French and Belgians,
'V'ooo,0O0 Rumanians and 100000 ltal.
ahS were to be included together with
'V'ooO,o00 Osmanli Turks and welter
VI peoples of the fringcs of the Turkish
empire, Arabs, Armenians and Greeks.
,'o these inferior races were to furnish
Tue soldiers the cannon fodder, for the new
armies of this gigantic creation armies
winch were to complete the conquest of !
europe IN due time and then to pass over
'hto Asia and Africa and revive in three
sontinents the Roman tradition of world
control.
IN his scheme the German planned to
"oid all Of France which had been con-
auered, all of Belgium and Luxembourg.
"' OF the Russian territories already oc-
rapsed and finally, his Balkan gains. In
europe alone this represented an area