Evening star., 1925-05-31

3,
important. That there Is a new Ger
many, In the sense that the sixty odd
| millions of German people remaining
| in the Reich after the war have
! escaped or are very rapidly escaping
from the restraining influences of the
defeat is self-evident. 1t is true that
for ten years more foreign armies of
occupation will hamper the freedom
| or German action, but 1t is not less
true that within a decade the occu-
| patton of Germany will come to an
end and Germany will be completely
master within German frontiers.
! Three courses lie obviously open to
! the German nation. 1t may accept
! the territorial decisions Of the Paris
peace and seek to develop within its
! own frontiers, to become, as it can,
| the greatest economic and Industrial
! force in Europe. 1t may, by contrast,
reject all of the territorial decisions
and prepare for a new war, a war of
| revenge and reconstruction against all
| of its old European foes. There re-
mains a third course: Germany may
accept as final the decisions in the
west and arrive at understandings
with France and Belgium, with Brit
! ain as a participating nation, which
| would eliminate the present appre
! tensions of new German aggressions
! in the west.
Want Lands Back.
Now of the three solutions. the first
| is, on the whole. the least likely. 1t
may be accepted as automatic that
! Germany will never. save by reason OF
| force, accept her eastern frontier as
| made at Paris. To recover Danzig
the Polish Corridor and the mineral
! iZed and industrial area of Upper 81
/ lesia is as firmly fixed in German
| mind as was the recovery of Alsace
Lorraine in the French mind after
! 1870. You have only to spend a few
| hours in Germany to discover that
| there is a unanimous national deter
mination on this point, which seems
! susceptible Of no accommodation other
! than the recovery of the lost prov
! inceS.
/ AS TO the second possibility, general
! conflict with her neighbors, conflict
! designed to recover Alsace- Lorraine
taken by France, Eupen and Malmedy
/ taken by Belgium, Northern Slesvig
taken by Denmark as well as the Polish
! marches, here again one encounters
similar German hesitations. The Ger
man recognizes that he cannot attack
; France without involving Great Brit
ain, that Britain will never permit {
! victorious Germany to come TO Calais
and to Ostend. And a war in which
, Britain is a participant means for the
| Germans a new blockade and prob
ably a new defeat. Therefore the i'm
preston one gathers in Berlin is tha
the mass of Germans and the ables
of German leaders are prepared to re
| nounce the general war of revenge
| and to accept as final the frontier:
laid down in the west, with the pro
| vision, not generally voiced as yet
that as compensation for this renun
citation Germany shall be allowed {
free hand elsewhere.
Expansion Plans.
What does this free hand mean ex
! actly? Obviously in the first place
the chance to recover DanZig, tht
Corridor and Upper Silesia, save fol
Pless and Rybnik, which are. even or
| German testimony. overwhelmingl!
Polish. But this purpose can only b'
detail. There is no great possibility
of eastward expansion for the Ger
man. A solid block Of twenty mil
lion Poles bars this road, and the Ger
mans have discovered from expert
ence that it is impossible to Absorb
Polish population. Even the question
of retaking Posen is hardly debated
vet in Berlin, for Posen is total,
Polish, save in a few frontier dis
tricts.
To recover lands lost to Poland
then, does not offer Germany an!
real opportunity to regain her position
as a great power, which she unques
tfonably lost as a result Of the war
Even with DanZig, the Corridor anC
| Upper Silesia, she would be terrific
rally smaller than France, while sh'
would still lack all colonies; more
over, she would find tire British vetC
interposing between her and any new
accession of foreign dominions, which
in reality would only be possible a
the expense of France, Belgium, Por
tugal or Great Britain.
There remains single possibility
for the future, assuming that Ger
many means ultimately to recover hel
position and to acquire for herSel
the foundations of greatness in the
future. This possibility lies patiently
to the southwark, up the valley o.
the Elbe on the one and and dowr
the valley of the Danube on the other
In a word, the German dream fol
the future. so far as it exists, mus
be diScoverable in the reconstruction
of that Mitteleuropa which for severa
years did exist during the World War
MitteIeuropa Policy.
the history of the last half century
that which preceded the World War
it will be discovered that the foreign
policy of Germany, the continenta
policy was based upon the purpose
to establish German supremacy il
middle Europe. The first step was
the defeat of Austria in 1866, the sec
ond the defeat of France in 1870, the
third the formation with Austria o.
that alliance. later expanded into the
Triple Alliance by the adhesion o.
Italy, which was the dominant factor
in the European situation right uI
to the catastrophe of 1914.
But from the congress of Berlir
onward the real necessity of Germany
was to maintain the crumbling edifice
of the HapSburg Empire. Russia, be
come the champion of the southern
Slavs and seeking always the goal Of
Constantinople, steadily developed as
the supreme menace to Austrian exist
ence. But Austria was essential tC
Germany because within the Austrian
half of the dual monarchy, ten mil
lion Germans dominated nearly
twenty millions of subject nationali
ties, while Hungary, the Magyars
about equally numerous. in partner
ship with the Germans of Austria
exercised similar control over fifteeI
millions of Slavs and Rumanians.
While Austria Hungary endured
then, German supremacy, exercised
by the Austrian Germans in partner
ship with the Magyars, existed from
Bavaria to the Iron Gates. And each
! year made this Austro- Hungarian con
troll more and more dependent upog
German protection. Thus in support
ing Hapsburg power the German EN-
pire supported a German control ir
the center of Europe. which might
eventually pass directly into German
hands InSensibly Austria lost her in