SECTION E : CAEDIFF, 1920. 



ADDEESS 



TO THE 



GEOGRAPHICAL SECTION 



BY 



JOHN McFAELANE, M.A., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Since the last meeting of the British Association, Treaties of Peace 

 have been signed with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey; and, 

 although there is still much which is unsettled, especially in the East, 

 it is now possible to obtain some idea of the changes wrought on the 

 map of Europe by the Great War. These changes are indeed of the 

 most profound and far-reaching description. Old States have in some 

 cases either disappeared or suffered an enormous loss of territory, and 

 new States, with the very names of which we are but vaguely familiar, 

 have been brought into existence. It has seemed to me, therefore, 

 that it might not be altogether inappropriate to inquire into the prin- 

 ciples upon which these territorial changes have been made, and to 

 consider how far the political units affected by them possess the elements 

 of stability. A learned but pessimistic historian to whom I confided 

 my intention shook his head and gravely remarked, ' Whatever you 

 say on that subject will be w^it in water.' But the more I consider 

 the matter the more do I feel convinced that certain features in the 

 reconstructed Europe are of great and even of permanent value, and 

 it is in that belief that I have ventured to disregard the warning which 

 was given me. 



In the reaiTangement of European States which has taken place, 

 geographical conditions have perhaps not always had the consideration 

 which they deserve, but in an inquiry such as that upon which we are 

 engaged they naturally occupy the first place. And by geographical 

 conditions I am not thinking primarily, or even mainly, of defensive 

 frontiers. It may be true, as Sir Thomas Holdich imphes, that they 

 alone form the true hmits of a State. But if they do we ought to 

 carry our theory to its logical conclusion and crown them with barbed- 

 wire entanglements. Whether mankind would be happier or even safer 

 if placed in a series of gigantic compounds I greatly doubt. It is to the 

 land within the frontier, and not to the frontier itself, that our main 

 consideration should be given. The factors which we have lo take 

 into account are those which enable a people to lead a common national 



