E. — GEOGRAPHY. 09 



life, to develop the economic resources of the region within which they 

 dwell, to communicate freely with other peoples, and to provide not 

 only for the needs of the moment, but as far as possible for those 

 arising out of the natural increase of the population. 



The principle of self-determination has likewise played an important, 

 if not always a well-defined, pai't in the rearrangement of Europe. The 

 basis upon which the new nationalities have been constituted is on 

 Ihe whole ethnical, though it is true that withm the main ethnical 

 divisions advantage has been taken of the further diffei-entiation in 

 racial characteristics arising out of differences in geographical environ- 

 ment, history, language, and religion. But no more striking illustration 

 could be adduced of the strength of ethnic relationships at the present 

 time than the union of the Czechs with the Slovaks, or of the Serbs 

 with the Croats and the Slovenes. Economic considerations, of course, 

 played a great part in the settlement arrived at with Germany, but on 

 the whole less weight has been attached to them than to ethnic condi- 

 tions. In cases where they have been allowed to influence the final 

 decision the result arrived at has not always been a happy one. Nor 

 can more be said for those cases where the motive was political or 

 strategic. Historical claims, which have been urged mainly by Powers 

 anxious to obtain more than that to which they are entitled on other 

 grounds, may be regarded as the weakest of all claims to the possession 

 of new territory. 



When we come to examine the application of the principles which 

 I have indicated to the settlement of Europe we shall, I think, find that 

 the promise of stability is greatest in those cases where geogi-aphical and 

 ethnical conditions are most in harmony, and least where undue weight 

 has been given to conditions which are neither geographical nor ethnical. 



The restoration of Alsace-I^orraine to France has always been treated 

 as a foregone conclusion in the event of a successful termination of the 

 war against Germany. From the geographical point of view, however, 

 there are certainly objections to the inclusion of Alsace within French 

 teiTitory. The true frontier of France in that region is the Vosges, not 

 necessarily because they form the best defensive frontier, but because 

 Alsace belongs to the Ehineland, and the possession of it brings France 

 into a position from which trouble with Germany may arise in the 

 future. 



Nor can French claims to Alsace be justified on ethnical grounds. 

 The population of the region contains a strong Teutonic element, as 

 indeed does that of Northern France, and the language spoken by over 

 90 per cent, of the people is German. On the other hand, it must 

 be borne in mind that during the period between the annexation of 

 Alsace by France in the seventeenth century and its annexation by 

 Germany in the nineteenth French policy appears to have been highly 

 successful in winning over the sympathies of the Alsatians, just as 

 between 1871 and 1914 Gei-man policy was no less successful in alienat- 

 ing them. The restoration of Alsace must therefore be defended, if 

 at all, on the gi'ound that its inhabitants are more attached to France 

 than to Germany. That attachment it will be necessary for France to 

 preserve in the future, as economic conditions are not altogether favoar- 



