E— GEOGRAPHY. 105 



more or less natui'ally to it, since it belongs in part to the Bohemian 

 massif and is in part a dependency of that massif. Slovakia is Carpathian 

 country, with a strip of the Hungarian plain. Thus, while Bohemia 

 possesses great geographical individuality and Slovakia is at least 

 strategically strong, Czecho- Slovakia as a whole does not possess geo- 

 graphical unity and is in a sense strategically weak, since Moravia, 

 which unites the two upland wings of the State, lies across the great 

 route which leads from the Adriatic to the plains of Northern Europe. 

 Tlie country might easily, therefore, be cut in two as the result of a 

 successful attack, either from the north or from the south. Later I 

 shall endeavour to indicate certain compensations arising out of this 

 diversity of geographical features, but for the moment at least they do 

 not affect our argument. 



We have, further, to note that the geographical and ethnical con- 

 ditions are not altogether concordant. In Bohemia there is in the 

 basin of the Eger in the north-west an almost homogeneous belt of 

 German people, and on the north-eastern and south-western border- 

 lands there are also strips of country in which the Germanic element 

 is in a considerable majority. It is no doubt true, as Mr. Wallis has 

 shown, that the Czechs are increasing in number more rapidFy than 

 the Germans, but on ethnical grounds alone there are undoubtedly 

 strong reasons for detaching at least the north-western district from 

 the Czecho-Slovak State. We feel justified in arguing, however, that 

 here at least the governing factors are and must be geographical. To 

 partition a country which seems predestined by its geographical features 

 to be united and independent would give rise to an intolerable sense 

 of injustice. I do not regard the matter either from the strategic or 

 from the economic point of view, though both of these are no doubt 

 important. What I have in mind is the influence which the geographical 

 conditions of a country exercise upon the political ideas of its inhabi- 

 tants. It is easy to denounce, as Mr. Toynbee does, ' the pernicious 

 doctrine of natural frontiers,' but they will cease to appeal to the human 

 mind only when mountain and river, highland and plain cease to appeal 

 to the human imagination. With good sense on both sides the difficulties 

 in this particular case are not insurmountable. The Germans of the 

 Eger valley, which is known as German Bohemia, have never looked 

 to Germany for leadership nor regarded it as their home, and their 

 main desire has hitherto been to form a separate province in the Austrian 

 Empire. A liberal measure of autonomy might convert them into 

 patriotic citizens, and if they would but condescend to learn the Czech 

 language they might come to play an important part in the government 

 of the country. 



In Slovakia also there are racial differences. Within the mountain 

 area the Slovaks form the great majority of the population, but in the 

 valleys, and on the plains of the Danube to which the valleys open out, 

 the Magyar element predominates. Moreover, it is the Magyar element 

 which is racially the stronger, and before which the Slovaks are 

 gi'adually retiring. Geographical and ethnical conditions therefore 

 unite in fixing the poUtical frontier between Magyar and Slovak at the 

 meeting place of hill and plain. But on the west such a frontier would 



