E. — GEOGRAPHY. 



10 9 



basis of common political and economic interest. Instead of adopt- 

 ing such a policy, however, she exploited rather than developed the 

 subject nationalities, and to-day their economic, no less than their 

 political, independence of her is vital to their existence. Thus it is that 

 the Austrian capital, which occupies a situation unrivalled in Europe, 

 and which before the war numbered over 2,000,000 souls, finds herself 

 with her occupation gone. For the moment Vienna is not necessary 

 either to Austria or to the so-called Succession States, and she will nob 

 be necessary to them until she again has definite functions to perform. 

 I do not overlook the fact that Vienna is also an industrial city, and 

 that it, as well as various other towns in Lower Austria, are at present 

 unable to obtain either raw materals for their industries or foodstuffs 

 for their inhabitants. But there are already indications that this state 

 of affairs will shortly be ameliorated by economic treaties with the 

 neighbouring States. And what I am particularly concerned with 

 is not the temporary but the permanent effects of the change which has 

 taken place. The entire political re-orientation of Austria is necessary 

 if she is to emerge successfully from her present trials, and such a 

 re-orientation must be brought about with due regard to geographical 

 and ethnical conditions. The two courses which are open to her lead 

 in opposite directions. On the one hand she may become a member 

 of a Danubian confederation, on the other she may throw in her lot 

 with the German people. The first would really imply an attempt to 

 restore the economic position which she held before the war, but it is 

 questionable whether it is either possible or expedient for her to make 

 such an attempt. A Danubian confederation will inevitably be of 

 slow growth, as it is only under the pressure of eco^nomic necessity 

 that it will be joined by the various nationahties of south- 

 eastern Europe. The suggestions made by Mr. Asquith, Mr. 

 Keynes, and others, for a compulsory free-trade union would, if carried 

 into effect, be provocative of the most intense resentment among most, 

 if not all, of the States concerned. But even if a Danubian confedera- 

 tion were established it does not follow that Austria would be able to 

 play a part in it similar to that which she played in the Dual Monarchy. 

 With the construction of new railways and the growth of new com- 

 mercial centres it is probable that much of the trade with the south- 

 east of Europe which formerly passed through Vienna will in future go 

 to the east of that city. Even now Pressburg, or Bratislava, to give it 

 the name by which it will hence be known, is rapidly developing at the 

 expense alike of Vienna and Budapest. Finally, Austria has in the 

 past shown little capacity to understand the Slav peoples, and in any 

 case her position in what would primarily be a Slav confederation would 

 be an invidious one. For these reasons we turn to the suggestion that 

 Austria should enter the German Empire, which, both on geographical 

 and on ethnical grounds, would appear to be her proper place. Geo- 

 graphically shs is German, because the bulk of the territory left to her 

 lielongs either to the Alpine range or to the Alpine foreland. It is 

 only when we reach the basin of Vienna that we leave the mid-world 

 mountain system and look towards the south-east of Europe across 

 the gi-eat Hungarian plain. Ethnically, of course, she is essentially 



