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SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



three thousand persons per square mile. The population in it, at various 

 dates, is shown in the following table : — 



The continental section is a similar zone stretching from north France 

 through Belgium to the Rhineland and the Netherlands. It may be noted 

 that the three small countries which have each a large proportion of their 

 area in this zone : England, Belgium and Holland, are the three most 

 densely peopled lands of the world, each with more than one person per 



acre. 



The European and the North American areas of maximum concentration 

 are thus in comparable positions on the opposite shores of the North 

 Atlantic, each at the chief ocean outlet of its region. The two chief 

 conurbations, London and New York, are at present almost equal, each 

 with about ten million inhabitants. In extent the two zones are also 

 approximately equal ; but the European area is the more densely peopled 

 and each of its sections, British and Continental, has approximately as 

 many people as the American area. Thus this area contains approximately 

 a tenth of the whole population of Europe on a hundredth part of its area. 

 And outside this great urban region, Europe has twenty million-cities, of 

 which three (Paris, Berlin and Moscow) are approaching five million 

 inhabitants each. 



In the Far East there appears to be a recent development of a similar 



area of concentrated population along the lower Yangtze from Shanghai 



to some distance up-river beyond Nanking. In the absence of sufHciently 



exact census records and precise topographic maps it is not possible to 



state its area and population very definitely. But it seems to be fairly 



comparable in magnitude with the American and European areas, in both 



extent and population. Shanghai has about four million inhabitants and 



Nanking more than a million ; while both cities have now ten times as 



many people as at the beginning of this century ; so that they ^re growing 



more rapidly than any other comparably large cities of the northern 



hemisphere. Between them is a stretch of very densely peopled land 



with many large towns. In its position at the ocean outlet of a vast and 



populous hinderland the Chinese conurbation is fairly comparable to the 



American and the European ; and given a stable government and peaceful 



development it may well rival them as a world focus. 



Japan has two smaller areas of similar development. Round Tokyo 



