f our most valuable customers.

On the other hand, we must of course remember that any extra-European
territorial changes depend not merely upon the attitude of Britain and her
Allies, but upon the wishes of the Dominions. Even in the event of victory,
it is still not London alone that will decide the fate of New Guinea, of
Samoa, or of German South-West Africa. The last word will probably be
spoken by Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and it is improbable
that any one of the three will consent to the restoration of territory
which they have occupied. It is only in the case of German colonies which
border upon British Crown colonies _(e.g._ Togoland, Cameroon, or East
Africa) that the decision will rest entirely with the European governments.
At this stage it would be absurd to suggest even the bare outlines of a
settlement; but it is well to emphasize the fact that it involves not only
the United Kingdom but the Dominions, and that on its solution depends the
future development of the British Empire. In other words, the war can only
result in the downfall of the Empire or in the achievement of Imperial
Federation and a further democratisation of the central government.

Sec.4. _Nationality and the German Empire._--Finally, there is a still graver
question. Is Germany, if defeated, to lose territory _in Europe_? and if
so, would it be either possible or expedient to compensate her in other
directions for such a loss? The application of the principle of
Nationality to the German Empire would affect its territory in three
directions--Alsace-Lorraine, Schleswig-Holstein, and Posen. Let us very
briefly consider these three problems.

[Illustration: THE FRANCO-GERMAN FRONTIER _Boundary of France 1815-1871_
and _Boundary of France 1871-1914_]

(1) The population of the two provinces of Alsace and Lorraine is mainly
German by race and language, but none the less it had become by 1870 almost
entirely French in feeling, as the result of its long union with France.
The Germans, in reannexing the provinces after the war, were actuated
almost equally by reasons of sentiment and strategy. They welcomed the
recovery of a section of their race which had been wrested from them by the
brutal aggression of Louis XIV. and the dynastic policy of his successor;
they also desired to secure their western frontier against the possible
attacks of France, which, under the Third Empire, was still most
emphatically an aggressive power.