ll, uniting them in federal union with Luxemburg and Belgium.
Thus would be realised that "Middle Kingdom" which so many efforts have
been made to create, from the days of Charlemagne onwards. Henceforward
the fate of Alsace-Lorraine would be neither French nor German; they would
become a neutral clearing-house for the two cultures which have both come
to be so inextricably bound up with the life and traditions of the border
race. At the same time the most fertile source of friction between France
and Germany would be removed, and the two countries would no longer glare
at each other across a frontier bristling with fortifications.

[Footnote 1: This ideal was being actively pursued by many thoughtful
people on both sides of the frontier. Only last June I was discussing it at
some length with a prominent Alsatian deputy and various other friends in
Berlin.]

(2) The problem of Schleswig-Holstein presents far less difficulty, if
treated on a basis of nationality. Much has been written about the enormity
of Prussia's treatment of Denmark in 1848 and 1863; but the plain truth
is that the great majority of the population of the two duchies was as
enthusiastic in favour of union with their German kinsmen farther south, as
the population of Alsace-Lorraine was reluctant to be torn from France. The
whole of Holstein and much the greater part of Schleswig always was, and
is, pure German by race. Unfortunately Prussia, in annexing territory
which is as German as Kent is English, also acquired a portion of North
Schleswig, which is as unquestionably Danish, alike by blood and by
sentiment. Hence a complete revision of frontiers on a racial basis would
certainly involve the cession to Denmark of the extreme eastern portions of
Schleswig, as far as and including the port of Flensburg.

To-day, however, this question is complicated by strategic considerations,
due to the creation of the Kiel Canal as an almost impregnable naval base.
The suggestion has already been seriously put forward, that Denmark should
be allowed, in the event of Germany's defeat, to extend her territory
as far as the north bank of the Canal, which would thus become an
international highway for peaceful commerce, possibly under a general
guarantee of neutrality. Whether such a present might not prove a very
grave embarrassment to Denmark, and whether the guarantee would be more
effectual than the treaty which secured Belgian independence, are questions
which d