ed.
To satisfy the nations without colonies, some arrangements must also be
made for a redistribution of rights in colonies already belonging to
the great powers.

But against such redistribution immense forces are opposed. Algeria is
now safely French; India has been British for more than a century and a
half. Whatever rights are conceded in these countries to foreign
investors, whatever division of profits is granted, will be effected
only under the political control of the French and British governments.
The best concessions have long since been given out, and the nation
which has had political control has in the main favoured its own
nationals.

The essential problem here, however, is the open door. If the nations
without colonies or sufficient agricultural resources at home can sell
their products and buy their {268} raw materials on the same terms as
do the nations owning colonies, a large part of the present bitterness
and discontent would disappear. There are of course two difficulties
in the way of the establishment of such an open door. The first is
that commerce may be legally free and yet be hampered by a mass of
local, illegal discriminations, and the second is that the trend at the
present time is opposed to such equality in colonial commerce. The
first difficulty is not unsolvable; the second constitutes an obstacle,
which will only be removed when the forces making for an
internationalisation of colonies become stronger than they are to-day.

Even a settlement of the colonial problem would not solve all the
economic questions dividing the nations; equally perplexing
difficulties are found nearer home. A generation or two from now
Germany might be completely ruined by a refusal on France's part to
grant her access to the iron mines of Lorraine. At any moment Russia
may prohibit the temporary emigration of agricultural laborers upon
whom the prosperity of the East Prussian agriculture largely depends.
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and other countries can be ruined
by adverse tariff legislation. In very few countries is there such a
balanced economic structure, such a complete control over the
essentials of industry as to render an economic assault by other
nations innocuous.

It is not essential, however, in working out an economic concert that
all the problems that separate the nations be completely and finally
settled. Given a satisfactory solution of the chief difficulties, some
w