recognise no reason why these seas and oceans should not be as free to German operations as the seas, for example, of the Baltic. Then, too, is the need that Germany believes she has for colonies outside Europe—countries to which her excess population may be sent, where they may settle down and develop as Germans and part of the German Empire, at the same time taking a share and yet further increasing the general commercial prosperity of the fatherland.
These being the conditions, what then does Pan-Germanism propose? Shortly, the proposal is simply to extend the boundaries of Germany in Europe, and to acquire foreign and colonial possessions and an independent position on the sea. Such are the proposals of Pan-Germanism. Nevertheless, simply stated though they may be, when considered in detail they are without doubt very startling.
First with regard to the proposal to extend German territory in Europe. This is to be effected by taking and incorporating into and with the German Empire, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, some part of the north of France, Russia, Switzerland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Balkan States, and Turkey. Germany can then have within her national territory a railway straight through from Hamburg to Constantinople. The Kaiser then may, in St. Sophia, assume the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
But this, perhaps, is a rather extreme Pan-Germanism, for like many other policies and propaganda, Pan-Germanism suffers from divided counsels. A less ambitious programme is to take Denmark, Holland, the Belgian Flanders, the German Switzerland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the constituents of the extended fatherland. The Balkan States are to be developed, under the thumb of Germany, either as one great Slav Power or as a confederation of smaller Slav States. There are other policies, or programmes, even less ambitious, but the two just outlined may be regarded as the two standard programmes.
When we attempt to consider the programme of Pan-Germanism in regard to new colonies, we do not find such clear statements from its leaders as we do in respect to the programme in Europe. One thing is quite clear, and that is, that Asia Minor and Mesopotamia are to come within the empire. This being accomplished, and Turkey in Europe and Asia either extinguished altogether as a State, or continuing to exist as a mere abstraction, it might be said that the new German Empire will be one indivisible European-Asiatic empire extending from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf. As to colonies elsewhere in the world, there is little doubt
