THE NEW EUROPE
she would reign from the North Sea to the Red Sea. and from the Gulf of Riga. to the Persian Gulf. And what would be the consequences for the Allies of France, and for France herself? One must have the courage to face even the most disagreeable eventualities, even when one has the firm hope of rendering them impossible. Russia would be definitely cut off from the west. Shut in at the far end of the Black Sea, deprived of Poland and Courland. she would be reduced, as before the accession of Peter the Great, to the condition of a semi-Asiatic power, only to come into conflict at the other extremity of her territory with the aspirations and growing forces of the far-Eastern Empires. Italy would have to renounce all her dreams, in which the ambitions of a young nation blend with memories of the greatness of Rome. She would be driven back upon herself, a prey to the threats and temptations of a victorious Germanism resting upon a consolidated Austria-Hungary and master of the Balkans. As for Great Britain, who has more to lose than others, because she possesses more — she would be threatened in the very vitals of her Empire. The long chain of British possessions which stretch round the Indian Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia and the borders of China would be cut at the very middle. Germany, established in Asia Minor as in a fortress, pushing on her railways to the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf, could in less time than any other Power throw her armies against any point in the East. In a second war — in which the blockade would no longer be of any use. since Germany would dispose of all the resources of the vast territories which she is preparing to exploit — she would aim at the disruption of the British Empire, already shaken by the fall of its key-stone.
And France, even if a victorious Germany consented to restore her provinces in return for her fairest colonies, would feel the effect of her Allies' bankruptcy in the East. She could no longer rely upon Russia when isolated and expelled from Europe and forced to terms with Germany. in order to secure a precarious right of passage through the Straits. In the event of a war for the destruction of the British Empire Germany would leave France to choose between the part of an accomplice or a hostage. If the French understand the full significance of the Eastern Question it is because they have long felt profoundly the full meaning of the phrase, Victory or Death.
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