AN APPEAL TO THE RUSSIAN SOVIET
but also for the small. A lasting peace cannot be realised until German and Austrian Imperialism is crushed; the division of Austria-Hungary into its natural national parts is in itself a fundamental war aim. The danger of German Imperialism lies in the fact that it disposes, of the Habsburgs and their Empire.
“I hope that when I return to Petrograd the Executive Committee of the C.W.S.D, will enable me to explain more fully the views of the Czecho-Slavaks on the conditions of a really lasting, just and democratic peace.”
Review
The Question of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles: Coleman Phillipson, LL.D., and Noel Buxton, M.P. (Stevens and Haynes.) 12s. 6d. Mr. Coleman Phillipson and Mr. Noel Buxton are a strong combination for dealing with that complication of inter-nationalism and nationalism that has always made the question of the Straits the nodus of the Eastern Question, and their joint work “The Question of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles” is as thorough as it is timely. The collaboration is very complete, and only readers who know the work of both writers very intimately will amuse themselves by guessing where Mr. Buxton is taking counsel’s opinion, or where Mr. Phillipson is relying on expert evidence. The book is divided into three parts, of which the first, in two chapters, is introductory, and includes a review of international institutions connected with waterways; the second, in eight chapters and two chapters of the third part, are historical; and the last two chapters reconstructive. Its two hundred and fifty well-printed pages are a mine of information, where the best equipped expert will find new munitions for his own particular “push,” and the most inexperienced reader will feel confident that he has all the materials he requires to form his own solution. He will, however, probably find himself convinced that the settlement suggested by the authors is sufficiently satisfactory. This is quoting from page 236—“to internationalise the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles on the lines of the régime applied to the Suez Canal, and place them, together with sufficient hinterland to safeguard the strategic position, under the administration of an International Commission, somewhat similar to that which has existed in the case of the Danube.” As to Constantinople, which no settlement of the Straits question can exclude (p. 247), “the best solution in the circumstances is without doubt to constitute it a free town and place it under the conjoint protection of the Powers, including the United States.”
Some such solution as this is, indeed, rather a natural development, long overdue, than an experiment requiring explanation by analogies and exposition through precedent. The one criticism that may occur to the reader is that the advantage gained by the close partnership of two authorities on different points of view of the problem the advantage of getting a greatest common measure of
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