There could be but one cause for a breach in the friendship that unites Austria and Germany, and that would be a disagreement between the two Governments concerning Polish policy....  If a Polish rebellion should break out and Austria should lend it her support, we should be obliged to assert ourselves.  We cannot permit the reconstruction of a Catholic kingdom so near at hand.  It would be a Northern France.  We have one France to look to already, and a second would become the natural ally of the first, and we should find ourselves entrapped between two enemies.

The resurrection of Poland would injure us in other ways as well.  It could not come about without the loss of a part of our territory.  We cannot possibly relinquish either Posen or Dantsic, because the German Empire would remain exposed on the Russian frontier, and we should lose an outlet on the Baltic.

In the event of Germany’s defeat a large slice of Poland, including the wealthiest parts of Silesia, with gigantic coal mines, iron works, &c., would be taken away from her, and if the Poles should recover their ancient province of West Prussia, with Dantsic, Prussia’s hold upon East Prussia, with Koenigsberg, would be threatened.  The loss of her Polish districts would obviously greatly reduce Germany’s military strength and economic power.  It may therefore be expected that Germany will move heaven and earth against the re-creation of the Kingdom of Poland, and that she will strenuously endeavor to create differences between Russia and her allies.  The statesmen of Europe should therefore, in good time, firmly make up their minds as to the future of Poland.

J. ELLIS BARKER.

THE REDEMPTION OF EUROPE

By ALFRED NOYES.

[From King Albert’s Book.]

    _... donec templa refeceris_

    Under which banner?  It was night
      Beyond all nights that ever were. 
    The Cross was broken.  Blood-stained might
      Moved like a tiger from its lair;
    And all that heaven had died to quell
    Awoke, and mingled earth with hell.

    For Europe, if it held a creed,
      Held it through custom, not through faith. 
    Chaos returned, in dream and deed. 
      Right was a legend; Love—­a wraith;
    And That from which the world began
    Was less than even the best in man.

    God in the image of a Snake
      Dethroned that dream, too fond, too blind,
    The man-shaped God whose heart could break,
      Live, die, and triumph with mankind. 
    A Super-snake, a Juggernaut,
    Dethroned the highest of human thought.

    The lists were set.  The eternal foe
      Within us as without grew strong,
    By many a super-subtle blow
      Blurring the lines of right and wrong
    In Art and Thought, till nought seemed true
    But that soul-slaughtering cry of New!