2.  Belgium belongs geographically to the German Empire.  She commands the mouth of the biggest German stream; Antwerp is essentially a German port.  That Antwerp should not belong to Germany is as much an anomaly as if New Orleans and the Mississippi delta had been excluded from Louisiana, or as if New York had remained English after the War of Independence.  Moreover, Belgium’s present plight was her own fault.  She had become the vassal of England and France.  Therefore, while “probably” no attempt would be made to place Belgium within the German Empire alongside Bavaria, Wuerttemberg, and Saxony, because of her non-German population, she will be incorporated in the German Customs Union after the Luxemburg pattern.

3.  Belgian neutrality, having been proved an impossibility, must be abolished.  Therefore the harbors of Belgium must be secured for all time against British or French invasion.

4.  Great Britain having bottled up the North Sea, a mare liberum must be established.  England’s theory that the sea is her boundary, and all the sea her territory down to the three-mile limit of other powers, cannot be tolerated.  Consequently the Channel coasts of England, Holland, Belgium, and France must be neutralized even in times of war, and the American and German doctrine that private property on the high seas should enjoy the same freedom of seizure as private property does on land must be guaranteed by all nations.  This condition Herr Dernburg accompanies by an appeal to the United States duly to note, and Britain is making commercial war upon Germany.

5.  All cables must be neutralized.

6.  All Germany’s colonies are to be returned.  Germany, in view of her growing population, must get extra territory capable of population by whites.  The Monroe Doctrine bars her from America, therefore she must take Morocco, “if it is really fit for the purpose.”

7.  A free hand must be given to Germany in the development of her commercial and industrial relations with Turkey “without interference.”  This would mean a recognized sphere of German influence from the Persian Gulf to the Dardanelles.

8.  There must be no further development of Japanese influence in Manchuria.

9.  All small nations, such as Finland, Poland, and the Boers in South Africa, if they support Germany, must have the right to frame their own destinies, while Egypt is to be returned, if she desires it, to Turkey.

These conditions, Herr Dernburg concludes, would “fulfill the peaceful aims which Germany has had for the last forty-four years.”  They show, in his opinion, that Germany has no wish for world dominion or for any predominance in Europe incommensurate with the rights of the 122,000,000 Germans and Austrians.

THE BRITISH VOLUNTEERS.

By KATHERINE DRAYTON MAYRANT SIMONS, JR.