The only territories that England could cede by her own act to
a victorious power are such as, in themselves, are not suited
to colonization by a white race. Doubtless, Germany would seek
compensation for the expense of the war in requiring the transfer
of some of these latter territories of the British Crown to herself.
There are points in tropical Africa, in the East, islands in the ocean
to-day flying the British flag that might, with profit to German
trade and influence, be acquired by a victorious Germany. But none of
these things in itself, not all of them put together, would meet the
requirements of the German case, or ensure to Germany that future
tranquil expansion and peaceful rivalry the war had been fought to
secure. England would be weakened, and to some extent impoverished by
a war ending with such results; but her great asset, her possession
beyond price would still be hers--her geographical position. Deprive
her to-day, say of the Gold Coast, the Niger, Gibraltar, even of
Egypt, impose a heavy indemnity, and while Germany would barely have
recouped herself for the out-of-pocket losses of the war, England in
fact would have lost nothing, and ten years hence the Teuton would
look out again upon the same prospect, a Europe still dominated beyond
the seas by the Western islanders.

The work would have to be done all over again. A second Punic war
would have to be fought with this disadvantage--that the Atlantic
Sicily would be held and used still against the Northern Rome, by the
Atlantic Carthage.

A victorious Germany, in addition to such terms as she may find
it well to impose in her own immediate financial or territorial
interests, must so draft her peace conditions as to preclude her great