The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10th, 1925. THE NEW WORLD

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10th, 1925. THE NEW WORLD

Lx a recent publication, “The World War and Afler", Sir Halford Mackinder gives a concise account of tin great conflict and llicu discusses tie conditions which lutvc been brought about by the peace. Of course, remarks a reviewer, a generation must pass he! ore the full conM’ipicnc os of the Great War can be seen with certainty. and there’ is some danger that its nearness may make ns lose mir sense of proportion. The author urges as io endeavour to" set the war in its true historical perspective, for otlierwi.se we shall have no means of measuring the significance of the changes it Im.s made. “The Great War i.s hut one event in a se(|iieiiee which we speak of as history. The Great War and history may he likened to a stormy winter and a growing tree: when the spring returns the tree resumes its secular growth, though searred by the loss of a limb or two. and thus presenting a new .shape.” As a geographer. Sir Halford .Mackinder is interested in the geographical factor, and ho takes as his starting point the Rhine, Throughout tin’ ages this famous river has .possessed. historically, strategically, and economically, a transcendent importance, which Inis never been greater than it is to-day. The new map of Europe may lie divided into two parts by n line drawn through the Bailie round the Rhine frontier of Germany, and down to the Adriatic. On the on-a side of this lane are the vietdrious and neutral countries; eleven in all; on the other tile ruins of four Empires. The eleven countries have preserved their pre-war territories and forms of government. It is also a striking fact that they are. with few exceptions, intimately connected with large oversea possessions, whereas these east of the line are wholly European, save whore they extend into Northern Asia. The Rhine has become once again what it was in the days of the Roman Knij ire. a natural boundary dividing Europe into distinct entities. The position of Germany is peculiar. Though now smaller in area than either France or Spain, Germany is still, next to Russia, the most populous: country m

Europe. Hit future orientation is a matter of some doubt. “Germany is the one truly Central European State, transitional between west and east,’' West of the Elbe the whole population is German! But east of that river only the landlords are purely German. The peasantry, who were serfs until a century are Germanised Slavs. That may give them a bias towards Russia. For the time being, says the author, Germany is more western than eastern, for she has lost her colonies and most of her mercantile marine, and slie is ruled from Prussianised Berlin. TV lien the present crisis is over it will he open to Germany either to rejoin the western, the oceanic world, or to league herself with Russia in an Asiatic policy. Fir Halford Mackinder hopes that she will choose the former course, for it will help towards the creation of a friendly and peaceable Europe. As for Russia, that unhappy land lias ceased for the present to he a part of the civilised world. So few West Europeans go there that wo know very little of what is happening. ‘‘Foreigners are not quite free to move about the country any more than they were in China last century, indeed ■Russia has in many respects become very like China.. Hi both lands we find to-day peaceful and intelligent peasantries and immense undeveloped resources but the railways are dilapidated, corruption is rile, and what Government exists, though nominally popular, is in fact military.”