Even in times of peace the absence of any distinct barriers on the east and west of Germany caused difficulties. The Poles by the hundred thousand went from Russian Poland into eastern Germany and took the place of German workmen who had moved west to the great manufacturing districts or migrated to America. Thousands of Germans went into the Baltic provinces of Russia and there be came a dominant force. These things made Germany feel that her power was declining in the southeastern part of her own country, while at the same time she was losing her own citizens elsewhere. On the west the Germans felt hampered and hemmed in because the great volume of foreign commerce that came down the Rhine had to pass through the hands of the Dutch who control the lower Rhine. In the same way the Belgians profited because much of Germany's foreign commerce that was borne by rail passed through their ter ritory. The discontent caused by these conditions was one reason why Germany was so ready to go to war.
The Character of the Present Boundaries of Central Europe.— From the purely physical standpoint the present boundaries of cen tral Europe are little better than the old ones. Germany's boun daries have the same disadvantages as before. The Rhine indeed is geographically far less of a barrier than the Vosges Mountains. On
the east the boundary everywhere traverses a level plain and can easily be crossed at any point. The only advantage is that the new boundaries satisfy the racial aspirations of more people than did the old, while the League of Nations intends to prevent the building of fortifications along any frontier.
Poland's boundaries are politically even worse than Germany's, since that country is carved out of an open plain. In fact the lack of any barriers between Poland and her neighbors was one of the main reasons why the old Poland of a century ago was divided between Germany, Austria, and Russia. In the future the lack of barrier boundaries may foster Poland's trade, but will cause the Poles in different sections to want to enter into intimate relations with their respective neighbors and may cause strong political differences.
Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, Hungary, Austria, and the other little states of that part of Europe suffer more or less in the same way from lack of definite physical barriers in the places where racial dis tribution causes the location of boundaries. Because of this fact great tact and wisdom are needed on the part of the League of Nations to prevent further troubles like those of Poland, Austria, and the Balkans in the past.