Art. 10.-ALSACE-LORRAINE. By Coleman Phillipson. Fisher 1. Alsace-Lorraine. Unwin, 1918. 2. The Question of Alsace-Lorraine. By Jules Duhem. (Translated from the French.) Hodder and Stoughton, 1918. 3. La France de l'Est. By P. Vidal de la Blache. Armand Colin, 1917. 4. L'Alsace au XVIIme Siècle. By R. Reuss. Émile Bouillon, 1897. AN amusing story was recently current of an American soldier, who, sleeping in the open air, was aroused at daybreak by a small French girl, who brought him a cup of the delicious coffee of which the French have the secret. Having drunk the coffee and rubbed his eyes, the soldier sat up and remarked: Well! If that little girl wants Alsace and Lorraine, she shall have them, if I have to stay here thirty years.' The feeling is a general one. The French have suffered so much and have displayed such superb qualities that the instinct of their Allies is to see that they receive at the peace everything that they demand; and, next to the rehabilitation of Belgium, the restoration to France of her 'lost provinces ' is undoubtedly the most popular of the Allied Warbehoves us to examine the problem of Alsace-Lorraine Aims. Yet, right and natural as these instincts are, it with all the detachment of which we are capable, lest, in the desire to be generous, to right the wrong done in 1871, we commit, or sanction the commission of, a second wrong, for which future generations will have to pay the penalty. The question, therefore, that we have to ask is not whether France wants Alsace-Lorraine, or whether we has a just claim to these provinces. Are they integral Want France to have Alsace-Lorraine, but whether she parts of France or of Germany? or have they, during the ordeal of the past forty-seven years, become a separate entity, leaning neither towards Germany nor towards France, but ripe for an independent existence? This question involves another and more general one: What is the test of common nationality? Arguments based o race, language, and geography have been freely used and, although none of these can be said to be a true an final test, they require examination. That race is no satisfactory test is proved by mar considerations. Few nations are of more varied rac extraction than our own; and Spain and Portugɛ Belgium, and Switzerland are other instances of th weakness of arguments based on race affinity. It ma however, be worth while to point out that the Gall race extended to the Rhine, and that, in spite of th barbarian invasions, Celtic blood has persisted in Alsa and predominated in Lorraine. Regarded from the point of view of language, it mu be recognised that Alsace has always been Germa speaking; it was so in 1871 by a majority of rather mo than 3 to 1 (77 per cent. to 23 per cent.). But at th moment of the German annexation the majority Lorrainers in the transferred territory were Frend speakers; and in the last census (1910) 33 per cent. native Lorrainers of the annexed portion of Lorrain were still recorded as habitually talking French. Lower and Upper Alsace the percentages of French speakers in 1910 were 3.8 per cent. and 6.1 per cen respectively. The city of Metz, formerly French-speakin by a large majority, is now almost equally divide But in recent years the tendency has been for the French speakers to increase - a very suggestive fact. language question, however, has little significance. Thi fact that a German patois is generally spoken in Alsac does not indicate sympathy with Germany. In the purel German-speaking districts of Haguenau, Weissenburg and Schlettstadt, for instance, the proportion of thos who opted for French nationality in 1871 was higher tha in any other district of the two provinces. Th As to questions of geography it may suffice to say that, while the Vosges frontier has proved itself im penetrable, there is a good deal to be said for the Rhine and that, while many people have been ready to poin out the dangers of the salient into Germany that would be formed by Alsace-Lorraine, there are some counter balancing advantages. But race, language, and geographical position, although they are contributory elements, are not the determining factors in the test of nationality. That test has to be sought on the more doubtful ground of popular sentiment. It is a matter for observation and psychology rather than for reasoning and statistics. If we ask where we are to look for evidences of the desires of a people, how we are to test their hearts rather than their speech and the shape of their skulls, the usual and most natural answer-and it is the one that has been generally used by the Socialists in regard to Alsace-Lorraine-is by the application of the plebiscite; and the fact that France has rejected the idea of a plebiscite in AlsaceLorraine has roused some not unnatural suspicion. It must be remembered, however, that the expedient of a plebiscite on such a subject as the disposal of disputed territory has been proved in practice to be beset with difficulties. The standard examples are the plebiscites in 1860 in Nice and Savoy; and a study of the conditions under which they were taken does not encourage a general recourse to this expedient. A plebiscite, it has been found, is generally favourable to existing powers. It is open to great abuses, owing to the fact that it must usually be conducted under the supervision of one of the interested parties. Moreover, in Alsace-Lorraine there are special difficulties. Out of a population of less than two millions about 400,000 have emigrated since 1871; and practically all of these would be favourable to France. These persons and their descendants have as much right to vote as any residents, and far more than the 300,000 German immigrants who have replaced them. But the difficulty in tracing them and verifying their claims would be almost insuperable. As to the German immigrants, the fact that a German Colonisation Society has been busy during 1918 settling approved Pan-Germans, selected by German General Head Quarters at Strassburg, on the lands of refugees, points to the conclusion that, by the use of the immigrant vote, and a plebiscite conducted under German auspices, the Germans quite recently hoped to snatch a majority in the provinces. In addition to these technical arguments against a plebiscite, the French have laid much stress on the moral argument that the Treaty of Frankfort was a breach of a recognised international principle, that the answer of |