COLONIAL TRADE
Both these courses were considered, examined, recommended and combated from various points of view, until finally the second was chosen. The first course would undoubtedly have been the sounder of the two. Acquisition of fresh territory to accommodate the overflow population contains infinitely greater advantages, especially if the future, and not the present, is considered.
The sole hope of success for a territorial policy nowadays is to confine it to Europe, and not to extend it to places such as the Cameroons. It is the natural determination to fight for our existence that we have had to thank for the two Ostmarken of the Reich and the extent of our territory, which alone has permitted us to exist until to-day, for our internal strength.
There is another reason why this solution would have been the right one :
Many European States to-day are like pyramids standing on their points. Their possessions in Europe are ridiculous compared with their top-heavy burden of colonies, foreign trade, etc. One might say : point in Europe, base all over the world ; in contradistinction to the American Union, whose base covers its own con¬ tinent and whose apex is its point of contact with the rest of the globe. Hence the vast internal strength of that State and the weakness of most European colon¬ izing Powers.