Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/267

 this statement. We adhere to all its terms, but we desire to make clear the sense in which we understand them. Like all general formulæ, that of the Committee is possible of various interpretations, and it is important to avoid in exchanging views the misunderstanding that might result by using equivocal expressions.

No annexation. Annexation occurs when the belligerents by force and against the will of the inhabitants attach all or a part of the territories of their adversaries to the kingdom of their own sovereign. The classical example of this is the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the German Empire.

If, conforming to the will of the inhabitants, this province were now returned to France, we see in that no annexation in the sense in which we have just defined it, we should, on the contrary, consider it a dis-annexation. Even the constitution of the Polish unity, the completion of Italian and Servian unity, desired by the population in question, would not have that character of violence or force which is characteristic of an annexation. These territorial changes would only serve