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 political developments are more likely to tighten than relax the Protectionist policy of the two peninsular States), Germany has a strong geographical advantage in dealing with them. We can only hope for an improvement in this direction upon one condition. With a tariff in this country enabling us to make reciprocity treaties, we should secure better terms of entry into the Scandinavian countries than Germany enjoys, for the simple reason that we should on our side be giving them incomparably better terms than Germany could offer. The case of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is an admirable example of the fantastic pedantry of a system which prevents our obtaining any commercial concessions whatever in return for the unique privileges we concede.

The Near East, Middle East, Morocco.—We turn next to the equally important group of States, including the little Balkan countries, the Sultan's dominions, and the 'Mohammedan belt' (except Egypt), stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Persian Gulf. Upon political and economic grounds alike it must appear that there is scant scope for British progress in this direction, and that we cannot obtain there what we are now compelled to seek throughout the world—security. Italian competition, now entering actively into the field, enjoys in the Mediterranean the same geographical advantage that Germany enjoys in the Baltic. German and Austrian commerce prevails more and more in the Balkans. Our trade with the Turkish Empire, as a whole, has been stationary or shrinking, while that of Germany has doubled since the Kaiser's accession and the policy of friendship with Stamboul. While the open door is nominally maintained, the success of the Wilhelmstrasse in securing commercial concessions from the Porte for railways, harbour works, and armaments is equivalent to a preferential position for our chief continental competitors throughout the Sultan's dominions. Above all, we have to remember that the whole of this region must undergo sooner or