334 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
his thoughts are the thoughts of Denmark not only of liberal and governmental, but largely of military Denmark as well.
Peace with the world, and with Germany first of all, at all costs and for all time to come ; an absolute, permanent, guar- anteed neutrality, similar to that of Belgium and Switzerland and possibly with the two great Anglo-Saxon nations as sponsors with just enough of armament to emphasize, but not to defe?id t it ; no " entangling alliances" of any sort with anybody, however tempting the terms, but a consistent keeping aloof from all inter- national embroilments of whatever kind ; not too much faith in the saving virtues of matrimonial unions withheads of reigning houses; but trust to the future on the basis of an ever-growing inclina- tion among the nations to listen to the dictates of justice in their mutual dealings, and of the universal recognition of Denmark as a factor in the world's aggregate of social and cultural values the elimination of which would mean a loss to the whole these are the lines along which will be drawn up the program for Den- mark's future foreign politics.
And as to Sleswic, the Danish people have not abandoned the hope that justice will yet prevail. They do not desire a reunion through the defeat and humiliation of Germany in a general European war ; such a solution of the question would render the future forever insecure. But they watch with expectancy for every sign of the spread of wiser and more humane ideas among her people, which in due time may ripen into a recognition of the wrong done and a demand for its rectification through a voluntary restoration to Denmark of what, by every moral law, is hers. By such a course Germany would gain in Denmark and through her in all Scandinavia a firm and grateful friend, and in the world at large a host of true admirers.
Sane counsel has won the day in Denmark. Loyally she accepts the situation created by the war. The de facto govern- ment of Sleswic she acknowledges as the de jure rulers. This is politics. But above the exigencies of politics loom the demands of equity. There are Germans enough who deplore, and are willing to admit it, the tactics of the Prussian government in North Sleswic, and who ardently wish for a cessation of the age-
