Page:The heart of Europe; an address delivered by Charles Pergler in Washington, December 11, 1916, at a conference of oppressed or dependent nationalities (IA heartofeuropeadd00pergrich).pdf/35

in America we should have an aggregation of loose-jointed states, or whether a foundation for a real nation would be laid. Yet the difficulties did not prevent the fathers from undertaking the task. That the new state would not have direct access to the sea seems to some to be a serious obstacle. Access to the sea is important, but with modern methods of communication not as important as it was in the past. After all, the sea affords simply a means of communication. Whether we are restricted to communication by the sea, or by rail, makes little difference if a country is confronted by high tariffs. However, an independent Bohemian-Slovak State can be connected with the future Serbo-Croatia by giving the strip of land at the Hungarian frontier in the west, either to Serbia, or one half of it (north) to Bohemia, the other (south) to Serbia. This corridor will be formed of parts of the counties of Pozsony (Pressburg), Sopron (Oedenburg), Moson (Wieselburg), and Vas (Eisenburg). Such a corridor would give Bohemia access to the Serbo-Croatian ports. Economic rights of way for land-locked states are advocated by Mr. Toynbee in his new work (The New Europe), and Mr. Toynbee thus indicates how the problem of access to the sea may be solved. It is also true that the future Bohemian-Slovak State will have a German and perhaps a small Magyar minority, but in central and eastern Europe hardly any state can be constructed without certain national minorities. In the present instance these minorities are not as large as the false Austrian and Magyar statistics and the unequal and unfair suffrage rules would make it appear. It ought