Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/77

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PROTECTION NO DEFENCE
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resources and its industry, so as to make the Central Powers practically self-sufficing in the essentials of economic life. Joint political and economic pressure would then be used not only to bring their present allies, Bulgaria and Turkey, within this Customs Union, but to persuade or coerce the smaller neutral neighbours, such as Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, perhaps Sweden, to come into a Middle European system which would divide the Western Allies from Russia and constitute the basis for a formidable political and military alliance. There is no evidence that any such plan has gone further than the preliminary stage of a conference between politicians and economists at Berlin and Vienna. The difficulties of the first step in so ambitious a design, a Customs Union of the two Empires, are believed by many to be insurmountable. But, assuming that Germany did throw her energies into this aggressive project, using all her diplomatic and economic resources thus to extend her

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