WHAT was this country, now transferred as a war
prize, in its essential character, in its fundamental
nature? Was it German or was it French? The
question has received two answers. The Germans
have asserted that it was German, the French that
it was French. The opinion of those most inti-
mately concerned, the people of Alsace and Lorraine
themselves, was just as explicit as either of these.
They asserted, as we have seen, that they were
French and wished to remain French, and that the
document that pretended to transfer them was from
the start and would forever remain null and void.

What light did history throw upon this problem,
if it was a problem? It is impossible within the con-
fines of this volume to recount with any fulness the
crowded annals of this people. The story does not
easily lend itself to compression, it is so long, so
varied, and so involved. Nevertheless, out of its
bewildering intricacies, a few features in the slow

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