92 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

tions are allowed, in the present governance of Europe ,to prevail over the intense need of the Continent forthe most sustained and efficient production to repairthe destructions of war, and to satisfy the insistenceof labour for a larger reward. 1

The same influences are likely to be -seen, thoughon a lesser scale, in the event of the transference ofUpper Silesia to Poland. While Upper Silesia con-tains but little iron, the presence of coal has led tothe establishment of numerous blast furnaces. Whatis to be the fate of these ? If Germany is cut offfrom her supplies of ore on the west, will she exportbeyond her frontiers on the east any part of thelittle which remains to her ? The efficiency andoutput of the industry seem certain to diminish.

Thus the Treaty strikes at organisation, and bythe destruction of organisation impairs yet furtherthe reduced wealth of the whole community. Theeconomic frontiers which are to be established betweenthe coal and the iron, upon which modern industrial-ism is founded, will not only diminish the productionof useful commodities, but may possibly occupy animmense quantity of human labour in dragging iron

1 In April 1919, the British Ministry of Munitions despatched anexpert Commission to examine the conditions of the iron and steel works inLorraine and the occupied areas of Germany. The Report states that theiron and steel works in Lorraine, and to a lesser extent in the Saar Valley,are dependent on supplies of coal and coke from Westphalia. It is necessaryto mix Westplialian coal with Saar coal to obtain a good furnace coke. Theentire dependence of all the Lorraine iron and steel works upon Germany for fuel supplies " places them," says the Report, "in a very unenviableposition."