iv THE TREATY 99

they constitute an unprecedented interference with acountry's domestic arrangements, and are capable ofbeing so operated as to take from Germany alleffective control over her own transport system. Intheir present form they are incapable of justification ;but some simple changes might transform them into areasonable instrument.

Most of the principal rivers of Germany have theirsource or their outlet in non-German territory. TheRhine, rising in Switzerland, is now a frontier river for a part of its course, and finds the sea in Holland ;the Danube rises in Germany but flows over itsgreater length elsewhere; the Elbe rises in themountains of Bohemia, now called Czecho-Slovakia ;the Oder traverses Lower Silesia ; and the Niemen nowbounds the frontier of East Prussia and has its sourcein Russia. Of these, the Rhine and the Niemen arefrontier rivers, the Elbe is primarily German but inits upper reaches has much importance for Bohemia ,the Danube in its German parts appears to have littleconcern for any country but Germany, and the Oder is an almost purely German river unless the resultof the plebiscite is to detach all Upper Silesia .

Rivers which, in the words of the Treaty ,"naturally provide more than one State with accessto the sea," properly require some measure ofinternational regulation and adequate guaranteesagainst discrimination. This principle has long beenrecognised in the International Commissions which