What these territorial gains mean in the way of additional resources for the industries of the home country, only the future can decide. Certain it is, that outside of the Americas, Central Europe, Russia, China and Japan, Great Britain succeeded in annexing most of the important territory of the world. The _Chicago Tribune_, in one of its charmingly frank editorials, thus describes the gains to the British Empire as a result of the war. "The British mopped up. They opened up their highway from Cairo to the Cape. They reached out from India and took the rich lands of the Euphrates. They won Mesopotamia and Syria in the war. They won Persia in diplomacy. They won the east coast of the Red Sea. They put protecting territory about Egypt and gave India bulwarks. They made the eastern dream of the Germans a British reality. "The British never had their trade routes so guarded as now. They never had their supremacy of the sea so firmly established. Their naval competitor, Germany, is gone. No navy threatens them. No empire approximates their size, power, and influence. "This is the golden age of the British Empire, its Augustan age. Any imperialistic nation would have fought any war at any time to obtain such results, and as imperialistic nations count costs, the British cost, in spite of its great sums in men and money was small." (January 4, 1920.) 5. _Half the World--Without a Struggle_ Two significant facts stand out in this record of spoils distribution. One is that Great Britain received the lion's share of them in Asia and Africa. The other, that there is no mention of the Americas. Outside of the Western Hemisphere, Great Britain is mistress. In the Americas, with the exception of Canada, the United States is supreme. There are two reasons for this. One is that Germany's ambitions and possessions included Asia and Africa primarily--and not America. The other is that the Peace Conference recognized the right of the United States to dominate the Western Hemisphere. The representatives of the United States declared that their country was asking for nothing from the Peace Conference. Nevertheless, the insistent clamor from across the water led the American delegation to secure the insertion in the revised League Covenant of Article XXI which read: "Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace." This article coupled with the first portion of Article X, "The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League," guarantees to the United States complete authority over Latin America, reserving to her political suzerainty and economic priority.