_As to the East_, the determining consideration must be that the great addition to our manufacturing resources, which we anticipate in the West, must be counterbalanced by an equivalent annexation of agricultural territory in the East. The present economic structure of Germany has shown itself so fortunate in this war, that it is hardly too much to say that every German is convinced of the necessity for maintaining it for as long a time as we can foresee. The necessity of strengthening the sound agricultural basis of our economic system, of making possible a German agricultural colonisation on a large scale, of restoring the German peasants who are living abroad—especially those settled in Russia and at present deprived of their rights—to the territory of the Empire, so that they may take part in the economic life of Germany, and, lastly, the necessity of greatly increasing the numbers of our population capable of bearing arms, implies _a considerable extension of the Imperial and Prussian frontiers in the East by annexation of at least parts of the Baltic Provinces and of those territories which lie to the south of them, whilst at the same time we must keep in mind, the object of making our Eastern German frontier capable of military defence_. The restoration of East Prussia requires a better safeguarding of its frontiers by placing in front of them other districts, nor must West Prussia, Posen and Silesia remain frontier marches exposed to danger as they now are. With regard to the granting of political rights to the inhabitants of the new districts and the safeguarding of German economic influence, what has already been said about France applies here too. The war indemnity to be paid by Russia will have to consist to a large extent in the cession of land. Of course these demands depend on the hypothesis that military results will enable them to be carried out. But in view of what we have already achieved, we confidently rely on our army and its leaders to gain a victory which will guarantee the attainment of these ends. We must pursue these ends, not from a policy of conquest, but because it is only by attaining them that we can secure that lasting peace which all classes of the German people expect in return for their sacrifices. Moreover, in our opinion, a voluntary surrender of hostile territories, in which so much German blood has been spilt and so many of our best and noblest have found a grave, would do violence to the sentiments of our people and to their conception of an honourable peace.