16 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 14

THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "

SPECTATCIRM Sra,—Now that Rumania has joined the Allies, and Greece is on the point of doing so, only one country remains neutral of all those neigh- bours of the four Central Powers who have suffered loss of territory through them, or who have had to see men of their own race and nationality under alien rule. It is a little more than a coincidence that a few days ago the Peace of Prague celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, the Peace that mado Austria a humble follower of Bismarck and Hungary a Prussia of the Near East. And to the Danes in North Sleseick it granted the famous " Paragraph Five," inserted at the suggestion of the Emperor Napoleon. Only a scrap of paper, a pledge never meant to be oarried out by Prussia" but cancelled at the Brat opportunity. But the

paragraph is still the sheet-anchor of the Danes of North Sleswick, while hoping against hope through fifty-two years of alien oppressive role. " Thal population of the northern districts of Sleswiok-has to be handed over to Denmark when it signifies the wish of being united with Denmark by means of an unfettered vote." As It Danish historian, himself an exile from Sleswiek, once wrote : " We cannot cease hoping that the unhappy fate of Danish Sleswick may be mitigated at some future date."—I am,

Sir, ire., W. R. Palos. National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, S.W.