Aftermath a Geographical Study of the Peace Terms. By Marion
I. Newbigin. (W. and A. K. Johnston and Macmillan. 3s. 6d. net.)—This little book by Dr. Newbigin, one of the ablest of British geographers, is well worth reading. Within its limits, it is indeed the clearest and most dispassionate statement that we have seen of the racial and economic problems raised and partly settled in the Peace Treaties. Dr. Newbigin illustrates her exposition with a number of original sketch-maps. She points out, for example, that the racial agitation which has led to the formation of the little Baltic States marks an agrarian movement ; the landless peasants who used to emigrate to America are now finding work at home, while many Slays and Letts are returning from America to claim their shares of the great estates that have been broken up. If these new peasant cultivators can increase the productivity of the soil, Eastern Europe may again become self-sustaining and will no longer need to export men in return for food. It is true, of course, that the European farmer is no longer faced with such severe competition from the New World, and that he has learned much from American experience and can benefit by the use of machinery. It is conceivable that Esthonia and Latvia may do what Denmark has done.
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