We cannot allow a hostile power to occupy the Danish islands.
Complicated and grave questions, military as well as political, are thus raised by an Anglo-German war.

Our trade would in any case suffer greatly, for sea communications could be cut off on every side.

Let us assume that France and Russia seal our land frontiers, then the only trade route left open to us is through Switzerland and Austria--a condition of affairs which would aggravate difficulties at home, and should stimulate us to carry on the war with increased vigour.

In any case, when war threatens we must lose no time in preparing a road on which we can import the most essential foodstuffs and raw materials, and also export, if only in small quantities, the surplus of our industrial products.

Such measures cannot be made on the spur of the moment.