The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise."
"And France escapes," she murmured.
"France escapes," he assented. "Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
moment the matter does not concern us."
"And is Great Britain, then," Maggie asked, "believed to be so helpless
that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
will of China and Japan?"
Prince Shan smiled.
"Great Britain," he reminded her, "has taken the League of Nations to
her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do."
"Still," Maggie persisted, "there remains the great thing which you have
not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?"
"If I had signed the agreement," he replied, "they could very easily
have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
eastern-most of them is the answer to your question.
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