In Alsace-Lorraine itself she introduced an amount of local
self-government and home rule such as England has not accorded even now
to Ireland. While Ireland still is waiting for a Parliament at Dublin,
Strassburg has been for years the seat of the Alsace-Lorraine Diet, a
provincial Parliament based on universal suffrage. And even in spite of
the incessant and inflammatory French propaganda which last year led to
such unhappy counter-strokes as the deplorable Zabern affair, there can
be no reasonable doubt that the people of Alsace-Lorraine have been
gradually settling down to willing co-operation with the German
administration--an administration which insures them order, justice, and
prosperity. Nothing is a clearer indication of the peaceable trend which
affairs have lately taken in Alsace-Lorraine than the fact that the
Nationalists, i.e., French party, in the Strassburg Diet has never been
able to rise above insignificance, and that, on the other hand, a
considerable number of responsible officers in the civil administration,
including the highest Governmental positions, have been occupied by
native Alsatians.
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