customer of Great Britain, Sweden, and Denmark. The production 
of these materials from this region could not be
sealed up and obliterated as was proposed this morning,
without manifestly causing a great dislocation to the trade
upon which Europe has lived. In Germany itself this commerce 
has built up since 1870 a population of approximately
thirty million more people than were ever supported upon
the agricultural soil of Germany alone. Undoubtedly a
similar growth of population took place in the nations
which indirectly participated in the commerce based upon
this production.
 
 
 I cannot treat as realistic the suggestion that 
such an area in the present economic condition of the world
can be turned into a non-productive "ghost territory" when
it has become the center of one of the most industrialized
continents in the world, populated by peoples of energy,
vigor and progressiveness.
 
 
 I can conceive of endeavoring to meet the misuse
which Germany has recently made of this production by wise
systems of control or trusteeship or even transfers of
ownership to other nations. But I cannot conceive of turning
such a gift of nature into a dust heap.