When originally published in 1945 this book was the first to give a detailed account, based largely upon original sources, of the 'Scheldt Question' from its medieval origins to the settlement of 1839 and to set it against an adequate background of political and economic history. The river Scheldt, the waterway giving access to the port of Antwerp which was so much in the news during the Allied liberation of Belgium and Holland was for centuries the subject of an international question in which all the leading states of Europe were at different times involved. The later part of the book is based on archival researches including the private papers of Lord Palmerston.