The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-06-17
THIS COUNTRY A COCKPIT.
Theatre of the Latest German In
VaSiOn.

Where the northern people have
thrashed out among themselves in
many battles the causes of faith and
comerce and empire: where German.
Swede. Pole. Russian, Lett, Esth and
Tartar have struggled: on the area
of the Baltic provinces, as much the
cockpit of the north as Belgium has
been of central Europe. news dis
patches make it apparent that the
Teuton and the Slav are preparing to
stage another one of those mighty
struggles for the maintenance of face.
1t is with this country. borderland
where German and Russian meet
among native population of Let's
and Esths, the theatre of the latest
German invasion, last Tuesdays
war-geography study of the National
Geographic society deals. The state
ment reads:
"Courland, Livonia and Esthonia,
the three Russian governments fold
ing themselves around the eastern ell
bow of the Baltic sea, deeply broken
in coastline. swept by an air crisp
with cool in summer and biting in
winter, form the Baltic provinces.
They comprise $3.50 square miles,
supporting 2,500,O00 inhabitants, of
whom the great majority are Let's
and Esths, first mentioned akin to
the Lithuanians, the latter a Finnish
people. The natives are the laborers
and the peasants, the Russians are
the military and administrative Of
fcials, while until the outbreak of
the war, the Germans were the trad
ers and manufacturers of these prov
inces.
"A lesser stream of German migra-
ton has, at various times, flowed
north by way of the Baltic, many of
its elements settling on these coastal
lands that stretch almost from the
Prussian border to Petrograd. a
slight strip of the Russian govern
ment of kovno touches the sea near
Memel, thus dividing East Prussia
from the Baltic provinces. Germans
have founded many families in this
territory. and many of the mobiles and
townsmen of the Baltic lands are Of
German ancestry. The German de-
scended population of the three gov
ernments constitutes about per
cent. of the whole, considerably out
numbering the Russian.
German characteristics far more
than Russian are found throughout
the provinces, which, until within the
last few years, had numerous Ger
man schools, German newspapers and
German societies. The Russians,
however, a few years before the pres
ent war began, turned their attention
to the Russianizing of the Baltic
provinces after the same thorough
fashion with which they have car
ried on their campaigns for the as
similation of the Poles. The German
schools, languages, press and organ
izations were prescribed.
The Order of the Swordbearers
and later, the Teutonic Knights made
the territory included in the Baltic
provinces the object of Christian
crusades. They carried their reli-
gion to the Leets and Esths by the
sword, and after them came German
settlers, who appropriated the land,
crushing the native population to a
position of serfdom. These northern
crusaders carried on their operations
during the 18th century. Besides
their religion, the knights brought
the seeds of German civilization with
them, and the cultural development
Of this region was, therefore, early
far superior to that of the surround
ing country.
with the exception Of Courland,
the Baltic provinces once belonged
to Sweden. Courland was a depend
ency of Poland. Peter the Great took
possession of the Swedish provinces
in the beginning of the 18th century,
and Courland was obtained in 1799.
For a long time. the provinces were
allowed a large measure of Self
guidance. but in 1880, the move
ment began for their assimilation
with the rest of the empire. The
movement developed more especial
emphasis some six or seven years
ago.
The coast islands and their in
terror areas are fiat and dotted with
German towns and villages. wherein
are found the German gables, town
halls, cathedrals; and gutteral Ger
man is heard in every commercial
l>,,.a rrbo proyipcoc GRO rich in