Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-07
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

The Kingdom of Lithuania-It's al dul. week in the chronicles of d1plo- matic maneuvers when the birth or a new kingdom or the .rebirth of an old one is not announced in the family of nations. The khedive. of. Egypt, de- pendent of the Turkish sultan, was deposed early in the war and sul- tan of the Nile country enthroned under the British protectorate; the Grand Shereef of Mecca recently so- licted felicitaticns in the name of the infant Kingdom of Arabia a;'' the Teu- tonic Allies only a few days ago an- nounced the restoration of the ancient kingdom of Poland, much of the ter ritery "cedei" being at the present time in Russian possession, and now comes the rehabilitation of the med- ieyal realm of Lithuania, carved from provinces which Germany has con- qucred and others which she desires to conquer from Russia.
 Concerning LithuaEia, from which, according to cable adyiceS, the Ger mans hope to recruit 150,Ge0 citizens for service under Field Marshal won Hindenburg, the National Geographic Society gives the following iaforra- tion in a war geograp phy bulletin:
 When the third and final dismem- berment of Poland was accomplished l in 1795 practically all of the medieval principality of LithuAnia, which had been amalgamated with the Kingdom | of Poland nearly 200 years previously, passed into the possession of Russia. | Its area at that time was about equal | to that of Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania combined, and com prised the territory now embraced ir. 1 the Russian governments of Kovno,
 Grodno, Wilma. MinslS. Mohilcff. Witt ebsk, and. Suwalkft> Much of this land l is now occupied by the German arm | Sracs <af &l70o o0cf frnTl ] ''Lithuania is an uninviting region as a whole. It is a succession of fens | and forests, ill-suited to agricultural pursuits of any sort, and the 2,000.000 l Lithuanians and 1,3D0,00G Let's who l inhabit the land gain livelihood | chiefly by the culture of bees and the ! raising of cattle and horses. The Dnieper, the Nienlen; the Prinet, the | Bug, and the Duina are amorEy the numerous rivers which flow through 1 the country. and as there are few elevations, the courses of these water | ways are usually extremely sluggish ! and spread over wide areas forming extensive marshes.
 The Lithuanians are an iindepend- ent branch of he Aryar race, and ow- ing to the swampy nature of their l homeland were able to maintain their 1 integrity as a people in spite of the fact that during the early middle ages they suffered constantly from inva- siohs by their more powerful neigh bors. The Or6er of Teutonic Knights [ and the Livonian knights of the Order of the Sword were especially vigorous in their onslaughts. upon the semi savage tribes which adhered to their pagan worship long after most of IIu- rope had accepted Christianity.
 "One of the legendary heroes of Ltkuania's early struggle was Rvn- gold, but the first definite historical l facts annnprnir1p Tho and it chiefs date from the time of Mendowg, Ryngold's. -son- This ehieftiiin was recognized by Pope Innocent " and ruled for 12 years, from 1251, but the real founder of the kingdom was the
 resourceful and statesmanlike Gedy-
 mir, G316-1341) who built tl.e city of I Wilma, which became his capital. He
 entered into negotiations with Rome
 looking toward the Christ;aniziug ef
 his country and thereby gained a
 brief respite from the depredations of
 the Tcutonic Knights. When the time
 came for the Grand Princes baptism however, it was found that the pa gan
 faith exercised so strong I hold on
 the imagination of his people that the ceremony was postponed. Gedymin
 extended the bounds of his domains
 far to the south, and cast. at the ex- fperse of the Russians, and in his rec
 ognition of the advantages of Western
 civilization, as indicated by the well
 come which he extended to imrni- grants he anticipated the far-sjghted
 policies of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.
 "Gedymin had seven sons who after
 a protracted period of rivalry. ac-
 knowledged the supremacy of Olgierd the most adroit of their number Olgierd's her, Jagiello, founder of the
 Jakellon dynasty, was one ofz tho
 most potent factors in the advance ment of Lithuania's power. He in
 troduced Christianity in 1887 ant
 erected cathedral in Wilma on tht site of the ancient pSsan temple. By , his marriage to Jadviga (or Hedwig, daughter of Louis the Great af Po- land, he eventually ascended tht
 throne or that country under the titlt y of Wladislaw but following his deatl , the two countries had separate ruler. governments under one sovereign il
 I5O1 was securely cemanted by a de
 cree of the Diet of Lublin sS year, later. and from tha- tirle tho histor. 5 of Lithuariia was merged into that o ? Poland. , At the beginning of the 18th cen
 tury the Jagellons held sway over
 vast domain extending to-the south l east as far as the Sea of yizov 9th |. northern boundary of the Crinea9 an, embracing Kiev and daji-aey, (th modern Odessa).
 the Lithuanian capital of Wilma wa
 made the center of strategy of tn y French lines, and after the disaste 9 at Moscow ! the retreating ernpero
 disguise on the night of Novembe , 24th, 1812.''
 2 Unlike their Russian and Polls | tneighbors, the Lithuanians have blu eyes. Hght-coirred hair and fair com
 ga A l. j 5s