The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-12-08
Germany S Peace
Proposal to Russia
BY FRANK H. SnMONDs
Author of etThe World War, ''They Shall Not Pass"

Copyright, 1s17-The Tribune AS
ISOLATION (The New York Tribune.)
The English speaking publics Of
the world are so unfamiliar with the
conditions Of eastern and southeast
ern Europe that some of the greatest
problems for the future, growing out
of the world conf1agration, remain Of
little Importance to the United States
and Great Brttain-that is, of inn
portance as measured by understand
ing. Precisely this lack Of knowledge
has served to obscure the meaning Of
German peace proposals to Russia,
as voiced by the German chancellor.
I'VE expect" said Hertling, that
the Lithuanian and Polish peoples in
the conquered districts of Russia will
be permitted to decide upon their
own form of government and follow
their own cultural ideals" This is
the substance of the statement, hedg-
ed about by the most noncommitta1
of phrases. Now. exactly what did
this mean and does it mean to the
world? At least 1t proposes a more
momentous change in European ter
ritorial adjustments than followed
the Napoleonic war.
1t means more. Thanks to the free
use of the map, the map that has
pany my articles, the American pub
lie has grasped something of the
meaning of Mitteleuropa. We are be-
ginning to understand something of
the danger to world liberty If Ger
many is able to expand perpendicu-
larly, speaking by the map: to extend
her rule from Hamburg to Basra,
from the North sea to the Persian
gulf. But not yet has there been any
sufficient education as to the mean
ing to the world Of German expan-
sion literally, speaking again by the
map.
Now the lateral expansion Of Ger
many is conditioned on certain basic
facts. Or a century Europe has been
either at war or on the edge OF war
because Of questions growing out OF
the slow but sure recession Of the
Turkish flood. One after another por-
lions Of the OsmanH empire, con-
quered when the Turk was on the
advance, have escaped from the Sui
tan. And each province that has thus
escaped has been the cause or
European dispute and of information
al rivalry, until we see the last re-
cession, produced by the Balkan war
of 1912. succeeded by the world con-
fiagration, which is still proceeding.
Now, conceive that a similar disin-
tegratibn were to take place in the
Russian empire with its vast area,
with its tremendous resources, and
it becomes clear that the Russian
question may be for the future in
finitely more dangerous than the
Turkish question has been in the
past, that it may, for the balance OF
the twentieth century, replace the old
eastern question. And 1t is precisely
this possibility which today con-
fronts the world and is the basis or
present German policy.
Like the Turk, the Russian has
conquered many races; like the Turk,
he has failed to assimilate the races
he has conquered. The Pole, the
Lithuanian, the Finn, the Rumantan
of Bessarabia, even the various divt-
sions of Russians. preserve a very
ing degree of individuality and have
not. like the Saxon and the Bavarian,
the Rhinelander and the Prussian,
achieved a national consciousness
within a common empire.
Accordingly, when the Russian
unity, which was dynastic and gov
ernmental, was oYerthrown by a
progressive anarchy, which still con-
tinues to induce disintegratton, the
unassimilated portions of Russia
promptly began to seek some other
unity than the Russian Ronianon
unity of the past. Finland, Poland,
Ilithuania, Ukrainia, these are the
first national movements. There win
doubtless be others, but at this mo-