Evening star., 1918-02-25
German Policy Is Clear.


is clear. 1t is for her interest to erect
between herself and the main Russian
mass states which shall be dependent
on her, to serve buffer states be-
tween herself and that Russia which
unlike Turkey, possesses the potenti-
ality of future reunion. Accordingly
We see Germany. with the aid of Aus
Lithuania, new Finland, new Po-
land and a new Ukrainia, and at the
same time trying to buy off Rumania
by giving her Russian lands inhabited
by Rumanians, while rewarding Bull
garia with Russian lands containing
Bulgars.
This is the key to the whole situation.
but, unfortunately, the problem is not
so simple as it might seem. Germany
has. herself. some millions of Polish
subjects, who desire to join the new
Poland. If Germany were to permit
this. she would not only have to sur
render much of Silesia, with the best
| mineral and industrial districts, all of
Posen, thus bringing the new frontier
as near to Berlin as her firing line is to
Paris today. but she would have also
| to permit the isolation of the German
speaking districts of East Prussia from
| the rest of Germany, as a result of
ceding to the new Poland the districts
along the lower yistula- inhabited by
the Poles.
To permit Poland to realize her just
I
have to consent to dismemberment. She
| will not do this, naturally, and as a re-
| suit her policy demands the creation
| of Poland that shall be as weak and
as little dangerous for her as possible.
Situation in Lithuania.
| In Lithuania again German proposals
| to liberate another enslaved race are
bound to be insincere, because there
live in the midst of some 100000
Slavs. in the region that she has
| sketched for the new Lithuania, quar-
ter of a million Germans, who in the
German scheme of things are to be the
real masters of the new state and to
govern it for German purposes. AS for
the Lithuanians. they Enthusiastically
quite as Enthusiastically desire to escape
| a German yoke
To create an independent Poland, Fin
| land and Lithuania. following the par
allel of the independent Serbia, Greece.
Rumania and Bulgaria of the Balkans.
were the proposal honestly made, would
| have no peril for the western allies.
All these peoples. and the Ukrainians.
as well, are entitled to choose their
| own form of government and name
| their own allegiance. What is vital is
| that they should not be German, as
| they were Russian. But just as Russia
and Austria strove to make their tools
! the little Balkan states. when these es-
| caped from Turkey, Germany and Aus
| tria are now striving to make similar
use of the small races which inhabit
| the fringes of what was. until recently,
| Russia.
Fresh Conquests Begun.
| Ukrainia and Finland. because of their
| geographical position, present no real
! problem, but Poland and Lithuania offer
| as different and tangled an obstacle as
/ did Serbia and Bulgaria in the last CEN
| tury Germany is seeking to solve the
problem in her own favor by strangling
the Poles and suppressing the Lithua-
mans by armed garrisons and German
| armies of occupation, and she has Just
| taken advantage of bolshevik madness
| to round out her new creations by fresh
/ conquests.
But it is essential for the American
/ public to recognize that there are two
questions involved. the real question of
the future of the several RAGS, con-
| cured by the Russians but not assimi-
lated, and a question of a German domi-
| nation of these people. which has been
undertaken through the treaty OF
Brest-LitovSk.