Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-03-28
AIR RAIDS CUTTING
HUN SUPPLY LINES

back.
/, I'm this matter. by the way the actual
mileage is AN insufficient index of the
comparative dangers, because the risk
obviously increases more rapidly than
the distance-thc time to send warn
lnss and to resistance ahead
of the raiding planes being a func-
ton which rises i'm efficiency more
rapidly than the direct trajectory of
the flight. The same is true of the
haustion OF petrol. etc.
The other geographical point which
ought To be understood upon your side
of the Atlantic is the political geogra-
ply OF the states which the Germans
ana Austrians are now carving out of
once the Russian empire.
Ii Is Il mere commonplace, of course,
which we all take for granted, that if
Prussia can obtain a negotiated peace
she will turf these state into depcn-
denotes Of the great central European
empire of which she will he the head,
and that although they will enjoy some
form OF nominal autonomy they will, if
she is unbeaten in this war, be no more
than provinces under her dominion.
They will certainly, for instance, have
to furnish c~ontingents of troops as her
allies i'm amy future War. and they will
sun more certainly be economically at
IN iiNItS VI NtS lt cApIOlllllUl. All
this, | say, is understood everywhere
in Europe and taken for granted. 1t is
equally understood and equally taken
for granted in the enemy's countries
quite as much us in ours that if his
armies are defeated on the west the
whole of his ambitious scheme in the
east collapses.
What are not equally appreciated on
our side of the Atlantic. and 1 suppose
not on your side either. are both the
magnitude of Germany's eastern effort
and h e policy of division on which this
new creation of states is based.
AS to the policy of MISUNDERSTANDING
Prussia is to diminish and weaken Po-
land. OF all these states Poland is the
only n with a real national con-
seriousness of a great past and of high
civilization. a strong Poland, with ac-
cess to the sea-. would destroy the
Prussian scheme of conquest forever.
Rendering Poland Powerless.
The Prussian policy is not to annex
more of Poland than has already been
annexed by the shameless partitions of
the past. That would give more trou-
bic than it would be worth, for, as ev-
cry example proves all over Europe,
the attempt of n white civilized nation
to govern even n small part of another
white civilized nation against It's will
10 IL piliI'Ult, tau uliQ exceeding
ly expensive operation. But if what is
left of Poland a be surrounded by
diverse states, each containing scat
tered and weak Polish minorities and
each with q, policy founded on OPPOSE
ton to the Polish claims for the reunit-
ing of the subjugated peoples into "a
would be achieved. That is exactly
what is being lone. The largely arti-
fetal new states called the Ukraine
an academic term only recently come
into lse-and Lithuania are to have
their frontires drawn with the express
purpose of limiting the poor remnant
of Poland.
In the Courland she will rely upon
the German minority of rich men in
towns and the rich land owners out
side.
In Lithuania she will depend upon
the hitherto not very a~ccentuated
and Lithuanian ~peasantry with the or
ganization of the Catholic church flat
tered as much as is possible by the
conqueror.
But from Lithuania she will take Lii
vonia and make something separate of
1t, small as it is. to keep up general
fraction.
In Esthonia she will work just the
other way, and there she will depend
upon the Protestant religion of the
small population Of 100000 which it
contains to remain pitted against the
Catholic populations of the southern
neighborS.
Rumania she intends to keep as it is
now. dividing in half with more than
5000. 900 Rumanians subject to Magyar
rule. but she will add to Rumania
BesSarabia, as a source of friction
against the Ukraine. in so far as this
last state a be said to have any real
national feeling.
Master Ukraine and Control Black Sea.
The Ukraine h will pit against Po-
land by creating an artificial false
frontier and subtecting many hundreds
OF thousands of ole to alien rule, and
she will protect" that large territory.
keeping 1t in strict economic depend
ence, controlling Odessa, mastering the
Black sea. cutting OFF northern Russia
from warm water and preventing one
of the richest granaries of Europe from
feeding the western part Of the conti-
nent.
Lastly, we should remember what
this great German scheme means in
mere figures. There is a doubtful ele-
mentsin the constitution Of the Ukraine
which, according to whether it is made
larger OF smaller. shows n difference of
5000. 900 In population. But with the
Ukraine even In Its narroWest limits
this congeries of new. largely artificial
and opposed states will actually, dou-
BILE the German empire In numbers.
With the Ukraine at its largest they
will more than double 1t.
There were before the war nearly
10000, 900 souls within the limits of the
German empire. including, of course,
the annexed populations governed
against their wills in the Polish and
Danish provinces and in Alsace-Lor-
LIaine. In the new. districts, which. will
be subject to the central empires. there
Is another S5.0o0.00 to 10000. 900. AS