New-York tribune., 1918-01-03

arms ruled over a helpless and miserable
Slav population. 1t was not until the
middle of the sixteenth century that the
territory passed TO Poland, and thereafter,
by various partitions, to Russia.
Under Russian rule. however, this minor
fraction of German population retained its
political Importance. 1t supplied Russia,
Pctrograd, with ruling class from which
generals and ministers came. AT home it
lived under conditions resembling those of
the nobility in France before the Revolu-
ton; most Of the land was in its hands and
the people were subjected to the harshcst
form of exploitation. Again and again
these people have risen against their Ger
man masters, but the influence of the rul-
ing class at Petrograd has always been
sufficient to provide other Slav troops to
reduce them to the old slavery
Now, this German element. controlling.
but insignificant in number, has always
been regarded in Germany as destined to
be united with the lIohenzole,n empire
For two centuries at least the Germans
have regarded the Baltic provinces. once
dominated by the Teutonc knights. as
land that was once German and would
in due course of time, be regained. In all
Pan-Germanic literature for half GEN.
tury. the German color has been extended
to the Baltic Provinces lust as it has been
extended to Holland, Belgium and North
ern France
What the Germans are now aiming at
is unmistakablc. They occupy by force Of
arms most Of this territory; the ruling
class In the territory is German and eager
to escape from a Bolshcvik Slavdom to a
Prussianized Germany, for these Germans
of the Baltic Provinces are of the same
spirit and hold the same ideas as the other
German minorities who rule in East Prus-
sia and Silesia over conquered Slavs.
Therefore the Germans having military
control and aided by the ruling class, who
are of the Junker tribe, demand that the
fate of these provinces shall be determined
by a plebiscite and thar this plebiscitc
shall take place before their troops arc
withdrawn.
The result of such "A plebiscite would be
certain. Four million and half to five
million Slavs would be swept into a Ger-
man-made state controlled by tiny Ger
man minority, who could maintain them
selves only by German bayonets. Another
and even more gigantic Alsace-Lorrainc
would thus be created. Germany would
at once gain control over nearly five mill
ions of Slavs, and in addition she would
gain control of all Russia's Baltic ports
and thus lay hands upon the economic con-
troll of the $50, 100000 of Russians in the
districts still left to the Slav state.
All this, it is to be observed, is to be
done under the cover of the Russian for
mula that peoples Of various races are to
be permitted to decide their own destinies.
BY clever manipulation of the democratic
formula Germany is to acquire domina
tion in q land ten times as great as
Alsace-Lorraine and carrying with it the
economic mastery of the vast Russian En-
pre. At the present moment there are
nearly 100000 Poles in Prussia who
desire to decide their own allegiance, and
their desire not to be German is notorious
For them she expressly repudiatcs the
democratic doctrine of the plebiscite. They
are to remain Prussian slaves. But in
the same breath she proclaims for the
Slavs of the Baltic Provinces that doc
trine she repels for her own Slavs.
There never was a more gigantic, a
more palpablc, a moro dangerous fraud
attempted. Germany reckons, rightly
that the world knows little of Eastern
European conditions. She rcckons that
the performances Of the Bolsheviki have
sickened all the Western powers of things
Russian and aroused great desire to cut
adrift from all Russian relations. She
reckons also that war-weary publcs in
France and Britain, and totally unin-
formed populations in America, will take
no great interest in the fate of few
million Lithuanians and Poles.