South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-10

10 and II million of people and no matter what
German leading strings are attached TO II, II VIII
represent real step toward the achievement OF
ultimate Polish liberty and will be the foundation
stone on which the Poles will endeavOr TO build
the Italians built upon Sardinia after the con-
gTeSS of Vienna
But it is extremely likely that to the Russian
Poles there will be added the Austrian. These
five millions Of Poles living in Western Galicia
have become distinct menace to Austrian do
meStlc unity. Before the present war they allied
themselves with the German element in return tor
complete political liberty and the right to DOM
nate the RuthllnianS OF Eastern Galicia. This ALL:
ance between the German and the Pole in Austria
gave a bare majority against the balance OF the
Austrian SaVS But now this balance will be de-
StTOyed, if the Poles are not permitted TO Join
their Austrian brethren An alliance between the
CzeChS of Bohemia and the Poles of GallCla would
practically make parliamentary rule in Austria i'm
possible.
And if these Austrian Poles Join the Russian,
then the new Poland will be a state of something
more than IS millions of people, with area at
least a third as great as that of France or Ger
many And such state would not only be hos
tile TO Germany since Germany would still refuse
to liberate the PruSSian Poles, but it would be
eventually a menace to German security, if Ger
many were ever involved in war either on the
east or the west In destroying Russian unity,
therefore, Germany has opened one of the most
dangerous of all questions, for herself. Poland,
whatever its condition in the next few decades,
will be on approximate political fact and a real
menace TO Germany. The idea that Germany
can draw divisions and army corps from the Poles
is absurd. She may draw a measure of CONNER
Cial and economic profit, but she will have to
maintain any political influence by ganiSonS and
military power.
Nor is the situation in Lithuania much more
favorable. The mass of the people of this new
state still somewhat hay in outlines are not only
SlavS, but SlaYS having a Ong-Sanding grievance
against the TeutonS The few thousands of Ger
man landholderS living in these regions under con-
ditionS recalling those of the nobility of France
before the revolution have long been hated by the
mass of Slavonic peaSantTy. Now Germany means
TO make this Slight element the ruling class, the
basis of German power and this means that the
new regime can be maintained only by more PruS-
sian bayonetS and that it will have to be defended,
both against any later Russian push toward the
Baltic if the great and little Russians ever reunlte
and resume the work begun by Peter the Great
and interrupted by William II, and also against
domestic discomfort
Thus SO far as one can see all the possibilities
for the future, in the Slay east are unfavOrable to
German expansion and absorption. However,
the lines may be drawn at the end of the world
war the facts will remain as they remained in
Italy and in Germany after the congress of Vienna
90 millions of Poles hostile to Germany the I.ltl-
uanian state is incapable of existence as a Ger
man dependency save when guarded by German
bayonetS and even a ROmanOff dynasty restored
in Petrograd would he driven TO adopt a national
as opposed to TeutOnc policy or would fall as
the similar RESERVATIONS have fallen in all his
tory, when faced by a national uprising.
AUSTRIAN FEAR GONE
There is, too one more aspect of the new sit