New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-04
Will Poland Cross the Oder?

Reports that Polish army has taken
Frankfort the Oder and is marching
on Berlin have a fanciful air. The new
state of Poland would eravely compro-
mise its status at the peace conference
if its organized forces should invade
Brandenburg. That province the kernel
of the modern kingdom cf Prussia, is
outside the Polish sphere BY intruding
into Brandenburg the Poles would raise
an issue not only with Germany, but
with the Entente Powers which granted
Germany an armistice
What is happening in the Province of
Posen and along its western and south
western borders is probably merely
series of domestic risings intended to
take control of ancient Polish territory,
still eponderantly Polish in popula-
ton, out of Prussian hands. Posen was
Prussia's eastern Alsace- Lorraine Prus-
sian rule was never accepted there.
After more than q century of occupa-
ton the people of Posen were still unas-
simulated, still untouched by German Kul-
tur. Now they are ejecting what is left
of the Prussian bureaucracy, just as the
people of the other parts Of The German
Empire have driven out the former
kings, princes and reigning grand dukes
The Posenites are not making war on
Germany-since they are still politi-
cally a part of Germany. They are
only exercising their new right of local
self-determination and preparing the
way for transfer of their allegiance to
the resurrected Poland of their mex
tinguishable fealty and hope
The liberation of Posen has been un-
der way for nearly two months The
evacuation of Poland proper by German
troops and the complete breakdown
within Germany of the military and civil
authority have made the redemption of
the province a simple matter. The city
of Posen has now been practically
cleared of Germans Bromberg, in the
north, has been freed. The local upris-
ings have apparently spread across the
border on the west into Brandenburg
and on the south into Silesa.
Poland proper, which has been exist
ing for nearly four years as a separate
state, although under a German-Austrian
protectorate, has at present no means
at hand to do much more than maintain
her political stability until the peace set
Element is reached. She has shown
some ambition to settle her accounts
with the Ukraine, as we'll as to annex
Galicia, Posen and parts of West Prus-
o,,J ~,
the Vistula to Danzig will probably fall
TO her at Versailles, where she is also
likely to recover The Cholm district
taken from her at Brat Litovsk and as
signed to Ukraina.
But her real enemy %hie the arnjstice
lasts is Bolshevist Russia The Bolshe
visit Red Army is invading Lithuania. 1t
has entered Riga-evacuated by the
Germans-and is threatening Wilma. 1t
may make its appearance later on the
eastern borders of Poland. And the
Bolshevist on the eastern border has a
strong ally in the Polish Bolshevist in
Warsaw, In Lodz and in the impoverished
. smaller cities.
General Plsudski has small army in
warsaw Mr., Paderewski has journeyed
10 Poland to help fortify Polish patriot
ISM against the insidious class war appeal
made by the agents Of Lenine and
Irotzky. But a still greater stiffening
Oh the forces of order is needed. Cen
eral Haller commands fair sized Polish
army IN France. If it should be trans
1erred home, the new state would be
better able to act as buffer against
me penetration of Bolshevism and thus
do the democracies of Western E,,rono
an invaluable service.
The Poles have no call to march On
Berlin. They should turn their faces in
stead toward Moscow. Germany is out
or the war The real mission Of Poland
therefore, lies in the east, not the uest