Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-22
NEW DEADLOCK IN PARIS
ON GALICIAN SETTLEMENT
Poland's Claim Declared Unsound by Mr..
Siimonds United States Sides With
France and Italy Against England

lance at the present moment and they
stand together. Unless a strong .Po-
land is erected. there will be no bar
rier between Germany and Russia and
no possible obstacle to German pene-
tration and exploitation, not alone of
the economic, but the military re-
sources of Russia. A strong Rumania
is equally essential to the preserva-
ton of European equilibrium and the
prohibition of new German efforts to
reconstruct Mitteleuropa.
Yet in the Paris conference there
has been directed against Poland and
against Rumania a most destructive
policy. Rumania has been denied tie
right to acquire the Rumanian Ms
tr1cts which were historically nor-
ton OF Moldavia until Russia\ an
nexed Bessarabia in 1912. and Poland
has been refused both adequate access
proper elbow room on the Russian
side. 4
The result has been to weaken the
Polish state immensely and~to drive
Rumania into open hostility to the
western allies and absolute defiance
of the Paris conference. Poland.
seeking to maintTn herself against
bolshevism and fighting desperately to
check the advanfe of the reds toward
western Europef has acted as the SOL
dier OF western civilization. but west
ern civilization has steadily denied to
Poland any rewards for the service
and set it's face against any restora-
ton of historic POLAND which could
insure a permanently strong Polish
British View of Poland.
This policy has been mainly British
Aod~fn it the British have been in a
States and strenuously opposed by
! both the French and the Italians. But
IN the case of eastern Ga1icia the
united States has joined the CONT
mental states. leaving Lloyd George
isolated. His hostility to Poland
seems to rest upon the conviction thar
Roiand will have to be supported by
British and French armies for MANY
years, that without this aid Poland
viii succumb to German attack at
once and the apparent unwillingness
TO accept for his own country any
such burden
The French. on the other hand. see
clearly that unless there is a strong
Poland there will be no ally in the
east to aid them, as Russia aided them
IN 1914. If Germany attacks again.
Both the French and the Italians,
moreover. have strong material as
well as sentimental associations with
the Rumanians. and deplore politics
which will drive the Rumanians
straight into the arms of the Ger
mans and transform them from aRies
into dangerous enemies.
Conferees Far Apart.
Therefore, stripped of all unessen-
tial details, French and Italian policy,
which Dis necessarily determined by
immediate continental considerations,
demands that new states, which may
be valuable allies. shall be favored,
at least within reasonable limits,
while the British and the Americans,
happily free from continental dan
gers. continue to insist that the let
ter of the law shall be applied against
present friends, who can be potential
allies. and in the interests of recent
enemies whether Prussian or bolshe-
visit. rs.
1t is this fact which underlies most
of the recent crisis, notably the Ru-
manian, the Polish and the Thracian,
where America stands, alone cham
pion of the Bulgars against the
Greeks, as Britain stands the sole OPP
ponent of the Poles in eastern Galicia.
Only in the case of Czechoslovakia
has the continental policy been ap-
piled, with the result that up to date
this is the only one of the new states
which remain grateful and still loyal
to the liberating nations.
Copyright, 1919. Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)