The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-29

, hAllNu NpOpo dIG NOlI uDNO0 W NShh AN
propaganda their presence will protect
German factories n towns from the
violence of a revolution.
The simple truth is that Germany
remains today as great a mystery as
in 1911 or 1915. 1t remains as great q
pegil not in a military sense but In an
economic sense and a moral sense. Rus
STA is in chaos. II to 1870, 600, 900 Rus
SLAMS there are added 10000, 900 Ger
mans, II we have a quarter of a billion
people in Europe given over to the
production of anarchy, will not the peril
of contagion be as great as was the
old danger Of invasion? And If even
now we intervene to save what is left
of order in Germany and we do save
Germany how shall 40, 900, 900 Of
Frenchmen in the future defend them
selves against 10000, 900 Of Germans
when Germany has regained her health,
and absorbed the Austrian Germans?
Germany's Losses
Having said all this, I desire now
to pass to the simple and practical
question of the changes in Germany's
political frontiers which are. ~envisaged
In the first draft of the preliminary
peace terms. Germany is to lose out
right Alsace-L Lorraine with an area
which together with that Of the Saar
coal district slightly exceeds 5000
Square miles anu All dHleWdT pOpuld-
ton Of 1850, 600. She Is to lose the
Danish speaking portion Of Schleswig
with upwards of 1000 square miles and
approximately $50, 900 people although
the question of the extent of the area
and of the number OF people taken will
depend upon the vote Of the inhabitants
and some Of the Southern districts in
GLIDING the city Of Flenshurg, may
choose to remain German. She is to
lose her province of Posen practically
entire, with IN area Of IL, 900 square
miles and a population of 1000, 600 to-
gether with a strip Of upper Silesia
which will contain several thousand
square miles and 1,00O,0 900 people. In
sum, Germany will lose outright be-
tween 10000 and $4,000 square miles,
approximately 10 per cent OF her old
area with something like $500, 900 mill
lions of people or about 8 per cent OF
her antewar population. This last will
possibly but not surely be offset by the
gain incident to the union of the Ger
man speaking districts Of Austria with
the German empire. These include the
old divisions of Lower Austria, Upper
Austria, Sal2burg, Styria, Carinthia, at
least half of the Tyrol and the Vorarl-
berg with a population of about 7,000,-
900 and an area in excess of 10000
square miles. So far then Germany
stands to gain, slightly after having
surrendered Alsace-Lorraine to France,
Schleswig to Denmark and Posen and
a portion of Silesia to the new Poland.
But there are two other changes in
German ~fronties which may wholly
this situation. Between the
Rhine on the east and the Belgian,
and Luxembourg boundaries on
the west 1t is now proposed to create
a Rhenishs republic which for a con-
siderable period of time-for that time
which the allied armies win oc-
cupy German territory-is a guarantee
for the payment Of German obligations,
This Rhenish republic will nave an area
approximately 10000 square miles and
a population of between 1000, 900 and
5, 900, 900, If, as is possible, at the end
Of the period of occupation 1t chooses
Independence rather than a return to
Germany, this population will be lost
to the empire permanently, but In any
1t win be lost for a period of
years and German military
will be correspondingly reduced.
Polish Problem.
Finally we face the possibility eX-
pressed in the demand Of President
Wilson in his IA points that Poland
should have access to the sea, Three
solutions OF this problem are possible,
The first would simply give the Poles
In Dantzig compatible with those
which the Serbs now possess with re-
speet to the Greek port of Saloniki,
rights which do not conflict with Greek
sovereignty and on the other hand
guarantee the Serbs against any inter-
with the free egress and ingress
Of their commerce. 1t is the simplest
The second solution suggests |
the bestowal upon Poland of a consid-
cradle strip of territory on the left bank
Of the Vistula river from the old Rus
sian frontier to the Baltic, constituting
perhaps half OF the Prussian province
n East Prussia, inhabited mainly. but
not entirely, by polish-speaking peo-
pies, The third solution contemplated
the annexation n accession to Poland
Of all the German territory between
The old Russian frontier and the Ger
man province Of Posen on the south,
which is to be Joined to Poland and
lf some $4,000 square miles OF German
.erritory, with a population of $3.50, 900, |
1f which at least two-thirds would be
German.
As between the three solutions, only
first and the last are possible, II
would seem. Either of them would
,reate a situation which might endure.
although II is clear that Germany
might some time in the future close
Dantzig to the Poles and thus strange
Polish commerce. But to give Poland
narrow strip, the so-called corridor,
would simply mean separating two por-
ions OF German territory by a narrow
~indefensible strip OF Polish terri
At the moment the only real
with respect to the frontiers
IF Germany which has not been de-
,ided Is this last, and. like all the other
difficult problems in Paris, that Of the
s%eacoast Of Poland has been left to
the last, but It car not be avoided
longer and in all probability be-