Evening star., 1919-03-09
Eastern Frontier Problem.

With the western frontier of Ger
many fixed, there remains only the
Polish question to be determined in
order to give Germany her new boun-
daries. Posen was included in the
Polish area. Similar, disposition oi
upper Silesia, which is purely Polish
in it's population, raises no difficult
problem. BY contrast, the question OF
the Dantzig and the territory be-
tween Posen and Russian Poland OF
the south and the Baltic sea on the
north remains one of the most diff
ficult questions before the peace con
ference, and one on which agreement
las not yet been reached. More ans
more, however, the Paris conference
is recognizing the necessity OF Gre
ating strong Nand enduring Possn
ard all-present indications are that the
final decision reached here will be to
give Dantzig, together with practical
ly all the territories of east and west
Prussia, to new Poland, thus creating
a state of nearly thirty millions OF
people, possessed of all the necessary
circumstances of national and eco
nomic life. and capable OF becoming a
barrier alike to bolsheyism on the
east and Prussian militarism on the
west.
Already the Paris conference has de-
cided that a new CZecho-Slovak state
shall preserve the frontiers of Bo-
kemia and Moravia: that is. that Ger
many will not be permitted to take
any of the frontier districts in which
there is strong German element
and this means that except in the
case Of German Austria the southern
frontier of Germany will remain as
1t was before the war
In sum. the decisions which are now
foreshadowed Indicate that Germany
will be called upon to surrender per.
manent1y some two and a half mil
lions of people on the French from
tier, and in the Sehleswig area; and
not less than five or six millions OF
people on the Polish frontier. She
will be compelled in addition, at 1eas,
temporarily, to surrender some four
millions and half of people in the
Rhenish region. She will, therefore
find herself after the signature of the
twelve OF thirteen millions people or
her various frontiers; and this loss
will only be OF set in part by the ac-
QUESTION of six or seven million Aus
trian-Germans. She can, however
hope to reclaim the people of the
make any new armistice arrange
ments with Germany until such time
as the real decision of the allies on all
German questions has been reached
and at that time Germany will be
summoned to Paris and will be told
what she must surrender in territory
what she must pay in money, and she
will be asked to sign a preliminary
peace which win In all respects, ex.
cept as to minor details, constitute a
definitfve peace arrangement. 1t will
be seen, then, that very great and
very rapid progress is at last being
made in the direction of settlement
with Germany, and that in all proba
bility before the present month is
over the German phase of the new
settlement will have been closed, and
the allies will be ready to pronounce
their sentence upon their one surviv
ing enemy.
The disposition Of the French
claims marks the greatest single steJ
toward final settlement on the ma.
teriaI side, exactly as the adoption OF
the agreement upon the project of the
league of nations marks the creates,
step on the moral side. Impatient a:
the world is of the seeming slowness
Of the Paris negotiations the fac
seems to be that we are passing Out
of the disappointing state where dis.
cussion alone prevails into the period
where decisions are being reached
daily, and the whole character of ulti-
mate settlement is becoming clearer.
Copyright, 1919, Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate