The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-08
Only Polish Question.


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 vas included in the Pol
ish area. Similar disposition of Upper
Silesla, which Is purely Polish in its
population raises no difficult problem.
By contrast, the question of the Dant-
zig and the territory between Posen
and Russian Poland on the south and
the Baltic sea on the north, remains
one of the most difficult questions be-
fore the peace conference, and one
on which agreement has not yet been
reached. More and more, however,
the Paris conference is recognizing the
necessity of creating a strong and en-
during Posen and all present indica-
tions are that the final decision reached
here will be to give DantZig, together
with practically all the territories Of
East and West Prussia, to the new
Poland, thus creating a state of nearly
thirty millions OF people possessed Of
all the necessary circumstances Of ma
tional and economic life, and capable
of becoming a barrier alike to Bolshe-
vism on the east and Prussian mill
tarism on the west.
Already the Paris conference has de-
cided that a new Czecho- Slovak state
shall preserve the frontiers of Bohemia
and Moravia, that Is, that Germany
will not be permitted to take any of
the frontier districts in which there Is
a strong German element, and this
means that except in the case Of Ger
man Austria, the southern frontier of
Germany will remain as it was before
the war.
In sum, the decisions which are now
foreshadowed indicate that Germany
| will be called upon to surrender per-
manently some two and a half millions
- 1901 IT, INAA-N --As 81
In the Schleswig area, n not less than
five or six millions of people on the
Polish frontier, She will be compelled
in addition at least temporarily to sur
render some four millions and half Of
people in the Rhenish region. She will,
therefore, find herself after the sigma
ture OF the treaty Of peace deprived Of
some twelve or thirteen millions of peo-
pie on her various frontiers, and this
loss will only be offset in part by the
acquisition of six or seven million Aus
trian Germans. She can, however, hope
to reclaim the people of the Rhenish
region. The plan is not to make any
new armistice arrangements with Ger
many until such time as the real de-
cision of the allies on all German ques-
tons 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 will in
all respects, except as to minor de-
tails, constitute a definitive peace ar
rangement. 1t will be seen, then, that
very great and rapid progress is al
last being made in the direction of set
tlement with Germany and that in al
probability before the present month Is
over the German phase of the new set.
Element will have been closed, and the
allies will be ready to pronounce Their
sentence upon their one surviving
enemy.
The disposition OF the French claim,
marks the greatest single step towarc
final settlement on the material side
exactly as the adoption of the agree
ment upon the project Of the league o
nations marks the greatest step on tn,
moral side. Impatient as the world Il
Of the seeming slowness of the Pari,
negotiations, the fact seems to be tina
we are passing out of the disappointing
state where discussion alone prevails
into the period where decisions are be
ing reached daily, and the whole char
acter of ultimate settlement is becom
ing clearer.
Copyright, 1919. bv Mcclure Newspape
Syndicate.)