Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-05

] Impossible to ma, save at the Car
/ pathians and for certain distance
along the Bug. since this region is
portion of the great plain, but.
| roughly speaking. Poland will hold
| the vast valley of the Vistula, the
| cradle of the race.
Difficulties on German Side.
! 1t is on the German side that the
| main difficulties occur. To begin at
the south. the upper third of the 1rus-
sian province of Siiesia, which had
been Prussian since the days when
Frederick the Great stole 1t from Maria
Theresa and started the German sys-
| tenn of larceny on the grand style. is
purely Polish in its population This
is the region, too. of great mineral
and industrial development. If Ger
many loses it, as she is now bound to
lose her other great region of Alsace-
greater part of the material out of
which she erected her great economic
edifice in the last half century. Yet,
If the frontiers are drawn here on
race divisions. aside from small dis
pute between the Czechs and the Poles
in the Teschn region, there will be no
more than justice done the Poles. and
the question of making the new from
tiers involves no great puzzles.
AS one proceeds northward, how
ever. real difficulties are encountered,
those of Posen and Of the Danzig ex-
tension Westward from the solid
mass of Polish speaking peoples there
extends about and beyond the Prus-
sian city of Posen to the Oder and the
Wartha, at a point hardly a hundred
miles from Berlin. great wedge OF
, Polish-speaking people. This wedge
is shaped rather like an Irregular
triangle with its point toward Ber-
Tn commencement
the Prussian province OF Posen not
only is the population Overwhelmingly
Polish. but here the general level OF
education and of race CONSCIOUSNESS
is perhaps higher than in any other
Polish section. Here. too. fighting
Prussian brutality. the Poles have
for more than half a century made
/, gallant struggle, crowned with large
success But if Posen passes to 70
land as 1t must, on any basis OF SEA!
, determination, then great Weoge Is
driven between the Prussians to tne
north and south of Posen. But this Is
even less an obstacle than that sup
! piled by the Polish situation in east
and west Prussia. Here, on the ives.
bank of the Vistula river, relatively
i narrow ars of Polish speaking ans
tricts extends straight to the Baltic,
iwest of Danzig with some fifty miles
of sea front north of the Gulf OF
Danzig. Danzig itself. once a pureiy
Polish town. has been Germanized IN
recent decades, but stille contains
Polish minority.
| If this Polish arm is to be aiiotteo
| to Poland, then at least million ano
| a half of Germans between the VS.
! tula and the MemeL with kohigsoeIs
| as their capital, will be separated
from the main mass OF Germans to
| the westward, isolated politically ano
economically. hemmed IN Dy role ess
1 To- M a
facade between the Baltic and the
solid block of Poles to the south TINS
was the situation when FREDERICK the
, Great engineered the first PARTITION
| of Poland in 17T2 to obtain lano com :
munica ton with his East Prussian
| territories.
Question of Outlet to Sea.
Nv contrast. if this Polish arm with
| Danzig does not fall to the new 20
| land there will be created state
| with at least $4,000. 600 people within
! it's frontier. highly industrialized. ca
pable of indefinite economic expan-
| sion, but lacking any outlet upon the
sea. Such a nation will be wholly
| ing the narrow strip between the Bal
! tic and the new Poland and thus
holding the lower watches of the WIS.,
! lula. which is to Poland what the
Mississippi river was TO the region
| between the Alleghanies and the
| Rockies before the era of railroads
It is quite plain that if Poland is
| to be strong independent nation
! economically and politically, 1t must
! have an outlet upon the sea. 1t mus
! have Danzig. 1t can only have this
outlet by isolation East PRUSSIA. a
| Polish possession of Danzig and its
| restricted seacoast would be wholly
insecure, just as long as Prussia
| cherished the hope of retaining heI
| landward connection with East Prus-
| STA.
| We have here. then, one Of the most
difficult of all problems. The basis OF
| seif-determination does not suffice
because if you followed race bounda-
ries merely Poland would reach the
Baltic and the separation of the Prus-
slams would be achieved. but Danzie
| would remain Prussian and POLAND
would have no seaport. for the shore
of the Polish strip on the Baltic i:
sandy and inhospitable. Therefore
! it is plain that DanZig must return tt
Poland: that the whole OF the Polish
speaking west bank of the Vistuls
must be included in the new Polisl
state. 1t is equally plain that Poser
must be restored to Poland. 1t wa:
not safely included in Prussia unit
the congress of Vienna, which parti
toned Napoleon's Grand Duchy OF
| warsaw, the surviving remnant Of
the Polish Kingdom. Nor is It les!
necessary that Poland should have
Polish Silesia-
| Thus constituted. with only Polish
speaking regions included, POLAND
| would become IA nation of at leaS
25,000.000 people, far larger in ares
than modern Italy. Were it conceiv
able that the various disputes be
tween other races, notably with tn,
LithuaBians and the kuthenians, wer,
settled by the inclusion of large area,
of territory once Polish. but inhabi
by other races now in part. at least
| then the new Poland would have al
| area as great as that OF France an,
no less than 30,000,000 of people
Poland Must Have Seacoast.