The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-08
GERMANY AND POLAND
By FRANK n. SlMONDS
Copyright, 1919, by The Mcclure
Nowepopar CvnHjcAfal

Copyright, 1919, by The Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate)
However exaggerated the current
reports OF German military operations
against Poland may be 1T Is necessary
to recognize that such operations
must now be expected. The unmis-
taxable fact is that the cessions OF
German territory to Poland are things
that cannot be accepted by any Ger.
man now, and It Is hard to believe that
future generations will concur on the
new map made at Versailles, which
undoes all German achievement in the
east in more than a century and
half
AS 1t stands, the Germans have
evacuated the province Of Posen, un-
der allied pressure, thus abandoning
a fertile region, one OF the best agri-
cultural districts of the Empire to the
Poles. This territory has an area
twice as great as Alsace-Lorraine and
a population Of above 100000, but it
Is not from the German point OF view
the most important sacrifice demand
ed, in addition, the terms Of peace re-
quire that she should abandon to the
Poles almost all OF West Prussia with
an area and population equal to, Posen,
consent to the erection of free city
OF Dantzig. joined in many ways to
Poland and absolutely separated from
Germany, and in addition consent to
plebiscites in portions of East Prussia
and in all Of Upper Silesia.
Ceding West Prussia to Poland,
surrendering Danzig, risking the loss
Of part of East Prussia by plebiscite,
these are for the Germans terrible
sacrifices. The first two, isolate the
German speaking regions about
konigsberg from the main mass Of
German speaking people, they literal
ly cut Prussia in two, they not merely
take away twenty odd thousand
square miles of territory and upwards
of four millions Of people, but they
break down Prussia itself Thus mu
tilated, Prussia, the very heart Of the
German spirit, which from Bismarck
to the last battle Of the present war,
dominated the German Empire, be-
comes an anonymous thing, the reac-
tionary, the military, the Junker sec
4 ton either put in alien hands or cut
off from the rest of Germany.
! For the German there is no solace
/ in the fact that Dantzig does not go
Internationally or absolutely to Pol
and, he loses, above all else, that grip
upon Poland which he has had. with
the exception of a brief Napoleonic in
terlude, for nearly a century and a
half
Is Terrible Blow.
Politically this is far more terrible
blow than the loss of Alsace-Lorraine
or the possible permanent surrender
of the Saare district. 1t is something
more than loss Of a tenth of the area
of the country. 1t is even more than
the actual cutting of his country in
half. 1t Is the erection on his eastern
frontier of a new state, destined, if il
has time and the support of the West
ern Powers, permanently to block his
pathway Of expansion on the east, and
the permanent surrender to a race he
regards with something of the point
of view we have toward the Mexicans
not alone Of territory essential to Ger
many, but Of territory in which a Ger
man population, a minority to be sure
lives.
AS for Upper Silesia, if this, by thu
vote of the people who are in very
great majority Polish. shall choose tt
join Poland, also one of the creates
mineralized districts will be takel
away and Poland will be able at NJ
distant date to challenge Germany
as one of the great industrial state
of Europe. Moreover, if a real Polant
is thus created, with sure outlets OF
the sea, with satisfactory industrial