New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23

such high risks in the last year of
the war.
Poles May Reach Moscow
To-day Russia is shell. Had the
armies of Kolchak, Denikine or
Yudenitch possessed real strength,
had they represented anything but
the hateful idea Of the old regime,
of the restoration Of Czarism, their
success would have been inevitable.
AS 1t was, their failure was only by
the narrowest Of margins. But
granted that Rumania and Po-
land are prepared to act together
and that the Ukrainians will stand
with them, nothing seems more GER
tain than that the Polish armies will
presently reach Moscow, that they
will bring down the whole Bolshevist
edifice in ruins.
But it Is exactly this prospect
which terrifes London, because it
carries with it the certainty of a
totally new ordering Of the condi-
tions in the east Of Europe. 1t
means the rise of Ukrainian state
occupying the shores of the Black
Sea; it means the certainty of
Polish expansion eastward and
northward to include both the
White Russian and the Lithuanian
regions. 1t means, if the alliance
can hold, force in Eastern Europe
which can act as it chooses, not
alone eastward, but westward, which
can e, be heard in matters affecting
Middle Europe if it chooses.
1t means beyond all else a new
orientation of Continental policy.
To-day Britain exercises supreme
power in the world. While going
through the motions of consulting
with France and with Italy, in the
last analysis both France and Italy
are compelled to yield to British
wishes, save in matters of life and
death, because of their own economic
conditions. But the arrival of a
strong Eastern confederation would
in no distant time offer either to
Italy or to France, or to both for
that matter, an alternative to Brit.
ish supremacy. For France, the
British alliance is matter of first
moment, so long as the British army
is the sole sure comrade of the
French against the Germans, but
the rise Of a really strong Poland
would change all this. Nor does
Rumania offer Italy less attractive
future alliance.
French and Italians FESTIVE
Both the French and the Italian
publics have become very FESTIVE I'M
der the recent evidences of British
world domination. British states,
men have sided with America in
denying to the Italians their Adri-
attic aspirations. Supporting the
British against the French has led
Italy to no real rewards.
In the same sense The French have
found British opposition in the path
way of their interests, whether on
the Rhine or the Tigris, whether at
Mayence or Mosul. The latest set
Element, or adjustment, in the Near
East, which has confirmed Brit
ish possession in Mesopotamia, in
Arabia, in Persia, while leaving
French aspirations in Syria and
Italian in Cilicia in a curiously un-
pleasing state, has aroused protest
both in Rome and in Paris.
Now, both in France and in Italy
there is very strong hostility to the
British policy in Russia, although
Nitti supported Lloyd George at San
Reno, perhaps to his own undoing,
as the recent overturn Of the Cabinct
suggests. Against the southern
Slavs Italy can find strong ally in
Poland. But both the Poles and the
Rumanians have suffered from Brit
ish policy and resent both American
and British official attitudes.
Against Anglo-American Rule
The more one examines the Euro
pean situation the more clear be-
comes the apparent drift Of the
Continent away from Anglo-Ameri-
can domination. At Paris we and
the British were the masters. Our
decisions were in the main followed
so far as the minor countries were
concerned, and in several instances
at the expense of the French and
the Italians. 1t was British policy
to keep Poland weak, to keep Ru-
mania weak. 1t has later been Brit
ish policy to recognize the Boil