New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23
More Men Engaged in Polish Rus
sian Strife Than We Had in
Civil War Armies

counter to German and Russian
wishes and thus promised, if real
lied, to open new chapter in Euro
pean discord and conflict.
America Joined with Britain meas
urably in this anti-Polish policy,
Mr.. Wilson had asserted the prin-
ciple of self-determination, and the
fact that on the southern and east
ern fringes Of Poland there were
masses of Ruthenian and White
Russians served as a warrant for
drawing the frontiers of Poland in
such fashion as to deprive that coun-
try Of the Polish cities Of Lemberg
and Wilma and to bring the frontiers
back to the Bug, depriving Poland Of
TIE barrier Of the Pripet Marshes,
the sole real bulwark against new
Russian 1cnquest.
What was not appreciated in
Paris in the days Of the conference,
what is not yet appreciated in many
quarters, was the fact that the de.
clsions made by the peace confer
ence could not endure unless they
were satisfactory to those in whose
name they were made, or were en-
forced by armies and navies beyond
the resources of these nations to re-
sist. Very glibly the conference as
serted that the divisions between the
Poles and the Ukrainians, the White
Russians and the Poles should be
forever fixed by certain lines drawn
upon the map, drawn in accordance
with the selfish interest or the more
or less hypocritical morality of the
masters of the conference.
Poland Has No Barrier
Now, what has happened in the
east Of Europe is not difficult to
explain. Poland has an army of
upward of 100000 troops. AS
country it is menaced by Russian
attack, both politically and militia
rily. There is no barrier between the
Poles and their enemies which in
sures safety. The Paris Conference
which permitted the French to oc-
cupy the Rhine barrier for period
of years denied to the Poles the
privilege Of protecting themselves at
the Dnieper, which until 1772 con-
stituted the western boundary of the
Polish state. Instead, the Paris
Conference commanded the Poles to
retire behind the Bug.
This same Paris Conference per-
mitted the British to occupy Meso-
potamia, Palestine and Arabia as
barriers against possible danger to
British interests in India and in
Egypt. 1t divided the German
colonies between the French and the
British to insure the abolition of the
danger which German desire for a
place in the sun carried for both
British South Africa and the French
empire between the Congo and Lake
Tchad. But to all Polish proposals
for a barrier between Poland and
her Russian enemy there was raised
the vehement denunciation of Polish
imperialism.
In the last analysis British and
american policy at Paris and since
Paris has been dominated by de-
sire to preserve Germany and Rus
STA. Both American and British
representatives have frowned upon
the aspirations Of the Poles, the
Rumanians-for that matter, upon
the fancied aspirations of the French
to partition German or Russian
states. The smaller races have felt
and resented this attitude, and now,
in the case of Poland, a war has
been the result. In the end Il e
Great Powers have been compelled
to sit by and see great armies en-
gagged, to see the Poles undertaking
to establish by the sword those
frontiers which were denied them in
the conference.
Holy Alliance or League?
The fact seems to me more i'm.
!, portant than has as yet been gen.
orally recognized. A century age
the conquerors Of Napoleon under
took to establish a board of direc-
tors to regulate the world. Thew
called it the Holy Alliance, but its
purposes were little different from
those of the contemporary league of
nations. These purposes were COM
pretended in the notion of prevent.
ing war and preserving that ar.
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