New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23
BY Frank II. Simonds
TWO circumstances about the
campaign which the Poles
l. and Ukrainians are conduct

ing against the Russians
claim equal interest.
- In the first place, the struggle is
Enthusiastically a real war, old-fash'
toned in its causes, wholly modern
in its magnitude, and thus carries
swift combination to the hopes and
claims Of the makers Of the recent
peace Of Paris that the principles
established in that document would
make war, if not impossible, at least
unlikely.
In the second place, the conse.
quences Of the struggle may de-
sSroy all the work of the Paris Con
ference in reconstructing the map OF
41rope east of the Carpathians and
II the Oder.
-. Call 1t Cnauvinistic
Ehcse who a year ago most ar
GENTLY advocated the idea of a
:eague Of nations, both in Great
Britain and in the United States
have been the first to voice disap-
pointment and resentment at the
Polish episode, to demand some sort
of official action to restrain the bel
ligerents and to denounce as chau-
whistle and imperialistic those
Polish aspirations and purposes
which explain, in some measure, the
outbreak of the new conflict.
Such demands and denunciations
are both logical. They represent a
new expression of the views cham
pioned at Paris by President Wilson
and in some measure incorporated
into the covenant Of the league of
nations. Mr.. Wilson and those who
agreed with him were seeking to
create a sort of controlling directo-
rate of world affairs to regulate the
appetites of the larger nations and
rightly limit those of the smaller.
The Supreme Council as the fore
runner of the league of nations, was
to fix frontiers, impose it's solutions
e Of disputed questions and reorgan-
ice the map of Europe. These de-
.cisions were to be right of them
solves and, founded upon justice,
would possess moral force which
40 race, or tribe would dare to
question. s
But from the very outset the Su-
preme Council encountered suspicion,
hostility, open defiance from the
smaller and larger nations alike,
when it undertook to dispose of con-
troverted questions by the applica-
ton Of abstract principles or by the
employment of disputed ethnic maps.
Italy among the Great Powers,
Rumania, Belgium, Poland, Jugo-
Slavia among the lesser, openly
challenged the authority and resist
ed the decisions of the Supreme
Council.
Council Had No Remedy
AS a consequence, the Supreme
Council, which was, in fact, the
league of nations in it's first stage
thus found itself defed by large
and small peoples without any rem
edy within it's own reach. It could
do nothing to enforce it's decisions
because the people Of the nations
which dominated the Supreme Coun
cil-that is, the British, America,
and French peoples-were totally
unprepared to shed blood or incu,
expense to maintain those frontiers
established by the Paris Conference
in Poland, Russia or along the Adri
attic.
Notwithstanding this fact, the Su
preme Council continued to act az
if it's DEGREES were enforceable. i
fixed frontiers without regard tx
the will of peoples who had thu
means and the intention to resis
the Paris decision. The treatmen
of Rumania was conspicuous ex
ample of this Paris method Bes
sarabia was Rumanian by virtue O.
the vote of great majority of it.
local parliament. Rumanian troops
occupied the province and the in
habitants were Rumanian by race
yet the Paris Conference steadily de
clined to recognize the fact or tn
force of Rumanian claims and sol
EMMY repeated its demands that tn
Rumanians depart.
But the very best example Of tn
effort to rule the world by virtue o
moral authority and without prac
tical force was supplied in the cas-
of Poland. First and last, the. Pari
Conference did violence to all tn
legitimate claims Of Poland. 1t de
MED to her possession of Danzig, he
-sha available port. It surrounde,
y