Evening star., 1920-01-23
RUSSIAN MENACE
MEANS NEW WAR,
MR. S|M0NDS' VIEW
News From Europe and
Washington Opinion
Now Agree.
BY FRANK H. sIMONDs.

Now Agree.
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
The public statements Of Secretary
Baker end Gen. Bliss. the news from
London and Paris. the reports arriving
from eastern Europe. all agree in the
essential fact that the Russian menace
has become acute in the extrenne. All
this information. moreover. serves TO
confirm the stream Of reports. official
and otherwise which has been flowing
into the capital for many weeks. What
ever political Washington thinks, diplo-
matte and military Washington knows
that the world is on the edge Of a new
struggle.
The sudden awakening in Great Brit
ain excites more than passing interest
and just little amusement. Lloyd
George. like President Wilson. showed
himself at Paris little friendly to the
Polish cause. His idea in the peace
conference seemed to be that Poland
should be sacrificed to a determined ef-
fort to seek some basis of reeoncilia-
ton with Germany. But now. at last,
George has suddenly appreciated the
fact clear to all continental statesmen
from the start. that Poland was the
key of the whole eastern situation.
French Saw Poland's Place.
1t was the endeavor of French
diplomacy to erect a Poland which
would be able to defend itself against
Russia and against Germany. to block
Russian invasion of middle Europe
and German penetration Of Poland.
The French saw clearly that the bal
ance of power of Europe had been de-
stroyed by the collapse of Russia. and
that Poland alone could redress the
balance and reoccupy it's historic posi-
ton as the sentinel of western civiliza-
tion alike along the Vistula and above
the Danube, in the latter case taking
up the old role of Sobieski.
The French plan was thwarted by
the apparent unwillingneSS of the
people of the United States and Great
Britain to undertake a new military
AS result of this course at Paris
the first chance to defeat bolshevism
was lost. 1t was possible year ago
to have crushed the danger within
Russian frontiers. using as the chief
weapon the anti-bolshevist elements
in the nation, which were in arms un-
der Kolchak and Denikin. We have
lost Russia itself in the last year, and
the Russian problem now enters a
second phase.
Doubt About Border Races.
In the second place the question will
be whether we can stop the Russian
revolution at the frontiers by using
the border races. All along the Eu-
ropean frontiers of Russia are races.
in part brought under Russian rule
during the Romanoff regime, but hos
tile to the Russians and eager to
achieve national existence. These
races are the Firms, the ESthonians,
the Lithuanians, the Let's, the Poles.
the Rumanians. In addition there are
the Ukrainians. In the same way
there are other races between the
Black and Caspian seas.
If the west chooses to support these
border races. mostly by money, but not
impossibly men may be required also.
the Russian danger may be stopped at
the Russian frontier. But if this eff
fort fails, then we shall have the cir
cumstances of the French revolution
reproduced, we shall have a Russian
flood breaking into chaotic middle Eu-
rope. as the French wave did, and
meeting there the Germans, equally
hostile to the west.
In addition the British are threat
ened by the'extension of bolshevist ef-
fort to Asia All the old Kipling lit
erature, all the old legends of 1.-The
bear that walks like a man." become
cotemporary as the bolshevists ap-
India becomes the objective of the en-
emy, and this takes place at a moment
when India is at least shaken by do
mestic unrest.
Nor does the thing stop with the
menace to India The bolshevists are
result of any bargain must be the en-
trance Of Russian troops into Asia
Minor, the advance against Constan-
tinople, against Syria, against Egypt
Moreover, the Arab world is stirring
against Anglo-French occupation of
Mesopotamia and Syria and Egyptian
unrest is notorious.
Question as to First Blow.
Bolshevism then finds in central Eu-
rope and in Asia. precisely the condi-
tions which must serve it's end best,
if it can reach the country toward
which it's armies are tending. Today
the only problem is whether the first
against Great Britain or against Po-
land, but both blows are logical cir
cumstances in the bolshevist plan.
The statesmen who declined to be-
lieve a year ago that there was any
danger in bolshevism and forbade their
governments to send troops to Arch
angel and the Baltic provinces, are be-
ginning to perceive now that there can
be no compromise with an enemy who
daily extends his frontiers and hard
ems his heart against any peace with
what he conceiveS to be a doomed
economic and political system.
1t is becoming clear that the golden
opportunity was lost at Paris, that the
second and possibly the last chance to
limit the storm will be lost If Poland
is destroyed. While Poland stands the
west has an effective army and a nat
ural geographical bulwark against the
red peril. so far as Europe is con-
cerned. When Poland falls, IL it does.
there will be nothing between the Wis.,
tula and the Rhine to bar the Russian
advance, save only the German and the
German may ally himself with the
Russian. for the time being, in order
70 destroy his recent conquerors be-
fore at last conquering his Russian
neighbors.
Sees New War Breaking.
A new war is breaking in Europe
and in Asia, hardly less gigantic than
the recent world war. Fortunately. at
the last, the truth is beginning to be
appreciated in London and in WASH
ington. In my judgment American
troops will have to return to Europe
within the next two years, II Poland
is unable to withstand the bolshevist
onset this spring.
Actually the German phase of the
world war has been terminated by the
actual application of the treaty of
Versailles. but automatically we are
entering the same phase. the Rus
sian: and IL German militarism barely
missed overturninE our democratic
system is it not conceivable that II
SO weakens 1t as to cripple IL almost
fatally at the moment when the dead.
ly peril of bo1shevism arrives?
Copyrighted. 1920. by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)