Evening star., 1920-05-23
SCATTERING OF LEAGUE
is SEEN IN POLES WAR.
Peace Conference Work in East May Be
Destroyed, With Far-Reaching Con- ,
sequences, Mr.. Simonds Says.
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
1NWO circumstances about the cam
paign which the Poles and
CkrainianS are conducting
against the Russians claim equal
interest In the first place. the struggle
is unmistakably a real war. old fashioned
in its causes. wholly modern in its mag
nitude, and thus carries swift confuta-
ton 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 inn
possible, at least unlikely. In the second
place. the consequences Of the struggle
may destroy all the work of the Pans
conference in reconstructing the map OF
Europe east of the Carpathians and OF
the Oder.
Those who a year ago most ardently
advocated the idea of league OF ma
tons have been the first to voice dis
appointment and resentment at the Pol
ish episode and to demand some sort
of official action to restrain the bel
ligerents
Such demands and denunciations are
both logical. they represent a new
expression Of the views championed
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 directorate of world
affairs to regulate the appetites of the
larger nations and rigidly limit those
of the smaller The supreme coun-
ell as the forerunner of the league
of nations was to fix frontiers. i'm
pose it's solutions of disputed Ques-
tionS, reorganiZe the map of Europe.
These decisions were to be right OF
themselves mad founded upon Justice
would possess a moral force which no
race or tribe would dare to question.
Open Defiance From Start.
But from the very outset the su-
preme council encountered suspicion,
smaller and larger nations alike. when
it undertook to dispose of controvert-
ed questions by the application Of alb
stract principles or by the employ
ment of disputed ethnic maps.
AS a consequence the supreme coun-
nations in its first stage. thus found
itself defied by large and small peo-
piles without any remedy within it's
own reach. 1t could do nothing to
enforce its decisions, because the peo-
pie of the nations which dominated
ish, American and French peoples.
were totally unprepared to shed blood
or incur expense to maintain those
frontiers Established by the Paris
conference in Poland, Russia or along
the Adriatic-
Notwithstanding this fact the su-
preme council continued to act as II
its DEGREES were enforceable. 1t fixed
frontiers without regard to the Will
of peoples who had the means and
the intention to resist the Paris deci-
sion. The best example of the effort
authority and without practical force
was supplied in the case of Poland
First and last the Paris conference
did violence to all the legitimate
claims of Poland. 1t denied to her
possession of Danzig, her one availa-
BILE port. 1t surrounded the territory
grudgingly assigned to the Poles by
plebiscite areas in which the popula-
tion was undeniably Polish on the
pretext that this Polish majority
might prefer German or Czech rule.
1t fixed the eastern frontiers of Po-
land in such fashion that its decision
must seem to every patriotic Pole
only one more partition of the father
land so frequently mutilated.
Britain Held Responsible.
For this course Great Britain was
mainly responsible The British were
at all times hostile to Polish aspira-
tions, both because they saw in
strong Poland a dangerous ally FOR
the French and because even the least
debatable Polish claims ran counter
to German and Russian wishes and
thus promised, if realized. to open
new chapter in European disorder and
conflict.
America Joined with Britain meas
urably in this anti-Polish policy. Mr..
Wilson had asserted the principle or
self-determination and the fact that
of Poland there were masses OF Ru-
thenian and white Russians served
as a warrant for drawing the from
tiers of Poland in such fashion as to
deprive that country of the Pollsh
cities of Lemberg and wilma and to
bring the frontiers PACK 10 the bug.
depriving Poland of the barrier of the
Pripet marshes. the sole real bulwark
a aeainst a new Russian conquest.
What was not appreciated in Paris
in the days of the conference; what
is not yet appreciated in many quar-
tiers, was the fact that the decisions
made by the peace conference could
not endure unless they were salts
factory to those in whose name they
were made or were enforced by armies
and navies beyond the resources OF
these nations to resist. very gllbiy
the conference asserted that the di.
visions between the Poles and the
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 hypo-
critical morality of the masters of the
conference.
Army Of 10000 in Poland.
Now what has happened in the
east of Europe is not difficult to ex-
plain. Poland has an army of up
ward of $4,000 troops. AS coun-
try it is menaced by Russian attack,
both politically and militarily There
their enemies, which insures safety
The Paris conference. which permit
ted the French to occupy the Rhine
barrier for a period Of years. denied
to the Poles the privilege OF protect
inp themselves at the Dnieper. which