New-York tribune., 1920-09-18
The Lithuanian DISPUTE
By Franz Fl. Simonds

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For an American audience the cir
cumstances of the present dispute be-
tween the Poles and the Lithuanians
are so obscure that an opportunity is
provided for the opponents Of Poland,
the critics Of recent American policy in
the east of Europe and the foes of
French policy to turn it to their own
account and once more employ the prin-
ciples of the Fourteen Points to their
own destructive purposes. Yet in point
of fact the reality, as contrasted swith
the convenient fiction, supplies new
arugment against the practical working
of the League of Nations
Historically Lithuania was a willing
partner of Poland before the partitions
Of the eighteenth century. AS Scotland
supplied England with royal family
and followed the family into voluntary
union with England and Wales, Lithu-
ania gave Poland one of its famous
houses, that of. Jagellon, and through
the great period in Polish history shared
fully and freely in Polish affairs. Moth
ing was more inevitable than that
Poland, restored to life, should seek the
reunion with Lithuania, which was a
vital detail in the creation Of a great
and permanent Poland. Moreover, the
historical and economic as we'll as the
military and strategic circumstances
urging such reunion were intensified
by the fact that in Lithuania MANY
hundreds Of thousands of Poles lived.
that the culture had been Polish and the
population Of cities, notably of Wilma,
remained Polish.
Russian Policy
While the mass Of the Poles were still
Russian subjects, Russian policy sought.
tor obvious reasons, to break the soli-
darity between the Poles and the Lithu-
anians. AS far back as the Congress of
Vienna, in 1915, Russian Poland was
separated from Lithuania and there has
been no common political association
since. Moreover as Austria played her
nationalities against each other, the
Russians similarly labored to cmbroil
the Poles and the Lithuanians. Exactly
the same thing was done at Polish ex-
pense in Austrian Galicia by the Haps-
burgs.
When Russia fell to revolution and
finally surrendered at Brest-Litovsk the
Germans took up the work. Indeed,
they had been at it all through the
period from 1915 onward, during which
they had occupied practically all the
territory of Lithuania. Germanys chief
concern was to weaken Poland as much
as possible, since her own Polish sub
jects in East and West Prussia, Posen
and Silesia were bound to seek reunion
with any new Polish state. Her policy
aimed at the creation of a series of
small states, dependent upon herself,
along her eastern frontier--the Baltic
states, Lithuania, Poland and the
ukraine--as Franco century before
had created dependent states on the
With German defeat the eastern
policy collapsed, but not until the Ger
mans had successfully pushed far along
the Russian policy of stirring up hatred
and rivalry between the Poles and the
Lithuanians. 1t was now the turn of
the Russians, the Bolshevists, this time.
to continue their work, and the upshot
of their work has been the erection of
an independent Lithuania, which has
attained territorial freedom by the de-
feat of the Poles, who had maintained
garrisons over the country and were
compelled to retire during the recent
campaign.
Question Of Frontiers
Following their retreat the Poles. on
their side and for obvious reasons, rec
ognized the independence of Lithuania,
So far they were forced to admit the
failure of their hope and efforts to re-
store the old union between the two
peoples. So far German and Russian
maneuvers had succeeded. But two
questions remained still to be settled
first, that which concerned the actual
frontiers between Poland and the new
state OF Lithuania, and second, the
military guarantees necessary to the
safety of Poland
AS to the former, the Paris Confer
ence had laid down tentative frontier
between Poland and Lithuana, which
started from the East Prussian frontier
north of Suwalki, ran southeastward to
the Nieren below Grodno, followed the
left or west bank of this river upstream
to point a few miles south of Grodno.
and then struck across country to the
Bug below Brest-Litovsk, leaving Su-
walki and Bielostok to Poland and
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