New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-17
If Warsaw Falls

III warsaw tails most of old Rus
sian Poland will be lost to the new
Polish state. The Polish armies,
unless an armisticc is agreed on,
will have to do the best they can
to defend the territory receded to
the republic by Germany and Aus
tria. The government and the for
eign diplomats are retiring to the
city of Posen. That city is near a
critical sector in the campaign which
the Reds may undertake after War
saw is captured.
1t is vital, in one sense, for the
Poles to preserve their communica-
tons with the Baltic. For France
and Great Britain the Baltic is the
easiest and freest route to the Rus
sian border states. Danzig is an
internationalized port, immune from
seizure by the Russians, unless the
latter wish to challenge the League
Of Nations. Red cavalry is said
to be overrunning West Prussia and
approaching Graudenz, one of the
old German fortresses on the east
side of the lower Vistula. But if
the Poles can hold Thorn and
the region west of the Vistula they
may still be able to maintain land
communications with Danzig and
the Baltic. From the international
point of view the greatest immediate
peril in Poland would be the wiping
out of the Danzig corridor and the
advance of the Red armies to Ger
many's new eastern border.
The popularity Of the present
situation is that the northern wing
of the Polish armies has been driven
back in the last month or two more
than 200 miles, while the southern
wing has been nearly holding fast.
General Weygand, the chief repre-
sentative Of the French staff in
Warsaw, repeatedly warned the au-
thorities there that they couldn't
defend the capital unless they
brought up reenforcements from the
south and perhaps uncovered Lem
berg. But the Polish High Com
mand has chung to Eastern Galicia,
and meanwhile lost almost all of
Russian Poland east of the Vistula.
IF the Red advance continues in the
north and the Danzig corridor is
overrun the Polish line, instead of
running due north and south, as it
did last spring, will run northwest
and southeast, from the neighbor-
hood of Posen and Lodz across to
Lemberg. The Poles will be in
much the same positions as the Ger
mans and Austrians held in 1914 and
up to the spring of 1915, eliminat-
ing East Prussia, while the. Red
armies will occupy the Warsaw
salient, as the Grand Duke Nicholas
did during the first year of the war,
without overrunning as much of
Galicia as Nicholas wrested in the
fall of 1914 from Dankl and Auffen
berg.
If only France, Czecho- Slovakia
and Hungary go to Poland's aid the
Polish defense can be continued
most readily in Galicia and southern
Posen, provided the French can
establish adequate railroad com
munications to the Galician border.
Poland's resistance in the immediate
future is, however, chiefly matter
Of morale. The fighting for some
weeks past has been between par
TALLY disorganized masses, rather
than between modern armies. The
Russians have poor transportation
facilities and are probably near
their limit of mobility. The Poles
in the south are apparently still in
fair shape. If Poland receives def
mite assurances of military aid, she
can resume the fight, even after
Warsaw falls. But if she sees that
Allied cooperation doesn't extend
beyond fair words the new spirit of
nationalism and exalted patriotism
may be quenched again in disillu-
sionment. Poland has fought gal
lantly many times, and then fallen
in isolation and despair. Are the
Allies, pledged in honor to reerect
the Polish state, going to allow
history to repeat itself?