The Denver Jewish news., 1920-09-01
Latvia and the Jews
By JACOB MARK.
Copyright. 1920, by I. ]. p. r.


One of the youngest Of small states
which came into being during the las,
two years and established itself upG1
the ruins of Russia and Germany
is the Republic of Latvia. Her neigh,
bOrs in the south and north. now
known rs Esthonia and Lithuania
were both originally fourded by the
Germans themselves during their pc
riOd of occupation, with the object
of weakening Great Russia and de
Baltic Sea. Such was not the case
with the present Lntvia, which is com
posed of what were previously the
provinces of Kurlnnd and Lifland,
These provinces possess IN addition
to their well-developed commerce in
export thru their great ports of Riga
and Libeau,. richly cultivated soil
and Germany was sorely tempted to
annex these provinces to her own en-
pire This seemed particularly desir-
able and easy when the Baltic Ger
man land owners who We're for genera
tiols the chief owners of the country
invited Kaiser wilhelm to convert
their territory into n Prussian province
and create throne for one of his
| sons. True enough, fhe Let's. who
composed no less than eighty per cent.
of the population, vehemently pro-
tested against the suggestion. hut Ber-
lin was little concerned with their
sentiment and was already preparing
crown for Joachim. the Kaiser's
youngest son. Germany's defeat. fol.
lowed by the Berlin revolution of No
vember o. 1919. completely upset this
arrangement and only few days
later. on November 18th. the Iatvinn
population declared itself an indie
pendent state. elected a provisional ma;
tional council. and founded new
state under the name of Latvia. At
that period there We're still about thir.
ty thousand German soldiers who were
controlling the territory. hut thanks
TO the. soldiers-cOuncils which the rev
olution was establishing in all oc-
cupied territories. the German forces
found themselves compelled to hand
over all government institutions. As
matter of fact. the assertion and
establishment of a new state proved
10 easy matter and took almost a
year in time n:ld many thousands of
human victims which had to he sacri-
feed. in order to rid the territory OF
all German interference.
1t was still while the Let's were
fighting the Germans for control tina,
the Bolsheviki came along. removed
the Ietvian- government who wer
composed mainly of wealthy elements
and moderate Socialists. instituted n
Soviet government. made up of local
Let's of the most undesirable types
and those Let's who were represented
in the Left Wing of the Soviet gov.
crnment The new government which
existed for about five months. did a
great amount of harm and left the
country in n state of complete ruin
The German land owners particular!
suffered. They had for years beer
enslaving and expressing the great
~ masses. and these latter did no:
hesitate to revenge themselves in II
mOst> brutal fashion while they had
the opportunity. Hundreds and hun
dreds of wealthy and aristocratic fam
lilies were completely wiped out. ana
their property was cOnfiscatcd. To al
intents and purposes the feudal so
ciety of these provinces was complete,
ly uprOOted. With the aid of Eng
lish ammunition and hired Germa'
forces. the BOlsheviks We're finally
driven out. but the new government
with Ulman as Premier. which the
English set up. did not last. 1t was
unseated by the Germans, and was foi
lowed by an iaternal war between the
Let's and these German forces which
lasted many months. 1t was not unti
last May that Ulman's government fiji
ally succeeded III calling the frs,
Constitutional Assembly and estah
4 fishing order in the new state.
No definite peace has as yet beer
concluded between Lntvia and thu
Soviet government (since this article
: was written. cables have announce
that Latvia has signed pence agree
ment with the Soviet gOvernment)
altho negotiations have been under
way now for over half year. Thi
fact is chiefly due to England's in
fluence, which is very desirous of hnv
ing this new state which has al
abundance of raw material such a.
wood, flax. etc. remain more or les
dependent upon its help and guidance
Nevertheless. the Russian Soviet. tru'
20 ar;r hou u.lax