The New York herald., 1921-01-13

that intensive military preparations are
now going ON in that country, and that
a war with Poland In the spring II
looked upon as certain. Ine hed
armies collected near the Lithuanian
frontier. with Smolensk as their pase'
number In all eighteen divisions, incluo-
ing infantry. cavalry and artillery. Be
sides these. there are twelve otner oi'i-
sions, four vf them cavalry divisions
which had been employed against Pet
lura and Baiakhovltch and are now dis
engaged. The Reds frankly admit their
intention of collecting fifty divisions In
the Smolensk area. "Comrade' Mlnin'
member OF the Red Military Council.
recently visited the front at Smolensk
and at a meeting which was held IN ms
honor a resolution was carried protest.
ing against Polish aggression and In
viting the Red army to prepare for the
final and decisive battle"
When asked TO express an opinion on
the Soviet note with regard 10 wilma, DIT.
Puricks. the Lithuanian Foreign Min
lister, admitted that its arguments were
sound "If the Poles dlsapprove OF
Zelgowsky's action" he said. "why
don't they court-martial him for dis
obeyng orders? Why don't they cease
at least supplying him with ammunition.
provisions and reenforcementS?-
'"The arguments OF NJ. Joffe are un-
Answerable: nevertheless have read
enough history to understand that when
a great ns ton suddenly goes on the war
rath in order TO redress the wrongs Of a
small people. that small people runs q
great risk OF being ultimately eaten up
by It's large sympa thizer. especially AZ
that syrnpathizer happens TO be Russia.
This makes me view without any enthu-
l. t.s To- -
note that II the Poles do not remove
zellgowsSy the Reds will do So for am
quite certain that once the Reds occupy
' lima they will never willingly relipquish
IT, Not only that. but they will almost
certainly occupy kovno and all Lithu-
anla. Our army will. We are sure. give
q good account OF itself but aga inst the
whole force of Russia we have no more
chance than the Belgians had against
Germany. We and the Poles are natural
allies. coreligionists. equally determined
adversaries Of Bolshevismt but at the
very moment when we should be form
ing common front against the common
enemy the Poles seize our principal
city %
Reds Seek Touch with Germany.
For some reason or other the Rods
are extremely desirous of having COM
mon frontier with Germany. 1t may be
for trade reasons that they wish to be in
touch with Germany or 1t may be for
other reasons. but Judging from the re-
ports in the newspapers the Germans
are not quite so enthusiastic about hav-
Ing the Reds as next door neighbors. II
is stated that on December Is two Prua-
sian divisions arrived at Eydtkuhnen
and formed along the frontier line of
pickets separated from one another by
a space of from 100 to 200 PAGES. the
object being to prevent terrorists and
propagandfsts from getting into German
territory.
However. the fact remains that the
Reds are, as | have already said, OK
trcmely desirous OF having a common
frontier with Germany and they arc
equally desirous of getting their own
back at the Poles. They are also
convinced that their stratcgical po-
sition vis-a-vis Poland will be incompar-
ably stronger II they conquer and annex
Lithuahia. and they attribute their dis
aster last summer to the fact that they
had neglected TO occupy this country.
So far as concerns what DIR. Purickis
said Of another Russo-Polish war in the
nation I have been able to get from
the Peace Conference at Riga make iae
sure that there will be no perma nent
peace just yet between Russia and Po-
land. Even II wilma Is returned TO
Lithuania Russia will find some other
ious for a renewal OF the war as Russia.