Evening star., 1922-05-16
MEMEL LAND'SEND
Of FORMER EMPIRE
Germany's Longtime Posses
sion Harassed by Doubt
I Over Ultimate Fate.

Suppose our New England coast
subject to q peace treaty adjustment
which would make Connecticut ana
Rhode Island an independent country.
Boston a free city. the lower part OF
Maine thus severed still part OF the
United States. and Eastport, Me-, sub
jeot to the league Of nations. Then let
a controversy start regarding the fu-
ture of Eastport. whether 1T snail oe
assigned to Canada, made free state
corporatsd. in our Imaginary nation
of Massachusetts and Rhode Island
According to q bulletin from the
washipgsen headquarters Of the Ma
tional Geographic Society II you can
imagine the feelings of the Eastport
also can gain some idea of the pres
ent where e-do-we-go-fr om-here" state
Of mind In the Memel district OF
north Europe.
Complex Racial Conditions.
: Even then the racial factor would
be missing" the bulletin continues,
''and to make our hypothetical New
England comparable to that along the
Baltic shores we would have to pic
ture Eastport to be nearly half popu-
lated by French Canadians. who most
naturally cast their eyes toward their
own dominion, and suppose the in
tervening nation made Of the Bay
state and Rhode Island to be peopled
by Latin Americans.
former German empire. situated at
the apex of the northern triangle of
East Prussia. Hamburg and Bremen.
which usually come to mind as cities
of northern Germany. are In the ap-
proximate latitude of Liverpool. while
rIff q
Edinburg. Its situation is like that OF
New York were Long. Island a penfn-
sula with it's eastern end Joined to
the Connecticut shores above new
Haven. The Kurische Ham Is con.
siderably larger than Long Island
sound and the neck OF this inland sea
bottle, where Memel lies, is'very mar
row.
"A glance at a map Of northern
Europe will show why Memel COM
manded the shipping of the Baltic
even as Bremen and Hamburg were
the entreports for overseas com
merce. Memel was the gateway to
the erstwhile German empire from
Stockholm. Riga. Copenhagen and
Petrograd. Then note the course OF
the Memel. or Niemen, river, and you
can realize readily how the city
played the middleman for west Po-
land and Russia. 1t bore great RATS
mills. and this lumber product was
carried to every Baltic city. por-
ton Of it going back to Russian
ports. Before the war the value of
its timber shipments alone amounted
to more than $5,000.000.
EARLY in the war the Russians in
vaded Memel, which led to a widely
quoted edict from Berlin, for each
German village or farm burned by
these hordes. three Russian villages
or farms will be destroyed The de-
Tense of Memel by-two Prussian regi-
ments consisted of the soldiers dis
banding, mingling with the people,
and thus compelling the population
to help fight in defense of their city.
procedure which, it will be RECALLED.
furnished the excuse for subsequent
German atrocities in Belgium.
"Memel was known before the war
as a prosperous city. with neither q
millionaire nor a pauper. 1t had
fiourishing iron foundries, shipbuild-
ing yards and distilleries, and it
manufactured chemicals and soap.
Its population of some $4,000 had
only II per cent Lithuanians, while
in the rural sections Of the present
district of Memel 10 per cent of the
people were Lithuanians. This pro-
portion. not substantially altered to-
day, is a complicating factor in its
ultimate political disposition"