Evening star., 1925-04-05
BY FRANK IL. SIMONDS.

German offensive directed
at Nerdun and to feel the supreme
determination and forever memora-
BILE unity with which the whole
French nation rallied to the watch
word of Marshal Petain. They Shall
Not Pass. And now on the banks of
the Nistula I am vividly conscious of
the same phenomenon which dis
closed itself then on the banks of
the Seine. All Poland is rallying to-
day against what II believes to be
the ultimate attempt to destroy that
unity newly created after nearly
century and half of foreign servi-
tude.
The new menace comes, of course,
directly from Germany, as did that to
Nerdun In the wartime, but 1t is a
the moment political. not military.
What the German is seeking to do is
TO establish the principle that the
frontiers laid down a Versailles are
only permanent as they affect the
west He is seeking to win not only
British but French assent to the idea
OF revision of the frontiers of the
east-that is, of Poland He is offer
ing IN return any form of guarantee
of French and Belgian security
which may be desired
Old Story Repeated.
You have then the age-long story
repeating itself; not once or twice.
but many times European peace has
been for the moment consolidated by
n partition of Poland: wars between
great powers have been avoided by
the parceling out of Polish territory
That was what happened in the
eighteenth century when Frederick
the Great began the system OF Polish
mutlia1on to keep peace between
Russia and Austria. II was Poland
winch paid the great price of Euro
pean adjustment after the fall of
Napoleon and thus disappeared from
the number of nations
Now the discussion has all begun
over. The treaty of Versailles undid
most, but not ALL of the work of mu-
tilation which had been begun by
Frederick the Great and carried for
ward by Catherine and Alexander of
Russia. Mr.. Wilson. in his ii points,
nad included the restoration of Po-
land, and thanks to American inter
est, and American firmness at the
critlcal moment, when Lloyd George
changed his mind as to Poland, sub
stdhtlally all of the ancient Polish
territory taken by Prussia between
1'1l and 1875 was restored
The territory which returned thus
TO Poland was historically Polish. il
was, with single exception. inha bit
v.
exception was Danzig. situated at the
mouth of the Vistula the single out
let to the sea of nation which was
TO include upward of thirty millions
OF people. Danzig, too. had once been
the Polish exit to the sea but its
population were and had been main
ly Tor an indefinite time German So
to meet this situation. the Paris peace
conference created the free CITY of
a irip n icb
have elf-government. to have it's
Teutonic character and institutions
assured but, at the same time, was to
be available commercially as the out
let of Poland upon the free seas
Majority Rights Backed.
The problem which was faced at
Paris was this: Was it better to de-
prive nearly thirty millions of peo-
pie in the restored Poland of any
free doorway upon the sea or to sep
arate Danzig from Germany, while
leaving to the German Inhabitants
their Teutonic character and their To-
'cal independence. The Paris confer
ence not a little as result of Amer
lean influence. decided to back the
rights Of thirty millions against those
of three hundred thousand
But the problem of Danzig was also
associated with that of the now fa-
nous Polish corridor. The great mass
Of the Polish population live in 4
vast circle of territories surrounding
Warsaw and stretching north and
west to the old frontiers of Prussia
while including the old Prussian prov
ince of Poson, which was itself forci-
bly, wrenched from Poland in one of
the partitions. To connect this mass
Of Polish people with the sea at Dan
zig. it was also necessary to draw
u, " boundaries and thus was created
the narrow corridor on the left bank
of the Nistula, perhaps so miles wide
and 20 long. Fortunately this work
did not do violence to the principle
of self-determination for the people
living within this corridor were
mainly Polish by race. five out of six
, according TO later official Polish CEN
sus statistics, but conceded to the
Polish by all the ethnographic maps.
German and othe rwise, which | have
ever seen.
Here, then is the origin OF the
great controversy which is still a su-
preme European problem. The DAN
zig corridor separated the mass of the
German territory from the smaller
region of east Prussia. il thrust it
self like a hand stretched to the sea
between two areas which were Ger
man and were left to Germany. AS
/ have said. having to choose be-
tween cutting thirty millions of peo-
pie off from the sea and separating
two millions of Germans from their
brethren of the Reich. the Paris con-
ference chose to do the latter.
Posen Lesser Problem.
In addition the province of Posen was
taken from Germany. but this decision
Of the Paris conference was not so Bit
terly resented by the Germans. because
the popula tions was incontestibly Po-
lish and the change did not break up
German unity as did the corridor, al
though it did bring Polish frontier
within 100 miles of Berlin. Posen,
however, as have already written
from Berlin, does not constitute pres
ent German grievance. although there
are certain German parties and leaders
who insist that all the lands lost by
Germany in the east must be restored.
BY contrast, the ultimate cession to
Poland of the southern end of Upper
Silesia constitutes for the Germans a
grievance hardly less acute than that of,
the corridor. Here the population is
undeniably Polish, but in a plebiscite;.
taken before the settlement, the whole
area in which the vote was had favored
the German allegiance by something like,
6 to 4. On the other hand, in the re-
gions finally turned over to Poland the
majority was for the Polish sovereign
ity. And the terms under which the
vote was held provided that the settle
ment should be made with regard to
the will of the people of the various
localities
The German. for his part. claimed
and continues to claim that the decision
Of the majority OF the voters in the
fwhole area should have been accepted