Evening star., 1925-08-31
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

A month has passed since the be-
ginning of the forced interchange of
ma tionaIs between Poland and Ger
many. Presumably, all of the first
class of deportable persons from
either country (non owners of real
estate) are now across the borders,
and another of history's tragedies has
written its unprecedented story.
There have been deportations of
rebels-as. for example, when Crom =
well deported thousands of Scots, de-
feated in the battles of Dunbar and
| Worcester, sending them TO North
Ireland and to America. The story
of "Evangeline," by Longfellow, pur-
ports TO be an account, full of pathos
and tragedy, of a similar deportation,
by England, of French from Acadia,
Nova Scotia. But in both instances
the cruelty was mitigated on the
ground that it was q necessity of war.
England deported criminals TO Aus
tralia: Russia, under the Czars, de-
ported criminals and political Of
tenders to Siberia, and France has
eSiled dangerous political conspira :
| tors and has deported criminals, but
all these acts were based on national
and social protection. In ancient
times conquered races were carried
1
| their conquerors, and there enslaved
| That, too, was war.
x x X
| With the sole exception of the
even greater tragedy of the forced
| interchange of populations between
| Turkey and Greece. last year, there
| has never been a precedent like this
| forced migration of $4,000 or 10000
nationals across the border between
Poland and Germany. In the Turco-
| Greco case the interchange was pro
posed by Nansen, at the conference
| of Lausanne, as the only means OF
| esta blishing peace in either country
| on account of the many thousands OF
| Greeks in Turkey and of Turks in
| Greece and the centuries of race
antipathy
| No such conditions as depicted ir
any of the above references applied
to the recent interchange of Poles
and Germans. There were in Poland
not more than $4,000 Germans who
/ had expressed preferment to retair
| their German citizenship while re-
naming in the foreign land, and
about an equal number of Poles in
Germany. None was accused, ir
| either country, of treason or any
other major crime, making them
| dangerous 10 Sldle OF community
They became penalized for theil
| sentiment, their patriotism to theil
| homeland, where they were born ant
| where their brothers and other rela
! tives still lived, but they had nc
| thought that in so expressing them
selves in hoping to retain their native
| allegiance, they would be obliged e
| move, forthwith, away from theil
| adopted environment.
x X
A year before the deportation. the
| two governments had held a confer
| ence at Vienna for the purpose, or
| Germany's part, of making it optiona,
| whether the people should move as
they voted. Poland insisted upor
| the right to compel the migration
Germany comedies that the act was
| lawful on Polsnd's part, but Ger
! many contended that it was morally
! wrong to inffict the hardship upon
| the individual who had committed nc
| wrong where he was. Reference OF
| the question of legality to a Holland
| Jurist brought the decision that any
country had a right to expel objection
able aliens and to decide what aliens
| might be admitted. That right il
conceded in all international law
| Poland states that she acted within
| her rights and that she had organ
| lied committees to receive her re
| turned nationals and to find them EN-
| pioyment and domiciles, while Ger
| many had made no similar prepara
| ton TO receive returned Germans
| hence all the German suffering.
| The situation in that regard is ex
| planned by DIR. Baer, secretarr of the
| German embassy, as follows:
Nearly all the Poles in Germany
| were coal miners in the Ruhr. and
4 when they were transported tc
Poland the miners were distributed
/ among the farms, for miners could
/ easiIy be useful in harvesting. But
| when German farmers and traders
wsrs ssnt acrcss the borders int
q