Evening star., 1925-10-12
Bloody Raids Frequent.

BLOODY Ral0S frequent.
So great. however, are the distances.
so deep the forests, so complicated the
swamps that despite all this readi-
ness of rifle many smugglers pass TO
and fro. And not only smugglers but
political agents. Russian exile groups
have their underground railways
by which they obtain news and carry
on ineffective reactionary plotting.
And especially bolshevist agitators,
terrorists and propagandists. bent on
exciting instructions in the frontier
districts of the border states, steal
across by night or make sanguinary
and incendiary raids, slipping over at
nightfall and fighting their way back
between midnight and dawn.
Since the cessation of political raids
over the Finnish frontier i'll connec-
ton with the eastern karelian dispute
the Finnish boundary has been rela-
lively free from bloodshed. The Estho-
nian and Latvian boundaries are also
quiet The Rumanian boundary,
though sometimes raided, is eXcep-
tional in that it follows q river. the
Dniester. The river is easily fordable,
especially by cavalry. One can look
across it and see bits of Soviet life as
did an American friend of mine who
witnessed thus the burning Of church
and the hanging of two priests by
God hating bolshevists.
The long Polish frontier, however, Is
different. Nowhere along it is there
the slightest natural configuratlon to
show where Soviet Russia leaves Off
and Poland begins. Field runs into
field, orchard into orchard, farm. into
farm and woodlot into Woodlot. Yet
here YOU arc under tho protection of
liberal Poland and there, 10 steps
away, you are subject TO the red dlcta-
torship.
Kill Cattle; Burn Farms.
This frontier, for one reason and
another. has been the most inflamma-
BILE of all. Smugglers infest the popu-
louS border towns. Bandits ply their
adventurous trade in the wilder dis
tricts Spies slip here and there under
cover of darkness. Mysterious mis-
sionaries transmit mysterious mes
sages into the anti-religious region
eastward: while over into Poland come
every now and then the dreaded red
raiders, killing cattle and burning
farms.
In one recent period of two months
there were IS armed incursionS over
the frontier by red bands numbering
from ) to 80 rifles. Fourteen acts of
brigandaee were reported. Six Polish
guards were shot to death. Three
Soviet guards were captured on Polish
soil Sixty bandits and spies and 349
smugglerS We're arrested by the Poles.
So much is official. But as the Po-
liSh government, for reasons of peace
as we'll as of national pride, does not
like to publish the details of these
small events, there is no good pre-
sumption that the official report is
complete Scarcely a week passes
without some new evidence of Mos
cows policy of keeping the Polish bor-
der in a state of irritation, by incur
sions which between any other two
governments would become grave IN
| ternational incidents. But these the
! Poles, as neighbors of the Soviet world
conspirators, accept as q matter Of
! course.
Army Masquerades as Guard"
| The Riga peace treaty between Po-
! land and Soviet Russia provides that
neither country shall maintain troops
! within 35 miles of the frontier. The
/ Soviet government gets around this
provision by calling its frontier forces
guards. The Poles, somewhat tardily,
have adopted the same system. Find
! ing their ordinary police quite incapa-
| BILE of dealing effectively with the red
| raiders, they at last bethought to en-
| list from their regular army a special
police or frontier guard corps, with an
! autonomous command. Accordingly, 1t
was to the general commanding this
! corps that 1 addressed myself in War
saw, after deciding that of all sections
of the red frontier, that patrolled by
| Poland was for my purposes most in
| tereSting.
The general inspected my papers
and my recommendations. Unlike
! some of his compatriots, he was a man
! of few words.
} Agreed" he said.
ITO which sector, then. may 1 go?'
Go wherever you like
| "Where is the situation most inter-
esting?"
| "In Volhynia.'
Then ] will go to Nolhynia.'
The general gave orders to an aide,
as /; result of which, duly provided
with an authorization, l took the night
| express from Warsaw to Rowne and
descended next morning at the little
terminal town called Zdoldunow, in
the heart of Nolhynia, not far from
! where the Polish-Soviet frontier zig
Zags through the fields. I was in one
| of the least known, most contested,
vet potentially one Of the richest re-
gions of Europe.
| Copyright, 1925. by Chicago Daily News Co..
Germany's fight to hold its skilled
labor from leaving the country is CEN
1