Evening star., 1927-04-03
POLAND AND RUSSIA
AGAIN NEGOTIATING
Little Hope Seen for Pact @
Discussion Reopens After
Four Years.
By Cable 20 The Star and Chiraxo psgIv
News. Copyright. ip29

BY Cable 20 The Star and Chicago Daily
News Copyright. 1927.
WARSAW. April Though Po-
land is renewing negotiations with So
Wet Russia for 81 security pact after
a long pause due to a change i'm diplo.
matte representatives, with unusual
expressions OF optimism from Foreignl
Minister Zaleaski. there seems Httle|
hope for any greater success than|
resulted from the last four years oil
desultnry negotiations.
Poland sees no advantage In sign
ing rsaCt guaranteeing mutual non-l
aggression unless Il Is sCConpa niedl
hv establishment Of a system of arbi-
tration. or other means of solving con.
hiCts which are insoluhle by ordinaryI
diplomatic procedure
The first difficulty Is constituted byI
the refusal Of the Soviets TO accept
any arbitration on the ground that asI
II is the only Communist state amongl
It's bourgeois neighhOrs. no neutral
chairman could he found. The second
difficulty is Poland's necessity forI
avoiding infringing its obligations toI
the League of Nations and also forl
maintaining liberty of action in the
Baltic. where the real independence
of I.atvia and Esthonia are of perma.I
nent Polish interest.
Neutrality Formula
The Soviet government has admit
ted the possibility of finding a formula
for limited neutrality Regarding the
League. it is suggested that Poland
express reservations in covering
letter as Germany and Lithuania did
after signing pacts with Russia Butt
Poland considers il necessary that al
statement be included in the treaty.
itself to the effect that If its obliRa
tions To the League conflict with itsl
obligations to Russia, the League
comes first
The Lettish- Russian guarantee pact
hurried reopening of the Polish Rus
sian negotiations Poland. with thel
other Baltic states. always has main
tanned that guarantee pacts with Rus
STA must he so conceived as not toI
leave the border states al the mercy
of Russia. The idea of a common
treaty between all the border statesl
and Russia was abandoned because
Russia objected. But all the horderl
states. though conducting separated
negotiations. 50 far have maintained
close contact.
Latvia's action was taken without
even warning her closely allied sister
state. EsthOnia. Probably the fun
gravity of this was not realized by the|
inexperienced Lettish foreign min
lister but still it is far from certainl
whether Riga or Moscow will com
plete the agreement. according TO We'll
informed opinion here.
Forced Hesitation Seen.
1t is probable that the Polish for
eign ministry considers reopening OF
negotiations by Poland the best way
TO make Latvia hesitate. since Latvial
will want to see If Poland obtains
better terms.
All border states are complaining
of Russas s slippery methods. The
Russian delegates avoid as long asl
possible recording the negotiations inl
written form. thus making possiblel
continued changes of front. This
also makes il very difficult to say
whose fault it is when negotiations
are broken off.
Poland is too conscious of the
necessity for consolidation to want.
anything but peace. which certainly.
Russo. Polish pact. But it is probable
that owing TO the fundamental differ-
ences in outlook 1t will be impossible
to come to an agreement. The neg0sl
tiations are likely to become al MAJ
reuver for position, with Poland try
ing to show that Moscow's accusas]
tions Of aggressive intentions are uni
founded and also trying to keep to-|
gether the smaller Baltic states, which
are likely to give way before Mos
cows pressure. Moscow is equally
anxious to throw all of the blame onl
Poland in the event of non-success.