Evening star., 1927-11-29
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

sented this. and Jagiela sent an army
against his rebellious new subjects,
but was defeated. He then removed
the capital from Wilma to Vitovt. That
was the beginning Q3S6) of the strife
between the Lithuanians and Poles,
which has been continuous.
In 1869, at Lublin, a treaty of union
was signed by the representatives to
the two countries, but after the death
of the last descendant of Jagiela,
Sigismund Augustus, Lithuana in
vited Henri de Valois of France to
become her ruler, on condition that
he would sever all connection with
Poland. On November 80, 1700-227
years ago today-the connection with
Poland was formally denounced. This
is Lithuania's Fourth of July"
X X u x
Tn 1895 Russia invaded and annexed
all Of Lithuania and undertook to
suppress all national sentiment of the
natives by forbidding the Lithuanian
language. either written or spoken.
Then followed the criminal Partition
of Poland among the powers
Russia, Austria and Germany-and so
both nations seemed to have been
wiped out of eXistence-only to be re.
vived by the allies, as q result of the
World War
Great Britain was the first to ex-
tend full recognition of independent
sovereignty to Lithuania. which was
promptly followed by other nations,
except that Poland merely recognized
1ithuania as a de facto government.
y X X
Throughout the World War, the Ger
mans occupied Wilma, the former capi-
tai of Lithuania. On February 16,
1913, Lithuania declared her indie.
pendence from Russia. and, after the
armistice. maintained her capital at
Wilma, until in January, 1919, the Boil
sheviks, continuing war with Lithu.
ania. drove her government out of
Wilma to Kovno.
In the following April, the reor-
ganized Lithuanian army was advanc-
ing on Wilma, against the Bolsheviks,
when Polish army beat them to it,
and ever since Poland has laid claim
to that city. To prevent war between
Lithuania and Poland, in 1919, the SUI
preme Council of the Allied Armies
designated a dividing boundary, which
put Wilma far within Lithuanian terri.
tory. but several later lines of demar-
cation have left the whole matter in
confusion.
Since the renaissance of both Po.
land and Lithuania is due to the ac.
ton of the allies, victorious in the
World War, and all such matters are
supposed to be in the hands of the
League of Nations. whose special and
holy function is to settle disputes be.
tween nations, and so to avert war,
the opportunity to display such powers
of adjudication and peace-making is
especially obligatory upon the league
in this case, according to the Lithu-
anian champions.
What sort of people are these Lithu-
anians? They are not Teutons nor
Slavs. They are a separate branch of
the Aryan family, and are sometimes
accounted as aborigines of the coun-
try where they still live. Their early
history was identified for centuries
with a fight against Christianity
They attributed all their nations mis-
fortunes to Christianity. They wor
SHIPPED fire and trees. If a house
caught on fire, their religion forbade
all efforts to eXtinguish it. Their
custom was to spread a table of food
for their guest" the Fire. If that did
not appease him. they required a nude
woman to dance around the table to
entice the fire god to come and par
take.
When Jagiela married the Polish
Queen he accepted Christianity. in or
der to win a crown from the Pope.
That act Of the ruler, however. failed
to carry weight with the people and
they continued their barbarous prac-
tices. 1t is said that to this day
nearly every household maintains its
house snake like a household god,
which is fed with the food given the
children.
In the fifteenth century the Roman
Catholic missionaries made special ef
forts to destroy faith in the worship
of trees and fire, but among the igno-
rant, especially in the rural regions.
much of the old superstition persists
today. The percentage of illiteracy is
very high.