Evening star., 1929-06-30
EUROPE'S SUBJECT RACES
PROVE THREAT TO PEACE
Twenty Million Minority Under Yoke Is
Factor i'm Talk of World
Harmony.

races, the Germans and the Magyars,
are determined not to accept as per-
manent the new conditions. In the
case of the Germans, while Alsace-
Lorraine has ceased to be a vital issue,
the questions of the Polish Corridor,
of Upper Silesia, of Austria, and, to q
lesser degree, of the German minority
in Czechoslovakia, remain vital national
issues. Today no German seriously
thinks Of precipitating a war to change
the status quo, but practically every
German asserts that what exists can
not endure. And exactly the same state
of mind is discoverable among the
Magyars.
But since war is out of the question
today, the Germans, the Hungartans,
and, to degree, other races, with in
creasing insistence demand of the
League of Nations that it protect the
minorities created by the peace settle.
ment and in many cases guaranteed
racial and cultural rights by these doc
uments. And Germany has very plainly
marked out for herself the role OF the
champion of the oppressed minorities.
Yet the League is actually powerlesS
to do anything of real Importance, be-
cause not only must 1t invade the SOW
ereiguty of the nations called to court
by the Germans and Hungarians, but
the most powerful single state In the
League, stands squarely behind the
new states against the old, while Italy,
with equal firmness, reSists any EFFORT
to make more tolerable the lot OF her
German, Slav and Greek minorities.
Menace to Unity.
Moreover, all the states having mi
norities are faced with the practical
problem than any concessions to the
rninorities must constitute permanent
menace to national unity. If the Ger
mans in Poland or the Magyars in
Czechoslovakia and Rumania, while
continuing to demand the right to use
their own language, accepted the new
nationality as final. and if there were
no Germany or Hungary challenging
this settlement, morally, if not yet for
chilly, the Poles, the Czechs, the Ru-
manians could afford to let their NIL
norities live peacefully and without
being subjected to the discipline Incl
dent to forcible assimilation.
But these Germans and MagyarS
make. no bones of their determina-
ton to return to their cid political
allegiance, just as Germany and Hum
gary proclaim their purpose to have
the treaties revised. Thus each minor
ity becomes a center of diSloyalty, a
basis for external manipulation and
a deadly menace to the enduring unity
of the state. And, just as inevitably,
the majoritieS in the countries thus
threatened concentrate all their efforts
alike upon getting rid of as many Of
the minority group as possible and upon
assimilating the balance.
This process, however, in its turn
arouses inevitable protest and passion
in Germany and Hungary. Since the
war more than q million Germans
have retired from annexed territories
and there has been a Magyar migration
OF equal proportions. But every Ger
man or Magyar who departs weakens
the Teutonic or Hungarian claim: by
the mere attrition of years the minor
tiles might be largely eliminated In
many border regions. In the Polish
Corridor alone, the Polish population,
which before the war was hardly more
than 3-2, Is today 1o-l.
Waiting for Strength.
Germany, then, must seek, under
cover of protecting the unquestioned
rights of the German minority, to pre-
vent their gradual elimination, to the
end that one day, when she is again
strong, she will have q basis for an
ethnic claim In her lost provinces. But
Poland, for precisely the same reason,
must resist every effort to prevent the
elimination OF minority which can
serve as the basis for q new partition.
The result Of the World War was
an enormous disaster to the German
world, which was far more extensive
than the German empire. Ten million
Germans in Austria dominated nearly
3O.OO0,000 Slavs and Latins, 10000
600 OF MagyarS, reinforced by 1000, 900
Germans, controlled the deStinies Of
nearly twice as many Slavs and Ru-
manians In Hungary. In Galicia, the
Bukovina, in the cities of Transylvania,
as in Bohemia and Moravia, German
was the current language. But every
where German cultural as well as
political supremacy Is being forcibly
and rapidly eradicated.
AS consequence, Germany, with
increasing insistence, as she RECEIVERS
her strength and liberty, is pressing
for protection of her minoritieS and
drawing to herself the Magyars, Bull
garians, Lithuanians, all the peoples
with similar grievances Yet It must
be perceived that this natural and in
evitable evolution Of German policy
does not hold out any prospect Of re-
moving the evil. Minorities thus cham
pioned are doomed to still greater per-
secution. The effect of the German
operation is not to protect the minor
tiles. but to fill Europe with new appre-
hension and promote strife within many
frontiers.
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