Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-08
BY FRANK H. sIMONDs.

w YARSAW.-In the Germa n
"A mind at the present mo-
NV ment one issue outweighs
all others. For all Germans
the supreme question Is that
Of revision Of the peace treaties. More
over, while this demand for revision Is
threefold, and relates to reparationS,
disarmament and frontiers, what counts
most is the matter Of frontiers. Peace
to the whole German peoples is condi-
toned primarily upon the recovery by
the Reich of most, If not all, Of the ter
ritories lost to Poland, with the Corridor
and Upper Silesia as the irreducible
minimum.
But is such recovery possible this side
of a new war? Is there the smallest
prospect that Poland, either on her own
initiative or under pressure from the
rest of the world-from France pri-
marily, and from Britain and the
United States less directly-will consent
to any such sacrifice in the interests Of
European peace and more Immediately
in her own interests, menaced as she
patiently is alike by German and boil
shevist dangers?
In the search for an answer to this
question I came from Berlin to War
saw. During three weeks have talked
with the leaders of all departments of
Polish life, political, military, indus
trial and journalistic. have "bliZ-
zarded" through the Polish Corridor,
visiting cities, villages, private houses,
have stayed in Danzig to hear the
tragic story of the Germans of the Free
City, have journeyed to Gdynia to see
the development of that boom city, "
which has risen In i've years from a
fishing village Of 800 inhabitants to a
town of As 900, with docks and machin-
cry that make it already the best
equipped post of the Baltic and insure
that tomorrow it will be deadly men,
ace to Danzig.
Will Tell Experiences.
OF my experiences in the Polish Cor
ridor shall speak in another article;
in the present I shall try to give the
Polish answer to the proposal for terri
torial revision. And that answer is,
after all, simple. Poland not only re-
fuses to consider any such proposition,
but every Pole, without regard to politi-
cal party, social circumstance or mate
rial interest, women as well as men,
boys as well as gray-haired burghers, Is
prepared to go to the front.
OF itself, revision seems the easiest
and simplest means to abolish the most
dangerous Of all threats to European
peace. To restore to Germany that
corridor created by the Versailles treaty
i'm fact, the direct consequence of
President, Wilson's own decision-thus
reuniting East Prussia to the Reich,
has for years found support alike in
Europe and the United States.
The solution assumes a different
aspect, however, once 1t Is plain that
it Is to be reached only by a new war.
Obviously in new war between
Poland and Germany alone, Poland
would be beaten. But to win this war
Germany would have to arm beyond
the limits Of the treaty of Versailles
France on, the y Rhine in the same
relative situation AA Prussia did Ma
poleon III in 1870 after having de-
feated Austria in 1856.
Position Of France.
Realizing this, France will not per-
NIT Germany to destroy Poland while
she stands idly by. Beyond that,
Britain, already disturbed oyer the
Soviet menace. looks with frigid dis
appreciation upon prospect that
would involve inevitably a great for
ward push of Soviet frontiers to the
Vistula, wide extension of the area
OF BolsheviSt anarchy, and bring
measurably nearer a complete European
social breakdown.
AS to the Polish standpoint, it can
be quickly disposed of. The territory
that Germany claims constitutes the
sole access of a nation of 32,000,O0 to
the sea. This territory today contains
fewer than 100000 Germans in a total
population Of 1,250,0o0. Although it
had been PruSsian for nearly $50 years
before the treaty of Versailles, it was
Polish for more than 800 years before
the first partition. To the Pole it is
land stolen from him by Frederick the
Great and restored to him by Woodrow
Wilson. Moreover, the possession Of
this territory is the symbol of his in
dependence, as the loss was the signal
for the extinction of his liberty.
The Polish state of mind is, too,
affected by wide range of factors.
While, like the German, the Briton and
the American, the Pole Is suffering
from a worldwide economic crisis
even in depression his actual circum-
stances are so much better than a
decade and half ago when his long
divided nation was the battlefield of
three empires, that q difficult present
seems tolerable by contrast. And he Is
conscious, as every visitor to Poland
must be, Of the enormous progress of
the recent years, material, economic
New railways have been built, new
communications have been created,
new cities are rising. Not since Italy
after half a century of struggle won