Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-08
ALL POLAND DETERMINED
TO HOLD EX-CERMAN AREA
Territory Taken as Symbol of Nations
Independence-War Threat Does
Not Intimidate.

her liberty and unity two generations
ago has there been anything to COM
pare with the Polish renaissance.
Poland Is Enthusiastic.
Thus Poland is throbbing with long
repreSsed energy, enthusiasm, activity.
Schools, hospitals. factories are rising
everywhere. And the new Poland.
suddenly come to life, realizing its
dream in a fashion that two decades
ago seemed beyond imagination, means
to live, Is animated by something Of
the spirit that won the West for the
United States and by all the patriotic
fervor that realized the Italian Risorgi-
mento
Again, this new Poland is already
flushed with the sense of victory. The
evidences of century of Russian
domination have been swept away over
have come together utterly, while in
the old German faction, formerly the
scene of the most desperate battle to
preserve Polish language and customs
in the face of Prussian colonization. 10
years of liberty have sufficed to abolish
German majorities in many cities. to
recover vast areas of appropriated
lands to replace 100000 Germans by
the better part of million Poles.
"Ab44 q AA4SAACA O4A VA 4deC d4AA a AOnCA
standard of living, the Polish race Is
replacing the Germans in all the lands
of the east. If at the moment when 1t
was returned to Poland the Corridor,
including Danzig, contained something
like an equal number of Poles and Ger
mans, today the Poles are nearly three
to one, despite the fact that Danzig
still holds out, its solid German ranks
unbroken.
Time Factor Stressed.
Time-the German and Pole alike
agree as to this-is working for Poland.
Give us 10 years more and have no
fear" said Ramon Dmowski, the great
Polish statesman. And precisely in the
same fashion the passionate cutlery in
Germany for revision is based upon the
tragic perception of the daily ebbing of
German population, influence, strength.
Today the Corridor has already been
submerged by the Polish flood, tomor-
row Danzig, isolated and overshadowed
by Gdynia, may have to surrender. And
beyond lies the far greater question Of
East Prussia, economically PROSTATE,
strategicaly indefensible, threatened by
an almost inevitable infiltration of the
Slavic tide.
Since Poland will fight rather than
yield, the prospect of territorial revision
of the treaty of Versailles must be re-
moved from the list of possible solutions
of the present peace problem in Europe.
1t must be removed because no one in
Europe wants war. Even Germany. for
out the return Of the Corridor, is actu-
ally dominated by the belief that in
some way, peacefully, Poland can be
persuaded or compelled to surrender.
But the truth is otherwise. Today Po-
land has a standing army of 100000, at
the outbreak of war 1t could mobilize
100000 troops, trained and equipped.
And this army would move even to a
hopeless war rather than yield an inch
Of Polish territory.
What constitutes the SOLDERING and
even staggering fact, for any one con-
cerned over the question of peace itself,
Is the utter irreconcilability of the two
national opinions. Here are two peo-
pies. equally eager for peace, equally
aware that a new war means ruin for
both, uncompromisingly marching along
roads that make collision inevitable.
Millions Discuss Issue.
More than that, in the east of Europe,
along the frontiers of Poland and Ger
many, not peace but war actually ex-
lists, war carried on by every means
save those of arms alone. And the ma
ton that today Is losing was yesterday
and must be again tomorrow the most
powerful in Europe. On either side of
an imaginary line millions of men and
women are with utter fata1ism discuss
ing the next war, which cannot be
avoided, which will bring mutual ruin,
which will involve the destruction not
OF armies but of cities and country
sides which will mean war to utter an
Inhalation.
do not know of any way it is pos
S1ble TO translate to an American audi
ence, living in assured peace. in conf
dent security, discussing with serene OBJ
Jectivity such projects as the World
Court and the Kellogg pact, the state of
mind and the state of fact existing be-
tween the Baltic and the Carpathians,
the extent to which the minds, the feel
ingS, the very lives of men and women
are being poisoned by this racial clash,
the degree to which daily life is COL
ored and dominated by ethnic obses-
sion.
But one thing energies clear beyond
all else: Who talks about territorial
revision Of the Treaty Of Versailles, SO
far as is affects Poland and Germany.
SO far as it concerns the Polish Cor
r1dor and Upper SileSia, talks about
war. There is no futility more patent
and more unmistakable than the IA
nilar thesis Of peaceful revision. For
II Germany says mo peace without re-
vision" Poland replies mo revision
without war" and both mean 1t.
(CopyriRht 1921