Evening star., 1943-06-13
Small Nations Right to Exist
Held Pre>eminent Postwar Issue
Future of Baltic States Cited as Typical of Problem
toFace Peace Conference as Peoples
Fight for independence
BY Constantine BrOwu.

1t Is unfortunate that pressure of bus1-
ness will not permit Premier Joseph
Stain to meet President Roosevelt in
the near future. There are some out
standing political matters which require
an early solution.
The Four Freedoms sprang from the
hearts and minds of President Roose-
velt and Prime Minister Churchill when
they were together at sea discussing the
sorry plight of the world if its inhabi-
tants were not to have freedom from
want and fear and liberty and speech
and worship.
But in their enthusiasm of having
found the answers to the worlds ills the
most important element necessary to all
humans-the right to exist.
AS things have been shaping up in
regent months there are tens of millions
of people throughout the world who are
asking themselves whether they will be
able to enjoy these four freedoms if
they are deprived of one of their most
important freedoms-the freedom to
exist as an independent nation
Those who have brought this matter
to the fore in recent months are the
Poles, the citizens of the Baltic States
and, to a lesser degree, the represent
atives of the Indian Nationalists.
Later, at the peace table we may hear
other voices, which will want to know
whether the freedom to exist should not
take precedence over all others.
The Poles and the Estonians Lithu-
anians and Latvians are particularly
concerned over their fate. They are
photographic and geographic entities
In the past their freedom has been sup
pressed by despotic rulers. Their inde-
pendence was restored to them after
America for the first time injected her
voice in the affairs of Europe when
President Wilson asked for fair play for
all nations, large and small.
Russo-Polish Issue.
So sincere was the American Govern
ment of those days in its desire to give
their independency to all nations which
had right to call themselves nations
that the State Department refused to
recognize the new borders of Poland be-
cause it felt the Poles took unfair ad-
vantage of Russia troubles.
The recognition followed only after
Russia and Poland agreed between
themselves in regard to their boundaries
And we must not forget that in the 20s
the Poles were the pampered children
of the American Government while the
Russians were those horrible Bolshe-
viks' with whom we refused to have any
contact for fear of contamination.
The Poles first suffered the brunt of
the present war It was their adamant
attitude, based on the conviction that if
they yielded to the Nazi claims their
independence would become illusionary
which precipitated the war despite the
appeasement efforts of the weak French
government and the late and equally
weak British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain.
The Poles knew that they had chance
of resisting the Nazis for several months
if not attacked by some other country
in the rear.
The day after the Russians marched
into Poland the resistance of the Polish
armies collapsed, The Polish military
men realized that their country would
be occupied by the enemy, but they
fought and sacrificed themselves because
they were convinced that if the western
democracies won the war their independ-
ence would be restored.
The same spirit prevailed in other
small states, such as Yugoslavia for in
stance. The hope that eventually they
would be given the right to exist as indie
pendent nations played much larger
role in their decision to suffer the con.
sequences of an invasion than the offers
from Hitler. The Nazi tyrants promised