Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1943-08-13

February 16, Lithuanian Indepen-
dence Day, was the subject of sew
eral articles in the Swiss press. The
La Liberte of the 18th of February,
1943, in an article called AN An
niversary", says:
The industrious and peace loving
Lithuanian nation is today silently
and solemnly celebrating an ami
versary. On February 16, 1918,
under the German occupation, the
National Council declared the re-
establishment of independent Lith-
uanian state. The road to indepen-
dence was long and hard, for there
were many enemies of Lithuanian
freedom. Thanks to the population
ant the initiative of her leaders,
Lthuania not only recovered from
the wounds left by war, but was
also capable of making remarkable
progress in all fields. This agricul-
tural country raised it's production,
enacted the agrarian reforms, sta
bilized it's currency (the litas)
which remained stable in the face
of the financial crises that swept
over Europe in the postwar years.
The standards of education were
raised to a great extent. Lithuania,
having had to fight for her free
dom against several enemies at
once, signed peace treaty with
Russia, established normal relations
with Germany and m t n d
friendly relations with all European
and overseas countries.
Feeling that a second World War
was imminent, The Lithuanian Sci
mas enacted a Neutrality Law in
January 1889. After the first Ger
man military successes in Poland
Lithuania became the object of
German pressure: she was urged
to take up arms against Poland and
take possession of Vilnius, her
rightful capital. In spite of this
Lithuania held fast to her deter
mination to remain NEUTRAL altho
this would have been an easy way
of settling the dispute with Poland.
Lithuania in, turn became the OBJ
ject Of barter between Germany and
Soviet Russia. The latter forced
Lithuania to sign the Treaty of
Mutual Assistance and to admit So
Wet garrisons into her territory.
Several months later Lithuania be-
came the victim of Soviet aggres-
sion which was characterized by
fallacious preteXts on the part of
the Soviet Union. Besides, in the
treaty of Mutual Assistance the So
Wet Union had given its solemn
pledge to respect Lithuanian SOW
ereignty, political independence and
economic structure. Stain himself
said in a speech at a banquet in
the Kremlin: eve are firmly re-
solved to fulfill our treaty obliga-
tions even up to the point if your
local Communists, grown bold be-
cause of the presence of our gar
risons, were to create disturbance.
In that case our garrisons would
help you to quell the rebels and to
re-establish order"
The course of events demonstra-
ted to the Lithuanian nation in a
very cruel way the emptiness of
these promises. Under the excuse
of pretended "acts of provocation"
of the Lithuanian administration
against the Soviet garrisons, the
Soviet government occupied the
whole country in June 1910, with
the help of the Red Army The
Soviets replaced members of the
Lithuanian government by persons
acceptable to Moscow, acted out
the comedy of "elections" to the
Seimas: after this all land and all
types of private property were con-
fiscated. The all-powerful and ter
rible GPU made mass arrests; un~
told acts of cruelty and murders
were promulgated. And then over
10000 men, women and children of
all ages and conditions of life were