POLAND FOR THE POLES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 74, 21 December 1918, Page 8

POLAND FOR THE POLES

PRESIDENT WILSON'S THIRTEENTH POINT

WHAT IT MEANS TO GERMANY

(By Colonel Wedgwood, D.5.0., 31 .P., m thu "Westminster Gazette.") ' ["An independent Polish State should be erected, which should inciudo tho territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be secured a free and secure access to the toil, and whose political and economic independence and torvilorkl iutcgrily should be guaranteed by international .covenants."} Such is the thirteenth point, and it is evident that upon this point the President sets a capital importance. It was one of the two points he laid stress on in January, 1917, before America came into the war (the other being tho Freedom of Hie Seas). It was the subject of a snecin message from him to tho Polish Conferenco that recently met at Detroit. It appeals to him historically, as righting the greatest wrong in history—tho partition of Poland. It is business, because there is no more definite blow to the Junkers of Prussia.

Poopie here do not realise what it would mean to Prussia that indisputably Polish populations should bo free. There are three Poiands; (1) what is now known as "Congress Poland," ■ the old Duchy that was till recently part of Russian territory; (2) there is" Galicia, or at least the western two-thirds of it, now under Austrian rule; (3) there are the Polish provinces of Prussia. All these formed part of the old Poland, whose "partition" was inaugurated by Frederick tho Great. Each Empire sharing in the spoil has endeavoured to assimilate their portion of "the swag." Austria has succeeded best, owing to the absence of any distinctly national movement in that Empire. Russia was simply brutal without being systematic. Prussia employed both system and brutality. During the war the two dynasties, Hohenzollern and Hapsburg, have not been able to settlo the matter even among themselves. Austria would like to unite Congress Poland and Galicia and moke them into the third leg of the tottering Empire. Germany would like Congress Poland to he the only Poland, with a nice Ilohenzollorn as an heredittary! monarch, and an army joint with Uermany—another Wurtemberg. in fnct.

But it is here that President Wilson butts in, and their private arrangements fly to pieces. Wilson says, "All Poland," and "free," and "with access to the sea." And lie means it. Thei'o is no doubt that Kaiser Wilhelm aud tho Junkers, would ten times rather cede Al-sace-Lorraine.

I have before me two maps; one the Reichstag Electoral Map of 1907, showing the constituencies and parties in Germany; the other Meyer's Atlas of 1905, that 1 "acquired" in German East Africa, which shows what Germans admit to bo tho language limits in the eastern provinces ot Germany. Electorally tho Poles hold a block of four constituencies in West Pnwsia, running south from the Baltic west of Dantzig down to tho borders of Posen; they hold all I'oecii save three constituencies on tho extreme west; they hold six constituencios in the east of Silesia running south from theM'ossn frontier to Austria. Their total' votes numbered 450,000, having more than doubled in ihe preceding twenty years. Kor muet it bo imagined that contests for these constituencies are close, as in England. Electoral victories, for Polish candidates are overwhelming; 20,000 to £000 are tho average. It is like an flection between Unionists and Home ttulers in tho south of Ireland.

The German Alias shows that over tho greater part of Posen.moro than 70 per cent, of tho people speak Polish; and the saino figure maintains itself in tho eastern half of Silesia, in all that mining industrial area at tho head of the Oder.

That, three large areas should become part of an independent, Poland would bo serious enough for thi» Prussian spirit; they come from Prussia, not from German territory, like Ajsaee; they nrethenrovinera \yJioro Prussia hns been applying "jlal;a(ismus," planting Germans ami evicting Poles; (hey nre the lands and mines "of Hie great German landlords.. What is even more serious to .Tunkprdom is (hat these areas split on" East Prussia from (lie rest of Germany., And access to (he. sea means' the same thing even inoro e.Kirly. It means Gdansk (Danzig) for Poland; it moans the wholo course of Hid Vistula from .Warsaw to the sen. If theso terms ere anything like rarried through, it means the smashing collapse, of Jitukorism for all time.

I see that the Conservative Pross is afraid tlini: President Wilson will be too easy on Germany, that his fourteen points are no punishment for the warmakers'. 'I'hero is no other nunishment Hint can comipnro with the re-creation of n fiee, imlopendent. and united Poland; there is no more elrikinir example possible of I lie negation of (he old syslem of tyiranny and (he birt'.i of freedom. Do not lot us allow it to be said that Poland is not a British interest that we put before freedom for the small neoples some exclusively British aims which the President has not considered. Tliis is not. ii timo for- Imperialist talk or thought, hut for devout thankfulness that the world lias been saver] 1)V our young men. and for determination Hint henceforward unselfish nims alone will jriiido both British and American foreign politics. One word, too, to the Poles. Tn the nnot thev have been grasnine feudal landlord 1;; they still wish to dominate' the Rulhenes; thev still persecute the .Tew 1 ;. The new snirit which rules Hie world lias take tlie common neonle. as well as .Tews and Ruthenes. under its protection. Polish freedom is only nracHeal if they conform' to f'le Meals ■%= weil as to the laws of the I.wisiie of Nations.