POLAND AND BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 184, 30 April 1919, Page 7

POLAND AND BELGIUM

EUROPEAN TERRITORIAL CLAIMS

WITH THE NEW ZEALAND

DELEGATION

(From Mr. R. Riloy, Official Journalist with tho N.Z. Peace Delegation.)

( Paris, March 8, 1919. The colossal work and responsibilities of the Inter-Allied Peace Conference may be indicated rather than gauged by a summary of the scope and varied character of the almost, innumerable claims I heard by the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers for territorial concessions and adjustments arising out of the war, the defeat of tho Central Powers, and the consequent emancipation of many small nations in Europe, and the tangle of greed and tyranny in past centuries. The questions of general settlement involved carcful consideration of military, naval, political, ethnological, and economic and tho tortuous way of the coun" "ill wos strewn with pitfalls and delicate difficulties. Tho s.cope of the claims may be outlined under the following main geographical divisions—a list which in itself gives the unparalleled range of the great war; —

Territorial adjustments were'sought in Western Europe, South-Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, including the future of Turkey and tho settlement of the important question of the control of Constantinople, and tho famous Straits, the Turkish Empire in Asia tolia, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, .Nejd, and Arabia), Persia, Trans-Caucasia, Trans-Caspio, Africa (North, ..Equatorial, South-East, and South-West), .Topan, Russia, and tho South Pacific. In tho divisions of Western Europe and South-Eastern Europe alone the council had a tremendous task, tho claims of Poland. .Belgium, Prance, on the one hand, and on the other tho claims of Italy, Jugo-Slavia, Albania, Rumania, Greece, and Czecho-Slovakia providing matter for half a dozen ordinary international conferences. To give anything like an adequate review of, tho varied and always interesting demands for national rights and territorial adjustments would require a few volumes and inucli leisure (o write them. Here, one can give only a bald summary of the numerous claims.

Poland, The claims of Poland wer,e cspecia'll.v interesting for the reason Hint the position of this devastated, but now very hopeful, country was unique, being- at tho tiino its claims were heard still threatened on three sides: by tho Bolsheviki on tho oast, by tho Ukrunian bands on tho south-east, and by tho Germans on<'the north-west. The problem of tho conference, therefore, was not only to settle tho future of Poland by giving scope to tho national aspirations _of a liberated people with keen memories of a bitter past and lofty ambitions for a great future, but to organise them'.' to resist menace in different forms, and particularly to keep the country from becoming submerged 'by Bolshevism, which, by the way, was described 011 one occasion at tho Peace Conference as " a disease which only attacks hungry and conquered peoples." Tho Polish representative told a moving tale as regards the history of Poland, but brightened the picture with details of tho spirited national movement. That story must be told elsewhere, and by another writer. Enough to say that tho Polish nation suggested that the future of their country should bo viewed from, Hie standpoint of a Lcaguo of Nations, and helped to govern itself and to'oppose oppression. As regards tho question of boundaries, the crucial issue turned upon the possession of Danzig; its hinllerhind, aim Hit eastern frontiors. Poland must have an outlet to tho sea, ,Qr forever depend arid politically on Germany. Tho Polish claims wero referred to a Spccial Commission. Belgium. / The territorial claims of Belgium aro the only claims which can bo adequately summarised in a single sentence. Belgium claimed tho revision of the treaty of April 19,1839. It. was that treaty which fixed her territorial status, set up her permanent neutrality, and sowed the poisoned seed for tho deadly harvest in 1914. The Congress of Vienna added Belgium to Holland in order to create a buffer against France. Fifteen years later tho Belgian Involution threw oft' Dutch rule, and shook tho foundations of the treaty of '1815. Then the Conference of 'London sought to reconcile Belgian independence 'with tho interests, of .the five great Powers, and also to preservo tho balance of power, 'but during negotiations Holland attacked and vanquished Belgium. The subsequent treaty deprived her ot Limburg, and pari of Luxemburg. Tin* compensation was a guarantee of permanent neutrality upon which rested tho wholo of Belgium's political structure, it was built 011 shifting sand. The' recent war swept the foundations away. Only France and Great Britain loyally fulfillM their obligations. Germany and Austria had violated their treaty; and .Russia could riot keep it because of troubles of her own. So the balance of power had been upset. Belgium therefore appealed for.,aid to set up a strong and prosperous country with complete political and economic sovereignty—a demand. in alignment with the seventh point of President Wilson's declaration to Congress on January 8, 1918. Belgium sought, moreover, stability at the sensitive point of Western 'Europe, where danger had always threatened like a thug. ' The representatives of Belgium also made specific claims in respect of the disposal and sovereignty over the Western Scheldt as far as tli'e sea, the canai mid port of Terneuzen; and certain concessions involving interests 111 LimbuTg and Luxemburg. These claims also vre referred to a Special Commission. 1