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law are equally well conceived. The proprietor whose land has been appropriated is to receive in payment a yearly income from the State equivalent to a 5 per cent. assessment on his property. Also, in order to facilitate the purchase by the peasant of his new land, the State is to contribute 35 per cent. of the price fixed at the time of the appropriation.

The results of such a reform are quickly realized. Situated immediately near a volcano in eruption, such as Russia, Rumania had no chance of preserving her national existence except by assuring

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herself a firm internal basis. The social bulwarks which she will henceforth possess will recall those given Western Europe in a certain measure by the strength of France. A nation of small landholders is of necessity a rampart of European order. From her peasant masses she not only draws arms for her defense, but the physical and moral forces which are constantly revived by contact with the invigorating soil. It will be interesting to verify once more this law of history in the proportion of the development of the new Rumania.

Poland's Boundary Conflicts Settling the Danzig Problem

[PERIOD ENDED APRIL 12, 1919]

ERMANS, Ukrainians, and Bolsheviki continued their attacks upon Poland during March and April, compelling the new republic to defend itself on three fronts. On March 15 it was reported that German troops of Grenschütz, composed of volunteers for the defense of the frontiers, had attacked the coal mines at Dombrowa, in former Russian Poland. The Polish troops, aided by the local militia, repulsed the attackers. In Posnania the Germans bombarded continuously the towns of Nowa, Kruszyna, and Ostrowek; all German attacks on this front were similarly repulsed.

The negotiations between the Poles and the Germans, which had been broken off at Posen, became the subject of considerable comment, and supplementary details threw new light on the reasons for this new rupture. The immediate cause, according to The London Daily Mail, was the German refusal to accede to the allied demand for the withdrawal of artillery in the region between Danzig and Thorn.

Opposition came especially from the military members of the German delegation, who, from the first day, had clashed with the President of the Conference, Herr von Reichenberg. This lack of harmony was said to reflect a similar

lack of agreement between the German Government and the High Command. General Dommes, according to this account, then went to Berlin, and Herr von Reichenberg followed him, after receiving a definite request from M. Noulens that the entire German delegation should be back in Posen within three days to complete the negotiations. According to a Havas dispatch from Posen, however, the negotiations had been definitely broken off, and the entire German delegation was quitting Posen immediately. This was confirmed by the publication of a semi-official German note of March 21, which stated that it had been impossible to reach an agreement. The reason assigned for this failure, however, was the dispute that had arisen over the Presidency of the conference, the Germans desiring the appointment of the President by Pope Benedict, while the Entente nations wished the President to be named by the permanent Interallied Armistice Commission. Another German statement declared that the bone of contention was the personnel of the commission to carry out the agreement, which, according to the allied plan, would have given the Allies a majority on the commission. This statement added: "The rupture is no loss to German interests, because the Entente military pro

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MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF POLES IN POLAND, INCLUDING THE DANZIG DISTRICT, CLAIMED BY BOTH POLES AND GERMANS. WHERE THE POLISH POPULATION IS LESS THAN 40 PER CENT. THE ACTUAL FIGURES ARE STATED. THE SHADING INDICATES OTHER PERCENTAGES

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divisions under General Haller, which were a part of the allied army, and permission for their further march to Poland to maintain order. The note added that any refusal would be regarded as a breach of the armistice.

The German Government, after exhaustive deliberations of the party leaders, replied that by the armistice terms it was bound only to grant free access to the Vistula to maintain order in territories of the former Russian Empire; furthermore, its standpoint in signing had been that there could be no question of Polish troops. The note thereupon referred to the demonstrations caused by Paderewski's journey and his statement in Danzig that "if the Polish divisions from France and Italy should be in Danzig, then Danzig and all West Prussia would be Polish." In conclusion the German reply asked for detailed information concerning the composition and strength of General Haller's army, the date of its landing and transit to Poland, and what guarantees could be offered that this army would not provoke Polish demonstrations or an insurrection of the Polish minority. A counterproposal for a landing at Stettin, Königsberg, Memel, or Libau was made. The German press as a whole approved the German answer.

To settle the dispute Marshal Foch left Paris for Spa on April 1 to meet Mathias Erzberger, and discuss with him the allied demand; he bore with him full power to bring the matter to a final decision. This conference took place at Spa on April 3. The result of the discussion was given by Marshal Foch in the form of a communication to the allied Governments, which stated that the allied right to land troops at Danzig had been maintained, but that in order to hasten the arrival of the Polish troops it had been I decided to make use of other lines of transport proposed by the German Government. Dispatches from Spa stated that these routes would be by rail to Coblenz, Giessen, Cassel, Halle, Ellenburg, Kottbus, Lissa, and Kalisz, and by way of Stettin and Königsberg. If difficulties of any kind arose in this passage across Germany, however, Marshal Foch reserved the right to debark the men at Danzig. Marshal Foch declined to give

any guarantees regarding the future of Danzig, as such guarantees affected the Peace Conference and not the armistice. DANZIG INTERNATIONALIZED

Mr. Paderewski, the Premier, went to Paris at the beginning of April to discuss Danzig and other issues with members of the conference. On April 6 he stated that, after consultation with Messrs. Clemenceau, Pichon, and House, he felt assured as to the agreement concluded by Marshal Foch concerning the movement of troops through Danzig. German propaganda in Poland, he added, had led the Poles to believe that the agreement represented an allied surrender on this question. The advantage of speed in getting the troops to Poland, he said, must, of course, be considered.

As to the ultimate ownership of Danzig, Mr. Paderewski declared that if Poland did not receive this port the war was lost for his country. The fact, however, that Danzig was unquestionably a German city offered a serious if not insuperable obstacle to this solution of the problem by the Peace Conference. It was stated unofficially on April 8 that arguments in favor of giving Danzig to Poland and those in favor of giving Danzig to Germany had been so evenly balanced that a compromise had been adopted, and that the coveted seaport was to be declared an international city, belonging to neither party but free to both. One correspondent in stating this decision added:

Poland is assured that under this plan the port will serve her commercial purposes as well as if it were her own, but Paderewski seemed broken-hearted when informed of the decision. He made a somewhat sensational pilgrimage to Paris for the very purpose of pleading for Danzig, but could not overcome the objections of Lloyd George, who felt that the city should remain in possession of the Germans. The Americans were equally desirous of giving it to Poland. So the internationalization is a compromise arrangement, which pleases no nation in Europe.

The considerations that governed the Peace Conference in its action on Poland's claims are indicated in the accompanying map, which shows the percentage of Polish population in the vari

ous portions of Poland. There is a strip of semi-Polish population which extends a little to the west of Danzig to the sea. In no part is it more than 60 to 80 per cent. Polish, and the greater part of it is only 40 to 60 per cent. Polish-that is, roughly, half and half. But Danzig itself is 95 per cent. German, and the district round it and east and south of it is German in a very great majority. There was therefore no reason on the racial ground for handing over Danzig and its hinterland to Poland. The need for a Polish outlet to the sea could be met by making Danzig a free port.

POLAND AND UKRAINE

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On the Galician front Lemberg and Grodek-Jagellonski were reported March 15 to have been attacked by the Ukrainians. The Polish troops repulsed all attacks and inflicted severe losses on the enemy. Iaksmanice, Siedliska, and Bychow were occupied by the Poles. A German wireless dispatch of March 17 stated that the Ukrainians had entered Przemysl; the Ukrainians were also in the suburbs of Lemberg and along the whole Przemysl-Lemberg line. A report from Upper Silesia said that Lemberg was faced with complete destruction because of the Ukrainian bombardment; large portions of the city were in ruins or in flames. The Ukrainians were using guns of heavy calibre. In spite of the bombardment the morale of the defenders was good; even women and children were participating in the defense.

On March 19 the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference decided to invite the hostile armies at Lemberg to conIclude a truce under certain conditions. A radio-telegram containing these conditions was sent to the commander of Lemberg and to the Ukrainian commander besieging the city. Each army was to maintain its positions; the railway communications between Lemberg and Przemysl were to remain free enough to allow the necessary provisioning of Lemberg. The conference expressed its willingness to hear the claims of the two parties in dispute, provided that an immediate suspension of hostilities ensued.

On March 20 it was announced from Warsaw that Ukrainian troops had entered Lemberg. No attention whatever appeared to have been paid to the Paris Peace Conference order to both Poles and Ukrainians to cease hostilities until the dispute for the territory of East Galicia could be settled by the Allies. On March 25, however, it was declared by Vaida Voevod, Minister for Transylvania in the Rumanian Cabinet, in an interview, that Lemberg was still in Polish hands. On April 2 advices from Przemysl indicated that the city was still being heavily shelled. The Poles did not accept the possibility of an armistice with the Ukrainians.

POLAND AND BOLSHEVIKI

Bolshevist detachments, it was reported on March 15, had attacked again the town of Slonim in Lithuania. After fierce combats, the Bolsheviki had penetrated into the town, but had finally been expelled by the Polish troops at the point of the bayonet. The whole Bolshevist drive in that direction had suffered a severe check in the Baltic provinces.

Pinsk, on the eastern frontier of Poland, was captured from the Bolsheviki at the beginning of March. On April 5 this city was the scene of an attempted Bolshevist uprising which resulted in the summary execution of thirty-three of those implicated in the plot. Colonel Francis E. Fronczak, Health Commissioner of Buffalo, who was in Pinsk at the time for the American Red Cross, stated that, according to the military authorities, 200 Bolsheviki were discovered in a hall plotting the overpowering of the weakened garrison and the seizure of the city. The hall was surrounded, but the majority of the Bolsheviki managed to escape. About seventy were captured and marched to the market place, where every second one was shot. Colonel Fronczak was in a hospital near by and heard the shots. Later he counted the bodies. He made an affidavit, which was turned over to the American and allied commission in Warsaw.

General Pilsudski, provisional Polish President, stated in Warsaw on March 22 that arms and equipment for an army

of 500,000 Poles were necessary. Poland had many young men who had not been drafted into the German, Austrian, and Russian armies. War material from France and America was urgently needed. With such an army, said the President, Poland could hold her own against all her foes. The prevailing opinion in Polish military circles was that the war with the Ukrainians and others must be fought out, and that only the projected conscript Polish army could break down the present impasse.

ALLIES RECOGNIZE POLAND

A French official telegram, read on Feb. 24 in the Warsaw Diet, recognized Poland as an independent, sovereign State. On March 13 it was similarly announced that Italy had sent her official recognition; and on March 19, Belgium. On March 13 a formal alliance between Poland and the Entente was concluded; on March 29 the treaty of alliance was unanimously ratified.

The Polish Government has annulled all transactions concluded in the territories of the former Ober-Ost (Lithuania and Poland) between retreating German troops and private individuals. Impor

tant stocks of provisions, war material, and even munitions, had by these transactions fallen into the hands of speculators. The Polish Government made energetic protest at this, with the result that a mixed German-Polish commission departed to Grodno to enable the Polish authorities to gain possession of the supplies in that district.

The Polish Parliament on March 14 adopted a resolution calling for the appointment of a commission to study the Jewish problem in Poland, and find a method of solution. This resolution was introduced by Professor Stanislau Grabski, one of the leaders of the National Democratic Party, the party of Paderewski and Dmowski, who are now in power. The appointment of the commission was considered to be the Government's reply to the embittered speech of the Jewish Deputy, Noah Prilutski, who gave expression on the floor of Parliament to the resentment and humiliation of the Jewish population of Poland, and who reproached the Government bitterly for what he alleged to be the systematic persecution of the Jews in every walk of life and in all spheres of society.

Jugoslavia and Its Internal Problems

Conflict of Parties Over the Question of a
Federated Union or a Centralized Serbian State

N interesting series of articles in the Paris Temps, written in January and February, 1919, by that paper's special correspondent, Charles Rivet, depicted the different political parties and tendencies in the new South Slavic State known unofficially as Jugoslavia. Some of M. Rivet's most interesting observations are herewith summarized.

Like Czechoslovakia, the South Slavic State is a product of the new political theory of national determination. Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia were united into one nation only a few weeks after the dispersal of the Austro-Magyar

armies, by the compact concluded between Liubliana, (Laibach,) Zagreb, (Agram,) Serajevo, and Belgrade. The organization of the Jugoslav State was effected by many patriots still dressed in the uniform of the Austrian Army. Dalmatia and Bosnia were occupied by Serbian troops and received Serbian Governors. Istria and Montenegro also entered later into the completed project, with a Bulgaria. more remote possibility of a union with

Excluding the last-mentioned country, between which and Serbia, particularly, embittered memories may act as an eternal bar, the new nation represents a

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