scene, met with a cool reception from the population. One of the reasons for this averseness of the German Austrians to the excitations of the Communists was the wholly practical one that the Allies alone could furnish the food to keep the people from starving. Vienna was the hungriest of the European capitals, and Chancellor Karl Renner's appeal to the Communists to cease their agitation on the ground that Austria's only hope lay in the continuance of allied supplies fell on understanding ears.

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

The Cabinet appointed by the Austrian Constituent Assembly on March 15 to take charge of Governmental affairs until a definite German Austrian State was established, or until the country was incorporated in a federated German republic, was made up as follows:

Dr. Karl Renner-Chancellor.
Jodok Fink-Vice Chancellor.

Otto Glöckel-Under State Secretary or Education.

Wilhelm Miklas-Under State Secretary of Worship.

Richard von Bratusch-State Secretary of Justice.

Dr. Josef Schumpeter-State Secretary of Finance.

Josef Stöckler-State Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry.

Engineer Johann Zerdik-State Secretary of Trade, Industry, and Construction.

Dr. Wilhelm Ellenbogen-Under Secretary of Trade, Industry, and Construction.

Ferdinand Hanusch-State Secretary of Social Administration.

Otto Bauer-State Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Julius Deutsch-State Secretary of Military Affairs.

Dr. Erwin Waiss-Under State Secretary of Military Affairs.

Dr. Lowenfeld-Russ-State Secretary of Food Administration.

Ludwig Paul-State Secretary of Transportation.

The importance of a stable régime was shown as early as April 13, when it was announced that the British military representative in Vienna, Colonel Cunningham, had notified Dr. Otto Bauer, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, that the British Government, in the event of disorders occurring in German Austria, would immediately cease sending food and raw

materials. Dr. Bauer was told that the reason for this projected action was the importance to the Allies of having undisturbed communications through German Austria with friendly and allied new States.

BOLSHEVIST OUTBREAK

In spite of this warning a Bolshevist outbreak occurred in Vienna on April 17. The main facts were as follows:

A mob of unemployed held a mass meeting before the Parliament Building and speakers made violent addresses, inciting the multituude to demand ample daily support by the State. Chancellor Renner promised to consider the demands the following week. The mob was dissatisfied, however, and continued the disorders. Some began shooting at the police, who were unable to cope with them, and numerous dead and wounded were reported. The Parliament group of buildings was set on fire in several places, especially the House of Lords, but the fire was extinguished. The police were replaced by the People's Guard, which restored order. Performances in

all the theatres were suspended.

For several hours later that section of the city was the scene of considerable fighting. Soldiers charged here and there, and numerous persons were wounded, ambulances and automobiles carrying them away. The casualties among the police were five killed and forty wounded; twenty demonstrators and bystanders were wounded.

Just before dark speeches were delivered at the foot of the Pallas Statue. Throughout the evening crowds of curious persons visited the spot and listened to speeches by agitators, who for the most part were unable to speak German correctly. These agitators worked in pairs, engaging in discussions with each other, in order to attract an audience, after which they harangued against the Socialists, who, they declared, were working hand in hand with the Allies and endeavoring to enslave Austrians.

SERVICES OF VOLKSWEHR

The policing of Vienna was taken over by the Volkswehr. On April 18 the Parliament Building was occupied by two

battalions of soldiers, after representatives of the Soldiers' Council had placed 5,000 men at the Government's disposal, under Colonel Stoessel Wimmer. Colonel Cunningham, the British military representative, issued a proclamation in the name of the Allies, declaring that if there were any further disturbances the food supply would be cut off. A statement issued by Chancellor Renner after the outbreak said:

Vienna is safe from Bolshevism. The situation is well in hand, thanks to the reliable soldiers of the Volkswehr. The whole trouble was caused by a lot of unruly young men who interfered with the consultations of deputations of workmen and invalided soldiers at the Parliament Building. Several policemen were killed and many were wounded, but the police controlled the trouble from the beginning. Another official statement was made by the War Secretary, Dr. Julius Deutsch, who, addressing the Volkswehr, said that the only hope for German Austria lay in the compassion of the Entente. Any thought of a communistic republic, he declared, was madness, as it would mean immediate occupation by Entente troops. It was hopeless, he said, to think of resistance, or of help from Hungary, which could at most send only one food train a day, while the Entente was already sending twelve, and if these stopped the whole city must starve to death. By April 21 most of the Hungarian agitators in Vienna had been arrested, and the arrest of the Austrian agitators had begun. The Austrian Government had requested the Hungarian Government to withdraw its Minister from Vienna. Bela Kun, the Hungarian Premier, in a telegram to the Austrian Government denied complicity in the outbreak.

So the Bolshevist outbreak was put down, and the Constitutional Government remained in power. Food conditions remained bad, and yet the general mood, according to advices on April 26, was cheerful; shops were open and crowded with customers; the streets were filled with droschken and taxicabs, which seemed to have no difficulty in finding customers; and even the theatres had their usual audiences. It was said, however, that the city's main defense, the Volkswehr, was daily becoming reduced

by desertions of soldiers across the frontier to join the "proletarians" in Hungary. On April 29 it was stated that communistic activity in Vienna was continuing.

NO UNION WITH GERMANY

Chancellor Renner, in accepting the nomination as a peace delegate to go to St. Germain, said in the Austrian Parliament on May 9 that he relinquished all hopes for a union with Germany. His speech was made while the impression caused by the Allies' terms to Germany was still strong. The feeling in the Chamber was, according to one speaker, that "it would be madness to unite with a nation subject to such measures."

"The Austrian people must suffer for the misdeeds of their rulers," the Chancellor said. "We never wanted the war, and we were not guilty of bringing it about. I will do my best to secure better terms for ourselves."

The address was delivered within a stone's throw of the Foreign Office in the Ballplatz, where the first machinery of the war had been set in motion nearly five years before, and moved many of the Chancellor's hearers to tears. A few Socialists demanded that no delegates be sent, but there was no attempt at revolt or Bolshevism. A heated discussion followed.

Former Emperor Charles of AustriaHungary, whose flight to Switzerland was described in a previous issue of CURRENT HISTORY, had found Wartegg Castle on the shores of Lake Constance too small for himself and his twenty-two attendants, it was reported from Geneva on April 28, and had rented for eight months a house on the banks of Lake Geneva at Prangins, near Nyon, once the residence of Prince Jérome Napoléon. A different explanation was given from Berne on May 1, which said that the Swiss Government had insisted on the ex-Emperor's removal as far as possible from the Austrian frontier; so many exsovereigns, Archdukes, and former politicians from Germany, Austria, Hungary, and other countries were crowding into Switzerland that it was feared that the country would become a hotbed of monarchistic plotting.

HE military situation in Poland on

THE

the Lemberg front was announced on April 1 to be unchanged. The Ukrainians continued to bombard the city with guns of large calibre, causing casualties and damage to property. By May 5, however, the situation had greatly improved for the Poles; they had driven back the Ukrainians so far that Lemberg was no longer in danger from shells. An Associated Press dispatch shortly before stated that the Ukrainians had decided to make peace with the Poles, and that a Polish delegation was on its way to Paris to begin negotiations regarding an armistice between the Ukraine and Poland; this delegation was headed by Michael Lodynsky, and represented the first official mission which the Ukraine had sent to Paris.

The Poles displayed considerable military activity toward the end of April in Lithuania. Heavy blows directed against the Bolsheviki resulted in the recapture of Vilna from the Soviet forces. The Bolsheviki fought hard but vainly to retake the town. In addition to taking Vilna itself, the Polish troops had captured important railway centres, and the whole railway line from Vilna south to Lida was in the hands of the Poles by April 22.

The inroad of the Poles into Lithuania and their capture of Vilna provoked strong protests on the part of the Lithuanian Government, (see Page 479,) but by May 12 it appeared that subsequent to the city's capture and the issuance of a proclamation by General Pilsudski, head of the Polish State, the relations between the Lithuanians and Poles had assumed a more favorable aspect: the Lithuanian Government, which had its seat at Kovno, with M. Slezevicius at its head, had sent a mission to Warsaw, presided over by Dr. Saulis, to adjust the matters in dispute.

The first contingent of General Haller's Polish troops started on their home

ward way from the French front across Germany on April 16, accompanied by an officer detailed by the United States Army, and British, French, and Italian officers, to act as liaison officials between the German and Polish troops. The trains conveying these Polish troops reached Treves on April 16. All six divisions were to be transported across the Rhine at various points; it was estimated that sixty days would be required for the whole force to pass through the occupied

area.

Hugh Gibson of the American Embassy in Paris was appointed as the first United States Minister to the new Polish Nation. His approaching departure from Paris in the company of M. Paderewski was announced on April 15. The presentation of Mr. Gibson to the President of Poland was to represent a formal recognition of the new republic.

POLISH TERRITORY INCREASED

According to the terms of the peace treaty, Prussia must cede to Poland some 27,686 square miles of territory. In the official summary of the treaty the ceded territory is described as "the southeastern tip of Silesia beyond and including Oppeln, most of Posen, and West Prussia." The free City of Danzig, moreover, with some 700 square miles of territory, is to take in the small delta between the Vistula and Nogat Rivers, where the Polish population is small, as well as some land to the west of the Vistula, where the Poles are considerably more numerous. In essence, however, this territory will be a part of Poland, with a considerable degree of home rule. The territory running back from the coast just to the west of Danzig as far as the western boundary of the Province of West Prussia is to go to Poland.

This cession of former German territory to the Poles created great excitement among the German residents of the region affected, including various towns

and cities in Upper Silesia. A telegram of May 12 stated that all classes and parties of the German element, including even the Independent Socialists, were uniting to demonstrate by mass meetings and processions against annexation to Poland. They demanded arms from the German Government "for defense

against those who would make them Polish." Polish circles, though pleased with the treaty, remained quiet and there seemed to be no danger of a violent clash, though the Germans threatened to act for themselves if the German Government should sign the treaty. Two great mass meetings in the open air took place on May 11 at Oppeln. Many miners' associations took part, carrying black, white, and red flags and singing German songs. The Berlin Government received thousands of telegrams from Silesia and many more from all over the country urging rejection of the treaty.

EVENTS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The first American Ambassador to the newly created republic of Czechoslovakia was announced from Washington on April 18: Richard Crane, Private Secretary to Secretary Lansing since 1915, had been selected to fill this office.

Advices from Prague on April 24 and May 4 showed that food conditions were tending to become normal. Strikes,

though fairly frequent, were not of a political character. The general tendency of the population was anti-Bolshevistic. The new republic had already made considerable progress along various lines; its army had become one of the best in Central Europe. Barely 30,000 Germans remained in the Czech capital, and German speech had already disappeared from the streets. A land reform law had been passed providing for the expropriation of all estates larger than 150 hectares, but estates including woodland might run up to 250 hectares. The law as passed amounted to little more than a project. An interesting sidelight on the political situation was revealed in the fact that the Jews had constituted them

selves a party with the approval of the Government, and were running a list of candidates of their own in all the communities. It was said that this formation of a self-conscious Jewish party would tend to diminish the German vote in Czechoslovakia.

The feeling of the 3,000,000 Germans in Bohemia was said to be extremely bitter. They complained that they were treated by the Czechs as a conquered population.

RECOGNITION OF FINLAND

The news that Great Britain had recognized Finland as a new and independent republic came from London on May 6 by way of an official announcement in the House of Commons. In Paris, on May 7, Secretary Lansing announced that the United States had recognized the de facto Government of Finland.

Thus the two years of Finland's tribulation between the Russian Bolsheviki and the German armies had ended auspiciously. To free herself from the one, the Finns had called in the other, and the severity of the German rule, seconded by the pro-German Svinhufvud, had given her cause to regret her turning toward the Germans. Germany's sudden collapse restored her liberty. Proof that Finland has made great progress in setting up a democratic and representative Government was found in the statement of Secretary Lansing. The Finnish Ambassador to the United States, Armas Saastaminden, his arrival from Helsingfors, when he was informed of the recognition of his Government, said:

on

"It is the greatest thing that has ever befallen the people of Finland. It places our Government on firm ground. The Finnish people will be eternally grateful to America for the shipment of 60,000 tons of wheat and other food when they were in need. Bolshevism has been entirely eliminated from Finland, and for more than a year the situation has been quite satisfactory externally and internally."

THE

HE action of the Peace Conference in internationalizing Danzig was recorded in the preceding issue of CURRENT HISTORY. It was stated unofficially on April 8, 1919, that the 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 was adopted, and that the coveted seaport was to be declared an international city, belonging to neither party, but free to both.

The considerations that governed the decision of the Peace Conference were mainly statistical. Danzig itself was 95 per cent. German; the strip of semiPolish territory extending a little to the west of Danzig to the sea was nowhere more than 60 to 80 per cent. Polish, and the greater part of it was only 40 to 60 per cent. Polish, that is, roughly, half and half. The final settlement embodied the defining of a neutral territory beginning west of Danzig along the Vistula River; East Prussia was to be demilitarized, and the Germans were to have free access to this territory across the Polish "corridor"; both Germans and Poles, moreover, were to have free use of the harbor. It was said that this was a com

promise arrangement, which pleased neither Germany nor Poland, nor any other nation in Europe.

On April 24, however, a dispatch from Paris indicated that reconsideration of Polish aspirations and claims relative to Danzig had resulted in a decision which went considerably further toward satisfying Polish demands regarding the future status of the city. The "free city of Danzig was to be created, not as a neutralized State, but virtually as an autonomous republic within the Polish State, contained within the Polish Customs Union, and represented in international relations by Polish diplomats. Its citizens were to be entitled to diplomatic privileges held by the citizens of Poland, and free use of the Danzig wharves and docks and other transportation facilities

were to be guaranteed to Poland, which also was to have control and administration of the Vistula water route and freedom to pass not only along the Polish corridor, but also through German territory, if necessary. Polish control, however, was not to extend to the internal affairs of the city, over which the residents were to enjoy complete local autonomy. The independence of Danzig under these conditions was to be guaranteed by the League of Nations, which was to appoint a High Commissioner to arrange the necessary treaties with Germany and Poland and to assist the municipal representatives in drafting a Constitution. Freedom of passage across the Polish corridor to East Prussia was confirmed to Germany.

Thus, again, in her long and eventful history, Danzig is destined to become an independent and autonomous city, free, and yet economically and internationally bound with Poland. If neither the Germans nor the Poles are satisfied, the latter at last, after centuries of waiting, have acquired a part of their national aspiration.

The discovery of Roman coins in Danzig has proved that it was a trading station in the days of the Roman Empire; but its first mention in any records is in 997, when Archbishop Adalbert, the apostle of the Prussians, mentions it as a town under its Polish name of Gdansk. A town in the true modern sense, however, it only became in the thirteenth century, when the Dukes of Pomerelia made it their capital, and, following the example of other Slav rulers, encouraged German merchants to trade and settle there.

When the line of the Pomerelian Dukes died out, war broke out between the King of Poland and the Margrave of Brandenburg as to the succession, and the Knights of the Teutonic Order, who ruled in what is now East Prussia, took advantage of this to seize Danzig in 1310. Though subject to the order, the city continued to develop a virtually inde