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the council and held special sessions under the Presidency of Jules Cambon, a former Minister of France to Germany. Many of the details of the new boundaries had been fairly well established by March 15, but were not yet announced.

A dispatch of March 5 reported that sanguinary engagements had occurred between Czech soldiers and citizens in numerous towns in German Bohemia. The trouble started when the Germans attempted to hold elections in German Bohemia for the Austrian National Assembly, which the Czech Government prohibited because Bohemia is Czech territory. The Germans organized manifestations against Czech rule and the Czechs used rifles and bayonets in suppressing the demonstration.

Three persons were reported to have been killed at Karlsbad and ten at Sternberg. A number of others were reported killed or wounded in clashes at Reichenberg, Aussig, Bruex, Eger, and Mies.

CLAIMS OF RUMANIA

Most of one sitting of the Council of the Five Powers was occupied with the claims of Rumania. These include, on the west, nearly all the territories between the Carpathians and the River Theiss, in particular Transylvania; on the north, the Bukovina, which is also claimed by the Ukrainians; on the east, Bessarabia, and on the southeast the Dobrudja.

The portion of the Banat of Temesvar to the north of Belgrade, which is claimed by the Serbians, is small in extent compared with the Rumanian claims against Hungary, Russia, and Bulgaria, but the question is of considerable interest.

This is one of the cases in which the races are so intermingled that a division by nationality is impossible. Rumania bases her claims largely on the secret treaty of Aug. 18, 1916, by which, of course, the South Slavs are not committed.

As a justification for their claim that the Serbs should not insist on the annexation of the 240,000 Serbs who live in the Banat, the Rumanians point out the large numbers of Rumanians settled

in Bulgaria and Serbia. This subject was thoroughly discussed in a pamphlet written by a professor of the University of Jassy in 1913. The most recent Bul-. garian statistics show the number of Rumanians living in Bulgarian territory as over 75,000. In Serbia the number of Rumanians has been estimated by non-Rumanian investigators as 260,000. These 260,000 Rumanians are not claimed by Rumania, which wishes to maintain the natural frontier of the Danube and to remain in friendly relations with Serbia; but she asks Serbia, on her part, not to claim the 240,000 Serbs living in the contested portion of the Banat.

CLAIMS OF GREECE

The claims of Greece were heard before the Conference on Feb. 3. M. Venizelos expounded these claims at this and a subsequent session. The Greek Government issued a special memoir setting forth in detail the Greek point of view. The exposition of M. Venizelos bore on the following claims: 1, Northern Epirus, which has a population of 150,000 Greeks; 2, Thrace and the region of Constantinople, (731,000,) and the shores of the Aegean Sea, given to Bulgaria after the war of 1913, (43,000;) 3, the Vilayets of Balikeser and Aidin in Asia Minor, (1,694,000;) 4, the islands of the Dodecanese, (102,000;) 5, the Island of Cyprus, (235,000.) These populations, said M. Venizelos, all together comprise 3,256,000 souls of pure Greek origin. The present Greek Kingdom has but slightly more, specifically 4,300,000.

In North Epirus the Greek population had been in the majority since 1913. After the adventure of the Prince of Wied England had occupied this territory, Valona only remaining under Italian domination. Cyprus, which had been offered to Greece by the Government of London in 1915, and which the Government of Constantine had refused, is now claimed. The Dodecanese Islands had been ceded provisionally to Italy after the Italo-Turkish war of 1912; the treaty of April, 1916, when Italy entered the war, had confirmed them to Italy. Thrace was given to Bulgaria after the war of 1912. All the territory claimed is almost exclusively inhabited by Greeks,

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OF GREECE, INCLUDING EPIRUS-AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER. THE BLACK AREA INDICATES THE TERRITORY CLAIMED BY M. VENIZELOS AT PARIS, AND THE SHADED AREA THE REGION WHERE THE GREEK AND FRENCH CLAIMS CONFLICT

vantageous to the powers of the West. The freedom of the straits, he said, would be maintained.

The Conference Commission on Greek Claims submitted a report on March 13, but it was not unanimous. Most of the Commissioners favored giving Smyrna to Greece, but the American members held a different view, on the ground that Smyrna was essential as a port of exit and entrance for the vast commercial enterprises of the hinterland of Asia Minor. Thus divided, the report went before the council of the great powers for final decision.

Concerning the Dodecanese Islands, the commission was unanimous in recognizing the Greck civilization of the islands and the American delegates favored their incorporation in Greece, but the French, British, and Italian delegates, in view of the secret treaty of London, withheld their approval until the subject can be diplomatically adjusted with Italy.

The Commission on Greek Affairs, on March 2, debated at length the new situation to be created in Asia Minor.

ELIMINATION OF TURKEY

The general plan adopted for the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire is the total elimination of that empire, the internationalization of Constantinople, and the straits, the creation of a Turkish State in the centre of Asia Minor, and the liberation of all nationalities from the rule of Turkey.

As regards Asia Minor, the commission agreed in principle that the strip of the coast between Avali and Kos, including Smyrna and Ephesus, should be assigned to Greece as full owner or as international mandatary.

FINLAND AND ALAND ISLANDS Toward the beginning of February the population of the Aland Islands sent to Paris a deputation to plead the cause of the islands, which wish to be reunited to Sweden, the mother country. This deputation consisted of two members of the Council of the archipelago and of M. Sunblom, an Aland Deputy in the Diet of Finland.

As soon as Finland separated from Russia, the Aland population, which is pure Swedish in origin, language, and

aspirations, sent an appeal to the King of Sweden for annexation. Sweden then proposed to Finland a plebiscite in the islands. Finland, however, opposed the aspirations of the population of the islands, supported in this opposition by all the press of the former Grand Duchy, to which the Aland Islands have been administratively attached. The Aland deputation spoke bitterly of the régime of oppression introduced by the various Finnish Governments and of the Prussian methods of repression used by the Military Governor von Bonsdorff, supported by Finnish-speaking troops. The Finns, they said, admit the principle of free choice for themselves, but not for the people of the islands. Finnish, a language which the Aland population do not understand at all, has been declared the official language of the new republic. General Mannerheim, they added, had characterized the Paris deputation as "traitors to the fatherland." In satisfying the national aspirations of the islands, the deputies declared, the Peace Conference would guarantee the security of Sweden and the peaceful development of the Scandinavian peoples.

Poland's Triple Warfare Over Boundaries

THE

Other Events of the Month

[PERIOD ENDED MARCH 15, 1919]

HE Paderewski Government, organized Jan. 19, 1919, issued a call for elections to choose delegates to a National Assembly to be held on Feb. 9. The elections were held in orderly fashion, and some of the figures are summarized below. They refer to the large centres where the "National Group" (formed by the National Democrats, the Progressives, the Realists, and the Populists) obtained a large majority:

In Warsaw, out of 287,000 votes the National Group received 150,000-as against 42,000 given to the Polish Socialists and 74,000 to the Jews-and put through ten Deputies, among them M. Paderewski and Roman Dmowski, the head of the Polish National Committee in

Paris. The Socialist and Jewish Parties each obtained three Deputies. In Lodz, out of 150,000 votes the National Group received 56,000, as against Socialists, 33,000; Germans, 18,000, and Jews, 28,000. In Cracow the National Group received 29,000 votes, as against 20,000 given to the Polish Socialists and 10,000 to the Jews. Among those elected from the National Group was Professor Stanislas Grabski, the well-known factional leader. Ignace Daszynski was one of those elected by the Socialists.

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The Constituent Assembly, so impatiently looked forward to by the whole Polish Nation, was opened in Warsaw

on Feb. 10. The city was decorated with flags. The official ceremonies began on Sunday, the 9th, with a solemn service in the cathedral, at which General Pilsudski, M. Paderewski, and all the Ministers, the Anglo-American Mission, with Colonel Wade at its head, the Pontifical delegate, the representatives of the Commission of Galicia, and the National Councils of Posnania and Silesia were present. A parade of the notabilities to the Belvedere palace, seat of the Government, followed, to the acclamations of an enthusiastic throng, through streets decked out with the Polish national flag. The solemn opening of the Diet took place the next day, under the Presidency of Prince Radziwill, who read a telegram announcing the arrival of Polish troops at Brest-Litovsk. General Pilsudski delivered an inaugural address in which he referred to the close bonds that united Poland and the Entente.

NEGOTIATIONS IN POSNANIA

A previous issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE referred to the negotiations carried on between the delegates of the Supreme Popular Council of Posnania and delegates of the German Government. These negotiations produced only negative results. The Germans held that the armistice recognized the German eastern frontiers of 1914, and consequently demanded the immediate evacuation of Posnania by the Polish troops and the reestablishment of the German authorities in Eastern Prussia. This demand the Poles refused and proposed a two weeks' truce, which the Prussian Cabinet rejected, declaring that it would consent to a suspension of hostilities only on withdrawal of the Polish troops from German soil.

The Germans were reported on Feb. 20 not to be observing the provisions of the armistice agreement as to fighting in Posen, and skirmishes occurred at scattered points. In a dispatch of March 4 the German Government was said to have informed General Dupont, head of the French Mission in Berlin, that it had decided to stop fighting the Poles in Posen and that it had sent officers to Posen to enforce its orders.

The Polish Governmental Commission

functioning in Lemberg, in view of the critical military situation in Eastern Galicia, sent two of its members, Dr. Ernest Adam and Dr. Edward Dubanowicz, to Paris to report the situation to the Polish National Committee there. In an interview with these delegates given in the Paris Temps of Feb. 8, the history of this war waged by the Ukrainians of Eastern Galicia in connivance with the Austro-German military circles, supported by Russian Ukrainians sent by Petliura and by bands of Bolshevist peasants, was recounted in some detail. The oil region of Boryslav furnished these forces the financial means to carry on the conflict, which, after three months, had now assumed a savage and destructive character. The Poles, lacking arms and equipment, had the greatest difficulty in protecting their territory from pillage and massacre and in defending the essentially Polish city of Lemberg, (Lvof or Leopol,) where more than 200,000 Poles reside, especially in view of the triple menace of the Russian Bolsheviki on the north and of the Germans and Czechs on the west.

On Feb. 15 the fighting was being pushed on Lemberg, with the Ukrainians claiming gains, in an attempt to cut off the railway lines of the Poles into the city. From that time on they besieged Lemberg with increasing force, bombarding it with heavy guns. The Ukrainians were said to be desirous of capturing the city before the arrival of the Interallied Mission. Up to Feb. 22 the small Polish garrison in Lemberg had beaten off these new attacks. A four days' truce was entered into at Lemberg on Feb. 23 between the Poles and the Ukrainians.

On March 2 Premier Paderewski was advised that the Ukrainians, defying the Entente Powers, had denounced the armistice of Feb. 23, and resumed the attack upon Lemberg. The Ukrainian delegates sent a letter explaining that the resumption of hostilities was caused by reasons of a purely military character. On March 8 Premier Paderewski went to Posen to explain to the Interallied Mission the danger of the situation.

By March 13 the siege of Lemberg had become a serious matter. The Interallied Commission had quitted the place,

since the Ukrainians had thwarted its every attempt at reconciliation. The Lemberg-Cracow railway was in possession of Ukrainian troops, and Lemberg itself was wholly cut off from outside aid and was being bombarded daily with hundreds of heavy shells which were fast destroying the town and killing its population.

CONFLICT IN TESCHEN

At Teschen, in Austrian Silesia, the conflicts between the Czechs and the Poles have been growing constantly more embittered. Clashes between the Czechoslovaks and the Poles, which had resulted in 1,000 men killed and 2,000 wounded, had quieted down about Feb. 18, both parties resting on their arms. Shortly following the arrival of the Interallied Mission the strike of the workmen came to an end as the result of the commission's appeal for order. The Czechs, however, later drove the Poles from Teschen, and refused to evacuate the district, despite the agreement made in Paris on Feb. 3. Anti-Polish demonstrations began again about March 2. As a result of the Czech occupation many Polish miners were out of work.

PEACE CONFERENCE MISSION The Peace Conference decided to send a special mission to Poland to endeavor to reconcile the conflicting elements. This mission reached Warsaw from Paris

by way of Prague on Feb. 12. Its ar

rival was made the occasion of an unprecedented ovation by all classes, including workmen's guilds and similar organizations, which previously had refrained from taking part in affairs of the Paderewski Government. Premier Paderewski received the mission, speaking to the members of each

ality in

their native tongues. The former French Ambassador to Russia, M. Noulens, now a member of the mission, brought the demonstrations in the street to a climax by shouting "Jeszcze Polska!" the first words of Poland's national anthem, meaning "Poland lives again! from the balcony of the hotel.

A few days after the mission's arrival, it was decided, owing to the fact

that hostilities between the Ukrainians and Poles in East Galicia had not ceased and the Ukrainians were starting new attacks against Lemberg, that a special delegation from the Interallied Commission should be sent to Lemberg to confer with the Ukrainians in an endeavor to bring about an armistice with the shortest possible delay.

The Armistice Mission sent to Warsaw returned to Kiev with such assurances from the Poles that a new mission headed by Stepnicky was sent to Warsaw in the hope of concluding peace. Stepnicky was accompanied by numerous representatives of the Ukraine Government.

FIGHTING FOR OIL WELLS

The Interallied Commission faced many problems, the most important of which were the food supply and the differences between the Poles and the Ukrainians regarding the oil region near Lemberg, Galicia.

In regard to the oil dispute the Ukrainian Government announced that it would not negotiate with the Poles as long as the Poles occupied any of the territory in dispute. The announcement said that the negotiations with the allied representatives, Colonel Wade of the British Army and General Barthelmy of the French Army, failed because the officers accepted the Polish viewpoint and not the Ukrainian.

Members of the Interallied Mission to Poland were fired upon by Ukrainian soldiers while traveling on Feb. 20 from Cracow to Lemberg in a Polish armored train. The delegation, which included Professor Robert H. Lord of Harvard University and Major Gen. Francis J. Kiernan of the United States Army, was on its way to Lemberg to arrange an armistice between the Poles and the Ukrainians. Seven Poles on the train were wounded by Ukrainian bullets. The train returned, and notice was sent ahead that the mission was coming. The efforts of this delegation resulted in an armistice on Feb. 23, but this truce was broken by the Ukrainians, who resumed hostilities on March 2.

During the session of the Polish National Assembly on Feb. 20 M. Trom

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