Слике страница
PDF
ePub

pcyski, the President of the Assembly, read a telegram from the Polish National Council, at Teschen, Austrian Silesia, to the effect that the Czechoslovaks had refused to evacuate Teschen. President Trompcyski then prepared a telegram, for transmission through M. Paderewski, to the Interallied Mission concerning the incident.

On Feb. 24 the mission sent a delegation to Prague to act as mediators in the conflicts between the Poles and the Czechoslovaks.

Notwithstanding the request of the Interallied Commission, the Czechs refused to evacuate part of the region near Teschen which they had recently occupied, and the situation on March 13 seemed to be delicate. The Czechs rejected the proposals of the commission, and claimed that the commission was incompetent as a result of the departure of General Grenart, a French representative, for Paris, and of Professor A. C. Coolidge, an Warsaw.

American delegate, for

The situation in Teschen still being threatening, representatives of the mission were sent to arrange new armistice terms between the Germans and the Poles. They left Posen on March 5 to meet the German delegation sent from Berlin to arrange conditions. The place set for the meeting was the town of Kreuz, on the Brandenburg-Posen border.

THE POSEN NEGOTIATIONS

The negotiations at Kreuz began auspiciously. The courteous demeanor of the German delegates, in marked contrast with that shown last year at BrestLitovsk, was noted. The commission had power to define a neutral zone. The allied representatives asked guarantees for the landing and passage of Polish troops from Danzig; the German delegates telegraphed to Berlin for instructions. The liberation of hostages and the protection of Germans in Posen and Poles in Germany were taken up, and Posen was selected as the seat of future deliberations.

M. Paderewski arrived in Posen on March 8 to explain to the Interallied

Mission the critical position of the Poles on the Lemberg front. The fall of Lemberg, said the Premier, would produce the most painful impression on the Poles, and strengthen the extreme left of the opposition in the Diet to the Paderewski Government. On March 11 the negotiations were reported to be proceeding satisfactorily, so far as the economic conditions were concerned, but the German military delegates had gone to Kolberg to confer with von Hindenburg about the military arrangements. Only two days later (March 13) the negotiations were broken off, according to the Berlin Tägliche Rundschau; the dispatch stated that the Germans had already left Posen " as a protest against their treatment by the Allies."

PILSUDSKI'S POWERS

The second important meeting of the Polish National Assembly was held in Warsaw on Feb. 20, and was marked by the formal turning over by General Pilsudski of his authority as dictator, and the returning of it to him, subject to the approval of the Diet. The Diet subsequently confirmed his powers as Chief of State until a constitutional form of Government should be adopted. At this session Premier Paderewski, in a long address, declared that the country needed a large army and compulsory service in order to fight Bolshevism. Better homes must be given the workmen, he said, and land to the peasants; equal rights and freedom of speech must be guaranteed.

The Westward Ho, a steamer of 7,000 tons, carrying a cargo of 6,500 tons of fats, condensed milk, and flour, and 500 tons of clothing, entered the Baltic on Feb. 20, and helped to relieve the serious want in Poland. In addition three cargoes of food, each of 3,000 tons, were in Rotterdam on the way to Poland. For the cargo of the Westward Ho nearly $2,500,000 was raised by Poles and Polish Jews in the United States, each contributing half the amount.

POLAND AND RUSSIA

Polish forces at about this time were moving steadily eastward along the railways, with Grodno, Slonim, Pinsk,

and Lutsk as objectives. These forces aimed to establish order and prepare the way for civil government, with the final intent of occupying Poland's historic frontiers. Thus far they had met with no determined resistance on the part of the Bolsheviki. Premier Paderewski, on the other hand, addressed a telegram to the Bolshevist Foreign Minister to Moscow, Tchitcherin, expressing a desire to enter into negotiations with the LenineTrotzky Government to terminate the conflict between Russia and Poland. Tchitcherin expressed his willingness to receive delegates from the Polish Republic. On March 2 a dispatch reported severe fighting with the Bolsheviki on the Polish northern front east of Kovel.

PADEREWSKI GOVERNMENT

RECOGNIZED

Official announcement was made on Feb. 21 that the representatives of the Allies had decided to recognize the Polish Government headed by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Recognition of the Paderewski Government by the Allies ended a long controversy between the Polish authorities in their own country and the Polish Committee in Paris, headed by Dmowski. The United States recognized the belligerency of the Pilsudski group in Poland on Nov. 4 and unofficially sustained Paderewski's aspirations. France and Great Britain had previously recognized Poland's belligerency through the Dmowski Committee.

Premier Paderewski offered his resignation to General Pilsudski on Feb. 23; the latter declined to accept it, and asked M. Paderewski to continue his functions. General Pilsudski had made a similar offer to the Polish Diet; M. Paderewski's resignation was likewise but a formality.

Nettled by American opposition to the big Polish army which was being formed while the Peace Conference was sitting, Premier Paderewski told an Associated Press correspondent at Warsaw on March 1 that the Polish army of 350,000

men proposed was to be a police force to restore order on the Polish frontiers and to keep back Bolshevism. The German peril in Russia, he pointed out, must also be considered. "Your advice to us not to fight," he said, "is good advice for a dying man, but not for a man who wishes to live and enjoy liberty."

THE POLISH "CORRIDOR"

The corridor which the Peace Conference Commission on Polish Claims had agreed should go to Poland as a means of exit to the Baltic Sea was outlined on March 17 as follows:

On the west the corridor would begin on the shore of the Baltic west of Danzig and would include a small part of Pomerania, which is inhabited by Poles. Thence it would run east of Lauenburg, and, continuing southward, east of Konitz and Schneidemuhl.

The eastern border of the corridor would run through Frische Nehrung, thence through Frische Haff to the west of Elbing and Osterode, which were left to Germany, and thence south to the present Prussian-Poland border.

The western border of Poland from Schneidemuhl southward would give Birnbaum, Lissa, and Krotoschin to Poland. In German Silesia the Poles would get the regions of Oppeln and Kewpen. The Polish and Czech frontiers would meet east of Neustadt, south of Oppeln.

The report of the Polish Commission on the eastern boundary proposed to give Germany direct land communication across the corridor to the Baltic, which had been accorded to Poland and which cut off part of East Prussia from the rest of Germany. The report suggested that for Poland's security the German territory to the east of the corridor be demilitarized. It was also proposed by the commission that the 600,000 Protestant Poles in the Mazurian Lake region be allowed to determine by plebiscite whether they should join Catholic Poland or remain German.

By N. J. CASSAVETES

[DIRECTOR OF PAN-EPIROTIC UNION IN AMERICA]

The author of this article is Director of the Pan-Epirotic Union, an organization for making known the aspirations of the Greeks of Epirus. He presents here the Greek side of the case, backing up the claims laid before the Peace Conference by M. Venizelos.

IN

[See Map of Greece and Epirus on Page 62]

N 1913 the Greek Army occupied Epirus as far north as Chimara, Korytza, and Lake Ochrida. Mme. Jeanne Leune and M. René Puaux, both correspondents of the Temps of Paris, bear witness that the people of Epirus received the Greek forces with enthusiasm as liberators and brothers. M. Puaux, who is now in the Cabinet of M. Clemenceau, in his book, "La Malheureuse Epire," extolls the Hellenic sentiment of the Epirotes and appeals to France to lend her influence for the union of Epirus with Greece.

Italy and Austria, covetors of Albania and Epirus, sent an ultimatum to Greece to withdraw her troops from Northern Epirus.

At the Ambassadorial Conference of London in 1913 two-thirds of Epirus was annexed to the Albanian State. In 1914 the Greek troops began to evacuate Northern Epirus, despite the universal entreaties of the Northern Epirotes to stay. No sooner had the Greek Army departed than the inhabitants, Christians and Mussulmans, broke out into revolution and defeated the Moslem Gheghs of the Prince of Wied.

Colonel Murray of the British Army made a tour of three months, and covered most of Northern Epirus. His lectures on "Northern Epirus in 1914" gave proof that the Northern Epirote revolution was spontaneous and against the will of M. Venizelos. The enemies of the Epirotes have attempted to diminish the significance of this outbreak of national aspirations by stating that the Greek Government suborned the Epirotes to revolt; but the Governments of Italy and Austria, the principal parties interested in an Albanian Northern Epirus, have officially admitted that the Government of Greece acquitted itself.honorably in the case, fulfilling every stipulation of the Conference of London. The Epi

rotes rose unassisted and fought for their rights and liberties until even the Triple Alliance was forced to recognize, in 1914, in the Protocol of Corfu, the autonomy of Northern Epirus and the Greek character of the Epirotes.

66

Arnold Toynbee, in "New Europe and in Greek Policies Since 1882," writes: "They are Greeks, like any one else, but some of them happen to speak Albanian. * * * The Epirote has be

come Greek in soul. Hellenism and nationality have become for him identical ideas, and, when at last the hour of deliverance struck, he welcomed the Greek armies that marched into his country from the south and from the east, after the fall of Jannina, in 1913, with the same enthusiasm with which the islanders of Crete or of Chios welcomed them.”

René Puaux, in "La Malheureuse Epire," says: "It was a travesty of justice to put the Epirotes at the mercy of the Moslem majority on the ground that they happened to speak the same language. To surrender to an artificial Albanian people which differs from the AIbanians in language, in civilization, in religion, and in aspirations is a crime. All Epirus from Cape St. Basil to Cape St. John is absolutely Greek; and their friends and relatives constitute the intellectual and plutocratic aristocracy of Athens and Patras."

The Turkish census of 1908, previous to the first Young Turk Parliamentary election, gives the population of Epirus as 311,000 Greeks and 176,000 Albanians, Turks, and Jews.

There are in Epirus 950 elementary Greek schools with 28,820 pupils; three colleges for boys, (Jannina, Konitza, Korytza;) and one college for girls, (Jannina;) 2,000 Greek churches; 189 Greek monasteries-all self-supported and endowed by Epirotes who have made fortunes abroad.

Korytza, the city which the Albanians refer to as the centre of Albanian culture, maintains one Greek college for boys, with 100 pupils; one Greek girls' high school, with 750 girls; two Greek kindergartens, with 700 children. In all, in a city of 25,000, there are 2,200 boys and girls attending Greek schools, where instruction in Greek is given by ten professors, fifteen male and fourteen female teachers, and four kindergarten instructors. The total appropriation made by the city for this instruction was, in 1914, 70,000 francs.

In the District of Korytza, with a Christian population of over 43,000, there are maintained 120 Greek schools, with 180 Greek teachers and 12,500 Greek pupils of both sexes. The Albanians have in Korytza only one girls' school with forty girls.

The Epirotes support the schools by local taxation and through the endowments of rich Epirotes, like Baron Sinas, who acquired his wealth in Vienna and left his millions for Greek schools at Korytza and for the erection and maintenance of the splendid academy at Athens. John Bangas of Korytza, who died twenty years ago, left 2,000,000 francs in the National Bank of Greece, and from the interest on this money 20,000 francs yearly are used for the maintenance of the Greek College of Korytza. Anastassius Adamides, likewise of Korytza, has built the Church of St. George, has founded and endowed the two high schools for boys, and has established a drug store where the poor

citizens of Korytza get medicines gratis. He also has left in the National Bank of Greece large sums of money, the interest of which is used to enable poor and deserving Greek girls of Korytza to marry with a dower. Other publicspirited citizens of Korytza have performed similar services. What has prompted these benefactors to leave their fortunes for Greek culture, unless it be their Greek conscience?

But the Epirotes have not made Epirus alone a country where Greek letters and Greek learning are intensely cultivated. They have endowed Athens with the Academy, with the Rhizarion Theological Seminary, with the Arsakion College for Girls, (where 3,000 Greek girls receive higher instruction each year.) The Observatory at Athens, the National Greek University, the Polytechnic Institute, the Military Academy, the famous Greek Stadium, the modern Prison of Averoff, the battleship Averoff, the Zographion at Constantinople, (a Greek college,) and other princely gifts are the contributions of Epirotes.

Amadori Virgili, an Italian officer charged with the task of organizing Italian propaganda in Epirus in order to Albanicize the Epirotes, wrote in 1908 in La Questione Rumeliota: "The Christians hate the Albanian language; the Mussulmans do not care for it at all." M. Puaux wrote: "The Epirotes are more Greek than the Greeks themselves." It is to be hoped that this intensely Hellenic Province will be ultimately united with Greece.

Albania at the Peace Conference

[ocr errors]

By CONSTANTINE A. CHEKREZI

[AUTHOR OF ALBANIA, PAST AND PRESENT," ALBANIAN DELEGATE IN THE UNITED STATES]

A

FTER more than four years of sus

pension of her independence Albania is again organized as an independent nation with a central administrative body. On Dec. 25, 1918, fiftyfour delegates from the various Albanian provinces assembled at Durazzo, the old and actual provisional capital, and con

stituted the first Albanian Government since the day when the German Prince William of Wied left the country, over which he was unable to rule for more than six months. William of Wied was succeeded in power by Essad Pasha, the Albanian adventurer, who fared no better than his predecessor.

William had been successfully opposed by a part of his subjects; Essad Pasha was attacked by nearly the whole Albanian people.

Albania now has a Government of its own choice, organized by chosen representatives of the people assembled in a National Convention. The Constituent act, by virtue of which the new Government was established, is as follows:

The Delegates of all the Albanian regions assembled at Durazzo:

Having full confidence in the declarations made by the great powers of the Entente on behalf of the defense of the rights of small nationalities;

Relying on the noble principles proclaimed by the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, with regard to the right of self-determination of peoples;

Referring especially to the decision of the Conference of London, (1912-13,) which recognized and proclaimed Albania free and independent;

After having heard of the declarations of the initiators of this Assembly, Messrs. Mufid Libohova and M. Konitza, on the necessity of creating a national executive body;

DECREED UNANIMOUSLY the formation of a Provisional Government to confront the present situation of the country.

As President of the Provisional Government His Excellency Turkham Pasha, and as Vice President His Excellency Brenk Bib Doda Pasha, were elected.

As members of the Government were elected the following: Sami Vrioni, Mgr. Louis Bumchi, Mufid Libohova, Dr. Michel Turtulli, M. Konitza, Louis Gurakuki, Midhat Frasheri, Le Nosi, Feizi Alizoti, Peter Poga, Mehdi Frasheri, and M. Kruja.

A part of the membership of the Government shall remain in Albania, and the remainder shall form the Albanian Delegation to the Peace Conference of Paris. Done and executed at Durazzo, Dec. 25, 1918.

SIGNATURES OF THE

54 DELEGATES.

The Albanian Peace Delegation consists of the President of the Provisional Government, Turkhan Pasha; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Konitza, and the three Ministers without portfolio: Dr. Michel Turtulli, Mgr. Louis Bumchi, and Midhat Frasheri. The Albanian Delegation was officially received at Paris and the presentation of the Albanian case was made by Turkhan

Pasha, M. Konitza, and Dr. Michel Turtulli.

In the new Government the Nationalist Albanian Party holds the majority of the posts for the first time in the history of Albania, a fact which marks a happy beginning for reconstituted Albania. Another ' hly interesting feature is that the National Assembly of Durazzo based the cause of Albania on the principles enunciated by the American Chief Executive, a deserved tribute to the statesm: shi, of Pres' 'ent Wilson. It is thus that Albania comes to the fore with a republican form of government, the first to be created directly by representatives of the people.

As to the policy which the Provisional Government is pursuing, that has been made clear through an official statement issued by the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Konitza, formerly Albanian Minister to Greece. The statement, which appeared in extenso in the Italian press, contains the explicit declaration that the policy of the Government is to safeguard the independence and territorial integrity of Albania. Another of M. Konitza's principal demands is that the Albanian territories which were given away to Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece by the London Conference of 1912-13 should now be returned to Albania, on the ground that their restitution affords the only logical and just settlement of the Balkan problem in accordance with the principles of nationality and self-determination. With regard to the large Albanian province of Kossovo, which was assigned to Serbia along with a million Albanian inhabitants, the Minister stated that the restitution of this province was a matter not only of justice but also of expediency, inasmuch as these Albanians are today, as they have always been, in a state of revolt against the Serbian rule.

On the question of Albania's relations with her neighbors, M. Konitza declared that his country was determined to be on the best terms with them, but that this was impossible so long as these States insist on keeping under their rule large Albanian majorities which were clamoring for union with Albania. Не

« ПретходнаНастави »