The affair of Memel is a typical instance of the
mess that the Versailles Treaty has made of Europe. The town and district were placed in the charge of Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Japan (Japan has, by the way, also a fifth share in Eastern Galicia). Memel is the sole port of Lithuania, the new Baltic State, the existence of which the Allies " recognized " last autumn. Hence the Lithuanians, having waited in vain for their town for three years, have now, quite unofficially of course, invaded and taken it. The Allies, represented by the Ambassadors' Conference, have appointed an Extra- ordinary Commission to go to Memel, reassert Allied authority there, and then submit a report on the future of the town. They might have pocketed their pride and accepted the fait accompli, as they have done several times before, had it not been for the Franco. Polish alliance. Now, Memel is the timber port for the great North-Western Polish forests, and the Poles imagine, probably quite rightly, that the Lithuanians would close the port against them. Hence the Poles appeal for support to the not unwilling French, - who see in a Lithuanian Memel a point of contact for Russia and Germany. Behind Poland and Lithu- ania loom up the shadows of the great new blocs that are forming in Europe : Russia, Germany, Turkey on one side ; France, the Little Entente, perhaps Italy, on the other. The configuration is doubtful—only one thing is certain, if the blocs form, a new war is sooner or later inevitable.
