Poland's Part With the skill that has characterised their diplomacy
throughout the present crisis, the Czechs have seized on the opportunity to avert at least one of the dangers that threaten them by reaching an agreement with Poland. It can hardly be doubted that the opportunity was created by M. Litvinov's warning to Poland against an attack on Czechoslovakia. If, as is reported, the Czechs have promised a revision of the frontier in return for Poland's neutrality, they will have given little and received much ; but an agreement over Teschen must be extremely welcome to the governing clique in Poland, who, threatened with a revival of democracy in their own country, seek to restore their waning prestige by a victory at the expense of Czechoslovakia. But such triumphs can do little to alleviate the real difficulties of Poland's posi- tion. With Germany on one frontier and the Soviet Union on the other Poland must be an anvil rather than a hammer in any war involving those two countries ; and even the tortuousness of Colonel Beck's diplomacy can hardly conceal the fact that his only resource is the hope that he may be allowed to wait long enough to know which will be the winning side.
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