Poland and Lithuania
IAT HEN the regular clash of arms in the Boer War had passed into the phase of a scattered and almost invisible guerilla warfare, the late Lord Halsbury, unwilling to dignify such a state of affairs with the lofty name of war, said in the House of Lords that " a sort of a war " was going on. It is difficult to imagine what phrase he would find appropriate to the " state of war" which has lasted for seven years between Lithuania and Poland. • In October, 1920, the Polish General Zeligowski seized Vilna, which the Lithuanians have traditionally regarded as their capital. There was no question but that the seizure was an unwarrantable assertion of might over right. Even the Polish Government repudiated it. Unfortunately, General Zeligowski refused to be recalled, and, as the Lithuanians were powerless to drive him out, the Polish Government soon consented to the accomplished fact. So also did the League.. When the League was invoked, it referred the question to the Conference of Ambassadors. The Ambassadors, unable to see any way out of the deadlock except by war, concluded that Vilna had better be kept by Poland. It is true that there were some superficial excuses for calling wrong right. A self-appointed Diet of Vilna, for instance, had passed a resolution in favour of fusion with Poland. No outsider knows exactly what the secret history or the value of that resolution was, but even if the value be put as high as possible, the fact remains that the Powers would not have dreamed of assigning Vilna to Poland if a Polish General had not grabbed it.
The League has, of course, been accused of a profound moral weakness in passing the difficulty on to the Ambassadors and allowing Polish immorality to be whitewashed. In defence of the League, however, it may most justly be argued that it had before it a choice of evils, and that it chose the lesser evil. Nobody can deny that peace was better than war. Nor can it be denied that the League at that time was not in a strong enough position to enforce a pure moral judgment. - The League had to be built up, as it still has ; every friend of the League hopes for the time when it will be able to administer justice as in a domestic court of law ; but that point had certainly not been reached in 1920. The wheel has now come full circle, for the question of Vilna is once more referred back to the League. All this history explains the " state of war " during the past seven years between Lithuania and Poland. Not a drop of blood has been shed. Yet the two nations are still nominally at war.
In view of the League meeting at Geneva next week, Lithuania recently lodged complaints about the treat- ment of Lithuanian nationals in Polish schools. At the end of last week Poland " went one better," and referred to the League the whole question of her relations with Lithuania as expressed by the " state of war." In form Poland is behaving with perfect correctness. If the League can produce a settlement, every lover of peace will be pleased beyond measure. A constant incentive to violent outbreaks in Northern Europe will be removed. Let it not be supposed, however, that the problem has become at all easier since the Ambassadors summarily disposed of it in 1920. If Lithuania has a major grievance against Poland, Poland has many minor grievances against Lithuania. There is fairly good evidence that - Polish school teachers in Lithuania have been persecuted. Poland retorted in kind against the Lithuanians within her own borders—hence the - Lithuanian appeal to the League—but she maintains that Lithuania began the trouble.
The • Lithuanian Prime Minister, M. Valdemaras, asserts that Poland wants to crush Lithuania; but there is no satisfactory proof that Poland has - been organizing insurrection in Lithuania. M. Valdeniaras feels himself as insecure as most dictators, - and very likely he sees a- conspiring Pole in every •- bush. If Poland had- wished to- annex Lithuania, she could have done it any time 'in the past -seven years—provided, - of course, that the Powers and her near-neighbours had not interfered. The Lithuanian -Army is a handful of men compared with the vastly inflated Polish Army. In the circumstances we cannot believe that 'Poland has really been plotting to 'seize Lithuania, 'though this need not be recorded as- a fact greatly to her credit —she is in possession of Vilna, and nobody ' is hungry after a satisfying meal. The danger is not 'so much of a direct conflict between Poland and Lithuania as of the indirect results of. their hostility. Last week Moscow addressed a strong warning to Poland not to do anything to upset the peace. At its face value this Bolshevist Note was not -more than a friendly indication of the risks that Poland was running in making an enemy of Lithuania.- But, as we -do not profess to be able to see into- the• Bolshevist mind, 'we are quite ready -to be convinced that the Russian Note had some purpose other than its ostensible one. - The Lithuanians persist in the hope of getting Russian and German help in their cause against Poland. The proposed Lithuanian Constitution assumes Vilna to be the capital of Lithuania, and in this connexion it is worth noticing' that the recent Treaty between Russia and Lithuania gave some sort Of indirect recognition to the claim. On the whole, Russia is a more likely helper than Germany, for Germany is negotiating a commercial treaty with Poland, and one- of the last things she wants 'to do is to sacrifice this Treaty through being drawn into an unnecessary anti-Polish movement.
Then there is France. 'France, of course, is the plighted friend of Poland, and at the moment 'she is - extremely nervous about the safety of her whole network of alliances. Has not her friend M. Bratianu in Rumania suddenly died ? Hag not Italy- suddenly countered the Franco-Yugoslavian Treaty by announcing a fresh Treaty with Albania ? The more Russia and Germany back Lithuania, the more France may feel impelled to back Poland. Although this looks dangerous enough on paper, we do not think that- it is' nearly so• dangerous in practice. France proverbially does not go to war for anyone's bright eyes, and it -is no more likely that she will go to war to keep a stolen gem for Poland. - It has been suggested that Lithuania Would be much happier if she were loosely federated with 'Poland. At present she is in a miserable state of industrial depression and domestic uncertainty under her 'provocative ruler. Her absorption into a Polish-Federation could not well be effected if Germany were unwilling. Germany has no liking for being fenced in. A Lithuanian' union with Poland, however easy the bonds;• would raise the Whole question of Danzig and the Corridor.
We do not see daylight through' all this jungle, but of one thing we -are sure. • Statesnianship Ought te respond unequivocally to Poland's* correct baaviotir in asking the League to judge.' The invocation' of the League is in itself a fart of first-class iniportande..
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