Russia and the Baltic
Germany to her cost has taught Russia the way to win " bloodless victories." Poland as a separate country having disappeared, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have fallen easy victims, and through the new treaties of mutual assistance become virtually dependencies of Russia, enjoying their own form of government and their social systems just so long as Russia may be disposed to tolerate them. The islands which guard the entrance to the Gulf of Finland become fortified posts, Russia is to have military and air-bases on their territory—for protection against no conceivable adversary but Germany—and Estonia provides special facili- ties for the transport of Soviet goods to the Baltic. Russia thus secures predominance in the eastern Baltic at the expense of Germany. Hitler's cruel invitation to the Latvian Germans to submit to mass-emigration to Germany has left them only the pitiable alternatives of migrating from Latvia or remaining at the mercy of the Russians. But these are small matters to Hitler and Stalin. The former is saving his face in regard to German minorities, the latter is in a posi- tion to carry Bolshevism to the doors of Germany. So far. however, it is not yet proved that Russia intends to interfere with the internal governments of the three Baltic States or impose the Bolshevik system upon them. The treaties a, drawn up and signed leave them internal self-determination. But Russia can do as she pleases. She can leave their self-government or she can absorb them.
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