The disorders in Upper Silesia have been checked by the
arrival of an Allied Commission, but correspondents still report gross outrages committed by the German troops upon the Poles. It is clear that Germany provoked the disorders in order to have an excuse for shooting down or spiriting away as many Polish residents as possible, so that the vote to be taken on the future of the district might go in her favour. The Allies must have foreseen that the Germans would play these tricks, and should have prevented them. The Peace Conference cannot afford to let itself be trifled with, whether by enemies or by Allies. It is in effect the League of Nations, and it is being judged by its actions. Men will say, not without reason, that if the Peace Conference, with veteran armies in the field under its orders, can be safely flouted by a German Commissioner in Silesia or by a German General in Courland, by a Bolshevik adventurer in Budapest or by the smaller nations of Eastern Europe who are dissatisfied with its decisions, there is not much hope for a League of Nations depending mainly, in normal times, on diplomacy and moral suasion.
