POLAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10718, 12 October 1920, Page 4

POLAND

The best thing about Mr Garvin's review of the Polish situation is his recognition of the tremendous success of the Polish arms. He calls it positively dazzling. In mid-August the Poles were fighting <- for their lives in froftt of Warsaw; in mid-October they are dictating at -Riga a peace most adto themselves. This success, as unexpected as great, Mr Garvin considers to be the sinister forerunner of European adversity in the 6hape of an overwhelming ■alliance between Germany and. Russia dictating its will to a helpless Europe. Frankly, most men of goodwill ought to rejoice that Poland has at last risen, from beneath the hoofs of her oppressors and got back her own. That is all she has done, after all. The Allies, anxious to build up this nation as a barrier between Germany and Russia, were equally anxious to limit her recovery, refusing to recognise her right to nruohi of the country she once possessed, of which she was deprived by the most shameful spoliation, in history a But Poland was spurred, not by greed of territory, but by" the instinct of selfpreservation, to insist on her own rights, and deny the rights of the Allies to dictate. to her in any way. These Allies were eager that she should be independent. It hardly becomes them to grumble because her cebound has been greater than they intended. As a matter of fact, the new boundaries will enable Poland to do much better the work of the buffer State assigned to her by treaty for the protection of the world's peace. Opinions differ on the point; but who will stay the hand of a victorious nation? Not Prance, to -whose timely recognition of Wrangel and certain assistance in the war, the Polish caus© owes its victory. Not Britain, whoso Prime Minister notified Poland in her darkest hour, when the Muscovite legions were rushing the gates of her capital, to accept the humiliating terms which would have left her at the mercy of the unprincipled aggressor. Not the Lithuanians, who showed their sympathy for the enemy by giving his troops free passage for their invasion. Not the League of Nations, which is -without power, and probably at least as divided on the point as Britain and .Prance were. The cry went up -when Wrangel was recognised that Franc© had broken faith with the Entente; it was answered with the charge that Britain's advice to the Poles to surrender was also a breach of faith with th© Entente; ths result is that both nations are vie'ng with one another in th© declaration that the Entente is as firmly welded together as ever it was. America is against the Polish extension to the old boundaries, but America is far away in distance and in other respects. There is Mr Garvin's sinister danger of the Russo-German alliance. But that is far off in time, and probably os far in probability. Germany is too far gone to do anything but slowly rehabilitate, and Russia is in the midst of As the Italian Labour mission has declared, after personal investigation on the spot, Russia is under the heel of 600,000 Communists, who have brought every elementary function of government to a standstill, and ignore justice as completely as they reject democracy. /Under all the circumstances, the startling success of Poland looks like the salvation of Europe.