EASTERN FRONTIERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23918, 20 September 1939, Page 8

EASTERN FRONTIERS

STRUGGLE FOR WILNO POLISH-LITHUANIAN CONFLICT POST-WAR HISTORY While the World War ceased for the greater part of mankind in November, 1918, campaigns of aggression and defence were the stuff of Poland’s life for three additional years, until 1922 Until 'the spring of 1919 desultory lighting had continued round Wilno between Polish, Lithuanian, and Bolshevik troops. In May. Pilsudski launched an offensive against Eastern Galicia, inhabited largely by Ukrainians, and Volhynia, in spite of the remonstrance of the Peace Conference, which was unwilling to allot these territories to Poland. Pilsudski desired a common frontier with Rumania, which he trusted' would make any future German and Russian collaboration difficult. Urged on by France, the Polish armies advanced into the Ukraine, and for the next two years the battle front surged between Kiev and Warsaw Treaty of Riga By the Treaty of Riga (March, 1921) Poland obtained her recognised post-war eastern frontier. It is generally conceded that the Poles acted moderately after their victories over the Bolsheviks.Nevertheless, less than 15 per cent, of the 5,000,000 people transferred from Russian to Polish sovereignty were Poles. It is on behalf of these White Russian and Ukrainians that the present Russian advance into Poland is being justified. In July. 1920 the Russians had signed a peace treaty with the Lithuanians, in which they agreed to cede Wilno. In the first week of the following October an armistice was declared between Lithuanian and Polish troops who had been sniping at each other for some months. The famous Curzon line, defining the frontiers of Lithuania, and including in it Wilno, was drawn at the same time. But on October 9 a Polish general, ZeligOwski, occupied Wilno. All League of Nations’ efforts to force him to evacuate the city failed. The Diet of Wilno finally voted to unite with Poland, a decision which was ratified by the Polish Parliament in 1922. A year later the Conference of Ambassadors confirmed a frontier which left Wilno with Poland. Coup of 1938 Lithuania declined to recognise the changed state of affairs, and in its constitution subsequently proclaimed Wilno as the capital. It also declined to have any diplomatic or economic relations with Poland, even refusing to allow railroad connections or to accord any rights to the Polish minority. This dead frontier, 300 miles long, existed for 18 years. In March, 1938, Germany took possession of Austria. In the crisis a Polish soldier was killed on Lithuanian territory. The Polish Government Seized the opportunity to address an ultimatum to Kaunas demanding the unconditional restoration of diplomatic relations within 48 hours. The ultimatum was far less drastic than that Polish nationalists would have sent. They brought pressure, on their Government to annex Lithuania. Failing to find support anywhere, the Lithuanian Government gave ,in It only remains to add that Wilno is a Polish city. Although it was the capital of the mediaeval duchy of Lithuania, 66 per cent of the population are Poles. Less than 1 per cent, is Lithuanian. Since the fifteenth century Wilno has been a centre of Polish culture. In the two centuries before the partition of 1772 the Lithuanian upper classes were Polonised, and nothing has since remained to mark it as a Lithuanian city.