POLISH FRONTIERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 6

POLISH FRONTIERS

THE OLD AND NEW EFFECT OF EVENTS IN 1939 The Poland towards which a Russian army under General Vatutin is now striking from points as close as 60 miles is the Poland as it was before its identity was submerged by the German invasion of September, 1939. and the quickly following Russian attack. More than 450 miles still separate the closest of Vatutin’s columns from the extreme western point of the boundaries as they were settled by agreement between Germany and Russia in 1939-41. Russia then annexed East Poland, or more than half of the old Polish territory, but with less than half of its population. It included that area which the Russians claimed as the western Ukraine. In the south the new border runs from Russia along the Bessarabian boundary, turns north-west along the northern face of the Carpathian Alps, swings back on to the river San to enclose the important city of Lwow, and then picks up and follows on its eastern bank the northward course of the river Bug. Leaving that river where it bends west towards Warsaw the boundary strikes north until it takes in the strategically important town of Narev, and then slants up gradually along the East Prussian, Lithuanian, and Latvian borders backto the topmost portion of White Russia, in which is the town of Polotsk, toward which one of the Russian columns is aiming from Neval. The old Polish boundary—that which the Russians over-ran in 1939—is less easily described because it follows no readily identifiable physical features. In general, However, it follows a fairly straight line from north to south, starting at the junction of the old Russian and Latvian borders about 100 miles west of Neval, and then joining the eastern bank of the Dvina. It continues along this river until it' is about level with, but 50 or 60 miles west of, Polotsk. Breaking away from the Dvina at this point, the border goes southward to the west of the river Beresina until it picks up and follows the small river Slutsk. It crosses the Pripet Marshes and 50 or 60 miles farther on ends at the junction of the Ukraine and Bessarabia.