THE EASTERN PACT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 8

THE EASTERN PACT

BOLE OF BALTIC STATES.

/ BETWEEN TWO FIRES. ' ' i 5 5 Why are the three small Baltic States , —Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia—with a I total population of only 6,000,000, includi ed in the proposed Eastern Pact of t Mutual Assistance? And why is the news 5 of their forming a union for foreign ac- , tion of more than ordinary importance in ■ world affairs? asks a writer in the Christian Science Monitor. t April 14, 1932, observers say, provides [ the answer. On that day, it is recalled, ! Germany refused to sign a treaty guar- : anteeing jointly with Soviet Russia the I independence of the three Baltic States ! on the ground that no one wished to attack them. Poland likewise rejected : a somewhat similar Russian proposal earlier in the year. M. Maxim Litvinoff’s reply to Germany was that Russia’s non-aggression pacts with the Baltic States, which were recently extended to the end of 1945, are of little practical value as long as powerful States such as Germany and Poland remain outside them. Meanwhile, in the Baltic, Germany’s policy is believed to be a definite application of the nationalist aspirations laid down in “Mein Kampf,” Herr Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, wherein he writes of the historic role of Germany to expand eastwards at the expense of Russia and the border States. Poland’s main reason for turning down Russia’s proposal was a geographical one. Germany and Russia have no common frontier. The Poles, who are sandwiched between them, believe that they can prevent them from fighting on Polish soil. Therefore Poland is not prepared to guarantee the territory of’ its Baltic neighbours, for if it closed that door to German aggression, Poland itself might some ■'day become the German highway into the Soviets—as Berlin’s only alternative to the Baltic route. To insure themselves against this risk the Poles recently concluded a ten-year pact of friendship and non-aggression with Germany. In some quarters it is hinted that in return for this pact Poland has agreed to support Germany’s standpoint on important questions of German policy, such as Berlin’s demand for equality of rights and the Eastern Pact. Germany, in return, is said to have agreed to “disinterest” itself for ten years in the Polish Corridor and Poland’s efforts to propitiate or achieve ultimate union with Lithuania. VILNA AND MEMEL. Although a Polish-Lithuanian rapprochement is under way, the fourteen-year-old Vilna dispute still remains to be settled. Another problem troubling Lithuania is Memel, where the doctrine of National Socialism has been spreading rapidly since Herr Hitler rose to power. The Vilna and Memel issues have made Lithuania realise it has conflicts on two fronts, against both Poland and Germany. Therefore an alliance with her other two neighbours, Latvia and Estonia, will strengthen her resistance over Vilna and Memel. So eleven days after Germany refused M. Litvinoff’s proposal to guarantee the Baltic States, Lithuania approached her sister-republics Latvia and Estonia, with an offer for a Baltic Union. At Kaunsas early in July the three countries laid the foundation for such a union. Time and, it is said, Vilna prevented the conclusion of a definite Baltic alliance similar to the Little Entente. :

Naturally, Warsaw does not want Lithuania to make new friends. They might encourage Lithuanian resistance to the Polish claim to Vilna. Indeed, it is understood that Colonel Josef Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, made this quite clear to both Estonia and Latvia during his Baltic trip at the end of July. But France and Russia both wanted the Baltic union which fits in with their scheme for an Eastern Pact of Mutual Assistance.