STATE OF LITHUANIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 8

STATE OF LITHUANIA

HERR HITLERS’S EXCEPTION. The exclusion of Lithuania fioni the countries with which Herr Hitler has announced that Germany is willing to c iclude non-aggression pacts is due to a variety of circumstances. Prior to the war, Lithuania existed as n Gi:.n<l Duchy of the Russian Empire and during the war she suffered extrcmclv from hostile invasion, which le.t her with no love for the Germans or Russians. The Germans, to maintain a hold on the country, held out hopes of independence, much as Napoleon had misled the Poles in his campaigns, but it was to be an independence “in perpetual alliance with the Getman Empire.” An attempt t. <-hoo.-r a Lithuanian ruler was tn waited bv the Teutons and by the peace of BrestLitovsk Germany fot<-'d Russia to abandon all claims to Lithuania. Lath in 1918 the forma! independence of Lithuania was proclaimed ami the Germans slowly withdrew, c'oseh 10l lowed by tin* Bolsheviks whose mar<di on Vilna drove, the Government to Kovno. Lithuanians and Poles both fought the Bolsheviks and the Poles co,tur?d Vilna and established themselves there. The Poles suggested joint action against the Bolsheviks, hut tin Lithuanians, awaiting the recognition of their country as a separate state by the Allied Supreni* Council, re fused to proceed. The Poles thereupon began a campaign again, lost Vilna and saw it handed over to the Lithuanians by the new Russian Government when the Bolsheviks were finally defeated an I forced to retire. The Poles protested against this state of affairs, but the eventual line iof demarcation on the. new map left j the city on the Lithuanian side. Thereupon a coup de main by a Polish general regained possession of the <ity, and the despoiled people, learning from their stronger neighbours, seized Alemel, previously German territory, the Treaty of Paris in 1924 recog nising the city as an autonomous unit under Lithuanian sovereigty. The Nazis probably feel more strongly abou the Polish Corridor than they do about Alemel, but an understanding with Poland is necessary to them and Poland and Lithuania are no great friends. The country is small with about. 2,000,000 people and is mainly agricultural.