THE NEW EUROPE
There are, in fact, eight national questions of European concern to be solved: the Danish, French, Polish, Ruthenian, Bohemian, Roumanian, Italian and Southern Slav. The true solution of these questions involves the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, the liberation of the non-German minorities of Germany or, rather, Prussia, and the removal of the Turks from Europe.
The reconstruction and reorganization of Europe, then, demand the following changes of political boundaries. In the first place, going from north to south, the Polish nation must be united. The question of the relations between Russia and Poland — reaching through centuries — will be solved in the easiest and best way if reunited Poland remains under Russia. That is the plan proposed by far-sighted Polish politicians. Provision can be made for Poland to have an outlet to the Baltic — at Danzig; as the territory around the town is Polish, it has been suggested that Danzig should be incorporated in Poland; another proposal is to secure to Poland free access to this port.
The German part of East Prussia would, in the former case, form an enclave; the northern part of this territory is Lithuanian (with a few Letts), and, therefore, the question might arise as to how this minority could be united to Russian Lithuania.
There is a fragment of a small Slav nation — the Lusatian Sorbs, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg and in Saxony — which might be annexed to Bohemia. This race is not numerically important (some 120,000); but there is a question of principle and not only a question of quantity. German-Prussian militarism developed by fighting against, domineering over and exterminating, the Slavs, who once extended as far as the Elbe and the Saale. Hamburg, Magdeburg, Regensburg, formed approximately the frontier of the Germans and the Slavs. This whole territory has been Germanized by force. If the Allies are determined to suppress, or, at least, to weaken, Prussian militarism and Prussian aggressiveness, the question of the Lusatians is one of principle, and they should be liberated. The number of French in Alsace-Lorraine (about 220,000) is not much greater, but, again, their liberation is a question of principle. Moreover, even its German population is antagonistic to Prussia-Germany.
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