Repository: UIHistories Project: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 20 [PAGE 15]

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(4) The Letts may be asked to join forces with their Lithuanian lonsmen i n * revived Lithuanian state. Six hundred years ago Lithuania had a period of greatness, her area covering an extensive region east of Poland between the Baltic and the Black Sea. Si lice then a considerable part of the Lithuanian race has been absorbed into the Slavic mass; there have also been strong currents of emigration from the Lithuanian territories to Siberia and to other parts of Russia and even to lands across the Atlantic. At present the Lithuanian population in its native territories numbers less than 3,500,000. The Lithuanian area is not extensive, perhaps not more than 30,000 square miles. The future of this region has not been much discussed; the organization of a Lithuanian state has been urged and is within the realm of the possible; but it is not a promising solution, especially if the Letts should insist on establishing a separate state. For several centuries the Lithuanians and in part also the Letts were subjects of the king of Poland. It is possible that they might be induced to renew this historic relationship, though it is doubtful, since racially Poles and Lithuanians have nothing in common. They will, however, have common rivals and perhaps enemies to the east and the west, and such a union may in time be forced by circumstances, as it was forced in the middle ages. An arrangement of this sort would add considerably to the strength of Poland, and, what is more important, it would give the Poles a satisfactory commercial outlet on the BalticDanzig As a result of the Great War and the consequent readjustment of frontiers, several important European states are likely to find themselves deprived of direct access to the sea. These are German Austria, Hungary, Bohemia (the republic of the Czechs and Slovaks), and Poland. In the case of German Austria this condition may be remedied by the admission of the Austrian territories to the new German republic; but for Bohemia and Hungary the only solution of this difficulty appears to be an economic arrangement with some neighboring state. It is possible, as suggested above, that Poland may be able to reach the sea through the lands of the Letts and the Lithuanians. The Poles hope, however, to secure a shorter and more direct route by way of the Vistula. Libau and Riga are, indeed, desirable ports; but from the Polish viewpoint Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula is the natural outlet. The Poles insist that the Vistula is a Polish river and should therefore 15

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