THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Poland v. Lithuania

Again to Geneva hurried the tired statesmen who gather periodically ’round a green-topped horseshoe table and become the Council of the League of Nations. Looming, last week, for their consideration were the embroiled affairs of two minor dictators: Prime Minister Augustine Valdemaras of Lithuania, and Prime Minister Josef Pilsudski, erratic Pole. Status Quo. Marshal Pilsudski insisted, last week in Warsaw, that he had positive knowledge of recent Lithuanian mobilization against Poland. Commenting to flabbergasted reporters, he charged that Premier Valdemaras of Lithuania is a “man whose proper home is an insane asylum . . . absolutely unaccountable for his acts … a ‘superpatriot’ who was a Russian for a long time, then posed as a German, finally coming out a Lithuanian.” Of himself Pilsudski said, modestly: “I walked the floor the entire night after hearing of the Lithuanian mobilization, dreading the horrors of war and fearing on the other hand to let my people suffer invasion through delaying military action. Finally, I decided to put the entire matter into the hands of the League of Nations.” Meanwhile, at Kovno, Lithuanian capital, Premier Valdemaras told newsgatherers that Polish troops were menacing Lithuania with “intimidatory and provocative actions.” He added, nervously: “This cannot go on forever . . . yet it is inconceivable that Poland should think of seizing Lithuania by force of arms, seeing that Poland is on the League of Nations Council and that Lithuania is also a member. Our country has little over two millions population— small, as compared to Poland’s 29,000,000, but in such an event the whole nation would sink its differences and stand shoulder to shoulder, and I know that the peasantry would fly to arms to repel the invader.” When news of Pilsudski’s charges reached Kovno, harassed Premier Valdemaras promptly denied that Lithuanian troops had been mobilized against Poland, then ordered his bags packed, and set out for Geneva to enlist the Council’s aid. Simultaneously, Marshal Pilsudski was said to have declared that he might “at any moment” hurry after Polish Foreign Minister August Zaleski, who was charged with representing his country on the Council. Even stolid Swiss were appalled at the possibility that Premiers Pilsudski and Valdemaras, both choleric characters, might meet like colliding comets in the musty League Secretariat building. Meanwhile many a U. S. citizen asked: “What’s the trouble between Lithuania and Poland?” Perennial Quarrel. Poland and Lithuania are both states which carved themselves out from the onetime Russian Empire, when it fell; and their quarrels arise from the fact that each has persisted in a militant desire to continue carving and to wrest from the other certain provinces.

Notably the district of Vilna, birthplace of Marshal Pilsudski, changed hands between Lithuania and Poland no less than five times in the year 1920. Eventually Vilna was seized with great firmness by the Polish General Zeligovski (Oct. 9, 1920), and this fait accompli was recognized by the Council of Ambassadors (TIME, March 31, 1923). Since 1920, however, both countries have remained in a nominal “state of war,” and quarrels on every possible minor issue have been incessant.

Premier Valdemaras of Lithuania (less picturesque and well known than Marshal Pulsudski) was the first prime minister of his country (1918), and has represented Lithuania at almost every important international conference since. A scholar, a brilliant speaker commanding ten languages, he bases his political strength squarely on a platform of ardent nationalism. That he has been of many nationalities, in the legal sense, is explained by the fact that the district in which he was born has been, during his lifetime, once Russian, once German, several times Lithuanian and is now Polish. By general repute Premier Valdemaras is deemed relatively normal, in contrast with the unguessable moods and eccentricities of Marshal Pilsudski.