Russian statesmen might well bear in mind the recommendations of that great statesman as to the way by which Russia might satisfy her Poles. Lord Salisbury wrote:

The best that can be hoped for Poland is an improved condition under Russian rule. The conditions which are needed to reconcile the Poles to a Russian Sovereign are manifest enough and do not seem very hard to be observed. The Poles have not only been oppressed but insulted, and in their condition insult is harder to put up with than oppression. A nation which is under a foreign yoke is sensitive upon the subject of nationality. . . . If Russia would rule the Poles in peace she must defer to a sensibility which neither coaxing nor severity will cure. All the substance of power may be exercised as well through Polish administrators as through Russian. The union between the two countries may for practical purposes be complete, though every legal act and every kind of scholastic instruction be couched in the Polish language.

It would be hazardous, and it would probably be foolish, to separate Poland completely from Russia. Poland has grown into Russia and Russia into Poland. After all, it cannot be expected that Russia will abandon her principal and most promising industrial district with two of her largest towns. In politics one should endeavour to achieve only the practical. The question therefore arises: How much self-government will Russia grant to Poland ? Will she give her a separate legislation, taxation, post office, coinage, finances, army? The arrangement of these details may prove somewhat difficult. It is to be hoped that during the negotiations between Poles and Russians regarding a settlement the Poles will endeavour to be cool and reasonable, and that the Russians will be trusting and generous. Happily, a spirit of hearty goodwill is abroad in Russia.

The greatest grievance of the Polish nation is not that it lives under foreign rule, but that it lives under oppression, and that it has been parcelled out among several States.

Owing to the partition of Poland, Poles have been taught to consider as enemies men of their own nationality living across the border, and they have been compelled by their rulers to slaughter each other.

In the Great War more than a million Polish soldiers have been engaged against their will in a fratricidal war. That terrible fact alone constitutes a most powerful claim upon all men's sympathy and generosity.

Although Russia has in times past treated the Poles far more harshly than has Prussia, and although the German Poles are far more prosperous than are the Russian, the Poles see their principal enemy not in Russia but in Prussia. After all, the Russian is their brother Slav, and they are proud of their big brother. Besides, they recognise that Russia has been misguided by Prussia, and that Prussia was largely responsible for Poland's partition and for Russia's anti-Polish policy. The bitterness with which the Prussian Poles hate Prussia may be seen from the Polish newspapers published in Germany, which, during many years, have successfully advocated the policy of boycotting Germans and everything German, both in business and in society. The Dziennik Kujawski of Hohensalza wrote on January 18, 1901:

To-morrow the kingdom of Prussia celebrates the second century of its existence. We cannot manifest our joy, because Prussia's power has been erected chiefly upon the ruins of ancient Poland. Prussia's history consists of a number of conquests made by force and in accordance with the old Prussian principle revived by Bismarck, 'Might is better than right.' Prussia's glory has been bought with much blood and tears, and she owes her existence chiefly to Poland's destruction.

In the Gazeta Gdanska of November 24, 1906, published in Dantzig, we read:

The Prussian and the Russian.-If one asks a Pole whether he would rather live under German or under

Russian rule, his reply will be 'I would a hundred times rather have to do with Russians than with Germans, and the Prussians are the worst of Germans.' Many Poles will scarcely be able to tell why they hate the Prussians. Many will find their preference illogical. Still it is there. From the fullness of the heart speaketh the mouth. After all, the worst Russian is a better fellow than the very best German. That feeling lies in our blood. The Russian is our Slavonic brother, and in his heart of hearts every Pole is glad if his brother is prospering and when he can tell the world' There you see our common Slavonic blood.' The more we hate the Prussians, the more we love the Russians.

The Gazeta Grudzionska, of Graudenz, wrote in March 1899:

Take heed, you Polish women and Polish girls! Polish women and Polish girls are the strongest protectors of our nationality. The Poles can be Germanised only when Germanism crosses our Polish doorstep, but that will never happen, if God so wills-it, as long as Polish mothers, Polish wives, and Polish maids are found in our houses. They will not allow Poland's enemies to enter. For a Polish woman it is a disgrace to marry a German or to visit German places of amusement or German festivals. As long as the Polish wife watches over her husband and takes care that he bears himself always and everywhere as a Pole, as long as she watches over his home and preserves it as a stronghold of Polonism, as long as a Polish Catholic newspaper is kept in it, and as long as the Polish mother teaches her children to pray to God for our beloved Poland in the Polish language, so long Poland's enemies will labour in vain.

Innumerable similar extracts might easily be given. When the peace conditions come up for discussion at the Congress which will bring the present War to an end, the problem of Poland will be one of the greatest difficulty and importance. Austria-Hungary has comparatively little interest in retaining her Poles. The Austrian Poles dwell in Galicia outside the great rampart of the Carpathian

mountains, which form the natural frontier of the Dual Monarchy towards the north-east. The loss of Galicia, with its oilfields and mines may be regrettable to AustriaHungary, but it will not affect her very seriously. To Germany, on the other hand, the loss of the Polish districts will be a fearful blow. The supreme importance which Germany attaches to the Polish problem may be seen from this, that Bismarck thought it the only question which could lead to an open breach between Germany and Austria-Hungary. According to Crispi's Memoirs, Bismarck said to the Italian statesman on September 17, 1877:

There could be but one cause for a breach in the friendship that unites Austria and Germany, and that would be a disagreement between the two Governments concerning Polish policy. . . . If a Polish rebellion should break out and Austria should lend it her support, we should be obliged to assert ourselves. We cannot permit the reconstruction of a Catholic kingdom so near at hand. It would be a northern France. We have one France to look to already, and a second would become the natural ally of the first, and we should find ourselves entrapped between two enemies.

The resurrection of Poland would injure us in other ways as well. It could not come about without the loss of a part of our territory. We cannot possibly relinquish either Posen or Dantzig, because the German Empire would remain exposed on the Russian frontier, and we should lose an outlet on the Baltic.

In the event of Germany's defeat a large slice of Poland, including the wealthiest parts of Silesia, with gigantic coal mines, ironworks, &c., might be taken away from her; and if the Poles should recover their ancient province of West Prussia, with Dantzig, Prussia's hold upon East Prussia, with Koenigsberg, would be threatened. The loss of her Polish districts would obviously greatly reduce Germany's military strength and economic power. It

may therefore be expected that Germany will move heaven and earth against the re-creation of the kingdom of Poland, and that she will strenuously endeavour to create differences between Russia and her Allies. The statesmen of Europe should therefore, in good time, firmly make up their minds as to the future of Poland.