THE NEW FOLAND Of all the new or resurrected states of Europe, Poland was in many respects in the most difficult position. The territory of Congress Poland and Galicia had been devastated in the War. Most of the factories were closed for lack of raw material, where they had not been actually dismantled. The fields of the peasants had been laid waste, their live stock slaughtered, their farms burnt. Many districts were actually famine-stricken, others swept by epi demics. Communications were disorganized, rolling stock in a deplorable state. Marks, roubles and kronen circulated freely, but their value was low and uncertain, and public and private finances were chaotic. Owing to the past policy of Prussia and Russia, a national bureaucracy existed only in Galicia. Thirty thousand German troops were still in the country. On the East, Bolshevik Russia was in a highly unsettled state and exercised an unsettling influence on the masses in Poland. Radical propaganda of all sorts was rife, and political parties were as numerous as they were, on the whole, futile.
Pilsudski, the old revolutionary, had begun by appointing a cab inet of the Left, composed mainly of Galician socialists and peasants' representatives, under the presidency of J. Moraczew ski. But the propertied classes refused him their support, and his attempt to float an internal loan met with little response. In December, M. Paderewski, the second man in Poland enjoying almost unlimited prestige, arrived in the country, composed his differences with Pilsudski and became premier on Jan. 17, 1919. Prussian Poland had come under complete control of its Polish inhabitants by Jan. 9. West Galicia was incorporated ; East Galicia was occupied by Polish troops, which had entered Lemberg on Nov. 22. It was possible to hold elections for a constituent assembly on Jan. 26, 1919. The constituent Seym met on Feb. ro. It passed a vote of confidence in Paderewski's cabinet, and con firmed Pilsudski in his position as head of the State without, how ever, exactly defining his position. Paderewski proceeded to Paris to urge Poland's claims; Pilsudski raised an army to defend them. General Haller's troops, returning from France, formed the nucleus of this force. Poland soon had an army of 600,000, which was shortly increased to 800,000. On May 8 an offensive
was opened in East Galicia against the Soviet Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The Treaty of Versailles and Frontier Problems.—On June 28, 1919 the Polish delegation signed the treaty of Versailles, under which Poland agreed to accept an agreement with the Prin cipal Allied and Associated Powers for the protection of national minorities in Poland, and for the protection of freedom of transit and equitable treatment of the commerce of other nations. This Minorities Treaty was signed on June 28, 1919. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Poland received the larger part of Posen and part of West Prussia. A plebiscite was to determine the settle ment of Masuria and Upper Silesia. Danzig (q.v.) was to be a free city under the protection of the League of Nations. This city was to be included within the Polish customs frontiers and its foreign relations and the protection of its citizens abroad were to be entrusted to Poland, who also received other economic rights in this territory and was to have free access to the sea. The actual details were settled later by treaties between Poland and the free city, in 192o, 1921 and 1923. Art. 87 of the treaty assigned to the Allied and Associated Powers the duty of fixing Poland's eastern frontier. As a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles, Poland was an original member of the League of Nations. The treaty was not popular in Poland but the Seym ratified it on July 30-31 by 285 votes to 41. During the next three years, however, Poland was al most exclusively occupied with questions arising directly or indi rectly out of it, which it will be convenient to take in order.
The industrial district of Teschen (q.v.), with important coal mines, was claimed by both Poles and Czechoslovaks. Each nation attempted to assume practical control, and there was some fight ing. A plebiscite commission arrived in the district on Jan. 3o, 192o, but on July 28, 192o the Supreme Council fixed a line of demarcation through this district, cutting the town in two, and through the neighbouring districts of Zips and Orava. In East Prussia (see ALLENSTEIN-MARIENWERDER) the plebiscite was held on July 11, 192o. The bulk of the districts were allotted to Germany on the basis of the vote.