The treaty of March 3, 1921 with Rumania provided chiefly for mutual assistance in case of attack from the east; a military con vention followed. A definite alliance between Poland and the Bal tic States proved impracticable as, quite apart from the antagonism between Poland and Lithuania, the smaller states could not con template anything but a defensive attitude towards Russia. In July 1921, however, representatives of Poland, Finland, Latvia and Estonia met at Helsingf ors and determined to hold periodical conferences to exchange opinions on matters of policy and discuss the possibility of joint action. Such conferences were held every year since, but dealt mostly with minor financial and economic problems. An attempt to reach a political agreement in 1922 failed owing to the opposition of the Finnish diet. In Jan. 1925, a multi lateral arbitration treaty was signed between Poland and the Baltic States. Commercial treaties were concluded with all the Baltic States individually, and commercial, as well as non-aggres sion treaties with all the three Scandinavian countries.
In the course of several years, commercial treaties were con cluded by Poland with a large number of States, and in the case of some of them, arbitration treaties followed. During the years 1922-27, commercial treaties were concluded with 24 States, viz., Rumania, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Japan, Belgium (and Luxembourg), Turkey, Finland, Great Britain (and the Dominions, treaty of July 1, 1924), Denmark and Iceland, Sweden, France (latest treaty, July 1o, 1925), the United States (Feb. io, 1925), Hungary, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Norway, Estonia, Persia and Latvia.
The Polish Minorities Treaty of June 28, 1919, signed by Poland at Versailles and guaranteed by the League of Nations, secured that all bona fide inhabitants of the districts allotted to Poland be admitted to Polish nationality and citizenship in the fullest sense (except in the case of recent German colonists) ; guaranteed the minorities the right to use their own language ; to maintain their own institutions, to receive primary instruction in their own language, and where the proportion was considerable to receive "an equitable share in the enjoyment and application of public funds." The Jews are included among the "racial, re
ligious or linguistic minorities"; Yiddish is recognized as a lan guage, and the Jews are granted special protection as regards education and the keeping of the Sabbath.
The most difficult minorities questions, after the Jews, proved to be those of the Ukrainians. On Sept. 26, 1922 the Seyrn passed a general law on provincial self-government which established local bodies (dietines) for dealing with purely local affairs. This law granted a small measure of autonomy to East Galicia, but not enough to prevent complaints.
Serious disputes arose, not only with the Ukrainians, but also with the German minorities. In 1924 a more conciliatory spirit began to prevail. On July Io of that year a bill was passed pro viding for the use of Ukrainian, White Russian and Lithuanian in government offices, law courts and schools in districts where the majority of population speaks one of those languages. In the summer of 1924 the Government concluded a kind of pact with the Jewish leaders by which the Government promised to promote the religious and educational interests of the Jewish community, while the Jewish leaders pledged themselves to abstain from anti Polish propaganda abroad. But it was only the resolutely liberal policy of the Government of Marshal Pilsudski from 1926 on ward that achieved a greater measure of success in reconciling the minorities to Polish rule.
The land reform bill was introduced in the Seym on July io, 1919, and was passed by a single vote in a House of about 36o. It proposed the nationalization of forests and limited the amount of land to be held by an individual in Poland to from 148 to 248 ac., although in the borderlands a higher limit of 988 ac. was fixed.