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- Chapter I. An Historic Survey of the Cultural Conditions of the Baltic Lands
- Chapter II. The Baltic Minorities' Rights. Their relation to Municipal and International Law. Lecture delivered at the Grotius Society in London, November 1921
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same principles they would have appreciated when they were under
foreign domination.
The Letts and Estonians are also very hard in their judgment of
the socalled „emigrants“ who, in the majority of cases, are not
emigrants in the strict sense of the word. Indeed, these „emigrants“ are
chiefly composed of people who against their will, left the home-country,
or those, who for the time being, have managed to find a living abroad,
or, those who were driven out of their homes by Lettish and Estonian
nationalism and have lost the possibility of earning a livelihood in the
Baltic lands — finally, those who fled before Bolshevism and who are
now refused the permission to return home. All these people will be
glad to return to their country as soon as the political situation there
allows them to do so. At present, in Latvia and Eesti
self-determination has produced an extreme self-assertion followed by ruthless
intolerance. As if, because of self-determination, each State should consist
of only one race!
Chapter II.
The Baltic Minorities’ Rights.
Their Relation to Municipal and International Law.
Lecture delivered at the Grotius Society in London, November 1921.
Gentlemen.
The civilised world is gravitating towards two opposite poles:
Internationalism and Nationalism. Internationalism, which conceives of
humanity as a whole, irrespective of differences of race, ethics and
religion- and Nationalism, which is an appreciation of the affinity of
racial origin, moral conception or religious persuation, are indeed,
divergent, lying in different planes and cannot, therefore, be compared and
measured one against the other. But, both these political forces are at
the present time extremely active in bringing about fundamental
changes in the internal and external affairs of the civilised world.
Religious — so-called „black“ Internationalism, extols the uniformity of faith
above all other vital interests, and revolutionary, or „red“
Internationalism, assuming an even more pugnacious attitude, demands universal
class-warfare, in an endeavour to stamp out all inequality, while
Nationalism indulges in racial exclusivences and intolerance. By their
excesses both movements engender an atmosphere of strife and
universal antagonism which, fanned by the fatal economic consequences of
the war, is kindling the so-called Christian world into a blaze of hatred
— a hell of deadly enmity!
But, in this cataclysm of varying political opinions, amid the
clamour of warfare, in the turmoil of revolutions, if humanity is not
to be submerged in an apocalytical upheaval, it must strike bed-rock
on which to lay the foundations of future civilisation, upon which it
can construct its Commonwealth. Let governments, State constitution,
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