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emigration to America had done much in this respect.
At the present time more than a million Lithuanians
inhabit the United States without losing any of the links
with their native country; 100,000 reside in Chicago
alone, and they have their schools, their churches, their
newspapers, and, as far as in them lies, they help and
support their compatriots who have remained on the
banks of the large national river—the Niemen.
One day one of the most noted Lithuanian deputies
to the Duma, M. Itchas, arrived in Stockholm,
accompanied by a Baron Schilingas. These gentlemen were
going to the Allies in order to interest them in the fate
of their nationality; Itchas, an intelligent and
open-minded man, did not in any way conceal from me the
objects that his compatriots had in view: the reunion
of the part of East Prussia still inhabited by Lithuanians
to the rest of the country; and a wide autonomy of the
whole, in union with the Russian Empire—an academic,
administrative and judicial autonomy—and of course
absolute religious freedom.
I could not but sympathise with this programme.
The geographical situation of Lithuania links her
undeniably to the rest of the Empire. But the true grandeur
of the latter would consist precisely, according to me,
in guaranteeing the autonomous development of the
adjacent small nationalities, drawing them to her by
gentleness and interest, and in return lending them the
protection of her great power.
These conversations led to a more intimate
friendship and sincere mutual sympathy between M. Itchas
and me. He passed through Stockholm again on his
way to America, and then came back, bringing with him
a young wife, a Lithuanian of Chicago, pretty, intelligent,
and speaking, besides English, her old native tongue.
The provisional Government placed Itchas at the head
of the Russian Red Cross. I have completely lost sight
of him since the “Dictatorship” of Kerensky and the
infamous triumph of the Bolsheviks. Has he returned to
Lithuania? Is he taking part in the famous Taryba, or
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