Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. The Baltic problem
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE BALTIC PROBLEM
87
would appear, therefore, that from the point of view of
British interests it is advisable to regard the people of these
provinces as friends.
The Baltic problem presents itself under a threefold
aspect :
(1) The lessons of the political past with significance for
the future;
(2) Baltic particularism;
(3) The educated classes in their relation to the Lettish
and Esthnish peasantry.
I
In the political map of Europe there are certain specially
contested danger zones from whence the spark of
international conflagration has again and again blazed forth in
the past, and which in the interest of future peace demand
peculiar treatment. Such are the Balkan Peninsula, the
borderland between Italy and Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, and
also the Russian Baltic Provinces, Esthonia, Livonia,
Cour-land, and the islands of Dago and Oesel.
Once more in history the fate of these provinces is in the
balance. While the Bolshevik Government, recognising, as
already mentioned, a newly invented right of
self-determina-tion even to the extent of a complete severance of all races
forming part of the population of Russia, has agreed to the
political independence of Finland, and has furthered the
same policy towards the Baltic Provinces, with a view to
retaining them, if possible, as part of the prospective Russian
Federation of Republics, Germany intended to make of these
provinces a new Bundesstaat. The Russian and German
idea coincides, therefore, in so far as home rule is concerned,
and differs inasmuch as the Russian or German overlordship
is involved.
The satisfactory solution of this political problem, with
a view to attaining permanent peace, depends not in a
small degree upon a thorough appreciation of the lessons
afforded to the unprejudiced mind by the historic past of
these provinces.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
