May 13.
Wuite we have been talking of peace with Soviet Russia and looking for an end to fighting with the defeat of Denikin, another war has been quietly growing until it is one of the first importance. Compared with some of the battles even of the late war, this victory of the Poles is of considerable size. The Polish army is estimated to consist of 2 million and a quarter men, and the defeated Bolshevik force comprised some fifty infantry and cavalry divisions. Probably the Bolshevik divisions were of medium strength, and when we remember that the number of divisions the British had on the west@n front when the Germans made their great push in 1918 was fifty-eight, we get an excellent idea of the importance of the engagement. The number of prisoners, 25,000, seems disproportionate to the forces employed, but the loss to the Bolsheviks is sure to be considerably augmented by widespread desertion following upon such a defeat.
Accordingly the Polish army is advancing, making the most of its success, while the Bolsheviks are ordering a fresh mobilization to meet the danger. And there is talk of a triple alliance between Poland, Finland and the Ukraine against Russia. The history of these countries during the past three years now becomes very instructive, for it was such an alliance to combat Bolshevism at which the Germans were aiming towards the end of 1917, and today they appear to have got it. Ludendorft's memoirs, in spite of their natural bias, are illuminating upon the subject. Towards the close of 1917 Ludendorit says that he was confronted with insidious Bolshevik propaganda not only among the civilian population of Germany but also in the army. To secure a buffer against the Bolsheviks was accordingly his aim, and, if he may be believed, the violence done at Brest-Litovsk Was merely a summary means of hastening this end. He pushed the front well past Poland in this attempt, proceeded to bolster up the Ulvainians against the Bolsheviks, with only moderate success, however, and lent Finland aid, as also Lithuania, the present Latvia, where a certain Proportion of the inhabitants were
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.