154 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [452 



respective states of their race?' The same conditions, 

 probably still more complicated, confront us in the Silesian, 

 Bohemian, Hungarian, Rumanian, Austro-Italian, and Italo- 

 Jugo-Slav situations.* 



The Nation concludes that " such considerations empha- 

 size the statesmanlike programme put forth by the British 

 Labor Party, which would leave the difficult problem of 

 self-determination of peoples to be worked out at leisure 

 under the super-national authority which it demands as one 

 of the essential conditions of world-reconstruction."' 



There seems little likelihood that any super-national 

 authority could, without the utmost good-will of the states 

 concerned, unravel such entanglements to the lasting satis- 

 faction of all concerned, while, on the other hand, a little 

 good will on the part of the states involved would enable 

 them to pacify their foreign enclaves through a liberal 

 policy, guaranteeing liberty of language, cultural develop- 

 ment and granting the greatest possible measure of local 

 self-government. Enforced expatriation would be a measure 

 too radical and too impracticable to be thought of. 



A second phase of the diflficulties involved in the success- 

 ful application of the plebiscite as the means of self-deter- 

 mination has manifested itself in the Russo-German wrangle 

 over the Baltic provinces. In the peace programme of 

 December 25, 1917, Germany had professed adherence to 

 the principle of self-determination.® But while Russia de- 

 manded immediate evacuation of the territories in question 

 and a popular vote on the issue of separation after evacua- 

 tion has taken place as the only way to insure real self- 



8 Through the cession of Danzig and the greater part of West 

 Prussia the Treaty of Versailles has in fact created a situation in 

 which the province of East Prussia would be geographically severed 

 from the rest of Germany, although retaining its political connection. 



•• Fairly accurate details of the racial configuration of the Central 

 States of Europe, the Baltic provinces, and Turkey may be found in 

 L. Dominian, The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 

 New York, IQ17. 



" For complete programme see The New Republic, Feb. 16, 1918. 



" Sec below, p. 178. 



