453] ASPECTS OF THE PLEBISCITE 1 55 



determination/ Germany held that these provinces, as far 

 as they had, through their legislatures, declared their wish 

 for independence and separation from Russia, already had 

 resorted to the principle of self-determination and thus had 

 already determined what had been open to decision.® Aside 

 from the additional factor of military occupation the differ- 

 ence between Russia and Germany then seems to have been 

 that of a choice between self-determination by indirect vote 

 in the legislature or by universal direct suffrage. In fact, 

 the reply of the Central Powers to the Russian proposals 

 for the settlement of the Baltic question stated that "... 

 the setting up of a referendum appears to be impractic- 

 able," and that " in the opinion of the Allied Delegation, it 

 would suffice if a vote, on a wide basis, were taken from an 

 elected and supplemented representative body." The reply 

 pointed out to the Russians that the separation from Russia 

 of Finland and the Ukraine was " brought about not in the 

 way of a referendum . . . , but by means of resolutions by 

 a national assembly elected on a wider basis."' 



If a direct popular vote on the issue of separation from 

 Russia were taken, the result, in whatever form, could 

 hardly be questioned by either party since the race issue 

 would in such a case be practically non-existent, the Ger- 

 mans being, even in Courland, the most German of all 

 these provinces, less than lo per cent of the population.^" 

 If, however, the issue be decided by a representative vote, 

 an anti-Russian decision could be open to the charge of 



^ Proceedings of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference, . . . No- 

 vember 21, 1917 — March 3, 1918 (U. S. Dept. of State), Washington, 

 Govt. Printing Office, 1918. See also New York Times Current His- 

 tory, vol. vii, part 2, pp. 280-292. 



* Proceedings of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference, sessions of 

 Dec. 28, 1917, and Jan. 11, 1918. 



^ Ibid., session of Jan. 14, 1918. At the same occasion the Teu- 

 tonic Delegations made the following statement: "The assertion that 

 the right of self-determination is an attribute of nations and not of 

 parts of nations is not our conception of the right of self-determina- 

 tion. Parts of nations can justly conclude independence and sepa- 

 ration. . . . Courland, Lithuania, and Poland also constitute national 

 units from an historical point of view. . . ." 



*" See note 2 and corresponding text. 



