E. — GEOGRAPHY. lOo 



is strong to advance its political no less than its racial frontiers, and 

 the constant danger to which a weakening people is exposed of finding 

 its political frontier contract even more rapidly than its racial, we shall 

 realise some of the evils to which a State basing its existence on 

 transitionahty is exposed. 



It is, then, to racial feeUng, rather than to geographical environ- 

 ment, that we must look for the basis of the new Polish State, but 

 the intensity with which this feeling is likely to operate varies consider- 

 ably in different parts of the region which it is proposed to include, 

 in the plebiscite area of Upper Silesia there were, according to the 

 census of 1900, which is believed to represent the facts more accurately 

 than that of 1910, seven Poles to three of other nationalities. In 

 Prussian Poland, apart from the western districts which have not been 

 annexed to Poland and the town and district of Bromberg, the Poles 

 number at least 75 per cent, of the total population, and in the ceded 

 and plebiscite areas of East and West Prussia 52 per cent. Eussian 

 Poland, which contains rather more than two-thirds of the entire popula- 

 tion of what we may call ethnic Poland, has 9,500,000 Poles and over 

 3,000,000 Jews, Germans, Lithuanians, and others, while West Galicia 

 is almost solidly Polish. Thus out of a total population of 21,000,000 

 within the regions mentioned the Poles number 15,500,000, or about 

 75 per cent. 



Bearing these facts in mind, it is possible to consider the potentialities 

 of the new State. The population is sufficiently large and the Polish 

 element within it is sufficiently strong to justify its independence on 

 ethnical grounds. Moreover, the alien elements which it contains are 

 united neither by racial ties nor by contiguity of settlement. In Posen, 

 for example, there is in the part annexed to Poland a definitely Polish 

 population with a number of isolated German settlements, while in 

 Russian Poland the Jews are to be found mainly in the towns. Con- 

 sidered as a whole, Poland is at least as pure racially as the United 

 States. 



When we consider the economic resources of Poland we see that 

 tliey also make for a strong and united State. It is true that in the 

 past the country has failed to develop as an economic unit, but this 

 is a natural result of the partitions and of the different economic 

 systems which have prevailed in different regions. Even now, however, 

 we can trace the growth of two belts of industrial activity which will 

 eventually unite these different regions together. One is situated on 

 the coalfield I'unning from Oppeln in Silesia by Cracow and Lemberg, 

 and is engaged in mining, agriculture, and forestry; while the other 

 extends from Posen by Lodz to Warsaw, and has much agricultural 

 wealth and an important textile industry. Moreover, the conditions, 

 geographical and economic, are favourable to the gi'owth of international 

 trade. If Poland obtains Upper Silesia she will have more 

 coal than she requires, and the Upper Silesian fields will, 

 as in the past, export their surplus produce to the surrounding 

 countries, while the manufacturing districts will continue to find 

 tlieii- best markets in the Bussian area to the east. The outlets 

 of the State are good, for not only has it for all practical purposes 



