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The Vilna Dispute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

W. J. Brockelbank
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Extract

Of the many post war problems of Europe few have presented such difficulty as the problem of Poland’s boundaries with Lithuania. Article 87 of the Treaty of Versailles reads in part, “The boundaries not laid down in the present treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers.”

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 1926 , pp. 483 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1926

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References

1 113 British Foreign and State Papers, p. 1121.

2 This rumor was most probably true because later Professor Voldemar, who represented Lithuania at the meeting of the Council of the League in Paris on September 17, said: “Parune dàclaration annexàe au traità, la Lithuanie a en effet, autorisà’ les troupes BolshàVistes à utiliser son territoire. Mais comment pouvait-elle refuser aux Bolshàviks une facultàqu'elle avait dû laisser aux Polonais eux aussi, alors etabli sur son territoire et notamment à Vilna? La situation militaire à la date de la signature du traité, àtait d'ailleurs augoissante.Les troupes BolshéVistes étaient déà sur territoire Lithuanien, ou s'arréteraientelles Comment limiter l'avancement?” League of Nations Official Journal, Dec. 1920,p. 65. This is a rather remarkable admission against interest in the face of a telegram of only a few days previous denying any understanding with the Bolsheviks against the Poles.See also Documents Diplomatiques concernant les Relations Polono-Lithuanienes, DScembre 1918-Septembre 1990. Document 31, p. 42.

3 League of Nations Official Journal, December, 1920, Special Supplement Différend entre la Pologne et la Lithuanie, passim.

4 Ibid., pp. 64, 65, 74, 75, 95.

5 The Lithuanian-Polish Dispute, Lithuanian Delegation, Second Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva, 1921, p. 55.

6 Différend entre la Pologne el la Lithuanie, ibid. Note from Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, pp. 136, 138.

7 Letter and telegram from the Lithuanian Chargé at London, ibid., p. 148; letter from the Lithuanian Delegation at Paris, ibid., p. 129; statement of the Lithuanian Chargé at London,ibid., p. 131; note from the Lithuanian Government, Oct. 12, 1920, ibid., p. 133; telegramreceived by the Secretary General from Kovno, Oct. 13, 1920, ibid., p. 142. See alsothe very interesting depositions of Lieutenant Grodski, Captains Buczynski and Jovorski andSous-Lieutenant Slovikovski in The Lithuanian Polish Dispute, Lithuanian Delegation,Second Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva, 1921.

8 Différend entre la Pologne et la Lithuanie, ibid., Statement of M. Voldemar at the Council meeting at Brussels, Oct. 26,1920, p. 151; also telegram of Voldemar to the League, p. 161.

9 Article by Mrs.Chesterton, Cecil in The New Witness, Vol. 18, No. 469, p. 266. Nov.4, 1921. Google Scholar

10 Differend entre la Pologne et la Lithuanie, ibid., p. 151. Statement of M. Askenazy,p. 151.

11 League of Nations, Collection des Documents relatifs au Différend entre la Pologne et la Lithuanie. Archives. Documents Oct. 1920 to Apr. 1921. Document 86. Proems Verbal of the seventh meeting of the fourteenth session of the Council. (The collection of documents here cited have been assembled by the secretariat of the League in seven large volumes.In this collection are placed either the original documents themselves or a copy from the original document. Thus they form the chief authoritative source of information on this question. The documents placed in these volumes are numbered, and hereafter in this paper the collection will be cited simply "Archives" with the document number.)

12 League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supplement, December, 1920. Différendmire la Pologne et h, Lithvanie, pp. 152, 163, 169, 181, 194.

13 Archives, Vol. 1-2, Documents 3, 16, and 17.

14 Archives, Vol. 1-2, Document 2; Vol. 3, Documents 86 and 97.

15 Ibid., Document 31.

16 Ibid., Document 4.

17 Ibid., Documents 41 and 43; Diffirend entre la Pologne et la Lithuanie, ibid., letter from the Lithuanian Charge1 in London, p. 141 and letter from M. Voldemar, p. 195.

18 Archives, Vol. 1-2, Document 22; Vol. 3, Document 85.

19 Archives, Vol. 3, Documents 110 and 122.

20 Ibid., Documents 150 and 153.

21 Archives, Documents April 1921 to January 1922, Document 50.

22 Ibid., Documents 53, 62, and 66.

23 Ibid., Documents 67, 68, 71, 72, 80, 82, and 84.

24 Ibid., Document 86.

25 Ibid., Documents 88 and 92.

26 Ibid., Documents 122 and 129.

27 Ibid., Documents 113 and 127.

28 Ibid., Documents 98, 103, 110, 112, 119, 120, and 125 bis.

29 Ibid., Document 129.

30 Ibid., Documents January to August 1922, Document 115a.

31 Ibid., Documents 46 and 50.

32 Ibid., Document 115a.

33 Ibid., Document 74.

34 M. Machray in the Fortnightly Review, June, 1923 (119:1000), says this was “the crowning infamy of bogus elections by which Vilna was made to ask for incorporation in the Polish state” while Mr. J. Harly in the Fortnightly Review, June, 1923 (120:110), says“The elections called by interested conversationalists the ‘bogus elections’ simply gave the same results at Wilno as those held before the war, when under the old Russian administration,Wilno always returned Poles to the Duma. If there is any assertion which may bemade with greater confidence about the inhabitants of Wilno today it is that they are morePolish than the Poles themselves!”

35 The Nation (New York), 114:634, 1922.

36 Archives, Documents January to August 1922, Documents 41 and 74.

37 Ibid., Documents 53-57, 77-78.

38 Archives, Documents August 1922 to March 1923, Documents 1, 4, 5, 7, 13, 21.

39 Ibid., Documents 45 and 47.

40 Ibid., Document 122.

41 Ibid., Document 149.

42 Ibid., Document 150.

43 For comment on this, and the fact that France found it convenient to lend 400,000,000 francs to Poland “for the purpose of improving Poland's financial and economic situation,”see “The Polish-Lithuanian Semi-War” in the Outlook, March 7, 1923 (133:431).

44 Archives, Documents, 1923, February to September, Document 1.

45 League of Nations Official Journal, Council Minutes, Fourth Year, pp. 580 to 586.

46 Archives, Documents, 1923, February to September, Document 56; League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. 15, p. 261.

47 Current History, 18:803.

48 Archives, Documents, 1923, February to September, Document 62.

49 Ibid., Document 76; also League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supplement No. 14.Records of the Fourth Assembly, Minutes of the First Committee, p. 9.

50 Official Journal, ibid., pp. 18-24.

51 Archives, ibid., Documents 82 and 83.

52 League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supplement No. 29, pp. 7, 8 and 9.

53 It is impossible to deny the source of power as set out in the decision itself, viz., Article 87 of the Treaty of Versailles, the Request of Poland to the Conference of Ambassadors made February 15,1923, and the note of Lithuania to the Conference of Ambassadors of November 18, 1922.