The Origins of World War Two - Tapa blanda

Sinopsis

Since the day at Versailles when Poland was reconstituted an independent state, German-Polish relations have been under a cloud. In the first instance, Poland declared herself Ger­many's hereditary enemy according to an alleged thousand-year-old tradition. She thus established not only her territorial claims with regard to Germany, but even justified her own right of existence and recommended herself to the victorious Powers as a potential and reliable ally who could be called upon at any time to assist in holding Germany in check. Secondly, this function on the part of Poland was confirmed by the Western Powers, and by inclusion in the French system of collective security she became the eastern link in the encirclement of Germany, destined since their failure to secure Russia to assume that country's role and carry on the tradition that Germany's attention should be divided between two fronts. Thirdly, German-Polish relations were embittered from the outset by the transfer to Polish rule of a large body of Germans who were forthwith subjected to strict Polonization. Fourthly, the cession of German territory in the east was one of the greatest injustices of the Peace Treaty. Not only, the German nation but competent statesmen among the Allies regarded these cessions as so intolerable that everyone agreed that this was a matter for immediate reparation, if it were not to be the cause of another European war. In a memorandum addressed to the Versailles Conference on 25 March 1919, Mr. Lloyd George drew attention to this potential cause of future conflict, as did also the German Peace Delegation. No. 1 (1). No 1 Extract from a Memorandum circulated by Mr., Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, 25 March 1939 "Some considerations for the Peace Conference before they finally draft their terms"

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