Synopses & Reviews
Contents PEACE ATLAS OF EUROPE by Samuel Van Valkenburg 3 THE MAIN BOUNDARY PROBLEMS 7 1. THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY 12 2. THE RUHR DISTRICT 15 g. EUPEN AND MALMEDY LUXEM BOURG . 20 4. ALSACE-LORRAINE 25 5. CORSICA, NICE, SAVOY 29 6. FINLAND 34 7. THE BALTIC STATES 38 8. THE CURZON LINE 43 9-EAST PRUSSIA, DANZIG AND THE COR RIDOR 49 10. THE WESTERN BOUNDARY OF POLAND 53 11. BESSARABIA AND THE BUKOVINA 57 12. BOHEMIA-MORAVIA 6l 13. THE HUNGARIAN REALM 68 14. THE SOUTH TYROL 75 ISTRIA. - - CONTENTS l6. GAklNTHiA-85 1 7., A BOSSIBLE YUGOSLAV FEDERATION QO l8. THE BULGARIAN REALM 96 ig. THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION 1O1 gO. THRACE AND THE DARDANELLES 105 21. ALBANIA 108 22. THE DODECANESE CYPRUS 112 2g. DENMARK AND THE CASE OF SCHLES WIG 117 24. WHAT OF IRELAND 12O 25. THE LEVANT 125 POLITICAL FACTORS IN BOUNDARY MAKING by CL Grove Haines 128 CLASHING POWER INTERESTS by Martin Ebon 135 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 171 INDEX 175 VI Peace Adas of Europe SAMUEL VAN VALKENBURG ONCE more the map of Europe will be redrawn and, once more, we may be sure that heated controversies will accompany the drafting of new political boundaries. The disputes be tween the former Polish Government in London and the Soviet Union over the Curzon Line, be tween Poland and Czechoslovakia over Teschen, and between Yugoslavia and Italy over Trieste have given us an indication of what the problems may be. They are unpleasant but not insoluble, provided there is enough mutual good will and readiness to compromise. Even so, no solution is likely to be perfect or complete, for people move back and forth across frontiers, governments change, and life in general is in a constant state of flux. If it could be assumed, for example, that aFed-3 PEACE ATLAS OF EUROPE eration o Europe would issue from the Second World War, it would then be safe to minimize the importance of boundary problems. But there are no present indications that such a Federation is imminent. The principle of national sovereignty is still operative and political as well as racial na tionalism remain powerful forces in contemporary life. The drawing of boundaries continues, there fore, to be a matter of vital concern to every na tion involved. What boundary will give it the greatest amount of security in the present world situation What economic needs should be satisfied What peoples of racial kinship should be brought into the state What disposition should be made of racial mi norities These are the questions which are being raised and for which some kind of satisfactory answers will need to be supplied. The prevailing political atmosphere profoundly influences the answers which the most interested parties are suggesting. After two disastrous wars, there is a disposition to believe that, in justice, Germany must pay dearly for the damage done to 4 PEACE ATLAS OF EUROPE its ravaged neighbors. And because the Nazis suc ceeded in organizing the German minorities be yond Germanys borders to assist in aggression, there is also a disposition to believe that these Ger man minorities must be moved from the reconsti tuted states of central and western Europe. JiT varying degrees these same feelings apply to Hun gary, Bulgaria, and Italy, so that the belief is wide spread that, once boundaries are drawn again, minorities must be exchanged in the interest of na tional security. Then, too, there is the important factor of the interplay of the interests of theGreat Powers, which inevitably bears upon the settle ments affecting the smaller states. These factors are all present to influence the definition of bound aries and, in turn, to help determine the activities and evolution of the United Nations organization. The text which follows attempts to keep these things in mind without undertaking to pass moral judgment upon them. In the nature of things, it cannot be a complete study of all the problems which are likely to arise...