Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

270 DER FUEHRERTreaty of Locarno there is no corresponding phrase which refers to theEast, and this missing phrase one day would prove as fateful to Polandas the other seven words seemed comforting for France. Germanyfinally renounced Alsace-Lorraine, but she did not renounce the PolishCorridor or Upper Silesia — limiting all her promises to the assurancethat anyway she would not use force.England had not demanded that she renounce these things. Even atVersailles, England had fought against the establishment of Poland,against her excessive territory, against the Polish Corridor, and againstgiving Upper Silesia to Poland. Lloyd George had contemptuouslycalled Poland 'a state for a season.' He had been defeated by WoodrowWilson and Clemenceau; but English statesmen had not ceased to regardPoland as a hotbed, a useless source of dangers and wars, a disturber ofthe peace which only lured Germany to ally herself with Soviet Russia.Too weak even as a protective wall against Russian Bolshevism, Polandby her provocative geographic situation prevented Germany fromadopting a clear anti-Russian and hence anti-Communist policy; by hervery existence she represented a constant menace of future war and wasnot worth it — this roughly describes the English attitude towardPoland.And what if Germany or Russia or both should attack Poland? Frenchaid was promised. Yes, but in this way France robbed herself of Englishsupport and would have to attend to Germany alone. For Englandpromised her support to the French in Locarno only if France were firstattacked by Germany; but if the French came to the help of the Poles, itwould be the French themselves who attacked Germany. Then,according to the letter of the treaty, Germany could even appeal toEnglish aid. But what counted even more than the wording of the treatywas its purpose and this was clear: England wanted to protect neitherPoland nor Czechoslovakia; to the best of her ability, she would alsoprevent France from helping them.Poland herself had the feeling that despite all the fine promises ofFrance she had been sacrificed at Locarno. In the Warsaw parliament,sharp words fell. After the Treaty of Locarno, Poland began to moveaway from democracy, first in domestic, then in foreign