March — undated, 1919

The Colonel has asked me to “clarify” the situation on the Eastern Front and more particularly in Southeastern Europe, a large order surely. I have sat at the feet of the tacticians and the strategists of the Supreme War Council both in Versailles and on the Place des Invalides, but the result is a crazy quilt. Of one thing only am I convinced, and that is, even these wise men do not know all the answers.

It is quite clear, however, that the French are increasingly nervous over the continued advance of the Bolshevik forces, particularly in South Russia, where from Odessa the French forces were expected to control the advancing flood but did not. A radiogram from the Soviet foreign minister, Tchitcherin, to the Hungarian Bolsheviki has been intercepted and it provokes anxious comment. He claims that the White forces have been held in the North and that in the South the Soviets are victorious and advancing steadily. He concedes, however, that north of Lemberg the Soviet army is menaced by Polish and Lithuanian forces.

Evidently the situation in and around Danzig grows more complicated. To secure the Armistice, vitally necessary at the time to save their shattered armies, the Germans acquiesced in Poland’s claim on the port and also conceded to Poland access to the sea by way of the Vistula. Now, according to the French reports, the Germans are seeking to nullify these concessions. ‘They are provoking disorders in Posen and will oppose the landing of General Haller’s Polish division should the Entente decide to permit him to land at the Baltic port.

According to French sources, here are some further details of the military crazy quilt. Despite the fact that Poland is an ally of the Entente, Germany is treating her with open hostility, and so the question is today will the Entente be intimidated or will Germany be forced to fulfill the Armistice agreement? Certainly the Supreme War Council does not know all the answers, and while the Big Four examine all these complicated problems they, as far as I can see, make no headway in solving them.

Despite the Armistice, Germany maintains today a large army in and around Mitau in Courland and from this position menaces Esthonia, now in the clutches of the Bolsheviki. Oblivious of the fact that it was Berlin that let loose the Soviet flood in Eastern Europe, the Germans today are doing all they can to convince the harassed populations of the Baltic states that the German army (despite the Armistice, still in being) is the only organized force capable of protecting them from the Red Horde. The French believe, and have much evidence to confirm this belief, that not only did Berlin start the Bolshevik movement by providing it with leaders and with money, but that Berlin directs it today.

To “stop the Horde,” to use the expression most often heard here, General Mangin, that famous hard hitter of the 10th Army, is leaving for the East Front in a few hours and other high-ranking officers are going to Poland. The French General Staff insist that Mangin be placed in supreme command of all available forces now in the disputed field so that at last the much-talked-of cordon sanitaire may be realized.

I must admit the Colonel was not enthusiastic over my “clarifying” memorandum; but he accepted my final statement that “Eastern Europe is a military crazy quilt—and the Supreme War Council does not know all the answers.” Yet, how can they? The information we received from what we must regard as reliable sources is almost always flatly contradictory.