and transfer the Polish land to German settlers. And whilst Prussian Poland has been sacrificed to Prussian interests, Russian Poland has become the richest and most thriving province of the Russian Empire.
It is true that even that prosperity has not reconciled the Poles to the rule of an alien Government and to the loss of their national traditions, of their political and religious freedom. The Russian Government have understood in the end, under the pressure of national danger, that a great Slav nation with the glorious past of Poland cannot be reconciled, and will not be satisfied until it has recovered complete autonomy. That autonomy is coming at last. One of the first pronouncements of the Russian Government at the beginning of the war was the new charter of Polish freedom. Like the war of 1812 liberating Europe, like the war of 1825 liberating Greece, like the war of 1878 liberating Bulgaria, the war of 1915 will ultimately be a war of emancipation. The Treaty of Peace which will destroy German militarism will also culminate in the reconciliation of the two great representatives of the Slavonic stock, who both in the past have been the victims of Teutonic militarism.
