New Partition of Poland

** Cologne, June 8. Seventh partition of Poland. The new line of demarcation
Nr. 9, 9. Juni 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
of Herr von Pfuel in Posen is a fresh robbery of Poland. It restricts
the part to be “reorganised” to less than a third of the whole
Grand Duchy and annexes by far the largest part of Great Poland to the German Confederation.
Only in a narrow strip along the
Russian border is the Polish language and nationality to be recognised.
It consists of the circles of Wreschen and Pleschen and parts
of the circles of Mogilno, Wongrowiec, Gnesen, Schroda, Schrimm, Kosten,
Fraustadt, Kröben, Krotoschin, Adelnau and Schildberg. The other
half of these circles, as well as the whole circles of Buk, Posen, Obornik,
Samter, Birnbaum, Meseritz, Bomst, Czarnikow, Chodziesen, Wirsitz,
Bromberg, Schubin, Inowroclaw are, without more ado, by decree of
Herr von Pfuel, converted into German territory.
And yet there is no doubt that even in this “territory of the German Confederation” the majority of the inhabitants still speak Polish.

The old line of demarcation gave the Poles at least the Warta as a
border. The new one reduces the part to be reorganised once more by
a quarter. The pretext for this is provided on the one hand by “the wish” of the Minister of War
to exclude the environs of the fortress of Posen within a radius of 3–4
miles from the reorganisation, and on the other hand by the demand
of various towns, such as Ostrowo etc., to be annexed to
Germany.

As far as the wish of the Minister of War is concerned, it is quite natural.
First one plunders the town and fortress of Posen, which lies ten miles deep
inside Polish territory, then, so as not to be disturbed in the enjoyment of what has been
plundered, one finds the plunder of a new radius of three
miles desirable. This radius in turn leads to all manner of small
rounding-off operations, and thus one has the best occasion to push the German border
ever farther towards the Russian-Polish border.

Concerning the annexation longings of the “German” towns, matters stand as follows. In the whole of Poland, Germans and Jews form the stock of the commercial
and industrial burgher class; they are the descendants of immigrants
who fled their homeland mostly on account of religious persecutions.
They founded towns in the middle of Polish territory
and have for centuries shared all the destinies of the Polish state.
These Germans and Jews, the enormous minority in the country,
seek to use the momentary situation of the country to hoist themselves into
dominance. They appeal to their quality as Germans; they are
just as little Germans as the German Americans. If one
wants to attach them to Germany, one suppresses the language and
nationality of more than half the Polish population of Posen,
and precisely of that part of the province in which the national
insurrection emerged with the greatest vehemence and energy – the circles
of Buk, Samter, Posen, Obornik.

Herr von Pfuel declares that he will regard the new border as definitive
as soon as the Ministry has ratified it. He speaks neither of the Agreement
Assembly nor of the German National Assembly,
which surely also have a word to say when it is a question of the
border determination of Germany. But be that as it may, let the Ministry, let the agreement deputies, let the Frankfurt Assembly ratify
the decision of Herr Pfuel, the line of demarcation is not “definitive”,
as long as it has not been ratified by two other powers: the
German people and the Polish people.