The key issue to the long-term future and stability of the Baltic republics as independent States lies not in resolving the predictable, hostile response from the Soviet hardliners, but in bridging lasting relations between the indigenous Baltic populations and the local Russian and Polish residents.

... (In) Latvia and Estonia. With 48 per cent and 39 per cent Russian-speaking populations respectively... stability in the future will become quite impossible.

Even in Lithuania, where Russians and Poles make up only about 20 per cent of the population, the ethnic question is crucial. The Poles and Russians are concentrated in the South of the republic, and around the capital, Vilnius. Poles, Russians and Belorussians make up almost half of the population of the city.

...As in Latvia and Estonia, the great bulk of the Russians and Poles in Lithuania are from the poorer sections of the labour force, and resent the nationalist movements...

However, educated Poles take their lead from Warsaw, which is supportive of the drive for Lithuania independence, and back the campaign. All that they hope for it that (Lithuania) will understand their particular concerns.

...But the response of the Polish and Russian workers to increasing prices supports the fear of many Baltic analysts that the worsening economic situation will harden ethnic opposition to independence.... In the long run, economic collapse in Russia will probably provide the best chance that Russian workers in the Baltic will come around to accepting independence.

...Despite their declaration of solidarity with the Lithuanian Government, there has been still no serious response from the Government to various Polish demands. These include a strengthening of Polish educational facilities and the creation of one administrative region covering all the Polish-dominated areas of Lithuania...

...If Polish demands were not met, (one) feared a negative result in Polish areas in the referendum on independence next month being organized by the Lithuanian Government. He said that 'the Poles are at a point where there must be some steps from the Lithuanian side, or the population could swing over to Lithuania's enemies...

If the Poles and Lithuanians are totally alienated, the Poles, who form 7.5 per cent of the population of Lithuania, face the question of with whom their areas should be linked. Many Russians and Belorussians have declared that the Vilnius region should join Soviet Belorussia. Poles, however, know full well that they are treated even worse in Belorussia than in Lithuania.

...The lot of the ill-educated, ill-fed Polish workers is not a happy one, making them tools to be manipulated by the enemies of Baltic independence.