ESTONIA: 20 Years After

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During the War Estonians overthrew a native Bolshevik regime which had held their capital for five weeks. Next they fought off the Germans, who undertook to "police" Estonia after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Finally they faced an invasion of the Russian Reds. From a prison camp, into which the Germans had flung him, emerged one Konstantin Pats, just in time to help lead Estonian forces which drove off the Red Army invaders. Last week, determined Konstantin Pats, now Acting President of the Republic, celebrated at Tallinn Estonia's 20th birthday.

That arch-Republican Statesman-Educator, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, signalized the occasion by announcing to the U. S.: "Step by step, during this 20-year period, Estonia has moved forward toward stronger and more clearly defined democratic institutions. [Estonians are] building their nation upon principles which the people of the United States so fully understand and heartily applaud."

After 20 years of vigorous rule, Pats gave his country on Jan. 1 a new democratic constitution. It promises democratic rights to the nation's 1,100,000 people (88% of them Estonians), guarantees minority rights to Russians (8%) and Germans (1½%), disestablishes the church (most Estonians are Lutherans).

Under Pats the number of new Estonian farms carved out of the estates of former German aristocrats has now reached 60,000. Some 40,000 small Estonian farmers have risen from tenants to full ownership. Last week, two days after celebrating Estonia's 20th anniversary, Pats won, hands down, the first general election held under Estonia's new constitution.