“ZWYCIESTWA” IN “POLSKA”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 144, 31 March 1948, Page 4

“ZWYCIESTWA” IN “POLSKA”

THE POLES HAVE A WORD FOR IT Here we are in the land of Przybylsk and Zebrzydowice, where there is plenty of Sltrzeszewski but not much Zwyciestwa, writes Neville Smith, European correspondent of the Melbourne “Argus.” Where they turn a perfectly simple river name like Vistula into Wtsla. It looks like a typographical compositor’s nightmare, I admit, but those queer agglomerations of consonants are not fantasies of a disordered imagination. They are perfectly good post-war Polish. \ Mr Przybylsk was a Warsaw architect and engineer, so noted that they have raised memorials to him. Zebrzydowice is the frontier town between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Mr Skreszewski is the Polish Minister for Education. And Zwyciestwa means “liberty.” The central square of old Warsaw was once known as Pilsudslti Sqtiare. During the German occupation it became Adolf Hitler Square. To-day is is Plac Zwyciestwa.

And present-day Poland’s paesioil for letters is not confined to its own words. Washington becames Waszyngton in Polish, and Paris is Parlz. Marshal Joseph Stalin likes to have things named after him, and those countries which are near enough to Soviet Russia to be anxious to oblige have,done so. But while in Prague one of the streets leading oi the main boulevard is called simply Tr Marsala Stalina, Warsaw has dressed Uncle Joe up into the Aleje Marszallia Josefa Stalina, and thrown in a few accent marks for good measure. If Joe ever thought of thanking the Poles for the compliment, he would'' say “Dziekuje,” and propronounce it “Chink-via.” Before I came to Poland I was introduced to a delightful Polish woman in London and was told that, her name was Barouska, but when I met her again in Poland the name had become Zborowska. just to make it easy. Similarily, I was told to call on a Mr Kemplicz in the Polish Embassy in London to arrange about my passport visa, only to discover that, while he pronounced his name “Kemplitch,’ he spelt it “Keplicz.” The secret was that there was a little wiggle under the “p” which is not included on the keyboards of British typewriters and printing machines, but which that an “m” or “n” sound is to he introduced into the word. The Rzecpospolita Polska, which anybody will recognise as the Republic of Poland, was kind enough to afford me certain facilities for carrying out newspaper work, and my Zaswiadczenie of accredation certified that the Ministertwo Spraw Zagranicznych De partment Prasy i i Informaci stwierdjza, ze pan Neville Smith phzyvwa w Polsce w cliarakterze korrespondenta piem australijckich “The Argus” i “The Australasian Post.” Any Pole could tell from that that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press and Information Department recognised me as a bona fide representative of The aigus” and “The Australian Post,” of Australia, but the Ministry’s instruction that the Urzedom Telegrafifznym przjmowanie od p. Smitha depeszz wedlug taryfy prasowej did not prevent a news message which I lodged for “The Argus” as press tariff rates being delayed 48 hours in transmission.