THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF POLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF POLAND

Poland, Germany's eastern neighbour and Britain's new ally against aggression, has been the saviour and the victim of Europe. Ft was the bulwark against the pagan onslaught in the 11th century. It held up the Turks when they threatened to overrun Europe in the ]sth. Often Poland ha» collapsed almost in the hour of triumph, her neighbours falling on. her to rend her. Poland's fate has been a tragic one. not once or twice, but three times, In the fir.st period, when Boleslus was its warrior king, he extended the Polish Empire in one plain from the Black Sea; but treachery brought disaster, because Poland has no natural frontiers, and except for the superb river system of the Vistula ami its tributaries, the country hat* few notable feature.*. Twenty years after Hiilo«ln« died Poland's enemies swept away the remnants of civilisation and Christianity of which she had been the guardian, and the country became a wilderness. It was a century before she made any recovery, an<l then she partitioned herself into c• i■_• 111 principalities, which divided, were unable to make headway against her fo<-s. Poland's history during the next three centuries i.s too complicated to follow in detail. Tt is the story of its rulers, Wenoeslauc«. Lad Ula us. and Caehnir the Oreat. Thc-e were the

Tioininerv of flip .Jiiyiclln lino of prhlfiT- wild Cjlllll' illto |l(l\V('l' wlic'll Poland allied lici-cli i.i Lithuania. and iiiiii-li hi" Poland"- power in Kui'Ope W;|< re.-t.ored to her. Wlll'll the Juuii'llii lini , came t" an end. aliout Lilt- thin , Klizatieth was reigning in Knyland, Poland again fell u> pieces. In the two [■outline* lietween the death nf t In- lad .Taijiello an<l the First Partition of Poland l> v her powerful neighbours, Prussia, a n<! Austria, tlie dni'ioii.c liniiotit , of the I'olisli crown wn< f• ijt ii|i In i,y the iiolil-w who r.- iKy rnl.-.I I'.il.iiid. ll was coil furred in tin n mi :i Frenchman, a Huii.surinn. three

Swedes, two Poles, two Saxooe nominated by Austria, and a nominee of Catherine of Russia. The nominated kings had no power. There was no administrative system. Parliament was a farce. Each nobleman did what was right in his own eyes, and dealt as lie would with hie serfs. The mass of the people were serfs tied to the soil, and there wae no middle clase between 1 and the IiiD.OOO aristocratic families. Poland was ready to fall to pieces from rottenness. Her neighbours, whose convenience it had suited to respect her independence, thought the time had come to pick up the pieces for themselves. Thtu* came the First Partition of Poland, suggested in 17(i!> by Frederick of Prussia. Frederick came to an agreement with Catherine of Knssia, and they laid I heir plans to overthrow Poland. The Polish patriot* could offer only ineffective opposition, and in 1772 the First Partition was consummated. Austria took the best share. Prussia obtained \\'<*t Prussia, Russia got what was called White Russia. What was left of Poland tried to brinir about order, but in vain. In \7W.i, with a Russian army in occupation, the Second Partition took place. tyranny drove the Poles to revolt under their heroic leader Ko,-cinsko. In 1704 they threw the l;u<-ian garrisons out of Cracow,

Wiir.-;nv find Wiliiii in turn, but i llieirs wa- :i Imrveu triumph. The lliree iirmiers of l'iu--i.i. l!n-<ia an<l ; Allritliil i-i ii.-hrd I lie pimr little patriot army wliieh had done so \aliantlx. Kosiiii.-ko w;i.< defeated at the Battle of Mueiejow iee, and. covered ■with wound-, he fell into the hands of his enemies. Poland was crushed. and in 1795 wa< wiped oIT tlie map lof Kinope. In the Third Partition Hus-ia took all the country up to the iNienieii and 1 lie liuj;. Pril-ti>itl, after r-. 111.11 ■;. ii> itj wiili Austria. j;ot Ka*t I'l-u.-.-ia and Smith ]'ru><iu. includinw VVai"UW; Aii-aria had to be contented i witli Cracow and West Gulioia.

After the destruction of Poland many Poles took refuge in France, and a Polish legion fought under the haiiner of ■ the French Republic. Napoleon, after defeating the Prussians at Jeua, marched into Warsaw and WEU3 acclaimed ae Poland's Liberator. But he did give back most that Prussia had taken, and constituted a Grand Duchy of Warsaw, under which the Poles enjoyed better government than ever before. Serfdom was abolished, schools founded, a code of law established. When N'apoleon marched into Kiuseia the grateful Poles contributed HO.uOO men. They periehed in the. |{u«*sian snows, iindthe Duchy of Warsaw with them. Again Poland came under the heel of a conqueror; and when, after Napoleon's banishment to Klhn. the Peace Congress of Vienna attempted to redistribute it. moi-a of it passed ilo tin- C/.ar Alexander a<? King of i Poland. Before the Great War began Poland was still insurgent. There wae a Polish Socialist party, of which i Marshal Pilsudski was the leader. j His declared ideal was to save ! Poland for the West. For nine years I before the war he worked to form the kerne] of what was to become a Polish national army. When the conflict began Poles were enlisted on ' the = ide of Austria, and when the I lliMrfiaiid were ejected from Warsaw. . ' in return of service*. Germany and 'Austria declared a Polish State in

November, 1910. Germany wanted (lie Polish army, and was not prepared to grant complete Polish independence. PilsudekL was put in a Herman prison. When lie emerged from it the war was over and the Poles who had been ready to give up their livee for freedom, eeized the opportunity offered to them and with ae uiucli determination Oβ they had fought. Their leader sent a -wifeless message to the Allies, to Germany, and to all other States, notifying them of the existence of an *indei>endent and united Polish State. In the passing of a cloud Poland was spreading iUs wiiige to fly toward* (lie «um. There must have been many doubters. Who could truest the little volunteer army and the scattered Polish nation. The contemptible little tinny reinforced its appeal by capturing and holding Lwow against it* Ukrainian beelegers. Much of the story, though not all of it belong* In the transactions of the Peace Conference, from which Poland emerged on June 28, 1919, as a recognised independent State. Her Western frontier from the eea to upper Silesia was then determined, and the Polish German frontier in the years 1920 and 1921. By other decisions the frontiers with Czechoslovakia, with Hiiet<ia and Lithuania were In id down. Poland liad regained territorially all, or nearly all she had lost ; but she gained what she prized ruor<t, I her Independence and freedom.