UNHAPPY POLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 199, 24 August 1939, Page 6

UNHAPPY POLAND.

HISTORY'S VERDICT.

INTERNAL WEAKNESSES.

HOW BOUNDARIES CHANGED,

Will it be peace or -war? This is the one question in the minds of millions of people in these tense days. What will the nations do? Almost ringed about by foes, what can Poland do?

What can Poland do? . . . Once again, as many times in the past, Poland ha* become the anvil of circumstances. One of the oldest nations in Europe, no country has had a more chequered story. She has been free, submerged, dismembered, free again. She has produced some of the finest soldiers, statesmen, authors and musicians in modern history. Yet, somehow, the country has never fulfilled the rich promise of her. broad, fertile acres and the chivalry, patriotism, heroism and brilliance of her people. Why? It is probably largely due to an internal condition of the country. H?r constitutional development never kept pace with the inexorable demands of history. Probably it would be more true to say there was never a chance for her to do so, for of all changes, constitutional growth demands freedom from interference. Constitutional Anomalies. One anomaly in the Polish Diet, or Parliament, which has wrecked manv attempts to produce improvement was the fact that one dissentient vote would prevent the passage of a measure. The broad principle of conforming to the wish of -a majority was not realised. Again, the fact that formerly the Polish kingship was elective did not give the opportunity for continuity of administration. The Grown was peddled all over Europe. It is even said that an English duke had aspirations in that direction.

Perhaps more important than all else' was the fact that Poland failed to develop a broad-based sentiment of national unity. Patriotism there wa« in abundance, but it was the patriotism of individuals. In former days there existed in the country two main classes—a nobility and a peasant class. Turbulent, resentful of authority, the feudal barons lived a life apart from the mass of the people. The peasants, subject to some of the worse aspects of feudalism, in their turn were conscious of their own plight rather than the welfare of the country as a whole. There was little understanding or co-operation between the classes; and in its absence, the government of the country was weakened.

What is the position there to-day? No answer is certain, but the testing-time, it would appear, is at hand.

The cold facts of history show that normally long years are "necessary to produce that broad-based and fundaI mental sense of unity which a crisis only makes stronger. Nevertheless the Poles are a nation again, and it is striking evidence of their ultimate capacity to build a nation that all the years they were under subjugation they never forgot or fonswore their ancient tradition of independence. Country's Boundaries To-day. Poland to-day has an area of 150,470 square miles and a population of 34,775,698. She is almost encircled by Germany, the German boundaries marching with hers in the north, west and south. On the east lies Russia. Estonia and Lithuania are the boundaries on the north-east, while between East Prussia and Germany proper runs the Polish corridor, at the head of which is the port of Gdynia. Also in the corridor aTea are the free city and port of Danzig.

Territories which formerly belonged to Russia, Austro-Hungary, Germany and Lithuania now compose Poland. Areas seized by the three first-named countries in the three partitiora in 1772, 1793 and 1795 comprise the main area of the restored country. They were given back after the Great War, while Poland also received in pogt-war negotiations a portion from Lithuania in the northeast.

The erstwhile German area, of 6973 square miles, lies in the north, between east Prussia and Germany, and includes the bone of contention, the Corridor. The whole of the centre portions, with the capital of Warsaw as a focal point, comprising 101,196 square miles, were restored from Russia. The old AustroHungarian dominions, of 30,914 square miles, lie to the south.

In addition to these, it will be remembered that after the September crisis, Poland helped herself to a slice of Czechoslovakia. This was an area adjoining the old boundaries of Czechoslovakia, aggregating 419 square miles with a population of 241,698.

It will be seen, then, that the rejuvenated Poland consists of territories which were restored to her after many years, and which she had to consolidate into a nation. She has had the sa;ne minority troubles as the other nations around her, because in recreating the new State it was impossible to avoid the problems which led to the downfall of Czechoslovakia, which the nation now in danger herself helped to despoil. The Tragedy of History. It is tihe union of these different territories into Poland which has caused those troubles which loom so large today. But to the dispassionate eye of history they are merely another incident in the tragic story of the Poles.

The three dates already mentioned, 1772, 1793, and 1795, saw the extinction of Poland. The elective system of the Polish Crown was the cause of the trouble. Disputes over the election led to the intervention of the neighbouring power®, Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1772. This was the first partition of the country, which, in a state bordering on anarchy, was merely a. puppet.

The 1788-91 Diet made great efforts to reform constitutionally and to make the monarch hereditary, but Russia interfered, was joined by Prussia, and the second partition happened in 1793. The Poles, led by Kosciuszko, revolted, but in the defeat which inevitably followed, Poland ceased to exist as a power (1795).

This, until the post-war years, was the story of Poland; but Poland first emerged from the chaotic area which was then Europe in the tenth century. She reached the height of her power in the period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries under the Jagiellon dynasty. But on the extinction of the Ting the curse of the elective kingship entered to play its destructive part in the tale of the Poles.

Poland is again at the parting of the ways, and it is significent that the same two powers, Germany and Russia, are ■Mar rated.