POLISH PEASANTS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 110, 3 February 1930, Page 10

POLISH PEASANTS

BACKWARD STATE OF CIVILISATION YOUNG AUCKLANDER’S VISIT CLAIMS FOR NEW ZEALAND POETRY (United Press Association.— By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. February 2, 5.5 p.m.) London, January BL According to Count Geoffrey De Montalk, a young Aucklander claiming an ancient Polish title, who came to England from tho Dominion in 1928 to boost New Zealand poetry, the peasantry of Poland is still in a worse state of civilisation than the Maoris were before the white occupation. Count de Montalk says, after a visit to Lithuania and Poland: “The nobles are still the only civilised people. When we met peasants walking or riding they bowed to the ground exclaiming, < ‘Good day, mighty lords.’ It is still the practice to address the nobility as tho ‘mightiest.’ The common people are no better than African natives, except that they are'whlte in colour. I was the first member of the De Montalk family for three generations to enter a Polish Palace. I am glad I am a New Zealander, with no need to remain in that medieval land.” Count de Montalk told a literary audience at Foyle’s Bookshop in a lecture that New Zealand- had produced better poetry than William Shakespeare had ever thought of. The audience was not impressed, even when tho speaker mentioned that he had written some himself.