THE POLISH MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 9

THE POLISH MOVEMENT

COLONIAL DEMANDS

PRESSURE OF POPULATION

Two "Colonial Days" have recently been celebrated in Poland to bring home to the general public Poland's need for colonies or mandates, voiced at the last League session in Geneva.

Manifestations organised by the "Maritime and Colonial League" were held in Warsaw and provincial towns and villages. At the meetings, resolutions were passed, in a wording that is now becoming familiar, recording that Poland demanded "unyieldingly" her rightful share of colonial possessions.

The demand for colonies, fostered by semi-official propaganda, has gradually been gathering weight in Poland, says the Warsaw correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor." It is primarily due to the growing difficulty in obtaining raw materials, caused, by exchange restrictions, but also to the urgent need for an outlet for Poland's large surplus - population. The "Maritime and Colonial League" at first fought a lone battle. But since Germany started her unofficial campaign for the return of her colonies, about 18 months ago, the Polish Foreign Office has entered the lists. Should any international confer-, ence be held with the object of a colonial redistribution, the Foreign Office intends to present a Polish Bill. There is, of course, no question of colonial conquests, such as those staged by Japan and Italy. Poland, it is being pointed out, is in a particularly hard position. On a total population o£ some 34,000,000, there is an annual increase of over 400,000. There seems no prospect of this annual increase declining. POST-WAR RESTRICTIONS. In the years before and immediately after the World War, some 200,000 to 250,000 persons emigrated annually to foreign countries. .Many went to the United States; others, especially since' the World War, have found homes in the mining areas of France and Belgium. ■ ' Many Ukrainians settled-in Canada, where they came to form the second largest minority and were frequently represented in legislative assemblies. Since 1930, however, the emigration has almost stopped. The JohAson Act limited the, number, of Polish emigrants to the United States to under 6000, a year. The French, threatened with an unemployment crisis, refused to prolong Polish workers' permits, and sent them home in special trains. Overpopulation in Poland, particularly in the countryside, is now serious. The peasant holdings tend to become ever smaller. A slowly developing industry cannot absorb the surplus of landless workers. It is estimated that from 4,000,000 ,to 9,000,000 persons "are" now ■ without adequate means of subsistence. The situation is becoming dangerous, both from an economic and from a political point of view. Two interesting proposals for the disposal of this surplus population without the direct acquisition of colonies are being discussed here. One aims at overcoming the primary difficulty of the transfer of money from Poland by the aid of foreign financial aid. It consists in the, creation of an International Colonial Bank, from which intending emigrants would be able to borrow the necessary capital, starting to repay it after a lapse of seven years. Their own money would be left, for the time being, in a special account in the Bank Polski. Certain South American States, it is understood, would be willing to accept emigrants on these terms. BULWARK AGAINST BOLSHEVISM. The other proposal outlined in an article in the Conservative newspaper, "Czas," aims at concentrating the purchase of raw materials in as few foreign colonies as possible, the motive idea being that when Poland has obtained rontrol of 60 per cent, of the exports of any one country, she would be in a good position to bargain for special terms for emigrants. COLONY WITHIN COLONY. Poland would be able to form a kind of colony within _ a colony, .with cultural liberty for the Polish emigrants and special low Polish duties on the raw material which they exported to Poland. In this connection the United States action with regard to Liberia is held up as an example. Most serious-minded circles feel that the.demand for true colonies, however justifiable, has little chance of realisation. But, at the same time, they recall .that in 1913 there seemed little chance of the re-creation of Poland. If the impossible has happened once, they feel that in 1940 Poland may have a colony. Others suggest, with some truth, that the colonial powers of Europe, in allowing Poland an outlet, would be committing an act of selfdefence. Only an economically balanced Poland, they argue, can provide a satisfactory bulwark against Bolshevism.