POLAND’S AGONY.

Evening Star, Issue 18159, 27 December 1922, Page 4

POLAND’S AGONY.

Poland has always been a distressful ocuntry. There is no reason now why it should he so, and the tide may turn and it may come into its own. ; An evil fate has pursued it down the centuries, and its history is largely one of brave men contending against adverse circumstances. The country should be prosperous, for it contains a rich soil and) many natural rosouroes, and for the purposes of commerce the Vistula, the Dneiper, the Dwina, and their tributaries afford great facilities. But Poland has been unfortunate in her neighbor's. She was beset on all sides by Russia, Austria, and Germany. Her independence was maintained until the end of the eighteenth century, when the three Powers mentioned divided the Polish Commonwealth between them. The Poles, without doubt, have certain inherent weaknesses-, which have always been evident, and internal divisions and warring factions no doubt contributed to her undoing as much as the rapacity of her neighbors. She has produced valiant patriots lilt© John Sobieski and Kosciusko, but great men alone cannot raise a country to greatness if the essential elements are lacking in the people themselves. • During the Great War Russian-Poland was invaded by the Gormans and Austrians, and by the end of 1915 the whole country was occupied by the Austro-Ger-man forces. In November, 1916, the Gorman and Austrian Emperors, in a joint Note, proclaimed the independence of Poland, but neither tho boundaries nor the Constitution of tho State were defined ; but on November 9, 1918, the independence of Poland was proclaimed, and on November 14 Marshal Pilsudski, the Polish leader, who was a prisoner of war at Magdeburg, was freed.

He returned' to Poland, assumed supreme power, and convoked the Constituent Assembly, which confirmed him in his office. On June 28 in the following year the Treaty‘of Versailles recognised the independence of* Poland. It is a big country to-day, with a population, of about 25,000,000 and an opportunity of making a place for itself in the sun, but unhappily the divisions amongst tho people themselves arc retarding its progress. In a time when they should bo working together for tho common good party feeling is acute, 'and this culminated in tragedy recently, when a successor to Marshall Pilsudski as President was appointed. M. Narotowicz had been in office but a few days when ho was assassinated. The reason for the deed is not clear, and it is not easy to understand its political significane, for the assassin merely remarked that ho wished to rid, Poland of a man whom ho considered to be unworthy of the Republic. It may simply bo the work of one mentally unbalanced, or, what is likely from current events, ho may have been the tool) of some political or revoke tionary group. M. Narotowicz was amember of the Pan-Poland National Democratic Party, and was Foreign Minister in tho Sliwinski Cabinet.

Poland) has had a particularly difficult time since 1918. Economic and financial worries, in common with other European countries, she has had in an acute form. She has had immense trouble over her boundaries in Silesia, in Lithuania, and in Russia, and always eho had to bo on guard against a sudden invasion by Sonet troops, which has been threatened from tiirio to time. She has had the horrors of famine and disease to contend with, but perhaps most difficult of all is the refugee problem. Hundreds of thousands of repatriates have swarmed, across the Russian frontier into Poland, for tho most part from the famine-stricken areas of Russia. They return with no money, weak from hunger and disease, to find their homes destroyed and their lands a waste. The total number of deportees, who 'wore forced from homo by the war was, according to Russian official statistics, 3,300,000. The majority of these people were driven out of the eastern part of Poland, and it is in this sector that most of the repatriation work is proceeding. They return to a devastated, war-swept country, and but for the substantial help which is being rendered by the American Relief Administration their plight would be sad indeed. Of course, provided that peace reigns, matters will soon right themselves, for tho people are hard-working' and thrifty agriculturists; hut in tie meantime they walk hand in hand with tragedy. Poland has obtained her freedom, but the way to peace and plenty lies through a valley of horrors.