POLISH POLITICS

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1937, Page 12

POLISH POLITICS

PADEREWSKI JOINS LABOUR PARTY. Ignace Paderewski, the pianist and composer, has re-entered Polish politics by joining the Labour Party, a new political organisation that is a fusion of the Christian Democrats and the National Workers. He gave his blessing to the new party in a letter from Morges, Switzerland, which was read at a meeting recentiy. The letter severely criticised the idea of “government by an elite” advanced by the regime of the late Marshal Joseph Pilsudski. “Poland needs a strong Government," it said, “but only through the people and by the people. The Pole never will be a slave of his ruler. Poland wants no dictatorship. The Poles, a Christian people, base their political faith and humanitarian principles on equal rights and equal law for all.”

M. Paderewski is regarded as the spiritual leader of the new party, which, with the Peasant Party, will play a part in the moderate and democratic Centre in Polish politics—between the totalitarian Nationanst group on the Right and the Socialists on the Left.

Former President Wojciechowski, President Moscicki’s predecessor, who resigned after Marshal Pilsudski’s coup d’etat, outlined the party's programme at the conference. He appealed for consolidation of all democratic forces. General Josef Haller, the World War hero who organised a Polish army in France and the United States near the end of the war, was elected chairman. Wojciech Korfanty, an Upper Silesian leader with a strong following, is the virtual leader of the party. The new party should not be confused with Labour Parties in other countries. It is not Socialistic. On the contrary, it is mildly nationalistic and Catholic, pro-French, hostile to Germany, and ready to co-operate with Slav minorities in Poland. It seeks in emigration a solution of the Jewish problem.