POLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1939, Page 2

POLAND

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. Poland’s name means Land of Fields; The country sprawls north of Germany, between Germany and Russia. In the south Germany could also march iu from,what used to be Czechoslovakia. Down at the eastern corner is Rumania. North lies Russia, and along that border are marshes larger than Belgium or Holland.

Most of Poland is flat country. Poland is one-twentieth the size of Australia. That means it is about three-quart-ers the size of France, nearly as big as Spain

A neck of Poland stretches out to the Baltic Sea between Germany and East Prussia (that part of Germany that is cut off by this neck of land) known as the Polish Corridor. It reaches to the Baltic Sea, and there is the free port of Danzig and Poland’s only port, Gdynia. So, if Poland is attacked she has no friends on her borders now that the non-aggression pact counts out Russia, except weak Rumania.

Butvltussia has never been a friend of Poland. They fought on opposit ■ sides in the Great War. After tin war ended for other countries, war flamed up again between them. In 191? Russia attacked and nearly crushed Poland, until a dramatic counter-attack ciiove the Russians out.

The Poles, mainly Catholics and do voutly religious, have hated Bolshevik Russia as a godless country.

Poland' has 35,000,000 people. With the highest birthrate in Europe, it haincreased 8,000,000 in the past 20 years Only 7 out of 10 of the people in Poland are Poles. The rest are Rutlienirns, Germans and Jews. Poland has a great many Jews. They control much of the life and industry of the cities. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, L about the size of Sydney, with almost the same population. Right in the centre of Europe’s map, it is only five flying hours from Berlin; it is 12 flying hours from London, nine from Paris.

Poland’s-living standard is said to be the lowest in Europe.

Most of the farm land in Poland is owned by great landowners. Tinpeasants still work and live , more or less 'in a state of serfdom. In any other country probably they'would have revolted. But with the menace on their borders the hungry Pole dares not risk a civil war. He knows that Hitler would step in as Hitler did in Spain. Thousands of the peasants live almost entirely on potatoes. Meat, milk and bread are luxuries they seldom see. Their crops are- rye, wheat, oats, bar. ley and sugar beet and cattle are ram ed.

In recent years the Polish Government has been trying to industrialist more of the counted. Poland -has great textile mills, and these turn out the main manufactures Hitler eyes greedily the coal mines o ! Upper Silesia and the mines and oi' fields of Galicia. Forty per cent, of the peasants ar illiterate. This state of affairs is’slowL being remedied. The workers in th< cities are getting a “New Deal” with State insurance and better conditions.

But a great- mass of people on the land still live like primitives.

Poland is older historically than Germany, Russia or Britain. Poland >vprsiiips her own history, and the past. The great Joseph Pilsudski, the godhead patriot of the Pole, is still their real ruler, though he has been dead since 1935. To speak slightingly of him is to court a gaol sentence of three years. The Poles have always been groat soldiers. In the European brawls of tinMiddle Ages they were, supreme. They defeated the Moravians, Bohemians (Czechs), Hungarians, and they smashed Russia’s Ivan the Terrible.

That do-or-die spirit is still aflame today. Poland could put on the battle-field about four million men. They would not be as well equipped as the Germans. They have not the same mechanised power or the same powerful planes and guns. They would qie fighting—but they would surely, die without the aid of Britain or France. Poland’s leaders to-day are:— -Marshal Smigly-Rydz, the “dictator*’ of Poland.

Professor Mosoicki, President. Colonel Josef Beck, the Foreign Minister, who is reckoned the real tore? and pilot of Poland’s destiny. In the Great War Beck fought with Austria against the Allies until 1917.' Then he turned against German domin ation and organised the Poles against Russia and Austria. '

Australia has little trade with Poland but some interesting associations with Poles. Mt. Kosciusko was named after Poland’s great patriot of last century.

The mountain was discovered and named by the Polish scientist and ex* olorer, Count Strzelecki, who came to Sydney 100 years ago. The Duke and Duchess of Kent frequently spend holidays in Poland, staying with Count Alfred Potooki, who owns an estate of 30,000 acres. 'Last year- Mrs Harriet Stewart Dawson, wealthy society woman of Sydney, married a 69-vear-old Polish nobleman, Prinee Michael Radziwill, a member of cue of the great land-owning families.