POLISH MANIFESTO.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 161, 5 July 1918, Page 5

POLISH MANIFESTO.

Among tlie Polish protests _ against the peace between- the Ukraine and the Central Lowers,' especial importance rfyust be attached to the protest of the' 5,000,000 Poles of Prussia. Th Polish, papers in . Prussian PbJ lanxi of February 28, . £9lB, pufclfe'h the following; iniquity commxt-ted * us ha* ounded all Polish hearts \vher.evei they beat-. The tearing of the land of Chelui from the -Motherland hat raised ■cries of alarm tliTouirhout Po : land. Warsaw, Cracott, Lwow, tilit whole' of Austriaii \Poifertd, hdve already expressed , their indignation. And .we Poles who lire "in Germany, from Poeen, the capital of the ancient prt> : vince of "Great Poland," as far as the Baltic, from -the ancient land of |Silesia, as well as the , hardworking Polish' "emigrants jn- the ' Rhenish. and centres, join in this sol,'cmn' protest of the whole Polish nation. Vv e who know what we have to fear in' regard .to the most sacred human rights, who know how hard the struggle has been; for our Jaml and foi*. out* mother tongue, deeply resent; this attack upon our nationality, 'our re* ligion, our land, arid 'our language. This kind, which the brav-ery. Of our ancestors' set up once as a rampart against tlie savage nordes of the: East, tin's land rendered fertile by ; hundreds of years of j-'olish labour, this laud where for centuries centres of (Polish civib'.-sa-tion and science shone, with the University of Zamosc at their head; thiis land is a land of tears and mourning, whase inhabitants have* (sealed their unity -with Poland by their blood and by- the martyrdom bravely endured for the "Faith of their ancestors. No effort of our oppressors has ib&en; able to _ weaken its purely Polish character. No. one can take amy froih us our historic, national, and moral right to the territory of Chelm. As sons of one and the isame common Motherland, we rise as one in company with all the rest of Poland; and, with fcel : ings of grief - and indignation, against fr«sh outrage of our unity, to our national existence. we solemnly protest before God, before history, , and the tribunal of the world, against, this new partition of Pojianti.