POLAND’S RASH FINANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18951, 27 August 1923, Page 12

POLAND’S RASH FINANCE.

ARMY COSTS MORE THAN ENTIRE REVENUE. DOMESTIC TROUBLES. One of the most remarkable features of the present period is that Poland, notwithstanding all the assistance by Franco, should seo the entire breakdown of her currency, and the new panic of rising prices, which has come with the swiftness of an avalanche (writes a correspondent in the London Observer) Her case also proves that occupations and annexations, despite tho seeming growth of wealth, do not contribute towards improving bad economic conditions caused unsound administration, the unwillingness of her peasants (some 70 per cent, of her population) to pay sufficient taxes, the unsatisfactory domestic situation, and tho huge army expenses. The cost of the army in the current budget is put at 709,090,000 Polish gold florins (about 28,500,000 livres sterling), against 691,000,000 gold florins, as the whole revenue of the Finance Ministry. Her financial experts declared that Poland could not exist without the valuable oilfields of Eastern Galicia. In contravention of the Treaties of Peace she became owner of that large territory, acquiring' with it millions of enemies .within her borders; tho annexation has not made the Polish mark rise. The collapse of the Gorman mark, it is true, is of serious consequence, since Germany is one of Poland’s most important customers for coal. The real causes of the trouble, however, are of a different nature. One of them is the veiled dictation of the Agrarians, Poland is very wealthy in products of the soil, . and last year’s harvest left her a surplus of 150,000 tons for export. But the peasants sold only iu dollar prices, which caused an immense upward movement in tho cost of living. Thi.g rise, again, lias meant a bad blow to Polish industry, especially cotton goods, in which the Czechs already compete successfully. Poland’s textile industry, with its centre at Lodz, is now threatened with complete stagnation, owing to tlie breakdown of the currency. Tho Nationalist spirit is still in the ascendant, and the large majority •of tho re-cently-appointed Government of M. Witos is “All-Polish.” The chauvinistic elements have developed tho art of making enemies on all sides. , Lithuania, Danzig, Upper Silesia, Easterik Galicia, to say nothing of others, are so many smouldering fires. Despite her great military protection, Poland is neither safe nor happy. Her agrarian - problem, consisting in the main in the parcelling out of tho ground to the satisfaction oK.tho little peasants, is still unsolved, in consequence- of resistance on tho part of the big landed proprietors. So is the thorny question of the national minorities. After the bomb outrages in connection with the Cracow and Warsaw, Universities, the Nationalist students have now succeeded in getting the pier cent, norm through. This is directed not only against tho Jews, but all foreign students. Thus anti-Semitism and reaction triumph all along the line.