PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3399, 7 May 1919, Page 57

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE THREE PARTITIONS OF POLAND—AND AFTER.

In my second Chat I gave reigns in British history corresponding to the times mentioned in the history of Poland. By such references one can see that, while great changes were taking place in Britain owing to her insularity and sea power, our Motherland was not convulsed by such violent changes governmentally and territorially as occurred on the Continent. But conditions making for Britain's security do not exist to nearly the sarnie extent as formerly, so there is all the more necessity to aim at two tilings—keeping fit and being efficient. But I must not allow myself to be sidetracked, though I can hardly prevent it when interpreting the future, by the lessons of the past. THE BREAKING-UP OF POLAND. About the middle of the eighteenth century (say 1760, when George 111 was King and we were in the middle of the Seven Years' War —1756-63) the movement began to break up Poland. The spirit of nationalism was very strong in the Kingdom of Poland, which had covered an area more extensive than some of the modern leading Powers, and included Ukraine. You will notice by the cables how Poland and Ukraine are inseparably connected. But though intensely national, its organisation was defective, and the Government had hardly any power. " It was in fact, a mere congerie of feudal estates, each governed more or less by its lord. Without any effectual national organisation, this extensive State invited aggressions, which were made easy by the open character of its clumsy frontiers, and for which opportunity was given by the religious differences' of the Polish people. Hence there occurred in the later eighteenth century a series of aggressions which resulted in the total, extinction of Poland as an independent State." Here is another extract putting the matter perhaps better: " It possessed no natural frontiers other than its Baltic shore, and its population was a medley of peoples —Poles in the centre, Germans in the west, Lithuanians and Russians in the east, whose different religions added to the causes which prevented national cohesion. The Germans were Protestants, the Poles and Lithuanians were Roman Catholics, and the Russians belonged to the Orthodox or Eastern Church. None the less Poland played a great part in mediasval history." The question arises: If in the past Poland owed its downfall to lack of cohesion, how is it to be reconstituted and made able to defend itself? What can a League of Nations do to nrevent Russia, Germany, and Austria from combining? There I am again on the philosophising track! THE FIRST PARTITION—I 772. • Before 1772 Frederick the Great bad sounded Russia on a partial dismemberment of Poland, and had approached Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, on the same subject. At first she had qualms of conscience on the matter, remembering how Frederick the Great had taken Silesia from her, ignoring the " scrap of paper," the Pragmatic Sanction, he had signed guaranteeing her the Austrian Empire on the death of her father. She finally agreed, however, and the result was the slicing off of the three areas indicated by the close parallel lines in the map I reproduced. This linked up Prussia with Pomerania. Older readers will remember Bismarck's saying that the Balkan trouble was not worth sacrificing a Pomeranian soldier for! Yet the Balkans within a generation have- cost

millions of men and tens of thousands of millions of money! Russia got a strip, including the important towns of Mohilev. Vitebsk, and Dvinsk; while Austria took the area" containing Lemberg, Przemysl, and Tarnopol—the two former names very familiar in the cables in the, first period of the war. THE SECOND PARTITION—I 793.

Shakespeare says "How oft the right to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done." And so with slicing off of Poland. You Avill notice on the map I gave that Austria did not participate in the second slicing, for Austria was concentrating all her energies on the Revolutionary War with France, and so had no troops to spare for elsewhere. Here, again, an aside is almost necessaryto give a rounding off. At the beginning of the Seven Years' War Maria Theresa gave birth to Marie Antoinette, who at an early age (15 or 16 years) became the wife of the Dauphin (not much older), who in 1774 succeeded to the throne as Louis XIV. He was then only 20, untrained to his responsibilities, and a weak character. His wife was "pleasureloving and frivolous and wantonly extravagant." She and Austria became very unpopular, and therefore when the French Revolution broke out the two nations were at war, so Austria got nothing when the second partition of Poland took place in 1793. Prussia got Thorn, Posen and Danzic, and the Valley of the Warta, while Russia annexed Minsk. Pinsk, and Berdichev. I might have added that the Russians forced matters to a head for the second partition by ordering the entire disbanding of the Polish army. A rebellion resulted, headed by the Polish hero, Kosciusko, mentioned in. my first Chat. Of course, the Polish army was annihilated. THE THIRD PARTITION—I79S. In this "Prussia, Austria, and Russia all joined in the spoil, and mutually promised that the name of Poland saould never reappear on the map of Europe." Prussia got Mittau, Kovno, Wilna, Grodno, and Brest-Litovsk; Austria got Lublin and Cracow; and Russia Courland and Warsaw. And" so Poland disappeared. Uf course, I am giving just the prominent names. Much more could be written ; but I must hurry on. THE GRAND DUGBY OF WARSAW—--1807. In 1807 Napoleon established' the Grand Duchy, and tlie pititul appeals made by Poles to Polish patriotism to get their independence again, and. the calculated use XN'apoleon made of it to enlist Tolish troops tor use against Russia are matters of mstory. Napoleon used the Poles aa pawns to suit His purpose, and in 1807, when he organised witn the Russian lunperor at Tusit tiie dividing of Europe between himself and his partner, he cast the Poles adrift. THE KINGDOM OF POLAND—IBIS. One of the unstable creations of the Vienna Congress in 1815 was the Kingdom of Poland. Czar Alexander granteu the Poles a charter, but in 15 years only four Polish Diets met, and their powers were limited. A press censorship, violation of the charter closing up Catholic schools and monasteries in 1819, caused seething discontent. We read of the "Whites" seeking to get reforms consti'tutionally,- and the ;"Jtteds" resolving to imitate the French Revolution. Things came to a head in 1830. THE REBELLION IN 1831. A wave of rebellion against monarchies broke out in Europe in the thirties. ''En November an uprising occurred in Warsaw [news had come of the downfall of the Bourbons in France, and Napoleon 111 eventually took possession; but I must not deviate again]; the insurgents secured control of the city, drove out Grand Duke Coiistantine " and the Russian officials, organised a provisional Government, and appealed to the European Powers for aid. Finding the Czar inflexible in his refusal to grant them any concessions, the leaders of the insurrection proclaimed the independence of Poland, January 26, 1831. " Europe, however, made no response to Poland's appeal. The Czar's armies were soon able to crush the rebellion, and when Poland lay prostrate at his feet Nicholas gave no quarter. He revoked the Constitution, abolished the Diet, suppressed the national flag, and transferred 45,000 Polish families to the valley of the Don and the mountains of the Caucasus." REBELLION OF 1863. This I cannot find Fpace for; but it was even a greater one than that of 1831. I have written enough to show that Poland is a difficult problem —partly of its own making by clinging to a feudal system, reducing its peasantry to serfs; partly because it had no unity in the government; and partly because it had no natural frontiers. These drawbacks still exist. When the war broke out in 1914 the Germans declared that they would liberate the Poles, and Czar Nicholas II promised them "a separate Constitution and the reunion under his own Government of all the old provinces of the Polish Kingdom." Polish legions were organised by both Prussians and Russians, much the same as Napoleon did, but not directly to further the aims of tfce Poles!' Germany and Russia have done all they can to wipe out the Polish nation by making laws suppressing Polish institutions, prohibiting the Polish language and literature, and dispossessing them of the soil and supplanting them by putting Russians and Prussians in their places. What is the end to be? _ Zanctio paper is so wonderfully sensitive that when placed under writing: paper the aot of writing produces porfect, permanent pencopios. Every sheet stamped Zanotic. Any stationer oan oupply. Penoavbon (Ltd.), Leicester.