STORMY CAREER

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 July 1935, Page 8

STORMY CAREER

PILSUDSKI JN POLAND WORK FOR INDEPENDENCE | ENDED AS DICTATOR i Josef Pilsudski, the Polish diclatoi. wtiose death otturied icceutiy, was ooin near v ilna m 1867. He tamo m ‘ ucbie slock and ol an old Lithuanian ' .aiiiily which, having become i'oio- ' tti-sed, was more Polish than Die L’oics, ihe Alauchesler Guardian. He ' went Io study medicine al Kharkov, • and piomptly joined the new parly ol social Democracy, with the result that • * the police laid violent hands upon him 1 and had him sent to {Siberia. Return mg in 1893, he broke with the Russian parly and with Rosa Luxemburg auu others founded the {Socialist Party ol - Poland. From 1893 to J DU-4 he indulged ■ Lis natural talent for conspiracy to the full. He founded an “ underground '' {Socialist daily, and, pursued by the 1 police, moved its headquarters from town to town till he was finally cap1 lured at Lodz in 1900. bviit to prison he feigned madness so successfully • that eminent specialists sent him to a i Pcfrogiad asylum. Here he met a 1 patriotic Polish doctor, who helped him ' to escape to England, but within two 1’ years he wa.« back in Poland successi fully eluding the police. He returned to find Polish Socialism I a big parly with views radically diii ferent from his own. In Alarxisni and - economic.-, Pilsudski had little jnfer- • esf. He was a national and not an . international revolutionary, in the old - Garibaldi tradition, caring little what r form of government was established - so long as it wjis a free Government in a free Poland. He worked for a national rising, while the party worked for a proletarian revolution. The outbreak of 1905 in Russia brought matters to a head. While the party cooperated with the Russian Socialists and Liberals in their constitutional struggle, Pilsudski organised armed attacks on Russian troops. With Austria in the War * His intense anti-Russianism secured him a welcome in Austria. When the war came .Pilsudski mobilised I* ls legions and offered them to Austria as a Polish army. He <lid not stop to argue the merits of the Powers at war; all he saw was the necessity for • the defeat of Russia. Whether or not the Austiians shared his illusion that Poland would rise at his bidding is not certain, but they , soon found that they had a very recalcitrant ally. He carried his point L against the incorporation of his legions in Austrian units, and succeeded in , keeping them a separate force, but he was constantly bickering with the Austrian command, and in spite of the heroic conduct of the legions in the battles iu Poland was more a source of trouble than of help. Failing to obtain a definite statement on the intentions of the Central Powers he stopped recruiting fc-r the legions and finally resigned. The Austrians, not wishing to lose a gallant corps, refused . to accept the the resignation, -whereupon Pilsudski, without reference to Austrian headquarters, withdrew the legions from the line. He was saved from the consequences of the act by the Germans, who had visions of using Poland’s man power i against the Allies, and when on November 5, 1916, the Central Powers i issued the first proclamation of Polish independence Pilsudski under German auspices was sent to organise a Polish army. He was no less troublesome to his new patrons. He refused to organ iise an army unless there was a true national Government, and compelled that German invention, the Council uf Slate, of which he was a member, to address an ultimatum to Germany. The council feared to stand to its guns, and iu great anger Pilsudski resigned. The Russian revoluti<>n and the promise to create, a free Poland ended the struggle with Russia as far as he was concerned. He saw no need for Poland to shed the blood of her sons any longer on the Russian battlefields, and ordered the legions to disband. His attitude was so threatening that the Germans, fearing he wa.s about to lrcad a national rising against them, deported him to Madgeburg, where he was kept i n strict detention in the fort rcss. Polish Independence Here he remained till the German revolution. Prince Alax s Cabinet refused to release him, ami he owed his freedom to a fcipartacist rising at Madgeburg. He at once made for Warsaw, which he reached on November Id, tu receive a tremendous reception Hom the capital. The Council of {Stale accepted him as “Chief of .Slate,’’and he al once summoned the legions together, dismissed the council, and proceeded iu disarm the German troops. The capital was in confusion, the parties disagreed on nearly everything save tin independence of Poland, but thanks to Pilsudski’*, energy arid, for once, tael and forbearance unity was attained, and in January Paderewski formed the first, national Government. As iicad of the State Pilsudski was also commander-in chivf, and the now Poland found itself at. war with Germans, Czechs, Russians and Ukrain :ans. With astounding energy Pilsudski (rented a Polish army, and will) Allied aid succeeded in liquidating one r ion( after the other [/ending the settlement by the Peace Conference of Poland’s frontiers. | n the spring of 1920 he launched a great offensive mto South Russia, but he over-estimatea Poland'., strength I'lip invaders took ixicfl’, but the Russian counterattack threw i hem back tc. the gales of Warsaw. For a moinfent it seemed as if Poland would perish; sue-our was hurried from the west, and outside t’.e ■ apital a great fixe days’ battle em’md in the capture of Brest Litovsk. The Lithuanian Coup In the confusion oi‘ the moment Pil.'Ud.'ki seized ihp chance Io settle :k < mints with Lithuania. I'hvre is ! ittle doubt now that Zeligow ski s < ( iup nt \ ilna, which has since kept Eastern l.utopc in a state ol dangerous tension, wa.> eariied out with the (ottnivanee, if '">l al the instigation, of the head "I Hie State. Tim coup was without excuse, ami only the general e.viiaiis(ion of all the belligerents saved Lastern l.ui'.pe a long war. In 1922 Pilsudski retired from active political life and from his army po«ilion, and devoted his time tn not always seemly vont roversy on the ex puts of lhe war of 1920. He issued a scries (.-f articivs vigorously attacking the Government, and by the end of 1925 the country was. divided into Pilsudsl<i.,( s am] anti Pilsudskis!s. The quarrel (paired round the Bill to make

him inspectoi-geenral of the army and commamicrin-cniel in time of war. i’he Government wished to subordinate the army to the direct control of Parliament; the I’ilsudskists desired to make their leader independent of the War Office. Bilsudski was championed by the {Socialists, and the Government under iSkizynskj resigned. He was sue cetded by lhe Peasant and anti I’iisudskiht Witos. Pilsudski suspected W itos uf dvsigning to set up a .Right Jictatoiship, which would have ended hi a Fascist, regime, ami on May 14, 1923, he suddenly collected his partisans and marched un Warsaw. The Government resisted, but the Socialists by proclaiming a general strike, prevented the transpoit of troops, and alter severe street fighting Pilsudski occupied the capital. The Government an.] President resigned and Pilsudski was elected President by I’arhament, ■mt ivigned in favour of his henchman M. Moscicki accepting the Min istiy of War in the Bartel Cabinet. I’he new Cabinet prc/oecded to amend the Constitution in order to give the Lxecutixe more power, and removed the army from the politicians’ control to place it entiielv under Pilsudski, The Dictatorship The Parliamentary majority was still anti Pilsiidskisl ami as it recovered Horn the shock of the coup d'etat it proceeded to harass the Cabinet. Ju October Pilsudski took over the ITcmiership and set himself to create a Pilsudski party gathered from all the old parties, with the intention at once of curbing the Right ami freeing himself from dependence on the Left. At the election in March, 1928, Pilsudski won a victory. In April it was ieported that he had had a stroke. His Cabinet resigned in June, 1928, but in the Cabinet formed by Bartel he re