A HUGE CEMETERY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14700, 3 September 1915, Page 4

A HUGE CEMETERY.

A -neutral correspondent who recently visited the country says he travelled across Northern Poland and Galicia, and saw all the bigger cities, towns, and villages. On an area of 10,000 square miles between the Anstro-Gcrman fighting lines up to the Vistula, Bznra, and Nida, stretches one huge, endless cemetery, one vast desert, with only chimneys and heaps of ruins, which show that this was an inhabited country, where human beings lived a peaceful life. “Poland," says the writer, “suffers as no country in Europe has suffered yet. Every second inhabitant is left without shelter and without bread. Hundreds of thousands of the terrorstricken population wander about . this desolation, through thousands of miles of ruins and graveyards. ' What has become of the proud Polish nation? It is a nomad tribe, living like wild beasts in underground caves and hollows. : The roads are crowded with thousands of miserable paupers, who beg for pity and help from,others who are likewise destitute." But the world, cannot let the survivors perish. The Poles have contributed noble gifts to the intellectual and artistic common stock of Europe. This Slavonic people, that was once a great Slavonic nation, shared in the special civilisation, and also in the religious faith of the Latin nations. Intellectually they have much in common with the alert and subtle Latins. The future of the Poles when the war is over is a fascinating problem for the political reconstructor who is eager to redraw the map of eastern and south-eastern Europe in accordance with the principle of nationality.- But the present plight of the homeless arid starving Poles engages the attention of every true humanitarian who understands how much Poland has contributed' to the world’s great treasure house of art and letters, as well as to the, deathless cause of human freedom and enlightenment.