SALUTE TO POLAND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 48, 13 February 1945, Page 4

SALUTE TO POLAND

IT is natural that thoughts will turn today with especial force to Poland. There are: few who will forget that it was on September 1 five years ago that Hitler launched the attacks on Poland which directly precipitated the conflict that has spread since to global proportions. It is to theiv everlasting credit that the Poles refused meekly to succumb to German might, well though they knew the odds against them. The war of 1939 ended in Poland when Warsaw capitulated, a city of ruins which had endured 22 days of merciless assault. But the end of the fighting did not end Polish resistance. The Polish spirit was not broken by the dire events that had fallen on the country and as time passed that spirit found increasing opportunity for expression in action. That the Poles have suffered is beyond any question. Irrefutable evidence establishes that the rigorous methods of oppression practised by the Germans against the Poles have extended to the extremes of bestiality. Because of this degree of extreme pressure it may be said, therefore:, that the spirit of free men has been kept alive in Poland in a way unexcelled in history. It piles tragedy on tragedy that the Polish will to freedom has had such' sad results as are apparent at the present time. For the second time in five years Poland's capital city has been a battle field. It is a blot on this picture of a valorous people that due to politics Poland is one of the most difficult problems confronting the United Nations. Where the fault lies it is not for the moment to consider. The thought that dominates as one looks over the record of Poland's resistance over the past five years is that such a valorous and stouthearted people do not merit the political clouds that hang over them. The Polish people have fought for freedom and in a simple way without political calculations impinging on their cause. The salute that the free world will give today to the people of Poland, first to resist the Nazi aggressor, leaves out of account therefore political controversies, and is a salute, to a brave and valorous nation.