AN UNHAPPY NATION.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2305, 12 November 1914, Page 3

AN UNHAPPY NATION.

POLAND'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

RUSSIA'S PROMISE

HOPE AFTER MANY YEARS

The cause of Poland, it has often been said, is the cause of freedom itself. From the fourteenth to the close of the'sixteenth, century tho country was the important power of Eastern Europe. It extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from the Elbe and the Oder to the' Dnieper, covering an area of more than 50,000 square miles. The whole constitutional power was in tho hands of the nobility, comprising about 800,000 people, out of a total population ranging from 8,000,000 to 13,000,000. No ruling caste ever exercised a more complete authority. It elected the King, it resisted every popular movement as an attack upon its privileges, and as even a single noble could veto' any proposed law, there could bo no progress. By the middle of tho eighteenth century the election of.King meant putting up the throne at auction, and knocking it down.- to the highest bidder. Poland had been torn by religious conflicts during the thirty • years' war; it soon developed political rivalries quite as destructive. Its neighbours—Prussia under Frederick the Great, and Russia under Catherine tho rich Polish lands, especially' their fine strategic positions, and ports on the Baltic, with increasing oovetousness. Both were ready to grasp them at the first favourable opportunity. The chance soon came. On the death of Augustus 111 in 1763, the Polish nobles sold the kingship to one >of their number named Stanilaus Poniatowsky. For a few yeais the greater part of the country was almost in a state of rebellion. It weakened to its fall. In 1772,: when the power of the Poles for effective resistance had pass-

Ed away, Frederick the Great coolly seized the whole of Prussian Poland, including the beautiful harbour of Danzig, and Catherine took ..over, the "most valuable territories adjoining Russia. Still a Nation.. Poland, "horn as she remained, was still a nation. Her troubles were only beginning. The doctrines of the French revolution swept rapidly throughout the greater part, of Europe, ;■ threatening thrones' and destroying privileges. . An intellectual, artistic, impressionable people like the Poles soon fell under the mfcetion. Iu May, 1791, .they carried through a new constitution, making the kingship hereditary, and establishing a responsible Government. The nobles resisted the advance.'with bitter ferocity. The loss, of territory in 1772 had taught them no lesson. They were prepared . to risk the obliteration of the whole nation rather than the privileges 'of their class. Russia looked on with ostensible sympathy, but in. reality with keen satisfaction. At the instance of that country a great convention of nobles-was convened, and a section of the aristocratic, party virtually appealed to the Tsarina to restore them to their old authority over the common people. Meantime a, Prussian army entered Poland, under the pretence of putting . down an outbreak of Jacobinism, but in '■reality to share with Russia in tho spoil. Once more ' Poland was split up,. this time a good slice of country,

known as Galicia; going to:a third Power in.Austria; From 1795, when there was a third partition, Poland as a- nation ceased -to exist. . It has sunk lower and lower under the heel of oppression (ever, since. • ..

'- The country may' have been incorporated by.,its neighbours, but there was still a brave, chivalrous people. In their, darkest hours they have not forgotten their nation. Their passion for,a restoration .of self-government has at times approached the borders of . insanity. Deluded, betrayed and hunted for- more than a century, the Pole is still ready to shoulder arms for a selfgoverned Poland at the faintest encouragement. The spirit of the ; people has never been broken. Torture,' lifelong imprisonment in the mines of Si-.

beria, galling restraints upon personal ■ liberty, the sacrifice over and over again ± of all that; men hold dear, have. not t 'cooled'-':their' national ardour. The Pole i is stillheroic and hopeful. Tn 1793 the • : people rose - under the dictatorship of j the great Kosciusko in the first of many . rebellions. They fought nobly. After 'three days' fighting the Russians were .'driven, out of Warsaw, and part of the territory seized' b'y Russia was reconquered. ■ In the last battle the hopes of the rebels vanished. Kosciusko fell into the hands .' of his enemies, severely wounded, and the revolt was at an \ end. '..-•'•'■. Napoleon's Perfidy. For years Polish hopes centred in France and Napoleon. . Those familiar with Napoleonic literature will remember the story of the Countess WalewiBki, his Polish mistress. When the terror of Europe cast amorous eyes upon this lady, the leading Poles, and, it is also said, her aged husband,, yleaded with her to respond to his wishes for the sake of lier country. Deluded by the tyrant into the belief that military service on his behalf would lead him.to take up their national tcause, Polish regiments fought . with the, French throughout the Italian campaigns with great valour. On one occasion the first legion,, under Dombrowskij waß almost annihilated.. To the martial strains of .Dombrowski's March—"lt is not, yet' all over with Poland, not so long as' we live"—the confiding Poles led! the charge on many a battlefield. When he made himself Emperor, Napoleon kept a Polish regiment as a bodyguard. Later, he sent thousands of Poles to put down an insurrection of negroes in St. Domingo, where nearly all of them perished.' By 'the time that Bonaparte was preparing for his Russian campaign the people had begun to distrust him. Kosciusko, who had recovered, warned them not to assist without receiving positive public promises. The, French promptly • issued a proclamation in Poland, bearing Kosciusko's * signature—a forgery. It earnestly entreated all Poles to unite with the French in .what was called '!the second Polish war." Fully 80,000 Poles, under Josef Poniatowski, took the field and accompanied tho French , to Moscow. Only'Booo of them came ' back. ' Napoleon cared nothing, for Poland. He merely used the simple people for his own'purposes. Many Rebellions. During the last hundred years "thero have been many Polish rebellions, and at-the repression of each the condition of.the people has become worse than it was before. In. 1830 the moving spirit was a daughter of one of the first families, named Emilia Plater, who is revered by the people as a Joan of Arc. She raised a powerful force, and on one occasion attempted to cut her way through tho Russian army at tho bead of her troops. Polish women, whoa'ro more ' intense ' patriots even than tho men, bivouaced on the battlefield, and their 'cars, it is said, were not offended by a Tude expression. Tsar Nicholas trod out the revolt with brutal feet. Emilia Plater, at the ago of 26, died of want and over-exertion in a hut in tho forest. Amongst the rebels who were executed by the Russians was one j smooth-faced young soldier, who attractj' ed attention through his fatalistic dc- ' meanour. When,the rebels had been shot it was found that the calm and - contemptuous soldier was a beautifu " girl of eighteen. The Tsar visited ~ Poland for the first time in 1835, to L open a fine castle he had built near Wan-Mr. "This castle," he Bald, "has

I not been built for tho protection of tho 1 city, but against it. I advise you to give up this dream of a separate nationality for Poland, and all such chimeras. I declare to you that at the least attempt at insurrection I will have tho city blown to pieces, and I will then nave it razed; and, depend upon it, it shall not bo rebuilt during my reign." Under Russian Rule

The Poles still hoped—sometimes for the help of France, sometimes of Germany, sometimes or Englnnd, and sometimes of Austria. In 1863 they rebelZed again under tho lyric poet and journalist Asnyk; created a secret national government and mobilised an army, 'i'hey fought nobly for weeks, hut llussis. was too powerful. The result was disaster. Fifty thousand were sent into exile; others executed. The last remnant of the people's liberties \3Uished.. There is no Polish, government, municipal or otherwise. The country is paraded by arrogant, corrupt Russian officials. Only a part of the taxes raised is spent in the country; tho rest goes to St.-. Petersburg. If, say, j £10,000 be'granted for a certain wu-k, ! £5000 of it goes into official pockets. Although Warsaw is a beautiful city of 400,000 people, it has no adequate water works and no system of sewerage, and is one of the most unhealthy places in Europe. After 1863 the Press nnd the theatre were subjected to a tyrannical, stupid censorship. A boy «\s once banished from all the schools and. punished because he threw a bouquet tc a. Polish actress, and was thus guilty of "a Polish demonstration." Tho Polish language'was forbidden, at the university and the schools. A schoolboy was shut up in a dark cell, for 24 hours because he said to a comrade in Polish — "Let us go home together." It is a serious offence to sing a national song in a private house, and more serious to sing or play, it in public. In certain circumstances Pole's cannot, hold land; no ono dare dress in Polish costume at a carnival; no one represent Polish characters on the stage,. and no one

dare display Poland's colours or coat of arms. , No Pole can occupy high official positions. A cruel despotism condemned the country to national death. In 1865 an order was issued from St. Petersburg forbidding Poles to address letters in the Polish language. At onoa -the postal revenue' diminished alarmingly, v and as Russia wanted the money the order was promptly 'ountermancled. Poles in Prussia. Inhabitants of Prussian Poland have. at times suffered as severely as their compatriots across the Russian border. , When Germany was at war,with France in 1870, 'however, the Prussians thought it well to flatter them with hopes of independence merely to gain their whole- ' hearted-allegiance. The Poles, as has been said, are confiding to the extent i of childishness. Steinmeti. induced a Polish regiment to storm the terrible- [ heights of Spicheren, and to perform prodigies of valour, by simply ordering '.■ the bands to play the Polish national [ song—"Jeszczs Polska nie Zginela." In times of peace, throughout Prosen. this • tune is sternly prohibited. Until the eighties no German who married a Pol- ' lsh' woman was allowed to settle in ' Prosen, and no Prussian Pole was per- [ mitted to remain there unless he mar-

ricd .a German wife. . Bismarck was so afraid of Polish influence upon the Ger-man-speaking parts,of tho country that 'he-drove out;of Prussia no fewer than 50,000 Poles, men, women, and children. ' Yet the Poles, despite everything, have prospered. Unlike Russia ; and Germany, Austria has treated the beaten people with something like justice. In Gahcia thoy have their own system of self-government, and are freely permitted to epeak their bative^language. The Promised Restoration. Russia promises a -restoration *f Polish local government and freedom, and the Poles are said to bo enthusiastic at the prospect. It seems to bo the triumph of hope over experience. The two- peoples are * separated by fundamental differences. At one timn Poland was almost exclusively Roman Catholic, and the people Eave beenspecially embittered by the same attempts to root out their religion as have been made to eradicate their language and destroy their national sentiment. Yet, though the present Czar's proclamation may.prove as illusory as the deceitful promises of Napoleon or Bismarck, the struggle for Polish freedom will still go on. The hundreds of thousands of chivalrous Poles who have been slaughtered during the last century, who have eaten out their hearts in the mines of Siberia, and who have been hunted to death simply because they loved their country, cannot have died in vain. • ".

Freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won.