THE MENACE OF BOLSHEVISM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 143, 12 March 1919, Page 7

THE MENACE OF BOLSHEVISM

POLAND'S DANGER .PADEREWSKI SPEAKS OUT Ignace .Tan Paderqwski, the first President of Die IJepjiWic of Poland, recently denounced Hip. Bolshevist movement in very frank terms. "The Bolshevist idea," ho said, "is to kill all users of (ho toothbrush. If this war is to help mankind, Bolshevism must be/ downed. Otherwise, it ww a -war of hypocrisy. The inevitable result of Bolshevism will be a return to the barbaric era in Russia and Eastern Central Europe. If Poland is not helped to create a barrier against it, then liberty and justice do not exist. Unhappily, the Allies are dis- ! gusted with the kK\ of more vnr. ev-n though it be in their own defence, in their own interest, tor the preeerviition of civilisation. It would be possible now for the Allies to loan wi a hundred staff ' officers for twining purposes and sell us military supplies, clothing, and shoes to help fit out our army, since we have the men. For instance, there is a munition factory with 1,500,000 rounds of ammunition, at Danzig which could be turned over to.us. "There is no doubt that re must have intervention to deal with Bolshevism. Poland's immediate situation is serioue on every side. When.l was in Poson the Germans provoked trouble. I had just landed at Danzig from a British cruiser when an effort was.'made to prevent my going to Posen. The day I arrived I waa asleep in a hotel when a crowd of three or four hundred Germans gathered in front of it and began firing at a parade of 10,000 children, killing two of the marchers. They also fired shots'at my window and tore down Allied flags. 001-' onel Wndo has one of the-American flags that were town down. Finally the Poles began to firo on the Germane and took charge of the. situation. The fighting, however, continued the next day. Two members of the Berlin Government came and agreed to leave the Government in Polish hands. They also got us to agree to the departure, with arme and honours, of a battalion of German soldiers, but the latter took away 150 rounds of ammunition and -went to Schneidenmhl, where, aecording'to intercepted dispatches, "the Germans are collecting a 'counter-force to recapture Po- , Eea. Recent issues of. German newepaners, the "Lokal-Anzeiger" and others, print stories that there had been a pogrom against the .Tews in Posen.' f This is ridiculous. Is is the usual means of the Germans to keep up bad feeling between the Jews and the Poles and injure us with the outside world. In view of the anti-Polish propaeanda, I wish to say to the Associated, Press that there are no class hatreds among the Poles. Wβ are absolutely different from others in this ' resject. Poland is not a revolutionary •, country, and all reforms are possible here without bloodshed. This fact is interesting in connection with our work- , men. Wo are represented always as a crowd of big land-owners exploiting the poor. Contrary to this, wo have always bsen liberal and humane to the peasants. It is a historical fact that more than a hundred years ago peasants escaped from Prussia to Poland, and a-century and a half ago 300,000 peasants fled from Russia to us. This become one of the causes of our partition. In the eame *vav for nine centuries the 'Jews have teen coming here and finding a haven asainst persecution and slaughter elsewhere. Poland save the Jews a charter of freedom in the year 1096." .