NEW RESPECT FOR POLES

Evening Star, Issue 23691, 26 September 1940, Page 11

NEW RESPECT FOR POLES

SOLDIERS' UNQUENCHABLE SPIRIT KEEK TO BE IN FIGHT AGAIN Military experts, attached to Swiss Legations as the military attaches of foreign Powers, and some of the Swiss, too, have revised _ their opinion of Poland’s army (writes the _Berne_ correspondent of the ‘ Christian Science Monitor’). Three things contributed to the new turn of opinion. . . First was the fuller recognition _ot the power of Germany’s war machine and its strength in the air. Second was the way France cracked no along with Belgium, Holland, and the Low Countries in 38 days of warfare. Poland, alone, lasted four weeks. Third were the Poles themselves—even in internment. On the night from the 19th to the 20th of last June alone approximately 28,000 troops crossed into Switzerland in the region of the h ranches Montagnes in the Jura Mountains. First to cross were about 12,000 French troops of various branches of the armv. Some had their rifles. Some didn’t. * Many had never even seen a German. Few had participated in active fighting. All came because the Germans cut off their retreat to the ■outh. THOSE WHO MET NAZIS Later came the main units of 18,000 Poles. They, too, had been cut off in their retreat, but they came across with- all their arms and even most of their motorised equipment. They were disciplined. They had not only almost all seen Germans, but their units were all heavilv marked by casualties. One Polish unit, about 2,000 strong, dashed up to the frontier with several batteries of 7o’s and 101’s. A group of commanding officers conferred briefly with the Swiss Command and were told that they would have to surrender both arms and ammunition. The whole unit turned around and dashed off again. The commanding officer explained that they “ still had some ammunition left ” and were going to “ give it to the Germans.” They gave it to the Germans, and the Germans gave them the same back again. They couldn’t get through. They came into Switzerland with all their guns 'and rifles—but with not a shell, not a cartridge—and with many casualties.

Poles, in little groups of three and four, have been drifting into Switzerland ever since the armistice. Some have conic from Channel ports all the ■way through German-occupied territory. They hide in farmhouses or deserted town houses during the day and travel by night. They escape from internment camps. Some of them no sooner crossed the border and were disarmed than they tried to escape again. Swiss police stopped four recently headed hack into occupied France. Yes, they knew it was occupied, but they wanted to get to England—somehow. They didn’t know how. \ COMMANDED RESPECT. In the internment camps they soon won the admiration of many Swiss by their discipline. In the beginning Swiss civiliahs took a special fancy to the French’ ’hcecfuse “ French 'Xvas one 'of Switzerland’s three, national languages and France was far nearer than Poland. Since then the Poles’ discipline, cleanliness, morale, and comradeship have won them many friends. The Poles are a proud lot. Most of them were miners, fanners, and metal workers before the war. They were the first to offer to help Swiss peasants in the field. Their one great sorrow is the French defeat. JMost of them would go on fighting if they knew where to fight and how to get there.' Many of them have crossed half of Europe and have heard nothing from their families since last September. Originally, many Polish units were placed in towns with French units, but, while the. French considered the war ended, and only wanted to get back homo, the Poles wanted to fight somewhere, anywhere, and the two nationalities had to be separated.

Both the Poles and the Swiss authorities would like to know where the Pole* go from here.