THE NEW POLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1925, Page 1

THE NEW POLAND

CONTENTED AND HFSY PEOPLE. The Warsaw correspondent of the I- London "' Daily .Mail,” writing under 1 date of August (ith says:— It i.- nu small thing to have set up ' in Europe a Power with territories s greater than those of Italy and a popttt lation greater than that of Spain. This is what we and our Allies in the Great War did when we restored the ■ independence of the Polish nation. The ■ deed was so tremendous that wo have i hardly yet realised what we have done. Hut it is obvious that a country of thisize. with 27,000,000 inhabitants, is a factor in Europe which the manufacturer can no more ignore than the politician. Three years have gone by since I was here, and during that time most of the I information I have had about Roland J I has been derived from the German j newspapers. They give the impression J that the Poles are a re: kle.-s pcopl • | who live in a hopeless .state of muddle ! and misery. Consequently I expected, when I go! out ol the train at Posen, to find that -inee the German- w; ut away the city had become dilapidated, disorganised, and impoverished. CHEAP TAXICABS. A smart young chauffeur drove me swill l v in ait open taxicab alum, p t fec| roads to the Bazar Hotel ia the iT ief square. It was agreeable to discover j that taxicab lares were cheaper than ini Berlin and to get into a eomfortalil • bed in a fastidiously clean room. I awoke early to the music of a military band and electric tramway-cats, jumped out of bed and went to Hie open window. On came the .soldiers in khaki, a line hotly of men, with their

merry hand. Girls and men on their way to work in shops and offices got out of the tramway ears. Hoys and girl- with satchels were going to school and servants and housewives with baskets to market. And the slim, pretty girl- in summery frocks, the midinettes and typists and shop-girls of Poznan, to give the city the ancient name which" have been restored to it, kept me a quarter of an hour at the window. Talking to the people in the town, f began to understand why the Germans write such nasty things about the Poles. AYhen the Germans officials left Poizan they were convinced that the organization of (he town would collapse, and they are annoyed that it has not. 'POPULATION GROWING.

There is not a cleaner and brighter town in Europe. The population has increased from. 157,000 to nearly 200.000 and everybody is working. Poznan possesses a gloomv castle of granite and sandstone which the exKaiser built when he bestowed the title of Imjrerial residence on the city. lie made a grand speech when he came to his now home for the first time and expressed the hope that the city would over he a centre of German culture. The poor man’s hopes have been disappointed. Part of his castle is used for the new Poliosh university, and in two days I heard nothing hut the soft twittering of Polish in the streets. One hundred and fifty years of Prussian rule have failed to crush this tenacious people. The Poles have not avenged themselves. There are German schools for the Germans, who mimbor-5 per cent, of the population. “ Are yon happier here than you were before the war?” 1 said to a workma n. •‘Of course we are,” lie replied. " We've got our home again.” It is no small thing which we did when we gave tho happiness which rests on lihertv to so many millions. There are people in Germany who would destroy it. "We must, have Posen because the railway from Konigxbei'g to Breslau runs through it,” wrote a German publicist the other day. Happily Germany will he neither strong enough, nor rich enough to attempt to got hack Poznan for many years to collie, and the Poles arc conl’i-d-ent in their nhility to do fond thole home and tho cradle of their race.