THIRD ANNIVERSARY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 1 September 1942, Page 5

THIRD ANNIVERSARY

INVASION OF POLAND

UNDAUNTED NATION Wellington, This Day “At no time in her long history of 1000 years has Poland suffered such a roll of death, suffering and destruction as during the last three years,” said the Consul-General for Poland. Count Woclzicki yesterday, commenting on the third anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, which occurs to-day. “Blit never has she proved herself so strong morally and physically, so united behind her soldiers and her leader, the Prime Minister, General Sikorski. “The Polish campaign of 1939 was fought without any help whatever—it turned Warsaw into ruins and Poland into a graveyard; it enabled Britain, though, to take advantage of seven months’ respite.

“Confronted with disaster unprecedented, with her Church, education, and social welfare in ruins, with hundreds of thousands of her subjects driven from their farms and workshops, with still as many facing the filing squads and concentration camps, and one and a half million workers sent to Germany, Poland to-day stands united as on the eve of this struggle. No party, no single man, gave thought to a possible political compromise with the Hun.

“For obvious seasons, one cannot give any substantial details of the well organised, active resistance of the Poles at home. It can be disclosed, however, that 150 different secret papers, mostly pocket-size, are published, some with an issue of 12,000 copies, notwithstanding the fact that editors, printers and readers face death penalty. It so happened that in Warsaw, on 4th July, 1941, one editor, Mr M. Kruk. and 82 other people were beheaded. PRESENT ARMY “In spite of having paid heavily already with the lives of her soldiers subsequently in the campaigns of Narvik, the Maginot Line and Tobruk, it is interesting to note, as revealed by General Sikorski, that Poland’s Army, at present on three continents, ranks fifth in strength of the Allied Nations, forming also the bulk of General Sir Maitland-Wilson’s Tenth Army in the Middle East. According to a recent report, a large unit is undergoing training in South Africa, and numbers of Polish officers are also instructing native troops in West Africa.

“General Sikorski also announced that despite heavy convoy work and many naval engagements, the Polish Navy and Mercantile Marine is maintained at its original strength, by reason of the United States Lend and Lease Act.

“The Polish eagles of the air force have considerably increased since the Battle of Britain in 1940. when they numbered 10,000, and formed more than 30 per cent, of the recent mass night bombing raiders over Germany. “The Polish-Czechoslovakian Agreement of 11th November, 1940, and the Polish-Russian Agreement, of 30th July, 1941, confirmed after General Sikorski’s visit to Moscow in December, 1941, will no doubt be of paramount importance in the post-war policy of the United Nations. The establishment of a Polish Medical School and a Faculty of Law in Edinburgh, and recently a Polish Institute of Science and Learning in New York, is the foundation of the intellectual life of the Poland of tomorrow.

“The Polish people,” concluded Count Wodzicki, “on the eve of the fourth year of war, are standing unflinchingly at the side of their Allies, fully confident of the eventual victory, which will ensure a just retribution upon the Germans, and a rehabilitation for them.”—P.A.

STATEMENT BY GENERAL SIKORSKI (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) Rugby, Aug. 31. On the third anniversary of the Polish-German war General Sikorski. Prime Minister of Poland, issued a statement reaffirming Poland’s determination to continue the fight until final victory. The Poles regarded the diffi cult and heroic September fight and its fatal results, he said, as a lost campaign, not as a lost war, as the defeat of a regime but not as the defeat of Poland. Therefore they had never laid down arms for a moment. General Sikorski, dealing with Ger many’s difficulties in the war, said her losses of men since the beginning of the conflict amounted to-day to 1.500,000 dead, 3.000.000 wounded and sick, of whom 1.000.000 will never return to the ranks besides enormous quantities of equipment. General Sikorski contended that the raid on Dieppe proved that an invasion of the continent was absolutely feasible. —B.O. W.