Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUSI 18, 1916. HOPE FOR POLAND.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11649, 18 August 1916, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUSI 18, 1916. HOPE FOR POLAND.

IT is a strikingly singular instance of the slow but sure grinding out of fate by the gods that Poland is at last about to emerge from under the yoke of the robber Powers and take its place again in Europe in the comity of nations. At the very beginning of the war the Grand Duke Nicholas assured the Poles of emancipation and reconstitution as a nation. Germany and Austria remained silent as to their intentions, if they had any except to keep their shares, until they began to feel acutely the inflexible pressure of the Allies upon their several fronts and have become anxiously desirous of increasing their friends They have now, therefore, imitated the example of the Russian Government. It has been announced that the independence of Poland is to be proclaimed to day, and that the Austrians will immediately liberate a large number of Poles from their internment camps. The proclamation will probably be made, but the amount of actual intention to carry it out iu its entirety might, perhaps, be very closely estimated by consideration of the character of the Powers now apparently so highsouled and magnanimous. To grant nationalism to Poland on a racial basis alone would deprive Austria of nearly live millions of its population, Prussia ol a little over three miiions, and Russia of nearly thir. teen millions with, in each case, a corresponding amount of territory, which, under any circumstances they would ■ unwillingly to dispossess themselves of, and if victorious would probably refuse to do so except in the case of Russia. In the latter case we believe that the honour of the Allies, no less than that of Russia, is involved in the consummation of the promise of an autonomous Poland.

It remains to be seen what effect the proclamation will have upon the attitude of the Poles, and to which of their masters they will look with the greatest hope for th“ gratification of their desires for the restoiation of their independent national existence. Austria, cf itself, can do little for them, The realisation of their ambition rests either with Russia or Germany, If their preference were given to the nation from which they have suffered least it would be given to Austria. A polyglot combination of racial elements such as the Austrian Empire, could scarcely select one of their number tor specially tyrannical treatment, especially as most of them are as desirous of breaking away from the mixtuie as the'Poles. But the Prussians have dealt with Poles with their characteristic brutality. Prussian thoroughness, that we hear so much about; was never displayed to a more brutal and persistent extent than in the endeavour to Germanise its section of Poland or, failing that, to hustle the people from their native land to make room for Germans. But in vain. The Poles have a proverb that “The stream runs on but the stones remain”—a highly picturesque manner of expressing the, fact of the eternal persistence of race in dpwn-troddeu and persecuted peoples.

In spite of bad treatment from the Russians, it is more than probable that their sympathies and their hopes will centre more in the Russians than iti the others because of racial affinities? Both are Slavs and are temperamentally very much alike, though possibly the Polish

is gifted with a keener intellect than his Russian brother. And set in the' midst of ambitions nation' 1 ; hungry for territory, both on accoc'nt of its small numbers and the lack of organisation, which it must display in the initial stages of its restored nationality* it will need a protector and guarantor of its integrity. And in the future it is certain that, thoroughly j-iwake to German designs, the Russian military establishment will always be sufficient to dominate the north of Europe. The present epoch, indeed, clangorous as it is with the violent impact of great Empires, is a time of splendid promise tor the - small nations of the world. And, looking back dispassionately and critically upon the historicaUpicture presented by Poland in the two or three centuries previous to its partition, we are not quite sure, whether we can see in the partition the hand of the Almighty Who is said to direct history for His own purposes, Before it Was cut up it was the rowdiest little nation under the sun. Had it remained entire it might frequently have involved the north in war ty its internal and foreign policy vagaries. Paradoxical as it may seem, the Poles have only realised their oneness and developed their patriotism since they have been broken into fragments by their neighbours, and are now more fit, by long chastening, for national life than at any time past in their existence.