POLAND'S POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 77, 20 August 1914, Page 6

POLAND'S POSITION.

RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY PRAISED. SYDNEY DOCTOR'S VIEW. Dr. J. M. Flatau, a well known resident of Sydney, who is recognised as an authority on Polish and Hungarian affairs, last week expressed a very interesting opinion on the war. He said: "That was s splendid piece of diplomacy announced in the Herald's cahle that the Russian Duma had decided to grant municipal self government to Poland, together with permission to use the < Polish languags in the public schools. "If that is correct," he continued, "ii will 'be found that the Poles will taki up the cause of Russia with intense enthusiasm, and will rally to support the nation which lias at least conceded the. great privilege for which Poland has so long fought. I have travelled every part of the country comprised in Ger man and Russian Poland, Austria and Hungary. I can unhesitatingly say that I do not know a braver class' of people than the Poles in amy part of the Globe. The Polish temperament is in many respects akin to that of the Irish people, and their patriotic determination to secure the freedom of their own country is not excelled hy even tho Irish Hom« Rulers." Asked as to what effect Russia's eoncession to Poland would have on the war, the doctor said that the Poles might be expected to at once start the mobilisation of their forces. In that case her strength would be a serious menace to the prospects of German success on the Russian frontier. Poland, considered as a whole, was a bigger country than Germany, and when the Polish forces were mobilised they oould march on to Plock and thence to the Elbe river, which was part of Po land, though in German territory. When the Elbe had been crossed, it was but ithree quarter's of an hour's march to Thorn, the historic town at which the first Napoleon was seriously repulsed when at the height of his career. From Thorn the Polish* forces could march on to Posen, the capital of Prussian Poland. Once thcTe they would be within "coo-ce'' of Berlin, or as an alternative, march on to Galicia in Austria. "An important point about the mobili aation and prospective march of the Poles," Dr. Flatau added, 'is that, through all the country to be traversed, they would be amongst friends, and reed for man and beast would be plentiful." * ■When the doctor was asked whether this was a rather far-fetched prediction, he said: "So. The views I have express ed are the result of long experience throughout the whole of the countries involved. I can speak each of their languages, and I feel confident that the developments anticipated are a most natural .result of Poland's desire for national independence."