POLISH VIEW OF PRUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 228, 5 March 1915, Page 5

POLISH VIEW OF PRUSSIA.

THIS NEW AND THE. OLD GERMANY. A "NATION OP CORPORALS," (M. Roman Dmowski, who is leader of the principal Polish party, the Nationalist Democrats, had been for years the protagonist of Polish reunion, the ablest politician whom his country lias produced for more than a generation. It is largely iiis influence that lias secured the solidarity of Polish parties during the 'present war. The following article by M'. Dmowski appeared in the London Times)

When one looks closely into the sources of the present war, one must agree that it was caused by the existence of a powerful and ambitious nation in the centre of Europo, aiming at the political subjugation of the whole Continent and at the economic conquest of the world. That nation has of late progressed rapidly in the development of its economic prosperity, its political influence and its military strength. At the same time its ambitions were loving all its moderation, its manifested its aims with growing insolence and proceeded to their realisation, ignoring the rights of other nations, opposing itself to the universal tendency towards the decrease of armaments, and becoming the chief factor that threatened the peace of the world. In such conditions its armed cons;ct with all nations which opposed its ambitions became inevitable. The political character of the German nation became the source of the gicat est war the world had ever seen, and caused the -20tli century, the period of tendencies towards universal peace and towards common work of all nations for the progress of culture, to see a Europe batlied in a sea of blood shed on the battlefields, with the accompaniment of massacres of the peaceful population and the wilful destruction of whole cities, of monuments of art, and of precious documents of the past. The character of the German nation manifested itself not only in provoking the war but also in the manner in which the war is conducted.

We know, however, that the German nation is. nor a savage herd, that now ,for the first time meets with European civilisation. The nation itself played a great part in the building up of civilisation. It has contributed to it, together with the other more advanced nations, by its creative power in the domain of jaw, of technical culture, and of the work of the human thought, in philosophy, science, literature, and art. It lias given tp humanity great workers and great thinkers. llow can it be explained that a nation with such ft rich past in the work of civilisation stands to-day in the position of a fierce enemy of its ideals and aspirations? The progress of culture and well-be-ing does not kill the lighting sp:r:i m a nation. The best example is the Belgian nation, one of the richest and most cultured, which lias furnished today such imposing proofs of its heroism. But with the progress of culture there develops that sense of justice, the respect for the rights of other nations, and the looking for .conquests not~by violence and robbery, but by peac .f»h work and noble rivalry of national energies. One doeS not see sum a i regress in contemporary Germany.

TEE RULING SPIRIT. To understand this pherioinonon Ave must bear in mind that .i-oaivinporarv Germany is ruleff" try Prujofi. It is not the old western Germany, th> qreat collaborator of other count.-i.-j in tie work of civilisation, but a n>w Germany, grown on a new non-German soil and built up from a raiv suinriieially cultured human mat:v;:u. It ia Prussia who founded the mod'i n O - man Empire, gave it its Constitution by which she assured herself its 'leader-' ship; it is Prussia who at the head of the whole of Germany now mikes war on Europe. , tions and their leaders to understand the role of this upstart among tho European States. From a small Brandenburg mark or province that lay heavy on the necks of half barbarian tribes there arose by intrigue, lie, and robbery, the Kingdom of Prussia, which, thanks to the fall of Poland, bepjuii"? one of the chief European powers. This State, based upon the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns and upon their army, for a long time was a state without a nation but only with subjects. -Later, during a series of generations, the nation was artificially built up, drilled in the army—a nation of corporals. The character of that nation was conditioned by raw, half barbarian instincts, by a military discipline, by a moral drill, and by high technical culture, which was not followed by a spiritual one. Proud, like any parvenu,- of their superficial culture, unable to understand the essence of civilisation, the Prussians were taught in the schools and in the army that they were the first nation in the world and that the world must belong to them.

A SURRENDER TO DRILL. Possessing a powerful army, Prussia took under her rule the old civilised Germany and introduced her military drill. The present generation throughout tlie Empire has been brought ,up to a great extent on .Prussian drill methods. In the beginning the old German spirit revolted against Prussian influence, but gradually, when Prussian rule brought the growth of the wealth and predominant international position to Germany, when it awoke iif the new generation great ambitions and opened the field for their realisation, Germany became reconciled to that rule. In the end the Germans of Austria, of that survival of the old German Empire, composed of many heterogenous races, subjugated by it during centuries—those Germans, feeling more and more brothers of the Reichsdeutsche, and feeling the prestige of the Prussian power, bound up their destinies with it. Year by year Austria became more and more passive an instrument in the hands of Berlin. To-day, together with the modern German Empirej she has entered upon the war against Europe under the leadership of Prussia, and has even thrown down the challenge which has caused it.