THE POLISH FARCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1917, Page 7

THE POLISH FARCE.

FAILURE OF THE PLANS ■■OF TH-, ENEMY i ■ ; NO 'VOLUNTARY" APW

is reaching" Britain from reliable sources, says Reuter, of the growing opposition' of all sections of the Jolish people to the recent Austro-Ger-maii proclamation regarding the status of Poland, and also to the declared intention of the Central Powers to form what is described as a Polish army, but is really intended to be an addition to the enemy forces. Apart from the strongly worded telegram of protest sent to Mr. Asquith on. behalf of four n.illion Poles in the United States, the Polish community in South America, numbering some hundreds of thousands, and Poles in other parts of the world have declared their opposition to and detestation of the Austro-German proclamation. Further, Polish representa tives in foreign countries have published a protest throughout France ana Switzerland.

From Poland itself comes news of tlic strong feeling of the people. A meeting cf the most eminent men of Poland has been held at Lublin, at which a resolution was passed that a Polish State must he quite independent of any foreign Powers and serve only the Polish cause. The meetings protested against any foreign intervention in the affairs of Poland. News has also been received that the four most important parties in Poland—the* National Democrats, Realists, Progressive Unionists, and Polish Progressives—have refused to take any part whatever in the ' New Council of State organised by the German authorities.

Reuter's representative has had an interview with M. Roman Dmouski, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Polish National Council, who has arrived in London. M. Dmouski, who was also chairman of the Polish Party in the Ihima, and a member of the recentl-ap-pointed Eusso-Polish Commission in Petrograd. is in the closest touch with the Polish communities all over the world. Speaking of the German proposals, he said: "Without reunion of the three parts of Poland the recent proclamation is valueless. My countrymen are fully aware that any Polish State established in a part of Polish territory, with access to (lie sea in German hands, can only he a German hinterland and a tool in the hands of Berlin. For that reason alone the German plan is valueless. Moreover, it is not the ambition or the Poles to be one of the elements of a German Middle Europe. On the contrary, our mission is to defend our national existence and that of other nationalities in Central Europe against the absorbing German power, and so to contribute to the European equilibrium The aim of Germany is to exterminate the Poles, and no nation in Europe is obliged to wage such a desperate war for existence as the Poles in German Poland. An Empire that carries out such a policy within its own limits can hardly be credited with good intentions towards the Polish nation. The attempts' to increase the German army by the inclusion of Poles will also doubtless prove a failure. It is true that the Germans make a pretence of calling this a voluntary movement, but without the employment of force they have no chance of success. We all know that the socalled independent Polish State is proclaimed only in the interests of Gei-. many, and it is, therefore, certain thai the German scheme will fail."