THE RSURRECTION OF POLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1918, Page 8

THE RSURRECTION OF POLAND.

A WONDERFUL PREDICTION A subscriber to the Daily News has ltiudly forwarded the following article from the English Review of Reviews, dated "20th December, J9M- It la the account of an interview the late W T Stead had with Mr. Lutoslavski, a Pole, and is as follows:^ "Ihe Polish Republic," said Mr Lutoslavski, the learned author of "A Story of the Psychology of Plato." the Polish Republic " "What," I exclaimed, "the Poliah Republic! There's no Polish Republic" "Sir." said the Polish patriot, "it is not for you, wlio believe in the psychical world, to scoff at that 'vhich is not dead but sleeping The Polish Republic, the Polish nationality, is immortal." "And you live in the sure Rnd certain hope its joyful resurrection?" I answered. "Not a hope," said Mr Lutoslavski seriously, ">but ft certain knowledge of what is coming and must be* A prophecy, now a century old, -which no one understood at the time, is Hearing its fulfilment. "And that prophecy?'' "Was to the effect that Poland would come to life again when Russia bad been defeated by a nation then unknown in Europe, and England would complete the task which the unknown nation, now easily identifiable as Japan, has already begun." "What a dreamer you are!" "The dreams that nations dream come true. The resurrection of Po'and draws near. When Russia and Germany are defeated by the great alliance of England, America, France and Japan, then my country will rise from the tomb and take its place among the great States of the world." "It is a large order, both Germany and Russia!"

"Yes, the two Empires, united by a common crime, must be overwhelmed by a common punishment. The defeat of Russia, without the defeat of Germany would leave our resurrection incomplete." "I see no necessity for suoh a worldwide combat, even for the sake of Poland's beautiful eyes "

"It is in your destiny. Russia is like a cyclist riding down a Steep hill after his brake lias snapped. She cannot arrest her course", and will inevitably come into collision with the representatives of the modern world of liberty, of progress, and of justice." "Russia," I ventured to remark, "has been the bulwark of Europe for centuries against Asiatic inva-iion- If she were to break up, the Yellow Peril "

"The Yellow Peril,! the Yellow Peril!" cried Mr Lutoslavski, "Russia is the Yellow Peril. It was, and is, the Poles who are the vanguard of Western civilisation against the Asiatic. It was the Poles who swept the Turks tack from the walls of Vienna. It was the Poles who, for a, thousand years, manned the ramparts of Europe ;igainst the: Tartarised "Muscovite. The Russians did not stem the tide of Asiatic invasion. They were engulfed by it—transformed, Tartarised. Their Tsaf* is but the Tartar Khan. Their system of government, is Oriental. All the arguments you use to eulogise Russia as defender of the West against the East you should use in praise of the Poles, who held the line and did not succumb to 'die Asiatic flood."

"Then you do not really despair? You still believe in the resurrection of Poland f

"Despair? Never. A nation which for a thousand years hail arts, science, culture, literature, civilisation of its own, when Russia was sunk in letterless barbarism, can never be permanently enslaved by a power 30 much her inferior pliysicallv, mentally, inid morally "

"AH of which might have been said by tha Greeks of tile Romans, but 'Greece was ruled by Roma " "Only for a season. The Western Empire, which was Rome, passed away like an exhalation before the attack of the Goths and Vandals. The Eastern Empire, which was Greek, survived the sack of Rome by a thousand years. The Polish nationality has been buried alive for a century and a half What is that in the history of a nation'.'" "Then when Poland ris'>s ai?ain, what kind of a State will she be—Monarchy or Republic?" "Republic, of course She was always a Republic even when she crowned the man of her choice fend caller him King. Poland, as she will emerge from her sepulchre, will be a great State stretching from f'l3 Raltic to the Black Sea. Riga, Konigsber.; and Dantzic will be her sea-gates in llie 'north; Odessa her seaport in the Euxine. She will be competed of three races: tho Poles proper, twenty 'millions; the Ruthenians, twenty millions; and the Lithuanians, five millions. Besides these there are many Russians and Germans —minorities—so that the Polish Republic will start with a population of fifty millions. These wi'l be the real bulwark of civilisation against tho Yellow Peril, the unpre.CTtt'Jle rampart garrisoned by an educated, moral, incorruptible and religious race, against which all the waves of the Tartarised mnngrejdom called Muscovy will beat in vain."

Remember this was written fourteen years agro- (it is printed from the pages of The Review of Reviews of December 20, 11104); and to-day Britain, France and America are fighting both Germany and Russia., It is a wonderful prediction,