MEMORIES OF POLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 September 1939, Page 7

MEMORIES OF POLAND

ADDRESS BY MISS R. HFRRICK SPIRIT OF NATIONAL UNITY. GIRL GUIDE AND SCOUT MOVEMENTS. With all eyes at present turned towards Europe and towards Poland in particular, those who attended the annual meeting of the Masterton Girl Guides’ Association were privileged to hear an interesting and instructive address on that unfortunate country by Miss Ruth Herrick. Chief New Zealand, Commissioner for Girl Guides. “I was one of the representatives of 30 odd countries who attended the International Guides Conference in Poland, and-I retain very vivid impressions of that conference, together with the wonderful hospitality extended to the visiting delegates,” said Miss Herrick. who went on to give a brief sketch of the Girl Guide movement in Poland, and stressed the part it had played in fostering the spirit of national unity in States originally under Russian, German and Austrian domination. “We went through Switzerland to Buckze and on to Katowice, the lovely town so tragically in the news of today,” Miss Herrick said. “Camped there in the forest were five or six hundred Guides. These Polish girls were a very fine type indeed, sturdy, pleasant and extremely proud of their nationality. Every evening the delegates were entertained with national dances and songs, and on occasions we were visited by mountain Scouts, who were fine upstanding and healthy young men. The main impression we gained, however, was the extraordinarily strong national feeling and devotion towards Poland.

“The story of Polish Scouting and Guiding is bound up with the history of Poland itself,” said Miss Herrick. “The movement was started just prior to 1914 by Andrew Malkowska and a girl friend, who later became his wife. At that time Poland as it is today—that is, a separate and independent State —did not exist. The country was a battered and torn remnant of the former Polish State, dominated by Russia in the east, Austria in the south, and Germany in the west. Malkowska was forced to organise his movement secretly and meetings were held at 3 a.m. in the morning, that being considered the only safe time. His wife organised the Guide movement, and thanks to her untiring energy and perseverance it gradually spread throughout the entire land. In 1914 it was decided to hold a meeting, and to it came Guides from all over Poland, many with forged passports to enable them to make the trip. “When the war came, they were faced with the almost impossible task of returning the younger members to their home across the war-torn country. Although the country was overrun first by Russian and then by German armies the movement held together, and in 1919 the Polish Government, recognising the value of the movement, gave it- all possible assistance. I was privileged in meeting many of these pioneers, said Miss Herrick, and even now I feel sure that in their hour of trial they will be carrying on in exactly the same manner in which they did in 1914.”