"WE POLES ARE STILL FIGHTING"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 112, 15 August 1941, Page 42

"WE POLES ARE STILL FIGHTING"

Countess Wodzicka Continues Her Story

ce HERE are many stories of escape from Poland," said Countess Wodzicka. "I told you mine last week. But that does not mean to say that Poland is dead. "The outstanding thing about Poland is her national spirit. From the First Partition of Poland in 1772 until the recognition of the Republic of Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 we Poles had no land to call our own. Yet we retained our racial integrity. So the occupation of Poland by Germany and Russia will not mean the extinction of Poland. "In France Hitler found Petain to put at the head of his puppet government. In Norway he found Quisling. But in Poland he has found no one who is

prepared to betray his country. Hitler is forced to do his unpleasant work himself. No More Scottish Brides "To-day, thanks to General Sikorski’s quick-witted move in co-operating with Churchill after the Fall of France, Poland is an active ally in the war. An army corps has been assigned to defend: an important. sector of the Scottish coast. And apparently we Poles have a lot in common with the Scots. At any rate the Scottish girls and the Polish men seemed to get on rather well, and there was a record number of marriages in this particular sector. But now, unfortunately, the Commanding Officer has stepped in and announced that in future no more marriages are to take place. He explained to his men that if they were really in love they could prove it by waiting for their sweethearts till after the war. "A few ships of the Polish navy escaped from the Baltic and are cooperating with the British Fleet, and thirty-six vessels of the merchant marine are helping to keep the food ‘lines open for Britain. And besides this there is a scheme in hand for training thousands of Polish troops in Canada. The Polish Air Force "But I suppose the Air Force is the most important part of our Polish war effort. It has grown considerably since the war began, and when we were in England my husband and I naturally saw a great deal of it. There are now about 2,000 fully trained pilots in the British Isles alone, besides some 10,000 members of the ground staff. One of the most renowned pursuit squadrons in the R.A.F. is the Kosciuszko Squadron, which was originally formed by Americans in 1920, during the war with Russia. Every member is a veteran pilot with a record of more than a thousand hours in the air, and many of the pilots of this squadron fought in Poland and France before coming to Britain. "And inside Poland the struggle is still going on, though it has to be an underground one, and it is here that the women of Poland are playing their part in the struggle for freedom. In spite of German restrictions on newsprint, over a hundred anti-Nazi newspapers are being published and distributed, although any such activity is ~~ ishable by death. The News Gets Out "But Poland’s women are chiefly asserting themselves by organising a ‘courier service from Poland to the outside world, so as to supply to the Allies information of military importance. I mentioned before that every person who escapes from Poland is expected to carry dispatches. But besides this, Polish women have banded together to ensure a regular service between Poland and the outside world. "The fact that men are easily hoodwinked by women is usually ascribed by men to men’s innate chivalry. But though the members of the Gestapo are in general lacking in this quality,

my country women by sabotage, by assisting in the distribution of anti-Ger-man propaganda, and by their wellorganised messenger service, are doing a great deal to make life uncomfortable and even dangerous for Hitler’s army of occupation and to hasten the day of Poland’s liberation."