A Bore From Poland

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 118, 26 September 1941, Page 5

A Bore From Poland

Said can’t talk of any club without mentioning "Club Bore." Even the Student Movement Sibiee had its Bore. He was a Pole whose name was Freddie, but we all called him Micky Mouse, because though fully grown up, he had an absurd little face like a child and spectacles that seemed to have the unusual roundness of Mickey’s eyes. He would "tag on" after everyone in turn and although he was such a bore you couldn’t help liking him. Sometimes we would feel specially sorry for Freddie and ask him home to coffee. He would be delighted and would trot along breathlessly at our heels talking more endlessly and boringly than ever, Freddie came from Lvov, and whenever anybody admired anything Freddie would always say, " Ah! but in Lvov we had... ." Somehow everything (even the moon and the tramcars) was just a little better in Lvov. Once and only once was Freddie known to say anything funny. It was just after the war had broken out and I expect Freddie, poor lamb, was feeling very heartsick about the fate of his beloved Lvov. An Englishman said airily, "Yes, but you can’t call Poland a demo- cracy!" Freddie spluttered incoherently and at last managed to bring out: "Poland was a _ lovely democracy-in Poland we had elections like’ you do in England, and you could vote for anybody you liked-even a communist if you liked! I don’t know whether Parliament ever sat, but we elected them, and we had a secret ballot and-and everything!" The words tumbled out, tripping over each other, and it wasn’t till we were all laughing heartily that Freddie realised he’d said something funny. Then he laughed too. I think he was just as pleased to have at last made people laugh as he would have been had he convinced us that Lvov was such a wonderful place that we all must go there that minute!-(" Students of the World-. Unite!" Clare Prior, 2YA, September 22.)