Chapter 6

“The soil of Cholm and Podlasie has belonged to Poland for centuries; both territories are Poland’s children, consecrated by the blood of her martyrdom.... Now it seems that this land is to serve as a bridge for German soldiers and goods on their march to Eastern Europe, to the Black Sea and the Caucasus. And the Poles, bereft of every individual connection with the East, are to be plunged into deadly conflict with the Ukraine.”

This is a peculiarly interesting document, as shewing that the Mittel-Europa aims of Germany were appreciated by the Poles, and also that they grasped the second reason of this seizure of Polish territory, namely the German design to produce enmity between the Ukraine and Poland, according to Germany’s invariable policy.

Simultaneously the Poles received the official support of the British government to their protest, for it was announced in theGazetta Narodowaof February 29th, that Count Sobanski, the recognised representative of the Polish National Committee in London, had received official information from the Foreign Office that the British diplomatic agent in Kiev had been instructed to declare that England did not recognise the peace concluded between the Ukraine and the Central Empires, and would not recognise any peace with regard to which the interested Poles had not been consulted.

This action of the Austrian Poles produced the desired effect, and the Central Powers under pressure this time from Austria, said they would reconsider the cession of Cholm to the Ukraine, and promised a mixed commission to decide on its fate with due regard to the wishes of its population. What conclusions the “mixed commission” will come to still remains to be seen. Kuhlmann on behalf of Germany hinted at the possibility of the new Polish frontier being moved eastwards instead of westwards, and simultaneously at Brest-Litovsk, Count Czernin announced that he would welcome Polish representatives atthe negotiations. He declared that in his view Poland was an independent state, and that he desired the attachment of it to Austria, only if it was voluntary. The German press incidentally, bewailed the continued ingratitude of Poland, and the Union of German National Parties declared that German blood had been freely shed tosecure the independence of Poland. Comment would be impertinent: we must only bow the head in reverence to the newly-discovered fact that one of Germany’s objects in the war was the independence of Poland. Nobody had guessed that!

Such in brief up till the end of February, 1918, is the history of Poland under German and Austrian occupation. Famine still reigns there, and though Austria in the autumn of 1917, made some attempt to alleviate it by starting an Agricultural Institute at Pulawy and granting supplies of grain and seed, Germany has limited herself to developing a market for her own trade, with branches at Warsaw, Lodz, Kalish, Grodno, Vilna, etc. She has also discovered coal-fields which she is working for her own consumption, and metallic deposits of tin and copper in the government of Kielce.

Finally in December, 1917, what remained of the Polish legions (Pilsudski being still interned at Magdeburg) was sent, officers and men, to Galicia to join the Polish Relief Corps. Their final extinction occurred in March, 1918, when three regiments stationed in Bukovina mutinied, and two crossed the frontier to join the Polish army corps in the Ukraine, and the third was nearly annihilated in a fierce battle with the Austrians. Some remnants escaped and have now arrived in France, where to-day they are fighting on the Western front. Among them is General Haler, who was in command of the 2nd Brigade of the Polish legions when first they marched against Russia in 1914.

In a word, since Germany and Austria have occupied Poland, they have ruled it merely by the momentary whims of a tyrannical despotism, promising it independence one day and fulfilling that promise by creating a sham administration, and tumbling that down the next day to make way for another cardboard constitution to meet the exigencies of some temporary crisis, and to mark time until they should agree between themselves what to do with the country. For cynical indifference to the desire and to the sufferings of its inhabitants, and to their own promises, the rule of the Central Empires has created a new record which is likely to remain long unchallenged.

Note.—According to the latest news, it is reported that the Central Powers have come to an agreement about Poland, by which certain districts (Dombrova, Kalisch, and perhaps the Narev territory) will be retained by Germany, who will also have complete control over Lithuania, Courland and the Ukraine. Austria will obtain the rest of Poland, which she will incorporate with Galicia. Probably nothing definite has been arrived at, but there clearly is in the air a compromise which grants the Austrian solution with the counter-weight that part of Poland shall be German. This will mean that the “independence” promised to Poland by the Central Empires will merely end in a fresh partition. The Ukrainians of Eastern Galicia will, according to this arrangement, be under Polish rule, in order, as suggested above, to keep up a permanent estrangement and hostility between them and the Poles. Should such an arrangement be confirmed, it will probably imply the appointment of the Arch-Duke Charles Stephen as Regent of that part of Poland which falls to the Austrian Crown.

Map I

Map IIETHNOGRAPHICAL MAP OF POLANDSOUTHERN EUROPE

Map II

FOOTNOTES:[1]“The Case of Bohemia,” by L. B. Nanier, p. 3.[2]M. Ribot’s pronouncement, less well-known than that of other spokesmen, of the aims of the Entente, was in answer to a message from the Polish Congress in Moscow, in August, 1917. In it he greeted the re-construction of Polish independence, and the re-uniting up to the shores of the Baltic Sea, under the sovereignty of the Polish State, of all the Polish lands.[3]The town of Kieff itself was not Polish in 1772.[4]Bismarck’s policy with regard to this continues to this day, for as late as 1917 there was a strong protest made by Germans in Posen against religion even being taught to Polish children in their native tongue.[5]These were Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mohileff, Minsk, Volhynia, Podolia, and Kieff.[6]A typical instance of this is the way in which she treated the cloth industry. Cloth made in the country for consumption in the country had to be taken to Vienna, paying an import duty on the way, to be stamped there and taken back, after paying another duty, to Galicia. Production was thus rendered impossible, and the factories were closed.[7]In Russia similarly they have played Germany’s game, both by aiding and abetting the Bolsheviks while they were Germany’s tools, and by persistently making bad blood between the Poles there and the Russians.[8]According to the Constitution there should have been 55 members elected, but I have not been able to ascertain who the remaining three are.[9]These figures, however, include the populations ofallLithuania, Minsk and Volhynia, which are slightly greater than those in the programme.[10]“Pre-War statistics of Poland and Lithuania,” G. Drage, p. 8. This estimate, if we compare it with others, gives the highest percentage of Poles.[11]These are Vilna (205,000), Bialystock (90,000), Grodno (60,000), Brest-Litovsk (60,000), Schaulen (22,000), Slonim (22,000). These figures are derived from a recent German source.[12]This has now been done, for at a meeting at Versailles on June 3, 1918, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, declared that a united and independent Poland, with access to the sea, was one of the conditions of a solid and just peace.[13]It was at the battle of Grünwald (1410) that the Polish armies, under Ladislas Jagello, completely defeated the Teutonic knights.[14]Galicia was little better off than Poland, and the same commandeering of supplies has gone on there ever since; as late as December, 1917, a Polish deputy, Stapinski, called attention to it in the Reichsrat.[15]Yiddish, it may be explained, is not Hebrew at all, as is popularly supposed, though it is printed in Hebrew characters. It is really a Swabian dialect, and 70 per cent. of the words in it are German. Its more scientific name is Judaeo-Germanic.[16]In certain districts, notably that of Kielce, there was a considerable amount of forced labour, for men were badly wanted to work in the unexploited mines there. Similarly we find that an appeal was made to the Pope in November, 1916, asking whether such compulsion was not an act of “intolerable tyranny.” After a considerable delay His Holiness replied that “as a neutral” he could not interfere in such internal questions. But in spite of such instances we shall probably be right to conclude that Germany did not make forced levies for labour to any considerable extent.[17]Too much stress, however, must not be laid on the force of religious conviction in Poland, as the following incident shews. General von Beseler made an order not long ago that German should be used as the language of instruction in Protestant schools in Warsaw, since Germany claimed as German, children who were of the German and not of the Polish national creed. A certain Dr. Machlejd, a pastor of Lutheran theology, protested against this, and pointed out that if it was insisted on, it would be perfectly easy for the children to become Roman Catholics.[18]TheCzas, the leading Cracow paper, remarks with regard to this Club, “it ought to be remembered that the Club of the Polish State works with the idea of basing the existence of the Polish State on a connection with Germany, that it conducts an active propaganda in Warsaw in favour of that programme.” It is equally strongly anti-Russian, for in September, 1916, we find it passing a resolution that the Central Empires will permit certain measures which will allow the Poles “to take an active part in the struggle against Russia.”[19]About this time the National Democrats issued the following proclamation about enlistment in German armies:—“Poles, brothers, you are being forced to enlist. If you do not wish to draw down on your heads the curse of an entire nation, if you wish to preserve the spotless purity of your emblem, the White Eagle, do not play the part of German conspirators.”[20]This large percentage was due to the fact that it was chiefly able-bodied men who fled into Russia at the time of the retreat of her armies in 1915.[21]The Inter-party Club represents pro-Entente opinion in Poland.[22]The subsequent fate of this Polish army in Russia was as follows: The Russian peace and the treaty with the Ukraine completely paralysed its potentialities, for it numbered only about 15,000 men (exaggerated by report to 60,000), and there was no longer any Russian army for them to fight in conjunction with. Their commander, General Musnicki, therefore signed a treaty with Germany, by which the duties assigned to them were to defend certain territories between the Dneiper and Mohileff from Bolshevik lawlessness. Germany, in fact, recognised his army as a neutral army. This was rather a melancholy conclusion, but it is difficult to see what else General Musnicki could have done. In any case, the Bolsheviks were no less a danger to Poland than to Russia or Germany, and the solution was probably the best possible.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]“The Case of Bohemia,” by L. B. Nanier, p. 3.

[2]M. Ribot’s pronouncement, less well-known than that of other spokesmen, of the aims of the Entente, was in answer to a message from the Polish Congress in Moscow, in August, 1917. In it he greeted the re-construction of Polish independence, and the re-uniting up to the shores of the Baltic Sea, under the sovereignty of the Polish State, of all the Polish lands.

[3]The town of Kieff itself was not Polish in 1772.

[4]Bismarck’s policy with regard to this continues to this day, for as late as 1917 there was a strong protest made by Germans in Posen against religion even being taught to Polish children in their native tongue.

[5]These were Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mohileff, Minsk, Volhynia, Podolia, and Kieff.

[6]A typical instance of this is the way in which she treated the cloth industry. Cloth made in the country for consumption in the country had to be taken to Vienna, paying an import duty on the way, to be stamped there and taken back, after paying another duty, to Galicia. Production was thus rendered impossible, and the factories were closed.

[7]In Russia similarly they have played Germany’s game, both by aiding and abetting the Bolsheviks while they were Germany’s tools, and by persistently making bad blood between the Poles there and the Russians.

[8]According to the Constitution there should have been 55 members elected, but I have not been able to ascertain who the remaining three are.

[9]These figures, however, include the populations ofallLithuania, Minsk and Volhynia, which are slightly greater than those in the programme.

[10]“Pre-War statistics of Poland and Lithuania,” G. Drage, p. 8. This estimate, if we compare it with others, gives the highest percentage of Poles.

[11]These are Vilna (205,000), Bialystock (90,000), Grodno (60,000), Brest-Litovsk (60,000), Schaulen (22,000), Slonim (22,000). These figures are derived from a recent German source.

[12]This has now been done, for at a meeting at Versailles on June 3, 1918, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, declared that a united and independent Poland, with access to the sea, was one of the conditions of a solid and just peace.

[13]It was at the battle of Grünwald (1410) that the Polish armies, under Ladislas Jagello, completely defeated the Teutonic knights.

[14]Galicia was little better off than Poland, and the same commandeering of supplies has gone on there ever since; as late as December, 1917, a Polish deputy, Stapinski, called attention to it in the Reichsrat.

[15]Yiddish, it may be explained, is not Hebrew at all, as is popularly supposed, though it is printed in Hebrew characters. It is really a Swabian dialect, and 70 per cent. of the words in it are German. Its more scientific name is Judaeo-Germanic.

[16]In certain districts, notably that of Kielce, there was a considerable amount of forced labour, for men were badly wanted to work in the unexploited mines there. Similarly we find that an appeal was made to the Pope in November, 1916, asking whether such compulsion was not an act of “intolerable tyranny.” After a considerable delay His Holiness replied that “as a neutral” he could not interfere in such internal questions. But in spite of such instances we shall probably be right to conclude that Germany did not make forced levies for labour to any considerable extent.

[17]Too much stress, however, must not be laid on the force of religious conviction in Poland, as the following incident shews. General von Beseler made an order not long ago that German should be used as the language of instruction in Protestant schools in Warsaw, since Germany claimed as German, children who were of the German and not of the Polish national creed. A certain Dr. Machlejd, a pastor of Lutheran theology, protested against this, and pointed out that if it was insisted on, it would be perfectly easy for the children to become Roman Catholics.

[18]TheCzas, the leading Cracow paper, remarks with regard to this Club, “it ought to be remembered that the Club of the Polish State works with the idea of basing the existence of the Polish State on a connection with Germany, that it conducts an active propaganda in Warsaw in favour of that programme.” It is equally strongly anti-Russian, for in September, 1916, we find it passing a resolution that the Central Empires will permit certain measures which will allow the Poles “to take an active part in the struggle against Russia.”

[19]About this time the National Democrats issued the following proclamation about enlistment in German armies:—“Poles, brothers, you are being forced to enlist. If you do not wish to draw down on your heads the curse of an entire nation, if you wish to preserve the spotless purity of your emblem, the White Eagle, do not play the part of German conspirators.”

[20]This large percentage was due to the fact that it was chiefly able-bodied men who fled into Russia at the time of the retreat of her armies in 1915.

[21]The Inter-party Club represents pro-Entente opinion in Poland.

[22]The subsequent fate of this Polish army in Russia was as follows: The Russian peace and the treaty with the Ukraine completely paralysed its potentialities, for it numbered only about 15,000 men (exaggerated by report to 60,000), and there was no longer any Russian army for them to fight in conjunction with. Their commander, General Musnicki, therefore signed a treaty with Germany, by which the duties assigned to them were to defend certain territories between the Dneiper and Mohileff from Bolshevik lawlessness. Germany, in fact, recognised his army as a neutral army. This was rather a melancholy conclusion, but it is difficult to see what else General Musnicki could have done. In any case, the Bolsheviks were no less a danger to Poland than to Russia or Germany, and the solution was probably the best possible.

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