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POLAND, RUSSIA 
 
 AND THE 
 
 WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURENCE ALMA T -^-■vtA 
 
 PRiCE THREEPENCE Ul 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE 5T. CATHERINE rRJ::ib 
 
 34 NORFOLK STREET 
 
 STRAND 
 
POLAND, RUSSIA 
 
 AND THE 
 
 WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURENCE ALMA TADEMA 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE ST. CATHERINE PRESS 
 
 34 NORFOLK STREET 
 
 STRAND 
 
b 
 
 V 
 
POLAND, RUSSIA, AND THE WAR. 
 
 The object of the present pamphlet is to place 
 before the public a few documents which may serve to 
 dispel any doubts existing as to the nature of Russo- 
 Polish relations, doubts to which must be attributed 
 the excessive timidity displayed by certain sections of 
 the press in handling the Polish Question. 
 
 I. Does Russia mean to keep her word ? 
 
 II. Does Poland really believe that Russia means 
 to keep her word ? 
 
 These two unanswered queries seem to be the 
 main stumbling-blocks to a fair, generous and logical 
 appreciation by Great Britain of the part being played 
 by the Polish Nation in the present war. 
 
 " The Polish Question " has been written across 
 the face of Europe since a century and a half, written 
 in capitals but, as it were, in invisible ink which the fire 
 of war has now suddenly brought to sight. 
 
 France, in whose midst evidence of Poland's pulsating 
 existence has never been lacking, was not unprepared 
 for the apparition ; England, in her sea-girt isolation, 
 seems not yet to have discerned the writing on the 
 wall ; but Russia, Prussia and Austria have lived under 
 the shadow of those words ever since three Monarchs 
 of German race, Frederick II. of Prussia, Catherine IL 
 of Russia, and Maria Theresa of Austria, swooped black 
 
 35787 
 
of wing upon the White Eagle of Poland and piece 
 meal dismembered a living Nation. (1772, 1793, 1795). 
 
 Russia need not now be held responsible for her 
 part in that crime ; judgment of her attitude during 
 her domination of the central and most essential part 
 of Poland must be suspended ; for it is recognised 
 to-day that she herself was not entirely free. Youngest 
 of the great European Powers, unevenly developed, the 
 Russian Empire has hitherto been prevented by the 
 stealthy domineering hand of Prussia from entering 
 upon that era of free personal development to which 
 this great war of emancipation is the tumultuous 
 prelude. 
 
 British Historians will find themselves studying the 
 Slavonic Empire in a different light when the liberation 
 of Western Europe from the Prussian menace has been 
 achieved by Eastern Europe ; the origins of Prussia are 
 an inextricable part of Polish history, and it seems as if 
 the Justice of Destiny had now called Poland forth from 
 the tomb where she lay buried alive, in order that she 
 might wrestle in supreme combat with her old perfidious 
 vassal, upon the very gravestone beneath which he 
 himself had laid her. 
 
 Those who did not know that Poland and Prussia 
 were death-foes knew neither Poland nor Prussia. It 
 was supposed by many at the outbreak of this cata- 
 clysmic war that Poland would betray Russia. The 
 Germanic coalition possesssed two main parts of Poland, 
 Posnania and Galicia, comprising a Polish population 
 of about 10 millions; Russia's portion represented a 
 
Polish population of about 12 millions ; and it is evident 
 that had the Kingdom of Poland risen against Russia 
 in early August, throwing the whole Polish cause into 
 the scale on Germany's side, there could have been no 
 invasion of East Prussia by the Russian forces at a 
 moment of critical importance to the Allies, and the 
 present battle-line would be not West but East of the 
 Vistula. 
 
 Stress must be laid upon the fact that Prussia and 
 Austria both did their utmost by proclamations, sudden 
 concessions, sentimental appeals and secret machinations 
 to bind their own Polish provinces to them and to 
 bring about a revolution in the Kingdom. It may 
 be taken for a fact that Russia more than half expected 
 to meet with disloyalty in Poland ; while the enemy 
 was whispering in Poland's ear she made no attempt 
 to bribe Polish adherence; she even retired from the 
 frontier which she left undefended, allowing Prussia to 
 walk over and set his claw on Czestochowa, Poland's 
 most sacred shrine, and simultaneously to appropriate 
 the rich rnining districts — a happy combination of spiritual 
 and material advantages. 
 
 It was now that Poland showed her implacable 
 hatred of Prussia, and that deeper blood affinity which, 
 in spite of visible diversity of growth, united her by the 
 root to the Slavonic Empire. The Russian Pole without 
 hesitation threw in his lot with Russia. He knew, alas ! 
 that almost a million of his brethren across the border 
 were forced to fight with the enemy's colours owing to 
 the laws of compulsory service. He had no means of 
 
letting his divided brother know of his attitude ; and 
 when Russia, moved by Pohsh loyalty, by the rush of 
 Polish volunteers to the standard, uttered through the 
 Commander-in-Chief of her Armies an inspired proclama- 
 tion of freedom for Poland, the tragic Poles of Austria 
 and Prussia were kept from the knowledge that a new 
 dawn of emancipation and re-union was at hand. 
 
 It is generally known to-day that the Polish volunteers 
 called for by Austria have been few in number since the 
 hrst period of bewilderment ; in Prussian Poland there 
 have been no volunteers ; in both Austria and Prussia 
 the overwhelming majority of the Poles are at heart 
 solidary with the Kingdom of Poland. At the outbreak 
 of war, before the Galician Pole had time to take his 
 bearings, there was a perfectly natural first movement of 
 allegiance to Austria, beneath whose government he had 
 enjoyed the rights of his own faith and language, together 
 with a general semblance of freedom unknown to his 
 brother in the North, privileges which had drawn from 
 him a full measure of gratitude. But he was soon 
 aware that behind Vienna there loomed the shadow of 
 Berlin; and, turning from this peril, he was bound by a 
 deeper instinct to set his face towards Warsaw, even if 
 in ignorance of the dawn promised by Petrograd. 
 
 It is not easy for an Englishman to understand 
 the monstrous position of a nation fictitiously divided 
 within itself by boundaries raised against nature ; it is 
 not against nature that three races should unite to 
 form one nation ; but it is against nature, monstrous 
 and wholly evil, that a nation, pure of race, single of 
 
purpose, should be subjected to the usurpation of 
 sovereign rights over her one body by three separate 
 masters. Poland has not been destroyed by this torture 
 but she has suffered great injury, were it only in this 
 that she has been prevented from undergoing a homo- 
 genous development, and is furthermore prevented, in this 
 long-awaited hour of activity, from showing a united 
 front, while held together heart and soul by one 
 inextinguishable aspiration — National Unity. 
 
 If all this were understood, a larger measure of 
 sympathy and interest would, even without knowledge of 
 the details of their singular martyrdom, go forth to-day 
 to the twenty-three million Poles who, from a state of 
 passive and silent although passionate efforts to maintain 
 National existence under the weight of unexampled 
 oppression, have suddenly been hurled into the burning 
 centre of that great European melting-pot in which 
 Poland must either be finally consumed, or from which 
 she must emerge re-shapen, shining, and whole. 
 
 It is perfectly comprehensible that Great Britain 
 should speak aloud of the Belgian Martyrdom ; she sees 
 the Belgian victims, she hears their groans, she feels 
 their peril. But surely it needs no impossible effort of 
 imagination, on the part of a Nation known as the 
 champion of wrongs, for the mind's eye to traverse 
 Europe and grasp the fact that all the titanic Eastern 
 battles are being fought on Polish earth. We ought to 
 be able, even at a distance, to realise the ruin of the 
 war-swept fields, the desolate farms, the desecrated 
 Churches, the vanished villages where peace and beauty 
 
can be no more, the fair country houses black and 
 fallen, the mutilated forests, the polluted streams ; we 
 ought to be able to see the towns where industry is 
 lamed, to bend over the corpses of the dead, to weep 
 in indignation over the shuddering women, in pity over 
 children starving in the land of their fathers. 
 
 We ought to be able to achieve this. Canute the 
 English King who proudly sat and gave command to 
 the sea-waves, was the son of a Polish mother. The 
 future of aloof and sea-bound England is somehow mixed 
 up, although she ignores it, with the fate of the Nation 
 now yielding up its earth and its blood without murmur 
 for the sake of a day when the Kingdom of Poland 
 shall stretch once more from the Carpathian*:; to the 
 Baltic, a Kingdom free in culture and in soul, closely 
 linked with the great Russian Empire, Prussia's foil, 
 Germany's safeguard, and Britain's friend. 
 
 But before Great Britain cares to bestow thought 
 upon the Polish people it will perhaps be necessary to 
 re-assure her as to the actuality of Poland's faith in 
 Russia and of Russia's faith in Poland. 
 
 A suspicion that England is afraid of offending 
 Russia, of puttmg her foot in it, of coming up against 
 " somebody else's Irish question " creeps inevitably into 
 the mind of those who have looked in vain for whole- 
 hearted recognition of Poland's necessarily unofficial 
 though none the less active position as a belligerent 
 and ally ; yet it is fairly well known that a million of 
 her men are fighting on our side ; it has also been 
 freely whispered that, had Great Britain allowed it. 
 
5o,ooo Poles geographically out of reach of the Russian 
 Empire would be serving to-day under the British Flag. 
 
 We hope that perusal of the following documents 
 may set at rest all doubts as to Russia's heart-whole 
 nobility of intention towards Poland. We hope too that 
 a day may speedily come when Polish loyalty, dignity, 
 valour and sacrifice may receive recognition here, when 
 curiosity about Poland may rouse British public opinion 
 to enquiry, when the Polish colours and the Polish 
 National Anthem may receive in London some of the 
 sympathy they receive in Petrograd, when, in fine, 
 Poland may be accorded a place on the list of our 
 Allies — not set apart and sharing the official dignity of 
 Montenegro, but closely linked up with the honourable 
 name of Russia, to whose victorious achievements she is 
 contributing a share fully recognised by the Russian 
 people, and of whose bygone history and future growth 
 she represents an unalienable part. 
 
 Laurence Alma Tadema, 
 January 8th, 1915. 
 
lO 
 
 POLISH ATTITUDE IN THE DUMA. 
 
 On the gth of August, 1914, Wiktor Jaronski, Deputy for 
 Kielce, in the name of the Polish group made the following 
 declaration in the Duma : — 
 
 In this historic moment, when the Slavonic world 
 and the German, led on by that immemorial foe of 
 Poland, Prussia, are standing up against one another 
 in decisive encounter, the Polish Nation, bereft of 
 independence and of the power of manifesting its own 
 will, finds itself in a tragic situation. The tragedy is 
 accentuated by the fact not only that Polish ground is 
 the theatre of war, but that the Polish Nation, torn 
 into three, beholds her sons in three camps enemy to 
 one another. 
 
 Territorially divided, we Poles nevertheless in feeling 
 and sympathy for the Slav must stand as one. 
 [Tttnmltuous applause and cries of Bravo.'] We are 
 inclined hereto not only by the justice of the 
 cause Russia has embraced but also by political 
 reason. 
 
 The world-wide significance of the present moment 
 relegates to the background all domestic reckonings. 
 [TwmdtuoJis applause and long unsilenced cries of Bravo,] 
 God grant that Slavdom, under the leadership of 
 Russia, may resist the Teuton, even as, five centuries 
 
II 
 
 ago, Poland and Lithuania resisted 
 vvald.* 
 
 him at Grun- 
 
 May the blood shed by us, and the horrors of this 
 to us fratricidal war, lead to the reconstitution of the 
 dismembered Polish Nation. [Tuniultuotis applause and 
 cries of Bravo.'] 
 
 * Grunwald, a famous victory won by the Poles and Lithuanians, 
 on July 15th, 1410, over the Teutonic Knights of the Cross; these 
 warrior monks, invited by Poland after the Crusades to settle upon 
 the Borussian borders and carry religion to the pagans of the Baltic, 
 had become metamorphosed by ambition, treachery and crime, from 
 Christian Knights into the living scourge of all neighbouring peoples. 
 Had the Poles been as brilliant in politics as in arms, had they 
 been calculating enough to drive a victory home, to annex conquered 
 territory instead of being content with suzerainty, the Knights of the 
 Cross need never have been further metamorphosed into Prussian 
 Junkers. 
 
12 
 
 PETERSBURG [sic]. A PROCLAMATION FROM THE 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TO THE POLES. 
 
 Poles ! 
 
 The hour has struck in which the sacred dream 
 of your fathers and forefathers may find fulfilment. 
 
 A century and a half ago, the living flesh of Poland 
 was torn asunder, but her soul did not die. She lived 
 in hope that there would come an hour for the 
 resurrection of the Polish Nation and for sisterly 
 reconciliation with Russia. 
 
 The Russian Army now brings you the joyful tidings 
 of this reconciliation. May the boundaries be annulled 
 which cut the Polish Nation to pieces ! May that 
 Nation re-unite into one body under the sceptre of the 
 Russian Emperor. Under this sceptre Poland shall be 
 re-born, free in Faith, in language, in self-government. 
 
 One thing only Russia expects of you : equal 
 consideration for the rights of those nationalities to 
 which history has linked you. 
 
 With open heart, with hand fraternally outstretched, 
 Russia steps forward to meet you. She believes that 
 the Sword has not rusted which, at Grunwald, struck 
 down the enemy. 
 
 From the shores of the Pacific to the North seas, 
 the Russian armies are on the march. The dawn of a 
 new life is breaking for you. 
 
13 
 
 May there shine, resplendent above that dawn, the 
 sign of the Cross, symbol of the Passion and 
 Resurrection of Nations ! 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Commander-in-Chief General Adjutant, 
 
 Nicolas. 
 I (14) August, 1 914. 
 
 N.B. — The above Proclamation was issued in the Polish 
 language, and is here translated from the original text as it appeared 
 in the " Gazeta Warszawska " of August i6th. 
 
H 
 
 REPLY OF THE POLISH POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 The following appeared in the " Gazeta Warszawska," August 
 17th, 1914:— 
 
 The representatives of the undersigned political 
 parties, assembled in Warsaw on the i6th August, 1914, 
 welcome the Proclamation issued to the Poles by His 
 Imperial Highness the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Russian Forces as an act of the foremost historical 
 importance, and implicitly believe that upon the 
 termination of the war, the promises uttered in that 
 proclamation will be formally fulfilled, that the dreams 
 of their fathers and forefathers will be realised, that 
 Poland's flesh, torn asunder a century and a half ago, 
 will once again be made whole, that the frontiers 
 severing the Polish Nation will vanish. 
 
 The blood of Poland's sons, shed in united combat 
 against the Germans, will serve as a sacrifice, offered 
 upon the altar of her Resurrection. 
 
 The Democratic National Party. 
 
 The Polish Progressive Party. 
 
 The Realist Party. 
 
 The Polish Progressive Union. 
 
15 
 
 Extract from a leading article which appeared on September 
 17th, 1914, in the " Gazeta Warszawska," chief organ of the 
 Democratic National Party. 
 
 THE UNIFICATION OF POLAND. 
 
 We belong to a generation which has witnessed no 
 great events and which therefore finds it difficuh to rise 
 above the grey level of everyday existence. Hence the 
 doubt and incredulity pervading many a soul in the 
 presence of events which have been brought about by 
 Historical Necessity. 
 
 The developments which we are now witnessing 
 have not been caused by the good or bad will of 
 individuals ; they are the actual expression of Historical 
 Necessity, the result of conflict between mighty forces 
 which shatter nations in order to give them new life. 
 
 The actions of those directing the politics of a state 
 then bear the stamp of greatness when they are the 
 expression of changes springing from the very nature of 
 things. In the realms of social and political creativeness 
 the human will, however powerful, can only be one 
 factor ; the decisive factors are the great historic 
 forces. 
 
 Whoever has watched the working of these forces in 
 contemporary Europe, had necessarily come to the 
 conclusion that, following upon Germany's drift toward 
 hegemony and upon the crystalization into states of the 
 nationalities inhabiting Eastern Europe, the Polish 
 Question must sooner or later emerge as an international 
 
i6 
 
 question. To such therefore as knew this before the 
 war, the events now taking place could not come 
 unexpectedly ; the Proclamation of the Commander-in- 
 Chief assumed the proportions of a great historic act, 
 being no fantastic conceit, no mere artifice of war, but 
 the expression and manifestation of historic destinies in 
 course of fulfilment. This act will take its place beside 
 other great deeds of state-wisdom, because behind it 
 stands not only the will of individuals but something 
 mightier than human power : Historical Necessity. 
 
 The present war is being waged against German 
 hegemony wielded by Prussia. If the result of the war 
 is to be a long-lasting period of peace and not a brief 
 suspension of arms leading to yet another war still more 
 / terrible, then it must lead to the destruction of Prussia. 
 In order to effect this, the Polish territories must be 
 wrenched away and Poland must be re-established in 
 such a form that she may set the whole tension of her 
 vital forces against Prussia's usurping thirst for 
 re-conquered power. 
 
 Whoever intends to break Prussia once and for ever, 
 can only do so by the unification of the Polish territories. 
 The leaders of foreign policy in Russia understand this. 
 We know it through various sources, but present 
 confirmation of this certitude is to be found in a 
 communication prominently placed in a recent number 
 of " The Bourse Gazette," a communication evidently 
 emanating from authoritative circles. We there read : 
 
 " Our diplomacy, in perfect accord with the allied 
 governments, will not allow of any peace deliberations 
 
17 
 
 whatsoever, direct or indirect, before the complete 
 destruction of the nest of mihtarism in Germany, before 
 the removal of Prussia from its present preponderant 
 position among German States, before the complete 
 satisfaction of England and France, before the 
 Unification of Poland, before the attainment by us in 
 their entirety of all our demands both Russian and 
 Pan-Slavic. Until such a time, all the efforts of Count 
 Berstorf and other German diplomatic agents will 
 remain fruitless." 
 
 Facts are increasing in number which testify to the 
 wisdom and foresight of those politicians who affirmed 
 that only upon Prussia's ruins could Poland rise and 
 build herself anew, facts which prove that we have 
 working in our cause the greatest of all strengths, 
 Historical Necessity. 
 
 This does not absolve us from collaboration, from 
 consecrating the work of our hands and minds to our 
 great and holy task. The first conditions of this task 
 demand the raising of the tone of our internal life, the 
 lifting of our eyes from the every-day levels and the bold 
 fixing of our gaze upon the greatness of the historic 
 moment. Let us realise that no endeavour, suffering or 
 sacrifice bears comparison with the magnitude of the 
 goal, with the dazzling brightness of the future to which 
 present events are leading us. 
 
POLISH NATIONAL COUNXIL. 
 
 The newly-formed Polish National Council issued in Warsaw 
 on November 25th, 19 14, the following Manifesto addressed to the 
 Poles in all three Empires : — 
 
 Countrymen 
 
 When the present war broke out, our nation 
 
 instantly became aware that an important page of her 
 
 history was being turned, that her future hung in the 
 balance. 
 
 Poland's most dread foe, who had vowed her 
 complete annihilation, who with approved cunning had, 
 through wide-spread influence, armed all forces against 
 us, suddenly stood forth as the enemy not only of 
 ourselves but of almost the whole of Europe. And we 
 who hitherto alone in desperate daily strife had defended 
 against this enemy the domains of our fathers, all at 
 once saw lifted against him the arms of the world's 
 great powers : Russia, France, England. 
 
 We had always understood on which side our place 
 would be. This was now indicated without hesitation 
 by the thought of all sections of the community, by 
 the healthy instinct of the people themselves. 
 
 Germany's defeat in this struggle meant victory 
 for us. 
 
 Our attitude was responded to by Russia through 
 the Proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Army, a proclamation announcing the fulfilment of our 
 
19 
 
 most sacred desires, the joining together of the 
 dismembered body of the Nation, her freedom of being 
 and of growth. This proclamation found an echo 
 among Russia's western alHes : the restoration of Poland 
 was seen to be one of the great tasks of this bloody 
 war, a task crying for accomplishment. And our Nation 
 itself received the proclamation with all the more ardour. 
 There stood clearly expressed before the world that 
 purpose which a new dawn had illumined for us at the 
 very outbreak of war. 
 
 In presence of this purpose, of the efforts and 
 sacrifices necessary to its realization, all the conflicts 
 and tortures of yesterday faded into the past. One 
 object alone confronted the Nation : the overthrow of 
 Germany's sinister power, the unification of Poland 
 under the sceptre of the Russian Monarch. 
 
 Upon this object our Nation concentrated herself, 
 towards this end turned all her endeavours. 
 
 From the very first it was recognised by the 
 majority that if singleness of purpose were to find 
 expression in unity of action, it must first find pilotage. 
 We understood that the historic magnitude of this 
 moment thrust aside all the programs for which we 
 had been combating, that in time of war party must 
 cease to speak. The Nation, acting as a whole, was 
 bound to produce one national organization competent 
 to give expression to the manifest will of the immense 
 majority. The creating of this organization, of this 
 pilotage, had to be undertaken by those who above all 
 were responsible for the country's politics. 
 
20 
 
 The undersigned, deputies from the Kingdom of 
 Poland to both legislative bodies of the Empire, former 
 deputies, and leaders of social work in this country, 
 have united with the object of drawing together around 
 the common cause all our countrymen irrespective of 
 views or convictions, unanimous only in the possession 
 of one purpose, and herein expressing to-day the clear 
 will of the Nation. Not being able, owing to present 
 conditions, to assemble all those whom they would desire 
 to see in their midst, and purposing to fill out the frame 
 according to the measure of their work's progress, they 
 realise that further delay in setting about that work 
 would carry detriment to the cause. Therefore the 
 undersigned this day unite to form a Polish National 
 Council, thus laying the foundation of Poland's political 
 organization, giving expression to her leading tendencies, 
 making her one in purpose and in deed. 
 
 The Nation is at this moment with the whole of her 
 strength helping to secure victory over the Germans. 
 Our youth has rushed with ardour into the ranks of that 
 Russian army in which the sons of our land are fighting 
 in hundreds of thousands for the great cause ; the Polish 
 civil population has zealously co-operated with that 
 army, doing all in its power to assist in the struggle 
 against our mighty foe ; and whereas war has carried to 
 our territory unevaded devastation, ruin and destitution, 
 we are bearing the calamity with calm, confident in a 
 luminous morrow for the land of our fathers. The foe 
 did not terrify us by his strength, even when he appeared 
 at the gates of our capital : nor did he deceive us by 
 
21 
 
 his promises : the mass of the people preserved an 
 unmoved composure in the presence of danger and 
 repUed to his protestations by contempt. 
 
 This unshaken attitude was maintained not only in 
 those parts of the country which the enemy did not 
 actually invade, but also there where he took possession, 
 proclaiming his occupation as definite. 
 
 The enemy's expectations were equally disappointed 
 in the case of the Polish detachments formed in 
 Austria, to which a certain portion of our ignorant youth 
 was drawn, beguiled by patriotic watch-words. These 
 detachments, destined to decoy the population of the 
 Kingdom into alliance with Austria and Germany, met 
 with ill-will and opposition in all grades of a society 
 possessing clear knowledge of its aims in this portentous 
 hour. 
 
 Unavailing were the skilful intrigues of the 
 Austrian Government, which sought for a while by 
 deceptive appearances to prove that this armed 
 movement had the support of all the political elements 
 of Galicia. It stands clear to-day that the detachments 
 of sharp-shooters have against them not merely the 
 judgment of the Kingdom and of Prussian Poland, but 
 also of the majority of our fellow-countrymen in the 
 Austrian provinces. 
 
 Even to the least enlightened minds it became 
 evident that the few whose hopes were fixed on Austria, 
 as the only State in which our national rights had met 
 with a measure of recognition, overrated her independence, 
 
22 
 
 not having yet discovered that she had stooped to so 
 low a part as to become the mere compliant tool of 
 Prussian policy. 
 
 To-day, in face of the manifest will of the Polish 
 Nation, which has with all the strength of its soul 
 come forward against Germany, in face moreover of 
 the fact that Germany alone is the opposing force, 
 independent, conscious of her aims — whereas those who 
 fight with her are simply the instrument of her schemes 
 — in face of all this, any help wilfully given by Poles 
 to Germany or her allies must be looked upon as a 
 transgression against Poland. 
 
 The Russian army has, in Austria, already set foot 
 upon earth Polish in pith and marrow, and we are now 
 expecting its advance into those immemorial fastnesses 
 of our Nation which Prussia possesses. 
 
 In this grave moment there lies before our fellow- 
 countrymen in those parts the solemn duty of affirming 
 that in thought and deed they are one with the rest 
 of Poland. It behoves them to see to it that the 
 enemy shall not impose upon them even the semblance 
 of an act contrary to the purposes of our Nation. 
 Such would be accounted any opposition whatsoever of 
 the population against the Russian army, an opposition 
 which Germany will infallibly attempt to rouse in many 
 places. 
 
 Countrymen ! Since a hundred years, boundaries 
 have divided us which the circle of events have left 
 untouched ; to-day, the sons of our soil are being forced 
 
23 
 
 to spill the blood of brothers, fighting in the ranks of 
 their own enemies. This war, great, epoch-making, 
 abolishes those boundaries and opens out a radiant 
 morrow of re-union to our nation which in spirit never 
 suffered itself to be divided. This our unity we to-day 
 irrefutably confirm ; for the national attitude bears 
 testimony to the fact that in all parts of the great land 
 of our fathers we Poles have one idea, one purpose : — 
 the unification of Poland and the laying of foundations 
 for the free development of the Nation. 
 
 Warsaw, November 25th, 1914. 
 
 THE POLISH NATIONAL COUNCIL. 
 
 Zygmiint Balicki, 
 Stefan Ba^dzyiiski, 
 Sianis'taw Czekanoxvski, 
 Seweryn Czetxvertynski, 
 Henryk Detnbitiskt, 
 Roman Dmoivski, 
 Marceli Godlewski, 
 Jerzy Goscicki, 
 W-f'adys^aw Grabski, 
 Jan Harusewicz, 
 Wiktor Jaroffski, 
 Waienty Kamocki, 
 Czes't'aw Karpinski, 
 Stanis-taw Lesnioivski, 
 
 Zdisfaw Lubonitrski, 
 Maryan Liitosi'awski, 
 Jozef Nakonieczny, 
 Franciszek N owodworski 
 Konstanty Plater, 
 Maciej RadziwiH, 
 Jan Rudnicki, 
 Jan Stecki, 
 Ignacy Szebeko, 
 Zygmunt Wielopolski, 
 Jozef Wielowieyski, 
 Stanisiiaw Wojciechowski, 
 Maurycy Zamoyski. 
 
24 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Council is composed of 
 eight Members : 
 
 Mr. Zygmunt Balicki, Editor of '• Przeglad Narodowy " (National 
 Review). 
 
 Prince Z. Czetwertynski, President of the Central Agricultural 
 Society. 
 
 Mr. Roman Dmowski, former Chairman of the Polish Group in 
 the Duma. 
 
 Mr. Jerzy Goscicki, Member of the Duma. 
 
 Mr. Wl. Grabski, Vice-President of the Central Agricultural Society. 
 
 Mr. Henryk Dembinski, former Member of the Duma. 
 
 Prince Zdyslaw Lubomirski. 
 
 Count Z. Wielopolski, Chairman of the Polish Group in the Council 
 of Empire. 
 
 Chairman of the National Council : Count Wielopolski. 
 
 Vice-Chairman : Prince Czetwertynski. 
 
 Chairman of the Executive Committee : Mr. Roman Dmowski. 
 
 First Secretary : Mr. Jerzy Goscicki. 
 
 Second Secretary & Treasurer : Count Konstanty Plater. 
 
25 
 
 THE RUSSIAN PRESS AND THE POLISH NATIONAL 
 
 COUNCIL. 
 
 [" Gazeta Warszawska," November 30th, 19 14.] 
 
 The Petrograd Press has reported in its entirety the 
 Manifesto of the Pohsh National Council. Concerning 
 the Manifesto, Professor Adryanow writes as follows in 
 " The Bourse Gazette " : — 
 
 " On the leaden horizon of Russo-Polish relations 
 the light has kindled of a dawn announcing the 
 approach of that great day which, in the secret 
 midnight talks of youth, was dreamed of by two of the 
 greatest poets of the two greatest Slavonic Nations, 
 Puszkin and Mickiewicz. 
 
 The proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 announcing the national unification and regeneration of 
 Poland, called forth enormous enthusiasm not only 
 among the Poles but also among the Russians. 
 
 During four months of stubborn fighting, Polish 
 psychology has succeeded in giving indubitable proof of 
 its solidity. There have been no traitors to the Pan- 
 Slavic cause among the Russian Poles, in spite of 
 alluring German promises, in spite of the enemy's 
 menacing invasion of Polish soil. The German soldier 
 here encountered stern unfriendliness ; the Russian army 
 met everywhere with flowers, with cordiality, with active 
 help on the battlefield and on the bed of suffering. 
 Events such as these do not pass leaving no trace upon 
 
26 
 
 the memory of Nations. Dangers and sorrow shared in 
 concord, victory attained by common effort, form a 
 cement so mighty that no further ordeals need now be 
 feared. 
 
 The unity which so shiningly expressed itself in 
 practise is now finding for itself an organised form. In 
 Warsaw a Polish National Council has come into being 
 of which we print elsewhere the full Manifesto. We 
 find expressed in this Manifesto the true feelings of 
 the mass of the Polish people, although we miss the 
 names of representatives of certain currents of Polish 
 opinion. We have reason to hope that difference of 
 opinion, in some minor matters, will not prevent those 
 crroups now absent from joining the Council in the 
 name of a common goal. 
 
 While welcoming the manifesto as a program to 
 which every Russian citizen could sign his name, we 
 must especially underline the meaning of that part 
 which calls upon the Poles of Galicia and Posnania 
 to render no assistance to the German cause. The 
 warning is particularly important at this moment when 
 the Russian army has already invaded Austrian Poland 
 and is on the eve of entering Prussian Poland. We 
 may count upon it that the Manifesto will have power 
 over those to whom it is addressed, for the Polish 
 Political Parties already forming the National Council 
 are organizations comprising in their ranks not only 
 Russian Poles, but Poles from beyond the border. 
 Thus, what is uttered in Warsaw represents the thought 
 and will of Austrian and Prussian Poles as well as of 
 
27 
 
 those who are Russian subjects. Furthermore the 
 
 Manifesto prepares ground very favourably for our 
 
 glorious army in those regions lying close to our 
 
 frontiers. This should be taken very much into 
 consideration and valued accordingly. 
 
 Let us not be exaggeratedly optimistic. We are not 
 saying that all the complicated questions have vanished 
 which are bound up with the reconstruction of a united 
 Poland. There is no doubt that the practical realization 
 of the programs published by the Commander-in-Chief 
 and by the Warsaw Council presents difficulties. But 
 thanks to what has already been said, the sting has been 
 extracted from Russo-Polish relations, and buried once 
 and for ever is the fear of Polish treacher}^ to the state 
 in Russia's hour of difficulty ; buried too are hatred and 
 lack of trust between the Poles and the Russian Nation. 
 
 It is necessary however to remember the lessons of 
 history. Prussian influence in Russia has done many a 
 wrong to our inward life. Only then when we shall 
 have succeeded in pulling up the very roots of the 
 Prussian spirit from Russian life, can many of our 
 burning questions find solution, and among them the 
 Polish Question. The Poles understood the true drift 
 of events when arm in arm with us they stood forth 
 against Germany. This understanding, developed on 
 both sides to the uttermost conclusion, will serve as 
 principle for the building up of Russo-Polish relations 
 in the near future. 
 
 Meanwhile, a good beginning has been made." 
 
28 
 
 [" Gazeta Warsawska." Same date.] 
 
 The well-known Russian writer Bajan, has published 
 in the " Russkoye Slovo " a glowing article in which, 
 having confirmed the fundamental changes which have 
 taken place in the relations between Russians and Poles, 
 he expresses the conviction that, henceforward, these 
 two Slavonic nations will be united in the bonds of a 
 friendship which no intrigues of the enemies of either 
 nation will be able to break asunder. Bajan holds the 
 Polono- Russian reconciliation to be the condition of 
 Russia's future greatness and power. 
 
 " Poland in these last days," he writes, " has seen 
 both the Russian Tsar and the German Kaiser. William 
 gave forth hysterical commands, he warbled and 
 threatened amid the roar of the carmons which were 
 destroying Polish sanctuaries and Polish homes. The 
 Russian Tsar with sadness and love passed through his 
 sorrowing country. There were no proclamations, neither 
 threats nor demonstrative caresses. There were few 
 words. But the ruined sanctuaries are being restored 
 at the Tsar's expense, and the Catholic Clergy has 
 prayed together with the Orthodox Emperor. These 
 two incidents give the finishing touch to the picture of 
 Russo-Polish relations. 
 
 And yet of these relations it will still be necessary 
 to speak much and convincingly. So deep a process 
 cannot be accomplished without convulsions. So rapid 
 
29 
 
 a recovery of health cannot take place without relapse 
 into occasional attacks of disease. 
 
 The Polish Question has been settled irrevocably, 
 but among both Poles and Russians there remains 
 many a doubting Thomas. Poland beyond the border 
 is still uncertain. It is necessary before all to set at 
 rest the harassed Polish soul. 
 
 Do you not see the difference between that which 
 was and that which is ? Do you not feel, do you not 
 understand, that such a moment never yet was, and 
 never will be again ? Can there be talk now of 
 nationalists, of russifiers ? A volcanic process is taking 
 place, underground, and here you are speaking of the 
 breeze which is on the surface. Are you unable to 
 see that if the Russian Nation is in love with the 
 Polish Nation, if the Russian community feels its 
 one-ness with the Polish community, nobody, nothing — 
 do you understand ? — will be able to alter the course 
 of history ? 
 
 More and more am I convinced that other 
 problems of Russia's past and future lie hidden in the 
 Polish problem : According to my belief, the Polish 
 Question is the nervous centre upon the health of 
 which depends the health of the most remote organs. 
 Through Warsaw and Cracow leads the road not only 
 to Constantinople but also to Sinai, to Mecca, to 
 Helsingfors, and above all to Paris and London, which 
 means the West. 
 
 By cutting the Gordian knot of the Polish problem 
 
30 
 
 we simultaneously find the solution of a considerable 
 number of our problems, national, political, economical, 
 and we establish for a long century the further course 
 of our development. 
 
 The Sovereign's visit to Poland, and the direct gift 
 from Petrograd to Warsaw, have closed, possibly, the 
 first cycle of events solving the Polish question. Rivers 
 do not fiow backwards. The feelings of a nation are not 
 variable as the wind. Russia's heart is not easily 
 roused, but once on fire it does not soon grow cold. 
 What has been joined together by blood and fire 
 cannot be torn asunder by intrigue and calculation. 
 
 On the fields of devastated Poland, ethics have 
 killed politics ; if certain Polish and Russian political 
 maniacs were to try in the future to sever the chains 
 forged by this Russo-Polish drama, their efforts would 
 be fruitless. This is our first victory. 
 
 It possesses, besides its obstruse value, a pro- 
 portional value. It is the guarantee of victories still 
 to come. Upon the Polish question, as upon Ararat, 
 rests the Ark of all our hopes and desires set in motion 
 by the general deluge. 
 
 All the break-downs and roads without issue of 
 Russian politics, internal and external, seen from the 
 heights of the Russo-Polish Ararat look like temporary 
 misunderstandings. 
 
 Here then is the reason why it seems to me that 
 before Warsaw, Kalisz, Czestochowa, the fate is being 
 decided not only of the Poles but also of the Russians. 
 
31 
 
 And Jasna Gora,* its miraculous image glittering with 
 precious stones, reveals itself to me as Ararat, crowned 
 with an eternal diadem of jewels." 
 
 '■' Jasna Gora is the name of the hill-top above Czestochowa 
 upon whose summit stands the Church of the Paulin Fathers 
 containing the Sacred Image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. 
 Prussian, Russian, Swede and Austrian, have all across long 
 centuries, laid siege to this Hill of Light which has remained 
 Poland's spiritual centre. This holy and symbolic spot is temporarily 
 in the hands of the Prussians.