The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915Various
History
The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
The purpose of the proclamation was probably, above all, to prevent a
revolt in Russian Poland the moment hostile troops invaded it. On the
Austrian Poles the manifesto seems to have failed to produce its effect.
As these Poles enjoy full autonomy in Galicia, and for a century have
witnessed the severity and cruelty with which their kinsmen in Russian
Poland have been oppressed, they received the proclamation with loud
vows of faithfulness to the house of Hapsburg; nay, all the _sokol_
societies which in time of peace (keeping a decision in view) had
trained their members in games and the use of arms, placed themselves as
Polish legions at the disposal of the Government against the Russians.
But that was not all. The Ruthenian inhabitants of Galicia, one-half the
population of the country, founded _a League for the Release of Ukraine_
and flooded Europe from the 25th of August with notifications and
descriptions hostile to Russia. The founders did not withhold their
names. They are D. Donzow, W. Doroschenko, M. Melenewsky, A.
Skoropyss-Joltuchowsky, N. Zalizniak and A. Zuk.
And it has very soon proved that, in spite of the proclamation of the
independence of Poland, the Czar, at any rate, includes East Galicia in
Poland as little as the inhabitants are regarded or treated as Poles or
Ruthenians. The Russians were hardly in Lemberg, before this town and
the whole of East Galicia were called in the orders of the day old
Russian land and the inhabitants described as Russians, whom their
brothers had now come to set free.
What impression the imperial manifesto made in Posen can scarcely be
proved, as each hostile remark against Prussia would have been punished
as high treason.
The German Emperor has, however, no less than the Russian Czar, been
courting the favor of the Poles and trying to win them through promises.
One month after the issue of the Czar's manifesto, a proclamation from
von Morgen, the German Lieutenant General, was displayed in the
Governments of Lomza and Warsaw. In this the following sentences are to
be found: "Arise and drive away with me those Russian barbarians who
made you slaves; drive them out of your beautiful country, which shall
now regain her political and religious liberty. That is the will of my
mighty and gracious King." Knowing the passion with which the Poles have
hitherto been driven away from their soil and persecuted because of
their language, we learn from this proclamation that the German
Government has felt the necessity of outbidding the Czar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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