[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. End of Project Gutenberg's The White Eagle of Poland, by E. F. Benson