The White Eagle of PolandBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
History
The White Eagle of Poland
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Poland -- History -- German occupation, 1914-1918; Polish question
Trouble was brewing: again in June, 1917, the Council of State passed a
resolution that Lithuania should be reunited to Poland, and this was
supported by the Inter-Party Club of Warsaw[21] under the leadership of
the National Democrats, in conjunction with Realists, Polish
Progressives, Christian Democrats, the National Federation and the Union
of Economic Independence, for Germany, by her obstinate refusal to give
substance to any of her promises, had done nothing more than
consolidate Polish parties together against herself. Support was given
to the Polish cause by a further declaration of the Allies, for at a
meeting of the Polish National Club in Petrograd, M. Albert Thomas
announced in the name of the French Government that they desired
“unification independence, strength and greatness of Poland, for the
Polish question is a European and an international question.” This was
in flat contradiction of the declaration of the late Tsar’s Government
that the Polish question was an internal Russian question, and was a
direct allusion to the importance of Poland as a check to the
Mittel-Europa policy of Germany. Neither Russia nor the Central Empires
had given substance to the promises they had made, and it was clear that
if Polish national aspirations were to be satisfied, it must be the
Entente to whom Poland had to look. This revulsion of feeling against
the occupying powers led to fresh disturbances that broke out in Warsaw,
and to the refusal of the large majority, 85 per cent., of the Polish
legions to take any oath of allegiance to the Central Powers. On that
the mailed fist descended: the Polish soldiers who had refused to take
the oath were sent to internment camps, and Pilsudski, who had been the
one hope on whom rested the raising of a Polish army to fight for
Germany, was arrested on the charge of conspiracy and imprisoned, upon
which the commanders of the Polish legions resigned. Cannons were placed
in the streets of Warsaw, thousands of civilians were arrested, and the
Governor-General announced that he had authority to burn Warsaw to the
ground, in order to show how deeply Germany had at heart the welfare of
Poland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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