The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-17
REGARD WARSAW FALL
 AS A TRAGEDY
Destruction of Property in Retreat Held As Great
 Loss.


 Russian loss of western Poland and the fall of Warsaw, by the Poles themselves it is regarded as nothing but the bitterest tragedy. Six months ago. the Russian Poles, in spite of their losses and Suffering and the complete devastation of the most productive portions of their country. 1 still c1ung hopefully to the promise | which Russia had held out to them at the beginning of the war. But with the gradual encroachment of the German armies, this assurance has wavered-not so much because they doubted Russia's good faith as be- cause they questioned her ability to enforce the Grand Dukes proclama- l tion With the loss of the Polish cap ital, it may be said that this waning hope which alone nxted Russian Po- land out of absolute despair, has ex- l pifed.
 An Associated Press correspondent talked with representative Poles of all l classes from the aristocracy. to the peasantry, as they fled from Warsaw
 to interior points in Russia The up- permost feeling was one of ill-con- cealed resentment against the Rus SianS.
 zion around Warsaw, the Russian army. having learned a lesson from Iodz, where the resources of the city were converted to German use, de- cided upon a policy of destroying all property, about whose use by the Germans there was the slightest ques- ktion. It was hardly to be expected that the Poles, homeless, pauperized,
 and without any idea of where or how they were going to live, would pre- serve a judieially calm view of this action by the Russian army. Expla- nations regarding tsstrategical neces- sity'' failed to impress men who had | just seen their own homes razed by the Russian army and had received l printed proclafnations the very phras- l ing of which they considered an in suit This proclamation is brusque1y stated that Polish cattle and men
 must Immediately leave the regions
 along the front for points in the in- terioc.''
 Thse 'wretched persons said that the Russian soldiers in their zealous execution of the orders they had re- ceived. had left nothing behind them 1 except a b1ackened and scared land
 scape whose very soil was ruined. Polish resentment has been increas- ed by the reports of Germany's offer
 of peace. to Russia, according to the terms of which Russia would cede a narrow strip of Poland in the neigh borhood of Kalisz to Germany. f'In I this settlement" say the Poles, Rus
 sia would lose nothing and Poland
 would lose everything for this would
 bring Germany one step nearer to l her plan for Germanizing the Vistula (which would mean the death of Po- l land a. nation. It seems that Po- land is not only to be the chief suf- ferer in the war, but that she is to constitute the prize which Russia is to l pay to Germany
 In view Of the present geographical boundaries of Poland, tand the state | of Polish feeling. the continuance of 1 the session of the Russian-Polish fezff fad n 1 peror to consider the question of | Polish Independence has the qualities l of tragedy and farce almost equally combined. The commission has ap- l parent1y come to deadlock, since the kind Of independence which Po- land wants and the kind which Russia sees it to offer are, if not directly op- 1 posed, at least so remote from each
 other as to have little in common.
 'I can see little hope of an agree
 naent between the Russian and Pol ish members of our commission said I Roman Daowsky, the Polish chair T man of the commission and former leader of the national democrat party of Poland, in a statement ito the Asso- cfated Press.
 s.I have been asked by the Russian I Emperor to give my views regarding the Polish government of the future sl and would be insfncere and unrep- I resentative of my country if I fnodi- fled them to suit the Russian nem- I bers of the commission. If a compro- mise is necessary, it is certainly not my duty at this time to suggest it. 1 You may be assured on one point. Po- land will never be satisfied without a proper degree of independence.'
 Asked to explain his idea of 3 proper degree of independence, MT Dmowsky said:
 'I mean a Polish legislature with
 both houses wholly Polish, complete financial undergraduates, and the end o1
 Russian ofieialdom in Poland. This is a concession Russia will never care
 to make, for Poland has been a most
 Inviting garden for exploitation by
 Russian officials,
 tsIt is the presence of Russian ad-
 ministrative officials which we find .l particularly intolerable. Poland knows q that she can never realize her ideals as a progressive nation while Ahe is
 being held back by a primitive, east
 ern civilization; Our civilization is 8
 western civilization and to subject ii prices and methods of their primitive officials is absurd.
 t'It must not be inferred, however that Po1and's resentna ent against Rus sia is accompanied by a growing sym pathy with Germany. Whatever may
 be Po1and's troubles under Russian rule, she realizes that German rule would mean the funeral of the Pol ish nation. We admire a great many things in Germany and under German rule western Poland has been much I more prosperous than while it was in Russian hands. The revenues are now l higher and the people as a whole are l better off financially. It is also true that our kinsman in German Poland have acquired a high start of culture
 and that in agriculture they have even i surpassed the Germans themselves
 ssSo perhaps from a financial point of view we would be better off under German rule, but this considers ton will never be placed by Poland on a level with her ideals for self -realiza- ton and independence, and she knows