Arizona republican., 1917-09-17
APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE HOUSES POLISH
 COMMITTEE PROTEST
Republican A. P. Leased wire]

NEW YORK, Sept. 16.-The follow ing protest on behalf of the Polish Ma tional Defense committee has been sent to His Grace, the Rt. Rev. Giovanni Bonzano apostolic delegate to the United States of America at Wash ington. D. C.:
 To His Grace. the Rt. Rev. Giovanni
 Bonzano, Apostolic Delegate to. the
 United States of America, Washing
 ton, D. C..
 Your Grace:
 The Polish National Defense com mittee requests that Your Grace trans init to the hand of His Emminence. the Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See, it's expressions of profound grlef because of the wrong done to the rights and to the dignity of the Polish nation by the apostolic letter of His Holiness, Benedict XIV, addressed to the leaders of the beligerent peoples.
 Every liberty and justice loving in dividual must greet with full apprecia- tion the peremptory demand of His Holiness, that the Germans should forthwith evacuate the territories of Belgium and France, which they oc- cupy By this demand His Holiness expressly rejects the idea of conquest and recognizes the fact that conquest by force of arms cannot constitute legal basis for incorporating foreign territories without the consent of the people of such territories. Thus the indisqutable right of the Belgian and French nations to the territories ln7 habited by them immediately prior to the outbreak of the war has been Jemt phatically recognized by the Holy See.
 The attitude of the Holy See with re- gard to the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine which were wrested from l. ;Y, ir, oa- |. definite. as the apostolic letter of His Holiness in discret silence passes over the imperative necessity of restoring -hese provinces to theira mother coun- try France.
 Painful and unexpected however, is the attitude assumed by the Holy See l with regard to the rights of the Polish nation to liberty and independencl His Holiness speaks of the Polish ques- | tion in the following words: The same spirit of equity and jus | tiee ought to be followed in the eyami 1 nation of other territorial and political questions. relative.... to territorie, making a part of the ancient kingdom f Poland, whose noble and historical traditions and sufferings which it has 1 endured, especially during the present | war. ought to conciliate the sympa- | tilies of nations"
 l Thus in the opinion of the Holy See Poland is not a nation which is fully entitled to independent political life 1 His Holiness does not demand that the | Germans evacuate the territory of the l eormer Commonwealth of Poland | which is almost in it's entirety eccu- nied by the armies of Germany and Austria Hungary. The Holy See does not recognize the sovereign rights of 1 he Polish nation to it's own territory | ,ut merely speaks of sympathies of l nations, which Poland ought to con- 1 iliate because of the sufferings she has 1 ndured According to the terms of | he apostolic letter Poland is but "a 1 erritorial and political question which l hould he examined" not in it's entirety l ut only in part" The fate of the est of the parts" of Poland which l His Holiness excludes from the exami- ! lation remains unknown. Which of the
 'artitioning powers is therefore to l nave possession of the excluded parts l of Poland?
 In the opinion of the Holy See the | Poles are not even entitled to decide | fbout their own fate. The apostolic
 etter expressly defines the composition | If the body, which is to examine the
 .erritorial questions. In the paragraph
 elating to this subject we read as fol- l ows
 The parties in conflict would wish to | ,xamine them with q conciliatory dis | position, taking into consideration, as
 Te said formerly, the aspirations of the I )eoples.
 l Thus the Polish nation is supposed l o wait patiently, without participating | n the congress of the leaders of the
 bellieerent nations, while these leader.
 decide the, fate of but part" o.
 Poland
 If such is to be the supremacy ot f right referred to by the Holy See we
 an give the positive assurance that
 here will not he one single citizen ir | 'oland who will assent to such deci. sion made by the partitionning powers Different was the tenor of addresse.
 directed bv the predecessors of Hi.
 Holiness Benedict XV, to the PoIisf nation at the times of the latters tri-
 umphs over the foes of Poland.
 At the time when the Polish kings
 trimphed over the German empire ant
 were about, to crush the rebellious ant
 sreacherous Teutonic Order of ths
 Cross, the Holy See defending the Ger
 mans insisted that they should bt
 spared by the Polish kings and did no l shrink from interdicting the recalci
 rant Polish kings and the entire Pc
 fish nation. when the Poles were pro.
 tecting their own interests.
 Clear and peremptory was also tn,
 attitude assumed by the Holy See whel
 1t frustrated, in the interests of tn
 Roman Catholic Church and to the dis
 advantage of the Polish and of tn,
 Russian nations, the victory of Kins
 Stefan Batory, elected king by tn Poles through free election, over Ivay the Terrible, czar of Muscovy. tn, greatest tyrant since Nero. By thi.
 action of the Holy See, the eastward } march of civilization was halted an | the Russian nation delivered into [ bordage of an autocracy.
 ] Clear and peremptory was the teno