New Britain herald., 1918-09-03

of men of Polish and Bohemian blood 1 have been very high. We hear of the | Polish father in Wilmington, Del, l whose parting words to his two sons, ] off to war. Is his regret he cannot go l with them Milwaukee alone has sent | 1,500 eager Polish youths to the front. 1 Polish priests throughout the country | have received letters of COmmendatiOn l on their fine work in spreading the l teachings of democaCy and in urging 1 their people to purchase liberty l bonds.
 "The first German prisoner captur- ] ed by the American Expeditionary 1 Force under General Pershing was captured by a sodie of Polish blood !
 We honor, tonight also, my friends Poland, the nation. We honor the Poland that traces it's story back to the wonderful days of Miesko and BolesIaw; the Poland that swing. down through European history, talk ing the best that Italy and France
 offers in culture and learning, and giy- ing to it freshness of spirit; the Pc land that amidst all the oppression Or the TeutOnic races never gives up the fight, but lives in the sacrifices of its heroes of every generation. es, the Poland that in the days of the great John Sobieski, turned itself after six 1 years Of peace, into a strong army, and under it's king, who was also it's ; great Christian, threw back from the
 walls of Vienna the Turkish host that 1 threatened to impose the crescent 1 upon western Europe.
 ] '"There have been, my friends, three ] partitions of Poland. There will be l no fourth. We have paid in part to ] France, and are today paying the debt we owed her because of the heroism l of her LaFayette in our hour of need 1 We shall not forget to pay Poland 1 similar debt for the blood of her ! great warriors, Kosciusko and Pulaski l given duing that same hour. To every
 nation in it, this war has beben a su- preme trial But to none more than
 to Poland. To France, to Italy, to l England, to ourselves, it is @ war of
 sacrifice. To Poland it is a, war of
 fratricide as well as sacrifice. For she found herself caught between three great armies. A land in name
 only, her 25,00O,OOO peoples were but
 pawns for monarchs. More than
 2OO,0 of her sons were absorbed
 in the armies of the Teuton war-lord.
 More than $50, ,OOO were forced to fight
 under the standards of the Haps-
 burgs; with Russia, a SlOvac people
 to whom alone she was united by
 blood, there fought 750,O00 of her
 sons. Her house was fighting against itself, and who can picture a more z distressing trial. When the opportu- nifty was given her, she showed at once her preference for the Allies.
 ITO the credit of the Polish people
 be it said, that on the very outbreak
 of the war, on August g, 1914, MI
 Victor Jaronski for the Polish group
 in the Duma, the governing body of l Russia declared: Tn this historic mo- |, ment when the SlavOnic world and
 the German. led on by that immemo- rial foe of Poland, Prussia, are stand ! ing up against one another in decisive encounter, the Polish Nation, bereft of independence, and of the power of manifesting it's own will, finds itself in 8 tragic situation Territorially di- vided, we Poles nevertheless, in feel } ing and sympathy, for the Slav must stand as one-May the blood shed by , us, and the horrors of this to us frat } ricida1 war, lead to the reconstruction of the dismembered Polish nation.' "ThrOughout the war my friends this thought has often recurred, in the
 
 world. Nowhere has it been better expressed than in the speech in January, 1917, of President Wilson who said: T take it for granted, for t instance if I may venture upon 3 single example, that statesmen every where are agreed that there should be a united, independent and autonomous Poland, and that henceforth inviolable security to life, of worship and of in dustriaI and social deve1opme ent | should be guaranteed to all peoples I who have lived hitherto under the power of government devoted to a l faith and purpose hostile to their own"
 l This statement was seconded a few l months later in the British House of e Parliament by Bonar Law on behalf r of the government when he recog- ) nized that the Poles should decide their own destiny, and stated, thai the creator of an independent Polish
 state would be sure guarantee of 2 , durable peace in Enrope."
 ] "The Allies are fighting for a com ! { mon cause. Poland Is one of them f I congratulate you people of Polisl l blood tonight for your history, fol 7 your achievements, for your opportu. 2 nifty.
 ! We must go forth with the higH
 l esolve that everything we are, will be i offered by us on the altar of liberty v until Poland and all oppressed na. , tions are free to govern themselves" f Major Heinrich Wagner a veteran & of the present war, having served f with the Polish legion of the French
 Foreign Legion, stirred his auditors with the recital of his experiences