Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-24
PRESENTS FLAG
TO POLISH ARMY
Nation Reborn as Poincare
Gives Eagles to Former
Legion
A L LIED RECOGNITION
BY WALTER DURANTY
'pcciot Cable to Epening Public Ledge,

SopbT'ORf' l"lh, ov NeU YORK Times co.
With the French Armies, June ca
Your correspondent witnessed yesterday
| the rehirth of a nation when the Presi-
dent of the French republic gave flags
TO the regiments of the Polish national
army, no longer the Polish legion.
For the first time in over a hundred
years the white eagle of Poland, on its
crimson ground waves over European
hattlefields The ancient warrior race
That century of oppression has been
unable to subduc sees again the symbol
of its independence that has been so
long forbidden under pain Of death.
Polish war songs that had echoed
| through 1000 years of almost continual
fighting once moro rang out unchecked
and the cycs of soldiers who had fought
this war from the beginning were Elis-
tening with tears at tho first realiza-
tion of the dream that four generations
of Polish patriots had pursued in vain.
Poincare Presents Flags
In a short speech of extraordinary
eloquence and sincerity President Poin-
care affirmed the resolve of France to
fight for Poland's freedom as for that
of her own ravished provinces The
flags he presented. he said were given
by Nancy. the capital of despoiled
. e
looks ever toward Alsace Eerdun. the
citadel of liberty's resistance. and Paris,
the heart of France. The other Allies
had given the same promise at the Ner-
sailles conference. and the greatest of
all, America, through the mouth of her
President, had set forth Poland's inde-
pendence. absolute and complete by ac-
cees to the sea, as one of the prime
| objects of the war she was waging so
unselishly.
Cheer Promise of q. s.
The last words were greeted with a
, burst of cheering that. rolled along the
| line from company to company, for
| more than half the Polish soldiers had
| come from free America to risk their
! lives that their home land might enjoy
| equal liberty.
In the regiments already constituted
with their own officers. artillery, air
| men and cavalry, every man is VOL
unteer. and many already wear the
badge Of courage that France reserves
! for the hravest. One of the standard
bearers at Yesterdays ceremony was
Lieutenant ChodselSo, whose leg was torn
| off as he charged with a French regi-
ment in an attack on a Somme position
| two years ago. AS he iay on the field
faintng. he cried Il die for France and
]
saved. and now. so crippled that he re-
! auired a scrgeants arm to support him
| in the final march past, he has rc-cn-
/ gagged in the reborn army of his
country.
Hero Receives Flag
| Chodseko'g face was chalk white as
| he took the flag from the hand of the
President, but his eyes blazed with the
spirit that is unconquerable. BY coin
| cidence he was exactly facing, at ten
yards distance. General Geroude, one
| of the noblest soldiers of France, whose
| tall figure. with limp right sleeve and
breast covered with decorations. DOM
mated the crowd of Allied military at
taches and French and Polish civil lead
ers in living proof of how human viii
mower can surmount the severest phys
| ical affiction.
Then the President pinned the war
cross on the flag presented in 1914 ny
the women of Bayonne to the Polish
contingent in the foreign legion. Pierced
| nv thirty-seVen bullet holes. II was
! horne bv Count Sobanski. now captain
| ,,.ho enlisted at the age Of forty-tour
great Landed proprietor as he was as
! soldier of the second class in the lor'
eign legion
Thousands Under Coiors
! After the CeTelnOhy NoS N''NN' ''N
me ~ the terrible Artois battle OF May
o 1ef5 in which the Polish company
Of which he and handful were the only
survivors fought side by side with vol
unteers from America. Now again, he
said his countrymen and the Americans
would battle together against German
tyranny. but this time the Poles would
he reckoned by thousands and the
Americans by millions.
Another bearer of an historical name
Prince Radziwill, like Count Sobanskl
decorated with the French war cross
smoke of the plans for the Polish army
and of what the Poles in America could
do 10 help them. Now that official rec
ognition has been given of their forcs
; as an independent ally, they expect
thousands of recruits from the large
Polish population Of the United States
The sons Of the race that had held
Europe's frontier against the Turks ant
smashed the barbarous Order of Teu
tonic Knights in one of the bloodies
battles OF history, he said, would not b'
deaf to the call Those who had or
ganized the force, he said, expected I,
! be able to create and maintain a larg'
| army. once their countrymen across tn
Atlantic were assured of American sym
| pathy and cooperation.