Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-07-08
POLAND NOW STANDING ALONE
Heroic Nation, Herself in Dire Need,
Is the Only Barrier to Boshevism,
Fighting the Battle for
Civilization.
Article XXXII.
BY FRANK cOMERFORD.


ton of the problem Of unrest must be
decided by each nation in it's own way.
l asked two important Slav leaders
for their opinions as to the proper
policy the world should adopt toward
the bolsheviks, and the Russian prob
lem. In Prague l spoke to President
Mazyrik of CZecho-Slovakia; in War
saw | interviewed General PilSudSki,
president Of Poland. Both answered
the question in practically the same
words: Leave Russia alone; let the
Russian people solve the Russian
question:"
What is the Russian situation? A
minority has. seized the government
of government adopted cannot last.
Communism will destroy itself if given
sufficient rope. Already it has de-
stroyed production and brought on
chaos. The great danger bolshevism
offers the outside world is it's effort
to organize the unrest Of the world
and lead ii to revolution.
Poland's Hard Position.
Poland is the barrier holding the
"Red" wave of bolsheyism back. Pc
land is a new state. It is almost as
big as France in population and about
the size of Germany in area. Three
thrones fell to make a presidential
seat for the Polish epublic-Austria,
Russia and Germany. The Polish peo-
pie are intense in their patriotism.
They are individualists. They are
against the Red terror. But Poland
is poor, terribly poor. The war
brought her to the point of hunger
She is now facing starvation. She is
doing world guard duty. Her army is
holding closed the door of bolshevik
Russia. 1t is an army made up of men
of zeal and determination. / have
never seen men sustain their spirit
under more trying conditions. Think
of men without shoes facing the "Red'
army; hunger and cold attacking
them, but standing in their places
holding the front. When / was in
Europe in October, 1919, | saw this
magnificent army. Forty per cent of
them were without shoes. There were
less than 10000 outfits for 100000
men. They were hungry, they were
cold. Back home their loved ones
were not hungry, they were starving;
they were not cold, they were freezing.
Still these men stood at their posts. |
talked the matter over with the chief
of state, General Pilsudski, and I shall
never forget the manner, the tone and
the words of this Roosevelt of the
Slavs.
"Our army will hold the pass; the
Red terror will not bring the torch
to Europe unless winter and want
force us to retreat. Chattering teeth
and pain pinched stOmachs will kill
the morale of any army in time. The
indomitable spirit of our men has
withstood hardships that might have
destroyed an army made up Of men
less inf1amed with the passion to make
secure their Cewly achieved freedom.
We are without transportation faci1t-
ties even for the front. Our soldiers
are ragged and hungry. They do not
complain, nor do I complain for them,
but facts are facts and these facts
belong to the world. Our army is
fighting a world cause and against
world evil. Civilization is in the bal
ance and every citizen of civilization
has a right to know the conditions I'M
der which Poland is doing world guard
duty.
Fight Under Frightful Conditions.
1--WE have no ambulances at the
front and our soldiers going Into bat
tie know that If they are wounded and
are not fortunate enough to fall near
a field hospital, they are doomed to
die of neglect and exposure or come
to death by torture from Chinese mer
cenaries who make up the torture bat
talon of the Red army. We have no
antiseptics and our wounded men are
exposed to a gangrenous death. We
are without anesthetics and wounded
men are required to submit to opera
tfons while keenly alive to every SEN
sation of the knife.
Help must come, and it must come
soon. Our troops are willing to fight
on; this is their glorious spirit, but
they are only flesh and there is point
at which the finest spirit surrenders to
cold and hunger and pain"
Appeals were made to the peace
table for help. They fell on deaf ears.
Great stocks of clothing were locked
I'D in England and France while the
Polish army shivered at the bolshevik
front. I saw locomotives and empty
freight cars on the side tracks in Eu-
rope at the time Poland was fighting
the worlds fight and crying for trans
portation.
The bo1sheviks must be shut in.
They must be confined to Russia. If