Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-08-21
Poland Once The
Savior ofEurope

Poland, whose history Is tragedy,
and whose people have been called
Children of the SUM-" plays no new
role when she seeks to stop the on
slaughts of Bolsheviki, for IL was she
who once stayed the march OF the
Turk across Europe.
This fact is recalled in a commun-
ication to the National Geographic
Society which sums up Poland's sad
and eventfu1 history as follows:
I'm size she outranked nearly ev-
cry nation of the continent. Rus
STA alone of the European nations
greatest. In population she stood
at the forefront of Europe: only
Russia and Germany had greater
populations before the war than are
to be found in the lands that once
were Poland for unpartitioned Po-
land had an are of $4,000 square
miles, and the lands that M lay
within her boundaries support q
population Of approximately fifty
million. In area she was as large as
the former German Empire, Switz-
erland, Belgium, Holland and Dem
mark together; larger than Great
Britain, Italy and Greece combined;
larger than Austria-Hungary and
CtINld VI Olt. hllnlH VIA NGAG
her boundaries there dwells a pres
ent population larger than the COM
bined populations of Great Britain
and Belgium; larger than those of
France, Belgium and Holland to-
gether; and matching that of the old
Austria-Hungary.
POLAND was three times parti-
toned, and these partitionings were
readjusted between the Practitioners
by the Congress of Vienna in 1915.
Where the original partitions had
given Russia 1S1, 900 square miles,
Prussia $4,000 square miles, and
Austria $4,000 square miles. the re-
apportionment of the Vienna Con-
gress gave Russia 220, 500, Prussia
5000 and Austria $4,000 square
miles. Much of the land which Rus
STA secured, and particularly Kiev,
had been identified with Russia gen.
erations before.
Poland, in the days of her great
est area, extended from a point
within fifty miles of Berlin. on the
west, TO the meridian of the sea of
Azov on the east; on the north it
reached nearly to the Gulf of Fin
and on the south down to the
Khanate of Crimea.
What we now know as Russian
Poland is that neck of territory
stretching westward between the
Prussias and Galicia. This territory
has an area almost exactly equal 10
that of New York. yet. in spite of
the fact hat its extreme southern
Of Winnipeg, its population is as
great as those of New York and New
Jersey combined.
Russian Poland, in this limited
sense, consists of a great plain,
somewhat undulating, with an av-
erage elevation of about 400 feet,
upward toward the high
lands of Galicia on the south and
toward the swelling ground parallel
the Baltic on the north. It
Joins the lowlands of western Ger
many with the great plain Of west
Russia. It's rivers are slow and
sluggish, with their mouths often
but a few dozen feet below their
and seldom more than a few
hundred feet below. Their basins
..ntricately interpenetrate one all
other, and the frequent foundations
these basins have. covered them
with a very rich alluvial soil.
Russian Poland usually has a
somewhat similar to that of
New England. There is an even
cold, with not a great deal of snow,
but often ~razoredged winds from the
northward. The rivers of this re-
gion usually freeze over about the
of December, and the Wis
tula is under ice for approximately
days during the average win
ter.
I'm the eighteenth century, when
the city of Warsaw next to Paris was
The most brilliant city in Europe,
fiat plain was unusually rich in
herds and geese 1ocks, though al
most bare of manufactures"