Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-16
CRUCIAL ELECTIONS FACED
BY POLAND AMID CHAOS
Position of Marshal Pilsudski Is Weak
ened and Economic Depression
Adds to National Confusion.
BY JOHN ELLIOTT.

:: ! :;: = +: e.;
dictator and creator OF mod
ern Poland, is weakened. and nobody
knows what Is going to happen in the
near future. The elections to the Sejm
which are to be held November Is may
help clarity the situation, but for the
moment an air Of uncertainty and con-
fusion prevails in Warsaw.
The bright hopes that were built
around Pilsudski when he assumed
power after the May coup d'etat Of
1926 have not been realized. The same
parliamentary chaos exists now as then,
and the economic situation Is worse
than ever.
The worldwide business depression
has not spared Poland, and the Poles,
like every other people, are holding
their government responsible for their
troubles. The volume of unemploy-
ment In the country Is relatively small
less than 200,000-for Poland is q
predominantly agrarian nation. Sixty
f1ve per cent of the population Is en-
gagged in farming. But the peasants
are being driven to desperation by the
low world price OF grain and by their
o.
the bulk of their crops.
Action ON Young Plan Delayed.
The parliamentary anarchy, caused by
the inability of the executive and leg
islature TO work together, has been
growing steadily worse. The most press
ing legislation has been held up by
successive prorogations of the Sejm.
Poland, for instance, has not yet passed
the Young plan, and, consequently,
cannot draw her share of the German
separations annuities, which her treas
ury so badly needs. So, too, the
German Polish commercial agreement,
which would open the German market
to Polish farm products and end the
nve-year trade war, so harmful to the
FIRE.
The Pilsudski government seems in
capable Of giving lead. The marshal
has proved himself q man of extraor-
binary vision and an outstanding SOL
dier, but he has not shown the quail
ties OF constructive statesman. While
Mussolini has remodeled Italy and
completely revolutionized her institu-
tons, inaugurating an experiment that
the whole world Is following with in
terest Pilsudski has more or less per-
United events to take their own course.
He has been credited with a desire to
reform the Polish constitution and
strengthen the powers of the executive
on the American model, but he has not
made any concrete propositions nor
taken any action to realize this aim. In
his opposition to the Sejm, Pilsudski
has assumed a purely negative attitude
MinOrities Enhance Problem.
The difficulties of governing the
country are enhanced by the large
minority population. On the basis Of
ofdcial statistics (Which probably
underestimate the minority figures)
less than 10 per cent of the population
Is Polish. Four and q half million
Ukrainians live in Southern Poland and
100000 White Russians in the eastern
part Of the country, and neither Of
these races Is reconciled to Polish rule
Nearly 100000 Germans, living
mainly in Silesia and the Corridor, are
longing to be reunited with the father
land. In addition, there are nearly
100000 Jews who, in Poland, preserve
distinct racial habits and dress. Other
nationalities in Poland include Lithu-
anianS, Russians, Czechs and Tartars.
In East Galicia, almost a state Of
civil war exists. Teh Ukrainian
bourgeois is endeavoring. through po-
litical means, to obtain home rule,
while the workers are seeking political
unity with their fellow proletarians in
Russian Ukrainia under the Soviet sys-
tenn. All Summer long an underground
Ukratnian secret organization carried
On q campaign Of systematic destruc-
ton by fire of the farms and hayracks
owned by Polish landowners, remi-
niscent OF the methods Of the Fenians
in Ireland in the eighties of the last
century. The Poles replied by sending
into the province q punitive expedition
of troops whose brutal methods and
indiscriminate Furnishing of the inno-
cent with the guilty have aroused a
protest from the civilized world and in
creased the tension existing between
the two nationalities in East Galicia.
Among the Poles themselves, political
passions have been exacerbated by the
methods Of the government. Many
prominent leaders of the opposition
parties, including such well known Pol