Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02
Poland's Strong Dictator

certainty show more on the Soviet side
Keen observers who have studied the
situation recently In these newly &C
quired territories have defined these ter
ritories as q Polish colony under Polish
military and police occupation, and agar
as sort of Ireland before the days OF
home rule.
When one knows, as I think know
the tremendous power OF resistance OF
the Ukrainians, their economic activity
their moral force which makes them
probably alone of the Slavs-voluntary
teetotalers (their successful cooperative
stores refuse to sell spirits, one feek
obliged to doubt very strongly that Pc.
land will ever be able to swallow and
Polonize these 100000 men.
Danzig Compromise Possible.
With a little freedom and tolerance
Poland may get rid of the Jewish prob
lem. With a little political tact and
with some international good will the
friction with the Germans in Upper
Silesia may evolve into fecund CO.
operation. Even the Corridor to Danzie
which was the basis of one of the slo-
gans of the Hitler campaign during the
recent election in Germany, may be the
object of some practical compromise
But P1Sudski's annexations will always
remain heavy problem in the future OF
Poland.
1t Is the eternal penalty of all die
tatorships-they think that their justi-
fication lies in glory" and conquests.
Imperial Russia, with all her tremen-
dous force, never succeeded in the Rus
Sification of the Ukrainians; Bismarck
with all his genius, completely failed In
his policy Of GermaniZation of the Poles
Is 1t true that history does not teach
anything to anybody? Here we have
Pilsudski's Poland repeating the same
vain errors.
Under the violent domination of the
Defensive all the Ukrainians are Sc
cretly working for their national dream;
the poor ones work for some sort of an
nexation to Soviet Russia; the Ukrai-
mans of the middle and upper classes
work for some future independent
Ukrainia, created at the expense OF
Russia as we'll as Poland, and reaching
to the Black Sea.
Dreams? Possibly, probably. But
even the resurrection of Poland seemed
a dream to the wise ones 40 years ago
A revived Poland has been the vim
dication of justice, the redressal of one
of the worst crimes of the eighteenth
century. Pilsudskt has been, in the
work Of Polish awakening, one of the
A4ODlCob oOIlS Vi Oklc TOl4oI1 EO-
land has many great and magnificent
problems before her. 1t Is, indeed, q
pity to see a valiant nation, which has
known what 1t means to be oppressed
unhesitatingly become in her own turn
the oppreSSor.
Policy Of Equal Opportunities.
A great pity-a cynic might add-not
so much because it is a moral fault
but because it is political error. When
a state has large zones of aliens in
side its boundaries, only one policy car
render difficult, If not impossible, the
creation of phenomena of unrest and
revolution. That policy is one of toll
erance, of broad autonomies and-when
autonomies are not easy to grant-o1
equal opportunities.
When Italy reached her natural from
tiers at the Alps following her victory
over Austria, and some 100000 Slavs
became Italian citizens, the Liberal
government then in power in Italy gave
these Slavs the greatest freedom in the
matter of schools, churches, use of their
language in the courts of justice, etc
When all that. was withdrawn by Fas-
cism, q fanatical Jugoslav nationalist
wrote pamphlet to prove that, for the
future of the Slav cause, the violenceS
of the new rulers were blessing, while
the liberalism of Giolitti and the
friendly phrases of Sforza were the real
danger"
Strange that all dictators always mis-
take an excess of violence for strength
Real strength is quiet, it is never noisy
but dictatorS-even when they are rich
in q beautiful past, like Pilsudski-al-
ways end in childish exaggeration OF
police systems, of coercion even in the
moral and intellectual fields.
They end by doing so even against
their own selfish interests, like drunk
ards who in their last stages are nc
longer able to distinguish q good wine
from a poisonous liquor.