Evening star., 1939-09-24

LONDON. - Organized resistance by
Poland is at an end. Before the Rus
sian Army ever crossed her frontiers, to
use the prime minister's words, Poland
was PROSTATE" She never had tight
ing chance from the start.
The skies over that doomed country
were conquered within the first two days
by an air feet 10 times as powerful in
numbers and in quality as the poor air
squadrons of the Poles. The ground was
occupied by an array of thousands Of
monster tanks which swept along with
resistless velocity. It had never occurred
to the government which fled into Ru-
mania whilst their army was still fight
ing that they should have seen that en-
trenchments were dug which would have
enabled their soldiers to stop the torrent
of molten lava that was let loose on
their country.
The invaders had no easy task In con-
quering country entirely unprepared
to arrest them 1t is incomprehensible
why the British government should
never have inquired into the prepared
ness of Poland to put up fight before
we guaranteed to come to her aid "im-
mediately she was attacked"
Tribute to Mayor.
There are still left only islands Of
resistance"-notablyW Warsaw. I said in
my previous article that defeat might
be retrieved by the appearance of a mill
tary genius. II such q man there be in
the Polish Army, there has been no time
or chance for him to come to the front
We do not yet know the name of the
military leader who has displayed such
valor in the defense of Warsaw. But
there is civilian whose dauntless cour-
age and inspiring leadership will ever
live in the history of his country-that
OF Starzynski, mayor of Warsaw.
His reply to the farewell message of
the fleeing President of the republic is
one of the finest, most moving samples
of patriotic oratory every delivered III a
desperate national emergency. I quote
here one burning passage:
Though our roofs are collapsing over
our heads, though our churches and
sacred altars are falling one after an
other. though thousands of our women
and children have been slain, we shall
fight on under the sign of the cross.
We know our sacrifice will not be in
vain. We know that our blood will
weigh in the scale of victory over shame
less violence. We salute YOU, where
you are. Long live Poland"
Britain to Blame.
Although the Unexpectedly speedy
collapse of Polish resistance is largely
due to the improvidence of the Polish
government, Britain must take upon
itself large share Of the responsibility.
Our guarantee Of Poland vas given
months ago. It involved us in a three
year war with unlimited possibilities
of liabilities. Yet we took no steps
first to ascertain, then to repair, the
deficiencies of our allies.
When they begged for loan to en-
able them to buy essential supplies,
Sir John Simon haggled for a month,
sought to impress upon them imprac-
ticable conditions, and finally agreed to
lend q sum which is less than a single
days cost to us of the last war. When
finally war came and German armies
were on Polish SOIL we took no decision
for two days and after that no action
that had the slightest appreciable effect
on the effectiveness of the German at
tack.
What could we have done? The over
wheming air force Of Germany blinded
and paralyzed Polish movements. The
combined air forces of Britain and
France could have made such q devas-
tating attack on factories that turn out
German war materials as to force the
German high command to withdraw
their squadrons to the west to fight out
the vital issue of supremacy in the air.
That would have furnished Poland with
the necessary respite to reorganize and
strengthen its defenses.
Puzzle of Soviet Invasion.
What about the Russian invasion?
Against whom was it directed? There
has been complete change of public
opinion on this question during the
last few days. At first it was regarded
as stab In the back to a country which
was fighting plucky but hopeless bat
tie against much more powerful foe
Stain was represented as a hyena
feasting on a carcass slain by a beast of
prey.
There is now an almost complete
reversal of opinion as to the motive
and effect of Stains move. There are
grounds to agree with the conclusions
expressed by Bernard Shaw in his
characteristic letter to the London
Times few days ago-Puckish in ex-
preston, penetrating in Judgment. His
view is that it was thus far and no
farther" warning to Herr Hitler. The
advance of the Russian Army to the
border of Rumania and Hungary
strengthens that conviction.
White Russia is not Polish. Neither
is the Ukraine. They are both inhabited