Evening star., 1939-08-13

fTWenty- second of a SerieS)
By TOM AND HARLE DAMMANN.
WARSAW, Poland
"The sea, ,onr sea, We will guard you
faithfully;
We have the order to maintain YOU or
No force no storm will take Danzig
from us;
Our fleet. though small. will guard the
door of the post diligently
These are the words of a stirring
tune to which the women of all
Poland are marching. For in Pol
and, women and girls, as we'll as
men and boys, are training for the
defense of their country. There are
no slackers.
Our grandfathers and grand
mothers. our fathers and mothers
have always had to fight for every
bit of land every bit of freedom We
now possess. We have grown up
knowing that we, too, must be pre-
pared at any time to fight to keep
what they have given US
Cecylja Kepinska Strengthened the
little silver Polish eagle pinned on
her blue beret. Only 10, she looked
younger with her round childish
face and the two long braids which
hang over her shoulders down be-
low her waist
"All women are joining the Przy-
sobienie WojskoWe Kobiet military
training of women" she went on.
In my village, every night. there
are classes for women to teach them
about anti-air and anti-gas precau-
tions so they won't be afraid when
war comes. They learn about first
aid work and nursing and about
telegraph, telephone and radio.
When the war comes, We women
will be able to take over all the work
of men so that more of them will
be free to fight. Even the police
will be women.
Start Courses At IA.
I'm all our schools girls of IA start
taking courses in map work, topog-
raphy and courses about how guns
are made and how to use them. Be-
fore a girl finishes high school, she
must have two years of study in first
aid, nursing, prevention of disease,
and in anti-air and anti-gas pre-
cautions. Then, the girls who work
hardest and do the best are allowed
to go to the summer camps"
1t was at one of these summer
camps that we met Cecylja. We
had been allowed to visit the camps
for two days to see how the girls
worked and lived, but only after
promising not to write anything
making fun of what we saw.
We were driven to the camp by
two leaders of the organization.
One, large, attractive young wom-
an, could match any man in en-
durance. AS if to show us her cour-
age, she Whizzed the car rs miles in
little over an hour; the speedometer
hardly once registering under 10 de-
spite the narrow road cluttered with
peasant carts, sheep and COWS. The
other woman-small, attractive and
we'll dressed, wore bracelet on her
wrist. There was a single charm
attached to the bracelet; a disc
which when spun spelled out the
words Il love you This leader
piled us with lemonade and cookies
as we were driven helter- -skelter.
The lemonade spilled and the
cookies scattered every time we
skidded around a corner.
Like Days in America.
We arrived in time to join the
girls at supper of scrambled eggs,
sausages and tea; and then. in sing
ing around the campfire. We were
reminded of summers spent in
camps in America. The girls, how
ever, wore military uniforms and,
with the exception of a few folk
songs and an amusing pantomime
of a girl supposedly preparing to
meet the American motion picture
actor Robert Taylor, the songs were
largely military and patriotic.
Few of the girls spoke anything
but Polish. but Cecylja spoke Ger
man. Consequently, she quickly be-
came our close friend and in
formant. She considered it a great
privilege to do things for "the
Americans After campfire she took
us to our tent, heaped pillows on
our beds of sweet smelling hay and
then, before saying good night,
brought us pail after pail of hot
water.
We climbed into bed and every
thing was quiet except for the foot
steps at regular intervals of the
girl sentry as she passed on her
watch. She carried no gun, but was
protected by the camp dog .. also
female!