Evening star., 1943-09-01
Polish Resistance Was
A Service to Freedom
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

This is an anniversary to be remem-
bered, for it is the anniversary of the
start of armed resistance to the con-
quering march of Adolf Hitler and his
Nazis.
On September /. 1899, after a sicken-
ing series of bloodless conquests, at
long last there was discovered a nation
which stood on its frontiers, weapons
In hand, and fought, even though that
fight was for the moment without
chance Of success. I do not say hopeless,
for that would not be true. Every hope
for the future lay in fighting 1t would
have been hopeless to surrender.
Poland was the nation which did this
great and memorable service to the
world. For having fought, and fought
very well, considering the odds, the
Polish people always will be gratefully
remembered by the other free peoples
of the world. We should not Judge
the worth of their gallant fight in the
terms CT its military outcome. Let us
put our minds back to the terrible
summer of 1899, and think as we thought
then.
1 was in Europe all during that sum-
mer. was in London, where men were
uneasy; I was in Paris, where a feyerish
gayety overlaid terrible anxiety and a.
curious feeling of helplessness; I was in
Berlin, where there was an arrogant con-
f1oence that had to be experienced to be
believed. But 1t was not a conddnce
that was born of knowledge of Germany's
armed power, though that was
factor in 1t. The Germans believed
that they were going to be masters of
Europe without having to use that
power. They believed that the Poles
would offer only token resistance, that
France and Britain would do nothing
but talk, and that they could turn their
attention to the next item on their pro-
gram, undisturbed by any serious fight
ing.
I went on from Berlin to Warsaw.
The change in the atmosphere was won
derful. The Poles knew they were up
against 1t. They knew they were going
to have to fight for their lives. They
knew they were not as ready for that
fight as their general staff would have
liked 1t. But there was no question
Whatever IN the mind of any Pole, gen.
eral or statesman or cab driver or
private soldier-and I talked to any who
could understand good English or bad
French-that the thing to do was to
fight as hard as they could and as
long as they could.
One colonel of reserve regiment of
infantry said to me:
My men have no weapons excent
rifles and few old machine guns MANY
OF them are not fully trained. But If
the Germans want those rifles they will
have to come and take them awav from
u.s."
A flying officer said:
The Germans outnumber us in the
air perhaps 10 to l. We won't last long.
But maybe we'll last long enough to
drop few eggs on Berlin"
That was the spirit of Poland. It
was in some quarters overconfident:
there was disposition, for example. to
think too highly of the possibilities of
rescue from the west, to talk of how
long 1t would be before the French were
in Mannheim and Mainz. But there was
no talk OF surrender, no talk of quitting.
no talk of taking the German invasion
lying down.
The test came. The Germans marched.
And the Poles fought-not just token
hight, but desperate last-ditch resist
ance which cost the Germans plenty of
lives, and which fired the world with it's
heroic determination to perish rather
than yield.
That Polish resistance set in train a
series Of events which has in due course,
brought Nazi Germany to the threshold
OF ruin. If the Poles had not resisted
1t Is long odds that the British and
French would not have gone to war in
September, 1889; and no one can guess
how much farther the Germans might
have carried their career of bloodless
conquest before at last they were called
to account-nor how strong they might
by that time have become.
We will do we'll to think of these mat
ters as we march on to the destruction
of all that the Germany OF today stands
for, to the smashing of German hopes
and the breaking of the savage and
cruel pride with which the German
armies overran Poland.
The Poles were the first who met the
Germans not with submission, but with
bullets. They have deserved we'll of
those, including ourselves, to whom they
did immeasurable service by that act.
The time is coming when Poland again
will stand free and proud before the
world, living proof of the eternal truth
which she taught us all in those dark
days of four years ago-that peace cam
not be purchased at the price of sub
mission to the threats of tyrants, and
that no nation really can perish while
It's sons are ready to die in its defense.
tCopyright, 1913, by New York Tribune Inc)
owl Shows Sense