Probably no country has celebrated its national day under such tragic circumstances since the last war as Poland is observing it today, but it speaks well for the invincible spirit of the Poles that they do observe it. It was on November 10, 1918, that Marshal Pilsudski, having been released from Germany, arrived in Warsaw, and the Council of Regency proclaimed that the German occupation had ceased to exist. Poland after all the long years since the iniquitous partition by Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Maria-Theresa of Austria had come into her own again as a nation, and the enormous task of building up a country, torn with the ravages of war, and reduced io the lowest economi ebb began. It is not easy to picture the conditions in which Pilsudski and his Government set about the task of rehabilitating the country. It had been the cockpit of eastern Europe. Armies had marched and counter-marched across it, war had wrought wholesale destruction, and a gallant people, with little more of assets than their determination to make a self-respecting State of themselves, commenced the formidable task of pulling themselves out of the economic mire, practically by their own boot-straps. It is interesting to remember what John Buchan, now Lord Tweedsmuir, wrote of the country as it then was: "The German policy demanded a wholesale destruction and.... Poland was methodically laid waste. Only blackened ruins marked the site of villages, and since the German army ate up all supplie famine stalked through the land... The material damage can scarcely be estimated....all labour and industry have been swept away." Before all this could be rectified Poland had to fight the Bolsheviks, and it speaks well for the gallantry and determination of the reborn nation that they emerged victorious from the struggle even though in its blackest hour it looked as if the war were going against them. From that time onwards there was no looking back, and in the brief space between 1921 and September 1, 1939, no more than eighteen years, the Poles have risen like the phoenix above the ashes of their older selves. On the fatal day when the insatiate ambitions of Herr Hitler led to the German invasion of Poland, in a military adventure which has not yet been terminated because of its ramifications, Poland again entered into tribulation, That period of suffering has probably only just commenced. Only the future knows how long it will last. In the bitter hour of their defeat they are today celebrating their national day re-emphasizing that nationality which for the moment by a display of brute force has been denied them in substance. Beneath the jack-boot of Nazi militarism the Poles in Europe still turn their eyes in loyalty to the Polish government which still exists, which is still recognized, with the exception of a few nations united to the policies of the freebooting Herr Hitler, and which awaits again the restoration to liberty of its people. There shall be that restoration, Both Great Britain and France have pledged themselves that there shall be, and, as Belgium for a term lay under the same heel from 1914 to 1918, and was subsequently released, so also will Poland regain her freedom, uniess—and this humanly speaking appears to be extremely improbable,—the Allies are defeated. There can be nothing but admiration for the manner in which the Poles built up their country from nothing in the days of the troublous peace following the last war, nothing but reverence for the spirit with which they sought to defend their country against the invasion of a brutal overwhelming force. Combined with that there will be the general sorrow that they have again been called upon to pass through the valley of despair, where in patience they must await the day of their liberation. Poles in Allied countries have sprung to the call to enlist and fight on the side of the Allies,) testimony that though their country lay at the feet of a temporary conqueror the spirit of the people, which in a short while made it what it was up to September 1 of this year, has not been quenched. Such people are worthy allies, and the Poles all over the world and especially in Shanghai should realize that in their sorrow they have the sympathy and admiration of all those who have watched with the gravest concern the events which have led to their present sad condition. Thus it is possible to congratulate them on their national day, for they are a nation, and to express the hope that not many years will pass before they are again in a position to commence the stupendous task of rebuilding themselves. That at least will. be ihe devout wish of their British and French Allies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.