l'oland's Elections President Moscicki's decision, this week, to dissolve the
Polish Parliament is of peculiar importance in the present ..ondition of Europe. Since the death of Pilsudski in r935, Poland has been governed by a reactionary bloc of colonels and generals, mostly of German sympathies, who have monopolised the Government by disfranchising peasants, and :estricting candidates for Parliament to their own party. The new elections will be free, and will almost certainly produce a democratic majority ; its first task will be to frame an electoral law enfranchising the peasants, who form 6o per cent. of Poland's population. This change in Poland's regime, long expected', is a heavy blow to Germany's influence in Eastern Europe. It has been forced on responsible leaders Like President Moscicki, with the support of Marshal Smigly- Rydz, by the recent declaration of the peasant leaders that the patience of their followers was exhausted ; and also by the increasing disunity of Poland, under a regime pursuing dicta- torial policies at home and pro-German policies abroad. The peasantry is overwhelmingly democratic and pro-French ; and it means a considerable addition to the strength of the democracies in Europe that the peasants should be given the influence they deserve in the fortunes of their country. * * * *
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