26 FEBRUARY 1937, Page 2

Poland's National Plan The plan prepared for General Smigly-Rydz and

broadcast on Sunday night by Colonel Adam Koc, commander of the Pilsudski Legion, has so far failed to produce that " con- solidation of the national will " which is its object. Its vague and general terms are incapable of arousing enthusiasm ; but behind them it is not difficult to see an assertion of the Fascist and Nationalist tendency of the Polish regime. As such the plan has been received with some scepticism by the Opposition. First and foremost it demands an end of party differences and struggles, and the unhesitating devotion of everyone to the State, of which the Army is the guardian ; asserts the value of religion as a consolidating factor in national life ; condemns Communism and, with qualifica- tions, anti-Semitism ; and declares the 1935 Constitution, limiting the rights of Parliament, to be the basis of the State. The Opposition may rightly complain that this move towards national unity above all condemns the organs through which it might be expressed. The vagueness of the plan is no doubt due to the difficulty of disguising the fact that it is chiefly an assertion of the primacy of the Army in the State ; it may be taken by the Opposition as a warning of worse to come if it ventures to disagree.

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