I Saw the Siege of Warsaw. By Alexander Polonius. (Hodge.
=S. 6d.) MR. PoLoraus, a -Polish teacher in an English University, went home for his usual holiday early in August, 1939. He describes very clearly his personal experiences during the weeks that followed, leaving politics and strategy aside. The result is a vivid picture of the Polish tragedy as the ordinary people saw it. No one, Mr. Polonius affirms, expected war. But there was abundant confidence in Poland's army and in the ability of Great Britain to send a large air force at once to the rescue. Thus Poland was caught unawares, and the German tanks, big guns and bombers did what they pleased. The author's account of the Warsaw people's sufferings is pitiful. Until the Mayor, Starzynski, began to organise defences, the capital was virtually unprotected. Mr. Polonius does not stress the brutality of the Germans, taking it for granted, but in his flight northward to Riga he says that he found the Russian troops more humane than their confederates. Throughout we are reminded that the Poland now prostrate was a highly civilised country, as it will be again some day.
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