IN PRAISE OF POLAND [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Having just returned from a visit to Poland, I am wondering why that country has received so little attention from English travellers. At the risk of making mistakes due to a short acquaintance, may I suggest to your readers that there are things to be found there which are quite as significant and valuable as those which her great neighbours advertise so successfully? To mention first the superficial impressions one gets in exploring a city like Cracow, staying in the countryside of Galicia and in the Carpathians. After passing through Germany, one's chief impression is one of peace. This is partly due to the comparative absence of motor traffic. Though there is an efficient service of tramways and motor 'buses in the suburbs, the traffic consists chiefly of horse carriages, peasant carts and pedestrians. To one who hates noise and the distraction due to the fear of being run over, the release and freedom to look and enjoy what one sees are most refreshing. Add to this that the people themselves are quieter and gentler than any I have met. We joined several crowds of hundreds and even thousands of people of different classes and never saw or heard any loud, raucous or hysterical behaviour. Not that they were subdued or depressed, on the contrary they were very good- humoured is y asso-
ciated and interested in all that went on, but with the
unselfconscious restraint and Thedignistaymwe
which s ttall ciated with good breeding.
by the behaviour of the man in the street to foreigners. They are neither stared at nor bothered in any way, but in any difficulty they are treated with sympathy and special con- sideration. Once when we were intending to visit a national monument we found a tremendously large queue of thousands of people waiting to go in. We spoke to the young man who was marshalling the crowd, and he at once made way for us to go the front. At this several people protested, but when they were told that we were foreigners they most amiably gave way. There is an absence of iron discipline and rigid rules in every department ; crowds, as in England, seem to organise themselves by common sense and the exercise of consideration for other people's rights.
The same impression of pervasive moderation and good taste is apparent in the care of monuments and works of art. The foreigner is astonished to hear that the greatest treasure of Cracow, the group of buildings in the Wawel or citadel, has been lately restored after mutilation and defacement. They seem to have grown old inside and out in such exquisite harmony with their natural surroundings that the effect is like a dream, without one jarring note.
It is the same with their public ceremonies, which have the unity and surprise of works of art, in which all the people take a natural part ; that one, for instance, where after a religious service on the mountain side the peasant representa- tives of all the different districts of Poland marched past the President in their various magnificent costumes, each with its own band of musicians and many . of them with their flocks of sheep and dogs.
We were so fortunate as to be welcomed and entertained in several private houses both in town and country, and here we found the same spirit of gentleness and consideration carried to its finest expression. It was here that we learned what was being done both voluntarily and officially to unite and develop the. natizn. In the face of great d'fficultiei and suffering due to the economic crisis, the prevailing temper was one of faith and hope. People had not yet lost the sense of the miraculous reward of the faith and agony of a hundred years which is the resurrection of Poland. In every direction, especially in education, creative experiments are being made, a new social class is rising, the old class of the country gentry are turning their gifts in new directions for the common good. The visitor cannot help feeling that here at least is one good result of the War, one country which has found itself and may have a unique contribution to Make to European civilisation.
We found those with whom we talked anxious to learn from England and to increase their intercourse with this country. They believe they have much to learn from us. Could not more of us turn aside from the study of Nazi pathology to discover what we can learn from them, and how we might cooperate together to maintain and develop that higher civilisation for all which is based upon respect for personality and personal relationships ?—Yours faithfully,
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