Can the astounding story forwarded by the Viennese corre- spondent
of the Times be true ? He declares, on the authority of Polish Relief Committees, that 34,700 Poles, men and women, have already been expelled from Prussian Poland under circum- stances of great cruelty. All of them are ruined by forced sales, many of them are old, pregnant, or otherwise unfit to travel, and some have been settled so long in Prussia that they can speak only German. Even Poles who have served in the Prussian Army have been expelled. In one dis- trict, 6,000 persons—a tenth of the population—have been banished, and 1,000 from the single town of Breslau. The action has been taken without a law, and for no object, except to hasten the Germanising of Posen and Silesia. If the story is true, it is the most extraordinary outrage on public law com- mitted in Europe since Napoleon's arrest of all Englishmen in France in 1806; but we should like to hear the other side. The tale sounds incredible to us. Prince Bismarck is not cruel, and can by no possibility want a deadly quarrel with all Poles, while the proceeding is contrary to every tradition of the Hohen- zollerns. Berlin is choked with the immigrants they have welcomed.
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