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THOMAS

A Man

ARCISZEWSKI

and a Symbol

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TT was about 20 years ago ¹ when a member of the Polish Socialist Party, now dead, hcld in Lwów in a private circle a lecture about three leading poli-ticians in rcborn Poland. Keen to learn some morę about the enigmatic figurę of Piłsudski, I went to the lecture and heard a few things of considerable interest. But I fclt a bit annoyed when the speaker, after dealing with the three personalities as announced, concluded his address with an account of two Polish Socialists less known abroad. I considered it a propaganda trick of rather interior quality. I do not resent this apparent slip of the speaker any morę, because one of the Socialist deputies he mentioncd was the recently-appointed Polish Prime Minister, Thomas Arciszewski.

X wlsh now I could remembor morę of that talk, morę vivid and intoresting than the ofłlcial reporta available about Ihe Polish Premier at the present. juncture. Ali T can recall in the picture of a revolmion-ary who fought against the Tsarist regimo with dynamite, bomb and revolvev, a. glant with the hands of a man-killer and the heart of a child, who. after Poland was reborn, devoted all his care an<l tlme to the welfare of the children of the working peoplc.

Strangely enough though, I remember almost word for woni the concluding phrase of the speaker which sounded like a prophecy Lhen and has proved truły prophetic: "At

E resent Thomas Arciszewski has uried his revolver decply in the rat tli: but somehow 1 feed that the Polish working class will nced Arciszewski once morę in his old capaełty and then he will unearth his rovolver and step again into tiic breach.”

Thie is all T remembered about Arciszewski for years. When the news cnme a few months ago that ho had arrived in London as envoy and one of the leaders of the Polish Underground, to be appointed shortly afterwards President-Designate of Poland. I received it with a strangę joy as if he were an old acąuaintance of minę.

What I havc learned sińce about this strange man only inereased this feeling. I learned that he is now 6G years old, that he was a metal worker as a boy of 11. and became a member of the underground Socialist Movement at the age of 18.    1

learned that to escape Tsarist and Prussian police he led for several years an illegal existence, wandering from place to place and changing hia identity like a Proteus. I learned that this revolutionary with nerves of steel, who was throwing bombs and killing Tsarist officials with his own hands daring the revolution of 1905 and afterwards, held human life and morał principles in highest esteem; that in the resuscitated Poland he chose rather to work for children. whom he adored, than to follow Lhe political career which had already given him Ministerial posts.

THOMAS ARCISZEWSKI (New Polish Prime Minister).

As so often hefore Arciszewski went again underground when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. He had good rcasons to do it because in 1937 he warned his nation against the impending German aggression, and called on the working class to pre-pare for the defence of the country. That this man succeeded in fooling the Gestapo for live years and even-tually in escaping unscathed gave me another great thrill as a proof that human will power and intellect can Iriumph over the most efflcient de-structive machinery.

Arciszewski arrived in London shortly hefore the rising in Warsaw and lived for a while in seclusion. Ho was reportei! to be mournlng over his comrades and over his city twice crucifled.

Now he ia the head of the Polish Government, and that induced me to pul down these few reflections and memories.

11. is by no means intended aa a eulogy of Arciszewski as a states-man. As a matter of fact there is not enough evidence in liłs past to warrant a judgment in this direction. About his fighting and organiaing abilitics there is no doubt. Neither is there any doubt about the fact that hc is the llving embodiment and symbol of the Polish revolutionary Sociallam.

It. is not likely that he will be aecused of reactionary tendencles as it was lately often the case with Polish politicians in exile.

if Thomas Arciszewski is a reactionary. then Danton, Gambetta and Garibaldi were also reactionaries.

This does not alter, however, tire fact that his present task is a for-midablo one. He has taken ovcr the leadership from a prcdecessor of recognised ability who, nevertheless. failcd to overbri«igc the gap dividing Poland from ller great eastern neigh-bour.

In his flrst official announcement Arciszewski exprcased the fervcnt wish to brlng about understanding between Poland and Russia in accordance with the principles of the Atlantic Charter. He would like Poland to take part in organising a post-war world in which all nations will be free from fear and all men free from want. That spoken by auch a stiekłer for principles as Arciszewski does not sound as an empty phvase.

To achieve this and many other things he is heading a coalitlon Gabinet with all the wcaknesses and strength Innate to such a budy. He may win or fail. But \vhatever be the finał outeome. workers and Left-wingera in Allled countrłcs and throughout the world and all those people who have a sense for grand drama in truły Biblical style should stand by and watch closely: because it is the old Polish Samson still bllndod with tears shed over Warsaw, who is now emerging from the underground to take up the fight against the Philistines.— (By a Polish Corrc-spondent.)