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Show JPolisli Corridor 1 f( AAA , A fW ' ) - A' A t- S" I (,, ' 1 a" r-!'' 1 - -V '" ' f - vv i , " '"," A Youthful Pole at Lunch. Prpar1 by National aK-ruplilr Society. Washington, V. C. UNU ti.-rvk-e. POLAND, youthful European republic, re-public, with Its famous Corridor holding the limelight, 1ms been considered In the light of a vanished van-ished past or a problematical future rather, than of a vital and engrossing present. Before world economic conditions clouded the Issue Poland made substantial sub-stantial strides materializing the nlr castles its people had cherished for many decades. On war-wasted territory stretching over the ancient forest nrea from marshland to mountains, Poland brought agriculture back beyond prewar pre-war levels. Factories which It found destroyed or Idle were rehabilitated. Railway mileage wns Increased and a uniform gauge adopted, so that rails bound Poland together Instead of tearing tear-ing It apart. President Wilson championed Poland's Po-land's aspiration for Independence, ami the United States government loaned funds for the purchase of food, clothing, cloth-ing, and supplies which were essential essen-tial In the early stages of national re hnhllltation. More densely populated than Pennsylvania, Penn-sylvania, Poland Is still an agricultural agricul-tural nation, and the consequent elasticity elas-ticity of Its labor supply, the economic Independence of Its peasants, nnd the modesty of their needs give It social stability In spite of the rapid growth of urban and Industrial life. "Without the sea and the seacoast there Is no Poland," has proved a potent slogan. During the summer of 1032 at Gdynia, a city of more than 30,000, so new as to be shown only on the most recent maps, Poland celebrated cele-brated Its first "sea festival" near where General Haller, after fighting his way to the Baltic, dropped a ring in Its waters to celebrate the union of land and sea. Where a few years ago one waded In deep sand, dodging wind-shaken, weblike nets and upended boathalves converted Into shelters, or watching women bury potatoes In straw-lined sand pits for the winter, there are city streets and five-story buildings. Gdynia, with a port that can accommodate 50 vessels at a time, now handles more than 5,000,000 tons of exports and Imports Im-ports In a single year. Near-by Panzig, eight times as populous pop-ulous and once one of the great ports of the Hanseatic league which In Its golden day virtually controlled the trade routes of northern Europe far from being wiped out through this new rivalry, now handles 8,000,000 tons, four times the pre-war tonnage, and the largest traffic in its history. Among Baltic and North sea ports, Danzig's tonnage Is exceeded only by that of Hamburg, Bremen, Copenhagen and Stockholm. The Vistula river system drains most of Poland, and Vistula-bound Vistula-bound traffic passes to or through Danzig Dan-zig before reaching the sea. -Gdynia Its Naval Base. But it Is Gdynia which gives significance sig-nificance to the "Polish Corridor" foreshadowed fore-shadowed In the thirteenth of President Presi-dent Wilson's famous Fourteen Points. And the new railway from Upper Silesia to the Baltic, avoiding the free city of Danzig, assures Poland's economic eco-nomic freedom. France has co-operated In financing the railway, and Swiss financiers extended ex-tended a loan of $2,500,000 to the city of Gdynia. A Polish naval base on Polish soil could have been foreseen, but politicians politi-cians fourteen years ago never dreamed of Gdynia. Now there It is, one of the best-equipped ports on the Baltic, and Polish emigrants to North America Amer-ica embark there, direct from Polish soil, Instead of at other European-ports European-ports which their predecessors once helped make prosperous. Five-eighths of all Polish trade, moving mov-ing through the ports of Danzig and Gdynia, creates a north and south traffic In the Polish Corridor seven times as heavy as the east and west commerce, although much trade between be-tween Germany and Soviet Russia Is diverted across the corridor and through East Prussia and Lithuania, away from the heart of Poland. Recently Iron ore and cotton for Czechoslovakia entered through Gdynia, thus providing return loads for coal cars from the south. One ship from New Orleans unloaded 7,330 bales of American cotton in a single day. Naturally, the Poles hold the Polish Corridor to be essential to their very existence. The builder of the new port was cheered loud and long during his address at last summer's sea festival fes-tival when he said: "Our ancestors did not come to this Polish shore either as guests or Immigrants; they did not here establish themselves by the grace or through the protection of nnyone; here we stand on our own soil, rooted In our own past, ofttimes heroic and victorious, sometimes cruel and bitter. Here we will remain nnd achieve our destiny." Sheltered from Baltic storms by the sand spit of Hel, Gdynia, although an artificial port, Is well protected and callable of almost unlimited expansion. A school for the merchant marine, a huge modern post office, through which all possible foreign mull Is routed, and the shipping otllces connected with Poland's Po-land's growing fleet are prominent along the shore. Modern machinery Is used In transshipping the exports, principally coal, lumber, zinc, bacon, eggs, sugar and butter, and the Imports Im-ports of foodstuffs, cotton, nielals, and machines. Lowicz Is Colorful. To the photographer the Gdynia of today Is less picturesque than the barren, bar-ren, breezy beach dotted with Kashube fisher folk, and the real treat for eye and lens Is Lowicz. color capital of peasant Poland. No lens hunter was ever tempted by finer promises of photographic game than In Lowicz. To be chosen from the ever-moving ranks of women In spotless kerchiefs, rainbow skirts billowing wide over heavy petticoats and hlgh-laced boots might be an honor, however awkwardly phrased by the eager photographer, but to accept the Invitation would be to subject oneself to the Jollying which familiar friends can make most embarrassing em-barrassing In the presence of strangers. There Is no lack of cordiality on Sunday as the bright parade leaves the abbey church. The broad-faced women of the fields gaily smile into the lens so long as they can keep moving and hence not reveal any individual in-dividual vanity concerning their unquestioned un-questioned attraction. Beautified by splendid parks and gardens, furnished with wide avenues and broken by large squares, across which the massive piles of Warszawa (Warsaw) rise In solemn dignity, the Polish capital always seems a dull background for the Irrepressible Polish spirit; yet one can still say, as did Napoleon, "Warsaw is always amusing." amus-ing." Never does one forget the quick cadences and exotic musical intervals of a gypsy band In a gay restaurant not far from Theater square, but even the most agile measures seem to lag behind the spirited conversation and joyous repartee which enliven Warsaw's War-saw's restaurants. The aristocratic country life, reminding one of plantation planta-tion days in our own South, Is now rare, but stolid Warsaw is still enlivened en-livened by the personal charm of the cultured Pole. Until one has seen the Polish theater the-ater he does not realize the variety and beauty of the modern stage. Poland's Po-land's romantic poets .and dramatists of eighty years ago, such as Adam Micklewicz, Zygmunt Kraslnski, and Juljusz Slowackl, either wrote In exile or were subject to a stifling censorship. censor-ship. Interest In America. True, to the Poles themselves even strictly censored dramas were packed with thrills, for behind Innocuous allegories al-legories they sensed the rebellion of the Polish spirit against oppression. But with the coming of freedom Polish drama developed a catholicity of interest in-terest and dramatic method unsurpassed unsur-passed In modern Europe. "Street Scene," "Broadway," and "Anna Christie" Chris-tie" have all been admirably presented In Poland, and there Is a keen Interest In-terest In all things American. Partly this Is due to the presence of many Poles In America, but much of it dates back to the days of our Revolution, In which the Poles took a keen Interest and in some cases a personal per-sonal part. Today one can telephone to Poland from any city in the United States, but In the days of the Thirteen Thir-teen Colonies the American Revolution was physically far away and England Eng-land ruled the seas. Poland not only observed the Washington Wash-ington Bicentennial in Poland, but also, on May 3, Polish national holiday and anniversary of the premature Constitution Consti-tution of 1791, praised by Edmund Burke. Poland Issued a 30-grozy stamp picturing Washington In the center between Kosciuszko and Pulaski. |