Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Poland Reborn, by Roy Devereux. 1922. Chapman and Hall, London

The False Ukrainian Complaints About the New Polish State: Some Specifics

My review is based on the original 1922 edition. The author had extensive firsthand familiarity with Poland in general and eastern Galicia in particular. (p. 80). [Roy Devereux was the pen name of Margaret Rose Roy (nee McAdam) Pember-Devereux, a British novelist and travel writer.]

NO BASIS FOR THE UKRAINIAN ACCUSATIONS PRESENTED AT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Devereux comments, “The contentions advanced by M. M. Petruszevicz [Petrushevych], Lewicki [Levytsky] and Witwicki [Wytwytsky] in the series of Memoirs presented to the League of Nations cannot for a moment be accepted by anyone who has studied the question in Galicia itself. During my stay there I found no evidence whatever to justify the assertions made by these self-constituted delegates that the Ruthenian population is subjected to persecution by the Poles.” (p. 80).

NOT TRUE THAT THE POLISH GOVERNMENT KEPT UKRAINIANS OUT OF LEADERSHIP POSITIONS OR INTERFERED WITH UKRAINIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Devereux adds that, “Many Ruthenian officials occupy important posts in the administration, and the development of the Co-operative movement among the Ruthenian population is, moreover, due entirely to the initiative of the Polish authorities.” (p. 80). For more on this, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/antisemitism-polish-real-causes-konopczynski/

NOT TRUE THAT POLAND WAS TRYING TO FLOOD EASTERN GALICIA WITH ETHNIC POLES

The author writes, “The Government is further accused to favouring the emigration of the Polish population from Western to Eastern Galicia…Now this movement of population form west to east is a natural, or rather an economic, phenomenon which is quite independent of political considerations…the owners of large estates in Eastern Galicia, being unable to find labour or ready money for the upkeep of their properties, were eager to sell at prices much lower than those that ruled elsewhere.” (pp. 80-81).

She adds that, “As a matter of fact the demand for land in Eastern Galicia is much stronger among the Poles and even among the Germans and Bohemians, who in the past drifted there in the wake of the easterly movement, than among the Ruthenian inhabitants. Had it been otherwise–if the unsatisfied clamour of their compatriots for the soil alleged by the Ukrainian separatists really existed–the immigrants from the west would not have found millions of empty acres when they arrived on the spot, and so the tide of colonization would have been naturally stemmed.” (p. 82).

Finally, the Poles-are-colonizers argument is fundamentally flawed. Devereux concludes, “The idea that land anywhere can be successfully colonized through artificial or official action is indeed contrary to all experience. The immense sums disbursed for this purpose by the German Government in Poznania failed to achieve its object and the colonization schemes, tried over a long period of years by the French government in Algeria, furnish another instance of the same failure.” (p. 82).

NOT TRUE THAT THE PARCELLATION OF LARGE ESTATES WAS DONE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE POLES. THE OSADNIKS IN PERSPECTIVE

Devereux writes, “In consequence it has been carried out on a larger scale than in other parts of Poland and entirely irrespective of race or creed. Landowners were free to dispose of their land to whomever was prepared to fulfil the sole condition of rational husbandry. War veterans alone enjoyed priority, and this advantage was common to Ruthenians and Jews as well as to Poles.” (p. 81).

She continues, “I have before me the statistics of the Land Office of Przemysl dated 10th October 1921, showing the results of parcellation on twenty-nine different estates in the adjoining districts, with the amount of land sold and the nationality of the purchasers. In eighteen of these cases they were exclusively Ruthenian, and in only three cases is the number of Polish buyers superior to the number of Ruthenian buyers.” (pp. 81-82).

NOT TRUE THAT THE EDUCATIONAL POLICIES OF THE NEW POLISH GOVERNMENT WERE OUT TO POLONIZE THE UKRAINIANS

Ukrainians who complain of being forced to learn Polish, in the bilingual schools, forget that Poles were also forced to learn Ukrainian! Devereux comments, “In towns where the Polish element is stronger, a majority of the schools are Polish; in the rural districts instruction is given in the Ruthenian language. But in all primary schools the use of both languages is compulsory, so that minorities of children can invariably be taught in their own tongue…In consequence of this arrangement, so favourable to the Ruthenian population, 57,648 Polish children are at present compelled to attend schools where the principal language is Ruthenian.” (p. 86).