Changes in the Composition of the Government

The mortal blow that the elections just held have dealt to the French "right," giving the famous victory to the socialist left, could not fail to have a decisive influence on Poland. In the elections the parties that support Poland were the ones decisively beaten, and those coming to power are almost "enemies" if not of Poland, then certainly of that Polish policy which the leaders and heads of all the groups now victorious at the elections had themselves branded as a policy of "white terror"…

And so it is quite understandable that the Polish government, having oriented itself on that "national France" which had only just been ruling the country, feels very awkward and shaky. It must somehow adjust to the new moods of the great "master" on whom independent Poland is so obviously dependent. And so the newspapers report that the most important ministerial posts, such as those of foreign affairs, internal affairs and education, which are held precisely by the most brightly colored "nationalists," will get new heads.

In place of Count Zamoyski, Mr. Skrzyński, formerly foreign minister in Sikorski's cabinet, is named as successor. In place of the just-appointed minister of internal affairs, the former prosecutor Hübner, who had only just been given the special task of "tightening up" the Eastern Borderlands (Kresy), and whose spirit showed itself vividly in the police reprisals against the peaceful May Day marches throughout the Republic, and afterwards in "stuffing" Polish prisons with "communists," they are supposedly planning to put "their" Tugutt…

Finally, Minister Mikłaszewski, perhaps the most vivid representative of "white terror" in the field of Poland's "educational" policy, is reportedly being sent off into well-deserved retirement…

Will these changes make things better for us Belarusians? First we shall see, then we shall say…

In any case, if things do get easier, it is not Poland we shall have to thank for it, but the "new" France… And, it must be added, one who becomes better not out of inner striving and respect for the good, but out of looking over his shoulder at some outside "superior," out of fear lest he be "thrashed," does not inspire much respect…