The Polish budget in the Sejm

1. For the Right—"politics", for the Left—"sanation".

The latest sittings of the Sejm have been taken up almost exclusively with general debates on the budget and, in connection with it, with criticism of the policy of Mr. Grabski's government and of its demand that the extraordinary powers, which the government used over the past half-year for the repair of the treasury, be extended and widened.

Almost all the speeches rightly noted that in his long report Mr. Grabski spoke only as minister of finance, as a good specialist in tax technique, but not at all as the political head of the whole government: he did not touch a single one of Poland's most burning political questions.

And this is not at all because Mr. Grabski is "quite apolitical", or because his government "has an exclusively financial and sanation task", as the premier himself and his colleagues would have us believe… Who does not see that Mr. Grabski's government is plainly political, that the premier is conducting an openly reactionary, nationalist policy?.. But people rightly say that the shrewd premier buys off the Right with his deliberately reactionary policy, since the Right must after all be fleeced somewhat for the repair of the treasury; and on the other hand Mr. Grabski knows very well that the Polish Left will readily forgive him the bestial nationalism of his policy for the sake of the "repair of the treasury".

And this clever balancing of the non-parliamentary premier "appointed by Mr. President" between the Right and the Left showed itself very well in the general budget debates. The general character and results of those debates could easily have been foreseen: the Right grumbled at Finance Minister Grabski for his tax policy but expressed confidence in Premier Grabski, while the Left, as usual, hurled its stage-prop thunder and lightning at those "colleagues of the premier" who are to blame for the government's bad policy, but placed Mr. Grabski himself, like Caesar's wife, above all suspicion…

Of the individual interesting moments in the general mass of grey, worthless speeches of the Right and the Left we note the following.

2. Thunder and lightning from the PPS cloud.

Barlicki (PPS) expressed alarm for the future of the repair of the treasury: the budget balance has been reached only through the extraordinary tax on property. If it does not hold, a flood of paper money will come again, and the mark and the złoty will fall. The high cost of living is not diminishing, because the government does not fight it: with one hand it forces the propertied classes to pay taxes, and with the other it allows them to grow rich at the expense of the working population. The government does nothing for the unemployed… Mr. Barlicki proposes very radical means: to place "all industrial production and trade under state and public control", knowing well that not only Mr. Grabski's government but not one of the parties in the Polish Sejm, not even the PPS itself, will do this, just as the "socialist" government of England did not do it…

Mr. Barlicki blames Commissioner for Economy Maskalewski, who drives out of service for the sake of "economy" only people of the Left; he scolds the Minister of Justice, whose courts "judge the editor of the Gazeta Warszawska one way and the editor of the Robotnik another"; he blames the Minister of Education for "destroying the Belarusian and Ukrainian national schools", rightly warning the government that the "minorities question" may turn from an internal matter into a foreign-policy one and provoke international intervention…

Mr. Barlicki advises Premier Grabski to "give autonomy to the eastern lands—Belarusian and Ukrainian", and to "let the other minorities feel the spirit of the Polish Constitution". ("Kur. Polski").

Mr. Barlicki blames Messrs. Zamoyski, Skirmunt and Chłapowski, who look on the radical changes in the governments of Western Europe as a "temporary misunderstanding"… He blames even a person wholly unaccountable under the constitution, a "high dignitary who astonishes the world with his phrases"…

But the deputy of the PPS blames only one man: that very Mr. Grabski, who under the Constitution bears the first and greatest responsibility for the whole government. The PPS resolution, while not denying confidence in Mr. Grabski, denies only the extension of the extraordinary powers to his government.

3. Jewish prophecies.

The Jewish deputy Reich made a speech interesting for its critical pessimism. He said that as a result of the "sanation of the treasury" neither Polish citizens nor the Polish treasury will have any money… Mr. Reich said further that in Poland there is no guiding political idea apart from anti-Semitism and the boycott of the Jews, and that Poland has the ambition "to be a strong nation only among the weak"…

4. Russian complaints.

The Russian Serebrennikov declared that if Belarusians and Ukrainians in Poland are treated as citizens of the 2nd class, then Russians in Poland are counted as citizens of a still lower—indeed 3rd—sort!.. As a result the eyes of the Russians turn to the East, from where protection should come…

5. The confidence of the offended "peasants".

Deputy Pluta of the Polish "Peasant Union" stated that Grabski's government has done nothing for the Polish village: the agrarian reform has not even moved from the spot. But all the same "the 'peasant' union has full confidence in Mr. Grabski"…

6. The "thunder" of the leader of Wyzwolenie.

A speech interesting for its delicate criticism of Mr. Grabski's government was made by the leader of Wyzwolenie, Deputy Tugutt, who, they say, hopes that Mr. Grabski may invite him into his own cabinet. For that reason Mr. Tugutt attacked above all the Minister of the Interior, rightly considering himself a candidate for precisely that post…

Mr. Tugutt gave, among other things, very interesting news about how the credits of the state treasury (loans of the people's money on easy terms) are distributed. The last 50 million złoty were "divided" by Mr. Grabski in such a way that the small farmers, who make up three quarters of the population of Poland, received from the state for the support of their farms something like 2 million złoty, in other words something like 200000 marks per head, while the rest was taken by industrialists and landlords…

There is no need to say that of these millions the Belarusian farmer did not receive a single mark!..

In Mr. Grabski's budget there is not a single mark for land reform, unless one counts… settler colonization (osadnictwo)! But at the latter Mr. Tugutt is somehow not indignant at all. For the increase of the capital of the Bank of Poland 1333 złoty are assigned, while on the merry hunts of Mr. President of the Republic, the ministers and their guests in the Białowieża Forest or elsewhere, the "healer" of the state treasury has thrown away as much as 40000 złoty of the people's money..

—"This is simply mockery"—says Deputy Tugutt.

In the Ministry of the Interior there is such a "spirit" that even the future minister Mr. Tugutt, this admirer of the Italian fascists, advises simply—"to break its windows"…

"In the Ministry of Justice", says the deputy of Wyzwolenie, "there will be no good until a judge has the audacity to ask the accused for which list he cast his vote"…

The Ministry of Education "for the sake of economy" has dismissed 2000 teachers, closed many schools and does not intend to open a single new one. For out-of-school education three times less has been assigned than for the "hunting amusements" of the highest dignitaries. "The activity of the Minister of Education is simply criminal"—the deputy concludes. (Voices on the Left: "Resign"!..)

But from all these "thunders" Mr. Tugutt did not draw the conclusion suggested to him.

7. Who is calling "Catherine" out of the grave?

A very interesting picture was given in the speech of the Piast member Dembski, when, generously agreeing to the "equality of minorities", he demanded from these minorities "loyalty to the majority" (something quite new, for until now the talk was of "loyalty to the Polish state")… Then Mr. Dembski began to shout: "We will not allow this question to be made a trump in the political struggle of Soviet Russia or Germany"… "This is not the sort of matter that the Russian government can conduct, as Catherine once did"!

Let Mr. Dembski ask himself well who it is that puts these "trumps" into the hands of Russia or Germany, and who is calling "Catherine" out of the grave…

To all these outcries our deputies and the Ukrainian deputies gave a fitting answer…