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5423968_7_1091.xml
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5423968_7_1091.xml
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<?oxygen RNGSchema="../schema/flps0.2.rnc" type="compact"?><TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
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<title>
<bibl><title>Narod Polski</title>, Vol. XX, No. 29,
<date when="1916-07-19">July 19, 1916</date>.
<title level="a">Memorial</title></bibl>
</title>
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<publicationStmt>
<publisher>The Newberry Library</publisher>
<pubPlace>Chicago, Illinois</pubPlace>
<address>
<addrLine>60 West Walton</addrLine>
<addrLine>Chicago, IL 60610</addrLine>
<addrLine>USA</addrLine>
<addrLine>http://www.newberry.org</addrLine>
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<idno>5423968_7_1091</idno>
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<notesStmt>
<note>Transcribed from digital images contributed to the Internet
Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</note>
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<bibl><title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey</title>, <date>1936-1941</date>,
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<title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey [microform]</title>
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<div type="group">
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<item>POLISH</item>
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<div type="citation">
<bibl><title>Narod Polski</title>, Vol. XX, No. 29,
<date when="1916-07-19">July 19, 1916</date>.
<title level="a">MEMORIAL</title></bibl>
</div>
</front>
<body>
<p>July 12, 1916.</p>
<p>Honorable Woodrow Wilson</p>
<p>President</p>
<p>Washington, D. C.</p>
<p>In the hour of the greatest calamity confronting a nation, we, the chosen representatives of organizations united in the Polish Central Relief Committee, embracing nearly all of the four million residents and citizens of the United States of Polish birth or extraction, present to you, Mr. President, our appeal that you, as President of the United States, raise your voice in protest against what appears to be a deliberate sentence of death passed upon the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland.</p>
<p>Galicia, or Austrian Poland, from the very beginning of the war <pb facs="5423968_7_1092.jpg" n="2"/>suffered almost complete devastation by repeated movements of armies over her territory. Russian Poland, although visited by the hardship of war, was not in danger of starvation. A year ago the Russian armies which were in possession began to evacuate and a hurried retreat over Polish territory took place, followed by the invasion of German and Austrian forces.</p>
<p>Tremendous stores of food and provisions were destroyed and thousands of villages and towns were leveled to the ground by the retreating Russian armies as "an inevitable necessity of war." In a comparatively brief period of time nearly all of the Kingdom of Poland was occupied by the armies of the Central Powers.</p>
<p>Then reports came that requisitions by the occupying armies had stripped the entire country of the rest of its native stocks and stores. The situation became more acute from day to day until in the month of November and December, 1915, it became so appalling that representatives of the American Red Cross Society, the Rockefeller Foundation and the <pb facs="5423968_7_1093.jpg" n="3"/>Commission for the Relief in Belgium, took notice and endeavored to inaugurate relief work. In the month of January, 1916, the United Polish Organizations of America, actuated by humanitarian motives and mindful of their blood relationship organized a relief movement for the sending of food and provisions to the stricken districts in Poland. Efforts were made to secure from Great Britain a modification of the blockade which would permit landing of ships at Danzig.</p>
<p>The American organizations mentioned above promised generous assistance.</p>
<p>Great Britain was appealed to; Germany, Russia and Austria were approached through their Embassies at Washington.</p>
<p>Our State Department rendered assistance. Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, <pb facs="5423968_7_1094.jpg" n="4"/>Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, made heroic efforts to bring about an understanding between Great Britain and Germany. American ambassadors undertook mediation. Exchanges of telegrams and communications continued for months. In the meantime, the Polish people starved. At last there was hope of success. Great Britain agreed to permit shipment from America under conditions to be observed by the Central Powers. These conditions, however, were rejected.</p>
<p>Now word comes from the other side: "Abandon all hope for Polish relief."</p>
<p>This sounds like a death sentence. There can be no illusion about it. The treatment and the attitude of the neighboring powers towards the Polish people during this war clearly demonstrates their design to obtain, control, and hold possession of Polish territory, unemcumbered by its hereditary owners. Germany declines to give the guarantee <pb facs="5423968_7_1095.jpg" n="5"/>demanded by the Allies that food sent to Poland from America, and such a supply of food as may still exist there, will not be requisitioned by the occupying armies, but will be taken as a whole and preserved for the civil population. Russia does not reply to a telegram sent two months ago by the United Polish Organizations of America relative to her position on the food situation in Poland.</p>
<p>Outraged civilization, which has for two years witnessed the most startling disregard for human life and the unprecedented destruction of property created by human industry and ingenuity during centuries of time, is now further to be outraged by the deliberate murder of an ancient civilized and noble nation.</p>
<p>These who are about to die, make this last appeal through their brethren here to the Chief of the Greatest Republic on earth. You, Mr. President, <pb facs="5423968_7_1096.jpg" n="6"/>have raised your voice in protest against the sinking of the Lusitania and the Sussex; you protested against the massacres of Armenians; you have repeatedly proclaimed that you stand for justice and humanity; to you then, Mr. President, this appeal is made on behalf of these millions of human beings.</p>
<p>We are unwilling to abandon hope and we bring our protest to the only tribunal of humanity and justice, the United States of America. We most respectfully submit the justice of our claim, that the President of the United States has the right to demand that America and American citizens who are willing to share in the work of salvation, be given the opportunity to send to Poland necessaries of life which will save its remaining population from a lingering death.</p>
<p>Let the world be told by the President of the United States that humanity cannot acquiesce in the murder of millions of innocent people.</p>
<pb facs="5423968_7_1097.jpg" n="7"/>
<p>Military considerations affecting nations at war, and their mutual distrust and hatred, should not be permitted to further delay and frustrate these humanitarian efforts.</p>
<p>We most respectfully pray that a request be made upon Great Britain and upon Germany for a guarantee that shipments will not be molested, nor the still existing stocks of food be requisitioned for the use of occupying armies.</p>
<p>We make this appeal in all sincerity and with due respect. Our feelings cannot be expressed in words, but we are conscious of our duty, which we hereby perform not only for the sake of our loved ones abroad, but in the broadest sense of universal justice.</p>
<p>Into your hands, Mr. President, do we entrust what we believe to be a question of life and death of millions of Polish people.</p>
<p>Most respectfully, <pb facs="5423968_7_1098.jpg" n="8"/>Polish Central Relief Commission</p>
<p>Polish National Alliance</p>
<p>Polish Roman-Catholic Union</p>
<p>Association of Polish Clergy</p>
<p>Polish Women's Alliance</p>
<p>Polish National Council</p>
<p>Polish Falcons Alliance</p>
<p>Polish Alma Mater</p>
<p>Polish Union of America</p>
<p>Polish Uniformed Societies</p>
<p>Polish St. Joseph's Union</p>
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