POLAND: Dread Pilsudski

There have been recent signs of the Polish Sejm (Parliament) attempting to oust Dictator Josef Pilsudski.

The Polish political situation is somewhat unusual. The President (pedagogic Professor Ignatz Moscicki) is the impotent puppet of Josef Pilsudski, Premier, Minister of War & Marshal of Poland, who is actually the law. Although he appears in the Sejm on important occasions (such as political crises, when he dons his much-worn militaryuniform to terrify his opponents), he leaves much governmental business to another puppet: Vice Premier & Minister of Religion & Education, Professor Kazimierz Bartel.

Last week the Socialists began one of their periodical moves to eliminate the dread Pilsudski. But the hulking, burly, stern-eyed Marshal,without waiting to don his uniform, rushed from his summer home near Vilna to the capital, and roared: “I will not tolerate these tendencies of the Sejm to kick over the traces!”

The Socialists (with three Peasant parties, two Labor parties and a Communist party) considerably outnumber the Pilsudski forces. They introduced a number of motions forbidden by Dictator Pilsudski, chief of which was a motion of lack of confidence in him. Had they succeeded in winning the motion, it would doubtless have done them no good; for Dictators have an irritating habit of putting themselves above the law. Still, it would have done Pilsudski small good had he been forced to ride roughshod over their veto. To avoid all such unpleasantness, he issued a decree closing the Sejm.

“Cowards!” yelled the Socialists to the assembled Pilsudski Ministers.