POLAND: Exit Peace Man

Since Europe’s next war is apt to be fought over the Polish Corridor, it was bad news for Europe when M. August Zaleski, “The Briand of the North,” resigned last week as Foreign Minister of Poland. Tall, big-boned and pallid because of a plugged artery, Peace Man Zaleski has sat more often than any other statesman on the Council of the League of Nations. Insiders call him the real author of the Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact. In the past two years he has immeasurably bettered relations between Warsaw and Moscow, obtained the signing of a Russo-Polish pact of nonaggression. Why then did Poland’s Peace Man resign last week? So far as could be learned, the “Pilsudski Colonels” who rule Poland more or less as directed by Dictator Josef Pilsudski have decided that the Polish Corridor is now definitely menaced by Germany’s “Cabinet of Monocles” which keeps demanding “arms equality” (TIME, Sept. 26). In this emergency Poland has either more or less need than ever for a Peace Man—depending on the point of view. Two weeks ago eccentric Dictator Pilsudski, who seldom confers with any Polish official other than his military cronies, summoned M. Zaleski for a secret conference lasting over an hour. That was the end, though Polish courtesy permitted M. Zaleski to withdraw at his convenience last week and retire to his seat in the Senate. Promptly the Peace Man’s Foreign Office was turned over to a sabre-rattling “Pilsudski Colonel” who was once the Dictator’s personal adjutant, Col. Josef Beck. In his new office Col. Beck will rattle diplomatically at Berlin’s rattlers, German Chancellor Franz von Papen and German Defense Minister Kurt von Schleicher. Starting out with a soft, soothing, almost inaudible rattle last week Col. Beck declared, “Our foreign policy will remain unchanged. The change [from Zaleski to Beck] is purely a personal one.” When the Polish budget was presented to the Sejm last week. Finance Minister Zawadski admitted that it envisions a $40,000,000 deficit, admitted that more than one-third of the budgeted expenditures will be for military purposes. Said the official Gazeta Polska, “In the present circumstances it is manifestly the Government’s first duty to maintain Poland’s defenses!”