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Poland Still Unknown |
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I thought no more about that letter until recently when, in response to a discussion topic in an internet newsgroup, I posted the review on the newsgroup. Miraculously, Henryk Sułkowski found the article using a search engine and wrote to me from Poland about our mutual friend Vincent Swicz. This reawakened our interest and inspired this web site and other research we intend to carry out. The review is reproduced below. It is followed by some quotes from other reviews that at the time that appeared on the back cover of the book.
If after reading all those reviews you are inspired to read further, you may find a copy in a second-hand bookshop by following this link . I have noticed a copy for sale as far away as New Zealand. The story of how it got there from the UK would be fascinating, I am sure. Equally fascinating is a copy that has turned up in what appears to be a university library in Japan.
POLAND - STILL UNKNOWN? A review by Tony Gabis first published in Gazeta in 1998.
Browsing through second-hand books in a charity shop recently, I came across a paperback called "Poland - Still Unknown" by one V. Swicz. This was the 1942 edition of a book that had been published a year previously with the less inspiring title "Poland's Position in Central Europe".
The author was a member of what he described as the recent "friendly Polish invasion of Britain". His aim in writing the book was to increase people's knowledge of Poland, which he felt, was either very small or coloured by German propaganda. Using a friendly, chatty style, he describes Poland`s geography and culture, emphasising her long history and tradition of tolerance. He explains how the period of independence since the first world war had been too short to recover from a lack of investment during the partition years. The resulting weakness, together with the unsatisfactory settlement at Versailles and the traditional German desire for a "drang nach osten" made war almost inevitable. The author also mourns the reluctance of western powers to take a pre-emptive strike against Germany in the years leading up to the war.
The author`s hopes for the future are perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the book, given our knowledge of the years that have passed since the book was written. He firmly believes that Poland once again will be free, and he even uses the closing chapter of the book to invite the reader to Poland after the war. Sadly, however, he believes that the differences between the Soviet Union and Poland may have been resolved following the agreement to allow the Polish army to reform on Soviet soil. Nevertheless, he makes an uncanny prediction for the post war years by promoting a future political system that resembles the EU, although he only suggests that it be composed of central European countries.
Any readers north of the border would be interested to find a chapter devoted to Polish-Scottish links. This describes how some thirty to forty thousand Scots came to be living in Poland in the 17th century. The chapter was undoubtedly included because V. Swicz was living at 8 Buckstone Avenue, Edinburgh 10 when the book was published. Perhaps some readers remember this book or know something about the author. I would be interested to hear from anyone who does. The book was printed at the Standard Printing Works, Kilmarnock. Fifty five years later my near mint condition copy ended up in a charity shop in Tring, Herts. What happened to it in between would probably be an interesting tale, but that remains, like Poland in 1942, still unknown.
Original reviews from back cover.
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