Yesterday afternoon at three o'clock a Polish delegation went to the Blackstone Hotel to thank Mr. James W. Gerard, former United States ambassador to Berlin, who is making his first visit to Chicago, for the efforts he has made to help bring relief to Poland, and to hear from him personally about the relations of the Polish people with the Germans and the intentions of the Germans in respect to Poland.

The delegation consisted of the most prominent and hardest-working [Polish] people in the field of social and national work in Chicago. Among those president were Judges E. Jarecki and J. LaBuy; Mr. T. M. Helinski, president of the Central Polish Relief Committee; Mr. J. Magdziarz, treasurer of the Polish National Alliance Mr. J. S. Zawilinski, secretary general of the Polish National Alliance; Directors W. Pijanowski and S. Dudek; Mrs. K. Obarski; honorary vice-president of the Polish National Alliance; Mesdames M. Sekowski and M. Milewski, 2directors; Commissioners A. Majewski and Dr. Helinski of Milwaukee; J. S. Litke, secretary to the Censor; S. Orpiszewski, J. Przyprawa, and I. Osostowicz of Dziennik Zwiazkowy; S. Szwajkart and F. Brodnicki of Dziennik Chicagoski; H. Lokanski and E. L. Kolakowski of Dziennik Narodowy: J. S. Skibinski, editor of Free Poland; Mr. P. Rostenkowski, president, and J. S. Konopa, secretary general, of the Polish Roman Catholic Union; W. J. Andrzejewski, secretary general of the Alliance of Polish Military Societies; W. Sulewski, commander of Circuit II of the Alliance of Polish Falcons of America; Mr. F. Wejna, director of the Polish Roman Catholic Union; Mr. H. Setmajer, secretary of the Central Polish Relief Committee; Mr. A. J. Dziengielewski; T. Wilkowski; Attorneys Bizka, Mindak, P. H. Schwaba, Mazurek, L. Nyka, and Louis Pinderski; J. Przystalski, assistant prosecuting attorney; Aldermen A. Walkowiak, and S. Adamkiewicz; J.Ruazkiewicz, assistant city treasurer; F. Osuch, auditor of the Polish National Alliance; S. Kolanowski, B. Rozanski, T. Sleszynski, B. Kozlowski; L. Drwenski, assistant cashier of the People's Stockyards Bank; Sredzinski, and others whose names we did not have time to get.

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Anthony Czarnecki, editor of the Chicago Daily News, who arranged the meeting, headed the delegation. The delegation waited on the art floor of the Blackstone Hotel for Mr. Gerard to appear.

At. 3 P.M. Mr. Gerard entered, accompanied by Mr. Czarnecki. Enthusiastic applause greeted his arrival. Mr. A. Czarnecki presented each member of the delegation to Mr. Gerard, who shook hands and exchanged a few words with each.

Then, standing before the semicircle made by the delegation, Mr. Czarnecki, at the request of the delegation, spoke as follows:

"We wish, Mr. Gerard, to express our thanks to you, and to show our gratitude for what you have done. In doing this we cherish the hope of being able to talk with you as a representative of the United States government in Berlin at this important time. You have filled a most responsible post, and are therefore best qualified to know what we should have done, what we should do, and what the conditions are over there. If you will be kind enough to enlighten 4us in a simple and understandable manner, as I promised this delegation that you would do; you will become one of us. We already feel that you are one of us. We are citizens of this country, loyal to it, and we have tried in the name of humanity to do something for those on the other side of the Atlantic, because they are blood of our blood.

"Gentlemen, Mr. Gerard will now tell us what he thinks will be of interest to us, and how he personally feels about the present situation."

Ambassador Gerard then spoke as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you sincerely, and am deeply touched that you came here today to see me. Just as you tried, I also tried to do everything I could to help your great and so unfortunate people in Europe. Shortly after the outbreak of the war it became evident that Poland's needs were tremendous. The Germans, and I am sorry to have to admit this, in accordance with their usual custom, took all the harvest of this country, mainly for their own use. I have photographs which were published in German newspapers with the captions: 'Harvesting the 5crops in Poland which owners have left behind.' This naturally meant that these crops were being harvested in order that they might be turned over to the German army or the German people.

"The Rockefeller Foundation made a serious attempt to case misfortune in Poland, and we held several meetings in order to discuss this problem.

"Mr. Rose and Mr. Bicknell of the Red Cross represented the Rockefeller Foundation at these meetings, and representatives of the German government were also present. Finally, in 1915, in April, if I remember correctly, we all agreed to a certain method of action which I worked out, always mindful of the difficulties we encountered in this matter in Belgium. In the plan, which even General von Hindenburg himself finally approved, I stated as a condition, that nowhere within the boundaries of Poland where we were trying to bring relief would any food or money be requisitioned. As you no doubt know, the Germans took forty million francs a month from Belgium in addition to tremendous quantities of all sorts of stores. If we had succeeded in making the Germans keep 6this agreement and had been able to bring help to Poland on these conditions, it would really have been a great blessing.

"We immediately set about organizing the Rockefeller Commission, agreeing at that time to cover all the expense of the executive committee and part of the personnel which I engaged, as well as part of the personnel which they engaged. This committee immediately set to work within the limits of its capacity, at purchasing all the supplies that could be acquired from neighboring countries, such as Denmark, Holland, etc. And that is how we began to try to bring relief to Poland.

"Nevertheless, finally the work stopped, and not wishing to go into detail here, I will merely say that all attempts at bringing relief to Poland seemed impossible of fulfillment. When finally we succeeded in making them possible, the German government briefly informed us, 'We can no longer keep this agreement; we propose, in accordance with our will, to requisition everything we need for our army in occupied Poland'.

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"Naturally, under these conditions, this merely meant that we would be supplying the German army of occupation, and it became impossible to get other countries to allow the transportation of food supplies for this purpose, and you surely cannot blame them for this.

"In spite of this, at the time I left Germany, the Rockefeller Commission succeeded in accomplishing a feat by supplying milk and other foods of this type to children. The Commission did all that it could, but there is not the slightest doubt, gentlemen, that famine conditions in Poland exceeded imagination, especially in the more thickly populated cities. No pen can describe what the people in Poland suffered. The conditions were frightful and horrible.

"The intentions of the Central Powers, aiming at their alleged reconstruction of a Polish kingdom, had only one real purpose, which was to recruit an Army of Poles. I have, from the very best source of information, although I have not personally seen it, but the information was brought to me from a most reliable source, the knowledge that the Germans took a certain number of Polish 8officers, taken prisoner from the Russian army, and sent them to Poland for the purpose of creating a nucleus for the army they hoped to raise. It is, of course, clear that the raising of this army was a complete failure. The Poles are too intelligent and clever a nation to allow themselves to be trapped in this way, and be sent to their death for the Central Powers, the more so since we have not heard of a willingness on the part of either Germany or Austria to return any part of the former country of Poland to this country which was about to be restored.

"On the other hand it is a fact that one of the chief objections raised by the Germans against President Wilson was that, in his address to the Senate, he mentioned that every country should have access to the sea, and they emphasized that thereby President Wilson was telling them to return the port of Danzig to the Polish Kingdom. To that they said they would never agree. 'We will never return anything to the Poles,' they said. This speech most deeply provoked Germany and was one of the main reasons for their feelings against the United States.

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"At the time that I was leaving Germany, it was impossible to get any information relating to the Poles or about conditions in Poland. Conditions under Prussian rule in Poland and Posen continue to be as they were for some time past, and you know very well what those conditions were like. The colonization commission, by which the Germans take land away from the Poles and pay for it as they like, and then give it to German colonists continues to operate there. During the day on which I left Berlin, I had a conversation with the manager of one of the largest banks; he actually expressed great regret at the breaking off of relations by the United States, and said:

" 'It is noteworthy that you get Poles, you get Czechs, and people of all nationalities, people who are not fugitives to your country, and they all become good citizens of America. And look what we have here;--we have tried to force the Poles into becoming Germans for more than a hundred years, and they still refuse to become Germans.' "

"I replied: 'It is precisely because you are trying to force them to become 10Germans, that this condition exists.'

"And that is how it really is.

"As you know, everyone of you gentlemen, anyone who came into any sort of contact with this autocratic government was convinced that the people there did not govern themselves. Coming to this country, all of you gentlemen had the same start that all others had. There is not a single person among you who did not have a chance as good as I had, and perhaps even better, if you were seeking some sort of office in this country. Nevertheless you know that this would be impossible under German rule, and no one knows this better than you who are acquainted with conditions in Germany, and its government in Poland.

"When I went to Posen during peace time, shortly before the outbreak of the war, many of my German friends asked me, 'At what hotel are you stopping?' And them they said, 'Do not go to that hotel; come to this one!' It was their little joke, since if they had succeeded in getting me to change my hotel and 11stop at the other one, it would have meant that I openly declared myself to be an opponent of the Germans and a friend of the Poles. So you see even today, after a hundred years, conditions are the same. The Germans do not want to stop at a hotel at which Poles generally stop.

"Their policy of outraging the Poles, holding an unsympathetic attitude toward them, denying them any part in the government,--because, as you know, the vote in Prussia has absolutely no meaning--is the system on which their government is based. A certain number of Polish deputies have been elected to parliament, but the parliament has no power, because it is merely a debating society. No deputy can introduce a bill. In the Prussian senate the electoral system is based on classes, on the basis of which one wealthy man in the first class has a vote equivalent to the vote of ten thousand voters of the third class. It is obvious that this is not freedom, that this is no temptation for the Poles to become a part of the German system, and there is not the slightest doubt that they will never become a part of this system.

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"Today I should like to give you some encouragement as to conditions in Poland, but I regret that unfortunately I cannot. During the last month of my stay in Berlin it was impossible for me to get any information about what was happening in Poland.

"I am glad to have the opportunity of meeting you here, and as I have said before. I am moved by your coming here to see me, and hope that we may all meet again."

Then certain members of the delegation spoke to Mr. Gerard as follows:

Anthony Czarnecki: "One more thing if you will permit me, sir. What conditions did you find in that part of Poland which is under Prussian domination? Have the Poles there become Germanized, or have they remained sincerer Poles than anyone else could be?"

Ambassador Gerard: "A German told me the following: 'We are making every effort to establish German colonists there; we are forcing the Poles to leave; 13we take away their land, paying for it as much as the colonizing committee suggests, and settle a German there. The German then marries a Polish girl and all the children become Poles.' " [laughter]

Anthony Czarnecki: "We want to thank you for your kindness, and assure you that all the citizens of Polish ancestry in this country are for you. You have won the hearts of these people, whose children you have tried to help."

Judge E. Jarecki: "I believe that you find, Sir, that the Poles greatly appreciate your position and the brief report you have given us today. It will be a great encouragement for us to know that the country which we left behind--and I had the luck to be born in Posen which you mentioned, although I was just a baby when I came here--still continues to be ours, that any kin still continue to live there. It will be a great encouragement for us to know that there still are Poles there, because the Poles have always stood for the freedom of nations.

"I judge that our forefathers always fought for the cause of freedom. I believe 14that the Polish sword never remained in its scabbard when the question of defending weaker nations or countries came up, or when it was necessary to fight for the same principles for which we here have now entered this war.

"I dare assert, just as the 250 Polish boys who recently marched through the Loop on their way to Jefferson Barracks thought, that we are all of the opinion that this war is a war for humanity, and we are all willing to do our bit to win this war."

T. M. Helinski: "I wish Sir, once again to express our heartfelt gratitude to you for the kind help you have given us, Mr. Gerard. We appreciate it greatly. As Judge Jarecki has already mentioned, the Poles are not the last to enlist in Uncle Sam's Army in order to defend this country. If there is a nationality in the world which values freedom and independence, that nationality is Polish, which wants to do its best by this country. The Poles are people who like to have their own homes. You will probably find that in the large cities about 15eighty per cent of the Poles own their own homes. This is an indication of good citizenship."

Anthony Czarnecki: "In Chicago alone there are about three hundred and fifty thousand of us."

Judge Jarecki: "May I be permitted, Sir, to call your attention again to the fact that today is the Third of May, and that on May 3 the Polish constitution was accepted, four years after the drawing up of the constitution of the United States. It greatly resembled the constitution of the United States. The Russian government--it is true--took it away from us. But this is our national holiday and we are happy to meet you on this day."

T. M. Helinski: "As concerns the disappointment with which the Germans met on trying by force to turn the Poles into Germans, and the attitude of the Poles here, we have two entirely different situations. We came to America of our own free will, and therefore it is our duty to become citizens of this country, but 16the Germans came into Poland and therefore cannot expect the Poles to become Germans."

Thus ended the discussion. Ex-Ambassador Gerard said good bye to each person, exchanging a few more kind words. When he approached the group of our ladies, Mrs. Mary Sakowski spoke to him with tears in her eyes, thanking him in the name of Polish women and mothers for the efforts he had made in trying to case the unfortunate lot of Polish children and orphans, which only a woman's heart can truly appreciate. Mrs. M. Milewski and Mrs. K. Obarski also thanked him. The women, more sensitive than the men, were unable to control their emotions completely, and several had warm, motherly tears in their eyes.

Ex-Ambassador Gerard was deeply moved and uttered a few words of sincere sympathy to the Polish women and mothers, who have to suffer so much. Amidst enthusiastic applause he entered the elevator and went to his hotel apartment, and the delegation slowly dispersed.