Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1236

 1184 POLAND.

(RzEozrosroLiTA Pot.ska.)

Poland was an independent State until the end of the eighteenth century. The Poles are Slavonic in race and Roman Catholic in religion.

During the seventeenth century the position of Poland rapidly declined, and eventually, hy the three partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795, the Polish Commonwealth, as it was then called, was divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria.

In 1807, Napoleon formed a part of the Old Commonwealth into a semi- independent State under the title of the Duchy of Warsaw and endowed it with a very liberal constitution, but in 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, this was undone, and Poland was re-partitioned between Prussia, Austria and Russia, except the small district of Cracow, which was constituted an indepen- dent republic and remained such until 1835, when it was annexed by Austria, despite a guarantee of neutrality by Prussia, Austria and Russia.

At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, only one portion of Poland enjoyed autonomous government, viz., that annexed by Austria. Austrian- Poland was governed by the Galician Diet at Lwow (Lemberg), under the control of the Central Government in Vienna.

During the war Russian-Poland was invaded by the Germans and Austrians, and by the end of 1915 the whole country was occupied by the Austro-German forces.

On November 5, 1916, the German and Austrian Emperors, in a joint manifesto, proclaimed the independence of Poland, but neither the boundaries nor the constitution of the State were defined. Shortly afterwai Provisional Council of State, consisting of 25 members, all Polos, was summoned in order to draft the constitution of the new State, but this body did not exist for long. In September, 1917, a new Supreme Authority, the Regency Council, consisting of three members, was appointed, and under their auspices a Ministry was formed and a new Council of State summoned. It was composed partly of elected and partly of appointed members, 110 in all. In October, 1918, this Council of State wa3 dissolved by the Regency Council and the convocation proclaimed a Constituent Assembly to determine the constitution of the Polish Sute and take over the supreme authority.

On November 9, 1918, the Independence of Poland was solemnly pro- claimed. On November 14, General Pilsudski, freed from the Magdeburg prison, returned to Poland, assumed Supreme Power and convoked the Constituent Assembly (Srjin Uatawodawczy), which continued him in his office. On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles recognised the fade pen dence of Poland.

President. — Joseph Pilsudski, Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish army, born December 5, 1867, in Zulow, Wilna, assumed office, tforember 14, 1918, re-elected February 20, 1919.

Constitution and Government.

The Constitution of the Polish Republic adopted bf the > s ''i'n (Parlia ment) on April 8, 1921, contains the following fundamental principles : The franchise will be universal for both sexes, the voting age being 21. Soldiers and Government officials are excluded from voting. There are two