I FOREWORD. East is East, and West is West, And never the twain shall meet. )This seeming truism was penned by Rudyard Kipling, when viewing India and the Indians with the eyes and mind and tradition of ar Anglo-Saxon. It has been accepted as an eternal verity, with a profound ignorance of Kipling's further reflection : I \ But there is neither East nor West, Nor border, nor breed, nor birth, When two strong men standface to face Though thry comefrom the ends of the earth. I seems long ages ago since two seeming strong men stood face to face-Hitler and Stalin-each fearsome of the other and finessif g for vantage, and came to agreement avoiding war. Hbw much blood has flowed since the Nazi attack on Poland led Great Britain to strike in defence of her guarantees for Polish independence l This culmination of aggression, first against democratic right in Germany itself, then in Austria, then in Czecho-Slovakia -at last awakened Democracy's defenders in the West. Then came the black days, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France-all fell. Poland divided between the Soviet power and Hitler's hosts, lay far from the shores of England. Dunkirk followed and the immortal Battle of Britain, when Polish airmen shared the perils, the losses and our final gain; and Russia waited-and all the world waited, and waited, and waited ... Then Hitler tore up his Soviet agreement-flimsy as all his other pacts-assailed Russia and prow:iked the Russian Campaign. Soon Japan struck and America's economic aid was succeeded by American arms. Almost the whole wide world was again at war. The carnage ~wayed East and West and over all the Seven Seas. Finally, Peace came and found Poland, cockpit of ancient, deadly rivalries from the Old Partition, again torn asunder. Like her neighbouring States in North and South, Poland becomes a Russian. bastion against another day of bloody strife. B1bliotecaGino Bianco
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