Word: becking
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What Colonel Beck would regard as an ideal state of affairs is an Eastern Europe in which the Soviet Union and Germany were continually mad at but not fighting each other. A cynical and unscrupulous latter-day Talleyrand, Colonel Beck believes in playing all horses at one time, but putting no great amount of money on any one. The "ironclad" alliance with France is still theoretically good, but so are the German and Russian non-aggression treaties. In a Franco-German war one of them would have to be broken, but that does not trouble the conscience of Colonel Beck...
Only in the peculiar internal political structure of Poland is it possible today for such a coldblooded, unscrupulous, calculating diplomat as Colonel Beck to get away with his fast & loose international dealings. Even in modern dictatorships a Führer or a Duce must sell his people on accepting his judgments on foreign relations. In a democracy a Foreign Minister is at the political mercy of public opinion. But in Poland Colonel Beck is under neither handicap and the reason is that Poland is neither a dictatorship nor a democracy...
...oligarchy of Polish rulers who control the landowning, manufacturing, cultural and military groups that do the nominating. The Government never has to worry much about its majority in the Sejm. Nor does it have to report some of its most important decisions to the "people's representatives." Colonel Beck once a year makes a "courtesy" speech on foreign affairs before Parliament, but he is careful not to give away any secrets to listening foreign diplomats...
Tall, lean, smartly dressed, wearing his hat rakishly on the back of his head, solemn and almost macabre in appearance, Colonel Beck is probably the most unpopular of big Polish politicians. But political unpopularity matters little in Poland. One Pole out of five is illiterate. Communications are comparatively undeveloped, public opinion slow to form. The peasantry in many parts of the country spend most of their time and interest on trying to get enough to eat to keep alive...
Legionnaire. Born in Galicia in 1894 of a family which originally came from Flanders, Colonel Beck received his early education in Cracow, old capital of Poland, burial place of Polish kings and heart of the old Austrian part of the country.* He was attending the Academy of Commerce in Vienna when the War broke out, left school immediately and joined up with the Polish Legion organized by Pilsudski to fight on the side of the Austrians against the Russians. Idea of the Polish Legion was that the greatest part of Poland was held by Russia and therefore Russia was temporarily...