Word: becks
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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When Marshal Pilsudski died in 1935 the three most important heirs to his power were aging, cultured President Ignacy Moscicki, former professor of electrochemistry at Lwów Polytechnic School; General Edward Smigly-Rydz, Inspector General of the Polish Armed Forces (job held by Pilsudski); and Lieutenant Colonel Josef Beck, the Foreign Minister...
...these, President Moscicki, under the Polish Constitution, theoretically holds most power. Because in his job he represents the politically powerful Army, however, Marshal Smigly-Rydz has become by far the strongest figure in post-Pilsudski Polish domestic affairs. But Colonel Beck was the old Marshal's most intimate friend. As Foreign Minister he had been personally schooled in what the Marshal thought the "principles" of Polish foreign policy should be. On his deathbed Marshal Pilsudski received only one of his ministers, Colonel Beck. And since young Poland's survival must inevitably depend upon how well her foreign rather...
...Baskets, Bets. Last week the "guardian" was playing the Pilsudski game for all it was worth. Having recently visited Führer Hitler at Berchtesgaden, entertained German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop at Warsaw and signed a commercial treaty and reaffirmed a non-aggression pact with Soviet Russia, Colonel Beck played host to Italian Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano. It was reported that Colonel Beck lent an interested ear to Count Ciano's talk about Italy's colonial "aspirations" (at the expense of France) in the Mediterranean. Some diplomatic correspondents even reported that Italy was ready...
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...
...part, Herr Hitler ordered Nazi broadcasts aimed at Polish Ukrainians toned down, temporarily at least. On his part, Foreign Minister Beck was reported to have agreed to: 1) formal annexation by Germany of Danzig, already completely Nazified but still nominally under League of Nations supervision; 2) special status for the Germans in Memel, still part of Lithuania, but actually ruled by local Nazis directed from Berlin...