Word: becks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
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...
After Poland's declaration of independence in 1918, young Beck became a captain, then a major, in the new Polish Army. He was one of the first selected by Marshal Pilsudski for the new Polish Military Staff College. In the war with Soviet Russia in 1920, when Soviet forces under the late Marshal Mikhail Tukhachavsky pursued the Polish Army to the gates of Warsaw, the young officer was first a colonel of horse artillery, then commander on the Lithuanian-White Russian frontier. Later he became military attache in Paris. That period in Colonel Beck's career was ended...