Tadeusz Romer on Roman Dmowski
From the editorial board: Tadeusz Romer (1894-1978) went to the Polish National Committee almost from the very beginning from the circles of the Sienkiewicz Committee from Switzerland. His character is seen in the celebrated photograph of October 4, 1918, erstwhile Maurice Zamoyski in Paris presents the nomination for the Leader of All Polish Army Gen. Józefów Haller (see photograph – Tadeusz Romer in depth 4th from the right).
During the Peace Conference, Romer served as Secretary Roman Dmowski for any time. He referred to this episode of his life during reading in Chicago (March 10, 1968). A 33-straight evidence of this lecture was sent by Romer to Tadeusz Bielecki, president of the National organization on emigration. There were amendments made by the author himself. Currently, this document, never entirely published, is in the resources of the National organization Archives in Refugees (in the study). The full will be published shortly in No. 1/2023 of "Independence and Memory". Below is simply a passage devoted to Roman Dmowski:
"As shortly as I graduated from university in Switzerland, I was in Paris in 1917, brought there by the recently established National Committee of Poland to be the individual secretary of its president, Roman Dmowski.
There I survived the dangerous stages of the war, then the intoxicating victory, the Treaty of Versailles and already as the first secretary of the Polish message, under his first superior, Maurycy Zamoyski, visit of Marshal Piłsudski, as the politician of the revived and already bound in Lorenzo by the victorious Republic. Despite my young age, I was surviving in the mediate of a large crucible of global politics, and I had the chance to look closely at the most outstanding figures in the French military and political world, with Foch, Clemenceau and Poincare leading. I had little access to British and American statesmen. On the another hand, I have interacted with a number of members and co-workers of the Polish National Committee, with Gen. Józef Haller and another builders of the Blue Army, with the composition of the Polish diplomacy and consular service then formed, as well as with a number of prominent compatriots who came to Paris as part of a delegation to the legislature of peace.
Of the most interesting figures that I could delete, I will limit myself in this reading to just a few, which I have learned adequate to get a court of my own about them, and which many of my listeners present are not closer or possibly not known at all. I will not talk of the Marshal of Pilsudski due to the fact that my meetings with him were uncommon and fleeting, and last year's Jubilee well reminded everyone of his character, function and merit. For akin reasons, I will not stay on Sienkiewicz or Paderewski any longer, or on non-Polish personalities from the first planet War. On the another hand, I think that you will be curious in the details which are mostly unknown, which are drawn from my individual memories, concerning Roman Dmowski, which is not mentioned adequate present and he remembers, even though his function in rebuilding Poland's independency was so important.
Dmowski's character itself was striking. With any massiness, advanced flexibility of movement, maintained with care for physical exercise, regular walk in the open air after hard work. extended forehead, profoundly embedded eyes, as if looking inactive inside. powerfully marked cheekbones and furrows on both sides of the mouth, marking the Dmowski-specific strength of will, large neatness in the appearance of the outside, in the dress and in the bypass, proving social creation.
What amazed me most from the beginning in Dmowski is the combination of completely unique knowledge, reading, versatility and depth of interest, cognition of countries, societies and abroad languages, possibly not in the perfect perfection of accent or literary choice of words, but in a degree that allows for free and highly convincing argumentation, with amazing comfort, I will even say the freedom of an global gentleman, very powerfully rooted in household soil. To this day it remains a mystery to me what abilities and how much work it must have required to emergence in 1 generation, with its own effort, will and effort, from the boy of a simple Warsaw journalist. I would point out that Dmowski's origin was not only not ashamed, but, on the contrary, not without any pride, he emphasized them publicly.
Thus, with complete freedom he moved in the most creative salons and was as equal to the powerful of this world, frequently extinguishing others in conversation with his intellect and knowledge. And erstwhile he addressed the young and the lower, he never showed his superiority, but, in turn, he manifested mostly loving - kindness and interest.
There was nothing in Dmowski about pose or artificiality. Not only by name but besides by conviction, the politician deliberately and consciously observed large simplicity in his association and imposed it on his surroundings. His colleagues and peers then referred to him as “Mr Roman,” our members of the “President” Committee, just as the “Ordinate” was expressed as “The President”. He besides ensured that Dmowski should not, under any circumstances, give the National Committee the characteristics of the temporary Polish government, even though under agreements with the Aliants, he had without uncertainty the rights of the government in the field of abroad policy, armed forces and consular care including passports. However, Dmowski felt that the government could only be created in Poland by the will of the Nation.
On “Klebrze” – so christened Dr. Franciszek Fronczak from the Polish-American seat of the National Committee for 11 bis (or 15 actually) Avenue Kleber in the Etoile territory – I have never seen any attempts to impose any ideology or cult of heroes. I myself lived for a long time in the same advanced level building, having as a neighbour and friend Bronisław Piłsudski, Sakhalin, the older brother of the Marshal, who, incidentally, wrote Ginet Pilsudzki and was reluctant to discuss household matters, constantly returning his thoughts to the long years spent in exile. Well, in my area there was a photograph of a “commander” hanging above the bed in a grey legion Dawn, not as a symbol of political sympathy, but as an expression of a certain romanticism and affirmation of independence.
As far as working with Dmowski is concerned, my experience leads to the conclusion that his individual secretary, to whom I was in the right sense for a fewer months, simply small was utilized as such. Dmowski was besides individual and rich in reasoning to be able to easy do anything in writing a letter, speech, memorial or article. He himself dictated them with astonishing ease and clarity to the shorthand or wrote himself with a large readable writing. So I became increasingly the secretary, not the President, but the Committee and the minutes of his meetings, which gave me a priceless chance to perceive to his deliberations and follow the function played by Dmowski.
He never imposed himself in advance with his opinion; first, he gave others freedom of expression. In this way, he supplemented his own amazingly rich cognition in many areas, and especially in his cognition of human psychology in various countries, which he had learned during numerous, well - utilized trips. At the end of the discussion, Dmowski masterfully summed up arguments, analysed them, and formulated a conclusion usually recorded in specified a clear and convincing way that further debate became unnecessary. I have not encountered greater transparency and precision in terms of the subject, as in his final arguments, which have always been spoken calmly, without an oratorial feud, but with specified a strong belief that her fervor permeated everyone.
As remembered present an all-night gathering from 27 to 28 February 1919 in the main surviving area of the Committee's headquarters, where Dmowski, surrounded by its members and many experts with a crucial participation of the geographer Eugenius Romer, prepared the editorial board of the memorial to justify for the purposes of the conference the main powers of the allied peace demands of the reborn Poland on its western borders. The memorial must have been lodged that wound on Quai d`Orsay. The concept of borders was long established on our part. It was now about its justification and defence mainly against the objections of Lloyd George, who was unkind to us. Dmowski spoke point by point, consulted the experts and as a consequence of the discussion he dictated paragraphs to me in Polish towards everyone ready to take the text. I was putting them hot into French and carrying them to be typed in the next area of our devoted worker, Miss Archinard, daughter of the French general. In the morning, all this historical paper was ready and no longer required many amendments.
At the celebrated gathering of the Paris advanced Council of 21 January 1919, on which Dmowski, in a fewer hours justification of the Polish point of view, in French and in English, without any written text, was amazed by the present cognition and talent, of course I was not present. But I heard from my close friend, the minister full. Vignon, then deputy chief of the cabinet of the French Minister of abroad Affairs, that he and his colleagues who listened to the proceedings were hit to the highest degree by the glaring ignorance of the chief leaders of the West, and the unparalleled parliamentary opinions, with the cognition and large discrimination of the typical of Poland.
I took part in a large number of conferences and meetings of all kinds, and I myself have minutesed many of them. I have found that notes or figures or drawings machinically drawn by many of them to relax nerves or overcome fatigue are valuable indications for the characteristics of their participants. I have any illustration somewhere in my collections with a feather made in specified conditions by the author of Trilogy and representing its characters. I besides remember geometric figures, drawn by Stalin during my overnight conversation with him in the Kremlin. Who can guess what he left behind at the meetings, on many white pages of paper, Roman Dmowski? Apart from drawings, usually the Latin words of the church's altar. Apparently, erstwhile he was young, he frequently came to the Mass to serve. And since the age of men was the top increase of neo-rationalism and positivism in Poland, to which he was ideally resisting, it is so hard to wonder that for a long time he besides failed spiritual practices. During the time I stood close to him, I had the chance to find out that he had treated the Church with deep respect and appreciated its function in Polish history. I know that he died exemplary, reconciled with God.
Dmowski had a very fine sense of humor. We frequently kept to our sides erstwhile with the most serious face in the planet he was hilariously telling jokes, without malice, and sometimes varied in quotations from literature, which he gained a lot of, due to the fact that he was exceptionally read and had a large memory. I callback 1 evening, after long and boring meetings, we left the Committee's meeting. A military watchman and a telephone caller, had already left his post and the president entered his booth to call someone. He returned amused, saying that this simple soldier of the Blue Army, who was only practicing in the French, spent as it turned out free moments writing from the French love letters textbook, 1 of which was not completed on the desktop and started with the words “Cruelle!” Cruel! Since then, this expression has become fashionable in the Committee and has found increasingly painfully expected applications. As we parted outside the house, Dmowski said goodbye Louis Spiess, co-owner and manager of 1 of the main pharmacy companies in Poland, rushing to the consular office entrusted to him: "Merchant, go into town, I must go into the forestIt’s okay. ” After that, the bandit's hers went on a regular walk to the Bolognes Forest.
When in good years I visited Dmowski in Chludów, after the German remnant in Poznań, he guided me around his estate, showing and commenting witfully on her various German quirks. He told me that this was where he had the chance to correct the misconception of the deficiency of sense of humor in the Greater Poles. The wind broke down any fine trees in his garden, and the gardener, an old acquaintance, did not neglect to hold the Germans liable for this, referring to the fresh business of Rhineland by the French: “And for they have blocked the pipes, so they blow our way!”
Looking from a distance at Dmowski's powerful mentality, on his unique charm, especially for me the young 1 who showed so much friendly kindness and whom he taught so much, I see peculiarly clearly that everything he said and wrote was the consequence of thorough and highly first thinking. There was never a shadow of banality or blague..
Tadeusz Romer at the time of planet War II was Ambassador of Poland to Tokyo and Mokwa, and then head of the Ministry of abroad Affairs in the government of Stanisław Mikołajczyk
How, then, did I, young and undoubtedly bewitched by the intellect of the large man, neglect to join the ranks of his party? Well, on the grounds of Paris and the National Committee, I have never encountered the slightest manifestation of organization proselytism. Nobody encouraged me to do anything. Later, erstwhile I was again at the office of the Ministry of abroad Affairs in Warsaw, for a short fewer months, with Dmowski as the minister, as the deputy head of his cabinet, 1 of the first steps of the fresh minister was his circular to the employees of the Polish abroad service, recommending them refrain from participating, or at least active function in political parties, as the task of these workers is to service impartially for the full country and nation. This was the attitude of the national organization leader, who was thrown out of the party.
May 1926 accidents found me as head of the Western Department of the Ministry of abroad Affairs. Since I was considered 1 of the leading supporters of the regulation of law, which did not prevent me from staying at the post after the short but tragic revolution, I was shortly asked, by order of Marshal Piłsudski, to mediate Roman Dmowski, who was having fun in Poznań with the proposal to agree to a conciliation conversation with Marshal. I doubted personally the effectiveness of specified a step immediately after spilling blood to my sister, but I wrote the letter and sent it through a deliberate messenger. There was no answer. This fact is recorded as an unknown historical detail.
Shortly after that, I left Poland to return to it only by means of abroad institutions which would lead me to a fresh war in distant Japan. My contacts with Dmowski had to naturally relax at the time. However, he remained from my long work at the Embassy at Kwirynale a lasting and valuable trace in the form of a handwritten letter from Dmowski to me, written in consequence to my request for his biography for the then-developed large fascist encyclopedia. Typical for all dictatorships, the release was very biased in the fresh past of Italy, but in another fields it contained quite a few valuable documentation. This cordial letter, included in a somewhat humorous speech and containing data about the author by his own hand deleted, is an highly distinctive paper and is simply a valuable souvenir to me.
Later, playing on nipponese antipodes, where I found traces of past existence and Dmowski and Piłsudski, I had no direct contact with Dmowski. That's where I got the news of his death and his manifestation funeral. I said to myself that it was good that people like Dmowski and Piłsudski did not live to see the tragic moments in which they could see the crumbling work of their life and genius, independency and the full of our country. But the influence they have exerted, the spiritual legacy they have left, and on which they have been raised and raised for generations, is simply a warrant that the Polish people will not be able to recover and will come out victorious again from the terrible sufferings and experiences we are participants and witnesses of.”
Think Poland, No. 25-26 (18-25.06.2023)
