To-day it is a large factor in European politics and is little understood in the West.  M. Dmowski lives for his country.  Her interests absorb his energies.  He would probably agree with the historian Paolo Sarpi, who said, ’Let us be Venetians first and Christians after.’  Of the two widely divergent currents into which the main stream of political thought and sentiment throughout the world is fast dividing itself, M. Dmowski moves with the national away from the international championed by Mr. Wilson.  The frequency with which the leading spirits of Bolshevism turn out to be Jews—­to the dismay and disgust of the bulk of their own community—­and the ingenuity they displayed in spreading their corrosive tenets in Poland may not have been without effect upon the energy of M. Dmowski’s attitude toward the demand of the Polish Jews to be placed in the privileged position of wards of the League of Nations.  But the principle of the protection of minority—­Jewish or Gentile—­is assailable on grounds which have nothing to do with race or religion.”  Some of the most interesting and characteristic incidents at the Conference had the Polish statesman for their principal actor, and to him Poland owes some of the most solid and enduring benefits conferred on her at the Conference.

Of a different temper is M. Paderewski, who appeared in Paris to plead his country’s cause at a later stage of the labors of the Conference.  This eminent artist’s energies were all blended into one harmonious whole, so that his meetings with the great plenipotentiaries were never disturbed by a jarring note.  As soon as it was borne in upon him that their decisions were as irrevocable as decrees of Fate, he bowed to them and treated the authors as Olympians who had no choice but to utter the stern fiat.  Even when called upon to accept the obnoxious clause protecting religious and ethnic minorities against which his colleague had vainly fought, M. Paderewski sunk political passion in reason and attuned himself to the helpful role of harmonizer.  He held that it would have been worse than useless to do otherwise.  He was grieved that his country must acquiesce in that decree, he regretted intensely the necessity which constrained such proven friends of Poland as the Four to pass what he considered a severe sentence on her; but he resigned himself gracefully to the inevitable and thanked Fate’s executioners for their personal sympathy.  This attitude evoked praise and admiration from Messrs. Lloyd George and Wilson, and the atmosphere of the conclave seemed permeated with a spirit that induced calm satisfaction and the joy of elevated thoughts.  M. Paderewski made a deep and favorable impression on the Supreme Council.