PART II
THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF POLAND
CHAPTER I
The Russian Proclamation
On the 14th of August, 1914, the world being then at war, the Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of the Tsar and Generalissimo of the Russian forces, issued the following proclamation on behalf of the Crown. It was signed by him and not by the Tsar, since international etiquette forbids the Monarch of one state to address the subjects of another state, and this proclamation was addressed, as will be seen, to subjects of Austria and Germany as well as to Russian subjects:—
“Poles! The hour has struck in which the sacred dream of your fathers and forefathers will be realised. A century and a half ago the living body of Poland was torn, but her soul did not die, sustained as it was by the hope that for the Polish people the moment of resurrection would arrive and at the same time the fraternal reconciliation with the Great Russian Empire. The Russian army now brings you the solemn tidings of this reconciliation. May the boundaries be annihilated which cut the Polish nation into parts!
“May the Poles in Russia unite themselves under the sceptre of the Russian Tsar! Under this sceptre Poland shall be re-born, free in faith, in language, in self-government.
“Russia only expects of you the consideration due to the rights of those nationalities with which you became allied through past history.