"Somewhere in Normandy"

About 15,000 Poles were recruited in France to fight on the Western Front by energetic General Wladyslaw Sikorski before he was named Premier last fortnight of the expatriate Government of Poland set up in Paris (TIME, Oct. 9).* He has enough Polish officers for 30 divisions, but no uniforms; these are being hastily made up. Last week General Sikorski, after instructing his Finance Minister Colonel Adam Koc to try to get from Britain and France part of some $46,000,000 which they agreed to loan to Poland just as the German invasion began, called on French Premier Edouard Daladier, told him he planned to recruit at least 125,000 Poles to fight with the French. "Europe must be made over," declared Premier Sikorski, "in such a way as to restore independence and security to the oppressed nations: Poland and Czecho-Slovakia."

Meanwhile U. S. Ambassador to Poland Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr. called in Paris upon new expatriate Polish President Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, this act confirming diplomatic recognition, which was also granted by France, Great Britain, Turkey, Sweden, Argentina, Mexico, the Vatican. Turks in Paris proudly recalled that during previous partitions of Poland, when the country appeared defunct for generations at a time, it was customary at the Sultan's Court for the Turkish majordomo, after announcing the names of all guests who had arrived, to shout "and unfortunately the Polish Ambassador is unavoidably absent!"

In Paris prominent Poles said that as soon as their Government can get together enough money to keep going* it expects to remove to a small inexpensive provincial town "somewhere in Normandy." Meanwhile the Government stayed at the tiny Danube Hotel, worked last week from 7 a. m. right around the clock to 3 a. m., employed Poet Jan Lehon as its Press Officer. In London arrived Mme Josef Pilsudski, widow of the late great Marshal, "the Father of Modern Poland" whom Adolf Hitler professes to respect. Snapped the Widow Pilsudski last week: "No one believes Hitler's speeches of good will. That man pays lip homage to my husband and surveys around him the destruction of the Marshal's life work. . . . Poland fought to the last. If it had not been for Russia's stab in the back we could have held the Germans. ... I am proud of the way in which my country behaved in the hours of danger." This week the British Foreign Office is to give a State banquet for August Zaleski, Foreign Minister in the Sikorski Cabinet.

In Berlin meanwhile the German Institute For Bank Research and Science turned out a report showing that 43% of the shares in Polish corporations are held by foreign capital. France is stuck with an investment of 391,000,000 zlotys ($60,610,000); the U. S. with 277,000,000 zlotys ($52,630,000); and the German stake was 251,000,000 zlotys. In the Soviet part of partitioned Poland all capital investments will probably be taken over by Moscow soon, but most of Polish industry is in the German sector and up to this week Berlin had not tampered with Polish stock setups. The Soviet press tauntingly charged last week that "probably" members of the Government which fled from Poland have "private savings in foreign banks."

*France had thousands of alien Poles working in her mines and northern manufacturing areas.

*Poland's gold reserve has been variously reported as cached in Rumania, Paris, London.

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