New Premier

As Rome does, so does Warsaw. Polish Dictator Josef Pilsudski is remarkably like Dictator Benito Mussolini, except that he is lazier, more temperamental. II Duce bothers to be Premier of Italy. Marshal Pilsudski will not bother often to be Premier of Poland. Il Duce appoints and demotes his henchmen to & from offices as Governor of Rome, taking care that no man holds power too long. Last week it was time for Dictator Pilsudski to demote from the office of Premier of Poland Col. Walery Slawek and appoint in his stead Col. Alexander Prystor.

As Marshal Pilsudski always remains Minister of War, he always feels that a Colonel as Premier is "under his orders" in a military sense. Most candidly Marshal Pilsudski has said:

"The office of Premier is a hard and wearing position. No man should hold it for more than six months." Col. Walery Slawek, before his demotion last week, had been Premier since November last while Dictator Pilsudski serenely vacationed in Madeira, positive of his grip on power (TIME, March 2). Who are the "Pilsudski Colonels"? Who is Prystor, the new Premier?

Up to 1929 the Pilsudski Colonels used to dine nightly at the Cafe Europejska, most fashionable in Warsaw. There, amid popping champagne corks, loud Polish music and exciting Polish women, they made the crazy-quilt politics of Poland. In 1929, however, so many "Pilsudski Colonels" were called to onerous tasks of Government that cafe politics have been on the wane. Never a very good cafe politician was small, stern, intensely militant (although sartorially perfect) Col. Alexander Prystor.

Prystor is at times too intense, too hard even for Pilsudski. There is the story of a Pole, suddenly promoted to high office, who exclaimed to the Marshal in genuine surprise:

"Why was I selected? I am not a Pilsudskist."

"Well keep quiet about it.'' growled the gruff old Marshal with a twinkle. "Neither am I a Pilsudskist, but Prystor is sitting in the next room. Don't let him hear us!"

The official explanation, sufficiently remarkable, of why Col. Walery Slawek resigned last week was that his Finance Minister, Col. Ignace Matuszewski, "wished to resign." In the Slawek Cabinet Col. Prystor was Minister of Industry & Commerce, a subject with which he was notoriously unacquainted. Upon stepping to Poland's helm last week Premier Prystor reappointed Joseph Pilsudski Minister of War, appointed Jan Pilsudski (brother) Minister of Finance. The former Minister of Finance, Col. Matuszewski who so conveniently "wanted to resign," will be appointed by Col. Prystor as Polish Minister to the Court of St. James's, according to Warsaw gossip last week.

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