Clique's Candidate

Just before the death of beloved Marshal Josef Pilsudski, Poland's great Dictator gave his country a new Constitution, vested unique-powers in the modest scientist who is President of Poland, Dr. Ignacy Moscicki (TIME, May 6). Last week official translations of the new Constitution were released abroad by Polish diplomats.

Stirring to Poles is Article I: "The Polish State is the common weal of all its citizens. Resurrected by the struggle and sacrifice of its best sons it shall be passed on, as an historic heritage, from generation to generation. Each generation is under obligation to increase the power and authority of the State by its own endeavor. For the fulfillment of this duty it is responsible with its honor and its name to its descendants."

Dictator Pilsudski, who detested politicians and was fond of calling the Sejm (Lower House) a "prostitute," settled that body's hash with this Constitutional clause: "The functions of governing the State do not belong to the Sejm."

The old Marshal, having come to believe that Dictator Mussolini's so-called "Corporative State" represents progress, introduced its spirit into Poland's new Constitution thus, Article LXXVII: "To control the financial activities of the State and of institutions of a legally public status; to examine the State fiscal accounts; and to submit annual recommendations to the Sejm, for release to the Government, there is established the Supreme Chamber of Control based on the principles of corporative membership and the independence of its members. The Supreme Chamber of Control is independent of the Cabinet. The President of the Republic appoints and dismisses the President of the Supreme Chamber of Control. . . ."

The President of the Republic, according to the new Constitution, also must or may do pretty much everything else. In some dismay, Scientist Moscicki finds himself not only endowed by Article XII with the ordinary powers of a European president whose acts must be countersigned like those of a king by the appropriate minister, but further endowed by Article XIII with what the new Constitution calls "prerogatives," these requiring no countersignature. At his autocratic pleasure he can dissolve the Sejm and Senate and can dismiss the Premier, First President of the Supreme Court, President of the Supreme Chamber of Control, and the Commander-in-Chief and Inspector General of Poland's armed forces by land, sea and air. Moreover the President orders Polish general elections and nominates one of the candidates who may succeed himself as President, the electoral machinery being so rigged that a determined President can virtually control the choice of his successor. Saddled with such awful responsibilities, more suitable to a national hero like Marshal Pilsudski than to Poles of lesser clay, the President must swear this great oath:

"Conscious before God and history of my responsibility for the destinies of the State, I swear to God Almighty--One in the Holy Trinity--as President of the Republic, to defend the sovereign rights of the State; to guard its dignity; to enforce the Constitution Act; to apply equal justice to all citizens; to ward off evil and danger from the State and to consider the care for its welfare my supreme duty. So help me God and the Holy Passion of His Son. Amen."

In Warsaw last week Premier Walery Slawek and the rest of that tight little clique known as the "Pilsudski Colonels" were still running Poland while newly omnipotent President Moscicki continued to accept the Army's advice as he always did during the lifetime of the Marshal. Fusty, scraggle-bearded Brother Jan Pilsudski has been installed as a sort of mascot Minister of War. Dictator Pilsudski's successor in the Inspector Generalship, key Army post which the old Marshal always held, now is masterful, magnetic General Edward Rydz-Smigly, like the late Dictator a hero of Poland's War of Independence (1917-20).

With the militarists riding high, Poland's Socialist Party appealed to all workers to stage a 24-hour general strike in protest against the new Constitution's electoral provisos which stifle Democracy. Contemptuous of the proletariat, Army bigwigs gossiped in their cafes chiefly about who is going to be elected Poland's next President. Today the candidate of the "Colonel's Clique" to succeed Scientist Moscicki as President is able, energetic, shrewd General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, close crony of Inspector General Edward Rydz-Smigly who was expected to try to repeat Marshal Pilsudski's feat of managing Poland unobtrusively from behind the Army's scenes.

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