From The Last Years of H. M. Hyndman by Rosalind Travers Hyndman, 1924

The settlement of Europe gave many opportunities for the work of the League upon disputed boundaries, and possible �mandate� districts. Some of the questions then taken in hand have been satisfactorily settled. The revived State of Poland afforded a fair share of problems ; and, in 1918 and 1919, various representatives of that admirable race, which possesses every gift of the gods except commonsense [?], were often to be met at Well Walk. In 1918 Hyndman gave an address on the independence of Poland, and laid emphasis on the crucial importance of Poland�s access to the sea—that is, her possession of the port of Danzig . . . �The canalization of the Vistula and its connection of the Dniester would bring together the Baltic and the Black Sea. It is a magnificent project, which can only be realized by the courage, genius and capacity of the Polish race. . . . Danzig as a free port, if not a Polish port, brings this great scheme into practical politics. . . . [Etc.]�

I can still see the countenances of certain leading figures among the Poles, standing at the back of a very crowded room, as they heard their boldest dreams thus put into words ! With limitations the scheme has been carried out ; and perhaps our descendants will see the commerce of Europe transformed by the unhindered communication of the Baltic and the Black Sea.

Sir James Frazer took the chair for Hyndman on the occasion of that Polish address. I cannot remember when we first met him and Lady Frazer ; they seem always to have been, like the �Golden Bough� itself, a necessary part of our surroundings, very close and esteemed friends.

New York : Brentano�s, 1924, pages 201-2.

 

 

 

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