Letters

Corrections

I wish to correct two mistakes in two texts published in SR (19:3, September 1999).

R. J. Hunter's and L. V. Ryan's article "Prospects for the Polish Economy, 1999--2000," incorrectly states that the current leader of the Christian National Union (ZChN) is Ryszard Czarnecki (p. 660). Czarnecki has been replaced by Marian Pilka.

On page 642, an editorial remark in Jerzy Giedroyc's text refers to Mr. Wellisz as "a Polish Jewish financier." In fact, Leopold Wellisz was of Lutheran background. He was a descendant of Wilhelm Wellisch, a German entrepreneur who moved to Poland from the Rhineland in the nineteenth century. The Wellisz family participated in the development of Poland's railroads, sugar refineries, armament works (e.g., the factory "Pocisk" in Rembertów), and other industries. Leopold Wellisz was involved with the powerful "Lewiatan" industrial lobby and with the Conservative Party. He was a personal friend of General Wladyslaw Sikorski. In September 1939, Wellisz organized a successful evacuation of Poland's works of art to the West. He joined the Sikorski government in France and, after 1940, he moved to New York.

Wellisz was also a literary scholar. As a graduate student in Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century, he discovered Cyprian Kamil Norwid's archive. This discovery strengthened Norwid's position as one of Poland's great Romantic poets.

Marek Chodakiewicz, Los Angeles City College, California


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