“Nasza Droga” (1952-1981) – A Polish-language foreign newspaper in Adelaide (Australia) and its “German” roots

The “Nasza Droga” newspaper was published from December 1952 to December 1981 in Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia, although it was published by different organisations and people during that time.[1]The editors changed regularly, the subheading changed and the frequency at which it appeared was inconsistent. In addition, the structure and the contents changed. In January 1950, the Union of Poles in South Australia [Związek Polaków w Południowej Australii] attempted to get the Australian authorities’ consent to publish the newspaper.[2] But the first issue was not published until three years later at Christmas 1952. At that time, there was still hope that the new newspaper would reach all Polish compatriots in South Australia as the first issue shows: “beyond its practical advantages, it [the newspaper] should become the link between all of us and our central organisation, the Union of Poles in South Australia”.[3]

But this never succeeded. Zygmunt Posłuszny, who to that point had been chairman of the Union, was granted the approval to publish the newspaper which meant that he was responsible for complying with the Press Law.[4] When the Union then decided after only seven issues and two small subsidies (of 50 Australian pounds in total) to no longer finance the loss-bringing undertaking, the newspaper became the property of Posłuszny and was published from 12 April 1953 with the subheading”Niezależny Dwutygodnik Polski” [Independent Polish Fortnightly Newspaper]. The new owner was born on 10 June 1908 and had taken part in the Warsaw Uprising under the battle name “Zawisza” as a platoon leader in the “Tadeusz Czarny” company in the “Ruczaj” battalion of the Polish Home Army [Armia Krajowa]. After the uprising had been quashed, Posłuszny, who was wounded, ended up a prisoner of war and was taken to the main camp 344 Lamsdorf [Polish: Łambinowice] in the district of Oppeln in Silesia. He was then taken to Stalag XVIII-C Market-Pongau, which was located in the American zone in Austria after liberation.[5] There he joined the second corps and when they moved he managed to get to Great Britain from where he emigrated to Australia with 1,457 Polish combatants. The migration from England was part of the British programme “United Kingdom Free Passage Scheme” on board the MS Strathnaver, which moored in Sydney Harbour on 10 August 1948.[6] Most of the Polish citizens who migrated to Australia at that time, including those who settled in South Australia, came from the occupied territories of Germany and Austria with the legal status of Displaced Person (DP). This was certainly the case for all those who arrived “Down Under” from 1947 to 1954 thanks to the agreement between the International Refugee Organization (IRO)] and the Australian government. Under these circumstances, 170,000 people emigrated to Australia, with an estimated 60,000 being Poles.[7]

 

The early days of “Nasza Droga” were difficult because the newspaper was published under unfavourable technical and financial conditions. The circulation oscillated between 750 and 900 copies, “a few dozen of which would then be passed back and forth so that it is not possible to establish the exact circulation”.[8] Nevertheless, almost 500 subscribers were able to be won over and several Polish businessmen were persuaded to advertise. The Lithuanian printer “Australijos Lietuvis Publishing”, which later changed its name to “National Press”, was responsible for producing the newspaper. The Polish character set was introduced gradually. The first issue had four pages, then there were six and in the middle of August it had eight pages. The publishers were able to build up a distribution network, although it was difficult to get the newspaper at outlets which sold the Australian press. Instead, you could get it in Polish companies and it was sold in front of churches at Polish services. Over time, it also found a few readers in the state of Victoria.

The first editor-in-chief of “Nasza Droga” was Jerzy Dudziński. He was born in Warsaw [Warszawa] on 18 June 1919 and later studied chemistry for three years at the University of Warsaw [Uniwersytet Warszawski] as a graduate of the Sułkowskis Grammar School and lyceum [Gimnazjum i Liceum im. Sułkowskich) in Rydzyn, which was known for its high standards and modern education methods, In the wake of the occupation of Poland by German and Soviet troops, Dudziński arrived in France via Hungary. In the post-war period, he ran the “Jutro Pracy” [The Working Morning] publishing house in the British occupied zone in Cologne-Mülheim and Lippstadt in Germany, in which the weekly newspaper of the same name, the children’s magazine “Promyczek” [roughly: “The Little Sunshine”], the youth magazine “Młody Polak” [“The Young Pole”] and Polish literature classics were published. In the context of the immigration programme for “Displaced Persons” agreed with the IRO, he arrived in Melbourne via Naples on 21 February 1950 on board the MS Gen. Hann.[9] In May 1953, Władysław Romanowski was entrusted with the editing of “Nasza Droga”, a position he held for little remuneration until August 1954. He was a journalist and later wrote the books “Zaginiony czas. Powieść australijska“ [Lost Time. An Australian Novel], London 1978, and “Zły znak” [Bad Omen], London 1980, which were devoted to the Polish immigrants in Australia. As editor-in-chief of “Nasza Droga”, he always tried to raise the standard of the newspaper and to expand its subject matters, which was reflected, for example, in the special supplement on the tenth anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. In the era covered by these first two editors-in-chief, people published in “Nasza Droga” included Tomasz Ostrowski, Tadeusz Sobolewski, the Capuchin Monk Hieronim Myszkowski and Father Józef Kuczmański.

From August 1954, the editing of the paper fell to its owner Zygmunt Posłuszny, who also largely took care of the contents himself, largely by taking short pieces of information from the Polish exile press and from press agencies, such as the Polish telegraph agency [Polska Agencja Telegraficzna], the Inter-Catholic Press Agency and from the station Free Europe Radio. He also reported a lot on the life of his countrymen in Australia, but mostly in Adelaide. His lack of journalistic training meant that he was unable to overcome the many difficulties the paper faced and to make the newspaper popular amongst the Polonia. At the same time, he was not in a position to manage the huge amount of work on his own or to keep the loss-making project going from his own funds. As a result, after a year he left the newspaper to the Caritas and Children’s Home Association [Caritas Polska i Dom Dziecka Polskiego] run by Father Kuczmański in South Australia. “The actual value of the gift was that [the association] ‘Caritas Polska i Dom Dziecka Polskiego’, which at the time was engaged in building a children's home, now had good information and communication resources.”[10] The change of owner had an impact on the content of the newspaper which, although it maintained its secular, informative character, now afforded the structural and social activities of Carita and religious themes more space. The subheading was changed to “Dwutygodnik Katolicki w Australii” [Fortnightly Catholic Newspaper in Australia]. Posłuszny held the post of editor until April 1956. It was then taken over by Father Kuczmański, with the administrative tasks falling to Jerzy Dudziński.[11]

 

The takeover of “Nasza Droga” by the Caritas meant that the paper received the support of the Polish spiritual and lay communities, which in turn created greater demand in the Polish diaspora [also referred to as Polonia]. Publishing the newspaper became profitable. But soon conflicts arose between Posłuszny, the Caritas and the commercial director Dudziński, which resulted in Zygmunt Posłuszny being dismissed in March 1957. However, because he was not willing to accept the loss of his influence on the newspaper, he threatened legal action and froze his funds once again creating financial difficulties for the paper. In this situation, Jerzy Dudziński took over the role of editor again. As editor-in-chief, he opted for shorter texts to the detriment of longer articles and commentaries to reach a wider readership. On top of this, he also allowed very heterogeneous opinions in “Nasza Droga”, some of which were controversial, and hardly engaged with the contributions submitted by the authors and organisations. This liberal editorial policy caused violent disputes which not infrequently involved personal attacks as well. Whilst the newspaper’s focus continued to be on the life of the Polonia community in South Australia, it also reached out to Polish communities in other parts of the country and issues from the home country of Poland evoked keen interest. Dudziński did not just use material from the exile news agencies, he also openly used the state-owned Polish Press Agency. As a result, the readers got a much more comprehensive picture of the developments in Poland because the information they got was balanced and they were also able to read friendly accounts of the events following October 1956. But this triggered an outcry among the politically engaged exiles in Adelaide, who believed that they had identified communist infiltration and propaganda. An article by Czesław Wojtysiak,[12] in which he criticised the activities of the Poles abroad and called for collaboration with the home country including its institutions in the Polish western territories [also referred to as “Regained Territories” – Translator’s Note], led to an escalation of the situation. When he then explicitly called for Polish sources to be considered, this aroused the opposition of the Caritas Council which ultimately resulted in the editor-in-chief Dudziński stepping down.

At the end of November 1958, Władysław Romanowski started as editor at “Nasza Droga” again and lent the newspaper a different profile. There were fewer militant texts about Polish matters and polemic articles about social and political problems of the emigrants, with cultural reporting increasing instead. During his tenure, however, technically qualified articles were published which were not so important to the majority of readers who preferred specific information from their surroundings. The employees at the newspaper at that time included Father Józef Kuczmański and Father Jan Rutkowski. Andrzej Szczygielski wrote political commentaries. Tomasz Ostrowski wrote the column “Co słychać w Melbourne” (“News from Melbourne”). Other authors, who distinguished themselves, included Zygmunt Konrad Bernaś, Władysław Dembski, Władysław Karbownik, Jan Sobolewski and Marian Szczepanowski. According to the editorial department, 900 copies of the newspaper were published in 1960. It still had eight pages but had a larger format. It continued to be produced by the small printer “National Press”.

 

Romanowski headed up the “Nasza Droga” newspaper until May 1961. At the time Caritas, who stopped being interested in the problematic press medium after it had built its children’s home, divested the publication by selling it. The next owner, publisher and editor-in-chief was Jan Sobolewski. At this juncture, if we are to understand the further history of “Nasza Droga”, we have to look at the situation in “Polish London”, the political and organisational centre of the emigration after the Second World War. After the death of President Władysław Raczkiewicz in 1947, and the succession of August Zaleski, there were divisions and separations in the Polish government in exile, in the parties and in broad sections of the exiles, which were based more on personal ambitions than on actual political differences. It was not until March 1954, when a reconciliation facilitated by General Kazimierz Sosnowski [Polish: Akt Zjednoczenia (literally: Act of reunification)] was negotiated and President in exile Zaleski stepped down at the end of his seven-year term in office, that a government in exile seemed possible. But when Zaleski revised his decision, he triggered deep dissent which continued right up to his death in 1972 and which undermined the authority of the government in exile and compromised it in the eyes of the Poles living in exile. Most parties, the large majority of the political and social groups, and the public opinion in exile, spoke out against the “Castle” [Polish: “Zamek”] as the group around President Zaleski and the government convened by him was referred to. This resulted in the founding of alternative institutions, such as the Council of Three [Rada Trzech], to which General Władysław Anders, the former premier Tomasz Arciszewski and ambassador Edward Raczyński belonged, the Executive of the National Association [Egzekutywa Zjednoczenia Narodowego], which acted as government, and the Provisional Council for National Unity [Tymczasowa Rada Jedności Narodowej], which represented the parties and the exile associations.

The disappointment about the breakdown of the attempts to reach an agreement and the growing displeasure towards the representatives of the government in London that resulted were also expressed by the Polish immigrants in Australia, whose experiences, attitudes and convictions from the war and post-war periods formed a bond between them, which also meant that they fostered relationships with Polish emigrants in Great Britain and other centres of Polish emigration after the Yalta Conference. During this period in which the government in exile was dismantled, Jan Sobolewski emerged as an ardent follower of President August Zaleski. When the latter died and Stanisław Ostrowski took over the office of President whilst the “Castle” group joined with the Council of Three, he supported Juliusz Sokolnicki, who ignored the union of the two political forces, appointed himself “President of the Free Poland in Exile” [Prezydent Wolnej Polski na Uchodźstwie] and appointed Sobolewski as Information and Propaganda Minister and then as Prime Minister (May 1980 to February 1981). The way the new publisher of “Nasza Droga” behaved and the good personal contacts to the Polonia community that were lost and that were so important for the publisher of an emigrant newspaper, had a negative impact on the fate of the newspaper and led to the loss of its acceptance. Although Sobolewski gave the newspaper the new subheading “The Newspaper for Poles in Australia”, “Nasza Droga” became more and more removed from the reality in which the Polish immigrants in this country lived. The lack of journalistic capability of its publisher also had an impact on the standard and the attractiveness of the newspaper. Added to this were the many conflicts with third parties, for example with the editorial team at the Sydney paper “Wiadomości Polskie” [Polish News], which was accused of accommodating Communism, which scared off its readers. Nevertheless, “Nasza Droga” still played an important yet diminishing role for the Poles in Adelaide in the 1960s. Articles for the newspaper at the time were written by Stanisław Gotowicz (responsible for “Current affairs from the organisation and from community life“) and Father Kuczmański as the provider of “Ecclesiastical news”. Stefan Nowicki also sent texts from Melbourne on emigration policy. Mieczysław Iwańczak worked as a correspondent in Sydney. In 1966, the Union of Poles in South Australia began with a supplement in the weekly Melbourne newspaper “Tygodnik Polski” [Weekly Polish Paper] entitled “Polak w Adelajdzie” [A Pole in Adelaide]. From 1967, the much read “Biuletyn Organizacyjny Millenium” [Millennium Bulletin] appeared on the ground, later under the title “Biuletyn Głos Millenium” [Bulletin. The Voice of the Millennium Community].[13] From 1977, the Federation of Polish Organisations in South Australia [Federacja Organizacji Polskich w Australii Południowej] published the daily newspaper “Słowo Polskie“ [Polish Word].

 

In this context, “Nasza Droga”, which had degenerated to become the mouthpiece of the Sokolnicki Group, was isolated from the 1970s to the end of its existence in December 1981. Its former employer Stefan Nowicki, who was appointed delegate of the Polish government in exile for Australia in 1971, turned its back on the paper. The newspaper now appeared monthly continuing its numbering. In January 1972, the paper was more or less finished. Due to the lack of staff and current material that could have been published, the publisher was forced to fall back on the secondary use of older texts, with decrees, letters and statements by Sokolnicki and his followers being afforded a special place. The standard of the articles and the editorial preparation of the texts published at that time left a lot to be desired.

In the history of the Australian Polonia after the Second World War, “Nasza Droga” was the longest running news medium after “Wiadomości Polskie” and “Tygodnik Katolicki” [Catholic Weekly Newspaper] (since 1965 “Tygodnik Polski” [Polish Weekly Newspaper]), and although the newspaper could not keep up with its competitors in the race for readers from other states, it did initially achieve a really large Polish readership in South Australia. In the first decade of its existence, the newspaper undoubtedly fulfilled an important role in disseminating information and played a part both in the societal integration of the Polonia there and in their mobilisation. It offered reports and commentaries from the life of the Polish community, emphasising cultural and religious issues, but also dealing with international matters and the situation in Poland, whilst the problems in their new country were only briefly touched on, just like in the other Polish press media in Australia. Unfortunately, particularly after supporting Juliusz Sokolnicki, it later mainly served the purposes of the small group around him. Moreover, its involvement in the personnel conflicts in “Polish London” annoyed its established readership.

 

Jan Lencznarowicz, May 2018

 

 

The digitised material is available here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/1323#