Bush and Poles Honor Patriot, New Freedoms

WARSAW — With President Bush and Polish President Lech Walesa looking on, the remains of Ignace Jan Paderewski, perhaps the greatest modern personification of fervent Polish patriotism, were brought to their final resting place Sunday in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 51 years after the statesman and musician died in exile in New York City while the Nazis occupied his homeland.

His bier, draped with a red and white Polish flag, was pulled through the cobblestone streets of Warsaw’s Old Town on a gun caisson, as several thousand Poles looked on silently and church bells pealed a dirgelike rhythm.

The ceremony became the focal point of Bush’s five-hour visit to Warsaw, on his way to the international economic summit in Munich. He proposed converting the $200-million U.S. contribution to a Polish currency stabilization fund to other uses, “perhaps to finance Polish exports or to help capitalize banks to support new businesses.”

For Bush, the day was as much a celebration of the politically sensitive Polish heritage in many U.S. communities as it was a celebration of the economic and political freedom--the stated goal of the visit--that has emerged in Poland since the Solidarity movement forced the initial retreat of communism across Central and Eastern Europe in 1989.

Because of the United States’ long, pre-Communist ties to Poland and its later opposition to the Communist government here, U.S. political leaders have had little trouble finding friendly audiences among the Polish population--a theme on which Bush has frequently focused in U.S. domestic politics. And tens of thousands of citizens turned out here Sunday to wave U.S. and Polish flags and toss red carnations and tiger lilies along the route of Bush’s motorcade.

With Bush facing a tight reelection campaign, domestic politics were never far from the surface here Sunday. Walesa, in a speech, praised Bush for his “interest in our struggle.” On Friday, Walesa had said in an interview with NBC News that if it were possible, “I would vote for President Bush.” And the White House took care to associate Bush with Paderewski, one of Polish history’s most respected figures.

Paderewski’s body had rested at Arlington National Cemetery, placed there by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “until Poland would be free.” It was brought back to Poland shortly before Bush arrived aboard the same U.S. Air Force plane that had carried President John F. Kennedy’s body back to Washington after he was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

At the cathedral, decorated with red and white flowers at the altar and red and white banners hung from the arched ceiling, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Poland’s Roman Catholic primate, said an hourlong Requiem Mass.

From the funeral, Bush--who appeared tired after an overnight flight from Washington--walked 200 yards or so to Castle Square, where as many as 10,000 people waited for more than an hour to hear his 10-minute speech. His route took him through the heart of the Old City, almost wholly rebuilt in its original style after 95% of its buildings were destroyed during World War II.

“Today, a patriot has come home. Today, Poland is free,” Bush said. “Your bold economic reforms have earned the world’s admiration and support, and what’s more, they are working.”

Voicing support for Poland’s shift to a market economy from communism’s state-controlled system, Bush told his Polish audience:

“In many places, and for many people, there is more pain than progress. But we must take care to separate cause from consequence: Poland’s time of trial is not caused by private enterprise but by the stubborn legacy of Communist misrule.

“Make no mistake,” he said. “The path you have chosen is the right path.

“America stands with you. America wants Poland to succeed. America wants Poland to prosper. America wants Poland--now and forever--to be free,” he said as the crowd cheered.

But even here, where Bush, ever mindful of his audience back home, saluted the work of Polish-Americans “in the stockyards of Chicago, in the steelworks of Cleveland,” the President could not escape reminders of his faltering political fortunes and of the undeclared candidacy of Ross Perot.

In one corner of the crowd near his lectern--and not far from a friendly banner welcoming him “to the free Polish soil”--a series of other banners was hoisted: “Ross for Boss,” “Bush: The Education President: Not,” and “Bush: The Environmental President: Not.”

The crowd responded with warm applause for Bush, prompting one wag to comment that the President, sagging in public opinion surveys at home, had traveled 4,000 miles to encounter favorable Poles. But it lacked the waves of enthusiasm that greeted him three years ago when he spoke at the gate of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, where the Solidarity union movement began with Walesa as its leader.

Today, as they struggle with the difficult conversion to a free-market economy under Walesa’s leadership, Poles have come face to face with a sobering reality: an unemployment rate up from almost zero to more than 12% since January, 1990, and a five-fold increase in consumer prices over the same period.

Demands for strict adherence to free-market principles imposed by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a $1-billion fund set up to stabilize the Polish currency, the zloty, have drawn complaints across the Polish political spectrum. And Walesa said, as he hailed Bush, that “we should not allow any fetters” to interfere with Poland’s development as it learns the ropes of its new democracy.

Poland is the largest recipient of U.S. assistance in Central and Eastern Europe, and the stabilization fund, to which the United States gave $200 million, is a key element.

Under the proposal Bush announced Sunday, which White House officials said would be taken up with the leaders of the other major industrial democracies at Munich, the $200 million, along with funds from other nations, would be converted to other uses as an outright grant once it was no longer needed to support the zloty.

That limited proposal was the extent of new assistance Bush brought to Poland. He and Walesa met for about an hour before the funeral. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that in otherwise “harmonious” talks, they disagreed over Polish trade concessions to the European Community.

The United States has contributed $4 billion to the Polish economy since 1989, Fitzwater said, adding: “We’d like to have some special consideration on the tariff questions.”