Carefully. through more than a century of brutal suppression. the Polish people preserved their language and customs. and at the conclusion of the First World War. the Polish nation was reborn in the spirit of liberty and in the great tradition of Western Europe. Mr. President. for centuries the Polish nation defended Europe against autocratic and despotic powers of the Asiatic steppes and the Ottoman Empire which threatened to overrun all of Europe. The eastern borders of Poland were the eastern borders of Europe. Today. this is not so. for today we see the melancholy spectacle of a ruthless despotism again oppressing the Polish nation.