Franciszek SokalSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 11, No. 31 (Jul., 1932), p. 191Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202758 .

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OBITUARY. I9I

FRANCISZEK SOKAL FRANCISZEK SOKAL (I882-I932), late Polish Delegate to the League of Nations, studied at the Warsaw Polytechnic and received the diploma of engineer in I904. From I9I8 onwards he took an active part in the organisation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. In I919 he assisted in the work of the International Commission for Labour Legislation at the Peace Conference in Paris, and was afterwards appointed First Polish Delegate at the Labour Conference in Washington, and then to the Executive Council of the International Labour Office, relinquishing his post in the Ministry of Labour and being attached to the Cabinet as chairman of a special commission. In I924 he represented Poland at the First Emigration Conference in Rome, and at the Second of these Conferences was elected permanent member of the Executive Committee. In November of the same year he became Minister of Labour and Social Welfare and occupied this position for a year. During the whole of this period he was in close collaboration with the International Labour Organisation, repre- sented Poland at all International Labour Conferences, and in I93I was unanimously elected chairman. Sokal took part in the work of the League of Nations from the moment of its creation, and was a member of the Polish delegation at the meetings of the League. When in I927 Poland was granted a seat on the Council, the Government nominated the Foreign Minister as its representative and Sokal as his deputy. He was nominated Second Delegate of Poland at the Disarmament Conference, but serious illness prevented him from taking up the position. He published several works on Social Policy.

"But deeds are not everything," writes M. William Martin in the Journal de Geneve of I2 April, I932, " it is the spirit that counts; and in M. Sokal it was an exceptional one. Self-effacing by nature, he yet never hesitated to speak his mind when necessity arose. The relevance of his statements and the justice of his reasoning were above reproach, while his courtesy created a friendly atmosphere even in controversial moments. A single-hearted and sagacious loyalty to the principles of an ardent patriotism invested him with an influential authority in a milieu where such qualities received full recognition. Poland has sustained a great loss. But is it not an even more grievous loss to the League of Nations, which today stands in need of such men as M. Sokal, who blend a high ideal with a sense of statesmanship and national patriotism with international interests? "

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