Herbert Hoover Arrives in Warsaw, August 12, 1919

We arranged a special train from the Swiss frontier to Warsaw. In order to be as impressive as possible I was accompanied by several Generals and Admirals. We arrived in Warsaw on the 12th of August about nine o’clock at night. The great barn of a station was filled with people and gaily decorated with Polish and American flags. The platforms were lined with soldiers with massed bands playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” —and they continued to play it. We Americans lined up alongside of our train with our silk hats clasped to our bosoms if we were civilians or our right hands frozen to our caps if we were military. The Polish officials were likewise lined up with Pilsudski, Paderewski, the Cabinet Ministers, the Mayor of Warsaw, the Polish generals and officials, likewise all frozen to salute in honor of the American national anthem. But the bands did not seem disposed to allow the salute to thaw out. Finally, after a year of embarrassing minutes, the Mayor stepped forward and presented me with the traditional Polish welcome of bread and salt. This time it was a round loaf of bread, eighteen inches in diameter, with a great salt crystal in the dome and all of it upon a specially carved wooden platter. He spoke English but I could not hear a word. With my right hand frozen to the silk hat at my breast, I took the platter in my left hand with appropriate remarks which he in turn could not hear because the band played on. Quickly my left wrist began to wobble under the weight, and I just managed to pass it over to the left hand of the Admiral. His arm quickly began to wobble and he passed it to the left hand of the General. And I watched it go all down the line to the last doughboy. The Poles applauded this maneuver as a characteristic and appropriate American ceremony. Hugh Gibson had now been made Ambassador to Poland and accompanied by him, Pilsudski and Paderewski, we went to the American Embassy for the night and left the enthusiastic bands still playing.