Letter from Stanisław Wędkiewicz written 27.01.1948

ACADEMIE POLONAISE DES SCIENCES ET DES LETTRES

CENTRE POLONAIS DE RECHERCHES SCIENTIFIQUES A PARIS

Paryż IX, 23, rue Taitbout
  c        1/27/1948

Honorable Colleague,

c       The letter from January 20 came yesterday. I am replying right away. I know Mr. Goupil-Verdon well, I corresponded with him before the war and accepted his article for Contemporary Review, intelligent and engaging, on “pure poetry”. I would be happy to see him come to Poland, but assigning the third language course at the Jagiellonian University to him does not seem possible. The Academy of Arts and Sciences could use another translator, because the amount of translation needed certainly exceeds the capabilities of the number of experts in French available in Krakow.
c       If Mr. Goupil writes to me, I will advise him to seek a position at the French Institute in Poland. The new Head of this Institute, Mr. Moisy, is a man of good will who understands the benefits of using the French who know relations in Poland and can cooperate with Polish intellectual spheres. New branches of the Institute are created in Łódź, Poznań and Wrocław, so it will surely become necessary to bring new lecturers to Poland.
c       I got very upset about your refusal to send in an informational article on your latest publications into the French edition of Station Bulletin we are currently preparing. However, I prefer to wait for a while and obtain properly confirmed information from you.
c       A few days ago I sent the PAAS a Report on the current state of the organization of the Scientific Station. Please have a look at it when you feel like it, so you can become familiar with the serious difficulties of my work. The budget granted to me almost a year ago has turned out to be insufficient even for the most Modest of needs, as the prices in France keep rushing upwards. We live here under the banner of strong inflation. My budget is kept the same, while the salaries of officials in France increase every quarter, which is followed by a rise in prices. It should be enough that I cite the current wages of French university professors, which range between F 561 725 (minimum) and F 689 425 for a professor with a number of years of service covering all so-called quinquennia (these are, of course, the annual salaries). Anyway, my salary as the Head of the Scientific Station does not reach even half of the salary of the youngest professor, only beginning their career.
c       My colleagues are paid so miserably that everyone has to look for side activities. Under these circumstances, employing new forces is out of the question.
c       Complaining does not help, so we are not getting discouraged and we keep ourselves busy with building our station, convinced that in the near future it will start being significantly beneficial to the scholars who have stayed in the country.

   Best regards

       S. Wędkiewicz

P.S. In hopes you will not mind, I have a request for you. If it makes no difference to you, I would be grateful if you could send your works to the Library of the Scientific Station in Paris that is just being organized.

Honorable prof. Roman Ingarden
K r a k o w, Biskupi Square 14