SKRZYNSKI, ALEXANDER, COUNT (1882-1931), Pol ish statesman, was born at Zagorzany, Galicia. Educated at Cracow and Munich, he entered the diplomatic service in 1906 and was appointed secretary to the ambassador to the Holy See in 191o. When the World War broke out he was secretary to the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in Paris. After a short military service at the beginning of the War, he completed his studies for the Bar, receiving the degree of Doctor of the Law at the University of Vienna. When the new Polish State was established, he was appointed Polish Minister Plenipotentiary at Bucharest, and later succeeded in concluding a Polish-Ru manian political treaty in 1921. In Dec. 1922, after the murder of Narutowicz, the first international President of the Republic, Skrzynski became Minister of Foreign Affairs. He threw himself energetically into the task of settling all open questions, inaugu rated a pacific policy based on the final stabilisation of frontiers and gained the necessary confidence of the Powers. When a Cabinet of the Right was formed in May 1923, Skrzynski thereby lost office, and he was appointed in the following month Polish delegate to the League of Nations. In Aug. 1924 he again became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Grabski Cabinet.
By a number of conventions, the regulation of the British and American debts, the concordat with the Vatican, the rap prochement with Czechoslovakia, Skrzynski strengthened Poland's international position, taking an active part in the League of Nations in elaborating the scheme for the Geneva Protocol and in securing settlement of the Danzig disputes in a manner favour able to Poland. He tried to disarm the suspicions of Moscow as
to the new configuration of Europe by receiving Chicherin at Warsaw (Sept. 1924). In the negotiations in connection with the German proposals with regard to the Locarno Pact (1925), Skrzynski sought to reconcile Polish interests with the general scheme of the conference, and signed an arbitration agreement with Germany and also a convention with France in accordance therewith. After the fall of Grabski's Government Nov. 13, 1925, Skrzynski was entrusted with the formation of a government by Wojciechowski, the President of the Republic, and with the participation of the Socialists formed a coalition cabinet in which he himself was Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In May 1926, however, the Socialists seceded from the Cabinet on account of the refusal of their financial proposals, which in volved inflation. After the Pilsudski coup d'etat of that month Skrzynski remained in retirement. See also POLAND.