MASSACRE AT KATYN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 79, 13 January 1949, Page 6

MASSACRE AT KATYN

No Satisfaction from ” Inquiry LONDON, January 11. In a letter to the “Daily Telegraph,” Lieut.-General W. Anders (former commander of the Polish forces in Italy) intervenes in a newspaper controversy which has been proceeding in the “Daily Telegraph” about the responsibility for the massacre of SOOO Polish officers and 7000 other ranks at Tsatyn early in the Avar.

The controversy arose Avhen the former, leader of the Polish Peasant Paffcy (Mr Star/slaw Mikolajczyk) published a hook in Avhich ho charged the Russians Avith responsibility for this crime. Mr D. N. Pritt, K.C., M.P., then wrote to the “Daily Telegraph” claiming that the evidence pointed to the massacre having been carried out by the Germans during’ their occupation of Poland. This assertion was contradicted by other correspondents, who supported Mr Mikolajczyk’s charges against the Russians. General Anders, Avho claims that the Poles murdered at Katyn- included many of lvis friends and many of Poland’s most efficient officers, says that from the moment he was released from a Russian prisoner-of-Avar camp and placed in command of the Polish Army in Russia, he prosecused every possible inquiry in an effort to ascertain the fate of members of the Polish forces Avho had been taken prisoner by the Russians Avhen they over-ran a section of Poland after the German invasion. General Anders carried these inquiries as far as Mr Stalin personally, but Avas unable to obtain any satisfaction. German Ammunition Found General Anders claims that the fact that German ammunition was found in the mass graves of the murdered Poles is no proof whatever that they Avere actually killed by Germans, and recalls that much German ammunition v/as sold to the Russians before the Avar, and that seAmral types of Russian firearms, including the pis tols carried by the Russian Secret Police, used ammunition indistinguishable from that supplied to the German forces. General Anders also recalls that the Nuremberg Tribunal examined evidence bearing on this crime, and Avas unable to satisfy itself that Germans Avere responsible. Because of this, he demands that another independent international tribunal be set up to sift the evidence and fix the responsibility for the massacre. General Anders does not charge the Russians in so many Avords with responsibility, but says .that a book has already been published in Polish, and will appear shortly .in English, Avhich “unmistakably points to the real authors of the crime.” General Anders contributed a foreAvord to the book.

He says that the book contains every document and item of evidence pertaining to the Katyn case, including important evidenced Avhich was not available to the Nuremberg Tribunal.