BITTERNESS AMONG POLISH SOLDIERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1945, Page 5

BITTERNESS AMONG POLISH SOLDIERS

TALK OF LOST CAUSE

Strong" Feeling- Aroused

In America

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. • LONDON, Feb. 13. The reaction to the Crimea declaration is bitter among Polish soldiers, says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent in Italy. They are making no effort to conceal their feelings regarding Poland's future and the restitution of the Curzon Line. The majority of the Polish troops in Italy come'from Eastern Poland, having been originally captured by the Russians in 1939. ' They now say that they are fighting for a lost cause- and for a Government which will be merely a reconstituted Lublin Committee. Many definitely state that they will not return to Poland. The effect of the Crimea declaration on the Poles' military operations is being freely discussed in Polish circles. The 8.8.C. .quotes a broadcast from the Polish Provisional Government at Lublin, saying that it welcomes the proposal to reorganise the Government of Poland and include in it more democratic elements from at home and abroad. In Chicago, the president of the Polish American Congress, . M. Charles Rosmarek, issued a statement saying that the Polish territorial adjustments outlined in the Crimea charter are a direct contradiction to the sacred pledges of the Atlantic Charter and are a staggering blow to the cause of freedom. "Docile submission to the Russians' demands for all the lands seized during Poland's partitions is a distortion of the United Nations' war aims and reaffirms the Ribben-trop-Molotov line of 1939," adds the statement. "The spectacle of an avaricious ally already devouring ten of her weaker neighbours and instigating civil strife in countries not yet in the Russian sphere of influence, unless checked, in time will speed the downfall of Christianity and civilisation."