POLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 4

POLAND

In reply to your correspondents? A. J. Mezzola and W. M. Usmar, I would like to state that had it not been for the wonderful fighting qualities of the Russian soldiers and the noble spirit and self-sacrifice of the Russian nation, there would at present be no Poland at all. Tha territory would have remained under the Nazi rule. If what we read regarding the atrocities in Poland are correct, then the future of the people of Poland would have been simply one of serfdom. It - must also be plainly remembered that when the late Prime Minister of England, Mr. Chamberlain, went to the Munich Conference to be duped by Hitler and his associates, Russia, whose interests in Europe were so vital, was not even invited to that ill-fated meeting. When Russia advanced towards Poland, near the end of 1939, the frontier between Poland and Russia had ceased to exist and remained solely the frontier between Russia and Germany. It was a vital matter for Russia regarding the Polish fx-ontier, whether the German attack was launched 200 miles nearer Petrograd, Moscow and Stalingrad, or 200 miles nearer the west. We owe a debt of gratitude to the great Russian armies that the Hitlerite attack was launched so far in the west. England and America would have been powerless to assist Poland had Russia been overrun, and in debating the future of Poland, this vital fact must be fully realised. The Curzon Line, is just, and wiil stand as a monument to the defeat of the Nazi hordes. PLUTARCH.