PAY MAY CEASE FOR POLES IN BRITAIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 5

PAY MAY CEASE FOR POLES IN BRITAIN

■ FUTURE OBSCURE Quarter Million Men And Women Involved Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, June 29. A quarter of a million Polish servicemen and women stationed in Britain were wondering to-day whether they were still entitled to wear "their uniform now that the new Polish Government had been established in Warsaw, says the Daily Mail. No Polish official in London was able to say what was going to happen to 3000 English girls who had married Polish servicemen, or who was going to feed their 4000 babies.

The British Government on Monday will formally • tell the Polish Government in London that the quarterly cheque for £30,000,000, which so. far has been used to maintain the services, will not be paid. Therefore, unless last-minute plans are made; there will be no pay on July 6 for any Polish man or woman in the services.

A total of 2500 Polish officials on July 6 will be given three months' notice, but they do not know whether this will include pay or not. There is £20,000,000 sterling worth of gold brought out of Poland in 1939 in the vaults of the Bank of England, but it is pointed out that it belongs to the "Bank of Poland and not to the Polish Government. Cut Off From Poland ,

No Polish serviceman or woman in Britain has had a * letter from Poland since January, when the Red Cross machinery ceased to function, and not one of them knows the fate of his family in the fighting there early in 1944. The Poles say it is too dangerous to smuggle letters through neutral countries. f There was a constant stream o.f. callers to-day at the Polish offices in Piccadilly. Hundreds of and men in the ranks turned up to ask how they stood. The officers were wondering whether they had any right to give the men orders and the men were wondering whether they could legally disobey. The Times, in an editorial, says that the formation of the new Polish Government gives urgency to the question of repatriation to Poland of Poles who are scattered throughout Europe. It is obvious that those Poles abroad whose sympathies are with the extreme right and are hostile to Russia in international politics will not want to return. Nevertheless, it would be 'intolerable if the recent extensive propaganda, not merely against Russia, but also against M. Mikolajczyk, vice-Premier of the new Polish Government, conducted under the auspices of t-he administration of M. Arciszewski, Polish Prime Minister in London, and the Polish military command in London, were to be continued.

The official spokesman in London of the Polish Government denied that the Government was planning to go either to Canada or to Eire when British recognition was withdrawn.

Reuters Paris correspondent says that the French Government has decided to recognise the new Polish Government of National. Unity.

It is officially announced in Stockholm that the Swedish and new Polish Governments have decided to exchange diplomatic representatives.