POLISH PROBLEM

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24401, 30 October 1944, Page 5

POLISH PROBLEM

No Solution Found In Moscow Talks CHURCHILL REPORTS TO COMMONS (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, Oct. 27. “Aii urgent question was Poland,’’ said Mr Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons on the Moscow conference. “Here again I speak words of hope reinforced. To abandon hope in this matter would be indeed to surrender to despair. _ “There are two crucial issues, first Ls the question of the eastern frontier of Poland and the Curzon Line, as it is called, and the new territories to be added to Poland in the north and west. The second is the relation of the Polish Government to the Lublin National Liberation Committee. "On these two points we had a series of conferences with both parties. We held them together and separately and were in constant discussion with representatives of the Soviet Government. “If the Polish Government'had taken the advice we tendered it at the beginning of this year the additional complication produced by the formation of the Polish National .Committee of Liberation at Lublin would never have arisen. “Anything like a prolonged delay in settlement can only have the effect of increasing the division between the Poles in London and the Poles in Warsaw the hampering of the common action which the Poles and the Russians and the rest 6f the Allies are taking against Germany. “I wish I could tell the House that we had reached a solution of these problems. It was certainly not for want of trying and I am quite sure that we got a great deal nearer it. “I hope that M. Mikolajczyk will soon return to Moscow. It will be a great disappointment to all sincere friends of Poland if a good arrangement cannbt be made for a Government to be formed on Polish soil, recognised by all the great Powers—indeed, by all those great Powers which now, recognise only the Polish Government' in London. "Although I do not underrate the difficulties which remain, it is a comfort to feel that Britain and Russia—and, I do not doubt, the United States—are firmly agreed on the reconstruction of a strong, independent, sovereign Poland, loyal to the Allies and friendly with her great neighbour and liberator, Russia. British Policy "Speaking more particularly for the British Government, it is our persevering and constant aim that the Polish people, after their suffering and vicissitudes, shall find in Europe an abiding home and resting place which, though it may npt entirely coincide or correspond with the pre-war frontiers of Poland, will nevertheless be adequate for the needs of the Polish nation and not inferior in quality to that which they previously possessed. “It would be a great pity •if time were wasted in indecisive or protracted negotiations, and I hope that no time will be'lost in continuing these discussions and pressing thorn to an effective conclusion.” Mr Churchill made a further, statement on the future of Poland after his general statement about the Moscow conversations. Major E. G. R. Lloyd (Conservative) asked the Prime Minister: (1) If he could say whether it was the Government’s policy and wish to defer decisions on all Russo-Polish territorial and boundary questions until after the cessation of hostilities; (2) whether the British Government was in general sympathy with the desire of the Polish Government for specific joint guarantees from the three Great Power's in support of Poland’s continued independence as a completely sovereign State after the war. Mr Churchill replied: “With regard to the first question, we should welcome a solution between the parties themselves and an agreement between them that we should bring the whole matter to the conference in the form most helpful and favourable to all concerned, and also which would tide us over the difficult and potentially tragic period through which we are passing. re ® ard to the guarantee by the three Great Powers, it is certainly our hope that the three Great Powers will guarantee the sovereignty and independence of the Poland wltfch may emerge., As far as the Soviet Government is concerned, I understand that it will be its fixed intention, and I have not hesitated to say that the British Government certainly concurs and joins itself in such a guarantee. j s "o. 1 for me to speak for the United States.”