ELECTION CAMPAIGN VERY FAR FROM FREE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25086, 18 January 1947, Page 8

ELECTION CAMPAIGN VERY FAR FROM FREE

POLISH POLITICS

®y

CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY,

special correspondent of the "Daily

Warsaw >. (delayed).—On Januaiy 19 elections are to be held in Poland. This is a very important date. It is specially important because it provides an opportunity of examining the whole system by which Eastern Europe is governed and how far it can be reconciled with thle conception of democracy which prevails in the W The vital issue lies between two blocs. On the one hand there is the so-called Democratic or Governmental bloc consisting of the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and two other small groups, all of them originally deriving their strength from the Lublin Committee, which was formed when Russian troops reentered Poland in 1944. On the other side there is the Peasant Party, led by Mr Mikolajczyk. Broadly speaking, it may be said that both groups accept the principle of nationalisation of key industries, they accept the necessity of close relations with Soviet Russia, they accept Poland’s new Western frontier. The Peasant Party, however, favours maintenance of the principle of private property, and its attitude to civil liberties differs widely from that or the Government bloc. Unequal Conditions

There is a great weight of evidence to suggest that very serious attempts are’being made on behalf of the Governmental bloc to prevent the Peasant Party from contesting the elections on terms of any sort of equality with those of the Government. These allegations—and they are numerous and widespread—l have been investigating since my arrival in Poland in midDecember. " The Government has been charged with denying freedom of speech and meeting to its political opponents. It has been charged with striking large numbers of voters of known patriotic sympathies off the register of electors on grounds of collaboration with the Germans during the occupation or with the present underground terrorist forces. • It has been charged with making numerous arrests of 'Peasant Party leaders and candidates on the same grounds; with bringing pressure to bear upon Mr Mikolajczyk s supporters to withdraw their signed declarations in favour of his candidates; with attempts in certain localities to abolish the secrecy of the ballot. It has been charged with « using toe Bureau of Political Education of the army for directly partisan purposes*

Gestapo Methods Above all? it has been charged with the employment by the Security Police (who number 170,000 out of a total, population of 24,000,000) of Gestapo methods to impose a state of terror upon electors who may wish to support the Peasant Party. All these charges I have investigated in different parts of Poland. In all of them I have found substance. The degree varies, but the cumulative effect is overwhelming.

First, there is no freedom of the press in Poland. Not only is Mr Mikolajczyk’s daily 4 paper, the “Gazeta Ludowa,” arbitrarily limited in circulation to 62,000 copies, but it is ruthlessly censored both in statements of fact and expressions of opinion. The numerous Governmental publications continually indulge in violent personal attacks upon Mr Mikolajczyk and his party, and scarcely veiled ones against Britain and the United States. Freedom of meeting for political purposes is entirely theoretical. I inquired about this in a number of towns, and was told that, although there was no law to prevent it, those who endeavoured to organise Peasant Party meetings either found them broken up by toe Army or wore themselves placed under arrest. The most frequent complaint made in the various localities which I visited was that known members of the Peasant Party had been struck off toe register of voters, Jn these

cases it was not sufficient to accept figures given one by the district or town headquarters of the Peasant Party. It was necessary to pursue them to their source and check them there.

The figures given me in the bare and chilly - little rooms in a remote village which One reached after bumping for miles over roads of ridged and frozen mud did not always tally with those I had received in more accessible spots.

At one headquarters I was told that up to 80 per cent, of the voters in some villages in toe district had been struck off the lists. When I pressed for and obtained actual figures I found that the highest percentage recorded was no more than 69.

Key Men Arrested Yet, allowing for the exaggeration which undoubtedly has occurred, the total picture is disturbing. While toe number of voters struck off toe lists is not always as high as some reports indicate, those whose names have been delated are frequently the key men of the Peasant Party. The same is true of the arrests that were made on a very large scale during the days immediately preceding

Christmas, when toe various lists of candidates were due to be presented. It was necessary for each local list to show the signatures of 100 or more backers in order to be legally accepted. Large numbers of known backers of Mr Mikolajczyk’s fists were arrested between December la and December 23. Wherever I went I found a curious and significant concentration of arrests around those dates Often the persons arrested were not 1 even charged and were released again after a day or two. But not until they I had been subjected to “pressure” to, withdraw their supporting signatures from the list of Peasant candidates “advice” that it “would be better for them” not to vote for the Peasant Party. List Cancelled In Czarnzow the entire Peasant Party list was cancelled on grounds that toe signature of the backers was not legible, that some‘of the Christian names had not been put in the right columns, and that the district commissioner claimed to have names of signatories who asserted that they had signed only under pressure or that their signatures had been,, forged. This is denied by the Peasant Party, and Czarnzow is notoriously > Peasant Party stronghold where mally they would have no difficulty io finding willing backers. Montelupich prison in Cracowh said to contain 15,000 persons. Tk figure throws some light on S scene of toe repressive measuhl which have been thought necessarpThe Government makes no secret its employment of the Bureau of Poli, tical Education of the Army as“< weapon in its campaign. This is show by the publication of a booklet M titled “The Word of a Soldier,” whkS ' contains cartoons showing Mr Mike | lajezyk as a puppet pulled on string ’ by Britain and America, besides pic tures of British and American troop fraternising with Germans. Indeed, toe Communist Party woult scarcely be runnning true to form 1 it did not concentrate Upon securinj the allegiance of toe troops to the party as distinct from the State, Tha is the significance of involving it in the electoral campaign and enlisting its sympathies against the Peasant Party. But by far toe most potent weapon in the hands of toe Government for influencing toe course of the elections is the U. 8., the Security Police, who are actually more numerous than the Army and organised upon the pattern which has for some time been so grimly fashionable from the Rhine eastwards. In a country where armed banoKj ar 2 operating against public safety, at they are in Poland, no jine would reasonably deny the Government the necessity of exercising certain discretionary powers to maintain law and order. ; In Poland, however, the activities ofthe Security Police are not solely or perhaps even primarily directed against the bands. The Rule of Fear A great deal of attention has beea Sven to discouraging the entirely wful activities of the Peasant Party, By means of arbitrary arrest and detention without trial, by means of various forms of physical and moral pressure to produce the desired statement or recantation, the Security Police have been employed as a direct political weapon. The abrogation of elementary Human rights is something which the nations of Europe are reluctantly coming tft take for granted. The methods em* ployed ate not .yet the most vicioiis Europe has seen, but the danger 48; there. As a result the rule of fear hasbeen most certainly intensified in tliii ; country. I assert that to the best of my ment, based on experience not linn ited to the large cities, this fear -K more intense than when I was last w this country in July. I assert thqi fear of unjust arrest among supporter!.c of the Peasant Party is general ■ Ominous Symptoms All the symptoms which I havesefl? elsewhere are present here. Personl. friendly enough in intent do not to be seen in the company of Btitist and Americans; they do not like w discuss politics in public places; despite the prospect of good pay th< are hesitant about accepting employment from British or Americans. This is not unconnected with the fact th# the secretary and interpreter of more than one British correspondent hSB been arrested in recent months. ' They are nervous about betraying knowledge of the whereabouts of local Peasant Party headquarters or beinff seen to visit such places. They few they are constantly watched and th® if they should be arrested they will not receive a fair trial. A member of the Polish Government stated to me the other day wi» quite uncustomary naivety that ha could not understand how it was that nowadays Polish people were so easily intimidated; it had not been so in the past, he said. I sunpose that is what one must describe as the march of progress.