COMMUNISM GROWS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 27

COMMUNISM GROWS

POSITION IN POLAND

SIGNIFICANT SIGNS

Although Poland has made no official protest against the resolutions of the Communist International, she has more reason than any other country to fear the growth of Communism. Sharing an 840-mile-long frontier with Soviet Russia, she is particularly open to the spread of Communist ideas, writes the Warsaw correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." Communist ideals have penetrated almost all classes of Polish society, from worker and peasant upwards. Communist demonstrations and arrests are a daily occurrence here. Lately about 200 Communists have been arrested in Warsaw alone, and trials are frequent. As lam writing this article twelve schoolboys and students are being tried in Lublin, the most clerical city in Poland, for Communism. As the Communist Party is illegal in Poland, no figure of its membership is available. At a Comintern Congress of 1928 the'membership of the party was given at 28,000. Speaking at Ihe recent congress M. Lenski, the delegate representing Poland, said that the figure has now trebled. In all probability he was right. The Polish Communists had four representatives in the Sejm, which was dissolved last month. This shows that despite difficulties they were able to win a substantial vote. PRISON FIGURES. The growth of Communism in Poland can best be gauged by the official statistics of prisoners in the 346 Polish ; prisons. In 1926 2227 persons were serving sentences for Communism. In 1928 the figure was 2498, and in 1931 1 4160. which was 11.5 per cent, of the 1 total number of prisoners. Unfortunately the Polish authorities have cea,sed ; since then to publish statistics of political prisoners. They have publish--1 ed, however, the. total figure of all ' prisoners, from which the increase in the number of imprisoned Communists may be inferred. Thus in 1932 the , total number of prisoners was 36,130; ; in 1934 it had grown to 46,451, and the , increase is attributed to the large \ number of convicted Communists. It ( is estimated here that over 10,000 Comj munists are now in gaol. As the total : capacity of the gaols is 36,000 the overcrowding is manifestly enormous. . j The growth of Communism in Poland t is also reflected in the increased per--1 centage of convictions and the severity j of the sentences. In 1925 only 25 per j cent, of the persons charged with . belonging to the Communist Party r were convicted; in 1932 69 per cent. 2 were convicted. Sentences also inI creasd in severity; those of ten and j even fifteen years have become more frequent. 3 Warsaw is regarded as the strong--3 hold of the Communists in Poland, f but their activity, is visible in Lodz, a Lemberg. Vilna, and other places. s Lodz is the centre of the Polish tex--0 tile industry, and here Communism ;. thrives on the great poverty amongst 1 the workers. Polish Upper Silesia is f another centre of Communist progress, s largely among the unemployed. >- THE VILLAGES. But it is characteristic of Polish Com- ° munism that it spreads also in the villages, especially in .Eastern Poland. , Even amongst the nationalisticallyj minded Ukrainian peasants Communism counts its followers, j When the collective farms in Soviet f Russia were " started the methods of ; bringing them into being alarmed the "' Polish peasants: But as the condition of the peasants in Russia improved n and the prices for corn and the general , t conditions on this side grew worse, '„ Communism began again to penetrate i into the Polish villages along the ~ | Russian frontier. Today Volhynia and | the other districts along the Polish- ! Russian frontier have become a resere voir of Communist propagandists and n agitators. It is through that frontier that most of the Communistic propaganda material is staled to be smuggled into Poland. A trial recently | concluded at Wilcjka. near Vilna. showit !ed that it was through Volhynia that 's Communist propaganda material was n brought from Russia to Poland in sackl- loads. Another trial held in Lublin ;s recently showed that the Communists oj in the Volhynia district had worked irjout a palfnro THTHAR ARTTRAT io ' out v plan for subversive activity in ;t I the Polish army. "Communist army c j reserves" were to be formed and sent dj to carry on propaganda in the ranks is lo£ the Polish army. In the event of war whole battalions were "to walk ir over to Soviet Russia." In districts not a far from the Russian frontier the police > j discovered young school children of ;t jno more than eleven years of age bee j ing drawn mto Communism. And it >r. 'is an undeniable fact that Communism >c j has invaded the schools and universi)f | tier, to an extent never dreamed of beI fore.