SOVIET STATECRAFT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 116, 18 May 1944, Page 6

SOVIET STATECRAFT

- TEST SEEN IN POLAND . (Special PiA. Correspondent.) ft.cc: 2 p.m. LONDON, May 17. - -She Russo-Polish situation, described by "The Economist" as "still a storm centre of international politics," is once again attracting attention. Following the controversy about conditions in the Polish army aroused by the sentences pronounced recently on Jewish deserters, the Socialist group in the National Council has tabled a motion of no-confidence in ■General Kukiel, Minister of Defence, : Iwhose resignation is. demanded. ,' The Jewish Socialist leader, Dr. Scherer, has also/asked for the resignation of General Sosnkowski,. the Polish commander-in-chief. This situation, which the "News-,Chronicle" thinks~has "the makings of a serious crisis in the "Polish set-up" in Britain, comes at a time when new informal suggestions for the resumption of Polish-Russian relations' have been conveyed to the Polish Government by the State Department of the United ; States after consultations with the Russian Government. ••;■.,' "The Observer" -says the Soviet would be prepared, on, certain conditions, to make substantial concessions of the plan which proposed the CurzonLine as'the new frontier, and would agree to the return of Lvov to Poland, and also a reconsideration of ■-the problem of Vilna. ;" A Russian condition is that the i coalition of parties ■in "the f'Mikola- ; jczjkvGovernment in London" should 'be enlarged by the inclusion of the • .Union of Polish Patriots; which is an organisation of Poles in Russia, which should be placed on an equal footing ■with: the: other parties in London by being given three-Ministers. The Russian's also demand the unification of all the Polish armed forces in Russia, Britain, Italy, and the Middle East, ■which would mean the abolition of the post now held by Sosnkowski. ''The Economist," while: ..admitting that a fundamental factor- -in RussoPolish relations is distrust, urges that Anglo-American diplomacy should make. another attempt at reconciliation. The journal reviews the relations of the two countries and says the Poles' fear of Russia and the JRussian distrust of the- Poles, are both understandable. It adds that at is just possible there is still a solution. "The first need is to convince the Russians that the Polish Government in London is not anti-Russian and that ' neither Britain nor America disputes Russia's demand ■ that its western neighbour should be friendly," it says. "Yet ns> assertions carry much weight as long, as the anti-Russian activities 'of the Polish army are permitted to continue. General Sosnkowski is not indispensable as com-mander-in-chief." Suggesting that General Sosnkowski should go, "The Economist" adds that once the Russian case is met to this extent, it should be the task of AngloAmerican diplomacy to bring home to •the Kremlin how serious the consefquences will be- to lasting peace and co-operation if the reply to concessions from the-Polish end were to be a further Russian refusal to recognise and negotiate, with the- Polish Government in London, and adds: "Poland is the first real test of the statecraft of the Soviet Union, since its emergence as one of the greatest of world Powers. It is no exaggeration to say that'war and peace in the future depend upon the manner in which this .test-is passed."