The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1944. RIFT IN THE LUTE.

Evening Star, Issue 25067, 7 January 1944, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1944. RIFT IN THE LUTE.

" When* thieves fa]l out," it is said, " honest men come 'by their own." When honest men fall out will the thieves benefit? That is the question which is in danger of being tested by the complication that has arisen between Poland and Russia with the crossing of the old 1939 Polish frontier by Marshal Stalin's advance armies. The trouble had been anxiously foreseen for some time. In September, 1939, the Russians and the Germans partitioned Poland. Moscow has always implied that the boundary then agreed on to her advantage, nearly 200 miles west of that which was fixed after the first World War, must stand. The Poles have never relinquished their claims to the earlier line. An argument for the Russians has been that that line was considerably east of the " Curzon line," where a strong case was made for fixing it, and gave Poland too many Russians, who have never become reconciled to her rule. The question has been: " When this most eastern part of Poland is reclaimed will it ibe reclaimed for Poland or.for Russia? And on that question depends another: Will the underground Polish movement in the territory co-operate to reclaim it or will they refrain —possibly resist the Russians as they would Germans? It has been called one of the best organised underground movements in Europe, prepared' to take over administration as soon as the territory was recovered. The Polish Government in London has told the underground movement to avoid all conflict with Russian forces. But it would make their co-operation with Soviet commanders dependent on a resumption of Polish-Soviet relations, which were broken off by Russia after an earlier trouble. And without any reference to the boundary it has -made very plain, in a statement issued by it, which recalls Poland's services 1 to the common cause, where the boundary in its view lies. Marshal Stalin has expressed his wish for a " strong and independent Poland," but he wants as well " strategic " frontiers for Russia by which her future safety will assured. Latest comments by the Russian Embassy in Washington and by ' Pravda ' are not calculated to soothe Polish feelings. Tn Russia there is a Union of Polish Patriots, organised by. the wife of a Soviet Minister, which does not see eve to eve with the movement in Poland or with the Government in London, but Poles in Poland minimise its importance and numbers. Ine trouble is one that should be composed, bv restraint and moderation on both sides, for the sake of all, the Allies. Otherwise only the Germans will rejoice A compromise would be to let this debatable land of Poland, as_ it is recovered, be administered by an international council as in the case of Italy, leaving its after-fate to be settled by the peace treaties. It has been suggested that Poland might then be compensated for the disputed tracts by the acquisition of East Prussia and perhaps part of Silesia, from which Germans could be removed to other territory, m the manner thev have delighted to 'apply to | others. 'The good offices of other Allies will no doubt be used sedulously to assure that no minor differences will be allowed to prejudice their common light.