POLISH-RUSSIAN TREATY.

Evening Star, Issue 25469, 27 April 1945, Page 7

POLISH-RUSSIAN TREATY.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—Your editorial of the 23rd, while tending to allay the discomfort the majority of us feel over the abandonment of our noblest ally, is nevertheless hardly in accord with the history of the dispute. The Lublin Committee is not " reputed to have been formed of Poles hand-picked by Russia." It is composed, in the main, of non-Poles nominated by the Soviet Government. The statement with which I chiefly disagree, however, is that "sentiment and force .gave Poland more in the way of territory than ethnographical considerations would have given her." According to the census of 1931, Eastern Poland, that is, the portion now handed over to Russia, had a population of 13,200,000, composed of 5,200,000 Poles (40 per cent.), 4,850,000 Ukrainians (36 per cent.), 1,600,000 White Ruthenians (12 per cent.), 1,100,000 Jews (18.4 per cent.). The remainder (2.9 per cent.) is made up of Russians, Germans, Lithuanians, Czechs, and others. So, in Eastern Poland, Poles are in greater numbers than any other race. As to preference there for Polish or Soviet Go-, vernment, it is significant that in the Russian-conducted • elections of October, 1939, nominees could not be found to offer themselves for election; one constituency, for example, had the choice of either M. Molotov or Marshal Voroshiloff. Let us consider the Curzou Line in detail. It is true that the Curzon Line would encloso a people homogeneously Polish: it is not true that the races to the east of that line are mainly Russian (as I have shown}. There is no sharp division in, Europe between one race and another; an area will lie between the two composed of mixed races. A fair line (as fair as can be — ,that is—to Poland, Russia, and the population concerned) would passabout halfway through the heterogeneous area. "Such a line was that drawn by the Treaty of Riga, and it can be shown to be such bv statements of the Soviet leaders of the time. In July. 1920. when the Soviet armies were overrunning Eastern Poland, the CurzonLine was proposed by Great Britain, but was rejected by Poland and Russia. Tchicherin, in his reply, stated that " The Soviet Government expresses its willingness to a territorial frontier more favourable to the Polish people." The boundary fixed in the following year by the Riga Agreement was amongst the few oi the new European frontiers which was not the cause of constant complaint. Indeed, • the ' Great Encyclopaedia ' issued by the Soviet State Institute in Moscow represents the boundary as relatively unfavourable to Poland, because " Soviet Russia emerged victorious even from this struggle." Can it then be said that a victorious Poland imposed the boundary? Over 10 years later, a decade from the heat of strife, when the Soviet Government was well established and was a force to be reckued with, in international affairs, a Russian-Polish pact of non-aggression was signed. As elaborated at a conference in 1933, the

•:<ct confirmed the boundaries as fixed by the Riga Treaty, and further bound both parties not to violate the territories of the other whether or not the other's territories had already been invaded by an outside party, and no matter where the seat of Government rested. Again, in July, 1941, the Soviet Government agreed to abandon all claims to Eastern Poland and confirmed the Riga boundaries. On the same day Great Britain endorsed the agreement, and Mr ICden handed the Russian Embassy a Note stating that Great Britain recognised no territorial changes made in Poland since August, 1939. A similar statement was made by the United States. Shall Poland then cease to exist? It would seem so; yet the whole course of history points the other way. This much is clear, that if Poland dies, then Europe, the Europe we have known, the Europe that is so much more than a geographical expression, the Europe that is the repository of our heritage, dies with her.—l am, etc., T. B. Mooney. April 24.

[We do not know the source of our correspondent's figures. We gave the Polish population as " at most four millions," which would make Poles not the greatest number. According to the London ' Times,' " Polish census figures carefully analysed place the number of Poles in the area before 1939 at less than 2,500,000, out of a total population of 11 millions. Mr Eden recently gave the Poles more than the benefit of every doubt when he estimated the Polish population at from 3,200,000 to 3.900.000." Intermixture over a long period complicates the problem.—Ed., E.S.]