TROUBLE IN POLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 10

TROUBLE IN POLAND

OPPRESSION AND UNREST. The persecution of the “Hromada, a. White Russian nou-Coinmunist peasant. and labour party, by the Polish authorities, was described recently in the “Manchester Guardian.” Meetings of the paj’ty are still being broken up, its members arrested, beaten, and imprisoned, its funds and literature confiscated, although so far there has been no proof that it has committed any illegal action. The poorer peasants in the White Russian territories of Poland are showing their sympathy in every way they can—clothes, sheepskins, bread, and bacon are brought to the imprif'iiu d members of the party as free gills firm the remotest villages. The Independent Peasant party is now sharing the fate of the Hromada. Nearly twe-'.hirds of the peasant pro perty in Poland consists of small holdings up to 5 hectares (12.1 acres), which in the privitive agricultural conditions that still prevail, do not suflice to support a family. When Poland was invaded by the Russians in 1920 substantial agrarian reforms were promised. The promise was not kept. Under Pilsudski agrarian reform is little more than the sale of a big estate by the landowners to wealthy buyers at a high profit. The poorer peasantry are the last to obtain any benefit. In 192-1 the Independent Peasant party was founded under the leadership of the Sejm deputy Wojewudski. It demands for all Poland what the Hromada demands for the White Russian territories namely a peasants’ and workmen’s Government and the partitioning (without compensation) of the big estates. The party programme is radical, but in the sense that it rejects all illegal, and unconstitutional methods it is not revolutionary.

Neither the Hromada nor the Independent Peasant party is allied to the Polish Communist party, which has impressed upon its own members the fact that they will not, as Communists, have done their duty if they belong to either of these parties. The Independent Peasant Party has a large following among the peasant masses. Like the Hromada, it has become the object of systematic persecution. Its literature is confiscated, its meetings broken up, its leaders maltreated and imprisoned. One of them—the Sejm deputy Holowacz—was arrested while milking his cow. although it is one of the privileges of deputy that he is immune from arrest uniess he be caught in flagrante. The Polish press has also been running a systematic campaign against Wojewudski by making him out to be an agent provocateur, although the uprightness of his motives is proved by the fact that he is of noble origin and distributed his own estates among the peasants without compensation. The Polish Labour movement is being treated very much like the Hromada. and the Independent Peasant party. Although Pilsudski was once <-, Socialist, his Government is looked upon as an oppressor by the working class. The most recent anti-labour excesses were those committed against the Lodz textile workers, whose working day is from ten to twelve hours and whose wages are well the prewar level. In March they struck for a wage increase of 25 per cent. They were able to obtain 10 per cent., but the struggle was one in which many individuals suffered at the hands of the police, who broke up strike meetings and arrested strike committees. Ng sooner had the strike come Jo an end than wholesale arrests were made. In Warsaw alone 150 persons were arrested.

It seems probable that the general offensive against the Polish peasant and labour organisatons is being carried out with a view to the next elections. The present Sejm expires in the coming autumn, although it may be prolonged. It is now discussing an emergency' Bill which, if it becomes law, will deprive all persons who are “hostile to the State” of the right to stand in the elections. In this way the entire Radical Opposition. is to bo eliminated from the Parliamentary and constitutional life of Poland. The present methods of the Polish authorities and the future plans of the Pilsudski Government have only intensified the profound unrest of the poverty-stricken masses. As every possibility of constitutional action is being denied to them, unconstitutional action is bound to appear as the only alternative. Not only the iiroomada, Ibe Independent Peasants’ party, and the trade unions, but even the Communist party tried to keep the seething discontent of the masses within legal bounds, but the task is growing more and more impossible.