FROM WEEK TO WEEK

Grey River Argus, 12 August 1944, Page 7

FROM WEEK TO WEEK

(Bv

H. Winston Rhodes)

POLES CONFER. Any attempt to anticipate the result of the negotiations now being conduced between the Polish exiles in London and the Polish exiles in Moscow would be foolish, but it has been known for some time that .efforts were being made to unite the two committees. I use the word “committees”' . deliberately because in some quarters there have been suggestions that either the London organisation or else the Moscow or, ganisation fully represents the Polish people.

It is merely another example of "the ideological, war,” which according .to Mr. Churchill has been concluded, that statements have r . been made by responsible newspapers and leader-writers asserting that if the Soviet, Government has might ( oh its side with regard to the dispute over Poland, the Polish Governmeht-in-exiie at London has right oh its side.

This extraordinary suggestion, .is presumably based on the theory that the latter reflects accurately the opinions of Poles wherever they may be. As a matter of fact nobody knows whom this Government re presents. No election has taken place among the exiled Poles in order to determine what the majority desire, and no satisfactory election could take place. Furthermore it is clearly impossible to discover what the Poles in Poland are thinking or how they would vote.

The indications are, however, that very many exiled Poles are dissatisfied with the London committee, and it is certain that this committee has no authority to speak for Poland. In its early stages it was, as it were, blessed by the former Polish rulers who could hardly claim to represent the Polish people at any time. Since then some members of the London committee have been dropped and others added, some have died, others have resigned. The old axe has several new blades and several new handles) but some people are still prepared to talk about the original axe which even in the days before the war was hardly one that was wielded by the people of Poland.

Nor is this the end of the story. Before the war the population of Poland was about thirty-four millions of which five millions were Ukrainians, one and a-half millions were Ruthenians (White Russians), and nearly three and a half millions were Jews. And it must be admitted that the record of the Polish Government with regard to its national minorities was a very bad one. It is difficult to imagine that these ten million people, or those of them who survive, would regard themselves as being represented adequately by the committee in London.

However everything I have said is in a sense irrelevant. The Polish people whose wishes should be consulted are those who. have been fighting fascism with such courage both inside Poland and outside its borders, whether in the Soviet Union, in Italy or in France. It is not a question of the Soviet Union having the might, nor of this committee or that committee having the right, but it is a question of a representative and provisional committee being formed which will be able to take over the civil administration of Poland until such time as elections can be held.

For a long period the Polish people have been under a form of military dictatorship. They have been ruled by the large land-holders. The plight of the Polish peasantry has been more wretched' than the peasantry of any other European country. We can be certain that the workers and peasants of Poland fighting so heroically in their underground movement are not fighting for a return to the situation before the, war. They are fighting for a free Poland, not for a Poland of free landlords. As the people of the Soviet Union know and as Stalin has suggested, the Foies should 1 and must run their own coun try. They wish to be dominated neither by. a few Polish landlords and generals nor by a great many Russians.

At the present stage all we can hope for is that the Polish Prime Minister in exile together with the Moscow committee of Poles wild be able to arrange for the creation of a new provisional committee which will be satisfied with a Poland for the Poles (not for the Ruthenians and Ukrainians as well) which will be thoroughly representative of the interests of the Polish peasantry and workers, which will be purged of all elements of anti-semitinm, and willing to co-operate with the people of the Soviet Union. If anything like this can be achieved, the Polish problem for the time being will be solved, and we must await the day when when the Polish people inside Poland can speak with a free voice.