POLAND SOLD TO SOVIET AND CUT UP

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1949, Page 7

POLAND SOLD TO SOVIET AND CUT UP

EX-CONSUL TELLS N.Z. COUNTRYMEN

WELLINGTON, Sept. 18.

A protest at the Soviet occupation of their country, and a call for a tree, intact, and independent Poland were contained in a resolution adopted by the New Zealand Poles and their friends at a meeting in Wellington today. Similar resolutions are being adopted by Polish people in other parts of the world this month, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the invasion and foreign occupation ut Poland. The resolution adopted in Wellington declared that the six years’ fight of the Polish nation, fraught with the heaviest sacrifices, was frustrated by unjust international decisions at Teheran and Yalta which failed to bring peace and security to the world and plunged 10. and into servitude. 'l'lie j'oiish soldier had fought without respite but had gained only exile as his reward. Poland’s cause was the cause of all free nations. New Zeaiand was, to his knowledge, the only country which since declaring adherence to the principles of the Charter, said Dr K. Wodzicki, a fotmer consul for Poland in New Zealand, addressing Poles and friends of Poland in Wellington. I'r Wodzicki said. Poland’s misfortunes today were largely caused by the appeasement policy practised by some Western statesmen. In spite of the miLtarv victorv won by the democracies, Poland was the victim of a bargain transacted in her absence, and against her will, at Teheran, Potsdam, and Yalta. These ill-fated pacts, he continued, annulled the Atlantic Charter, and sacrificed the fundamental prin ciples of justice. They had jeopardised not only Polish independence, for.together with Poland 11 European countries were torn away from/ F-uix pe and separated from it by the iron curtain. The economic balance of the European continent had been deeply upset by the three agreements he had mentioned. POLAND PARTITION

Many of the financial troubles of Western Europe and Great Britain were the result of the forceful partition of the continent, which was not only a geographic but also an economic entity, Dr Wodzici said. A cold war of changing temperatures had been achieved instead of peace. The aimament race maintained for the time being a precarious balance, but lasting peace under those conditions was unthinkable, because no settlement could be achieved through half measures and diplomatic tricks. The evil consequences of abandoning the principles of justice were now obvious, said Dr Wodzici. It was impossible to claim the four freedoms and other democratic rights for Western Europe and at the same time condone Communist domination atheism, and slave labour camps in Eastern Europe for Poland and her enslaved neighbours. The Atlantic Pact was unfortunately some kind of sanction given to the present state of affairs, and could only produce a feeling of profound distress. The pact reminded him of regulations enforcing game protection in some specified areas, while other parts of the range remained open to poachers. The; pact was only a half measure and did not guarantee security in all parts of the world. It hardly constituted a danger for the realistic rulers of the Kremlin. Peaceful settlement of the world’s problems could not be achieved by appeasement and abandonment 01 principle, said Dr Wodzicki. Poles were firmly convinced that as long as the treaties of Teheran and Yalta were still in force no lastin 0 ' peace could be secured. There could not be freedom in one part of the world while there was slavery in another. Dr Wodzicki paid a tribute to New Zealand’s adherence to the principles •of the Atlantic Charter, which he said was epitomised by the appeal of the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) at the San Francisco conference. Furthermore, Poles would never forget their gratitude to New Zealand for its action in inviting to New Zealand in 1944. 800 exiled Poles—victims of Soviet forced labour camps and prisons.