SOVIET TAKING OVER CONTROL OF POLISH ARMY ON MOSCOW INITIATIVE

Grey River Argus, 9 November 1949, Page 5

SOVIET TAKING OVER CONTROL OF POLISH ARMY ON MOSCOW INITIATIVE

(Received 11.5 p.ni.) LONDON, November 8 “The Times” Berlin correspondent says the Red Army. officer, Marshal Rokossovsky, is taking contiMof Poland’s Army. He says it is doubted by some observers whether the initiative for his appointment as Polish Minister, with the duty of re organising the Polish Army, came from the Polish Government, as was stated in the Soviet official announcement. Instead, it is suggested that the strengthening of the Polish Army reflects a Soviet desire to seek the western security of Russia in Poland, rather than in Germany.

The correspondent says: For the Roles, this move would represent a

more effective guarantee of permanence of the Oder-Niesse Line as their western frontier than the constantly reiterated pledges of the new East German Republic. For the Germans, it would imply that the Eastern German Republic had been assigned a much more modest role in Soviet policy than had been expected a month ago. Red Army Marshal Taking Command LONDON, November 8. The Russian officer, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, has been appointed Marshal of Poland, Chief of the Polish armed forces, and Polish Minister of Defence, at the request of the Polish President, M. Beirut, it was announced 5n Warsaw to-day. London diplomatic quarters consider that Marshal Rokossovsky’s appointment is a sensational move towards the e> tension of Soviet control in the Government of Eastern Europe. IS SOVIET ABSORBING POLISH ARMY? Reuter’s diplomatic corespondent says that Marshal Rokossovsky’s appointment implies the integration of the Polish forces with those of the Soviet. Two questions being asked are:— (1) Whether the appointment will lead to the transfer of other Soviet officers to the high commands of thej armed forces of other East European (2) Whether other Soviet Government officials will be chosen for other appointments outside the armed forces. There are som e suggestions in diplomatic circles that the move is a step towards the eventual inclusion of Eastern European States as autonomous units of the U.S.S.R. A British Foreign Office spokesman said to-day: “This is the latest and most striking example of the subservience. of, the present Polish Government to Moscow. It was Marshal Rokossovsky' (himself a Pole) who refused Britain and the United States permission to supply 7 the Polish home, army from the air during the Warsaw rising in 1944”. POLAND UNDER RUSSIAN CONTROL WASHINGTON, November 7. M. Starrclaw Mikolajczyk, former Polish Prime Minister, who fled from his country in 1947, said that Marshal Rokossovsky’s appointment was an admission that the Russians were in control. He added that the Com-munist-dominated Warsax < Government “is rm'king less an-A less pretence of being independent”. EYE TO GERMANY? The United Press correspondent in Washington says that United States diplomatic officials expressed the view that tne appointment might mean that the Soviet Union was preparing to sign a peace treaty 7 with the Eastern German State. ' They said that if such a treaty were signed, Soviet control of the Poli- 1 ’ Army would be of great importance • in order to prevent any outbreaks between the Poles and the Germans. CONSOLIDATION! LONDON, November 7. In his first order of the day 7, Marshal Rokossovsky called on the Polish Army to consolidate its brotherly bond with the powerful Russian Army and to increase its political work and military training. “I take over my post in order to devote all my forces to further developing and strengthening our army - and the defence power of the republic. Together with the Russian Army, we will protect the peace, of which M. Stalin is the defender”. COMMUNIST GRIP ON EAST GERMANY The Associated Press Berlin correspondent says that Mr Otto Grotewohl, Prime Minister of the East German Government, speaking to-day at a German Communist celebration of the anniversary 7 of the Russian revolution' said that Russian Common- ■ ism was here to stay, and the rest oi the world might as well accept it. | The Socialist part of the earth had! grown far beyond the trial stage, he . said. There was hardly 7 a machine . in the world which could not be : made by Soviet R issia. East Germany’s cipiomadc repre-i sentative in Moscow, Rudolf Appelt.r was to-day appointed to the rank of , Ambassador. The World Federation of Trades Unions has decided to call its execu-1 tive bureau meeting on November 11 j and a trades union conference of | Asian and Australasian countries on j November 16 in Peking. All of the cities and towns of Communist China aie celebrating the anniversary of the Soviet revolution, according to the Peking radio. Soviet t films are being screened in most theatres, and magazines and books on Russia are being sold at discount prices. Lectures on the Soviet Union and army are being delivered to all the Chinese Communist troops. i WHO ARE THE WAR-MONGERING : IMPERIALISTS? I The British Foreign Offic e to-day i accused the deputy chairman of the ; Soviet Council of Ministers, M. Geor- ' giv Malenkov, of “war-mongering pro- i paganda”. The British spokesman was refer-t ring to M. Malenkov’s speech yester-, day on the anniversary of the Rus-j sian revolution. He said -he speech | ; repeated the "familiar tactic; both of i; the former Nazi leaders and of thej, Soviet leaders of conducting war pro-' ’ paganda by falsely imputing aggres-U sive aims”. ; ;