NOT RECOGNISED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 25 June 1945, Page 5

NOT RECOGNISED

MOSCOW SENTENCES POLISH APPEAL TO BE MADE TO ALLIED LEADERS London, June 22. The Polish Prime Minister. M. Arciszewski, declared that the Polish Government in London could not recognise the legality of the Moscow trial and the condemnation of the Polish underground organisation. A n appeal would be made to President Truman and Mr Churchill, but the form of the appeal could not be disclosed. “The charges against the sixteen members of tne underground movement were too fantastic to be refuted in detail now,” he said, “out this will be done in due course. The mo.si monstrous of these charges was the allegation of connivance with the Germans. Neither the Polish Government in London nor its executive i n Poland ever issued anti-Soviet instructions. On the contrary, ever since Germany attacked Russia the Polish Government has regarded the Soviet as an ally in the common struggle and has given all possible assistance. Those who were tried in Moscow have never been anti-Soviet.” He declared that the trial was an attempt to discredit the legal Polish Government by slanderous allegations. The London Government regarded General Okulicki as a loyal Polish citizen, but the methods hitherto employed at Russian trials had proved that the depositions could not be compared with statements made in a free court. M. Arciszewski said that all communications between the Polish Government in London and Poland went through the British censorship. The former commander of the Polish Home Army, General Bor, said that the organisation had tried at first to co-operate, but the attitude of the Soviet military authorities had forced the Poles to change. He denied that they had ever co-operated with the Germans, and claimed that it was the Polish Home Army which first gave information about Germany’s plans for Ihe VI and V2 weapons. London, June 24. Paris radio says several Poles who received short sentences at the Moscow trial are now at liberty, freely walking the Moscow streets. Their terms of imprisonment, which did not include deportation, expired during detention before the trial. Moscow radio says General Okulicki and his accomplices have been tried only for offences against the Red Army. They are also alleged to be guilty of crimes against their own people, for which they must answer before the Polish People’s Court.