RESCUE OF POLES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23721, 30 July 1940, Page 8

RESCUE OF POLES

LAST DAYS IN FRANCE MR. CHURCHILL'S PROMISE NAVY'S IMMEDIATE ACTION LONDON, July 26 Tho story of the Polish soldiers who escaped from France to England last month can now be told for the first time. On June 17, the day of France's surrender, a high Polish official was sent to France in a British bomber, with orders to bring the Polish Premior and Minister of War, General Sikorski, to safety, even if General Sikorski was surrounded by Germans. After many difficulties, and in spito of tho refusal of tlio French authorities to co-operate, General Sikorski was discovered near Bordeaux, where lie had gone to consult Marshal Pctain. General Sikorski agreed to go to England on condition that the bomber would return him next day. , "In Lile and Death" He met tho British Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, on Juno 18. General Sikorski said: "To-morrow I return to face my army. What am I to tell them?" Mr. Churchill replied: "Toll them that we are their comrades in life .and death. We shall conquer together or dio togethor." General Sikorski said: "That is all I want to know." The two leaders shAok hands. "That . handshake," said General Sikorski afterwards, "meant more to me than any treaty, alliance, or any pledged word." Immediately Mr. Churchill called in high Admiralty officials, and General Sikorski explained to them the exact locations of the Polish iinits and the ports to which they were trying to fight their way. Three hours "after the interview with Mr. Churchill began, signals went to the Navy, and four hours later the first of the Polish troops were being taken off. Petaln "Aged Terribly" The evacuation of all Polish troops who had managed to reach the coast, plus members of the Government and a number of officials, was completed four days later without a casualty. General Sikorski returned to France and had a final interview with Marshal Petain, who looked shrunken, worn, and trembling and had aged terribly in a few weeks. General Sikorski preferred not to see General Weygand, who had been his comrade in arms and intimate friend since the Russian-Polish war in 1920. ' DUTCH EMPIRE STAND FOR FREEDOM BROADCAST BY QUEEN By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright British Wireless LONDON, July 2S Broadcasting in a new Dutch programme inaugurated by the British Broadcasting Corporation to-day, Queen Wilhelinina said: "Just as in earlier days, neither force of arms, nor flags of State, nor impoverishment and suffering, have ever succeeded in exterminating our love of liberty and our freedom of conscience and religion, so I remain convinced that, once again, we and all those of whatever nation who think like us, shall emerge from this ordeal strengthened and chastened through our sacred sufferings. "Even although the enemy has occupied our native soil, the Netherlands will carry on the war until the morrow of a free and happy future dawns for us. Our beloved fiag Hies proudly on the seas, in the Great Netherlands in the east and in. the west. Side by side with our allies, our gallant men continue the struggle." The Dutch overseas empire, Queen Wilhelmina said, had never been more closely attached to its Mother Country, and, with unshakable unity, intended to vindicate the freedom and independence of all Netherlands territories. "I call on mv compatriots at homo and wherever they be, however dark and difficult the times may be, to keep faith in the final victory of our cause," Queen Wilhelmina said.