UNHAPPY STATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25204, 17 May 1945, Page 5

UNHAPPY STATE

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS PREMATURE SOLUTIONS ATTITUDE OF RUSSIANS (Special Correspondent) LONDON, May 15 There has been general approval of the action of Britain and America in stating that the future of Trieste should be settled at the peace table. But at the same time nobody is particularly happy about the general state of international affairs, for, as Mr Vernon Bartlett, M.P., points out in the News Chronicle, even inside Germany settlements arr being made which only a peace conference could alter by force. The Russians, for example, have authorised the Lublin Poles to establish their administration as far west as the Oder, but no published decision of the United Nations has ever announced this degree of dismemberment of Germany. Solidarity of Empire There is a strong and growing feeling in Britain that the British Empire must stand solidly together after the war. Close friendship is desired with both America and Russia, but this proEmpire background comes first. It is a somewhat disturbing experience to meet on the Continent both servicemen and returning prisoners of war and to find that they link the Empire and America together but have mental reservations regarding Russia. This applies particularly to returned prisoners of war who have had anything to do with the Russians. It is, of course, only one small section of what might be called public opinion, hut one has yet to meet a returned prisoner of war liberated by the

Russians from the Germans who has a good word to say about the Russian Army.

Our liberated men are not enthusiastic about their treatment in prison camps by the Russians and several have stated that if they had not escaped they would still be in the camps. One Canadian airman »said that American lorries arrived at a camp in which he was held, but the Russians would not let the prisoners go. Nevertheless, about half the camp broke through the wire, accompanied by firing, and reached the lorries. Possible Explanation

The Canadian told this to a brigadier and asked the officer whether he thought it serious. The brigadier replied that he did not, because the Russians had asked the Allies to remove their

prisoners as soon as possible and he thought it probable that the Army orders might not yet have reached the lower Russian ranks. A New Zealand major, who was" a senior British officer at a camp liberated by the Russians, said the only way he could get things done was by eventually losing his temper. He told the Russians what he" thought of them. Then they agreed to his demands. Otherwise, he said, he and the other prisoners would still be in Poland. How much attention should be paid to these experiences, against the background of Allied relations, it is difficult to say. But these statements are accurate reports of what returned prisoners of war have said —and they are among the milder of the observai tions.