REQUEST MISUNDERSTOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25214, 1 May 1943, Page 5

REQUEST MISUNDERSTOOD

COMMENT ON POLISH ACTION (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Apl. 29. “The Polish Government’s request that the International Red Cross should investigate the graves at Katyn, which was-the immediate cause of the Russian Government’s severance of relations with the Polish Government, has been largely misunderstood,” says the diplomatic correspondent of The Times.

"There was never any suggestion that the Red Cross should hold a judicial inquiry and attempt to settle the responsibility for the murder of Polish officers. Such an inquiry would be far outside the province of the Red Cross. The Polish Government chiefly hoped that the Red Cross officers Could help in the identification of the bodies and give a general report ok the graves. “As is well known, the request to the Red Cross was no more than the spark which touched off the powder. Some of the deeper causes of the misunderstanding were mentioned in the Polish Government’s Note published yesterday, which asked.‘for the release from the Soviet Union of/thousands of families of Polish soldiers and for the release of Polish fighting men.’ Here immediately a highly-complicated problem was uncovered, involving the question of the present citizenship of many of these people. The first public response in Moscow to the statement seems to be unfavourable.”

A Moscow message reports that the British Ambassador, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, and the American Ambassador, Admiral W. H. Standley, were among those who bade farewell to the Polish Ambassador, Count Romer. The Polish diplomatic party expects to travel from Kuibyshev to Persia.