LUBLIN REGIME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25737, 8 January 1945, Page 4

LUBLIN REGIME

EXCHANGE OF DIPLOMATS RUGBY, Jan. 5. Russia has recognised the Polish National Liberation Committee at Lublin as the Provisional Government of Poland. A report quoted by Moscow radio states that, following the request of the Polish Provisional Government for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the new Polish Government and Soviet Russia, the. Presidium of the U.S.S.R. decided to recognise the Polish Provisional Government and to exchange diplomatic representatives. The Soviet Government has appointed M. Lebedev Ambassador to Poland. M. Lebedev has been Soviet Minister to the Czechoslovak Government in London since 1941. This development has, been expected ever since the National Liberation Committee declared itself the Provisional Government, which it could not have done without assurance of Russian support. The British Government, which was informed beforehand of the Russian intention, announced several weeks ago that it proposed for the present to continue to regard the Polish Government in London as the legal Government of Poland. They could hardly do less. The Polish Government has for more than five years proved itself the most loyal of the Allies and has raised military, naval, and air forces whose value has been demonstrated in manv hard-fought campaigns behind the British. American, French, and other Allied troops. And the London Polish Government, even at a time when Poland itself was being delivered from the Germans by the Russian armies, has not been able to reach any sort of agreement or understanding with the Russian Government. Since M. Mikolajczyk’s final failure to bridge the gap the Russians have evidently come to the conclusion that this is a fact they must now formally recognise. Although it was Britain which, by the alliance with Poland, first began the process of checking German expansion, it has naturally been upon Russia that the burden of defeating Germany’s eastern ambitions has fallen. It is. moreover, upon/Russia that, the world will rely to see those ambitions defeated. Since it is the Russians who are primarily concerned with the future of Poland, their view oh Polish administration must command respect. These are facts which Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt recognised in their decisions with Marshal Stalin and which, without doubt, continue to be recognised by the Allies.

RECOGNITION BY RUSSIA