“IN BAD TASTE”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22991, 7 September 1944, Page 5

“IN BAD TASTE”

Polish General’s Order Of The Day (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 5. The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Anthony Eden, to-day saw M. Mikolajczyk, Polish Prime Minister, M. Romer, Foreign Minister, and Count Raczynski at the Foreign Office.' The diplomatic correspondent of the Press Association says: “I understand that they met to consider an Order of the Day by General Sosnowski, Com-mander-in-Chief of the Polish Forces, which was published this morning, and which created a most unfavourable impression in London, as General Sosnowski accused the British of failing to give adequate assistance to the Polish forces in Warsaw, and of abandoning the city. General Sosnowski issued the order without consulting the Polish Cabinet. Although it is agreed that tlie Allies were able to give little assistance to the underground forces ah Warsaw, the Polish Government and General Sosnowski were kept fully informed throughout of the extent of military assistance it would be possible to give the Polish home forces.” General Sosnowski in his order stated: “For a whole month the soldiers of the home army and Warsaw's population have stood alone in the terrible struggle behind street barricades, in spite of insufficient supplies and the enemy’s immense technical superiority. Tire people of Warsaw were left alone and abandoned on a common battlefront against the Germans—this is a ghastly, tragic riddle. We cannot solve it because we have not yet lost hope that moral right rules the world. Experts try to convince us that lack of help for Warsaw was due to technical reasons, and arguments about gains and losses were put forward. The loss of 27 planes over Warsaw suffered in a month means little to the Allied air forces, who at present have more than 10,000 of all types at their disposal. Your heroic leader, General Bor, is being blamed for the fact that he did not foresee the sudden halt of the Soviet offensive at Warsaw’s gates. The Poles are being blamed for lack of co-ordination in their uprising with the whole operational plans in East Europe but if needed, we will prove how many times our attempts to achieve such co-ordination failed completely.” The diplomatic correspondent of the Press Association says that General Sosnowski's statement about plane losses is regarded as in the worst possible taste, and he gave inaccurate figures of Allied losses of aircraft engaged in assisting Warsaw. The losses were very much greater. It seems an astonishing order of the Day, and will have serious repercussions. It may, however, serve a useful purpose in bringing the affair to a head. It seems a deliberate attempt to nullify M. Mikolajczyk’s efforts to reach an understanding with the Russians and the Polish National Committee of Liberation. General Sosnowski seems to have overreached himself. The Order of the Day can scarcely fail to create a crisis in which M. Mikolajczyk will receive the support of Allied public opinion. “General Sosnowski may be called on to resign as the result of his Order of the Day,” says the “Daily Telegraph” The Exchange Telegraph Agency declares that a number of the members of the Cabinet held meetings this afternoon after the talks between Mr Eden and M. Mikolajczyk. They advocated the wholesale resignation of the Polish Government in view of the failure of the Cabinet to secure adequate help for Warsaw. They urged resignation regardless of whether this was the fault of the Government. However, more restrained counsel prevailed and the idea of a demonstration of this kind was eventually abandoned.

A Polish Government spokesman last night said it could not be ruled out that General Sosnowski may tender his resignation. It is admitted that some of the sentences in his Order of the Day were unfortunately worded.