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-The Bulletin View_

Can Poland Hope For Freedom?io2

U1TE a lot of people are puwded about Polarni— puzzled and. in Scotland at ony ratę, rathcr unhappy. We are niż waiting to hear what M-- Churchill will h.ive to tell h t the Yalta Conferenco wnen he reports to Parlia-ment. Meanwhile, almost the only criiical statemont that has been mad< about the Con-ferenee's decisions has beęn the dęciaration of the Polish Goyęrnment in London that it refuses to accept the Big Three's plan for Poland.

Perhaps there are sonie who, while blaming the Polish Government for this declara-tion, were not by any me ans sorry to read it. For them ir ropresents an easy “ let out ” from our obligations.

No one cain pretend that it. is very pleasant to sec the country, in support of which we deelared war on Germany, losing half its territory to Hussia ar.d boing saddled with a “ Gnvernment ” in Warsaw whose members are obviously nr - Soviet nominee.s. Even th who seriously believe that Poland never nught to have possessod the lands east of the Curzon Linę cannot, feel very happy about the way in which they have been fake-n from ber in her weaknes?, nr about our own promises to this notably faithful Ally. How conven:ent, then. if the legał Polish Cabinot, by refushig to " eo-oper a te " with Britain and America, as woli as Russia. givcs us an excuse for ignoring its eiaims.

A Cha noc ?

Thcre are others who feel very difjerently about Poland, but" Still fear that Mr Arciszewski ond his colleagues havc taken the wrong step. licie, they argue, was a dumce of improving conditions in Poland, if noc of setting Ulem right altogetber. The Big Three have promised that t.h<* Lublin-Warsaw “ Government ’’ will be reconstituted and that there will bo frec eleOtions in Poland. Ought not Polish patriota to be trying to en surę

that the elections will really be free and the ‘'United Provisional Goverument’• which the Allies favour really i*epresentative ?

Weil, let’s be honest—this is a question which nonę of us can answer because nono of us .can weigh the conditions in Poland as those do who have reports of what is actually going on in that unhappy country. Kemember that there is not a single Western journalist in Poland—or in o t h e r Russian - occupied countries.

What We Know

What we do know is that the Warsaw - Lublin " Govcrn-ment,” whićhi eontams only one man known in Poland before the war, is largely “run” by the Soviet politieai policc. that thousands of men of the Polish Underground—one of the best-organised resistanęe inove-ments in Europo—have been imprisoned or deportod to Russia, and that the ** C»overn-ment ’’ radio threatens all Polcs who accept. London leadership with punishment.

We also know that the system proposed at Yalta whereby new ąrrangements in Poland will be suporviscd by the Russian Foreign Minister and the British ond U.S. Ambassadors in Russia is ox-traordinarily like the schemc. devised to “ protcct Czech interests” after the Munich Dictatc — a sehome which notoriously failed to give strickcn Czechoslovakia any proteetion at all.

Perhaps Mr Churchill, when he jspeaks to Parliament, will be alolc to explain how real freedom of election can be secured in Poland and what prospeci there is o£ onsuring that men who are not morely Soviet nominees will cohtrpl the new Provisional Govern-ment. Perhaps when he has spolcon Polish patriots Lhem-selves may be able to take a rather móre hopeful view of the prospeets. But meanwbile wc may lx.' wise if we do not judge the Polish Governmont's ' disiliusionment too harshly, ć