Coming Events

Russia's first aim is to free her own territory, and the second aim is to free the enslaved peoples of Europe and allow them to decide their own fate without any outside interference in their internal affairs. -- Joseph Stalin, Nov. 6, 1941.

As fighters, the Poles in exile have been terrific. As fanatical patriots, the Poles have few equals. As politicians and diplomats, their record is dismal. Last week the fighting, patriotic, politically tactless Poles had their lips buttoned by the tightest British political censorship of the war. Reason: a wide-open squabble with Russia over the postwar status of eastern Poland.

The censorship applied to Polish newspapers and pamphlets in Britain and to all outgoing press comment from London. It was prompted by at least two reasons: 1) the dispute is academic until German troops are thrown out of Poland; 2) the bitterness and chauvinism engendered by Polish patriots, rabid nationalists and some members of the discredited Polish "colonel's clique" play directly into the hands of German propagandists.

Not For the Poles. The dispute, symptomatic of other clashes certain to arise in postwar territorial readjustments, threatened the position of able Polish Premier Wladyslaw Sikorski. He reportedly was contemplating a trip to Washington to seek additional backing for Poland's claims. London reports last week said that the Polish Ambassador to Russia. Tadeusz Romer, had eliminated many points of friction at a conference with Joseph Stalin.

Territory in the dispute covers roughly 74,000 sq. mi., including the Polish Ukraine and "White Russia," which the U.S.S.R. seized in 1939 when Germany attacked Poland from the west. Stalin has said that he favors a strong postwar Poland, leaving an inference that the Poles will have to look to Germany's East Prussia for territorial gains or replacements.

The controversy also involved Czechoslovakia and its exiled President Eduard Benes. whose relations with Stalin are probably the best of any among exiled statesmen. Poland's previous demands for restored territory include Czechoslovakia's Teschen, which Poland grabbed at Munich time.

Eduard Benes was also reported to be planning a visit to Washington. From Washington he planned to go to Moscow.

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