"For a Free Poland"

On the bronze statue in Lafayette Square, opposite the White House in Washington, is the inscription : "And Freedom Shrieked As Kosciuszko Fell." Tadeusz Kosciuszko was a Polish patriot who fought beside George Washington to bring freedom and independence to America. Later he fought in Poland against the invasions of Czarist Russia.

In Moscow last week it seemed fitting to the Union of Polish Patriots to name a division for Kosciuszko. The division was to fight beside "the heroic Red Army against the German invaders ... for the restoration of a free, independent and strong Poland." Union President Wanda Wasilewska, wife of a vice commissar for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Korneichuk, and an indefatigable writer, wrote to Premier Joseph Stalin: "The Poles in the U.S.S.R. are deeply convinced that consolidation of Polish-Soviet friendship [is] essential to Polish national interests." Rumbled Stalin in reply: "Thanks. . . . The Soviet Union will do everything possible to cement the friendship and assist in the recreation of a strong and independent Poland."

The exchange was the first official Soviet communication with a Polish body since the breaking of relations with the Polish Government in Exile last April. It might mean that conversion of the Union of Polish Patriots into a Soviet-Backed government in exile had come one step closer.

Meanwhile Premier in Exile General Wladyslaw Sikorski, somewhere in the Middle East, reviewed the Polish divisions which had originally been created to fight beside the Red Army (but had later declined to serve on the Eastern Front), pronounced them almost ready for battle.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.