WILL U.S.S.R. RENOUNCE PAST AGGRESSIONS?

Official Polish Paper
Recalls Treatment of
Lithuania
At a " National Defence " lunch last week General Sikorski, Prime Minister of Poland, repeated his demand that the Soviet, now that it stood on the side of the nations opposed to aggression, should restore Russian-Polish relations to the legal position based on mutual obligations undertaken during 1921, 1932, and 1935, On Monday the first contacts between the Polish Prime Minister and Russia, represented by M. Maisky, the Soviet Ambassador, were made. We understand that the initiative came from Poland, and M. Maisky was made aware of the basic Polish claims. These have been forwarded to Moscow, and it is possible that they constituted part of the matter under discussion in the meeting between Sir Stafford' Cripps and Stalin on Tuesday. It is expected that the first step will be the resutnption of official diplomatic negotiations by the appointment of ambassadors.
One of the points upon which the Polish Government lays special stress is the fate of the 400,000 deportees in Turkestan and Siberia. These, though not officially prisoners, are living under great hardship and most come from the Polish intellectuals and bourgeoisie. Poland also suggests that the 200,000 Polish military prisoners should be made into the nucleus of a Polish Army fighting in Russia against Germany, A Soviet offer, it is understood, is that Poland should indicate her claims to " purely Polish territories" and that " some" Polish prisoners of war should be set at liberty.
in this connection it is interesting to read the account published in the Polish • Ministry of Information's Polish Fortnightly Review where the recent history of the Baltic States (including Catholic Lithuania) is discussed.
The claims of these States to restitution are obviously parallel to those of Poland.
When a Lithuanian delegation went to Moscow in October, 1939, states the Polish Fortnightly Review, during the negotiation with the Soviets, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs tried to reassure the members of the delegation by stating:
" It is not the intention of Soviet Russia to interfere in the internal politics of Lithuania or to change its social structure, you may rest
assured, The sovereignty of your State will remain untouched."
Despite these statements made during the Nazi operations on the French front, the Soviets set about the annexation of the Baltic Republics. The conclusion of the Finnish war on March 13, 1940—this not without the diplomatic Nazi aid — left Soviet Russia with a free hand.
SOVIET OCCUPATION OF LITHUANIA It became quite clear that the Soviets would occupy Lithuania at an early date. On June 15, 1940, the Soviet Government presented a Note in the nature of an ultimatum, containing three demands: (I) that Lithuania should give up for trial the Minister of the Interior and the director of the Political Department; (2) that a new Government approved by Moscow should be formed; (3) that as many units of the Red Army should be allowed into Lithuanian territory as Soviet Russia might find necessary.
On the same day, June 15, the Soviet Army began to pour into Lithuania, where there were already some 20,000 Soviet troops at various bases, The situation was hopeless, and the Lithuanian Government accepted all the Soviet demands, while making the reservation that the) were contrary to the Treaty of 1939 and the Lithuanian Constitution.
ELECTIONS—A FARCE On July 14, 1940, elections to new Sejms took place in all the three Baltic republics. including Lithuania, and therefore including Vilno and district.
The elections were rather a farm. No electoral lists were drawn up Voting took place on presentation of personal doCuments, which weie stamped The stamp was treated as a kind of certificate of loyalty to the Soviets. and later was used as a reference in obtaining work. Only one voting
list, the Communist list, was allowed. It consisted of Communists and of non-party persons nominated by the Communist Party, and known for their political compliance, Many of these non-party candidates were not even asked if they agreed to stand Moreover. the number of candidates was strictly equivalent to the number of places to be filled, so that all the candidates had to be elected, irrespective of how many votes each received. Despite the absence of any opposition candidates, and despite the fact that all the candidates on the Communist list were nominated by the Communist Party, placards were posted up calling on the voters not to vote for the " enemies of the people."
There was no secrecy in the voting. and the electors could not even put blank cards into the urns or drop in only part of the candidates' list. Members of the Communist Militia were present at the polling stations, and the dropping of votes into the urns took place quite openly.
KEPT A NOTE OF THEM •
For instance, in one of the polling stations at Vilno there were two urns, one placed near the Commission and other persons in the room, the other hidden behind a curtain. It teas explained to the voter that he could drop his voting list into the urn behind the curtain if he wished, but by the curtain stood a member of the electoral cam mission specially designated for the purpose, who, immediately the voter who had decided to place his votes Iii the curtained urn entered. ostentatiouch drew aside the curtain and stared closely at the voter. In his hand this person held a notebook In which he noted the name of the voters who had decided to use the
curtained orrt.
The elections to the Baltic Sejms were purely a formality, without any legal or even factual significance, in view of the occupation of the Baltic Republics by the Soviet troops.
The Soviet Government could have acted as the repository of the Baltic Republics until Nazi Germany was smashed, and in this case its action would have found some justification in the eyes of humanity, although the loss of independence, which the Baltic nations during their twenty-two years of independence had come to prize highly, was in any case a heavy blow to them. But the Soviet Government followed the course of Sovietisation, even of Russification, and was not kid-gloved in their dealings with people.