Polish writer applies for visa

A POLISH professor who was prevented by his government from visiting England last year is due to come to London next month for a meeting of the Fleet Street branch of the Catholic Writers' Guild.
Wladyslaw Ilartoszewski, professor of History at Lublin 1..lniversity has written to the guild accepting their invitation i and
hoping that he will be granted a visa. Ile has been told by Bishop Dabrowski, secretary of the Polish bishops' conference, that they are supporting his visa application.
Prof. Bartoszewski was imprisoned in Auschwitz during the war and was given an award by Israel for his writings on Jewish history.
He had his passport withdrawn when he planned to go to a congress of PEN, the writers' club in 1976. He has been secretary of the Polish PEN since 1972. In August 1979 he was refused a visa to go to Italy.
The Catholic Writers' Guild meeting will he held on May 22 and is expected to attract many well-known authors and journalists.
• Two young girls from Poland were in Britain last week for the. second St Albans International Ecumenical Youth Festival. The festival was attended by more than 300 young people from Britain and Europe.