From Our Diplomatic Correspondem
Polish Cabinet Ministers in London have this week been faced with the tremendous task of corning to historic dcaisions with regard to their country. They have listened with grave mien to the report their Prime Minister has hi ought back from Moscow.
Enough is known at the time of writing to surmise that his report is not a happy one. that the Premier is unable to assure his colleagues that a genuine guarantee has been secured with regard to the country's sovereignty and independence from foreign domination. direct and indirect. Were there such a guarantee not one of the outstanding disputes with Russia—that concerning frontiers included—would be impossible of solution.
The foreign domination that Poland, with good reason, 'fears and against which she consistently takes a dignified stand is the direct one implied by the actual and intended Russian occupation of her territory: it is also the indirect one summed up in that one word-Lublin. The Committee that has its seat in that city has no claim to exercise in the name of the Polish people the least jurisdiction over Polish lands. The Polish Government residing in London makes that claim unreservedly and with the approval of the Underground Forces of the country with which it continues to be in touch and whose activities it does not cease to direct.
CHURCHILL—ON THE OTHER
The Polish Premier refused to sign on the dotted line when he was in Moscow, though in the array of his opponents, Stalin and his Lublin Committee, he also found Churchill. For the fact must be faced that the British Premier willing that Russia. to whom he made certain promises at Teheran, should indeed bite off a good proportion of Polish territory.
Prominent Poles in London make no secret of the fact that they are in eon sequence in an unenviable position. Will Poland, they ask, be required to lose her soul just like a defeated nation ? Could not Russia, even at this late hour, be induced to show through actions rather than words that she really is in earnest when Stalin says he wants to see " a strong and independent Poland "?
The strength of the pressure brought to bear on the Polish Premier at Moscow and the fact of his declining to commit either his Government or his people without prior consultation make an ideal commentary on democratic behaviour. You had the picture of an autocrat with the head of a democracy at his side, both endeavouring to persuade another democrat to ride roughshod over the will of his peon*. This last democrat stood his ground as democracy's champion.
It will be for Poland's democratic people, freely expressing their desires, to determine their destiny and to empower their Government in London to act on their behalf. The Government has already more than once consulted Poland's Udderground on matters of moment. It may do so again in search of powers to deal with the present dispute; it may ask to be allowed to come to an interim decision with Russia.
But can a Government arrive at an interim decision regarding frontiers 7
Dr. Griffin to the Dutch Nation
Mgr. Griffin, Archbishop of Westminster, sent this message to the Dutch people over the Free Dutch Radio on Sunday: " Our sympathy with you in your sufferings is real because we also have had to suffer so much from the cruelty of our common enemy. We have been united through common sympathy and common suffering for a just cause. for the victory of right over might, of freedom over tyranny, of justice over infamy, and we must come close together to speed up victory and peace, which must be built on justice and tore."