' THE SCOTTISH BISHOPS SAY THE POLISH QUESTION IS A GRAVE MORAL ISSUE

"His Majesty's Government proposes to foist upon our Polish Ally a brand of Government better known as 'Swindle Democracy.' . . A gross betrayal of a trusting friend and faithful Ally. . . We cannot believe that this courageous nation . . will ever permit its elected representatives to Ir deliver into the bondage and slavery of a Godless and Totalitarian State an Allied Christian nation • of some 35,000,000 souls."
With these blunt words the Bishops of Scotland have denounced, in a nevi} statement sent to all M.P.s, the Crimea agreements in regard to Poland.
The Bishops assert their right as "Christ's representatives on earth" to speak out on "this grave moral issue."
Their statement reads : OD August 4, 1944, we issued a statement drawing attention to the ominous developments in the set
lug up by the Soviet Government of a so-called National Council of Liberation to take over without any valid authority or legal mandate the government and administration of Poland.
That statement was sent to each member of the House of Commons with a request that he should state whether or not he was prepared to stand by Britain's Pledge to Poiand. Over onethird of the House replied to or eknowlddgod the communication and the anxiety felt by the great majority regarding the future fate of Poland was made abundantly cleat A few membets s slated honestly their belief that there were no grounds whatever for suggesting or believing that Soviet Russia had any evil designs on her Ally Poland.
MISGIVINGS JUSTIFIED • Callous and Brutal Treatment
Alas ! Our misgivings and fears have
proved only too well-founded. Since that date Soviet forces have entered Poland and their agents, the Lublin Committee, have. with the aid of the Soviet Secret Police and Armed Forces, taken violent measures as oanfirmod in their own official statement of January 17, 1945, " to extirpate" what they are pleased to describe as " the traitors, bandits, incorrigible malefac tors and brawlers of the Nationalist Armed Forces and the Home Army— murderers stained with fraternal blood, instigators of fratricidal strife." This callous and brutal treatment of the gallant Polish Underground Army to which official status as " Belligerent Forces " was given by the Governments of the U.S.A. and Great Britain—but not by Soviet Russia—is unhappily truly indicative of the _policy of liquidation and suppression advocated by Communists for all Christian countries.
To the people of an Empire which voluntarily went to war to honour its pledge " to defend: Poland against aggression," the decision reached at Yalta by repiesentatives of the ficoptes or the U.S.A., Great Britain and the U.S.S.R.—without the consent of, or prior consultation with, the Polish Government—has come as a blow between the eyes.
Now, without lawful authority, excuse or reason. it is proposed that one half of Polish territory should be handed over to the enemies of Christianity, and that a group of individuals —selected as suitable for implementing the designs of their cynical employers and self-styled as the New Provisional Government of Poland—should. with Britain's consent and approval, he placed in charge of the lives and destiny of the people of Poland. But yesterday, it seams, the whole British Empire, 'in no uncertain terms, denounced this Body. To-day, ignoring the feelings of our people, His Majesty's Cabinet proposes to foist upon our Polish Ally a brand or Government better known as " Swindle Demo
cracy." ht the light of our solemn obligations to Poland our part in this inglorious chapte, of the war will for ever appear as a gross betrayal of a trusting Friend and faithful Ally.
A RELIGIOUS CONCERN Fate' of a Christian Nation It may be suggested by some that this is a matter in which we have no interest but which is the sole concern of the politician. That suggestion we emphatically repudiate. The fate of a great Christian nation—aye, the very Shield of Christendom as, Poland has been known throughout the centuries —concerns each and every one of us most acutely. We in particular would be shirking our grave responsibility today it we failed to make known to our nation our views on what is a grave moral issue, an issue on which we, as Christ's representatives on earth, claim not only to he fully qualified to judge. but also, as spiritual leaders, to be obliged to give guidance to the people.
It is our considered yicw that the proposed overthrow of the legally constituted Government of the Republic of Poland, the connivance at, and the acquiescence ih, the seizure of Polish territory by Soviet Russia against the wishes of the Polish people, coupled with the flagrant violation of our solemn obligations to that country—all without. the slightest vestige of legitimate cause or excuse—would constitute a grievous act of injustice not only against our Polish friends and Allies but against the whole Christian world, Such action would be attributed to reasons of political expediency or evon baser motives.
SOLEMN WARNING Murder of a Nation While we cannot and do not believe that this courageous notion of ours which has endured with heroic fortitude the trials and miseries of a lengthy war will ever authorise or permit its elected representatives to deliver into the bondage and slavery of a godless and Totalitarian State an Allied Christian nation of some 35,000,000 souls, yet we consider it to be our solemn duty to counsel and warn His Majesty's Cabinet strongly against what appeera to he participation in the murder of a nation, a course involving of necessity the honour and prestige of the whole Empire.
Further, we earnestly call upon each and every Member of the House of Commons to show in no uncertain way that our honour and our Christian ideals are not to he bartered and sold for undisclosed gains at the price of a Faithful Ally. Poland, condemned to chains and slavery. May the Almighty and Everlasting God, in His infinite mercy. forbid that this blot on civilisation—this outrage on humanity—be perpetrated in the name of the British people.