UNDERGROUND ACTIVITY

Chronicle (Levin), 20 January 1947, Page 8

UNDERGROUND ACTIVITY

Press Assn

Polish Gommunists Charge Against Peasants

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Ileceivecl Sunday, 8.50 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 19. Tlie Polish Goverimient 011 the eve of the election is accusing the underg-round of planning to nse fovce iii support of the Peasant Party on polling day, says the Associated Press' Warsaw correspondent. The Viee-Minister of PublL Security, Mr. Roman Romkowski, said the undergrouncl had issued leaflets -and posters tlireatening to liquidate anyone voting for the Govei'iiment bloc. Mr. Romkowski denied Mr. Mikolajczvk's accusation that the security police had arrested 100,000 of his supporters. Only 2110 Peasant Party members vvere in gaol charged with undergrouiKl activity, collaboration with the Germans or other erimes. Only 21 candidates were in gaol, not 131 as Mr. Mikoiajezyk reportcdly claimed. Poland had 50,000 in prison — 11,000 ebarged with collaboration, 12,000 as members of Ihe undergL'ound and Ihe remaindcr criniinal offenecs. The Government had undispuled evidence of eollaboralion hetween the Peasant Party and the undergroimd. Terrorism. had I'oreed the Government to tako repressive counter measures. Mr. Romkowski said tlie gaol ligures wero as at. .Jamiary 10. Ho added that Peasant Party mi'inbiM's arrested and released since the eleetion eanipaign licgan did not exs-eed 4000. Tlie urnlergrotind bands had losl 2770 killed in 11)16 during skirmishes with the security police who lost 527 and the inilitarv 550. M r. Roinkowski said of the 2(l()i) whotn ihe undergdiund bandits murdered in 1940 000 wero- progo\ernnient bloc ineinbers. Arnionred scout cars roam the streets with niachineguns at the ready ns a security precaution on the eve of the elections. Tlie Prime .Minister Mr. Osobka-Morawski ) said: " l'olan-t has no intention of Imilding a Soviet systejn. We will ' dnvelop our own politic al and eeonoinie structure and foreign policy. • •_ Tlie Moscow Red Stav says it is a inatter- of regret that foreign newspapers did not. publicise the close as-,-oi-iat ion of the Polish Peasant Party with tlie uudtu'ground terrorists. The Polish do\ eriunent would not have fullilled its duty to the people if it had not taken ' the necessary measures against criniinal elements trying to interfere with the earrying out of the frce deniocralic elections. The Tass News Agenev quoted Wladislaw Gomolka, the Polish Coninuinist Yice-Prime Minister, as saying: "1 think Mr. Mikola.jcy/.k will not be a person of interesi after the elections." The Moscow radio has anuouneed 1 hat Ru.-sia regarded Polaad's western frontiers ns tixed. The uewspaper Xew Tiines accused Britain and the Pniled States of directly interfering in Poland 's internal alTairs in the hope of being sible to re-draw Poland's western frontier. ■ A British Foreign Office spokesman said Hriiain had sent a Aute to Poland saying that Mr. Bevin was satislied that Mr. Cavendish-Bentinek (British Ambassador) was not engaged in anv of the activities ot whicli he had been accused at ihe espionage trial of Couut Orocholski. He had not used Counf (f rocholski (who was eondemned to death iast week) to eommunicate with the Polish underground nor had lie received secret information from him. rnformed Polislt qunrters says ^the Polish (ioVo rn titenf VegaJtd e.d Ihe No.te with ' '..auger am'j ffistaste'L ' > , ■ ^ The' Exehangfe " Te1egi'apli% ' Waysmw corresnotident '. auofed" a Government

spokesman as saying that the (lovprn-"' inent had not yet had tinie t-O'study.lhe Xote, adding: ' ' We have m'ueh inore important things oa hand." ^Ir. Kazimier/. Bzowski, the 71-year-old Judge, who is in eliarge of the Polish elections, stated that, while the Flectoral Commissions were doing eve rvtliing in accordance with the law and 'the Pbtsdam Agreement, Poland's greatest misfortune was the terror campaign, says Reuter's Warsaw correspondent. They had lost .'15 members of the F.lectoral ( 'onunissions aad 18 guards as a result of undergi'ound attacks. The Flectoral Commissions had disqualified about 200,00(1 beeause of suspicion of collaborat ion with the Germans and the inderground. The electorate, sinee the -Tuly ple.bis- . cite, had dropped by more tlian 1,0(10,000. This was probablv due to large-scale population movements eonneeted with the reset t lement of the western territorios. Tlie commissions had inslructed the ollicials to eonduct the elections secrct|_v, but they eould not expect ti) control enthusiasts who niight wish to s'how otlwrs how they were voting. The British ITnited Press' Warsaw correspondent quoted Afr. Mikolajezyk, the leader of the Peasant Party, in a linal }>re-election statement, as saying: ''I believe that, after the elections, the Government is goirrg to dissolve my party anl put me on trial — probably''for treason or selling State_ secret s to the British or the Amerieans. "