Rokossovsky Given Command Of Polish Armed Forces And Defence

Chronicle (Levin), 8 November 1949, Page 5

Rokossovsky Given Command Of Polish Armed Forces And Defence

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter. i

Copyright)

. - ... Received Tuesday, 9.15 a.m. LONDON, November 7. Russia's Marshal Kcmstantin Rokossovsky has been appointed Marshal of Poland, Chief* of the Polish Armed Forces ahd Polish Minister of Defence at ttie request of the Polish President, M. Bolelaw Beirut, it was announced in Warsaw today. Reuter's diplomatic correspondent says that London diplomatic quarters consider that Marshal Rokossovsky's appointment is a sensational move towards the extension of Soviet con- / irol in the Governments of Eastern Burope.

A British Foreign Offi.ee spokesman said today: "This is the latest and most striking example of the sub-servience of the present Polish Government to Moscow. It was Marshal Rokossovsky who refused Britain and the United States permission to supply the Polish Home Army from the air durin'g the Warsaw rising in 1944." Reuter's diplomatic correspondent says that Marshal Rokossovsky's appointment implies the integration of the Polish forces with those of the Soviet. The two questions being 'asked are, firstly, whether the appointment will lead to the transfer of other Soviet officers to the high command of the armed forces of other Eastern European countries and, secondly, whether other Soviet Government officials will be chosen for other appointments outside the armed forces. There are some suggestions in diplomatic cireles that the move is a step towards the eventual inclusion of the Eastern European States as autonomous units of the U.S.S.R., the correspondent adds. In his first order of the day, Marshal Rokossovsky called on the Pol-

ish Army to consolidate its brotherly bond with the powerful Russian Army, and to increase its?political work and military Learning.' "I take over my post in order to devote all my forces to further dpveloping and strengthening our Army and the defence power of the Republic. Together with the Russian Army, we will protect the peace of which Marshal Stalin is the defender." In Washington today, M. Stariislaw Mikolajczyk, the former Polish Prime Minister, who fled his country in 1947, said that Marshal Rokossovsky's appointment was an admission that the Russians were in control. He added that the Com-munist-dominated Warsaw Government "is making less and l-ess pretence of being independent." The United Press correspondent in Washington says United States diplomatic officials expressed the view that the appointment might mean that the Soviet Union was preparing to sign a peace treaty with the Eastern German State. They said that if such a treaty was signed, Soviet control of_ the Polish Army would be of great importance in order to prevent any outbreaks between the Poles and Germans.