POLISH VOTING ENDS TRAGIC STRUGGLE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5310, 24 January 1947, Page 5

POLISH VOTING ENDS TRAGIC STRUGGLE

(PtCSS Assn;

•*. election aftermath government majority larger than expected

—liec. 9.30 v.m. )

,i LONDON, Jan. 23. The Manchester Guardian's speciai Warsaw correspojident, commerting- upon the results of the Polish elections, says that there is no doubt that the Government's overwhelming majority has ended the two years--' tragic struggle for power. The Government's majority was even larger than was expected and. judged by Eastern standards, the election did not differ essentially from previons elections in Poland. This tinie ihe police, regrettably, played a larger part than it did in .pre-ivar day.-, hut the authorities contend that this extra police surveillance was justifu'd because of the activities of tevrorists and the lowered seltse of motai ity in the country, generajly. Whatever the linal results there is no (louht that a very large majority of people in the industrial areas supportei! the Government - chiefly because tif the henefits the nationalisadon of industries has brought them. The l-esidt of the election confirms that this poliey has come to stay. Moreover, many similar peasant holders also sunported the Government because of the henefits to them of the recent agrk-ultural reforms.

M. Mikolajczyk fought a courageous baUle but is now firing liis last shots and is expected to leave the Cabinet before tjhe final results are aD'nounced. It is possihle, however, that one or two of the three seats his party holds in the Cabinet may be retained. If M. Jlikolajcyzk protests against the elections he will have to do so witbin seven days of the announcement of. the oificial results, which will be made on January oi. He has already seen bota the Ameriean and British Ambassadors and it is understood that he is contemplating an appeal to the Big Four. In Lomlon the British Foreign Offce is studying the report of the British Ambassador, Sir Victor Caveiviish-Ilentinck, hut reports that Britain may refuse to recognise the w Government are discounted. The feion has still to he made whether ornot Britain \-*ill agree to return to Poland t -1,(1(1; M)00 worth of Polish reserve gold lodeed in Britain for saf'e teeping during the war. It wa arrecd last June that Britain should lotaia £3,000,000 of the £7,0'fO,i;ti i . l ia-inallv lodged as a settlement. war dehts, but the Brit-i-h. Gov rnmenl suhsequently indicated that it waihi not agree to return Ihe balance urtil it was satisfied that a freely-elected Government had been firmly estahlir hed in Poland in conformity v.'itii t'ie Yalla and Potsdam declarations. Western frontier Fixed ^ Potsdam Agreement LONDON, Jan. 23.' Poland regards her Western Prontier as having been fixed by the Potsdam Agreements and it ooly remains for the German eace Treaty to sanction it formaHy, said the Polish Embassy ^Pokesman at a press conference ln London to-day. He reveal,.,! that 1,700,000 Gerttans had already been evacuated westward from areas eeded to Poland 211 only .'JtKi.ooo remained. They '?? , ')(1 evacuatefl soon. Mean-j-ftile m,.u.iv 1^00,000 Poles had een movod in from the Curzon Line. W°*an'' v*'u>n H plaees her views °ie tne Foreign Ministers' Depu-annl-'c Ja,,l,ar>' formally i i 01 the German Peace Treaty hpi;1'. S^n:'d i'i Warsaw, where they st eve signing "would have cance" !)(ddiC{d and mcral signifif,P(,hesinan made it clear that GnJ1 i:iVnurs a strong Central woniAllmUlt for Germany, which Cn , 11 ^ "P'-'imit a division of the Untl'y into States."