POLISH TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1943, Page 4

POLISH TRAGEDY

THE DEATH OF GENERAL

SIKORSKI HIS MAJESTY’S MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY. PROFOUND GRIEF IN LONDON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) RUGBY, July 5. The King has sent the Polish Premier a message of condolence saying he is deeply shocked to learn of the tragic death of General Sikorski. His Majesty adds: “My people fully share the sorrow of the Polish nation in the grievous loss they have sustained.” SIXTEEN PERSONS KILLED. Sixteen persons were killed when the Liberator bomber in which General Sikorski was travelling crashed. It is now known that the passengers totalled eleven and the crew six, including a Czech pilot who was the sole survivor. Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent says the news of General Sikorski’s death was received in London with profound grief. General Sikorski will always be remembered as a great patriot, a staunch ally and the most straightforward of men. His fidelity to the Anglo-Polish Alliance never wavered. CABINET TRIBUTES. When the Polish Cabinet met this morning, President Raczkiewicz, paying homage to the memory of General Sikorski, said he fell at his post while fulfilling his most arduous duties. “He lived and worked solely for the good of the Republic,” said the President. “We have lost a statesman, a great patriot, a capable leader and a courageous soldier. May his death be for us all a guide as to how we should exert all our strength to finish the work he directed in so praiseworthy a manner. May it also be an incentive to us to hold fast and maintain the closest unity among ourselves on the basis of national unity. May the whole Polish nation, through its Government, be equal to the responsibilities of this inexpressibly difficult moment.” A tribute was paid by Cabinet standing in silence. M. Mikolajczyk also paid a tribute to General Sikorski’s memory and pledged the Poles to carry on the work he had organised on the side of the Allies.

Cabinet has ordered a fortnight of national mourning. General Sikorski’s daughter and also Major Victor Cazalet, M.C., M.P., Political Liaison Officer to General Sikorsky, were among the victims of the plane accident in which the General lost his life.