POLISH FRONTIERS
SADOFF, DR. LOUIS
LETTERS To the Editor POLISH FRONTIERS Unilateral or United Nations Problem? from DR. LOUIS SADOFF T» tke Editor: Mow me to take exception to Mr. Oak's article on Poland in your January 8th...
...It is quite true that on Life's staff art not a few photographers, political illiterates and plain illiterates...
...So Time ia right and lift ia wrong...
...Moscow lies in calling this government fascist...
...The Polish Peasants Party and the Polish Socialist Party are dominant in the Polish government-in-exile, not the anti-Semitic Polish imperialist* of the pre-war dictatorship...
...Now what act contemplated by the Soviet government would make its agents risk their last politics...
...But if anything is aacred in this cockeyed world, it is the principle enunciated in the Atlantic Charter— "The United Nations . . . desire no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned...
...What act...
...As a result, the life of the peasant is a miserable one...
...Yaleman Henry Robinson Luce...
...And vice verss...
...Fortune is responsible for the publication of John Roy Carlson's fader-cover...
...Also --issgfasl into tha article were references a) George Hartmann and his socialist, pacifist Peace New prayer meetings...
...Their religion ia Greek Catholic (Russian church...
...Thanks Very Much From ALBERT A. BRANDT To tkt Editor: I have become»quite fond of this excellent magazine and want to receive it regularly...
...Explanations offered have satisfied few...
...ernment...
...Pitiful small pay...
...Up to about 150 miles west, from Negarolee to Warsaw in White (or Little) Russia and about the same distance west of Shepetorka towards J.vow, the peasants are »&'', either Russian or Ukrainian...
...The city population of the border land b 60% to 16...
...With this principle the Polish government-in-exile has agreed —but Russisn declarations that the frontier question is already settled are in violation of the basic ideal...
...The communal life is very much as under the Tssrtst regime, including the petty grafting by petty officials from the tax collector to the village policemen...
...Well, which...
...on the contrary it is as liberal and democratic as any other European government...
...Is the Soviet Government building up for its own people s "phony justification" for some act...
...Oak's article on Poland in your January 8th issue...
...Trust Stalin"—but keep your powder dry...
...This difficult problem, like all other territorial questions, should be decided by negotiation, not force, by free plebiscites under United Nations auspices, not by a plebiscite conducted by Russia which will aasuredly give the Soviets a 99 per cent majority...
...Naturally, the peasant is not interested...
...Education is not compulsory...
...Let na call to the stand Fortune which, with Time and Life, is published by handsome, high dumet...
...If the amslgam were • deliberate piece of malice, put over »« Life't illiterate by Life't Stalinists, ss wouldn't be surprised...
...True, if this section is once again to become part of Russia, as I hope it will, msny of the ones who live well will suffer...
...Are the Tret*, kyites (snd Hsrtmsnn's hopeful handful ) one with the Fascist Dennis asi Nssi agents...
...Intellectually the border section was dying...
...LISTON M. OAK...
...Even England recognized that Poland had no right to the eastern provinces...
...No, the border of Poland is not sacred...
...Slipped into the lead were references to the fact that recently the TrotskyRes convicted la Minneapolis under tan Infamous and smeoastitutioiul SsssZ Aet had begun serving their tors . a Federal penitentiary...
...Jewish...
...In fact, only the study of Polish is encouraged...
...The references to the Trotskyibm sad Htrtmnnn wore of the same hostile tons aa the rest of the article dsvotei ' to Dennis A Co...
...How come that Life cooked up tail amalgam, vicious and perhaps (tki lawyers will speak later) libelous...
...Long hours...
...A REPLY The New Leader published sn article in our Oct...
...LOUIS SADOFF T» tke Editor: Mow me to take exception to Mr...
...The New Leader recognises that the frontier must be rectified—what We object to Is Russia's arrogant unilateral action in deciding the fate of Poland...
...It is a United Nations problem, not an exclusively Russo-Polish question...
...while across the border- tractors and combines are being used...
...The implication was that whatever one thought about the TroUkyites and their somewhat moth-eaten theories of proletarian revolution, they had gotten s dirty sail and were certainly not proven guilty •f treason...
...The same week Time magazine kid aa article about the Trotskyites, ertet but telling...
...I spent some time in and around that section in 1931, 1934 and 1936...
...A lot of persons are wondering why the Communist Psrty has (a) em-barassed capitalists by coming out for "free enterprise" and (b) taken steps approximating the act of going underground...
...Any work controlled by the government being closed to the Jew...
...Has going to the pen...
...Msny of the peasants I spoke to hsd one desire, and that was to become part of Russia, inspite of sll the un-r pleasantness going on there...
...The workers were in desperate straights...
...Let it not be forgotten that the last time Stalin accused somebody of dealing with the Germans, his msn Kande-lakt was in Berlin, arranging the details which led to the Stalin-Hitler pact...
...They speak a Russian dialect and have no relation or contact with Polish customs, hopes or aspirations...
...You may believe me (you know I am not a Communist) when I say that the section is as much Polish as New York can be considered Chinese because it has a Chinatown...
...That makes us think...
...cent to cover up until the last moment by whatever* diversion could be devised...
...But anybody who has watcsei Life's people in the Newapaper GaiW knows that there are a number «f Stalinists on Life in positions of asm responsibility...
...His book shows that at no time did he ever run across the slightest evidence linking Nssi sgents or native fascist in any way with anybody remotely connected with any Trotskyite or Socialist...
...The landowners are Poles, mostly managing their estates through other*, like the Radyivills...
...Or are they not...
...Carlson spent four yesra investigating the circles which produced the fascists indicted by the U. S. gov...
...Reflections on Liberal Journals from JULIAH ARNOLD To tkt Editor: Said PM editorially the other day in its discussion of afoeeow'a Cairo canard about Anglo-German negotiations: "The Soviet Government, unlike the Germans, has never found it necessary to build up phony justification for its acta with it...
...Only the middle claas or the few wealthier ones in a town were happy...
...And whst act carried out by the Soviet government would force the Communist Party underground...
...In some municipalities where the population was 80% Jewish only 10 Jewish workers were to be found...
...There was « photograph, too, showing the Trstsky...
...I think that The New Leader makes a mistake in takinf the position that the Polish border is sacred...
...The amalgam may have been merely a typical Lift bungh (here we are, being /,ijY» attorney...
...In fact, I was born in the section that was the border jn 1939...
...The peasants in the border provinces are different from the ones in Central Poland in every respect...
...Lately, even cigar making was out to the Jew...
...If Life Is right...
...It made clear the fact that thet TroUkyites were being jailed bt-esuse of a politically inspired conviction under a dubious law...
...The method of his tilling the soil ia the same as in 1914...
...The last issue of Lift magasine had an article about the Federal indictments of Lawrence Dennis and a lot of other fascists and fascist sgents...
...people...
...Working mostly in damp cellars...
...Time is wrong...
...16, 1943, issue, by Alexander Kerensky, suggesting that the frontier between Poland should be along the Curzon Line, not the border established by the Treaty of Riga in ,1921, nor the border set by the Molotov-Ribbentrop line in 1939...
...We, who hope for the coming of a better world after this terrible war, should not let our disagreement with the Communists confuse a situation which has been unnatural since 1920...
...Even more important than the frontier is the issue of self-determination for Poland—will the Red Army be permitted to install a Moscow-made government as planned by the Union of Polish Patriots, of will the Kremlin recognize the present Polish government-in-exile...
...The only interest they hsve in their property is how much profit they can squeeze out of the peasant...
...Anybody who remembers the opening of the first .Soviet, Finnish war knows that PM is wrong...
...On the other hand, there will be hope for the masses...
...It was with the help of French militarists and French capitalists that Poland grabbed that section...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 5
