REPORT FROM POLAND
OAK, LISTON M.
Report From Poland By Liston M. Oak Spcciml A/etv Lemdv CoTrtiponitnt in Poland. ft* T ARSAW (By Cable), January 24.—U. S. Am. batsadW Arthur Bliss Lane, in reply to questioning, stated today...
...Polish Bishops have issued a pastoral letter denouncing the Christian Labor Party as spurious...
...Slogans such as "Death to Mikolajczyk," and "Vote for a Democratic Bloc Against Anglo-American Hearmament of Germany...
...Nobody expected an honest count...
...The balloting was mere formality...
...expected liquidation of the PSL, the Church becomes the main obstacle to totalitarian domination...
...The Government Bloc won by sheer physical force plus fraud, he said, citing the fact that in the few places where PSL had representatives on electoral boards, the PSL won a majority...
...An honest count would hive given Vice-Premier Stanislaw Mikolajczyk an everwhelming victory...
...They all denied scornfully the accusation that Mikolajczyk was collaborating with "bandit*" and "agents of feprfgn JsajferiaKsm* ZuUwikHa a sickbed Interview said csaftots foeWt him to sawysi false charge* in thf osactai preaa...
...The only issue is democracy versus totalitarianism in Poland and elsewhere...
...what, amount* to a widespread, if unorganized, coiiKiiliters' strike...
...Editors of Catholic weeklies told me that there were no signs that the Communist campaign to make the Church subservient to the State had met with success...
...People were apathetic, cynical, hopeless...
...On the subject of production, the bankers' bulletin had thi.i to say: "Output of most goods for civilian use has been far in exec** of prewar level* during the pant Hi month*, excess inventorien of good* have accumulated, nml there are likely to be substantial further increases in supplies in coming month...
...He is also appealing to Britain and America not to recognize the election as "free...
...During mass voting of workers is the nationalized industries early in the morning, precedence was given to voters who ostentatiously displayed the Commuist-Socialist Bloc ballot...
...They will regard the Kielce pogrom as a provocation, stating that it is impossible for civilians to commit such atrocities without collaboration of the secret .police...
...The Government suppresses opponents because they are afraid of criticism and of the people...
...jammed full of jinnhirt* awaiting shipment to market, with poor sales proslicet* in siflht i.i view of the...
...A British observer told me that in Bydgoszcz., the Comnrunist League of Fighting Youth took possession of the Peasant Party's headquarters to prevent PSL leaden from conducting a campaign or watching the polls...
...The finding of the bankers' bulletin •jit that the United States faces an SMdiatc economic crisis, snd that a ression appears unavoidable no mattit what we do, although its severity can be lessened if producing and merchandising industry will immediately do two things: • 1 — Promptly shave profit margin* to the lowest level possible...
...But, although theso tttms commanded the headlines in the seily press, I suspect that a piece of saws surpassing all of these in immediate, practical, domestic importance em the quietly issued bulletin this week •f the Federal Reserve Bank Board, it...
...Banker s Bank on Avoiding Depression By Jonathan Stout •artr T ASHINGTON, D. C. - Senator \[\/ Joe Ball this wee...
...But the most immediately alarming factors, from the bankers' point of view, were: * • 1 ~Ejj' ctiv« coHMtmrr resistance...
...General Viktor Grosz assured correspondents to day that the Government would continue to extend freedom of the press decreed for the election day period, and evaded a question regarding the accusation that repatriated Poles arrive in miserable cmioptions...
...Polish officials who insist that Poland is independent visit the Russian Embassy daily for orders...
...The bankers' bulletin —although it ia couched in the usual rarefied banker language—did not mince matters in forthright declarations that too much stuff is overpriced and that profit levels were much too high...
...In some places voters were forced to show ballots lad nowhere was balloting secret...
...consumer resistance...
...Vote Against Mikolajczyk, Who Will Take Away Your Land and (low'' reflect the typical demagog\ of the Government Woe...
...He stated that Soviet bluing would wane because that country is too weak to fight America, which is powerful enough to save democracy without risking war...
...2—Promptly cut price* on tm tithing produced and offered fm sale...
...He recofmixe* ihe necessity of friendship with Russia and die collaboration with Communists, but rejects domination and totalitarian methods...
...Secretary of State Marshall announced officially that he will go per...
...Communists addressed crowds who gathered to listen to the broadcast...
...The composite pic0i of the elections portrayed by thirty-four obalrvert of the Embassy Staff and by American and Sfush correspondenU was of an election that mocked the Yalta pledge...
...When Mikolajczyk made a speech on the eve of the elections, in many districts electricity was turned off so that people could not listen to radio loudspeakers...
...He said that Groholski was sentenced to ,deatli (or giving information about the underground...
...American Embassy observers reported that pressure Was used to compel workers in nationalized industries lo'join the Communist Party...
...For this they recommend that prices and profits be cut immediately in order to overcome the buyers' strike...
...They expressed the fear that Marshall will repeat previous errors in appeasing Russia and, if so, Poland and all of Europe will go (.imiiniiiii.it...
...As one reporter noted, it sounded more like the kind of statements which have for the past year ami a half been coming from the labor unions...
...The senate and House Labor Committees *ere going full blast on their hearings as) labor legislation...
...In kracovv yesterday, opposition leaders from Zulawski to the Catholic hierarchy informed me that all Poles outside of Government Bloc parties look upon America as their best friend and only hope...
...Zulawski estimates that an honest election would give PSL eighty percent of the votes...
...Mikolajczyk is more modest in his estimate, stating today that his party, the PSL, actually won sixty to seventy percent of ballots despite the terror campaign...
...This is so far from being typical banker language that it came as something of a shock...
...As the bankers see it, the immediate problem is to get this flood of production moving out into the hands of consumers...
...But simply breaking dipomlatic relations would serve no good purpose...
...Security police removed watchers elsewhere...
...Priests who aided thousands of Jews to escape Nazi terror are denounced as Fascists...
...Unless consumer resistance can be overcome, the monumental amount of things being made now will become "overproduction...
...batsadW Arthur Bliss Lane, in reply to questioning, stated today that his views of the |hvuon rem*in in accord with those expressed in a Eltis the Soviet Government on January (j, and, to fetish Covonuncatt ell January 9."they have not l changed by recent events...
...Very few Peasant Party watchers were permitted at the polls and fraud was easy...
...In Kielcc, for example, (lore were a thousand political prisoners on January 19...
...Liberal Catholics object to subservience to Moscow...
...Steally to Moscow for the conference ef Foreign Ministers on March 10...
...2— Tin: warehouse* o\ the nation are...
...And the consequences of overproduction were made clear to Americans generally in 192!»—unemployment, relief and national stagnation...
...The alternatives are clearly stated between the lines...
...introduced * ™ a bill to drastically revise the Wagner Act—the third of a trinity of Mils he has introduced so far this session...
...He is appealing as a futile gesture to the Supreme Court...
...Issues of papers printing this declaration were confiscated...
...With the...
...Zulawski denied that firm American policy would lead to war...
...It would be a terrible blow if the United States accepts the elections as "free...
...With very few exceptions, all observers agreed that it was pre-election intimidation aad wholesale arrests of opposition leaders and raids an Feasant Party headquarters, forcing citizens to sign pledges to vote for the Government Bloc, whit-It assured victory...
...The British Ambassador has appealed and another (rial will be given...
...In only 528 places was the PSL represented...
...All Catholic publications are heavily censored and arc unable to obtain sufficient newsprint...
...It is estimated that (torn twenty-five to fifty percent of the electorate was was disfranchised...
...At Wloclawek, fourteen PSL candidates were held incommunicado to prevent their participation in the campaign...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 5
