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    "label": "Memorandum, Abstracts on Postwar Literature on Poland",
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    "title": "Memorandum, Abstracts on Postwar Literature on Poland",
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    "seq": 19,
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    "ocrText": "No. 950A\nLIBRARY OF CONGRESS\nLegislative Reference Service\nABSTRACTS OF POSTWAR LITERATURE\nCongressional Series: April 1945\nMAN\n\"NATIONAL\nTHE POLISH QUESTION: The Legality of the Polish Government in London\nARCHIVES AND\nDEPARTMENT\nBy Leopold Infeld\nRECORDS\nSERVICE\nThe Canadian, Forum (Toronto), April 1945:10-12\nGOVER\nPoland has never had democracy. The people of Poland, Yugoslavia, and\nGreece fought for a democracy they had never known. The people who governed\nPoland stood with Franco, Hussolini, feudal Hungary, and corrupt Rumania.\nThey were bound by bonds of hatred toward the Soviet Union. \"If the Polish\nGovernment in London is is lawful government then it is a descendant of those\nwho suppressed the rights of their own people.\"\nAlthough Poland adopted a democratic constitution in 1921, the govern-\nment followed a reactionary policy. In 1926 Pilsudski accomplished a coup\nd'etat, being helped by progressive elements. While Pilsudski destroyed\nTory influences, he (and his followers after his death), destroyed democracy\nin Poland in favor of their own semi-fascism. In 1930, Pilsudski threw the\nelected members of Parliament into a concentration camp. After Pilsudski's\ndeath, a new constitution was forced on the country in 1935 with the aim of\npreventing democracy from rising again. In time of war, according to this\nconstitution, the president appoints his successor which is how the present\nPolish Government came into existence. \"Mr. Moscicki, before becoming a\nSwiss citizen, appointed Mr. Raczkiewicz as president, Mr. Raczkiewicz also\nlegally and according to the constitution of 1935, appointed his cabinet. The\nlegal source of the present government is Mr. Moscicki's signature and the\nconstitution of 1935.\" The Polish Government in France, and later in London,\nwas the only one Poland could have had at that time and it kept up the\nfighting spirit of the Polish army and was headed by a far-seeing prime\nminister, General Sikorski, who signed a treaty of friendship with Russia.\nThis is to give praise only where praise is due.\nThe problem of Poland's eastern frontiers is a debatable question.\nWhile land east of the Curzon Line belonged to Poland more than a hundred\nyears ago, at present the Poles are a minority in this area. The greatness\nand strength of a country are not measured merely in terms of square miles,\nparticularly if inhabited by resentful minorities. While the loss of Lvov,\na Polish city (but surrounded by a rural population with a Ukrainian majority),\nwill be painful, it must not be blamed only on the Soviet Union. If Poland\nhad possessed a truly democratic government and had been able to say that\nnational minorities were treated just the same as Poles in Poland, these\narguments would have been the basis of negotiations which could have resulted\nin the inclusion of Lvov within Poland. But Poland had treated her minorities\nunjustly and did not possess El democratic government.\nWhile some members of the Polish Government in London are honorable\nPolish patriots, they belong to the past and do not believe in the people\nthey claim to represent. \"Their chief driving force is a boundless hatred\nof the Soviet Union.\" Their foreign policy was based on the premise that\nGermany would defeat Russia and then the United States and England would de-\nfeat Germany. Their policy called for an alliance with Czechoslovakia,\nRumanic, Yugoslavia, and Hungary as a \"shock-absorber\" federation. \"The\nPolish Government in London declared in actions and words that Stalin and\nthe Soviet Union cannot be trusted. Did it ever enter their heads to ask\n(other side)"
}