Free and Unfettered?
On Sunday Poland holds the elections which the Yalta and Potsdam conferences stipulated were to be "free and unfettered." There is every sign that they will be neither. There have been times in the last two years when agreement seemed possible between the Poles who stayed at home under the German occupation and the Poles who went into exile. But misgivings have grown steadily. The national referendum held last July on the abolition of the Senate, nationalisation and frontier questions was criticised by M. Mikola- jczyk (whose party voted against the abolition of the Senate) as showing "irregularities" in the counting of votes. A number of Notes have been sent by Great Britain and the-U.S.A. to the Polish Government in the last six months-urging a speedy and free election. The Notes apparently have had little effect. An election is to be held, but M Mikolajczyk's party, the only independent party, is being penalised in every possible way. Premises have been raided ; activities suspended ; members arrested ; some murdered. At present a series of trials of alleged members of underground movements is being held in the chief towns and attempts are being made to link them with the Peasant Party. On January 9th—on the day that the U.S.A. addressed another Note of protest to Poland—M. Mikolajczyk announced that he would not boycott the election, though x to of his candidates were being held by the police, and Peasant Party candidates had been disallowed in eight of the 52 electoral districts. This is a courageous gesture ; but whether he polls a substantial number of votes or not it is plain that the election can be described as neither free nor unfettered. If the British and American Governments take that view they will have to consider their future policy very seriously.
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