THE POLES IN ITALY
By ELIZABETH WISKEMANN
ONE of the great obstacles to the free development of Italy is the afflux to her territory of refugees and expatriated citizens from many East European countries. These people are, above all, opposed, for both good and bad reasons, to the social changes which the course of events and the influence of Russia have brought about in their native countries, and all their hopes centre upon the possi- bility of war waged from the West against the U.S.S.R. Many of them formerly belonged to important Fascist movements, and all of them have an interest in putting back the social clock ; they are thus in the true sense of the word reactionary, and vary among them- selves chiefly in sincerity and fervour. It would be foolish not to appreciate the genuine patriots among them. But while on the one hand their presence and their actions impede the survival of the spirit of Italy's national liberation, on the other this immigration may irrevocably exacerbate the relations between Russia and the West. ONE of the great obstacles to the free development of Italy is the afflux to her territory of refugees and expatriated citizens from many East European countries. These people are, above all, opposed, for both good and bad reasons, to the social changes which the course of events and the influence of Russia have brought about in their native countries, and all their hopes centre upon the possi- bility of war waged from the West against the U.S.S.R. Many of them formerly belonged to important Fascist movements, and all of them have an interest in putting back the social clock ; they are thus in the true sense of the word reactionary, and vary among them- selves chiefly in sincerity and fervour. It would be foolish not to appreciate the genuine patriots among them. But while on the one hand their presence and their actions impede the survival of the spirit of Italy's national liberation, on the other this immigration may irrevocably exacerbate the relations between Russia and the West.
The most important national group is that of the Poles, the hereditary enemies par excellence of Russia, Tsarist or Soviet. Although the military occupation of Italy, save for Friuli and Venezia Giulia, was declared at an end on December 31st, 1945, General Anders still keeps an army of over too,000 men on a permanent war footing ; its base is in Puglia, but large numbers of Polish soldiers are stationed in the Marches as well as further north, while in Rome itself one is constantly made aware both of them and the organisations associated with them. They are assiduous visitors to museums and libraries, but they are also exceedingly rowdy. Those still in Italy today are nearly all Poles from Congress Poland who fear and hate Russia as the Western Poles fear and hate Germany, and many of them have nothing for which to hope and prepare but war—the sooner the better—against Russia. Anders himself is a brilliant soldier whose contribution to the Allied victory can never be for- gotten. At one time he got on well enough with Stalin himself, but already in 1943 he began to rebel against the wise policy of Sikorski, the great Polish leader who understood that if his nation is to survive it needs must find a way, even at the cost of sacrifice, to live in peace with the rest of the Slays and, above all, with the Russians and the Czechs. The officers on Anders' staff whose influence is strongest with him are the remnants of two groups ; the first the group of the Colonels, of whom Beck was the most notorious. Their tradition was always that of Pilsudski, who chose to fight on the side of the Central Powers in the Four Years' War. The second group, which apparently has influence with Anders, represents an excessively chauvinistic and anti-Semitic party which existed in Poland before 1939. These officers, it would seem, are " building up " General Anders into the Saviour of Poland and Europe. An address recently presented to him acclaimed him as the heir of Dmowski, Paderewski, Pilsudski, Sikorski and Witos ; only the name of Sobieski was lacking. It should be remembered that Anders now represents a tradition which drove Paderewski and Witos into exile and persecuted Sikorski.
Thus the fiery fanaticism of Polish nationalism is preparing its crusade here in Italy. It would have been normal to arrange for Polish soldiers to return to Poland unless they expressed an objec- tion. Instead they can go back only if they ask to do so, and this involves signing a statement which is something like an admission of disloyalty to Poland. Anders and his people in all sincerity regard any Pole who lack enthusiasm for their crusade as a deserter of the basest kind. Nevertheless, some thousands of Poles, nearly all Westerners, have succeeded in returning to their country, and it is certain that many more would like to do so. It is interesting that General Boruta and the well-known surgeon, General Szarecki, have insisted upon going to Poland, but while Boruta's departure has been concealed, Szarecki's name has been struck off the list of Anders' officers.
Many of the Poles are personally liked, especially in extreme Catholic circles ; but the Polish Army as a whole is coming to be feared by Italians of every political colour with the exception of those on the extremist Right The anti-Socialist, anti-Communist Risorgimento Liberale, in an article on the Poles in the Marches on December 9th, expressed anxiety with regard to their interference in Italian politics ; when Anders received the freedom of Ancona, his offer to free Italy from a new tyranny was reported only in the Monarchist Italia Nuova (December 11th). The reactionary fanaticism of the Polish soldiers goes so far that when the Socialists of the town of Macerata attempted a peaceful demonstration to celebrate the Labour success in the British elections last summer, members of the Polish Army attacked the demonstrators and burnt the flags which had been hung out ; and there is no possible doubt that a number of similar incidents have taken place with dead and wounded among the unarmed Italian- Socialists. As for the Com- munists, while the Poles have requisitioned about so of their Party offices in the province of Macerata, in Ascoli Piceno, another province in the Marches, one Communist centre has had to be transferred sixteen times because Polish soldiers have regularly requisitioned or burnt it down. It should be added that the Italian working-class parties have the strictest instructions to avoid every provocation, instructions which people on the Right, of course, regard as purely tactical, but these same people on the Right bear witness to the violence of the Poles. It comes to this: that the progressive Italian parties can no longer hold meetings where there are Polish troops, and this on the eve of the first free elections to be held in Italy since 1921.
It is particularly unfortunate that the Polish Army is also stationed in Puglia (mainly at Mottola between Taranto and Ban), a very poor region where discontent is causing disturbances undoubtedly exploited in obscure ways by former Fascists and by other opponents of democracy such as the members of the Uomo Qualunque move- ment. In the Marches Polish soldiers have alio caused bitterness by helping the wives of a number of Neo-Fascists ; for instance, at the small town of San Benedetto del Tronto the wife of a Neo- Fascist responsible for the shooting of twenty-five patriots who was in Italian custody was freed by Poles and removed under their protection. It is, incidentally, difficult to hear about these things because there is a strict Polish military censorship of the postal services wherever the Poles are stationed.
In addition to the Polish military there is a considerable Polish civilian population in Italy at present. A number of these are, in fact, Ukrainians who have moved here from Germany. It is well enough known that German chauvinism, and especially its most repulsive manifestation, National Socialism, regarded the Ukrainian question as a trump card in its hand, and that this type of Ukrainian was only too often a German agent scheming against both Poland and Russia. There are also a number of Georgians in Italy who were formerly used by the Germans to work against the U.S.S.R. Further, there are over 50,000 Yugoslays here. Now it is natural enough that opponents of Tito should be allowed to take refuge in Italy with the consent of the Allied military authorities, but it is incomprehensible that the Croatian Ustasi should be given shelter ; they are, it is true, supposed to be interned, but in the Marches, at any rate, they move about as they please with Polish encouragement, and behave like the most licentious soldiery. This seems particularly shocking, not because the Italians still tend to think of Croats as Habsburg mercenaries who impeded the unification of Italy, but because the Ustasi were the most abject Nazi-Fascist Quisling militia of whom all sincere Croat patriots, however intransigent, were ashamed. Finally, there is reason to believe that Horia Sima and other members of the Roumanian Iron Guard, formerly protected in Germany, are now concealing themselves in Italy.
All these things give one an uncomfortable feeling that many gallant Polish officers are unwittingly lending themselves to the international conspiracy which was planned as early as 1940 by the Nazis in case of their defeat, and that Italy's difficulties make her fertile soil for the seeds of German revenge. Some of the Poles here even fought on Hitler's side ; there are at Tolentino in the Marches, for instance, Polish soldiers who were S.S. men or in the German parachutist forces. The extreme Communists in the Government at Warsaw may be glad enough to make much of General Anders' menace to the new Poland, but no Government could fail to protest in the circumstances. He himself has publicly
denied the possibility of his supplying saboteurs in Poland by air, but it is difficult not to wonder what the Polish Brigade of the Holy Cross in Bavaria is doing ; there seem to be people who move between Italy, Bavaria and Poland itself at any rate with surprising rapidity. There is little that the Italians can do ; by the terms of the armistice they must still obey Allied orders in police and military matters, and the Polish Army is technically a section of the British Army for which the Italians have only to foot the bill. But the impression generally made is that there are officers in Italy who are sufficiently careless or ignorant of East European affairs as to give Warsaw and Moscow a case for doubting the sincerity of London.
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