Farce Polonaise
The Polish elections have taken their expected course. There are 444 seats in the Diet, and of these 382 have been filled by the four parties making up the Government bloc. The election seems to have been no more regular than Polish elections usually are. Mr. Nlikolajczyk's Peasant Party obtained in the end only 28 seats. With the persistence of a moth in a candle flame, Mr. Mikolajczyk has thrown himself against each of the possible abuses. First, he declared his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the official resection of many of his candidates, about 25o of whom were struck off the list. Next he stated that an appeal to the United Nations would have to be considered in view of the flagrant irregularities taking place in the preparations for the elections. He made public state- ments concerning the numbers of his candidates who were in prison and of his other supporters who were being detained or otherwise molested. Before the results were published he had declared is intention to appeal to the Supreme Court for the annulment of the election on the ground that his representatives had not been per- mitted to scrutinise the counting, and finally he placed his version of the facts once again before the British and American Ambassadors. But nothing made any difference. The Government denied Mr. Mikolajczyk's figures ; it asserted that many of his supporters had been arrested for political crimes ; it pointed (with some little justice) to the murderous activities of the Peasant Party's underground sup- porters ; and it accused the British Ambassador of intrigues with members of the underground movement. Meanwhile the British and American Governm.tnts continued to draw attention to the provisions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements that free and unfettered elections should be held. That made no difference either. Poland has under- gone a revolution. Its present Government is ruthless and committed not only to co-operation with Russia, which is reasonable enough, but to a blind imitation of Russian institutions and methods. Such a movement clearly cannot be deflected by protests and appeals.
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