& POLE IN ENGLAND
am writing this letter to explain the situation in which I and hundreds of others find themselves today. I am a Pole. After returning from a Russian war prison in January, 1942, I joined the Navy in this country. I went through the raid on Dieppe, the landing in Sicily, the Italian campaign, the Dodecanese Islands campaign, the French and German campaigns, and many actions in the North Atlantic. After the end of the war, I lost my wife, who left me twin boys who are now twenty-three months old. I am fully qualified in electricity and I have fourteen years' experience in this subject, but after all this I cannot get a job in my own profession, the only reason being that I am a Pole. I cannot get a job because the trade unions do not want me. Yet Britain today needs every pair of hands that can do anything ; I hear this every day from the wireless and the papers. Why then do I meet the same saying from the trade union leaders, especially in my own profession: "Go home to rebuild Poland "?
I know what my country is like today. I know there is no freedom for which I fought, that is why I cannot return there today. I want to settle my life in this country and any other part of the British Common- wealth, to be a loyal citizen and help with all my strength and abilities in the struggle for a better future. Why then should anyone who wishes to work with that idea be frustrated by a few people? I also possess a certificate of your English language from Cambridge University, and I sin sure I could help this country in many ways if allowed.—Yours faithfully, M. TATARYNOWICZ, Petty Officer. 5o Neath Road, St. ludes, Plymouth.
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