The Poles and Russia
The tension existing between the Soviet Government and the Polish Government now in London, and evidenced by a sharp declaration issued from Moscow on Tuesday, was to some extent relaxed by some guarded references to the situation by General Sikorski in a speech delivered in London the same day. The question has been aggravated by ambitious and untimely territorial claims put forward by various unofficial Polish writers. Poland is not likely to find herself with less territory than she held in September, 1939, but it will not of necessity be precisely the same territory. She will no doubt claim, and get, areas which till then were under German rule. She may have to meet Russian claims, which are indeed put forward in the Soviet statement already mentioned, in regard to parts of the Ukraine hitherto under Polish sovereignty. Nothing will be gained (except by Goebbels), and a great deal may be lost, by public controversy on such matters now. Poland has an able ambassador at Kuibishev, and it may be expected that whatever discussions are necessary will be conducted between him and M. Molotov or Premier Stalin. Poland is no doubt counting on the liberation of her soil by Russia, just as Britain and America hope for an ultimate invasion of Germany from more quarters than one, a Russian drive across Poland and over the German frontier being one of the assumptions. Many frontier problems will have to be settled during the peace negotiations and some of them may be difficult. But all such diffi- culties will be greatly accentuated by public contention now.
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