The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-05
WILL FRANCE
STOP POL AND'S
TERROR RULE?
Prominent Frenchmen
Protest Oppression

ment officials here are watching politi.
cal events in France to see what pres
sure will be exerted in this country
to stop the severe campaign against
Communists, Russian and Ukrainian
representatives and union workers.
The eyes of the rest of the world
are on Poland's government, watching
for its response to the statement Of
protest published in Paris newspapers
over the names Of prominent men Of
politics and letteFs. The proclama-
ton is written against the Polish pro-
gram of wholesale imprisoning of all
workers and alleged agents" as poll
teal prisoners.
Herriot Signed Protest
Edouard Herriot, Frances next pre-
mier, Paul Painleve, Leon Blum, Paul
Boncour, Roman ROLAND, Charles
Richet, Professor Hadmard, A. Aulard,
and 10 other prominent men of France
have signed the protest, which reads
as follows:
"a wave Of terror is passing over Po-
land at this moment.
"The press of that country hardly
dares to talk about it because it is
throttled; all journals of advanced
ideas that try to appear are immedi-
ately suspended the clubs founded by
the young people are searched and
dissolved; the unions are deprived of
their halls-there is a police regime
with all its horrors and savage repres-
sions.
5000 StIll in Prison
To-day the prisons of the Republic
of Poland contain more than 5000 po-
litical prisoners-workers arrested for
having participated in strikes; Ukrain-
ian peasants and White Ruthenians ac-
cused of having demanded their ma
tional independence; intellectuals gull
ty of having organized educational
work among the masses.
"Maltreated by their jailers, insult
ed, beaten with belts and clubs, fed
solely upon beets served in nauseat-
ing bowls, thrown in indiscriminate
confusion with common criminals who
steal their clothing, confined in in
fected and icy cells at the mercy Of
vermin, deprived of soap, of linen. of
reading, of visitors, abandoned to UNI
believably insanitary conditions, the
life they are compelled to endure is
such that in many prisons the persons
under detention prefer death to the
slow torture they are suffering. And
it is not always so slow, either. Quite
recently a medical examination de-
manded by the relatives of prisoner
who had committed suicide in the cell
on Feb. IA. Olga Bessarabova, showed
that death had followed blows and
abominable treatment
Stop Reign Of Terrorl
"Since March 10, in the prisons of
Carcow, Lemberg and Lodz, several
hundred prisoners have declared hun
ger strikes in an effort to put through
the following demands: cleaning OF
the vermin-infected cells, change Of
linen and a bath once week, better
food, care of the sick, the. right to
have visitors, pencil and paper, the
right to read and two hours exercise
a day.
an the name Of humanity we protest
vigorously against such abuses and
demand the granting of these elemen-
tary requests voiced by sae prisoners"
More Jailed on May Day
Wholesale arrests of "politfcals"
we're made on May Day and me eve
ming before in order to check demon
strations by workers on the interna-
tional labor holiday. Hundreds Of
Communists were jailed and rs of the
prisoners were charged with having in
possession articles indicating "partici-
patton in action hostile to the state"
II the new French premier carries
out his protest with a threat OF action
against the Polish government for the
abuses it now practices against honest
workers and class conscious proletar-
ians, European newspapers and official
circles expect that the Poles will seri-
ously modify the severity Of their
treatment of political prisoners and
will slow UP their campaign against
the workers.
How many Of your shop-rnates read
ruE MAIN WOPkEQ Get one OF