The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-16

firing of moderately tart or pointed remarks back and forth across the Atlantic. ....
 The United Press was reliably informed some time $go that the administration was Of a mind to press for free postwar Polish elec- tions while at the same time ac- knowledging the special interests of the Soviet Union in insisting that friendly relations with her neigh bor be on solid basis.
 Commitment
 The administrations commit ment to free Polish choice of gov- ernment was made public rebuked in the formation of an Italian cabt- Great Britain for its interference net. Analysis of that statement may explain why Churchill has had no expression of opinion from the Unit Il States on British and Rus- sian agreements and expressions of opinions with respect to Poland.
 The departments statement said that, ''since Italy is an area of reaffirmed to both tn motin otin otl combined responsibility, we have reaffirmed to botht he British and Italian governments that We ex- pect the Italians to work out their problems of government along Democrmatic lines and without ln- fluence from the outside"
 But the kicker in the statement, which has special significance in the Polish dispute, was the next sentence, reading as fololws:
 This policy wound apply to an even more pronoc~ced degree with regard to governments of the United Nations in their liberated territories"
 Poland is a United Nations gov- ernment and it's liberation has be- gun. Whatever public position MT. Roosevelt may take with respect to the allotment of eastern Poland to the Soviet Union with compensa- tory allotment of German territory to a newly deliInited Polish state, the administration is on record against influence from the outside That question could arise anytime after the Germans leave. Well in- formed officials are quick to say that any thought of the use of United States armed force would be absurd. But the suggestion is made that the United States might be able to support its views with friendly and effective persuasion.
 Rebuke
 The State Departments rebuke of British Italian policy was a jolt to London. Churchill's pointed ir- vitation to MT. Roosevelt to take public position on the Polish ques- ton seems to pack equal force. There also was considerable impact in this weeks announcement by Brit ish labor minister Ernest Bevin that MT. Roosevelt had initialled at the last Quebec conference an agree ment with respect to Greece which has been interpreted by the British as justifying, at least to some ex- tent, the minor war now underway between British forces in that coun- try and the leftist ELIAS troops.
 There is some feeling here that both Washington and London have failed to establish and maintain, with respect to growing political problems, any planning group even remotely as effective and far-sighted as the top group of professional military men who are shaping Anglo American war strategy.
 There also is some serious think ing here about the fact that every evidence of misunderstanding be- tween London and Washington is being seized upon by the Ger mans. They welcome 1t not only as useful propaganda but as a glimmer of hope that, maybe, the hard hit ting Allies will fall apart before they are able to deal Germany an unconditional surrender knock out.
 Even a glinmer of such hope would tend to buck up German morale and make the western front fighting just that much tougher.