The Wilmington morning star., 1945-06-17
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN

4u the Poles who are meet
~ Moscow announce that they
ns - agreed the veterans of the
LaTs question will be knocking
P0ii lnood and keeping their fingers
Oil sced Certainly on one previous
erosion os sion and perhaps on two the
0r.a a+ion looked so nearly settled
q que Mr.. Churchill is said to have
l llldered the drinks for the cele-
pF Tat with all due allowance for
~ sunerstition agoinst premature
inc !o;cinq there IS no doubt that
1e!O .ar before have the three pow.
pss~ and such widely representa-
En- s:..o Polish leaders been so def
NV :.o1v and so publicly committed
A'' settlement. There is little
~ 1o,bt that genuine agreement has
at' ,ast been reached on what the
y a. formula means. The proof
= fl +he agreement lies in the fact
u @,+ NOW for the first time there
J., ,. On agreed list of acceptable Pol
~ leaders who are not members
~ - tbe provisional government
T,,oy would not have been invited
nrblicly by name if they were not
pocontable to Moscow, London
Washington and Warsaw. Never
,ofore have we gotten that far to-
ward settlement.
Very probably lever before
howe Britain Russia and America
soen 50 likely to exert a united
nressure on the invited leaders
snd the Warsaw government to
e to an agreement. We all
need r such an agreement. Yet I'M
tsnnilv no agreement is possible
which t all Poles VIII gladly accept:
here are irreconcilable divisions
among Poles which no statesman
sim but only time can heal. A
social revolution is breaking up
tbe great feudal estates and the
social order associated with them.
We cannot expect Polish unanimi.
" while this is going on. The best
We can hope for is that the Yalta
decision envisages and the Hop
Eins negotiations have advanced:
agreement among representa-
tyes of the broad masses of the
Polish nation.
On the other hand that much
agreement may he possible if the
grely clear that they expect the
tirely clear that they expect the
Poles to unite and that they dc
not intend to back certain Pole:
,gains certain other Poles. This
4 the chief service which the Unit
ID states can perform and it!
main obligation when the new re
organized government is receg
nized it is to dispel any idea tina
whereas M. Beirut for example
Is backed by Moscow M. Mikola
jczyk is backed by London (plu
Washington).
Once the new government is Sc
I'D is recognized and has fulfilled
the promise to call elections ou
need and our right to interview
in Polish internal affairs will hav
ended. With Poland as indee'
with China we must not drift int
being the guardian angles in a pol
icy of perpetual Intervention. w
had an obligation to restore an in
dependent and free Poland an
that obligation will have been ful
filled if the Yalta formula is CAL
rled out.
Afte- that we must not assum
as SO many among us do that be
ing a neighbor to the Soviet Ur
ion Poland's independence mus
be a sham. To believe this is
assume (a) that Marshal Stain
promise is insincere (b) that tn
Soviet Union has no reasons {
self-interest for wanting an ind'
pendent Poland (c) that the Pc
ish nation could easily be subjl
gated.
There are substantial reason
for thinking that Marshal Stain
promise about Poland is quite SIT
cere and that he would not hav
made the promise if it were nj
consistent with indeed necessar
TO the protection Of the vital 81
turity Of the Soviet Union. Ever.
body knows that the Soviet polio
calls for friendly" Polish go
eminent: the cynics outside ar
also no doubt some of the tought
babies inside Russia have conclu'