Evening star., 1947-11-30
MikoIuiczyk's Story

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk has at length
reached our shores. This self -exiled leader
OF the Peasant Party in Poland is the latest
In long procession of eminent refugees
from Communist tyranny to come to
America. His escape from probable death
at the hands of the Moscow dominated
puppet rulers of his native land has been
SO widely publicized that Mikolajczyk's
name and reputation for patriotic opposi-
tion is presumably known to most informed
Americans, a circumstance which should
incline them to listen to what he has
to say.
The first installment of his story takes
the form of an interview given to press
representatives on his arrival in New
York. There was little in it that was
unexpected He painted grim picture
of Poland under the totaItarian heel, over
run with both Polish and Russian secret
police bolstered by large Russian forces
quartered there ostensibly to guard the
Soviet supply lines to the Russian occu-
pied zone in Germany. The people are
terrorized and the jails are full, supple
mented by rehabilitated German concen-
tration camps now housing Poles "Pris-
ons," he remarked "are the first things to
be built. They just put one up opposite
my home in Warsaw" He went on to
emphasize that this atmosphere of despot-
ism not only terrorizes and enslaves the
individual but likewise "undermines the
economic life of the country and restrains
It's development and rehabilitation
Perhaps the most significant portion of
this depressing interview is Mr.. Mikolaj-
czyks frank avowal that there is little
that can be done in practical way i'm
mediately to restore Poland's freedom and
independence. Local conspiracies or armed
revolts he deems worse than useless. They
would merely play into the hands of the
Communists, enabling them to detect and
eliminate the stanchest patriots. An
appeal to the United Nations is contem-
plated but seemingly without much faith
in its efficacy. The best he could hope for
was the long-range effects of full dis
closures on the democratic outer world
and Of foreign broadcasts like the Voice
of America and the BBC which could
be picked up even clandestinely by Poles
They could thus learn that they were not
forgotten or morally abandoned by peoples
still free and devoted to the principles of
freedom.
Mr.. Mikolajczyk's seeming attitude of
almost hopeless resignation is disappoint-
ing to many sympathizers with Poland,s
plight and is especially disturbing to the
majority of Americans of Polish descent
who have been consistently militant
against Moscow's domination Of their
ancestral homeland. It should not be for
gotten that an Communist govern
ment in exile still exists, with continued
diplomatic recognition by the Vatican,
Spain, Cuba and several other countries
While in London, his first stop after his
flight from Poland, Mr.. Mikolajczyk re-
fused to associate himself with this patri-
otto regime; neither is it clear whether
he intends to join the International Peas
ant Federation set up here in Washington
by exiled leaders from Bulgaria, Hungary
and Yugoslavia. Should Mr.. Mikolajczyk
decline to join the active anti Communist
movement, contenting himself with COM
plants and protests, his prestige will