Evening star., 1950-05-30
Poles Seen Stressing
Industrial Progress
Over Military Plans
By Doniel De Luce
..soeio,ed Press Foreign Correspondent

Assoeioted Press Foreign Correspondent
WARSAW, May 30.-Poland, a
cornerstone of the Soviet bloc, ap-
parently counts on a long peace
In Europe. -
Military preparedness is direct
ed by Polish born Soviet Marshal
KonStantin Rokossovsky. But it is
taking back seat at present to-
the six-year economic plan.
For rebuilding Warsaw. the gov
ernment this year is spending as
much as for the combined armed
forces.
For industrial developments,
three zlotys are appropriated to
each one given Marshal Rokossov-
sky's Defense Ministry.
The military share of the Po-
lish annual budget is 10 per cent
equivalent of $214 ,235 900.
Western sources describe Po-
lands military situation as typi-
cal of other bloc powers. None
has been armed to the teeth ex-
cept Yugoslavia, which subse-
quently broke with Moscow.
In sight is a gradual buildup of
Eastern armies during the 1950's.
Each will try to indoctrinate all
ranks with Communism and po-
litical officers will exercise great
authority. There will be standard
ization of weapons and tactics
with Russian help.
Reconstruction Has Priority.
Yet reconstruction has priority
over remilitarization. That in
cludes. of course, the creation of
strategic heavy industries. steel
above all, in once backward agri-
cultural countries.
Soviet military tutelage is by
now commonplace in the bloc.
Poland's invitition to a Soviet
marshal to join her government
and Politburo, however, seems
likely to remain unique.
When Marshal Rokossovsky
turned up in Warsaw last Novem-
ber. he was no stranger. He had |
led Soviet army group, including
the Polish First Army, in liberat-
Ing a large chunk of Poland from
the Germans. Since the war, he
has stayed in Poland as COM
mander of the Soviet line of COM
munication through Silesia.
Marshal RokoSSoVsky was born
In the Warsaw area, in 1896, when
1t belonged to the Russian en-
pire. A Communist-approved BIZ
ography relates that his father
was a locomotive engineer, his
mother school teacher, and he
was left an orphan at 13.
BY turn a factory apprentice,
stone mason, and Czarist military
conScript, he was barely out of
his teens when the Bolshevik rev.
olution fiared up. He joined the
Red Guards and won distinction
as cavalry officer. Years later.
he showed the same dash as
tank force commander outfank-
Ing the enemy at Stalingrad.
Titoism Was Rumored.
RumorS of Titoism (national-
1stic behavior) circulated here
concerning some key Polish Off
GERS before Marshal Rokossovsky
took control. Retirements instead
OF criminal trials have marked a
quiet shakeup in the general staff.
Marshal Rokossovsky exercised
special care in naming a new chief
OF political leadership in the
armed forces, his choice being
Brig. Gen. Edward Ochab, a fel-
low member of the Politburo.
The regular strength of Po-
lands armed forces was 100000
men last year and may have been
increased to 100000. During sew
eral postwar years, they were out
numbered by the security police.
Marshal Rokossovsky appears
IN Parliament wearing a Polish
uniform devoid of medals and
ribbons. Six feet four inches tall.
and ramroad straight, he seems
tactful and modest behind his
military reserve.
He has frightened up security
Important frontier zones have
been sealed off from civilian tour
lists. Tanks, aircraft, truck-borne
rocket launchers and field guns
have been sent to him. by the
Kremlin.
But the main attention of the
warsaw government, despite
Marshal Rokossovsky's presence,
is not on remilitarization. 1t is
on thousand and one industrial
targets to be hit by 1855.
The question is not guns or
butter. It is blast furnaces.