Evening star., 1952-11-13
Pole Hints Of Offer
For Deal 10 AbsoIve
Reds Of Katyn Blame
By Robert K. Welsh

~ NVOStt Ne V0tSu
A Former Polish Prime Min
lister testified today that his
country might have been better
treated in wartime Allied con-
ferences if it had cleared Russia
of blame for the Katyn Forest
massacre.
The witness, Stanislaw Mikola-
jcZyk, has lived in Washington
since escaping from Communist
controlled Poland in 1947.
He told a House committee that
he and his Polish associates had
independent evidence early in the
war that the Russians murdered
5000 Polish Army officers and
civilian leaders near Smolensk,
Russia, in 1889 or 1910.
He declared that the Russians
had limited they would discuss
Poland's boundary claims if the
Polish officials withdrew a re-
quest for an International Red
Cross investigation of the Katyn
atrocity after the bodies were
found in April. 1943.
No Poles at Teheran.
Polish frontier changes were
worked out at the Teheran Con-
ference in December, 1913. Mr..
Mikolajczyk told the committee
that the first he and his fellow
Polish leaders knew of the agree
ments was. at conference in
Moscow nine months later. No
Polish representatives were at
Teheran, he explained.
Early in 1914, he continued, he
finally conferred personally with
President Roosevelt. after many
attempts to arrange a meeting
The President, he said, promised
to help Poland in it's territorial
claims, but was doubtful that he
could convince Stain on many
of the major requests.
Urged Investigation.
The witness said that as Prime
Minister of the Polish govern
ment in exile in London during
the war he repeatedly urged an
investigation of the Katyn mas
sacre.
"A basic Soviet stand" he con-
tinued, was that we should re-
nounce our demand 70 IA Red
Cross investigation and admit We
were wrong. They indicated that
if we did this they might discuss
boundary questions with u.s."
After the war, he became Vice
Premier of the so-called pro-
visional unity" government in
Poland. He broke with that Com
munist-controlled group and fled
to the United States.
While Vice Premier he used
underground methods to get more
information about the Katyn
killings, he said. He testified
that this convinced him more
than ever that the Russians were
guilty. The Soviets have as
serted all along that the Nazis
committed the murders.
Russians Blamed.
The house committee. headed by
Representative Madden, Demo-
crat, of Indiana already is on
record as holding the Russians
responsible for the slaughter. A
series of hearings this week seeks
to determine whether the State
Department or any other United
States agency attempted to ap-
pease the Russians by playing
down or concealing evidence of
Soviet guilt.
The former Polish leader. now
president of the International
Peasants Union with headquar-
ters here, today disagreed with a
statement by President Roose-
velt in a personal message to
Stain in 1943 when the Russians
broke off diplomatic relations
with the Polish government in
London. In that message, dis
closed at the committee hearing
yesterday, President Roosevelt
stated that the Polish leaders did
not use common sense" in re-
questing an investigation of the
Katyn murders without first con-
sulting him and British Prime
Minister Churchill.